Tmh711 I like this

Alaska Sen. Stevens charged with hiding gifts| Reuters

Jul 29, 4:41pm    (1 review)  politics, corruption  http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/i...

"Alaska Sen. Stevens charged with hiding gifts"

Just another crooked politician. It's what we expect.

But, again, it's not what we know that worries me, it's what we don't know.

People like Cheney, what's he's been doing these last 8 years that we DON'T know.

To all our detriment. For profit.

Fannie, Freddie spent $200M to buy influence - Lisa Lerer - Politico....

Jul 16, 3:08pm  politics, corruption  http://www.politico.com/news/stories/070...

The New York Times & Log In

Oct 22, 2007 5:31am    (2 reviews)  iraq, corruption  http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/21/opinio...

Run Amuck ................... BILLIONS in corruption, what we don't know or care to think about. And suicide.

Mr. Riechers's suicide occurred just two weeks after his appearance in a front-page expose in The Washington Post. The Post reported that the Air Force had asked a defense contractor, Commonwealth Research Institute, to give him a job with no known duties while he waited for official clearance for his new Pentagon assignment. Mr. Riechers, a decorated Air Force officer earlier in his career, told The Post: "I really didn't do anything for C.R.I. I got a paycheck from them."¯ The question, of course, was whether the contractor might expect favors in return once he arrived at the Pentagon last January.

Set against the epic corruption that has defined the war in Iraq, Mr. Riechers's tragic tale is but a passing anecdote, his infraction at most a misdemeanor. The $26,788 he received for two months in a non-job doesn't rise even to a rounding error in the Iraq-Afghanistan money pit. So far some $6 billion worth of contracts are being investigated for waste and fraud, however slowly, by the Pentagon and the Justice Department. That doesn't include the unaccounted-for piles of cash, some $9 billion in Iraqi funds, that vanished during L. Paul Bremer's short but disastrous reign in the Green Zone. Yet Mr. Riechers, not the first suicide connected to the war's corruption scandals, is a window into the culture of the whole debacle.

Through his story you can see how America has routinely betrayed the very values of democratic governance that it hoped to export to Iraq. Look deeper and you can see how the wholesale corruption of government contracting sabotaged the crucial mission that might have enabled us to secure the country: the rebuilding of the Iraqi infrastructure, from electricity to hospitals. You can also see just why the heretofore press-shy Erik Prince, the owner of Blackwater USA, staged a rapid-fire media blitz a week ago, sitting down with Charlie Rose, Lara Logan, Lisa Myers and Wolf Blitzer.

It is very very sad .... all of it. Read the rest!

State Department Ignored Blackwater Warnings

Oct 7, 2007 8:26pm    (1 review)  iraq, corruption, profiteering  http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/100707...

State Department Ignored Blackwater Warnings (you don't say)
By Paul Richter
The Los Angeles Times

Sunday 07 October 2007

Diplomats had raised concerns about guards' endangering of Iraqi civilians, but the complaints got little attention.

Washington: The State Department, which is facing growing criticism of its policy on private security contractors, overlooked repeated warnings from U.S. diplomats in the field that guards were endangering Iraqi civilians and undermining U.S. efforts to win support from the population, according to current and former U.S. officials.

Ever since the contractors were granted immunity from Iraqi courts in June 2004 by the U.S.-led occupation authority, diplomats have cautioned that the decision to do so was "a bomb that could go off at any time," said one former U.S. official.

But State Department leadership, unable to field U.S. troops or in-house personnel to guard its team, has clung to an approach that shielded the contractors from criminal liability, in the hope of ensuring continued protection to operate in the violent countryside.

The procedures have come under critical scrutiny since a Sept. 16 shooting involving contractors for Blackwater USA, the State Department's main security contractor, killed at least 11 Iraqis and set off a series of American and Iraqi investigations.

On Friday, in a tacit acknowledgment of the policy's shortcomings, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice ordered drastic increases in supervision of the security contractors. Meanwhile, the House, flatly rejecting the current approach, on Thursday approved in a 389-30 vote legislation that would subject contractors to U.S. criminal law.

Thank goodness, it's about time. What amount of damage has Blackwater done? And not just them .... all the profiteers.

Alan Greenspan claims Iraq war was really for oil - Times Online

Sep 17, 2007 5:45am    (25 reviews)  iraq, oil, corruption  http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/wo...

"AMERICA's elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.

In his long-awaited memoir, to be published tomorrow, Greenspan, a Republican whose 18-year tenure as head of the US Federal Reserve was widely admired, will also deliver a stinging critique of President George W Bush's economic policies.

However, it is his view on the motive for the 2003 Iraq invasion that is likely to provoke the most controversy. "I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil,"¯ he says.

FINALLY ......... can we skip the denial now?

Can we finally impeach that S.O.B.??

Or does he need to get a blowjob to infringe on our morals?

Rove makes a fiery exit - Mike Allen - Politico.com

Aug 14, 2007 8:42pm    (2 reviews)  politics, corruption  http://www.politico.com/news/stories/080...

Rove

"The Democrats have a problem with national security," the White House senior adviser said. "Too many Democratic leaders are opposing policies that will lead to America's success in the Middle East."

(((( ROFLMAO )))) ... and this Whitehouse has our success assurded? In mind? Even as a remote thought?? Remember, folks, it is not about success (wrong question, wrong goal) it is about sustained profits. TWO BILLION a week is a pretty paycheck that these crooks want to sustain as long as possible. Even if that claims is false ... someone please tell me the "policy that will lead to American's success" .... please do tell, what is it that the Dems oppose that is to win this thing??

