The DeLay-Abramoff Money Trail

Nonprofit Group Linked to Lawmaker Was Funded Mostly by Clients of Lobbyist

The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates of the group.

During its five-year existence, the U.S. Family Network raised $2.5 million but kept its donor list secret. The list, obtained by The Washington Post, shows that $1 million of its revenue came in a single 1998 check from a now-defunct London law firm whose former partners would not identify the money's origins.
CONTINUED

How Jack Abramoff Spread the Wealth.
Abramoff may strike deal with prosecutors Plea could mean lobbyist would implicate members of Congress

Where the Money Came From…

Where the Money Went…

More gangster Asshole, gangster Bush will have to pardon before he leaves office.

Abramoff Ready To Rat On Members Of Congress.

Federal prosecutors and lawyers for lobbyist Jack Abramoff are putting the finishing touches on a plea deal that could be announced early next week. The plea agreement would secure the Republican lobbyist's testimony against several members of Congress who received favors from him or his clients.

How Jack Abramoff Spread the Wealth.
Where the Money Came From…
Where the Money Went…

Investigation Launched Into Leak of NSA Spying

The U.S. Justice department is launching an investigation into the disclosure of information that President George Bush ordered a secret eavesdropping program aimed at American citizens.
The New York Times reported two weeks ago that Bush ordered the super-secret National Security Agency to monitor phone calls and e-mails without first seeking court approval.
Critics say Bush broke the law when he authorized the actions.
For its part, the Whitehouse says that, besides being legal, the controversial spying has helped keep the U.S. safe from terrorists.
In a news conference just before Christmas Bush lashed out at whoever disclosed the leak. "It was a shameful act someone to disclose this very important program at the time of war," Bush said.
Now, in a familiar pattern for U.S. politics, after the leak of a government secret, the justice department is now investigating.
Officials are being tight-lipped about who requested the probe or how it will be conducted.
The Times reported earlier this month that, over the last three years, NSA has monitored the e-mails, telephone calls, and other communications of hundreds, and perhaps thousands, of people inside the U.S. without warrants.
The Times said it delayed publishing its story for a year after administration officials said the disclosure would harm national security.
Bush has defended the program, saying it was used only to intercept the international communications of people inside the United States who have been shown to have a "clear link" to al-Qaeda and related groups.

CBC News

Justice Dept. opens probe on domestic spying leak.

Standing Tall And Shooting Straight.

Bunnatine (Bunny) H. Greenhouse is a former chief contracting officer (Principal Assistant Responsible for Contracting (PARC)) of the United States Army Corps of Engineers. On June 27, 2005, she testified to a Democratic Party public committee, alleging specific instances of waste, fraud, and other abuses and irregularities by Halliburton with regard to its operations in Iraq since the Iraq War. She described one of the Halliburton contracts (secret, no-bid contracts awarded to Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR)—a subsidiary of Halliburton) as "the most blatant and improper contract abuse I have witnessed during the course of my professional career."

Bunny Greenhouse is in trouble and she needs your financial help. After standing up to powerful Halliburton and the "good ol' boys" club of the Army Corps of Engineers, Bunny has been demoted and removed from her position as the chief civilian contracting authority of the Corps. In that position, she was able to call into question the legality of the Corps' military command steering billions of dollars of Army contracts, through noncompetitive bidding, to Halliburton subsidiary Kellogg Brown and Root for reconstruction work in Iraq. Enormous amounts of waste and abuse have been uncovered because of her revelations.

Read The Full Story At National Whistleblower Center.

CBC - Google Video

Duke vs. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Duke vs. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. is the largest civil rights class-action suit in American history. It charges Wal-Mart, the nation's largest retail chain, with discriminating against women in promotions, pay and job assignments

The case started in 2000, when a 54-year-old Wal-Mart worker in California named Betty Dukes filed a sex discrimination claim against her employer. Despite six years of hard work and excellent performance reviews, Dukes claimed, she was denied the training she needed to advance to a higher, salaried position. Plaintiffs seek to represent 1.6 million women, comprising both current and former employees, in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. In June 2004, the federal district judge, Martin Jenkins, ruled in favor of class certification. Wal-Mart is appealing the decision, which has been criticized by conservatives as an inappropriate use of the class action mechanism.

In 2004, journalist Liza Featherstone published a book about the case, Selling Women Short: The Landmark Battle for Workers' Rights at Wal-Mart in which she contends that Wal-Mart's success is based not only on its inexpensive merchandise or its popularity but also on bad labor practices.

FindLaw

Photo, Planet Mars, Author Unknown.

Why Does Bush Act So Macho

The World Is Flat.

Art Design By: Brandy Agerbeck

Chances are good that Bhavya in Bangalore will read your next x-ray, or as Thomas Friedman learned first hand, “Grandma Betty in her bathrobe” will make your Jet Blue plane reservation from her Salt Lake City home. In “Globalization 3.0,” Friedman contends, people from far-flung places will become principal players in the marketplace.
By Thomas L. Friedman

Read the full story at: MIT World

Neocon Gangster Liar Dick Cheney and His War.

Neocon Gangster Liar Dick Cheney and His War.

The Neocons need to deceive the masses who cannot handle or benefit from the "truth." Consequently Neocons feel justified in hiding the real reasons for the war.

Why are we in Iraq?

