February 2008 Archives

Think about this:

"It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance."

Bobby Kennedy, South Africa, June 6, 1966
Audio at: http://www.rfksa.org/contents/overview.php

Talk amongst ourselves...

(Ed note: DiAnne brought to us this list of corrupt Bush Administration officials who have either resigned or need to. It was posted on the Home page. If you're like me, sometimes you might forget to check the home page. So I'm posting it here where everyone can see it and comment on it. I will also be sending this compilation to my email list. How else can we spread the truth?)

I wanted to share here this list of corrupt Bush Administration officials who either have resigned or need to. The research was done by some of the staff at Talking Points Memo. Since the list could be endless, they narrowed it down with a requirement that there had to have been a criminal probe or had completely corrupted the office they held. So these people are bad, since Karl Rove didn't even make the cut. They also had to be political appointees or such insiders that they may as well have been.

Indicted / Convicted/ Pled Guilty

* Eric G. Andell - deputy undersecretary of newly Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools - pleaded guilty to one count of conflict of interest for using government travel for personal causes
* Claude Allen - Assistant to the President for Domestic Policy- resigned, pled guilty to shoplifting from Target stores.
* Lester Crawford - Commissioner, FDA - resigned after only two months on the job. He pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts, making a false writing and conflict of interest.
* Brian Doyle - Deputy Press Secretary, Department of Homeland Security - Resigned in wake of child sex scandal. He pleaded no contest to seven counts of use of a computer to seduce a child and sixteen counts of transmitting harmful material to a minor. He is to register as a sex offender.
* Steven Griles - Deputy Secretary at the Interior Department - is the highest-ranked administration official yet convicted in the Jack Abramoff scandal.
* John T. Korsmo – Chairman of the Federal Housing Finance Board – pleaded guilty in 2005 to lying to the Senate and an inspector general. He swore he had no idea how a list of presidents for FHFB-regulated banks were invited to a fundraiser for his friend's congressional campaign. On the invites, Korsmo was listed as the "Special Guest."
* Scooter Libby - Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff - resigned after being indicted for lying to a grand jury and investigators in connection with the investigation stemming from the leak of Valerie Wilson’s covert CIA operative's identity. President Bush commuted Libby's sentence by removing the thirty months in prison he was to serve.
* David Safavian - Office of Federal Procurement Policy at the Office of Management and Budget - convicted of lying to ethics officials and Senate investigators about his ties to lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
* Robert Stein - former comptroller for Coalition Provisional Authority, Iraq - pleaded guilty to conspiracy, bribery, conspiracy to commit money laundering, possession of a machine gun, and being a felon in possession of a fire arm.
* Roger Stillwell - desk officer, Interior Department - pleaded guilty to failing to report Redskins tickets and free dinners from Jack Abramoff.

Resigned Due to Investigation, Pending Investigation or Allegations of Impropriety

