The WAWG Blog

Elsewhere in my rants and writings, I have mentioned the Weekly Standard and Bill Kristol, its neocon founder and editor. According to Right Web, the Weekly Standard is also “a magazine closely linked to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI).” To top that, Rupert Murdoch, through the News Corporation, owns the Weekly Standard. For more on the relation between Bill and Rupert, checkout the “Neocon Corner” at the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs. Here are some excerpts from this article concerning the Rupert Murdoch/Bill Kristol relationship:

One reason Kristol was able to help create this [Iraq] war was the fact that he had a ready-made platform, courtesy of the Australian press lord Rupert Murdoch, who underwrites Kristol’s magazine, The Weekly Standard. …

… After the Republicans took Congress two years later, Kristol approached Murdoch to propose that he finance The Weekly Standard. Since then, the magazine has made no significant increase in circulation from the original 60,000. A large part of this figure includes gratis mailings of the magazine, all subsidized by Murdoch.

… Kristol operates a think tank that boasts big-name scholars and former government officials, and is a regular figure on Murdoch’s Fox News Channel. …

Most recently [2003], Murdoch spent $6.6 billion to purchase a controlling interest in DirecTV, the nation’s largest home satellite television service. This gives him the ability to promote Kristol and his other favorites into 11 million U.S. homes.

As mentioned above, there’s Fox News, another one of Mr. Murdoch’s 175 media holdings. Here is what Right Web reported from other sources about Fox News:

… Murdoch’s personal involvement has helped to ensure that almost all of his news organizations “have hewn very closely to Mr. Murdoch’s own stridently hawkish political views, making his voice among the loudest in the Anglophone world in the international debate over the American-led war with Iraq,” as one commentator put it (New York Times, April 7, 2003).

Fox News, which eclipsed CNN in 2002 as the top-rated cable news network in the United States, has frequently been singled out for criticism because of its blatantly one-sided coverage of the war in Iraq and for printing unsubstantiated stories about the conflict. When CNN reporter Christiane Amanpour blamed Fox for creating “a climate of fear and self-censorship” regarding coverage of Iraq, a Fox spokeswoman shot back, “Given the choice, it’s better to be viewed as a foot soldier for Bush than a spokeswoman for al-Qaida” (USA Today, September 14, 2003).

Relative to his other holdings, here is more on Mr. Murdoch’s influence on his media holdings:

Gene Kimmelman of the Consumers Union told the New York Times: “[Murdoch] has extended the most blatant editorializing in the entire world through his media properties, and that is exactly the example of what we need to worry about when any one entrepreneur owns and controls too many media outlets” (April 7, 2003).

Said Murdoch of the war, “The greatest thing to come out of this for the world economy, if you could put it that way, would be $20 a barrel for oil. That’s bigger than any tax cut in any country” (Guardian, February 1[7], 2003).

The comic writer Al Franken once wrote of Murdoch: “There’s one important thing you should know about Murdoch. He’s evil. I defer to the … Columbia Journalism Review: ‘Murdoch uses his diverse holdings … to promote his own financial interests at the expense of real news gathering, legal and regulatory rules, and journalistic ethics. He wields his media as instruments of influence with politicians who can aid him, and savages his competitors in his news columns. If ever someone demonstrated the dangers of mass power being concentrated in few hands, it would be Murdoch.'”

One British newspaper opined: “You have got to admit that Rupert Murdoch is one canny press tycoon because he has an unerring ability to choose editors across the world who think just like him. How else can we explain the extraordinary unity of thought in his newspaper empire about the need to make war on Iraq? After an exhaustive survey of the highest-selling and most influential papers across the world owned by Murdoch’s News Corporation, it is clear that all are singing from the same hymn sheet. Some are bellicose baritone soloists who relish the fight. Some prefer a less strident, if more subtle, role in the chorus. But none, whether fortissimo or pianissimo, has dared to croon the anti-war tune. Their master’s voice has never been questioned” (Guardian, February 17, 2003).

Dick Cheney and his staff never cease to appall us. Where is this twisted view of our Constitution coming from? How is it that no one else for over 200 years has ever conceived of such perversions?

The following excerpts from Cheney’s Guy, by Chitra Ragavan, might help explain how this has happened and who’s behind it.

The son of a career military official, Addington was born and raised in the nation’s capital [The nations “bad barrel.”] ….

