The Daily Muck

Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Though former president Bill Clinton accompanied Canadian mining financier Frank Giustra to Kazakhstan on Giustra’s private jet, accompanied him to a meeting with that nation’s repressive president, received a $31 million donation from Giustra for his charitable foundation and a pledge for $100 million to William J. Clinton Foundation, Clinton claims he did nothing to help Giustra ink a mining deal with the Kazakhstan president that is worth tens of millions of dollars. Clinton’s spokesperson said there was “no discussion” of the deal when the two met with the Kazakhstan president. (New York Times)

President Bush acted swiftly after championing clean coal technology at the State of the Union address Monday. Within 24 hours, Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodmean decided to shelve the FutureGen project – “the cleanest fossil fuel powered plant in the world” – possibly because an Illinois site was chosen over one in Texas. Senator Durbin (D-IL) noted that “In 25 years on Capitol Hill, I have never witnessed such a cruel deception.” (Think Progress)

Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has requested that former Attorney General John Ashcroft testify at a hearing next month that will look into the hiring of former government officials as monitors in settlements between corporations and the government. Ashcroft recently received a contract worth between $28 million and $52 million to monitor a settlement involving Zimmer Holdings Inc. (New York Times

A federal judge ruled yesterday that the Army Corps of Engineers is immune to a class action lawsuit over a levee breach in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. The judge said that although the Army Corps “squandered millions of dollars in building a levee system” that “was known to be inadequate by the corps’ own calculations”, the Flood Control Act of 1928 made the government immune from such lawsuits. (New York Times)

In its continuing series, “The Other Walter Reed,” The Washington Post reveals the personal tragedies behind the the now record number of soldier suicides of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and the Army’s lack of preparedness for both suicide prevention and the treatment of post-traumatic stress. Suicides among active-duty soldiers in 2007 reached their highest level since the Army began keeping such records in 1980, according to a draft internal study obtained by The Washington Post. The New England Journal of Medicine is releasing a study today that raises similar concerns: one in six combat soldiers are returning from war with at least one concussion, an injury that increases the risk of post-traumatic stress. (Washington Post, New York Times)

New rules passed last September governing Congressional lobbyists do not cover lobbyist-organized fundraisers. As long as lobbyists don’t exceed donation limits, they can still underwrite events at their own properties – including lobbyist-owned townhouses on Capitol Hill. (USA Today)

In a meeting with representatives from private security contracting companies at the Pentagon yesterday, the Bush administration presented new and stricter rules governing security contractors in Iraq. Few details have been released from the meeting. (AP)

Latest Muckraker
Comments
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Associate Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: