Bush preps historic Third Term - memo

It's war. It's a 'Continuity Presidency'

By Thomas C Greene in Washington

Published Saturday 1st April 2006 10:33 GMT

Exclusive The US Department of Justice (DoJ) and the office of the White House Counsel are preparing a draft document laying out the President's wartime authority to remain in office past 2008, The Register has learned.

The scheme is described as an emergency "continuity presidency," made necessary by the extraordinary circumstances and unique challenges of protecting the United States from the threat of international terrorism.

The Battle for the Mainline Churches

By Frederick Clarkson

“Make no mistake,” wrote Avery Post, the national president of the United Church of Christ in 1982, "the objectives of the Institute on Religion and Democracy are the exact opposite of what its name appears to stand for. The purpose of its leaders is to demoralize the mainline denominations and to turn them away from the pursuit of social and economic justice.

“We must not wait for this attack to be launched in the congregations of the United Church of Christ. I urge you to move quickly to tell the ministers and members of the churches in your conference about this campaign to disrupt our church life and to explain to them how and why the National Council of Churches has been chosen to be its first victim and the opening wedge for attacks on the denominations themselves.”¹

Barbara Ehrenreich: The Disposable American – Talking with Louis Uchitelle

When I was offered a month-long gig writing columns for the New York Times in 2004, the newspaper brought me up to New York to meet the editors and publisher. “Is there any particular reporter you’d like to meet?” they asked me. It didn’t take a nanosecond to respond – yes, Louis Uchitelle! I’d admired his economics reporting for years and wanted to ask him some questions related to the research I was then doing for Bait and Switch. Lucky for me, he was available and willing to have coffee with me in the company cafeteria.

As I burbled on about my life as an undercover job-seeker, a curious gleam came into his eyes. Turns out, he was working on a book about layoffs himself. We eagerly exchanged observations, and about a year later he sent me the manuscript for his book The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences. I was tremendously excited by it: a tour de force of reporting, analysis, and – best of all—suggested solutions.

Accountability Office Finds Itself Accused

By WILLIAM J. BROAD

A senior Congressional investigator has accused his agency of covering up a scientific fraud among builders of a $26 billion system meant to shield the nation from nuclear attack. The disputed weapon is the centerpiece of the Bush administration's antimissile plan, which is expected to cost more than $250 billion over the next two decades.

The investigator, Subrata Ghoshroy of the Government Accountability Office, led technical analyses of a prototype warhead for the antimissile weapon in an 18-month study, winning awards for his "great care" and "tremendous skill and patience."

Mr. Ghoshroy now says his agency ig

Keeping It Secret as the Family Car Becomes a Home

By IAN URBINA

Published: April 2, 2006

FAIRFAX, Va. — After being evicted from his apartment last year, Larry Chaney lived in his car for five months in Erie, Pa. As he passed the time at local cafes, he always put a ring of old house keys and several envelopes with bills on the table to give the impression that he had a home like everyone else.

While Michelle Kennedy was living in her car with her three children in Belfast, Me., she parked someplace different each night so no one would notice them, and she instructed the children to tell anyone who asked that they were "staying with friends."

Documents Describe U.S. Auditors' Battles With Halliburton

A government study says the company overcharged on a crucial Iraq contract and did not comply with regular reporting obligations.

By Walter F. Roche Jr., Times Staff Writer
March 29, 2006

WASHINGTON — Frustrated government auditors pleaded, cajoled and finally threatened Halliburton Co. executives who repeatedly failed to comply with government reporting requirements under a key Iraq contract with a $1.2-billion potential price tag, newly released documents show.

The documents, along with a report, were issued Tuesday by the Democratic staff of the House Committee on Government Reform. Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles) had requested the report on the contract, considered crucial to the restoration of oil production capacity in southern Iraq.

US and UK forces establish 'enduring bases' in Iraq

Despite talk of withdrawal 'when the job is done', there are signs that coalition troops will be there for the long term

By Andrew Buncombe in Washington
Published: 02 April 2006

The Pentagon has revealed that coalition forces are spending millions of dollars establishing at least six "enduring" bases in Iraq - raising the prospect that US and UK forces could be involved in a long-term deployment in the country. It said it assumed British troops would operate one of the bases.

