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CORRUPTION UPDATES 79 June 19, 2007: Draft Posting: Stay Tuned for More! The CORRUPTION UPDATES posts corruption news stories from California, the Nation and the World, and gives you the straight story. |
CORRUPTION UPDATES 79
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1) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE:
Iraq Ranks No. 2 of Failed States
By REUTERS
June 19, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/world/africa/19failed.html?pagewanted=print
WASHINGTON, June 18 (Reuters) — Iraq was ranked the world’s second most unstable country, behind Sudan, more than four years after the American-led invasion of the country, in an annual survey released Monday.
The 2007 Failed States Index, produced by Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, said Iraq suffered a third straight year of deterioration in 2006 with diminished results across a range of social, economic, political and military indicators. The survey ranked Iraq fourth last year.
Afghanistan, another war-torn country, where American and NATO forces are battling a Taliban insurgency nearly six years after a United States-led invasion, was in eighth place.
Failed War-Failed State
Iraq's failure was preordained the moment we destroyed Iraq's army and assumed authority in Iraq.
The fact is that no middle eastern nation will accept direct foreign leadership. Not only have the interests of Arabic nations diverged from American Interests, but the era of western backed middle eastern dictators is coming to a close.
The winds of independence and freedom are sweeping across middle eastern deserts, blowing across Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan. The United States have chosen an upwind course.
The rise of a post colonial world has been fought by the US since the end of World War II, first under the disguise of the Cold War, and now is being unwisely pursued by Bush under the cover of "the war on terror."
Bush's Iraq plan was to counter the emergence of middle eastern independence by crushing Saddam, and replacing him with an American Dictator.
This would contain Iran's expanding influence, and reinforce the wobbling tyrannies in Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. The Iraq invasion would make up for our loss of the Shah in Iran, and restore America's declining influence and power in the middle east.
This was Bush's Opium Dream, and only existed in the minds and mouths of the neo-cons. Bush's invasion of Iraq is stoking the fires of Arabic independence, while inflaming and spreading deep hatred for America across the middle east.
Our tyrants are facing greater internal pressure to repudiate America than ever before. Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia are cracking down hard on their rising tides of internal discontent. Iraq has made Iran the most powerful country the middle east.
Iraq has become the focus point for a century of hatred against colonial rule, the fires of its destruction forging dedicated fighters against foreign interference in all the Arabic lands.
We destroyed Iraq, but in return Iraq has destroyed our power, influence and credibility in the middle east, if not the world.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 58, 6th article on page, "War-torn Iraq 'facing collapse'"
Corruption Updates 45, 1st article on page, "McCaffrey Paints Gloomy Picture of Iraq"
Search the Corruption Database under
Iraq
Generals
2) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
As More Toys Are Recalled, Trail Ends in China
By ERIC S. LIPTON and DAVID BARBOZA
June 19, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/19/business/worldbusiness/19toys.html?
_r=1&oref=slogin&ref=todayspaper&pagewanted=print
WASHINGTON, June 18 — China manufactured every one of the 24 kinds of toys recalled for safety reasons in the United States so far this year, including the enormously popular Thomas & Friends wooden train sets, a record that is causing alarm among consumer advocates, parents and regulators.
Just in the last month, a ghoulish fake eyeball toy made in China was recalled after it was found to be filled with kerosene. Sets of toy drums and a toy bear were also recalled because of lead paint, and an infant wrist rattle was recalled because of a choking hazard.
Over all, the number of products made in China that are being recalled in the United States by the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission has doubled in the last five years, driving the total number of recalls in the country to 467 last year, an annual record.
It also means that China today is responsible for about 60 percent of all product recalls, compared with 36 percent in 2000.
...toys made in China make up 70 to 80 percent of the toys sold in the country, according to the Toy Industry Association.
Combined with the recent scares in the United States of Chinese-made pet food, and globally of Chinese-made pharmaceuticals and toothpaste, the string of toy recalls is inspiring new demands for stepped-up enforcement of safety by United States regulators and importers, as well as by the government and industry in China.
In the last two years, the staff of the consumer product commission has been cut by more than 10 percent, leaving fewer regulators to monitor the safety of the growing flood of imports.
