The Fundraising Show Ramps up

post from American Street on 11 April 2008 10:24:00 AM. © American Street

I agreed to come back to manage the American Street fundraising campaign, but told Kevin I required unfettered decisionmaking if I was going to do it justice. So here’s the deal:Kevin always aims small, because he gets dumbstruck by the idea that folks will toss money his way and he feels guilty for asking for [...]

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The Daily Muck

post from TPMMuckraker on 11 April 2008 10:22:00 AM. © TPMMuckraker

When Ibrahim Ahmed Mahmoud Qosi, a Sudanese detainee at Guantanamo Bay, was arraigned Thursday he refused to accept legal representation and informed the military court that he would boycott future proceedings. In a "rambling statement" he told the judge, "I leave in your hands the camel and its load for you to do whatever you wish." (LA Times)

An advisory panel of scientists has slammed the Environmental Protection Agency's Administrator Stephen Johnson for ignoring its advice and implementing air quality standards that fail to protect public health. When Johnson lowered the allowable ozone levels that are considered healthy (from 80 parts per billion to 75 parts per billion) 345 counties nationwide were deemed to be in "violation of the federal air quality standards for ozone, commonly known as smog." (AP)

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates apologized to Senator Carl Levin (D-MI) after Gates told Levin he must be confused for believing that the Pentagon was still involved in the physical reconstruction business in Iraq. Levin had received a letter from the Pentagon discussing an allocation of $600 million in reconstruction aid, yet Gates mistakenly told Levin that the money must have been for something else. After receiving a note from an aide that confirmed Levin's understanding, Gates admitted that ?[T]here are actually things that go on that I don?t know about." (Politico's "The Crypt")

And in the same line of questioning with Sen. Levin and the Senate Armed Services Committee, Gates said he doesn't hold out hope for getting troop levels in Iraq down to 100,000 by 2009, despite the past prospects he's had on the subject. (ThinkProgress)

The Justice Department's inspector general has announced that his report on the FBI's role in interrogations of prisoners in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay has been delayed by the Pentagon for months. The Pentagon is still determining what parts of the inspector general's report must remain classified. (McClatchy)

Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) is speaking out against the recently publicized sexual assaults against U.S. contractors in Iraq. Nelson, who believes that ''American women are vulnerable not only to assault, but to achieving justice,'' has been pressuring the Bush administration to take action in cases in which U.S. citizens are sexually assaulted by contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan. (McClatchy)

Environmental groups argue that the United States Forest Service's new regulations are a "parting gift from the Bush administration to the timber industry? because they allow for a "complete gutting of the provisions to protect wildlife.? (New York Times)

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), has sent letters to the Dept. of Defense and the State Dept. demanding information on how 22-year-old Efraim Diveroli was able to attain almost $300 million in defense contracts through his company AEY Inc. The lack of oversight in the contracting process allowed Diveroli to send faulty ammunition to American troops in Afghanistan. (The Hill)

The Center for Responsive Politics has found that expenditures on lobbyists set a record in 2007 when they reached $2.79 billion. The biggest spenders on lobbyists include health care interests, Wall Street, the real estate industry, and insurers. (Reuters)

Speaking of lobbying, four years later and Greenberg Traurig still feels the ripple effect of their former employee, disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Greenberg is now trying to resolve false billing charges with the U.S. territory of Guam, which Abramoff lobbied for while working for the Miami-based firm. Abramoff allegedly tacked on travel expenses to Guam's bill, violating the firm's contract with the territory. (Law.com)

Though former Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) lost re-election in part because of his ties to lobbyists such as Jack Abramoff, Burns registered as a lobbyists just weeks after becoming eligible to do so. Burns will be working for the American Quarter Horse Association, a group that supports the slaughter of wild horses. "The issue of wild horse slaughter was important to Burns" while he served in the Senate. (AP)

Since 2006, the Project on Government Secrecy has attempted to standardize rules for how and what government information is classified, and what constitutes harm if classified information is leaked. The study found that the three levels of classification set up by Executive Order 12958 provided no common understandings of "Confidential," "Secret" and "Top Secret," and that "the definitions of 'national security' and what constitutes 'intelligence' -- and thus what must be classified -- are unclear." (Washington Post)

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Today's Must Read

post from Talking Points Memo on 11 April 2008 10:21:00 AM. © Talking Points Memo

With the help of ABC News and the AP, we now have a pretty good tick-tock on the Bush Administration's use of torture and the development of the dubious legal underpinnings to the torture policy.[...]

