Impossible!

The White House announced today that Karl Rove is resigning and going back to Texas to spend more time with his family and probably write a book. Seriously. This is comparable to President Bush saying that he made a huge mistake in going into Iraq, and announcing an immediate pullout that would have all our troops home for Christmas. And now, as the pundits weigh in, we are hearing that the Rove resignation is a signal that the dreams of a permanent Republican majority are shattered, all is lost, Bush's agenda is a failure, etc., etc., etc.

Look. That's just crap, OK? Karl may formally resign his post in the White House, but he is definitely not going back to Texas to spend time with his family and write a book. He will be up to his creased, greasy little neck in political skullduggery on a grand scale. Working for his still unrealized dream, his "permanent Republican majority," as defined by Karl Rove.

My guess is he may write off the 2008 presidential campaign except for some light consulting and some paid speaking engagements to fire up the RNC's fundraising abilities. But no heavy lifting. There's a lot of money still to be made out here in the land of international consulting, and Karl is on the "cutting edge" so to speak, nicely positioned to do very well!

After all, he's already performed the impossible: At the very same time he trivialized the Presidency, he greatly expanded the powers of the Executive Branch. (He also thoroughly gutted and debased his own political party, but that's another column.) At some point in the not too distant future, I can see him sequestered with his charts, and his numbers, and his good old precinct by precinct analyses of the relevant states. Maybe he'll spend his time developing a strategy, and tinkering with his tactics (Karl's ALL about tactics.), and rebuilding, so the Republicans, as he has redefined them, can take Congress back in 2010.

You really don't need to be a genius to figure Karl Rove out. He isn't masterful. He's base. At heart, he is just a vicious, mean-spirited, nasty little man. He doesn't think big. He is a consummate cynic. He thinks small. His entire toxic strategy is based on distorting information to deliberately keep people in the dark, which, in a democracy should be a capital crime, and playing to people's fears. The reason he's been so amazingly effective, is because too many people abdicated their own responsibility, and surrendered their autonomy to him. He did what he did, because we let him.

Karl Rove callously redefined the concept of corruption in a democratic system of government in scope and on a scale we never dreamed possible. It would be easy to write that all off as part of some huge conspiracy. The collusion by the corporate conglomerates that run our news media. Wall Street. Halliburton. Enron. The oil guys. The drug companies. Lobbyists. But the fact is, both parties in Congress were supposed to be our firewall. Instead, the concept of checks and balances was alien to them.They should have been there for us, but they hung us out to dry. They just caved in. And so did too many of us.

It is both absolutely correct, and a gross over simplification to hang this eight year disaster solely around the necks of Rove, Bush, Rumsfeld and Cheney. We all own a piece of it. One thing is sure. We've had eight hellish years to really experience Karl's political vision of America. If he stages a comeback, we have only ourselves to blame. The pundits can speculate about what this so called announced resignation means for days. But one thing we should all be able to agree on, is that this so-called resignation doesn't mean anything at all.

Copyright, 2007

A Musing I

An audit released last week from the General Accounting Office, reports that the Defense Department lost 110,000 AK 47 rifles, 80,000 pistols, and 135,000 pieces of body armor, that were given to Iraqi soldiers to help them defend themselves against insurgents. General Petraeus has admitted that no records were kept of who got them. He speculated that it could be a clerical error. Yeah. It could be. Except that they are physically missing...not missing "on paper..." Ever the optimist, the general observed that, "Just because we don't know where they are, doesn't mean the enemy has them." Right. Add this loss to 300,000 barrels a day of Iraqi crude oil missing over the last four years, according to news reports. ..and 12 billion American tax dollars...also missing in Iraq...oh. And 380 tons of explosives.

(This information was originally presented in a neat package by Jon Stewart in a segment of The Daily Show on August 8th. I felt it bore repeating. I'd also seen coverage of the missing weapons on various news broadcasts, among, but not limited to, CNN and ABC News. TDS puts it in context...)

Copyright, 2007

Theatre of the Absurd III: Heads of State

President Bush recently entertained his staunchest ally at Camp David, President Karzai, of Afghanistan, or, as he is popularly known, the Mayor of Kabul. (Kudos to Jon Stewart). With public opinion polls consistently showing his approval ratings in the 23% - 28% range, and criticism of the President's policies mounting, I bet Mr. Bush felt reassured to know Mr. Karzai really appreciates everything the Bush Administration has done in Afghanistan.

Over the past three years, the Afghan opium trade is flourishing again, warlords now control much more of the country, and the Taliban, after four years of being in "remission," is now resurgent. In fact, with the recent phenomenon of suicide bombings added to their repertoire, Afghanistan is beginning to look a little bit more like Iraq every day. And conversely, with less than one third of Iraqis now having access to clean water and electricity, Iraq is beginning to look more and more like Afghanistan. If Iraq's situation gets anymore desperate, they may even decide to accept workers from Iran to help them rebuild their villages, as Mr. Karzai has done recently in Afghanistan!

According to BBC news, Oxfam, a respected international charity, is claiming that:
"... currently, 70% of all Iraqis don't have access to adequate water supplies, and less than 20% have access to effective sanitation." This, after more than five years of direct, hands on, American support for both countries. (We recently learned that Iraq's main power grid is on the verge of total collapse. A spokesman for the Electricity Ministry said Iraq is only meeting half of the demand for electricity as it is, and there have been four nationwide blackouts in a one week period in the last month.)

Usually, when heads of state visit President Bush, our guy likes to show off a little bit. It's the Texan in him. So there was the usual news conference, which President Bush often dominates, while his guests sit with a bemused grin plastered on their faces. It's usually at this moment, that Mr Bush offers profound observations on the state of things, in an attempt to demonstrate that he always reads all of his daily briefings, and knows who's who and what's what. Karzai's visit was no exception. You see, with our Presidential Campaign heating up, Senator Barack Obama drew major international attention in the past week or so, by saying he'd go into Pakistan, which borders Afghanistan, using military force to bring our Al Qaeda enemies to their knees. Barack to Pakistan: " If you won't do it, we will." This caused quite a mess in diplomatic circles in both Pakistan and Afghanistan. There is a mountainous border region they share, where our enemies come and go at will. Neither governments' forces are willing to root out these terrorist camps. Pakistan claims the region is totally ungovernable.

