NOT Gale Norton, Too
Well, well, well........ It seems that our beloved (NOT) Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, is embroiled, and hopefully skewered in the Abramoff scandal. I found this image at
Think Progress. The Interior Department has released this February 2002 photo of Jack Abramoff (far right), Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton (Center) and representatives of the Choctaw Indians, one of Abramoff’s tribal clients
I have always thought she was a horrific dubya selection to oversee the Interior Department, given her ties to mining and industrial polluters, but this is it. She's scum, her hirees are scum, and her associates are scum. In fact, they are crooks. Allegedly, of course, until the ongoing Abramoff probes either indict them all, or exonerate them, which I highly doubt, given the evidence I stumbled across on the web this morning.
It seems that Norton was co-founder of what is known as the Federici Group, or
CREA (Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy), an organization with subsequent ties to Jack Abramoff. This apparently took place in the 1990's prior to her appointment by dumbya to the Secretary of the Interior. But, does that let her off the hook? I don't think so, and here's why.
First of all, it appears that CREA was created by Norton and her buddy, Grover Nordquist, a conservative anti-tax advocate. Are we seeing a conflict of interest yet? According to
The Stakeholder, CREA
"has received financial backing from chemical and mining interests, leading some environmentalists to brand it a front for industrial polluters. Abramoff directed tribes he represented to donate $225,000 to CREA from 2001 to 2003." Is Norton still affiliated with CREA, as these donations occurred during her tenure as Secretary? This is a question that must be answered as part of the Abramoff probe. After all, so much of the Abramoff scandal involves the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which falls under the Department of the Interior's pervue, and for which Steven Griles, Norton's Assistant Secretary, was intimately involved with Abramoff during the tribes' casino scandal.
The
Center for Media and Democracy has a page devoted to
CREA, describing how, according to the
Natural Resources Defense Council, CREA is more likely a "green scam" than an environmental advocacy group. The group reminds me of
Wise Use, which is also a scam green group, who's main function is to promote property rights over environmental issues, and ultimately at the expense of the environment at large. According to Wikipedia, Gale Norton is also affiliated with Wise Use. Not that I'd be surprised. In fact, both CREA and Wise Use are misnomers, actually representing contrary interests than their names would otherwise imply. Scum floats, as do these groups, and their leaders apparently have floated to the top. Gale Norton is a prime example.
The question I have been asking since her appointment is: How the hell can someone so blatantly anti-environment as Gail Norton be appointed head of the agency she has so consistently fought against during her busy and successful career representing mining and industry polluting interests? It never made any sense. But, in dubya's world, nothing makes sense. It doesn't have to make sense. In dubya's world, he's king george, and that's really all that matters.
If the Abramoff probe isn't bought out by corrupt interests, bribes, cover-ups, and the like, I suspect a whole lot of people are going down, like a house of cards or a line of dominoes. Think Progress also has a page called "
Abramoff: The House That Jack Built, which consists of links to all the present administration, Congressional relationships, and others who are associated with the Abramoff scandal. It's a huge house, and as Think Progress states, is the "biggest scandal in Congress in over a century." Interesting that Steven Griles is listed there, but not Gale Norton. Time will tell..........
Back to Basics
We all know that the dubya dummies are screwing up health care, the environment, educational opportunities, the military, and last but not least,
THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES. However, I just felt like coming back to the beginning here, where a lot of the corruption is centered upon right now, the fucking and illegal war against the Iraqi people. If we were actually afraid of terrorists, we'd be securing our own country. Think how secure we'd be if we spent $300 billion on national security instead of a campaign against a country that had nothing whatsoever to do with the individuals who attacked the US. Visit the
National Priorities Project to see what we are really losing out on because of this travesty.
IMPEACH BUSH (.pdf) and the rest of the neocon cockroaches that have infested the White House and Congress
SAD Overcomes Canadians
The map to the right is the latest map of Canada, following the elections that were recently held there. According to
Avant News,
"Canadian voters, weepy and bleary-eyed from a national epidemic of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), voted the previously dark horse Conservatives, led by Stephen Harper, into Parliament yesterday. Voter turnout was a healthy 11.8%, with over 88% of voters reportedly staying home with "apathy, runny noses, or, in most cases, both". Prime Minister-elect Stephen Harper's conservative ticket, which ran on a platform of "bigger, juicier corruption scandals", was reportedly "sort of okay, I guess" with the victory." This is but an exerpt of the article, which can be found in its entirety at
Avant News.
