Category: Corruption

Claude Rains Would be Shocked: More Lobbyists On McCain Staff Than Any Other 08 Candidate

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(It’s a reference to Casablanca)
McCain has been dirty since his Keating 5 days.
BTW, when you read this look at the ads. I bet that $#@% McCain ad will be back on the right column.

More Lobbyists On McCain Staff Than Any Other 08 Candidate
John McCain, who made his name attacking special interests, has more lobbyists working on his staff or as advisers than any of his competitors, Republican or Democrat.

A Huffington Post examination of the campaigns of the top three presidential candidates in each party shows that lobbyists are playing key roles in both Democratic and Republican bids –although they are far more prevalent on the GOP side. But, all the campaigns pale in comparison to McCain’s, whose rhetoric stands in sharp contrast to his conduct.

“Too often the special interest lobbyists with the fattest wallets and best access carry the day when issues of public policy are being decided,” McCain asserts on his web site, declaring that he “has fought the ‘revolving door’ by which lawmakers and other influential officials leave their posts and become lobbyists for the special interests they have aided.”

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Alberto Gonzales Is the Key to the Bush Admin Corruption

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It seems that every bit of skulduggery, though not every bit of incompetence, has Abu Gonzalez’s fingerprints on it.

Seriously…This guy is the alpha and omega of Bush corruption.

If he gets flipped, we uncover everything.

A New Dick Cheney-Alberto Gonzales Mystery
Newsweek

July 2-9, 2007 issue – A new battle has erupted over Vice President Dick Cheney’s refusal to submit to an executive order requiring a government review of his handling of classified documents. But the dispute could also raise questions for embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. For the past four years, Cheney’s office has failed to comply with an executive order requiring all federal offices—including those in the White House—to annually report to the National Archives on how they safeguard classified documents. Cheney’s hard-line chief of staff, David Addington, has made the novel argument that the veep doesn’t have to comply on the ground that, because the vice president also serves as president of the Senate, his office is not really part of the executive branch.

Cheney’s position so frustrated J. William Leonard, the chief of the Archives’ Information Security Oversight Office, which enforces the order, that he complained in January to Gonzales. …

Why didn’t Gonzales act on Leonard’s request? His aides assured reporters that Leonard’s letter has been “under review” for the past five months—by Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC). But on June 4, an OLC lawyer denied a Freedom of Information Act request about the Cheney dispute asserting that OLC had “no documents” on the matter, according to a copy of the letter obtained by NEWSWEEK.

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El Paso Times – Suit shines spotlight on immigration judgeships

By Louie Gilot / El Paso Times
Article Launched: 06/24/2007 12:00:00 AM MDT

Guadalupe Gonzalez is the chief counsel for Immigration and Customs Enforcement in El Paso, a lawyer with more than 20 years of experience in immigration law and a stellar record. In 2002, she made the next logical career move, applying to become an immigration judge.

“I love El Paso. It is my home. I was born and raised here, and it’s important for me personally to contribute in a role that is both vitally important to our country and of particular importance to the El Paso community,” she said.

But the job went to a Anglo male candidate with no reported immigration experience. In 2004, when two other judgeships opened, they went to two other Anglo males, both of them Gonzalez’s subordinates with markedly less expertise in immigration law than Gonzalez.Ê

Gonzalez, 56, sued the U.S. attorney general for discrimination on the basis of gender and national origin, and the suit is pending in a court in Washington, D.C.

In her filings, Gonzalez claimed that since 2001, only two Hispanics were appointed nationwide for 40 immigration judgeships. The four immigration judges in El Paso are all Anglo men.

The case has attracted national attention amid a scandal over the apparent politicization of attorney general positions and judgeships.

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Gordon Brown apologises for Tony Blair

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Really, this is about separating himself from Tony Blair, who is about to do the only thing that could possibly make him less popular in Britain, he is becoming a Catholic.

Brown is calling Blair a lying sack of $#@!.

Brown apologises for Iraq intelligence ‘mistakes’

Britain’s next prime minister Gordon Brown apologised for mistakes in intelligence made in the run-up to the Iraq war in a BBC television interview Friday.

