Well since the federal government is fine and dandy with war profiteers why should we be surprised that they are fine with disaster profiteers

Carnival Katrina pact draws fire from lawmaker

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, Rep. Henry Waxman of California said he uncovered information that may undercut Carnival's defense of its $236 million contract to provide emergency housing for 7,100 people aboard three cruise ships, the paper said.

Carnival has said the price of the contract was justified by the company's need to recoup revenue lost when it had to cancel passenger reservations.
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In the January 2002 document, Carnival pegs its revenue for the three ships leased to the government at $25 million a month. That means Carnival's normal monthly revenue from the ships would be about $150 million over the life of its federal contract, far lower than the $236 million it stands to receive.

- rob 6:14 PM - [PermaLink] -

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A little bit a Fitzmas:

Cover-Up Issue Is Seen as Focus in Leak Inquiry

- rob 6:14 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I'm sorry, but I've worked at a Bohemian drum circling San Francisco nude figure drawings on Wednesdays company - and anything like this would not have been excused, allowed, or approved and probably lead to a dismisal. But then, we never had prayer sessions either (though I'm sure for some the drum circles were close).

Woman sues AFLAC over husband's affair

NAPERVILLE, Ill., Oct. 17 (UPI) -- A Chicago-area woman is suing the Christian-based AFLAC insurance company for not following its own standards when her husband began having an affair at work.
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Johnson told the Chicago Sun-Times she was originally drawn to work for the insurer by its Christian approach, prayer at corporate meetings and the company's demand that associates not engage in "conduct involving moral turpitude, dishonesty, fraud, deceit (or) willful misrepresentation."

But she says sex pictures of her husband and his lover were passed around the office, and the two bragged about their affair, as her husband steered clients from his wife to his lover.

Thanks to a phunkster.

- rob 6:04 PM - [PermaLink] -

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2000th US Fatality in Iraq Approaches
The current US fatality total stands at 1992. The combined total for coalition deaths is 2191 (the 2000 mark was passed some months ago). The estimated total for Iraqi civilian deaths is 25,000 to over 100,000 --depending on the study cited. All of this tragedy has taken place over a span 947 days, under the misguided command and indirection of the worst political administration in US history. http://icasualties.org/oif/

- Edoc 12:02 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bill Gates Pulls out of US Dollar, Moves into Euros
"The ol' dollar, it's gonna go down." In early 2005, Bill Gates, the world's richest person ($46Bn), went public with his bet against U.S. dollar. "It is a bit scary," Gates said. "We're in uncharted territory when the world's reserve currency has so much outstanding debt." See SebiMeyer for more details.

- Edoc 10:16 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Insurgents Torch Iraq's Main Oil Pipeline
According to the article, "The damage is 100 percent." Maybe world oil markets have already written-off expectations for Iraqi oil exports. In any case, this can only be interpreted as bad news for Iraq, not to mention bad for oil-dependent countries. (Keep your eye on those inflation numbers.)

- Edoc 9:51 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Saddam on Trial for Crimes that Won't Directly Implicate U.S.
Huffington Post contributor Hooman Majd points out that Saddam is being tried for crimes which are straight-forward and conveniently cannot be traced to US involvement.

Curiously, very few in the MSM have properly questioned why Saddam is being put on trial for a relatively obscure crime of vengeance in 1982, rather than for his far more genocidal activities. ...
Perhaps the U.S. would rather Saddam be found guilty and quickly sentenced to death for his part in the murders of 143 people in the town of Dujail. Rather, that is, than find itself in the embarrassing position of having to explain in court the U.S. role in providing him with chemicals for his attacks on both Iranians and Kurds and the U.S. role in providing him intelligence (intelligence that allowed him to target his poison gas attacks on Iranian positions rather successfully) and arms in his war against Iran. Or rather than have to explain in court April Glaspie’s disastrous ambassadorship in Baghdad immediately prior to Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait, and the first President Bush’s administration’s role in allowing Saddam, using military helicopters flying despite no-fly zones, to mercilessly crush a Shia insurgency in the aftermath of Iraq’s defeat in the first Gulf War.

I guess it's foolish to expect anything different-- but still, the hypocrisy and unflagging sanctimoniousness of this administration just too much to ignore.

- Edoc 9:31 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Bush knows her heart

Miers Lying

Miers The Raw Story | Miers provided misleading information to Judiciary Committee

President Bush's nominee to the Supreme Court, Harriet Miers, provided erroneous and incomplete information to the Senate Judiciary Committee about her membership on a Board of Directors for a real estate investment company, RAW STORY has learned.

