September 04, 2004
Bob Dole withdraws $8000 week in cash?
Riggs Affair Sparks 'Suspicious Activity' Alert on Dole
WASHINGTON -- The Riggs National Bank scandal has led to unexpected fallout, including "suspicious activity reports" on former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole and former Defense Secretary Frank Carlucci, Friday's Wall Street Journal reported.
As often as once a week, Mr. Dole's assistant walks around the corner from his Pennsylvania Avenue office in Washington to a branch of Riggs Bank, where she withdraws as much as $8,000 in cash. For walking-around money, Mr. Dole keeps a wad of $100 bills in the breast pocket of his shirt. "I probably use a credit card four or five times a year," Mr. Dole confesses. "I don't even have a wallet."
Mr. Dole's affinity for cash was of no concern to anyone until recently, when federal regulators pawing through the books of scandal-tarred Riggs spotted the large withdrawals and called them to the attention of management. In short order, the bank filed "suspicious activity reports" on Mr. Dole and another prominent Washington figure, Mr. Carlucci, questioning whether the two men might have violated federal laws against money laundering.
The two aren't actually suspected by Riggs of wrongdoing, people familiar with the filings say. But the bank, a unit of Riggs National Corp. (RIGS), felt it had no choice but to file these reports because of the strict wording of the Bank Secrecy Act.
The reports are the latest strange fallout from the Riggs affair, which has reverberated through Washington in unexpected ways since the bank got into trouble with regulators this year for overlooking signs of suspicious activity by Saudi diplomats and foreign despots. The scandal has provoked a minor diplomatic crisis for the State and Treasury departments as Riggs, which has long had a lock on the diplomatic market in Washington, starts to shed all of its embassy accounts to get out from under a regulatory cloud and sell itself to PNC Financial Services Group Inc. (PNC).
To some observers, these headaches suggest flaws in the government's system for monitoring suspicious activity, which generates more than 200,000 filings annually -- many of which go unread. Many banks dislike the process for suspicious activity reports, or SARs, and avoid customers who may force the banks to get more involved with it even if the customers aren't suspicious characters.
The case of Messrs. Dole and Carlucci illustrates what can happen, as Riggs had to file the reports whether it wanted to or not.
Wall Street Journal Staff Reporter Glenn R. Simpson contributed to this report.
September 03, 2004
Zell Miller's Military Record
So - after all the chest beating and chalenging Chris Mathews to a duel - what's the story on his military record? Anyone know?
Two Anti-Kerry Vets Tapped for VA Panel
Bush Administration Appoints Two Veterans in Anti-Kerry Ads to VA Advisory Panel
WASHINGTON Sept. 3, 2004 — Two former Vietnam prisoners of war who appear in ads attacking Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry were appointed by the Bush administration to a panel advising the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The former POWs in the ad, Kenneth Cordier and Paul Galanti, serve on the VA's 12-member Former POW Advisory Committee. VA Secretary Anthony Principi appointed Cordier in 2002 and Galanti in 2003.
Cordier said the VA panel has nothing to do with the Bush campaign or the anti-Kerry group. "It's totally apolitical, and we meet twice a year to bring to the secretary's attention problems from around the country in VA hospitals," he said.
Cordier and Galanti appear in an anti-Kerry ad saying their Vietnamese captors used news of anti-war protests, such as ones Kerry organized, to taunt the prisoners. Cordier also was a member of a Bush campaign veterans' committee but quit earlier this month after that role was revealed.
VA spokesman Phil Budahn said Principi did not know about or encourage the veterans' appearance in the anti-Kerry ad. Budahn said federal regulations bar advisory committee members from engaging in political activity while performing their committee duties, but there are no other restrictions on their activities when not working on committee business.
Kerry has labeled the group running the ads, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a front for the Bush campaign. Kerry's campaign complained to the Federal Election Commission that the veterans' group was illegally coordinating its attacks with the Bush campaign.
