Another Bush Crook Convicted

Official found guilty for covering up Abramoff ties

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A jury found former Bush administration official David Safavian guilty Tuesday of covering up his dealings with Republican influence-peddler Jack Abramoff.

Safavian was convicted on four of five felony counts of lying and obstruction. He had resigned from his White House post last year as the federal government's chief procurement officer.

The verdict gave a boost to the wide-ranging influence peddling probe that focuses on Abramoff's dealings with Congress.

In the Safavian case, prosecutors highlighted the name of Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio. They introduced a photograph of the congressman and Abramoff standing in front of a private jet that whisked them and other members of a golfing party for a five-day trip to the storied St Andrews Old Course in Scotland, and a second leg of the journey to London.

The trial consumed eight days of testimony about Safavian's assistance to Abramoff regarding government-owned real estate and the weeklong golfing excursion to Scotland that the lobbyist organized.

The jury found Safavian guilty of obstructing the work of the GSA inspector general and of lying to a GSA ethics official. It also convicted him of lying to the GSA's Office of Inspector General and of making a false statement to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. He was acquitted of a charge of obstructing the committee's investigation.

This was the first trial to emerge from the scandal surrounding Abramoff, who is a former business partner of Safavian. Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to federal crimes here and in Miami, would likely be a witness if the Justice Department assembles criminal cases against any members of Congress.

U.S. Death Toll in Iraq: 2,501

WMDS: 0

Bush Cuts Anti-Terror Funding for New York

N.Y.ers a-maized by corn protection
Honcho sez fields more vulnerable than N.Y.C.
By James Meek, New York Daily News

WASHINGTON - The Homeland Security bureaucrat who shortchanged New Yorkers' safety by $80 million implied yesterday that guarding a Nebraska cornfield from an Al Qaeda attack is the same as putting a cop with a gun on the Brooklyn Bridge.

"When you are protecting agriculture in the Midwest, you are protecting the citizens of New York City," Assistant Secretary Tracy Henke told C-Span's "Washington Journal."

Henke - a political appointee in charge of doling out $1.7 billion in security grants to cities under the highest threat of attack - cut funds to New York City and Washington by 40%, even though both are considered Al Qaeda's top terror targets.

A senior U.S. counterterrorism official in Washington scoffed at the insinuation that Al Qaeda is targeting cornfields and grain stores.

"The whole DHS agro-terrorism theory doesn't hold," the official said. Asked if he had ever heard of a credible terrorist threat to the food supply, the official laughingly replied, "Never."

Henke is a Republican political operative and protégé of former Attorney General John Ashcroft with no background in military or intelligence.

Bush Beats Nixon as Worst Prez Since WWII

Dubya stinks? Try worst Prez since WWII, poll sez

The Daily News

Voters aren't just dissatisfied with President Bush - they think he's the worst President since World War II, according to a shocking new Quinnipiac University poll. Bush has sunk so low in the public's estimation that Richard Nixon, who resigned in disgrace after Watergate, looks good by comparison. While 34% of the poll participants rated Bush the worst President, Nixon got the thumbs down from 17% of 1,534 registered voters polled nationwide from May 23 to 30. And Democrats "just plain don't like President Bush," Quinnipiac pollster Maurice Carroll said. The war in Iraq is the primary reason for Bush's unpopularity. But even in the so-called red states, voters disapprove of Bush by a 52%-to-39% margin. Adding insult to injury, former President Bill Clinton emerged in the poll as the second best of the 11 postwar Presidents - right after Ronald Reagan.