The WAWG Blog

Government Health Care Keeps Cheney’s Evil Heart Beating – Unlike the average American, the president, vice president and members of Congress all enjoy government-financed health care with few restrictions or prohibitive fees. They are never turned away for pre-existing conditions or denied care for what an insurance company labels “experimental treatments.” Such are the benefits of what we call “CheneyCare.” Sign this petition to let the candidates know the rest of us deserve no less!

Cheney Had Role in Quashing California Emissions Standards According to EPA Staff – Multiple staffers at the Environmental Protection Agency said that Bush Administration appointee Stephen Johnson, who heads the agency, quashed California’s plan to regulate automobile emissions single-handedly, going against the wishes of nearly all of his staff. The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency ignored his staff’s written findings in denying California’s request for a waiver to implement its landmark law to slash greenhouse gases from vehicles. “California met every criteria . . . on the merits. The same criteria we have used for the last 40 years on all the other waivers,” said an EPA staffer. “We told him that. All the briefings we have given him laid out the facts.” California had sought a waiver from the federal emissions standards to implement a law which would further restrict emissions. According to Wilson, “Some staff members believe Johnson made his decision after auto executives met with Vice President Dick Cheney and after a Chrysler executive delivered a letter to the White House outlining why neither California nor the EPA should be allowed to regulate greenhouse gases, among other reasons. The Detroit News reported Wednesday that chief executives of Ford and Chrysler met with Cheney last month.” “Clearly the White House said, ‘We’re going to get EPA out of the way and get California out of the way,” said a quoted EPA employee.

Ignoring the Law About Publishing History – This week marks the one year anniversary of the date when the US last published the latest print volume of the Foreign Relations of the United States (FRUS) series, “the official documentary record of U.S. foreign policy which dates back to the Abraham Lincoln Administration.” That volume covered the “Organization and Management of U.S. Foreign Policy” from 1969-1972. The volume’s publication is required by law, not more than 30 years later than the historical events. The journal of US foreign policy has long lagged behind its 30-year deadline, but the failure to print even a single volume is extraordinary and unprecedented in living memory.

Rudy Giuliani Secretly Sneaked Out More Than 2,000 Boxes of Records When He Left Office – Under an unprecedented agreement that didn’t become public until after he left office, Giuliani secreted out of City Hall the written, photographic and electronic record of his eight years in office _ more than 2,000 boxes.

U.S. Worst in Preventable Death Ranking – United States rated worst in new rankings focusing on preventable deaths due to treatable conditions in 19 leading industrialized nations, researchers said on Tuesday. If the U.S. health care system performed as well as those of the top three rated countries, there would be 101,000 fewer deaths in the United States per year, according to researchers writing in the journal Health Affairs. Researchers tracked deaths that they deemed could have been prevented by access to timely and effective health care, and ranked nations on how they did. The large number of Americans who lack any type of health insurance — about 47 million people in a country of about 300 million, according to U.S. government estimates — probably was a key factor in the poor showing of the United States compared to other industrialized nations in the study.

White House Spokesman Out-of-Touch on Economy – A reporter asked presidential spokesman Tony Fratto if the Bush administration was at all worried about a recession. He replied, “I don’t know of anyone predicting a recession.”

However, it appears that Fratto hasn’t been reading the news. Several of the nation’s leading economists continue to predict that the United States will slip into a recession:

Harvard University economist Martin Feldstein: We are now talking about [a recession happening] more likely than not. … I have been saying about 50 percent. This now pushes it up a bit above that.” [1/5/08]

Lawrence Summers: “[T]he odds now favour a US recession that slows growth significantly on a global basis. Without stronger policy responses than have been observed to date, moreover, there is the risk that the adverse impacts will be felt for the rest of this decade and beyond.” [11/25/07]

National Association for Business Economics survey: “The number of economists forecasting the U.S. will slip into recession almost doubled over the last two months.” [11/19/07]

Warren Buffett: “If I had to pick the chances that we are going into a recession, I would say they are fairly significant.” [10/29/07]

CBO Director Peter Orszag: “The risk of a recession is clearly elevated.” [9/18/07]

McCain Falsely Claims He Has ‘Never Asked For A Single Earmark Or Pork Barrel Project’ For His State – In the Fox News GOP presidential forum, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) attempted to argue that if elected president, he will eliminate “wasteful spending.” As evidence, he claimed that he has never asked for an earmark for his state of Arizona:

And I’m proud to tell you, Chris, in 24 years as a member of Congress, I have never asked for nor received a single earmark or pork barrel project for my state and I guarantee you I’ll veto those bills. I’ll ask for the line item veto and I’ll veto them and I’ll make the authors of them famous.

McCain’s claim is false. In 2006, the senator teamed up with fellow Arizona senator Jon Kyl (R) to funnel $10 million toward the University of Arizona for an academic center named after the late Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist. Even Arizona lawmaker, Rep. Jeff Flake (R), said he was planning to “lean against the measure.” The National Taxpayers Union, another traditional McCain ally, questioned why the senator was making federal taxpayers foot the bill for the center.