More than $100,000 of the group's initial funding came from Houston-area homebuilder Bob J. Perry, a longtime donor to Bush and other Texas Republicans. A Bush campaign lawyer also advised the Swift boat group and was dropped from the campaign staff after his role became public.
Bush and his campaign have denied any coordination with Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
Cordier said he got involved with the group because of his continuing outrage over anti-Vietnam war activists like Kerry. He said he got in touch with one of its leaders, John O'Neill, who later commanded the same Swift boat Kerry had overseen.
Cordier said he doesn't remember his Vietnamese captors specifically mentioning Kerry but he does remember them playing a tape of an address by anti-war activist Jane Fonda.
Cordier and Galanti are longtime friends and prominent former Vietnam POWs with long-standing Republican ties. Cordier said he suggested Galanti contact O'Neill.
Galanti coordinated Arizona Sen. John McCain's presidential campaign in Virginia four years ago and was a member of the same VA advisory panel when Bush's father was president. Cordier gave $2,000 to Texas Republicans in 2000 and 2001.
The anti-Kerry group's ads have accused Kerry of lying to get some of the five medals he won as a Swift boat commander in Vietnam.
Navy documents and other servicemen who witnessed the incidents contradict the group's claims, and the group has not offered any documentary proof of its claims that Kerry lied about his medals. Kerry himself has given differing accounts of some incidents, however, and his past claim to have been in Cambodia on Christmas 1968 is not substantiated by any documents so far.
Navy records also show most of the anti-Kerry group's members were not in Vietnam at the same time as Kerry. The group has not released a membership list but did criticize Kerry in a May letter signed by 238 members.
Only 101 names on the letter match names of officers or enlisted men on the rolls of Kerry's units in Vietnam when he was there, from November 1968 through March 1969.
Van Odell, an enlisted man in Kerry's unit and a member of the group, said Swift Boat Veterans for Truth never claimed to be exclusively made up of veterans who served with Kerry. Finding such vets is difficult because Kerry was only in Vietnam for about four months, Odell said.
"It's hard to be there when he was," Odell said. "He was in and out so fast."
Before volunteering for Swift boat duty on Vietnam's rivers, Kerry served about a year on a Navy frigate offshore in the Gulf of Tonkin.
At least 30 men on the list, including one who appears in an anti-Kerry ad, served in Kerry's former Swift boat unit a year after Kerry left Vietnam, the records show.
Shelton White appears in the group's first ad, which claims it is quoting those who served with Kerry. In the ad, White says "John Kerry betrayed the men and women he served with in Vietnam." Navy records show White served in Kerry's former unit, Coastal Division 11, from November 1969 to March 1970 a full year after Kerry left.
Odell said White was referring to Kerry's anti-war activities after Kerry returned to the United States.
Curveball - He's Back!
Ahmed Chalabi - code named by the CIA "curveball" continues to live up to his name. First he was the guy who brought Bush a lot of the misinformation he was looking for to justify the war in Iraq. He seemed destined to be Bush's hand picked leader of Iraq but then the relationship fell through and he became a spy for Iran. A warrant was issued for his arrest. Now he's back - as a member of the US controlled Iraqi Parliment.
It turns out that Iraq's self government is partially Bush cornies who we have installed to pretend to be the government of the people so as to create an illusion of democracy under American occupation.
Here's the story.
September 02, 2004
Kerry FINALLY Kicking ASS!!!
I think Bush is in for a bigger fight than the Republicans realize. Here it is 30 minutes later and he's taking Bush on big time. Good to hear him bring this back from the GOP fantasy to reality.
Bush's Speech was Lame
Letter to the Editor
GOP conventions have sure changed over the years. There's a lot of things you don't hear about anymore that the Republicans used to at least give lip service to. What you don't hear is the words Balanced Budget anymore. They no longer talk of Paying off the National Debt, Where is the Social Security Lock Box. We are not debating what we are going to do with the surplus like we were 4 years ago. The only new idea he introduced was federal funding of churches.
In spite of all the talk of terrorism and 9-11 - not once did Bush mention the name of Osama bin Laden. That tells me that Bush isn't serious about getting the guy who actually attacked America. We have a president who can't identify the enemy.
