Rohrabacher And Abramoff: A Beautiful Friendship
Rohrabacher And Abramoff: A Beautiful Friendship
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher has sprung to the defense of his college buddy, disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, calling him “a good person.” In fact, Rohrbacher admitted he thought “a lot of other things that have been characterized as corruption on the part of Abramoff are actually standard operating procedures for lobbying in Washington, D.C. — arranging trips and things like that.â€
Let’s take a look at the beautiful friendship between the two men:
– Rohrabacher enjoyed free dinners at Signatures, Abramoff’s high-end restaurant, once or twice a month.
– Rohrabacher took one of Abramoff’s “Standard Operating Procedure”-style trips, visiting the Northern Mariana Islands while Abramoff was working to convince Congress keep factories in a U.S. territory free from complying with fair labor laws. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, April 28, 2005]
– Rohrabacher helped Abramoff score a $60 million loan to buy the SunCruz fleet of casino boats in Florida by allowing the lobbyist to list him as a personal reference. (Abramoff added a faked $23 million wire transfer to Rohrabacher’s reference to close the sale.)
I guess for Rohrabacher, that’s standard operating procedure.
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Another Titanic Mistake
Another Titanic Mistake
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has given the defense contracting agency Titan more than a half million dollars in brand-new contracts for Hurricane Katrina. Here are the top five reasons this was a very bad idea:
TORTURE: Titan is under two different federal investigations for its role in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal. The Taguba report – the official government report into the prison abuse — found a Titan employee committed “indecent acts†and was involved in “cruelty and maltreatment†of Iraqi prisoners.
NEGLIGENCE: Titan bilked the U.S. government out of millions of dollars by sending hundreds of unqualified interpreters to Iraq. On top of that, Pentagon auditors recommended withholding $4.9 million from Titan’s Iraq translator contract due to questionable billing practices.
ESPIONAGE: Another Titan employee working at the prison in Guantanamo Bay was sentenced to 20 months in prison for espionage against the United States.
BRIBERY: In March 2003, Titan admitted guilt in an “international bribery scheme.†The company had to pay $28,500 to the SEC for trying to influence the presidential election of the West African nation of Benin.
CHEATING: A federal inspector general report last year found Titan overcharged American taxpayers for a troop counseling contract. The company gave nearly all of the work to a subcontractor, yet added its own fee to each of the invoices. The report charged: “We believe that Titan’s fee could represent largely unnecessary costs to the government.â€
“The rest of the world simply can’t afford
“The rest of the world simply can’t afford
an American government this bad for that long.” — The New York Times, on Bush’s remaining term in office (Via Wake Up Call)
Forget Brownie.
Forget Brownie.
The newest crony on the block is Ellen Sauerbrey, President Bush’s new choice for “the office at the State Department that coordinates the delivery of life-sustaining emergency aid to refugees.” Sauerbrey’s experience with major crises requiring international relief? Zero.
Hitting The Media’s Glass Ceiling
Hitting The Media’s Glass Ceiling
Harriet Miers may have broken through glass ceilings on her way to a Supreme Court nomination, but President Bush’s “work wife” has a long way to go with gender stereotyping in mainstream media coverage. Need proof? Compare news coverage in the days after her nomination with coverage this summer of the John Roberts nomination:
ROBERTS : “A career that had been marked by distinguished and relentless advancement.†(LA Times, 7/25/05)
MIERS: “She’s not somebody who is a gossip.†(AP, 10/4/05)
ROBERTS: “Brilliant but self-deprecating, earnest but not humorless.†(Boston Globe, 7/21/04)
MIERS: “She never misses a birthday.” (LA Times, 10/4/05)
ROBERTS: “Exceptional intellect. Exceptional temperament. A conservative judicial philosophy.†(LA Times, 7/25/05)
MIERS: “She makes a wonderful sweet potato pie. Many marshmallows.†(AP, 10/3/05)
ROBERTS: “Disciplined, self-assured and performance driven.†(Chicago Tribune, 7/24/05)
MIERS: “She would look at you blankly if you mentioned the name of a designer.†(Bloomberg, 10/4/05)
MIERS: “A pit bull in size 6 shoes.” (New York Times, 10/3/05)
ROBERTS: Sorry. No word on what size shoe John Roberts wears.
