CORRUPTION UPDATES 42
Previous Corruption Updates: Page 41
Next Corruption Updates: Page 43
1) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE:
LA Times, 3-22-07:
Schwarzenegger's cause gets $500,000 after he signed law
AT&T donates to an after-school charity after barriers to sell pay TV service are lifted.
By Peter Nicholas, Times Staff Writer
March 22, 2007
latimes.com/news/politics/la-me-arnold22mar22,1,2534192.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
SACRAMENTO — AT&T has given
$500,000 to one of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's pet causes, six
months after the governor signed a law lifting barriers to the
company's bid to sell pay television service in California.
The
money went to After-School All-Stars, a tax-exempt group founded
by Schwarzenegger in the early 1990s to provide tutoring,
recreation and other programs to poor children.
The
organization's board includes some of Schwarzenegger's
closest friends and aides, including Bonnie Reiss, a former
senior aide in his administration, and Paul Wachter, his
financial advisor.
AT&T spokesman Gordon Diamond said the company has been contributing to After-School All-Stars since 2004, the year after Schwarzenegger took office. Diamond denied that the money was given as part of any quid pro quo.
In
a busy legislative session last year, the cable TV bill was the
subject of an extensive lobbying campaign. AT&T spent
more than $23 million on lobbyists and television commercials
aimed at passing the bill, which also benefited
telecommunications giant Verizon.
The measure allowed the
companies to get statewide permits from a state agency, the
Public Utilities Commission, taking oversight of pay television
away from local governments.
In
response to the new law, the PUC issued a decision March 1
that said its regulatory authority was "limited."
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Lame Duck Arnie Using Office to Collect Bribes-Support for Senate Run
Arnie, and the Assembly, sold ATT&T permission to create, and compete, in a statewide cable market.
I really cannot tell if this was good or bad, as the Legislature and Senate took the 23 million AT&T dangled in their faces, and passed the law without adequate consideration.
The Ex-Senate Chair of the Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee, Sen. Martha Escutia (D-Whittier) who had jurisdiction of energy-related matters and telecommunications, is now a highly paid attorney for the law firm Manatt, Phelps & Phillips, in Los Angeles, who represents insurance, pharmaceutical, energy and telecommunications concerns.
Manatt's main telecommunications client is AT&T. Escutia collected her chit for passing the AT&T law, and is now collecting a fat paycheck for selling our state down the river of corruption when she was in office. Selling out pays very well.
Arnie
is now collecting his payback, and focusing his attention on his
next campaign for a seat in the US Senate.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 23, 3rd article on page,
“POLITICIANS
TRADE BRIBES FOR PAYCHECKS: LAWMAKERS MOVE
FROM SECRET EMPLOYEES OF SPECIAL INTEREST TO SALARIED EMPLOYEES
AFTER LEAVING OFFICE”
About Arnie and the Special Interests:
Corruption Updates 6, 4th article on page, “Arnie's Turn to Bleed Special Interests: Assembly done selling itself, Now it's Arnie's Turn.
Corruption Updates 12, 4th article on page, “How to Corrupt Democracy: The Insurance Industry and the Governor”
Ccrruption Updates 12, 5th article on page “INSURANCE INDUSTRY BATTLE PLAN: COMBINED BUSINESS ASSUALT ON DEMOCRACY” LATimes. Plot to corrupt democratic process and institutions successful. Plot uncovered, and yet it goes on. 9-24-06
Corruption Updates 13, 6th article on page, “Governor, PGE, Set Up Political Slush Fund”
Corruption Updates 17, 5th article on page, “VAST SUMS OF SPECIAL INTEREST MONEY COLLECTED BY GOV CANDIDATES IN CA”
Corruption Updates 17, 6th article on page “Total Campaign Outlays Approach $400 Million”
Corruption Updates 24, 2nd article on page, “Arnie has Huge Special Interest Slush Fund” ("officeholder" account: Southern California Edison, PG&E, Chevron and AT&T)
Read more articles about Arnie
Search the Corruption Database under
Arnie
Jobs
2) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Washington Post, 3-22-07:
Tobacco prosecutor says administration interfered
From the Washington Post
March 22, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-tobacco22mar22,1,1853558.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
WASHINGTON — The former leader of the
Justice Department team that prosecuted a landmark lawsuit
against tobacco companies said Wednesday that Bush
administration political appointees repeatedly ordered her to
take steps that weakened the government's racketeering case.