Addington began his government career 25 years ago, after graduating summa cum laude from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and with honors from the Duke University Law School. He started out as an assistant general counsel at the CIA and soon moved to Capitol Hill and served as the minority’s counsel and chief counsel on the House intelligence and foreign affairs committees. There, he began his long association with Cheney, then a Wyoming congressman and member of the intelligence panel. Addington and Cheney–who served as President Gerald Ford’s chief of staff–shared the same grim worldview: Watergate, Vietnam, and later, the Iran-contra scandal during President Reagan’s second term had all dangerously eroded the powers of the presidency. “Addington believes that through sloppy lawyering as much as through politics,” says former National Security Council deputy legal adviser Bryan Cunningham, “the executive branch has acquiesced to encroachment of its constitutional authority by Congress.”

A second critical article of faith for Addington has to do with the presidential chain of command. “He believes there should be the shortest possible distance from the president to his cabinet secretaries, and he does not like staffers or coordinating bodies in that chain of command,” says Cunningham, who worked closely with Addington and also was a Clinton administration lawyer.

Addington is a strong adherent of the so-called unitary executive theory, which is cited frequently and prominently in many of Bush’s legislative signing statements. The theory holds that the president is solely in charge of the executive branch [Except for Dick Cheney] and that Congress, therefore, can’t tell him how to carry out his executive functions, whom to pick for what jobs, or through whom he must report to Congress. Executive power, separation of power, a tight chain of command, and protecting the unitary executive–[those became the guide stars of Addington’s legal universe.

As the Pentagon general counsel, Addington soon alienated the armed forces’ judge advocate generals by authoring a memo ordering the proudly independent corps of career military attorneys to report to the general counsel of each service. “He [Addington] wanted the military services to be not so independent,” says a retired Navy JAG, Rear Adm. Don Guter. “It came under the rubric of civilian control of the military. It’s centralization. It’s control.”

… After the 9/11 attacks, the JAG officers were marginalized from the decision making on military tribunals and detainee treatment policies. They became among President Bush’s most vocal critics within the military.

Win or lose, those who know him say Addington simply outworks his adversaries. Even when lightning caused a fire that nearly destroyed his home, Addington missed just a day of work. His office piled high with paperwork, eschewing a secretary, Addington is impossible to reach by phone, but he E-mails colleagues at all hours of the day and night about urgent government business and, sometimes, his own arcane intellectual pursuits ….

… In a series of letters to David Walker, the comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, Addington argued that neither Congress nor the courts could “intrude into the heart of executive deliberations,” because it would inhibit the “candor” necessary to “effective government.” Addington argued strenuously that no matter what the political or policy outcomes, protecting the information sought by the [energy] task force was the right thing to do. “They gave up short-term political expediency,” Berenson says, “for the larger constitutional principle.” …

After 9/11, there was a small group in control of White House decision making. This group included three lawyers – A. Gonzales, John Yoo and Addington.

Whether or not he became the de facto leader of the group, as some administration officials say, Addington’s involvement made for a formidable team. “You put Addington, Yoo, and Gonzales in a room, and there was a race to see who was tougher than the rest and how expansive they could be with respect to presidential power,” says a former Justice Department official. “If you suggested anything less, you were considered a wimp.” Others say Addington and Flanigan influenced Gonzales, who lacked their national security background.

The administration’s first goal was winning passage of a congressional resolution authorizing the use of military force. …

In an Addington-influenced OLC [Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel] opinion issued shortly after 9/11, Yoo wrote that Congress can’t “place any limits on the president’s determinations as to any terrorist threat, the amount of military force to be used in response, or the method, timing, and nature of the response.”

A second critically important issue was what to do with those captured on the field of battle. … The discussions were short-circuited, several former administration officials say, when Flanigan, one of Gonzales’s two top aides, wrested away the group’s work product on military commissions. With Berenson’s and Addington’s assistance, Flanigan wrote a draft order for the White House, based on an OLC memo arguing that the president had the legal authority to authorize military commissions–period.

That led Bush, on November 13, to authorize the secretary of defense to create military commissions to deal with “unlawful enemy combatants.” The Pentagon’s entire corps of JAG officers was kept in the dark, as were Ambassador Prosper, Bellinger, then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and then Secretary of State Colin Powell.

… A draft memorandum, dated Jan. 25, 2002, signed by Gonzales and written, sources say, by Flanigan with Addington’s input, called Yoo’s opinion “definitive.” The war on terrorism, Gonzales extrapolated, is a “new paradigm” that “renders obsolete” the “strict limitations” the Geneva Conventions place on interrogations and “renders quaint” the protections it affords prisoners. …

… In August 2002, the head of OLC, Jay Bybee, signed a memo interpreting the U.S. law prohibiting torture and implementing the U.N. Convention Against Torture. Addington helped shape the Bybee memo, which was authored by Yoo. Once again, the State Department–which has the lead role in monitoring implementation of the treaty–was left out of the discussions.