The average American can understand Barack Obama's frustration. After all, these are the same terrorists who killed 3,000 people in New York City. By flying planes into buildings. And their ring leader and mastermind, the heart and soul of this terrorist movement, is still alive and functioning more than six years after he orchestrated the bloodiest attack we've ever suffered on our own soil.

In fact, the reason why brave young men like Pat Tillman enlisted in the military, was to fight in Afghanistan, against the people who attacked us. In an attempt to put Senator Obama and a growing chorus of critics in their place, and to remind his dear friend, President Karzai, just who is in charge of US foreign policy, Mr. Bush finally explained to the the Afghan head of state, the American people, and the rest of the world, the reason why Osama and his minions have been immune to all efforts to capture him. He said, "We could catch him tomorrow...if we knew where he was. We'd catch him, if we had good, actionable intelligence...better intelligence." His words, not mine. How tragically simple.

Well, of course we would, Mr. President. Except, didn't we have him pinned down somewhere outside Kandahar in the late fall of 2001? And he just evaporated like a puff of smoke and escaped? Well, today, Mr. Bush explained that, too. You see, there was no kill order six years ago! The military had to sort of call a time out to try to find someone in Washington who was up high enough to give permission to take Osama out. But today, all that was straightened out once and for all. Today, the military was told, you no longer have to ask. Just do it. If the situation is such that you need to take the shot, take the shot. Which is, basically, what a very frustrated Barack Obama intends to do.

Copyright, August, 2007

The Shark vs. The Tuna III or Them's Parsing Words!

Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee,has been issuing a virtual blizzard of subpoenas for The White House to appear and testify before his committee about the amount of influence and direction the Department of Justice had from various White House staffers, to operate illegal wiretaps on U.S. citizens. Of course, The White House thumbed its nose at Leahy ..and us, incidently, by claiming Executive Privilege and directing both former and present staff NOT to testify. Which brings us to Karl Rove. Karl Rove is one of the guys who used the Republican National Committee's e-mail (which gets purged about every 30 days,) as a bypass to conduct White House business he didn't want as part of the public record... In doing this, he was probably violating the law regarding the maintaining of documents and records for the administration throughout a president's term of office...for posterity's sake, and now, more and more likely, to conduct criminal investigations. Karl was not alone in this. In fact, it now appears that it was a widespread, accepted practice to break the law, so much so that few people (we may now call them Rovians, which makes them seem part of a cult...which they may well be) ever questioned the appropriateness of using the RNC e-mail system. It just seemed easier. In the past few weeks, we've learned that there may be thousands upon thousands of e-mails to review.

But if Karl is "a part of" the White House, there is another, separate problem. To really cover all the bases, Mr. Leahy also subpoenaed the office of the Vice President, Dick Cheney, who is specifically named in the subpoena. Senator Leahy was compelled to this level of specificity with the Vice President since the Vice President's announcement that he is not a part of the Executive Branch of government. He is also not a part of the Legislative Branch. Nor the Judicial Branch. He is a uniquely placed power unto himself, separate and apart from everything else. Or, as psychiatrists like to say, "...a "special" circumstance."

Of course, a major area of continuing concern for Mr. Leahy as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committe and for his colleague, Congressman John Conyers, who chairs the House Judiciary committee, is Alberto Gonzales. Alberto, who allowed the White House to run the Justice Department's illegal wiretaps program as well as permitting other excesses by the Executive Branch which, incidently, Mr. Cheney is not a part of. Usually, the Attorney General is in charge of the Justice Department. Separate and apart from the White House. Except, at one point in time, Mr. Gonzales was a part of the White House as General Counsel to the President. It can be very confusing to a mere private citizen. But I can also understand Mr. Gonzales' confusion insofar as his role or lack thereof is concerned. Alberto continued to see himself as "a part of" rather than "apart from." His belief system in this regard, was re-enforced by his former colleagues (specifically, the Rovians) at the White House. But I must applaud Mr. Gonzales' determination to sift through his confusion and get it right! He recently testified before Congress yet again, and insisted he would never ever resign, but that he would stay, and fix the problems at the Justice Department, (which he created), and get to the bottom of things and make them be better...and he also wants to spend his life in helping little children...and being kinder to small animals. Seriously.

Theatre of the Absurd: II

Remember a few years ago, when the buzz word was "yellow cake?" The stuff they get from uranium to make bombs? The stuff that African country, Niger, was supposed to be sending to Saddam Hussein so he could nuke us? When George Bush was talking about it in his State of the Union message five years ago, it sounded very sinister.

OK. Well something even more sinister has reared it's ugly head. And you know the Internet. Rumors spread with the speed of light, only faster.
The new buzzword is "gum arabic. " And this time it's the Sudan that is threatening us with something even bigger than nuclear weapons. Something that will cut into the very fiber of our nation, and destroy our way of life. It will affect our homes, our kids, our relationships with friends and neighbors, and our relationship with our dentists!!! The emulsifier gum arabic, is the key ingredient in soda pop. And the Sudan provides 80% of the world supply of gum arabic.

Apparently, the Sudanese Ambassador to the United States is furious. His country has been totally misrepresented by some opportunistic movie stars who are determined to generate publicity for themselves at the expense of innocent public officials. What's even worse, following the pack mentality that Hollywood stars have, so many of them have gotten so much attention about the small matter of Darfur, which is a region of the Sudan, that the President of the United States recently announced sanctions in an attempt to end the violence in the region. Of course, this isn't the first time elected officials have been misinformed and acted on the public pressure created by publicity seeking celebrities.

