The Political Chase

More on Fitzgerald’s Filing

The Washington Post says, “filings suggest additional charges.” I don’t think that comes as a surprise given the Bob Woodward revelations.

The more the media can keep close tabs on Fitzgerald’s whereabouts, the better the forecast will be. He thought he was being covered heavily when he got his shoes shined – he probably hasn’t seen anything yet.

What will it mean if Karl Rove goes before the jury again? While you’re contemplating, add Rummy and Wolfowitz to that list.

Fitzgerald is trying to protect releasing to the public any information related to Libby’s trial. Some time ago, the AP and Dow Jones (Wall Street Journal) formally opposed the protective order. I wouldn’t be surprised if Libby’s lawyers are hanging around in the background (cheering section) of the AP and Dow’s request.

The Post and the AP say that Fitzgerald was attempting to reach a compromise that “would restrict the defense’s disclosure to the media of grand jury transcripts and personal information about witnesses, such as phone numbers and addresses,” and emphasized the “need to preserve the confidentiality of grand jury proceedings.”

I wonder how much Fitzgerald’s new celebrity status will effect future proceedings. I don’t think it will have an effect on any ruling by a judge(s), but jury trials may be a different story. I am not about to express opinions on that…getting into that is like answering the question, “When did you stop beating your wife?”

Scanlon Charged With Conspiracy to Defraud

Jack Abramoff is in the news again. I think he would be much better off if he found a very secluded, unknown island somewhere – just copy Tom Hank’s role from a few years ago..

Michael Scanlon, a former top aide to Rep. Tom Delay (R-TX), was charged today with conspiracy to defraud. Scanlon is Abramoff’s business partner. The charges filed against Scanlon make references to Scanlon and “Lobbyist A” recruiting a member of Congress, “Representative No.1” with various and sundry gratuities in order to pass certain legislation.

Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) was previously subpoenaed in investigations of Abramoff and Scanlon. I really like Ney’s response.

Ney, a Republican House member, has denied any wrongdoing and says he was duped into backing Abramoff’s clients and into taking a golf trip paid for by Abramoff.

Lobbyist A and Representative 1 – there are a lot of these single alphanumeric character names going around lately.

Charges outlined in documents filed Friday allege that Lobbyist A solicited an Indian tribe in Mississippi in 1995 to provide lobbying services on taxes and other issues relating to tribal sovereignty.

The lobbyist then allegedly recommended that the tribe hire Scanlon’s company, Capital Campaign Strategies, while concealing the fact the Lobbyist A would receive 50 percent of the profits from the tribe’s payment to Scanlon.

The Mississippi tribe paid Scanlon’s firm $14.8 million from June 2001 through April 2004, while Scanlon concealed from the tribe that 50 percent of the profit "was kicked back to Lobbyist A pursuant to their secret arrangement."

Hit the road Jack, don’t you come back no more, no more…

Rigging Iraq Contracts

Cheney’s understudies?

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Fitzgerald Needs Another Grand Jury

Fitzgerald has submitted court filings to impanel another grand jury.

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Cheney and Halliburton

The OpEdNews blog has a rather robust piece on Dick Cheney. Referring to Cheney as "War Profiteer," they opine on Cheney’s attachment with Halliburton and the associated successes.

At last count Halliburton had 58 offshore subsidiaries in Caribbean tax havens. With Cheney at the helm Halliburton’s tax payments to the U.S. went from $302 million in 1998 to zero in 1999, when they also received a refund of $85 million from the Internal Revenue Service.

Halliburton has been more closely associated with the invasion of Iraq than any other corporation. Before the Iraq War began, it was 19th on the U.S. Army’s list of top contractors and zoomed to number 1 in 2003. In 2003 Halliburton made $4.2 billion from the U.S. government. Cheney stated he had , "severed all my ties with the company, gotten rid of all my financial interest."

Sen. Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) recently asserted that Cheney’s stock options which were worth $241,498 a year ago, are now valued at more than $8 million— for an increase of 3,281% .

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Patrick Fitzgerald Makes the List

Patrick Fitzgerald gets more publicity now than just in the the newspapers.

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Suicide Bombers Hit Shiite Mosques

Suicide bombers blew themselves up at two Shiite mosques killing at least 75 people and wounding 90 others. The mosques were in Khanaqin, Iraq.

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House Budget Reductions and Senate Tax Cuts

Unbelievable.

