Digby: Maverick Mambo

McCain positioning himself for '08 is becoming quite an interesting pas de deux. It appears to me that he's decided to kiss up the religious right and run against K Street, using his campaign finance reform cred. And he's prepared to do battle with Grover Norquist to that end.

I suppose the first question that comes to my mind is whether this is all some sort of kabuki. Norquist is a movement darling and it doesn't make a lot of sense to pick on him personally. And, make no mistake, they are picking on him personally.

Digby: Liberal Ballast

The next time somebody asks you about what the blogosphere really means to politics, pull this out:

The great benefit of the blogosphere is that it isn't really an "interest group"; it's more like an old-style membership organization (or a series of such organizations) whose existence used to do something to check what's now become the out-of-control influence of business groups over the policy process.

Digby: Telling Our Story

In an interesting post over at op-ed news, Stephen Denning, an author and lecturer on the subject of narrative and leadership writes the following:

What's the story that the new leaders will need to communicate? In broad outline, we know what it will be, both for Democrats and Republicans, since as Robert Reich has explained, there are only four stories in American politics

Digby: Cuente Los Votos!

Isn't just wierd that whenever there's a close election these days that the right wing always comes out on top? Now, why would that be do you suppose?

It used to be commonplace for Mexican elections to be rigged and so I guess i'm not all that surprised that this one was. What's odd are the striking similarities between it and the recently "disputed" elections here in the US.

Digby: Arrogant Wingnut

I'm listening to the Lieberman-Lamont debate and if I were just tuning in with no knowledge of the players I would just assume that Lieberman was a conservative Republican, if not an actual member of the Bush administration. He's behaving like an arrogant, bullying thug.

No wonder the Republicans love him so much --- the only time he gets nasty is when he's debating a Democrat. When he debated Dick Cheney he practically gave him a blow job on national TV. But then, that makes sense. He and Dick Cheney both agree that Ned Lamont "and his supporters" are a threat to the nation.

Digby: A Few Good Men

Well now, this certainly does explain a few things, doesn't it?

A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists" to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization.

I'm not sure there's anything more stupid than hiring a bunch of neo-nazi's to occupy a foreign country. But it is par for the course with the Bush administration.

Digby: Why Do They Hate Us So Much?

The United States of Kafka strikes again. Here's yet another story of unspeakable horrors at the hands of Americans against some Algerian nobody who was the victim of a bad translation.

After being held for a week in a prison in the mountains of Malawi, Mr. Saidi said, a group of people arrived in a sport utility vehicle: a gray-haired Caucasian woman and five men dressed in black wearing black masks revealing only their eyes.

Digby: Tribal Crush

Most of us bloggers have said this in one way or another over the past few weeks. But I think Ezra gets to the nub better than any of us have:

Because it's not about the war. Or moderation. Or ideology at all. It's about partisanship. The lines are brightly drawn, but in unexpected places. You can support the President's war, but you can't protect him from criticism. You can vote with Republicans, but you can't undermine Democrats. You can be a hawk, but you can't deride doves. The politics here are tribal, and Lieberman's developed too severe a crush on the neighboring chieftain to participate. I've tried to explain why that may be -- he gropes towards praise and recognition, and receives both more readily from the right -- but pop psychology isn't quite the point. And nor is ideology. Or the war. For all the mockery Bush received, his assertion that "you're either with us or against us" was more widely applicable than he realized. Lieberman's actions convinced liberals that he didn't merely disagree with them, or fear the political ramifications of their positions, but that he was actively against them. And while they can withstand an impressive amount of disagreement, they won't stand for dislike.

Digby: Codpiece Fatigue

Do you remember the term "Clinton fatigue?" You know, back when everybody was really, really tired of peace and prosperity and talking about oral sex? (You can understand why everyone wanted our long national nightmare to be over...)

