June 20, 2006

“Senators Debating Iraq Measure
By KATE ZERNIKE and CARL HULSE

WASHINGTON, June 20 — Republicans defeated a Democratic measure calling for an investigation into waste and fraud in military contracts today as the Senate engaged in an emotional debate over the Iraq war.”
Please find the entire article here.

“Federal contracts up 86% under Bush; Halliburton rises 600%
06/19/2006 @ 1:02 pm
Top contractor Lockheed got contracts larger than budget of Congress, Dept. of Interior
WASHINGTON — A new report claims that a “shadow government” of federal contractors has exploded in size over the last five years.”
Please find the article here.

“Fatal Inaction
By April Witt
Sunday, June 18, 2006; […]

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TRANSCRIPTION:

“Dear Dick:
I miss you but I’ll be
back in 2 hours. You said
the Green Zone was a Video
Arcade! U GOT ME! HA-HA
Bagdad(sic) is pretty cool.
I hope U like this card.
Airport had cool bumper
stickers. Can’t wait 2 C U. W
P.S. What’s Black + White +
RED ALL OVER?”

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Images:
(Green Zone)cimoli.com:(soylent)okladki-divx.neostrada.pl; (soylent color)stomptokyo.com; (stamps) armenstamp.com

June 20, 2006

“Crime Rising, New Orleans Asks for National Guard
By SUSAN SAULNY
NEW ORLEANS, June 19 — In a blunt admission that the city could no longer control its growing crime problem, Mayor C. Ray Nagin asked the state on Monday to send National Guard troops to help patrol the streets of New Orleans.”
Please find the […]

“Maliki Aide Who Discussed Amnesty Leaves Job;  Premier Disavows Remarks; Egyptian Seen Replacing Zarqawi
By Ellen Knickmeyer and Jonathan Finer
Washington Post Foreign Service
Friday, June 16, 2006; Page A22
BAGHDAD, June 15 — Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s office on Thursday accepted the resignation of an aide who had told a reporter that Maliki was considering a […]

To finish a project, civil servant or private sector worker takes home a laptop and disc which burglars then steal. News of the theft only reaches the public in drips which ultimately lead to the revelation that personal records of 75,000,000 Americans were not protected by password or encryption. The oddity of the story recalls […]

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‘Wash Post’ Obtains Shocking Memo from U.S. Embassy in Baghdad, Details Increasing Danger and Hardship
By Greg Mitchell
Published: June 18, 2006 6:20 PM ET
NEW YORK The Washington Post has obtained a cable, marked “sensitive,” that it says show that just before President Bush left on a surprise trip last Monday to the Green […]

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Images:
(Darius)verbumlogos.blogspot; (Xerxes)home.uchicago.edu; (Zeus & (Hermes)arc.pandhditopanji.f.org (Hermes bag) bagshop.com/gaultier (Scarf)jubil.com;(Nicholas) (Stalin)kaapeli.fi (Hoover)nrk.no
(Temple) celebrityfans.com; (Gonzalez)english.epochtimes.com;(Castro)uoregon.edu (Batista)historyofcuba.com;(Studebaker)camera-crafts.com (Duvaliers)(Bushers)(Frankenstein Colin Clive)doctormacro.com; (Son of Frankenstein Basil)basilrathbone.net; (Young Frankenstein GeneWilder)georgetown.edu

DHS Finds Missing Cunningham Letter
Support Staffer Unearths Recommendation of Limo Company
By Erica Werner
Associated Press
Saturday, June 17, 2006; A08
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The Department of Homeland Security produced a letter yesterday from former congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham recommending a limousine company for federal contracts — a day after saying it did not have such a letter.
The latest twist in the […]

Tuesday, 13 June 2006, 13:10 GMT 14:10 UK
Fake bearskins ‘unsatisfactory’

The search for a “faux fur” alternative to make bearskin helmets for the Guards regiments has so far proved fruitless, says the Ministry of Defence.

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Armed Forces minister Adam Ingram said an “unsatisfactory performance” in wet weather conditions were among problems.

