Paul Wellstone

http://www.oilempire.us/wellstone.html
Excerpt:

http://www.thepostgame.com/features/201108/real-it-gets-victims-schoolyard-bullying-can-fight-back-help-ufc-royalty
Excerpt:

UFC 134 in Rio de Janeiro this weekend will rightly include homage to the iconic Gracie family, creators of Brazilian jiu-jitsu nearly 100 years ago, creators of the Ultimate Fighting Championship nearly 20 years ago, creators of legendary family fighting figures and jiu-jitsu instructors that span the globe.

But the Gracies' most positive impact might be felt at a middle school in a Denver suburb where a seventh grader is unafraid of bullies for the first time since he can remember.

Martin Hendricks, 12, spent a week this summer at the Gracie Academy in Torrance, Calif., in an intensive program designed to make him "Bullyproof." He learned as many jiu-jitsu self-defense techniques as a kid can absorb in five days, he memorized a blueprint for dealing with a bully fairly and squarely, and he gained self-confidence. The first week of school he put the lessons into practice.

"I'm still a little nervous but it all went well," Hendricks said quietly in a phone call to Rener Gracie, his personal instructor at the academy. "He'll never bother me again. Let me tell you about it."

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=David_L._Gunn

Excerpt:

"In announcing David Gunn’s new position with Free Congress, Weyrich said, 'David Gunn was the best President Amtrak had in a long time. His firing, which was engineered by the White House, was a travesty. It suggests that the current Administration is out not to reform Amtrak but to destroy passenger trains in this country.'" [1]

Edward Wytkind, writing in the December 15, 2005, Baltimore Sun, concurs:

"Meanwhile, the [AMTRAK] board has operated without a quorum for several years, casting grave doubt on the legitimacy, if not the legality, of its actions, the most recent of which was the firing of CEO David L. Gunn, a 40-year rail professional. We had strong differences with Mr. Gunn's labor-management practices, but he has forgotten more about passenger rail than the three private-sector Amtrak board members combined have ever known. Mr. Gunn was fired because he refused to take a blood oath to carry out the 'kill Amtrak from within' strategy."

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=David_M._Laney

Excerpt:

David McQueen Laney, of Texas, was appointed April 30, 2002, by President George W. Bush to be a Member of the Reform Board (AMTRAK) for a term of five years, vice Tommy G. Thompson, who resigned. His nomination was sent to the U.S. Senate May 8, 2002, and he was confirmed November 14, 2002.

Affiliations

• Laney was "formerly the Commissioner of the Texas Department of Transportation under then Governor George W. Bush." [1]

• Laney, currently serving as Chairman of the AMTRAK Board, is a Texas attorney and Bush Pioneer who raised "more than $100,000" for the Bush-Cheney '04 Inc. campaign. [2]

SourceWatch Resources

• Bush administration cronyism and incompetence

Excerpt: 

Bush the Incompetent

"Incompetence is not one of the seven deadly sins, and it's hardly the worst attribute that can be ascribed to George W. Bush. But it is this president's defining attribute. Historians, looking back at the hash that his administration has made of his war in Iraq, his response to Hurricane Katrina and his Medicare drug plan, will have to grapple with how one president could so cosmically botch so many big things -- particularly when most of them were the president's own initiatives," Harold Meyerson commented in the January 25, 2006, Washington Post.

FEMA Cronyism Led to Failure

Michael Brown, who resigned September 12, 2005, as FEMA's director, "has become a symbol of cronyism," Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times.
Brown "didn't know the difference between a tropical depression and an anxiety attack when President Bush charged him with life-and-death decisions," Maureen Dowd wrote in the Times.

External links

• Edward Wytkind, "Cronyism Strikes Again," Baltimore Sun (Common Dreams), December 15, 2005.

Excerpt: 
Published on Thursday, December 15, 2005 by the Baltimore Sun 
Cronyism Strikes Again 
by Edward Wytkind
 
Here we go again. President Bush puts highly unqualified political supporters in charge of a vital public service, and Americans pay the price.
But this time it isn't the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It's our national passenger railroad - Amtrak.
Amtrak's directors, appointed by the Bush administration based on cronyism, not competence, are shirking their responsibilities and dismantling - through outsourcing and privatization schemes - the very rail company they are charged with strengthening. If we don't stop this runaway train, millions of passengers will lose vital rail service along the Northeast Corridor and across America.