You Helped Drive us to Bankruptcy -- Here's a Few Hundred Thousand to Say "Thanks!"

The executives who led auto parts maker Delphi into bankruptcy are getting massive pay and benefit incentives to stay with the company. At they same time, they're asking hourly workers to take pay and benefit cuts.

Delphi filed the largest bankruptcy in automotive history over the weekend.

But top executives would get sweet severance deals or bonuses totallling $87.9 million to stick around. That includes cash incentives ranging from 30% to 250% of their salaries.

President Rodney O'Neal would get a $2.75 million bonus. Another 464 executives would collect bonuses worth $50,000 to $475,000. (Reuters)

Watergate Sold

The Watergate office building -- scene of the most infamous political scandal in US history -- has sold.

Los Angeles based BentlyForges LLC paid $86.5 million to Trizec Properties of Chicago for the 11-story building.

$7,000,000,000 a Month

Washington's spending $7 billion a month for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And the Congressional Research Service predicts the war will have cost $570 billion by the end of 2010.

The CRS also found $14 billion worth of gaps in the Pentagon's accounting. It appears the military diverted the extra money from other accounts to the war effort.

Meanwhile the Congressional Budget Office says current troop levels in Iraq cannot be sustained easily. It says the Pentagon will have to rotate troops in and out of the war zone more frequently or use more National Guard. (NJ.com)

Cutting Food Stamps to Feed Corporate Welfare

Looking for ways to cut the Agriculture Department's budget, Congressional Republicans are looking to slash $574 million from food programs for the poor and $1 billion from conservation programs.

The Ag Department's handed out more than $150 billion in subsidies to corporate farms and others since 1995. Those payments to people including billionaire Ted Turner and NBA star Scottie Pippen are apparently safe from the axe.

You can see who's getting farm subsidies in your neighborhood -- even if you're a city slicker -- at the Environmental Working Group's database of farm subsidies. (AP)

The Judicial Nominee and 9/11

The woman President Bush has tapped for the Supreme Court handed him the infamous briefing paper warning that Osama bin Laden planned to attack the US.

This photo of the President with Harriet Miers going over a briefing paper was taken on August 6, 2001 -- the day she handed him the bin Laden briefing paper. It's unclear if the paper is the actual Presidential Daily Briefing entitled Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US. However, Steve Biegun of the National Security Staff is present in the photograph. The title became famous as then National Security Advisor Condolezza Rice -- testifying before the 9/11 Commission -- tried to downplay warnings the administration receieved about al Qaeda:

RICE: But I don't remember the al Qaeda cells as being something that we were told we needed to do something about.

BEN-VENISTE: Isn't it a fact, Dr. Rice, that the August 6 PDB warned against possible attacks in this country? And I ask you whether you recall the title of that PDB?

RICE: I believe the title was, "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States."

The Los Angeles Times reports that Ms Miers had become such an insider that she handled the famed briefing that warned about terrorist strikes just over a month before the 9/11 attacks. (Editor & Publisher, Photo: AP)

That's Rich

The share of income going to the richest one-tenth of 1% of Americans went up in 2003. The share going to 99% of Americans fell. And the tax rates for those super rich dropped at 10 times the rate of the middle class.

Most of the increase in incomes -- and biggest tax breaks -- went to the 129,000 richest Americans. You have to have an income of $1.3 million a year to be in that club.

That top one-tenth of one percent -- 129,000 people -- had more income than the poorest 42,570,000 Americans. (NYT)

FEMA Takes Aim at Rescuers

FEMA has suspended the Phoenix Search and Rescue Team from Katrina relief efforts because four police officers on the team brought their service weapons. All four were deputized as US Marshals for the duration.

The team rescued 400 survivors from the flood before FEMA shot them down. (AP)

The Pictures We Paint

As the media begins to look into the rash of rumors that sprang up in the days after Hurricane Katrina, the picture of a communications breakdown becomes clearer. Officials were quick to jump the gun and announce rumors as actual reports.

The Washington Post points out that the Rodney King riots in LA and other stories painted poor, black communities as potentially violent in the American mindset -- allowing people to believe the worst. But, in fact, the people who toughed it out at the Superdome and Convention Center were a far cry from that image:

"The people never turned into these animals. They have been cheated out of being thought of as these tough people who looked out for each other. We had more babies born [in the Superdome] than we had deaths." -- Major Ed Bush, Louisiana National Guard, Stationed at the Superdome during the flood, quoted in the Washington Post

The communication breakdown on the ground was so severe that government leaders did not know for a full day that the levees had breached (above) and the city was flooding. They only learned it from watching live television reports. (WashPost)

Hurricane Room Service Extended

There are still 400,000 people left homeless by Hurricane Katrina. They were to be temporarily housed in hotels until October 15th. But that's being extended.

It's costing $8.3 million a day to house them.