Sharon Eubanks said Bush loyalists in Atty.
Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales' office began micromanaging the team's
strategy in the final weeks of the 2005 trial, to the
detriment of the government's claim that the industry had
conspired to lie to U.S. smokers.
She said a supervisor demanded that she and her
trial team drop arguments that tobacco executives be removed
from their corporate positions as a possible penalty. He and
two others instructed her to tell key witnesses to change
their testimony. And they ordered Eubanks to read verbatim
from a closing argument they rewrote for her, she said.
"The political people were pushing the buttons and ordering us to
say what we said. And because of that, we failed to
zealously represent the interests of the American public,"
she said.
News
reports on the strategy changes caused an uproar in Congress and
sparked a Justice Department inquiry. Government witnesses
said they were asked to change testimony and one expert
withdrew from the case. Government lawyers also said they
were reducing a proposed penalty against the industry from $130
billion to $10 billion.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Bush Political Pressure Protects Big Tobacco Crimes, Undermines Justice in America
Bush's attacks on science, justice, the environment, regulation of business, and civil rights appear so diverse as to defy explanation. But upon closer inspection, these seemingly distinct attacks reveal a common theme.
Bush's corruptions flow from our elections, where special interests buy political power with impunity. Elections are now merely a corrupt auction of our political power to the highest bidders.
Bush's attacks on our Constitutions are no more than repayments for the bribes that put him into office. The Special interests, despite the diversity of their businesses, share a uniform desire to end governmental oversight and regulation of business affairs through the democratic process.
Thus government, when in the hands of either party, is bent to the will of the special interests that funded their election.
Bush has spread the corruption of politics deeper than his predecessors. Bush has corrupted the offices of CIA analysts, corrupted scientific reports from Interior and NOAA, and twisted his Presidential powers into clearly illegal signing statements that defy Congress and Constitution simultaneously.
Bush has corrupted the rule of law by politically manipulating US Attorneys around the country. By interfering with the rule of law in all of its operations, Bush has completed his cycle of corruptions, demonstrating to all Americans that our our government is no longer Constitutional, legitimate, or capable of delivering justice, or freedom.
The Bush crimes and corruptions have but one source, Political Bribery. This is the gift that keeps giving back. Big Tobacco, Big Oil, and Big Pharm, to name a few, use the Democratic and Republican parties to control politics, providing them with massive subsidies, regulatory suppression, and manipulating the Justice system.
The corporations fund the parties, and the parties protect the corporations. The difference between the parties is a matter of degree, not substance. Both have thrown the Constitution aside in their pursuit of wealth, power, and position.
Every Bush action reflects the desires of the Big Money Special Interests that put him into office. The difference between Bush and the Democrats is that Bush is openly pursuing naked power outside of Constitutional restraints, while the Democrats do it covertly, under a thin cover of propriety.
But why? What is the Bush Goal? Bush's means are the goal. Bush's crimes have established arbitrary Presidential power beyond the control of Congress and the Constitution.
Bush's political practices are not different than the Democrat's. He collects bribes and distributes paybacks, just like the Dems.
Unlike the Dems, Bush no longer even pretends to represent the people, respect democratic limits, and has dropped even the appearance of acting under Constitutional restraint.
The Dems, being creatures of the same special interest bribery, and as dependent on corruption to get elected as Bush, have rendered themselves worthless to defend our Constitution against Bush's corruptions.