It occurs to me that some conservatives, at least the educated ones, must be feeling some serious "Bush fatigue" about now. When they hear ignorant, puerile drivel like this come out of his mouth, some of them (a couple of them?) must look at the calendar and count the days until their personal nightmare is over:

"It didn't say we couldn't have done — couldn't have made that decision, see?" Mr. Bush said at a news conference in Chicago. "They were silent on whether or not Guantánamo — whether or not we should have used Guantánamo. In other words, they accepted the use of Guantánamo, the decision I made."

Digby: Throwing Out The Bums

Moderate Republicans say a planned summer push by the House leadership on conservative causes like gun rights and new abortion restrictions threatens the re-election prospects of embattled centrists, who are key to the party's drive to hold Congress.

Frustrated and angry, they say the leadership's new American Values Agenda, a list of initiatives heavy on ideological themes, seems short-sighted and ill-timed considering that few conservatives are at serious risk in November.

Billmon: Warhogs

Here's David Frum, proving once again that a neocon will say anything if he thinks it might start a war:

David Frum argues the real culprit behind inflationary pressures around the world is higher oil prices, and that Iran's nuclear program only makes matters worse.

Yes, that's right, and the initials CPI actually stand for Conspiracy Promoted by Iran. It must be a plot by all those Iranian economists over at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The forces of International Persianism strike again!

Americablog:

by John in DC - 7/08/2006 03:33:00 PM

An important, and scary, difference:

Too many people — in every country — think nationalism and patriotism are the same thing. They’re not; they’re completely different.

Orwell defined patriotism as “devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life, which one believes to be the best in the world but has no wish to force upon other people.” Can’t argue with that.

The subtitle of this article is “The greatness of the United States is unique—and not a model to be exported by narrow-minded nationalists.

Counterinsurgency by the Book

The lessons of a new Army Field Manual.

By Fred Kaplan
Posted Saturday, July 8, 2006, at 7:09 AM ET

Two messages flutter between the lines of the U.S. Army's new field manual on counterinsurgency wars, its first document on the subject in 20 years.

One is that Pentagon planning for the Iraq war's aftermath was at least as crass, inattentive to the lessons of history, and contrary to basic political and military principles as the war's harshest critics have charged.

Paul Krugman: The Treason Card

The New York Times
Published: July 7, 2006

The nature of the right-wing attack on The New York Times — an attack not on the newspaper's judgment, but on its motives — seems to have startled many people in the news media. After an editorial in The Wall Street Journal declared that The Times has what amount to treasonous intentions — that it "has as a major goal not winning the war on terror but obstructing it" — The Journal's own political editor pronounced himself "shocked," saying that "I don't know anybody on the news staff of The Wall Street Journal that believes that."

But anyone who was genuinely shocked by The Journal's willingness to play the treason card must not have been paying attention these past five years.

Was Bob Woodward Slam-Dunked?

By Robert Parry
July 7, 2006

One of the most memorable behind-the-scenes accounts of pre-Iraq War decision-making was Bob Woodward’s story of an Oval Office meeting on Dec. 21, 2002, when George W. Bush and his top advisers reviewed the CIA’s case against Saddam Hussein for supposedly hiding weapons of mass destruction.

Using flip charts, deputy CIA director John McLaughlin presented the evidence while President Bush watched impatiently. When McLaughlin finished, Bush reportedly remarked, “Nice try” and added “I’ve been told all this intelligence about having WMD and this is the best we’ve got?”

Justices Tacitly Backed Use of Guantánamo, Bush Says

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG

Published: July 8, 2006

WASHINGTON, July 7 — In his most detailed comments to date on the Supreme Court's rejection of his decision to put detainees on trial before military commissions, President Bush said Friday that the court had tacitly approved his use of the detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.

"It didn't say we couldn't have done — couldn't have made that decision, see?" Mr. Bush said at a news conference in Chicago. "They were silent on whether or not Guantánamo — whether or not we should have used Guantánamo. In other words, they accepted the use of Guantánamo, the decision I made."

Mr. Bush's remarks put a favorable spin on a ruling that has been widely interpreted as a rebuke of the administration's policies in the war on terror. The court, ruled broadly last week in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld that military commissions were unauthorized by statute and violated international law.
. . . .

