After watching tonight's episode of Bill Moyer's Journal, my wife said to me, "I'll bet most of our friends missed this program." She was probably right..Nine PM on a Friday night on PBS is not a hot place to be. But they missed the most outstanding expose' of the lies, deception, and fraud of the Bush Administration I have ever seen in one 45 minute segment.
All Americans ought to be forced to read the transcript before they enter the polling place this November so that they do not make the same mistake for the 3rd time in a row and, as a result, trample the Constitution even more.
Rep. Henry Waxman [D CA] presented case after case of Bush appointees who appeared before his House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Characters like Condi Rice and Blackwater's Erik Prince were shown bobbing and weaving through the questions asked of them. Others outright lied to the committee. One resigned shortly after his lies.
The Bush Administration was shown to be what most of us who have been paying attention to it already knew: it is the most secretive and deceptive administration since Nixon, and much more dangerous. Here are some of the outrageous dealings that Waxman reported:
•Outsourcing of tax dollars to private contractors has been in the hundreds of millions of dollars with little or no accountability.
• The State Department cannot account for $18 billion it 'gave' to the Maliki government in Baghdad.
• Blackwater has sucked hundreds of millions of dollars from the Treasury to do work that is essentially U.S. Army work.
• A secret no-bid contract was given to a Kuwaiti contracting firm to build the U.S. embassy in Baghdad has cost the tax payers of America nearly a billion dollars; slave laborers were kidnapped to work on this building.
• The top deputy of Karl Rove gave a Power point political presentation to the General Services Administration on ways the GSA could help elect more Republicans to Congress; the subpoenaed chair of that department couldn't recall being at that meeting.
• Howard "Cookie" Krongard, The State Department's Inspector General, reported nothing wrong with the Blackwater operations in Iraq despite many claims of wrongdoing; it was uncovered during testimony that his brother sat on the Board of Blackwater, something he lied about.
At the end of the interview with Waxman, Moyers asked this question: "What do you want to know from Condoleezza Rice?"
REP. HENRY WAXMAN: Well, I want a lot from Condoleezza Rice. I want to know, as secretary of state, that she's supervising the money that's being spent by the Department of State in Iraq. That she's making sure that we're not supporting a government that can't rally its own people because it's so corrupt. The second thing, and most important thing I want to know from Condoleezza Rice, is what did she know about the false claim of Saddam Hussein having potential nuclear weapons? And did she participate in a conspiracy with people in this administration the lie to the American people to get us into a war? She's the one, I think, along with the president, has to be held accountable. Because she was the one who was supposed to work with the president to be sure he had the right information, and had the truth before those decisions were made.
You ought to read the entire transcript and send it to 10 of your friends.
What Excuses Are Left?
33 minutes ago
17 comments:
Private contractors can save the tax-payers money and it's good to see that the government has faith in private companies.
Once we gave the money to Pakistan it was out of our hands. I think we learned not to give them any more money.
If this one is even true, the government hired a company and paid them before any information of slave labor came up.
So a deputy of Rove, NOT BUSH, gave a presentation about getting more Republicans in government. I think that's Rove's job. And it doesn't mean that the GSA acted on any of the information.
Blackwater does great work in Iraq. They have done many great things in Iraq. They didn't purposely kill civilians. It funny how you have no faith in the Iraqi government to take control and govern yet when they say that our forces or contractors did something wrong you have all the faith in the world in them.
Oh, fonso, you ought to get out of political science because, apparently, you are not being taught the basics of that subject. I think it is clear to the 'regular' readers of this blog that your comments, what you are posting here are little more than highly biased right-wing talking points.
Even though you claimed that your school presented both liberal and conservative views, it is obvious that you have filtered out any thoughts that are left of center.
Tell me, fonso, where does the U.S. Constitution fit in your political agenda? The reason I ask this is because this PBS program was essentially an expose of an administration that has shredded the Constitution. Did you MISS that?
It's all about the Constitution, son. In which class did you study it?
The Constitution is number 2 on my list of loyalties. That program was a program that was biased against President Bush and did not include anything to balance it. You are the one that should be more open to the other side. I am open to all opinion and agree with the left on some issues. I believe that there should be government funding for higher education, but it can't all be grants. I am getting student loans from the government that I'm going to have to pay back. You just reject anything from the right because of your false hatred for President Bush.
fonso- you have now fallen into that old debate tactic so over-used by the right wing: 'You hate Bush.' I am sorry that you have resorted to this because it truly dilutes your message.
It seems more and more apparent to me that you have been bamboozled by the right-wing, especially the right-wing media. That is a shame, because when your comments begin to reflect that type of tactic [you must hate Bush] then our debating here is nearly at an end.
I have given you much slack in your comments because of your age and naivety. You need to broaden your sources, take off your blinders, examine all of the evidence. Do not rely on pre-digested information, like that fed to listeners of right-wing radio. Or ultra-right websites.
If you truly want to educate yourself, you will have to be open to all of the news, all of the facts, not just those which fit your agenda.