The MoD has been testing material […]

House rejects timetable for Iraq pullout

By LIZ SIDOTI, Associated Press Writer1 hour, 11 minutes ago
The House on Friday rejected a timetable for pulling U.S. forces out of Iraq after a ferociously partisan debate, forcing lawmakers in both parties to go on record on a major issue in re-election campaigns nationwide.
A day after the Senate […]

June 16, 2006 06:04 AM / The Rant .
By DOUG THOMPSON
George W. Bush is an international war criminal who should be arrested, shackled and led to the World Court to stand trial for his many crimes against humanity.
So should be any member of Congress who continues to support the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq […]

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Images: (Shinto) tiscali.co.uk; (satan’s horns) hotrodsclassified.com; (popemobile) okoffroad.com; (Falwell) bbc.co.uk; (Lincoln) home.austin.rr.com; (Billy Graham) time.com; (Mr. Natural) R. Crumb; (Makarios) rootsweb.com;
I am looking up the rest of the links, but please bear with me. The Dalai Lama is wearing red and sitting in most of his photos.

Here is the latest about my favorite Milquetoast Senator, Specter.

Please find the entire piece here.

A
Newly released emails suggest Army Corps lied about Cheney role in Halliburton contract
06/15/2006 11:42 am
Filed by Avery Walker
New documents obtained by a conservative watchdog group suggest that the US Army Corp of Engineers may have publicly lied regarding the involvement of the Vice President’s office in awarding a 2003 multi-billion dollar, no-bid contract to Kellogg […]

Jumbo camera taking world’s largest photo

By GILLIAN FLACCUS, Associated Press Writer
Walk into the massive air hangar and the first thing you notice is an oppressive darkness broken only by a tiny beam of light from a gumball-size hole in the wall.
Then, as the eye adjusts, an upside-down image emerges on the opposite wall that is […]

EXCLUSIVE: Majority Leader Boehner’s Confidential Strategy Memo For Thursday’s Iraq Debate
On Thursday, the House of Representatives will hold a debate on the Iraq war. Media reports say Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) “hopes to match the serious, dignified tone of deliberation that preceded the Gulf war, in 1991.”
ThinkProgress has obtained a “Confidential Messaging Memo” from […]

SUNLIGHT FOUNDATION

A real-time investigation of money in Washington politics
Dennis Hastert’s Real Estate Investments

Written by Bill Allison on June 14, 2006 - 2:16pm.

House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert has used an Illinois trust to invest in real estate near the proposed route of the Prairie Parkway, a highway project for which he’s secured $207 million […]

Retired farmer plans Hitler memorial

MILLARD, Wis. (AP) — A retired farmer who says he served in the German army in World War II is turning some of his property into a memorial to Adolf Hitler.
Ted Junker, 87, plans a grand opening June 25 and says his goal is to clear up what he says are […]

A Shameful Silence On Coulter’s Spewing

By Joe Conason
New York Observer

With the predictable regularity of a locust plague, Ann Coulter and her enablers at the once-reputable firm of Random House have issued yet another volume of fascistic entertainment. Now the hard-drinking, trash-talking, fortysomething bachelorette bills herself as a Christian moralist, in holy battle against the liberal […]

Analysis: Telling FBI the truth saved Rove

By PETE YOST, Associated Press WriterTue Jun 13, 2:07 PM ET
The decision not to charge Karl Rove shows there often are no consequences for misleading the public.
In 2003, while Rove allowed the White House to tell the news media that he had no role in leaking Valerie Plame’s […]

Kerry spokesman rips into ‘porcine’ Rove06/13/2006 @ 3:53 pm
Filed by RAW STORY
A spokesman for Senator John Kerry (D-MA) has launched an unusually personal attack on presidential adviser Karl Rove, RAW STORY has learned.
The move comes one day after Rove called plans to exit Iraq proposed by Senator Kerry and Representative John Murtha (D-PA) “profoundly wrong” […]

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Obviously or not, I took artistic license with the architect’s original drawing.