[If he still has the flacks who came up with that spin, when the lot of them have been impeached and he's been convicted of war crimes, maybe he'll brag he wasn't charged with genocide. But this should go without saying: " 'I am willing to abide by the ruling of the Supreme Court,' the president said."----Silva]

The Biofuel Illusion

By Julia Olmstead, AlterNet. Posted July 7, 2006.

The focus on biofuels to solve our energy and climate change crises could have potentially disastrous environmental consequences.

There's been a lot of talk lately about the promise of biofuels -- liquid fuels like ethanol and biodiesel made from plants -- to reduce our dependence on oil. Even President Bush beat the biofuel drum in his last State of the Union speech.

The Top 10 Power Brokers of the Religious Right

By Rob Boston, Church and State. Posted July 7, 2006.

Who they are, what they want, and why these American ayatollahs must be stopped.

The United States is home to dozens of Religious Right groups. Many have small budgets and focus on state and local issues; the most powerful organizations conduct nationwide operations, command multi-million-dollar bank accounts and attract millions of followers. They have disproportionate clout in the halls of Congress, the White House and the courts, and they wield enormous influence within the political system.

What follows is a list of the nation’s Top Ten Religious Right groups, as determined by publicly available financial data and political prominence. Additional information describes the organizations’ leaders, funding and activities.

Hate Groups Are Infiltrating the Military, Group Asserts

By JOHN KIFNER

A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists" to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization.

The Southern Poverty Law Center, which tracks racist and right-wing militia groups, estimated that the numbers could run into the thousands, citing interviews with Defense Department investigators and reports and postings on racist Web sites and magazines.

"We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," the group quoted a Defense Department investigator as saying in a report to be posted today on its Web site, www.splcenter.org. "That's a problem."

Ever Wonder Why Politicos Do the Colbert Show?

Posted on Jul 5, 200

No matter how silly Stephen Colbert makes politicians look on his show, an appearance on “The Colbert Report” is the best (and maybe the only) way to make young voters pay attention and respond to their representatives in Congress, according to The Washington Times.

The Washington Times:

No matter how hard members of Congress who appear on the “Better Know a District” comedy segment try to beat the system, Stephen Colbert makes them end up looking silly. But several lawmakers said doing the spoof spot on “The Colbert Report” on TV’s Comedy Central actually has raised their profiles back home, particularly among young folks.

Mexico Presidential Election Ballots Found in Dump

07/06/2006 @ 10:15 am

Filed by RAW STORY

As the apparent victor in Mexico's presidential election switched back and forth Thursday morning, ballots were found in two garbage dumps, RAW STORY has learned. The news was accompanied by various wire reports showing that left wing candidate Andrйs Manuel Lуpez Obrador had rejected findings that his opponent Felipe Calderуn was the winner.

Although official tallies indicated a victory for Calderуn of 0.3%, the Mexican newspaper El Universal reported that 10 ballot boxes and a polling station report were found in a garbage dump in a poor neighbourhood in Mexico City, according to Reuters. The ballots came from three precincts in the city of Nezahuacoyotl, a Lуpez Obrador stronghold according to the website Narco News.

Charles Colson fights ruling against his religious based prison program

In strong language, District Court judge ordered prison rehab ministry shut down

After serving time in prison for Watergate-related crimes, Charles W. Colson embraced Christianity, founded Prison Fellowship Ministries in 1976, and has since become a high profile, well-respected and oft-quoted Christian conservative leader. Over the past several years, Colson's InnerChange Freedom Initiative has partnered with prison authorities in several states, including Texas, Minnesota, Kansas, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Missouri, to provide prisoners with a Christ-centered rehabilitation program.

In June, however, U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pratt, chief judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, handed Colson's operation a setback. Judge Pratt ruled in favor of a suit filed by Americans United for Separation of Church and State (Americans United) which claimed that IFI's operation at Iowa's Newton Correctional Facility violated the Establishment Clause of the US Constitution.

