Sidney Sweeting DDS (http://www.weblogbahamas.com)

Most of the facts cited here are from the book "Culture of Corruption" by Michelle Malkin and have been verified through internet search. This book is available through Amazon.

While people were voting for Barack Obama, one of the common reasons heard was "we need some freshness in Government right now." As this series progresses we shall see that the lemon-fresh scent of "Hope and Change" had been overpowered by the fetid odor of Chicago-style business as usual.

CIA Intelligence director Leon Panetta has had zero experience in intelligence matters but he has had extensive experience in how to parlay his past political tours into lucrative speaking gigs and in fact the only central intelligence -gathering duties he has performed are at DC cocktail parties and corporate boardroom meetings picking up gossip. In fact, Defense anayst Michael O'Hanlon of the Brookings Institute stated that Panetta has never held down a single "major job in national security."

Attorney General Eric Holder has been described as a "crime-coddling corporate lawyer." He was a government lawyer for 25 years and then joined the prestigious firm of Covington and Burling where he eventually became a senior partner. One has to question how the Obama's must feel about his lucrative work for Chiquita Brands International when Holder, as chief counsel for the global company received a slap on the wrist deal for charges that it had paid off Colombian paramilitary death squads. The company also pleaded guilty to illegally doing business with AUC, an internatioal terrorist organiztion, which slaughtered thousands of civilians to gain control of Columbia's banana fields.

From April 2003 to February 2004 Chiquita made 20 payments to the AUC totalling $300,000 and despite knowingly and repeatedly breaking the law not a single Chiquita official was prosecuted or jailed. The plea agreement forged by Holder and the Department of Justice succeeded in protecting the identity of the executives involved in the bloody terrorist payofffs.

Defending terrorists has apparently been their "strong suit". Also among their list of terrorist clients were 17 Yemenis held at Guantanamo Bay and for this effort the firm employed dozens of radical attorneys, including Mark Falkoff. These attorneys provided 3,000 hours of pro bono representation. The picture is now becoming clearer as to why President Obama showed more interest in Guantanamo Bay. Mr. Falkoff even wrote a book "Poems from Guantanamo" and dedicated it to the 17 terrorists, all of whom he named and said that "we will meet next over coffee in your homes in Yemen". One of the group Mr. Falkoff describes as "gentle and thoughtful". This same man was released in 2005 and later blew himself up  (gently and thoughtfullly) in Iraq, killing thirteen soldiers and forty-two others. Presumably the coffee date has had to be cancelled.

Another eyebrow-raising case Mr. Holder took in was assisting then Governor Rod (Obama seat for sale) Blagojevich in a casino license battle for which Holder collected $300,000 and ended as a foul-smelling case and which Mr. Holder neglected to mention to the Senate Judiciary Committee (perhaps he forgot). Then there was the case for Purdue Pharma which had deceptively marketed the drug oxycontin as safe  and so many patients became addicted. Mr. Holder's role in negotiating  a settlement that spared the executives a criminal trial resulted in an article by the liberal columnist David Corn entitled "Why Eric Holder represents what's wrong with Washington."