How 41 Pages Helped Unseat Lam
“When an anonymously authored 41-page Border Patrol report was released by U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), it became a vital cog in Republican efforts to focus attention on Lam’s prosecutorial record — an assault that ultimately brought down the prosecutor. However, the report is oddly written, with editorial comments and aphoristic tangents interspersed among graphs and statistics.” (Voice of San Diego)
New Emails Prompt the Question: Did Bush Make the Decision to Fire US Attorneys?
“An article from McClatchy Newspapers discusses the potentially overlooked role of President Bush in the decision to fire the U.S. Attorneys: ‘Internal administration e-mails show that the Justice Department postponed the firings for nearly three weeks late last year while awaiting White House approval.’ Combined with a White House email asking whether the upcoming firings ‘will be determined to require the boss’s attention’, this 18-day gap raises new concerns about the level of involvement of President Bush.” (CREW)
Inspector General Details Failures of Iraq Reconstruction
“The U.S. government was unprepared for the extensive nation-building required after it invaded Iraq, and at each juncture where it could have adjusted its efforts, it failed even to understand the problems it faced, according to the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. In a stinging, wide-ranging assessment of U.S. reconstruction efforts, Stuart W. Bowen Jr. said that in the days after the invasion, the Defense Department had no strategy for restoring either government institutions or infrastructure.” (Washington Post)