The Sudanese ambassador, John Ukec Lueth Ukec, was deeply insulted at the way people like George Clooney and Don Cheadle have portrayed his country, effectively shaping public opinion. At a recent news conference at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., he portrayed his beleaguered democracy as engaged in an uphill struggle to change the public perception of the Sudan, and of the problems that are being totally misrepresented in Darfur. He thinks it's

high time another point of view was heard. Because all we know of the Darfur region of the Sudan, we learned from people like George. And according to George, (Clooney. You wouldn't expect George Bush to know this stuff!) the government of the Sudan is supporting a terrorist militia called the Janjaweed, who are engaged in genocide in the Darfur region. The quantifiable human costs so far are nearly one million people dead. Murdered. Many of them hacked to death, including starving children in the relative safety of camps.

There are no safe places in Darfur, or anywhere else, when the government itself is the enemy. In fact, the total breakdown in anything resembling social order, has made it impossible to get supplies of food, water, and humanitarian aid to the people of the Darfur region. For the nearly 2 million who have been fortunate enough to get out, a refugee crisis has been created, that has overburdened neighboring countries totally unprepared to absorb the sudden influx of so many in such desperate need of help.

At least that's what that cunning manipulator, George Clooney and his cohorts would have you believe. According to Ambassador Ukec, there is no genocide, there are no refugees, and there have been no massacres. The Sudanese government he represents are, "...agents of peace." In spite of the millions currently starving in the Darfur region, he described the Sudan, itself, as "...the breadbasket of the world!"

In any event, his country is so incensed at all these misrepresentations, and especially at the new sanctions announced by President Bush, that he more than implied that such acts by the United States could have dire consequences. As one insider put it, "This is hardball! Everything is on the table"... including the consideration of the suspension of shipments of gum arabic. This could not come at a worse time for the U.S. economy. The dollar is falling steadily. The prospect of higher home heating costs loom large for the coming winter. The fact that our chicken, our beef, and our pet foods may be poisonous is upsetting. And now, they want to mess with our Coca Cola. How much more can we take?

Wake Me When It's Over: I

Sometimes we forget that part of Congress's job is to look over the President's shoulder. W hasn't had anyone looking over his shoulder for so long, that no one in the Bush administration feels like they have to answer to anyone. So If it appears as if things are unravelling with these Congressional hearings sprouting up, it's because they are.

Take a look at Attorneygate. And you know that spins off into other matters beyond simply firing 8 U.S. attorneys. There's the issue of way too much influence exerted by White House staff. There's the issue of deliberately attempting to suppress the vote in the 2006 elections, there's the issue of the constitutionality of domestic spying and wiretaps, the apparent suspension of habeas corpus, the issue of torturing prisoners, and there's the issue of extra-ordinary rendition, where the U.S. outsources the torturing of prisoners, or terrorist "suspects." (And when you think about Americans missing in Iraq, or anywhere else for that matter, the torture issue becomes pretty important. )

No wonder poor John Ashcroft resigned his post as Attorney General and went home to re-launch a career with his Barbershop Quartet. Imagine for a moment this guy being really sick in the hospital with a fever, and IVs, doped up with painkillers, fresh out of surgery, barely conscious in a darkened room, and suddenly, you, the guy he appointed to handle things while he was gone, come racing into his hospital room, squawling like a scalded cat.

Because you've just informed the White House that what they wanted to do with wiretaps is unconstitutional. Illegal. No legal standing. They cannot do it. You will not cover up such actions under the shredded cloak of legality. You will not provide them any cover on it. And you were just forewarned that the President of the United States, himself, was sending some goons, ( his Chief of Staff, Andrew Card. Think Tom Hagen here, and his General Counsel, Alberto "Torture is Good!" Gonzales. Think Lucca Brazzi) to the hospital with documents they will insist the real AG to sign off on.

They aren't going to deal with some low life surrogate toad! They want the REAL Attorney General, the legally recognized, Constitutionally- mandated Officer in Charge, to follow legal procedures, and sign off on allowing them to violate the law. And when they arrive, only moments after you, they ask him, John Ashcroft, to sign off. They tell him they need the AG's signature. And in a pain-clogged voice, he raises his trembling hand, points to you and says, "He's the AG right now. Deal with it!"

Of course you can tell Congress this chilling tale now, since you don't work there anymore. Tell them about that rare moment when you stood up to the thuggery in this White House, that respects no law. It makes you wonder. How many other horror stories like this are out there. Like kids who suppress memories of abuse by their parents, will the flashes of memory, these nightmares of post traumatic stress, cause more Congressional confessionals?? One can hope!

(Copyright,2007)

When a Shark Becomes a Tuna I

The Board of Directors of the World Bank announced that President Paul Wolfowitz will resign effective June 30, 2007. It was not known at the time we went to press (LOL!) what would become of Shaha Riza. There are rumors she's starting her own girl group.
(Copyright, 2007)

sharks vs. tuna II

When we last looked in on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, he was preparing for his testimony before Congress on the matter of the firings of 8 U.S. attorneys. He has since testified and some one claims he used the phrase, "I don't remember," at least 200 times. I think that number is inflated, but I understand. It seemed like 200 times.

Around that same time, Alberto's former Justice Department liaison to the White House, Monica Goodling, who might easily be mistaken for a more tactful version of Ann Coulter, compared Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and his committee hearings on the U.S. Attorney firings, to a witchhunt, and said Leahy was just exactly like Senator Joe McCarthy. In fact, the whole enterprise smacked of McCarthyism to Monica. She said these things in a prepared statement, as though it were sufficient rationale for taking the 5th against self incrimination, as she fully intended to do, before any committee of Congress investigating her for any reason at all, including parking tickets she might have incurred in Georgetown.

