‘Scooter’ Libby Indicted in CIA Leak Case, Resigns
Vice President Dick Cheney’s Chief Aide Faces Five Charges Totaling 30-Year Sentence
Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief adviser, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, was indicted on five charges today in the CIA leak investigation and resigned from his White House position.Top White House strategist Karl Rove evaded charges but will remain under investigation.
Libby has been indicted on obstruction of justice, two counts of perjury and two counts of allegedly making false statements in the investigation into the disclosure of the identity of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame. The grand jury investigating the case handed up the indictment this afternoon. If convicted, Libby could face up to 30 years in prison and $1.25 million fine.
White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said Libby submitted his resignation earlier today and it was accepted by Bush. Cheney said he regretted Libby’s decision to resign and urged others not to prejudge his now-former adviser. . .
Rove not indicted, still under investigation
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove escaped indictment in the CIA leak case Friday but remained under investigation.
Rove’s lawyer said he was told by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald’s office that investigators had “made no decision about whether or not to bring charges” and would continue their probe into Rove’s conduct. Rove is President Bush’s closest adviser.
The White House did expect an indictment charging I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, with false statements in the probe.
In grand jruy testimony, Rove and Libby discussed their contacts with reporters about an undercover CIA officer in the days before her identity was published.
Rove told grand jurors it was possible he first heard in the White House that Valerie Plame, wife of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson, worked for the CIA from Libby’s recounting of a conversation with a journalist, according to people familiar with his testimony. . .
Booming time for big oil
ExxonMobil pulls in $10B profit as storms, war boost gas prices
ExxonMobil confirmed yesterday what most motorists and homeowners probably guessed: that the summer and early fall’s budget-busting gasoline and heating fuel prices boosted its profits big time – by 75 percent, to $9.92 billion.
The news prompted a renewed bi-partisan call by federal politicians for taxes on oil company profits and for hearings into whether the companies are price gouging.
ExxonMobil’s profit was a record for the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer and its industry. Its quarterly sales revenue of $100 billion also was an industry record.
Royal Dutch Shell Plc also reported record profits for the quarter that ended Sept. 30, up 68 percent to $9.03 billion. Some smaller oil companies reported similar increases earlier in the week. “We are capturing the benefits of high oil and gas prices and refining margins,” Shell chief financial officer Peter Voser said. . .
SHOPGIRL
Hey, I can actually say I read the book! Of course, the book is really called a “novella”, in this case, it’s less than 100 pages and you can finish it in one short sitting, but be like me, and say you read the book! “Shopgirl” is written and produced by Steve Martin, and if you remember one of his movies, “The Lonely Guy”, this is the more serious side of that premise. Mirabelle Butterfield is new to Los Angeles, another girl from the East Coast looking to escape to the fantasy life of LA. Played by Claire Danes, she works by day at the glove counter of a Saks Fifth Avenue store in Beverly Hills. By night, she’s a lonely girl living in one of those drab, “communist block” housing projects in the Griffith Park area. (more…)
Thursday, October 27th, 2005
House Leaders Say Oil Refining Must Expand
As oil companies prepare to announce large quarterly profits, House Republican leaders yesterday said they need to spend more to expand the nation’s refining capacity.
Five Republican leaders, appearing at a news conference, said increasing the capacity of refineries—which produce gasoline, heating oil and other oil products—would help lower high consumer prices.
“We expect oil companies to do their part to ease the pain,” House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) said at the news conference. In prepared remarks, Hastert said that “increasing capacity and improving refineries will help boost supplies so that consumers do not feel such a big pinch.”
The comments came after hurricanes that significantly disrupted refining operations in the Gulf Coast region, tightened supplies and sent gasoline prices above $3 a gallon. In recent weeks, as refineries have come back online and demand has decreased, prices have declined and were about $2.61 yesterday for a gallon of regular, according to a AAA-sponsored survey. . .
Republicans Ask Oil Industry for Help With Fuel Prices
After forcing through two pieces of legislation with significant benefits for the oil industry this year, House Republican leaders on Tuesday called for oil companies to return the favor by building new refineries and taking other steps to increase fuel supply and lower gas prices.
“It is time to invest in America,” said Speaker J. Dennis Hastert, who said that in a period of soaring industry profits, “we expect oil companies to do their part to help ease the pain American families are feeling from high energy prices.”
The decision by Republicans to take aim at an industry that is typically a chief ally reflected mounting anxiety among lawmakers about the political fallout from soaring fuel prices.
It came as House Republicans continued to find it difficult, on another front, to move forward with budget cuts they hoped to showcase as evidence of renewed commitment to smaller government. . .
