Post article on Abramoff is excellent: a comprehensive overview-
for anyone who has yet to tune in- catch up before the trial begins
The Fast Rise and Steep Fall of Jack Abramoff: "A friend of two decades, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.), defended Abramoff: 'I think he's been dealt a bad hand and the worst, rawest deal I've ever seen in my life. Words like bribery are being used to describe things that happened every day in Washington and are not bribes.'"
"We weren't outside the box," the former Preston Gates colleague said. "We were outside the universe."

Portrait of a Fraudster-
its shaping up to be an exciting start to the year, with Abramoff trail on Florida Fraud beginning potentially on Jan. 9, unless he pleads.
The Fast Rise and Steep Fall of Jack Abramoff: "Justice Department prosecutors are pressing him and his lawyers to settle fraud and bribery allegations by the end of this week, sources knowledgeable about the case said. "
Abramoff, now 47, had mammoth ambitions. He sought to build the biggest lobbying portfolio in town. He opened two restaurants close to the Capitol. He bought a fleet of casino boats. He produced two Hollywood movies. He leased four arena and stadium skyboxes and dreamed of owning a pro sports team. He was a generous patron in his Orthodox Jewish community, starting a boys' religious school in Maryland.

For a time, all things seemed possible. Abramoff's brash style often clashed with culturally conservative Washington, but many people were drawn to his moxie and his money. He collected unprecedented sums -- tens of millions of dollars -- from casino-rich Indian tribes. Lawmakers and their aides packed his restaurants and skyboxes and jetted off with him on golf trips to Scotland and the Pacific island of Saipan.

Abramoff offered jobs and other favors to well-placed congressional staffers and executive branch officials. He pushed his own associates for government positions, from which they, too, could help him.

He was a man of contradictions. He presented himself as deeply religious, yet his e-mails show that he blatantly deceived Indian tribes and did business with people linked to the underworld. He had genuine inside connections but also puffed himself up with phony claims about his access.

Abramoff's lobbying team was made up of Republicans and a few Democrats, most of whom he had wined and dined when they were aides to powerful members of Congress. They signed on for the camaraderie, the paycheck, the excitement.

"Everybody lost their minds," recalled a former congressional staffer who lobbied with Abramoff at Preston Gates. "Jack was cutting deals all over town. Staffers lost their loyalty to members -- they were loyal to money."

A senior Preston Gates partner warned him to slow down or he would be "dead, disgraced or in jail." Those within Abramoff's circle also saw the danger signs. Their boss had become increasingly frenzied about money and flouted the rules. "I'm sensing shadiness. I'll stop asking," one associate, Todd Boulanger, e-mailed a colleague.

more domestic spying
History News Network: "Grant Goodman: Complains Homeland Security opened his mail
Source: Lawrence Journal-World (12-20-05)
retired Kansas University professor says the federal government has been poking into the mail he receives from abroad.

Grant Goodman on Monday showed the Journal-World a recent letter he had received from a friend in the Philippines; it apparently had been opened, then re-closed with green tape bearing the seal of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and a message that it had been opened �by Border Protection.�

�Very uneasy. And very surprised,� Goodman, 81, a KU professor emeritus of history, said of his reaction to the federal snooping. �I never expected to see that.�"

Harbinger of Nascent Men's Movement?
they sure did not have much to say when women were being discriminated against excluding them outright or limithing their attendance with quotas at law and medical schools; or when jobs could be limited to help wanted: Male, or when it was OK to pay women less for the same job. Now, when women are given equal opportunities and come out ahead, they want to style themselves as victims.
so Boo Hoo Hoo.
(I'm planning alonger comentary on this in the near future)
Local News for Keene, NH and the Monadnock Region of NH: "CONCORD � A commission that believes courts and schools must do more to help men and boys says its first priority is getting more financial support for its work.
The N.H. Commission on the Status of Men, set up by the Legislature in 2002, says its ability to do its job �is considerably compromised by lack of funding.� A report the commission issued last month calls for state funding to hire an executive director and give him or her support staff and an office.
An earlier committee that set up the commission concluded that men and boys in New Hampshire need help and support in areas including education, health and family courts."

Enron Accountant cops plea in grand-daddy of all Frauds: ury selection starts Jan. 17- stay tuned
Ex-Enron Accountant Strikes Plea Deal - Los Angeles Times: "Less than three weeks before he was to face a jury alongside Enron Corp. founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling on charges including conspiracy and fraud, the company's former top accountant, Richard Causey, is switching sides.

Causey was set this afternoon to plead guilty to one or more crimes stemming from the scandal-ridden company's crash more than four years ago and help the government pursue convictions against his former bosses, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the private nature of the discussions."
Causey faces more than 30 counts of conspiracy, fraud, insider trading, lying to auditors and money laundering. Many of those overlap with the 35 counts of fraud, conspiracy, lying to auditors and insider trading pending against Skilling. The pair are accused of conspiring with others to fool investors into believing a wobbly Enron was healthy in the years leading to its December 2001 crash.

Some of Causey's charges also overlap with the seven fraud and conspiracy counts pending against Lay, in which the former chairman is accused of perpetuating the ruse after Skilling's abrupt resignation in August 2001.

Skilling and Lay maintain that they neither committed nor knew of any crimes at Enron, and both have pleaded not guilty.

Causey, 45, could be more damaging to Lay and Skilling than former Enron finance chief Andrew Fastow, who pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy in January 2004. Unlike his former peer, Causey didn't skim millions of dollars for himself from shady deals.

Also, Lay has repeatedly pointed to Fastow as the crook who abused his trust, highlighting the former finance chief's admitted skullduggery.

"There is some safety in numbers from the government's perspective. It's not just Andy Fastow now, it's another senior official. That takes some of the pressure and burden off of Fastow," said Kirby Behre, a former federal prosecutor. "They might make an effective one-two punch in terms of government witnesses."

Senator Stevens cynical ploy to open ANWR had real effects on real families.

Berkshire Eagle Online - Editorials: "If low-income families across the Berkshires, Massachusetts and New England run short of money to pay their heating bills this winter, they can blame Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska and his fellow cynics among the Republican leadership in Washington. When legislation opening the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling went down to a well-earned defeat in the Senate it took an attached plank calling for $2 billion in extra heating aid for the poor this winter with it, delivering a pre-Christmas blow to this who are already struggling to pay their inflated oil bills.
Decimating the ANWR for a few months of oil has long been a pet project for oil industry crony Mr. Stevens. When it appeared he once again didn't have the votes, he conspired with the Senate GOP leadership to add the provision calling for the $2 billion in heating aid to the larger bill containing the ANWR measure, obviously an attempt in the words of Representative Christopher Shays, a Connecticut Republican, to 'buy votes for drilling.'
Senator Stevens' attempt to blackmail his colleagues into voting for Arctic drilling failed, as the Pentagon spending bill could not overcome a filibuster unless the ANWR provision was dropped from it. In an apparent exercise in spite, the Senate leadership not only dropped ANWR it dropped the attempted sweeteners, which besides heating aid also included some homeland security funding and additional relief to Gulf Coast hurricane victims. Senator Stevens didn't get his way, and the poor in the Northeast will suffer for it.
According



to the Energy Information Administration, home heating oil costs will go up 21 percent this season, a major hit for low income families. The extra $2 billion, roughly $46 million of which would have gone to Massachusetts, if not more, was desi"

Alaska Gas LIne- 2
if Tussing thinks this is not profitable, then it really is a problem.
see his full report as the ISER page
JuneauEmpire.com: Opinion: Alaska editorial: Heed expert - all-Alaska gas pipeline line is bad idea 12/27/05: "'LNG from Alaska North Slope gas is almost certain to be an incurably high-cost competitor in both domestic and East Asian ports,' said Arlon Tussing, one of the leading experts on Alaska oil and gas economics."

