J's Cafe Nette

Archive for August 22nd, 2007

Speaks for itself

WASHINGTON — National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell pulled the curtain back on previously classified details of government surveillance and of a secretive court whose recent rulings created new hurdles for the Bush administration as it tries to prevent terrorism.

McConnell’s comments _ made in an interview with the El Paso Times last week and posted as a transcript on the newspaper’s web site Wednesday _ raised eyebrows for their frank discussion of previously classified eavesdropping work conducted under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA. Among the disclosures:

_ McConnell confirmed for the first time that the private sector assisted with President Bush’s warrantless surveillance program. AT&T, Verizon and other telecommunications companies are being sued for their cooperation. “Now if you play out the suits at the value they’re claimed, it would bankrupt these companies,” McConnell said, arguing that they deserve immunity for their help.

_ He provided new details on court rulings handed down by the 11-member Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which approves classified eavesdropping operations and whose proceedings are almost always entirely secret. McConnell said a ruling that went into effect May 31 required the government to get court warrants to monitor communications between two foreigners if the conversation travels on a wire in the U.S. network. Millions of calls each day do, because of the robust nature of the U.S. systems.

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I think they should have had a caption contest for this picture.

Here’s a snippet from the accompanying article.

When he flexes Russia’s diplomatic and military muscle, Vladimir Putin always makes headlines.

But few could have predicted the squall of gossip and speculation that erupted after the president stripped off his shirt for the cameras while vacationing in the Siberian mountains last week.

The resulting images, prominently enshrined on the presidential Web site, inspired admiration, criticism and some racing pulses among his admirers.

Racing pulses huh. Oh well, to each his own.

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Guss has done all the heavy lifting today so I thought I’d search for things on the lighter side.

Via Instapundit we find another take on global warming.

Bacteria in a moose’s stomach create methane gas which is considered even more destructive to the environment than carbon dioxide gas. Cows pose the same problem (more….

It’s nice to see a bit of humor (I don’t think Norway feels that way) added to a topic which has been such a hot issue.

Let’s just say this, if I see a moose in the near future I think I’ll steer clear.

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I don’t know much about the construction of oil tankers but this video at Real Clear Politics certainly explains materials which would be taboo.

Take a look..it’s just plain fun. =))

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If Wal-Mart stops selling products from the it will go out of business. My family no longer shops at Wal-Mart because everything they sell is made in China.

Updated: 9:00 a.m. ET Aug 22, 2007
LITTLE ROCK, ARK. – Tests of two Chinese brands of dog treats sold at Wal-Mart stores found traces of melamine, a chemical agent that led to another massive pet food recall in March, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. quietly stopped selling Chicken Jerky Strips from Import-Pingyang Pet Product Co. and Chicken Jerky from Shanghai Bestro Trading in July, after customers said the products sickened their pets.

No recall was announced at that time, but Wal-Mart said in a statement Tuesday that customers who bought one of the products should return it to the nearest store for a refund.

Company spokeswoman Deisha Galberth said 17 sets of tests done on the products found melamine, a contaminant that’s a byproduct of several pesticides.

“There were very small amounts of melamine found,” Galberth told The Associated Press. “The amounts were so small the laboratory recommended more testing.”

Galberth had said late Monday that Wal-Mart pulled the products off store shelves based on the customer feedback but wanted to complete the testing before announcing anything publicly.

More than 150 brands of pet food were recalled earlier this year after U.S. inspectors said wheat gluten from China that was used to make the food was tainted with melamine. An unknown number of dogs and cats died.

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Why would a man resign if he did nothing wrong?

Facing multiple investigations, a senior Justice Department appointee has resigned his post.

Bradley Schlozman stepped down from his position as a counsel in the Executive Office of U.S. Attorneys, a branch of the Department of Justice, last week, a Justice spokesman confirmed Wednesday.

Schlozman, a key figure in several political controversies, is under investigation by the department’s inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility for allegations he was involved in politicizing hiring and firing decisions at the Justice Department. He is also a subject of the congressional probe into the U.S. attorneys firing scandal.