McCain: ‘I Dont Think Americans Are Concerned’ If We Stay In Iraq For ‘10,000 Years’ – Last week, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said it “would be fine with” him if the U.S. military stayed in Iraq for “a hundred years” or even a “million years.” Fifty-nine percent say the U.S. should “stick to a withdrawal timetable” instead of keeping “a significant number of troops in Iraq until the situation there gets better, even if that takes many years.” But on CBS’s Face the Nation, McCain claimed that Americans would not be “concerned” if the U.S. spends “10,000 years” in Iraq:

“The point is it’s American casualties. We’ve go to get American’s off the frontlines, have the Iraqis as part of the strategy, take over more and more of the responsibilities, and then I don’t think Americans are concerned if we’re there for one hundred years or a thousand years or ten thousand years.”

Trent Lott Dodges Ethics Law by Bolting to Lobbying Firm – Three weeks after unexpectedly bolting from the Senate, Trent Lott has decided to go into business as a lobbyist. Lott denied that his quick resignation was motivated by a desire to avoid the new lobbying rules.

Second Night in a Row of Republicans Debating Provides Recycled Distortions – In the final debate before New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary election, five Republican candidates appeared on Fox News. There was no shortage of recycled bunk, and a new twist or two:

• Huckabee repeated his claim to have made 94 tax cuts including the “first broad-based tax cut” in the history of Arkansas, though he actually signed tax bills that resulted in a net increase in taxes of $500 million.
• Romney said his increases in “fees” only amounted to $240 million in Massachusetts. But his own administration and others have put them higher. He also failed to mention $174 million in corporate tax “loophole” closings.
• Giuliani falsely claimed that one of his tax cuts more than paid for itself, and he generally used incorrect figures when boasting of his record on taxes in New York City. And he claimed credit for too large a reduction in welfare cases.
• Thompson said, “I never said that I was cutting Social Security.” That’s true, but he is proposing to slow the growth of benefits to those who retire in the future.
• McCain said he had never asked for a single “pork barrel project” for Arizona, but we find a few that could qualify for that characterization

Whoppers of the Year (and I’m not talking about burgers) – The year 2007 wasn’t a good one for political honesty. Though not even technically an election year, it provided a bumper crop of falsehoods and distortions nonetheless.

• Republican Rudy Giuliani made numerous false claims about his record as mayor of New York (adoption, number of police, crime rates, tax cuts), and even one about England’s health care system.
• Democrat Bill Richardson also mangled the facts repeatedly, claiming credit for creating more jobs as New Mexico’s governor than actually materialized and using a made-up figure about the performance of U.S. students, among other misstatements.
• Republican Mitt Romney claimed undeserved credit for himself as governor of Massachusetts and made false or misleading claims about two of his rivals.
• Democrat Hillary Clinton ran an ad claiming that National Guard and Reserve troops had no health insurance before she went to work, when in fact most of them did.
• Republican Gov. Mike Huckabee repeatedly twisted the facts when talking about his record on taxes in Arkansas and other subjects. And there were plenty of other howlers from the large field of candidates.
• Democrats made false promises about their Medicare drug bill in January.
• President Bush made a false claim about a Democratic effort to expand health care coverage for children in low-income families.
• Advocates of the so-called “FairTax” claimed a 23 percent national sales tax can replace both the federal income tax and Social Security taxes. In truth, the actual rate would have to be at least 34 percent even if it fell on new homes, mortgage and credit-card interest and a host of other products and services not usually subject to state or local sales taxes.
• A labor union group ran an ad supporting Democrat John Edwards that left the impression that jobs from a closed Iowa plant had gone overseas, when really they had gone to Ohio.
• A business group ran an ad falsely claiming that “lawsuit abuse” costs families thousands of dollars per year, which isn’t true.

Department of Homeland Security Finalizing Plans for Domestic Spy Satellite Program – A plan to dramatically widen US law enforcement agencies’ access to data from powerful spy satellites is moving toward implementation, as Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff expects to finalize a charter for the program this week, according to a new report. Chertoff insists the scheme to turn spy satellites — that were originally designed for foreign surveillance — on Americans is legal, although a House committee that would approve the program has not been updated on the program for three months.

Regards,

Jim

This country has survived times far more difficult than what we’ve suffered in the early years of this new century. Yes, terrorists have killed our citizens in a very dramatic and traumatic manner. However, this new crisis pales compared to the real wars this country has already fought and survived. If we are to survive this new century and its perils, we must realize that our current situation is very mild compared with other American historical events and that our fearfulness of this new crisis needs some perspective.

At the beginning of this country, we fought an 8 year revolutionary war against British rule. We lost 25,000 of our first citizens and another 25,000 were wounded for what we now enjoy.

About 100 years later, we fought the American Civil War that lasted four years. We lost 618,000 of our fellow citizens to try and live up to what our 18th century forefathers intended — “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

Just 64 years later, The Great Depression crashed our world and lasted 10 years. From 1929 to 1933, there was a 28 percent drop in the national Gross Domestic Product (GDP). It took another three years just to get back to the 1929 levels in 1937. At the low point in 1933, there was 25 percent unemployment, farm prices had fallen 60 percent, industrial production was down more than 50 percent, 2 million workers were out of work and most banks had closed.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt described the situation this way during his first inaugural address to the nation in March 1933:

… Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment of income; the means of exchange are frozen in the currents of trade; the withered leaves of industrial enterprise lie on every side; farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of families are gone.

More important, a host of unemployed citizens face the grim problem of existence, and an equally great number toil with little return. Only a foolish optimist can deny the dark realities of the moment.

Less than a decade later, The Greatest Generation was forced into World War II and had to take on two enemies with vastly greater resources than the terrorists (or drug lords) of today. During WWII, over 418,000 of our citizens were killed. This includes the more than 3,000 killed during the attack at Pearl Harbour.

Compare the losses of these three major wars in our history to our current losses due to acts of terrorism. The U.S. military and civilian deaths directly due to terrorist attacks were 7,776 as of this posting. These terrorist killings represent 31 percent of our losses during our Revolutionary War but only 1.9 percent of our WWII citizen losses.

Now compare the after effects of the attack on September 11, 2001, to losses of The Great Depression or the other financial sacrifices made during WWII. There is no comparison. Most of us have made absolutely no sacrifice as a direct result of the attack in September 2001.

There is also little similarity to the worldwide deaths due to terrorism with the worldwide deaths from WWII. This war cost the lives of over 72,599,600 citizens of the world. Excluding the poorly defined civilian casualties for Iraq, the total deaths for both the victims of terrorism and terrorists ranges from 109,000 to 146,000. Even if you add the minimum, 75,164, and maximum, 1,220,580, estimates for Iraqi civilians there is no comparison. Deaths due to terrorism only represents 1.9 percent of the losses from WWII.

So, the more one looks at the war on terrorism, the more it looks like the war on drugs — not worth all the media attention or the efforts by politicians to scare us into voting for them. Yes, the losses are tragic for all these conflicts, but this “war on terrorism” doesn’t deserve so much media and political weight in our nations’ efforts or in our personal decisions.

I will close with another excerpt from Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first inaugural speech in 1933 when this country faced a truly significant threat to its future:

… This is preeminently the time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly. Nor need we shrink from honestly facing conditions in our country today. This great Nation will endure as it has endured, will revive and will prosper. So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself—nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

The primary tool the terrorists have working for them and against us, is our own fear of what we imagine they might do. I’ve tried to show here, and in other postings noted at the end of this posting, that our level of fear over another terrorist attack is exaggerated. This overrated fear paralyzes our minds and caused us to do stupid things like accept for truth a “Noble Lie,” give up our civil rights, relinquish our power to govern to one branch of the government and ignore the corruption and illegal activities of our elected leaders.

We need to regain all our noble advantages over the terrorists and their shallow human standards. We need to take back control of the government and elect those who will not use fear mongering to get our votes. We need to elect representatives that will respect our wishes while also honoring and protecting the laws of our Constitution. We need to be skeptical of what we read and hear that is based on an exaggerated fear of terrorism. We need to elect representatives that will help retake the moral high ground and regain the respect of other nations. We need to stop being fearful of such a small-minded enemy.

In a recent posting, I pointed out that Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison was very concerned for the big oil CEOs while Congress was attempting to increase their tax burden and reduce their profit by 0.6 percent a year over three years. This tax burden would have added only $16 billion dollars to the government’s take.

Well, now the same companies, Exxon Mobil, BP, ConocoPhillips and others are threatening to reduce their investment in oil projects for Alaska. Guess how large the tax burden is this time — $1.5 billion. This is less than 10 percent of the taxes Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison opposed or about 0.162 percent of their profits for the last three years — $927,000,000,000.00. That’s $1.62 out of every $1,000.00.

Combine this with all the corporate lobbyists on K Street in Washington D. C., and recent changes to the rules about media mergers between newspapers and television stations and you have more evidence of corporatism in the United States.

Power in this country continues to shift from we the people to other entities that don’t have the best interests of we the people in mind.

I’ll close with a related historical quote, “Fascism denies that the majority, through the mere fact of being a majority, can rule human societies; it denies that this majority can govern by means of a periodical consultation; it affirms the irremediable, fruitful and beneficent inequality of men, who cannot be levelled by such a mechanical and extrinsic fact as universal suffrage.” — Benito Mussolini

In early November, 2007, I wrote, “I believe this nation will only survive as a republic by upholding all the extraordinary and very thoughtful measures our Founding Fathers of the late 1700s established in our Constitution. I also believe, as they did, that, ‘we the people’ are the foundation of the process and that if we fail to do our part, the entire system will devolve into a dictatorship.” This posting expands on that by summarizing the influence of the Federalist Society on GWB’s administration and its promotion of the unitary executive.

The Federalist Society (FS) is an organization that is working to move this nation closer to a dictatorship or at least to a federal government that shifts significant power to the executive branch of government. The quote most often associated with the FS is from Federalist Paper Number 78 by Alexander Hamilton,”It can be of no weight to say that the courts, on the pretense of a repugnancy, may substitute their own pleasure to the constitutional intentions of the legislature…. The courts must declare the sense of the law; and if they should be disposed to exercise WILL instead of JUDGMENT, the consequence would equally be the substitution of their pleasure to that of the legislative body.” In today’s vernacular, Hamilton was concerned about “activist judges.”

What are some of Mr. Hamilton’s other beliefs? Some of these can be glimpsed from what he sought to make part of our Constitution during its creation. Here is a brief summary from Wikipedia:

Early in the Convention he [Hamilton] made a speech proposing what was considered a very monarchical government for the United States …. Based on his interpretation of history, he concluded the ideal form of government had represented all the interest groups, but maintained a hereditary monarch to decide policy. In Hamilton’s opinion, this was impractical in the United States; nevertheless, the country should mimic this form of government as closely as possible. He proposed, therefore, to have a President and elected Senators for life. He was also for the abolition of the state governments. Much later, he stated that his “final opinion” in the Convention was that the President should have a three year term. The notes of the Convention are rather brief; there has been some speculation that he might have also proposed a longer, and more republican, plan.

