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The News & Observer of Raleigh reports Tuesday that Huger was searching through a list of expiring domain names two years ago when he noticed the Web address http://www.GeorgeWBushLibrary.com was about to expire.
He bought the rights for $5, then sat on them for two years.
Huger says he recently sold them for $35,000 to Florida-based Yuma Solutions, which the Bush Library Foundation says is in charge of Web site care. Company owner Mark Mills didn't return the newspaper's calls.
The recent popularity of the movie Milk, starring Sean Penn, made me wonder why I never learned Harvey Milk's story in classroom discussions of civil rights, especially considering I grew up in San Francisco, where Milk carried out his work. As a result, I started searching for other activists who have changed our world, but have been left out of the usual history lesson. These people have made great strides toward gender equality, women's liberation, and civil rights. Without them, the world wouldn't be what it is today.
Fred Shuttlesworth: Champion for Civil Rights
After Alabama outlawed the NAACP in 1956, this Baptist minister founded the Alabama Christian Movement for Human Rights, announcing that he would act out against all segregation laws. He led sit-ins, boycotts, and strikes, and his work in Alabama was a major force in pressuring Congress to overturn segregation. He fought against violent racism with peaceful activism—white supremacists bombed his house multiple times, a white mob beat him with whips and chains and, after his leadership during the mass protests in Birmingham, he was slammed against a wall by high-pressure fire hoses. He later became one of the first officers in Dr. Martin Luther King's Southern Christian Leadership Conference and King described him as "one of the nation's most courageous freedom fighters." Still alive today, Shuttlesworth is a pastor and directs the Shuttlesworth Housing Foundation, an organization that helps low-income families purchase homes.
Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon: Challenging the Norm
In 1955, Del Martin and Phyllis Lyon co-founded Daughters of Bilitis, the first national lesbian organization (named after a fictional lover of Sappho—the famously lesbian Greek poet). In 1964, they helped start the Council on Religion and the Homosexual, a group that sought to join religious leaders and gay activists to discuss marriage equality. Martin aided in the successful campaign for the American Psychiatric Association to take homosexuality off its list of mental illnesses. Meanwhile, Lyon became the first openly gay woman on the National Organization for Women's board in the '70s. They also co-wrote two books, Lesbian/Woman and Lesbian Love and Liberation, during the same decade. Four years ago they were the first of thousands of couples married in San Francisco when Mayor Newsom began allowing gay marriage, though it was suspended a month later by the Supreme Court. They were able to marry again in 2008 after the court ruled in favor of marriage equality, but Martin passed away only two months later.
http://www.divinecaroline.com/article/22343/63892-inspirational-activists-won-t-learn-school
The poll also shows people around the world are looking to President Obama to put highest priority on dealing with the current global financial crisis.
In 15 of the 17 countries polled, majorities think that the election of Barack Obama will lead to improved relations with the rest of the world. On average 67 per cent express this upbeat view, while 19 per cent think relations will stay the same and just 5 per cent that relations will worsen.
This is up sharply - by 21 points among tracking countries - from polling done for the BBC World Service six months ago, before Obama was elected. At that time just 47 per cent expressed optimism that an Obama presidency would lead to improved relations with the rest of the world. The number of people giving no answer to the question is also down sharply.
This optimism does not necessarily mean, however that views of the United States itself have changed. BBC World Service is currently completing its annual poll assessing views of major countries' influence in the world, which will be released within the next few weeks and will show whether views of US influence are improving.
Asked to rate six possible priorities for the Obama Administration, the top priority in all countries polled was the global financial crisis. On average 72 per cent said that it should be a top priority.
This was followed by withdrawing US troops from Iraq - with 50 per cent saying this should be a top priority - then addressing climate change (46%), improving America's relationship with the respondent's country (46%), brokering peace between Israel and the Palestinians (43%), and supporting the government of Afghanistan against the Taliban (29%).
Polling was completed prior to the current Gaza conflict in all countries except Egypt and India. In Egypt, 75 per cent said brokering peace between Israel and the Palestinians should be a top priority.
http://www.worldpublicopinion.org/pipa/articles/home_page/583.php?nid=&id=&pnt=583&lb=
Krispy Kreme, being the genial purveyor of glazed goodness that it is, decided to get in on the Obama inauguration craze and is offering one free doughnut to every costumer on January 20, Inauguration day, and released this seemingly innocuous press release: "Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, Inc. (NYSE: KKD) is honoring American's sense of pride and freedom of choice on Inauguration Day, by offering a free doughnut of choice to every customer on this historic day, Jan. 20. By doing so, participating Krispy Kreme stores nationwide are making an oath to tasty goodies -- just another reminder of how oh-so-sweet 'free' can be."Well, The American Life League noticed the liberal use of the word choice and decided to blast the chain bakery for producing abortion doughnuts.
