Friday, September 30, 2005
Bush is a real piece of work...
The Complete Bushisms - Updated frequently. By Jacob Weisberg: "'See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.'—Greece, N.Y., May 24, 2005 "
Buying of News by Bush's Aides Is Ruled Illegal - New York Times
October 1, 2005
Buying of News by Bush's Aides Is Ruled Illegal
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 - Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party.
In a blistering report, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the administration had disseminated "covert propaganda" in the United States, in violation of a statutory ban.
The contract with Mr. Williams and the general contours of the public relations campaign had been known for months. The report Friday provided the first definitive ruling on the legality of the activities.
Lawyers from the accountability office, an independent nonpartisan arm of Congress, found that the administration systematically analyzed news articles to see if they carried the message, "The Bush administration/the G.O.P. is committed to education."
The auditors declared: "We see no use for such information except for partisan political purposes. Engaging in a purely political activity such as this is not a proper use of appropriated funds."
The report also sharply criticized the Education Department for telling Ketchum Inc., a public relations company, to pay Mr. Williams for newspaper columns and television appearances praising Mr. Bush's education initiative, the No Child Left Behind Act.
When that arrangement became public, it set off widespread criticism. At a news conference in January, Mr. Bush said: "We will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet."
But the Education Department has since defended its payments to Mr. Williams, saying his commentaries were "no more than the legitimate dissemination of information to the public."
The G.A.O. said the Education Department had no money or authority to "procure favorable commentary in violation of the publicity or propaganda prohibition" in federal law.
The ruling comes with no penalty, but under federal law the department is supposed to report the violations to the White House and Congress.
In the course of its work, the accountability office discovered a previously undisclosed instance in which the Education Department had commissioned a newspaper article. The article, on the "declining science literacy of students," was distributed by the North American Precis Syndicate and appeared in numerous small newspapers around the country. Readers were not informed of the government's role in the writing of the article, which praised the department's role in promoting science education.
The auditors denounced a prepackaged television story disseminated by the Education Department. The segment, a "video news release" narrated by a woman named Karen Ryan, said that President Bush's program for providing remedial instruction and tutoring to children "gets an A-plus."
Ms. Ryan also narrated two videos praising the new Medicare drug benefit last year. In those segments, as in the education video, the narrator ended by saying, "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting."
The television news segments on education and on Medicare did not state that they had been prepared and distributed by the government. The G.A.O. did not say how many stations carried the reports.
The public relations efforts came to light weeks before Margaret Spellings became education secretary in January. Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman for the secretary, said on Friday that Ms. Spellings regarded the efforts as "stupid, wrong and ill-advised." She said Ms. Spellings had taken steps "to ensure these types of missteps don't happen again."
The investigation by the accountability office was requested by Senators Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats. Mr. Lautenberg expressed concern about a section of the report in which investigators said they could not find records to confirm that Mr. Williams had performed all the activities for which he billed the government.
The Education Department said it had paid Ketchum $186,000 for services performed by Mr. Williams's company. But it could not provide transcripts of speeches, articles or records of other services invoiced by Mr. Williams, the report said.
In March, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel said that federal agencies did not have to acknowledge their role in producing television news segments if they were factual. The inspector general of the Education Department recently reiterated that position.
But the accountability office said on Friday: "The failure of an agency to identify itself as the source of a prepackaged news story misleads the viewing public by encouraging the audience to believe that the broadcasting news organization developed the information. The prepackaged news stories are purposefully designed to be indistinguishable from news segments broadcast to the public. When the television viewing public does not know that the stories they watched on television news programs about the government were in fact prepared by the government, the stories are, in this sense, no longer purely factual. The essential fact of attribution is missing."
The office said Mr. Williams's work for the government resulted from a written proposal that he submitted to the Education Department in March 2003. The department directed Ketchum to use Mr. Williams as a regular commentator on Mr. Bush's education policies. Ketchum had a federal contract to help publicize those policies, signed by Mr. Bush in 2002.
