Top House Republican says he will introduce legislation to kill Dubai ports deal

This is incredibly significant. A top House Republican who has been a big Bush supporter is now going all out to kill the ports deal. Duncan Hunter is the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, that makes him one hell of a powerful man. And he's pissed, real pissed.

From AP:

One of the most prominent House Republicans on military issues said Thursday he would try to scuttle a Dubai-based company's effort to manage U.S. ports as lawmakers' complaints about the Bush administration's handling of the issue continued to spread.

"Dubai cannot be trusted," said Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee and normally one of the administration's most trusted allies. He called the United Arab Emirates "a bazaar for terrorist nations" and asserted that the United States should not permit DP World to take over significant operations at six U.S. ports.

"I intend to do everything I can to kill the deal," Hunter said.

This is just wonderfully, deliciously, horrendously bad for Bush. We're finally seeing an outright mutiny by Republicans on the Hill. And realize that the mutiny is because the members are being blasted by the folks at home. In other words, the American people are finally speaking up because they're made as hell at the Bush administration, and senior Republican members of Congress are being forced to act.

This is amazing. We're finally seeing Bush's incompetence come to roost. Halle-fracking-lujah. Read the rest of this post...

Blair, like Bush, avoids families of war dead

Supporting a failed war is always so much easier when you don't have to look the families of the dead in the eye and explain why the war is necessary. Blair is always ready for a TV camera and can sound eloquent but he has done a miserable job with explaining to the British people why the UK needs to be in the war.

After just over 100 UK dead in Iraq, the families are joining together and will deliver a letter to Downing Street asking for an explanation and a discussion with them about the war. Blair, of course, will not be there to accept the letter nor will he speak with the families.

In an open letter published in The Independent today, which will be handed into No 10, the relatives of 20 British soldiers killed in Iraq call on Mr Blair to acknowledge the grief and concerns of bereaved families by meeting them face to face. They want British forces to leave now.

In the letter, they state: "If you truly believe your policies, and the continuing need for the presence of British servicemen and women in Iraq, you should surely have the courage to face the families of those who have paid the ultimate price, and to explain them to us."

Read the rest of this post...

US House and Senate Judiciary Committees both pass legislation to address phone privacy issue today

This is really great.

After only six minutes of discussion, the U.S. House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee unanimously approved the Law Enforcement and Phone Privacy Protection Act, a measure proposed just three weeks ago by five Republicans and four Democrats. A companion bill introduced in January by Sen. Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, also passed unanimously in the Senate Judiciary Committee.

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Bush is finishing Dubai port deal tomorrow or Monday, regardless of supposed 45 day review

This is beyond ridiculous. Bush is going to close the deal in the day or two, regardless of this phony 45 day review of the entire deal. Someone in Congress better go nuts on this now.

Dubai Ports World's $6.85 billion acquisition of Britain's P&O; will close on Friday or Monday, despite an additional 45-day review by the U.S. government in response to security concerns, a U.S. Treasury Department official said on Thursday.

Bush is such a liar. They're going ahead with the deal anyway. I really hope Schumer and the other members of Congress who were so outspoken about this issue weigh in on Friday and go nuts. This is such an act of bad faith by Bush. I know I shouldn't be amazed, but I really am. Read the rest of this post...

Democrats call for independent Katrina probe

Excellent Smithers.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

What's the latest outrage? Read the rest of this post...

Iraq human rights as bad as under Saddam

Who could forget the wingnuts telling everyone that even if WMDs were not found, it was still worth while removing Saddam because he was such an evil character. So what will they have to say about this from the former UN human rights official in Iraq?

John Pace, who last month left his post as director of the human rights office at the U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq, said the level of extra-judicial executions and torture is soaring, and morgue workers are being threatened by both government-backed militia and insurgents not to properly investigate deaths.

"Under Saddam, if you agreed to forgo your basic right to freedom of expression and thought, you were physically more or less OK," Pace said in an interview with The Associated Press. "But now, no. Here, you have a primitive, chaotic situation where anybody can do anything they want to anyone."

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Yet another Santorum corruption scandal

Rick Santorum isn't even subtle about his shenanigans:

The largest known giver to a controversial charity founded by U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum made its $25,000 donation as the senator was working to win as much as $8.5 million in federal aid for the donor's project in Delaware County.

Federal tax records show that Preferred Real Estate Inc., the developer of the Wharf at Rivertown project in Chester, wrote the check to Santorum's Operation Good Neighbor Foundation in 2002.

On his campaign Web site, Santorum boasts of winning $8.5 million in federal aid for the riverfront redevelopment of an abandoned Peco Energy plant - an effort that culminated in the earmarking of $6 million in highway money last year.

But good-government experts were troubled by the appearance of a developer giving money to the senator's charity at the same time it was lobbying for federal dollars. Unlike a campaign contribution, checks to a charity can be written by a corporation and are not subject to any limit.