Bybee, Yoo, and Addington saw the torture statute, unsurprisingly, as an unwarranted infringement on executive-branch power. Their goal was to interpret it as narrowly as possible, and their memo, consequently, explored the outer limits of the interrogation methods the statute allowed. The three lawyers agreed that the president could override or ignore the statute, as needed, to protect national security. …

As with the incarceration and interrogation issues, President Bush’s decision, within days of the 9/11 attacks, authorize the National Security Agency to conduct electronic surveillance inside the United States, without review by the secret Justice Department intelligence court, had David Addington’s handwriting all over it. Bush, Addington and others in the small coterie of conservative administration lawyers argued, had the authority to order the secret surveillance under his constitutional authority as commander in chief and by the authority granted to him by Congress’s use-of-force resolution before the invasion of Afghanistan. …

The article concluded:

As legal scholars continue to examine the government’s 9/11 policies, David Addington’s singular presence looms larger than ever. What is unclear, at this juncture anyway, is how history will regard him: as a legal path setter who devised innovative means to help a president defeat an unconventional enemy or as a dangerous advocate who, in pushing the envelope legally to help prosecute the war on terrorism, set U.S. foreign policy, and America’s image in the world, back by decades. Even his toughest critics in the administration say Addington believes utterly that he is acting in good faith. “He thinks he’s on the side of the angels,” says a former Justice Department official. “And that’s what makes it so scary.”

Now here is the latest from Mr. Addington according to a June 21, 2007, article in Raw Story:

“Your position was that your office ‘does not believe it is included in the definition of ‘agency’ as set forth in the Order’ and ‘does not consider itself an ‘entity within the executive branch’ that comes into the possession of classified information,'” a National Archives official claims Cheney chief of staff David Addington wrote to him.

Contrast that with what Cheney said on July 25, 2001, on ABC’s Nightline concerning his meeting with top executives from the energy task force, “This request that in fact we’re supposed to provide him [member of Congress] with this information with respect to those meetings in the Executive Branch between the Vice President and other individuals strikes me as inappropriate.”

Cheney Makes Mistake: Puts His Funding Request In the Executive Branch Funding Request – Following Vice President Dick Cheney’s assertion that his office is not a part of the executive branch of the US government, Democratic Caucus Chairman Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-IL) plans to introduce an amendment to the Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill to cut funding for Cheney’s office. The amendment to the bill that sets the funding for the executive branch will be considered next week in the House of Representatives. “The Vice President has a choice to make. If he believes his legal case, his office has no business being funded as part of the executive branch,” said Emanuel.

Number of Americans who believe Saddam-9/11 tie rises to 41 percent – A new Newsweek poll out this weekend exposed “gaps” in America’s knowledge of history and current events. Perhaps most alarmingly, 41% of Americans answered ‘Yes’ to the question “Do you think Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq was directly involved in planning, financing, or carrying out the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001?” That total is actually up 5 points since September 2004. Further, a majority of people couldn’t identify Saudia Arabia as the country of origin of most of the 9/11 hijackers, even given the question in multiple choice format. 20% answered Iraq, while 14% believed the hijackers came from Iran.

Librarians Under An FBI Gag Order – Peter Chase and Barbara Bailey, librarians in Plainville, Connecticut, received an National Security Letter to turn over computer records in their library on July 13, 2005. Unlike a suspected thousands of other people around the country, Chase, Bailey and two of their colleagues stood up to the Man and refused to comply, convinced that the feds had no right to intrude on anyone’s privacy without a court order (NSLs don’t require a judge’s approval). That’s when things turned ugly. The four librarians under the gag order weren’t allowed to talk to each other by phone. So they e-mailed. Later, they weren’t allowed to e-mail. After the ACLU took on the case and it went to court in Bridgeport, the librarians were not allowed to attend their own hearing. Instead, they had to watch it on closed circuit TV from a locked courtroom in Hartford, 60 miles away. “Our presence in the courtroom was declared a threat to national security,” Chase said. … Today, the Connecticut librarians are the only ones who can talk about life with an NSL gag, despite the likelihood that there are hundreds if not thousands of other similar stories out there. “Everyone else who would speak about is subject to a five year prison term,” Chase said. The prison term for violating the gag order was added to the reauthorized Patriot Act.

