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This article appeared originally in the Dutch journal Volkskrant. Translation by The Dubya Report
Mitt Romney's tax loopholes also run through the Netherlands. The private equity fund Bain Capital, in which the presidential candidate participates, may have hidden some 80 million euros in dividends by routing them through the Netherlands.
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As reported by the Boston Globe GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan sought "millions of dollars from a federal stimulus program he opposed," then "repeatedly denied lobbying the Obama administration for home state aid -- first on a Boston radio station in 2010 and then again on Tuesday in an interview with a Ohio television station."
In 2010 Ryan sent at least five letters to the Department of Energy and the Department of Labor seeking funds for projects in Wisconsin, while publicly attacking the stimulus bill.
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The Romney campaign has attempted to deflect allegations that, as head of vulture-capital firm Bain Capital, he oversaw practices that bankrupted companies and outsourced jobs, by claiming that he left Bain in 1999. The federal disclosure form Romney filed in 2011 as he began his presidential campaign, states that Romney retired from Bain in 1999, claiming "Since February 11, 1999, Mr. Romney has not had any active role with any Bain Capital entity and has not been involved in the operations of any Bain Capital entity in any way."
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[In light of Tom Delay's November 24, 2010 conviction on money-laundering and conspiracy charges, The Dubya Report invites readers to review our profile of the one-time Republican leader, originally published April 20, 2005.]
Updated April 4, 2006
At a weekly Republican policy lunch in the Senate Mansfield Room in early April, Tom DeLay rose to declare to his colleagues that he was the victim of a Democratic conspiracy, blaming financier George Soros and the grass-roots group MoveOn.org for his woes. The GOP agenda was in danger, DeLay reportedly said, because Democrats funded by Soros were targeting him in attempt to keep the party from making progress on its initiatives.
A letter to Houston-area voters blamed a "syndicate" of Democrats, advocacy groups and a "legion of Democrat-friendly press."
In recent days, however, DeLay has come under criticism from within his own party, and in the editorial pages of journals from across the political spectrum, including the Wall Street Journal.
Chris Shays, a moderate Republican Congressman from Connecticut was the first Republican to call for DeLay to step down. "I think he's hurting the Congress," Shays said. "I think he's hurting the Republican majority and I think he's hurting individual Republicans who are up for re-election...."
"If he chose to resign as majority leader until these matters are resolved, that's probably not the worst idea," Colorado Representative Tom Tancredo, a conservative, told the Denver Post.
"I don't think we should try to oust him," Tancredo said, but stepping aside "may be a productive move."
Sen. Rick Santorum, a leading Republican conservative, said on ABC News "This Week" that he thought DeLay needed to "lay out what he did and why he did it." Asked about reports that DeLay's family members were on PAC payrolls, and that he had taken trips financed by lobbyists, Santorum said " "If those things were not out there, obviously they wouldn't be raising them.... And so there are issues that he has to deal with personally."
On April 12, Newt Gingrich told CBS's Gloria Borger, " the burden is on [DeLay] to prove" his innocence," adding "I think the jury's out." "DeLay's problem isn't with the Democrats; DeLay's problem is with the country," Gingrich said. "And so DeLay has a challenge: to lay out a case that the country comes to believe, that the country decides is legitimate...."
The White House itself seemed to vacillate. On Monday April 11, White House spokesman Scot McClellan described DeLay and Bush as friends. "Majority Leader DeLay is someone the president considers a friend," he said. "The president looks forward to continuing to work closely with the majority leader to get things done on behalf of the American people." By midweek, however, McClellan appeared to be trying to distance Bush from DeLay, saying they were not close friends. "I think there are different levels of friendship with anybody," he said.
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The end-game of the House passing the Senate health care bill brought to light a new level of hatred and vitriol, encouraged and in some cases apparently perpetrated by congressional Republicans.
The first salvo came on Saturday, March 20. As Democratic congressmen John Lewis (D-GA) and Andre Carson (D-IN) emerged from a Democratic caucus meeting in the Cannon House office building, a large crowd surrounded them and several shouts of "kill the bill" and the "N-word" were heard.
A tea partier also spit on Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo).
On Saturday afternoon a similar scenario unfolded as Rep. Barney Frank, (D-MA) left a whip meeting in the Longworth House office building and made his way through a crowd of protesters, and elderly white man shouted "Barney, you faggot," as his fellow protesters erupted in laughter.