Almost ever since President Bush claimed an end to "major combat operations" in Iraq on 1 May 2003, debate has focused on how quickly troops could be withdrawn. The US and British governments say troops will remain in Iraq "until the job is done". Yet while the withdrawal of a substantial number of troops remains an aim, it has become increasingly clear that the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) are preparing to retain some forces in Iraq for the longer term. The US currently has around 130,000 troops in Iraq; Britain has 8,000.

Don't Blame Me

By Dan Froomkin

Special to washingtonpost.com
Thursday, March 30, 2006; 12:36 PM

With his vision of Iraq belied not only by an insurgency that he didn't anticipate, but also by sectarian rivalries that he disregarded before the invasion, President Bush has come up with a new rhetorical line of attack: It's not my fault, it's Saddam's.

Agence France Presse reports: "President George W. Bush said former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's brutal divisive legacy, rather than the US-led invasion, was to blame for Iraq's current sectarian violence."

Infections Take Heavy Toll on Patients, Profit

Hospitals Urged to Boost Prevention

By Ceci Connolly

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 29, 2006; Page A03

Pennsylvania patients who contracted an infection during a hospital stay in 2004 rang up charges that were seven times higher than patients who did not develop an infection, complications that cost insurers and individuals an extra $614 million, according to a state analysis being released today.

Patients with hospital-acquired infections spent many more days in the hospital, underwent more extensive procedures and were seven times more likely to die, deaths that many experts say were largely preventable. Though the findings were from a single state, industry analysts said the problem of hospital-acquired infections is universal.

David Neiwert: That Racism Thang

Friday, March 31, 2006

Max Blumenthal has an excellent piece up at The Nation regarding how conservatives have co-opted so much of the longtime white supremacist agenda that now the extremist right is looking for new ways to attract followers:
Back in those good old times, in 1982, explaining the Klan's anti-immigrant advocacy, Duke said, "Every new immigrant adds to our crime problems, our welfare rolls and unemployment of American citizens.... We are being invaded in the southwest as if a foreign army were coming over the border.... They're going to take more and more hard-earned money from the productive middle class in the form of taxes and social programs." And Duke called for the deportation of all undocumented immigrants and harsh penalties for businesses that employ them. "I'd make the Mexican-American border almost like a Maginot line," he said, referring to the militarized barrier France constructed between itself, Italy and Germany after World War I.

Victory For K Street

David Donnelly

March 31, 2006

David Donnelly is the national campaigns director of the Public Campaign Action Fund.

On Wednesday, a federal judge in Miami sentenced disgraced and convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff to 70 months in prison. Within a few hours, some 900 miles away, the U.S. Senate passed a lobbying “reform” bill that sentenced America to ongoing scandal.

The contrast was striking. With irony thicker than a wad of bills, Abramoff began to atone, but our elected officials did not.

Before receiving his sentence for a wire fraud conviction connected to his bizarre purchase of a casino fleet in Florida, the former lobbyist told federal judge Paul C. Huck that, “In the past two years, I have started the process of becoming a new man.” Abramoff is cooperating with federal prosecutors on a corruption investigation that is said to involve as many as 20 federal officeholders and congressional and Bush administration employees.

Michael Kinsley: The Twilight of Objectivity

How opinion journalism could change the face of the news.

By Michael Kinsley
Posted Friday, March 31, 2006, at 6:08 AM ET

CNN says it is just thrilled by the transformation of Lou Dobbs—formerly a mild-mannered news anchor noted for his palsy-walsy interviews with corporate CEOs—into a raving populist xenophobe. Ratings are up. It's like watching one of those "makeover" shows that turn nerds into fops or bathrooms into ballrooms. According to the New York Times, this demonstrates "that what works in cable television news is not an objective analysis of the day's events," but "a specific point of view on a sizzling-hot topic." Nicholas Lemann, dean of Columbia Journalism School, made the same point in a recent New Yorker profile of Fox News' Bill O'Reilly. Cable, Lemann wrote, "is increasingly a medium of outsize, super-opinionated franchise personalities."

Study Backs Equal Coverage for Mental Ills

By ROBERT PEAR

WASHINGTON, March 29 — Providing insurance coverage for mental illness equal to that for physical illness does not drive up the cost of mental health care as many insurers feared, a new study of health benefits for federal employees says.

President Bill Clinton ordered such equal coverage for federal workers in 1999, and the changes took effect in 2001. Under the policy, known as parity, insurers were forbidden to charge higher co-payments or impose stricter limits on psychiatric care or treatment for alcohol and drug abuse.

