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November 4, 2006

Chalabi: Debacle in Iraq? Don't Blame Me. Blame Wolfowitz

Dexter Filkins' New York Times magazine piece on Ahmed Chalabi is one of those stories that won't tell you much you may not already have had a hunch about; there are no Woodward-style deep-background revelations here, no radical reinterpretations, no smoking guns. What there is the kind of profile that only someone who has put in a lot of time--a good old-fashioned beat reporter--can write, with an arc that spans more than three years of actual observation of the man. (Filkins was stationed in Bagdad until recently and a couple of months ago wrote a searing assessment of what Western reporters can, and mostly can't, get in Iraq). This is not the be-all-and-end-all story on who used whom in the prewar intel manipulation game (did Chalabi push the nation to war, or did he just provide a convenient assist for the Cheney/Rumsfeld crowd that was determined to march to Bagdad no matter what?). But it's a terrific tale of a great gambler and a big loss that leaves you sympathizing with Chalabi even as you recoil from what he was allowed to do. Just a couple of highlights:

"The real culprit in all this is Wolfowitz," Chalabi says, referring to his erstwhile backer, the former deputy secretary of defense, Paul Wolfowitz. "They chickened out. The Pentagon guys chickened out."

Chalabi still considers Wolfowitz a friend, so he proceeds carefully. America’s big mistake, Chalabi maintains, was in failing to step out of the way after Hussein’s downfall and let the Iraqis take charge. The Iraqis, not the Americans, should have been allowed to take over immediately — the people who knew the country, who spoke the language and, most important, who could take responsibility for the chaos that was unfolding in the streets. An Iraqi government could have acted harshly, even brutally, to regain control of the place, and the Iraqis would have been without a foreigner to blame....They could have done this, presumably, without an army (which most wanted to dissolve) and without a police force (which was riddled with Baathists).

[...]

W. Patrick Lang, a senior official at the Defense Intelligence Agency... visited the office of Senator Trent Lott, then the Senate majority leader. After introducing an Arab businessman to Lott, Lang sat in Lott’s anteroom with a number of Capitol Hill staff members who helped draft the Iraq Liberation Act, which provided millions of dollars to Chalabi’s Iraqi National Congress. They were praising Chalabi: "They were talking about him, that Chalabi fits into this plan as a very worthwhile, virtuous exemplar of modernization, somebody who could help reform first Iraq and then the Middle East. They were very pleased with themselves." Lang, an old Middle East hand who had worked in Iraq in the 1980’s, said he was stunned. "You guys need to get out more," Lang recalls saying at the time. "It’s a fantasy."

[...]

One of the people whom the I.N.C. made available to American intelligence was Adnan Ihsan al-Haideri... [Chalabi] didn’t think much of Haideri or his information, he says, and was astonished to learn later that the information he provided became a pillar of the Americans’ charges against Hussein.

"We told them, 'We don’t know who this guy is,'" Chalabi said. "Then the Americans spoke to him and said, 'This guy is the mother lode.' Can you believe that on such a basis the United States would go to war? The intelligence community regarded the I.N.C. as useless. Why would the government believe us?"

And then, of course, there's the ever-popular (and not unlikely, according to Filkins' piece) theory that Chalabi has been an Iranian asset all along.

When we arrived at the [Iranian] border, Chalabi ducked into a bathroom and changed out of his camouflage T-shirt and slacks and into a well-tailored blue suit. Then we drove to Ilam, where an 11-seat Fokker jet was idling on the runway of the local airport... We landed in Iran’s smoggy capital, and within a couple of hours, Chalabi was meeting with the highest officials of the Iranian government.

When the election came, Chalabi was wiped out.... One of his associates said of the Shiite alliance: "We know they cheated. You know how we know? Because in one area we had 5,000 forged ballots, and when they were counted, we didn’t even get that many." He shrugged.

A Second Thought on Conservative Sex Scandals

Far be it from me to spoil everyone’s enjoyment of the seemingly endless parade of busted Republican moral hypocrites. As if boy-chasing Rep. Mark Foley and mistress-keeping and allegedly mistress-beating Rep. Don Sherwood and allegedly cocktail-waitress groping Nevada state Rep. Jim Gibbons weren’t enough, now we’ve got the meth-huffing, gay-prostitute-hiring Rev. Ted Haggard! Honestly, I haven’t felt such satisfying schadenfreude since Jim Bakker and Jimmy Swaggart were caught with their respective pants down.