Wednesday, October 26th, 2005
FEMA’s waste continues as millions in extra payments given out for Katrina
With hundreds of thousands forced from homes battered by Hurricane Katrina, the federal government cut red tape to rush $2,000 checks and debit cards to help victims pay for clothes, food, transportation and a place to live.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency intended the aid for displaced Gulf Coast families and limited it to one payment per household.
But in three Louisiana parishes, FEMA issued more checks than there are households, at a cost to taxpayers of at least $70 million, a South Florida Sun-Sentinel investigation has found. . .
Gov. Bush admits state underestimated demand for water, ice on South Florida
Gov. Jeb Bush admitted on Wednesday the state underestimated the demand for ice and water in southeast Florida and didn’t funnel enough supplies to the area immediately after Hurricane Wilma roared through.
“It didn’t work as well as it should have yesterday,” said Gov. Jeb Bush, referring to Tuesday’s long lines of frustrated residents, many of whom left distribution sites empty-handed.
“My expectation was that within 24 hours we’d have our points of distribution set up. Never has that been done in any hurricane. We didn’t meet those expectations and I accept responsibility for that,” he said. “Today is going to be better. Tomorrow is going to be better than today. . .
Governor tries to make headway via Latino town hall
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger reached out to Latino voters Tuesday in a town-hall forum on Spanish-language network Univision, moving to shore up sagging support among a key constituency.
Amid audience questioning, Schwarzenegger said he opposes a national amnesty program for illegal immigrants – but supports a guest-worker program – and repeated his hope that the federal government addresses driver’s license and other immigration issues before California does.
“It’s a federal issue; it’s not a state issue,” Schwarzenegger said. “It’s not for the governor to decide; it’s for the president, for Senate and Congress – for them to decide how to deal with that issue . . .
Air seats in short supply as thousands try to leave Mexico
Thousands of desperate tourists stranded for six days by Hurricane Wilma besieged airports and tour offices on Wednesday as officials faced evacuating 22,000 visitors with only 6,000 airline seats out of Cancun a day.
While most of the flooding had receded and electricity was slowly returning, frustrated visitors who had gone a week without showering said they were beginning to relate to victims of Hurricane Katrina.
“Now I know how those people in New Orleans felt,” said Angela Benites, 48, of Mexico City. “Several days of desperation is no way to live.”
As Cancun’s half-million people struggled to clean up their flooded and wind-smashed homes and workplaces, frustrated tourists surrounded airline offices. Some leapt and wept for joy when told they could leave. . .
Tuesday, October 25th, 2005
Contact Daniel Griswold HERE and let him know how horrible he sounded on the show. Also, contact the Cato Institute’s “Founder and President” Edward Crane HERE.
Brazilians rush to beat visa crackdown
Brazilians eager for jobs are pouring into Mexico hoping to cross from there illegally to the United States before Mexico imposes restrictions that will make the trip more difficult.
Mexico, under intense U.S. pressure to stem the flow of Brazilians over its border with the U.S., will start Monday requiring visas for all Brazilians tourists.
Anticipating the move, the number of Brazilians flying to Mexico has surged this year and accelerated even more since Mexico officially announced the visa requirement last month.
The Mexican move reverses a 2004 agreement between Brazil and Mexico that mutually eliminated visa requirements for visitors. Brazil on Monday will impose identical visa restrictions on Mexican visitors. . .
Execution Closer for ‘a Model of Humanity’
Lawyers and religious figures on Monday launched what is expected to be a vigorous battle to save the life of Stanley “Tookie” Williams, the reputed co-founder of the Crips street gang, after a judge set Dec. 13 as his execution date.
Because he has lost all his appeals, it appears that only a grant of clemency from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger could save Williams, 51, convicted 24 years ago of four Los Angeles murders — the shootings of Albert Owens, who was killed in the robbery of a 7-Eleven store on Feb. 27, 1979, and of motel owners Yen-I Yang and Thsai-Shaic Yang and their daughter, Yee Chen Lin, at the Brookhaven Motel on South Vermont Avenue 12 days later.
No California governor since Ronald Reagan has granted clemency in a death penalty case. . .
Poll: U.S. Border Control Lacking
Most Americans do not think the U.S. is doing enough to keep illegal immigrants from entering the country, but they are opposed to letting citizen volunteers patrol the borders. George W. Bush gets low marks for his handling of the issue of immigration generally.
In this CBS News Poll, three in four Americans say the U.S. is not doing enough along its borders to keep illegal immigrants from entering the country. Just 15 percent say the U.S. is doing enough. Significant majorities of all demographic groups say the U.S. is not doing enough to keep illegal immigrants from crossing the border.