In fact, there are quite a few issues, for lack of a better word, with the election of Stephen Harper. But of course, the most notable is that he's a fucking conservative, straight out of the dubya dummy cast. I suggest you read some of his miserable ideology, which is articulated rather succinctly at
NOW, a Toronto online news site. It seems that Canadians are emulating the worst of the worst about the United States. While reading this site, I felt like I was reading about the American neocons, including the entire dubya administration. Did the neocons steal the Canadian elections, also? One can only wonder................
(This article is dedicated to my friend
Latour, who has to live with the outcome of the Canadian epidemic of SAD.
So, what's the US' excuse?)
Attention Anti-War Leftists:
Mark your calendars.
This from
Operation Yellow Elephant:
Progressive Americans Support Military Recruitment of College and Young Republicans!It's time to reach out to all Americans. On January 30, the College Republicans will sponsor "Finish the Job: Support Our Troops" Rallies in Washington DC and All Over America to support President Bush's January 31 State of the Union address. All of you can support every American's First Amendment rights and make a patriotic impression on our great country. Red States and Blue States together, we're all Americans.There is more, of course, on the site. Be there, or be ....... errrrr..... not there.
A Daybook of Holidays
This site,
Earth Calendar is a slick, well-done and helpful website. And, it's fun.
By using the calendar, I just found out that March 14th is Pi Day in the USA. Not only that, it's Albert Einstein's birthday. Talk about serendipity. I even found this very cool
Pi Day website, linked from
Earth Calendar. Of course, other than this also being Einstein's birthday, the concept of Pi Day is rather ridiculous. Therefore, and not surprisingly, most of the links from the Pi Day website are dead. But, in a rather exaggerated description of what may be fun, I guess I had "fun" finding this out.
But,
Earth Calendar has the potential to be useful as well as fun. Kudos to the authors. Thanks
Podcasting
I've been experimenting today. It started a few days ago, however, when I decided to change my Palm Zire71 SD card from a 64MB one to a 512MB card. Now, that I've got tons of space, I figured maybe listening to some music or radio podcasts or something would be a good way to go. Problem is, I had no idea about what was involved. Time to learn.
I went to Best Buy and bought a really cheap set of earphones. If I decide that I like the idea of listening, and the cheapos are too cheap, I can always buy a better set. Then, I downloaded a trial version of
Pocket Tunes from Palmgear. I need some reasonable software to use. If I like the listening, and I want to keep it for more than 15 days, I'll register it for the grand price of $15.00. So, these were my most major investments. Not bad.
Next, I had to figure out how to actually get the media. I certainly know how to download music MP3's, but getting more magazine related stuff was going to take some investigation. So, if the dubya dummies feel like monitoring my google searches, BRING IT ON! They'll find me attempting to download predominantly left wing, anti neocon, liberally oriented material. But, I guess from this blog, if they've noticed it, they already know I hate them ALOT. But, as usual, I digress..........
My first google link took me to
Podcast.net. It didn't take me long to figure out that I needed some software to actually subscribe to the podcasts of my choosing. I chose
iTunes, first, as it is one of the more prominant programs which most sites seem to use and/or recommend. I already had iTunes, but it was so out of date that I had to first download the latest, greatest version. Sho nuff, the program has an entire podcast function, and the iTunes site is a great place to get podcasts. No wonder people so hightly recommend it. Another good site is
Podcast Shuffle.
But, iTunes has one problem on my computer, and I don't know why. It tends to hang, and I hate when that happens. So, I searched for another program, and found
Juice. It's a rather slick website, and the program seemed pretty good, so I downloaded it. I like iTunes better for now, because it's more user-friendly.
This is so easy, really. My podcast subscriptions of choice are
NPR: All Songs Considered,
NPR: Story of the Day,
The President's Weekly Radio Address (parody),
Mother Jones Radio, and
The Onion Radio News.
I'm having fun.
