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Much has been written about the Nigerian scam, a con game that originated using the mail service, and then jumped to email and spread like wildfire. However, there’s a particularly despicable new version of the Nigerian scam now making the rounds.

As the name indicates, the Nigerian scam originated in Nigeria, but it has since become an international phenomenon. The scam has the following hallmarks:

* The author has nowhere else to turn and thinks you can be trusted.

* They own or have come across a large amount of money.

* They are unable to get the money without your help.

* In exchange, you’ll receive a big reward.

* They want to discuss the specifics with you, so please write back ASAP.

* If you write back, you’ll eventually learn that you have to put up money of your own to get your reward. Of course, they’ll just take your money and disappear.

These emails are successful because they push your greed, ego and compassion buttons, but more importantly, because scammers can send out millions of these things for free. Eventually, they’ll find a sucker.

This new version claims to be from an American soldier in Iraq. That makes it especially dangerous and loathsome, since so many Americans are willing to do anything they can for our troops:

How are you and your family? Hope all is well. My name is Staff Sgt. Shelby Cross; I am an American soldier, serving in the military with the army?s 3rd infantry division. with a very desperate need for assistance, i have summed up courage to contact you.

I found your contact particulars in an address journal. I am seeking your kind assistance to move the sum of US$8m [eight million United State dollars] to you in United State; as far as I can be assured that my share will be safe in your care until I complete my service here.

Source of money;

Some money in US dollars were discovered in dog kennels at a farm house and guest houses in  an estate near one of saddam?s old palaces in Baghdad, Iraq during an operation, and it was agreed by Staff Sgt. kenneth Buff, Sgt 1st Class Daniel Van Ess and I that some part of this money be shared amongst us before informing anybody about it. Since both of them saw the money first, they did the informing, while I played the outsider to protect our interest. This was quite an illegal thing to do, but I tell you what? No compensation can make up for the risk we have taken with our lives in this hell hole, in which my brother in-law was killed by a road side bomb last time.

The above figure was given to me as my share, and to conceal this kind of money became a problem for me even after the initial probe of all soldiers of our command which I was cleared from; so with the help of a British contact working here and his office enjoy some immunity, I was able to get the package out to a safe location entirely out of trouble spot. He does not know the real contents of the package, and believes that it belongs to a British/American medical doctor who died in a raid here in Iraq, and before giving up, trusted me to hand over the package to his family in United States. I have now found a much secured way of getting the package out of Iraq to United State for you to pick up, and I will discuss this with you When I am sure that you are willing to assist me, and I believe that my money will be well secured in your hand because you have the fear of God.

I want you to tell me how much you will take from this money for the assistance you will give to me. One passionate appeal I will make to you is not to discuss this matter with anybody, should you have reason to reject this offer, please and please destroy this message as any leakage of this information will be too bad for us soldier?s here in Iraq and tarnish the reputation of other service men. I do not know how long we will remain here, and I have been shot, wounded and survived two suicide bomb attacks by the special grace of God,this and other reasons I will mention later has prompted me to reach out for help, I honestly want this matter to be resolved immediately, please contact me as soon as possible.

God bless you and your family.

Sgt.Shelby Cross.

The most sane set of requirements that I’ve seen thus far for the pending corporate bailout came to me from Congressman Dennis Kucinich. I realize that the political will for most of these doesn’t exist, but even half of them would be nice.

Let your Senators and Representatives know that this is what you want. (Or edit it to MAKE it what you want.) It’s our money and (more importantly) our debt burden. WE should have a say!

