Thursday, August 10, 2006

What Happens When "Kleptocrats" Claim to Try And Defeat "Kleptocracy?" Subtitle - The President's Plan to Co-opt the Phrase "Culture Of Corruption"

Taking chutzpah to a whole new level, the president is using his bully pulpit to see if he can wrestle away the phrase "Culture of Corruption" by making like he is doing something about it.

In case you didn't notice because you were stuck on the tarmac or in a security line pitching hundred dollar bottles of moisturizer in the bin at the airport, the President announced a new "National Strategy to Internationalize Efforts Against Kleptocracy."

Sit down and brace yourself, because you are really going to have to stop yourself from screaming at the W, Rove and Co on this next quote I'm pasting in here. Are you ready for the rolling out of the most hypocritical paragraph uttered by a president in a great long time? Drum roll please...
For too long, the culture of corruption has undercut development and good governance and bred criminality and mistrust around the world. High-level corruption by senior government officials, or kleptocracy, is a grave and corrosive abuse of power and represents the most invidious type of public corruption. It threatens our national interest and violates our values. It impedes our efforts to promote freedom and democracy, end poverty, and combat international crime and terrorism. Kleptocracy is an obstacle to democratic progress, undermines faith in government institutions, and steals prosperity from the people. Promoting transparent, accountable governance is a critical component of our freedom agenda.
By using the Democratic coined term "culture of corruption, W makes like this problem is something he and his administration will be good at defeating...My advice to them is to turn the microscope inward and rid the GOP of all the Kleptocrats and we will be better for it.

Focusing attention of the government in the way they suggest is yet another distraction and does as much good at turning the terror threat level up from yellow to red.

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