Bad Deeds for 2-10-2009

Conservative Group Circulates “No Stimulus” Petition – A conservative group called “Americans For Prosperity” has started a petition against the stimulus package that became so popular, it crashed their website in recent days. (The site has since gone back up.) The group’s president, Tim Phillips founded Century Strategies with Ralph Reed, a Christian leader known for his role in jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s Indian casino scheme. In the summer of 2008, Americans for Prosperity launched a “Hot Air Tour” to protest “climate alarmism” in Congress.

John Boehner Gave Out Bribes From Big Tobacco on the House Floor – In this 1996 documentary by PBS called “The People and the Power Game,” John Boehner is caught red-handed in an amazing act of corruption.

Boehner: Mine asked me to give out a half dozen checks quickly before we got to the end of the month and I complied. I did it on the House floor which I regret and I should not have done, it’s not a violation of the House rules, but it’s a practice that’s gone on here for a long time.

Were the checks from tobacco companies?

Boehner: Ahh, I think if my memory serves me correctly, I think it was a tobacco company, yes.

Q)….but in this case tobacco’s well timed contributions helped save its subsidy. The people that were passing out the checks won.

So how did he become their leader in the HOUSE? And yet the media uses John Boehner as a spokesman bashing the stimulus package as if he’s been a clean member of the Republican party.

John Cornyn Absent From Stimulus Vote; Too Busy Rubbing Elbows With Wall Street Republican Donors – The question from the Senate floor this evening was “where was Cornyn,” as the Texas Republican was the only senator to miss the crucial cloture vote on the stimulus package. The answer: He was at a New York gathering of prominent media conservatives and Wall Street Republican donors called the Monday Meeting, held at the Grand Hyatt hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Though not a fundraiser, the meeting is a hub of conservative money and buzz, a good place for Cornyn to tap into resources in his role as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. Three Democrats — Ted Kennedy, Tim Johnson and Robert Byrd — all suffer from infirmities that limit their mobility, but made it to the chamber for the 61-36 vote that cleared the way for an up-or-down vote on the package.

Interior Department Official Took Bribes in Exchange for Arranging Meetings Between Insurance Brokers and Government Officials – An Interior Department official caught taking bribes in exchange for arranging meetings between insurance brokers and government officials was swept up in an FBI corruption probe that began in a struggling New Jersey shore community near Atlantic City. Federal investigators have told The Post that the New Jersey-based insurance brokerage firm that paid 60-year-old Edgar A. Johnson $15,000 in kickbacks in 2006 and 2007 was a fake company — part of a far-reaching FBI sting operation, dubbed Operation Broken Boards.

Conservatives Say Anything to Support Their Ideology – I read where someone named Betsy McCaughey is saying that Tom Daschle slipped secret heath care provisions into the stimulus bill that will “ruin your health.” As I read the article, it reminded me of the e-mails that make some alarmist claim and usually end with, “Forward this to everyone you know!” So I wondered who is Betsy McCaughey? So I looked her up. Turns out that she has been telling stories about health care reform for a long time and she doesn’t let facts get in her way, nor did the facts prevent conservatives from quoting her erroneous statements. In 1994, McCaughey vigorously criticized the health care reform package proposed by Bill Clinton in a widely read article in The New Republic. The piece, “No Exit”, won the National Magazine Award for excellence in the public interest. Andrew Sullivan, The New Republic’s then-editor later acknowledged “I was aware of the piece’s flaws but nonetheless was comfortable running it as a provocation to debate.” While the article was seized by conservative commentators seeking to discredit the Clinton plan, much of McCaughey’s article later proved inaccurate; particularly, her claims that “the law will prevent you from going outside the system to buy basic health coverage you think is better,” and that “doctor[s] can be paid only by the plan, not by you” were flatly contradicted by the text of the legislation. (For example: Section 1003 of the Health Security Act provided that “[n]othing in this Act shall be construed as prohibiting the following: (1) An individual from purchasing any health care services.”)

US is Dead Last in Timely and Effective Healthcare – The United States dead last in providing timely and effective healthcare to its citizens, according to a survey Tuesday of preventable deaths in 19 industrialized countries. The study by the Commonwealth Fund and published in the January/February issue of the journal Health Affairs measured developed countries’ effectiveness at providing timely and effective healthcare. The study, entitled “Measuring the Health of Nations: Updating an Earlier Analysis,” was written by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It looked at death rates in subjects younger than 75 that could have been prevented by timely and effective medical care. The researchers found that while most countries surveyed saw preventable deaths decline by an average of 16 percent, the United States saw only a four percent dip. The 19 countries, in order of best to worst, were: France, Japan, Australia, Austria, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. (Note to Ms. McCaughey mentioned in the previous story: Stop trying to prevent health care reform. We’re already the worst. Maybe some other countries actually have better programs we should look at.)

Chevron Seeks Money from Villagers Who Sued Over 1998 Shooting – Chevron Corp., one of the world’s largest non-government oil companies, is seeking nearly $500,000 in legal costs from Nigerian villagers who had brought a human-rights lawsuit against them and lost. The villagers had sought to hold Chevron responsible for a 1998 incident in which protesters and the Nigerian government clashed over an oil platform, leaving two protesters dead and more wounded. Chevron won, the villagers lost. As Laura Livoti, founder of Bay Area-based Justice in Nigeria Now, puts it in the article, Chevron is attempting to squeeze “nearly half a million dollars out of poor villagers who don’t even have access to clean drinking water.” To add insult to injury, the villagers Chevron is seeking reimbursement from include a protestor who was shot and wounded, another who was arrested and tortured, at least a dozen children, and thirty former plaintiffs who dropped out of the case before it went to trial.

Bush Gives Jobs to Rich Campaign Donors – Fred F. Fielding, Emmet T. Flood, William A. Burck and Daniel M. Price worked together at the White House under George W. Bush. Less than two weeks before leaving office, Bush made sure the senior aides shared a new assignment, naming them to an obscure World Bank agency called the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes. The appointments are for six years and are potentially lucrative, paying up to $3,000 a day plus travel and other expenses if an appointee is chosen to hear a case. Bush also named two other prominent Republican lawyers to the agency, which attempts to broker international finance disagreements. Bush made more than 100 such end-of-term appointments to a constellation of presidential boards and panels. Nearly half of Bush’s appointments after Election Day were filled by donors who gave a total of nearly $1.9 million to Republicans since 2003, according to an analysis of the postings. (Nothing says “qualified” like money. We now have a fresh new batch of [Heck of a Job] Brownies.)

Bill O’Reilly’s Hypocrisy On Privacy – Bill O’Reilly speaks out against the invasion of privacy of celebrities stalked by paparazzi, then sends out camera crews to stalk people who disagree with him on some issue. In one of several examples, O’Reilly defends Angelina Jolie against paparazzi, followed by footage of one of his producers with a camera in Jolie’s face after she reportedly banned Fox News from one of her movie premieres. “I think my favorite part about ‘The Factor’ is that they have no trouble reconciling their defense of celebrities’ right to privacy with their intimidation of everyone else,” said Jon Stewart on The Daily Show, showing unedited footage of O’Reilly segueing from an ambush of the Columbia Journalism Review editor on a city bus to outrage over “these vicious paparazzi.” Video at the link.

Regards,

Jim