A former third-ranking official at the CIA pleaded guilty on Monday to fraud charges related to accusations he improperly steered agency contracts to his best friend, the Justice Department

The CIA’s former executive director, Kyle “Dusty” Foggo, admitted steering contracts to friend Brent Wilkes, who already is serving a 12-year sentence for bribing former Republican Congressman Randall “Duke” Cunningham, the department said.

It said Wilkes, a one-time Republican fundraiser, had made Foggo a standing offer of a high-paying job, and the two hid their relationship from the CIA and used shell companies to conceal Wilkes’s interest in the CIA contracts.

More at Yahoo News

H/T Bat!

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Attorney General pursues possible criminal charges in U.S. attorney firings.

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Homegrown terrorists……the Republicans. From Dailykos:

On Friday, September 26, the end of a week in which thousands of copies of Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West — the fear-mongering, anti-Muslim documentary being distributed by the millions in swing states via DVDs inserted in major newspapers and through the U.S. mail — were distributed by mail in Ohio, a “chemical irritant” was sprayed through a window of the Islamic Society of Greater Dayton, where 300 people were gathered for a Ramadan prayer service. The room that the chemical was sprayed into was the room where babies and children were being kept while their mothers were engaged in prayers. This, apparently, is what the scare tactic political campaigning of John McCain’s supporters has led to — Americans perpetrating a terrorist attack against innocent children on American soil.

Read more here

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Two points I’d like to make here. One is that, ever since the tragedy of p/11, along with a Bush presidency, it’s clear that police forces around the country have dropped their “to protect and to serve” logo for the new, more fitting “we’re going to fuck you up!” one.

Hey, America…. still happy with the choices you made in 2000 and 2004?

Point two; Jeremie, a commenter to our “Colorado’s Personhood Amendment” post, says that “Separation of Church and State” is something that doesn’t exist in the US Constitution.

Jeremie obviously wants to toss democracy out the window in favor of a theocracy. I suppose he’d rather have 74 year-old Tony Alamo running the country. (Would they still call it a country, or would it become a compound?)

Evangelist’s compound raided in child abuse case

(CNN) — Federal and state police raided an evangelist’s compound in Arkansas late Saturday to investigate whether any children have been physically or sexually abused, officials said.

The raid is part of a two-year investigation into a compound near Texarkana, Arkansas, owned by Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, said Bill Sadler of the Arkansas State Police. About 100 agents were on the 10- to 15-acre site late Saturday and met with no resistance, he said. [...]

“It’s a hoax,” Alamo said. “They’re just trying to make our church look evil … by saying I’m a pornographer. Saying that I rape little children. … I love children. I don’t abuse them. Never have. Never will.”

So much room for corruption - so little oversight. Isn’t it about time we ran the Church out of the country?

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Sure looks like it! But we all know it a partisan witch hunt. (Yeah, right!)

Palin’s husband won’t testify in trooper inquiry, campaign says

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (CNN) — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s husband won’t comply with a subpoena issued by state lawmakers who are investigating her firing of Alaska’s public safety commissioner, the McCain-Palin campaign said Thursday.

A state Senate committee is scheduled to meet Friday to take statements from the 12 people they subpoenaed last week, including Todd Palin. [...]

Sarah Palin’s aides said she will not comply with subpoenas, either, because the governor has “declined to participate” in the inquiry, Alaska’s attorney general said Wednesday.

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Interior Department officials, while handling billions of dollars in oil and gas royalty payments, engaged in illegal sex with industry employees and accepted meals, drinks, ski junkets and golf outings from major oil companies, internal investigators reported Wednesday.

Interior Department Inspector General Earl Devaney’s release of three reports, which stem from a $5 million investigation dating to 2005, implicated at least 19 current and former employees of the Minerals Management Service in incestuous relationships with industry, frolics that included marijuana and cocaine use.

The reports raised new concerns about the management of programs that collect $8 billion in annual revenue from offshore and onshore mineral leases.

Devaney said that his investigators had “discovered a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity” in the recently created “Royalty in Kind” program, in which the government forgoes royalties and takes a share of the pumped oil and gas for resale. Several of the program’s staffers, based in Washington and Denver, “admitted to illegal drug use as well as illicit sexual encounters.”

More at McClatchy

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“He was a good kid … who was dealt some bad cards in life.”

Funny, he was just the opposite of those that are pretty much in control of our daily lives, who were fed from silver spoons.

