Supporting the Separation of Church and State
Posts Tagged ‘Greed’
McCain’s Lobbyist Buddies
Categorized: Politics
Tagged: 2008 Election, Fiscal Responsibility, Greed, Hypocrisy, John McCain
Ok, so I said I wouldn’t write on the weekends. Technically it’s still Friday night though so it’s not really the weekend yet. I just wanted to leave you all with this video that News Hounds posted earlier. Something to think about as the McCain adultery/corruption case unfolds.
As you watch this video keep in mind that John McCain has been saying that “I’m The Only Candidate That The Special Interests Don’t Give Money To”. Odd how he never mentions that he has a lobbyist doing business right out of the “Straight Talk Express” bus. Or that he has 59 lobbyists on his campaign staff. The most of any candidate on either party.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gEROVh8zK4[/youtube]
Yeah. Republicans. Standing up for truth and honesty except for when they are not. That’s some straight talk there folks. Head over to Brave New Films and sign the petition they have going there asking McCain to return the Millions he has collected from lobbyists.
Brent Wilkes Guilty of Corruption
Categorized: Republicans
Tagged: Brent Wilkes, Corruption, Greed
From TPMmuckraker, a jury has found Brent Wilkes guilty of all 13 charges of corruption. Brent Wilkes, an obscure California contractor and lobbyist, was facing charges for allegedly bribing Rep. Randy Duke Cunningham with cash and gifts. In return for the money and gifts Duke Cunningham steered millions in federal contracts his way.
Duke Cunningham of course has already plead guilty to tax evasion, conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, and wire fraud and will be in federal prison until 2013. In addition to Cunningham several other key Republicans are also tied to Brent Wilkes. Among them such notorious names as Kyle Foggo, Tom Delay, Duncan Hunter, and John Doolittle. It sure doesn’t say much for the Republicans when so many of their leaders keep getting tangled up in legal troubles.
When Dan Rostenkowski was exposed these same Republicans came out in arms about the so called “Democratic corruption”. However we clearly see that when in power the Republicans are even worse. There is a reason that over 75% of the congress that is under investigation are Republicans. This culture of corruption in the Republican party is a direct result of the Republicans lack of interest in oversight and accountability.
It still shocks me that a party that claims moral superiority and fiscal responsibility can’t seem to elect politicians of better character. Aren’t these the same guys who run on Christian values and call out us godless liberals as having no values? Well, I am glad to see this end in a conviction. It’s another step to restoring a more liberal and free country.
Spend and Spend Republicans
Categorized: Republicans
Tagged: Fiscal Responsibility, George W. Bush, Greed, Hypocrisy
The other day I wrote about the President’s veto of a highly popular water projects bill. In that piece I attacked Bush for making a partisan political ploy out of the serious issue of fiscal responsibility. After never vetoing a single spending bill while his Republican cronies were in power, Bush has now vetoed several bills passed under Democratic control. Today I am going to explore just how egregious the Republican “fiscal conservative” myth is.
First I want to say that had Bush ever cared about fiscal responsibility in the past this veto would not be such an issue. However, the hypocrisy of ignoring pork leaden bills passed by his own party, while vetoing much leaner (yet still porky) bills passed under Democrats is clear partisan politics at its worst. The only possible explanation giving that the bill passed with a combined vote of 462 to 52, way more than needed for the override, is that Bush is still throwing his temper tantrum that Congress isn’t doing whatever he wants anymore.
Below is a chart from Citizens Against Government Waste that clearly shows the trending on pork barrel spending. Remember from 1995 to 2006 the Spend and Spend Republicans controlled congress. Luckily Clinton was able to reign in a lot of their spending so the damage doesn’t get bad until after Bush takes over. After that; however, it is clear that having so called fiscal conservatives in the Congress and White House at the same time is a recipe for financial disaster with pork-barrel spending increasing every single year! Well, at least until the fiscally irresponsible Democrats take over again, then somehow it all changes.
In 1995 the Republicans gained the majority in Congress and held onto that majority until the 110th congress took over in 2007. During the decade plus of government by fiscal conservatives congressional earmarks exploded and they turned Clinton’s budget surplus into record deficits. They raided social security to pay for irresponsible tax cuts for their rich buddies. Worst of all they have waged a huge war with no accountability and oversight over funds which has lost billions and billions of dollars. While running the country like a bunch of giddy teenagers with daddy’s credit card they have never let up the attacks on the so called “tax and spend” Democrats. Luckily for them fact checking isn’t really their followers’ thing.
So now after happily funding the Spend and Spend Republicans extravagant spending spree our President wants to call foul on the Democrats for not being fiscally responsible? I am almost at a loss for words for how hypocritical and dishonest this accusation is. Since the Democrats have taken over they have drastically reduced the number and cost of congressional earmarks (see above). Instead of praising their efforts to reign in spending, the president has embarked on a dishonest and partisan offensive with the only motive to help his party in next year’s elections.
So as Congress prepares for their first successful veto override it is important to keep in mind how this administration works. The lessons learned from Karl Rove have not been forgotten. Bush will politicize everything, putting everything second to his desire to win political influence and power no matter the costs. Bush knows this bill, which is being pushed by high powered Republicans, will override his veto without any cuts to spending. He could care less about the spending. This is all about getting in one last jab at the spending habits of Democrats before he leaves town. It is the desperate partisan politics of a spoiled man child who is angry for not getting his way.
The Culture of Life
Categorized: Republicans
Tagged: Abstinence, Anti-Choice, Christianity, Gluttony, Greed, Hypocrisy, Pride
Whenever I hear a member of the Religious Right utter this phrase I have to laugh. Surely they must be kidding? No? They really believe that they are furthering life? Jesus Christ we’re in trouble.
