Census Worker Lynched in Kentucky
A census worker was found hanged in Kentucky in a bizarre and grisly case. When Bill Sparkman told retired trooper Gilbert Acciardo that he was going door-to-door collecting census data in rural Kentucky, the former cop drew on years of experience for a warning: "Be careful." The 51-year-old Sparkman was found this month hanged from a tree near a Kentucky cemetery ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 24, 2009 09:34
Catching Terrorists Not DHS’ Job?
Chris Battle is surprised how often he hears the question "How many terrorists has the Department of Homeland Security caught?" He argues that DHS' job is prevention, not apprehension; that's what the FBI does. The implication of the question – usually the questioner already knows the answer – is that the failure to catch members of al Qaeda during the ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on September 4, 2009 09:41
Biden to Cops: Sotomayor ‘Has Your Back’
Vice President Joe Biden has a bit of a mouth problem, he just can't shut it, and whatever he thinks tends to come tumbling out. In this case, while speaking before a Law Enforcement group Vice President Biden told the cops present that "Sotomayor has your back". Vice President Joe Biden may have crossed the line when he assured national ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 11, 2009 00:50
Rogue Agents Tipped Pelosi To Harman Wiretap
"Intelligence officials, angry that former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales had blocked an FBI investigation into Democratic Rep. Jane Harman's interactions with a suspected Israeli agent, tipped off Nancy Pelosi, the House Democratic leader, that Harman had been picked up on a court-ordered National Security Agency wiretap targeting the agent," CQ's Jeff Stein reports. "In doing so, the officials flouted an ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 23, 2009 10:16
Biden Dog Breeder: ‘It’s Been Horrific Since December’
Glenn Reynolds points to a story in a local Chester County, PA paper titled "Breeder Regrets Dog Sale to Biden." I clicked the link, expecting to find a story about Biden neglecting the pooch because he's too busy doing whatever it is that vice presidents do. Instead, it's a tale of what a royal pain in the ass it is to ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on April 11, 2009 07:25
Bill Moyers Gay Hypocrisy Scandal
I've followed the discussion about the Bill Moyers "scandal" (see, for example, today's (WSJ piece "Bill Moyers's Name Is Linked to J. Edgar Hoover's Abuse of Office") out of the corner of my eye for the last couple of days and am having trouble seeing what the big deal is. Basically, as I understand it: Back in 1964, then-30-year-old Moyers was ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on February 22, 2009 08:17
Elite Journalists
Deborah Howell, WaPo's outgoing ombudsman, laments the downside of her profession becoming more professionalized. Journalism is better than it was in my early days, and changes in technology have opened up a new world. My worry is that journalists aren't as connected to readers as they were in the days of my youth, when the city's newspaper was the equivalent of ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 29, 2008 12:14
Obama and Blagojevich
[caption id="attachment_28632" align="alignright" width="300" caption="In this June 20, 2005, photo, Gov. Rod Blagojevich, D-Ill., speaks as Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., listens during a news conference in St. Louis. Federal authorities arrested Blagojevich Tuesday Dec. 9, 2008, on charges that he brazenly conspired to sell or trade the U.S. Senate seat left vacant by President-elect Barack Obama to the highest bidder. ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 11, 2008 11:48
Jesse Jackson Jr. ‘Senate Candidate No. 5′
Jesse Jackson Jr. is the infamous "Senate Candidate No. 5," ABC's Brian Ross reports. Chicago Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr., D-Ill., is the anonymous "Senate Candidate No. 5" whose emissaries Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich reportedly offered up to $1 million to name him to the U.S. Senate, federal law enforcement sources tell ABC News. According to the FBI affidavit in the case, ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on December 10, 2008 13:44
Documents Link Ivins to Anthrax Attacks
Documents released today by the government offer some strong circumstantial evidence linking Army scientist Bruce Ivins to the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people. Army scientist Bruce Ivins had sole custody of highly purified anthrax spores with "certain genetic mutations identical" to the poison that killed five people and rattled the nation in 2001, according to documents unsealed Wednesday in ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 6, 2008 15:37
Anthrax Suspect Commits Suicide
Via the LAT: Apparent suicide in anthrax caseA top government scientist who helped the FBI analyze samples from the 2001 anthrax attacks has died in Maryland from an apparent suicide, just as the Justice Department was about to file criminal charges against him for the attacks, the Los Angeles Times has learned. Bruce E. Ivins, 62, who for the last ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on August 1, 2008 11:32
FBI Building Not Secure
The FBI headquarters complex has a wee problem: “The Hoover Building does not meet the Interagency Security Committee’s criteria for a secure Federal facility capable of handling intelligence and other sensitive information,” the Senate Appropriations Committee observed in a new report on the 2009 Commerce, Justice and State Appropriations bill. “The Committee finds these conditions unacceptable and directs the Government Accountability Office ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on July 7, 2008 12:40
I Miss Karl Rove
Remember the good old days when everyday events were coordinated by Karl Rove? Today could have counted as one but, alas, Karl Rove is nowhere to be found. Child rapists can't be executed, Supreme Court rules The U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Wednesday that child rapists cannot be executed, concluding that capital punishment for crimes against individuals can be applied only ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 26, 2008 00:50
Michelle Obama ‘Whitey’ Video Revealed
Larry Johnson's propaganda effort has worked. His promise to produce a "stunning" and "dramatic" video of Michelle Obama ranting about "whitey" has overloaded his servers. The revelatory post is supposedly here; at least that's headlining memeorandum at the moment. I can't get to it at the moment. BooMan claims a transcription will say: Why'd he cut folks ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on June 2, 2008 09:00
Doing China’s Dirty Work
A new report by the Department of Justice alleges that soldiers at Guantanamo Bay engaged in abuse against Chinese nationals in order to "soften them up" for the arrival of members of Chinese intelligence.According to the report by Justice Department Inspector General Glenn Fine, an FBI agent reported a detainee belonging to China's ethnic Uighur minority and a Uighur translator ...Posted in Outside The Beltway on May 21, 2008 10:34