Miers also neglected to mention a class action lawsuit that accused the firm, Capstead Mortgage, of violating federal securities laws. The suit, which was later dismissed, came during the period Miers failed to include in her responses to the Senate questionnaire.
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According to Capstead's 1999 annual report (pdf file) filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, Miers remained on the board as late as March 9, 2000. Miers opted not to stand for re-election, and in April of 2000, the former senior managing director at Bear, Stearns & Co., Inc., Howard Rubin was voted on to the board and replaced her as chair of the Audit Committee.

But Miers 57-page questionnaire returned to the Senate on Tuesday claimed that her tenure at Capstead lasted only from January 1993 to 1997 (link).

You know I forget things, I'm sloppy (you've been to this site, right?), but when you are applying for a life time position that you pretty much can't get fired from, you'd think you'd be super-de-dooper about fact checking.

- rob 6:02 PM - [PermaLink] -

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A great editorial about Abramoff - it reads like a good intro for those not into the details

A seamy tale is unfolding in Washington

The events and characters sound like something out of a clumsily plotted, over-the-top paperback.

The action-packed coverage includes descriptions of Abramoff laundering money through nonprofit organizations — such as Americans for Tax Reform — which sometimes were allowed to skim $10,000 or so off the top.

It has colorful characters, such as “Lucky Louie” and the former head of the misleadingly named Faith and Family Alliance, who is now serving seven years for soliciting sex with minors on the Internet.
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Furnishing the money for the scheme to kill the Internet Gambling Prohibition Act was eLottery, which paid Abramoff’s firm $100,000 a month and funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to various groups. In a telephone interview with the Post, Robin Vanderwall of the Faith and Family Alliance said his organization received a $150,000 check from Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform. Vanderwall deposited the check and wrote one for the same amount to Century Strategies, a lobbying firm founded by Ralph Reed, formerly of the Christian Coalition.

“I was operating as a shell,” Vanderwall told the Post.

The pass-throughs allowed Abramoff to obscure the fact that a gambling company was behind the fight against the gambling bill.

- rob 4:45 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Whether selling crack in America or actually protecting America against those who do it harm (CIA plays it all sorts of ways), the CIA is always cutting edge.

The latest investor in green energy - the CIA

ARLINGTON, VA. – What if you had a power unit that generated substantial electrical energy with no fuel? What if it were so rugged that you could parachute it out of an airplane? What if it were so easy to set up that two people could have it running in just a few hours?

Now there is such a device - built by a small Virginia start-up - and the federal government has taken notice.

- rob 4:36 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Hero

A Web of Truth

Bunny Greenhouse was once the perfect bureaucrat, an insider, the top procurement official at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Then the 61-year-old Greenhouse lost her $137,000-a-year post after questioning the plump contracts awarded to Halliburton in the run-up to the war in Iraq. It has made her easy to love for some, easy to loathe for others, but it has not made her easy to know.

In late August, she was demoted, her pay cut and her authority stripped.
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Greenhouse, whose case has also become a media event, unloaded more of her burn-the-house-down allegations on PBS's "Now" last week because, let her tell you, Bunny Greenhouse didn't grow up on the black side of the segregated tracks in Rayville, La., to run from a fight -- even if that includes the vice president of the United States.
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In Greenhouse's dismissal letter, Lt. Gen. Carl A. Strock said her removal was "based on her performance and not in retaliation for any disclosures of alleged improprieties she may have made." She was moved to a lesser post in the civil works division. She says she was "totally" removed from contracting and was banished from the Senior Executive Service. She also says her yearly salary has been cut by $2,000.

"They stuck me in a little cubicle down the hall, took my building pass," she said. "It's all about humiliation."

Her dismissal made national news, played out in editorials and news stories as a whistle-blower done wrong.
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"I learned very early that everything you did in life you did with every fiber of your being," she says, her voice a mix of pride and fury. "Why would I sit here now and let them tell me that I'm something I'm not? Why would I do that? I'm Bunny Greenhouse first, then I'm in a government position. I will not compromise who I am."

- rob 4:33 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Here's DeLay's mug shot:



Okay I'm not a huge DeLay fan, but that isn't a bad mug shot when compared to Democratic crooked Rep James Traficant's:



Thanks goes out to: The Smoking Gun Mug Shot Collection

- rob 3:10 PM - [PermaLink] -

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When I saw the headline I thought it meant the indictments had come in against Rove

World's Most Elusive Rat Finally Caught

It seemed like a good idea. Let a lone rat loose on a rodent-free island and then figure out how to kill it. That way, when other islands are invaded by rats, you'll know what to do.

Scientists figured they'd trap this foot-long varmint in no time.

Eighteen weeks later, they finally trapped it with some fresh penguin bait. On another island.

