Daily Kos: Abramoff and gaming Indians: Just the tip of the iceberg [Updated]

by mbw

Wed Feb 01, 2006 at 11:43:10 PM PDT

(From the diaries -- kos)

For a couple of weeks now, I've been writing about what I've come to view as the much bigger scandal involving everyone from Jack Abramoff to Gale Norton to Richard Pombo to Grover Norquist, and generally every major Republican in between. It too has to do with Indians, but not only those with gaming operations. In fact, the real actors in this drama are the poorest of Indians, mostly in the West and Plains.

This morning, I tried to summarize the issues in a comment thread at MyDD. It was the first time since starting my research that I've tried to put the "story" down in as few words as possible. Because the fact is, unless people can actually grasp the basics of this scandal, and how it effects not just a few hundred thousand Indians, but everyone in this country, I think it will never make it past a few interested links on Technorati.

Is Abortion Bad?--Dialog between Katha Pollitt and William Saletan

I believe the dialog is complete, so I've reposted it. Katha Pollitt once again demonstrates why she is my favorite.--Dictynna.

dialogues
Is Abortion Bad?
Ick and superego.
By William Saletan and Katha Pollitt
Updated Friday, Feb. 3, 2006, at 5:50 PM ET

---

From: William Saletan
To: Katha Pollitt
Subject: Moral sex.
Posted Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2006, at 7:07 AM ET
Dear Katha,

Let's start by explaining to readers why we're having this conversation. Last week in the New York Times, I urged pro-choicers to wage war on the abortion rate through birth control and sex education. This week in The Nation, you replied that "anti-abortion moralism" would hurt women and abortion rights. You argued that pursuing an explicit goal of zero abortions would "do the antichoicers' work for them." I think you've got it exactly backward.

First, let me tackle some of your objections around the periphery of our disagreement. You say the limits of our education and health-care systems make "zero abortions" unreachable. True. Peace is unreachable, too, but we try. That's the nature of goals.

Taps found clues, not Al Qaeda, FBI chief says

WASHINGTON - The National Security Agency's secret domestic spying hasn't nabbed any Al Qaeda agents in the U.S. since the Sept. 11 attacks, FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress yesterday.

Mueller told the Senate Intelligence Committee that his agents get "a number of leads from the NSA," but he made it clear Osama Bin Laden's henchmen weren't at the end of the trail.

"I can say leads from that program have been valuable in identifying would-be terrorists in the United States, individuals who were providing material support to terrorists," Mueller testified.

His assessment of the controversial NSA snooping appeared to undercut a key claim by President Bush. As recently as Wednesday, Bush defended bypassing courts in domestic spying by insisting that "one of the people making the call has to be Al Qaeda, suspected Al Qaeda and/or affiliate."

High-Rises That Have Low Impact on Nature

By ROBIN POGREBIN

With its curtain wall and faceted crystal design, the Bank of America building rising at 1 Bryant Park in Manhattan probably seems unremarkable to New Yorkers accustomed to looming glass skyscrapers. But it's not architecture with a capital A that makes the tower unusual.

It is the double-wall technology that dissipates the sun's heat; ventilation that runs under the floor rather than through overhead ducts; carbon-dioxide monitors that assure adequate fresh air; and a system that collects and reuses rainwater and wastewater, saving 10.3 million gallons of water each year.

Army Teaches Troops How to Pick a Spouse

Saturday February 4, 2006 12:16 PM

AP Photo WX101

By PAULINE JELINEK

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - They are the Pentagon's new ``rules of engagement'' - the diamond ring kind. U.S. Army chaplains are trying to teach troops how to pick the right spouse, through a program called ``How To Avoid Marrying a Jerk.''

The matchmaking advice comes as military family life is being stressed by two tough wars. Defense Department records show more than 56,000 in the Army - active, National Guard and Reserve - have divorced since the campaign in Afghanistan started in 2001.

BUZZFLASH: Former U.S. official admits he smuggled more than $2 million out of Iraq, laundered $8.6 million in reconstruction contracts. 2/4

Says he smuggled millions out of Iraq, laundered money in three countries

The Associated Press

Updated: 8:16 p.m. ET Feb. 2, 2006

WASHINGTON - A former U.S. occupation official in Iraq pleaded guilty Thursday to conspiring to steal more than $2 million and rigging bids on $8.6 million in reconstruction contracts.

Robert J. Stein, 50, of Fayetteville, N.C., admitted that he and his coconspirators smuggled millions of dollars out of Iraq into the United States aboard commercial airliners and laundered cash through multiple bank accounts in Switzerland, Amsterdam and Romania.

Stein was a Defense Department employee who served as a contract official for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, controlling more than $82 million in funds slated for rebuilding the Middle Eastern country.

Paul Krugman: State of Delusion

The New York Times
February 3, 2006

So President Bush's plan to reduce imports of Middle East oil turns out to be no more substantial than his plan -- floated two years ago, then flushed down the memory hole -- to send humans to Mars.

But what did you expect? After five years in power, the Bush administration is still -- perhaps more than ever -- run by Mayberry Machiavellis, who don't take the business of governing seriously.

BUZZFLASH: How Do the Right Wing Wackos Get Away With Such Violent Talk? Robertson again calls for Chavez's assassination: "Not now, but one day" 2/4

Summary: On Hannity & Colmes, Pat Robertson once again called for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, "Not now, but one day, one day."

During the February 2 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Christian Coalition founder and 700 Club host Pat Robertson reiterated his call for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

When co-host Alan Colmes asked Robertson, "[I]f he [Chavez] were assassinated, the world would be a safer place?" Robertson answered, "I think South America would." When Colmes later pressed Robertson, asking, "Do you want him [Chavez] taken out?" Robertson retorted, "Not now, but one day, one day, one day." Earlier, Colmes had asked, "Should Chavez be assassinated?" Robertson explained that "one day," Chavez will "be aiming nuclear weapons; and what's coming across the Gulf [of Mexico] isn't going to be [Hurricane] Katrina, it's going to be his nukes." Co-host Sean Hannity agreed that "the world would be better off without him where he [Chavez] is, because he is a danger to the United States."

James Wolcott: Beware the Ides of March

...warns William S. Lind at Antiwar. The war in Iraq has bloodily settled into a seesaw rhythm. He perceives rumblings of breakout action just in time for the spring collections. What gives?

"Osama bin Laden's latest message. Most observers, including the White House, seem to have missed its significance. In it, bin Laden offered us a truce (an offer we should have accepted, if only to attempt to seize the moral high ground). The Koran requires Muslims to offer such a truce before they attack. The fact that bin Laden himself made the offer, after a long silence, suggests al-Qaeda attaches high importance to it.

