Surgeon General Was ‘Gagged By White House’

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to any of us the Bush will not allow anyone to say anything that would be in direct contradiction to his twisted thought process. Can you say thought process and Bush in the same sentence? Anyway, Dr Richard Carmona testified on Tuesday about how he was not allowed to say anything in direct contradiction to president incompetent. I guess Carmona didn’t get the recent Bush directive to shut up.

• For generations of Americans, the surgeon general has been the “nation’s doctor”, the person they turned to for unbiased advice on everything from smoking to obesity and HIV/Aids. But not under President George Bush, it now emerges.

• Damning testimony of Dr Richard Carmona, the surgeon general from 2002 until last year, has revealed that the Bush administration frequently censored him and tried to mould his public statements to fit political goals. He was even ordered to mention President Bush three times on every page of his speeches.

• The Bush White House banned Dr Carmona from speaking or issuing reports on stem cells, emergency contraception, sex education, prisons, mental health and international health issues, he has revealed. For years, the White House also tried to “water down” a key report on the dangers of second-hand smoke, he said. When it was published last year the report stated that even brief exposure to cigarette smoke can cause immediate harm.

• He was also told that global warming was a “liberal cause” and to decline invitations to attend scientific discussion meetings on the subject.

• Dr Carmona is the latest in a long line of officials claiming that political considerations take precedence over scientific facts at the Bush White House.

I guess when the neo-cons can’t breath anymore they may reconsider global warming being a “liberal cause”

• Anything that doesn’t fit into the political appointees’ ideological, theological or political agenda is often ignored, marginalised or simply buried,” Dr Carmona said. “There is nothing worse than ignoring science or marginalising the voice of science for reasons driven by changing political winds.”

• A White House spokesman denied the claims.

Of course they denied the claim. I would be shocked if the White House acknowledged any of the arm twisting, corrupt wrong doing that has become business as usual in this administration.

BREAKING: Republicans Vote Against Rest for Our Troops

From OpEdna

Please share this with all of your friends, as it will likely be buried in the media.

Today in the Senate, the Webb-Hagel Amendment, designed to let U.S. troops have longer leave periods to spend at home with their families, failed. Why, you ask? Because the party that trumpets “Support Our Troops” from the mountaintops and slap yellow ribbon magnets on their bumpers voted against it.

That’s right. The Republicans voted to prevent our troops from spending time at home with their families, from taking the much needed time to recuperate before being sent back to the frontlines.

The Washington Post reported:

“The Senate voted 56-41 to cut off debate on an amendment to the annual defense policy bill by Sen. James Webb (D-Va.) that would have mandated that troops be granted home leave between deployments of at least as long as their previous combat tours. Already stretched National Guard and Reserve units would have been granted three-year breaks between assignments.”

Read the full story

Lady Bird Johnson Dies At 94

AUSTIN, Texas — Lady Bird Johnson, the former first lady who championed conservation and worked tenaciously for the political career of her husband, former President Lyndon B. Johnson, died Wednesday, a family spokeswoman said. She was 94.

Lady Bird Johnson returned home late last month after a week at Seton Medical Center, where she’d been admitted for a low-grade fever. Her husband died in 1973.

She died at her Austin home of natural causes about 4:18 p.m. CDT. Elizabeth Christian, the spokeswoman, said she was surrounded by family and friends.

She was hospitalized with a stroke in 2002 that left her with difficulty speaking. But even after that she continued to make public appearances and in May attended an event at the LBJ Library and Museum featuring historian Robert Dallek.

In March, she listened from Texas through a conference call when President Bush signed legislation naming the Education Department headquarters building in Washington, D.C., after her late husband.

Mexico Gets Texas Land Through Border Fence

Everyday I wake up and think, what will our government managed to screw up today. Well low and behold they can’t even figure out the U.S. Mexico border. I suppose I shouldn’t be shock at the level of incompetence and never thinking anything through. Why that’s just part of our incompetent president and his incompetent policies.

• McALLEN, Tex., June 15 — Antonio N. Zavaleta, a vice president and professor of anthropology at the University of Texas branch in Brownsville, saw a slight problem in the route of a border fence that federal officials displayed at a community meeting earlier this month.

• “Part of our university,” Dr. Zavaleta said, “would be on the Mexican side of the fence.”

• What about traffic between classes, he wondered. “Would the students need to show a passport?”

Yes our government is priceless, incompetent, clueless and band-aid fix ridden.

• But maps like the one shown in Brownsville on June 4 by Chief David Aguilar of the Border Patrol put the route along a levee built inland to hold back flooding on the Rio Grande. That location, some here say, would in effect cede to Mexico the land on the other side of the fence up to the official international border, the middle of the Rio Grande.

• 

I’m sure Mexico is happy, since they’ve wanted to get Texas back for years.

