Paul Luvera Journal

America has had Vice Presidents who have been notable for their conduct in office. Take Vice President Aaron Burr who killed Secretary of Treasury Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804. Then there is Richard Johnson, Vice President under Van Buren, who brought his slave and mistress with him to Washington to act as his hostess. It was Spiro Agnew, Vice President to Richard Nixon, who was sent to prison for income tax violations and took bribes in the White…

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I have complained previously about the people Mr. Bush appointments to executive positions in regulatory agencies because they were named in order to undermine the function of the agency. (Mr. Bush’s Appointment of Julie MacDonald 12/29) Now it appears Mr. Bush has found a new way of keeping regulatory agencies from doing their intended job. He has just issued a new executive order which gives him far greater power over government agencies. Mr. Bush’s order says each agency must have…

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United States Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has long time connections to President Bush. It dates back to Mr. Bush, as Governor of Texas naming him as his general counsel while Gonzales was a partner in the Houston firm of Vinson and Elkins during the time the firm represented Enron. Later he served as Texas Secretary of State before being appointed to the Texas Supreme Court by Mr. Bush. After Mr. Bush was elected President, Gonzales was appointed to serve as…

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May 1, 2003: President George W. Bush – USS Abraham Lincoln Mission Accomplished speech: "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." July 2, 2003: "My answer is bring ’em on." —President George W. Bush, challenging militants attacking U.S. forces in Iraq, December 20, 2005: "My fellow citizens: Not only can we win the war in Iraq – we are winning the war in Iraq." January 11, 2006:…

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On December 20th, President Bush signed a Congressional bill dealing with postal reform, but then issued a "signing statement" in which he claimed the right of government to open anyone’s private mail without a warrant or judicial permission. A statement by a U.S. President about a bill being signed into law is not new. The first president to issue a statement about a law he was signing was James Monroe. A statement by the President about a new law has…

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I’ve previously reported here (12/6/06) about the appointments of the Bush administration. They have consistently demonstrated an objective of appointing people who are unfit to head regulatory agencies and positions designed to protect the public from harm and which instead favor big business and industry interests. This failure to put the public first, before money interests, has occurred again. Public Citizen has expressed it’s concern about the White House plan to nominate Susan Dudley as administrator of the Office of…

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Mr Bush has shown his determination to appoint ideologues to important political posts. He has no interest in naming people with balanced view points and instead names people with a very narrow biased position. As an example, he has now appointed Dr. Eric Keroack head of the Federal Family Planning programs. Keroack is an obstetrician-gynecologist who will supervise a $283 million dollar annual family planning fund which, includes dealing with providing access to contraceptive supplies and information with priority given…

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Senator Trent Lott, has given us a classic illustration of this truth. This U.S. Republican Senator and former Senate leader has led the effort in the Senate to pass tort reform legislation. His state, Mississippi, is one the reddest of the red Republican states and Senator Lott, sometimes known as "the prince of darkness," has been it’s political leader. His anti plaintiff bias is well known. The Center for Justice and Democracy reports these past quotes from Senator Lott: (1)…

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Consumer advocate, Joan Claybrook, reports more about the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s duplicity in concealing it’s political contributions in Public Citizen News (Nov-Dec 2006). I’ve previously written about the Chamber and their fraudulent political funding in support of big business. (Post of November 15th) The Chamber’s goal is to weaken the judiciary and laws which would put restraints on the activities of it’s supporters like Wal-Mart and other big corporate interests through "under the table" political funding. Public Citizen reports…

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In spite of the election results, it appears President Bush has the same view about Iraq as he did before the election returns. He was quoted this week as saying: "There’s one thing I’m not going to do, I’m not going to pull our troops off the battlefield before the mission is complete…We can accept nothing less than victory for our children and our grandchildren." It’s misguided business as usual for the adminstration regarding Iraq. This President, as commander in…

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