Cinnamonape,

$400,000 for the actual research, $3,000,000 profit for well-connected beltway bandits.

It’s an old story. I mean, who could object to such important research during A Time Of War?

Once you get hooked on the fear they’re selling, then you’ll pay them anything to make it go away.

Damn the pusherman!

Didn’t read the entire thread, but here’s my Q on last night’s debate. It seems to me, on reflection, that the ‘librul’ CNN went out of its way to choose Qs to make the Rs seem like “gun fetishists, flat worlders, Mars Explorers, Confederate flag lovers and zombie-eyed-Bible-wavers” to quote KDrum. Agree? Disagree?

I didn’t see all of the debate, but I don’t understand why Repubs would be upset with this. Aren’t those people their base? Aren’t these the special interest groups they’ve been courting forever?

The only people left out were the uber-Rich and they wouldn’t appear in a debate like that anyway.

Ed*ard Teller @ 116

I’m up early to write an exam, grade some essays and write an article about the new poll showing Diane Benson creaming Don Young.

Ok, that’s a happy reason to be awake! Blue Alaska, Blue Virginia…etc etc

Fantastic!

…
Did you see Romney trash Edwards for his ‘2 Americas’ theme. Romney (paraphrased) “How dare he say that there are 2 Americas. This is one country, united, and we don’t need such divisive remarks” Very Rove-like.

I guess he would rather not look at the racial divide, the economic divide, voters v. non-voters or any other division in America. Maybe where he just doesn’t get it.

james @ 137

As a former NYPD captain I can state categorically that Rudy’s security detail consisted of supervisors and detectives from the NYPD Intelligence Division which falls under the Police Commissioner’s Office on the org chart. Their overtime requests were processed through the NYPD’s Payroll Management System coded for the PD.

Any other charges to other agencies were improper and were specifically designed to avoid shedding light on his extramarital affair.

Thanks james! What are the odds that someone from within the Department will blow this wide open in the next few days. It would seem to me that these folks couldn’t have done this financial juggling internally via the Department. Yet the blame seems to be directed that way. But that’s ridiculous. The NYPD accountants couldn’t have shifted the accounts without an order from above.

Only the security detail, his drivers, or Guiliani’s inner staff would have known what Rudy was doing here. That means the ones to shift the accounts had to be done by the Mayor’s Office.

I expect someone in the NYPD to come out on this. The signatures of the security team are likely there on the credit card transactions for gas and hotels. Requests for reimbursements. And their duty logs on the days of the weekend trysts. And we’ll find out what that trip down to Florida was all about, as well.

Rudy better get his “Omerta” team up to NYC right away with lots of flash!

For the love of Judy. And none of the department heads where the expenses were shifted ever asked, ” Hey mayor what is this?” Just not believable. At least we know RudyCo is ready to take over for BushCo, with the same level of competence

RickinSF @ 180

I read somewhere that he was a pilot in the RAF during WWII. Also, trying to explain “Mr. Whipple’s” cultural signifigance to my 14-year old made me feel like my dad must’ve felt explaining Sinatra to me at the same age.

Don’t know about the RAF, Rick, we mostly talked showbiz. Explaining who Mr. Whipple is to my 24 yr. old will probably be just as problematic unless she’s seen him on VH1’s I Love the 60s,70s,80s etc. shows…

Here’s Wiki on Dickie!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Wilson

Yes, Royal (Canadian) Air Force…during WW2. Shot down Stukas, apparently!

I think my favorite quote so far is from New York Rep. Peter King via Faux News:

“The mayor did absolutely nothing improper.”

Cheating on your spouse isn’t improper? Must be more of that famous GOP morality.

He should tell THAT to his own wife. “Don’t worry, Joan. I’m just like Rudy…I won’t do anything improper!”

cinnamonape @ 170

I’m sure the CIA has analysts doing just this sort of work.

hahaha. turns out they weren’t. robert pape (u of chicago) found that out when he did his initial research.

I know they weren’t before the invasion. Bush simply said he wasn’t interested in the internal complexities of Iraqi politics…it was just a bunch of opinions with people disagreeing, according to him.

But I think the CIA started doing something like this afterwards (when it was really too late). Recall the infamous leaked National Intelligence Estimate of last year that excoriated those who “planned” the invasion for actually fostering conditions for at least the next ten years conducive to the expansion of terrorism.

I’ll look up Pape’s study though, sound’s interesting.

Cinnamonape,

$400,000 for the actual research, $3,000,000 profit for well-connected beltway bandits.

It’s an old story. I mean, who could object to such important research during A Time Of War?

Agreed, it smells as if it’s simply a way of giving money away to corporate cronies. Absolutely no oversight. And no examination of qualifications. I don’t think any of those groups have the capacity to do the even do the actual research.

And I hate to say it…the USG wants identities of these possible terrorists and their “facilitators”. The problem is that this would take a lot more than $3.4million as it would require actual on-site intel from within the organization. It would be very dangerous to authentic informants. And it would be subject to being used to pinpoint personal enemies by charlatans…or just giving the contractor “what they want to hear” for cash. There would be no way to doublecheck for a single-sourced set of information. And yet the USGH wants to investigate scores of groups, sects, and legal systems of Islam, etc. The scope is immense in terms of countrys and cultures.

You’ll get nothing for $3.4 million.

I dont know what to make of this and Im surprised.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. endorses Clinton

Cinton-Kennedy 2008? It has a certain ring…