Pain and Fatigue
One day, a couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in the waiting room at my rheumatologist's office, waiting to be seen. It's a busy office, but unlike an orthopod's office, one can be seen relatively quickly. Orthopods are the worst of the worst, and it's not uncommon to wait an hour or more to be seen, and you're usually in pain, and dragging around a cast, and just plain hating it. But, I digress, as I have no real intention about whining to my readers. I am writing about what happened while waiting for my rheumatologist.
I was sitting there, flipping though a magazine, when a woman, apparently trolling for participants, approached me to ask if I was interested in volunteering in a research study. I have this kind of weakness, wherein I get hooked rather easily. I asked her what it was about, and she said it was a study of pain and fatigue being undertaken at Stony Brook University. I said that as long as it does not involve pain or invasive procedures, I may be interested. I was soundly hooked.
I gave her my name and phone number, and agreed to meet at the university for a briefing, and of course, participate should I accept all terms. At this point, I couldn't imagine not accepting the terms. The initial meeting went well, I signed various forms for consent and whatever, and went home with my participant manual and a Palm Zire 31 that was modified to be used for prompting me for input and recording my answers. This is what I am doing for about four weeks, and I find the whole business fascinating. But, I'm kind of a geek, like that.
But, I'm never one to leave well enough alone. Not my style. So, I got on the internet and started researching about clinical trials, the National Institute of Health, and/or whatever or whereever my surfing took me. One of my google search terms was "CORIHS". This took me to the
Stony Brook Office of the Vice President for Research, which as it turns out means the Committees on Research Involving Human Subjects. Interesting, in that here was a bunch of links to ethics guidelines and the entire handbook for CORIHS Policies and Procedures. Way too boring to read it all, but interesting nonetheless.
Then, I took off to the
National Institute of Health (NIH) website. From there I linked to the
Office of Human Subjects Research website. From Regulations and Ethical Guidelines, I found the
Nuremburg Code. Very heavy stuff. No question, the study I'm involved in is so benign in its participation requirements, but I was truly struck by this find. Saddened also, as we all know what precipitated the Nuremburg Code.
Basically now,
my "research" is pretty much over. I didn't find anything about a pain and fatigue study, which is good, because one thing the researchers were fairly clear about is not divulging too much information to participants for fear that too much information could skew the results. I suppose if I did find something relevant, I'd have to report it to the researchers, and possibly be dropped from the study, but I just couldn't help myself. I'm a geek. I have an inquiring mind. I also have a HUGE altruistic streak.
Medical studies are not always pleasant. At the least, I think they can be rather annoying. This study is a little bit of a nuisance, but certainly not an overwhelming bother. I can handle it just fine. And, the info garnered from this pain and fatigue study will likely not directly benefit me. But, I hope that I do benefit someone someday. I hope that my carefully inputted responses to the beeping prompts throughout the day give the researchers and doctors better information on how to objectively measure something so subjective as pain. I'm not really sure what the fatigue part is about, although I'm sure it's much more easily and objectively measured. Hmmmmmmm......... maybe that's one link.
Some day, I'll get the opportunity to read the results and final report. I look forward to that.
Saint George
From my inbox:
President George W. Bush was scheduled to visit the United Methodist Church outside Washington as part of his campaign. Bush's campaign manager made a visit to the Pastor, and said to him, "We've been getting a lot of bad publicity among Methodists because of Bush's position on stem cell research and the like. We'd gladly make a contribution to the church of $100,000 if during your sermon you'd say the President is a saint."
The pastor thinks it over for a few moments and finally says, "The Church is in desperate need of funds and I will agree to do it."
Bush pompously shows up looking especially smug today and as the sermon progresses the pastor begins his homily: "George Bush is petty, a self-absorbed hypocrite and a nitwit. He is a liar, a cheat, and a low-intelligence weasel. He has lied about his military record and had the gall to put himself in a jet plane landing on a carrier posing before a banner stating 'Mission Accomplished.' He invaded a country for oil and money, and is using it to lie to the American people. He is the worst example of a United Methodist I've ever personally known. But compared to Dick Cheney and the rest of his cabinet, George Bush is a saint."
Martin Luther King, Jr.
"Either we live together as brothers and sisters, or we perish together as fools."
Please visit one man's story of his participation in the Civil Rights Movement,
Martin Luther King, Jr. - A Trip Down Memory Lane. I am
proud to call Desertpeace my friend.