Enter, stage left, Judge Thomas Hogan, who has finally ruled that "Monica Goodling may not refuse to testify and may not refuse to provide other information when compelled to do so..." So Monica has been granted limited Immunity in order to testify, like, right now, before the House Judiciary Committee chaired by Congressman John Conyers. Conyers described her testimony as "critical" to the hearings.

And because we relish continuity and cohesion in our presentations, this all leads back to the White House and our proverbial bridesmaid, Karl Rove.

It seems that in the fall of 2006, Karl was suddenly vitally interested in instances of voter fraud in the 2006 elections. We're talking about October, 2006. Never mind that the elections hadn't yet occurred. Karl deals in perception. He works offense, not defense.

Karl was worried about New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, specifically, and probably others would be added to his short list as the need arose. Those three states were described as "battleground" states needed to retain control of Congress. The issue, in Karl's mind, if no where else, was voter fraud being perpetrated against Republicans. (I know.) So, Alberto Gonzales' chief of staff at that time, (He's not there anymore.) Kyle Sampson, allegedly supplied another Gonzales aide, Matt Friedrich, with a 30 page "report" provided by Republican party "activists" making these voter fraud claims.

U.S. attorneys from those states as well as from others, who did not initiate investigations and lawsuits on voter fraud, and incidently create a big public furor about it, made the White House hit list. Of course, there were also indictments sought by political enemies of various GOP operatives as well.

You see, as more and more testimony is heard, and as this investigation progresses, it is becoming increasingly clear that the attorneygate firings are directly connected with too much White House influence, too much political influence, and entirely too much Rovian intervention, aimed directly at suppression of the vote in the 2006 mid-term elections among other things.
On a broader scale, this special form of cannibalism was aimed at completely politicizing the functioning of the entire federal government in ways even Nixon couldn't have imagined.

This goes way beyond political chicanery and dirty tricks. It is part of a much larger strategy that has Karl's fingerprints all over it.

Someone recently did a comparison on how various cabinet level departments, including the Justice Department, related to the White House and how much day to day contact and influence was exerted by the White House on the various functions of government at the cabinet and agency level. After all, each President has his own management style.

But this isn't about style. It's about control. So in the Clinton White House, for example, maybe there were a dozen direct contacts between Justice department staff and White House staff. ..in a four year period. But in this Bush White House there were perhaps three or four hundred contacts between the White House staff and DOJ staff. A very tight ship indeed. Politics is policy! Placed in this context, clearly, all roads lead to Rove.

(Copyright, 2007)

Oh! What A Tangled Web We Weave...

I thought it might be nice to look in on Poor Paul Wolfowitz. Poor Paul was under fire for arranging for the World Bank to pay his girl friend Shaha Riza ,$200,000 to work at the U.S. State Department, on loan from her job in the Communications section at the World Bank. Well. Things have gotten worse. Kevin Kellems, one of the two top aides Wolfowitz brought over with him from the Pentagon, has resigned. The other, Robin Cleveland, it appears, was up to no good. She, of course, has not resigned.

Marwan Muasher was the former Deputy Prime Minister of Jordan. He had only been on his new job at the World Bank for about two weeks. New guy. In charge of External Affairs. Back in early April, Robin drafted a statement for him, so he in turn could conduct a background briefing with senior bank officials around Mr. Wolfowitz's "Shaha problem."

According to the Financial Times, the statement claimed in part that, "...after consultation with the General Counsel, the Ethics Committee of the Board of Directors approved an external assignment agreement with the staff member." Except that now the chairman of the Ethics committee has also issued a statement in rebuttal: disputing the claim that any agreement was ever approved by the Ethics committee and there was no consulting the General Counsel.
It gets worse. In a classified document obtained by the Financial Times, Wolfowitz told Pentagon investigators he "enlisted the help of a World Bank employee with whom he had a personal relationship, in activities supporting the Iraq war" when he was Deputy Secretary of Defense.

Apparently, in 2003, Shaha Riza entered into a contract with a company that provides "logistics, intelligence, and advice(!) to the Pentagon." E-mails indicate this was done at Wolfowitz's request. At the time, Shaha Riza was an employee of the World Bank and Paul Wolfowitz was Deputy Secretary of Defense. Of course, there were others who recommended that Ms. Riza get that contract. One of them, Elizabeth Cheney, the daughter of the Vice President...worked at the State Department at the time. (This is the other daughter.) There are those who believe that this, too, was a definite conflict of interest and a huge violation of the World Bank's rules.

The embattled Wolfowitz, graceless and arrogant to the end, is calling this entire mess an attempt to smear him. He was given additional time, until the close of business, Friday, May 11th, to defend himself and submit "final comments" in writing to the World Bank panel investigating this tawdry mess. On Monday, his comments along with the findings of the investigating panel, will go before the Board of Directors. Wolfowitz can also meet with them in person on Tuesday. It is fervently hoped the matter will be decided then.

Of course, we all know what's really going on this weekend. Votes are being counted on the 24 member board to see which countries will support the United States, and which countries will not.
According to various reports by the Financial Times and the wire services like AP and Reuters, the European nations, led by Germany, are generally against keeping Wolfowitz as president. Canada and Japan are expected to support the United States.

India, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and South Korea want him out and no one knows where Mexico and China will come down. If Wolfowitz has the votes, he stays and the controversy continues, tarnishing the bank's reputation and making it more difficult to maintain the financial support of member nations.



If he loses, there is speculation that World Bank leaders have already assured the U.S. that this White House could pick the next World Bank president...meanwhile.... Condoleeza Rice has expressed her "personal high regard" for Paul Wolfowitz, as she makes phone calls to European ministers. But, she claims, she is also aware of, and deeply respects the fact that a "World Bank administrative process is underway..." Hmmmm. Has the World Bank ever had a woman president?

