ThinkFast: April 28, 2006
A pair of Bush administration terrorism reports are due out today. The State Department’s annual terrorism report finds that Iraq has become a safe haven for terrorists and has attracted a “foreign fighter pipeline” linked to terrorist plots, cells and attacks throughout the world. Meanwhile, a National Counterterrorism Threat Center report finds that terrorist incidents and deaths more than doubled in 2005.
$1.2 million: The collective debt owed by almost 900 battle-injured soldiers to the Department of Defense. These debts have “resulted in significant hardships” to the soldiers and their families, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
Senate trims the pork…err, seafood, out of the emergency supplemental bill. Senators succeeded yesterday in “killing funding for a seafood promotion program that had been tucked inside a bill for the Iraq war and further hurricane relief for the Gulf Coast.â€
Jack Abramoff’s lawyers claim the lobbyist is “broke.” But this month, Abramoff and his family spent a week at the oceanfront Turnberry Isle Resort and Country Club in Aventura, Florida, which charges a “minimum of $3,600 per adult for a nine-night Passover package.” Abramoff’s lawyers said the trip was paid for by “extended family.”
Facing a surge of anti-American sentiment in his country, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf insisted yesterday that he was not George Bush’s poodle. “When you are talking about fighting terrorism or extremism, I’m not doing that for the US or Britain. I’m doing it for Pakistan,” he said. “It’s not a question of being a poodle. I’m nobody’s poodle. I have enough strength of my own to lead.”
The United States has violated the Convention Against Torture at home and abroad, according to a new American Civil Liberties Union report.
Rice and Rumsfeld stumped by a reporter’s excellent question: “A full 10 seconds of silence passed after a reporter asked Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld what the intense secrecy and security surrounding their visit to Iraq signified about the stability of the country three years after the U.S.-led invasion. Rice turned to Rumsfeld to provide the answer. Rumsfeld glared at the reporter.â€
Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak Rubaie said the Iraqi government was working to formalize a “conditions-based transition agreement” for U.S. military withdrawal from the country. “Certainly at the end of the year there is going to be a sizable gross reduction in U.S. troops,” Mr. Rubaie said as he stood beside Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
“As international pressure and attention focuses squarely on Iran and the increasingly worrisome statements of the country’s president,†says Foreign Policy magazine’s blog, “it’s easy to forget about another threat to regional stability: Bashar al-Assad. Syria’s feared president is counting on this global attention deficit disorder and increasingly cracking down on his people, according to several experts in the region.â€
And finally: Send in the clowns. In honor of “Bring Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day,†a troupe of “entertainers from Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey was brought in to entertain the kids at the Pentagon’s courtyard for an afternoon performance. Ringmaster Jonathan Lee Iverson served as master of ceremonies as acrobat Liliu and the clowns delighted the crowd.†“I’m going to be a clown at the Pentagon,†exclaimed one clown after learning about her assignment. “Are you for real?â€
What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.
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71 Responses to “ThinkFast: April 28, 2006”
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Jack Abramoff is broke?? If only “Red Scorpion” would make it back into the theaters.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:11 amPress Corps Requests CNN
“a troupe of “entertainers from Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey was brought in to entertain the kids at the Pentagon’s courtyard”
April 28th, 2006 at 9:13 amWhy bring your kids to work if their just going to get entertained? I thought it was to show them the dull monitiny of adult life they get to look forward too.
Rice turned to Rumsfeld to provide the answer. Rumsfeld glared at the reporter.
. . . . . . . . . .
oh ya. the truth must hurt… “Its hard work” choking back the tears….aye rummy?
April 28th, 2006 at 9:17 amI have to say that Rumsfeld and Rice have a good reason to glare at a reporter that would ask that question about Iraq. It’s loaded to the gills, even though it addresses a legitimate concern that I’ve often considered in the past, like when Cheney secretly visited Iraq shortly after Senator Clinton asked him to. You’d think that if things were going so great, and there are apparently pictures available showing how peaceful Iraq really is (conservatives will swear up and down that it’s just as peaceful as Istanbul, Turkey, and so a picture from Istanbul, Turkey is just as good as one from Iraq!) they would be able to walk around and trumpet their success.
But, to be fair, they could have gone there in secrecy for any number of reasons. Hell, I sometimes go to the grocery store without telling my entire family about it, so why shouldn’t we tolerate and expect the same kind of thing from our democratically elected officials? Maybe they just snuck over for some coveted Iraqi goat cheeses or something. You can’t get that stuff just anywhere, you know. And why do we need to know about their cheese trips, I ask you?
