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“What About Me”

I just listened to Cheney on Larry King (Not so Live). I couldn’t bring myself to have to look at the evil bastard. He seemed to say “It is the president’s decision”, and “the president made the decision” alot. Covering his ass? Why was he on tonight? What prompted him to do an interview? Mister Private. Mister I hate the media. Oh, and he pulled a Fredo with the “I do not recall” when asked if he was the one who dispatched Card and Gonzo to Ashcroft’s hospital bed.

Remember Ion Sancho and the grief he?

Reversing an unofficial policy of denial, the Florida Secretary of State’s office has conducted an elections study that confirmed Tuesday what a maverick voting chief discovered nearly two years ago: Insider computer hackers can change votes without a trace on Diebold optical’scan machines.

The study by Florida State University found that, despite recent software fixes, an ”adversary” could use a pre-programmed computer card to swap one candidate’s votes for another or create a ”ballot’stuffing attack” that multiplies votes for a candidate or issue.

A Diebold spokesman, Mark Radke, said the company is confident it will upgrade the ”minor” software glitch by an Aug. 17 deadline the state has set. If it doesn’t, Secretary of State Kurt Browning said his office would eventually ban the use of optiscan Diebold machines in Florida, where 25 counties, including Monroe, use its fill-in-the-blank systems.

More at the Miami Herald

What’s your reason?

By SETH BORENSTEIN
AP Science Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — After exhaustively compiling a list of the 237 reasons why people have sex, researchers found that young men and women get intimate for mostly the same motivations. It’s more about lust in the body than a love connection in the heart.

College-aged men and women agree on their top reasons for having sex - they were attracted to the person, they wanted to experience physical pleasure and “it feels good,” according to a peer-reviewed study in the August edition of Archives of Sexual Behavior. Twenty of the top 25 reasons given for having sex were the same for men and women.

Expressing love and showing affection were in the top 10 for both men and women, but they did take a back seat to the clear No. 1: “I was attracted to the person.”

More at the AP

SAN ANTONIO - An Army major and his wife accused of accepting at least $11.7 million in bribes for U.S. government contracts for Iraq reconstruction were ordered held without bond Tuesday.

Magistrate Judge Pamela Mathy of U.S. District Court in San Antonio ordered Maj. John Cockerham and his wife, Melissa Cockerham, held without bond because of millions of dollars in cash allegedly stored offshore and accusations they attempted to cover their tracks, even as they cooperated with investigative authorities this year.

“The allegations in this case are extraordinary, I believe,” Mathy said as the couple sat side-by’side in navy blue federal detention-issued clothing. “It seems like a small step to flee this country.”

The Cockerhams were arrested at their home on Fort Sam Houston on July 22, accused of bribery, money laundering and conspiracy stemming from John Cockerham’s work as a contracting officer in Kuwait in 2004 and 2005.

John Cockerham’s sister, Carolyn Blake, was also arrested in Dallas but was released on bond by the federal court there Monday.

More at the Houston Chronicle

BY JESSE J. HOLLAND
ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON - The House voted today to reverse the Supreme Court’s decision limiting the time that workers have to sue their employers for pay discrimination.

The Bush administration has threatened to veto the legislation, pushed almost entirely by Democrats.

The House voted 225-199 to effectively remove the statute of limitations for pay discrimination lawsuits for longtime company employees, repudiating a decision by the high court’s five most conservative justices.

“Discrimination has no place in our law, no place in our hearts and no place because of technicalities,” said Rep. Robert Andrews, D-N.J.

The Supreme Court voted 5-4 on May 29 to throw out a Goodyear employee’s complaint that she earned thousands of dollars less than her male counterparts because of discrimination.

More at the Detroit Free Press

Today, Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA) introduced a resolution to begin an impeachment inquiry into the Attorney General (see the resolution here).

The resolution would require the House Judiciary Committee to investigate whether the Attorney General committed high crimes or misdemeanors. Inslee explained during a press conference today: “we are pursuing an investigation prior to filing for the actual articles of impeachment… frankly, it affords the Attorney General due process, something he did not afford his [U.S. attorneys] when they were fired.” Specifically, the investigation will focus on the firing of U.S. Attorneys, the abuse of FISA courts and subsequent covering up of those abuses, and the perjury allegations from his Congressional testimonies.

