One person's plea for sanity and the continuation of the human race in an insane world.
posted by rich at 9:00 AM
Sen. Bill Frist revives stem cell bill
WASHINGTON - Urged anew by Nancy Reagan, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Thursday revived a bill to expand funding for embryonic stem cell research after conservatives who had blocked it withdrew their objections.
posted by rich at 8:43 AM
World skeptical over Guantanamo ruling
LONDON - Some saw the beginning of the end for Guantanamo Bay, others a vindication for Europeans who have condemned the U.S. prison camp. Still others saw a toothless ruling that will ultimately make no difference in a climate where they believe Washington is determined to have its way.
posted by rich at 8:41 AM
U.S. troops accused of killing Iraq family
BEIJI, Iraq - Five U.S. Army soldiers are being investigated for allegedly raping a young woman, then killing her and three members of her family in Iraq, a U.S. military official told The Associated Press on Friday.The soldiers also allegedly burned the body of the woman they are accused of assaulting in the March incident, the official said on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
posted by rich at 8:37 AM
posted by rich at 3:09 PM
Another Bush Administration Official To Plead Guilty In Abramoff Probe
The Legal Times reports that another Bush administration official is expected to plead guilty as a result of the ongoing Abramoff probe:
Roger Stillwell, the desk officer for the Mariana Islands at the U.S. Department of the Interior who dealt closely with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, is expected to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of false certification, his attorney confirmed Wednesday.
Stillwell has previously acknowledged that he accepted dinners at Abramoff’s restaurant and tickets to Washington Redskins games. He also said he sent Abramoff copies of e-mails he sent to his boss, but he claimed that there was nothing “wrong with doing that.”
The guilty plea will come on the heels of a conviction handed down by a jury last week against former White House procurement chief David Safavian. “So far five people — Abramoff and former associates Michael Scanlon, Tony Rudy, Neil Volz, and Adam Kidan — have pleaded guilty.”
posted by rich at 11:25 AM
The US is responsible for 45% of global carbon emissions even though Americans make up just 5% of the world’s population, according to a new report by Environmental Defense.
posted by rich at 11:22 AM
posted by rich at 11:16 AM
posted by rich at 11:10 AM
Texas political adviser convicted of abuse
EDINBURG, Texas - A political consultant whose company was behind a television ad accusing the Clinton-Gore administration of giving away nuclear technology was convicted of child molestation charges.A jury deliberated almost two days before convicting Carey Lee Cramer, 44, of aggravated sexual assault of a child, two counts of indecency with a child by contact and one count of indecency with a child by exposure. He was cleared of nine other charges Tuesday.
posted by rich at 10:31 AM
Hey Media: That's what the communists did
Last night, I watched Paula Zahn interview Susan Milligan, a reporter with the Boston Globe who also chairs the committee on credentials for House and Senate correspondents about the NY Times smear.
Paula was giddy because Congressman JD Hayworth wants to have the press credentials yanked from the Times.
Milligan gave the answer that every reporter needs to hear:
But the important thing here is the principle, is that we don't let Congress tell the press what they can and cannot publish. You know, I -- I lived in Eastern Europe for five years during the 1990s and reported there. And I know what happens in countries where the government tries to suppress or intimidate or censor the press, because that's what the communists did to my friends.
Yes, that's what communists did -- not what nations with freedom of the press do.
posted by rich at 10:28 AM
Supreme Court Rules Bush Overstepped Bounds, Blocks War Crimes Trials for Guantanamo Detainees
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that President Bush overstepped his authority in ordering military war crimes trials for Guantanamo Bay detainees.
The ruling, a rebuke to the administration and its aggressive anti-terror policies, was written by Justice John Paul Stevens, who said the proposed trials were illegal under U.S. law and Geneva conventions.
The case focused on Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni who worked as a bodyguard and driver for Osama bin Laden. Hamdan, 36, has spent four years in the U.S. prison in Cuba. He faces a single count of conspiring against U.S. citizens from 1996 to November 2001.
Two years ago, the court rejected Bush's claim to have the authority to seize and detain terrorism suspects and indefinitely deny them access to courts or lawyers. In this follow-up case, the justices focused solely on the issue of trials for some of the men.
The vote was split 5-3, with moderate Justice Anthony M. Kennedy joining the court's liberal members in ruling against the Bush administration. Chief Justice John Roberts, named to the lead the court last September by Bush, was sidelined in the case because as an appeals court judge he had backed the government over Hamdan.
Thursday's ruling overturned that decision.
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More from Americablog
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Bush must be stunned - he is actually being prevented from doing something illegal! Is this a first for this administration?! Even this extremely conservative SC knows that bush is overstepping his bounds. If only there were more accountability...
But, he is finally being told that he needs to obey the Geneva Conventions and, per Think Progress, it looks like they are stating the illegality of his warrantless wire tapping!
posted by rich at 7:54 AM
posted by rich at 4:03 PM
Insurgents offer to halt attacks in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Eleven Sunni insurgent groups have offered an immediate halt to all attacks  including those on American troops  if the United States agrees to withdraw foreign forces from Iraq in two years, insurgent and government officials told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
posted by rich at 3:12 PM
posted by rich at 11:53 AM
The Intelligence Agencies Didn’t Get It Wrong, The Bush Administration Did
It was not the analysts that killed the intelligence process, it was the politicians. America deserves a comprehensive assessment of the failure, including the operations of White House and Defense Department officials.
posted by rich at 8:57 AM
posted by rich at 8:41 AM
GOP House leaders will devote rest of Congress to far-right special interests, will lock up House with debates on guns and abortion
Because what America really needs right now is more guns on the streets. And the biggest problem facing our troops in Iraq is abortion in America. The Republican controlling the US Congress aren't even pretending to address the problems of regular Americans anymore. They're afraid they may lose their seats in the fall elections so they're trying to pass every piece of special interest legislation they can, before it's too late:
Other bills are certain to spark controversy.One would to strip the Supreme Court and other federal courts of jurisdiction over cases challenging the constitutionality of the Pledge of Allegiance. The legislation is a response to a 2002 Appeals Court ruling that held the pledge is unconstitutional because of the presence of the words "under God." A federal judge made a similar ruling last fall, citing the appeals court precedent.
