Parties

Articles

• An Open Letter to Randy “Duke” Cunningham
  7 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
  

  Dear Ex-Rep. Cunningham:
  On Nov. 28, 2005, you copped a plea before a federal judge, the Hon. Larry Burns, in San Diego, CA, to assorted criminal bribery, mail and wire fraud, tax evasion and conspiracy charges. (1) You confessed to taking $2.4 million in bribes in order to steer lucrative defense contracts to your fellow, at this point unnamed, coconspirators. You are, in a word, a “bought” congressman, who served eight-terms in the House of Representatives. Your price was, indeed, (…)

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• Cunningham Briber Wilkes befriended other legislators, ran a hospitality suite with several bedrooms
  7 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
  2 comments

  In government documents, he is referred to as "co-conspirator No. 1": a man who gave more than $630,000 in cash and favors to former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham for help in landing millions of dollars in federal contracts.
  ADCS has received at least $80 million in government contracts since 1996. Its $11 million headquarters is located in Poway. Poway military contractor Brent Wilkes - whom Justice Department officials identify as the co-conspirator - has long been active in local (…)

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• Rep. Smith back from Iraq "most troops now say they want to come home"
  6 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
  3 comments

  Rep. Smith says vote in favor of war a mistake
  By MATTHEW DALY ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER
  WASHINGTON — Just back from Iraq, Rep. Adam Smith says he is encouraged by the progress U.S. troops are making there. But Smith, one of two House Democrats from Washington state to vote in favor of the war, said Friday if he had to do it over, he would change his vote.
  "I wanted to give our commander in chief a certain amount of trust," Smith said of his October 2002 vote authorizing President Bush (…)

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• Chavez’s Party Wins 68% of Seats in Venezuela’s Parliament
  6 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
  1 comment

  by Gregory Wilpert
  Caracas, Venezuela, December 4, 2005-Chavez’s party, the Movement for the Fifth Republic (MVR), won 114 or 68% of the 167 seats in the new National Assembly, according to preliminary results that MVR deputy William Lara announced this evening. Pro-Chavez parties won all 167 seats in the new National Assembly.
  The President of Venezuela’s National Electoral Council (CNE), Jorge Rodriguez, said that with 79% of the voting center results examined, voter turnout so far was (…)

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• Wilkes Corporation is a fake company set up to funnel public funds from national defense to G.O.P.
  5 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
  1 comment

  Deeper into the Wilkes/MZM scandals (Updated) (Note: If you came here by way of LiePar Destin’s excellent piece in Kos, you may want to read "Wilkes: The Invisible Empire" first. Also, I’m happy to report that this blockbuster piece on Wilkes in the San Diego Union Tribune strengthens the thesis presented here.) The good news is that reporters working for the mainstream media have caught on — in part. They understand that Randy "Duke" Cunningham is hardly the only Republican (…)

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• What is the Opposition Party Opposed to? The Reed and Kerry Show
  3 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
  1 comment

  By ELI STEPHENS
  I wanted to take a look at the "opposition" response to George Bush’s speech and plan today. There is a transcript online, but you have to be a Federal News Service subscriber to see it, and, for a 30-minute news conference by two major Senators, the news coverage has been minimal to say the least (more on right-wing blogs and news sites than in the mainstream media). So I had to make my own transcript from the C-SPAN video (not a direct link, must scroll down). What (…)

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• The Tempest Cometh Jack Abramoff’s Bipartisan Sleaze
  3 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
  

  By JOSHUA FRANK
  It is far too early to tell what kind of impact it will ultimately have on the Republican establishment, but the Jack Abramoff scandal could well be the most perilous of all the storms developing around Washington. And the cloud forming on the horizon is a dark one indeed.
  The most enthralling aspect of this whole controversy is the number of people it potentially involves. From elected officials in Congress to top conservative activists, the Abramoff lobbyist sham could (…)

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• Two Earthquakes
  3 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
  

  by Uri Avnery
  A POLITICAL earthquake is itself a rare event. When two major political earthquakes follow each other in quick succession, this is almost unheard of.
  One such earthquake was the election of Amir Peretz as leader of the Labor Party. The other is Sharon’s leaving the Likud and forming a new party.
  Suddenly, the political landscape has changed beyond recognition. Previously, there were two mountains. Now there are three - and none of them stands where either of the two was (…)

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• Athens Declaration
  3 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
  

  We, the European Left, gathered in Athens on the 29th and 30th of October, 2005, acknowledge that the crisis currently afflicting Europe has no borders, and that the neo-liberal policies decided upon in Brussels and by the national governments are to blame for it. These choices have been made over a period of many years, and the result is in front of our eyes, now.
  We also acknowledge that the peoples of Europe, who have suffered most from these policies, are fighting against them and (…)

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• The masking of a conservative
  3 December 2005 par (Open-Publishing)
  

  By Derrick Z. Jackson
  PRIDE MUST go before he falls. This is why Samuel Alito hopped to liberal burrows on Capitol Hill to proclaim the burial of his conservative ideology. In his 1985 application to a senior post in the Reagan administration, Alito wrote:
  ’’I am particularly proud of my contributions in recent cases in which the government has argued in the Supreme Court that racial and ethnic quotas should not be allowed and that the Constitution does not protect a right to an (…)

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