OF WHORES.
As if Gonzales weren't embarrassment enough to the Bush administration, AP brings us news ("Bush Official Linked to Call-Girl Probe") that Randall Tobias, acting administrator of the Agency for International Development, resigned abruptly 'for personal reasons' one day after he was interviewed by ABC News for a program on the so-called 'DC Madam' to be aired May 4. If you think it's ironic that his agency has a mission to reduce prostitution in the developing world, keep in mind that ABC's May 4 air date comes during 'sweeps' -- the period when audiences are measured to set the rates for lucrative advertising contracts. More viewers = higher ad rates. Who do you think is more whorish in this story?
AND WARS.
Retired Army Gen. William Odom is reported in the Houston Chronicle ("Retired general: Bush should sign Iraq bill") as saying Bush should sign the funding bill Congress has sent up to him.
"The challenge we face today is not how to win in Iraq; it is how to recover from a strategic mistake: invading Iraq in the first place," [Odom] said. "The president has let (the Iraq war) proceed on automatic pilot, making no corrections in the face of accumulating evidence that his strategy is failing and cannot be rescued. He lets the United States fly further and further into trouble, squandering its influence, money and blood, facilitating the gains of our enemies."A State Department report due out this week ("Terror attacks up nearly 30%, report says") will show a growth in worldwide terror attacks to more than 14,000, almost all due to growing violence in Iraq and Afghanistan. And who do we have to thank for that? Word is that Condi had considered delaying the report but wiser heads prevailed.
If you missed Bill Moyers' 'Buying the War' broadcast last Sunday on PBS, it's now online. Streaming video is HERE and a full transcript is HERE. It details how the Administration sold the mainstream media a bill of goods. The only heroes are the McClatchy (Knight-Ridder) wire services reporters.
OF SPIES.
George Tenet, disgraced former CIA director is trying to get his revenge. His new book "At the Center of the Storm" takes aim at Cheney et al for the embarrassment he has suffered over being dubbed the 'slam dunk' boy. Specifically, as Jason Leopold and Matt Renner point out ("Tenet Book Blames White House for '16 Words'"), he is determined to pin the falsehoods in Bush's 2003 State of the Union speech on his tormenters. This part we have NOT heard before, so you will want to check it out. But Tenet's peers are not prepared to let him off the hook. Ray McGovern, former chair of National Intelligence Estimates (in charge of preparing the President's daily briefs) and 27-year veteran of the CIA blasts him in an article ( "Poor George Tenet; He Still Doesn't Get It") at Truthout. Along with five other former intelligence officers, he has also written an open letter to Tenet ("Letter to George Tenet") which will no doubt be turning up on OpEd pages across the country over the next few days. You saw it here first.
AND LIES.
News of the Army's misleading the Tillman family and the public has gradually seeped into the mainstream media, but with Rep. Waxman's request for documents from the White House and the Pentagon ("Panel Requests Tillman Documents"), we are sure to learn more that will embarrass the White House -- and Bush personally, since it appears he was made aware of the truth of the matter before his televised comments on Pat Tillman's death. The Tillman family has charged the Administration with a coverup of the affair.
DOGGIE DIAMONDS**
...VOTER DISENFRANCHISEMENT. Greg Palast, an American who reports for the BBC takes a swipe in the Los Angeles Times at the US media for losing the will to dig deeply for news. He cites two cases of stories he broke that were ignored by the mainstream media when they originally surfaced -- both involving voter disenfranchisement. One concerns Katherine Harris' purge of African-Americans from Florida voting rolls in 2000 by falsely felonizing tens of thousands. In the other, Tim Griffin (Rove's buddy, newly appointed US Attorney in Arkansas) gloated in an email that surfaced last month as part of the US Attorney firings (hence a 'doggie diamond') "no [U.S.] national press picked up" a BBC Television story reporting that the Rove team had developed an elaborate scheme to challenge the votes of thousands of African Americans in the 2004 election." Palast points out Griffin got a few things wrong...
... GONZALES AIDE TIED TO ABRAMOFF. What?! You didn't know that Robert E. Coughlin II, the DOJ's deputy chief of staff for the criminal division, resigned abruptly on April 6 -- days before Gonzales went up to the Capitol for his waterboarding session? And that he has been linked to the Abramoff corruption probe? He says he left voluntarily to relocate to Texas. When asked where in Texas, he declined to answer and referred reporters to Michael Horowitz, a friend and defense attorney. Horowitz also declined to comment or to confirm he was hired to represent Coughlin. McClatchy Newswire scores again ("Justice Department official resigns as Abramoff probe heats up").
**Doggie Diamonds: A friend who grew up in Pennsylvania's anthracite coal fields once told me that her family gathered 'doggie diamonds' -- dried dog droppings -- during the Great Depression of the 1930s. These were sold in bulk to agents of the Armstrong Cork Company, which used them in manufacturing linoleum. A case of little things, which might be thought to have no value whatsoever, contributing to larger things whose value is self-evident.
-- Dan Damon
CHECK OUT MY OTHER BLOGS: PLAINFIELD TODAY and C L I P S.
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