Paul Luvera Journal

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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"Doublespeak" means the use of words to disguise actual facts. To make it appear things are different then they actually are. The word is usually connected to George Orwell’s novel Nineteen Eighty Four, but the novel really doesn’t use that word which was coined in the 1950’s. However, the novel clearly expressed the idea and did use words like "doublethink." The concept certainlly applies to this administration. Politicians and government have always used double talk, but this administration has demonstrated…

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Some 17 years ago, the Rev. Pat Robertson founded the Christian Coalition of America and worked with Ralph Reed to make it a powerful Republican political force. At the same time Republican strategists targeted fundamentalist, Pentecostal and evangelical churches to expand the base of the party. In fact the Coalition website says that it is the largest and most active "conservative grassroots political organization in America." It claims to offer "people of faith the vehicle to be actively involved in…

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