He talks about our soldiers confronting terrorists - but the terrorists aren't in Iraq and never were. Our soldiers were sent to fight in the wrong country. All in all - Bush's speech was pretty weak compared to the other speaker like Democrat Zell Miller and the pro-choice liberal Republicans who dominated the GOP convention. If this is a poker game - Bush is playing with an empty hand.
Daily Show Clip - Bush Words
Here's a Daily Show Clip in Real format called Bush Words. It covers the lies on the war on terror.
September 01, 2004
The War in Iraq is Wrong
Letter to the Editor
Zell Miller gave a hell of a speech except that it is based on a false set of facts. After all the chest pounding is over, the fact is that America is not safer because we went to war with Iraq. Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11 or terrorism. The 9-11 terrorist was Osama bin Laden and he's still free and safe. There were no weapons of mass destruction. We went to war based on a lie and the rest of the world knows it. Bush and Cheney lied and Americans died because we sent our soldiers to attack the wrong enemy.
It takes more than just raw aggression to win the war on terror. You have to have a little wisdom so that when you start a war - you correctly identify the enemy. I too believe that we need to be aggressive on the war on terror - but - let's not waste out military capital by going to war with the wrong guy. We need a president who isn't more loyal to the Saudi Royal Family than he is to the 9-11 survivors. And I find it amazing that a war hero like Kerry has to defend himself for the attacks of draft dodgers over his military record. We need someone who will fight smart and not just fight hard - and Bush is not smart.
Moore laugh$ off McCain In$ult
This is a funny one. McCain just gave Moore a free plug. Now lots more people will see the movie. You would think the McCain would have at least WATCHED the movie before criticizing it. But Bush sucked him into giving the speech because as dumb as Bush is - he's smarter than McCain. Bush probably said "Sure John - you plug me this time an in 2008 you can be president."
What a sucker - here's the story.
Michael Moore is eating up the abuse he's been getting at the Republican National Convention. The "Fahrenheit 9/11" director is still blowing kisses to Arizona Sen. John McCain, who scorned the anti-Bush crusader as "a disingenuous filmmaker" during his speech Monday night.
"Thank you, John McCain," said Moore, who is covering the convention for USA Today. "The film's doing $120 million right now. When McCain mentions it, I have a chance to do $150 million.
"I felt bad that McCain got set up by the Bush people to comment on a film he hasn't seen," Moore told us. "Anytime McCain wants a screening, I'd be happy to do that because I think he'd like it." (McCain's camp had no immediate comment.)
Swift Boat Vet Got $40M Contract From Bush
The Bush White House has denied any connection to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth - the group that has been airing factually unsupportable smear ads against Sen. John Kerry's war record. But a new report today shows that one of the key accusers in the smear ads was a lobbyist for a company that recently received a massive federal contract from the Bush administration.
As the Washington Post reports, Rear Admiral William L. Schachte Jr., the man who claims Kerry was not under fire when he received his first Purple Heart, is a top lobbyist for a defense contractor that recently won a $40 million grant from the Bush administration. According to a March 18 legal filing by Schachte's firm, Blank Rome, Schachte was one of the lobbyists working for FastShip's effort to secure federal contracts. On Feb. 2, FastShip announced the Bush administration had awarded it $40 million.
Schachte has other connections to the Bush administration. The Washington Post notes David Norcross, Schachte's colleague in the Washington office of Blank Rome, is chairman of this week's Republican convention in New York. Records show that Schachte gave $1,000 to Bush's 2000 and 2004 campaigns. Additionally, Schachte helped organize veterans' efforts against Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and for Bush in the 2000 South Carolina primary.
This is not the first member of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth who has been revealed to be connected to the President. The Bush-Cheney campaign's top outside lawyer was forced to resign after he admitted providing legal services to the veterans group. The Bush-Cheney campaign's veterans adviser was also featured in one of the smear ads.