Originally published in the Chicago Reader on December 8, 1995, as the future president-elect was running for his first term as state senator.
When Barack Obama returned to Chicago in 1991 after three brilliant years at Harvard Law School, he didn't like what he saw. The former community activist, then 30, had come fresh from a term as president of the prestigious Harvard Law Review, a position he was the first African-American to hold. Now he was ready to continue his battle to organize Chicago's black neighborhoods. But the state of the city muted his exuberance.
"Upon my return to Chicago," he would write in the epilogue to his recently published memoir, Dreams From My Father, "I would find the signs of decay accelerated throughout the South Side—the neighborhoods shabbier, the children edgier and less restrained, more middle-class families heading out to the suburbs, the jails bursting with glowering youth, my brothers without prospects. All too rarely do I hear people asking just what it is that we've done to make so many children's hearts so hard, or what collectively we might do to right their moral compass—what values we must live by. Instead I see us doing what we've always done—pretending that these children are somehow not our own."
Today, after three years of law practice and civic activism, Obama has decided to dive into electoral politics. He is running for the Illinois senate, he says, because he wants to help create jobs and a decent future for those embittered youth. But when he met with some veteran politicians to tell them of his plans, the only jobs he says they wanted to talk about were theirs and his. Obama got all sorts of advice. Some of it perplexed him; most of it annoyed him. One African-American elected official suggested that Obama change his name, which he'd inherited from his late Kenyan father. Another told him to put a picture of his light-bronze, boyish face on all his campaign materials, "so people don't see your name and think you're some big dark guy."
http://www.chicagoreader.com/obama_reader/what_makes_obama_run/
Sphere: Related Content
WASHINGTON—A team of nine specially trained handlers have successfully lured outgoing vice president Dick Cheney into a reinforced steel traveling crate in order to transport him back to his permanent enclosure in Casper, WY, official sources reported Monday. "He's a smart one. Once he sees the crate, he gets pretty nippy, but we've learned a few tricks over the years," chief VP wrangler Ted Irving breathlessly said while applying pressure to a deep gash on his forearm. "If we break a rabbit's legs and throw it in there, he will eventually go in to finish it off. Doesn't work with dead rabbits, though. Cheney only eats what he kills." Irving said that the latest vice presidential relocation went much more smoothly than September's diplomatic trip to Georgia, which was delayed for several hours after Cheney mauled three secret service agents and escaped inside the White House walls.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news_briefs/vice_presidential_handlers
GUANTÁNAMO BAY, Cuba — In one of its first actions, the Obama administration late Tuesday instructed military prosecutors to seek a 120-day halt of legal proceedings involving detainees at the Guantánamo Bay naval base — a clear break with the approach of the outgoing Bush administration.
The instruction came in a motion filed with a military court handling the case of five defendants accused of organizing the Sept. 11 attacks. The motion called for "a continuance of the proceedings" until May 20 so that "the newly inaugurated president and his administration (can) review the military commissions process, generally, and the cases currently pending before military commissions, specifically."
The same motion was filed in another case scheduled to resume today, involving a Canadian detainee, and will be filed in all other pending matters.
Such a request may not be automatically granted by military judges, and not all defense attorneys may agree to such a suspension. But the move is a first step toward closing a detention facility and system of military trials that became a worldwide symbol of the Bush administration's war on terror, and its unyielding attitude to foreign and domestic critics.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2008651975_44orders21.html
They made a cover for the metal signage that looks pretty darn professional.
Someone tipped off NBCBayArea.com to the stunt just before sunrise on Inauguration Day.
At least four blocks of signs had been changed in the heart of the city's Financial District.
There were also chalk drawings on the ground pointing up to get pedestrians to notice the "change."
It's not clear how serious a crime this is or if police will bother to prosecute.
We assume crews will take them down at some point. People could get lost you know, this is a tourist town.
There is a rally that is expected to be held at Bush Street and Presidio later today –– where Bush Street officially stops with a little "end" sign on the street corner.
http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Bush-Street-Disappears-in-SF-Overnight.html
Friends,
This happy, happy day!