"Why? My guess is because they plan a major new attack in the U.S. soon. I would be surprised if the plan were for something smaller than 9/11, because that could send the message that al-Qaeda's capabilities had diminished. Could this be "the big one," the suitcase nuke that most counterterrorism experts expect somewhere, sometime? That would certainly justify, perhaps require, a truce offer from Osama himself. Of course, al-Qaeda's plan may fail, and it may be for an action less powerful than setting off a nuke on American soil. But the fact that Osama made a truce offer should have set off alarm bells in Washington. So far, from what I can see, it hasn't.

Digby: Useless

Sometime back I was in the minority here in the blogosphere when I argued that I understood why NARAL was staying with its backing of Chafee:

I understand that we all need to stick together, but if I were NARAL I'd be getting very, very concerned about some Democrats' willingness to "soften" their stance on the issue of choice because it's allegedly hurting the party --- you know, moral values and all that. I might just think it's smart to show some muscle. There is no way I'd blindly trust anyone in this environment to fight this battle for me.

Digby: Bring On The Screeching Harpies

These missing Cheney e-mails are very intriguing. This is particularly so because we went though a similar event during the Clinton administration and the Republicans went completely apeshit over it. In 2000, it was revealed (through the machinations of Judicial Watch) that some emails had not been properly archived and it was suspected that some of Monica Lewinsky's had not been turned over as a result. Dan Burton held hearings and the Independent Counsel, Robert Ray, was assigned to look into it.

Digby: Reflexive Cheating

So the House Republicans tried to rig their own election. It just doesn't get any better than that, does it?

But, after all, it's what they are trained to do from the time they join the Party:

Everyone who watched this summer's race for College Republican National Committee (crnc) chair with any detachment has a favorite moment of chutzpah they admire in spite of themselves.

Digby: Karl The Whistleblower

So it turns out that the CIA told Cheney and Libby back in June of 2003 that the Niger claims were bogus. (Via Crooks and Liars)

Vice President Cheney and his then-Chief of Staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were personally informed in June 2003 that the CIA no longer considered credible the allegations that Saddam Hussein had attempted to procure uranium from the African nation of Niger, according to government records and interviews with current and former officials. The new CIA assessment came just as Libby and other senior administration officials were embarking on an effort to discredit an administration critic who had also been saying that the allegations were untrue.

Digby: Pundit Putz

Atrios linked today to a very insightful post by the man who wrote "What Liberal Media?" I urge you to read the whole thing if you are interested in the cozy, insider nature of political reporting you see coming out of Washington. Nobody gets it better than Alterman.

Digby: Lovely Rita

Dear Gawd. I didn't think it was possible to drag down the quality of Hardball any further, but the addition of Rita Cosby is a new low. I'm sure she's a very good tabloid crime reporter. People seem to like her. But her take on politics is so shallow she is making Tweety and Tucker look like intellectual heavyweights.

Robert Scheer: Put the Politicians in the Enron Docket

Posted on Jan. 31, 2006

FINALLY, after four years of legal maneuvering, the trial of Enron top dogs Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling opens a new window on the outrageous practices of our modern-day robber barons. But it is depressing that the politicians who benefited from Lay’s largess, and who enabled Enron’s chicanery by changing the law, are going unpunished and even uncriticized.

Indeed, the larger crime, in any proper moral dimension of that word, was committed in the rewriting of the law on corporate regulation to permit Enron’s very existence as a humongous stock market swindler. There simply would be no Enron story were it not for the deregulation of the energy market ushered in by Republican politicians, as Lay himself acknowledged freely in a 2000 interview when asked to explain the “common thread” in Enron’s business model.

Internal e-mails indicate extreme unrest at Social Security

RAW STORY

Published: February 3, 2006

After receiving an internal e-mail indicating an extreme state of unrest at the Social Security Administration, Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA) has written Speaker Hastert regarding the situation.

Currently, nearly 50 million Americans rely on Social Security.

"Let the dollars soar"

Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft cashes in as Homeland Security lobbyist

Of the many cronies, chums and political appointees that have come and gone through the Bush Administration's revolving door, former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft was one of those who practically disappeared from the news after he resigned from his position in November 2004. Unlike former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, who was fired by Bush, or Richard Clarke, the former National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counterterrorism -- both of whom spilt the beans about the administration's shortcomings in best-selling books -- Ashcroft moved quietly on.

Cursor's Media Patrol - 02/03/06

A memo reportedly documenting a two-hour pre-Iraq war meeting between President Bush and British Prime Minister Blair, is said to reveal "the president of the United States caught conspiring to create a modern-day version of the sinking of the Maine."

With 53 percent of respondents to a new Gallup poll saying the Bush administration "deliberately misled the American public about whether Iraq has weapons of mass destruction," Eric Alterman writes that "The insider press corps cannot connect Bush's war lies to his unpopularity, because it has so much difficulty acknowledging either one."

Most major media outlets are found to have 'largely ignored' new revelations concerning 'The Plame Case, Missing Email, and the President's Daily Brief.' Plus: 'Why Rove Will Fall.'

The Gadflyer notes that "no one questioned" a claim by self-styled "renaissance man" Ben Stein, that oil company executives "make less than Hollywood stars ... and they do a much greater service," because Stein was talking to "the amateur hour of business journalism," CNN's "In The Money."

'Rumsfeld and Negroponte amp up attacks' on Venezuelan President Chavez, and Pat Robertson renews his call for the assassination of Chavez, who told the World Social Forum that "one day the decay inside U.S. imperialism will end up toppling it, and the great people of Martin Luther King will be set free."

Abramoff's Evangelical Soldiers

by MAX BLUMENTHAL

[from the February 20, 2006 issue]

Gambling might not rank as high as homosexuality or abortion on the list of social evils monitored by Focus on the Family found er James Dobson, but its growth has provided many occasions for his jeremiads. The indictment of Indian casino lobbyist and influential GOP activist Jack Abramoff was one such occasion. In a January 6 press release issued three days after Abramoff's indictment, Dobson declared, "If the nation's politicians don't fix this national disaster, then the oceans of gambling money with which Jack Abramoff tried to buy influence on Capitol Hill will only be the beginning of the corruption we'll see." He concluded with a denunciation of vice: "Gambling--all types of gambling--is driven by greed and subsists on greed."