August 31, 2004
Arnold Speaks of an Alternate Reality
Letter to the Editor
Arnold Schwarzenegger gave a good sounding speech but he seems to be talking about a different reality than the one I remember. He says that we have a strong economy now in spite of the recession we inherited (from Clinton). It reminds me of a sci-fi movie where there's a alternate universe where everything is the opposite of what's happening here. In the reality I remember we had the biggest surplus in the history of the world and now we have the biggest deficit in the history of the world.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is doing California a disservice to go to New York and endorse Bush because the economic future of this state and the rest of the country is to turn this economy around and get back to fiscal responsibility and basic sanity. Bush has gutted America and we need to get rid of him before it's to late to turn things around. If Bush is reselected Arnold Schwarzenegger will have to pay a personal price because he's going to have to keep the California economy going while Bush continues to destroy the national economy. I was hoping Arnold Schwarzenegger was going to join the real world - but I was wrong. In spite of his big immigrant story, he's a Republican first and an American second.
Most RNC Speakers are Pro Choice
I find it amusing that the Republicans are trotting out their pro-choice liberals to try to fake a reasonable face to a party that's trying to take those liberties away. All I see is deception.
August 30, 2004
Republican Convention - A Celebration of Failure and Ignorance
Letter to the Editor
It's interesting that the Republican convention is a celebration of all the failures of the Bush administration. Starting with 9-11 a tragedy that happen because Bush was on vacation and ignored all the warnings of the impending attacks.
They praise Bush's response to 9-11 when his response was to sit there and read a story about a goat to school children rather than scramble fighter jets to take out the terrorists.
Then they celebrate the war in Afghanistan which failed to capture Osama bin Laden. Bin Laden is still free - and we are no longer seriously pursuing him.
They call the surrender of our freedom and liberty the "Patriot Act".
Then they celebrate that war in Iraq which had nothing to do with 9-11 and they found no weapons of mass destruction and he is now stuck there clueless as to what to do. They overthrew a dictator who was torturing and raping the people and replaced them with Americans to torture and rape the people.
They will go on to celebrate the Bush economy which went from the biggest surplus in the history of the world to the biggest deficit in the history of the world.
The problem with the Republicans is - they think failure is success and that success is failure. They think that ignorance and failure is a virtue.
Where are the Republicans?
OK - I did make it into a letter to the editor.
Letter to the Editor
There seems to be two Republican parties - the republican party that is in power - and the pretty face that they are trotting out at the convention. They are bringing out the liberal Republicans like John McCaim and Arnold Schwarzenegger and Rudy Giuliani who have no power and hiding the people who are really in charge.
The real Republicans are hidden away. We don't see John Ashcroft speaking on Civil Liberties. Where is Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, Allen Keyes, the Reverend Sun Mung Moon, and Pat Buchanan? Where are the people behind the Republican energy policy like Kenneth Lay or Prince Vandar? Where is Donald Rumsfield and Paul Wolfowitz to talk about why we should torture prisoners? Where are the noecons like Tom Delay and Newt Gingrich? These are the people who wrote the Republican platform and shape Republican policy.
It looks to me like the Republicans are trying to put lipstick on a pig, showing people what they think they want to see rather than the way they really are. Republicans don't think you'd vote for them if they showed who was really in charge - and on that point I agree with them.
Lipstick on a Pig
As the Republican convention opens the GOP is hiding it's real face from the public. They trot out McCain and Schwarzenegger to put a pretty face on the pig. The neocons are being pushed into the background as they try to pretend to be reasonable.
If the GOP were honest they would be trotting out the real power behind their party. Ken Lay of Enron would be a keynote speaker. The Reverend Sun Mung Moon would be in prime time. Why not have John Ashcroft talk about civil liberties? Lets get Rummy to talk about why torturing prisioners is a good idea. Prince Vandar should speak about why high oil prices is good for America. Where's Tom Delay? Where's Newt? Where's Jerry Falwell? Where's Pat Robbertson? They should have a representative for Haliburton there - oh wait - they do have one. And - some of Bush's business partners in the bin Laden family.
I need to turn this into a letter to the editor.