April 28th, 2006 at 9:19 am“a troupe of “entertainers from Ringling Brothers & Barnum and Bailey was brought in to entertain the kids at the Pentagon’s courtyardâ€
Hey side show bob what you doing here? Oh…kids… I just left a meeting with your diobolical leaders … now I got to go… I am on a mission from Rummy.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:20 amThe Amurkan military and the might of the United States has NEVER defeated an insurgency, at least in modern times.
Rummy and others should wake up to this fact and change tactics quicker than I changer my underwear.
He and the pariah travelling the globe does nothing to tear down the hordes of terrist they have helped to put together.
We invaded Iraq and tore their country apart and the efforts to rebuild it are failing miserably.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:21 am#4 And why do we need to know about their cheese trips, I ask you?
No war for goat cheese!!
April 28th, 2006 at 9:22 am“Iraqi National Security Adviser Mowaffak Rubaie said the Iraqi government was working to formalize a “conditions-based transition agreement†for U.S. military withdrawal from the country.”
This is just so sad. Pres. Bush never had an “exit strategy”, so the Iraqi government had to come up with one. Can he be any more incompetent? I probably shouldn’t ask that question. I might get an answer. . . . .
April 28th, 2006 at 9:23 am#7 - Hah! Great laugh for a Friday morning!
Hey, I just remembered, isn’t this the day that all the crappy news is released by the Bush administration so the public can ignore it for the weekend? I wonder what this weeks bomb-shell is going to be? More tax cuts for the oil companies? An indictment for Karl Rove? Will Pres. Bush finally finish reading “My pet goat?” Does he think that’s where all the goat cheese comes from?
Happy weekend all!
April 28th, 2006 at 9:26 amNo war for goat cheese!!
British officials have learned that Iraq has recently sought significant amounts of mountain yaks from Niger. We don’t want the proof of Iraq’s fake goat cheese program to be a smoking gun…… in the form of a swiss with just a little bit of funky yak aftertaste.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:31 am#8
April 28th, 2006 at 9:32 amIt would be difficult to have an agreement with the Iraqi government before the government existed. At least they’re including the Iraqis in the negotiations rather than telling them how things are going to be done.
*sarcasm mode on*
Those soldiers who can’t pay their debts and monthly living expenses have to bite the bullet. They volunteered for the job, so that’s just tough. Who cares if they were wounded in action? All is fair in love and war. They don’t need any help at all, they can fend for themselves.
screw the poor, support the war.
*sarcasm mode off*
A local young man who volunteered to join the army is now in a wheelchair. He received the vaccinations and had an adverse reaction. His legs are paralzed and he has limited arm movement.
That’s the way it goes moving west.
The Iraq fiasco is the greatest military blunder in the history of the world.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:35 am#11 - I’m pretty sure the Iraqi government is going to include the Iraqi people in the negotiations while drawing up the “exit strategy” they’re going to present to Sec. Rumsfeld.
Now we just have to hope that we (the US) decides that any exit strategy is better than what we’ve currently got: NO exit strategy. I would like for our military to be able to leave Iraq at some point this century.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:42 amThe Iraq fiasco is the greatest military blunder in the history of the world.
Comment by Ron — April 28, 2006 @ 9:35 am
I don’t know about that. Invading Russia has been tried a couple of times which pretty much ended the reigns of the invading parties. As much as I’m against the war, I’m reasonbly condifent the USA will survive. If we can only get to 2009!
April 28th, 2006 at 9:44 amIf you have to say you’re not someone’s poodle, that means that you are someone’s poodle.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:44 am#9 Will Pres. Bush finally finish reading “My pet goat?â€
Insulting a war time president? Your giving comfort and aid to the enemy, for shame.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:45 amTorture is an international crime. The prohibition against torture is so widespread it has reached the level of jus cogens in international law. That is to say the prohibition against torture is a mandatory norm in international law which no nation may exempt itself, nor may two or more nations allow torture by mutual agreement.
At sometime the United States is going to end up before the International Court of Justice in the Hague to answer for its actions in Iraq. Hopefully, this Administration will also face an international tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity as well.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:54 amInsulting a war time president? Your giving comfort and aid to the enemy, for shame.
Whenever I aid and comfort the enemy, I crack a handful of mint leaves and ready the hot stones for a quick back rub. I also fluff thier pillow and read them their favorite jihad passages from the Koran, in singsong fashion.