We have made it through the Dark Ages and here we are, in one of the most redemptive moments history has ever witnessed. Barack Obama is our best hope to get it right, to heal our national soul, to reach out to the rest of the world with an olive branch instead of shocking brutality.
I want to take this opportunity to thank each and every one of you who has worked to make this day happen. For many, the madness goes back, not eight years but twenty-eight years, to the tragic day Reagan was sworn in to dismantle our precious "government of the people" and our beloved way of life.
To all of you who have spoken up and spoken out, who have written letters and marched for peace, for all of you who never gave up, you are the true heroes today. Many of you have suffered great economic losses. Some of you have endured a loved one being shipped overseas to senseless and shameful wars, and thousands of you have seen those loved ones returned home, no longer alive. It has been a heartbreaking time.
But the sun comes out at noon today. The disgraced outgoing president will slide out the side door and head to Crawford to sell the Hollywood set known as the Bush "ranch" before he settles down in an exclusive neighborhood in Dallas. I would encourage Mr. Bush to issue one final pardon before noon today -- his own. He had better issue a blanket pardon for all crimes that may have been committed since 2001 by himself, Cheney, Rumsfeld and the whole gang. Serious laws were broken, a war was concocted on a lie, and now, please, justice must be carried out.
So let us move forward and fix the horrible mess we are in. We are fortunate to have a new president who is smart and kind and committed to serving his country. Take a moment today and think about what you can do to join him in helping him do his job. We're all in this together. Our country has been so profoundly wrecked by an administration who decided to mug our constitution and then steal what they can for their Wall Street cronies on the way out the door.
WASHINGTON -- Looking westward into the sun and speaking to more than 1 million people on the Mall in front of him and to millions more around the world, President Barack Obama delivered a tough inaugural speech that must have made members of the outgoing Bush administration squirm in their chairs.
After thanking President George W. Bush for his service to the nation and for helping during the presidential transition, Obama veered sharply, offering no attempt at sugar-coating, no deeper genuflection toward the Bushes, who left the Capitol by helicopter soon after Obama's blunt speech and headed for Texas.
Instead, Obama hit his theme early and often in his 18-minute address: The presidential inaugural oath is sometimes taken "amidst gathering clouds and raging storms." Now is one of those times, he said.
Obama declared "we are in the midst of crisis" and recounted wars, a badly weakened economy that he blamed on greed on the part of some and "also on our collective failure to make hard choices."
Homes have been lost, jobs shed, business shuttered, he recounted. Health care is too costly, schools fail too many students and we waste our energy.
There was no affable reference to Bush's eight years in office or mention of the wonders of the Bush legacy, nothing warm and fuzzy. It was a putdown, a repudiation of the Bush years.
Obama was just warming up.
According to D.C. officials, the jackhammering interrupted the landmark address on 30 separate occasions and came from the nearby U.S. Botanic Garden, where it was being used to break up pavement for a new Heroes of Horticulture exhibit.
"My fellow—," began Obama, who then stopped when he and the 2.5 million citizens present, some of whom had traveled thousands of miles to experience the once-in-a-lifetime event, were startled by loud, metal-on-concrete banging. "My fell…my fell…my—."
"Is that a jackhammer?" Obama added.
Though Obama first acknowledged the incessant jackhammering with an impromptu joke, saying, "Well, I know one guy who doesn't need a job," the typically poised orator grew gradually more annoyed as it became clear that the shrill thumping was not going to stop.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/obama_inauguration_speech_ruined
Sphere: Related ContentA Nike print ad making the rounds on the Web this week is causing a stir for its homophobic copy, which reads, "The only thing worse than going to the ballet is going to the ballet to see your son."
But unlike previous ads that raised eyebrows among gays for their homophobic content -- à la that Snickers Super Bowl ad that featured two men appalled when they accidentally kiss after eating through the candy bar from opposite ends -- this ad wasn't commissioned by Nike.
In fact, Nike says the company didn't even know about the ad until it popped up on the Web.
The Nike ad in question ran in CMYK Magazine , a publication distributed quarterly to advertising and design professionals, as part of a quarterly student ad design competition.
Students Nicolas Schmidt-Fitzner and Tara Lawall created the mock-up under instructors Niklas Fing-Rupp and Jan Rexhausen. They attend one of the Miami Ad School's satellite locations in Hamburg, Germany.
