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LOUISVILLE /JEFFERSON COUNTY

DEMOCRATIC PARTY NEWSLETTER

Week of June 10, 2007

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CLICK HERE FOR CURRENT LIST OF EVENTS

Updated on a regular basis

The Louisville/Jefferson County Democratic Executive Committee meets the 4th Wednesday of every month at 5:00 pm at 901 Barret Avenue .

 

Notice to our Readers &  2007 General Election Candidates:

This newsletter will carry in this space any Democratic candidates' notice of events or communications (250 words or less) to our readers that the candidate provides to the editor at rcrider@louisvilledem.com

 

Rush Limbaugh For The Nobel Peace Prize, by John Berlau    

Early this year, two members of the parliament of Norway nominated former U.S. vice president Al Gore for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. One of the legislators in Norway -- where the Nobel Committee is based -- argued that Gore deserves the prize to be awarded this fall because Gore “has put climate change on the agenda” and “and uses his position to get politicians to understand.”

In response, the conservative Landmark Legal Foundation nominated another American political figure for the prize: syndicated radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh. In the letter nominating Limbaugh, Landmark President and fellow radio talk-show host Mark Levin, pressed the case that Limbaugh “gives voice to the values of democratic governance, individual opportunity and the just, equal application of the rule of law.”  MORE….

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Romney’s ‘Business Experience’: Firing Workers, Hiring Them Back at Lower Wages, by Mike Hall  

Republican candidate Mitt Romney says he doesn’t need the $400,000-a-year presidential paycheck. If he wins, he says he’ll donate the money to charity. After all, with an estimated $250 million nest egg from his corporate career—which included buying and selling companies as head of an investment firm—400 grand is sort of like the loose change most of us toss into the coin jar on the dresser.

But when he made that announcement Tuesday, it rattled a skeleton that had been hanging in the back of Romney’s closet since his 1994 failed U.S. Senate race against Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.). The skeleton has the video, too: One that shows workers who desperately needed their paychecks. But they were laid off when a company bought by Romney’s investment firm, Bain Capital, then purchased the workers’ Indiana office supply company—and laid off all the workers.

On Huffington Post, Thomas Edsall brings to light Kennedy’s 1994 campaign commercials of the workers contrasting Romney’s campaign claim that he was a job creator with reality. He writes:

All 350 workers at the SCM plant were laid off, then offered their jobs back at reduced wages. They went on strike. The Kennedy campaign sent a crew to Marion to film the workers. A half dozen ads resulted from the interviews, most of them quoting workers denouncing Romney for lining his pockets at their expense.

Shades of Circuit City, anyone?

Here’s what some of the laid-off workers had to say.

• “If he created jobs, I wish he could create some here instead of, you know, taking them away.”
• “I don’t think Romney is creating jobs because he took every one of them away.”
• “They cut the wages…we no longer had insurance…we had no rights anymore.”
• “He cut our wages to put money back in his pocket.”

Yet apparently such “business expertise” gets you high praise from the mainstream media. On the May 30 edition of NBC’s “Today,” co-host Matt Lauer said “many” are describing Romney as looking “presidential.” To which corporate mouthpiece Tim Russert replied:

Matt, I think your interview and your analysis is exactly on target. Mitt Romney is seen as someone who looks presidential with the business and CEO experience.

Firing workers wholesale and offering their jobs back at lower wages—great background for president.

But let’s look at the bright side of a Romney presidency. If he has enough money in his pocket to turn down the $400,000-a-year chump change, maybe he’ll offer to pay rent, too.

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Pay Taxes? Chances Are, You Subsidize Wal-Mart, by Tula Connell  

As usual, Wal-Mart is up to its ears in class-action lawsuits filed by its employees. In the latest, the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled May 31 that a lawsuit claiming off-the-clock violations could proceed as a class action on behalf of nearly 80,000 current and former Wal-Mart employees. 

The retail mega-monster’s treatment of its employees is, unfortunately, an ongoing outrage. But what’s less known is how much Wal-Mart costs all of us as taxpayers.  

So here’s the everyday low deal: Wal-Mart’s state and local government economic development subsidies include 39 deals worth more than $200 million in just the past three years. The info is in a new report released this morning by the nonprofit research group Good Jobs First, which updated its landmark 2004 report Shopping for Subsidies.

