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Robert Livingston
Citizen
Username: Rob_livingston
Post Number: 1741
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 2:23 pm: | 
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www.culture-of-corruption.net
A small sampling of their Wall of Shame. See site for myriad fun links:
George W. Bush
George W. Bush has been one of the worst and most corrupt Presidents in the history of America. From the lies about WMD's in Iraq to the illegal NSA wiretap scandal, the corruption has been endless.
Dick Cheney
Dick Cheney is the real President, he is the king of corruption. Mr. Cheney and his friends at PNAC have turned America into a Nazi State.
Karl Rove
Karl Rove is America's Joseph Goebbels. From his office in the West Wing of the White House, Rove runs the political dirty tricks and propaganda operation. He also leaked a CIA agents name, among other things.
Scooter Libby
Lewis (Scooter) Libby is the Cheney dirty tricks guy who got the actual job of leaking the CIA agents name for political payback on Joe Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame, among other things.
Jack Abramoff
Jack Abramoff is the Republican super lobbyist who made 220 donations to Republcans in Congress, then he plead guilty to conspiracy, mail fraud and tax evasion in the lobbying scandal.
Michael Scanlon
Michael Scanlon is a former top aide to Tom DeLay, and partner with Jack Abramoff. He plead guilty to corruption and is assisting in the investigation of Abramoff, Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed.
Duke Cunningham
Duke Cunningham was a Republican member of Congress until Nov, 2005, he was forced to resign after pleading guilty to bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud, and tax evasion for taking $2.4 million in bribes.
Mike Brown
Michael Brown was the unqualified FEMA director who was appointed by George W. Bush and resigned September 2005. Before joining FEMA, Brown was the Judges and Stewards Commissioner for a Horse Association.
Tom Delay
Tom DeLay (The Hammer) was the Republican House majority leader for 12 years. Until he was indicted and forced out of the leadership job in 2005 for conspiracy to violate election laws.
Grover Norquist
Grover Norquist is a top Republican advisor for George W. Bush and friend of Jack Abramoff, he worked for Abramoff in college and in later years he had Republican fundraising events with Abramoff.
Bill Frist
Bill Frist has been the Republican Senate Majority Leader since 2003. He gave the videotape diagnosis in the Terry Schiavo case, and is currently under investigation by the SEC for insider trading and blind trust issues.
David Safavian
David Safavian was the Bush appointed chief of staff of the GSA. He was arrested on September 19, 2005 for making false statements and obstruction of justice in the Abramoff lobbying scandal investigation.
Gov. Bob Taft
In August of 2005 Bob Taft pleaded no contest to four criminal ethics charges for his failure to disclose golf outings paid for by lobbyists, as well as undisclosed gifts worth $5,800, he was fined $4,000 plus court costs.
Gov. Ernie Fletcher
In Sep, 2005 Republican Ernie Fletcher fired 9 of his own staffers for a crony hiring scandal, all of whom he had recently pardoned. Among them was Richard Murgatroyd, Fletcher's deputy chief of staff.
House Republicans
One House scandal is when they held a 5 minute vote open for 50 minutes until they could convince 3 Republicans to change their votes. The bill passed 212-210, but it had failed 213 to 209 at the end of 5 minutes.
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dave23
Citizen
Username: Dave23
Post Number: 1473
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 2:28 pm: |
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Robert, I'm as anti-Bush as anyone, but throwing the name Goebbels and the word Nazi around will do nothing but provide fodder for your opponents.
Unless you can lead me to some American concentration camps, why don't we stay in the realm of the real? |
Robert Livingston
Citizen
Username: Rob_livingston
Post Number: 1742
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 2:30 pm: |
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dave23: Read up on what's going down at Gitmo. And that's one we know about. |
cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 5332
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 3:21 pm: |
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RL doesn't really like the 'realm of real.' |
Robert Livingston
Citizen
Username: Rob_livingston
Post Number: 1743
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 4:27 pm: |
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Even scarier is that our president doesn't live in that realm.
Bush had nominated the ex-Bush aide and Target thief Claude Allen to the 4th Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals.
Great judgement our president has, huh? An incompetent trying to place other incompetents in important positions.
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Guy
Supporter
Username: Vandalay
Post Number: 1655
Registered: 8-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 4:33 pm: |
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I hate when people steal things.
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Robert Livingston
Citizen
Username: Rob_livingston
Post Number: 1744
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 4:33 pm: |
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Ha. Good one, Guy. |
Guy
Supporter
Username: Vandalay
Post Number: 1656
Registered: 8-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 4:38 pm: |
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sportsnut
Citizen
Username: Sportsnut
Post Number: 2333
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 5:14 pm: |
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RL - You don't need to look that far away to find waste and corruption. We have plenty of it right here in good old NJ and its even bi-partisan:
http://www.apatheticvoter.com/GovernmentWaste-NJ.htm
After reviewing these (in particular the SCC boondoggle) please tell me why I should readily accept a new, higher income tax. Or a higher sales tax for that matter. |
Duncan
Supporter
Username: Duncanrogers
Post Number: 5941
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 7:15 pm: |
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That link, RL, would have more cred if it were bipartisan. While I am no fan of GWB, that site is nothing more than a depository of slam the right junk. It gets old pretty quickly.
