Wolfowitz on His Way out, But Not Before He Gets His

Embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz is allegedly working to secure a $400,000 bonus due to him on June 1 before he resigns his position, according to the blog The Washington Note. Let me say that again, Wolfowitz thinks he’s due a BONUS for drawing the exact kind of negative press that can cripple an organization like this. Hubris doesn’t begin to describe these people.

And I’m getting sick and tired of people working with these criminals and nare-do-wells to make the transition smoother. Why in the name of god, would you not just say. Paul, you screwed up royally, you got caught. When people in a position such as yours, (which includes launching a corruption probe, irony of ironies) are found out to be incompetent, criminal, or just plain shady, you get the boot. Had you not given your girlfriend a raise and promotion, without any proof or documentation that she deserved it, you wouldn’t be in this mess. Time to pay the piper Paul. Get the hell out of here!

You aren’t getting a performance budget, and it’s incredibly odd that you would ask for one. As someone else on another website said. This could be the definition of extortion, “I’ll stop hurting you, and your business, as soon as you pay me” Perhaps if the World Bank really wanted to show him how to play the game, they should file charges, with the promise that they’ll be dropped, the minute he vacates his office.

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Will He? Or Won’t He?

In what is becoming the most compelling story of a less than dry campaign cycle, new rumors have emerged that Al Gore may run for President in 2008. There have been claims that friends of the former Vice-President are secretly putting together a campaign team, or at least, putting a claim on two former members of Gore’s campaign team. Tim Shipman of the British newspaper, the Telegraph has stated that Gore’s friends are also putting together a “shadow team” that would be able to run a campaign on short notice, and on a shortened campaign schedule.
Adding more intrigue is the fact that Gore’s current staff is doing it’s best to stamp out the rumors. Gore spokesperson Kalee Kreider has issued a release saying, “There is not a secret campaign operation in Nashville or any other part of the country to mobilize a campaign…other than that which the former Vice President has stated, to mobilize the American people to address the climate crisis.” Additionally, former Gore adviser Michael Feldman said the talk is “Pure fantasy.”
If it’s true that Gore has no desire to run again, he’s not helping his staff put out the fires. During his acceptance speech at the Oscars, where he won an award for best documentary for “An Inconvenient Truth” Gore began to formally announce something, but the music usually used to “play a person off” started up, over the top of him. After the event, Gore played it off as a joke, but there are some conspiracy theorists who claim the crew had no idea he was going to do it.
Personally, I’m not sure I want Gore to run. He could certainly energize a democratic base that is torn between Barack Obama, and Hilary Clinton. He could also further polarize an already polarized America, and could inadvertently energize a republican swath of voters that cannot get excited about their candidates, but could get very excited about defeating one of Bill Clinton’s proteges. He’s had a bit of egg on his face after it was announced that the Global Warming warrior’s own mansion was eating up electricity like the Cookie Monster eats baked goods, and the right would almost certainly label him a sore loser, after demanding recount after recount in Florida. (even though there was damn good reason to do so) And of course the old stories that he claimed things he never actually claimed would be dusted off by the likes of Fox News, and passed off as fact, just as they were the last time. No, now that I type all this out, I don’t think I want Gore to run, the more I think about it, the more I believe an Al Gore campaign in ‘08 would almost surely hand the Right Wing the Whitehouse for at least another 4 years, and that’s something this country desperately needs to avoid.

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Tony Blair to Step Down May 9th

British Prime Minister Tony Blair has announced that he will end his 10 year reign on May 9th. More interesting than the what, is the why. Apparently the abrupt announcement is at least in part due to a desire to preempt any charges in the “Cash For Honours” scandal that has started to envelope an already embattled leader.
There has been no love lost between Blair and the British people over the last few years. He has been seen as nothing more than a puppet for the Bush Administration, with the big difference being that lately Blair has admitted serious mistakes had been made in the run-up to the Iraq war.

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Leaning Left Is Branching Out

Thanks in some part to this Blog being used as an audition, I’ll be a contributing writer on another website.

Most Valuable Network, or MVN.com is a sports blog type website that I found while reading one of my favorite writers, The Cub Reporter. While checking out the rest of the site, I noticed they were accepting applications for writers, so I threw my hat in the ring.

Since my favorite team is already being covered by the aforementioned writer, I’ve been named a new correspondent for the SanDiego Padres, in the San Diego Spotlight. I’ll be joining the very talented Rich Campbell, who I hope won’t feel I’m treading on his turf. I’m really looking forward to this opportunity and would like to thank Cory Hume, who is my new boss over there (and a contributing writer for the “Pittsburgh Lumber Company” which is the Pirates page on MVN) for the chance to do something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time.

