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  1. SiriuslyLong is offline
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    SiriuslyLong's Avatar
    Joined: Jan 2009 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 3,560
    03-30-2011, 01:33 PM #71
    Fiesta Bowl fires CEO John Junker

    http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/s...e=NCFHeadlines

  2. Atypical is offline
    03-30-2011, 02:07 PM #72
    Power
    Greed
    Lack of controls
    'Good Old Boy' relationships
    Sports are always good (imagewise) mentality

    A deadly mixture

  3. Atypical is offline
    03-31-2011, 06:07 PM #73

    Issa Secured Nearly $1 Million In Earmarks Potentially Benefiting Real Estate That He

    Owns.

    As Roll Call reported earlier this month, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) has a history of blending his personal business interests with his work as a member of Congress. Companies owned by the Issa family, including a firm called DEI (an acronym for Issa’s initials), set up websites to channel users to Issa’s official congressional campaign website. After Roll Call made an ethical inquiry to Issa, he changed the website.

    ThinkProgress has discovered more troubling evidence that Issa may have blended his work as a lawmaker with his own business empire. After founding a successful car alarm company, Issa invested his fortune in a sprawling network of real estate companies with holdings throughout his district. One of Issa’s most valuable properties, a medical office building at 2067 West Vista Way in Vista, California, is called the Vista Medical Center, and was purchased in 2008 for $16.6 million. Described as “a long-term investment,” the property was bought by a company called Viper LLC, a business entity operated by Issa’s family that Issa has up to a $25 million dollar stake in.

    Around the same time, Issa made the Vista Medical Center purchase, the congressman began requesting millions of dollars worth of earmarks to widen and improve the highway adjacent to the building. In 2008, he requested $2 million to expand West Vista Way, the road in front of his “long-term investment,” but only received $245,000 from the government. The next year, Issa made another earmark request for improving the West Vista Way highway next to his building. He earmarked another $570,000, bringing his total to $815,000, to add parking lots, widen the road, add bus stops, improve the sewer system, and other utility work. A map showing the location of Issa’s property, and the road, is below:

    http://act.alternet.org/go/5952?akid...018.VaeSYD&t=9

    Issa has said that an “earmark is tantamount to a bribe.” While Issa has handed out earmarks to his campaign donors in the past, in this case, he appears to be helping himself.

    Although the highway project has not begun yet (because of local budget problems), the federal money is allocated through Issa’s efforts. Already, a firm representing Issa’s real estate company is advertising the Vista Medical Building and its “Excellent Access with Freeway Visibility.” As ethics experts have explained, lawmakers should avoid earmarks in the immediate area of their own business interests.

    Issa’s highway earmarks not only potentially benefit his multi-million dollar medical office building, they provide better access to his other properties in the area. About 2 miles down West Vista Way from the Vista Medical Center, Issa owns a commercial office building worth over $9 million, as well as an adjacent retail office building. The commercial office building leases to a number of different clients, and Issa’s retail building leases to a Hooter’s. All three properties are on the same highway, which Issa plans to retrofit with taxpayer money.

    _______________________________________________

    This is the puke that said he was going to 'investigate' everything going on in this administration. There is another, earlier, post in this thread about this jerk who has been in trouble himself.

    Another conservative hypocrite. There are sooo many.

  4. Atypical is offline
    04-03-2011, 05:26 PM #74

    Tea Party Hypocrisy? Some Lawmakers With Tea Party Ties Are on the Government Dole

    The Tea Party swept into the 112th Congress with promises of cutting government spending. But according to a report out today, at least five lawmakers with Tea Party connections have been longtime recipients of federal agricultural subsidies.

    "There's nothing too surprising about hypocrisy in Washington," Ken Cook, president of Environmental Working Group, told ABC News. "This particular group, you not only have to look at the hypocrisy but you need to watch your wallet."

    While the majority of American farmers receive no government money at all, at least 23 current members of congress or their families have received government money for their farms -- combining for more than $12 million since 1995 according to a new report from the Environmental Working Group.

    The biggest recipient was Rep. Stephen Fincher, a Republican from Frog Jump, Tenn.

    While the self-described Tea Party patriot lists his occupation as "farmer" and "gospel singer" in the Congressional Directory, he doesn't mention that his family has received more than $3 million in farm subsidies from 1995 to 2009, according to the Environmental Working Group.

    When asked whether he would be willing to see all his subsidies go away, Fincher would not directly say he would no longer take any more subsidies.

