BushWorld: Sunday Reader Part II

• Le Monde | Human Rights:

  "A new UN Convention for the Protection of All People Against Forced Disappearance opened for signing in Paris on February 6. Le Monde considers this important addition to internationally recognized human rights...."

• Iraq water deal illuminates murky world of secret contracting:

  "CIA officers operating in northern Iraq bought drinking water from a bottling plant there for years prior to the 2003 invasion. That changed soon afterward, giving a no-bid contract to a US company with personal ties to Kyle 'Dusty' Foggo. The water contract, while small on the scale of the billions that flowed into Iraq, raises questions about why US taxpayer dollars went to well-connected businessmen rather than Iraqis who could have benefited from a share of post-war reconstruction business. And the case provides a window into the murky world of covert government business arrangements...."

• U.S. Family-Oriented Job Policies Weak:

  "The United States lags far behind virtually all wealthy countries with regard to family-oriented workplace policies such as maternity leave, paid sick days and support for breast-feeding, according to a new study by Harvard and McGill University researchers. The data comes as politicians and lobbyists wrangle over whether to scale back the existing federal law providing unpaid family leaves or to push new legislation allowing paid leaves...."

• Holding Bush to Account for Climate Lies, Neglect:

  John Nichols writes: "Climate change is real. And the cynical ploy by conservative politicians and commentators of suggesting otherwise has slowed the American response to a crisis scientists say has grown so severe that - no matter what is now done to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases - the gases that have already been produced or are in production will continue to contribute to global warming and the rise of oceans for more than 1,000 years...."

• Boxer rips EPA chief as bowing to industry:

  "California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer ripped the Environmental Protection Agency's top official Tuesday for rules changes that could limit the input of scientific advisers into agency decisions and reduce public access to information about toxic substances in communities.
  
  Boxer, using her clout at her second hearing as the new chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, accused EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson of bending to the wishes of industry rather than protecting public health...."

• FEMA Wants Back Over $300 Million in Katrina Aid:

  "��In the neighborhood President Bush visited right after Hurricane Katrina, the U.S. government gave $84.5 million to more than 10,000 households. But Census figures show fewer than 8,000 homes existed there at the time.
  ����
  Now the government wants back a lot of the money it disbursed across the region...."

• Hire the Dutch to Rebuild New Orleans? Dutch may build offshore breaker islands in response to global warming:

  "Dutch engineers are considering creating "breaker islands" off the country's North Sea coast as a possible defense against rising sea levels caused by global warming. More than two-thirds of the 16 million population of the Netherlands lives below sea level, and Dutch policymakers expect a rise in sea level of around 30 inches in the next 100 years...."

• 5 Americans indicted in Iraq bid probe:

  "Three Army Reserve officers and a U.S. contractor were indicted Wednesday as part of a bid-rigging scam that steered millions of dollars of Iraq reconstruction projects to a contractor for cash, luxury cars, jewelry and other pricey goods.
  
  The husband of one of the military officials also was charged with helping to smuggle at least $10,000 into the United States that the couple used to pay for improvements to their New Jersey house...."

• Bush budget should reflect middle-class needs | The Progressive:

  "In early February, the president has a historic opportunity to submit a federal budget to a Democratic-controlled Congress that will expand the middle class, reduce the enormous gap between the rich and the poor and lower the poverty rate. But don't hold your breath.
  
  The president's misguided pledge to make all of his tax cuts permanent -- including hundreds of billions to the wealthiest people in our country -- while balancing the budget within five years is not an encouraging sign.
  
  By ramming through massive tax giveaways to millionaires, billionaires and wealthy corporations, President Bush and the Republican Congress were responsible for racking-up the three largest deficits in U.S. history and accumulating a record-breaking $8.6 trillion national debt.
  
  And now, with the Democrats in control of Congress, the president has suddenly gotten deficit-reduction religion while continuing his failed trickle-down economic policies.
  
  If the President succeeds, his plan will inevitably lead to massive cutbacks in Medicare, Medicaid, education, veterans' benefits and the environment.
  
  This is not the vision of America that voters had in mind when they put Democrats in charge of Congress last November...."