But it’s worth pointing out that, all things being relative, Haggard was apparently not such a terrible guy. As the LA Times reports, “Though Haggard has spoken out on abortion and same-sex marriage from time to time, he is less fiery on those topics than many of his colleagues are. He has pushed, instead, for a broader concept of biblical values: He wants evangelicals to be more involved in protecting the environment and helping the poor. Haggard has not joined other evangelicals in campaigning against a Colorado initiative to provide domestic partnership benefits to same-sex couples. He also stood out among conservative preachers for publicly praising a 2003 Supreme Court decision that struck down a Texas anti-sodomy law.”

In other words, it seems the guy had a heart, and perhaps even some principles. Who knows? Maybe now that he’s been outed as a man who like to have sex with other men, he can use what are evidently some impressive talents as a preacher and leader to help convince his fellow evangelicals that that’s not such a terrible thing. Hey, a blogger can dream, can’t he?

The Menendez-Kean Seesaw

The well respected WNBC-Marist poll of New Jersey has Menendez comfortably ahead in the New Jersey Senate race. The pros have been all over the map on this one. Here's what Marist says:

"As campaign 2006 heads into the homestretch, Robert Menendez receives the support of 50% of likely voters, including those who are undecided yet leaning toward a candidate, compared with 42% who support Tom Kean, Jr. Eight percent remain undecided. There is an enormous partisan divide. 82% of Democrats support Menendez, and 81% of Republicans support Kean. The majority of independent voters back Menendez. He receives the support of 51% of independents likely to vote on Election Day compared with 39% for Kean."

Rats Fleeing a Sinking Ship

Vanity Fair's website is running interviews with leading neoconservatives who are trying to jump ship by attacking Bush as a nincompoop.

A few excerpts from the article by David Rose:

Richard Perle: “The levels of brutality that we've seen are truly horrifying, and I have to say, I underestimated the depravity." Perle holds the President responsible.

Kenneth Adelman, another leading neocon, once said taking Iraq would be a cakewalk. But now: “I just presumed that what I considered to be the most competent national-security team since Truman was indeed going to be competent. They turned out to be among the most incompetent teams in the post-war era.”

Michael Ledeen, currently at the America Enterprise Insitute: “Ask yourself who the
most powerful people in the White House are. They are women who are in love with the president: Laura [Bush], Condi, Harriet Miers, and Karen Hughes."

Army Times: Sack Rumsfeld

On Monday Army Times (and Navy Times, Air Force Times, Marine Corps Times) published by Gannett, and sold to people in the services, will call for Rumsfeld’s removal from office:
"Rumsfeld has lost credibility with the uniformed leadership, with the troops, with Congress and with the public at large. His strategy has failed, and his ability to lead is compromised. And although the blame for our failures in Iraq rests with the secretary, it will be the troops who bear its brunt. This is not about the midterm elections. Regardless of which party wins Nov. 7, the time has come, Mr. President, to face the hard bruising truth: Donald Rumsfeld must go."

Texas Launches Virtual Border Patrol

President Bush's Operation TIPS, which would have created a million citizen spies, may have failed, but lay surveillance is alive and well. This week Texas debuted its “Texas Border Watch Website,” a $5 million program meant to create armchair border patrollers who will notify authorities when they surveil illegals. The site currently has black and white cameras stationed at eight different outposts (there are supposedly 15 cameras but only 8 are on the site) along the 1,254 miles of the state’s border with Mexico. Users, who need to sign up with their email and home city and state, can “Report Suspicious Activity” via email.

The state is working out glitches, like the grainy quality of the images that make it hard to distinguish say, between a person and a coyote, and the fact that some of the cameras are now obstructed so that all you see are bushes or passing cars. And there will eventually be 70 cameras total.

"I'm sure that as you start a big program like this that you will have some glitches," said Republican Governor Rick Perry, who is up for re-election Tuesday. "My wife's computer is not working this morning." Yet, more than technical problems the program has civil rights groups concerned that the site will encourage racial profiling and fradulent reports.

Hopefully the folks over at Boeing, who got a $67 million contract in September to create a “virtual fence” along the entire border, part of Congress’ $1.2 billion border fence plan, are paying attention, and taking notes.

