Think Progress

Under the Radar

ETHICS -- OIL LOBBYIST AND TOP BUSH ENVIRONMENTAL PROSECUTOR SHARE $1 MILLION VACATION HOME: "Nine months before agreeing to let ConocoPhillips delay a half-billion-dollar pollution cleanup," the government's top environmental prosecutor Sue Ellen Wooldbridge "bought a $1 million vacation home with the company's top lobbyist," the AP reports. "Also in on the Kiawah Island, S.C., house deal was former Deputy Interior Secretary J. Steven Griles, the highest-ranking Bush administration official targeted for criminal prosecution in the Jack Abramoff corruption probe." Griles, now an oil and gas lobbyist, "began dating Wooldridge while he was her boss at Interior. He was the department's No. 2 official from July 2001 to Jan. 2005, behind only former Secretary Gale Norton. He and [Donald] Duncan, a ConocoPhillips vice president who runs the company's Washington office, both served on President Bush's presidential transition team -- Griles for the Interior Department, Duncan for the Energy Department. Duncan has played a major role in getting the Bush administration's backing for a proposed $25 billion natural gas pipeline reaching from Alaska to Midwest markets." The Justice Department says Wooldbridge's involvement in the deal was cleared by ethics officials, which Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) said signaled a "breakdown of ethics" at the department. Waxman's House Oversight and Government Reform Committee says it will investigate and request documents on the real estate deal.

HEALTH CARE -- U.S. RANKS NEAR BOTTOM IN CHILD WELFARE: Among developed nations, the United States ranked second-to-last in child welfare, according to a study released yesterday by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). Out of the 21 countries studied, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Denmark topped the first through third slots, respectively, with the United Kingdom faring the worst. UNICEF used six criteria to compare the nations: material well-being, health, education, relationships, behaviors and risks, and young people's sense of happiness. Jonathan Bradshaw, a contributing researcher, said kids fared so poorly in the United States because of greater economic inequality and poor social programs for families. Bradshaw also mentioned that the "dog-eat-dog" competition in jobs in wealthier countries that means adults spend less time with children. Additionally, the U.S. ranked at the bottom in children's health and safety, mainly because of high rates of child mortality and accidental deaths. Some US officials were quick to dismiss the study. But Bradshaw countered: "What [the U.S. and U.K.] have in common are very high levels of inequality, very high levels of child poverty, which is also associated with inequality, and in rather different ways poorly developed services to families with children."

HUMAN RIGHTS -- ADMINISTRATION PUSHES FLAWED DETAINEE TRIALS FORWARD: Yesterday, President Bush signed an executive order on the "trial of alien unlawful enemy combatants by military commission." The order allows the U.S. government to proceed with prosecution of suspected "unlawful enemy combatants," using "hearsay evidence" and "testimony obtained through abusive interrogation techniques." The defendants can be denied access to any classified exculpatory evidence. Bush's move is a "technical step required by the Military Commissions Act of 2006," "a tyrannical law that will be ranked with the low points in American democracy, our generation's version of the Alien and Sedition Acts." The president's executive order comes a day after Sen. Chris Dodd's (D-CT) introduction of the "Restoring the Constitution Act." The bill would restore habeas corpus protections to Guantanamo Bay detainees, create an independent court review to military commission rulings, and bar information obtained through torture. Dodd -- who has said he takes "a backseat to no one when it comes to protecting the country from terrorists" -- justified his challenges to the Military Commissions Act: "[I]n taking away [detainees'] legal rights, the rights first codified in our country's Constitution, we're taking away our own moral compass, as well." The legislation, which is predicted to receive "bipartisan support" in Congress, addresses the major concerns of several prominent human and civil rights organizations including Human Rights Watch.

Think Fast

“The U.S. Central Command’s war plan for invading Iraq postulated in August 2002 that the U.S. would have only 5,000 troops left in Iraq as of December 2006,” according to newly released documents. “Completely unrealistic assumptions about a post-Saddam Iraq permeate these war plans,” said an official from the National Security Archive, which obtained the documents.

The Los Angeles Times examines whether the Iranian Quds Forces, accused of smuggling weapons to Shiite forces in Iraq, are controlled by the Iranian government. The conclusion: “Experts aren’t sure.”

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) will today outline his plan to begin ending the war in Iraq “by stopping the deployment of troops from units that have been badly degraded by four years of combat.” Murtha’s legislation will require that U.S. troops who have already served be granted adequate time at home before redeploying, and that “any troops sent to Iraq must be�¿???deemed fully trained and equipped under existing military standards.”

State Farm, which insures one out of every three Mississippi homes, has decided to “stop writing new home and commercial policies throughout Mississippi,” which “could prompt other insurers to retreat further from the Katrina-battered region.”

“Lobbyists eager to revive the practice of taking staffers out for a few beers” are encouraged by a House memo that states that even under new ethics rules, lawmakers and staff can accept “food or refreshments of a nominal value offered other than as part of a meal.” “Happy hours are OK again,” said one corporate source. 

Scooter Libby’s defense team rested after giving a “stripped-down version of their case.” Defense attorneys did not present the “testimony of their proposed final witnesses” because the presiding judge ruled it “would be unfair to allow such testimony because Libby had decided not to testify and could not be cross-examined.”

The 25-count indictment disclosed yesterday against defense contractor Brent Wilkes shows he obtained a stream of Pentagon contracts “by providing then-Rep. Cunningham with cash and other bribes valued at more than $700,000,” including “two prostitutes for the lawmaker on Aug. 15 and 16, 2003, at the Hapuna Beach Prince Hotel in Hawaii.” “Pursuant to Cunningham’s request,” the indictment states, “Wilkes arranged for the Congressman to get a different prostitute for the second evening.”

“UK aid agency Oxfam has warned a new humanitarian catastrophe, like that in Darfur, could happen in Chad if ethnic conflict is not brought under control. ï¿??? More than 120,000 Chadians have so far been forced from their homes in brutal inter-ethnic attacks that bear all the hallmarks of the violence seen across the border in Sudan.”

And finally: Papa Bear’s new favorite ice cream? Ben & Jerry’s unveiled “Stephen Colbert’s Americone Dream,” a new ice cream flavor that promises customers the “sweet taste of liberty in your mouth.” “I’m not afraid to say it. Dessert has a well-known liberal agenda,” Colbert said. “What I hope to do with this ice cream is bring some balance back to the freezer case.”