Wot Is It Good 4

it's sunday. another edition of god hates sex from postsecret

* "Despite the biggest MI5 and police investigation ever mounted, a secret report for Prime Minister Tony Blair and senior ministers into the July 7 attacks states: "We know little about what three of the bombers did in Pakistan, when attack planning began, how and when the attackers were recruited, the extent of any external direction or assistance and the extent and role of any wider network."" (link)

* "Yesterday, Sir Ian came under renewed pressure over the shooting of Mr de Menezes as it emerged that the official inquiry into the incident has concluded that police officers forged a crucial document.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) report says officers from an undercover surveillance team added two key words to a log, to hide the fact that the Brazilian had been wrongly identified by their unit as a terrorist suspect being hunted by police." (link)

* "A television journalist who revealed police blunders leading up to the shooting dead of Jean Charles de Menezes, has been arrested on suspicion of theft by detectives investigating the leaking of statements from the official inquiry to the broadcaster, the Guardian has learned." (link)

* laura asks "What kind of administration tries to silence its top scientists?" before half-answering her own question: "This is the kind of frankly threatening behavior towards scientists we might expect from the leadership of Russia, or China. Not from an advanced democracy." (or perhaps she answers it in full - 'advanced democracy'? america? maybe not)

* speaking of how the american govt treats top scientists - emptywheel has an amazing series about the treatment of Iraq's nuclear scientists, specifically the top nuke scientist Mr Obeidi who was apparently running around baghdad for a month after the invasion trying to make contact with the americans so that he could tell them about the nuclear plans and centrifuge prototypes buried in his back yard. emptywheel's series is quite dense and a difficult read - but fascinating none-the-less. the latest post - part 5 - is here and it has links to the earlier posts. i'm told that part 6 will be a blockbuster.

* wow. in a Newsweek article called Palace Revolt, journos Daniel Klaidman, Stuart Taylor Jr. and Evan Thomas refer to "Prime Minister Cheney" in a news piece. how did they get that one through? and what price will they pay?

* tim russert actually did a reasonable job today! congrats to jane and arianna and others who have been on his case. i wonder when Frist was booked on the show - if timmeh wanted to mock/ridicule someone into looking stupid, Frist would be the ideal target. what a maroon.

* atrios: "Look, there's no evidence of positive momentum on Bush's poll numbers... It's amazing how they can keep going up and be stuck at 41 simultaneously. It's similar to how the Bushies do their budget accounting PR." (link)

* digby: "I don't see a society (America) that is truly fearful. I've been to countries that were at war. And life always goes on to some extent. But this country does not feature the psychological traits of a country that is really at war or one that really fears terrorism in any palpable way. It features the psychological traits of a country watching a horror movie, which is not the same thing at all. You certainly see this in the fevered one-handed war blogging and the endless evocations of pre-9/11 and post 9/11 thinking reminds me of nothing so much as people who are hooked on a stimulating drug." (link)
read the rest. another seminal digby post

the other day, Miguel mentioned this article by Alan Bock at antiwar.com - and i've only just got around to reading it. it's mostly about the egadmin's power grab - specifically the Unitary nonsense and FISA and what have you - but Miguel wanted to focus on this section:

"...I'm not so paranoid as to think they have purposely avoided capturing Osama bin Laden so as to keep the potential threat always out there. But it was certainly convenient for the U.S. government that bin Laden showed up on audiotape last week making new threats, giving president Bush an opportunity to invoke him once again in his speech at the NSA.

I would argue, on the other hand, that almost everything the administration has done since 9/11 suggests a fundamentally unserious approach to bin Laden and al-Qaeda. Intelligence was poor, to be sure, but it was not nonexistent. After 9/11 the administration didn't use what was available about Afghanistan but went in cold and blundered about, failing to capture either Mullah Omar or bin Laden. Then it attacked Iraq, which had not been involved in the 9/11 attacks (and didn't have WMDs either), which stretched U.S. military forces to the breaking point and served as a recruiting ground for terrorists.

All these activities had the effect of building up the state without posing any more than trivial inconveniences – in some cases bolstering – the terrorists who pose the most concrete threat to the United States. Is it too fanciful to suggest that building the state rather than destroying or even seriously weakening al-Qaeda was the primary goal?"

I could quibble about some of the details but it's certainly possible to construct a narrative about the inherent symbiosis of the relationship between UBL and the Idiot Son - and there certainly is a large body of fiction where protagonist and antagonist are inextricably co-dependent.