The new study of those changes, being published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine, concludes that if mental health care is properly managed, expanding the coverage of it "can improve insurance protection without increasing total costs" beyond those paid by insurers that do not offer parity.

G.O.P. Is Taking Aim at Advocacy Groups

By CARL HULSE and SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

WASHINGTON, March 30 — To many Republicans, the liberal activist organization MoveOn.org is a political boogeyman that they hope to chase off with new restrictions on so-called 527 groups.

But the pursuit may turn out to be fruitless. Like other major groups planning to inject themselves aggressively into the midterm elections through advertisements, voter drives and issue fights, MoveOn.org has already figured out what it thinks is a better, and less controversial, way to spend its millions. Its 527 — named for a section of the tax code — is being put on ice.

"Our 527 is dormant," said Eli Pariser, executive director of MoveOn.org. He said his group would predominantly operate as a conventional political action committee, allowing it to more freely mix explicit political support and issue advocacy in a way that Mr. Pariser described as "squeaky clean."

Fewer Marshes + More Man-made Ponds = Increased Wetlands

By FELICITY BARRINGER

WASHINGTON, March 30 — In the bog of the federal regulatory code, a wetland is defined as a marshy area of saturated soils and plants whose roots spend part of their lives immersed in water. In the Interior Department's periodic national surveys, a wetland is defined, more or less, as wet.

Traditional tidal, coastal and upland marshes count, but so do golf course water hazards and other man-made ponds whose surface is less than 20 acres.

And so, even at a time of continued marsh depletion, pond inflation permitted Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton and Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns to announce proudly on Thursday the first net increase in wetlands since the Fish and Wildlife Service started measuring them in 1954. Wetlands acreage, measured largely by aerial surveys, totaled 107.7 million acres at the end of 2004, up by 191,800 acres from 1998.

Digby: That's Our Howard

Those of us who live in California have always known that Howard Kaloogian is a clown. It's nice to see that he's getting the national exposure he deserves.

Many of you will remember that his group Moving America Back to the Dark Ages did an ad recently during the John Bolton confirmation hearings:

Wife: Honey, were you watching C-SPAN today? Did you hear how disloyal Senator Voinovich was to Republicans and President Bush? Voinovich stood with the Democrats and refused to vote for John Bolton, the man President Bush has chosen to fight for the United States at the UN

Digby: Mudcat Love

It's clear that Chris Matthews sees the immigration issue as another opportunity to crawl up the GOP codpiece and prove his manly manliness. Yesterday he not only had that silly Dukes of Hazard caricature Mudcat "I call 'em illegal aliens" Saunders on, he said this:

MATTHEWS: Well, the fact is, Bob, it's not just -- and Kate -- it's not just Republicans who don't like illegal immigration. Seventy-one percent of the country say it's their number one concern. They want to stop illegal immigration. These are regular Americans. They're not right-wingers. And they think we ought to have a border.

Americablog: "The banality of evil"

by John in DC - 3/30/2006 09:25:00 PM

A few words about Hannah Arendt and her essay "Eichmann in Jerusalem." Something to keep in mind the next time someone tries to tell you that a vicious Republican like Jesse Helms or Pat Buchanan is actually a very nice person when you meet them. Rather than calling that person crazy, consider the nuance of what they're actually telling you:

She controversially uses the phrase 'the banality of evil' to characterize Eichmann's actions as a member of the Nazi regime, in particular his role as chief architect and executioner of Hitler's genocidal 'final solution' (Endlosung) for the 'Jewish problem'. Her characterization of these actions, so obscene in their nature and consequences, as 'banal' is not meant to position them as workaday. Rather it is meant to contest the prevalent depictions of the Nazi's inexplicable atrocities as having emanated from a malevolent will to do evil, a delight in murder. As far as Arendt could discern, Eichmann came to his willing involvement with the program of genocide through a failure or absence of the faculties of sound thinking and judgement. From Eichmann's trial in Jerusalem (where he had been brought after Israeli agents found him in hiding in Argentina), Arendt concluded that far from exhibiting a malevolent hatred of Jews which could have accounted psychologically for his participation in the Holocaust, Eichmann was an utterly innocuous individual. He operated unthinkingly, following orders, efficiently carrying them out, with no consideration of their effects upon those he targeted. The human dimension of these activities were not entertained, so the extermination of the Jews became indistinguishable from any other bureaucratically assigned and discharged responsibility for Eichmann and his cohorts.

