Entries by emptywheel

Who Were the Other Two?

Chris Matthews partly confirms something I speculated last week–though he adds a bit too. Given his description of the three staffers “linked to Cheney” who tried to silence his reporting on OVP’s involvement in the Niger uranium claims that got us into war, it’s safe to assume Libby’s call relates to that effort (and I’d bet there’s a Adam Levine call, too).

Matthews says that there was a “concerted effort” — carried

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Rove’s Free Lobbying Gig

As you’ve probably already sussed out, the transcript from the Jill Simpson interview with HJC is must-read scandal porn. In it, Simpson clearly states that Rove got involved in the Siegelman prosecution and talked to Public Integrity at DOJ in doing so.

But there’s another bit I’d like to look at closely, which the majority counsel uses to establish that Rob Riley had an extensive relationship with Simpson and that

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We Might Yet Crack MZM

I’ve long suspected that MZM is the latter-day incarnation of COINTELPRO, though it had the added advantage that it also made a profit for George Bush’s cronies. Via the Daily Muck, it looks like we might make some progress on MZM.

A formerofficial at the Albemarle County-based National Ground IntelligenceCenter pleaded guilty in federal court Tuesday to a conflict ofinterest charge.

Robert Fromm,a 60-year-old Earlysville resident, was charged in a corruptioninvestigation centered on

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Help this NOLA Family

Scout prime hasn’t forgotten NOLA, even if George Bush has. Today, she’s encouraging people to donate to a fund helping out a NOLA family that has lost its house twice–once in Katrina, and once through a terrible accident.

Two weeks ago I postedabout the Joseph family who lost their Lower 9th Ward home for thesecond time.

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Groundbreaker and the Secret Request

A couple of you have pointed to the Rocky Mountain News article that claims to confirm what we’ve long suspected–that Joseph Nacchio was denied the ability to defend himself fully because of the Bush Administration’s invocation of “state secrets.” I’m going to work through the filings available at the RMN site, but here’s an April 2007 filing that is fairly detailed about Nacchio’s claims.

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Senate Minority Leader Fuels the Flames

ThinkProgress got the email that Mitch McConnell’s staffer claimed he had not sent out.

Seen the latest blogswarm? Apparently, there’s more to the story on thekid (Graeme Frost) that did the Dems’ radio response on SCHIP. Bloggershave done a little digging and turned up that the Dad owns his ownbusiness (and the building it’s in), seems to have some commercialrental income and Graeme and a sister go to a private school that,according

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I Do Believe I Smell a PR Campaign

AT&T wants something from you. They want immunity from prosecution for breaking existing laws on customer privacy. They want more bandwidth. They want to eliminate net neutrality. They may well want to suck up another company or two, to return to the good old days of MaBell. They want to be the exclusive provider to iPhone customers.

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Why State?

Josh asks “why State?” of all departments, has such a fondness for contractors in general and Blackwater in particular. I’ve got two suggestions, one based on reality and one on my tinfoil hat.

First, if you look back at the battle between DOD and State in 2003–in which Bush had officially sided with Colin Powell on the approach to reconstruct Iraq, but in which DOD and OVP managed to at least undermine

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Gonzales Seems to Expect More Trouble

Or at least that’s one thing we might surmise from the news that Gonzales hired George Terwilliger to represent him just after he resigned (h/t bmaz).

No sooner did Alberto Gonzales resign as attorney general last monththan he retained a high-powered Washington criminal-defense lawyer torepresent him in continuing inquiries by Congress and the JusticeDepartment.

[snip]

The top concern for Gonzales, and now Terwilliger, is the expandinginvestigation by Glenn Fine, the Justice Department’s fiercelyindependent inspector

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