11.30.05
Posted in SSquirrel at 4:21 pm by SSquirrel
Fred Barbash WaPo
Supreme Court nominee Samuel A. Alito Jr. was an architect of the Reagan administration’s failed 1985 attempt to have the high court consider overruling Roe v. Wade, according to a memo from the period released today.
Alito, then assistant to the solicitor general, urged his boss to use a case before the court to “make clear that we disagree with Roe v. Wade and would welcome the opportunity to brief the issue of whether, and if so to what extent, that decision should be overruled.”
In the memo, Alito suggested that the government challenge Roe in an amicus , or friend-of-the-court, brief in an abortion case that itself did not challenge the 1973 decision legalizing abortion. This approach, he wrote, is better than a “frontal assault.”
“It has most of the advantages of a brief devoted to the overruling of” Roe , he wrote. “It makes our position clear, does not even tacitly concede Roe ’s legitimacy, and signals that we regard the question as live and open.”
He added that the approach was “free of many of the disadvantages that would accompany a major effort to overturn Roe . When the court hands down its decision and Roe is not overruled,” he reasoned, the decision “will not be portrayed as a stinging rebuke” to the administration.
In a previously released document, Alito had expressed pride in contributing to the Reagan administration’s policies, including its view that there was no right to abortion embodied in the Constitution.
Yo! Democratic Senators! What the hell does he have to do? Write I will take women’s rights away at every opportunity on his forehead? If the Dems don’t fillibuster this jackass who will they stop? Grab your balls or borrow some from Barbara Boxer and block this guy any way you can. We will come after you, we will never forget what your what was on this one, ever. Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid…
SSquirrel
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Posted in SSquirrel at 8:41 am by SSquirrel
John McCarthy AP
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Democratic Mayor Michael Coleman dropped out of the governor’s race Tuesday, saying his family needs him and he mistakenly thought he could manage Ohio’s largest city while campaigning.
The decision leaves Rep. Ted Strickland as the lone major Democrat in the campaign to succeed Republican Gov. Bob Taft, who cannot run again next year because of term limits.
There had been speculation that Coleman might leave the race following the arrest of his wife, Frankie, last month on a drunken driving charge.
Good news for the Dems, no expensive primary unlike the Repugs, who barring jail sentences (always a possibility for Republicans, especially Blackwell) are going to have a really nasty three way on their hands. Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, Auditor Betty Montgomery and Attorney General Jim Petro will kicking gouging and biting their way to the primary with hopefully very bloody results. This will be loads of fun. I can’t wait.
S(pectator)Squirrel
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Posted in SSquirrel at 8:24 am by SSquirrel
Jonathan Weisman ~WaPo
As part of a House budget bill that reduces spending on Medicaid prescription drugs, pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly and Co. and other businesses secured a provision ensuring that their mental health drugs continue to fetch top price at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars to the states.
The provision — inserted by Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), whose district flanks Lilly’s Indianapolis headquarters — would largely exempt antipsychotic and antidepressant medications from a larger measure designed to steer Medicaid patients to the least expensive treatment options. The House Energy and Commerce Committee approved Buyer’s amendment this month over the strenuous objections of Chairman Joe Barton (R-Tex.) and the National Governors Association.
Buyer’s measure underscores the excessive power that corporate interests wield on Capitol Hill. Critics say the measure also violates the purpose of the budget-cutting bill, which was drafted to give state governments the flexibility to cut program costs in ways that minimize the harm done to beneficiaries.
“This is obviously an attempt to prevent state Medicaid offices from getting cheaper, just-as-beneficial drugs to patients, and it’s really going to stick it to the taxpayers,” said Steve Ellis, a vice president and Medicaid analyst at Taxpayers for Common Sense.
The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the provision will raise federal drug spending by $125 million over five years, while state officials say they are likely to face far higher costs.
The governors group warned that the cost differential between an older, established drug such as Prozac and a new entrant can be staggering, while the difference in utility is often marginal.
Moreover, no state could meet the requirement of proving that one drug is equivalent to another, because drugmakers’ clinical trials compare their products with placebos, and scant evidence is available comparing one drug with another, said Stan Rosenstein, deputy director of California’s Department of Health Services.
