Doug Goodyear, the CEO of the Republican Party's General Convention, and Doug Davenport, his deputy, resigned from their posts amidst controversy this past weekend. A Newsweek report revealed the John McCain appointed executives worked with the Burmese junta to create a public relations and marketing strategy for retooling their negative image around the world.

The junta seems to be quite adept at controlling their image : part of the reason they've blocked the entrance of relief workers and demanded to control all distribution of humanitarian aid is to be able to brand the relief work as their effort.

The other reason was the referendum that took place days after the cyclone hit. A new constitution drafted by a secret military council was put to vote on an election that did not only did not allow "No" as an option. There are reports of "pre-balloting", "in which employees of enterprises or government offices were required to vote ahead of time under the eye of their supervisors."

Doug Goodyear agreed that the handling of the cyclone is a horrible human rights disaster. He also said that his company's business dealings with the junta happened 6 years ago --implying the regime wasn't that bad then. Yet as the 2006 BBC report we have here, it's obvious 6 years ago the Burmese junta was up to as much no good then as it is now.