The WAWG Blog

Tom DeLay has a Blog “to provide Americans with a new meeting place where such opinions and viewpoints might be better shared, discussed and debated”, but Democrats will be filtered out – At first, the filter was manual, so posts to Tom’s blog were there for a little while before they got removed. Posts contain things like, “Your 3 First Principles “Order, Justice, and Freedom” obviously don’t include Honesty, Integrity, or Ethics. … It’s good that you’re no longer a Representative; the stench of the 109th Congress will take a long time to fix.” and “Forget the blog, Tom. Just hook up with OJ and write a book.” Unfortunately, there is much bad language in some of the posts. To see more of the posts before they got erased.

Update: DeLay shuts down comments, removes blog posts Sunday, then ‘relaunches’ on Monday

Report from U. S. House Committee says Republican lawmakers and aides failed to protect the teenagers vulnerable to Mark Foley’s advances for a decade, but recommended no punishment for anyone
The committee harshly criticized Speaker Top of Form 1
Bottom of Form 1
Dennis Hastert R-Ill., saying the evidence showed he was told of the problem months before he acknowledged learning of Foley’s questionable e-mails to a former Louisiana page.

More Tony Snow: Gibberish: – The Iraq Study Group Didn’t Say Bush’s Policy Is “Not Working”, They Said The US “Needs A New Policy”

Fox News Fred Barnes says he hopes Bush bombs Iran on his last day in office. – That’s just wonderful. Bomb Iran and leave it for the next president to clean up.

Conservative Radio and TV Host Glenn Beck threatens Muslims with concentration camps

Evangelical Video Filmed in Pentagon – A military watchdog group is asking the Defense Department to investigate the appearance of several uniformed Army and Air Force officers in a promotional video for the Christian Embassy, a group that evangelizes among military leaders. In the video — much of which was filmed inside the Pentagon — four generals and three colonels praise the group, and some of them describe their efforts to spread Christianity within the military.

Regards,

Jim

Bill O’Reilly says “we are going to level that country (Iran), because you … need gasoline to live”

Republican “Do-Nothing” Congress Tries To Give Itself a Raise On Final Day – Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi of California and Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada had notified Republicans they will try to add an anti-pay-raise provision to a bill that provides funds for most government agencies through Feb. 15.

John McCain Taps Man Behind Racist Campaign Ad For Campaign Manager – Terry Nelson served as national political director for President Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign and the infamous advertisement depicting a white woman beckoning a black Democratic candidate to call her. He was supervisor over the convicted New Hampshire Republican operative who schemed to jam Democratic phone lines in the 2002 election season. He also was involved in disgraced Republican Rep. Tom DeLay’s political action committee campaign finance fiasco in Texas.

Bush spokesman says, “Jim Baker can go back to his day job.” – For more than 30 years, James Baker has been both a behind-the-scenes political operator and a very public statesman. Baker now co-chairs the panel that suggests a change of strategy in Iraq. But this president may not be in much of a hurry to accept Baker’s ideas about that — or much else. Asked if Baker would help implement the report, a spokesman for Mr. Bush said, “Jim Baker can go back to his day job.”

Bush Administration’s reliance on “emergency” war budgets circumvent congressional oversight and allow billions of taxpayer dollars to be spent on pet projects unrelated to the war. – It’s in a little-noticed section of the Iraq Study Group report.

Bush administration is considering doing away Air Pollution Limits for Lead – Battery makers, lead smelters, refiners all have lobbied the administration to do away with the Clean Air Act limits.

Republican leaders push for approval of bill to open up 8.3 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico to gas and oil drilling – Republican leaders on Thursday pushed for approval of what is likely to be the last major pro-drilling bill during the Bush presidency — a measure that would open up 8.3 million acres of the Gulf of Mexico to gas and oil drilling. The drilling provision is part of a massive tax and trade package, containing many breaks and measures sought by business groups, giving the Republicans a last opportunity to please their number one constituency before the lights go down on the Republican-controlled Congress.

18,000 Votes Missing in Florida Congressional Race – Republican wins by a few hundred votes, but electronic voting machines did not capture a vote for either candidate from 18,000 voters in ONE county.

Waller County abolishes elections office following complaints of irregularities – A complaint was filed alleging that Waller County (northwest of Houston) election workers have systematically discriminated against and disenfranchised black voters. On one web site, Waller County is ninth on a list of the 11 worst places to vote in the United States

Reduced Funding May Shut Down Radio Telescope Looking for Asteroids on a Collision Course with Earth – The telescope searches for asteroids on a collision course with Earth. “The whole world loses if funding is lost for Arecibo,” said Lance Benner, a research scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. “We’re a very inexpensive form of insurance for the whole planet.”

Young Conservatives of Texas craft parody of the nativity scene featuring a gay couple (Gary and Joseph) as the parents of Jesus, a Pelosi angel, a ‘suicide bomber’ shepherd and Lenin, Marx and Stalin as the Three Wise Men. It’s their attempt to make fun of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Unlike the right wing, who have no sense of humor about their anti-gay, anti-immigrant, anti-choice, pro-Christian message, representatives of the ACLU have responded with tolerance. One of the ACLU members in Texas said, ‘Keep in mind nothing in the First Amendment requires that it be accurate with the information. The First Amendment protects parody as well.‘ Bill O’Reilly likes it, too. In O’Reilly Land, exceptions can always be made for the right.

Fox News considers the proposals made by the Iraq Study Group as “just dead” or “a waste of time.” Fox News’ Neil Cavuto promoted an upcoming segments by advertising that the audience would hear from a “military colonel who says take a look at the members on this study group panel and take this report for what it is, a joke,” and “why some fear listening to these guys” might hit you at the gasoline pump.
(Cavuto always knows his priorities: money and gasoline are way ahead of human lives, suffering, peace, and all that liberal junk. – JLV)

Regards,

Jim

Richest 2 percent own more than half the world
Study shows that the richest 2 percent of adults own more than half of global wealth, while the bottom half own only 1 percent.

Tony Snow Doesn’t Answer a Single Question At White House Briefing; Instead Goes After Reporter For Being “Partisan”

NONE Of The New GOP Congress Members Has Served In The Military

Republican Congressman Complains About Democratic Congress’ 5 Day Work-Week: “Democrats Could Care Less About Families-That’s What This Says”
Democratic leaders say they are trying to repair the image of Congress, which was so anemic this year it could not meet a basic duty: to approve spending bills that fund government. By the time the gavel comes down on the 109th Congress on Friday, members will have worked a total of 103 days. That’s seven days fewer than the infamous “Do-Nothing Congress” of 1948. But Republican Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), said, “The Democrats could care less about families — that’s what this says.”

Fox News’ Neil Cavutto says Bush’s Social Security Plan failed because Bush was distracted by the Michael Jackson trial
Leave it to Fox News to explain any problem the right wing has.

Cavuto: “He’s had a tough sell. I tried to relate that the intense coverage of the Michael Jackson trial was being a bit of a distraction for him.”

Regards,

Jim

CONDITIONS OF DETENTION… UNPRECEDENTED IN THE MILITARY JUSTICE SYSTEM
Jose Padilla was denied access to counsel for 21 months. His lawyers argue that he has been so damaged by his interrogations and prolonged isolation that he suffers post-traumatic stress disorder and is unable to assist in his own defense. His interrogations, they say, included hooding, stress positions, assaults, threats of imminent execution and the administration of “truth serums.” A lawyer specializing in military law, said, “There’s nothing comparable in terms of severity of confinement, in terms of how Padilla was held, especially considering that this was pretrial confinement.”

Evangelical Crusade To Hide Kenya’s Pre-Human Fossils
Evangelical church leaders who are pressing Kenya’s national museum to relegate to a back room its world-famous collection of hominid fossils showing the evolution of humans’ early ancestors.

Bush May Lift Alaska Oil Drilling Ban…”An Early Christmas Present To The Big Oil Companies”
President Bush is deciding whether to lift a ban on oil and gas drilling in federal waters off Alaska’s Bristol Bay, home to endangered whales and sea lions and the world’s largest sockeye salmon run. Leasing in a portion of the area rich in oil and natural gas ended nearly two decades ago — while Bush’s father was president — in the outcry after the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989.

US-Trained Afghan Police “Largely Incapable’ Of Routine Work

Condoleezza Rice says that now is not the time to talk about U.S. mistakes in Iraq
She says that once her tenure as secretary of state is over and she is back at Stanford University, she will reflect on the war.