It Takes More Than A Cabinet Post
It Takes More Than A Cabinet Post
In his press conference today, President Bush expressed confusion and disappointment about his standing in the African American community, saying:
I was disappointed, frankly, in the vote I got in the African-American community. I was. I’ve done my best to elevate people to positions of authority and responsibility — not just positions, but positions where they can actually make a difference in the lives of people. I put people in my Cabinet. I put people in my sub-Cabinet.
Maybe President Bush should take a look at the facts if he wants to clear up his confusion:
– Today, 33% of black children live in families under the poverty level.
– Last year, African American households had the lowest median income of any racial group ($30134), down a full percentage point from the year before.
– The unemployment rate for African-Americans is double the rate for white Americans. Over the past six months, the average unemployment rate for white Americans was 4.39 percent; for black Americans, it was 10.06 percent.
– President Bush’s political appointees in the Department of Health and Human Services doctored a report about racial disparities in healthcare. The department deleted a key section detailing racial ”inequalities” and ”disparities” in health care from its findings. Deleted: conclusion by HHS scientists that healthcare disparities are “national problems.” Deleted: key examples of health care disparities, including findings that racial and ethnic minorities are more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage cancer, die of HIV and be subjected to physical restraints in nursing homes.
– When a racial profiling report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics showed African Americans were more likely than whites to have their cars searched or be threatened with force after being pulled over in traffic stops, political supervisers at the bureau ordered the findings deleted. When the study’s author refused, he was fired.
Vietnam 2005
Vietnam 2005
Ever since Vietnam, military strategists have agreed using enemy body counts is a useless benchmark for success.
Conrad Crane, director of the Military History Institute at the U.S. Army War College: “It was a pretty useless statistic that did more harm than good.”
Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, on attempt to quantify success in Grenada: “We need to stay away from this body count business. It caused us terrible trouble in Vietnam and it will cause us terrible trouble here.”
Gen. Tommy Franks, 3/18/02: “You know we don’t do body counts.”
Sec. Donald Rumsfeld, 11/2/03: “We don’t do body counts on other people.”
The Washington Post, however, reported last week:
Using enemy body counts as a benchmark, the U.S. military claimed gains against Abu Musab Zarqawi’s foreign-led fighters last week even as they mounted their deadliest attacks on Iraq’s capital.
Question: Why is the Pentagon now using enemy body counts as a measure of success/failure?
Half of Americans Think Bush Isn’t Honest
Half of Americans Think Bush Isn’t Honest
“Good leaders create a climate of honesty and integrity.†— George W. Bush, 10/26/00
VERSUS
According to the latest CNN/USA Today/Gallup poll, fifty percent of Americans say they would not call President Bush honest. — CNN, 9/19/05
Michael Reagan’s Attempted Smear Disastrously Misinformed
Michael Reagan’s Attempted Smear Disastrously Misinformed
Last night on Fox News, right-wing talking head Michael Reagan tried to smear President Clinton’s disaster relief efforts:
Michael Reagan: First of all, I don’t think the president had anything to apologize for. FEMA was at Katrina quicker than they were at Andrew or Floyd or any one of the hurricanes you can name before that, when Bill Clinton was President of the United States. Nobody was calling for [Clinton FEMA director James Lee] Witt to be taken down. Nobody was calling on Bill Clinton to be thrown out of office because of it.
FACT: Hurricane Andrew happened under President George Herbert Walker Bush’s watch. The Hurricane hit in August 1992, months before Clinton was elected.
FACT: On September 14, 1999, two days before Hurricane Floyd hit, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette outlined FEMA’s preparations for the coming storm:
FEMA officials “said they were ready to roll and could have supplies into an affected area within hours after Floyd’s passage. FEMA emergency response centers have been activated in Atlanta and Washington, and it has representatives at state emergency centers from Florida to North Carolina…Meanwhile, FEMA has positioned ice, water, plastic sheeting, cots, tents, and emergency food and medial supplies in Atlanta, where they can be delivered within hours wherever Floyd hits land.â€
With “Last Throes” Debunked, Rice Unveils “The Latte Defense”
With “Last Throes” Debunked, Rice Unveils “The Latte Defense”
On the “deadliest day of violence in Baghdad since the U.S. invasion more than two years ago,” Bill O’Reilly sat down with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to examine the real issues in Iraq: It’s all about the lattes.
