Colson authored the 1971 memo listing Nixon's major political opponents, later known as Nixon's Enemies List. A quip that "Colson would walk over his own grandmother if necessary" mutated into claims in news stories that Colson had boasted that he would run over his own grandmother to re-elect Nixon.[8] In a February 13, 1973 conversation, Colson told Nixon that he had always had “a little prejudice.”[9] Plotz reports that Colson sought to hire Teamsters thugs to beat up anti-war demonstrators.[7] Colson also proposed firebombing the Brookings Institution and stealing politically damaging documents while firefighters put the fire out.[10][11][12]

Colson's voice, from archives from April 1969, was heard in the 2004 movie Going Upriver deprecating the anti-war efforts of John Kerry. Colson's orders were to "destroy the young demagogue before he becomes another Ralph Nader."[13][14] In a phone conversation with Nixon on April 28, 1971, Colson said, "This fellow Kerry that they had on last week...He turns out to be really quite a phony."


Watergate and Ellsberg scandals

Colson also became involved in the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP or CREEP). At a CRP meeting on March 21, 1971, it was agreed to spend $250,000 on "intelligence gathering" on the Democratic Party. Colson and John Ehrlichman appointed E. Howard Hunt to the White House Special Operations Unit (the so-called "Plumbers" which had been organized to stop leaks in the Nixon administration. Hunt headed up the Plumbers' burglary of Pentagon Papers-leaker Daniel Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office in September 1971. The Pentagon Papers were military documents about the Vietnam War which helped increase opposition to the war. Colson hoped that revelations about Ellsberg could be used to discredit the anti-Vietnam War cause.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Colson

oh yeah and Hitler was born on this day

1999 – Columbine High School massacre: Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 13 people and injure 24 others before committing suicide at Columbine High School in Jefferson County, Colorado.


2010 – The Deepwater Horizon oil well explodes in the Gulf of Mexico, killing twelve workers and beginning an oil spill that would last six months.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_20#Events

At least three more Secret Service officers implicated in the Colombia prostitution scandal were expected to lose their jobs today as the congressional committee probing the affair revealed it would be investigating whether any of the females involved were underage.

The disciplinary announcement expected later today would bring to six the number of Secret Service employees who no longer work for the agency in the wake of the scandal, according to a federal source.

The U.S. agents and military personnel involved could also face criminal charges if is proven that they had sex with girls under the age of 18.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2132844/Three-Secret-Service-officers-set-fired-investigators-probe-agents-sex-underage-girls-Colombia.html#ixzz1sdCqjTf1





Scandal: David Randall Chaney, right, was forced to retire over his alleged role in the incident. The 48-year-old claimed he was 'really checking out' Sarah Palin, left, when he guarded her during the 2008 election campaign

They were wrong but apparently the "wheels up" parties are a regular thing.
Well, I can understand the *umm* releasing of energy and I never got how people could stay THAT focused 365.

What is wierding me out is the sudden vacuum of leadership and middle management. Not that I have ever been a fan of middle management. But it does play a role.


If anything happpens (the right is stepping all over promoting it) we will hear, "Well you know they whole organization was in a bit of disarray".

Sorry, but it is wierding me out.

Source: USA Today

Just weeks after the world's largest coffee chain took serious PR heat from vegan groups and public relations gurus for switching to commonly-used cochineal beetles to color its Strawberry Frappuccinos, the company's U.S. president, Cliff Burrows, now says that bugs are coming out and tomato-based extract is coming in.

"We fell short of your expectations," he said, in a statement on Thursday on the company's "My Starbucks Idea" consumer site. "We are reformulating the affected products to assure the highest quality possible."

By the end of June, he says, the company will transition to using lycopene, a natural, tomato-based extract, in its Strawberry & Creme Frappuccino blended beverage and Strawberry Banana Smoothie. It also will drop the use of cochineal extract in its Raspberry Swirl Cake, Birthday Cake Pop, Mini Donut with pink icing and Red Velvet Whoopie Pie.


http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2012-04-19/starbucks-no-red-dye-drinks/54414032/1

Read more: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2012-04-19/starbucks-no-red-dye-drinks/54414032/1

1775 – American Revolutionary War: The war begins with an American victory in Concord during the battles of Lexington and Concord.
1927 – Mae West is sentenced to 10 days in jail for obscenity for her play Sex.
1943 – World War II: In Poland, German troops enter the Warsaw ghetto to round up the remaining Jews, beginning the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.
1951 – General Douglas MacArthur retires from the military.
1955 – The German automaker Volkswagen, after six years of selling cars in the United States, founds Volkswagen of America in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey to standardize its dealer and service network.
1956 – Actress Grace Kelly marries Prince Rainier of Monaco.
1971 – Launch of Salyut 1, the first space station.
1971 – Charles Manson is sentenced to death for conspiracy to commit the Tate/LaBianca murders.
1987 – The Simpsons premieres as a short cartoon on The Tracey Ullman Show
1989 – A gun turret explodes on the USS Iowa, killing 47 sailors.
1993 – The 51-day siege of the Branch Davidian building outside Waco, Texas, USA, ends when a fire breaks out. Eighty-one people die.
1993 – South Dakota governor George Mickelson and seven others are killed when a state-owned aircraft crashes in Iowa.
1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, USA, is bombed, killing 168. That same day convicted murderer Richard Wayne Snell, who had ties to one of the bombers, Timothy McVeigh, is executed in Arkansas.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/April_19

The GSA convention in Vegas undoubtedly heinous but it was for $800,000. Yes we can go down the list of Mindreaders and yearbooks but the bottom line is $800K.




In May 2003, Custer Battles established a presence in Baghdad, Iraq. In June 2003, Custer Battles was competitively awarded a contract to secure the Baghdad International Airport. The 12-month contract with the Coalition Provisional Authority was worth $16.8 million. The company continued to expand its business in Iraq, and became a minor subcontractor operating in the country.

The company continued to expand its operations in Iraq through 2003 and 2004. Their clients included the Coalition Provisional Authority, Bearing Point, Washington Group International, Parsons, Halliburton and the U.S. Army. In early 2004, the Department of Defense initiated an investigation into one of Custer Battles' contracts with the CPA, resulting in the company being suspended from future contract considerations by the Department of the Air Force. In early 2005 Custer Battles ceased operations in Iraq.


Baghdad Airport case

Another trial, with the same set of whistleblowers, concerned a separate $16.8 million contract awarded to Custer Battles to provide security at Baghdad International Airport. As this contract was paid for by seized Iraqi funds, Judge Ellis ruled that the entire contract was susceptible to the False Claims Act, and not just part of it in the previous case. The basic allegations were that Custer Battles had failed to provide adequate security staffing under its Firm-Fixed Price contract of $16.8 million. In January 2007, Judge Ellis granted Custer Battles' motion for summary judgment, finding that there was no evidence of the submission of false claims in this case. In April 2009, the 4th Circuit appeals court affirmed summary judgment for Custer Battles on the Baghdad airport contract.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Custer_Battles

Oh and let us not dare to forget the missing money

Iraq Money Missing: $6.6 Billion Still Unaccounted For, U.S. Officials Say
06/13/11
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/06/13/iraq-money-missing-66-bil_n_876237.html


BBC uncovers lost Iraq billions
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
A BBC investigation estimates that around $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7444083.stm