Posts

Paul Kiel reported this morning that Brent Wilkes doesn't want the government to mention the prostitutes that Wilkes engaged as part of his bribe scheme to influence Duke Cunningham (here's the filing). And if the Court doesn't exclude the testimony about prostitutes, Geragos threatens, he's going to haul the prostitute whose calendar has been submitted as a business record into court so he can delve into her record-keeping practices.

Walter Pincus analyzes one of the contracts that Henry Waxman is looking at to determine how much more Blackwater's mercenaries are costing us than a law-abiding US soldier. Pincus notes that Petraeus makes roughly $493 a day. This doesn't appear to include benefits; figuring benes make up 1/3 of someone's compensation--which in the private sector is often about right, but in the military is probably too small--then Petraeus might cost us,

I've got two small points to make about Sy Hersh's latest, which has been covered generally just about everywhere. What had been presented primarily as a counter-proliferation mission has been reconceived as counterterrorism. The shift in targeting reflects three developments. First, thePresident and his senior advisers have concluded that their campaign toconvince the American public that Iran poses an imminent nuclear threathas failed (unlike a similar campaign before the Iraq war), and that

This panel matches Communications scholar Kim Gross with Scott Bullock with the Institute of Justice and Steve Shapiro of ACLU. Gross talked a lot about framing, particularly the coverage of race and crime. Bullock is talking a lot about working with the media, particularly reaching out to opinion leaders. Bullock is also talking about putting a client's story up front in their narrative.

Thomas Metzloff poses a question: In re: Nifong: We had a case in Durham, we had a prosecutor who was saying lots of things on TV, everyone remembers the quotable quotes. What is the message that's learned from Nifong? Michael Cassidy More lessons not learned than lessons learned. Brady and lying to court, he was going to be disbarred anyway.

Bill Leonard is resigning at the end of the year. It is with deeply mixed emotions that I inform you I have decided to leave government service at the end of the calendar year. [snip] I will miss all the great public servants at the National Archives as I move on to the next phase of my professional life.

Scout prime has been tracking something I've been watching, too. The new AfriCom military command? Well, the entire continent of Africa has told us, "no, thanks." The Pentagon's plan to create a US military command based in Africahave hit a wall of hostility from governments in the region reluctantto associate themselves with the Bush administration's "war on terror"and fearful of American intervention. A US delegation led by RyanHenry, principal deputy under-secretary of defence

The Democrats on the House Homeland Security Committee are trying to force the Administration to implement procedures for protecting the privacy of Americans before it will approve funding that will fund the Administration's domestic satellite surveillance program. In their letter to the Democrats who oversee this appropriation, they put a price tag on all the surveillance programs the Administration has had to scrap because they didn't first implement procedures to protect

The House response to the Brent Wilkes subpoena is now online--it's 81 pages long. I'll comment more on the rationale for quashing the subpoenas in an update (I've got a talk to go give shortly, but the short version is speech and debate). But some initial details:The subpoena to Ike Skelton has been withdrawnWilkes also subpoenaed:

Does this look like a budget request for a war that is going to end any time soon? Gates says another $42 billion is needed to cover additional requirements. The extra money includes:$11 billion to field another 7,000 MRAP vehicles in addition to the 8,000 already planned;$9 billion to reconstitute equipment and technology;$6 billion for training and equipment of troops;$1 billion to improve U.S.