June 20, 2009
Corp Media Wont Report On Health Insurers
Do read this by dday and then watch the video below. Health insurers refuse to stop denying coverage to people after they get sick. Testifying to Congress they said, "No" they will not stop this. Watch the video.
If you know about this at all it is because you read blogs. The corporate media outlets refuse to let the public know about this. You can come up with a number of reasons, but the fact is that they are not reporting on this story.
So go read Daily Kos: Paul Begala calls out the media: expose the insurance industry!
Since the media will not report on this, you have to. Send the video to people and explain to them what it means. Health insurance companies refuse to stop "rescission" which is denying insured people the coverage they have paid for -- after they get sick. This is why we need at the very least a "public option" in health care coverage. Demand this.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:28 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
June 11, 2009
Naming Dems Who Are In It For The Money
Common Cause released a study of the recent vote on the legislation to allow bankruptcy judges to change the terms of mortgages (known as :cram-down") so people don't have to lose their houses. As you already guessed the Democrats who kept this from passing received money - a lot of money, an average of $58,894 in the 2008 election cycle - from the banking and finance special interests, while the rest of the Democrats did not. This vote was a strictly pay-for-play bribe and we need to do something about Democrats who take money from big corporations and then vote against the public interest. (All the Republicans voted with the big corporations, by the way.)
An article about the study t r u t h o u t | Study Follows the Money on Cram-Down Vote names the names:
[the] 39 Republicans needed Democratic help to kill the bill. And they got it.If you live in a state with one of these Senators, call their office and let them know how you feel about them taking money to vote for big corporate interests. This money-taking is nothing less than bribery, corruption and is an affront to democracy.The 12 Democratic senators who crossed the aisle to vote with Republicans were Max Baucus (Montana), Michael Bennet (Colorado), Robert Byrd (West Virginia), Thomas Carper (Delaware), Byron Dorgan (North Dakota), Tim Johnson (South Dakota), Mary Landrieu (Louisiana), Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas), Ben Nelson (Nebraska), Mark Pryor (Arkansas), Arlen Specter (Pennsylvania) and Jon Tester (Montana).
Also, more votes backing financial industry rip-offfs of the public:
Many of the Democrats who sided with the financial industry in the "cram-down" vote were instrumental in blocking a proposed 15 percent cap on interest rates that credit card companies can charge. Senators Baucus, Byrd, Carper, Johnson, Landrieu, Lincoln, Ben Nelson, Specter and Tester joined with Senators Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), Evan Bayh (D- Indiana), Jeff Bingaman (D-New Mexico), Maria Cantwell (D-Washington), Kay Hagan (D-North Carolina), Ted Kaufman (D-Delaware), Patty Murray (D-Washington), Bill Nelson (D-Florida), Mark Pryor (D-Arkansas), Jeanne Shaheen (D-New Hampshire), Debbie Stabenow (D-Michigan) and Mark Warner (D-Virginia), in opposition to the anti-usury bill sponsored by Vermont's Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:42 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
May 23, 2009
OpenTable IPO Cheats Shareholders
A company called OpenTable went public this week, and its share price went up 59%,
Online restaurant-reservations system OpenTable Inc. dished out the best IPO performance since late 2007, delivering a 59% gain in its trading debut.This first-day rise in the price is presented by the business media as a good thing, worded as "best performance" and a good first-day close, demonstrating again how the business media favors corruption over competence.Shares of the San Francisco company on Thursday closed at $31.89 apiece on the Nasdaq Stock Market, well above its initial offering price of $20.
Investors would have to go back to December 2007 to find a better first-day close, from Orion Energy Systems Inc., which rose 65% during its debut.
You see, what this first-day rise in price tells us is that the underwriters grossly underpriced the stock, which the business media did not explain. The company should have gone public for $30 a share, which the market demonstrated, rather than the $20 a share that the underwriting companies allowed insiders to buy at on the opening. The way this racket works is that insiders get the special $20 price and can sell at the $30-35 price later in the day. The company, however, only received the $20 per share it offered, cheated out of the $30 it clearly should have received. Others got rich at their expense.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:08 PM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
May 18, 2009
They Distributed Loss Reserves As Bonuses, So We Pay The Losses As Bailouts
I'm starting to get it, about how these bailouts work.
In the 90s and 2000s Wall Street made billions and billions of "profits" and the people working there made millions and hundreds of millions each, placing bets with "credit default swaps." The upside was all in the sale of these -- the downside happens if mortgages and loans go bad.
So the money from selling these credit default swaps was supposed to be set aside as reserves to cover potentinal losses, but was instead handed out as profits and bonuses.
So when the mortgages and loans did go bad, instead of those people paying up from the billions the companies made and the hundreds of million that individuals made, instead you and I taxpayers are paying off on these bets.
They get to keep the money that they called "profits" back then, even though they were not profits, but were supposed to be set aside to cover the losses that might happen later. When the losses did happen later, we pay it off for them and they keep the private jets, mansions and yachts.
And the reason this is happening is because the Wall Street types put some of the money into paying off people in Washington, and "lobbying" and into right-wing think tanks, etc. The people with the power to make us pay off those losses are being paid or otherwise influenced by the money that was called "profits" in previous years, but which really should have been used to cover these losses.
Is that about right?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:38 AM | Comments (2) | Link Cosmos
May 16, 2009
Insider Trading
How many people were enriched by the Treasury Department's illegal leaking of the "stress test" results?
Question: is this being investigated and will it be prosecuted? Or do we still have a politicized law enforcement system?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:40 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
May 11, 2009
But Who's Counting?
The Fed has put up trillions, but who's counting? We don't know who got the guarantees. We don't know exactly how much. We don't know how much the taxpayers will be on the hook for. We don't know who is getting rich from it. But who's counting?
I think that in the Propaganda Age sometimes you can learn what an agenda is by watching what gets done rather than listening to what gets said.
Now we are in the Propaganda Age. Everything is marketing. Everything is PR. Everything is for effect. Everything is distraction: Look over there! Everything is misdirection: look at the left hand while the right hand picks your pocket. We’re told that things we see right in front of us are not what we see.When confronted by the intent to deceive learn to watch what is done and ignore what is said.
For example, after the invasion of Iraq they sent forces to secure and guard the oil fields and the Oil Ministry buildings, but no one to look for WMD. From that it was not hard to deduce that WMD was just a cover story - what they said - and what they DID was they got them some oils.
OK, now watch this video. This is Rep. Alan Grayson questioning the Inspector General of the Federal Reserve.
Rep. Alan Grayson asks the Federal Reserve Inspector General about the trillions of dollars lent or spent by the Federal Reserve and where it went, and the trillions of off balance sheet obligations. Inspector General Elizabeth Coleman responds that the IG does not know and is not tracking where this money is.
NO ONE is watching and reporting back to the taxpayers what is being done in their name with their money. What do you think about that?
P.S. I posted this under the category "corruption."
Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:59 PM | Comments (4) | Link Cosmos
May 8, 2009
More TARP Fund Corruption Rumors
See Are AIG FP Employees Using Bailout Cash To Get Jobs Elsewhere? Looks Like It, Says AIG Source
Here's the new scheme. Employees at firms like AIG are manipulating their TARP money to give hugely favorable deals to other companies. The other company gets a windfall, the employee who handed over the money gets a new "job" for extremely high pay. In other words, a bribe.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:57 PM | Comments (2) | Link Cosmos
Never Learning?
David Sirota relates swine flu to the banking crisis. Both have the same cause. See Piggish capitalism endangers us all,
The Associated Press says scientists suspect that swine flu began in a Mexican town that "has been protesting pollution from a large pig farm" partially owned by the Smithfield company. That's the same Smithfield that used three decades of lax anti-trust enforcement and corporate welfare to become one of the few megacorporations now controlling global agribusiness.Decades of lax enforcement of regulations and corporate welfare leading to megacorporations. I wonder where he might be going with this?
Unregulated, taxpayer-subsidized oligopoly spreading risk - sounds familiar, right? It should, because at the very moment agribusinesses were vertically and horizontally integrating themselves, so too were financial firms.Taxpayers required to provide a cure. And the clincher:In 1999, five days before Congress rejected a proposal to temporarily stop agribusiness consolidation, President Bill Clinton signed a landmark deregulation measure that "ushered in an era of aggressive bank mergers," as Reuters reports. The result was what critics like Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., predicted at the time: Wall Street created "a group of institutions which are too big to fail" and that "taxpayers are going to be called upon to cure."
Mass producing mortgage-backed securities that were quickly infected with subprime mutations, these financial factory farms became so enormous and unregulated that they spread toxic assets throughout the entire economy.Excellent.
Incredibly, our government hasn't learned from these crises. Regulation-wise, there have been no serious initiatives to replace factory farms' voluntary self-inspections with mandatory government probes, and new financial rules have yet to move in Congress.
Here is something I have noticed. We went through all of this before, with the Savings and Loan crisis! The causes of the S&L crisis were deregulation, "unsound real estate lending," and connected insiders gaming the system (with names like Neil Bush).
Look back at the Savings and Loan crisis. People got really, really rich looting financial institutions, and then when the taxpayers came in to fix it connected insiders got really rich from that, too. (One or two were held up as examples and put in jail for a while.) Valuable properties were sold to connected insiders for pennies on the dollar. Pretty much everyone was allowed to keep what they made from what we think of as bad practices.
So look at the results of the current crisis. A few got really rich by looting financial institutions, taxpayers on the hook to bail everyone out, and the cleanup looks like it involves connected insiders getting really rich. I think SOMEone clearly learned a lot from the S&l crisis.
So maybe the lesson WAS learned. For example, we think Lehman was a failure? But a few people made millions, even hundreds of millions from those decisions. What's-his-name made $400 million in six years bankrupting Lehman. And they were all allowed to keep the money.
So the lesson for US to learn is that this stuff works out really well for the people making the decisions. If we want these things to stop we need to get the money back -- all the inflated salaries and bonuses from each and every one of them, going back ten years -- and put enough of them in jail. Otherwise the incentive structure guarantees this will happen over and over. It is set up that way.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:59 AM | Comments (3) | Link Cosmos
May 4, 2009
Accountability
Is there any accountability yet? Have any major financial thieves been put in jail and/or made to give the money back yet? (I don't mean the Madoffs, I mean the ones who talked people into mortgaging their houses so they could sell CDOs.) Have any corrupt government officials from the Bush years been prosecuted yet? Have any lobbyists been indicted for giving bribes - or politicians indicted for taking them? Have any government officials been prosecuted for doing bug companies a favor and then leaving the governemnt and taking huge-paying jobs from those companies?
How about has anyone been held accountable for torture people and launching wars that killed tens of hundreds of thousands? Or how about just having pallettes of money shipped to Iraq for distribution?
How about something simple, like getting bonuses back from people who made millions and millions defrauding people and ruining the economy and destroying millions of people's retirement? Or maybe even just making them pay their taxes? Or how about just asking people making tens of millions to pay at least the same taxe rates that the rest of us pay?
Nope. Nada. Not that I have seen. No accountability yet. Nothing. The rich and the powerful can get away with anything. Anything. We have a two-tiered justice system in America now and no one bothers to deny it.
Is the new boss same as the old boss? Or will things change?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:49 PM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
Why Is This Company Allowed To Operate?
Why is Merck allowed to continue to operate?
Merck Makes Phony Peer-Review Journal -
Merck cooked up a phony, but real sounding, peer reviewed journal and published favorably looking data for its products in them.From the linked article in The Scientist, Merck published fake journal,
Merck paid an undisclosed sum to Elsevier to produce several volumes of a publication that had the look of a peer-reviewed medical journal, but contained only reprinted or summarized articles--most of which presented data favorable to Merck products--that appeared to act solely as marketing tools with no disclosure of company sponsorship.. . . The issues contained little in the way of advertisements apart from ads for Fosamax, a Merck drug for osteoporosis, and Vioxx.
. . . The claim that Merck had created a journal out of whole cloth to serve as a marketing tool was first reported by The Australian about three weeks ago. It came to light in the context of a civil suit filed by Graeme Peterson, who suffered a heart attack in 2003 while on Vioxx, against Merck and its Australian subsidiary, Merck, Sharp & Dohme Australia (MSDA).
They invented a phony "scientific" "peer-reviewed" journal to public marketing articles promoting their products, making it look like "science" validated them!
How many people did Vioxx kill? Question: Does this "pharmaceutical" company, like others, refuse to develop antibiotics - even though we (humanity) are running out of effective antibiotics - because they don't make enough profit?
Why are they allowed to call themselves a pharmaceutical company? Why are they allowed by our laws to be a corporation?
It is time to put a stop to all corporate lobbying of all types, and get a handle back on control of our own government!
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:52 AM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
April 27, 2009
In Congress Instead Of In Jail?
A member of Congress was caught working with (suspected) foreign espionage agents,
According to three former national security officials, Harman was heard promising the suspected Israeli agent that she would intervene with the Bush administration to try to get the espionage charges against the AIPAC officials reduced to lesser felonies.The suspected Israeli agent in exchange promised to lobby Pelosi to give Harman the chairmanship of the Intelligence committee if the Democrats took control of Congress after the 2006 elections.
Why hasn't this member of Congress been prosecuted? She was caught in a quid-pro-quo with foreign agents, who were attempting to plant a compromised person into a high position where she could pass intelligence to them.
Yes, I know. The story came out that the Bush administration blackmailed her into supporting their policies or they would reveal what she was caught doing. Fine, but that was then.
Now that we know the story, should she be prosecuted? Obviously she needs to resign her seat, but my question is why isn't she being prosecuted?
We seem to have a two-tiered system of laws now, where some crimes are prosecuted, some are not, some countries are allowed to spy on us and get away with it when caught and others are not, and the President gets to decide which laws will be enforced and which will not.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:44 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
April 24, 2009
Prosecuting Wrongdoing
Do they just get away with it, thereby setting the baseline for future conduct?
Will we investigate and prosecute government officials who, for money, delayed the effort to fight global warming?
Will we investigate and prosecute government officials who, for money, stopped enforcement of the country's labor laws?
How many hundreds of examples can we think of from the last few years, where lobbyists were put in charge of agencies, or where officials did a corporation's bidding and then left to take a very-high-paying job in that corporation?
And, of course, launching illegal wars and ordering people tortured.
How else do we prevent things like that from happening again, the next time a paid-off political party gains power?
Or do they just get away with it, providing the incentive to do it again?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:46 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
April 20, 2009
Summary Of Rep. Jane Harman Scandal
Juan Cole has the best summary of the Rep. Jane Harman scandal that I have seen:
The US is spied on, and a classified Pentagon document is passed to the Israeli embassy by AIPAC officials. They are caught because the FBI had them under surveillance. Apparently the FBI is one of the few US government institutions that is not corrupt on the issue of foreign influence on US institutions and policy. Then when the two AIPAC spies are indicted, a Mossad agent attempts to derail the prosecution by suborning a member of Congress and promising her the chairmanship of the Intelligence Committee.Go read the whole post for the details.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:14 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
April 19, 2009
America Was Created To Fight Corporate Power
Americans should all understand the reasons behind the formation of this country. We formed this country because a wealthy elite, called royalty, controlled the economy and set up legal monopoly operations for the benefit of their cronies, called corporations, and then set up the laws and tax structure to benefit those corporations and their owners at the expense of the rest of us.
We fought a revolution to change this. We set up a governement and economy that is supposed to be controlled by We, the People. Think about the meaning of that the next time you hear corporate-funded voices complain about "big government." They are complaining that the people make the decisions instead of the corporate elite -- once known as royalty.
PLEASE read The Real Boston Tea Party was Against the Wal-Mart of the 1770s
The real Boston Tea Party was a protest against huge corporate tax cuts for the British East India Company, the largest trans-national corporation then in existence. This corporate tax cut threatened to decimate small Colonial businesses by helping the BEIC pull a Wal-Mart against small entrepreneurial tea shops, and individuals began a revolt that kicked-off a series of events that ended in the creation of The United States of America.Later in the piece,They covered their faces, massed in the streets, and destroyed the property of a giant global corporation. Declaring an end to global trade run by the East India Company that was destroying local economies, this small, masked minority started a revolution with an act of rebellion later called the Boston Tea Party.
The citizens of the colonies were preparing to throw off one of the corporations that for almost 200 years had determined nearly every aspect of their lives through its economic and political power. They were planning to destroy the goods of the world’s largest multinational corporation, intimidate its employees, and face down the guns of the government that supported it.
A link to this was posted at Atrios' blog, by Avedon of The sideshow.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:51 AM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
April 18, 2009
Where Is Anger Over AIG Tax Scam?
Does everyone have bailout fatigue? Are we burned out from being angry about our tax dollars being used to help a few "too big to fail" operations?
How else can we explain that almost nothing is being said about revelations that AIG -- one of the biggest recipients of tax dollars in history -- was helping big corporations and the wealthy avoid paying their taxes?
WE - the ones who did pay our taxes - are bailing out a huge operation that got rich partly from helping the rich and big corporations avoid paying their taxes.
A few days back I wrote about AIG's Tax Dodge Business,
AIG FP was one of the biggest players in the business of engineering offshore tax shelters for corporate and private clients that resembled a multibillion dollar tax evasion scheme called Son of Boss (we don't have time to figure out why) that thousands of corporations and wealthy individuals used to book phony capital gains losses and evade most or all of their income taxes in the late nineties and early 00s.
When are we going to start talking about getting the money back? When are we going to start talking about accountability for the people responsible for all of this?
Why is Obama surrounding himself with people who come from Wall Street - Goldman Sachs in particular - whose solution is to pump all of our money into the Wall Street they come from and not even tell us how it is being used? When are we going to start demanding that Obama bring in people who will hold people accountable? (That applies to holding torturers accountable, as well.)
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:30 AM | Comments (4) | Link Cosmos
April 11, 2009
AIG's Tax Dodge Business
AIG was running a scam that enabled companies to dodge paying taxes. Yes, the same AIG that is now sucking up our tax dollars - and paying out million-dollar-bonuses - was in the business of helping companies not pay their taxes.
At what point do we feel completely harvested, bled, scammed, and done with this? Why aren't we raising taxes on high incomes -- the beneficiaries of all these scams that brought down the economy -- to pay for all of this?
An attorney and tax shelter expert we spoke with today says AIG FP was one of the biggest players in the business of engineering offshore tax shelters for corporate and private clients that resembled a multibillion dollar tax evasion scheme called Son of Boss (we don't have time to figure out why) that thousands of corporations and wealthy individuals used to book phony capital gains losses and evade most or all of their income taxes in the late nineties and early 00s.Go read.
So I found this from 2005: Court Papers Say A.I.G. Played Role in Tax Shelter,
New court papers indicate that the American International Group helped dozens of wealthy individuals make use of questionable tax shelters intended to shield hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from federal taxes.How much of this economic mess is because We, the People didn't demand that this company be broken up when this news came out?A.I.G. is under scrutiny by federal and New York investigators looking into questionable insurance transactions that the company used to dress up its financial strength.
Why haven't We, the People taken control and broken these "companies" up into little bite-sized chunks yet?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:07 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
April 10, 2009
The Answer Is...
Over at Talking Points Memo: If Government Never Created a Job ...
... then why are anti-stimulus Republicans suddenly clamoring about the stimulative effect of military spending?The answer is because military contractors are paying them a lot of money to say that. Because the military contractors GET a lot of money FROM that. It's called graft, corruption, bribery, "lobbying" or whatever name you want to put on our system in the United States where corporate money determines what government does, and who taxpayers pay.
Next question?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:48 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
April 6, 2009
Corporate Corruption: So Obvious - How To End It
A company (or industry) makes a tremendous amount of money by scamming us, screwing us, stealing from us, killing us, poisoning us, destroying our environment or some other thing that one way or another a working democracy would stop immediately. But the company uses a portion of the money they are accumulating to pay off legislators, regulators, inspectors -- someone in the government -- to keep them from stopping the company from what they are doing. And they pay off others in the government to stop the rest of the government from doing anything about that. Meanwhile they spend a bit more of that money on marketing/propaganda/PR/trickery to make us look the other way.
So it continues. And we all get poorer while they get richer. And each year this continues they have even more money and power to use to keep us from stopping them.
We see it over and over again. It is becoming the primary path to wealth here. Companies and industries getting rich from corruption, bribery, buying elections, buying legislators, purchasing government subsidies or tax breaks or handouts or bailouts... It is so much more cost-effective than actually making something worthwhile and slowly building an industry based on quality and good service to customers that it is replacing the old, more honest business model.
How many examples can you think of just off the top of your head?
Of course we start with the tobacco industry, killing what, 400,000 Americans each year? But if I start writing about all the ways the tobacco industry has paid off legislators and others to ward off accountability I won't get anything else written for weeks...
And then there are the health insurance companies, reaping their fortunes off of keeping us from health care and from having a health care system like the rest of the modern countries of the world.
The pharmaceutical industry actually got the Republican Party to pass a law prohibiting the government from negotiating better prices for the drugs Medicare buys!
The military armament industry, grabbing one of the largest chunks of the US budget, continues the taxpayer gravy train by marketing fear and marginalization... Look what happens to anyone who suggests we shouldn't continue handing them more money than every other country in the world combined spends on their own military. Suggesting we cut this brings down the hammer.
The oil industry, what can I say? An industry that exists to take a resource out of the ground and sell it back to us -- as if the resources of the planet are not the property of the people of the planet -- paying off legislators to keep us from taxing them, all the while poisoning the planet, preventing alternatives...
Wall Street, hedge funds and the banking industry -- what do I need to say? They paid to get a law passed prohibiting the government from regulating credit default swaps. And now they pay to get the government to bail them out from the inevitable consequences!
How about the food industry -- paying to get the government to stop food inspections? Paying to be allowed to continue to sell food proven to makes people obese and give us diabetes - even children?
How about industries that market anorexia and self-hatred to women in order to sell clothes and makeup?
How long could I go on with this list? Leave a comment with an example of your own.
What do we do about it? It really is a simple answer. All we really have to do is remember that the first three words of our Constitution are "We, the People." WE are in charge here, not them. We are the boss of them. We own the country (and its resources), not them. We make the laws, not them. We are a one-person-one-vote not a one-dollar-one-vote country.
So it's very simple, really: We change the laws. We stop them from corrupting us with the money that our laws allow corporations to accumulate. We prevent companies from spending even one cent on anything other than what that company does. It is not their business to tell us what to do, it is our obligation as citizens in a democracy to tell them what to do. We need to say: not one cent can leak out of a company to influence the rules we set for how companies operate. No lobbying whatsoever. No propaganda. No funding "think tanks" that are just front groups for corporate PR. No astroturf, no PR, no influencing public opinion in any way whatsoever. Not one cent used for anything that even hints at telling us how to run our country. Not one cent for anything other than the operation of the company, and while we're at it that includes predatory marketing of their own products, marketing that influences our culture, marketing that makes us feel bad about ourselves, marketing that makes us feel bad about others, marketing that insults us and marketing that makes us think we should want things that we shouldn't!
And jail for anyone who breaks these rules. Because we are the boss in this country and they have abused that idea and in so doing have ruined our economy and harmed our planet.
We are the people, we are in charge. All we have to do to get this done is do it. Once you believe that you have the power, you do.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:18 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
April 4, 2009
Accountability Means Investigate and Prosecute!
"What would happen if after a plane crashes we said, "Oh, we don't want to look in the past, we want to be forward looking." No, we have a non-partisan skilled inquiry. We spend lots of money on, get really really bright people and we find out to the best of our ability what caused every single plane crash in America and because of that aviation has an extraordinarily good safety record. We have to do the same thing in the financial industry. We have to learn what went wrong so it doesn't happen again."
I know that President Obama has only been in office a little over two months, but I am getting impatient for some accountability.
One of the reasons things went so wrong during the Bush years was that there was no accountability. Almost no one was fired for doing wrong. Prosecutons were blocked by a corrupt Justice Department. Regulators were muzzled. Legislators were paid off.
To get our system working again we need accountability. We need to hold people accountable for doing the wrong thing, or a signal will be sent that the sheriff is still on vacation and people will continue to do wrong things. But if you send people to jail for corruption, people will have an incentive to stop.
