Corrupt defense contractor Mitchell Wade picked up the tab for a $2,800 dinner last year for Rep. Katharine Harris (R-FL) at “one of Washington’s most exclusive restaurants,” at the same time he was “seeking help…for $10 million in federal money.”
Much pomp, little progress during Hu’s visit: “In terms of substance, what’s noteworthy is what didn’t happen: China didn’t give ground on Iran, North Korea, or anything else.”
President Bush’s counsel Harriet Miers may be the next White House shake-up casualty. “Moving Ms. Miers would be a strike at the heart of Mr. Bush’s emotional bonds in the White House,” notes the New York Times.
One day after a security officer who guards the Dept. of Homeland Security headquarters appeared on NBC News to blow the whistle on lax security practices, “his fellow guards were told to sign secrecy oaths” that one officer said were meant to “keep the guards from talking to the press.”
WSJ editor Daniel Henninger psychoanalyzes the blogosphere: “I don’t think the blogosphere is breeding cannibals. But it looks to me as if the world of blogs may be filling up with people who for the previous 200 millennia of human existence kept their weird thoughts more or less to themselves.”
Cambodia rejected a U.S. request for non-combat forces to assist with humanitarian work in Iraq. Prime Minister Hun Sen said, “Cambodia will not send forces to Iraq because the operation in Iraq is not a United Nations operation “” it is an intervention on the part of some countries.”
After initially claiming he would not be forced out of power due to U.S. pressure, Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari indicated that he would drop his bid to retain his post, a move sure to please President Bush. The Shiite coalition is expected to vote today on whether to keep Jaafari as their candidate.
Earmarks extend to Iraq appropriations. A Senate measure to fund the war in Iraq would chop money for troops’ night vision equipment and new battle vehicles but add $230 million for the V-22 Osprey, a tilt-rotor aircraft that has already cost $18 billion and is still facing safety questions.
The federal government wasted at least $7.8 million on no-bid Hurricane Katrina contract for portable classrooms from the Alaskan company Akima Site Operations LLC. According to a federal audit, the Army Corps of Engineers passed up chances to negotiate a lower price with Akima, which has connections with several powerful conservatives.
And finally: Former FEMA director Michael Brown has some advice for Donald Rumsfeld. “I think I should call the secretary and say watch your back, because you never know… here today, gone tomorrow.”
What did we miss? Let us know in the comments section.
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