CORRUPTION
UPDATES 49
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1) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE:
3 Generals Spurn the Position of War 'Czar'
Bush Seeks Overseer For Iraq, Afghanistan
By Peter Baker and Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 11, 2007; A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/10/AR2007041001776_pf.html
The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, but it has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job, according to people close to the situation.
At least three retired four-star generals approached by the White House in recent weeks have declined to be considered for the position, the sources said, underscoring the administration's difficulty in enlisting its top recruits to join the team after five years of warfare that have taxed the United States and its military.
"The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going," said retired Marine Gen. John J. "Jack" Sheehan, a former top NATO commander who was among those rejecting the job. Sheehan said he believes that Vice President Cheney and his hawkish allies remain more powerful within the administration than pragmatists looking for a way out of Iraq. "So rather than go over there, develop an ulcer and eventually leave, I said, 'No, thanks,' " he said.
The Defense and State departments have long struggled over their roles and responsibilities in Iraq, with the White House often forced to referee.
The highest-ranking White House official responsible exclusively for the wars is deputy national security adviser Meghan O'Sullivan, who reports to national security adviser Stephen J. Hadley and does not have power to issue orders to agencies.
Besides Sheehan, sources said, the White House or intermediaries have sounded out retired Army Gen. Jack Keane and retired Air Force Gen. Joseph W. Ralston, who also said they are not interested.
Kurt Campbell, a Clinton administration Pentagon official who heads the Center for a New American Security, said the difficulty in finding someone to take the job shows that Bush has exhausted his ability to sign up top people to help salvage a disastrous war.
In an interview yesterday, Sheehan said that Hadley contacted him and they discussed the job for two weeks but that he was dubious from the start. "I've never agreed on the basis of the war, and I'm still skeptical," Sheehan said. "Not only did we not plan properly for the war, we grossly underestimated the effect of sanctions and Saddam Hussein on the Iraqi people."
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
President Admits Incompentency to Run War;
Looking for Patsy to take fall
Last I heard, the Constitution assigns the President the job of Commander in Chief of our Armed forces, and requires him to run the agencies of the Executive Branch.
A NOTE to Mr. BUSH: The inception and conduct of this war, and the lion's share of responsibility for this historic blunder sits on your shoulders. This war is your job, Mr. Bush. The Constitution does allow you to abdicate your responsibility for this war; it delegates no Czarist powers to your office, nor allows you to create one. This simple fact escapes the Washington Post Article.
The article describes White House leadership in disarray, but does not label it as such. Quotes such as ""The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going," and, "the White House often forced to referee," disputes between State and the Pentagon about their roles, and that "Bush has exhausted his ability to sign up top people to help salvage a disastrous war," indicate that the leadership of the President has failed as badly as have his policies.
The Post should just come out and say it: The President's war plan failed. The President's leadership failed. The President is no longer capable of attracting competent cabinet level officials, if he ever was.
Also
See:
Corruption Updates 25 , 4th article on the page, "ENGLISH LORD COMPARES HITLER'S INVASION OF POLAND WITH IRAQ WAR"
Corruption Updates 45 , 1st article on the page, "McCaffrey Paints Gloomy Picture of Iraq"
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2) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE: Washington Post, 4-12-07:
White House E-Mail Lost in Private Accounts
Messages May Have Included Discussions About Firing of Eight Prosecutors
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/11/AR2007041102167_pf.html
By Michael Abramowitz and Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, April 12, 2007; A04
The White House acknowledged yesterday that e-mails dealing with official government business may have been lost because they were improperly sent through private accounts intended to be used for political activities. Democrats have been seeking such missives as part of an investigation into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.
Under federal law, the White House is required to maintain records, including e-mails, involving presidential decision-making and deliberations.
Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is investigating the use of outside accounts, issued a statement saying that the White House disclosure is "a remarkable admission that raises serious legal and security issues," adding: "The White House has an obligation to disclose all the information it has."
The controversy over the outside e-mail accounts is a byproduct of the ongoing showdown over the prosecutor firings, emerging after the administration recently provided to Congress e-mails from some White House officials that had been sent from their RNC accounts.
In another e-mail exchange revealed during the investigation of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a White House official was described as warning that "it is better to not put this stuff in writing in [the White House] . . . email system because it might actually limit what they can do to help us, especially since there could be lawsuits, etc." Abramoff responded in an e-mail that the message in question "was not supposed to go into the WH system."