Ever wondered what kind of side effects would occur with so many republican pundits on our airwaves, spouting their racist, bigoted bullshit 24/7? Ever wondered what kind of side effects would occur with a republican administration that whines, complains and gets all pissy when they don’t get their way? Ever wondered what kind of side effects would occur when a country’s citizens turn their backs to obvious crimes committed by it’s leaders, allowing them full, unfettered control?

When you reward this kind of shitty behavior, children can’t help but to watch and act upon it.

Slain Tennessee student was target of taunts

A student fatally shot a 15-year-old classmate Thursday at a high school, police said, as other teenagers watched in horror as the victim clutched his chest and fell to the floor.

Police identified the victim as Ryan McDonald, a sophomore who lived with his grandmother and had alopecia, a condition that left him bald since he was 3 and the target of endless teasing as a child.

“He tried to have a tough exterior, like a shield, to fit in,” his uncle Roger McDonald said. “He was a good kid … who was dealt some bad cards in life.”

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What you see happening now in Mexico is a preview to what you’ll soon be seeing here in the states. With the middle class shrinking under republican control… the rich getting richer, the poor getting poorer… crime is already on the rise.

And with a possible republican John McCain presidency on the horizon, things will only get worse.

Mexico plans to combat kidnappings

Mexican President Felipe Calderon met with the country’s 32 governors Thursday to create a plan to combat the nation’s staggering rise in crime and kidnappings.

In a heavily guarded meeting at Mexico’s National Palace, the leaders devised a plan that detailed 65 specific actions to could be taken in the next several months.

Those actions are aimed at helping families like that of prominent businessman Alejandro Marti. He told the group that the new focus on kidnapping has come too late for his 14-year-old son, Fernando. [...]

Non-governmental groups estimate that there have been more than 1,500 killings in Mexico this year linked to organized crime.

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This needs to be addressed. Not just ANOTHER hearing…….people need to start paying for these deaths, and paying for covering them up.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

50,000 sign ColorOfChange.org Petition for Hearing into LaVena Johnson’s Death
Womens’ and veterans’ groups join campaign to urge US Rep. Henry Waxman to lead Congressional investigation into potential US Army coverup of rape-murders

Oakland, CA – Today, two prominent organizations serving women and veterans signaled their support for ColorOfChange.org’s petition calling on Congress to investigate the death of LaVena Johnson, a young female soldier who was raped and murdered while serving in Iraq. The petition has reached over 50,000 signatures and calls on the House Oversight Committee to lead a hearing into the cause of Pfc. Johnson’s death, and the Army’s handling of her case and others like it. The Army continues to maintain that LaVena Johnson’s death is a suicide, despite overwhelming physical evidence she was murdered. In cases like Pfc. Johnson’s, Congress has been slow to investigate or hold the military accountable.

“Private LaVena Johnson’s death is one in a disturbing pattern of cases where female soldiers have been raped and killed with the military either obscuring the truth or conveniently labeling the deaths ’suicides’,” said James Rucker, executive director of ColorOfChange.org. “Congress now faces pressure to act, with more than 50,000 ColorOfChange members joining the Johnson family as they call on Congress to hold the military accountable for these hidden tragedies.”

MomsRising.org and VoteVets.org both endorsed the ColorOfChange.org petition this week. MomsRising.org is a 140,000 member grassroots organization standing up for mothers and families. VoteVets.org is a 100,000-member, pro-military organization comprised of veterans, military family members, and supporters who are dedicated to getting veterans elected to public office.

LaVena Johnson’s death did not make sense as a suicide. Friends and family had been speaking with her regularly, and according to them she was happy—nothing indicated she could be suicidal. After two years of being denied answers and hearing explanations that made no sense, the Johnsons received a CD-ROM from someone inside the military.

Read more »

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I think the most comprehensive coverage of this story has been by Glenn Greenwald at Salon.

Christian Science Monitor asks: How did Ivins keep his security clearance??

FBI director Robert Mueller is meeting with Senator Leahy this afternoon to brief him on the case.

John Amato at C&L is covering the story and promises to keep posting about it.

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A House panel fumed Thursday, July 31, after the Pentagon barred the head of its office on sexual assault prevention and response from testifying.

The subcommittee, which included U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Centerville, ordered the director of the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response Office to testify about how the military was cracking down on such incidents.

But Pentagon officials blocked her appearance.

They ordered her boss, principal Deputy Undersecretary for Defense Michael Dominguez, to testify in her stead.

Lawmakers derided the decision as “ridiculous.”