1. Reinstatement of the provisions of Glass-Steagall, which forbade speculation

2. Re-regulation of the finance, insurance, and real estate industries

3. Accountability on the part of those who took the companies down:

  a) resignations of management

  b) givebacks of executive compensation packages

  c) limitations on executive compensation

 d) admission by CEO’s of what went wrong and how, prior to any government  bailout

4. Demands for transparency

  a) with respect to analyzing the transactions which took the companies down

  b) with respect to Treasury’s dealings with the companies pre and post-bailout

5. An equity position for the taxpayers

   a) some form of ownership of assets

6. Some credible formula for evaluating the price of the assets that the government is buying.

7. A sunset clause on the legislation

8. Full public disclosure by members of Congress of assets held, with possible conflicts put in blind trust.

9. A ban on political campaign contributions from officers of corporations receiving bailouts

10. A requirement that 2008 cycle candidates return political contributions to officers and representatives of corporations receiving bailouts

Thanks, Dennis!

Just a quick post regarding the nearly 1 TRILLION dollar bailout package of taxpayer money/debt that’s about to be handed out to companies that have already grossly mismanaged funds…

The affected companies have some of the world’s best financial analysts at their disposal. You can be sure that they saw this coming several years in advance. Everything that’s happening now has been well choreographed. Every word of legislation was written a long time ago.

The bottom line is this: Anytime that there’s a closed meeting intended to scare the pants off of our US senators, someone somewhere is about to score big.

We’re being told by Fox News that the Congress has just ONE DAY to act before our economy goes into total meltdown. Rushed, scared people make mistakes… BIG mistakes. Let’s not forget the Patriot Act.

I don’t doubt that we’re in a financial crisis. However, this crisis was engineered. Corporations manipulated Congress into performing less and less oversight. They then used the opportunity to engage in predatory lending practices, the bundling of junk securities and completely over-the-top speculating. And NOW they want regulation? Don’t believe it for a minute.

Meanwhile, the Bush Administration, whose members are deeply involved in corporate machinations, massively overspent on a war of choice, making us indebted to the Chinese, who bought our bonds. They got their own companies hired to (mis)manage the needs of our military and contractors, while “losing” billions of dollars in the process. They kept open a loophole that allows foreign subsidiaries of US-owned companies like Halliburton to put off paying taxes for years at a time. And in the midst of all this, they created and fought to maintain tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

You don’t need to know anything about economics to have seen that we were heading for a meltdown. We’re being played.

Now it’s coming out that the legislation under consideration (LEGISLATIVE PROPOSAL FOR TREASURY AUTHORITY TO PURCHASE MORTGAGE-RELATED ASSETS) will give Treasury Secretary Paulson nearly limitless power to use the money, without any oversight whatsoever. (In particular, see Section 5.) There’s even a clause which seems to allow for the funds to be used to bail out FOREIGN companies.

Good God, people! Just because Chicken Little says the sky is falling doesn’t mean that our Congress should rubber stamp sweeping legislation without first having a robust debate. Please contact your Senators and Representatives and demand that they look at this thing long and hard before spending YOUR money!!!

Get the phone number and tips for your call here… or just dial (202)224-3121 and ask for your Senator’s office. And thank you very much in advance!

Gas prices are obviously impacting a lot of people and businesses here in the US, but we still have it easy compared to many other countries.

In Costa Rica, gas is currently $4.72 a gallon. In the capital of San Jose, that nation’s most populous city, emergency services will be cutting back from 3 ambulances to 2, because they can’t afford the gas. Emergency calls to EMS will now be prioritized, and ambulances will only be dispatched to the most serious cases.

Taxis are no longer driving around the city looking for customers. Instead, they line up at various locations, waiting for the customers to come to them. When the taxi at the front of the line gets a fare, the rest of the drivers get out and PUSH their cars forward.

All this is going on at a time when Costa Rican president and Nobel Prize winner Oscar Arias has been caught red-handed with a 2 million dollar slush fund made up of government money. Sigh.

And what are we, the world’s biggest consumers, doing about the gas price issue? Apparently, falling for the bull that drilling in environmentally sensitive areas will bring down prices.

This simply isn’t true. See the actual Department of Energy analysis at the end of this post for the facts.

Meanwhile, when I called a senator’s office recently and asked his aide to tell the senator that I support reigning in oil market speculators, he responded, “Oh, so you want to REGULATE the free market?!!!”

