The WAWG Blog

Romney Calls for Doubling Guantanamo Population; Giuliani Says Use Whatever Interrogation Tactics Interrogators Can Think Of – Debating the treatment of foreign detainees at Tuesday night’s debate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney said he thought the US should “double” the number of prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay Cuba. In the same exchange, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said he would support interrogators using a wide range of means to elicit confessions from suspected terrorists. Moderator Chris Wallace asked if Giuliani would support the use of waterboarding — a controversial interrogation tactic some say is torture because it makes detainees believe they are drowning. “Whatever they can think of,” Giuliani said.

Gonzales and Cheney’s Staff Tried to Take Advantage of Sick Attorney General – The former second-in-command at the Justice Department from 2003 through 2005 on Tuesday detailed a March 2004 incident in which top members of the Bush administration, including Alberto Gonzales and members of Vice President Dick Cheney’s staff, worked to subvert a legal certification process for the National Security Agency’s warrantless wiretapping program. In early March 2004, Ashcroft had been incapacitated, and was in the hospital, resulting in Comey serving as Acting Attorney General until Ashcroft was able to return to office. Subsequently, Gonzales, serving then as White House Counsel, and Andrew Card, former White House Chief of Staff, arrived at Ashcroft’s hospital bed, and asked the sick Attorney General to give his approval for the program.

Many VA Officials Who Received Bonuses Sat on Pay Review Boards – Documents show that 21 of 32 Veterans Affairs officials who received hefty performance bonuses last year also sat on the boards charged with recommending the payments, some of which went to senior officials involved in crafting a budget that came up $1.3 billion short and jeopardized veterans’ healthcare.

Dept. of Homeland Security is Breaking Privacy Laws – The Department of Homeland Security is breaking privacy laws by failing to tell the public all the ways it uses personal information to target passengers boarding flights entering or leaving the United States, according to a draft copy of a report to be issued tomorrow by the Government Accountability Office. A similar lack of disclosure has become an issue as U.S. and European officials attempt to renegotiate an agreement, due to expire in July, to share air passenger data, as EU officials are concerned that the data they already share are not adequately protected by the U.S. government.

Wolfowitz Violated Rules, Threatened Retaliation – World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz violated his contract, broke the bank’s code of conduct and trampled on numerous staff rules in arranging a promotion and a series of raises for his companion, a bank employee, according to a scathing report by an internal committee investigating the controversy. Although Wolfowitz and his dwindling circle of supporters claim he never thought he was doing anything wrong, the report cites testimony that Wolfowitz threatened retaliation against senior World Bank staff if his orders for the pay rises and promotions were revealed.

Hundreds of White House Edits to Privacy Board Report Spurs Resignation – One of the five members of the congressionally created Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board resigned in protest Monday over the more than 200 deletions and revisions ordered by White House lawyers and aides to the board’s first report, including the deletion of a passage on anti-terrorism programs that intelligence officials deemed potential intrusions on civil liberties. The White House has called the edits appropriate because the board remains legally under the supervision of the Executive Office.

Fox News Segment on Election Fraud Shows Only Black Voters – Fox News aired a segment on the potential for illegal voting in the South Carolina primary, featuring B-roll footage of exclusively black voters – classy and subtle.

California-Sized Area of Ice Melts in Antarctica – Warm temperatures melted an area of western Antarctica that adds up to the size of California in January 2005, scientists report. Satellite data collected by the scientists between July 1999 and July 2005 showed clear signs that melting had occurred in multiple distinct regions, including far inland and at high latitudes and elevations, where melt had been considered unlikely. “Antarctica has shown little to no warming in the recent past with the exception of the Antarctic Peninsula,” said Konrad Steffen of the University of Colorado, Boulder. “But now large regions are showing the first signs of the impacts of warming as interpreted by this satellite analysis.” Changes in the ice mass of Antarctica, Earth’s largest freshwater reservoir, are important to understanding global sea level rise. Large amounts of Antarctic freshwater flowing into the ocean also could affect ocean salinity, currents and global climate.