Another measure would block the payment of attorney fees in challenges to the display of the Ten Commandments in public areas and other, similar church-state lawsuits.
An abortion-related proposal would require that some women seeking to end their pregnancies be informed the procedure "will cause the unborn child pain" and they have the option of receiving drugs to reduce or eliminate it. A separate measure would ban human cloning, a prohibition that cleared the House in the previous Congress.
Two measures relate to the rights of gun owners. One would prohibit the confiscation of legal firearms during national emergencies, barring practices such as the one that officials said arose in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit.
The measure is backed by the National Rifle Association, which has hailed the recent passage of a state law in Louisiana. "The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina became the proving ground for what American gun owners have always feared: the day that government bureaucrats throw the Bill of Rights in the trash and declare freedom to be whatever they say it is," Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president, said in a statement posted on the organization's Web site.
Yes, for Republicans that was the true lesson of Hurricane Katrina. Not enough guns.
posted by rich at 8:10 AM
Democrats push hard for increase in minimum wage
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democrats ratcheted up their election-year push for an increase in the federal minimum wage on Tuesday by promising to block a congressional pay hike unless some of the lowest-paid hourly workers get their first raise in nearly a decade."Congress is going to have earn its raise by putting American workers first: A raise for workers before a raise for Congress," said Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada.
posted by rich at 2:22 PM
Scientists OK Gore's movie for accuracy
WASHINGTON - The nation's top climate scientists are giving "An Inconvenient Truth," Al Gore's documentary on global warming, five stars for accuracy.
posted by rich at 2:20 PM
Dems' and Casey's plans are different — because Snow says so
Many congressional Democrats have backed a plan for Iraq that calls for significant troop withdrawals by the end of the year. Gen. George W. Casey, the top American commander in Iraq, has a plan that calls for the same thing.
Today, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow was asked to explain why the Dems' plan was reckless and irresponsible, while Casey's plan is not.
"Well, actually, he has one, and it — you know, again, this is not, I believe the way, at least it was reported, is you've got two brigades by the end of the year, September being short of the end of the year. But I may be misreading it. In any event, you've got to keep in mind that this is not a statement of policy. Again, Gen. Casey keeps in mind a number of scenarios. You're talking about scenarios here … And so I would caution very strongly against everybody thinking, well, they're going to pull two brigades out. Maybe they will, maybe they won't. That really does depend upon a whole series of things that we cannot, at this juncture, predict. But Gen. Casey — again, I would characterize this more in terms of scenario building, and we'll see how it proceeds."
posted by rich at 10:19 AM
In the Senate, Covering Themselves in Old Glory
The Citizens Flag Alliance, a group pushing for the Senate this week to pass a flag-burning amendment to the Constitution, just reported an alarming, 33 percent increase in the number of flag-desecration incidents this year.The number has increased to four, from three.
posted by rich at 10:06 AM
More incompetence from the GOP
The reverse Midas touch in action. Everything the GOP gets its hands on turns into a mess. International relations? Disaster. Iraq? Don't even ask. Earmarks 'til the cows come home and padding personal wealth? Where do we start? With total control over all three branches of the government in DC, the GOP has ruined FEMA so badly and now taxpayers are looking at paying the price (again) for GOP incompetence to the tune of a few billion dollars. Wow. There is no one to blame when the GOP owns everything.
If you want more of the same - more failed wars, more special interests, more scandals, more destroyed government programs - you should continue voting for the GOP. More of the same means more incompetence:
A hotel owner in Sugar Land, Tex., has been charged with submitting $232,000 in bills for phantom victims. And roughly 1,100 prison inmates across the Gulf Coast apparently collected more than $10 million in rental and disaster-relief assistance.
There are the bureaucrats who ordered nearly half a billion dollars worth of mobile homes that are still empty, and renovations for a shelter at a former Alabama Army base that cost about $416,000 per evacuee.
And there is the Illinois woman who tried to collect federal benefits by claiming she watched her two daughters drown in the rising New Orleans waters. In fact, prosecutors say, the children did not exist.
The tally of ignoble acts linked to Hurricane Katrina, pulled together by The New York Times from government audits, criminal prosecutions and Congressional investigations, could rise because the inquiries are under way. Even in Washington, a city accustomed to government bloat, the numbers are generating amazement.
posted by rich at 9:47 AM
Stand Up
As treason charges against the New York Times (but not, oddly, the Wall Street Journal) are getting thrown around on various "respectable" news outlets by people working in "journalism" I think it's probably time for the serious reporters at those outlets to inform management that their resignations will be forthcoming if it doesn't stop.Silly people like me have been trying to warn you for years - you created, cultivated, nourished, and promoted these people. They're one of you. Take a stand, because pretty soon it's going to be too late.
(Eschaton)
and more from Americablog and Unclaimed Territory
posted by rich at 9:08 AM
Wars force Army equipment costs to triple
WASHINGTON - The annual cost of replacing, repairing and upgrading Army equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan is expected to more than triple next year to more than $17 billion, according to Army documents obtained by the Associated Press.
posted by rich at 8:52 AM
Bush ignores laws he inks, vexing Congress
WASHINGTON - The White House on Tuesday defended President Bush's prolific use of bill signing statements, saying they help him uphold the Constitution and defend the nation's security."There's this notion that the president is committing acts of civil disobedience, and he's not," said Bush's press secretary Tony Snow, speaking at the White House. "It's important for the president at least to express reservations about the constitutionality of certain provisions."
