Wow, isn’t he the man who believed in secrets and disparaged those former insiders who wrote books about their time in government?
Actually, it makes sense in Cheney-think.
Rules don’t apply to the self-anointed Nietzsche uber-mensch, except that Cheney has all of the hubris of the “overman” but lacks the essential element of one who risks all for the sake of enhancement of humanity. (Hint: waterboarding doesn’t advance humanity.)
In real-world-think, he is just another egomaniacal hack.
From CNN, Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Wendell Potter . . . [t]he former vice president of corporate communications at insurance giant Cigna, who left his post, says the industry is playing “dirty tricks” in an effort to manipulate public opinion.
“Words matter, and the insurance industry is a master at linguistics and using the hot words, buzzwords, buzz expressions that they know will get people upset,” he told CNN Wednesday.
Now a senior fellow on health care for the watchdog group Center for Media and Democracy, Potter writes a blog on health care reform. He is focusing on efforts to defeat legislation supporting a government health care plan — something he supports.
In early July, Potter testified before the Senate Commerce Committee, telling senators that “I know from personal experience that members of Congress and the public have good reason to question the honesty and trustworthiness of the insurance industry.”
Potter described how underwriters at his former company would drive small businesses with expensive insurance claims to dump their Cigna policies. Industry executives refer to the practice as “purging,” Potter said.
“When that business comes up for renewal, the underwriters jack the rates up so much, the employer has no choice but to drop insurance,” Potter had said.
In an e-mail to CNN, Cigna spokesman Chris Curran denied the company engages in purging.
[go to CNN for more of the article]
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER, Associated Press Writer Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 35 mins ago
WASHINGTON – Former White House political adviser Karl Rove played a central role in the ouster of a U.S. attorney in New Mexico, one of nine prosecutors fired in a scandal in 2006 over political interference with the Justice Department, according to transcripts of closed-door testimony released Tuesday.
Harriet Miers, then White House counsel, said in testimony June 15 to House Judiciary Committee investigators that Rove was “very agitated” over U.S. Attorney David Iglesias “and wanted something done about it.”
The committee released more than 5,400 pages of White House and Republican National Committee e-mails, along with transcripts of closed-door testimony by Miers and Rove. Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., said the documents reveal that White House political officials were deeply involved in the firing of Iglesias and the other U.S. attorneys.
The documents show that staffers in Rove’s office were actively seeking to have Iglesias removed after Republican figures in New Mexico complained that he was not pursuing voter fraud cases they wanted. In 2005, Rove aide Scott Jennings sent an e-mail to another Rove aide saying, “I would really like to move forward with getting rid of NM US ATTY.”
Miers testified that Rove relayed to her complaints about Iglesias from political figures in New Mexico but added that she could not recall whether Rove told her specifically that the prosecutor should be fired.
“My best recollection is that he was very agitated about the U.S. attorney in New Mexico,” Miers testified. “It was clear to me that he felt like he had a serious problem and that he wanted something done about it.”
Rove’s aides kept him apprised of complaints about Iglesias in other e-mails released Tuesday by the committee.
In a 2006 e-mail, Jennings told Rove that then Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., wanted Iglesias fired. “You are aware of the issues, I believe,” Jennings said in the e-mail to Rove.
Rove issued a statement Tuesday saying the documents “show politics played no role in the Bush administration‘s removal of U.S. attorneys, that I never sought to influence the conduct of any prosecution, and that I played no role in deciding which U.S. attorneys were retained and which were replaced.”
He added, “Rather than relying on partisans selectively quoting testimony or excerpting e-mail messages, I urge anyone interested to review the documents in their entirety.”
A subsequent Justice Department inquiry into the firing of Iglesias and other U.S. attorneys concluded that political considerations played a part in as many as four of the dismissals. A political uproar led to a series of damaging revelations about the Bush administration’s political meddling with the Justice Department and the eventual resignation of then-Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
Iglesias said in an interview Tuesday he was nauseated by the whole affair.
“It’s exactly what I feared. Over two years ago, I said that all roads lead to Rove,” Iglesias said. “I’ve said consistently that he was highly involved, and now the evidence is there.”
Iglesias said there wasn’t enough evidence to pursue the voter fraud cases that Republicans wanted.
Conyers said he provided a copy of the documents to acting U.S. Attorney Nora Dannehy, who questioned Rove earlier this year to determine his precise role in politically tinged firings.
“After all the delay and despite all the obfuscation, lies, and spin, this basic truth can no longer be denied: Karl Rove and his cohorts at the Bush White House were the driving force behind several of these firings, which were done for improper reasons,” Conyers said.
