Zogby International: "Despite the lack of realism, however, West Wing viewers would prefer watching Sunday night?s debate to the real thing by a 67% to 28% margin. In fact, 77% of respondents say that real presidential debates are too predictable, while just 19% consider them a critical factor in their voting decision."

IRS Warning to Pasadena Church Part of Wider Effort - Los Angeles Times: "The agency has looked into other nonprofits for allegedly promoting political candidates."
Just coincidence that none of them were Republican.

Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning - Los Angeles Times Separation of church and state

US intel on Iraq-Qaeda ties 'intentionally misleading': document - Yahoo! News

Press Gaggle by National Security Advisor Steve Hadley and Senior Administration Official Will tonight's Mystery Guest sign in please?
I have to give a photo ID to fly Delta, but apparently nobody knows who's on Air Force One.
Is this the first time an unnamed source spoke at a White House briefing?

TomDispatch - Tomgram: Mark Engler on the War Woes of Business: "Making the World Unsafe for Microsoft and Mickey Mouse"

FindLaw's Writ - Dean: A Cheney-Libby Conspiracy, Or Worse? Reading Between the Lines of the Libby Indictment

Youths in Rural U.S. Are Drawn To Military No Child Left Behind

Senate approves billions in spending cuts - Yahoo! News: "more aptly called the 'Moral Disaster of Monumental Proportion Reconciliation Act"

Democracy Now! | Al Sharpton: "Jim Crow Had Sons...He's a Little More Polished But the Results Are the Same"

Democracy Now! | Joseph Lowery Calls on Condoleezza Rice to Extend Voting Rights Act

Democrats: It's the War -- In These Times

Internet Archive: Details: Despotism

KR Washington Bureau | 10/31/2005 | Cheney's new security adviser linked to bogus information on Iraq

What the 'Shield' Covered Up: "the coverup worked"

FT.com / Middle East & Africa / Iraq - US "had no policy" in place to rebuild Iraq

The Progress Report - American Progress Action Fund: "Samuel Alito's America"

A patriot crashes the party: Instead, he says, the speech was the same old "fear-based mentality."

"And if we're operating out of fear," Palumbo says, "all we're going to do is shoot into the dark."

Fiction Genre Fits Big Pharma - Los Angeles Times: "According to the proposal, PhRMA would pay Phoenix a six-figure sum for the marketing and production of a written-to-order fictional thriller. The plotline was what Hollywood would term high-concept - a group of shadowy terrorists conspires to murder thousands of Americans by poisoning the medicine they're importing from Canada to beat U.S. drug prices. "

Forex News Update - FX Analytics - Oct. 26 2005: "At the end of the day confidence in how the US is governed is reflected in part in the premium in the yield curve. If it turns out, through this investigation, that the justification for the war in Iraq was deliberately enhanced as in facts twisted, exaggerated or misconstrued, it would be a serious setback for global confidence, investor and otherwise, in the world's single superpower."

- toledoblade.com -: "A federal grand jury has indicted Tom Noe, the former Toledo-area coin dealer at the center of a state investment scandal, of illegally laundering money into President Bush's re-election campaign."

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Cheney, Libby Blocked Papers To Senate Intelligence Panel (10/27/05): "Vice President Cheney and his chief of staff, I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby decided to withhold crucial documents from the Senate Intelligence Committee in 2004 when the panel was investigating the use of pre-war intelligence that erroneously concluded Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction"

Gary Leupp: Dialectics of the Plame Affair: "Around May 2002 Rumsfeld, Cheney and their underlings created an alternative intelligence body, the secret of Office of Special Plans, staffed with neocon agents including Douglas Feith, William Luti, Abram Shulsky, David Wurmser, and Michael Ledeen, supplementing it with the White House Iraq Group (formed in August 2002), including Libby, Andrew Card, Karl Rove, and Karen Hughes. The ... 'lie factory,' relying on Ahmed Chalabi and other Iraqi informants despised by the CIA as known liars to stovepipe cherry-picked 'intelligence' to the president, American people and the world in justification of a war on Iraq."

Herald.com | 10/23/2005 | Publix wary of tomatoes More background in the story than the particular incident at issue: evidence of the importance of buying organic.

List of Foiled Plots Puzzling to Some: "the White House overstated the gravity of the plots "

Miers' Answer Raises Questions - Los Angeles Times: "Are they trying to set her up?"