So where are the investigations of the corruption of the Bush years? Not prosecuting sends a signal that it was OK, and that it can continue. Torture? Corruption? Bribery? No investigation. No one prosecuted.
If I had a company and offered a bribe to an Obama administration official, what would happen? Would they investigate and prosecute? The signal to the public is that they won't because they are not investigating and prosecuting the corruption and other crimes of the Bush years. And if they did prosecute me, why are the bribers of the Bush years allowed to get away with torturing people, destroying the economy, corrupting our government? It would show a double-standard, so people would know that the next Repubican adminsitration can start where the last one left off! That is what happened after Reagan, which led directly to Bush being able to destroy the country and the economy. They wouldn't investigate and prosecute after Reagan, so it just started up all over again under Bush.
The financial system needs accountability from top to bottom as well! Where are the investigations of mortgage fraud and of all the mortgage brokers who helped people get "liars loans" and "ninja" loans? Why are the appraisers who said houses were worth hundreds of thousands more than they really were worth getting off scott free? What about the ratings agencies that gave AAA ratings to CDOs? What about AIG setting up insurance schemes called credit default swaps, while not setting aside the reserves to cover those bets? What about all the others?
What about the regulators at the SEC and other agencies who didn't do their jobs? What happens to them? What about the lobbyists who wrote big checks to get bills passed, and the members of Congress who took the money and did the favors?
So was it wrong and illegal to pay government officials to help individual companies or not? If it was then prosecute. Otherwise, without going back and punishing the offenders who committed crimes I have to assume that this is still going on.
And what about the people who did the right thing and didn't get rich? What signal is being sent to them? That they (we) were all just suckers?
Is Obama signaling that these things are OK, wink, nod? By not investigating and prosecuting this administration is signaling that maybe the party is not over. We either have accountability or we do not. And that includes prior acts -- we must insist that the Obama investigate and prosecute wrongdoing of the Bush years.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:10 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
April 2, 2009
This Could Turn Me Into A Republican
Bailed-out banks eye toxic asset buys: report
So they are using TARP money to buy up each others' toxic assets. They get the TARP money because they HAVE toxic assets, so they use it to buy MORE toxic assets, swapping their toxic assets with the ones they buy from.
Question, what if THESE toxic assets - the new ones they are trading theirs for - are ... well ... toxic assets? Does this then justify a whole new round of bailout money?
And why could this turn me into a Republican?
Spencer Bachus, the top Republican on the House financial services committee, told the paper that he would introduce legislation to stop financial institutions "gaming the system to reap taxpayer-subsidized windfalls."Bachus added it would mark "a new level of absurdity" if financial institutions were "colluding to swap assets at inflated prices using taxpayers' dollars," according to the paper.
Actually, no it couldn't turn me into a Republican, but still.... if this is allowed to happen it really is pitchforks time.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:44 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
March 31, 2009
Teachers Fired To Pay For Huge Corporate Tax Cut -- Why?
This post originally appeared at Speak Out California
I've been asking around and it seems that most Californians don't know that the budget deal that fires so many teachers also has a huge tax cut just for big, multi-state and multi-national corporations.
But it's true. Last month's budget deal that fires teachers, cuts essential government services, and guts the investments that bring future economic benefits also has a huge tax cut for the largest of corporations. While this part of the deal has been kept pretty quiet, the LA Times had a story, Business the big winner in California budget plan. From the story,
The average Californian's taxes would shoot up five different ways in the state budget blueprint that lawmakers hope to vote on this weekend. But the bipartisan plan for wiping out the state's giant deficit isn't so bad for large corporations, many of which would receive a permanent windfall.About $1 billion in corporate tax breaks -- directed mostly at multi-state and multinational companies -- is tucked into the proposal.
But wait, won't a big corporate tax cut cause companies to come to California, creating jobs? No, they are already here and it will drive them away, because it is paid for by firing teachers.
A study by the nonpartisan Public Policy Institute of California, released in 2005, found that most companies decide where to locate based not on tax breaks but on factors such as the availability of a highly educated workforce. California's proposed plan would cut spending on higher education by hundreds of millions of dollars.
So how did this happen? This was part of the deal to get a few Republican votes. And why did the Republicans want this so bad? Because they understood who really elected them.
If you look at the independent expenditure reports for the 2008 California election you'll see a massive amount of last-minute money. For example, in the 19th Senate District, a political action committee (PAC) named "Californians for Jobs and Education" put almost $1 million into just one race: $570,653 into defeating Democrat Hannah-Beth Jackson, and another $373,778 to help elect her opponent, Republican Tony Strickland. When you look this group up on ElectionTrack you learn that this money came from corporations like Arkansas' Wal-Mart, Blue Cross of Ohio (Ohio?), Reliant Energy, major real estate companies, and from other PACs.
Now it gets interesting. Many of the contributions to that PAC came from other PACs, especially one called Jobs Pac. When you track down Jobs PAC you find that it is a conduit for huge, huge amounts of money coming from large corporations like Philip Morris, ATT, Chevron, Safeway, Sempra Energy, Verizon, big insurance companies, big pharmaceutical companies, big real estate companies ... and other conduits like the Chamber of Commerce.
Why did these huge corporations put so much money into California state elections? Because we let them, and because of the return on investment they receive from tax cuts like the one that is forcing us to fire so many of our teachers.
There is a key lesson to learn from this. When it comes time to choose, that is when you can really see who is for or against something -- where their priorities really are. And in this case, when push came to shove, in the end who did the conservatives come through for? The large corporations. They danced with the ones that brung them.
Click through to Speak Out California
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:03 AM | Comments (2) | Link Cosmos
March 30, 2009
Bush Put All Your Pension Reserves Into Stocks Just As They Started Dropping
The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation is the federal agency that insures YOUR pension. It collects insurance premiums from all the private pensions, and holds them in reserve to cover some of the losses if things go bad so you get at least some of your money.
But under Bush, they decided -- just as the stock market started to drop -- to put most of the money into stocks. It had been in bonds. See Pension insurer shifted to stocks - The Boston Globe,
Just months before the start of last year's stock market collapse, the federal agency that insures the retirement funds of 44 million Americans departed from its conservative investment strategy and decided to put much of its $64 billion insurance fund into stocks.This wasn't stupid -- it was most likely a way to enrich certain friends of The Party, buying from them just as the bottom fell out. We need to look at the specific beneficiaries of this money to find out.
There are many instances of Bush and other Republicans putting government money into enriching friends by buying up the problems just as their own holdings became worthless. For example, under Jeb Bush Florida put state pension money into Enron stock just as Enron started to collapse.
In 2005 I wrote "If you live in a state where Republicans run things, this might be a good time to see if the money is still there." Now we're finding out that applies to countries, too.
(And never forget that Bush gave the contract for filling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to Koch Oil, a funder of a lot of the right's organizational infrastructure. They also used government money to buy high and sold low.)
Anyway, here's the thing. Direct corruption or ideologically-driven incompetence, either way... Republicans understand how to pound a point home and teach the larger lesson. This is just one more thing that drives home the point about how conservative ideology is harmful to people. Drudge has giant headlines for any smallest example of something that reinforces an ongoing narrative that liberals are socialists, etc., always teaching the larger lesson. We need to learn how to explain to the general public why progressive values and policies are better for them than conservatives. Especially now when the lesson can be taught so clearly. This story should be all over the place.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:08 AM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
March 16, 2009
Autoworkers Forced To Take Cuts - Wall Street Bankers Get Bonuses
Actually the headline sort of says it all. When GM needed a loan the autoworkers in the factories were forced to take pay cuts. But when the "too big to fail" Wall Street firms got bailouts many times the size of what GM needed, they continue to pay dividends, they continue to pay huge bonuses, and they send out taxpayer dollars to pay off banks in other countries. And they continue to spend millions on lobbying.
Our democracy truly is broken. We, the People have no say and receive few benefits from our economy.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:08 AM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
You Tax Dollars At Work
Warning, this will make you FURIOUS!
Read about the four and five-figure brunch parties that Wall Street types enjoy. Read about the $1000 bottles of champagne that flow. At Saturday Brunches, the Bubbly Flows On, Even in Hard Times.
I'll skip straight to the punch line:
As for how he and his fellow Wall Streeters could still afford such afternoons, he said: “We all made so much money in the past five years, it doesn’t matter.”Let that sink in a while. Suckers.A 29-year-old man who works for a large investment management firm and was at Bagatelle’s brunch one recent Saturday and at Merkato 55’s the next, put it another way: “If you’d asked me in October, I’d say it’d be a different situation, and I don’t think I’d be here. Then the government gave us $10 billion.” [emphasis added]
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:04 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
March 11, 2009
Investigate Bush
He who does not punish evil commands it to be done.
-- Leonardo da Vinci
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:51 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
February 22, 2009
Paying Off Italy?
Read about how a contract for petentially unsafe Italian helicopters that will be used to fly the President might just be a Bush payoff to Italy for helping get us into the Iraq war, in Is the U.S. Paying Off the Italian Government for Forging the Niger Documents?,
that they were doing something extraordinarily wrong. The rigged bidding process bypassed, for example, Marine One pilots who repeatedly sought to give input. They had many safety concerns. At the time of the bid, the helicopter chosen was not certified to fly in the U.S. It was an old model made of heavy materials; this flew in the face of why the President supposedly needed a new fleet: i.e., so many extra security devices had been added to Marine One after 9/11, it was struggling to lift off. In its losing bid, the Connecticut-based Sikorsky, which had manufactured virtually all presidential helicopters since Eisenhower first ordered one, proposed a new model made of much lighter, composite materials.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:36 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
February 13, 2009
Imprisonment For Profit
In Pennsylvania they caught two judges jailing kids for profit. Here's the scheme: Two privately-run detention centers are built. The judges make a deal with the companies, and order state juvenile detention facilities shut down for being in poor condition. Then they start sentencing lots of kids to serve jail time in the private facilities. Always jail time, for anything, an no lenience. The kids are taken away in shackles. The state gives money to the private facilities for taking the kids, and the judges get kickbacks.
We're talking about 5,000 kids.
See Judges Plead Guilty in Scheme to Jail Youths for Profit
I think it would be a good idea to look into ALL situations of people of ALL ages being sentenced to any privately-run facility. There is a profit motive involved, and we have learned from the banks and from the Republican destruction of the economy what can happen when a profit motive is involved.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:45 PM | Comments (2) | Link Cosmos
February 8, 2009
Who Paid For Obstruction Of Alaska Palin Probe?
Interesting: Texas evangelicals helped effort to stop Palin 'troopergate' probe - Politics AP - MiamiHerald.com,
The legislators listed a $25,000 gift of services from the Texas-based Liberty Legal Institute. Liberty is the legal arm of the Free Market Foundation, which is associated with evangelical leader James Dobson's Focus on the Family, and lists its guiding principles as limited government and promotion of Judeo-Christian values.So the McCain campaign gets $120K donated a big law firm that is prohibited from contributing to a campaign. Well, technically the money didn't go directly to the McCain campaign, it went to pay most of the expense of keeping Alaska from its duty to investigrate Palin's corruption.The lawmakers also disclosed a $120,000 gift of services from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, a national firm that appeared at hearings on behalf of Liberty Legal.
And Focus On The Family kicking in $25K through front groups. Of course.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:14 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
February 2, 2009
What About Microsoft?
In today's NY Times: Justice Dept. Under Obama Is Preparing for Doctrinal Shift in Policies of Bush Years
Question: Will the Obama Justice Dept reverse the Bush DOJ's dropping the Microsoft case? Eight years ago, after the Clinton administration WON a major antitrust case against Microsoft the Bush administration came in and "settled" largely on Microsoft's terms. This signaled that the Bush administration was open for businesses, and that companies who payed up and helped fund the Republican lobbyist machine could expect favors. And the floodgates of corruption opened wide.
Now we have a new administration, and Microsoft still has a near-monopoly in operating systems and a total monopoly in office software. Little has changed. (Yes, Mac has a small share of OS, but even the Mac requires MS Office to be usable in business.)
Can the antitrust suit be revived?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:42 AM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
January 16, 2009
Holding Those At The Top Accountable
Today's column by Paul Krugman, Forgive and Forget? is a must-read.
Now, it’s true that a serious investigation of Bush-era abuses would make Washington an uncomfortable place, both for those who abused power and those who acted as their enablers or apologists. And these people have a lot of friends. But the price of protecting their comfort would be high: If we whitewash the abuses of the past eight years, we’ll guarantee that they will happen again.
Law is not just for the people underneath. Accountability is necessary or the entire society is corrupted.
But an investigation into the corruption of the Bush administration isn't just about holding wrongdoers accountable. We also owe it to the rest of the world to reflect on how this happened, and to take steps to assure them that it won't happen again.
Speaking of happening again, just why would an Obama administration resist holding those at the top accountable?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:28 AM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
January 8, 2009
Second-Hand Smoke and Heart Attacks
Doctors did a study in Peublo, Colorado after the city banned smoking in workplaces and indoor public areas. They compared hospital admissions for heart attacks for a year before and three years after the ban, and compared the results with two nearby areas that did not have similar bans.
The study found a 41 percent drop in hospital admissions for heart attacks resulting from the public smoking ban.
It turns out that tobacco companies started studying this in 1971 and knew about these results. But instead of doing something about it "Philip Morris masterminded a massive global effort to confuse and deceive the public about the health hazards of secondhand smoke and to delay laws restricting smoking in indoor public places."
Read about the techniques they used to prevent smoking bans at: Deadly Deception: The Tobacco Industry's Secondhand Smoke Cover Up | Center for Media and Democracy
Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:35 PM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
January 6, 2009
Things Would Be Very Different
Things would be very different if government employees, regulators and legislators were banned (for at least five years) from taking any job with or accepting anything of value (including campaign donations) from any company, organization, person or other entity that they did any business with in government.
No more lucrative positions after leaving the job. No more bribes of any kind. That would remove an incentive for doing anything other than serving the interests of the public.
(For book contracts I would ban all advances and any compensation that is different from what most publishers give as a standard contract. Also, there should be an oversight mechanism that tracks bulk purchases... Remember when FOX's Murdoch tried to give Newt Gingrich a "book contract" advance of $4 million, and when the book came out no one bought it?)
Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:40 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
Bush, Harken, the SEC and Fraud
A component of the current financial collapse is loss of confidence due to fraud resulting from inadequate regulation. In an op-ed in Sunday's New York Times, The End of the Financial World as We Know It, Michael Lewis and David Einhorn wrote,
Created to protect investors from financial predators, the commission has somehow evolved into a mechanism for protecting financial predators with political clout from investors. (The task it has performed most diligently during this crisis has been to question, intimidate and impose rules on short-sellers — the only market players who have a financial incentive to expose fraud and abuse.)To repeat: Instead of protecting investors from fraud the Bush/Republican SEC protects predators from investors. How did it get to be that way?
This might be a good time to remind people of a scandal that was developing before the 9/11 attacks removed everything else from the news.
Summary of the Bush/Harken scandal: George W. Bush was on the Board of Directors of Harken Energy Company and owned stock that had been purchased with a loan from Harken. In 1989 Harken used an Enron-like scheme to conceal losses by selling most of a subsidiary to an off-the-books entity that was controlled by company insiders. This caught up to them and in June, 1990, the Directors were warned that the company was about to report a big loss. The Directors were also warned that it would be illegal for them to sell any stock because they had insider information. Bush promised he would hold the stock and then sold his stock for more than $800,000. (It has not been disclosed who the buyer was.) Soon after Bush's sale the company announced the loss and the stock price dropped. Bush also did not file required forms with the SEC. When this came to light Bush was quietly investigated by the SEC - with his father as President of the United States. The SEC never interviewed Bush, and of course they did not file any charges even after finding significant wrongdoing. It also appears that Bush may not have paid any taxes on the stock sale or on loans he received from Harken and never repaid.
Boston Globe: Board Was Told of Risks Before Bush Stock Sale
Salon: Memos: Bush knew of Harken's problems.
Democrats.com: Did George W. Bush Evade Income Taxes on His Harken Loans?
Here is the BuzzFlash Bush/Harken Insider Trading Collection.
UK Guardian: Bush and Harken Energy
Time: The Rap on Bush and Cheney
And, about that SEC, June, 2005: Bush S.E.C. Pick Is Seen as Friend to Corporations
Oh, and about that Harken: June, 2008: Indicted Saudi investor in Harken Energy gets $80 million Pentagon contract
Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:06 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
December 23, 2008
Deep Thought On Rule Of law
Ford pardoned Nixon, which led to the crimes/bribery/theft/fraud/lies/wars of the Reagan/Bush I administration. It also led to a common understanding that in America the big fish operate under different rules and are held to a different standard.
Reagan was let off the hook for Iran/Contra and Bush I pardoned everyone who otherwise might have testified against him. Then under Clinton they let bygones be bygones, bribery remain unpunished and stolen money stay stolen which led to the crimes of Bush II. (It also paved the way for Clinton's impeachment because they knew the Dems would let them get away with anything and the public was ready for a story about people at the top not being let off the hook.)
If you don't prosecute lawbreaking and hold accountable the lawbreakers, it will just happen over and over, worse each time. Throughout the Bush II administration the Dems refused to hold anyone accountable and look what's happening today.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:50 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
December 12, 2008
Republican Auto company Extortion - What Comes Next
The Republicans killed the auto copany bridge loan in the Senate. Here is my prediction for what happens next:
Bush will "rescue" the auto companies using the TARP program. But, of course, to do that, they will need the next $350 billion immediately. Any Democrat who opposes giving Bush this next $350 billion to hand out to his friends before leaving office is, of course, voting to kill the economy and the UAW, etc...
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:21 AM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
December 1, 2008
Democrat Says Medicare-For-All "Off The Table"
Montana Senator Max Baucus, flush with millions in corporate (including insurance company) money, is a gatekeeper for any health care bill. He recently said:
The only thing that’s not on the table is a single-payer system. That’s going nowhere in this country.So he is target number one. Can we get him removed from those important committee assignments? Can we get him recalled? Can we get him impeached for accepting bribes with a quid quo pro of blocking health care reform? How can we get a health care system that works for us instead of harvests us past this guy?
See the comprehensive diary Daily Kos: Naughty Max Baucus: "The only thing that’s not on the table is a single-payer system."
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:08 AM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 28, 2008
Where Your Bailout Money Goes
Broken Securities Industry Still Has $20 Billion to Pay Bonuses.
I suggest that the day after the election we start a RECALL of ANY members of Congress who voted for the bailout package.
It did not have sufficient protections and guarantees for taxpayers. It just handed a ton of our money over to the Bush administration to do with as they pleased.
It didn't limit compensation. It didn't specify how the money was to be used by the receiving companies. It didn't require that the public receive a voting share of control of the companies. It didn't require that the public receive sufficient oversight of the process.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:26 AM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
October 27, 2008
McCain Gambling Ad
This ad from Campaign Money Watch will run in VA and FL. But that doesn't mean YOU can't forward it around!
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:37 AM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
October 19, 2008
Thanks For The Money, Suckers!
Our Congress was manipulated by fear into voting hundreds of billions for a Wall Street Bailout.
So see if you can guess where the money is going?
Wall Street bankers in line for $70bn payout,
Financial workers at Wall Street's top banks are to receive pay deals worth more than $70bn (£40bn), a substantial proportion of which is expected to be paid in discretionary bonuses, for their work so far this year - despite plunging the global financial system into its worst crisis since the 1929 stock market crash, the Guardian has learned.I'm sorry, what? You expected something different?Staff at six banks including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup are in line to pick up the payouts despite being the beneficiaries of a $700bn bail-out from the US government that has already prompted criticism. The government's cash has been poured in on the condition that excessive executive pay would be curbed.
Every member of Congress who voted for this bailout needs to be recalled.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:42 PM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
October 18, 2008
Election - Final Stretch
We're about to see the full force power and fury of the right-wing machine unleashed. I'm not so sure Obama will keep his lead through the next phase, or if there will be a country when they're done.
The RNC and the McCain campaign has been accusing Obama and Democrats of being "un-American" or "anti-American" and "dangerous" and "terrorists" and anything they can think of. Today McCain said Obama's tax policies are "Socialist." Across the country the first phase of robo-calls has started, with nasty smears, lies, fear-mongering and you-name-it being pumped into people's homes at all hours.
It is only going to get worse. And then it will get worse. And then it will get really nasty. The next two weeks will go down in history. The corporate right faces the prospect of the people bringing them back under control, and a look at where all the money went. The authoritarian right faces investigations for torture and war crimes. The party operatives face jail time for illegal politicization of the entire government. They will not go without a huge fight.
I really don't know where things will go in the next two weeks, but keep up your spirits, and fight back.
And, of course, watch your backs.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:31 PM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
October 17, 2008
Obama Campaign Asks Special Prosecutor To Look Into DOJ/McCain Campaign Collusion On ACORN Charges
The Obama campaign today sent a letter to Attorney General Mukasey asking that he expand the scope of the ongoing investigation into Justice Department politicization to "include a review of any involvement by the Justice Department and White House officials in supporting the McCain-Palin campaign and the Republican National Committee (RNC)'s systematic development and dissemination of unsupported, spurious allegations of vote fraud."
Briefly, the DOJ politicization scandal stems from Republican efforts to conduct partisan vote fraud investigations before the 2006 election. Prosecutors who refused were fired, prosecutors who played along were not fired (and are still there). After an outcry and the resignation of Attorney General Gonzales the new Attorney General, Michael Mukasey, appointed a special prosecutor to look into the politicization. The current vote fraud accusations and accompanying Justice Department, FBI and White House involvement follow the same pattern, and are based on no credible evidence, so the Obama campaign believes that it may be related to the ongoing partisan politicization of the government's law enforcement.
More coming...
Update - Ari Melber at The Washington Independent has more,
Citing an “unholy alliance” between Republican operatives and potentially illegal conduct by law enforcement targeting voter fraud, the Obama campaign demanded Friday that the U.S. special prosecutor looking into the U.S. attorney scandal investigate the matter.General counsel Bob Bauer sent a letter to Atty. Gen. Michael Mukasey charging that coordinated “misconduct” by McCain campaign representatives and GOP officials were relevant to the special prosecutor’s work, because the activities may relate to the dismissal of seven U.S. attorneys in late 2006.
The letter requests that the special prosecutor’s inquiry “include a review of any involvement by Justice Dept. and White House officials in supporting the McCain-Palin campaign [and RNC's] systematic development and dissemination of unsupported, spurious allegations of vote fraud.”
Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:19 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 16, 2008
Doesn't Anyone Remember The Justice Department Politicization Scam????
This in the news today: Officials: FBI investigates ACORN for voter fraud,
The FBI is investigating whether the community activist group ACORN helped foster voter registration fraud around the nation before the presidential election. A senior law enforcement official confirmed the investigation to The Associated Press on Thursday.First, it is ILLEGAL for anyone in the government to leak news of an FBI investigation. That by itself should be a tipoff to what is going on here.A second senior law enforcement official says the FBI was looking at results of recent raids on ACORN offices in several states for any evidence of a coordinated national scam.
Second, this is what the Justice Department politicization scandal was about: prosecutors fired for refusing to involve themselves in phony pre-election investigations of vote fraud, and others who were not fired because they played along. Those prosecutors are still on the job. Get it yet?
I am seeing 24.7 hysteria in the media that ACORN is engaged in a conspiracy to steal the election. But once you look into it there is not a single fact behind the charges. In fact, there were a total of 26 cases of voter fraud in the United States in a 5-year period studied.
Meanwhile the Republicans are fighting to purge millions of citizens from the voting rolls before the election. Do you not get it yet?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:24 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 11, 2008
Palin's Sports Comlex Contracting Scandal???
It looks like questions are coming up on the $12.5 million in architect /construction contracts for building Wasilla's Sports Complex. The charges: the construction contracts went to Palin/Republican campaign contributors, and then the contractors also may have built Palin a house for free.
See Daily Kos: Did Sports Complex Contractors Build Palin's House for Free?.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:17 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 8, 2008
First Bailout Results Known
Sources: NRCC Secures $8 Million Loan for Final Election Pushl.
The National REPUBLICAN Congressional Committee has received $8 MILLION from Wachovia Bank.
Credit crunch? Unsecured loans impossible to find?
