Month: February 2006

McClellan Covered Up Knowledge That Cheney Victim Had Heart Attack

Jon Ponder

Expect more fireworks at the White House press briefing today. During yesterday’s briefing, Bush spokesman Scott McClellan knew, but did not reveal to the White House press corps, that Harry Whittington, the man Vice President Cheney shot on Saturday, had suffered a major setback:

The White House continues to withhold critical information from the press. In a press conference today, hospital administrator Peter Banko said that the White House had been informed that Mr. Whittington suffered a heart attack between 9:30-10AM this morning.

But at [Tuesday’s] White House Press Briefing, which started after 12PM, Scott McClellan didn’t tell the press. CNN confirmed that McClellan “was notified [about the heart attack] just before the briefing.” But McClellan suggested to reporters that he had no new information:

I don’t want to make this about anything other than what it is. It is what it is. I was very respectful and responsive to your questions yesterday. I provided you the information I knew based on the facts that were available… I’m just not going to go back through it again.

McClellan concluded “You’re welcome to continue to focus on these issues. I’m moving on.” Too bad Mr. Whittington can’t do the same. He’ll be in the hospital for at least another week.

Abramoff Was Allegedly Paid $1.2 Mil to Set Up Meeting with Bush

Jon Ponder

When the brutal dictator of Maylaysia — who had been publicly criticized by the Clinton Administration in the 1990s for anti-semitic statements and jailing his political opponents — wanted an image-cleansing meeting with President George W. Bush, who did he call? Republican uber-lobbyist Jack Abramoff, of course. Such high-level ccess is not free. In this case, it apparently cost $1.2 million:

Abramoff contacted presidential adviser Karl Rove on at least four occasions to help arrange a meeting, according to an eyewitness to the activities.

Finally, this former associate said, Rove’s office called to tell Abramoff personally that the Malaysian leader would soon be getting an official White House invitation.

In May 2002, Mahathir met with Bush in the Oval Office, and his photograph with the president was beamed around the world.

Abramoff laundered his fees from the government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, so it will be difficult to establish a precise quid pro quo:

The Malaysian payments were made to the American International Center, a bogus “international think tank” that an Abramoff partner, Michael Scanlon, set up at a Delaware beach house. Abramoff and Scanlon used the center to collect millions from their lobbying clients.

By routing the money in that manner, Abramoff identified his client on federal lobbying disclosure forms as the Delaware-based International Center and thus avoided having to register with the Justice Department as an agent of a foreign government.

And we can assume that emails and other records at the White House have been carefully scrubbed by now.

Bigotry Has a Cost: $364 Million

Jon Ponder

What a waste: According to the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, the government’s policy of not allowing gay patriots to serve their country cost taxpayers $363.8 million between 1994 and 2003.

The report, titled “Financial Analysis of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” was released through the Center for the Study of Sexual Minorities in the Military (CSSMM) at UC-Santa Barbara. It recalculates the cost of the law banning openly lesbian, gay, and bisexual service members by examining the oversights of a 2005 government study which put the cost of the ban at $190.5 million.

We’ll second this from Pam:

How much body armor could the Pentagon buy with this?

Jeb Jabs Dick Over Shooting

Buck Banks

Gettin’ his funny on: According to this afternoon’s edition of the Miami Herald, Gov. Jeb Bush made a joke at Vice President Dick Cheney’s expense over his allegedly accidental shooting of a hunting companion. Well, it was kind of a joke, I suppose:

Bush, younger brother of President Bush, spoke to about 1,000 people Monday at the Florida State Fair Governor’s Day Luncheon. All guests, including the governor, were given stickers from the Florida Farm Bureau that read, “No Farmers, No Food.”

Bush placed the bright orange sticker, the same color as a hunting jacket, on his chest.

”I’m a little concerned that Dick Cheney is going to walk in,” he said.

Hoowee, that one had them rolling in the aisles over at the Farm Bureau.

Bush Spent $1.62 Billion to Make Us Love Him and He Still Only Has a 42 Percent Approval Rating

Trish

Wondering how much all those paid White House product placements cost us taxpayers? Would you believe $1.62 billion?

“The extent of the Bush administration’s propaganda effort is unprecedented and disturbing,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif

Yes, fake news stories and secretly paid endorsements aren’t cheap, as we’re beginning to find out, thanks to the Government Accounting Office and our hero, David Walker, 54, U.S. comptroller general and one of the few people willing to challenge the Emperor Bush.

“The extent of the Bush administration’s propaganda effort is unprecedented and disturbing,” said U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. “The fact is that after all the spin, the American people are stuck with high prescription-drug prices, high gas prices and high college costs. This report raises serious questions about this administration’s priorities for the country and I would hope that my colleagues on both sides of the aisle would agree that changes need to be made to rein in the president’s propaganda machine.”

… The White House did not immediately return a call for comment.

Do they ever? Give them another 22 hours, and maybe they’ll come up with something.

The biggest government spenders were: the Department of Defense ($1.1 billion); Health and Human Services ($300 million); Department of the Treasury ($152 million); and the Department of Homeland Security ($24 million).

The spending was for everything from military recruitment advertising to prizes for various promotions. Democrats pointed to the $10,212 the Air Force spent for items bearing the Coca-Cola logo including portable radios, victory t-shirts, hats and coolers, as well as more that $35,000 for promotional materials for a golf program.

Meanwhile, Bush’s proposed budget includes selling park lands to pay for schools and cutting commodity food programs for seniors and placing them on food stamps instead.