FT.com / World / US - Bush backs away from timetable for setting up Palestinian state Surprised?

Democracy Now! | Robert Fisk: War is the "Total Failure of the Human Spirit"

FT.com / World / US - Cheney cabal hijacked US foreign policy Financial Times now officially part of the radical left.

Rice Declines to Give Senators Timeline for Iraq Withdrawal "Permanent instability or civil war in Iraq could set back American interests in the Middle East for a generation -- increasing anti-Americanism, multiplying the threats from tyrants and terrorists and reducing our credibility."

Gosh, Dick, what could make you say such things? Here, better drink this kool-aid from the RNC...

Niger Uranium Forgery Mystery Solved?- by Justin Raimondo: "Previous versions of the report were redacted and had all the names removed, though it was possible to guess who was involved. This version names Michael Ledeen as the conduit for the report and indicates that former CIA officers Duane Clarridge and Alan Wolf were the principal forgers. All three had business interests with Chalabi"

Operation Mockingbird - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Lawmaker's Abramoff Ties Investigated Bob Ney makes the Washington Post front page. Will media in Ohio again ignore it?

Let those dopers be - Los Angeles Times: "our draconian approach to drug use is the most injurious domestic policy since slavery"

Venezuela Attorney General Accuses CIA of Judge�s Murder - Prensa Latina AFP's somewhat longer report on this story is on the top wire headlines on Le Monde. "La Prensa Latina" is one of two sources that have the story in English.

Poll: Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If He Lied about Iraq | AfterDowningStreet.org: "50% agreed with the statement:
'If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by impeaching him.'"

Documents Show Air Force May Have Pushed Christianity - Los Angeles Times "In June, a Pentagon investigation found that Christian professors at the Air Force Academy used their positions to promote Christianity, and documented instances of religious slurs, jokes, and disparaging marks directed at non-Christian cadets. Yet the investigation found no "overt religious discrimination" at the school."

Herald.com | 10/10/2005 | Blind Eye | Research cuts stifle hurricane forecasts

Direction of Country Neo-Con Kool-aid losing its effect. 66% say US on wrong track.

And 59% say we should leave Iraq ASAP(scroll down).

Democracy's Power Fades as Iraq Panacea - Los Angeles Times It's the occupation, stupid.

The Jewish Exponent - Philadelphia, PA: "AIPAC is committed to paying for the legal defense of Rosen and Weissman because of an indemnification clause in employee contracts. AIPAC employees sign an agreement that protects them from legal harm until all appeals are exhausted, according to a source close to the defense of Rosen and Weissman who has firsthand knowledge of the clause.... It has been previously reported that AIPAC's bill for the pair's defense had topped $1 million."

Of course, not having seen the particular indemnity clause, it would be very unusual for an employer to defend an ex-employee from liability for acts that were done outside the scope of their employment. In other words, AIPAC doesn't want to take the risk that Rosen and Weissman might claim that they were doing exactly what their employer hired them to do.

This also leaves the question: if Abbe Lowell's defense of Rosen has already cost that much, how much is he charging Jack Abramoff... and who's paying Abramoff's legal bills?

Think Progress - Right-Wing House Twists Arms, Thwarts Democracy To Pass Oil Industy Windfall Watch the QT video. (Server slow)

Internet Archive: Details: George Bush Don't Like Black People

Reuters Business Channel | Reuters.com Plame investigation generates 22 indictments?

Salon.com News | Saving Ohio Ad Viewing Required.
According to several knowledgeable sources, the Blade's chief political columnist, Fritz Wenzel, was told of Noe's potential campaign violations as early as January 2004. But according to Blade editors, Wenzel never gave the paper the all-important tip in early 2004.

Wenzel says that he heard allegations of Noe's misdeeds only in spring 2004 and that he promptly informed his editors of them.

Wenzel, who worked for years as a GOP political operative in Oregon before the Blade hired him, quit the Blade in May 2005 to take a job as a paid political consultant to Jean Schmidt, the Republican congressional candidate who in August narrowly defeated Democratic challenger (and Iraq war vet) Paul Hackett.

Defense Analyst Guilty in Israeli Espionage Case

Troops receive light sentences for violent crimes against Iraqis: "Of the 1,038 separate charges, fewer than one in 10 involved crimes against Iraqis.... Charges involving Iraqi victims were three times more likely to be dismissed or withdrawn by the Army than cases in which the victims were soldiers or civilian military employees, the examination found."

