The Cheney Observer

Secrecy is beguiling
Dec 13, 2007 - 04:06:50 CST
When government says to the people, "It's none of your business," both the government and the people are in trouble.
Throughout the American experiment of democracy, we have explored the appropriateness and the proper limits of concealment in our governance.
Just recently, judges sealed documents and imposed gag orders - the NCAA versus the University of North Dakota and the Moe Gibbs murder trial.
The National Transportation Safety Board was allowed by a judge to keep secret the details of its investigation into the collapse of the I-35W bridge in Minnesota until the federal government is good and ready to release the information to waiting families of those who perished.
The Central Intelligence Agency had to admit that it destroyed videotapes of interrogations of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.
The Bush administration filed in federal court in an effort to withhold Secret Service records that might show how often lobbyist Jack Abramoff visited the White House before his felony conviction in an influence peddling scandal.
In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson wrote, "Government ought to be all outside and no inside ... Everybody knows that corruption thrives in secret places and avoids public places, and we believe it is a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety."
A current buzz word that's well on its way to being worn out is transparency. But for the time being, it's useful.

http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2007/12/13/news/opinion/editorials/144359.txt



U.S. lawmakers vote to hold Bolten and Rove in contempt
Thu Dec 13, 2007 3:41pm GMT
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Thursday to hold two top aides to President George W. Bush in contempt of Congress for refusing to cooperate in its probe of fired federal prosecutors.
On a largely party-line vote of 11-7, the Democratic-led panel sent contempt citations against White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove to the full Senate for consideration.
As with many of Bush's battles with the Democratic-led Senate, the president may ultimately prevail since his fellow Republicans may be able to block the citations with a procedural hurdle.
Bush has claimed executive privilege to protect aides from complying with congressional subpoenas demanding documents or testimony in an investigation into the firing last year of nine U.S. attorneys. The committee has rejected his privilege claim as unfounded.
(Reporting by Thomas Ferraro; editing by David Alexander)

http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKN1322295820071213



Senator Joe Biden Backs Contempt Citations for Karl Rove and Josh Bolten
By newsdesk - Posted on December 14th, 2007
December 13, 2007 -- Washington, DC – Former Senate Judiciary Chairman Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) announced his support today for issuing contempt citations for White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and former Dep. Chief of Staff Karl Rove for refusing to comply with congressional subpoenas for documents and testimony on the White House's role in the firings of several distinguished U.S. attorneys.
“Executive privilege protects certain communications between the President and his top advisors. It doesn’t shield criminal conduct, it can’t thwart Congress’ constitutional oversight responsibility, and, contrary to the President’s belief, it’s not an absolute, blanket protection from answering Congress’ questions,” said Sen. Biden. “Executive privilege can only be invoked in response to specific questions and document requests; subpoenaed witnesses have got to show up and invoke the privilege.”

http://www.allamericanpatriots.com/48739112_senator-joe-biden-backs-contempt-citations-karl-rove-and-josh-bolten



Buyout Firm Rejects Overture From Sallie Mae
Flowers Declines to Make New Offer, Leaving Dispute in Hands of Delaware Court
By Thomas Heath
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 13, 2007; Page D04
Sallie Mae's chairman yesterday said the student loan giant had offered to consider a new bid from buyout firm J.C. Flowers & Co., only to be rebuffed.
The rejection assures that Sallie Mae will continue to pursue legal action against a Flowers-led investment group. Sallie Mae is attempting to force the group to follow through on its previous agreement to buy the lender for $25 billion or pay a $900 million breakup fee.
"My shareholders were telling me that they prefer a deal to the $900 million," Sallie Mae Chairman Albert L. Lord said. "We did not concede the $900 million. That case is still very much alive."
Lord's disclosure came as the company issued a news release saying that it had reduced its earnings outlook for this quarter and all of 2008 because the cost of borrowing money has increased. Sallie Mae, which relies on the debt markets to fund its student loans, expects its borrowing costs to be higher than normal through the middle of 2008.
Shares in SLM Corp., Sallie Mae's formal name, closed yesterday at $28.49, down $3.45, nearly 11 percent.
Lord said his major shareholders told him to contact J. Christopher Flowers, known for finance industry takeovers, and ask him for another bid because of concerns that the sides were not talking.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/12/AR2007121200947.html



