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Arianna Huffington was once among the inner circle of America's elite class. She is a Greek immigrant who was married to the US senator from which she recieved her surname. She is now divorced and spends much of her time uncovering the reprehensible behavior that she is aware of by first-hand experiences. She was the only viable female candidate who ran in the California Gubernatorial recall election last year.
Her lastest book, which has not yet been released, is basically "a collection of
resignation letters written by disaffected members of the Bush
administration who so disagreed with administration policies that they
preferred the uncertainty of the unemployment line to toeing the party
line."
"I've also taken the liberty of including excerpts from what I imagine the
first drafts of these letters might have looked like."
[I thank these unsung heros, and thank you for reading. Enjoy!]
Arianna
********
* Mike Dombeck, Forest Service Chief resigned on March 27th 2001 after 4
years on the job.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: “It was made clear in no
uncertain terms that the administration wants to take the Forest Service
in another direction…�
What Mike Dombeck wrote in the first draft of his resignation letter: “It
was made clear in no uncertain terms that the administration needs to kiss
a little logging industry ass, having gotten nearly $300,000 in donations
during the 2000 election (10 times more than Al Gore). Mr. President,
after all that bark-bussing and timber-tonguing, it’s a wonder you didn’t
get splinters in your lip or a very painful STD (Sequoia Transmitted
Disease).
Fact: Before the US Forest Service approves a timber sale on federal land,
loggers are currently required to study the impact on endangered animals
and salmon runs. The Bush White House is pushing to overturn both of
these requirements.
* John Brown, Ph. D. was a Foreign Service Officer for nearly 25 years,
having served in London, Prague, Krakow, Kiev and Belgrade. He resigned
March 10th 2003.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: “I can not in good conscience
support President Bush’s war plans against Iraq. The President has failed
to: explain clearly why our brave men and women in uniform should be ready
to sacrifice their lives in a war on Iraq at this time; to lay out the
full ramifications of this war, including the extent of innocent civilian
casualties; to specify the economic costs of the war for the ordinary
Americans; to clarify how the war would help rid the world of terror; to
take international public opinion against the war into serious
consideration.�
What John Brown wrote in the first draft of his resignation letter: Come
to think of it, the above probably is his first draft. After 25 years as
a diplomat, he had the good sense to mentally edit out words like
“monumentally stupid� and “worst White House decision since The Bay of
Pigs.�
Fact: Since the start of the US war in Iraq, 511 soldiers have been
killed, and 2424 have been wounded .
* Bruce Boler, an EPA State Water Quality Specialist resigned from his
post on October 23rd 2003 because his bosses at the EPA accepted the
findings of a controversial study that concluded that Florida wetlands
discharge more pollutants than they absorb.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: “…ultimately the politics of
southwestern Florida have proven stronger than the science…�
What Bruce Boler wrote in the first draft of his resignation letter: “This
report, the people who wrote it and my superiors at the EPA are all
obviously off their collective rocker. Next thing you know, they’ll be
telling us that auto emissions are actually reducing global warming.
Congratulations, Mr. President, you’ve just given greedy Florida
developers lucrative tax credits for improving water quality by, get this:
replacing pristine natural wetlands with golf courses, strip malls and gas
stations. I’m sure they’ll be sure and reward your brother Jeb
accordingly.�
Fact: In January 2003, the White House recommended creating a new category
of “isolated� waters that wouldn’t be subject to the Clean Water Act.
According to environmentalists, if adopted, hundreds of industries won’t
need permits to dump their potentially toxic sludge and waste into 20% of
the nation’s wetlands and 60% of streams that only flow intermittently.