Snow spoke as Senate Judiciary Committe Chairman Arlen Specter opened hearings on Bush's use of bill signing statements saying he reserves the right to revise, interpret or disregard a measure on national security and consitutional grounds. Such statements have accompanied some 750 statutes passsed by Congress — including a ban on the torture of detainees and the renewal of the Patriot Act.
"There is a sense that the president has taken signing statements far beyond the customary purview," Specter, R-Pa., said.
"It's a challenge to the plain language of the Constitution," he added. "I'm interested to hear from the administration just what research they've done to lead them to the conclusion that they can cherry-pick."
posted by rich at 8:43 AM
Rush Limbaugh under new investigation
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Rush Limbaugh could see a deal with prosecutors in a long-running prescription fraud case collapse after authorities found a bottle of Viagra in his bag at Palm Beach International Airport. The prescription was not in his name.
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Yeah, I can see why this guy just got probation. Not like he has a problem or anything!
Disgusting that he gets away with this crap when others get jail time for lesser violations.
More from Americablog
posted by rich at 8:38 AM
Please sir, may I have some oversight?
Pathetic. Check out the headline. Bush MAY ALLOW Senator Specter to do his friggin' job? Well bully for him, and for Senator Specter who seems to think congressional oversight involves crawling on your hands and knees and begging the president's permission.
It's time we elected a Congress that actually does its job. We need to restore the balance in Washington. The Republicans controlling Congress need to be thrown out.
posted by rich at 1:21 PM
Supreme Court to hear Bush environment case
WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court agreed Monday to consider whether the Bush administration must regulate carbon dioxide to combat global warming, setting up what could be one of the court's most important decisions on the environment.The decision means the court will address whether the administration's decision to rely on voluntary measures to combat climate change are legal under federal clean air laws.
"This is the whole ball of wax. This will determine whether the
Environmental Protection Agency is to regulate greenhouse gases from cars and whether EPA can regulate carbon dioxide from power plants," said David Bookbinder, an attorney for the Sierra Club.
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"Fundamentally, we don't think carbon dioxide is a pollutant, and so we don't think these attempts (to require reductions) are a good idea," said John Felmy, chief economist of the American Petroleum Institute, a trade group representing oil and gas producers.
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President Bush, when first running for president, expressed support for regulating carbon dioxide, but he reversed himself shortly after getting into office — saying he was convinced that voluntary plans to curtail carbon were a better way to go and mandatory regulation would be too expensive for business.
posted by rich at 1:07 PM
posted by rich at 12:31 PM
White House plays down Iraq withdrawal talk
WASHINGTON - The White House on Monday played down reports that the United States is planning sharp troop withdrawals from Iraq, beginning with the pullout of two combat brigades in September."I would caution very strongly against everybody thinking, `Well, they're going to pull two brigades out,'" White House press secretary Tony Snow said.
"Maybe they will, maybe they won't," he said. "It really does depend upon a whole series of things that we cannot at this juncture predict. I would characterize this more in terms of scenario building and we'll see how it proceeds."
posted by rich at 8:35 AM
Bush slams leak of terror finance story
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Monday sharply condemned the disclosure of a secret anti-terrorism program that taps into an immense international database of confidential financial records. "The disclosure of this program is disgraceful," he said."For people to leak that program and for a newspaper to publish it does great harm to the United States of America," Bush said. He said the disclosure of the program "makes it harder to win this war on terror."
The program has been going on since shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. It was disclosed last week by several news organizations.
Using broad government subpoenas, the program allows U.S. counterterrorism analysts to obtain financial information from a vast database maintained by a company based in Belgium. It routes about 11 million financial transactions daily among 7,800 banks and other financial institutions in 200 countries.
"Congress was briefed and what we did was fully authorized under the law," Bush said, talking with reporters in the Roosevelt Room after meeting with groups that support U.S. troops in Iraq.
"We're at war with a bunch of people who want to hurt the United States of America," the president said. "What we were doing was the right thing."
posted by rich at 8:28 AM
Who cut holes in the Minutemen's fence?
The geniuses known as the Minuteman Project, who thought stringing some barbed wire across the desert would stop migration, have been thwarted by someone with a pair of wire cutters.An 800-foot section of the three mile barbed wire fence was cut.
"Cut so cleverly that it could not be repaired, it has to be restrung because it's cut right here at the post," says Carmen Mercer of the Minuteman Project.
posted by rich at 2:29 PM
posted by rich at 1:37 PM
Fox Gets ‘Fair And Balanced’ Access to Guantanamo
Last week, the Pentagon “shut down access entirely” to the Guantanamo Bay prison after the suicide deaths of three detainees. Journalists covering the suicides had their clearances revoked and were immediately flown back to the United States, and regular visits between detainees and their lawyers were cancelled. Human rights groups protested:
This press crackdown is the administration’s latest betrayal of fundamental American values. The Bush Administration is afraid of American reporters, afraid of American attorneys and afraid of American laws.
Afraid of American journalists, that is, as long as they’re not from Fox. This morning, Fox News analyst Judge Andrew Napolitano described how the Defense Department had personally invited him on a trip to Guantanamo on Wednesday:
NAPOLITANO: I was doing my radio show with Brian Kilmeade the other day and I get an email from the Defense Department saying, “We have an extra seat on a flight down to Guantanamo, would you like to come?” So, of course, I cleared it all — I cleared it here with our superiors. …
HOST: What’d you see?
NAPOLITANO: Well, we saw everything. … We saw all six camps. … We had FBI interviews, I actually sat down and examined the evidence they’re going to use at trial with prosecutors. It was very detailed.
HOST: That was some kind of access.
NAPOLITANO: It was. It was great.
