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CORRUPTION UPDATES 158 Posted: february 24, 2008, Draft edition Previous Page: Page 157 All Archives Next page: Page 159 Contact Us: Committeefordemocracy.org 1) The Articles linked below were Abstracted from the sources cited. After the abstract there's analysis and commentary, links to related articles, and a link to the database with suggested search terms.
Russia: U.S. may use satellite blast to test weapon Russia's Defense Ministry said on Saturday a U.S. plan to shoot down an ailing spy satellite could be used as a cover to test a new space weapon.
1b)
Main points of Putin's last annual news conference
MOSCOW, February 14 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's outgoing President Vladimir Putin gave on Thursday his seventh and last annual news conference, which also was his longest lasting four hours and 40 minutes.
However, Putin is Russia's first leader to have introduced the practice of annual news conferences. The world's absolute champion in the field is Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, who boasts a world record of an eight and a half hour air time on his Hello, President traditional Sunday program.
Another talkative leader, Cuba's ever-lasting Fidel Castro, gave a five-hour speech in May 2005, excusing himself by saying he had obviously failed to fulfill his intention not to speak much.
In his last annual meeting with over 1,300 journalists Putin answered 100 questions from 78 reporters. He said:
- there is no danger of military conflict between Russia and the United States, despite current disagreements
- Russia could be forced to retarget its missiles on Ukraine if NATO bases are deployed in the country
- tensions in economic relations with Poland are linked to U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in the Central European country
- Russian-U.S. relations should not depend on the personalities of the new presidents of both countries
- Russia backs Washington's moves to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the Middle East
- Russia does not intend to limit energy deliveries to Europe, including Poland, but is set to diversify supply routes
- Russia has no plans to adopt an "illegal" policy of retaliation if Western countries acknowledge Kosovo's independence
- rejected arguments by European powers that Kosovo is a "special case" in seeking independence, and accused the countries of employing double standards on the issue
- Russia will not allow anyone to dictate terms to it, but that it will honor its international commitments in full
- he is ready to meet with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili during an informal Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) summit in Moscow on February 22
- Russia's Arctic research is aimed at proving that the country has the right to a part of the Arctic shelf
- excessive subsidies for agriculture within the EU affect Russia
- Russia will protect its agricultural producers when it joins the World Trade Organization (WTO)
- the introduction of a 7% threshold for parliamentary elections benefited the development of Russia's politics
- Russia's three-layer government system established in 2004 is not effective enough
- Russia will need to adopt anti-corruption laws
- the Amur Region, in Russia's Far East, is the most favorable location for the construction of a new space center
- there is no sense adding new national projects to those being currently implemented in healthcare, education, agricultural development and housing
- Russia has no plans for moving to state capitalism
- domestic problems, not foreign expansion, are Russia's main focus
- it was relatively easy for Russia's banking system to survive the recent global financial crisis
- the government will make sure that its commitments to put into practice demographic incentives are honored
- the government's priority task for 2008 will be to curb inflation
- Russia could spend more to develop its nuclear energy, one of its most competitive industries
- recently-established government corporations will be gradually prepared for initial public offerings (IPOs)
- Russian companies, including energy giant Gazprom, are much more interested in asset swaps with foreign partners, than in attracting funds
- he had never been tempted to stay on as Russia's president for a third consecutive term
- he was satisfied with the results of his second term in office and stated that he had achieved all he had set out to do
- presidential candidate First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev would be a successful and effective head of state
- there will be no power-sharing disputes between him as premier and Dmitry Medvedev if he wins the March 2 presidential election
- if his ally wins next month's presidential election, he is prepared to be premier as long as Medvedev is president
- Medvedev would need no assistance from him if he is elected president
- media reports about his 'huge fortune' was "empty chatter and nonsense" 1c) The Articles linked below were Abstracted from the sources cited.Ally of West loses razor sharp election in serbiabbc, 1-21-08 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7198481.stm Hardline nationalist Tomislav Nikolic has won the first round of Serbia's presidential election, but will face a run-off poll, officials say.
Ally of West wins in Serbia Serbia election victory for Tadic
Ally of West wins in georgia Saakashvili narrowly re-elected isn, 1-8-08 http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?ID=18505
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., February, 2008
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2) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited. Judicial Races Now Rife With Politics Corporate Funds Help Fuel Change
By Robert Barnes Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, October 28, 2007; Page A01
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/27/AR2007102701318.html BUTLER, Pa. -- It's always packed for Wing Night at American Legion Post 117, and in the crowd Seamus McCaffery saw the building blocks of his electoral success.
The local sheriff, the union guys, the daughter of a veteran who said, "I like your commercial about being a Marine." And the beefy biker in black leather, with the long gray ponytail and ZZ Top beard.
