This is a start, perhaps four years to late. But it doesn't include the entire GOP and is too little, to late. Bush, your going to have to do better than that.

President Bush has ordered White House staff to attend mandatory briefings beginning next week on ethical behavior and the handling of classified material after the indictment last week of a senior administration official in the CIA leak probe.

According to a memo sent to aides Friday, Bush expects all White House staff to adhere to the "spirit as well as the letter" of all ethics laws and rules. As a result, "the White House counsel's office will conduct a series of presentations next week that will provide refresher lectures on general ethics rules, including the rules of governing the protection of classified information," according to the memo, a copy of which was provided to The Washington Post by a senior White House aide.

Posted by Geoff

As if the GOP in Ohio wasn't bad, corrupt, and greedy enough, now they are getting into bar fights

A complaint filed with the Butler County Sheriff's Department said that central committee Chairman Quentin Nichols, of West Chester; Tim Dearwester of Hamilton, a member of the central committee; and Sean Maloney of Liberty Township, a member of the executive committee, allegedly assaulted the bartender at Putter's Tavern & Grill shortly after midnight Oct. 26.

Adam William told deputies he approached the trio about a plastic advertising sign being damaged in the men's room. He asked them to leave after one of the men threatened him with a pool stick and another made sexual remarks about the bar's owner, the police report said.

The men then jumped on William and punched and hit him with a chair before the fight moved outside at the Cincinnati-Dayton Road establishment, resulting in a bench being damaged, William told police.

Nichols, Dearwester and Maloney left in a silver or gold Hummer before deputies arrived. No charges have been filed while the brawl remains under investigation. William sustained minor injuries. Damage was estimated at $500 for the sign and the bench.

Of course, right from the GOP playbook, they blame it on partisan politics.

"It's politics. Some folks out there seem to twist the story on you," Nichols said. "It is a regrettable incident and at the time, I was genuinely concerned for my own safety as well as my companions' safety."

The way it was reported by/to the police makes it sound like it was three on one.

But what were they doing at a bar? Don't they have money to launder or ballots to hide?

The Ohio GOP; worthless.

Quentin Nichols, Tim Dearwester, and Sean Maloney; thugs.

Posted by Geoff

Bumped up to remain on front page ~ Geoff


The Italian parliament is again looking into charges that Italian military intelligence passed forged documents alleging Iraqi purchases of Niger uranium to the US. The charges were amplified in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica:

http://www.repubblica.it/2005/j/sezioni/esteri/nigergate/domande/domande.html

This could ensnare Belusconi and also really kick the neocons in the anus.


Posted by Bill

[UPDATED] ~6 pm by Geoff
A new front on the Niger-Uranium connections surfaced today mainstream and has been discused for the past week around the blogosphere. The claim is now that

"At about the same time as the State of the Union address, they (Italy's SISMI secret services) said that the dossier doesn't correspond to the truth," Sen. Massimo Brutti told journalists after the parliamentary commission was briefed.

Brutti said the warning was given in January 2003, but he did not know whether it was made before or after President Bush's speech.

The United States and Britain used the claim that Saddam was seeking to buy uranium in Niger to bolster their case for the invasion, which started in March 2003. The intelligence supporting the claim later was deemed unreliable.

TPM has more here and here...

[UPDATE] ~1230 pm on Friday

The Italian congress had a closed door session Thursday on the Niger/Uranium forgeries

Committee members said they were shown documents defending General Pollari, including a copy of a classified letter from Robert S. Muller III, the director of the F.B.I., dated July 20, which praised Italy's cooperation with the bureau.

In Washington, an official at the bureau confirmed the substance of the letter, whose contents were first reported Tuesday in the leftist newspaper L'Unità. The letter stated that Italy's cooperation proved the bureau's theory that the false documents were produced and disseminated by one or more people for personal profit, and ruled out the possibility that the Italian service had intended to influence American policy, the newspaper said.