With more than 15 companies making mental health drugs, Lilly hardly has the market cornered, according to Sagebiel. Lilly does have six such medicines, including Prozac, which now has a generic alternative; Cymbalta, a newer antidepressant; Strattera, for attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder; Symbyax for bipolar depression; and Zyprexa for schizophrenia.
Lilly has been adept at using Washington for its own purposes, Ellis said. The company fought for years to extend the patents on Prozac and stave off a generic version. In 2002, it was at the center of a political firestorm over a provision, slipped into the giant law that created the Department of Homeland Security, that shielded vaccine makers from lawsuits by families of autistic children.
And it was Lilly’s home-state congressman, Buyer, who got the amendment on mental health drugs through the House.
Drug companies are only the third most profitable businesses of all time. Trailing Oil companies and Commercial Banks. They need corrupt politicians to defend their obscene profit margins. You wouldn’t want to have to wait behind poor people at the doctor’s office would you? Thank God drug companies have plenty of money to buy all the Republicans they need to keep drug prices high and health insurance costs skyrocketing. If poor people got good health care in this country they might go getting uppity, and you know where that leads…Communism!!!
Corruption, It’s Does a Country Good!
S(arcastic)Squirrel
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11.28.05
Posted in SSquirrel at 12:37 pm by SSquirrel
ERICA WERNER ~AP
Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham will plead guilty to tax violations, a person close to the investigation of the California Republican has told The Associated Press
A hearing in the case was scheduled in federal court in San Diego on Monday, and two people close to the investigation said Cunningham would enter a guilty plea. One of those people said he would plead to tax violations related to the home sale.
In November 2003, he sold his Del Mar, Calif., home to defense contractor Mitchell Wade for $1,675,000. Wade put the house back on the market and sold it after nearly a year for $975,000 — a loss of $700,000 in one of the nation’s hottest housing markets.
Cunningham and his wife, Nancy, used the proceeds from the sale to buy a $2.55 million mansion in ritzy Rancho Santa Fe, Calif.
Wade also let Cunningham live rent-free on his yacht, the Duke Stir, at the Capital Yacht Club. His firm, MZM Inc., donated generously to Cunningham’s campaigns.
Around the same time, MZM was winning valuable defense contracts at a time when Cunningham sat on the House Appropriations subcommittee that controls defense dollars. In 2004 the little-known company based in Washington, D.C., tripled its revenue and nearly quadrupled its staff, according to information posted on the company Web site.
Though he denied wrongdoing when he announced in July that he wouldn’t seek re-election, Cunningham himself acknowledged that the sale didn’t look good.
Cunningham’s attorney, Lee Blalack, declined comment in advance of Monday’s hearing. Blalock issued a media advisory saying Cunningham planned to address “pending legal proceedings” after the hearing.
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Posted in SSquirrel at 11:00 am by SSquirrel
PAUL AMES ~AP via WaPo
BERLIN — The United States has told the European Union it needs more time to respond to media reports that the CIA set up secret jails in some European nations and transported terror suspects by covert flights, the top EU justice official said Monday.
Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini also warned that that any of the 25 bloc nations found to have operated secret CIA prisons could have their EU voting rights suspended.
The CIA has refused to comment on the European investigation.
Frattini said suspending EU voting rights would be justified under the EU treaty, which stipulates that the bloc is founded on the principles of liberty, democracy, respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law, and that a persistent breach of these principles can be punished.
Clandestine detention centers would violate the European Convention on Human Rights.
Reports of secret CIA flights followed the allegations of secret prisons, as more and more countries have decided to open investigations into the issue. Frattini said if the flights took place without the knowledge of local authorities, they would be violations of international aviation agreements.
Other airports that might have been used by CIA aircraft in some capacity include Palma de Mallorca in Spain, Larnaca in Cyprus and Shannon in Ireland, as well as the U.S. air base at Ramstein, Germany, EU officials have said. Investigations into alleged CIA landings or fly overs have been launched in Austria, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, and there have been unconfirmed reports in Macedonia and Malta.
