The Blue State

Sealed Hillary documents will go public after '08 primaries

A public disclosure effort that won't come until after the Democratic nomination is decided.

During Tuesday's debate, Hillary Clinton pledged that as president she would use her policy experience as First Lady to the nation's benefit.  But 3 million pages in the presidential archives about her "experience" are under lock and seal, and will not be released to the public.  Barack Obama confronted Hillary about her inability to level with voters:

We have just gone through one of the most secretive administrations inour history. And not releasing, I think, these records, at the sametime, Hillary, as you are making the claim this is the basis for yourexperience, I think is a problem.

So, responding to the pressure, Hillary Clinton's campaign has decided this weekend that they will make the records public after all -- but not at least until after the contests in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina:

The Clinton library is readying a trove of detail about Hillary RodhamClinton's eight years as first lady in the White House for release inlate January, government lawyers said in a court filing.

But Bill Clinton's lawyer will have the final say on whether 10,000pages of Hillary Clinton's private White House "daily schedules" willbe immediately released to the groups who requested her calendar underthe Freedom of Information Act.

Even so, the documents appear likely to become public within a month oftheir release by the archives, as the general election heats up inFebruary.

This way, Hillary can answer to her opposition and say, "Stop complaining, because they will be released."  Even though this is after the 2008 Democratic nomination will be decided.

Postal Service and State Department gouged Americans on passport fees

And I thought getting a passport was a pain.  This is worse:

Sens. Byron Dorgan , D-N.D., and Charles Schumer,D-N.Y., said the State Department and Postal Service quietly gougedU.S. citizens over the government's $97 passport fees, even as newanti-terrorism laws require more travelers to carry passports. They areasking the Bush administration for an accounting of where the passportprofits go.

Over the past year, as the government issued nearly 14 million newpassports, it collected at least $111.4 million more in passport feesthan its stated costs, according to calculations by The AssociatedPress based on figures from State Department and congressionalinvestigators.

Good thing I got mine back in 2004.

Spreading democracy, or exporting K-Street?

Until now, few among the traditional press have mustered up the courage to ask what we are truly exporting abroad?  Is it genuine democracy?  Or is it someone's sick and twisted version of what democracy means to them?

One thing is for sure: if Robert Blackwill has his way, Baghdad will be the new K-Street:

In the spring of 2004, Robert D. Blackwill, then the influential Iraq director on the National Security Council, pushed hard to make Ayad Allawi , a tough, secular Shiite with close ties to the Central Intelligence Agency , the interim prime minister of Iraq.

Mr. Blackwill’s efforts worked. For the next 10 months, until Mr.Allawi’s party lost in the Iraqi elections, he was the first primeminister of the newly sovereign nation — America’s man in Baghdad.

Now,a little more than three years later, Mr. Blackwill is back in the samebusiness: pushing hard to make Mr. Allawi prime minister of Iraq again.But this time, Mr. Blackwill’s powerful lobbying firm, Barbour Griffith& Rogers, is receiving $300,000 from Mr. Allawi for his work.

It took Washington 218 years before it was completely taken over by lobbyists.  Thanks to Blackwill, if Allawi gets elected, the "democracy" in Baghdad will take less than three.

There is a clear difference between representative democracy and cronyism.

Democratic House a failure -- except Henry Waxman

No Democrat in the House of Representatives deserves reelection in 2008 more than Congressman Henry Waxman (D-CA).  When voters elected Democrats to end the war and investigate the Bush Administration, Waxman was one of the few lawmakers that listened and acted.  He chairs the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

In the last few days, Waxman has worked overtime on the issue of contractors, and has the White House worried:

For months, Rep. Henry  A. Waxman, chairman of the House oversight committee, has been threatening, subpoenaing and just plain badgering Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice  to come before his panel to answer questions about the run-up to the Iraq  war, corruption and State Department  contracting.

Today, Rice will finally appear. But Waxman (D-Calif.) has not spentthe week on a victory lap. He has found time to produce evidenceaccusing State Department security contractor Blackwater Worldwide of tax evasion, to fire off a letter to Rice demandinginformation about alleged mismanagement of a $1 billion contract totrain Iraqi police , and to hold a hearing on uranium poisoning on Navajo land.

Waxman has become the Bush administration's worst nightmare: a Democratin the majority with subpoena power and the inclination to overturnrocks. But in Waxman the White House also faces an indefatigable capital veteran -- with a staff renownedfor its depth and experience -- who has been waiting for this for 14years.

Now that is called answering the call of fed up voters!

US reliance on contractors quadrupled over last four years

War is profitable, and the State Department is making it happen.

Over the past four years, the amount of money the State Department paysto private security and law enforcement contractors has soared tonearly $4 billion a year from $1 billion, administration officials saidTuesday, but they said that the department had added few new officialsto oversee the contracts.

It was the first time that the administration had outlined theballooning scope of the contracts, and it provided a new indication ofhow the State Department’s efforts to monitor private companies had notkept pace. Auditors and outside exerts say the results have been vastcost overruns, poor contract performance and, in some cases, violencethat has so far gone unpunished.

It's like a two-for-one deal for the neocons.  By not reinstating the draft to provide for the needed security, they keep the American public detached from the war.  By getting contractors to do the job instead, money is to be made, and lawmakers are lobbied by those companies to keep the war going to the President's liking.