Already by attending a church-run university, you have limited your information. College learning ought to be entirely free, open, broad and investigative, not censored or restricted in its vision.
I truly loved my college years as the world itself was my adventure, being free to choose a wide variety of subjects and classes that opened my mind to many possibilities.
You said that you chose Wayland due to convenience, but I wonder if there was more to it than just location. I sense that 'Christianity' was a large reason for going there. Further, as a Baptist college, even more doors are closed to investigation for the student.
Of course you can't change now, but you must be open to the fact that your experiences there are much more limited in scope than those at a secular university.
I'm not resorting to the "you hate Bush" argument. I simply said that because you were claiming that I am not open to other view points and I was saying that it seems like you are not and the main reason for it is a hatred to President Bush.
What do you think about a different opinion on global warming? The Iraq war? ACLU? Taxes? Free market? Less regulation? Abortion? Religion? You shoot them down. I actually embrace some liberal views and am willing to compromise on some issues.
There is nothing wrong with attending a private university. Again, I favor something in the private market than a state run school. My education is not censored. We are able to have whatever views we want and are taught both sides of the issue. There is nothing restrictive about the school I attend. The problem you have with it is that the school acknowledges our Father in heaven and you disagree with it, yet another example of you not being open to the other side.
Let me retract the ACLU statement. I don't know what your view is and just got a little caught up. I really dislike the ACLU and I made a mistake by adding it in there without knowing your position on that group.
What do you think about a different opinion on global warming? The Iraq war? ACLU? Taxes? Free market? Less regulation? Abortion? Religion? You shoot them down.
I shoot them down? How could you say that when you don't even know my political philosophy? Are you assuming things?
By the way, if the Constitution is #2, what is #1?
fonso- here is the political science curriculum from Wayland. Where are you in this process?
Political Science Requirements
The major with a B.A./B.S. degree requires a minimum of 31 semester hours of which 25 are upper division.
The following courses (31 hours) are required for the Political Science major:
*POLS 2301 – Federal and State Government
POLS 2302 – State and Local Government
POLS 3304 – Western Political Thought
POLS 3312 – Comparative Politics
POLS 3411 – Research Methods and Data Analysis
Select three hours from the following three courses:
POLS 3307 – American Constitutional Law
POLS 4304 – The Presidency
POLS 4308 – Congress and Legislative Processes
Twelve hours of upper-division electives in political science
I say that you shoot them down because I've heard what you have to say about them (Except the ACLU and I noted that in the next comment). You're not open to the opinion that humans aren't the cause of global warming, that the War in Iraq is protecting America, that lower taxes are better than higher taxes on the people, that government should not run everything, that abortion is murder and that our God gives is rights...not government. It's just up to the people to sustain those rights.
My loyalty to the Constitution is #2 next to my loyalty to our Father in Heaven.
I'm still doing my basic core requirements. The only POLS course of gotten to is POLS 2301 and I start that on Feb. 25.
My loyalty to the Constitution is #2 next to my loyalty to our Father in Heaven.
I'm sad to hear that. Seriously because without putting the Constitution first, there is no reason for any further political discussion.
There isn't one word, one mention of God in the U.S. Constitution. Not one.
I would suppose that you know why that is, but I'll take the liberty to tell you anyway.
The so-called Founding Fathers and their fathers and mothers had experienced the religious bigotry, hate and wars on the European continent, wars lasting decades.
Surely you heard of and studied the Thirty Years War. That was but one of the religious wars of hate that spread across Europe, engulfing village after village.
Religious bigotry, and that was exactly what it was, rose to the level of absolute hate and murder.
If you have time check out the Albigensian Crusade to see how religious bigotry lead to thousands of deaths.
Back to the Founding Fathers. These men knew what a government mixing with religion had led to. Surely these men heard their fathers and grandfathers tell tales of the Thirty Years War. They themselves fought a rebellion with Anglican England; they were aided in the struggle with Catholic France. Even Germans [north Protestant, south Catholic] helped in the Revolution.
As a result of this sad history, religion was not to be part of this new experiment in democracy. That was their guiding principle as they constructed the set of laws for our nation.
Freedom FROM religion was utmost in their minds.
Fonso- when you tell me that a Deity supersedes the Constitution then you belong back in continental Europe in 1630 or in Béziers in 1209.
In America nothing supersedes the Constitution. Were you to place a Deity before it, then you might like life in Iran or Saudi Arabia.
There is nothing about being a Christian that would prevent anyone from following the Constitution. I don't believe that religion has any place in government, but if a politician wants to show his relationship with god publicly there is nothing wrong with that. I don't think that the Bible should be part of the government. When secularists complain about seeing something that has to do with God it's just dumb. Politicians have the same right as everyone else and if they choose to pray to god aloud or during a speech they should have that right.
God can and does come first for me without preventing me from being loyal to the Constitution. They don't interfere with each other.
fonso- nicely said.
Thank you
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