It's kinda easy to imagine that GWB couldn't exist without osama, and (to a lesser extent) vice-versa. Perhaps life is just like that sometimes, or perhaps UBL is simply playing GWB like a fiddle... (and then there are those other possibilities).

btw - i havent commented on left blogistan's blogswarminess lately. i don't think i've even mentioned the deborah howell thing, or either of the tim russert tidal waves, or the tweety matthews thing. or many of the other goings on...

but given that everyone is in that sort of mood - how about we make it a rule for the next 3 days that everytime a blogger mentions the upcoming SOTU we tie it back to iraq, niger and plame?

as of now - every time i mention sotu, i'm gonna write "sotu (16 words) " - just as a reminder that there's every reason to believe that every word the stupid president says on tuesday night is wrong and/or dangerous.

in my mind, the term SOTU is inextricably linked to those famous 16 words - the egadministration tried to minimise the impact of those war-creating lies by claiming that it was 'just a few words' - let's try to pre-emptively destroy any conceivable credibility in this upcoming speech by reminding everyone that it was THIS speech where those 16 words originated.

It was THIS speech where they lied us into the iraq war with 16 words

It was THIS speech where they lied about Joe Wilson's trip to Niger with 16 words

It was THIS speech which led to them outing Plame with 16 words

It was THIS speech where they weaseled and knowingly, intentionally tried to blame the brits with 16 words

It was THIS speech where they lied us into fears of mushroom clouds with 16 words

It was THIS speech where they lied us into 2000 dead american soldiers with 16 words

It was THIS speech where they lied us into killing 100,000+ Iraqis with 16 words

It was THIS speech where they lied us into not having National Guard available during Katrina with 16 words

It was THIS speech where they lied us into $200bn+ of waste with 16 words

It was THIS speech where they lied with 16 words to put Scooter Libby on trial

It was THIS speech where they lied which is why Karl Rove will soon be indicted

It was THIS speech where they lied and included those 16 words even though these claims had been taken out of earlier speeches because they knew they were lies.

It was THIS speech where they lied and said they didnt know how those 16 words were included

It was THIS speech where they lied with 16 words which led to Brewster Jennings being outed and unable to help keep us safe from WMD proliferation

It was THIS speech where they lied to us with 16 words about the fraudulent Niger documents

It was THIS speech where they lied us into fears of mushroom clouds with 16 words

It was THIS speech where they lied and had to retract those 16 words - but only when Joe Wilson caught them with their hand in the cookie jar

It was THIS speech where they lied with 16 words which will lead to impeachment

if i've forgotten anything, put them in the comments.

* mydd's 2nd poll release is out. one highlight: "A majority of Republicans in this survey are not very worried about capturing Osama Bin Laden. Only a quarter are very or extremely worried. The difference here between Democrats and Republicans is gaping."
they'll have more on monday

* Eli wonders why none of the media reports about hamas don't include words like: "Despite efforts by the U.S. and other Western governments to ensure a victory by Fatah, Hamas swept to victory..."

* "(AP) President Bush will use his new budget to propose cutting the size of the Army Reserve to its lowest level in three decades and stripping up to $4 billion from two fighter aircraft programs." (link)
hmmm. that's something i never thought i'd read. i wonder what the non-AP spin will be - something altogether different, methinx.

*

"A White House leak revealing astonishing details of how Tony Blair and George Bush lied about the Iraq war is set to cause a worldwide political storm.

A new book exposes how the two men connived to dupe the United Nations and blows the lid off Mr Blair's claim that he was a restraining influence on Mr Bush.
[snip]
The revelations make a nonsense of Mr Blair's claim that the final decision was not made until MPs voted in the Commons 24 hours before the war - and could revive the risk of him being charged with war crimes or impeached by Parliament itself." (link)

it's a tough day to be a war criminal

* it turns out that driftglass 'knows' james frey (link)

* driftglass: "One other added bonus of a filibuster: it'd deliver one hell of a kick in the teeth to this Administration's Bullshit Campaign during the State of the Union. Hell, if it was a real, "talking" filibuster, they might just have to reschedule the Preznit's Mendacious Goodtime Iraqi Happy Hour to some other day." (link)
indeed. as i mentioned earlier - i can't for the life of me understand why they scheduled the vote for tuesday. thinking about it a little bit further - is it possible that whatever scary shit Blinky has to say on tuesday would increase the likelihood of a 'no' vote on alito? i had hitherto seen the two things as independent of each other - but perhaps that's not the case. (although ms wallace's stupid comment the other day suggests there isn't much to be concerned about)

* speaking of alito, much kudos to bob fertik at democrats.com for rallying the troops. he's getting some great traction.