* Isam al-Khafaji, a member of the Iraqi Reconstruction and Development
Counsel resigned July 9th 2003.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: “I feared my role with the
reconstruction council was sliding from what I had originally envisioned –
working with allies in a democratic fashion – to collaborating with
occupying forces.�
What Isam al-Khafaji wrote in the first draft of his resignation letter:
“Rather than working with allies in a democratic fashion – I’m
collaborating with a fanatical administration that has lied about Iraq’s
“weapons of mass destruction,� the Saddam-al Qaeda connection, and Jessica
Lynch’s gun-toting “heroics�. The Bush White House is more concerned with
the free flow of cheap oil than restoring power, water or democracy in
Iraq. I’d go on, but the candle in my bombed out hut just went out…�
Fact: Since the President declared “Mission Accomplished� in Iraq, the
number of violent deaths in Baghdad has increased 114%.
* Eric Schaeffer, Director of the EPA Office of Regulatory Enforcement
resigned on February 27th 2002.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: “I can not leave without sharing
my frustration about the fate of our enforcement actions against power
companies that have violated the Clean Air Act… We are fighting a White
House that seems determined to weaken rules we are trying to enforce.�
What Eric Schaeffer wrote in the first draft of his resignation letter: “I
can’t leave without sharing my frustration, Mr. President. Your recent
proposal to amend the new-source-review component of the Clean Air Act
is-- how can I say this?— stupendously moronic. It will, among other
outrages, allow a coal plant in Monroe, Michigan that already emits more
than a hundred thousand tons of choking sulfur dioxide, nearly forty-six
thousand tons of nitrous, and seventeen and a half million tons of ozone
destroying carbon dioxide into the air, to emit about forty thousand more
tons of sulfur dioxide a year. That may not seem like a lot, sir, but the
300 or so people who’ll die prematurely from those pollutants are from
Michigan—one of your precious blue states. Betcha didn’t think of that,
huh?�
Fact: In the 2002 presidential election, oil and gas companies, two of the
leading sources for environmental pollutants donated nearly $25 million to
political candidates, 80% of which went to Republicans. In return for his
10% cut of that bounty, President Bush has been working hard to
systematically weaken clean air standards.
* John Brady Kiesling, a 20-year veteran of the Foreign Service, whose
last job was that of Political Counselor, US Embassy Athens, resigned on
February 27th 2003.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: �Until this Administration it had
been possible to believe that by upholding the policies of my President, I
was also upholding the interests of the American people. I believe it no
more. I am resigning because I have tried and failed to reconcile my
conscience with my ability to represent the current administration. I
have confidence that our democratic process is ultimately
self-correcting.�
What John Brady Kiesling wrote in the first draft of his resignation
letter: “I have confidence that our democratic process is ultimately self
correcting… and that President Bush will be thrown out of office in 2004
when the American people discover that he stole the 2002 election, got us
into a quagmire akin to Vietnam, turned the largest government surplus in
history into the largest deficit in history, couldn’t find Osama bin Laden
or Saddam Hussein, and ordered the assassination of beloved comic actor
John Ritter. Okay, I got carried away with that last one. I think.�
Fact: The 87 billion dollars President Bush has appropriated to fund the
war in Iraq could instead have been used to pay the salaries of 1.2
million school teachers for a year, the college education of 1.5 million
students, or built 900,000 affordable homes.
* Karen Kwiatkowski, Undersecretary of Defense Office, Near East Bureau
resigned on July 1st 2003.
What she wrote in her resignation letter: “While working from May 2002
through February 2003 in the office of the Undersecretary of Defense for
Policy, Near East South Asian and Special Plans in the Pentagon, I
observed the environment in which decisions about post war Iraq were made…
What I saw was aberrant, pervasive, and contrary to good order and discipline… If one is seeking the answers to why peculiar bits of
“intelligence� found sanctity in a presidential speech, or why the post
Hussein occupation has been distinguished by confusion and false steps,
one need look no further than the process inside the office of the
Secretary of Defense.�
What Karen Kwiatkowski wrote in the first draft of her resignation letter:
“Don Rumsfeld is an idiot. Don Rumseld is a megalomaniac. If we lose
this war, blame Don Rumsfeld. I hate Don Rumsfeld. Kill Don Rumsfeld
dead dead dead; maybe with a blunt object like a ball-peen hammer or a…
Wait, where was I? Oh yeah: Don Rumsfeld is a duplicitous charlatan, Don
Rumsfeld is…�
Fact: When Donald Rumsfeld was considering a run for the White House in
1998, an article about him in the Chicago Tribune listed “helping to
re-open US relations with Iraq� when he served as Ronald Reagan’s special
envoy to the Middle East as one of his career achievements. According to
the State Department, while Rumsfeld was opening relations with Iraq,
Saddam Hussein was actively using chemical weapons to systematically
murder thousands of Kurds.