Here’s how it would work. The first battle, of course, would be convincing the House leadership to bring the resolution to a vote. Then the resolution would be voted on by the entire House. If approved by a majority, the House Judiciary Committee would then investigate whether impeachment would be appropriate. That committee would then report its findings to the House, which would vote on whether to approve articles of impeachment. Then, if the vote succeeds, the case heads over to the Senate for trial.

More at TPM

You’ve probably all heard about the letter that Specter said was due by noon today from the administration, re: Gonzales testimony. Bet me they’ll get the “magic letter” and everything will be all cleared up. Snarlin Arlen probably helped write it.

And if Sen. Specter (R-PA) is still on the fence about where to go next, he might consider this: 70% percent of those polled -including 49% of Republicans- think that Congress is right to investigate Gonzales.

From TPM:

Here’s a little more information on that mysterious letter from the administration expected by Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA).

After a classified briefing on the NSA’s wiretapping program yesterday, Specter said that he expected a letter on the subject by noon today — the letter, supposedly, would help explain the attorney general’s questionable testimony on the program. Specter, however, indicated nothing as to what he expected the letter to say.

In today’s White House press briefing, Tony Snow provided precious little information. He only said that the letter, which will come from the Justice Department, is still forthcoming, probably in the next several hours. He would say nothing about the letter’s contents except that it will answer a number of questions that Specter had about Gonzales’ testimony.

So we continue to wait.

Gordon Brown has paved the way for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq by telling George Bush he would not delay their exit in order to show unity with the United States.

After four hours of one-to-one talks with the US President at his Camp David retreat, Mr Brown told a joint press conference he would make a Commons statement in October on the future of the 5,500 British troops in the Basra region.

The Bush administration, under mounting domestic pressure to produce an exit strategy from Iraq, has been nervous that a full British withdrawal would add to the criticism. But Mr Brown made clear - and President Bush accepted - that Britain would go its own way, even if that gave the impression the two countries were diverging.

Mr Brown’s willingness to pursue an independent British policy in Iraq will be seen as an important break with Tony Blair. Mr Brown said the two leaders had had “full and frank discussions” - diplomatic code for some disagreements.

More at the Independent

By Novacula:

The morass in Iraq and deepening difficulties in Afghanistan have not deterred the Bush administration from taking on a dangerous and questionable new secret operation. At a high level, U.S. officials are working with their Turkish counterparts on a joint military operation to suppress Kurdish guerrillas and capture their leaders. Through covert activity, their goal is to forestall Turkey from invading Iraq.

While detailed operational plans are necessarily concealed, the broad outlines have been presented to selected members of Congress as required by law. U.S. Special Forces are to work with the Turkish Army to suppress the Kurds’ guerrilla campaign. The Bush administration is trying to prevent opening another war front in Iraq that would have disastrous consequences. But this gamble risks major exposure and failure.

The Turkish initiative reflects the temperament and personality of George W. Bush. Even faithful congressional supporters of his Iraq policy have been stunned by the president’s upbeat mood, oblivious to the loss of his political base. Despite the failing effort to impose a military solution in Iraq, he is willing to try imposing arms — though clandestinely — on Turkey’s ancient problems with its Kurdish minority, comprising one-fifth of the country’s population.

Because 8.965 trillion isn’t enough.

From Forbes:

The US Treasury Department asked Congress today to raise the US debt ceiling, anticipating that the current cap on federal debt will be reached this fall.

In a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said the current ceiling of 8.965 trln usd would be reached in early October, and that Congress should raise the ceiling ‘as soon as possible.’

‘The actions that are available to the Treasury Department to take in order to avoid breaching the statutory debt limit would create unnecessary uncertainty for the financial markets and result in costs to the government,’ Paulson wrote. ‘These actions should be reserved only for extraordinary circumstances, and should be avoided.’