Chris Bowers at OpenLeft writes that,
in the short term, this is effectively an $8 million donation to the NRCC from Wachovia at a time when Wachovia is supposedly in dire straits, about to be bought out by other banks, and will receive money from the government via the bailout.The Bush administration is about to start handing out taxpayer cash for bad debts, and suddenly the NRCC gets $8 million from Wachovia. Come on. How blatant can it be?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:51 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 7, 2008
Oh My God!
Oh My God! That is my comment on the things that McCain is saying during this debate. Fannie and Freddie? So he's going with the racist nonsense promoted by the far right that loans to black people are the cause of this crisis.
He's saying that Obama "took money" from them, as a bribe to ignore the excesses, when his campaign manager was a top lobbyist for them?
Oh My God! He's just going to lie and smear.
That is the entirety of my Debate Live Blogging. Or not.
Update - Well OK, why doesn't McCain think that kids should visit planetariums?
Update - Tom Brokaw is a good moderator for a McCain debate. I don't mean that as a compliment.
Update- Apology. I meant Oh My God! My Friend.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:29 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
October 6, 2008
Why Is Media Ignoring Palin Unpaid Taxes Story?
On Friday Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin released her tax forms. It turns out that the money she was taking as a "per diem" was never claimed as income, and she owes thousands in back taxes. Was she caught in old fashioned corruption with a tax fraud scheme?
Several tax experts have weighed in on this, all saying she owes taxes and should have claimed the income. See MyDD :: Tax Profs: Palin Owes Thousands in Back Taxes for more.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:12 PM | Comments (1) | Link Cosmos
August 23, 2008
Website Lists Republican Offenders
REPUBLICAN OFFENDERS tracks Republicans convicted of or indicted for felonies in the last ten years.
It is a verrrry long list.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:25 PM | Comments (0) | Link Cosmos
August 9, 2008
If You Can't Do The Time, Don't Do The Crime
A new group called Accountable America is warning conservative donors about staying within election laws. The New York Times wrote about this the other day with the misleading headline, Group Plans Campaign Against G.O.P. Donors.
Of course it isn't a "campaign against GOP donors" it is a campaign warning against unlawful and unethical activity. But stopping unlawful activity just might dry up a lot of the Republican Party's -- and the right's supporting infrastructure's -- cash flow. This includes 501c3 tax-free "charity" think tanks and 501c4 "issue" organizations that are really illegally engaged in candidate activity, or otherwise acting as conduits for corporate money or for those who have "maxed out" (reached the legal limit) for political donations.
The other day I wrote about,
... companies intimidating workers to vote a certain way, churches, think tanks, front groups incorporated as c4s but doing candidate work, campaigns violating election laws, etc.So I guess great minds think alike. Heh.... Suppose [we could create] some concern among the Wal-Marts and the Sheldon Adelsons that they had better think about following the law?
What would this do to the funding sources of the right's machine?
There is plenty of need for an effort to get conservative and corporate donors to follow the law. Just for example -- last week's news about "curious" bundled political contributions made by employees of oil companies receiving billion-dollar contracts from the government to McCain and Republicans. Some of these donations came from people clearly unable to make such a donation on their own. This makes it appear that the companies may have illegally given these people money to give to McCain and the Republican Party and groups are demanding an investigation (that will never happen).
[Public interest groups] want the Justice Department to investigate whether bundlers for John McCain's presidential campaign are using "straw" donations -- those made in the name of someone else to evade contribution limits.A story at TPM elaborates,
"An executive from a company that has a billion dollar contract to deliver oil to U.S. bases in Iraq possibly violated election law to funnel contributions to McCain. We think that warrants an investigation."Now that Accountable America is on the scene maybe corporations and big donors who are thinking about engaging in illegal activities will think twice.And on the Hess matter ... : "An office manager for an oil company that stands to gain millions in profits from offshore drilling makes donations for the first time this cycle to McCain, and did it at the same time nine other Hess donors do. That's worth an investigation."
If you want to help this effort you can donate by clicking here.
Update Kathy G writes about Accountable America in her post Liberal fascism strikes again!
* The new group will offer a $100,000 reward to those providing information that leads to the conviction or judgment against a conservative or business-related organization that violates the law.* Accountable America will provide information to the public through television ads, mailings, phone calls and its Web site.
* Next week the organization plans to send a mailing warning nearly 10,000 Republican donors of the consequences of funding organizations that break or skirt the law.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
August 3, 2008
Republican Party Hired To Sell Product For Oil Companies
The Republican Party's hiring itself out to the oil industry for this coordinated "Drill Now" campaign reminds me of an old joke. (I'll shorten it.)
Kentucky Fried Chicken comes to the Pope and says, "We'll give you $500,000 a year to change the Lord's Prayer to 'give us this day our daily fried chicken'." The Pope says, "No way." Then they offer $1 million. The Pope gives a long spiel about this is a sacred prayer, from God, etc. They give their final offer: $10 million a year.
The next day the Pope meets with his Cardinals and says, "The good news is I have brought us $10 million a year."
"The bad news is I lost the Wonder Bread account."
The other day I wrote,
This is a political party involving itself in a corporate product marketing campaign, for money. This "drill now" campaign is funded by oil companies, and is about giving them even more special government favors. It isn't a lot different from changing a stadium's name to "Enron Stadium" or Pac Bell park" etc.Your modern Republicans -- A political party reduced to hiring itself out to sell product!
This political campaign is in conjunction with an oil industry PR campaign to try to get the government to hand them even more drilling leases than the millions of acres they already have (and sit on without drilling). It came just as oil prices peaked and suggests that oil prices peaked in order to prime the public for this campaign.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:17 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
May 13, 2008
Buy High, Sell Low
Bush insists on buying oil for the Strategic Petroleum Reserve at very, very, very high prices. Congress is trying to stop this.
Question, has there been a pattern of buying at high prices and selling at low prices? An enterprising investigative report might find a story here.
Is this a manipulation of oil prices, to the benefit of funders of the right and the anti-Gore global warming denial industry?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:47 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
April 29, 2008
Pentagon Pundit Scandal Broke the Law
Please read Pentagon Pundit Scandal Broke the Law | Center for Media and Democracy.
Note that "Pentagon" means the Republican Party appointees in the administration who run the Department of Defense, which resides in the Pentagon.
The Pentagon was conducting "information operations" targeting the American public. This program was blatantly illegal.
Note that almost NO news outlets involved are reporting on this story at all. What does that tell you?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:38 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
April 24, 2008
Strongly-Worded Statement
A Senate committee issued a strongly-worded statement to Sen. Domenici for his involvement in the US Attorney scandal.
With that out of the way, the US Attorneys who didn't get fired (because they were willing to play along with Republican corruption and politicization) will now start indicting Senate Democrats in time for the election. And the Democrats will again issue strongly-worded statement. From prison. Because they just don't seem to know better than to bring strongly-worded statements to a machine-gun fight.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
April 6, 2008
Whatever Happened To The Abramoff Investigation?
Firedoglake: More DOJ Politicization Questions Being Raised got me thinking: Whatever happened to the Abramoff investigation? The Cunningham/Wilkes investigation? Weren't they going to lead to wider circles of corruption? Weren't they looking at a number of other Republican Congressmen? Weren't they looking at Bush administration officials? Weren't they looking at contractors? It all just faded away -- after the prosecutor was fired.
And now, instead, we're reading about indictments of Democrats and progressives.
But, don't worry, the Democrats in the House and Senate issued strongly worded statements, so everything is OK.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:14 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
March 24, 2008
Moon And The Republicans
Please watch this video about the Reverend Sun Myung Moon and his organization's political influence with the Republicans. This is an important story. Moon, for example, owns the Washington Times. Front groups set up by his organization have been receiving millions of tax dollars from the Bush Administration.
And definitely get the new book on Moon, Bad Moon Rising
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
February 22, 2008
It Is Important To Understand This
The Bush Justice Department politicization case is about the corruption of our government to work in support of one political party.
They used our government to reward their friends, including financially, and to punish their enemies. And their enemies were Americans like you and me. In one case they were able to put a Governor in jail for being a Democrat. If you don't believe me, 52 former states’ attorneys general from both political parties are making the same case.
Kagro X writes about this over at Daily Kos. Every American should read his post: Daily Kos: If it can happen to a Governor...,
Nobody indicted by the Bush-Cheney DOJ can possibly help but wonder whether they're being targeted by the White House political machine. Not Don Siegelman. Not Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio. Nobody.If it could happen to a Governor it could happen to anybody -- including you.And once America realizes this really can happen (it's previously been unimaginable, and therefore all too easy to dismiss as "conspiracy theory"), you can bet your last dollar that any Republican indicted by a Democratic administration will be making that claim, too.
We've already watched in horror and amazement as Bush-Cheney, flouting the law left and right, painted the Congress into the "impeachment is off the table" corner for fear (among other things) of being tarred with the "revenge for Clinton" and "tit for tat" brushes. One hardly need stretch the imagination to foresee precisely this hurdle being thrown up in the path of a Democratic administration elected with a mandate to clean out the Republican Culture of Corruption.
Watch your backs.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:28 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
February 21, 2008
Some History on McCain and Lobbyists
Does anyone remember this story, about McCain's Abramoff hearings?
Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has assured his colleagues that his expanding investigation into the activities of a former GOP lobbyist and a half-dozen of his tribal casino clients is not directed at revealing ethically questionable actions by Members of Congress.He used the hearings to shield, not investigate, his fellow Republicans. . .
"It's not our responsibility in any way to involve ourselves in the ethics process [of Senators]," McCain said Wednesday, explaining the comments he made to his fellow GOP Senators. "That was not the responsibility of the Indian Affairs Committee."
. . . Because of those stories - and several other news reports touching on Abramoff's relationship with Members - McCain said he wanted to let Senators know that he was not trying to air any of their dirty laundry.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:08 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
February 18, 2008
Meat Recall
The government was forced by an animal rights group to recall 143 million pounds of beef, after videos showed obviously sick animals being led to the slaughterhouse.
Because of Republican policies there had been fewer and fewer inspections of the slaughterhouse or meat.
USDA Orders Nation's Largest Beef Recall: Financial News,
Authorities said the video showed workers kicking, shocking and otherwise abusing "downer" animals that were apparently too sick or injured to walk into the slaughterhouse. Some animals had water forced down their throats...This is why I do not eat meat -because of the way animals are treated in corporate America.[. . .] Officials estimate that about 37 million pounds of the recalled beef went to school programs, but they believe most of the meat probably has already been eaten.
[. . .] Federal regulations call for keeping downed cattle out of the food supply because they may pose a higher risk of contamination from E. coli, salmonella or mad cow disease because they typically wallow in feces and their immune systems are often weak.
And this is why the public needs to understand the harm that comes from unbridled corporatization of everything. We, the People are supposed to be in control, but we are instead being herded and harvested for our cash.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
February 14, 2008
House Votes Contempt
When Clinton was President the Republican Congress issued more than 1000 subpoenas, and the Clinton administration complied with every single one.
Under the Republican Congress, President Bush was not issued even one subpoena. Not one. The Bush administration was allowed to get away with anything, anything it did. Impunity.
But then the Democrats took control of Congress and asked for some onformation. The Bush administration refused to provide it. So they issued a few subpoenas, and the Bush administration refused to comply. For months and months the Congress negotiated, and the Bush administration continued to stonewall and refuse to comply. Literally the definition of contempt.
So finally, finally the Congress has started to enforce the law: House finds White House officials in contempt of Congress,
The House voted Thursday to hold White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers in contempt of Congress for refusing to testify before a panel investigating the firing of several United States attorneys.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:49 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 20, 2008
EPA Refuses To Say WHY It Denied California Emission Waiver
EPA won't give details on denying emissions waiver,
Invoking executive privilege, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency refused to provide lawmakers Friday with a full explanation of why it rejected California's greenhouse gas regulations.But we know why they did it. They did it because the oil companies are paying the Republican Party. DUH!. . . The refusal to provide a full explanation is the latest twist in a congressional investigation into why the EPA denied California permission to impose what would have been the country's toughest greenhouse gas standards on cars, trucks and sport utility vehicles.
In denying the waiver last month, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson told Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that the federal government is implementing a national fuel efficiency standard.
Johnson's decision spurred congressional investigations and a legal challenge this month by California and 15 other states.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 6, 2008
Impeach!
Every American should read Why I Believe Bush Must Go byGeorge McGovern in today's Washington Post.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 2, 2008
Republican Prosecutors Drop Another Abramoff-Linked Investigation
Funny how all those corruption investigations stopped when all those prosecutors got fired, isn't it? Here's another: Burns no longer part of Abramoff probe,
Former Sen. Conrad Burns is no longer part of a federal investigation of jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff, the Justice Department said Wednesday.I'm not saying Burns was involved with Abramoff or not. I AM saying that there is no reason to have any confidence that anyone in this Justice Department is interested in finding out. He's a Republican, so the case is dropped. We know that the reason those prosecutors who were fired was they wouldn'[t "play ball" with the politicization, and we know the ones who did and dropped investigations of Republicans and/or initiated investigations of Democrats kept their jobs. They are still there, the Congress isn't doing their job of getting to the bottom of this, so we're left with the assumption of political interference and corruption.Burns, R-Mont., narrowly lost re-election to a fourth term in 2006 after Democrats made his relationship with Abramoff a central issue. Abramoff is the key figure in a corruption investigation that has led to convictions of a former congressman, legislative aides, lobbyists and officials in the Bush administration.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
November 21, 2007
Toys With Lead - Where Is Government?
There is lead in the toys our kids play with. What is the Republican government doing about it?
Accepting expensive trips, etc. from the toy industry, refusing to inspect toys. What else did you expect?
And who's gonna do anything about it, punk. Democrats in Congress? Not on your life. (Or your kids' lives.)
Campaign for america's Future has a petition. Go sign it, and send others to see the video.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
November 7, 2007
Today's Republican Corruption Scandal
Federal money funneled to the President's BROTHER! D'ya think may THAT has an appearance of impropriety?
Well do ya, punk?
Neil Bush's Firm Under Federal Scrutiny
The Education Department's inspector general says he will review whether federal money is inappropriately being spent on programs by a company founded by Neil Bush, the president's brother.Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a Washington-based watchdog group, called for the inquiry and released a letter this week from the department's inspector general, John Higgins Jr.
. . . The group contends school districts inappropriately are using federal dollars for Ignite! Learning Inc. programs. It says there is no proof the company's products are effective and claims the schools are using the products due to political considerations.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
October 27, 2007
Today's Republican Corruption Scandal
McConnell marks funds for contractor,
Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., is pushing $25 million in earmarked federal funds for a British defense contractor that is under criminal investigation by the U.S. Justice Department and suspected by American diplomats of a "longstanding, widespread pattern of bribery allegations."What's to say? It still is a Republican culture of corruption. They don't even try to hide it. The fix is in at the Justice Department - all the prosecutors who were investigating Republican corruption were fired...McConnell tucked money for three weapons projects for BAE Systems into the defense appropriations bill, which the Senate approved Oct. 3. The Defense Department failed to include the money in its own budget request, which required McConnell to intercede, said BAE spokeswoman Susan Lenover.
... McConnell has taken at least $53,000 in campaign donations from BAE's political action committees and employees since his 2002 re-election. United Defense Industries, which BAE purchased two years ago, pledged $500,000 to a political-science foundation the senator created, the McConnell Center at the University of Louisville.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
October 21, 2007
War Profiteering and Corruption -- Here Is Something You Can Do
Frank Rich's column today, Suicide Is Not Painless, talks about the systematic corruption of defense contracting, especially where Iraq is involved.
Here's the thing. You and I read the blogs, so we already know at least something about what is going on. You and I know about, for example, the truckloads of cash that were shipped to Iraq to be handed out in bricks. We know about the $9 billion that just disappeared. But most people in the country are not exposed to the information that blog readers take for granted, haven't heard about it, and would have a hard time believing that anything like this is going on. I'm serious. But remember, a huge chunk of the population still thinks that Iraq attacked us on 9/11 - or was at least involved - and there's a big chunk that believes that weapons of mass destruction were found.
There is something we can all do to help. Today's column about the corruption should be sent around by e-mail to people who don't usually read blogs.
Please help with this by e-mailing it to people. People need to know about the corruption and fraud that our huge "defense" budget is generating. If more people understood what is going on, there would be less vulnerability to Republican propaganda that says cutting military budgets - or even having hearings looking into the corruption - is unpatriotic. That kind of talk is nothing but a game to keep the corruption going, but it will keep working unless more people learn about what is going on and where their money is going.
The Abramoff corruption machine was modeled after the defense-contractor scheme, but was tiny and amateurish in comparison. (For example, the Abramoff operation didn't actually buy entire media companies as a way to help keep people from learning about the racket, as defense contractors have done.)
Please read Frank Rich's column today, and please, please send it to friends and relatives who might not otherwise see what is going on. And ask them to send it on to others!
Please read it, and e-mail it to others. Then, after you have done that, read Billions over Baghdad, another story about the massive corruption.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
October 18, 2007
So What - No One Will Do Anything About It
I was talking to someone yesterday about how it looks like the Bushies "got to" the Seigelman judge. She said, "So what? No one will do anything about it anyway."
She's right. All those US Attorneys who "played ball" are still in place, waiting to let Republicans off the hook and indict a bunch of Demcorats for things they didn't do - just in time for the next election.
It's one of the worst things about everything that is happening -- no accountability, and the Dems also won't hold anyone accountable. There are no consequences for the lawbreaking and corruption we see all around us.
Which leads me to today's story, it appears that the Democrats have caved and given in to Bush on wiretapping AND giving immunity to the giant telecom corporations that illegally assisted Bush.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:19 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
October 17, 2007
Is It Possible Justice Dept Blackmailed Siegelman Judge?
If you are following the case of the selective prosecution of Alabama Governor Siegelman, this is of great interest.
Why did the judge go along with everything the Justice Department wanted in this sham trial? Maybe this answers the question: Daily Kos: DOJ Scandal Deepens, Siegelman Judge Exposed
Summary: Before the trial the judge was accused of pension fraud, misuse of his office, perjury, criminal conspiracy and obstruction of the FBI's background check for the Federal Judiciary. But the Justice Department didn't do anything about this - never responded at all. And then along comes the Seigelman prosecution.
The charges were submitted to the DOJ's public integrity section by a respected defense attorney who conducted a routine investigation prior to trying a major case. The charges were sufficiently credible to get judge Fuller removed from that case. However, he was allowed to preside over the Siegelman case. These charges of criminal activity were corroborated by signed documents by public officials involved in exposing the alleged pension fraud by Judge Fuller.From Harper's Magazine.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:47 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
October 4, 2007
Clinton Corruption
A quick question. I'm trying to remember if any Clinton administration officials were convicted of a crime committed while in office? I remember early in the administration a guy had to resign after he was caught taking a helicopter ride to a golf game. Webster Hubble was convicted of overbilling clients before taking office. But was there anyone caught with a hand in the cookie jar? Even one?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:45 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
September 10, 2007
Tort Reform
I came across some interesting "tort reform" laws in various states. It seems several state governments understand their job as protecting wealthy corporations from citizens, not the other way around. As I read this list:
In several states it is illegal to sue fast food companies if their products harm your health, give you diabetes, etc.
In Colorado it is against the law to sue a ski resort.
In California it is illegal to sue a tobacco company.
Florida you can’t sue a store if a powered shopping cart injures you.
In Indiana medical malpractice awards are limited to $1.25 million even if the resulting required medical care costs more.
In Kansas punitive damages when a corporation injures you are limited to your annual income, regardless of what the corporation did or how much money they made from the actions that harmed you.
In Maryland, if a corporation kills a member of your family, they don’t have to pay more than $500,000. In Wisconsin it is $350,000 if an adult was killed.
In Mississippi the amount you can claim in damages if a corporation harms a member of your family is limited to your net worth when injured.
In South Carolina you can’t sue a skating rink operator.
In Utah doctors can refuse to treat a patient unless the patient agrees in advance not to sue them.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:27 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
September 1, 2007
Did Exxon Pay Bush To Kill Climate Sattelite?
NASA spent over $100 million on a satellite to investigate climate change. It's all ready to launch. But NASA mothballed it instead. A DeSmogBlog exclusive investigation into NASA's DSCOVR climate station
What happened? How could the US government possibly justify killing DSCOVR given the importance of climate change and after over 90% of the project expenses had already been incurred? What role did petty partisan politics play in this? Did the oil lobby have any influence on this decision?... The Earth’s temperature is a delicate balance between the amount of energy retained by the atmosphere and the amount being reflected back into space. This second number is called “albedo” and it is vitally important to scientists trying to develop reliable computer models on our changing climate. DSCOVR would provide vastly improved measurements of the Earth’s albedo because from L1, it would be able to continuously observe the entire sunlit disc of our planet.
Interestingly, a common complaint of climate change deniers has been that the satellite data used to develop climate models is unreliable. DSCOVR would go a long way to settling whatever honest debate remained about the reliability of those models.
Considering that these climate models are now driving enormous public policy decisions, one would think that DSCOVR would be a top priority.
... The French were so alarmed by the foot dragging by NASA they offered to send DSCOVR into space themselves at a greatly reduced cost. The Ukranian government even offered to launch DSCOVR for free aboard a Tsyklon IV rocket – the most reliable launch vehicle in the world.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
August 24, 2007
War For Profit
Wanna get angry? I mean really, really angry? I just finished reading The Great Iraq Swindle: : Rolling Stone and I am really, REALLY angry now.
Iraq was the big test of the Republican vision of a privatized, outsourced government. But what it really was, was billions and billions of taxpayer dollars just handed to Republican-crony contractors - to do nothing or worse.
George W. Bush's war in the Mesopotamian desert was an experiment of sorts, a crude first take at his vision of a fully privatized American government. In Iraq the lines between essential government services and for-profit enterprises have been blurred to the point of absurdity -- to the point where wounded soldiers have to pay retail prices for fresh underwear, where modern-day chattel are imported from the Third World at slave wages to peel the potatoes we once assigned to grunts in KP, where private companies are guaranteed huge profits no matter how badly they fuck things up.Read this story. It talks about the environment in which everyone understood that the gates to the US Treasury were open, and the party was on, and the best part was the government expected you to steal, wanted you to steal, encouraged you to steal - because that was what the war was for.... What the Bush administration has created in Iraq is a sort of paradise of perverted capitalism, where revenues are forcibly extracted from the customer by the state, and obscene profits are handed out not by the market but by an unaccountable government bureaucracy. This is the triumphant culmination of two centuries of flawed white-people thinking, a preposterous mix of authoritarian socialism and laissez-faire profiteering, with all the worst aspects of both ideologies rolled up into one pointless, supremely idiotic military adventure -- American men and women dying by the thousands, so that Karl Marx and Adam Smith can blow each other in a Middle Eastern glory hole.
The Bush administration's lack of interest in recovering stolen funds is one of the great scandals of the war. The White House has failed to litigate a single case against a contractor under the False Claims Act and has not sued anybody for breach of contract. It even declined to join in a lawsuit filed by whistle-blowers who are accusing KBR of improper invoicing in Fallujah.
And then anyone who tries to do anything about it is fired and blacklisted - or worse. Worse, as in forced out of the protected, guarded areas and on your own among the insurgents.
Go read it.
What's more, when anyone in the government tried to question what contractors were up to with taxpayer money, they were immediately blackballed and treated like an enemy.[. . .] And how did her superiors in the Pentagon respond to the wrongdoing highlighted by their own chief procurement officer? First they gave KBR a waiver for the overbilling, blaming the problem on an Iraqi subcontractor. Then they dealt with Greenhouse by demoting her and cutting her salary, citing a negative performance review. The retaliation sent a clear message to any would-be whistle-blowers. "It puts a chill on you," Greenhouse says. "People are scared stiff."
They were scared stiff in Iraq, too, and for good reason. When civilian employees complained about looting or other improprieties, contractors sometimes threatened to throw them outside the gates of their bases -- a life-threatening situation for any American.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:41 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
August 21, 2007
Bush Blocking Efforts To Crack Down On Lead In Paint
Another example of what Republican crony government means to your life.
