BLACKWATER: WE DON’T GIVE REFUNDS BUT WE DO ACCEPT APOLOGIES

And this is how we start 2010.



Not that anyone should be surprised:

The issue was that the guards, as government contractors, were obligated to give an immediate report of what they had done, but the Constitution prevents the government from requiring a defendant to testify against himself, so those statements could not be used in a prosecution.

Less than two weeks after the shootings in Nisour Square in Baghdad in September 2007, lawyers at the State Department, which employed the guards, expressed concern that prosecutors might be improperly using the compulsory reports in preparing a criminal case against them, according to the decision.

Result: Blackwater (now Xe) gets to say it did nothing wrong when its employees gunned down 17 innocent people, and the State Dept gets to say it did nothing wrong by contracting Blackwater to run amok in Iraq. Everyone wins.

Except the Iraqis, of course. But hey, you can’t deliver democracy without breaking a few eggs. And Blackwater lost most of its contracts in Iraq after that, so really, isn’t that punishment enough?

I do find it interesting that the judge claims that the DOJ could easily have avoided these problems, but didn’t. Not that I’m saying the DOJ prosecutors deliberately torpedoed their own case for the benefit of a govt contractor with CIA connections. Of course not.

But considering one Blackwater guy has already pleaded guilty to something that the DOJ couldn’t build a workable case for, it’s hard to shake the feeling that there’s more to this than a bunch of overzealous prosecutors cutting corners.

It’s also hard to read this episode of a private security force doing things that other people would go to jail for and not think about the growing trend of private police forces, who aren’t subject to the same civil-liberties restraints as “real” police.

Still, it’s not like you have to worry about that.

Right?

I am the law,

This is dF

THE BEST ALBUMS IN CORPORATE AMERICA (2009 ANNUAL REPORT)

Congratulations, America – Taylor Swift is yr new favorite President of the United States!



And then there’s this:



And this:



Which makes Lady Gaga Vice President, Black-Eyed Peas Secretary Of State and Nickelback the Pentagon.

PRODUCTION NOTE: I’d have posted this sooner, but Nielsen SoundScan used to wait until the end of the year to publish these numbers, so I usually don't start tracking them down until then. Evidently the SoundScan year ends in November.

BACKGROUND: A long time ago when I was doing the “Go To Hell” zine, I would publish annual SoundScan data as a sort of satirical tribute to the idea that people – mainly record label executives, but also a lot of music fans I’ve met – measure how good an album is by how many units it sells. Because if it wasn’t “good” music, no one would buy it. Right?

Then I would break down the numbers to compare the Top Ten with the number of Top Ten albums I bought that year, or the number of Top Ten artists that I owned any records by at all, etc. The number in either category was typically less than two (2).

This year it’s zero.

The same, incidentally, applies to Nielsen/SoundScan’s Top Ten Albums/Singles Of The 00s as well (though I do own a lot of Beatles albums – just not that one).

Not that it matters. I just enjoy pointing this out.

BONUS TRACK: Incidentally, I've just been informed that Metallica has officially outsold Shania Twain in the SoundScan universe – by 3,000 units!

Vox unpopuli,

This is dF