The ad was selected by a "leading professional" in the advertising industry as one of the best ads submitted for the quarter. Student projects in areas of art direction,copywriting, design, illustration, and photography appear in each issue of the magazine.
Trying to explain what was wrong with the Bush Era feels like trying to vomit up a cannonball. I don't think my jaw can stretch that wide.
1. Dick Cheney — The worst Dick since Nixon. The man who shot his friend while in office. The "most powerful and controversial vice president." Until he got the job, people used to actually think it was a bad thing that the vice presidency has historically been a do-nothing position. Asked by PBS's Jim Lehrer about why people hate him, Cheney rejected the premise, saying, "I don't buy that." His top placement in our survey says otherwise.
2. Karl Rove — There wasn't a scandal in the Bush administration that Rove didn't have his fingerprints all over — see Plame, Iraq war deception, Gov. Don Siegelman, U.S. Attorney firings, missing e-mails, and more. As senior political adviser and later as deputy chief of staff, "The Architect" was responsible for politicizing nearly every agency of the federal government.
3. Alberto Gonzales — Fundamentally dishonest and woefully incompetent, Gonzales was involved in a series of scandals, first as White House counsel and then as Attorney General. Some of the most notable: pressuring a "feeble" and "barely articulate" Attorney General Ashcroft at his hospital bedside to sign off on Bush's illegal wiretapping program; approving waterboarding and other torture techniques to be used against detainees; and leading the firing of U.S. Attorneys deemed not sufficiently loyal to Bush.4. Donald Rumsfeld — After winning praise for leading the U.S. effort in ousting the Taliban from Afghanistan in 2001, the former Defense Secretary strongly advocated for the invasion of Iraq and then grossly misjudged and mishandled its aftermath. Rumsfeld is also responsible for authorizing the use of torture against terror detainees in U.S. custody; according to a bipartisan Senate report, Rumsfeld "conveyed the message that physical pressures and degradation were appropriate treatment for detainees."
5. Michael Brown — This former commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association was appointed by Bush to head FEMA in 2003. After Katrina made landfall as a Category 4 hurricane, Brownie promptly did a "heck of a job" bungling the government's relief efforts, and was sent back to Washington a few days later. He was forced to resign shortly thereafter.
6. Paul Wolfowitz — As Deputy Secretary of Defense from 2001 to 2005, Wolfowitz was one of the primary architects of the
Iraq war, arguing for the invasion as early as Sept. 15, 2001. Testifying before Congress in February 2003, Wolfowitz said that it was "hard to conceive that it would take more forces to provide stability in post-SaddamIraq than it would take to conduct the war itself." Wolfowitz eventually admitted that "for bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction," as a justification for war, "because it was the one reason everyone [in the administration] could agree on."7. David Addington — "Cheney's Cheney" was the "most powerful man you've never heard of." As the leader of Bush's legal team and Cheney's chief of staff, Addington was the biggest proponent of some of Bush's most notorious legal abuses, such as torture and warrantless surveillance, and is a loyal follower of the so-called unitary executive theory.
8. Stephen Johnson — The "Alberto Gonzales of the environment," EPA Administrator Johnson subverted the agency's mission at the behest of the White House and corporate interests, suppressing staff recommendations on pesticides, mercury, lead paint, smog, and global warming.9. Douglas Feith — Undersecretary of Defense for Policy from 2001-2005, Feith headed up the notorious Office of Special Plans, an in-house Pentagon intelligence shop devised by Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz to produce intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq. A subsequent investigation by the Pentagon's Inspector General found the OSP's work produced "conclusions that were not fully supported by the available intelligence."
10. John Bolton — As Undersecretary of State, Bolton offered a strong voice in favor of invading Iraq and pushed for the U.S. to disengage from the International Criminal Court and key international arms control agreements. A recess appointment landed Bolton the job of U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, despite his stringent animosity toward the world body. Today, he spends his time calling for war with Iran.
http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/17/bush-43-worst/
Sphere: Related ContentFolk legend Pete Seeger (89) joined Bruce Springsteen at the conclusion of the "We Are One" concert at the Lincoln Memorial to lead a sing-along of Woody Guthrie's "This Land Is Your Land." Seeger, who rode the rails with Guthrie during the Great Depression, led the 500,000 person audience on the mall in singing the song as it was originally written - including verses often left out that address worker's rights.
