Political Pressure Blunted Health Campaign

Pressure from the baby formula lobby forced the Department of Health and Human Services to tone down a $30 million campaign touting the health benefits of breast feeding.

The lobby hired former Republican National Committee Chairman Clayton Yeutter and former FDA regulator Joseph Lefitt to blunt the rather blunt campaign (click on the Washington Post graphic to see just how graphic the campaign had planned to be -- and how it was softened to images of ice cream and dandilions).

Research showed a graphic campaign warning mothers of health problems breastfeeding prevented would be the most effective. The campaign was laid out by career public affairs specialists. But political appointees softened the campaign shortly after the lobbying effort started. (WaPo)

Hsu Surrenders to Cops -- Democrats Surrender his Cash

Fugitive fundraiser Norman Hsu has turned himself in to California authorities. He's being held on $2 million bond.

Mr Hsu has been a big donor to Democratic political campaigns -- notably Sen Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Sen Barack Obama (D-IL).

The former clothing executive has been on the lam since skipping out on sentencing for a grand theft charge in 1991.

After his name popped up in a review of campaign donations, Democrats scrambled to unload the cash they'd taken from him over the years.

Sen Clinton is dumping $23,000 from Mr Hsu collected over various campaigns. Sen Obama is dumping $7,000 given to his campaign and PAC. The Democratic Senatorial and House campaign committees are dumping a total of $45,800 they took from him.

All the money will go to charities. (CNN)

Sen Craig Police Tape

A taped conversation between Sen Larry Craig (R-ID) and the officer who arrested him has surfaced. A transcript of the tape is available at Politico.com

Waiting for the 10th Shoe to Drop

The New York Times has a quick round up of the what it calls a "scandal-scarred GOP." From the NYT:

Forget Mark Foley of Florida, who quit the House last year after exchanging sexually explicit e-mail messages with under-age male pages, or Jack Abramoff, the lobbyist whose dealings with the old Republican Congress landed him in prison. They are old news, replaced by a fresh crop of scandal-plagued Republicans, men like Senator David Vitter of Louisiana, whose phone number turned up on the list of the so-called D.C. Madam, or Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska and Representative Rick Renzi of Arizona, both caught up in F.B.I. corruption investigations.

It's been a long summer for Republican operatives charged with damage control. The NYT graphic (above) takes you to a quick rundown of just five scandals that have rocked the Republicans in the past few weeks. (NYT)

Allen Trial This Week

Florida State Representative Bob Allen (R-Merritt Island) goes on trial this week for soliciting sex from an undercover police officer in a park men's room earlier this summer.

Rep Allen had been Sen John McCain's (R-AZ) presidential campaign co-chair in Florida before his arrest.

He won a slight victory when the judge in the case banned the prosecutor from using any of Rep Allen's comments made after his arrest -- because he'd not been read his rights.

Mr Allen is accused of offering an undercover officer $20 dollars to have sex with him.l (Orlando Sentinel)

Sen Craig Busted for Sex Solicitation

Sen Larry Craig (R-ID) pled guilty to to disorderly conduct in Minnesota in June -- after a police officer arrested him on on suspicion of soliciting sex in the men's room at the Minneapolis Airport.

A YouTube video (below) of Sen Craig endorsing former Gov Mitt Romney's (R-MA) Presidential campaign was taken down for a while this morning -- but was reposted later in the day.



Romney Campaign pulls Video of Sen Craig Endorsing Mitt Romney for President from YouTube (Politico.com)

Paid $500 fine (NYT)

Cop: Sen Craig signaled for sex (CNN)

Police Report (TSG)

Under Media Radar for Three Months (Editor & Publisher)

Scandal Grows -- Hometown Paper Publishes Expose of past Rumors & Accounts (politico.com)

Sen Craig Made "Premptive Denial" of Involvement in 1982 Sex and Drug Page Scandal (ABC News via YouTube video below)

GONZALES QUITS

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, hammered by investigations into domestic spying and the US Attorney firing scandal, has announced his resignation. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff is being mentioned as President Bush's choice to replace Mr Gonzales. Democrats quickly issued statements saying the resignation does not diminish the need to address the scandals that emerged under Mr Gonzales' two-and-a-half years at the helm of DoJ.