During the convention, he constructed a draft on the basis of the debates which he did not actually present. This has most of the features of the actual Constitution, down to such details as the three-fifths clause, but not all of them. In his draft, the Senate was to be elected in proportion to population, being two-fifths the size of the House, and the President and Senators were to be elected through complex multi-stage elections, in which chosen electors would elect smaller bodies of electors; they would hold office for life, but were removable for misconduct. The President would have an absolute veto. The Supreme Court was to have immediate jurisdiction over all suits involving the United States, and State governors were to be appointed by the Federal Government.

So, in addition to being concerned about activist judges, Mr. Hamilton also supported a strong executive. An executive not unlike the one we have watched grow with GWB. This strong executive is referred to as the “unitary executive.” Here is a summary of the theory of unitary executive from Wikipedia:

• Creates a hierarchical, unified executive department under the direct control of the President
• Limits to the power of Congress to divest the President of control of the executive branch
• Would put all independent agencies such as the FCC, FTC, SEC, FEC, etc. under the executive branch

This brief summary also included the following statement, “The theory has been associated with conservative legal thought and members of the Federalist Society (FS).”

Add to this strong desire by the FS for a unitary executive the following links between GWB and the Federalist Society:

November 2007 – GWB provides keynote speech at the 25th Anniversary of the Federalist Society
June 2007 – David Addington, chief of staff and former legal counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney, asserted that the vice president is exempt from oversight by the Information Security Oversight Office.
May 2007 – Bush moves to institutionalize the unitary executive
November 2006 – Dick Cheney speaks at Federalists Society annual convention.
January 2006 – Samuel Alito, appointed by GWB to replace Sandra Day O’Connor, has been a supporter of the unitary executive for years
April 2007 – Department of Justice list shows membership in Federalist Society may have affected firing of eight U. S. Attorneys by the GWB
September 2005 – Chief Justice John G. Roberts, former member of Federalist Society, appointed by GWB
November 2004 – The then Attorney General John Ashcroft addresses the Federalist Society as a member.
2001 to 2003 – John Yoo, an active member of The Federalist Society, worked with John Ashcroft and developed the Yoo Doctrine or unitary executive theory
2001 to 2007 – GWB uses signing statements to implement the unitary executive

And to this, add a list of FS members and their GWB job titles:

• Spencer Abraham (Secretary of Energy)
• Alex Acosta (Deputy Assistant Attorney General)
• John D. Ashcroft (Attorney General, joined teaching staff at Pat Robertson’s Regent University)
• William Barr (appointed Attorney General by President George H. W. Bush in 1991, advocate for phone companies)
• Bradford Berenson (Associate Counsel to the President)
• Robert H. Bork (Nominated by R. Reagan for Supreme Court in 1987, AEI scholar, helped found FS, fired Archibald Cox – Watergate prosecutor.)
• Ralph Boyd (Assistant Attorney General)
• Jay Bybee (Circuit Judge, U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, 9th C., worked with John Yoo on ignoring Geneva Conventions)
• Linda Chavez (GWB’s first nomination for Secretary of Labor, Fox News Political Analyst, argued that “liberal politics” were aiding terrorism)
• Michael Chertoff (Assistant Attorney General, addressed FS along with Cheney in 2006)
• Jeffrey Clarke (Deputy Assistant Attorney General)
• Paul Clement (Principal Deputy Solicitor General)
• Daniel Collins (Associate Deputy Attorney General)
• R. Ted Cruz (Associate Deputy Attorney General)
• Viet Dinh (Assistant Attorney General)
• John Engler (former Governor of Michigan)
• Noel Francisco (Associate Counsel to the President)
• Sarah Hart (Director, National Institute of Justice)
• Orrin Hatch (Senator, co-chair with Bork on FS Board of Visitors)
• Brian Jones (General Counsel, Education Department)
• Brett Kavanaugh (Associate Counsel to the President)
• William Kristol (Editor and publisher of the political magazine The Weekly Standard, son of Irving Kristol grandfather of the neocons)
• Edwin Meese (Attorney General for R. Reagan, Iran-Contra Affair, Roe v. Wade litmus test for judicial nominees)
• Charles Murray (author of The Bell Curve)
• Gale Norton (Secretary of the Interior, notable for her laissez-faire attitude toward environmental issues)
• Ted Olson (Solicitor General, wife Barbara is founding member of Independent Women’s Forum)
• Thomas Sansonetti (Assistant Attorney General)
• Antonin Scalia (Associate Justice, U.S. Supreme Court)
• Eugene Scalia (Solicitor, Department of Labor)
• Kenneth Starr (Starr Report led to Clinton impeachment, currently defending Blackwater)
• Larry Thompson (Deputy Attorney General)
• Edward Whelan (former Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General)
• John Yoo (former Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, visiting AEI scholar, supports secret eavesdropping, worked closely with David Addington – Cheney’s chief of staff)

Combine the administration’s FS pro unitary executive lawyers with the neocons from AEI and Center for Security Policy and the 150 lawyers from Pat Robertson’s Regent University and you have all the enabling a dictator needs.

Here is a long list of the right-wing who’s who in GWB’s administration.

The transition from three coequal branches of government to a unitary executive has been progressing at an increasing rate. It may not finalized by GWB, but it could very well happen with the next right-wing authoritarian president.

