Repeating Mistakes of Iraq in New Orleans

Former Senator John Edwards has written a powerful piece on his vote to authorize the use of force in Iraq and why, knowing what he knows now, he would not give that support now. The first sentence of his Washington Post Op-Ed piece is: "I was wrong."

In the course of his piece, Edwards lays out his recommendations for extricating the country from the mess that has resulted from the way the Bush administration took this country into war.

One aspect of the problem Edwards addresses is this:

American contractors who have taken unfair advantage of the turmoil in Iraq need to leave Iraq. If that means Halliburton subsidiary KBR, then KBR should go. Such departures, and the return of the work to Iraqi businesses, would be a real statement about our hopes for the new nation. (Emphasis added)

The Bush administration has brought the same business model to Katrina recovery that it has used with disastrous effect in Iraq, specifically, the use of no-bid contracts for recovery work. In addition to the well-documented wide-spread corruption that has plagued the reconstruction effort in Iraq, the approach has made Iraqis spectators in the process of rebuilding their own country.

Now, look at New Orleans. The no-bid contract rule is once again in effect (must be plug-and-play for the administration). Once again, KBR is a major beneficiary. And, once again, local companies and citizens are forced into the role of bystanders in the process of rebuilding.

Ah, but didn't you read that the contracts were going to be put out for bid? Yes, you did.

But, as has so often proven the case with this administration, the facts don't match up with what's being said.

Here's a story from Friday that makes this clear.

Much has been written nationally about our state's history of corruption and that argument is behind the efforts to treat rebuilding after Katrina as a quasi-occupation of at least part of our state. But, the fact remains that corruption is the core business model of the Bush administration and the Republican leadership in both the Senate and the House, and one need look no further than the so-called rebuilding effort in the wake of these hurricanes as proof.

The no-bid contracts are intact, but aid for small businesses has not yet arrived. Our devastated local governments have been offered loans to help them through this disaster, unlike the grants that were given communities in other states in the wake of other storms.

This is also a key element of the Bush administration's modus operandi: using disaster as a pretense to enrich those who support them politically.

A Nationwide Victory for Progressives

Nationally on this "OFF YEAR" for elections Democrats, but specifically PROGRESSIVE DEMOCRATS have done a GREAT JOB!

As explained in today's Progress Report, they outline quite well the sweeping wins we had throughout the heartland.

Yesterday was election day for many Americans, and progressives won big. There were victories for civil rights in Maine, for employee rights and privacy rights in California, for science and education in Dover, Pennsylvania, and for progressive candidates around the country. A full run-down:

VICTORY IN CALIFORNIA: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R-CA) suffered an "across-the-board defeat last night at the ballot box," as California voters "rejected every measure he offered to change the political, fiscal and educational policy of the most-populous U.S. state." According to the L.A. Times, Schwarzenegger cast the debate in "stark terms": "He was a bold force for progress; the teachers, firefighters and nurses arrayed against him were selfish 'special interests.'" Not surprisingly, voters sided with teachers, firefighters, and nurses. Among the initiatives knocked down: one sought to limit the use of trade-union dues for political purposes; another would have capped state spending and eliminated the state's minimum funding guarantee for education; a third strongly backed by the pharmaceutical industry was also defeated. California voters also rejected a parental notification initiative that would have harmed teens seeking abortions.

VICTORY IN MAINE: For the first time, Maine voters approved a set of civil rights protections for gays and lesbians, voting down a conservative-backed measure that would have overturned a ban on "discrimination in housing, employment and education based on sexual orientation." Conservatives had succeeded in overturning similar laws in both 1998 and 2000.

VICTORY IN DOVER: Though the Kansas Board of Education voted yesterday to back "intelligent design," there was a silver lining. In Dover, Pennsylvania, eight out of eight incumbent school board members lost their bids for re-election to members of the pro-science Dover CARES campaign, who argued that the inclusion of "intelligent design" materials in science classes should be based on scientific, not political or ideological, merits.