Could another scientific illiterate replace Bush?
By Robyn Blumner
Tribune Media Services
Article Last Updated: 12/08/2007 12:48:25 PM MST
What happened to Christine Comer makes me wonder whether America is really emerging from its Age of Unenlightenment.
Comer was forced to resign her position as director of science at the Texas Education Agency because she forwarded an e-mail about a lecture on the fallacy of "intelligent design" and creationism as a scientifically grounded alternative to evolution. Comer, who spent 27 years as a science teacher and had been in her post at the agency for nine years, was told that the agency must remain "neutral" on the subject.
Neutral? Are they kidding? On the one hand you have a theory that has been successfully tested using the scientific method for more than 100 years and whose accuracy has been repeatedly affirmed by the vast fields of biology and genetics. On the other hand you have a hypothesis that relies on supernatural intervention for which there has been no legitimate scientific testing or objective proof.
Florida is also now in a dust-up because the teaching of evolution has been included in its proposed science standards. Donna Callaway, a member of the state Board of Education - appointed by former Gov. Jeb Bush - said she'll oppose the new standards because of it.
Really folks, in this information age, when scientific innovation is the key to our nation's future, we don't have the time to be mucking around in this tired debate. You don't produce doctors and
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scientists by teaching science from the Bible. Period.
Not surprisingly, a former advisor to George Bush as Texas governor, who also worked in his federal Department of Education, provoked the Comer witch hunt. Lizzette Reynolds, deputy commissioner for statewide policy and programs, complained about Comer's e-mail and called for her termination.

http://texasedequity.blogspot.com/2007/12/could-another-scientific-illiterate.html



Giuliani Packs Education Panel With Voucher Advocates
By ELIZABETH GREEN
Staff Reporter of the Sun
December 14, 2007
Signaling the direction he would like to take the country's schools, a Republican presidential hopeful, Mayor Giuliani, is packing his education advisory team with voucher advocates, private-sector school consultants, and opponents of teachers unions.
A Stanford professor who spearheaded a national movement for private-school vouchers, Terry Moe, is chairing Mr. Giuliani's 16-member advisory board. A former education secretary under President Bush who has said teachers unions hold a "death grip" on American schools, Rod Paige, and a former president of Yale University who helped form the for-profit school management company Edison Schools, Benno Schmidt, will also sit on the board.
The appointments announced by Mr. Giuliani's campaign today come a day after Senator McCain made an indirect dig at the former mayor's education record by praising Mayor Bloomberg for turning around a system Mr. McCain said had been "clearly broken."

http://www.nysun.com/article/68047



FCAT fatigue
December 13, 2007
So now we learn the 2006 third-grade reading FCAT was too easy because certain questions appeared early in the exam rather than later. Had these questions been "properly" placed, we're told, the test would have been more difficult and the "right" number of students would have failed.
Honest to God, whether you're columnist Mike Thomas, Jeb Bush, or just a run-of-the-mill "accountability" freak, if you aren't scratching your head over this, you're a lost cause.
"State officials" say questions appearing later in the test pose more of a problem, not because they're innately more difficult but because of the test-taker's "fatigue." In essence, most border-line students in 2006 weren't "fatigued" enough at crucial test-taking moments for the test to yield accurate results.

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/orl-le13_307dec13,0,6182394.story



Rating Bush, on a scale of 1 to 10
ASK THIS December 13, 2007
Republican presidential candidates avoid talking about President Bush, for obvious reasons. But journalists should press them to say what they think of Bush's legacy, which elements of his presidency they would emulate, and which they would reject.
By Dan Froomkin
The Republican candidates for president rarely mention their party’s deeply unpopular standard-bearer these days, particularly in their debates. In Harry Potter-speak, President Bush has become He Who Must Not Be Named for Republicans.
Bush’s name was uttered only twice during the GOP’s two-hour-long CNN/YouTube debate on Nov. 8. CNN correspondent Carol Costello observed: "It sure seems like Bush has become a four letter word you don't want to mention if you're a Republican running for office. They've taken to talking about him in code -- not daring to say Bush, but not shy about promoting his agenda.”

http://niemanwatchdog.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=ask_this.view&askthisid=00307



Rudy's Firm Got $30 Million for Pimping Data-Miner
By Noah Shachtman
December 13, 2007 5:30:54 PMCategories: Cash Rules Everything Around Me, Data Diving, Politricks
It was never exactly clear how Hank Asher, the database whiz and former cocaine smuggler, managed to get some of the government's highest-ranking officials to back MATRIX, his controversial info mining project. A 2004 Vanity Fair profile said that Florida governor Jeb Bush was Asher's "introducer" at a Roosevelt Room presentation that included in the audience Vice President Dick Cheney, FBI director Robert Mueller, Department of Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge. But the story didn't say how Asher was able to get the attention, in the first place.
Now, it appears, we have an answer. Rudy Guiliani hooked Asher up.
Time magazine reports that Guiliani Partners in December 2002 agreed to represent Asher's company, Seisint, for "$2 million a year, plus a percentage of revenue from company sales to government and corporate buyers."

http://blog.wired.com/defense/2007/12/httpwwwtpmmuckr.html



Rudy: All Business
In most cases, it's impossible to say how much a specific contract has been worth to GP or Bracewell & Giuliani. That's one reason the Seisint case is interesting. By December 2003, Seisint was positioning itself to go public or be bought out. GP, according to Seisint's financial statements, agreed to waive $2.2 million of accrued commissions from its total bill of $6.5 million. In return, the firm received $5.5 million in cash and a much reduced exercise price on 1.7 million stock options that had been granted in the contract.