Alaska Gas: I have been following the prgress of efforts to get Alaska gas to market, for the last 25 years. for those of you 'outside' the natural gas is stranded on the north slope, held hostage by Big Oil, which has refused to sell, deal, or build a pipeline. Murkowski came into office three years ago saying it was a number one priority get a gasline built. Everyone in alaska, from Murkowski to environmentalists supports some sort of gas line,
but the alaska gasline port authority supports an all alaska effort to build a line parrallel to the pipeline, ending at an LNG plant in Valdez, to ship the gas to the west coast.
The ins and outs of this story are covered here-
but the latest thing is the opinion of Arlon Tussing, the dean of economists- he now says that LNG will not be competitive- uh-oh.

KTUU.com | Channel 2 News is Alaska's News Source: "Anchorage, Alaska - Many hoped that 2005 was to be, at long last, the year of the natural gas pipeline. But Gov. Frank Murkowski did not deliver on his pledge for a special session of the Legislature to consider a gas line contract. And 10 days ago, the governor put his negotiations with North Slope producers on hold for the holidays. In the end, more questions have been raised about the gas line in 2005 than have been answered. "

year of corruption, or year of the clean-up?
When the Cutting Is Corrupted: "With indicted superlobbyist Jack Abramoff reportedly ready to cooperate with prosecutors and his partner, Michael Scanlon, already singing, 2006 is expected to be the year of congressional scandals.
Lord knows, a housecleaning in the Capitol is definitely in order. But the Abramoff scandal is just part of the corruption of our political system. There is another level of special-interest influence that cannot be handled by prosecutors: Only the voters can render a judgment on a politics of favoritism that has created a new Gilded Age. It's clear that the national government has placed itself squarely on the side of the wealthy, the privileged and the connected."

White House Announces Hanukkah to be Moved to October
(save your outrage until you read the whole piece:
Watley Review: Hanukkah Moving to October: "In response to a petition from conservative Christians, the Bush Administration has announced that the president will sign an executive order designating a yet unnamed series of dates in early October as the officially recognized days of Hanukkah in the United States.
'The shifting dates of this popular holiday have always been confusing to the average American,' said White House spokesperson Scott McClellan. 'Now, the President certainly has nothing against the Jewish calendar. But this year, apparently, Hanukkah overlaps with Christmas. Many of our nation's leading ministries feel this is inappropriate, and the President agrees.' "

Christmas is taking over the world, past as well as present, an object lesson in how these ideas, cultural constructs, are disseminated, perpetuated, transmitted and transmuted.
STURBRIDGE, Mass. -- Historical fact: In the 1830s, many rural New Englanders followed a religion so strait-laced that they did not celebrate Christmas.
Accordingly, at Old Sturbridge Village -- an outdoor museum where an 1830s town has been re-created down to the cider mill and the Gloucester Old Spots pigs -- they used to ignore the holiday as well.
Used to. Until, in the past few years, attendance started to slip.
"How many times can you tell the story, 'They didn't celebrate it'?" asked Susanna Bonta, a museum spokeswoman.

Living-History Museums Struggle to Draw Visitors: "Now, in December the village gets a makeover that might make a Puritan -- or a historian -- blanch. There is a Christmas tree (not popularized in the United States until the 1840s), a visit from Santa Claus (who didn't take his current form until after 1850) and a series of nighttime tours showing the village lit by (electric) candlelight. These are times for creative thinking at the country's 'living history' parks, where officials worry that their old formula of restored buildings, costumed interpreters and anvil-banging demonstrations is losing its tourist appeal."

abramoff plea deal? could trigger massive implosion of the Republican's political universe
Lobbyist Is Said to Discuss Plea and Testimony - New York Times: "Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist under criminal investigation, has been discussing with prosecutors a deal that would grant him a reduced sentence in exchange for testimony against former political and business associates, people with detailed knowledge of the case say."

Respond to the phony war with real deeds, please,
The Debate - Taking on the Week's Big Issue: "Rep. Gary Ackerman of New York offered this stinging rebuke of the so-called War on Christmas: 'Is this another war we fight for reasons that do not exist?' He added, 'If you wanted to protect the message of Christmas, come to the floor with real bills with substance. Where is your bill to house the homeless? Where is your bill to feed the needy? Where is your bill to clothe the naked? Where is your bill to protect senior citizens who will not be able to heat their homes this winter? Where is the substance?'"

another republican mired in fraud and corruption:
Ghosts of a Shuttered College Follow Weld - New York Times: "But in his first weeks at the for-profit school, Mr. Urquilla says, he found employees falsifying student attendance records, instructors helping students to cheat and recruiters arranging federal loans for students who could not read.
Mr. Urquilla said he was fired after he complained to superiors. Months later, William F. Weld, then Decker's chief executive officer, who is now seeking the Republican nomination for governor of New York, signed a severance agreement with Mr. Urquilla. Its terms required him to keep quiet about the school, which offered courses in carpentry, electrical work and other trades, but he considers the agreement breached.
Mr. Urquilla, along with several other former Decker officials, have come forward to describe practices during Mr. Weld's 10-month tenure as chief executive that they say they considered improper and possibly illegal. The school closed in October."

I am adding this courtesy of Nina, who writes:
This is the BEST analysis I've seen of the constitutional crisis we find ourselves in, with a president claiming literally unlimited power, including the power to break laws he and his advisors consider outdated, on the basis of the need to protect us from a nebulous enemy. It should be required reading: the author is a lawyer specializing in first amendment cases, he writes clear, carefully reasoned, eloquent prose. Reminds me of Jonathan Schell's old Fate of the Earth stuff. Also read his post from yesterday. My new top favorite site.

Unclaimed Territory - by Glenn Greenwald: Bush's unchecked Executive power v. the Founding principles of the U.S.: "Underlying all of the excesses and abuses of executive power claimed by the Bush Administration is a theory of absolute, unchecked power vested in the Presidency which literally could not be any more at odds with the central, founding principles of this country."

Corruption: business as Usual in Congress' management of DC, by fiat.
"The "favor for a favor" culture that grips Capitol Hill made Cunningham's D.C. earmark possible. Truth is, beneath all of the high-profile partisan wrangling that goes on in Congress, the glue holding Capitol Hill together is behind-the-scenes mutual back-scratching."

Congressional earmarks are no secret. They're found in the District's and most federal appropriations bills. Most have stories behind them -- many banal but others strictly opportunistic and benefiting narrow interests. Rep. Tom Davis knows that, too.


