04.24.07
Posted in SSquirrel at 11:40 am by SSquirrel
A former senior staffer on the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to defraud the public by steering potential clients and inside government information to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff in return for cash, gifts and the promise of a high-paying job on K Street.
Mark Dennis Zachares admitted to prosecutors that he accepted more than $30,000 in tickets to 40 sporting events, a luxury golf trip to Scotland and $10,000 in cash from Abramoff and his lobbying team. He acknowledged providing them with information about the reorganization of the Homeland Security Department, federal disaster and highway aid, and maritime issues.
Zachares is scheduled to appear in court today to plead guilty to a single count of conspiracy, which carries a penalty of up to five years in prison. The Justice Department’s public integrity section filed a criminal information in U.S. District Court yesterday outlining the case against him.
Zachares is the 11th person to plead guilty in the Abramoff investigation. Earlier this month, the FBI searched the home office of Julie Doolittle, wife of Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.), another politician whose actions have drawn scrutiny from a task force of 40 federal prosecutors and investigators.
Step by step…
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04.20.07
Posted in SSquirrel at 9:17 am by SSquirrel
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04.14.07
Posted in SSquirrel at 11:34 am by SSquirrel
After more than 20 years in development at a cost of billions of dollars, the long-troubled V-22 Osprey will head to Iraq in September for its first combat missions, the Marine Corps said yesterday.
The tilt-rotor Osprey, a helicopter-airplane hybrid, has survived attempts by the Pentagon leadership to cancel it, criticism of its rising cost and unique design, and three fatal accidents since 1992. The aircraft, made by Bell Helicopter and Boeing, can take off, land and hover like a helicopter, then turn its rotors to fly straight ahead like a conventional plane. It will operate out of al-Asad air base in central Iraq for seven months.
This thing is a dangerous piece of crap. The hydraulics require constant maintenance, yet still they crash. You might as well add 24 dead marines to the toll now. Not to mention the fact that it’s incredibly unstable when converting for a landing. So when the hydraulics screw up during landing, which is when they are stressed the most, everybody dies…
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04.13.07
Posted in SSquirrel at 1:51 am by SSquirrel
Now that the networks have pulled the plug on Don Imus, let’s have no hyperventilation to the effect that the aging shock jock’s fall from undeserved grace raises some important question about just who in our society is permitted to say just what. Wherever “the line” delineating acceptable discourse might be, calling those young women from Rutgers University “nappy-headed hos” is miles on the other side.
Bull****, Nappy headed ho’s is demeaning and race specific. It is not racist. If it was racist it wouldn’t be repeated 20 times an hour on cable news.
Imus did lots of racist and offensive schtick on his show but this comment was simply reflecting the naturally slightly bitter reaction of a fan when a cinderella team blows it in the final game. Taking it out of context and making it hard to defend is an old trick like asking how will we tell the children the president had oral sex in the white house.
This is political opportunism, pure and simple. There are plenty of racist remarks coming out of cable news, most just use code words like illegal immigrants (so much more polite than wetbacks while keeping the exact same sentiment). Or welfare reform. Or New York or Hollywood liberal (did he say new or jew?)
Imus had to go? Yeah like Iraq had to be invaded. But who’s gonna defend Saddam? Imus ain’t the problem and he’s not anywhere near the solution.
Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are the ones promoting and profiting off this story. And they are the ones truly damaging the Rutgers basketball team.
You wanna fire people start with Lou Dobbs, Ward Connerly, Michelle Malkin, Sean Hannity, Duncan Hunter, Karl Rove, John Gibson. Make the case against these people.
Don Imus? Don’t make me laugh…
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04.09.07
Posted in SSquirrel at 2:40 pm by SSquirrel
“Last year, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talked Olmert into a 48-hour cease-fire during the war with Hezbollah to allow humanitarian relief, but within hours Israeli planes were bombing again, to Rice’s surprise and anger. Olmert had received a call, apparently from Cheney’s office, telling him to ignore Rice.”
More war crimes for the Dick…
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Posted in SSquirrel at 2:34 pm by SSquirrel
“In the administration’s perverse view, the only legitimate time for negotiations would be after the most contentious and difficult issues — Syria’s support for Hamas and Hezbollah, its meddling in Lebanon and open border with Iraq — have already been resolved. Thus, what ought to be the main agenda points for diplomatic discussions have been turned into a set of preconditions designed to ensure that no discussions ever take place.”
The motivation for the Bullshit foreign policy, which seems to have poison pills as preconditions to talk to anyone, seems to be the idea that the more bad guys to demagogue, the better Bush looks as a brave commander leading us through perilous times. There are no credible threats to this Country. None. We don’t need a fearless leader. We need a competent manager who will bring jobs and prosperity. One who will reign in corporate thievery and monopoly price gouging, big oil and big pharma being first up. Health care for all is way past due, we’re not a third world country that can’t afford to treat all our sick…
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04.08.07
Posted in SSquirrel at 1:52 pm by SSquirrel
BAGHDAD — The renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr urged the Iraqi army and police to stop cooperating with the United States and told his guerrilla fighters to concentrate on pushing American forces out of the country, according to a statement issued Sunday.
The statement, stamped with al-Sadr’s official seal, was distributed in the Shiite holy city of Najaf on Sunday _ a day before a large demonstration there, called for by al-Sadr, to mark the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad.
The U.S. military on Sunday announced the deaths of four American soldiers, killed a day earlier in an explosion near their vehicle in Diyala province northeast of Baghdad. The province has seen a spike in attacks on U.S. and Iraqi forces since the start of a plan two months ago to pacify the capital. Officials believe militants have streamed out of Baghdad to invigorate the insurgency in areas just outside the city.
Separately, a pickup truck loaded with artillery shells exploded Sunday near a hospital south of Baghdad, killing at least 15 people. The blast left a crater 10 yards wide, the Iraqi military said.
Three mortars sailed into houses in eastern Baghdad, sending six people to the hospital with breathing difficulties from a possible chemical agent, police said.
Doctors said the victims’ faces turned yellow and they were unable to open their eyes. One hospital official said the chemical was chlorine, and that the victims were expected to recover.
The Iraqi military ordered a 24-hour vehicle ban in Baghdad on Monday for the anniversary, state television reported Sunday. Al-Iraqiya TV said Brig. Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman for the Baghdad security operation, disclosed the vehicle ban, which includes motorcycles.
Tuesday and Wednesday are going to be bloody…
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