Efforts to crack down on lead paint thwarted by China, Bush Administration,
The Bush administration and China have both undermined efforts to tighten rules designed to ensure that lead paint isn't used in toys, bibs, jewelry and other children’s products.Both have fought efforts to better police imported toys from China.
... Lead paint is toxic when ingested by children and can cause brain damage or death. It’s been mostly banned in the United States since the late 1970s, but is permitted in the coating of toys, providing it amounts to less than six parts per million.
The Bush administration has hindered regulation on two fronts, consumer advocates say. It stalled efforts to press for greater inspections of imported children’s products, and it altered the focus of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), moving it from aggressive protection of consumers to a more manufacturer-friendly approach.
“The overall philosophy is regulations are bad and they are too large a cost for industry, and the market will take care of it,” said Rick Melberth, director of regulatory policy at OMBWatch, a government watchdog group formed in 1983. “That’s been the philosophy of the Bush administration.”
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:46 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
August 1, 2007
US Attorney Put On Firing List For Refusing To Aid Corruption
Apparently the US Attorney firings were not JUST about political prosecutions. At least one was fired because he wouldn't play ball with the corruption machine.
Talking Points Memo | Rotten to the Core has this from the Washington Post,
The night before the government secured a guilty plea from the manufacturer of the addictive painkiller OxyContin, a senior Justice Department official called the U.S. attorney handling the case and, at the behest of an executive for the drugmaker, urged him to slow down, the prosecutor told the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday.With this in mind, look back at a few other examples of the Justice Department's handling of big-money corporate cases. Remember when the Bush Justice Department let Microsoft off the hook after the Clinton Justice Department had already won the case? And how about when the Bush Justice Department let the tobacco companies off the hook on payment for killing millions?John L. Brownlee, the U.S. attorney in Roanoke, testified that he was at home the evening of Oct. 24 when he received the call on his cellphone from Michael J. Elston, then chief of staff to the deputy attorney general and one of the Justice aides involved in the removal of nine U.S. attorneys last year.
Brownlee settled the case anyway. Eight days later, his name appeared on a list compiled by Elston of prosecutors that officials had suggested be fired.
How many similar cases can you recall? These cases were worth billions of dollars to the companies involved. How much money changed hands? There are some nice, fat Swiss bank accounts out there.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
July 31, 2007
Justice Dept. Corruption: Stevens Tipped Before Search
You may have heard that the FBI searched Republican Senator Stevens' house yesterday.Senator Stevens. But you may not have heard that the Republican Justice Department gave him a warning and time to clear out any evidence.
Is That Legal?: Justice Department Tips Off Senator Stevens Before Searching His Home!,
Stevens said in a statement that his attorneys were advised of the impending search yesterday morning.I spent nearly 9 years as a federal prosecutor. I'm not aware of a single instance when any prosecutor or agent told anyone outside the Justice Department that a search warrant was going to be executed later in the day.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
July 24, 2007
What The Public 'Knows' - Politicization Of Government
Do you remember that Al Gore was accused of improperly making a fundraising call from a government office, and of improper fundraising when he visited a Buddhist temple? The right's machine was able to turn these insignificant events into major, major scandal stories that are still repeated to this day. A Google search yields more than half a million websites that mention these. They even tried to get another special prosecutor just for this, claiming that the Clinton Justice Department would cover up Gore's crimes. (Remember, lack of evidence of ANY Clinton or Gore wrongdoing was proof of a massive coverup conspiracy.)
The Republicans even made an accusation that Clinton used his Christmas card list for political purposes into a major story, with a Congressional investigation and days of hearings. They even made a huge scandal out of an accusation that the Clinton White Hose "tracked donors."
As a result much of the public to this day thinks that the Clinton White House improperly used the government to help them raise funds.
Compare and contrast - does thie public "know" about the Bush corruption of the entire government for political purposes? Is is getting the same coverage in the media? Political Briefings At Agencies Disclosed,
White House officials conducted 20 private briefings on Republican electoral prospects in the last midterm election for senior officials in at least 15 government agencies covered by federal restrictions on partisan political activity, a White House spokesman and other administration officials said yesterday.This is not about fundraising, this is about use of the power of the government itself to promote the interests of a political party.The previously undisclosed briefings were part of what now appears to be a regular effort in which the White House sent senior political officials to brief top appointees in government agencies on which seats Republican candidates might win or lose, and how the election outcomes could affect the success of administration policies, the officials said.
And today, not just the Bush Justice Department and the General Services Administration, also the State Department,
Karl Rove ... instructed his White House deputies to repeatedly brief State Department officials and U.S. ambassadors in key foreign missions about GOP electoral priorities.[. . .] raises the question of how U.S. foreign policy, and specific binational relationships, is unfolding right now to serve a partisan agenda rather than the national interest.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:38 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
May 30, 2007
Government Fights To STOP Meat Inspections!
Small meat companies want to test their meat to insure that it is safe. Larger companies want this stopped - because if smaller companies are doing it, they will be more competitive and they will have to spend money to do tests to keep up. So the Bush government steps in on the side of the big companies TO STOP THE TESTING!
See E. coli conservatism (19): the ne plus ultra,
The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.Here is the kicker:The U.S. Department of Agriculture tests less than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. But Arkansas City-based Creekstone Farms Premium Beef wants to test all of its cows.
Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone tested its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive test, too.
The Agriculture Department argued that widespread testing could lead to a false positive that would harm the meat industry.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:19 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
May 20, 2007
Starving the Hurricane Center of Needed Funds
Mary at The Left Coaster points out that,
while starving the Hurricane Center of needed funds used for tracking hurricanes, the top administrators find millions to hold a party to rebrand the division and agency.Bush has put in place people who think the treasury is their privat party fund. We're going to be paying for these kinds of things for the rest of our - and our children's - lives.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:59 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
May 18, 2007
So What?
So now the word seems to be rippling out about what has been going on in the Justice Department. Of course, bloggers have been shouting about how it was also going on in every department all along... And for once it seems like a few people beyond the bloggers actually care this time. I think at this point a majority of the informed opinion-leadership - all the liberals and even some of the conservatives (David Brooks on the NewsHour tonite, for example) - understand that the Bush administration has, basically, thrown away rule of law. The word "lawlessness" is coming up a lot.
But so what? We knew that. Great. Now more people know it. So what?
That's pretty much what Bush is saying, too. "So what? What are you going to do about it?"
And that's the question, isn't it?
Meanwhile, what does the public "know?" - in contrast to the opinion-leaders I mentioned. I scanned all three network news shows tonite and there was no mention of this supposedly huge scandal on any of them (unless I missed it.)*
But even if the public found out about all of this bruhaha -- and cared -- again, so what? No one is going to prosecute anyone for anything. I mean, they own the Justice Department and that's part of what this is about -- blocking prosecutions. They replaced everyone with Pat Robertson graduates like Monica Goodling, and fired prosecutors who were going after Republican corruption so, please, don't try to tell me anyone is going to be prosecuted.
The only "rule of law" solution available is impeachment. That ain't going to happen -- there are enough "movement" Republicans in the Senate to block impeachment even if it got that far.
So ... so what? Rule of law was so 20th-century.
* Update - No, I didn't miss it - the networks just are not covering it. Read Jamison Foser's Media Matters and Carpetbagger on this subject today.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
May 17, 2007
Giuliani Was Handed $11 Million - For What?
Take a look at Rudy Giuliani's speaking fees. He was paid $11.39 million in ... ahem ... "speaking fees" in 2006 and early 2007. After commissions he collected $9.195 million.
What were they buying? What was he selling?
Sage Capital Group handed Giuliani $300,000 for an "appearance." Who is Sage Capital and what are they getting for their $300K? Freescale Semiconductor gave him $100K as did RedPrarie Corporation and Gail & Rice, Inc. Global Leaders Ltd. gave him $200K. Iceland Telecom $200K.
There are dozens and dozens more like that. Go look. What are they buying?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:17 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
May 7, 2007
Human Food Contaminated - Where Is The Noise?!
When I started covering the pet food recall ... I thought that if this had happened to human food, it would have been taken more seriously.But no, now we know it IS in the human food chain, and it is NOT being taken seriously. We haven't even banned grain and other food imports from China until this is sorted out!
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:13 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
May 4, 2007
Video: Republican Law and Disorder
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
April 20, 2007
Alberto Gonzales Isn't The Point
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales can resign or not - so what? The PROBLEM will remain. The PROBLEM is that we have 93 US Attorneys who have already proven - by not being fired - that they will indict innocent Democrats and ignore Republican corruption and criminality. THAT is the problem we have to do something about!
The Republicans learned in the 2006 election that lots of headlines about corruption influences votes. So the plan is to start investigating and indicting lots of Democrats - guilty or not - to provide plenty of 2008 election-time headlines. And the plan is to block as many investigations and indictments of corrupt Republicans as they can. (That brings other benefits to them as well...)
So Gonzales can resign or not - don't be distracted from thinking about how to stop what is coming.
Watch your backs!
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:07 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
April 14, 2007
ANOTHER Political Prosecution From A Scandal-Tainted US Attorney?
This looks like it might be yet another political prosecution. This time it isn't a US Attorney engaging in a political prosecution in order to keep the job -- instead it involves one of those NEW, Rove-approved US Attorneys who replaced those US Attorneys fired for failing to engage in political prosecutions. This prosecution shows us what to expect from now on. This one is prosecuting a guy entirely for political and not legal reasons, AFTER the courts threw out the case AND after the judge said they should drop the charges.
This case is about medical marijuana. California voters passed an initiative allowing the use of marijuana for AIDS, cancer and other patients because it helps them to eat and reduces symptoms. The Christian Right doesn't like that so the Bush administration has been prosecuting people for Federal crimes - even though they are legally operating according to state law.
From the article, Prosecutors will retry Ed Rosenthal, known as the `guru of ganja',
Federal prosecutors said today they would retry marijuana grower Ed Rosenthal on cultivation charges, even after a federal judge urged them to drop the case and chastised the government for lodging charges solely to punish the self-proclaimed "guru of ganja."So here we go, another political prosecution from a Rove-connected prosecutor?U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer demanded to know who in the Department of Justice made the decision to continue pursuing Rosenthal, who had his original conviction overturned last year.
... Newly appointed U.S. Attorney Scott Schools made the decision, said Assistant U.S. Attorney George Bevan, but he was not sure if Department of Justice officials in Washington were involved. [all emphasis added]
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:20 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
April 7, 2007
In The Tank For Bush & The Right
Is it just me, or does it seem to you like the media is much more in the tank for Bush and the right since the election?
On another subject, does it seem to you that the US Attorney scandal has faded from the news with nothing being done, leaving in place US Attorneys who let Republicans and corporate criminals off the hook, while investigating or indicting Democrats? My prediction - if these US Attorneys stay in place, the lead-up to the 2008 election will include LOTS of news stories about Democrats being investigated and indicted, and no stories about Republicans being investigated at all.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:31 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
April 4, 2007
Their COVER STORY Was Even Illegal
The Bush administration - again too clever by half.
Clever once: Recently Bush claimed that "executive privilege" prevents staff e-mails from being turned over to Congress. Except in an attempt to keep the e-mails away from legal scrutiny many were illegally routed through the Republican Party, which means they aren't privileged. Too clever by half.
Clever again: When the Bush administration fired US Attorney Iglesias because he didn't indict enough Democrats, they tried to explain it with a cover story claiming he was fired because he took too much time away from the office. Well, you see, Iglesias is a captain in the Navy Reserve. And there is a law that says you can't fire someone because they have to attend Reserve duty.
So Newsweek is reporting that,
Iglesias confirmed to NEWSWEEK that he was recently questioned by lawyers for the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal watchdog agency, to determine if his dismissal was a violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), a federal law that prohibits job discrimination against members of the U.S. military.At the encouragement of Office of Special Counsel director Scott Bloch and his deputies, Iglesias said he is this week filing a formal legal complaint with OSC against the Justice Department over his dismissal on this and other grounds.
I learned about this through TPMmuckraker April 4, 2007 04:56 PM
Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
March 28, 2007
Those E-Mails Are The Key
Sidney Blumenthal, in Follow the e-mails | Salon.com writes about the secret trove of White House e-mails that were routed through Republican Party servers in an attempt to avoid Congress ever forcing disclosure of illegal activities by government officials.
The first glimmer of this dodge appeared in a small item buried in a January 2004 issue of U.S. News & World Report: "'I don't want my E-mail made public,' said one insider. As a result, many aides have shifted to Internet E-mail instead of the White House system. 'It's Yahoo!, baby,' says a Bushie."This use of outside e-mail accounts to conduct government business is probably not legal.
When I worked in the Clinton White House, people brought in their personal computers if they were engaged in any campaign work, but all official transactions had to be done within the White House system as stipulated by the Presidential Records Act of 1978. (The PRA requires that "the President shall take all such steps as may be necessary to assure that the activities, deliberations, decisions, and policies that reflect the performance of his constitutional, statutory, or other official or ceremonial duties are adequately documented and that such records are maintained as Presidential records.") Having forsaken the use of Executive Office of the President e-mail, executive privilege has been sacrificed. Moreover, Rove's and the others' practice may not be legal.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
March 15, 2007
The US Attorney Scandal & Abramoff
The US Attorney scandal is not about miscommunication of the reasons for the firings. This is what the US Attorney scandal is about:
Bush fired US Attorneys:
1) To block investigations into Republican corruption.
2) For refusing to launch sham investigations of Democrats who were innocent of any and all accusations.
For example, the prosecutor who indicted Duke Cunningham was fired.
And before THIS round of firings, there was this: Bush picks Abramoff prosecutor for federal judgeship / Democrats wonder about the timing of president's move,
..Hillman's departure from the Justice Department creates a vacancy at the top of the Abramoff investigation only three weeks after Abramoff, once one of the city's most powerful Republican lobbyists and a major fund-raiser for Bush, announced his guilty plea and agreed to testify against others, possibly including members of Congress.And how many indictments of others, based on Abramoff's testimony, followed the exit of this prosecutor?
There are serious Republican corruption scandals out there, but now there are no US Attorneys who will investigate them. And here's the thing - if things do not change, in the months before the 2008 elections the public will be hearing about lots of Democrats being indicted for corruption.
Watch your backs!
Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:42 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
March 14, 2007
More On "Clinton Fired 93 US Attorneys" Nonsense
The other day I wrote about the "Clinton fired 93 US attorneys" nonsense. It must have "tested well" with an important target group that the right wants to bamboozle, because now you're hearing it repeated everywhere.
First, in the current scandal Bush fired US Attorneys: (according to the fired US Attys themselves, as well as White House e-mails obtained yesterday)
1) Specifically to block investigations into Republican corruption investigations.
2) For refusing to launch sham investigations of Democrats who were innocent of any and all accusations.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE AGAnd tell friends and relatives about this as well.MONDAY, MARCH 14, 2001
(202) 514-2007WWW.USDOJ.GOV
TDD (202) 514-1888
WHITE HOUSE AND JUSTICE DEPARTMENT
BEGIN U.S. ATTORNEY TRANSITION
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Continuing the practice of new administrations, President Bush and the Department of Justice have begun the transition process for most of the 93 United States Attorneys.Attorney General Ashcroft said, "We are committed to making this an orderly transition to ensure effective, professional law enforcement that reflects the President 's priorities."
In January of this year, nearly all presidential appointees from the previous administration offered their resignations. Two Justice Department exceptions were the United States Attorneys and United States Marshals.
Prior to the beginning of this transition process, nearly one-third of the United States Attorneys had already submitted their resignations. The White House and the Department of Justice have begun to schedule transition dates for most of the remaining United States Attorneys to occur prior to June of this year. President Bush will make announcements regarding his nominations to the Senate of new United States Attorneys as that information becomes available. Pending confirmation of the President's nominees, the Attorney General will make appointments of Interim United States Attorneys for a period of 120 days (28USC546). Upon the expiration of that appointment, the authority rests with the United States District Court (28USC546(d)).
###
BUSH fired all the US Attorneys when he came into office. So does EVERY President. It has nothing to do with the current scandal.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:37 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
March 13, 2007
Did Clinton Also Fire Prosecutors? - UPDATED -
You're going to hear a story that "Clinton fired 93 prosecutors" when he took office, while this whole prosecutor scandal is about Bush firing only 11.
The fact is that EVERY President changes the US Attorneys when taking office. Bush also did the same thing when he took office. That is different. This has never happened before. THIS scandal is about Bush using the federal prosecutors to only go after Democrats, and to ignore crimes by Republicans.
And here's the thing. The ones that were fired were let go because they wouldn't "play ball." So the question is, what about the ones who were not fired?
It is one more example of how the entire government has been converted into a Party apparatus - as well as working to further the interests of the K-Street/Abramoff corruption machine. You hear about Interior Department employees ordered not to discuss global warming. You hear about the head of HUD telling underlings not to give contracts to Democrats. You hear over and over about "conected" companies getting huge no-bid contracts with no accountability...
IF Bush gets away with this - if the current prosecutors, Attorney General, Bush, etc. remain in place - come election time 2008 the only news the PUBLIC will be hearing is news about federal indictments of corrupt Democrats. That's what this is about.
Update - CREW calls for a Special Prosecutor because obviously the Bush Justice Department isn't going to investigate. But who appoints the special prosecutor?
CREW wants the immediate appointment of a Special Prosecutor to investigate potential criminal violations related to the recent dismissals of eight U.S. Attorneys. Recent revelations indicate that a top-ranking Department of Justice official knew that statements made by top Department officials were not true. Clearly, the Department of Justice cannot investigate itself and prosecute the misconduct of DOJ officials. CREW also asked the Department of Justice’s Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility to investigate the situation.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:03 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
March 12, 2007
The First US Attorney Firing
The current scandal over political use of US Attorneys is not the first one. In 2002 Bush blocked a corruption investigation into Jack Abramoff by firing the US Attorney just as he was closing in. Bush replaced him with a cousin of one of the targets -- who had been recommended by the local Republican Party.
A 2005 story, Bush removal ended Guam investigation,
A US grand jury in Guam opened an investigation of controversial lobbyist Jack Abramoff more than two years ago, but President Bush removed the supervising federal prosecutor, and the probe ended soon after.Go read about it.
The Republican corruption machine was in full operation by 2002. Here was Bush covering up Abramoff's crimes by firing a prosecutor.
The statute of limitations has not yet run out on this.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
March 9, 2007
Questions On US Attorney Firings
Talking Points Memo is asking the right questions about the Republicans firing US Attorneys who wouldn't "play ball" by dropping investigations of Republican corruption, and by launching trumped-up investigations of Democrats.
1) We know about the ones who were fired. What about the ones who were not -- WHY not? The REAL stink is on the ones who WEREN'T fired! What did they do to keep their jobs. Did they improperly drop investigations of Republicans and/or launch improper investigations of Demcorats?
2) Why isn't the Justice Department management? Why aren't we hearing statements from the Justice Department,
about how DOJ will not tolerate elected officials attempting to influence its prosecutors, how DOJ has its prosecutors' backs, how DOJ would remind prosecutors to report any such contacts, and would urge anyone who has not previously reported such contacts to come forward now.The silence is a statement. It is a threat to employees of the Department that if they come forward there will be retaliation.
And, of course, what does this say about the use of OTHER departments of the federal government?
We have been watching as Government and Party merge. Under these authoritarian Republicans the government has morphed into an enforcement arm of The Party. A better question might be whether there is any agency of the government that has not been corrupted?
One day we will all be shocked - even me - at how close we came to totalitarianism. That is, IF we make it through this. We haven't yet. And we won't until people go to jail for this kind of thing.
Watch your backs.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:09 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
March 4, 2007
Conservatives Always Choose Corporate Profits Over People's Lives
The Bush Administration is about to let a drug company sell one of our few remaining effective antibiotics for use on livestock. This is so the drug company can make higher profits. They do not care that this decision could kill a LOT of us.
Here is what is going on: These days people don't think of infections as serious, not to mention potentially fatal. This is because we have antibiotics to kill the germs. But throughout human history bacteria were one of the biggest - if not the biggest - causes of death. All the way up until the discovery of penicillin - less than 100 years ago - people used to die from things as simple as a cut getting infected.
The germs have been fighting back. They build up resistance to the drugs we use against them, and over time the drugs stop working. This is the reason doctors tell people to be sure to take ALL of the antibiotics in a prescription even if they start to feel better -- you need to kill ALL of the germs or the ones that survive develop resistance. The other reason is that drugs are given to livestock because they help them get fatter quicker. Over time, through simple evolution and natural selection, the germs become resistant to the antibiotics and we all are put at risk. One after another the antibiotics have become nearly useless. In fact, we only have a few effective antibiotics left.
Think about what would happen if germs get a chance to build resistance to the few remaining effective antibiotics. Now read this news story:
FDA Rules Override Warnings About Drug - Cattle Antibiotic Moves Forward Despite Fears of Human Risk,
The government is on track to approve a new antibiotic to treat a pneumonia-like disease in cattle, despite warnings from health groups and a majority of the agency's own expert advisers that the decision will be dangerous for people.And WHY are they going to approve using this drug in cattle? Because the company is willing to sacrifice future effectiveness of the drug in order to make higher profits today. From the story,... The American Medical Association and about a dozen other health groups warned the Food and Drug Administration that giving cefquinome to animals would probably speed the emergence of microbes resistant to that important class of antibiotics, as has happened with other drugs. Those super-microbes could then spread to people.
"The industry says that 'until you show us a direct link to human mortality from the use of these drugs in animals, we don't think you should preclude their use,' " said Edward Belongia, an epidemiologist at the Marshfield Clinic Research Foundation in Wisconsin. "But do we really want to drive more resistance genes into the human population? It's easy to open the barn door, but it's hard to close the door once it's open."This has already happened before. Again, from the story,
The FDA knows how hard it can be to close that door. In the mid-1990s, overriding the objections of public health experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the drug agency approved the marketing of two drugs, Baytril and SaraFlox, for use in poultry. Both are fluoroquinolones, a class of drugs important for their ability to fight the bioterror bacterium that causes anthrax and a food-borne bacterium called campylobacter, which causes a serious diarrheal disease in people.A broader question is raised by this: If there are so few effective antibiotics, shouldn't they be considered to be a common resource -- something that is "owned" by the people for the people? How can a corporation be allowed to decide something like this, something that could kill a LOT of us, on the basis of making a short-term profit, a quick buck?
Conservatives -- they choose corporate profits over people every single time.
Update - Mary has more on this at The Left Coaster.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
February 21, 2007
Bush Cutting Medicaid To Pay For ONE FAMILY's Tax Cut
Who is our economy FOR? Bush is cutting Medicaid by $28 billion. Bush is giving the Walton family (Wal-Mart heirs) a $32.7 billion tax cut. You do the math.
Go see who else wins and loses: Maybe We Deserve to Be Ripped Off By Bush's Billionaires,
If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family -- the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- would be about $32.7 billion dollars over the next ten years.More information you will not see in your local newspaper or on the news...The proposed reductions to Medicaid over the same time frame? $28 billion.
[. . .] That's not only bad government, it's bad capitalism. It makes legalized bribery and political connections more important factors than performance and competition in the corporate marketplace. Beyond that, it's just plain fucking offensive to ordinary people. It's one thing to complain about paying taxes when those taxes are buying a bag of groceries once a month for some struggling single mom in eastern Kentucky. But when your taxes are buying a yacht for some asshole who hires African eight year-olds to pick cocoa beans for two cents an hour ... I sure don't remember reading an excuse for that anywhere in the Federalist Papers.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:46 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
February 13, 2007
Another Republican Corruption Indictment
Federal grand jury indicts Foggo, Wilkes,
A federal grand jury on Tuesday issued indictments against Poway defense contractor Brent Wilkes and former high-ranking CIA official Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, childhood friends from San Diego who are entangled in the Randy “Duke” Cunningham congressional corruption scandal.