What Dobson neglected to mention--and has yet to discuss publicly--is his own pivotal role in one of Abramoff's schemes. In 2002 Dobson joined a coterie of Christian-right activists, including Tony Perkins, Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, to spearhead Abramoff's campaigns against the establishment of several Louisiana casinos that infringed on the turf of Abramoff's tribal clients. Dobson and his allies recorded messages for phone banking, lobbied high-level Bush Administration officials and took to the airwaves. Whether they knew it or not, these Christian soldiers' crusade to protect families in the "Sportsmen's Paradise" from the side effects of chronic slot-pulling and dice-rolling was funded by the gambling industry and planned by the lobbyist known even to his friends as "Casino Jack."

How I stalked my girlfriend

Ben Goldacre
Wednesday February 1, 2006
The Guardian

For the past week I've been tracking my girlfriend through her mobile phone. I can see exactly where she is, at any time of day or night, within 150 yards, as long as her phone is on. It has been very interesting to find out about her day. Now I'm going to tell you how I did it.

First, though, I ought to point out, that my girlfriend is a journalist, that I had her permission ("in principle ...") and that this was all in the name of science, bagging a Pulitzer and paying the school fees. You have nothing to worry about, or at least not from me.

Court filings shed more light on CIA leak investigation

John Byrne and Ron Brynaert
Published: February 2, 2006

Third Time reporter, named in filings, says he has not testified in case

A series of striking revelations have emerged after the release of dozens of pages of court files in the CIA leak investigation that have gone unnoticed by the mainstream media, RAW STORY has found.

Some of them have been uncovered by astute bloggers – including the fact that the outed agent’s husband will not testify at a trial, and that a third Time reporter has been fingered as having information potentially relevant to some aspects of the case.

Kan. Court Blocks Abortion Records' Access

By JOHN HANNA

Associated Press Writer

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - The state's highest court on Friday temporarily stopped the state attorney general from looking at records from two abortion clinics, saying such a review could violate patient privacy.

The Kansas Supreme Court ordered a lower court judge to first make sure that Attorney General Phill Kline has the right to see the documents in his investigation of potential violations of state restrictions on abortion and suspected rapes of children.

New GAO Report Raises Concerns About President's Health Proposal

Author: Committee on Government Reform Minority Office
Published on Feb 2, 2006, 08:56

Senior House Democrats Pete Stark and Henry A. Waxman today released a report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) comparing enrollees in Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) and High-Deductible Health Plans (HDHPs) with enrollees in the traditional Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP).

During his State of the Union Address earlier this week, President Bush signaled that expanding HSAs and HDHPs would be a centerpiece of his domestic agenda. Health policy experts are concerned these will attract only the healthiest participants, raising costs and risking coverage for other individuals and families who remain in traditional plans. The GAO report appears to validate these concerns.

"This report screams 'buyers beware', verifying what we have suspected all along: HSAs and high-deductible health plans proposed by President Bush and the Republicans are designed for healthy, wealthy people," said Rep. Stark. "Despite this reality, President Bush is pushing them on low-income workers -- not to provide them with better health insurance, but to meet his long-term goal of dismantling employer-provided health care. HSAs are another way for the GOP to benefit their special interest friends -- in this case, the insurance industry, corporations, and wealthy taxpayers -- at the expense of America's workers."

Bush's Goals on Energy Quickly Find Obstacles

By ELISABETH BUMILLER

WASHINGTON, Feb. 1 — The energy proposals set out on Tuesday by President Bush quickly ran into obstacles on Wednesday, showing how difficult it will be to take even the limited steps he supports to reduce the nation's reliance on foreign oil.

On the day after he declared in his State of the Union address that the United States was "addicted to oil" and had to wean itself from a century-old habit, Mr. Bush drew some support for putting the issue more prominently on the agenda but also skepticism about how achievable his goals really were.

"Every administration since the early 1970's has struggled with the issue of rising oil imports and the right mix of policies to deal with them," said Daniel Yergin, the author of "The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power" and the founder of a consulting firm, Cambridge Energy Research Associates. "Some people would just say, 'It's world trade, we sell Boeings and we buy oil.' But since oil is intertwined with geopolitics, people worry about vulnerability and whether oil is a drag on our foreign policy."

Blair-Bush deal before Iraq war revealed in secret memo

Tony Blair told President George Bush that he was "solidly" behind US plans to invade Iraq before he sought advice about the invasion's legality and despite the absence of a second UN resolution, according to a new account of the build-up to the war published today.

A memo of a two-hour meeting between the two leaders at the White House on January 31 2003 - nearly two months before the invasion - reveals that Mr Bush made it clear the US intended to invade whether or not there was a second UN resolution and even if UN inspectors found no evidence of a banned Iraqi weapons programme.

Cursor's Media Patrol - 02/02/06

'Retreating on the Offensive' A Washington Post editorial expresses concern that the president may be "decrying retreat while quietly packing his bags."

The BBC's Pentagon correspondent, reviewing declassified plans for "information warfare," reported that "the U.S. military seeks the capability to knock out every telephone, every networked computer, every radar system on the planet."

The president reportedly "didn't mean it literally," when he vowed to cut Middle East oil imports by 75 percent: "This was purely an example," explained Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman, formerly known as 'One of Texas' Top Five Worst Polluters.'

As the Enron jury hears testimony that the company "fudged its earnings figures with the knowledge of executives Jeffrey Skilling and Kenneth Lay," Robert Scheer fingers "the politicians who benefited from Lay's largesse, and who changed the law enabling Enron's chicanery."

Will Boys Be Boys?

Why the gender lens may not shed light on the latest educational crisis.
By Ann Hulbert
Posted Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2006, at 1:07 PM ET

"It's OK, guys, being a haptic learner doesn't necessarily mean you have ADD," a teacher reassured a group of ninth-grade boys who were duly filling out a survey designed to assess their "learning styles." Telling me this story as she flipped through a recent issue of Newsweek announcing the arrival of a "Boy Crisis" in education, my ninth-grade daughter laughed. I gather the boys had found it at least somewhat amusing, too. Though the term made me think of spastic, "haptic," I discovered, actually means "hands-on." Here was a diagnosis with a double entendre that the testosterone-afflicted gender could almost enjoy.

As experts shift their attention from girls and their academic disadvantages to the lagging educational achievement levels of American males, adults should perhaps take a cue from kids' skepticism about the latest vogue in gender-based learning labels. Instead, diagnostic zeal runs high in the current media flurry. Elbowing girls out of the way, the authors of Newsweek's cover story tour the spectrum of tidy explanations for why boys are falling behind girls. And in an essay called "Boy Trouble" in the New Republic, Richard Whitmire joins a chorus invoking highly speculative brain science, among other less than definitive data, as he sounds the alarm about this supposedly unnoticed crisis. But this paradigm of a cognitive chasm between the sexes at school—inherited from the girl-boosting crusade of recent decades—might be getting in the way of what we really need: a, well, more "haptic" approach to educational dilemmas that arguably have less to do with biology and feminist legacies than with basic study habits and the economy.