It CAN Happen Here
For those of you who may think that calling the dubya regime "fascist" rhetoric and hyperbole, I invite you to PLEASE read these two websites I found this morning.
George W. Bush and the 14 Points of Fascism, which is an amazingly well documented and linked site. An absolute must-read.
Capital Hill Blue: Bush Could Seize Absolute Control of US Government. This is a story about how the neocons have slowly, over the years, organized their ability to seize control, and how they are literally on the brink of achieving that end. This particular story really led me to think about which country would be a good place to escape the ravages that the stupid, dumbass sheeple are allowing to happen to our democracy at the jaws of the neocon dogs. An excerpt:
President George W. Bush has signed executive orders giving him sole authority to impose martial law, suspend habeas corpus and ignore the Posse Comitatus Act that prohibits deployment of U.S. troops on American streets. This would give him absolute dictatorial power over the government with no checks and balances.
Be afraid. Be very afraid. It can happen here, unless we stop it.
I'm depressed.
The River Was Like Glass
Sometimes, there is barely a ripple in the water. Sometimes, it's so still that it becomes mirror-like. The reflection is so much more telling of the working river's edge than the real thing. I took this image from across the river, where I work. No question, I work in a beautiful place.
It's OK to Fire HIV-Positive Employees, According to Alito
"
In the mold of Scalia and Thomas"
If ever there is a reason to block Alito's nomination to SCOTUS, this could strongly qualify as one of the strongest. This guy is just plain vicious and pandering and evil. Not to mention, he's a lying sonnovabitch, kinda like his nominator, that lowlife cockroach we presently call the president of the United States.
This following article from
Advocate.com:
Samuel Alito, nominated by President Bush Monday to succeed Sandra Day O’Connor on the U.S. Supreme Court, helped write a U.S. Justice Department opinion in 1986 that said employers should be able to legally fire HIV-positive employees because of their infection, The Washington Post reports. Alito was working in the U.S. Office of Legal Counsel when he helped write the opinion, which stated that “fear of contagion, whether reasonable or not," was reason enough for an employer to legally fire an HIV-positive worker. The opinion went on to state that discrimination based on insufficient medical knowledge was not prohibited by federal laws that protect the disabled.
“We certainly did not want to encourage irrational discrimination, but we had to interpret the law as it stands,” Alito later said of the opinion, according to the Post.
Not surprisingly, AIDS groups were shocked to learn that Alito has advocated legalized discrimination against HIV-positive Americans.
“This is quite disturbing, this information about his background in discriminating against those suffering from HIV and AIDS,” says Damon Dozier, congressional liaison for the National Minority AIDS Council. “Even though [Alito’s work on the Justice Department opinion] was very early in the epidemic, it still is no excuse for discrimination against people who, quite frankly, contribute to the greatness of this nation. Discrimination in any form cannot be tolerated. I think we fear that as we stack people on the court who've shown prejudices in the past, it doesn't give us any comfort for what may happen in the future.”
Terje Anderson, executive director of the National Association of People With AIDS, says Alito’s work on the Justice Department opinion was rooted in prejudice and misinformation. “The law should be used to protect the rights of all Americans to be treated with fairness and justice, not leave people vulnerable to uneducated, unscientific base prejudices,” Anderson says. “People living with HIV/AIDS need to know that the court system will protect our right to live free from discrimination.”
“We urge the U.S. Senate to carefully examine the record of Judge Alito in this matter and to reject his narrow and hateful willingness to allow irrational fear and hatred to become enshrined in law,” Anderson continues. “On the basis of his record in this matter, we ask the Senate to reject his nomination to the Supreme Court." (Advocate.com)
Black Fridays and Depraved Indifference
I am an environmental professional. I work my ass off every day in attempts to maybe have some positive effects on my tiny bubble of our one and only home, Planet Earth. My job involves dealing with the public, governments at various levels, and non-governmental agencies, otherwise known as NGO's. I am an idealist, and I work hard, as I said above, my ass off, because I believe very strongly in what I am doing.
