30 April 2007

Suicide bomber kills 51 at a funeral, over 100 U.S. soldiers killed in April...

Five U.S. troops were killed over the weekend in Iraq, the military said Monday, pushing the death toll for April past 100 in the deadliest month for American forces this year.

A suicide bomber, meanwhile, blew himself up during a Shiite funeral in a volatile area north of Baghdad, the deadliest in a series of attacks.

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With Maliki's continued resistance to any progress.. the "surge" doesn't stand a chance...

A department of the Iraqi prime minister's office is playing a leading role in the arrest and removal of senior Iraqi army and national police officers, some of whom have apparently worked too aggressively to combat violent Shiite militias, according to U.S. military officials in Baghdad.

Since March 1, at least 16 army and national police commanders have been fired, detained or pressured to resign; at least nine of them are Sunnis, according to U.S. military documents shown to The Washington Post.

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Wow... apparently this is just the tip of the iceberg...

Tobias is mounting what I guess we might call the Haggard defense: no sex, just massages.
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On Thursday, Tobias told ABC News he had several times called the "Pamela Martin and Associates" escort service "to have gals come over to the condo to give me a massage." Tobias, who is married, said there had been "no sex," and that recently he had been using another service "with Central Americans" to provide massages.

a bit of irony...

As the Bush administration's so-called "AIDS czar," Tobias was criticized for emphasizing faithfulness and abstinence over condom use to prevent the spread of AIDS.

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Weren't we promised the end of terrorism once Saddam was overthrown?

A State Department report on terrorism due out next week will show a nearly 30 percent increase in terrorist attacks worldwide in 2006 to more than 14,000, almost all of the boost due to growing violence in Iraq and Afghanistan, U.S. officials said Friday.
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Based on data compiled by the U.S. intelligence community's National Counterterrorism Center, the report says there were 14,338 terrorist attacks last year, up 29 percent from 11,111 attacks in 2005.

Forty-five percent of the attacks were in Iraq.

Worldwide, there were about 5,800 terrorist attacks that resulted in at least one fatality, also up from 2005.

The figures for Iraq and elsewhere are limited to attacks on noncombatants and don't include strikes against U.S. troops.

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They need to up his meds...

Don Larsen, chairman of legislative District 65 for the Utah County Republican Party, had submitted a resolution warning that Satan’s minions want to eliminate national borders and do away with sovereignty.

In a speech at the convention, Larsen told those gathered that illegal immigrants “hate American people” and “are determined to destroy this country, and there is nothing they won’t do.”

Illegal aliens are in control of the media, and working in tandem with Democrats, are trying to “destroy Christian America” and replace it with “a godless new world order — and that is not extremism, that is fact,” Larsen said.
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Republican officials then allowed speakers to defend and refute the resolution. One speaker, who was identified as “Joe,” said illegal immigrants were Marxist and under the influence of the devil. Another, who declined to give her name to the Daily Herald, said illegal immigrants should not be allowed because “they are not going to become Republicans”

nod Crooks and Liars

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Newly disclosed documents may make the Katrina response as devastating to the Bush administration as the Iraq fiasco...

Many of the U.S. diplomats who received the message, however, were beginning to witness a more embarrassing reality. They knew the U.S. government was turning down many allies' offers of manpower, supplies and expertise worth untold millions of dollars. Eventually the United States also would fail to collect most of the unprecedented outpouring of international cash assistance for Katrina's victims.

Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent.

In addition, valuable supplies and services -- such as cellphone systems, medicine and cruise ships -- were delayed or declined because the government could not handle them. In some cases, supplies were wasted.
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In one exchange, State Department officials anguished over whether to tell Italy that its shipments of medicine, gauze and other medical supplies spoiled in the elements for weeks after Katrina's landfall on Aug. 29, 2005, and were destroyed. "Tell them we blew it," one disgusted official wrote. But she hedged: "The flip side is just to dispose of it and not come clean. I could be persuaded."

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Nine of our soldiers have died in the past 48 hours...

A car bomb exploded Saturday in the Shiite holy city of Karbala as the streets were packed with people heading for evening prayers, killing at least 58 and wounding scores near some of the country's most sacred shrines. Separately, the U.S. military announced the deaths of nine American troops, including three killed Saturday in a single roadside bombing outside Baghdad.
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The Americans killed in Iraq included five who died in fighting Friday in Anbar province, three killed when a roadside bomb struck their patrol southeast of Baghdad and one killed in a separate roadside bombing south of the capital.

The deaths raised to 99 the number of members of the U.S. military who have died this month and at least 3,346 who have died since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

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And here I thought Tweety was the only guy in DC who suffered from mancrushes..

You had the impression that some Office of the Vice President and DOD reps were writing Chalabi’s name over and over again in their notes, like schoolgirls with their first crush.

Think Progress brings the goods...

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Seven of the eight sampled projects the administration claims were completed successfully are not operational...

In a troubling sign for the American-financed rebuilding program in Iraq, inspectors for a federal oversight agency have found that in a sampling of eight projects that the United States had declared successes, seven were no longer operating as designed because of plumbing and electrical failures, lack of proper maintenance, apparent looting and expensive equipment that lay idle.

The United States has previously admitted, sometimes under pressure from federal inspectors, that some of its reconstruction projects have been abandoned, delayed or poorly constructed. But this is the first time inspectors have found that projects officially declared a success — in some cases, as little as six months before the latest inspections — were no longer working properly.

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Gave a $1k tip, sucked down a $4k bottle of wine the night before..

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Aside from Tim Johnson (recovering from brain surgery)... St McCain has missed the most votes of any senator...

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ)
Representing: Arizona
Votes: 60 votes missed (40.8 percent of 147 total votes)

nod Think Progress

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Yeah... the secret Patriot Act provision has been in the news quite a bit.. but it was discussed two years before the provision was passed...

More than a year before the Bush administration has said it first considered firing US attorneys, a top Justice Department official asked lawyers to determine how the administration could temporarily fill vacant US attorney positions with appointees who had not been confirmed by the Senate.

In a September 2003 memo, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel, which answers legal questions for the president and his appointees, described a way to install a replacement US attorney who could serve up to 330 days without Senate confirmation.

But the memo also said that any appointee would eventually still have to win confirmation from the Senate or be approved by a federal court to continue serving. Two years later, the administration quietly got a provision inserted into the USA Patriot Act reauthorization bill giving itself the power to permanently appoint replacement US attorneys without Senate or court approval.

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The WH will no doubt attempt to pull the Executive Privilege dodge once again...

Lawmakers on Friday requested documents from the White House and Pentagon describing how and when the Bush administration learned the circumstances of Pat Tillman’s death.
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Committee Chairman Henry Waxman wrote Friday to White House Counsel Fred Fielding requesting “all documents received or generated by any official in the Executive Office of the President ... that relate to Corporal Tillman.”

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27 April 2007

Was watching clips of a CNN interview with Petraeus, and the prospect of the Iraqi gov't adjourning for the summer was mentioned...

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The pinheads at Faux repeatedly presented a parody as real news...

On Tuesday, Fox News morning show “Fox & Friends” aired at least eight segments on a purported “news” story that was actually a parody article written by a publication similar to The Onion.

Think Progress has the goods, plus video...

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Deficit spending, tax cuts for the rich in full swing, and GDP growth "surged" at a 1.3% clip...

Economic growth slowed to a near crawl of 1.3 percent in the first three months of 2007, the worst performance in four years. The main culprit: the housing slump.

The fresh reading on gross domestic product, released by the Commerce Department on Friday, was even weaker than the 2.5 percent growth rate logged in the final three months of last year. The new figures underscored just how much momentum the economy has been losing as it copes with the strain of the troubled housing market, which has made some businesses more cautious in their spending.

The first-quarter GDP figure was the weakest since a 1.2 percent pace registered in the opening quarter of 2003. GDP measures the value of all goods and services produced within the United States and is considered the best barometer of the country’s economic fitness.

“This was tepid activity in the first quarter. The economy was taking a breather,” said Ken Mayland, president of ClearView Economics.

The performance was even weaker than what economists expected; they had forecast a growth rate of 1.8 percent.

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With all the shrieking from the right about Reid's comments...

Lauer: So I’m just saying can we win it? Do you see that?

President Bush: I don’t think you can win it. But I think you can create conditions so that those who use terror as a tool are less acceptable in parts of the world — let's put it that way.

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A nice rundown of questions that need to be asked about the appointment of Paulose...

Josh at Talking Points Memo has more on how Paulose's predecessor was targeted for firing prior to his resigning...

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26 April 2007

As mentioned before... Shep let the truth slip out...

Fox News anchor Shepard Smith, covering yesterday’s flag-draped coffin procession for the Blue Angels pilot who died in a crash last weekend:

This is a scene we are not accustomed to see during war times. They don’t allow us to see the victims — uh, heroes who died for us in Iraq. We don’t get to see their caskets come back. It’s a wonderful honor to be able to pay tribute to this man in this way. Wouldn’t it be nice if we were able to do this with the hundreds upon hundreds who have died for us in Iraq?

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Dubya's approval tumbles to 28%..

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This could apply to just about every action he takes or statement he makes.. this one is in regards to the "drop" in sectarian violence since the surge (aka escalation)...

U.S. officials who say there has been a dramatic drop in sectarian violence in Iraq since President Bush began sending more American troops into Baghdad aren't counting one of the main killers of Iraqi civilians.

Car bombs and other explosive devices have killed thousands of Iraqis in the past three years, but the administration doesn't include them in the casualty counts it has been citing as evidence that the surge of additional U.S. forces is beginning to defuse tensions between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.

Bush administration officials have pointed to a dramatic decline in one category of deaths - the bodies dumped daily in Baghdad streets, which officials call sectarian murders - as evidence that the security plan is working. Bush said this week that that number had declined by 50 percent, a number confirmed by statistics compiled by McClatchy Newspapers.

