Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Proud Deplorable who wrote (15954)	9/29/2007 11:48:17 AM
From: Ann Corrigan	Respond to of 224729

Henry Waxman: Witch Hunter in Chief Sept 29, 2007 WASHINGTON -- Two weeks after the 2006 elections put Democrats in charge of Congress, Time magazine depicted Rep. Henry Waxman, now the chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, as "The Scariest Guy in Washington." In the column by Karen Tumulty, the ultraliberal Beverly Hills Democrat is portrayed as "tenacious," and Tumulty says there is "no one tougher." She refers to him as the Napoleonic Waxman. In the blatant Time puff piece, Tumulty gushes, "What Waxman does love to do is write laws, and he has been extraordinarily good at it." She also quotes Waxman as saying his role as committee chairman will give him free rein to investigate "everything that the government is involved with (sic)." Notwithstanding the poor grammar, that may be the most accurate statement in the article. Since becoming committee chairman, Waxman has initiated numerous investigations into the activities of the Bush administration. According to his own news releases, he has probed -- if that's the right word -- the case of Valerie Plame, the celebrity CIA operative; Karl Rove; medical treatment at Walter Reed Army Medical Center; Karl Rove; Defense Department and State Department contracting practices; Vice President Dick Cheney; Karl Rove; construction and hiring practices at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad; and the democratically elected government of Iraq, and he has tried to smear the White House over erroneous reports on the tragic death of Pat Tillman and the rescue of Jessica Lynch. Other than reducing entire forests to pulp for the paper to print his reports, the American people, in whose name all this is being done, have precious little to show for his tireless work. Notwithstanding Waxman's billing as a legislator who loves to "write laws, and he has been extraordinarily good at it," only three of the 95 bills he has sponsored in the past decade have been enacted. Seventy-seven of them were so good that they didn't even make their way out of committee. Waxman's supporters describe him as a crusader for transparency in government. But the Time magazine flattery feature failed to disclose that the Time Warner Political Action Committee was the number one donor -- $13,500 -- to his 2006 re-election campaign, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Perhaps this revelation will prompt him to investigate the Federal Election Commission. Apparently Waxman's quest for full accountability in government contracting applies only to Republicans. According to Politico, a Capitol Hill publication, the FBI and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service have been exploring whether Reps. Paul Kanjorski and Jack Murtha of Pennsylvania -- both cronies of Waxman -- improperly earmarked millions of dollars in defense contracts to a firm owned by members of Kanjorski's family. Thus far, Waxman has indicated no interest in the matter. Perhaps that's because his staff has a few problems of its own. In July, while investigating hiring abuses in the construction of the new U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, this vaunted staff "invited" -- to use Waxman's word -- Mr. Rory Mayberry to testify about how the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad was being built by kidnapped Filipino workers. At the time, Mayberry was described as a whistle-blower who had courageously come forward to describe how unwilling Filipinos were dragooned into building our diplomatic mission. All the major news networks covered his shocking "revelations." But this week, The Wall Street Journal's "Washington Wire" revealed that the committee's star witness "has a string of convictions going back to the mid-1980s, including two for forgery, one for burglary and a fourth for welfare fraud." So much for good staff work. Of course, none of this has deterred Waxman and his merry minions in their continuing effort to hunt down and destroy anyone connected to the Bush administration. That's why next week, the committee has invited Erik Prince, the founder and CEO of Blackwater USA to testify about their work in Iraq. His legendary staff has demanded, as in all of its other "investigations" that the private security company deliver all documents in the company's possession pertaining to the much publicized incident on Sept. 16 when a diplomatic convoy being protected by Blackwater allegedly killed Iraqi civilians. Apparently it matters little to Waxman that the State Department's Regional Security Office in Baghdad has yet to complete its own investigation into the incident. When Prince appears before Waxman next week, he should expect to be accorded all the same "courtesies" granted to Gen. Petraeus when he testified a few weeks ago. His integrity is being impugned already by selective leaks to the media. The fact that 30 Blackwater security personnel have been killed protecting American officials -- without losing any of their protectees -- doesn't seem to matter. Interestingly, Waxman himself has been the beneficiary of their courage and skill during his visit to Iraq. Yet given the committee's zeal to destroy any and all associated with the Bush administration, no good deed will go unpunished. Given this behavior, is it any wonder that Congress has an 11 percent approval rating from the American public? Oliver North

To: Proud Deplorable who wrote (15954)	9/29/2007 1:32:04 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224729

The Islamic Republic of Iran, the terror-fomenting mullahcracy that has accused Canada, of all countries, of human-rights violations. Just before hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad visited New York this week, Iran published a 70-page booklet, "Report on Human Rights Situation in Canada." This document of supreme irony accuses the Canadian government of "den[ying] its people food, clean water and the right to work." Canada is accused of unlawful arrests, beatings and, most incredibly, given the source, violating the rights of women., Pigs will fly when Iran becomes the world's women-right's watchdog, and so it is very clear what's going on here. Iran believes that human-rights reports are simply tools of geopolitical vengeance, and it thinks it is entitled to some action. Some context: Last year, Canada condemned Iran for its human-rights violations. One lesson here is this regime does not understand the point of human-rights reports. Iran's history of horrific human-rights violations, among the worst on the planet, entails countless dissidents and religious leaders arrested and tortured; all forms of media subjected to government censorship; and women treated as if they aren't human beings.