In conjunction with the report, Good Jobs First’s Wal-Mart Subsidy Watch website enables consumers to select their cities and states and find out how much Wal-Mart subsidies are costing them.  

The state with the most new deals is Illinois with nine. It is followed by Florida and Missouri with four each; Arizona, California and Kansas with three each; and Colorado, Indiana, Louisiana and Ohio with two each. Alabama, Maryland, Minnesota, Texas and Wyoming each had one recent deal.

Illinois also accounts for the most deals in the entire Wal-Mart Subsidy Watch database with 38. Following it are Texas (29), Missouri (23), Louisiana (20) and California (18). 

Subsidies? For the nation’s biggest employer (1.39 million U.S. workers in 2005) whose profits The New York Times  sums up as follows:

In 2006, it sold $350 billion worth of merchandise, four times more than its next biggest rival, Home Depot, and it earned $12 billion in profit. Even after stumbling in Germany and South Korea, the chain is growing rapidly abroad, in countries like Mexico, China and Brazil.

The Wal-Mart Subsidy Watch website also includes a summary of disclosures made by some two dozen states on the number of Wal-Mart workers (or their dependents) who have enrolled in taxpayer-funded health care programs such as Medicaid and the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. More than 60 percent of Wal-Mart employees—600,000 people—are forced to get health insurance coverage from the government or through spouses’ plans or live without any health insurance. 

Last year, the AFL-CIO released a report showing how Wal-Mart shifts health care costs to consumers and a bunch of studies showing how Wal-Mart profits from taxpayers. These can be found at the AFL-CIO Paying the Price at Wal-Mart website.

Philip Mattera, research director of Good Jobs First, puts it this way:

What we said in 2004 still holds true today: Wal-Mart presents itself as an entrepreneurial success story, yet it routinely gets big tax breaks, free land, cash grants and other forms of  taxpayer assistance.

The most common type of subsidy among the new deals was infrastructure assistance, which occurred in 21 facilities and accounted for $124 million of the total subsidies (with the money usually raised through tax increment financing). The second most significant type, by value, was sales tax rebates, which went to 10 stores and totaled $55 million.

These rebates occur when a locality allows Wal-Mart to keep a significant portion of the sales taxes it collects from customers that would normally go to local government.

As Mattera notes:

We saw few such rebates in our previous work. This new trend suggests that Wal-Mart seeks increasingly to be subsidized directly by its customers, even though it often brags about how much money it saves them.

Greg LeRoy, executive director of Good Jobs First, nicely sums up the findings:

That a company with a predatory business model and a poverty-wage labor policy can even qualify for job subsidies suggests many public officials still don’t get it.
 

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  Nothing this week.

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DAILY GRILL        

"Bush administration officials, stung by complaints from Democratic Gov. Kathleen Sebelius that National Guard heavy equipment needed by tornado-stricken Greensburg, Kan., is in Iraq, are putting out word that she was two days late at the disaster scene because she was attending a jazz festival in New Orleans."
-- Chicago Sun Times, 5/27/07

VERSUS

"Sebelius didn't attend any of the jazz festival and left her family in New Orleans, flying back Saturday afternoon using a plane arranged by Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco." -- Wichita Eagle blog, 5/31/07

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"President George W. Bush would like to see a lengthy U.S. troop presence in Iraq like the one in South Korea to provide stability but not in a frontline combat role."  -- Reuters, 5/30/07

VERSUS

"I just stayed awake last night thinking of this thing, and the more that I think of it I don't know what in the hell, it looks like to me that we're getting into another Korea. It just worries the hell out of me." -- President Lyndon Johnson, May 1964

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"The worst terrorist we had in Iraq was a guy named Abu Musab al Zarqawi. ... Then when we launched into Afghanistan after 9/11, he was wounded, and fled to Baghdad for medical treatment, and then set up shop in Iraq. So he operated in Jordan, he operated in Afghanistan, then he moved to Iraq." -- Vice President Cheney, 6/3/07, speaking to a group of high school students in Wyoming

VERSUS

"Saddam Hussein attempted, unsuccessfully, to locate and capture al-Zarqawi and…the regime did not have a relationship with, harbor, or turn a blind eye toward Zarqawi." -- Report of the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, 2006, p. 109

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“We haven't started the surge -- the full surge -- yet." -- Gen. David Petraeus, 6/5/07