"You think the big politicians are going to ask for his vote?" scoffed McCaffery, himself a biker. "They'd be afraid of him!" McCaffery is one of two Democrats facing two Republicans in a Nov. 6 election that has broken the state's record for Supreme Court campaign contributions, at more than $5 million so far. It follows a line of recent judicial contests across the country that set records for spending, as well as for negative television ads and special interest involvement.
Experts believe it is all a warm-up for 2008, as pro-business groups and trial lawyers bring their fight over tort laws to the state level and as partisan groups vow a greater role in the elections. The spending increases in large part reflect a decision by business groups to get involved in the contests. The National Association of Manufacturers announced in 2005 that it was establishing the American Justice Partnership to promote tort reform in the states, and the resulting battles between trial lawyers and business groups such as the Chamber of Commerce have led to some of the most expensive campaign battles.
A large majority of the money raised for races in 2005 and 2006 was spent in 10 states, and 44 percent of it came from business interests, the National Institute on Money in State Politics found. That was about twice as much as was given by lawyers, who had traditionally funded the campaigns. The heightened spending and increasingly aggressive tone of the contests have alarmed nonpartisan groups and judges from around the country. Retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor, a longtime critic of judicial elections, has taken the lead in denouncing what she has called the "arms race" in campaign fundraising, and at a recent conference she presided over at Georgetown University Law Center, two of her like-minded former colleagues -- Justices Stephen G. Breyer and David H. Souter -- were in the audience.
"The reputation of the American judiciary is in the hands of the state courts," Breyer said. The rising demands on judges to raise money for their expensive campaigns -- plus the spending of outside groups -- could lead to the impression that the courthouse door "is open to some rather than the door is open to all.'' Some judicial candidates have been even more outspoken than in the past since a 2002 U.S. Supreme Court decision that said some state restrictions on the speech of judicial candidates were unconstitutional.
Former Alabama chief justice Drayton Nabors, unseated in the 2006 election, said in one of his television commercials: "I'm pro-life. Abortion on demand is a tragedy. And the liberal judicial decisions that support it are wrong."
Pennsylvania Supreme Court Justice Max Baer declared in his 2003 campaign, "I am pro-choice and proud of it."
The Pennsylvania candidates this time have been more circumspect. "People know that I'm bound by a code of judicial conduct," said Republican Maureen Lally-Green, who like McCaffery is a judge on the state's Superior Court. "If I'm going to rule on any case, I can't promise what I'm going to do."
But the candidates can give hints. Republican Mike Krancer's television commercials declare him a conservative who doesn't believe in legislating from the bench, while the screen flashes his endorsement from the Pennsylvania Pro-Life Federation.
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., February, 2008
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3) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited. Judge Says Campaign Regs Are Too Lenient
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
(09-12) 13:50 PDT WASHINGTON (AP) --
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/09/12/politics/p135045D81.DTL
A federal judge struck down campaign finance regulations Wednesday that govern when candidates and independent groups can coordinate their political messages. The judge called on the Federal Election Commission to write stricter rules in time for the 2008 elections.
The decision marks the second time that U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly has invalidated the FEC regulations as too lenient. They were drafted in response to a landmark 2002 law that restricts political donations.
Kollar-Kotelly said the FEC regulations too narrowly apply to coordinated advertising that takes place within 90 days of a congressional election or 120 days before a presidential election.
The regulations unreasonably ignore advertising run outside those windows, the judge said.
The FEC argued that its regulations covered almost all of the independent political advertising that occurs in a campaign cycle. Critics said that the agency created a loophole for advertising that falls outside FEC regulations and ignored the expansion of political campaigns into year-round events. What's Really Going on Here??Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., February, 2008
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4) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited. Business Lobby Presses Agenda Before ’08 Vote By ROBERT PEAR LAT, December 2, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/washington/02lobby.html? _r=1&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&ref=todayspaper&adxnnlx=1196643834-hhE8Jju9x9rbeP41aVEH2Q&pagewanted=print
WASHINGTON, Dec. 1 — Business lobbyists, nervously anticipating Democratic gains in next year’s elections, are racing to secure final approval for a wide range of health, safety, labor and economic rules, in the belief that they can get better deals from the Bush administration than from its successor.
Hoping to lock in policies backed by a pro-business administration, poultry farmers are seeking an exemption for the smelly fumes produced by tons of chicken manure. Businesses are lobbying the Bush administration to roll back rules that let employees take time off for family needs and medical problems. And electric power companies are pushing the government to relax pollution-control requirements.
Even as they try to shape pending regulations, business lobbies are also looking beyond President Bush. Corporations and trade associations are recruiting Democratic lobbyists. And lobbyists, expecting battles over taxes and health care in 2009, are pouring money into the campaigns of Democratic candidates for Congress and the White House.
