The WAWG Blog

Taco Bell, Wal-Mart, NRA Hired ‘Black Ops’ Company That Targeted Environmental Groups – A private security firm managed by former Secret Service officers spied on myriad environmental organizations throughout the 1990s and the year 2000, thieving documents, trying to plant undercover operations and collecting phone records of members, according to a new report.

Cheney Authorized ‘Harsh Interrogations’ – Bush administration officials from Vice President Dick Cheney on down signed off on using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists after asking the Justice Department to endorse their legality, The Associated Press has learned. The officials also took care to insulate President Bush from a series of meetings where CIA interrogation methods, including waterboarding, which simulates drowning, were discussed and ultimately approved. The meetings were held in the White House Situation Room in the years immediately following the Sept. 11 attacks. Attending the sessions were Cheney, then-Bush aides Attorney General John Ashcroft, Secretary of State Colin Powell, CIA Director George Tenet and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.

Exxon CEO Had a $16.7 Million Year – Exxon Chairman and CEO Rex Tillerson received a $16.7 million compensation package for 2007, up 28.6% from a year earlier. Exxon Mobil reported a record $40.61 billion profit, and much of the profit was due to the rising value of a barrel of oil, something that neither Mr. Tillerson nor Exxon has much control over. The benchmark cost of a barrel of oil started the year below $60 per barrel and ended near $100.

Bush US Attorney Targeted Wife, Supporters and Friends of Mississippi Justice – Mississippi Supreme Court Justice Oliver Diaz Jr. was indicted in 2003 on charges relating to his receipt of a loan guarantee from trial lawyer Paul Minor – a personal friend and the largest Democratic donor in Mississippi – to help defray campaign debts. A Bush-appointed US Attorney, Dunnica Lampton, brought charges of bribery against Diaz, Minor and two other Mississippi judges. Diaz was acquitted of all those charges. A jury acquitted Minor of the charges related to Diaz, but was unable to reach a verdict on other charges. Within days of his acquittal, Diaz was indicted a second time. He was again acquitted.

“After I was indicted and before my trial, my home was also broken into,” says Diaz. “Our door was kicked in and our documents were rummaged. Televisions, computers and other valuables were not taken, despite the fact that we were out of town for several days and the home was left open by the burglars.”

As previously reported in “The Permanent Republican Majority Part II”, Governor Siegelman’s home was broken into twice during the trial, and his attorney’s office was broken into at least once during the tortuous process of his case.

In another eerie parallel, Mississippi judge John Whitfield, who was tried along with Diaz and Minor, had his office set on fire. The Alabama Republican whistleblower, Dana Jill Simpson – who alleges White House involvement in the Siegelman case – had her home set on fire and her car run off the road after she came forward.

Diaz’s wife, Jennifer, was indicted along with her husband. According to Diaz, the US Attorney’s office offered a veiled threat when discussing a plea agreement, making her an offer she could not refuse.

It’s Fox News …’Nuff Said – According to a new Fox News documentary, President Bush is “credited with some of the most eloquent and visionary speeches ever delivered by an American president.” Watch the Daily Show take Fox News to task for being unfair and unbalanced.

2007 Tied for Earth’s Second Warmest Year – The year 2007 has tied 1998 for the Earth’s second warmest this century, NASA scientists announced today. Climatologists at the agency’s Goddard Institute for Space Sciences (GISS) in New York used temperature data from weather stations on land, satellite measurements of sea ice temperature since 1982 and data from ships for earlier years to construct a record of global average temperatures going back for over a century. The GISS analysis has 1934, 1998 and 2005 tied as the warmest years in the United States (with 2005 being the warmest globally). The eight warmest years globally in the past century have all occurred since 1998, and the 14 warmest years have all occurred since 1990.

Regards,

Jim

Top Bush Aides Approved Interrogation Tactics According to Report – President George W. Bush’s most senior advisers approved “enhanced interrogation techniques” of top al-Qaeda suspects by the Central Intelligence Agency, ABC News reported. ABC reported that the so-called “principals” discussed interrogation details in dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House. Then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice chaired the meetings, which took place in the White House Situation Room and were typically attended by a select group of senior officials or their deputies, ABC said.

Veterans Affairs Refuses to Provide Voter Registration for Wounded Vets – A new report reveals that Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake told two Democratic senators his department will not help injured veterans register to vote before the 2008 election. “VA remains opposed to becoming a voter registration agency pursuant to the National Voter Registration Act, as this designation would divert substantial resources from our primary mission,” Peake said in an April 8th letter. What this means is that many injured veterans still in VA hospitals who can’t find means to register outside of their facilities will effectively lose their right to vote.

Conduct Waiver Use in Army Has Doubled Since 2004 – The percentage of active and Reserve Army recruits granted “conduct” waivers for misdemeanor or felony charges increased to 11 percent last fiscal year from 4.6 percent in fiscal 2004.