Digby: Big Brother Is Freezing

Another Homeland Security success story:

From Anchorage it takes 90 minutes on a propeller plane to reach this fishing village on the state's southwestern edge, a place where some people still make raincoats out of walrus intestine.

This is the Alaskan bush at its most remote. Here, tundra meets sea, and sea turns to ice for half the year. Scattered, almost hidden, in the terrain are some of the most isolated communities on American soil. People choose to live in outposts like Dillingham (pop. 2,400) for that reason: to be left alone.

Justice Department Subpoenas Reach Far Beyond Google

In its effort to uphold the Child Online Protection Act, the U.S. Department of Justice is leaving no stone unturned. In addition to America Online, MSN, and Google, the government has demanded information from at least 34 Internet service providers, search companies, and security software firms, InformationWeek learned through a Freedom of Information Act request.

By Thomas Claburn
InformationWeek

Mar 29, 2006 06:00 PM

In its effort to uphold the 1998 Child Online Protection Act (COPA), the U.S. Department of Justice is leaving no stone unturned. Its widely reported issuance of subpoenas to Internet search companies AOL, MSN, Google, and Yahoo is just the tip of the iceberg: The government has demanded information from at least 34 Internet service providers, search companies, and security software firms.

Responding to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by InformationWeek, the Department of Justice disclosed that it has issued subpoenas to a broad range of companies, including AT&T, Comcast Cable, Cox Communications, EarthLink, LookSmart, SBC Communications (then separate from AT&T), Symantec, and Verizon.

Asked which companies objected to, or sought to limit, these subpoenas, Department of Justice spokesperson Charles Miller declined to comment, citing that the litigation was ongoing. He also declined to comment on the utility of the information gathered by the government.

Insulating Bush

By Murray Waas, National Journal

© National Journal Group Inc.
Thursday, March 30, 2006

Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser, cautioned other White House aides in the summer of 2003 that Bush's 2004 re-election prospects would be severely damaged if it was publicly disclosed that he had been personally warned that a key rationale for going to war had been challenged within the administration. Rove expressed his concerns shortly after an informal review of classified government records by then-Deputy National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley determined that Bush had been specifically advised that claims he later made in his 2003 State of the Union address -- that Iraq was procuring high-strength aluminum tubes to build a nuclear weapon -- might not be true, according to government records and interviews.

One year later, conservatives still cashing in on Terri Schiavo

Bill Berkowitz
March 30, 2006

The religious right still doesn't believe the scientific evidence that proved Schiavo was in a 'persistent vegetative state' since 1990. Their shameful, embarrassing and expensive crusade continues to this day

Last year at this time, stories about Terri Schiavo -- the woman who had been in a "persistent vegetative state" since 1990 -- dominated the political landscape. In a recent story in The New Yorker magazine about the Bush Administration's protracted war on science, Michael Specter wrote that In 1998, when Michael Schiavo "asked that [Terri's] feeding tube be removed...a legal war with her parents [was ignited] that eventually turned into a national conflict."

Bush Wanted War

By Richard Cohen

Thursday, March 30, 2006; 12:00 AM

It is my firm belief that if, say, a few dozen people simultaneously did an Internet search for the words "Bush lied," computers all over the country would crash and the energy grid would buckle, producing a rolling blackout that would begin somewhere around Terre Haute, Ind., and end in Barnstable, Mass. So common is the statement "Bush lied" that it seems sometimes that I am the only blue-state person who does not think it is true. Then, last week, the indomitable Helen Thomas changed all that with a single question. She asked George Bush why he wanted "to go to war" from the moment he "stepped into the White House," and the president said, "You know, I didn't want war." With that, the last blue-state skeptic folded.

Army Bans Use of Privately Bought Armor

By LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press Writer
Fri Mar 31, 3:45 AM ET

WASHINGTON - Just six months after the Pentagon agreed to reimburse soldiers who bought their own protective gear, the Army has banned the use of any body armor that is not issued by the military.

In a new directive, effective immediately, the Army said it cannot guarantee the quality of commercially bought armor, and any soldier wearing it will have to turn it in and have it replaced with authorized gear.

Molly Ivins: Immigration 101 for Beginners and Non-Texans

Posted on Mar. 30, 2006

By Molly Ivins

AUSTIN, Texas—In 1983, I was a judge at the Terlingua Chili Cookoff, and my memory of the events may not be perfect—for example, for years I’ve been claiming Jimmy Carter was president at the time, but that’s the kind of detail one often loses track of in Terlingua.