I hope everyone will check them, (and myself when I finally write a column there) out often. You’ll find they have a very professional and entertaining style.

Stay Tuned……………..

Nebraska Legislature Takes Up the Tax Issue

April 17th and 18th have been interesting days in the Nebraska State House. Not because 16 hours of discussion about tax law is ever compelling stuff, but because of the obvious hypocrisy, and stone headed stubbornness displayed by some of the Senators.

Yesterday was filled with talk about giving back $500 to every home owner in the state. Senator White made some compelling arguments, you ALMOST believed he truly had the best interest of all Nebraskans in mind when he pitched this amendment to LB 367 which is dealing with changing the taxes on construction materials, and change the motor vehicle tax. White spoke for most of yesterday, and into today about how almost all Nebraskans would benefit from this “tax cut” he even went so far as to claim that ALL his constituents demanded this action. Which begs the question. Are there no renters in Senator White’s district? Or are they just so stupid, they don’t realize this amendment wouldn’t affect them in the slightest?

The discussion really got rolling when bombastic, and (usually confusing and rambling) Senator Friend attempted to add an amendment that would repeal the estate tax. Senator Friend claimed he wasn’t simply catering to his rich boosters from Omaha, but that he felt the estate tax (or Death Tax if you’re a republican) was horribly unfair because it was double taxation. Friend failed to mention that the estate tax affects a very small percentage of Nebraskans, and nationally an even smaller percentage of Americans. At the present moment the exemption amount is set at $1 million. Which means that an estate valued under $1 million dollars will not be taxed at all. If the exemption amount were raised to $2 million, only 150 people in the entire state would be affected by the Estate Tax. Think about that for a moment, this tax affects a tiny percent of the population, a group of people who’s total values make them millionares. But Senator Friend despises this tax, because it unfairly taxes people who “can’t afford it”

Quite a few Senators stood in support of a complete repeal of the Estate tax, enough that this liberal began to sweat a bit. Of course every Senator who stood in support for the amendment all claimed it was an unfair double taxation, albeit of those who can afford it the most.

“So where’s the hypocrisy?” You’re probably asking, and I respond to you, hold on a minute it’s coming.

Senator Friend withdrew the amendment, with the promise that he would revisit the issue at a more germane time in the proceedings, and we moved on Senator Chambers’ amendment. Senator Chambers, who has made many enemies during his 30 some years in the Legislature can make one claim that even those who hate him most cannot dispute. He fights for the little guy whenever possible. Chambers introduced an amendment that would lower the Sales Tax in Nebraska from 5.5% to 5%. Chambers rightfully touted this as a tax cut for EVERYONE from the richest among us, to the very poorest. What pushed my buttons the most was Senator Friend standing up in opposition to this amendment. If he’s truly against double taxation of the richest people in the state, surely he’s against what amounts to double taxation of everyone. But of course, Republican hypocrisy reared it’s ugly head, and after correctly pointing out that the Unicameral had actually promised to lower the tax rate once the state was out of the red when the voted to raise it a few years ago, Senators Chambers did one of the things he does best; he summed up clearly and accurately the lack of honesty that reverberates throughout the chamber on an all too regular basis. Chambers finished his comments directly after the vote with:

“I just saw compassion die.”

This Legislature talks a good game about caring for the downtrodden among us, but they rarely back up their talk with real action. Senator Chambers, Senator Lowen Kruse, and many others who truly have the best interest of their constituents and the state in mind are term limited, and I shudder to think what kinds of actions will be taken when they’re gone.

More Violence In Baghdad

CNN is reporting that a series of coordinated attacks have killed 127 people, and wounded another 94 in several bombings that went off at or around the same time.

The most devastating attack was at the Sadriya market where a car bomb ended the lives of 82 Iraqi citizens.

I for one am getting very sick of this bullshite. How in the name of God do you think what you’re doing is justified when you are killing people who doing nothing more than SHOPPING?! I understand, although I don’t like, the attacks on US troops, and the Iraqi army, because you think they are the enemy, but someone needs to tell me, right freaking now, what killing a bunch of your fellow countrymen accomplishes.

Congratulations! You killed people who were in the exact same boat as you! Now you’re surely going to heaven! I understand anger, I understand hatred, the world is filled with both. I don’t understand hating so much that you feel killing dozens of people is justified.