But the number of people killed in explosive attacks is rising, the same statistics show - up from 323 in March, the first full month of the security plan, to 365 through April 24.

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Apparently he "forgot" to disclose a $200k payment from someone who he helped with a $4 million land deal...

Rep. Rick Renzi (R-Ariz.) failed to disclose a $200,000 payment he received from a business partner in 2005 in apparent violation of House ethics rules. Prosecutors could use the omission as evidence that Renzi intended to conceal a transaction he knew to be controversial or even improper.

The $200,000 was a payment from James Sandlin to settle a debt related to a previous business transaction involving land in northeast Arizona, one of the lawmaker’s attorneys, Grant Woods, told a newspaper last week.

This explanation might have been expected to dispel suspicion that Sandlin gave Renzi an illegal gift in exchange for action Renzi took to help Sandlin sell a $4 million parcel of land.

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This time... NBC's Andrea Mitchell claiming Pelosi is barely more popular than Hastert was. Josh at Talking Points Memo has the video to prove otherwise..

Hastert -- Favorable 22%
Pelosi -- Favorable 45% and Approval 53%

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“The governor can go straight to hell as far as I’m concerned for trying to do that…I’m pissed off at that SOB on the second floor (Schweitzer)…So my message to the governor is: Stick it up your ass! Stick it up your ass!…I don’t give a shit…We won’t back down.”
-- Montana House Republican Leader Michael Lange

nod to David Sirota

Update: Crooks and Liars has the video...

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Claims she doesn't need to testify, but offers a letter instead..

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she has already answered the questions she has been subpoenaed to answer before a congressional committee and suggested she is not inclined to comply with the order.

Rice said she would respond by mail to questions from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on the Bush administration's prewar claims about Saddam Hussein seeking weapons of mass destruction, but signaled she would not appear in person.

"I am more than happy to answer them again in a letter," she told reporters in Oslo, where she is attending a meeting of NATO foreign ministers.

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By a 51-46 vote... on to the WH for Bush's veto -- it's said to be scheduled to arrive on Bush's desk on the 4th anniversary of...

A defiant Democratic-controlled Senate passed legislation Thursday that would require the start of troop withdrawals from Iraq by Oct. 1, propelling Congress toward a historic veto showdown with President Bush on the war.

The 51-46 vote was largely along party lines, and like House passage of the same bill a day earlier, fell far short of the two-thirds margin needed to overturn the president’s threatened veto. Nevertheless, the legislation is the first binding challenge on the war that Democrats have managed to send to Bush since they reclaimed control of both houses of Congress in January.

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Wonder how Rove will weasel out of this one...

White House officials conducted 20 private briefings on Republican electoral prospects in the last midterm election for senior officials in at least 15 government agencies covered by federal restrictions on partisan political activity, a White House spokesman and other administration officials said yesterday.

The previously undisclosed briefings were part of what now appears to be a regular effort in which the White House sent senior political officials to brief top appointees in government agencies on which seats Republican candidates might win or lose, and how the election outcomes could affect the success of administration policies, the officials said.
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Such coercion is prohibited under a federal law, known as the Hatch Act, meant to insulate virtually all federal workers from partisan politics. In addition to forbidding workplace pressures meant to influence an election outcome, the law bars the use of federal resources -- including office buildings, phones and computers -- for partisan purposes.

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Final vote of 218-208... Senate votes Thursday..

A sharply divided House brushed aside a veto threat Wednesday and passed legislation that would order President Bush to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq by Oct. 1.

The 218-208 vote came as the top U.S. commander in Iraq told lawmakers the country remained gripped by violence but was showing some signs of improvement.
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The $124.2 billion bill would fund the war, among other things, but demand troop withdrawals begin on Oct. 1 or sooner if the Iraqi government does not meet certain benchmarks. The bill sets a nonbinding goal of completing the troop pull out by April 1, 2008, allowing for forces conducting certain noncombat missions, such as attacking terrorist networks or training Iraqi forces, to remain.

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Despite the recent and relentless rantings of Dubya and Deadeye Dick... the public isn't swayed...

As the Democrat-controlled Congress and the White House clash over an Iraq spending bill, with President Bush vowing to veto it because it contains withdrawal deadlines, the latest NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds that a solid majority of Americans side with the Democrats.

Set Deadline -- Yes 56%, No 37%
Is Victory Possible -- No 55%
The Surge Has Made Things -- Worse 49%, Better 12%
Right Track -- Yes 22% (lowest since Bush 41 recession)

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Can't wait to see how Tweety reacts to the grilling of his boy when they co-host debate coverage Thursday nite..

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No.. not the GOP... Maliki's gov't...

Ten weeks into the security plan, even as U.S. lawmakers propose timelines for a U.S. troop withdrawal, there has been little or no progress in achieving three key political benchmarks set by the Bush administration: new laws governing the sharing of Iraq's oil resources and allowing many former members of the banned Baath Party to return to their jobs, and amendments to Iraq's constitution. As divisions widen, a bitter, prolonged legislative struggle is hindering prospects for political reconciliation.
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Other benchmarks such as provincial elections, a political agreement on dismantling militias and a program for reconciliation announced last July also have not moved forward, Iraqi officials said.

Read more! »

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25 April 2007

Good Lord...

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As mentioned previously.. this could turn the heat on Gone-zales from simmering to boiling...

A House committee voted Wednesday to grant immunity to Monica Goodling, a key aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during the firings of eight U.S. attorneys.
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The 32-6 vote by the House Judiciary Committee surpassed the two-thirds majority required to grant a witness immunity from prosecution. A separate vote to authorize a subpoena for Goodling passed by voice vote.

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The move should force her into testifying about how the "16 words" made their way into the SOTU...

In rapid succession, congressional committees Wednesday ramped up their investigations of the Bush administration by approving a subpoena for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and granting immunity to a key aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

By 21-10, the House oversight committee voted to issue a subpoena to Rice to compel her story on the Bush administration's claim, now discredited, that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa.

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Looks that way...

As midterm elections approached last November, federal investigators in Arizona faced unexpected obstacles in getting needed Justice Department approvals to advance a corruption investigation of Republican Rep. Rick Renzi, people close to the case said.

The delays, which postponed key approvals in the case until after the election, raise new questions about whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales or other officials may have weighed political issues in some investigations.
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The Renzi case -- like many that involve members of Congress -- is being handled jointly by the local U.S. attorney and the department's public-integrity section. In such cases, a senior department official must approve requests for wiretaps and warrants and other formal legal steps.

Update: Think Progress reports that Schumer is on the case...

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Talk about shining a light on the actions it took to not make Kyle Sampson's purge list...

"We recognize the trial court's concern about voter fraud, and we respect the integrity of the electoral process," Judge Daniel Anderson wrote for the District 2 Court of Appeals. "However, one cannot be convicted of a nonexistent crime."

TPM Muckraker has the goods...

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Another example showing why self-policing doesn't work...

Seven years ago, a Missouri doctor discovered a troubling pattern at a microwave popcorn plant in the town of Jasper. After an additive was modified to produce a more buttery taste, nine workers came down with a rare, life-threatening disease that was ravaging their lungs.

Puzzled Missouri health authorities turned to two federal agencies in Washington. Scientists at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, which investigates the causes of workplace health problems, moved quickly to examine patients, inspect factories and run tests. Within months, they concluded that the workers became ill after exposure to diacetyl, a food-flavoring agent.

Read more! »

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As mentioned almost a year ago.. the Bush administration seems to have declared war on the Environmental Protection Agency...

Several House Democrats are investigating plans by the Environmental Protection Agency's acting inspector general to lay off 60 full-time staff in his office while he earns a $15,000 bonus.

The House Subcommittee on Environment and Hazardous Materials said it is worried that removing that many employees, mostly auditors, criminal investigators and senior program analysts, would undermine the effectiveness of the office.

The Office of the Inspector General, OIG, performs audits, evaluations and investigations of EPA and its contractors. With less staff, it could be more difficult for the OIG to make sure the EPA is enforcing anti-pollution rules and environmental regulations at oil refineries, power plants and other regulated facilities.

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Clinton/Bush double standard, indeed...

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Not so well...

They said that while an increase in U.S. and Iraqi troops has improved security in Baghdad and Anbar province, attacks have risen sharply elsewhere. Critical now, they said in interviews last week, is for Iraqi leaders to forge the political compromises needed for long-term stability.
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But they agreed that among the most troubling trends in Iraq has been the proliferation of suicide bomb attacks, such as the Wednesday attacks, which killed more than 170 people, because they risk reigniting sectarian revenge killings and undermining the government. Suicide bombings have increased 30 percent over the six weeks that ended in early April, according to military data.

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Rahm sums things up quite nicely...

via TPM Cafe

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Think Progress brings the goods on what a difference a month (and subpoena power) makes...

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No one suffers more than Dubya and Mrs Dubya... just ask her...

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Apparently Bush-style secrecy has found it's way to Maliki's gov't...

United Nations is unable to determine how many Iraqi civilians have been killed so far this year because the Iraqi government won't share the information, a U.N. agency said in a Wednesday report.

An Iraqi government official denied that the information was withheld to cover up the number of civilian deaths, and the prime minister's office said the U.N. report "lacks accuracy."
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In its Wednesday report, the U.N. says the Iraqi government provided no "substantive explanation or justification" for its decision to withhold information from the Ministry of Health and the Medico-Legal Institute, the capital's main morgue.

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Nine U.S. soldiers dead, 20 wounded in suicide blast...