Lieberman Campaign Crashed Own Web Site But Blamed Democratic Primary Opponent – A federal investigation has concluded that U.S. Sen. Joseph Lieberman’s 2006 re-election campaign was to blame for the crash of its Web site the day before Connecticut’s heated Aug. 8 Democratic primary. The FBI office in New Haven found no evidence supporting the Lieberman campaign’s allegations that supporters of primary challenger Ned Lamont of Greenwich were to blame for the Web site crash. Lieberman, who was fighting for his political life against the anti-Iraq war candidate Lamont, implied that joe2006.com was hacked by Lamont supporters. But here’s the kicker: the e-mail stating the results of the investigation is dated Oct. 25, 2006, back when the campaign was still on. The truth was known but was kept under wraps while the Lieberman campaign kept publically calling for Lamont to apologize so as to discredit him.

Saudi Arms Probe Halted Due to Threats From Saudi Royal Family – A corruption investigation into arms deals with Saudi Arabia should not have been halted, a London court said on Thursday in a ruling that sharply criticized the British and Saudi governments. Two judges said the director of the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) had capitulated to threats from the Saudi royal family over arms deals with Europe’s biggest defense company, BAE Systems Plc. “No one, whether within this country or outside, is entitled to interfere with the course of our justice,” one of the judges, Lord Justice Moses, told the High Court in London, calling the decision a failure of government.

Either the Bush Administration Concealed a Story From the 9/11 Commission or Made Up a Story to Scare You – Vice Chairman of the 9/11 Commission, Rep. Lee Hamilton, responded to Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s claim that there was a pre-9/11 telephone call from an “Afghan safe house” into the U.S. that the Bush administration failed to intercept or investigate:

“I am unfamiliar with the telephone call that Attorney General Mukasey cited in his appearance in San Francisco on March 27. The 9/11 Commission did not receive any information pertaining to its occurrence.”

In light of Hamilton’s comment, one of two things is true about Mukasey’s extraordinary claim about how and why the 9/11 attacks occurred. Either:

(1) The Bush administration concealed this obviously vital episode from the 9/11 Commission and from everyone else, until Mukasey tearfully trotted it out last week; or,

(2) Mukasey, the nation’s highest law enforcement officer, made this story up in order to scare and manipulate Americans into believing that FISA and other surveillance safeguards caused the 9/11 attacks and therefore the Government should be given more unchecked spying powers.

Two Years Ago We Told “We’re Making Good Progress in Iraq,” But Now … – Gen. David Petraeus told a Senate hearing, “We haven’t turned any corners. We haven’t seen any lights at the end of the tunnel.”

Regards,

Jim

Once Again, McCain Confuses Sunnis with Shiites – Last month, the Arizona senator got a whisper in his ear from Sen. Joe Lieberman, after he said that Iran was providing aid to Al Qaeda in Iraq, a Sunni group. Iran, however, is actually a Shiite nation. On Fox News Sunday, McCain also got wrong the details of an Iraqi ceasefire. At today’s Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, McCain seems to have gotten it wrong again, when interviewing Iraq commander Gen. David Petraeus.

MCCAIN: “There are numerous threats to security in Iraq and the future of Iraq. Do you still view al-Qaeda in Iraq as a major threat?”

PETRAEUS: “It is a major threat. Though it is certainly as not as major a threat as it was say, 15 months ago.”

MCCAIN: “Certainly not an obscure sect of the Shias overall?

PETRAEUS: “No, sir.”

MCCAIN: “Or Sunnis or anybody else then?

McCain’s Temper: He Lunged at Congressman, According to Book – According to Cliff Schecter’s new book The Real McCain, a physical confrontation between McCain and another congressman took place in 2006. The Arizona Republican congressional delegation had a strategy meeting where McCain repeatedly addressed two new members, congressmen Trent Franks and Rick Renzi, as ‘boy.’ Finally, Renzi, a former college linebacker, rose from his chair and said to McCain, “You call me that one more time and I’ll kick your old ass.” McCain lunged at Renzi, punches were thrown, and the two had to be physically separated.

US Planning Open-Ended Military Commitment in Iraq According to Report – A draft agreement between the United States and Iraq shows that the two countries are including a provision for an open-ended American military commitment to the war-torn country, The Guardian reported Tuesday. Citing a copy of the draft strategic framework agreement dated March 7 that it obtained, the newspaper said that the document is designed to replace the current United Nations mandate, which expires at the end of the year. According to The Guardian, the agreement allows the United States to “conduct military operations in Iraq and to detain individuals when necessary for imperative reasons of security” without including a time limit. It also does not put any limits on the number of American forces allowed in Iraq, the weapons they can use, the legal status of US troops in Iraq or the powers they hold over Iraqi citizens.

