WorldCom Gave More to Republicans

During the 1999-2000 election cycle, WorldCom gave more than 70% to Republicans, especially Bush. Lately, they've been spreading a little more evenly, unless you count the fund raiser this month where Bush raised $28 million, $100,000 of which came from one of the events vice-chairmen, WorldCom.

Republicans quickly tried to distance themselves from the scandal, as Bush called for an SEC investigation into the matter. Bush renewed his call for new measures to hold corporations accountable and promised to crack down on the corruption. But the president does not plan to call on his party to return the $100,000 check WorldCom wrote for the $30 million fundraiser.

Of course not. Has he returned Enron money? Will he investigate Cheney's role in the Halliburton fuzzy math? Will he investigate Kenny Boy? Will he investigate Army Secretary White? I think it's time we took a good look at Alcoa and Treasury Sec. Paul O'Neill.

Cheney's Halliburton Scandals

I just went to look up a link for "Cheney's role in the Halliburton fussy math" so I looked up "Cheney Halliburton scandal." I realized that this is a new one. The other Cheney Halliburton scandal is selling to Iraq and Libya! So I had to search for "Cheney Halliburton accounting scandal." Wow. There are so many scandals going on in this administration that I have to be more specific when I search for one!

Politically Incorrect

Last night, on the penultimate Politically Incorrect, the token conservative, Genevieve Wood, tried to blame Clinton's affair and lying, without mentioning Newt's, or Clarence's, or, well, she tried to blame Clinton for the current corporate malfeasance. Typical conservative; when faced with an argument you can't win, just say, well, what about Clinton? I'm sure we'll hear lots more of the same crap from Ann Coulter tonight. I'm sure Ariana can handle her. And while Coulter is spewing her crap tonight, remember John O'Neill.

BUSH'S SICK JOKE IS A LIE

Not only is Bush a liar, but his trifecta joke is sick. Carl Rove has been using terroism as a way to silence critics, which is wagging the dog in a much bigger way than the man they love to hate ever did. But Bush keeps telling his sick trifecta joke, even though it's a blatant lie, and it's offensive to almost every body!

‘You know, when I was running for president, in Chicago, somebody said, would you ever have deficit spending? I said, only if we were at war, or only if we had a recession, or only if we had a national emergency. Never did I dream we’d get the trifecta.’ — PRESIDENT [sic] BUSH

Jonathan Chait's article in the New Republic was the first to point out this blatant, sick lie. Since then, the White House hasn't been able to come up with a date and time for this alleged quote. Neither has anyone else. Meanwhile, the deficit grows. Social Security is being raided to pay for tax cuts to the rich. The US is selling treasuries, mostly to rich people, and we have to pay this back, with interest. So, Bush's rich buddies get tax breaks, buy treasuries, and collect the interest on the deficits they caused. Meanwhile, anytime anyone tries to criticize him for it, they just announce some new vague threat of terror to take everyone's attention off the truth. Can you imagine the screams if Clinton were doing this? Oh, the hypocrasy....

Are we seeing a pattern here?

Deregulation. Corporate Tax Cuts. Laws that make it easy to move offshore. Big-Business friendly SEC appointments. FERC appointments of former energy executives. And now Bush is wagging his finger at crooked CEOs. Seems like just yesterday he was shaking their hands, giving them nicknames, flying on their jets, and spending their money on ads making fun of Al Gore for his populist bent. Now, sensing the populist bent that's about to rush through the electorate, Bush is admonishing the lack of ethics in business. Hmmmm..... Let's see. Bush is saying CEOs should be accountable, and yet he has not mentioned Cheney, who was cooking the books while he was CEO of Halliburton.... The latest debacle is WorldCom. Wonder who they gave their money to during Bush's campaign?

 In the 1999-2000 election cycle, WorldCom and its employees tilted much more Republican in their giving, with 70 percent of WorldCom-related contributions going to Republicans and 30 percent to Democrats. With a total of $1.7 million in contributions for 1999-2000 cycle, WorldCom ranked number 58 among the top 100 political donors. (MSNBC)

Is this a suprise? Republicans are the friends of big business. They brag about it. They gave them huge tax cuts. They gave them deregulation. They gave them a liscense to steal, which they are doing, and now that they've been caught, these Republican hypocrites, who were standing on public property singing about God after the long over-due Pledge of Allegience decision, are wasting time whining about the fact that not everyone believes in their viscious, racist, God of Hatred. Instead, they are still removing regulations from bills that would control these out-of-control CEOs, even when the regulations would help protect us from terroists. The hypocrasy makes me sick. I wish Tom DeLay and Dick Armey would come sing about their sick little God to my face. I have a few questions about their ethics that their God might not like.