An al-Qaida-linked group claimed Tuesday that it used "new methods" in staging a double suicide bombing with dump trucks that blasted a paratrooper outpost in volatile Diyala province, killing nine Americans from the 82nd Airborne Division and wounding 20.
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The first truck hit outlying concrete barriers surrounding the outpost at Sadah and exploded after soldiers opened fire. A second truck rammed into the wrecked vehicles, dragging it and other rubble before it exploded 30 yards from the building housing the post's troops, said Lt. Col. Michael Donnelly, U.S. military spokesman in north Iraq.

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The Pentagon/WH took a direct hit this afternoon..

An Army Ranger who was with former NFL star Pat Tillman when he died by friendly fire in Afghanistan testified Tuesday that he was told by a higher-up to conceal that information from Tillman’s family.

"I was ordered not to tell them," Army Spc. Bryan O’Neal told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which was also looking at how the military portrayed the rescue of Army Pfc. Jessica Lynch.
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“The bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don’t need to be told elaborate tales,” Lynch told the committee in prepared testimony.

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Lt. Col. Ralph Kauzlarich -- contributor to the fabricated Silver Star recommendation of Pat Tillman refers to Tillman as "worm dirt"... blames the whole uproar on their lack of Christian faith...

In an interview with ESPN.com, Kauzlarich said: "When you die, I mean, there is supposedly a better life, right? Well, if you are an atheist and you don't believe in anything, if you die, what is there to go to? Nothing. You are worm dirt. So for their son to die for nothing, and now he is no more — that is pretty hard to get your head around that. So I don't know how an atheist thinks. I can only imagine that that would be pretty tough."

Asked by ESPN.com whether the Tillmans' religious beliefs are a factor in the ongoing investigation, Kauzlarich said, "I think so. There is not a whole lot of trust in the system or faith in the system [by the Tillmans]. So that is my personal opinion, knowing what I know."

Asked what might finally placate the family, Kauzlarich said, "You know what? I don't think anything will make them happy, quite honestly. I don't know. Maybe they want to see somebody's head on a platter. But will that really make them happy? No, because they can't bring their son back."

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"I’m not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody who has a 9 percent approval rating." -- Harry Reid responding to Cheney's latest verbal assault

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My guess is the latter...

A little-known federal investigative unit has launched a probe into allegations of illegal political activity within the executive branch, including a White House office led by President Bush's close adviser, Karl Rove.

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Dismissed attorney was investigating Renzi just prior to the purge...

Even as he insisted that he had been "the subject of leaked stories, conjecture and false attacks" about a 2005 land exchange, Renzi became entangled in the U.S. attorneys probe when his chief of staff acknowledged calling Arizona's prosecutor's office to discuss the matter.

The prosecutor, Paul Charlton, was one of the eight prosecutors fired by the Justice Department over the winter.

Brian Murray, Renzi's top aide, issued a statement late Tuesday acknowledging that shortly after the local media reported that the congressmen was being investigated, he called Charlton spokesman Wyn Hornbuckle.

"I called Mr. Hornbuckle seeking information about press accounts which appeared just weeks before Election Day alleging a pending indictment," Murray said in a statement. "I left him a message asking for information about these allegations, but I was called back and told they would not comment."

Update: Looks like Renzi is preparing to resign...

via Politico

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24 April 2007

The Supreme Court has given them the green light... yet they don't seem to be in any hurry to swing...

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency repeatedly refused to say Tuesday how soon he will comply with a Supreme Court ruling and decide whether to regulate carbon dioxide, the leading gas linked to global warming.

EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, appearing before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, was asked repeatedly to provide a timetable for responding to the April 2 Supreme Court decisions. The court said the Clean Air Act makes clear the agency must regulate carbon dioxide if it’s found that it endangers public health.

The legal argument has been settled and “now there’s is an unmistakable green light to take action now,” Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., the committee’s chairman, told Johnson: “There is no excuse for delay.”

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23 April 2007

As mentioned previously, after the Democratic landslide last November, Limbaugh expressed relief that he would no longer have to carry the water for incompetent Republicans. Looks like he's back on the horse...

RUSH: I have to tell you something, folks. I’m embarrassed, once again, by our side, some of the Republicans up in Washington. It just appears that they cannot think strategically. They have no idea how to circle the wagons around their own. Everybody on the Republican side now, along with the Democrats, wants to throw Alberto Gonzales overboard. He may be an idiot, I don’t know. He may be a weak attorney general.

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As mentioned previously, the latest brilliant idea to bring together the Shia and the Sunnis was to build a 12 foot wall between their neighborhoods. Over the weekend, Iraq PM al-Maliki blocked further construction of the wall.. saying there were better ways to deal with the situation..

"I oppose the building of the wall and its construction will stop," al-Maliki told reporters during a joint news conference with the Secretary-General of the Arab League Amr Moussa in Cairo, Egypt. "There are other methods to protect neighborhoods."

He did not elaborate but added "this wall reminds us of other walls," in an apparent reference to the wall that divided the German city of Berlin during the Cold War.

Think Progress adds that the wall was on of ten that were planned to be built...

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They didn't see this one coming...

Gonezales: ...But I’ve since learned that it was a question of similar kinds of issues: poor management issues, loss of confidence by career individuals.

We had to send someone out from main Justice to help mediate some kind of personnel dispute. So it was a question simply of someone not having total control of the office.

Does that mean the continuation of Rachel Paulose as U.S. Attorney is doomed?

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TMP Muckraker has the story of Rep Don Young's former aide pleading guilty to corruption related to his dealings with Jack Abramoff..

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A laundry list of Bush administration officials acting less than honorably...

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Seeing is believing...

Talking Points Memo has the image..

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"In 200 years, we've gone from "We the people," to "Up With People." From "the best and the brightest" to "dumb and dumber." And where better to find people dumb enough to believe in George Bush than Pat Robertson's law school? The problem here in America isn't that the country is being run by "elites." It's that it's being run by a bunch of hayseeds. And, by the way, the lawyer Monica Goodling just hired to keep her ass out of jail...went to a real law school."
-- Bill Maher

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He shouldn't be criticized for not remembering.. he should be congratulated for not lying...

TPM Muckraker has the video..

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He just has a bad memory...

President Bush gave embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales a strong vote of confidence on Monday despite scant support for him among key Republicans.

"This is an honest, honorable man, in whom I have confidence," Bush said.

The president said that Gonzales' testimony before skeptical Judiciary Committee senators last week "increased my confidence" in his ability to lead the Justice Department. Separately, a White House spokeswoman said, "He's staying."

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Yep... right wing bloggers..

Glenn Greenwald summarizes a jaw-dropping conspiracy theory making the rounds among the radical right...

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Olbermann got a two-fer while interviewing Paul Reickhoff... tales of an elaborate coverup to the Tillman death, and Bush pulling a Geraldo by giving sensitive information to the enemy...

Crooks and Liars has the video...

"One of the things that did happen today that concerned me was that during Bush's press conference he actually showed a graphic that showed 24 urban military outposts in downtown Baghdad. I would argue that showing that to the world and potentially to our enemy might compromise moral - might actually compromise operational security."

"Our enemies aren't stupid. They can look at that and figure out a grid coordinate and try and drop mortars on those exact locations. I mean, this is like a Geraldo moment during the invasion when Geraldo started drawing troop operation movements in the sand. I mean, this is unprecedented in my experience and maybe I'm missing something, but this is a real worry and I wouldn't go throwing this out on the airwaves for everybody to see if I were the President."

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Keep on swingin'.. one of these days, you might get something right... loser..

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No.. not the evildoers and the U.S... republicans and democrats..

Durbin is considering the tougher standards for companies that want to bring temporary foreign workers into the country under the H-1B visa program. According to a summary of Durbin’s draft proposal, before they could use such visas, companies would have to give a written pledge, or “attestation,” that they made a good-faith effort to hire American workers first and that they were not displacing any American workers by bringing in non-U.S. employees. That would mark a substantial change.

nod to David Sirota

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Looks like it...

Instead, Mr. Flood stated that he had been unable to identify any contracts for furniture within the Vice President’s office, but that he had heard “rumors” about a different contract “related to WMD” that raised “certain sensibilities.”
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Indeed, “certain sensibilities” have been raised. The White House awarded the one-month, $140,000 contract to an individual — MZM contractor Mitchell Wade — who never previously held a federal contract. Two weeks after he got paid, Wade used a cashier’s check for exactly that amount to buy a boat for now-imprisoned Rep. Duke Cunningham at a price that the congressman had pre-negotiated.

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Got a problem? Blame liberals... Columbine, Virginia Tech, Susan Smith, Mark Foley, etc

Think Progress has the video...

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Hilarious...

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Sounds familiar...

Frost: "So ... what ... you're saying is that there are certain situations ... where the president can decide that it's in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal."

Nixon: "Well, when the president does it that means that it is not illegal."

Frost: " By definition."

Nixon: "Exactly, exactly. If the president, for example, approves something because of the national security ... then the president's decision in that instance is one that enables those who carry it out to carry it out without violating a law."

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Boehner's self-imposed deadline on measuring the effectiveness of the surge has arrived -- will he live up to his word, or cave in to Republican interests?

Crooks And Liars has the video of Boehner, along with numerous articles describing the (lack of) progress of the surge...

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As mentioned previously... she might be gone before Gone-zales...

Ever since the briefing was revealed, Democrats have been vainly trying to get answers from the White House about this and other presentations. So today, 25 senators wrote the White House, demanding answers. You can read the letter here. "The Executive Branch is not an extension of the Republican National Committee," it reads, "nor of any political party. Those who treat it as such must be held accountable."

TPM Muckraker has been all over this story...

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20 April 2007

Think Progress has the video of the latest pearl of wisdom coming from Shrub...

“My job is a job to make decisions. I’m a decision — if the job description were, what do you do — it’s decision-maker. And I make a lot of big ones, and I make a lot of little ones.”