The difference between Bush and the Dems is only a matter of degree.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 1, 2nd to last article on the page, “Big Oil Owns our Politicians”
Corruption Updates 2, 6th article down, “Contribute to Win, Big Contribs try to Trump State Safety Laws”
Corruption Updates 3, 2nd article on page, “Big Business Spends Lawmakers into Compliance”
Corruption Updates 4, 1st article on page, “Checks in, Laws Out, It's that Simple”
Corruption Updates 10, 5th article on page, “DO BRIBED POLITICIANS PROVIDE SAFE REGULATION OF PIPELINES, OR ANYTHING ELSE?” AP IN BEE.
Corruption Updates 16, 4th article on the page, "EPA STANDARDS WILL KILL YOU: SPECIAL INTEREST BRIBERY BRINGS AMERICA DEATH"
Corruption Updates 21, 9th article on page, “White House under Investigation for Censoring Science”
Corruption Updates 24, 4th article on page, “ BIG OIL OWNS INTERIOR DEPARTMENT”
Corruption Updates 24, 5th article on page, NYTIMES, 12-3-06, “LOBBYING BY TRUCKING INDUSTRY BRINGS DEATH TO NATION'S HIGHWAYS INSURANSE AND SAFETY LOBBIES HAVE INSUFFICIENT BRIBE MONEY TO STOP TRUCKING LOBBY FROM GUTTING SAFETY RULES”
Corruption Updates 25, 5th article on page, AP, 12-6-06, “BATTERY LOBBY BRIBES ENDANGER HEALTH BUSH REPAYS BRIBES WITH OUR HEALTH AND WELFARE BY ATTEMPTING TO KILL LEAD STANDARDS”
Corruption Updates 25, 6th article, AP, 12-6-06, “FARM LOBBY BRIBES ENDANGER HEALTH GRASSLEY (R-IOWA) REPAYS BRIBES BY KILLING EPA REGULATION OF FARMS
Corruption Updates 32, 2nd article on the page, "BUSH TRIES TO KILL CHEMICAL RULES, SCIENCE, AND INTEGRITY IN ONE FELL SWOOP: INTEGERTY FALLS, RULES AND SCIENCE DAMAGED, BUT STILL STANDING
Read more articles About Abuse of the US Attorney
Read more about political Censorship of Science
Search the Corruption Database under
Killing Safety Regulation
Killing Market Regulation
Unconstitutional Presidential Power
3) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
AP, 3-22-07:
Leavitt reassures insurers in fund talks
By KEVIN FREKING -- Associated Press Writer
Published
10:42 am PDT Thursday, March 22, 2007
http://dwb.sacbee.com/24hour/politics/v-print/story/3582689p-12838731c.html
WASHINGTON (AP) The Bush administration reassured worried health insurance executives Thursday that it strongly opposes efforts to cut their payments and use the savings to expand a separate insurance program for children.
While Leavitt framed the debate by pitting the competitive private sector against the government, Democratic lawmakers are framing it differently. They say it's about helping poor children versus overpaying insurance companies.
Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., said during a congressional hearing Wednesday that the government pays 12 percent more for managed care than it does when comparable seniors get care through traditional Medicare.
"When private plans formally asked to join Medicare in 1982, they said they could provide Medicare's benefits better and cheaper than the government," Stark said. "Fast forward 25 years, and we are now losing money for every person who enrolls in a private plan."
"What member wants to reduce funding for their constituents and take benefits away from their constituents?" asked Karen Ignagni, president and CEO of America's Health Insurance Plans.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Bush Assures Health Executives Continued Massive Profits
Public Health, Welfare and our Taxes sacrificed for Industry Profits
The
point of all American politics, the goal of both the Democrats and the
Republicans, is profit, prestige, and power. The politicians of both parties put
Profit before our democracy, our Constitution, and common sense.
The problem with this approach is that it is unconstitutional, immoral, and destructive to our country. Our constitution requires that the people regulate the markets. It gives no power for markets to rule over people.
The upcoming Presidential election is a case in point. The candidates are not being chosen by the people, they are being chosen as viable candidates based on the amount of bribes they can collect from the corporate special interests. We have market, not democratic politics.
