Friday, February 06, 2004
Plame Probe Developments:
Word is out that, as per many months ago, Cheney's Staff is the focus. This is a big deal, yet only the UPI is reporting it, and the major news organizations have thus far ignored it.
Federal law-enforcement officials said that they have developed hard evidence of possible criminal misconduct by two employees of Vice President Dick Cheney's office related to the unlawful exposure of a CIA officer's identity last year. The investigation, which is continuing, could lead to indictments, a Justice Department official said.
According to these sources, John Hannah and Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, were the two Cheney employees. "We believe that Hannah was the major player in this," one federal law-enforcement officer said. Calls to the vice president's office were not returned, nor did Hannah and Libby return calls.
The strategy of the FBI is to make clear to Hannah "that he faces a real possibility of doing jail time" as a way to pressure him to name superiors, one federal law-enforcement official said. http://www.insightmag.com/news/2004/02/17/National/Cheneys.Staff.Focus.Of.Probe-598606.shtml and http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4029.shtml
Democrat memo Scandal
This was about the Democratic strategy memos and other documents stored on a computer shared by Judiciary Committee members somehow made it into GOP’s possession. Now, Manual Miranda, who worked for Sen. Bill Frist on judicial nominations offered his resignation and is leaving his job today. Is this a sacrificial lamb? Will the Democrats cave? The AP has the goods: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4179918
Jobs
Even though the economy needs to create 150,000 jobs per month just to keep up with the growing number that want in to the labor market, disappointing numbers are too often treated as a success- “strong, but not quite as strong as expected.” Compare the Yahoo item with the jobswatch.com summary.
The major U.S. stock indexes were mixed Friday after data showed that the jobless rate fell to the lowest level in two years and that job growth was strong, but not quite as strong as expected.
The technology sector cheered a strong quarterly report from telecom equipment maker Ericsson, while blue chip stocks were clipped by declines in United Technologies and General Electric, which more than offset a rally in McDonald's.
The U.S. Labor Department said nonfarm payrolls grew by 112,000 in January, the strongest one-month gain since December 2000, but was below expectations of growth of 150,000 or more. The unemployment rate fell 5.6 percent from 5.7 percent, vs. expectations of a rise to 5.8 percent, to the lowest level in two years.
http://biz.yahoo.com/cbsm-top/040206/5cea8c109d1f85b53fe607a3584dc720_1.html
Weak labor market taking toll on weekly and hourly wage growth
Continued high unemployment and the lack of meaningful job growth made 2003 the worst year for weekly wage growth for the typical worker since 1996 … This clearly indicates that the weak labor market is now hurting employed workers as well as those looking for work. In 2003, real (inflation-adjusted) weekly wages fell for low- and middle-wage men and were stagnant or fell slightly for low- and middle-wage women. This trend is in sharp contrast to the significant and sustained real wage growth over the 1995-2002 period when unemployment http://www.jobwatch.org/
What’s Happening, Iraq:
The Globe actually carried this AP story, about pamphlets that are circulating in Ramadi and Fallujah. The gist: insurgent groups are vowing to take over the cities when they are vacated by U.S. troops. And, they reassure that non-collaborators will be allowed to participate in city councils.
A coalition of insurgent groups has vowed to take over cities vacated by U.S. troops, and warned of ''harsh consequences'' for Iraqis who resist, according to pamphlets circulating in this hotbed of anti-American resistance.
The pamphlets, signed by Muhammad's Army and other insurgent groups, began appearing Saturday in Ramadi and nearby Fallujah both part of the dangerous Sunni Triangle region.
''America is getting ready to withdraw its forces from our country with its tail between its legs ... pressured by rockets and explosive devices,'' the statement said. http://www.boston.com/dailynews/035/world/Insurgent_groups_vow_to_take_oP.shtml
Bush’s Missing Year
Yes, I wrote that this is of no consequence, that we have more important issues to follow than to decry young George getting into Houston’s famed “champagne unit”, the National Guard group of sons of the Texas elite and avoiding service in Vietnam. And amidst all the lies- they do lie as they breathe- any fibs / cover-up here is very small potatoes.
But I’ve gotten intrigued. The Globe’s Walter Robinson (he’s been the ace on this story) has told Eric Boehlert about documents that were taken out of Bush’s military file and that one had been inserted in 2000 that attempts to pass as one being of 1973.
