Month: November 2005
Cheney to Headline DeLay Fundraiser
High priced sleasefest: Vice President Dick Cheney will be the star attraction at a fundraiser for indicted former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. The vice president’s appearance on the stage with his corrupt political ally is intended to show that DeLay is not be shunned by his party but what it really reveals is how comfortable senior officials of the government with sleazy operators like DeLay:
A campaign fundraiser for embattled Rep. Tom DeLay postponed by Hurricane Rita in September is being rescheduled for Dec. 5 with Vice President Dick Cheney as the headliner.
“It points out that the party is behind (DeLay) and the (Bush) administration is supportive and wants to keep Congressman DeLay in office,” Eric Thode, Republican chairman in DeLay’s home county of Fort Bend, told the Houston Chronicle in a story published Tuesday.
The most expensive tickets for the event — $4,200 — includes a spot at a VIP reception and a photograph with the vice president.
“Congressman Tom DeLay has been an exceptional leader on Capitol Hill and Vice President Cheney looks forward to helping his re-election effort,” said Lee Anne McBride, a Cheney spokeswoman in Washington.
DeLay was indicted earlier this year on campaign finance-related charges in Travis County, an action that forced him to step down at least temporarily as House majority leader
British Government Censors Documents That Show Bush Efforts to Bomb al-Jazeera
Another scandal quashed : Guardian:
The [British] attorney general last night threatened newspapers with the Official Secrets Act if they revealed the contents of a document allegedly relating to a dispute between Tony Blair and George Bush over the conduct of military operations in Iraq.
It is believed to be the first time the Blair government has threatened newspapers in this way. Though it has obtained court injunctions against newspapers, the government has never prosecuted editors for publishing the contents of leaked documents, including highly sensitive ones about the run-up to the invasion of Iraq.
The attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, last night referred editors to newspaper reports yesterday that described the contents of a memo purporting to be at the centre of charges against two men under the secrets act.
Reagan Advisor Lyn Nofziger Criticizes Current ‘Corrupt’ Republicans
Off the reservation: Lyn Nofziger has been a fixture in Republican Party politics since the 1960’s. He worked on Ronald Reagan’s first campaign for governor of California, and briefly in the Reagan White House. He also ran campaigns for Pat Buchanan and Steve Forbes.
But now Nofziger is speaking out – in the ultra-rightwing Washington Times (www.washtimes.com) – on the current state of affairs in the GOP, and what he has to say is not pretty:
On the current leadership of the Republican Party:
“They’ve been in power too long … Any time you put any political party in power for too long, it becomes corrupt. It loses its focus. It forgets why it came there.”
On the “conservative” label:
“‘Conservative’ is a word that doesn’t mean anything. It can mean what you want it to mean … To me, conservative means believing in a minimum amount of government and a maximum amount of freedom — and keeping government out of people’s lives and business — and leaving people alone … I recognize you have to have national defense and have to finance the government. But government does not have to be the be-all and end-all.”
On Ronald Reagan:
“Our problem is we are trying to make a saint out of a man who certainly wasn’t perfect. But he was a unique president. He believed in three things: God, the American people and himself. And that’s kind of unique.”
On Bush family consigliere James Baker:
“You [could] split [the Reagan] senior staff into two parties: the Reagan people and the Baker people … [Baker is] a guy who’s arrogant, who thought he knew better than the president … I don’t think he’s an honorable man. And you can quote me.”
On Pat Buchanan:
“A friend of mine. But I don’t think Pat is as libertarian as I am. I don’t think he wants more government; he just wants different government. … He’s a protectionist.”
On the neo-conservative efforts to spread democracy by force:
“I’m not a great believer in spreading democracy, because I don’t think you can spread democracy. People have to want it themselves.”
While Bush Says ‘Stay the Course,’ Pentagon Plans Withdrawal from Iraq
Cut and run: While President Bush and Vice President Cheney have been lashing out at critics who dare to suggest that the time has come to cut our losses and get out of Iraq, the Pentagon has been planning the U.S. withdrawal:
The Pentagon tentatively plans to reduce the number of U.S. forces there early next year by as many as three combat brigades, from 18 now, but to keep at least one brigade “on call” in Kuwait in case more troops are needed quickly, several senior military officers said.
Pentagon authorities also have set a series of “decision points” during 2006 to consider further force cuts that, under a “moderately optimistic” scenario, would drop the total number of troops from more than 150,000 now to fewer than 100,000, including 10 combat brigades, by the end of the year, the officers said.
You Can Write a Speech for George Bush
In his own words: Using the George W. Bush Speechwriter, you can create new speeches for the prez. It’s an on-line drag and drop site where you can string snippets from actual speeches together to make new policy. Unfortunately, there’s no combination for “American troops will leave Iraq by June 2006.”
Bush’s Broken Promises to Katrina Victims
He really does not care: President Bush only roused himself to become engaged in the wake of Hurricane Katrina because it would have been political suicide to do anything less. But he has moved on, and, predictably, so has his government, leaving the citizens of the Gulf Coast to fend for themselves:
Officials from both parties say the bottlenecks have occurred in large part because of a leadership vacuum in Washington, where President Bush and Congress have been preoccupied for weeks with Iraq, deficit reduction, the C.I.A. leak investigation and the Supreme Court.