“No,”, I replied. “I want to protect the free market and the American people from what the speculators are doing to them. Wouldn’t that be a less costly and faster why to deal with high gas prices?”

He spouted a bunch of talking points that supposedly “proved” me wrong. I researched them after I hung up and discovered that he didn’t have a leg to stand on.

And that’s where we’re at. Talking points versus facts. Given our recent history, don’t expect facts to win out.

US Department of Energy, Energy Information Administration
“Official Energy Statistics from the US Government”

May 2008: Analysis of Crude Oil Production in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

“With respect to the world oil price impact, projected ANWR oil production constitutes between 0.4 and 1.2 percent of total world oil consumption in 2030, based on the low and high resource cases, respectively. Consequently, ANWR oil production is not projected to have a large impact on world oil prices. Relative to the AEO2008 reference case, ANWR oil production is projected to have its largest oil price reduction impacts as follows: a reduction in low-sulfur, light (LSL) crude oil¹⁸ prices of $0.41 per barrel (2006 dollars) in 2026 in the low oil resource case, $0.75 per barrel in 2025 in the mean oil resource case, and $1.44 per barrel in 2027 in the high oil resource case. Assuming that world oil markets continue to work as they do today, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) could neutralize any potential price impact of ANWR oil production by reducing its oil exports by an equal amount.”

2007: Impacts of Increased Access to Oil and Natural Gas Resources in the Lower 48 Federal Outer Continental Shelf

“The projections in the OCS access case indicate that access to the Pacific, Atlantic, and eastern Gulf regions would not have a significant impact on domestic crude oil and natural gas production or prices before 2030. Leasing would begin no sooner than 2012, and production would not be expected to start before 2017.”

I watched the film Quatemass & The Pit (aka 5 Million Years To Earth) the other night. It was released in 1968, but contains this extraordinary bit of dialogue:

Quatermass: Look Roney, suppose we found that our earth was doomed, say by climatic changes… What would we do about it?

Professor Roney: Nothing. Just go on squabbling as usual.

While one or two brave scientists were already raising the specter of global warming at the time (in particular, oceanographer Roger Revelle, who testified before Congress regarding the threat way back in 1957), almost no-one in the general public had ever heard of such a thing.

In addition to the prescient climate change reference, there’s the added wisdom of Professor Roney’s response. Despite nearly unanimous agreement on global warming in the scientific community (a rare thing), governments, particulary ours, do pretty much nothing (or worse), wasting precious time squabbling.

I was reminded of this today, when I called Texas Senator John Cornyn’s office to ask him to reconsider his stance on opening up environmentally sensitive areas to drilling under the mistaken notion that this will lower prices at the pump. First, no-one answered the phone after repeated calls. Finally, an aide picked up. It was immediately clear to me why calls weren’t being anwered.

Usually, when you call a Senator or Representative’s office, the aide takes down the reason why you’re calling and some proof that you’re a constituent, like your zip code. And that’s it. But this aide wanted to debate me.

I went along for a little while, but finally asked that he please just pass my comments on to the Senator. I’m doubtful that he will, but at least he can’t claim (as has happened in the past) that Texans don’t care about the issue, because no-one’s calling.

Sigh. Wouldn’t it be nice if our governments would come together, stop squabbling, and do something about what is very likely the most serious threat that humankind has ever faced?

My last blog post was way back in February. I was a bit… er… angry. I remain incredulous that the undemocratic superdelegate system is still with us. However, some of my hope has been restored now that Barack Obama looks like he’ll be our next president. Send positive thoughts is his direction. (And volunteer or donate if you can afford it.)

In the meantime, I’m adding my voice to those asking superdelegates to refuse to participate in a scheme that has no place or purpose in a democracy.

I finally unsubscribed from the Democratic Party’s mailing list today. Their automated system was kind enough to ask me why, so I composed the letter below. I doubt anyone will read it, so I figured I’d post it here.

