The Slam Dunk is Rejected

The hunt for WMDs in Iraq is official over. Nearly two years after the US coulda sworn they were there, the US team looking for them has concluded -- there weren't any after all. The top CIA weapons hunter is back home and his team are at work in Virginia. The search wrapped up right before Christmas. Charles A Duelfer led the search in 2004. He turned in an interim report to Congress that showed practically every prewar claim from the Bush administration on WMDs in Iraq was wrong. A top official at the CIA says that report will stand now as the search team's final report and be published in the spring. So this is how the search ends -- not with a bang, but a whimper? (Boston Globe)

Brother, Can You Spare a Commemorative Dime?

With coin collecting enjoying a renewal -- thanks to the the 50 state quarter series -- scam artists are making a mint. So the US Mint wants Congress to crack down on dealers passing off fake commemorative coins. Only Congress can authorize a commemorative coin. But in one case, a dealer simply painted silver dollars with gold paint and passed them off as commemorating the astronauts killed in the Columbia shuttle crash. The Mint wants fines of $5,000 for print ads and $25,000 for broadcast ads for fake commemorative coins. That's a lot of quarters. (LAT)

National Guard and Reserve Mobilized as of January 12, 2005

The Pentagon mobilized a net total of 4,936 more Guardsmen and Reservists this week than the week before. A cumulative total of 193,375 Guard and Reserve are now on active duty. (DoD)

Retiring to Big Bucks

Former Senator John Breaux (D-LA) is joining Washington's largest lobbying firm -- Patton Boggs. Mr Breaux represented Louisianna in the House and Senate for a total of 32 years. Retired Congressmen have an advantage as lobbyists -- not only in knowing most of the people who's arms they'll twist, but in having lifetime access to parts of the Capitol where the rest of us aren't allowed to wander around. (The Hill)

Lobby Firm Shopping List

The Associated Press has the Washington equivilent of a "free agents" list. It's the names of every departing Representative and Senator -- free to take up more lucrative jobs with lobbying firms and the like. (AP)

Bush's Beltway Bunch

When President Bush first came to Washington in 2001, his staff said they'd not do things the way Washington usually did. They were, after all, "outsiders," a flashy buzzword that evokes populism and middle America in politics. A lot of those staffers are gone. And now, the Bush administration is relying more and more on Washington insiders to fill the posts those "outsiders" are getting out of. (AP via Yahoo!)

Schedule for the Big Bash

The schedule for the Inauguration is out. Everything from glee club singing to a candlelight dinner at Union Station for donors who chipped in $100,000 or more. (AP via Yahoo!)

I Wondered Why My Inbox Was So Empty

A federal judge went along with the Federal Trade Commission and slapped a restraining order on six X-rated spammers. The Nevada based companies were sending porn e-mails to people around the country. The companies failed to include the words "SEXUALLY EXPLICIT" in the subject line as required by the new "Can Spam" law. (USA Today)

Big Brother and the Outsourced Indian Call Center

Call a service center and get put on hold. Bite your tongue. This quality time of elevator music forced through phone lines leads you into rants, complaints, and outright threats. But the company's warned you "This call may be monitored for quality assurance." In other words, they're already recording everything you say. (NYT)

TennCare on Life Support

Tennessee is dropping 323,000 people from its state health care program. Lawsuits, prescription drug prices, and medical inflation is eating up one in every three taxpayer dollars in the Volunteer State. (NPR - Audio)

Profiting from Medical Tests at Taxpayer Expense

A pair of US government researchers are collecting royalties on an AIDS treatment they're testing on patients at taxpayer expense. The patients don't know about the money link. In fact, Washington won't let the two doctors tell their patients. But it's not an isolated incident. More than 900 current and former scientists at the National Institutes of Health collected $8.9 million the same way last year -- testing their drugs on patients, and having you foot the bill. This would appear to be a conflict of interest -- scientists using their position to test drugs on which they stand to make a profit. Not to mention how taxpayers are underwriting the whole arrangement. (CBS)

The Secret of the Social Security Debate is Knowing Who to Scare

"[N]o longer can they frighten seniors by saying, if we do this, seniors aren't going to get their checks." -- President Bush on Social Security to the Wall Street Journal, January 10, 2005.

"If we do not act soon, Social Security will not be there for our children and grandchildren." -- President Bush, Radio Address, December 10, 2004.

Losing Jobs over Iraq

Navy budget cuts have put 120 shipyard workers out of work. They were laid off at Northrop Grumman Ship Systems in Pascagoula, Mississippi. The Navy and Air Force are making deep cuts in weapons systems as the Bush administration looks to come up with more money for the Iraq War. These are among the first of hundreds more lay-offs to expect in the defense industry in coming months. (The Ledger)

Iraq Casualties

The Pentagon is back to its weekly schedule of announcing casualties from the war in Iraq. The total stands at 1,352 -- 1,065 of those killed in hostile actions. (WashPost)

Ethics in Washington. Kinda Like Snow in July.

My latest column at ETALKINGHEAD.com deals with the rash of ethics messes in Washington -- from changing House rules to the Armstrong Williams scandal. (ETALKINGHEAD.com)

America is Back

America is back. America (The Book), anyway. The Jon Stewart fake text book, written in the spirit of The Daily Show's fake news had gotten pulled from a pair of Mississippi towns' librairies. Seems they didn't cotton to the Supreme Court Justices shown nekkid. But the move outraged library patrons far and wide. The library board was flooded with e-mails from around town and around the country. They decided it was better to put the book on the shelf and let people decide for themselves if they wanted to see Chief Justice Rhenquist in the all-together. (AP via ABC)

Rather Hear About Another Television Investigation?

Sinclair Broadcast Group -- which has drawn fire for it's Stolen Honor documentary -- is investigating a possible link to the Armstrong Williams scandal. Mr Williams admitted to taking $240,000 of taxpayer money to promote the "No Child Left Behind" act on his talk shows. During this time, Mr Williams also served as a news analyst for Sinclair Broadcast Group. The company has 62 television stations around the country.

The ranking member of the House Rules Committee has sent a letter to Sinclair -- and to TV One, another outfit on which Mr Williams has appeared. Rep Louise Slaughter (D-NY) demands that both fire Mr Williams immediately.

TV One says it's show with Mr Williams, "On Point," would be put on hiatus.

Sinclair promises an investigation. Chief Counsel Barry Faber says it's believed that Mr Williams interviewed Education Secretary Rodney Paige about "No Child Left Behind" while at Sinclair. A producer who worked at Sinclair at the time tells Watching Washington he clearly remembers working on that particular show.

Mr. Williams' newspaper column is all but dead at this point. His distributor, Tribune Media Services, fired him after the USA Today story of the scandal broke. An informal phone poll by Editor & Publisher, a newspaper trade journal, had all the papers they contacted saying they would no longer carry Mr Williams through any distributor. (Hollywood Reporter via Reuters)