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The Daily Muck
Among the many problems in Iraq, officials there have decided seat belt laws are lax and will now crackdown on offenders. Add that to the other distractions while on the morning commute. (New York Times)
Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) was found to have misreported over $440,000-worth of campaign donations and spending. Blackburn blamed the discrepancies on a credit card company that she claims botched online donations and inexperienced workers who didn't know how to properly record contribution checks with the FEC. (The Tennessean)
Pentagon documents reveal the 2003 prisoner abuse of Afghan detainees at the Gardez Detention Facility. Among other abuses, prisoners were forced to kneel outside in wet clothing while they were hit repeatedly if they moved. (Associated Press)
In light of the White House's horrendous policy on retaining staff e-mails (of which they have lost millions), House Democrats are pushing legislation to enhance government standards for e-mail preservation. But CREW has denounced the plan as simply a "print-and-save policy," and urges Congress to bring electronic record-keeping into the 21st century. (Washington Post)
Some of the usual suspects, such as Reps. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) and William Jefferson (D-LA) among others, didn't dish out big campaign money to their lawyers for a change in the first quarter of 2008, according to campaign finance reports. But don't count Alaska Republican Don Young in that mix: His legal bill has exceeded $1 million. (Roll Call)
The controversial trial of officials involved in the 2003 rendtion of Egyptian cleric Abu Omar from Milan to Egypt resurfaces after numerous delays, among those being the refusal by the U.S. to give up the names of almost two dozen CIA officials that bungled the rendition. (Mother Jones)
Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) has praised developer Forest City Enterprises as a key player in the revitalization of the old Navy Yard in Southeast Washington. In turn, Forest City and other real estate companies have given her nearly half of the $218,000 she's raised, as of March 31.(Politico)













Until DC is given a vote in the House and representation in the Senate, Eleanor Holmes Norton should feel free to take as much $$ from whomever.
April 17, 2008 10:37 AM | Reply | Permalink
"A 2006 Army review concluded that the detainees were not abused but that the incident revealed "misconduct..."
I guess punching prisoners in the nose and kicking them in the kidneys is no longer abuse. I can't wait until these guys get their post military jobs back here in the states in law enforcement and pick out their weapons for their new jobs... just what our cities need... a little kicking and punching to help get the suspect's memory going while being interrogated.
Also note that this was occurring in 2003... and it was hidden until FOIA laws kicked in. So much for our upstanding Pentagon employees...
April 17, 2008 11:13 AM | Reply | Permalink
Misconduct...
What a joke. When I went through training back in the very late 80's we were instructed to treat prisoners and detainees better than we treated any soldier. It didn't matter how much we wanted to hurt, maim, or kill them we were to treat them with respect. Even if we watched our prisoner slit the throat of our best buddy, if he was a prisoner we were to treat him with respect. Period.
The Army really changed a lot -- and not for the better.
April 17, 2008 11:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
I love the Marsha Blackburn story. She represents the Congressional District next to mine, and I am so tired of hearing men say they vote for her because "She's so cute!!!" (Aaarrrrgggghhhhh!!!!) She is outrageously self-righteous, billing herself as "a real stickler for financial details," and, if this story were about a Democrat, and the discrepancy were 1% of the amount reported about her, she'd be screaming and whining about it around the clock. Payback can be just plain hell.
April 17, 2008 8:17 PM | Reply | Permalink