madfloridian

madfloridian's Journal

December 16, 2013

Bob Graham speaking out about 9/11 again. Also 2 archived articles Saudi flights after 9/11

Bob Graham has been one of the most trusted sources not just about about the Iraq War, but about his knowledge surrounding the events of 9/11. He is out and about again on this topic. I was watching this long interview at Huffpost live with Bob Graham today, December 16, 2013.

Senator Bob Graham On Bush-Saudi-9/11 Coverup

He mentions that members of some Saudi families were able to fly when other flights were grounded. I think he has been quite upset over having so much knowledge of what really happened back then....and his inability to talk about it because he is sworn to secrecy. He refers to the families trying to get answers in court and otherwise, and he has empathy with them. That part starts about 5 minutes into the video.

I saved two articles about these flights. The oldest one is from 2001 from the Tampa Tribune.

Phantom Flight From Florida

TAMPA - The twin-engine Lear jet streaked into the afternoon sky, leaving Tampa behind but revealing a glimpse of international intrigue in the aftermath of terrorist attacks on America.
The federal government says the flight never took place.

But the two armed bodyguards hired to chaperon their clients out of the state recall the 100-minute trip Sept. 13 quite vividly.

In the end, the son of a Saudi Arabian prince who is the nation's defense minister and the son of a Saudi army commander made it to Kentucky for a waiting 747 and a trip to their homeland.

The hastily arranged flight out of Raytheon Airport Services, a private hangar on the outskirts of Tampa International Airport, was anything but ordinary. It lifted off the tarmac at a time when every private plane in the nation was grounded due to safety concerns after the Sept. 11 attacks.

A spokesman for the FAA said "It's not in our logs ... it didn't occur."

There was another from the St.Pete Times (Now the Tampa Bay Times) in June 2004.

TIA now verifies flight of Saudis

TAMPA - Two days after the Sept. 11 attacks, with most of the nation's air traffic still grounded, a small jet landed at Tampa International Airport, picked up three young Saudi men and left.

The men, one of them thought to be a member of the Saudi royal family, were accompanied by a former FBI agent and a former Tampa police officer on the flight to Lexington, Ky.

The Saudis then took another flight out of the country. The two ex-officers returned to TIA a few hours later on the same plane.

For nearly three years, White House, aviation and law enforcement officials have insisted the flight never took place and have denied published reports and widespread Internet speculation about its purpose.

But now, at the request of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks, TIA officials have confirmed that the flight did take place and have supplied details.

Bob Graham is one of my favorite persons, one who has gained my respect in so many ways. I will never forget that in 2002 he told his fellow senators that if they did not read the entire NIE, not just the sanitized version....that blood would be on their hands.

2002 Senator Bob Graham D-FL about Iraq vote. "the blood's going to be on your hands"

The Palm Beach Post link is no longer available, but I saved the text and the article.

..."On Oct. 9, 2002, Graham — the guy everyone thought of as quiet, mild-mannered, deliberate, conflict-averse — let loose on his Senate colleagues for going along with President Bush's war against Iraq.

"We are locking down on the principle that we have one evil, Saddam Hussein. He is an enormous, gargantuan force, and that's who we're going to go after," Graham said on the floor. "That, frankly, is an erroneous reading of the world. There are many evils out there, a number of which are substantially more competent, particularly in their ability to attack Americans here at home, than Iraq is likely to be in the foreseeable future."

He told his fellow senators that if they didn't recognize that going to war with Iraq without first taking out the actual terrorists would endanger Americans, "then, frankly, my friends — to use a blunt term — the blood's going to be on your hands."

It was a watershed moment. Gone was the meticulous thinker who would talk completely around and through a problem before answering a question about it...

At that same link are the words of Bill and Hillary Clinton fully supporting the Iraq invasion. Stands in contrast to Graham's blunt honesty.

December 15, 2013

Charter School Managers Pocketed Millions in Scam: DC files lawsuit. More oversight needed, please.

From the Findlaw website in October.

Charter School Managers Pocketed Millions in Scam: Lawsuit

Please note these are government funds that are being used fraudently. Arne Duncan has the power to step into the fray and get some badly needed oversight. He seems unaware of all the fraud going on. Inexcusable.

Managers for the Options Public Charter School are accused of diverting millions of dollars in government funds toward their own businesses, and the District of Columbia is suing them for it.

