Indicted former Rep. Tom DeLay
Indicted former Rep. Tom DeLay
defiantly proclaimed on Fox News tonight, “I haven’t had no ethical problems.” Here’s 13 specific examples of his ethical improprieties.
- Comments
- 104
U.S. military abandons checkpoints
U.S. military abandons checkpoints
set up to locate an abducted soilder on the orders of the Iraqi Prime Minister. The AP has the story:
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki flexed his political muscle Tuesday and won U.S. agreement to lift military blockades on Sadr City and another Shiite enclave where an American soldier was abducted.
U.S. forces, who had set up the checkpoints in Baghdad last week as part of an unsuccessful search for the soldier, drove away in Humvees and armored personnel carriers at the 5 p.m. deadline set by al-Maliki.
The Air America advertiser blacklist.
The Air America advertiser blacklist.
Nearly 100 ABC advertisers have insisted that “NONE of their commercials air during AIR AMERICA programming.” Among the advertisers listed are Bank of America, Exxon Mobil, Federal Express, General Electric, McDonald’s, Microsoft, Wal-Mart, and the U.S. Navy. Media Matters has the full list here.
Sen. Allen On Assault Of Constituent: ‘Things Like That Happen’
Sen. Allen On Assault Of Constituent: ‘Things Like That Happen’
CNN just reported the incident in Charlottesville, VA, today where blogger Mike Stark was assaulted by supporters of Sen. George Allen (R-VA). One of CNN’s affiliates asked Allen for comment on the incident, and CNN reported that he responded, “Things like that happen.”
Stark is not, as CNN reported, a “protester.” He is a constituent who was trying to ask Allen a question. Watch it:
Transcript: More »
Liberal blogger Mike Stark is attacked
Liberal blogger Mike Stark is attacked
by Sen. George Allen’s (R-VA) supporters after he asked the senator a question at a campaign event. Watch it:
More at AmericaBlog.
FACT CHECK: Snow’s False and Misleading History of Stem Cell Research
FACT CHECK: Snow’s False and Misleading History of Stem Cell Research
Today at the White House press briefing, Tony Snow claimed that “Any stem cell research that takes place in the United States today is a result of a decision the president made in 2001.” Snow claimed, “no president who has stepped up and made possible more research and encouraged more research than George W. Bush.”
Snow, echoing Karl Rove, added that “adult and blood cord stem cells” have “demonstrated far more promise” than embryonic stem cells. Watch it:
Snow’s lesson on stem cell research was chock full of false and misleading information. Here’s a fact check:
1. Bush’s decision did not begin embryonic stem cell research in the U.S. Embryonic stem cell research funded by the Geron Corporation began in the late 1990s at the University of Wisconson and Johns Hopkins University. [Congressional Research Service, pg. 3]
2. President Clinton proposed broader federal funding of embryonic stem cell research. Bush suspended the Clinton rules and replaced them with his own that restrict federal funding to lines derived prior to August 2001. Clinton did not propose federal funding for embryonic stem cell research earlier because it didn’t exist. [Congressional Research Service, pgs. 5-6]
3. Adult and umbilical cord stem cells do not show “more promise” than embryonic stem cells. An article in the New England Journal of Medicine called the White House source for this claim “patently false” and “pure hokum.” [9/21/06]
Transcript: More »
Sen. Conrad Burns’s (R-MT) staff ate so many free meals
Sen. Conrad Burns’s (R-MT) staff ate so many free meals
at Jack Abramoff’s restaurant, “people joked they would have ‘starved to death‘ without the lobbyist,” according to a new letter from one of Abramoff’s associates.
