Bad Deeds for 11-13-2007

Senior Executive at News Corp. Encouraged Lying to Federal Investigators to Protect the Presidential Aspirations of Rudy Giuliani According to Judith Regan – Judith Regan, the former book publisher, says in a lawsuit filed today protesting her dismissal by the News Corporation, the media conglomerate, that a senior executive there encouraged her to lie to federal investigators about her past affair with Benard Kerik, after he had been nominated to become homeland security secretary in late 2004. The lawsuit asserts that the News Corporation executive wanted to protect the presidential aspirations of Rudy Giuliani, Mr. Kerik’s mentor, who had appointed him New York City police commissioner and had recommended him for the federal post.

Iraq and Afghan Wars Have Cost Every Average Family More than $20,000 – President Bush’s six-year invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq will end up costing Americans about $1.5 trillion, or nearly twice as much as the White House has actually spent to fight its wars, because of unseen costs like inflation, rising oil prices and expensive care for wounded veterans. The estimate was revealed in a Democratic staff report from Congress’s Joint Economic Committee. The staff report, titled “The Hidden Costs of the Iraq War,” estimates that the Iraq and Afghan wars have cost the average family more than $20,000. “The full economic costs of the war to the American taxpayers and the overall U.S. economy go well beyond even the immense federal budget costs already reported,” said the report.

White House and Pentagon Withholding Iraq Strategy Document from Democratic Lawmakers – The Pentagon has denied repeated requests from Democratic lawmakers to view a key document outlining the chief US strategy to achieve stability in Iraq. Created by General David Petraeus and US Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, the Joint Campaign Plan details military and diplomatic steps intended to dramatically heighten security in Iraq by 2009. The exact nature of the plan, however, has been withheld from Congress thus far. “After persistent requests from House Armed Services Chairman Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), the issue has moved up the Congressional chain of command to Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.),” Van Dongen writes. “According to an aide, Pelosi asked President Bush for the document several months ago in a White House meeting. Since then, Pelosi’s staff has ‘repeatedly’ requested a copy, her aide said, but has not yet received one.”

Microsoft Tries to Ram a Bad Specification Through the International Standards Organization – Microsoft tried to gain fast-track approval from the International Standards Organization for Office Open XML (OOXML), the proprietary file formats used by Office 2007. A standard should be clear and relatively unambiguous, serve the public interest by allowing different entities to create interoperable or compatible implementations, and provide an agreed-upon platform for future implementation. Microsoft’s OOXML is none of those. It’s a specification that’s so incredibly convoluted that nobody outside of Microsoft will ever be able to implement it fully. That’s what Microsoft wants, of course. If OOXML is approved by the ISO, the company can then sell its “standards-based” Office solutions to government entities. However, once those entities start creating documents in OOXML formats, they’ll be locked into Microsoft’s software to read and manipulate those documents. Also, businesses and the general public will also need to buy Microsoft’s software to read and manipulate those documents. Ka-ching!

Bush Vetoes Domestic Spending Bill But Approves $471 Billion for Military – President Bush on Tuesday signed a big increase in the Pentagon’s non-war budget, and vetoed a spending measure for health and education programs prized by congressional Democrats. The $471 billion defense budget gives the Pentagon a 9 percent increase, roughly $40 billion. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-WI) responded: “The same president who is asking us to spend another $200 billion on the misguided war in Iraq and is insisting on providing $60 billion in tax cuts next year to folks who make over a million bucks a year, is now pretending to protect the deficit by refusing to provide a $6 billion increase to crucial domestic investments in education, healthcare, medical research and worker protections that will make this country stronger.’’ The White House wanted cuts in healthcare access, education, medical research, job training and grants to alleviate poverty and promote economic development.

Bill O’Reilly Unleashes Fox Lawyers in Attempt to Get Liberal Blogger Booted From Law School – Blogger Mike Stark has a history of haranguing O’Reilly during his call-in radio show, and he once visited the Fox host’s house to mock him over sexual harassment allegations. Now, Stark, has become the target of a network executive working on behalf of the combative Fox News pundit. Fox VP Dianne Brandi has written to the dean of the University of Virginia’s law school, where Stark is in his second year, urging an investigation of his conduct. The letter accuses Stark of violating the university’s codes of conduct, and it warns that he would have trouble passing the fitness review required for admission to the bar.