    "We need a good, better, we need a better farm program and we need to streamline it," he said. "We need to look at many many options. And that's a long way off."

    Rep. Vicky Hartzler, R-Mo., who also was swept into office with the Tea Party movement, received $774,489 in farm subsidies over the same period, according to the EWG's numbers.

    According to the EWG report, Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., received almost $180,000 between 1997 and 2009.

    ABC News' Diane Sawyer grilled the lawmakers on the subject in January during her exclusive Tea Party interview with 10 freshmen members of the House and Senate.

    "Are you ready to vote against all farm subsidies? That's $20 billion by one estimate, at least," Sawyer asked.

    "Well, I think everything should be on the table," Hartzler said. "And, yes, there's a lot of us farmers that have participated in the program."

    Sawyer then asked Rep. Stutzman about the more than $100,000 in farm subsidies he received and whether he would vote to cut them.

    Stutzman told ABC News that he is in favor of eliminating farm subsidies, including his own.

    "Yes, I would vote to eliminate farm subsidies. It manipulates the market," he said. "And that's the problem here in Washington: The adult conversation, I think, has to be, 'no.'"

    Hartzler said she was open to "starting the discussion and look at it."

    But she added, "I think we need to make sure that everything is looked at before we just pick on the farmers."

    Republicans are not the only ones who received federal subsidies.

    On the Democrats side, Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., received $159,549 from USDA subsidies between 1995 and 2009, according to the report.

    Listed as owners of T-Bone Farms, Tester and his wife Sharla received $282,754 in subsidies between the years of 1995 and 2009.

    It's hard not to pick on farmers, who accept huge government subsidies.

    In 2009 alone, government farm subsidies totaled more than $16 billion. They totaled almost a quarter of a trillion dollars over the last 15 years.

    Just five crops account for 90 percent of all farm subsidies: cotton, corn, rice, wheat, and soybeans.

    Environmental Working Group President Cook said the farm subsidy program has "started to rot."

    "The way subsidies are supposed to work is when prices dip or there's a weather problem we provide assistance," Cook said. "But now the system is really corrupted, and what we do now is we pay farmers or anyone who owns land who is eligible for the payments. Now we pay whether there's a need or not."

    Two other Republican members with Tea Party support also have received farm subsidies.

    Rep. Tom Latham of Iowa has four farms and he's received a little more than $1 million, according to the report.

    The Racota Valley Ranch, the family ranch of South Dakota's only congresswoman, Rep. Kristi Noem, received more than $3 million from 1995 to 2008.

    ABC News asked candidate Noem in September about farm subsidies and if she saw them as a place to cut waste.

    "I think there has been, in the past, and there is some potential there," she said. "I think we need to make sure the dollars are going where they are intended to go.

    "You know, the United States engages in a cheap food policy and we have got a lot of government regulations that come in and impact markets and prices, so we need to make sure we are giving our farmers an opportunity to work on a level playing field with other countries and market our products," she added. "But we need to make sure we are spending our taxpayer dollars correctly as well."

    http://org2.democracyinaction.org/di...yvuBcME%2BW0PA

    ______________________________________________
    Never do as I do, just do as I say. That's the motto these jerks use.
    Last edited by Atypical; 04-03-2011 at 05:30 PM.

  5. Atypical is offline
    04-03-2011, 05:41 PM #75

    Senators Sucked Up to Qaddafi, Now Call For His Head

    By Tim Dickinson

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...-head-20110401

    In the Senate, those demanding even harsher prosecution of the Libya war include the three amigos. John McCain, warning that "the blood of Americans is on Qaddafi's hands," has called for arming the insurgents, whom Joe Lieberman has praised as "freedom fighters." Lindsey Graham wants to know why we don't just take out the Libyan leader like Reagan tried to do:

    "Who would be mad at us," he pressed Pentagon chief Robert Gates yesterday, "if we dropped a bomb on Qaddafi?"

    Here's the curious thing about their hawkish swagger: In August of 2009 - not even two years
    ago - McCain, Lieberman, Graham traveled to Tripoli to shake the bloody hand of the freedom-
    depriving dictator they now want to assassinate. It was the highest-level meeting of Libyan and American officials since Condi Rice's state visit in 2008. (The amigos were joined by Susan Collins who has questioned the wisdom of the war.)