Eerie Parallels Between Cheney, Oswald

Buck Banks

Keeping the “ass” in assassin: The cold-blooded shooting of prominent Austin attorney Harry Whittington by Vice President of Torture Dick Cheney while “hunting” on Saturday bears some chilling parallels with the assassination of John F. Kennedy by Lee Harvey Oswald in November 1963:

  • Both incidents involved a lone gunman.
  • Both incidents occurred in Texas.
  • Neither Cheney nor Oswald had a valid Texas hunting license.
  • In both incidents, the administration initially tried to conceal the facts from the media.

Coincidence? I don’t think so. Conspiracy? Probably. Cover-up? Undoubtedly.

WH Homeland Security Chief Says Bush Was ‘Engaged’ in Katrina Mismanagement

Jon Ponder

“I reject outright the suggestion that President Bush was anything less than fully involved.”

— Frances Fragos Townsend, White House homeland security adviser

Now Bubble Boy is dead and the Mission Accomplished action figure preznint is back.

So the White House is now saying that President Bush was fully engaged in the disastrous response to Hurricane Katrina by his government. This means that he was “fully involved” during the first 48 hours while thousands of Americans in New Orleans were dying and injured in the flooded streets or clinging to rooftops in the pouring ran with no help on the way.

Funny — what most of us remember was Mr. Bush cavorting with a guitar and Sen. McCain’s birthday cake.

Most tellingly, Townsend also said that the president’s critics were trying to “rewrite history” about the president’s actions. That was a dead giveaway that she — working from a script written by Karl Rove — was rewriting history even as she was speaking.

This is a remarkable revision of reality from the earlier revised reality that the White House floated in the weeks after the disaster. In the original concoction of events, Bush was a disengaged Bubble Boy who hates watching the news — even, apparently, the Fox News Channel where the news mullahs call the faithful to worship at his feet 24 hours a day.

In the original fictional narrative, it was the president’s phobia of the news, you see, that led to his confusion during the first 48 hours after Katrina. His aversion to information prevented him from watching live coverage of the destruction of America’s 44th largest metro area on television. This phobia was so bad that no one around the surly 59-year-old boy king — including his wife Laura or his parents, George I and Queen Bar — could muster the courage to convince him that something bad was happening in New Orleans, much less to tune in to the wall-to-wall coverage. It got so bad, finally, that one cowering but courageous courtier burned a DVD of news coverage and compelled Dear Leader to watch it.

The White House must have been surprised how readily the media and the public were willing to believe that Bush was such a dunce and a lout.

Now Bubble Boy is dead and the Mission Accomplished action figure preznint is back. So you know that something is up — a trick is in the works, records have been destroyed, memories have been cleansed, reality has been rewritten — if this strutting aristocratic popinjay is allowing anything close to blame to be laid at his own feet.

For one thing, it can only mean a fall guy has been chosen to take a bullet for Dear Leader. The question is, who will it be.

Schwarzenegger in Dead Heat with Angelides

Jon Ponder

Name recognition: If you have never heard of Phil Angelides or Steve Westly, you are not alone — even if you live here in Calfornia, where both men are Democrats running for governor against … what’s his name? Oh yeah, Arnold Schwarzenegger.

According to a new poll, Angelides, a comparative no-name, is beating Gov. Schwarzenegger by one point:

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) is in a virtual tie with State Treasurer Phil Angelides (D) in California’s 2006 gubernatorial election, according to a new Rasmussen Reports poll.

Angelides received the support of 41 percent of respondents and Schwarzenegger came in at 40 percent. This is “the third straight poll showing the gap between Angelides and Schwarzenegger as smaller than the survey margin of sampling error.”

In the other possible matchup, Schwarzenegger leads State Comptroller Steve Westly (D) 39 percent to 34 percent.

It isn’t as if Angelides and Westly are complete unknowns. They were both elected to high office in a state that only has a half dozen or so statewide positions. Still, they both have some work to do:

[A Los Angeles] Times poll last month showed that both Angelides and Westly are pretty obscure.

Asked their impression of Angelides, 72 percent of surveyed voters had none. And 82 percent had no impression of Westly.

It is too early to know but as things sit right now, the contest is Angelides to lose. Schwarzenegger has made some progress since his disastrous performance last year but every step he takes to appease the left alienates the 33 percent of hard rightwingers in the state.

What makes Angelides the frontrunner by a nose now is that he has something that neither of his opponents has: the endorsement of Sen. Dianne Feinstein — and he can take that to the bank.

Poll: Americans Pessimistic About Middle East Peace Prospects

Buck Banks

Conflict fatigue: A recent Gallup poll found that few Americans believe there will be peace in the Middle East anytime soon, if ever. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said they didn’t think there will “come a time when Israel and the Arab nations will be able to settle their differences and live in peace.”

  • Just 32 percent predicted more harmonious times.
  • Six in 10 said their sympathies were with the Israelis.
  • 15 percent said they felt more for the Palestinians.
  • 13 percent sympathized with neither group.
  • A 44-percent plurality of one half-sample said the U.S. should conduct diplomatic relations with Hamas only if it recognizes Israel as a country.
  • 57 percent of the other half-sample said the U.S. shouldn’t offer financial aid to the Palestinian Authority while Hamas is in power, regardless of its stance toward Israel.

    Heckuva job, Georgie!
    Nearly four in 10 respondents said they approved of President Bush’s work on foreign affairs, and 55 percent said they disapproved. His overall approval rating came in at 42/55, only slightly off from January’s 43/53.