Akkam’s Razor

• Golden West deal doomed Wachovia in crisis | CharlotteObserver.com - Wachovia, a brand known for conservative lending, had changed course and forged its biggest deal ever. Two and a half years later, the purchase has played a central role in the Charlotte bank's near collapse and its planned sale to San Francisco-based Wells Fargo. Shareholders vote Tuesday on the takeover.
• The Washington Monthly - The Bush gang's penchant for secrecy is well known, but let's not forget their goal of taking their secrets with them.
• US Flight information and Airport Status - A tool that allows you to track flights.

• The Big Picture | Crude Oil above $92
  Why?
  (tags: analysis USD dollar oil)
• The Big Picture | 2/3rds Americans Say Recession is Likely
  Almost two-thirds of Americans say a recession is likely in the next year and a majority believes the economy is already faltering [with caveats].
  (tags: economics recession)
• TPMmuckraker | Talking Points Memo | D’Oh: House Panel Screw-Up Reveals Whistleblower Email Addresses
  In other words, an email containing the email addresses of all the whistleblowers who had written in to the committee tipline was sent to public email address of Vice President Cheney.
  (tags: politics email government ridiculous technology)

Just as in each of the last 5-years, immediately prior to the Anniversary of the 9/11 Attacks, some guy dressed like Osama Bin Laden comes out of the ground.  This guy releases more video than Tu-Pac and Biggie combined. 

If he sees his shadow, we are guaranteed another Friedman-Unit of War.  Pay no attention to the Black-Beard or the suspicious freezes in the video.  I also find the video interesting, as the President does, specifically as it so perfectly straddles the Conservative talking points of the day.

• The Plank::Handling the Truth [Gonzalez and Goodling]
  I just find fascinating the utter inability of figures in the U.S. Attorneys scandal to speak in clear, declarative sentences when they’re denying guilt.
  (tags: attorneygate purgegate USA USAttorney monicagoodling albertogonzalez)
• ABC News: Bomb Plot Thwarted at Falwell’s Funeral
  “[...] 19-year-old Mark D. Uhl of Amissville, Va., reportedly told authorities that he was making the bombs to stop protesters from disrupting [Jerry Falwell's] funeral service.”
  (tags: ABCNEWS christianity conservative funeral Protest terrorism threat violence religion)

The most important story that most people know nothing about is the Scooter Libby perjury trial.  This trial delivers - Freedom of the Press, Undercover Spying, WMD, Iran, Iraq, the cozy and manipulative relationship the Bush White House has with the Press, bloggers…and well, everything, including possibly the kitchen sink.

The grand jury from whom these charges sprung was charged with determining if a crime had been committed by the disclosure of the name of an undercover CIA operative doing WMD research against Iran and Iraq in an attempt to smear her husband, war critic of former Ambassador to Iraq Joe Wilson, in response to an OpEd he wrote asserting that Iraq never made an attempt to acquire "yellowcake uranium" as mentioned by the President in his notorious SOTU address regarding the "16-words".

The subpeona list was literally a who's who of the government and press, and in the end, the machinations and statements of Scooter Libby, and their contrast with "the truth", ended in perjury charges for "Irving".

But the nagging question remains - is Patrick Fitzgerald, Republican US Attorney from Chicago, Roman Catholic, Jesuit Educated, "relentless" prosecutor done?  Not based on this statement, as recapped at Rawstory, from his rebuttal of the defense closing argument:

While rebutting the closing argument by the defense at I. Lewis Libby's trial, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald spoke of a "dark cloud over the White House," due to the alleged obstruction of justice by the former White House aide. At the Washington Post's website, columnist Dan Froomkin points out that for the first time, as many have speculated, the prosecutor wasn't just accusing Libby, he was also referring to "them."

According to Froomkin, Fitzgerald "at long last made it quite clear that the depth of Vice President Cheney's role in the leaking of the identity of a CIA operative is one of the central mysteries that Libby's alleged lies prevented investigators from resolving."

"There is a cloud over the vice president . . . And that cloud remains because this defendant obstructed justice," Fitzgerald said. "There is a cloud over the White House. Don't you think the FBI and the grand jury and the American people are entitled to straight answers?"  More…

• Cosmic Log : Science fights the fakes
  “Just as a handgun leaves a signature on bullets for ballistics experts to analyze, digital cameras leave a signature on the pictures that they record - in the subtle pattern of electronic noise distributed through the data, as well as in the algorithms u
  (tags: photoshop photochop fauxtography)
• The Raw Story | ‘Timid’ Congress drives GQ correspondent to draft six articles of impeachment for Vice President Cheney
  “Hylton crafts six “articles of impeachment” because “a timid Republican Congress and a refusal to act by the new Democratic leadership” means that “the Fourth Estate” must “take the mantle of indictment unto ourselves.”"
  (tags: articlesofimpeachment dickcheney)

"The question remains, why did Buchen and President Ford change their minds? The available documents do not provide a definitive answer, but notes from key meetings in September and October provide clues to Ford's priorities - and these were far from government transparency. For example, handwritten notes of the first White House senior staff meeting presided over by Donald Rumsfeld and his deputy Richard Cheney (September 30, 1974) show Rumsfeld's rising concern about leaks, a discussion that takes up a major part of the meeting. Similarly, notes from the National Security Council meeting on October 7, 1974 reveal Ford himself opening the session by complaining about leaks for a full two pages of the transcript, asking for 'recommendations on how to tighten up this system,' and telling his advisers that 'I could have ordered an FBI investigation on this, but Don and I thought it would be better to see what you could do first.'"