Conservative Student Make Up Story About Being Attacked – A Princeton University junior who claimed to have been beaten by two men in black ski caps for his conservative views admitted on Monday that he made up the attack, according to Princeton Township police officials. Francisco Nava, 23, told police that he was attacked on Friday evening, two days after he and three other students belonging to a conservative group, the Anscombe Society, had received threatening e-mail messages, according to the university. The society opposes premarital sex and advocates for a return to more traditional morality in society. (Part of that traditional morality should be telling the truth. – JLV)

So who’s crazier: Bill O’Reilly or his viewers? – Bill O’Reilly thinks you’re crazy to make on-line credit card purchases. He said, “Ahhhh, you put your credit card online like that, you’re insane! Because every idiot in the world’s gonna get it!” However, Bill O’Reilly own website boasts a newly opened Christmas Store, which invites online credit card purchases. So does that mean that even he thinks his viewers are insane?

White House involvement in discussion to destroy CIA tapes could constitute as many as six crimes – White House involvement in the CIA’s decision to destroy videotapes documenting severe interrogation techniques of suspected terrorists could constitute as many as six crimes, according to constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley. “There are at least six identifiable crimes here, from obstruction of justice to obstruction of Congress, perjury, conspiracy, false statements, and what is often forgotten: the crime of torturing suspects,” he said.

Bush Lawyers Discussed Fate of C.I.A.Tapes – At least four top White House lawyers took part in discussions with the Central Intelligence Agency between 2003 and 2005 about whether to destroy videotapes showing the secret interrogations of two operatives from Al Qaeda, according to current and former administration and intelligence officials. The accounts indicate that the involvement of White House officials in the discussions before the destruction of the tapes in November 2005 was more extensive than Bush administration officials have acknowledged. Those who took part, the officials said, included Alberto R. Gonzales, who served as White House counsel until early 2005; David S. Addington, who was the counsel to Vice President Dick Cheney, and is now his chief of staff; John B. Bellinger III, who until January 2005 was the senior lawyer at the National Security Council, and Harriet E. Miers, who succeeded Mr. Gonzales as White House counsel.

Bush tribunal law allows countless ways to launder evidence – The military commission hearings held earlier this month in the case of alleged al-Qaeda associate Salim Ahmed Hamdan might have been mistaken for a typical American courtroom scene: Evidence was introduced, witnesses were cross-examined, and the accused, who for five and a half years has been detained at the US military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, was represented by a team of defense lawyers. However, the two-day hearing sessions were marked by hearsay evidence, denied witness requests and challenging time constraints. The reality of the situation is, the way it was written, there’s 162 ways to launder evidence. “For the first time in U.S. history, and under pressure from the Bush administration, in the Military Commissions Act, Congress explicitly authorized an American tribunal to permit evidence obtained through ‘cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment’ as long as it was obtained before Dec. 31, 2005,” writes Hina Shamsi, an ACLU attorney. “Even though the Military Commissions Act prohibits evidence obtained through torture, it could still come in because of this cruel treatment loophole, combined with the other provisions that permit secret evidence and evidence from second- and third-hand sources.”

Ohio, Colorado voting machines have critical security failures – Just in time for the 2008 election season, Colorado has decertified hundreds of faulty electronic voting machines for being error-prone and easily hacked. This news comes on the heels a massive study in Ohio that also found critical flaws in Buckeye State’s voting machines. Yesterday, Colorado Secretary of State Mike Coffman decertified three of the four voting equipment manufacturers allowed in the state — affecting six of Colorado’s 10 most populous counties — for their inaccuracy and for the ease with which they could be hacked. Today, he backtracked slightly, noting that some of machines could still be used in November if a software patch was installed. Ohio Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner spoke to MSNBC about Ohio’s study, where teams were able to pick locks to access memory cards and use hand-held devices to plug false vote counts into machines. They also concluded that hacker could break into the machines with “a magnet and a PDA.”

FCC removes longstanding newspaper/broadcast cross-ownership ban – Imagine some 99% of the people passionately implore that you not let media companies get any bigger. What do you do? If you’re the FCC chairman, you ignore them.

The Press Isn’t Covering the Issues or the Candidates’ Records; We’re Making an Important Decision Based on Fluff – A study from the Project for Excellence in Journalism that indicated much of the coverage of the race is dominated by daily horse race reporting rather than about policy issues. Only one percent of the press coverage was devoted to the candidates’ candidates’ records or past public performance. In all, 63% of the campaign stories focused on political and tactical aspects of the campaign. That is nearly four times the number of stories about the personal backgrounds of the candidates (17%) or the candidates’ ideas and policy proposals (15%).

Regards,

Jim

The Rich Are Gettin’ Stinkin’ Rich Really Fast, and You’re Not – The increase in incomes of the top 1 percent of Americans from 2003 to 2005 exceeded the total income of the poorest 20 percent of Americans, data in a new report by the Congressional Budget Office shows. The poorest fifth of households had total income of $383.4 billion in 2005, while just the increase in income for the top 1 percent came to $524.8 billion, a figure 37 percent higher. The total income of the top 1.1 million households was $1.8 trillion, or 18.1 percent of the total income of all Americans, up from 14.3 percent of all income in 2003. The total 2005 income of the three million individual Americans at the top was roughly equal to that of the bottom 166 million Americans, analysis of the report showed.