The letter was sent the same day Treasury said it anticipates issuing 73 bln usd of marketable debt in the July-September quarter, 31 bln usd higher than it anticipated earlier this year. Treasury said this borrowing would leave it with a cash balance of 60 bln usd at the end of this quarter, which analysts say is unusually high.

Treasury also said it anticipates issuing 74 bln usd in new debt in the first quarter of fiscal year 2008.

Opinionated pundit Bill O’Reilly… what a joke. Idiots and morons have to have an idol.

These are fun! (Maybe we should do one of these very day?)

Much thanks to Daily Kos & The Smoking Gun!

By Kenneth Li and Robert MacMillan

I sincerely hope the Bancrofts DON’T cave in and let this deal go through with Murdoch. He’ll ruin the Wall Street Journal. I realize the editorial page isn’t what it used to be, but the overall news reporting is one of the best in the business. - JS

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. appeared to be inching closer to a deal to buy Dow Jones & Co. Inc. and gaining enough support from the divided Bancroft family, but both sides were still wrangling over the price.

In an attempt to win support among family members for the $5 billion deal, Dow Jones was negotiating for News Corp. to cover the advisory fees for the Bancrofts of at least $30 million, The Wall Street Journal reported on its Web site.

The Bancroft family controls Dow Jones through its 64 percent stake in voting stock of the company.

The deal would go through if two holdout shareholders agreed, the Journal reported. They are board member Christopher Bancroft and trusts managed by Denver law firm Hole Roberts & Owen. If they agree, it would give News Corp. enough Bancroft support to buy Dow Jones.

Michael Elefante, a Dow Jones board member and adviser to the Bancrofts, had set Monday as a deadline for the Bancrofts to indicate how they would vote. Elefante then is expected to present the results to Dow Jones’s and News Corp.’s boards for them to determine whether they can complete the deal.

Separately, Internet entrepreneur Brad Greenspan urged Dow Jones to meet with him and provide material to conduct due diligence as part of his own proposal for the company.

read more HERE

I wonder how long they will be “friendly states.” We have to buy friendship with weapons. What’s wrong with that picture? Is this the pay off for supporting an attack on Iran?

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt - The United States won no specific new promises of Arab help for struggling Iraq after a gathering Tuesday of several nations listed as recipients of an expanded aid and weapons package for friendly states in the region.

Iraq’s Arab neighbors repeated a general pledge to promote stability in Iraq, torn by more than four years of war and bitter sectarian divisions that have killed thousands and driven far more from their homes.

“I think we know what the obligations of the neighbors are,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, adding that Egypt and other U.S. allies are working to meet past promises of relief of Iraq’s heavy international debt, additional foreign aid and help tamping down violence inside Iraq.

More at Yahoo News

I agree whole-heartedly with the above statement. So why does Fred Thompson and the entire Christian-right want to install judges that are all too happy to stick their noses in where they don’t belong? Isn’t pushing God social arbitration? Unwanted pregnancies can’t simply be swept under a rug. We tried that once already, and it failed miserably. (Mostly due to the way the Christian-right treated women of unplanned pregnancies… can you say “SHUNNED“?)

Fred, if you or anyone else doesn’t want to have an abortion, then DON’T! But keep your damn noses out of other people’s business. Try to have some respect for doctor/patient confidentiality and a woman’s right to choose, m’kay?

Thompson’s ‘virtual’ campaign experiencing real bumps

Former Sen. Fred Thompson makes a campaign appearance in Dallas last week.

WASHINGTON (CNN) – Have we been hearing good news or bad news about Fred Thompson’s campaign? The answer is yes.

Or make that the “virtual campaign.” Fred Thompson is not in the Republican race yet. He’s still building an organization and raising money — and hitting some bumps.

He keeps delaying his official announcement, now expected in September. Some staff members have quit.

Controversy has already arisen over the fact that Thompson once accepted a lobbying assignment for an abortion rights group. But his views and his Senate record are strongly anti-abortion, and has come out strongly against the “activist” judges that social conservatives rile against.
[...]

The Politico is reporting that Thompson raised a little over $3 million in June, a figure that will disappoint his supporters.

Bill Schneider, CNN Senior Political Analyst

CNN.com