From Scout: Olberman answers Bill ‘Falafel Boy’ O’Reilly’s petition to get Keith fired…. Continue reading Olberman Video

From Holden: Neilsy and the UAE: For the last several years, [Neil] Bush’s main business interest has been Ignite!, the educational software company he co-founded in 1999. To fund Ignite!, Bush has raised $23 million from U.S. investors (including his parents), as well as businessmen from Taiwan, Japan, Kuwait, the British Virgin Islands and the United Arab Emirates, according to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Continue reading Where There’s Smoke…

From Holden: More war crimes fodder. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents at Guantnamo Bay warned military interrogators that some aggressive interrogation techniques were illegal, according to documents released on Thursday. [snip] According to a May 2003 memo, FBI agents in late 2002 believed DIA interrogators were using tactics that were of “questionable effectiveness”. “Not only are these tactics at odds with legally permissible interviewing techniques used by US law enforcement agencies in the US, but they are being employed by personnel in GTMO [Guantnamo] who appear to have little, if any, experience eliciting information for judicial purposes,” the memo said. … Continue reading Shoulda Listened to the FBI

From Holden: Scottie had to correct himself in the morning gaggle, according to TalkRadioNewsService. In trying to clarify his remarks from earlier in the week, McClellan announced that President Bush received word on the ports deal from White House Chief of Staff Andy Card on Thursday, February 16th, not during the weekend as had been previously reported. Then it was back to fantasy land. McClellan rejected the characterization that there is a civil war in Iraq. Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle Summary

From Holden: Chimpy dragged his tired old ass in front of the American Legion today: Secondly, I’ve set a clear doctrine: America makes no distinction between the terrorists and the countries that harbor them. If you harbor a terrorist, you’re just as guilty as the terrorists, and you’re an enemy of the United States of America. Later, he was heard to add, “Except if you are the United Arab Emirates.” Continue reading Your President Speaks!

From Tena: Dubai’s Port of No Return Don’t jump to conclusions, but there are ties between the UAE, bin Laden, and the Taliban by James Ridgeway February 22nd, 2006 9:42 AM WASHINGTON, D.C.—No matter what Bush and his supporters say, there is indisputable evidence of tight connections between the United Arab Emirates and leadership of both the Taliban and Al Qaeda. The country is the center of financial activity in the Persian Gulf, and has next to no laws controlling money laundering.Two of the hijackers came from the UAE and hijacker money was laundered through the UAE. The details are … Continue reading So Dubai is Our Bestest Friend Forever

A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging: Stripe Edition

From Holden: Last week Little Scottie said: We know that these are dangerous terrorists that are being kept at Guantanamo Bay. They are people that are determined to harm innocent civilians, or harm innocent Americans. They were enemy combatants picked up on the battlefield in the war on terrorism. Now, thanks to a federal judge’s order, we will find out how many of those detained in Cuba are “dangerous terrorists” and how many are shepherds, taxi drivers, and shopkeepers sold to US forces by Afghan warlords. A federal judge ordered the Pentagon on Thursday to release the identities of hundreds … Continue reading Who Is Locked Up At GITMO?

From Holden: The Smoking Gun has all the Cheney shooting witness statements up now. I was struck by the statements of Pam Willeford, US Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein, and Sarita Armstrong Hixon, co-owner of the Armstrong Ranch with her sister, Republican Lobbyist Katharine Armstrong. Both Willeford and Hixon completed their statements on February 15, the same day Dick Cheney admitted to Brittney Hume that he had been drinking beer that day. Pam Willeford concluded her statement by saying: There was no alcohol consumed during the afternoon of the hunt in the field. I did consume a glass of wine … Continue reading Drunk, Drunker, Drunkerest

From Scout: WWLTV…. WASHINGTON — The United Arab Emirates gave the Bush administration $100 million to help victims of Hurricane Katrina weeks before a state-owned company there sought U.S. approval for its ports deal. The White House said Thursday the $100 million for storm victims demonstrates the relationship between the two governments caught in a firestorm over the potential security risks of state-owned Dubai Ports World running significant operations at six major U.S. ports. The administration said the request for U.S. approval of the $6.8 billion ports deal and the UAE contribution were not related. SNIP The money from the … Continue reading UAE Katrina Donation