November 3, 2006

First Lady Calls Pombo the Environment's "Enthusiastic Steward"

As promised, Laura Bush stumped for Richard Pombo today and instead of touting his strengths, as, say, a force to be reckoned with for private property rights, she chose to focus on his environmental track record, calling him “an enthusiastic steward of our country's natural resources."

Uh, that's a bit like calling Mel Gibson a steward for religious harmony. "Because of his leadership," she went on, "wildlife, property and people will be protected from dangerous flooding." It's as if he were the captain of Noah's Ark!

Richard Pombo has used his position as chair of the House Resources Committee to try to overhaul the Endangered Species Act to eliminate habitat protection, and to weaken laws protecting the oceans.

The first lady, who’s on a first name basis with the 14-year California state representative (her husband calls him The Marlboro Man) insists that Pombo "is committed to safeguarding local ecosystems. Richard promotes responsible conservation initiatives, programs that protect wildlife while also improving the lives of his constituents."

Read this week's interview with Pombo’s opponent, wind-energy engineer Jerry McNerney, who currently holds a 2-point lead, here.

Stem Cell Research: Fact and Fiction

Stem cells have become the superstars of this election season, with their profiles raised by celebrities and ad campaigns. But this has led to the propagation of certain myths surrounding the issue. An interview with Jesse Reynolds, spokesman for the Center for Genetics and Society, shed some light on the realities of the issue. The center conducts policy research and advocacy on issues surrounding genetics.

Fiction: Embryonic stem cell research is illegal in the United States.

Fact: All forms of embryonic stem cell research are legal at the federal level, but President Bush has cut funding for such initiatives. South Dakota is the only state bans embryonic stem cell research in all its forms, and about a half dozen states ban research cloning. For more information on the specific legalities, visit the website of National Conference of State Legislators.

Fiction: Embryonic stem cell research destroys embryos.

Fact: “Almost all embryonic stem cell research uses embryos left over from [in vitro fertilization] clinics that would effectively be destroyed anyway,” Reynolds told Mother Jones. However, if more labs were to develop cloning of embryos for their stem cells, eggs would be required. Unlike embryos, eggs cannot be frozen – although researchers have been working on the technology. Some opponents of stem cell research like Patricia Heaton are worried that women may be exploited for their eggs. While many pro-life groups are also opposed to stem cell research for the reason that it is destroying embryos, other groups that are pro-choice have expressed concerned over the collecting of women's eggs. These include the Center for Genetics and Society, the California Nurses Association, and Planned Parenthood Affiliates of CaliforniaEconomic incentives might be offered to have women take hormones to produce eggs that can be extracted for research purposes.

Fiction: All scientists interested in this type of research want to clone embryos.

Fact: According to the Center for Genetics and Society, only about a half a dozen labs in the United States are working on developing stem cells from cloned embryos. “The cloning is a small part of [embryonic] stem cell research and it’s at a very early stage. There are no therapies from it or from any other form of stem cell research,” said Reyolds. But Reynolds also pointed out that cloned embryos could be created to isolate more specific genes.

Fiction: By using stem cells, scientists could develop cures for diseases within the next few years.

Fact: Any type of clinical trial is actually about 15 years away, with another five year waiting period before medications would be prescribed. “We’re not talking about the next political cycle,” said Reynolds.

Fiction: Stem cell research offers a guaranteed cure for everything from cancer to Alzheimer’s.

Fact: As a relatively common disease with very grave effects, Alzheimer’s has a high media profile in the stem cell debate. But, despite Ron Reagan’s appeals for stem cell research on behalf of people who suffer from the same disease as his late father, a cure is not assured through the controversial technology.

According to Reynolds, researchers are much closer to cures for diabetes than they are to cures for Alzheimer’s through stem cell therapy. “I’m yet to see researcher as opposed to a research advocate assert that it’s on a short list,” said Reynolds.

Fiction: Certain opponents of stem cell research point out that further advances have been made in adult stem cell therapy than embryonic or other forms.

Fact: “It’s tricky because opponents of [embryonic] stem cell research like to point out that alternatives exist and the therapies are much further along,” said Reyolds. “That is something along the lines of what is called a red herring.” Adult stem cells are used in procedures such as bone marrow transplants which have been done since 1968. The first stem cell line was created and patented in 1998 by James Thompson, a professor at the University of Wisconsin. “All born humans have stem cells in them that are less ethically problematic but are also less powerful,” said Reyolds.

