February 21, 2008


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


MCCAIN: NOT STRAIGHT TALK


Mr. "Straight Talk" has advertised himself as an opponent of money from special interests, but his entire Congressional career has been heavily influenced by special interest money. This article by Edward T. Pound is at www.usnews.com:


McCain has positioned himself as a die-hard opponent of special-interest influence. But a U.S. News analysis of his 25-year legislative career shows he has been an avid seeker of special-interest money to support his campaigns and initiatives. The pattern goes all the way back to his first House race in 1982. Moreover, as the boss or No. 2 member of the Senate Commerce Committee, he has drawn heavy support from pacs and individuals associated with industries overseen by that committee—especially telecommunications, media, and technology firms.


Between 1997 and June 2006, he collected nearly $2.6 million from such interests, according to the Center for Public Integrity, an independent watchdog group in Washington. In some cases, the review showed, McCain's positions mirrored those of his biggest supporters.


Big corporate donors also have given hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Reform Institute, a tax-exempt organization—once closely affiliated with McCain—that was established to promote campaign finance reform.


CONTRACTORS LOVE THE IRAQ WAR


While American military men and women get wounded or die in Iraq military contractors are doing very well by ripping off American taxpayers. As I've said before, there's nothing lower than a war profiteer, someone who makes money from death and destruction and misery. This war isn't about fighting terrorism or bringing democracy to the Middle East. It's about enriching filthy war profiteers and establishing U. S. control over the oil reserves. This article by David Jackson and Jason Grotto is at www.chicagotribune.com:


Inside the stout federal courthouse of this Mississippi River town, the dirty secrets of Iraq war profiteering keep pouring out.

Hundreds of pages of recently unsealed court records detail how kickbacks shaped the war's largest troop support contract months before the first wave of U.S. soldiers plunged their boots into Iraqi sand.


The graft continued well beyond the 2004 congressional hearings that first called attention to it. And the massive fraud endangered the health of American soldiers even as it lined contractors' pockets, records show.