US: Syria backs foreign fighters in Iraq
Despite increased counterterrorism efforts by Damascus, as much as 90 percent of the foreign fighters in Iraq cross the border from Syria, according to a Pentagon report that says Iran’s support for Shiite militants also is hurting efforts to ‘improve’ Iraq security.

Iraq piling up oil revenue, but U.S. still pays the bills
Iraq isn’t spending much of its own money, despite soaring oil revenues that are pushing the country toward a massive budget surplus, auditors told Congress today. The expected surplus comes as the U.S. continues to invest billions of dollars in ‘rebuilding’ Iraq and faces a financial squeeze domestically because of record oil prices.

Cheney says US needs missile defense
WASHINGTON - Borrowing a theme from the presidential contest, Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday that the possibility of a 3 a.m. emergency call to the White House is all the more reason for the next commander in chief to follow through on President Bush’s plans for a national missile defense.

Federal employee opens letter containing powder, threat to Bush
There was no anthrax or any other dangerous substance in an envelope that was opened Monday in an office at the federal building in downtown Fort Worth, officials said. The letter did, however, contain a threat to the president of the United States, and it also warned that anthrax was enclosed, officials said. Some powder fell out of the letter, but a subsequent field test indicated it was harmless.

HUD E-Mails Refer to Retaliation
After Philadelphia’s housing director refused a demand by President Bush’s housing secretary to transfer a piece of city property to a business friend, two top political appointees at the department exchanged e-mails discussing the pain they could cause the Philadelphia director. “Would you like me to make his life less happy? If so, how?” Orlando J. Cabrera, then-assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, wrote about Philadelphia housing director Carl R. Greene. “Take away all of his Federal dollars?” responded Kim Kendrick, an assistant secretary who oversaw accessible housing. She typed symbols for a smiley-face, “:-D,” at the end of her January 2007 note. Cabrera wrote back a few minutes later: “Let me look into that possibility.”
Welcome to Republican administration tactics.

Air Force changed tanker contract to aid rival, Boeing says in filing protest
WASHINGTON — The Air Force made last-minute changes in the competition for a $35 billion aerial-refueling tanker contract to ensure that a team using a European-built plane would compete, top Boeing Co. officials said Tuesday as the company challenged the deal. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, facing tough questioning on Capitol Hill, defended the contract awarded to Northrop Grumman and European Aerospace Defense and Space Co., saying the competition was fair, open and complied with all federal procurement regulations. EADS is the parent company of Airbus, Boeing’s chief rival in the commercial airline industry.

McCain advisers lobbied against Boeing in tanker deal he refereed
WASHINGTON — Top current advisers to Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign last year lobbied for a European plane maker that beat Boeing to a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract, taking sides in a bidding fight that McCain has tried to referee for more than five years.

Ashcroft defends no-bid contract with Justice Department
WASHINGTON — Former Attorney General John Ashcroft on Tuesday denied receiving “a backroom, sweetheart deal” after getting a multimillion-dollar contract aided by the Justice Department… Christopher Christie, the U.S. attorney in New Jersey and a former employee of Ashcroft when he ran the department, recommended Ashcroft for the contract.

KBR forces its towels on U.S. troops. (Think Progress)
In a hearing [Tuesday] on waste, fraud, and abuse in Iraq, Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said the defense contractor KBR, formerly of Halliburton, has been stamping its logo on towels given to U.S. troops. Dorgan said a contractor told him that he ordered plain white towels for troops, but the “superviser” said the towels must have the KBR logo on them — despite the cost to taxpayers.
Click through to watch the video.

Hospitals file lawsuit over Medicaid
WASHINGTON - Groups representing most of the nation’s hospitals announced Tuesday they were suing federal health officials to block the enactment of regulations that some hospitals claim threaten their survival.