O’Reilly: The truth of the matter is our correspondents at Fox News can’t go out for a cup of coffee in Baghdad.
Rice: Bill, that’s tough. It’s tough. But what — would they have wanted to have gone out for a cup of coffee when Saddam Hussein was in power?
DeLay’s “Ongoing Victory” Over Reality
DeLay’s “Ongoing Victory” Over Reality
House Majority Leader Tom DeLay yesterday declared an “ongoing victory” in his effort to cut spending, and said “there is simply no fat left to cut in the federal budget.” Here’s a list of vital programs Tom DeLay has marshaled through Congress:
$25,000 to study mariachi music in Nevada
$1.5 million for an Alaskan bus stop with heated sidewalks and electronic signs
$75,000 set aside for the Paper Industry International Hall of Fame in Appleton, Wisconsin
$100,000 for a film festival in Rochester, New York.
$50 million for an indoor rainforest in Iowa.
$18,000 for a smoking booth at a private New Jersey airport.
$200,000 for a peanut festival in Alabama
$200 million to build a bridge from Ketchikan, Alaska to a nearby island with 50 inhabitants.
$1 million for the B.B. King Museum in Indianola
$300,000 to construct the Great Falls Parking Garage in Auburn, Maine
$ 240,000 for potato storage research in Madison, Wisconsin
Coburn’s Hypocrisy A Crying Shame
Coburn’s Hypocrisy A Crying Shame
On the Senate floor yesterday, Rep. Tom Coburn (R-OK) broke down, openly weeping:
When I ponder our country and its greatness, its weaknesses, its potential, my heart aches for less divisiveness, less polarization, less finger pointing, less bitterness, less mindless partisanship, which at times sounds almost hateful to the ear of Americans.
Here’s how Tom Coburn has done his part to mend the partisan divide:
Coburn on his 2004 opponent: It’s a “battle of good vs. evil.”
Coburn on the Oklahoma legislature: “You have a bunch of crapheads in Oklahoma City that have killed the vision of anybody wanting to invest in Oklahoma.”
Coburn on doctors: “I favor the death penalty for abortionists and other people who take life.”
Coburn on homosexuality: “The gay community has infiltrated the very centers of power in every area across this country, and they wield extreme power … Why do you think we see the rationalization for abortion and multiple sexual partners? That’s a gay agenda.”
Thank you for your efforts, Sen. Coburn.
Mike Brown’s Fudged Resume
Mike Brown’s Fudged Resume
More evidence the White House may not have put a lot of thought into making former Internation Arabian Horse Association commissioner Mike Brown the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency: A new report from Time Magazine shows Brown fudged his resume.
BROWN CLAIM: Worked for the city of Edmond, OK from 1975 to 1978 “overseeing the emergence services division.”
FACT: Brown was actually an assistant to the city manager, says Edmond officials. “The assistant is more like an intern. Department heads did not report to him.” (One former city manager is kinder, allowing, “He was always on time. He always had on a suit and a starched white shirt.)
BROWN CLAIM: Director of the Oklahoma Christian Home nursing facility from 1983 to present.
FACT: The nursing home’s administrator told Time Magazine Brown was “not a person that anyone here is familiar with.”
BROWN CLAIM: “Outstanding Political Science Professor, Central State University”
FACT: According to a director of University Relations at the school, Brown “wasn’t a professor here, he was only a student here.”
(Makes you wonder…don’t they check references in the White House?)
Tom DeLay’s PAC receives felony indictment
Ever think the mainstream media is asleep
Ever think the mainstream media is asleep
at the switch? The San Francisco Bay Guardian has a list of the top ten most important stories the corporate media ignored over the past year. Any other under-reported stories you think they missed?
New Laws Make Life Harder For Storm Victims
New Laws Make Life Harder For Storm Victims
Last spring, the conservative Congress passed harsh new bankruptcy laws which made it harder and more expensive for Americans to recover from financial difficulties, at the same time protecting the powerful credit card industry. Now the effects of the severe legislation are coming home to roost.
