Once more with feeling. WFAN-AM and MSNBC have offered no more than token apologies for the blatantly racist comments made by Don Imus about the Rutgers Womens' Basketball team. Thus far all the two broadcasters have actually done is to "condemn" his comments. After four diaries on this subject, perhaps at least four more are needed before the networks get the message. Each time "condemnation" is accepted without action equals one more example for the right wing racists to observe that however despicable their comments may be -- nothing is really really going to happen to them. Now, Imus wants his "oopsy daisy" apology to exonerate him. More after the fold.
There's a pattern developing in regard to all things military that have anything to do with Halliburton, KBR, of their spin off companies. Once the "privatization" is accomplished there follows a string of complaints about the quality of the services provided, and unfortunately the services at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center are no different. Last year there were grumblings about the services provided by IAP Worldwide Services, Inc. This year we have the Washington Post articles documenting the problems associated with yet another contract awarded to yet another arm of the Halliburton cartel. Some details below.
The votes haven't yet been posted on the Senate website in regard to the cloture vote on the Senate Ethics Reform bill, however, one could guess that the GOP is trying one last inglorious effort to derail substantial ethics legislation. Below the jump: a brief summary of today's stall ball tactics and some observations about why this may be happening.
The Bush Administration's No Fly List, which seems to do a good job of nabbing Nebraska nuns and small boys from Colorado, may have an offshoot called the "Look Out List." A German tourist of Syrian ancestry was hauled off to a North Las Vegas Detention Center from the Las Vegas Airport this past holiday season. To add injury to insult he was denied his prescribed heart medication for 36 hours. Officials offered that the man was on a "look out list." The Las Vegas Sun has the full story. Las Vegas Sun
From Senate Job to Nuclear Lobbyist describes the quick trip made by Alex Flint, former staffer for Pete Domenici's Senate Committee from staff to lobbyist for the Nuclear industry.
Two thoughts about this development. First, a person would have to wonder if this subject would have been a front page item on MSNBC a year ago? Without the Abramoff, Cunningham, and MZM Scandals, this could easily have slipped off the radar. Secondly, the sheer nerve demonstrated in this example of the revolving door is interesting in itself. Brazen seems almost too modest to describe a staffer who makes the leap at nearly the same time that the Senate and House are supposed to be trying to clean up their respective acts.
If we were thinking that the FEC wasn't on top of its game, we were right. According to a story deep inside the folds of the Washington Post, there's a small scandal going on that's eaten away at the fiscal resources of the agency, and has caused some folks to be marched out of the building.
The core of the issue is that an employee, Cheryl Kelly, accused her supervisor James Pehrkon of sexual harassment. Pehrkon offered to pay a $100,000 cash settlement from surplus agency funds. When that plan was nixed he offered to pay $10,000 of Kelly's legal expenses from surplus. With a end run around the actual Commission, Kelly's attorneys were paid $10,000 for "consulting." Sources below.
This isn't a one line diary, but it shouldn't take more than that to illustrate the incredible intolerance of the Bush Administration and the Department of Defense.
It's a simple story:
A soldier from Fernley, NV was killed in Iraq. His family wants his sacrifice memorialized. The Department of Defense will only allow him a "blank" memorial. Why? Because Sgt. Stewart was a Wiccan.
The GOP's playing the same old framing game on the chatterati shows and with Mehlman's press releases. I, for one, am getting tired of it. Speaking of a party with "no new ideas" that's beginning to sound more and more like the Republicans. They're hauling out the same lines they used in 2000, and again in 2004, to paint Democrats and progressives in neon colors. Consider with me, if you will, the two "non-stories" of the past week. (1) Hillary Clinton calls for Democrats to speak up and out; and, (2) Coretta Scott King's funeral "controversy." ...more below.
The bigoted offensive "offensive" after the Coretta Scott King funeral by Hannity, The Oxycontin Kid, and others-- "shocked" that African Americans would discuss things like wire tapping, anti-war positions, poverty, and the loss of civil liberties during a discourse on Mrs. King's life-- didn't get much traction beyond the usual WingNuts. So, we're back to good old fashioned fear mongering. "Bush details foiled Al Qaeda Plot" LA Times
So, how well is the Bush Misadministration doing at capturing terra'rists? "Details" below the fold.
Not too long ago I started a keeping a record of Republicans who've been indicted, investigated, convicted, or pleaded guilty to all kinds of nefarious stuff. At first it was just a little one page job so I could keep track of the people mentioned in various diaries here. Then two pages. And, now three. I'm figuring I'd better get this list up in diary form before it becomes a Blog Eating Leviathan that vacuums up memory like a shop-vac. I'm sure there are state and local examples of Republican shenanigans that should be added. So, either stop me! Or, take a look at the list and add names!
"Congressional sources said Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove has threatened to blacklist any Republican who votes against the president. The sources said the blacklist would mean a halt in any White House political or financial support of senators running for re-election in November."