Brown has stressed that he will push for a new emphasis in Iraq when he takes over from current premier Tony Blair on Wednesday but went further than before in his latest comments.

“We have apologised, and I repeat that, for the mistakes that were made in intelligence,” he said.

“I think we’ve got to be honest about it that mistakes were made at the point of reconstruction after Saddam Hussein fell … mistakes made by all of us in the reconstruction progress,” he said.

Brown also said that there would be clearer boundaries between intelligence and politics when he was in office.

“I’m setting in place what I think are far more rigorous procedures so that the intelligence is seen to be different from, if you like, any decision by a politician,” he added.

“I want people to know that in future, they can be satisfied that, where public information is provided, it has gone through an authoritative process and it is free of political influence.“

emphasis mine

You Have to be F&@#ing Kidding Me.

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I just came across the following Guiliani press release, dated March 1, 2007:

Mayor Giuliani Announces Theodore Olson as Chair of Justice Advisory Committee

The Rudy Giuliani Presidential Exploratory Committee today announced that former Solicitor General Theodore Olson will chair the Mayor’s Justice Advisory Committee.

…..

“Ted Olson is a renowned Constitutional expert, one of the very best lawyers in the United States and I am honored to have his support,” Mayor Giuliani said. “Judith and I are even more honored by his friendship.”
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Whiskey Tango Foxtrot???? Is this some sort of dog whistle to the right wing Clinton haters of the Republican party?

This guy makes Jack Abramhoff look clean.

Bloomberg: It’s About Greedy Political Consultants, Stupid

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Who wants Michael Bloomberg to run for president?

The press, leaves the important information at the end.

YAHOO FOR MIKE SWITCHEROO: BUBBA

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

June 22, 2007 — Former President Bill Clinton congratulated Mike Bloomberg yesterday for quitting the Republican Party – and predicted his wife will still be the next president even if the mayor joins the race.

…

Experts estimated that with a half-billion-dollar campaign budget, at least $300 million would be spent on television commercials, $75 million for direct mail, and tens of millions more for high-end travel arrangements and operations around the country.

“Bloomberg would want to try to put 60 percent of $500 million on paid advertising – broadcast, cable, Internet, minority outreach, radio,” said GOP consultant Scott Reed.

Yep, it’s the political consultants, who get 30%-40% of each media buy by a campaign.

Scott Reed is drooling right now like the ghoul he is.

A Quick Post on Republithug Criminality.

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Jay Garrity, who is director of operations on Romney’s presidential campaign has impersonated a police officer.

Guiliani adviser is a priest suspended for allegations of child abuse.

This is in addition to his SC campaign chair dealing cocaine.

And for Romney? Robert Lichfield, co-chairman of Romney’s Utah finance committee owned or operated residential boarding schools for troubled teenagers where students were “subjected to physical abuse, emotional abuse and sexual abuse.

Duncan Hunter Tied to Duke Cunningham Aircraft Project

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We know that Cunningham would not try to move his own mother’s bill through congress unless there was graft in it for him.

So, What did Duncan Hunter get from DuPont Aerospace?

Cunningham helped Hunter push for locally made jet
Congress reviewing funding for plane Pentagon rejected
By Dean Calbreath
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

June 16, 2007

Four months after Randy “Duke” Cunningham entered Congress in 1991, he joined with Rep. Duncan Hunter to urge the Pentagon to buy an aircraft that became the focus of a congressional investigation this week.

The DP-2 Vectored Thrust Aircraft, developed by duPont Aerospace in La Jolla, received $63 million in congressional funding despite repeated Pentagon studies that criticized the vehicle as being unsafe and unworkable.

After 20 years of testing, the aircraft has never flown and has never received a positive review from the military, prompting an investigation by the House Science and Technology Committee.

Funding for the aircraft was spearheaded by Hunter, R-Alpine, and former Rep. Christopher Cox, who now leads the Securities and Exchange Commission.

In 1990, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, issued a scathing report on the DP-2. DARPA found that the jet had poor stability and serious safety issues. Among other things, the jet’s engines created dust storms that could erode visibility; its long-range fueling system was “unadvisable”; and its stealth capabilities – which Hunter cited as a major reason for supporting the project – made it only “marginally more survivable” than other aircraft.

