Washington Babylon

An amendment to “prohibit taxpayer dollars from being earmarked to 14 clients of a lobbying firm under Federal investigation for making campaign donations in exchange for political favors for the…

Read more

From ProPublica: In a half-dozen national security lawsuits we’ve been following, the Obama administration has so far largely stuck by the positions taken by the Bush administration. (The one significant…

Read more

From the New York Times: Whether they deserve to be or not, Countrywide Financial and its top executives would be on most lists of those who share blame for the…

Read more

The Dark Knight ranks No. 12. Andrew Klavan offer this explanation: This film gives us a portrait of the hero as a man reviled. In his fight against the terrorist…

Read more

From The Smoking Gun: Angered that her local McDonald’s was out of Chicken McNuggets, a Florida woman called 911 three times to report the fast food “emergency.” Latreasa Goodman, 27,…

Read more

You would think that Congress would have an easy time halting earmarks obtained by a lobbying firm recently raided by the feds and the subject of an ongoing federal investigation.…

Read more

From the Washington Times: The pharmaceutical industry that long has benefited from Sen. Orrin G. Hatch´s legislative efforts has directed large sums of money to a charity he helped found…

Read more

A few days ago I posted an item on a study that found that “[e]ight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in…

Read more

Via Mondoweiss, an amazing and disturbing YouTube video that shows an American military officer trash-talking to a group of Iraqi police. It doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence in the…

Read more

From Warren Buffett’s letter to the Shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, February 27, 2009: We are fortunate that Berkshire’s two most important businesses – our insurance and utility groups –…

Read more

From New Scientist: Eight of the top 10 pornography consuming states gave their electoral votes to John McCain in last year’s presidential election – Florida and Hawaii were the exceptions.…

Read more

Dusty Foggo, the CIA’s executive director under Porter Goss, was sentenced yesterday to more than three years in prison for funneling agency procurement contracts to an old friend and defense…

Read more

From Paul Krugman: The budget will, among other things, come as a huge relief to Democrats who were starting to feel a bit of postpartisan depression. The stimulus bill that…

Read more

From the Rocky Mountain News: Colorado’s oldest newspaper will publish its final edition Friday. The Rocky Mountain News, less than two months away from its 150th anniversary, will be closed…

Read more

From Associated Press: A former high-ranking CIA official has been sentenced to more than three years in prison for a fraud scheme in which he steered procurement contracts to an…

Read more

From the Wall Street Journal: The Central Intelligence Agency’s new director outlined spy policies Wednesday, including an aggressive campaign in Pakistan, that underscored considerable continuity with the Bush administration. CIA…

Read more

From Stars and Stripes: A videotape played Thursday in the trial of a U.S. soldier shows him describing how he shot two of four bound and blindfolded Iraqi prisoners in…

Read more

The White House has nominated Jonathan Cannon to serve as Deputy Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, where he has previously worked under Presidents Reagan, Bush (senior) and Clinton. Cannon…

Read more

From Slate, first part of what looks to be an interesting series: The 9/11 attacks were heralded as the harbinger of a new era of foreign-based terrorism in the United…

Read more

From the Center for Public Integrity: The number of lobbyists seeking to influence federal policy on climate change has grown more than 300 percent in five years, with a slew…

Read more

From ProPublica: Paramilitary agents for the CIA’s super-secret Special Activities Division, or SAD, perform raids, ambushes, abductions and other difficult chores overseas, including infiltrating countries to “light up” targets from…

Read more

Arizona Republican Jeff Flake put out a press release tonight saying that he had found “at least eight earmarks in the omnibus spending bill for clients of the PMA Group,…

Read more

From the Courier-Journal: U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning predicted over the weekend that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg would likely be dead from pancreatic cancer within nine months. During…

Read more

From Eli Lake: A just-retired U.S. diplomat who led negotiations that restored full diplomatic ties between the U.S. and Libya has taken an important job with Bechtel, a major U.S.…

Read more

For my book Turkmeniscam: How Washington Lobbyists Fought to Flack for a Stalinist Dictatorship, I posed as Kenneth Case, a businessman with energy interests in Turkmenistan. A number of beltway…

Read more

A reader e-mailed with an interesting question: Former Senator Phil Gramm is a senior executive with Swiss banking giant UBS. According to the information filed Wednesday in the criminal case…

Read more

A beltway insider with close ties to the State Department tells me that Sidney Williams, the husband of Congresswoman Maxine Waters, has expressed interest in getting back his old job…

Read more

I have an article in the March issue of the magazine about Ely Calil, a London-based international oil fixer (and friend, as I note in the story). Calil is one…

Read more