Last year, the 36-year-old Kansas native took a U.S. attorney post in Missouri after its previous holder, Todd Graves, was dismissed. Graves has said he refused to sign off on a lawsuit involving the state’s voter rolls. The suit went forward anyway. This year, a court ruled against the Justice Department in the matter. The department is appealing the ruling. Schlozman had backed the case from Washington.
Once he became a U.S. attorney, Schlozman apparently broke with Justice Department policy, by filing a criminal voter fraud indictment against a liberal activist group within a week of the 2006 election. A department manual instructs staff that “most, if not all, investigation of an alleged election crime must await the end of the election to which the allegation relates.”

His actions sparked concerns from many quarters, including veteran Justice Department attorneys, that he was attempting to influence the election for a U.S. Senate seat, which was close. They also fueled a growing belief among congressional Democrats that the dismissal of Graves and several other U.S. attorneys was part of an effort to use U.S. attorneys’ offices for the benefit of the Republican party.

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If this is true and he did change the plans then he needs to be punished.

Robert Murray insists that his company did not change the mining plan at Crandall Canyon after purchasing a joint interest in the mine last August.
But documents obtained by The Salt Lake Tribune clearly contradict Murray’s assertion, and show that Murray’s company sought and received approval from federal regulators to make a significant, and, experts say, risky change to the mining strategy.
Records of the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) show that, after Murray acquired a 50 percent ownership in the mine on Aug. 9, 2006, his company repeatedly petitioned the agency to allow coal to be extracted from the north and south barriers – thick walls of coal that run on
both sides of the main tunnels and help hold up the mine.
That stands in stark contrast to statements Murray made Monday asserting that his company’s mine plan, and that of the previous owner, were one and the same.
“Some have incorrectly reported that after I bought the mine I changed the mining plan. That is not correct,” Murray said. He said the mining plan was developed by its previous owners, Andalex Resources, in conjunction with the Colorado mining engineering consultant Agapito Associates and approved by MSHA.
Documents on file with the Utah Division of Oil Gas and Mining show Andalex had previously decided not to mine those barriers, determining it posed a risk to worker safety.

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
(Montebello, Canada)
___________________________________________________________
For Immediate Release August 21, 2007

STATEMENT BY THE COUNSELOR TO THE PRESIDENT, EDWARD GILLESPIE, AND SPEECH EXCERPTS, AS PREPARED FOR DELIVERY

In a few weeks General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker will deliver their assessments of military and political progress in Iraq, and appropriately much debate and discussion will follow. The President will provide broader context for this long-term debate in two speeches beginning tomorrow at the Veterans of Foreign Wars convention in Kansas City and continuing on August 28 at the American Legion convention in Reno, Nevada.

In his remarks tomorrow the President will talk about the challenges we face in Iraq against the historic background of our successes in Asia. He will describe how America’s presence and perseverance in Asia led to a freer, more stable, and more prosperous continent, transforming American enemies into American allies and making the world safer for our citizens. As we face challenges in Iraq today, we do so knowing we have done this kind of transformative work before and the benefits to America made the sacrifices worthwhile.

Next Tuesday, the President is expected to follow up with remarks to the American Legion in which he will put Iraq in the regional context of the Middle East, and discuss why the only realistic path to a more secure America is defeating the extremists in Iraq and allowing a free and stable government to take root.

Following are excerpts from tomorrow’s remarks, as prepared for delivery:

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Getting a little touchy are we?

DAMASCUS, Syria — Iraq’s prime minister lashed out Wednesday at U.S. criticism, saying no one has the right to impose timetables on his elected government and that his country “can find friends elsewhere.”

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki blamed the U.S. presidential campaign for the recent tough words about his government, from President Bush and from other U.S. politicians.

Bush on Tuesday said he was frustrated with Iraqi leaders’ inability to bridge political divisions. But he added that only the Iraqi people can decide whether to sideline al-Maliki.

“Clearly, the Iraqi government’s got to do more,” Bush said. “I think there’s a certain level of frustration with the leadership in general, inability to work _ come together to get, for example, an oil revenue law passed or provincial elections.”

Al-Maliki, on a trip to Syria, reacted harshly when asked about the recent comments from U.S. officials.

“No one has the right to place timetables on the Iraq government. It was elected by its people,” he said at a news conference in Damascus at the end of the three-day visit to Syria.