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How times have changed... the Clinton administration had 4 people authorized to communciate with only 3 people from the DoJ in regards to criminal cases. The Bush administration allows 417 people to communicate with 30 people from the DoJ...

Think Progress has the info, with video of Gone-zales' testimony...

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It worked so well in Berlin...

U.S. military brigade is constructing a 3-mile-long concrete wall to cut off one of the capital's most restive Sunni Arab districts from the Shiite Muslim neighborhoods that surround it, raising concern about the further Balkanization of Iraq's most populous and violent city.

U.S. commanders in northern Baghdad said the 12-foot-high barrier would make it more difficult for suicide bombers to strike and for death squads and militia fighters from sectarian factions to attack one another and then slip back to their home turf. Construction began April 10 and is expected to be completed by the end of the month.

Although Baghdad is replete with blast walls, checkpoints and other temporary barriers, including a massive wall around the Green Zone, the barrier being constructed in Adhamiya would be the first to be based in essence on sectarian considerations.

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"We'll stand down as they stand up" is no longer operational...

Military planners have abandoned the idea that standing up Iraqi troops will enable American soldiers to start coming home soon and now believe that U.S. troops will have to defeat the insurgents and secure control of troubled provinces.

Training Iraqi troops, which had been the cornerstone of the Bush administration's Iraq policy since 2005, has dropped in priority, officials in Baghdad and Washington said.

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19 April 2007

So far, most things he can't recall, and what he can recall are contradictions to earlier statements or testimony. To this point, Hatch, and to a lesser degree, Cornyn have been the only ones to cut him some slack..

Update: Gone-zales employs Bush tactic... says criticism of his performance hurts the career professionals in the DoJ

Update 1: Graham tells Gone-zales the reasons for dismissals were "made up"..

Update 2: Coburn has asked him to resign...

Update 3: Whitehouse provided a poster showing how starkly the communication structure between the WH and DoJ has changed since Bush took office..

Update 4: CNN reports a WH aide described the hearing as "clubbing a baby seal" and Gone-zales as "going down in flames"

Update 5: No surprise that Tweety thinks the whole spectacle is just a means to help Schumer raise money for the DSCC

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At least he didn't blame Democrats...

In a question-and-answer period after his speech, Rove was asked whose idea it was to start a pre-emptive war in Iraq.

"I think it was Osama bin Laden's," Rove replied.

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Baghdad has broken into an "open battle"...

A suicide bomber breached Baghdad’s heavy security presence again Thursday, killing a dozen people in a mostly Shiite district a day after more than 230 people died in one of the war’s deadliest episodes of violence.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki called the violence in Baghdad an “open battle” — nine weeks into a U.S.-led effort began to pacify the capital’s streets.

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As mentioned previously, the Abramoff scandal continues to claim victims...

Rep. John Doolittle, R-Calif., has decided to temporarily give up his seat on the House Appropriations Committee after FBI agents searched his house as part of a congressional influence-peddling investigation.
...
The lawmaker’s decision followed by a day the disclosure of the raid on his Oakton, Va., home last Friday. FBI agents had a search warrant for information connected with a fundraising business run by Doolittle’s wife, Julie, that had done work for convicted GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

The search on the Doolittles’ home came the same day that Kevin Ring, a former Doolittle aide who went on to work for Abramoff, abruptly resigned his law firm job without explanation.

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Jokes about bombing Iran...

In response to an audience question about military action against Iran, the Arizona senator briefly sang the chorus of the surf-rocker classic "Barbara Ann."

"That old, eh, that old Beach Boys song, Bomb Iran," he said in jest Wednesday, chuckling with the crowd. Then, he softly sang to the melody: "Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, anyway, ah ..." The audience responded with more laughter.

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The last time the bill was offered, House Republicans killed it by adding an amendment to repeal the DC Handgun Law...

The House tries again Thursday to expand the number of its voting members to give the half-million people of the District of Columbia full representation while giving Utah an extra seat.

Democrats had to pull the bill from the floor a month ago after Republicans surprised them by proposing language, with a good chance of passing, that would have lifted the district's ban on semiautomatic weapons and other tough gun restrictions. This time, Democrats came prepared with a floor procedure blocking a gun vote.

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A new WaPo/ABC News poll shows McCain's prospects for presidency as bad, it not worse than Hillary's.. will the media notice?

nod to Talking Points Memo

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A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds a whopping 78% believe illegals currently in country deserve a chance at citizenship...

While Congress and the White House remain divided over what to do with the estimated 12 million illegal immigrants living in the USA, a new poll shows the American public appears to have reached a consensus on the question.

A USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken last weekend found that 78% of respondents feel people now in the country illegally should be given a chance at citizenship.

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No surprise.. the WH has used the DoJ to suppress voter turnout in battleground states...

For six years, the Bush administration, aided by Justice Department political appointees, has pursued an aggressive legal effort to restrict voter turnout in key battleground states in ways that favor Republican political candidates.

The administration intensified its efforts last year as President Bush's popularity and Republican support eroded heading into a midterm battle for control of Congress, which the Democrats won.

Facing nationwide voter registration drives by Democratic-leaning groups, the administration alleged widespread election fraud and endorsed proposals for tougher state and federal voter identification laws. Presidential political adviser Karl Rove alluded to the strategy in April 2006 when he railed about voter fraud in a speech to the Republican National Lawyers Association.

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18 April 2007

As mentioned previously, the Abramoff scandal continues...

U.S. Rep. John Doolittle's Northern Virginia home was raided by the FBI in recent days, NBC News has learned. The California Republican and his wife have been linked to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Law enforcement sources tell NBC producer Mike Kosnar that the raid, which occurred sometime before Tuesday, took place at Doolittle's house, which also is where his wife ran a fundraising company.

Doolittle's name came up in documents released by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee last summer as part of its investigation into the Abramoff influence-peddling scandals.

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At least 160 dead in Baghdad blasts...

Four large bombs exploded in mostly Shiite areas of Baghdad on Wednesday, killing at least 160 people and wounding scores as violence climbed toward levels seen before the U.S.-Iraqi campaign to pacify the capital began two months ago.

In the deadliest of the attacks, a parked car bomb detonated in a crowd of workers at the Sadriyah market in central Baghdad, killing at least 112 people and wounding 115, said Raad Muhsin, an official at Al-Kindi Hospital where the victims were taken.

A police official confirmed the toll, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.

Update: MSNBC just reported number of dead over 175

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Think Progress lays out the case of MN Senator Norm Coleman's latest flip in his ongoing flip-flopping over his role in the Paulose appointment...

Now, in the face of increasing criticism, Coleman’s office is claiming that the senator never even nominated Paulose:

Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., submitted the names of two candidates to replace Heffelfinger. His staff said Paulose was not one of them. … Coleman eventually embraced Paulose’s nomination, largely based on recommendations from respected lawyers, and the Senate confirmed her in December.

But a 12/9/06 press release on Coleman’s website states that “Coleman recommended [Paulose] for the post earlier this year.” In today’s Star-Tribune, the senator’s office retracts its earlier statement and admits that Paulose was nominated by Coleman.

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As mentioned previously, conservative mouthpieces didn't hesitate to launch into a verbal assault, blaming the victims, calling them cowards, etc. Think Progress points out that Mark Steyn and Michelle Malkin have jumped on the bandwagon...

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Feingold goes straight at CNN's John Roberts...

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At the request of Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee..

"At the request of our Ranking Minority Member, Lamar Smith, I have announced a one-week delay in the Committee vote to apply for immunity for Monica Goodling. It is my hope that a short delay, agreed to in the spirit of bipartisan cooperation, will enable the Minority to join us in taking this critical step in our efforts to uncover the truth about why the U.S. Attorneys were terminated and what it means for the integrity of federal law enforcement. I continue to believe that Ms. Goodling would be a key witness in our investigation."

TMP Muckraker has Conyers' statement..

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Wouldn't expect him to do anything other than express support for a failure...

The White House said on Wednesday that President Bush still had “full confidence” in World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, who faces a storm of criticism for helping arrange a high-paying promotion for his girlfriend.

“We still have full confidence, the president has full confidence in President Wolfowitz,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto told reporters.

Wolfowitz, a key Iraq war architect who left the Pentagon in 2005 to become president of the World Bank, played a role in dictating the terms that his girlfriend, bank employee Shaha Riza, would be offered to take an outside assignment.

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Took great steps to avoid the draft...

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Will Heather Wilson soon become the subject of a similar investigation by the House?

The passage of the resolution confirms that Domenici is being scrutinized by the Ethics Committee over a phone call he made to Iglesias, prior to the November election, inquiring whether Iglesias was going to indict some New Mexico Democrats. Up until this point, the Ethics Committee has refused to state whether it is actually investigating Domenici.

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The war continues, with 85 dead in Iraq...

Police in Ramadi uncovered 17 decomposing corpses buried beneath two schoolyards in a district that until recently was under the control of al-Qaida fighters. At least 85 people were killed or found dead across the country Tuesday.

The adult bodies were discovered in the Anbar provincial capital after students and teachers returned to the schools a week ago and noticed an increasingly putrid odor and stray dogs digging in the area, Police Maj. Laith al-Dulaimi said.
...
In a sign that Shiite death squads are on the move again after more than two months of quiescence, 25 bodies, most tortured, were found dumped in Baghdad on Tuesday. Radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr ordered his six Cabinet ministers Monday to quit the government.

In addition to the deaths in Baghdad and Ramadi, officials reported at least 42 other people were killed or found dead across Iraq Tuesday in nearly two dozen other violent incidents at sites that included Mosul, Fallujah, Baqouba and Tal Afar.

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The Bush administration were the first to politicize the carnage at VTech...