Regards,

Jim

The Tom DeLay Scandals – Here’s a scorecard of the key scandals involving Tom DeLay. Each malefaction is rated on a scale of one to 10 for its stench and the trouble it will possibly cause.

Voter-Fraud Complaints by GOP Drove Prosecutor Dismissals – Of the 12 U.S. attorneys known to have been dismissed or considered for removal last year by the White House, five were identified by Karl Rove or other administration officials as working in districts that had been targeted by the GOP for aggressive investigation and prosecution of election-law violations. Four of those five were replaced.

US Trying to Weaken G8 Climate Declaration – Negotiators from the United States are trying to weaken the language of a climate change declaration set to be unveiled at next month’s G-8 summit, according to documents, seeking to strike from a draft proposal a section that includes a pledge to limit the global temperature rise this century to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, as well as an agreement to reduce worldwide greenhouse gas emissions to 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2050. Documents indicate that American officials are also trying to eliminate draft language that says, “We acknowledge that the UN climate process is the appropriate forum for negotiating future global action on climate change.”

Bush plan for Iraq Goes Against Wishes of Majority of Iraqi Lawmakers – A majority of members of Iraq’s parliament have signed a draft bill that would require a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Iraq and freeze current troop levels. The development was a sign of a growing division between Iraq’s legislators and prime minister that mirrors the widening gulf between the Bush administration and its critics in Congress.

Residents of Samarra in Iraq Say Crackdown is Making Things Worse – U.S. and Iraqi troops have imposed a strict security crackdown in Samarra, a stronghold of the Sunni insurgency, prompting residents to complain that basic necessities such as drinking water have not reached the city for seven days. The governor of the province has said that U.S. and Iraqi troops had reacted too strongly to a rash of bombings, imposing a vehicle ban against his will in the city of 200,000 that has “only exacerbated the situation.” In one instance, two sick children required transport to Tikrit or Kirkuk – a lack of fuel for generators at the hospital had earlier resulted in the death of two newborns in an incubator – but their ambulance was blocked by U.S. and Iraqi troops.

Giuliani parlayed 9/11 fame into riches – Just months after the terrorist attacks on New York City in September of 2001, “America’s mayor” Rudolph Giuliani took the first official step toward making himself rich.

Costs Grow for Common Medicare Drugs – After some initial success containing drug prices, private insurers in the new Medicare prescription drug program may be losing their leverage over drug manufacturers as they try to hold down medicine costs for seniors and the federal government. Prices for 10 of the most prescribed brand-name medications have shot up an average of 6.8 percent since December under Medicare private insurance plans, while wholesale prices for the same drugs have risen just 3 percent.

Ann Coulter May Have Used Her FBI Ex-Boyfriend to Intercede in Her Voter Fraud Case – The Palm Beach Sheriffs Office, which had been investigating the Ann Coulter voter fraud case, has closed the case after an FBI agent interceded on Coulter’s behalf. The founder of Citizens for Principled Conservatism Dan Borchers, said that the FBI man in question, Supervisory Special Agent Jim Fitzgerald, was Coulter’s former boyfriend.

Dead Hearing Aid and an Urgent Need to Use the Bathroom – It’s the Same Excuses He’ll Give at Some Future Date for Launching Missiles if He Becomes President – Tommy Thompson cited a dead hearing aid and an urgent need to use the bathroom in explaining on Saturday why he said at a Republican presidential debate that an employer should be allowed to fire a gay worker.

World Bank Documents Show That Wolfowitz Knew He as Playing Favorites – Documents circulating at the World Bank suggest that Paul D. Wolfowitz, the bank president, understood that his role in ordering a pay increase and promotion for his companion in 2005 might be seen as a conflict of interest but insisted on proceeding anyway, bank officials who are critics of Mr. Wolfowitz said Sunday.