And the insurance industry is deeply invested. Last year the insurance industry distributed $30.7 million in total bribes, giving $10.5 mil to Dems, and $19.7 mil to Repubs. Rest assured that this will preserve the majority of their governmental subsidies, tax breaks, and profits, no matter which party is in power.
Big corporate money is pouring into their campaign coffers, right now, assuring that all the candidates we finally get to vote for are in the pockets of the Special Interests, and are not representatives of the people.
The winning candidates will enter office dishonestly, on a wave of special interest bribes, then use their offices to repay their debts to their corporate and special interest benefactors. Insurance industry profits will be preserved independent of who wins in Nov. '08.
Our politicians have turned Lady Liberty into a whore, forcing our democracy to service the greed of the special interests.
This has seriously damaged our country. Our forests are gone. Our schools are not even good daycare. Working class jobs pay nothing. And healthcare sucks while healthcare executives get rich.
The Corporations, the rich, and their political lackeys have proven that political power based on wealth is insufficient to provide for our most basic social needs.
Allowing the rich to run our country is illegitimate, defying the words, intentions, and spirit of our Constitution.
This concentration of political authority has accelerated the concentration of our nation's wealth and power into the smallest number of hands in our country's history. Ever. This concentration of wealth accelerates the concentration of Political power, tightening the grip of the corporate monopoly of political power. This cycle of corruption is accelerating, and remains unchallenged by either party.
The result is an America has never been so unevenly split between luxury and poverty. Ever.
But industry, and all of the special interests need not worry. If they continue to provide the hundreds of millions in political bribe money, both parties will continue to front candidates who sacrifice the public health, welfare, and safety of our nation to assure the profits and power of their corporate sponsors.
Unless we restore our democracy.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 19, 1st article on page, “TOP RECIPEINTS OF LOBBYISTS BRIBES ARE LEADERSHIP OF BOTH PARTIES”
Corruption Updates 19, 3rd article on page, “PARTIES AND THEIR BRIBERS WORK TO CIRCUMNAVIGATE CAMPAIGN FINANCE RESTRICTION”
Corruption Updates 22, 6th article on page, “MONEY WINS IN ALMOST EVERY POLITICAL RACE: POLITICAL VICTORY GOES TO THE BIGGEST SPENDER. BIG SPENDERS CLEAN UP. DEMOCRACY A JOKE. BIG SURPRISE”
Corruption Updates 24, 6th article on page, 12-4-06, “POLITICIANS WHO BRIBE POLITICIANS ARE LEADERS UNCONTESTED CANDIDATES REDISTRIBUTE BRIBE MONEY TO BUY PLUM COMMITTEES AND CHAIRMANSHIPS”
Search the Corruption Database under
Big Money Politics
Insurance
4) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
BBC, 3-22-07:
Bolton admits Lebanon truce block
Thursday, 22 March 2007, 13:10 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/middle_east/6479377.stm
A former top American diplomat says the US deliberately resisted calls for a immediate ceasefire during the conflict in Lebanon in the summer of 2006.
Former ambassador to the UN John Bolton told the BBC that before any ceasefire Washington wanted Israel to eliminate Hezbollah's military capability.
Mr Bolton said an early ceasefire would have been "dangerous and misguided".
He said the US decided to join efforts to end the conflict only when it was clear Israel's campaign wasn't working.
Britain joined the US in refusing to call for an immediate ceasefire.
At the time US officials argued a ceasefire was insufficient and agreement was needed to address the underlying tensions and balance of power in the region.
Mr Bolton, a controversial and blunt-speaking figure, said he was "damned proud of what we did" to prevent an early ceasefire.
More than 1,000 Lebanese civilians and an unknown number of Hezbollah fighters were killed in the conflict.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
US ALLOWED ISRAEL TO DESTROY LEBANON
Funny, but Israel disgraced itself not only by being defeated by Hezbollah, but by the war crimes they committed in their unprovoked response to a minor border skirmish. And John Bolton is "damned proud" of this failed policy.
Both the destruction of Lebanon's civilian infrastructure, and littering Lebanon with cluster bombs, qualify as war crimes.