Note to Fitzgerald: Penguin Bait

- rob 1:05 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Michael Brown: I'm sorry to hear people will die without immediate assistence, but the resteraunts are really busy here.

Has to be seen to be believed: Michael Brown needed his dinner before helping NOLA

and read: FEMA e-mails document disconnect on Katrina

Wednesday, August 31: Much of New Orleans is underwater when a FEMA official inside the Superdome sends an urgent BlackBerry message to his boss, director Michael Brown:

"...the situation is past critical... hotels are kicking people out, thousands gathering in the streets with no food or water... estimates are many will die within hours," writes Marty Bahamonde, who was sent to be Brown's eyes and ears within the city.
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Bahamonde tells Senate investigators he doesn't remember getting a response to that e-mail, but later was forwarded this one, which shows Brown's press secretary fretting about Brown's dining plans for that evening.

"...it is very important that time is allowed for Mr. Brown to eat dinner," she writes. "Given that Baton Rogue is back to normal, restaurants are getting busy. He needs much more [than] 20 or 30 minutes."
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Bahamonde expressed his frustration about the "dinner e-mail," responding:

"OH MY GOD!!!!! Just tell her that I just ate an MRE and [went to the bathroom] in the hallway of the Superdome along with 30,000 other close friends, so I understand her concern about busy restaurants."

FEMA, always learning from its errors, has updated their California earthquake plan, their plan now includes standing reservations at Aqua, Boulevard, Postrio, and other San Francisco dining hot spots.

Heck of a job Brownie

- rob 12:54 PM - [PermaLink] -

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When it comes to predicting future disasters FEMA is thus far 2 for 3

But since its reponse to disasters hasn't been as good (to say the least), I think it is resonable for some Senators to be looking into the third one.

Senators wonder if FEMA has earthquake plan

WASHINGTON - California's two Democratic senators have asked for hearings on the Federal Emergency Management Agency's preparedness plan for a major earthquake because they are not convinced the agency has one.
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David Sandretti, Boxer's spokesman, said it seems strange that FEMA wouldn't have something on paper since the agency said in 2001 that the most likely catastrophes facing the United States were a terrorist attack on New York City, a hurricane in New Orleans and a giant San Francisco earthquake.

"Two of the three have already happened," Sandretti said.

"If there's nothing on the shelf for an earthquake, clearly we have a problem."

It should be noted that New York City, San Francisco, and New Orleans did not support Bush in any election - really why would they expect his administration in any way "plan" on "helping" them.

- rob 12:39 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Powell's Top Aide: 'Cheney cabal hijacked US foreign policy'
Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson served former Secretary of State Colin Powell for 16 years at the Pentagon and the State Department, most recently as his chief of staff.

"What I saw was a cabal between the vice-president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made.
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"Now it is paying the consequences of making those decisions in secret, but far more telling to me is America is paying the consequences."

Update: See the video of Wilkerson's talk.

- Edoc 10:05 AM - [PermaLink] -

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HuffPost: The Most Important Criminal Case in American History

James Moore, author of "Bush's Brain", posits an eye-opening description of the Plame case and how it probably went down. The big question: Will Fitzgerald's probe uncover a neo-con hand in forging the Niger documents?

Fitzgerald has reportedly asked for a copy of the Italian government's investigation into the break-in of the Niger embassy in Rome and the source of the forged documents. The blatantly fake papers, which purported to show that Saddam Hussein had cut a deal to get yellowcake uranium from Niger, turned up after a December 2001 meeting in Rome involving neo-con Michael Ledeen, Larry Franklin, Harold Rhodes, and Niccolo Pollari, the head of Italy's intelligence agency SISMI, and Antonio Martino, the Italian defense minister.
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It is strictly coincidence then that some months after he and his neo-con consorts and Italian intelligence officers met in Rome that the Niger embassy was illegally entered and nothing was stolen other than letterhead and seals. And equally coincident that forged papers under those letterheads were slipped to Elisabetta Burba, a writer for an Italian glossy owned by Silvio Berlusconi, Italy’s prime minister, and a backer of the Bush invasion scheme."

Excellent nutshell-synopsis of the case. Let's hope Fitzgerald has the goods to retire the whole Cheney cabal, and that the fabricated rationale for the Iraq war can be forever chained to Bush's legacy.
See Also: Niger Uranium Forgery Mystery Solved?