From the Hill, Lessons in High-Stepping Hypocrisy: "Weiss said they learned that the owners of the stalls at the fish wharf were Maryland and Virginia residents who paid no D.C. taxes and were charged little rent for their leased space (about $50 to $100 a month, according to a former city official), and that they were grossing millions annually. He said they also learned that the lease on the Washington Marina was held by a family that had operated the business since 1951.
Given the deterioration of the two facilities and the lack of owner-initiated improvements at that prime location, Weiss and Monteilh decided to put the Washington Marina space up for competitive bidding. The existing owner could compete, of course, but would not be guaranteed to win. They also initiated discussions with the fish wharf occupants whose leases had expired. Weiss and Monteilh proposed to put them on a one-year lease, during which time the city would work with them to remodel while seeking more local and minority businesses to participate in the fish business.
And with that, up popped the devil and the District's introduction to Congress's special way of doing business in and with the nation's capital. Without asking, city officials found an extra $3 million in federal funds tucked into the D.C. fiscal 1999 appropriation. The money was a special congressional earmark to spruce up the Washington Marina and the Maine Avenue Fish Wharf. It came with a catch, however.
The $3 million could not be spent by the District on upgrading the marina and fish market areas, the law said, 'unless the District executes a 30-year lease with the existing lessees of the marina.' Thus endeth the notion of putting prime waterfront property out for competitive bids. It was stopped dead in its tracks by the hand of Congress. The message could not h"

They bomb mangers, don't they?
Wonkette gets A++ for war on x-mas coverage
Wonkette - war on christmas: "If people really want to have an actual War on Christmas, let's dispense with the nativity stunts -- let's get an arena filled with actual lions up and running and get down to it. But be careful what you wish for: if the President was to learn of a mysterious trio of swarthy gentlemen smuggling goods to a newly born child who's destined to grow up to be the leader of a Middle East insurgency, he'd have Colin Powell up at the United Nations portentiously waving around a vial of frankincense. "

corporations corrupt? who knew?
Survey: Executives are corrupt / Fresh scandals fuel increasing disfavor with corporations: "More than ever, Americans do not trust business or the people who run it.
Pollsters, researchers, even many corporate chiefs themselves say that business is under attack by a majority of the public, which believes that executives are bent on destroying the environment, cooking the books and lining their own pockets. "

J.C. Bans Dobson andhis group as anti-christian,(Morford gets an A++)
Jesus Bans "Christian" Group / Shocking announcement sends militant Focus on the Family organization into crazed tailspin: "In an astonishing but not completely unexpected announcement, Jesus H. Christ, vice president and CFO of All That Is Inc., appeared today on a large tortilla at a roadside taco stand in Zacatecas, Mexico, to announce that, effective immediately, the pseudo-Christian group Focus on the Family, led by Dr. James Dobson and best known for its blazing hatred of gays and its fear of glimpsing the human female nipple during nationally televised sporting events, is effectively banned from His Divine Beneficence. "

Conspiring Against Voter's Rights:
Modern day inversion of stuffing the ballot box; Soapy Smith and Bat Masterson would be proud.
The Keene Sentinel Local News for Keene, NH and the Monadnock Region of NH: "Hundreds of hang-up calls for nearly two hours on Nov. 5, 2002, overwhelmed Democratic get-out-the-vote phone lines in Claremont, Rochester, Nashua and Manchester and a ride-to-the-polls line run by Manchester�s firefighters union.
Tobin initially pleaded not guilty to four charges, one of conspiring against voters rights and three related to conspiring and aiding in making harassing and annoying telephone calls. The maximum penalty if convicted of all four counts was 19 years in prison and up to $1 million in fines."

Four members of Congress have put forward a proposal for changes to the House Procedures-
but try as I might, I could not find a press release, catchy title, anything wthat would promote those changes- whats gives- get with it guys!
Time for a House-Cleaning: "The place needs a good scrubbing, and that is what it would get if the leadership were somehow to embrace a set of rules changes put forward this week by several longtime members. But because the authors are Democrats -- and in some cases liberal as well -- the receptivity of the Republicans managing the House is not likely to be great.
The four members involved -- David Obey of Wisconsin, Barney Frank of Massachusetts, David Price of North Carolina and Tom Allen of Maine -- held a news conference on Monday at the Center for American Progress to introduce their 14-point plan. It is strong medicine -- a stiff enough dose of salts that even a watered-down version would mark a major change in the ethical environment of Capitol Hill."

San Diego has no corner on corruption: "But $2.4 million? That means Cunningham will go down as the most corrupt member of Congress in the history of the institution. That's saying a lot.
It's tempting to look at a scandal like this as being about a flawed individual. But it's also about a flawed system. Those flaws go beyond the obvious, such as the corruptive influence of the rivers of money that flow through Washington, or the startling fact that one member of Congress, sitting on the right committee with the right amount of influence with the right government agency, can steer millions of dollars of taxpayers' money into the coffers of private firms -- firms that might reciprocate by showering a politician with favors such as expensive meals and gifts, resort vacations, unlimited use of a corporate jet or yacht, and so forth. "

Why Corruption is Epidemic in Washington:
John McCain was interviewed on Terri Gross the other day, and he said that Washington is in an epidemic of corruption because of the way legislation is being handled on the hill. its been open season on earmarks and line items being inserted in bills, that are then passed with no time for anyone to actually read them, not to mention no hearings . Its the Republican Way, although McCain stopped short of blaming the Republican leadership. However, as McCain pointed out, when it is possible for one powerful legislator to put in a specific line item in an appropriation bill, then it is open season for lobbyists who have the ear of these Congressmen and can sell access to their clients for a price. This is exactly the pattern we have seen with both the Abramoff Scandal, and the Cunningham corruption scandal.
Yet, no one wondered who was in charge when Don Young crafted that famous Christmas tree of a transportation bill which even embarrassed the Republicans. The truth is, that this is the governing policy and style of the Republican leadership: DeLay, Hassert, Frist, et al.
Can't bring myself to actually read Arianna, but here is what she has to say, courtesy of Howard Kurtz.
Media Notes Extra: "Arianna says the guilty plea of Duke Cunningham highlights 'the corrupting role that money continues to play in our politics, and the overly cozy relationship between those in power and those in the media whose job it is to cover them.
'I mean, where was the Washington press corps on this story?
'Here you have a Congressman making $158,000 a year, living (and partying with lobbyists) on a yacht docked at the Capital Yacht Club and driving a Rolls-Royce -- and not a single Washington journalist thought this worth looking into? If one of them had followed the spoils, it would have quickly led to a defense contractor buying the yacht, christened the 'Duke-Stir', while at the same time receiving massive government contracts authorized by the defense appropriations subcommittee Cunningham sat on.
'But, instead, the Beltway Gang turned a blind-eye -- so jaded and accepting of how the game is played in Washington that the corruption didn't even register."

This "war on christmas" bullshit has been baffeling the hell out of me....I mean, Christians, a persecuted minority? Is anyone keeping anyone from celebrating Christmas? Not the last time I attended an elementary school holiday pageant and listened to hark the herald angels and silent night So, I have been searching the web to see what the deal is, no one has really nailed the true nut-si-ness of the o'reilley and american family crowd,
but I give first prize here to Cynthia Tucker in the atlanta journal constitution
Happy go-out-and-trample-a-pagan day! | ajc.com: "Perhaps the oddest thing about this cultural imbroglio is the insistence by some Christian purists that stores � palaces of consumerism � should observe the season with declarations of 'Merry Christmas!' The weeks-long orgy of buying that begins around Thanksgiving and ends, mercifully, with the new year celebrates consumption, selfishness and excess � a time when Christians turn the other check. This is probably not what Jesus would do.
There is nothing in the Gospels about battling other parents for the last XBox 360 or knocking down other shoppers to get to discounted personal computers. There are no Christmas sales in the New Testament, nor is there instruction on returning the items you didn't like. There are no guidelines on the dubious practice of 're-gifting.' (If you look closely, however, you can probably find admonitions against cursing out the motorist who got to that one empty parking space before you.)
So what difference does it make if retailers refer to Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or holidays? Merchants are not in the business of spiritual uplift. Those who are looking for that would do well to spend a little less time at the mall."

