It’s 1155pm on July 31, 2006. I have a migraine, I’m tired and I’ve been awake since 4am.

And Scooter Libby’s defense is that he was ‘too busy with matters of life and death’ and ‘national security’ to pay attention to what he told reporters…

You. Must. Be. Kidding. ME. His defense is that he wasn’t paying attention?! He’s hiring a “memory expert” to explain why his memories of conversations may be different from the people he was talking with.

Former White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby wants a memory expert to explain how he — and prosecution witnesses — may have different recollections of their conversations about a
CIA officer’s identity.

In a court filing Monday, defense lawyers said Libby has a right to present testimony from Robert A. Bjork, chairman of the psychology department at the University of California at Los Angeles, to correct misperceptions that jurors may have about the reliability of memory.

 [The Huffington Post | Raw Feed]

 This is good news.

No longer will women in need of the “Morning After” pill be subjected to pharmacists or nurses that put their personal beliefs above professional duty. There truly is an organization and website for everyone nut-job group EVER.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Food and Drug Administration said Monday that it will consider allowing over-the-counter sales of a morning-after emergency contraceptive to women 18 and older, re-starting a stalled decision-making process.

 

[CNN.com]

From Atrios. I don’t think comment is needed…

About two months ago - One Bayh, to be exact - Evan Bayh suggested that we need to wait and see a little bit longer on Iraq, and if things aren’t working out swimmingly “we’re out.” He didn’t provide precise conditions, leaving him room to wiggle out, but here’s what was said:

Calling it “the biggest political and military blunder of my lifetime,” Sturgeon said to Bayh, “I’d like you to explain your vote on the war and why you gave the president a blank check to get us into this disaster.”

Bayh calmly answered that “I wouldn’t cast the same vote today as I did then.” He noted that “the French believed that (there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq), the Germans believed that, the Russians believed that, everybody believed he [Saddam Hussein] had weapons of mass destruction.”

Bayh said if the Iraqi factions “get their political act together — and we will know this in the next six to eight weeks… if they can form a government… then there’s something to work with there.” If not, then “we’re out.”

Again, it’s not really clear what conditions he was imposing, but presumably it involved the Iraqi government getting their shit together and making things better.

Since then Iraq has become the forgotten war, but things are not in fact going swimmingly.

BAGHDAD (AP) - Gunmen kidnapped 29 people in Baghdad on Monday, while Iraq’s latest wave of violence killed 27 people, including four Iraqi soldiers in a suicide bombing.

The interior minister faced calls for his dismissal because of the worsening security crisis in Baghdad and surrounding towns, mostly blamed on sectarian conflict between Shiites and Sunnis.

The Iraqi government said Monday that 30,359 families have fled their homes to escape sectarian violence from mid-February through July 30 - roughly 182,000 people. Baghdad accounted for the highest number of displaced.

Gunmen in military fatigues drove to the main shopping area of Karrada in 15 vehicles and split into two groups, one going into a mobile phone shop and the other into the office next door of the Iraqi-American Chamber of Commerce, said police Lieut. Thair Mahmoud.

They kidnapped 15 staff and customers from the shop and 11 from the chamber, he said. All were believed to be Iraqis. No other details were available.

Perhaps a reporter should ask Bayh if it’s time to get out.

 [Eschaton]

Has been kind enough to forward us his website address. It is www.senatorharrybrown.com.

The candidate list here has been updated with the site.

Thank you, Senator Brown.

 Questions or comments can be posted here or emailed to OnslowCountyPolitics@gmail.com.

First reported on this web-log here, the Schools’ are concerned over a possible discrepancy in the scores.

If anyone’s attending the School Board meeting tomorrow (7pm at the Family Education Center in Jacksonville), please ask them about the scores. I will not be there, as I have a previous engagement. If you do ask, please respond here or email the address to let me know what was said.

The new school year will be starting soon…Don’t you want to know how the District performed last year? I do…I bet you do, too.

Questions or comments can be posted here or emailed to OnslowCountyPolitics@gmail.com.

 This is insane…Almost. It would be insane, except that we seem to live in some kind of alternate reality. In this reality, one ideology controls the Executive, Legislative AND the Judicial branches of government. I do not think that the Founding Fathers had ever thought that possible.

This Congress has no oversight of the Executive. The Administration has walked over Congress in ways that are unimaginable. Especially unimaginable since the Congress and Executive branches are from the same political party and share ideologies. In that environment, it’s conceivable that if Congress were aware of all the stuff being kept secret, they’d excuse it, allow it to continue and probably pass legislation to make it legal if it weren’t (Specter’s spying bill, for example).

What’s especially frightening is that the report was not an entire accounting of the more than $1 billion spent by the USAID agency in Iraq. Who knows how much more in ‘hidden costs’ are out there…

It’s less than 100 days until Election Day. Act now to show Congress that we demand more oversight of the Executive. Write your Congressional Delegation, urge them to press this administration for transparency. Write your Congressional Delegation, urge them to take a more active role in overseeing the Executive. Demand that they stand up to the Administration. They have 97 days and then we, as Americans are in the unique position to replace 435 Members of the House of Representatives and 33 Senators. Fourteen of those 33 Senators are Republican and have allowed this Administration to run roughshod over the Congress, the Judiciary and the People. There are 232 Republicans in the House of Representatives running for reelection. They’ve also allowed the Administration to run over Congress, the Courts and the People.

We can send a message. Start with the letters, finish with the vote.

The State Department agency in charge of reconstruction money in Iraq hid construction overruns by reclassifying them, according to the audit.

 [NYT > International]

Do you think that the President of the United States of America should know the names and faces of all 535 Members of Congress?

I do…

From Al Kamen’s In the Loop in today’s print edition of the WaPo.

You’re Not Yourself Today

Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), at the White House this spring for a meeting with other senators to discuss immigration with President Bush, was surprised when Bush approached him as the meeting broke up and observed: “Senator Martinez, you’ve been very quiet.”

“That’s Martinez,” Menendez said, pointing to Mel Martinez — Florida’s junior senator and Bush’s former secretary of housing and urban development.

“I’m Menendez.”

Bush turned bright red, we’re told. Señor Mayor?

The White House could not confirm the comment.

 How long did the suspension of airstrikes last? Less than 6 hours…In an interview on NPR, an Israeli General said that there was “no suspension” of airstrikes and that Israel has the right to attack threats it deems “immediate”.

Rice “convinced” cease-fire can come this week Israel: 48-hour halt of airstrikes on Lebanon Qana strike kills 60 civilians, many children Bush urges all to work toward “sustainable peace”

 [CNN.com]