If Bush and Bolton would have acted responsibly, Israel would have been saved from humiliation, and Bush from further disgracing American foreign policy in the middle east.
Pride in ignorance characterizes too much of our country's history, and this Administration's character.
Search the Corruption Database under
5) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE : AP, 3-22-07:
U.S. suggests cutting Abramoff sentence
By CURT ANDERSON -- Associated Press Writer
Last Updated 4:08 pm PDT Thursday, March 22, 2007
http://dwb.sacbee.com/24hour/politics/story/3582946p-12838633c.html
MIAMI (AP) Federal prosecutors took the first steps toward reducing the prison sentence of former Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, currently scheduled for release in 2011 for a Florida fraud conviction.
Documents filed in federal court say Abramoff has provided "substantial assistance" in a separate Washington corruption scandal investigation and continues to work with investigators from his prison cell in Cumberland, Md.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul F. Schwartz did not recommend how much Abramoff's sentence should be cut.
Neal Sonnett, Abramoff's attorney in Miami, declined to comment Thursday other than to say that his client was continuing to cooperate with investigators.
Fed Attorney trying to Reduce Abramoff's Time:
This is how Justice Dept. Lawyers keep their jobs in the Bush Administration
The article below was published in CU 35, 6th article down on the page, on 2-27-07:
ARE FED PROSECUTORS GOING TO BUST OPEN CONGRESSIONAL CORRUPTION?
IT LOOKS AS IF FEDS ARE GOING TO ACCEPT EASY PLEAS, LET THEM KEEP MONEY, AND KEEP SILENT
It looks like Abramoff, Ney, Cunningham, and a slew of others are not going to be forced to reveal the full extent of Congressional corruption to stay out of jail for the next 50 years.
Rather than sweat them to talk, for less that huge sentences, the Attorney General's prosecutors are letting them off the hook, or are in the process of letting them off the hook.
I hope I'm wrong. I hope a whole slew of indictments are coming out of these cases. But Lam was just fired. And Iglesias was just fired. Unless things change with Heaton, it looks like the Justice Department is not going to pursue the Abramoff-Ney corruption to its Congressional center.
Hell, it looks like the Justice Department will fire the “independent” Federal Prosecutors that have the balls to pursue Republican corruption, and not push hard on the cases Justice prosecutes itself.
Heaton was a top aide to Ney. He knows a whole lot about every aspect of Ney's doings. Squeeze him. Remember Fastow of Enron? They had him and his wife by the short hairs. The Feds squeezed him hard. He rolled over on everyone.
Ney did not act alone. He worked in conjunction with allied Congressmen. He had friends, and help, inside the halls of Congress. Did they squeeze Ney? It seems not. He was sentenced to 30 months, and, so far, his case has produced no indictments outside of his own office.
The same thing happened in the Abramoff case. Abramoff was rushed off to prison, which seems to have limited his use as a snitch. The only reason 50 other indictments did not come out of the Abramoff scandal is because the Justice Department is limiting the damage to “their” party.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 17, 10th article on page; “Aide Who Linked Abramoff and Rove Resigns at White House”
Corruption Updates 29, 3rd article on page; AP, 1-10-07: “ENERGY LOBBYIST WHO WAS INTERIOR DEPT #2...SUSPECTED OF BETRAYING PUBLIC TRUST WITH ABRAMOFF”
Corruption Updates 32, 5th article on page, “Ney to Join Abramoff in Club Fed: Let's Just Put Bars Around Criminal Congress”
Search the Corruption Database under
Abramoff
6) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE : BEE, 3-22-07:
Grand jury rips officials on arena bid
But city, county leaders deny any deception, dismiss report.
By Mary Lynne Vellinga - Bee Staff Writer
Published
12:00 am PDT Thursday, March 22, 2007
http://www.sacbee.com/101/v-print/story/142172.html
The Sacramento County grand jury issued a scathing report Wednesday accusing city and county leaders of deceiving the public in their quest to build a Kings arena with tax dollars.
