Oh oh

Someone needs a new grand jury.

Special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald said in court filings that the ongoing CIA leak investigation will involve proceedings before a new grand jury, a possible sign he could seek new charges in the case.

In filings obtained by Reuters on Friday, Fitzgerald said "the investigation is continuing" and that "the investigation will involve proceedings before a different grand jury than the grand jury which returned the indictment" against Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

[...]

Earlier this week Washington Post journalist Bob Woodward disclosed that he testified under oath to Fitzgerald that a senior Bush administration official had casually told him in mid-June 2003 about CIA operative Valerie Plame's position at the agency.

Fitzgerald's comments about bringing proceedings before a different grand jury were contained in court filings in which he backed off seeking a blanket order to keep all documents in the CIA leak case secret.

TortureIsNotUs.org

Check it out.

How low can he go

34 percent!

President Bush's positive job rating continues to fall, touching another new low for his presidency, the latest Harris Interactive poll finds.

Bush's current job approval rating stands at 34%, compared with a positive rating of 88% soon after 9/11, 50% at this time last year, and 40% in August.

[...]

Vice President Dick Cheney's approval ratings slipped to 30% this month from 35% in August, while Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld's approval ratings dropped to 34% from 40% and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's approval ratings fell to 52% from 57%, according to the poll.

At the same time, only a quarter of Americans polled give Democrats a positive rating in the latest poll, compared with 31% in August, while Republicans' approval ratings fell to 27% from 32%.

Mr. Bush's current ratings don't compare favorably with those of three of the last four two-term presidents at a comparable time in their fifth year in office. In November or October of their fifth year, Presidents Johnson (67%), Reagan (66%) and Clinton (58%) all enjoyed the support of majorities, while President Nixon. (29%) was less popular than Mr. Bush is now.

More bodies being found in New Orleans

Seems like the government stopped the search for bodies too early in New Orleans. I wonder if the feds would of stopped the search if the people who died weren't so poor and black.

From CNN

You know, it's hard to imagine anything worse than coming back to your home in New Orleans and finding it completely destroyed. But, tonight, as you're about to hear, there is something worse, much worse. Dozens of families have returned to what is left of their homes and found, lying amidst the mold and the wreckage, a body, forgotten, abandoned. Maybe it's their mother or their grandmother, sometimes even their missing child.

The state called off searching house to house in New Orleans well over a month ago. They said they completed the job.
SNIP
There was no joy for Paul Murphy (ph) in this homecoming. When he walked into his house in New Orleans' Ninth Ward last month for the first time since Katrina, it was shock and anger.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, I'm thinking that, OK, I was going to come and salvage a few pictures or something. And I walk in here. I found my grandma on the floor dead.

DORNIN: Since November 1, 10 bodies have been found in the ruins of the Ninth Ward. The last area, known as the Lower Ninth, will open to residents December 1. Coroner Frank Minyard worries about what people will find.

(on camera): You're fully expecting that more bodies will come in once they open the Ninth Ward?

FRANK MINYARD, ORLEANS PARISH CORONER: Yes. And I think it's -- it's going to come in for a good while. There's so much rubbish around that they might find people in the rubbish. DORNIN (voice-over): They already have. And there are still many bodies left unidentified and unclaimed.
SNIP
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) COOPER: You warned us October 3. When the state stopped house- to-house searching for -- for -- for the deceased, you said, it was a bad idea, that there were more people out there. Now the death toll, it turns out, has jumped by 104. And -- and families are returning to find the bodies of their loved ones still in their homes. How does -- it's got to infuriate you.

JACK STEPHENS, SAINT BERNARD PARISH SHERIFF: Well, you know, you just wonder what provoked that decision.

A month ago, we were still very much in the midst of a -- of a crisis. And the National Guard was conducting the house-to-house searches. And if you go through, Anderson, the neighborhoods right now that were searched then, a lot of them bear the mark of "N.E.," which means no entry.

I was always under the impression that there would be a hard- target search at some point following that to determine whether or not there were any casualties left in those dwellings. As of right now -- in fact, the day before yesterday, in my own jurisdiction, a family came home to discover a family member who had been reported missing.

COOPER: Oh, my God.

STEPHENS: It was a horrible -- it was a gruesome sight. Very -- and again, people don't deserve any more grief and pain than they're going through right now. I mean, this whole process has been so excruciatingly screwed up and slow that, I mean, you're starting to feel a real sense of anger and hostility on the part of people locally and, my God, it's well-deserved.

Was Kanye right?

Dubya gone crazy

We have three more years of this?

Quick, lock up the liquor cabinet before it's too late

Ernest Newton era is over

Bridgeport City Councilor Ed Gomes wins Newton's Senate seat.

Great movie

A movie everyone should go and see.

Will Bush campaign for Shays and Simmons

With the President's approval numbers freefalling, you can bet Deomcratic challengers Diane Farrell and Joe Courtney hope President Bush will come to Connecticut and campaign for Rob Simmons and Chris Shays.

From The Hartford Courant

Rob Simmons, like many of his vulnerable GOP congressional colleagues, is likely to spend the next year trying to make voters forget he's a Republican.

"If voters make a partisan choice," he said, "I lose."

The 2nd District U.S. representative is one of the national Democratic Party's top 2006 targets, along with about two dozen other GOP House members.

To win - and keep the GOP in control of the House - Simmons and other vulnerable Republicans will have to peddle their independence and their service to their districts, and make people forget their ties to the White House and GOP congressional leaders.

"Rob Simmons' race is the prototype for so many Republicans in swing districts," said Amy Walter, a Washington political analyst who specializes in House races. "He has to say to constituents: `Look at me. You like me, remember?"'

He's a prototype because of his record - somewhat loyal to GOP leaders, but not entirely - and the nature of his district. Simmons has routinely accepted campaign cash from former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and he remains a strong backer of the Iraq war. But he was quick to question President Bush's Social Security reforms earlier this year, and he has a strong environmental record.

Simmons has won three close elections in a district that Bush lost last year to Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry by 10 percentage points and to Al Gore by 14 in 2000. For 26 years, until Simmons won in 2000, the district was represented by Democratic Party icons Christopher J. Dodd and then Sam Gejdenson.

Republicans today have a 29-seat majority in the House and a 10-seat advantage in the Senate. To win back control, Democrats plan to throw lots of ads and workers into swing districts like the one Simmons represents, making it harder for Simmons to ignore his own party label.

If 2006 erupts into a nationwide protest against Bush and the Republicans, Democrats are confident Simmons and the other shaky GOP members of Congress will probably lose, and a lot of Republicans agree.

"For the first time, people are genuinely angry with this president," said GOP pollster Frank Luntz. He, as well as independent polls, finds voters across the country are increasingly upset about the Iraq war, unhappy about Bush's handling of this year's Gulf Coast hurricanes and dismayed by White House scandals.

Being seen next to the President Bush nowadays is like the kiss of death for Republicans incumbants and challengers right now and you can be sure that the Democrats will do everything in their power to link Bush up with Shays, Simmons over the next year.