Out of Gas

Bush's sputtering State of the Union.
By Jacob Weisberg
Posted Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2006, at 3:32 PM ET

Admittedly, the State of the Union address has become a tedious ritual. According to calcified habit, presidents must begin by describing the country's condition as "strong," go on to point out the American "heroes" planted in the House gallery, and flit lightly over dozens of disparate topics between pauses for theatrical applause. This year's pandering nadir came during the brief passage on bioethics, when George Bush called for legislation banning the creation of "human-animal hybrids." In Washington, there is a lobby for everything except apparently mermaids and centaurs.

At the same time, the State of the Union is a political occasion that can still matter a great deal. It remains a president's grandest regular opportunity to tell the country what he wants to do and ask its support. For a leader who has become stuck, like Bill Clinton in 1999 after his impeachment vote, or Bush in 2006, the speech affords the tantalizing prospect of a fresh start. So long as he can propose a new agenda to a watching nation, no president is ever completely washed up.

Enron's Enablers

Truthdig by Robert Scheer
Enron's Enablers

[posted online on February 1, 2006]

Finally, after four years of legal maneuvering, the trial of Enron top dogs Ken Lay and Jeffrey Skilling opens a new window on the outrageous practices of our modern-day robber barons. But it is depressing that the politicians who benefited from Lay's largesse, and who changed the law enabling Enron's chicanery, are going unpunished and even uncriticized.

Indeed, the larger crime, in any proper moral dimension of that word, was committed in the rewriting of the law on corporate regulation to permit Enron's very existence as a humongous stock market swindler. There simply would be no Enron story were it not for the deregulation of the energy market ushered in by Republican politicians, as Lay himself acknowledged freely in a 2000 interview when asked to explain the "common thread" in Enron's business model.

"I think the common elements first are that, basically, we are entering markets or in markets that are deregulating or have recently deregulated, and so they have become competitive, moving from monopoly franchise-type businesses to competitive, market-oriented businesses," said Lay.

Administration backs off Bush's vow to reduce Mideast oil imports

By Kevin G. Hall
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.

What the president meant, they said in a conference call with reporters, was that alternative fuels could displace an amount of oil imports equivalent to most of what America is expected to import from the Middle East in 2025.

But America still would import oil from the Middle East, because that's where the greatest oil supplies are.

Is Abortion Bad?

Wednesday, Feb. 1, 2006, at 7:07 AM ET

Dear Katha,

Let's start by explaining to readers why we're having this conversation. Last week in the New York Times, I urged pro-choicers to wage war on the abortion rate through birth control and sex education. This week in The Nation, you replied that "anti-abortion moralism" would hurt women and abortion rights. You argued that pursuing an explicit goal of zero abortions would "do the antichoicers' work for them." I think you've got it exactly backward.

First, let me tackle some of your objections around the periphery of our disagreement. You say the limits of our education and health-care systems make "zero abortions" unreachable. True. Peace is unreachable, too, but we try. That's the nature of goals.

Five Ways To Keep Your Google Searches Private

Word that the government has been seeking search data from Google has struck fear into the hearts of Internet Explorer and Firefox users. Here are five simple steps to keep outsiders from uncovering private information about your Web browsing habits.

By Alexander Wolfe
TechWeb.com

Feb 1, 2006 08:43 AM

The recent news that the U.S. Justice Department has been seeking search data from Google, Yahoo, MSN, and America Online has struck fear into the hearts of Web surfers. Many users are concerned, not because they're done anything wrong, but because they wonder just how much personal information can be gleaned from their on-line searches.

Official: Army Has Authority to Spy on Americans

By Jeff Stein, CQ Staff

“Contrary to popular belief, there is no absolute ban on [military] intelligence components collecting U.S. person information,” the U.S.Army’s top intelligence officer said in a 2001 memo that surfaced Tuesday.

Not only that, military intelligence agencies are permitted to “receive” domestic intelligence information, even though they cannot legally “collect” it,” according to the Nov. 5, 2001, memo issued by Lt. Gen. Robert W. Noonan Jr., the deputy chief of staff for intelligence.

“MI [military intelligence] may receive information from anyone, anytime,” Noonan wrote in the memo, obtained by Secrecy News, a newsletter from the non-profit Federation of American Scientists in Washington.

NSA Expands, Centralizes Domestic Spying

Code Name(s) of the Week: DIAZ, Emergejust, Freedom, Highpoint, PASSGEAR, Viceroy

The National Security Agency is in the process of building a new warning hub and data warehouse in the Denver area, realigning much of its workforce from Ft. Meade, Maryland to Colorado.

The Denver Post reported last week that NSA was moving some of its operations to the Denver suburb of Aurora.

Untimely removal

LAST Wednesday President Bush removed Noel L. Hillman, the chief prosecutor in the Jack Abramoff lobbying and bribery scandal, from the case. Mr. Bush's action came as the media and his critics swarmed around the problem of trying to pry publicly owned photographs of Mr. Bush with Mr. Abramoff from the White House.

The President's means of taking Mr. Hillman, head of the Department of Justice's Office of Public Integrity since 2002, out of the picture was to nominate him for a federal judgeship, in effect, kicking him upstairs.

State of the Union, Sliced and Diced

Think Progress. Posted February 1, 2006.

A guide to the truth behind the lies and fabrications in George Bush's State of the Union speech to Congress.

Note: The following is a list of corrections to false and fabricated claims in President Bush's State of the Union speech from Think Progress.

On Katrina:

Bush said: "As we recover from a disaster, let us also work for the day when all Americans are protected by justice, equal in hope, and rich in opportunity."

Fact -- White House stonewalling Katrina investigations: Congressional investigations into the administration’s inadequate response to Katrina have stalled because the “Bush White House is now refusing to turn over Hurricane Katrina related documents or make senior officials available for testimony.” [MSNBC, 1/26/06]

Bush Presidency Finished

Dead Man Talking
By Joshua Holland, AlterNet
Posted on February 1, 2006, Printed on February 1, 2006
http://www.alternet.org/story/31639/

State of the Union -- Bush's address laid it all out in the open: his presidency is finished.

George Bush is hanging by a thread. As he gamed his way through his fifth State of the Union Speech last night, it was clear that his is a presidency laying in ruin. Except for a reactionary judiciary that will be his continuing legacy -- pushed past the too-little, too-late efforts of a limp Democratic Party -- Bush has no accomplishments he can look forward to in the next three years.