Less than three months after Hurricane Katrina ravaged New Orleans, relief legislation remains dormant in Washington and despair is growing among officials here who fear that Congress and the Bush administration are losing interest in their plight.
As evidence, the state and local officials cite an array of stalled bills and policy changes they say are crucial to rebuilding the city and persuading some of its hundreds of thousands of evacuated residents to return, including measures to finance long-term hurricane protection, revive small businesses and compensate the uninsured.
“There is a real concern that we will lose the nation’s attention the longer this takes,” said Representative Bobby Jindal, a Republican from Metairie, just west of New Orleans. “People are making decisions now about whether to come back. And every day that passes, it will be a little harder to get things done.”
Officials from both parties say the bottlenecks have occurred in large part because of a leadership vacuum in Washington, where President Bush and Congress have been preoccupied for weeks with Iraq, deficit reduction, the C.I.A. leak investigation and the Supreme Court.
Congressional leaders have been scrambling to rein in spending, and many in Washington have grumbled that Louisiana’s leaders have asked for too much, while failing to guarantee that the money will be spent efficiently and honestly.
By contrast, many say, Washington’s response to the Sept. 11 attacks seemed more focused and sustained.
Now, with the holiday season days away and the 2006 midterm elections just around the bend, many Louisiana officials say they fear the sense of urgency that spurred action in September is swiftly draining away.
By the way, weren’t the Republicans going to investigate the fatal fumbling of the government’s actions during the story? What ever happened with that?
On the 60th Anniversary of the Nuremberg Trials
Just a gentle reminder to President Torture and company, this past Sunday was the 60th anniversary of the start of the Nuremberg Trials. Bush and Cheney and Rice and Rumsfeld may think that thumbing America’s collective nose at the International Criminal Court will protect them. Time will tell. It’s becoming increasingly clear that history will judge their crimes against humanity harshly, because the truth is finally getting out.
Several European countries have already launched formal international investigations into the illegal use of European soil and airspace for the CIA’s Club Torture facilities.
‘Mean Jean’ Lied
Not surprising: Why are Republicans such shameless liars? Even when they have to know their lies are easily proven to be false, they seem to be completely without guile about fabricating the truth. Latest case in point, Rep. “Mean Jean” Schmidt of Cincinnati, Ohio, who lied on the floor of the House of Representatives when she trashed Rep. Jack Murtha:
During Rep. Jean Schmidt’s (R-OH) shameful attack on Rep. Jack Murtha (D-PA) on the House Floor she said she was communicating a message from Marine Colonel Danny Bubp:
Schmidt: “A few minutes ago I received a call from Colonel Danny Bubp, Ohio Representative from the 88th district in the House of Representatives. He asked me to send Congress a message: Stay the course. He also asked me to send Congressman Murtha a message, that cowards cut and run, Marines never do. Danny and the rest of America and the world want the assurance from this body – that we will see this through.Bubp denies he said that:
Danny Bubp, a freshman state representative who is a colonel in the Marine Corps Reserve, told The Enquirer that he never mentioned Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., by name when talking with Schmidt…”There was no discussion of him personally being a coward or about any person being a coward,” Bubp said.
Experts Warn China’s Bird Flu Vaccination Program Could Spread the Disease
From the New York Times: China’s plans to vaccinate billions of chickens against avian flu could backfire and end up spreading the disease, poultry and vaccine experts warned last week.
Vaccination teams can easily carry the virus from farm to farm on their shoes, clothes and equipment unless they change or sterilize them each time, the experts said. That could be particularly difficult in a country like China, where the veterinary care system is underfinanced and millions of birds are kept in small flocks by families.
Also, experts said the task is likely to be overwhelming, because the Chinese eat about 14 billion chickens a year, so mass vaccinations would have to be repeated again and again, while the risk of the disease being reintroduced by migratory birds, in which it is now endemic, would be constant.
Bird vaccination campaigns involve a huge amount of labor because the animals must be injected one by one. China’s Agriculture Ministry said last Tuesday [Nov. 15] that it would inject all of the nation’s 5.2 billion chickens, geese and ducks with a vaccine.
In making its announcement on Tuesday, the Chinese government did not detail how it planned to vaccinate billions of birds safely.
How to Vaccinate 14 Billion Birds
Fourteen billion. That’s how many ducks and chickens are produced in China every year. To vaccinate all those birds against avian flu, as the government announced last week that it was planning to do, would require about 550 million injections a week.
Sound daunting? Here’s another number: 1.3 billion. With one-fifth of the world’s population, China has no shortage of people to accomplish the task.
G. Donald Ritter, director of health services for Mountaire Farms, a large poultry producer based in Selbyville, Del., said that, if any country could inoculate all its poultry, China was it. “It’s labor intensive,” he said of the process. “But they’ve got more people and labor than anybody.”
China has had more than 60 outbreaks of avian influenza among poultry in the last 2 years. While a widespread vaccination program can help control outbreaks, the usual procedure in most countries is “cull and quarantine,” killing all birds within a few miles of the affected area and quarantining all others in a larger area.