Rove, who was interviewed by the committee on July 7 and again July 30, has told reporters in recent interviews that he acted simply as a conduit for other Republicans’ complaints about the job performance of specific U.S. attorneys.
Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, said the documents show no evidence of wrongdoing. “Democrats need to stop wasting taxpayers’ time and money on political investigations that are nothing more than the politics of personal destruction,” Smith said.
___
Associated Press writer Deb Riechmann contributed to this report.
then, I am moving to Alaska (she left there and moved on to bigger places and bigger things, right?)
There are groups of “protesters” at town hall meetings to discuss health care reform. These protesters are paid by organizations that wish to defeat health care reform and shout lies and half-truths intending that those who hear these sounds bites or see the “groundswell of opposition” will be swayed.
These are not grass roots organizations but a roving pack of operatives paid to invade local areas to cast doubt and sow seeds of fear. This is not democracy as some in the GOP claim. This is tyranny by big corporations and those politicians supported by big corporations. This is paid-for speech.
What is astounding to me is that the news organizations are staying away from the story. This is reminiscent of the passivity of the press in the run up to the Iraq War. Maybe those in the news corps are too busy digging deeper into Michael Jackson drug dependencies. Ah, journalism at its best.
I’ll wait until 11pm to get my news from ComedyCentral. G-d bless you, Jon Stewart. And you, too, Rachel Maddow (although I am usually putting my son to bed or eating dinner when your show is on).
Ok, this is apparently a real book. It is so ironic since Mr. Beck is one of the biggest idiots ever and you can’t argue with him because he will scream you down. He looks like Nazi-esque on the cover, which I am sure is intentional and intentionally offensive.
Glenn Beck called President Obama a racist, Sarah Palin calls his health care initiatives evil, Lou Dobbs stokes the birther conspiracy and Rush Limbaugh, well, he just stirs the pot. This is the Republican think tank. Septic tank, more precisely.
But, Glenn, you are leading the pack with this book. You are the star of the septic tank.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska – In her first communication since leaving office, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin described in an Internet posting Friday that President Barack Obama‘s plan to overhaul the health care system was evil.
“Who will suffer the most when they ration care? The sick, the elderly, and the disabled, of course,” the former vice Republican presidential candidate wrote on her Facebook page.
“The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down Syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama’s ‘death panel’ so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their ‘level of productivity in society,’ whether they are worthy of health care. Such a system is downright evil,” Palin wrote.
An e-mail sent to Palin’s spokeswoman to confirm authorship was not immediately returned Friday.
Obama, a Democrat, campaigned on a promise of offering affordable health care to all Americans, as the United States is the only developed nation that does not have a comprehensive national health care plan for all its citizens.
He has proposed a system that would include government and private insurers. Republicans say that private insurers would be unable to compete, leaving the country with only a government-run health program. They warn that could leave Americans with little control over their health care.
Republican criticism has included claims that the reform plans will lead to rationing, or the government determining which medical procedures a patient can have. However, millions of Americans already face rationing, as insurance companies rule on procedures they will cover.
Denying coverage for certain procedures might increase under proposals to have a government-appointed agency identify medicines and procedures best suited for various conditions.
Denying coverage for certain procedures might increase under proposals to have a government-appointed agency identify medicines and procedures best suited for various conditions.
In the posting, Palin encouraged her supporters to be engaged in the debate. “Nationalizing our health care system is a point of no return for government interference in the lives of its citizens. If we go down this path, there will be no turning back,” Palin wrote.
“Let’s stop and think and make our voices heard before it’s too late,” the posting said.
Palin resigned as Alaska governor on July 26 with nearly 18 months left in her term. She cited not only the numerous ethics complaints that had been filed against her also her wish not to be a lame duck after the first-term governor decided not to seek re-election next year.
Palin, popular with conservatives in the Republican party, has said she wants to build a right-of-center coalition, and there is speculation she will seek the presidency in 2012. In the two weeks since she resigned, Palin has made only one public appearance, giving a Second Amendment rights speech last Saturday before a gun owners group in Anchorage.
Palin also has been largely silent before Friday’s post. She was a voracious user of the social networking site Twitter, and promised to keep her supporters updated with a new private account after she left office. But that hasn’t happened, leaving some of her fans begging for updates in the past two weeks.
Usually, I roll my eyes at Republican tactics. I didn’t even focus on the viciousness of the swiftboating of Sen. Kerry.
Why am I so riled and appalled now?