(They are too busy making more mistakes to think about it right now – JLV)

The Juarez ‘House of Death’, is part of a web of connivance and cover-up stretching from the Texas borderland to top Washington officials close to President Bush
America’s ‘war on drugs’ has moved to a new phase of cynicism and amorality, in which the loss of human life has lost all importance – especially if the victims are Hispanic. The US agencies and officials in this saga appear to have thought it more important to get information about drugs trafficking than to stop its perpetrators killing people.

Conservative media site claims Bush will seek funding of orbital anti-missile satellites
The Bush administration pending request for an orbital battle station will surely touch off a brawl over space weaponization. President Bush unilaterally withdrew from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile (ABM) Treaty in June, 2002. The treaty prohibited development of missile defense programs, “based on the premise that if either superpower constructed a strategic defense, the other would build up its offensive nuclear forces to offset the defense,” according to Arms Control Today. “The superpowers would therefore quickly be put on a path toward a never-ending offensive-defensive arms race as each tried to balance its counterpart’s action.”

(So long to use of space for peaceful purposes – JLV)

Right-wing extremist indicted for sending white powder and making threats to liberals, while our media ignores it
A right-winger sent threats and white powder to liberals, the LA Times buries the story in local news, and nobody else picks up on it. Can somebody explain to me why this case isn’t treated and reported as a case of domestic terrorism? If Rush Limbaugh had been targeted, as opposed to Jon Stewart, we’d be seeing wall-to-wall, 24/7 coverage of this.

White right-wing extremist convicted of attempting to obtain a chemical weapon and possession of stolen explosives ignored by Fox News and other conservative media
The accused told undercover FBI agents of his desire to explode a briefcase bomb while Congress was in session. If he was Muslim, do you suppose that the case would then be relegated to the back pages of the local Jackson Sun newspaper? Do you suppose it would go unmentioned by the 101st Keyboard Kommandos in their ever-vigilant search for proof that the War on Terror is right here in our midst? Of course not. You can be certain Fox News would have splashed the case as a Fox News Alert, and conservative pundits would have been all over it. In the eyes of conservatives, it’s not terror if you’re not Muslim.

Our whiny, lazy, tired Congress
Operating most weeks on a Tuesday-through-Thursday schedule, Congress is poised to finish this year with just 100 working days under its belt — the fewest since 1948, when then-President Harry Truman famously blasted what he called a “do-nothing Congress.” The year is likely to end with no final action on a number of major issues, including Social Security and immigration reform and tighter ethics standards for lawmakers. This year, Congress will probably end up meeting for about 100 days — an average of about two days a week in return for a salary of $165,000.

Fox News suggests that record sales at high-end stores means that the middle-class has more money
Stuart Varney on “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on 11/30/06 said, “Alright. Is the middle class movin’ on up? The media may be jumping all over the fact that Wal-Mart’s sales slipped this month for the first time in a decade, but sales are up at Saks, Nordstrom, Bloomingdale’s and Neiman Marcus, all high-end retailers. Is that proof the middle class has more cash on hand?”

(Maybe it’s that the rich have more money than ever. – JLV)

Bill O‘Reilly lies about what he said after Sadam’s statue fell
Bill O‘Reilly said to a guest on his show, “I don‘t know whether you were watching the Factor on the night that Saddam‘s statue fell, but what I said on the air, hey, look at these guys looting the armories. As soon as I saw that, I went holy you know what, there‘s no plan to institute marshal law and to take step by step reconstruction of this country.” He didn‘t say anything like that. That was April 9th, 2003. What O‘Reilly did say included attacks on the losers of the war, like Howard Dean, the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, al-Jazeera, the Russians, the French, the Germans, hysterical Hollywood celebrities, CNN, CBS, and ABC, and when Dick Morris said that this would all mean the death of network news, O‘Reilly agreed with him.

Fox News Turns an “Unconfirmed Cyber Threat” into an “Al Qaeda Jihad on Your Money”

Reality-based news report from December 1, 2006:

U.S. stocks fell on Friday after a manufacturing index showed its weakest reading in more than three years and a Federal Reserve official said more rate hikes may be required to control inflation.