VERSUS

"We're only about two months into the surge." -- Petraeus, 4/25/07

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"I've told the American people I'd like to get our troops out as soon as possible." -- President Bush, 6/9/06

VERSUS

"I don't see an end game, as it were, in sight." -- U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker, 6/6/07

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"Think about the message we have sent them. We have undermined their efforts, lowered their morale, and clearly sent the wrong message."  -- House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), 5/24/07, on the supposed harm Congress causes U.S. troops when it debates alternatives to President Bush's failed Iraq policies

VERSUS

"I believe the sort of people that are serving in American armed forces today understand the democratic process. And, in fact, that's what we've sworn to protect and defend. ... I don't believe it undercuts their morale." -- President Bush's "war czar" nominee Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, 6/7/07
 

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Quotes of the Day    

‘All we need is some attacks on American soil’, By: Steve Benen

Dennis Milligan, the new chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, probably shouldn't sound quite this excited about the prospect of domestic terrorism.

He said he’s “150 percent” behind Bush on the war in Iraq.

“At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001 ], and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country,” Milligan said.

I have no idea what Milligan is talking about. Then again, I suspect Milligan doesn't know what he's talking about, either.

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Recent Senate Votes 

None this issue

 

Recent House Votes 

None this issue

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HUMOR    

"A Republican presidential debate was held in New Hampshire. You know that you're not the party of diversity when even people in New Hampshire are saying, 'Man, those guys are white.'" --Conan O'Brien

"According to a biography of Hillary by Carl Bernstein, Bill Clinton planned to divorce Hillary. And when asked why she stayed married, Hillary was quoted as saying, 'There are worse things than infidelity.' To which Bill Clinton said, 'Yeah. Fidelity.'" --Jay Leno

"During last night's Democratic debate, all the candidates said that if they were elected, they would get rid of the military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy for gay soldiers. 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' will be replaced by the new policy, 'Don't Tell Me You're Wearing Those Boots With That Gun.'" --Conan O'Brien

"Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani says he believes in a woman's right to choose, and he's shown that time and time again when it comes to choosing women. He's likes to have his choice. I think this is his third one." --Jay Leno

"Some speculate President Bush will pardon Libby right before he serves jail time, while others ... know he will." --Jon Stewart

"Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson was indicted Monday on multiple counts of corruption. Among the evidence, $90,000 in cash found hidden in frozen food boxes in Jefferson's freezer. Now, I know it sounds bad, but it was actually just some boxes of Jimmy Dean's 'money-wrapped sausage on a stick.'" --Jon Stewart

"On the downside, Jefferson faces 235 years in prison. On the upside, now we know what it takes for the federal government to pay some attention to a black man from New Orleans" --Jon Stewart

"He received a ludicrous 30 months in prison. 30 months? He only obstructed justice for a couple of hours. Now Scooter, I do have some advice for you when you check into the graybar hotel. ... The second you arrive, punch the first guy you see, then stand over that sucker and shout, 'You've been scootered.' ... Next, find Duke Cunningham and start your own prison gang. Call it 'Los Elephantes.' In the next few months, you're going to get a lot more members" --Stephen Colbert

"This week, President Bush is at the big G8 Summit in Germany. Many Germans are protesting his visit. See, that's when you know things are bad ... when the Germans think you're invading too many countries." --Jay Leno

"Vice President Dick Cheney said today the surge policy is working. In fact, gas prices have surged almost $4 a minute." --Jay Leno

"Actor and former Senator Fred Thompson, who left the TV show 'Law & Order,' has yet to announce he's running for president but he's already third in the polls among Republicans. Isn't that amazing? He leaves NBC, and his ratings automatically go up." --Jay Leno

"Do you realize if Fred Thompson runs against Hillary Clinton, it'll be 'Law & Order' versus 'Cold Case'?" --Jay Leno

"There are a whole bunch of books about Hillary Clinton. According to a biography of Hillary by Carl Bernstein ... Bill Clinton planned to divorce Hillary. ... And when asked why she stayed married, Hillary was quoted as saying, 'There are worse things than infidelity.' To which Bill Clinton said, 'Yeah. Fidelity.'" --Jay Leno

"In the Democratic debate the other night, the most prominent candidates got the most questions. Obama got 16, Hillary got 15, Edwards got 13. Poor Chris Dodd ... waited 41 minutes before he got a single question. And that question was, 'Uh. What's your name again?'" --Jay Leno