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1694093-2,00.html



Money for Nothing?
By Paul Kiel - December 5, 2007, 12:40PM
What if I told you that you could make millions of dollars doing it's-not-clear-what? Well, Rudy Giuliani has lived the dream.
We introduced you earlier to Hank Asher, Giuliani's friend and two-time business associate, who's recently cropped up in a public corruption indictment. The Giuliani-Asher relationship is a tale to tell on its own, though.
The two met when Asher demonstrated his Matrix database software for Giuliani in 2002. The ex-mayor has said that he immediately became an enthusiast: "this was a technology that would have been very helpful to us even when I was the mayor and putting together programs for reducing crime to help us find serial killers, abductors of children, and of course terrorists." Something else might have explained his enthusiasm: Asher and Giuliani inked a deal in December 2002 for Giuliani Partners to represent Asher's company, Seisint.

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/004833.php



HUD to Nagin: Demolition of Lafitte critical
by Times-Picayune
Thursday December 13, 2007, 5:35 PM
The Housing Authority of New Orleans will lose out on $137 million in construction funding and 900 disaster housing vouchers if the City Council does not approve demolition plans for Lafitte, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said Thursday.
On Monday, a historic conservation committee deadlocked on demolishing Lafitte, tying 3-3. HANO said it will appeal to the City Council, which is likely to vote on the matter at its regular meeting Thursday. The committee approved demolition plans for B.W. Cooper and C.J. Peete.
In a letter to Mayor Ray Nagin, HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson said that HANO has already secured Gulf Opportunity Zone low-income housing tax credits and other federal grants to redevelop Lafitte into a "mixed income" neighborhood. A total of $137 million would be lost if the council doesn't approve Lafitte's demolition, Jackson said.
Jackson also said that former Lafitte residents could lose their disaster housing vouchers, which pay market-rate rents while they await the rebuilding of the complex. Those vouchers, provided by HUD, are directly linked to the plan to demolish and rebuild housing on the site, the letter said.
Lafitte, which housed 865 families before Hurricane Katrina, has been shuttered and vacant since the storm. HANO says that nonprofit developers will build 1,500 units of housing, including 296 public housing units and 624 units for low-income renters.

http://www.nola.com/news/index.ssf/2007/12/hud_to_nagin_city_must_approve.html



N.O. housing demolition protests gear up
By CAIN BURDEAU
Associated Press Writer
Alex Brandon/AP Photo
Protesters block equipment from entering a portion of the B.W. Cooper housing development in New Orleans Wednesday, Dec. 12, 2007. Demolition of the units had been planned a decade before Hurricane Katrina flooded 80 percent of New Orleans in 2005, scattering public housing residents and damaging most public housing.
In normal times, redevelopment of public housing to make way for mixed-income neighborhoods might have gone largely unopposed. But passions are high in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans, where residents are desperate for cheap housing.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development wants to demolish about 4,500 public housing units at four of the city's largest complexes and replace them with mixed-income neighborhoods.
Protesters have marched on Mayor Ray Nagin's home and disrupted City Council proceedings with chants.
At least two protesters apparently occupied one of the buildings scheduled to be bulldozed, draping two handmade banners from the side Thursday. One read, "Reopen now," and the other, "No demolition."
Protesters kept up the pressure with a march at the HUD offices in Washington.
On Thursday, civil rights lawyers also filed an 11th-hour suit in state court after a federal court suit failed to derail the demolition plan.

http://www.kentucky.com/513/story/257301.html



In New Orleans, Plan to Raze Low-Income Housing Draws Protest
NEW ORLEANS — At a moment when the shortage of low-income housing in the city is causing significant hardship, the federal government is beginning this week to tear down thousands of apartments in the city’s four biggest public housing projects.
Hurricane Katrina
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The plan is producing sharp opposition, which has escalated to include raucous demonstrations and, perhaps, threats of arson and other violence.
On Thursday, outside City Hall and opposite a park where homeless people are living in dozens of small tents, about 100 demonstrators chanted “Stop the demolitions now!” A few were displaced public-housing residents; most were activists and public housing advocates from here and cities from New York to California.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/us/nationalspecial/14orleans.html?_r=1&oref=slogin