The gains in after-tax income from 2003 to 2005 for the bottom 40% of the country was less than 3%. For the top 1% of the country, it was 43.5%. Historical Effective Federal Tax Rates.

Bush Administration Planned Wiretapping of American’s Phones Before 9/11 According to Telephone Engineer – An AT&T engineer alleges that “within two weeks of taking office, the Bush administration was planning a comprehensive effort of spying on Americans’ phone usage.” In a New Jersey federal court case, the engineer claims that AT&T sought to create a phone center that would give the NSA access to “all the global phone and e-mail traffic that ran through” a New Jersey network hub.

The Twelve Months of Senator Mitch McConnell
January: McConnell Called Himself Bush’s “Strongest Supporter” On Iraq.
In an interview discussing Iraq and the President’s proposed troop escalation, McConnell described himself as “the strongest supporter of the president you could find in the Senate on this effort.”

February: McConnell Blocked Senate Escalation Debate, Arguing Many GOPers Don’t Want a Debate.
Leading the fight to block a Senate debate on Iraq in February, McConnell said, “let me just say there are many members on my side who would argue that we shouldn’t be having this debate this week at all.” Headlines across the country accused the McConnell-led Senate Republicans of blocking the essential debate.

March: McConnell Holds Muti-Million Dollar Fundraiser With Bush, While Fighting his Battles in the Senate.
On March 1, the Washington Times ran a headline that said, “McConnell fighting Bush’s battles in Senate.” The next day, President Bush traveled to Kentucky for a fundraiser with McConnell that raised $2.1 million for McConnell and the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

April: McConnell Voted Against War Funding Bill That Would have Set a New Course in Iraq.
In April, McConnell voted against a $124 billion Fiscal Year 2007 Supplemental spending bill, which would have begun bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq by October 1, with a goal of having most troops home by March 31, 2008. In addition to the withdrawal, the bill provided billions of dollars for military equipment and health care for active duty military and returning veterans.

May: McConnell Endorsed Scandal-Plagued Gov. Ernie Fletcher, Saying He Had “Never Met a Finer Man.”
In May, McConnell endorsed Republican Ernie Fletcher for Governor of Kentucky, saying, “I have never met a finer man than our governor, Ernie Fletcher.” In 2006, Fletcher was indicted on three misdemeanor charges for allegedly doling out state jobs to political supporters. The indictments came after Fletcher pleaded the Fifth Amendment and declined to answer questions before a grand jury. In August 2006, Fletcher admitted to wrongdoing in his administration as part of an agreement to drop the charges, but a grand jury report released later said that Fletcher oversaw a “widespread and coordinated plan” to avoid state hiring laws. Fletcher also pardoned every member of his administration that was involved with the scandal.

June: McConnell Held Up Essential Ethics Reform and 9/11 Commission Recommendations.
On a single day in June, McConnell blocked congressional Democrats’ attempts to move forward with a sweeping lobbying reform bill and a bill to implement the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission.

July: Republican Senator Accuses McConnell of “Dereliction of Duty” for Actions on Immigration.
In July, columnist Bob Novak wrote, “I asked one of the few conservative Republican senators who stuck with President Bush on immigration to assess how Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell handled the issue. Asking not to be quoted by name, he replied: ‘If this were a war, Sen. McConnell should be relieved of command for dereliction of duty.’ Not only did the minority leader end up voting against an immigration bill that he said was better than the 2006 version he supported, he abandoned his post, staying off the floor during final stages of the debate.”

August: McConnell Led the Fight Against Expanding Health Care to Over 3 Million Uninsured Children.
In August McConnell voted against bipartisan legislation to expand children’s health care to an additional 3.2 million kids across America. The day before, McConnell voted for and cosponsored a watered down bill that would have eliminated coverage for 3.2 million kids that were covered under the bipartisan proposal. The GOP alternative also changed reimbursement rules putting the coverage of hundreds of thousands of children in danger.

September: McConnell Pledged to “Support the President” in Opposition to Children’s Health Bill.
In September, along with voting against the initial version of the children’s health bill, McConnell signaled he would vote “no” on the final version of the bill as well, saying, “I intend to support the president.”

October: McConnell Knew That His Office Spread Erroneous Rumors Against Child, But He Still Claimed There Was No Involvement.
In October, a McConnell aide admitted that he had sent an email to reporters highlighting charges made on conservative blogs accusing the family of a child who helped promote the children’s health program of being undeserving of federal assistance. McConnell was aware that his staff was personally involved in smearing the family. But asked in an interview if his office had encouraged reporters to investigate the family of a young boy who had promoted the SCHIP program, McConnell repeatedly denied any involvement adding, “there was no involvement whatsoever….None.”

November: McConnell’s Handpicked Governor Loses Reelection Bid By 18-Points.
In November, McConnell’s handpicked Kentucky Gubernatorial candidate, Ernie Fletcher lost his bid for reelection. Not only had McConnell picked and encouraged Fletcher to run in 2003, but he also heavily campaign for him in his 2007 race. In the final days of the campaign, McConnell appeared with Fletcher and praised him as “extremely intelligent” and of “wonderful character,” McConnell even recorded radio ads for Fletcher calling him “the best governor for Louisville in my lifetime…”

December: McConnell Tried to Justify Iraq Deaths by Saying That the Soldiers Weren’t “Draftees”
In December, the Grayson County News Gazette reported that McConnell said, “I won’t tell you everything is great in Iraq; it is not. But we want to keep a steady flow of funds so that we don’t disrupt the military. Unfortunately, most of our friends on the other isle are having a hard time admitting things are getting better; some days I almost think the critics of this war don’t want us to win. Nobody is happy about losing lives but remember these are not draftees, these are full-time professional soldiers.”