Liberty, democracy, respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law? Hey, remember when Our Country used to stand for these things? Those were the days, huh? Now we are the land of Kommander Koo Koo Bananas and his band of merry Fascists, torturing people in secret prisons and denying even the most basic human rights based on allegations made by people we tortured into naming them. The circular logic here may make Little George feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but it makes Our Country look like idiots, fools, and pyschopaths. Newsflash to Repugnicans; The White House has never, ever been denigrated to this extent in the history of Our Country. At this point the only way to return honor and integrity to the White House is for Bush and Cheney to resign now. Waiving extradition to be tried for crimes against humanity would help too.
S(hamed)Squirrel
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Posted in SSquirrel at 10:36 am by SSquirrel
A large chunk of the facade of the US Supreme Court Church has crumbled and fallen away. Coincidence? Or is God sending us a sign? Either way it seems an appropriate commentary on the total lack of ethics and honesty reflected in Fearless Leader’s latest nominations and Scalia’s lame attempts to justify his political rulings and failure to recuse himself from ruling on cases in favor of Cheney and Bush and Repugs in general.
S(upreme)Squirrel
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Posted in SSquirrel at 10:12 am by SSquirrel
Al Kamen
Freshman Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) created quite a fuss when she called decorated Marine war veteran Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) a coward for proposing a prompt withdrawal of troops from Iraq.
We recall her maiden speech on the House floor back in September, “humbly” thanking House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) “for allowing me to address this humble body.”
“However, here today I accept a second oath,” she said. “I pledge to walk in the shoes of my colleagues and refrain from name-calling or the questioning of character. It is easy to quickly sink to the lowest form of political debate. Harsh words often lead to headlines, but walking this path is not a victimless crime. This great House pays the price.”
Definitely born an asshole.
Word is Valerie Plame is going to retire from the CIA on Dec. 9 after 20 years at the agency in the operations directorate — the cloak-and-dagger folks — including a decade or so in a “non-official cover” status or NOC, which involves setting up lots of cover, an always-difficult task, and even more so now in the age of Google.
The retirement frees her up to reflect a bit in public about all that’s happened since columnist Robert Novak blew her cover
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11.26.05
Posted in SSquirrel at 6:23 pm by SSquirrel
Karen Hosler
Shortly after their takeover, Republicans installed reforms designed to minimize the power of individual lawmakers but they established party rule so strong Democrats were all but shut out.
Soon, the control of House and Senate and subsidiary agencies wasn’t enough. Tom DeLay, the Texas Republican who was then House Majority Whip, launched the “K Street project” to strengthen ties between the GOP-led Congress and high-dollar lobbyists, many of whom ply their trade from plush offices on that downtown Washington thoroughfare. Access to key lawmakers was granted only to those lobbying firms and trade associations that put Republicans in the top jobs.
The implicit message of quid pro quo could hardly have been more brazen.
For Mr. DeLay, who could have cashed in and become a very wealthy man years ago, the goal has always been power. But for some of the young aides who attached themselves to his star, particularly Mr. Scanlon, the object was money - lots of it.
Team DeLay played the game ruthlessly, first pushing then Democratic President Bill Clinton to the brink of ouster by impeachment.
“You kick him until he passes out,” Mr. Scanlon wrote at the time in an e-mail to a colleague that was published in the Clinton biography, “The Breach.” “Then beat him over the head with a baseball bat - then roll him up in an old rug - and throw him off a cliff into the pound(ing) surf below!!!!!”
House Speaker Dennis Hastert later suspected Mr. Scanlon of working behind the scenes against him, and Mr. DeLay was obliged to let Mr. Scanlon go.
Anticipation…An-tis-a-pay-ya-shun is making me wait…
S(candal)Squirrel
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Posted in SSquirrel at 6:06 pm by SSquirrel
Novak
WASHINGTON — There is no doubt Rep. John Boehner of Ohio is quietly enlisting support from fellow House Republicans to elect him as majority leader in January. The question is whether Rep. Tom Reynolds of New York also is campaigning to be majority whip.
Reports of a Boehner-Reynolds ticket have circulated in Washington, but Reynolds vigorously denies it. If he does run for whip, Reynolds would be accused of cutting and running from his duties as House Republican campaign chairman because of the difficult 2006 midterm election ahead.