Enron Explained

The man who founded Enron, Kenneth Lay, has died just weeks before his jail sentence was to be announced. Mark Tran and Stefanie Khaw look at one of America's biggest business scandals

Thursday July 6, 2006
Guardian Unlimited

What is the latest development with Enron?

Kenneth Lay, the Enron founder, died of a "massive" heart attack on July 5 at his holiday home in Aspen, the exclusive Colorado ski resort. He was 64. In May, Lay was found guilty of six counts of fraud and conspiracy and was due to be sentenced in September. He expected to spend the rest of his life in prison. Lay is the second top Enron executive to die since the company collapsed. In 2002, Clifford Baxter was found dead after shooting himself in a Houston suburb.

Is The Print Newspaper Dead?

Of course it is. But then again, not even close. Are you ready for what's next?

- By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist
Wednesday, July 5, 2006

Like anyone who works in or around or underneath an ink 'n' grit newspaper these days, I get asked this all the time: Is the newspaper dead? Aren't all the nation's print rags suffering a horrible hemorrhaging of money and readership and cred? How much longer can dead-tree news possibly last in the age of blogs and cell phones and ADD media? Why are you naked? Does this look overly tumescent to you? And so on.

And the answer to most of those questions is, of course, yes. And no. And sort of. And maybe you should quit touching that.

Congressman Attacks Liberal ‘Backbiters’ And ‘Naysayers’ For Criticizing Failed Missile Defense

The right wing has latched on to North Korea’s unsuccessful missile launch to renew its calls for increased funding for the Pentagon’s failed $92-billion missile defense system. Yesterday on Fox News, Rep. Dana Rohrbacher (R-CA) attacked Democratic “backbiters” and “naysayers” — including guest Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA) — for questioning the program.

Scientists Issue Dire Warning on Marine Life

Wed Jul 5, 11:00 AM ET

Global carbon dioxide emissions are dramatically altering ocean chemistry and threatening marine organisms, a group of researchers warned today.

Already, damage to fragile coral reefs has been documented. Coral supports a range of other organisms, from the microscopic to small fish and the larger predators that feed on them.

Carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels could overload the seas, researchers say in a new report designed to document what's known about the problem. The report echoes earlier warnings from individual scientists.

“It is clear that seawater chemistry will change in coming decades and centuries in ways that will dramatically alter marine life,” said Joan Kleypas, the report’s lead author and a scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado. “But we are only beginning to understand the complex interactions between large-scale chemistry changes and marine ecology. It is vital to develop research strategies to better understand the long-term vulnerabilities of sensitive marine organisms to these changes.”

House wants Abu Ghraib Whistleblower info

By PAULINE JELINEK, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jul 5, 8:29 PM ET

Lawmakers have issued a subpoena seeking Pentagon information on a soldier who says he suffered retaliation for reporting abuses at Abu Ghraib prison.

The subpoena from the House Government Reform Committee seeks all communications relating to information provided by Army Spc. Samuel Provance about the Iraq prison, where U.S. mistreatment of detainees caused an international uproar.

It also seeks information on the interrogation of an Iraqi officer there, identified by Provance as Gen. Hamid Zabar. Provance had helped interrogate Zabar's 16-year-old son and was later told the boy had been captured and abused to compel the general to give information, Provance said in testimony prepared for Congress.

Thom Hartmann: Reclaiming the Issues: "It's an Illegal Employer Problem"

by Thom Hartmann

http://www.opednews.com

Every time the media - or a Democrat - uses the phrase "Illegal Immigration" they are promoting one of Karl Rove's most potent Republican Party frames.

The reality is that we don't have an "Illegal Immigration" problem in America. We have an "Illegal Employer" problem.

Climate change 'real and severe'

By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News website

An expert panel convened by BBC News has concluded that climate change is "real and dangerous".

Temperatures are likely to rise by 3C to 5C by the end of the century, with impacts likely to be "severe" but not "catastrophic", the panel said.

It also concluded that politicians are unlikely to cut emissions sufficiently to prevent dangerous global heating.