* Philip Cooney - chief of staff, White House Council on Environmental Quality - oil industry lawyer with no scientific expertise, resigned after it was revealed he had watered down reports on global warming.
* George Deutsch - press aide, NASA - resigned amid allegations he prevented the agency's top climate scientist from speaking publicly about global warming.
* Michael Elston - chief of staff to Deputy Attorney General McNulty - announced his resignation. Despite allegations that he’d threatened at least four of the eight fired US Attorneys, McNulty said Elston had served the Justice Department "with distinction for nearly eight years."
* Kyle Dustin “Dusty” Foggo - appointed executive director of the CIA - resigned and was ultimately indicted on bribery charges related to the Duke Cunningham scandal.
* Alberto Gonzales - Attorney General - resigned without explanation amidst investigations of the firings of U.S. Attorneys, the politicization of the Justice Department, warrantless surveillance, and the torture and mistreatment of detainees.
* Monica Goodling - senior counsel to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales - resigned amidst investigation of firings of U.S. Attorneys.
* Michelle Larson Korsmo - deputy chief of staff, Department of Labor - Helped her husband with his donor scam. Left her Labor plum job before news broke that she and her husband were the targets of a criminal probe.
* Howard "Cookie" Krongard - State Department inspector general -- accused of not properly investigating State Department contractor fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan; retaliating against whistleblowers; not telling the truth about his brother's ties with Blackwater.
* Julie Macdonald - former deputy assistant secretary at the Interior Department - resigned after an she improperly leaked information to private organizations, bullied staff scientists and broke federal rules."
* Paul McNulty - Deputy Attorney General for the Department of Justice – resigned, after questions about his involvement in the U.S. attorney firings and his testimony to Congress about the firings.
* Richard Perle - Chairman, Defense Policy Board - resigned from Pentagon advisory panel amid conflict-of-interest charges.
* Susan Ralston - assistant, White House - resigned amidst revelations that she had accepted thousands of dollars in gifts from Abramoff without compensating him, counter to White House ethics rules.
* Janet Rehnquist - Department of Health and Human Services - resigned in the face of an investigation into her alleged efforts to block a politically dangerous probe on behalf of the Bush family.
* James Roche - secretary, U.S. Air Force - resigned in the wake of the Boeing tanker lease scandal, after it was revealed he pushed for Boeing to win a $23 billion contract.
* Kyle Sampson - chief of staff for Attorney General Gonzales - resigned amidst the investigation of firings of U.S. Attorneys.
* Joseph Schmitz - Inspector General, Defense - Resigned amid charges he personally intervened to protect top political appointees.
* Bradley Schlozman - resigned from the Justice Department after actively politicizing the department. He's currently under investigation by the Department's inspector general.
* Thomas Scully - Administrator, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services - after Scully resigned, Department of Health and Human Services inspector general found Scully pressured the agency's actuary to underestimate the cost of Medicare reform bill by $100 billion until after Congress passed the bill.
* David Smith - deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife, and parks, Interior Department - resigned after shooting a buffalo and accepting its skeletal remains and meat as an illegal gratuity.
* John Tanner - Voting Rights Section Chief, Justice Department - resigned and moved to the Office of Special Counsel for Immigration-Related Unfair Employment Practices. Under suspicion for aiding efforts to politicize the voting section,he angered lawmakers with his comments that such voter protection laws discriminate against white voters because "minorities die first".
* Sara Taylor - Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Political Affairs, Karl Rove´s top aide - resigned amidst the U.S. attorneys investigation and other probes of Rove´s alleged politicization of the government.
* Ken Tomlinson - Board Chairman, Corporation for Public Broadcasting - resigned at release of an inspector general report concluding he broke laws in spending CPB money to hire politically connected consultants to search for "bias". A separate investigation found he was running a "horse racing operation" out of his office.
* Carl Truscott - Director, Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives Bureau - resigned. A report by the Justice Department's inspector general found that Truscott wasted tens of thousands of dollars on luxuries, millions on whimsical management decisions and violated ethics rules by ordering employees to help his nephew with a high school video project.
* Paul Wolfowitz - World Bank President - resigned after a committee report found that he broke ethics rules by giving his girlfriend a substantial raise.

Nomination Failed Due to Scandal

* Linda Chavez - nominated, Secretary of Labor - withdrew her nomination amidst revelations that an illegal immigrant lived in her home and worked for her in the early 1990s.
* Timothy Flanigan - nominated, Deputy Attorney General withdrew his nomination amidst revelations that he'd worked closely with Abramoff when he was General Counsel for Corporate and International Law at Tyco, a client of Abramoff's.
* Bernard Kerik - nominated, Secretary, Department of Homeland Security - withdrew his nomination amidst a host of corruption allegations. Pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor relating to improper gifts totaling tens of thousands of dollars while a New York City official in the 1990's. Kerik was indicted on sixteen counts for bribery, tax fraud, and false statements.
* William Mercer - the former associate deputy attorney general and US Attorney for Montana - withdrew his nomination to be the permanent number three official at the Department of Justice due to his role in the U.S. attorney firings.
* Hans von Spakovsky - Commissioner, FEC - nomination to another term after his recess appointment failed due to allegations that he'd worked at the Justice Department to suppress minority voter turnout.