Major Crimes Up

Crime rates are rising: Partly because of the bad economy and unemployment; partly because the Bush administration is cutting funding to anti-crime efforts; and partly because class warfare is being waged by the Enron elites on the working people of this country. Until we address the root problem of crime, which is greed, we will not alleviate it. That may never happen in a country where people like Ken Lay can chose and fund the people who regulate their companies. So, we'll have to focus on band aid approaches, like arresting and incarcerating people.

The Bush administration has proposed several reductions in grants and other assistance to state and local law enforcement agencies, including an 80 percent drop in funding for the Community Oriented Policing Services program. The Clinton administration initiative, which aimed to provide funding for 100,000 police officers, has been popular with many local governments but has been criticized by some Republicans as ineffective.

Well, OK. I wonder what the Republicans are planning to stop this problem? Arresting cancer patients for smoking pot? Sending the FBI in to find hookers in New Orleans? C'mon people... We're talking about a president who waved at Stevie Wonder, asked the president of Brazil if he had blacks there too, and TRADED SAMMY SOSA! This man is an idiot, surrounded by greedy, extremist, racist, Nazi thugs. They thrive on crime. Many of them are white colar criminals themselves. But we'd have to let all the marijuana offenders out of jail to make room for these silk suit sap heads.

John Kerry for President

After graduating (with a higher GPA than Bush, although that's not saying much) from Yale, Senator John Kerry joined the Navy and fought on a gun boat in the Mekong Delta, where he earned the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart. When someone like dares to question the patriotism of this man, he defends himself.

"Let me be clear tonight to Senator (Trent) Lott and to (House GOP Whip) Tom DeLay: One of the lessons that I learned in Vietnam, a war they did not have to endure, and one of the basic vows of commitment that I made to myself, was that if I ever reached a position of responsibility, I would never stop asking questions that make a democracy strong," Kerry said at the New Hampshire Democratic Party’s annual dinner in March. "Those who try to stifle the vibrancy of our democracy and shield policies from scrutiny behind a false cloak of patriotism miss the real value of what our troops defend."

Bush couldn't even read that sentence, much less think of it himself. And, Kerry was being kind. Here's an explanation of why Tom DeLay didn't go to the war.

He and Quayle, DeLay explained to the assembled media in New Orleans, were victims of an unusual phenomenon back in the days of the undeclared Southeast Asian war. So many minority youths had volunteered for the well-paying military positions to escape poverty and the ghetto that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like himself. Satisfied with the pronouncement, which dumbfounded more than a few of his listeners who had lived the sixties, DeLay marched off to the convention.

What an asshole. I can only hope I get to say that to his fat face someday.... But wait, with Republicans, there's always more! This is from MSNBC:

After Democrats questioned whether Bush received any warning of an impending attack prior to Sept. 11 and wondered why the CIA hadn’t warned him, Vice President Dick Cheney called the Democrats’ comments “irresponsible and totally unworthy of national leaders in a time of war.” This prompted Kerry to jump to the defense, calling Cheney’s remarks as “historically incorrect and threatening.” Cheney, he said, was “attempting to suggest that there is a patriot card to be played here, which I think is completely inappropriate. It’s misplaced patriotism.”

As much as I admire Kerry, I'm afraid only a Southern Democrat, Like John Edwards of North Carolina, is going to stand a chance against a gun-totin, red-neck, coke-head, oil-boy from Texas. Let's face it. Edwards got elected in Jesse Helm's land. That's double tough. Since Edwards didn't serve in the military, Maybe he'd pick Kerry as his running mate.....

The Bush Money Machine Steamrolls Washington

Tonight at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, the GOP fat cats are filling the trough to the tune of $28 million—just shy of their own record of $30 million. In a big land rush to gush forth the last of the soft money that gets to go into general slush funds, the GOP is filling its war chest with a fervor greater than any they ever criticized Clinton for. And, to be fair, the Democrats are raising a lot of soft money too. Of course, the Dems get a lot of money from hard-working, middle class folks through unions and environmental organizations. The Republicans get their money from big, rich corporations they're doing favors for.

Case in point: Drug companies. Two days ago, the GOP unveiled a prescription drug plan that industry is backing. Tonight, these pharmaceutical companies are among 21 donors paying $250,000 each at tonight’s GOP fundraising gala.

Robert Ingram, GlaxoSmithKline PLC’s chief operating officer, is the chief corporate fundraiser for the gala; his company gave at least $250,000. Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, a trade group funded by the drug companies, kicked in $250,000, too. PhRMA, as it is best known inside the Beltway, is also helping underwrite a television ad campaign touting the GOP’s prescription drug plan.