Please find the original article and image  here. 

Bill Clinton may have been a deceiver, but a virtuoso” is certainly overstating his ability. Isaac Stern, a virtuoso, would not have been caught violin-synching.

One may accuse Hillary Clinton of being many things, but “true chameleon” is not one of them. Unless a chameleon hiding in the tall grass turns Gentian violet in color […]

CNN–June 12, 2006
Bush makes surprise visit to Baghdad
Up to 70,000 troops to patrol Iraqi capital in security crackdown
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) — President Bush arrived Tuesday in Baghdad on an unannounced visit to meet with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.
It marks Bush’s first visit since Iraq’s new government was approved on May 20.
Al-Maliki received five […]

Here are a few pieces from THINKPROGRESS.org:
NSA Blocking Whistleblower From Telling Committee About Shocking, Illegal Activities
Last month, ThinkProgress reported that NSA whistleblower Russell Tice would meet with members of the Senate Armed Services Committee to discuss undisclosed unlawful activity that the Agency has engaged in. “I think the people I talk to next week are […]

The Tennessean
Kitty-killer label litters Frist resume for president
Published: Monday, 06/12/06

There’s a potential pothole in U.S. Sen. Bill Frist’s road to the White House: He’s a confessed kitty killer.
He fessed up in his 1989 book, “Transplant,” to adopting cats from shelters when he was in medical school, treating them like pets for a […]

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June 12, 2006
Op-Ed Columnist
New York Times
Those Pesky Voters
By BOB HERBERT
I remember fielding telephone calls on Election Day 2004 from friends and colleagues anxious to talk about the exit polls, which seemed to show that John Kerry was beating George W. Bush and would be the next president.
As the afternoon faded into evening, reports started […]

Rocky Mountain News
Speakout: Phone records search an overreach
By Taylor Pendergrass
June 12, 2006
If you inherited a beautifully maintained home from your parents, would you want to pass it down to your children in ramshackle condition? Of course not. But that’s the prospect Americans face today when it comes to protecting the Constitution.As Americans, we are […]

June 11, 2006

New York Times

Just How Far Did They Go, Those Words Against Israel?
By ETHAN BRONNER
EVER since he spoke at an anti-Zionism conference in Tehran last October, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has been known for one statement above all. As translated by news agencies at the time, it was that Israel “should be wiped […]

BBC

Last Updated: Sunday, 11 June 2006, 16:46 GMT 17:46 UK

Guantanamo suicides a ‘PR move’

A top US official has described the suicides of three detainees at the US base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, as a “good PR move to draw attention”.

Colleen Graffy told the BBC the deaths were part of a strategy and “a […]

Monday June 12, 03:07 AM
Two die in Somalia as hardline Islamists ban World Cup

MOGADISHU (AFP) - Hardline Islamic courts shut cinema halls and barred residents from watching the World Cup, prompting scores of civilians to protest the ban in which two people were killed, court officials and residents said.The gunmen loyal to the Joint Islamic […]

WTOL-TV Toledo & Associated Press
Diebold Lobbyist Donates $10,000 to Blackwell Campaign
June 10, 2006, 05:04 PM EDT
COLUMBUS (AP) — Forty-nine of the 85 people who this year have given Republican Ohio secretary of state Kenneth Blackwell the maximum $10,000 allowed an individual donor have done so since May 2. Members of Cincinnati financier Carl Lindner’s […]

Associated Press 

Specter ready for fight over spy program

1 hour, 27 minutes ago
The Senate Judiciary Committee chairman says he’s prepared to force telephone company executives to testify about the White House’s eavesdropping program if the Bush administration doesn’t fully cooperate in drafting new rules on what’s allowable.
“If we don’t get some results, […]

I was startled to learn the Catholic Church may have actually sold altars and religious objects from shuttered parishes. Would it not have been more appropriate to have sent the pieces to that California, high desert outpost where Burgess Meredith spent his last days in TRUE CONFESSIONS? The parishes could initiate one, final fund drive […]