* driftglass paints the end-game of the egadministration. "With fully one-third of the Republican leadership cutting deals with Federal investigators, and another third either on the run, in prison, awaiting trial or having committed .38 caliber sepuku, everyone knows how this will end." (link)

* driftglass thinks that Blinky is the anti-sinatra. (link)

* speaking of driftglass - one of you left an anonymous comment on someone else's blog (which i can't find at the moment) simply suggesting that people read both wotisitgood4 and driftglass. now, i've had a pretty good bloggy year - the rawstory article, the impeachment poll thing, the whole sibel thing, and a few other highlights - but being mentioned in the same breath as driftglass??? that's just downright silly.

fair use, be damned - this is for educational, and posterity, purposes.

here's an NYT editorial, in full, and rightly so.

A bit over a week ago, President Bush and his men promised to provide the legal, constitutional and moral justifications for the sort of warrantless spying on Americans that has been illegal for nearly 30 years. Instead, we got the familiar mix of political spin, clumsy historical misinformation, contemptuous dismissals of civil liberties concerns, cynical attempts to paint dissents as anti-American and pro-terrorist, and a couple of big, dangerous lies.

The first was that the domestic spying program is carefully aimed only at people who are actively working with Al Qaeda, when actually it has violated the rights of countless innocent Americans. And the second was that the Bush team could have prevented the 9/11 attacks if only they had thought of eavesdropping without a warrant.
•

Sept. 11 could have been prevented. This is breathtakingly cynical. The nation's guardians did not miss the 9/11 plot because it takes a few hours to get a warrant to eavesdrop on phone calls and e-mail messages. They missed the plot because they were not looking. The same officials who now say 9/11 could have been prevented said at the time that no one could possibly have foreseen the attacks. We keep hoping that Mr. Bush will finally lay down the bloody banner of 9/11, but Karl Rove, who emerged from hiding recently to talk about domestic spying, made it clear that will not happen — because the White House thinks it can make Democrats look as though they do not want to defend America. "President Bush believes if Al Qaeda is calling somebody in America, it is in our national security interest to know who they're calling and why," he told Republican officials. "Some important Democrats clearly disagree."

Mr. Rove knows perfectly well that no Democrat has ever said any such thing — and that nothing prevented American intelligence from listening to a call from Al Qaeda to the United States, or a call from the United States to Al Qaeda, before Sept. 11, 2001, or since. The 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act simply required the government to obey the Constitution in doing so. And FISA was amended after 9/11 to make the job much easier.

Only bad guys are spied on. Bush officials have said the surveillance is tightly focused only on contacts between people in this country and Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. Vice President Dick Cheney claimed it saved thousands of lives by preventing attacks. But reporting in this paper has shown that the National Security Agency swept up vast quantities of e-mail messages and telephone calls and used computer searches to generate thousands of leads. F.B.I. officials said virtually all of these led to dead ends or to innocent Americans. The biggest fish the administration has claimed so far has been a crackpot who wanted to destroy the Brooklyn Bridge with a blowtorch — a case that F.B.I. officials said was not connected to the spying operation anyway.

The spying is legal. The secret program violates the law as currently written. It's that simple. In fact, FISA was enacted in 1978 to avoid just this sort of abuse. It said that the government could not spy on Americans by reading their mail (or now their e-mail) or listening to their telephone conversations without obtaining a warrant from a special court created for this purpose. The court has approved tens of thousands of warrants over the years and rejected a handful.

As amended after 9/11, the law says the government needs probable cause, the constitutional gold standard, to believe the subject of the surveillance works for a foreign power or a terrorist group, or is a lone-wolf terrorist. The attorney general can authorize electronic snooping on his own for 72 hours and seek a warrant later. But that was not good enough for Mr. Bush, who lowered the standard for spying on Americans from "probable cause" to "reasonable belief" and then cast aside the bedrock democratic principle of judicial review.

Just trust us. Mr. Bush made himself the judge of the proper balance between national security and Americans' rights, between the law and presidential power. He wants Americans to accept, on faith, that he is doing it right. But even if the United States had a government based on the good character of elected officials rather than law, Mr. Bush would not have earned that kind of trust. The domestic spying program is part of a well-established pattern: when Mr. Bush doesn't like the rules, he just changes them, as he has done for the detention and treatment of prisoners and has threatened to do in other areas, like the confirmation of his judicial nominees. He has consistently shown a lack of regard for privacy, civil liberties and judicial due process in claiming his sweeping powers. The founders of our country created the system of checks and balances to avert just this sort of imperial arrogance.

The rules needed to be changed. In 2002, a Republican senator — Mike DeWine of Ohio — introduced a bill that would have done just that, by lowering the standard for issuing a warrant from probable cause to "reasonable suspicion" for a "non-United States person." But the Justice Department opposed it, saying the change raised "both significant legal and practical issues" and may have been unconstitutional. Now, the president and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales are telling Americans that reasonable suspicion is a perfectly fine standard for spying on Americans as well as non-Americans — and they are the sole judges of what is reasonable.

