In January, Halliburton Products & Services Limited and Oriental Kish finalized a contract to develop two sectors of the South Pars oil and gas field in Iran. A primary shareholder of Oriental Kish is none other than Sirous Nasseri, head of the Iranian delegation to the IAEA negotiating the future of Iran’s nuclear programs. Nasseri is also rumored to have been a close advisor and consultant to Halliburton. One of the owners of Oriental Kish is the family of Hashemi Rafsanjani, president of Iran from 1989-1997, whose “pre-revolutionary credentials earned him a place among the trusted advisers of Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

It seems overly convenient that Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator is a business partner to Halliburton.

- Andy Grotto

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has announced its new interim director — and who better to lead an agency whose “key objective” is “restoring endangered and threatened species to a secure status in the wild” than Matthew Hogan, a former lobbyist for Safari Club International.

According to the Chicago Tribune, the “33-year-old Safari Club — which is structured as a network of non-profits, lobbying organizations and tax-exempt charities — finances an influential political operation that works to ease endangered species laws restricting the importing of exotic animals slain overseas.”

As least we know Safari Club members aren’t underachievers:

SCI members shoot prescribed lists of animals to win so-called Grand Slam and Inner Circle titles. … To complete all 29 award categories, a hunter must kill a minimum of 322 separate species and sub-species — enough to populate a large zoo.

In February, a Tribune reporter visited the Safari Club’s annual convention in Reno. Here’s what you’ve been missing:

For four days last month, the sprawling Reno-Sparks Convention Center became a glittering shrine to the blood sport of the super-rich — big game hunters who crisscross the globe to make trophies out of lions, leopards and other exotic animals. …

They clustered around the booth of hunt guide Mark Sullivan, where three TV monitors played his hot-selling DVDs: “Death by the Ton,” “Death at My Feet” and “Shot to Death.”

DeLay just released this statement:

Mrs. Schiavo’s death is a moral poverty and a legal tragedy. This loss happened because our legal system did not protect the people who need protection most, and that will change. The time will come for the men responsible for this to answer for their behavior, but not today. Today we grieve, we pray, and we hope to God this fate never befalls another. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Schindlers and with Terri Schiavo’s friends in this time of deep sorrow.

Make no mistake about it: Tom DeLay, our Majority Leader, is now threatening judges, doctors and Terri Schiavo’s husband.

Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA), last night on Hardball:

All we said — and I can — you can interview a bunch of Democrats who joined with me in the Senate. All we wanted was a new trial, a de novo hearing to bring in what was a lot of evidence that was not considered originally by the original trial court…The judge did not do what was expressly required in the statute. That is a problem. Judges should abide by the law. They`re not above the law.

From the discussion of the bill passed by Congress on the Senate floor:

SEN. BILL FRIST: Nothing in the current bill or its legislative history mandates a stay… this bill does not change current law under which a stay is discretionary.

A federal appeals court today rejected Terry Schiavo’s parents’ latest attempt to get her feeding tube reconnected. In his concurrence, Judge Stanley Birch, a Bush I appointee, became the first judge to declare Congress’s actions in the case unconstitutional:

A popular epithet directed by some members of society, including some members of Congress, toward the judiciary involves the denunciation of “activist judges.” Generally, the definition of an “activist judge” is one who decides the outcome of a controversy before him according to personal conviction, even one sincerely held, as opposed to the dictates of the law as constrained by legal precedent and, ultimately, our Constitution. In resolving the Schiavo controversy it is my judgment that, despite sincere and altruistic motivation, the legislative and executive branches of our government have acted in a manner demonstrably at odds with our Founding Fathers’ blueprint for the governance of a free people — our Constitution.

The Great Falls Tribune today shows exactly how far to the right the conservative movement has moved. Right-wing legislators in Montana have come down on the side of abusive tax shelters, voting against commonsense legislation to close these loopholes bening taken advantage of by tax evaders.

As the Tribune notes, the bill they are opposing “goes after illegitimate income-tax shelters by requiring businesses and individuals to file additional information on transactions that may be taxable. It says those who fail to provide such information shall pay a $10,000 fine for an individual and $50,000 for a business. It also attempts to crack down on those avoiding capital-gains taxes on real estate sales. [And] it targets Montana people or businesses who establish residency in a state without income taxes for the purpose of selling property, so they don’t have to pay Montana income taxes.”

So basically, if you are against this, as the right-wingers are, you are actually FOR abusive tax shelters that rip off regular taxpayers and rob state government of revenues it needs for basic services. How much farther right can these people go before they want to officially turn the government over to special interests and the wealthy?

Gov. Jeb Bush has been looking for ways to “rein in” Medicaid spending in Florida, which he claims is “devouring” the state budget. The Governor has mentioned funding cuts and partial privatization as potential options. One thing he hasn’t explored: kicking Wal-mart off the dole.

The St. Petersburg Times reports Wal-Mart, “which is getting millions of dollars in state incentives to create jobs in Florida, has more employees and family members enrolled in Medicaid than any company in the state.” The paper reports the state has paid Wal-Mart more than $51 million in incentives since 1981. By way of gratitude, the superstore is letting Florida taxpayers foot the bill for the 12,300 workers and dependents it pays so poorly that they qualify for Medicaid, the state’s health care program for the poor.

Not that Gov. Bush would ever want to force “one of our nation’s great companies” (in Vice President Cheney’s words) to pay its fair share.