The War on Terror Has Been Superseded by the War on Embarrassment – A man accused of blowing up an airliner and killing 73 people, who has already admitted to bombing hotels with fatal consequences and who has a conviction for a failed assassination attempt on a head of state, was freed on a technicality in a Texas court this week, and can look forward to a quiet retirement in Florida. In London a man accused of hacking into the computer system of the Pentagon and NASA is waiting to see if the House of Lords will hear his appeal against extradition to the US to face a trial in which one prosecutor has already indicated he should “fry”. Blowing up an airliner is clearly regarded as less serious than causing major embarrassment to the defense establishment.

What Could $456 Billion Spent on the Iraq War Have Bought? – The total cost of the Iraq war may reach $456 billion in September, according to the National Priorities Project, an organization that tracks public spending. The amount got us wondering: What would $456 billion buy? One example: the $456 billion cost of the war could have fed and educated the world’s poor for five and a half years. Do ya think that might reduce terrorism more that shootin’ people and blowin’ stuff up? For more examples:

Bushies Behaving Badly – An illustrated guide to Republican scandals.

Regards,

Jim

In this nineteenth survey of the web, The WAWG Index monthly average was up by 23.6 percent from April 2007. Of the fourteen categories tracked, 4 were down, 10 were up, and none was unchanged. The largest decrease for May, 14%, was for “disdain and suppresion of intelectuals.” The largest increase was for “rampant sexism” at 90%.

Through May, the 12 month group moving average for all fourteen categories was at 17.3 percent. It was 13.2 percent last month. Of the fourteen categories tracked, were up from the from the last 12 month period.

Dick Cheney Says, “then we kick the press out.” – Once safely ensconced in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone, however, Cheney appeared to reserve his toughest language for his normal target – the press. Cheney held a lot of photo ops with key Iraqi leaders like Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki, but was adamant about not taking questions. At one point, Cheney emphasized to the assembled journalists that “this is just a photo spray.” Later in the day, as reporters filed into an embassy conference room for another photo of Cheney they overheard him tell his staff “then we kick the press out.” Vice President Dick Cheney’s surprise trip to Baghdad today was meant to deliver a tough message to the Iraqi government – put off your vacation plans and get back to work. Sounds like a message that Cheney should be presenting to Chimpy McFlightsuit.

Who is Funding the Climate Change Skeptics? -To find someone’s true agenda or motivations all one needs to do is follow the money. So, the question is where does the money trail lead when it comes to the skeptics of climate change? Click the link to find out.

Ann Coulter Says Newsweek Poll Was Made-Up and Helps al-Qaida – A recent Newsweek poll showing Democrat Barack Obama leading top Republican presidential hopefuls could have been made up and might help al-Qaida, conservative commentator Ann Coulter said Sunday on Fox News'”At Large”. “I think this is Newsweek doing more push polling for al-Qaida,” she said.

Department of Homeland Security Plans to Move Forward with Real ID Act Despite Fierce State Opposition – The Homeland Security Department said Tuesday that it would plow ahead with national standards for driver’s licenses despite a highly unusual level of activity by state legislatures opposed to the idea, and substantial second thoughts in Congress. Washington and Montana have enacted laws pledging not to comply with the Real ID Act; Idaho’s legislature passed, and the governor signed, a budget specifically allocating zero dollars for compliance; and resolutions opposing the new licenses have been passed by one or both houses of the legislature, and in some cases signed by the governor

State Dept. Erases All References to Top Official Who Quit Over DC Madam list – The State Department and the US Agency for International Development have instructed employees to remove all references from publications and other materials to a top official who resigned after his name turned up as a former client of ‘DC Madam’ Deborah Jean Palfrey.