The Bush administration appears to have tried to block this indictment by firing the prosecutor. But she seems to have managed to get this indictent in just before being forced out. It's against the "It's OK If You Are Republican" rules to indict Republicans no matter what they do. I'm serious. Go read Study: Feds Chase Dems More than GOPers,
A study of reported federal investigations of elected officials and candidates shows that the Bush administration’s Justice Department pursues Democrats far more than Republicans. 79 percent of elected officials and candidates who’ve faced a federal investigation (a total of 379) between 2001 and 2006 were Democrats, the study found – only 18 percent were Republicans. During that period, Democrats made up 50 percent of elected officeholders and office seekers during the time period, and 41 percent were Republicans during that period, according to the study."The chance of such a heavy Democratic-Republican imbalance occurring at random is 1 in 10,000," according to the study's authors.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
February 6, 2007
Pallets Of Cash - Billions
Well, years later it's finally hitting a mainstream outlet - the Bush administration sent pallots of cash to a war zone, and didn't have any way to track where it went (which was probably the plan): U.S. sent pallets of cash to Baghdad,
The U.S. Federal Reserve sent record payouts of more than $4 billion in cash to Baghdad on giant pallets aboard military planes ...And where did it go?... Bills weighing a total of 363 tons were loaded onto military aircraft in the largest cash shipments ever made by the Federal Reserve...
On December 12, 2003, $1.5 billion was shipped to Iraq, initially "the largest pay out of U.S. currency in Fed history," according to an e-mail cited by committee members.
It was followed by more than $2.4 billion on June 22, 2004, and $1.6 billion three days later. The CPA turned over sovereignty on June 28.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:53 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 18, 2007
Another Right-Wing Lie - Bloggers and Lobbyists
The right is circulating another lie - don't fall for it.
The right-wingers are claiming that the Senate lobbyist reform bill would force bloggers to register as lobbyists. That is just a lie.
See Congress to Send Critics to Jail, Says Richard Viguerie
What the bill would really do is require those who are paid to lobby to register as lobbyists and disclose what they are up to. And they have to be paid more than $25,000 before they even have to do that. That the right-wing bloggers are so worried about this does say something, doesn't it?
There's also a comment on this at AmericaBlog.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:37 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
Senate Republicans Block Ethics Reform
They're making out too well from the corruption - it is what funds the Republican Party. So new Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is blocking attempts to reform ethics and lobbying.
Republicans Halt Ethics Legislation,
Senate Republicans scuttled broad legislation last night to curtail lobbyists' influence and tighten congressional ethics rules, refusing to let the bill pass without a vote on an unrelated measure that would give President Bush virtual line-item-veto power.So here we are.
Everyone who thought the fight was over because the Democrats have a majority in the House and Senate now, raise your hands.
Update - From Sen. McConnell's office,
Republicans didn’t derail the ethics reform bill. They’re enthusiastic about voting for it. Republicans just want earmark reform, as well. (and Democrats have already accepted an earmark reform amendment in the ethics bill, so it’s not really unrelated)Update II - Evening - Senate passes ethics reform bill
After a spirited debate over the year's first order of business, the Senate reached a bipartisan agreement on ethics reform Thursday and approved a package designed to burnish its image in the wake of recent corruption scandals.The Senate voted 96-2 for a measure that would prohibit lobbyists from paying for gifts for lawmakers and their staffs, including travel. It also would require full disclosure on which lawmakers have requested funding earmarks for specific projects in lawmakers' home states or districts.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:23 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 12, 2007
Bush Still President - Corruption, Coverups Continue
Bush is still president, and still has the power to fire prosecutors who go after Republican corruption.
Cunningham Prosecutor Forced Out,
Carole Lam, the San Diego U.S. Attorney who prosecuted the corrupt former lawmaker, is being quietly pushed out by the Bush administration.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 7, 2007
Why Did We Invade Iraq?
The question that has never been satisfactorily answered - WHY did we invade Iraq? If you ask 100 people you will get 50 different answers - which means that no one really understands.
Future of Iraq: The spoils of war - How the West will make a killing on Iraqi oil riches ,
Iraq's massive oil reserves, the third-largest in the world, are about to be thrown open for large-scale exploitation by Western oil companies under a controversial law which is expected to come before the Iraqi parliament within days.Maybe that explains this, from the "Energy Task Force" that did its work BEFORE the invasion, Cheney Energy Task Force Documents Detail Iraqi Oil Industry:The US government has been involved in drawing up the law, a draft of which has been seen by The Independent on Sunday. It would give big oil companies such as BP, Shell and Exxon 30-year contracts to extract Iraqi crude and allow the first large-scale operation of foreign oil interests in the country since the industry was nationalised in 1972.
The huge potential prizes for Western firms will give ammunition to critics who say the Iraq war was fought for oil. They point to statements such as one from Vice-President Dick Cheney, who said in 1999, while he was still chief executive of the oil services company Halliburton, that the world would need an additional 50 million barrels of oil a day by 2010. "So where is the oil going to come from?... The Middle East, with two-thirds of the world's oil and the lowest cost, is still where the prize ultimately lies," he said.
Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force appeared to have some interest in early 2001 in Iraq's oil industry, including which foreign companies were pursuing business there, according to documents released Friday by a private watchdog group.Judicial Watch (search), a conservative legal group, obtained a batch of task force-related Commerce Department papers that included a detailed map of Iraq's oil fields, terminals and pipelines as well as a list entitled "Foreign Suitors of Iraqi Oilfield Contracts."
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 5, 2007
And In The House - Earmarks and Corporate Jets Gone
House passes more ethics reform, budget rule
The new Democrat-led House of Representatives on Friday passed a second batch of ethics reforms in as many days and resurrected controls they said would help end deficit spending.But wait, there's more!One day after taking over the House after Republicans' 12-year rule, Democrats won rules changes they claimed would restore civility to the badly tarnished chamber and curb "earmarks" — special-interest money and tax breaks often secretly inserted into legislation.
The move won applause from some of the most conservative House Republicans, including Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona, who said Democrats "had more guts than we did to tackle earmark reform in a meaningful way. I compliment them for that."
Earmarks have ranged from tax breaks for handfuls of individuals to big-ticket military contracts and lawmakers' hometown projects.
Democrats also pushed through rules changes to tighten up the way floor votes are conducted. The goal was to stop a past Republican practice of holding "15-minute votes" open, sometimes for hours, so they could change the outcome.
The House action followed nearly unanimous approval on Thursday of related ethics reforms putting more distance between lobbyists and lawmakers. That measure bans lobbyists' gifts, restricts privately funded junkets and bans members' use of corporate jets.... Turning to economic matters, House Democrats won a rules change aimed at controlling federal budget deficits, which have been chronic during President George W. Bush's presidency.
The "pay as you go" rule, in effect for most of the 1990s and until it expired in 2002, would stop new tax cuts or new spending on "entitlement" programs unless those policy changes were paid for through tax hikes or other spending cuts.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:05 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
The War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007
Yes, it has started. The Democrats are starting to introduce changes. Bush will certainly veto THIS one! It would ruin the retirement plans of so many of his buddies!
Leahy Introduces Bills To Combat War Profiteering, Public Corruption
Signaling a renewed emphasis on combating corruption at home and abroad, incoming Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), introduced a package of bills Thursday targeting corrupt officials and private companies seeking to defraud American taxpayers and troops.Some of the hilites of the War Profiteering bill: (followed by the Corruption bill)... Many Democratic Senators joined Leahy in reintroducing a bill creating criminal penalties for war profiteers and cheats who would exploit taxpayer-funded efforts in Iraq and elsewhere around the world.
The Effective Corruption Prosecutions Act of 2007War Profiteering Prevention Act of 2007 § Criminalizes war profiteering, which is defined as materially overvaluing any good or service with the specific intent to excessively profit from the war and relief or reconstruction activities
§ Statute would strengthen the tools available to federal prosecutors to combat war profiteering by providing clear authority for the Government to seek criminal penalties and to recover excessive profits for war profiteering overseas.
§ Prohibits any fraud against the United States, Iraq, or any other foreign country involving a contract for the provision of any goods or services in connection with a war, military action, or relief or reconstruction activities.
§ Subjects violators to up to 20 years imprisonment and a fine not to exceed the greater of $1,000,000 or twice the amount of any illegal gross profits, or both.
§ Prohibits making a false statement in any matter involving a contract for the provision of any goods or services in connection with a war, military action, or relief or reconstruction activities.
§ Subjects violators of this provision to up to 10 years imprisonment and a fine not to exceed the greater of $1,000,000, or twice the amount of any illegal gross profits, or both.
§ Creates extraterritorial jurisdiction over offenses committed overseas, and covers any person in the United States or abroad who violates its provisions.
Provides federal investigators and prosecutors the statutory tools and the resources needed to ensure that serious and insidious public corruption is detected and punished.Extends the statute of limitations for the most serious public corruption offenses, including bribery, deprivation of honest services, and extortion by a public official, from five years to eight years.
Facilitates the investigation and prosecution of a key federal statute used for prosecuting bribery involving state and local officials, as well as officials of the many organizations that receive substantial federal money
Authorizes $25 million over each of the next four years to give federal investigators and prosecutors needed resources to go after public corruption.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 4, 2007
Breaking News About Exxon Funding Lies
Reuters - ExxonMobil cultivates global warming doubt -report
Energy giant ExxonMobil borrowed tactics from the tobacco industry to raise doubt about climate change, spending $16 million on groups that question global warming, a science watchdog group said on Wednesday."ExxonMobil (XOM.N: Quote, Profile , Research) has manufactured uncertainty about the human causes of global warming just as tobacco companies denied their product caused lung cancer," Alden Meyer of the Union of Concerned Scientists said at a telephone news conference releasing the report.
An ExxonMobil spokesman did not respond immediately to calls for comment.
... U.S. tobacco companies used these tactics for decades to hide the hazards of smoking, and were found liable in federal court last year for violating racketeering laws. [emphasis added]
See also AP - Group: ExxonMobil paid to mislead public
Finally, see this from September, The Denial Industry,ExxonMobil Corp. gave $16 million to 43 ideological groups between 1998 and 2005 in an effort to mislead the public by discrediting the science behind global warming, the Union of Concerned Scientists asserted Wednesday.
The report by the advocacy group mirrors similar claims by Britain's leading scientific academy. Last September, The Royal Society wrote the oil company asking it to halt support for groups that "misrepresented the science of climate change."
... ExxonMobil lists on its Web site nearly $133 million in 2005 contributions globally, including $6.8 million for "public information and policy research" distributed to more than 140 think tanks, universities, foundations, associations and other groups. Some of those have publicly disputed any link between greenhouse gas emissions and global warming.
Alden Meyer, the Union of Concerned Scientists' strategy and policy director, said in a teleconference that ExxonMobil based its tactics on those of tobacco companies, spreading uncertainty by misrepresenting peer-reviewed scientific studies or emphasizing only selected facts.
Dr. James McCarthy, a professor at Harvard University, said the company has sought to "create the illusion of a vigorous debate" about global warming.
For years, a network of fake citizens' groups and bogus scientific bodies has been claiming that science of global warming is inconclusive. They set back action on climate change by a decade. But who funded them? Exxon's involvement is well known, but not the strange role of Big Tobacco. In the first of three extracts from his new book, George Monbiot tells a bizarre and shocking new story.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:32 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
December 3, 2006
Is This Legal
In a continuing series, STF asks if it is legal for the Secretary of the navy to decide contracts based on the politics of the locality?
Michelle Malkin: Navy to San Francisco: See ya, haters! references a news story, Navy scuttles plan to commission warship here, citing local politics,
Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter vetoed plans to commission the Makin Island, the Navy's newest and most powerful warship, in San Francisco in 2008 because of a perception that the city is anti-military.So San Francisco is not Republican enough to get military contracts? Didn't we just have an election in which the public voted AGAINST corruption?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:47 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
November 13, 2006
It's About Money
NYTimes story this morning: Administration Opposes Democrats’ Plan for Negotiating Medicare Drug Prices,
The Bush administration said on Sunday that it would strenuously oppose one of the Democrats’ top priorities for the new Congress: legislation authorizing the government to negotiate with drug companies to secure lower drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries.This is entirely about money and corruption. The Democrats have the House and Senate, and are implementing new rules that make it very hard for money to influence the process. So there is a LOT of lobbyist money floating around looking for a place to land. This is Bush sending out the word that the Republicans are still able to influence legislation - for the right price. He is saying to the pharmaceutical industry - pay us and we can block this. If the Democrats change this policy it will cost the drug companies billions.In an interview, Michael O. Leavitt, the secretary of health and human services, said he saw no prospect of compromise on the issue.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 6:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
November 8, 2006
A Call With Speaker-To-Be Pelosi
I just got off of a 40-minute call with a few bloggers and Speaker-To-Be Pelosi.
Here are some things can be and will be changed right now, as a matter of the rules the House sets for itself:
Earmarks - Any earmarks must be presented in public before the committee, be publicly justified and approved by the committee. NO tax earmarks at all. This ends the system of purchasing earmarks.
Lobbying crackdown - NO gifts, meals, trips, etc. from lobbyists, period. Plus other reforms.
Open government - the leadership will not restrict amendments to bills. This means that Republicans will be able to offer amendments to bills before the House - something they prevented Democrats from doing. This lets policy be set by the strength of ideas rather than corrupt deals and hidden agendas.
Some needed changes require legislation, which will be introduces ASAP, including:
- Public financing of elections to remove the entire campaign contribution corruption system.
- Requiring non-partisan redistricting of every state, decided by a non-partisan commission, which will occur only after each 10-year census. Political considerations will be removed from the drawing of district boundaries.
- Oil subsidies ended and the money used to fund alternative energy.
There was a discussion of Iraq. I'll wait for other bloggers from the call to post and link to that.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:39 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
November 7, 2006
Organized Crime
The modern GOP -- or, more specifically, the Axis of '70s Campus Republicans running it -- really is just a criminal enterprise disguised as a political party.Dirty tricks, large and small, are a sorry fact of life in American politics, but what the Republicans have done over the past few weeks -- the surrealist attack ads, the forged endorsements, the midnight robo calls, the arrest threats, the voter misinformation (did you know your polling station has been moved?) -- is sui generis, at least at the national level.
Even Dick Nixon never tried anything like this on such a grand scale -- although, of course, he also didn't have the technology. The only thing we haven't seen yet is a break in at DNC headquarters. And if the Rovians thought they could get anything out of it that would be useful in this election (nobody else has) we'd probably be reading about that, too.
It's always possible to point to Democratic/liberal offenses, but at this point the comparisons look pretty silly: some downed yard signs here, a few crooked and/or stoned ACORN canvassers there. Not even in the same universe, much less the same ball park.
Couple the GOP's rat-fucking campaign with all the other stuff we already know about -- the collectivized bribery of the K Street Project, the Abramoff casino extortion ring, the Defense and CIA appropriation scams, the Iraq War contracting scams, the Pacific Island sex trade protection racket, the church pulpits doubling as ward halls, the illegal wiretapping, the lies, perjury and obstruction of justice in the Plame case (I really could go on like this all day) -- and it's clear that what we need most isn't a new Congress but a new RICO prosecution, with lots of defendents and unindicted co-conspirators.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
November 3, 2006
Corruption - A $6 Million Gift To Oil Company
In years past this alone would have been a major story and the corruption involved would not be tolerated. But this year it's just one more thing - a relatively small thing. We all know what is behing it - payments from lobbyists. The people involved will be leaving the government soon to "work" at the oil companies for unusually high pay. Gov't drops demand for Chevron royalty,
The department's Minerals Management Service had maintained that Chevron owed an additional $6 million for gas it took under federal leases in the Gulf between 1996 and 2002 and sold to Dynegy Inc., a company Chevron partially owns.The story comes on the same day as a larger story about the Republican Congress getting rid of the only agency conducting ANY oversight of Iraq spending. This is just two stories about corruption today. There will be two more tomorrow and the day after...Essentially, the government argued that Chevron undervalued the gas it sold to Dynegy. Chevron paid royalties based on a price that didn't represent fair market value, the government auditors said.
But last summer, the government quietly rescinded its demand for the additional royalties. That decision was reported Tuesday by the New York Times, based on documents the newspaper obtained through a freedom of information request.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
Can You Do It In One Breath?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:13 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
October 18, 2006
Reid vs Hastert
From October 12-17, CNN aired 3,361 words about allegations that Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid (NV) improperly reported a land deal in which he made $700,000.Seventeen different CNN transcripts in the Nexis database include mention of the Reid land deal -- and that doesn't even count October 18, when CNN has aired at least one more lengthy segment on the deal.
By comparison, CNN has aired only 65 words about a land deal in which House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-IL) made nearly $2 million, a story which was first reported by the Chicago Sun-Times on June 15. By contrast, the Reid land deal first broke a week ago, when the Associated Press reported on October 11 that Reid had made $700,000 "on a Las Vegas land sale even though he hadn't personally owned the property for three years."
Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:03 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
October 6, 2006
Pelosi - "Drain The Swamp"
Pelosi says she would drain GOP 'swamp',
Day One: Put new rules in place to "break the link between lobbyists and legislation."Day Two: Enact all the recommendations made by the commission that investigated the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
Time remaining until 100 hours: Raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour, maybe in one step. Cut the interest rate on student loans in half. Allow the government to negotiate directly with the pharmaceutical companies for lower drug prices for Medicare patients.
Broaden the types of stem cell research allowed with federal funds — "I hope with a veto-proof majority," she added in an Associated Press interview Thursday.
All the days after that: "Pay as you go," meaning no increasing the deficit, whether the issue is middle class tax relief, health care or some other priority.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:06 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
October 2, 2006
Were Republican Leaders Blackmailing Foley?
One question stands out -- WHY did the Republican leadership keep Foley in place after they learned what he was doing? Mary at Pacific Views asks,Was It Blackmail?,
My answer is what better way to make sure someone does your bidding?Of course go read the whole thing.After all, this is the Republican Party built by Tom DeLay, Karl Rove, Jack Abramoff and Ralph Reed. ... How he was able to hammer the Republicans into doing his bidding. Then consider, what are some things that make people do things that they might not normally do?
Another question to get more insight what might be happening: what did the KGB do when they wanted to turn a spy? They used a couple of approaches: they found something in the private life of the spy to hold over them or they found a way to compromise them with something they wanted. It's one of main reasons that spies are watched for affairs (and being a closeted gay was considered to be a major security risk) or for spending extra money.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:39 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
September 29, 2006
Bush Dishonesty Ratio: 485 to 2
So... just HOW dishonest is Bush? Well, let's approach this scientifically. Remember in May, when the White House said that Jack Abramoff only had two contacts with the White House? White House logs list only 2 Abramoff visits - May 10, 2006,
Newly released visitor logs show disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff was signed in to the White House complex on two occasions since President Bush took office in 2001, including once when the president was out of town.Well it turns out the White House misunderestimated the number,
The House Government Reform Committee report, based on e-mail messages and other records subpoenaed from Mr. Abramoff’s lobbying firm, found 485 contacts between Mr. Abramoff’s lobbying team and White House officials from 2001 to 2004, including 82 with Mr. Rove’s office. [emphasis added]So, there we have it. We can now calculate that when the White House says '2' the truth is '485'.
Let's hope they aren't saying we'll be occupying Iraq for 2 more years.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:39 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
September 25, 2006
Authoritarianism and Theocracy -- Bloggers Are Sounding A Warning
Arianna Huffington, in Bill Clinton's Bipartisan Love-In Blows Up in His Face writes,
Hooray! Good for Bill Clinton. He finally called Fox News and the right-wing on their BS, right? Well, sort of.There is a fundamental point here. I, and many others, think that the Democratic leadership has profoundly misjudged the nature and intentions of the conservative movement. John Dean, in his book Conservatives Without Conscience, warns that we are witnessing the rise of an authoritarian government, and Kevin Phillips, in American Theocracy, warns that the current Republican leadership is intent on bringing about a theocracy. This is not politics-as-usual. THIS is what the bloggers are so shrill about.... I'm glad the Chris Wallace interview is flying all over the internet, but I really hope that one person who will watch it over and over again is Bill Clinton. And that on the fifth or sixth viewing it might occur to him that the more cover he gives Bush and his cronies, the more they're able to increase and entrench their power. Power they use to destroy everything that Clinton purports to stand for.
In March I wrote,
Maybe, just maybe, they mean the things they are saying. And I think this warning about the extreme things the Right is saying is a big part of what political blogging is about.
... So political bloggers are more likely than others to be visiting websites and forums where right-wingers more openly discuss their ideas, or are more likely to be listening to Limbaugh and others on the radio. And what we are reading and hearing is frightening. The things they are saying to each other are DIFFERENT from what they are saying to the public. The things they are writing and saying are extreme and violent and subversive. It is not like what we as Americans are used to reading and hearing.The signs are all around us -- take it seriously.The things the Republicans are saying and doing are so extreme that regular people refuse to believe it when you try to warn them about what is happening.
... Bloggers are trying to warn the public that what is going on in America is DIFFERENT from politics-as-usual. The bloggers have been trying to get the Democratic leadership and the media to understand this. We are seeing something new to America forming, something dangerous to democracy. The "pendulum" is not swinging back.
... When will the Democratic leadership begin to realize that the extreme things the Republicans are saying might be what they mean to do?
Watch your backs.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:50 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
August 29, 2006
Will Bush Justice Dept. Investigate ANY Incidence Of Corruption?
The summary of the ... inspector general’s report said the United States attorney’s office in Washington had been given the report and decided not to conduct a criminal inquiry into the matter.
Details:
- ... improperly hired a friend on the public payroll for nearly $250,000...
- ... used his government office for personal business, including running a “horse racing operation” in which he supervised a stable of thoroughbreds he named after leaders from Afghanistan, including President Hamid Karzai and the late Ahmed Shah Massoud...
- ... repeatedly used government employees to do his personal errands and that he billed the government for more days of work than the rules permit...
- ... hiring of phantom or unqualified employees...
- ... violated rules meant to insulate public television and radio from political influence...
His renomination by President Bush to another term ... is pending before the Senate. ... Emily Lawrimore, a White House spokeswoman, said President Bush continues to support Mr. Tomlinson’s renomination.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:34 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
Extensive Corruption
Read this story, written by Bob Johnson, running for Congress in New York's 23rd CD, about extensive corruption in US Government contractiing in Iraq (and follow the links). Daily Kos: Judge: Contractors Are Above the Law; We Can Fight Back. And here's the key line:
And the Republican government has actively blocked all efforts at investigating this in any way.And how can this continue?
The committees responsible in the House, especially the Armed Services Committee ... have, to my knowledge, not held a single hearing on this matter. Every attempt at even holding hearings gets bottled up in the Rules Committee in the House. The corruption is so obvious and blatant, and the efforts to block looking into it so complete, it's hard not to get the feeling that it's deliberate.Here's one part of the problem: The corruption is so extenive and so profound, and so un-reported in the media, that YOU sound like a crazy person, a fanatic, if you try to tell people what is going on!
The Republican Congress blocks oversight hearings into the corruption. The Republican Justice Department blocks investigations and harasses whistleblowers. Republican judges throw the cases out of court. And the corrupt contractors kick back a portion of the tax-dollars they are paid to fund the machine that keeps them in office.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:11 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
August 18, 2006
Doolittle -- Corrupt or Ineffective?
Is Rep. John Doolittle Corrupt or Ineffective?
Charlie Brown is the Democratic candidate running against Doolittle. Go visit.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:09 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
August 17, 2006
Tobacco Companies Killed - But Won't Be Fined
Tobacco firms lose ruling but escape damage,
U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler ruled that a group of tobacco companies had broken the law, but could not be forced to pay monetary penalties such as funding a large anti-smoking campaign, as the government had sought.This was because in 2005, two Republican judges - David B. Sentelle and Stephen F. Williams - ruled that the government can't go after the tobacco companies for past wrongs....Kessler said the companies suppressed research, destroyed documents and manipulated nicotine levels to perpetuate addiction, but an appeals court ruling prevented her from slapping the companies with costly remedies. [. . .] That opinion, written by U.S. Appeals Court Judge David Sentelle, barred the government from seeking $280 billion in past industry profits, depriving the government of its biggest potential weapon in the case.
Yes, THIS Sentelle and Williams. Ken Starr, Iran/Contra, warrantless wiretapping, Microsoft ... and a long list.
All the tobacco and other corporate money, all the millions and millions spent funding the Right paid off, and has left us with this country and its culture of corruption that lets corporations rob from us - even kill us - with impunity.
