This is special. They schedule a hearing on the cost of the Iraq war and not a single person with the "R" after their names showed up.

YouTube - Hearing on Iraq Costs & Interest: Hearing Notice?

Ms. Gustitus said: “He said he didn’t know if waterboarding is torture.”

Mr. Giuliani said: “Well, I’m not sure it is either.

Oddly, the only people who aren't sure are the people running the government right now and the people running for the Republican nomination. The Cambodians have a museum exhibit marking it as one of the atrocities performed by the Khmer Rouge. When the President of the United States (and the candidates for the office) is accurately compared to Pol Pot, something is gravely wrong.

In His Words: Giuliani on Torture - The Caucus - Politics - New York Times Blog

Testimony that the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention planned to give yesterday to a Senate committee about the impact of climate change on health was significantly edited by the White House, according to two sources familiar with the documents.

Specific scientific references to potential health risks were removed after Julie L. Gerberding submitted a draft of her prepared remarks to the White House Office of Management and Budget for review.

The Bush War on Science has been much more successful than their War on Terror.

Heavy Editing Is Alleged In Climate Testimony - washingtonpost.com

In fact, prior to 2007, contributions to Rockefeller from company executives at AT&T and Verizon were mostly non-existent.

But that changed around the same time that the companies began lobbying Congress to grant them retroactive immunity from lawsuits seeking billions for their alleged participation in secret, warrantless surveillance programs that targeted Americans.

Funny, it looks like a bribe to me.

Democratic Lawmaker Pushing Immunity Is Newly Flush With Telco Cash on Threat Level

"Gonzales should have stayed out of the leak investigation once it began to focus on potential witnesses against him. By overseeing it, Gonzales put himself in a position to hurt the careers and reputations of subordinates whose cooperation was needed in the separate investigation of him. They are likely to recognize this added vulnerability -- it's hard enough as it is to provide evidence against your boss -- which will in turn intimidate them from saying anything that invites retribution from Gonzales."

RICO.

(Update: For completeness here's the Wikipedia entry on RICO)

Gonzales Investigated Subordinates Who Were Likely To Testify Against Him

Manley cited an e-mail sent to reporters by a Senate Republican leadership aide, summing up recent blog traffic about the boy's family. A spokesman for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., declined to comment on Manley's charge that GOP aides were complicit in spreading disparaging information about Frosts.

So rather than actually do something, someone in Mitch McConnell's office sent out email to beat the drums for people like Malkin and Limbaugh to further fuck up the life of a 12 year old kid whose life is already hell after a car wreck. Reprehensible doesn't even start to describe this.

Political Radar: Dems' Poster Child Faces a Firestorm

Young testified that he had furnished Siegelman with an all-terrain vehicle and a motorcycle, lavishing money on the Governor and his aides. But he was an equal-opportunity influence monger. Early in the investigation, in November 2001, Young announced that five years earlier, he "personally provided Sessions with cash campaign contributions," according to an FBI memo of the interview. Prosecutors didn't follow up that surprising statement with questions, but Young volunteered more. The memo adds that "on one occasion he [Young] provided Session [sic] with $5,000 to $7,000 using two intermediaries," one of whom held a senior position with Sessions' campaign. On another occasion, the FBI records show, Young talked about providing "$10,000 to $15,000 to Session [sic]. Young had his secretaries and friends write checks to the Sessions campaign and Young reimbursed the secretaries and friends for their contributions."

And the DoJ ignored this (or were instructed to ignore it) because of their political affiliation. This isn't politics as usual, this is RICO.

Selective Justice in Alabama? - TIME

The 1,162 affected troops served just as long as their colleagues -- 22 consecutive months, the longest of any U.S. unit in Iraq -- but they are not eligible to enroll in the Chapter 30 Montgomery GI Bill because they were demobilized before serving the 730 days of active duty deployment required by the bill.

How long before? From one to 12 days.

This is how the administration "supports the troops." Cut their pay, cut their benefits, cut funding to the VA, extend the tours, shorten the downtime, use stop loss to keep them in after their terms are up, don't supply the body armor, don't supply the vehicle armor. And that's just the major issues. Things like this barely make the local news.

U.S. Army secretary works to fix GI Bill for Minnesotans

The report said DiFatta slid his foot into the deputy's stall and tapped the deputy's foot. In the report, Conley noted that such activity is common among men to indicate a willingness to participate in sex.

The deputy inside the stall, Detective Wayne Couvillion, responded by tapping his foot, and DiFatta reached under the partition and began to rub the deputy's leg, the report states.

The detective asked DiFatta, "What do you want?" according to the report, and he replied, "I want to play with you."

Eep-Op-Oop-Ah-Ah,
Tap, tap, tap, taptap,
I wanna play with you!

(apologies to Hanna Barbara for that one...)

DiFatta twice detained for lewd conduct in mall restrooms - Times-Picayune

In a 27-page order, Judge Charles Porter found Craig had entered the guilty plea "accurately, voluntarily and intelligently" and it was too late to withdraw his admission.

Oops. What's next for Larry Craig? Will he resign? Will he stay? Will he come out of the closet? Will he ever be allowed in a public restroom again? Tune in tomorrow! Same bathroom time, same bathro... What? They're closing it for remodeling?

CNN.com - CNN Political Ticker Judge won’t let Craig withdraw guilty plea «