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
White House now "Lost" Emails they Hid in Illegal Hidden Accounts
They tried to hide the evidence of their crimes in the RNC email accounts. When that cover was blown, they now claim they "lost" the emails they were hiding.
The claims of this administration have no credibility whatsoever. No Credibility in the Department of Justice, Interior, NASA, NOAA, FDA, nor FEMA.
This Administration has proven it is composed of liars dedicated to the service of wealth and power.
Also
See:
Corruption Updates 39, 3rd article on page, "Rove's role in firings is focus:REPUBS CAUGHT KILLING, EATING THEIR OWN POLITICAl CHILDREN"
Corruption Updates 49, 2nd article on page, "White House E-Mail Lost in Private Accounts"
Corruption Updates 51, 8th article on the page, "Rove E-Mail Sought by Congress May Be Missing"
Read more articles About Abuse of the US Attorney
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3) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE: Washington Post, 4-12-07:
House Hesitates on Ethics Changes
On Enforcement, Some Lawmakers Favor the Status Quo
By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 12, 2007; A25
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/11/AR2007041102064_pf.html
Democratic-led efforts to overhaul the House's oft-criticized ethics enforcement system have stumbled over a familiar obstacle: lawmakers afraid of outside scrutiny.
The promise to end the "culture of corruption" they said developed in Washington under Republican rule helped propel Democrats into the majority in November elections. But after a promising start, lawmakers appear to be backing off a proposal for an independent entity to investigate ethics charges.
Monday, task force chairman Michael Capuano (D-Mass.) and ranking Republican member Lamar Smith (Tex.)...(sent options for reform to Ethics Committee task force)
"We were asked to consider whether there is a need for, a desire for this," Capuano said. "The answer we might come up with is, 'No, we don't need one.' "
House members monitor their own conduct through an ethics committee made up of five Democrats and five Republicans. And although outsiders can submit an ethics complaint in the Senate, only House members can request ethics probes in that chamber. Members seldom do -- which, observers say, contributed to many scandals, including the ties of former congressman Bob Ney (R-Ohio) to jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff; the bribery allegations against former congressman Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) and Rep. William Jefferson (D-La.); and the improper contact Mark Foley (R-Fla.) had with pages for years while he was in the House.
But the true acid test, watchdogs say, is whether the House is willing to make substantial changes to the way it polices ethics.
"If this failed ethics enforcement process is left in place, we are bound to see problems arising in the future," said Fred Wertheimer, president of Democracy 21, one of a dozen government-oversight groups that have appeared before the House task force. "What we've seen so far raises very serious questions as to whether this task force is prepared to come up with real, basic change."
Watchdogs say the dismissals of the federal prosecutors highlight trouble with the current system. The Senate has begun a preliminary investigation into the role of Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) in the firing of New Mexico prosecutor David Iglesias. But because the House ethics committee keeps its probes secret, it is unclear whether the lower chamber is looking into the similar allegations concerning Rep. Heather Wilson (R-N.M.), a close ally of Domenici. The committee, officially known as the Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, is also mum on allegations that Rep. Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) acted improperly when his chief of staff called the Washington federal prosecutor with questions about an investigation involving Democrats in the state.
Hastings's situation is particularly sticky; he is the ethics committee's ranking Republican.
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
House Hesitates on Ethics Changes:
Corruption Pays Too Well
The "Ethics" Committee has proven time and time again that it has no ethics, and is a refuge of scoundrels created by scoundrels.
The Democrats are as covered with the filth of "the culture of corruption" as are the Republicans, and are unlikely to do anything that exposes them to accountability."
As the Democrat Capusno said, "We were asked to consider whether there is a need for, a desire for this," Capuano said. "The answer we might come up with is, 'No, we don't need one." What a piece of shit.
Also
See:
The database contains Nine articles on the Ethics Committee, my favorite is:
Corruption Updates 11, 8th article on the page, "CONGRESS AGAIN PROVES IT HAS NO ETHICS: REVOLVING DOOR AND MASSIVE PAYOFFS FEATHER THEIR NESTS"
Corruption Updates 23 , 3nd article on the page, "Elective office improves a resume"
Corruption Updates 26 , 2nd article on the page, "ETHICS PANEL FAILS TO PROTECT CHILDREN, ETHICS:CONGRESSMEN'S KNOWLEDGE OF FOLEY"
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4) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN: Reuters, 4-12-07:
Russian Minister Says No ‘Rogue State’ Missile Threat to Europe
By REUTERS
Published: April 12, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/world/europe/12briefs-missile.html
Europe is under no threat from missiles belonging to so-called rogue states, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, left, said in an article in The Financial Times. “We are convinced that no threat of this kind exists to Europe or the U.S. today, or in the foreseeable future,” he wrote in outlining Russia’s stance on an American plan to install antimissile defenses in Poland and the Czech Republic against possible attacks from what the United States calls “rogue states,” meaning Iran or North Korea.
He said it was “unacceptable for anyone to use the Continent as their own strategic territory, and said an antimissile system “would fundamentally alter the Continent’s go-strategic landscape.”
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
US Accelerating Shifting World Balance of Power:
Antagonizing Russia increases Global Polarization
We have a real problem with Russia: Under the guise of "Democracy," our government has been funding political movements across the post-Soviet underbelly of Russia. Our influence has been exerted from Estonia to Kazakhstan, from the Baltic to East of the Black Sea.
We have been Actively Contesting Russian Influence in countries that would be akin to Russia supporting governments hostile to us in Canada and Mexico.
Our participation in Balkan politics began with the chaos of the Soviet breakdown, and continued long past the point where it could be considered friendly or helpful.
The Russians have recovered sufficient military and economic power since the Soviet Breakdown to respond strongly to our continued provocations, not just in Europe, but around the world.
Our foreign policy continues to be based on asserting and maintaining control over 3rd world resources through bribery, supporting dictatorships, and open violence when the first two methods fail.
These Crimes have disorganized our allies, and enraged our enemies, offering Russia excellent opportunities to contest, and reduce our influence around the world.
American imperialism has alienated the world. We have lost the middle east, but we are too blind to yet see that the Arabs will no longer tolerate foreign control of their lands, resources or governments.
Even the kings and dictators our military and money support are turning to their own people, rather than our government, for support.
American Imperialism has almost totally lost its grip on South America, and our interests there are being effectively rebuffed and reduced by newly elected governments that represent their own people, rather than the post-colonial spanish elites backed by our government and corporations.
China has been enjoying this Russia-US friction, while settling their long-standing border disputes with Russia, and crafting big, long-term energy agreements with Russia, Africa, and Iran.
The Chinese need Russian Oil, and they are using our dollars to pay for it. Our Dollars in China are coming from our corporations, who have moved the bulk of our manufacturing jobs to China. We are making ourselves strategically vulnerable, incapable of either manufacturing the steel and industrial products we require for our security, while simultaneously impoverishing our middle and working classes.
All to help China fund Russia, and other potential rivals, around the world.
Our greed, violence, and political manipulations around the world have offered Russia and China excellent opportunities to use our Dollars to offer an alternative to having your government and resources stolen by our corporations.
Bush and Rice, and their program to put missiles that DON'T WORK, AND NEVER HAVE WORKED next to Russia, has given the Russians a made to order opportunity to offer support to the rising post-colonial, anti-American movements which are rising in our imperial and corporate possessions.
Bush is making yet another historic blunder by forcing worthless missiles into Europe. As indicated above, a new balance of world power is emerging. Presently, the resistance is based on a negative principal; it is a denial of the legitimacy of American political-Corporate power that runs their countries and economies.
Soon, a positive philosophy capable of binding the diverse range of cultures and countries that seek release from our grip will emerge across countries seeking freedom from our control.
Our only chance of avoiding a global meltdown of our system is by changing it. Unless we end corporate control of politics, and smash the system of bribery and corruption that nurses it here, our domestic and foreign situations will continue to deteriorate.
Americans have a clear duty to restore our country to democratic principals and practices. Duty requires we remove the undemocratic influence of wealth and power that has stolen our elections and hijacked our government.
What we do after that will be up to us, rather than the corporation's political Tools. Only then will we even have a shot at assuring that the corporations be held responsible for the costs they have been throwing onto the public.
Only then will we have a shot at assuring that our policies are crafted responsibly, paying all the costs of doing business before taking profit.
Today, profits in California are made by spreading poverty, creating hunger, and denying medicine and education to our citizens.
These costs are not paid because they are pocketed by our Corporations as "profits." This irresponsibility has created an unprecedented concentration of wealth in the fewest hands, sitting side by side with an unprecedented level of massive poverty that has broken our social and political infrastructures.
