Wolfowitz Out
In its story announcing that World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz is resigning, The New York Times notes
In a carefully negotiated statement, the board praised Mr. Wolfowitz for his two years of service at the bank, and especially for his work in arranging for debt relief and pressing for more assistance to poor countries, especially in Africa, and also combating corruption, which was Mr. Wolfowitz's signature issue.
Mr. Wolfowitz said he was grateful for the directors' decision and, referring to the bank's mission of helping the world's poor, added: "Now it is necessary to find a way to move forward. To do that I have concluded that it is in the best interests of those whom this institution serves for that mission to be carried forward under new leadership."
Words don't matter at this stage. Neither the Bank nor Wolfowitz can spin the scent of scandal from the finale of the Wolfowitz affair. The Bank's board may have accepted his claim that his actions were honorable in order to ease him out--ignoring that a special panel had concluded he broke the rules in arranging for a hefty salary boost for his girlfriend. But Wolfowitz's (forced) departure says more than any explanatory statement from the Bank or from him. Wolfowitz had to leave because of what he did. Still, under his contract, he's entitled to a year's salary of $375,000 and other benefits. If he wants to help the world's poor, perhaps he ought to donate that money to Oxfam.
Posted by David Corn at May 17, 2007 09:22 PM
12 comments:
If he wants to help the world's poor, perhaps he ought to donate that money to Oxfam.
Pow!
I have seen men march to the wars, and then I have watched their homeward tread, And they brought back bodies of living men, But their eyes were cold and dead: Edmund Vance Cooke
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Strike against war, for without you no battles can be fought! Strike against manufacturing shrapnel and gas bombs and all other tools of murder! Strike against preparedness that means death and misery to millions of human beings! Be not dumb, obedient slaves in an army of destruction! Be heroes in an army of construction! : Helen Keller
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Don't be deceived when they tell you things are better now. Even if there's no poverty to be seen because the poverty's been hidden. Even if you ever got more wages and could afford to buy more of these new and useless goods which industries foist on you and even if it seems to you that you never had so much, that is only the slogan of those who still have much more than you. Don't be taken in when they paternally pat you on the shoulder and say that there's no inequality worth speaking of and no more reason to fight because if you believe them they will be completely in charge in their marble homes and granite banks from which they rob the people of the world under the pretence of bringing them culture. Watch out, for as soon as it pleases them they'll send you out to protect their gold in wars whose weapons, rapidly developed by servile scientists, will become more and more deadly until they can with a flick of the finger tear a million of you to pieces: Jean Paul Marat
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"The National Security Act of '47 gave us the National Security Council. Never have we had a National Security Council so concerned about the nation's security that we're always looking for threats and looking how to orchestrate our society to oppose those threats. National Security was invented, almost, in 1947, and now it has become the prime mover of everything we do as measured against something we invented in 1947." -- U.S. Navy Admiral Gene La Rocque in PBS Documentary "The Secret Government" (link)
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Thanks ICH Newsletter!
The Pro-Israel Lobby and US Middle East Policy:
The Score Card for 2007
05/17/07 "ICH" --- - -Never in recent history has US Middle East policy been subject to such a barrage of conflicting pressures from erstwhile allies, clients as well as adversaries. The points of contention involve fundamental issues of war and peace, foremost of which are divergent responses to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the US-Iranian confrontation, the US occupation of Iraq as well as the US-Ethiopian proxy invasion and occupation of Somalia.
The major contenders for influence in the making of US policy in the Middle East include the ‘war party’ led by the Zionist power configuration and its followers in Congress and its allies among the civilian militarists in the White House led by Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, National Security Adviser for Middle East Affairs Elliot Abrams, along with an army of scribes in the major print media. On the other side are a small minority of Congress-people, ex-officials linked to Big Oil, a divided Peace Movement, Arab Gulf States, Saudi Arabia and a number of European countries on specific sets of issues.