“Those who make such statements are bothered by our visit to Syria. We will pay no attention. We care for our people and our constitution and can find friends elsewhere,” al-Maliki said.

Without naming any American official, al-Maliki said some of the criticism of him and his government had been “discourteous.”

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., said Monday that al-Maliki, a Shiite, should be ousted and replaced with a less sectarian leader.

U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker said he was disappointed and frustrated by the lack of political progress by al-Maliki’s government. Crocker said the Iraqis themselves and Iraqi leaders were also frustrated.

The harsh exchanges erupted just a few weeks before Crocker and the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, are to report to Congress on military and political progress in Iraq.

The two are expected to point to some signs of military progress in Iraq. But the political situation in Iraq remains fractured, with wide distrust between Shiite and Sunni factions and no progress by al-Maliki’s government on key issues.

Bush’s statement on Tuesday was a marked change in tone from his endorsement of al-Maliki in November 2006 at a meeting in Jordan as “the right guy for Iraq.”

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I’ve got a simple solution. Put the so-called people that are doing this in a ring and force them to fight for their lives. At least by doing this, we could cut the amount of dirt bags in half.
If I sound a little extreme it’s because this really ticks me off.

It’s a disturbing narrative, the 19-page indictment of football star Michael Vick and three of his friends. Perhaps the details shocked people unfamiliar with the secretive world of illegal dogfighting: the breeding and training of pit bulls for savage, high-stakes combat and the brutal executions of dogs that fail to measure up.

Dogs shot, hanged, drowned, beaten, electrocuted. An awful story.

Yet to animal-welfare workers, the ugly particulars were far from surprising. They said the dogfighting subculture is deeply entrenched in the United States. And in that shadowy realm, they said, the sort of business allegedly conducted on property owned by Vick in rural Surry County, Va., has been going on for generations, especially in the rural South.

“For us, the Vick case has had tremendous value,” said Jeff Dorson, a Louisiana Humane Society official. “We’ve been trying to tell the public how typical this is, how widespread it is, the horrors the animals go through. . . . It’s opened the curtain so everyone can see what’s going on.”

Vick, quarterback of the Atlanta Falcons and a former Virginia Tech all-American, is scheduled to plead guilty Monday to dogfighting-related offenses, with federal guidelines calling for a prison term in the range of 12 to 18 months, according to his attorneys and sources familiar with the case. His co-defendants have pleaded guilty.

The blood sport goes on.

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Damn liberal publication.

In an August 21 New York Times article, reporter Jeff Zeleny characterized the “reception” for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) at the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) national convention as “respectful yet tepid,” making no mention of the “standing ovation” that Clinton received, which he reported the day before on the New York Times blog The Caucus.

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Must be talking about some of that actionable intelligence that candidates keep talking about needing before going to war. This is just plain crazy.

As many as 60 people within the CIA read a cable referring to two of the 19 hijackers involved in the attacks on America on September 11 2001 before the event, yet the information was not shared with the parts of the organisation able to do anything about it, according to the agency’s own internal investigation.
The revelation is one of several damning findings from the CIA’s own watchdog, the inspector general, drawn up in June 2005. He accuses the CIA’s top officials in the run-up to 9/11, including the then director, George Tenet, of failure to devise a strategic plan to counter Osama bin Laden in advance of the attacks.

A 19-page summary of the inspector’s report was published yesterday under a new congressional law passed earlier this month, having been kept secret since it was written. It underlines the depth of infighting between the CIA and the National Security Agency which prevented clear lines of responsibility in the fight against al-Qaida.

Though the report found no evidence of misconduct or illegality, it bluntly stated that CIA officers “did not discharge their responsibilities in a satisfactory manner”. The inspector, John Helgerson, went as far as to recommend further panels of inquiry into the conduct of key individuals within the agency to see whether disciplinary action should be taken against them.

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Go get him Fred.