    As this WikiLeaked cable details, the three amigos had a chummy visit with the Qaddafi clan: Lieberman expressed delight at the thaw in U.S.-Libyan relations: "We never would have guessed ten years ago that we would be sitting in Tripoli, being welcomed by a son of Muammar al-Qadhafi," he said to Muatassim, the regime's National Security Advisor. The Connecticut independent praised Libya as an "important ally" in the War on Terror, adding that "common enemies sometimes make better friends."

    During the pow-wow, Muatasim pushed the senators for enhanced military assistance. Senator McCain assured Muatassim that "the United States wanted to provide Libya with the equipment it needs for its security," the official notes of the meeting reveal. McCain called the U.S.-Libya military relationship "strong" and said any frustrations on the Libyan side should be weighed against the "officer training" Libyan military brass were receiving "at U.S. Command, Staff, and War colleges."

    When Muammar Qaddafi himself joined the meeting, Graham emphasized the need for the two countries to "fortify" their relations, and the three amigos pledged their help in getting Lockheed Martin to deliver eight c-130 aircraft the Libyans the regime had paid for way back in 1972, promising to take up the issue with SecDef Gates directly.

    More troubling, the senators advised Qaddafi on how to "manage" (Lieberman's word) the homecoming of a man with American blood on his hands - the terrorist convicted in the PanAm bombing, whom Scottish authorities would soon release under dubious medical auspices.

    Far from standing with the American vicitims of 1988 Lockerbie atrocity and their families, the three amigos instead gave their new compadre Qaddafi public relations advice on how to welcome home a terrorist without jeopardizing the Libya's newfound diplomatic standing.

    "Stressing that they were raising the issue in the strongest spirit of friendship and respect," a separate cable reports, the delegation pleaded with the Qaddafis play it cool - lest the regime offend the sensibilities of the American public by feting the bomber too exuberantly. The cable paraphrases Lieberman as adding: "Both sides would have to work hard to ensure that it does not damage the relationship."

    Following the meeting, Senator McCain took to Twitter to reflect on the summit:

    Late evening with Col. Qadhafi at his "ranch" in Libya - interesting meeting with an interesting man.

    UPDATE: Here's video of the glad-handing:

    http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...-head-20110401

    __________________________________________________
    I'm gonna throw up - I'm gonna puke - no, these are pukes - I feel better now.

    What a country! I've said it before and continue to be amazed - WHO VOTES FOR THESE A-HOLES?

  6. Atypical is offline
    04-04-2011, 02:39 PM #76

    Scott Walker's administration gave a state job and a 26% raise to the son of a major

    supporter.

    Wisconsin Republicans claim that their state is broke, and have used that claim to justify stripping state workers of their collective bargaining rights. And yet, even though they claim to be broke, Scott Walker's administration just gave a state job, and a 26% raise, to the son of a major supporter who has no college degree, no relevant experience, and two drunk driving convictions.

    JS Online:
    Just in his mid-20s, Brian Deschane has no college degree, very little management experience and two drunken-driving convictions. Yet he has landed an $81,500-per-year job in Gov. Scott Walker's administration overseeing environmental and regulatory matters and dozens of employees at the Department of Commerce. Even though Walker says the state is broke and public employees are overpaid, Deschane already has earned a promotion and a 26% pay raise in just two months with the state.

    Ah, a state job with a big salary and a huge raise. You don't need a degree, relevant experience, a clean criminal record, or even a formal application:
    Deschane's name does not appear on a list of job applicants with Walker's transition team, but the governor's office confirmed that Gilkes interviewed Deschane for a state job in December.

    All you need is for your father to be a big booster for the governor:
    His father is Jerry Deschane, executive vice president and longtime lobbyist for the Madison-based Wisconsin Builders Association, which bet big on Walker during last year's governor's race. The group's political action committee gave $29,000 to Walker and his running mate, Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch, last year, making it one of the top five PAC donors to the governor's successful campaign. Even more impressive, members of the trade group funneled more than $92,000 through its conduit to Walker's campaign over the past two years.

    Total donations: $121,652.(...)

    "I put in good words for every one of my children in their jobs," said the elder Deschane. "But that would be the extent of it."

    To be fair, there is another way to get a state job with a big raise in Scott Walker's administration—be the mistress of a Republican state senator:

    Officials said Valerie Cass, 26, who sources identified as a woman involved in a relationship with Sen. Randy Hopper (R-Fond du Lac), was hired Feb. 7 by the department of regulation and licensing to a limited term, communications specialist position at an hourly rate of $20.35. The hourly rate is equivalent to an annual salary of $42,328. Officials said the position was vacated by Robyn Lockett on Jan. 19. Officials said Lockett’s hourly rate was $15.00 equivalent to anannual salary of $31,200.