Snow: President Bush Has ‘Actually Taken The Lead’ On Climate Change
Snow: President Bush Has ‘Actually Taken The Lead’ On Climate Change
Today White House Press Secretary Tony Snow stated that “contrary to stereotype,” President Bush has been “actively engaged in trying to fight climate change.” He also took issue with a reporter’s comment that the United States has been absent from a global emissions and cap trade program, arguing that the Bush administration has “actually taken the lead on those kinds of innovations.” Watch it:
President Bush has taken very little real action to fight climate change and even refuses to admit that it is manmade. He broke his promise to cap carbon emissions and insists that global warming can be fought through individual “voluntary” programs.
Despite being the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, the United States has refused to participate in the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement that assigns mandatory targets for the reduction of greenhouse gases. Between 1990 and 2004, emissions of all industrialized countries decreased by 3.3 percent, but in U.S. emissions grew by almost 16 percent in that same period and now accounts for approximately two-fifths of the industrialized world’s greenhouse gases.
The rest of the world is leading and the Bush administration isn’t following.
Digg It!
Full transcript below: More »
Rush gains from elderly tax break.
Rush gains from elderly tax break.
A Florida tax measure “meant to protect the elderly from being taxed out of their homes also has let Florida’s wealthiest reap big tax breaks.” One major beneficiary has been Rush Limbaugh, who raked in a “tax break of about $224,000.”
69 percent:
Your comments.
Your comments.
You may notice they aren’t showing up or are taking a long time to post. We are having some technical issues we are addressing right now. Thanks for your patience.
UPDATE 10:40AM: Commenting should be functioning normally now.
Laura Bush on Michael J. Fox: ‘It’s Always Easy To Manipulate People’s Feelings’
Laura Bush on Michael J. Fox: ‘It’s Always Easy To Manipulate People’s Feelings’
In an interview on C-Span, First Lady Laura Bush was asked about Michael J Fox’s advocacy for candidates who support embryonic stem cell research. Mrs. Bush responded that it was wrong for Fox and others to suggest that increased support for embryonic stem cell research could lead to cures for Alzheimer’s and other diseases.
She concluded with a thinly veiled critique of Fox: “It’s always easy to manipulate people’s feelings, especially when you are talking about diseases that are so difficult.” Watch it:
Transcript: More »
ThinkFast: October 31, 2006
ThinkFast: October 31, 2006
The Interior Department has dropped claims that oil giant Chevron “systematically underpaid the government for natural gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico, a decision that could allow energy companies to avoid paying hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties.”
“Growing numbers of American military officers have begun to privately question” the administration’s resistance to redeploying U.S. troops out of Iraq. “There is a new belief that the biggest problem that we face is that our forces are the sand in the gears creating problems,” said one former Pentagon official. “We are making things worse by giving the Iraqis a false sense of security at the governing level.”
The Bush administration is now “targeting unmarried adults up to age 29” as part of its abstinence-only programs, “which include millions of dollars in federal money that will be available to the states under revised federal grant guidelines for 2007.”
The Las Vegas district attorney “said Monday that authorities have reopened their investigation into a cocktail waitress’ claim that a Republican congressman running for governor” — Rep. Jim Gibbons (R-NV) — “assaulted her in a parking garage after a night of drinking.”
Not surprisingly, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), “which holds around two thirds of the world’s oil reserves,” claimed the UK government’s recent report on the catastrophic economic effects of climate change has “no basis in science or economics.” More »
Pentagon sets up a media “bullpen.”
Pentagon sets up a media “bullpen.”
The Defense Department has set up a new unit to fight “inaccurate” news stories, using “new media” channels to push its message. CNN reports that the unit would likely be run by political appointees.
The Bush administration has shut down access
The Bush administration has shut down access
to the EPA’s principal library for researching the effects and properties of chemicals. “EPA’s hasty, buzz saw slashing at its library network is now interfering with its mission of harnessing the best available science to protect human health and the environment,” said Jeff Ruch, director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The Bush administration has already shuttered EPA’s Washington headquarters’ library and regional posts in Chicago, Dallas, and Kansas City.
Bush’s problem with DC: ‘Too many philosophers.’
Bush’s problem with DC: ‘Too many philosophers.’