President Bush's Statement

NIE Questions Iraq's Progress

Declassified portions of the latest National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) suggest that "progress" may be the most overused word when discussing Iraq. From the Associated Press:

The Iraqi government will become more precarious over the next six to 12 months and its security forces have not improved enough to operate without outside help, intelligence analysts conclude in a new National Intelligence Estimate released [today].

The NIE concludes overall violence is high, secterian groups are not reconciled, and al Qaeda in Iraq is able to conduct high profile attacks. The report is based on the combined judgements of all 16 US intelligence agencies.

Warner Defects on Bush's Iraq Plans

The biggest name yet in the GOP defections from President Bush's Iraq policies. Sen John Warner (R-VA), and the GOP's dean of defense issues in Congress for a generation, is calling for a troop withdrawal. From Reuters:

Virginia Sen. John Warner said Bush should "announce on the 15th (of September) that in consultation with our senior military commanders he has decided to initiate the the first step in a withdrawal of our forces."

Sen Warner says the withdrawal would force Iraq to take steps toward political reconciliation. (Reuters)

Ammo Shortage

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are making it tough on deer hunters and police training here in the United States.

With US troops firing off around a billion rounds a year in Asia, there's an ammunition shortage here in America. Ammo prices are up 10-15% and police departments are having to wait a year for bullets they've ordered.

The Associated Press found the shortage shooting down police training all over the country. Al Tompkins summed up their findings at "Al's Morning Meeting:"

• In Oklahoma City, officers cannot qualify with AR-15 rifles because the department does not have enough .223-caliber ammunition -- a round similar to that fired by the military's M-16 and M4 rifles. Last fall, an ammunition shortage forced the department to cancel qualification courses for several different guns.


• In Milwaukee, supplies of .40-caliber handgun bullets and .223-caliber rifle rounds have gotten so low that the department has repeatedly dipped into its ammunition reserves. Some weapons training has already been cut by 30 percent, and lessons on rifles have been altered to conserve bullets.


• In Trenton, NJ, a lack of available ammunition led the city to give up plans to convert its force to .45-caliber handguns.


• The sheriff's department in Bergen County, NJ, had to borrow 26,000 rounds of .40-caliber ammunition to complete twice-a-year training for officers.


• In Phoenix, an order for .38-caliber rounds placed a year ago has yet to arrive, meaning no officer can currently qualify with a .38 Special revolver.


• In Wyoming, the state leaned on its ammunition suppler earlier this year so every state trooper could qualify on the standard-issue AR-15 rifle,. Rifle rounds scheduled to arrive in January did not show up until May, leading to a rush of troopers trying to qualify by the deadline.

The Lubbock, Texas PD usually goes through hundreds of thousands of bullets in a year. It used to take them a couple of months to get bullets shipped to them. Now, it takes 10-12 months for an order to arrive. That makes it hard to plan practice sessions -- and the police shooting range is a lot quieter these days as a result. (Lubbock Avalanche-Journal/Baltimore Sun)

Weddings & Funerals

"I want to know why I'm planning a funeral while George Bush is planning a wedding." -- Anika Lawal of Waldorf, MD. Mother of Sgt Princess Samuels (right), KIA in Taji, Iraq, August 15, 2007

Report: CIA Blasted for 9/11 Failures

A newly de-classified portion of an Inspector General's report faults former CIA Director George Tenet and the intel community in general for failing to have an effective strategy agains al Qaeda before the 9/11 attacks.

The report was completed in June, 2005. It's executive summary was just de-classified today.

It found no "silver bullet" that would have stopped the 9/11 attacks. But it says intel leaders failed to do their job to create an umbrella strategy to deal with al Qaeda.

Historic Lows for Congress

Democrats and independents have lost faith in Congress in the latest Gallup Poll showing historically low approval levels for the Legislative Branch.

