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CORRUPTION UPDATES 68 June 5 and 6, 2007 The CORRUPTION UPDATES posts corruption news stories from California, the Nation and the World, and gives you the straight story. |
CORRUPTION UPDATES 68
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1) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE:
Dems drafting bill that could derail state warming law
California officials upset -- Pelosi aides say plan needs work
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/06/05/MNG44Q7OS01.DTL
The proposal was written by Rep. Rick Boucher, a Democrat who represents a coal-producing district in southwest Virginia and chairs the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee charged with crafting climate change legislation. The full committee's chairman, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., a longtime ally of the auto industry, also played a key role in putting together the new legislation.
The bill would add language to the Clean Air Act stating that the Environmental Protection Agency administrator could not grant states a waiver for their vehicle emissions rules if "such state standards are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions." In other words, any state rules seeking to curb global warming would be null and void.
The legislation also appears to limit the power of the agency to set federal climate change rules -- even though the Supreme Court in April ruled that greenhouse gases are air pollutants and the Environmental Protection Agency must regulate vehicle emissions or explain why it won't.
The draft bill says the power of the EPA is limited to requiring reporting of greenhouse gas emissions, while the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which sets fuel economy standards, must regulate vehicle emissions.
Kevin Curtis, vice president of the National Environmental Trust, said environmentalists were stunned that Boucher would release a bill that was sure to stir an uproar in the speaker's home state -- at the time she is publicly challenging the Bush administration over its climate-change policies.
Other parts of the bill also are stirring debate. The measure would subsidize coal-to-liquid fuels, which emit about twice the greenhouse gas emissions of traditional petroleum-based fuels -- unless those gases can be trapped and stored underground, a still unproven technology.
The bill is part of a package of energy independence measures that Pelosi hopes to bring to the floor before July 4.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Also See:
Corruption Updates 3, “Media Reports: Both Parties Corrupt”
Corruption Updates 14, 10th article down on page. “Murtha trades his vote, and ethics, for pork,”
Pelosi does earmarks well and often, LA Times, 11-13-06, “Speaker-to-be is no stranger to earmarking,” (abstract at LA Times archive, #52 under Richard Simon search) Reference is linked at CU30, 2nd article on page.
Corruption Updates 5, 1st article on page, “Corruption fails as Campaign issue...,”
Corruption Updates 19, 1st article on page, “Top Recipients of Lobbyists Bribes are Leadership of Both Parties”
Corruption Update 26, 1st article on page, “Time to Party, just bring the Checkbook,”
Corruption Updates 21, 8th article on page, “Dems Big Chance to Reap the Rewards of Corruption: Political Victory Opens Doors of Lobbying Firms to Demo Insiders,”
Corruption Updates 20, 6th article on page, “ DEMS RECEIVE SPECIAL INTEREST BRIBES ANTICIPATING VICTORY IN NOV,”
Corruption Updates 27, 2nd article on page, “Leaders Want Lobbying Changes Enacted” (fake, superficial reforms)
Corruption Updates 28, 4th article on page, “Bush and Dems Fight Over Earmarks”
Corruption Updates 28, 7th article on page, “Ney at Center of Conspiracy”
Corruption Updates 30, 2nd article on page, “REID TRIES TO KILL REAL EARMARK REFORMS: RENEGADE SENATORS EXPOSE DEMS FAKE EARMARK REFORM BY GIVING IT REAL TEETH, DEMS FIGHT TO KILL REFORM, AND PRESERVE EARMARK CORRUPTION ” Fake earmark reforms of dems rejected!
Corruption Updates 31, 4th article on page, “FAKE EARMARK REFORM IN SENATE CONTINUES: EARMARKS NOT RECOGNIZED AS CORRUPTION ITSELF”
Democrats represent Corporations
Search the Corruption Database under
Democrats
2) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Pakistan Questions 2 in Daniel Pearl Killing
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/06/world/asia/06pearl.html?pagewanted=print
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, June 5 — Pakistani officials said they were investigating two people arrested Monday in Kashmor, a remote town in the southern province of Sindh, for any links to the killing of the American journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002.
Javed Iqbal Cheema, a retired brigadier who is the director of the national crisis management office here in the capital, said the men were involved with Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, a banned Sunni Muslim militant group. “We are investigating if they are the same persons involved in Pearl murder or not,” Brigadier Cheema said. “Let’s wait and see.”
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Times Reports False Information: These Men have been Held in Secret Detention for 4 Years
CBC, June 5, 2007; Pakistan police arrest 2 in slaying of reporter Daniel Pearl
Also See:
Corruption Updates 31, 10th article on page, “Pakistan's old new year"
Corruption Updates 44 , 3rd article on page, “American backed Dictator Attempting to Crush Pakistan's Judiciary"
Corruption Updates 38, 10th article on the page, "American Dictator Removes Chief Justice in Pakistan"
Corruption Updates 61, 5th article on the page, "Musharraf 'seeks Karachi peace'"
Corruption Updates 62, 7th article on the page, "Pakistan's ex-top judge has addressed thousands..."