Buffalo News - Rumors of rescue copters under fire unfounded: "representatives from the Air Force, Coast Guard, Department of Homeland Security and Louisiana Air National Guard say they have yet to confirm a single incident of gunfire at helicopters"

- toledoblade.com - On Oct. 22, 2002, Mr. Noe extended a $40,000 loan to the county party he once chaired.

The party’s candidate fund bought $40,000 worth of television air time that next day for Maggie Thurber’s successful run for county commissioner.

Mr. Noe gave a separate $25,000 loan to the county party in October, 2004. It repaid only $2,000 of the combined $65,000 in loans.

At the time of the loans, Mr. Noe’s wife, Bernadette Noe, chaired the county party. Mr. Haynam said that the Noes told the party they always intended for the $65,000 to be contributions, even though Mrs. Noe approved the $2,000 repayment.

Attytood: UPDATED: New Supreme Court nominee's ties to Bush's National Guard scandal

Jerusalem Post | Breaking News from Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish World: "The Israelis suggested that the investigators pass on their questions in writing and Israel will give a written reply. "

- toledoblade.com -: "He was such a prolific Republican fund-raiser he was named a 'Pioneer' by the Bush-Cheney re-election committee for raising between $100,000 and $250,000 for the President."
raising = stealing

ABC News: One killed in apparent suicide bomb outside stadium

Miller's Big Secret: "New York Times reporter Judith Miller sat in jail for 12 weeks to protect the confidentiality of a very senior White House aide -- even though the aide repeatedly made it clear he didn't want protecting"

Generals Conclude U.S. Troops Exacerbate Iraq Campaign - Los Angeles Times: "The U.S. generals running the war in Iraq presented a new assessment of the military situation in public comments and sworn testimony this week: The 149,000 U.S. troops in Iraq are increasingly part of the problem."

PEACE NOT WAR: Jukebox

KR Washington Bureau | 09/29/2005 | U.S. paying a premium to cover storm-damaged roofs: "The government is paying contractors an average of $2,480 for less than two hours of work to cover each damaged roof - even though it's also giving them endless supplies of blue sheeting for free."

Saudi Women Have Message for U.S. Envoy - New York Times: "Many in this region say they resent the American assumption that, given the chance, everyone would live like Americans. "

The Progress Report - American Progress Action Fund: "Brown's Revisionist History"

Officer Criticizes Detainee Abuse Inquiry - New York Times: "Army investigators seemed more concerned about tracking down young soldiers who reported misconduct than in following up the accusations and investigating whether higher-ranking officers knew of the abuses."

Bangkok Post Tuesday 27 September 2005 - Find the Brownie

Bush removal ended Guam investigation - The Boston Globe: "His replacement, Leonardo Rapadas, was confirmed in May 2003 without any debate. Rapadas had been recommended for the job by the Guam Republican Party. Fred Radewagen, a lobbyist who had been under contract to the Gutierrez administration, said he carried that recommendation to top Bush aide Karl Rove in early 2003.
After taking office, Rapadas recused himself from the public corruption case involving Gutierrez. The new US attorney was a cousin of ''one of the main targets,' according to a confidential memo to Justice Department officials."

Untangling a Lobbyist's Stake in a Casino Fleet "It was a gangland-style hit straight out of "Goodfellas."

A man in a BMW was driving down a quiet side street after an evening meeting at his Fort Lauderdale office when a car slowed to a stop in front of him. A second car boxed the BMW in from behind, then a dark Mustang appeared from the opposite direction. The Mustang's driver pulled alongside and pumped three hollow-point bullets into the BMW driver's chest.

The dead man was Konstantinos "Gus" Boulis, a volatile 51-year-old self-made millionaire, a Greek immigrant who had started as a dishwasher in Canada and ended up in Florida, where he built an empire of restaurants, hotels and cruise ships used for offshore casino gambling. Boulis's slaying, still unsolved four years later, reverberated all the way to Washington. Months earlier he had sold his fleet of casino ships to a partnership that included Republican superlobbyist Jack Abramoff."

Herald.com | 09/27/2005 | Arrests made in Boulis slaying: "Both are being charged with first-degree murder, conspiracy to commit murder and solicitation to commit murder."