I was once having lunch with some people who seem to side with a very narrow view of coastal zone management, that being it should protect their homes. Period. In fact, the Coastal Zone Management Act of 1972 is really more about protecting the environment, and about making sure that anyone who gets federal funding for projects, or does anything within the coastal zone is doing so in a manner consistent with the purposes of the CZMA, that being, protecting the coastal zone. Anyway, one of these lunchers I was sitting with mentioned that I was following "lock-step" in my boss' view of environmental politics. He meant it as an insult, of course, because he hated my boss. My response, "Yes, and I do so with conviction." What an asshole, this luncher was/is. Like a good, republican, property rights-are-everything advocate of
wise use (talk about an oxymoron), he advocates lots and LOTS of federal expenditures to go towards protecting poorly located homes along the oceanfront, and in harm's way, suseptible to any and every coastal storm that makes it way to the area.
Anyway, I digress somewhat from my original intent to post this article. I did so just to emphasize that in fact, I am an environmental professional, and I do care. ALOT. But, my original intent is to discuss Black Fridays.
The Natural Resourses Defense Council has this article wherein they articulate all the anti-environmental legislation that the dubya dummies have enacted on fridays, when the public at large is concentrating on their weekends, when their guards are down, when they are not paying attention. It's certainly modus operandi for this administration. They make me sick. In fact, they are making all of us sick, including their supporters. Following is a list of the actual years and actions that the dubya dolts have enacted. If you go to the
NRDC's website, you can click on the dates of the eighty seven legislative actions to get more info about each of these evil actions. Yes, dear readers, you read this correctly. He past 87 separate laws that blatantly favor corporate interests and greed over the health of our home.
20051/28/05 -- More pollution at national parks promised by Bush drilling juggernaut
1/28/05 -- FWS removes federal protections for imperiled mouse
200412/17/04 -- White House institutes controversial 'peer review' process
12/10/04 -- BLM auctions forest tracts and lands near park to drillers
12/10/04 -- Judge orders Forest Service not to salvage live trees
12/03/04 -- Siding with industry, EPA challenges court ruling on mine waste
11/26/04 -- EPA stifles internal agency dissent over roadless rule
11/05/04 -- FWS fires biologist for exposing bad science on Florida panther
10/22/04 -- Southern California to receive more water at the expense of imperiled fish species
08/13/04 -- Prairie dog no longer candidate for ESA protections
06/25/04 -- BLM holds largest federal lands auction in Utah history
06/18/04 -- Forest Service broke laws over fire retardant use
05/28/04 -- Corps loosens clean water, stream protections for mountaintop removal mining
04/30/04 -- Pentagon misses deadline on perchlorate report
04/23/04 -- Court questions industry-friendly EPA fertilizer rule
04/09/04 -- Fish and Wildlife Service less protective of bald eagles than local Florida officials
04/02/04 -- Corps proceeds with Missouri River management plan
04/02/04 -- Mining company gets price break on federal land
03/26/04 -- Montreal Protocol shirked for U.S. pesticide interests
03/19/04 -- BLM okays energy exploration in sensitive Utah lands
02/27/04 -- More drilling slated for Padre Island
02/13/04 -- EPA promises more security, less information on industrial facilities
02/13/04 -- EPA lets power plants pollute Theodore Roosevelt National Park
01/30/04 -- EPA's mercury pollution plan mirrors industry's recommendations
01/23/04 -- Forest Service to boost logging in Appalachian forests
01/23/04 -- Forest Service drops "survey and manage" rule for loggers
01/09/04 -- Pentagon to seek more environmental exemptions
01/09/04 -- Forest Service curtails logging appeals process
200312/05/03 -- BLM wants to weaken grazing protections to help livestock industry
11/14/03 -- Bush administration seeks increase in use of ozone-depleting pesticide
10/31/03 -- EPA tricks public, treats industry on dangerous pesticide
10/17/03 -- EPA will not regulate dioxins from sewage sludge
10/10/03 -- New EPA dam proposal threatens salmon
10/10/03 -- EPA further delays long overdue Clean Water Act enforcement upgrade
09/12/03 -- Private contractors to determine endangered species' future
