THE PEACOCK REPORT (TPR)

No Book Left Behind

It's no secret that many, though certainly not all, schools and public libraries across the U.S. have substandard book collections and infrastructure. Some municipalities, sadly, have even closed their local libraries for budgetary reasons. Recognizing this tragedy, the federal government is extending a contract with a private firm responsible for selecting book titles, applying "quality assurance to printed books," and overseeing their "timely delivery to schools" as part of this ongoing educational endeavor of the Bush Administration, Exhortations has learned.

Unfortunately for American kids, all the books from this particular project are going to schools in Egypt.

According to a contracting document located via a routine search of the FedBizOpps database, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on July 26 extended for another year an existing "task order" with the Washington, D.C.-based Academy for Educational Development (AED). AED will continue to select and deliver "high quality books" to "libraries in public preparatory and secondary schools" in Egypt, the document said.

The value of this, and the previous, contract is unknown. The original task order to which the July 26 document refers could not be found, despite an extensive search of FedBizOpps by Exhortations.

"Jaded Tasks" Hitting Bookstores

Investigative journalist Wayne Madsen's latest book, Jaded Tasks: Brass Plates, Black Ops & Big Oil -- The Blood Politics of George Bush & Co., is now available.

Visitors to The Peacock Report may have noticed that Jaded Tasks has been listed for the past few months under the Recommended Books sidebar on this site, and there's a good reason for that. Madsen is one of the nation's eminent investigative reporters, and TPR has long anticipated his latest contribution to the world of hard-hitting journalism.

Madsen, a former military intelligence officer who has written thousands of articles on government operations, also is the author of Genocide and Covert Operations in Africa, 1993-1999, and with John Stanton co-authored America's Nightmare: The Presidency of George Bush II. Jaded Tasks is available at numerous bookstores (visit the Wayne Madsen Report for a partial listing), as well as through online sites including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Powell's, Politics & Prose, or order directly from the publisher, Trine Day.

Special note: This is not a paid advertisement. It is simply an endorsement that TPR is offering free of charge to a fellow independent journalist.

Fascism in America

The U.S. Special Operations Command in late 2004 sought to outsource the production of 10,000 Bibles containing "Army-designed color photographs and text inserts." A subsequent two-paragraph piece that I wrote for SoJo Mail of Sojourners magazine sparked global debate and even furor; fury from some because I -- as a Christian, no less -- would dare raise questions about this endeavor, and fury from other quarters because of growing concern with the melding of religion and politics in America.

More than a year has passed since Special Ops shot down my FOIA request for documents on that initiative, a decision followed by the Pentagon's refusal to acknowledge a formal appeal that I submitted in response. I recently resurrected, for lack of a better word, my FOIA campaign in commentary I wrote for The Master's Artist, an online collective of diverse Christian writers with whom I'm affiliated.

Just as there is diversity in the chosen genres, writing styles and theological perspectives of MA's contributors, this past weekend elicited equally diverse responses from members of and visitors to the site. The feedback I have gotten since writing the SoJo piece covers a spectrum of people ranging from those who think I'm making a big deal out of nothing, to others who see the modified Bibles as something more insidious.

Despite this range of opinions on the subject, I feel compelled to focus on the following comments (which came from a visitor, not a member, of MA) that were posted, but later removed, in reaction to my Master's Artist piece. Before reading it, please keep in mind that although this person is not an aberration here in the U.S., there are many other Christians who shudder at the thought of this growing, fascistic approach to the blind support of governmental powers.