- Edoc 9:43 AM - [PermaLink] -

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A Quick Fitzmas Update (and because of it the things that are finally getting a harsh dose of sunlight):

• Daily News: Prez Iraq team fought to squelch war critics

  WASHINGTON - It was called the White House Iraq Group and its job was to make the case that Saddam Hussein had nuclear and biochemical weapons.
  So determined was the ring of top officials to win its argument that it morphed into a virtual hit squad that took aim at critics who questioned its claims, sources told the Daily News.
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  Besides Rove and Libby, the group included senior White House aides Karen Hughes, Mary Matalin, James Wilkinson, Nicholas Calio, Condoleezza Rice and Stephen Hadley. WHIG also was doing more than just public relations, said a second former intel officer.
  
  "They were funneling information to [New York Times reporter] Judy Miller. Judy was a charter member," the source said.

  Interesting that you have to get this from the NY Daily News. The NY Times seems to have decided it is no longer allowed to participate in this story so tainted by Miller it is. Some paper of record eh?
  
  
• D Kos: Fitz has unredacted Italian Niger forgery report

  Who forged the papers upon which Bush based his infamous 16-word claim that Saddam was seeking uranium from Africa, and that Joseph Wilson debunked?

  Even as the FBI was following the trail of the forgers, the Italians were looking into the matter from their end. A parliamentary committee was charged with investigating, and they issued a heavily redacted report: now, I am told by a former CIA operations officer, the report has aroused some interest on this side of the Atlantic. According to a source in the Italian embassy, Patrick J. "Bulldog" Fitzgerald asked for and "has finally been given a full copy of the Italian parliamentary oversight report on the forged Niger uranium document," the former CIA officer tells me:
  
  "Previous versions of the report were redacted and had all the names removed, though it was possible to guess who was involved. This version names Michael Ledeen as the conduit for the report and indicates that former CIA officers Duane Clarridge and Alan Wolf were the principal forgers. All three had business interests with Chalabi."
  
  Alan Wolf died about a year and a half ago of cancer. He served as chief of the CIA's Near East Division as well as the European Division, and was also CIA chief of station in Rome after Clarridge. According to my source, "he and Clarridge and Ledeen were all very close and also close to Chalabi."

• Raw Story: Second Cheney aide cooperating in leak probe, those close to case say

  A second aide to Vice President Dick Cheney is cooperating with the special prosecutor's probe into the outing of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson, those close to the investigation say.
  
  Late Monday, several sources familiar with Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s probe said John Hannah, a key aide to Vice President Dick Cheney and one of the architects of the Iraq war, was cooperating with Fitzgerald after being told that he was identified by witnesses as a co-conspirator in the leak. Sources said Hannah was not given immunity, but was likely offered a “deal” in exchange for information that could result in indictments of key White House officials.
  
  Now, those close to the investigation say that a second Cheney aide, David Wurmser, has agreed to provide the prosecution with evidence that the leak was a coordinated effort by Cheney’s office to discredit the agent's husband.

• Talking Points Memo: Sen. Chuck Schumer's Letter to President Bush, 10/19/05

  I read today with profound concern news reports that you had conversations with your Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove in 2003 about his role in the leak of Valerie Plame's name. Earlier, of course, the White House issued emphatic and blanket denials of any involvement in the disclosure or confirmation of Ms. Plame's status as a CIA agent to members of the media.
  
  In light of these reports, I urge you to make public the details of Mr. Rove's involvement, your understanding of the involvement, and an explanation as to why Mr. Rove was neither dismissed nor his security clearance revoked when you learned of his participation in the Plame affair.

- rob 5:38 PM - [PermaLink] -

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If you renege on a contract you can get sued.

If you renege on a contract with the Pentagon they arrest you and say you went AWOL (or you become President).

If the Pentagon screws you over - so what, I mean it isn't like you are putting your life on the line defending our nation.

The Pentagon screws and nickles and dimes our soldiers (heroes almost all - even if they were sent to the wrong war) once again (they only pay contractors don't you know): When a bonus isn't a bonus

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon has reneged on its offer to pay a $15,000 bonus to members of the National Guard and Army Reserve who agree to extend their enlistments by six years, according to Sen. Patty Murray (D-Seattle).
The bonuses were offered in January to Active Guard and Reserve and military technician soldiers who were serving overseas. In April, the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs ordered the bonuses stopped, Murray said.

- rob 5:09 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Because we should waste all this season of giving's schadenfreude just on Bush, Cheney, Scooter, Miller, and Rove

Texas Court Issues Warrant for DeLay

- rob 4:27 PM - [PermaLink] -

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FCC says "Christians got Bush elected, high school students didn't... the decision wasn't brain surgery."

Religion above education
(nope its not about 'intelligent design' vs. evolution)

Divine intervention axes school station

Today's lesson: Don't cross Christian broadcasting.

Maynard High School's radio frequency, 91.7 FM, is being seized by a network of Christian broadcasting stations that the Federal Communications Commission has ruled is a better use of the public airwaves.