The report found no concrete evidence of wrongdoing and offers little in the way of examples or evidence to back up its conclusions that "city and county leaders were not aboveboard with the citizens of Sacramento."
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Sac County Grand Jury: Politicians Lie
Every political deal in our era, "The Age of Political Corruption," is tainted. Sac County is the county that awarded a $100,000 a year subsidy to an auto dealer.
The sweetheart deal over the Arena was done long before the arena deal was made. The real deals were made during elections, when sugar daddy contributions are made for the Supervisors' elections.
The payoffs come later, when Arena, development, and car dealer subsidies, and other favors for supporters and bribers drain the public coffers to enrich the special interests, and repay political bribes.
I've scrubbed the Sac County Registrar of Voters website, and cannot find who contributed what to who. I will, and this info will be included here before this article goes from draft to final version.
Also See:
Corruption Update 40, 7th article on page, "SAC COUNTY SUPS VOTE 100K PER YEAR TO AUTO DEALER"
Search the Corruption Database under
Sacramento
7) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE : BBC, 3-22-07:
Bangladesh denies suspects bail
Thursday, 22 March 2007, 10:25 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/south_asia/6478747.stm
By John Sudworth
BBC News, Dhaka
Bangladesh's military-backed government has announced further stringent powers to deal with corruption.
They include suspending the rights of those accused to seek bail. Dozens of politicians and businessmen have been detained over the past two months.
Law enforcers can also seize property or arrest corruption suspects without the prior approval of a court.
The list of those arrested so far reads like a roll-call of Bangladesh's rich and famous - former cabinet ministers, high-profile businessmen, even Tarique Rahman, the influential son of former Prime Minister Khalida Zia.
The tightening of the emergency powers now means they are likely to remain in prison for the duration of the investigation of the corruption allegations against them, and any subsequent trial.
The interim government has vowed that the elections cancelled in January will go ahead, but not until it has tackled the rampant corruption at the heart of the political system.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Bangladesh Extends Jail Time for Political Elite:
We Should follow their Example
Here in the homeland of Revolution against arbitrary authority, I cannot concur with indefinite detentions, or arbitrary arrests, as seems to be occurring in Bangladesh.
On the other hand, our Revolutionary Forefathers tore down the houses of the representatives of Arbitrary Royal Authority. They then tarred and feathered them, put them in a donkey cart, and rode them out of town under the supervision of the population.
Eventually they crafted a Constitution which attempted to prevent arbitrary authority from forming under the hand of the people or the aristocrats.
They did not fail. We have.
Also See:
Corruption Update 37 , 7th article on page, "Bangladesh Jails Political Elite: We Should follow their Example"
Search the Corruption Database under
Bangladesh
8) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Washington Post, 3-20-07:
Lawmakers
Seek Clarity on Earmarks
House to Provide
Guidelines on What Constitutes 'Financial Interest'
By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 20, 2007; A17
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/19/AR2007031901797_pf.html
Guidance should come today on a new House rule that bans lawmakers from having a stake in their pork.
According to a new anti-corruption measure, House members who tack special spending requests, or earmarks, onto legislation must fully identify the recipient and certify in writing that neither they nor their spouses have a "financial interest" in the earmark.
The House ethics committee is expected to issue guidance on the rule today, said Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami.
Some members, for example, have expressed uncertainty over whether earmark requests for regional projects signed by more than one lawmaker count against each member's individual pork allotment.
Meanwhile, the Appropriations Committee signaled forgiveness on the blown deadline and pledged to help members confused about the earmarks process.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
PORK ALLOTMENTS IN DOUBT
Earmarks have been how Senators and Congressmen divide up a portion of the national treasury, in secret, without oversight, and deliver it to their friends and political bribers.
Earmarks are one of the main ways the politicians pay their back their bribers. The other common repayment methods are tax breaks and regulatory relief.
Earmarks are raw corruption of the basest sort, being the direct delivery of governmental assets into private hands. But earmarks are only one side of the problem. Earmarks are only the payback side of the bribery equation. The bribe itself has not been the focus of any of the Democrat's fake reform.
