Bad Deeds for 10-5-2007

Republican Presidential Candidates Agree With Bush Over Children’s Health Care Veto – The four leading Republican presidential candidates have aligned themselves with President Bush’s veto on Wednesday of an expanded health insurance program for children, once again testing the political risk of appearing in lock step with a president who has low approval ratings and some critics of the veto within their party.

Republican Presidential Candidate in Court for Disorderly Conduct – Republican presidential candidate Robert Haines was more than two hours late yesterday for his arraignment in Manchester District Court on a disorderly conduct charge.

The Committee Tasked With Oversight of The C.I.A.’s Detention and Interrogation Program was Provided More Information by the New York Times Than by the Department Of Justice – The disclosure of secret Justice Department legal opinions on interrogation on Thursday set off a bitter round of debate over the treatment of terrorism suspects in American custody and whether Congress has been adequately informed of legal policies. One 2005 opinion gave the Justice Department’s most authoritative legal approval to the harshest agency techniques, including head slapping, exposure to cold and simulated drowning, even when used in combination. The second opinion declared that under some circumstances, such techniques were not “cruel, inhuman or degrading,” a category of treatment that Congress banned in December 2005.

Fred Thompson Has to Beg Crowd For a Round of Applause – Twenty-four minutes after he began speaking in a small restaurant the other day, Fred D. Thompson brought his remarks to a close with a nod of his head and an expression of thanks. Then he stood face to face with a silent audience. “Can I have a round of applause?” Mr. Thompson said, drawing a rustle of clapping and some laughter. “Well, I had to drag that out of you,” he said.

More on the Failings of FMEA – After the horrors of Hurricane Katrina, hundreds of black evacuees were unwittingly transported to Utah, a state where only one percent of its residents were black in 2005.

Blackwater Shot First – According to unreleased military reports, the September 16th shooting incident involving guards from Blackwater indicate that the guards shot without provocation. A U.S. military official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the incident remains the subject of several investigations, says, “It was obviously excessive, it was obviously wrong. The civilians that were fired upon, they didn’t have any weapons to fire back at them. And none of the IP or any of the local security forces fired back at them.”

“Americans Against Hate” Hates Muslims– “ Americans Against Hate ” is a conservative organization founded by a Republican activist. They plan to protest a Muslim Family Day at Six Flags Over Texas later this month because, according to their chairman, Joe Kaufman, “We believe this [Islamic] organization is a threat to the city and a threat to the United States because of its ties to overseas terrorism, because of their financing of overseas terrorism.” Local Muslims are outraged by these comments and have called the accusation a lie. “They have an agenda and they have a focus, and that is to absolutely tear down any Muslim organization that has any level of promise in America,” said Khalil Meek of Plano, president of the Muslim Legal Fund of America.

Isn’t this a typical conservative trick to name your group, or legislation, or whatever, the exact opposite of what it really represents? Want to pass a law to allow industries to pollute? Just call it the “Clear Skies Initiative.” – JLV

CIA Detention Program Remains Active – A secret CIA overseas detention program revealed by President George W. Bush last year remains active and has held at least one al Qaeda militant since then, a U.S. official said on Thursday. The official confirmed the detention as the White House skirted the question of whether the agency had resumed holding prisoners at secret sites and insisted that the United States does not torture.

Dick Cheney’s office protested the content of “Hardball” and “attempted to influence its editorial content – At the 10th anniversary party for his “Hardball” show Thursday night in Washington, D.C., Chris Matthews outlined what he said was the fundamental difference between the Bush and Clinton administrations. The Clinton camp, he said, never put pressure on his bosses to silence him. “Not so this crowd,” he added, explaining that Bush White House officials — especially those from Vice President Cheney’s office — called MSNBC brass to complain about the content of his show and attempted to influence its editorial content. “They will not silence me!” Matthews declared. “They’ve finally been caught in their criminality,” Matthews continued, although he did not specify the exact criminal behavior to which he referred. He then drew an obvious Bush-Nixon parallel by saying, “Spiro Agnew was not an American hero.” Matthews left the throng of Washington A-listers with a parting shot at Cheney: “God help us if we had Cheney during the Cuban missile crisis. We’d all be under a parking lot.”

Cheney part of top-secret conservative policy group – An ultra-secret conservative group — so secret that members don’t even use the group’s name in communications — featured Vice President Dick Cheney as a speaker at a meeting in Utah last week. Cheney addressed the fall meeting of the Council for National Policy, a group whose self-described mission is to promote ‘a free-enterprise system, a strong national defense and support for traditional Western values. “The media should not know when or where we meet or who takes part in our programs, before of after a meeting,” one of the group’s rules reads. Members “meet to share the best information available on national and world problems, know one another on a personal basis, and collaborate in achieving their shared goals.” What might those goals be? Southeastern Louisiana University philosophy professor Barbara Forrest says of the Council for National Policy, “The CNP membership also includes a sizeable segment of Christian Reconstructionists: Reconstructionists espouse a radical theology that calls for trashing the U.S. Constitution and replacing it with the harsh legal code of the Old Testament.”

Angry Vet Cuts Down Mexican Flag, Steals American Flag From Business – FoxNews Calls Him A Patriot – This past Monday, veteran Jim Broussard became so enraged when he heard a news report of a business in Reno, Nevada flying a Mexican flag above an American flag, he drove there and cut down the Mexican flag and stole the American flag. When Broussard appeared on FOXNews with Neil Cavuto, who called him an American patriot, claimed it was his patriotism that moved him to break the law and steal an American flag that belonged to the owner who is a U.S. citizen.

Regards,

Jim