From the BBC story, Tobacco firms lose civil lawsuit
In her ruling, Judge Gladys Kessler said it was clear that "smoking causes disease, suffering, and death".But the firms will not be fined or forced to fund anti-smoking programs.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
August 13, 2006
Value of 50-State Strategy Illustrated
MyDD :: Why We File Everywhere
Democrats managed to find 425 candidates to run for Congress this year. But that still left ten districts without a Democratic candidate. One of the ten districts without a Democratic candidate is CA-42, which is represented by Republican Gary Miller.
Republican Representative Gary Miller just got caught stealing millions of dollars by not paying taxes after selling 165 acres of land to the city of Monrovia. (And I wonder what will happen when THAT transaction receives scrutiny.) Chris writes,
We have in CA-42 a congressman who ripped off taxpayers by more than $3M, and then pocketed the money himself. Suddenly, the CA-42 looks like it might be winnable. If this story blows up, than Gary Miller is finished. Defrauding a local town for more than $3M of taxpayer money? Look at me with a straightface and tell me that won't make this district close.So if you live in CA-42 and decided not to file to run for Congress - it's too late now, the filing deadline has passed.Actually, it will not make this district close, because no Democrat qualified for the ballot here.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:21 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
July 22, 2006
A Post Everyone Should Read
Daily Kos: What Did You Expect, America?,
Would you hire a babysitter who hates children and thinks they should be eliminated? Or who declares for years in your hearing that children are irritants who should be starved to be small, unseen and mute?Oh, go read the whole thing.Would you hire cops who think laws are stupid and useless and should be abolished?
Would you hire a conductor for your orchestra who believes music itself an abomination?
Then why would you hire - and you did hire them, America; they are your employees, after all, not your rulers, despite their grandiose pretensions - members of a political party who think government is useless, ineffective, bloated and untrustworthy?
[. . .] In electing Republicans, America, you put people in charge of institutions they overtly, caustically loathe and proudly proclaim should not exist.
[. . .] Kee-rist on a pogo stick.
If you put people in charge of running a project they are ideologically committed to proving a failure, it will fail.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:37 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
July 13, 2006
Something Up?
Our buddy over at Confederate Yankee has been doing some investigating and has come up with something interesting, and is hinting at more to come. I think it's worth taking a look.
See Confederate Yankee: Culture of Corruption.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:59 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
June 26, 2006
Bush Pulls Ladder Up Behind Him
Bush issued an executive order today limiting "eminent domain" -- public seizure of private property to enrich private interests.
Does this mean that Bush is going to give the money back?
"A copy of the secret agreement among Mr. Bush and the other Rangers owners shows that they intended to make money not just by running a baseball club but also by land speculation.For example, one owner found a nice chunk of land and sent a memo suggesting that it "sounds like another condemnation candidate if you want to work the site into your master plan," according to the court documents. Another of the owners' internal memos casts a proprietary gaze on a property and declares: "We plan to condemn this land."
For a group of financiers to go around town admiring properties and deciding which to seize through the government power of condemnation so that they can acquire free land and speculate on it is appalling."
And:
Never before had a municipal authority in Texas been given license to seize the property of a private citizen for the benefit of other private citizens. That is exactly what happened to a recalcitrant Arlington family that refused to sell a 13-acre parcel near the stadium site for half its appraised value. Their land was condemned and handed over to the Rangers.As I wrote at the time,
So when you hear a right-winger complain about Kelo, and government seizures of property, let them know who the worst offender is, and point them to this info.And by the way, what ever happened to the Harken Oil insider trading document release that Bush promised?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:36 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
June 22, 2006
Looting Pensions and Eating Seed Corn
One more thing Bush will be remembered for: getting rid of pensions.
And by the way, where do you think the money went? When Reagan started the process, tricking people into thinking that a 401K - you put your money in - was somehow better than a corporate pension - they put money in FOR you - corporate profits started the big rise. That was the beginning of a huge transfer from future retirements to the very rich. But that wasn't enough, so the corporations also started underfunding their pension plans. Knowing they had a coming obligation they did not put the necessary money into the pension funds, instead sending the money to the top. And now, under Bush - who is still working to get rid of Social Security - corporations like United Airlines are cancelling pensions.
This is about OUR retirement savings, gone into the pockets of the Bush cronies. And what do the people who stole the pensions get? Tax cuts.
But wait, there's more.
It's not JUST our retirement savings that Bush is handing over to his cronies. You know that there is a huge budget deficit, but what do you think the budget deficit IS, anyway? Is it magic money from nowhere to pay for tax cuts for the rich, and the Iraq war? Of course not! Bush is borrowing trillions of dollars, handing it out to cronies (sometimes literally in duffel bags), and borrowed money has to be paid back with interest. Who do you think will have to pay that money back?
But wait, there's more.
Our tax dollars built America's infrastructure. Infrastructure is roads and bridges and water lines and schools and bank account insurance and regulations and all the things that support our economy. Every time a truck makes a delivery (sending profits upward) that truck drove on roads WE built. But are you and I - the public - sharing in the profits that come from the infrastructure we built? Who is our economy FOR, anyway? The corporations and rich are now largely excluded from paying taxes to maintain those roads, and America's infrastructure is crumbling. By not investing in infrastructure, Bush and his cronies are "eating our seed corn." So when we want to start rebuilding the infrastructure, who do you think will be paying?
We've all got a LOT to thank Bush and the Republicans for. And you're going to have some long, impoverished years to think about it.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
June 18, 2006
Bags of Cash -- One Piece of the Conservative Pie
Read this. Read the whole thing. Understand one segment of how the conservative machine works. This is just one piece of the pie.
... admitted to participating in money-laundering schemes by personally smuggling cash from South Korea into the United States. She also said she witnessed other cases in which bags of cash were carried into the United States and delivered ... returned from a trip ... “with $600,000 in cash which he had received from his father. ... Myself along with three or four other members that worked at Manhattan Center saw the cash in bags, shopping bags.” ... made sure that his steady flow of cash found its way into the pockets of key conservative operatives, especially when they were most in need, when they were facing financial crises.Read the whole thing.
Call and ask YOUR member of Congress why this is not investigated. Call and ask your newspaper, too. Of course, you risk sounding like a crazy person, trying to tell people what's going on with the Repubicans
Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:09 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
Put Them In Jail
The NY Times story, Former Antiterror Officials Find Industry Pays Better, talks about how a few of the Bush people who give out or help arrange big contracts then go "work" for the company that received the contract. The money is really big. For example,
In their new roles, former department officials often command salaries that dwarf their government paychecks. Carol A. DiBattiste, who made $155,000 in 2004 as deputy administrator at the Transportation Security Administration, earned more than $934,000 last year from ChoicePoint, a Homeland Security Department contractor she joined in April 2005, the same month she left the agency.$1 million a year. There is no question that corruption is involved there.
Every day more stories of corruption.
What do you do about this? When the Democrats take the House this November, they should initiate a government-wide corruption audit and investigate every single, smallest instance of this kind of sleaze. Every single Bush appointee who used their office to award a contract to a Republican campaign contributor should be put in jail. Every single Bush appointee who awarded or arranged a contract and then went to work at the recipient company should be put in jail. Every single company involved should be put out of business, its assets seized and its executives put in jail. EVERY SINGLE ONE! That will put an end to this game once and for all.
And talking today about doing it will go a long way toward stopping the corruption - and the flow of corrupt money to the Republican machine - before the election.
Also - good for the New York Times for doing its job.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:37 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
June 13, 2006
South Central Farm Eviction In Process - Call Mayor Villagairosa Now!
[Call Mayor Villagairosa at 213-978-0600 and let him know that the whole world is watching, and that you want him to put people first, and step up his efforts to facilitate a resolution that preserves the farm as a space where poor urban residents, many of them immigrants and people of color, have an opportunity to grow healthy food and maintain a connection with the natural world. All the farmers need is time, the system is beginning to respond, not only as evidenced by the widespread support from celebrities, but by the fact that the Annenburg Foundation had stepped in and volunteered to help raise the last 8 or 9 million needed to purchase the farm - an activist friend of mine tells me that, in fact, they guaranteed that they'd be able to raise the money. The developer doesn't stand to lose money, he got the land in a sweetheart deal for less than market value, and will still make quite a bit of profit at a $15 million sale price. -Thomas]
To learn more about the South Central Farmers, visit: www.southcentralfarmers.com
L.A. COUNTY SHERIFFS EVICT THE SOUTH CENTRAL FARMERS IN EARLY MORNING RAID
Circle of Life Family,
This press release was just sent to us from the South Central Farm where Julia had been fasting and tree sitting for over 3 weeks. Daryl Hannah and John Quigley are still there and at last report were still in the walnut tree but about to get removed by sheriffs at any moment.
NEWS FLASH - 8:59am, 8 people have been carried out on stretchers and they have started to bull doze the land!
WHAT: Hundreds of officers with the Los Angeles Sheriff department swarmed onto the peaceful, non-violent South-Central Farmers garden at 5:15am today accompanied by six helicopters buzzing over the sleeping supporters.
Supporters of this 14 acre organic farming community remain outside the locked-down area on the street chanting their protest of this forceful action while 20 are still inside the farm.
Dozens of supporters have been living on the land, sleeping in tents, and taking turns living in the Walnut tree on the premise while fasting to show solidarity with the Farmers. Julia-Butterfly Hill just came down last week after fasting for 23 days. Several celebrities have shown up in the last few weeks - Willie Nelson, Martin Sheen, Danny Glover, Ed Begley, Jr, Joan Baez to name a few.
As of this time, Daryl Hannah and aerial artist John Quigley are up in the Walnut tree refusing to come down. 20 campers on the land have locked themselves to benches, fences and the base around the tree while L.A. County Sheriffs are attempting to saw their locks off.
Yesterday, a peace offering of organic flowers and fresh produce from the Farm was presented to the developer, Ralph Horowitz at his offices in Brentwood, California and to Mayor Antonio Villagairosa at City Hall. Their response to this
appears to be this early morning raid.
Citizens are frustrated with the Mayor because of his apparent lack of political leadership in this, even though he has publicly stated supported of the Farm in the last few weeks.
The Farm supporters are asking people to:
1. Call City Hall to ask that Mayor Villaraigosa step up and exhibit political leadership
and interfere with the eviction. PH: 213-978-0600
2. Come down to City Hall to express their support.
Address: 200 N. Spring Street - Los Angeles, CA 90029
3. Come to the Farm to Protest this oppressive and destructive action against the Farmers and their supporters
WHERE: 41st & Long Beach Ave.
Los Angeles, CA
(Alameda exit off Interstate 10)
WHEN: All Day
June 13, 2006
****A SPECIAL 7:00PM candlelight vigil will be held on-site
The public is encouraged to attend
To learn more about the South Central Farmers, visit:
www.southcentralfarmers.com
Contact: Fernando Flores: Co-Chair of South Central Farmers Support Coalition
PH: 909-605-3136
southcentralfarmers@yahoo.com
HISTORY:
The South Central Farm, a 14-acre green oasis in the middle of downtown Los Angeles, is in danger of being lost to warehouse development. This community garden has been operated mainly by Latino immigrants for more than a decade and has become an important part of the culture and open space in Los Angeles.
In 1992, the Farm was created in response to the Rodney King uprising to help develop and align the local South-Central
community. The Los Angeles Regional Food Bank signed a lease with the city of Los Angeles to set aside the South Central Farm as a community garden. Since then more than 350 impoverished families have banded together as the South Central Farmers to transform an industrial dump into an urban paradise. These families have been successfully augmenting their household food supply with the resultant harvest.
But in 2003 the city sold the land to a private developer to build warehouses. The community was outraged, and the farmers refused to leave the land while they tried to raise the money to buy the property themselves. For the last several weeks -- in the face of a deadline to come up with the money or be evicted -- the farmers, with the help of appeals by activists and celebrities, worked around the clock and successfully raised the money to purchase the property. At last report, the Annenburg Foundation had offered to help raise the 15 million to purchase the land but it seems responding to pressure, the developer has changed his mind and decided not to sell the land to the farmers after all.
Posted by Thomas Leavitt at 11:41 AM | Comments (22) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
June 9, 2006
YearlyKos -- Ethics, Corruption and Movement Politics Panel Remarks
Following are my prepared remarks to the Ethics, Corruption and Movement Politics panel:
I’ll begin by briefly going over the origins of the modern Conservative Movement, from Goldwater to Heritage Foundation to Reagan to now.
After Goldwater’s 1964 defeat the far right built – or bought, really – a movement based on persuading Americans to think differently about themselves and the world. And I do mean the far right. How many of you remember the base commander in Dr. Strangelove, muttering about “precious bodily fluids”? Well that was the far right I’m talking about, and I remember them. Actually they aren’t really all that different now – they just hide it.
With really big funding they set up the beginnings of a “persuasion engine.” They started setting up dozens, then more dozens of what are called think tanks, like the Heritage Foundation -- built around marketing the (make quote signs with fingers) “ ideas” they generate. But all this effort wasn’t about ideas to solve the country’s or humanity’s problems -- Everything was designed to change the public’s political attitudes and make us more accepting of right-wing ideology.
Using the latest sophisticated marketing research into techniques – things like strategic narrative, the actions of similar others, social network analysis, and social desirability bias – they began endlessly repeating, in a thousand variations, the message that a conservative approach is better, and liberals are bad and stupid and shameful and evil.
Have any of you heard any of that – on the radio, or on TV maybe?
And they thought long term. They understood that the high school student they influenced today could some day be an activist or candidate. They understood that the junior research assistant they paid now would be the noted author or the influential columnist later. And they paid well – no point losing these people to the business world. You could make a LIVING being a conservative.
They also set up a huge media “Echo chamber” with conservative movement authors and commentators citing conservative movement “scholars” and “Institutes,” and so on, until their “reports” and “studies” seemed to be coming from every media outlet.
Eventually people started to think that there was a consensus of “experts” who all agreed that these conservative approaches were the only practical solutions to our problems. In short, they repeat marketing messages through multiple channels, over a sustained period of time, to create CONVENTIONAL WISDOM.
For more about the history of this movement go to commonwealinstitute.org/information.html That’s Commonweal like commonwealth without the th – look for the RESOURCES button on the Commonweal site, that takes you to that information.
The conservative movement didn’t just build UP THEIR ideas in the minds of the public. They also used their communications machine to tear DOWN their opponents -- organizations and political parties and even individuals.
Most people today perceive Jimmy Carter as having been a bad president. But let me suggest something. Knowing what we know now about how the right’s smear machine works, please go find and read President Carter’s so-called “Malaise speech.” Google the words “carter malaise speech”. Read that speech and you’ll see the signs that he was under attack by this right-wing machine that we are more familiar with today. We didn’t understand it back then but you’ll SEE it now. And knowing what we know now about oil and energy … you’ll cry. Especially when you see Al Gore’s new movie An Inconvenient Truth.
The reason this is relevant to this panel is that Carter was up against the machine, funded in part by the big oil companies. Their problem with Carter wasn’t ideological, it was only business -- Carter tried to reduce our use of oil – reductions that are so relevant today as we face Middle East wars, category 5 hurricanes and melting glaciers. Go read that speech.
This machine grew powerful -- they destroyed Carter - and then Mondale, then Dukakis, then Clinton, then Gore. Kerry went up against the machine and got the Swift Boating. Labor unions, environmentalists, teachers, civil and women's rights advocates, advocates for the poor, almost any group with the word "community" in its name, and so many others unfortunately also find themselves on the defense.
So, like I said the conservative persuasion machine and media echo chamber quickly moved past that initial far-right funding to also take in big corporate money. But corporate money is “interested” money – it necessarily has strings or it would not be given. And the strings necessarily go back to the interests of the corporation – not the public or the country – or even the conservative movement.
The movement followed the money and started to change from pure ideology to lobbying for the interests of the corporate backers. The think tanks began making arguments in support of what were little more than paying customers.
And so did their politicians.
For example, some of you have wondered why the logging industry are good Conservatives for cutting the trees, but the fishing industry, which depends on leaving the trees alone, are called environmental whackos. Ask, rather, who pays more?
(Personally, I always wondered why Jesus was in favor of capital gains taxcuts and dividend exclusions? But that’s another story)
Finally with Bush in office the lobbying turned to outright corruption, PURCHASING of legislation, regulation or deregulation, tax breaks, lucrative contracts and policy, by whoever offered the highest bribe.
So I have laid out some of the background that set the stage for the Republican corruption scandals you read about on the blogs. Also on the panel today is David Sirota, who has written a GREAT new book about this Hostile Takeover of our country by big money and corruption. So without further ado, let me pass the microphone to David.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:25 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
May 23, 2006
Corruption In Iraq
Through Juan Cole, this LA Times story, In Corruption, New Government of Iraq Faces a Tough Old Foe,
Iraqi government documents obtained by the Los Angeles Times reveal the breadth of corruption, including epic schemes involving hundreds of millions of dollars in government contracts, as well as smaller-scale cases such as the purchase of better grades by university students and the distribution of U.S.-issue pistols as party favors by a former Justice Ministry official.But what kind of system would we EXPECT Bush and the Republican Culture of Corruption to set up - an honest one? HA!"We are seeing corruption everywhere in Iraq — in every ministry, in every governorate," said Judge Radhi Radhi, head of the Commission on Public Integrity, Iraq's anti-corruption agency.
If you are an American soldier, you can thank the Republican Culture of Corruption for this:
Corruption helps fuel the insurgency too, Radhi said. "The terrorists help the criminals, and the criminals help the terrorists," he said. "Without corruption, we would have been able to defeat the terrorists by now."
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:25 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
May 22, 2006
Election Coming II -- Indicting Dem Donors
A little while ago I posted about an Iraq withdrawal announcement, timed for the coming elections. Now this - indictments of top Democratic donors, timed for the election. The story seems designed for a Republican Party press release,
The firm and individuals there made $2.78 million in campaign donations to Democrats since 1999 compared to about $22,000 to Republicans, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money in politics.Gosh, why would the Bush administration indict a law firm?... Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, said Republicans would likely use the donations as ammunition in the November congressional elections and to blunt criticism about recent corruption scandals involving Republicans.
They will target "every individual Democrat in a competitive race in 2006 to begin with," Sabato said.
They also will mount "a P.R. offensive to make certain that this helps to balance the Democrats' charges of a culture of corruption that affects only Republicans," he said.
By its own account, Milberg Weiss has won more than $45 billion in its suits against corporations.In fact, the whole case seems so well crafted to support Republican ideology going into the campaign:
Yesterday's indictment of class action plaintiffs' law firm Milberg Weiss in connection with a fraud case promises to shine a bright spotlight on the need for tort reform.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:35 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
May 10, 2006
Insurance Election Scandal Brewing In California
I have been hearing about a scandal brewing over insurance regulation in California. Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, who is now a candidate for Lt. Governor has called in the California Attorney General and the FBI to investigate a blackmail and extortion charge. See Garamendi says insurers trying to coerce him on auto regulations; asks FBI, state to investigate
State Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi accused automobile insurers of "coercion, extortion and blackmail" for launching a $2.4 million campaign attacking his proposed regulations that would cut the cost of some drivers' coverage in crowded urban areas. He asked the FBI, the U.S. Attorney and state Attorney General Bill Lockyer to investigate his allegations.This one has a video clip: Auto Insurers Accused Of Blackmailing CommissionerGaramendi, a Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor in the June 6 primary, said he was told that if he backed off pushing the regulation, he would be spared an attack by insurers as Election Day neared.
The state insurance commissioner says he’s facing threats of blackmail to keep auto insurance rates higher.John Garamendi came out blasting Monday, accusing California's largest auto insurers of using political extortion to get him to delay implementing laws that would save California motorists money.
Background and details:
I received this e-mail today:
Insurance industry blackmail!By 1998 California voters were fed up with abuses by the insurance industry. These included such things as high prices and arbitrary cancellations. One particularly onerous abuse was "territorial rating," the practice of setting your auto insurance rates based on where you live, rather than your driving record. In that year California voted to end such abuses by passing Proposition 103, which read in part:
1861.02 (a) Rates and premiums for an automobile insurance policy, as described in subdivision (a) of Section 660, shall be determined by application of the following factors in decreasing order of importance:
(1) The insured's driving safety record.
(2) The number of miles he or she drives annually.
(3) The number of years of driving experience the insured has had.
(4) Such other factors as the commissioner may adopt by regulation that have a substantial relationship to the risk of loss. The regulations shall set forth the respective weight to be given each factor in determining automobile rates and premiums. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the use of any criterion without such approval shall constitute unfair discrimination.Unfortunately, a California Court of Appeals in 2000 ruling made these provisions unenforceable. However, Proposition 103 also made Insurance Commissioner an elective office, an office now held by John Garamendi. Mr. Garamendi has promulgated regulations that banned territorial ratings, very much consistent with the wishes of California voters and much to the chagrin of the insurance industry.
A group of insurance companies -- Allstate, Farmers, Safeco, 21st Century, and State Farm -- is attempting to blackmail John Garamendi, who is now a candidate for Lt. Governor of California. These companies have raised $2.4 million to run a TV ad campaign against Mr. Garamendi asking viewers to "tell Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi to drop this unfair plan now." An industry representative contacted him through an intermediary and offered to drop the ad campaign if Mr. Garamendi would withdraw those regulations.
The insurance companies claim that they were merely informing Mr. Garamendi of their campaign out of "courtesy." Right.
John Garamendi refuses to be intimidated. He will enforce those regulations. He has filed formal requests for investigations of this group by the FBI, the U.S. Attorney's Office, and the state Attorney General. He will continue to work for the rights of California consumers as Insurance Commissioner and as Lt. Governor.
There is information at Consumer Watchdog,
Insurers to Spend Millions Against Garamendi for Lowering PremiumsAnd a press release
Auto insurance companies are planning a $2.4 million campaign to attack California Insurance Commissioner Garamendi because he has proposed rules to lower premiums for California good drivers.
Group Calls on Commissioner Candidates To Stand Behind Garamendi Insurance Regulations To Protect Integrity of OfficeGo there to read the rest.
Voters' Trust Is At Stake After Attempt to Extort GaramendiSANTA MONICA, CA -- The two principal candidates for Insurance Commissioner should immediately assure voters that they support the "good driver" regulations that the insurance industry apparently believes the candidates will revoke if elected, supporters of Proposition 103 said today in a letter to the presumptive Republican and Democratic nominees.
The letter from the non-profit, non-partisan Foundation for Taxpayer and Consumer Rights (FTCR) and Proposition 103 author Harvey Rosenfield comes two days after Insurance Commissioner Garamendi disclosed that insurers had tried to blackmail him in an attempt to delay the implementation of a key Proposition 103 reform until a new commissioner is elected. Last December, Commissioner Garamendi proposed rules to comply with Proposition 103's requirement that auto insurance premiums be based primarily on a motorist¿s driving record rather than their ZIP Code.
Commissioner Garamendi revealed Monday that a political operative had relayed a message from insurers to back off from regulations that would emphasize a drivers' safety record rather than ZIP code in pricing auto insurance, or face a $2.4 million negative ad campaign against him. The ads, reportedly launched this week after Garamendi¿s refusal to comply with the demand, are widely seen as an attempt to undermine his campaign for the post of lieutenant governor. [emphasis added]
Take a look at the PR firm in Sacramento spinning the attack.....Bicker, Castillo & Fairbanks
Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
US Treasury Becomes Republican Party's Bankroll
A couple of days ago, this story, about a Republican Cabinet Secretary declaring that contracts are awarded according to who gives money to The Party.
Today, this story, in which Republicans kill oversight over Iraqi reconstruction spending, A stunning tolerance for corruption in Iraqi reconstruction aid,
"Republican Appropriations Committee aides say legislators shifted the Iraq money to the foreign operations accounts at the request of the White House," the WSJ reported. The White House says it simply did this for budgetary purposes and to help "streamline accounting." The fact that the move cuts off the most effective auditor in Iraq at the knees, the Bush gang says, is a coincidence.Now read this. (Through Political Animal)
Previous Seeing the Forest stories about tax dollars used to promote the Republican Party: (Posts with the same title report on different abuses)
Military Assisting Republican Party?