The entire article is well worth the click and read!
Do we hear the wheezing breath of a desperate man?
This list isn't nearly complete. It is just what anyone can find in about three hours of internet searching. And, it's appalling. We've winced at the reports that Bush's photos are "press releases" not candids, and at his circular logic about not releasing the NSA domestic spying justification: "We can't release secret information about a secret program because it's secret." However, these latest stone walls are nothing but a continuation of the stonewalling he's been doing since 2001. And, lest we be told this was after 9/11: think again. Timeline below in the extended copy, along with some articles for review.
Here we go again. One more SOTU speech, followed by more tickets only, screened ahead of time, soft ball questions from selected audience members; and, only photos from the White House PR photographer presidential speeches from the Potemkin Heartland. New subject same old format. The Health Savings Accounts the president will no doubt haul out tonight to make our "health care more affordable" will be nothing but "sop to Wall Street part deux." If the president were really honest the podium from which he speaks would have decals on it from Citigroup, Anthem Blue Cross, and US Bancorps. Maybe he'd like to have Number 43 with flames and some striping, and the bank's logo positioned so that it would appear in every rear camera shot? Some reasons for skepticism below.
I posted a comment on another diary and had to stop myself from all but hijacking the whole thing with my views on business plans. Better I should use up my daily diary than someone else's. So here goes: Not only is CNN not doing any public service by stocking up on right wing commentators, it's a lousy business plan. Worse, it looks like we have some other mainstays of the business world who are locked into a world they can no longer manage. Some thoughts below on why the Bush Administration is promoting the worst business practices ever.
While the publicity spotlight is on the Alexander Strategies Group and its demise in the Abramoff Scandal, the need to regulate the relationships between lobbyists, political fundraising, and our representatives is also shown in the integrated relationships of other, less well known, lobby firms. One group is the Federalist Group LLC, run by Drew Maloney, Legislative Director for Tom DeLay. The other is Liddell, Locke & Sapp, the Texas firm with which Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers was associated. There is a need to be cautious about jumping to causal conclusions, and an equal need to be prudent about asserting claims that just because a firm has certain partners and clients that it is necessarily engaged in untoward or unethical behavior. However, there is also something to be said for adhering to the old adage: "You are known by the company you keep."
The extended copy includes information about the partners and clients of these lobby firms in Washington DC. A Teaser: Which company is the registered lobbyist for the company that's donated $25,000 to Tom DeLay's Legal Defense trust fund?
No wonder there's a scramble in Washington DC to de-link from the Abramoff tainted Alexander Strategies Group! A quick look at the companies, organizations, and coalitions for which ASG registered as a lobbyist with the United States Senate yields an interesting batch indeed. This isn't one of those diaries that calls attention to a particular point, or one that calls for action. This is simply some background information that I hope will provide fellow Kossacks with starting points for their own investigations of Enron, ASG, Abramoff, and the rest of the tangled net.
At the outset it would be useful to point out that ASG is associated with the Harbour Group (linked from its website) and to the firm of Swidler Berlin which operates in both New York City and Washington DC. It might also be useful to sing "The toe bone's connected to the foot bone, the foot bone's connected to the ankle bone, the ankle bone's connected to the leg bone..." while exploring the amazing world of Abramoff and the K Street Project folks.
The recent Congress could be tagged as the "Call and Stall" Congress. Democrats called for Congressional Oversight on a wide variety of topics and the Republicans stalled, whitewashed, and obfuscated.
Some inquiry calls were ignored, some calls for investigation were stalled, and some are supposedly "in the works." Remember, please, that this was the Congress that had plenty of time to investigate the use of steroids by major league baseball players. Not that this isn't a serious issue, but when contrasted with NSA domestic spying, questionable business practices and contracts by Halliburton, highly irregular statistics concerning the cost of the Medicare prescription drug bill, and the investigation into the outing of Valerie Plame and the destruction of the cover "Brewster Jennings," it seems pale in comparison.
This might be a good time to look at the track record of proposed investigations concerning: NSA domestic spying operations; Secret Prisons; Halliburton Contracts; the Plame Case; and energy policy.
Thus much for the Republicans bringing us new visions for a modern era; all they've done in the current domestic spying flap is haul out the same old tactics clothed in slightly new self justifications. Call it GST if you want, but it's an old wolf dressed up in a new sheepskin. OPERATION SHAMROCK ran until 1975 when the Church Committee put it out of existence. SHAMROCK was a intercept program for domestic/foreign interactions, the big difference is in the technology. SHAMROCK intercepted communications from Western Union, RCA, and ITT. Perhaps it's time for a trip down memory lane when kids in t-shirts were protesting a quagmire of a war and those pesky Quakers were opposed to saving villages by destroying them? Below the fold there's some background on SHAMROCK and suggested links for more information.