Corruption Updates 63, 9th article on the page, "Pakistan: 4 Arrested in Killing of Judge’s Aide"
Corruption Updates 67, 4th article on the page, "Musharraf Issues Decree Cracking Down on News Media"
Corruption Updates 69, 2nd article on the page, "Pakistan Arrests 300 Workers From Opposition"
Search the Corruption Database under
Pakistan
3) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Libby sentenced to 30 months in prison
A $250,000 fine also levied against former Cheney aide at center of Plame investigation.
By Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writers
7:45 PM PDT, June 5, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-ex-libby6jun06,1,5581038.story?coll=la-headlines-politics
WASHINGTON -- Former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby faces the prospect of becoming the first high-level White House official to go to prison since the Nixon administration, after a federal judge sentenced him Tuesday to serve 2 1/2 years for perjury and obstruction of justice.
Libby, a one-time chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, was sentenced for obstructing a federal probe into the exposing of former CIA operative Valerie Plame.
Walton sentenced Libby at the higher end of federal guidelines and indicated that he was inclined to order Libby to surrender to authorities in a few weeks. He also ordered Libby to pay a $250,000 fine, serve a period of supervised release for two years after his incarceration is complete and produce a DNA sample -- among other requirements.
Walton told him that he had a betrayed a public trust.
"People who occupy these types of positions, where they have the welfare and security of the nation in their hands, have a special obligation to not do anything that might create a problem," the judge said. Libby repeatedly lied to investigators, Walton said, which warranted stiff punishment to ensure public confidence in the judicial system.
In handing down the sentence, Walton rejected pleas for leniency from scores of figures from the worlds of politics and national security in which Libby had long operated.
The more than 150 letters included requests from former Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and from the president of the World Bank, Paul D. Wolfowitz, who recently said he would resign June 30 in the wake of charges that he gave preferential treatment to his companion, a bank employee.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Also See:
Corruption Updates 34, 12th article on the page, "ROVE TRAITOR TO AMERICA:ROVE SNITCHED OFF SECRET AGENT FOR POLITICAL GAIN AT PRESIDENT'S BEHEST"
Corruption Updates 34, 13th article on the page, "Plame Reporting: CORPORATE PRESS A TOOL OF CORPORATIONS-SPECIAL INTERESTS"
Corruption Updates 46, 10th article on the page, "How Bogus Letter Became a Case for War"
Search the Corruption Database under
Plame (11 Abstracts)
Rove (56 Abstracts)
4) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Indictments may have bent Justice's rules
A Senate panel hears how four liberal activists were charged right before the midterm election despite federal guidelines.
By Richard A. Serrano, Times Staff Writer
June 6, 2007
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-usattys6jun06,1,3807235.story
WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice skirted federal policy guidelines to allow the indictment of four liberal activists on voter fraud charges in Missouri shortly before November's midterm election, a former U.S. attorney told a Senate investigative panel Tuesday.
Bradley Schlozman, who was the interim U.S. attorney in Kansas City last year, also advised the Senate Judiciary Committee that he did not believe the indictments helped Republicans in the election.
In Kansas City, the U.S. attorney's office had long been investigating the Assn. of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN, and its efforts to register liberal voters.
Todd Graves, who earlier was U.S. attorney for the Western District of Missouri, testified Tuesday that he was aware of the department policy against bringing voter-related charges right before an election. The policy, spelled out in a red handbook given to all U.S. attorneys, states that this kind of case "must await the end of the election" so it cannot be later suggested that prosecutors were trying to influence the vote results.
"I thought it was a bad idea," Graves said about bringing the charges against ACORN before the election. "So we were sort of slow-walking this in the district."
He said that in early 2006, he received a phone call from Michael A. Battle, then head of the Executive Office for United States Attorneys, and was told to resign.
Graves said he was not surprised he was being removed. "I long planned to go, and it was the president's prerogative," Graves said. He added that Battle told him there were no performance problems in his office, but just that "it was to give another guy a chance."
Graves was replaced by Schlozman, then a Justice official in Washington who had no trial experience. Less than a week before the November election, Schlozman obtained grand jury indictments against four members of ACORN on allegations of submitting fraudulent voter registrations.
Schlozman, who is back in Washington at the Justice Department, said he sought the indictments after getting approval from department officials, who advised him that the case would not influence the upcoming election.