Napolitano offered his fair and balanced review of conditions at the prison: among other glowing reviews, he claimed it is “now gentle, almost child-like the way they treat the detainees.”
posted by rich at 11:22 AM
Homegrown Errorists
You know the Bush Administration has lost its mojo when they can’t even fake a terror alert well.The seven men arrested in an alleged terrorist plot believed they were conspiring with al Qaeda ‘’to levy war against the United States'’ in attacks that would ‘’be just as good or greater than 9/11,'’ according to a federal indictment unsealed this morning.
The campaign, which never advanced beyond the discussion stage, would begin with the bombing of the 110-story Sears Tower in Chicago, according to the indictment.. . .They apparently never had any contact with authentic representatives of al Qaeda. They were not able to obtain explosives, federal officials said.
‘’It was more aspirational than operational,'’ John Pistole, the FBI’s deputy director, said during the Washington news conference.
But the group asked the supposed al Qaeda representative to provide machine guns, boots, uniforms and vehicles, the indictment said.
So these guys had no money, no weapons, no contact with actual terrorists…hell, they didn’t even have uniforms. They’re nutcases who belong in jail, but they’re hardly the “homegrown terrorists” we’re hearing about.
posted by rich at 10:55 AM
JEERS to shooting America in the face. Wow...this is an unbelievable admission from Dick Cheney. Let's set it up step-by-step:
1. The Republican "hawks" love to boast of how quickly and efficiently the Iraqi security forces are getting trained and deployed to defeat the terrorists inside their country. They promise that "as the Iraqis stand up, we'll stand down."
2. The Republicans also love to boast that invading Iraq made America safer because we're "fighting them over there so we don't have to fight them over here."
3. Yesterday, Dick Cheney blew #1 and #2 all to hell with this jaw-dropping admission that we can never, ever pull our troops out:
"If we pull out, [the terrorists in Iraq] will follow us. It doesn't matter where we go. ... And it will continue---whether we complete the job or not in Iraq---only it'll get worse. Iraq will become a safe haven for terrorists."
The only conclusion that can be drawn from the vice president---the architect of this war---is, we're screwed. So today I bid a warm welcome to our Iraqi brothers and sisters who now belong to America's 51st state: Cheneyoming. Whether they, or we, like it or not.
P.S. Who's undermining the morale of our troops now by admitting the mission will never be accomplished? Who could that be, Dick?
posted by rich at 10:12 AM
Cafferty on All the children left behind
Jack went off on the "No Child Left Behind" policy by Bush. It looks pretty bleak for our kids.
posted by rich at 9:59 AM
Southern Republican bigots are trying to kill the Voting Rights Act
Gee, first the Republicans showed last summer that they had an affinity for lynching blacks, and now they don't want blacks and Latinos to vote. Do we need any more evidence for blacks, Latinos and other minorities to realize that the Republican party hates people who aren't rich, white, straight, Amurican men?
And, you just have to love the argument from the Southern Republican Members of Congress trying to kill this landmark civil rights legislation. You see, the legislation unfairly tarnishes southern states as bigots.
posted by rich at 9:48 AM
Costa Rica wants Iraq reference removed
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica - Costa Rica wants its name erased from the list of countries supporting the invasion of Iraq. But the United States says that's not possible.
posted by rich at 9:46 AM
New EPA study finds Bush is wrong about cause of gas price increase
I guess Bush won't be able to repeal those environmental protection laws like his rich donors wanted you to. Do Republicans have any agenda other than giving the country away to their corporate donors? Oh, that's right: gay marriage.
"Boutique" gasoline blends to help states meet clean air rules are not a factor in higher prices as President Bush has suggested, says a draft of a study ordered by the White House.
Although often cited as a reason for volatile gasoline prices, so-called "boutique fuels" have not caused unusual distribution problems or contributed to price increases, the report concludes.
The review was conducted by a task force headed by the Environmental Protection Agency and involving representatives from the 50 states as well as the Energy and Agriculture departments.
Facing growing public outrage over soaring gasoline prices, Bush ordered the study on April 25 in a speech in which he attributed high gas prices in part to the growth of special fuels.
"We ... need to confront the larger problem of too many localized fuel blends, which are called boutique fuels," the president told a renewable fuels conference, adding that this has produced "an uncoordinated, overly complex set of fuel rules" that "tends to cause the price to go up."
But the task force found otherwise, according to its report to be released possibly as early as Friday.
posted by rich at 9:13 AM
Shells may have been earliest jewelry
WASHINGTON - Ancient beads that may represent the oldest attempt by people at self-decoration have been identified from sites in Algeria and Israel.The beads, made from shells with holes bored into them, date to around 100,000 years ago, some 25,000 years older than similar beads discovered two years ago in South Africa, researchers report in Friday's issue of the journal Science.
posted by rich at 8:56 AM
Earth hottest it's been in 2,000 years
WASHINGTON - The Earth is running a slight fever from greenhouse gases, after enjoying relatively stable temperatures for 2,000 years. The National Academy of Sciences, after reconstructing global average surface temperatures for the past two millennia, said Thursday the data are "additional supporting evidence ... that human activities are responsible for much of the recent warming."
posted by rich at 8:54 AM
Terror fund tracking program draws protest
WASHINGTON - A secret Bush administration program to track people suspected of bankrolling terrorism drew protests from Democrats in Congress on Friday while Republicans defended the effort as vital to waging a global war against terrorism.
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Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass. and co-chairman of the Congressional Privacy Caucus, said Friday that there were disturbing similarities between the bank monitoring program and the secret surveillance program for telephone calls that was revealed last year."Like the domestic surveillance program exposed last December, the Bush administration's efforts to tap into the financial records of thousands of Americans appear to rely on justifications concocted without regard to current law," Markey said in a statement.