    You see? Scott Walker's administration is a meritocracy. They know that not everyone can be the child of a major booster, so they offer other paths for advancement.

    http://rss.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/...ajor-supporter

    ______________________________________________
    There has been much posted here and in the media (we can't do it all) showing, without a doubt, that everything this weasel Walker has said is a lie. With this new information see MORE of what a piece of crap he really is!
    Last edited by Atypical; 04-04-2011 at 02:49 PM.

  7. Atypical is offline
    04-06-2011, 08:36 PM #77

    TSA Admits Bungling of Airport Body-Scanner Radiation Tests

    http://email.wired.com/cgi-bin5/DM/t...2S0OCG0QlJM0EJ

    The Transportation Security Administration is re-analyzing the radiation levels of X-ray body scanners installed in airports nationwide, after testing produced dramatically higher-than-expected results.

    The TSA, which has deployed at least 500 body scanners to at least 78 airports, said Tuesday the machines meet all safety standards and would remain in operation despite a “calculation error” in safety studies. The flawed results showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected.

    At least one flier group, the Association for Airline Passenger Rights, is urging the government to stop using the $180,000 machines that produce a virtual-nude image of the body until new tests are concluded in May.

    “Airline passengers have enough concerns about flying — including numerous ones about how TSA conducts its haphazard security screenings — so it is TSA’s responsibility to ensure passengers are not being exposed to unhealthy amounts of radiation,” Brandon Macsata, executive director of the group, said in a statement.

    The Electronic Privacy Information Center has been a loud voice opposing the machines. Last week, it urged a federal appeals court to stop using them until further health studies were conducted. Marc Rotenberg, EPIC’s executive director, is expected to tell the same thing to a congressional panel Wednesday.

    “The agency should have conducted a public rule-making so that these risks could have been more carefully assessed,” (.pdf) according to a transcript of his expected testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

    Still, the government said the results proved the safety of the devices.

    “It would appear that the emissions are 10 times higher. We understand it as a calculation error,” TSA spokesman Sarah Horowitz said in a telephone interview.

    The snafu involves tests conducted on the roughly 250 backscatter X-ray machines produced by Rapiscan of Los Angeles, which has a contract to deliver another 250 machines at a cost of about $180,000 each. About 250 millimeter-wave technology machines produced by L-3 Communications of New York were not part of the bungled results.

    Rapiscan technicians in the field are required to test radiation levels 10 times in a row, and divide by 10 to produce an average radiation measurement. Often, the testers failed to divide results by 10, Horowitz said.


    “Certainly, the errors are not acceptable. It’s not every report. We believe the technology is safe,” she said. ”We’ve done extensive, independent testing. It doesn’t raise alarms in terms of safety.”

    Rapiscan, in a letter to the TSA, admitted the mistake and is “redesigning the form” used by its “field service engineers” when surveying the Rapiscan Secure 1000 that is deployed to 38 airports.

    “Oftentimes, the FSE will bypass the step of dividing by 10. While the resulting entry, at a pragmatic level, is understandable on its face and usable for monitoring purposes, the value, if read literally by persons unfamiliar with our system and the survey process, would imply energy outputs that are unachievable by the Secure 1000 Single Pose,” (.pdf) Rapiscan wrote.

    A recent Wired.com three-part series examined the constitutionality, effectiveness and health concerns of the scanners, which the TSA mandated as the preferred airport screening method in February 2009. Among other things, the Wired.com series concluded that there was discord among the scientific community about the scanners’ health risks to humans, and that they were not tested with mice or other biological samples before being deployed.

    The government, however, maintains a thousand screenings equal the amount of radiation of one standard medical chest X-ray.

    A federal appeals court hearing EPIC’s lawsuit suggested last week it was not likely to halt the scanners’ use.

    See Also:

    Airport ‘Nude’ Body Scanners: Are They Effective?
    Airport Scanners Can Store, Transmit Images
    German ‘Fleshmob’ Protests Airport Scanners
    Group Demands Immediate Halt of Full-Body Airport Scanners
    ‘Nude’ Airport Scanners: Are They Safe?
    Court Likely to Uphold Constitutionality of ‘Nude’ Airport Scanners
    Court Unlikely to Halt ‘Nude’ Airport Body Scanners

    ________________________________________________

    Anyone here fly often? Guess who helped sell these dangerous and intrusive machines? Michael Chertoff, the former head of Homeland Security, a Bush republican appointee.