- rob 2:45 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Libby's letter to Judy in Jail (pdf)

I know this has been covered elsewhere, but if you haven't read his letter to her - please do so.

A few days ago, your counsel, Mr. Bennett, asked that I repeat for you the waiver of confidentiality that I specifically gave to your counsel over a year ago. His request surprised me, but I am please to comply, if it will speed your return.

Translation, either Libby is putting up a smoke screen and she wasn't talking for some other reason, or Libby, Judy, and all their lawyers are amazing morons and would let a person sit in jail because they weren't sure if Libby really "meant" what he said (as Judy said, "well he didn't say 'with cherries on top' ... or 'cross my hear come to think of it.'").

...as I am sure will not be news to you, the public report of every other reporter's testimony makes clear that they did not discuss Ms. Plame's name or identity with me, or knew about her before our call.

This is called 'leading the witness.'

You went into jail in the summer. It is fall now. You will have stories to cover - Iraqi elections and suicide bombers, biological threats and the Iranian nuclear program.

Hint hint. Seriously is that something that just really motivates you to get out of jail "suicide bombers, biological threats, setting up a fake war with Iran... and don't forget the ice cream."

Out West, where you vacation, the aspens will already be turning. They turn in clusters, because their roots connect them. Come back to work - and life.

Ohhhhhh kay.

Wha? I'm sorry does he think he's a poet or a super secret agent who writes in 'code'?

Yes, Miller is an Emeritus member of the Aspen Strategy Group (along with Dick Cheney, Al Gore, Condi Rice, David Gergen and others - gee they must be throw fun parties.) - so I think it is okay to think there is more to that odd sentence then a little poetic flurish.

And finally he actually signed his letter "Scooter"

- rob 2:27 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Bleak House

Kristol: "Mood is Bleak" at White House

Kristol said "the mood is bleak in the White House today,” and said the environment surrounding the federal grand jury testimony is "pretty grim.” Although the indictments may not ultimately result in anything substantive, Kristol said there is a pins-and-needles feel to the grand jury investigation into the leaking of a CIA agent's name to the media in 2003.

"The net has been cast wide,” Kristol told Fox News Tuesday. "Lots of junior aides have testified. It’s been a very comprehensive investigation by the prosecutor. I think there will be indictments and the mood is pretty bleak in the White House.”

The last time I really felt this certain that we were at a turning point was early on election day - let's hope this turns out better.

- rob 1:49 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Daily News Exclusive: Bush whacked Rove on CIA leak

WASHINGTON - An angry President Bush rebuked chief political guru Karl Rove two years ago for his role in the Valerie Plame affair, sources told the Daily News.

"He made his displeasure known to Karl," a presidential counselor told The News. "He made his life miserable about this."
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Asked if he believed indictments were forthcoming, a key Bush official said he did not know, then added: "I'm very concerned it could go very, very badly."

"Karl is fighting for his life," the official added, "but anything he did was done to help George W. Bush. The President knows that and appreciates that."

So Bush knew eh?

- rob 1:17 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Follow up to an earler post - sometimes government still does tell corporatons that they can stick it

State tells insurer to pay

The state is giving Farmers until the end of the day tomorrow to either agree to pay Adams, injured in a road-rage crash, or face legal action. State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler met yesterday with Farmers lobbyist Mike Kapphahn in Olympia and told him: "It's not a question of if you pay Ethel Adams, but when."

"Nobody here has ever seen an insurance company come up with such a bizarre and imaginative way of applying insurance law as this case," Kreidler said in an interview. "They're just wrong, and it's obvious they're wrong. The bottom line is they are going to pay this claim."

Adams' odyssey into insurance hell started last March when a man named Michael R. Testa rammed his girlfriend's truck from behind to run it off the road. Testa bashed the truck across the centerline and into oncoming traffic, where it crashed into the Hyundai Adams was driving, squashing it.
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Testa had no insurance. But Farmers decided that the $2 million uninsured-motorist policies covering Adams didn't apply to anything Testa did because he caused the wreck on purpose.

In Farmers' view, the wreck therefore was not an accident — even for Adams, who was just driving by, minding her own business.

- rob 1:15 PM - [PermaLink] -

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To make sure they are ready for Wilma - FEMA continues to screw up

Number Overstated for Storm Evacuees in Hotels

WASHINGTON, Oct. 18 - The Red Cross and federal government said Tuesday that they had been significantly overreporting the number of Hurricane Katrina evacuees in hotels. Instead of 600,000 people, 200,000 remain in hotels, the charity said.