--Caroline Dobuzinskis

After Next Tuesday, Should Dems Be Feeling Impeach-y?

With the Democrats poised to retake the House next week, it's only a matter of time before a freshly emboldened blue-state rep (besides John Conyers) dares to utter the i-word. Outside of D.C., there's been no such reticence to suggest that George W. Bush has committeed high crimes and misdemeanors. Which isn't to say that the idea of impeachment has any chance of going anywhere soon. Even if it does gain political traction, would forcing Bush into early retirement be worth the trouble? In our latest issue, Tim Dickinson wades into the slew of pro-impeachment books out there and considers these questions. I won't give away the ending, but he's not real excited by the (far-fetched) prospect of President Cheney or (gasp!) President Pelosi. Check it out.

Love and Marriage Shouldn't Be This Complicated

The marriage amendment is expected to pass in five states but in three states victory for its socially conservative supporters is not a sure thing, reports the Washington Times.

These include Arizona, Wisconsin and South Dakota, where the amendment has been widely criticized for its limitations to both heterosexual and homosexual unions. Groups such as Arizona Together, Fair Wisconsin and South Dakotans Against Discrimination are waging campaigns against the amendment. In Arizona, polls show that voters are concerned about its effects on health benefits to families (which could be the result of an ad paid for by Arizona Together).

Fair Wisconsin’s website lays out 20 possible effects of the ban, including limiting access to protection for victims of domestic abuse. While in South Dakota, the amendment has been called poorly worded.

The words on the ballot will vary widely: from simplest definition in Idaho of “a marriage between a man and a woman is the only domestic legal union that shall be valid or recognized in this state,” to South Carolina’s complex description which includes the phrase “This State and its political subdivisions shall not recognize or give effect to a legal status, right, or claim created by another jurisdiction regarding any other domestic union.”

One woman in Wisconsin wrote in to the Sheboygan Press to express her opposition to the wording of the amendment: “Most confusing of all, the amendment bans two separate things — gay marriage and ‘anything substantially similar to marriage,’: wrote Barbara Hill. “Many voters may want to preclude the possibility of gay marriage but allow adults to commit to one another in a legal way.”

--Caroline Dobuzinskis

Corporate Animal Abusers Fighting Back With Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act

Few enterprises practice more cruelty than Kentucky Fried Chicken, though the company has never been prosecuted for either its inhumane policies or its widespread torture of chickens. Now KFC has petitioned the U.S. Postal Service to issue a stamp honoring its "American entrepreneurial icon," Harland "Colonel" Sanders.

Farm Sanctuary has written a letter to the U.S. Postal Service, asking that Sanders and KFC not be honored, and is inviting citizens to express their disapproval to the USPS.

Across the nation, people are taking steps to stop institutionalized animal abuse, especially the abuse of factory farming. Four years ago, Florida became the first state to ban industry-standard pig gestation crates (crates so narrow that the pigs cannot turn around), the city of Chicago and the state of California have banned production and sales of foie gras, and there are pending laws to ban cruel factory farm practices in Oregon, Illinois, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Laws banning industry-standard battery cages for hens are bound to be introduced some time soon.

The factory farming industry and other industries that treat animals inhumanely are ready. Currently under consideration is HR 4239, the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act, which would make it a crime punishable by imprisonment to engage in any act that causes an "animal enterprise" (factory farm, puppy mill, research facility, pet stores, circus, etc.) to lose a profit. These acts include legal activities, such as peaceful protesting and organizing media boycotts. Furthermore, it would make no difference if the animal enterprise were engaging in an obviously illegal activity. Also, there is no exemption for financial damage caused to an enterprise by the dissemination of public information.

Last year, the FBI declared that so-called eco-teorrists and animal rights anarchists were more dangerous to the country than right-wing militia groups and militant anti-choice groups. The groundwork has been laid to do anything to protect American corporations, and the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act has already passed in the U.S. Senate.

If Evangelicals Don’t Vote Republican, Who Will?

A new poll released yesterday by the Pew Research Center shows that only 57% of self-identified white, Evangelical Protestants plan to vote for Republican candidates in next week’s midterms, down from 64% just over a month ago. This is nothing new: for a while now, Bush’s approval rating has gone steadily down among his most stalwart supporters.

-Only 54% of Evangelicals have a “favorable” impression of Republicans (down from 63% in January)
-Only 42% believe that Bush’s party “governs in an honest and ethical way.”
A startling 31% say they will vote for the Democrats next week.