The Education Department flouted the law by telling Ketchum to use Mr. Williams to "convey a message to the public on behalf of the government, without disclosing to the public that the messengers were acting on the government's behalf and in return for the payment of public funds," the G.A.O. said.
The Education Department spent $38,421 for production and distribution of the video news release and $96,850 for the evaluation of newspaper articles and radio and television programs. Ketchum assigned a score to each article, indicating how often and favorably it mentioned features of the new education law.
Congress tried to clarify the ban on "covert propaganda" in a bill signed by Mr. Bush in May. The law says that no federal money may be used to produce or distribute a news story unless the government's role is openly acknowledged.
Buying of News by Bush's Aides Is Ruled Illegal
By ROBERT PEAR
WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 - Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party.
In a blistering report, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the administration had disseminated "covert propaganda" in the United States, in violation of a statutory ban.
The contract with Mr. Williams and the general contours of the public relations campaign had been known for months. The report Friday provided the first definitive ruling on the legality of the activities.
Lawyers from the accountability office, an independent nonpartisan arm of Congress, found that the administration systematically analyzed news articles to see if they carried the message, "The Bush administration/the G.O.P. is committed to education."
The auditors declared: "We see no use for such information except for partisan political purposes. Engaging in a purely political activity such as this is not a proper use of appropriated funds."
The report also sharply criticized the Education Department for telling Ketchum Inc., a public relations company, to pay Mr. Williams for newspaper columns and television appearances praising Mr. Bush's education initiative, the No Child Left Behind Act.
When that arrangement became public, it set off widespread criticism. At a news conference in January, Mr. Bush said: "We will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet."
But the Education Department has since defended its payments to Mr. Williams, saying his commentaries were "no more than the legitimate dissemination of information to the public."
The G.A.O. said the Education Department had no money or authority to "procure favorable commentary in violation of the publicity or propaganda prohibition" in federal law.
The ruling comes with no penalty, but under federal law the department is supposed to report the violations to the White House and Congress.
In the course of its work, the accountability office discovered a previously undisclosed instance in which the Education Department had commissioned a newspaper article. The article, on the "declining science literacy of students," was distributed by the North American Precis Syndicate and appeared in numerous small newspapers around the country. Readers were not informed of the government's role in the writing of the article, which praised the department's role in promoting science education.
The auditors denounced a prepackaged television story disseminated by the Education Department. The segment, a "video news release" narrated by a woman named Karen Ryan, said that President Bush's program for providing remedial instruction and tutoring to children "gets an A-plus."
Ms. Ryan also narrated two videos praising the new Medicare drug benefit last year. In those segments, as in the education video, the narrator ended by saying, "In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting."
The television news segments on education and on Medicare did not state that they had been prepared and distributed by the government. The G.A.O. did not say how many stations carried the reports.
The public relations efforts came to light weeks before Margaret Spellings became education secretary in January. Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman for the secretary, said on Friday that Ms. Spellings regarded the efforts as "stupid, wrong and ill-advised." She said Ms. Spellings had taken steps "to ensure these types of missteps don't happen again."
The investigation by the accountability office was requested by Senators Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats. Mr. Lautenberg expressed concern about a section of the report in which investigators said they could not find records to confirm that Mr. Williams had performed all the activities for which he billed the government.
The Education Department said it had paid Ketchum $186,000 for services performed by Mr. Williams's company. But it could not provide transcripts of speeches, articles or records of other services invoiced by Mr. Williams, the report said.
In March, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel said that federal agencies did not have to acknowledge their role in producing television news segments if they were factual. The inspector general of the Education Department recently reiterated that position.
