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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: mph who wrote (27658)	6/2/2004 10:47:40 AM
From: ChinuSFO	Respond to of 81568

YOu were correct in "inferring" what I meant. That's all.

To: mph who wrote (27658)	6/2/2004 11:27:33 AM
From: American Spirit	Respond to of 81568

Taped Enron traders cheer fraud, praise Bush: CBS News obtained a videotape showing potty-mouthed Enron traders gleefully cheering on a forest fire that shut down a major transmission line in California ("Burn, baby, burn") and generally gloating over bringing on and cashing in on the energy crisis in the West four years ago. The Enron employees also dreamed of Ken Lay as secretary of energy under his friend George W. Bush, and predicted, correctly, that President Bush would not fight limits on high energy prices. The conversation took place before the 2000 election. From the CBS story: "When this election comes Bush will f------g whack this s--t, man. He won't play this price-cap b------t." Crude, but true. "We will not take any action that makes California's problems worse and that's why I oppose price caps," said Mr. Bush on May 29, 2001. Both the Justice Department and Enron tried to prevent the release of these tapes. Enron's lawyers argued they merely prove "that people at Enron sometimes talked like Barnacle Bill the Sailor." "Full" sovereignty? President Bush and others in the administration keep saying Iraqis will have "full sovereignty" after the June 30 "handoff," but Reuters reports that the interim Iraqi government that takes power then "will be more caretaking than autonomous, unable to do basic functions such as make laws or control military forces." "Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to former President Carter, says the term 'full sovereignty' -- emphasized Tuesday by Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell and national security adviser Condoleezza Rice -- lacks credibility. No government can be fully sovereign while its country is 'still being occupied by a foreign army, 140,000 men, subject to our authority,' he said. "Brzezinski envisions a government of 'limited sovereignty,' the same wording used by Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman before Congress in April. The Bush administration quickly disavowed that phrase in favor of 'full sovereignty.' Nevertheless, the Iraqi administration to be installed on July 1 is more a caretaker government than an entity with broad authority to exercise its will. As an example, U.S. forces there will remain under American control. Also, the approval of any new laws must await the early 2006 installation of an elected government contemplated under the current timetable." "... Simon Chesterman, of the Institute for International Law and Justice at New York University, likens U.S. relations with the future Iraqi caretaker government to the dominant role the Soviet Union maintained over pliable East Bloc allies during the last century." Bush management style shows weaknesses The Washington Post looks at how Bush's management style -- delegate, delegate, delegate -- or, as the Post said, "focusing on big goals rather than on niggling details and delegating significant responsibility to his aides," failed him in handling the Abu Ghraib situation. The piece says Bush long knew there were problems at the Abu Ghraib and assumed they were being handled by the military. "Bush's aides say the graphic images documenting the abuse of detainees took him by surprise. But as they tell it, the president and his staff received many clues over the past year that there might be a problem -- for example, periodic reports from the International Committee of the Red Cross -- and did nothing because they had been assured the Pentagon was on the case." "A variety of presidential advisers and scholars said the White House's failure to recognize the significance of the warnings points to flaws in Bush's approach to governing that also could have contributed to the administration's inadequate planning and inaccurate presentations in the run-up to the Iraq war." Calls for Cheney probe The Boston Globe reports there are new calls on Capitol Hill for an investigation into whether Dick Cheney helped his old firm Halliburton get multi-billion dollar deals for reconstruction work in post-war Iraq. "A newly unearthed Pentagon e-mail about Halliburton contracts in Iraq prompted fresh calls on Capitol Hill yesterday for probes into whether Vice President Dick Cheney helped his old firm get the deals. The e-mail, reported in the latest edition of Time magazine, provided 'clear evidence' of a relationship between Cheney and multibillion-dollar contracts Halliburton has received for rebuilding Iraq, Senator Patrick Leahy said." "'It totally contradicts the vice president's previous assertions of having no contact' with federal officials about Halliburton's Iraq deals, Leahy, a Vermont Democrat, said in a conference call with reporters. 'It would be irresponsible not to hold hearings,' Leahy said." "The March 2003 Pentagon e-mail says action on a no-bid Halliburton contract to rebuild Iraq's oil industry was 'coordinated' with Cheney's office. Cheney was chief executive officer of the oilfield services giant from 1995 until he joined George W. Bush's presidential ticket in 2000."