Noah Shachtman has found a “Visitors Guide” to Baghdad’s Green Zone on website of the U.S. military’s Multi-National Security Transition Command. The 2006 guide purports to “written by tourists for the tourist.” But as Shachtman points out, the two authors are more than just “tourists”:

One of the writers, a “Richard H. Houghton III,” was the acting country director in Iraq of the International Republican Institute. That’s an unofficial arm of the Republican party, chaired by John McCain, which focuses on democracy-promotion abroad. “A former U.S. Marine Colonel, Mr. Houghton, when not making the world safe for democracy, enjoys rodeo and weightlifting,” the Guide says. The other author, Patrick J. McDonald, “completed a one year tour of duty with the 448th Civil Affairs Battalion… He is Assistant to the Secretary of State for the State of Washington and is a confirmed war tourist.”

Capt. Matt Tompkins, currently on his second tour of duty in Iraq, calls such military tourism one of his “biggest pet peeves.”

Julie Myers, head of Homeland Security’s immigration division, has come under intense criticism for awarding “Most Original Costume” to an employee “who dressed in prison stripes, dreadlocks and dark makeup for a Halloween gathering at the agency.” Myers was part of a three-judge panel that awarded the prize.

Today, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff appeared on MSNBC and said that he had put the employee who wore the costume on “administrative leave.” He added that he has “zero tolerance” for discriminatory acts. But when it came to Myers, Chertoff refused to condemn her and indicated that she would face no punitive action:

CHERTOFF: First of all, I’ve directed that the individual who came up with this idea be put on administrative leave and we take some kind of disciplinary action. [...]

We have to make it clear to our own employees and to the public at large that we are totally neutral when we enforce the law and we don’t tolerate any ethnic discrimination.

So that’s a very strong message I’ve reinforced. Assistant Secretary Myers apologized for the fact that the incident occurred and has contacted both people inside the department and outside the department to make amends.

Watch it:

Speaking to the AP, Chertoff also excused Myers’s actions, stating that she “was kind of caught by surprise by this.” “I know she’s mortified,” he added, “but I think she’s doing what she needs to do at the moment.”

Myers is married to Chertoff’s former chief of staff, John F. Wood, who is currently a U.S. attorney in Missouri. She is also the niece of former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Richard B. Myers.

The agency has destroyed at least one photo of Myers with the costumed employee and has refused to let CNN see other pictures from the party. If Chertoff is serious about his “zero tolerance” policy, he should also discipline Myers for rewarding the employee’s discriminatory behavior.

Transcript: Read more

Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s (D-OH) resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney advanced in the House today due largely to the backing of House Republicans. Kucinich’s measure “failed to win the backing of the House leadership,” and when a vote came to table the impeachment resolution, conservatives voted against it before they voted for it:

Midway through the vote, with instructions from the GOP leadership, Republicans one by one changed their votes from yes — to kill the resolution — to no, trying to force the chamber into a debate and an up-or-down vote on the proposal.

At one point there were 290 votes to table. After the turnaround, the final vote was 251-162 against tabling, with 165 Republicans voting against it.

“We’re going to help them out, to explain themselves,” said Rep. Pete Sessions, R-Texas. “We’re going to give them their day in court.”

UPDATE: The House just voted 218-194 to send Kucinich’s impeachment resolution to the Judiciary Committee, thus killing the bill and preventing a debate on impeachment.

UPDATE II: CapNewsNet has video of the activity on the House floor today.

In an interview on Hugh Hewitt’s radio show yesterday, former UN Ambassador John Bolton complained about the tone of “battles that are going on in Washington” now. As an example, he cited the opposition to Michael Mukasey, who refused to call waterboarding torture. Apparently lacking irony, Bolton then described the confirmation process for Mukasey as a “kind of torture“:

Well, I hope not, because I think one of the consequences of the battles that are going on in Washington now over, for example, the confirmation of Judge Mukasey as the new Attorney General, which I think is now likely to go through, is that people will say I’m not going to serve in the government. I’m not going to put myself and my family through this kind of torture, which is designed to pick people apart and not disagree with them on policy, but just find ways of preventing their nomination from being confirmed.