So, apparently there’s another contracting company to add to the list of tax dollar abusers. They’re called the Parsons construction group. They were supposed to do improvements on a prison in the flatlands north of Baghdad, but Parsons continually fell behind schedule, causing the Pentagon to cancel the project.

The big problem? The prison was part of an almost $1 billion contract to build border posts, courts, police training centers and fire stations, all in hopes of restoring Iraq’s infrastructure. Yet Parsons only completed 18 out of the 53 project stipulated in its contract, and although they were paid for the minimal work they did on the prison, the structure is now empty and useless, due to structural weaknesses Parsons did not fix. In the end, Parsons made out with a barrel full of cash, and the much blood-stained region of Diyala never got its infrastructure.

“In the pecking order of corruption in Iraq, the dead-end prison project at Khan Bani Saad is nowhere near the biggest or most tangled. Bowen estimated up to 20 percent ‘waste’ or more than $4 billion from the $21 billion spent so far in the U.S.-bankrolled Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund.”

So reported Brian Murphy and Pauline Jelinek in the Huffington Post. I read this right after I read a headline about how President Bush will have compiled the largest federal deficit in U.S. history — $482 billion to be exact. So I have to wonder: how much of our tax dollars have been wasted in this same careless manner?

The Bush administration has taken outsourcing of essential government services to new extremes, especially in Iraq. Yet the record is so riddled with waste, corruption and other abuses that you have to wonder: Are these people really that incompetent? Or was the point along to enrich their friends and cronies?

Along those lines, the Wall Street Journal reports that Iraq war architect Richard Perle is part of a group negotiating a deal to invest in oil fields in . . . wait for it . . . Iraq! This, despite the fact that the Bush administration has argued against any oil deals until Iraq passes a new oil law governing the distribution of resources among Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite regions.

You can find out how much you paid for the Iraq war last year with Progressive Future’s Invest in US Calculator. And while you ponder how much of that money went to enrich KBR, Blackwater, Parsons and the like, you can also see what that money would buy in terms of health care, clean energy and better care for our troops. And when you do, please consider signing our Invest in US petition. We’re planning on  distributing this petition far and wide, from Congress to the Party Platform Committees to the media. It’s time for a new direction for America, where all citizens can be proud of how their tax dollars are spent.

Last week, I shared a tragic story of a veteran who committed suicide less than three hours after being assessed as a “low risk” patient, and was released from VA care. The carelessness of his assessment was largely due to a standardized questionnaire that was used to identify high risk patients. This is a serious oversight, especially when you consider the statistic that by the end of the day, 18 veterans will have taken their own lives.

Since these troops make it home from Iraq, Afghanistan or other battlefields alive, they are not counted as casualties of war. In 2007, 6,256 veterans committed suicide. That’s about two thousand more than the number of troops who died in Iraq since the beginning of the war. And yet, these deaths are not counted among the war casualties.  

But what else can you blame for these suicides? Concerns over the rising rate of PTSD among veterans have been escalating. An even more telling statistic of this problem is the fact that the suicide rate among veterans is twice that of the civilian population, evidence that the war is a decisive factor in these suicides.

While Bush and Republicans have kept the troops at war in Iraq — and have gone to great lengths to keep them there, through extended tours of duty, stop/loss, refusing to talk about a timeline for withdrawal — they’ve been less willing to go the extra mile to help the troops when they come home. Witness Bush’s, McCain’s and other prominent Republicans’ refusal to support the Webb G.I. Bill extending further educational benefits to veterans, as well as McCain’s record of voting against increasing health benefits to veterans in 2004, 2005, 2006 and 2007.

We need to bring our troops home on a reasonable timeline, but we also need to start taking better care of our returning soldiers — a challenge that would be greatly eased if we weren’t wasting $10 billion a month on the war in Iraq  Imagine the kind of care we could provide our veterans if we weren’t wasting all our tax money on the war.

How much of your tax dollars are going to the war in Iraq? And what could that money buy for a veteran in need? Find out by using Progressive Future’s Invest in US Calculator. The calculator takes a person’s 2007 income before taxes and tells you how much of that person’s tax money went to fund the war (average: $235), and how many seconds of war that bought (average: .04 seconds). Then it tells you, with that money, how many days of veterans’ higher education benefits (average: 5) that money could have paid for, as well as other much needed initiatives at home. Then we are asking users to sign our Invest In US petition, which we plan on taking to Congress, the Platform Committees, and the media to push for new priorities for tax spending.