"If the administration wants to fight terrorism legally, then it should ask for the authority it needs and then follow the law that Congress passes," Markey said. "Don't claim 'temporary emergency' and then operate in secret for five years."
posted by rich at 8:49 AM
State of emergency declared in Baghdad
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The Iraqi government declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew Friday after insurgents set up roadblocks in central Baghdad and opened fire on U.S. and Iraqi troops outside the heavily fortified Green Zone.Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki ordered everyone off the streets of the capital from 2 p.m. until 5 p.m.
U.S. and Iraqi forces also fought gunmen in the volatile Dora neighborhood in south Baghdad.
Two U.S. soldiers were killed when a roadside bomb struck their vehicle southeast of the capital, the U.S. military said.
The military also said two U.S. Marines died in combat in volatile Anbar province in separate attacks on Wednesday and Thursday, and a soldier died elsewhere in a non-combat incident on Wednesday.
At least 2,517 members of the U.S. military have died since the
Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.A car bomb ripped through a market and nearby gas station in the increasingly violent southern city of Basra, killing at least five people and wounding 18, including two policemen, police said.
A bomb also struck a Sunni mosque in Hibhib, northeast of Baghdad, killing 10 worshippers and wounding 15 in the town where Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was slain this month, police said.
At least 19 other deaths were reported in Baghdad.
Throughout the morning, Iraqi and U.S. military forces clashed with attackers armed with rocket-propelled grenades, hand grenades and rifles in busy Haifa Street, which runs into the Green Zone, site of the U.S. and British embassies and the Iraqi government.
Four Iraqi soldiers and three policemen were wounded in the fighting, police Lt. Maitham Abdul Razzaq said.
The region was sealed and Iraqi and U.S. forces conducted house-to-house searches.
posted by rich at 8:42 AM
posted by rich at 12:29 PM
posted by rich at 12:26 PM
Republican House Speaker Hastert and two other Republican Congressmen accused of using pork to enrich themselves financially
Oh for simpler times when Denny was a great late-night dive.
House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) made a $2 million profit last year on the sale of land 5 1/2 miles from a highway project that he helped to finance with targeted federal funds.
A Republican House member from California, meanwhile, received nearly double what he paid for a four-acre parcel near an Air Force base after securing $8 million for a planned freeway interchange 16 miles away. And another California GOP congressman obtained funding in last year's highway bill for street improvements near a planned residential and commercial development that he co-owns.
posted by rich at 12:16 PM
posted by rich at 12:13 PM
EDINBURG — Political consultant and ad producer Carey Lee Cramer is expected to testify today defending himself against charges he sexually molested two young girls.
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Cramer, who gained national notoriety with an anti-Al Gore commercial in 2000, is facing several counts of aggravated sexual assault of a child.
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In 2000, Cramer produced an anti-Al Gore television ad accusing the Clinton-Gore administration of giving nuclear technology to China in return for campaign contributions.Cramer’s commercial showed a young girl picking daisy petals and ends with a nuclear blast, a remake of a 1964 ad by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson’s campaign against Republican Barry Goldwater. Cramer’s ad made national news, though he refused to identify who financed the commercial. One of the girls in the ad stands as his accuser now.
posted by rich at 2:39 PM
Minimum wage increase defeated.
Associated Press: “The Republican-controlled Senate refused Wednesday to raise the minimum wage, rejecting an election-year proposal from Democrats for the first increase in nearly a decade. The vote was 52-46, eight short of the 60 needed.”
posted by rich at 2:30 PM
posted by rich at 10:30 AM
Where Did Safavian Work Again?
You wouldn't know it from the coverage of David H. Safavian's conviction yesterday for lying and obstructing justice, but some of his criminal activity actually took place while he was working at the White House.
posted by rich at 9:56 AM
posted by rich at 8:49 AM
The war may not be going well, but surely the reconstruction is, right?
You know, winning hearts and minds, showing Iraq how to get the job done by corporate America with all of its might and expertise, not to mention millions of dollars of fed money. With all of the taxpayer money going in there are bound to be some good stories that the liberal press just doesn't want to talk about.
The Army Corps of Engineers said Monday that it had canceled a $99.1 million contract with Parsons, one of the largest companies working in Iraq, to build a prison north of Baghdad after the firm fell more than two years behind schedule, threatened to go millions of dollars over budget and essentially abandoned the construction site.
The move is another harsh rebuke for Parsons, only weeks after the corps canceled more than $300 million of the company's contracts to build and refurbish hospitals and clinics across Iraq. A federal oversight office had found that some of the clinics were little more than empty shells and that only 20 of 150 called for in the contract would be completed without new
financing.So...how's the war planning going? Do we have a plan yet?
posted by rich at 8:47 AM
posted by rich at 3:18 PM
In a Nutshell
The Bush administration:The topic was the largest defense procurement scandal in recent decades, and the two investigators for the Pentagon's inspector general in Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's office on April 1, 2005, asked the secretary to raise his hand and swear to tell the truth.Rumsfeld agreed but complained. "I find it strange," he said to the investigators, on the grounds that as a government official "the laws apply to me" anyway.
posted by rich at 2:40 PM
CNN: Dubai STILL controls 22 US ports
Isn't that special. CNN reports that Dubai is still controlling the ports, and that Congress silently killed legislation that would have helped ensure the ports stay American-owned. Lou Dobbs thinks the Republican Congress and the Bush White House have played a fast one on the American people.
posted by rich at 2:23 PM
Help Raise the Minimum Wage
Our guest blogger, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA), is the ranking Democrat on the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee in the Senate.Yesterday, I offered an amendment on the Senate floor to raise the minimum wage to $7.25 an hour in three steps over the next two years. This increase will help almost 15 million Americans rise out of poverty. This vote is critically important, and I need your help to win this fight.
As many of you know, the federal minimum wage hasn’t been raised in nine years. A minimum wage worker, who works full-time, 52 weeks a year, makes $5.15 an hour—$10,700 a year. That’s not even enough to keep a single parent with one child above the poverty line!