Under Investigation But Still in Office

* Stuart Bowen - Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) - was admired for successes investigating allegations of waste and fraud in Iraq, but now allegations prompted four government investigations into Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR).
* Lurita Doan - Administrator of the U.S. General Services Administration - still in office, despite investigations by both the Office of Special Counsel and the House oversight committee that found that Doan had "crossed the line" by suggesting that the GSA use its resources to help Republicans get elected.
* Alfonso Jackson - Secretary of Housing and Urban Development - following reports that Jackson told a business group he once canceled a contract after the contractor criticized Bush, an investigation by HUD inspector general found that while Jackson told his deputies to favor Bush supporters, there was "no direct proof that a contract was actually awarded or rescinded because of political affiliation."

Rats have left the sinking ship but it's still infested. We need to run the bums out.

Then...
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

And now...
Bush Pentagon
Bush's Department of Justice

Bush's Supreme Court and Appellate Court System
Rigged , secret trials

I'm sure with your help we could list many more ways that the government has been taken away and is being run by a rogue pResident, a rogue party, and rogue Senators and Representatives who have sold their votes to their campaign financiers--the rogue corporations.

No doubt!!! No doubt at all!!!

We've lost the government for the people and by the people, but what are we willing to do to take back our country?

Fidel Castro at age 81 resigned his position as President of Cuba which he took over at age 32. According to Bloomberg, Castro said:

`I neither will aspire to nor will I accept, the position of president of the council of state and commander-in-chief,'' Castro wrote, according to Granma in its online edition. ``My only desire is to fight as a soldier for my ideas.''

Castro's resignation is extremely important. For Cuba's countrymen and women, it offers an opportunity for new policies, an end to the embargoes, and new diplomacy.

Castro's resignation is so important that George Bush gave a rare press conference from Rwanda. In Bush's statement, he begged for democracy and fair elections in Cuba instead of staged ones. He said:

the beginning of a democratic transition for the people of Cuba,'' President George W. Bush said in a news conference in Kigali, Rwanda, and promised U.S. help. The international community should support ``free and fair elections, and I mean free and I mean fair, not these kinds of staged elections that the Castro brothers try to foist off.''

Let that sink into your head for a few minutes.

(Editor's note: Take this online survey before reading this article. You're on your honor here!)

D' oh!!!

We're in deep trouble in America. According to a study by the new McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum a whopping 22 percent of Americans could name all five Simpson family members, compared with just one in 1,000 people who could name all five First Amendment freedoms.

This bears repeating...22 in 100 people can name all five of the Simpson family members and yet only 1 in 1000 can name the five freedoms that are included in the First Amendment!

There's more!

By a vote of 31-67 the Senate voted to give retroactive immunity for telecoms.

Hattip to TPM for the tallies:

...crossing over to vote nay were Sens. Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), Evan Bayh (D-IA), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Tim Johnson (D-SD), Herb Kohl (D-WI), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Blanche Lincoln (D-AR), Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), Ken Salazar (D-CO), Tom Carper (D-DE), Barbara Mikulski (D-MD), Jim Webb (D-VA), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Bill Nelson (D-FL), Kent Conrad (D-ND), and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). Update: Here's the official tally.

Presidential candidates Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL) were present for the vote – voting nay and yea, respectively.

According to the comments within the thread, Hillary was absent for the vote.

The House has already approved a different version, so until the House and Senate arrive at the same language, the retroactive immunity for telecoms is not officially law.

We have seen an unwillingness by those in Congress to stand up for the rule of law and to stop giving retroactive immunity for actions this administration has perpetrated.

Our fight against retroactive immunity must continue. We can not continue to have a President and a Congress that breaks laws and then creates laws to cover their collective asses.

What do we do to make our Congress and President and their corporations obey the rule of law?

Let's hear your suggestions in the comments section.

On fair elections and election theft:

Huckabee hires attorneys to investigate election fraud in Washington state.