According to The Washington Post, the Options school was intended to serve "the District's most troubled teens and students with disabilities," but at least $3 million earmarked for the school were allegedly siphoned away by sophisticated contracting scam....One of the people named in the lawsuit, the Post reports, is local D.C. news fixture J.C. Hayward, who has been accused of helping the three ex-Option managers to incorporate one of the private contracting companies through which federal money was diverted away from the school. Hayward has since been suspended from WUSA Channel 9 pending further investigation.

...Aside from just the general crumminess of misusing money meant for children with disabilities, the complaint alleges that the Options funds were also used to rent and furnish offices for these colluding corporations.

A US attorney says no charges have been filed but they are aware of the issue. Well, it's good they are at least aware.

Mother Jones had some coverage in 2011 of more charter school outrages. There has been plenty of time for those in authority to take action to stop the flow of public taxpayer money to such charter schools.

Schools for Scoundrels

The founder of what had been California's largest charter school chain, the California Charter Academy, has been charged with many counts of grand theft after a state audit (PDF) accused the school's operators of misappropriating at least $23 million. (The case is headed to trial next year.) The audit found that Steven Cox and another employee used school funds for personal benefit, including $18,000 for Jet Skis, $11,000 for Disney-related merchandise, $9,000 at the Disneyland Health Spa, and $42,000 to pay personal income taxes. Cox allegedly diverted more than $500,000 into other ventures, including a company called Xtreme Motor Sports; he spent more than $ 1 million hiring family members and giving them retroactive raises.

LA Gulen charter school raided Wed. by FBI renewed days before in spite of troubled past.

It amazes me how schools like this with a background of lawsuits and accusations of mistreatment of teachers and students can get their charter renewed for 5 years. And renewed only 6 days before the FBI raid.

Someone in authority was not paying attention.

Last Wednesday the FBI raided Kenilworth Charter School in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. They took boxes away. Their only comment was that it was not for security reasons. There is a news video at this link.

BATON ROUGE - FBI agents raided a charter school today in East Baton Rouge Parish.

An FBI spokesperson could only confirm that agents were at the Kenilworth Science and Technology School on Boone Avenue for a matter not related to public safety. News 2 crews saw FBI agents taking boxes of items out of the school on dollies and loading them into vans.

The charter school is operated by the Pelican Educational Foundation, which in 2011 lost its charter to operate the Abramson Science and Technology Center in New Orleans after allegations of rape and sexual incidents between students.

The school would not comment on today's raid.

Here is an article from 2011 revealing more about the school's past problems.

News 2 Investigation uncovers lawsuits involving Kenilworth Charter School

At the end of the 2009-2010 school year, three teachers told a court they were wrongfully terminated from Kenilworth Charter School. They say they were discriminated against because of their gender and their religion and they were harassed until they were fired.

This month, a mother filed a lawsuit detailing, what she calls, neglect and mistreatment of her Kenilworth student. The neglect included one teacher ignoring the child's weak bladder condition, forcing her to urinate on herself, and sit in the urine until class was over.

The person in charge of Baton Rouge charter schools at the time tried to help, tried to call attention to these problems.

"In talking with my colleagues, who had similar positions as I did in New Orleans, we agreed almost to the individual comments about what was happening at Abramson, that we saw happening here at Kenilworth, maybe a little lesser level," said Gilbert.

But what he got wasn't expected.

"They were told, yea, they ought to work on stuff," said Gilbert, "And the superintendent certainly indicated to me that he wanted me not to be as heavy handed as they perceived I was being

Here a video that goes with the article above.

Remember when schools like this are investigated or closed there is public taxpayer money involved. When a school fails the money is seldom recovered, and the public school system pays the price in decreased resources.

December 14, 2013

Charles Canady got an Olive Garden waitress fired for standing up for Clinton.

From 1998

http://cjonline.com/stories/122798/gov_waitress.shtml

A Florida waitress says she was fired for serving Republican U.S. Rep. Charles T. Canady a heaping portion of criticism about the impeachment of President Clinton.

Carolee Westcott says she was canned from the Olive Garden restaurant after calling Canady, a former Democrat, a "turncoat or traitor" for his recent vote to impeach the president.

She said managers told her that her interaction with the congressman "wasn't exactly 'hospitaliano,"' using the Italian restaurant chain's word for warmth to customers.

...Unbeknownst to her, Westcott said, Canady overheard her and asked for a manager. Westcott was called to the table and when Canady asked her if she had something to say to him, she offered her opinion.

"I made one statement and that's it," Westcott, 38, said Saturday. "I told him, 'I think you are a Democratic turncoat or traitor who stabbed my president in the back.' ''

She was talkinig to someone else, he overheard. He had to know she would be fired if he called the manager.