But the party goes on. These ill-gotten profits have sparked a binge of luxury and egotistic prestige, of arrogance and impunity, that has put the pursuit of material wealth above principal.
Greed has replaced our duty to country and Constitution. This ill-gotten wealth has created an arrogance that threatens the whole world.
Restoring Democracy in the US will dramatically curb the power of corporate greed to craft our foreign policy. This will take our foot off the neck of the world.
Restoring American Democracy will allow us to craft relationships with countries that are more than thin cover for the corporate rape of their resources under the shield of our military and economic power.
Restoring American Democracy will remove the need for the world to join together to fight our bid for world domination.
Also
See:
Corruption Updates 36, 1st article on the page, "Russia prepares to revise military doctrine in response to USA's missile defense plans"
Corruption Updates 39, 8th article on the page, ""Losing" Russia? THE REAL QUESTION: WHO'S TO BLAME FOR THE LOSS OF AMERICA?
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5) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
No law broken by city's payment to secretary in mayor's sex scandal
Cecilia M. Vega, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, April 12, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/04/12/NEWSOM.TMP&type=printable
The former San Francisco City Hall employee who had an affair with Mayor Gavin Newsom benefited from unusual treatment before and after she left her job to be treated for substance abuse, but there is no evidence city officials broke any laws, a report released Wednesday by the city attorney's office found.
Ruby Rippey-Tourk appears to be the only city employee ever granted catastrophic-illness pay for treatment of alcohol addiction, a decision approved by the head of the Public Health Department, the report, issued by City Attorney Dennis Herrera, showed.
Payments under the catastrophic-illness program typically are reserved for people with cancer, AIDS or other life-threatening illnesses.
The investigation also found that while Rippey-Tourk worked in Newsom's office, several of her time sheets were signed by her husband, Alex Tourk, then the mayor's deputy chief of staff, who later became his campaign manager. Other time sheets had no approval signature, and some were signed by Rippey-Tourk herself.
Rippey-Tourk left her job in August 2006 after she and Newsom had what the mayor has described as a brief affair the previous year.
The report supplied ammunition to critics of the mayor, including Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin. He said the document "clearly establishes that there was a pattern of favoritism toward this former city employee with whom the mayor had sexual involvement, and while the unprecedented payment may not be illegal, it's totally unethical."
No policy bars people undergoing substance abuse from receiving catastrophic-illness pay, but the report said no one in such a situation had previously been approved for the program.
In fact, the Health Department has denied applications involving alcoholism or drug abuse on the ground that the condition was not life-threatening, according to the report. In one rejection letter the report cited, the department told an applicant, "Alcoholism may be disabling but is not life-threatening."
"Anyone concerned about their tax dollars being used as hush money for Newsom's paramour should be outraged," said Supervisor Chris Daly, a frequent critic of the mayor.
Supervisors Peskin and Ed Jew said the document could lead to board hearings on how the catastrophic-illness law is used and by whom.
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
Newsom Gets his Whore Special Treatment, Big Buck "Compensation"
Maybe this bad press and insider special treatment will lead to Newsom being cut off from his corporate sugar daddies, The Gettys and the Downtown corporate mafia.
Naw, that will never happen as long as Newsome and the Democrats can be run into office on a tidal wave of private corporate money. As long as the Democrats can keep hold of the Mayor's office, the Corporations will continue to back him, and he will continue to serve them, and his crew of insiders, instead of the people of San Francisco.
When the Republicans manage to capture the office, the Corporations will back them, too.
Newsome may be turning out to be a rising new Clinton out of the West: Newsome, like (the) Clintons, serves the Corporate Power, and in return gets all the money needed to start and run his businesses, receives massive funding for his election campaigns, and, Clinton Bonus here, he gets sex! and all the power he can steal.
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6) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE:
Dems push for Delta action
Proposed bill sets deadline for deciding how to divvy up fresh water statewide.
By Judy Lin and Matt Weiser - Bee Staff Writers
Published 12:00 am PDTTuesday, April 10, 2007
Amid judicial threats to shut down water pumps to protect endangered fish, Senate Democrats on Monday unveiled legislation that would set a deadline for consensus for how California should maintain its largest source of fresh water -- the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta.
"The Delta is going to hell in a hand basket," said Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, one of the authors of Senate Bill 27. "There are 23 million Californians who were understandably worried about water quality and water security, which they depend on. And Northern Californians who have traditionally thought of it as 'their water' continue to be anxious about how much of that water would flow to other parts of the state."