The GOP's drug plan, predictably, requires seniors to buy insurance for drugs; Democrats want the drug benefit to be covered by Medicare. The companies, of course, cry that that would drive down profits. Well, they'll cry about how they won't be able to do Research and Development if they can't make the outrageous profits they do. They'll tell you about how expensive it is to develop these drugs, and how risky, and how they deserve the profit because of the risk. What they won't tell you is that the profit they MIGHT lose if Medicare covered durg costs would be more like the difference between the CEO getting $100 million a year, or only $50. The CFO might have to take a big cut in pay, down to $20 million. Hell, some of the executives daughter's might have to go to Harvard driving a Toyota instead of a Mercedes! Heaven forbid! I just love it when these guys cry poverty. It breaks my heart.

Now you folks out there who spend 30% of your fixed income on drugs you need to stay alive and healthy, tell me who you're going to vote for. C'mon. It's really simple. Vote for Republicans and pay through the nose for their summer home in the south of France. Vote for Democrats and get your prescriptions covered by Medicare. You folks in Colorado, Texas, Arkansas, Oregon, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Tennessee, South Carolina, Missouri, Georgia, Louisiana, South Dakota, New Jersey and Minnesota: the balance of the Senate is in your hands. Only you can stop Resident Bush and his extreme right wing, anti-working man, anti-environment, anti-abortion, anti-gay, anti-science, anti-civil rights, anti-logical administration.

Big Tobacco Terror, part 2

Remember the ads, paid for with our tax dollars, telling us that buying drugs helped finance terror? Never mind that a vast majority of marijuana is grown in this country and Canada by farmers who've been driven out of business because of corporate welfare programs disguised as farm bills. Let's just look at cocaine, the majority of which comes from Columbian Drug Lords. In his story about big tobacco nicking the terror act, Mark Shapiro notes:

U.S. and Colombian law enforcement officials told me that the cigarette smugglers with whom the tobacco companies did business were actually engaged in the laundering of profits from drug sales in the United States.

Interesting. Since 1997, approximately $15 million dollars of tobacco money has gone to Republicans (and about $3 million to Democrats). Since the tobacco companies have made hundreds of millions laundering money by smuggling stogs, it's fair to say that their political bribes came from drug money. So, Bush accepts drug money, helps launder drug money, pressures Representatives to remove a clause from the patriot act that would make it harder to launder money, and -- well, it looks like Bush and the GOP are helping the terrorists! By Bush's definition, that makes him one.

The tobacco companies didn’t care that in striking that provision they might have opened the American people to greater risk of a terrorist attack and funding terrorist groups that might attack our own people. — Rep. Henry Waxman

These comapnies talk big about merely being concerned with foreign liability problems. They can spin all they want, but the fact is they're protecting illegally obtained profits and their drug lord friends. And their political contributions got them the quid pro quo they needed: the big GOP players pounded little GOP Rep. Oxley from Ohio, and the provision was removed.

The Patriot Act provision would have trumped the revenue rule and provided clear legal standing to the plaintiffs in those lawsuits. But it was not to be. According to a congressional source close to the House-Senate negotiations, Oxley removed the provision from the bill at the behest of the White House and GOP whip Tom DeLay, under pressure from Big Tobacco.

Anyone else feel sick?

Terrorists among us: Republicans and Big Tobacco

A report by the Campaign for Tobacco Free Kids reveals that Republicans received 82 percent of the more than $18 million that the tobacco industry has poured into political campaigns since 1997.

And what did Big Tobacco get in return? Tom Delay, the White House, and GOP Rep. Michael Oxley of Ohio, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, removed section 107(B) from the US Patriot Act, which would have expanded the definition of money laundering to include “fraud or any scheme to defraud against a foreign government or foreign government entity, if such conduct would constitute a violation of this title if it were committed in interstate commerce in the United States.” Since Big Tobacco smuggles cigarettes into other countries in order to avoid paying taxes and tarrifs (which fund anti-smoking programs which save lives), this would have been bad news for big tobacco and their Republican minions. Good thing they bought themselves some GOP politicians, so they can keep on cheating, killing, and making it easier for terrorists to launder money. Read the story at MSNBC by Mark Schapiro, an associate of the Center for Investigative Reporting, based on his article, “Big Tobacco: Uncovering the Industry’s Multibillion-Dollar Global Smuggling Network,” which appeared in The Nation, May 6, 2002. Schapiro also co-produced a version of this story for the PBS newsmagazine NOW With Bill Moyers (which aired April 19).

Hate Mail

I know I'm doing something right when the hate mail comes in. This time it was over the Daschle ad parodies I did. For those of you who don't know, like this idiot who wrote to complain, the Bush administration OK'd ads that the RNC ran in Notth Dakota showing Sadaam Hussein next to Senator Daschle, saying we import oil from IRAQ because Daschle won't let us drill in the Alaska Wildlife Refuge. So, I made a couple of versions that are simple turn-around-is-fair-play.

Bush supports Hussein

Cheney supports Hussein

Of course, what this person doesn't realize is that every bit of hate mail reinforces my drive to do this.

As a viewer of the web, I would like to comment on how anti-American your website is.

