Bad Deeds for 1-25-07

V.P. Dick Cheney Says Talk of Blunders in Iraq is ‘hogwash’

Cheney’s annual State of Delusion address

And don’t forget, you only need one kidney – In July, bankrupt Northwest Airlines begins laying off thousands of ground workers, but not before issuing some of them a handy guide, “101 Ways to Save Money.” The advice included dumpster diving (“Don’t be shy about pulling something you like out of the trash”), making your own baby food, shredding old newspapers for use as cat litter, and taking walks in the woods as a low-cost dating alternative.

Civil rights leader and former U.N. ambassador Andrew Young makes racial remarks – In an August interview with an African American newspaper in Los Angeles, Young says Wal-Mart “should” displace its urban corner-store competition. “You see, those are the people who have been overcharging us…. I think they’ve ripped off our communities enough. First it was Jews, then it was Koreans, and now it’s Arabs.”

Oh, you were doing it to keep your employees from improving their working conditions? Well, that’s all right then… – Former Wal-Mart vice chairman Thomas Coughlin – whose compensation from salary, bonuses, and stock grants totaled several million dollars per year – is discovered to have cooked up fraudulent expense invoices in a scam to siphon off $500,000 over the course of seven years. Coughlin, who reportedly told enabling subordinates that he was using the funds for a secret antiunion initiative, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to more than two years of home confinement.

Ohio Poll Workers Rigged 2004 Election Recount – Two election workers were convicted Wednesday of rigging a recount of the 2004 presidential election to avoid a more thorough review in Ohio’s most populous county. Both the elections coordinator and ballot manager of the Cuyahoga County Elections Board were found to have secretly reviewed pre-selected ballots before a public recount, working behind closed doors for three days to pick ballots they knew would not cause discrepancies when checked by hand.

Tarleton State University students held a Martin Luther King Jr. Day party that mocked black stereotypes by featuring fried chicken, malt liquor and faux gang apparel – Photographs posted on social networking Web site Facebook.com showed partygoers wearing Afro wigs and fake gold and silver teeth. One photo showed students mocking how African-Americans do step shows. In another picture, a student is dressed as Aunt Jemima and carries a gun.

Minimum wage bill stalled by Senate Republicans

Donald Rumsfeld has NOT left the Defense Department; he is now an nonpaid consultant – On Jan. 4, Mr. Rumsfeld opened a government-provided transition office in Arlington and has seven Pentagon-paid staffers working for him. The Pentagon lists Mr. Rumsfeld as a “nonpaid consultant,” a status he needs in order to review secret and top-secret documents

Florida Republican fumes at not having a chair in meeting, leads walk out – A Florida Republican, who is the ranking minority member of the Transportation Committee in the House of Representatives, stormed out of a meeting last week, leading other Republican members with him. Rep. John Mica was angry because he was not seated at the head of the room during an orientation session.

Regards,

Jim