When asked about the House Democratic leadership, Rove said: "This last election was a very close election, and I think they misread the results. They think they've got some mandate to raise taxes and blow up the budget. It's just unbelievably out of touch with reality."

The criminal speaks. He's got his talking points in line.

Blow up the budget? Um ... what has George done?? WTF is that about?

But what the hell does Rove know about "reality" ???

The only reality he knows is how to play the American people, it is reality that Americans are playable and he works it. He is a master of the game, a master of puppetry and we, oh America, are worse for it.

And well, he speaks of close elections ... of course, there's the 2000 election, recall, that is the one which he did NOT win. Corruption placed his President into office; chance, naiveté, fear, the extreme right, and a dismal campaign (and candidate) by Kerry won Bush re-election- barely. Seems he mistook THAT meaning as well. It's all talk, twisted for service.

Rove is a master player as he weaves a world of his liking; he is a criminal, but he is no marvel ... his victories were thin and contrived, manipulated .... he is also no seer if he thinks history will judge this President, probably the worst in history, certainly the most corrupt, kindly.

No, history will eventually uncover much truth about this guy Bush, we should hope ... then again, if they have destroyed all evidence, as they probably will have, then we will never know.

I hope to Dems do pursue Rove ... Rove should have to answer - for once. Rove. Bush, Cheney should be serving time .... lots of time ... in prison.

Katrina Aid Goes Toward Football Condos - The Huffington Post

Aug 13, 2007 8:27pm    (3 reviews)  conservative-politics, corruption  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires...

Conservative Politics in Action

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. With large swaths of the Gulf Coast still in ruins from Hurricane Katrina, rich federal tax breaks designed to spur rebuilding are flowing hundreds of miles inland to investors who are buying up luxury condos near the University of Alabama's football stadium.

About 10 condominium projects are going up in and around Tuscaloosa, and builders are asking up to $1 million for units with granite countertops, king-size bathtubs and 'Bama decor, including crimson couches and Bear Bryant wall art.

While many of the buyers are Crimson Tide alumni or ardent football fans not entitled to any special Katrina-related tax breaks, many others are real estate investors who are purchasing the condos with plans to rent them out.

Yep .... here's your "Democracy" in action, your conservative politics, your America.

I wonder how these folks are doing ...

TPMmuckraker August 10, 2007 1:28 PM

Aug 10, 2007 6:31pm    (1 review)  politics, corruption  http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/003...

American Politics at Work



Undeterred in the face of a federal corruption probe, Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) is hosting a small klatch of top lobbyists and others this weekend for a fishing and fundraising trip to his home state.

The getaway, billed as the "Ted Stevens El Capitan Fishing Event," combines "three days of some of the best salt water fishing you will ever have,"¯ according to the invite, with a fundraising reception expected to net at least $2,300 per person for the Senator's re-election campaign.

Apparently, lobbyists must fly into Seattle or Anchorage and then take a boat or a float plane to get to the El Capitan Lodge on the remote Prince of Wales Island. On top of their donation for accommodations, fishing and meals, participants pay $2,500 to rub shoulders with Stevens at the El Capitan.

* * * * *
Anyone else find something wrong with this whole scenario??

Yeah, conservatives embrace your "values" ...

Yeah, Ted is anti-abortion, anti-gay ... so keep voting him in. Doesn't matter what else they do, so long as we get those superficial issues our way.

Right America?? Here's a comment below the article. Probably a telling and chilling account of this thing:

What the trips are really about are 'sneakret discussions' during August recesses to plot thick and thin through upcoming legislation. And ones like to Waterfall Resort years ago with Trent Lott, Dennis Hastert, Don Young et al, fit another part of the aristocracy patternings.

Let's see what oil, telecom, or other sneakret legislation comes up in the next year, and trace that back to the list of attendees at the lodge, and Justice will know exactly where to start the RICO charges.

It's not what we know that worries me, it's what we don't know.

Red Cross confirms Bush administration, CIA used torture in interrogations...

Aug 7, 2007 9:09am    (3 reviews)  politics, corruption  http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/aug200...

From the page:

A confidential report by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) suggests that Bush administration officials may have committed war crimes in the operation of CIA "secret prisons"¯ overseas, according to a lengthy analysis published on the web site of the New Yorker magazine Sunday.

* * * * *

And the wheel of corruption continues to churn while the American whore continues to shop.

I am not nearly as worried about what we do know as I am worried about what we do not know.

What we have ...

... is a "Wall of Separation"
between the administration
 and the people.


What we need ...


Some supporter of the recent passing of the wiretapping bill said this morning on CSPAN, to objectors, that "if you have nothing to hide, if you are not doing anything illegal, then what are you worried about with the wiretapping issues??

While I disagree, let us give the benefit of doubt and say ok.

Then let us ask the administration the same question. If they have nothing to hide, then why all the stonewalling and evasion tactics?

For national security?

... my ass.

Crooks and Liars.

The Crypts Blog - Politico.com

Jul 30, 2007 7:02pm    (3 reviews)  politics, corruption  http://www.politico.com/blogs/thecrypt/0...

Ted Stevens' home raided by FBI and IRS

The FBI and IRS have raided the home of Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) in Girdwood, Alaska, according to a local TV station.

Stevens and his son Ben have under investigation due to their relationship with the oil services firm, Veco. The former head of that firm, Bill Allen, has been convicted of bribing Alaska politicians.

Yeah yeah yeah ......... let it continue to unravel.