Condoleezza Rice Led Chevron Oil’s Policy Committee During the Time They Paid Kickbacks to Saddam Hussein – For many conservatives, the U.N.’s oil-for-food scandal was an assault on all that is good and holy. In a nutshell, Saddam Hussein took advantage of a U.N. program in which Iraq would sell oil and use the revenue for food, medicine, and humanitarian goods, as exceptions to a trade embargo imposed after the first Gulf War. Saddam, however, received illegal kickbacks on the oil sales, which he transferred to private accounts. And who was giving Saddam the illegal kickbacks? According to a New York Times report, Chevron is poised to announce that it should have known about the kickbacks that were being paid to Saddam. If only Chevron had some kind of internal policy committee, as part of the company’s board of directors, with a knowledgeable expert responsible for looking out for these kinds of problems. Oh wait, it did — and it was led by Condoleezza Rice.

Gonzales to Congress: Let’s talk about something else – Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will encourage Members of Congress on Thursday to direct their attention to areas other than the firings of US Attorneys, according to remarks prepared for his testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.

The worst law in the nation’s history — the Military Commissions Act of 2006 – Last year, Congressional Democrats allowed the Bush administration to ram through one of the worst laws in the nation’s history — the Military Commissions Act of 2006. President Bush turned habeas corpus into a partisan issue by declaring that the prisoners in Guantánamo Bay, even innocent ones, do not deserve a hearing. Lawmakers who objected were painted as friends of terrorists. This year, the Democrats pledged to use their new majority to begin repairing the profound damage the law has done to the nation’s justice system and global image. But there are disturbing signs their pledge may fall victim to the same tactical political calculations and Bush administration propagandizing that allowed this scandalous law to pass in the first place. Time to make sure they make good on their pledge.

Call the Leadership:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi , (202) 225-4965
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer , (202) 225-4131
Armed Services Committee members
Here’s a list of toll free numbers for the Capitol switchboard:
1 (800) 828 – 0498
1 (800) 459 – 1887
1 (800) 614 – 2803
1 (866) 340 – 9281
1 (866) 338 – 1015
1 (877) 851 – 6437

Regards,

Jim

Wal-Mart Labels Nuns from Texas Town of Boerne a Security Threat – The Benedectine Sisters, which is part of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility has been questioning Wal-Mart’s business practices for years. Now, the sisters find themselves on Wal-Mart’s security threat list. The sisters have raised questions on wages, human rights, health care and the pay disparity between CEOs and workers. They believe that’s why Wal-Mart has launched a surveillance operation on the small church group. “We wanted to find out more about what was actually happening, and did they do any surveillance on us, either personally or as a community, and to let us know what that would be, and to apologize to us,” Sister Susan Mika said

Oil execs guilty in political kickback scandal – The founder of a multinational oil services company and one of his top executives have admitted to illegally paying more than $400,000 to Alaska lawmakers in a widening political corruption scandal. The pleas came days after the indictment of one current and two former Republican members of the Alaska House of Representatives on federal bribery and extortion charges related to last year’s negotiations for a new oil and gas tax and a proposed natural gas pipeline that would have benefited VECO.

Acting Justice Department Civil Rights Chief Bradley Schlozman Allegedly Ran Minority Voter Suppression Scheme – The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday asked former acting Justice Department civil rights chief Bradley Schlozman to answer accusations that he was a central figure in a broad Republican strategy to suppress the votes of Democratic-leaning minorities. A person familiar with the congressional inquiry said that Schlozman ties together “all of the threads” of the investigation into the recent dismissal of eight federal prosecutors and what appears to be the ensuing attempt at a cover-up.

Former Deputy Defense Secretary Wolfowitz Violated World Bank Rules in Handling of Promotion for His Companion – A World Bank panel has found that bank President Paul Wolfowitz’s handling of a promotion and pay increase for his companion represented a conflict of interest and broke staff rules. One source close to the World Bank board said the panel found Wolfowitz’s actions amounted to conflict of interest, while another source said the panel found he broke governance rules. A meeting of the 24-nation World Bank board of shareholder governments will determine whether Wolfowitz should be fired for his actions.