December 14, 2013

More about Charles Canady. led Clinton impeachment, led anti-abortion legislation.

Used to be a Democrat.

Florida's new Supreme Court justice....led Clinton impeachment, led anti-abortion legislation.

Note in the article that he says he answers only to God.

In today's print edition of the paper these words were proudly posted above the article about him.
Forgive the jpeg format, but I had to scan it. They changed the word Lord to Law in the online edition. The print edition also carried the above paragraph at the end.

"For those of you who pray I ask that you pray that I will always judge with wisdom and integrity as a faithful servant of the Lord," he said.

He is about as right wing as they come. One of Crist's worst appointments, sort of his tip of the hat to the tea party bunch.

December 13, 2013

Before going after Howard Dean, Elizabeth Warren, Dem think tanks threatened Bill Clinton.

It was in the mid 90s. They warned him they would withdraw their support if he did not mend his "liberal" ways.

Maybe that is why he told Robert Reich he couldn't be taking sides against corporations. From Reich's book, Locked in the Cabinet:

Bill's Labor Secretary Tells All

Picture this. Reich and his wife Clare, and Bill and Hillary go to Kinkaid's, an elegant restaurant on Pennsylvania Avenue. It's a good-bye dinner for Clare, who is going back to Cambridge with their two sons. Over dessert, Reich can't help himself.

'After all, we're balancing the budget and sacrificing public investment so that corporations have more money to invest. At the least, we should expect them to invest with their employees and communities in mind.'

There's an awkward pause. Have I overstepped the line?

'It seems to me,' says Clare, weighing her words carefully, 'that corporations are downsizing not only themselves but also a big part of the middle class.'

She's bailed me out. I want to kiss her on the spot. I throw caution to the winds and ask B, 'Would you be comfortable saying what Clare just said?'

'I have to keep myself from saying it everyday,' he says softly. 'I shouldn't be out in front on these issues. I can't be criticizing.'

Here is more about the warnings from the DLC and the Progressive Policy Institute, which really wasn't progressive at all.

The DLC warned him in 1994 and in 1995 to follow their goals...or they would withdraw support.

(2nd edit: The link below leads to several various articles at different sites. The ones linking to the DLC website must be found at the Wayback Machine if at all. )

Party centrists issue stern warning to White House

The DLC's blunt warning was delivered in November in response to the Democrats' midterm election debacle, which shrank the party's congressional membership and shook whatever remaining confidence they had in Clinton's political viability. The DLC's criticism followed some bitter remarks by its chairman, Rep. Dave McCurdy of Oklahoma, who, after losing his Senate bid, complained that his defeat was due to "a visceral anti-Clintonism" among the voters.

..."I think for President Clinton there is a pretty blunt message in this poll," DLC President Al From told reporters this week. "It's `Get with the program or you'll have to pay the consequences.'"

Will Marshall, who heads the group's Progressive Policy Institute, said the poll showed that swing voters who helped elect Clinton were sending the president and the Democrats this message: "We are disappointed in what you've done, but we haven't given up on you. You have one last chance. You govern as a New Democrat, unequivocally as a New Democrat, and you can win us back, and you can win back the vital center of the electorate. But if you don't, you're in big trouble."

Al From, the group's leader, made their threats even clearer.

Al From himself embodies John Maynard Keynes' warning that the real difficulty in changing any enterprise lies not in developing new ideas but in escaping from old ones. "The problem for us and him," says From, "is that Clinton promised to be different. He's been that a bit, but the whole is less than the sum of the parts. The fundamental change he pledged hasn't come. We've been consistent in articulating the ideas he won on, but he hasn't been consistent in advancing them. We were at this before Clinton, and we'll be at it after he's gone, because a long-term majority will never be created around the interests represented by Jesse and the labor unions. Most people are politically homeless now. They're our target. We'll work to get Clinton to pursue us, but we're damn sure going to make it hard for him to catch us."

Did you get that about the labor unions?

These groups have been issuing threats long enough. Tired of hearing them.

On edit to clarify:

Yes, I know Bill Clinton was in on the founding of the DLC, and that he also helped found The Third Way with Tony Blair. I found it odd then that the DLC had to lecture him and warn him about doing things their way. I should have made it more clear that I knew that. It's like they were keeping a tight rein on him. I have written many posts about the DLC/Third Way hijacking of our party through the years.

December 12, 2013

Third Way VP indicates they fear Elizabeth Warren's influence on the party.

