And in Other News Today...

FEMA says "Screw you, and happy holidays" to refugees in FEMA-subsidized housing: displaced residents of the Gulf Coast will be kicked out of their hotel room housing after December 1, 2005. FEMA has announced they will stop paying for housing for these people. So enjoy your hotel Thanksgiving dinner, people with no homes and little else -- and have a Merry Christmas. On the streets. Nice. Let's discuss family values when you actually find some.
And on a side note, the Halliburton Christmas bonus gravy train may still be on track...but their employment policies are under some scrutiny. Nothing like a horde of undocumented workers to buck up that bottom line. (Via Atrios.)
Big Oil is run by big LIARS: Ooops. Look who met with VP Cheney's energy task force? Why, leaders of the big oil companies. You know, the guys who testified to the Senate just last week that they did no such thing? You know, the CEOs who are now in deep doo doo? If only Ted Stevens will bring them back under oath. Start calling your Senators now. It's going to take a hell of a lot of momentum to move Ted Steven's ass off his big oil cash pile. Oh, and Cheney? Even more politically radioactive than he was last week. (Who knew it could get so much worse so quickly? No wonder Shrub is outta the country this week!)
And in case anyone is wondering -- the WaPo article on the oil execs meeting with Cheney is an example of actual whistleblowing. The leaks to reporters regarding Valerie Wilson is an example of using journalists as a tool to exact political revenge while committing a crime. One has a public interest motive at its root, the other has Dick Cheney. I'm just saying.
Lions? What lions?: Iraqi officials are beginning an inquiry into the abuse allegations made regarding a secret detention facility discovered in the Information Ministry.
As Iraqi investigators began sifting through a secret underground prison run by police in the heart of the capital, Sunni Arab leaders furiously denounced the Shiite-dominated government for supporting the torture of Sunni detainees there and called for an international investigation.Nice that the Iraqis are willing to begin an immediate, public investigation of these alleged torture allegations. Ahem.
The discovery of the prison by the American military has galvanized Sunni Arab anger and widened the country's sectarian divide just a month before elections for a full, four-year government. The American general charged with securing Baghdad said today that Sunni leaders were supportive of the American raid on the prison, which began Sunday and ended this afternoon. The commander, Maj. Gen. William Webster of the Third Infantry Division, said his troops were prepared to investigate other credible complaints of torture by Iraqi security forces.
Um...They Get the Money Anyway: Congressional negotiators have stripped the earmark for money for the "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska and other pet projects there. But Alaska will get the money in a non-earmarked transporation fund, to spend as they like. And in case you were wondering: on Joe Scarborough's show today, they reported that the Murkowski's own property on that island with only 50 residents. Wow. What a coincidence that Ted Stevens would fight so hard for an island where Frank Murkowski owned property getting a bridge. That won't help property values shoot right up, now will it? (Roll eyes.)
Did I mention that FEMA is kicking all those poor, homeless people out of their hotel rooms on December 1? Ahem.
UPDATE: Just so it is clear, FEMA just let the hurricane homeless folks know today that they would no longer have hotel shelter after December 1, 2005. Happy holidays indeed.
According to the NYTimes, the US has detained 83,000 people in the war on terror thus far.
And just so no one misses this one, it looks like the former head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting repeatedly broke Federal law and internal regulations, according to a just released Inspector General report. Guess that explains his abrupt resignation. Ahem.
Oh, and Dick Cheney played the patriotism card again. Man, that is so 2004. It was a more effective speech before everyone in America realized he is such a lying sack of dung.
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