Joe Klein, Do You Really Think Crazy Pete Is Credible?!?!?!

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emptywheel
Mr. emptywheel and I have a running joke about "English Day"--where your dog, for one day only out of his entire life, can speak and understand English. What would we learn in that one day, we speculate, when McCaffrey the MilleniaLab could tell us precisely what he was thinking? Which gives me another cool idea--"Source Day"--where for one day, we can see all of the sources that journalists use and consider credible.

Tommy K Apparently Violated His Plea Agreement

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emptywheel
Tommy K says he shouldn't go to jail because he has a bad ticker (h/t chrisc). But it sounds like going to jail in the first place may be the least of his worries. According to a filing submitted yesterday, it appears that John Michael's earlier allegations were correct, and that Tommy K violated his plea agreement by continuing his bank fraud after the plea deal. (4) During the pre-trial proceedings of

Scruggs and Lott

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emptywheel
Lotus is right--the indictment against Dickie Scruggs is pretty damning. Here's the bit everyone is keying on, from a conversation between Timothy Balducci and Judge Lackey: "my relationship with Dick [Scruggs] is such that he and I can talk very private [sic] about these kinds of matters and I have the fullest confidence that if the court, you know, is inclined to rule ...

Then Again...

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emptywheel
Perhaps it was just a confluence of events that convinced Trent now was the time to quit. After Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott (R-MS) announced his resignation this week, it was widely speculatedthat Lott was quitting in order to dodge Senate ethics standards thattake effect next year. The new rules require senators to wait two yearsbefore entering “the lucrative world” of lobbying Congress.

Sure Looks Like It Was Trent's Brother-in-Law

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emptywheel
Any speculation on whether Trent knew this was coming down when he resigned the other day? ProminentMississippi trial attorney Richard "Dickie" Scruggs, the brother-in-lawof outgoing GOP Sen. Trent Lott, was indicted by a federal grand juryWednesday on charges that he and four other men tried to bribe aMississippi state court judge. According to the 13-page indictment, Scruggs and three otherattorneys -- including Lott's nephew Zach -- attempted to bribeMississippi Third Circuit Court Judge

Who Has Been Lobbying Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell?

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emptywheel
McConnell doesn't want you to know, no doubt fearing there will be the same kind of firestorm when we learn who has been schmoozing him as there was when we learned who was schmoozing Jello Jay Rockefeller. Thankfully, a Federal Judge thinks we ought to know this information before Congress passes its amendment to FISA (h/t Mad Dog for the heads up). The Director of National Intelligence must quickly release documentsrelating to

The Infintite Recursion of Asset Seizures

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emptywheel
Steven Aftergood must have had an extra dose of turkey over the weekend, because it seems like Steven Aftergood week here at TNH. Today, he has a liberated CRS report on the implementation of Bush's EO 13438, which authorizes the seizure of the assets of people determined to "threaten stabilization efforts in Iraq." At least according to the Congressional Research Service, the EO allows for incredibly broad application, since it allows

"I Was Under Sedation"

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emptywheel
That was the answer John Ashcroft gave to Kathleen when she asked him whether David Addington called Ashcroft's wife to pressure her to let Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card into Ashcroft's hospital room, or whether Dick Cheney called personally. I asked Former Attorney GeneralJohn Ashcroft EW's question "did President Bush call your wife directlyto tell her that Gonzales and Andrew Card were on the way to thehospital" I then asked "or was

And Speaking of Missing Emails

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emptywheel
So far the RNC has spent $231,615 looking for Turdblossom's missing emails. The Sleuth has learned, the hunt for those missing gigabytes has cost the RNC more than $250,000. According to an RNC filing with the Federal Election Commission, the committee paid $231,615 in October to Stroz Friedberg,a forensics firm chock full of former FBI agents hired to retrieve thelost electronic data.

What Is It about those GOP Appointees and their Email Computer Files?