Migratory Birds and Whales Confused by Global Warming – Birds, whales and other migratory creatures are suffering from global warming that puts them in the wrong place at the wrong time, a U.N. official told 166-nation climate talks on Monday. A warmer climate disrupts the biological clocks of migratory species including bats, dolphins, antelopes or turtles, said Lahcen el Kabiri, deputy head of the U.N.’s Bonn-based Convention on Migratory Species. “They are the most visible warning signs — indicators signaling the dramatic changes to our ecosystems caused in part by climate change,” he told delegates on the opening day of a May 7-18 U.N. meeting searching for new ways to offset warming. Many creatures are mistiming their migrations, or failing to bother as changes between seasons become less clear. The shifts make them vulnerable to heatwaves, droughts or cold snaps.

Senate Blocks Effort to Allow Drug Imports – The Senate sidetracked a controversial amendment Monday that could have saved consumers billions of dollars by allowing them to buy prescription medication from foreign suppliers, after President Bush – with no little urging from the pharmaceutical industry – threatened to veto the bill, which featured a long-sought safety overhaul considered crucial. Instead, Democrats approved the amendment along with a requirement that imports win government certification that they are safe – which the Bush administration is unlikely to provide.

Bush Administration Repeatedly Resisted Calls to Improve Oversight of the $85 Billion Student Loan Industry – Lawmakers say that the story of former Dept. of Education researcher Jon Oberg’s effort, beginning in 2003, to stop student lenders from improperly collecting federal subsidies opens a window onto how the Bush administration repeatedly resisted calls to improve oversight of the $85 billion student loan industry. The vast overpayments continued for three more years after Oberg’s attempt to expose them; now under congressional and media scrutiny, Bush-appointed department leaders claim they didn’t fully understand the problem.

Lesley Stahl of CBS says Journalists should be “Fair and Balanced” Rather than Reporting the Truth
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Kansas National Guard Equipment in Iraq Hampers Tornado Relief – Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius said Sunday evening that the state’s response will likely be hampered because much of the equipment usually positioned around the state to respond to emergencies — including tents, trucks and semitrailers – is now in Iraq.

Republican Ted Poe of Texas Quotes KKK Founder on U.S. House floor – House Republican Ted Poe of Texas delivered a foreign policy speech yesterday in which he quoted Nathan Bedford Forrest, founder of the KKK. On Monday, Rep. Ted Poe took to the House floor to discuss foreign policy matters. To make a point, the Texas Republican invoked the words of Civil War Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest: “Git thar fustest with the mostest.” The quotation got some floor watchers’ attention pretty quickly. Forrest is a controversial figure who was one of the Klan’s first grand wizards. Although the Civil War hero (if you were a Confederate, that is) ultimately abandoned the Klan for its violent tactics, he continues to kick up dust.

Regards,

Jim

During Presidential Candidate Debate, Republicans Profess Their Love for War – Republican White House contenders offered strong support for the war in Iraq but voiced qualms about the Bush administration’s management of the war during a quiet first debate on Thursday, uniformly calling for “victory”, while, in true White House style, neglecting to describe how that might be achieved or even what it would constitute.

During Presidential Debate, Republican Candidates Brownback, Tancredo and Huckabee Say They Don’t Believe in Evolution

Bill O’Reilly Uses Derogatory Names Every 6.8 Seconds – A new study by Indiana University media researchers finds that Fox News host Bill O’Reilly calls “a person or a group a derogatory name once every 6.8 seconds, on average, or nearly nine times every minute during the editorials that open his program each night.” Researchers found that O’Reilly “was prone to inject fear into his commentaries and quick to resort to name-calling.

Bush Doesn’t Listen Because He Says That He’s the Commander Guy – At a speech to the Associated General Contractors of America, Bush said, “The question is, who ought to make that decision, the Congress or the commanders? As you know, my position is clear – I’m the commander guy.” Commander Guy Bush has made it clear that he is opposed to timelines, and even benchmarks (especially since the benchmarks his administration set up a long time ago were never met.). “Yet in 1999, on June 5, then-Governor Bush said about President Clinton, ‘I think it’s important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they would be withdrawn.'” Bush thinks a timeline is required for Democratic presidents, but not for Republicans? Given that tens of thousands of Iraqis and Americans are dying for this hypocrisy, it merits more than passing notice.

