G-8 Bay Area spokescouncil is at 7pm on Thursday

I commented on the other thread. I'll probably try to go regardless, but hope you can take this into account in planning. Could we try to avoid this happening again if the idea is to walk into downtown. There is a pattern of all getting arrested between 6th and 5th.
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/06/1684102_comment.php
here are my pictures of the day after the election, with an arrest I would have been embarrassed to have been caught in (turn up brightness on computer screen): http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/11/1703168_comment.php

Here we got just passed 7th street and were turned off to Hayes by a somewhat suspicious person no one knew who wasn't arrested but had given a really loud speech earlier, then 1200 were arrested at Hayes and also a few blocks later without having so much as jaywalked or even challenged the police (they were just pissy and an FBI guy was riding around with Richard Bruce directing things)
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/03/1588060_comment.php?theme=default
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/03/1588054.php

Here is the black bloc starting at civic center and they got all of two blocks down 7th before probably the most violent mass arrest episode
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/03/1674622_comment.php

Here we got past 6th because we were going the other direction and got to 8th st. (what an amazing day)
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/02/1575034.php

I think this was a biotech protest, but note they were starting in the tourist area that the police consider acceptable, and heading towards the shopping district (unacceptable zone), then encirclement occurred http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/06/1684257_comment.php

Oh, here is another big one. We walked for literally miles from the western addition past civic center, and it is when we got to about 6th on Mission that the police shifted gears, and everyone split up into different groups, and people were trying to stay on Market because encirclement could occur most easily on the side streets. Staying mixed in with the large amount of shoppers between 3rd to 5th street was the safest place to be because there were hundreds of people near the malls who they weren't willing to throw into the arrest buses. But quite a number of standersby were arrested at this including people who only spoke japanese and had tourist hats on: http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/03/1583311.php
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/03/1583495.php
http://www.indybay.org/news/2003/03/1583032.php

Maybe we could take muni underground to the financial district instead or something, if that is indeed what we decide to do. You'll notice that the demographics of the active participants has been becoming narrower over the past two years, and older people are dropping out - which could result from people either being parents or noncitizens or having jobs where they aren't independent contractors but instead work for schools or hospitals and such where the most inelegant forms of arrest aren't acceptable (such as this recent ANSWER breakaway (darn, I can't find a link to the most recent ANSWER breakaway where a few people were arrested when sitting in the street on Valencia and refusing to move, but here is another situation on the first escalation anniversary on march 20 2004 where a lot of people were arrested at 5th and Market, and then they were chasing people around the tenderloin when they got too near union square again - a pattern developing here
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/03/1674301_comment.php
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/03/1674364_comment.php

In contrast, the state budget of Nebraska is about $3.5B/year. This is going to drive the U.S. into a big hole.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military has signed on Halliburton (NYSE:HAL - news) to do nearly $5 billion in new work in
Iraq under a giant logistics contract that has so far earned the Texas-based firm $9.1 billion, the Army said on Wednesday.
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Linda Theis, a spokeswoman for U.S. Army Field Support Command in Rock Island, Illinois, said the military signed the work order with Halliburton unit Kellogg Brown and Root in May.

The new deal, worth $4.97 billion over the next year, was not made public when it was signed because the Army did not consider such an announcement necessary, she said.

"We did not announce this task order as this is really not something we ever really thought about doing," said Theis.

Halliburton, which was run by Vice President
Dick Cheney from 1995-2000, has been under scrutiny for its contracts in Iraq and several U.S. government agencies are looking into whether it overcharged for some work.

A Halliburton spokeswoman said the new spending package was approved by the Army after the company submitted estimated costs for the year based on services requested.

The $4.97 billion figure represented the maximum under the contract, and the actual amount could be lower since the Army doled out the work on an incremental basis, she said.

The new contract is about $1 billion more than the company earned under last year's services contract.

In March, a former KBR employee and a Kuwaiti citizen were indicted for defrauding the U.S. government of more than $3.5 million by inflating the cost of fuel tankers.

The new work order, called Task Order 89, is valid until April 30, 2006, and went ahead despite critical military audits released last week by Democratic opponents of KBR's Iraq work.

A top U.S. Army procurement official said last week Halliburton's deals in Iraq were the worst example of contract abuse she had ever seen, a claim KBR strongly rejected as "political rhetoric."

KBR was awarded the logistical contract with the military in December 2001, covering tasks from feeding U.S. troops to delivering mail, doing laundry and building barracks.

U.S. Senate critics of Halliburton were quick to denounce the new deal.

"At this point, why don't we just hand Halliburton the keys to the U.S. Treasury and tell them to turn off the lights when they are done," Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg said in a statement.

GIANT DEAL

Called LOGCAP, KBR had by May 31 been paid $9.1 billion under the deal, which has nine option years that have been renewed three times. They are up for renewal each December.

Of this amount, $8.3 billion was for work in Iraq and the remainder for
Afghanistan and elsewhere. Money obligated for future work amounted to $11.4 billion, said Theis, pointing out not all of this money would necessarily be spent.

The
Pentagon has been looking into whether to contract out some services done by KBR, but Theis said she had not heard of any decisions to make changes.

Halliburton has received bonuses for some of its work. Theis said a decision on possible further bonuses will likely be announced this month.

Much of Halliburton's work for the U.S. military is on a cost-plus basis, which means the company can earn up to 2 percent extra depending on its performance.

Halliburton shares slipped 1.5 percent, or 75 cents, to $48.87 per share on the
New York Stock Exchange, tracking the decline in the energy services sector on Wednesday.

Halliburton shares have rallied 13 percent since the beginning of June, bolstered by high crude oil prices.

Despite the drop in the stock price, analysts said the latest news was positive for the company and indicated "the government has no issue with Halliburton's performance," said Kurt Hallead, analyst with RBC Capital Markets.