    Feel better now?

  8. Atypical is offline
    04-06-2011, 09:01 PM #78

    Bristol Palin's Teen Pregnancy Non-Profit Paid Her Seven Times More Than It Donated

    What's the point of being a non-profit spokesperson if you're not actually helping anyone? Oh, right, to rake in exorbitant amounts of dough. At least that's what happened in 2009 with Bristol Palin, who was compensated an astonishing seven times more than her non-profit, Candie's Foundation, donated to teen pregnancy prevention. ThinkProgress has the news:

    In 2009, Sarah Palin’s daughter Bristol joined a teen pregnancy prevention nonprofit called the Candie’s Foundation. Today, the Associated Press reported that the Candie’s Foundation released its 2009 tax information, revealing that Bristol was paid a salary of $262,500. But a closer examination of the tax form by ThinkProgress shows that the group disbursed only $35,000 in grants to actual teen pregnancy health and counseling clinics: $25,000 to the Mt. Sinai Adolescent Health Center and $10,000 to the National Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy.

    For a non-profit funded by a billion-dollar corporation -- Candie's Foundation is an offshoot of Candie's, the shoe brand, which is an offshoot of Iconix Brand Inc – $35,000 is already an absurdly tiny pittance. But Palin's disproportionate pay for an abstinence advocacy group is even more absurd when considering her past [and correct] stance on abstinence -- that it's 'not realistic at all.'

    More realistic was the idea that The Situation is also a great advocate for abstinence, apparently, as the group dropped another $165,000 on a PSA with Palin and the Jersey Shore star. Perhaps not surprisingly, then: American teen pregnancy rates are nine times higher than those of any other country in the developed world.

    Read the original Palin report at ThinkProgress.

    http://act.alternet.org/go/6165?akid...018.RwbYYQ&t=3

    ________________________________________________
    Can you believe this crap? A teenage girl gets pregnant without being married and then, with her faux christian righteous mother, decides to promote teen abstinence - and makes lots of money. I'm shocked!

    Never believe a conservative about anything. (Yes, dems are hypocrites too. But NOT to this extreme. My posts reflect this.)

  9. SiriuslyLong is offline
    Guru
    SiriuslyLong's Avatar
    Joined: Jan 2009 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 3,560
    04-06-2011, 09:14 PM #79
    Quote Originally Posted by Atypical View Post
    http://email.wired.com/cgi-bin5/DM/t...2S0OCG0QlJM0EJ

    The Transportation Security Administration is re-analyzing the radiation levels of X-ray body scanners installed in airports nationwide, after testing produced dramatically higher-than-expected results.

    The TSA, which has deployed at least 500 body scanners to at least 78 airports, said Tuesday the machines meet all safety standards and would remain in operation despite a “calculation error” in safety studies. The flawed results showed radiation levels 10 times higher than expected.

    At least one flier group, the Association for Airline Passenger Rights, is urging the government to stop using the $180,000 machines that produce a virtual-nude image of the body until new tests are concluded in May.

    “Airline passengers have enough concerns about flying — including numerous ones about how TSA conducts its haphazard security screenings — so it is TSA’s responsibility to ensure passengers are not being exposed to unhealthy amounts of radiation,” Brandon Macsata, executive director of the group, said in a statement.

    The Electronic Privacy Information Center has been a loud voice opposing the machines. Last week, it urged a federal appeals court to stop using them until further health studies were conducted. Marc Rotenberg, EPIC’s executive director, is expected to tell the same thing to a congressional panel Wednesday.

    “The agency should have conducted a public rule-making so that these risks could have been more carefully assessed,” (.pdf) according to a transcript of his expected testimony before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

    Still, the government said the results proved the safety of the devices.

    “It would appear that the emissions are 10 times higher. We understand it as a calculation error,” TSA spokesman Sarah Horowitz said in a telephone interview.

    The snafu involves tests conducted on the roughly 250 backscatter X-ray machines produced by Rapiscan of Los Angeles, which has a contract to deliver another 250 machines at a cost of about $180,000 each. About 250 millimeter-wave technology machines produced by L-3 Communications of New York were not part of the bungled results.

    Rapiscan technicians in the field are required to test radiation levels 10 times in a row, and divide by 10 to produce an average radiation measurement. Often, the testers failed to divide results by 10, Horowitz said.