ZFacts has regarded Saddam as a tyrant since before the days when Rumsfeld was shaking his hand to sell him an oil pipeline. It was right to work for his removal and could have been right to use force against him. But this was done with an arrogant incompetence which has cost America and Iraq far more than it should have, and, as documented here, it was done by deceiving the American people and, quite possibly, the President.

Cheney wanted Iraq, while Bush wanted Bin Laden. He's still wanted, but Cheney's got Iraq. It wasn't easy to sell America this grand nation building adventure, but Cheney and his neocons started early&mdashsome in 1996 the rest in 1997. Until 9/11, most of their work was in the open.
Impacts: On U.S. and Iraq. Some costs are clear: lives lost and dollars spent. But is there clear evidence of its impact on American prestige and credibility? Iraq has benefited from the removal of Saddam, a horrible tyrant. That is no small benefit. Also, they have a start towards democracy. That is harder to assess. How powerful are the Iranian Shiites in the new government? How costly are the terrorist attacks and the economic chaos? Oil production is one measure.
Terrorism: Former counter-terrorist czar Richard Clarke is not the only one who believes that the War in Iraq has served to increase the terrorist threat to our nation. Meanwhile, al-Qaeda is alive and well.

Read Full Story At: zFacts.com

Now is the time to help empower the world with free knowledge.

The Wikimedia Foundation and the tens of thousands of volunteers who contribute their time and expertise to its projects believe that knowledge is power and that it should, it must, be free.

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Randy Cunningham a wolf in sheep's clothing

"Duke" Cunningham was as patriotic and God-fearing as any politician in the land. He had credentials as a former Vietnam fighting ace. He was a good man. Yes sir.

His interest in national defense as an eight-term Republican House member from Southern California came naturally. Rep. Randy Cunningham had seen war. It was ugly. He pushed for defense contracts. He was for the soldiers.

What a hypocrite!

The man who swaggered his way around Congress tearfully resigned his office and confessed to accepting $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors Monday.

He might have gotten away with his treasonous acts if greed had not overtaken reason. Federal prosecutors became suspicious when he sold his Del Mar home to a defense contractor for $1,675,000. Buyer Mitchell Wade held the house for nearly a year and sold it for $975,000.

Prosecutors wanted to know why he would sell the house at a $700,000 loss in a red-hot real estate market.

This Duke bully wrapped himself in red, white and blue while he traded on the backs of men and women who wear the nation's military uniforms.

He may have at one time believed in the Constitution and people's right to dissent, but he gave that up along with his honesty.

One of his patriotic speeches on the House floor was in behalf of the woefully misguided constitutional amendment to ban flag burning. If he really cared about the flag, he would have honored his commitment as a public official in a democratic land rather than attempt to stifle honest dissent.

He is a caricature of a character in the liberal-leaning comic strip Doonesbury who also goes by "Duke."

His patriotism was for sale.

Another gangster Asshole, gangster Bush will have to pardon before he leaves office.

IS THIS A GREAT COUNTRY, OR WHAT?

Bill Clinton got $12 million for his memoirs. Hillary got $8 million for hers. That's $20 million for memories from two people, who for eight years, repeatedly testified, under oath, that they couldn't remember anything.

Donald Rumsfeld Is Giving The President His Daily Briefing.

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the president his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, 3 Brazilian soldiers were killed." "OH NO!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!" His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands. Finally, the President looks up and asks, "How many is a brazillion?"
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President’s Library Destroyed by Fire A tragic fire on Sunday destroyed the personal library of President George W. Bush. Both of his books have been lost. A presidential spokesman said the president was devastated, as he had not finished coloring the second one.
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The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'~ Ronald Reagan

A Texas prosecutor has issued subpoenas...

A Texas prosecutor has issued subpoenas for bank records and other information of a defense contractor involved in the bribery case of a California congressman as part of the investigation of former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay.

District Attorney Ronnie Earle issued subpoenas late Monday afternoon for California businessmen Brent Wilkes and Max Gelwix, records of Perfect Wave Technologies LLC, Wilkes Corp. and ADCS Inc. in connection with a contribution to a fundraising committee at the center of the investigation that led to DeLay’s indictment on money laundering charges.

Read Full Story

The Case Was Brought Before A Wise Judge

In Florida, an atheist became incensed over the preparation for Easter and Passover holidays and decided to contact the local ACLU about the discrimination inflicted on atheists by the constant celebrations afforded to Christians and Jews with all their holidays while the atheists had no holiday to celebrate.

The ACLU jumped on the opportunity to once again pick up the cause of the godless and assigned their sharpest attorneys to the case.

The case was brought before a wise judge who after listening to the long, passionate presentation of the ACLU lawyers, promptly banged his gavel and declared, "Case dismissed!"

The lead ACLU lawyer immediately stood and objected to the ruling and said, "Your honor, how can you possibly dismiss this case? Surely the Christians have Christmas, Easter and many other observances.

And the Jews--why in addition to Passover they have Yom Kippur and Hanukkah ...and yet my client and all other atheists have no such holiday!"

The judge leaned forward in his chair and simply said

"Obviously your client is too confused to know about, or for that matter, even celebrate the atheists' holiday!"

The ACLU lawyer pompously said "We are aware of no such holiday for atheists, just when might that be, your honor?"

The judge said "Well it comes every year on exactly the same date---

April 1st!"