FRUSTRATION WITH BUSH AGENDA EVIDENCED IN SEVERAL RACES: The New York Times opines that at least one fact seems "obvious" after last night's elections: "George Bush's political capital turned into a deficit." The AP's Ron Fournier agreed, referring to Bush as a "political toxin," noting that the president "put his wispy political prestige on the line" when the Virginia candidate "he embraced in a last-minute campaign stop was soundly defeated." In one contest in particular -- the mayoral race in Minnesota's capital city, St. Paul -- the issue of President Bush's leadership trumped all others. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports, "St. Paul voters punished Mayor Randy Kelly on Tuesday for standing with President Bush a year ago, denying the Democrat a second term in Minnesota's capital city. Former City Council member Chris Coleman, also a Democrat, routed Kelly by a more than 2-to-1 margin in unofficial returns with most precincts reporting."

SOME DARK SPOTS: In Texas, voters approved a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage, "making their state the 19th to take that step." Said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign: "The fight for fairness isn't over, and we won't give up." In Ohio, meanwhile, voters rejected a set of measures meant to reform the state's scandal-plagued political system. "An ambitious effort by opponents and widespread confusion over the complex issues combined to defeat the entire package," the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

In a "What are they thinking" moment - The Kansas Board of Education voted 6-4 on Tuesday to adopt new science standards that will force Science teachers to teach intelligent design along with evolution ... YES - IN SCIENCE class. Ofcourse the next fight will be - WHICH GOD will they teach about... A Catholic Teacher with Jewish Students? You must learn it the Catholic way - Yes? This will be the next fight.

However, when left up to the VOTERS - The voters send School Board members who want to push their THEOLOGICAL beliefs onto their science students - PACKING. In Pennsylvania, school board members that have been sued for introducing the teaching of intelligent design as an alternative to biology class were all kicked out of office by the voters. Yes, that is right - ALL members of this school board who were up for re-election who supported the dumbing down of Biology classes were voted OUT of office.

So what have we learned?

1. The GOP is completely corrupt, reports throughout the country from the President's administration on down to the Burroughs of New York Republicans are being indicted and the voters are finally "GETTING IT"
2. When we stand up and fight, our arguements WIN - We just have to stand up!
3. The "Gover-nator" will NOT "BE BACK"
4. Public Schools are not the place to push RELIGION... after all, is that not what "SUNDAY SCHOOL" is for? Voters seem to think so!
   
   

So there is my weekly Update - What do you think?

Meet the Democrats: The Bush Administration and Torture

Here are our "SHOW NOTES" from this week's show. We would greatly appriciate feedback and your thoughts on this highly important matter.

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Meet The Democrats - Show Notes from 11/7/2005

Guest: Anthony Fazzio (Lafayette Parish Democrat Executive Committee and Louisiana State Democratic Central Committee)

Host: Stephen Handwerk (Lafayette Parish Democrat Executive Committee)

Show Topic: The Bush Administration's Sanctioning of Torture

After Army Spec. Joseph Darby exposed the Abu Ghraib abuse, his photos and videos exploded across European newspapers like the Sunday Herald. When the Sunday Herald broke the story of torture by American held facilities in Iraq, Europe was socked by a headline that talked about torture of children: "A Sunday Herald investigation has discovered that coalition forces are holding more than 100 children in jails such as Abu Ghraib. Witnesses claim that the detainees - some as young as 10 - are also being subjected to rape and torture." The article described "the rape of a boy prisoner aged about 15." The witness explained, "The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets.... Then, when I heard the screaming I climbed the door ... and I saw (the soldier's name is deleted) who was wearing a military uniform." The witness then described how the soldier raped the child.

However, news critical of the Bush administration travels slowly here at home, if at all. Such was the case in U.S. But Americans saw only some of the photos, giving the impression the stories were "baseless, unproven assertions." Immediately after articles about torture raced across Europe, the Bush administration lowered the Neo-Con Curtain across America to hide the truth about torture in Iraq. Americans were allowed to see sanitized versions of the Iraq abuse. Picture of soldiers humiliating prisoners appeared in U.S. newspapers, the most notorious as the photo of Prvt. Lynndie England holding a prisoner on a dog leash. Then the unimaginable happened.

Army Maj. Gen. Taguba issued a report on the Abu Ghraib abuse, which referenced "sodomizing a detainee with a chemical light and perhaps a broom stick," cryptically noting the existence of "numerous photos and videos of actual detainee abuse ... not contained in [the] investigation." A select few saw the excluded photos and videos, and what they reported was shocking.

