Energy Corps, The Real Welfare Queens

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Congress passed an energy bill on July 28th that, according to the Taxpayers for Common Sense, "includes an estimated $85 billion worth of subsidies and tax breaks for most forms of energy -- including oil and gas. The petroleum industry got new incentives to drill in the Gulf of Mexico- because oil is only $60-a-barrel. Even more disturbing, the bill "exempts oil and gas industries from some clean-water laws, streamlines permits for oil wells and new eminent-domain powers for the federal government to clear paths for power lines." This load of crap, or bill, was declared by Republicans in Congress as a step toward energy independence and lower gas prices.

What's that you say? Congressional Republicans are vampirous corporate whores? Absolutely! They don't care if your health, wallet, or property is compromised. As long as their biggest contributors/ polluters are happy.

The bill enhances Bureau of Land Management drilling permits (note: the Bush administration already has granted a record number of permits on BLM land). Hold on to your seat, it gets even better. Also authorized: seismic blasting in sensitive marine areas to gauge offshore oil reserves. Exemption of petroleum well pads from storm-water regulations under the Clean Water Act. The repeal of the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935; which blocked owners of utilities from owning other companies and has prevented mergers in the electricity industry. This may result in mergers and acquisitions by banks, oil corps and possibly foreign countries. This all adds up to higher prices for us, the consumer. The bill also included $2 billion for "risk insurance" in case new nuclear plants run into construction and licensing delays. And nuclear utilities will be eligible for taxpayer-backed loan guarantees of as much as 80 percent the cost of their plants.

John Roberts & Corporations, A Love Story

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Ah, the final nail in the coffin. The end of America, land of the free, home of the brave, the American Dream. It's now America, Inc. The elitist neo-con's have taken control of all 3 branches of government. This final nail is the appointment of the white millionaire, Judge John Roberts to serve for the rest of his life on the United States Supreme Court. Roberts not only has a strong background of representing big corporations against the "sue happy" disabled and minorities, he was also one of the attorneys representing Bush against the recount in Florida. So the new "America, Inc." stands for record deficits, lenient pollution standards, high gas/energy prices, sky-rocketing healthcare costs, record lay-offs, pre-emptive military invasions and dare I say- fixed elections.

The Washington Post reported that Robert's has represented corporate clients from HMO's to automakers. "Among the companies he represented was Toyota, for which he won a Supreme Court decision. The ruling effectively raised the standard for someone to be eligible for protection under the Americans With Disabilities Act." You know, you have to watch the handicapped or they'll steal your profits! Roberts is known as the 'go to' guy for corporate interests, according to the LA Times. "Roberts represented numerous companies — Chrysler Corp., Litton Systems, WellPoint Health Networks (the #1 health insurance corp in America) and NBC — as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and trade associations for the mining and beer industries."

C. Boyden Gray, former White House counsel to George H.W. Bush was quoted as saying that "businesspeople are very enthused" about this nomination. No shit C!

"S" is for Secret, Stupid!

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UPDATE: July 22nd- Bloomberg News posted a story today that "two top White House aides have given accounts to a special prosecutor (about how reporters first told them the identity of a CIA agent) that are at odds with what the reporters have said, according to people familiar with the case. Oh, I'd hate to see Karl in stripes-not flattering to the midsection.

The Washington Post is reporting today that the classified State Department memorandum in the CIA leak investigation "contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked "(S)" for secret." This is a "clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials." The CIA classifies as "secret" the names of officers whose identities are covert, according to former senior agency officials.

As for the bungling, vengeful crooks in the White House who are allowed to read such communications: they are asked to sign an oath of confidentiality at the start of their term. They are given a briefing book with what is called 'Standard Form 312'. Enclosed in the briefing book, it states: "Before...confirming the accuracy of what appears in the public source, the signer of"..."SF 312 must confirm through an authorized official that the information has, in fact, been declassified. If it has not...confirmation of its accuracy is also an unauthorized disclosure." So by Rove and Libby (Cheney's aide) confirming a story from Robert Novak or sharing information with Matt Cooper, is an unauthorized disclosure.

Eleven former intelligence officers have written a letter to Congress stressing the damage done by the exposure of Valerie Plame's covert status and in turn her colleagues, associates and cover corporation. All of which were trying to stop the proliferation of WMD's. Many years of work was scrapped hurriedly. That's nothing compared to the enormous profits made by Halliburton and the other 25,000 contractors in Iraq-where there were no WMD's. Now that is worth protecting, worth revenge and the endangerment of operatives lives. Get it?