So why oppose the DeWine bill? Perhaps because Mr. Bush had already secretly lowered the standard of proof — and dispensed with judges and warrants — for Americans and non-Americans alike, and did not want anyone to know.

War changes everything. Mr. Bush says Congress gave him the authority to do anything he wanted when it authorized the invasion of Afghanistan. There is simply nothing in the record to support this ridiculous argument.

The administration also says that the vote was the start of a war against terrorism and that the spying operation is what Mr. Cheney calls a "wartime measure." That just doesn't hold up. The Constitution does suggest expanded presidential powers in a time of war. But the men who wrote it had in mind wars with a beginning and an end. The war Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney keep trying to sell to Americans goes on forever and excuses everything.

Other presidents did it. Mr. Gonzales, who had the incredible bad taste to begin his defense of the spying operation by talking of those who plunged to their deaths from the flaming twin towers, claimed historic precedent for a president to authorize warrantless surveillance. He mentioned George Washington, Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt. These precedents have no bearing on the current situation, and Mr. Gonzales's timeline conveniently ended with F.D.R., rather than including Richard Nixon, whose surveillance of antiwar groups and other political opponents inspired FISA in the first place. Like Mr. Nixon, Mr. Bush is waging an unpopular war, and his administration has abused its powers against antiwar groups and even those that are just anti-Republican.
•

The Senate Judiciary Committee is about to start hearings on the domestic spying. Congress has failed, tragically, on several occasions in the last five years to rein in Mr. Bush and restore the checks and balances that are the genius of American constitutional democracy. It is critical that it not betray the public once again on this score.

wow.

more on Livingston, viget sent this through via email (thnx!):

" Something else apropos of Livingston I found, was that one of his clients, JRL Enterpirses (website www.icanlearn.com) was under a bit of heat for making educational software that didn't seem to perform very well in the Fort Worth School District. In May, the board vote to freeze their contract with JRL. JRL is also accused of inserting earmarks into funding bills that directly stipulate that some Southern Louisiana schools receive funding for buying I Can Learn products (which is usually not how things are done). Not surpringly, the president of JRL, John R Lee is based in New Orleans and is a buddy of Livingston's. Livinsgton's group was paid $0.9 mil over the 1999-2004 time period to lobby for JRL, second only to the massive receipts from Oracle ($1.7 mil)."

for more on this story, see here, here, here and here. lawsuits, corporate coups and the usual shenanigans. aka Standard Operating Procedure.

Viget adds:

"Oh, and both Livingston and the former president of Tulane University were once board members at JRL, but scrambled after financial problems beset the company due to lack of sales (guess the federal funds weren't coming through at the time)."

incidentally, JRL became a client of Livinsgton within weeks of DeLay showing him the Congressional exit door - apparently Livingstone's best career move.

* there's an incredible meme sweeping across FoxNews where they are slamming google for not ponying up private data to the USG - and calling them hypocrites because they are working with the Chinese Govt and censoring stuff over there. fair enough, as it goes. But not once have i heard (of course) a mention of the fact that mr murdoch also has business interests in China - and i betchya ten bux that Star TV doesn't run stories about Tianenmen Square, and I haven't heard it reported anywhere (of course) that Murdoch tried to kill Chris Patton's book, or the fact that he kicked the BBC off the Star platform.

The hypocrisy knows no bounds - i know i shouldn't be surprised, but...

Speaking of Murdoch, who renounced his Australian citizenship so that he could own a TV license in america, remember what i said last week:

"you seem to think that treason is a special sort of crime - but that is only true if the perpetrator is a 'patriot'. if the perp considers themselves a global citizen, then 'treason' is just another word, another crime - and 'patriotism' is just for the rubes, something quaint like religion or the geneva conventions."

and more on the same theme here where i said

" the military industrial entertainment complex is systemically 'corrupt' (aka broken) to the extent that we don't even necessarily need individual acts of corruption. the institutional forces are sufficient to lead to 'corrupt' outcomes."

Murdoch, afaik, doesn't have any ideology or agenda (apart from Mammon) - he simply has a business model where he takes on the funtion of an outsourced propaganda arm for a bunch of different governments, in return for access/ taxbreaks/ regulatory protection etc. You can see how quickly that can create problems if, say, the Chinese Govt wants to demonise america (via StarTV), and the USG wants to demonise China (via FNC) - all of a sudden we can have the populations of two superpowers brainwashed into rooting vehemently for war. Or imagine the same situation with pakistan and india.