George is dead, spun-out of spin, yet like his zombie followers he just keeps on talking.

The Power-Madness of King George: Is Bush turning America into an elective dictatorship?

By Jacob Weisberg
Posted Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2006, at 3:44 PM ET

It's tempting to dismiss the debate about the National Security Agency spying on Americans as a technical conflict about procedural rights. President Bush believes he has the legal authority to order electronic snooping without asking anyone's permission. Civil libertarians and privacy-fretters think Bush needs a warrant from the special court created to authorize wiretapping in cases of national security. But in practice, the so-called FISA court that issues such warrants functions as a virtual rubber stamp for the executive branch anyhow, so what's the great difference in the end?

Would that so little were at stake. In fact, the Senate hearings on NSA domestic espionage set to begin next month will confront fundamental questions about the balance of power within our system. Even if one assumes that every unknown instance of warrant-less spying by the NSA were justified on security grounds, the arguments issuing from the White House threaten the concept of checks and balances as it has been understood in America for the last 218 years. Simply put, Bush and his lawyers contend that the president's national security powers are unlimited. And since the war on terror is currently scheduled to run indefinitely, the executive supremacy they're asserting won't be a temporary condition.

Ray Nagin, White Rage and the Manufacturing of "Reverse" Racism

By Tim Wise

Published as a ZNet Commentary, January 28, 2006

If you're looking to understand why discussions between blacks and whites about racism are often so difficult in this country, you need only know this: when the subject is race and racism, whites and blacks are often not talking about the same thing. To white folks, racism is seen mostly as individual and interpersonal--as with the uttering of a prejudicial remark or bigoted slur. For blacks, it is that too, but typically more: namely, it is the pattern and practice of policies and social institutions, which have the effect of perpetuating deeply embedded structural inequalities between people on the basis of race. To blacks, and most folks of color, racism is systemic. To whites, it is purely personal.

St. Patrick's Four: Teresa's Sentencing Statement

Judge Mc Avoy,

I would like to acknowledge and thank you for your leniency with respect to Peter's special concern.

Throughout the trial I have seen your humanity peek through the structures of your office. You are one more reason for my hope in humanity and the goodness in all!

That being said, I have been saddened by your initial decision to ignore article 6 section 2 of the Constitution of this great nation which you so often reminded us you were sworn to uphold. This basically denied us the right to defend ourselves of the charge of "entering the military site for unlawful purposes". We were trying to uphold international laws on March 17th 2003 which demand citizens to avert the great crimes of their government.

Digby: Snark Boomerang

From the interesting tid-bit files, from Robert Parry:

Nevertheless, the Republicans may have added a complication to their expected Alito victory parade by ridiculing Kerry for making his filibuster announcement while at an economic summit in Davos, Switzerland.

As Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s right-wing Washington Times gleefully reported, Republicans quickly dubbed Kerry the “Swiss Miss.” [Washington Times, Jan. 28, 2006]

Digby: Thrill Ride

Glenn Greenwald points to this op-ed in today's NY Times which points out something that many of us have been hammering for years, namely that Islamic fundamentatlist terrorism is not an existential threat. (That's not to say that violent fundamentalism isn't threatening, but the problem cannot be solved with warfare --- sadly, it's much more complicated than that.)

The oceans never protected us. I guess our president with his degree in history from Yale, doesn't know that the British live across the oceans and sailed over to burn down the White House in 1812. Or that we have lived under the nuclear unbrella for more than 50 years. All those drills when I was a kid were for the exercise.

Cursor's Media Patrol - 01/31/06

As the U.S. Senate confirms Alito, the WSWS calls Sen. John Kerry's failed attempt to lead a filibuster "a complete farce," which "came in response to concern within sections of the party that it was necessary to ... lessen the appearance of abject capitulation."

Dave Lindorff argues that 'The Democrats' Alito Debacle' "means it won't be enough to simply pick up 16 new Democratic seats in the House and six in the Senate in November. Those new seats will have to be filled by people who ... stand for something."

Face the Nation "So while we're kicking around the Dems for not filibustering," writes Steve Gilliard, "America was seeing the Iraq war with a human face ... And that is not good news for Bush and maybe be the beginning of the end of the Iraq debacle."

"At least two" of the 18 proposed mine safety rules previously dropped by the Bush administration have reportedly resurfaced -- as have 72 Canadian miners, saved by government-mandated "refuge stations." earlier: 'The Day the News Left Town.'

Nearly half of Iraqis support attacks on U.S. troops, poll finds

BY DREW BROWN
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - A new poll found that nearly half of Iraqis approve of attacks on U.S.-led forces, and most favor setting a timetable for American troops to leave.

The poll also found that 80 percent of Iraqis think the United States plans to maintain permanent bases in the country even if the newly elected Iraqi government asks American forces to leave. Researchers found a link between support for attacks and the belief among Iraqis that the United States intends to keep a permanent military presence in the country.

At the same time, the poll found that many Iraqis think that some outside military forces are required to keep Iraq stable until the new government can field adequate security forces on its own. Only 39 percent of Iraqis surveyed thought that Iraqi police and army forces were strong enough to deal with the security challenges on their own, while 59 percent thought Iraq still needed the help of military forces from other countries.

Paul Krugman: A False Balance

The New York Times
January 30, 2006

"How does one report the facts," asked Rob Corddry on "The Daily Show," "when the facts themselves are biased?" He explained to Jon Stewart, who played straight man, that "facts in Iraq have an anti-Bush agenda," and therefore can't be reported.

Mr. Corddry's parody of journalists who believe they must be "balanced" even when the truth isn't balanced continues, alas, to ring true. The most recent example is the peculiar determination of some news organizations to cast the scandal surrounding Jack Abramoff as "bipartisan."

Cut, Thrust and Christ

Why evangelicals are mastering the art of college debate.
By Susannah Meadows
Newsweek

Feb. 6, 2006 issue - When you believe the end of the world is coming, you learn to talk fast. On a Friday afternoon the debate team from Liberty University, Jerry Falwell's fundamentalist Baptist college, is madly rehearsing for the tournament about to begin. This year's topic: should the United States increase diplomatic and economic pressure on China. They may just be practicing, but you wouldn't know it from the menacing mosquito-buzz rising as all 20 debaters read their speeches at once, as fast as they can. Policy debate on the college level has become a rapid-fire verbal assault, an arguments-per-minute game, that sounds more like the guy at the end of the car commercial than an eloquent Oxford intellectual. There is tension and more than a little spittle in the air. The Liberty team is currently ranked No. 1 in the country, above Harvard (14th) and all the other big names. But for the evangelicals, there's a lot more at stake than a trophy. Falwell and the religious right figure that if they can raise a generation that knows how to argue, they can stem the tide of sin in the country. Seventy-five percent of Liberty's debaters go on to be lawyers with an eye toward transforming society. "I think I can make an impact in the field of law on abortion and gay rights, to get back to Americans' godly heritage," says freshman debater Cole Bender.