Bush Steal an Election? Nah..

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You see this administration likes covert operations when they benefit and support their illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. Covert CIA agents specializing in WMD proliferation, who question their illegalities, need not apply. The Washington Post reported yesterday that "President Bush authorized covert plans last year to support the election campaigns of Iraqis with close ties to the White House." The National Security Council spokesman Frederick Jones would not say whether any political parties had benefited from covert support. However, government and intelligence officials said on Sunday that the plan was scrapped before the January vote. And that the Bush administration backed down after congressional objections.

In an upcoming issue, the New Yorker magazine begs to differ. The New Yorker reports that despite congressional objections, the White House went ahead with the covert plan to bolster the campaign of Ayad Allawi, "who had been installed by the United States as Iraq's interim prime minister in 2004 and who worked closely with the CIA during his years as an Iraqi exile. Allawi, a secular Shiite, did better than expected in the election but not strongly enough to retain his leadership role. "

The New Yorker article includes the assertion that the program was carried out by former CIA officers and relied on funding not controlled by Congress. Rep. Jane Harman (Calif.,) the House intelligence committee's senior Democrat, said in a statement that "Congress was consulted about the Administration's posture in the Iraqi election. I was personally consulted. But if the (Bush) administration did what is alleged, that would be a violation of the covert action requirements, and that would be deeply troubling."

The Memo on Wilson & His Wife

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Time Magazine's Matt Cooper appeared on this Sunday's Meet The Press with Tim Russert. Russert asked Cooper from whom did he first learn that Joseph Wilson's wife worked for the CIA. His answer: Karl Rove.

The New York Times reported on Saturday that Prosecutors in the C.I.A. leak case "have shown intense interest in a 2003 State Department memorandum that explained how a former diplomat came to be dispatched on an intelligence-gathering mission and the role of his wife, a C.I.A. officer, in the trip." This may be the smoking gun that proves Rove and his cohorts were seeking revenge against a critic of their illegal war. The Associated Press reported Friday: "After Rove's chat with Cooper, Mr. Rove sent an e-mail message to Stephen J. Hadley, then the deputy national security adviser, saying he "didn't take the bait" when Mr. Cooper suggested that Mr. Wilson's criticisms had been damaging to the administration."

Because the NY Times article is acessible by subscribers only, here is the balance of the article: The memorandum was sent to Colin L. Powell, then the secretary of state, just before or as he traveled with President Bush and other senior officials to Africa starting on July 7, 2003, when the White House was scrambling to defend itself from a blast of criticism a few days earlier from the former diplomat, Joseph C. Wilson IV, current and former government officials said. Mr. Powell was seen walking around Air Force One during the trip with the memorandum in hand, said a person involved in the case who also requested anonymity because of the prosecutor's admonitions about talking about the investigation.

Investigators are also trying to determine whether the gist of the information in the document, including the name of the C.I.A. officer, Valerie Wilson, Mr. Wilson's wife, had been provided to the White House even earlier, said another person who has been involved in the case. Investigators have been looking at whether the State Department provided the information to the White House before July 6, 2003, when Mr. Wilson publicly criticized the way the administration used intelligence to justify the war in Iraq, the person said.

Karl Rove, Traitor is Thy Name!

My Deep, Dark Fantasy- Karl in the Big House

The bullshit detector is overheating. The news media is missing the real story. They're falling into Rove's evil plan. It has been confirmed that Karl Rove, aka Bush's Brain, did speak with Matt Cooper of Time magazine about Valerie Plame. The White House is now refusing to discuss Rove and his involvement in the leak. Rove's attorney has acknowledged that Rove did discuss Plame with Mr. Cooper, but qualified that fact by stating that Rove never mentioned Valerie Plame by name. Oh, no? Rove just stated that she was the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson and that she worked for the CIA. That's all! Revealing the identity of a covert CIA agent is a federal offense as it endangers the agent, their colleagues and contacts. Rove did this in retaliation against Plame's husband Joseph Wilson who was the former ambassador to Iraq under George H.W. Bush. Retired Ambassador Wilson was sent to Niger in 2002 by the CIA, to investigate Iraq's purchase of uranium from the Nigerian government. Wilson discovered that there was no evidence, and that the documents that the Bush administration was touting as proof were forgeries. What did the Bush administration do? They steamrolled ahead and included this fraudulent claim in Bush's 2003 state of the union address. Wilson who was appalled, decided to write an op-ed in the NY Times, entitled 'What I didn't Find in Africa.'