Billmon: A House Divided

John Tierney, the right-leaning New York Times columnist, celebrated Independence Day with a column posing the classic what-if question: What if the South had won the Civil War and there were now two republics sharing the slice of continent between Canada and Mexico, instead of only one?

On Independence Day, would we all be happier with even more independence? What if government of the people meant that the Red people in the South and the Blue people in the North had a border between them?

I never read Tierney even before the Times firewall went up, so what I know about his column ("The Disunited States of America") is what Steve Gilliard excerpted and posted on his blog.

Cheaper US housing overshadows world economy: Soros

Tue Jul 4, 4:34 PM ET

A big question for the global economy is whether it can absorb the effects of a fall in the value of U.S. housing that has until now generated huge amounts of spending, billionaire financier George Soros said on Tuesday.

"The U.S. consumer has benefited from the rapid rise in the value of housing," Soros said. "Equity could be withdrawn from that increased value. Basically half of that is spent."

When victims are white, stereotypes of blacks influence who gets death sentences

By Linda Myers

When victims of capital crimes are white, jurors are more likely to hand down death sentences to defendants with stereotypically black features, a new study from four universities, including Cornell, shows.

The study, "Looking Deathworthy: Perceived Stereotypicality of Black Defendants Predicts Capital-Sentencing Outcomes," is the first to examine whether death sentences are influenced by juries' perceptions of defendants' features as stereotypically black. The results are published in the May issue of Psychological Science.

DDT in mothers linked to developmental delays in children, UC Berkeley study finds

Study finds that in utero exposure to DDT is linked to lower developmental scores in children, but nursing found to be beneficial, despite the fact that DDT is also transmitted through mother's milk

Since the 1970s, scientists have known that when DDT accumulates in a woman's tissues it can be transmitted to her developing fetus across the placenta. Now, a new study led by a team of researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, has found that such in utero exposure is associated with developmental delays in the young child.

The team also found that the longer the children nursed, the better they scored on developmental tests, despite the fact that DDT is also transmitted through breast milk. This was the case even with mothers who had high accumulations of the pesticide in their bodies, a finding that suggests that the benefits of nursing may outweigh the potentially harmful effects of DDT transmission through mother's milk.

Birds going extinct faster due to human activities

DURHAM, N.C. -- Human activities have caused some 500 bird species worldwide to go extinct over the past five millennia, and 21st-century extinction rates likely will accelerate to approximately 10 additional species per year unless societies take action to reverse the trend, according to a new report.

Without the influence of humans, the expected extinction rate for birds would be roughly one species per century, according to Stuart Pimm, professor of conservation ecology at Duke University's Nicholas School of the Environment and Earth Sciences, who is one of the report's principal authors.

Enron founder Kenneth Lay dies at 64

By KRISTEN HAYS, AP Business Writer
8 minutes ago

Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay, who was convicted of helping perpetuate one of the most sprawling business frauds in U.S. history, died Wednesday of a heart attack in Colorado. He was 64.

The Pitkin, Colo., Sheriff's Department said officers were called to Lay's house in Old Snowmass, Colo., shortly after 1 a.m. Mountain time. He was taken to Aspen Valley Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:11 a.m. Lay, who lived in Houston, frequently vacationed in Colorado.

WWFFD? Who cares?

Let's stop fussing about what America's founders thought, and let our minds run free.

By Mark Kurlansky,
MARK KURLANSKY is the author of many books, including, most recently, "The Big Oyster: History On a Half Shell."
July 4, 2006

SOMEONE HAS TO SAY IT or we are never going to get out of this rut: I am sick and tired of the founding fathers and all their intents.

The real American question of our times is how our country in a little over 200 years sank from the great hope to the most backward democracy in the West. The U.S. offers the worst healthcare program, one of the worst public school systems and the worst benefits for workers. The margin between rich and poor has been growing precipitously while it has been decreasing in Europe. Among the great democracies, we use military might less cautiously, show less respect for international law and are the stumbling block in international environmental cooperation. Few informed people look to the United States anymore for progressive ideas.