It seems they feel they have the right to determine who speaks for the party. Their now defunct partner, the DLC, felt the same way. They also used their power and influence to denigrate those on the left as fringe.

I don't think they worry about the possibility of her running for president as much as they worry about her outspoken economic populist tendencies.

From Truthdig:

How Elizabeth Warren Is Scaring the Crap Out of Think Tanks and Banks

The Massachusetts senator caused a stir this week after the Third Way think tank wrote an op-ed Monday warning Democrats not to follow Warren “over the populist cliff.”

....But what’s truly behind all this resentment toward Warren? Fear, of course. Just read what Kessler, Third Way’s senior vice president, had to say about the Massachusetts Democrat, according to the Daily Kos:

...“The impetus was really—we saw after the most recently, this push that okay, it’s time to really move the national Democratic party to a much more liberal agenda, in this case, Senator Warren was the standard bearer—she’s on the cover of a lot of magazines,” he said in an interview on Sirius XM with Ari Rabin-Havt. “We were a bit alarmed by that.”

....“She is a very compelling elected official and national figure,” he said. “Her involvement in that particular bill, we just looked at it and said ‘okay, this seems to be starting to get out of hand.’”

They are afraid others might notice her popularity and start speaking out as well. They can't let that happen.

From Salon:

The point of economic populism and pushing Democrats to the left is to push them to the left, not to beat Hillary

They’re not afraid that Warren will run for president, they’re afraid that she’ll be so popular that other senators will start acting like her. They’re worried that she’ll have money to direct to candidates who share her views. They’re worried that Warren might embarrass Democrats into passing stricter bank regulations. They’re worried that finance’s iron grip on the Democratic Party might weaken. The impetus for writing the editorial was Third Way’s realization that Warren was sabotaging the decades-long project that turned cutting Social Security into a bipartisan goal. A lot of money and time was spent encouraging elite consensus around “entitlement reform,” and suddenly a bunch of senators are talking about making the program more generous. That, of course, is a wildly popular idea, judging by all polling conducted on the subject, but the anti-populism backlash relies on reinforcing the common Washington idea that it is brave to oppose policies most people want and would benefit from. The bankers and CEOs who back Third Way understand that their policy preferences have won out in the Democratic Party in spite of popular opinion.

I doubt those with the corporatist Third Way mindset will let up on the left. After all look what they did in 2003. The DLC which was still active then, and they actually called a press conference to declare that Howard Dean was not the man to be president.

The D in DLC doesn't stand for Dean

The 'D' in DLC Doesn't Stand for Dean (David Von Drehle, May 15, 2003, Washington Post)

More than 50 centrist Democrats, including Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner, met here yesterday to plot strategy for the "New Democrat" movement. To help get the ball rolling they read a memo by Al From and Bruce Reed, the chairman and president of the Democratic Leadership Council. The memo dismissed Dean as an elitist liberal from the "McGovern-Mondale wing" of the party -- "the wing that lost 49 states in two elections, and transformed Democrats from a strong national party into a much weaker regional one."

"It is a shame that the DLC is trying to divide the party along these lines," said Dean spokesman Joe Trippi. "Governor Dean's record as a centrist on health care and balancing the budget speaks for itself."

As founder of the DLC, From has been pushing the Democratic Party to the right for nearly 20 years. He was in tall cotton, philosophically speaking, when an early leader of the DLC, Bill Clinton, was elected president in 1992. As Clinton's domestic policy guru, Reed pushed New Democrat ideas -- such as welfare reform -- that were often unpopular with party liberals.

"We are increasingly confident that President Bush can be beaten next year, but Dean is not the man to do it," Reed and From wrote. "Most Democrats aren't elitists who think they know better than everyone else."

They will keep trying to undermine Warren's efforts, but I think she is strong enough not to cave to them. Good for her.

December 12, 2013

FBI raids Kenilworth charter school

Source: WBRZ Baton Rouge, Louisiana

BATON ROUGE - FBI agents raided a charter school today in East Baton Rouge Parish.

An FBI spokesperson could only confirm that agents were at the Kenilworth Science and Technology School on Boone Avenue for a matter not related to public safety. News 2 crews saw FBI agents taking boxes of items out of the school on dollies and loading them into vans.

The charter school is operated by the Pelican Educational Foundation, which in 2011 lost its charter to operate the Abramson Science and Technology Center in New Orleans after allegations of rape and sexual incidents between students.

The school would not comment on today's raid.