"The statistics are out and New York City is now the safest big city in the nation. I'll tell you why. It's because of New York City Mayor ... Bloomberg's new $50 fine for murder" --David Letterman

TOP

      

ETHICS -- SHILLING FOR JUSTICE DEPARTMENT, SEN. KYL PLACES SECRET HOLD ON OPEN GOVERNMENT ACT: Two weeks ago, a bill called the OPEN Government Act, which is a "bipartisan effort to update the seminal Freedom of Information Act to make the government more open and accountable," was prevented from reaching a vote on the Senate floor because of a secret hold. When Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-TX) tried to bring the bill to a vote on the floor, "the vote was blocked by 'Senator Anonymous.' Some Republican senator called the Minority Leader's office and objected to a vote on the bill, but asked for anonymity and did not publicly state a reason for the hold." Yesterday, the man behind the hold finally revealed himself: Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ). Kyl claimed that he placed the hold on the bill because thenJustice Department opposes several provisions that "could force them to reveal sensitive information. In a statement Thursday, Kyl said the agency's 'uncharacteristically strong' opposition is reason enough to think twice about the legislation, and he will block a vote until both sides can work out the differences." Kyl's water-carrying for the Justice Department is untenable. The OPEN Government Act overwhelmingly passed the Senate Judiciary Committee. Similar legislation in the House passed in March by 308 to 117. Over 100 organizations have written in support of it. As Leahy put it, "This is a good government bill that Democrats and Republicans alike can and should work together to enact. It should be passed without further delay."

ADMINISTRATION -- CIA CONTINUES TO BLOCK PUBLICATION OF 'CLASSIFIED' MATERIAL ALREADY IN THE PUBLIC DOMAIN: Valerie Plame Wilson, whose identity as a covert CIA agent was leaked to the press by multiple members of the Bush administration, "sued the Central Intelligence Agency in federal court in New York yesterday over its refusal to allow her to publish a memoir that would discuss how long she had worked for the agency." The CIA said that while the dates of her employment have already been published in the Congressional Record, they "remain classified and may not be mentioned in 'Fair Game,' the memoir Ms. Wilson hopes to publish in October." Wilson argues that "the agency's refusal to allow her to include material already in the public domain...violates her right to free speech." Wilson's suit marks the second time in the past year that the CIA has objected to the publication of material "already in the public domain." In Dec. 2006, Middle East analyst Flynt Leverett, who served under President Bush on the National Security Council, was blocked by the CIA from publishing an op-ed he wrote for the New York Times. Leverett explained in a subsequent op-ed that CIA officials said they "had concluded on their own that the original draft included no classified material, but that they had to bow to the White House." The information to which the White House objected is freely available online from newspapers, think tanks, and government websites. He later said that the incident demonstrates "just how low people like Elliot Abrams at the NSC [National Security Council] will stoop to try and limit the dissemination of arguments critical of the administration's policy." 

ADMINISTRATION -- BUSH NOMINATES HOMOPHOBIC SURGEON GENERAL WHO WANTS TO CURE GAYS: Last week, President Bush nominated James W. Holsinger to become the next Surgeon General of the United States. "As America's chief health educator, he will be charged with providing the best scientific information available on how Americans can make smart choices that improve their health and reduce their risk of illness and injury. ... I am confident that Dr. Holsinger will help our Nation confront this challenge and many others to ensure that Americans live longer, better, and healthier lives," Bush stated. But as BarbinMD points out, Holsinger's nomination to be "America's doctor" is troubling. He has a long history of prejudice toward gays and lesbians. For example, Holsinger founded Hope Springs Community Church, which "ministers to people who no longer wish to be gay or lesbian." Holsinger said that he sees homosexuality as "an issue not of orientation but of lifestyle." In serving on the United Methodist Judicial Council -- the "court" that resolves "disputes involving church doctrine and policies in the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination" -- Holsinger "opposed a decision to allow a practicing lesbian to be an associate pastor, and he supported a pastor who would not permit an openly gay man to join the church." And in the early 1990s, Holsinger resigned from the United Methodist Church's Committee to Study Homosexuality "because he believed the committee 'would follow liberal lines.'" He also warned "that acceptance of homosexuality would drive away millions of churchgoers" [Arkansas Democrat Gazette, 5/26/07; Time, 6/24/91]. Despite this history, Holsinger-supporter Kentucky Gov. Ernie Fletcher (R) inexplicably insists, "Anyone who knows Jim Holsinger knows that he's not an individual given to prejudice." A date for Holsinger's Senate hearings has not been set.