08/08/03 -- Bush administration offers to double logging in Northwest
07/18/03 -- Bush asks Supreme Court to overturn roadless protections
06/20/03 -- DOD reneges on plan to test for perchlorate pollution at U.S. bases
05/30/03 -- White House buries mountaintop mining regulation
05/30/03 -- White House forest-fire plan axes environmental protections
05/30/03 -- Park Service opens Maryland seashore to Jet Skis
05/23/03 -- BLM opens fragile dunes ecosystem to off-road recreation
05/23/03 -- Bush administration cuts wildlife protection, boosts logging in Northwest forests
04/25/03 -- White House says "ready, aim, shoot" on wilderness
04/11/03 -- Bush administration rolls back wilderness protections
02/28/03 -- Bush administration rejects wilderness protection in Alaska's Tongass
02/07/03 -- Bush administration pushing for pesticide exemptions from international environmental treaty
01/31/03 -- New EPA air rules for ocean vessels too weak
01/10/03 -- Despite scientific concerns, Interior Department approves power plant near Yellowstone
01/03/03 -- Forest Service loosens logging restrictions for small-scale projects
200211/22/02 -- EPA proposes weakening of Clean Air Act
11/22/02 -- Bush administration opens national park to drilling
11/01/02 -- Bush officials suppress science on Klamath River policy
10/25/02 -- U.S. EPA fails to meet deadline for handing over air documents to Senate
10/04/02 -- BLM approves oil and gas drilling in Utah
09/27/02 -- Bush administration revives controversial California gold mine
09/13/02 -- EPA backs off issuing strong antipollution standards for off-road vehicles
08/23/02 -- Bush administration abandons California water plan
07/26/02 -- Bush uses national security to gain corporate secrecy and immunity
07/19/02 -- Bush administration opposes renewable energy requirement
06/07/02 -- Bush administration refuses to crack down on diesel pollution
05/24/02 -- Bush administration lets construction companies off the hook for protecting environment
05/10/02 -- Bush administration agency secretly fights mine reforms
05/03/02 -- Corps of Engineers' plan threatens to pollute Florida Everglades
05/03/02 -- EPA to let mining industry dump waste in waterways
04/19/02 -- Bush administration ousts top global warming scientist
04/12/02 -- Forest Service wants to circumvent environmental laws
04/05/02 -- Bush administration scales back habitat protection for endangered butterfly
03/29/02 -- BLM proposal could doom California dunes
03/29/02 -- Forest Service reverses mine approval
03/29/02 -- Pentagon seeks exemption from environmental laws
03/15/02 -- Gas drilling returns to Padre Island National Seashore
02/22/02 -- BLM rule could block federal land protection
02/15/02 -- National Forest in Missouri opened to drilling
02/15/02 -- Bush backs Yucca Mountain for nuclear waste dump
01/18/02 -- Coming Soon: More logging in the Pacific Northwest
200112/14/01 -- USFS guts protections for undeveloped forest lands
12/14/01 -- DOE weakens standards for Yucca nuclear storage
11/02/01 -- Corps of Engineers ignores "no net loss" wetlands policy
09/07/01 -- Bush backing away from pledge to clean up federal facilities
08/17/01 -- Bush administration appeals federal judge's decision to ban drilling off California's coast
07/13/01 -- Bush outlines an 'all talk, no action' approach to global warming
06/15/01 -- BLM upholds "non-controversial" portion of hard rock mining rules
05/04/01 -- Bush launches a "sneak attack" on the Roadless Area Conservation Plan
03/30/01 -- Bush administration suspends "the contractor responsibility rule"
03/16/01 -- Bush administration seeks to roll back Roadless Area Conservation Plan
03/09/01 -- President nominates J. Steven Griles as deputy secretary of Interior
Other great websites and articles that are watching this administrations adverse environmental impacts are
BushGreenWatch, a
great article written by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.,
a Rolling Stones article, called "Crimes Against Nature", and
TruthOut Environment. There are many, many more, which are linked from all over the place. I suggest you bookmark these and any other links you may find, and visit them from time to time. If the dubya dummies' environmental record isn't on your radar screen, it should be. They are making a deliberate conserted effort to destroy our planet in the name of greed, corruption, and disdain. The term
depraved indifference also comes to mind. People die from these cavalier and greedy actions, and that
IS depraved indifference.