Comparing Gitmo to what the Nazi's did completely undermines your ENTIRE POINT. |
tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 3322
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 7:21 pm: |
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So RL:
Do you think all these guys haven't heard that this war of choice has cost us a trillion dollars so far, which would have bailed out social security for the next seventy-five years?
That's corruption!!
(Just heard this from a Harvard economist on Chris Matthews.)
Don't believe it?
Give me an argument to the contrary!! |
Duncan
Supporter
Username: Duncanrogers
Post Number: 5942
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 8:10 pm: |
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No tulip. It is not corruption. It is horribly misguided and wrong headed. |
cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 5335
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 9:44 pm: |
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tulip -- you're so silly. Social Security is just fine. If it weren't, the public would have insisted upon a fix. Republicans stupidly offered one to a problem that doesn't exist, and the Democrats didn't offer anything which was the honorable thing to do. |
Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 1671
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 10:01 pm: |
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I have to find fault with two things on this thread.
1. the comparison of Gitmo to concentration camps.
As bad as they may, the Gitmo and other extant pens for terrorists or whoever is in there thanks to the Bush regime, don't have the reputation of gassing 6 million people. It's grotesque and act of gross historical misunderstanding to compare Gitmo to that singular bestial crime.
2. Calling the $1 trillionwar of choice an act of corruption. It is not that. And calling it that will not get us far.
We need to call it what it is: the most baldfaced, misguided, mishandled, misbegotten act of incompetence that we have seen come out of Washington in a generation.
Richard Nixon was corrupt. Tammany Hall was corrupt. Frank Hague was corrupt. In good, old fashioned, corrupt ways.
Let's not sully the noble notion of political corruption (which takes a certain amount of intelligence and craftiness to carry out on a grand scale) with the petty stupidity, incompetence, ham-handedness, and downright brainlessness that characterizes the current administration.
In my always oh so humble opinion. |
Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 1672
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 10:03 pm: |
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It's grotesque and AN act of gross historical misunderstanding... is what I meant to write. |
cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 5336
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 10:10 pm: |
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I always get a charge out of NJ voters railing about a culture of corruption. |
Dave
Supporter
Username: Dave
Post Number: 8883
Registered: 4-1997
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 10:15 pm: |
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I'm convinced RL is cjc so he has a guaranateed argument. |
Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 1674
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 14, 2006 - 10:23 pm: |
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dave:
If he is, he's not that good at being either one.
IMHO. |
tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 3324
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 3:58 am: |
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cjc: So the expenditure of a trillion dollars on a war of choice is OK? |
Duncan
Supporter
Username: Duncanrogers
Post Number: 5947
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 7:55 am: |
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tulip...when you get excited about something your logic falls apart. His A does not equal your B. Much as I disagree with cjc you cannot compare his and your conclusions.
You know full well that cjc doesn't consider it a war of choice so he cannot even entertain your question.
Muddy headedness does nothing to further your cause. Look what it has done to the democratic party at a national level. |
Robert Livingston
Citizen
Username: Rob_livingston
Post Number: 1745
Registered: 7-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 8:52 am: |
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To clarify: The comparison of Gitmo to the holocaust is inappropriate, and I apologize for any offense this may have caused. |
Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 1677
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 10:30 am: |
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Tulip:
to clarify from my point of view: the trillion dollar war of choice is not OK. But to call it an act of corruption is hyperbole.
The problem with our trillion dollar war of choice is that it was conceived, planned, and "executed" (probably the most appropriate word in this situation) by incompetents.
Again I say: It takes guile, craftiness, intelligence, and "smarts" to be corrupt. Let's not sully the concept of corruption by confusing it with incompetence.
It doesn't take much to be incompetent.
I'd love to think that the leaders of this administration were sharp enough to be corrupt. It would give me a thrill.
Sad to say, they're just incompetent.
Cheney and Rumsfeld are trying to fight the war of 50 years ago with today's "enemy."
Bush is tone-deaf and has no strategy. That's OK if you're "running" Texas, but not if you're purporting to be a world leader.
Bush never fought a war and, supported by his family's cushy network, was always able to skate by on minimum effort.
He's still doing that. But now it imperils us as a nation. |
tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 3327
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 3:56 pm: |
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Innis: I fear you underestimate Bush. I think he may have agreed with Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rove et al to "pretend" they were going to use Iraqi forces in the very beginning, when they went in to "find WMD." I think he agreed to make it look like that's what they were going to do. Rice, by the way, was never told they were not going to use Iraqi forces. Once the US entered Iraq, Bremer decided he'd go after the Baathists, and not allow Iraqi forces to play much of a role in the (may we call it an invasion?) It turned out much of the Iraqi army were not Baathists, despite Bremer's position. However, being much more perturbed about the US presence than we thought, the army took the money the US gave them and went home.
You have to read the book Cobra II by those two ex-military men. It explains all of this.
