Archive for the 'Insult and Injury' Category

Cheney: History will show Bush created a ‘more hopeful world

From Rawstory:

George W. Bush has made the world a more hopeful place.This from Vice President Dick Cheney, who spoke to a crowd of Oklahoma Republicans Friday evening. 

“When the history is written, it will be said this is a safer country and more hopeful world because George Bush was president,” Cheney said, according to Oklahoma’s Tulsa World.Of Iraq, Cheney quipped: “Our strategy is the right strategy. The only way we can lose is to quit.”

If the US departs, he said, it would show America “doesn’t have the stomach for a fight.” Cheney himself received five draft deferments to avoid service in the Vietnam war.To justify a US presence in the wartorn region, Cheney cited the Russian experience in Afghanistan.

“We were engaged in that country, lending support to the mujahadeen against Soviet forces,” he said. “Afterwards, everybody walked away and forgot about Afghanistan. What followed was a civil war and the emergence of the Taliban. In 1996, Osama Bin Laden was invited into Afghanistan. He trained thousands of terrorists, some of whom were part of the attacks here on the United States.”

He didn’t mention the the US pulled out of Afghanistan as well, after the defeat of the Soviets, or that US business, including those in Texas during George W. Bush’s term as governor, engaged in business with the Taliban regime.

“His remarks did not cover any new ground,” the Tulsa paper noted. “He plugged Oklahoma’s Republican congressional delegation and presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain, advocated more oil wells and refineries as the solution to rising gasoline prices and predicted dire economic consequences if current temporary tax cuts and incentives are not made permanent.”

Slams Democrats for bill Bush vetoed 

Article Continues @ Sourced Site

 

 

Bush crony not liable for telling people WTC air was safe

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

NEW YORK (AP) — Former EPA chief Christine Todd Whitman cannot be held liable for telling residents near the World Trade Center site that the air was safe to breathe after the 2001 terrorist attacks, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Whitman apparently made comments reassuring people about the safety around the site based on conflicting information and reassurances by the White House.

The appeals court said legal remedies are not always available for every instance of arguably deficient governmental performance.

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit by residents, students and workers in lower Manhattan and Brooklyn who said they were exposed to hazardous dust and debris from the fallen twin towers after Sept. 11. More

Countrywide Financial Corp. execs to get millions in stock

NEW YORK (CNN) — The two top executives at struggling Countrywide Financial Corp., the nation’s largest mortgage lender, are slated to receive a combined $19 million in payouts, a regulatory filing shows.

The payments are part of the company’s pending takeover by Bank of America.

Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo is set to receive $10 million in stock, and President David Sambol will get about $9 million, according to documents Bank of America filed this week with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Sambol will receive another $28 million in cash and stock to stay with the combined company, the document states.

Their compensation is tied directly to the performance of the company via stock and options that the executives have held over time, according to the filing.

Mozilo and Sambol, along with ex-Citigroup chief Charles Prince, came under fire this month by members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, who chastised the executives for helping foster the current mortgage crisis.

Mozilo, Sambol and Prince made headlines in the past year for their lofty compensation after their companies suffered heavy losses in the U.S. housing market. More

Yeah, boy! That’ll teach ya! (sarcasm off)-Sue

Katrina victims may have to repay money

Via YahooNews:

By JOHN MORENO GONZALES, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 29, 7:23 PM ET

NEW ORLEANS - Imagine that your home was reduced to mold-covered wood framing by Hurricane Katrina.

Desperate for money to rebuild, you engage in a frustrating bureaucratic process, and after months of living in a government-provided trailer that gives off formaldehyde fumes you finally win a federal grant.

Then a collector announces that you have to pay back thousands of dollars.

Thousands of Katrina victims may be in that situation.

A private contractor under investigation for the compensation it received to run the Road Home grant program for Katrina victims says that in the rush to deliver aid to homeowners in need some people got too much. Now it wants to hire a separate company to collect millions in grant overpayments.

The contractor, ICF International of Fairfax, Va., revealed the extent of the overpayments when it issued a March 11 request for bids from companies willing to handle “approximately 1,000 to 5,000 cases that will necessitate collection effort.”

The bid invitation said: “The average amount to be collected is estimated to be approximately $35,000, but in some cases may be as high as $100,000 to $150,000.”

The biggest grant amount allowed by the Road Home program is $150,000, so ICF believes it paid some recipients the maximum when they should not have received a penny. If ICF’s highest estimate of 5,000 collection cases — overpaid by an average of $35,000 — proves to be true, that means applicants will have to pay back a total of $175 million.

Article Continues @ Sourced Site.

Asked about two thirds of Americans’ opposition to war, Cheney says, ‘So?’

From Rawstory:

John Byrne
Published: Wednesday March 19, 2008

 Vice President fishing on Oman sultan’s yacht Wednesday

On the fifth anniversary of President George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq, President Bush said he has no doubts about waging the unpopular war despite the “high cost in lives and treasure.”

Vice President Dick Cheney had a different message. Informed during a Good Morning America interview broadcast Wednesday that two-thirds of Americans now think the war was not worth fighting, Cheney said: “So?”

“So you don’t care what the American people think?” ABC’s Martha Raddatz asked.

He added: “I think we cannot be blown off course by the fluctuations of the public opinion polls. There has in fact been fundamental change and transformation and improvement for the better. That’s a huge accomplishment.”

Cheney added that the economy was going through a “rough patch, there’s no question about it.”

