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Cheney -  Criminal
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-  Iraq
"If
Bush and Cheney Commit War Crimes and Everyone Knows It, But Does Nothing,
Are They Still Crimes?" ... "As Jon Ponder noted
here on Tuesday, a bi-partisan U.S. [United States] Senate panel has
found
[PDF] that [Republican President] George W. Bush was responsible for
approving War Crimes (torture and abuse) at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq,
[Republican Vice President] Dick Cheney admitted
in a recent interview to helping to approve War Crimes (torture and abuse)
in interrogations, and the corporate media --- with the lone exception
of MSNBC --- have been virtually as silent on what may be the most offensive
crimes ever committed by an Executive Branch in the U.S. as they were during
the lead-up to and follow-through on the War on Iraq, when those same officials
sent our nation into war on the basis of demonstrable lies." ... "George
Washington University's highly-respected constitutional law professor Jonathon
Turley, noting the War Crimes now known and admitted to by Bush and Cheney,
asked Keith Olbermann Tuesday night, "If someone commits a crime and everyone's
around to see it and does nothing, is it still a crime?"" ... "During the
discussion, Turley mentioned --- no less than three different times ---
that it'll be up to the citizens whether or not any action is actually
taken to prosecute those who committed these crimes." ... ""It will ultimately
depend on citizens, and whether they will remain silent in the face of
a crime that's been committed in plain view," Turley suggested. "It is
equally immoral to stand silent in the face of a war crime and do nothing,
and that is what the citizens are doing."" ... "He went on to argue: "There's
this gigantic yawn as we hear about a war crime on national television
being discussed matter-of-factly by the Vice President."" -By
Brad
Friedman -BradBlog.com
 WATCH
"Countdown: Jonathan Turley and Bush Admin War Crimes."
-Keith Olbermann via -FireDogLake'sYouTube
 Mitch
McConnell -  Bob
Corker -  Richard
Shelby -  Foreign
- Money
-  Government
- Politics
-  Auto
-  Makers
-  Working
-  People
-  Kentucky
-  Tennessee
-  Alabama
-  Michigan
- US
"Do
Southern Senators Really Want to Start a New War Between the States?"
... "When my Southern pals used to say "The South is gonna rise again,"
I doubt this is what they had in mind: A cadre
of Southern [Republican] Senators, heavily financed by foreign automakers
and special interests, declaring war on the American Dream of good wages
and decent benefits. When did they decide that hard-working people trying
to make a better life for themselves are the enemy?" ... "These Senators
may want to think twice. Southern states have been benefiting from Northern
taxes for years. If they start another War Between the States, the Federal
gravy train might suddenly stop at the Mason-Dixon line." ... "Studies
by the nonpartisan Tax Foundation have consistently shown that these Senators'
states receive far more from the Federal government than they pay back
in taxes. That's an irony that could lead to some Blue State bitterness:
They love to preach about fiscal responsibility and lower taxes, but they
keep dipping their beak into the Federal trough." ... "I believe the applicable
Southern phrase is "a handful of gimme and a mouthful of much obliged.""
... "The numbers in [PDF]
the Foundation's most recent study (warning: pdf) speak for themselves:
[Kentucky Republican Senator] Mitch McConnell's Kentucky took in $1.45
from the Feds for every dollar it paid in taxes. That's a 45 cent free
ride. [Tennessee Republican Senator] Bob Corker's Tennessee received at
30-cent Federal giveaway. And [Alabama Republican Senator] Richard Shelby's
Alabama extracted a whopping 71-cent subsidy from Northern taxpayers."
... "What about Michigan? They lost 31 cents for every dollar they paid.
In other words, McConnell, Shelby, and Corker have been skimming a percentage
off these autoworkers' taxes for years on behalf of their constituents.