The president believes that there is a right for people to bear arms, but that all laws must be followed

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Conservative columnists are the lowest of the low...

National Review's John Derbyshire

Where was the spirit of self-defense here? Setting aside the ludicrous campus ban on licensed conceals, why didn't anyone rush the guy? It's not like this was Rambo, hosing the place down with automatic weapons. He had two handguns for goodness' sake—one of them reportedly a .22.

Human Events Online's Nathaniel Blake

Something is clearly wrong with the men in our culture. Among the first rules of manliness are fighting bad guys and protecting others: in a word, courage. And not a one of the healthy young fellows in the classrooms seems to have done that. ...

Like Derb, I don’t know if I would live up to this myself, but I know that I should be heartily ashamed of myself if I didn’t.

video courtesy of Countdown w/Keith Olbermann

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As mentioned previously, the rumors of Goodling receiving limited immunity in exchange for her testimony doesn't bode well for Gone-zales. She has to have some pretty damning information on not only Abu, but also the Rove/WH connection to the attorney purge...

"As the White House Liaison in the Department while the US Attorney firings were planned and carried out, Ms. Goodling clearly has much to contribute to the Committee's understanding of the surrounding circumstances... I am hopeful we can approve immunity so that we can schedule her to testify as soon as possible and begin to clear up the many inconsistencies and gaps surrounding this matter."

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17 April 2007

- 37 dead from bus station bombing...

- 45 dead in Baghdad...

- 7 U.S. soldiers, 51 Iraqis dead...

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A bitter pill for radical righties...

Bush as president -- Approve 35%, Disapprove 62%
Bush on Iraq -- Approve 29%, Disapprove 70%
Congress -- Approve 44%
Pelosi as Speaker -- Approve 53%
Reid as Majority Leader -- Approve 46%
Republicans in Congress -- Approve 39%
Democrats in Congress -- Approve 54%
Shows More Leadership -- Bush 34%, Democrats 58%
Who do you trust to handle Iraq -- Bush 33%, Democrats 58%
Iraq worth it? -- Yes 33%, No 66%
Stay or leave in Iraq -- Stay 42%, Leave 56%
Support the "surge" -- Yes 35%, No 65%
Are we winning -- Yes 32%, No 53%
Will we win -- Yes 35%, No 51%
Is Iraq Win Required for WOT success? -- Yes 37%, No 57%
Gonzales Approval -- Approve 24%, Disapprove 58%
Reason for Attorney firings -- Performance 19%, Political 67%
Support Stem Cell research -- Yes 68%, No 28%

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Bush approval was at 90% immediately after the attacks on 9/11. Now, 49% of those polled want Congress to determine troops levels, while only 44% want it left to the Commander In Chief...

Currently, President Bush and Congress disagree about what to do about U.S. troop levels in Iraq. Who do you think should have the final say about troop levels in Iraq, the President or Congress?

President: 44%
Congress: 49%

Do you think the United States should or should not set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq sometime in 2008?

Should 57
Should not 38
DK/NA 5

Which of these comes closest to your opinion? 1. Congress should block all funding war in Iraq no matter what OR 2. Congress should allow funding only for a limited period of time OR 3. Congress should allow all funding for the war in Iraq without a time limit.

Block all funding 9
Allow only w/time limit 58
Should allow all funding 29
Don't know/No answer 4

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Continues the 9/11 - Iraq comparison.. this time with families of the military serving as background props...

Surrounded by military family members inside the White House this morning, President Bush once again called on Democrats to pass a "clean" Iraq emergency spending bill -- without withdrawal deadlines and congressional earmarks attached to it -- but this time he did it by invoking September 11. "If we do not defeat the terrorists and extremists in Iraq, they won't leave us alone. They will follow us to the United States of America. That's what makes this battle in the war on terror so incredibly important."

Bush added, "One of the lessons of September the 11th is what happens overseas matters to the security of the United States of America, and we must not forget that lesson. The consequences of failure would be death and destruction in the Middle East and here in America."

Think Progress has a compilation video of Bush's most recent fear-mongering speeches...

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- Another Gone-zales Contradiction

More proof the purge was a political move...

The former Justice Department official who carried out the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year told Congress that several of the prosecutors had no performance problems and that a memo on the firings was distributed at a Nov. 27 meeting attended by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, a Democratic senator said yesterday.

The statements to House and Senate investigators by Michael A. Battle, former director of the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys, represent another potential challenge to the credibility of Gonzales, who has said that he never saw any documents about the firings and that he had "lost confidence" in the prosecutors because of performance problems.

- Paulose Officially Embroiled In Purge-gate

House Judiciary Committee asks Paulose to testify...

The House Judiciary Committee wants to interview Rachel Paulose, U.S. attorney for Minnesota, as it expands its investigation into the firings of eight U.S. attorneys last year.

Paulose is among four U.S. attorneys and four other officials named in a letter Monday from Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. asking for their voluntary cooperation.

- Iglesias Firing Tied To WH

Looks that way...

Meanwhile Sunday, the Albuquerque Journal reported that Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., told Gonzales in the spring of 2006 that he wanted New Mexico U.S. attorney David Iglesias dismissed, and that Gonzales refused. The newspaper said that Domenici later made the same case to White House adviser Karl Rove and spoke to President Bush about it after the November election, but before the attorney firings were announced on Dec. 7. Iglesias was among those fired.

- Is Lam The Straw That Will Break Gone-zales' Back?

A just-released Sampson email indicates Gone-zales suggested Lam dismissal 6 months prior to her "resignation"...

But the recently released e-mail from Sampson, dated June 1, 2006, indicated that Gonzales was actively involved in discussions about Lam and had decided to fire her if she did not improve. In the e-mail to other top Justice Department officials, Sampson outlined several steps that Gonzales suggested, culminating in Lam's replacement if she failed to bolster immigration enforcement.

"AG [Attorney General] has given additional thought to the San Diego situation and now believes that we should adopt a plan" that would lead to her removal if she "balks" at immigration reform, Sampson wrote.

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Webb responds to Bush's rhetoric...

“President Bush has threatened to veto the Iraq War supplemental bill, which is favored by a majority of Americans and a majority in Congress. This is just another example of the one-dimensional approach of this administration with respect to the resolution of this ill-conceived war. In the Constitution, the Congress appropriates funds and writes the checks. We’re sending the President a bill that provides $100 billion for our troops to continue their mission in Iraq. Nobody is cutting the money from the troops unless the President vetoes the bill Congress sends him.”

And Reid adds...

"Democrats are continuing to fight to fully fund our troops and give them a strategy for success worthy of their sacrifices. President Bush continues to insist that we follow his same failed strategy that has drawn our troops further into an intractable civil war.

In the same week that we learned troops' tours will be extended, the White House admitted it can't manage the war and the Iraqi parliament was bombed in the most secure part of Iraq, all the President can offer the American people is a threat to veto funding for our troops and a stubborn refusal to change his failed policies."

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Tragedy at VTech buys him two more days of cramming...

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33 dead, many wounded. Now consider the horror of the VTech slaughter, multiply it by 3, and you'll know what life is like in Iraq on a daily basis...

Timeline of events...

Not many details have been officially revealed.. but it's generally agreed the weapon was semi-automatic with a 15 shot clip -- which was illegal up until 2 years ago, when Bush decided to let the assault weapons ban expire...

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Other than "stay the course"..

I have no Plan B. If I saw that doomsday scenario evolving, then I would try to come up with one. But I cannot give you a good alternative because if I had a good alternative, maybe we could consider it now.

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As mentioned previously, the lowly Regent University's history of supplying the Bush administration with staffers is quite remarkable (1 out of 6 Regent grads are working for the Bush gov't, for a total of 150). But for some reason, they've chosen to remove this reference from their About Us page..

- 150 graduates serving in the Bush Administration

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A recent Pew poll confirms what most of us have been long aware of...

Virtually bringing up the rear were regular watchers of Fox News. Only 1 in 3 could answer 2 out of 3 questions correctly. Fox topped only network morning show viewers.

Told that Shia was one group of Muslims struggling in Iraq, only 32% of the total sample could name "Sunni" as the other key group.

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Half a Friedman Unit has come and gone....

(1/22/07) --

Senior administration officials, who declined to speak on the record about private deliberations, say the president knows he has to show real improvements in Iraq within two or three months or risk losing even more GOP support. "All the talking points aren't going to make the difference," says a senior aide. "What matters is what happens ... on the streets and the neighborhoods of Baghdad."

A former senior Bush aide who is still close to the White House says if things don't improve, a delegation of Republican senators could one day show up in the Oval Office to tell Bush that the party is no longer with him and the war must end—much like Sen. William Fulbright's forcefully urging Lyndon Johnson to bring the Vietnam War to a close.

nod Atrios

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Deadeye Dick and Richard "sweets and roses" Perle keep beating the drum...

"There is evidence of a connection between al Qaida and Saddam Hussein's intelligence," he insisted.

Perle also dismissed concerns that no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq after the war as evidence that the war was unjustified. Instead, he described the decision to invade as reasonable because it was a "management of risk."

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As long as Congress does as they're told...

In the same breath, Bush offered to discuss "any way forward" with Congress and declared what he would not accept - restrictions on his military commanders, timetables for troops to come home, or billions of dollars in emergency spending unrelated to the war.

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14 April 2007

Live in Minneapolis, MN 10/19/98 (first time the song was performed live -- the day before the album was released. I had the pleasure not only of being at this concert, but I also was able to watch the filming of the video earlier in the afternoon)

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Appears so, considering he responded to a question by Schumer saying he hadn't given thought to possible replacements for the purged attorneys...

On January 9, 2006, Gonzales' chief of staff Kyle Sampson wrote White House counsel Harriet Miers with a version of the U.S. attorney firing plan.
...
Sampson suggested replacements for all of them.