Billmon: The Totalitarian Temptation

More: What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?

Roper: I'd cut down every law in England to do that!

More: Oh? And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you -- where would you hide then Roper, the laws all being flat?

Robert Bolt
A Man for All Seasons
1960

Something that has long struck me as rather odd about the conservative assault on the Constitution is the willingness, or rather eagerness, of right-wing authoritarians to create and empower repressive mechanisms that at least in theory could some day be used to repress them.

Young: The unfathomable war against contraception

By JOHN YOUNG
Cox News Service
Monday, July 03, 2006

WACO, Texas — Two significant and long-awaited statements came the other day about birth control. One was three years in the making. The other took a year to compose.

The one that took a year came from President Bush. Last year Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., wrote the president asking his position on birth control. Getting no reply, she wrote again. And again. And again.

After five letters, which came to bear the signatures of 42 members of Congress, Maloney finally got an answer.

Assistant Secretary for Health John Agwunobi wrote that the administration "supports the availability of safe and effective products and services to assist responsible adults in making decisions about preventing or delaying conception."

Bush Directed Cheney To Counter War Critic

By Murray Waas, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Monday, July 3, 2006

President Bush told the special prosecutor in the CIA leak case that he directed Vice President Dick Cheney to personally lead an effort to counter allegations made by former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV that his administration had misrepresented intelligence information to make the case to go to war with Iraq, according to people familiar with the president's statement.

Bush also told federal prosecutors during his June 24, 2004, interview in the Oval Office that he had directed Cheney, as part of that broader effort, to disclose highly classified intelligence information that would not only defend his administration but also discredit Wilson, the sources said.

Progressives: Stop Waiting for a Hero

By Rev. Jim Rigby, HuffingtonPost.com. Posted July 4, 2006.

Leaders can only take you so far. At some point it's up to the people to govern themselves.

As we get closer to the presidential elections, a conversation will be heard all across America. "Who can liberals choose that will save this country? Is he the one, or is it her?" Lists are being compiled and a debate held over which of the names is America's savior.

For liberals, the correct answer is "none of the above."

David Neiwert: The drums of elimination

"...eliminationism is the calling card, the signature project, of fascism..."

Monday, July 03, 2006

Documenting the mounting drumbeat of eliminationist rhetoric from the American right has long been a staple of this blog. But even I have to shake my head in wonder at the turn of events this past week -- most of it in the wake of the New York Times' publication of stories detailing the Bush administration's use of banking data in its search for terrorists.

The upshot has been a significant escalation in this rhetoric, coming not just from the usual rabid quarters but coming over the national airwaves from figures who supposedly represent mainstream conservatism -- and it is aimed not just at the usual "liberal" targets, but at the entire institution of the free press.

Mahablog: Being Liberal Doesn’t Mean Being a Patsy

I have finished my month as a guest poster at Unclaimed Territory. Glenn Greenwald thanked me graciously even though I snarked at some of his readers. But there’s something I want to follow up with here and get off my chest. This is not specifically about UT or its readers; rather, a couple of commenters at UT have goaded me into writing something I’ve been meaning to get to for a while.

Yesterday on UT I published a variation on the “Dear Media” post below, but with a simpler point — that our political culture is too fouled to support democratic political processes.

Gitmo win likely cost Navy lawyer his career

'Fearless' defense of detainee a stinging loss for Bush

By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
P-I REPORTER

Lt. Cmdr. Charles Swift -- the Navy lawyer who beat the president of the United States in a pivotal Supreme Court battle over trying alleged terrorists -- figures he'll probably have to find a new job.

Of course, it's always risky to compare your boss to King George III.

Who will fight for Social Security? (from Talking Points Memo)

It's nothing short of amazing how many candidates there are out there this election season who refuse to give a straight answer on whether they support preserving Social Security or phasing it out and replacing it with private accounts. President Bush says he'll try to phase it out next year if he holds on to Congress. The Republican Social Security chairman in the House says the same thing. So it's definitely an issue on the ballot this November. But dozens and dozens of candidates -- like Tom Kean, Jr. and Michael Steele and Mike DeWine -- simply refuse to answer the question.