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What She Daid, Deborah Leavy Edition

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I guess that the Beltway pundits think that punishment only applies to black and Hispanic folks.

Thank you Ms. Leavy, for a breath of honesty from Philadelphia.

DO THE CRIME, DO THE TIME
Deborah Leavy

PROMINENT conservatives, pundits and websites are rallying around I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, ex-chief of staff to Vice President Cheney, who has been sentenced to 30 months and fined $250,000 after being convicted of obstruction of justice, perjury and lying to a grand jury and federal investigators.

In sentencing Libby, federal Judge Reggie Walton cited “overwhelming” evidence of Libby’s guilt. “People who occupy these types of positions, where they have the welfare and security of the nation in their hands, have a special obligation,” declared the judge, who was appointed by President George W. Bush.

But conservative Republicans argue that Libby is a dedicated public servant, and that he is merely the victim of a faulty memory. They are pressuring President Bush to pardon Libby.

But many Democrats are gleeful. They haven’t forgotten that when Bill Clinton lied about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky, Republicans called him unfit for office, and Clinton was impeached. Now the shoe is one the other foot, Democrats crow.

Revenge should have no role in the criminal-justice system, nor should it be a reason to exult in Libby’s case. If revenge were the reason for Libby’s sentence, I would join those calling for his pardon.

But I don’t think the judge is sending Libby to prison for payback. Judge Walton is known as a tough sentencer, and since Libby did the crime he should do the time.

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Dan Froomkin Nails it on Torture

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Froomkin’s analysis is clear, concise, and to the point.

The full article by Seymour Hersh is horrifying.

They all knew they were torturing, and they directed and actively encouraged it.

Impeach Dick Cheney today, impeach George W. Bush tomorrow.

Dan Froomkin – New Questions About Abu Ghraib

By Dan Froomkin
Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, June 18, 2007; 2:12 PM

A New Yorker article is raising uncomfortable questions for the White House about what President Bush knew about the horrific abuse at Abu Ghraib, when he knew it — and whether he and his top lieutenants bear more responsibility for it than they have acknowledged.

The shocking news and appalling photographs chronicling the sadistic torture of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. personnel first emerged in April 2004, deeply damaging America’s reputation, particularly in the Arab world. Bush responded by expressing disgust at the behavior of a small number of people who, he said, were acting on their own. He said those responsible would be held accountable. And he said he had not seen the photographs before they were made public.

But according to Seymour M. Hersh’ s blockbuster story in the New Yorker, Bush was told about the abuse Abu Ghraib long before the photographs went public, failed to respond appropriately — and may indeed have recognized what happened at Abu Ghraib as the predictable result of administration policy rather than the random act of a few bad apples.

Hersh’s story is based on interviews with Antonio M. Taguba, the former two-star general who submitted a scathing (and career-killing) secret report about Abu Ghraib in March 2004. Hersh also concludes that then-defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld knew more than he admitted and that the abuses were in some cases similar to treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

But from a White House perspective, the most significant aspect of Hersh’s story is that it threatens to associate Bush with a sordid chapter of the Iraq war from which he has managed to remain largely disconnected by pointing fingers down the chain of command. Hersh’s report raises the possibility that those truly responsible for Abu Ghraib have never been held accountable.

Here’s Hersh talking to Wolf Blitzer on CNN yesterday: “The question you have to ask about the president is this: No matter when he learned — and certainly he learned before it became public — and no matter how detailed it was, is there any evidence that the president of the United States said to Rumsfeld, ‘What’s going on there, Don? Let’s get an investigation going.’

“Did he do anything? Did he ask for a — did he want to have the generals come in and talk to him about it? Did he want to change the rules? Did he want to improve the conditions?

“BLITZER: And what’s the answer?

“HERSH: Nada. He did nothing. . . .

“BLITZER: Here’s the White House response. We asked the White House for a response to your article: ‘The president addressed this fully. He first saw the pictures on TV and he was upset by them. He called for the investigation to go forward. He found the actions abhorrent and urged the Defense Department to get to the bottom of the matter.’