Now, when the same Michigan taxpayers need help, these Senators are telling
them to get lost." -By RJ
Eskow -HuffingtonPost.com
Bob
Corker - Richard
Shelby -  Jim
DeMint - Mitch
McConnell - Foreign
- Money
- Politicians
- Auto
- Makers
- Michigan
- US
- Workers
- Emergency
- Law
- Tennessee
-Alabama
- Kentucky
-  South
Carolina -  Georgia
-  Japanese
-  German
-  South
Korean
"Meet
the GOP's [Republican's] wrecking crew: Why did a
small group of Southern Republicans turn the auto bailout into a demolition
derby? Introducing the senators who hate unions and love foreign cars."
... "On July 15, [Tennessee Republican Senator] Bob Corker was a happy
man." ... ""I cannot think of a more exciting day, even more so than Election
Night, for me," the Republican senator from Tennessee said in a conference
call that day. The reason for his elation was the announcement that
[German automaker] Volkswagen, lured by up to $500 million worth of incentives
from the state government, had agreed to build a $1 billion plant near
Chattanooga, Tenn. [Tennessee.] That is, not just in his home state, but
in the suburbs of the city he once served as mayor." ... "Add VW [Volkwagen]
to [Japan automaker] Nissan, which already has two plants and its North
American headquarters in Tennessee, and you begin to see why Corker was
so aggressive this month about trying to block -- or at least dramatically
rewrite -- a proposal to float billions of dollars in
emergency
loans to domestic automakers. Most of the focus during this debate
has been on lawmakers who represent Michigan, the home of the Big Three
-- Ford, General Motors and Chrysler. But Corker represents the other side
of the coin: Tennessee and other Southern states have recently come to
depend on foreign automakers and their non-union factories. If you're from
those parts, what's good for American car companies may no longer be what's
good for the country -- because your economy now depends on their foreign
competitors instead." ... "Expect to hear more not just from the very vocal
Bob Corker, but from the rest of a core group of Southern senators whose
bread is buttered by the Japanese, Germans and Koreans. Here's a guide
to the major players."
"[Alabama
Republican Senator] Richard Shelby, R-Ala. [Republican-Alabama]"
"Foreign
auto plants: [German automaker] Mercedes-Benz, [South Korean automaker]
Hyundai, [Japanese automaker] Honda"
"[South
Carolina Republican Senator] Jim DeMint, R-S.C. [Republican-South Carolina]"
"Foreign
auto plants: [German automaker] BMW [Bayerische Motoren Werke]"
"[Kentucky
Republican Senator] Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. [Republican-Kentucky]"
"Foreign
auto plants: [Japanese automaker] Toyota"
"[Tennessee
Republican Senator] Bob Corker, R-Tenn. [Republican-Tennessee]"
"Foreign
auto plants: Two [Japanese automaker] Nissan plants, as well as the
company's U.S. [United States] headquarters; [German automaker] Volkswagen
will open near Chattanooga [Tennessee] in 2011"
"As
mayor of Chattanooga, he [Corker] reportedly conceived the idea for the
site that will soon become home to the [German automaker] Volkswagen plant,
and was instrumental in its development. He organized efforts to lure [Japanese
automaker] Toyota to the area, and when that failed, he had VW execs [executives]
and other top state politicians over to his house for dinner." ... "Georgia's
two Republican senators, Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isaakson, both voted
against the plan as well. Their state has a big [South Korean automaker]
Kia factory coming in soon." (1, 2)
-By Alex Koppelman and Mike Madden with contributions
by Vincent Rossmeier and Gabriel Winant -Salon
 Barack
Obama -Media
- Politics
- Investigation
-  History
-  Illinois
"Media
Matters: Media pick up where they left off 8 years ago."
... "To anyone who lived through the media feeding frenzy of the 1990s,
during which the nation's leading news organizations spent the better part
of a decade destroying their own credibility by relentlessly hyping a series
of non-scandals, the past few days, in which the media have tried to shoehorn
[Democratic President Elect] Barack Obama into the [Illinois Democratic
Governor] Rod Blagojevich scandal, have been sickeningly familiar." ...