At a rally in Georgia today, President Bush bragged about having “acted” on his conservative “philosophy” by cutting taxes for the wealthy. “In other words, we just didn’t talk about philosophy,” Bush said. “There’s too many philosophers in Washington.“
Cheney Repeats Baseless Claim That Insurgents Are Timing Attacks to Influence U.S. Elections
Cheney Repeats Baseless Claim That Insurgents Are Timing Attacks to Influence U.S. Elections
Today on Fox News’ Your World With Neil Cavuto, Vice President Dick Cheney said it was his belief that insurgents were increasing their violence to try to influence the midterm elections. Watch it:
President Bush has admitted this that there isn’t “any intelligence” that suggests terrorists are trying to influence U.S. elections. Also, Maj. Douglas Powell, a military spokesman in Baghdad, told United Press International that there was no intelligence for the claim.
While there is no reported intelligence for Iraqi insurgents trying to sway the current election, the CIA did conclude that Osama bin Laden and al Qaeda tried to manipulate the 2004 elections with the release of a videotape message. But the intelligence indicated that terrorists were trying to help Bush win re-election — not aid his opponents. Media Matters, citing Ron Suskind’s One Percent Doctrine, notes that CIA analysts concluded that bin Laden’s message in the days before the Nov. 2004 contest “was clearly designed to assist the President’s reelection.”
Transcript: More »
Cheney: Lynne gave Wolf Blitzer ‘the slapdown.’
Cheney: Lynne gave Wolf Blitzer ‘the slapdown.’
In an interview today with Fox News, Vice President Cheney said his wife’s combative recent CNN appearance was “great” and “very accurate,” adding, “We refer to it around the house as the slapdown.” Watch it:
Note to Dick Cheney: It wasn’t accurate.
Transcript: More »
Senior Bush Appointee Rejected Scientists’ Recommendations In Favor Of Industry Positions
Senior Bush Appointee Rejected Scientists’ Recommendations In Favor Of Industry Positions
Julie MacDonald, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Fish and Wildlife and Parks, has consistently “rejected staff scientists’ recommendations to protect imperiled animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act.” A civil engineer with no training in biology, she has overruled and disparaged the findings of her staff, instead relying on the recommendations of political and industry groups. Some highlights:
– MacDonald presented industry positions as equivalent to scientific studies. In 2004, a panel of Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) biologists recommended giving the greater sage grouse protection under the Endangered Species Act. But in her review of the panel’s report, she denigrated many scientific studies as mere “opinion,” and stated, “We should treat [them] as we would treat an industry publication,” she wrote.
– MacDonald pressed staff biologists to more seriously consider industry positions. During a dicussion of the great sage grouse population, MacDonald wrote, “This paragraph completely ignores the comments received by the Owyhee Cattlemen’s Association and the Idaho Cattle Association.” As the Washington Post notes, the organizations “opposed the listing on the grounds that it would limit their use of land where the birds live.”
– Under MacDonald, the Department of the Interior (DOI) reversed a staff ruling based on comments from the Air Force. In 2000, FWS published recognized Tabernaemontana rotensis as a species and proposed to list it as an endangered species. The T. rotensis tree has been reduced to approximately 30 plants found primarily on lands managed by the Air Force. In 2004, the decision to list was reversed, “prompted in part by a comment from the Air Force.”
Under the Bush administration, just 56 species have been listed under the Endangered Species Act, for a rate of about 10 a year. Under Clinton, officials listed 512 species, or 64 a year, and under George H.W. Bush, the department listed 234, or 59 a year.
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Union of Concerned Scientists have more.
Stories on global warming are banned
Stories on global warming are banned
at two local television stations in Maine. Michael Palmer, the general manager, told employees in an e-mail that they were not allowed to cover climate change stories because he placed them “in the same category as ‘the killer African bee scare‘ from the 1970s or, more recently, the Y2K scare when everyone’s computer was going to self-destruct.”
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog Roll