AFGHANISTAN -- COMBAT OPERATIONS, RECONSTRUCTION SLOW AND STEADY: Over the weekend, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates made his "second visit to Afghanistan since taking over at the Defense Department last December." After meeting with Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, Gates said he believed conditions there are "slowly, cautiously headed in the right direction." Gates said further that "the pace of combat operations and reconstruction efforts in Afghanistan -- while slow -- remains steady." The New York Times reports, however, that despite Gates's guarded optimism, "a total of 75 allied troops died in Afghanistan in the first five months of this year...compared with 53 allied troops in the same period a year ago." Further, "suicide bombers strike several times a week and have recently moved into relatively peaceful northern areas of the country." Gates also said there are new indications that suggest that over the past few months weapons have been coming [into Afghanistan] from Iran, though he added that he had no evidence to suggest that the Iranian government "is supporting this [or] is behind it." NATO forces are also attempting to quell Afghanistan's opium trade, which supplies 90 percent of the world's heroin and last year grew in size by 59 percent. The $3 billion per year industry in large part "helps finance the Taliban insurgency." One of Karzai's senior advisers recently called the situation a "crisis" and added, "If today the foreigners desert Afghanistan...then it will be seen for how many days the national army of Mr Karzai will resist? ... Nothing will remain stable even for a week." 

ETHICS -- REP. JEFFERSON INDICTED ON CORRUPTION CHARGES: Yesterday, federal authorities indicted Rep. William J. Jefferson (D-LA) on corruption charges for allegedly "accepting hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to support business ventures in the United States and several West African nations." In addition, the government's "94-page indictment...accused Mr. Jefferson of bribery, racketeering, conspiracy, money laundering, obstruction of justice and other offenses." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called the charges against Jefferson "extremely serious" and said the charges, if proven, "constitute an egregious and unacceptable abuse of public trust and power." She added, however, that Jefferson, "just as any other citizen, must be considered innocent until proven guilty." In contrast, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) -- who has a history of adamantly defending and even rewarding corrupt and indicted conservative members of Congress, including former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) and Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA) -- is working quickly to "seek [Jefferson's] expulsion from the House." To that end, Boehner "will offer a privileged resolution on the House floor as early as" today requiring the House Ethics Committee to review the Jefferson indictment. Rep. Steve Kagen (D-WI) became the first Democratic member of Congress to call for Jefferson's resignation. Kagen said that while everyone is entitled to the "presumption of innocence," members of Congress "must be held to a higher standard" and as such, "Jefferson should consider resigning." Jefferson's lawyer said in a statement yesterday, "Congressman Jefferson is innocent. He plans to fight this indictment and clear his name." 

ADMINISTRATION -- RIGHT WING PRESSES BUSH TO PARDON LIBBY: Yesterday, U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton sentenced Scooter Libby, Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, to 30 months in prison for lying during the investigation into the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity. He is the "highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since the Iran-Contra affair." The sentence was a "a victory for prosecutors," who asked that Libby serve up to three years in prison; Libby's lawyers had asked for no prison time. Next week, Walton will decide whether Libby will remain free pending appeal. He has indicated that he "is not inclined" to do so, which means that President Bush may have to decide "in a matter of weeks" whether to pardon Libby. The Washington Post reports that the "prospect of a pardon has become so sensitive inside the West Wing that top aides have been kept out of the loop, and even Bush friends have been told not to bring it up with the president." Yet the right wing is heavily pushing for a pardon. During last night's Republican presidential debate, six of the candidates said they would likely pardon the former White House aide, with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney accusing Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald of abusing "prosecutorial discretion." The conservative National Review quickly posted an editorial on its website yesterday headlined "Pardon Him." Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol posted a similar piece, arguing, "George W. Bush can do something to begin to make up for the injustice a prosecutor appointed by his own administration brought down on Scooter Libby." But as Walton noted in the sentencing yesterday, there is no evidence that Fitzgerald acted improperly. "Your lies blocked an extremely serious investigation, and as result you will indeed go to prison," he told Libby.