This is a far cry from the last election:

-In 2004, 78% of white Evangelical Christians voted Republican, and 72% of them approved of Bush’s performance.
-Now, only 55% think Bush is doing a good job and only half want to keep troops in Iraq.

And it isn’t just the Evangelicals: 37% of white Catholics and 48% of white mainline Protestants plan to vote Republican in the mid-terms, both down from their 2002 numbers. Maybe it’s the gay-prostitute soliciting ministers, or maybe it’s Congressmen sending explicit texts to their pages, but either way looks like even right-wing Christians don’t trust the Republicans.

—Jen Phillips

The Latest Polls: Burns Picks Up Steam, GOP to Retain Control of the Senate

According to Congressional Quarterly’s Poll Track, Conrad Burns is picking up steam in Montana and conceivably could win this race, which was once thought to be in the Dem column. The hottest races remain Missouri and Virginia. Both dead heats. Poll Track speculates that the Dems will take the House, but lose the Senate:

A majority of both Republicans and Democrats responding to National Journal's Insiders Poll this week predicted that Democrats would gain over 20 seats in the House next week, winning them control of the chamber. But in a similar show of consensus, both sides also foresee the GOP retaining control of the Senate, with 91 percent of Republicans remaining optimistic and 63 percent of Democrats conceding their party's uphill battle.

History Don't Know Much About Bush

The decider rides again. From George W. Bush's "interview" with Sean Hannity a couple days ago:

I enjoy making decisions. You know, there's something exciting about reading and studying history and realize you're making history with it. And one of the lessons, by the way, about when you read history is that, after your presidency, you know, it's going to take a while for the historians to fully understand the decisions you made, if you're making big decisions, and so therefore you don't worry about history.

I like to say there's a portrait of George Washington in the Oval Office. I often look at him. I've read three history books about him. And if they're still analyzing the No. 1 guy's presidency, old No. 43 needs to not worry about it.

In short, Bush seems to hope that his legacy will rest on a solid foundation of inscrutability. Take that, eggheads!

Free Nuke Plans, Courtesy of the U.S. Gov't—Again

Today's New York Times reports that the federal government stuck plans for a nuclear weapon up on the Internet, free for the taking (until yesterday). The "Operation Iraqi Freedom Document Portal" was set up at the behest of Congressional Republicans smarting from the failure to find WMD's in Iraq; the website, which contained 55,000 boxes of Saddam-era documents, was meant to be a post-facto freelance intelligence-gathering free-for-all. The Weekly Standard and conservative bloggers were big fans of this idea. But the cache also included what experts are calling a "basic guide to building an atom bomb." Oops. (Not that the amateur WMD-hunters are buying it: Jveritas, an Arabic-speaking blogger who has translated many documents, claims the prospect of, say, Iran using the nuclear plans is "a laughable idea.")

This is not the first time that Iraqi nuclear plans have been shared online by the U.S. government. As Kurt Pitzer reported in the September/October 2005 issue of Mother Jones, spin got the better of security when the military picked up Dr. Mahdi Obeidi, the mastermind behind Saddam's nuclear centrifuge program in 2003:

On June 26, the CIA posted a press release about Obeidi's cache -- the most valuable WMD evidence the U.S. has yet obtained in Iraq -- on its official website. It also put up digital photos of the components and even one of the key centrifuge diagrams. The pictures, which [former U.N. weapons inspector David] Albright says could be "incredibly useful" to any regime trying to start a covert nuclear program, were online for almost a week -- long enough to be downloaded and made freely available on the Internet -- before the agency took them down. Literally buried for 12 years, some of Saddam's hoard of nuclear knowledge got out because of the U.S. government, not in spite of it.

Read the rest of the story here.

Diebold Asks HBO to Kill Voting Machine Documentary

You may have seen the premiere of Hacking Democracy on HBO last night, but the folks over at Diebold wish you hadn’t. The doc takes a look at the computers that will count 87% of America’s votes on Tuesday and the vulnerabilities of the technology. If follows grandmother turned voting-machine-watchdog Bev Harris through her research of Diebold, and looks at the potential risks of the machines from the perspective of computer security experts. Far from a salacious expose on the GOP’s attempt to disenfranchise through computerized voting, it's a measured look at the prospects for hacking, tampering and the other risks that could come as a result of the machines capturing nearly 9 out of 10 votes cast next week.