Former Senator Fred D. Thompson is not only testing the waters for a run for president – he’s stirring the pot. He took a not-very-veiled swipe at the Republican frontrunner, Rudolph W. Giuliani, for supporting gun control.
Mr. Thompson, who starred in “Law & Order,” wrote on his Web site today: “When I was working in television, I spent quite a bit of time in New York City. There are lots of things about the place I like, but New York gun laws don’t fall in that category.’’
Then he decried a recent court ruling on a gun case, writing that “the same activist federal judge from Brooklyn who provided Mayor Giuliani’s administration with the legal ruling it sought to sue gun makers, has done it again.’’
Mr. Thompson went on to suggest that high gun ownership rates may be related to the low violent crime rates.
The Giuliani campaign, er, returned fire. “Those who live in New York in the real world — not on TV — know that Rudy Giuliani’s record of making the city safe for families speaks for itself,’’ said Katie Levinson, the Giuliani campaign’s communications director. “No amount of political theater will change that.”

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What happened to the rest of the Quote?

In an August 17 New York Times article about how presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama (IL) is “increasingly drawing sharp contrasts with his rivals” for the Democratic nomination, reporter Jeff Zeleny wrote: “Even Michelle Obama presented a contrast [during a campaign event] on Thursday as she introduced her husband in an open-air barn at the Cass County fairgrounds. She told a crowd of more than 200 people that family values and trust were important in the next presidential candidate. ‘Our view is that if you can’t run your own house, you certainly can’t run the White House,’ Mrs. Obama said.” Zeleny did not provide Michelle Obama’s full quote, nor did he explain to whom Michelle Obama was purportedly drawing a contrast. In the part of the quote The New York Times left out, Obama — as blogger Greg Sargent noted — immediately went on to discuss measures her family was taking to keep their children “grounded” while campaigning, indicating that her comments were not a reference to rival candidates but rather a statement about the efforts they were making to ensure that their children will continue to “come first.”

After stating, “Our view is that if you can’t run your own house, you certainly can’t run the White House,” Michelle Obama continued: “[S]o we’ve adjusted our schedules to make sure that our girls are first, so while he’s [Barack Obama] traveling around, I do day trips” in order to be “home before bedtime.” Atlantic associate editor Marc Ambinder wrote that one “recurring theme of her stump speech” is “the hard choices she and Sen. Obama have had to make about their work/family balance.”

An August 21 column by the Chicago Sun-Times’ Jennifer Hunter also selectively cited Michelle Obama’s remarks and suggested that she was referring to Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) in her statement. Hunter wrote that Obama’s comment “could be interpreted as a swipe at the Clintons.” But, according to Sargent, “The Obama campaign says this wasn’t an attack on Hillary at all.” Sargent stated that Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton sent him a statement saying: “The only family Mrs. Obama was referring to was the Obama family.” Ambinder further noted that in highlighting Hunter’s column, “Matt Drudge has other designs, and you can bet that the cable news networks will follow.” The Drudge Report headline on the afternoon of August 21 was “Obama’s Wife Slams Hillary?”

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I’m not a conservative but I respect anyone that has the fortitude to stick to his or her guns, in this day and age.

A new group of prominent conservatives plans to begin a $15 million advertising campaign Wednesday urging members of Congress who may be wavering in their support for the war in Iraq not to “cut and run.”
The group, Freedom’s Watch, is rolling out television, radio and Internet ads in more than 20 states and 60 Congressional districts. Ari Fleischer, President Bush’s former press secretary and a spokesman for the group, declined to specify which members of Congress were on the list of targets but indicated that it would include both Republicans and Democrats.
Mr. Fleischer said the central message of Freedom’s Watch is that “the war in Iraq can be won and Congress must not surrender.” The ads will run as Congress is awaiting the Sept. 15 release of a report from Gen. David Petraeus that will evaluate progress in Iraq.
“There are many members who are trying to figure out which way to go, and we want them to know that there is still a sizable group of Americans who are committed to victory in Iraq,” Mr. Fleischer said.
The ads feature Iraq war veterans and parents of veterans who lost family members in the war urging lawmakers who have supported the war not to switch their vote.

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And what does that make them?

In articles on Sen. Hillary Clinton’s speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars, several media outlets reported that Clinton said the Bush administration’s so-called “surge” policy is “working.” Clinton actually said: “We’ve begun to change tactics in Iraq, and in some areas — particularly in Al Anbar Province — it’s working. We’re just years too late changing our tactics.”