This is kind of old, but I just discovered it:
Air America’s ABC Blacklist: The Real Story – This week we learned that some 90 major corporations demanded that their ads be pulled from radio stations that run Air America programming, demonstrating the fundamental challenge facing everyone working to promote critical journalism and a vibrant free press. First off, let’s clarify why this is taking place: The crime isn’t that Air America is partisan. All or most of these firms advertise on politically conservative talk radio programs and/or stations. And the crime isn’t even being “liberal.” Some of these advertisers have moderate or liberal executives who donate to Democratic candidates and are far from rabid conservatives. So what is the problem? While “liberal” Air America clearly favors big D Democrats, unlike virtually all other programming on commercial radio and television, it gives airtime to reports that are critical of corporations and the powerful politicians they keep in Washington. This is the heart of the problem: Air America commits a crime called journalism. Almost none of the so-called conservative radio shows or networks do any semblance of actual reporting. They merely pontificate — repeating talking points that seem to be emailed straight from Karl Rove’s laptop.

Regards,

Jim

In this twentieth survey of the web, The WAWG Index monthly average was up by 16.2 percent from May 2007. Of the fourteen categories tracked, 7 were down, 7 were up, and none was unchanged. The largest decrease for June, 53 percent, was for “scapegoats as a unifying cause.” The largest increase was for “control of mass media” at 325 percent.

Through June, the 12 month group moving average for all fourteen categories was at 17.4 percent. It was 17.3 percent last month. Of the fourteen categories tracked, 3 were up, 10 were down and one was unchanged from the from the last 12 month period.

Cheney Attempted To Abolish Agency That Tried To Oversee Him – For four years, Vice President Dick Cheney has resisted routine oversight of his office’s handling of classified information, and when the National Archives unit that monitors classification in the executive branch objected, the vice president’s office suggested abolishing the oversight unit. Starting in 2003, the vice president’s office began refusing to supply the information requested by the unit. After repeatedly refusing to comply with a routine annual request from the archives for data on his staff’s classification of internal documents, the vice president’s office in 2004 blocked an on-site inspection of records that other agencies of the executive branch regularly go through to check whether documents were being properly labeled and safely stored.

US gives Iraqi Sunnis only eight days of training and at the end of it, they get to keep their gun and their uniform. That’s it? Eight days? It takes seven days of training to become a Starbucks barista.

Iraqi Political Refugee Facing Deportation To Iraq – Dallal Muhamed–an Iraqi woman who arrived in the US eight years ago for political asylum after being raped by Saddam’s henchmen is being deported because she failed to prove to the 9th Circuit Court that she would be tortured if repatriated to Iraq.

Bill O’Reilly Complains About NBC Covering Things That Don’t Matter, Like Afghanistan – Bill O’Reilly likes to complain that NBC gets all “jazzed” up over reporting Afghani children war casualties, Keith highlights all the Super Serious stuff BillO opts to cover instead of the most pressing issues this country faces — namely, Burt Reynolds’ illustrious career, the most recent Playboy centerfold and bears. Colbert would be very proud.

Missing Soldier’s Wife Faces Deportation – While the U.S. military searches for a soldier missing in Iraq, kidnapped by insurgents possibly allied with al Qaeda, his wife back home in Massachusetts may be deported by the U.S. government. Army Spec. Alex Jimenez, who has been missing since his unit was attacked by insurgents in Iraq on May 12, had petitioned for a green card for his wife, Yaderlin Hiraldo, whom he married in 2004. Their attorney, Matthew Kolken, said 23-year-old Hiraldo illegally entered the United States in 2001 to reunite with her husband, whom she had met in her native Dominican Republic and later married at his New York State Army base in 2004.

Romney Aide Impersonating a State Trooper – Jim Garrity, director of operations on Romney’s presidential campaign is being investigated for allegedly impersonating a trooper when he called a Wilmington company and threatened to ticket the driver of the company’s van for erratic driving.

Trent Lott Compares Illegal Immigrants To Goats: “One Of The Ways I Keep Goats In The Fence Is I Electrified Them” – Sen. Trent Lott (R-MS) on the solution to illegal immigration:

If the answer is ‘build a fence’ I’ve got two goats on my place in Mississippi. There ain’t no fence big enough, high enough, strong enough, that you can keep those goats in that fence. Now people are at least as smart as goats. Maybe not as agile. Build a fence. We should have a virtual fence. Now one of the ways I keep those goats in the fence is I electrified them. Once they got popped a couple times they quit trying to jump it.