'I would have to choose more conservatively, and maybe look for someone with a little less gristle, perhaps Sarah Palin.'
by R J Shulman
When asked by Hannity who would be at the top of his menu, Cheney said, "Michael Moore looks pretty juicy." But Cheney backtracked a bit. "If it is true that you are what you eat, I would have to choose more conservatively, and maybe look for someone with a little less gristle, perhaps Sarah Palin."
When a viewer called in and asked the vice president if killing and eating another human wasn't the most barbaric thing you could do, Cheney replied, "So?" Cheney then told Hannity, "They say you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer. What could be closer than having your enemies inside your gut?"
PACIFICA – For six years of war in Iraq, the Bush administration has done absolutely nothing to take care of the hundreds of thousands of wounded veterans coming home, said Aaron Glantz, a journalist who has been covering the stories of US military vets returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
"We've had people brought into the VA, turned away, who have committed suicide after coming back from the war with post-traumatic stress disorder. We've had people redeployed to Iraq, even after they were diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. We have 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans coming home with traumatic brain injury, physical brain damage. We have 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans who have filed disability claims with the federal government," Glantz told Democracy Now! on Thursday.
"In many cases, there is no medical services at all, because remember that many people serving in Iraq and Afghanistan come from rural communities where the VA doesn't even have a hospital," he explained.
There are 200,000 homeless war veterans in the United States.
"On every night, 200,000 people who have put on the uniform and served this country sleep homeless on the streets," said Glantz.
"Imagine that you come home from Iraq with post-traumatic stress disorder, a mental wound, or traumatic brain injury, physical brain damage often caused by a roadside bomb. The first thing that you have to do just to get in the door at the VA is to fill out a twenty-six-page form where you substantiate exactly how you were wounded, where you get letters of support from your battle buddies, from your commanders. You subpoena your own Army records, often with the help of your congressperson. And you present to the VA a gigantic claim folder, which they then sit on for an extended period of time. And that's just to get in the door. So we take our veterans when they're most wounded and most vulnerable and exploit them by making them fill out a mound of paperwork just to get in the door," noted Glantz.
http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=29803
Sphere: Related Content
 Israel ignores international calls to end Gaza invasion. |
by Eric Boehlert
Did you hear that "some are saying" Barack Obama's inauguration will cost "$160 million," which is $100 million more than George W. Bush's last swearing-in? That's the tale the crew at Fox & Friends was telling on January 15. "Why does the thing have to cost so much?" demanded co-host Gretchen Carlson. "I don't get it. George Bush spent $42.3 million and that was just four years ago." She wondered why Obama needed "another $100 million" for his celebration.
The Fox News crew wasn't alone. The Internet and cable news were filled with chatter about the jaw-dropping (and unsubstantiated) number suddenly attached to Obama's swearing-in. But the sloppy reporting and online gossip about the price tag illustrated what happens when journalists don't do their job and online partisans take advantage of that kind of work.
It also highlighted the type of news you can generate when making blatantly false comparisons. In this case, it was the cost of the Obama and Bush inaugurations. The connection was unfair because the Obama figure of $160 million that got repeated in the press included security costs associated with the massive event. But the Bush tab of $42 million left out those enormous costs. Talk about stacking the deck.
The misinformation first arrived in the form of an underreported newspaper article in America, and then one in London. Between them, and thanks to furious transatlantic online linking, the reports gave birth to the story that Obama's inauguration was going to cost nearly four times what the country spent on Bush's bash in 2005 -- that the Obama inauguration would cost almost $120 million more.
In September 2008, I was invited to introduce Michelle Obama at an event in Greensboro, N.C. I had met her fleetingly during the Democratic National Convention in Boston, but I had no real sense of her personality.
I telephoned Oprah Winfrey, aware that she knew the Obamas, and asked, "What is your take on Michelle Obama?"
Oprah answered promptly and with conviction, "She is the real deal."
I waited backstage in the Carolina Theatre wings. Mrs. Obama arrived, and we sat and talked for 45 minutes. We spoke about family, the economy, youth obesity, television, music, cooking and men. I was completely won over. She neither postured nor preened. I sensed no subterfuge in her conversation. She said what she thought and said it clearly, without bombast. When I was cued to go onto the stage, I shook hands with her warmly and went to the microphone. The theater was packed, and there was no standing room. I told the audience of some of Mrs. Obama's accomplishments, and then I told them of the conversation that I had had with Oprah. I ended my introduction by saying, "Now ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the 'real deal.' "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/16/AR2009011603640.html
Such was the case Sunday night at Glen Echo Park in Maryland, where outgoing administration officials gathered for a final send-off. (Well, almost final: They'll see Bush off Tuesday at Andrews Air Force Base.) Everyone from the lowliest White House aides to President Bush himself was there, many of them bundled in coats, chomping on barbecue, knocking back Buds, and dressed in the "very casual attire" the invitation called for.
