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The Daily Muck
It's a brand new muck format. Tell us what you think.
Following yesterday’s stunning revelation by the Washington Post that 26 US attorneys had been considered for dismissals, professionals all around the country are trying to figure out what the Justice Department felt they were doing wrong. Local papers in Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Kentucky and Georgia ask their own attorneys. The consensus? Says stunned USA Dunn Lampton (MS): “I don’t have a clue.”
Despite constant reassurances that he would not take advantage of the former Patriot Act that allowed interim US Attorneys to serve indefinitely, Gonzales has let former Rove-protégé Tim Griffin serve a full month past his interim term limit.
The Daily Page reports that US Attorney Steve Biskupic (WI) tried to “squeeze” Georgia Thompson to find about possible criminal activity from her employer Gov. Jim Doyle (D). Thompson’s guilty verdict was recently overturned in a dramatic reversal by the appellate court.
Following on the gripping testimony of former DAG Jim Comey, Time Magazine asks about the legality of Gonzales’ late night visit to his predecessor.
War and Piece looks at the official rhetoric to determine if Jim Comey's testimony has brought to light yet another clandestine domestic spying program.
Wolfowitz resigns.
The House passed yesterday a measure that would require the secretary of defense to begin plans to transfer all detainees from Guantanamo. The amendment passed by 12 votes; McClatchy has the story.
A Navy lawyer has been found guilty of sneaking vital information out of Guantanamo Bay to a human rights attorney.
Padilla’s fingerprints matched at least seven of the 45 prints found on an application to join Al Qaeda, according to a fingerprint specialist who testified yesterday. However, the specialist claimed that the government never delivered the additional samples from Padilla that are used in evaluation of major cases.
A civil rights group is suing the Justice Department and the National Security Agency for allegedly spying on lawyers who represented Guantanamo detainees.
A bipartisan group of senators have joined the 20-month fight to make public the CIA’s internal report on the attacks of 9/11.
In the Department of Education, a political appointee’s bonuses –which total $250,000 over four years- has left Democratic lawmakers suspicious.
Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) is accused of threatening to cut off further spending projects from Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI), who recently sought to expose a $23 million earmark of Murtha’s. It is against House rules to threaten earmarks or tax provisions, and Rogers, who has brought the accusation, is seeking a sanctioned reprimand.
In the last two years, members of Congress have spent over $5 million of their campaign funds in legal fees concerning ethics violations and criminal investigations.
The AP reports that two senators have called for the withdrawal of Michael Baroody’s nomination to run the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Baroody is set to receive $150,000 on his way out of his current job, where he pursued a number of industry-friendly activities.
Watchdogs are worried as the number of questionable, though legal, land deals involving legislators is on the rise.
At Salon, Peter Moore (with the help of a tech-savvy eight-year-old) finds a hidden history of the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq.
Update: Dunn Lampton and the Clarion Ledger were originally listed as Florida-based, rather than Mississippi.
Comments (16)
bordersmuggler wrote on May 18, 2007 11:20 AM:Nothing like giving your staff a vote of confidence.
The list of those with an axe to grind against the Bush Administration keeps increasing ...
TheraP wrote on May 18, 2007 11:33 AM:Summer is coming! We need the 8 year olds to help us find the missing emails - or whatever.
To make sense of my comment, check the Salon article above (last item of daily muck).
tpm and 8 year olds - the key to saving the republic?
Uncle Don wrote on May 18, 2007 11:33 AM:The new format is great. It puts all of the major stories together in one easy-to-read column.
pocket wrote on May 18, 2007 11:36 AM:might I suggest you cite the source of the articles as well.
Snarl wrote on May 18, 2007 11:51 AM:Dunn Lampton and the Clarion-Ledger are in Mississippi, not Florida.
hazmaq wrote on May 18, 2007 11:55 AM:My muck of the day.
Just read an poll in Haaretz: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/pages/ShArt.jhtml?itemNo=860903&contrassID=1&subContrassID=1
"71% of Israeli's think WE should strike Iran", if diplomacy fails.
and "73% of Israeli's think Bush is a 'friendly guy'".
Hey! We just told Australia's Howard to keep his nose out of our affairs. I think it's time we said the same to Israel.
We're in Iraq partly due to their faulty intelligence too.
We screw things up enough. The last thing we need is more bad advice from the same guys that got us into Iraq.
Master of Trivia wrote on May 18, 2007 12:09 PM:Sometimes nits must be picked...
"Its a brand new muck format."
-5 points, "Its" should be "It's", for "It is"...
Buck wrote on May 18, 2007 12:57 PM:Cursor style. Looks OK to me.
nuncamas wrote on May 18, 2007 12:58 PM:The Tulsa World newspaper reports today that the USA for the northern district of Oklahoma, David O'Meilia, was on Sampson's lists in 2006. O'Melia says he had no idea he was on any list and no idea why he would be.
busboy33 wrote on May 18, 2007 1:03 PM:re: 8-yr-old finding reports . . .
Oh! Someone is so very fired right now.
Master of Trivia wrote on May 18, 2007 3:17 PM:Re: my nits, above
Thanks for the fix, my sphincters can unclench now...
Lena wrote on May 18, 2007 6:34 PM:I like the format.
Bugboy wrote on May 19, 2007 8:51 AM:Much like the "blog rescue" type posts I've seen, there's so much going on it's hard to keep up. This is a great idea, a good remedy to avoid scandal fatique when you see so much inaction to the scandals (wow, those letters are REALLY bringing them DOWN! And I mean DOOOOOWWWWWWNNNN!!!11111!!!)
Code is wheel as in the wheel goes round. Yeah, I know that code word stuff gets old but it's SO MUCH FUN! Kudos to the code word authors, now we need stuff like "indict" and "resign" (but NOT resigned), "statute of limitations" and mostly "incarcerate".
KYJurisDoctor wrote on May 19, 2007 11:05 PM:Kentucky's David L. Huber didn't have a clue!
http://osi-speaks.blogspot.com/2007/05/finding-oneself-on-hit-list-cannot-be.html#links
Josiah Bartlett wrote on May 20, 2007 6:49 PM:Intuition tells me that for those 30 USAs on this newest list, the ones that survived were the one in states that were either solidly red or solidly blue. The solid reds because their elections were in the bag anyway. The solid blues because if they tried their voter fraud routine it would backfire.
The ones at risk were in swing states. They were probably ranked on the potential a new guy could turn things for the R's, if they were pursuing corruption charges against R's like Carol Lam, or if some heavy hitters were complaining.
Rove was doing "the math" to get the most impact with the fewest changes. I think much of Rove's success has been his skill at "flying under the radar". Part of this is also due to his skill at controlling the radar operators so they don't see anything reportable in what they see.
On this issue and many others, TPM rocks.
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