Regards,

Jim

Cheney Says He Doesn’t Have to Report on Classified Documents Because the Vice President’s Office is Not Part of the Executive Branch – The Office of Vice President Dick Cheney told an agency within the National Archives that for purposes of securing classified information, the Vice President’s office is not an ‘entity within the executive branch’ according to a letter released Thursday by the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Waxman noted that Cheney’s office had declared itself not affected by an executive order amended by President George W. Bush in 2003 regarding classification and declassification of government materials. The Vice President’s office’s refusal to comply with the executive order and the National Archives’s request prompted the National Archives to file a complaint with the Attorney General’s office. But the Justice Department has not followed up on the Archives’s request.”The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, you exempted the Office of the Vice President from the presidential executive order that establishes a uniform, government-wide system for safeguarding classified national security information,” Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), the Committee’s chairman, wrote in a letter to Cheney. “Your decision to exempt your office from the President’s order is problematic because it could place national security secrets at risk. It is also hard to understand given the history of security breaches involving officials in your office.”

The Number of Uninsured Veterans Has Increased by 290,000 Since 2000: Total is Now Over 1 Million – Yesterday, Harvard Medical School professor Stephanie J. Woolhandler told the House Committee on Veteran Affairs that the amount of uninsured veterans has increased by 290,000 since 2000 and that 1.8 million United States veterans under the age of 65 do not have health insurance. Ms. Woolhandler said to the committee that “the data is showing that many veterans have no coverage and they’re sick and need care and can’t get it.”

How to Downgrade to XP is at the top of Microsoft’s “Top 5 Licensing Questions.” – In a posting to Microsoft’s UK Partner Team blog, a Microsoft employee lists the five questions most often asked last month via the “Ask Partner” Hotline. The most commonly asked question was “What downgrade rights does Windows Vista Business have?” (Not a question you want to hear asked if you are trying to convince customers that upgrading, not downgrading, is the way to go.) The second most frequently asked question: “What media and key can I use when downgrading?” Again, not exactly a resounding endorsement of Vista from volume licensees.

Homeland Security Can’t Secure It’s Own Computers – The Homeland Security Department, the lead U.S. agency for fighting cyber threats, suffered more than 800 hacker break-ins, virus outbreaks and other computer security problems over two years, senior officials acknowledged to Congress

Thieves Steal Herman Munster’s Identity

Regards,

Jim

“Conservative Encyclopedia You Can Trust” Says the Ice age is “a Theorized Period of Time” (the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, you know) – Most scientists know the Pleistocene Epoch as the ice age and date it back at least 1.6 million years. But Conservapedia.com calls it “a theorized period of time” — a theory contradicted, according to the entry, by “multiple lines of evidence” indicating that the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, as described in the Book of Genesis. It also defines Femininity as the quality of being “childlike, gentle, pretty, willowy, submissive.” A hike in minimum wage is referred to as “a controversial manoeuvre that increases the incentive for young people to drop out of school.” The entry on Hillary Clinton states, She “may suffer from a psychological condition that would raise questions about her fitness for office” — namely, “clinical narcissism.” The founder of Conservapedia.com defends the Clinton article as “an objective, bias-free piece from a conservative perspective.”

Rudy Giuliani Prefers High-Priced Speaking Engagements to Iraq Study Group Meetings – Rudy Giuliani was kicked out of the high-profile Iraq Study Group for failing to show up to meetings–and that said failures had to do with the ISG meetings conflicting with your high-priced speaking engagements.

Rudy Giualiani’s South Carolina Campaign Chairman Indicted on Cocaine Distribution Charges – The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division has just announced that State Treasurer Thomas Ravenel has been indicted by federal jury on cocaine distribution charges. Ravenel, who was elected last fall, was named the Chairman of presidential candidate Rudy Giualiani’s (R-N.Y.) South Carolina campaign in April. Considering Giualiani’s former police chief of New York and now this guy, what do you suppose his cabinet would look like if he was elected?

Bill O’Reilly Can Do Magic; Makes Bottom Half of the New York Times Front Page Disappear – On his program, Bill O’Reilly, said, “Now apparently The Times isn’t real concerned about Muslim guys allegedly trying to set up another 9/11. …This is not the Colbert Report. This is The Factor and this is the fact. On page one, The New York Times instead of the JFK terror arrests, we saw some Indian people with bricks,” while showing only the top half of Sunday New York Times, obscuring from viewers the headline beneath the fold that read “4 Charged in bomb plot at Kennedy Airport.”