Turns out Diebold has complained repeatedly to HBO about the film, apparently without even watching it. The company's president, Dave Byrd, wrote letters to executives at HBO, complaining about errors and saying that no one spoke with Diebold about the film. In response, HBO Vice President and Senior Counsel, Peter Rienecker, in a November 1 letter, points out that the directors of the film tried repeatedly to get an interview with Diebold and were rebuffed, and that the errors mentioned were on Diebold’s part:

You assert in your letter that the Documentary contains "significant factual errors"; however, based on several of the purported examples you have cited, you do not appear to have viewed the film which will premiere on HBO on November 2. HBO stands by the accuracy and fairness of the Documentary. Of course, if after viewing the film on the HBO service tomorrow evening you continue to have concerns, we would be happy to discuss them with you at that time.

Rienecker goes on to discuss point-by-point Diebold’s concerns with the documentary, including:

-Diebold's October 31 press release, which also generally challenges the accuracy of the statements in the Documentary, claims that the Documentary states that "Diebold counted more than 40% of the votes nationwide in the 2000 presidential election". The Documentary contains no such statement or implication.

-Contrary to the assertion in your October 30 letter, the Documentary does not report that a Diebold machine subtracted 16,022 votes from Al Gore in Florida in 2000. Rather, the Documentary indicates that the software involved was owned by Global Election Systems, which (as indicated in your letter) was purchased by Diebold in 2002.

-We do not agree that the results of Harry Hursti's investigation in Leon County, Florida were in any way proved to be a sham. Indeed, his findings as depicted in the Documentary have been verified and confirmed in a February 2006 report issued by the University of California, Berkeley.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter yesterday Diebold executives admitted that they had not actually seen the film but were asking HBO to pull it from its schedule or air company disclaimers questioning its accuracy.

Midnight Rider Terminates Iraq Reconstruction Watchdog

Secreted into a military authorization bill that was signed by the president two weeks ago is a provision that will shutter the Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction effective October 1, 2007. The office, headed by former White House official Stuart W. Bowen Jr., was established in October 2004 to investigate the potential fraud and abuse of reconstruction funds. Since then it has filed one explosive report after another, revealing, most recently, that the military could not account for hundreds of thousands of weapons it provided to Iraqi security forces. Perhaps Bowen's agency did its job a little too well.

The New York Times reports:

Susan Collins, a Maine Republican who followed the bill closely as chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs, says that she still does not know how the provision made its way into what is called the conference report, which reconciles differences between House and Senate versions of a bill.

Neither the House nor the Senate version contained such a termination clause before the conference, all involved agree.

“It’s truly a mystery to me,” Ms. Collins said.

It's no longer a mystery. According to the Times, the provision was placed in the bill by Congressional staffers working for Duncan Hunter, the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee (who recently announced he’s running for president in 2008).

“I just can’t see how one can look at this change without believing it’s political,” Rep. Henry Waxman told the Times.

November 2, 2006

It Depends on What the Definition of "Victory" Is

Via the folks at PRWatch, a fascinating tidbit about what might be behind the administration's baffling confidence that things will work out just fine in Iraq:

The theme of "victory" was chosen, in fact, at the advice of Peter D. Feaver, a Duke University political scientist who had joined the National Security Council as a special adviser. Feaver's research at Duke focused on a problem he called "casualty aversion" or "casualty phobia" - his terms for the negative attitudes that Americans develop upon seeing their soldiers killed in war. He had analyzed opinion polls showing that public support for the war was slipping. Conventional wisdom suggested that the growing death toll and economic costs of the war were the reasons for the change in public opinion, but Feaver believed that this was only part of the story. According to the New York Times, he was recruited by the White House "after he and Duke colleagues presented to administration officials their analysis of polls about the Iraq war in 2003 and 2004. They concluded that Americans would support a war with mounting casualties on one condition: that they believe it would ultimately succeed."

So they may not believe it, but they think we can't handle the truth. Too late, though.

Nevada GOP Candidate Accused of Sexual Assault

Las Vegas police have released tapes of 911 calls from a cocktail waitress and her sister claiming that the Silver State's Republican candidate for governor attacked her in a parking garage off the Strip. The candidate, Rep. Jim Gibbons, is 61, married and in a close race with a Democratic state senator. Those family-values guys sure have a hard time keeping their hands to themselves....

