Friday, September 08, 2006 - FreeMarketNews.com

The White House routed millions of dollars to the failed campaign of Sen. Joe Lieberman in order to secure the seat for the Bush-friendly Democrat. A senior GOP source said this is part of Karl Rove’s larger plan to maintain a Republican majority in the Senate.

The source told Insight Magazine that Rove and Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman directed pro-Bush donors to donate millions of dollars to Lieberman’s campaign with the hope he would lean Republican. The source added that Lieberman took the money but “would not play ball.”

Under Rove’s direction, the GOP has abandoned Alan Schlesinger, Connecticut’s Republican candidate for Senate, who has dropped to around 5 percent in the polls. Schlesinger has received no contact with the White House and has no support of any national Republican. Lieberman is expected to win the general election as an independent against Democrat Ned Lamont but recent polls show the race tightening considerably.

Link

…”would not play ball.” OH, he’s playing ball all right!

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate agreed to spend an additional $63 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan as lawmakers on Thursday passed a massive bill that funds the Pentagon.

The bill sailed through by a vote of 98-0 after senators added money to help track down al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and fight the opium trade in Afghanistan that is helping fuel the Taliban’s resurgence.

The overwhelming support for the overall bill and the money to support U.S. troops in harm’s way came despite increasing criticism by Democrats of the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq.

More here

Read more about defense budget here

I wonder how many people the CIA really has in these secret prisons. We’re told of the 14 who were moved……how many are left out there????

By Dafna Linzer and Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Staff Writers
Friday, September 8, 2006; Page A01

Shackled and hooded, 14 men in secret CIA custody were gathered one by one from locations across the world last weekend and flown to a rallying point to await one more flight. For some of the prisoners, it was their third or fourth journey to yet another unknown destination since President Bush approved a covert plan for them to disappear into CIA facilities hidden throughout Eastern Europe and Asia.

On Sunday night, the men — three Pakistanis, two Yemenis, two Saudis, two Malaysians, a Palestinian, a Libyan, a Somali, an Indonesian and a Tanzanian — were sedated and placed together onto a flight to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. They arrived Labor Day morning, an unusually quiet time at the Pentagon-run facility.

More here

Nice timing……..

WASHINGTON - A Senate analysis of intelligence-gathering activities leading up to the invasion of Iraq is certain to rekindle an election-year debate on the justification of going to war.

The top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller of West Virginia, said the report will confirm that “the Bush administration’s case for war in Iraq was fundamentally misleading.”

Read more here

NEW YORK (Reuters) — Hewlett-Packard Co. has admitted that private investigators hired by its board had acquired the phone records of several journalists in an attempt to find a suspected boardroom leaker, the Financial Times reported Friday.

Hewlett-Packard (Charts) declined to reveal the number of journalists who had been caught up in the probe, adding it was cooperating with the California Attorney General’s office, the FT reported.

The newspaper quoted an HP spokesman as saying, “We are absolutely horrified that the records of journalists were accessed without their authorization.”

Nine journalists’ phone records were obtained by Hewlett-Packard during their investigation into the board leak, according to various news reports.

Full article here

When is the world going to demand this stop???

Living conditions for Palestinians in Gaza have reached breaking point, a senior UN official has said.

The warning came from Karen Abuzayd, head of the UN Relief and Works Agency.

She said Israeli military action in Gaza over recent weeks was creating suffering and mass despair, rather than any desire for political compromise.

Israel keeps Gaza’s borders largely sealed and conducts regular military operations, prompted in part by the capture of an Israeli soldier.

Full article here

KABUL, Afghanistan - A suicide car bomb struck a convoy of U.S. military vehicles in Kabul on Friday, killing at least 10 people and wounding 17, police said. Two American soldiers were among the dead and two others among the wounded, the U.S. military said.

Article here

 

The Iraqi ministry of health says more than 1,500 people were killed in attacks in Baghdad last month.

The figure is far higher than previously thought, and only slightly lower than July’s figure.

US military and Iraqi officials had previously said a major new security operation in Baghdad had dramatically reduced the number of killings.

Last month the US military spokesman in Iraq, Maj Gen William Caldwell, said the rate of violent deaths in Baghdad had fallen significantly from July to August.

US officials had suggested that the murder rate in Baghdad had dropped 52% in August compared to the daily rate for July. (emphasis mine) 

Full article here

Gee, ya think? They’ll probably rise even more after dipshits speeches this week!

By Ruth Morris
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
Posted September 8 2006

Incidents of anti-Muslim discrimination are on the rise in South Florida, from slurs painted on mosque walls to a woman told she would have to remove her head covering if she wanted to keep her job, a report by the Council on American-Islamic Relations said Thursday.More here

Eva Cassidy

Somewhere Over The Rainbow

WASHINGTON - The Pentagon’s top uniformed lawyers took issue Thursday with a key part of a White House plan to prosecute terrorism detainees, telling Congress that limiting the suspects- access to evidence could violate treaty obligations.

 More here.

It must suck to be in charge of a military that doesn’t share your sense of fascism.