More discrepancies in Cheney shooting

Is there anything about the scandal surrounding Cheney shooting a 78 year old man that isn't suspicious?:

There is something wrong with this picture.

In the only publicly available, official report on last weekend's accidental shooting by Vice President Dick Cheney, a diagram of a body shows where Austin lawyer Harry Whittington was hit by pellets fired from Cheney's Italian-made shotgun.

That diagram has been picked up and faithfully replicated by television and newspapers across the country, including the New York Times this week and by Newsday Thursday.

The only problem is that the diagram is wrong, by all accounts. It shows Whittington hit on the left side of his face, neck and chest when Cheney, the Kenedy County Sheriff's office and the report itself say the wounds were on the right side.

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GOP stands by flawed legislation

This has the potential to become a very big scandal. The Republican House and Senate leaders are standing by their decision to allow the passage of a constitutionally flawed legislation. It's amazing that they cannot even do the most basic tasks required of them:

House Republicans rejected a call on Thursday for an inquiry into the enactment of a major spending-cut bill that Democrats say is invalid, as a simmering partisan feud over Congressional procedure boiled over.

House members voted 219 to 187 along strict party lines to block a request by Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the Democratic leader, for an ethics investigation into how the House and Senate ended up approving slightly different versions of legislation signed by President Bush on Feb. 8.

Democrats and others say the legislation, which is intended to save $39 billion over five years, is constitutionally flawed. They say Republican leaders were aware of the difference in the two versions but made no effort to fix it to avoid further votes on a measure that barely passed the House and required a tie-breaking vote by Vice President Dick Cheney in the Senate.

The reality is that the House GOP does not want to take another vote on the legislation that is not only massively flawed technically, but in terms of the content. They cut programs for the poor, students and the elderly. No wonder they do not want another vote -- even if it means their legislation violates the basic tenets of the constitution. Read the rest of this post...

Bush outsources operations of 6 US ports to Arab country with troubling ties to terrorism

At this time in our history do we really need to be putting the United Arab Emirates in charge of major US ports, including the ports of New York, New Jersey, Miami and more?

Beyond maybe the Canadians, I'm not sure I want any foreign government controlling our major ports right about now. Read the rest of this post...

$7 Billion Giveaway to Oil and Gas Companies

Because, seriously, the oil companies aren't making enough profit, they need a government handout:

The federal government is on the verge of one of the biggest giveaways of oil and gas in American history, worth an estimated $7 billion over five years.

New projections, buried in the Interior Department's just-published budget plan, anticipate that the government will let companies pump about $65 billion worth of oil and natural gas from federal territory over the next five years without paying any royalties to the government.

Based on the administration figures, the government will give up more than $7 billion in payments between now and 2011. The companies are expected to get the largess, known as royalty relief, even though the administration assumes that oil prices will remain above $50 a barrel throughout that period.

Yes, because the federal government already has more money than it needs, and the oil companies have been suffering so much of late.

Hey, how are your heating bills doing this winter? Read the rest of this post...

Judge orders Bush Admin. to release info. on domestic spying

Damn activist judge expecting the Bush Administration to actually follow the law. This administration is above the law:

U.S. District Judge Henry Kennedy ruled that a private group, the Electronic Privacy Information Center, will suffer irreparable harm if the documents it has been seeking since December are not processed promptly under the Freedom of Information Act. He gave the Justice Department 20 days to respond to the group's request.

"President Bush has invited meaningful debate about the wireless surveillance program," Kennedy said. "That can only occur if DOJ processes its FOIA requests in a timely fashion and releases the information sought."

That's classic. Thinking just because Bush said something that he actually meant it. Read the rest of this post...

Friday Morning Open Thread

What a week. So much to discuss. Let's begin. Read the rest of this post...

Specter now denying any special links to $50M to lobbyist

Apparently the $50M in earmarks over the last four years to the husband of his assistant just happened by chance and had nothing to do with those connections at all. It just sort of all happened. Really. Seriously. No links at all. He's as shocked as anyone that he added in those deals. So what does Specter do besides play dumb? Deflect the charges and imply blame on the assistant, of course. What another stand-up guy in the GOP.

In a conference call with reporters Thursday afternoon, Mr. Specter said that neither he nor his aide, who uses her maiden name professionally, had violated any ethics rules.

"Vicki Siegel's husband did not lobby me or anybody in my office," Mr. Specter said, adding that she left her position with the committee six months ago for unrelated personal reasons. She remains on his staff.

Still, Mr. Specter said he would conduct a further inquiry into the possibility that Ms. Siegel might have knowingly played a role in allocating federal money to one of her husband's clients.

"That would be a blatant conflict of interest," Mr. Specter said. "I don't think that happened, but I am going to go back and take a look at the specifics of it."

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Philippine landslide: 1500 people missing

The landslide hit today, consuming up to 500 houses as well as an elementary school. Let's hope that the early reports over over-estimates. Read the rest of this post...

Late night open thread

The Republicans are clearly not happy about the increasing questions surrounding Cheney's blood alcohol level during the shooting. I hear Limbaugh went nuts over the issue (obviously, in Cheney's defense). And you know what they say, the ones you hit are the ones who scream loudest (or something like that). Meaning, we've hit up on something folks. The public deserves some answers, and the media needs to keep on the White House until they come clean as to whether our vice president nearly killed someone while under the influence. Read the rest of this post...