Congress gets an 18% approval rating. It appears to be entirely from Democrats and independents upset over Congress' failure to change US policies toward Iraq. From Gallup:

"Americans elected the Democrats as the majority party in Congress in November 2006's midterm election in large part due to frustration with the Iraq war and an ineffective and scandal-plagued Republican-led Congress. But any hopes that the elections would lead to change have not been realized as Democrats' repeated attempts to force a change in Iraq war policy have been largely unsuccessful due to presidential vetoes, disagreements within their own party, and the inability to attract Republican support for their policy proposals. "

When Push comes to Shove

Rep Bob Filner (D-CA) has been charged with misdemeanor assault and battery. He's accused of shoving an airline employee at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, DC Sunday.

Rep Filner says he simply pushed aside a United Airlines employee's outstretched arm when she tried to stop him from entering and "employees only" area near the baggage claim. (WaPo)

Romney Uses Radio to Reinforce YouTube Attacks

Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney has lauched an interesting cross-media attack on one of his opponents for the GOP nomination -- Rudy Giuliani.

Gov Romney has released a radio ad critical of illegal immigration -- attacking "sanctuary cities" where illegals find jobs and little local efforts to send them home.

"Sanctuary cities become magnets that encourage illegal immigration and undermine secure borders." -- announcer, Mitt Romney radio ad

As mayor of New York City, Mr Giuliani inherited a city policy from his predecessors under which city employees did not notify federal authorities of an immigrant's legal status. Mr Giuliani never changed the policy.

The ad strikes on radio -- as videos of Mr Giuliani praising immigrants while he was mayore are getting lots of hits on sites like YouTube.

Ground Zero vs. Yankee Stadium

Republican Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani was more of a Yankee than a 9/11 recover worker in the months after 9/11. Turns out he spent about twice as much time going to Yankees games as he spent at Ground Zero in the three months following the attack.

Mr Giuliani made the comment that he spent enough time at Ground Zero in the months after 9/11 to be considered a recovery worker. From ABC News:

"I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most of the workers. ... I was there working with them. I was exposed to exactly the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm one of them." -- Rudy Giuliani, 8/9/2007

The New York Times went through his archives, digging through 600 pages of schedules, and found Mr Giuliani only spent 29 hours at Ground Zero during that time.

Now, Salon has gone through those records and found Mr Giuliani spent roughly 59 hours attending Yankees games or traveling to them during the same period.

Mr Giuliani doesn't seem to be suffering from any of the ill health effects posed by toxic air present during the Ground Zero recovery.

But he does have $200,000 worth of World Series Rings given to him by Yankees management -- which may be a breach of New York Ethics Laws. (Salon)

Colonel Sanders and Jim Perdue -- Terrorist Targets

Forget about foxes guarding the henhouse. Uncle Sam is about to order chicken farmers to have anti-terrorist security on a par with chemical plants and nuclear power stations.

A new order from the Department of Homeland Security could classify chicken houses as prime terrorist targets -- requiring expensive security measures.

The rule says any place with more than 7,500 pounds of propane gas -- about 1,785 gallons -- stored on the premises is a potential target for terrorists. Chicken houses are usually built in pairs -- each house equipped with at least a 1,000 gallon propane tank to heat it.

So about 50,000 chicken houses meet the standard to make them tighten security. From the Delmarva Daily Times:

U.S. Sens. Barbara Mikulski, D-Md., Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Tom Carper, D-Del., have co-authored a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff demanding answers for what they describe as a waste of government time and money.

Filling out the paperwork alone requires 25-30 hours -- longer if your chicken farm doesn't have high speed Internet. There's a $25,000 per day fine for delays in getting your chicken scratchings on Uncle Sam's forms back to Washington.

Propane is used to heat large facilities in rural parts of the country where there are no natural gas lines. So the rule could end up affecting campgrounds, grain elevators, and nursing homes among it's unintended consequences. (delmarvanow.com)