Schlozman said he was directed by Washington to release a statement about the indictments, saying in part that the charges were part of a national investigation into voter fraud.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Also See:
Corruption Updates 65, 5th article on the page, "Justice official is said to have favored GOP loyalists"
Corruption Updates 15, 3rd article on the page, "ACORN: Allegations trip up voting rights group"
Search the Corruption Database under
Civil Rights
5) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Campaign Finance Overhaul Would Rein in Major Donors
By RAY RIVERA
June 6, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/06/nyregion/06donate.html?pagewanted=print
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and City Council leaders have agreed on a major overhaul of the city’s campaign finance laws intended to enhance the power of small donors and reduce the influence of those who do business with the city, including real estate developers.
The wide-ranging legislation, which appears all but certain to pass the Council, would sharply cap contributions from lobbyists, developers and municipal bond underwriters, as well as most of those with city contracts of $100,000 or more.
It would also expand the prohibition of corporate donations passed in 1998 to include limited liability corporations and partnerships, which have accounted for a growing source of campaign donations.
Some government watchdog groups had also lobbied to have unions and political action committees bound by the new caps on those doing business with the city. But the proposal did not gain traction with either the mayor or the Council.
“As long as individuals have the ability to self-finance to infinity, the system doesn’t work,” said Douglas A. Muzzio, a professor at the Baruch School of Public Affairs.
In response to questions yesterday, Mr. Bloomberg said the Supreme Court had upheld the right of an individual to self-finance a campaign, and added that “being wealthy doesn’t guarantee you get elected.”
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Also See:
Corruption Updates 8, 4th article on the page, "NYC Finds "Clean Campaigns" Not Enough to Stem Tide of Special Interest Corruption"
Corruption Updates 83, 9th article on the page, "Don't Stop Lobbying, Just Stop Lobbyists from Bribing Politicians"
Search the Corruption Database under
New York
6) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Bush: Russians Have Derailed Reforms
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
(06-05) 13:26 PDT PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) –
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/06/05/international/i071157D69.DTL
President Bush risked further stoking a testy dispute with Russia over a new U.S. missile defense system on Tuesday, saying Moscow has "derailed" once-promising democratic reforms.
In a speech celebrating democracy's progress around the globe — and calling out places where its reach is either incomplete or lacking — Bush said that free societies emerge "at different speeds in different places" and have to reflect local customs. But he said certain values are universal to all democracies, and rapped several countries for not embracing them.
"In Russia, reforms that once promised to empower citizens have been derailed, with troubling implications for democratic development," Bush said...But the lecture, however gentle, was not likely to be well-received by Putin, already riled over what he sees as unwelcome meddling by the United States in Russia's sphere of influence.
Most recently, Moscow has become increasingly irritated by U.S. plans to build a missile shield in Eastern Europe, on Russia's doorstep.
Putin warned over the weekend that Moscow could take "retaliatory steps" including aiming nuclear weapons at U.S. military bases in Europe. China on Tuesday joined Russia in saying the shield could touch off a new arms race.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Also See:
Corruption Updates 14, 1st article on the page, "Political Culture of Lies and War"
Corruption Updates 36, 1st article on the page, "Russia prepares to revise military doctrine in response to USA's missile defense plans"
Corruption Updates 36, 2nd article on the page, "Russia capable of hitting US missile shield"
Corruption Updates 39, 8th article on the page, "Who's to Blame for Russia?"
Corruption Updates 49, 4th article on the page, "Russian Minister Says No ‘Rogue State’ Missile Threat to Europe"
Corruption Updates 52, 2nd article on the page, "Dozens Arrested as Riot Police Beat Anti-Kremlin Protesters in St. Petersburg"
Corruption Updates 53, 10th article on the page, "Russia to Suspend Compliance With Key European Pact"
Corruption Updates 59, 4th article on the page, "Leading Russian Official Dismisses U.S. Treaty and Missile Shield"
Corruption Updates 64, 8th article on the page, "Russia, Putin: US imperialists start new round of arms race"
Corruption Updates 66, 2nd article on the page, "Putin warns Europe in missile row"
Corruption Updates 66, 3rd article on the page, "Gorbachev criticises US 'empire'"
Corruption Updates 73, 6th article on the page, "Putin Plays Down I.M.F. and W.T.O."
Corruption Updates 90, 4th article on the page, "U.S. Diplomat Hints at Delay for Kosovo Independence"
Corruption Updates 92, 1st article on the page, "Russia sends warning to the West: American Military Empire Draws Russian Response"
Corruption Updates 92, 2nd article on the page, "British to Expel 4 Russian Diplomats"
Search the Corruption Database under
Russia (23 Abstracts)
Previous Corruption Updates: Page 67
Next Corruption Updates: Page 69
Contact Us: Committeefordemocracy.org