Why do you believe what you hear, that Bush is just tone deaf? I think he's wily and shrewd, and the whole thing is quite well thought out, with the US citizenry as the chumps.
Maybe that makes me a radical. I don't go out and throw bombs or stage demonstrations, but I don't think Bush is just stupid either. Stupid like a fox, who wants his chickens.
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tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 3328
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 3:57 pm: |
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In other words, just because it's all an incompetent mess right now, doesn't mean there wasn't a corrupt, evasive stance at the outset.
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Duncan
Supporter
Username: Duncanrogers
Post Number: 5959
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 8:27 pm: |
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Wouldn't there have to be a track record of wily-ness and shrewdness prior to his taking the White House? |
tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 3334
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 9:04 pm: |
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Umm, isn't there? Maybe not shrewd, but how else to get through Yale with no apparent communication skills? How else to go from baseball team owner to politician? I don't say he, alone, is the conspirator maximus. I do say, however, that he may have a problem with his moral compass, being so very privileged all of his life. What about the non-appearance in the National Guard and getting all kinds of excuses for that non-appearance? What about being such a "patriot" when being exempt from military service? I mean, where's his conscience? I think he's "opaque" enough morally to participate in conscious, but deniable, complicity in "stretching" the truth about everything from WMD to allowing his National Security Advisor (Rice, at the time) to be ignorant of the fact that his army was not going to be enlisting large-scale assistance of the Iraqis upon entry into Iraq.
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Foj
Citizen
Username: Foger
Post Number: 1002
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 9:53 pm: |
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"Unless you can lead me to some American concentration camps, why don't we stay in the realm of the real?"
You are kidding, right? or on drugs? |
cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 5351
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, March 15, 2006 - 9:58 pm: |
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Hillary, Abramoff and Sweatshops? Surely they must be jesting. Wait until RL hears about this one. Is his scoresheet closed?
http://thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/Comment/ByronYork/031606.html |
3ringale
Citizen
Username: Threeringale
Post Number: 90
Registered: 1-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 7:05 am: |
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I don't see how anyone can view the Bush administration as a sure-footed, Machiavellian juggernaut. Aside from the mess in Iraq, you have Harrriet Miers, the Katrina fallout, the Dubai debacle and now the push for amnesty over enforcement in the Senate's consideration of the immigration bill. This list could be longer, but the trend seems clear enough.
Cheers |
Twokitties
Citizen
Username: Twokitties
Post Number: 400
Registered: 8-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 8:12 am: |
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Without question, Hillary should return that money and speak out loudly against Saipan's labor laws. But a $10,000 donation to Hillary is not equivalent to a $500,000 donation to DeLay in exchange for a promise to thwart Congressional reforms to the island’s garment factories. |
Duncan
Supporter
Username: Duncanrogers
Post Number: 5963
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 10:33 am: |
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Tulip...in response...
NEPOTISM.. same way he got to be president.
I doubt GWB has read THE PRINCE or THE ART OF WAR, let alone even know what they are |
cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 5354
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 10:43 am: |
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Twokitties -- did Hillary thwart any impetus to address those labor practises?
And as the thinking goes, Harry Reid says getting $60K plus from Indian tribes who retained Jack Abramoff has nothing to do with his continued support of Indian issues. You have to look past him voting against one tribe's interest when the other tribe just happened to be a new contributor to his campaign coffers to make that ring true, however.
So in that same vein, DeLay could then feasibly claim that the money he received had nothing to do with his continued support of legislation against the minimum wage, unnecessary regulations, etc. |
Twokitties
Citizen
Username: Twokitties
Post Number: 402
Registered: 8-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 11:27 am: |
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I'm not sure I follow your logic. Delay is in deep with Saipan. $500,000 buys a lot more than $10,000. Hillary should return that money, but comparing her involvement with them to Delay's involvement with them is silly. |
cjc
Citizen
Username: Cjc
Post Number: 5355
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 11:43 am: |
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The logic is Harry Reid says "so what I got 60K from Indian Tribes. I've been a champion of Indians my whole career and they're not buying anything. It's not like I suddenly changed how I vote on these issues."
DeLay says "so what I got $500K from this garment factory owner. I've been against the minimum wage my whole career, against intrusive government regulation, and this money didn't buy anything. It's not like I switched the way I've consistently voted on these issues."
The argument, Twokitties, is DeLay got "paid" for votes he otherwise wouldn't have made. Same with Reid.
Therefore, they weren't buying anything. Now if Hillary has been against sweatshops her whole career, but then throws a bone to a sweatshop worker after getting $10K -- that's far different from what Reid and arguably DeLay is using for their defense. |
Twokitties
Citizen
Username: Twokitties
Post Number: 403
Registered: 8-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, March 16, 2006 - 1:09 pm: |
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I get it, thanks. But I don't think Hillary has thrown any bones to sweatshop owners. |
tulip
Citizen
Username: Braveheart
Post Number: 3336
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Friday, March 17, 2006 - 5:35 pm: |
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cjc: Byron York is a shameless mouthpiece ("shill" I believe you call it?) of the right.
Believable? Not exactly. |
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