Reclaiming consumerism for Christ:
'Holiday' Cards Ring Hollow for Some on Bushes' List: "Wildmon does not give retailers the same benefit of the doubt. This year, he has called for a consumer boycott of Target stores because the chain issued a holiday advertising circular that did not mention Christmas. Last year, he aimed a similar boycott at Macy's Inc., which averted a repeat this December by proclaiming 'Merry Christmas' in its advertising and in-store displays."

I thought I was confused about why on earth the christian right is suddeenly insisting that everyone celebrate christmas, but it turns out it is they who are confused: at least the National council of churches gets it right:
'Holiday' Cards Ring Hollow for Some on Bushes' List: "Their cards in recent years have included best wishes for a holiday season, rather than Christmas wishes, because they are sent to people of all faiths.'
That is the same rationale offered by major retailers for generic holiday catalogues, and it is accepted by groups such as the National Council of Churches. 'I think it's more important to put Christ back into our war planning than into our Christmas cards,' said the council's general secretary, the Rev. Bob Edgar, a former Democratic congressman."

FEMA= RACISM from the Top Down
By Darwin Campbell
African American News&Issues: "For African Americans, FEMA�s work with Blacks amounts to a modern version of Abbott and Costello�s �Who�s on First.�
I have been to countless FEMA news briefings, received daily e-mails and ever changing messages and the only certain thing during this crisis is that you will get an e-mail or media directive pointing out the good work FEMA is doing or the money they are spending.
Much of the process appears to be officials meeting, standing around, discussing and trying to figure out, �Who�s on First, What�s on Second, I Don�t Know is on Third��
The whole time everybody is looking around trying to find anybody doing anything, but no one is doing nothing.
FEMA has no idea what it is doing and African Americans are the people suffering the most from this incompetence. The FEMA experience has been one great nightmare for African Americans. All of the hurdles, obstacles, changes and problems are doing nothing to repair the agency�s ragged image in the African American community. It is more obvious every day that there is a whole government agency using tax dollars and many people in those jobs know policy, but know little about the daily �hurt ships� and �hardships� and challenges going on daily in the lives of African Americans who lost everything in both storms.
None of the hurricane victims, especially African Americans, deserves to be treated the way they are being treated. We should not be troubled and still suffering the kind of anxiety we are hearing about and witnessing daily at hotels, motels and churches trying to help put lives back together.
Trying to get to FEMA, you get overcrowded phone lines, overworked computer networks and no definite answers. Now FEMA has the nerve to issue a December 1 deadline on hotel and motel payments and direct cities to move people into "

Months Late and Millions of Dollars Short: Racism issues in Katrina response FINALLY confronted by Congress. CNN.com - Victims: Racism was factor in slow Katrina response - Dec 6, 2005: "Black survivors of Hurricane Katrina said Tuesday that racism contributed to the slow disaster response, at times likening themselves in emotional congressional testimony to victims of genocide and the Holocaust."
Angry evacuees described being trapped in temporary shelters where one New Orleans resident said she was "one sunrise from being consumed by maggots and flies." Another woman said military troops focused machine gun laser targets on her granddaughter's forehead. Others said their families were called racial epithets by police.

"No one is going to tell me it wasn't a race issue," said New Orleans evacuee Patricia Thompson, 53, who is now living in College Station, Texas. "Yes, it was an issue of race. Because of one thing: when the city had pretty much been evacuated, the people that were left there mostly was black."

Quote of the Day:
Ads Portray Nominee as Protector of Christmas - New York Times: "'If they think that hitching Samuel Alito to Santa's sleigh is going to eliminate serious issues about his regard for the Constitution, I think they are mistaken,' Mr. Lynn said."
Barry Lynnon on efforts by conservative catholics and evangelicals to portry nominee as saviour of Christmas.

Christmas Celebration Declared Mandatory
yet another strange permutation of right wings endless efforts to portray themselves as victoms.
This Season's War Cry: Commercialize Christmas, or Else - New York Times: "Religious conservatives have a cause this holiday season: the commercialization of Christmas. They're for it.
The American Family Association is leading a boycott of Target for not using the words 'Merry Christmas' in its advertising. (Target denies it has an anti-Merry-Christmas policy.) The Catholic League boycotted Wal-Mart in part over the way its Web site treated searches for 'Christmas.' Bill O'Reilly, the Fox anchor who last year started a 'Christmas Under Siege' campaign, has a chart on his Web site of stores that use the phrase 'Happy Holidays,' along with a poll that asks, 'Will you shop at stores that do not say 'Merry Christmas'?'"

politics and corruption
Corruption and the politics of pay-to-play / Mantle of scandal worn by GOP was Dems' a decade ago: "Washington -- Republican leader Newt Gingrich helped the GOP recapture the House in 1994 by portraying Democrats as too corrupt to lead after a series of scandals that led to the resignation of some of the party's top leaders.
More than a decade later, the roles are reversed. As the party in power, Republicans now are under fire for ethical problems ranging from Rep. Randy 'Duke' Cunningham pleading guilty last week to taking $2.4 million in bribes, to the mushrooming scandal involving GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, to former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's indictment on charges of violating campaign finance laws. And Democrats hope to take advantage when voters go to the polls for the midterm elections next year.
But some say no matter who is caught in the criminal net, the corruption issues put a spotlight on the pervasive influence of money in politics. "

Flaunt What You've Got: "Flaunt What You've Got
D.C.'s New Gilded Age"
What's different about Washington in this latest Gilded Age is the amount of money sloshing around this city -- this region, actually -- and the ostentatious display thereof. Consider: The number of households in the Washington area with more than $1 million in investable assets (that is, not including real estate) grew 9.6 percent between 2003 and 2004 alone, according to the demographic research firm Claritas. By contrast, total households in the region rose just 2.5 percent.
And if you doubt that these folks are flaunting it, take a drive out along River Road into Maryland, or Georgetown Pike in Virginia, and look at the acres upon acres of elephantine monstrosities, turreted and Palladian windowed and mega-garaged. Or look at the magnificent quarter-mile arising in Chevy Chase, where Barneys, Jimmy Choo and Dior are replacing a dowdy suburban strip mall. Not exactly Sparta on the Potomac.

The result is a strange version of increasing income inequality, Washington-style: a growing gap between the haves and the have-powers. This doesn't excuse, but it may help explain, some of the capital's more repulsive recent episodes.

I can’t believe that the Washington Post allowed its writer to indulge in all of the stereotypical hyperbole about the frozen north, un- touched wilderness and pristine and frozen Arctic in the recent article about the northern gas line proposals.
The wilderness aspects may apply to the McKenzie River line, but is certainly not true of the Alaskan project. The Alaska gas line would parallel the Alaska Highway: To continue to pretend this is remote wilderness is naïve. Most projections have shown that it will not be nearly the large project that the original Alyeska oil pipeline was thirty years ago. The problem as Alaskans see it is that it won’t create enough jobs. Alaska now has the infrastructure as well as a larger population which it did not have back then. The oil pipeline took three years because they had to build the road.
Still, many in Alaska including Former Governor Walter Hickle and Fairbanks Borough Mayor Jim Whittaker favor an all Alaska route that would follow the oil pipeline to Valdez, where a liquefaction plant would transfer the product to tankers.
Why Murkowski continues his abysmally slow negotiations with big oil while ignoring the all Alaska route is the big mystery in Alaska right now. Many Alaskans believe that the big oil companies have no intention of building the gas line,: after all, they have had the opportunity to build a gas line for thirty years, but seem to prefer to use their money to construct gas projects in Indonesia and far eastern Russia.

