Bad Deeds for 3-31-2008

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