Pelosi calls out Bush for 1999 statement on timetable

Halliburton Did Business with Terrorist States – On Monday, the Senate Oversight Committee held a hearing dealing with Halliburton and their exploitation of a loophole in U.S. law that allowed the company to use foreign subsidiaries in order to do business with terrorist states – namely, Iran.

Colorado Elections IT Manager Selling Voter Data to Republicans – An IT manager for Colorado’s state-wide voter database has been selling “targeted voter data” through a “GOP Campaign help” web site at PoliticalLiveWires.com. According to his online resume, Dan Kopelman is currently “Elections Technology Manager” with “oversight and guidance of the State Wide Voter Database” in the office of Colorado’s newly elected Republican Secretary of State Mike Coffman.

Cummins Confirms Justice Dept. Used Pregnancy As Excuse To Appoint Griffin – Do they not understand the concept of discrimination?

Another Example of Another Unqualified Bush Political Appointee and the Harm They Do – Bradley Schlozman was the most aggressively political of the political appointees in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. And the administration installed him as the U.S. attorney in a key swing state in an election year. Bob Kengle, who joined the division in 1984, said that Schlozman would change performance evaluations for lawyers and analysts who disagreed with him. Joe Rich, the former chief of the voting section, had a similar experience with Schlozman. “He was universally despised by career people. He was the most disdainful and vitriolic guy I’ve ever dealt with, and he had it in for everybody.” Rich described Schlozman as “very central” in the department’s hiring. As I reported earlier this week, Schlozman apparently gauged potential recruits by whether they were active Republicans. Rich and Kengle left the division together in 2005. “I reached my personal breaking point,” Kengle said. At the Civil Rights Division, Schlozman, who oversaw the voting section, was responsible for pushing through two of the most controversial decisions: approving Tom DeLay’s 2003 Texas redistricting and the 2005 Georgia voter I.D. law.

The First Refugees of Global Warming – Bangladesh watches in horror as much of the nation gives way to sea.

Two Australian Cities Running Out of Drinking Water Due to Climate Change – The Queensland town of Killarney currently has its drinking water trucked in, at a cost of some $8000 per week. Eight grand a week for a town of less than 2,000 people. Senior state bureaucrats have also discussed the possibility of moving residents from Leyburn, population 200.

Glenn Beck’s Global Warming Special Dominated by Industry-Funded “Experts” and Serial Misinformers – CNN Headline News host Glenn Beck’s May 2 hour-long special, Exposed: The Climate of Fear. Beck relied heavily on people with energy industry ties and others espousing positions on global warming that have been soundly debunked or rejected by the overwhelming majority of scientists studying climate change. Here is a list of some of those featured:

• Marlo Lewis: Lewis is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), an institution funded by the energy industry.
• Timothy Ball: Ball is a climatologist who is also the chairman of the Natural Resources Stewardship Project, a Canadian environmental think tank which, as the weblog Desmogblog noted, is “controlled by energy industry lobbyists.”
• Patrick J. Michaels: Michaels is editor of a biweekly newsletter on climate studies funded in large part by the coal industry.

Republicans in Congress Use Our Armed Forces and Senior Citizens as Political Fodder – The Republicans have been refusing to support the hate crimes bill because it doesn’t include members of the US Armed Forces and senior citizens. Conyers just rose and basically said, okay, I’ll add them. The Republicans’ response? Uh, no. The Republicans have been railing for days about how this legislation doesn’t cover our Armed Forces and senior citizens, and now that the Dems offer to put our Armed Forces and seniors in this legislation, the Republicans said no and affirmatively stopped the Democrats from doing it anyway. That means the Republicans had no intent on protecting our Armed Forces and seniors. The Democrats managed to get the bill passed anyway. But now Bush threatens a veto (see below).