* After two and a half years as chief administrator at the EPA, Former NJ
Governor, Christine Todd Whitman resigned on May 20th 2003.
What she wrote in her resignation letter: “As rewarding as the past two
and half years have been for me professionally, it’s time for me to return
to my home and husband in New Jersey… I leave knowing that we have made
a positive difference and that we have set the Agency on a course that will
result in continued environmental improvement.�
What Christy Whitman wrote in the first draft of her resignation letter:
“When you honored me by asking me to join your Cabinet as administrator of
the Environmental Protection Agency, I didn’t know the title would be
ironic. I naively assumed the post would have something to do with
protecting the environment, as opposed to protecting the bottom line of
your campaign contributors. I thought that was Don Evans’ job over at
Commerce. If I am ever to sleep at night again, I have no choice other
than to send you this letter. I remember the lump I felt in my throat
back in 1973 when Elliot Richardson resigned his Cabinet post rather than
acquiesce to Richard Nixon’s demand that he fire Watergate prosecutor
Archibald Cox. I had the same reaction seven years later when Cyrus Vance
also took a principled stand and resigned as Secretary of State in protest
over President Carter’s military action in Iran.
"'You would not be well served in the coming weeks and months’ he wrote to
Carter, �by a secretary of state who could not offer you the public
backing you need on an issue and decision of such extraordinary
importance.’ My feelings exactly. As Richardson told Nixon: �Mr.
President, it would appear that we have a different perception of the
public interest.’
“And since I cannot face the prospect of looking my children in the eye
and explaining why I stood by while the president I served was selling out
their health, the health of their children and the health of our planet, I
respectfully submit my resignation – and bid you goodbye.�
Her lastest book, which has not yet been released, is basically "a collection of
resignation letters written by disaffected members of the Bush
administration who so disagreed with administration policies that they
preferred the uncertainty of the unemployment line to toeing the party
line."
"I've also taken the liberty of including excerpts from what I imagine the
first drafts of these letters might have looked like."
[I thank these unsung heros, and thank you for reading. Enjoy!]
Arianna
********
* Mike Dombeck, Forest Service Chief resigned on March 27th 2001 after 4
years on the job.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: “It was made clear in no
uncertain terms that the administration wants to take the Forest Service
in another direction…�
What Mike Dombeck wrote in the first draft of his resignation letter: “It
was made clear in no uncertain terms that the administration needs to kiss
a little logging industry ass, having gotten nearly $300,000 in donations
during the 2000 election (10 times more than Al Gore). Mr. President,
after all that bark-bussing and timber-tonguing, it’s a wonder you didn’t
get splinters in your lip or a very painful STD (Sequoia Transmitted
Disease).
Fact: Before the US Forest Service approves a timber sale on federal land,
loggers are currently required to study the impact on endangered animals
and salmon runs. The Bush White House is pushing to overturn both of
these requirements.
* John Brown, Ph. D. was a Foreign Service Officer for nearly 25 years,
having served in London, Prague, Krakow, Kiev and Belgrade. He resigned
March 10th 2003.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: “I can not in good conscience
support President Bush’s war plans against Iraq. The President has failed
to: explain clearly why our brave men and women in uniform should be ready
to sacrifice their lives in a war on Iraq at this time; to lay out the
full ramifications of this war, including the extent of innocent civilian
casualties; to specify the economic costs of the war for the ordinary
Americans; to clarify how the war would help rid the world of terror; to
take international public opinion against the war into serious
consideration.�
What John Brown wrote in the first draft of his resignation letter: Come
to think of it, the above probably is his first draft. After 25 years as
a diplomat, he had the good sense to mentally edit out words like
“monumentally stupid� and “worst White House decision since The Bay of
Pigs.�
Fact: Since the start of the US war in Iraq, 511 soldiers have been
killed, and 2424 have been wounded .