Afghan detainee to appear in Gitmo court
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba - Former Army Sgt. 1st Class Christopher Martin says an Afghan who allegedly wounded him, another soldier and an interpreter in a grenade attack in Kabul should never be let out of U.S. military custody.
I know it’s old fashioned, but wouldn’t it be a good idea to find out if the Afghan is guilty before we jail him for life?

Gitmo detainees allowed phone calls
GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba — The U.S. military said Tuesday that it will allow detainees to make regular phone calls to their families from Guantanamo Bay prison, where many have been confined in extreme isolation for as long as six years. The new policy by the Defense Department, which previously said security concerns prevented such calls, is part of a strategy to ease conditions for frustrated prisoners at the U.S. Navy base in southeast Cuba.

Spitzer tripped up on laws he enforced
Eliot Spitzer knew how to catch bad guys by following the money. As attorney general, he once broke up a call-girl ring and locked up 18 people on corruption, money-laundering and prostitution charges.

Officials: Spitzer’s sex cost $80,000
ALBANY, N.Y. — With pressure mounting on Gov. Eliot Spitzer to resign over a call-girl scandal, investigators said yesterday he was clearly a repeat customer who spent tens of thousands of dollars — perhaps as much as $80,000 — with the high-priced prostitution service over an extended period of time.
Spitzer’s not rich.  His whole career has been in public service.  Where did he get that kind of money for hookers?

NY Republicans threaten to impeach Gov. Spitzer
New York state Republicans threatened on Tuesday to impeach Gov. Eliot Spitzer if he does not quit over a sex scandal that has raised questions over whether he could face criminal charges.
Lori, at Citizens for Legitimate Government, says: “Democrats are impeached (or threatened with impeachment) for illegal sex; Republicans are re-installed for their illegal sex, illegal wars, illegal wiretapping, torture, torching of the Constitution, destroying the environment, eradicating endangered species and tanking the economy.”

AG Mukasey Aware of Spitzer Investigation
Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s role in a prostitution scandal grew out of a public corruption inquiry triggered by his movement of large amounts of cash from several bank accounts to one that operated by a call-girl ring, a law enforcement official said Tuesday. Spitzer was the initial target of the investigation and was tracked using court-ordered wiretaps that appear to have recorded him arranging for a prostitute to meet him at a Washington hotel in mid-February, the official said.

Republicans uphold Bush veto of anti-torture bill
President George W. Bush’s fellow Republicans in Congress on Tuesday upheld his veto of a bill to ban the CIA from subjecting enemy prisoners to interrogation methods denounced by critics as torture. A largely party-line vote of 225-188 in the Democratic-led House of Representatives fell short of the needed two-thirds majority to override the president.

International outrage as ’shameful’ Bush refuses to ban CIA torture
George Bush caused international outrage last night after refusing to ban torture by the CIA. The President [sic] announced on Saturday that he had blocked a bill which would have outlawed simulated drowning and other torture methods. Snubbing advice from 43 retired military chiefs and admirals and 18 national security advisers, Mr Bush refused to tie the hands of interrogators, claiming the tactics helped foil terror plots.

Bush officials won’t testify on signing statement. (Think Progress)
CongressDaily reports that “senior administration officials” refused “invitations to testify today during a House Armed Services Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearing examining President Bush’s signing statement on the FY08 defense authorization bill.” Bush’s signing statement waived provisions that would ban permanent bases in Iraq and create a wartime contracting oversight commission.

House Steers its own Path on Wiretaps
In continued defiance of the White House, House Democratic leaders are readying a proposal that would reject giving legal protection to the phone companies that helped in the National Security Agency’s program of wiretapping without warrants after the Sept. 11 attacks, Congressional officials said Monday.

AP water probe prompts Senate hearings
Two veteran U.S. senators said they plan to hold hearings in response to an Associated Press investigation into the presence of ‘trace’ amounts of pharmaceuticals in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans.

