Necessary News

All you need to know to sound brilliant

Curiouser and Curiouser: Ray Hunt’s ties to the Bush Administration

• The Administration claims that it plays no part in contract negotiations between Western Oil companies and Iraq.[TP]
• Except that the NY Times reported last week that the State Department played an “integral role” in negotiations and this week that the State Department knew specific details of the Hunt Oil deal. [NY Times]
• Hunt Oil signed a contract with the Kurdistan Regional Government, which the State Department said publicly could aggrevate tensions in the region.
• Bush and Co claimed they didn’t know about the deal, especially since the head of Hunt Oil has donated $35 million to the Bush presidential library.
• Oh, and Ray L. Hunt? The head of Hunt Oil? Former Halliburton board member.
• Don’t look now, but this is the same man that got a border fence “abruptly ended” right before his property courtesy of the Bush Administration. [TP]
• When the Oversight committee found out about the State Department’s role in the Hunt Oil deal, they penned a letter to Sec. of State Rice asking for more info.
• “This is a serious matter because of the widespread suspicion in Iraq and other nations that the United States went to war to gain access to Iraqi oil,” the committee wrote.

Special dispensation from the Border Fence? Check. Special Oil Deals? Check. Is there anything this guy ISN’T getting?

Racial Profiling For The FBI?

• No, this isn’t a scene out of “Minority Report” where people are convicted of crimes they haven’t committed— this is your Justice Department.
• The FBI may now be able to investigate you without any evidence of wrongdoing, relying instead on a terrorist profile (what is a terrorist profile again?) [MSNBC]
• These profiles could single out Muslims, Arabs or other racial and ethnic groups.
• Law enforcement officials say the proposed policy would help them do exactly what Congress demanded after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks: Root out terrorists before they strike.
• Currently, FBI agents need specific reasons — like evidence or allegations that a law probably has been violated — to investigate U.S. citizens and legal residents (which only makes sense, right?)
• The new policy would let agents open terrorism investigations after mining public records and intelligence to build a profile of traits that, taken together, were deemed suspicious.
• So what could these profile traits include?
• Someone traveling to regions of the world known for terrorist activity, access to weapons or military training, and even the person’s race or ethnicity.

In honor of the 4th: “All men are created equal"—you know from the Declaration of Independence—or did you forget FBI?

Supreme Court 101

• The most recent Supreme Court term just ended. Here’s a quick refresher course in what went down.
• A great NYT editorial yesterday called the most recent term “muddled” with some “disturbing, highly conservative” decisions mixed in with a few “important defenses of basic liberties.” [NYT editorial]
• From the NYT: “The key to understanding the term lies in the fragility of the court’s center. Some of the most important decisions came on 5-to-4 votes — a stark reminder that the court is just one justice away from solidifying a far-right majority that would do great damage to the Constitution and the rights of ordinary Americans.”
• “Disturbing, Highly Conservative”: The Court refused to protect voting rights when it struck down a challenge to Indiana’s harsh voter ID law. Shortly after the ruling, 12 elderly nuns were turned away from the polls for not having proper ID.
• “Important Defense Of Basic Liberties”: The Court gave its third rebuke to the Bush White House, restoring the right of habeas corpus to the detainees at GuantanamoBay.
• “Disturbing, Highly Conservative”: The Court struck down the DC gun laws, reversing the seven-decade-long understanding that the Second Amendment was tied to militias.
• “Important Defense of Basic Liberties”: “In two cases, the court ruled by votes of 7 to 2 and 6 to 3 that federal statutes cover claims of retaliation against employees who complain to management about discrimination.” [NY Times]
• Many of the cases came down to the swing vote of Justice Kennedy. If other Justices retire during the next presidential term and are replaced by conservative judges, we may see a very different story.
• From the NYT: “If that happens, the court can be expected to push even further in a dangerous direction. It would most likely begin stripping away civil liberties, like the habeas rights vindicated in the Guantánamo case. The constitutional protection of women’s reproductive rights could be eliminated. The court might well strike down laws that protect the environment, workers’ rights and the rights of racial and religious minorities.” [NYT editorial]

A court teetering on the brink.

Good News, Bad News

Beef of a Recall

Be careful about what you put on your Fourth of July picnic tables—Kroger just expanded its voluntary recall of some ground beef products to its stores in more than 20 states, saying the meat may be contaminated with E. coli. [AP]

Good News

The cows from Chik-Fil-A finally got their wish—’Eat more chicken!’

Bad News

Instead of hamburgers, looks like people may be sticking to turkey burgers or hotdogs—oh without tomatoes.

Quote Of The Day

Sen. Jim Bunning: “Regular order!”

Sen. Robert Byrd: “Who said that?”

Bunning: “I did.”

Byrd: “Who are you?”

Bunning: “I’m a senator.”

Byrd: “You’re a great baseball man.”

Bunning: “I’m a senator, I have the same rights as you.”

Byrd: “Yeah man, you’re a senator.” [Ends by laughing hysterically at Bunning.]

— A shouting match on the Senate floor last week cracks us up. [Shenanigans]

Speed Round

62,000

The number of jobs lost in June, according to The Labor Department. That matched the job loss figure for May, which was revised higher from 49,000. [CNN]

STEP UP U.S.

The G8 Climate Scorecards for 2008 showed that the U.S. has done the least among the world’s eight biggest economies to address global warming. [USA Today]

TRAGIC

A Massachusetts jury has convicted a former Missouri radio reporter of killing his wife by poisoning her with antifreeze. Keown faces an automatic sentence of life in prison without parole. [CBS News]

FEMA EXPOSED

An analysis by researchers for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory showed that high levels of formaldehyde found in trailers provided to Hurricane Katrina evacuees on the Gulf Coast probably resulted from cheap wood and poor ventilation in designs used by manufacturers under permissive government standards. [Washington Post]

MORE LIMBAUGH

Just when you thought you couldn’t get enough—-Conservative talk radio host Rush Limbaugh signed an eight-year contract extension worth as much as $400 million with Clear Channel Communications Inc. Lovely. [Reuters]

OOPS

The Justice Department publicly acknowledged that government lawyers should have known that Congress had recently made the rape of a child a capital offense in the military and should have informed the Supreme Court of that fact during their deliberations [NY Times]

FLIGHT PAINS

They might be taking away food, charging for bags, and otherwise making travel more expensive. That said, Delta has announced fast security lanes in LA that allow frequent fliers to pass through, guaranteed, in only a few minutes. [LA Times]

$4.098

All-time gas high just as Americans are heading out for weekend travel. Ouch. [CNN]

BRAILLE

In honor of the 200th anniversary of the birth of Louis Braille, the US Mint unveiled a new silver dollar which will be etched with readable Braille characters. [CNN]

GUANTANAMO BAY

President Bush will soon decide whether to close Guantanamo Bay as a prison for al-Qaeda suspects, sources tell ABC News. High-level discussions among top advisers have escalated in the past week, who are in talks about the future of the prison camp and how it will be dramatically changed and/or closed in the wake of the Supreme Court’s ruling that gave detainees there access to federal courts. [ABC News]

OLYMPIC-SIZED PROBLEMS

Beijing pledged that an embarrassing outbreak of algae that has invaded Olympic co-host city Qingdao’s sailing venue would not be repeated in any of the capital’s bodies of water. China has thrown 10,000 people and 1,200 vessels into the fight to clean up a huge algae bloom that has turned large swathes of Qingdao’s offshore waters green and encroached on a third of Olympic sailing waters. [Reuters]