During an August 20 speech to the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) said, according to The New York Times in an August 21 article, “We’ve begun to change tactics in Iraq, and in some areas, particularly in Al Anbar Province, it’s working. … We’re just years too late changing our tactics. We can’t ever let that happen again.” The Times also reported that “[a]ides to Mrs. Clinton said her remarks that military tactics in Iraq are ‘working’ referred specifically to reports of increased cooperation from Sunnis leading to greater success against insurgents in Al Anbar Province.” Several other media outlets, however, have claimed that Clinton said the Bush administration’s so-called “surge” policy is “working”:

During an August 21 report on Democrats’ positions on Iraq, an MSNBC Live on-air graphic read: “Hillary Clinton: Surge is Working, But Years Too Late For Change” — even though the video clip of Clinton MSNBC aired during the segment itself showed her saying: “We’ve begun to change tactics in Iraq, and in some places — particularly in Al Anbar Province — it’s working.”
In an August 21 article — headlined, “Iraq Surge Working, But Too Late: Hillary Clinton” — the New York Post reported: ” ‘It’s working. We’re just years too late in our tactics,’ [Clinton] said, referring to the beefed-up U.S. troop presence battling insurgents in Iraq, including war-torn Anbar province.” The Post further asserted that “Clinton’s positive assessment of the troop surge puts her in agreement with some high-ranking military officials and scholars, but in direct opposition to many fellow Democrats.” But Clinton did not give a “positive assessment of the troop surge,” and her statement was not in reference to “Iraq, including the war-torn Anbar province”; rather, she cited Al Anbar as one place where the “change [of] tactics” has brought positive results.
On August 21, a banner headline on the Drudge Report read: “Hillary on Surge? ‘It’s Working’ …”

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Speaks for itself.

NEW BERN, N.C – Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) is a household name in this military-friendly district represented in Congress by his family – first by his late father, a Democrat, and now by him – for most of the last 40 years. Jones’ folksy demeanor, commitment to constituent service and deeply Christian values made him virtually unbeatable since he won election to Congress in 1994.

Until two years ago, Jones was probably best known nationally for championing “freedom fries” to replace “French fries” in the House cafeteria – a hit with the GOP’s right-wing base.

But after co-sponsoring a measure with Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) in June 2005 calling for a time-certain troop withdrawal from Iraq, Jones began taking heat from many of those same supporters.

His U-turn on war policy attracted some unusual publicity for a press-shy conservative: an appearance on ABC News with Kucinich, long considered an anti-war bogeyman by the right, and a cover story in the liberal Mother Jones magazine.

Now, the consequences look more threatening. For the first time in more than a decade, Jones faces a serious primary challenger in Onslow County Commissioner Joe McLaughlin, a former Army Ranger, and their race will test how opposition to the Iraq war plays out in conservative and pro-military America.

Jones is not the only Republican to have broken with Bush on Iraq. Others, in more moderate, suburban districts, have also drawn primary challengers.

But in this eastern North Carolina district – one which spans parts of the Outer Banks – the conviction that patriotism means supporting even unpopular wars runs as deep as the Atlantic Ocean.

Jones’ politics have become increasingly at odds with a Republican party that he believes has lost its moorings. Although he voted to authorize the war in Iraq, he has since become one of its most vociferous opponents.

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The truth shall set you free.

The Justice Department said Tuesday that records about missing White House e-mails are not subject to public disclosure, the latest effort by the Bush administration to expand the boundaries of government secrecy.

Administration lawyers detailed the legal position in a lawsuit trying to force the White House Office of Administration to reveal what it knows about the disappearance of White House e-mails.

The Office of Administration provides administrative services, including information technology support, to the Executive Office of the President.

The office has prepared estimates that there are at least 5 million missing White House e-mails from March 2003 to October 2005, according to the lawsuit filed by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a private advocacy group.

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This should make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

WASHINGTON – Liberals read more books than conservatives. The head of the book publishing industry’s trade group says she knows why — and there’s little flattering about conservative readers in her explanation.