“HERSH: It’s not when they saw the photographs. It’s when they learned how serious it was. They were told in memos what the photographs showed.”

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Of note is the statement by Taguba that he was Forbidden to invistigate higher ups.

Surprise. Making US Attournies Political Hit Men Will Be Used Against Them in Court

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These morons have added yet Another hurdle for prosecutors pursuing corruption in particular, and white collar crime (notice the wage and hour case?) in general.

I’m wondering if this wasn’t on some level intended. After all, protecting rich white guys is a Republican priority.

U.S. attorneys fallout seeps into courts

Defense lawyers in different cases are raising new questions about government prosecutors and potential political biases.
By Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writer
June 18, 2007

WASHINGTON — For months, the Justice Department and Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales have taken political heat for the purge of eight U.S. attorneys last year.

Now the fallout is starting to hit the department in federal courtrooms around the country.

Defense lawyers in a growing number of cases are raising questions about the motives of government lawyers who have brought charges against their clients. In court papers, they are citing the furor over the U.S. attorney dismissals as evidence that their cases may have been infected by politics.

Justice officials say those concerns are unfounded and constitute desperate measures by desperate defendants. But the affair has given defendants and their lawyers some new energy, which is complicating life for the prosecutors.

Missouri lawyers have invoked the controversy in challenging last year’s indictment of a company owned by a prominent Democrat, on suspicion of violating federal wage and hour laws. The indictment, which came two months after the owner announced that she was running for political office, was obtained by a Republican U.S. attorney who also has been criticized because he charged workers for a left-leaning political group on the eve of the 2006 midterm election.

A lawyer in a child pornography case recently defended his client at a federal trial in Minnesota in part by questioning the motives of the Republican U.S. attorney, who has come under scrutiny in the congressional investigation into the prosecutor purge.

Lawyers for a former county official in Delaware who has been accused of corruption asked a judge in early May to allow them to subpoena the Justice Department and White House for documents to see whether political motives factored into charges being brought against the official. They cited the brewing controversy inside the Beltway.

“Those revelations dramatically reinforce the reasons to believe that considerations beyond mere law enforcement are behind this prosecution,” the lawyers wrote.

The defendant, a once up-and-coming Democrat, was being prosecuted by the U.S. attorney in Wilmington, a Republican appointee.

…

But Democrats say there is evidence that the dismissals were part of a Bush administration effort to affect investigations in public corruption and voting cases that would assist Republicans. The probe has also shown that politics may have played a role in the hiring of some career Justice employees, in possible violation of federal law.

The controversy has drained morale from U.S. attorney offices around the country. And now, legal experts and former Justice Department officials say, it is casting a shadow over the integrity of the department and its corps of career prosecutors in court.

There has long been a presumption that, because they represented the Justice Department, prosecutors had no political agenda and their word could be trusted. But some legal experts say the controversy threatens to undermine their credibility.

“It provides defendants an opportunity to make an argument that would not have been made two years ago,” said Daniel J. French, a former U.S. attorney in Albany, N.Y. “It has a tremendously corrosive effect.”

Defense lawyers in political corruption cases often argue to juries that the prosecution was motivated by politics, especially when the prosecutor happens to be of a different political party than the defendant.

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My Former Employer/Client Under Criminal Investigation

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I worked on the Future Combat System Recovery and Maintenance Vehicle, FRMV, from 2003-2006. I worked at BAE Systems in York, PA (Formerly United Defense), under the direction of BAE Systems employees, but my paycheck was from another firm TAC Worldwide, who does technical placement, both temp and perm.

BTW, the folks at TAC are pretty decent, and if you are looking for technical work on the East coast, contact Harry Torbit at their Baltimore Office. He’s a good guy.

We know the money was dirty, because it went through Riggs Bank.

Also the “Bob Cratchett” imagery is prize.

The House of Saud may very well be the most corrupt organization on earth.

BAE faces criminal inquiry in US over £1bn payments

Justice department alarmed at claims over MoD’s role

David Leigh and Rob Evans
Thursday June 14, 2007
The Guardian

The US department of justice is preparing to open a corruption investigation into the arms company BAE, the Guardian has learned. It would cover the alleged £1bn arms deal payments to Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia.