But the accountability office said on Friday: "The failure of an agency to identify itself as the source of a prepackaged news story misleads the viewing public by encouraging the audience to believe that the broadcasting news organization developed the information. The prepackaged news stories are purposefully designed to be indistinguishable from news segments broadcast to the public. When the television viewing public does not know that the stories they watched on television news programs about the government were in fact prepared by the government, the stories are, in this sense, no longer purely factual. The essential fact of attribution is missing."
The office said Mr. Williams's work for the government resulted from a written proposal that he submitted to the Education Department in March 2003. The department directed Ketchum to use Mr. Williams as a regular commentator on Mr. Bush's education policies. Ketchum had a federal contract to help publicize those policies, signed by Mr. Bush in 2002.
The Education Department flouted the law by telling Ketchum to use Mr. Williams to "convey a message to the public on behalf of the government, without disclosing to the public that the messengers were acting on the government's behalf and in return for the payment of public funds," the G.A.O. said.
The Education Department spent $38,421 for production and distribution of the video news release and $96,850 for the evaluation of newspaper articles and radio and television programs. Ketchum assigned a score to each article, indicating how often and favorably it mentioned features of the new education law.
Congress tried to clarify the ban on "covert propaganda" in a bill signed by Mr. Bush in May. The law says that no federal money may be used to produce or distribute a news story unless the government's role is openly acknowledged.
Saturday, September 17, 2005
ClubTread.com - hiking bc and trail database for Canada - club tread
How foolish of me to just now find this site... there's like, what? 4 more sunny days before the rains come (yes, I'm being facetious... the hills get snow ;) ) At least I'll have all the knowledge I need for next year.
ClubTread.com - hiking bc and trail database for Canada - club tread
ClubTread.com - hiking bc and trail database for Canada - club tread
ClubTread.com
Gonna go hiking... how stupid am I to stumble onto this site and group in September with so few good days left ahead of us... Well, at least I'll be all up on the local knowledge come next season.
www.clubtread.com
www.clubtread.com
Sunday, September 11, 2005
Opsed - Opera Search.ini Editor
Edit the Opera Search settings... get off your Google sheepishness. Personally I dislike Google and what they are doing/becoming or suspected of doing/becoming (ie Microsoft's wet dream). I want Yahoo as my main search engine (Yes, I am giving a lot my personal data to the Japanese, I guess, but think of it more as spreading info around rather than collecting in one suppository... I mean depository... I digress). Opera Search.ini Editor can do all sorts of neat stuff for you (like have only ebay.ca or amazon.ca rather than the American .com)
Opsed - Opera Search.ini Editor
Opsed - Opera Search.ini Editor
Switched to Opera 8.1
Finally upgraded to Opera 8.1 from 7.54. I was hesitant as 7.54 did nearly all I wanted and I had heavily customised it. Now that I've fully migrated over to 8.1 I just have to get used to the newsfeeds being handled differently... and the addition of BitTorrent... not sure how much I'll use BT as it seems to be a real resource hog and torrents aren't always the fastest nor the best p2p. Still... I'd take Opera over firefox and IE anyday. I do not understand anyone not using this software.
Opera Watch: The Unofficial Opera Blog: Opera 8.1 Technical Preview released
Opera Watch: The Unofficial Opera Blog: Opera 8.1 Technical Preview released
Wednesday, June 22, 2005
Breaking the bonds the banks have on our lives.
I think I'm out of here. Royal Bank is gonna lose a customer. I mean, what the heck am I paying them any money for? They're taking nearly $10 a month off of me for ATM charges and online access. Finally I've broken down and ventured into the previously untried... pcfinancial. Let's see... no fees, can use CIBC machines for free... and no fees... I hate banks. For those who have spoken with me on this they know that I see no reason to have a traditional bank account whatsoever. I don't have any heavy gold to store and I don't need any bank notes saying I've stored my non-existent heavy gold. I give them money and they use that money to make more money... then when I want to take some of my money back they have the gall to charge me? For what? Did they dust it? Did they polish it? Did they iron all my bills? I use a machine or go online to do it mostly. Even my trading is all online... why do I pay RBC securities so much for that? I've been a fool caught in his own cancerous traditional upbringing. The world is changing and I have been so slow to change with it. RBC is this close to being out of my life... now to find a cheaper trading platform... etrade maybe?