Anyway, it was ’83 or some year right around there when we held The Fence climbing contest. See, people talked about building The Fence back then, too. The Fence along the Mexican border. To keep Them out.

At the time, the proposal was quite specific—a 17-foot cyclone fence with bob wire at the top. So a test fence was built at Terlingua, and the First-Ever Terlingua Memorial Over, Under or Through Mexican Fence Climbing Contest took place. Prize: a case of Lone Star beer. Winning time: 30 seconds.

Fool Me Twice

By Joseph Cirincione

Posted March 27, 2006

I used to think that the Bush administration wasn’t seriously considering a military strike on Iran, because it would only accelerate Iran’s nuclear program. But what we're seeing and hearing on Iran today seems awfully familiar. That may be because some U.S. officials have already decided they want to hit Iran hard.

Does this story line sound familiar? The vice president of the United States gives a major speech focused on the threat from an oil-rich nation in the Middle East. The U.S. secretary of state tells congress that the same nation is our most serious global challenge. The secretary of defense calls that nation the leading supporter of global terrorism. The president blames it for attacks on U.S. troops. The intelligence agencies say the nuclear threat from this nation is 10 years away, but the director of intelligence paints a more ominous picture. A new U.S. national security strategy trumpets preemptive attacks and highlights the country as a major threat. And neoconservatives beat the war drums, as the cable media banner their stories with words like “countdown” and “showdown.”

Unexpected warming in Antarctica

By Jonathan Fildes
BBC News science reporter

Winter air temperatures over Antarctica have risen by more than 2C in the last 30 years, a new study shows.

Research published in the US journal Science says the warming is seen across the whole of the continent and much of the Southern Ocean.

The study questions the reliability of current climate models that fail to simulate the temperature rise.

In addition, the scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) say the cause of the warming is not clear.

Long Live The 9/11 Conspiracy!

This should probably be read for entertainment value only...--Dictynna

- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Here is your must-read for the month. Here is your oh-my-God- I'm-sending-this-piece- to-every-smart-person-I-know hunk of outstanding, distressing, disquieting media bliss.

Here it is: an absolutely exceptional inside scoop on the white-hot world of Sept. 11 conspiracy theories, writ large and smart by Mark Jacobson over at New York magazine, and it's mandatory reading for anyone and everyone who's ever entertained the nagging thought that something -- or rather, far more than one something -- is deeply wrong with the official line on what actually happened on Sept. 11.

East Asian economies must prepare for possible sharp US dollar slide

TOKYO (AFX) - With the US trade deficit at a record high and global interest rates rising, East Asian economies need to be prepared for a possible sharp slump in the value of the dollar, the Asian Development Bank warned here.

'Any shock hitting the US economy or the global market may change investors' perceptions given the existing global current account imbalance,' Masahiro Kawai, the ADB's head of regional economic integration, told reporters on a trip here. The ADB's headquarters are in Manila.

Prosecutor, Agent Indicted in Detroit

Misconduct Alleged in Detroit Terror Trial

By Dan Eggen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, March 30, 2006; A03

A former federal prosecutor and a State Department security officer were indicted yesterday on charges that they lied during a bungled terrorism trial in Detroit and then sought to cover up their deceptions once the case began to fall apart.

Former assistant U.S. attorney Richard G. Convertino, 45, and State Department special agent Harry R. Smith III, 49, were charged with conspiracy, obstruction of justice and making false statements in connection with the 2003 prosecution, according to an indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Detroit.

Cursor's Media Patrol - 03/29/06

'Abramoff gets 5 years, 10 months' in Miami, although supporters argue that their guy "deserves a break," but The Hill reports that the GOP lobbyist 'gets payback in gaming bill.'

Five former FISA judges reportedly "voiced skepticism at a Senate hearing about the president's constitutional authority to order wiretapping on Americans without a court order." Plus: 'D for Danger.'

As a new Gallup poll finds that 'More Americans Now Call Themselves Democrats,' GOP candidates are urged to proclaim themselves "brand W. Republicans."

Baghdad Burning's Riverbend, who is up for a heavyweight book prize, makes a trip to the morgue after reading a news scroll on Iraqi TV: "The Ministry of Defense requests that civilians do not comply with the orders of the army or police on nightly patrols unless they are accompanied by coalition forces working in that area."

A psychoanalyst and psychologist weighs in on a recent report that mentally ill service members are "heading back to Iraq with a cache of antidepressant and anti-anxiety medications" -- where U.S. troops are encouraged to "take the human being out of it and make them into a video game."

A photo inspires bloggers to talk Turkey, after being displayed on the web site of a GOP candidate seeking to fill the shoes of a gone but not forgotten congressman.

Digby: The Lowest of The Low

Andrew Sullivan has been writing about discrimination against atheists lately. Today's post on the subject is particularly interesting:

Eugene Volokh has just written a law article (PDF file here) on how atheist fathers and mothers are routinely discriminated against in child custody cases. He cites over 70 recent cases across the country - and these were only the ones which were appealed, so they probably represent a fraction of the actual cases. Volokh recalls how Percy Byshe Shelley was the first father to be denied custody because of his atheism - but his dilemma doesn't belong to a different time and place

Digby: Cheating By Reflex

If they aren't plagiarising, they're lying. If they aren't lying they're cooking the record. If they can't win, they cheat.

And anyone who ever believes a word of anything coming out of the mouth of that unctuous phony Huckleberry Graham is just looking to get punked.

Digby: More Pretexts

In reference to my post below about Bush and Blair casually throwing around possible pretexts for the war, Jonathan at A Tiny Revolution pointed me to a post he wrote almost a year ago in which he showed that this was openly discussed at the time by none other than the likes of liberal hawk hero, Kenneth Pollack:

...The Threatening Storm by Kenneth Pollack was the book all good liberal hawks claimed had convinced them we just HAD to invade Iraq. And Pollack spoke about this strategy quite openly.

Digby: Intervention

A couple of months ago when Deborah Howell was "deluged" with "uncivilized" comments about her failure to correct a blatant misrepresentation, the Washington Post ombudsman and others had a shrieking fit of the vapors and spent days on the fainting couch mumbling incoherently about the rude insults they had to endure. I thought Howell would have to take a leave of absense and get herself to a nunnery for a few weeks just to regain her belief in the goodness of mankind after such an assault.

As was amply demonstrated, the vast majority of the comments were not, in fact, crude or filthy. They condemned the Post for uncritically recycling RNC talking points and failing to provide proof of their assertions. And they used aggressive language to do it.

Billmon: Copy Cat

It's a good question: With all the conservative bloggers out there -- admittedly, almost all of them vapid and stupid, but still, out there -- why did the Washington Post not only hire a GOP apparachik (and a nepotism case at that) but a GOP apparachik who was, by all appearances, a serial plagiarist?

I certainly don't know the answer, but if Howie Kurtz's media column today was any indiction, the motivation (and/or motivator) must have been pretty damned powerful. Clearly, right up to the moment Baby Ben resigned, the Post was circling the editorial wagons and trying to fend off the critics -- as seen in Kurtz's lead, which tried to pretend it was a story about how those vicious left-wing bloggers picking on Baby Ben, instead of Jayson Blair in white face. It's been more than hilarious watching Howie hustle on a Friday afternoon to catch up with events -- and the new party line.

The White House That Cried Wolf

Posted on Mar. 27, 2006

By Molly Ivins

The Pentagon has once again investigated itself! And—have a seat, get the smelling salts, hold all hats—the Pentagon has once again concluded the Pentagon did absolutely nothing wrong and will continue to do so.

In this particularly fascinating case, the Pentagon investigated its own habit of paying people to make up lies about how well the war in Iraq is going, and then paying other people to put those lies in the Iraqi media, thus fooling the Iraqis into thinking everything in their country is tickety-boo. Well, if we can’t fool them, whom can we fool?

Cursor's Media Patrol - 03/28/06

TalkLeft asks of Zacharias Moussaoui's claim that he and Richard Reid were going to fly a plane into the White House on 9/11, "Is it the truth or is Moussaoui trying to hand the Government a win so he can die what he believes will be a martyr's death?"

Fresh from being paired with David Duke, Juan Cole discusses the growing influence of Muqtada al-Sadr, who he describes as both "a kingmaker in Iraqi politics" and "at daggers drawn with the insurgency."

President Bush has reportedly "been holding off-the-record meetings with White House reporters for the past few days," but the New York Times "has declined this opportunity ... As a matter of policy and practice, we would prefer when possible to conduct on-the-record interviews with public officials."

Robert Parry argues that it's 'Time to Talk War Crimes,' and Kevin Phillips asks whether it's 'Time to Recall Bush?'