Taxpayer AIDS Money Funding the Right
Tax Dollars Fund Pat Robertson
IRS Checking Who You Voted For
Party and State Merging: More Republican Party Propaganda on Government Websites
Today's Government And Party Merge Post
IRS Cracking Down On War Opponents
Bush Admin Allows Only Rush For Military Radio
House Republicans OK Christian-Only Hiring With Our Tax Dollars
Government and Party Merge
These are only SOME of the posts I have written on this subject, and only since I moved the blog from Blogger a year ago. And these are only the tip of the iceberg that I learned about and wrote about. Do you begin to detect a pattern here?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:43 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
Secretary Jackson of the Department of Housing and Urban Development Must Resign
Corruption - turning a government department into an arm of The Party
Something has hit the press that exposes the corruption mentality of the Republicans.
Josh Marshall points out that the likely way the subject would have come up is if Jackson was soliciting contractors for campaign donations
HUD chief's talk of punishing Bush critics sparks an uproar
DNC: Secretary Jackson Exposes Culture of Corruption at HUD
Costly Words: 'I Don't Like President Bush'
Two Democrats call for HUD contracts probe
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:51 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
May 5, 2006
Big Hookergate News - CIA Director Goss Resigns
Update - Through Atrios, comes this,
From a reader: "Dana Priest is on MSNBC right now saying we'll have to wait for tomorrow's paper to find out why he resigned. The Post must have called him for comment on a story running tomorrow about his involvement with Brent Wilkes."
I don't know if you have been following the story about the corrupt defense contractor providing hookers for Republican members of Congress who were providing him with huge defense contracts. See Sex, Lies, and Government Contracts, Hookergate: Everybody Wants a Piece of the Action, Who Will Be the Woodward and Bernstein of New 'Hookergate' Story?, Watergate Subpoenaed in Hooker Probe and Hookergate being buried by press for more on that.
Well one of those Members of Congress later became CIA director. And just 2 weeks after the news about the hookers... CIA Director Porter Goss Resigns
More later....
Left Coaster: Party On, Porter - Don't Let The Door Hit You In The Ass
Think Progress goes into the background of Goss' connections with the Duke Cunningham scandal.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:06 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
May 2, 2006
New Telecom Bill
How many remember the 1996 Telecom Bill? This was the "deregulation" bill that dramatically increased cable TV rates and increased concentration of owership of media outlets.
Well, they're at it again, this time going after your right to record radio and TV broadcasts: Net neutrality missing from sweeping telecom bill,
ncluded in the massive proposal is, however, one requirement sure to please the recording industry: authorization for the FCC to start the process of outlawing digital over-the-air radio and digital satellite receivers sold today that permit users to record broadcasts. Those would be supplanted with receivers that will treat as copy-protected anything with an "audio broadcast flag" in the future.Also in the bill, changes that would allow telecom companies to control what you see on the internet:... His legislation would order the FCC to ban digital TV tuners, such as ElGato's EyeTV 500, that let users record over-the-air broadcasts and save them without copy protection.
Net neutrality, for instance, has become a rallying cry recently for Internet and software firms and liberal advocacy groups (and even one or two conservative ones) that say strict FCC regulations are necessary to protect the Internet. Net neutrality refers to the idea of the federal government preventing broadband providers from favoring some Web sites or video streams' connection speeds over others.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:56 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
April 25, 2006
Bush Was BUYing Oil At These Prices!
The news in Bush Eases Environmental Rules on Gasoline is worse than you think.
First the bad news,
President Bush on Tuesday ordered a temporary suspension of environmental rules for gasoline...Making it sound to the public like protecting the environment hurts regular people...
Now the worse news,
He also halted for the summer the purchase of crude oil for the government's emergency reserve.The reason this is such bad news is this means the Bush WAS BUYING OIL UNTIL NOW at these inflated prices, driving prices up even higher, pumping government money to the oil companies and Saudis!!!!!
This also means, by the way, the perception that oil prices are dropping just as the election approaches.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:05 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
April 22, 2006
Election Hopes - Quaint
I fear that all this optimism about the coming election shows a lack of understanding of what we're dealing with. This optimism and faith in the electoral process seems to me to be, as our Attorney General said about the Geneva Conventions, "quaint."
History doesn't have very many examples of dishonest, corrupt, authoritarian, cultist regimes willingly handing over to others the power to remove them from office and jail them for their crimes.
Watch your backs!
Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:40 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
April 4, 2006
Scam Republican Charities
Rick Cohen of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy blogs ar Drum Major Institute about Congressional use of charities to bypass lobbying reform,
Nearly every day there has been a revelation about a new purported charity or foundation established by or controlled by a member of Congress, in addition to DeLay's own eponymous foundation, ostensibly established by the former House Majority Leader and his wife to create a home for foster children, but known for its lavish "Fantasy Island" golf fundraisers involving members of Congress, lobbyists, and special interests operating without public disclosure. Among the leading foundations and charities linked to members of Congress are:Go there to read more and follow links. It's about Republican members of "Culture of Corruption" Congress, setting up phony charities to take big money from bad sources and do things like hire their relatives.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
April 3, 2006
Stealing Iraqi Oil
Through Atrios, one of the more important stories about Iraq. Please read it to the end. The Bush people have set it up so there is no way to know how much oil is being pumped and sold, nor any way to know where the money is going. SOMEone is walking away with BILLIONS.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:52 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
Great New "Red-Handed" Ads From MoveOn
Four great news ads from MoveOn. Go see, and as always, send an e-mail to people letting THEM know to watch! And remind THEM to forward to others, as well. (Use "e-mail this entry" at the end of the post.)
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
March 26, 2006
Abramoff Probe Widens To Murder
Abramoff Probe Widens to Murder at Truthout.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
March 2, 2006
So Many Lies
Lies - a Republican character flaw. They pretend they are strong but really they lie because of weakness. Go read It's All About The Lying,
The American public can forgive mistakes, so long as they are not done with some malignant intent. Apparently they can also overlook some incompetence, so long as they believe the President is working hard at his job.Go look at the post, it shows one lie after another after another, just in the last couple of WEEKS!But when the public begins to think they have been lied to -- repeatedly -- that love goes sour. Very sour. And lately, for the Bush Administration, it's been all about the lying.
It's all about the lying. No accountability, no taking responsibility, none. This President comes off as an irresponsible frat boy who is more than willing to blame anyone else to get his own ass out of trouble. That may work when you are 19 (although it wouldn't have worked with my parents, I can tell you that), but one would think that the President of the United States would hold himself to a higher ethical standard on this. Especially given a situation where people lost their lives.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:09 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
March 1, 2006
Republicans Gutting State Food Safety Protections
More Republican corruption. Why do Republicans corrupt everything they touch? (Answer at end.)
THIS time they're being paid by the big food and chemical companies to gut the food safety regulations in place now in the individual states. On top of that, they're gutting California's Prop. 65, which requires businesses to warn people when they might be exposed to dangerous chemicals!
Bill Would Standardize Warnings on Food, Drink,
The bill, which has 226 co-sponsors in the House, would amend the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act to supersede existing state legislation and practices on food-warning labels. It would also require states to petition the Food and Drug Administration to restore laws and regulations they currently have.
Some of the state laws that could be affected cover farm and food plant inspections, whereas others involve rules on shellfish, dairy products, allowable levels of arsenic and other contaminants in bottled water, lead in food and serving dishes, and whether salmon has to be labeled as wild or farmed. Numerous states have food-safety laws that are considerably tougher than federal standards.Another report, Bill to pre-empt state food safety rules,The House bill has been promoted for several years by a coalition of food companies and producer trade associations.
In particular, the measure would pre-empt California's Proposition 65, a 1986 law that requires consumers to be notified about contaminants known to cause cancer or birth defects.Republicans corrupt everything they touch because they believe in an ideology of greed, of wealth and ower over regular people, while Democrats believe that people should work together to make everyone's lives better -- democracy and community.The California law, which led to the reduction of arsenic in bottled water and lead in calcium supplements nationwide, has prompted the Food and Drug Administration to tighten federal standards over the years. Most recently the state has required warnings for pregnant women about mercury in certain fish.
Erik Olson, senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said: "What the bill would do is assure the lowest common denominator of protection. Cheaper food that has poisonous chemicals in it is no bargain. They are being responsible and protecting citizens when the federal government hasn't done its job."
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:16 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
February 23, 2006
Bill Moyers - Saving Democracy - MUST READ!!
It is a Dick Cheney world out there – a world where politicians and lobbyists hunt together, dine together, drink together, play together, pray together and prey together, all the while carving up the world according to their own interests.Go read.... As great wealth has accumulated at the top, the rest of society has not been benefiting proportionally. In 1960 the gap between the top 20% and the bottom 20% was thirtyfold. Now it is seventy-five fold. Thirty years ago the average annual compensation of the top 100 chief executives in the country was 30 times the pay of the average worker. Today it is 1000 times the pay of the average worker.
... In the words of Louis Brandeis, one of the greatest of our Supreme Court justices: “You can have wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, or democracy, but you cannot have both.”
... Since Bush was elected the number of lobbyists registered to do business in Washington has more than doubled. That’s 16,342 lobbyists in 2000 to 34,785 last year. Sixty-five lobbyists for every member of Congress.
The amount that lobbyists charge their new clients has increased by nearly one hundred percent in that same period, according to The Washington Post, going up to anything from $20,000 to $40,000 a month. Starting salaries have risen to nearly $300,000 a year for the best-connected people, those leaving Congress or the administration.
The total spent per month by special interests wining, dining, and seducing federal officials is now nearly $200 million. Per month.
... A recent CBS news/New York Times poll found that 70% of Americans believe lobbyists bribing members of Congress is the way things work. Fifty seven percent thinks at least half of the members of Congress accept bribes or gifts that affect their votes. A Fox News poll reported that sixty five percent believe most elected officials in Washington make policy decisions or take actions on the basis of campaign contributions. Findings like these underscore the fact that ordinary people believe their bonds with democracy are not only stretched but sundered.
... There are, as I said, no victimless crimes in politics. The cost of corruption is passed on to you. When the government of the United States falls under the thumb of the powerful and privileged, regular folks get squashed.
... I have painted a bleak picture of democracy today. I believe it is a true picture. But it is not a hopeless picture. Something can be done about it.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:45 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
February 20, 2006
How Republican Senator Rick Santorum Paid For His House
Attytood: How Santorum paid for his Va. house...and his Starbucks coffee.
Republicans culture of corruption, cronyism and favoritism.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:51 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
February 17, 2006
Is It Love, Or Money?
At Spot-On, True Romance, Congress-style - an interesting story about student loans, Rep. John Boehner, private jets and a woman named Sallie Mae.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:04 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
February 13, 2006
What It Takes To Make Bush Look Good
Let's say your job is making Bush and the Republicans ook good to the public. What's it going to cost?
The Raw Story | Bush Admin. spent over $1.6 Billion on advertising and P.R. since 2003, GAO finds:
Democrats requested that GAO conduct the study after evidence emerged last year that the Bush Administration had commissioned "covert propaganda" from public relations firms. Several federal departments had hired firms to develop "video new releases" to promote department initiatives which appeared to television viewers to be independent newscasts. Other revelations that triggered the GAO report included the disclosure that the Department of Education paid conservative commentator Armstrong Williams to promote the No Child Left Behind Act on the radio and in his columns.And what items of great importance to the American pubic were our tax dollars spent on?
... The Administration's public relations and advertising contracts spanned a wide range of issues, including Administration priorities like "marriage-related research initiatives," message development presenting "the Army's strategic perspective in the Global War on Terrorism," and an FDA contract to warn the public of the consequences and potential danger of importing prescription drugs from other nations.The danger of importing drugs from other nations? That's a DRUG COMPANY propaganda point, not a government one!
Of course, no one will go to jail for this.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:38 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 24, 2006
It's The Earmarks Stupid!
Campaign Finance Reform is the hot reform issue du jour. Oversight of travel, meals and free trips on corporate jets have all been mentioned in passing. The elephant in the living room that neither political party has hardly mentioned is earmarking. CREW (Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington) has a Knight-Ridder article that has a short and sweet description of earmarking that suggests earmarking is the biggest problem:
Earmarking allows members of Congress to set aside money for specific projects in legislation without review by committees. The practice has ballooned in recent years: In 1998 the 13 appropriations bills contained 2,000 earmarks worth $10.6 billion, while in 2005 there were more than 15,500 earmarks that cost taxpayers $32.7 billion, according to Taxpayers for Common Sense, a nonpartisan fiscal watchdog group."There are thousands of quid pro quos that occur daily in the halls of Congress," said Keith Ashdown of Taxpayers for Common Sense. "Earmarking is the quo. It's what lawmakers can offer to lobbyists in exchange for political contributions and whatever else. It's part of the puzzle."
Ashdown recommends a 50 percent cut in earmarks and greater transparency for the earmarks that remain, such as requiring their placement in bills before they go into House-Senate conferences, which typically are closed to the public.
A 50 percent cut in earmarks sounds like a dramatic improvement. That means Congress would only be dishing out 7,250 earmarks worth a little over $16 billion. Is that what we are looking for when we're discussing reforming the culture of corruption? Why are anonymous earmarks tacked onto legislation in the dead of night an acceptable procedure at all? Why is it acceptable to allow even 100 anonymous earmarks per year?
Query: If lobbyists and their clients could not get rewarded for their efforts with multi-million dollar and hundred million dollar earmarks, what would happen to the culture of corruption?
Consider Sirota’s description of the problem:
No matter where you look in politics you can see this phenomenon, right up in your face. We can see it in the two parties' competing lobbying/ethics "reform" packages - both of which do not attack the real problem of elections being financed by corporate cash. That's by design - because to attack the real problem with public financing of elections would be to actually give the public - and not Corporate America - control over the political process.We see the same thing on many major economic issues like bankruptcy, "free" trade, energy policy, health care and more. These are the bread-and-butter economic issues where the public consistently tells pollsters it wants radically different policies than comes from their government. Yet, politicians and the media dishonestly portray only a narrow set of policies in these areas as "mainstream," "centrist," or "politically possible” making sure the overall debate and realm of possible outcomes is narrowed to the point where votes don't really have to be bought, because whatever final result is already guaranteed to further enrich the powers that be.
This debate narrowing is really what lobbyists are masters of. They provide the talking points, justifications, background research and propaganda to both sides of a debate to make sure that politically taboo subjects (aka. the concerns of ordinary Americans) aren't really ever seriously considered in a debate over an issue. Lawmakers are happy to regurgitate the nonsense because they know that when they do, they will be rewarded like little puppies with a treat - namely, a campaign contribution.
hmmmmm. Mainstream. Centrist. Politically possible. Where have I heard those phrases before? They sound so familiar. It’s right on the tip of my tongue. Is campaign finance reform a sufficient reform or merely a necessary first step? Without the payoff of lucrative anonymous earmarks, would corporate cash continue to pour into our electoral process?
Of course GOP spinmeisters are all trying to pretend that corruption is a bi-partisan issue. For example, Mary Maitlin on Meet The Press
RUSSERT: Ten years later, nearly 14,000 specific earmarked projects by individuals congressmen and senators, $27 billion dollars. Republicans control both houses of Congress.MS. MATALIN: They control both houses, but they’re not the only earmark appropriators.
At the risk of being too objective, is it remotely possible that earmarks are the reason Bush and the GOP have been so successful at picking off just enough Democrats to pass significant pieces of legislation? Could there be a reason, aside from political cowardice, that Democrats haven’t focused on putting an end to earmarking? Essentially all of the Abramoff corruption that has been uncovered has been funneled to Republicans. How much of the annual earmarking has been funneled to Democrats to purchase their complicity and their silence?The fundamental question is whether Democrats are serious about reform:
Mr. PAUL BEGALA: Well, yes, to the latter, absolutely. And Democrats are having an internal debate, which they are resolving now. They're coming out for reform. I have to say, when we were writing this book it was still a big debate. There were a lot of Democrats who didn't want to clean up the system, quite candidly. They, I think, were hoping to sweep out the corrupt Republicans lobbyists and bring in corrupt Democratic lobbyists.
A few sentences later Begala suggests the Democrats are finally ready to get serious about reform. I’m not convinced. A Newsday editorial points out that without an enforcement mechanism all of the talk about reform is just a lot of hot air. Perhaps reform is just too complex and difficult. Fromer SEC Chair Arthur Levitt Jr. has a few thoughts on the subject published in the Washington Post, Cutting The Corruption:
To remedy that, congressional lobbyists should be required to disclose weekly, online, which members of Congress they contributed to and met with, which staff members they lobbied, and what issues were discussed. Lobbyists also should have to affix their signature to these disclosures and, like CEOs who sign false financial statements, face serious criminal penalties if the disclosures are not accurate.
Now that’s a pretty extreme suggestion I haven’t heard anyone propose. It sounds like that would take care of the problem. Wouldn't it?
But disclosure is only part of the solution; independence is also critical. That's why auditing firms are now forbidden from providing non-audit services to auditing clients, why companies can no longer give personal loans to executives or directors, and why a majority of a board of directors must be independent of the company itself. In Washington, any number of conflicts of interest between members of Congress, their staffs, lobbyists and contributors must be untangled. To begin to do this, former members of Congress should be prohibited from visiting the floor of the House, the prohibition on lobbying by former members and their staffs should be extended from one year to four, and all gifts and travel for members and their employees should be banned.Finally, accountability must be restored. Currently, Congress's ethics committees resemble some of the worst corporate boards from the mid-1990s -- appointed by management and wholly dependent on it for career advancement. Just as corporate boards have been strengthened by rules establishing independent audit committees, Congress would be well-served by scrapping its current ethics committees and replacing them with an independent ethics commission made up of former judges, former members of Congress and other eminent citizens.
Moreover, as with good corporate governance, there needs to be more democracy in American governance. Partisan gerrymandering has created a Congress in which more than 95 percent of the members are assured of keeping their seats for life. Just as shareholders must have access to the proxy to hold corporate board members accountable, citizens must be confident that when they go into the voting booth their votes will be meaningful. It's time to explore ways to lower the barriers of entry for challengers -- through, for instance, free television airtime for all candidates. And to create more competitive congressional districts, we need to follow the leads of states such as Arizona and Iowa and put the responsibility of drawing district boundaries in the hands of nonpartisan boards.
But ultimately, no rule or regulation can transform an organization on its own. What's needed is a cultural change in which those who do the bidding of lobbyists, cash in their positions on Capitol Hill for huge paychecks and accept gifts are scorned, not praised. Accomplishing that requires real leadership, and that's something that only we -- as citizens and voters -- can give to ourselves.
Speaking for myself, I don’t think either political party is serious about reform. If the progressive blogosphere and netroots are serious about campaign reform, we’re going t have to be just as skeptical of Democrats as we are of Republicans. We’re going to have to be just as demanding of Democrats as we are of Republicans. Business as usual, band-aid approaches and “pragmatically possible” solutions cannot be acceptable.
Posted by Gary Boatwright at 6:05 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 21, 2006
Bipartisan Scandal? (With Update)
At Political Animal...
Some math ... then,
So: Indian tribes usually give most of their money to Democrats, while Abramoff clients — and only Abramoff clients — give most of their money to Republicans. Coincidence? I think not.http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_01_22_atrios_archive.html#113802490296040969Surely some enterprising reporter could do this kind of simple analysis for all of Abramoff's tribal clients?
Update - Thanks to Atrios, this at TPM Cafe, One More Look at the Washington Post Clown Show...,
Washington Post reporter Susan Schimdt, February 22, 2004: "Under Abramoff's guidance, the four tribes -- Michigan's Saginaw Chippewas, the Agua Caliente of California, the Mississippi Choctaws and the Louisiana Coushattas... have loosened their traditional ties to the Democratic Party, giving Republicans two-thirds of the $2.9 million they have donated to federal candidates since 2001, records show..."So the Post's reporters have printed the facts, and management ignores those facts and spreads the lie that the Abramoff scandal involved Democrats as well as Repubicans and therefore "they all do it" which is a strategic narrative leading to the conclusion "don't bother to vote." It look smore and more like the self-described "Leninist" conservative movement has infiltrated the Washington Post now.And the late David Rosenbaum, New York Times reporter, April 3, 2002, page A1: "Mr. Abramoff says he represents only those [clients] who stand for conservative principles.... ''All of my political work,'' he said, ''is driven by philosophical interests, not by a desire to gain wealth.''...
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:31 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 20, 2006
Abramoff / Mariana Islands News
The Stakeholder:: Globetrotters has a story about investigators tracing down the Mariana Islands / Abramoff money.
In my opinion the Mariana Islands / Abramoff / Tom DeLay component is a KEY to this entire Republican corruption machine story, because the Bush Administration removed a prosecutor who was looking into the payoffs. The absence of law and accountability, with the Bush administration blocking rather than launching investigations each and every time signs of corruption appeared, is what allowed it all to fourish. The early White House actions to keep the law off the trail of the corruption machine show that it was government-wide, a scheme to loot the treasury.
(Another component, the appointment of L. Jean Lewis as chief of staff in the traditionally nonpartisan Defense Department's inspector general office.)
Posted by Dave Johnson at 1:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 19, 2006
America's Seniors Flummoxed By Bush's Medicare Plan
This is old news with a personal touch. Michael Hiltzig pays a visit to the front lines of Bush's war on America's seniors and confirms that Bush's Medicare Drug Plan Looks Like a Big Scam:
One recent afternoon in Los Alamitos, I watched Marcy Zwelling-Aamot, M.D., pick her way through a government website designed to help elderly patients select the right Medicare drug plan, based on their prescription needs and hometown.
The website, created for the launch of Medicare's new prescription drug benefit, identified 48 individual plans available for Southern California residents. All were sponsored by private health insurance companies administering the government drug benefit for a profit. The plans' monthly premiums ranged from $5.41 to $66.08; their lists of covered drugs differed from one another, sometimes significantly; and all imposed different annual out-of-pocket costs on enrollees — a critical consideration for patients on fixed incomes.
A marginally useful website that is hiding in plain site:
Why are people holding off?Even the government acknowledges that selecting a plan is dauntingly confusing for those without access to its Internet help site. That's a big hurdle, because an estimated 70% of Americans over 65 have never been online.
Big oops? Or intended to boost profits for Big Pharma?
The toll-free information lines set up by Medicare and various health plans have been overwhelmed for weeks. Medicare regulations discourage physicians, pharmacists and healthcare advocates from helping patients select a specific plan. Yet many professionals say they themselves are so confounded by the program's intricacies that their patients will be hard pressed to make the right choices on their own.The health plans have filled the vacuum with glossy marketing brochures, some of which are flagrantly misleading. "You're pitting big corporations against the most vulnerable people in society, and you're telling them that they can't turn to the people they trust for advice," observes Thomas R. Clark, director of policy and advocacy for the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, an organization of pharmacists specializing in geriatric and long-term care.
Isn’t that special? Hiltzig reminds us that Bush’s Medicare Prescription Drug Plan is a red headed step child of blatant and intentional fraud:
Its worth remembering that the prescription drug program was born in an act of fraud. The Bush administration sold it to Congress in 2003 by estimating its cost at less than $400 billion over 10 years. Scarcely a month after its enactment, the White House issued a new estimate: $535 billion. That figure might well have killed the bill, which had passed the House by a razor-thin margin even with the lower price tag.It soon came to light that Richard Foster, Medicare's chief actuary, had known of the higher estimate — but had been told he'd be fired if he warned Congress before the vote. (The current estimate is $700 billion.)
As written, the legislation complied with a drug industry demand that Medicare be prohibited from negotiating with manufacturers for lower drug prices. Among those helping the industry make its stand was Rep. Billy Tauzin (R-Louisiana), whose committee on energy and commerce oversaw Medicare. In an odoriferous development, Tauzin soon quit Congress to become president of the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America — Big Pharma's Washington lobbying group.
The program's implementation, meanwhile, was handed over to commercial health insurance companies, subject to indifferent oversight. That explains the perverse variations in monthly premiums, drug prices, even approved drugs, which will make it all but impossible for consumers to be sure they've selected the right plan.
