I wonder if Arlen will rejoin the republican party after Joe beats him in the primary?

I say if sarah wants to f**k with Dave, he should take the gloves off.

Report on the corruption of her state, the misuse of funds, her family-value stance versus her being knocked up outside of marriage as well as her teenaged daughter, charging rape victims for rape kits, the socialized oil profits to the citizens of Alaska, the federal money that far exceeds any other state on a per person basis, the presence of Joel's Army in her church, her husband (and possibly her own) secessionist stance.

The last one alone should disqualify her for any higher office.

U.S. announces revamp of Afghan drug policy

TRIESTE, Italy - The United States announced a new drug policy Saturday for opium-rich Afghanistan, saying it was phasing out funding for eradication efforts and using the money for drug interdiction and alternate crop programs instead.

The U.S. envoy for Afghanistan, Richard Holbrooke, told The Associated Press that eradication programs weren't working and were only driving farmers into the hands of the Taliban. ..

Holbrooke said the previous U.S. policy, which focused on eradication programs, hadn't reduced "by one dollar" the amount of money the Taliban earned off opium cultivation and production.

"It might destroy some acreage," Holbrooke said. "But it just helped the Taliban."

"We're essentially phasing out our support for crop eradication and using the money to work on interdiction, rule of law, alternate crops," he told the AP. At the same time, Washington is upgrading its support of agriculture programs.

"That's the big change in our policies," he said. "This was widely accepted as the right thing to do." ..

Holbrooke said the international community wasn't trying to target Afghan farmers, just the Taliban militants who buy their crops.

"The farmers are not our enemy, they're just growing a crop to make a living," he said. "It's the drug system. So the U.S. policy was driving people into the hands of the Taliban."

.. about time ..

"Transparency: A Shrill Message from Obama for Whistleblowers:

http://www.publicintegrity.org/blog/entry/1523/

I'd love to hear what Rep. Alan Grayson has to say about this! (He's a former whistleblower).

Why is the Obama Administration trying so hard to protect the Saudi shieks from the 9/11 lawsuit???:

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2009/jun2009/sau...

Please take a moment to read this entire article class.

There's an astonishing expose hidden in the article regarding a book written by Sen. Bob Graham.

Here's an excerpt:

In his book, Graham wrote that the FBI concealed from the joint congressional committee the fact that its paid informant, Abdussattar Shaikh, had established a close personal relationship with the two hijackers.

When the committee staff discovered Shaikh’s role and the committee issued a subpoena to question him under oath, the FBI and then-Attorney General John Ashcroft refused to serve the subpoena. Graham said that a senior FBI official wrote to him and the Republican co-chair of the joint committee declaring that the administration would neither allow the FBI to serve a subpoena on Shaikh nor allow the committee staff to interview him.

Graham wrote that this was the only time he had ever heard of the FBI refusing to serve a congressional subpoena. He commented, “We were seeing in writing what we had suspected for some time: the White House was directing a cover-up.”

Excuse me, but I thought there was a "global war on terror against Al Queda"???

What gives here??

Whistleblowers are told to shut-up. Evidence that there is a direct link between Saudi Arabia and the attacks on 9/11 quashed by the Obama Administration.

This isn't change I can believe in!!!!

Welcome back, Mike! Thanks for the good pieces on Froomkin, who's one of the very best, in my opinion. Emptywheel also had a good piece dissecting the latest ombudsman piece on it:

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/06/26/...