Speaking specifically, the pictures asking why we buy oil from this man (Sadaam Hussein) is because Bush, Cheney, and others in the Administration is too busy selling him the equipment and personally benefiting from the transactions. Liberals always accuse Republicans of being scandal tarred with oil. Let's look at the facts. Republicans want to drill in the Alaska, Democrats and other environmentalists won't have it. Because we can't depend on our own land for our nation's needs, we are forced to buy oil from nations who don't share our common interests. If it weren't for Mexico and Russia, post September 11 oil prices would've been unaffordable for the average American family. While I do support new innovations for the conservation of resources, I realize the urgent need to stop depending on OPEC for our supply of oil. We are buying Hussein's weapons of mass destruction for him to use against us... because some empty headed liberals won't wake up. You know, at our rate, there will be no Alaskan Refuge left for us, or the animals, to enjoy after a nuclear attack.

Secondly, don't blame the right, nor President Bush (as you indirectly imply) for the Electoral College system. This wasn't a conservative initiative, it was drafted along with the Constitution. I'm sorry that Al Gore did not win the majority of the votes in the Electoral College, but George Bush is our legitimate President, and if I do say so, he's done a hell of a job so far.

Do you read the news? Bu$h ran ads in North Dakota with Hussein and Daschle side by side. It said why is this man selling us oil? Because Daschle won't let us drill in Alaska. So, you see, I was doing a parody of an attack the Bushies made on a liberal. So, why don't your write the Junta leader and his dog Cheney and tell them how un-American it was of them to compare Daschle to Hussein.

Second, my site is very American. I practice free speech. If you had your way and I wasn't allowed to have my web site, then you would be the un-American one. In fact, that would make you a fascist pig. Wait! You already are! Without dissent, it's not America.

I don't always accuse all Republicans of being tarred with oil. Just the ones who are. And there are some Democrats who are too, like Breaux of Louisiana. Your generalization of liberals shows that you don't care so much about the facts, or the issues, only with showing your hatred of people not like you.

Yes, let's look at the facts. If light trucks were required to get 3 miles better per gallon, that would provide more oil per day than ANWR. All the flags that all the patriotic people put on their cars wasted more oil in aerodynamic loss than ANWR holds.

As for Hussein attacking us with nuclear weapons, well, he doesn't have a missile that can get here, and if he did, that wonderful 60 billion dollar star wars shield will protect us, right? Hussein is not part of OPEC. The countries in OPEC that we do buy oil from are our friends, right? Bush Sr. goes over there and hangs with the Saudi's all the time! They're old friends! And they don't sponsor any terrorism with the money we give them, do they?

Hussein isn't the one you have to worry about. The Bush's, in their greed to get rich off oil and weapons, are much more dangerous.

Oh, and I suggest you take a few classes before you try to argue with me about this stuff. You just come off sounding stupid.

I didn't blame the right for the electoral college. I only said that the fact that red-necks' votes count more than mine is the only way an idiot like Bush could get elected. That and the supreme court, armed cops turning blacks away from polling places in Florida, and a scrub list that wrongly included 50,000 people as felons who weren't.

The most un-American thing I can think of is rigging an election. The people's vote is tantamount to successful Democracy. Apparently, you'd throw out Democracy to get your guy in. Whatever it takes, right?

Real American, asshole. Now go crawl back in your hole.

Fun, isn't it? I just hope you idiot "conservatives" keep on writing, because it's the best way to show what you're all about.

Now, for some serious critique of the neo-conservative hypocracy, read this bit which remembers the Bushies actually making fun of Al Gore wanting to do exactly what Bush has now proposed to do about home land security.

Santa Clarita, California, George W. Bush's dream world:
Republican, hot, dry, and drilled.

A First Person Account of the White House's Low-watt Logic

Howard Ris, President of the Union of Concerned Scientists in Cambridge, Mass., wrote this account of how the Vice-Resident's energy task force brought environmentalists in late and told them their input wasn't going in the policy. What Mr. Ris writes that most people didn't know is that...

"...my environmental colleagues and I also made various attempts to meet with another White House task force — this one charged by President [sic] Bush to develop administration policy on climate change, in the wake of the president’s decisions to abandon the Kyoto Protocol and reverse his campaign commitment to couple mandatory reductions of greenhouse gases with other pollutants from fossil fuel power plants. As with the energy task force, our requests to present our ideas and analysis were rebuffed."

None of this should surprise any of us since we know that these guys are about making money for themselves and their friends. Even if it involves cooking the books like Dick Cheney did at Halliburton. Even if it allows more pollution, which actually kills people (of course, more children with asthma and more adults with lung cancer makes the HMOs rich, and they're big Bush donors too). Bush is a terrorist who uses pollution to kill people at home, and weapons built by the Carlyle Group to kill civilians (collateral damage) around the world.