"In the world of Sen. Levin," writes Glenn Greenwald, "the new principle is: 'If you think you're doing good, feel free to break the law.' That isn't hyperbole or interpretation. That is really what he's saying."

Asbestos-filled tunnels running under the Capitol are reportedly "so dangerous that the U.S. Capitol Police have been forbidden from patrolling them, leaving a potential security loophole."

A Republican challenger to Sen. Robert Byrd, whose wife of 68 years died on Saturday, has hired the PR firm behind the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" campaign.

...And Matt Taibbi, who chronicled Penn's tournalistic tour of New Orleans, has just written 'The secret history of the most corrupt man in Washington.'

Bush's Immigration Crisis

By Dan Froomkin

Special to washingtonpost.com
Monday, March 27, 2006; 12:27 PM

For all the talk of a Republican congressional rebellion, President Bush hasn't yet lost a significant legislative battle on Capitol Hill.

This week may change all that.

Moseley tied to steering of Thunderbirds contract

By Robert Anglen
The Arizona Republic

The highest-ranking officer in the Air Force pushed a $49 million publicity project for the Thunderbirds air show that is now being investigated by federal regulators.

Documents obtained by The Arizona Republic show that Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley and other high-ranking officials were involved in steering the contract toward a Pennsylvania company whose senior partners included a recently retired four-star Air Force general.Strategic Message Solutions won the contract through a public bidding process, although its bid was $25 million higher than a competing proposal.

Undisclosed documents shed light on further Halliburton billing abuse; $57m in new questioned charges

RAW STORY
Published: Tuesday March 28, 2006

An analysis by a Democratic congressman of Halliburton's third major contract in Iraq found that the firm's third contract was ripe with allegations of billing abuse, RAW STORY has learned. According to Waxman's review, some $57 million in charges were questioned by the Defense Contract Audit Agency, an arm of the Pentagon, in a random audit of several task orders. Out of $111 million in costs examined, $57 million were questioned or unsupported -- more than 50% of the total costs for these orders

Imperial overreach is accelerating the global decline of America

The disastrous foreign policies of the US have left it more isolated than ever, and China is standing by to take over

Martin Jacques
Tuesday March 28, 2006
The Guardian

'Our power, then, has the grave liability of rendering our theories about the world immune from failure. But by becoming deaf to easily discerned warning signs, we may ignore long-term costs that result from our actions and dismiss reverses that should lead to a re-examination of our goals and means."

These are the words of Henry Hyde, chairman of the House international relations committee and a Republican congressman, in a recent speech. Hyde argues that such is the overweening power of the US that it may not hear or recognise the signals when its policy goes badly wrong, a thinly veiled reference to Iraq. He then takes issue with the idea that the US can export democracy around the world as deeply misguided and potentially dangerous. He argues: "A broad and energetic promotion of democracy in other countries that will not enjoy our long-term and guiding presence may equate not to peace and stability but to revolution ... There is no evidence that we or anyone can guide from afar revolutions we have set in motion. We can more easily destabilise friends and others and give life to chaos and to avowed enemies than ensure outcomes in service of our interests and security."

Americablog: Our loonies versus their loonies

by John in DC - 3/25/2006 08:11:00 PM

Whenever I get into a discussion with a Republican over how nasty conservatives have become over the past 15 years, I often get the "well you have Michael Moore" refrain.

Only problem is, yes we do have Michael Moore, and when did he ever suggest blacks are genetically inferior to whites (Republican David Duke), that Supreme Court justices should be assassinated (Republican Ann Coulter), and when was he ever indicted (Tom Delay, Jack Abramoff, Scooter Libby, and oh so many more)?

FEMA breaks promise on Katrina contracts

Agency will extend, not rebid, deals with politically connected firms

The Associated Press

Updated: 6:56 p.m. ET March 24, 2006

WASHINGTON - FEMA has broken its promise to reopen four multimillion-dollar no-bid contracts for Hurricane Katrina work, including three that federal auditors say wasted significant amounts of money.

Officials said they awarded the four contracts last October to speed recovery efforts that might have been slowed by competitive bidding. Some critics, however, suggested they were rewards for politically connected firms.

Acting FEMA Director R. David Paulison pledged last fall to rebid the contracts, which were awarded to Shaw Group Inc., Bechtel Corp., CH2M Hill Inc. and Fluor Corp. Later, the agency acknowledged the rebidding wouldn’t happen until February.