A 'Great Pipeline Race' in Canada: "Soaring energy prices and profits have revived plans for two massive pipelines -- the biggest private construction projects in North America -- to bring natural gas hundreds of miles south from the frozen Arctic Ocean, through vast untouched forests and under wild rivers, to the United States.
The plans would flood isolated areas of Alaska and Canada with thousands of construction workers, pump billions of dollars into poor native economies, and bring the roar of heavy cranes and bulldozers to pristine areas where it is now quiet enough to hear the hoots of snowy owls and the rustle of pine boughs"

Voting fraud sting
Election Fraud Is the Target of F.B.I. Sting - New York Times: "Thomas Esposito's campaign for the State Legislature in 2004 seemed to be following the usual pattern. Mr. Esposito, a former mayor of Logan, issued press releases, raised money and bought newspaper advertisements. Signs bearing his name popped up in yards around rural Logan County.
But less than a month before the May primary election, Mr. Esposito dropped out, citing an ailing mother-in-law. The real reason surfaced only later: the Federal Bureau of Investigation had planted Mr. Esposito among the field of candidates to help find evidence of vote-buying in southern West Virginia.
Federal prosecutors say the tactic worked."

Its always those on the take who accuse everyone else
The Duke of D.C., Unhorsed: "Consider this: When Duke Cunningham took to the House floor to denounce a past D.C. Council as crooked, he was at that very moment well into corruptly seeking and receiving bribes from two co-conspirators in return for being influenced in the performance of his official duties. His criminal acts are spelled out in the plea agreement Cunningham signed with federal prosecutors."

Wikipeida wars- II
the issue is the "accuracy" of wikipedia, the free internet encyclopedia created and edited by users-
can it be accurate? is any encyclopedia accurate?
as wikipedia is created and re-created nearly daily, it seems to m that it reaches a fairly high degree of consensus
the comments here are interesting also.

Wikipedia and the nature of truth | Perspectives | CNET News.com: "You can argue that epistemological revisionism goes on all the time. As a kid, I remember thumbing through a 1920s encyclopedia when I found a discussion of different racial categories. Someone reading the entry decades later would have found the assertions in that article to be nonsensical, if not borderline racist. But when the book was published, the people who might have corrected the record had no power over the publishing company printing up the product line. With the Internet, anyone with an online connection can chime in. "

Wikipedia Wars-
for an idea of just how the editing process works- check out the edit wars page on the site itself
Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars ever - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Wikipedia:Lamest edit wars ever"

Corruption: the big picture
from Michael kinsley, op-ed in the WP
Business As Usual: Corrupt: "By the 20th anniversary of their arrival, when an intellectually corrupt Supreme Court ruling gave them complete control of the government at last, the conservatives had lost any stomach for tearing it down. George W. Bush's 'compassionate conservatism' was more like an apology than an ideology. Meanwhile, Tom DeLay -- the real boss in Congress -- openly warned K Street that unless all the choice lobbying jobs went to Republicans, lobbyists could not expect to have any influence with the Republican Congress. This warning would be meaningless, of course, unless the opposite was also true: If you hire Republican lobbyists, you and they will have influence over Congress. And darned if DeLay didn't turn out to be exactly right about this."

More on the DeLay-Abramoff Protection Racket:
Lobbyist's Role in Hiring Aides Is Investigated - New York Times: "With a federal corruption case intensifying, prosecutors investigating Jack Abramoff, the Republican lobbyist, are examining whether he brokered lucrative jobs for Congressional aides at powerful lobbying firms in exchange for legislative favors, people involved in the case have said.
The attention paid to how the aides obtained jobs occurs as Mr. Abramoff is under mounting pressure to cooperate with prosecutors as they consider a case against lawmakers. Participants in the case, who insisted on anonymity because the investigation is secret, said he could try to reach a deal in the next six weeks."

Can anyone out there in Utah spell N-E-P-O-T-I-S-M? a form of C-O-R-R-U-P-T-I-O-N?
"The deals [to buy out grazing rights] seemed to suit all concerned, until a group of local officials decided that they were bad for the local economy and a threat to the ancestral tradition of living off the land. The group set out to end this latest, uncharacteristically civil chapter in the fraught history of cattlemen, environmentalists and dueling visions of the West's future."
So let me get this straight, Michael E. Noel, a Republican state representative from southern Utah, is upset that enviornmentalists are buying out ranchers and then not grazing cattle. so he got ranchers to challange the deals.
just so happens "Trevor Stewart, one of the ranchers seeking the Clark Bench allotment, is Mr. Noel's son-in-law. Mr. Noel said he was able to get $50,000 from the state to support Kane County when it joined Mr. Stewart's suit.
So State Rep. Noel got $50,000 in state dollars to buy grazing permits for his son in law?
A Strategy to Restore Western Grasslands Meets With Local Resistance - New York Times: "Michael E. Noel, a former Bureau of Land Management employee who now is a Republican state representative from southern Utah, "

"Hubris writ large"
Culture of corruption, ad nauseum, continued-
this is actually a good article from American Prospect, byTerence Samuel: via h. Kuntz in the WP:
Media Notes Extra: "'While they may seem like disparate and disconnected story lines, the problems facing the White House and the GOP leadership in Congress are the result of the same mindset that got Scanlon and Abramoff in trouble. Republican successes at the ballot box (and Democratic bumbling in response) created not just a sense of validation for the GOP but a sense of entitlement and an urgency to seize the moment.'"

Jeffry Birnbaum, in the WP says that voters are growing tired of the money and politics connection, he says this will not longer be tolerated,
what he forgets is that the republican party has been largely successful in buying its way into the majority.
The republican mantra "business can do it better" has convieniently led to an increase in contracting out, combined with a simultaneous decrease in government contracting officers basically a mathmatical formula predicting an increase in graft and corruption.
"After years in which big-dollar dealings have come to dominate the interaction between lobbyists and lawmakers, both sides are now facing what could be a wave of prosecutions in the courts and an uprising at the ballot box. Extreme examples of the new business-as-usual are no longer tolerated"A Growing Wariness About Money in Politics: "No fewer than seven lawmakers, including a Democrat, have been indicted, have pleaded guilty or are under investigation for improper conduct such as conspiracy, securities fraud and improper campaign donations. Congress's approval ratings have fallen off the table, in some measure because of headlines about these scandals."

QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "It's amazing that somebody in Congress that long could be that stupid;If he wanted to make a ton of money, all he needed to do was retire from Congress and become a lobbyist"
AP Wire | 11/29/2005 | Cunningham plea sheds light on extreme case of corruption: "'It's amazing that somebody in Congress that long could be that stupid,' Jack Pitney, a government professor at Claremont McKenna College, said of Cunningham. 'If he wanted to make a ton of money, all he needed to do was retire from Congress and become a lobbyist.'"