(I’m under a mountain of work, so I have a lot on Netroots Nation stored up, but this from our pal Paul about the Pelosi/Gore session is good.  And BTW, I asked the Iraq question. – promoted by David Dayen)

From today’s Beyond Chron.

It’s no surprise that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got a tough reception at Netroots Nation – as bloggers asked about the Iraq War, impeachment and (of course) FISA.  Pelosi passed the buck on all of these issues – saying that she’s let House Judiciary Chair John Conyers handle executive contempt, blamed Senate Democrats for selling out on FISA and said that only electing Barack Obama will get us out of Iraq.  When Al Gore popped in to make a surprise appearance, the crowd gave a hero’s welcome to the ex-Vice President – posing a sharp contrast with Pelosi.  Bloggers cheered Gore’s ambitious environmental agenda to make the United States 100% free of fossil fuel energy by 2019.  But nobody bothered to ask Gore why he didn’t push for this 15 years ago when he could have done something about it.  Meanwhile, Pelosi’s excuses frustrated the audience – but they each have an element of truth to them.  On the other hand, if Pelosi says she “doesn’t have the votes” in Congress to get what we want, she should start being more supportive of primary challenges that bloggers wage against bad Democrats.

“God bless the impatience of youth,” said Pelosi as she kicked off the Convention’s main event on Saturday morning.  “That’s what gives me hope.  I share your frustration in not ending this War.  We need to be persistent, relentless and unsatisfied at pushing us to where we should be.  And there are only 107 days until the Election.”

Everyone expected Pelosi would get a tough crowd, and about half a dozen demonstrators from Code Pink were there to heckle her about the War.  But liberal bloggers aren’t about direct-action street-level theater, preferring the tactic of asking hard-hitting questions that put politicians on the spot.  Gina Cooper of Netroots Nation even warned attendees at the beginning that anyone who disrupted the forum would be ejected, and the crowd cheered.

At the forum, Pelosi was asked questions like: (a) is impeachment back on the table?; (b) if Karl Rove is still in contempt of Congress, will he be arrested?; (c) if the FISA bill was a compromise, what was the gain? and (d) why hasn’t Congress ended the War?

For the most part, Pelosi passed the buck – saying that she agreed with the frustration of bloggers, but blamed others for why no action has been taken.  On the first two points, she deferred to House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers – who is leading investigations of the Bush Administration.  “We passed a resolution of contempt on the House floor,” she said, “and I’m proud that we got every Democrat to vote for it.  But Mr. Conyers is in charge of the investigation, and we’re in good hands with him.”

On FISA, Pelosi blamed the Senate – where 17 Democrats voted with all the Republicans – for sending them a bad bill.  “Our options were limited,” she said.  “It was a moment of taint.  Was the final bill [which passed both houses] a bill that I would have written?  No.  Was it better than the Senate version that had passed?  Yes.”

Pelosi added that as House Speaker she has only had “two major regrets”: (a) the Senate version of the FISA bill that they had to work with, and (b) failing to get 60 votes in the Senate to end the Iraq War.  Later on in the forum, she added that the only way to end the War will be to elect President Barack Obama.  Eventually, moderator Gina Cooper turned to Pelosi and said what was on a lot of peoples’ minds: “it sounds like some of your colleagues must get with the program with the American people.”

There’s certainly truth to what Pelosi said: any effort to impeach Bush or Cheney will start at the Judiciary Committee, Democrats have a razor-thin majority in the Senate, and even voting to defund the War won’t end it until a Democratic President brings the troops home.  But while Pelosi says she is on our side, one conclusion we can draw is that she hasn’t kept her colleagues in line.  The netroots have always tried to hold bad Democrats accountable – and in recent years have waged primary challenges against entrenched incumbents who vote the wrong way on issues.  The bloggers could work with Pelosi.

But Pelosi has not generally supported these challengers, actively working against the netroots.  For example, Pelosi held a fundraiser for Congressman Al Wynn – while he was getting a primary challenge from netroots favorite Donna Edwards.  Edwards won that election, and attended Netroots Nation as a newly minted Congresswoman.  In what must have been an awkward moment, Pelosi acknowledged Edwards at the beginning of the forum.

It wasn’t the first time that a powerful Democrat came to a netroots Convention and faced a tough audience.  But unlike Hillary Clinton (who at last year’s Yearly Kos sarcastically mocked the crowd when they booed her), Pelosi kept her grace while saying much of what the bloggers didn’t agree with.  Whatever you think of her answers, she did not condescend.