When Abramoff talks, people listen.

NOLA.com: T-P Orleans Parish Breaking News Weblog#082732: "Rumors of deaths greatly exaggerated
Widely reported attacks false or unsubstantiated "

Missteps Hamper Iraqi Oil Recovery - Los Angeles Times: "In an interview, one senior U.S. official managing part of the restoration effort jokingly described his knowledge level as 'Oil for Dummies.' "

Maybe he knows something about disaster relief?

The 'myth' of Iraq's foreign fighters | csmonitor.com

Tyco Exec: Abramoff Claimed Ties to Administration Abramoff, Rove, their mutual secretary, and Tyco's general counsel who's recently been nominated as Deputy Attorney General. Mind boggled yet?

Fiscal Policy: Why 'Stupid' Fits: "The idea seems to be that to help Katrina's poor and suffering victims, other poor and suffering people will have to sacrifice."

Bloomberg.com: U.S.: "If a Democratic administration had pursued the fiscal policies and put the nation in the fiscal posture it's now in, the business community would be outraged and on the ramparts"

"the question is, Who is making policy in this country? Is it these six trade groups, or is it the elected representatives of the people?"

Think Progress - Progressives Can Do Better "it’s possible to cut far more unnecessary federal spending ($688 billion), accomplish it in half the time (just five years), and do it while upholding the principles of fiscal responsibility and concern for the common good."

GAO: Abstract: "GAO found numerous problems in DOD's processes for recording and reporting costs for [the global war on terrorism], raising significant concerns about the overall reliability of DOD's reported cost data. As a result, neither DOD nor Congress can reliably know how much the war is costing and details on how appropriated funds are being spent, or have historical data useful in considering future funding needs."

Pentagon has yet to deliver Halliburton documents: "To add insult to injury, the Army in July gave KBR a $4.97 billion one-year contract to provide logistics support for U.S. troops in Iraq, a move that came in the midst of criticism aimed at Halliburton and the government's contracting practices. Additionally, Halliburton had already earned $9.1 billion from logistics work in Iraq.

In the past year, Halliburton stock has more than doubled. It went up from $31.40 to $66.44, according to Morningstar.com."

Mirror.co.uk - News - EXCLUSIVE: UP IN FLAMES: "'There will be a cloud of smoke above Little Rock soon - of burned food, of anger and of shame that the world's richest nation couldn't organise a p**s up in a brewery.'"

U.S. Newswire : Releases : "Former GSA Official Charged with Making False Statements, Obstructing Federal Investigation"

- toledoblade.com -: "Unless we change the system, we're going to get the same results. If we elected all Democrats -- same system, same results"

Aspen Times News for Aspen Colorado - Aspen Times Weekly Editorial: "Bleeding-heart liberals who are claiming that Ms. Nature was only acting in self-defense, protecting herself from an administration bent on destroying her, are being rounded up and sent to New Orleans to 'tread water 'til they get their minds right.' President Bush has been uncharacteristically candid in admitting that this war will probably take a terrible human toll. He suggested that the fact that the vast majority of the casualties will be poor and black is the only thing that takes some of the sting out of it."

KRT Wire | 09/16/2005 | Lawyer's firing came after call from Rove

Clinton Gathers World Leaders: "each of the attendees is required to commit to doing something to improve the world."
Intellect: The anti-Bush.

E-mail suggests government seeking to blame groups - The Clarion-Ledger

Why the '74 VW Dasher leaves your Prius in the dust: "Bush would no more force his Big Auto pals to overhaul their terrible fuel technologies than he'd force Karl Rove to give up his beloved raw puppy hearts and eat a salad. "

Heavy contamination of New Orleans sediment hinders testing - Yahoo! News: "The sediments in parts of New Orleans and the surrounding parishes are so contaminated with petroleum products that the EPA hasn't been able to sort out what other potentially hazardous chemicals are spread across the region"

World leaders shake heads as reforms to check nuclear arms spread dumped - Yahoo! News: "the United States had vehemently objected to focusing on disarmament"

Chertoff delayed federal response, memo shows - Yahoo! News

HoustonChronicle.com - Golf fundraiser raises money for secretive fund "Since last year's indictments, [Republican fundraisers] Ellis and Colyandro [who were indicted on additional charges yesterday, according to this page A17 WP story] have had their legal bills paid for by a trust that does not disclose the names of donors....The defense fund is administered as a trust by former Bexar County GOP Chairman Roy Barrera Jr."