Cheney to Face Articles Of Impeachment

Uber Liberal, Dennis Kucinich has informed the Democratic leadership that he plans to file the impeachment papers later this week. While there’s very little chance Cheney would get impeached, maybe, just maybe, this will get Cheney to shut his f-ing blowhole for a bit. Between his claims that Iraq had ties to Al Q, to accusing Dems of lack of patriotism everytime they question the “Great Decider” he needs to be knocked down a peg.

Here’s the Story

Why Jackie Robinson Day Made Me Sad

No it wasn’t because the man is gone, and it took 60 years for a tribute to be carried out in the right way. It’s certainly not because I’m one of those tools who thinks it’s racist to celebrate this one black man. (I’m not kidding I heard that 3 times the last couple of day) I’m sad because Jackie Robinson embodied everything this country desperately needs, and he did it so long ago, as was pointed out ad-nauseum on Sunday, many kids will have to ask why players are wearing number 42.

Despite the lip service being paid to Jackie and god knows there was a ton of it, I still get the feeling that there are a lot of people who just do not understand the kind of man Jackie was, and the effect he had on this country. Jackie was a man who put simply, had to be perfect in every way. Not only did he have to be a damn good baseball player, but he had to be a good man. He had to take everything that was thrown at him, and not only survive it, but rise above it in a way I just don’t think a person would, or could do in this day and age.

Can you imagine Barry Bonds in Jackie’s situation? He would have set the cause back 15 years! Not because he couldn’t play baseball, Bonds was a hall of famer before he took steroids (allegedly) but because his enormous ego would not have allowed him to be the conciliatory person Jackie was. That’s not to say that Jackie was a “step ‘n’ fetch it” type guy, from all accounts he was incredibly principled. But he knew when the situation called for standing his ground, and when it called for blending into the background.

Jackie put an entire generation’s, and every generation after hopes and dreams on his shoulders, and did it willingly, and knowing full well what he was doing. I don’t believe there has ever been a time when this country needed a leader like that more, and then we do now. Leadership, both in the civil rights movement and in general now seem to be more about who can get the most face time. Does anyone really believe Al Sharpton stood up and railed about Don Imus for any reason other than to get some free press? Does anyone feel comforted by George Bush’s expressed outrage at the Virginia Tech shootings, while commenting how important it is to have the 2^nd amendment? Why in the name of god, do all our leader embarrass us more than uplift us? When did being a “strong leader” mean being stubborn? In an era when getting the most votes from a bunch of pre-teens means you’re a great musical talent, will we ever see a leader that makes decisions based on our best interests, instead of what they think will be accepted? And please don’t tell me Dubya is doing that, however small his fan base becomes, he’s still catering to a specific group, and in no way shape or form is he thinking of the greater good. If he thinks he is, he’s stupider than I thought. I’m honestly asking is the era of the man (or woman) that puts others ahead of themselves, without exception, gone? Can we ever get it back?

Thoughts like that are why Jackie Robinson day filled me with pride, and then almost immediately, filled me with sorrow.

Yes, and Asians Can Make a Radio Out of Anything

Yesterday, Republican Presidential hopeful, Tommy Thompson had a “Macaca moment” when addressing a group of Jewish political activists. During the speech Thompson; whose earlier claim to fame was approving political propaganda that was disguised as news stories and distributed to television channels around the country; said that “I’m in the private sector and for the first time in my life I’m earning money,” Thompson told the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. “You know that’s sort of part of the Jewish tradition…..”

Thompson later apologized for the remark, while simultaneously claiming there was nothing wrong with it in the way that only politicians can do. “”I didn’t (by) any means want to infer or imply anything about Jews and finances,” Thompson added, “what I was referring to … is the accomplishments of the Jewish religion. You’ve been outstanding business people and I compliment you for that.”

You know, if these people would just admit that the racism, or in this case anti-Semitism that bubble to the top was how they actually felt, they might get more votes. There are plenty of people in this country that have an irrational fear of anyone who isn’t exactly like them, and they’d vote for a man like Tommy Thompson, or George Allen. Now not only has Thompson probably lost the votes of anyone who doesn’t believe anti-Semitism is the way to go, but he’s lost the votes of the mouth breathers, who thought he was their man.

 

But….No one could have foreseen this! My Government told me so!

Former intelligence officials confirmed to the Associated Press Monday a Le Monde newspaper report that France’s foreign intelligent service had heard about an al Qaeda plot which was “likely to involve a US airplane.” The French paper had also reported that France informed the Central Intelligence Agency prior to the attacks on September 11, 2001.

Of course this means that basically every other intelligence agency in the world sensed something was coming, EXCEPT the CIA. But yeah, George Tenet deserved a medal

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