Randel K. Johnson, a vice president of the United States Chamber of Commerce, said, “I am beefing up my staff, putting more money aside for economic analysis of regulations that I foresee coming out of a possible new Democratic administration.”
At the Transportation Department, trucking companies are trying to get final approval for a rule increasing the maximum number of hours commercial truck drivers can work. And automakers are trying to persuade officials to set new standards for the strength of car roofs — standards far less stringent than what consumer advocates say is needed to protect riders in a rollover. . Documents on file at several agencies show that business groups have stepped up lobbying in recent months, as they try to help the Bush administration finish work on rules that have been hotly debated and, in some cases, litigated for years. At the Interior Department, coal companies are lobbying for a regulation that would allow them to dump rock and dirt from mountaintop mining operations into nearby streams and valleys. Some of the biggest battles now involve rules affecting the quality of air, water and soil.
The National Chicken Council and the U.S. Poultry and Egg Association have petitioned for an exemption from laws and rules that require them to report emissions of ammonia exceeding 100 pounds a day. On another issue, the Environmental Protection Agency is drafting final rules that would allow utility companies to modify coal-fired power plants and increase their emissions without installing new pollution-control equipment.
Loren B. Thompson, a military analyst at the Lexington Institute, a policy research organization, said: “Defense contractors have not only begun to prepare for the next administration. They have begun to shape it. They’ve met with Hillary Clinton and other candidates.”
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., February, 2008 Search the Corruption Database under
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5) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited. Court backs ruling against congressman By MATTHEW DALY - Associated Press Writer Published 8:31 am PST Monday, December 3, 2007
http://www.sacbee.com/838/v-print/story/538630.html
The long legal fight between two members of Congress over an illegally taped telephone call ended Monday when the Supreme Court refused to review the case.
The court left in place a federal appeals court ruling that Rep. Jim McDermott, D-Wash., acted improperly in giving reporters access to a recording of a 1996 telephone call of Republican leaders discussing the House ethics case against former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga.
Boehner was among several GOP leaders heard on the December 1996 call, which involved ethics allegations against Gingrich. Then the House speaker, Gingrich was heard on the call telling Boehner and others how to react to allegations. He was later fined $300,000 and reprimanded by the House.
McDermott, who was then serving on the ethics panel, leaked the tape to two newspapers, which published stories on the case in January 1997. Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., February, 2008
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6) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited. New anthrax vaccine doomed by lobbying America's sole supplier faced oblivion if its rival's product was adopted. It was time to call on political connections. By David Willman Los Angeles Times, December 2, 2007
WASHINGTON — Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and the subsequent anthrax mailings, top U.S. science advisors said the country "urgently needed" a new, improved anthrax vaccine.
The existing vaccine often caused swollen arms and muscle and joint pain. Inoculation required six injections over 18 months, followed by yearly booster shots. The estimated shelf life was just three years.
Yet nearly six years later, the old vaccine is still the only one available -- and the government is buying it in mass quantities for the Strategic National Stockpile.
The manufacturer, Emergent BioSolutions Inc. of Rockville, Md., prevailed in a bitter struggle with a rival company that was preparing what federal health officials expected to be a superior vaccine. The episode illustrates the clout wielded by well-connected lobbyists over billions in spending for the Bush administration's anti-terrorism program.
Emergent's rival, VaxGen Inc. of South San Francisco, had spent four years developing a new anthrax vaccine and had won an $877.5-million federal contract to deliver enough doses for 25 million people. The contract threatened Emergent's very existence. The old vaccine, its only moneymaker, would likely be obsolete if VaxGen succeeded.
Emergent responded by mobilizing more than 50 lobbyists, including former aides to Vice President Dick Cheney, to make the case that relying on the new vaccine was a gamble and that the nation's safety depended on buying more of Emergent's product.
The company and its allies in Congress ridiculed VaxGen and impugned the competence or motives of officials who supported the new vaccine. The lobbying effort damaged VaxGen's credibility with members of Congress and the Bush administration, a Los Angeles Times investigation found. Finally, a year ago, officials canceled VaxGen's contract, all but capsizing the company.
Emergent, meanwhile, has won federal contracts worth at least $642 million for the old vaccine and is in line to win many millions more as the government expands the strategic stockpile.
Yet Dr. Philip K. Russell, a vaccinologist and retired Army general who was a senior biodefense official in the Bush administration, described the outcome as "a big, dramatic failure."
"National security took a back seat to politics and the power of lawyers and lobbyists," said Russell, who supported the decision to award VaxGen the contract.
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., February, 2008
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7) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited. Official: Justice Dept. slowed probe into phone jamming By Greg Gordon | McClatchy Newspapers Posted on Wednesday, December 19, 2007
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/23444.html
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department delayed prosecuting a key Republican official for jamming the phones of New Hampshire Democrats until after the 2004 election, protecting top GOP officials from the scandal until the voting was over.