Primary care about to collapse, physicians warn

By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
Mon Jan 30, 1:44 PM ET

Primary care -- the basic medical care that people get when they visit their doctors for routine physicals and minor problems -- could fall apart in the United States without immediate reforms, the American College of Physicians said on Monday.

"Primary care is on the verge of collapse," said the organization, a professional group which certifies internists, in a statement. "Very few young physicians are going into primary care and those already in practice are under such stress that they are looking for an exit strategy."

Max Blumenthal at HuffingtonPost: Uncovering A US-Planned Coup In Haiti: The Original Version

On Sunday, the New York Times ran a lengthy investigative piece by Walt Bogdanovich and Jenny Nordberg, "Mixed U.S. Signals Helped Tilt Haiti Toward Chaos," which claimed to expose how the a taxpayer funded Washington non-profit with close ties to the Bush administration, the International Republican Institute, and its Haiti operative, Stanley Lucas, fomented a coup in Haiti that deposed its democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

In fact, the story was remarkably similar to a story I wrote nearly two years ago for Salon.com. On January 3, 2005, a New York Times staffer named Ursula Andrews emailed me, asking for help with research. I was excited that the newspaper of record was finally picking up on the story, and complied with their request. When the Times published its story, it contained no citation of my work.

Deal Lets Big Farms Skirt Pollution Fines

By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
Mon Jan 30, 8:34 PM ET

The Bush administration will let thousands of factory-style farms escape severe penalties for fouling the air and water with animal excrement in exchange for data to help curb future pollution.

The Environmental Protection Agency has signed agreements with 2,681 animal feeding operations in the egg, chicken, turkey, dairy and hog industries. They would be exempt from having to pay potential fines of up to $27,500 a day for violations either in the past or over the next four years.

On Monday, the EPA said its Environmental Appeals Board had approved the first 20 of those agreements, selecting accords it thought were representative of the whole. EPA officials said those approvals set the stage for the remaining agreements to gain approval quickly.

Pentagon investigation of Iraq war hawk stalling Senate inquiry into pre-war Iraq intelligence

Larisa Alexandrovna
Published: January 30, 2006

The second part of the Senate investigation into bungled pre-war Iraq intelligence is still being held up by an internal Pentagon investigation of Douglas Feith, one of the war's leading architects, RAW STORY has learned.

As previously reported by Raw Story, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) inquiry -- titled Phase II -- is waiting on a report from the Pentagon inspector general as to Feith's alleged role in manipulating pre-war intelligence to support a case for war. Feith, who is also being probed by the FBI for his role in an Israeli spy case, resigned in January 2005.

Our State of Disunity

By Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.com. Posted January 31, 2006.

In Bush's fifth State of the Union speech, we can only begin to guess what words will come back to haunt him in the coming year.

Tonight, the presidential State of the Union Address rolls around yet again. Only four Januaries have passed since the President used a State of the Union Address to brand Iran, Iraq, and North Korea -- the first two then bitter enemies, the third completely unrelated to either of them and on the other side of the planet -- as a World-War-II-style "axis of evil." It was the first great State of Disunion deception of the Bush administration's regal reign of error. Only three Januaries ago came the second. The President stood before Congress and pronounced those sixteen little words on his bum's rush to war with Iraq: "The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa."

Senate Confirms Alito to Supreme Court

Terrible news...--Dictynna

By JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writer
2 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - Samuel Anthony Alito Jr. became the nation's 110th Supreme Court justice on Tuesday, confirmed with the most partisan victory in modern history after a fierce battle over the future direction of the high court.

The Senate voted 58-42 to confirm Alito — a former federal appellate judge, U.S. attorney, and conservative lawyer for the Reagan administration from New Jersey — as the replacement for retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has been a moderate swing vote on the court.

Military Hides Cause of Women Soldiers' Deaths

By Marjorie Cohn
t r u t h o u t | Report

Monday 30 January 2006

In a startling revelation, the former commander of Abu Ghraib prison testified that Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, former senior US military commander in Iraq, gave orders to cover up the cause of death for some female American soldiers serving in Iraq.

Last week, Col. Janis Karpinski told a panel of judges at the Commission of Inquiry for Crimes against Humanity Committed by the Bush Administration in New York that several women had died of dehydration because they refused to drink liquids late in the day. They were afraid of being assaulted or even raped by male soldiers if they had to use the women's latrine after dark.

Republicans used tax-exempt Federalist Society to take over federal judiciary

NY Times
January 30, 2006
DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK

In Alito, G.O.P. Reaps Harvest Planted in '82

...In 1982, the year after Mr. Alito first joined the Reagan administration, that movement was little more than the handful of legal scholars who gathered at Yale for the first meeting of the Federalist Society, a newly formed conservative legal group...With grants from major conservative donors like the John M. Olin Foundation, the Federalist Society functioned as a kind of shadow conservative [Republican Party] bar association, planting chapters in law schools around the country that served as a pipeline to prestigious judicial clerkships...

An early lead: New study reveals consumer inclination to bias information in favor of market leader

A groundbreaking new study explores a previously unexposed market phenomenon: the powerful influence of "leader-driven primacy" on consumer choice. Consumers, argue the researchers from Duke University, are very likely to give subsequent support to the brand that first appears to show superiority in its category. We might even be influenced to choose an inferior product if the earliest information we get about it is positive.

Health Debtor Accounts

Cindy Zeldin
January 30, 2006

Cindy Zeldin is a senior program associate in the Health Policy Program at the New America Foundation.

In tomorrow's State of the Union address, President Bush is widely expected to promote an expansion of Health Savings Accounts, or HSAs, as the new cornerstone of his ownership society agenda. His rhetoric will be about personal empowerment, but his push for insurance that exposes consumers to more individual risk belies the financial squeeze faced by a growing number of middle-class Americans.

Authorized by the 2003 Medicare prescription drug bill, HSAs allow people who purchase a high deductible, or catastrophic, health insurance policy to set aside money in a tax-sheltered account that they can tap for out-of-pocket health expenses. The HSA marketplace has been taking shape over the past two years as insurance companies have teamed up with financial services firms to offer the catastrophic coverage and HSA combination, frequently referred to as “consumer-driven health care.” United Health Group has even started a financial institution, known as Exante, while Blue Cross announced last fall that it planned to open its own bank to handle the accounts.