Seymour Hersh, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who exposed the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, gave a shocking account of the sexual abuse of women and children. Gen. Taguba called what he saw "sadistic, blatant, and wanton criminal abuses." Donald Rumsfeld admitted, "I looked at them last night ... they're hard to believe ... [Acts] that can only be described as blatantly sadistic, cruel and inhuman." After seeing some photos, Sen. Saxby Chambliss, R-Ga., said his "stomach gave out." Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., raged, "The American public needs to understand, we're talking about rape and murder here. We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience; we're talking about rape and murder and some very serious charges." For conservative Republicans to use those words, you know it's very bad.

Rumsfeld apologized and then, along with Dick Cheney, working frantically to prevent regulation of the confinement of detainees even if the detainees are children. Why? Secrecy is the way the Bush administration plays the "patriot game.” Secrecy prevents accountability.

Prvt. Lynndie England, the Abu Ghraib dog-leash girl, told reporter Brian Maass that higher-ranking officers allowed the abuse. Gen. Anthony Taguba, who had investigated, confirmed England’s account. In response, Donald Rumsfeld all but called Taguba a liar. Currently, in partly secret proceedings in a Manhattan U.S. District Court, the ACLU and others are urging a federal judge to let America see all the evidence. So far, the Pentagon has defied every court order to release all the photos and videos. But why secrecy? If correct, the abuse would lead back to the Bush administration. Here’s the trail.

Bush confidant, Mickey Herskowitz said, before he was elected president, Bush talked about invading Iraq as a way to reinvent his unaccomplished life and eclipse his overachieving father. Former CIA chief, Vince Cannistraro explained, although unconnected, Bush used the September 11 attacks as the opportunity and weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) as the rationale to invade Iraq. But, the absence of WMDs raised the stakes for Bush. Bush became “frustrated by the lack of information…from detainees…about WMDs," Cannistraro said, which "translated into taking off the gloves."

White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales, warned Bush that Bush risked “domestic criminal prosecution under the War Crimes Act" unless Bush declared detainees outside the Geneva Conventions. Consequently, Gonzales wrote his infamous memo calling the Geneva Conventions “obsolete” and inapplicable to detainees.

Journalist Seymour Hersh revealed that the Bush administration became obsessed with Raphael Patai’s 1973 book, “The Arab Mind,” which portrayed Arab males as particularly vulnerable to sexual humiliation. Desperate for detainee information about WMDs, the Bush administration allowed detainee abuse to go too far. Commenting on the Abu Ghraib abuse, conservative Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) explained, “We're not just talking about giving people a humiliating experience. We're talking about rape and murder." ." Conservative Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ), himself a victim of Vietcong torture, agreed.

Recently the Senate approved a McCain/Graham anti-torture amendment to a defense-spending bill. The measure is now in the House of Representatives, but the Bush administration opposes it. Rep. Charles Boustany should show courage and vote to end torture.

What do you think Acadiana?

None Dare Call It Selective Enforcement!

An Episcopal Church in Pasadena, California, has received a warning from the IRS that it might lose its tax exempt status because of what were perceived to be political comments made from the pulpit in 2004, the Los Angeles Times reported today.

No, this notice did not go out to one of the American Catholic bishops who warned Catholics that they risked committing a mortal sin if they voted for John Kerry or other Catholic candidates who supported a woman's right to reproductive choice.

Nor did it go to any of the Protestant pastors who warned that votes for Democrats were votes to force gay marriages into every hamlet in the country.

Instead, the warning went to a church where a guest sermon by a former rector dared question the morality of the Bush administration's embrace of pre-emptive war.

Rector J. Edwin Bacon of All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena told many congregants during morning services Sunday that a guest sermon by the church's former rector, the Rev. George F. Regas, on Oct. 31, 2004, had prompted a letter from the IRS.

In his sermon, Regas, who from the pulpit opposed both the Vietnam War and 1991's Gulf War, imagined Jesus participating in a political debate with then-candidates George W. Bush and John Kerry. Regas said that "good people of profound faith" could vote for either man, and did not tell parishioners whom to support.

But he criticized the war in Iraq, saying that Jesus would have told Bush, "Mr. President, your doctrine of preemptive war is a failed doctrine. Forcibly changing the regime of an enemy that posed no imminent threat has led to disaster."