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Think Progress noted this interesting change of phrasing in a memo found in the latest document dump...

The White House recommended that this line:

Second, the Department has not taken any action to influence any public corruption case, and would never do so.

be replaced with:

Second, the Department has not asked anyone to resign to influence any public corruption case, and would never do so.

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This could explain the lack of an indictment in Plamegate....

A lawyer for the Republican National Committee told congressional staff members yesterday that the RNC is missing at least four years' worth of e-mail from White House senior adviser Karl Rove that is being sought as part of investigations into the Bush administration, according to the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
...
But they acknowledged that they took action to prevent Rove -- and Rove alone among the two dozen or so White House officials with RNC accounts -- from deleting his e-mails from the RNC server. Waxman (D-Calif.) said he was told the RNC made that move in 2005.

In a letter to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, Waxman said the RNC lawyer, Rob Kelner, also raised the possibility that Rove had personally deleted the missing e-mails, all dating back to before 2005. GOP officials said Kelner was merely speaking hypothetically about why e-mail might be missing for any staffer and not referring to Rove in particular.

Update:

CREW has called on Fitzgerald to re-open the investigation into the Plame leak...

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As mentioned previously, the dubious actions of the US Attorney based in Wisconsin finally has an explanation...

A U.S. attorney in Wisconsin who prosecuted a state Democratic official on corruption charges during last year's heated governor's race was once targeted for firing by the Department of Justice, but given a reprieve for reasons that remain unclear. A federal appeals court last week threw out the conviction of Wisconsin state worker Georgia Thompson, saying the evidence was "beyond thin."

Congressional investigators looking into the firings of eight U.S. attorneys saw Wisconsin prosecutor Steven M. Biskupic's name on a list of lawyers targeted for removal when they were inspecting a Justice Department document not yet made public, according to an attorney for a lawmaker involved in the investigation. The attorney asked for anonymity because of the political

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It's no wonder the JD has been so reluctant to release documents...

The spreadsheet appears to assess a list of U.S. Attorneys based on a variety of different qualifications, including prosecution experience and political experience. But there is one column dedicated solely to an assessment of whether the attorneys are members of the Federalist Society.
...
The Federalist Society has served as a kind of gateway for judges and legal aides who strive to work inside the Bush administration, in effect promoting individuals who have dedicated themselves to enforcing a right-wing ideology rather than the law.

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Becoming a common occurrence...

The Justice Department on Friday sent Congress more documents on the firings of U.S. attorneys, satisfying one Democratic demand even as a new fight erupted over White House e-mails that may have been lost.
...
The release of new documents was unlikely to quell the storm of official letters and threats that flew across town on Thursday over the White House's claim that the e-mails in question - government business required by law to be retained - may have been deleted.

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Preliminary results from the "surge" are predictable..

Iraqi civilian deaths have fallen in Baghdad in the two months since the Feb. 14 start of the U.S.-led offensive, according to an Associated Press tally.

Outside the capital, however, civilian deaths are up as Sunni and Shiite extremists shift their operations to avoid the crackdown.

And the sweeps have taken a heavy toll on U.S. forces: Deaths among American soldiers climbed 21 percent in Baghdad compared with the previous two months.

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Short version...

- Bush blames Dems for delaying funding for our troops, thus having the potential to make them stay in Iraq longer, and depart sooner than guidelines call for
- The following day, the Pentagon announces longer deployments, with shorter stays stateside between deployments -- WH spokesperson won't confirm if Bush was aware of change in deployment policy
- Weeks earlier, Dems passed funding bill that provides more than full funding, with stipulations guaranteeing troops scheduled time at home between deployments, and firm limits to the length of time deployed

Think Progress has the quotes...

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Looking for a little leadership...

Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!
...
Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them—or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy.

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Col Jack Jacobs doesn't do nuance...

Earlier this week, there was a vague, unsubstantiated report that the White House has been exploring the notion of creating a senior position to oversee the conduct of the conflicts in Southwest Asia. Ostensibly, this slot would be filled by a retired military officer, and, not surprisingly, the media dubbed him the “War Czar.”

This astounding report has since been confirmed, and the sheer stupidity of it is staggering.

Yet WH claims an "urgent need"...

President Bush's top national security adviser said Thursday that there is an urgent need to name a high-powered White House official to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"It's something I would like to have done yesterday and if yesterday wasn't available, the day before," National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley told reporters during a briefing at the White House. A day earlier, the White House had said the idea for a so-called war czar was still in its infancy.

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Encumbent John Warner raised a whopping $500 in the first quarter of the year. He's 80 now, would be 88 when his term would end -- it's looking like he might throw in the towel. The question is... if he doesn't plan to run again, will he spend the last 2 years of his term voting his conscience, or toeing the party line?

U.S. Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) reported Thursday that he has raised only $500 in campaign contributions during the first three months of the year, fueling speculation that he may not seek a sixth term next year.
...
In his quarterly filing to the Federal Election Commission, Warner reported raising $500 in January, February and March, but he spent 60 times that during the same period, according to the FEC. Warner has $667,272 in the bank.

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FEMA wastes $40 million in food due to poor planning...

As many as 6 million prepared meals stockpiled near potential victims of the 2006 hurricane season spoiled in the Gulf Coast heat last summer when the Federal Emergency Management Agency ran short of warehouse and refrigeration space, according to agency officials.

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13 April 2007

Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron and Ben Shepherd

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Suicide bomber kills 8 (including 3 lawmakers), while another collapses a primary bridge in northern section of Baghdad...

This month is the deadliest month of the occupation for coalition forces (4.82 deaths per day)

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Tons of stories and updates -- hard to keep up with them all...

- Embracing Their Ineptness

As mentioned earlier, apparently attorneys weren't the only things eliminated in Purge-gate...

The White House's claim that e-mails sent on a Republican Party account might have been lost was challenged Thursday by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, who quipped that even his teenage neighbor could find them.

"They say they have not been preserved. I don't believe that!" Leahy shouted from the Senate floor as the dispute over the firing of federal prosecutors continued at a high pitch.

"You can't erase e-mails, not today. They've gone through too many servers," said Leahy, D-Vt. "Those e-mails are there, they just don't want to produce them. We'll subpoena them if necessary."

- Goodling To Get Immunity?

She must have some dirt to spill if Conyers is willing to give her immunity to get her to testify...

The House Judiciary Committee is "strongly considering" offering former DoJ official Monica Goodling immunity in exchange for her testimony in the U.S. Attorney matter, according to one very solid congressional source.

Goodling had preemptively asserted her Fifth Amendment rights and has declined to be interviewed or to testify before Congress. Last week Goodling's lawyer exchanged sharply worded letters with House Judiciary over her refusal to testify and over whether or not she had rightfully invoked the Fifth.

- Light Shines On Wisconsin In Purge-gate

TMP Media's report today is on the smoke coming out of Wisconsin...

- Why Obey The Law?

When there is no penalty for violating it?

Countless e-mails to and from many key White House staffers have been deleted -- lost to history and placed out of reach of congressional subpoenas -- due to a brazen violation of internal White House policy that was allowed to continue for more than six years, the White House acknowledged yesterday.
...
Stanzel, possibly unwittingly, offered one possible explanation for why the rule on preservation was flouted so widely: Because there was apparently no prospect of personal consequences. "There are no personal violations of the Presidential Records Act, but you can have a personal violation of the Hatch Act," he said.

And lookey who is again the center of attention...

The leading culprit appears to be President Bush's enormously influential political adviser Karl Rove, who reportedly used his Republican National Committee-provided Blackberry and e-mail accounts for most of his electronic communication.

- Nixon-like

The Email purge scandal is rapidly reaching the boiling point -- up to 5 million email messages are missing from White House servers, in addition to the missing emails from RNC servers...

In a startling new revelation, CREW has also learned through two confidential sources that the Executive Office of the President (EOP) has lost over five million emails generated between March 2003 and October 2005. The White House counsel’s office was advised of these problems in 2005 and CREW has been told that the White House was given a plan of action to recover these emails, but to date nothing has been done to rectify this significant loss of records.

- Perrino Has Mighty Big Hands

Claims a "handful" is 50, besides... she didn't how many there were, anyway...

Crooks and Liars has the goods...

- Missing Emails Part Of A Pattern

Glenn Greenwald does the heavy lifting...

- WH Threatening To Stonewall On Missing RNC Emails

Claim the missing RNC emails would be covered by executive privilege if recovered -- Conyers begs to differ...

Fielding also appears to be trying to head off an attempt by Conyers to obtain e-mails and documents from the Republican National Committee regarding the firings. … Fielding also said that “it was and remains our intention to collect e-mails and documents from those [RNC-controlled] accounts as well as the official White House e-mail and document retention systems” as part of a broader deal with the two committees on staffer testimony.
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"The Judiciary Committee intends to obtain the relevant emails directly from the RNC. The White House position seems to be that executive privilege not only applies in the Oval Office, but to the RNC as well. There is absolutely no basis in law or fact for such a claim.”

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War Czar (aka Commander-in-Chief) position rejection total hits 5...

By my count, at least five retired generals have turned down the "war czar" job. Only one of them, retired Marine Jack Sheehan, has publicly said why.

"I don't think they've got a coherent strategy," Sheehan told me, adding "the real issue is does Cheney play in this deal?" In other words, will the "war czar" have to do daily battle with the Vice President, a battle in which the VP has all the clout?

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Hit the nail on the head -- but will Dems continue to stand tall?

Although he is not saying anything new, the President's recent efforts have generated significant news coverage, but polling shows his efforts have done little to bolster his claims or generate support for his plan from the American people. Instead, the President remains incredibly weak and at odds with public opinion. Despite the attacks from the White House, nearly 70% of the American people continue to support our plan for a new direction in Iraq and a responsible, strategic redeployment of American troops over the course of the next year....