The Karl Roves of the world have built a generation that just wants a couple slogans: ‘No, don’t raise my taxes, no new taxes,’” Pat Schroeder, president of the American Association of Publishers, said in a recent interview. “It’s pretty hard to write a book saying, ‘No new taxes, no new taxes, no new taxes’ on every page.”

Schroeder, who as a Colorado Democrat was once one of Congress’ most liberal House members, was responding to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll that found people who consider themselves liberals are more prodigious book readers than conservatives.

She said liberals tend to be policy wonks who “can’t say anything in less than paragraphs. We really want the whole picture, want to peel the onion.”

The book publishing industry is predominantly liberal, though conservative books by authors like former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, R-Ga., and pundit Ann Coulter have been best sellers in recent years. Overall, book sales have been flat as publishers seek to woo readers lured away by the Internet, movies and television.

Rove, President Bush’s departing political adviser, is known as a prodigious reader. White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Schroeder was “confusing volume with quality” with her remarks.

“Obfuscation usually requires a lot more words than if you simply focus on fundamental principles, so I’m not at all surprised by the loquaciousness of liberals,” he said.

“As head of a book publishing association, she probably shouldn’t malign any readers,” said Mary Matalin, a GOP strategist who oversees a line of books by conservative authors, Threshold, at Simon & Schuster. Matalin said conservatives and others aren’t necessarily reading less, but are getting more information online and from magazines.

The AP-Ipsos poll found 22 percent of liberals and moderates said they had not read a book within the past year, compared with 34 percent of conservatives.

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Here is a run down of the investigations going on in congress. I’ve got a ring side seat and I am going to enjoy.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats are using subpoenas and other investigatory powers to expose Bush administration missteps and push for policy changes even as they struggle at times to enact legislation.

Backed by hundreds of hearings that compel the administration’s attention but often draw scant publicity, House and Senate Democrats are leaving their stamp on a range of governmental matters, without passing a bill.

Congressional inquiries have prompted the Federal Emergency Management Agency to test trailers used by displaced hurricane victims for formaldehyde poisoning. They triggered a Justice Department investigation into Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ role in firing federal prosecutors.

Other probes spurred the Army to recover millions of dollars in overpayments to private security contractors in Iraq. And the mere threat of Democratic-run hearings prompted President Bush, after months of resisting, to submit a controversial warrantless wiretap program to a special court’s review.

Congress’ oversight and investigative powers are especially vital to Democrats because a potent GOP minority in the Senate has kept them from passing legislation on issues such as immigration and an Iraq withdrawal plan.

“Maybe it’s even more important than legislation,” said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., a key player who chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Democrats’ ability to conduct such hearings “has been the most important change since the 2006 election in terms of relations between the Congress and the administration,” said Thomas E. Mann, a Brookings Institution scholar and co-author of a book on Congress, “The Broken Branch.”

“I have no doubt the hearings have altered the course the administration has taken on a range of areas, including Iraq,” Mann said.

The White House has complained bitterly about the sharp increase in congressional inquiries since Democrats took over the House and Senate in January.

“I would hope Congress would become more prone to deliver pieces of legislation that matter as opposed to being the investigative body,” Bush said at an Aug. 9 news conference. “I mean, there have been over 600 different hearings, and yet they’re struggling with getting appropriations bills to my desk.”

Democrats call the inquiries long overdue after years of GOP-controlled congresses treating the administration with a light touch. “I don’t think Congress is overdoing the oversight,” Waxman said in an interview.

New or expanded congressional inquiries seem to pop up almost daily. On July 17, Waxman called on a former White House political aide to testify about trips made by top federal drug policy officials to help GOP congressional candidates in the 2006 campaign’s closing weeks.

The aide, Sara Taylor, had appeared only a week earlier before a Senate panel that subpoenaed her testimony about the prosecutor firings.

Meanwhile:

-Waxman’s panel is conducting a multi-agency search for missing e-mail records to and from numerous White House officials who had electronic message accounts with the Republican National Committee.

-The House Judiciary Committee has approved contempt citations against White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former counsel Harriet Miers because they refused to testify about the fired U.S. attorneys.

-The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming is looking into allegations that the Smithsonian Institution toned down a climate change exhibit to avoid angering lawmakers and the Bush administration.