Despite our efforts, Congress year after year has refused to give working men and women the raise they deserve. Yet Congress keeps giving itself annual pay raises—it’s the height of hypocrisy.
But now, we have a real opportunity. We’ve had significant minimum wage victories in red states and blue states alike, and an increase received strong bipartisan support in the House Appropriations Committee last week. The momentum is growing, and the time for action is now!
Make calls, send emails – tell Senators to support the Kennedy Amendment to raise the minimum wage. Ask your friends and neighbors to take a stand for a fair minimum wage too.
Thank you for your help. Together, we can see that minimum wage workers finally get the raise they deserve!
– Ted Kennedy
posted by rich at 2:13 PM
Torture of Mentally Ill Prisoner Led Administration To Pursue False Leads
In his new book “The One Percent Doctrine,” Ron Suskind details the story of Abu Zubaydah - a man President Bush once described as “one of the top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction on the United States.” Suskind writes that Bush made this claim despite CIA and FBI analysis that showed Zubaydah was “mentally ill and nothing like the pivotal figure they supposed him to be.” (“This guy is insane, [a] certifiable, split personality,” the FBI’s top al-Qaeda analyst said.)
Nevertheless, “under White House and Justice Department direction, the CIA would make him its first test subject for harsh interrogation techniques.” Ultimately, his story became an example of how torture doesn’t work.
From the Washington Post’s review of the book:
Bush “was fixated on how to get Zubaydah to tell us the truth,” Suskind writes, and he asked one briefer, “Do some of these harsh methods really work?”
Interrogators did their best to find out, Suskind reports. They strapped Abu Zubaydah to a water-board, which reproduces the agony of drowning. They threatened him with certain death. They withheld medication. They bombarded him with deafening noise and harsh lights, depriving him of sleep.
Under that duress, he began to speak of plots of every variety —against shopping malls, banks, supermarkets, water systems, nuclear plants, apartment buildings, the Brooklyn Bridge, the Statue of Liberty. With each new tale, “thousands of uniformed men and women raced in a panic to each…target.” And so, Suskind writes, “the United States would torture a mentally disturbed man and then leap, screaming, at every word he uttered.”
The answer to your question, President Bush, is “no.”
posted by rich at 2:08 PM
posted by rich at 2:03 PM
US activates missile defense amid N.Korea dispute
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States has activated its ground-based interceptor missile-defense system amid concerns over an expected North Korean missile launch, a U.S. defense official said on Tuesday.Pentagon officials declined to say whether they would try to shoot down any missile launched by the reclusive communist state.
Pyongyang had no immediate comment, but a North Korean official said earlier the country does not feel bound by pledges to halt test firings of long-range missiles.
posted by rich at 1:12 PM
Bodies of missing U.S. soldiers recovered
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The bodies of two U.S. soldiers reported captured last week have been recovered, and an Iraqi defense ministry official said Tuesday the men were "killed in a barbaric way." The U.S. military said the remains were believed to be those of Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, 23, of Houston, and Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker, 25, of Madras, Ore.
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“Because the U.S. government did not have a plan in place, my nephew has paid for it with his life,” said the uncle of Kristian Menchaca, one of the missing U.S. soldiers found dead in Iraq today. On Power Line, John Hinderaker is already shamelessly
attacking Menchaca’s uncle.
Repugs really have no shame in attacking the victims of their ill-conceived policies.
posted by rich at 11:10 AM
Another great Democratic message point on Iraq
I kind of hate giving credit to Joe Biden, because he does go on, but he nailed this one:
"If I had known the president was going to be this incompetent in his administration, I would not have given him the authority" to go to war, said Biden, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
This is an argument I've been making for a good year or two now. It's the argument Kerry should have made during his presidential run. It's the argument any Democrat can use to explain why they voted for the war and now think it's a disaster. And finally, it's the truth.
posted by rich at 2:05 PM
On Friday, two U.S. troops were kidnapped at a checkpoint in Iraq. They remain missing. This morning on Fox News Sunday, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow criticized the press for spending too much time covering their plight.
posted by rich at 1:49 PM
Murtha on Rove: ‘He’s Sitting in His Air-Conditioned Office on His Big, Fat Backside, Saying Stay the Course’
Karl Rove attacked Rep. John Murtha during a speech last week in New Hampshire. Rove described Murtha’s Iraq plan as “cutting and running,” and suggested that the 37-year Marine combat veteran would “be with you at the first shots” but not “for the last, tough battles.”
Murtha defended himself this morning on Meet the Press:
MURTHA: He’s in New Hampshire. He’s making a political speech. He’s sitting in his air-conditioned office on his big, fat backside, saying stay the course. That’s not a plan. … We’ve got to change direction. You can’t sit there in the air-conditioned office and tell troops carrying 70 pounds on their backs, inside these armored vessels hit with IEDs every day, seeing their friends blown up, their buddies blown up — and he says stay the course? Easy to say that from Washington, DC.
posted by rich at 1:47 PM
posted by rich at 1:45 PM
VIDEO: Cheney Reasserts That Iraqi Insurgency Entered Its ‘Last Throes’ In May 2005 «
In May 2005, Vice President Cheney declared that the insurgency in Iraq was in its “last throes” and predicted “[t]he level of activity that we see today from a military standpoint, I think, will clearly decline.” Since that time, violence in Iraq has continued unabated.
Today at the National Press Club, Cheney was asked if he still believed that May 2005 was when the insurgency entered its “last throes.” He said he still did.
posted by rich at 1:40 PM
Bill O’Reilly says if he was in charge of Iraq he’d run it just like Saddam Hussein did.
posted by rich at 1:33 PM
Flag-Burning Amendment One Vote From Passage
The U.S. Senate is one vote away from passing a constitutional amendment that would criminalize desecration of the U.S. flag.If successful, it will mark the first time in 214 years that the Bill of Rights has been restricted by a constitutional amendment, and will place the United States among a select group of nations that have banned flag desecration, including Cuba, China, Iran, and Iraq under Saddam Hussein.
