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Wednesday, June 21, 2006 |
Independent: "Downing Street and Buckingham Palace are to lease two aircraft to fly the Prime Minister, other ministers and members of the Royal Family on official business.
The aircraft, nicknamed Blair Force One and Two, will cost an estimated £12.3m a year. Downing Street said the net extra cost would be £1.2m more than the present bill for using RAF planes for most short journeys and chartering bigger aircraft for long-haul flights.
Although they will be compared to the Air Force One, used by US presidents since 1944, they will still be dwarfed by the President's Boeing 747, which has three floors, restaurants, a bar and cinema."
12:46:37 PM 
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While George W. Bush is ruining America, the Democrats have set their very modest agenda:
Make Health Care More Affordable
Lower Gas Prices and Achieve Energy Independence
Help Working Families: Raise the minimum wage; repeal tax giveaways that encourage companies to move jobs overseas
Cut College Costs
Ensure Dignified Retirement
Require Fiscal Responsibility.
But their plan lacks real bite to tackle corruption, greed, injustice and aggression. The Bush administration is a criminal administration.
MSNBC: "A jury Tuesday convicted a former Bush administration official of four counts of lying and obstructing justice in the first trial to be held in connection with the influence-peddling scandal of lobbyist Jack Abramoff."
RawStory: "A new report claims that a 'shadow government' of federal contractors has exploded in size over the last five years.
The document indicates that procurement spending increased by over $175 billion between 2000 and 2005, making federal contracts the fastest growing component of federal discretionary spending.
In all, the report identifies 118 federal contracts worth $745.5 billion that have been found by government officials to include significant waste, fraud, abuse or mismanagement.
Last year, the largest federal contractor, Lockheed Martin, received contracts worth more than the total combined budgets of the Department of Commerce, the Department of the Interior, the Small Business Administration and the U.S. Congress.
But the fastest growing contractor under the Bush Administration has been Halliburton. Federal spending on Halliburton contracts shot up an astonishing 600% between 2000 and 2005."
AlterNet: "Republicans in Congress have made it clear they're willing to fight for military contractors' right to lie, cheat and defraud taxpayers.
In an effort to stop companies like Halliburton and its subsidiaries from cheating our troops and stealing from Americans, Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., introduced S.AMDT.4230 and attached it to the Defense Authorization bill currently being debated in the Senate. The bill was intended to improve contracting 'by eliminating fraud and abuse and improving competition in contracting and procurement'."
Dorgan's bill was rejected.
12:41:57 PM
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