The Dems attempt to create rules to guide earmarking is misguided; regulating the bribery payback without addressing the bribery itself only assures that bribery will continue.
The reforms described in the article above are in the House reform bill. In the Senate, the Dems tried to pull off a fake, cosmetic earmark reform. Harry Reid, the Dem leader in the Senate, was rather surprised when a bipartisan group rose up, and amended real teeth into their fake reform.
Reid tried, but was unable to kill the amendments. The House and Senate are both running earmark reform, but the truth about earmark reform will only be known when the bill emerges from conference.
I predict that earmark reform will die in conference. An earmark "reform" bill will emerge from the Conference Committee, but it will be gutted of any meaningful earmark reform.
But the corporate media will trumpet the fake reform as if real reform had happened.
I'll bet diamonds to dimes that real reform will be shorn out of any bill that emerges from the conference committee, but they will still shit out a "show" bill that does nothing to curb earmark abuses.
If earmark reform does emerge with any teeth, I will start looking for what device party leaders have found to replace earmarks, and continue draining our treasury to repay their bribers.
Until we end political bribery, our politicians will find a way to repay big money bribes. Unless the politicians drain our treasury first, and run out of our things to repay their bribers with.
Also See:
Corruption Update 20, 6th article on page, "Business Groups Woo Dems"
Corruption Update 28, 6th article on page, "SENATE DEMS PRETEND EARMARK REFORM:DEMS TARGET THE PAYOFFS, BUT NOT THE BRIBERY"
Corruption Update 30, 2nd article on page, "Democrats set back on earmarks"
More Articles on Earmarks
Search the Corruption Database under
Earmarks
9) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE : AP, 3-22-07:
FEC deadlocked over '04 presidential ads
The Associated Press
Published 2:32 pm PDT Thursday, March 22, 2007
http://dwb.sacbee.com/24hour/politics/v-print/story/3582860p-12839234c.html
WASHINGTON (AP) Democratic members of the Federal Election Commission say the Republican Party in 2004 improperly paid more than $40 million in ads that benefited President Bush's campaign.
At
issue is a decision by the Bush campaign and the Republican
National Committee to split the $81 million cost of a series of
ads that ran during the 2004 general election campaign.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Swift Boaters, Move Oners, make Mockery of Free Speech
The saga of the attack by the "shadow" parties on our democracy continues. We have a raft of supposedly distinct, and separate political interest groups, that are no more than arms of one party or the other.
The parties are using "Free Speech" as a cover to construct allied political groups that are supposedly separate, but nothing more than ways to receive and spend big chunks of corporate and special interest money outside of contribution limits.
Both parties are using this tactic.
Our initiative deals with this problem.
Also See:
Corruption Update 27, 7th article on page,"SHADOW PARTIES FINED PARTY FRONT GROUPS MOVEON AND SWIFTBOATES FINED"
Corruption Update 21, 2nd article on page, "Unregulated Groups put Millions in Election"
Corruption Update 18, 2nd article on page, "Non-Profits Cover for Criminal Lobbyist Abramoff"
Search the Corruption Database under
Election Manipulation
Front Groups
10) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Washington Post, 3-22-07:
Linked
Killings Undercut Trust In Guatemala
Culture of
Corruption, Impunity Exposed
By Manuel Roig-Franzia
Washington Post
Foreign Service
Friday, March 23, 2007; A10
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/22/AR2007032201903_pf.html
GUATEMALA CITY -- It began with four charred bodies on a dirt road.
The victims had been kidnapped, investigators concluded, and two of them burned alive.
Among them was Eduardo D'Aubuisson, son of Roberto D'Aubuisson, the late founder of El Salvador's ruling party and the alleged architect of death squads in the Salvadoran civil war.
On Tuesday, the Guatemalan Congress overwhelmingly approved a no-confidence motion against Interior Minister Carlos Vielmann, whose domain includes prisons. Now President Oscar Berger must decide whether to remove Vielmann from office or launch a battle with Congress by vetoing the decision.