First, let me be clear that my intention is NOT to take the wind out of anyone’s sail. If you’re enthusiastlically involved in the upcoming election, maybe it’s best that you don’t read this. But if you feel let down, allow me to commiserate:

It’s bad enough that our nation still uses the undemocratic Electoral College to elect a president. The delegate system knocks underdog candidates out of the race early by arbitrarily assigning a threshold that must be met before delegates are assigned.

Then there’s the staggered primaries, which deplete all but the wealthiest campaigns long before a nominee is announced. And there’s the fact that the public owns the airwaves, but the media hasn’t been required to give candidates equal time or even focus on issues since the Fairness Doctrine was overturned in 1987.

There’s black box voting equipment, which makes every vote tally suspect. There’s endless debates in which the “frontrunners” are chosen by powerful interests well in advance of a single vote being cast, and where substantive, detailed questions on issues of importance are the exception rather than the rule.

In all these things, our Democratic majority in Congress and the DNC itself have failed utterly to affect change. But still, I tried to have hope.

Then I found out that the Texas Democratic Party, my state party, no longer makes resolutions passed at the state convention a part of their platform. Having wasted my time and money being a delegate to two state conventions, I knew that resolutions were the only hope the grassroots had of impacting party policy. Yet, when I asked party chair Boyd Richie a direct question regarding this at a “Town Hall” meeting, he declined to answer and called for the next question.

I resigned my position as precinct chair, and spoke at length to two party operatives about my reasons, but no-one really cared. Still, I tried to have hope.

Then state parties, including Texas, started knocking candidates off their ballots for reasons completely unrelated to fair elections. In doing this, they deprived voters of the right to cast a ballot for the candidate of their choice. The DNC said nothing.

The DNC itself stripped Michigan and Florida of their delegates to punish them like little children. Clearly, the delegates can’t be restored without new elections, because not all campaigns bothered to spend time and money in these states. My hope was waning, but I tried to hang on.

And then I found out about Superdelegates. How could I not have known about this this direct violation of democracy before? As it stands now, it looks like Hillary will be elected by fiat. And the DNC does nothing about this affront to voters.

I’m forced, once again, to vote AGAINST a candidate rather than FOR one. And even that pitifully miniscule little bit of voting power will be diluted by a system that prefers oligarchy to democracy. It hurts all the more knowing that Howard Dean, whose campaign was destroyed by these very same forces, (Well, ok… by the DLC. Same thing.) has apparently been absorbed into the Party groupmind.

Why should I support the Democratic Party when the party doesn’t support democracy? Sure, I’ll still support individual candidates. (That is, until the system finally manages to extinguish that last tiny ember of my belief that it even matters.) I still haven’t made a final decision as to whether or not I’ll vote for Hillary if she’s crowned. I’m thinking “no”. Maybe, if McCain wins, the Party will get a clue.

But I absolutely, positively can no longer stomach the propaganda that keeps landing in my inbox.

Evidence is now coming out that a former State Department official appointed by President Bush may have been involved in a scheme to sell nuclear weapons secrets to Turkey. While this has been largely ignored in the US press, it’s received quite a bit of attention overseas. In part, this is because Valerie Plame was part of the team investigating the case before it was abruptly shut down. As it turns out, Marc Grossman, the State Department official, is the man who originally circulated the classified document identifying Plame as a covert agent.

The White House has clearly been paying attention. On January 23rd, President Bush issued a press release announcing the proposed Agreement for Cooperation between the United States of America and the Republic of Turkey Concerning Peaceful Uses of Nuclear Energy. Despite the new evidence to the contrary, Bush says,

“U.S. agencies received … information implicating Turkish private entities in certain activities directly relating to nuclear proliferation. … My Administration (is) confident that the pertinent issues have been sufficiently resolved and that there is a sufficient basis (as set forth in the classified annexes, which will be transmitted separately by the Secretary of State) to proceed with congressional review of the Agreement and, if legislation is not enacted to disapprove it, to bring the Agreement into force.”