Culture of Corruption:
U.S. Newswire : Releases : "Cunningham Caught in Culture of Corruption, Says Democratic National Committee": "'Duke Cunningham may be the latest senior Republican member of Congress to lose his way, but sadly he won�t be the last one to fall from grace, and his behavior is a symptom of a greater problem: the culture of corruption that the GOP has made its trademark in Washington and throughout the country,' said Democratic National Committee Communications Director Karen Finney. 'Cunningham is just one more example of a Party that has lost its moral compass and replaced it with a treasure map of personal and special interest gain.'
'Americans want honesty in government and elected officials who fight for them. America can do better. Democrats are committed to restoring honesty and transparency in the Democratic process, and to ensuring that every elected official is held to the highest ethical standards.'
Cunningham�s guilty plea follows former GOP aide and super- lobbyist Michael Scanlon�s plea bargain in a case following another corruption investigation, the indictments of former GOP House Majority Leader Tom DeLay on money laundering charges, the ongoing investigation into GOP Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist�s possibly illegal insider trading, the indictment of Vice President Dick Cheney�s Chief of Staff on perjury charges, the ongoing investigation of senior White House officials over the leak of a covert CIA operative�s name in a time of war, and numerous other scandals in GOP-led state governments throughout the country.
------"

Another Bribery Fraud whatever scandal which has been unfolding for a while but which I had not really been following,
But, I mean, rare coins????
wouldn't that raise a few red flags?
Ohio Scandals May Give Democrats a Lift: "COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The scandal began as a curiosity. Tom Noe, a gregarious businessman and Republican Party leader in northwest Ohio, had been entrusted with $50 million in state money to invest in rare coins, with the idea of winning fat returns for the workers' compensation fund.
It seemed an oddity at most, but like a loose thread on a jacket, the more investigators pulled, the more the garment unraveled, revealing members of Ohio's Republican establishment who had been wined, dined and enriched by Noe."

Guilty to Conspiracy: Bribes
Calif. Congressman Admits Taking Bribes: "Rep. Randy 'Duke' Cunningham pleaded guilty Monday to conspiracy and tax charges and tearfully resigned from office, admitting he took $2.4 million in bribes to steer defense contracts to co-conspirators."

just a litle link to a piece on the ultimate scam....
For You, Half Price - New York Times: "Since the bridge was completed in 1883, the idea of illegally selling it has become the ultimate example of the power of persuasion. A good salesman could sell it, a great swindler would sell it, and the perfect sucker would fall for the scam.
But this was not just a rhetorical or a fictional conceit. A turn-of-the-century confidence man named George C. Parker actually sold the Brooklyn Bridge more than once. According to Carl Sifakis, who tells his story in 'Hoaxes and Scams: A Compendium of Deceptions, Ruses and Swindles,' Parker - who was also adept at selling the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Statue of Liberty and Grant's Tomb - produced impressive forged documents to prove that he was the bridge's owner, then convinced his buyers that they could make a fortune by controlling access to the roadway. 'Several times,' Mr. Sifakis wrote, 'Parker's victims had to be rousted from the bridge by police when they tried to erect toll barriers.'"
In writing his book "Hustlers and Con Men: An Anecdotal History of the Confidence Man and His Games," Jay Robert Nash interviewed an elderly swindler named Joseph "Yellow Kid" Weil, who said he had known several criminal vendors of the bridge. Mr. Weil, whom Mr. Nash visited in a Chicago nursing home and described as "probably the greatest con man of the 20th century," recalled a swindler named Reed C. Waddell, who worked the bridge swindle in the 1880's and 1890's. Mr. Weil also claimed to know Waddell's successors in that trade, the notorious Charles and Fred Gondorf.

Global fraud and corruption investigation,
The war on fraud - Editorials & Commentary - International Herald Tribune: "It's sad just how predictable it was that the reconstruction of Iraq would be marred by fraud, dishonesty and profiteering. Last week Robert Stein Jr. was charged in U.S. federal court with a slew of crimes allegedly committed while he was a financial officer for the U.S. occupation authority in Iraq. The affidavit in the case says that Stein accepted more than $200,000 a month to steer contracts to an American businessman whose companies often did poor work and sometimes did no work at all"

the kind of democracy we are exporting:
Bring Democracy to Congress: "Some of the most powerful words on the budget cuts came from one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress. Rep. Gene Taylor, whose district was ravaged by Hurricane Katrina, couldn't believe that cuts in programs for the poor were being justified as necessary to cover the costs of relief for hurricane victims. Taylor's syntax only underscored the emotion he brought to the floor: 'Mr. Speaker, in south Mississippi tonight, the people . . . who are living in two- and three-man igloo tents waiting for Congress to do something, have absolutely got to think this place has lost their minds. The same Congress that voted to give the wealthiest 1 percent of Americans tax breaks every time . . . suddenly after taking care of those who had the most, we have got to hurt the least. . . . Folks, this is insane. . . . This is the cruelest lie of all, that the only way you can help the people who have lost everything is by hurting somebody else.'"

conspiracy tentacles could extend further:
Ex-DeLay Aide Pleads Guilty in Conspiracy: "Abramoff's lobbying network stretched far into the halls of Congress. Documents obtained by The Associated Press show nearly three dozen lawmakers helping to block an American Indian casino in Louisiana while collecting large donations from the lobbyist and his tribal clients"

Scanlon pleads to Consipiracy,
Ex-DeLay Aide Pleads Guilty in Conspiracy: "Michael Scanlon, a former partner to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to bribe public officials, a charge growing out of the government investigation of attempts to defraud Indian tribes and corrupt a member of Congress.
Scanlon, a former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, entered the plea before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle and agreed to pay restitution totaling more than $19 million to the tribes"

Scanlon pleads to Consipiracy,
Ex-DeLay Aide Pleads Guilty in Conspiracy: "Michael Scanlon, a former partner to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, pleaded guilty Monday to conspiring to bribe public officials, a charge growing out of the government investigation of attempts to defraud Indian tribes and corrupt a member of Congress.
Scanlon, a former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay, entered the plea before U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle and agreed to pay restitution totaling more than $19 million to the tribes"

A Civil War historian in Iraq, an article well worth reading. I have had the same thoughts, but while reading Eric Foner's magesterial "Reconstruction." I was reminded of the flagrant terorism of the early Klan and the solid south.
so is Iraq a civil war?

Why a Historian Based in Iraq Couldn't Help but Draw Parallels to the Civil War: "As a Civil War historian that conflict was inevitably in my mind as a silent reference point in evaluating my experience in Iraq. For example, on my first Routine Daylight Patrol, as our column left Camp Fallujah�s final checkpoint, I stared out the window and was reminded of Petersburg, 1864. The day was cold and wet and the area between the barracks and outer perimeter was a long, depressing stretch of foliage-denuded kill zone. Rows of freshly bulldozed defensive berms might easily pass for trenches or, as they were once called, parallels. Large Hescoe barriers (named after the manufacturer) were filled with soil and stacked to form walls virtually impenetrable to small arms� projectiles; in 1864 these were called gabions, soil-filled straw baskets of about the same size which appear so prominently in photographs of the Petersburg fortifications. "

Garden variety government conspiracy at the justice department:
Once trumpeted as one of the Justice Department's significant triumphs against terrorism, the case targeting the so-called "Detroit sleeper cell"
As hidden evidence spilled out and the Justice Department abandoned the effort, federal investigators began to wonder whether the true conspiracy in the case was perpetrated by the prosecution
Detroit 'Sleeper Cell' Prosecutor Faces Probe: "Now a federal grand jury in Detroit is investigating whether the lead prosecutor, Richard Convertino, or anyone else should be indicted for unfairly tipping the scales.
It is a highly unusual case. No charges have been brought and many details remain secret, but information in public documents and testimony in U.S. District Court in Detroit suggest an effort by federal prosecutors and important witnesses to mislead defense lawyers and deceive the jury. U.S. District Judge Gerald E. Rosen said the government acted 'outside the Constitution.'"

Corruption Alert!
reminds me of the famous creidit mobelier scandal surrounding the construction of the Union Pacific RR, in that it threatens to engulf multiple members of congress.