"Whenever reporters think -- or want you to think -- they've uncovered
a presidential scandal, they waste little time in comparing it to previous
controversies." ... "Perhaps the most striking aspect of the media's attempts
to link Obama to the Blagojevich scandal has been the volume of news reports
that are purely speculative -- and not only speculative, but vaguely
speculative. That is, they don't even consist of conjecture about specific
potential wrong doing. They simply consist of completely baseless speculation
that Obama might in some way become caught up in the investigation at some
point in the future, for some reason. It's little more than, "Maybe Obama
will be involved." Well, sure. And maybe he'll play shortstop for
the
Washington Nationals [baseball team] next year." ... "If you want to make
a "scandal" stick to someone despite the inconvenient truth that they aren't
actually guilty of the purported wrongdoing in question, one thing you
do -- if you're the media covering a Democratic president, or an overzealous
conservative -- is continually expand the scandal's definition. So the
"scandal" grows and evolves into an amorphous mass of innuendo as political
opponents and journalists begin throwing everything against the wall, hoping
something will stick." ... "If the news media regains a bit of the skepticism
so many of them set aside for the past eight years, that would be an unequivocally
good thing, and it should be applauded." ... "But this week brought signs
that much of the media is set to resume the absurd and shameful behavior
that defined the 1990s -- guilt by association, circular analysis whereby
they ask baseless questions about non-scandals, then claim they have to
report on the "scandal" because the White House is "besieged by questions,"
grotesque leaps of logic, downplaying exculpatory information, and too
many other failings to list." ... "If that happens -- if the media continue
to behave as they did in covering Whitewater -- they will damage the country.
It's really that simple. We cannot afford to be distracted from serious
problems by overheated conjecture and baseless insinuation masquerading
as journalism." ... "That's how the media behaved the last time we had
a Democratic president. They devoted wall-to-wall coverage to invented
"scandals," ignored exculpatory evidence, saw evidence of guilt everywhere,
took people out of context in order to accuse them of lying, and generally
behaved like a pack of wild animals who couldn't tell right from wrong
or truth from fiction -- or who simply didn't care. As a group, they behaved
without ethical standards and without regard for the truth." ... "It's
our responsibility -- all of us -- to make sure it doesn't happen again."
-By Jamison
Foser -MediaMatters.org
Auto
- Manufacturing
- Politics
- Jobs
- Economic
- History
-  Christmas
- Consumer
- US
-  China
"Senate
Republicans Determined to Cause a Depression by Destroying Big 3."
... "Looks like the Senate Republicans are serious about killing the auto
deal. Here's the bottom line, if GM [General Motors] goes down, it
will take Ford and Chrysler with it, because the three of them share suppliers.
Losing GM's business will put most of them into the red. 80%
of American consumers will not buy a car from a company in bankruptcy,
so the idea that going bankrupt is the solution to the auto companies woes
is nonsense." ... "What comes out of any bankruptcy, even if they have
the names GM, Ford and Chrysler, will be a shadow of what went into bankruptcy—assuming
anything comes out at all. More likely would be that big chunks would
be gobbled up by foreign car companies, especially by the Chinese, who
want expertise, but not to make cars in the US [United States]." ... "We
can expect, then, to lose most o f the three million jobs related to the
auto industry if the Big 2 1/2 go under. To put this in perspective,
in the last year the US has lost 2.7 million jobs. This would be
more than the job losses for an entire (lousy) year. The
US lost half a million jobs last month, and almost every economic forecaster
expects the US to lose even more jobs in January, when retailers go fish-belly
up due to an abysmal Christmas retail season." ... "Economic contractions
of this sort are self-reinforcing. The more people who lose their
jobs, the less consumer spending there is. The less consumer spending
