Twenty four federal agents yesterday raided the Washington headquarters of the agency that protects government whistle-blowers, as part of the criminal investigation of Special Counsel Chief Scott J. Bloch, who is fighting allegations of improper political bias and obstruction of justice.
Agents fanned out yesterday morning, where they sequestered Bloch for questioning, served grand-jury subpoenas on 17 employees and shut down access to computer networks in a search lasting more than five hours. Offices in San Francisco, and Texas were also raided at the same time.
Bloch, who was nominated to his post by President Bush in 2003, is the principal official responsible for protecting federal employees from reprisals for complaints about waste and fraud.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/06/AR2008050601539.html?nav=rss_email/components
Posted by Judith at May 7, 2008 05:05 AMA couple nights ago I dozed off with the cable on and woke up to what I thought was a SNL bit.
A woman who looked alot like Laura Bush was actually scolding the country formally known as Burma for not warning their peeps about a cyclone, and not letting rescue workers in to help the flood victims.
When I saw that it really was her on CNN, I went to Bigcojones.com and respectfully submitted her name for the coveted "Large Labia of the Year" award.
Jan 09 where art thou?
Posted by TIKI AL at May 7, 2008 05:17 AMOh, and Bloch had an outside firm come in and erase office/home computers. Is that a cover-up?
Ya TIKI, I also read where Laura took off talking about 'The Wedding' with reporters, and all the while pictures of Burma were being showed. Well, at least her priorities are right.
Posted by Judith at May 7, 2008 05:36 AMLet's try "shown." Hey, it's early.
Posted by Judith at May 7, 2008 05:55 AMInflation is extremely mild. Those worried about high inflation? I don't know what they're smoking.
"The overall Personal Consumption Expenditures inflation rate for March, released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, was an annualized 3.7 percent, while the inflation rate for PCE excluding food and energy was an annualized 2.0 percent."
That latter number is what the Fed watches. It's the Fed's "favorite" gauge of inflation.
Link.
Posted by Muck at May 7, 2008 07:45 AMHouse Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is about to lead her party into a major showdown over Iraq funding by violating two Democratic campaign pledges in one fell swoop.
To the critics, whether anti-war activists or House Republicans, Pelosi has made her feelings clear: Get over it.
This week’s maneuvering over a $200 billion war spending bill has revealed Pelosi self-confidently playing what she believes — with increasing evidence — is a strong hand.
Strong enough that she is expected to break one promise — her 2006 pledge for a more open and inclusive committee process — by circumventing the powerful House Appropriations Committee on the Iraq bill.
And when the final Iraq bill reaches the president’s desk, any troop withdrawal conditions are likely to be gone from the legislation.
Who's in charge now?
We want more of this?
Yeah, let's elect more Democrats so that they can fund even more war....maybe one with Iran now.
Hey! You guys stop dissin' Laura! She has more than 7 years of EXPERIENCE bein' in the White House! If she can't insult the dictators of Myanmar when we want their cooperation, then who can? Her hubby? OK, maybe he did. Condi? OK. Well, why shouldn't Laura be allowed to have some fun too?
I do have to wonder if she can drink John McCain under the table like the previous First Lady has.
Speaking of - the other one, it finally seems as if we may have a soft landing in this much too-heated contest. One plausible scenario I've heard would be that next Tuesday, after they both have a final win, Hillary may be willing to concede gracefully and get behind the ticket. Of course, other rumors included the possibility that Barack would help her campaign cancel its debts, for the sake of comity, of course.
It certainly IS essential that they bury their respective hatchets (In Johnny McWar's head?) and cajole all of their followers to drink of the River Lethe as soon as possible.
OBAMA/DEAN 08?
Posted by DeminNewJ at May 7, 2008 07:52 AMOf course, other rumors included the possibility that Barack would help her campaign cancel its debts, for the sake of comity, of course.
Is that legal? In any event, I don't think she'll have that much trouble raising funds to cover the debt in the long run.
OBAMA/DEAN 08?
I've gotta say, if you want to unite the party an OBAMA/CLINTON ticket would be the move. But I don't think he'll make the offer. To much concern about having his presidency overshadowed by the media attention given to her. And we all know she'd be a proactive VP. I'm not so sure the calculus of 8 years as VP would be considered better by her than staying in the Senate either. I don't think she'll be a serious contender for the nomination in 2016.
I think an OBAMA/BAYH ticket is a possibility.
Posted by snark at May 7, 2008 08:12 AMYeah snark, a vice president Clinton would be very bitter after a possible eight years of Obama. And at 68, that bitterness, it would be hard to have the energy she's provided this election cycle. Bayh would be like an emisary from the Clinton wing of the party, a good one. My wonder would be having neighboring states represented on the ticket doesn't get you much.
Should she be able to(seeya Reid)...Senate Majority Leader would be nice to add to her accomplishments.
Posted by peter at May 7, 2008 08:48 AMTe Fed is finally figuring out that looking at our (already fake) inflation numbers and excluding energy and food isn't really a responsible policy, muck.
Global inflation has been ignited by the collapsing dollar. Most of it isn't wage driven, as classic inflations have been, it's resource driven.
What we're going to have is real estate deflation, consumer credit evaporation and massive inflation in essentials. Inflation is already working it way into imports, both because of dollar collapse and resource inflation in the manufacturing country.
But since people unarguably have to eat and buy gas, to say excude those two items from the calculus is positively insane. At some point a sensible candidate will start homing in on this.
Always remember, our government's economic numbers are gamed manipulations of what's actually occuring, they have been modified for political purposes over the years, and are no longer even close to being accurate. They are, frankly, comic. Many economists no longer trust them to any degree, especially the inflation and GDP numbers, which were explicitly modified for political purposes.
Posted by euzoius at May 7, 2008 09:11 AM"This week’s maneuvering over a $200 billion war spending bill has revealed Pelosi self-confidently playing what she believes — with increasing evidence — is a strong hand."
Pelosi was not elected to do what she "believes" in. She was elected to do the will of the people. Don't worry your little head over Pelosi Peter. We will take care of her when she runs again, unlike you GOPers. We weed our traitors out, you do not.
Posted by Judith at May 7, 2008 09:14 AMMuck, we have missed you telling us about how great the economy is. I can't trust what I read or hear, so it's good to have you to keep me informed.
Posted by Judith at May 7, 2008 09:18 AMWith Cindy Sheehan???? What a joke.
Posted by peter at May 7, 2008 09:19 AMMuck if you believe those figures you are either dumb as hell or you don't buy anything. They've already admitted that inflation is the highest it's been in decades. With the devalued dollar and the amount we import inflation has to be high.
Posted by JohnT at May 7, 2008 10:10 AMThey've already admitted that inflation is the highest it's been in decades.
Who's that, the village idiots?
Posted by Muck at May 7, 2008 07:05 PM