ETHICS -- FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY ADMITS TO POLITICIZING JUSTICE DEPARTMENT: Yesterday, former U.S. attorney Bradley Schlozman, who emerged as a central figure in the U.S. attorney scandal due to his contribution to the politicization of the Department of Justice, testified in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee and "defended his decision to bring a controversial indictment before last year's elections." In a testy exchange with Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), Schlozman inadvertently admitted that he thought minority-advocacy groups such as MALDEF and NAPAB were the "liberal" counterparts to right-wing organizations like the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society. That admittance suggests that his decision to bring voter fraud charges in Missouri against ACORN, another group which advocates for minority voter protection, prior to a hotly contested Senate election, was an attempt to tilt the election. Schlozman also attempted to rig elections in Minnesota, killing an investigation into Native American voter suppression, although he claimed he could not remember such an incident. Schlozman's politicization also pervaded his hiring practices in the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. During questioning by Schumer, Schlozman testified that he "boasted about the number of Republicans he had recruited for the [Civil Rights] division" and admitted to telling some applicants to remove Republican credentials from their resumes. Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) lambasted Schlozman for this politicization, scolding him for purportedly reading the U.S. attorney's manual, but using it "as a doorstop" throughout his tenure in the Department.

ADMINISTRATION -- CONSERVATIVES CONTINUE CALLS FOR LIBBY PARDON: Despite being convicted of obstructing justice, lying to federal investigators, and perjury -- with what the presiding federal judge called "overwhelming" evidence -- many prominent conservatives continue to suggest that Libby has been "unfairly railroaded," that "no underlying crime was committed" and that President Bush has no choice but to pardon Libby of his crimes. Former Bush speech writer and current fellow at the American Enterprise Institute David Frum explained, "A lot of people in the conservative world are weighted down by the sheer, glaring unfairness here," and added, "I don't understand it." Former Sen. Fred Thompson -- who as the Los Angeles Times noted "plays a tough district attorney on 'Law & Order'" -- referred to Libby's crimes as "some inconsistent statements that he made, allegedly" and said that "if he were president, he would pardon Libby." Former Justice Department official Victoria Toensing derided special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald as "over-zealous," called his prosecution of Libby an abuse of power and complained that Fitzgerald's investigation had "no adult supervision." Mel Sembler, who leads Libby's defense fund asserted that there was only "one answer" to Libby's guilt, saying Bush "has to step up and pardon him." But such a pardon would, as one anonymous "former [Bush Administration] official" told the New York Times, "show a deep disregard for the rule of law." Indeed, the "guidelines for pardon and clemency" provided by the Department of Justice explain that "a convict should generally have to wait five years after conviction or release from confinement before being pardoned." Further, those seeking pardons are "generally expected to accept responsibility for their criminal conduct, and should be seeking forgiveness rather than vindication." As of yet, the anonymous "former official" notes, "there has been no remorse shown," and "no time has been served."

CIVIL RIGHTS -- BUSH NOMINEE RESPONSIBLE FOR 'MODERN-DAY POLL TAX' FACES SCRUTINY: On Wednesday, June 13, the Senate Rules Committee will hold a hearing to confirm four nominees for six-year terms on the Federal Election Commission (FEC). One of those nominees, Hans A. von Spakovsky, is drawing resistance from voting rights activists, campaign finance watchdogs, and former officials in the Justice Department's voting rights section. Spakovsky, whom President Bush temporarily placed on the FEC using a recess appointment, is said to have "used every opportunity he had over four years in the Justice Department to make it difficult for voters -- poor, minority and Democratic -- to go to the polls." "He has devoted much of his legal career to suppressing minority voting rights, and he should not be rewarded with a six-year appointment to the Federal Election Commission," said J. Gerald Herbet, a former chief of the Justice Department's voting section who now serves as the executive director of the Campaign Legal Center. "I think that Hans von Spakovsky's record demonstrates that he will use his office to elevate partisan concerns among legitimate law enforcement concerns," he added. During his tenure as a political appointee in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, Spakovsky overruled the recommendations of career attorneys and approved a controversial voter ID law in Georgia, which a federal judge later likened to a "modern-day poll tax."  Upon his initial nomination, Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-MA) said he was "extremely troubled" because von Spakovsky "may be at the heart of the political interference that is undermining the [Justice] Department's enforcement of federal civil laws."