The White House later released a transcript which shows that Cheney’s first response wasn’t “so” as ABC presented on its broadcast.

Article Continues @ Sourced Site.

The Power Of The Pen; The Answer To People Like Sally Kern

Oklahoma Representative, Sally Kern, in a resent meeting with some of her constituents, equated homosexuality with terrorism and malignant cancer. She was recorded saying that “Homosexuality is a bigger threat to our nation than terrorism or Islam.” She continued that “According to God words, it is not the right kind of lifestyle….Gays are infiltrating city councils…. It’s deadly and its spreading, and it will destroy our young people, and it will destroy this nation.”

A letter to Sally Kern from a senior in high school in Oklahoma

Today my nephew attempted to deliver a letter to Sally Kern but was stopped by a highway patrol man. With his permission I am distributing the letter to all news stations and thought I would include it here.

Maybe we can all stand to learn a listen from this smart, loving, young man. He more than most has reason to hate. He lost his mother, my sister, in the Murrah Building bombing.

Elizabeth

Rep Kern:
On April 19, 1995, in Oklahoma City a terrorist detonated a bomb that killed my mother and 167 others. 19 children died that day. Had I not had the chicken pox that day, the body count would’ve likely have included one more. Over 800 other Oklahomans were injured that day and many of those still suffer through their permanent wounds.

That terrorist was neither a homosexual or was he involved in Islam. He was an extremist Christian forcing his views through a body count. He held his beliefs and made those who didn’t live up to them pay with their lives.

As you were not a resident of Oklahoma on that day, it could be explained why you so carelessly chose words saying that the homosexual agenda is worst than terrorism. I can most certainly tell you through my own experience that is not true. I am sure there are many people in your voting district that laid a loved one to death after the terrorist attack on Oklahoma City. I kind of doubt you’ll find one of them that will agree with you.

I was five years old when my mother died. I remember what a beautiful, wise, and remarkable woman she was. I miss her. Your harsh words and misguided beliefs brought me to tears, because you told me that my mother’s killer was a better person than a group of people that are seeking safety and tolerance for themselves.

As someone left motherless and victimized by terrorists, I say to you very clearly you are absolutely wrong.

You represent a district in Oklahoma City and you very coldly express a lack of love, sympathy or understanding for what they’ve been through. Can I ask if you might have chosen wiser words were you a real Oklahoman that was here to share the suffering with Oklahoma City? Might your heart be a bit less cold had you been around to see the small bodies of children being pulled out of rubble and carried away by weeping firemen?

I’ve spent 12 years in Oklahoma public schools and never once have I had anyone try to force a gay agenda on me. I have seen, however, many gay students beat up and there’s never a day in school that has went by when I haven’t heard the word **** slung at someone. I’ve been called gay slurs many times and they hurt and I am not even gay so I can just imagine how a real gay person feels. You were a school teacher and you have seen those things too. How could you care so little about the suffering of some of your students?

Let me tell you the result of your words in my school. Every openly gay and suspected gay in the school were having to walk together Monday for protection. They looked scared. They’ve already experienced enough hate and now your words gave other students even more motivation to sneer at them and call them names. Afterall, you are a teacher and a lawmaker, many young people have taken your words to heart. That happens when you assume a role of responsibility in your community. I seriously think before this week ends that some kids here will be going home bruised and bloody because of what you said.

I wish you could’ve met my mom. Maybe she could’ve guided you in how a real Christian should be acting and speaking.

I have not had a mother for nearly 13 years now and wonder if there were fewer people like you around, people with more love and tolerance in their hearts instead of strife, if my mom would be here to watch me graduate from high school this spring. Now she won’t be there. So I’ll be packing my things and leaving Oklahoma to go to college elsewhere and one day be a
writer and I have no intentions to ever return here. I have no doubt that people like you will incite crazy people to build more bombs and kill more people again. I don’t want to be here for that. I just can’t go through that again.

You may just see me as a kid, but let me try to teach you something. The old saying is sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you. Well, your words hurt me. Your words disrespected the memory of my mom.

Your words can cause others to pick up sticks and stones and hurt others.

Sincerely

Tucker

Bush says if younger, he would work in Afghanistan

By Tabassum Zakaria

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush got an earful on Thursday about problems and progress in Afghanistan where a war has dragged on for more than six years but been largely eclipsed by Iraq.

In a videoconference, Bush heard from U.S. military and civilian personnel about the challenges ranging from fighting local government and police corruption to persuading farmers to abandon a lucrative poppy drug trade for other crops.

Bush heard tales of all-night tea drinking sessions to coax local residents into cooperating, and of tribesmen crossing mountains to attend government meetings seen as building blocks for the country’s democracy-in-the-making.

“I must say, I’m a little envious,” Bush said. “If I were slightly younger and not employed here, I think it would be a fantastic experience to be on the front lines of helping this young democracy succeed.”

“It must be exciting for you … in some ways romantic, in some ways, you know, confronting danger. You’re really making history, and thanks,” Bush said.

He was told of efforts to reduce support for the Taliban in tribal areas as well as hopeful signs that schools were being built, more health care was reaching remote areas and local government officials were being trained in management.

Critics accuse Bush of focusing on Iraq to the detriment of Afghanistan where the Taliban has persisted in fighting after being ousted from power by the U.S.-led war in 2001 following the Sept. 11 attacks.

NATO SUMMIT

Story Continues @ Sourced Site.




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