Month: November 2008

Elsa Prince, Mother of Blackwater Founder, Was Fourth Largest Prop 8 Donor

Jon Ponder

Elsa PrinceMichigan billionaire Elsa Prince’s second greatest claim to fame is that she was a founder in 1977 of Focus of the Family, a nonprofit group that, despite its warm and fuzzy name, is in tenor and in practice an anti-gay hate group.

Prince’s top claim to fame, however, is that she is the mother of Erik Prince, the founder of Blackwater Worldwide, the scandal-plagued BushCo mercenary group that, since 2004, has been paid at least $323 million on a $1 billion no-bid government contract. Blackwater is in the headlines now because six of its mercenaries may be facing charges for the massacre of 17 Iraqi civilians in September 2007. Earlier scandals have included the abrupt resignation of State Dept. Inspector Howard Krongard over Blackwater-related perjury charges, allegations that Blackwater employees were traitorously recruiting U.S. troops in the war zone and that and Blackwater security shot a dog belonging to the New York Times Baghdad bureau.

In August, Elsa Prince made two donations that totaled $450,000 to Proposition 8, the California initiative that narrowly passed on Nov. 4, and will amend the state constitution to revoke the right of gay people to marry, if it is not overturned by the California Supreme Court.

Around the same time, Focus on the Family reportedly donated over $439,000 to the anti-gay cause. In October, just months after Prince and Focus on the Family donated a combined $889,000 to the California hate initiative, Focus on the Family announced it would lay off or reassign 46 of 1,300 employees. Now it says there will be more layoffs due to restructuring of its distribution arm.

It’s a dead cinch the families of the dozens of employees who are about to be fired would have preferred that the nearly $900,000 donated to Prop 8 by Prince and their bosses had gone toward salaries.

They may also be wondering where the group’s other millions have gone. In fiscal year 2006, Focus on the Family reported total revenue of $142,279,843 and net assets of $79,316,290. More current figures were not readily available.

According to PrideSource, other top donors to Prop 8 included Robert Hurtt, president of California company Container Supply ($550,000), Howard Ahmanson, owner of California company Fieldstead & Co. ($995,000) and John and Josephine Templeton of Pennsylvania, where John is president of the John Templeton Foundation ($1,000,000).

Pardon Me, Ask Bush Administration Officials

Trish

Bush administration insiders are lining up for the one handout they’ll need most after their team is out of office: a presidential pardon.

More than 2,300 people applied for a pardon or commutation in fiscal 2008, which ended Sept. 30, the largest number for any single year since at least 1900, according to Justice Department Statistics…

Bush might even pre-emptively pardon his cronies before they’re charged with anything

Bush…has so far used his pardon power sparingly. He has approved 157 pardons and six commutations, the lowest number of any president since World War II, except for his father, George H.W. Bush, who approved 74 pardons and three commutations in his four years as president.

But Bush also never vetoed legislation until Democrats started writing it. Bush will likely pardon like there’s no tomorrow and might even pre-emptively pardon his cronies before they’re charged with anything. Since, after all, everybody knows what they did.

But legal scholars say there has been no comparable grant of amnesty for what would presumably be a large group of government officials for unspecified conduct…Though a blanket amnesty would forestall potential criminal cases, legal analysts said a pardon could be read as a tacit admission of guilt…

Unlike other controversial pardons, [Dean of the Chicago-Kent School of Law Harold] Krent said the extent of any potential illegal activity in the Bush Administration is not known. “We, as a society, lose the benefit from the closure and mere transparency that comes through a criminal trial,” he said.

Legal analysts agree that presidential pardons, originally meant as the court of last resort for innocent people unfairly imprisoned, have become a political tool.

“I think it’s an absolute disgrace the way Democratic and Republican administrations, the Bush Administration apparently being the worst, have departed from giving many commutations and pardons except in political cases,” said Phillip Heymann, a former Deputy Attorney General in the Clinton White House who now teaches at Harvard Law School…

“The Department of Justice has basically closed down the pardon program for all intents and purposes for meaningful release of ordinary people,” [Margaret Love, the U.S. Pardon Attorney from 1991 to 1997] said. “I don’t think any substantive thought is given to the issues raised by the people who are applying.”