The Dictator and the Crook
There are a lot of stories coming out of the press, out of blogsites, and even mainstream media that are comparing our beloved (NOT) dubya dummy to Nixon. It sure does not take a rocket surgeon to see that at the very least, they were/are both crooks. But, the way I see it, and if anyone wants to correct me if I'm wrong, there really is one huge difference. Nixon was some kind of ideologue who would stop at nothing to move his ideologies and his political machine forward. Hence, the Watergate scandal. However, dubya is not an ideologue. He's just flat out not smart enough to hold any opinions, or ideologies, or any modicum of philosophical forthought. His crookedness is based solely on greed and corruption. He's a selfish, stupid moron who needs people to prop him up as their figurehead, so they can maneuver their greedy and corrupt endeavors behind him.
The cartoon above, before I forget, is from the website,
The Illustrated Daily Scribble. I tend to download images from websites to my hard drive, so that the originating site makes changes, it will not affect my article. I so so, but will give due credit where credit is due.
Back to the dubya/Nixon comparisons..........
As I search around the web, reading items that are highlighted on Buzzflash or The Raw Story (to name a few), there are these continuing themes of dubya and Nixon. Lately, of course, the wiretapping scandal is the biggest issue, and I will get to that. But, one of the first articles of importance is the comparison between their popularity ratings. From
Think Progess:
Via Atrios, an American Research Group poll released today shows that George Bush has dropped to staggering new lows:
George W. Bush’s overall job approval ratings have dropped from a month ago even as Americans who approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president are turning more optimistic about their personal financial situations according to the latest survey from the American Research Group. Among all Americans, 36% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 58% disapprove. When it comes to Bush’s handling of the economy, 33% approve and 62% disapprove.
Among Americans registered to vote, 38% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 56% disapprove, and 36% approve of the way Bush is handling the economy and 60% disapprove.
For a little perspective, recall that Richard Nixon’s approval rating in the summer of 1973 (when the Watergate scandal was in full swing) was 39%.
Compared to Bush, that’s downright sunny. OK, so here we are....... we have an unpopular president, for sure. But, we also have a royal crook. His connections and lobbyists and puppetmasters have a horrificly criminal trail of corruption that stems from a very evil bunch of criminals. Oh, the connections......... from voting scandals to Oil For Food scandals to pharaceutical lobbying scandals to oil scandals, money laundering, and of course, let us not forget Iraq. You remember Iraq...... that bombed out dust bowl in the Middle East, don't you? There are just way too many scandals to write about in one lil' article on this one lil' blogsite, but I hope my readers follow some of my links. I want everyone who stops by my blogsite to get some kind of education, maybe understand why I'm so pissed off, and why I HATE these republican neocon deathcult warmongering cockroaches.
Wiretapping:From
TalkLeft:
ACLU Calls for Special Counsel To Investigate NSA Warrantless Surveillance.
In a press release, the ACLU says:
The ACLU said President Bush's actions were a clear violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which was passed by Congress in response to revelations that former President Nixon was using "national security" claims to spy on American citizens he considered his "enemies."
"President Nixon was not above the law and neither is President Bush," said ACLU Executive Director Anthony D. Romero. "President Bush cannot use a claim of seeking to preserve our nation to undermine the rules that serve as our foundation. The Attorney General, who may have been involved with the formulation of this policy, must appoint a special counsel to let justice be served." From
FindLaw, we find an excellent article written by John Dean:
>George W. Bush as the New Richard M. Nixon: Both Wiretapped Illegally, and Impeachably;
"Indeed, here, Bush may have outdone Nixon: Nixon's illegal surveillance was limited; Bush's, it is developing, may be extraordinarily broad in scope. First reports indicated that NSA was only monitoring foreign calls, originating either in the USA or abroad, and that no more than 500 calls were being covered at any given time. But later reports have suggested that NSA is "data mining" literally millions of calls - and has been given access by the telecommunications companies to "switching" stations through which foreign communications traffic flows."
Though not necessarily comparisons, I need to tack on some more illustritive writings that expose the levels of theft and corruption within this White Wash, I mean House, Congress, and this administration, in general:
Stealing Elections:
From The Free Press:
The sun revolves around the Earth and George W. Bush won the election in Ohio
The Bush family and friends stole both the 2000 and 2004 Presidential elections. The covert operations long associated with George Herbert Walker Bush, former President and CIA director, are now overtly practiced in key battleground states. Much more there.....
