Day: November 17, 2008
Elsa Prince, Mother of Blackwater Founder, Was Fourth Largest Prop 8 Donor
Michigan 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
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 anythingBush…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
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
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 LeavittAt 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?