The report by the Public Policy Institute of California proposed three versions of an aqueduct for channeling fresh water from the Delta to other parts of the state, and two that call for reducing water pumping and building dams near the Delta.
A March 23 decision by the Alameda Superior Court found that the state failed to obtain a permit under the state Endangered Species Act to kill protected salmon and Delta smelt at its Delta water export pumps near Tracy. The court ordered the state to shut down the pumps in 60 days unless it comes into compliance. Environmentalists say such pumps kill thousands of endangered fish every year.
Simitian, however, proposed a bill last year to build a peripheral canal, or aqueduct, arguing that the state could charge water users if clean water was sent directly to more densely populated parts of the state, such as Southern California and the Bay Area.
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
California Growth Exceeded Natural Limits Long Ago:
Politicians Ignore Public Welfare to Favor Irresponsible Growth
Northern California's water must not be sent to support and subsidize the irresponsible growth in the Valley and Los Angeles. LA and the Valley must end their demographic expansion, and keep their populations below the capacity of their water, electricity, education, and medical infrastructures.
Simian is looking for solutions to our water problem in the wrong places. Simian's plan does not address the irresponsible growth which has expanded our population beyond the capacity of our resources to support.
To Simian, this is not a problem, because we can SELL our water. Simian's plan does not address the breakdown of our infrastructure, instead, it feeds the beast of growth by giving away our water. Worse yet, it capitalizes on our impending water crisis by presenting it as an opportunity to make money. Greed has already done enough damage to our state.
Simian is selling a lousy plan with greed that could not be sold with common sense: A Peripheral Canal. The notion of selling water that we don't have, to fuel growth we cannot support, is ridiculous. We can't continue to draw water from the system we have without further damaging the Delta's ecosystem.
On top of that, we are facing an annual decline in snow, snow pack, rainfall and the spring runoff. It is clear that the annual snowfall in the Sierras is precipitously declining, while winter rainfall in the rest of California has become uncertain, and unreliable. We must draw a clear circle around the remaining free water sources in California, and preserve what little of our riparian ecosystem is left.
Also
See:
Corruption Updates 39 , 10th article on the page, "Scientists:Water Shortages and Drought: CLIMATE ALREADY CHANGED, NO ONE NOTICED"
Corruption Updates 41 , 10th article on the page, "CALIFORNIA GROWTH BEYOND NATURAL LIMITS: POLITICIANS-CORPORATIONS WANT MORE:DAMS"
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7) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE: Bee, 4-12-07:
Board member still claims Ph.D.
Schwarzenegger friend on chiropractic panel got a cease-and-desist order.
By Kevin Yamamura - Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 12:00 am PDTThursday, April 12, 2007
One of two personal friends Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed to the state Board of Chiropractic Examiners last year had received a cease-and-desist letter in 2004 from the board ordering him to stop advertising a doctorate from an unaccredited correspondence school.
The board closed former bodybuilder Franco Columbu's case in 2004 after he was "educated," said Brian Stiger, the board's interim executive director. But Columbu still advertises on his personal Web site that he has a "Ph.D. in nutrition" as part of a sales pitch for a $200 personalized nutrition and training program. Stiger said he would investigate.
Columbu, who trained with Schwarzenegger and was best man at his wedding, is one of four board members facing legislative scrutiny after they admitted running afoul of open-meeting laws and declared they wanted the board to better serve chiropractic interests. Board Chairman Richard Tyler, also a former friend of Schwarzenegger from his bodybuilding days, apologized at a recent legislative hearing for the panel's actions.
In 2004, Columbu claimed on his letterhead a Ph.D. from Donsbach University, an unaccredited school once run by Kurt Donsbach, a controversial alternative health salesman. Donsbach pleaded guilty in 1996 to smuggling illegal drugs and tax evasion and is most famous for running the unlicensed Mexican hospital at which Coretta Scott King died in 2006.
As of Wednesday, Columbu's Web site still used his Ph.D. to sell nutrition and training consultations at a cost of $200 per half-hour. The site proclaimed, "A two-time Mr. Olympia, Franco is also a Doctor of Chiropractic with a Ph.D. in Nutrition and an expert in Sports Medicine and Kinesiology."
