Category: Politics

Stars and Stripes: Democrats move to rein in use of private contractors in Iraq

It’s about bloody time.

Democrats move to rein in use of private contractors in Iraq

Mideast edition, Friday, July 20, 2007

The Senate’s nine freshman Democrats announced a new effort Wednesday to rein in the use of private contractors to rebuild Iraq and to do an array of war-related jobs normally assigned to the military, The Virginian-Pilot reported Thursday.

According to the report, the group will ask Congress to create a “Commission on Wartime Contracting” that would assign auditors already employed by the federal government to ferret out waste and mismanagement in the more than $300 billion Iraq reconstruction effort.

This has been an ongoing scandal. Whether it’s the dangerously unaccountable mercenaries from groups like Blackwater, or KBR serving substandard food provided by slave laborers, this war profiteering has been a national disgrace.

Bush Now Claims that He is King

Bush has now forbidden the Justice Department from pursuing contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials if executive privilege has been invoked.

Under federal law, a statutory contempt citation by the House or Senate must be submitted to the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, “whose duty it shall be to bring the matter before the grand jury for its action.”

But administration officials argued yesterday that Congress has no power to force a U.S. attorney to pursue contempt charges in cases, such as the prosecutor firings, in which the president has declared that testimony or documents are protected from release by executive privilege. Officials pointed to a Justice Department legal opinion during the Reagan administration, which made the same argument in a case that was never resolved by the courts.

Mark J. Rozell, a professor of public policy at George Mason University who has written a book on executive-privilege issues, called the administration’s stance “astonishing.”

“That’s a breathtakingly broad view of the president’s role in this system of separation of powers,” Rozell said. “What this statement is saying is the president’s claim of executive privilege trumps all.”

Impeachment investigations trump executive privilege. This is why proceeding should start against both Bush and Cheney tomorrow.

Pelosi and Reid will Ram Through Ethics Legislation

The legislation has been stalled because the Republicans have refused to appoint Republican members to the conference committee. The Democratic majority leaders have now decided to use a little used parlimentary maneuver to short circuit the foot dragging.

Basically, it comes down to the House and Senate Democrats working out the minor differences between the bills on their own, and then passing identical bills through both houses.

Identical bills mean no conference committee.

Where the Net Really Makes a Difference

The first place that I noticed the net making a difference in real life was when I moved to Baltimore, and I found out how much easier Mapquest made it for me to find a home where I wanted, because I knew were each address was instantly.

It’s now entering politics, where you have someone setting up a searchable database of Debra Jean Palfrey’s (aka the DC Madame) phone records.

You have also found this in the turnaround of massive document dumps by the Bush administration on the US Attorney scandal, frequently in a matter of hours.

The ability to being hundreds, if not thousands, of people together to do the scut work of investigative journalism has the real possibility being a major game changer for journalists, particularly those who don’t have the resources of the NY times behind them.

And Related to Charlie Pierce’s Comment

Mitt Romney spent nearly $2K on makeup while governor.

Who cares. Really. The only thing of interest is that the press won’t be constantly harping on this, because makeup on Mitt makes him “manly”.

This is crap. Romney is a f#$%ing moron.

When he first ran for state wide office in Massachusetts, he ran for senate against Teddy Kennedy, and it started out competitive. Some polls actually had him in the lead.

Until the debates. Romney made the point that Kennedy was born wealthy, so what did he ever have to give for public service?

Mitt…You know…There are the three brothers…The war hero, the assassinated war hero president, and the assassinated populist presidential candidate.

Mit is stoopid.

What Charlie Pierce Said.

On Fridays, he frequently contributes a pice to Eric Alterman’s Altercation:

However, where in hell do we go with that last passage there, about how the haircuts matter because “a healthy chunk of the political press corps” doesn’t like Edwards, and how they’re staying away from a sauce-for-the-goose position on Mitt Romney’s makeovers because of their own private calculations of the relative electability of the two candidates. OK, here’s the deal. Every member of that “healthy chunk” of the press corps should be fired. Today. This minute. Without pay or recompense. Let them all walk back inside the Beltway from Cedar Rapids if they have to. I value what I do. I value the work of the people in my business who do it correctly. But, holy mother of god, these people do not do what I do. It’s OK to sneer at a candidate if you don’t like him? It’s OK to create a destructive narrative out of unmitigated piffle because he doesn’t kiss your ass with the regularity you think you deserve, or because his press buses don’t run on time, or because one of his staffers was late with the Danish in Keene? I watched a roomful of them boo Al Gore seven years ago, behavior that would have gotten them run out of any press box in the major leagues. Do you think one of these jamokes — or jamokettes — is thinking, “Maybe we should lay off the haircut thing because of what we all did to Gore in 2000, and look how well that worked out.” Please.