And, this article from December 30, 2005:
Fake voting rights activists and groups linked to White House
Top level Republican operatives with ties to the White House, Senate Majority Leader William Frist and the Republican National Committee (RNC) not only engaged in the suppression of poor and minority voters in the 2004 Ohio presidential election' but they spun the election irregularities into a story linking blacks to cocaine and voter fraud. Bush allies in Ohio are now using this myth of voter fraud to pass a repressive "election reform" bill.
In the month prior to and immediately after the 2004 presidential election' the Republican Party engaged in an orchestrated campaign to divert the mainstream media focus away from election fraud and irregularities in Ohio and manufactured the myth of "voter fraud."
Oil For Food
Following is an exerpt from The Deadline Pundit:
The Sound of Silence: As in Dogs Not Barking
"For a year every minute item about the Oil For Food Program has been bellowed breathlessly from the conservative media.
And suddenly, there is silence. Last month Kojo Annan, son of Kofi ,was awarded large damages against the Murdoch-owned London Sunday Times, which has to admit that its story connecting him to Oil For Food contracts had no substance. You did not see the story on Fox, MSNBC, or any of the usual cabal.
In December, the US charged two colonels who had worked for the 'Coalition Provisional Authority' with accepting bribes of $200,000 a month for steering contracts to companies that were seemingly just shells. They worked with someone whom the Coalition Provisional Authority hired as comptroller with a budget of $82 million - despite a previous felony conviction for fraud.
It did not make the headlines. Senator Norm Coleman and Congressman Henry Hyde did not call for the resignation of the chief executive of the organization involved, one George W. Bush.
And no one mentioned that much of the money involved presumably came from the $10 billion surplus that the UN Oil For Food Fund had handed over to the Development Fund for Iraq, controlled by the CPA. During its blessedly short life span, the American dominated CPA spent nearly $20 billion of the $23.34 billion of Iraqi funds it had under its control for just over a year. It spent just $300 million of the US taxpayer funding pledges of $18.4 billion for Iraq's reconstruction.
One more topic, as this is getting rather hefty.......
Pharmaceutical Pandering
From the Boston Globe, is an article by Robert Kuttner:
Dollars to doughnuts, Bush's drug benefit is no bargain
"It was clear back in 2003, when the Bush administration rammed this bill through the Republican Congress, that the purpose was not to devise an affordable prescription drug program for seniors. Rather the administration wanted to help two friendly industries, the pharmaceutical companies and the HMOs, and to get bragging rights for the 2004 election that President Bush had helped seniors. Few voters would grasp just how bad the law was, since its effective date was deliberately put off until 2006.
Now, as the year of reckoning arrives, the true cynicism of Bush's program is becoming evident to each senior citizen (or adult child of senior citizen) who attempts to fathom what Bush and the industry lobbyists wrought.
For starters, coverage is woefully inadequate. You pay a $250 deductible and then a 25 percent copay on the first $2,250 of drug benefits each year, plus roughly another $450 a year in premiums. So if your prescriptions cost $2,250 a year, or about $190 a month, you pay $1,200 a year all told and the plan pays just $1,050.
That's pretty shabby. But then, the truly bizarre feature of the plan kicks in. Coverage simply disappears for the next $2,850 in drug expenses and only picks up again when you have incurred a total of $5,100 in prescription costs. This is the infamous ''hole in the doughnut."
The dubya party just goes on and on and one and on................ It amazes me how really dumb people really can be, how utterly clueless they choose to be. It amazes me that at one time, maybe two years ago, somewhere around 50% of Americans refused to read anything beyond a home and garden magazine, or watch anything on TV other than FOX News and reality TV crappola. It amazes me that so many people really choose to remain ignorantly stupid. These articles above are not secret. They are not squirreled away in some obscure dusty library. It's all out there on the internet and local newspapers, for the world to see. But, with the White Wash, I mean House' efforts to coopt the news media industry, pay for propaganda, get them to sit on stories, etc., it's a tough job to stay on top of things. And, it's tougher still to get the messages out to those who may otherwise not have easy access, be they computerless, poor, elderly, disengranchised, whatever. People need to be educated and informed. That's where any hope of success in taking back Congress and hopefully impeaching the disgusting republican slobs may lie.
Do I sound a bit naive myself? Am I kidding myself? I sure as shit hope not. I choose to be an idealistic, socially conscious, educated and informed individual. Ideals do march on, after all.