Although the lower number means that the Federal Emergency Management Agency and cities receiving evacuees will find new housing for far fewer people, the count shows the lack of knowledge that FEMA has about the relocations and its limited oversight over the money it is committed to spend on such housing.

"FEMA still does not know any more about what it was doing last week than it was a month ago," Representative David R. Obey of Wisconsin, the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, said. "It is still, as far as I am concerned, an incompetent agency."

FEMA had reported to Congress that as of last Wednesday, it was housing 576,135 people in 206,564 hotels rooms, with the largest numbers, in order, in Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and Florida. The New York Times and other news organizations reported the Red Cross and FEMA estimates, which meant that the government would have been spending $11 million a night for hotels and motels. Now, relief officials say, 70,000 rooms are occupied, costing $4 million a night.

That is a 7 million a night difference... ummm... where's that money (and can I have some?)

- rob 10:06 AM - [PermaLink] -

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Damn ... when Bush talked to Godwhat did he say?

Cause God is pissed

Wilma Now Most Intense Atlantic Storm Ever

Gathering strength at a fierce pace, Hurricane Wilma swirled into the most intense Atlantic storm ever recorded Wednesday, a Category 5 monster packing 175 mph wind that forecasters warned was "extremely dangerous."

Wilma was dumping rain on Central America and Mexico. A hurricane watch was in effect for the east coast of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, parts of Cuba and the Cayman Islands, and forecasters warned of a "significant threat" to Florida by the weekend.

Maybe it'll burn itself off by this weekend.

- rob 10:01 AM - [PermaLink] -

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September Global Temperatures Warmest on Record

This news hit the MSM last week, just in time for Halloween. In view of this timing, I point you to Climate Mash, a Flash animation parody of the song "Monster Mash" fitted with a global warming theme and sung by Bobby "Boris" Pickett, the artist of the classic original. (via WFMU's Beware of the Blog)

- Edoc 8:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Ex-Governor Elected to Afghan Parliament

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - A former regional governor who oversaw the destruction of two massive 1,500-year-old Buddha statues during the Taliban's reign was elected to the Afghan parliament last month, officials said Tuesday as results from two provinces were finalized.

D'oh!

Of course Americans re-elected a President who is overseeing the destruction of the 200 year old constitution. So guys that destroy things just seem to be popular with the voting public.


"the greatest argument against democracy is to spend
5 minutes with the average voter"

- rob 5:52 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Who'd a thunk?

NY Times just another Bush admin mouth piece.

The Raw Story | Times reporter entangled in leak case had unusual relationship with military, Iraqi group

Embattled New York Times reporter Judith Miller acted as a “middleman” between an American military unit and the Iraqi National Congress while she was embedded with the U.S. armed forces searching for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq in April 2003, and “took custody” of Saddam Hussein’s son-in-law, one of 55 most wanted Iraqis, RAW STORY has found.
...
On Monday, Reps. John Conyers and Ira Skelton, the ranking Democrats on the House Judiciary and Armed Services committees sent Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld a letter demanding an explanation to Miller’s top secret security clearance, which Rumsfeld reportedly personally authorized.
...
“More than a half-dozen military officers said that Miller acted as a middleman between the Army unit with which she was embedded and Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmed Chalabi, on one occasion accompanying Army officers to Chalabi's headquarters, where they took custody of Saddam Hussein's son-in-law,” the Post reported. “She also sat in on the initial debriefing of the son-in-law, these sources say.”

Here's some backstory on Miller and the pentagon neo-con's good friend Chalabi.

Chalabi's come up a lot here at TCS.

- rob 4:37 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Hey batter batter ... swing

USNews.com: N and W: Cheney resignation rumors fly (10/18/05)

Sparked by today's Washington Post story that suggests Vice President Cheney's office is involved in the Plame-CIA spy link investigation, government officials and advisers passed around rumors that the vice president might step aside and that President Bush would elevate Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

- rob 3:48 PM - [PermaLink] -

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If you'll allow me to cheat and back date this post (by 3 hours) so that I could be right on top of Edoc's post below, I'd be grateful. thank you.

I just thought after Edoc's post we needed to see this yet one more time:


"Yep that's me, John (Please don't call me Michael)Bolton in Florida... I'm everywhere. My and Judy Miller used to laugh about those heady days in 2000."

- rob 2:11 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Plame-Leak: The Lid is About to Blow

According to this breaking story at rawstory.com, senior national security aide John Hannah is now a cooperating witness for special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald. Hannah is an aide "on-loan" to Cheney's office from John Bolton's former office.

"The revelation that Hannah has become a prosecution witness strongly suggests that Fitzgerald is now looking into the motive for outing Plame and how Wilson’s complaints threatened to destroy public support for the war, which the Bush administration worked diligently to win."