* Bruce Boler, an EPA State Water Quality Specialist resigned from his
post on October 23rd 2003 because his bosses at the EPA accepted the
findings of a controversial study that concluded that Florida wetlands
discharge more pollutants than they absorb.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: “…ultimately the politics of
southwestern Florida have proven stronger than the science…�
What Bruce Boler wrote in the first draft of his resignation letter: “This
report, the people who wrote it and my superiors at the EPA are all
obviously off their collective rocker. Next thing you know, they’ll be
telling us that auto emissions are actually reducing global warming.
Congratulations, Mr. President, you’ve just given greedy Florida
developers lucrative tax credits for improving water quality by, get this:
replacing pristine natural wetlands with golf courses, strip malls and gas
stations. I’m sure they’ll be sure and reward your brother Jeb
accordingly.�
Fact: In January 2003, the White House recommended creating a new category
of “isolated� waters that wouldn’t be subject to the Clean Water Act.
According to environmentalists, if adopted, hundreds of industries won’t
need permits to dump their potentially toxic sludge and waste into 20% of
the nation’s wetlands and 60% of streams that only flow intermittently.
* Isam al-Khafaji, a member of the Iraqi Reconstruction and Development
Counsel resigned July 9th 2003.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: “I feared my role with the
reconstruction council was sliding from what I had originally envisioned –
working with allies in a democratic fashion – to collaborating with
occupying forces.�
What Isam al-Khafaji wrote in the first draft of his resignation letter:
“Rather than working with allies in a democratic fashion – I’m
collaborating with a fanatical administration that has lied about Iraq’s
“weapons of mass destruction,� the Saddam-al Qaeda connection, and Jessica
Lynch’s gun-toting “heroics�. The Bush White House is more concerned with
the free flow of cheap oil than restoring power, water or democracy in
Iraq. I’d go on, but the candle in my bombed out hut just went out…�
Fact: Since the President declared “Mission Accomplished� in Iraq, the
number of violent deaths in Baghdad has increased 114%.
* Eric Schaeffer, Director of the EPA Office of Regulatory Enforcement
resigned on February 27th 2002.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: “I can not leave without sharing
my frustration about the fate of our enforcement actions against power
companies that have violated the Clean Air Act… We are fighting a White
House that seems determined to weaken rules we are trying to enforce.�
What Eric Schaeffer wrote in the first draft of his resignation letter: “I
can’t leave without sharing my frustration, Mr. President. Your recent
proposal to amend the new-source-review component of the Clean Air Act
is-- how can I say this?— stupendously moronic. It will, among other
outrages, allow a coal plant in Monroe, Michigan that already emits more
than a hundred thousand tons of choking sulfur dioxide, nearly forty-six
thousand tons of nitrous, and seventeen and a half million tons of ozone
destroying carbon dioxide into the air, to emit about forty thousand more
tons of sulfur dioxide a year. That may not seem like a lot, sir, but the
300 or so people who’ll die prematurely from those pollutants are from
Michigan—one of your precious blue states. Betcha didn’t think of that,
huh?�
Fact: In the 2002 presidential election, oil and gas companies, two of the
leading sources for environmental pollutants donated nearly $25 million to
political candidates, 80% of which went to Republicans. In return for his
10% cut of that bounty, President Bush has been working hard to
systematically weaken clean air standards.
* John Brady Kiesling, a 20-year veteran of the Foreign Service, whose
last job was that of Political Counselor, US Embassy Athens, resigned on
February 27th 2003.