Happy endings,
-Dave M.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:55 am#17 “The prohibition against torture is so widespread it has reached the level of jus cogens in international law.”
Assuming the US is guilty of turture, until the UN or anouther international body is actually able to uphold that law it isn’t much of a law. We are the backbone, militarily/finicially of the UN, we are international law.
April 28th, 2006 at 9:59 am#18, Ha, wow that is so wrong.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:00 amFun facts about the thuggery of our ally, Pervez Musharraf.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:00 amNo your not - I AM THE LAW!
April 28th, 2006 at 10:05 amNo you’re not - I AM THE LAW!
April 28th, 2006 at 10:05 am#20 - Yeah, I don’t go all out like that. I just question the Wartime president and leave it at that! ;-)
April 28th, 2006 at 10:06 am“#18, Ha, wow that is so wrong.”
So is the notion that liberals and progressives coddle and appreciate our enemies, and on the exact same level, in my opinion. It’s perverse to say such things, and amounts to political wanking of the sickest kind.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:08 amJust think, If Al Gore had been allowed to leagally win the 2000 election,there would be no Iraq war at all. All thoes dead would now be alive, no people with limbs missing,no trillion dollar debt, and on and on. Thank you Supreme Court and katharine harris, you get to live with it.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:10 am#19 - If we’re the “backbone… financially” of the UN, why don’t we ever pay our UN dues on time? Maybe the UN should state that member states cannot vote unless they’re up-to-date on their dues. THAT would get the money!
Naw, we’d just veto that resolution. Since we’re one of the permanent members of the Security Council, we have that power. Of course, when we do it, it’s “good”. When anyone else does it, they’re “badâ€. I guess “good” & “bad” are subjective and relational.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:10 am#26 - Don’t forget! He would have paid attention to the PDB “Bin Laden determined to strike in US”, and there would most likely be 3,000 American citizens alive today.
I guess you have to go to war with the faked intelligence you have rather than the faked intelligence you wish you had. (Sarcasm, by the way. . . .)
April 28th, 2006 at 10:14 am#27 you mean when it’s sometimes good to provide refuges for terrorists?
April 28th, 2006 at 10:15 am#16 “Insulting a war time president? Your giving comfort and aid to the enemy, for shame.”
What a crock of shit.
Bush said “Bring ‘em on,” therefore EMBOLDENING the enemy.
Bush let Osama Bin Laden go FREE, so he could waste time in Iraq. The killer of over 3,000 persons in the worst attack on American soil is happy and safe in Pakistan, continuing to pull Al Qeada’s strings. Bush said, “I truly am not that concerned about him.” Tell that to the families of 9/11 victims.
Iraq was a secular totalitarian society that posed no threat to us. Now it’s a graveyard for thousands of American soldiers, a black hole for billions of American taxpayer dollars, and the new training ground for generations of terrorists to come.
George W. Bush deserves every ounce of scorn, hatred and ridicule we could heap on him. What a pathetic excuse for a leader. I am so ashamed America got hoodwinked by this CRIMINAL.
I hate George Bush because he earned it.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:18 am#27 If we’re the “backbone… financially†of the UN, why don’t we ever pay our UN dues on time?
Because we can. Actually, in protest to UN actions we don’t agree with, seeing how as we pay the most into it, why can’t they be our mouth piece? Is that to much to ask?
I guess “good†& “bad†are subjective and relational.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:21 amPretty much.
#31 - Squegeeboo, in case I haven’t said this lately, I really appreciate your humor!
April 28th, 2006 at 10:27 am#27 That’s right, if Bush does it it’s o.k. but if any one else does it it’s aiding and abeting.
On the 1. million owed by service persons I am sick over this mess Bush created. There was a special on last week about all the homeless vet’s also. Let’s see the congress got a $3,100.00 pay increase last year again and this year they are working a total of 97 day’s.
We allow and promote poverty for the people who are ordered to fight a Bush war and die for his folly. At home many of the famalies of the service personel have to get food stamps to survive and go to food banks so they can eat……There are to many things wrong with our country under this greedy regime….All pay raises should of been stoped and pay should be cut by 40% to these liers and thieves sitting on their fat butts while our best are dieing and getting wounded for a mad mans war……I now think instead of impeachment Bush and his entire staff should be comitted to a mental hospital for life and all their wealth auctioned off to pay our soldiers. Some fool some where would pay a lot for Rices shoes to support our military…No sarcasm here, I am pissed at the way this entire bunch treat all our people. No more Bush war’s…..Blessings
April 28th, 2006 at 10:27 am# 26 and # 28
You two are forgetting one small little problem that Pres. Gore would have had……………………………………………………………………………………,
His Repuppetican Vice president Joe Leiberman
There would have been a coup, Joe would be Pres and we would be there anyway
OOps I was watching 24
what was I saying again?