Unless Congress acts to stop it, this agreement will go into force on April 21st or 22nd. It will provide all the cover needed to sell not only nuclear information and technology to Turkey, but materials as well. Let us not forget that Turkey aided A.Q. Khan, the Pakistani physicist, in selling nuclear hardware and information to Libya, North Korea and Iran.

I urge you to contact your Senators and Representative and ask them to stop the next round of nuclear proliferation before it starts… by killing this agreement. Thanks in advance for your efforts.

So… you’ve been romantically involved with someone for years now, and the relationship is serious and solid. For whatever reason (and there are many!), you don’t want to get married. Now that you’ve achieved the sought after “long-term, committed relationship”, how do you refer to eachother?

You could just let people call you husband and wife, but if that’s what you wanted, you’d be married.

The same goes for “fiance”.

You could confuse people with “common law husband/wife”, but that’s unwieldly and stiff sounding.

You could call eachother boyfriend and girlfriend, but that sounds like a casual fling or just plain juvenile. It can also cause real problems with people who assume that the playing field is still open.

You could put knots in your tongue with “significant other” or shorten it to “SO”, but the term has become dated and laughable to many. It also becomes tiresome explaining to people what it means.

You could refer to eachother as “my partner”, but if you have a business partner, things get confusing fast. If you say “life partner”, you assume that you’ll be together for your whole lives, and frankly, that’s unlikely.

You could say “soul mate”, but many people find that phrase too new-agey, or inappropriate for formal situations. The same goes for “lover”.

You could say “my better half”, but that’s sort of dodging the issue, isn’t it? And I hate to say it, but what about situations where it’s just not true?

“Other half” is a bit better, but personally, I like to think that my “partner” and I are discreet individuals.

What we need is a term that meets all these requirements:

* Short
* Obvious in its meaning
* Appropriate for both casual and formal situations
* Can be used by both males and females

With all the creative talent out there, this should be doable. Post your suggestions!

Here’s an email being sent around by supporters of the Iraq war:

Here’s a sobering statistic:

There has been a monthly average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theatre of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2,112 deaths.

That gives a firearm death rate of 60 per 100,000 soldiers.

The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000 persons for the same period. That means that you are about 25% more likely to be shot and killed in the U.S. Capital than you are in Iraq .

Conclusion: The U.S. should pull out of Washington

Let’s assume for a moment that the statistics supplied are correct:

160,000 troops / 100,000 = 1.6

2,112 / 1.6 = 1,320 deaths per 100,000 troops

Versus 80.6 per 100,000 in DC

So, right away, one must wonder how this email continues to be offered by so many as support for their pro-Iraq war position. I mean, really, the conclusions are staggeringly wrong. But let’s see if the statistics themselves are correct:

The email says, “The firearm death rate in Washington D.C. is 80.6 per 100,000 persons for the same period.”

Acccording to the FBI’s Preliminary Annual Uniform Crime Report, there were 35.4 murders per 100,000 DC residents in 2005 and 29.06 per 100,000 residents in 2006.

The email says, “There has been a monthly average of 160,000 troops in the Iraq theatre of operations during the last 22 months, and a total of 2,112 deaths.”

According to GlobalSecurity.org, (and with a boost to account for the recent troop surge), the average number of troops in Iraq over the last 22 months is actually closer to 155,000.

According to the Iraq Coaltion Casualty Count, between 6/14/05 and 8/14/07, there have been 2,490 “field of operation” deaths among coalition troops. This includes troops who died in hospitals in Germany and the US. Of those, 524 were the result of weapons fire. Most died as the result of IED attacks.

So… There are 2 ways we could figure this:

1. 155,000 troops / 100,000 = 1.55524 soldier gunfire deaths / 1.55 = 338 deaths by gunfire per 100,000 coalition troops.
2. 2,490 total coalition troop deaths / 1.55 = 1,606 deaths per 100,000 coalition troops.

Now, my math isn’t great, but if my numbers are correct, no matter how you slice it, our troops would be much, much safer in DC than in Iraq.