Seems like everyone but the GOPers like Santorum are troubled by a developer giving money to Santorum's charity at the same the developer was lobbying Santorum for federal dollars. Ricky's been too obsessed with the way gays have sex to worry about these mundane matters of possible corruption. Read the rest of this post...

Haley Barbour, Mississippi jumping on abortion-ban bandwagon

The anti-choice forces are so invigorated by Alito, they can't control themselves:

Gov. Haley Barbour said Wednesday he would probably sign a bill under consideration in the state House that would ban most abortions in Mississippi.

The measure, which passed the House Public Health Committee on Tuesday, would allow abortion only to save a woman's life. It would make no exception in cases of rape or incest.

Barbour, a Republican, said he preferred an exception in cases of rape and incest, but if such a bill came to his desk: "I suspect I'll sign it."

The anti-privacy forces are likes sharks in a feeding frenzy. What'll they ban next, after abortion? Condoms? Oral sex? Porn?

Don't think they're going to stop any time soon. Read the rest of this post...

Schwarzenegger facing a tough re-election

With 37% support and 47% planning to vote against him, all chatter about changing the Constitution to allow Arnold to run for president seems to have gone quiet. At this point he will be lucky to be re-elected. Read the rest of this post...

Missouri town tells woman she can't live with her fiancee before they're married, unless she throws out two of her kids

Anyone who thought this "traditional family values" garbage was only focusing on gays, well, get ready because you're next.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Olivia Shelltrack finally has her dream home. Her family moved into the five-bedroom, three-bath frame house in Black Jack last month. But now she fears she and her fiance face uprooting their children because of a city ordinance that says her household fails to meet Black Jack's definition of a family.

Shelltrack and Fondray Loving, her boyfriend of 13 years, were denied an occupancy permit because of an ordinance forbidding three or more individuals from living together if they are not related by "blood, marriage or adoption." The couple have three children, ages 8, 10 and 15, although Loving is not the biological father of the oldest child.

"I was basically told, you can have one child living in your house if you're not married, but more than that, you can't," she said.

And here's an interesting Washington Post article about how this is constitutionally questionable. Then again, this is probably allowed under the Iraq war resolution. Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

What's happening? Read the rest of this post...

A disturbing rumor about the US military

Well, it's actually a bit more than a rumor, but it still needs further sourcing. Any enterprising journalists or others want to follow through on this? Read the rest of this post...

Quote of the day from WH on Bush ignoring pre-Katrina warnings

Where does one even start with this lame comment? Seems like the WH overlooks a lot of critical briefings. If it doesn't come through the political grinder then any information they receive somehow doesn't seem to count.

"I hope people don't draw conclusions from the president getting a single briefing," Bush spokesman Trent Duffy said, citing a variety of orders and disaster declarations Bush signed before the storm made landfall. "He received multiple briefings from multiple officials, and he was completely engaged at all times."

Read the rest of this post...

Another bloody day in Iraq - 30 more die

Not to worry though because Bush says he has talked with the leaders of the three main factions and they tell him everything is fine. Sounds like how the pre-Katrina briefings told him that everything is fine. Or that the military never talked about the need for more troops in Iraq. Does Bush ever listen to what anyone outside of his bubble have to say? Read the rest of this post...

Domino's pizza founder to bankroll religious town

I knew that this guy was a nut, but c'mon. What country does this guy think he's living in? Bankrolling a new town that will govern according to Catholic principles? So let's hear how the American Taliban is so much different from the religious extremists anywhere else in the world. Ugh.

If Domino's Pizza founder Thomas S. Monaghan has his way, a new town being built in Florida will be governed according to strict Roman Catholic principles, with no place to get an abortion, pornography or birth control.

The pizza magnate is bankrolling the project with at least $250 million and calls it "God's will."

Gov Jeb Bush, at the site's groundbreaking earlier this month, lauded the development as a new kind of town where faith and freedom will merge to create a community of like-minded citizens. Bush, a convert to Catholicism, did not speak specifically to the proposed restrictions.

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How did the Washington Post miss the levees in their new story about the Katrina video?

Am I reading this wrong, or does the Washington Post article entirely miss the point about Bush claiming no one could have imagined the levees breaching, when in fact his own briefing told him it was a possibility? And Bush said no one could have expected the storm to be so large, when in fact the briefing told him it was "the big one."

While the Post mentions "the big one" quote, they don't mention Bush's quote to the contrary, that no one could have imagined the storm would be so large - that's the entire point of why the video matters, it contradicts Bush's own words. Same goes for the levees breaching - the video proves that Bush lied when he said no one could have imagined the levees breaching, Bush himself was briefed on the possibility before the storm. But the Washington Post doesn't even mention this in their story? How do you not quote Bush's comments about the levees breaching in this context?

This is a hell of an important story, and the Post rightly puts it on page one, but it seems they totally missed the entire point of the story, what makes the story page-one worthy.

Come on, people. This one was easy. Read the rest of this post...