Copyright, 2007

Playing Catch-Up

Where to begin! Guess we could talk about the great work Natalie Portman is doing with Queen Rania of Jordan and FINCA. Nat's been working with women in developing nations through FINCA's community banking initiative, to extend loans to women so they can start their own small businesses and lift themselves and their families out of poverty. Natalie is also working on a documentary about the project, hoping to generate more interest and more support.



We're really excited about Leonardo DeCaprio's new documentary on global warming, The 11th Hour, that features an adorable, non-animated polar bear cub called Knut, who was born in the Berlin Zoo, and photographed by Annie Leibowitz. The 11th Hour will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival which runs from May 17th thru May 27th.







Drew Barrymore, a UN Ambassador, is busy planning her trip to Darfur on behalf of the World Food Program. Apparently she's been very busy the past few weeks, lobbying members of Congress for a $100 M appropriation. According to Drew, the WFP spends about $21 per child, per year, and this funding will help them keep the WFP International School Lunch Program alive.

WFP provides a cup of food per day, and most of the children share with their families. The food is distributed at school, and in fact, in some developing nations, girls are suddenly being encouraged to attend school because they are given bags of food for their families. Drew said if we could raise enough funding to keep the program alive for the next five years, it would bring stability to a region of the world desperate for it. Drew has been travelling extensively in Africa to see first hand how things are working.

We know about George Clooney and Don Cheadle's work in Darfur. We've heard about the literacy programs and the advocacy of people like Danny Glover, Jennifer Garner and others, of Sharon Stone's fight for AIDS funding, which was first pioneered by Dame Elizabeth Taylor, (AMFAR), and Angelina Jolie's continuing advocacy on behalf of refugees throughout the world.


But not too many people are aware of the fact that Brad Pitt has been busy down in New Orleans for more than a year, meeting with local residents and community groups and architects, working with Global Green U.S.A., establishing a green housing development. One that will be low cost and environmentally friendly, demonstrating that we can build affordable housing and be environmentally responsible and save a ton of money (up to 40%) on our utility bills...something the utility companies aren't real happy about. The 18 units in this first phase are being built, and the day isn't too far off when the first families will be able to move in. People who lost everything to Hurricane Katrina.


Weeks before the scandal broke about Walter Reed Army Hospital's abhorrent treatment of veterans injured in the Iraq war, Susan Sarandon was meeting with members of Congress in January, trying to get them to address the problems these vets faced. Of course, Republicans wouldn't give her the time of day. So she reached across the proverbial aisle, figuratively speaking, and called Republican Bruce Willis, who'd just returned from Iraq, and since he supported the troops, he agreed to join with her to advocate for better medical treatment for veterans.




There was something else I keep forgetting. So much Hollywood gossip to report! I just can't seem to remember...something about someone going to jail for driving on a suspended license with a DUI conviction....guess it wasn't very important...

Copright,2007

Always A Bridesmaid...Never The Bride

It seems like Karl Rove is always under investigation, but no one ever quite catches him doing anything! It's a wonder the poor guy doesn't develop some kind of persecution complex. The most recent dust up is connected to Karl's role in attorneygate related e-mails. It seems some of them are missing...lost. Many of them Karl Rove's.

Apparently, some White House staffers, in order to bypass regular channels, set up alternative e-mail accounts at non-governmental sites...like the Republican National Committee...so they could discuss stuff that's not suitable or proper to discuss at work. Or stuff they didn't want to show up in the White House's computer system. If you have a job that requires you to use your computer, you probably have a separate e-mail account with Yahoo, so your boss doesn't catch you using the company's system to e-mail friends about last night's date from hell, from your work computer.

In this particular case, Karl and some others used their RNC e-mail accounts to talk about things they didn't want as part of the public record. There are still some among us, a few misguided fools, who like to think that the business of government is infused with high purpose. That important mattters of state are always being discussed, and that our survival, our security as a nation, depends on the confidentiality of Karl Rove's e-mails. Those people don't want to know that the guys in the White House were pulling together a "hit list" of U.S. Attorneys they wanted to fire, and the lawyers they were proposing to replace them, weeks before anyone ever thought anything was going on in the first place.

They certainly wouldn't want to believe that a man as brilliant as Karl Rove would ever be part of an effort, say, to "go after" Patrick Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney from Illinois, who was investigating the CIA leak case...while he was investigating it. In fact, Fitzgerald investigated Rove's role in the CIA leak case, and went through all his e-mail accounts at that time...at least people assumed he did. If you recall, rumors were flying for a while that Karl had come within a hair (no pun intended) of being indicted for his role in orchestrating the outing of Valerie Plame, an undercover agent of the CIA.

Then there was the Jack Abramoff scandal. You remember the Republican lobbyist who was indicted and convicted of crimes, influence peddling, bribery, etc.? The one who Bush said he never met? The one who has pictures (probably photoshopped!) of himself at the White House with the President? The guy who's former staffer worked for Rove? Or was it Rove's former staffer who worked for Jack Abramoff? It does get confusing! Rumors were flying fast and furious during that time as well, that Rove would be indicted any second! Except of course he wasn't. Close, but no cigar! (Sorry about the cigar pun!) Karl has come so close so often, and yet he always lands on his feet.

In any event, Senator Leahy, the Democratic chairman of the committee investigating the firing of the U.S. attorneys, compared the "lost" e-mails to the 18 minute gap in Rose Mary Woods' dictation tapes when she worked for Nixon. Those 18 minutes, 'accidentally' erased by Miss Woods, then personal secretary to President Nixon, contained crucial evidence, the proverbial smoking gun, of the Watergate investigation.


But unlike the 18 minute tape gap, circa 1974, these e-mails are recoverable and Leahy seems determined to find them. It's not yet clear whether any laws were broken in attorneygate, except for lying. When you lie under oath, it's called perjury. Even if it's only Congress you're lying to. And hiding evidence or making things difficult is called obstruction of justice. That's a crime, too. Who knows. We may finally see Karl Rove walking down the aisle...the perp walk.