Documents Prove FBI Has National Eavesdropping Program that Tracks IMs, Emails and Cell Phones – The Federal Bureau of Investigation has been routinely monitoring the e-mails, instant messages and cell phone calls of suspects across the United States — and has done so, in many cases, without the approval of a court. Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show that the FBI’s massive dragnet, connected to the backends of telecommunications carriers, allows authorized FBI agents and analysts, with point-and-click ease, to receive e-mails, instant messages, cell phone calls and other communications that tell them not only what a suspect is saying, but where he is and where he has been.

Department of Homeland Security Ignores Civil Liberties in Domestic Spy Satellite Plan, Lawmakers Say – A controversial plan that would allow domestic law enforcement agencies to use data gathered by US spy satellites still lacks necessary civil liberties and privacy protections. DHS plans to create a new office that would expand law enforcement and other civilian agencies’ access to data gathered by powerful intelligence and military satellites orbiting the earth.

According to John McCain and General Petraeus, Things Are Getting Better in Iraq, but According to the Iraqi Army, 52 Blasts Hit the Baghdad Green Zone Last Week – At least 52 rockets or mortar bombs hit the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad in the past week, Brigadier General Qassim Atta, spokesman for the Iraqi army in the capital, said Tuesday. Atta said another 90 mortar bombs or rockets struck various other places in Baghdad over the same period.

Illinois Rep. Monique Davis Tells Atheist He has No Right to Be at the State Assembly – The following exchange between atheist activist Rob Sherman of Buffalo Grove and Ill. Rep. Monique Davis (Democrat-Chicago) took place Wednesday afternoon in the General Assembly as Sherman testified before the House State Government Administration Committee.

Davis: I don’t know what you have against God, but some of us don’t have much against him. We look forward to him and his blessings. And it’s really a tragedy — it’s tragic — when a person who is engaged in anything related to God, they want to fight. They want to fight prayer in school.

I don’t see you (Sherman) fighting guns in school. You know?

I’m trying to understand the philosophy that you want to spread in the state of Illinois. This is the Land of Lincoln. This is the Land of Lincoln where people believe in God, where people believe in protecting their children.… What you have to spew and spread is extremely dangerous, it’s dangerous–

Sherman: What’s dangerous, ma’am?

Davis: It’s dangerous to the progression of this state. And it’s dangerous for our children to even know that your philosophy exists! Now you will go to court to fight kids to have the opportunity to be quiet for a minute. But damn if you’ll go to [court] to fight for them to keep guns out of their hands. I am fed up! Get out of that seat!

Sherman: Thank you for sharing your perspective with me, and I’m sure that if this matter does go to court—

Davis: You have no right to be here! We believe in something. You believe in destroying! You believe in destroying what this state was built upon.

U.S. Kept in Slow Broadband Lane – In Manhattan people pay about $30 a month for a download speed of three megabits per second (Mbps) via a DSL line. Many people are very happy with that, until they realise what is going on elsewhere in the world. “In Japan you can get 100 megabits for $35,” says Selina Lo of Ruckus Wireless.

Regards,

Jim

John McCain Gets Facts Wrong on Iraq Two More Times This Past Sunday – Appearing on Fox News Sunday, the Arizona Republican stated that the recent flair up of violence in Basra was ended after Shiite cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr declared a ceasefire. This, he said, “was proof that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government was gaining the upper hand, both militarily and politically.” However, it was the Iranian government and members of Maliki’s government who brokered the ceasefire, not Sadr.

McCain also said, “the Iraqi military performed pretty well. … The military is functioning very effectively.” However, in the process of fighting Sadr, at least 1,000 of Maliki’s troops deserted the battle. McCain tried to put a good face on this too, by reminding viewers that, slightly more than a year ago that number would have been much higher. But that too ignores the testimony of many Iraq experts who suggest that far from showing the strength of Maliki’s forces, the recent battle in Basra did little but make Sadr stronger.

Iranian general played key role in Iraq cease-fire

In backing the Basra assault, the US has only helped Sadr

And it’s not the first time that McCain has been confused about Iraq:Â Here’s two more:
McCain Clueless, Contradictory On al-Sadr’s Influence In Iraq
McCain’s Iraq Barack Attack Shows A Crack

Bad Boys – They’re all here: Tom, Jack, Duke, and many others.

The Media Thinks Obama’s Bowling Score is Much More Important Than the Administration Trying to Legalize Torture – Here are the number of times, according to NEXIS, that various topics have been mentioned in the media over the past thirty days:

“[John] Yoo and torture” – 102
“Mukasey and 9/11” – 73
“Yoo and Fourth Amendment” – 16
“Obama and bowling” – 1,043
“Obama and Wright” – More than 3,000 (too many to be counted)
“Obama and patriotism” – 1,607
“Clinton and Lewinsky” – 1,079

How Torture and Military Commissions are Hurting Us – For years, the Bush Administration justified its reliance on military commissions as a means of expediting the prosecution of terrorist suspects.  “As soon as Congress acts to authorize the military commissions I have proposed,” said President George W. Bush in September 2006, “the men our intelligence officials believe orchestrated the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans on September the 11th 2001, can face justice.”1 In fact, just the opposite has occurred. More than six years after the first men were brought to Guantánamo Bay, prosecutors have sought charges against just fifteen men and convicted only one.

