The Daily MuckNext stop, the Senate. The Senate leadership is expected to bring a vote on ethics reform this afternoon, which, if passed, would leave only a Presidential signature to make reform official. (USA TODAY)
Chiquita Banana has been in trouble recently for hiring a Columbian paramilitary group -identified by the U.S. government as a terrorist organization – to provide protection for the company. Chiquita has argued that, though they knew their actions were illegal, they would be unable to operate in Columbia without local protection. They are now justifying the decision by pointing to a series of meetings with government officials, including Michael Chertoff, that led Chiquita executives to believe the government would allow them to continue paying the paramilitaries. Chertoff allegedly sympathized with the position of Chiquita execs and told them he would inquire on the issue and get back to them, but never did, which the company took as de facto approval. (Washington Post)
Executive privilege! Are there two sweeter words in the English language? Not for Karl Rove, who got the OK from President Bush not to testify in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee today over last year’s firing of U.S. Attorneys. (McClatchy Newspapers)
Despite the administration’s pledge to increase the number of contracts awarded to small business for Katrina-related projects, a new congressional analysis finds that percentage of such firms represented in contracting has dropped from 12% to 7% of all those awarded. In addition, the report found that $95 million in contracts that the government claimed were awarded to small businesses were actually awarded to large companies or were ineligible receipts. (USA TODAY)
The Department of Homeland Security has spent close to $2 billion building a system to monitor the travel records of foreigners. Unfortunately, as the GAO pointed out yesterday, the computer system is very vulnerable to manipulation, meaning outsiders would have little problem erasing, modifying or copying information about travelers. (NY Times)
The GAO reported yesterday that the Pentagon accidentally sold to the public around 14,000 parts that could be used on F-14 fighter jets. Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about the parts working their way into the wrong hands, because no nation continues to fly F-14s. Well, no nation except Iran. (USA TODAY)
Today, Time Magazine takes a crack at the question of why Bush simply cannot fire his Attorney General. (Time)
Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) comes up for reelection next year. But even though its been five years, many Democrats haven’t forgotten the phone scandal, sponsored by local Republicans, that tied up the lines of Sununu’s opponent and, according to critics, won him the election. Regardless of his involvement, that scandal is now one of the leading motivations for local Democrats to win the Senate seat back. (The Politico)
The Defense Department’s black budget -a classified source used to fund all means of covert security- will continue its expensive spending trends. The budget request this year, which is neither publicized nor even made available to all members of Congress, is expected to be around $32 billion, on par with the last two years. (ABC’s The Blotter)