Your Cognitive Dissonance is Keeping Me Awake

Trish
Forbidden?

A new poll in Florida leaves me mystified.

An amendment to the state constitution making gay marriage illegal (even though it’s already illegal under legislative statute) recently passed with 62 percent of the vote.

The new poll shows 89 percent of Floridians opposed to discrimination against gays. Huh?

Should gays and lesbians have the same rights as everyone else with regards to housing, job opportunities and public accommodations, such as restaurants and movie theaters?

…There were no significant differences among political parties, with 87 percent of Republicans, 90 percent of Democrats and 93 percent of independents supporting equal rights, the poll shows. The results indicate that these gay-rights issues are a lot less contentious than marriage.

“You really have to take away the issue of adoption and marriage. These are family matters and people have long-held beliefs,” said Rand Hoch, president of Palm Beach County Human Rights Council. “But people also feel it’s wrong to discriminate against people.”

First of all, 11 percent of Floridians support a separate but presumably equal seating area at movie theaters and restaurants for gay people? WTF?

Second, for the sane 89 percent, what gives? Why do so many of you think keeping adults from marrying one another is a) your concern, and b) non-discriminatory?

HHS Buying More Bird Flu Vaccine

Buck Banks

avian_influenza.jpg
Haven’t heard much on the H5N1 bird influenza pandemic lately, have we? What with all that pesky election coverage and the rise of the Sarah Palin Network. But the potential of a bird flu pandemic apparently is still serious enough that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is stockpiling more vaccine, according to a press release issued Friday:

The department has awarded contracts totaling $199.45 million to three vaccine makers to manufacture 5.3 million 90-microgram doses of influenza vaccine designed to protect against the H5N1 influenza virus strain. The three awards include a $117.9 million contract to sanofi pasteur for 3.7 million doses, a $40.95 million contract to Novartis for 800,000 doses and a $40.6 million to GlaxoSmithKline for 800,000 doses.

“Having a stockpile of influenza vaccine that may offer protection against the H5N1 virus is an important part of our pandemic influenza preparedness plan,” HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt said. “These contracts are a continuation of our aggressive multi-pronged approach to a potentially critical public health challenge.”

‘Having a stockpile of influenza vaccine that may offer protection against the H5N1 virus is an important part of our pandemic influenza preparedness plan.’
— HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt

At two 90-microgram doses per person, these purchases provide enough courses to vaccinate nearly 2.7 million people. Initial clinical studies of H5N1 vaccine in humans have shown that two 90-microgram doses of the vaccine are required to stimulate a level of immune response that researchers anticipate would provide protection for an individual against the H5N1 strains that have been spreading among birds in Asia. However, further clinical testing is underway, including the evaluation of techniques that may reduce the amount of antigen (active ingredient) per dose needed to achieve effective individual protection.

These newest vaccine purchases supplement the existing stockpile of 5.9 million doses of H5N1 vaccine and build on the department’s plans to buy enough vaccine for 20 million people. This additional vaccine will be placed in the nation’s Strategic National Stockpile where they will be available for use should an influenza pandemic occur.

The H5N1 strain of avian flu has spread to more than 40 countries and has led to the deaths of hundreds of millions of additional birds, which has heightened concern about the possibility of a human flu pandemic. Furthermore, the number of avian flu cases in humans has reached more than 250 cases in 10 countries. More than half of those persons infected have died. To date, H5N1 avian influenza has remained primarily an animal disease, but should the virus acquire the ability for sustained transmission among humans, the potential for an influenza pandemic would have grave consequences for global public health.

So, how do you think the gubmint will decide which 6 million Americans get the vaccine? By lottery? Auction? Essay contest?

Parting Shots from Bush — and Setting the Record Straight on Clinton

Trish

Pres. Lame W. Duck

Looks like Pres. Lame W. Duck will spend the last two months of his presidency the same way he spent the entire eight years: royally screwing things up.

