Nice try...not buying it! (nm)

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WASHINGTON, Sept. 30 - Federal auditors said on Friday that the Bush administration violated the law by buying favorable news coverage of President Bush's education policies, by making payments to the conservative commentator Armstrong Williams and by hiring a public relations company to analyze media perceptions of the Republican Party.

In a blistering report, the investigators, from the Government Accountability Office, said the administration had disseminated covert propaganda in the United States, in violation of a statutory ban.

The contract with Mr. Williams and the general contours of the public relations campaign had been known for months. The report Friday provided the first definitive ruling on the legality of the activities.

Lawyers from the accountability office, an independent nonpartisan arm of Congress, found that the administration systematically analyzed news articles to see if they carried the message, The Bush administration/the G.O.P. is committed to education.

The auditors declared: We see no use for such information except for partisan political purposes. Engaging in a purely political activity such as this is not a proper use of appropriated funds.

The report also sharply criticized the Education Department for telling Ketchum Inc., a public relations company, to pay Mr. Williams for newspaper columns and television appearances praising Mr. Bush's education initiative, the No Child Left Behind Act.

When that arrangement became public, it set off widespread criticism. At a news conference in January, Mr. Bush said: We will not be paying commentators to advance our agenda. Our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet.

But the Education Department has since defended its payments to Mr. Williams, saying his commentaries were no more than the legitimate dissemination of information to the public.

The G.A.O. said the Education Department had no money or authority to procure favorable commentary in violation of the publicity or propaganda prohibition in federal law.

The ruling comes with no penalty, but under federal law the department is supposed to report the violations to the White House and Congress.

In the course of its work, the accountability office discovered a previously undisclosed instance in which the Education Department had commissioned a newspaper article. The article, on the declining science literacy of students, was distributed by the North American Precis Syndicate and appeared in numerous small newspapers around the country. Readers were not informed of the government's role in the writing of the article, which praised the department's role in promoting science education.

The auditors denounced a prepackaged television story disseminated by the Education Department. The segment, a video news release narrated by a woman named Karen Ryan, said that President Bush's program for providing remedial instruction and tutoring to children gets an A-plus.

Ms. Ryan also narrated two videos praising the new Medicare drug benefit last year. In those segments, as in the education video, the narrator ended by saying, In Washington, I'm Karen Ryan reporting.

The television news segments on education and on Medicare did not state that they had been prepared and distributed by the government. The G.A.O. did not say how many stations carried the reports.

The public relations efforts came to light weeks before Margaret Spellings became education secretary in January. Susan Aspey, a spokeswoman for the secretary, said on Friday that Ms. Spellings regarded the efforts as stupid, wrong and ill-advised. She said Ms. Spellings had taken steps to ensure these types of missteps don't happen again.

The investigation by the accountability office was requested by Senators Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, both Democrats. Mr. Lautenberg expressed concern about a section of the report in which investigators said they could not find records to confirm that Mr. Williams had performed all the activities for which he billed the government.

The Education Department said it had paid Ketchum $186,000 for services performed by Mr. Williams's company. But it could not provide transcripts of speeches, articles or records of other services invoiced by Mr. Williams, the report said.

They don't want to buy any more of our debt, as our $ is almost worthless. They've been buying up homes in southern CA big-time. They already know that this most liberal "plan" will make the US self-destruct.

Those who voted for this man and refused to listen to many of us who said h'ed do this, don't cry to me. This is merely the beginning.

When a woman gets attacked by a man with knife, do you condemn her because she didn't fight back hard enough?I say condemn the attacker, not the attackee....you attack folks and then condemn them because there feelings where hurt instead of addressing the real problem which is your bullying.

This comes from the same pinheads who were absolutely certain that Rush would go outta business when Clinton got elected. Yeah, right! 20 million listeners at least, and HOW many hundreds of millions later?

And y'all actually think Keith Overbite & Mr. Potato Head actually discuss news seriously when 1 has crabs or something crawling up his leg? And give up the opiates re Rush. He fixed that problem, but didn't do the resume enhancement like the celebutards do. Start that empty crap & I'll just keep listing their names.

And just to clarify things, in case anyone didn't catch the post about the NAGS, that's Rush's pet name for the National Assn of GalS. I knew I wasn't the only Dittohead on the embarrassment of a board.

Face it. Y'all have nothing to offer here, just empty insults and thrills over women "choosing" to kill babies. That's the only definition y'all have of "choice." Funny, but I thought choice was supposed to mean that the woman decided either way. Nice try once again.

I take you comparing me to Sam as a compliment though as I do value a lot of the same opinions.

However, once again, instead of actually coming on with facts and trying to prove an actual point, I find someone who just spats out anything. I was not the one who started this post. I was just stating my opinion and sharing some experiences I've had raising horses and what has happened in the past when deer hunting was not allowed. Those are things that I have seen first hand.

Doubt that will happen, but my husband and I could pay off the house we just built, have money for the kids college education, etc.

Our economy is in a bad way, so what does "O" do? Raise taxes! What on earth are y'all thinking! So taking $ from you to give to someone else makes sense?

Check your taxes for 2007, 2008, then 2009. The facts will speak for themselves.

Yeah, that so-called nutjob recently signed another long-term contract (7 years, I believe) for how many millions?

Have you ever actually listened to his show? You'd like his official Obama Criticizer, Bo Snerdley. You can find clips on google.

When I got married, we used his theme song to announce the wedding party at the reception

informal setting. Every pol goes for a photo op once in a while, just to remind you they are around. I enjoy seeing him smile and interact with people. He makes me smile. God Bless America, how fortunate we are to have him at this time in history.

follow the rules of this board, but some apparently think they are above the rules.

The two posters you pointed out are not the only ones who call other posters names, especially in the last week or so that I've noticed, but the instead of falling into the argumentative mode, you need to ignore their posts.

economy is in ruins, we have spies interfering with our electronic grid, our president bows to the Saudi King, every country still hates us even with Obama's major butt kissing and you are concerned about Levi and Bristol? Who cares. How many teenagers really stay together even when there is a baby involved? This isn't a matter of national security. It is a teenage girl who screwed her boyfriend and got knocked up and then they broke up. Like that never happens anywhere else in the world.

I personally couldn't care less if Levi and Bristol broke up. Who cares? If you like teenage drama, you might want to watch the N channel and get your fill with Degrassi or something and keep this nonsense off the political board.