Appalling Spread of False Information Requires Stronger Media Accountability – “A free press is supposed to function as our democracy’s immune system against . . . gross errors of fact and understanding,” wrote Al Gore in his book, The Assault on Reason. But it doesn’t – as Gore explains — and that is what makes the mass media one of the most important obstacles to social and economic progress in the 21st century.

Regards,

Jim

The following facts and their sources were compiled by MoveOn.org and are worth sharing. You will not hear about them through mainstream media and they should help with your decision on which political party to vote for.

1. John McCain voted against establishing a national holiday in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Now he says his position has “evolved,” yet he’s continued to oppose key civil rights laws. 1

2. According to Bloomberg News, McCain is more hawkish than Bush on Iraq, Russia and China. Conservative columnist Pat Buchanan says McCain “will make Cheney look like Gandhi.” 2

3. His reputation is built on his opposition to torture, but McCain voted against a bill to ban waterboarding, and then applauded President Bush for vetoing that ban. 3

4. McCain opposes a woman’s right to choose. He said, “I do not support Roe versus Wade. It should be overturned.” 4

5. The Children’s Defense Fund rated McCain as the worst senator in Congress for children. He voted against the children’s health care bill last year, then defended Bush’s veto of the bill. 5

6. He’s one of the richest people in a Senate filled with millionaires. The Associated Press reports he and his wife own at least eight homes! Yet McCain says the solution to the housing crisis is for people facing foreclosure to get a “second job” and skip their vacations. 6

7. Many of McCain’s fellow Republican senators say he’s too reckless to be commander in chief. One Republican senator said: “The thought of his being president sends a cold chill down my spine. He’s erratic. He’s hotheaded. He loses his temper and he worries me.” 7

8. McCain talks a lot about taking on special interests, but his campaign manager and top advisers are actually lobbyists. The government watchdog group Public Citizen says McCain has 59 lobbyists raising money for his campaign, more than any of the other presidential candidates. 8

9. McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his “spiritual guide,” Rod Parsley, believes America’s founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a “false religion.” McCain sought the political support of right-wing preacher John Hagee, who believes Hurricane Katrina was God’s punishment for gay rights and called the Catholic Church “the Antichrist” and a “false cult.” 9

10. He positions himself as pro-environment, but he scored a 0—yes, zero—from the League of Conservation Voters last year. 10

Pass it along.

Sources for quotes above:
1. “The Complicated History of John McCain and MLK Day,” “McCain Facts”

2. “McCain More Hawkish Than Bush on Russia, China, Iraq,” “Buchanan: John McCain ‘Will Make Cheney Look Like Gandhi’”

3. “McCain Sides With Bush On Torture Again, Supports Veto Of Anti-Waterboarding Bill”

4. “McCain says Roe v. Wade should be overturned”

5. “2007 Children’s Defense Fund Action Council® Nonpartisan Congressional Scorecard,” “McCain: Bush right to veto kids health insurance expansion,”

6. “Beer Executive Could Be Next First Lady,” “McCain Says Bank Bailout Should End ‘Systemic Risk’”

7. “Will McCain’s Temper Be a Liability?,” “Famed McCain temper is tamed”

8. “Black Claims McCain’s Campaign Is Above Lobbyist Influence: ‘I Don’t Know What The Criticism Is’,” “McCain’s Lobbyist Friends Rally Round Their Man”

9. “McCain’s Spiritual Guide: Destroy Islam,” “Will McCain Specifically ‘Repudiate’ Hagee’s Anti-Gay Comments?,” “McCain ‘Very Honored’ By Support Of Pastor Preaching ‘End-Time Confrontation With Iran’”

10. “John McCain Gets a Zero Rating for His Environmental Record”

McCain Delays Releasing Medical Records for Fourth Time – On Wednesday, McCain’s campaign told CNN that the Arizona senator’s medical file would be produced May 15. Trouble is, they previously said they’d be released April 15, and they’ve refused to turn the records over to the New York Times on at least three occasions.

Attorney General Says Government Failed to Act on Phone Call That Could Have Prevented 9/11 Attacks – According to a recent public statement in favor of warrantless wiretapping by Attorney General Michael Mukasey, federal authorities, prior to the 9/11 attacks, failed to intercept a call from suspected terrorists in Afghanistan, when doing so could have prevented the attacks from taking place. The FISA law that existed at the time, the letter points out, would have allowed such a call to be intercepted and permission granted by the courts retroactively to do so.