Washington sources familiar with the thinking of senior officials at the justice department said yesterday it was ‘99% certain’ that a criminal inquiry would be opened under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). Such an investigation would have potentially seismic consequences for BAE, which is trying to take over US arms companies and make the Pentagon its biggest customer.

The sources say US officials were particularly concerned by the allegations in the Guardian that UK Ministry of Defence officials actively colluded in the payments. One said: “The image of all these Bob Cratchits in Whitehall sitting at their high stools processing invoices from Bandar has been a startling one to us.“

The Guardian has revealed allegations that BAE used the US banking system to transfer quarterly payments to accounts controlled by Prince Bandar at Riggs Bank in Washington. Another senior US source said this brought the payments within the ambit of the FCPA. “Prosecutors have previously taken the view that the FCPA does reach that far,” the source said.

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More Bush Law Breaking

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I miss Richard Nixon.

I can’t believe I said that, but I miss Nixon’s competence and relative honesty.

I can’t believe I just said that.

Stop the world, I want to get off.

Dem Claims Meddling in Waiver Request

By ERICA WERNER
The Associated Press
Tuesday, June 12, 2007; 9:04 PM

WASHINGTON — The Transportation Department acknowledged Tuesday encouraging members of Congress to weigh in with the EPA on California’s request to implement global warming controls on automakers.

California officials criticized the intervention by one executive branch agency with another as improper and possibly illegal, but a Transportation Department attorney said it wasn’t.

The Environmental Protection Agency is accepting comments through Friday on whether to grant California a waiver to put in place a state law that would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent from cars and 18 percent from sport utility vehicles beginning in 2009.

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Waxman wrote that the call “raises serious concerns” as an improper or possibly illegal use of federal resources, and at the very least “suggests the presence of an improper hidden agenda.” He asked for records of any other contacts and said he wanted to depose Shahmoradi.

California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez called the Transportation Department’s intervention “a whispering campaign by administration officials to try and derail one of the most important tools out there to fight global warming.”

The EPA has not indicated when, or if, it will grant the waiver.

2 Committees Subpoena Ex-Officials on Dismissals – New York Times

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Phony offer.

2 Committees Subpoena Ex-Officials on Dismissals

By DAVID JOHNSTON
Published: June 14, 2007

WASHINGTON, June 13 — The Senate and House Judiciary Committees issued subpoenas on Wednesday to Harriet E. Miers, the former White House counsel, and Sara M. Taylor, the former political director, ratcheting up the pressure on the White House to cooperate with the Congressional inquiry into last year’s firings of federal prosecutors.

The White House has rejected previous Congressional requests to interview presidential aides, offering to let them be interviewed in private if no transcript is kept.

The judiciary panels, acting two days after Republicans blocked an effort to hold a no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, also sought White House documents about its involvement in the dismissals and efforts to respond to Congressional inquiries into whether as many as nine United States attorneys were removed for political reasons.

A White House spokesman, Tony Fratto, said in a statement that “committees can easily obtain the facts they want without this confrontational approach by simply accepting our offer.” The committees’ Democratic leaders “are more interested in creating media drama than getting the facts,” Mr. Fratto said.

…

The offer is no transcript, in secret, and not sworn in.

This means:

  • No Ability to Investigate Conflicting Testimony

  • No Ability To Document Lies

  • No Ability to Prosecute Lies

  • No Public Disclosure of Illegality

Translation, “I’m gonna make you squeal like a pig.”

Scooter Is Going To Gaol.

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As tempting as it is to make politically incorrect jokes, I will simply leave it at:

Scooter is a Really Bad Name in Prison

Judge won’t delay Libby prison term

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer 1 minute ago

WASHINGTON – A federal judge said Thursday he will not delay a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, a ruling that could send the former White House aide to prison within weeks.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton’s decision will send Libby’s attorneys rushing to an appeals court to block the sentence and could force
President Bush to consider calls from Libby’s supporters to pardon the former aide.

Fort Leavenworth Chaplains Accused of Anti-Semitic Publishing

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This needs to be dealt with aggressively.

This sort of behavior is antithetical to good order and discipline of the military, and this behavior is becoming more common.