-Waxman says he will introduce legislation to protect the surgeon general from political interference, following a hearing in which a former surgeon general said the administration muzzled him on sensitive public health matters.

-Waxman’s committee is conducting an inquiry into the administration’s handling of the friendly fire death of former NFL player Pat Tillman in Afghanistan, which has proved embarrassing to the White House and Pentagon.

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Isn’t this one of the cutest things you’ve ever seen? Scroll to view.

Here’s the story:

Mike Underwood, boating enthusiast and animal lover, didn’t expect to hatch an egg in retirement. But in his new role as mama duck, he’s having a blast.
Chipper — the duckling Underwood hatched from an abandoned egg three weeks ago — faithfully tags along at his heels. If Underwood breaks into a run, Chipper picks up the pace after him. If she can’t see him, she chirps loudly.

“I don’t know if she’s got me or I’ve got her,” chuckled Underwood, 75, a retired locomotive engineer who dotes on his duckling. “I just think the world of her.”

It all began after Underwood, who owns a houseboat at The Lake Club Marina on Lake Wylie, watched a mother duck build a nest behind the boat’s passenger seat. The mother duck deposited six eggs there.

“I’d talk to her all the time,” he said. “She got where she didn’t mind me.”

Three weeks ago today, Underwood visited his houseboat and saw the mother perched on her nest. The next day, he found the remains of five hatched eggs. The mother was gone, leaving one last, unhatched ducking.

The abandoned duck egg had a tiny pinhole in it. Underwood picked it up and carefully peeled off the shell. Inside, he found a small, weak duckling.

“She didn’t have the strength to bust the shell off,” he said. “I pulled it off real easy. I didn’t think she was going to live.” He wiped off the membrane and dried the new duck with a towel.

“She couldn’t raise her head,” he said.

Underwood put the duckling on his chest, under his shirt, to keep it warm. “Every hour, she got a little better,” he said. “She bonded to me right away.”

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Please excuse the quality of the photos but I cut them out of the local newspaper.

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This is a good read that speaks for itself.

The noted American surfer, Dr. Dorian Paskowitz, has high hopes for Gaza, and like the waves, he will not let anything stop him trying to see them through.

On Tuesday, Dr. Paskowitz, 86, a retired Jewish physician from Hawaii popularly known as Doc, personally delivered 15 new surfboards to Palestinian surfing enthusiasts there.

He talked the Israeli authorities into opening up the fortresslike Erez crossing for that purpose, overcoming their repeated protestations about the volatile security situation, he said — even though hardly any nonessential goods have been allowed into the Gaza Strip since Hamas took over there in June.

“We used every wily wit that any Jew could muster,” Dr. Paskowitz said, deliberately poking fun at an ethnic stereotype while speaking after the event by telephone from Tel Aviv. He was accompanied by his son David, 48, one of his nine children and a former surfing world champion.

The endeavor started with an article in The Los Angeles Times three weeks ago about a beach in Gaza called Al Deira. It featured a photograph of two Palestinian surfers with one old surfboard between them. “My son and I said, why don’t we go over and help them get some boards,” Dr. Paskowitz recalled.

The Paskowitzes started to pull strings. An Israeli benefactor from a sports gear chain put up a few thousand dollars to bring them over. The world’s greatest surfing pro, Kelly Slater, gave his support. And Doc activated Arthur Rashkovan, the Israeli representative of Surfers for Peace, an organization founded by the Paskowitzes and Mr. Slater, an American of Syrian descent.

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Louisiana, the state known for political corruption, has come up with something I thought would be below even them.

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Another nail goes in the ignorant savage coffin.

When archaeologists began digging in a cornfield one steamy summer day on the banks of the York River, they were pretty sure they would find remnants of Werowo comoco, the legendary capital city chosen by Powhatan, the Algonquian paramount chief who once had the power to decide whether the settlers at Jamestown should live or starve.

But once the archaeologists began scraping test pits every 50 feet, what they began to unearth was unlike anything they had seen in the region. About 1,000 feet from the river, where they expected to find nothing at all, they found a line of darkly stained dirt where newer topsoil had filled in what at one time had been a long, straight ditch.