Delta Force founder: Bush may have started World War III

RAW STORY
Published: Friday March 24, 2006

A founding member of the elite counter-terrorist unit, Delta Force, suggested that President Bush's invasion of Iraq may have started World War III, according to the Los Angeles Daily News, RAW STORY has learned. The article, acquired by RAW STORY Friday night, is expected in Sunday editions of the paper.

Retired Command Sergeant Major Eric Haney's book "Inside Delta Force" became the basis for the CBS drama "The Unit," where he now assumes technical adviser and executive producer duties.

Judge OKs Abramoff subpoena

Ex-lobbyist says he knows nothing about slaying of casino boss

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP) -- A judge has approved subpoenas for former lobbyist Jack Abramoff and an ex-business partner to answer questions about the mob-style slaying of the owner of a gambling fleet they bought.

Abramoff and Adam Kidan have insisted, through their attorneys, that they know nothing about the slaying of Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis, who was ambushed in his car by a gunman in Fort Lauderdale a few months after the pair bought SunCruz Casinos from him.

A lawyer for Anthony "Big Tony" Moscatiello, one of three men charged in the 2001 slaying, wants to question Abramoff and Kidan, according to court documents. Circuit Judge Michael Kaplan approved the request Thursday, but the subpoenas had not been issued by Friday morning.

The SunCruz purchase is "at the heart" of the murder case, Moscatiello attorney Dave Bogenschutz said in court papers.

IRS Audited Greenpeace At Request of ExxonMobil-Funded Group

Friday, March 24th, 2006

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The Wall Street Journal revealed this week that a little-known watchdog group, largely subsidized by ExxonMobil, was responsible for getting the IRS to audit the environmental organization Greenpeace. We speak with the reporter who broke the story and the head of Greenpeace USA. [includes rush transcript]

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The Wall Street Journal revealed this week a little-known watchdog group was responsible for getting the IRS to audit the environmental organization Greenpeace. Two years ago, Public Interest Watch challenged Greenpeace's tax-exempt status and accused the group of money laundering and other crimes. According to the Journal, tax records show more than 95 percent of the funding of Public Interest Watch was provided by the oil giant ExxonMobil.

Matt Taibbi: How to Be a Lobbyist Without Trying

A personal journey into Washington's culture of greed

In January, I was in Washington, D.C., interviewing an activist from a political watchdog group about Abramoff-related stuff.

"I'll tell you who's got a lot of balls," he said to me. "Senator Conrad Burns. He talked about his lobby-reform plan today, but check it out, he's throwing a thousand-buck-a-plate birthday party for himself tomorrow night. I'm surprised he didn't show up on the Hill today in a fucking Hamburglar costume."

Florida County Supervisor Draws Criticism

By BRENT KALLESTAD, Associated Press Writer
Sat Mar 25, 5:22 PM ET

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. - Elections controversies just seem to stick to Florida. With the memory of a botched 2000 presidential election still etched in the minds of most elections supervisors in the state, Leon County's Ion Sancho is now finding he can't get the equipment he says he needs to guarantee an honest election.

Vendors of the ATM-like electronic voting machines, tired of Sancho's criticisms over the level of security in their software, no longer want to do business with him or the county. All three companies certified to do business in Florida — Diebold Inc., Election Systems & Software Inc. and Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. — have said "no.

Neil Bush's 'Investors' Revealed

Neil Bush's Investors

By Paul Kiel - March 24, 2006, 6:31 PM

Yesterday, Josh pointed out that the business model for Neil Bush's education company Ignite! seems to be that "Neil goes around the world finding international statesmen, bigwigs and criminals who want to 'invest' in Ignite! as a way to curry favor with the brother in the White House."

But just who are those statesmen, bigwigs and criminals?

Former DeLay Aide Enriched By Nonprofit

Bulk of Group's Funds Tied to Abramoff

By R. Jeffrey Smith

Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 26, 2006; Page A01

A top adviser to former House Whip Tom DeLay received more than a third of all the money collected by the U.S. Family Network, a nonprofit organization the adviser created to promote a pro-family political agenda in Congress, according to the group's accounting records.

DeLay's former chief of staff, Edwin A. Buckham, who helped create the group while still in DeLay's employ, and his wife, Wendy, were the principal beneficiaries of the group's $3.02 million in revenue, collecting payments totaling $1,022,729 during a five-year p