Sign Here

Presidential signing statements are more than just executive branch lunacy.
By Dahlia Lithwick
Posted Monday, Jan. 30, 2006, at 5:32 AM ET

There are two ways President Bush likes to wage war on your civil liberties: He either asks you to surrender your rights directly—as he does when he strengthens and broadens provisions of the Patriot Act. Or he simply hoovers up new powers and hopes you won't find out—as he did when he granted himself authority to order warrant-less wiretapping of American citizens. The former category seems more benign, and it's tempting to lump Bush's affinity for "presidential signing statements" in that camp. It's tempting to believe that with these statements he is merely asking that the courts take his legal views into account. But President Bush never asks anything of the courts; he doesn't think he has to. His signing statements are not aimed at persuading the courts, but at reinforcing his claim that both courts and Congress are irrelevant.

Hurricanes Shape New Natural Order

By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press WriterSun Jan 29, 5:28 PM ET

Last year's record hurricane season didn't just change life for humans. It changed nature, too.

Everywhere scientists look, they see disrupted patterns in and along the Gulf of Mexico. Coral reefs, flocks of sea birds, crab- and shrimp-filled meadows and dune-crowned beaches were wrapped up in — and altered by — the force of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Dennis.

"Nothing's been like this," said Abby Sallenger, a U.S. Geological Survey oceanographer, during a recent flight over the northern Gulf Coast to study shoreline changes.

For him, the changes are mind-boggling: Some barrier islands are nearly gone; on others, beaches are scattered like bags of dropped flour.

US Army forces 50,000 soldiers into extended duty

29 Jan 2006 13:51:50 GMT
Source: Reuters

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON, Jan 29 (Reuters) - The U.S. Army has forced about 50,000 soldiers to continue serving after their voluntary stints ended under a policy called "stop-loss," but while some dispute its fairness, court challenges have fallen flat.

The policy applies to soldiers in units due to deploy for the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The Army said stop-loss is vital to maintain units that are cohesive and ready to fight. But some experts said it shows how badly the Army is stretched and could further complicate efforts to attract new recruits.

Back to Basics: Why Does High School Fail So Many?

Shockingly high dropout rates portend a bleak future for youths who fall by the wayside and for society. For many, the traditional U.S. education system is a dead end.

By Mitchell Landsberg, Times Staff Writer

On a September day 4 1/2 years ago, nearly 1,100 ninth-graders — a little giddy, a little scared — arrived at Birmingham High School in Van Nuys. They were fifth-generation Americans and new arrivals, straight arrows and gangbangers, scholars and class clowns.

On a radiant evening last June, 521 billowing figures in royal blue robes and yellow-tasseled mortarboards walked proudly across Birmingham's football field, practically floating on a carpet of whoops and shouts and blaring air horns, to accept their diplomas.

Al Qaeda Detainee's Mysterious Release

Moroccan Spoke Of Aiding Bin Laden During 2001 Escape

By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Monday, January 30, 2006; Page A01

RABAT, Morocco -- For more than a decade, Osama bin Laden had few soldiers more devoted than Abdallah Tabarak. A former Moroccan transit worker, Tabarak served as a bodyguard for the al Qaeda leader, worked on his farm in Sudan and helped run a gemstone smuggling racket in Afghanistan, court records here show.

During the battle of Tora Bora in December 2001, when al Qaeda leaders were pinned down by U.S. forces, Tabarak sacrificed himself to engineer their escape. He headed toward the Pakistani border while making calls on Osama bin Laden's satellite phone as bin Laden and the others fled in the other direction.

Experts find better way to scrub milking hardware

Researchers at Penn State have devised a novel way to clean and disinfect milking equipment, using little more than salt water. The new method could be a safer and cheaper alternative to conventional cleaning systems.

"Concentrated chemicals used in the conventional cleaning are stored on the farm and on contact, they can cause serious burns in the eyes and on skin," says Dr. Ali Demirci, associate professor of agricultural and biological engineering. And, he says the chemicals are also expensive.

Firedoglake: Screw You, Congress -- I'll Do As I Please

The NSA Domestic Spying issue is heating up to a full boil -- with Glenn Greenwald leading the charge and a number of reporters and Senators picking up the ball and running with it.

Bottom line: it's another case of Bushie trying to get Congress and the media to look at what he's saying now, not what he's been doing all along. Unfortunately for the Preznit, this time he left a hefty paper trail -- in the form of proposed legislation by both his Administration and by a number of Congressman, all of which raised big red legality flags for folks at the DoJ.

Digby: Conviction Politics

I just saw a very interesting exchange on FOX News. The designated Democrat was Bob Beckel, the other two were typical faceless wingnut gasbags and I can't remember their names.

When asked how the Democrats could make such a stupid mistake by allowing Kerry to call for a filibuster (the two wingnuts giggling like schoolgirls at the question) Beckel replied something like this (I'm paraphrasing)

"Now you know that in this enviroment if a Democratic president nominated a pro-choice, pro-affirmative action, pro-government secrecy judge to the high court that many Republicans would want to filibuster. Sometimes politicans do things out of conviction and many Democrats are supporting a filibuster because they really believe that he should not be on the Supreme Court."

Digby: Gnocci

What I learned on Press the Meat this morning:

The Republicans' numbers are in the dirt but they are going to win decisively on the optimistic issues of endless war and endless debt. The Democrats' numbers are substantially better but they will never win anything because they are icky.

The NSA illegal spying scandal is good for Republicans because there is no evidence that the president has ever used it for political purposes.

Hoffmania: If You Think This Is A Tinfoil Hat Story...

Originally published Jan 27, 2006

...then you'll have to buy the fact that the BBC Pentagon correspondent paid a visit to the Alcoa Haberdashery. This transcends being called a "Holy Shit" story. Try "Holy Motherf***ing Shit on a Nuclear Chariot Driven Sidecar."

Okay. Maybe it's too much for you to read. So for GOD'S sake, read the bold print. But sit down first.

Wampum: It's just about Indian casinos, doncha know?

There's a little group in Oklahoma named One Nation United. Well, to be honest, they're part of a now larger, national coalition, with organizations in California, Washington and New York.

[...]

Their Issues?

Taxation - It is legal for tribal businesses to sell goods to tribal members without local, state and federal taxes. It is illegal for tribal businesses to sell goods to non-tribal members with no tax or reduced tax...

Casino Gambling - Tribal casino gambling expansion too often results in harm to surrounding communities' quality of life, as well as having negative impacts on our state and local tax base...