To date the Zionist Power Configuration (ZPC) has consistently lined up its Congressional and White House backers and steamrollered domestic opposition in securing unconditional US backing for Israel’s position in the Middle East. One of the latest examples of the Zionist Power Configuration’s political and media influence is illustrated by their dismissal or omission of a major document on human and civil rights in Israel issued by the United Nation’s Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (published March 9, 2007). The study compiled by two-dozen experts offered 19 recommendations for Israel to comply with in 25 areas of racial discrimination against Arab citizens of Israel. Israel rejected the report, the ZPC automatically followed suit, as did Washington.
More HERE
Now, I Am Become Death, The Destroyer of Worlds
The destructive force of Hurricane Bush continues to roll across the countryside, leaving in its wake devastation worthy of a Cormac McCarthy novel.
And still, a third of all Americans think this guy is doing well in his job. What’s up with these people? Are they learned students of philosophy who crave the nihilism of their intellectual hero, Friedrich Nietzsche? Are they a secret army of Charles Lindbergh clones, trained to believe that fascism is pretty good stuff? Was Joseph McCarthy even more right than he knew, after all, and America is actually riddled with a hundred million spies devoted to its destruction?
Who knows. What is clear is that the literal and figurative stacks of bodies continue to pile up unabated. At this rate it is no small question as to who will be left around to bury the dead once the killing stops.
We do know that it won’t be Tony Blair, however. He joins a long list of fools and other kinds of victims of George Bush’s politics of global destruction, a machine so effective that ‘scorched earth’ has become ‘scorched Earth’, and now effectively ceases to function as a metaphor. (Thus, in addition to everything else he’s done, Bush has given pundits everywhere (another) reason to hate him.)
More HERE
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h/t to Pat!
capt
Who Would Jesus Kill
There is no one Christian foreign policy. Christians and other people of faith can legitimately disagree about the validity of war, including Iraq, and its consequences. But by any measure Iraq today is a disaster, the product of a very un-Christian mix of callousness, ignorance, partisanship, selfishness, incompetence, and hubris. The experience in Iraq should prompt religious conservatives to step back in humility and reconsider their tendency to confuse ideology with theology, and politics with faith. The debacle in Iraq has discredited much of America's political establishment, but perhaps none more than members of the Religious Right. Followers of the Prince of Peace should be particularly ashamed of serving as the apostles of war.
Wolfie will be gone the end of June. Hopefully, Gonzo will also be out. The garbage at the WH has not been picked up in 6+ years and the stench is unbearable. The smell from the WH permeates as far as California.
The Growing Global Chronic Disease Epidemic
There's a move building in Congress for a vote of "no confidence" in Attorney Gen. Gonzales, because of all the scandals that have come out about turning the Justice Dept. political. I just sent a message to my Senators asking them to do it. Will you sign on too? Here's the link: HERE
Ron Paul Debate Ban
Saul Anuzis, chairman of the Michigan Republican Party says he wants to to bar Texas congressman Ron Paul (R-TX) from future GOP presidential debates. Anuzis intends to circulate a petition among Republican National Committee members, debate sponsors and broadcasters to keep Paul out of debates. Anuzis' email seems to be:
sanuzis@migop.org
Anuzis' actions are being contested by Ron Paul supporter, Dena Turner who has launched The Ron Paul RNC Participation Petition to Republican National Committee to ensure that Ron Paul continues to take part in the debates. Her petition, as of the morning of May 17, had already garnered several hundred signatures.
http://www.petitiononline.com/RPRNC08/petition.html
Anuzis was angered by remarks made two days ago, in the second Republican debate, when Paul (R-TX) claimed that U.S. provocations in Iraq contributed to the current "war on terror" The remarks proved controversial, drawing immediate criticism came from former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani who rebutted Paul's remarks during the debate. Since then, the remarks have drawn both fire and praise from various groups.
The candidacy of Ron Paul, while often characterized as "fringe," has proven attractive on the Internet, with many mainstream Internet polls showing that Paul is winning the debates by wide margins. Paul is a libertarian conservative who believes in minimal government. He votes according to what he believes are the legislative guidelines provided by the U.S. Constitution. He believes that most modern law-making is unconstitutional and the United States should not participate in foreign wars, except when under direct attack.
More HERE
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The simple truths and old time conservative ideology scares the hell out of the neocons.
capt
Burn!
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