I’m of the opinion that back-dating and (unethically) inserting documents into a file is both extraordinarily vile and surprisingly common.
The missing document:
· It is strategically torn along its left edge.
· There is no name on the document, only a single letter: W. Does it say "1LT BUSH GEORGE" just before the initial? Maybe, but the page has been torn so there's no way to tell.
· The Social Security number is blacked out.
· The tear eliminates the year and month of all the dates. (The date at the bottom right is just a note added by a reporter.)
In other words, there's really no evidence that this document refers to George W. Bush or even that it refers to the period 1972-73. But it's even worse than that: it turns out that this document wasn't even part of Bush's original service file.
"His records have clearly been cleaned up," says author James Moore, whose upcoming book, "Bush's War for Re-election," will examine the issue of Bush's military service in great detail. Moore says as far back as 1994, when Bush first ran for governor of Texas, his political aides "began contacting commanders and roommates and people who would spin and cover up his Guard record. And when my book comes out, people will be on the record testifying to that fact: witnesses who helped clean up Bush's military file."
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/02/05/national_guard/index_np.html http://web.archive.org/web/20000619121358/ http://www.boston.com/news/politics/campaign2000/news/One_year_gap_in_Bush_s_Guard_duty+.shtml
Newsweek (Fareed Azkaria) on the Intelligence stuff:
Why were the inspectors right and the administration wrong? Partly
this has to do with political pressure. The CIA had been battered for
30 years by accusations from the right that it was soft on the
Soviets, soft on the Chinese and most recently soft on Saddam. (Never
mind that in almost every case, the agency was more accurate in its
assessments than its neoconservative accusers. It lost the political
battle.) The U.N. inspectors could actually make their assessments
without fear. (Some in the administration did try to scare them. "We
will not hesitate to discredit you," Vice President Cheney said to
Blix before he began his job.)
If you’re a glutton, the Carnegie Report has the full details. The findings are headlined:
--Iraq WMD Was Not An Immediate Threat
--Inspections Were Working.
--Intelligence Failed and Was Misrepresented
--Terrorist Connection Missing
Kind of sums it up!
http://www.ceip.org/files/Publications/IraqSummary.asp
-R
Word is out that, as per many months ago, Cheney's Staff is the focus. This is a big deal, yet only the UPI is reporting it, and the major news organizations have thus far ignored it.
Federal law-enforcement officials said that they have developed hard evidence of possible criminal misconduct by two employees of Vice President Dick Cheney's office related to the unlawful exposure of a CIA officer's identity last year. The investigation, which is continuing, could lead to indictments, a Justice Department official said.
According to these sources, John Hannah and Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, were the two Cheney employees. "We believe that Hannah was the major player in this," one federal law-enforcement officer said. Calls to the vice president's office were not returned, nor did Hannah and Libby return calls.
The strategy of the FBI is to make clear to Hannah "that he faces a real possibility of doing jail time" as a way to pressure him to name superiors, one federal law-enforcement official said. http://www.insightmag.com/news/2004/02/17/National/Cheneys.Staff.Focus.Of.Probe-598606.shtml and http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_4029.shtml
Democrat memo Scandal
This was about the Democratic strategy memos and other documents stored on a computer shared by Judiciary Committee members somehow made it into GOP’s possession. Now, Manual Miranda, who worked for Sen. Bill Frist on judicial nominations offered his resignation and is leaving his job today. Is this a sacrificial lamb? Will the Democrats cave? The AP has the goods: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4179918
Jobs
Even though the economy needs to create 150,000 jobs per month just to keep up with the growing number that want in to the labor market, disappointing numbers are too often treated as a success- “strong, but not quite as strong as expected.” Compare the Yahoo item with the jobswatch.com summary.
The major U.S. stock indexes were mixed Friday after data showed that the jobless rate fell to the lowest level in two years and that job growth was strong, but not quite as strong as expected.
The technology sector cheered a strong quarterly report from telecom equipment maker Ericsson, while blue chip stocks were clipped by declines in United Technologies and General Electric, which more than offset a rally in McDonald's.
