Friday, October 27, 2006

It’s Official; Inspector General Says Halliburton Violated Regulations To Hide Corporate Behavior (12:02 pm)

The Halliburton subsidiary that provides food, shelter and other logistics to U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan exploited federal regulations to hide details on its contract performance, according to a report released Friday.

The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction found that Halliburton’s Kellogg, Brown & Root Services routinely marked all information it gave to the government as proprietary, whether it actually was or not. The government promises not to disclose proprietary data so a company’s most valuable information is not divulged to its competitors.

By marking all information proprietary — including such normally releasable data as labor rates — the company abused federal regulations, the report says.

In effect, Kellogg, Brown & Root turned the regulations “into a mechanism to prevent the government from releasing normally transparent information, thus potentially hindering competition and oversight.”

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

Safavian Sentenced To 18 Months In The Slammer (11:55 am)

Bloomberg reports:

Former White House official David Safavian was sentenced to 18 months in prison for lying and obstructing justice in the investigation of disgraced Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

Safavian, 39, was convicted June 20 of hiding his efforts to help Abramoff get government business and obstructing an inquiry into a golfing trip they took to Scotland. Each of the four counts on which he was convicted carried a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

“This was an abuse of the public’s trust,” U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman said in imposing sentence today in Washington.

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

Letterman Whups O’Reilly’s Ass Again (9:40 am)

Richard Johnson for the NY Post saw a preview tape of the Letterman show, and reports:

ANY lingering doubts that David Letterman detests Bill O’Reilly will be laid to rest tonight, when the gap-toothed funnyman has the conservative Fox News powerhouse on his CBS “Late Show” and machine-guns him with insults.

via HuffPo

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

NBC Advertising Policy: “Criticism of President Bush Not Acceptable” (8:43 am)

Think Progress reports:

NBC is refusing to air an ad for the new Dixie Chicks documentary, “Shut Up & Sing.” Variety reports, “NBC’s commercial clearance department said in writing that it ‘cannot accept these spots as they are disparaging to President Bush.’”

You can see the commercial here.

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Fitzmas Update 10/27/06 (11:17 pm)

Fitz took Team Libby’s “memory expert” totally apart, in preliminary proceedings.

Carol Leonnig for WaPo reports:

With withering and methodical dispatch, White House nemesis and prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald yesterday sliced up the first person called to the stand on behalf of the vice president’s former chief of staff.

If I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was not afraid of the special counsel before, the former Cheney aide, who will face Fitzgerald in a trial beginning Jan. 11, had ample reason to start quaking after yesterday’s Ginsu-like legal performance.

posted by Brian Zick | start the discussion

Katie Couric: Diseased People Should Wait For “A Better Day” To Show Themselves In Public (9:55 pm)

Couric interviewed Michael J. Fox about his campaign commercial and appeal for a cure to Parkinson’s Disease.

Couric asked, could he have waited to film it until he was having a better day, with less dyskinesia?

Like, y’know:
Couldn’t cancer patients wait until a better day when their hair grows back, after losing it from chemo treatments, before subjecting the public to their appearance when promoting a cure for the disease?

Couldn’t burn victims wait until a better day and their skin grafts have healed before allowing themselves to be photographed?

Couldn’t quadriplegics have the courtesy to shield the public from seeing them struggle with their wheel chairs?

Why don’t diseased and crippled people show the basic decency to keep their unpleasantly debilitated bodies away from where fit and healthy Katie Couric can see them and deprive her of a better day? How rude!

—-
*headline changed to more appropriate focus on the point (rather than merely identifying Couric as a fucktard shithead)

posted by Brian Zick | 1 comment

Matt Lauer Sides With Limbaugh, Bravely Endorses Attacks On Evil ParkinsoNazi Thug Michael J. Fox (6:14 pm)

Media Matters has the video and a transcript.

posted by Brian Zick | 1 comment

GOP Leadership Turned Blind Eye to Complaints of Another GOP Page Problem, Jim Kolbe (4:01 pm)

Rhonda Schwartz and John Yang for ABC News report

A source close to former House Clerk Jeff Trandahl told ABC News that Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) was one of a small number of “problem members” of Congress who page program supervisors complained spent too much time socializing with pages, taking them to dinner or sporting events outside of official duties.

Mark Foley was also on the list.