We know that Murdoch would comply with all and any such requests - regardless of the outcome. We have the evidence:

" (Reuters) - Ted Turner said on Thursday too few people owned too many media organizations and called rival media baron Rupert Murdoch a warmonger for what he said was Murdoch's promotion of the U.S. war in Iraq.

"He's a warmonger," Turner said in an evening speech to the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco of Murdoch, whose News Corp. Ltd. owns the fast-growing Fox News Channel. "He promoted it.""

Of course, Murdoch isn't a real warmonger. He'd 'sell' peace if that's where the money is.

glenn greenwald continues his extraordiary work into the NSA/FISA debacle. the dems won't have to do any preparation for the hearings next week except read Unclaimed Terrortory (sic):

"Baker's Statement directly contradicts the explanation which the Administration sent Gen. Hayden to give on Tuesday as to why the Administration decided to eavesdrop outside of FISA – because, according to Gen. Hayden, the "probable cause" standard was too stringent. The fact that the Administration in 2002 clearly said that they were not aware of any problems presented by FISA’s "probable cause" showing -- and therefore perceived no reason to change FISA -- demonstrates that the explanation they are now giving as to why they eavesdropped without FISA oversight is simply false.

This, by itself, is an enormous story – the Administration finally, for the first time, offered a clear and coherent reason why they eavesdropped outside of FISA, and that explanation is clearly false, as proven by the Administration’s own statements in 2002 which directly contradict that explanation." (link)

maybe the repugs can read it too - unless they get overwhelmed by ken mehlman's fax machine.

via gore vidal, comes this SOTU protest from World Can't Wait

* i've mentioned before that google's fabled algorithms are totally screwy - i know it because i'm a beneficiary of the screwiness. for one reason or other - i consistently punch over my weight. way over. wotisitgood4 doesnt have many readers - probably more than it deserves - but if you google "truthiness" - I'm in the top 20 - out of 200,000 responses - and i hardly ever use the term. go figger. if google hands over their logs, the USG might come after me and inject me some some truthiness syrum. or something. hopefully i'll be able to withstand the syrum - otherwise they might learn that i'm a total hypocrite and that i love war and wanna give the preznit a blowjob (and not so that we can impeach him)

* teddy kennedy has a diary over at dkos: "The Senate Judiciary Committee hearings confirmed our worst fears, and we have to take the strongest possible stand against him.
We owe it to this generation and future generations of Americans to oppose any such nominee who will roll back the progress we've made."

* mort kondrake on beltwayboys said 'if dems win the huose, they'll probably impeach the president. i'm not kidding'

* the awesome melanie sloan has a new target. curt weldon's long-time friend and real-estate agent is a 'lobbyist' (from her bedroom) - apparently weldon tells firms to hire her... (link)

* fred barnes said that DiFi won't filibuster - but he's wrong and/or lying

* i was gonna make a comment yesterday that i'm so glad that the media seems to have gotten over its stupid "web logs" thing - only to see jim vandehei do it again in the wapo today: "First, liberal Web logs went after Democrats for selecting..."

* i'm amazed that the repugs scheduled the alito vote on the day of sotu. what are they thinking? if alito gets confirmed, then they miss out on much of the masturbatory celebration - and they only get to dominate one news cycle, instead of two - and if the vote fails, then it overshadows SOTU. any ideas?

* meanwhile, attytood wonders if it would make sense to have a temporary filibuster - just to destroy the sotu message. nice. (via redhedd)

* a while back, Miguel sent through a November article which noted that there is a Major Doug Dickerson at the Yokota airbase in Tokyo - he is the "374th Logistics Readiness Squadron’s acting commander" according to an article last week in Stars and Stripes (link) - it's probably not the same Doug Dickerson made famous by sibel. I don't know how many Major Doug Dickersons there are - google only seems to pick up the two references at Yokota, plus all the Sibel related links.

* "Fifty-two percent of adults said Bush's administration since 2001 has been a failure, down from 55 percent in October." (link)
how did americans get 3% points dumber in 4 months? i can't wait for Karl to quote these stats on tv.

