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Saturday Open

GreyHawk's picture
Submitted by: GreyHawk on Sat, 05/10/2008 - 05:24

Happy Saturday, everyone!

What's new?

On the McCain front, there's this tidbit:

McCain Pushed Land Swap That Benefits Backer

By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer

Friday, May 9, 2008; Page A01

PRESCOTT, Ariz. -- Sen. John McCain championed legislation that will let an Arizona rancher trade remote grassland and ponderosa pine forest here for acres of valuable federally owned property that is ready for development, a land swap that now stands to directly benefit one of his top presidential campaign fundraisers].

[...more at link in title...]

Hat-tip kubla000 of DailyKos.

What a surprise, a land deal benefitting a backer, courtesy of Mr. Keating Five himself. Nothing like consistency when it comes to the GOP SOP.

Speaking of "consistency" in terms of the GOP and Bush Republicans, there's more:

On the Don Siegelman front, it looks like there may be some other interesting developments -- and, of course, scandals -- surrounding the shutdown of an investigation:

Special Counsel shut down probe of Siegelman case last year

By BEN EVANS
The Associated Press
5/7/2008, 6:50 p.m. CDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Office of Special Counsel last year shut down a previously undisclosed investigation into the federal prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, according to an internal memo made public Wednesday.

[...more at the link in the title...]

Interesting. It gets even more interesting, too: the Project on Government Oversight made public a January 18 draft memo that indicated Special Counsel Scott Bloch shut down the investigation before it could follow through on the intention to request documents from the Justice Department.

[Bloch] asked the task force to broaden its investigations into the fired prosecutors and into whether federal agencies received political briefings from the White House to boost GOP electoral fortunes. But he shut down an investigation into whether the Justice Department was hinging its hiring decisions on job applicants' political affiliations.

[...snip...]

"The question is who told them to shut it down," Siegelman said Wednesday when told of the memo. "Why would you start an investigation and let it proceed and then shut it down? The logical conclusion is that somebody intervened and told them to shut down the investigation."

Hat-tip to LightningMan of DailyKos.

The Bush Justice Department -- a class unto itself, redefining the term "Justice" and warping the phrase "and justice for all" (as well as "of, by and for the people") into a uniquely GOP term.

See also:

Siegelman on ePluribus Media

On the US Attorney scandal and related items,

This is an open thread.

tags:

Set Up Buzz!
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jimstaro's picture

So Much for those Spun Re-Enlistment Numbers, monthly!

Submitted by jimstaro on Sat, 05/10/2008 - 06:20.

U.S. Army's 'stop-loss' orders up dramatically over last year
The jump coincides with the extension of combat tours from 12 to 15 months.

Between 2002 and 2007, 58,300 soldiers were given stop-loss orders, forcing them to remain in the service past the end of their enlistment periods.

Tell the world: My America Doesn't Torture!

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GreyHawk's picture

They're destroying our military and making

Submitted by GreyHawk on Sat, 05/10/2008 - 06:39.

an "all-volunteer" army well-nigh impossible to justify without either one or both of the following to supplement it:

  1. Mandatory conscription, or
  2. Massive outsourcing to security contractor sources

And they appear to want to make the choice painful, inevitable, and put it squarely in the hands of the Democrats to actually be forced to adopt the options they are left with, or be stuck with a shambles of a military.

All options, of course, would then permit them (in their minds, at least) to decry Democratic governance of the military as poorly planned and unreasonable.

They're the worst incarnation of "evil" in every way, still dressed up as lambs (tho with increasingly dirty, greasy coats).

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Good News for Tree Huggers

Submitted by cho on Sat, 05/10/2008 - 07:22.

or ... Senator Murray's and Rep Larsen's persistence pays:

New Federal Forest areas in Washington State and Oregon

And surprise surprise, Bush signed the bill on May 8th -- Thursday:


The House gave final approval to the bill last month. It designates 167 square miles in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest north of Sultan, Wash., as federal wilderness, the government's highest level of protection.

Wild Sky, sponsored by Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Rick Larsen, both D-Wash., is the first new federally designated wilderness in Washington since 1984.

"Reaching the end of the trail never felt so good," said Larsen. "Today marks the summit of a long journey made possible by many committed people and years of community input. Together, we not only created a new wilderness bill, but a new model for creating wilderness in the future."

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from the mailbag...

Submitted by cho on Sat, 05/10/2008 - 09:06.

David Rovics "What if you Knew" -- warning: graphic images...


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jimstaro's picture

Five Million Orphans in Iraq

Submitted by jimstaro on Sat, 05/10/2008 - 09:50.

Alive in Baghdad - Among Iraq’s Children, Orphans Suffer Most

Saturday May 10th, 2008

We show this segment courtesy of Alive in Baghdad. Alive in Baghdad employs Iraqi journalists to produce video packages each week about a variety of topics on daily life in Iraq.

The number of Iraqi orphans increased in the last few years due to the war. According to official Iraqi government statistics released in December 2007, the number of Iraqi orphans had reached at least five million over the last three years. Many due to the Sunni-Shia conflict. There are several social organizations caring for a small number of these Iraqi orphans, such as Child Aid International. There are approximately 26 orphanages that Alive in Baghdad has been able to locate around Iraq. Eight orphanages are in Baghdad and another 18 are distributed all over Iraq and generally they accept kids between the age of 6 and 18 years old.

One of the biggest scandals that happened in the history of the Iraq conflict is the one that happened in Al-Hanan orphanage. There were many pictures distributed online and by television of Iraqi orphans lying on the floor naked, with no food for weeks, sick and nearly dying. After this the Iraqi government began to show more attention for the orphans, there were many stories being reported regarding Al-Hanan Orphanage, like sexual abuses and bad treatment of the kids living there.

Al-A’ssal House is one of the rare orphanages that still take care of the young children who have a dead father or who are orphans due to losing both parents. The house has a special method and it’s opposed to the toy guns due to Iraq’s situation and the reason behind it, which is the constant conflict that Iraq is undergoing. Another organization was also created by this house, and it’s called the Sazan organization. This organization is taking in orphans for free, with no payment at all. Also this house employs Iraq widows in order to help the Iraqi women support themselves during the war. Despite all their hard work, this orphanage has not yet received any funding from the Iraqi government or sponsorship by a bigger humanitarian aid organization while other orphanages such as Al-Hanan orphanage received funds from the Iraqi government without oversight.

Tell the world: My America Doesn't Torture!

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GreyHawk's picture

Jim, could you also post this as a regular

Submitted by GreyHawk on Sat, 05/10/2008 - 17:35.

piece? (if you have a moment, of course)

I think it would be worth FP'ing.

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Jim... gotta agree with GH above.

Submitted by cho on Sun, 05/11/2008 - 14:55.

worth fpaging.

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