Regards,

Jim

Despite promises, few in House make earmark requests public – Despite the new Democratic congressional leadership’s promise of “openness and transparency” in the budget process, a CNN survey of the House found it nearly impossible to get information on lawmakers’ pet projects. Staffers for only 31 of the 435 members of the House contacted by CNN between Wednesday and Friday of last week supplied a list of their earmark requests for fiscal year 2008, which begins on October 1, or pointed callers to Web sites where those earmark requests were posted. Of the remainder, 68 declined to provide CNN with a list, and 329 either didn’t respond to requests or said they would get back to us, and didn’t. Find out how your representative responded at the link in the above. Corruption in Our Capitol – The “Bad Barrel” Seduces Othe

Bush and Industry Block Anti-Terror Regulations For Chemical Plants – For nearly seven years, the chemical, oil and gas industries have successfully fought proposals to require stringent anti-terror security measures at facilities storing poisonous materials such as chlorine and methyl mercaptan. These industries have been especially opposed to legislation requiring “inherently safer technology,” a policy industry officials and the Bush administration view as both setting an excessively high standard and as leaving companies more vulnerable to lawsuits for failing to comply.

Bush Administration Trying to ‘Muzzle’ Hurricane Director – Bill Proenza, head of the National Hurricane Center, recently spoke out and warned that the “federal government is spending millions of dollars on a publicity campaign that could be used to plug budget shortfalls hurricane forecasters are struggling with.” Because of his statements, officials are now “trying to muzzle him and could be setting him up for termination.

US State Department Has No Experts on Pakistan Working on Pakistan – Respected Pakistan analyst Ahmed Rashid explained a key problem with current U.S. policy:

The problem is exacerbated by a dramatic drop-off in U.S. expertise on Pakistan. Retired American officials say that, for the first time in U.S. history, nobody with serious Pakistan experience is working in the South Asia bureau of the State Department, on State’s policy planning staff, on the National Security Council staff or even in Vice President Cheney’s office. Anne W. Patterson, the new U.S. ambassador to Islamabad, is an expert on Latin American “drugs and thugs”; Richard A. Boucher, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian affairs, is a former department spokesman who served three tours in Hong Kong and China but never was posted in South Asia. “They know nothing of Pakistan,” a former senior U.S. diplomat said.

Current and past U.S. officials tell me that Pakistan policy is essentially being run from Cheney’s office. The vice president, they say, is close to Musharraf and refuses to brook any U.S. criticism of him. This all fits; in recent months, I’m told, Pakistani opposition politicians visiting Washington have been ushered in to meet Cheney’s aides, rather than taken to the State Department.

Harper’s Scott Horton has more.

16 Companies May Violate U.S. Ban on Trade With Terror States – The list of 16 companies identified by the SEC as reporting business dealings with Sudan in SEC filings are:
1. Air France-KLM (source: Air France Web site)
2. Australia & New Zealand Banking Group Limited
3. Baker Hughes Inc.
4. Celanese Corporation
5. Credit Suisse
6. Deutsche Bank
7. Euroseas Ltd.
8. Dresser-Rand Group Inc.
9. Mindray Medical International Limited
10. Nokia Corporation
11. Royal Dutch Shell
12. SR Telecom Inc.
13. SEACOR Holdings Inc.
14. Siemens AG
15. Syntroleum Corp.
16. Total S.A.

Global Warming Brings Early Spring to Arctic – In a study that underscored the impact of global warming on the northern polar region, researchers discovered that plant, insect and bird life native to the High Arctic had made dramatic seasonal cycle adjustments to the region’s earlier snowmelt in the space of just 10 years. In some cases, flowers are emerging from buds and chicks are hatching a full 30 days sooner than they did in the mid-1990s in response to sharply increased temperatures burning off the winter’s snow layer. “Our study confirms what many people already think, that the seasons are changing and it is not just one or two warm years but a strong trend seen over a decade,” said Toke Hoye, a researcher with the National Environmental Research Institute at the University of Aarhus in Denmark.

Affordability During the Bush Administration – Of all the items listed below, the price of only one item has gone way down since Bush took office. Everything else has become much more expensive. Can you guess what that one thing is?

• Dozen eggs
• Gallon of Gasoline
• Health Care
• Gallon of Milk
• Ear of corn
• 8-ball of cocaine
• College Tuition
• Loaf of bread

How Antonio Taguba, Who Investigated the Abu Ghraib Scandal, Became One of its Casualties – General John Abizaid, then the head of Central Command turned to Taguba and issued a quiet warning: “You and your report will be investigated.” “I wasn’t angry about what he said but disappointed that he would say that to me,” Taguba said. “I’d been in the Army thirty-two years by then, and it was the first time that I thought I was in the Mafia.”