there is, the less money businesses make. The less money businesses
make, the more they have to lay off people. The more people who lose
their jobs, the less consumer spending there is. The less... but
why go on, you get the point." ... "The cascading financial and economic
effect will make the oncoming economic storm far, far worse. If 700
billion was ok to use to save Wall Street, whose business model was probably
even worse than Detroit's (add up their losses and most of Wall Street
didn't actually make any money for the last ten years), then 15 or 25 billion
to save Detroit is peanuts." ... "Or we can make sure this turns into a
Depression. Guess the Republicans playing Scrooge this Christmas
prefer that." -By Ian
Welsh -FireDogLake.com
 David
Vitter - Mitch
McConnell - Bob
Corker - Foreign
- Money
- Politicians
- Auto
- Manufacturing
- Work
-  Louisiana
- Kentucky
- Tennessee
-  Pennsylvania
- US
- Japan
- Germany
"My
Foreign Investor, Right Or Wrong." ... "A bunch of
Southern-state Republicans (including, amazingly, ... [Louisiana Republican
Senator] David
Vitter), from right-to-work states, want to push GM [General Motors]
and Chrysler into bankruptcy to bolster the foreign auto presence in their
home states. Kentucky has a Ford factory but they also have a [Japanese]
Toyota plant in Georgetown [Kentucky], so [Kentucky Republican Senator
Mitch] McConnell's on board." ... "Last week, Jane Hamsher explained
the conflict of interest for [Tennessee Republican Senator] Bob Corker
in Tennessee:"
"He
hasn't mentioned the subsidies his own state of Tennessee has given to
,
making it harder for the Big 2 1/2 to compete:"
"Tennessee
offered its richest incentive package — and perhaps the most government
assistance and tax breaks ever for an American automobile plant — to lure
[German auto manufacturer] Volkswagen to Chattanooga [Tennessee]."
"But
the state’s chief business recruiter said Wednesday that the benefits from
VW’s $1 billion assembly plant far will exceed what could top $500 million
in government assistance and tax breaks for the project."
"“The
Volkswagen investment in this community is going to have a tremendous economic
gain for the entire region,” said Matt Kisber, Tennessee’s commissioner
for economic and community development. “I’m confident we’re going to have
a very reasonable incentive package when you look at the initial costs
of what is being offered compared with a much bigger long-term return.”"
"Yes,
that's the logic -- these incentives will bring more money to the region
than they cost. But it doesn't always work out that way. As David Cay Johnston
noted
in Free Lunch, these kinds of subsidies frequently wind up costing
communities much more than they ever make back:"
"Johnson
writes: "The tribute Cabela's demanded from Hamburg [Pennsylvania] amounted
to roughly $8,000 for each man, woman, and child in town." Johnson points
out that between 2004 and 2006, Cabela's earned $223.4 million. During
those years, it collected at least $293.7 million in subsidies, more than
its reported profits. Meanwhile a family business selling fishing and hunting
gear was driven out of business in Hamburg."
"Funny
nobody is mentioning this."
The
GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] does a lot of chest-thumping about
"Country First" and patriotism. It's fun to watch them destroy American
manufacturing so they can keep Japanese and German corporate executives
happy. OK, maybe not so fun." -By D-Day
via Hullabaloo
 John
Boehner
-  Don
Young -  Doc
Hastings -  Jack
Abramoff -  Tom
DeLay -  Jerry
Lewis -  Ken
Calvert -  John
Doolittle -  Ohio
-  AK
-  WA
-  Texas
-  CA
-  Florida
- Money
- Politics
- US
Attorney - Law
- Federal
- Investigation
"House
GOP [Republicans] Gives Scandal-Ridden Don Young’s Committee Seat To Scandal-Ridden
Doc Hastings." ... " ... [Ohio Republican Representative
and House Minority Leader John Boehner told Alaska Republican Representative]
Rep. Don Young (R-AK [Republican-Alaska]) that he could no longer support
him as ranking Republican on the Natural Resources Committee, leading to
Young’s resignation from the post." ... "The AP reports
that a panel of top House leaders picked [Washington state Republican Representative]
Rep. Doc Hastings (R-WA [Republican-Washington]) today to lead the committee.