Bush Administration’s Fails to Meet Legal Deadline for Determining Whether Global Warming is Pushing Polar Bears Toward Extinction – Senate Democrats yesterday deplored the Bush administration’s failure to meet a legal deadline for determining whether global warming is pushing polar bears toward extinction and lashed their scheduled star witness — Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne — for declining to appear in his own defense. Kempthorne announced 15 months ago that his department would determine within a year whether the bear should be added to the endangered species list because rapidly disappearing sea ice threatens its ability to hunt and survive, but he has yet to issue a decision. A coalition of environmental groups has sued the Interior Department for missing the one-year deadline to act. “The Bush administration is violating the law, and that is why we’re here today,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Environment and Public Works Committee, opening the hearing. “These species do not have an indefinite time to be saved. . . . Time is running out for the polar bear, and time has run out for this decision.”

‘The Best Qualified Person in the Nation’ Was Fired by the Justice Department – Leslie Hagen, in her final evaluation at the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, received the highest possible performance rating. Then she was fired. Monica Goodling, senior counsel to former Attorney General Gonzales, had a particular interest in Justice attorney Leslie Hagen, according to documents. An e-mail shows that a few months before Hagen was let go, Goodling decided to remove part of Hagen’s job portfolio. Several people interviewed by the inspector general’s staff described the case to NPR and said they came away with the impression that the Attorney General’s office decided not to renew Leslie Hagen’s contract because of the talk about her sexual orientation. As one Republican source put it, “To some people, that’s even worse than being a Democrat.” At the height of the scandal over the fired U.S. attorneys, Goodling admitted to making personnel decisions about career Justice Department lawyers based on improper partisan considerations.

Progress? More Than 1,000 in Iraq’s Forces Quit Basra Fight – More than 1,000 Iraqi soldiers and policemen either refused to fight or simply abandoned their posts during the inconclusive assault against Shiite militias in Basra last week, a senior Iraqi government official said Thursday. Iraqi military officials said the group included dozens of officers, including at least two senior field commanders in the battle.

In 2011, which nations will be launching spaceships to the International Space Station ?

• Russians … check!
• Europeans … check!
• Japanese … check!
• America … nope.

Regards,

Jim

I must share this.

Back in February, the Senate voted to immunize telecommunications companies for being duped by the Administration into eaves dropping on all kinds of communications. When Senator Hutchison’s vote supporting immunity was reported to me, I sent her the following message via her web site:

Dear Senator,

I am writing again to express my concern about your national priorities. Again your vote has shown excessive support [for] large corporations. You voted yes to grant immunity to the phone companies and others ….

Phone corporations have plenty of high paid well educated lawyers to defend them. They don’t need Republicans and the Administration to give them special immunity.

This immunity is of special concern since the Administration was directing the phone companies. I’d call granting immunity a conflict of interest and question anyone’s ethics that supports this immunity.

Is granting immunity just another means for protecting an Administration known for its lies and fear mongering? Isn’t the possibility of wrong doing even more reason not to grant immunity.

If the phone companies are guilty of wrong doing, corrective action is required. That in turn could point [to] Administration wrongs and violations of our Constitution. Don’t we the people deserve the truth or at least the ability to uncover it?

What kind of national security can we have, if we the people can’t trust those in elected office to be honorable, respectful of its citizens, and willing to admit mistakes? Granting immunity is not helping we the people or national security.

On March 7, I got the following response by email:

Dear Mr. Hailey:

Thank you for contacting me regarding the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. I welcome your thoughts and comments on this issue.

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 provides the basic framework for the use of electronic surveillance in the context of foreign intelligence gathering. Over time, FISA has been amended to expand intelligence gathering to physical searches and access to certain business records. Following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the USA PATRIOT Act made significant changes to some FISA provisions in order to aid in the capture of suspected terrorists.

On August 5, 2007, the President signed the Protect America Act of 2007 into law. The Protect America Act updated FISA to close a critical gap relating to the surveillance of suspected terrorists and to address limitations on surveillance created by a 2007 FISA Court. The Protect America Act was a temporary measure that expired on February 16, 2008 after one 15-day extension. After months of careful analysis, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence reported S. 2248, a comprehensive bill reforming FISA and extending critical collection authorities for a period of six years. The bill includes important safeguards to protect privacy and civil liberties, including procedures to prevent the dissemination of information about U.S. citizens that has been collected incidentally during certain surveillance activities.

S. 2248 contains a number of other provisions, including an extension of liability protection to electronic service providers that may have cooperated with the federal government after 9/11. Many of these firms face class action lawsuits in which the government may assert its privilege in order to protect sources and methods of intelligence collection. This privilege limits the ability of the companies to provide evidence to defend their alleged conduct. I recognize that some oppose the liability protection, but I joined 67 of my Senate colleagues in supporting the Senate Intelligence Committee bill because I believe that it is untenable to allow the lawsuits to proceed at the same time that we limit the ability of the defendants to produce evidence critical to their cases. The potential liability awards that might result could be catastrophic, negatively affecting the broader economy and signaling to these companies, and to other private entities that we may need to rely upon in the War on Terror, that their cooperation carries major risks. On a bi-partisan basis, the Senate passed S. 2248 with the liability protection provisions. The Senate now awaits action by the House.

