Monday, November 27, 2006

Bush Junior's Library Needs MegaDonations to "Shape History"

Think Progress reports that the Bush Library Courts ‘Wealthy Heiresses, Arab Nations, Captains of Industry’ To ‘Polish’ History.

Bush is attempting to raise $500 million to build his library and a think tank at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Bush fund-raisers hope to get approximately $250 million from what they call “megadonations” of $10 million to $20 million each. Among the candidates for “megadonations,” whose names will remain anonymous:

Bush loyalists have already identified wealthy heiresses, Arab nations and captains of industry as potential “mega” donors and are pressing for a formal site announcement - now expected early in the new year.

Bush allies feel they need enormous funds to shape how history views Bush’s legacy. A Bush insider said, “The more [money] you have, the more influence [on history] you can exert.” Much of the money will be used to build a “legacy-polishing” institute:

The legacy-polishing centerpiece is an institute, which several Bush insiders called the Institute for Democracy. Patterned after Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, Bush’s institute will hire conservative scholars and “give them money to write papers and books favorable to the President’s policies,” one Bush insider said.

Bush had earlier indicated his desire to create a think tank “to talk about freedom and liberty and the DeTocqueville model of what [French political philosopher Alexis] DeTocqueville saw in America.”

Thursday, November 16, 2006

Cuban Disinformation Paid for by U.S. Taxpayers

Foreign Assistance: U.S. Democracy Assistance for Cuba Needs Better Management and Oversight, GAO-07-147, November 15, 2006.


Nearly all of the $74 million a federal agency has spent on contracts to promote democracy in Cuba over the past decade has been distributed without competitive bidding or oversight in a program that opened the door to waste and fraud, according to a report released yesterday by the Government Accountability Office.

In one of the more extreme cases of apparent abuse, the GAO said a Miami-based group used government money to purchase "a gas chainsaw, computer gaming equipment and software (including Nintendo Game Boys and Sony PlayStations), a mountain bike, leather coats, cashmere sweaters, crab meat, and Godiva chocolates."


And here is Mel Martinez asking Donald Rumsfield for TV money.

Full report is here.

Sunday, November 05, 2006

Pastor Ted's Recommended Reading

This may be purged from the website of the New Life Church now that Pastor Ted has showed that he is a hypocrite of the first order preaching against gay marriage while involved with a gay prostitute and buying drugs.

Pastor Ted's Recommended Reading



LETTERS TO A YOUNG CONSERVATIVE

WHATS SO GREAT ABOUT AMERICA

How Christianity Changed the World


The World Is Flat


The Wisdom Of Crowds


The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People


Winning With People

Joy At Work

THE CHURCHING OF AMERICA

THE 21 IRREFUTABLE LAWS OF LEADERSHIP

Wednesday, November 01, 2006

Laura Bush on Manipulation

In an interview on C-Span, First Lady Laura Bush was asked about Michael J Fox’s advocacy for candidates who support embryonic stem cell research. Mrs. Bush responded that it was wrong for Fox and others to suggest that increased support for embryonic stem cell research could lead to cures for Alzheimer’s and other diseases.

She concluded with a thinly veiled critique of Fox: “It’s always easy to manipulate people’s feelings, especially when you are talking about diseases that are so difficult.” Watch it: