culture, politics, commentary, criticism

Friday, October 07, 2005
Where the tax break went.
"The cost to heat homes with natural gas could increase about $500 this winter compared with last year."

The average tax break in 2004 for the two-thirds of taxpayers who make less than $50,000 per year: $383.
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Thursday, October 06, 2005
Sacrifice Jenna first. "Wars are not won without sacrifice, and this war will require more sacrifice, more time and more resolve,"
Bush said today.

whoops!
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Miers & TANG. "Newsweek reported on July 9, 2000 that the Bush campaign 'launched a secretive research operation designed to scour all records relating to his Vietnam-era service' during preparation for Bush's 1998 re-election campaign. They paid 'hard-nosed Dallas lawyer named Harriet Miers' $19,000 to review the records. According to Newsweek, one result of her work was to deflect charges that former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes helped Bush get into the Texas Air National Guard despite low qualifications and a long waiting list. Barnes was later forced to testify under oath that he helped Bush."
(
Source)(Via)
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Wednesday, October 05, 2005
The return of Darleen Druyun. The Air Force procurement officer who cost taxpayers billions in backroom deals, is out of the big house (
GovExec.com):
A former senior Air Force acquisition official was released from prison in Marianna, Fla., Friday after serving nine months for giving Boeing Co. preferential treatment in contract awards in exchange for a job.

Darleen Druyun's sentence also included a $5,000 fine, 150 hours of community service and seven months of community confinement upon release.

[...]

Druyun, 57, in April 2004 pleaded guilty to giving Boeing preferential treatment. She served as principal deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition and management from 1993 to 2002, where she oversaw contract negotiations for Boeing's leasing of tanker aircraft for the Pentagon. That deal was worth $20 billion.

Druyun secretly met with Michael Sears, then a senior executive for Boeing, at the Orlando airport in October 2002 to discuss her salary, bonus and starting date at the company.

In January 2003, Druyun accepted a position as vice president and deputy general manager of Boeing's missile defense systems, where she remained until she was terminated in November 2003.

Druyun and Sears, who was sentenced to four months in prison in February, agreed to lie about their discussions.
Let's get this straight: she doctors a $20 billion deal so she could get a better job for herself and her daughter. And she served only nine months?

druyun
Darleen Druyun, enemy combatant
in the Global War on Taxpayers
Hello! The average sentence for just having (not selling) marijuana in a state like Alabama is 8.4 years. A sentence of nine months for falsifying the terms of a $20 billion bill footed by taxpayers seems a wee bit light, especially in the retrospective light of financial obligations with respect to Iraq, Katrina, Medicare, etc., etc., etc.

Meanwhile, the arrest of another procurement crook, David Safavian, for lying and obstructing a criminal investigation into the dealings of Washington lobbyist Jack Abramoff, will probably culminate in probation and a dozen hours of community service.

Darleen Druyun was an enemy combatant in the Global War on Taxpayers, and now she's free! There's your values-based administration in a nutshell.

Bonus Druyun links for the corruption aficionado
The $5.7 billion she cost taxpayers
Druyun's boss Michael Sears writes a hilarious book on ethics
Druyun's daughter Heather McKee
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The privatization lie. There's a serious problem with the big savings that proponents of privatization always promise before they dig their sticky hands into the public till. They
don't exist, at least according to the current national prototype — the state of Texas (Houston Chronicle):
Privatization of functions formerly performed by [state] government workers has yet to achieve any of the predicted $21.7 million in savings at the Texas Health and Human Services Commission, the state auditor reported Tuesday.

And, the auditor found, it's not clear whether using private workers for payroll and human resources jobs will save the state any money at all.

[...]

The commission awarded the contract to Convergys in October 2004 after conducting an analysis it said showed the company could save the state as much as $21.7 million over five years.

[...]

The auditor said commission officials overestimated the cost of a government-run system by $19 million while omitting $24 million in start-up costs and not counting other costs for the private contractor.
Three-card monte continues to be big business, and the sellers of privatization along with their governmental shills are, in a word, liars.
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Tuesday, October 04, 2005
August 6, 2001. A vacationing president, an ominous memo, and
a Supreme Court nominee in a fucked-up blouse.

UPDATE: More here.
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View the Archive

Greatest Hits · Alternatives to First Command Financial Planning · First Command, last resort, Part 3 · Part 2 · Part 1 · Stealing $50K from a widow: Wells Real Estate · Leo Wells, REITs and divine wealth · Sex-crazed Red State teenagers · What I hate: a manifesto · Spawn of Darleen Druyun · All-American high school sex party · Why is Ken Lay smiling? · Poppy's Enron birthday party · The Saudi money laundry and the president's uncle · The sentence of Enron's John Forney · The holiness of Neil Bush's marriage · The Silence of Cheney: a poem · South Park Christians · Capitalist against Bush: Warren Buffett · Fastow childen vs. Enron children · Give your prescription money to your old boss · Neil Bush, hard-working matchmaker · Republicans against fetuses and pregnant women · Emboldened Ken Lay · Faith-based jails · Please die for me so I can skip your funeral · A brief illustrated history of the Republican Party · Nancy Victory · Soldiers become accountants · Beware the Merrill Lynch mob · Darleen Druyun's $5.7 billion surprise · First responder funding · Hoovering the country · First Command fifty percent load · Ken Lay and the Atkins diet · Halliburton WMD · Leave no CEO behind · August in Crawford · Elaine Pagels · Profitable slave labor at Halliburton · Tom Hanks + Mujahideen · Sharon & Neilsie Bush · One weekend a month, or eternity · Is the US pumping Iraqi oil to Kuwait? · Cheney's war · Seth Glickenhaus: Capitalist against Bush · Martha's blow job · Mark Belnick: Tyco Catholic nut · Cheney's deferred Halliburton compensation · Jeb sucks sugar cane · Poindexter & LifeLog · American Family Association panic · Riley Bechtel and the crony economy · The Book of Sharon (Bush) · The Art of Enron · Plunder convention · Waiting in Kuwait: Jay Garner · What's an Army private worth? · Barbara Bodine, Queen of Baghdad · Sneaky bastards at Halliburton · Golf course and barbecue military strategy · Enron at large · Recent astroturf · Cracker Chic 2 · No business like war business · Big Brother · Martha Stewart vs. Thomas White · Roger Kimball, disappointed Republican poetry fan · Cheney, Lay, Afghanistan · Terry Lynn Barton, crimes of burning · Feasting at the Cheney trough · Who would Jesus indict? · Return of the Carlyle Group · Duct tape is for little people · GOP and bad medicine · Sears Tower vs Mt Rushmore · Scared Christians · Crooked playing field · John O'Neill: The man who knew · Back to the top






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