It's no mystery why John Bolton paid a visit to Judy Miller in her jail cell. And Judy-- you can't recall the other source for the name you scribbled in your notes, "Valerie Flame"?!?! I think we can guess now. I tell you-- it's always fascinating to see where John Bolton keeps popping up!

- Edoc 1:56 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Monitors in Iraq Review Votes Where 'Yes' Ballots Hit 90%

BAGHDAD, Iraq, Oct. 17 - Iraqi election officials said Monday that they were investigating "unusually high" vote totals in 12 Shiite and Kurdish provinces, where as many as 99 percent of the voters were reported to have cast ballots in favor of Iraq's new constitution. The investigation raised the possibility that the results of the referendum could be called into question.

Gee 99% well I guess that is a little less obvious fraud then in the old days (circa October 16, 2002):

Saddam 'wins 100% of vote'

Iraqi officials say President Saddam Hussein has won 100% backing in a referendum on whether he should rule for another seven years.
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The government insists the count was fair and accurate.

Oh Saddam was the only candadite then (yes I know there was only one constitution to vote on).

- rob 10:53 AM - [PermaLink] -

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I've been wanting to use that Get Your War On strip for months - now I have an excuse:

Bush to Blair: First Iraq, Then Saudi | AfterDowningStreet.org

George Bush told the Prime Minister two months before the invasion of Iraq that Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran and North Korea may also be dealt with over weapons of mass destruction, a top secret Downing Street memo shows.

The US President told Tony Blair, in a secret telephone conversation in January 2003 that he "wanted to go beyond Iraq".

He implied that the military action against Saddam Hussein was only a first step in the battle against WMD proliferation in a series of countries.
...
The confidential memo recording the President's explosive remarks was written by Michael Rycroft, then the Prime Minister's private secretary and foreign policy adviser. He sent the two-page letter recording the conversation between the two leaders on 30 January 2003 to Simon McDonald, who was then private secretary to Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary.

Mr Rycroft said it "must only be shown to those with a real need to know ".

Well unlike the UK we are a constitutional democracy and I think we do have a real need to know what are President is telling other foreign leaders when it comes to desires for (many) wars.

- rob 10:22 AM - [PermaLink] -

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READ: The Normalization of Treason, the Republicans' gift to America

But when a senior aide to the President of the United States endangers the life of an undercover CIA agent, her colleagues and contacts around the world - when he chooses to put at risk our entire effort to uncover weapons of mass destruction before they are used to kill millions in an American city - what response do we get from the Bush White House and the Republican Party? A defensive (offensive) shrug.

The Republican party's gift to the American people, and the Bush administration's legacy, will be the normalization of treason. They are trying to convince Americans that betraying our country during wartime for personal gain is no more serious than running a stop sign or going 60 in a 55 zone.

If a senior aide to the president had intentionally outed an American undercover agent during World War II, an agent whose work was central to our mission of defeating the Germans, that aide would very likely be put to death. While no one is yet arguing that Karl Rove be executed, it is the height of hypocrisy and hubris for the Republican party to attempt to minimize a crime that not only puts our troops at risk, but risks the lives of every American man, woman and child.

- rob 5:34 PM - [PermaLink] -

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There is the CIA leak scandal

There is the DeLay scandal

And then there is this one that has more heads then Hydra: Daily Kos: Abramoff Scandal Links GOP to Islamic Banks and Tyco Scandals

- rob 5:28 PM - [PermaLink] -

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No comics
No journalistic standards

2 reasons why NY Times isn't all that great a paper.

There's a scandal hidden in Miller's report

From BILL LYNCH, retired CBS News correspondent: There is one enormous journalism scandal hidden in Judith Miller's Oct. 16th first person article about the (perhaps lesser) CIA leak scandal. And that is Ms. Miller's revelation that she was granted a DoD security clearance while embedded with the WMD search team in Iraq in 2003.

This is as close as one can get to government licensing of journalists and the New York Times (if it knew) should never have allowed her to become so compromised.

- rob 5:27 PM - [PermaLink] -

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2.5 years later and they're still coming up with new reasons to go to war with Iraq.

Freedom on the march - no
Saddam involved in 9/11 - nope
WMD - puhleeze

It was just to be bold.

Think Progress - Rice: After 9-11

This morning on NBC’s Meet the Press, Condoleezza Rice explains why we invaded Iraq:

The fact of the matter is that when we were attacked on September 11, we had a choice to make. We could decide that the proximate cause was al Qaeda and the people who flew those planes into buildings and, therefore, we would go after al Qaeda…or we could take a bolder approach.