To Mary Lauterbach of Vandalia, whose daughter, Marine Lance Cpl. Maria Lauterbach, was slain in the aftermath of her rape investigation, it was another example of the military failing to take seriously sexual assault in its ranks.

“The absolute contempt towards congressional oversight, I thought, spoke very loudly about the way they look at this,” she said. “They think, ‘It’s none of your business. Go away.’ “

Source: Dayton Daily News

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Chalk one up for the good guys……

ALBERT EINSTEIN is said to have described insanity as doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. The Bush administration would be wise to take heed of these words.

Obsessed with stretching the limits of executive power, the administration has time and again engaged in legal battles or unilateral action in defense of warped interpretations of the law. Time and again, it has been rebuffed by conservative and liberal judges alike. The result: The administration has trampled on the rule of law, and the backlash against its actions has whittled away at the foundations of legitimate executive power.

The latest example is the thorough, thoughtful and devastating opinion issued yesterday by Judge John D. Bates of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, which eviscerates the administration’s arguments for refusing to allow former White House counsel Harriet Miers to appear before Congress about the firing of nine U.S. attorneys. The House Judiciary Committee brought suit to enforce its subpoena of Ms. Miers after failing to reach a compromise with the White House over documents and witnesses. In his 93-page decision, Judge Bates concludes that the White House had no legal basis for its position and that Ms. Miers is bound by the subpoena to attend a congressional hearing. Once sworn in, Ms. Miers may still attempt to invoke executive privilege; whether she is justified or not could be a matter for future litigation.

Judge Bates, by the way, is no knee-jerk liberal: He’s an Army veteran, a former prosecutor, a former deputy independent counsel in the Whitewater investigation of President Bill Clinton and a 2001 appointee of President Bush.

Full editorial at the Washington Post

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From the NYT:

Sen. Ted Stevens from Alaska, the longest serving U.S. Republican senator ever, was indicted Tuesday on seven counts of making false statements, according to a federal grand jury indictment.

The U.S. Justice Department has scheduled a news conference for 1:20 p.m. to make an announcement “regarding a significant criminal matter.”

A federal law enforcement official said the news conference would discuss the criminal charges against Stevens. The 28-page indictment outlining the charges against Stevens was released by the Justice Department right before the news conference.

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And then there are those times when I wouldn’t mind if Bush went in and cleaned Iran’s clock.

29 convicts executed in Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) — Twenty-nine people convicted of various crimes, ranging from murder to being a public nuisance while drunk, were hanged in Iran, state TV said.

Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency reported earlier that 30 people would be put to death. It was not immediately clear if the last person’s life was spared.

The Iranian judiciary’s statement said that all 30 were convicted of various crimes, which included: murder, murder in commission of a crime, disturbing public safety and security, being a public nuisance while drunk and being involved in illegal relationships — relationships between men and women who are not married to each other.

(emphasis mine)

Star Trek fans know of a little thing called “the Prime Directive.” It basically states that we are required to keep our noses out of others’ business. But, come on! This is just flat out wrong, and I think Iran could use a bit of intervention! If I pass by my neighbors house and see him mistreating “his” cat or “his” dog, I’m still going to kick the shit out of him! So, maybe it’s time Iran got the shit kicked out of them too.

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Two things about this make me crazy. Here’s a 13 year old girl reported missing. She’s been missing for 3 weeks, but the police have “no reason to believe she was in any danger.” WTF is that? She’s missing……isn’t that fucking reason enough to think she might be in danger? Then……there was no Amber alert because the case didn’t meet all the criteria. Gee, what criteria wasn’t met? She wasn’t a little white girl with blond hair???? And now they tell the family not to talk to the media. They do NOTHING, and don’t want the family to talk to the media about it. Unfuckingbelievable. Not only would I be talking to the media, I’d be talking to a damn lawyer. My heart felt sympathies go out to this family. What a nightmare.

Police said today they had no reason to believe a 13-year-old girl who had been missing for three weeks was in any danger, until her body was found near a garbage bin.

Neica Marie Gibbs‘ body was found Tuesday night in the 2700 block of Southwest 6 Drive.

Police, who have refused to say how Gibbs died, were in daily contact with her family after they reported her missing, police spokesman Sgt. Frank Sousa said. “The missing persons investigator who worked on this case did everything he could do,” Sousa said.

Gibbs’ body had been sprawled in front of the bin for an extended period, but police would not say how long it had been there.

An Amber Alert was not issued when Gibbs vanished because her disappearance did not meet all the criteria for the alert, Sousa said.

More at the Sun Sentinel

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