Republican Mike Huckabee's campaign is sending attorneys to Washington state to investigate what happened with the count of yesterday's Republican presidential caucus

In 2000 and 2004, the Republicans in the Judiciary Office stated to me that John Conyer's hearings on what happened in Ohio was, and I quote here, "A circus!"

Looks like the circus now includes the Republican primary in 2008.

For your amusement, DCPers, I am sharing my analysis my university put out last week, picked up by apparently no one, so it is here for us to discuss. Anyone have a different perspective or insight?

Judge the Presidential Match-Ups by the Fancy Footwork, Say Experts

Ahead of Super Tuesday, a non-verbal communication expert at the University of ____ offers an unusual perspective on the potential presidential match-ups in the election next November: by reading the candidates’ gestures and movements.

“It’s not how they run, it’s how they dance,” says Karen Bradley, a visiting associate professor of dance at the University of ___.

Among the observations offered by Bradley and her colleague, Karen Studd, an associate professor of dance at _____ University: Clinton vs. McCain “may look more like wrestling than waltzing,” while an Obama-McCain match would resemble a nimble, virtuosic dribbler vs. a “tight end,” with a “stolid and relentless ability to keep pushing back and through.”

Here’s their complete analysis and contact information. Both are certified movement analysts:

* * *

Judge the Presidential Match-Ups by the Fancy Footwork
By Karen Bradley and Karen Studd

Forget the polling data on how the remaining presidential contenders might fare against each other in November. You can get a visceral sense of what the match-ups may produce by the way the candidates move. As certified movement analysts, we see campaigns as elaborate dances and, sometimes, athletic confrontations.

Clinton vs. McCain: Flat-Footed Flamenco

Both of these candidates are running as solid, experienced, grounded leaders; both have a touch of high-mindedness. But while Mrs. Clinton showed some softness and accommodation and Mr. McCain showed a small moment of actual enjoyment in New Hampshire, expect this dance to be brutal and tough. Neither of these two is likely to “follow” the other. Both can have set jaws and we can imagine the grit with which they may face each other. And both are capable of holding their ground and digging in their heels. In fact, the contest may look more like wrestling than waltzing.

Obama vs. McCain: The Basketball Player and the Tight End

This one would be interesting. Do the American people prefer the one who can dribble for a while until making the shot? Or do we want the solid immovable guy who will hunker down and block the pass? Barack Obama’s short spurts of flow, coupled with his ability to almost levitate when he gets going on his oratory, contrast with John McCain’s stolid and relentless ability to keep pushing back and through. Watch the difference in how they stand behind a podium and deliver a message: Obama seems to be dancing back there, turning this way and that, while McCain holds onto the sides of the podium and occasionally stares down his opponents.

Clinton vs. Romney: The Realist and the Optimist

This could turn into a movie musical, with the relentlessly upbeat Romney tap dancing his way into the hearts of millions, while Hillary Clinton tries to transcend her dark, somber modern dance. Or, viewed from the opposite side of the stage, it might look like Hillary Clinton dancing circles around the always-erect Mitt Romney. Nobody would make her seem more down-to-earth than the oddly cheerful Mr. Romney and no one would make him seem more optimistic and hopeful than the grounded, pragmatic Mrs. Clinton.

Obama vs. Romney: The Cakewalk Competition

In this scenario, Obama would come off as the virtuosic mover, while Romney would keep it simple. They would not even pay a shred of attention to each other. We are not sure that even eye contact would ensue. In competition dances, this may be best. It would remain to be seen who has the best moves and who “takes the cake.” And yes, that is, in part, a race reference: the Cakewalk was a competition dance between slaveholders of slaves out-performing each other, with the winning dancer taking the cake. Such competitions produced an evolution of dance steps the world had never before beheld, blending African, Irish, and English contra-danse. But in the Romney-Obama competition, we would not expect much blending to take place.