GOVT. JOB KEEPING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS FROM ENTERING U.S.?
Doing enough: 15%
Doing too much: 4%
Not doing enough: 75%
Recently, citizen volunteers known as “minutemen” have been patrolling some U.S. borders to try and keep out illegal immigrants. A majority of Americans – 65 percent – opposes this and thinks border patrol should be left to government law enforcement. 31 percent say citizens should be allowed to patrol U.S. borders. . .
Monday, October 24th, 2005
Bush Treads Lightly With Guest Worker Plan
Caught between business supporters who need foreign workers and conservatives clamoring for a clampdown on illegal immigration, President Bush tried on Saturday to give his temporary guest worker plan a nudge by promising strong enforcement.
“A critical part of any temporary worker program is ensuring that our immigration laws are enforced at work sites,” Bush said in his weekly radio address. “America is a country of laws _ we must not allow dishonest employers to flout those laws.”
The president last year introduced a plan that would allow undocumented workers to obtain three-year work visas. They could extend that for another three years, but would then have to return to their home countries for a year to apply for a new work permit. . .
Global economy shafting U.S. worker
Will America remain the land of opportunity? Will it remain a nation with a broad middle class? Or is it turning into two Americas, one rich and one struggling just to get by?
The Delphi Corp., one of the leading automobile parts manufacturers in the world, has filed for bankruptcy. Its CEO, Robert Miller, says it can’t meet global competition and pay its workers a union wage. And it must shed its obligations on health care and pensions to its retired workers.
Miller, having dished out some $90 million in severance bonuses to his executives, wants workers to swallow pay cuts from about $27 an hour to about $10 an hour. . .
Friday, October 21st, 2005
Aide Says FEMA Ignored Warnings
Testimony Covers Communication as Levees Breached
For 16 critical hours, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials, including former director Michael D. Brown, dismissed urgent eyewitness accounts by FEMA’s only staffer in New Orleans that Hurricane Katrina had broken the city’s levee system the morning of Aug. 29 and was causing catastrophic flooding, the staffer told the Senate yesterday.
Marty Bahamonde, sent to New Orleans by Brown, said he alerted Brown’s assistant shortly after 11 a.m. that Monday with the “worst possible news” for the city: The Category 4 hurricane had carved a 20-foot breach in the 17th Avenue Canal levee.
Five FEMA aides were e-mailed Bahamonde’s report of “water flow ‘bad’ ” from the broken levees designed to hold back Lake Pontchartrain. Bahamonde said he called Brown personally after 7 p.m. to warn that 80 percent of New Orleans was underwater and that he had photographed a 200-foot-wide breach.
“FEMA headquarters knew at 11 o’clock. Mike Brown knew at 7 o’clock. Most of FEMA’s operational staff knew by 9 o’clock that evening. I don’t know where that information went,” said Bahamonde, a 12-year FEMA staffer who has worked full time since 2002 as a public affairs official . . .
Excerpts From FEMA Officials’ E-Mails
Excerpts from e-mails among Federal Emergency Management officials during Hurricane Katrina: (Note: All times CDT)
“Issues developing at the Superdome. 2000 already in and more standing in line. ...The medical staff at the dome says they will run out of oxygen in about 2 hours and are looking for alternative oxygen.”
– Bahamonde to Deborah Wing, FEMA response specialist, Aug 28, 5:28 p.m.“Everyone is soaked. This is going to get ugly real fast.”
– Passey to group, Aug 28, 7:16 p.m.“The current population at the Superdome in New Orleans is 25,000. That’s a large crowd during a normal event. Among the shelter population are 400 special needs evacuees and 45-50 sick individuals who require hospitalization. The on-hand oxygen supply will likely run out in the next few hours. According to the ESF8 folks, the local health officials have struggled to put meaningful resource requests together.”
Zero-Tolerance Policy Challenged
Parents say schools have gone overboard in trying to prevent violence on campus. One Ventura County family fights back
Even Daniel Bautista’s parents agreed he should have been suspended for bringing a knife to school, although they believed their 13-year-old son when he said he had forgotten it was in his pants pocket.
But Jorge and Rose Bautista said the eighth-grader did not deserve to be removed from Sycamore Canyon School in Thousand Oaks.
Like many parents nationwide who are questioning zero-tolerance weapons laws aimed at preventing school violence, they took on their local school board, and requested to do so in a public hearing . . .
Danielle Brinkman’s mother Anita will make a major announcement at 4 pm!
