Scott McCellan’s New book out next week

As a friend of mine said the other day “someone should eat Bush’s lunch”. I’m still not sure what that means but I believe Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan’s new book may do just that. The book titled, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception is due out next week. According to Politico the book is filled with shocking revelations,😯 . Oh really?  

• McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war.

• He says the White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.

• He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be “badly misguided.” 

• The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them — and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts.

• McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff — “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.

 

It sounds like just another day in the Bush Administration to me. Does lunch include dessert?

Reason for media exempt McCain-Bush fundraiser

Substitute McCain for Bush and abracadabra you have the reason, their camera-shy base. Bush describes his audience so elegantly as “Impressive crowd, the haves and the have mores”.

 

His policies definitely haven’t let his base down at the economic expense of all else. McSame is off to a similar start.

DHS clashes with IRS employees

Since when is an IRS protest concerning unfair labor practices a matter of national security? See for yourself. (Video opens to a new window) We are living in some crazy times folks.

Source: KLBJ

Not ten minutes after IRS employees of the Austin Accounts Management center near I-35 and Ben White began protesting their office policies Tuesday afternoon, Homeland Security police began ordering them to leave.

The workers, represented under the National Treasury Employees Union, are upset about what they see as a double-standard in how managers are handling vacation days and late penalties when family is sick or when an employee is stuck in traffic.

 “You can’t take leave to be with your dying father. You’re not taking care of him, therefore we have no obligation to let you go. They charged him AWOL,” Dorothy Pistole said, explaining a situation which she said happened to a colleague. KLBJ asked Pistole if the employees group has any fears of retaliation.

“We can use this as a marker to say, at this point, management didn’t have any problem with what the employee has done. But all the sudden now management is treating the employees differently? Then we have a point when we can start looking at a retaliation grievance.”

“It’s very important. The holiday is all about service to America. A lot of them, they were in the military. A lot of them have military families now,” Union President Ed Walker says. “They denied all of this leave before the Economic Stimulus Program came out, so if they began using that as an excuse, they would not be telling the truth.”

“We have filed grievances on behalf of hundreds of people here. Some people were able to get off [work] as the result of this and the embarrassment.”

The IRS has refused to comment on the Tuesday protest.

 

NBAF – It is all about the money

North Carolina and Mississippi show DHS the money

Citizens action needed

State, Rep. W.A. “Winkie” Wilkins (I didn’t make that up, he represents northern Durham County and all of Person County) has filed a bill to appropriate $25 million for the NBAF.

Now you can stop “Winkie” Wilkins and his proposed legislation  by calling  him at 919-715-0850. Also, write him with your thoughts and concerns via his email at  Winkiew@ncleg.net  or at his legislative Mailing address:

NC House of Representatives
16 W. Jones Street, Room 1301
Raleigh, NC 27601-1096.

Politely, remind Rep. “Winkie” Wilkins  that his party (Democratic) in the 4th and 13th congressional districts adopted resolutions against the NBAF at their county Democratic convention’s. It appears that the Granville County Rep. Jimmy Crawford  couldn’t stand the heat so he passed on the opportunity to sponsor legislation.

Also, while you are in the letter writing mode, you can go here and send Burr, Dole and Brad Miller a letter opposing the NBAF.

On to Mississippi, after watching Chip Pickering (painful) during the May 22, Congressional investigative hearing, I knew he would do almost anything to attract NBAF to his state. But Gov. Haley Barbour shows DHS the money, 88.3 million to be exact.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour is asking lawmakers to pledge nearly $88.3 million to help the state compete for a new federal laboratory that will study animal diseases.

Mississippi lawmakers are in special session to consider several proposals. The governor controls the agenda, and he expanded it Tuesday to include consideration of bonds for the biolab.

Never mind the lack of risk assessment for the project, the GAO report exposed and forget the acknowledged problems. Where is the rest of the cash coming from? There are still victims of Katrina who need help and,

Some residents have flooded a local mission group  with phone calls, asking for help finding and moving into new homes. Roughly 6,800 families in South Mississippi still live in the temporary trailers, as the third anniversary of Katrina nears.

Who cares Mississippi wants the NBAF, dangnabit nuff said? Not exactly, Barbour is admitting what many have been saying all along, it’s all about what the sites can do for DHS. Why else would Rep. Wilkins step up to the plate in NC?

The bonds appear to be some of the least controversial items included in the session by Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, the only official who can call a special session and set the agenda.

“We’ve been told pretty directly by (the federal government) that when they rate proposals that Mississippi’s proposal would be rated lower because we’ve only written a letter committing ourselves to this,” Barbour said.

Can you say legalized extortion, this late in the process DHS is rating the sites not by the best environmentally suited site but by the state that forks over the most cash for the project. Um surprised? I’m not.

Where did Mississippi get their numbers for the project you might be asking?

The bond amounts have been based on recommendations from the Department of Homeland Security, said Gray Swoope, executive director of the Mississippi Development Authority.

It appears each state has been given different recommendations by DHS to help fund the behemoth.  NBAF pork per state so far:

• Kansas $105 million
• Texas $100 million
• Mississippi $88.3 million
• Georgia $25 million
• North Carolina – Proposed legistration

Speaking of Pork, the National Pork Producers Council says:

“The location of NBAF must be based on assessed risks rather than on which entity is willing to build such a facility,” said Howard Hill, a veterinarian and chief operating officer of Iowa Select Farms, who testified on NPPC”s behalf. “Locations need to be reexamined to see if the ‘island effect’ can be recreated by siting the facility in an area withlow densities of livestock and wildlife. And we need the new facility to enhance the capabilities of our industry with regard to research, diagnostics and treatment for all foreign animal diseases.”

Silly risk assessments who needs em when you have taxpayers?