TBogg: An unopened gift from The Decider

When discussing the quality of decisions made by an administration that has possibly the finest intelligence and information gathering agencies in the history of the world at its fingertips, it is important to remember that they were going to hand the reins of Department of Homeland Security over to a man who was having personal apartment renovations worth about $200,000 done for $30,000 by a mobbed-up contractor while he was a corrections commissioner under Rudy Giuliani.

Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, pleaded guilty today to two misdemeanor charges as the result of accepting tens of thousands of dollars of gifts and a loan while he was a city official in the late 1990's.

The former New York City police commissioner entered the pleas in a Bronx courtroom and was sentenced to a total of $221,000 in fines.

David Neiwert: Did Gonzales lie to Congress?

Sunday, July 02, 2006

Jonathan Singer at MyDD and John Aravosis at AmericaBlog are both pointing to the significance of Andrew Harris' story at Bloomberg News regarding the initiation of President Bush's authorization of the NSA domestic surveillance program, which says:
The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court.

The allegation is part of a court filing adding AT&T, the nation's largest telephone company, as a defendant in a breach of privacy case filed earlier this month on behalf of Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. customers. The suit alleges that the three carriers, the NSA and President George W. Bush violated the Telecommunications Act of 1934 and the U.S. Constitution, and seeks money damages.

Digby: Statue of Liberty Play

There's much to say about the Hamdan decision and I'll leave it to the legal experts to parse the decision for it's implications. According to the pundits and insiders, the politics of the decision are quite simple:

Republicans yesterday looked to wrest a political victory from a legal defeat in the Supreme Court, serving notice to Democrats that they must back President Bush on how to try suspects at Guantanamo Bay or risk being branded as weak on terrorism.

Digby: Groundhog Day

A US combat commander suggested the United States could lose the war in Iraq if public support for it at home is sapped by negative media coverage.

"My personal opinion is that the only way we will lose this war is if we pull out prematurely," said Colonel Jeffrey Snow, a brigade commander in Baghdad.

"I would hope we get the time and support we need to finish this mission," he said in a video conference from Iraq.

Digby: The New American Dream

Gary Farber finds a perfect example of why Republicans are so much more patriotic than Democrats --- even the moderate, pro-choice, braindead cyborgs we have here in California:

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY WEEKEND, everyone! California is being especially patriotic this year!

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's office in charge of protecting California against terrorism has tracked demonstrations staged by political and antiwar groups, a practice that senior law enforcement officials say is an abuse of civil liberties.

Rep. John Murtha: The Cost of the War Approaches Half a Trillion

On September 15th 2002, White House economic advisor Lawrence Lindsay estimated the high limit on the cost of the War to be 1-2% of the GNP, or about $100-$200 billion. Later Mitch Daniels, Director of OMB was quoted as saying Iraq will be an affordable endeavor that will not require sustained aid and that the total cost of the war would more likely be between $50-$60 billion.

Paul Wolfowitz stated in March 2003 that oil revenues in Iraq could bring between $50 billion and $100 billion over the course of the next two or three years....We are dealing with a country that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon.

Spy Agency Sought U.S. Call Records Before 9/11, Lawyers Say

June 30 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court.

The allegation is part of a court filing adding AT&T, the nation's largest telephone company, as a defendant in a breach of privacy case filed earlier this month on behalf of Verizon Communications Inc. and BellSouth Corp. customers. The suit alleges that the three carriers, the NSA and President George W. Bush violated the Telecommunications Act of 1934 and the U.S. Constitution, and seeks money damages.

Frank Rich: Can't Win the War? Bomb the Press!