Fox News version (reported by Neil Cavuto)

Well, Fox on top of your money. Under attack. Cyber terrorists targeting the capital of capitalism. What if they succeed and shut down your bank or the stock market? Stocks taking a hit [live shot of the “big board” at the NYSE]. Stocks slip after Al Qaeda cyber threat revealed.

The opening graphics and music played and Cavuto began speaking again:

THIS IS A FOX NEWS ALERT! The day after the threat, the sell-off. Stocks falling after Washington warns of an Al Qaeda jihad on your money.

With that, “senior business correspondent” Brenda Buttner gave a two minute report on why we should all be terrified.
The U.S. government said the “cyber threat” seemed to pose no danger.

Regards,

Jim

U.S. Assigns Secret ‘Terror Scores’ to Travelers
Without notifying the public, federal agents for the past four years have assigned millions of international travelers, including Americans, computer-generated scores rating the risk they pose of being terrorists or criminals. Travelers are not allowed to see or directly challenge the risk assessments, which the government plans to hold for 40 years. Criteria considered in assigning the scores include the travelers’ nationality, seating preferences, and the meals they have ordered. The program also raised the possibility that faulty risk assessments could cost innocent people jobs in shipping or travel, government contracts, licenses or other benefits.

Christian conservative leaders are pushing Congress to cut US support for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. The fund has become one of the pillars of the international effort to fight infectious diseases, growing into a $6.6 billion organization that supports programs in 136 countries.

Bush Administration appointee may be representing the interests of the shareholders of Lockheed Martin rather than the interests of the American people. Former general is supposed to be working against terrorism in Turkey, but seems to be selling jet fighters for Lockheed Martin.

Conservative talk-show host doesn’t like freedom of religion for swearing-in ceremony
Newly-elected Congressman Keith Ellison is a Muslim. Ellison is setting yet another precedent in January when he takes the oath of office on the Koran, Islam’s holiest book—an event that evoked conservatives to accuse him of deviating his allegiance from the Constitution to Allah. On Tuesday, conservative radio talk show host and columnist Dennis Prager wrote: “America is interested in only one book, the Bible.” Directly addressing Ellison, he added “If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don’t serve in Congress.” Ellison said that he’s not changing his mind about the sacred text he’s swearing on. “The Constitution guarantees for everyone to take the oath of office on whichever book they prefer,” he said in a telephone interview. “And that’s what the freedom of religion is all about.”

Prager’s column on a conservative web site with comments from readers. There are some extreme people there. Most of them seem to have lost sight that the congressman is swearing to uphold the laws and constitution on the United States of America no matter what book his hand is on. Placing his hand on a religious book means he swears to God. Christian Bible, Jewish Bible, Koran – it’s the same God.

Then there was CNN’s Glenn Beck saying to the first-ever Muslim congressman: “What I feel like saying is, ‘Sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies’ ”

Regards,

Jim

Charlie Savage states in Hail to the chief:

A close look at key moments in Cheney’s career — from his political apprenticeship in the Nixon and Ford administrations to his decade in Congress and his tenure as Secretary of Defense under the first President Bush — suggests that the newly empowered Democrats in Congress should not expect the White House to cooperate when they demand classified information or attempt to exert oversight in areas such as domestic surveillance or the treatment of terrorism suspects.

Peter Shane, an Ohio State University law professor, predicted that Cheney’s long career of consistently pushing against restrictions on presidential power is likely to culminate in a series of uncompromising battles with Congress.

“Cheney has made this a matter of principle,” Shane said. “For that reason, you are likely to hear the words ‘executive privilege’ over and over again during the next two years.”

Cheney’s ideal of presidential power is the level of power the office briefly achieved in the late 1960s, the era of what historian Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. called the “imperial presidency.”

Early in the Cold War, presidents began invoking national security to seize greater power from Congress. This concentration of authority peaked under President Richard Nixon, who famously asserted that “when the president does it, that means it’s not illegal.”

The following Dick Cheney quotes on reversing laws passed by Congress that reduce the power of the Executive are taken from the above Savage article. This article is very thorough in recounting Cheney’s efforts.

In December 1974, Cheney wanted a presidential commission established to try and discourage Congress from investigating the CIA, which works for the Executive, and wrote in a memo to President Ford. He said creating the commission was “… the best prospect for heading off congressional efforts to further encroach on the executive branch.”

In May 1975, another opportunity prompted Cheney to write that they could use the opportunity, “To point out the need for limits on the scope of the investigations.”