A special election in January would mean House Republicans have given up on Tom DeLay getting rid of his criminal indictment in Texas in time to resume the majority leader’s chair in this session of Congress. Majority Whip Roy Blunt of Missouri has been acting leader.
A footnote: Word of ex-DeLay aide Michael Scanlon’s guilty plea in the Jack Abramoff scandal has sent a wave of fear through the Washington Republican establishment. Scanlon appears to have cut a deal for possibly naming names and pointing fingers in return for a lighter sentence.
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Posted in SSquirrel at 5:26 pm by SSquirrel
BASSEM MROUE ~AP
Six people were killed and 12 wounded when a suicide car bomber struck in Samarra, 60 miles north of Baghdad, police Lt. Col. Mahmoud Mohammed said.
Four other people died when a car bomb exploded in western Baghdad as two armored cars passed by, according to police Lt. Thaer Mahmoud said. Nobody in the convoy was injured, but one of the armored cars was damaged and removed by U.S. forces, Mahmoud said.
More than 270 people have been killed since Nov. 18 in car bombings and suicide attacks in Iraq.
Elsewhere, the U.S. military said an American soldier assigned to the 2nd Marine Division was killed Friday when a roadside bomb exploded near his vehicle in Hit, 85 miles west of Baghdad.
The latest death raised the number of U.S. service members to die since the Iraq war started in March 2003 to at least 2,105, according to an Associated Press count.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have warned of an upsurge in insurgent attacks ahead of the Dec. 15 elections, in which voters will choose the first fully constitutional parliament since Saddam Hussein’s rule collapsed in April 2003.
American authorities are hoping for a big Sunni Arab turnout, a move that could produce a government that would win the trust of the religious community that forms the backbone of the insurgency.
Many Sunnis boycotted the January election, enabling rival Shiites and Kurds to win an overwhelming share of power and worsening communal tensions. A government trusted by Sunni Arabs could help defuse the insurgency and enable U.S. and other international troops to begin heading home next year.
However, insurgents opposed to the election are expected to step up their campaign of intimidation as the ballot approaches.
On Saturday, gunmen opened fire on four people as they plastered campaign posters for the biggest Shiite party on walls in western Baghdad, killing one person and wounding three, police said.
In Mosul, gunmen fired on members of the Iraqi Islamic Party, the country’s largest Sunni Arab political movement, while they were putting up campaign posters, wounding one person, police said.
A statement posted on an Islamist Web in the name of al-Qaida in Iraq also claimed responsibility for killing a Kurdish election volunteer in Mosul. The statement said Miqdad Ahmed Sito, 28, was seized in the city’s Shifaa neighborhood.
A friend of Sito, who spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear for his own safety, said Sito worked for the Organization for Development and Democratic Dialogue, a non-governmental organization that lectures voters about elections and the country’s new constitution.
His bullet-riddled body was found late Tuesday in the same neighborhood where he was abducted, the friend said.
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11.24.05
Posted in SSquirrel at 8:06 pm by SSquirrel
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Posted in SSquirrel at 8:23 am by SSquirrel
Kurtz ~WaPo
Every once in awhile, someone reports a story that just seems way out there.
And you wonder: Could this possibly be true ? Or is it plain old media sensationalism?
That’s how I felt about this British tabloid report that President Bush considered bombing al-Jazeera.
Let’s say that Bush despised the Arab satellite channel, notwithstanding the fact that some administration officials have granted interviews to al-Jazeera. Let’s say he considered al-Jazeera to be a hotbed of al-Qaeda sympathizers. Could the president of the United States have conceivably believed it would have been a good idea to blow up the offices of a news organization that is respected in much of the Arab world, killing innocent people in the process? Would he have sent American fighter planes into Qatar, a Middle East ally? Could he have thought this would somehow advance U.S. foreign policy at a time when we’re trying to persuade Iraqis of the virtues of democracy?
I’m sorry, it just doesn’t add up. (Yes, I know the U.S. bombed al-Jazeera’s Kabul office during the 2001 war, but I have no reason to disbelieve the explanation that it was an accident.)