Three reasons to oppose the flag amendment:
– Flag burning is a non-problem: As Sen. Robert Bennett (R- T) has said, “I don’t want to amend the Constitution to solve a non-problem. People are not burning the flag.” One study found just 45 reported incidents in the over 200 years between 1777 and 1989, when the Flag Protection Act was first passed.
– Flag burning is protected speech: The Supreme Court has twice ruled that destruction of the flag for political purposes, although highly offensive to most Americans, is undeniably a political statement and a political expression.
– Amendment is vaguely worded: The amendment is “phrased in such broad and vague language” that it could could include censorship of images of the flag in works of art, advertising, or commerce. Last week, the Senate spent time debating whether “wearing a very skimpy bathing suit” decorated with the flag’s stars and stripes would constitute desecration.
posted by rich at 1:28 PM
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posted by rich at 11:08 AM
Gay/Lesbian Books Burned In Lakeview Library
CHICAGO (WBBM Newsradio 780) -- Chicago gay rights activists are concerned about what may have been a hate crime in the Lakeview neighborhood.
The Chicago Public Library says that about 100 books were destroyed after someone set a fire in the section for gay and lesbian literature.
posted by rich at 11:03 AM
posted by rich at 11:00 AM
posted by rich at 10:02 AM
Iraq: Media continues to overstate al Qa'ida influence
This Associated Press story, entitled "Captured papers show weakening insurgency," is grossly misleading.
Whether or not the papers are even real, the article conflates the (overblown) efforts of "al Qa'ida in Iraq" (AQI) with the overall insurgency. I'm going to type this very, very slowly so reporters can understand:
AQI is a tiny percentage of the overall Iraqi insurgency, and perpetrates even smaller percentage of the overall violence in the country.
"Arrests, weapons seizures and money shortages are taking a heavy toll on al-Qaida's insurgency in Iraq" is tremendously misleading because it's not al-Qa'ida's insurgency. It's a native-based Sunni insurgency that, for the moment, allows foreign fighters freedom of movement. If and when the Sunnis decide to expel the foreign fighters, um, they'll be able to do it. Although AQI has committed some of the more high-profile attacks, it is far from the driving force of the insurgency.
If this document is real, hey, I'm psyched. I'm happy to see AQI lose heart, get killed, or whatever keeps them from blowing shit up. But it's lunacy to pretend that AQI is the insurgency focal point. How does an article get written that implies the insurgency is weakening -- allegedly by admission of insurgents themselves -- without mentioning, y'know, that casualties are at record highs? April and May had the highest number of Coalition deaths since October, and sectarian killings are skyrocketing, but Dick "Last Throes" Cheney says that the document, if authenticated, shows that terrorists know they are losing the war. Ohhhhkaayyyyy.
Attention media: the causes of violence in Iraq are, in descending order: regular old crime (due to total lack of security), sectarian conflict, anti-Coalition native insurgency, and foreign fighters (AQI). If a doctor brags about fixing a broken toe on a guy who's in the middle of a heart attack, it's nice that the toe is fixed . . . but the doctor is an idiot.
posted by rich at 9:58 AM
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And here's are some highlights, provided by the American Constitution Society:
-Senator Clinton's Privacy Bill will be known as the Privacy Rights and Oversight for Electronic and Commercial Transactions Act of 2006 (PROTECT Act)
-The PROTECT Act will protect consumer information by allowing credit card companies, banks and other financial service providers to share information only when customers "opt it." Current law requires consumers to opt out.
-It will protect cell phone numbers and call records against disclosure.
-It will allow victims of identity theft to immediately freeze their credit rating.
-It will allow consumers to sue financial service providers directly in federal court for violations of their privacy.
-It will create a right to be notified immediately if you are a victim of identity theft, to know when your information is transmitted overseas, and to receive a free copy of your credit report each year.
-It will create a "privacy czar" within the Office of Management and Budget.
-It will expand HIPAA by adding additional sanctions to ensure violators are held accountable.
In her speech, Clinton said she was inspired by the recent theft of Veteran's Administration record that you have blogged about. She also included several skillful digs against the administration, including one to the effect of "we must be better prepared to deal with privacy that we were to deal with hurricanes."
posted by rich at 9:47 AM
Shoe bomber kills 10 inside Iraq mosque
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A shoe bomber blew himself up inside an important Shiite mosque during Friday prayers, killing at least 10 people and wounding 20, as violence persisted in the capital despite a massive security operation aimed at restoring order.
posted by rich at 9:36 AM
posted by rich at 9:19 AM
Library gets Bukowski archive
SAN MARINO, Calif. - The genteel Huntington Library will house the gritty literary collection of author Charles Bukowski.Bukowski's widow announced Wednesday that she was donating her late husband's literary collection to the museum. His chronicles of a hard-drinking, bar-brawling life in Los Angeles will be ensconced with the likes of Chaucer and Dickens.
"It's going to be scandalous. This would tickle my husband. It would crack him up," Linda Lee Bukowski said.
Bukowski, who died of leukemia at age 73 in 1994, emerged late in life from L.A.'s underground to become an internationally renowned author and an iconic cultural figure.
The archive of more than a thousand items — some of it peppered with sex, violence and alcohol abuse — includes a typed draft of his 1982 novel, "Ham on Rye," with handwritten corrections; his screenplay for the 1987 autobiographical movie "Barfly"; rare poetry journals from the 1940s; and scratch forms for horse races at Santa Anita Park.
Experts said the collection could have sold for more than $1 million.
Other institutions wanted it, but Linda Lee Bukowski said she donated it to the Huntington because she frequently visits the library.
Huntington officials said they're thrilled to have the material.