On the 1982 Boland Amendment: “I personally do not believe the Boland Amendment applied to the president, nor to his immediate staff”

In May 1988, after the Senate passed a bill forcing presidents to notify congress of all covert operations within 48 hours, Cheney wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “The 48-hour bill would ‘get back’ at President Reagan by tying the hands of all future presidents. That approach will achieve nothing useful.”

In 1996 during a PBS Frontline documentary, Cheney made the following statement relative to asking Congress to vote for the 1990 invasion of Iraq, “I was not enthusiastic about going to Congress for an additional grant of authority. I was concerned that they might well vote ‘no’ and that would make life more difficult for us. … From a constitutional standpoint, we had all the authority we needed. If we’d lost the vote in Congress, I would certainly have recommended to the president that we go forward anyway.”

In an interview on ABC in January 2002, “In 34 years, I have repeatedly seen an erosion of the powers and the ability of the president of the United States to do his job. I feel an obligation … to pass on our offices in better shape than we found them to our successors.”

In December 2005, after The New York Times exposed the warrantless wiretapping of American phone calls and emails, Cheney stated to a group of reporters that bypassing the 1978 warrant law was “consistent with the constitutional authority of the president.”

Later in that same interview, Cheney was asked if he felt they had pushed the back the encroachment of Congress on the Executive far enough yet. He replied, “I do think that to some extent now, we’ve been able to restore the legitimate authority of the presidency”

For more on the authoritarian aspects of Dick Cheney, click on the links below. You can also select the Bad Deeds subcategory and then do a Find for Cheney.

The Bush administration proposed to ease public reporting requirements for companies that handle or release toxic chemicals
That plan – now shelved because of pressure from Democratic senators – would have raised the threshold for reporting releases of toxic chemicals from 500 to 5,000 pounds and allowed companies to report every other year instead of annually, changes that would have had nothing to do with public safety, and everything to do with saving corporate polluters (and the agency itself) millions of dollars

Halliburton Unit Overbilled the U.S. Government
The accusations, made under the federal False Claims Act, included double-billing, inflating prices and providing products that didn’t fit the Army’s needs. The Halliburton unit, KBR, the U.S. military’s largest contractor in Iraq, is at the heart of several other pending False Claims Act cases, and its work is the subject of numerous federal investigations. Congressional Democrats have been particularly critical of Halliburton, which was run by Dick Cheney before he became vice president.

US State Dept. official says Tony Blair and the British are ignored by Bush
Kendall Myers, a senior State Department analyst, disclosed that for all Britain’s attempts to influence US policy in recent years, “we typically ignore them and take no notice — it’s a sad business”. He added that he felt “a little ashamed” at Mr Bush’s treatment of the Prime Minister, who had invested so much of his political capital in standing shoulder to shoulder with America after 9/11.

Regards,

Jim

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson says, “A strong dollar is clearly in our nation’s interest and I feel very good today about the strength of the U.S. economy,” as the U.S. dollar hit a 20-month low against the Euro

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, who said in London Tuesday, “A strong dollar is clearly in our nation’s interest and I feel very good today about the strength of the U.S. economy,” as the U.S. dollar hit a 20-month low against the Euro. Treasury secretaries are not paid for their candor, but Paulson’s rejection of our current reality won’t bolster his credibility with either our trading partners or the new Democratic-led Congress. Our current account deficit — the broadest measure of international trade — is on track to approach $1 trillion this year. And our current account deficit is almost 7 percent of our nation’s gross domestic product, considerably above the threshold at which Federal Reserve studies have acknowledged our economy must make policy adjustments or face major financial crisis. We’re borrowing about $3 billion a day just to pay for our imports, and our trade debt now stands at $5 trillion.

The Washington Post doesn’t label the incredible amount of violence in Iraq a “civil war” because government officials won’t
Am I missing something here or are they getting an Armstrong Williams check or committing negligent journalism?
QuickTime Video
Windows Video

Texas Ethics Commission has no ethics
A Texas official who receives any sum of cash as a gift can satisfy state disclosure laws by reporting the money simply as “currency” without specifying the amount, the Texas Ethics Commission reiterated Monday. The 5-3 decision outraged watchdog groups and some officials who accused the commission of failing to enforce state campaign finance laws. “What the Ethics Commission has done is legalize bribery in the state of Texas. We call on the commission to resign en masse,” said Tom “Smitty” Smith, who heads Texas Citizen, an Austin-based group that advocates for campaign finance reform.