* digby: "The (preznit) who is planning to run the mid-terms on his great success as a wartime president just facilitated the first elected Islamic terrorist government and delegitimized moderates throughout the region. That's quite an achievement... It isn't the first failure and it is going to be far from the last. You cannot successfully run the world on comic book slogans and third rate biblical homilies"

* mydd's poll has finished: "the poll is chock full of juicy results that we will release between now and Tuesday morning." (link)

* 'parently Blinky would 'approve' the iran/russia nuke-energy plan. i'll believe it when i see it - but that news is about a gazzillion times better than nuking them (link)

* "Charles Clarke, (British) Home Secretary, is facing an onslaught over the Government's anti-terror laws after figures showed nearly 36,000 people were stopped and searched under the emergency powers last year. The number of people stopped and searched each year has soared since the Act came into force in 2001, when 10,200 people were stopped. It rose to 33,800 in 2003-04." (link)
that is prior to the 7/7 bombing

both from hoffmania

(see here for my seminal report on recruiting shenanigans)

* there's a new gay rights law in washington state. sweet. republicans are all atwitter because poor downtrodden bible-humpers are no longer allowed to hate people. "The bill would trample religious freedom for those who believe homosexuality is wrong," (link)

* speaking of The Gay: "Maj. Todd Vician, a Defense Department spokesman in Washington, said the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy states that "homosexual orientation alone is not a bar to service, but homosexual conduct is incompatible with military service."
"We define homosexual conduct as homosexual acts or verbal or nonverbal communication that a member is homosexual," Vician said." (link)
non-gay folks looking to get their ass outta iraq had better start polishing up on their non-verbal communication skills.

* the frey/oprah/larryking/redemption thing is so absurd. apparently truthiness is important or something.

* bob herbert picks up the incompetence meme: "This guy is something. Remember his "Top Gun" moment aboard the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln? And his famous taunt — "Bring 'em on" — to the insurgents in Iraq? His breathtaking arrogance is exceeded only by his incompetence. And that's the real problem. That's where you'll find the mind-boggling destructiveness of this regime, in its incompetence... But the plain truth is that he is the worst president in memory, and one of the worst of all time. " (link)

* ""The State of the Union address will be directional for our party and our country, and visionary. That is not code for it lacking substance." (said Nicolle Wallace, the White House communications director)" (link)
lol. is that a pre-emptive strike? karl rove will have her in chains for saying that - deservedly so.

Public Citizen’s Congress Watch Report has a case study on the Livingston Group which i've pointed to before - they take a close look at the lobbying for Turkey in particular.

In that report, they state that Livingston received $1.8 million annually from Turkey (based on analysis of records filed with the Justice Department in Compliance with the Foreign Agent Registration Act).

Public Citizen may be correct, but my reading of the notorious semi-annual FARA reports
indicates that it is actually 30% higher than that (not to mention that there is widespread non-compliance with FARA, so the number may be even higher)

Firstly, let's note that there are three different Livingston companies (although I think they have all merged into one now)

• Livingston Group
• Livingston-Solomon Group,
• LivingstonMoffett Global Consultants

Also note that (at least for FARA purposes), Livingston has a jan 31 financial year.

In the financial year to January 31, 2001 (let's call that 2000), Livingston took $1.8M from Turkey. In 2001, they received $2.5million, and then another $2.5 million in 2002. In the first half of 2003, Turkey paid Livingston $1.35 million (FARA records aren't available after this time!)
(update - in the 12 months to July, 2004, Livingston got $1.8m from turkey)

As always with the maladministration, it's worse that you first thought.

Incidentally, Sibel says that Livingston gets $1.2 million p.a. from 'Turkey' - I'm not sure where she gets that number from.

The details follow (most of you can safely ignore the rest of this post)
-------------------------
from the December 2000 FARA report

Livingston Group L.L.C.
Client: Republic of Turkey, Embassy
Nature of Se~ices: U.S. Policy Consultant
The registrant provided the foreign principal with governmenat ffairs representation before the
Congress and federal government of the United States.
$1,350,000.00 for the six month period ending July 31,2000

from june 01 FARA Report

Livingston Group L.L.C.
Client: Republic of Turkey, Embassy
Nature of Services: U.S. Policy Consultant
The registrant provided the foreign principal with government affairs representation before the
Congress and federal government of the United States.
$457,700.00 for the six month period ending January 31.,2001

from the dec01 FARA Report

Livingston Group L.L.C.
Client: Republic of Turkey, Embassy
Nature of Services: U.S. Policy Consultant
The registrant provided the foreign principal with governmenta ffairs representation before the Congress and federal governmento f the United States. The registrant provided advice to the Ambassador from the Republic of Turkey. Numerousm eetings were arranged with memberso f Congress, staff assistants, and other U.S. Governmenot fficials to discuss issues to create a morep ositive environmentf or Turkey.
$1,350,000.00 for the six month period ending July 31,2001