Environmental Regulation - Tribal governments can attain federal authority for water and/or air quality programs...

Political Contributions - Tribal leaders and members should be involved in the state and nation's political process. However, they should be held to the same state laws prohibiting corporate contributions and requiring that contributors and contributions be reported to the state Ethics Commission and the Federal Election Commission...

Their founding members?

Oklahoma Independent Petroleum Association
Oklahoma Petroleum Marketers Association
Oklahoma Farm Bureau
Southern Oklahoma Water Alliance
Oklahoma Grocers Association
United Property Owners

So just why are oil companies so concerned with Indian casinos?

Next question? What, if any, are Ralph Reed's ties to One Nation United?

[Update: I should probably note that there are a lot of federal Indian Trust lands in Oklahoma. And a lot of oil too, under those lands.]

Michael Kinsley: Kick Me, I'm a Democrat

The game politicians play.
By Michael Kinsley
Posted Sunday, Jan. 29, 2006, at 3:47 AM ET

It seems to be time once again to play Kick the Democrats. Everyone can play, including Democrats. The rules are simple. When Republicans lose elections, it is because they didn't get enough votes. When Democrats lose elections, it is because they have lost their principles and lost their way. Or they have kept their principles, which is an even worse mistake.

Democrats represent no one who is not actually waiting in line for a latte at a Starbucks within 150 yards of the east or west coastline. They are mired in trivial lifestyle issues like, oh, abortion and gay rights and Americans killing and dying in Iraq, while the Republicans serve up meat and potatoes for real Americans, like privatizing Social Security and making damned sure the government knows who is Googling whom in this great country. Just repeat these formulas until a Democrat has been sent into frenzies of self-flagellation, or reduced to tears.

Blind Ignorance

By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

Two recent polls, a Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll and a New York Times/CBS News poll, indicate why Bush is getting away with impeachable offenses. Half of the US population is incapable of acquiring, processing and understanding information.

Much of the problem is the media itself, which serves as a disinformation agency for the Bush administration. Fox "News" and right-wing talk radio are the worst, but with propagandistic outlets setting the standard for truth and patriotism, all of the media is affected to some degree.

Despite the media's failure, about half the population has managed to discern that the US invasion of Iraq has not made them safer and that the Bush administration's assault on civil liberties is not a necessary component of the war on terror. The problem, thus, lies with the absence of due diligence on the part of the other half of the population.

Mystery surrounds dead U.S. contractor

By DEBORAH HASTINGS
AP NATIONAL WRITER

There are fortunes to be made in Iraq, where seemingly everything is broken or looted or blown up. The fortunes come from fixing those things; there is no shortage of cash to hire the fixers.

Often they are characters writ large with bravado and cunning and greed, sprouting like weeds amid the rubble.

Dale Stoffel was all of that. He devised elaborate schemes to get Iraqi government contracts to repair an unending list of things that no longer worked. He posed for photographs in the desert wearing a flak vest and toting an M5 submachine gun. He clinched a cigar between his teeth.

Newsweek: Bush appointees revolted over executive branch 'overreach'

RAW STORY
Published: January 29, 2006

Excerpted from Monday's Newsweek (to highlight central themes in a long article), titled "Palace Revolt: They were loyal conservatives, and Bush appointees. They fought a quiet battle to rein in the president's power in the war on terror. And they paid a price for it. A NEWSWEEK investigation. By Daniel Klaidman, Stuart Taylor Jr. and Evan Thomas." Full article here.

US audit finds 'spectacular' waste of funds in Iraq

Millions lost in 'chaotic misuse,' while report says many reconstruction projects won't be finished.

By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com

"Spectacular misuse of tens of millions of dollars."

That is what The Australian says an audit by the the US Special Inspector-General for Iraq Reconstruction of the former Coalition Provisional Authority office in Hilla, Iraq, has uncovered. The newspaper says the report details bundles of money stashed in filing cabinets, a US soldier who gambled away thousands of dollars, and stacks of newly minted notes distributed without receipts.

Pentagon Can Now Fund Foreign Militaries

Defense Secretary Pushed for New Powers to Better Deal With Emergencies

By Bradley Graham

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, January 29, 2006; Page A10

Congress has granted unusual authority for the Pentagon to spend as much as $200 million of its own budget to aid foreign militaries, a break with the traditional practice of channeling foreign military assistance through the State Department.

The move, included in a little-noticed provision of the 2006 National Defense Authorization Act passed last month, marks a legislative victory for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who pushed hard for the new powers to deal with emergency situations.

Scout Prime: 'Bring New Orleans Back' Commissioner's Campaign Contributions: 94% Went to Republicans

"The mission of the Bring New Orleans Back Commission is to work with the mayor to create a master plan by the end of the year that rebuilds New Orleans culturally, socially, economically, and uniquely for every citizen." They recently unveiled their plan which is controversial and has been met with criticism as has the role of commissioner Joseph Canizaro. Joseph Canizaro is a real estate developer who has made large contributions to Bush. (See previous post here)

AmericaBlog: Earth facing a "tipping point" as Bush remains in denial

by Joe in DC - 1/28/2006 09:39:00 PM

An environmental double whammy from the two big papers. From the NY Times, we see how the Bush Administration spends their time silencing scientists who warn about climate change -- there's a post below on that article. Meanwhile, we learn from the Washington Post that the earth is approaching an environmental tipping point:

Now that most scientists agree human activity is causing Earth to warm, the central debate has shifted to whether climate change is progressing so rapidly that, within decades, humans may be helpless to slow or reverse the trend.

This "tipping point" scenario has begun to consume many prominent researchers in the United States and abroad, because the answer could determine how drastically countries need to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions in the coming years. While scientists remain uncertain when such a point might occur, many say it is urgent that policymakers cut global carbon dioxide emissions in half over the next 50 years or risk the triggering of changes that would be irreversible.

NYT Editorial: Spies, Lies and Wiretaps

A bit over a week ago, President Bush and his men promised to provide the legal, constitutional and moral justifications for the sort of warrantless spying on Americans that has been illegal for nearly 30 years. Instead, we got the familiar mix of political spin, clumsy historical misinformation, contemptuous dismissals of civil liberties concerns, cynical attempts to paint dissents as anti-American and pro-terrorist, and a couple of big, dangerous lies.

The first was that the domestic spying program is carefully aimed only at people who are actively working with Al Qaeda, when actually it has violated the rights of countless innocent Americans. And the second was that the Bush team could have prevented the 9/11 attacks if only they had thought of eavesdropping without a warrant.