New Tools in the Battle For Fair Elections: Cell Phone Cameras

Aiming to get around the sort of he-said-she-said disputes over election irregularities that plagued Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004—disputes that may well have decided the fate of the last two presidential elections—two different groups will use the text and video capabilities of cell phones this year to monitor the polls.

Video the Vote, a project of independent filmmaker Jim Ennis and elections activist James Rucker, began six weeks ago with the launch of a popular video by the same name on YouTube (see below). Drawing more than 100,000 page views, the film ended with a pitch to participate in a project that combines citizen journalism with something akin to a flash mob. The 670 people who have signed on as volunteers will receive text messages on election day and will rush to polling places where irregularities have been reported and document them with digital video cameras. They will then download the footage and make it available to the public and the media. Rucker says the project was motivated by a perceived lack of media coverage of election irregularities in years past. “It’s all for making sure these stories actually happen,” he told me, “instead of kind of happening a few days later.”

A similar effort was launched today by Veeker (as in video + peek), a web startup that aims to be the YouTube of cell phone videos. Founded by Silicon Valley heavyweights Roger Raderman, creator of iFilm, and Alex Kelly, the former head of new media for 21st Century Fox, Veeker is promoting itself with the activist set through the website veekthevote.com. Cell phone users can email their videos into a searchable database on the site that will serve as a source for election footage. The site has partnered with Youth Noise, a networking group for socially minded young people with 115,000 members, some of whom have volunteered to film any irregularities at the polls with their phones. The goal, says spokesperson Vijay Chattha, is to “get more of a realistic picture of what’s happing out there.”

GOP Rep. Don Sherwood Paid Mistress $500K To Keep Quiet About Abuse Allegations

The AP reports:

A Republican congressman accused of abusing his ex-mistress agreed to pay her about $500,000 in a settlement last year that contained a powerful incentive for her to keep quiet until after Election Day, a person familiar with the terms of the deal told The Associated Press.

Rep. Don Sherwood is locked in a tight re-election race against a Democratic opponent who has seized on the four-term congressman's relationship with the woman. While Sherwood acknowledged the woman was his mistress, he denied abusing her and said that he had settled her $5.5 million lawsuit on confidential terms....

According to a police report, Ore called 911 on her cell phone from the bathroom of Sherwood's Capitol Hill apartment in 2004 and reported that Sherwood had choked her while giving her a back rub. Sherwood admitted having an affair with the woman, but vehemently denied ever hurting her, and criminal charges were never filed. But Ore, now 30, sued for damages.

Whole story after the jump.

Rep. Paying Ex-Mistress About $500K

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM
Associated Press Writer

ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) -- A Republican congressman accused of abusing his ex-mistress agreed to pay her about $500,000 in a settlement last year that contained a powerful incentive for her to keep quiet until after Election Day, a person familiar with the terms of the deal told The Associated Press.

Rep. Don Sherwood is locked in a tight re-election race against a Democratic opponent who has seized on the four-term congressman's relationship with the woman. While Sherwood acknowledged the woman was his mistress, he denied abusing her and said that he had settled her $5.5 million lawsuit on confidential terms.

The settlement, reached in November 2005, called for Cynthia Ore to be paid in installments, according to a person who spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal is confidential. She has received less than half the money so far, and will not get the rest until after the Nov. 7 election, the person said Thursday.

A confidentiality clause requires Ore to forfeit some of the money if she talks publicly about the case, according to this person and two other people familiar with elements of the case.

It is common in settlements for payments to be made in installments and for the parties to be held to confidentiality.

Sherwood admitted no wrongdoing, a standard provision in such agreements, this person said.

Sherwood, a 65-year-old married father of three who is considered a family-values conservative, had one of the safest seats in Congress until Ore sued him in June 2005, alleging he physically abused her throughout their five-year affair.

Reached by telephone Wednesday, the congressman and successful car dealer said: "I can neither confirm nor deny because this was a private settlement. If I'd like to talk to you about it, I can't."

The Associated Press has been trying for months to find out the terms of the settlement.

According to a police report, Ore called 911 on her cell phone from the bathroom of Sherwood's Capitol Hill apartment in 2004 and reported that Sherwood had choked her while giving her a back rub. Sherwood admitted having an affair with the woman, but vehemently denied ever hurting her, and criminal charges were never filed. But Ore, now 30, sued for damages.