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Time to bargain hunt in Japan

post from Jutia GroupJutia Group on 11 April 2008 10:19:37 AM. © Jutia GroupJutia Group

Similar Posts:U.S. Heading for a Recession? Maybe It?s Time to Get Your Financial House in Order?It?s Almost Time to Put Up the Hurricane ShuttersDow Down — Now is the time to BUY: TFN Market Insights Video Shot 8/15/07Japanese iShares Over the Edge? The perfect time to be a bear?WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN A COMPANY!

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$108 Billion for War, $500 Million for World
Hunger

post from All Spin Zone on 11 April 2008 10:19:00 AM. © All Spin Zone

George Bush is asking for another $108 billion supplemental for Iraq and Afghanistan - and not a penny more - because if congress tries to give him more money for the wars / occupations, he’s vowed to veto the appropriation:

President Bush vowed to veto any supplemental war funding bill exceeding his $108 billion request for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Democrats want to add $10 billion for infrastructure and job creation to the measure that otherwise couldn’t make it past Bush’s veto…

The president of the World Bank, on the other hand, is asking for a multi-national contribution of $500 million to stave off a humanitarian hunger crisis around the world as the cost of basic food staples skyrockets:

Robert Zoellick, the Bank’s president, called on rich countries to commit an extra $500m (£250m) immediately to the World Food Programme, and sign up to what he called a “New Deal for global food policy”.
Zoellick said: “In the US and Europe over the last year we have been focusing on the prices of gasoline at the pumps. While many worry about filling their gas tanks, many others around the world are struggling to fill their stomachs. And it’s getting more and more difficult every day.”
He said the price of wheat had risen by 120% in the past year, more than doubling the cost of a loaf of bread. Rice prices were up by 75% in just two months. On average, the Bank calculates that food prices have risen by 83% in the past three years…

So, which request has a better chance of being totally funded? (Sadly, I’m sure that you already know the answer to this rhetorical question.)

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Updated: The IOC on Athletes and Tibet: What ARE
They Thinking

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 11 April 2008 10:17:35 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

Some folks out there may remember that I wrote a while back on the IOC's decision to give the Olympic games to China, asking rhetorically, "What were they thinking?"Right now, given the IOC's desire to see the Bubblelympics continue free of any[...]

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The IOC on Athletes and Tibet: What ARE They
Thinking

post from Docudharma - Front Page on 11 April 2008 10:17:35 AM. © Docudharma - Front Page

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A Thought About How The Olympic Torch Feels As
It's Chased Wherever It Goes -- Verse-Case Scenario by Tony Peyser

post from BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash on 11 April 2008 10:17:18 AM. © BuzzFlash.org - Progressive News and Commentary with an Attitude | Fight Ignorance: Read BuzzFlash

The last time I saw anything scared this bad
It was starring in a Wienerschnitzel ad.

VERSE CASE SCENARIO

Tony Peyser provides daily poems and weekly cartoons for BuzzFlash and also writes the BuzzFlash column, "Blue State Jukebox." He was a daily cartoonist for the L.A. Times from 1994 to 1997. You can e-mail Tony at tonypeyser@yahoo.com.

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Regulate Industry or Trust the Free Market

I hate to fly, so these news reports about faulty wiring and grounded planes scare the crap out of me. On one hand I?m relieved to know that the FAA is waking up from an eight year snooze and forcing airlines to address the problem. On the other hand, what the hell have they been [...]

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Sidestepping The Machine

On one hand its nice that Obama has apparently built up a volunteer team so that it can ignore (or thinks it can) the typical Philadelphia machine process, on the other hand there's merit to the complaints that spending money on media rather than people is problematic.

Street money is a weird thing in elections. I think all of our first instincts are to react negatively to it, but what's really going on is that you're paying campaign workers for a day of work. In practice it's a bit messier than that of course.