The LA Times reports that, thanks to the new law, recovery will be even tougher for Hurricane Katrina survivors. House compassionate conservatives specifically rejected language to exempt victims of natural disasters from the new, harsher laws.
According to experts, many people who lost everything won’t “be able to qualify for leniency because of paperwork rules, among other reasons.” For example, the new law requires debtors “shall be required to itemize each additional expense or adjustment to income and to provide … documentation … and a detailed explanation’ under oath.†That’s tough in this case, when most receipts, records and files are simply gone. “There’s no way many people are going to be able to provide all this paperwork,” said Keith Lundin, a federal bankruptcy judge. “It’s underwater.”
In response to increasingly scathing criticism
In response to increasingly scathing criticism
about his handling of the Katrina disaster, President Bush declared today he would “lead an investigation†to find out what went wrong. No word about appointing an independent commission to do the investigating.
White House Misrepresents 9/11 Report
White House Misrepresents 9/11 Report
White House spokesperson Trent Duffy was asked today about how President Bush felt about Cindy Sheehan and what plans he had for the American soldiers fighting in Iraq:
Q Does the President feel that over the last couple of days he’s made an effective and convincing case that Cindy Sheehan is misguided in her feelings about the war and what should happen to the troops?
Duffy responded by quoting the 9/11 Report, saying:
Well, first of all, the President has spoken continuously about the way he approaches this war, following September 11th, 2001. On September 14th, 2001, he stood at the National Cathedral and told all of America that this was going to be a very long and difficult war, and that there were going to be some very trying moments; but that because of what happened on 9/11, that we had to view the world in a different way.
The bipartisan 9/11 commission wrote all about this in chapter two. The name of that chapter is called, The Foundation of the New Terrorism. And the bipartisan commission members wrote about the U.S. reaction to terrorist acts overseas in the years leading up to 9/11. They reached a fundamental conclusion: When America takes a single step backwards in the face of terrorism overseas, it brings the terrorists 50 steps closer to our own shores.
That’s true: The second chapter of the 9/11 Commission Report is indeed named “The Foundation of the New Terrorism.” If the White House had read the actual chapter, however, they would have found the report actually shreds any White House attempts to equate Iraq with 9/11.
On page 66, for example, the report flatly states there was “no evidence” of any collaborative relationship between Saddam and 9/11 and no evidence that Iraq had anything to do with al Qaeda in “developing or carrying out any attacks against the United States.”
(For more on what the 9/11 report actually says, here’s an online, bookmarked copy.)
Note to White House: Before you quote reports to back up bogus justifications, it would be wise to actually read them.
Bush Denies He’s On Vacation
Bush Denies He’s On Vacation
President Bush has faced intense criticism for his insensitivity in taking a leisurely, 5-week vacation while the country is locked in an increasingly violent war in Iraq. His initial response was to defensively defend his right to relax, stating indignantly, “I’ve got a life to live.”
That didn’t go over so well with the American public, so the White House spin machine game up with a new line: Despite what it looks like, President Bush isn’t actually on vacation.
According to the San Bernardino Sun, White House spokesperson David Almacy “said the reason that Bush is in Crawford, Texas, is due to the renovation of the West Wing of the White House.” Almacy stated:
He’s operating on a full schedule; he’s just doing it from the ranch instead of from the White House. The only week he had officially off was this last week.
Keep in mind, President Bush has spent the entire month of August at his ranch every year of his presidency. It’s time this White House stopped renovating the truth.
O’Reilly Has Two Faces
O’Reilly Has Two Faces
Wednesday night, Fox News talking head Bill O’Reilly demanded retractions from newspapers which reported he’d implied American war veteran mother Cindy Sheehan was acting in a treasonous manner, indignantly saying:
That is absolutely false. I never said or implied Ms. Sheehan was treasonous. LISTEN HERE
Unfortunately for him, Mr. O’Reilly may not have counted on the fact that his statement about Ms. Sheehan was recorded :
I think Mrs. Sheehan bears some responsibility for this [publicity] and also for the responsibility for the other American families who lost sons and daughters in Iraq who feel this kind of behavior borders on treasonous. LISTEN HERE
As they say, we report, you decide.
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