Copyright, 2007

Whatta Guy!

Paul Wolfowitz once served as Deputy Secretary of Defense under Donald Rumsfeld, and was part of the very exclusive brain trust,

( I jest), which developed the "rationale" for invading Iraq. He left the Bush administration jn 2005, to take over as president of The World Bank.

Since then, in less than two years, he's had clashes with his board of directors, alienating the very guys who hired him (I guess he keeps forgetting these guys aren't Congress).He has populated his staff with an impressive number of Republican cronies, (he's had some trouble transitioning from his old government job, I'd say...) and now, he is undergoing a serious ethics investigation.

Just to refresh your memory a bit, Wolfowitz was the guy who helped develop, and then popularized the Administration's foreign policy thinking, their theories about Iraq, and their efforts to bring stability to the Middle East once and for all!

For example: When General Shinseki testified before Congress, in 2003, that we might need several hundred thousand troops to win the peace in Iraq, after the invasion, Wolfowitz called bullshit! Shinseki had been in charge in Bosnia. Iraq wasn't Bosnia. There'd be no ethnic strife, no civil war! Wolfowitz assured Congress once again, that the Iraqis would welcome a liberation force led by America!

And then, because he was on a roll, Wolfowitz teased out his fantasies even further, telling Congress that even the countries who opposed the U.S. invasion of Iraq would sign up to help rebuild it! Even France! And the cost of rebuilding Iraq would be offset because everyone knew Iraq had oil exports worth $15 to $20 billion annually. "To assume we're going to pay for it all is just all wrong." said Paul.

The testimony I will never forget was offered before the House Appropriations subcommittee on Foreign Operations in 2004. He, the Deputy Secretary of Defense, was asked how many servicemen and women had been killed in Iraq? A pretty elementary question. There was a long moment of awkward silence, then a fumble. He couldn't tell them how many U.S. service men had lost their lives. He understated it by 30%. In fact, for a banker, Wolfowitz doesn't seem to be very good with numbers, not even willing to tell the Armed Services Committee a week earlier how much of an $87 billion supplemental package Congress had given DOD for the war in Iraq, the previous fiscal year, had been spent.

But getting back to the present controversy: Why, you might ask, is Paul Wolfowitz, a thoroughly vetted, certified paragon of sobriety, being challenged about his ethics??? How dare anyone question this man, who has no equal, not even Kissinger, when it comes to being really smart! No one is held in higher esteem in the circles in which he travels.

Well, apparently Mr. Wolfowitz has a girlfriend. Yeah. She worked in the communications department at the World Bank. The guys who agreed to hire him (and shame on them!) thought it wouldn't look right, so for appearances' sake, Wolfowitz sent her off to...the U.S. State Department, with a compensation package in excess of $200,000. Seriously. They weren't using the State Department all that much so it seemed like it would work out.

Now, with the Spring Meeting of the World Bank getting ready to convene, its staff is calling for Wolfowitz to resign and the board is conducting an ethics investigation. In the world of realpolitik, Mr. Wolfowitz is enjoying a lesson in physics: the ripple effects of being too close to a lame duck.

Copyright, 2007

Brief Update

In the past two days, Don Imus had his morning TV talk show cancelled by MSNBC, and has been fired from his radio show aired on CBS, after major sponsors pulled out. Imus indicated he didn't intend to "parade himself on the talk show circuit with Larry King, Barbara Walters or anyone
else." He does want to meet privately with the women's basketball team at Rutgers. Maybe now Rev. Sharpton and all the people who expressed outrage for Imus' behavior, and it was despicable, can turn their attention to the rappers who've made millions popularizing references to women as bitches and 'hos in their lyrics.


Copyright,2007

Maybe He'll Check Himself Into Rehab!

This happens with such frequency I am almost innured to it. Keyword here is "almost." Most members of any minority group have probably experienced it at one time or another: that certain kind of over- familiarity of speech that makes them feel their personal space has been violated, albeit psychologically. A certain presumption:"You know I'm just messin' with ya...we're cool..."

There is something pathetic and puerile about a Mel Gibson meltdown or Michael Richards' spewing all over a nightclub stage. Don Imus is a bit different. He has his own radio/ talk show in the morning and he attracts about 300,000 listeners/viewers on average, most days.

Don Imus thinks he's funny. A crotchety, unpredictable old eccentric. He flatters himself that his quirky sense of humor permits him license to call Colin Powell "..a sniffling weasel..." or New Mexico governor, Bill Richardson "a fat sissy..." I certainly would not quarrel with the depiction of Powell's weaseling around if it is in the context of him attempting to distance himself from the Bush Administration.

But back to Imus.The Rutgers Women's Basketball team lost the NCAA Women's championship to Tennessee. On his morning show, Imus and his trusty sidekick McGuirk had this exchange:

McGuirk: (describing the Rutgers team): "hardcore 'hos..."

Imus:"That's some nappyheaded 'hos there, I'm going to tell you that!"

Maybe he was straining for a kind of 'racial intimacy' with the 'nappyheaded" comment, that level of overfamiliarity that can be so offensive. Maybe he and McGuirk used the word 'hos' to demonstrate their "street cred", you know, being "down with it..." so to speak. Maybe they listened to too much rap where African American males often refer to women as "'hos." But that's a whole other discussion, and one that's long overdue. I Don't know the working of Don Imus' mind, and I don't much care.

Monday, April 9,2007 we learned that after some deliberation, Imus had been suspended for two weeks from his show, until his minders at CBS and MSNBC can decide what to do with him. The National Organization of Women wants him out, Jesse Jackson was leading a group of pickets outside CBS, Al Sharpton thinks he should be fired, and the governor of New Jersey thinks he's vile. If the protests broaden and it affects advertising revenues, Imus is toast. So this is the time of watchful waiting.