Michael Savage Falsely Attacks CSPAN
Michael Savage went after CSPAN and their CEO Mike Lamb because they had the audacity to not cover his Talker’s Magazine “Freedom of Speech” award speech. The reason was because Savage sent in a DVD of his speech instead of appearing live at the event he was being honored at so CSPAN declined to cover the event.. During last week’s telecast—CSPAN showed the vicious and misinformed emails that were sent to Lamb and CSPAN…And Savage is now charging his followers $22.00 to buy the DVD!

Please contact the Savage Nation and let Savage know that you understand a thing called the truth and to please stop the false accusations against CSPAN. And don’t be nasty like his listeners were to CSPAN.

Michael Savage
Talk Radio Network
P.O. Box 3755
Central Point, Oregon 97502
Phone: 541-664-8827
Fax: 541-664-6250

Regards,

Jim

Defense Lawyers In Different Cases are Raising New Questions About Government Prosecutors and Potential Political Biases – For months, the Justice Department and Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales have taken political heat for the purge of eight U.S. attorneys last year. Now the fallout is starting to hit the department in federal courtrooms around the country. Defense lawyers in a growing number of cases are raising questions about the motives of government lawyers who have brought charges against their clients. In court papers, they are citing the furor over the U.S. attorney dismissals as evidence that their cases may have been infected by politics

96 Members of Congress Paying Family Members – More than one in four members of Congress who hold top positions on committees and subcommittees or are in the House Leadership have used their position to enrich family members, including 55 Republicans and 41 Democrats .

Republicans and Democrats Point to Empty Boxes as Proof of Support for Comprehensive Immigration Reform – At a pro-immigration rally Thursday, a group of politicians including Senators Mel Martinez (R-Fla.), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Rep. Joe Baca (D-Calif.) addressed reporters while picturesquely standing in front of an impressive tower of boxes they said contained letters from a million supporters of comprehensive immigration reform. Maybe moving boxes that are actually full of letters is work that Americans don’t want to do?

Administration Agencies Ignored Law After 30% of Signing Statements – The Government Accountability Office issued a report showing that US government agencies ignored Congressional legislation on 30% of the occasions when President George W. Bush issued a ‘presidential signing statement’ after signing bills into law.

PBS Network’s ‘Wall Of Separation’ Has Religious Right Genesis – “The Wall of Separation” is a production of Boulevard Pictures, a California outfit that describes itself as “a motion picture production company committed to bringing moviegoers high-quality stories from the world’s most innovative filmmakers—films that bring hope, inspire us to the good, and that show us what the human spirit can attain.” But there seems to be more there than meets the eye.

Brownback Aide E-Mail Says Our Jesus Is Better Than Romney’s Jesus – Emma Nemecek, the southeastern Iowa field director for Brownback’s presidential campaign and a former state representative candidate, violated campaign policy when she forwarded the June 6 e-mail from an interest group raising the questions, the Brownback campaign said Sunday. The e-mail requested help in fact-checking a series of statements about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Among the statements: “Theologically, the only thing Christianity and the LDS church has in common is the name of Jesus Christ, and the LDS Jesus is not the same Jesus of the Christian faith” and “The LDS church has never been accepted by the Christian Council of Churches.”

Regards,

Jim

The following is excerpted from Fred Thompson’s profile at Right Web:

Although not tightly aligned with the neoconservative political faction, Thompson has long pursued hawkish U.S. security policies in line with the views expressed by his colleagues at AEI (American Enterprise Institute). He has been an outspoken defender of the Iraq War, frequently voiced skepticism of the United Nations, championed controversial missile defense policies, and been a reliable antagonist of Mideast regimes targeted by neocons as part of the “war on terror.”

… the Bill Kristol-run Weekly Standard promoted Thompson as a replacement for John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Discussing his voting record, the International Relations Center’s Tom Barry wrote: “He stands solidly against gays, abortion, and gun control. He has voted against prohibiting job discrimination by sexual orientation, against adding sexual orientation to the definition of hate crimes, and against same-sex marriage. The former senator and current media pundit is a hardliner on street crime, supporting the death penalty, advocating longer sentences, and backing an escalated drug war. But his tough-on-crime reputation does not extend to white-collar crime, having opposed class action lawsuits and supported limitations on product liability damages”

ABC later gave Thompson his own slot, titled “The Fred Thompson Report.” Thompson has used his posts at ABC and the American Enterprise Institute to harangue Democrats for their anti-war positions, defend convicted former Bush administration official and key neoconservative insider I. Lewis Libby, criticize Senate investigations into alleged Justice Department wrongdoings, and press conservative views on social and environmental issues.

In a March 2007 radio broadcast entitled “Plutonic Warming,” which was posted on the National Review and AEI websites, Thompson ridiculed the notion of global warming, ….