On June 9, the church received a letter from the IRS stating that "a reasonable belief exists that you may not be tax-exempt as a church … " The federal tax code prohibits tax-exempt organizations, including churches, from intervening in political campaigns and elections.

The congregants are pretty upset with the accusation:

Some congregants were upset that a sermon citing Jesus Christ's championing of peace and the poor was the occasion for an IRS probe.

"I'm appalled," said 70-year-old Anne Thompson of Altadena, a professional singer who also makes vestments for the church.

"In a government that leans so heavily on religious values, that they would pull a stunt like this, it makes me heartsick."

Joe Mirando, an engineer from Burbank, questioned whether the 3,500-member church would be under scrutiny if it were not known for its activism and its liberal stands on social issues.

"The question is, is it politically motivated?" he said. "That's the underlying feeling of everyone here. I don't have enough information to make a decision, but there's a suspicion."

Politics motivating the actions of an agency under the control of the Bush administration? Why, I'm shocked — SHOCKED!!! — that anyone could suggest such a thing!

Ask former Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill if the administration went after him for his criticism of the President and his decision-making process.

Ask former ambassador Joseph Wilson if the administration went after him for exposing the fact that the President used false information in a State of the Union address as part of the effort to sell the war in Iraq (Better yet, ask Karl Rove!).

Nah! Just must be some honest bureaucrat trying to earn some Brownie points!

My wife and I saw "Good Night and Good Luck" Saturday night. Newsman Edward R. Murrow decided to take on Senator Joseph McCarthy when it became clear in his own work place that "the terror is here in this room." The degree to which the Bush administration is using government to silence critics has begun to take on the tinge of McCarthy's slanders. Only this time it's worse. This is the administration running the country, not a rogue senator from Wisconsin.

DeLay, Abramoff and Reed Operated Corruption Circus in Louisiana; Boustany Still Silent

Wednesday's Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing, chaired by Senator John McCain, was a wealth of information on just how corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff ripped off the 7th District's Coushatta Indians, peddled influence in the Department of Interior, raised money for Tom DeLay, and made Ralph Reed rich by putting anti-gambling Christians to work in support of the efforts of gambling interests in Louisiana. Here's one story on it. Here's another. And another.

Despite the fact that just about all this activity was carried out with funds bilked from a business in the 7th District (the Coushatta Casino in Kinder), 7th District Republican Congressman Charles Boustany has yet to utter a single comment on the burgeoning scandal.

Think it could have something to do with the money DeLay and his cronies raised for Boustany's maiden campaign?

The evidence (links to which can be found here) reveals a level of political cynicism that is breathtaking in its scope. Abramoff's client was the Kinder casino-owning Coushatta Indians. When the Jena Choctaw Indians sought a casino license in Louisiana, Abramoff said he could defeat it, but that it would cost a lot of money. Apparently this effort and a similar effort to defeat a license for a Texas-based tribe moved over $30 million from the Coushatta Tribe's accounts into Abramoff's. Some of it went to Tom DeLay. A lot of it went to former Christian Coalition operative Ralph Reed.

Reed was enlisted by Abramoff to stir up anti-gambling sentiment among Louisiana's fundamentalist Christian communities. So, Abramoff gave gambling-generated money to Reed to use anti-gambling Louisiana Christians to help defeat gambling initiatives that would have hurt the Coushatta Tribe's gambling operations! Got that? Louisiana Christians' anti-gambling fervor was used to score wins for casino owners. Ralph Reed did the orchestrating, using money from Abramoff's gambling clients.

Edwin Edwards could have taken lessons from these guys!

In one email contained in the evidence presented during Wednesday's hearing, Reed gushed that he believed he could use the money Abramoff was providing (again, from the Coushattas) to win control of both houses of the Louisiana Legislature and the Governor's Mansion. Wonder who their candidate was? Had to be someone with close ties to the DeLay/Abramoff/Grover Nordquist wing of the corrupt establishment.

Despite the fact that the victims of the Abramoff reside in the 7th District, 7th District Republican Congressman Charles Boustany has remained silent on the issue. One can only assume that the rookie Congressman is too dependent on the financial largesse that DeLay, Abramoff, et al, to dare speak out against these outrages.