Another board member appointed by Schwarzenegger in February, Frederick Lerner, claims a Ph.D. in electromedical sciences from City University Los Angeles on his biography at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
CULA is unaccredited and is no longer approved by the state Bureau for Private Postsecondary and Vocational Education. The school maintains a Web site on which it cites recognition from Nigeria to operate.
Cease-and-desist letters similar to Columbu's were part of a board controversy last summer. Several chiropractors at the board's August meeting complained about enforcement letters and actions they faced, directing their ire at board consultant Maggie Craw, who also wrote the letter to Columbu.
Tyler and Columbu seemed most receptive to chiropractors' concerns at the August meeting. Columbu declared that the Schwarzenegger administration has done a better job of filling board vacancies, which would result in board members taking more control in the future. He concluded by saying, "We are back on board and have a quorum now, and you can relax more, OK? Thank you."
The crowd, full of chiropractors, applauded.
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
Arnie's Doctors Quack like Ducks
Arnie's appointees use fake doctorates for credibility. We should all feel safer knowing Arnie is not just appointing greedy industry lobbyists to oversee our state. He's also appointing quacks, frauds, and other assorted rif-raff.
Good work Arnie, you have the loyalty to friends required to put aside the public health and welfare. Heck, that qualifies you as a "Bushie," as well as a Clinton.
Congratulations.
Also
See:
Corruption Updates 40, 1st article on the page, "ARNIE PUTS INCOMPENTENT FRIENDS ON STATE CHIROPRACTIC BOARD"
Corruption Updates 40, 4th article on the page,"Chiropractic board to face legislative scrutiny"
Corruption Updates 45, 9th article on the page,"CHIRO BOARD DEFINES ARNIE LEADERSHIP:WE FOLLOW, BUT NOBODY KNOWS WHERE WE'RE GOING"
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8) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE:
California proposal: Get health insurance or pay fine
The Schwarzenegger administration considers putting teeth in its plan to require coverage for all.
By Jordan Rau, Times Staff Writer
April 11, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-me-health11apr11,1,703774.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
SACRAMENTO — People who refuse to obtain health insurance could be tracked down by the state or a private contractor, enrolled in a plan and fined until they pay their premiums under one proposal Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's administration is considering as part of his vision for covering all Californians.
It drew immediate criticism from critics of the central tenet of Schwarzenegger's healthcare approach, which is to require all Californians to obtain insurance.
Other proposals, which Schwarzenegger included in the first draft of his healthcare plan, are to attach the wages of people who don't buy insurance and to increase the amount they owe in state income taxes.
The proposal to locate people without insurance would use state or private databases and target those who lacked coverage for 60 days or more.
The governor said he is studying as a possible model a new system the state Department of Motor Vehicles is using to locate drivers who lack automobile insurance. Another model, he said, is the one the state uses to track down people who don't pay child support.
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
Arnie: Nazi Enforcer for Insurance Industry Profits
The State is once again going to compel its citizens not only to subsidize both the profits of private industry, by law, but also the healthcare costs of the illegal, low cost laborers our business class grinds its criminal profits from.
The beauty of this plan utilizes police state technology which will be unleashed on citizens daring to be too broke to pay their premiums.
In effect, the State will act as the collection agency for the health insurance industry.
What's next, Arnie doing bill collection for AT&T? They paid you enough bribes to qualify for state subsidies.
In debt up to your ears? Arnie will up your tax bill for that indiscretion. Trying to run and hide from the "Health Police?" Arnie has a provision for what looks like bounty hunters, private contractors who will hunt you down and make you pay your Blue Cross Bill.
The Corporate State has arrived, and its California Spokesman Speaks German, and we can't tell if he's a Democrap or Repugnant.
A Repugnicrap?
Also
See:
Corruption Updates 42, 3rd article on the page, "Bush Assures Health Executives Continued Massive Profits: Public Health, Welfare and our Taxes sacrificed for Industry Profits"
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9) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Ethics challenge to Feinstein
She chaired subcommittee on military spending; husband had defense firm investments.
By Michael Doyle - Bee Washington Bureau
Published 12:00 am PDTSaturday, April 14, 2007
Bloggers and activists are writing a new chapter in the marriage between Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her husband, Richard Blum.
Feinstein has real power. Blum has serious money. For 27 married years, the politician and the investor have excelled professionally while facing periodic queries about Blum's far-flung investments.
Critics have accused Feinstein of having a conflict of interest by serving as chairwoman and ranking member of the Senate's military construction appropriations subcommittee at the same time that her husband had financial interests in two firms that rely on defense contracts.