While bloggers gave Pelosi a chilly reception, they enthusiastically cheered former Vice President Al Gore – who made a surprise appearance during Pelosi’s forum.  “We have a historic climate crisis,” said Gore.  “It’s connected to an economic crisis, and the national security threat it creates. Drilling oil we won’t use for 15 years to deal with gas prices now is like responding to an attack from Afghanistan by invading another country.”

Gore has always been a sentimental favorite of the netroots (“I feel right at home here,” he said), and the crowd eagerly responded to his challenge to eliminate fossil fuel dependency by 2019.  “I need your help,” he said. “You seek to influence, and I respectfully ask for your help.”  And with only 11 years to get there, we don’t have much time.

But nobody asked the former Vice President why he didn’t agitate on these issues in the mid-1990’s, when he was in a position to get things done.  If we had started this 15 years ago, eliminating fossil fuel dependency would be far more doable.  No doubt Gore is now using his “elder statesman” role to fight global warming – but the Clinton-Gore Administration was lackluster in responding to this climate crisis, such as reneging on their pledge to shut down an incinerator in East Liverpool, Ohio.  When Gore ran for President in 2000, Friends of the Earth endorsed Bill Bradley in the Democratic primaries.

If the netroots insisted on giving Nancy Pelosi a hard time, why didn’t they challenge Gore as well?

(Great work by True Majority and the local grassroots. – promoted by David Dayen)

Hey Calitics members,  

I’m sure many of you have seen the recent spate of stories about KBR on the front page of the NYTimes a couple days ago and the always fantastic coverage over at TPM At TrueMajority.org we’ve been really focused on the contractor accountability side of the War in Iraq and tomorrow are working with Sacramento for Democracy and the Sacramento Coalition to End the War to highlight CalPERS investments in KBR at their monthly board meeting.  

About a month ago, we kicked off this campaign with a simple petition calling on pension funds and retirement accounts to hold KBR accountable for fraud waste and abuse. You can still sign the petition at: http://www.TrueMajority.org/St…  

CalPERS, the public pension and retirement system in California is one of the biggest investors in KBR, owning over $25,000,000 in shares, so our California members went to work making over 200 calls in one day calling on CalPERS to divest from KBR. The calls had a great response and we received a wonderful grassroots suggestion in one of the reports.  

Armando from Kensington, CA reported on his call:  

I called just now, 10:56 a.m., and spoke with a young woman named, Jackie, she did not wish to give her last name to me, which is okay, but I did ask her to convey my concern, as a retiree member of CalPERS, that I heard learned that the company had assets with KBR. I asked to speak with the president of the Board, Ron Feckner, but was informed he and board were not present, but would be available during their board meeting week, June 16-19, in Sacramento. I suggest you get folks to call during that time. I am deeply concerned as a longtime member of CalPERS that my retirmenet funds are being used to underwrite KBR or any company that makes me complicit in the conduct of the war in Iraq, more than I already am as a taxpayer. I intend to talk to individual members of the board, especially the Investment and Investment Policy subcommittee. Thanks for alerting me.

Tomorrow, together with Sacramento for Democracy and the  Sacramento Coalition to End the War, we will hold a press conference at 9:30 a.m. and we deliver the petitions to CalPERS at that time. The CalPERS board convenes at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Robert F. Carlson Auditorium, 400 Q Street, in Sacramento.  

If you're in the Sacramento area, please be sure to drop by our event tomorrow:

http://sacramentofordemocracy….

http://www.sacendwar.org/node/234

http://www.indybay.org/newsite…  

And spread the word. Investing public retirement funds in companies that commit fraud and war profiteering is bad for the country and a bad investment decision. The time has come to divest.  

(This is an issue that’s starting to reach critical mass, and Charlie Brown is at the forefront of it.  Between recent reports about record numbers of veteran suicides and foreclosures in military towns tripling the average rate, the care and treatment of our veterans is an absolute disgrace.  And it has fallen to leaders like Brown, BEFORE reaching Congress, to show the compassion and wisdom to get those who served this country what they need.  I can’t have more pride in how he’s run this campaign. – promoted by David Dayen)

As many of you know, back in 2006, first time candidate and Retired USAF Lt. Col. Charlie Brown came from obscurity to within less than 9,000 votes (or 3%) of victory in a district that had been electing Republicans by 30 point margins just two years before.