What he wrote in his resignation letter: �Until this Administration it had
been possible to believe that by upholding the policies of my President, I
was also upholding the interests of the American people. I believe it no
more. I am resigning because I have tried and failed to reconcile my
conscience with my ability to represent the current administration. I
have confidence that our democratic process is ultimately
self-correcting.�
What John Brady Kiesling wrote in the first draft of his resignation
letter: “I have confidence that our democratic process is ultimately self
correcting… and that President Bush will be thrown out of office in 2004
when the American people discover that he stole the 2002 election, got us
into a quagmire akin to Vietnam, turned the largest government surplus in
history into the largest deficit in history, couldn’t find Osama bin Laden
or Saddam Hussein, and ordered the assassination of beloved comic actor
John Ritter. Okay, I got carried away with that last one. I think.�
Fact: The 87 billion dollars President Bush has appropriated to fund the
war in Iraq could instead have been used to pay the salaries of 1.2
million school teachers for a year, the college education of 1.5 million
students, or built 900,000 affordable homes.
* Karen Kwiatkowski, Undersecretary of Defense Office, Near East Bureau
resigned on July 1st 2003.
What she wrote in her resignation letter: “While working from May 2002
through February 2003 in the office of the Undersecretary of Defense for
Policy, Near East South Asian and Special Plans in the Pentagon, I
observed the environment in which decisions about post war Iraq were made…
What I saw was aberrant, pervasive, and contrary to good order and discipline… If one is seeking the answers to why peculiar bits of
“intelligence� found sanctity in a presidential speech, or why the post
Hussein occupation has been distinguished by confusion and false steps,
one need look no further than the process inside the office of the
Secretary of Defense.�
What Karen Kwiatkowski wrote in the first draft of her resignation letter:
“Don Rumsfeld is an idiot. Don Rumseld is a megalomaniac. If we lose
this war, blame Don Rumsfeld. I hate Don Rumsfeld. Kill Don Rumsfeld
dead dead dead; maybe with a blunt object like a ball-peen hammer or a…
Wait, where was I? Oh yeah: Don Rumsfeld is a duplicitous charlatan, Don
Rumsfeld is…�
Fact: When Donald Rumsfeld was considering a run for the White House in
1998, an article about him in the Chicago Tribune listed “helping to
re-open US relations with Iraq� when he served as Ronald Reagan’s special
envoy to the Middle East as one of his career achievements. According to
the State Department, while Rumsfeld was opening relations with Iraq,
Saddam Hussein was actively using chemical weapons to systematically
murder thousands of Kurds.
* After two and a half years as chief administrator at the EPA, Former NJ
Governor, Christine Todd Whitman resigned on May 20th 2003.
What she wrote in her resignation letter: “As rewarding as the past two
and half years have been for me professionally, it’s time for me to return
to my home and husband in New Jersey… I leave knowing that we have made
a positive difference and that we have set the Agency on a course that will
result in continued environmental improvement.�
What Christy Whitman wrote in the first draft of her resignation letter:
“When you honored me by asking me to join your Cabinet as administrator of
the Environmental Protection Agency, I didn’t know the title would be
ironic. I naively assumed the post would have something to do with
protecting the environment, as opposed to protecting the bottom line of
your campaign contributors. I thought that was Don Evans’ job over at
Commerce. If I am ever to sleep at night again, I have no choice other
than to send you this letter. I remember the lump I felt in my throat
back in 1973 when Elliot Richardson resigned his Cabinet post rather than
acquiesce to Richard Nixon’s demand that he fire Watergate prosecutor
Archibald Cox. I had the same reaction seven years later when Cyrus Vance
also took a principled stand and resigned as Secretary of State in protest
over President Carter’s military action in Iran.
"'You would not be well served in the coming weeks and months’ he wrote to
Carter, �by a secretary of state who could not offer you the public
backing you need on an issue and decision of such extraordinary
importance.’ My feelings exactly. As Richardson told Nixon: �Mr.
President, it would appear that we have a different perception of the
public interest.’
“And since I cannot face the prospect of looking my children in the eye
and explaining why I stood by while the president I served was selling out
their health, the health of their children and the health of our planet, I
respectfully submit my resignation – and bid you goodbye.�
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