Katrina's wrath lingers for New Orleans' poor
2007.12.14 17:02
If the government has its way, the moldering hulks of the St. Bernard public housing projects soon will be rubble.
That has been the government's plan for more than a year - and for more than a year it has been locked in a legal battle with housing advocates here who want officials to fix up apartments waterlogged by the flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina rather than tear them down. Unless the vast system of public housing is reopened quickly, advocates fear many former residents will never come back.
The result: More than two years after the storm hit, all but a few of the city's government-run apartments remain shut, surrounded by barbed wire and uninhabitable. Demolition of some began this week. Building replacements will take at least two more years.
There is little question that Hurricane Katrina hammered the poor when it inundated the Gulf Coast in August 2005, obliterating some of the poorest parts of the nation's poorest states. The question is whether thousands of low-income residents who were displaced by the storm will ever be able to come back.
"They can't come back because there's no place for them to lay their head," says James Perry, executive director of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center. "We just don't have anything for the low-income people."

http://sankei.jp.msn.com/usatoday/071214/usa0712141702003-n1.htm



City Sells 267 Properties Online
POSTED: 9:27 am CST December 13, 2007
UPDATED: 10:33 am CST December 13, 2007
NEW ORLEANS -- New Orleans held its second online tax sale, offering for sale properties whose owners haven't paid the taxes due on them. Representatives of the firm contracted to manage the process call it a big success.
All but four of the 271 properties for sale had been sold by Wednesday night.
The sale was restricted to properties in the 17 recovery zones targeted for immediate improvements by Mayor Ray Nagin's administration.
Thanks to Wednesday's sale, the city was able to collect about $896,000 in outstanding taxes, interest and penalties.
William Sossamon, chief technology officer for Strategic Alliance Partners, the company in charge of the sale, said roughly $46,000 -- the amount owed for the four properties that did not sell -- remains uncollected.

http://www.wdsu.com/news/14845392/detail.html



Gates Foundation and others give $17.5 M to New Orleans schools
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SEATTLE -- Three charitable foundations, including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, are donating a combined $17.5 million to help revive New Orleans schools still ailing more than two years after Hurricane Katrina.
The money, from The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, of Los Angeles, the Doris & Donald Fisher Fund, of San Francisco, and the Gates Foundation, of Seattle, will support the creation of new public charter schools, and will pay for teacher and principal recruitment and training.
New Schools for New Orleans will get $10 million to recruit teachers, start schools and advocate for school improvement and accountability. Teach for America will get $6.5 million to recruit and train new teachers from a nationwide corps of recent college graduates and young professionals.

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/6420ap_wa_gates_foundation_new_orleans.html



Pitt helps rebuild New Orleans homes
Springfield native's project seeks to revitalize Katrina-struck Lower 9th Ward.
Stacey Plaisance
The Associated Press
New Orleans — Forget about the movies, Brad Pitt is all about resurrecting New Orleans.
The actor who grew up in Springfield says he's putting his Hollywood career on hold while doing all he can to help the city recover from Hurricane Katrina.
"This is my project," he said, sitting at a table on a tiled slab where Katrina's floodwater pushed a Lower 9th Ward home off its foundation more than two years ago.
Katrina's destruction attracted many celebrities — especially shortly after the Aug. 29, 2005 storm. But few stand out as much as Pitt, who has sustained a personal and financial commitment to rebuilding shattered neighborhoods.
In the past year, Pitt and companion Angelina Jolie bought a home — a Creole mansion — in the French Quarter. And Pitt has pledged more than $5 million to rebuild one of the city's most devastated neighborhoods and spent countless hours on the ground listening to residents' needs.
"I believe in what's going on down here," he said after the launch earlier this month of Make It Right, the Pitt-backed project to rebuild 150 homes in the Lower 9th Ward.

http://www.news-leader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071213/NEWS01/712130416/1007


Boeing bringing more space work to New Orleans
KTRE Latest Headlines
Associated Press - December 13, 2007 7:25 AM ET
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Boeing will use NASA's Michoud (MEE'-shoo) Assembly Center in New Orleans to produce an avionics system that will control the Ares I rocket.
That rocket is intended to send astronauts back to the moon.
NASA yesterday awarded Boeing a nearly $800 million contract to produce the system that will provide guidance, navigation and control for the rocket until it reaches orbit.
Boeing expects the project to employ up to 20 production workers at Michoud.