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NEED COMPUTER ASSISTANCE?? 

Democrat Activist Mike Bailey is now providing “Professional Computer Support.”  He can be contacted at 502-558-4026, or mikebailey2000@usa.net. 

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^  

Think Fast  

"Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican in the Senate, disclosed in an interview that the FBI asked him to preserve records as part of a widening investigation into Alaskan political corruption that has touched his son and ensnared one of his closest political confidants and financial backers."

"Los Angeles residents were urged on Wednesday to take shorter showers, reduce lawn sprinklers and stop throwing trash in toilets in a bid to cut water usage by 10 percent" in the driest year "since rainfall records began 130 years ago."

"Federal prosecutors are investigating the Kuwaiti company building the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, probing allegations that foreign employees were brought to work on the massive project against their will and prevented from leaving the country." Former employees say they were told "they were being sent to Dubai, only to wind up in Iraq instead."

"In what many view as a near deal-killer" to the immigration reform bill, the Senate voted last night to pass a controversial amendment to sunset guest-worker provisions in the measure. The deal is reportedly "on life support heading into today’s expected vote to close off debate." 
 

Kenneth Krieg, the Pentagon's acquisition chief, resigned Wednesday, "the latest in a recent string of high-level departures from the department."

"Six human rights groups on Wednesday released a list of 39 people they believe have been secretly imprisoned by the United States and whose whereabouts are unknown, calling on the Bush administration to abandon such detentions."

"Justice Department investigators looking into former Rep. Jim Kolbe's (R-AZ) relationships with House pages found no wrongdoing and have closed their inquiry, Mr. Kolbe says."

Global warming is "threatening cultural landmarks from Canada to Antarctica, the World Monuments Fund said Wednesday." New Orleans's historic neighborhoods, "the Church of the Holy Nativity under Palestinian control in Bethlehem, cultural heritage sites in Iraq and Machu Picchu Historic Sanctuary in Peru are among the top 100 most endangered sites.

Pols kicking Paris while she's down. While arguing with a witness about soldier protection at a House Armed Services Committee hearing yesterday, Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-HI), buoyed his point with a harsh reference to the recently jailed celebrity heiress. "It is not an issue of contending with networks, who when they finish their discussion of the active protection system or the body armor, went on to their ads for...whether or not some celebrity slut was going to jail."

Military chiefs have drawn up plans to withdraw all British troops within a year. "The new timetable, which would see nearly all 5,500 British troops return home by next May," suggests "withdrawing almost all troops, leaving only a small number of teams in the south to advise Iraqi military forces."

"Afghan President Hamid Karzai gave Iran his full embrace Monday, saying it has been his country's 'very close friend,' even as U.S. officials meeting with him here repeated their accusation that Iranian-made weapons were flowing to Taliban fighters."

A military panel recommended yesterday that Iraq war veteran Marine Cpl. Adam Kokesh, "who wore his uniform during an anti-war protest, should lose his honorable discharge status, brushing away his claims that he was exercising his right to free speech."

"Everybody is overworked" at U.S. military hospitals. The Army has 4,170 doctors, yet it needs at least 180 more. For the past two years, more than half of the Army's 36 medical facilities "have failed to meet Pentagon standards for providing a doctor within seven days for routine medical care."

"Hunger in America leads to $90 billion a year in societal costs, such as mental-health problems that may arise when people miss too many meals," according to a new Sodexho Foundation study.

35 percent. President Bush's approval rating in a new Washington Post/ABC News poll. Congress's approval rating fell five points to 39 percent, with "[m]uch of that drop" due to frustration among "strong opponents of the war, independents and liberal Democrats."

"After promising unprecedented openness regarding Congress' pork barrel practices, House Democrats are moving in the opposite direction as they draw up spending bills for the upcoming budget year." Democrats are sidestepping their own rules and adding earmarks when it is "too late for critics to effectively challenge them." 

More than four years into the Iraq war, the Defense Department "has formed a task force comprised of military and federal law enforcement agencies" to "investigate contract fraud and public corruption related to Iraq reconstruction."

The Senate architects of a "delicate immigration compromise are increasingly convinced that they will hold together this week to pass an overhaul of the nation's immigration laws, with momentum building behind one unifying theme: Today's immigration system is too broken to go unaddressed."

