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The Daily Muck
As a result of a freedom of information act request filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a federal judge has told the Bush administration that it must release records of lobbying contracts with telecommunications companies. The ruling suggests that the government is moving too slowly, especially given the fact that Congress is scheduled to debate telecom immunity soon. (San Francisco Chronicle)
The Interior Department Inspector General completed a second investigation into DOI official Julie MacDonald for "interfering" in areas where she had no expertise and participating in decisions where she had a conflict of interest. An environmental group plans to file multiple lawsuits over some 50 decisions by MacDonald. (McClatchy)
Over the next few months FEMA will close all of the trailer camps for victims of the 2005 hurricanes. A FEMA spokesman said that the formaldehyde issue did play a role in the decision. A lawyer with Lawyer’s Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington agreed that “it’s probably a good idea to get people out of trailers..., but not at the expense of making them homeless.” (New York Times)
Twelve states are suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to compel the agency to reverse course and restore all of the chemical reporting requirements that were once included in its Toxics Release Inventory program. The EPA had recently ruled that companies that released fewer than 5,000 pounds of toxic chemicals (the old rule used a benchmark of 500) could file less detailed forms that make it harder for communities to track toxic waste. (New York Times)
Citizens Against Government Waste has unveiled its new database that documents all of the 2,243 earmarks in the Labor Health and Human Services appropriations bill. (Politico)
Karl Rove’s “missing” e-mails sent from a Republican National Committee account have already cost the RNC $250,000. The RNC has refused to say whether there has been any return on their investment. (Washington Post)
Only two of the 43 local intelligence-sharing "fusion centers" set up after 9/11 focus exclusively on preventing terrorism according to a Government Accountability Office report. Others focused on all crimes. Center directors said they need more guidance from Washington. (AP)
The same Saudi justice system that sentenced a victim of gang rape to physical beatings, is taking a more compassionate approach to the 1,500 prisoners it just released. Despite being suspected of belonging to a radical Islamic group, the prisoners were granted freedom for having completed a five-week therapeutic program of group counseling. (ABC’s Blotter)
Josh
Zachary
That's "contacts", not "contracts" in the first item.
(...hmmm, it wouldn't be all that preposterous to learn that the Bush administration had lobbying *contracts* with the telecom industry too!)
November 29, 2007 11:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
Somebody, anybody--please name a Bush political appointee who actually did something FOR their agency, rather than to undermine its purpose.
HUD, Interior, DoJ, Labor, EPA, FEMA, and on and on goes the list of appointees who undid or at least set back the progress of the departments that are supposed to protect the interests of the American people, not American corporations and landowners.
November 29, 2007 3:21 PM | Reply | Permalink
"Only two of the 43 local intelligence-sharing "fusion centers" set up after 9/11 focus exclusively on preventing terrorism according to a Government Accountability Office report. Others focused on all crimes. Center directors said they need more guidance from Washington."
I'm beginning to believe that FASCISM is spelled R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N.
First, the Republicans in the White House let the 9/11 attacks take place, by literally blowing off all the warning signs in 2001 that an attack was imminent. Republicans in the Bush administration, the most corrupt and incompetent administration in American history, turned a blind eye to the al Qaeda threat. August 6, 2001 PDB--ignored. Late August, countless desperate requests for search warrants by mid-West FBI field agents who'd detained one of the suspected pre-9/11 hijackers at a flight school--ignored. Early September 2001, one and only one cabinet-level counter-terrorism meeting held by the Bush administration, but not to discuss the al Qaeda terrorist threat, only as Condi Rice stated, to discuss the overall Middle East situation (i.e., the Bush officals met to discuss ousting Saddam Hussein and how best to sell this lame-brained idea to U.S. citizens).
Thus, 9/11 happened and thousands of U.S. citizens died.
And then, the most corrupt and vile administration in U.S. history demanded increased "police" powers to protect us from any future attacks, with 43 local-intelligence "fusion centers" being the result, so the Bush administration could supposedly coordinate their federal counter-terrorism efforts with local police authorities.
So, why am I not surprised that the Bush administration, and the criminals behind this blight on our democracy, designated only 2 of these 43 "fusion centers" for exclusive counter-terrorism purposes, leaving the other 41 to spy on U.S. citizens (probably without any warrants) as part of an expanded police-state Republican Party agenda?
Go figure. A Fascist mindset has definitely consumed the Republican Party, to the detriment of all we hold dear in our freedom-loving, democratic republic. Ergo, the Fascist Republican Party is by far more dangerous to our democracy than the al Qaeda could ever dream of being.
November 29, 2007 11:31 PM | Reply | Permalink