• In Brownsville, Dr. Zavaleta said, that path would cut off not only the International Technology, Education and Commerce campus of the University of Texas and Texas Southmost College, which is in a former shopping center about a mile from the main campus, but also its golf course and a national historic site, Fort Brown, where an upright cannon marks an opening skirmish of the Mexican War.

• Even the heavily trafficked bridge between Brownsville and Matamoros, Mexico, would be on the Mexican side of the fence, Dr. Zavaleta said.

Wow, Mexico not only gets Texas land, and a full blown university, but they also get a national historical site and an American bridge. What a wind fall.

• In Brownsville, the district clerk, Aurora De La Garza, and a county commissioner, Sofia Benavides — who emerged from a hurricane-planning visit to the Mexican consulate at the university campus that would be isolated — derided officials in Washington as not understanding family ties across the border.

• “This is a relationship that cannot be broken by a fence,” Ms. Benavides said.

• Representative Henry Cuellar, the South Texas Democrat who has been organizing local forums to air grievances, said the Homeland Security Department had become more responsive.

Families mean nothing to this administration. Homeland Security is just another word for failure. Way to go Chertoff.

Miers And Taylor Should Be Held In Contempt

Enough is enough, Harriett Miers and Sara Taylor should both be held in contempt of Congress. They should spend a few nights in jail to reassess their loyalty to the most corrupt president in U.S. history.

• WASHINGTON – President Bush ordered his former White House counsel, Harriet Miers, to defy a congressional subpoena and refuse to testify Thursday before a House panel investigating U.S. attorney firings.

• “Ms. Miers has absolute immunity from compelled congressional testimony as to matters occurring while she was a senior adviser to the president,” White House Counsel Fred Fielding wrote in a letter to Miers’ lawyer, George T. Manning.

• Conyers, who had previously said he would consider pursuing criminal contempt citations against anyone who defied his committee’ subpoenas, revealed the letters after former White House political director Sara Taylor testified Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

• Taylor said she knew of no involvement by the president in the firings of the attorneys.

• She irked senators by refusing to answer many questions from a panel investigating whether the firings were politically motivated. She said she was bound by Bush’s position that White House conversations were protected by executive privilege.

Both Miers and Taylor are public citizens, so what right does the President have to tell any public citizen that they won’t testify. How dare Bush. It is very obvious to me that everyone that has ever been involved with this White House who is subpoenaed or on trial has been paid off.

The corruption that spins around this administration is a disgrace to the American foundation of truth and honor. The lack of action by the entire U.S. Congress is just as disgraceful. You really have to wonder how many members of Congress are on the Bush/Cheney corruption payroll.

Conyers, Leahy, Waxman, Feingold, Schumer need to be running the show. The rest of the top level Senators and Congressman are barley showing up to collect their pay check.

Pelosi’s Rude Phone Staff

It appears to me that Washington has turned into one giant self service, self important beast. When we, elect officials to Congress they seem to forget that they work at the pleasure of the American public. Their salaries and the salaries of all of their staff are paid through our taxes. So I am more than a bit pissed when any receptionist or staff member hangs up on anyone of us, when we are performing our civil duty by calling their office.

Case in point, Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s staff. I called to ask about impeachment (probably a huge waste of my time and money with Pelosi), while I am talking; the young lady says “thank you” and hangs up on me. I was still talking and I heard the dial tone in my ear.

How freaking rude I thought, so I called back to tell this young lady that I didn’t appreciate her hanging up on me and I asked to speak to her supervisor at which time she informed me that there were too many calls waiting. I insisted and she transferred me to another “phone center” (that’s what they call themselves) young lady. Who I might add was very nice.

I find out that the supervisor’s and their full name is a secret. Secrets seem to be the wave of D.C. these days. I inform her that my taxes pay her salary, her coworkers and Speaker Pelosi’s salies. To which I receive a response of thank you I will e-mail my supervisor (the mystery person) your complain and you will get a call back. I won’t hold my breath.

I can now see why Pelosi is not doing a damn thing that over 50% of the country wants her to do. Pelosi is stuck with her head in the clouds or up someone ass and her staff could give a rat’s ass about what we have to say. Maybe, Pelosi never gets to hear what we are calling about because her “call center” employees are to busy hanging up on citizens. Does Pelosi portray this dismissive attitude to her staff and they’re just following her lead?

It’s time for Congress to remember that you work for us, baby. We all know that a boss is ultimately responsible for the performance or lack thereof of their employees. It’s time for us to start firing and voting out our rude and dismissive employees.

So, in the spirit of being a very annoyed citizen, I give you Speaker Pelosi’s number 202-225-0100 and the pleasure of her “call center” gals.

UPDATE: I had this in the comments but I felt it should also be posted here:

Pelosi’s “mystery supervisor” a/k/a Paula did call me and apologized for the treatment I received.

She did say that they are swamped with calls but that was no excuse for rude behavior and she would fix the problem.

Thank you Paula for listening. Maybe there is hope for Pelosi, someone in her office listens.