"Republican lawmakers are trying their best to show the tea party activists outside the Capitol that they're on their side," wrote Salon's Mike Madden. Rep. Mike Pence (R-Ind) walked through the crowd shaking hands, smiling, and thanking them. He condemned "the kind of language and statements that have been reported," but denied that the GOP shared any responsibility. "I think the American people are rising up with one voice and saying, 'Enough is enough.'"
Meanwhile Rep. Geoff Davis (R-Ky) and a group of Republicans borrowed a "Don't Tread on Me" flag from a tea partier, and displayed it from a balcony on the second floor of the Capitol, adjacent to the House floor.
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by Robert Parry
Reprinted from ConsortiumNews.com
In the history of the American Republic, perhaps no political family has been more protected from scandal than the Bushes.
When the Bushes are involved in dirty deals or even criminal activity, standards of evidence change. Instead of proof "beyond a reasonable doubt"that would lock up an average citizen, the evidence must be perfect.
If there's any doubt at all, the Bushes must be presumed innocent. Even when their guilt is obvious to anyone with an ounce of common sense, it's their accusers and those who dare investigate who get the worst of it. Their motives are challenged and their own shortcomings are cast in the harshest possible light.
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by Robert Parry
Reprinted from ConsortiumNews.com.
Criminal trials – especially relating to national security scandals – are an imperfect way of learning the larger truth. As with the four-count conviction of former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the charges are often structured narrowly to avoid long battles over classified secrets or inherent presidential powers.
But even limited trials can offer important glimpses into the inner workings of an administration, especially one as secretive as George W. Bush's. Though Libby was convicted only on perjury and obstruction charges, there should be little doubt what the full picture looks like.
If the panorama could be viewed all at once, the American people would see an administration that, in summer 2003, felt it could pretty much do whatever it wanted to anyone. Bush's inner circle validated every cliche about the arrogance of power, particularly the old saying about absolute power corrupting absolutely.
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"The Mark Foley affair is so simple and so human," wrote Lenore Skenazy in her New York Daily News column, "it's like a Cliffs.Notes version of all the other Republican scandals...." Foley, Republican congressman from Florida's 16th district since 1995, resigned on September 29, 2006 as ABC News reported that he had exchanged sexually explicit electronic messages with a teenage boy who had worked on Capitol Hill. The messages were also posted on the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington's web site (CREW). With only this information, the matter might seem on the order of any number of congressional sex scandals, from Bob Packwood to Gary Condit. What makes the affair emblematic of the Bush administration is that Foley was Chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. As Newsweek put it "Rep. Mark Foley helped exploited children by day. A slew of e-mails suggests he exploited them by night."
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Updated April 14, 2006
The Bush administration's response to hurricane Katrina is a metaphor for the way it has managed the nation: assessing political implications before taking action, even when lives are at stake; making appointments based on cronyism and loyalty without regard to subject-matter experience; valuing corporate over individual welfare; taking any opportunity, including disaster and the misfortune of others to channel tax dollars to political associates, and to promote its right-wing agenda.
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Updated July 20, 2007 1
On Wednesday, January 28th, 2004, a British judicial inquiry released its report clearing the Blair government of having intentionally misrepresented the threat of Iraqi weapons in a September 2002 intelligence document that was used to make the case for war to Parliament and the British public. A key claim in the document was that some weapons could be launched within 45 minutes. After meeting with Dr. David Kelly, an arms expert in the British Ministry of Defense, BBC reporter Andrew Gilligan had reported that Blair spokesman Alastair Campbell was responsible for the "45-minute" claim, and that Campbell knew it to be false. Campbell denied Gilligan's allegations and demanded a retraction, triggering a media dispute during which the government covertly leaked, and subsequently publicly confirmed David Kelly's name as Gilligan's source. Kelly was summoned to testify at a parliamentary inquiry into the Iraq war, and was subsequently found dead with his wrists slashed. Prime Minister Blair immediately called for an inquiry into his death, and it was that investigation -- led by Lord Hutton, a senior judge -- that issued its report this week. In addition to absolving the Blair administration of having knowingly misrepresented the case for war in the 2002 dossier, the Hutton report cleared the government of responsibility for Dr. Kelly's death, finding that it was a suicide. An internal BBC document obtained by the Observer (UK) claims that the Hutton report omitted evidence and takes issue with its legal conclusions.