--The New York Times, July 2, 2006

Old Glory lost today," Bill Frist declaimed last week when his second attempt to rewrite the Constitution in a single month went the way of his happy prognosis for Terri Schiavo. Of course it isn't Old Glory that lost when the flag-burning amendment flamed out. The flag always survives the politicians who wrap themselves in it. What really provoked Mr. Frist's crocodile tears was the foiling of yet another ruse to distract Americans from the wreckage in Iraq. He and his party, eager to change the subject in an election year, just can't let go of their scapegoat strategy. It's illegal Hispanic immigrants, gay couples seeking marital rights, cut-and-run Democrats and rampaging flag burners who have betrayed America's values, not those who bungled a war.

No sooner were the flag burners hustled offstage than a new traitor was unveiled for the Fourth: the press. Public enemy No. 1 is The New York Times, which was accused of a "disgraceful" compromise of national security (by President Bush) and treason (by Representative Peter King of New York and the Coulter amen chorus). The Times's offense was to publish a front-page article about a comprehensive American effort to track terrorists with the aid of a Belgian consortium, Swift, which serves as a clearinghouse for some 7,800 financial institutions in 200 countries.

Pentagon sees Iran bombing as unsuccessful: report

Sun Jul 2, 2006 1:52 PM ET

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Top Pentagon officers have told the Bush administration that bombing Iranian nuclear facilities would probably fail to destroy that country's nuclear program, the New Yorker magazine reported on Sunday.

The senior commanders also warned that any attack launched if diplomacy fails to end the standoff over Iran's nuclear ambitions could have "serious economic, political, and military consequences for the United States," the article said, citing unidentified U.S. military officials.

Report: Abramoff Had FBI Data

The lobbyist improperly got and acted on a secret file about the Marianas, an inspector general says.

By Walter F. Roche Jr., Times Staff Writer
July 1, 2006

WASHINGTON — Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff improperly obtained a top-secret FBI document and tried to use the information to aid his clients in the Pacific Island territories, according to a report released Friday by the Justice Department's inspector general.

The lobbyist feared information in the document could be damaging to his clients' interests, the inspector general said, and he used his knowledge of its contents to warn them and to devise a counterattack.

NYT Editorial: The School Testing Dodge

Published: July 2, 2006

Many of the nations that have left the United States behind in math and science have ministries of education with clear mandates when it comes to educational quality control. The American system, by contrast, celebrates local autonomy for its schools. When Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act, it tried to address the quality control problem through annual tests, which the states were supposed to administer in exchange for federal dollars. But things have not quite worked out as planned.

A startling new study shows that many states have a longstanding tradition of setting basement-level educational standards and misleading the public about student performance. The patterns were set long before No Child Left Behind, and it will require more than just passing a law to change them.

Farm Program Pays $1.3 Billion to People Who Don't Farm

"In 2005 alone, when pretax farm profits were at a near-record $72 billion, the federal government handed out more than $25 billion in aid, almost 50 percent more than the amount it pays to families receiving welfare."

By Dan Morgan, Gilbert M. Gaul and Sarah Cohen

Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, July 2, 2006; Page A01

EL CAMPO, Tex. -- Even though Donald R. Matthews put his sprawling new residence in the heart of rice country, he is no farmer. He is a 67-year-old asphalt contractor who wanted to build a dream house for his wife of 40 years.

Yet under a federal agriculture program approved by Congress, his 18-acre suburban lot receives about $1,300 in annual "direct payments," because years ago the land was used to grow rice.

GIs may have planned Iraq rape, slayings

This is terrible. If I had a relative who did something like this, I'd almost rather they had died than committed this crime.--Dictynna

By RYAN LENZ, Associated Press Writer
Sat Jul 1, 3:00 PM ET

Investigators believe American soldiers spent nearly a week plotting an attack in which they raped an Iraqi woman, then killed her and her family in an insurgent-ridden area south of Baghdad, a U.S. military official said Saturday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said the attack appeared "totally premeditated" and that the soldiers apparently "studied" the family for about a week before carrying out the attack.

According to the official, the Sunni Arab family had just moved into a new home in the religiously mixed area about 20 miles south of Baghdad. The Americans entered the home, separated three family members from the woman, then raped her and set fire to her body, the official said. The three others were also slain. A senior Army official who also requested anonymity because the investigation is ongoing said one of the victims was a child .