House Steers Its Own Path on Wiretaps
WASHINGTON — In continued defiance of the White House, House Democratic leaders are readying a proposal that would reject giving legal protection to the phone companies that helped in the National Security Agency’s program of wiretapping without warrants after the Sept. 11 attacks, Congressional officials said Monday. Instead of blanket immunity, the tentative proposal would give the federal courts special authorization to hear classified evidence and decide whether the phone companies should be held liable. House Democrats have been working out the details of their proposal in the last few days, officials said, and expect to take it to the House floor for a vote on Thursday. The Democrats’ proposal would fall far short of what the White House has been seeking.
Yes, well, the Democrats would have to choose the judges.  There are so many judges now, especially in DC, who are so throroughly politicized that they will give the (Republican) administration whatever it wants.

CREW CALLS INDEPENDENT ETHICS OFFICE SIMPLY A PAPER TIGER
11 Mar 2008 // Washington, DC - In response to the ethics bill passed late tonight by the House of Representatives, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) executive director Melanie Sloan released the following statement: “We are skeptical of the latest so-called ethics reform measure. Given the pathetic performance of the Ethics Committee over the past decade we have advocated for the creation of a new, independent ethics office. Nevertheless, without subpoena power or the ability to consider complaints filed by anyone other than members of Congress, this new office, like the Ethics Committee itself, promises to be nothing more than a paper tiger. Rather than providing for the vigorous enforcement of ethics rules, the House merely has created a new layer of bureaucracy to insulate members from the consequences of their unethical activities. When the American public realizes there are no teeth behind this latest reform effort, confidence in Congress will be further eroded, the cynics will claim victory and we will be no closer to the goal of a cleaner Congress than we were at the beginning of the ‘cleanest Congress in history.’ “

Rulings on judge complaints to be public
WASHINGTON - Federal judges agreed Tuesday to grant the public more access to cases in which judges are disciplined by their colleagues.

Bush says 2008 politics no factor in war
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - President Bush on Tuesday sought to firmly plant Iraq back in the American consciousness and reassert his role as the one who will shape the war ahead.

Obama says Ferraro dividing Democrats
WASHINGTON - Barack Obama assailed as “slice and dice” politics Geraldine Ferraro’s assertion that he wouldn’t be where he is in the presidential race if he weren’t black.

Clinton disagrees with Ferraro on Obama
HARRISBURG, Pa. - Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday she disagrees with Geraldine Ferraro, one of her fundraisers and the 1984 Democratic vice presidential candidate, for saying that Barack Obama “would not be in this position” if he were white instead of black.
Well, I DO agree with Ferraro.  There’s no way a woman or a white male would have been allowed to get so far on so thin a resume.

Geraldine Ferraro defends remarks about Obama
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro on Wednesday stood by her comment that Democrat Barack Obama is only where he is because he is black and said the reaction by his campaign was dividing the party. 

Obama wins Mississippi Democratic race
WASHINGTON - With a six-week breather before the next primary, Hillary Rodham Clinton turned her attention to Pennsylvania and beyond to counter the latest in a string of victories by Barack Obama in Southern states with large black voting blocs.
Call me crazy for asking, but exactly how many Electoral College votes will Democrats be getting from Mississippi in November?  And how many from Wyoming?

Obama gets scant white support in MS
Whites largely shunned Barack Obama in Mississippi’s Democratic presidential primary on Tuesday as the Deep South showed once again its reluctance to embrace him across racial lines.

Fla. Dems settle on new plan for vote-by-mail primary
WASHINGTON — Facing tight deadlines for a do-over election, Florida Democrats are rushing to deliver to the national party as soon as Thursday a plan to vote again in the presidential primary — this time, by mail. If approved, ballots could start going out to voters in April. Though the election-by-mail plan has its detractors, state Democrats say they’re under a time crunch to complete voting by June 10 — the Democratic National Committee’s deadline for allocating delegates. Submitting the plan now will start a 30-day public-comment clock that would end in time for ballots to be sent out mid April.