As we move forward, we should not lose sight of the fact that nearly 70% of the country supports our plan for Iraq. The country is more engaged in this issue than any other, and has paid close attention to the plans offered by Democrats and the President. The country has made a conscious decision to support our approach. With that support at our backs, Democrats must:

Read more! »

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Way to go, Al!

FRANKEN: You know, it’s — it’s their choice. I think — I think NBC made the right decision. I think cable news is cable news. And he has that position.

I have heard a lot of talk radio — now, I will give you an example. CNN has Glenn Beck on. Glenn Beck asked my congressman, Keith Ellison, who is the first Muslim to be elected to Congress, you know, I just want to ask you, how do I know that you’re not working with the enemy?

And he said that — I think he said it on CNN. But he certainly is — he’s on CNN. I don’t know why that wasn’t grounds for CNN thinking, well, maybe Glenn Beck shouldn’t be on. I mean, how dare he say that to a congressman who has just been elected?

Think Progress has the video and transcript...

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The mastermind behind the "Shock and Awe" strategy caught up in DC Madam scandal...

The alleged "D.C. madam" dropped a name in court documents filed Thursday, but the man named bristled at being accused of hiring the high-end escort service run by Deborah Jean Palfrey.

Government prosecutors say Pamela Martin and Associates was actually a prostitution ring that Palfrey operated in the Washington area for 13 years. Palfrey denies that her business provided sexual services to its customers.

In her motion to reconsider appointment of counsel, Palfrey named Harlan K. Ullman as "one of the regular customers" of the business.

Ullman is one of the leading theorists behind the "shock and awe" military strategy that was associated with the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

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Faux News is at it again...

Crooks and Liars has the screen capture...

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Media Matters runs down a list of buffoons who rival, if not greatlty exceed the misdeeds of Imus...

But as Media Matters for America has extensively documented, bigotry and hate speech targeting, among other characteristics, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnicity continue to permeate the airwaves through personalities such as Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Michael Smerconish, and John Gibson.

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The Imus coverage bores me to tears, but this is a shame...

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine was hurt in a car accident Thursday evening while traveling to host a meeting between the Rutgers University women's basketball team and former radio host Don Imus.

Spokesman Anthony Coley said Corzine was transported to Cooper University Hospital in Camden.

Thursday night, Corzine was still undergoing surgery, Coley said. State Senate President Richard Codey is acting governor, he said.

Corzine has leg and rib fractures, the hospital said, and will remain in intensive care.

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David Sirota has the goods....

U.S. News and World Report’s James Pethokoukis has the scoop on Mitt Romney adviser Cesar Conda demanding Congress stop child tax credits and start slashing corporate tax rates - because apparently, the divergence between corporate profits and median wages just isn’t wide enough yet for Republican presidential candidates. Conda justifies this steal from kids to give more cash to aristocrats like Mitt Romney" policy by claiming "We have the second-highest tax rate among [the major industrialized] nations." But as I show in Hostile Takeover, this is one of the right-wing’s most misleading and tired lies:

Yes, it is true, the official corporate tax rate in America is 35 percent. It is also true, however, that because of lax enforcement, loopholes and evasion, most corporations never come close to paying that rate. As the Government Accountability Office reported in 2004, 94 percent of corporations pay less than 5 percent of their income in taxes, and corporate tax payments are at their second lowest level in 60 years – lower than in every other industrialized country other than Iceland.

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Backs off his unconditional support of Paulose -- now calls for her to respond to concerns regarding her role in Purge-gate...

Then:

Rachel Paulose was nominated to be U.S. Attorney based solely on her exemplary qualifications and experience. She was confirmed with the bipartisan support of Senator Coleman, former Senator Dayton, and the entire United States Senate. She replaced someone who resigned, not someone who was fired, and her nomination should not be confused with the current controversy over the recent dismissal of several U.S. attorneys in other jurisdictions.

Now:

As you know, your confirmation to be U.S. attorney enjoyed bipartisan support and was unanimously confirmed by the Senate because of your outstanding qualifications. At the same time, there are clearly managerial issues that need to be acknowledged and rectified. … Given recent issues related to U.S. attorneys nationwide that have now extended to your own position, I urge you to take immediate action to shed light on the resignations and address the concerns which have been raised relative to your management skills.

Think Progress has the goods...

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12 April 2007

This time, he can blame it on the wiles of a woman...

Paul Wolfowitz is, by most accounts, a soft-spoken man of mild disposition—the kind of guy who seems to invite sympathy. And on Thursday, the World Bank president all but begged for a little sympathy from his staffers after admitting that he had personally intervened to set up Shaha Ali Riza, his companion and a World Bank official, with a high-paying job at the State Department in 2005. “In hindsight, I wish I had trusted my original instincts and kept myself out of the negotiations. I made a mistake, for which I am sorry,” Wolfowitz said in an April 12 e-mail to the World Bank’s 10,000-strong staff. “Not only was this a painful personal dilemma, but I also had to deal with it when I was new to this institution and I was trying to navigate in uncharted waters.”

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11 April 2007

Doyle Bramhall II, Charlie Sexton, Chris Layton and Tommy Shannon performing live on Letterman...

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It seems nobody wants to serve as the latest scapegoat for Bush and Cheney's failed war....

The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, but it has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job, according to people close to the situation.

At least three retired four-star generals approached by the White House in recent weeks have declined to be considered for the position, the sources said, underscoring the administration's difficulty in enlisting its top recruits to join the team after five years of warfare that have taxed the United States and its military.

"The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going," said retired Marine Gen. John J. "Jack" Sheehan, a former top NATO commander who was among those rejecting the job. Sheehan said he believes that Vice President Cheney and his hawkish allies remain more powerful within the administration than pragmatists looking for a way out of Iraq. "So rather than go over there, develop an ulcer and eventually leave, I said, 'No, thanks,' " he said.

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McCain's vision of Shangri-la...

BAGHDAD - A raging, daylong battle erupted in central Baghdad on Tuesday and four Iraqi soldiers were killed, 16 U.S. soldiers were wounded and a U.S. helicopter was hit by ground fire in the fiercest fighting since a massive security crackdown began in the capital two months ago.

Sixty miles to the north, in the mostly Sunni city of Muqdadiyah, a woman with a suicide vest strapped beneath her black robe blew herself up in the midst of 200 Iraqi police recruits. The attack killed at least 16 men waiting to learn if they had been hired.... violence continues to flare periodically in Baghdad and has risen markedly in nearby cities and towns....

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Pentagon considering extending tours of duty in Iraq from 12 months to 15 months...

The Pentagon is thinking about lengthening tours of duty for all active-duty Army units in Iraq to 15 months instead of 12 as the military struggles to supply enough troops for the conflict.
...
Officials on Monday said some 13,000 National Guard troops were receiving orders alerting them to prepare for possible deployment to Iraq — meaning a second tour for several thousand of them. Officials said a final decision to deploy the four infantry combat brigades later this year will be based on conditions on the ground and named specific Guard units based in Arkansas, Indiana, Oklahoma and Ohio.

Update: Gates just held a press conference confirming the extension not only for the "surge" troops, but all 160,000 currently in and on their way to Iraq

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Waxman announced hearings into the propaganda campaign over both Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch...

A U.S. House committee has scheduled hearings on the military's misleading statements that followed the friendly fire death of Pat Tillman in Afghanistan and the rescue of Pvt. Jessica Lynch in Iraq, congressional officials said Tuesday.

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold the hearing April 24 as part of an investigation into whether misinformation was part of a strategy to mislead the public, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because a formal announcement was scheduled for later Tuesday.

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Their latest savior reveals he's battling cancer -- no doubt calls for him to drop out of public life and spend time with his family will follow shortly...

Fred Thompson, the potential presidential candidate better known as television's gruff "Law & Order" district attorney, said Wednesday he was diagnosed with lymphoma more than two years ago but the cancer shouldn't affect his life expectancy.

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More than a little out of touch with the everyday challenges of Joe Sixpack...

Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani hasn't done a lot of grocery shopping lately - at least based on his answers about the cost of milk and bread.
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"A gallon of milk is probably about a $1.50, a loaf of bread about a $1.25, $1.30," he said.

A check of the Web site for D'Agostino supermarket on Manhattan's Upper East Side showed a gallon of milk priced at $4.19 and a loaf of white bread at $2.99 to $3.39. In Montgomery, Ala., a gallon of milk goes for about $3.39 and bread is about $2.

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Pay-to-stay incentives jumped from $174 million to $1.03 billion since the Iraq fiasco began...

The struggle to entice Army soldiers and Marines to stay in the military, after four years of war in Iraq, has ballooned into a $1 billion campaign, with bonuses soaring nearly sixfold since 2003.

The size and number of bonuses have grown as officials scrambled to meet the steady demand for troops on the battlefields in Iraq and Afghanistan and reverse sporadic shortfalls in the number of National Guard and Reserve soldiers willing to sign on for multiple tours.
...
The bonuses can range from a few thousand dollars to as much as $150,000 for very senior special forces soldiers who re-enlist for six years. All told, the Army and Marines spent $1.03 billion for re-enlistment payments last year, compared with $174 million in 2003, the year the war in Iraq began.

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Tired of the stonewalling by the Justice Department, the judiciary chairman issues his first subpoena in Purge-gate...

Issuing the first subpoena in the US attorneys investigation, the House Judiciary Committee today formally served the Justice Department with a demand for more documents about the firings and what led up to them.

In a letter accompanying the subpoena, Judiciary Chairman John Conyers said his committee is interested in obtaining records -- so far withheld by Justice -- that discuss US attorneys who were considered for possible firing (but who were ultimately retained), and documents that list possible replacements for any fired prosecutors.