FEMA thought it would only cost $168 million. But with no new end date in sight, Washington has no idea how much it'll end up costing.

Rooms for evacuees average $59 a night. Each room averages three evacuees. (WashPost)

Democrats Enlist Vets in Congressional Campaign

At least six Iraq War veterans are running as Democrats for Congress in the 2006 elections.

Paul Hackett, who lost a close race to Republican Jean Schmidt in a strongly GOP Ohio district earlier this year is running for the US Senate seat currently held by Sen Mike DeWine (R-OH).

"Some guys don't think it's time to question our government, but the fact is I love my country. We need to have an exit strategy now." -- Democratic House Candidate Patrick Murphy, Iraq Veteran (82nd Airborne)

Candidate Bryan Lentz (D) is a Swarthmore, Pennsylvania lawyer. He was a Major in the Army Reserve in Iraq. He volunteered to go with a civil affairs unit. He says he decided to run for office because he saw the US government lacking any plan in Iraq.

"I'm not anti-war, I'm anti-failure." -- Democratic Congressional Candidate Bryan Lentz, Iraq War Veteran

Major Lentz is trying to unseat Rep Curt Weldon (R-PA). Rep Weldon is vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee. (WashPost)

Report It Now

"Report it Now" is a citizen journalism tie-in to the upcoming film, Good Night and Good Luck.


The film is about Edward R Murrow and the producers behind "See it Now" as they tangled with Sen Joe McCarthy in 1953.

"Report It Now" is a chance for citizen journalists to find a story they think isn't being covered, produce their own coverage, then have the resources of Warner Independent film and it's media partners spread the story.

A Sweet Deal for the Gator Farm

The $250 billion hurricane relief plan taking shape in Washington is fast turning into a pork magnet. It's drawing in expensive projects that have nothing to do with hurricane relief and recovery.

Louisiana is asking for $160 million for their "federal city" plan -- to house federal offices at a Navy base in Algiers, Louisiana.

Also on the list:

• $8 million for an alligator farm
• $25 million for a sugar cane research lab
• Free fishing licenses for everyon in Lousiana who wants one -- paid for by federal taxpayers

The $40 billion earmarked for the Army Corps of Engineers is 10 times the Corps' annual budget for the whole nation -- 16 times what they say Louisiana needs for flood protection. It's loaded with projects that have nothing to do with flood control or reconstruction. (Lafayette Daily Advertiser)

When Pigs Fly -- Or at Least When Salmon Do

Alaska has used a $500,000 federal grant to paint an airliner to look like a fish (left).

It's part of $29 million Sen Ted Stevens (R-AK) has gotten for the Alaska Fisheries Marketing Board since 2003. The money goes toward advertising Alaskan seafood. The Senator's son, state Senator Ben Stevens (R) is chairman of the agency's board.

It took 30 painters 24 days and 140 gallons of paint to decorate the Alaska Airlines 737 like a giant king salmon. The airline refers to the plane as the "Salmon-Thirty-Salmon."

That'd be funny -- if you hadn't paid $500,000 for the paint job. The joke's on taxpayers. (Anchorage Daily News) [Photo Credit: Alaska Airlines via AP]

Harriet Miers Nominated for Supreme Court

President Bush has named White House Counsel Harriet Miers (right) to replace Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court.

Ms Miers has served a single, two-year term on the Dallas City Council, as president of a law firm, and on Governor George W Bush's 1994 transition team.

She has never served as a judge. (WashPost)

Keep Running

The US Army 10 Miler -- an annual foot race in Washington -- actually ran about 11.4 miles Sunday.

A suspicious package caused a detour that added the extra distance to the race for about 20,000 people. Runners weren't told about the extra distance -- kind of a rude surprise.

The package was harmless, but because the race was extended, it's results don't count for serious runners. (WTOP) [Photo Credit, 2004 Army 10-Miler, US Army)

When First Responders are the Last to Know

Federal bio-watch collectors found small amounts of bacteria that set off bioweapon detectors during last week's anti-war protests in Washington, DC. But the feds waited nearly a week to tell local authorities in the District. The feds believe the Tularemia they detected may have occurred naturally. It's also know called "rabbit fever." It can be treated with anticiotics by the Centers for Disease Control list it as a possible bioweapon. (WTOP)

GAO Rules on the Pundit Payola Scandal

The Government Accountability Office says the Bush administration broke the law in paying commentator Armstrong Williams (right) to tout the administration's education policy.

But the same report says payments to columnist Maggie Gallagher on the administration's marriage initiative was OK.

The two were part of the "Pundit Payola Scandal" from earlier this year.

The GAO -- Congress' investigative arm -- says the payments to Mr Williams violated a 2003 law against covert propaganda. Mr Williams never disclosed that he was taking $240,000 from the administration to support their education plans.