As the investigation proceeded, Zarifa Dzhabieva, a former translator for the American embassy was found knifed to death in her own home. Whoever killed Dzhabieva ransacked her dwelling looking for something, even though none of the victim's valuables had been touched. Dzhabieva was under investigation for aiding and abetting the issuing of visas and forged documents to girls destined for the U.S. sex trade.

Wow, this qualifies as completely weird, but after the Homeland Security pedophillia mess, why not a little slavery?

United Press International - Security & Terrorism - US recalls ambassador to Azerbaijan

'Well, what about the intel?' And they said 'Well, this isn't about intel anymore. This is about regime change.' "

They didn't want any additional data from Sabri because, says Drumheller: "The policy was set. The war in Iraq was coming and they were looking for intelligence to fit into the policy."

A Spy Speaks Out - CBS News

The first fundamental question that needs to be answered by and about the president, the vice president, and their political and national-security aides, from Donald Rumsfeld to Condoleezza Rice, to Karl Rove, to Michael Chertoff, to Colin Powell, to George Tenet, to Paul Wolfowitz, to Andrew Card (and a dozen others), is whether lying, disinformation, misinformation, and manipulation of information have been a basic matter of policy—used to overwhelm dissent; to hide troublesome truths and inconvenient data from the press, public, and Congress; and to defend the president and his actions when he and they have gone awry or utterly failed.

The other half of "Woodstein" weighs in and he's not following his former partner.

From what I have seen, the above is the way this group handles things, lie and decceive, and either hope something else blows up to distract from the crisis du jour, or blow something up to create a fresh crisis du jour causing people to stop paying attention to the rank odor emanating from yesterday's crisis du jour. That's my opinion of the goings on at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave, others may disagree. What I don't think anyone can disagree with is, by plan or accident, yesterday's problems don't get solved, they get swept out of the public eye by a new problem popping up.

Here's a SHORT list of such problems. Bush drops Kyoto, Cheney's energy group, California and the Enron created energy crisis, Stem cell research blocked, 9/11, USAPATRIOT, the sealing of all presidential records without the approval of the sitting president, Privatising Social Security comes up, unilateral withdraw from ABM treaty (without congressional approval), Camp X-Ray opens at Gitmo, the Gonzalez torture memo, the failed Venezuelan coup, Bin Laden escapes Tora Bora, backing out of the World Court, Domestic spying ok'd by Ashcroft, "Premptive War," Jose Padilla, Harvey Pitt and the SEC, Saddm and WMDs, Bush decides to go to war (August of 2002), North Korean nukes, Kissenger named for September 11 commission, Kissenger bails, Paul O'Neill, and that's just the lowlights of 01-02, the full list is much longer and thicker, but you get the idea.

(Thanks to Craig Aaron's list at http://www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/1539/ for lowlights and doesn't even cover the things that we've found out since the 04 election, like who authorized the 02 New Hampshire disenfrachisement, fun with Dick and Scooter and Joe and Valerie, domestic spying by the NSA, etc.)

Bernstein says Senate Hearings Now.

The meeting began with Jimmy Carter's announcement: “Gentlemen, I want you to know that I am seriously considering an attempt to rescue the hostages.”

This is great history about the mess. Very worth the read.

The Desert One Debacle

“This isn't just a loss of sensitive information,” Lt. Col. Rick Francona (ret.), an NBC News military analyst, said. “This is putting U.S. troops at risk. This is a violation of operational security.”

I'm quite sure we could manage to screw things up even more in Iraq and Afghanistan. This is the sort of thing not even I would have thought of.

'L.A. Times' Afghan Horror Story Confirmed by NBC

Federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearm agents, on campus for a community training project, detained Jeremiah Ransom of Macon Tuesday as a ‘‘suspicious individual’’ when they spotted a masked figure darting near the Georgia Center.

Ransom told The Red & Black student newspaper that he had left a Wesley Foundation pirate vs. ninja event when he was snared by agents with guns drawn.

He's obviously not a very good ninja...

Feds pounce on UGA sophomore dressed as ninja

I am a legal resident of Florida. All information on this form is true. I understand that if it is not true, I can be convicted of a felony of the third degree and fined up to $5,000 and/or imprisoned for up to five years.

Whoops. Now what are the rules for being allowed to vote as a felon in Florida again? Not that I seriously think Coulter was deliberately doing something to defraud the.... well wait a second... She registered in one place in Florida, lives in a nother, but hadn't voted at her previous residence in almost a decade? Ok, maybe she was doing something deliberate and maybe she should get squashed for this.

ANN COULTER - FELON

Mr. Fitzgerald's filing talks not of an effort to level with Americans but of "a plan to discredit, punish or seek revenge against Mr. Wilson." It concludes, "It is hard to conceive of what evidence there could be that would disprove the existence of White House efforts to 'punish Wilson.' "

Disproving a negative is always a thorny to nigh impossible thing to do, but my guess is Fitzgerald is basing this on documentation that there were efforts to this effect, not the "Have you stoped beating your wife yet?" argument. My other guess is, he's getting ready to drop a few more bombs.

With One Filing, Prosecutor Puts Bush in Spotlight - New York Times

The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to defend Tobin, says the contacts involved routine election business and that it was "preposterous" to suggest the calls involved phone jamming.

Really? Would that be as preposterous as the White House outing a CIA agent or cooking the books on Iraq's WMDs so they could start a war?

Phone-Jamming Records Point to White House - Yahoo! News

The following catalog of misconceptions, along with responses, is therefore offered for scholars who may well find themselves confronting voices whose amplitude and frequency exceed their wisdom.

The Case for Evolution, in Real Life