Fort Leavenworth Chaplains Accused of Anti-Semitic Publishing

By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Report

Monday 11 June 2007

At the Fort Leavenworth, Kansas Army base, military chaplains have been holding Bible classes for US soldiers using study guides that appear to be anti-Semitic.

The Fort Leavenworth chaplains have posted these lesson plans on the Internet under a web address that is maintained by the federal government, giving off the appearance that the religious materials in question are endorsed by the Pentagon. Moreover, disseminating the ideology via a government funded web site may violate the law mandating the separation between church and state.

The nonprofit watchdog group, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, an organization that seeks to enforce the law mandating the separation between church and state in the US military, discovered the documents late last week. The anti-Semitic materials are posted as PDF files at the web site, Command Chaplain Bible Studies, which is maintained by the US Army’s Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth.

The Officers Christian Fellowship Neighborhood Study Guides quote portions of the New Testament and were written by Major George Kuykendall, the leader of Fort Leavenworth’s Officer’s Christian Fellowship (OCF) who died in 1998, according to Chris Rodda, a senior researcher at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. Rodda said, “The study guides also encourage soldiers to engage in an unconstitutional level of proselytizing to fellow military personnel in the Fort Leavenworth Community.”

In one of the study guides, Galatians, posted on the Fort Leavenworth chaplain web site, the materials refer to Jews as “Judaizers” – persons who without being Jews follow in whole or in part the Jewish religion or claim to be Jews – and claim that “the Judaizers were zealous people much like the zealous Moslems have become today.”

The 34-page Galatians study guide deals primarily with “Paul,” who the Jews “persecuted,” according to the study guide.

“Why did the Jews persecute Paul? Because of his teachings,” the study guide says. “The cross was an offense to the Jews. Jesus had victory over the cross (death).”

The study guide then says that anyone who turns from Christianity to Judaism “should be condemned to spiritual death and hell.”

“The Judaizers attempted to destroy the two foundations of the Christian religion: a. The Grace of God, and b. The Death of Christ,” the Galtatian study guide says, adding that Judaism is a religion of “bondage” and Christianity a religion of “freedom.”

In discussing modern day Jerusalem, chaplains ask soldiers to provide an answer to the following question: “How does the present Jerusalem represent slavery?”

A person who answered the telephone at the Fort Leavenworth chaplains’ office refused to disclose his name when contacted for comment. The individual, a male, said there have not been prior complaints to the Bible study guides and that “I would not characterize the material as anti-Semitic.”

“I guess if you’re Jewish you may see it that way, but we’re discussing the gospels as it appears in the New Testament,” this person said, who added that there was no plan to remove the study guides from the web site. Messages left at the public affairs office at Fort Leavenworth were not returned. Calls to a Pentagon spokesperson were also not returned.

But for Mikey Weinstein, the founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, the religious teachings are not only blatantly anti-Semitic, but he believes disseminating it over the Internet tramples upon the Constitution.

“It’s illegal for an arm of the federal government to push this ideology,” Weinstein, who is Jewish, said in an interview. “This is the official web site of the US Army, and this is here for everyone to see. Anyone would easily come away with the belief that the US Army endorses these teachings. The last time someone talked about a Jewish problem the way these chaplains are talking about it was in Europe in the 1930s. What these Bible teachings say to me or to anyone participating in these classes is that the US government loves the military but Jews are bad.”

Weinstein said he intends to file a lawsuit against the US Army alleging Constitutional violations.

“I’m sick of writing letters,” Weinstein said. “This type of fundamentalism needs to stop. This particular violation propagates every vile and wretched stereotype of the Jewish faith.”

Weinstein, a former White House counsel who defended the Reagan administration during the Iran-Contra probe, has been waging a one-man war against the Department of Defense for what he says is a blatant disregard of the Constitution. He recently published a book on the issue: “With God on Our Side: One Man’s War Against an Evangelical Coup in America’s Military.” Weinstein is also an Air Force veteran and a graduate of the Air Force Academy. Three generations of his family have attended US military academies.