http://www.ktre.com/Global/story.asp?S=7491042&nav=menu118_3



Henry Paulson’s Priorities
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: December 10, 2007
By Bush administration standards, Henry Paulson, the Treasury secretary, is a good guy. He isn’t conspicuously incompetent; and he isn’t trying to mislead us into war, justify torture or protect corrupt contractors.
But Mr. Paulson’s actions reflect the priorities of the administration he serves. And that, ultimately, is what’s wrong with the mortgage relief plan he unveiled last week.
The plan is, as a Times editorial put it yesterday, “too little, too late and too voluntary.” But from the administration’s point of view these failings aren’t bugs, they’re features.
In fact, there’s a growing consensus among financial observers that the Paulson plan isn’t mainly intended to achieve real results. The point is, instead, to create the appearance of action, thereby undercutting political support for actual attempts to help families in trouble.
In particular, the Paulson plan is probably an attempt to take the wind out of Barney Frank’s sails. Mr. Frank, the Democratic chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has sponsored legislation that would give judges in bankruptcy cases the ability to rewrite mortgage loan terms. But “Bankers Hope Bush Subprime Plan Will Scuttle House Bill,” as a headline in CongressDaily put it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/opinion/10krugman.html?_r=1&oref=login



Citigroup to Consolidate Seven SIVs on Balance Sheet (Update3)
By Shannon D. Harrington and Elizabeth Hester
Dec. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Citigroup Inc. will bail out its seven structured investment vehicles, bringing $49 billion of assets onto its balance sheet in the biggest move yet by a bank to rescue the failing funds.
Citigroup, the largest manager of SIVs, followed HSBC Holdings Plc and WestLB AG in saving the funds and averting forced asset sales. The New York-based bank said it made the decision after Moody's Investors Service and Standard & Poor's indicated they may cut the credit ratings of the SIVs. Moody's lowered Citigroup's long-term rating after the announcement to Aa3 from Aa2.
Chief Executive Officer Vikram Pandit announced the decision after being named to the post Dec. 11. Moody's said Dec. 3 that it is preparing to cut ratings on $105 billion of SIV debt, including commercial paper and medium term notes of six managed by Citigroup. The SIVs owned by Citigroup have $58 billion in senior debt and $13 billion in cash.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=anCb4SVNh.0M&refer=us



China premier tells US's Paulson that yuan reform to be gradual - UPDATE
12.13.07, 7:40 AM ET
BEIJING (XFN-ASIA) - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao made it clear to US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson that China's exchange rate reform will be gradual, a senior finance ministry official said.
Zhu Guangyao, assistant finance minister, told reporters that exchange rate reform would continue at China's own initiative, though it would be 'controllable and gradual.'
He said that a gradual approach to exchange reform was responsible and in China's national interest. This message was given to Paulson during his meeting with the Chinese premier today.
Zhu added that Wen 'very clearly' briefed Paulson on figures that showed the yuan had risen 12 pct against the dollar since it was revalued in July 2005, with a 6 pct appreciation this year.
Zhu also noted that the reform of a country's exchange rate reflects economic fundamentals and is decided by market supply and demand.

http://www.forbes.com/markets/feeds/afx/2007/12/13/afx4435536.html




Chinese President calls for further Sino-U.S. cooperation after economic talks
2007-12-13 20:07:25
BEIJING, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Chinese President Hu Jintao on Thursday called for further cooperation between China and the U.S.as the two countries wound up two days of economic talks with a slew of agreements in Beijing.
"I hope the two sides can make efforts to perfect the dialogue so that it can better serve the overall development of the Sino-U.S. constructive and cooperative relations," Hu told a delegation to the Third Strategic Economic Dialogue (SED) headed by U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson.
Hu, who initiated the dialogue with U.S. President George W. Bush in 2006, said a great deal of helpful experience have been gathered in the past three talks.
"The dialogue, together with other mechanisms, has become an important occasion for enhancing mutual strategic trust and practical cooperation," he said.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-12/13/content_7243909.htm



Paulson: Dialogue with China 'instructive and constructive'
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U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Thursday the just concluded strategic economic dialogue (SED) with China has been "instructive and constructive."

"We have had substantive, robust and engaging exchanges on a range of issues important to both our nations including the integrity of trade, balanced growth including financial services, energy security and environmental sustainability, and bilateral investment," he said.

Paulson made the comments at a joint press conference following the conclusion of the closed-door Third China-U.S. Strategic Economic Dialogue that last one day and half.

"The quality of our discussions has improved over the last year...By building closer relationships we have clarified perceptions and increased understanding, which is vital to keeping our economic relationship on an even keel," he added.

http://www.china.org.cn/english/business/235591.htm

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