As a result, the letter said, according to both the F.B.I. official and L'Unità, the bureau had closed its investigation into the origin of the documents.

The F.B.I. official declined to be identified by name.

Josh Marshall asks

Did the FBI interview Martino before making a conclusive judgment about the forgeries, who created them and why?

I know, so-called Christians don't usually look to Rome for guidance, but perhaps they should (link)

A Vatican cardinal said Thursday the faithful should listen to what secular modern science has to offer, warning that religion risks turning into "fundamentalism" if it ignores scientific reason.

Science is based in reality and supported by extensive study and facts. These three points appear nowhere in Religion.

Posted by Geoff

Two days after Katrina hit, Marty Bahamonde, one of the only FEMA employees in New Orleans, wrote to Brown that "the situation is past critical" and listed problems including many people near death and food and water running out at the Superdome.

Brown's entire response was: "Thanks for the update. Anything specific I need to do or tweak?"

On September 12 Brown resigned, 10 days after President Bush told him, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

on August 26, just days before Katrina made landfall, Brown e-mailed his press secretary, Sharon Worthy, about his attire, asking: "Tie or not for tonight? Button-down blue shirt?"

A few days later, Worthy advised Brown: "Please roll up the sleeves of your shirt, all shirts. Even the president rolled his sleeves to just below the elbow. In this [crisis] and on TV you just need to look more hard-working."

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/11/03/brown.fema.emails/index.html

Arghghg, THE BEST AND THE BRIGHTEST???!!!!! HOW MANY PEOPLE DIED BECAUSE OF THIS APPOINTMENT?


Posted by Bill

"But wait..." right? "Wasn't there just a constitutional referendum there?" ???

I think the only group who sees the recent election as anything but a lame attempt to projects stability in Iraq is the partisan and monetarily motivated cabal who controls Washington. But that aside, this pretty much says it all.

"I categorically refuse the use of Iraqi soil to launch a military strike against Syria or any other Arab country," Talabani told the London-based Arabic daily Asharq Al-Awsat in an interview published Tuesday.

"But at the end of the day my ability to confront the US military is limited and I cannot impose on them my will."

Ummm... Jalal, I think you can, or at least you should be able to, control your country and what takes place within.

Posted by Geoff

I'll start with some whining by everyone's favorite cat killer, Billy Frist:

"The United States Senate has been hijacked by the Democratic leadership," said Majority Leader Bill Frist during the tense hours on Capitol Hill. "They have no convictions, they have no principles, they have no ideas."

Well that's your opinion but I'd say they have two ideas

1) It would be a good idea to find out what, if anything, went wrong in the lead up to invading and occupying Iraq.

2) It would be a good idea to purge the government of anyone who conspired to coax the congress and the people to war; Repubs and Dems voted for this war so everyone is accountable.

I might also add that they had the idea to resume the investigation.

Democrats claimed "victory for the American people" Tuesday after the Senate Intelligence Committee agreed to continue an investigation into prewar intelligence claims made by the Republicans, the Senate minority leader said.

Minority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session for more than two hours Tuesday, accusing Republicans of ignoring intelligence that President Bush used before invading Iraq.

Repubs sound scared, they couldn't be hiding something could they? It sure looks like it, Sen. Reberts has been setting some major roadblocks.

Posted by Geoff

Not surprising but we are losing. Hard to win a war that is inflamed by our actions and policies. It's like a snake eating its tail.

U.S. terrorism experts Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon have reached a stark conclusion about the war on terrorism: the United States is losing.

America's badly damaged image in the Muslim world could take more than a generation to set right. And Bush's mounting political woes at home have undermined the chance for any bold U.S. initiatives to address the grim social realities that feed Islamic radicalism, they say.

"It's been fairly disastrous," said Benjamin, who worked as a director for counterterrorism at the National Security Council from 1994 to 1999.

"We have had some very important successes getting individual terrorists. But I think the broader story is really quite awful. We have done a lot to fuel the fires, and we have done a lot to encourage people to hate us," he added in an interview.