Meanwhile, Congress has stonewalled a U.N. proposal to create an independent commission to investigate corruption in Guatemala. Vielmann, a wealthy businessman who is fighting to keep a job and a paycheck he says he does not need, said in an interview that he supports the U.N. proposal.
"They said they were innocent," Carlos Poc?n said of his clients, the slain officers Jos? Korki L?pez Arreaga, Jos? Adolfo Guti?rrez and Marvin Langen Escobar M?ndez.
The case has also become entangled in presidential politics ahead of an election due in September. Otto P?rez Molina, a candidate who served as a general during a devastating civil war, filed a complaint against Vielmann for allegedly allowing two officially sanctioned death squads to operate within the nation's security forces.
"He knew what was happening and he did nothing," P?rez Molina said in an interview.
Sperisen, a 6-foot-2-inch, 280-pound former Guatemala City official with a shock of bright orange hair, does not deny that there is corruption in his forces. He estimated that he could easily fire 10 percent of his 19,500 officers if Guatemalan law did not require a lengthy appeals process. Vielmann estimated that 40 percent of the police should be fired. As calls grow for both men to resign, they are portraying themselves as reformers.
Vielmann, who acknowledges police have been hired for mafia-style hits
Helen Mack, a Salvadoran rights activist, said there is "total impunity" in Guatemala.
Mack's sister, an anthropologist, was murdered on Sept. 11, 1990, shortly after publishing a study accusing government forces of massacring Mayan Indians during the civil war. A member of Guatemala's presidential guard was convicted of stabbing Myrna Mack 27 times outside her office in the middle of the day.
It took more than 13 years for Helen Mack to persuade Guatemala's supreme court to convict Army Col. Juan Valencia Osorio of ordering the killing. But in January 2004, days after his 30-year sentence was reinstated, Valencia fled. Mack says he was aided by a special military unit. He remains a fugitive.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
The article below was published in CU 36, 3rd article down on the page, on 3-5-07:
AMERICAN DEATH SQUADS STILL HAUNT GUATEMALA
AMERICA CAN'T CLOSE PANDORA'S BOX IN GUATEMALA, WHILE OPENING It in IRAQ
Central America has been ruled with an iron fist by Spanish Colonial Elites since the conquest.
These elites kept power by trading their country's resources, both human and natural, for American military, political, and economic support for their regimes.
American program began failing in the '70s, and by the early
'80s Regan pushed drugs into the United States, and death squads across Central and South America to prop up our tottering dictatorships with funds and guns. Our actions then still are driving events in Central and South America today.
A handy rule: We can take political power with force, but we cannot maintain political power with force. Unless we match our military force with an equally powerful political philosophy, (Such as freedom, justice, and democracy) we are doomed to walk down a long, bloody trail to failure.
We are at the end of our long, bloody trail in South America. South America is taking control of their political and economic affairs out of our hands, and are, for the first time in 500 years, almost in complete charge of their own affairs. Central America is not far behind South America.
The Agent of our Empire in Guatemala and Hondorus during the formation of the death squads was John Negroponte. Today's death squads are the children of American foreign policy, the children of Negroponte, Poindexter, North, and the crew of criminals that was the Regan administration.
The death squads and military governments they supported have continued to use extra-judicial violence to maintain political and economic control over their people in Mexico, Guatemala, and Colombia,
Until we stop the corporate criminals in the United States from suppressing the constitution, perverting our democracy, and stealing our government, people around the world will continue to have their political and economic rights violently stolen from them.
Before we can bring the benefits of democracy and freedom to the world, we must establish them here.
Also See:
Corruption Update 36, 3rd article on page, "AMERICAN DEATH SQUADS STILL HAUNT GUATEMALA"
Negraponte the criminal: Answers.com
Poindexter the criminal: Hereinreality.com
Past criminals in present administration: Fair.org
Search the Corruption Database under
Guatemala
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CORRUPTION UPDATES 42
March 20th to March 22nd, 2007