Drugs, profiteering and the Bush family

* Kleiman:

" So the problem is to try to craft laws and programs that would minimize the total damage done by drugs, drug distribution, and drug regulation and enforcement (counting the lost benefits drug use for the majority of users who do not get into trouble among the costs of regulation).

Obviously, that's not the set of drug policies we have now. We're absurdly too loose on alcohol and horrifyingly too severe in the punishments associated with illicit drugs. It often seems that the point of drug policy is not to protect people from the consequences of forming bad habits around drug-taking but to inflict as much misery as possible on those who enjoy intoxicants other than alcohol."

* speaking of drugs:

"The Houston Chronicle reports this morning that the donation Barbara Bush made to the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund was 'earmarked' for the educational software company Ignite!
As some of you probably know that's the junk company owned by her ne'er-do-well son Neil Bush." (link)

* Speaking of profiteering:

"President Bush's uncle just picked up close to $3 million from the sale of a defense contracting company that's currently under federal investigation.
William H.T. Bush -- the family reportedly calls him "Uncle Bucky" -- was a director of the company, Engineered Support Systems, Inc. When the company was bought by DRS Technologies in January, Uncle Bucky raked in $1.7 million in cash and $800,000 in stock, according to the LA Times, which broke the story.
The company has enjoyed several no-bid contracts with the Pentagon for Iraq war support equipment.

The SEC is currently probing questionable stock sales by several major shareholders in the company, including Uncle Bucky. Apparently the Pentagon cut short a major contract with ESSI for generators because they didn't work right; some ESSI executives, including Uncle Bucky, cashed out holdings before alerting other shareholders -- seven months later -- that the deal had gone sour." (link)

* laura has more wilkes shenanigans:

"So Wade learned his tricks of the trade from Wilkes, and Wilkes learned some of his tricks, the suit alleges, from Steve Caira, the owner of a San Diego-based document conversion company called TomaHawk II. And while Cunnigham was first Wilkes' and then Wade's benefactor, according to this lawsuit, Caira's benefactor was Rep. Duncan Hunter. What's also incredible if true is the lawsuit's allegation that Caira gave 15,000 stock shares in his company to the DoD official who awarded Caira's company, TomaHawk II, a Pentagon contract (facilitated by Hunter on the Appropriations committee).'" (link)

* hilite from the server logs. someone in D.R.Congo searched for "names and valid email addresses of some saudi arabians in russia"
good luck to them.