A. Alexander provided the following insight into Fred Thompson:

The importance of being Fred Thompson, so the GOP hopes, is that he can be Bush without being Bush. And, the Republican prayer goes – a not-Bush-Bush should be able to revive the long-lost-Bush “post-9/11 world” magic and win the election come November, 2008.

Thompson has acknowledged the importance of being Fred Thompson and expressed his wholehearted willingness to be the not-Bush-Bush candidate by inviting and accepting the Bush clan’s help on his campaign and fundraising, by hiring all the old Bush and Cheney aides to run his campaign, by wooing all the old Bush-Cheney backers, and by carrying on Bush’s talking points without allowing so much as a smidge of daylight between his stance and the presidents.

Yes, indeed, the plan for Fred is that he is supposed to be everything Bush could have been, if only he hadn’t been Bush…all the same failed positions and ideas, but communicated with a Hollywood actor’s skill. And that, so the GOP hopes, will be the winning combination in 2008.

Congresspedia at SourceWatch.org provided the following:

Over the course of his lobbying career, Thompson earned about $507,000 representing clients such as Canadian-owned cable companies and deposed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, according to government documents and media accounts from his first run for the Senate in 1994.[5] Mark Corallo, a spokesman for Thompson, defended the work, stating “There’s nothing wrong with lobbying. It’s an honorable profession.”[6] John Heilemann of New York Magazine was more critical, stating “Critics point out that Thompson’s aw-shucks, shit-kicker populism is more than a little bit phony…he spent eighteen years as a registered Washington lobbyist, doing the bidding of such high-powered clients as General Electric and Westinghouse, pushing for the passage of the deregulatory legislation that led to the savings-and-loan crisis of the eighties.”

On March 11, 2007, Thompson appeared on Fox News Sunday to discuss the possibility of a 2008 candidacy for president. The announcement spurred several grassroots draft movements, including a well-organized draft campaign started by a former Thompson political aide in Knoxville, Tennessee.

During the interview, Thompson articulated several of his current political views. He reiterated his opposition to abortion rights, gun control, and gay marriage; and support for the Iraq War (with no withdrawal timeline), President Bush’s tax cuts, and a presidential pardon for Scooter Libby.

Thompson has also been skeptical of the role humans have played in global warming.

On May 30, 2007, The Politico reported that Thompson planned to enter the presidential race over the Independence Day weekend.

Congresspedia also reported extensively on his campaign team that includes links to their references:

At the outset of his campaign, Thompson’s spokesperson was Mark Corallo, who formerly handled press operations for White House aide Karl Rove during the Lewis “Scooter” Libby trial. The man who organized a Thompson conference call the week his intentions were made public, Ken Rietz, at the time worked as an executive at the PR firm Burson-Marsteller (run by Hillary Clinton’s chief strategist, Mark Penn). Rietz had once spied on former Maine Sen. Ed Muskie’s (D) presidential campaign on behalf of Richard Nixon in 1972 as part of “Operation Sedan Chair.”

Other advisers to the campaign include former FEC chairman Michael E. Toner (general counsel), former Justice Department spokesman Mark Corallo, and Tom Collamore, a former executive at Altria, the corporate parent of Philip Morris USA. Collamore was tapped to lead the campaign, according to several sources.

According to Liz Sardoti of the Ashland City Times, Thompson surrounded himself with advisers who served under former U.S. presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush in the weeks surrounding his announcement that he was planning for a run.[16] Among those also expected to play a role, she wrote, were Mary Matalin, a former adviser in the current Bush administration, and Tim Griffin, an ex-aide at the Republican National Committee who as a U.S. attorney in Arkansas was involved in the Bush administration U.S. attorney firings controversy.

George P. Bush, a nephew of President Bush, has contributed to Thompson’s “prospective presidential campaign … and signed an e-mail asking friends and associates to do the same, The Politico has learned,” Mike Allen reported June 4, 2007. Sources say Matalin will be an unpaid adviser and Lawrence B. Lindsey, President Bush’s “first economic policy adviser and an architect of his tax cuts”, “economic adviser to Bush’s first presidential campaign”, and a former member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, will head economic policy and “also have a hand in the campaign’s broader policy formulation.” David M. McIntosh, “a lawyer and former congressman from Indiana who was an official in the Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush administrations,” will head domestic policy. And Michael Turk, “e-campaign director for George W. Bush’s reelection campaign, will take a leave of absence from his current job with the National Cable & Telecommunications Association to assist in getting the Thompson website off the ground. He may continue in a webmaster capacity for the campaign.”