Democratic Candidate Calls Black Campaign Worker “Buckwheat” – A white state lawmaker in a runoff election called a black civil-rights veteran who had helped her campaign “Buckwheat,” prompting the NAACP to urge voters to kick her out of office. Rep. Carla Blanchard Dartez, a Democrat, acknowledged that she ended a Thursday night conversation with Hazel Boykin by saying, “Talk to you later, Buckwheat.” Dartez had been thanking Boykin for driving voters to the polls. Buckwheat, a black child character in the “Little Rascals” comedies of the 1930s and ’40s, is viewed as a racial stereotype. Boykin, 75, helped desegregate restaurants and the parish school system in the 1960s. Her son, Jerome, is president of the Terrebonne Parish chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. “I’ve never had no one talk to me that way and I considered it a racial slur,” Hazel Boykin said. “I know the meaning of it, it’s just like the N-word.” Jerome Boykin said Monday he planned to ask voters to cast ballots against Dartez, who faces Republican Joe Harrison in Saturday’s runoff. “At this point, the NAACP is not concerned about the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. If a Republican is elected because of her racist remarks, that’s her responsibility,” he said of Dartez.

Republican Presidential Candidate’s Ad Equates Immigrants with Terrorists – A new television spot from Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo likening immigrants with terrorists airs in Iowa this morning, and the immigration-fixated Republican captured the attention of Fox & Friends today. The hosts of the morning gabfest took a few moments to air the spot, an alarming warning about the human costs of “open borders,” and discuss its message. “There are consequences to open borders beyond the 20 million aliens who’ve come to take our jobs,” an announcer says in voice-over in the ad. “Islamic terrorists now freely roam US soil, jihadists who froth with hate here to do what they have in London, Spain and Russia.” Graphic imagery from each terror attack flashes on the screen. Depicted are London’s double-decker bus ripped apart by a bomb in 2005, the commuter train that destroyed in Madrid’s 2004 attack and a badly injured child, blood dripping from his forehead, in the arms of a rescue worker, possibly from the 2002 theater attack in Russia by Chechen rebels or the Beslan school siege.

190,000 Guns and 135,000 Units of Body Armor Missing From Iraq – After six months of internal government investigation, the Department of Defense is accused of “loose record keeping,” and as a result, weapons transportation and distribution is “haphazard” and “rushed”. What’s more, 80,000 pistols, 110,000 AK47 rifles and 135,000 items of body armor are unaccounted for or simply, missing. It also cites “numerous mistakes and incorrect entries” in the records.

Conservative Radio Host Says Lesbians Stuffed Hitler’s Ovens With Human Beings – On the November 8 edition of Talk Radio Network’s The Savage Nation, a caller told host Michael Savage that while waiting at a stoplight in Midtown Manhattan, “I’m listening to you with the window open. This mean-faced, clipped-hair, liberal type — you know, the type you always talk about. … She comes up to my window and she goes, ‘You’re listening to hate speech. Why are you listening to that?’ ” Savage replied to the caller’s anecdote by saying, “Well, what does that tell you about the loving, kind lesbian who just assaulted you in your car?” He continued: “She’s a — the type that stuffed ovens in [Adolf] Hitler’s concentration camps. Whenever I hear anyone preaching to me about how compassionate they are, I reach for my Glock [his pistol]. That’s all I can tell you. They can all drop dead.” Savage later said: “They’re the ones that Hitler used to stuff ovens with human beings in the concentration camps, only now they pose as compassionate, wonderful human beings. They don’t fool me for one minute.”

Iraq Contracts Determined by Affair – Eric W. Barton, who worked for EOD Technology Inc., which won at least $2.5 million in Iraq contracts, is accused of having a six-month relationship with Air Force Capt. Sherrie Remington, who at the time was in charge of awarding some contracts for work in Iraq. From 2005 through spring 2006, when the affair was allegedly taking place, the company’s contracts increased from $3.8 million to $106 million.

Regards,

Jim