Yeah, except maybe that fact that they also ” accidently”
In 2001 the station’s Kabul office was knocked out by two “smart” bombs. In 2003, al-Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in a US missile strike on the station’s Baghdad centre.
…a quote from the original article Butt-boy doesn’t link too.
So what the Mirror has is a source. No memo. A Cabinet Office staffer, however, has been charged with illegally leaking the memo to a former aide to a member of Parliament.
Hours later, the BBC carried the denial:
“The White House has dismissed claims George Bush was talked out of bombing Arab television station al-Jazeera by UK Prime Minister Tony Blair.
“The allegations were made by an unnamed source in the Daily Mirror newspaper.
“A White House official said: ‘We are not going to dignify something so outlandish with a response.’”
Well, Howie that’s quite a denial, ‘cept for the fact that they didn’t deny it. They belittled it, they don’t deny it.
Another quote he doesn’t share:
A Downing Street spokesman said: “We have got nothing to say about this story. We don’t comment on leaked documents.”
Another classic “non-denial denial” if I may quote the character of Ben Bradlee in a rather famous movie Butt-boy obviously missed. “They questioned our parenthood, but they didn’t deny it”.
“So what the Mirror has is a source:” Really? Singular? Just the one unnamed source, huh?
A Government official suggested that the Bush threat had been “humorous, not serious”.
But another source declared: “Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men.”
Or that “A Government official ” seems to confirm the story for us. In fact more than one:
According to The Mirror, the transcript is the document which allegedly turned up in the constituency office of former Labour MP Tony Clarke in May 2004.
Mr Clarke - who voted against the Iraq War and lost his Northampton South seat in this May’s election - said he returned the document to the government because of fears British troops’ lives could be put at risk if it became public.
Cabinet Office civil servant David Keogh has been charged under the Official Secrets Act of passing it to Mr Clarke’s former researcher Leo O’Connor.
Both men are bailed to appear at Bow Street Magistrates Court next week.
Mr Clarke refused to discuss the contents of the document which he received, telling the Press Association his priority was supporting Mr O’Connor, who he said did “exactly the right thing” in bringing it to his attention.
So, Butt-boy Howie is a liar, really. A shill for the White House. A “water-carrier”. “Jimmy-Jeff” without the “eight inches, cut”. Once again I call for the Post to fire this biased asshole. Hey Ben, if you’re out there, how about a little help? We got 100,000 dead people thanks to Kommander Koo Koo Bananas already…
SSquirrel
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11.23.05
Posted in SSquirrel at 7:33 pm by SSquirrel
~WSJ
A majority of U.S. adults believe the Bush administration generally misleads the public on current issues, while fewer than a third of Americans believe the information provided by the administration is generally accurate, the latest Harris Interactive poll finds.
While the telephone survey of 1,011 U.S. adults indicates about 64% of Americans believe the Bush administration “generally misleads the American public on current issues to achieve its own ends,” opinion on the topic is clearly divided along party lines. A large majority (68% to 28%) of Republicans say the Bush administration generally provides accurate information. However, even larger majorities of Democrats (91% to 7%) and Independents (73% to 25%) think the information is generally misleading.
When asked about former Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Lewis “Scooter” Libby, who has been indicted on charges of perjury, obstruction of justice and making false statements, more than half of U.S. adults say the situation indicates “a larger problem in the Bush administration,” while 35% say it was an “isolated incident.” About 82% of Democrats say it indicates a larger problem, while 70% of Republicans feel the Libby case is an isolated incident.
The other 36% think Adam and Eve rode to church on the back of dinosaurs. The funniest part of this poll i s 9% of people think Fearless Leader is trying to make the Supreme Court more liberal! I want what their smoking, amazing.
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Posted in SSquirrel at 7:22 pm by SSquirrel
Murray Waas
Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter.
The administration has refused to provide the Sept. 21 President’s Daily Brief, even on a classified basis, and won’t say anything more about it other than to acknowledge that it exists.
The information was provided to Bush on September 21, 2001 during the “President’s Daily Brief,” a 30- to 45-minute early-morning national security briefing. Information for PDBs has routinely been derived from electronic intercepts, human agents, and reports from foreign intelligence services, as well as more mundane sources such as news reports and public statements by foreign leaders.