Please know that I will continue to work with my colleagues in Congress to safeguard the security of our nation while upholding our personal privacy rights and civil liberties.

I appreciate hearing from you, and I hope that you will not hesitate to keep in touch on any issue of concern to you.

Sincerely,
Kay Bailey Hutchison
United States Senator

284 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5922 (tel)
202-224-0776 (fax)
http://hutchison.senate.gov

To signup for Senator Hutchison’s weekly e-newsletter, please send your request to newsletter@hutchison.senate.gov.

PLEASE DO NOT REPLY TO THIS MESSAGE AS SENATOR@HUTCHISON.SENATE.GOV IS NOT A VALID E-MAIL ADDRESS.
Due to the tremendous volume of mail Senator Hutchison receives each day, she requests that all email messages be sent through the contact form found on her website at http://hutchison.senate.gov/contact.html. Thank you.

I replied with the following:

Ms. Hutchison,

Thank you, or you staff, for responding to my concerns.

I think we can all agree that updating our laws, as necessary for national security is good.

However, like the majority of the citizens of this country, I think Mr. Bush is wrong. He has been wrong for at least 6 years. He was wrong when he asked these companies to do what ever they did and he is wrong now. Not only was he wrong about the threat of Iraq, not adequately supporting our troops and not asking the rest of us to sacrifice, he is wrong about protecting a few companies out of the millions in this country. He is also wrong for using scare tactics to get his way.

Equally, you are also on the wrong side of this issue and are just as guilty as he for fear mongering and giving priority to corporations over the citizens of this country: “The potential liability awards that might result could be catastrophic, negatively affecting the broader economy and signaling to these companies, and to other private entities that we may need to rely upon in the War on Terror, that their cooperation carries major risks.” Surprise, surprise, there are risks in doing business, especially with our government – except for Haliburton and your favorite oil companies.

I’m sorry, the national losses for not protecting these few companies will be pennies compared to the world wide losses of the ongoing subprime fiasco.

If the terrorist threat is that great, why does corporate immunity trump it – Bush’s veto?

If these companies were responding to a request of the president, who is this immunity really protecting?

If these companies were just “following orders” from the Administration, who’s guilty? Wasn’t the former leader of Iraq hanged for the wrongs he requested of others?

You both talk about how these companies won’t be able to provide evidence in their defense in a law suit. Well, who’s fault is that and what are the Administration and the Senate really trying to protect? What I see is “firewalls” to protect wrongs. The outside firewall is the immunity for some companies that got suckered. The inner firewall is the cloak of national security and the president will, if pushed to the wall, sacrifice these companies just like he has sacrificed our civil liberties to protect those secrets. What hypocracy.

Don’t you get it, George, and the Senate, have lost the trust of the plurality of we the people. Whether we ever find out about any wrongs or not, there is still the appearance of wrong doing, especially in the brighter light of today’s more balanced national government. The Republican Single-party State has failed and … [its] end is near.

Bush Administration Suspends Laws Along the U.S./Mexico Border – The Bush/Cheney Administration announced that it will waive environmental and land management laws along 470 miles of the U.S./Mexico border. The REAL ID Act grants Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff unprecedented and sweeping authority to waive any and all laws to expedite the construction of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. Laws ensuring clean water for us and our children? Dismissed. Laws protecting wildlife, land, rivers, streams and places of cultural significance? Disregarded. And laws giving American citizens a voice in the process? Gone. Clearly, this is out of control. By granting one government official the absolute power to pick and choose which laws apply to border wall construction, the REAL ID Act proves itself to be both inherently dangerous and profoundly un-American. Please call your U.S. Representative and Senators.

Pentagon Now Using FBI to Spy on Americans – The military is using the FBI to skirt legal restrictions on domestic surveillance to obtain private records of Americans’ Internet service providers, financial institutions and telephone companies, according to Pentagon documents. The military is allowed to demand financial and credit records in certain instances but does not have the authority to get e-mail and phone records or lists of Web sites that people have visited. That is the kind of information that the FBI can get by using a national security letter. The DoD may be accessing the kinds of records they are not allowed to get.

Pentagon Says Colleges Must Hand Over Student Information for Recruiting – The Defense Department has announced a new get-tough policy with colleges and universities that interfere with the work of military recruiters and Reserve Officer Training Corps programs. Under rules that will take effect April 28, defense officials said they want the exact same access to student directories that is provided to all other prospective employers. Students can opt out of having their information turned over to the military only if they opt out of having their information provided to all other job recruiters.

Administration Sought to Find Ways to Avoid Legal Restrictions and Accountability on Torture

How the Administration Pressured the Military to Torture – As the first anniversary of 9/11 approached, and a prized Guantánamo detainee wouldn’t talk, the Bush administration’s highest-ranking lawyers argued for extreme interrogation techniques, circumventing international law, the Geneva Conventions, and the army’s own Field Manual. The attorneys would even fly to Guantánamo to ratchet up the pressure—then blame abuses on the military. Philippe Sands follows the torture trail.