Joseph Wilson- pictured in the center

Rove has retaliated against who he felt was his enemy, many times in the past (as his former colleague will tell you). He may have gone too far this time, protecting his master's bogus evidence for the illegal invasion of Iraq. If he is fired by Bush, it won't be the first time he's been given the Kennebunkport boot. Rove was fired from Bush Sr's 1992 presidential campaign for "trashing Robert Mosbacher, Jr., who was the chief fundraiser for the campaign and a friend of Bush. In 1992 Rove accomplished this trashing of Mosbacher by planting a negative story with... Bob Novak.

Here is Rove's Evil Plan as I see it: #1 Rove shuts up Wilson, by putting his wife and her fellow covert CIA agents in danger. #2 Rove also knows that the journalists, who he loathes, will adhere to their code of ethics a la Bob Woodward. This would allow him to hide- what a brave soul, expose a covert CIA agent who specializes in WMD's, but hide your fat ass behind a code of ethics. How ironic. #3 the complete destruction, objective journalism. No one will approach a journalist on deep background or condition of anonymity if the journalist will wind up spilling the beans upon subpoena. Republican crimes and lies will go unreported and unexposed.

On a final important note: former President George Bush Sr, who used to head the CIA, was once quoted as saying "I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the name of our sources. They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors." Former CIA analyst and former Plame colleague. Larry Johnson, stated on PBS' NewsHour that "the fact that she's been undercover for three decades and that has been divulged is outrageous because she was put undercover for certain reasons. One, she works in an area where people she meets with overseas could be compromised. When you start tracing back who she met with, even people who innocently met with her, who are not involved in CIA operations, could be compromised."

They're Baaack

Bombed Double Decker

London was rocked by 4 bombs this morning- 3 on the 'Underground' subway system and 1 on a doubledecker bus. The bus was ripped open. Approximately 40 people lost their lives. And not surprisingly, an Islamic group has claimed responsibility. Blair is leaving the G-8 summit in nearby Scotland, in light of these attacks. At his press conference this morning, Dubya was right behind him in camera angle.

Now, if these two idiots - Bush and Blair - had been fighting the real war on terror, against our real enemies the Wahhabists in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan, maybe this would not have happened. Instead, the War for Oil in Iraq has done nothing but, oddly enough, 'fueled' the fire that drives these terrorists and recruit even more for Al Quaida. As I have written in previous posts, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Afghanistan is breeding these terrorists in madrassas with Saudi oil money. Meanwhile, thousands have died for nothing in Iraq, with the exception of the Saudi men who came to kill in Iraq. They believe otherwise.

Until the madrassas and the money that funds them are stopped, this will not stop. More importantly, we need to get our troops, National Guard and Coast Guard out of this bogus war in Iraq should our country suffer the same horrible attacks like those in London.Then again, we all know that Bush's approval ratings are very low...

Dubya, Polluter Lover

Bush was interviewed by a real journalist this week; which means Bush is outside of the USA. Trevor McDonald of the British show 'Tonight' proceeded to grill Bush on Iraq, global warming and Africa. As McDonald was asking Bush about his decision to go to war Bush starts to chuckle. You can read the transcript or listen to the interview here.

The interview exposes what a tool Bush is for corporations, especially those that pollute the most. Speaking of being a polluter-lover: Bush just appointed Granta Y. Nakayama to be Assistant Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Nakayama will lead the EPA's enforcement division. He might have some sleepless nights, as he is also a partner in a law firm whose clients include W.R. Grace, BP, Dow Chemical and DuPont.

W.R. Grace is under federal criminal indictment on charges related to the operation of its vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana. WRG employees and residents of Libby contracted lethal asbestos-related disease. Approximately 2,000 of those residents have lung abnormalities.

Vermiculite ore from the WRG mine was distributed across America. The Seattle PI claims that "between 15 million and 35 million homes nationwide have asbestos-tainted vermiculite insulation" from WRG in attics and walls. The EPA declared the WRG mine a "Superfund" site. WRG was ordered to pay the EPA $54 million in cleanup costs.

I hope Cooney left behind his bottle of White Out, uh before he resigned from his post as the chief of staff to the White House Council on Environmental Quality. If not, Nayakama can reach him at his new office at Exxon Mobil.