This morning the House approved a deficit-reduction bill that will cut about 220,000 people off food stamps, allow states to impose new costs on Medicaid beneficiaries, squeeze student lenders, cut aid to state child-support enforcement programs and trim farm supports.

The bill passed 217 to 215, with 14 Republicans joining all House Democrats opposing the bill.

Specifically, the reductions are:

• Medicaid and State Children’s Health Insurance Program – $11.4 billion
• Student loans – $14.3 billion
• Child support enforcement – $4.9 billion
• Food stamps – $800 million
• Farm and conservation programs – $1.8 billion
• Made no provision for MILC dairy subsidies extension
• Distribution of trade duties to US producers – $3.2 billion
• Pension insurance – $6.2 billion
• Revenue from electromagnetic spectrum auctions – $8.7 billion

I do not understand what the electromagnetic spectrum auctions are, but it was revenue or some type of credit. Who can explain that?

Look at the cuts and see who it is going to effect; those that need it the most. Nothing was done to eliminate the deep cuts to the tax rates on capital gains and dividends that passed in 2003.

Of the 14 Republicans that joined the Democrats in oppositon to the bill, I only have the names of 7. Kudos to these Representatives and the 7 I do not have listed.

Rep. Bill Thomas (R-CA)
Rep. Nancy L. Johnson (R-CT)
Rep. Rob Simmons (R-CT)
Rep. Thomsas M. Davis III (R-VA)
Rep. Wayne T. Gilchrest (R-MD)
Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-VA)
Rep. Roscoe G. Bartlett (R-MD)

Meanwhile, over in the Senate this morning, a $60 billion dollar tax-cutting package was passed by a vote of 64 to 33. I don’t know what type of cuts were included in the bill or who the 11 Democrats are that crossed the aisle. It doesn’t matter what type of tax-cut bill it was – it’s an additional loss of revenue, period.

Let’s do the math:  60 – 50 = 10. Hard to figure that one out isn’t it? The Senate’s tax-cut more than pays for the budget cuts approved by the house.

I would like to have the names of the 11 Democrats that voted for the tax-cut package. If you know who the 11 Democrats are, please send them to TPC..  If you don’t know how the Senators from your state voted, I would appreciate it if you would find out and pass that information along.  We need to who they are and understand why they voted for yet another tax cut.

If your Senator(s) is a Democrat and voted for the bill, ask them why. Call their office. We’ll post the responses for each Democrat here or gladly link to your site.

The US is hemorhagging with deficits; the number of people falling off unemployment eligibilty increases (falsely making employment numbers look better); Halliburton overbills us by hundreds of millions of dollars; we’re throwing 150,000+ Gulf Coast evacuees out in the street in less than two weeks because FEMA ran out of money and now Congress wants to add more to that abundance of lunacy.

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The Woodward Source Suspects

Not in the clear yet due to his no comment position, but it seems like Dick Cheney may be a little less likely as the source.

“A person knowledgeable about the investigation being conducted by the special counsel in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, said Mr. Cheney had not been Mr. Woodward’s source.”

Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz may be rising stars.

Post Editor Foresees Possibility of Naming Source

According to The New York Times, Washington Post Executive Editor, Leonard Downie, will name Bob Woodward’s source “if the information is found independent of [their] source relationship.” Downie opened the gates to all other WP reporters by making the statement, “Each reporter is bound only by his own promises of confidentiality.”

Someone needs to take Woodward to Happy Hour.

The Reality of Bush and Cheney’s Assertions

Knight-Ridder has a good article addressing the assertions the Bush administration is making against its critics of the Iraq war.

An excerpt:

ASSERTION: In a Veterans Day speech last Friday, Bush said that Iraq war “critics are fully aware that a bipartisan Senate investigation found no evidence of political pressure to change the intelligence community’s judgments related to Iraq’s weapons programs.”

CONTEXT: Bush is correct in saying that a commission he appointed, chaired by Judge Laurence Silberman and former Sen. Charles Robb, D-Va., found no evidence of “politicization” of the intelligence community’s assessments concerning Iraq’s reported weapons of mass destruction programs.

But neither that report nor others looked at how the White House characterized the intelligence it had when selling its plan for war to the world and whether administration officials exaggerated the threat. That’s supposed to be the topic of a second phase of study by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

“Our executive order did not direct us to deal with the use of intelligence by policymakers, and all of us were agreed that was not part of our inquiry,” Silberman said when he released the panel’s findings in March.

More…

Late Update: The full article is in PDF format and can be downloaded here.