Comcast Continues to Blow Smoke – Last Friday, Comcast’s Executive Vice President David Cohen sent a letter to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin filled, as usual, with lies and half-truths. Cohen’s letter was in response to Chairman Martin’s statement on the recent Comcast and BitTorrent, Inc. agreement to end the cable company’s blocking of BitTorrent’s file-sharing applications. The agreement itself hasn’t been made public and its details are unclear. For months, Comcast had been deceptively blocking the popular Internet protocol — used to transfer large files including full-length videos — in part because it competed with the cable company’s video-on-demand and television offerings. When word first emerged last year that Comcast was blocking, the company lied to the press and the public, saying it didn’t interfere with BitTorrent. But several independent tests confirmed the opposite to be true.

Regards,

Jim

Texas Prosecutes Little Old Ladies for Voter Fraud – Willie Ray was a 69-year-old African-American City Council member from Texarkana who wanted her granddaughter, Jamillah Johnson, to learn about civil rights and voting during the 2004 presidential election. The pair helped homebound seniors citizens get absentee ballots, and once they were filled out, put them in the mail.

Fort Worth’s Gloria Meeks, 69, was a church-going, community activist who proudly ran a phone bank and helped homebound elderly people like Parthenia McDonald, 79, to vote by mail. McDonald, whose mailbox was two blocks away from her home (she recently died), called Meeks “an angel” for helping her, a friend of both women said.

And until he recently moved out of state, Walter Hinojosa, a retired school teacher and labor organizer from Austin, was another Democratic Party volunteer who helped elderly and disabled people vote by getting them absentee ballots and mailing them.

Today, Ray and Johnson have criminal records for breaking Texas election law and faced travel restrictions during a six-month probation. Gloria Meeks is in a nursing home after having a stroke, prompted in part, her friends say, by state police who investigated her — including spying on Meeks while she bathed — and then questioned her about helping McDonald and others to vote. Hinojosa, meanwhile, has left Texas.

Their crime: not signing their name, address and signature on the back of the ballots they mailed for their senior neighbors, and carrying envelopes containing those ballots to the mailbox. Since 2005, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican, has been prosecuting Democratic Party activists, almost all African-Americans and Latinos, as part of an effort to eradicate what he said was an “epidemic” of voter fraud in Texas.

Democratic Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell Says Fox News Coverage of Democratic Primaries is Most Balanced – “I think during this entire primary coverage, starting in Iowa and up to the present — FOX has done the fairest job, and remained the most objective of all the cable networks. You hate both of our candidates. No, I’m only kidding. But you actually have done a very balanced job of reporting the news, and some of the other stations are just caught up with Senator Obama, who is a great guy, but Senator Obama can do no wrong, and Senator Clinton can do no right.”

So, Rendell is endorsing objective reporting like the bogus Fox story that Obama was educated in a madrassa in Indonesia,. Even one of Fox’s star reporters blasted Fox’s lack of “objectivity” on Obama recently. Since Fox News has also been critical of Clinton lately, is Rendell calling them “objective” because they run biased stories bashing BOTH Democratic candidates?

Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao Hurts Workers, Helps Corporations (A Lot!) – Elaine Chao is the Secretary of Labor, George W. Bush’s longest-serving cabinet member, and wife of Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. Elaine’s record on the safety and health of workers is negligent at best, and at worst has led to numerous tragedies that could have been prevented. Her policies have also robbed Americans of the fair pay and compensation they deserve. Elaine has littered the Department of Labor with individuals holding a blatant, corporate agenda. Letting corporate lawbreakers off the hook, while waging an assault on America’s union movement, are just two of the dubious initiatives that have defined Elaine’s tenure.

Covert Film Finally Exposes Taiji’s Annual Dolphin Horror – For the first time ever, graphic feature-length footage of the annual slaughter of some 2,500 dolphins in Taiji, Wakayama Prefecture, has been captured during a unique yearlong covert operation. This film shows the barbaric killing and subsequent butchering of dolphins — together with the resulting sale of their meat that massively exceeds Japanese and international limits for mercury content.

Chrysler Retirees Lose Life Insurance – Chrysler LLC’s white-collar retirees are losing free life insurance benefits but are eligible for a one-time pension boost of up to $4,000, according to a letter retirees should receive this week. Previously retirees were covered by a life insurance policy at no charge, with a death benefit equal to their last year of pay, for those who retired before 2003, or $50,000 for those who retired after that. Chrysler is allowing affected retirees a one-time opportunity to buy into a voluntary plan through MetLife at a reduced, group rate.