Since he launched his watchdog organization 18 months ago, Weinstein said he has been contacted by more than 4,000 active duty and retired soldiers, many of whom served or serve in Iraq, who told Weinstein that they were pressured by their commanding officers to convert to Christianity.

Weinstein said a right-wing fundamentalist Christian agenda under President Bush has hijacked the military.

“The rise of evangelical Christianity inside the military went on steroids after 9/11 under this administration and this White House,” Weinstein said in an interview. “This administration has turned the entire Department of Defense into a faith-based initiative.”

Over Memorial Day weekend, Weinstein lashed out at the Air Force for co-sponsoring, along with evangelical Christian organizations, a three-day event celebrating the Air Force’s 60th anniversary.

The event, sponsored by Task Force Patriot USA, an evangelical organization, and LifeWay Christian Resources, the publishing house of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), was described by the official publication of the Robins Air Force Base as “an official US Air Force 60th Anniversary event.” The paper stated that the religious groups and the United States Air Force “have joined together to create a three-day celebration….”

Plans for the event prompted a forceful response from watchdog groups. In a letter to Air Force Secretary Michael W. Wynne and Acting Secretary of the Army Peter Geren, the Reverend Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU), called the event “a stunning display of the federal government using vast resources to trumpet a religious celebration.”

Lynn added: “Military personnel and veterans come from many religious traditions and no religion at all. So it is wholly disingenuous for the organizers of this evangelical Christian gathering to promote it as a salute to all our troops. It is anything but.”

Weinstein is quick to point out that the issues his organization is tackling are not about “Christianity versus Judaism.” Rather, they’re about keeping rampant fundamentalism out of the military.

But the Biblical teachings at Fort Leavenworth certainly appear to lean heavily on an anti-Semitic and pro-Christian agenda.

In the 14-page study guide Nehemiah, chaplains discuss a portion of the Sanballat, the first high priest of the temple at Samaria, who, according to the Bible study, had to deal with a “Jewish problem.” He mocked the Jews’ efforts to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in the hopes that they would give up.

The study guide then poses the following questions for soldiers: “How do you interpret Sanballat’s reaction to the Jews progress? Anxiety and fear? In light of what we know about the Jews performance today, were his fears reasonable?”

Another question in the same study guide asks soldiers to offer suggestions on a title for the portion of the scripture discussing Nehemiah.

“How would you short-title this portion of scripture?” the study guide asks. “Jews take advantage of Jews?”

Brown Disses Tony Blair Over “Dodgy Dossier”

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Brown has pretty much said that Blair used maipulated intel on this.

When the Tories win, there will be an investigation, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Tony Blair goes to gaol over this, as well he should.

Brown promises to avoid the mistakes that led to war in Iraq

By Andrew Grice and Ben Russell
Published: 12 June 2007

Gordon Brown has promised to prevent the “party political” use of intelligence material so that he would never repeat Tony Blair’s mistake in taking Britain to war on a flawed prospectus.

On his first visit to Baghdad, the incoming prime minister said he would learn lessons from the run-up to the 2003 Iraq invasion, when Mr Blair based his case for war on intelligence reports about Saddam Hussein’s supposed weapons of mass destruction.

Mr Brown said he had already begun discussions with Sir Gus O’Donnell, the Cabinet Secretary, to ensure security and intelligence material was collected “free of the party political process” and was ” fully verified” if it was to be made public. “That is learning the lessons from things that happened in the past, and we should make sure that we can do things better in the future,” he said.

His remarks were seen as a barely coded criticism of Mr Blair and an attempt to draw a line under a controversy which left a stain on the Government. Mr Blair’s official spokesman said measures to reform the use of intelligence recommended by the 2004 Butler inquiry were already being taken forward.

The Chancellor, who heard nine mortar shells land near by during his Baghdad visit, refused to be drawn on a possible cut in the number of British troops in Iraq. He said he was there to “listen and learn” and that such decisions were for another day.

In interviews, he declined to repeat Mr Blair’s pledge to the Iraqis that Britain would not “cut and run” but said Britain had obligations to the Iraqi people and the United Nations. He said the number of British forces would continue to decline as Iraqis took over more responsibility for security.

