Today's Editorials: Why Wolfowitz Was Fired
WSJ ... notes that Herman Wijffels, the head of the committee that accused World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz of ethical violations, recently admitted that the charges against Wolfowitz "were just an alibi to force Mr. Wolfowitz to resign" ... argues that now that Democrats hold control of Congress, they have ceased worrying about Washington's "culture of corruption." The editors add: "Democrats want to enjoy the spending prerogatives of the majority. Earmarks for everyone!"
LAT ... notes that while Monica Goodling admitting that she "crossed a line" while working at the Justice Department, Alberto Gonzales "too has crossed a line, albeit a blurrier one," the editors write. "Gonzales by most accounts has been demonstrably less vigilant than his predecessors -- including John Ashcroft, a former U.S. senator -- in policing the line between politics and legal policy" ... argues that a new reality show about the Los Angeles Country Sheriff's Department, which has been designed to attract recruits to the agency, may end up having the opposite effect because the show exposes the harsh treatment new recruits must face to remain on the force.
WaPo ... urges the Bush administration to pressure Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, a "strongman" who has "failed again and again to meet his commitments" to the United States, to support democratic elections in his country. "If Mr. Musharraf is now allowed to isolate himself behind riot police and militia forces while shunning secular democrats, he will set the stage for just the sort of nightmare scenario in Pakistan that has motivated U.S. support for him since 2001," the editors write ... encourages Congress to provide funds to update the District of Columbia's underground transportation system.
NYT ... worries that the latest findings on how the pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline and the Food and Drug Administration handled the case of Avandia, a popular diabetes drugs, resembles the recent Vioxx debacle "in which early warning signs were ignored by its manufacturer until the evidence of serious harm became inescapable and the drug was pulled from the market" ... urges New York lawmakers including Gov. Eliot Spitzer to sign on to New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's plan to decrease traffic congestion by charging drivers to travel on the city's busiest streets ... explain how $10 solar flashlights can help improve the lives of the 2 billion people worldwide who do not live with electricity.
USA Today ... uses the upcoming Memorial Day weekend to remind Americans to remember those who are sacrificing their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan.
By Rob Anderson |
May 25, 2007; 8:58 AM ET
Previous: Cross Country: McCain and Richardson |
Next: Today's Columns: Behind Haleh Esfandiari's Imprisonment
Posted by: Dr. Saul B. Wilen | May 25, 2007 11:27 AM
Musharraf is just the currant straw president appointee who has played loose and fast with the shut up money. Afrika is rife with them as well as most other continents. If you want to play ball you have to agree to read your script in public and do what ever you like with the money! This is the colonial way and it has served us up to this point, where we bump up to terrorist challange, having created bands of terrorists worldwide, and now the globalism takes place at hardball speed. A lot of fur will fly, but the couch potatoes will love the coverage and feeel secure that w/o condoms, the lowest classes will still be pumping out candidates for slavery and mimimum wage. Like the people whom we memorialize thi weekend, for their guts and patriotic attitude, which got them dead in many cases because the leadership doesnt care about the working class.
Posted by: | May 25, 2007 12:46 PM
Musharraf is just the currant straw president appointee who has played loose and fast with the shut up money. Afrika is rife with them as well as most other continents. If you want to play ball you have to agree to read your script in public and do what ever you like with the money! This is the colonial way and it has served us up to this point, where we bump up to terrorist challange, having created bands of terrorists worldwide, and now the globalism takes place at hardball speed. A lot of fur will fly, but the couch potatoes will love the coverage and feeel secure that w/o condoms, the lowest classes will still be pumping out candidates for slavery and mimimum wage. Like the people whom we memorialize thi weekend, for their guts and patriotic attitude, which got them dead in many cases because the leadership doesnt care about the working class.
Posted by: bebeyond49 | May 25, 2007 12:46 PM
A salute and praise for those veteran's living and dead who paid the ultimate price. Carry on soldiers.
Posted by: ghostcommander | May 25, 2007 05:49 PM
Avandia,Vioxx,etc.,etc... How many people have died because of non-regulating of the drug industry? The unregulated invisible hand has killed more American's than Osama bin Laden/Al Qaeda.
Posted by: ghostcommander | May 25, 2007 05:54 PM
Wolfowitz, I for one am glad to see you go. I remember your testimony before Congress-no respect for our institutions-only arrogance, deceit, and deception.
Posted by: ghostcommander | May 25, 2007 10:57 PM
The (Official)Portrait of Paul Wolfowitz
(and why he was fired)
=====================>
http://melbourne.indymedia.org/uploads/anti-war_paul-wolfowitz_larmee.jpg
Posted by: larmee | May 26, 2007 10:27 PM
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The Wolfowitz Demise
The ethics issue was minor and only a pretext for the removal of Wolfowitz. The major issue was his detrimental manipulations of World Bank programs to favor Bush administration policies. Wolfowitz embarked on behalf of the Bank on a focused anti-corruption, pervasive and overriding approach, to the detriment of the Bank's mission to support loans to developing poor countries. The irony exists in the hypocrisy of the gross "Corruption of Actions" that he and the Bush administration perpetrated.
Wolfowitz embodied corruption in his actions as part of the Bush administration and at the World Bank.
He infused into the operation and policies of the Bank the anti-abortion, anti-contraception attitudes and policies of the Bush administration, and included questionable approaches to effectively deal with the AIDS pandemic in poor and developing countries by interfering with the use of condoms. He appears to have given preferential treatment for loans to countries designated by the Bush administration.
These policies instituted by Wolfowitz on behalf of the Bush administration were the true conflicts of interest. If he were allowed to continue, there would have been more of the same and long term damage to the functions of the Bank.
The potential for the damage that occurred at the World Bank was already obvious to the world, manifest in his behaviors, particularly his lack of judgment when he rushed the United States to an obviously ill-advised war as Deputy Secretary of Defense.
WORLD BANK BEWARE OF THE NEXT BUSH APPOINTEE WHO WILL ALSO BE PRIMED TO DO THE SAME AS WOLFOWITZ, BUT THIS TIME MORE SUBTLY!
Dr. Saul B. Wilen is CEO, International Horizons Unlimited (IHU) [www.intlhorizons.com, (210) 692-1268] an educational consulting and resources consortium. Dr Wilen is a recognized authority in prevention strategies and problem solving.