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Gotta love TPM Media..

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The drain on the FBI has been costly...

-- Overall, the number of criminal cases investigated by the FBI nationally has steadily declined. In 2005, the bureau brought slightly more than 20,000 cases to federal prosecutors, compared with about 31,000 in 2000 -- a 34 percent drop.

-- White-collar crime investigations by the bureau have plummeted in recent years. In 2005, the FBI sent prosecutors 3,500 cases -- a fraction of the more than 10,000 cases assigned to agents in 2000....

-- Civil rights investigations, which include hate crimes and police abuse, have continued a steady decline since the late 1990s. FBI agents pursued 65 percent fewer cases in 2005 than they did in 2000.

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Tweety has a habit of feigning outrage over Clinton's claim to keep troops in Iraq "permanently" (despite the fact she never made the claim)...

And that does not mean we would have a permanent force. I am absolutely clear, we do not plan a permanent occupation or permanent bases, but in line with all of the legislation that has been passed by the Democratic majority or passed when we were in the minority going all the way back to 2005, we have tried to be responsible in saying there may be some continuing missions to protect America's vital interests, and to support an Iraqi government that we hope to be an ally going forward, assuming they are acting responsibly.

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Apparently the "absentee landlord" excuse doesn't apply to others...

The meat of the piece has to do with canned U.S. attorney David Iglesias. One of the department's cover stories for firing him, remember, was that he was an "absentee landlord." As department official William Moschella told Congress last month: "Quite frankly, U.S. attorneys are hired to run the office, not their first assistants."

Well, not only are there six U.S. attorneys who are absent from their offices full-time, but one of them is Bill Mercer -- the U.S. Attorney for Montana, the acting Associate Attorney General, and an architect of the purge.

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As mentioned previously, Nevada Governor and former congressman Jim Gibbons has found himself in hot water over ethical and personal misdeeds. Now, he's blaming it all on a democrat-funded campaign by the Wall Street Journal...

“I have heard that the Democrats have paid to have these Wall Street Journal articles written,” Gibbons said. The Journal has reported that Gibbons is under investigation by the FBI for allegedly accepting unreported gifts or payments from a Reno company that was awarded secret military contracts when Gibbons was in the U.S. House.

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Keep in mind there is overwhelming public support for the current investigations... and....

But the agenda was different during the Clinton administration. The government reform panel alone, for example, issued 1,052 subpoenas related to investigations of the Clinton administration and the Democratic National Committee from 1997 to 2002, and only 11 subpoenas related to allegations of Republican abuse.

The panel received more than 2 million pages of documents and heard from 44 Clinton administration officials, including two White House chiefs of staff, according to statistics culled by Democratic staff on the Government Reform Committee

The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has found that from October 1996 to March 1998 -- well before the impeachment hearings -- the Clinton White House staff had spent more than 55,000 hours responding to more than 300 congressional requests, and had produced hundreds of video and audio tapes, along with hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, to congressional investigators.

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Claims he supported gov't intervention in the Terri Schiavo case...

- He told reporters he supported government intervention to keep the severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo alive after courts ordered her feeding tubes removed: "I thought it was appropriate to make every effort to give her a chance to stay alive."

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National Intelligence Director McConnell wants expanded powers to spy on Americans...

President Bush’s spy chief is pushing to expand the government’s surveillance authority at the same time the administration is under attack for stretching its domestic eavesdropping powers.

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An interesting interview..

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Justice, GOP style...

Two weeks ago, the University of Florida voted to deny Jeb Bush an honorary degree.
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Over the faculty’s opposition, the school will now have “to erect ‘suitable markers‘ noting the college’s new name and include the revised name in all university documents, including catalogues and brochures.” The lawmakers acknowledge they “came up with the idea as an answer” to the faculty’s denial of Bush’s honorary degree.

Think Progress has the details...

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10 April 2007

- Supporting The Troops

As mentioned earlier, to fulfill readiness demands, soldiers in no condition to be deployed are being reclassified as fit for duty...

- Things Must Be Bad

For Faux to point out GOP hypocrisy -- this time regarding the criticism of Pelosi's Mideast trip

- Sleepy Joe's Variation On Cheney's 9/11 Delusion

Lieberman claims Syria attacked us on 9/11 -- Blitzer finds his spine and calls him on it...

- Bush Admin Undermines UN Sanctions Of North Korea

Allows NK to secretly sell arms to Ethiopia...

- Feith Lives Up To Dumbest Guy On The Planet Designation

Claims that the CIA's denial of Iraq-Al Qaeda connection is evidence of a connection..

- US Teams With China To Water Down Climate Change Report

Good to see the Bush administration is reaching out to China to find common ground...

- Oh'Really Descibes His Actions As "Irresponsible and Dangerous"

Well... he was referring to Rosie O'Donnell, but he's guilty of the same claims...


- Making Us Safer?

Strain of Iraq war has caused the Marines to bypass traditional non-desert training...

- RNC Lumps Bush, Rummy and Myers Together With Rosie O'Donnell

Ridicules her suggestion to ban the phrase "war on terror"... neglect to mention Bush, Rumsfeld and General Myers all backed the same suggestion...

- Hastert Guilty Of Pelosi-like "Treason"?

Urged other nations to bypass talking to the Clinton WH and to instead negotiate directly with Congress...

- Baghdad -- Just Like Summertime In Indiana

Pence out crazies Krazy Peter King...

- More Conservative Hypocrisy

Ragging on Pelosi's wearing of a scarf while on her trip to the Mideast... ignores Laura Bush doing the same

- FBI Gathers "Purely Political Intel"

The dismantling of the Constitution continues to grow

- When Is 57 Greater Than 119?

When Bush is doing the math...

- Pork = Bad, Railroad To Nowhere = Good

Lott and McConnell have a credibility problem...

- Bush Blindsided By Supreme Court On Global Warming

Rule EPA has power to regulate greenhouse gases

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- Congress More Popular than Bush

AP-Ipsos has Congress Approval at 40%, Bush Approval = 35%

- Second Thoughts

Oppressed Iraqis long for the days of Saddam...

- Romney's Gun Charade Backfires

Romney's claims to be a "life long hunter" fall a wee bit short...

- McCain McSinking

Running neck and neck with Romney for "Own Worst Enemy" title

- The Rudy - Bernie - Abu Connection

Poor Abu Gone-zales overrode investigators' recommendations to kill the Kerik nomination

- Baucus -- Sleepy Joe Of The West?

David Sirota reveals who is doing the obstructing of the First 100 Hours Agenda in the Senate

- Who Edits The Editorials?

An editorial in the WSJ claims Pelosi "may well have" committed a felony -- the law says otherwise...

- Debunking The Pelosi Smear Campaign

Josh Marshall breaks it down...

- Gone-Zales' Congressional "Prepping" Not Going So Good

Top aides are keeping him isolated and away from the public and media...

- Purge-gate Rears It's Ugly Head In Minnesota

Monica Goodling's Best Friend Forever (Rachel Paulose) has quite a dictatorial streak in her, prompting the resignations of 4 top administrators in the Twin Cities' U.S. Attorney office

- Purge-gate Also Stretches Into Wisconsin

Looks like Rove and the Wisconsin GOP had targeted U.S. Attorney Steve Biskupic using the old "voter fraud" line..

- The "Dumbification" Of The Government

Over 150 grads of Pat Robertson's law school (Regent University), a "tier four" school, have been selected to serve since Bush took office...

Think Progress notes that 1 out of 6 Regent grads are employed by the Bush gov't...

- WH - RNC Email Account Scandal Simmering

As mentioned previously, Waxman is hot on the trail of Rove's "back-channel" communications scheme -- now, the LA Times takes a closer look at GOP-provided laptops for Rove and company...

- How's The Surge Going?

Not so good... soldier deaths remain high (double the previous period), civilian deaths remain high, no political progress appears to be occuring...

- Goodling Resigns -- Still Won't Testify

Loses "executive privilege" cover...

- Cheney Keeps Beating The Broken Drum

Even as the Pentagon again dismissed any Iraq-Al Qaeda connection, Deadeye Dick was on Limbaugh's comedy show spreading the same lie...

- Did Bush Violate The Law (Again)?

His recess appointment of Swift Boat funder Samuel Fox appears to have violated the law, which only allows for "pending" nominees to be given recess appointments -- less than an hour before the vote, Bush retracted Fox's nomination...

- Tens Of Thousands Rally Against U.S. -- WH Calls It Progress

Up is down, black is white, Bush is popular...

- The Surge Escalates

Up to 15,000 more National Guard troops called up to serve in Iraq...

- McCain -- I Don't Need No Stinkin' Security

If anyone needs an intervention, it's McCain -- he's falling victim to Cheney's "Last Throes-itis"

- Surge Casualty Count

An average of 3.14 casualties per day -- the highest since "Mission Accomplished"

- McConnell -- 'Dems Want Our Soldiers Dead'

Senate Minority Leader building bridges across the aisle...

- Oh'Really - Geraldo Throw Down

I wasn't sure if Geraldo would break down crying before Oh'Really burst that blood vessel in his forehead. Sadly.. neither occurred...

- Coulter Sinks To New Low

(S)he appears offended by the incompetency of those committing genocide in Darfur..

- GSA Head Is Under Investigation For Holding Republican Strategy Session On Taxpayer's Dime

As mentioned previously, the scandals keep on comin'....

- Last Throes

Ten U.S. troops killed...

- Taliban Deadlier Than Ever

Another crusade left unfinished that is coming back to bite us...

- Bush Joins Truman, Nixon As Least-Liked

Approval below 40% for seven straight months -- should pass Nixon by the Fall...

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