From Holden: It’s just a matter of time before Bush’s torture fetish catches up with him. A human rights group accused the Bush administration on Wednesday of failing to take responsibility for the nearly 100 detainees who have died in US custody, including eight who were tortured to death, since August 2002. In Command’s Responsibility, a report on the “war on terror” released on Wednesday, Human Rights First said 100 detainees had died in US custody, including 34 deaths that the Pentagon had classified as suspected, or confirmed, murders. The group said the facts surrounding another 11 of the nearly … Continue reading War Crimes Trials In Our Future

From Holden: Durable goods orders dropped a whopping 10.2% last month. Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods fell by the largest amount in 5 1/2 years in January as demand for commercial aircraft suffered the biggest setback in seven years, the government reported Friday. The Commerce Department said that orders for durable goods, everything from computers to cars, fell by 10.2 percent last month, a much bigger decline than had been expected. The weakness was led by a 68.2 percent drop in orders for commercial aircraft reflecting a falloff in sales at Boeing Corp. after two very strong … Continue reading Have You Seen My Bush Boom?

From Scout: David Brooks was on Stephen Colbert tonight discussing the port deal….Bobo in Colbert’s world is an ugly thing. Continue reading Bobo Cinema

Bite me, Modano: USA Hockey spokesman Dave Fischer said the longtime Dallas Stars forward — who sharply criticized team management after the Americans’ elimination Wednesday — was the only member of the 23-player squad not to gather at the arena where the Americans were knocked out by Finland. Modano lashed out after he was benched by coach Peter Laviolette for most of the third period of the 4-3 loss. “A lot of guys have been there for many years, and maybe we need some new blood in there to run things a little differently,” said Modano, who has represented the … Continue reading Speaking of WATBs

Jesus. The Lauderdale Beach Republican Club had a problem: There was a Democrat in the house. Or in the resort, to be specific. The Clarion Beach Resort in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. Club founder Bob Wolfe invited Sun-Sentinel political reporter Buddy Nevins to address the flock at its monthly meeting on February 6 at Damon’s Grill, a restaurant in the resort. But other club leaders balked. Nevins was a Democrat, they claimed, and GOP bylaws forbid anybody but Republicans from speaking at their meetings. To make things kosher, Wolfe decided not to officially start the meeting until Nevins had finished speaking. After 30 … Continue reading Blogger Ethics, Vol. 367

From Holden: Chimpy’s Assistant for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, Frances Fragos Townsend, gave a briefing today on her fabulous report on the Bush Assministration’s woeful response to Hurricane Katrina. It was obvious from the get-go that Townsend’s role was to defect blame, wherever possible, from Chimpy and Chertoff towards Brownie. Q I had a question. After the storm, Louisiana Governor Blanco and President Bush argued for several days about the control of the military in Louisiana, delaying the arrival of federal troops for I think it was five or six days until after the storm. How does your recommendation for … Continue reading Pass That Buck!

From Holden: Today’s gaggle was held aboard Air Force One en route to South Bend, Indiana. The gaggle was handled by Little Scottie’s airhead apparent, Dana Perino, who wasted no time establishing her ditzi image. Q I want to ask you a quick question about the process of reviewing the deal. Apparently there are restrictions that are common in approving transactions of this type that were not put forward in this deal, such as requiring their documents to stay on American soil. Can you explain why those kinds of restrictions weren’t put on this transaction? MR. PERINO: I’m not familiar … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: It has become common knowledge that only about 5% of the containers that enter the US through are ports are actually inspected. But yesterday Little Scottie claimed that 100% of the containers are inspected. Which is true if by “inspected” you mean that someone looked at the manifest of the ship that carried the container. Q You talked about checking cargo and that they say they’ll allow cargo to be checked. There’s clearly not the manpower to check cargo. About 5 percent to 7 percent coming in this country are ever checked. So what does the U.S. need … Continue reading See Scottie Spin