Mr Blair and Mr Brown rejected growing demands for an immediate inquiry into the mistakes made before and since the invasion, but Mr Brown left open the option of calling one after more British troops have left Iraq.

Last night a Tory attempt to force the Government to hold an inquiry into the conflict was rejected by 288 votes to 253 in the Commons. Ten Labour MPs backed the calls for an inquiry.

Earlier, the Government amendment saying that a further inquiry would ” divert attention” from the campaign in Iraq was passed by 274 votes to 229, a majority of 45.

During the debate, Margaret Beckett, the Foreign Secretary, had dismissed the idea as self-indulgent and poured scorn on Conservative calls for the Government to accept the principle of an inquiry, insisting that there had been four inquiries into the war.

She said: “To carry this motion would be both an unnecessary and a damaging diversion of effort, focus and attention. All our time and energy is badly needed now to address the challenges of the present. It is our responsibility to the people of Iraq which should receive our focus and attention in the critical times ahead.”

William Hague, the shadow Foreign Secretary, urged ministers to bow to the ” gathering consensus” and called for an inquiry by privy councillors. He said: “It’s not true that our troops would be demoralised or our enemies would take heart if we took the trouble to find out what’s gone wrong. In a democratic society the examination of successes and failures is a sign of strength not of weakness.” Michael Moore, the Liberal Democrat foreign affairs spokesman, told MPs: “The Government is still trying to avoid an inquiry while hinting that there will be one, simply ducking the question of when.”

More Bush Admin Corruption

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Once again, we see that there is no policy, just politics.

GSA chief accused of Hatch Act violation

By JIM ABRAMS

WASHINGTON — The head of the main federal contracting agency, a longtime GOP supporter, should be “punished to the fullest extent” for violating a ban on political advocacy on government time, a watchdog agency concluded.

The Office of Special Counsel, in a letter to President Bush released late Monday, said General Services Administrator Lurita Doan engaged in “the most pernicious of political activity” banned by the 1939 Hatch Act when she asked, at a meeting of General Services Administration political appointees, how they could help Republican candidates.

“I recommend that Administrator Doan be disciplined to the fullest extent for her serious violation of the Hatch Act and insensitivity to cooperating fully and honestly in the course of our investigation,” wrote Scott Bloch, special counsel for the independent investigative and prosecutorial agency.

Doan’s attorney, in a June 1 response to Bloch also released Monday, rejected the office’s conclusions, saying Doan was only peripherally involved in the January 26 PowerPoint presentation by a senior White House political adviser at GSA headquarters on helping Republicans in coming elections.

Michael J. Nardotti, Jr., of Patton Boggs LLP, criticized the “lack of objectivity and impartiality” by the Office of Special Counsel and said it had “resulted in an extraordinary unfairness to Administrator Doan.” He urged the president to disapprove the report and submit the matter to another entity outside the Office of Special Counsel.

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CIA Plans Cutbacks, Limits on Contractor Staffing – washingtonpost.com

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This is what happens when you people think that the only legitimate role of government is to get money to your friends.

If you want something to be “privatized” then it should not get government money. Otherwise, it’s just graft.

CIA Plans Cutbacks, Limits on Contractor Staffing – washingtonpost.com

By Walter Pincus and Stephen Barr
Washington Post Staff Writers
Monday, June 11, 2007; A02

Acting under pressure from Congress, the CIA has decided to trim its contractor staffing by 10 percent. It is the agency’s first effort since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to curb what critics have decried as the growing privatization of U.S. intelligence work, a circumstance that has sharply boosted some personnel costs.

Contractors currently make up about one-third of the CIA workforce, but CIA Director Michael V. Hayden has said that their work has not been efficiently managed. Associate Deputy Director Michael Morell said in an interview that he does not think the CIA has become a revolving door, but ‘Director Hayden has said we don’t want to become the farm team for contractors.’

Morell said reviews are underway ‘to identify which of our jobs here at CIA should be done by staff and which of our jobs should be done by contractors or a ‘mix’ of contractors and staff.’ Effective June 1, the agency also began to bar contracting firms from hiring former CIA employees and then offering the employees’ services to the CIA within the first year and a half of their retirement from the agency — a practice known as ‘bidding back.’

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