Were some senior Bush officials just outed?

DC's premiere gay newspaper, the Washington Blade, did a big front-page story on Friday about how there are reportedly gays at the "top level of the operation" of the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. (The paper did not name any names.) The Blade did, however, devote a good deal of space to Bush campaign manager Ken Mehlman, who according to the paper is single, 37 years old, has few hobbies outside of politics, and would not directly answer a question as to whether he or any others in the president’s campaign organization were openly gay. The Blade also printed a large picture of Mehlman (left) on its front page.

Was the Blade trying to get readers wondering if Mehlman was possibly gay? I have no idea, but the article definitely got me and a few friends wondering. Read More......

Time: Cheney lied about Halliburton

In a busy month of newly reported lies by the Administration, Time magazine is reporting what many already suspected.

"The March 5, 2003 e-mail, from an Army Corps of Engineers official, said that top Pentagon official Douglas Feith got the job of shepherding the contract, according to the newsweekly Time that hits newsstands Monday.

Feith had approved the multi-billion-dollar deal "contingent on informing WH (the White House) tomorrow. We anticipate no issues since action has been coordinated w(ith) VP's (vice president's) office," said the e-mail obtained by Time.

The newsweekly said it was three days later that Halliburton won the contract, although no other bids had been submitted.

"As vice president, I have absolutely no influence of, involvement of, knowledge of in any way, shape or form of contracts led by the Corps of Engineers or anybody else in the federal government," Cheney told NBC's "Meet the Press" in September, Time said." - AFP

JOHN'S ADDITIONAL NOTE:

So yet another lie from the White House - this one about Cheney's ethics. One can only hope that since Cheney actually lied to Russert, perhaps this will give Russert the incentive to finally take Bush and Cheney on for all of their lies, rather than give them the journalistic equivalent or raspberries on their little bellies every time Bush or Cheney go on his show. Read More......

Mom had to force DOD investigation of soldier-son's death

Two interesting points about this story.

1. It appears we were lied to about Jessica Lynch - big surprise there. This soldier appears to be the hero who shot all his bullets trying to defend everyone.

2. The Pentagon apparently refused to investigate this soldier's death until mom get involved and forced them to. If DOD had its druthers, the parents would have been left with a phony story about what happened to their now-deceased son. Lovely.

Washington Post:

A soldier in the same ambush as former POW Jessica Lynch was not killed in action but captured by Iraqi fighters and then executed, officials said.

The family of Sgt. Donald Walters, 33, of Salem -- which had pressed officials for an investigation of his death -- learned the new information from the Oregon National Guard. Guard officials released the details to the public Thursday, more than a year after the March 23, 2003, ambush....

The Pentagon investigated Walters's death after his mother, Arlene, filed Freedom of Information requests. She believed the Army had not given her son credit for actions first attributed to Lynch, such as fighting until his ammunition ran out....

Walters's fate drew attention because the details of his actions remarkably resemble a story circulated in The Washington Post and other news accounts media, based on anonymous sources, describing how Lynch had fought until her ammunition ran out.

After her rescue, Lynch, of Palestine, W.Va., said she did not fire a shot. Her injuries resulted from a Humvee crash during the firefight in the Iraqi town of Nasiriyah, just days into the war.

Like Lynch, Donald Walters had blond hair. His family and others have said that early reports depicting a blond soldier bravely fighting off Iraqis may have been mistakenly attributed to Lynch, possibly because of an erroneous translation of Iraqi radio transmissions.

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Saudis using "man on the street" interviews to change local attitudes

Interesting to see that they are now interested in using the "man on the street" and intellectuals to help turn the tide of terrorism in Saudi Arabia. Hmm, they used that policy so well over the years to deflect internal criticism and direct it at the US and the West, let's see how it works this time. It's also very interesting to see that the terrorists were specifically searching for westerners and trying to avoid Muslims so they could avoid the negative reactions from earlier attacks. I wonder what the reaction over there would have been if the victims were only foreigners. Read More......

Chalabi and staff are thrown out of office by police

Man, this guy and his team are dropping like a rock. Read More......