Meanwhile, Imus has been doing the Contrition Dance. In fact, he cannot stop apologizing. He says this is "humiliating." Actually, I find this tiresome. Don Imus is not worth the time and the energy it takes to get exercised about this mess. If it weren't for the fact that he is an insidious presence on our airwaves every weekday, I wouldn't give it a passing glance. He's has been an accident waiting to happen for a long time. But he has a public forum and this is by no means an aberration for him, and so it has to be addressed.

I'll let Julian Bond, chairman of the board of directors of the NAACP, have the last word on this one for me because Julian Bond has an established, well documented history with which I am very familiar; "street cred" if you will:

" it is past time his employers took him off the air...As long as an audience is attracted to his bigotry and politicians and pundits tolerate this racism and chauvinism to promote themselves, Don Imus will continue to be a serial apologist for prejudice."

Copyright, 2007

This Is Why I'm Hot!...or Dialing for Dollars Redux

"I'm hot 'cause I'm fly!
You ain't 'cause you not!
This is why,
This is why,
This is why I'm hot!"
(lyrics by Mims)

I guess somewhere out there some people drew a collective gasp when Barak Obama announced that he'd raised $25M in the first quarter of 2007 for the presidential campaign.

Hillary Clinton was First Lady for eight years and a United States Senator from New York for six years, and she is so instantly recognizable, she is simply Hillary all over the world. But at the end of the day, a comparative newcomer, the Senator from Illinois, has virtually tied Hillary in fundraising ability. It was a foregone conclusion among many of the party regulars and the pundits that the nomination was hers. The aspirations of her challengers on the Democratic side were quixotic at best. What Barak Obama has done is upended those assertions and changed the equation considerably. This is not going to be an annointing.

The rules of the game prescribe a limit on individual contributions of $2,300, for the primaries and another $2,300, for the general election. A candidate can get $4,600 up front. This inflates the total contributions. But if they don't make it to the general election, they'll have to give the money back. Obama has received mostly smaller contributions, eschewing those from lobbyists and PACs.He raised nearly $7M from the internet. While Senator Clinton has the very formidable resource of her husband to help her, and he does, and while she has a much larger pool of contributors from which to draw, the best she could do in this first quarter was stay a little better than even with $26 M. In fact, right now, Senator Obama has about $23M to spend on the primaries, compared to $20M for Senator Clinton. (She does have access to $10M from her Senate campaign.)

From this point on, things will get rougher and meaner. Not just the public maneuverings. Behind the scenes, the pressure on lesser known candidates to drop out will increase. Political leaders and party regulars in all the 50 states are jockying for positions, especially those with early primaries. Hillary, Rudy, and John McCain are leading in some polls, but it's mostly based on name recognition. The game plan for all the candidates now, is to get your opponent to spend more money than he planned on spending, to spend it unwisely, and certainly to spend more money then you! Keep the other guys off balance and off message, distracted by phony issues, and always on the defensive.

An important challenge for the presidential candidates will be to nail down state organizations and prepare for the primary season. There will be a critical, internal struggle going on in all the key primary states for control over the state party machinery, because those are the people who run the primary elections in their respective states. That is why, for example, endorsements from key state officials are important. The Clinton campaign is definitely in a "take no prisoners" mode. They are girded for battle.

There's very little Barak Obama can do about world events upstaging him, as the recent release of the British hostages from Iran might have done. We'll have to see whether or not he can maintain momentum in the face of the awesome, relentless determination of both Bill and Hillary. I cannot help but believe that at least part of Obama's attraction to many voters is because there is something about Barak Obama that is more thoughtful than calculating. And conversely, there is something about Hillary that seems more calculating than thoughtful. The proverbial battle for the White House is about to get a lot more interesting and a lot rougher.

(Copyright, 2007)

Theatre of the Absurd: Part I

Once upon a time, long ago, a man disappeared. Poof! He'd met up with some old friends for a late lunch, and was never seen or heard from again. His name was Jimmy Hoffa. He was an ex-con with ties to organized crime and he was the former president of one of the most powerful labor organizations in the U.S., the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. It happened in July, 1975. He was 62.

He'd started out as a labor organizer during the bleak days of the Great Depression, and earned a reputation for being tough and scrappy and street smart. He was popular with the rank and file, and was eventually elected President of the IBT in 1957. (His mentor, IBT president, Dave Beck, had been convicted of bribery and was on his way to prison.) Hoffa perfected some pretty rough tactics during his time as president and was scary powerful. By 1964, most freight haulers and truckers in North America were Teamsters, and, it is said, he was eyeing air transport.

During that same period, some of the Teamster locals had become little more than cash cows for organized crime, and the Teamster Pension Fund had bankrolled a number of mob -run operations in Las Vegas, The U.S Justice Department spent a lot of time and money trying to nail Hoffa, and in1964, he was finally convicted of bribing a grand juror, and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

In '71, President Nixon commuted his sentence with the stipulation that he stay away from the Teamsters for 10 years. But by '75, Hoffa had decided to challenge that stipulation and regain control of his union. And so he was invited to lunch at a restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, on July 30, 1975, by some old friends to discuss his future.

Ever since his disappearance, more than 30 years ago, there have been uncountable theories proposed about what might have happened,( most agreeing that Jimmy is dead), and many a crazy wild goose chase to find his remains. His body has been assumed, variously, to be part of the foundation of so many construction sites it's taken on the dimensions of a holy relic, with pieces everywhere. Then there's the usual New Jersey landfill theory, or the fact that Hoffa is now part of a car bumper.

Which brings us to Hidden Dreams. Seriously. I am not making this up. May, 2006, the FBI, who we all assumed was really busy with the War On Terror, got a tip about a horse farm. So on a beautiful spring day, they deployed between 40 and 50 agents. Yes. Between 40 and 50 agents, to a horse farm somewhere in Michigan for about two weeks, to look for the remains of a guy who disappeared 30 years ago.

