Headlines
Pimping Out America's Coastlines: McCain Gives the Speech, Oil Companies Give Him the Bucks
Straight talkin' maverick John McCain has a knack for sniffing out money. First he married it, now he's trying to sell out America's coastlines for it.
And it's working.
Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month — three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban…
McCain delivered the speech before heading to Texas for a series of fundraisers with energy industry executives, and the day after the speech he raised $1.3 million at a private luncheon and reception at the San Antonio Country Club…
"The timing was significant," said David Donnelly, the national campaigns director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, a nonpartisan campaign finance reform group that conducted the analysis of McCain's oil industry contributions. "This is a case study of how a candidate can change a policy position in the interest of raising money."
How do McCain's handlers react to charges he's a sleezy, spineless, Bush knock-off, money whore?
Brian Rogers, a McCain campaign spokesman, said he considers any suggestion that McCain weighed fundraising into his calculation on drilling policy "completely absurd."
…"John McCain takes positions because he thinks it's the right thing to do for America," Rogers said…
Oil and gas executives have not traditionally been a major source of campaign money for McCain.
But they are now. Mission accomplished!
Report: Empty prison in Iraq a $40M 'failure'
Report: Empty prison in Iraq a $40M 'failure'
By BRIAN MURPHY and PAULINE JELINEK | Yahoo! News
BAGHDAD - In the flatlands north of Baghdad sits a prison with no prisoners. It holds something else: a chronicle of U.S. government waste, misguided planning and construction shortcuts costing $40 million and stretching back to the American overseers who replaced Saddam Hussein.
"It's a bit of a monument in the desert right now because it's not going to be used as a prison," said Stuart Bowen, the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, whose office plans to release a report Monday detailing the litany of problems at the vacant detention center in Khan Bani Saad.
More Guns in the News
While the city was preparing to buyback nearly 6,000 guns this weekend, some Chicago suburbs are repealing their handgun bans. Morton Grove, who was sued by the National Rifle Association along with Chicago, repealed its handgun ban, and Wilmette has followed suit as well. Daley, however, remained adamant that Chicago would not be next. "I don't look at this lightly—that, 'Oh, because the Supreme Court's done it we're just gonna dismiss it and all of a sudden people can arm themselves,'" he said. "Morton Grove can do anything that it wants."
And while the city is trying to make sure that people aren't arming themselves in their homes, Alderman Dick Mell and former Attorney General Roland Burris were taking advantage of Chicago's firearms registration amnesty. But according to police, few others are. Chicago Police Department spokeswoman Monique Bond told the Sun-Times that "either the public is unaware or they just haven't had an opportunity to come in and register," noting that only 25 people have come in to re-register so far.
Struggling College Students Turn to Food Banks
Seattle - Just blocks from the University of Washington, a line of people shuffle toward a food pantry, awaiting handouts such as milk and bread.
For years, the small University District pantry has offered help to the working poor and single parents in this neighborhood of campus rentals. Now rising food prices are bringing another group: Struggling college students.
The Bush Administration's Secret Biowarfare Agenda
By Stephen Lendman
When it comes to observing US and international laws, treaties and norms, the Bush administration is a serial offender. Since 2001, it's:
-- spurned efforts for nuclear disarmament to advance its weapons program and retain current stockpiles;
-- renounced the 1970 Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and asserted the right to develop and test new weapons;
-- abandoned the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM) because it expressly forbids the development, testing and deployment of missile defenses like its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and other programs;
-- refuses to adopt a proposed Fissile Material Cutoff Treaty (FMCT) that would prohibit further weapons-grade uranium and plutonium production and prevent new nuclear weapons to be added to present stockpiles - already dangerously too high;
Flip-Flopping On Oil Drilling Proves Lucrative For McCain
WaPo:
Campaign contributions from oil industry executives to Sen. John McCain rose dramatically in the last half of June, after the senator from Arizona made a high-profile split with environmentalists and reversed his opposition to the federal ban on offshore drilling.
Oil and gas industry executives and employees donated $1.1 million to McCain last month — three-quarters of which came after his June 16 speech calling for an end to the ban — compared with $116,000 in March, $283,000 in April and $208,000 in May.
McCain said the policy reversal came as a response to rising voter anger over soaring energy prices. At the time, about three-quarters of voters responding to a Washington Post-ABC News poll said prices at the pump were causing them financial hardship, the highest in surveys this decade.[..]
McCain delivered the speech before heading to Texas for a series of fundraisers with energy industry executives, and the day after the speech he raised $1.3 million at a private luncheon and reception at the San Antonio Country Club, according to local news accounts.
"The timing was significant," said David Donnelly, the national campaigns director of the Public Campaign Action Fund, a nonpartisan campaign finance reform group that conducted the analysis of McCain's oil industry contributions. "This is a case study of how a candidate can change a policy position in the interest of raising money."
I'm sure it's just a coincidence. Of course, John McCain has been getting substantial donations from lobbyists all along. Methinks this report "Embedded or In Bed: John McCain and His Lobbyist Problem" (.pdf) needs to be updated.
BooMan and JedReport has more…
