The problem is that she was given this bully pulpit solely to rescue her own reputation at the expense of her nemesis John O'Neill. She was, after all, the person who forced him out of Yemen despite the fact that he was arguably the most experienced and knowledgeable FBI field agent to take Osama bin Laden or Al Qaeda seriously before the USS Cole bombing in October 2000.
Too bad O'Neill's not here for a rebuttal — he was killed by bin Laden on 9/11/01 in the World Trade Center. But Bodine's unfortunately still here to rewrite history, just like the Bush-Disney administration, in her own defense.
And shame on the LA Times. With so much wrong with this movie and the way it was promoted, they choose to give valuable editorial space to an Iraq invasion administrative functionary who is intent on playing revisionist CYA games.
The former head of pipeline-corrosion monitoring for BP PLC in Alaska refused to testify under oath Thursday as outraged lawmakers grilled company officials over the causes of a massive oil spill earlier this year.
Richard C. Woollam, who was transferred to BP's Houston offices in 2005 amid concerns that he intimidated potential whistleblowers, invoked the Fifth Amendment of the Constitution in refusing to answer all questions from a House subcommittee. [...]
Steve Marshall, the president of BP Exploration Alaska Inc., acknowledged that the corrosion problem could have been mitigated by more consistent inspection and removal -- or "pigging" -- of sludge that builds up on the inner walls of oil pipelines, providing shelter for the bacteria.
"Clearly, in retrospect, pigging would have been a positive step we could have taken," Mr. Marshall said.
Oddly enough, "the performance of mitigation, monitoring and inspection programs" happens to be an area of expertise for the very same Richard C. Woollam, who has chosen not to tell the truth.
Intimidates whistleblowers, refuses to tell the truth. Just what we need — another Houston sleazeball (and/or British poodle) to symbolize the mendacity of the All-Oil White House.
Mexico moved one step closer to a social explosion with the Federal Election Tribunal's decision to crown conservative Felipe Calderon as the victor in the hotly contested presidential elections of July 2. The tribunal acknowledged Calderon's campaign had "violated the norms of public order," particularly with the role played by the business associations in airing rabid TV ads attacking leftist candidate Andres Miguel Lopez Obrador. But it refused to question the fundamental legitimacy of the elections or to recount all the votes as demanded by the leftist opposition. [...]
The campaign slogan of Lopez Obrador was straightforward: "For the good of all, the poor first." His program during the campaign was actually quite reformist. In a country where half the population lives below the poverty line Lopez Obrador pledged to provide a stipend to the elderly and healthcare for the poor. Millions of jobs would also be created, particularly by undertaking large construction projects to modernize Mexico's dilapidated transportation system. He also promised to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement with the United States, particularly the clauses that allow the importation of cheap subsidized grains that undermine Mexico's peasant producers.
More importantly Lopez Obrador pledged to break up the corrupt economic relationship that exists between the business class and government bureaucrats. Everyone in Mexico knows that bribes and kickbacks are commonplace throughout Mexico as much of the country's wealth is skimmed off at the expense of the workers and the poor. This system existed under the previous governments of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). It became particularly insidious under the incumbent President Vincente Fox and his National Action party (PAN) because it more than the PRI, is the party of an entrenched business elite. And not only is Lopez Obrador threatening to break up the system of inside favours and corruption, he is also proclaiming that the rich will have to pay the income and business taxes that they routinely avoid.
The rich pulling their own weight — what a concept.
