Day: December 10, 2006
On This Date – December 10
Armand Hammer, CEO of Occidental Petroleum,a staunch supporter of presidents Nixon, Reagan and Bush — and long-suspected Soviet spy — died on December 10, 1990, in Los Angeles. He was 92 years old.
Hammer grew up in New York and received a medical degree from Columbia University, but never practiced medicine. Instead, in the 1920s, he went into the pharmaceuticals business in the newly formed Soviet Union.
His lifelong association with the Soviet government raised suspicions about his allegiance to the United States. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Hammer’s name was reportedly found in KGB files that described him as an agent vliyana, an “agent of influence” in the United States for the Soviet government. However (and not surprisingly), definitive proof that he was a Soviet spy has never been produced, and so his political legacy in international relations remains a riddle.
His record as an agent for the Republican Party is crystal clear, however. In 1976, Hammer was convicted on federal misdemeanor charges for funnelling hush money to the Watergate burglars during the Nixon years.
These convictions became problematic a decade later when Hammer embarked on a quixotic mission to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize for his private diplomacy with the Soviets. After being nominated, however, he was thwarted by the fact that no previous recipient had ever had a criminal record.
Hammer requested a pardon from then-Pres. Reagan, sweetening the deal with an offer to donate $1.3 million to Reagan’s presidential library, which was to be built in Simi Valley, Calif. On his application, Hammer listed the reason for the requested pardon as “innocence.” When the Reagan team looked into his convictions, however, they found that he had pleaded guilty to the charges in order to get a better deal, and was therefore ineligible for the pardon on the basis of innocence.
Because Pres. Reagan failed to deliver the pardon, Hammer rescinded the donation to the library. The library sued to get the money but was unsuccessful.
Hammer soon got his pardon from Reagan’s successor, George H.W. Bush, however. At the end of Bush’s successful campaign for president, Hammer gave $110,000 to the Republican National Commmittee to allay campaign costs. He updated his pardon application, changing the reason for the request from “innocence” to “compassion.” On August 14, 1989, eight months after Bush was elected, he issued a full pardon for Hammer.
It was all for naught, however. Hammer lost the 1989 Nobel Peace to the Dalai Lama.
Hammer was born on May 21, 1898.
[Wiki, Counterpunch]
James Baker Probably Regrets What He Did in 2000
James Baker has to be kicking himself right now. After all, it’s largely his fault this num-nuts is in power. Serving as co-chair of the Iraq Study Group, and having its recommendations likely dismissed by the Cretin in Chief, is just a small pay-back for cursing us with this idiot to begin with.
Climb into the Way Back Machine and go to the fall of 2000. Baker led the Bush team petitioning the U.S. Supreme Court to void the decision by Florida’s high court which allowed a recount of suspicious ballots. Baker held a press conference to condemn the “activist” Florida justices and plea to set things right.
Baker in 2000: “Let the country step back for a minute and pause and think about what’s at stake here. This may be the last chance to do that. There is no reasonable end to this process if it slips away.”
The vote here in Florida was very close, but when it was counted Governor Bush was the winner.
Now, three days later, the vote in Florida has been recounted. Over two-thirds of the state election supervisors overseeing that recount are Democrats. At the end of this recount, Governor Bush is still the winner, subject only to counting the overseas ballots, which traditionally have favored the Republican candidates. No evidence of vote fraud, either in the original vote or in the recount, has been presented…
Let the country step back for a minute and pause and think about what’s at stake here. This may be the last chance to do that. There is no reasonable end to this process if it slips away.
…For the good of the country, and for the sake of our standing in the world, the campaigning should end and the business of an orderly transition should begin.
Where to start? Palm Beach County’s Democratic Elections Supervisor, Theresa LaPore, was later forced to resign in disgrace. Vote fraud, in both the original election and the Katherine Harris-supervised recount, was presented and proven. And as for this country’s standing in the world…
But Baker was also right. There was a lot at stake, and it was our last chance to avoid the horrible consequences. I’m not happy that it looks like Bush is rejecting the ISG’s work because we need to figure out how to make the killing in Iraq stop. But there is, as my cousin Jon likes to say, a certain schadenfreude in all this. How do you like your president now, James Baker?