Los Angeles Times: Only until further notice: "In the French Quarter, a south-facing brick wall atop Antoine's crumbled, exposing timbers and the old building's attic to the elements. Over the weekend, soldiers for the 82nd Airborne tarped the gap"

No doubt they're putting tarps on the roofs of homes in the poorer neighborhoods, too.

Spending on environment yields big returns: report - Yahoo! News: "every dollar spent on clean water and sanitation in the Third World, for instance, could bring $14 in benefits ranging from lower health care costs to higher work productivity and school attendance....
Every dollar invested in fighting land degradation and desertification, like building terraces to stop hillside erosion, could generate at least $3 in benefits...
And every dollar invested in protecting coral reefs could generate $5, ranging from scuba-diving tourism to renewable fish stocks....
The carbon storage or 'sequestration' potential of forests ranges between $360 and $2,200 per hectare."

Boing Boing: Katrina: Kanye remixed, "George Bush Don't Like Black People"

Now They Tell Us

AlterNet: Overkill in New Orleans: "Officially, Blackwater says its forces are in New Orleans to 'join the Hurricane relief effort.'...But what has not been publicly acknowledged is the claim, made to us by two Blackwater mercenaries, that they are actually engaged in general law enforcement activities including 'securing neighborhoods' and 'confronting criminals.'...They told us they not only had authority to make arrests but also to use lethal force.
...Later we overheard him on his cell phone complaining that Blackwater was only paying $350 a day plus per diem."

Meanwhile, New Orleans police officers earn a starting salary of $32,625 per year including uniform allowance; Louisiana State Police earn a starting salary of $3050 per month - each after completion of a year in the Police Academy.

So, I guess they didn't suspend the prevailing wage law for mercenaries.

Did FEMA Chief Brown's Payment of Millions in False Insurance Claims Help Bush Win Fla. Votes in '04? | BaltimoreChronicle.com

Quoting Bible, Cutting Worker Pay: "The suspension applies to more than 100 counties and parishes in the states hit by Katrina - indefinitely, for all contracts, whether or not they are meant to clean up and rebuild devastated areas. The order cancels 'prevailing wages,' which assure that workers on federal jobs receive hourly pay akin to workers doing similar work in those areas. Prevailing wages in the Deep South states are barely above poverty: $9.55 an hour, for example, for a construction laborer in New Orleans. "

Returning war wounded strain veterans' services: The Daytona Beach clinic is "'12 to 13 people short, including nurses. Doctors have to call in their own patients,'....Recently, the Department of Veterans Affairs reported being underfunded by billions. The underfunding occurred because the budget is figured three years ahead, and no one could have anticipated 'two wars and the additional demand placed on the system,' a VA spokesman said."

Pentagon Revises Nuclear Strike Plan: "The draft also includes the option of using nuclear arms to destroy known enemy stockpiles of nuclear, biological or chemical weapons."
Like the ones found in Iraq.

Funding the public health response to terrorism

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: September 04, 2005 - September 10, 2005 Archives: "from the WSJ: 'Ten U.S. Army recruiters are offering volunteer help for Katrina evacuees at Houston's Astrodome. But the recruiters, struggling to keep enlistment up during Iraq war, are also available with options for the jobless. 'Our intent is to approach the evacuees at the right time for them,'' says Army spokesman Douglas Smith.'
"

Evelyn J. Pringle: Douglas Feith's Platinum Parachute War Pays

Air Force Times - News - More News: "Federal emergency officials are directing hurricane-aid supplies to areas where they aren't needed, an Air Force official says, and the result is a backup at Little Rock Air Force Base of shipments of international aid intended for Hurricane Katrina victims in the Gulf Coast region."

POLITICS-US: A Hyperpower With Feet of Mud: "Its technology may be second to none, but, in the hands of hopelessly incompetent, unaccountable and, in some cases, clearly corrupt politicians and their cronies, it can provide neither adequate supplies of electricity to 24 million Iraqis two years after taking control of Baghdad, nor adequate supplies of food, clean water, sanitation, transportation or shelter to hundreds of thousands of its own citizens within just a few days of a major natural disaster."

The Telegraph Online "Many Sept. 11 loans went to those who didn’t need them."