Nobody Could Have Predicted...

Armstrong Williams Paid by Bush Administration to Promote NCLB

Armstrong Williams, admitted that he was paid $240,000 to promote the No Child Left Behind program by the Department of Education. This is by far one of the most egregious examples of current GOP propaganda revealed to date, but it is just part of a pattern of self-promotion at taxpayer expense. Further, are we to assume that Williams was the only pundit to sacrifice his integrity for a cash payment or are there others?

The favorable, paid commentary by Williams to directly promote NCLB also has the effect of indirectly promoting gwb and the history of use of taxpayer money to promote the Bush administration is long and varied.

The Bush administration and the executive agencies have demonstrated a pattern of shameless promotion of gwb and his agenda at our expense.

For example:

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  We paid for all the propaganda backdrops including the “Mission Accomplished” banner.
• 
  We paid for the billion dollar bribe to churches through “faith based initiatives.”
• 
  We paid for the Top Gun stunt on the USS Lincoln.
• 
  We paid for the Thanksgiving breakfast in Iraq.
• 
  We paid the travel expenses when gwb and dick were campaigning and fundraising but managed to combine it with some “official duty.”
• 
  We paid for the illegal commercials masquerading as news segments touting the Medicare Prescription Drug Program.

The $240,000 is a drop in the bucket compared to all the other expenditures with which the American taxpayer has been saddled in partisan promotion.