“The recommendation by the GOP [GOP=Grand Old Party=Republican] Steering
Committee is final under a rule change adopted Wednesday.”" ... "Recall,
Jack Abramoff once boasted of having an “excellent
relationship” with Hastings, who received $14,000
[*]
from Abramoff’s firm, Preston Gates — including $1,000 from Abramoff himself.
After taking control of the Ethics Committee, Hastings reportedly fired
two staff lawyers involved in unanimous decisions to admonish
[Texas Republican] Tom DeLay for improper fundraising. Hastings also
contacted fired [United States] U.S. Attorney John McKay and attempted
to pressure
him in an ongoing investigation." ... "As ThinkProgress has documented,
Boehner has a history of playing musical chairs with committee assignments
for corrupt members:"
"[California
Republican Representative] Rep. Jerry Lewis: Boehner ruled that
Rep. Jerry Lewis of California could continue as the ranking member on
the Appropriations Committee while under federal
investigation on ethics charges."
"[California
Republican Representative] Rep. Ken Calvert: The GOP Steering Committee
appointed Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA[ Republican-California]) to [California
Republican Representative] Rep. Jon Doolittle’s (R-CA[ Republican-California])
Appropriations seat, after Doolittle was the subject of an FBI [Federal
Bureau of Investigation] investigation for his ties to Abramoff. Calvert
has profited
from legislation he supported and was caught
in the act with a prostitute."
"[Florida
Republican Representative] Rep. Tom Feeney: Feeney, who was questioned
by the FBI over his relationship with Abramoff took over as GOP [Republican]
leader on the space subcommittee for Calvert."
"Despite
Boehner’s ethics pledge
after ethics pledge,
the culture of corruption still rules at the end of the day." -By
Satyam
Khanna -ThinkProgress.org
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
HavenWorks.com+A-Z
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|
Corporate
-  Television
- Media
- Politics
"If
it’s Sunday, it’s still conservative." ... "In 2006,
Media Matters conducted a study on Sunday political talk shows, finding
that “Republicans and conservatives
have been offered more opportunities to appear on the Sunday shows
— in some cases, dramatically so.” From 2001 to 2005, conservative guests
outnumbered progressives “by 58 percent to 42 percent.” Atrios notes that
tomorrow’s shows will also be dominated by conservative
guests:"
"7
Appearances by Republican current elected officeholders"
"3
Appearances by Democratic current elected officeholders."
"2
Appearances by Republican former elected officeholders."
"1
Appearance by a [Republican President] Bush Cabinet Secretary."
"T.
Boone Pickens [former Republican swift boat contributor]"
"Ted
Turner. "
"
-ThinkProgress.org
Barack
Obama - John
Boehner
-  Karl
Rove - 2008
Election - Media
- Politics
- Corporate
-  Healthcare
- Ohio
- US
- Iraq
- Global
-  Climate
"Sunday
Roundup." ... "In the wake of [2008 Election Democratic
President-Elect Barack] Obama's overwhelming victory, and Democratic gains
in the House and Senate, conservatives are desperately trying to convince
the world that these results are meaningless. "Democrats should not make
the mistake of viewing Tuesday's results as a repudiation of conservatism,"
insisted
[Ohio Republican Representative] John Boehner. "Barack Obama understands
this is a center-right country,"
claimed
Karl Rove. "This country remains every bit as center-right as it has for
a generation," parroted
Brent Bozell. And David Brooks dreamed
of an Obama administration that understands "this was an election where
the middle asserted itself." Drunk on self-delusion, a staggering GOP whistles
past the electoral graveyard, missing the whole point of this election:
the center
has shifted, and positions that used to be considered "left-wing" --
on healthcare, on global warming, on corporate responsibility, on Iraq
-- are now solidly mainstream." -By Arianna
Huffington -HuffingtonPost.com
 John
McCain - Corporate
- |