It sounds so innocuous, wonderful, affirming. Most people want to be on the side of life. In Republican circles where it is very commonplace to find ignorant masses repeating rhetoric and sticking to ideals that they have no clue about, this phrase will get them going everytime. It lends them credence, lets them know that they are doing the “Lord’s” work.
They must then see those that don’t believe as they do and whom they oppose on many issues as being from the opposite culture, thus Liberals, atheists, gays, Democrats, and anyone else who is different are from the Culture of Death. Oooooh this sounds like we’re getting ready for an intergalactic war huh?
Not quite. Unlike our Republican friends we are willing to look beyond overused phrasing and see each side for what it truly is. When you strip away the armor of false advertising you are left with the side that wants us to give up our civil liberties in the name of safety, the side that does not want to see this nation’s children provided with necessary health care, the side that is not willing to spend an extra cent on the people of our country, the side that continuously allows corporations and the elite to feed off the backs of our working class, the side that sees nothing wrong with torturing and killing people as long as it is done in the name of their god or the war on terror, and the side that wants to continue the oppression of people with different colored skin, different sexual orientation or identity, or different religious beliefs.
Then there is the other side. The ones who wants to ensure that our children are insured, use diplomacy instead of weapons to solve international issues, promote education and knowledge to reduce the instances of STDs and unwanted pregnancies(thus abortions), make sure that our justice system is brought out of the Dark Ages and errs on the side of human life, work to bring jobs back to America so that our families can afford to support themselves, and many other life affirming values.
So which side describes themselves as the Culture of Life? The ones that in any other context would be the villains of a fairy tale. What’s worse is that they are extremely convinced that their god gives them the right to behave in this manner, to push their beliefs onto the nation as a whole. It is this mindset that has made the United States and international laughingstock and has other countries viewing us as an enemy of freedom.
The Right is exceptionally good at using language to manipulate their followers and others into believing what they want them to. It’s time that we call them on it and demand that they call themselves what they really are. The Culture of Hatred, Intolerance, Bigotry, Discrimination, Ignorance, and Murder.
Billions of Dollars, Equipment Vanished in Iraq
Categorized: Politics
Tagged: George W. Bush, Greed, Hypocrisy, Iraq
George W. is now asking for more money to fund the Iraq war. I was just listening to him on Countdown making it seem as thought Congress doesn’t really support our troops as they fight him on every spending and supplemental spending bill. He comes off as so self righteously indignant that anyone could ever deny our troops money for the equipment they need.
The thing is, BILLIONS of dollars have been lost, mismanaged, or otherwise unaccounted for since the illegal invasion of Iraq. Thousands of weapons and munitions have disappeared and the recipients of extraordinarily large government contracts (Halliburton anyone?) have failed to account for large portions of their expenditures.
The president balked at insuring this nation’s CHILDREN because of the price tag, 35 billion dollars over 5 years for 10 million kids. He apparently has no such concerns about throwing millions more away to corporate thieves and incompetents.
This morning MSN news ran this article, it seems that the group who was supposed to train and provide equipment for Iraqi police officers somehow cannot account for MOST of the money they received, over 1.2 BILLION dollars. In fact, DynCorp’s accounting books were in such a mess that the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction couldn’t even finish the evaluation. The State Department asked them to come back at the end of the year once they get things more organized. To defend themselves the State Department agreed that they could not reconcile the accounting for the period of February 2004-October 2006 and that it would “take three to five years” to “fully review and validate invoices” for that period; however, they had made significant improvements from October 2006 on.
On top of this, it was revealed earlier in the year that DynCorp had purchased hundreds of trailers for Baghdad that were still sitting in storage years later. They also spent 4.2 MILLION dollars on “unauthorized work” this included an Olympic sized swimming pool in Iraq and guess who paid for it? Yup, tax paying US citizens, how nice.
MSN News ran this story in February of this year detailing how federal auditors had found 10 BILLION dollars of wasted or unaccounted for money in Iraq. (This includes the millions spent on DynCorp’s swimming pool and unused trailers.)
And who can forget the 100 MILLION dollars that went missing from Paul Bremer’s Coalition Provisional Authority? Or the 9 BILLION dollars Bremr’s group awarded to Iraqi ministries that is unaccounted for? What is sad about these “oversights” is that it was Iraqi money trusted to the US to handle transparently for the good of Iraq reconstruction.
Recently we heard about the thousands of weapons to disappear in Iraq, 190,000 AK-47′s and pistols to be exact. In 2005 the UN issued a report that revealed 109 sites of “material that could be used to make biological or chemical weapons and banned long-range missiles” had these things taken from them. Although they couldn’t track where the weaponry had gone they were able to tell that most of the items taken could be used to make chemical weapons or missiles. In fact, 85% of the equipment to make missiles was missing.
So, not only are we engaged in an illegal war killing innocent Iraqis and our soldiers, we are padding the pockets of US corporations with illegal incompetent handling of contracts. This isn’t news to those of us who are paying attention. It is however, something that a many Americans don’t realize. When Bush/Cheney uses their same rhetoric of fear and persuasion insisting that the Democrats are horribly unpatriotic for not funding the troops it works on the American people. They hear the lip service they become indignant they want money sent to their troops!
The question is now how do we get America to wake up to what their taxes are really going to and demand that this president’s strategy, accountability, and role be changed? We need to demand that this administration explain exactly why the troops don’t already have the equipment that they need, especially in light of the waste that is occurring exponentially in Iraq. The democrats, despite heavy pressure from their base to stop funding, have approved every bill for funding of the war for fear of causing our troops more danger.
The answer isn’t to throw more money in this quagmire, it’s to demand accountability for what is there now and ensure that our troops are getting what they need ahead of anything else (like swimming pools, hotel stays, and unused trailers).
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