Bad Deeds for 5-2-07

CNN’s Glenn Beck to Host Hour-long Global Warming Smear-fest – A CNN press release declared that Glenn Beck’s upcoming “special report” will “deflate what Beck perceives as the media hype surrounding global warming” and “question the accuracy of Al Gore’s claims in the Oscar-winning documentary An Inconvenient Truth.” Beck has repeatedly advanced falsehoods related to global climate change, cited debunked scientists to support his doubts that “we’re causing” global warming, and regularly attacked Gore. Beck likened Gore’s climate change awareness campaign to the tactics Hitler used in “rounding up the Jews and exterminating them.”

You can complain about Glenn Beck to Jim Walton, president, CNN Newsgroup. Direct line: 404-878-1720.
101 Marietta Street, 7th Floor, Atlanta, GA 30303
General CNN viewer email:

Bush Administration Back to Domestic Spying Without Warrants – Senior Bush administration officials told Congress on Tuesday that they could not promise that the administration would continue to seek warrants from a secret court for a domestic wiretapping program, as it agreed to do in January. Under that agreement, the White House said its NSA domestic spying program had been brought under the legal structure laid out in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act; on Tuesday, however, Bush officials claimed that the president still had the authority to order domestic NSA surveillance without warrants.

Residency Clause Adds Fuel to Dispute Over Fired US Attorneys – A 2005 episode – in which Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales assured a Montana federal judge that the state’s U.S. attorney wasn’t violating federal law by spending most of his time out of the state – provides another example of Gonzales’s statements appearing to conflict with actions taken by his aides, given the Justice Department’s contention that New Mexico’s highly rated former prosecutor David C. Iglesias was fired in part because he was too frequently absent from his district.

Interior Dept. Official Revised Scientific Reports to Minimize Protection of Endangered Species – Julie MacDonald, the senior Bush political appointee at the Interior Department who revised scientific reports to minimize protection of endangered species has resigned, officials said yesterday. MacDonald was set to face a congressional hearing following a damning report from her agency’s inspector general, in which it was recommended that she face administrative action and possible demotion.

Rudy Giuliani’s Law Firm Represents Hugo Chavez While Giuliani Publicly Slams Chavez – Republican presidential contender Rudy Giuliani on Tuesday called Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez a dangerous foe of the United States, saying that Chavez’s oil wealth was the only source of his influence. “Who would listen to Chavez if he didn’t have all this oil money?” Giuliani asked; a good question, and one that the former NYC mayor is in a unique position to answer, given that the law firm of Bracewell & Giuliani lobbies in Texas on behalf of Citgo, a subsidiary of Venezuela’s national oil company, controlled by Chavez.

Bush Administration Derailed 2001 Effort to Rein in Student Lenders – The Bush administration killed a proposal to clamp down on the student loan industry six years ago despite allegations that companies sought to shower universities with financial favors to help generate business, according to documents and interviews with government officials. That may be no coincidence, say critics, pointing out that, under the Bush administration, more than a dozen senior Education Department officials either previously worked in the student loan business or found high-paying jobs in the sector after they left the agency.

Hours after 9/11 attacks, Rumsfeld allegedly said, ‘My interest is to hit Saddam’ – According to NBC’s chief Pentagon correspondent, former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said that his “interest is to hit Saddam Hussein” just hours after the attacks on September 11, 2001, “even though all indications pointed at al-Qaida as the guilty party,” a Rhode Island newspaper reports.

Rudy Giuliani is the Polluter’s Candidate – Giuliani has drawn support from Texans who were notable donors to President Bush, including a former Enron president, Richard D. Kinder, and business executives who direct many of the nation’s oil, gas and energy producers. And a good part of this success, analysts say, stems from his affiliation with a well-established and politically connected law firm that is based in Houston and bears his name, Bracewell & Giuliani. The firm is perhaps the nation’s most aggressive lobbyist for coal-fired power plants, heavy emitters of air pollutants and carbon dioxide, a gas associated with global warming. Environmentalists say the firm played a significant role in persuading the Bush administration to roll back major provisions of the Clean Air Act.

How the Wealthy Use the Government to Stay Rich and Get Richer – Conservatives have been quite actively using the power of the government to shape market outcomes in ways that redistribute income upward. However, conservatives have been clever enough to not own up to their role in this process, pretending all along that everything is just the natural working of the market.

Fox News Shows President’s Speech, Refuses to Air Democratic Response – Fair and balanced?

Regards,

Jim