Now, the Detroit News has finally ferreted out the cost of this enterprise from the U.S. Justice Department: $160,000 to replace a barn the FBI had to demolish while searching for remains; $24,741 for excavation; $18,270 for portable horse stalls; $5,418 in anthropological services; $680 for portable toilets, etc. You get the picture. The total bill was over $200,000. But that doesn't include the travel costs or the salaries of the 40 -50 agents involved in the dig. And FBI Director Mueller said he'd do it all again.

(Copyright, 2007)

Dialing For Dollars

The common wisdom holds that we are so fatigued, disenchanted, disillusioned, fed up or repelled by the current White House occupants, that we are looking to the future in ways we never have before. I cite the first marker of this postulate by pointing to what Bill Clinton has described as the first primary, or " Show Me the Money." It seems that now, as the quarterly reports are being filed, the announced presidential candidates have collectively raised more money faster than ever before.

This is when the hype and the posturing hit the wall and reality rears its ugly head. So all the hopes and dreams of a John McCain, who has been searching diligently for his 30 pieces of silver, and all the hype and bravado of Rudy Giuliani, America's Mayor, are crushed in the wake of the Dashing Mormon from Massachusetts. That's right. Darth Romney, amassing $20 M, has out fundraised Rudy and John McCain.

McCain was busy, wandering the streets of Baghdad in time for April Fool's Day, like the sad clown he's become. Rudy's been pre-occupied with personal concerns. Like hitting out at the press for messing with his wife, who had two husbands before him, and whose professional career included killing small animals for a living, when he wasn't dodging questions about his about to be indicted former police chief/bodyguard, and business partner, Bernie Kerik.

Meanwhile, Mitt Romney has been making his robotic presence felt, barely uttering a word about foreign policy! Suddenly he's become viable. Hell! He ran the Olympic Games, why not the country! And so, in the proverbial smoke-filled backrooms all over America, the GOP's power brokers are in panic mode.

Both Thompsons, Tommy and Fred, are on offer. Tommy, the former governor of Illinois and former Bush cabinet secretary, has announced his intention to run for president, while Fred Thompson, lawyer, senator and yes, movie star, was proposed by others. The alacrity with which the possibility of a Fred Thompson candidacy was embraced is almost embarrassing. Now, Fred usually doesn't commit to a role until he's read the script. But let's just say he's mulling this one over.

Problem is, the window is closing. The money scramble is on and there's a finite amount of loose change still rattling around out here. So while the players are all looking for that prize bull (or heifer), the one who can suck all that green oxygen out of the room, the dollars are being parsed and spread thin among the desperate hoards elbowing each other for primacy.

Meanwhile the pas de deux of Hillary Clinton and Barak Obama continues. Hillary filed her report early, and got maximum media mileage out of her $26M war chest. But there are already those thin, stress fractures beginning to emerge. The level of expectations for her is probably higher than for any other candidate in this race. She was First Lady for eight years and has already served one full term in the U.S. Senate. The entire world is on a first name basis with her and she has Bill Clinton. There is no one out here as formidable as the former President when it comes to campaigning or to fundraising. Clinton will only become a liability when the Republican Right choses to make him one during the general election. And they will be much less effective in this regard in 2008 then they ever were.

Obama's people are doing strategic leaking to the New York Times among other news organizations, with estimates of $20M. He is expected to announce his results any minute. If he'd had bad news, the conventional wisdom surmises, he'd have announced it sooner than later. But by waiting, he allows Hillary her day, lets the news cycle digest the information, and when he announces his results, he'll be center stage and looking very viable, indeed. I believe that if his people are, in fact, leaking the $20M figure, it's a baseline. The actual dollar amount will be higher. By waiting, Obama has seized a strategic advantage that may redefine the entire campaign.

The so-called frontrunners have one or possibly two more quarters at best, to solidify their hold. If a Rudy Giuliani or a John Edwards cannot develop enough momentum through public showings to generate a respectable amount of money, the media will spin it as failure, rejection, a vote of no confidence. And with more and more primaries stacking up regionally, it will be awfully hard to "keep hope alive!"

(Copyright, 2007)

sharks vs. tuna:

CNN journalist, Michael Ware spent several years covering the Iraq war at great personal risk. So I understood his astonishment when presidential hopeful John McCain said, recently, that things had improved sufficiently so that there were neighborhoods in Baghdad where Westerners could safely walk the streets.

McCain then showed just what kind of president he'd make by going to Baghdad a few days ago, and walking down the street! The fact that he was accompanied by a troop escort, helicopters, and humvees and wore a bulletproof vest and combat helmet, notwithstanding. I'm reminded of an old Pete Seger song from the Vietnam era anti war movement: "We're waist deep in the Big Muddy, and the old fool says push on!" McCain's public meltdown is painful to watch. I'm almost embarrassed for him. Attorneygate: .

It's not so much that I really care about those eight U.S. Attorneys, or even that they got fired at mid-term. (In fact, less than a dozen U.S. Attorneys have been fired in the past 25 years for reasons of misconduct, according to the Congressional Research Service; one for biting a stripper!) All U. S. Attorneys are presidential appointments, serving at the President's pleasure. So all eight were Republicans who'd demonstrated their loyalty to this president in some fashion. Actually, the firings represent a type of political cannibalism. What all this means to me is that finally, we get rid of Alberto Gonzales, the man who defended NSA wiretaps, who said the Geneva Conventions were obsolete. In fact, during his watch, the U.S. redefined illegal torture and the application (or its lack!) of habeas corpus.

Just keep in mind, while Alberto Gonzales' interpretations of the law and of Executive powers have had far-reaching consequences, like Scooter Libby, he's really small fish. In the panoply of wrong doers spawned by the unchecked power of this administration, he's very nearly a bit player. A tool. As this scenario plays out, it reminds me of a scene from The Godfather Part II :" The family's got a lot of buffers!"

(Copyright, 2007)