    “Certainly, the errors are not acceptable. It’s not every report. We believe the technology is safe,” she said. ”We’ve done extensive, independent testing. It doesn’t raise alarms in terms of safety.”

    Rapiscan, in a letter to the TSA, admitted the mistake and is “redesigning the form” used by its “field service engineers” when surveying the Rapiscan Secure 1000 that is deployed to 38 airports.

    “Oftentimes, the FSE will bypass the step of dividing by 10. While the resulting entry, at a pragmatic level, is understandable on its face and usable for monitoring purposes, the value, if read literally by persons unfamiliar with our system and the survey process, would imply energy outputs that are unachievable by the Secure 1000 Single Pose,” (.pdf) Rapiscan wrote.

    A recent Wired.com three-part series examined the constitutionality, effectiveness and health concerns of the scanners, which the TSA mandated as the preferred airport screening method in February 2009. Among other things, the Wired.com series concluded that there was discord among the scientific community about the scanners’ health risks to humans, and that they were not tested with mice or other biological samples before being deployed.

    The government, however, maintains a thousand screenings equal the amount of radiation of one standard medical chest X-ray.

    A federal appeals court hearing EPIC’s lawsuit suggested last week it was not likely to halt the scanners’ use.

    See Also:

    Airport ‘Nude’ Body Scanners: Are They Effective?
    Airport Scanners Can Store, Transmit Images
    German ‘Fleshmob’ Protests Airport Scanners
    Group Demands Immediate Halt of Full-Body Airport Scanners
    ‘Nude’ Airport Scanners: Are They Safe?
    Court Likely to Uphold Constitutionality of ‘Nude’ Airport Scanners
    Court Unlikely to Halt ‘Nude’ Airport Body Scanners

    ________________________________________________

    Anyone here fly often? Guess who helped sell these dangerous and intrusive machines? Michael Chertoff, the former head of Homeland Security, a Bush republican appointee.

    Feel better now?
    No, I fly a lot. F'ing Bush and his scanners........................................ keep reaching... Better yet, lie in wait for something "newsworthy" to your idealistic agenda, and then get on your pedestal and preach your beliefs. You are as digusting as any "repuke". Take pride in it LOL.

  10. Atypical is offline
    04-06-2011, 10:27 PM #80

    Why Is Michael Chertoff So Excited About Full-Body Scanners?

    Heading up the renewed push for those controversial, clothes-penetrating scanners at airports is former homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff. His consulting firm represents companies who make the scanners, but you wouldn't know it from reading the papers.

    The Underpants Bomber alerted the world to the possibility of terrorists putting bombs in their underpants. So now everyone is debating whether we should deploy scanners which can see through clothes and show bombs nestled close to terrorists' nekkid bodies. Michael Chertoff, who was Bush's homeland security secretary from 2005-2009, is a huge fan! Yesterday he told NPR:

    A couple of years ago we began the process of testing them to see, first of all, if they worked and second, if they could be deployed without unduly restricting the flow of traffic. And the good news is that we were able to demonstrate that they were successful. We could use them without slowing up traffic and we could also protect privacy.

    But when Chertoff launched into his pitch for full-body scanners on Campbell Brown tonight, we learned that he is paid by the very companies who make the penetrating devices:

    In 2009, Chertoff founded the Chertoff Group, a security consulting agency. The Chertoff Group's client list is unknown—Chertoff refused to talk about it in an interview—but he admits in the clip above that some of his clients manufacture full-body scanners.

    Yet when he appears in The New York Times, The Washington Post, and on NPR to advocate for full-body scanning, Chertoff is identified only as a former secretary of homeland security. No mention is made of the Chertoff Group. ("If they'd been deployed, this would pick up this kind of device," he tells the Times.) Did Chertoff 'forget' to tell reporters about his connection to the industry he's pimping in their stories? It didn't look like he was about to volunteer the information on Campbell Brown tonight. (Good catch, though, Campbell. We always knew there had to be some reason you had your own show!)

    So, here is a service to all you journalists working on upcoming articles about full-body scanners, which will inevitably feature Chertoff playing the cheerleader. Feel free to copy this sentence and paste it after Chertoff's name:

    Chertoff is a former homeland security secretary and the founder of the Chertoff Group, a security consulting firm whose clients include manufacturers of full-body scanners.

    You're welcome!

    http://search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A0oG7...bbody-scanners

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