Read more: http://www.wbrz.com/news/fbi-raids-kenilworth-charter-school/

Here is the news video from WBRZ:

http://www.wbrz.com/videos/fbi-raids-kenilworth-charter-school/

A post by Sharon Higgins at Twitter, who also is known for her Perimeter Primate blog and her Charter School Scandals website, says it is one of the Gulen Charter Schools.

FBI raided Kenilworth Science & Technology #GulenCharterSchool in Louisiana today.

The article further states that the school received a 5 year extension on their charter recently.

December 12, 2013

False assumptions made in the Ryan/Murray budget deal. Long-term unemployed are screwed.

Robert Borosage made some good points in his coverage of the new deal struck by Patty Murray and Paul Ryan. It's like neither party can get away from these repeated talking points and faux ideas.

The Budget Misdeal: An Agreement That Solves Nothing

He says that "business as usual" is not a virtue when it does not address what needs to be done. He says that "it punts on any of the pressing challenges this country faces, a failure that only adds to the hole we are in."

1. It assumes that deficits are still America’s fundamental problem. Wrong. Our fundamental problem is that Americans are struggling to find decent work.

2. The deal refuses to repeal the mindless sequester cuts that were designed to be abhorrent. Instead it “pays for” alleviating less than half of them over the next two years.

3. The deal accepts the bizarre Republican position that no billionaire’s tax rate can be raised, no multinational’s tax dodge shut down to provide resources for investments vital to our future.

4. The deal accepts the risible Republican position that the rich have too little money and workers too much. So new federal workers will pay more for their pensions and military retirees will get a cut in their pensions. But none of the global corporations that ship jobs and report profits abroad to evade taxes will pay a penny more.

Number 5 addresses one of the cruelest parts...not addressing the needs of the long-term unemployed.

Seems to me our side could do more to take charge of the messaging. Borosage says that Democrats have negotiated from a position of weakness, not strength.

I agree with that. I think the Republican Noise Machine truly does exist, and the very strength of it allows the right wing to control the messaging.

We can do something about that.

December 10, 2013

Hey Floridians. A link to medical marijuana petition. 82% support, but many signatures needed.

I have been waiting for someone to call or contact me in some way, but no luck. I just did some reading up on this today.

Florida Medical Marijuana Supporters Have Money, Need Signatures And Court Approval

With 82 percent of Florida poll respondents in favor of marijuana-as-medicine, it appears Florida could become the 21st state with medical outlets selling pot, and the first Southern state to get on board. First, though, the court would need to give its approval for the measure to end up on the November 2014 ballot.

In addition, the group behind the movement, People United For Medical Marijuana, will have to come up with 700,000 signatures to get it on the ballot. It claims to already have 500,000.

....This year, People United has taken in $876,302 in campaign donations, according to records. It’s biggest individual supporter has been lawyer John Morgan of Morgan & Morgan in Orlando, who has given $250,000. His firm is ground zero for a lot of the organizing for this medicinal effort. Second place in the individual donor sweepstakes goes to philanthropist and retired pharmaceutical executive Barbara Stiefel, who has dropped $150,000 into the kitty.

John Morgan says he could kick himself for the fact the petition was put on hold while the state Supreme Court heard the case. This article says they need 400,000 signatures, most probably to have a margin of error when the verification begins.

Medical marijuana petition effort racing against time

Orlando lawyer John Morgan has spent a lot of his time and millions of his own dollars to get medical marijuana on the ballot for a vote next year.

But now, according to partner newspaper the Tampa Bay Times, Morgan made a costly mistake that may jeopardize the entire campaign.

United for Care, the group pushing for a constitutional amendment, says it needs about 400,000 more petition signatures and only has a month to get it done.

That may be the result of a Morgan mistake. The longtime attorney said he suspended a paid petition signature-gathering campaign for about a month in the fall. He said the campaign held off while the Florida Supreme Court made a decision on ballot language regarding medical marijuana.

Morgan said he is kicking himself over that decision.

I found the site at which you can fill out the petition, print it off and mail it to the group.

People United for Medical Marijuana

There is a box to sign to get updates on the progress.

Both Democrats running support this issue, Charlie Crist and Nan Rich. Bill Nelson is supposedly standing in the wings to run if needed, and he does NOT support it.

Profile Information

Gender: Female
Hometown: Florida
Member since: 2002
Number of posts: 88,117

About madfloridian

Retired teacher who sees much harm to public education from the "reforms" being pushed by corporations. Privatizing education is the wrong way to go. Children can not be treated as products, thought of in terms of profit and loss.

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