I worked on Charlie’s campaign in 2006, and I’m proud to be serving Charlie again in 2008. I didn’t come back because I enjoy the 16-hour days. I certainly didn’t come back because of the paychecks. I came back because there’s something different about a “typical day” on the Charlie Brown for Congress campaign—something that can’t be described in sound bytes or talking points…something so important, you want the world to experience it with you…

You want them to hear the desperate cries of the Iraq Veteran who contacts the campaign to say he is contemplating suicide.  Or the e-mail from the married father of two who already tried.  You want them to meet the Gold Star mother who calls for gas money, so she can afford to take one of the guys from her son’s unit to the VA for rehab.  Or the Vietnam Vet who has weeks to live because of Agent Orange exposure, and has had his VA benefits denied for years.  And the list goes on, and on and on…

Every day, these are just some of the people who are reaching out-from across the country—to the Charlie Brown for Congress Campaign.  

They’re not calling to volunteer, contribute, schedule a meeting or inquire about a policy position.  They aren’t even calling to express their support or opposition to Charlie’s candidacy.  

They called to ask for help.

It begs the question, why would anyone call a Congressional Challenger who has never held public office before for help?

You have to remember that Charlie Brown is no ordinary politician—in fact he has, in the span of less than two election cycles, transcended politics as most of us know it.

Charlie’s making history not by virtue of who he is (though one could argue that a Congressman who is a career military officer, husband of a veteran, and father to a son who has done 4 rotations in Iraq is far from typical these days), but what he is doing to address one of the many OLD problems on which politicians have over promised and under delivered for years-the plight of America’s war veterans.

I came back to fight for Charlie because I knew that this campaign took a different approach to solving problems—leadership by example. With Charlie’s “Promises Kept Veteran’s Charity Challenge,” we’re seeing community based organizations that fill in the gaps for veterans get the support they so badly need.  The 5% of campaign contributions that Charlie is giving these groups helps to keep the lights on at shelters, supply those places with blankets and food and office supplies, and help pay for qualified counselors to do outreach on the streets.

But the commitment of Charlie’s campaign goes beyond money.  It’s a frequently something even more valuable–a live voice on the other end of the line when crisis comes.    

And when those calls come, it’s not about winning and losing elections—it’s about saving lives.

The stories of veterans who call us very often break your heart—but they also remind us what a different kind of campaign can mean for people in need right now—long before voters go to the polls next November.  

It also inspires hope—because as we work with callers to help them find solutions, we can’t help but think what a little Charlie Brown in Washington could mean for hundreds of thousands of veterans who are waiting in line for benefits, or struggling to deal with invisible scars, or trying to rebuild lives that have been shattered by war.  

Or what it can mean on energy independence, healthcare, or so many other “old problems” where the results from Washington simply don’t match the rhetoric we’ve been hearing for years.

My entire life, I was brought up to believe that honesty, hard work and determination make up the character of a person. And if you give a little back and fight for those who can’t stand up for themselves, then you have done your share. I fight for Charlie because he embodies what I was raised to believe: that integrity and a sense of duty (not political ambition) win out at the end of the day.

I am flush with inspiration, and every time the phone rings, that much more flush with perspective.  But I know that true change cannot be accomplished in a vacuum—and that’s why I wanted to share what’s been happening here on the ground with the netroots—and I hope you will share it also.

The two leading Republicans in this race-Doug Ose and Tom McClintock—have spent $4 million dollars in 4 months.  Once you get through their endless stream of attack ads, their message comes down to “vote for me I’m more Republican than he is”— and if you are looking for someone to take action, listen, or offer your family a little hope or dignity before November—look somewhere else…  

…I say look no further than Charlie Brown.

Neil Pople

Director of Online Communications

I just returned from a Memorial Day vigil at the Lafayette crosses.  Built by members of the community over the past two years on a steep five-acre hillside that overlooks the freeway and BART station, the crosses exert a magnetic draw on Memorial Day.  Today, the total number of crosses stood at 4,084.

About 100 people came together near dusk to honor the soldiers represented by those crosses on the hill, soldiers who have given so much for their country.

 

Tony Thurmond, Democratic candidate for AD-14 (l.) and a spokeswoman from Rep. Barbara Lee’s office (CA-09)(r.)

Gradually, a theme emerged from the series of speakers there on that hillside:

We are incredibly grateful to our soldiers and service members for the sacrifices they have made. Going forward, we can best honor the dead by bringing our troops home from Iraq so that no more are killed, by ensuring that our troops are never again heedlessly sent into harm’s way, and by working tirelessly to make this the kind of country for which they gave their lives, one that provides respect, fairness and opportunity to all.

Penny

Online Organizing Director

California Democratic Party