"Bukowski pushes the envelope a little for us. And I love that," said Sue Hodson, the Huntington's curator of literary manuscripts.
Bukowski's published works of fiction, poetry and short story collections include "Post Office," "Septuagenarian Stew," "Notes of a Dirty Old Man," "Women" and "Factotum," which has been made into a movie that is scheduled to come out in August.
posted by rich at 8:54 AM
posted by rich at 11:28 AM
If It Was A Joke, Where Is The Punchline?
The Marine who wrote and performed the "Hadji Girl" song says it was just a joke but I think we all know that this particular ditty is representative of both the prevailing attitude among our armed forces in Iraq towards the very people they are supposed to be "liberating" and the larger breakdown in discipline that has resulted from a lack of leadership at the top.
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The song tells the story of a Marine who falls in love with an Iraqi girl and is taken to meet her family. The girl's family shoots her and then attacks the Marine, who uses her younger sister as a shield and watches blood spray from her head.He then sings about blowing the father and brother "to eternity."
posted by rich at 11:22 AM
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posted by rich at 9:34 AM
EXCLUSIVE: Majority Leader Boehner’s Confidential Strategy Memo For Thursday’s Iraq Debate
On Thursday, the House of Representatives will hold a debate on the Iraq war. Media reports say Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) “hopes to match the serious, dignified tone of deliberation that preceded the Gulf war, in 1991.”
ThinkProgress has obtained a “Confidential Messaging Memo” from Boehner instructing his caucus to conduct a very different kind of deliberation. Here’s a quick summary:
1. Exploit 9/11. The two page memo mentions 9/11 seven times. It describes debating Iraq in the context of 9/11 as “imperative.”
2. Attack opponents ad hominem. The memo describes those who opposes President Bush’s policies in Iraq as “sheepish,” “weak,” and “prone to waver endlessly.”
3. Create a false choice. The memo says the decision is between supporting President Bush’s policies and hoping terrorist threats will “fade away on their own.”
posted by rich at 9:18 AM
So what's happening in the real war on terror?
In Somalia, we are losing badly. Strange thing that we're not seeing too many photos of the celebrations there. So what's the Bush excuse this time? I know, why not blame Clinton? How about flag burning? Gay marriage? What else do they have in their box of excuses for this failure?
There are also tales of al-Qa'ida moving in the shadows inside Somalia's capital, a city now in ruins, and a potent symbol of a failure of American foreign policy.
posted by rich at 9:15 AM
posted by rich at 9:03 AM
The media can't believe it, Bush isn't moving in the polls
The latest NBC/Wall Street Journal poll had Bush "surging" 1 point -- all the way from 36% to 37%. This morning, Matt Lauer was incredulous that the numbers for Bush haven't spiked. The media is waiting for -- and pushing the narrative that there will be -- a Bush surge. The American people, who, unlike the media, grasp that Bush has lied to them about Iraq many times, aren't giving him one:
According to the poll, 37 percent approve of Bush's job performance — an increase of one point since the last survey in April. This is the seventh straight NBC/Journal poll that has had Bush's job approval below 40 percent.
For whatever reason, the traditional media always, always, always falls for the Bush spin. Yet, these days, the public doesn't. Bush can -- and does -- play the media. Exhibit A yesterday was CNN's John King who was literally gushing about the Bush trip to Iraq. But Bush's tricks and lies don't seem to be working on the American people -- yet anyway.
And, yes, everyone hates Congress:
Meanwhile, just 23 percent approve of Congress' job, while a whopping 64 percent disapprove.
posted by rich at 8:50 AM
Family of Gitmo inmate wants own autopsy
CAIRO, Egypt — Family members of a Saudi inmate found dead at Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba said Thursday they want his body back for an autopsy because they do not believe U.S. claims that he committed suicide.In a phone interview with The Associated Press from the ultraconservative province of Al-Qasim, the sister of Mani Shaman Turki al-Habradi al-Utaybi said she would never believe her brother had taken his own life.
"He is an extremely devout Muslim who would never, never, never commit suicide," Manyia Shaman Turki al-Habradi al-Utaybi said.
The U.S. Defense Department said al-Utaybi, Yasser Talal al-Zahrani of Saudi Arabia and Ali Abdullah Ahmed of Yemen hanged themselves in their cells early Saturday, using nooses made from sheets and clothing.
Ahmed's parents told The Associated Press Wednesday that they too want their son's body flown home for burial, and that they considered him a martyr killed by the United States.
"I respect and love the friendly American people, but they should know more what (U.S. President George W.) Bush is doing against the Muslims," Mohammed Abdullah al-Aslami said at his home in Yemen.
posted by rich at 8:41 AM
Afghan offensive begins; bus bomb kills 7
MUSA QALA, Afghanistan - More than 10,000 Afghan and U.S.-ledd coalition forces began a massive anti-Taliban operation across southern Afghanistan on Thursday, while a bomb killed seven people riding a bus to a coalition base for work.
posted by rich at 8:29 AM
Documents: Al-Qaida sought U.S.-Iran war
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A blueprint for trying to start a war between the United States and Iran was among a "huge treasure" of documents found in the hideout of terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Iraqi officials said Thursday.
posted by rich at 8:25 AM
Reid to Bush: Don't just talk, do something
Harry Reid challenged Bush to actually come up with a strategy at the retreat he's having at Camp David about Iraq:
"Our troops and the American people have been exceedingly patient as previous mileposts in Iraq have passed without progress. The president is asking too much if he expects us to do it again," Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in the Democratic radio address. "With Zarqawi gone and the cabinet filled, we need more than platitudes next week when the president convenes a conference with Iraq's leaders and his war Cabinet."
Over three years in to the quagmire, there is no strategy to finish the job (whatever "the job" is.) Bush and his "war cabinet" spend a lot of time on political spin about Iraq. But, they don't do much about the real policy.
posted by rich at 12:35 PM