Some consumer advocates say that such staff cuts under the Bush administration have made the commission a lax regulator. The commission, for example, acknowledged in a recent budget document that “because of resource limitations,” it was planning next year to curtail its efforts aimed at preventing children from drowning in swimming pools and bathtubs.
The toy industry in the United States is largely self-policed. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has safety standards, but it has only about 100 field investigators and compliance personnel nationwide to conduct inspections at ports, warehouses and stores of $22 billion worth of toys and tens of billions of dollars’ worth of other consumer products sold in the country each year.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Ban China Trade until Labor, Environment, and Safety Standards are Assured
Banning the China Trade would be impossible, as we have moved a lot of "our" manufacturing there. And it would by hypocritical, as we have gutted health, safety, and labor standard here.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is in exactly the same condition as every other executive branch agency: Gutted and Under funded. "Deregulated."
Yet the Solution to the deadly aspects of the China Trade remains the same. We must ban all trade with every country that does not meet reasonable labor, environmental, and safety standards. Period.
Reasonable Health, Safety and Environmental standards will not be established, nor enforced here, let alone in our China Trade, until we change who is running our democracy here.
Politics in the United States is like having the wolves guard the henhouse. These wolves have unchecked our Constitutional balances, and now bribery dominates politics. Bribed politicians are incapable of writing domestic or foreign policies that do anything but endanger citizens and enrich the bribers.
The biggest bribers use our government against us, here and in China, to enrich themselves at the expense of our, and China's, health and wealth.
The profits from the China Trade are based on screwing the environment, employing brutal labor standards, and avoiding every chemical health and safety regulation that common sense requires.
Additionally, everyone in government and business have been conveniently ignoring the serious human rights abuses of the tyrannical government running China.
The only answer is to completely ban the China Trade until sufficient standards are enforced that protect labor, the environment, and the end users of the products.
.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 59, 3th article on page, "F.D.A. to Test Toothpaste Sent to U.S. From China"
Corruption Updates 36, 6th article on the Page, "China about to pass U.S. as world's top generator of greenhouse gases"
Corruption Updates 41, 9th article on the Page, "China jails editor for subversion"
Corruption Updates 55, 7th article on the Page, "China Tells Little About Illness That Kills Pigs, Officials Say"
Corruption Updates 59, 3th article on page, "F.D.A. to Test Toothpaste Sent to U.S. From China"
Corruption Updates 59, 7th article on page, "Chinese Police Arrest 28 in Riots Against Family Planning Laws"
Corruption Updates 60 , 8th article on the Page, "China: Recall Is Issued for Frozen Fish"
Corruption Updates 67, 5th article on the Page, "China: When Fakery Turns Fatal"
Corruption Updates 77, 5th article on the Page, "Thomas the Tank Engine Toys Recalled Because of Lead Paint"
Corruption Updates 79, 2th article on the Page, "As More Toys Are Recalled, Trail Ends in China"
Search the Corruption Database under
China
3) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Challenge to California emissions rules dropped
House committee abandons effort to pre-empt states
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/06/19/MNGOUQHHP01
Two senior House Democrats -- facing opposition from their party's top leader, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- have abandoned their legislative effort to block California and a dozen other states from regulating greenhouse gases from cars and trucks.
Rep. John Dingell, the Michigan Democrat and close ally of the auto industry, and Rep. Rick Boucher, a Virginia Democrat and lead author of new energy legislation, had been locked in a weeks-long showdown with Pelosi over their proposal to prevent states from setting tougher climate change rules than the federal government.
On Monday, they blinked -- for now.
The pair sent a memo on Monday to members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, saying they would soon release a final version of the Democratic energy bill that would not contain the proposal to pre-empt California and other states from their plan to cut greenhouse gases. Other contentious provisions also would be dropped, the lawmakers said.
"You will note that a number of the more controversial issues we raised, such as coal-to-liquid fuels, fuel economy standards, a low-carbon fuel standard, various mandates, and the role of federal and state programs, are not included," Dingell, the committee chairman, and Boucher wrote in the memo.