Here’s a kicker from Kevin Drum over at Political Animal, The Prescription Drug Debacle .... Part 341:
It's a Government Accounting Office report, issued in December, warning that the Bush administration hadn't done enough to make sure the most medically and financially vulnerable Medicare beneficiaries could actually get their drugs.If you do get around to reading it, make sure to check out the part where Mark McClellan, director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, says the GAO has it all wrong — the part where he insists that "CMS has established effective contingency plans to ensure that dual-eligible beneficiaries will be able to obtain comprehensive coverage and obtain necessary drugs beginning January 1, 2006."
You know, that sounds familiar. The Bush administration is warned that its planning is inadequate but it ignores the advice and plows ahead without listening.Very familiar. It's on the tip of my tongue. Help me out here.
Posted by Gary Boatwright at 8:35 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 18, 2006
Dem Lobbying Reform Is A Sham
Melanie Sloan of Citizens For Responsibility And Ethics In Washington was on CSPAN just prior to the Democratic Reform Proposal and pointed out that they were not addressing the problem of earmarks and there was not an enforcement mechanism. Melanie Sloan was right.
I'm not the only one who thinks the Dem Leadership Ethics Plan is a Band-Aid and the Democratic leadership does not really want to win back control of Congress.
Update 6:00 a.m. PDT - from L.A. Times, Culture of Lobbying May Resist Reform:
Despite the political theater Wednesday, Democrats offered proposals that in many respects were similar to those laid out the day before by Hastert and Rep. David Dreier (R-San Dimas), chairman of the House Rules Committee
Posted by Gary Boatwright at 11:18 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
Reform?
The Agonist gives an opinion on Why Democrats and Lobbying Reform Is A Bad Idea
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:54 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 17, 2006
Something's Up With White House/Abramoff Connections
What Does The White House Have To Hide? | Fired Up! America,
The White House is refusing to reveal exactly who Jack Abramoff met with in the White House during his more than 200 contacts in the first ten months of the Bush administration. This is despite promising to do so, less than two weeks ago.Go read the rest, something's up!
Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:00 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 12, 2006
A Republican Scandal
It is entirely a Republican Scandal
Republicans do not believe that people can work together and help each other so they do not believe in government and law. Instead they believe in a dog-eat-dog, everyone on-their-own and out-for-themselves society where the strongest survive and it doesn't matter what happens to everyone else. So whenever conservatives gain power they abuse it and use it to get money for themselves and their friends.Always add the "Because".
Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:26 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 11, 2006
Abramoff Bribery Scandal Shines a Light on a Grave Threat to Democracy
Several organizations are calling for "reform" of the campaign-finance and lobbying system. This is a mistake. It is very important to understand that this Abramoff scandal is about breaking laws, not about any need for reform of existing laws. But more than that, it is about an attempt to change America into a one-party state.
This scandal is about the leadership of the Republican Party creating a self-perpetuating system where public money is spent to promote a non-democratic, divisive, destructive ideology and perpetuate one-party control -- THEIR control -- of the country.
The Abramoff scandal shines a light on how the currently-constituted "conservative movement" / Christian Right-controlled Republican Party, not isolated individuals, are systematically using the power of government to finance and extend an illegal, corrupt machine of one-party domination. Their leadership implemented a comprehensive, party-wide system wherein companies paid for legislation and were punished by the government itself if they refused to pay. The committees of the Congress itself were used to intimidate lobbying firms and others to purge all but Republicans and then become tools to increase Republican Party control. The money received was used to strengthen this system and further promote the ideology and candidates. Meanwhile, the agencies of government are systematically and rapidly being purged and replaced with "conservative movement" operatives, and increasingly used to enforce one-party control.
I believe this system is a component of an organized threat to our democracy from a well-financed, self-described "Leninist," subversive, cult-like, conspiratorial movement intent on imposing a corporatist/theocratic authoritarian system on us. I think history teaches us that we are already well down the "slippery slope" of increasingly repressive government, with a president who says laws do not restrict his authority and that Democrats "provide comfort to our adversaries" and I fear the signals such language sends to "the base."
I think this ideologically-driven threat to our freedom is a national emergency as grave as that which we faced from Germany or the Soviet Union. But when we faced those threats we were able to recognize and fight back against the propaganda with the resources of our own government. Today, however, the government's resources themselves are increasingly turned on us.
So when you hear that this scandal is about Democrats as well as Republicans, or "everybody does it" don't buy that crap for a second. This is a very very different situation from simple graft. This is not about an individual member of Congress taking a payoff or otherwise cashing out from the position. This is NOTHING like Former Speaker of the House Jim Wright selling self-published copies of a book for cash or Dan Rostenkowski getting free stamps and trading them for cash. This is systematic abuse by the leadership of a political party in a scheme to take over the country.
Watch your backs.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 12:43 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 8, 2006
DOES Everybody Do It?
You're reading a lot about a corruption scandal in Washington. Some people are trying to tell you that "everybody does it" and that both parties are involved and that whenever you try to take the money out of politics it finds another way in. These are smokescreens designed to make you think this is not as bad as it sounds. These are smokescreens designed to make you think there is nothing you can do about things like that, that you have no power, and that you should just let the politicians take care of these things for you.
Don't be fooled. See the forest, not the trees. This corruption scandal is about people breaking existing laws. This is about Republican Congressmen and White House officials indicted for illegally taking bribes. They took payments in exchange for abusing their power, providing favors to cronies, and for using their power to block investigations and oversight.
Just like with New Orleans and FEMA, this is just one more example of Republicans in Congress not doing their job. This is what always happens when so-called "conservatives" gain power, because Republicans do not believe that people can work together and help each other so they do not believe in government and law. Instead they believe in a dog-eat-dog, everyone on-their-own and out-for-themselves society where the strongest survive and it doesn't matter what happens to everyone else. So whenever conservatives gain power they abuse it and use it to get money for themselves and their friends. Just look at what has happened to pensions, health insurance and wages since the conservatives took office -- everything is going the wrong way. The rich are getting vastly richer and the corporations don't have to follow any rules, while the rest of us are getting squeezed harder and harder.
Government can work, laws can work and society can work for all of us, but only when everybody plays by the rules, and the system's checks and balances are enforced. Government is supposed to be about "us" working together for the betterment of everybody - don't ever let Republicans tell you that government is a "them."
Progressives believe that the ideals of community and democracy CAN work -- that people CAN work together to help each other out -- that businesses CAN make money while following the rules, serving their customers and bettering the community as a whole.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:45 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 5, 2006
Abramoff and the Conservative Think Tank Racket
Bill Berkowitz, writing at Media Transparency, has a piece titled Paying to play, expanding on why the Abramoff investigation should trigger a look into the "conservative movement" think tanks that Abramoff was working with.
Revelations that Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff bought op-ed pieces from fellows at right wing think tanks should unleash an investigation into two decades of so-called research paid for by conservative philanthropies
Part of the Abramoff scandal is the funding and use of these "charity" organizations to put out propaganda for Abramoff's clients and to help consolidate Republicans in power.
On Friday, December 16, another branch from the "pay to play" tree of journalism came crashing to earth.Yesterday, in Abramoff Indictment Hides Connection to RWNM, I wrote about Abramoff's use of his own phony "foundation" to dispense money, and how the Bush Justice Department is working to hide this connection because any investigation would reveal the underpinnings of Republican power. I wrote,Doug Bandow, a senior fellow at the fiercely libertarian Cato Institute, resigned after BusinessWeek Online revealed that he had been paid ample chunks of change by indicted Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff to produce columns in support of issues of interest to Abramoff and his clients. Many of these columns were related to Indian gambling, and "extol[ing] the virtues of the free-market system" particularly in the Northern Mariana Islands, the New York Times reported.
Abramoff's connection to and abuse of a "clearly phony" non-profit organization is a lead the Bush Administration's Justice Department doesn't want to follow, because it is this network of organizations that pays - and pays well - for the army of right-wingers who write op-eds, articles and books supporting the Republican agenda, who make appearances on so many radio and TV shows and who offer "informed opinions" for news articles and programs. These are the PR and marketing organizations that send out the repeated pro-conservative messaging and strategic narratives that move American ever more rightward. An honest investigation of their funding and operation would threaten the underpinnings of the conservative movement's "Right Wing Noise Machine." So it ain't gonna happen as long as Bush is in charge of where the Abramoff investigation leads.Berkowitz's article explains,
Since the 1980s, the political landscape has become thick with conservative and libertarian think tanks. For a time, it seemed that every other week or so, yet another press release announced the establishment of a new think tank or public policy institute. During this period, more than 100 such organizations were founded, staffed and funded. Some appeared to fly-by-night operations run by one person or by a skeleton staff whose sole purpose was to issue canned press releases on the public policy issue of the day. Other organizations appeared to engage in original research and received a substantial amount of funding support from conservative philanthropies and foundations.Berkowitz goes on to say that,Special studies, op-ed pieces, and so-called "highly documented" studies, covering a broad swath of conservative/free market issues cascaded forth from these institutions. Similar to the Bush Administration's faith-based initiative, where little attention has been paid to discovering whether these groups actually serve the public better than government agencies, much of the information generated by these think tanks was accepted without much investigation into the substance of their assertions. It appeared that the sheer volume of the material that was generated -- especially when similar-conclusions came from different groups -- was enough for editorial writers, reporters, op-ed writers and radio talk show hosts to spread their findings as gospel.
Uncovering the ties -- and the amounts of money involved--between researchers and op-eders at right wing think tanks and industry lobbying groups and /or their powerful political patrons is no easy task. As the New York Times' Philip Shenon recently noted, "Executives in the public relations and lobbying industries say that the hiring of outside commentators to promote special interests - typically by writing newspaper opinion articles or in radio and television interviews - does happen, although it is impossible to monitor since the payments do not have to be disclosed and can be disguised as speaking fees and other compensation."The Abramoff scandal, if pursued honestly, will lead directly to an investigation of the illegal use of tax-free contributions to fund the infrastructure of the so-called "conservative movement."
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:18 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 4, 2006
The Fix Is In (Again)
Remember how Bush blocked a prosecutor from looking into Abramoff, back in 2002? Well Bush has put a right-wing political operative - with ties to Tom DeLay - in charge of the current Abramoff prosecution.
Fisher is a career Republican who in her former job was registerd as a lobbyist for HCA, the healthcare company founded by Bill Frist's father. Her appointment was also controversial due to the fact that like her boss Abu Gonzales, Fisher has no trial experience and with Comey gone there would be no senior member of the Justice Department who was an experienced criminal prosecutor.
Now, ask yourself if an investigation was being held into powerful Democrats under a Democratic administration if there would be shrieking harpies flying all over the airwaves today demanding a special prosecutor.Daily Kos: Abramoff prosecutor has reported ties to DeLay defense,Yeah, I know. Whatever.
Alice Fishser has never worked as a prosecutor. She worked as a litigation associate in the Washington office of New York-based Sullivan & Cromwell. Where she represented corporate scum.So, do you think Abramoff is goig to name other Republicans? Or, maybe ... frame a bunch of Democrats with Bush Justice Department help?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:21 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
Ammunition
The Republicans are going with "bipartisan scandal" and "everybody does it." Which comes down to "don't vote."
Here is some ammunition. In this list of Abramoff's political donations there is not a single Democrat: NEWSMEAT - Jack Abramoff's federal campaign contributions.
AMERICAblog has more, "That's 229 donations and not a DIME to Democrats." And,
I just counted, and I think this list of GOP donors and organizations is around 15 feet long. Someone on our side REALLY needs to print out this list and get in front of a camera. Hell, every single one of our pundits should have this list with them on TV and just roll it out on the table.This is entirely a REPUBLICAN scandal, folks.
Also indicted a while back was David Safavian the Bush administration's top federal procurement official, working in the White House. Karl Rove's assistant Susan Ralston was previously Abramoff's assistant. And Bush blocked a prosecutor from looking into Abramoff in 2002.
Update - Bob Geiger has more.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 7:38 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
January 3, 2006
How It Unraveled
OK, this one - about the unfolding Abramoff Republican corruption scandal - should generalte a nice, long comment thread.
From Raw Story: How they got caught: After lobbyist broke off engagement, ex-fiance told of illicit dealings to FBI
Miller went to the FBI after Scanlon broke off their engagement and announced his intention to marry another woman.Heh. So ALL the right-wingers in Washington remained silent. Not one whistleblower, until this. Heh.... While still engaged to Miller, Scanlon had started an affair with a manicurist and broke up with Miller because he planned to marry the other woman.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:06 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
December 30, 2005
Russian Money to So-Called "Conservatives?"
When I put up this post asking if maybe the "conservative movement" Republicans were really dupes of the Russians or the Chinese, I sure didn't expect to get my answer a few hours later.
From The DeLay-Abramoff Money Trail,
Two former associates of Edwin A. Buckham, the congressman's former chief of staff and the organizer of the U.S. Family Network, said Buckham told them the funds came from Russian oil and gas executives. Abramoff had been working closely with two such Russian energy executives on their Washington agenda, and the lobbyist and Buckham had helped organize a 1997 Moscow visit by DeLay (R-Tex.).Russians pumping millions into an organization called the "U.S. Family Network." Uh huh.
It seems that everyone in the world understood that the Republican leadership was on the take. Do ya think maybe foreign intelligence services might have also known? Do ya think that maybe some of the really, really strange things these right-wing clucks have been doing to the country might maybe have been the result of a few (or more) million dollars changing hands? I suspect this is only the very first on foreign influence of the so-called "conservative movement."
Oh yes, go read the rest.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 11:19 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
December 19, 2005
Unqualified
Hard to imagine that Bush could find people less qualified to fill their own positions, than he is to fill his, but he's managed to do it. Check out this latest article by Bill Berkowitz on Media Transparency: Bush Administration mining fundamentalist recruits.
Paul Bonicelli, who most recently was the dean of academic affairs at Patrick Henry College, a small fundamentalist Christian college locatedHiring by the Book in rural Virginia, has moved on to oversee USAID's democracy and governance programs.
William Fisher, who has managed economic development programs in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and Asia for the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development says...
Bonicelli "has little experience in the field he has been tapped to supervise," Fisher noted. "The closest he comes to democracy promotion or good governance is having worked as a staffer for the Republican Party in the International Relations Committee of the House of Representatives."
Now, I'm no veteran of Washington D.C. myself, and have only 34 years to my credit on this planet, but it seems to me that more career civil service officials have been provoked to complain about the politicization of the bureaucracy by the Bush Administration, than any other in history.
According to his new boss...
"Bonicelli's office will focus on four primary goals of strengthening the rule of law and respect for human rights; promoting more genuine and competitive elections and political processes; increasing development of a politically active civil society; and implementing a more transparent and accountable governance. Progress in all four areas is necessary to achieve sustainable democracy.
Setting aside the question of whether his training and professional education qualify him for such a position, let's take a look at the environment he has just been operating within:
"Students must obey a curfew, wear their hair neatly and dress 'modestly.'If they wish to hold hands with a member of the opposite sex, they must do so while walking: standing while holding hands is not permitted. And students must sign an honor pledge that bans them from drinking alcohol unless under parental supervision." In addition, "The MTV and VH1 pop-culture channels are blocked from campus televisions because their contents are considered inappropriate [and] the students' computers are set up with a program called Covenant Eyes, which monitors the websites they visit."
You gotta wonder whether or not the human rights of queer people, or, hell, anyone whose interest in sex extends beyond procreation, to, say, artistic expression of one sort or another, are going to have much of a priority for this guy.
This is the image we want to present to the world? That of crazed Protestant Christian fundamentalists... the type of folks who ally themselves with crazed Muslim fundamentalists and crazed Catholic fundamentalists to block reforms that promote women's rights, queer people's rights, and access to birth control, reproductive information in general, sex education, and abortion (as Berkowitz mentions in his article)?
Posted by Thomas Leavitt at 10:58 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
December 17, 2005
More Obstruction
AMERICAblog has a story that Bush is giving a top job to the husband of a reporter who testified in the Plame case two weeks ago. (And at firedoglake.)
I guess the testimony went the way Bush wanted. No? How blatant can it get?
Posted by Dave Johnson at 9:32 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
December 15, 2005
Jury Tampering - Blatant
Blatant jury tampering from Mr. "No comment on ongoing investigations." Go read firedoglake.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 4:33 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
December 10, 2005
Tax Dollars Sent Directly To The Party
The. Biggest. Scandal. Ever! Phony Front Companies Cycle Millions Back to GOP!
Here's how it works. Set up phony front-companies and call them "defense contractors." Republicans in Congress "earmark" hundreds of millions in contracts for these companies into budget bills. The companies are really just fronts that shuttle the money to The Party and its infrastructure organizations, which use the money on campaign ads, etc. for Republicans.
Sound illegal? So what? Who is going to investigate? The Republican Justice Department? The Republican Congress? News organizations owned by defense contractors like GE? Fat chance.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 3:37 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
December 9, 2005
GOP Chickens Come Home To Roost
State by State GOP Scandal Score Card
Posted by Thomas Leavitt at 7:03 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
December 7, 2005
Absolute Corruption
The Left Coaster: Profiting From Katrina - It's All In The Family links to yet another example.
Governor's Relative Is Big Contract Winner,
Rosemary Barbour happens to be married to a nephew of Mississippi's governor, Haley Barbour. Since the Reagan administration, when Mrs. Barbour worked as a White House volunteer as a college student, she has been active in the Republican Party.
She also happens to be one of the biggest Mississippi-based winners of federal contracts for Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.How much of the money gets shuttled to over The Party as kickbacks? As Bush says, IT'S YOUR MONEY!... But the $6.4 million in contracts received by her company, Alcatec L.L.C., have also elicited questions about possible favoritism.
Federal records show that the company has won at least 10 separate contracts from the Federal Emergency Management Agency or the General Services Administration to install and maintain showers for relief workers and evacuees, to deliver tents, and to provide laundry equipment. The most valuable were awarded in September and October without competitive bidding, the records show.
According to a review of federal contracts awarded since Hurricane Katrina, her company ranks seventh in total contracts out of 88 Mississippi-based concerns that have received deals worth $100,000 or more.
P.S. Barbour also used to be Chair of the Republican Party.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 2:46 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
November 25, 2005
News On Abramoff Case
At The All Spin Zone, Culture of Corruption: Scope of Abramoff Probe Becoming Clearer,
Most people won't be paying attention today (does anyone actually read the newspaper on Saturday?), but the Washington Post delves into the depths of casinogate, and the impact that's sure to come. Apparently, the investigation of former DeLay minion Jack Abramoff is expanding, and very, very active. A wide net is being tossed, and a lot of fish are about to be caught:But you gotta go to All Spin Zone for the rest.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 10:25 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
November 23, 2005
Republican Culture of Corruption
Bad news for Ohio Republican Congressman Bob Ney, at The Stakeholder
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:26 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
November 19, 2005
While Kicking Democrats Out Of Needed Motel Rooms, FEMA Money To Republican Cities Not Hit By Hurricane
Thousands of evacuees from the Gulf Coast are staying in hotel rooms in Georgia and Texas, but they will have to find other accommodations in about two weeks.At the federal Housing and Urban Development office in DeKalb County, several evacuees sought help Thursday at the agency, but were given little assistance.
"It's stressful," said evacuee Crystal Stanton. "It's cold out here and we have until the 31st, and FEMA is going to put us out on the street."
Meanwhile,Storm Hit Little, but Aid Flowed to Inland City,
The only damage sustained by most of the nearly 30,000 households receiving aid was spoiled food in the freezer.[. . .] What happened in Jackson and its suburbs - in Hinds, Madison and Rankin Counties - might not be unique. Emergency officials elsewhere in Mississippi and in parts of Louisiana have also questioned how so much federal aid could have been authorized, given the limited damage they documented.
[. . .] The disaster area in Mississippi - which is led by Gov. Haley Barbour, a Republican ally of President Bush's - extends 200 miles farther north than that in Louisiana, which is led by Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco, a Democrat who at times criticized the federal storm response.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:11 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
November 15, 2005
Fascism Watch II: No habeus for them, no habeus for us, no problem
Thirty Democratic Senators voted to restrict Habeus Corpus for enemy combatants, proving that fascism has bi-partisan appeal. Up next, *The Streamlined Procedures Act*, which restricts Habeus Corpus rights for the rest of us.
From Talk Left, No Habeas for Them, No Habeas for Us:
Tinkering with habeas corpus is a dangerous thing. Today, Sen. Lindsay Graham and his fellow Senators told you they are only restricting habeas rights of enemy combatants, i.e., foreigners. But on November 16, the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold a second hearing on S. 1088 (pdf), a bill that would gut habeas corpus rights for Americans.
As Digby noted yesterday, fascism is not an irresistable revolutionary movement, it creeps in through the back door:
"Hitler came to office in 1933 as the result, not of any irresistible revolutionary or national movement sweeping him into power, nor even of a popular victory at the polls, but as part of a shoddy political deal with the 'Old Gang' whom he had been attacking for months… Hitler did not seize power; he was jobbed into office by a backstairs intrigue."
The Streamlined Procedures Act increases the threat of wrongful conviction:
The legislation, known as the Streamlined Procedures Act, would effectively kill the writ of habeas corpus by stripping federal courts of jurisdiction to consider cases in which a prisoner's constitutional rights may have been violated. The legislation would apply to all criminal cases, including capital cases. The legislation is sponsored by Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) in the Senate and Rep. Dan Lungren (R-CA) in the House.
The impact is broad and pernicious:
The Senate Judiciary Committee has scheduled its second hearing on the bill for Wednesday, November 16th, at 9:30am. A contentious hearing on the legislation took place on July 13 featuring witnesses including former US Solicitor General Seth Waxman, innocence expert Barry Scheck and death penalty attorney and law professor Bryan A. Stevenson arguing that the bill would increase the likelihood of innocent people being executed. The witnesses also noted how the legislation undermines recent bipartisan action by Congress to address inaccuracy in the criminal justice system, through the Innocence Protection Act, and conflicts with the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act.
The anticipated Democratic response: No habeus for them, no habeus for us, no problem.
Posted by Gary Boatwright at 7:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
November 3, 2005
Meanwhile ... Abramoff Scandal
Meanwhile the Abramoff scandal investigation rolls along. Salon has a good piece on it today: Abramoff-Scanlon School of Sleaze,
In plain terms, Scanlon confessed the source code of recent Republican electoral victories: target religious conservatives, distract everyone else, and then railroad through complex initiatives.If you know about the Abramoff-Norquist-Reed-DeLay-Rove connections it is revealing that the Christians are referred to as "whackos." It's what so many of us have said all along, the "conservative movement" isn't ideology at all, it's just a big con-man scam. The Republican leadership is simply saying wht they need to say to the Christians to get their votes, making fools of them, and when they get into office they hand over the Treasury to each other."The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees," Scanlon wrote in the memo, which was read into the public record at a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. "Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them." The brilliance of this strategy was twofold: Not only would most voters not know about an initiative to protect Coushatta gambling revenues, but religious "wackos" could be tricked into supporting gambling at the Coushatta casino even as they thought they were opposing it.
Other blogs are picking this up now: Atrios, firedoglake, Crooks and Liars, and a Kos diary suggests posting the story on right-wing blogs.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 8:47 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
October 21, 2005
Beyond Clueless: Michael Brown's Dinner Arrangements A High Priority During Unfolding Katrina Disaster
Lauren Weinstein has just posted a link to some of the emails circulating within FEMA during the Katrina crisis, apparently there are a number of stunners there, including an email from Sharon Worthy, Brown's press secretary, on the topic of ensuring that enough time was arranged for Michael Brown to have a nice leisurely dinner at a Baton Rouge area restaurant - a priority less than appreciated by other FEMA workers busy eating MREs, crapping in the hallways of the Superdome, and attempting to sleep on concrete floors. Not to mention trying to help people dying in the streets.
Bush style "crisis" leadership. I thank the deity every day that our worst "enemy" is a rag tag band of terrorists hiding out in the mountains of Pakistan, who feel more threatened by the Pakistani Army than the entire might of our "Global War On Terrorism" (c.f. the recent letter from Ayman al-Zawahri to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi).
Posted by Thomas Leavitt at 5:59 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
Dirty Laundry Ad
Go see TV Ad: "Laundromat" at Clean Up Congress.
Give them money to run the ad.
Posted by Dave Johnson at 5:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack | Link Cosmos
October 13, 2005
$615/mo. to work in Iraq
[Imperial Rome had nothing on America under Bush. -Thomas]