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The Daily Muck
Lawrence Ray, a former “most trusted lieutenant” of Bernie Kerik’s and an acquaintance of Rudolph Giuliani’s, is making life difficult for Bernie and Rudolph. Ray, now a convicted felon serving prison time, has turned over to federal authorities “half a dozen boxes of e-mails, memos, faxes, financial statements, photographs and other materials about Kerik's alleged wrongdoing.” Last spring, Ray’s friend Sidney Baumgarten, a New York lawyer, told Giuliani’s former deputy mayor that Ray would not release “damaging” information about Giuliani if he provided help with Ray’s legal troubles. (Washington Post)
Private security firm Blackwater is buying a fleet of aircraft and ground vehicles, including its own airship, hoping to expand into U.N.-style peacekeeping and humanitarian aid. The company says it wants to win contracts to secure failed states before the U.N. arrives, and perhaps repair its severely damaged reputation. (Wired)
The Bush administration's nominee to be assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs today gave the Iraqi government led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki an "F" for failing to meet key legislative benchmarks. The nominee, Mary Beth Long, said the Iraqi government has not yet succeeded in passing de-Baathification legislation or approving hydrocarbon laws including an oil revenue sharing agreement, among other legislative goals. (The National Journal)
According to a new Pentagon report, violence is down in Iraq but the Iraqi government has made little progress in delivering electricity, health care, and other essential services. Progress means that “the shortfall [of electricity production] in November 2007 was 42 percent of total demand compared with 53 percent in August 2007 and 47 percent in August 2006. (New York Times)
A Government Accountability report notes that the Customs and Border Protection division, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security, has a bit of an obsession with Americans’ illegal travel to Cuba. The agency conducts secondary inspections on 20 percent of charter passengers arriving in Miami from Cuba, which is “six times the inspection rate for other international arrivals, even from countries considered shipment points for narcotics.” The report concludes that this focus has “strained C.B.P.’s capacity to carry out its primary mission of keeping terrorists, criminals and inadmissible aliens from entering the country at Miami International Airport.” (New York Times)
The Senate yesterday voted to strengthen protections for federal employees who become whistle-blowers against fraud, abuse, and waste. A similar bill passed the House in March but there is a good chance that President Bush will veto the final bill. (Project on Government Oversight)
After failing to limit the 8,983 earmarks in this year’s appropriation bill, leaders of the Republican Study Committee (RSC) have called upon colleagues to take a pledge to resist new earmarks in the future. The group has had some past success: Jeff Flake (R-AZ) killed a $129,000 earmark for The Home of the Perfect Christmas Tree, a small-business development program in Mitchell County, N.C. The only problem is that this earmark was requested by Patrick McHenry (R-NC) who was one of the “conservatives who pushed to make sure earmark sponsors are publicly identified.” (CQ Politics)
Comments (6)
theswan wrote on December 19, 2007 10:34 AM:And which is the first failed state that blackwater will "rescue" from UN intradiction? Possible America?
mac2151 wrote on December 19, 2007 11:09 AM:It appears that Blackwater's Global Stability Initiatives is merely a new wrapper for the same old Australian/American, melted, candybar that was introduced on 9/11. It's just an expansion of the same old thing, unless they plan on killing more dogs.
Is John Wrenn of Global the same John D Wren of Omnicom/Russ Reid that lobbies for non-profits and gets religious earmarks?
If so, it would all seem to fall in line. Australian Peter Cooper, Administrator for Peacekeeping Missions at the UN (fraud galore); Frank W Cooper, Commonwealth Research (Murtha earmarks); Mary Beth Long, nominee Assist Sec of Defense; Chris Long, Ohio Christian Coalition.
If you look at it closer, it's the same people doing the same old thing - taking all our money while destroying our country.
They rape the US, they raped Iraq, and now they want to take the raping on the road. No wonder they want to hand out so many condoms.
S. L. wrote on December 19, 2007 3:11 PM:Hey, where's the story about the judge at Guantanamo ordering an Article 5 P.O.W. review for Hamdan (which his lawyers have been pushing for for years)?
This could just be an attempt to cover the holes in the MCA before the supreme court rules, but I think the JAGs are finally rebelling (this is the judge that threw out the Hamdan case in the first go-round) and the fact that this came out within a day of the story that the WH wants to put political apointees in charge of JAG promotions does not seem like a coincidence.
ttp://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2007/12/hamdan-entitled-to-pow-status-hearing.php
One intriguing tidbit from scotusblog:
"Article 5 then specifies that, if there is any doubt whether a person captured for “a belligerent act” is a POW, that means they must be treated temporarily as a POW until that status is settled."
The judge ruled that Hamdan's claim of POW status was sufficient to trigger an Article 5 review. Could this judge's ruling mean that all guantanamo detainees will get POW treatment if they claim to be POWs until a court has ruled on it?
Jack Hutson wrote on December 19, 2007 3:11 PM:Cheney and Blackwater the new terrorists and they are both funded with the money stolen in Iraq...just my opinion!
Jack Hutson - Harrison, Arkansas
Utopia wrote on December 19, 2007 4:02 PM:"According to a new Pentagon report, violence is down in Iraq but the Iraqi government has made little progress in delivering electricity, health care, and other essential services."
It's beyond me how *anyone* could draw *any* other conclusion than the violence in Iraq has nothing to do with the willingness of the Suuni, Shia and Kurds to set their differences aside. The surge was based on the premise that a necessary and sufficient condition for the government to come together was to quell the violence and it is utterly false. The longer the surge continues the longer our troops and innocent Iraqis will die for no good reason.
U
gregflynn wrote on December 21, 2007 4:00 PM:McHenry still hasn't kicked the earmark habit:
Transformation of ISO containers to Smart Containers
Defense
$2,250,000
(The smartest container this company has made is a 1000 gallon plastic septic tank)
Mega-Capacity Hybrid Chemistry Lithium Primary Portable Batteries
Defense
$1,000,000
(A French company in NC)
Caldwell County, NC, Sheriff's Department
Commerce-Justice-Science
$375,000
North Carolina Center for Engineering Technologies, Hickory, NC for purchase of equipment at the Center for Engineering Technologies
Labor-HHS-Education
$150,000
Caldwell Community College and Technical Institute, Hudson, NC for curriculum development
Labor-HHS-Education
$100,000