Livingston-Solomon Group, L.L.C.
Client: Government of the Republic of Turkey, Embassy
Nature of Services: Legal and Other Services/Lobbying
The registrant contacted memberso f Congress, congressional staffers, U.S. Governmenot fficials, and the media to discuss issues of importance to Turkey, such as U.S./Turkish relations and the financial crisis in Turkey.
$350,000.00 for the six month period ending July 31,2001

from the june 02 report

Livingston Group L.L.C.
Client: Republic of Turkey, Embassy
Nature of Services: U.S. Policy Consultant
The registrant provided the foreign principal with governmenta ffairs representation before the Congress and federal government of the United States. The registrant provided advice to the Ambassador from the Republic of Turkey. Numerous meetings were arranged with members of Congress, staff assistants, and other U.S. Governmenot fficials to discuss issues to create a more positive environment for Turkey.
$459,518.99 for the six month period ending January 31,2002

Livingston-Solomon Group, L.L.C. #5352
Client: Government of the Republic of Turkey, Embassy
Nature of Services: Legal and Other Services/Lobbying
The registrant contacted members of Congress, congressional staffers, U.S. Government officials, and the media to discuss issues of importance to Turkey, such as U.S./Turkish relations and the financial crisis in Turkey.
$350,000.00 for the six month period ending January 31,2002

from the Dec 02, FARA Report

Livingston Group L.L.C. #5356
Client: Republic of Turkey, Embassy
Nature of Services: U.S. Policy Consultant
The registrant provided the foreign principal with government affairs representation before the Congress and federal government of the United States. The registrant provided advice to the Ambassador fiom the Republic of Turkey. Numerous meetings were arranged with members of Congress, staff assistants, and other U.S. Government officials to discuss issues to create a more positive environment for Turkey.
$1,350,500.00 for the six month period ending July 31 ,2002

Livingston-Solomon Group, L.L.C. #5352
Client: Government of the Republic of Turkey, Embassy
Nature of Services: Legal and Other ServicesLobbying
The registrant contacted members of Congress, congressional staffers, and U.S. Government officials, to discuss issues of importance to Turkey, such as U.S./Turkish relations, Israeli/Turkish relations, Armenian/ Turkish relations, and Turkey's economy and human rights record.
$525,000.00 for the six month period ending July 31,2002

from the June 03 FARA report

Livingston Group L.L.C.
Client: Republic of Turkey, Embassy
Nature of Services: U.S. Policy Consultant
The registrant provided the foreign principal with governmenat ffairs representation before the Congress and federal governmento f the United States. The registrant provided advice to the Ambassadofrr om the Republic of Turkey. Numerousm eetings were arranged with memberso f Congress, staff assistants, and other U.S. Governmenotf ficials to discuss issues to create a morep ositive environmentf or Turkey.
$454,107.18 for the six month period ending January 31,2003

Livingston-Solomon Group, L.L.C.
Client: Government of the Republic of Turkey, Embassy
Nature of Services: Legal and Other Services/Lobbying
The registrant contacted memberso f Congress, congressional staffers, and U.S. Governmenot fficials to discuss issues of importance to Turkey, such as the current status of U.S./Turkish relations, the Administration’s proposal to establish "Qualifying Industrial Zones" in Turkey, Turkish participation in the war against terrorism, recent developmentsin Cyprus, and U.S. policy toward Iraq, as well as Turkey’s FY 2002 supplemental aid request and possible defense initiatives to assist Turkey.
$175,000.00 for the six month period ending January 31,2003

from dec 03 report

Livingston Group L.L.C.
Client: Republic of Turkey~ Embassy
Nature of Services: U.S. Policy Consultant
The registrant provided the foreign principal with governmenat ffairs representation before the Congress and federal governmento f the United States. The registrant provided advice to the Ambassadofrr om the Republic of Turkey. Numerousm eetings were arranged with memberso f Congress, staff assistants, and other U.S. Governmenotf ficials to discuss issues to create a morep ositive environmentf or Turkey.
$1,350,000.00 for the six month period ending July 31,2003

Livingston-Solomon Group, L.L.C.
Client: Government of the Republic of Turkey, Embassy (t)
Nature of Services: Legal and Other Services/Lobbying
The registrant contacted memberos f Congress, congressional staffers, and U.S. Government officials to discuss issues of importance to Turkey, such as the current status of Turkish / Armenian relations and the Administration’s proposed FY 2004 economic assistance package for Armenia, and Turkish participation in the war against terrorism and U.S. policy toward Iraq.
Finances: None Reported

* " A secret U.S. military program that pays Iraqi newspapers to publish articles favorable to the American mission appears to violate a 2003 Pentagon directive, according to a newly declassified document released Thursday." (link)

* "In the latest example of these backstage dealings, Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.) told The Washington Post that he helped steer defense funding, totaling $37 million, to a California company (PerfectWave ), whose officials and lobbyists (Wilkes et al) helped raise at least $85,000 for Doolittle and his leadership political action committee from 2002 to 2005." (link)

* btw - everyone is excitedly pointing to this statistic: "Since the Republicans took control of Congress in 1994, the number of home-district earmarks jumped from 4,155 valued at about $29 billion in 1994 to 14,211 worth nearly $53 billion 10 years later, according to the Congressional Research Service."
80% growth in 10 years? the remarkable thing about that is that it isn't orders of magnitude higher.