One of the more intriguing things that Bush was told during the briefing was that the few credible reports of contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda involved attempts by Saddam Hussein to monitor the terrorist group. Saddam viewed Al Qaeda as well as other theocratic radical Islamist organizations as a potential threat to his secular regime. At one point, analysts believed, Saddam considered infiltrating the ranks of Al Qaeda with Iraqi nationals or even Iraqi intelligence operatives to learn more about its inner workings, according to records and sources.
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Posted in SSquirrel at 5:29 am by SSquirrel
~AP
Wednesday, the U.S. military announced a new operation with Iraqi troops in predominantly Sunni western Iraq. The operation launched Tuesday in Ramadi, 70 miles west of Baghdad, is aimed at preventing insurgents from interfering with voting there, a U.S. military statement said. It is the third operation in Ramadi since Nov. 16.
U.S. Marines announced Tuesday the end of a major operation to secure towns along the Syrian border used by al-Qaida to smuggle foreign fighters into Iraq. Ten U.S. Marines and 139 insurgents were killed in “Operation Steel Curtain,” which began Nov. 5 with about 2,500 U.S. troops and 1,000 Iraqi soldiers, a military statement said.
U.S. commanders plan to establish a long-term presence in the area to prevent al-Qaida and its Iraqi allies from re-establishing themselves in the towns of Husaybah, Karabilah and Obeidi along the Euphrates River.
On Tuesday, a suicide bomber struck a busy commercial street in Kirkuk, leaving 22 dead, another 23 people were wounded, after insurgents lured police to the scene by shooting an officer, officials said.
Half the dead were police who rushed to the scene after gunmen killed a fellow officer, according to police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qader. The blast was just the latest of many in Kirkuk, a mixed Arab, Kurdish and Turkoman city in an oil-producing region 180 miles north of Baghdad.
More than 160 Iraqis, most of them Shiites, have died in a wave of spectacular suicide operations across Iraq since Friday.
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Posted in SSquirrel at 5:25 am by SSquirrel
CHRIS TOMLINSON ~AP
Gunmen wearing Iraqi army uniforms broke into the home of a senior Sunni leader on Wednesday and killed him, his three sons and his son-in-law on the outskirts of Baghdad, his brother and an interior ministry official said.
Khadim Sarhid al-Hemaiyem was the leader of the Sunni Batta tribe and the brother of a parliamentary candidate in the Dec. 15 election, the official Maj. Falah al-Mohammedawi said. Another of the slain man’s brothers said the family has been attacked before.
“A group of gunmen with Iraqi army uniforms and vehicles broke into my brother’s house in the Hurriyah area and sprayed them with machine gun fire, killing him along with three sons and his son-in law,” said his brother, Nima Sarhid Al-Hemaiyem. “His eldest son was assassinated one month ago in the Taji area, northern Baghdad, when unidentified men shot and killed him.”
Al-Mohammedawi said government forces were not involved and the investigation was focused on insurgents.
Of course, Al-Mohammedawi also says insurgents killed JFK in Dallas, and are behind the plot to smear Tom Delay.
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11.22.05
Posted in SSquirrel at 1:14 pm by SSquirrel
James V. Grimaldi and Susan Schmidt
A onetime congressional staffer who became a top partner to lobbyist Jack Abramoff pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiring to bribe a congressman and other public officials and agreed to pay back more than $19 million he fraudulently charged Indian tribal clients.
The plea agreement between prosecutors and Michael Scanlon, a former press secretary to then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.), provided fresh detail about the alleged bribes. The document also indicated the nature of testimony Scanlon is prepared to offer against a congressman it calls “Representative #1″ — who has been identified by attorneys in the case as Rep. Robert W. Ney (R-Ohio).
The plea agreement lists gifts Ney was offered or received, including a golf trip to Scotland in 2002, $4,000 to his campaign committee, $10,000 to the National Republican Campaign Committee made with credit to Ney, regular meals and drinks at Abramoff’s Signatures restaurant, sports tickets, and frequent golf and related expenses at courses in the Washington area.