A German says he was kidnapped three years ago, held by the CIA and tortured for months in Afghanistan
“I want to know why this was done to me,” said Khaled el-Masri, a 43-year-old German of Lebanese origin. “I would like an explanation and an apology.” “The claim that this was a case of mixed identity is absolutely absurd,” he said at a news conference. “They didn’t even accuse me of anything.”

US Government Falsely Accused Terror Suspect
A Oregon lawyer who was wrongfully arrested and detained by the U.S. government as a suspect in the 2004 Madrid train bombing because of a bungled fingerprint match. Under the terms of an agreement with the government, Brandon Mayfield – who has said his conversion to Islam made him a target – will still be able to pursue a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the Patriot Act. The settlement also required the government to admit that it monitored Mayfield’s phone and e-mail communications and conducted secret searches of his home and office.

Cheney Shuts Down Sections Of Florida Interstate To Go Hunting

Regards,

Jim

Newt Gingrich said the country will be forced to reexamine freedom of speech to meet the threat of terrorism
Gingrich talked up limiting free speech at the annual Nackey S. Loeb First Amendment award dinner, which fetes people and organizations that stand up for freedom of speech.

Carbon emissions show sharp rise
The Global Carbon Project says that emissions were rising by less than 1% annually up to the year 2000, but are now rising at 2.5% per year.

Bush Wants $500 Million To Build His Legacy Library
(The Clinton Presidential Library cost $165 million)

Republican committee chairman assured student loan bankers that their interests (not the students’) were in “two trusted hands”
The college student loan industry has been so well connected in the Republican-controlled Congress that a powerful committee chairman once assured its bankers and other financiers that their interests were in “two trusted hands.” That’s set to change, however, as incoming Democratic lawmakers have likened the bankers to usurers and promised to “throw them out of the temple of higher education.” Democrats say that one of their first acts will be to cut interest rates on federally backed student loans from 6.8% to 3.4%.

The GAO says much of the $388 billion spent on contracts last year was exposed to “potential waste and misuse”
After riding high for five years, government contractors are bracing themselves for increased oversight, tighter budgets and stepped-up regulations as Democrats take over on Capitol Hill and vow to keep a closer eye on how companies spend taxpayer dollars. Every company that does business with the government could feel the impact, but contractors that benefited most from work in Iraq and Afghanistan, from homeland security initiatives or from Hurricane Katrina are especially likely to be under the microscope. Big-ticket weapons programs are also expected to garner special attention, and it may become more difficult to get a no-bid contract, according to industry observers.

Regards,

Jim

Turkey of the Year Award Goes to Shelly Sekula-Gibbs

Fun With Shelley, Part XVII
Sekula-Gibbs had said in an interview that the deaths of 2,800 Americans in Iraq needed to be put “in perspective” because after all, 9,000 Americans were killed each year by illegal immigrants, according to the General Accounting Office. Seeing as how only 16,000 Americans are murdered each year, that seemed like those dadgum illegals were being very, very busy. So we called the GAO. They were baffled. “I’m trying to think how she got there,” says Rich Stana, the GAO’s director for homeland security and justice issues. So where did Sekula-Gibbs get her 9,000-deaths-a-year figure? Not from the GAO, as it turns out.

National Science Teachers Association Won’t Show An Inconvenient Truth,” but take funding from Exxon Mobil

U. S. Education Secretary Margaret Spellings loses on Jeopardy to ‘Lenny’ from the television show “Laverne and Shirley”

U.S. involved longer in Iraq war than World War II

Rumsfeld OK’d prison abuses, ex-general alleges

Memo Says Drug Companies Fear Democratic Congress, Lament Loss of Santorum
A post-election internal memo at one pharmaceutical company illustrates an industry-wide concern that the good times may be coming to an end as the author writes “we now have fewer allies in the Senate”. The memo says the loss of Republican Rick Santorum “creates a big hole we need to fill”, while the ascendance of senators-elect Jon Tester and Sherrod Brown are expected to create problems for the industry. In other words, the power has shifted from the big drug companies to the people.

Regards,

Jim