The U.S. Labor Department said nonfarm payrolls grew by 112,000 in January, the strongest one-month gain since December 2000, but was below expectations of growth of 150,000 or more. The unemployment rate fell 5.6 percent from 5.7 percent, vs. expectations of a rise to 5.8 percent, to the lowest level in two years.
http://biz.yahoo.com/cbsm-top/040206/5cea8c109d1f85b53fe607a3584dc720_1.html
Weak labor market taking toll on weekly and hourly wage growth
Continued high unemployment and the lack of meaningful job growth made 2003 the worst year for weekly wage growth for the typical worker since 1996 … This clearly indicates that the weak labor market is now hurting employed workers as well as those looking for work. In 2003, real (inflation-adjusted) weekly wages fell for low- and middle-wage men and were stagnant or fell slightly for low- and middle-wage women. This trend is in sharp contrast to the significant and sustained real wage growth over the 1995-2002 period when unemployment http://www.jobwatch.org/
What’s Happening, Iraq:
The Globe actually carried this AP story, about pamphlets that are circulating in Ramadi and Fallujah. The gist: insurgent groups are vowing to take over the cities when they are vacated by U.S. troops. And, they reassure that non-collaborators will be allowed to participate in city councils.
A coalition of insurgent groups has vowed to take over cities vacated by U.S. troops, and warned of ''harsh consequences'' for Iraqis who resist, according to pamphlets circulating in this hotbed of anti-American resistance.
The pamphlets, signed by Muhammad's Army and other insurgent groups, began appearing Saturday in Ramadi and nearby Fallujah both part of the dangerous Sunni Triangle region.
''America is getting ready to withdraw its forces from our country with its tail between its legs ... pressured by rockets and explosive devices,'' the statement said. http://www.boston.com/dailynews/035/world/Insurgent_groups_vow_to_take_oP.shtml
Bush’s Missing Year
Yes, I wrote that this is of no consequence, that we have more important issues to follow than to decry young George getting into Houston’s famed “champagne unit”, the National Guard group of sons of the Texas elite and avoiding service in Vietnam. And amidst all the lies- they do lie as they breathe- any fibs / cover-up here is very small potatoes.
But I’ve gotten intrigued. The Globe’s Walter Robinson (he’s been the ace on this story) has told Eric Boehlert about documents that were taken out of Bush’s military file and that one had been inserted in 2000 that attempts to pass as one being of 1973.
I’m of the opinion that back-dating and (unethically) inserting documents into a file is both extraordinarily vile and surprisingly common.
The missing document:
· It is strategically torn along its left edge.
· There is no name on the document, only a single letter: W. Does it say "1LT BUSH GEORGE" just before the initial? Maybe, but the page has been torn so there's no way to tell.
· The Social Security number is blacked out.
· The tear eliminates the year and month of all the dates. (The date at the bottom right is just a note added by a reporter.)
In other words, there's really no evidence that this document refers to George W. Bush or even that it refers to the period 1972-73. But it's even worse than that: it turns out that this document wasn't even part of Bush's original service file.
"His records have clearly been cleaned up," says author James Moore, whose upcoming book, "Bush's War for Re-election," will examine the issue of Bush's military service in great detail. Moore says as far back as 1994, when Bush first ran for governor of Texas, his political aides "began contacting commanders and roommates and people who would spin and cover up his Guard record. And when my book comes out, people will be on the record testifying to that fact: witnesses who helped clean up Bush's military file."
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2004/02/05/national_guard/index_np.html http://web.archive.org/web/20000619121358/ http://www.boston.com/news/politics/campaign2000/news/One_year_gap_in_Bush_s_Guard_duty+.shtml
Newsweek (Fareed Azkaria) on the Intelligence stuff:
Why were the inspectors right and the administration wrong? Partly
this has to do with political pressure. The CIA had been battered for
30 years by accusations from the right that it was soft on the
Soviets, soft on the Chinese and most recently soft on Saddam. (Never
mind that in almost every case, the agency was more accurate in its
assessments than its neoconservative accusers. It lost the political
battle.) The U.N. inspectors could actually make their assessments
without fear. (Some in the administration did try to scare them. "We
will not hesitate to discredit you," Vice President Cheney said to
Blix before he began his job.)
If you’re a glutton, the Carnegie Report has the full details. The findings are headlined:
--Iraq WMD Was Not An Immediate Threat
--Inspections Were Working.
--Intelligence Failed and Was Misrepresented
--Terrorist Connection Missing
Kind of sums it up!
http://www.ceip.org/files/Publications/IraqSummary.asp
-R