State Department allowing contractors to run amok

The State Department is tasked with the job of overseeing and auditing the work of private contractors in Iraq.  But according to an internal report recently submitted to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, her department is not performing sufficient oversight of contractors such as Blackwater and DynCorp:

A State Department review of its own security practices in Iraqassails the department for poor coordination, communication, oversightand accountability involving armed security companies like Blackwater USA ,according to people who have been briefed on the report. In addition toBlackwater, the State Department’s two other security contractors inIraq are DynCorp International and Triple Canopy.

At the sametime, a government audit expected to be released Tuesday says thatrecords documenting the work of DynCorp, the State Department’s largestcontractor, are in such disarray that the department cannot say“specifically what it received” for most of the $1.2 billion it haspaid the company since 2004 to train the police officers in Iraq.

...in presenting its recommendations to Ms. Rice in a 45-minute briefingon Monday, the four-member panel found serious fault with virtuallyevery aspect of the department’s security practices, especially in andaround Baghdad, where Blackwater has responsibility.

So much for oversight.  Remember, Blackwater is a company that may have committed tax evasion.  Yet, Condoleezza Rice's State Department just sits there and allows companies like Blackwater to do whatever they want.

Anti-contraception activist now in charge of government contraception programs

In just the first two years of this Administration, Bush appointed 100 former industry lobbyists and lawyers to become government regulators.  That is our energy policy in a nutshell.  The same thing is being done on the issue of contraception:

The Department of Health and Human Services appointed Susan Orr — who has spoken out against contraception — to a post responsible for U.S. contraception programs.

Orr, who will be acting deputy assistant secretary for populationaffairs, has been directing child welfare programs in another branch ofHHS. Prior to joining the Bush administration, Orr was senior directorfor marriage and family at the Family Research Council, a conservativegroup that favors abstinence-only education and opposes federal moneyfor contraception.

In 2001, she was quoted in the Washington Post favoring a Bushadministration plan to drop a requirement that health insurance plansfor federal employees cover a broad range of birth control.

Opposing government money for contraception is the same thing as opposing money for disease prevention and reducing teen pregnancy.

Senator Craig inducted into Idaho Hall of Fame -- NO JOKE!

Even though there has been an influx of new Democratic voters to Idaho over the last few years, this weekend the state's political establishment once again displayed its backwardness.  Late last night, Senator Larry Craig, who plead guilty on charges of lewd conduct with an undercover male cop in a men's bathroom, was inducted into the Idaho Hall of Fame:

Sen. Larry Craig was named Saturday night to the Idaho Hall of Fame,marking the Republican lawmaker's first ceremonial appearance back inhis home state since his arrest in an airport bathroom sex sting becamepublic in August.

Craig, 62, seated near the front of the banquetroom, received polite applause and a few encouraging hoots when he wasintroduced.

"I hope in a very sincere way that the attentionthat's been brought to me has not lessened the honor you receive,"Craig told the other nominees and about 200 people who attended thedinner.

Oh yeah, it helps a lot -- for the Democrats!

Guest Column: Making Our Restrooms Safe for Democracy

By Paul Rogat Loeb

It isn't often that a Senator changes how I see the physical world,but Larry Craig did. Connecting through the Minneapolis airport for thefirst time since his arrest, I had to use the facilities, and wondered,"Is this the one?" They should put up a plaque. Or name it the LarryCraig Memorial Men's Room. After sitting down, I became hyper-aware ofmy surroundings, now that I knew the secret foot-tapping codes. Notwanting to inadvertently create an incident, I kept looking at thesides of the stalls and worrying that if I sat slightly too widely, thevice cops would come charging in.

Then I realized that I'dhave to sit painfully widely to reach someone else's stall. And withoutgorilla arms, it would take a contortionist to reach beneath thedivider accidentally. With my newfound awareness, I've noticed the samein other restrooms as well. In fact, in three decades of flying andusing airport men's rooms, no one has ever reached under my stall.Reassured, I'm now able to do my business as usual and head off for myflights.

I do want the problem to be solved, however, sinceour restrooms need to be made safe for democracy. I hear theMinneapolis airport is now stepping up to the task by overhauling thesuspect men's room stalls, spending $25,000 to install extended metaldividers that will shave nine inches off the current foot-high gap. ButI have a cheaper solution: Why not just place some stickers saying "NoRepublican Senators?" That would solve the problem.

Paul Rogat Loeb is the author of The Impossible Will Take a Little Whileand Soul of a Citizen. See www.paulloeb.org

CIA auditor being investigated by CIA

John helgerson, who headed an aggressive investigation into the CIA's detention tactics, is being investigated by his own agency:

The director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Gen. Michael V. Hayden ,has ordered an unusual internal inquiry into the work of the agency’sinspector general, whose aggressive investigations of the C.I.A.’sdetention and interrogation programs and other matters have createdresentment among agency operatives.       

A small team workingfor General Hayden is looking into the conduct of the agency’s watchdogoffice, which is led by Inspector General John L. Helgerson. Currentand former government officials said the review had caused anxiety andanger in Mr. Helgerson’s office and aroused concern on Capitol Hillthat it posed a conflict of interest.

So much for legitimate internal watchdogs.