The prison torture revelations get that much uglier:

“Do you pray to Allah?” one asked. “I said yes. They said, ‘[Expletive] you. And [expletive] him.’ One of them said, ‘You are not getting out of here health[y], you are getting out of here handicapped. And he said to me, ‘Are you married?’ I said, ‘Yes.’ They said, ‘If your wife saw you like this, she will be disappointed.’ One of them said, ‘But if I saw her now she would not be disappointed now because I would rape her.’ “

Via Beth, who has further excerpts at her site.

Nathan Newman connects Bush’s slipping approval and America’s stagnant wages:

So note this, not only were the rich getting their taxes cut, but the total income they were earning was expanding rapidly. But the GOP still thinks the wealthy need new tax cuts. Maybe they shouldn’t be surprised that the rest of the population thinks they deserve a raise as well– and see Bush as not delivering the goods for anyone other than his rich buddies.

Kerry meets with Nader:

In one exchange, recounted by a Kerry aide who requested anonymity, Nader complained that the Democratic Party had become too cozy with corporate interests. Kerry replied: “Don’t judge me by the people who preceded me. You may have had a disagreement with [President] Bill Clinton, or [former Vice President] Al Gore, or the Democratic leadership in Congress…. but that’s not me. I have fought with you, I have been with you on a range of issues, and you should judge me by my record in the Senate.” Nader, in a telephone interview after Wednesday’s meeting, said Kerry’s answer was “a form of music” to his ears. The Kerry aide said the meeting, which lasted more than an hour, was courteous and focused on areas of agreement between the two men. These included discussions about “corporate responsibility,” “corporate welfare” and “consumer rights,” the aide said. Echoing that assessment, Nader said in a statement that he and Kerry shared a “common determination” to reduce corporate “subsidies, handouts, giveaways,” to strengthen bar- gaining rights for nonunion workers and to crack down on “corporate crime, fraud and abuse.”

The Kerry aide said there had been no substantive talk about a key area of disagreement: the Iraq war…Nader said in the interview that he brought up Iraq with Kerry. He said Kerry told him “he has an exit strategy, and he implied he’s going to elaborate on it.” The Kerry aide denied that account…Kerry could be “worried that [such support for Nader] might materialize down the road,” said Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist Institute of Public Opinion. Tuesday’s showing by Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich (D-Ohio) in Oregon’s presidential primary may have added to those worries. Kerry easily won, with 81% of the vote. But Kucinich, who has continued to campaign in part to stress an antiwar message, got 17% — by far his best showing in any of this year’s primaries.

The Bush Campaign practices what it preaches, according to the Hindustan Times:

The political split in the US over outsourcing notwithstanding, till very recently the fund-raising and vote-seeking campaign for the Republican Party was done partly out of India. And this was handled by two call centres located in our own friendly neighbourhood in Noida and Gurgaon. For 14 months between May 16, 2002 and July 22, 2003, HCL BPO Services — the 100 per cent-owned subsidiary of Shiv Nadar-promoted HCL Technologies — had some 125 agents working in seven teams soliciting financial contributions for the Republican Party. US presidential elections are slated for November 2004. The mandate for the teams was to mobilise support for President George W. Bush and solicit political contributions ranging between $5 and $3,000 from lakhs of registered Republican voters. The voters’ database was provided by the Republican National Committee (RNC), the party’s premier political organisation.

The House votes to give an urgently needed but shamefully toothless agency another kick in the mouth:

The House voted Tuesday to make employer-friendly changes to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, including adding two members to a violations review commission, increasing its power, extending deadlines for companies to challenge citations and allowing more of them to recoup lawyers’ fees. Republicans said the four bills would enhance OSHA’s oversight of employers and improve the regulatory process. Democrats said the legislation was an election-year gift to big business, intended to weaken regulation that ultimately would hurt workers.

Behind the end of the neo-conservative affair with Ahmed Chalabi:

A year ago, as U.S. troops swept toward Baghdad, Ahmed Chalabi and about 400 hastily assembled fighters were secretly airlifted into southern Iraq to rally other Iraqis and begin a march toward Baghdad to help topple Saddam Hussein. Chalabi had predicted that he would become Iraq’s Spartacus, mobilizing vast numbers behind him, according to U.S. officials…U.S. officials point to that early April 2003 covert operation as the turning point in their dealings with the charismatic U.S.-educated banker and convicted felon. Instead of being the warrior-king who liberated town after town, “he was jeered more than cheered. Iraqis were shouting him down. It was embarrassing,” said another U.S. official familiar with Chalabi’s first public appearance in the Iraqi heartland after 45 years in exile. “We had to help bail him out.”

The International Federation of Chemical, Energy, Mine, and General Workers’ Unions condemns the use of force against striking Exopetrol workers in Colombia:

Expressing support to Colombian trade union Unión Sindical Obrera de la Industria Del Petróleo (USO), ICEM General Secretary Fred Higgs stated in a letter to President Alvaro Uribe that Colombia’s use of “armed military personnel in and around Ecopetrol’s petroleum facilities has escalated the conflict,” making it even more difficult to resolve. To date, some 100 USO members and leaders have been fired for participating in the strike. There are reports of arrests death threats and other forms of harassment against USO trade unionists and supporters. In criticizing the government for creating a climate of hostility toward the union and its members, the world’s predominant oil and energy trade union federation again called on President Uribe to change course and “find common ground with USO in order that a fair and equitable resolution to this dispute is found.”

Write to Uribe here.

100,000 SBC Communications employees strike today:

More than 100,000 workers in 13 states, including 5,500 in Connecticut, are expected to stay home or walk a picket line today after contract talks between the Communications Workers of America and SBC Communications Inc. broke down Tuesday. CWA Local 1298 workers wore red shirts, held strike signs and waved union flags, gearing up for what is being labeled as a “warning strike.” “People are disappointed that the company hasn’t bargained in good faith,” said Don Surprenant, a customer service representative for SBC in New Haven. “It’s hard for workers to understand how SBC can pull out $41 billion in cash to pay for AT&T Wireless and then say that it’s costing the company too much money for health care benefits.”

Paul Hongo, president of the Hamden-based local, galvanized the crowd by repeatedly asking, “What do we want?” to which workers yelled, “Contract!” State Attorney General Richard Blumenthal was on hand, pledging his support
for the workers and their fight to keep jobs in the state. SBC and the union are at odds over whether positions related to new products, such as high-speed Internet service, will be union jobs. “You are not alone in your fight to protect jobs … from the onslaught of offshoring and outsourcing that threatens the fabric of this country,” Blumenthal said. “You are in the trenches to ensure jobs to working families.” Connecticut should fight to keep jobs here, said New Haven Mayor John
DeStefano Jr., drawing a parallel to the 300 workers losing their jobs at the Bic plant in Milford over the next two years. “This is about keeping jobs in the state. Now is the time,” he said. “You should be at home (tonight), but instead you’re here fighting for home.” Bob Proto, head of the New Haven Central Labor Council, drew loud cheers from the crowd by demanding that SBC keep operator jobs in the United States.

A new report from the Center for Economic and Policy Research highlights the centrality of childcare to economic security, and the urgency of extending access to it for every family.