The FBI investigators being sent to Baghdad to investigate Blackwater are going to be protected and driven around by...Blackwater!

It seems like this government lacks the part of the brain which says "hey, don't allow the criminals to control the investigation" (see Alberto Gonzales, Dick Cheney, and Howard J. Krongard).
From The New York Daily News:

Blackwater to guard FBI team probing it

BY JAMES GORDON MEEK
DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Wednesday, October 3rd 2007, 4:00 AM
WASHINGTON - When a team of FBI agents lands in Baghdad this week to probe Blackwater security contractors for murder, it will be protected by bodyguards from the very same firm, the Daily News has learned.

Half a dozen FBI criminal investigators based in Washington are scheduled to travel to Iraq to gather evidence and interview witnesses about a Sept. 16 shooting spree that left at least 11 Iraqi civilians dead.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif

The agents plan to interview witnesses within the relative safety of the fortified Green Zone, but they will be transported outside the compound by Blackwater armored convoys, a source briefed on the FBI mission said.

"What happens when the FBI team decides to go visit the crime scene? Blackwater is going to have to take them there," the senior U.S. official told The News.

An FBI spokesman declined to comment on security measures taken by agents in Iraq.

"It makes absolutely no sense that the FBI will be protected by the very people they are investigating," said Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan). "But given how the administration runs this war, it's hardly surprising."
END
Full text. Read more!

The inevitable results of Bush's corporate cronyism

In the last few years there have been several well publicized mine incidents in America. They have not all been tragedies. They might have all been avoided if the US government was not in the pocket of and run by the mining industry's biggest names in pollution and contempt for labor, as is laid out in frightening detail by Robert F. Kennedy in his 2004 book Crimes Against Nature. Now it comes out that Bush's choice to head the Mine and Health Safety Administration was not only a mining industry insider, but one with twice the number of violations as the national average. And like so many of Bushes other picks, he had to be put in his position on a recess appointment because the Bush administration does not believe in compromise or their own fallibility.

Read the story below the fold

From ABC 4 News in Salt Lake City:
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - The families of the Crandall Canyon miner's aren't the
only ones raising questions about the handling of the rescue effort.

Many news organizations and blogs are also now asking questions about the governments role and the man chosen to lead the rescue effort, Mine and Health Safety Administrator, Richard Stickler.

Sunday, the questions that had been whispered about for days, the miner's families themselves finally made public.

Sonny Olsen, families spokesperson said, "We are at the mercy of the officials in charge and their so-called experts."

Increasing attention is now being paid to Stickler, the federal government's main mine man.

Stickler used to be a mining executive who - according to various media reports - ran mines which had several fatalities and "...an incident rate that was often twice the national average.

Read the full article here Read more!

At least the Bushies are consistent in one area : lying about Iraq

Well it seems that no matter what they say, the Bush administration does not believe in either trusting the "commanders on the ground" or in keeping its word. At the least they are in a state of complete denial about the fact that no one believes them anymore, and they certainly aren't going to be believed after promising a Petraeus report for 9 months and then delivering a Cheney report. For a man who constantly tells us that he listens to his commanders and that he is a straight shooter it seems a little weird that after 9 months of hearing "wait until Petraeus reports in September" it seems that there will be no report by General Petraeus. Instead the White House will deliver the report itself and Petraeus will only testify in a closed door session with Congress. It is just another bit of evidence that these people have a pathological inability to actually allow any truth that might not fit their program to be revealed in any way. I'd like to say I'm appalled at this, but it seems so fruitless to get angry about, or even be surprised by, the new realms of hypocrisy so diligently discovered by the neocons. END Read more!

I don't know who has more contempt...Bush for the Congress or the Senate for Alberto Gonzales

From tpmmuckraker.com:

"As expected the House Judiciary Committee approved citations of contempt against Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten in a vote just a few minutes ago. The vote was along party lines, 22-17. We'll have more from the committee's meeting shortly.

The AP reports, citing "a senior Democratic official," that "a vote by the full House would most likely happen after Congress' August recess."

It about damn time they actually did something. Thank God.... Read more!

Why we should remain vigilant

By Peter Bauer

I was reading through a personal log that I keep of exceptional blogs and discovered a combination of interesting ideas that have distilled into this piece.

I believe that it is important that we as citizens, remain watchful and vigilant. We are living under an Administration that is openly defying congress, refusing to let former aides testify by claiming executive privilege, refusing to end an illegal war, lying about WMD's, and seizing power in a 5-4 Supreme Court decision in an election that was skeptical at best, and diabolical at worst.

Nothing they have done up to this point leads me to believe that they can be trusted. And yet:

On May 9th, 2007, President Bush signed the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive. On the face, this plan is intended to provide guidance for State, and private sector organizations in order to,

"Ensure a comprehensive and integrated national continuity program that will enhance the credibility of our national security posture and enable a more rapid and effective response to and recovery from a national emergency"

However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that this is directive is about consolidating power to the executive branch in case of a "National Emergency." In such a case, "Continuity requirements shall be incorporated into daily operations of all executive departments and agencies."

Additionally The Secretary of Homeland Security shall "Coordinate the implementation, execution, and assessment of continuity operations and activities." Do we really trust this sort of responsibility to a Department that just raised the terror threat level because its director had a " gut feeling"?

So should we be concerned? Paul Craig Roberts, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan Administration seems to think so. Roberts speculates that,

"With appropriate propaganda, the directive could be triggered by a US nuclear attack on Iran. The use of nuclear weapons arouses the ultimate fear. A US nuclear attack would send Russian and Chinese ICBMs into high alert. False flag operations could be staged in the US. The propagandistic US media would hype such developments to the hilt, portraying danger everywhere. Fear of the regime's new detention centers would silence most voices of protest as the regime declares its "national emergency." Read More

In other news, Brittney Spears slapped her mom, Lindsay Lohan checked into (or out of) rehab, and Paris Hilton did nothing newsworthy, once again. Read more!