Corruption Inquiry Threatens to Ensnare Lawmakers - New York Times: "The Justice Department has signaled for the first time in recent weeks that prominent members of Congress could be swept up in the corruption investigation of Jack Abramoff, the former Republican superlobbyist who diverted some of his tens of millions of dollars in fees to provide lavish travel, meals and campaign contributions to the lawmakers whose help he needed most. "

special provision of budget bill allows private purchase of federal land:
Can anyone out there spell T-E-A-P-O-T D-O-M-E?
Bill Authorizes Private Purchase of Federal Land - New York Times: "'They are called mining claims, but you can locate them where there are no minerals,' said John D. Leshy, who was the Interior Department's senior lawyer during the Clinton administration. Mr. Leshy said the legislation 'doesn't have much to do with mining at all. It has to do with real-estate transfer for economic development.'"

More Fraud, More Conspiracy=Corruption
DeLay Ex-Aide to Plead Guilty in Lobby Case - New York Times: "Michael Scanlon, a former top official for Representative Tom DeLay and onetime partner of the lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has agreed to plead guilty in a deal with federal prosecutors, according to his lawyer. The deal reveals a broadening corruption investigation involving top members of Congress.
Criminal papers filed in federal court outlined a conspiracy that not only named Mr. Scanlon but also mentioned a congressman, identified only as Representative No. 1, as part of the exchange of favors from clients funneled to lobbyists and officials.
This was the first time that a member of Congress, identified by lawyers in the case as Representative Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio, has been implicated in criminal papers as part of the inquiry, which has sprawled from Indian casinos to the lucrative lobbying firms of Mr. Abramoff and Mr. Scanlon and then reached to the Republican leadership. "

Fraud, conspiracy, redux....more and more and more
Refco ex-CEO pleads not guilty - Yahoo! News: "Chief Executive Phillip Bennett pleaded not guilty on Friday to eight counts of conspiracy, fraud and other charges related to an accounting scandal that drove the futures brokerage into bankruptcy.
Bennett, 57, is accused of hiding hundreds of millions of dollars in bad debts from Refco investors as the New York-based company went public in August.
Refco was the largest U.S. independent futures and commodities brokerage before the scandal prompted customers to abandon the firm, forcing Refco to file for bankruptcy last month."

Confidence Men
Why the myth of Republican competence persists,
despite all the evidence to the contrary.
well, as some of you know, tconfidence men and politics is the subject of my pending dissertation. So, now that I am done with exams, I am getting back on topic.
More to come. (I've noticed that there is never any shortage of fraud and corruption stories)
"Confidence Men" by Joshua Micah Marshall: "This unfamiliarity and heightened expectation, matched with the trappings of competence, gave potency to what has turned out to be the Bush administration's signature political tactic: the confidence game. The confidence man is a stock figure in American culture, originating--perhaps not coincidentally--in the boomtowns of the Old Southwest. He's the snake-oil salesman, the wildcat land speculator who mixes boundless optimism with quick talk, bluff, and bluster. The administration is led by such men. "

Todays subject is Fraud. and today's leading fraud story is the "waiting for the toehr shoe to drop" story wheich we have all been anticipating ever since these no bid halliburton contracts were given out.
the official in charge says this is the first, but definitely not the last. Stay tuned.

America, United States, Times Online, The Times, Sunday Times: "A former official with the US governing administration in Iraq and a contractor have been arrested on charges involving a bribery and fraud scheme.


The defendants were identified as Robert Stein, funding officer for the Coalition Provisional Authority in 2003 and 2004, and Philip Bloom, the owner of numerous construction and service companies.
These multimillion-dollar bribery and fraud charges are the first of a dozen similar corruption cases arising from the postwar reconstruction of Iraq, American officials said yesterday. Mr Bloom, who ran three companies competing for contracts, was charged with paying �bribes, kickbacks and gratuities� of at least $200,000 (�116,500) a month to members of the Coalition Provisional Authority and their spouses. "

Conrad Blac's media empire: guess this is why we should not be waiting for the media to straighten these things out.
Haaretz - Israel News - U.S. orders arrest of former Jerusalem Post owner Conrad Black: "Conrad Black, the conservative media mogul who has headed some of the world's largest papers, was charged Thursday with a 51.8-million-dollar fraud.

The indictment alleges that Black used an elaborate money-making scheme to pay for lavish trips to the South Pacific.

At one time, Black's Hollinger International empire included London's Daily Telegraph, the Chicago Sun-Times, the Jerusalem Post and 60 percent of Canada's dailies, prompting comparisons between Black and Australian media magnate Rupert Murdoch."

And the long -running case is Conrad Black, and his bublishing group, which has been going on so long I've forgotten the details, which in fact is what usually happens in these cases: its so complicated that few people can follow, and takes so long to play out that most people just forget about it.
Telegraph | News | Conrad Black faces eight counts of fraud: "Conrad Black was charged yesterday with eight counts of fraud after allegedly pocketing millions of pounds of shareholders' money.
The charges were brought after a lengthy investigation by the United States attorney's office and the FBI into Lord Black and the publishing group Hollinger International, the former owner of The Daily Telegraph, of which he was the chief executive until November 2003.

Lord Black faces eight counts of fraud
He and three other former executives of Hollinger International are accused of diverting proceeds from the sale of some of the group's newspapers by disguising them as non-competition payments."

"Wallmart announces plan to install ten commandments monuments in parking lots"
according to michael 'whad'ya know' feldman, unless I mis-heard
God's Pat Problem - Yahoo! News: "The Nation -- It cannot be easy being God these days, what with so many of His self-proclaimed followers launching wars in His name."

"Bald Ego" was the winner in a name-the-jet contest
held by an Anchorage radio station. Runners-up
included "Murky's Turkey" and, in a reference to the
governor's complaints about the lack of a bathroom on
the turboprop, "Incontinental Airlines."
Polls show him to be the nation's second-most-unpopular governor, topped only by Ohio Republican Gov. Robert Taft.

and thanks to Amy for that hot tip.
US News Article | Reuters.com: "Critics have dubbed it 'Bald Ego,' 'Murky's Turkey' and 'Incontinental Airlines,' but Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski finally has the sleek executive jet he says he and other state officials need."

Idiots in charge of the Funny farm, Part Deux

First the Bill O'reilly remark, re San Francisco, and then the
Bill O'Reilly takes aim at San Francisco - Radio - MSNBC.com: "'Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you're not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead,' O'Reilly said, according to a transcript and audio posted by liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America, and by the San Francisco Chronicle.
'And if al-Qaida comes in here and blows you up, we're not going to do anything about it. We're going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead,' O'Reilly continued, referring to the 1933 San Francisco landmark that sits atop Telegraph Hill."

Idiots running the Funny Farm-
so how will they ever again be able to say tha Intelligent Design is not a proxy for good old fashioned christian fundamentalism?

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Televangelist condemns anti-creationism policy: "America's best known televangelist, Pat Robertson, has warned a Pennsylvania town that it could face divine retribution for voting creationists off its education authority.
'I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city,' Mr Robertson said on his Christian Broadcasting Network, which claims a daily audience of one million.
Residents ousted conservative Christian members of the local Dover board who had ordered teachers to tell their classes evolution was a questionable theory."