President's Choice Financial | home ���
President's Choice Financial | home ���
Monday, April 11, 2005
What a load....
I don't usually blog about politics... too dirty and I just washed these pants... but this one is pretty funny. From the CBC:
"Prime Minister Paul Martin said he was 'personally offended' by last week's damaging testimony at the sponsorship inquiry, insisting that he believes he still has the moral authority to govern. 'I was offended as any other Canadian,' Martin said about Brault's allegations. 'Even if that testimony is contested, I was personally offended by what I heard.'
'That is not the way that politics is done in Quebec. It is not the way that politics should be done in Canada and it is certainly not the way I believe politics should be done,' he said."
Does he have the "moral authority to govern"? I don't know about moral but he does have the minority elected voice. That's not the way politics is done in Quebec or should be done (love the use of should) in Canada? That's exactly how politics in Quebec, Canada, The World is done. Why is this news and why is it front page on the CBC? Would anything change if we were to elect a Conservative or, dare I say it, NDP majority? I don't think so. We are stuck with fools to lead us and the only thing I can hope to do is join them... then maybe I'd get some of my money back. Time to form a new Cabal. The NWO. The New Will Order (the 'Will' is in reference to the Will of the people... wink, wink, nudge, nudge). Anyone want to join?
"Prime Minister Paul Martin said he was 'personally offended' by last week's damaging testimony at the sponsorship inquiry, insisting that he believes he still has the moral authority to govern. 'I was offended as any other Canadian,' Martin said about Brault's allegations. 'Even if that testimony is contested, I was personally offended by what I heard.'
'That is not the way that politics is done in Quebec. It is not the way that politics should be done in Canada and it is certainly not the way I believe politics should be done,' he said."
Does he have the "moral authority to govern"? I don't know about moral but he does have the minority elected voice. That's not the way politics is done in Quebec or should be done (love the use of should) in Canada? That's exactly how politics in Quebec, Canada, The World is done. Why is this news and why is it front page on the CBC? Would anything change if we were to elect a Conservative or, dare I say it, NDP majority? I don't think so. We are stuck with fools to lead us and the only thing I can hope to do is join them... then maybe I'd get some of my money back. Time to form a new Cabal. The NWO. The New Will Order (the 'Will' is in reference to the Will of the people... wink, wink, nudge, nudge). Anyone want to join?
Friday, March 18, 2005
Tuesday, February 22, 2005
Monday, January 31, 2005
Here we are hanging out on Big White above the clouds. We had to drive over 5 hours through some pretty rotten stuff to get back to Vancouver but it was totally worth it. Now if only we would get some snow at Whistler. On a side note the pineapple express has been a boom for the interior resorts which are getting all the Vancouverites and Washingtonians.
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
Get Picasa 2
Get this now. For those who may be wondering how I get all these pics up and the websnapshots with links up... well it ain't no secret and it's real easy to do. Picasa and Hello from Google. Not only is Picasa my fav photo album program but it's free to boot. I don't often recommend software but this one rocks.
Picasa 2
Picasa 2
Owned! I knew there was something fishy about the press here in BC. All three major dailies (The National Post, The Province, and The Vancouver Sun) are owned by Canwest. So for alternative views I have The Globe and Mail, The Georgia Straight, and The Westender... At least there is the Globe and Mail... but it would be nice to have an alternative daily BC focused paper.
Saturday, January 22, 2005
Recommended Listening: ninjatune.net
Gotta love these guys. They throw down an awesome mix. I've caught them live a couple of times, both in Osaka, and will be sure to go again if they ever come to Vancouver. Be sure to check out the Solid Steel radio show.
ninjatune.net.home
ninjatune.net.home
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