Due to the growing climate crisis, The Weather Channel "has seen its primary subject turn into a hot-button issue," and "has decided not to tread gingerly," covering climate change and related science. "If The Weather Channel isn't talking about climate change and global warming, who is?" a network executive said.

The Philadelphia Inquirer editorial argues that "expanding coal isn't a smart choice for America right now. Although cheap and plentiful, it's dirty. Its environmental byproducts outweigh its benefits." It also criticizes "a bipartisan group of coal-state lawmakers wants to grant billions in taxpayer subsidies to turn coal into liquid fuel to power cars, trucks and airplanes." Find out more on coal-to-liquid fuels HERE.

Conservative columnist Peggy Noonan declares today that President Bush "has torn the conservative coalition asunder," with consequences "for the American future." This White House "thinks its base is stupid," she writes, while "conservative Bush supporters have felt like sufferers of battered wife syndrome."

"Fort Lewis, which this month has suffered its worst losses of the war, will no longer conduct individual memorial ceremonies for soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead, the post will hold one ceremony for all soldiers killed each month." Fort Lewis's commanding general wrote in a memo, "I am afraid that with the number of soldiers we now have in harm's way, our losses will preclude us from continuing to do individual memorial ceremonies."

Top U.S. commander Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno "warned" yesterday that "he may not be able to make a full assessment of the situation in Iraq by September, as demanded by lawmakers."

President Bush yesterday announced a "new international climate change framework," setting "aspirational goals" for reducing carbon emissions but "no concrete targets or dates, no enforcement mechanism and no penalties for noncompliance. It also wouldn't take effect until four years after Bush leaves office." 

Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson on global warming: "There's much we know and can agree on around the climate change issue, and there's much that we just don't believe we do know...and we want to have a debate about the things we know and understand, the things we know about that we don’t understand very well, and the things we don't even know about around this very complex issue of climate science. So that will continue to be our position."

"Gov. Bob Riley signed a resolution Thursday expressing 'profound regret' for Alabama’s role in slavery and apologizing for slavery's wrongs and lingering effects. 'Slavery was evil and is a part of American history,' the Republican governor said."

"The popular online dating service eHarmony was sued on Thursday for refusing to offer its services to gays, lesbians and bisexuals." eHarmony was "founded in 2000 by evangelical Christian Dr. Neil Clark Warren" and "had strong early ties" with the religious right group Focus on the Family.

A press release from Sen. Wayne Allard (R-CO) yesterday calling for a "National First Responder Appreciation Day" included the following line, attributed to Allard: "I don't think first responders have really done anything significant in comparison to their counterparts who have dealt with real natural disasters, I have no idea what else to say." Allard's spokesman "sent out a correction 23 minutes later that said, 'Please pardon my typo in the first version of this release. I sincerely apologize for the error.'"

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Dick Cheney Rules

Americans are accustomed to Vice President Dick Cheney’s waiting out a terrorist threat in a “secure undisclosed location.” Now it seems that Mr. Cheney wears the cloak of invisibility in secure disclosed locations.

The Associated Press reported that Mr. Cheney’s office ordered the Secret Service last September to destroy all records of visitors to the official vice presidential mansion — right after The Washington Post sued for access to the logs. That move was made in secret, naturally. It came out only because of another lawsuit, filed by a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, seeking the names of conservative religious figures who visited the vice president’s residence.

This disdain for accountability is distressing, but not surprising. Mr. Cheney has had it on display from his first days in office, when he refused to name the energy-industry executives who met with him behind closed doors to draft an energy policy.

In a similar way, Mr. Cheney seems unconcerned about little things like checks and balances and traditional American notions of judicial process. At one point, he gave himself the power to selectively declassify documents and selectively leak them to reporters. In a recent commencement address, he declaimed against prisoners who had the gall to “demand the protections of the Geneva Convention and the Constitution of the United States.”

Mr. Cheney is the driving force behind the Bush administration’s theory of the “unitary executive,” which holds that no one, including Congress and the courts, has the power to supervise or regulate the actions of the president. Just as he pays little attention to old-fangled notions of the separation of powers, Mr. Cheney does not overly bother himself about the bright line that should exist between his last job as chief of the energy giant Halliburton and his current one on the public payroll.

From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Cheney received “deferred salary payments” from Halliburton that far exceeded what taxpayers gave him. Mr. Cheney still holds hundreds of