POLITICS

GIULIANI HAS TRADEMARKED HIS OWN NAME

DAVID SALTONSTALL, NY DAILY NEWS Rudy Giuliani never shrank from
defending his image as mayor, but as a businessman he's gone a step
further - even trademarking his own name, the Daily News has learned.
The unusual step, revealed in a recent Giuliani company contract
obtained by The News, states under the heading "Use of Mr. Giuliani's
Name" that the "trade names and trademarks 'Rudolph Giuliani,' or
'Giuliani Partners LLC' . . . shall not be used . . . without prior
written consent." Doing anything that "tarnishes, degrades, disparages
or reflects adversely on the Giuliani" name, it adds, will be grounds
for terminating the contract.

As Giuliani now ponders a run for the White House, the document
underscores what has become a central question of his candidacy - how
will the former mayor's roster of mostly private business clients play
when viewed through the harsh prism of presidential campaign politics?

It is clearly something the mayor's own people are worried about: In a
list of potential "problems" written inside a Giuliani campaign dossier
and obtained by The News last week from a source sympathetic to a rival
campaign, the word "business" appears at the top of the list, above even
his ex-wife, Donna Hanover. . .

In the five years that Giuliani has worked in the private sector, his
clients have run the gamut, from gambling interests like the National
Thoroughbred Racing Association, which may further trouble Christian
conservative voters, to large power-generators like the Atlanta-based
Southern Co., which environmentalists regard as among the worst
polluters in the nation. He has lent his name to every corner of the
energy industry - representing nuclear, oil and natural gas concerns -
and worked with the pharmaceutical industry to keep cheap prescription
drugs from flowing into the U.S. from Canada.

And that's just what is publicly known.

Giuliani Partners and its subsidiaries are all privately held companies,
and the former mayor has refused to release a full client list - making
a clear analysis of his net worth impossible, and very likely raising
disclosure questions, should he run for President. . .

His empire includes the flagship Giuliani Partners LLC, a corporate
consulting firm, and Giuliani Safety & Security, which has provided
security advice to everyone from the Indian Point nuclear power plant in
Westchester County to the government-backed Asian Games in Qatar, a
Middle East emirate.

In 2005, Giuliani also became a named partner at Bracewell & Giuliani, a
Texas-based law firm with a large legal and lobbying arm, much of which
is aimed at protecting coal- and oil-burning electrical plants from
further government regulation, experts say.

"There were a lot of eyebrows raised in Washington when Mr. Giuliani
decided to become a named partner, because Bracewell really does
represent some of the most notorious polluters in the U.S.," said
Natural Resources Defense Council clean air director John Walke. . .

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/486469p-409552c.html

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BUSH REJECTED IRANIAN PEACE OFFER

BBC - Iran offered the US a package of concessions in 2003, but it was
rejected, a senior former US official has told the BBC's Newsnight
program. Tehran proposed ending support for Lebanese and Palestinian
militant groups and helping to stabilise Iraq following the US-led
invasion. Offers, including making its nuclear program more transparent,
were conditional on the US ending hostility. But Vice-President Dick
Cheney's office rejected the plan, the official said.

The offers came in a letter, seen by Newsnight, which was unsigned but
which the US state department apparently believed to have been approved
by the highest authorities.

In return for its concessions, Tehran asked Washington to end its
hostility, to end sanctions, and to disband the Iranian rebel group the
Mujahedeen-e-Khalq and repatriate its members.

But as soon as it got to the White House, the old mantra of 'We don't
talk to evil'... reasserted itself

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/6274147.stm

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BEST OF THE SENATE

According to the Progressive Review vote rankings, the best senators
last session were:

Akaka
Durbin
Harkin
Kennedy
Kerry
Lautenberg
Wyden

All of them voted right at least 80% of the time. The next best were
those who voted right at least 70% of the time:

Biden
Boxer
Cantwell
Clinton
Corzine
Dayton
Feingold
Leahy
Levin
McKulski
Murray
Obama
Reed
Reid
Sarbanes
Schumer

McCain, incidentally, voted right 13% of the time.

http://prorev.com/senatevotes.htm

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BEHIND THE BUSHES
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GONZALES ABOLISHES ANOTHER SECTION OF THE CONSTITUTION

[From Senate Judiciary Committee hearing]

Specter: Now wait a minute, wait a minute. The Constitution says you
can't take it away except in the case of invasion or rebellion. Doesn't
that mean you have the right of habeas corpus?

Gonzales: I meant by that comment that the Constitution doesn't say that
every individual in the United States or every citizen has or is assured
the right of habeas corpus. It doesn't say that. It simply says that the
right of habeas corpus shall not be suspended.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/1/18/15219/0788

OUR BUSH ARCHIVES
http://prorev.com/bush.htm

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