Florida’s New Governor Flip-Flops Again
In what is probably a harbinger of his new administration, Florida Republican Governor-Elect Charlie Crist has again caved to public pressure and reversed himself. He is cancelling his inaugural ball, planned as the most extravagant in the state’s history, and bought and paid for by developers, Big Sugar, military contractors, and other greedy bastards who want to own a piece of the new governor.
No wonder columnist Mark O’Brien is asking Santa for a backbone for “Charlie Crist (R-All Things to All People)” this year.
Amid mounting criticism from the public and media, Gov.-elect Charlie Crist on Saturday abruptly canceled plans for a pricey inaugural ball, saying he should not have approved the solicitation of donations of as much as $500,000 to pay for events…
Crist’s sudden reversal came on a day when the Times and several other newspapers in Florida carried columns, editorials and cartoons critical of the party plans.
A Tampa Tribune editorial Saturday said “Crist’s solicitations don’t set the right tone for the new day he has promised in Tallahassee.”
In an editorial headlined “The lobbyists’ governor,” the Palm Beach Post said the $500,000 solicitations mean that Crist’s nickname, “Chain Gang Charlie,” should be changed to “Ka-Ching Charlie.”
In the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville, cartoonist Ed Gamble’s cartoon Saturday showed a cigar-chomping lobbyist telling two average-looking guests at the ball: “You don’t have to worry about the $2.5-million cost! We covered it!”
Crist’s handlers want his decision/chickening-out to be seen as listening and responding to the will of the people. Throughout his campaign, Crist certainly did that.
He began by introducing himself as Jeb II, promising to continue the previous governor’s policies and initiatives, including using the Florida Comprehensive Achievement Test as the only measure of success in public schools. When his opponent moved up in polls by claiming that the test is eroding, not improving, our educational system, Charlie allowed as how he might make some changes. When his opponent said he would require insurers to offer property coverage if they were permitted to offer more profitable auto coverage in the state, Charlie signed on. Twisting and turning, he waffled his way into the governor’s mansion.
Floridians can probably expect more of the same, with Charlie saying one thing one day and something else the next, depending. They don’t call him “Crist-Crossing Charlie” for nothing.
No wonder columnist Mark O’Brien is asking Santa for a backbone for “Charlie Crist (R-All Things to All People)” this year.
Truly Unethical: GOP Engaged in a Conspiracy of Silence about Foley’s Chickenhawking
The House Ethics Committee released its report on Friday at the eleventh hour of the last day of the 109th Congress. Aside from stern words directed at House members, especially former Rep. Foley, the report basically gave everyone a pass, saying it found that no rules had been broken.
Apparently, there is no specific rule that forbids House members from diddling the pages.
And yet hidden in plain sight in the report is a matter-of-fact description of a conspiracy of silence around Foley’s improper behavior. His colleagues and their staff members told investigators that they knew about Foley’s interaction with 16-year-old pages but did not turn him in because they were reluctant to out him as a gay man:
“Some may have been concerned that raising the issue too aggressively might have risked exposing Rep. Foley’s homosexuality…. There is some evidence that political considerations played a role in decisions that were made by persons in both parties.”
The report fails to connect the dots on this issue: The truly unethical behavior was how, in service to Foley’s secret sexuality, members of Congress tolerated his predation of teenaged boys.
Word of the Year: Truthiness
My new favorite dictionary webpage is Mirriam-Webster. They have just announced their choice for 2006 Word of the Year:
truthiness(noun)
1 : “truth that comes from the gut, not books” (Stephen Colbert, Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report,” October 2005)
2 : “the quality of preferring concepts or facts one wishes to be true, rather than concepts or facts known to be true” (American Dialect Society, January 2006
Runners up included “google” and “decider.”
Poll: Bush Sinks to 30%, Lowest Approval Ever
How low can he go?
Pres. Bush’s approval rating today is just five points higher than Pres. Nixon’s approval when he resigned in August 1974:
The national job approval rating of President Bush has plummeted to 30 percent, an all–time low in the latest Zogby International telephone poll, sinking below the 31 percent approval rating he dropped to in early June.
