While most lawmakers and lobbyists are disavowing the K Street Group, right-wing activist Grover Norquist is seeking a trademark on it, saying the group has been given a bad rap. “We will jealously guard the real phrasing the way Kleenex and Coca-Cola do. We will sue anyone who says it wrong and make lots of money.”
33: Number of American troops who have died in Iraq so far this month, exceeding the 31 killed in all of March.
A year after John Negroponte became the first director of national intelligence, key lawmakers worry that the spy agency is not fulfilling its vital mission. The office is “not adding any value” by enlarging the bureaucracy, said House Intelligence Committee Chairman Pete Hoekstra (R-MI). “They’re lengthening the time to make things happen.” (Maybe that has something to do with the 3 hours a day Negroponte spends at a health club?)
Unnamed “insiders” believe new White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten is “leaning toward selecting an outsider” as the new head of the Office of Management and Budget. One person “even suggested that retiring Rep. Tom DeLay was being considered.”
Iran announced yesterday it had enriched uranium to 3.5 percent purity. For weapons-grade material, “they need to kick it up to about 80 percent and do so on an industrial-scale, all of which will likely take years.” Analysts suggested the announcement had more to do with political theater than technological advancement.
President Bush’s health-care initiatives, which he showcased as his top domestic priorities in his most recent State of the Union address, “are stalled in Congress, with little chance for passage.” Bush’s congressional allies say there is little hope any legislation will be passed this year.
The current national surveillance system for work-related injuries and illnesses may miss two-thirds of the total number of occupational injuries and illnesses, according to a new study by Michigan State University.
57: The percentage of Americans who believe the estate tax should be reformed or left as is, according to a new poll. Only 23 percent of those polled backed full repeal.
In May 2003, President Bush pointed to “mobile bio labs” found in Iraq and declared, “We have found the weapons of mass destruction.” But two days prior, a secret U.S.-U.K. mission had reported that the labs weren’t banned weapons, but rather “the biggest sand toilets in the world.”
Devastated by Hurricane Katrina, St. Bernard Parish is turning to the man who provided them no help during the hurricane: former FEMA director Michael Brown. “I’ll talk to the devil himself if I thought he could help us,” said parish president Henry “Junior” Rodriguez, who may hire Brown as a consultant.
And finally: “Italy’s most famous porn star” Cicciolina has “offered herself” to Osama Bin Laden. “I am ready to make a deal, he can have me in exchange for an end to his tyranny,” she said at an “erotic fair.” “My breasts have only ever helped people while Bin Laden has killed thousands of innocent victims.”
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