Regards,

Jim

In this twenty-sixth survey of the web, The WAWG Index monthly average was down by 5.0 percent from November 2007. Of the fourteen categories tracked, 4 were up, one was unchanged and 9 were down. The largest decrease for December, 68 percent, was for avid militarism. The largest increase was for abuse of human rights at 66 percent.

Through December, the 12 month group moving average for all fourteen categories remained negative at -4.5 percent. It was unchanged from last month. Of the fourteen categories tracked, all but two, media control and rampant sexism, are negative.

On Friday, Florida Representative Robert Wexler initiated an effort to start Congressional hearings on the impeachment of Dick Cheney. Part of his effort is an op ed that was sent to various national papers. However, this statement has so far been rejected by all.

Daily Kos provided the following rational on the media rejections:

A major problem in challenging the Democratic leadership, however, has arisen in the form of a national media that simply ignores the growing national impeachment movement and the growing calls for impeachment within the Congress. Wexler reports that an opinion article penned by himself and two Judiciary Committee colleagues, Reps. Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), which was sent to a number of leading newspapers, including the Miami Herald, the Washington Post and the New York Times, was rejected for publication—an astonishing act of censorship for a document authored by three members of congress on an issue of such significance as impeachment of the vice president.

Asked why he thought leading publications had refused to publish the op-ed piece calling for an immediate start to impeachment hearings, Wexler says, “I think the mainstream media, at least thus far, have bought the notion that impeachment hearings are outside the bounds of what Congress ought to be doing.”

He adds that there may be a fear, on the part of corporate media executives and editors, and on the part of Democratic Party congressional leaders, of having been “complicit” in many of the administration’s constitutional crimes. “There may be some significant conflicts of interest,” he says, that could make them feel uncomfortable about the idea of impeachment hearings.

Since the major media are refusing to run the op ed from Wexler, Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), these Reps are asking for public support and have set up a web site to collect 55,000 signatures to present to their fellow Democrats.

Contrary to the whining of many, the United States was not founded by Christians or on Christian principles. As close as any of the Founding Fathers came to Christianity was George Washington who was a non-practicing Episcopalian. For the most part they were Deists or Theists with a few outright non-believers.

Thomas Jefferson re-wrote the Bible leaving out all the references to miracles and mysticism. It was pretty thin when he was finished. Thomas Paine, among the most prolific authors among our founding fathers, wrote: ” I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.”

The Treaty of Tripoli, signed and ratified in 1797 says in no uncertain terms that the United States is not a Christian Nation. Article 11 of that document says, “As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion . . . “

Article VI of the Constitution ends with “no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.”

So what has our House of Representatives done? In only five days House Resolution 847 was introduced, debated and passed into law. It reads, in part:

Resolved, That the House of Representatives–

(1) recognizes the Christian faith as one of the great religions of the world;

(2) expresses continued support for Christians in the United States and worldwide;

(3) acknowledges the international religious and historical importance of Christmas and the Christian faith;

(4) acknowledges and supports the role played by Christians and Christianity in the founding of the United States and in the formation of the western civilization;

(5) rejects bigotry and persecution directed against Christians, both in the United States and worldwide; and

(6) expresses its deepest respect to American Christians and Christians throughout the world.

Bush vetoes SCHIP a second time and they spend their time passing this crap.

Sometimes I just feel like crying.

U. S. Gitmo Propaganda Team Edited Wikipedia – The US detention facility at Guantanamo Bay has been caught conducting covert propaganda attacks on the internet. The attacks, exposed this week in a report by the government transparency group Wikileaks, include deleting detainee ID numbers from Wikipedia last month, the systematic posting of unattributed “self praise” comments on news organization web sites in response to negative press, boosting pro-Guantanamo stories on the internet news site Digg and even modifying Fidel Castro’s encyclopedia article to describe the Cuban president as “an admitted transexual” [sic].

Senate Republicans and One Democrat Give Big Oil a Present – The Senate was on the verge Thursday of approving the first increase in automobile gas mileage in three decades and huge increases in ethanol use. Democrats were forced to strip away from the compromise energy bill a contentious $21.8 billion tax package, including billions of dollars in tax increases on the biggest oil companies, because of determined Republican opposition and a White House veto threat over the new taxes. Democratic leaders fell one vote short, 59-40, in getting the 60 votes needed to overcome a GOP filibuster. Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, was the only Democrat to break ranks.

Alberto Gonzales Named Lawyer of the Year – Negative news coverage may have cost former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales his job, but it won him a dubious honor Wednesday from a magazine published by the American Bar Association: Lawyer of the Year. But hold on, giving Gonzales this title may not be a bad deed after all. The monthly magazine gave the awards to lawyers who made the most news, said editor and publisher Edward A. Adams. “Think about Time magazine’s Person of the Year,” Adams said in an interview. “In years past they’ve named people like Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin. So we’re not suggesting by these awards that these are the best lawyers in any sense of the word.”