From Holden: Does Bush even have an inkling of a clue? [Bush] questioned whether a double standard was being applied to a company based in the Middle East, saying, “It’s OK for a British company to manage ports, but not OK for a company from a country that’s also a valuable partner” in the war on terror. [snip] Senior Homeland Security officials said late Wednesday that DP World was being held to a higher standard than other international companies that operate in U.S. ports. “Dubai Ports World has agreed to certain conditions related to cooperation and disclosure that senior Homeland … Continue reading We Was For A Different Standard Before He Was Against It

From Holden: The Kenedy County Sheriff’s Office released additional witness testimony regarding Dick Cheney’s shotgun attack on a 78-year-old man. Cheney’s alleged paramour, Pam Willeford, admits that she was drinking while hunting – just like Dick. In her statement, [Ambassador Pamela] Willeford said she had a glass of wine with lunch, about four hours before the accident. Cheney also has said he had a drink with lunch, a beer. But [Armstrong ranch co-owner Sarita Armstrong Hixon] said alcohol played no part in the mishap. Continue reading More Drinking at the Armstrong Ranch

From Holden: As attacks on US forces in Iraq increase by one-third… An average of 41 attacks, mostly roadside bombs and small arms fire, are aimed at the [4th Infantry Division] soldiers per day throughout their 17,000-square-mile battle space. Thats up from 31 attacks per day on average last month. … a full-scale civil war has erupted with 168 Sunni mosques attacked, 10 Sunni imams killed and an additional 120 Iraqi civilians dead over the past 24 hours. Continue reading Welcome to the Civil War

From Scout: An AP poll finds that confidence in the government handling of Katrina is lower now than it was in the days after the hurricane struck. 47%, said they were very or somewhat confident in the government’s preparedness — down from 56% in the days after the storm and 54% in mid-September. And just one in three Americans is confident the money set aside for Katrina recovery efforts, an expected $100 billion, is being spent wisely, down from half in mid-September, the poll found. Appears there is now a bi-partisan lack of confidence…. In mid-September, 60% of Republicans said … Continue reading Poll on Katrina

From Holden: Looks like nearly everyone in the country has a false impression about Chimpy’s deal with his buddies in the United Arab Emirates. Q Scott, you said this morning that the President wasn’t made aware of the ports decision until the last several days, until after the decision had been made. Does the President wish that he’d been brought into the deliberations sooner, that he knew about it before it became a big political controversy? MR. McCLELLAN: Let me mention a couple of things. First of all, there is a congressionally mandated review process that is put in place … Continue reading Today on Holden’s Obsession with the Gaggle

From Holden: U.S. President George W. Bush picks up a cable used to protect a tree from lightning strikes on the South Lawn of the White House as he returns to the Oval Office from an event in Washington February 22, 2006. Bush spoke at the Asia Society about his scheduled trip to India and Pakistan next week. REUTERS/Jason Reed Continue reading Proof That God Does Not Exist

From Holden: From Gallup’s annual World Affairs survey: Two-thirds of Americans now believe that President George W. Bush is not respected by his fellow world leaders. Continue reading Smart People

From Holden: Dan’s the man. Bush finds himself caught in the pincers between Republican prejudice and Democratic opportunism. Continue reading Froomkin Nails It

From Holden: The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) mandates that the Department of Justice must maintain a register of lobbyists who ply their trade for foreign countries. DOJ’s most recent available report on FARA, for the six months ending December 31, 2004, lists Qorvis Communications as lobbying Congress on behalf of the United Arab Emirates. SourceWatch.org provides some background info on Dubai’s boys in Washington. [Qorvis Communications] announced several months after 9/11, on March 21st, 2002, that they were receiving a $200,000 a month retainer from the government of Saudi Arabia. In December 2002, the New York Times reported that … Continue reading The UAE’s Lobbyists

From Scout: The housing situation for New Orleans police, firefighters and EMS workers who have been living aboard a cruise ship ( see previous post) that leaves the port on March 1 remains uncertain though FEMA had promised to find housing. Evidently the police don’t trust FEMA will fulfill its commitment. “FEMA said some things that haven’t come about,” said Riley. “I don’t really want to point fingers, but we’re at crunch time right now, so we need to know what they say is really going to happen.” SNIP Bob Stellingworth of the Police Foundation said some of the assurances … Continue reading FEMA…… Not At It Again