Revealing further details about the efforts of then acting Assistant Attorney General Bradley Schlozman to politicize the Justice Department’s civil rights division, the Washington Post reports Schlozman “asked a supervisor if a career lawyer who had voted for Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), a onetime political rival of President Bush, could still be trusted.”
Former U.S. Attorney Tom Heffelfinger will testify today before the Senate Indian Affairs committee in Washington, “where he has become embroiled” in the scandal over the attorney firings. Reports suggest Heffelfinger may have been targeted for removal by the Justice Department because of his role in protecting the rights of Native American voters.
1 in 8: Number of U.S. veterans under the age of 65 who “lack even basic health insurance or access to care at Veterans Affairs hospitals. … The ranks of uninsured veterans have increased by 290,000 since 2000.”
Congress yesterday “moved to block President George W. Bush from developing a new generation of atomic warheads,” because “the administration had not developed an adequate post-Cold War nuclear strategy.” Bush has promised to veto the bill, which denies him the $89 billion he requested for the program.
Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani yesterday said that joining the Iraq Study Group was a “mistake.” “I thought it would work, but then after a month or two I realized the idea that I was possibly going to run for president would be inconsistent with that,” he said, failing to mention that he initially missed several of the group’s meetings in order to attend fundraising events.
“Many parts of New Orleans struck hardest by Hurricane Katrina remain vulnerable to flooding despite nearly two years of attempts to protect them, a study published Wednesday by the Army Corps of Engineers found.” But the report also shows that the vulnerable areas are much smaller than they were before Hurricane Katrina due to levee upgrades.
“Federal environmental officials misled Lower Manhattan residents about the extent of contamination in their condominiums and apartments after the collapse of the World Trade Center,” according to a new Government Accountability Report.
Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General Paul McNulty will testify at noon today before a House Judiciary subcommittee. He is expected to “defend his past statements about the firings of U.S. attorneys, rebutting allegations from other Bush administration officials that he misled Congress by suggesting there was no substantial White House role in the dismissals.”
The Senate education committee joined the House education panel in approving legislation “that would cut federal subsidies to lending companies by as much as $19 billion, channel most of those savings to student aid and ease repayment rules for borrowers.”
And finally: No more Blackberries for the French. The Blackberry is now banned in the French presidential palace and government ministries because the U.S. National Security Agency might be “snooping on ministerial messages.” But government employees aren’t happy. “Just when we thought France was entering the modern age of technology, the government bureaucrats snatched it away and sent us back to passing handwritten notes,” noted one worker.
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