The party, dubbed "Crossing the Finish Line" and held in the park's giant Spanish Ballroom, was organized by outgoing White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten and his predecessor, Andy Card.
The venue had been somewhat controversial, according to attendees. There was no heating, so a lot of bodies were needed. "Due to the historic nature of the venue, there are limitations on what can be done in terms of climate control," the hosts warned in an e-mail. "DO: Wear layers and coats. DON'T: Dress like you're going to Gold Cup or Smith Point."
Apparently some of the more climate-controlled venues had been taken. "There weren't a lot [of places] available," said Card. "There weren't a lot of bands available, either."
"Are these all white people—I mean White House people?" I asked someone in a genuine Freudian slip. Turned out the crowd was a mix of alumni from the White House, State Department, Treasury, and Justice and a few campaign workers. The mood felt more sweet than bitter. Many staffers had spent the weekend clearing out their offices. The question I kept hearing was "What's next?" Some were applying to grad schools, others were heading to D.C. law firms or think tanks, and others were returning to their home states or traveling. One outgoing Treasury employee had already landed a job as a manager at Abercrombie & Fitch.
As I stood in line for barbecue, Dana Perino came over to greet some friends. "I'm starting to breathe!" she said. I asked her for a comment on the party. "It's a wonderful opportunity to celebrate the outgoing administration and reminisce in casual clothes," she said.
Indeed, Bolten made the rounds in a bright-purple fleece, while Card sported a tweed blazer. Karl Rove, afloat in a gaggle of camera-toting staffers, rocked a cap from the 2004 Bush campaign.
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| Former Sen. Ted Stevens, addressing the Senate for the final time in November, has adamantly insisted his innocence. (KTUU-TV) | ||
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| During this joint press conference in December, both Sen. Lisa Murkowski and then-Sen.-elect Mark Begich said they had not thought about seeking a pardon for Stevens. (KTUU-TV) | ||
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| Stevens was convicted by a Washington, D.C. jury on seven felony charges of lying on Senate disclosure forms. (KTUU-TV) | ||
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by Jill Burke
Editor's note: This story has been corrected to clarify statements made in December by Sen. Lisa Murkowski about pursuing a pardon for former Sen. Ted Stevens.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Sen. Lisa Murkowski has made a request with President George W. Bush to pardon former Sen. Ted Stevens, Channel 2 News learned Sunday.
Stevens was convicted in October on seven felony counts of lying on Senate disclosure forms. He lost a subsequent re-election bid to Sen. Mark Begich.
Murkowski's spokesperson, Mike Brumas, confirmed the request in an e-mail to Channel 2 News, writing, "In answer to you question, yes Sen. Murkowski has requested that President Bush pardon former Sen. Stevens. I can't provide any further details at this time due to the sensitive nature of the issue."
Outside of this statement from her office, Murkowski declined to comment.
It's unclear when the application may have been made. The Department of Justice says as of Friday no one had made an application for a pardon on the Senator's behalf with the Office of Pardon Attorney, according to Laura Sweeney in the department's Office of Public Affairs.
Sweeney went on to say that Murkowski could have made a direct appeal to Bush, bypassing the pardon attorney.
Three days before the inauguration of the 44th president of the United States, the distinctions have largely been effaced between the outgoing and incoming administrations.
George W. Bush is, as even the corporate-controlled media admits, the most hated and despised president in American history. Barack Obama is, at least according to the opinion polls that measure popular moods, the beneficiary of a temporary honeymoon period in which hope outweighs experience and many are inclined to "give him a chance."
Far more decisive than these illusions are the policies of the Obama administration. There is ample reason to believe that popular opposition to Obama will grow rapidly, and that anger and outrage over the gross deception involved in the electoral process will add fuel to the fire. While millions voted for the Democratic candidate in a repudiation of the Bush administration's program of war, repression and favors to the wealthy, the actions of Obama demonstrate the fundamental unity of the two big business parties, which are both instruments of the same corporate ruling elite.