April 28th, 2006 at 10:31 am#29, this one about the US harboring terrorists is a bit better
April 28th, 2006 at 10:38 am# 30 ElectricBassPlayer: Well said.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:39 amDear Leaker stubbornly puts forward another Dubai deal, this one for companies making military spare parts.
April 28th, 2006 at 10:53 amHey, does anyone else see my comment at 34? or is it by R U Serious? cause it looks like I’m being oppressed, just like the constitutional peasant in the Holy Grail.
April 28th, 2006 at 11:00 am…has attracted a “foreign fighter pipeline†linked to terrorist plots, cells and attacks throughout the world.
See we can build a pipeline in Iraq, just not the one that KBR stole taxpayer money to do.
April 28th, 2006 at 11:23 am$1.2 million: The collective debt owed by almost 900 battle-injured soldiers to the Department of Defense.
This is sick and disgusting. I hope none of them or their families ever pay.
April 28th, 2006 at 11:26 am#32 Squegeeboo, in case I haven’t said this lately, I really appreciate your humor!
Thanks, I feel if you can’t toss humor into politics you end up all mean and bitter like Ryan.
Besides it always gives me an out when I say something stupid (which is often)
Oh, no, no I didn’t mean that, it was a joke, yah thats it a joke.
April 28th, 2006 at 11:29 amJust think, If Al Gore had been allowed to leagally win the 2000 election,there would be no Iraq war at all. All thoes dead would now be alive, no people with limbs missing,no trillion dollar debt, and on and on. Thank you Supreme Court and katharine harris, you get to live with it.
Comment by wisedup
I dont know about that… Iraq would probably still be there… but do you really think Gore would have not responded to 911?
April 28th, 2006 at 12:03 pm#42 - Naturally Gore would have responded to 9/11, but we wouldn’t be in Iraq. Gore would have read and responded to the PDB entitled, “Bin Laden determined to strike within the United States,” and perhaps some of the carnage of 9/11 could have been averted. We will never know for sure.
April 28th, 2006 at 12:09 pmGerald, found this over on EnergyBulletin to follow up on yesterday - sorry off topic, but you were interested.
On topic:
First, I don’t think 9-11 happens on Al Gore’s watch as he was part of the admininstration that ’shook all the trees’ in 1999 to avert the millenium plot. I think this brings Moussaui out early and the summer of 2001 is scary, flying is difficult, but the plotters get scared or caught.
Assuming 9-11 does happen then for Al Gore:
1. Invasion of Afghanistan, but not Iraq
2. Bin laden captured at Tora Bora
3. Vehicle fuel standards significantly increased by law, Apollo Project for Energy launched in response to 9-11 (if that ever happens under Gore)
Anyone add anything else?
April 28th, 2006 at 12:12 pmGerald,
many right wingers seem to belive that if a democrat had been president on 9/11, that somehow Saddam would have invaded the US and we would be living under Sharia law.
Nevermind that Saddam didn’t have the army, or the means to invade the US. And ignore the fact that Saddam was a secularist, and didn’t have Sharia law implemented in Iraq.
April 28th, 2006 at 12:13 pmTerry
April 28th, 2006 at 12:19 pm-No spying on American people without a warrant
-Gitmo does not exist
-No torturing of prisoners…anywhere
-FEMA would have responded and assisted the NO residents during and following katrina
Was this the Monty Python bit you were refering to Squegee?
Dennis: Come and see the violence inherent in the system. Help! Help! I’m being repressed!
April 28th, 2006 at 12:20 pmKing Arthur: Bloody peasant!
Dennis: Oh, what a giveaway! Did you hear that? Did you hear that, eh? That’s what I’m on about! Did you see him repressing me? You saw him, Didn’t you?