Amazingly, candidate Boustany ran on a platform based, in part, on the fact that he was not part of the old time politics. No. He's part of that new fangled corruption that lies at the heart of Republican control of the House, the Senate, and the White House.

Does the Congressman have no shame?

48 Louisiana Reasons Why Congress Should Investigate Bush/Cheney Pre-War Intelligence Manipulation

Republicans in the U.S. Senate were angered by Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid's move to force the Senate into a closed door session on the failure of the Republican Senate leadership to exercise Congress's duty to provide oversight on the actions of the Bush administration. While the oversight failure is general and near total, the specific focus of this maneuver was the failure of the Senate Intelligence Committee to investigate the manipulation of pre-Iraq war intelligence by the Bush administration.

Here are 48 good reasons why Louisiana citizens should be demanding this investigation go forward in an honest and no-holds-barred way into how we got into this war.

Get this straight: Taking this country into war based on false intelligence is a tragedy. Knowingly taking this country into war based on false intelligence is both criminal and impeachable. This is one of the highest crime that any leader can commit against a republic.

Republican Party is Imploding

We are seeing the Republican establishment start to implode around their girth.

Christine Todd Whitman, former Governor turned first term cabinet member for the Bush administration wrote a book entitled "It's My Party, Too: The Battle for the Heart of the GOP and the Future of America" which gave us an inside look at the hijacking of the Republican party by right wing extremists.

They are "drunk with power." They have been in complete control of the three branches of government for the last 5 years. The country, the world in fact, pulled together after 9/11 and rightfully so, but this President and his party chiefs have squandered that sentiment.

The President campaigned on bringing integrity and morality back to the white house. I ask you, has he? His administration is currently being investigated for leaking an Undercover CIA agents identity, however the prosecutor is looking much deeper, as early reports show. It seems clear to most that the indictment of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby is only the first as Fitzpatrick claimed the investigation is "on going". This leaking of Valerie Plame's identity to Judy Miller, Bob Novak and Matt Cooper in a clear attempt at Political "pay back" to Ambassador Wilson, after his accusations (which the Bush Administration finally admitted that Wilson's claims were true, after all) of the administrations attempt to lie to the American People and take us into war, has now grown to the point where special council Patrick Fitzgerald is reported to be investigating even the reasons why we went to war.

You know, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, President Kennedy sent former Sec. Of State Dean Acheson to Europe to build support. Acheson explained the situation to French President de Gaulle offering to show him the highly classified satellite photos as proof. De Gaulle waved him away, saying "The word of the President of the United States is good enough for me." - No longer is this true.

• The Administration is under investigation not only for who leaked the name of Valerie Plame, but to the larger question of why the administration was engaged in an attempted to destroy Ambassador Wilson all the while not able to back up their own claims - a staple of the Karl Rove Play book.



• Bill Frist - Senate majority leader is under investigation for possible insider trading that makes the Martha Stewart situation look amateurish.



• Tom Delay is being investigated for illegal campaign finance issues - taking a play from the Rove Handbook (actually it would seem the most popular play) Delay tries to attack the District Attorney again not even denying that he did "launder campaign money".



• Close to home - Senator Vitter is being looked at for receiving illegal contributions from Jack Abramoff



• Congressman Boustany refuses to give back the Tens of THOUSANDS of dollars that Tom Delay gave him in his campaign, obviously thinking that he earned that money - after all his first vote in Congress was to basically do away with the Ethics Committee then investigating Tom Delay.

The republican party is drunk with power and almost completely corrupt. They are currently slashing funding to Medicaid, Medicare, Head Start, Education and many other programs saying that they have to reduce the budget after Katrina and Rita. However, they refuse to remove the over $70 BILLION dollars of NEW TAX CUTS that this budget includes for the RICHEST 1% of America. That is right, less than 100 residents in Lafayette will receive anything from this while THOUSANDS of kids and our seniors right here in Lafayette will feel the brunt of this administration's "tightening of the budget".

In fact, just yesterday a house committee voted completely along party lines to slash funding for Food Stamps. This will result in over 40,000 children losing their school lunch program. Is this what Jesus would do?

More on the Budget shortly... but where do I begin?