The ditch was so straight, so perfectly constructed, they figured it must have been the work of colonists who moved into the area with their more sophisticated metal tools and axes once the Indians had moved out. But the team found only native artifacts. Then radiocarbon testing showed that the ditch was built in the 13th century, 400 years before Powhatan and his daughter Pocahontas’s fateful encounter with John Smith.

The ditches, archaeologist Martin Gallivan theorizes, are monuments, separating the sacred part of the city, where Powhatan and his priests lived, from the profane, where everyone else went about the business of daily life. These long-hidden ditches — Smith never mentioned them in his writings — are as important to understanding the Algonquian culture as the elaborate structures of the Inca or the white stone tributes to Jefferson and Lincoln on the Mall.

“There’s no place like Werowocomoco,” Gallivan said. For the Algonquians, for centuries the dominant tribe of Virginia’s Tidewater region, it was the ancient center of the universe

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Remember he is innocent until proven guilty but it sure isn’t looking good.

U.S. officials call it the largest bribery case to come out of the Iraq war. But where did the $9.6 million go?

Prosecutors say an Army major from Texas who worked as a contracting officer took bribes from military contractors, having his wife and sister collect money on his behalf. Investigators allege the three received $9.6 million and expected to get $5.4 million more from at least eight contractors for giving them favorable contracts.

Maj. John L. Cockerham, 41, of San Antonio, was charged with conspiracy, money-laundering and bribery. Cockerham’s wife, Melissa, 40, also of San Antonio, and his sister, Carolyn Blake, 44, of Sunnyvale, Tex., were charged with money-laundering and conspiracy. All three have pleaded not guilty.

With $44 billion spent so far on the reconstruction of Iraq after the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, relatively few corruption cases have surfaced, and none rivals this one. The office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction has found cases of fraud that led to 13 arrests. Eight cases await trial, and 26 others are under investigation by the Justice Department. Federal authorities said they expect to arrest more civilians and military personnel in similar schemes.

The Cockerhams and Blake were arrested in late July after investigators searched the Cockerhams’ house at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio and allegedly found evidence linking them to the bribery scheme. Aspects of the case read like a spy novel: a briefcase with $300,000 in cash in a Kuwaiti parking lot; handwritten ledgers that identify money sources with code names like Destiny Carter; and instructions telling co-conspirators to, in a pinch, toss safe-deposit keys out a window, stash key documents in the bosom and, lastly, destroy the instructions.

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And I suppose that he is looking to get revenge for 06.
I think that anything that is attached to Rove or Bush is going to be a rallying cry for the Democrats in 08. Just going by what I feel myself.
I think the press needs to get over itself.
Mr. Rove’s style Politics is caput for a while, I hope.

Is Republican strategist Karl Rove attacking Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton because he really wants to help her win the Democratic presidential nomination? Do Democrats sound paranoid when they suspect that he is? If so, as the old saying goes, that doesn’t mean somebody is not out to get them.

I have a slightly different theory. As Rove departs his long-held post at the ear of President Bush, I think his recent bash-Hillary tour of media interviews is the first Band-Aid in his attempts to patch up the damage he left behind, both to his party’s prospects and his president’s legacy.

After all, with Republicans largely dispirited and in disarray in their search for a clear front-runner in the presidential race, what better way to pull the forces together than to wave their long-time foe Hillary Clinton in their faces?
On three Sunday morning talk shows, Rove predicted that the New York senator will win the nomination, “She enters the general election campaign with the highest negatives of any candidate in the history of the Gallup Poll,” he said.

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What the hell is a soft revolution? Must be something like Cindy Sheehan is doing. If it is, keep her in jail. I’m just kidding.

An American-Iranian academic detained for the past three months on charges of “espionage” and plotting to topple Iran’s Islamic regime was released yesterday after her family paid £160,000 bail.
Haleh Esfandiari, Middle East director of the Washington-based Woodrow Wilson Centre, was freed after an ordeal that included intensive interrogations, solitary confinement and a televised “confession” of involvement in an alleged US-backed conspiracy to incite a “soft revolution”.

Judiciary officials confirmed that she had been allowed to leave Tehran’s Evin prison after her 93-year-old mother had used the deeds of her flat to post bail.

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