Bush’s eleventh-hour changes would lift restrictions on commercial ocean fishing, ease controls on power plants’ emissions, relax drinking water standards, and loosen restrictions on dumping mining waste

The Bush administration raced last week to relax a wide array of regulations before its time in office expires. If enacted before President-elect Barack Obama is sworn in, the rule changes could be reversed only after a lengthy and cumbersome review. Among other things, the changes would lift restrictions on commercial ocean fishing, ease controls on power plants’ emissions, relax drinking-water standards, and loosen restrictions on dumping mining waste. Consumer and environmentalist groups protested, but the White House said the proposals were in “the best interests” of the nation. “And yes,” said White House spokesman Tony Fratto, “we’d prefer our regulations stand for a very long time.”

It could be worse, you say? At least he’s not raiding the White House for office furniture like Bill and Hillary Clinton did? Actually the Clintons got a bad rap. That’s right — lies were told about the Clintons. Shocking, isn’t it?

It was the stuff of sensational news reports and indignant commentary. Departing Clinton staffers, the reports said, had shamefully vandalized the White House, destroying office furniture, leaving obscene greetings on voice-mail machines, and defacing walls with graffiti mocking incoming President George W. Bush. The Clintonites had even trashed Air Force One, wrote the late presidential spokesman Tony Snow, then a columnist, leaving it looking “as if it had been stripped by a skilled band of thieves.”

Except that it never happened. After a yearlong, $200,000 investigation, government inspectors said White House offices suffered only ordinary wear and tear. Nothing was taken from Air Force One. And what little intentional damage had been inflicted in the White House was trivial, such as scraping the “W” off computer keyboards. “What often happens in Washington,” Snow later explained, “is that gossip becomes news. That’s not a good thing.”

The Bush administration is leaving things screwed up enough for Barack Obama, but as long as it’s still in office, there’s always potential for more. If history is any indicator, Bush and Cheney have plenty more depravity up their sleeves.

Frank Schubert, Mastermind Behind Prop 8 False Ads, Has a Gay Sister

Jon Ponder

Frank Schubert is the president of Schubert-Flint Public Affairs, the political shop hired to manage the campaign to revoke the right of gay people to marry in California.

Under Schubert’s direction, California voters were bombarded with false advertising, including ads that purported that if Prop 8 failed, school children would be forced to learn about gay marriage, kindergartners would be taught sex ed and churches would lose their right to free speech.

Other than deep and abiding bigotry, it’s hard to imagine what would motivate someone to foment such hatred toward a minority group. And yet, in an interview with the New York Times, Schubert revealed that he has a gay sister:

For his part, Mr. Schubert said he is neither anti-gay — his sister is a lesbian — nor happy that some same-sex couples’ marriages are now in question. But, he said, he has no regrets about his campaign.

So he did it for the money? In any case, Thanksgiving should be interesting for the Schubert family.

Palin Drops the Ditzy Act at Governor’s Conference

Trish

O.K., lord knows I don’t want to make anyone have to watch more Sarah Palin than they already have. BUT. Take a look at about a minute or so of Palin’s address at the Republican Governor’s Conference:

Whoa! She forms complete sentences. She drops that faux-Fargo-Frances McDormand accent. She even tosses out the word, “plenary” as if she’d used it before.

Now let’s review her performance here, when she mistook fans for protesters at one of her recent campaign stops.

Which is the real Sarah Palin? I suspect it’s the one we saw at the Governor’s Conference. I never thought Palin was as dumb as she would have the people she hopes are even dumber believe. Be warned.

Quick! Protest Prop 8 Saturday, Nov. 15

Trish

Sorry for the short notice but we just found out ourselves. Simultaneous nationwide protests against California’s recently passed Proposition 8, which overturns a state law legalizing gay marriage, are set for tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. Pacific (1:30 p.m. Eastern). To find out where to protest in your state and town, visit JoinTheImpact.com.

If you live in a state like mine that also passed an anti gay marriage initiative, feel free to adapt your protest accordingly.

Since there’s not much time, you might need help coming up with a catchy slogan for your sign. No problem — the site supplies a full page of suggestions and photos from protests already held. There’s even a page to brainstorm protest chants. These folks have thought of everything. All you have to do is show up.