The document states that the gifts were “in exchange for a series of official acts.” These included providing legislation, agreeing to put statements into the Congressional Record, contacting federal officials to influence decisions, meeting with Abramoff’s clients and endorsing a wireless telecommunications company that wanted to install antennas in House office buildings.
Bob Ney, always a sure bet to make anyone’s top ten list of most corrupt house member, and already famous for two of his senior staff getting drunk at a Christmas party and threatening to conduct a “real” investigation of the mutual funds industry if their lobbying firm didn’t hire some of his staff to “high six” salary positions. (They ended up hiring another chairman’s staffer) Of course he was just the victim, completely fooled. The cash, first class international golf outings, lavish meals comped, all that was just his due. ‘Cause he’s a pretty, pretty girl.
Yeah! That’s it!
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Posted in SSquirrel at 12:39 pm by SSquirrel
Daily Mirror
PRESIDENT Bush planned to bomb Arab TV station al-Jazeera in friendly Qatar, a “Top Secret” No 10 memo reveals.
But he was talked out of it at a White House summit by Tony Blair, who said it would provoke a worldwide backlash.
A source said: “There’s no doubt what Bush wanted, and no doubt Blair didn’t want him to do it.” Al-Jazeera is accused by the US of fuelling the Iraqi insurgency.
The attack would have led to a massacre of innocents on the territory of a key ally, enraged the Middle East and almost certainly have sparked bloody retaliation.
A source said last night: “The memo is explosive and hugely damaging to Bush.
“He made clear he wanted to bomb al-Jazeera in Qatar and elsewhere. Blair replied that would cause a big problem.
“There’s no doubt what Bush wanted to do - and no doubt Blair didn’t want him to do it.”
A Government official suggested that the Bush threat had been “humorous, not serious”.
But another source declared: “Bush was deadly serious, as was Blair. That much is absolutely clear from the language used by both men.”
Yesterday former Labour Defence Minister Peter Kilfoyle challenged Downing Street to publish the five-page transcript of the two leaders’ conversation. He said: “It’s frightening to think that such a powerful man as Bush can propose such cavalier actions.
The No 10 memo now raises fresh doubts over US claims that previous attacks against al-Jazeera staff were military errors.
In 2001 the station’s Kabul office was knocked out by two “smart” bombs. In 2003, al-Jazeera reporter Tareq Ayyoub was killed in a US missile strike on the station’s Baghdad centre.
Real champion of freedom and democracy our fearless leader. Him and Nikita Kruschev…
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Posted in SSquirrel at 7:16 am by SSquirrel
Thinkprogress
A formerly classified 1995 Pentagon intelligence document titled “Possible Use of Phosphorous Chemical” describes the use of white phosphorus by Saddam Hussein on Kurdish fighters:
IRAQ HAS POSSIBLY EMPLOYED PHOSPHOROUS CHEMICAL WEAPONS AGAINST THE KURDISH POPULATION IN AREAS ALONG THE IRAQI-TURKISH-IRANIAN BORDERS. […]
IN LATE FEBRUARY 1991, FOLLOWING THE COALITION FORCES’ OVERWHELMING VICTORY OVER IRAQ, KURDISH REBELS STEPPED UP THEIR STRUGGLE AGAINST IRAQI FORCES IN NORTHERN IRAQ. DURING THE BRUTAL CRACKDOWN THAT FOLLOWED THE KURDISH UPRISING, IRAQI FORCES LOYAL TO PRESIDENT SADDAM ((HUSSEIN)) MAY HAVE POSSIBLY USED WHITE PHOSPHOROUS (WP) CHEMICAL WEAPONS AGAINST KURDISH REBELS AND THE POPULACE IN ERBIL (GEOCOORD:3412N/04401E) (VICINITY OF IRANIAN BORDER) AND DOHUK (GEOCOORD:3652N/04301E) (VICINITY OF IRAQI BORDER) PROVINCES, IRAQ.
In other words, the Pentagon does refer to white phosphorus rounds as chemical weapons — at least if they’re used by our enemies.
I say put these lying assholes in jail for the rest of their miserable lives.
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