Because just a few months ago, our economy was about to fall off a precipice. And whither the economy goes, so goes the social fabric that binds us. And so go the dreams and aspirations and our children’s childhoods. Now we are a few steps back from the edge of the precipice, but we are not yet safe in our beds.
I was a hard-working and productive worker. Now, I sit in my office and wonder when I will lose my job or get a further, steeper pay cut. I wonder whether my practice will ever come back. I wonder whether I can give to my child all the opportunities I had. We are at a crossroads. We need to make the right choice after vigorous debate on the issues. Fair and honest debate toward a common goal of restarting our economy, our dreams, and optimism.
LEAVENWORTH, Kansas (Reuters) – Not in my backyard! Not in my state! Not in my country!
That was the response from politicians and business leaders in Kansas on Monday to moves by President Barack Obama to transfer terrorism suspects from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba to facilities in the United States, perhaps including Kansas.
“This is a patently bad idea,” Republican Senator Sam Brownback told reporters in the northeast Kansas riverside community of Leavenworth near the Fort Leavenworth U.S. Army base, which was cited this weekend as a possible new home for the Guantanamo prisoners.
The Washington Post reported on Sunday that a government task force was considering as possible sites Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, and a 604-bed maximum security prison in Standish, Michigan, that is scheduled to be closed.
An Obama administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity confirmed on Monday that those sites were being looked at but said there were “many, many options” under consideration.
“No final decisions of any sort have been made,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
Administration officials reportedly have been considering building a court facility within a prison site to avoid the need to transfer defendants between sites within the United States.
Obama has pledged to close the prison at the U.S. Navy base at Guantanamo by the end of the year but faces strong opposition from fellow Democrats and Republicans in Congress to transferring the remaining 240 prisoners to U.S. soil for detention and trial.
Harsh interrogations that some see as torture and the detention of suspected Islamic militants without trial at Guantanamo, opened for prisoners in President George W. Bush’s war against terrorism, have seriously damaged the United States’ international reputation.
Brownback said the inmates should stay at Guantanamo and vowed to work with other members of Congress to prohibit any funds from being used to move the prisoners to American soil.
He and other opponents say moving to a U.S. site would make the community a target for terrorist attacks and note that Leavenworth is close to rail lines and the heavily trafficked Missouri River.
They say no move is needed at all as the detainees are already being held “appropriately and safely” at the prison in Cuba, where there are also court facilities.
“NO” TO DETAINEES
“This community has spoken loud and clear. They don’t want the detainees here,” Republican U.S. Representative Jerry Moran told Monday’s news conference.
But the Obama administration counters that the U.S. court and prison systems have handled terrorism cases in the past and could deal with Guantanamo detainees. A number of convicted militants are already being held in U.S. prisons.
Congress has set strict limits on moving detainees until certain conditions are met, including informing lawmakers first and spelling out any threats prisoners could pose or how they were mitigated.
The 134-year-old military penitentiary at Fort Leavenworth is already a hardened high-security facility that could be further protected by the surrounding military base.
Business leaders in Leavenworth, about 40 miles from the Kansas City metropolitan area, say locating detainees near their community will depress property values, discourage new business development and put the residents at risk.
“We are not afraid of the prisoners breaking out,” said Leavenworth-Lansin Chamber of Commerce executive vice president Tim Holverson. “We are more concerned with their friends trying to break them out. We don’t want to be a target.”
(Reporting by Carey Gillam, additional reporting by Jeremy Pelofsky in Washington; Editing by David Storey)
Ok, ok, ok, ok, ok. Lemme get this straight.
Sen. David Vitter, Louisiana, Sen. John Ensign, Nevada, Gov. Mark Sanford, S. Carolina — what do these gentlemen and Sen. Stanley have in common? They are sanctimonious, self-satisfied “family-values” politicians who were hoisted on their own petards.
Worse, Sen. Stanley, who took lewd pictures of his 22-year old intern during the time of their affair, blames her. He is 47 and she is 22. He has a family and presumably of suitable age, discretion and intelligence to represent the State of Tennessee.
He isn’t hiding behind a 22 year-old, is he? Nah. Can’t be. Only someone gutless and unprincipled would do that. So, it can’t be. WAIT. I think Pauly IS a gutless, unprincipled loser. And he is angry that he has to resign. As if he did nothing to bring about this morality play.
I get it: she let herself into his apartment. She put the camera in his hand. She put his . . . . Wow, now I get it. It is a lily-livered lefty lemming conspiracy (thank you, Lou Dobbs for that phrase) to expose GOP hypocrisy.
Where is the outrage? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Bueller?