An official with detailed knowledge of the investigation into the 2002 Election-Day scheme said the inquiry sputtered for months after a prosecutor sought approval to indict James Tobin, the northeast regional coordinator for the Republican National Committee.
The phone-jamming operation was aimed at preventing New Hampshire Democrats from rounding up voters in the close U.S. Senate race between Republican Rep. John Sununu and Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen. Sununu's 19,000-vote victory helped the GOP regain control of the Senate.
While there were guilty pleas in the New Hampshire investigation prior to the 2004 presidential election, involvement of the national GOP wasn't confirmed. A Manchester, N.H., policeman quickly traced the jamming to Republican political operatives in 2003 and forwarded the evidence to the Justice Department for what ordinarily would be a straightforward case.
However, the official, who requested anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, told McClatchy that senior Justice Department officials slowed the inquiry. The official didn't know whether top department officials ordered the delays or what motivated those decisions.
The official said that Terry O'Donnell, a former Pentagon general counsel who was representing Tobin, was in contact with senior department officials before Tobin was indicted.
In October, the House Judiciary Committee opened an investigation to determine whether partisan politics undermined the federal probe.
The official said that department officials rejected prosecutor Todd Hinnen's push to bring criminal charges against the New Hampshire Republican Party.
Paul Twomey, a lawyer for the state Democratic Party, said the delay spared Republicans embarrassment at the peak of the campaign because a pending deposition would have revealed that several state GOP officials knew about the scheme, which was hatched by their executive director, Charles McGee. The delay also stalled the case beyond its statute of limitations, depriving Democrats of full discovery, he said.
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., February, 2008 Search the Corruption Database under
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8) The Article linked below was Abstracted from the source cited. A Bloody Stalemate in Afghanistan nyt, 2-24-08 partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&pagewanted=all
abstracted tidbit: One full-moon night I was sitting outside a sandbag-reinforced hut with Kearney when a young sergeant stepped out hauling the garbage. He looked around at the illuminated mountains, the dust, the rocks, the garbage bin. The monkeys were screeching. “I hate this country!” he shouted. Then he smiled and walked back into the hut. “He’s on medication,” Kearney said quietly to me.
Then another soldier walked by and shouted, “Hey, I’m with you, sir!” and Kearney said to me, “Prozac. Serious P.T.S.D. from last tour.” Another one popped out of the HQ cursing and muttering. “Medicated,” Kearney said. “Last tour, if you didn’t give him information, he’d burn down your house. He killed so many people. He’s checked out.”
As I went to get some hot chocolate in the dining tent...
Alex Wierbinski, Berkeley, Ca., February, 2008
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Dreams Stifled, Egypt’s Young Turn to Islamic Fervor Here in Egypt and across the Middle East, many young people are being forced to put off marriage, the gateway to independence, sexual activity and societal respect. Stymied by the government’s failure to provide adequate schooling and thwarted by an economy without jobs to match their abilities or aspirations, they are stuck in limbo between youth and adulthood. “I can’t get a job, I have no money, I can’t get married, what can I say?” Mr. Sayyid said one day after becoming so overwhelmed that he refused to go to work, or to go home, and spent the day hiding at a friend’s apartment. In their frustration, the young are turning to religion for solace and purpose, pulling their parents and their governments along with them. With 60 percent of the region’s population under the age of 25, this youthful religious fervor has enormous implications for the Middle East. More than ever, Islam has become the cornerstone of identity, replacing other, failed ideologies: Arabism, socialism, nationalism. The wave of religious identification has forced governments that are increasingly seen as corrupt or inept to seek their own public redemption through religion. In Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Morocco and Algeria, leaders who once headed secular states or played down religion have struggled to reposition themselves as the guardians of Islamic values. More and more parents are sending their children to religious schools, and some countries have infused more religious content into their state educational systems. In Egypt, where the people have always been religious and conservative, young people are now far more observant and strict in their interpretation of their faith. A generation ago, for example, few young women covered their heads, and few Egyptian men made it a practice to go to the mosque for the five daily prayers. Now the hijab, a scarf that covers the hair and neck, is nearly universal, and mosques are filled throughout the day with young men, and often their fathers. In 1986, there was one mosque for every 6,031 Egyptians, according to government statistics. By 2005, there was one mosque for every 745 people — and the population has nearly doubled. “The whole country is taken by an extreme conservative attitude,” said Mohamed Sayed Said, deputy director of the government-financed Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies in Cairo. “The government cannot escape it and cannot loosen it.” Bush "Democracy" Requires People Vote for Bush's Side, or our Dictators will Kill you
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