* according to ABC, "As things stand, the ethics situation in Washington is not working to Bush's advantage."
priceless.

* line of the day goes to Jane: "Fred Barnes' chin will be dusted for George Bush's ball prints..."

* Larisa (Jan 11):

"Ledeen was consulting for OSP when all three were dispatched to Rome in 2001. [snip]
According to James Risen's New York Times article dated December of 2003, Ledeen was a paid consultant to the National Security Council at the time (Dec, 01) of the (Rome) meeting. Risen reports that National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley was informed of the plans for the meeting and that Hadley expressed reservations given Ledeen and Ghorbanifahr's background." (link)

* Larisa (Jan 17):

"A controversial neoconservative who occasionally consulted for the Bush Defense Department..." (link)

* Ridgeway (Jan 24):

"Q: Have you ever done any kind of work for the vice president's office? Not simply discussions, but actual consulting and special advising?

Ledeen: "Never. I have not been a consultant for this administration ever, not any agency, office, or person. Paid or unpaid." (link)

my money is on Larisa.

btw - as i've mentioned i've been delving into some foreign lobbying - trying to get a grip on why/how livingston lobbied for turkey. i stumbled across the fact that some lobbying firm was bilking the ethiopian embassy. when you read the following - remember that you can buy a US congresscritter for the price of a mcdonalds milkshake and a hamburger.

Piper Rudnick #3712
Government of Ethiopia (Embassy)
Nature of Services: Promotion of Trade/Lobbying
The registrant contacted memberso f Congress, and U.S. Governmenot fficials on behalf of the foreign principal with respect to various issues. The registrant also advised the foreign principal with respect to the implementation of a peace agreement with Eritrea which involves the commonb oundary, its claims collection and presentation process regarding injuries suffered by Ethiopian and Eritrean nationals, and commerciaol pportunities for Ethiopian businesses in the United States.
$5,604,169.87 for the six month period ending February 5,2002

Piper Rudnick
Government of Ethiopia (Embassy)
Nature of Services: Promotion of TradeILobbying
The registrant contacted members of Congress, congressional staffers, and U.S. Government officials on behalf of the foreign principal with respect to various issues. The registrant also advised the foreign principal with respect to the implementation of a peace agreement with Eritrea which involves the common boundary, its claims collection and presentation process regarding injuries suffered by Ethiopian and Eritrean nationals, and commercial opportunities for Ethiopian businesses in the United States.
$6,402,792.00 for the six month period ending August 5,2002


Piper Rudnick #3712
Government of Ethiopia (Embassy)
Nature of Services: Promotion of Trade/Lobbying
The registrant advised the foreign principal regarding the implementation of a peace agreement with Eritrea whichi nvolved the commobno undary, its claims collection and presentation process regarding injuries suffered by Ethiopian and Eritrean nationals, and commerciaol pportunities for Ethiopian businesses in the United States. The registrant also contacted memberos f Congress, congressional staffers, and U.S. Governmenotf ficials on behalf of the foreign principal with respect to various issues.
$6,212,285.06 for the six month period ending February 5,2003

Piper Rudnick #3712
Government of Ethiopia (Embassy)
Nature of Services: Promotion of Trade/Lobbying
The registrant contacted congressional staffers and U.S. Governmenotf ficials on behalf of the foreign principal with respect to its bilateral relationship with the United States. The registrant also advised the foreign principal with respect to the implementationo f a peace agreementw ith Eritrea whichi nvolves the commobno undarya nd its claims collection and presentation process regarding injuries suffered by Ethiopian and Eritrean nationals. In addition, the registrant provided advice regarding commercial opportunities for Ethiopian businesses in the United States.
$1,457,358.92 for the six month period ending August 5,2003

(sorry for the sometimes weird presentation - pdfs dont copy/paste very well)

thats $20m in 2 years - compare that to the $1.8m p.a. that 'turkey' paid livingston. or compare it to the $2m price for which the Duke sold out his country. afaik there's nothing nefarious going on here - but this is probably bigger than most of the current corruption stories going round - certainly in terms of sticker price.

imagine how many 'sex is bad, dont use condoms' billboards they could have bought for $20m...