"This will also give us the needed time to achieve consensus on these issues if at all possible," Dingell and Boucher told their colleagues.
Pelosi did not revel in her victory. Her spokesman issued a terse one-line statement saying the speaker was still not yet sure how she would proceed with the overall bill.
But the move by Dingell and Boucher to put off the most contentious issues also raises problems for Democrats. The Senate is debating its version of the energy bill, whose centerpiece is a major increase in federal fuel economy standards. If the House delays its fuel efficiency provisions until the fall, it could stymie efforts to move a joint energy bill through Congress this summer to send to President Bush.
...it is too soon to tell if Dingell -- who fought California lawmakers over the state's efforts to regulate tailpipe emissions through much of the 1980s -- has given up or is just taking a temporary break in the fight before renewing the battle in the House this fall.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
All Dems are Anti-Green
The anti-green Dems have nothing to worry about. The "green" Dems have no intention of addressing the sources of pollution, nor the engines of emissions growth.
The "green" Dems in California are no more than snake oil salesmen. The California emissions standards are worthless. Combined, they will have little effect on emissions, nor on the growth of emissions.
Ultimately, we will have to deal with the source of our emissions: the massive growth in population and consumption that started in 1970.
Facing global warming requires we face who we are, what we have done, and why we have done it. Facing global warming requires we stop growing.
The "green" Dems are dedicated to massive growth, both demographically, as well as in consumption. The "green" Dems are corporate tools, who will take nothing but superficial, cosmetic approaches to global warming that will do nothing to lower CO2 output.
Both the green and anti-green Dems are tools of Corporate Special Interests, and are no threat to growth, profits, nor Global Warming.
Also See:
Corruption Updates 68, 1st article on page, "Dems drafting bill that could derail state warming law"
Corruption Updates 3, “Media Reports: Both Parties Corrupt”
Corruption Updates 19, 1st article on page, “TOP RECIPEINTS OF LOBBYISTS BRIBES ARE LEADERSHIP OF BOTH PARTIES”
Corruption Updates 20, 1st article on page, 10-25-06, “PELOSI FUNRAISING FRENZY ASSURES SPECIAL INTEREST DOMINATION OF GOVERNMENT INDEPENDENT OF WHICH SIDE WINS IN NOV”
Corruption Updates 20, 6th article on page, "DEMS RECEIVE SPECIAL INTEREST BRIBES ANTICIPATING VICTORY IN NOV"
Corruption Updates 21, 2nd article on page, 10-30-06: “SHADOW PARTIES (527S) INFUSE MILLIONS IN BRIBE MONEY INTO ELECTION SPECIAL INTERESTS SKIRT CAMPAIGN FINANCE LAWS TO MAINTAIN THEIR ILLIGIMATE AUTHORITY THROUGH POLITICAL BRIBERY”
Corruption Updates 21, 8fh article on page, 11-1-06: “DEMS BIG CHANCE TO REAP THE REWARDS OF CORRUPTION POLITICAL VICTORY OPENS DOORS OF LOBBYING FIRMS TO DEMO INSIDERS: IT'S THE DEMS TURN TO ROB THE PUBLIC BLIND, AND BETRAY OUR DEMOCRACY”
Corruption Updates 26, 1st article on page, 12-8-06, “LOBBYISTS SEE NO CHANGE UNDER DEMS CORRUPTION PRESENTED AS FORCE OF NATURE, DEM CORRUPTION NATURAL”
Corruption Updates 28, 1st article on page, 1-2-07: “LOBBYISTS HIRING-BRIBING DEMS SHIFTING FUNDS AND PERSONELL TO DEMS ASSURES NO REAL CHANGES
Corruption Updates 33, 4th article on page, “Lobbyists find new Congress is open for business”
Search the Corruption Database under
Environment
Democrats
4) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Panel probes Rove's GOP e-mail history
His political account was used 'most of the time,' ex-aide says
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2007/06/19/MNGOUQHIHH1.
(06-19) 04:00 PDT Washington -- White House aides made extensive use of political e-mail accounts for official government business, despite rules requiring that they conduct such business through official communications channels, according to new evidence disclosed Monday by congressional investigators.
