Two GOP Lawmakers Under Federal Criminal Investigation

by- Suzie-Q @ 6:56 PM MST

Two senior Republican lawmakers are reportedly under criminal investigation for alleged corruption linked to an Alaska oil services company.

Federal authorities are looking into whether Representative Don Young or Senator Ted Stevens accepted bribes, illegal gratuities or unreported gifts from VECO Corp., an oil field engineering firm in Alaska, the Wall Street Journal wrote, citing unnamed “people close to the case.”

It remained unclear what the company may have received in return for the alleged favors, the newspaper said. The firm has won a series of federal government contracts since 2000, including projects to deliver logistics support for arctic research, it said.

The two lawmakers are the latest to come under federal investigation after a series of corruption probes in recent years that sent two members of Congress to prison and resulted in a bribery indictment of another lawmaker.

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Olbermann: Dick Cheney Worst Person In The World!

by- Suzie-Q @ 3:35 PM MST

And the winner is….Dick Cheney!  Runners up are Fox Noise and Sean Hannity.

Countdown: Worst Person July 24, 2007

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Bush Approval Rating Tumbles To 25 Percent

by- Suzie-Q @ 3:23 PM MST

According to a new American Research Group poll, just 25% of Americans approve of the way President Bush is handling his job as president and 71% disapprove. These are record lows for the survey.

When it comes to Bush’s handling of the economy, 23% approve and 73% disapprove.

Read more here.

HuffPo

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Bordering On Insanity – Or Rather, Being Deep Into It

by- Mentarch … 15:55 EDT

The Seventh Principle of Incompetence (Incompetence is nothing but consistent with itself) states: “As long as incompetents do not acknowledge their affliction with intellectual sloth, they will stubbornly refuse to change. Some people call this hubris. To this effect, incompetents are known to repeat the same mistakes again and again, because of their arrogance and utter fright at being exposed for what they truly are – and thus, they find themselves unknowingly enacting Franklin’s, and/or Einstein’s, very definition of insanity, which is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.“

It goes without saying that the Bush administration constitutes a paragon of this Principle, including where Iran is concerned.

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Judiciary Committee Sends Contempt Charges For Miers And Bolton

by- Suzie-Q @ 12:10 PM MST

The House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday formally recommended criminal contempt charges against former White House counsel Harriet Miers and chief of staff Joshua Bolten for their failure to comply with an investigation into the firing of eight US Attorneys.The charges were presented in a resolution that, if passed by the House as a whole, would present a case for criminal proceedings to the US Attorney for the District of Columbia. But the justice department has said it will not purse the charges because the White House has invoked executive privilege. The House Judiciary Committee voted 22-17 along party lines to send the Democratic measure to the full House, which The Associated Press reported is expected to consider the citation after its August recess..

Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced the resolution accompanied by a 52-page report outlining the criminal charges against the administration officials.

The hearing also brought harsh denunciations of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who Democrats accused of obfuscating his own role in the attorney firing scandal.

“They have sent the Attorney General here to lie and to insult us with his lies,” said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y.

More

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Secret Service Looking Into Anti-Hillary Threats On Bill O’Reilly’s Web Site

by- Suzie-Q @ 11:55 AM MST

The Secret Service, already protecting Senator Clinton, has reportedly taken an interest in the threats against the Senator posted on Bill O’Reilly’s Web site. Of even greater concern, O’Reilly claims that his Web site is not an open forum, meaning that no one can just walk in and post hate on his Web site. Does this mean that Bill O’Reilly or his proxies approved of the threats against Hillary?

AmericaBlog

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TIME FOR THE ADULTS TO TAKE CHARGE!” REP. PETER DeFAZIO

by Geezer Power …10:29 AM PDT

Classified info – The congressman
wanted to see government plans for after a terror attack

DeFazio asks, but he’s denied access
Classified info – Friday, July 20, 2007JEFF KOSSEFF The Oregonian Staff

WASHINGTON — Oregonians called Peter DeFazio’s office, worried there was a conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack.

As a member of the U.S. House on the Homeland Security Committee, DeFazio, D-Ore., is permitted to enter a secure “bubbleroom” in the Capitol and examine classified material. So he asked the White House to see the secret documents.

On Wednesday, DeFazio got his answer: DENIED.

~MORE~

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Mexican Pipeline Attacks Could Jeopardize Exports

by- Suzie-Q @ 8:59 AM MST

WASHINGTON — Saboteurs who blew up natural gas pipelines that shut down one of Mexico’s main industrial regions earlier this month also crippled an important crude oil pipeline in an operation that indicated extensive knowledge of Mexico’s energy infrastructure, U.S. officials said Tuesday.

Not only were oil and natural gas pipelines targeted, but the bombers also knew enough about energy installations to destroy the shutoff valves along several pipelines that allow for the wide national distribution of oil and natural gas.

“These are massive steel valves — they’re gigantic,” a U.S. official familiar with the bombing investigation told McClatchy Newspapers. “These are major, very expensive shutoff valves that control the flow of all this petroleum (and natural gas). This wasn’t a round tube in the middle of nowhere.”

And the bombers knew which side of the valve they should strike, ensuring that crude oil didn’t flow to a nearby refinery and that natural gas didn’t flow to foreign and Mexican manufacturers in the central Bajio region, said the official, who agreed to talk only on condition of anonymity because of the extreme sensitivity of the probe in Mexico.

Other U.S. officials, who insisted on anonymity because the probe is still active, corroborated the story.

Targeting pipelines is a common tactic of Marxist guerrillas in Colombia, but it’s rare in Mexico, the second-largest supplier of oil to the United States. The guerrillas’ ability to strike oil pipelines is troubling because further attacks on oil installations could jeopardize Mexico’s status as a reliable export supplier, said Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism expert at Georgetown University.

More

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The Pat Tillman Story Refuses to Die!

by GEF @ 10:33 AM

This Administration’s Lies are unraveling by leaps and bounds… – GEF

Congress Wants Answers on Tillman Death

Congress Wants Answers From White House on Friendly-Fire Death of Pat Tillman

By SCOTT LINDLAW
The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO

Congressional investigators told the White House on Tuesday that they intend to question several former Bush administration officials about their knowledge of Pat Tillman’s death, escalating their inquiry into the high-profile friendly fire case.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight Committee, and Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., the committee’s top-ranking Republican, also pressed for drafts of a speech President Bush made in the weeks before it became publicly known that the former NFL star was killed by his own troops. In the 2004 speech at the White House correspondents’ dinner, Bush didn’t mention how Tillman died.

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Never Give A Life, or Take A Life, For A Lie

Sudhan@10:45 CET

By Michael T. McPhearson & Ying Lee

There are many kinds of betrayal in human affairs. But in the affairs of state, there is no greater act of disloyalty than to send young men and women to their deaths on the basis of fraud. No soldier should ever give a life, or take a life, for a lie.

All American ranking officers and commanders take an oath to uphold and defend the Constitution. Their oath is a solemn obligation to the American people, especially to their own troops, to abide by the law. Our men and women in uniform place great trust in their superiors. They risk their lives in the belief that they will not be used falsely, illegally, or for ill-gain.

There is no group of Americans with greater interest in the enforcement of international law than American troops themselves. Our youth pay a heavy price when their own rulers plunge them into operations beyond international law. Immediately after the Abu Ghraib scandal, the infamous, retaliatory beheadings began.

Full article

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