#44 forgot to add that Gore pays for the funding of #3 with a windfall tax on the oil industry
Other Gore things:
April 28th, 2006 at 12:22 pm1. The Superfund for environmental cleanup does not get cancelled
2. Healthy Forests initiative does not happen
3. Nor does No Child Left Behind
4. Or Clear Skies Act
Abramoff’s “extended family’s” largesse should be fully investigated…
…Abramoff like all other white collar criminals are allowed (by the DOJ) to hide their ill gotten gains with “family members”…
This practice can and must be stopped…
…If drug dealers’ families are investigated and any inexplicable “wealth”/luxury items confiscated by the federal government…
…then why can’t the same happen in cases like Enron, Michael Milken’s junk bond scandal, World Com, or Bush-Cheney Halliburton-Carlyle Group?
Lee raymond of Exxon-Mobil, the pharmaceutical companies and their lobbyists, and crooked stock market manipulators…
…Hell, for the jail time they may or (most likely) won’t do…
…the reward when they’re released (if they’re prosecuted) is well worth the crime…
This has to stop!
Look at Duke Cunningham, when he’s released from prison (in a year or so) he’ll get his FULL CONGRESSIONAL GOLDEN PARACHUTE (er’ pension)…
Go figure…
…If any blue collar, poor working class stiff breaks the law, the law breaks him/her…
…why shouldn’t the same happen for more “high profile’ criminals?
…Oh I forgot, this is worship the rich, double standard, WASP American male paradise!
April 28th, 2006 at 12:25 pm#44 - The United States would not have a president who is an embarassment.
April 28th, 2006 at 12:26 pm#46 -Gitmo does not exist
Comment by Jules
Gitmo was a great place! I lived there for 2 years when I was a kid, and it was fantastic. Drove my mom into a Valium addiction, but that’s a whole other story. It was a Navy base long before it was a prison. I would prefer that it didn’t exist in it’s current form though. ;)
April 28th, 2006 at 12:31 pmZookeeper - meant the prison in its currrent form. My husband was also there while in the Navy so I do know it actually does “exist.” Sorry for the confusion.
April 28th, 2006 at 12:50 pm#52 - No confusion, just being a smart ass. Sorry. It’s been tough couple of days.
April 28th, 2006 at 12:56 pmPakistan President Pervez Musharraf insisted yesterday that he was not George Bush’s poodle.
WTF? Is it just me, or has no one else NEVER had to make a clarification like this?
April 28th, 2006 at 1:00 pmRice turned to Rumsfeld to provide the answer. Rumsfeld glared at the reporter.
This just makes my week. Why did “All in the Family” just pop into my head?
April 28th, 2006 at 1:02 pm#8
Dem Soldier,
Didn’t Bush once tell us that if the Iraqi government asked us to leave, we would? Maybe that will be his exit strategy…let the Iraqis decide for us.
April 28th, 2006 at 1:04 pm“I’m going to be a clown at the Pentagonâ€
A cast of thousands…
April 28th, 2006 at 1:05 pmWhat about this story, Think Progress?
This would be a good thread.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/4/28/103437/058
April 28th, 2006 at 1:37 pmWe are in a war. Our President has given tax breaks to the rich. I’d say, those that have given their life, as they knew it, should be given a break. Congress, our President, should actually support our troops and not give it lip service.
I’ve always wondered what “broke” means in these case. [Is Ken Lay really broke? I read that Enron execs were building mansions in Texas because they knew their home, their domicile, was safe from creditors and others.]
Does it mean they have 0 assets of any value anywhere in the world, in any form. Somehow I think “broke” means something different to the average American. Does it mean they keep their 15,000 sq ft mansion and all personal belongings, keep their pension(s), benefits, trust funds, foreign bank accounts, etc. And then they always seem to have wealthy connected friends that will give them everything at the drop of a hat… sort of your rich man’s welfare or handout.
Huffingtonpost.com had 3 interesting posts:
Gov’t PR Manipulates Taxpayers With Their Own Money
We Cannot Fight Everyone
What to Do With an Unreachable President?
Is Bush’s plan to propagate us to death so he can do as he pleases, whenever, wherever, at any cost… break laws, not support the Constitution, lie, steal, pollute, grab power & money, etc… He doesn’t actually have to do anything, like work, he’ll just spend billions on PR. Oh boy.
April 28th, 2006 at 1:52 pm#47 Krazny
Yup, thats the bit I was refering too.
April 28th, 2006 at 1:54 pm(…)what the intense secrecy and security surrounding their visit to Iraq signified about the stability of the country three years after the U.S.-led invasion.
Touché!
Even the spinmeisters had to think for 10secs before coming up with an answer to a point-blank question.