Here’s what I think — the majority of people who cover national politics believe that history is whatever happened in the MSNBC Green Room 15 minutes earlier. I believe the campaign is covered by people with a completely unjustified sense of their own superiority, since not many of them understand or ever care about most of the issues, much less the horrendous bills that are going to come due upon whichever of these poor sods winds up with the job. I believe these people care more about their reputation around the bar at the Wayfarer in Manchester than they do about the interests of the people they purportedly serve. And, were I an editor, and someone brought me a story about John Edwards’ hair or Mitt Romney’s skin, that person would do it once. The second time, the lazy bastard would find himself typing bowling agate on Wednesday night.

Damn good thinking, and damn good writing.

On the Rumors of Arafat Death from AIDS

On the radio today, I heard reports that Ahmad Jibril, leader of the PFLP has said that senior officials in Fatah have confirmed that Arafat has died of AIDS.

A quick goggle revealed no particularly mainstream reports of this. I know nothing of the provenance of Israel Today, the source of the above link, and Mr. Jibril would have a number of reasons to lie anyway.

That being said, I do have my definitive opinion on the significance of this report.

It has no significance at all.

What is significant about Yassir Arafat is that he was an incompetent, corrupt, and cowardly figure whose position in life derived from who he was related, his uncle was mufti of Jerusalem, rather than any abilities on his own.

He pretty much failed, and failed spectacularly at everything he did, though he did manage to spin things to his favor.

In a word, he is not the Palestinians George Washington, but rather he is the Palestinians George W. Bush.

Murdoch and Blair Colluded on Selling Iraq War

This defines Rev. Smiler, and history will be most unkind to him.

How Murdoch had a hotline to the PM in the run-up to Iraq war

By Andrew Grice, Political Editor
Published: 19 July 2007

Tony Blair had three conversations with the media magnate Rupert Murdoch in the nine days before the start of the Iraq war, the Government has disclosed.

Details of the former prime minister’s contacts with Mr Murdoch have been released under the Freedom of Information Act. After trying to block disclosure for four years, the Government backed down in a surprise change of heart the day after Mr Blair resigned last month.

Sounds like Gordon Brown threw his dear friend Tony under the Bloody bus.

……

In Alastair Campbell’s diaries, published last week, the former spin doctor described a Downing Street dinner for Mr Murdoch and his sons, James and Lachlan, in 2002. “Murdoch pointed out that his were the only papers that gave us support when the going got tough. ‘I’ve noticed,’ said TB,” Mr Campbell wrote. Lance Price, Mr Campbell’s deputy, called Mr Murdoch “the 24th member of the [Blair] Cabinet“. He added: “His presence was always felt. No big decision could ever be made inside No10 without taking account of the likely reaction of three men, Gordon Brown, John Prescott and Rupert Murdoch. On all the really big decisions, anybody else could safely be ignored.”

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Well, there’s always hoping that he’ll share a cell with Bush and Rumsfeld.

With The Bush Admin, There is No Policy, There is Only Politics

This time, it’s the so called “War on Drugs”.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said documents obtained by his panel suggest that the appearances by the drug control officials were part of a larger White House effort to politicize the work of federal agencies that “may be more widespread than previously known.”

This is a direct consequence of conservative philosophy. If one sees government, even when it works as a source of weakness and moral hazard, then the only reason to govern is to accumulate wealth and power for you and yours.

The Bush administration is not an aberration, rather it is the logical consequence of the hard right wing philosophy that they all hold.

There is no policy, because government is evil. It’s just a gravy train.