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emptywheel
In the latest episode in the ongoing saga of disappearing GOP emails, the WSJ reports that Scott Bloch, the head of the Office of Special Counsel, invited Geeks on Call in last year, apparently to delete a bunch of emails computer files. The head of the federal agency investigating KarlRove's White House political operation is facing allegations that heimproperly deleted computer files during another probe, using a privatecomputer-help company, Geeks on Call. [snip]Recently,

That's What I Like in a Financial Advisor

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emptywheel
He opines, from deep inside the Beltway, that "real America" is doing just peachy in this economic crisis. "We obviously have problems in the housing sector and we have problemsin the financial sector, but ... real America is doing just fine," hesaid. From which I assume he means those "real Americans" who have neither investments nor a house nor a low income. And then, he gets out while there are still lifeboats available. Top White

Time Gives Up on the Truth

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emptywheel
The whole Joe Klein affair is another of the things I'm hoping to return to on Monday. But for now, take a look at their "correction." In the original version of this story, Joe Klein wrote that theHouse Democratic version of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act(FISA) would allow a court review of individual foreign surveillancetargets.

More Intriguing than a Boy-for-Hire

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emptywheel
There was a rumor floating the Toobz yesterday that Trent Lott got out of the Senate in a hurry because of boy trouble--perhaps something that Larry Flynt dug up. That rumor has since been denied by the boy in question. But Scott Horton points us to something that is rather more intriguing:

Enigmatic Terms

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emptywheel
Luckily, Harry Reid has put off the Senate vote on the FISA amendment, because I never finished my series showing that the current amendment will legalize data mining. Man oh man oh man, am I looking forward to meeting the deadline I'm on, celebrating a late Turkey Day with friends this weekend, then going into a blog and bill paying frenzy next Monday.

Christian Forgiveness

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emptywheel
Remember how Dick Cheney very charitably forgave Harry Whittington, the old man who had the audacity to get hit by Dick Cheney's birdshot? Well, Aravosis catches Bush doing Cheney one better: Bush has the kindness to forgive Gore for winning the the 2000 election. Bush forgives Gore for Bush stealing the 2000 election.

They're Still Paying for Intell Pork

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emptywheel
Steven Aftergood has an important post describing the squabble between the intelligence appropriations subcommittees and the intelligence committees. He explains how, even though the intelligence committees are trying to exercise more oversight over intelligence activities, the appropriators (which have increasingly become the defense subcommittee appropriators, as more intelligence activities have moved under DOD) have undercut those efforts. The efficacy of intelligence oversight in the Senate has beendrastically undermined by procedural hurdles that

Geragos' Intentionally Non-Responsive Subpoena to Lisa Myers

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emptywheel
This is odd. As I explained earlier, Brent Wilkes' lawyer Mark Geragos is trying to subpoena a bunch of lawyers and journalists, in hopes (he claims) of discovering who was leaking about the Wilkes/Foggo indictments before the indictments came down, and in further hopes of getting Wilkes' convictions thrown out because of governmental misconduct.

The Lisa Myers Subpoena

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emptywheel
I read Wilkes' motion to subpoena journalists and others with great interest. I'll return to three details later:The naming of Seth Hettena as the journalist who allegedly showed Mark Geragos a copies of two indictments; Geragos had earlier refused to give prosecutors Hettena's name. The lack of a subpoena for Dan Dzwilewski, the Special Agent in Charge who retired suddenly in the midst of this whole scandal and, presumably, one leading

The Monday before Tuesday

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emptywheel
I don't believe we're going to wake up at the end of tomorrow, after the Annapolis conference, and discover peace has broken out across the Middle East. I'm not developing some newfound faith in Condi's ability to negotiate real diplomatic deals. But I am intrigued by the degree to which pieces are falling into place, just on the eve of tomorrow's conference. First there was the news that Syria will attend the

CALEA

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emptywheel
looseheadprop has a post at FDL that deserves more attention. Particularly this paragraph: In 2005, in response to a petition dated March 10, 2004 by the DOJ and FBI, [Ed. note, if you only have time to click on one link—this is it!] the FCCissued a report and Order that said that CALEA applied tofacilities-based broadband Internet access providers and providers ofinterconnected (with the PSTN, Public Switched Telephone Network)Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VOIP) services.
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