Bush Threatens Veto of Hate-Crime Protection Bill – President Bush said he would veto a bill passed by the House of Representatives on Thursday to extend hate-crime protection to people who are victimized because of their sexuality. Perhaps Bush shares the concerns of Focus on the Family’s James Dobson, who opposes the bill on the grounds that it could encroach on his right as a “Christian” to indulge his hysterical gay panic.

Wall St. Journal Publishes Article which expressly argues that the power of the President is greater than “the rule of law” – One day after Law Day, the Wall St. Journal online published a lengthy and truly astonishing article by Harvard Government Professor Harvey Mansfield, which expressly argues that the power of the President is greater than “the rule of law.” The article bears this headline: The Case for the Strong Executive — Under some circumstances, the Rule of Law must yield to the need for Energy. It is the most explicit argument I have seen yet for vesting in the President the power to override and ignore the rule of law in order to receive the glories of what Mansfield calls “one-man rule.”

Regards,

Jim

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

Glenn Beck said Gore using “same tactic” in fight against global warming as Hitler did against Jews – On his radio program, Glenn Beck stated that Al Gore is using “the same tactic” in his efforts to fight global warming that Adolf Hitler used to vilify Jews in Nazi Germany, but Beck said that Gore’s “goal is different. The goal is globalization. The goal is global carbon tax. The goal is the United Nations running the world. That is the goal. Back in the 1930s, the goal was get rid of all of the Jews and have one global government.” He continued: “You got to have an enemy to fight. And when you have an enemy to fight, then you can unite the entire world behind you, and you seize power. That was Hitler’s plan. His enemy: the Jew. Al Gore’s enemy, the U.N.’s enemy: global warming.”

Republican Senator James Inhofe Says Iraq Weapons of Mass Destruction Was the Media’s Idea – Inhofe, speaking to the press, stated, “The whole idea of weapons of mass destruction was never the issue, yet they keep trying to bring this up,” Inhofe said. When asked why Gen. Colin Powell, then U.S. secretary of state, told the United Nations in 2003 that such weapons posed an imminent danger, Inhofe replied: “I can’t answer that. In fact, I’ve never been one of the real strong fans of General Powell.” Pressed for an explanation, Inhofe said weapons of mass destruction were “incidental” to the decision to invade Iraq. “The media made that the issue because they knew Saddam Hussein had used weapons of mass destruction. So we knew that they were there. But that was incidental to the fact we were going after terrorist camps.” But wait! What did Inhofe say in August, 1972? He said, “Our intelligence system has said that we know that Saddam Hussein has weapons of mass destruction — I believe including nuclear. There’s not one person on this panel who would tell you unequivocally that he doesn’t have the missile means now, or is nearly getting the missile means to deliver a weapon of mass destruction. And I for one am not willing to wait for that to happen.” [Remember, this is the guy who says global warming is a hoax.]

Cheney, Libby lied to Congress about Pakistani nukes – The US and its allies allowed Pakistan to clandestinely acquire most of the technology for its nuclear program from abroad, unwittingly facilitating the spread of nuclear weapons technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya over the past several decades. The players: George H.W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Stephen Hadley, and Scooter Libby. Same guys, different lies.

Bush Issues Law Day Proclamation While Trampling on Our Laws – As a rule, Law Day, a ceremonial holiday since 1958, goes by largely unnoticed. But this year, given the current occupant of the Oval Office, and his negligence with regard to the rule of law, the “holiday” seems to have special meaning: For six years now, the rule of law has been under attack. An array of doctrines has emerged to undermine it, like the enemy combatant doctrine, which says people can be held indefinitely without trial, and the unitary executive doctrine, which insists that a president can do as he wants in many areas, no matter what Congress says. In keeping with tradition, President Bush has issued a proclamation inviting Americans today to “celebrate the Constitution and the laws that protect our rights and liberties.” It rings more than a little hollow, though, as he continues to trample on civil liberties in the war on terror, and stands by an attorney general who has politicized the Justice Department to a shocking degree. The less committed a president is to the law, the more need there is for Law Day, which makes it a holiday whose time has come. The strength of our legal system,’ the president says in his proclamation, ‘requires the ongoing commitment of every citizen.’ Maybe that could start with the citizen at the top. A Law Day Unto Himself