The obvious follow-up question is: “what does it signify about Iraq’s stability and security that the country’s new leadership lives behind walls, in the heaviily fortified Green Zone?”
April 28th, 2006 at 1:56 pm#47 - I love that movie. I think I’ll watch it again tonight.
April 28th, 2006 at 2:26 pm“Bring out your dead…”
#54 Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf insisted yesterday that he was not George Bush’s poodle.
WTF? Is it just me, or has no one else NEVER had to make a clarification like this?
Comment by Zookeeper — April 28, 2006 @ 1:00 pm
He’s not George Bush’s poodle.
April 28th, 2006 at 2:48 pmHe’s George Bush’s Scottish Terrier.
#62 One of the best movies ever made!
“All the other kings said it was death to be a castle here, but I did anyway. It sank into the swamp. So I built a second castle. It sank into the swamp. So I built a third castle. It burned down, fell over then sank into the swamp. But the fourth castle remained, and that’s the one you’ll get son. The strongest castle in these parts.”
“She’s got…huuuuge tracts of land!”
And our favorite part: “Where are you going?” “We’re coming with you.”
April 28th, 2006 at 2:53 pmWas the CNN story edited so as to tone it down?
Initially the link to the CNN story provided wouldnt work, now it works but the part quoted isnt in it. The words “foreign fighter pipeline” no longer appear, and the opening paragraph language portarys it as something the terrorists want.
Do you have a snapshot of the orignial story?
Now:
Militant leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s al Qaeda in Iraq group and others “view Iraq as a potential safe haven and are attempting to make it a reality,” said the annual report on worldwide terrorism.
There is a UPI report with the words “foreign fighter pipeline” that carries a far stronger picture than the CNN report, but at least on the internet isnt being run by major news outlets - see, e.g. http://news.monstersandcritics.com/ roundups/ article_1159187.php/ News_Roundup
Note the portion attributed to CNN about splinter groups posing a greater threat isnt even in the current version available on CNN. Was the CNN report watered down? It at least appears to have been edited in a manner similar to science reports by the Bush administration, but without a copy of the original of course thats just speculation on my part.
April 28th, 2006 at 3:18 pm#64 - Monty Python’s Holy Grail AND Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy?
April 28th, 2006 at 4:34 pm*all teary eyed*
Jane’s a lucky woman, Wayne. Make sure you tell her. ;)
[…] ThinkProgress: A pair of Bush administration terrorism reports are due out today. The State Department’s annual terrorism report finds that Iraq has become a safe haven for terrorists and has attracted a “foreign fighter pipeline†linked to terrorist plots, cells and attacks throughout the world. Meanwhile, a National Counterterrorism Threat Center report finds that terrorist incidents and deaths more than doubled in 2005. […]
April 28th, 2006 at 4:39 pm[…] Think Progress […]
April 28th, 2006 at 5:07 pmAddition:
A WSJ story, about William McGuire, a doctor who stopped practicing in 1986 to take a management job with UnitedHealth Group Inc., one of the largest HMOs in the country.
He’s now the chief executive officer of the corporation, makes $8 million a year in salary plus bonus, has personal use of the company’s private jet and has amassed what the Journal describes as “one of the largest stock options fortunes of all time.”
According to the newspaper, those options total $1.6 billion.
http://online.wsj.com/ article/ SB114532417401928300.html
Is a problem with our healthcare system the layers of administration and management?
April 28th, 2006 at 5:43 pmWe’re spending $BILLION$ in iraq, and we can’t just write-off the $1.2 million???
A million dollars would be lot of money to me, but it’s 1/4,000 for every month in we’re in Iraq.
For a little perspective, 1/4,000 of a $250,000 home is $62.50. It’s literally less than 2 cents for every four people in the United States.
These Americans are your brothers and sisters, your parents and your children. Can’t you have a little compassion?
April 28th, 2006 at 6:23 pmThat “paper” Abramoff’s attorney’s came up with is HILARIOUS!!! Talk about ‘propaganda’!!! He knows he was a bad boy, but he says he’ll never do it again. And he has a wife and kids, they will suffer if dad goes to prison. He has many practical skills that will aid him in finding employment, (but not as a Lobbyist, oh no!) thus able to provide for his wonderful family. Whatever. If he was such a “Paragon of Virtue”, as they have portrayed him to be, he wouldn’t even BE in this situation, now would he?!? I call BULLSH*T!!!
April 30th, 2006 at 1:03 am