Yep starting an unnecessary war and then messing up badly at the said war all the while letting bin Laden go scot free could be considered "bold." Like when you see a friend running straight into a tree even though the frisbee was caught be someone else, "dude that was bold."

- rob 5:24 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Looks like the WaPo kitchen is running low on KoolAid

A Future Investigation

Administration officials frequently assert that prisoner treatment has been investigated by a number of military or Pentagon-appointed panels since the photos of abuse at the Abu Ghraib prison surfaced last year. What they don't acknowledge is the lack of independence of those probes or the very wide areas they have overlooked. There has been no investigation of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, his senior staff, and White House and Justice Department lawyers who drafted or approved policies for detainee interrogations. There has been no investigation of CIA personnel, ranging from former director George J. Tenet to serving personnel in Iraq, who are known to have been involved in the illegal hiding of "ghost detainees" from the International Red Cross and the "rendition" of suspects to countries that practice torture, as well as in cases of torture and homicide. Even a promised investigation by the CIA's own inspector general has never been delivered to Congress.
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We're willing to make a prediction: Some day there will be an exhaustive investigation of how and why prisoners were abused after 2001, and accountability will be assigned to the senior officers and officials who now hide behind their subordinates and inspector generals. Like the internment of ethnic Japanese during World War II or the CIA's involvement in Cold War-era coup plots and assassinations, government acts so at odds with fundamental American standards will eventually be exposed and disowned by our democracy. Yet it would be much better for the legacy of President Bush, and this Republican Congress, if that honest accounting were to begin now, rather than after they have left office.

- rob 5:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Why is this man still smiling... that's what he calls a smile, right?

Cheney May Be Entangled in CIA Leak Investigation, People Say [emphasis mine]

I'd be really excited but "people say" I'm really a good writer so people will say pretty much anything.

- rob 4:48 PM - [PermaLink] -

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U.S. Military Interpreter Charged As Fraud

OCTOBER 17--In an embarrassing security breach, an Arabic interpreter who handled classified material while working for the last two years with U.S. military units in Iraq has been arrested after FBI agents discovered that he had so completely fabricated his identity and background that they are still unsure of his true name and have formally charged him as "FNU LNU" (first name unknown, last name unknown). According to a criminal complaint filed (with no fanfare or press release) last Thursday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, the interpreter, who had been granted a "high-level clearance to access classified information," has been charged with making a variety of false statements to FBI and Department of Defense officials as well as the Immigration and Naturalization Services

Good interpreters are hard to find... partly because we fired the gay ones:

Gay Linguists Get The Boot (from 2002)

Nine Army linguists, including six trained to speak Arabic, have been dismissed from the military because they are gay.

The soldiers' dismissals come at a time when the military is facing a critical shortage of translators and interpreters for the war on terrorism.

Seriously though, if you want to guarantee a person is not a spy for an Islamic extremist group I think you pretty much would have to go for a gay interpreter. But what is more important? The security of America or being in a work place that doesn't have "queers"? I guess we know the answer to that.

- rob 4:39 PM - [PermaLink] -

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DeLay will likely be booked this week

Before Friday, DeLay, a Republican from Sugar Land, Texas, will likely spend about an hour being fingerprinted and photographed, she said.

I'm sure The Smoking Gun will have the mug shots up by Friday.

- rob 4:29 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Could We Be Drawn into a Nuclear War with Iran?

Jorge Hirsch over at antiwar.com paints a sickening scenario, wherein the US attacks Iran to protect Israel after Israel strikes at Iran's nuclear facilities.

"The stage is set for a chain of events that could lead to nuclear war over chemical weapons in the immediate future. If these events unfold, the trigger will be Israel, the target Iran, the nuclear aggressor the U.S. ...

Conclusion: according to Israel, the U.S. administration, and 99.2 percent of the U.S. House of Representatives, Iran will not be allowed to have access to any nuclear technology. No diplomatic options to achieve that goal will remain when Russia and China veto Security Council sanctions, or if the IAEA refuses on Nov. 24 to refer Iran to the Security Council. Military action will occur before Russia ships uranium fuel to Iran, and will inevitably lead to the use of nuclear weapons by the U.S. against Iran."

This scenario is too ghastly to imagine. There's no way the Bush administration could snooker us into yet another, broader war, right?

- Edoc 12:53 PM - [PermaLink] -

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One aspect of the Wilson/Niger story that doesn't get much coverage is the fact that the "yellow cake" documents "found" in Italy didn't forge themselves.

Someone incompetent did - makes you think the Bush administration is involved doesn't it?

Someone else, who actually spends time writing a thoughtful post, thinks so too:

How Fitzgerald Might Expose the Niger Forgery Scandal through His Plame Investigation

- rob 9:40 AM - [PermaLink] -

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