6 Bush Scandals To Come - David Corn (Whoa! - read this!)

[UpInArms]

http://www.laweekly.com/ink/05/05/the-corn.php

The curse of the second term — it’s been around for decades. Clinton had Monica. Reagan had Iran-Contra. Nixon had Watergate. So what will be the "best" scandals of the Bush administration in the coming year or so? Here’s a look ahead.

Carlyle-gate. The Al Jazeera network reveals (and The New York Times confirms) that shortly before the recent election, the board of the Carlyle Group — the gargantuan global investment firm that counts the elder George Bush and former Secretary of State James Baker as advisers — voted George W. Bush a seat on its board. A sitting president on the board of a company that owns military contractors and can benefit from his decisions? The White House calls it an innocent mistake and that Carlyle’s board had passed a resolution guaranteeing Bush a spot on the board in the "unlikely event" that he was defeated. "Seems as if there was a typo in the resolution that was finally approved," a White House spokesperson explains. "And after the election, Carlyle simply forgot about it. By the way, they didn’t even bother to tell the president about it."

The Oil-for-Guns Scandal. In an operation run out of the Defense Department’s recreational-supplies division, U.S. officials — overseen by a member of a book group regularly attended by Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz — siphon oil from Iraqi supplies, sell it on the black market to North Korean representatives, and use the proceeds to buy weapons for a band of Iranian fundamentalist Christians plotting to overthrow the government of Tehran. When asked about the unfolding scandal, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld replies, "Would I want to have an unlimited budget that nobody in Congress had any say over in order to try all sorts of neat things I’d rather not read about in the papers? You betcha. Did I have any foreknowledge of this operation? Good gracious, I’d be a fool to answer that."

Americagate. In response to an "informal" suggestion from Dick Cheney to PBS — conveyed while Congress was considering the network’s budget — PBS launches a new show on United States history called Up With America. Its host is Lynne Cheney. In the first segment, she explores whether slaves brought over from Africa ended up in better living conditions than their relatives back home. The second episode is titled "The Benefits of Ignoring the Native American Experience." After the program starts airing, the White House approves a 7 percent increase in PBS funding. Asked whether there was any quid pro quo, Bush says no and adds, "Laura and I have just loved watching Antiques Roadshow and NOW With Bill Moyers." Cheney’s office maintains that he has nothing to do with Halliburton’s underwriting the series.

...more...

[roguevalley]

1. amerikkkagate

[The Zanti Regent]

20. The Whore Press will cover all this up.

Hitler never had it as good as Bush does!

[Mika]

2. Two words for this (these) story(s)..

Robert Blake

[MISSDem]

26. I don't understand what you mean

by "robert blake". care to explain?

[Dover]

3. Can't be a 'scandal' unless it sees the light of day in the mainstream.

There is already a large backlog of 'scandals' which have never received the kind of attention or legal review necessary for any of this to have teeth.

[Nothing Without Hope]

11. OT- that's a beautiful image - did you paint it?

I'm a watercolorist and am also interested in the kinds of images you used. I'd welcome a PM about this art, as irrelevant to the current discussion but of great interest to me.

[htuttle]

4. David Corn has been kind of an idiot lately

This article is a good example.

Instead of talking about the ACTUAL scandals that could break over the next four years, he goes and makes up a satirical list of fake scandals (except for the last one about Neil Bush -- and even that isn't the worst, real scandal about Neil Bush). WHY? It gives the impression that there aren't any real scandals to write about.

Coming after his attack on the anti-war movement last year, I think I'm about done with David Corn.

[SmokingJacket]

7. I too will no longer be visting Corn's website.

Too bad... he could have had me for a song. I'm easy, man.

[CoffeeAnnan]

21. I lost him when he joined the attacks on Gary Webb.

[SmokingJacket]

5. It would be plenty funny if Corn used REAL stories.

These are jokes. Why the silliness?

Too close to the truth to be funny, but not real, so not important.

[Sanity Claws]

6. delete -- misunderstood message

[Hieronymus]

8. The Bush cabal is getting very overly confident.

Their lemmings have bought all the favorable ratings the corporate owned media has fed them

[impeach the gop]

9. Quick

Somebody pinch me!

[Nothing Without Hope]

10. Ugly stuff. If the journalists of the MSM ever wake up...

...and find their courage and integrity, there could be quite a circus. That's a big if, but it's looking more possible than it did.

Thanks for the link. I'll add it to my collection.

[enough]

12. I know it's a joke,

but I don't get it.

[iconoclastic cat]

13. The joke is that there is no joke.

Gallows humor for the soon-to-be-hanged.

[teryang]

14. WTF?

I guess Corn is pursuing the "Yeah, and Elvis is still alive" agenda pushed by operators to discredit real investigative journalism. Reminds me of the old "we never landed on the moon" psy war campaign to debunk web reporting on numerous political assassinations.

Corn was a major 911 conspiracy debunker.

[0007]

15. This news is so precious I'm getting giddy! I didn't think the media

had the balls.

[Liberty Belle]

16. Carlyle is also on advisory bd. for Populex-a voting machine co!

[jaysunb]

17. No Plame affair..huh

how disappointing.

[susu369]

18. Hey, I admire Corn

IMHO, he's a great writer and will admit when he feels he has made a mistake.

Good article that I just read this morning from Corn:

http://www.alternet.org/story/20817/

[hatrack]

19. What a bunch of CRAP!

Shit, Corn, try being a journalist for a change instead of an Onion staff wannabee. Self-impressed asshole.

[Merlin]

23. Amen to that.

Corn is a sell-out.

[BrklynLiberal]

22. A friend had mentioned to me a few months ago that David Corn was not all

that he cracked himself up to be. Said that there had been a few articles The National Review(I think) that had been very disappointing, and he had lost all respect for him. I have been very leery of him ever since. Guess this junk proves my friend's point.

[indepat]

24. Were all six and even dozens more scandals come to light, it matters not

a whit to faithful followers, true-believers, and other ideologues for they don't give a holy crap what their guy and his implemented ideology destroy. EOS

[Rex Ferine]

25. For the bureaucrat,

the world is a mere object to be manipulated by him.

[bunny planet]

27. I guess he's got time to make with the jokes, after all, there is nothing

serious (scandal-wise) going on right now in the good ol' USA.