While Big Oil is Taking Tax Subsidies and Not Investing in Renewable Resources Amid Record Prices and Record Profits, Glenn Beck Wants You to Know That Big Oil Profits Are Good for You

Regards,

Jim

Another Incapable Bush Crony – Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson has recently been accused in a lawsuit of retaliating against housing officials in Philadelphia for blocking a land deal with one of Jackson’s friends. The FBI has been investigating allegations that Jackson steered a federal contract to a golfing buddy based in South Carolina. Jackson has denied wrongdoing and White House officials have said for months that the president still has confidence in Jackson. Senator Chris Dodd said an inspector-general’s report recently stated that Jackson had advised staffers to “take political affiliation into account in awarding contacts,” and “serious allegations about his impropriety” are under investigation in three cases. Jackson is a longtime friend of President Bush dating back to Bush’s days as governor of Texas. Sen. Patty Murray said, “This is a cabinet secretary who has consistently ducked accountability, and arrogantly refused to heed the public’s calls for answers.”

Two Top McCain Advisors Lobbied for Shady Lender – Two top advisors for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) represented one of the nation’s most aggressive predatory lenders, contradicting McCain’s “straight talk” about America’s collapsing housing market. “I will not play election-year politics with the housing crisis,” the GOP presidential hopeful declared last week when unveiling his response. “John Green, the senator’s chief liaison to Congress, and Wayne Berman, his national finance co-chairman, billed more than $720,000 in lobbying fees from 2005 through last year to Ameriquest Mortgage through their lobbying firm,” disclosure forms reviewed by the Daily News show. Ameriquest, which since has been bought out, was forced to settle suits with 49 states for $325 million. More than 13,680 New York homeowners got taken for a ride by the company, records show

As Jobs Vanish and Prices Rise, Food Stamp Use Nears Record – Driven by a painful mix of layoffs and rising food and fuel prices, the number of Americans receiving food stamps is projected to reach 28 million in the coming year, the highest level since the aid program began in the 1960s.

McCain Says He’s Surprised About Recent Developments in Iraq – When John McCain talks about Iraq, people are often left scratching their head in amazement and confusion. From his comfort with a hundred year occupation, to his claim that al-Qaeda wants to knee-cap his candidacy, to his “gaffes” about an al-Qeada/Iran connection, to his assurances that “the surge is working” (which came just before the latest return to chaos), he is looking more and more like a man utterly detached from reality. McCain said Monday that he was surprised by the latest turn of events in America’s current war in Iraq. McCain said he had not expected Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki to try to oust Shiite militias from Basra without consulting the Americans, and that he was troubled by some of the demands that were made by the Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr as part of his offer of a ceasefire after the militias held off the American-supported assault. And he tied some of the current problems to the Bush administration’s old strategy there.

Are You Confused About McCain as Much as He is About Iraq? – Cut through the confusion. “A Responsible Plan to End the War,” a comprehensive approach to Iraq based on legislation already introduced in Congress. The 20-page plan doesn’t just lay out how to end the war — it also addresses how to prevent the institutional failures that led to the tragic invasion and occupation of Iraq.

U.S. Does Not Have Any Control Over What Happens in Iraq, But Iran Does – Iran was integral in persuading Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr to halt attacks by his militia on Iraqi security forces, an Iraqi lawmaker said Monday. Haidar al-Abadi, who is with Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki’s Dawa Party, said Iraqi Shiite lawmakers traveled Friday to Iran to meet with al-Sadr. They returned Sunday, the day al-Sadr told his Mehdi Army fighters to stand down. (Per the Responsible Plan above: “There is no military solution in Iraq. Our current course unacceptably holds U.S. strategic fortunes hostage to events in Iraq that are beyond our control.” Or if you prefer, here’s a quote from General David Petraeus: “There is no military solution to a problem like that in Iraq.”)

The Untold Story of How Republicans Rigged Florida and Michigan

John McCain is your bridge to the 19th Century – Now that John McCain last week elaborated his economic and foreign policy views in major addresses, the weakness of his candidacy is clear: it’s not that he’ll be 72 if inaugurated but has a 72 year-old agenda. If you like gunboat diplomacy and pre-Depression laissez-faire economics, McCain is your bridge to the 19th Century.

An Innocent Man Loses Five years of His Life at Guantanamo Bay – At the age of 19, Murat Kurnaz vanished into America’s shadow prison system in the war on terror. He was from Germany, traveling in Pakistan, and was picked up three months after 9/11. But there seemed to be ample evidence that Kurnaz was an innocent man with no connection to terrorism. The FBI thought so, U.S. intelligence thought so, and German intelligence agreed. But once he was picked up, Kurnaz found himself in a prison system that required no evidence and answered to no one. The story Kurnaz told 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley is a rare look inside that clandestine system of justice, where the government’s own secret files reveal that an innocent man lost his liberty, his dignity, his identity, and ultimately five years of his life. This is what George Bush and his band of cronies have turned America into. This is on all of our hands, whether we accept it or not.

Regards,

Jim