I saw this first hand when I went to college with, and served in the student Senate with, Tony Rudy, who has copped a plea in the entire Abramoff/Delay thing for taking bribes.

He was personally nice, but once in government, there was nothing for him to do but to be corrupt.

Randy “Duke” Cunningham Updates

It appears that Cunningham is talking to federal prosecutors, but he’s not ratting out his fellow congressmen, yet.Imprisoned

Cunningham outlines depths of corruption to FBI

By George E. Condon Jr. and Marcus Stern
COPLEY NEWS SERVICE

8:53 p.m. July 17, 2007

WASHINGTON – In two days of prison interviews with federal agents this year, disgraced former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham described a level of corruption on his part more extensive than previously known and dealt a potentially devastating blow to the defense being waged by one of the defense contractors alleged to have bribed him.

According to an 11-page FBI summary of the sessions, obtained by Copley News Service, Cunningham was very much the initiator of his corrupt actions, demanding bribes, accepting envelopes with cash and displaying an insatiable appetite for more money, more cars, more drink, more fine food and more expensive goods.

This actually makes Cunningham worse than I had initially believed. These were not bribes as much as they were extortion.

The interesting thing is that Cunningham’s military history predicted this. While a good fighter pilot, he was a disaster as an officer, who left a trail of destruction wherever he went, and he would have been RIFFed had it not been for his making ace.

While we’re at it, it appears that the House Intelligence Committee won’t release it’s report on him. It appears that both Republicans and Democrats are covering it up because it makes them look bad.

“They are so nervous about this report being out,” said one congressional official, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “Members oppose putting this thing out because you read this and the natural question is: ‘Did you know this, and what did you do about it?’ I don’t think any members wanted that scrutiny.”

Larry Flynt is Shocked????

According to Political Wire, Larry Flynt has 30 good leads about prominent customers of “DC Madame”. Flint describes them as, “We’ve got good leads. We’ve got over 300 initially. And they’re down to about 30 now which is solid.

The thing that really intrigues me though is that there is another Senator among those 30, and Flynt hints that it is not one of the usual suspects:

KING: Will we be — I don’t want to get into names yet. Will we be shocked?

FLYNT: Yes.

KING: Were you shocked?

FLYNT: I was shocked, especially at one senator but…

KING: One senator especially?

FLYNT: Yes.

What the hell shocks Larry Flynt?

Republican Sex

I came across this very amusing quote while perusing news of More on David Vitter, Patron Saint of Schadenfreude:

Jeanette says that most of the clients who wanted to be dominated were Republicans. She cracks a smile, then adds, “They wanted to be spanked and tortured and wear stockings–Republicans have impeccable taste in silk stockings–and these are the people who run our country.”

There appears to be a lot of self loathing there.

Quote of the Day: John Kerry

The WaPo has a story on the Nixon admin wanting to co-opt Kerry and get him to run as a Republican.
Because of his background (He’s went to Yale), they thought that he might be able to bring him into the fold.

One of Kerry’s comments is prize:

I experimented with a number of things in college. Being a Republican wasn’t one of them. Besides, going to Yale doesn’t make you a Republican. Going to Bob Jones University makes you a Republican.

Lol!!!!!!

More Downward Pressure on the Dollar

This makes it more likely that other nations will be putting part of the foreign reserves in non-US currencies.

This will place further downward pressure on the USD, and further upward pressure on interest rates.

Iran Asks Japan to Pay Yen for Oil, Start Immediately
uly 13 (Bloomberg) — Iran asked Japanese refiners to switch to the yen to pay for all crude oil purchases, after Iran’s central bank said it is reducing holdings of the U.S. dollar.

Iran wants yen-based transactions “for any/all of your forthcoming Iranian crude oil liftings,” according to a letter sent to Japanese refiners that was signed by Ali A. Arshi, general manager of crude oil marketing and exports in Tehran at the National Iranian Oil Co. The request is for all shipments “effective immediately,” according to the letter, dated July 10 and obtained by Bloomberg News.

The yen rose on speculation for an increase in demand for the currency, the result of Japan’s annual 1.24 trillion yen ($10.1 billion) of oil imports from Iran. Central bankers in Venezuela, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates have said they will invest less of their reserves in dollar assets because of the weakening currency.

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