Good Deed: Stephanie Miller Takes Her Turn On MSNBC – Through Wednesday, progressive talk show host Stephanie Miller gets her chance to shine in Imus’s old slot on MSNBC. Watch the clip and if you like what you see, send a note to General Manager Dan Abrams and VP Bill Wolff at MSNBC at . Let them know that you’d like to see Stephanie Miller on MSNBC in the mornings. Remember, be polite.

Regards,

Jim

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Great Moments in Conservative Punditry

Marking the 4th Anniversary of Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech.
The amazing thing about this is that all of these people still have =20
their jobs and appear as expert pundits in the media, while the =20
people who were right all along are often portrayed as left-wing out-=20
of-touch-with-reality naive nutty fools, and they don’t get on the =20
talk shows very much.

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Regards,

Jim

We are constantly told that we must fight the terrorists over there so we don’t have to fight them here. In other words, our safety is directly and only dependent on finishing what we started. Do you believe that? I don’t. It will take a lot more than killing some of the terrorists in Iraq. What about the ones that are left? What about those too young to fight now that are being nurtured all around the world as we wait for the Iraqi’s to get their act together?

Tomorrow’s Terrorists

After the Iraq effort is concluded, by whatever means, a lot more has to change to absolutely protect us. In a past article, I suggested a neocon plan to keep us ‘safe’ by staying at war over there for the foreseeable future. Now I suggest another authoritarian plan. Both have been in work for some time. Both still have a ways to go before they are fully implemented, unless ….

This alternative plan requires that we all cooperate with George Bush, the ‘Noble Lie’ neocons and the evangelical RWAs as they lead us to their final solution – a single-party ‘safe’ state. Here is what we need to ‘let’ happen:

• Learn to suspect others not like ‘us’ – the enemy
• Apply derogatory labels to any dissenter
• Accept that these enemies are guilty once they are labeled
• Help perpetuate fear of these enemies
• Become self righteous and lose our conscience
• Spy on our dissenter neighbors
• Inform authorities about their activities – real or imaginary
• Accept government bounties for providing information – authentic or not
• Support any government action necessary for “national security”

 

• Trade in our civil rights as necessary for greater levels of security
• Accept limiting representation by lawyers for these ‘enemy combatants’
• Inform on such lawyers – another enemy
• Accept the use of torture regardless of the timeliness or validity of information obtained
• Accept the expansion of executive authority
• Accept the elimination of checks and balances
• Accept increased electronic surveillance by the FBI and NSA
• Accept Attorney General Gonzales as the President does
• Accept packing the Department of Justice with RWAs from “tier three” religion based law schools
• Elect a Congress less inclined to question the Administration – bring back Tom Delay and Bill Frist

 

• Accept constitutional changes to reduce the number of national elections, put an end to term limits and add the election of federal judges
• Accept the nationalization of all local police and security forces
• Accept an executive order to authorize government control of the internet and national media
• Accept uniting state and church
• Accept the use of national IDs and external ‘badges of loyalty’
• Accept the conversion of the Bill of Rights to the Bill of Executive Power
• Accept the resulting dictatorship for the ultimate in “national security”

After full implementation of the above, about one third of us will be ‘safest’ and comfortable for being compliant with every step. Some of us, who just let it happen, will be ‘safer’ but always looking over our shoulder to see who’s watching, and the rest of us will be ‘safe’ in detention without representation.

Since neither the war-forever plan nor the single-party plan is fully implemented and since we spoke up last November, we have one more chance. We can continue what we started with the last national election – reduce the influence of the Conservatives Without Conscience – and put together a plan that will actually reduce the threat of terrorism. Or we can sit back and accept a single-party theocracy and/or multiple wars to generate more terrorists and spend this country into bankruptcy.

Terrorist Mission Accomplished