So I was watching Oprah, who is kind of like America’s fairy god-mother- larger than life, I am sure we all would agree- so after she found, remodeled and furnished a home in Chicago for a struggling single mother of ten children- three of her own, seven of her brothers; after Oprah promised to pay for college for all of them, personally; after basketball star Kevin Garnet gave the boys a signed basketball, and followed up with sending Oprah a note which she opened live-on-the-air promising to help her build one house for katrina victims, a month; that is to pay for one house a month for a year; of course Oprah got tears in her eyes, and so did I. I mean think how much she could do for people if she got all of the basketball stars, and all of the football starts too, to do the same.
Well, after all of that, she jumped to the letter she got from the hardworking first grade teacher in a disadvantaged school wishing that her first graders could some day og on a field trip to see the world outside their own impoverished neighborhoods. So of course Oprah treated the whole class to a trip to Disney World.
There they were with Sleeping Beauty and Jimmeny Cricket and of course Mickey Mouse.
And I wondered if they even knew about all of those long ago cartoon characters. But then I though, Mickey Mouse is arguably more real to these kids than, say, the President. I mean, do they think the President is real? For that matter, I thought as they cut to pictures of Oprah having fun on the merry-go-round with the kids, do they think that Oprah is real? Or is she just as real as Mickey Mouse?
What about Walt Disney, was he a real person? Or just a fairy god father of the world of the imagination? Does it matter?
Just thinking about this as I try to write my comprehensive exams on U.S. History, where we are constantly trying to get people to understand what it was really like. Not the pervasive myths about the west, of the gold rush, but what it was really, really, like. But the myths are so pervasive, aren’t they?

So, just thought I would finish with this little piece about myths and realities.


Perpetual student endures dizzying whirl of sudden celebrity
For One Student, a College Career Becomes a Career - New York Times: "The marketing hoopla whipping up around Mr. Lechner, 29, is making it difficult to separate fact from fable about his college career. He has compiled a 2.9 grade-point average and in one semester got straight A's. But in the topsy-turvy logic of the entertainment world, a record of debauchery has become central to his success, and friends say he has taken to exaggerating his Animal House credentials."
National Lampoon is promising to pay his tuition, and the makers of Monster Energy Drink deliver 30 cases a week, along with advertising posters and condoms, to the house where Mr. Lechner lives and parties, in exchange for his endorsement of Monster as "the official energy drink" of his 12th college year.

He has signed with the William Morris Agency, which is marketing a reality television series based on his life at the University of Wisconsin at Whitewater. And in recent days he has referred to interviews with The New York Times on his personal Web site, anticipating new publicity from this article.

ad Absurdam: the non-attributable comments thing is getting totally out of hand. courtesy of Michael Hiltzik, the new LAT blogger, via howard kurtz
Going Positive: "'Determined to paint their own fair and balanced portrait of Sam Alito before the nasty Democrats could flash a distorted image of the man before the nation, three Justice Dept. officials briefed Washington reporters about his record on Thursday. Here's a transcript of this curious session:
'The three officials insisted on being identified as 'Senior Department of Justice Official One,' 'Senior Department of Justice Official Two,' and 'Senior Department of Justice Official Three.' One assumes they chose these monikers to preserve their dignity, since they might just as easily have been identified as 'Winken,' 'Blinken,' and 'Nod,' or 'Moe,' 'Larry,' and 'Curly,' or, for that matter, 'Gonzales,' 'Clement,' and 'McCallum.' The two DOJ flacks who managed the session (I assume they were flacks) are identified as 'moderator' and 'staffer.' Interestingly, they insisted that the reporters asking questions identify themselves by name and employer. These IDs show up on the transcript unenshrouded by euphemisms such as 'Senior Washington Correspondent One.'
'The Washington reflex to put everything off the record continues to amaze. Why these officials required anonymity to peddle their anodyne praise for the nominee's sagacity and integrity is anyone's guess. For a flavor of what they said, here's one of the more controversial statements:
'If you read Judge Alito's opinions and there are hundreds of them, they show that he's a mainstream, principled, and very careful, thorough Judge. If you look at his opinions, you'll see in every one a very thorough analysis and a very careful and meticulous application of Supreme Court precedent.
'Now it can be told: This was uttered by Senior Department of Justice Offici"

Torture Shaming Us All is what Richard Cohen titles this piece, and it perfectly expresses my dismay that we even have to have this discussion. I am appalled and disgusted. But it reminds me of how many years we (as america) ran the school for the americas which trained latin america torturers. America should stand for fairness and respect for human dignity, and torture should never be condoned, ever. under any circumstances.

Torture, Shaming Us All: "Now, though, we are witnessing a debate in Washington that any American at one time would have thought impossible: whether to allow 'cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment of persons under custody or control of the United States government.' The words are taken from the amendment introduced by Sen. John McCain, which would prohibit such practices. It has passed twice, the first time by 90 to 9, the second by a voice vote. It has the support of a former POW, McCain; a former Navy secretary, John Warner; a Reserve military judge, Lindsey Graham -- and, outside the Senate, former military men such as Colin Powell. Nonetheless, the administration vows a veto"

Its about Junk, stuff. Excess.
I was just thinking about stuff when I took a little breeze through the Factory-2-you store here. is paying substandard wages to children in indonesia to produce cheap t-shirts so people who get paid minimum wage can afford to have too much junk too really the route to nirvana for the planet?
Mark Morford has a great way with words. read the whole article.
Why Do You Have So Much Junk? / Oh yes you do. And there are TV shows to prove it. Question is, what are you gonna do about it?: "You have way too much crap.
I'm just guessing. Guessing that right now, in your life, in your closets and in your garage and in your car trunk and in your brain and even in your desk drawer you have way, way too much stuff, far more than any one person or single family needs and, oh my God, have you even seen your closet lately?
Have you seen that riot of old towels and curtain rods and board games you haven't looked at in three years? The old guitar and five pairs of mangy boots and a pile of old T-shirts and two disposable Epson printers and a teetering stack of empty Amazon boxes and four dumbbells and ancient college papers and a power drill and a bunch of old coats and classic porn VHS tapes and an underused Mesa Boogie guitar amp and assorted wrapping paper collected since the Clinton administration? Oh wait, maybe that's my closet. "

Nontycoon?
did anyone notice the word in the Corzine-Ferrar article, below?
what does it mean? googling, this is what i found, a (critical) review of WPost's David Hoffman's book about Russian Oligarchs. and its a great review, too,
so, is there a big connection here. Perhaps.

might be because Hoffman is the only American male to have visited Moscow in the 1990s and escaped without personal knowledge of the term. Whatever the explanation, it seems clear that Hoffman is not the kind of person one would normally consider an authority on the nontycoon Russian experience."


The Oligarchs purports to tell the story of the rise of these men. It is an exhaustive book, impressive in scope, that contains extensive interviews with all of the key figures. But it misses because Hoffman does not know what it is like to sleep in a street kiosk during a Leningrad winter, nor does he particularly care to know; he writes like a man trying to describe the dark side of King George from a trundle bed in a guest room of Windsor palace.

Not that this is surprising. In his tenure as a reporter in Moscow, Hoffman was notorious for being an unapologetic ideologue, the hardest of hard-core cold warriors. The basic structure of a David Hoffman article was generally to lead with a gloomy flashback to some grim Soviet-era scene and then go on to describe how, with the help of American aid, the courageous leadership of the democrat Boris Yeltsin and the heroic efforts of Western-minded reform economists like Chubais, things had since changed spectacularly for the better. In other words, lead off with a picture of a groaning, overweight housewife at the end of a long line to buy shoes that don't fit, and close with a shot of an apple-cheeked cashier at Pizza Hut using her salary to buy Nikes. That was Russia Reporting 101 during the 1990s, and no one was better at it or more devoted to its practice than David Hoffman

eXile - Issue #143 - Press Review - Grabitization (Don't Look) - By Matt Taibbi: "This