How the President Has Become a Government Unto Himself – President Bush doesn’t like to veto laws,” says Dan Abrams of MSNBC. “He doesn’t have to. Since he took office, he’s been attaching conditions to laws already passed by Congress, allowing him to essentially disobey the will of Congress and dramatically expand his own power.” Bush has issued 1100 signing statements — almost twice as many as all previous presidents put together — often completely reversing the intended effect of legislation. Law professor Jonathan Turley told Abrams that the practice has two very serious effects. On one hand, “by using signing statements to this extent, the president becomes a government unto himself.” But it also gives lower-level officials cover for their own illegal behavior by creating a deliberate area of ambiguity about the meaning of the laws. Once the executive ceases to respect the authority of the legislative branch, everything else is thrown into doubt. Dick Cheney appears to be the motivating force in this expansion of presidential power. Cheney was chief of staff to President Gerald Ford in the 1970’s, when Congress was taking steps to prevent any future Watergate-style excesses, and he has never ceased trying to bring things back to the way they were under Nixon.

Fox News Analyst Says Americans Are Not Above Torture, and Shouldn’t Be – Americans aren’t above resorting to torture to gain intelligence from suspected terrorists — and it would be a mistake if they were, according to Fox News military analyst Col. David Hunt. Asked by Fox and Friends co-host Brian Kilmeade if Americans were “better” than resorting to such practices, Hunt said he didn’t think so. “First of all, I don’t think we are,” he said. “I think if we are, we shouldn’t be. We’re in a war with people who aren’t…good men have to know how to do bad things to do good.” (What kind of sad, twisted world do these people live in? With that kind of thinking, you could justify any horrific act you feel like committing. – JLV)

The Record of Senator Mitch McConnell (Warning: Hold your nose)
• He led the filibuster of the Webb-Hagel “Dwell Time” amendment that would have given our exhausted troops as much time at home as in the field.

• He led the all-night filibuster of legislation that would have set us on a real change of course in Iraq, that would have allowed us to give Iraqis more responsibility, while freeing U.S. forces to take on the real threat to America — al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

• He consistently worked his side of the aisle against the same veterans he’s been fighting tooth and nail to keep in Iraq, beating back amendments to ensure a funding stream for veterans’ health care, increase Veterans’ medical services by closing corporate tax loopholes, and guarantee full-funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs.

• And, most recently, he callously quipped that we ought not feel too bad about those who died in Iraq, because, after all, “remember, these are not draftees, these are full-time professional soldiers.”

Bush Vetoes Children’s Health Insurance Bill Again – President Bush vetoed legislation Wednesday that would have expanded government-provided health insurance for children, his second slap-down of a bipartisan effort in Congress to dramatically increase funding for the popular program. It was Bush’s seventh veto in seven years – all but one coming since Democrats took control of Congress in January. Wednesday was the deadline for Bush to act or let the bill become law. The president also vetoed an earlier, similar bill expanding the health insurance program. Bush vetoed the bill in private.

CIA Destroyed Tapes Despite Court Order – The Bush administration was under court order not to discard evidence of detainee torture and abuse months before the CIA destroyed videotapes that revealed some of its harshest interrogation tactics. Normally, that would force the government to defend itself against obstruction allegations. But the CIA may have an out: its clandestine network of overseas prisons. While judges focused on the detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and tried to guarantee that any evidence of detainee abuse would be preserved, the CIA was performing its toughest questioning half a world away. And by the time President Bush publicly acknowledged the secret prison system, interrogation videotapes of two terrorism suspects had been destroyed.

White House Press Secretary Admits “I Didn’t Know What The Cuban Missile Crisis Was” – Appearing on National Public Radio’s light-hearted quiz show “Wait, Wait . . . Don’t Tell Me,” which aired over the weekend, Perino got into the spirit of things and told a story about herself that she had previously shared only in private: During a White House briefing, a reporter referred to the Cuban Missile Crisis — and she didn’t know what it was.

Lou Dobbs’ Head Explodes – The head of longtime CNN anchorman Lou Dobbs exploded last night, fifteen minutes into the broadcast of his nightly news program, Lou Dobbs Tonight.

Mr. Dobbs’ rants about illegal immigration over the past few years have made his head exploding while on television a distinct possibility, but few viewers were prepared for the shocking spectacle they witnessed last night.

During an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Mr. Dobbs blamed illegal aliens for most of the ills of American society, including crime, leprosy, and confusing signs written in foreign languages.

“And here’s the latest outrage, Anderson,” Mr. Dobbs said. “If a border fence is built between the U.S. and Mexico, as I’ve suggested, it’ll probably be built by illegal Mexican workers.”

Shortly after his statement about illegal Mexican laborers constructing a border fence, Mr. Dobbs’ head exploded, filling the screen with smoke and visibly startling Mr. Cooper.

After Mr. Dobbs’ head burst into flames, his CNN cohort attempted to go to commercial, but Mr. Dobbs continued talking undaunted for another fifteen minutes.

Immediately after the broadcast, Mr. Dobbs was rushed to the Head Explosion Unit at George Washington University Hospital where the CNN anchor continued talking for an additional five hours before being administered general anesthesia.

“In all my years as a brain surgeon I have never seen someone with such serious head trauma continue speaking,” said chief of surgery Dr. Hiroshi Kyosuke. “It is almost as if Lou Dobbs’ mouth functions completely independently from his brain.”

“The Twelve Days of Christmas,” George W. Bush Style

Regards,

Jim