Sherwood's challenger, Chris Carney, has hammered the congressman over the affair in TV ads, calling Sherwood a hypocrite who brought "Washington values" to his rural northeastern Pennsylvania district.

Sherwood responded with his own ad, in which he looked directly into the camera and apologized for his conduct. Last month, his wife mailed a letter to voters that accused Carney of "needlessly cruel" campaign tactics.

Although GOP voters greatly outnumber Democrats in his conservative district, many people have said they would not vote for him again because of the affair.

Even before Ore settled, the congressman tried to keep a tight lid on the case. His lawyer asked a judge to prohibit disclosure of materials from the case, warning that Sherwood's opponents might try to use the information to harm him politically.

The lawyer, Bobby Burchfield, was especially adamant that any videotaped deposition of Sherwood not be released, saying the footage could be used against him in negative political ads.

Ore's attorney, Ning Ye of New York, declined to say where she is living now or how she can be reached.

Lifelong Christian GOP Columnist Quits GOP Because of Sen. Allen's Smears

It's not everyday you open up your Dallas Morning News and read this:

"I'm a Christian, a writer, a military parent and a registered Republican. On all those counts, I was disgusted by an e-mail I just received that's being circulated by campaign supporters of Republican George Allen, who's trying to retain his Senate seat in Virginia.

The message goes like this: "First, it was the Catholic priests, then it was Mark Foley, and now Jim Webb, whose sleazy novels discuss sex between very young teenagers. ... Hmmm, sounds like a perverted pedophile to me! Pass the word that we do not need any more pedophiles in office." Democrat James Webb is a war hero and former Marine, wounded in Vietnam and winner of the Navy Cross. He was writing about class and military issues long before me and has articulated the issue of how the elites have dropped the ball on military service in his classic novel Fields of Fire. By the way, that's a book Tom Wolfe calls "the greatest of the Vietnam novels."...

Mr. Webb also happens to be running against a desperate opponent supported by people who circulated the stupid e-mail, something that reminds me of a 2000 smear campaign aimed at another war hero, John McCain.

I never served in the military. It was my son's unexpected volunteering that connects me to the military family and to my country. And I've been voting Republican for years. My late father – Dr. Francis Schaeffer – was an evangelical theologian, friend to Jerry Falwell and White House guest of Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford and the first President Bush. I have nice handwritten letters from various members of the Bush family, including Barbara, thanking me for my books on military service. So I have every reason to stay in the Republicans' good graces. (It's nice to be complimented on television by the First Lady.)

But enough is enough. I've had it with Republican smears."

[Follow the jump. It gets better.]

"The Webb e-mail is the embodiment of the cynical Republican strategists, some of whom must know the difference between fiction and nonfiction. Was Agatha Christie a murderer because she wrote about murder?

According to the Allen camp's logic, God would be a pedophile, too. After all, we Christians believe God inspired the Bible. And God-the-author chose to include the "sleazy" story about Lot offering to send out his young virgin daughters to be raped by the men of Sodom.

The Bible has masturbation scenes, rape, pedophilia and God's favorite man – King David – warming himself with a young virgin in his old age. He's the same man God tells us committed murder after he indulged his peeping Tom fantasies.

Lucky for God-the-author that He's not running against George Allen.

I just got back from a visit to Parris Island and was struck again – as I was on the proud day of my son's boot camp graduation there as a Marine in 1999 – by the moral credibility of the drill instructors and selflessness of the recruits.

Our political leaders should learn from them. In fact, our future leaders should be them. We need to compare today's leaders to those of the past, who earned credibility beyond the reach of cynicism and irony – and cheap smear tactics.

People like Mr. McCain – who is "for" the war in Iraq – and Mr. Webb – who is "against" the war – should be respected no matter one's politics or ideas about the war. Why? Because they paid their dues.

My wife and I have reached the tipping point. We plan to go to town hall to dump our Republican voter registration and reregister as independents. I don't care anymore what party someone is in. These days, what I care about is what they're made of.

Wartime demands leaders with character and moral authority. The political party smearing Mr. Webb proves it has neither."

Frank Schaeffer is the author of "Baby Jack," a novel about Marines. His e-mail address is frank@frankschaeffer.net

Posted by Clara Jeffery on 11/02/06 at 4:50 PM | | Comments (3) |