Until 2005, Blum had major holdings in two firms, URS Corp. and Perini Corp., that rely on defense contracts.
Perini received $200 million in federal contracts from 2000 to 2006, primarily with the Army, according to records compiled by the private watchdog group OMB Watch. URS received $1.8 billion worth of contracts -- primarily Air Force, Army and Navy -- during the same period.
Last year, in meeting the Senate's financial disclosure requirements, Feinstein needed 148 pages to detail the family's assets. Feinstein is one of the Senate's wealthiest members, with assets in 2005 valued from $45 million to $105 million.
The publicly written Wikipedia sites for both Feinstein and Blum show a flurry of edited entries in recent days.
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
Feinstein-Blum Clean Up in Politics
Two Billion in Contracts to Blum Companies while Feinstein was overseeing the spending? Is this corruption, or is this a new innovation in Reform?
Feinstein's buddy-buddy, or hubby-hubby deals involved No lobbyists, no Bribes, no luxury trips or meals. This is a lot cleaner than the unseemly behavior of other, less well-married Senators.
None of the usual corruptions were necessary to get the Blum deals done, not when business and politics sleep in the same bed.
It is clear to every honest person that Every Politician who has a financial interest, or received contributions from any interest with business before the government must recuse themselves from any actions concerning those interests.
To do anything else is corrupt, and must be severely punished, no matter who you are married to, or who you sleep with.
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Corruption Updates 56, 7th article on the page, "Medicare audits spark protest that nudges Feinstein"
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10) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE:
Decision a blow to unions
State's top court upholds initiative, allowing companies a bigger slice of public works jobs.
By Peter Hecht - Bee Capitol Bureau
Published 12:00 am PDTFriday, April 13, 2007
Ending a five-year legal battle, the state Supreme Count awarded a major victory to private engineering firms Thursday by affirming California's right to outsource potentially billions of dollars in public works projects.
In a unanimous ruling, the court upheld Proposition 35, an initiative approved by voters in 2000 that allowed private engineers and architects to work on state infrastructure projects.
The court ruling also rejected a 2002 lawsuit and subsequent appeals by the 10,000-member Professional Engineers in California Government. The public engineers group had argued that Proposition 35 didn't repeal state civil service restrictions against private contracting.
The decision figures to open up the public works construction market with California suddenly flush with $42.7 billion in infrastructure bond money approved by voters last year for new highways, schools, levees, housing and parks.
Nearly $20 billion is earmarked for highway projects under 2006's Proposition 1B.
An industry group, Consulting Engineers and Land Surveyors of California, got Proposition 35 on the ballot in the hope of making lucrative state contracts available to private engineers, architects and consultants. But private contractors were stymied as the initiative faced legal challenges.
...Bruce Blanning, executive director of Professional Engineers in California Government, said the court decision could entice the state to dole out lucrative engineering contracts to private firms when public engineers can do the work more cheaply.
"Our concern is that outsourcing this work costs twice as much as having state employees do it," Blanning said. "A considerable amount of that bond money will be wasted."
Blanning said the Supreme Court ruling still leaves authority with the Legislature to authorize or reject private contracts. And he argued that the state can pass new laws restricting private contracting as long as they don't conflict with Proposition 35.
THE
COMMITTEE SAYS:
Supreme Court Confirms Voters' Right to Screw Themselves
It's bad enough when the special interests buy our elections, make whores of our politicians, and use them and our government as instruments to steal our wealth.
But when the special interests are able to get the people to vote for an initiative that screws them, we have a serious stupid problem. That is, the people in this state are seriously stupid.
State education statistics prove our ignorance, but our voting statistics confirm our ignorance is reinforced by stupidity.
Bush is pulling the same game in Iraq. He has at least 50,000 private troops there that are earning ten times the pay of a solider. And he does not count them as troops on the ground.
Privatization works well for corporate politicians. Their carping about "big government" is trumpeted by the Corporate Press: Their face is in the News. Privatization assures a heavy flow of bribes from industry: A big Plus. And once privatized, the successful politician will be assured a fat job in private industry after leaving office.
Unless the voters vote to screw themselves. In that case, the politicians are denied the opportunity to "better themselves," by feeding themselves on the fountain of corporate greed.
I recommend the voters stop screwing themselves; we have highly paid professional politicians for that.
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