The Republican National Committee told the investigators that White House senior political adviser Karl Rove alone sent or received more than 140,000 e-mails between 2002 and 2007, more than half of which involved individuals using official ".gov" e-mail accounts, a report from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said. The RNC said it still has copies of those e-mails.
Rove's former assistant, Susan Ralston, affirmed in a deposition released by the committee that her former boss used his political e-mail account "most of the time."
The committee said it learned that the White House aides used the RNC accounts to discuss official matters such as appointments and grant announcements. It also said at least 88 White House officials had RNC e-mail accounts, a figure above previous administration statements that only about 50 had such accounts.
The report said many RNC e-mails involving others besides Rove and one of his aides have been lost, either under its e-mail deletion policy or individual deletions by senior officials. "As a result of these policies, potentially hundreds of thousands of White House e-mails have been destroyed, many of which may be presidential records," the report states.
The Democrats became interested in the e-mails in part because of the controversy over the Justice Department's firing of nine U.S. attorneys, in which Rove's office played a role. Ex-White House political director Sara Taylor, a Rove aide at the time, was an extensive user of RNC e-mail accounts, with more than 66,000 of her RNC e-mails preserved, the report said.
"It is troubling that so many senior White House officials, including Karl Rove and his former deputy Sara Taylor, were engaging in an effort to avoid oversight and accountability by ignoring the laws meant to ensure a public record of official government business," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, chairman of the oversight committee, said in an interview that he intends to conduct further investigation of what he described as a "complete disregard" of the Presidential Records Act. That act requires the White House to take steps to maintain a documentary record of presidential decisions and deliberations.
The committee noted that the RNC said it has retained no e-mail messages for 51 of the 88 White House officials with RNC e-mail accounts. Ralston testified that at least 20 of these officials used RNC e-mail accounts, in some cases regularly.
The report especially criticized Alberto Gonzales, now the attorney general, for actions when he headed the White House counsel's office. There is evidence that under Gonzales the office "may have known that White House officials were using RNC e-mail accounts for official business, but took no action to preserve these presidential records," the report said.
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Rove Operates in Secret Government, Despite Records Law:
Gonzales may have Abetted this Crime
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"
Search the Corruption Database under
Rove
US Attorney
Email
5) THE ABSTRACT PRINTED BELOW WAS ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED IN THE :
Watchdog lists 64 in the House paying kin out campaign funds
It's legal, but some wonder whether it's good government
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2007/06/19/MNGOUQHH571.DTL&type=printable
(06-19) 04:00 PDT Washington -- When Democratic Rep. Zoe Lofgren of San Jose needed someone to help with her fundraising and legal reporting of campaign donations, she turned to one of Silicon Valley's top lawyers on election compliance issues. It just happened to be her husband, John Marshall Collins.
Collins' two businesses -- his law firm, Collins and Day, and another firm, John Marshall Collins P.C. -- took in about $350,000 from his wife's campaign over the last six years.
Lofgren is hardly alone in tapping family members for often lucrative campaign work. At least 64 House lawmakers -- 26 Democrats and 38 Republicans -- paid their spouses, children and other relatives out of their campaign accounts over the last six years, according to a new report by the watchdog group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.
...the Federal Election Commission has ruled they can pay relatives for campaign work as long as the relatives are qualified and are paid a fair market value for a bona fide service.
Good government groups say the rules are being bent as many lawmakers are now paying tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to their spouses and, in some cases, hiring several of their children. One lawmaker, Rep. Chris Cannon. R-Utah, put six of his eight children on the campaign payroll, according to the report.
"It's a way for lawmakers to use their position as a profit center for their families," said Melanie Sloan, executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "It's being used to supplement their congressional salaries."
Rep. Pete Stark, D-Fremont, has paid his wife, Deborah, $176,800 over the last three election cycles to serve as his campaign treasurer.
Several lawmakers appear to be affected by the negative publicity. Rep. John Doolittle, R-Rocklin (Placer County) announced earlier this year that he would no longer employ his wife as his campaign fundraiser. Julie Doolittle had been working under a controversial contract that let her keep 15 percent of every campaign check he received, rather than being paid a flat fee.
Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, also has put family members on his payroll, hiring two grandchildren to work on his 2004 campaign. His granddaughter, Kimber Tilleman-Dick, was paid $41,000; his grandson, Tomicah Tilleman-Dick, was paid $15,000.
Rep Adam Schiff, D-Pasadena, has introduced legislation that would prevent lawmakers from paying their spouses out of campaign or political action committee accounts. The measure also would require greater disclosure of payments to other family members or to entities controlled by the family.
The report also singled out other practices by lawmakers that have drawn criticism -- including lawmaker's tapping into their own campaign funds to donate to the campaigns of their spouses or children, often to offices such as school board or the state Legislature, which can be a springboard to higher office.
The report noted that at least 24 House lawmakers have spouses, children or other relatives who are registered as lobbyists.
Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington released a report on Monday that names 18 California lawmakers who have employed family members on their campaigns during the past three election cycles, have family members who are paid lobbyists or have used their campaign funds to contribute to a relative's political campaign. The members are:
Rep. Joe Baca, D-San Bernardino: His campaign paid his wife $400 and daughter $27,000 as fundraisers and contributed $16,600 to the Assembly and Senate campaigns of his son Joe Baca Jr. and $6,600 to the Assembly campaign of his son, Jeremy Baca.
Rep. Howard Berman, D-North Hollywood (Los Angeles County): His campaign hired his brother's firm as a consultant for the past three election cycles, paying it more than $275,000.
Rep. Brian Bilbray, R-Carlsbad (San Diego County): His campaign paid his daughter more than $22,000 as a staffer. Bilbray's cousin is a registered lobbyist.
Rep. Jim Costa, D-Hanford (Kings County): His campaign paid his cousin almost $50,000 as campaign treasurer the past two election cycles.
Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego: His wife's company was paid more than $150,000 for campaign consulting services during the past three election cycles.
Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Simi Valley (Ventura County): His campaign paid his wife almost $90,000 as a staffer the past two election cycles.
Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Alpine (San Diego County): His campaign paid his daughter-in-law more than $105,000 as a staff member during the 2002 campaign.
Rep. Tom Lantos, D-San Mateo: His campaign paid two of his grandchildren $56,000 as consultants on his 2004 campaign.
Rep. Zoe Lofgren, D-San Jose: Her campaign paid her husband's law firm nearly $350,000 for campaign work during the past three election cycles.
Rep. Dan Lungren, R-Gold River (Sacramento County): His daughter is a registered lobbyist.
Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Santa Clarita (Los Angeles County): His campaign has paid his wife more than $200,000 as a staff member during the past three election cycles.
Rep. Gary Miller, R-Diamond Bar (Los Angeles County): His campaign paid a development company owned by the congressman about $125,000 for office rent and expenses during the past three campaign cycles; it also paid his sons about $5,000 for staff work during the 2002 and 2004 election cycles.
Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez: His son is a registered lobbyist.
Rep. Grace Napolitano, D-Norwalk (Los Angeles County): Her campaign paid her daughter more than $46,000 for consulting services during the past three election cycles.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach (Orange County): His campaign paid his wife more than $150,000 as a staff member during the past three election cycles.
Rep. Pete Stark, D-Fremont: His campaign paid his wife more than $175,000 as a staff member the past three election cycles.
Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Los Angeles: Her campaign paid her daughter more than $115,000 for consulting services the past three election cycles and paid her son more than $17,000 for fundraising the past two election cycles.
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles: His campaign contributed $7,000 to his son's 2004 effort to run for a community college board.
View the report at www.citizensforethics.org/familyaffair.
Source: Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington
THE COMMITTEE SAYS:
Insiders, Wives, Friends Clean Up with Commissions on Political Bribery
The examples of politicians trading on their offices to enrich themselves, their families and friends are endless. Lucrative jobs,
Also See:
Corruption Updates 34, 10th article on page, "SPECIAL INTEREST BRIBES DISTRIBUTED TO ARNIE STAFF"
Search the Corruption Database under
Jobs
Insiders
Family
Previous Corruption Updates: Page 78
Next Corruption Updates: Page 80
Contact Us: Committeefordemocracy.org
