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What has triggered Tom DeLay to  step away from regaining his position as House majority leader?

Was it just the petition for new leadership elections some Republicans floated? I had expected DeLay to fight that one down. 

Yesterday Time reported Duke Cunningham wore a wire while cooperating with the prosecutors in his bribe case. That wire must have caught some interesting talk.

Was Jack Abramoff also wearing one throughout the 18 month he is said to have cooperated with the investigation? Transcripts of such bugged conversations in which he bribes politicians should be even more interesting than Cunnigham’s. 

Maybe yesterdays Time piece made DeLay understand how huge the upcoming train really is. He sure knows about bugs.

Roy Blunt, who now wants DeLay’s post permanently, will have to have the same fear. But he wants the job dearly.

Fine with me, the longer this scandal series takes, the better.

Via Crooks and Liars some thoughts from The Bulldog Manifest pointing out the biggest mystery of the last years.

Between Oct. 4 and Dec. 4, 2001, 389 stories appeared in the New York Times with "anthrax" in the headline." During the same period, 238 "anthrax" stories appeared in the Washington Post.

U.S. made anthrax, spread on U.S. soil, right after 9/11. Who???

Whoever solves the above question will have broken the cabal. 

Why aren´t there any takers …

sowing tribulation – detail
by anna missed
paint on wood,38"x27", 2005

full, uncompressed (140kb)

Coalition aircraft flew 52 close air support missions Jan. 3 for Operation Iraqi Freedom. These missions included support to Coalition troops, infrastructure protection, reconstruction activities, and operations to deter and disrupt terrorist activities.

Royal Air Force GR-4s provided close air support to Coalition troops in contact with anti-Iraqi forces in the vicinity of Bayji.
Centcom, Air Componant Data

BAIJI – A U.S. air strike killed up to 14 members of a single family and wounded at least two people in an attack on a house in Baiji, 180 km (112 miles) north of Baghdad, on Monday night, an Iraqi security force spokesman said. Police in nearby Tikrit put the death toll at six. The U.S. military, responding to an inquiry, said aircraft had targeted a house after three men suspected of planting a roadside bomb were seen entering the building. They gave no death toll.
Reuters, Security incidents in Iraq, Jan. 3

The U.S. military on Friday announced the deaths of six more American troops killed in the recent barrage of violence that has swept Iraq, bringing to 11 the number of troops killed on the same day.
AP, 11 U.S. Troops Killed in One Day in Iraq, Jan. 6

The British government had made a big fuzz claiming Iran to be behind a new type of IED trigger used in Basra in south Iraq. It had to retract that claim:

Cont. reading: Stupid Propaganda

Other news and views …

With Sharon out of politics, will the road map he had buried be revived, or will the Israeli right be the stronger force?

From a recent LA Times OpEd West Bank buildup

THE WEST BANK settlements of Ariel and Karnei Shomron are about to expand. In mid-December, Israel’s Housing Ministry invited bids from contractors on lots for 137 new homes. The decision was made "with the knowledge of the prime minister," according to a source who spoke off the record because that’s how sources tell the important parts of stories. No matter that the "road map," the 2003 document that remains the U.S. plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace, explicitly states that Israel must freeze all settlement activity. …

And who will get those $3 million bribes now?

King George III declares laws written and adopted by the elected Parliament are only exercisable in accordance to His interpretation.

Recently the parliament saw a need to spend additional tax money on firefighters and decreeded a law to instruct the executive to act accordingly, i.e. to hire more firefighters.

The King, as head of the executive branch, did not mind firefighters, but he preferred to watch fireworks over any firefighters he had ever seen.

He signed the law the Parliament had adopted, as he has technical had to, but in doing so he also advised the executive he presided to interpret the law to his desire.

He ordered his subordinate to spend the additional money on fireworks to be launched at a time and location of his pleasure.

The executive branch shall construe these provisions relating to planning and making of budget recommendations in a manner consistent with the President’s constitutional authority to require the opinions of the heads of departments, to supervise the unitary executive branch, and to recommend for congressional consideration such measures as the President shall judge necessary and expedient.

Legal details are here and here.

But where is the outrage?

This WaPo oped by a father of a GI who died in Iraq is worth a read in full: A Life, Wasted

Anyhow, some excerpts:

Cont. reading: “Hero”

NYT reporter Risen’s new book will be interesting. Some early nuggets are to be found in this AP piece and in Time.

(T)he book said a CIA officer mistakenly sent one of its Iranian agents information that could be used to identify virtually every spy the agency had in Iran. The book said the Iranian was a double agent who turned over the data to Iranian security officials.

Is that the background of the "Chalabi gives information to Iranians" story?

Maybe, but the more important stuff is the NSA spying and there are some interesting details.

Cont. reading: Pain Medication

There is a lot of talk on the net and in the previous thread about a coming attack on Iran. We all try to get a grip on this. Will it come? When? Is there confirmation?

Reading this Reuters piece, my bullshit detector went off.

Turkey said on Monday that newspaper reports which say the United States has asked Ankara for permission to use military bases in Turkey for possible attacks on neighbouring Iran are not connected with reality.
…
The foreign ministry named no newspapers, but Israel’s Jerusalem Post, Germany’s Tagesspiegel and Turkey’s Sabah newspaper are among those that have published reports speculating that the United States would like to be able to use Turkish soil if it decided to launch an attack on Iran.
…
The U.S. military uses Incirlik airbase in southern Turkey for planes supplying U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I did not remember the detail of using Incirlik or other Turkish soil for an Iran attack, so I tried to find a source for this. I did not succeed.

It appears the Turkish government just denied something that nobody alleged, but the real issue at hand is not denied.

Cont. reading: A Turkish Non-Denial

The current spat between Russia and Ukraine about the price of natural gas has an interesting side effect.

The current pipeline system between Russia and western Europe is criss crossing the countries who, through various colored U.S. sponsored revolutions, have loosend their ties to Russia. 

Cont. reading: Pipeline Powerplay

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