Obama vs. Huckabee: Liturgical Dance of the American Spirit

Here you would see two men who do well from the pulpit, taking a higher road – perhaps a more lyrical one to boot. Both men have rhythm and game and a connection to their hearts. Both are highly relational and attuned to the audience, and both perform with grace. Gov. Huckabee often spreads his arms and then brings the conclusion of his message straight to his chest, with a gesture to and from the heart. Sen. Obama often turns from one side to the other with a gesture of the hand from the heart to the audience, a reaching out and across.

Clinton vs. Huckabee: The Arkansas Two-Step

Mrs. Clinton would have to channel her ability to be a little softer, more southern, more mobile, and surely she will need to listen and attune more. Mr. Huckabee will need to get a little tougher and become more a paragon of strength in addition to being a paragon of compassion. Expect a lot of trading off between meandering and straight pathways, between zooming in and stepping back to take in the whole. This competition is complex and full!

The season promises to provide an extravaganza of opportunities to assess the abilities of these candidates to perform, respond, interact and reveal who they truly are. And as the music changes constantly, with new beats and tunes required, steps are easy to change, if one is listening and responsive to the music. It’s not how they run; it’s how they dance.

If you're a Hillary supporter then yesterday's election results left you shocked but happy.

If you're an Obama supporter then yesterday's election results left you shocked but happy.

Super Tuesday was full of surprises and narrow wins and losses.

Super Tuesday is finally here! A lot may be decided today.

But, who cares about Super Tuesday when you can skip studying the issues, or learning about the candidates' positions on those issues, but instead you can grab a brew and watch the latest hockey game on ESPN? And heck, who wants to actually learn about the science behind global warming, or the history of Reaganomics, or the history of the Vietnam War, or the people involved in PNAC when it's much more interesting to watch the demise of Britney and Amy Winehouse. (Insert sarcasm tag)


We have to face it. Our country is suffering from a serious illness.

It's called, "Ignorance and Apathy."

Pre-Super Tuesday polls are springing up every where.

Online polls, telephone polls, Gallop polls, push polls...

Ever been polled? What do these polls mean to you?

[Editor's note: This entry should not cause mudslinging, name-calling, impassioned arguing about who is a numbnut, or anything remotely related to infantile behaviors. We are here for democracy, not argument-winning. Thank you].

So last night I watched the Hillary-Barack lovefest and I was happy.

And happy is not a word I use often, lately. Times being what they are and all, I really have to think about the things that I do feel happy about.

Kittens. Godiva hot chocolate. My two friends who are in love, at ages 51 and 44 respectively and at last.

But last night, I was happy because I saw and heard the choices the American people have. And those choices are getting clearer and the lights are coming on.

Illumination always makes me happy. Without all the noise (and ignoring Wolfie), the two Democratic candidates got to elaborate on their views and demonstrate their respective styles, as did the Republican front runners the evening before. I analyzed the movement and I saw what I think we need to be paying attention to.

In terms of content, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama are not that dissimilar, and now that we, the people, have made our concerns ever-so-much clearer, they are listening to the will of the voters and not so much to the will of the consultants. I hope this trend continues and the policies evolve to include some rational ideas about how we can get through this mess, take care of people, and end this war nonsense.

But in terms of style, OH, so different! Let's go to the videotape:

Obama gestures close to his body, in movements that connect and bridge to others. His head floats above it all, nodding and looking around with an open focus.

Clinton opens by advancing her case, with gestures that lay out the agenda, her focus is softer than it often is, but she gets into some long, repetitive phrases. She spends time laying out her policies, stating the facts, and she is quite serious.

Obama is relating to her, opening up to her. She is closed off to him for much of the debate.

Clinton presses forward with her proposals. Obama is a comprehensive thinker and we can see him considering. She has already made up her mind.

Hillary comes across as competent and a deal-maker. Her hand gestures in a palm-down, elbow-bent tamping down movement as if she is putting down any other suggestions.

Barack is laying it all out reasonably. He explains, he weighs options, he references his own experiences and presents the pathways to his conclusions.

Hillary operates within highly defined space, drawing boundaries around the ideas. When she speaks of her own experiences, she places them as if on a table or desk in front of her, asking us to look at them.