This is just beyond belief. By this judge’s logic, if you walk into a bank intending to cash a check, then decide while standing in line to stick the place up, you get to keep the money because you didn’t start out with intent to rob.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria VA. Remember that name. You want to be in his jurisdiction just in case the chance to lie, cheat, steal, and defraud happens to come along and you want to do it all with judicial blessing.

A federal judge has dismissed a civil case against a military contractor accused of improperly billing Iraq reconstruction authorities for tens of millions of dollars worth of security services that it did not provide.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria said there was no evidence that Custer Battles, a firm started by Army veterans Scott Custer and Michael Battles, committed fraud under a $16.8 million contract to provide security at the Baghdad International Airport in 2003.  Read more 

Seriously, I don’t think I could even spend that much in a year. And you should see me in a shoe store. Team BIO reports, and I hope the Democrats in Congress are listening:

As President Bush prepares to ask Congress to throw another $1.2 billion dollars into the gaping maw that is the Iraq Reconstruction Fund, a recent report from the independent Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction shows that at least $3 Billion has been wasted in such efforts since US demolition reconstruction efforts began in 2003.

Highlighted in the report are the following:

There’s the $43.8 million spent on a temporary police training camp that has never even been used.

There’s the $36.4 million for armored vehicles, body armor, and weapons that no one seems able to account for.

There’s the $73 million facility built to train Iraqi security forces that has massive expansion cracks in the walls and trickling sewage from ceilings.  Read more 

Amount of avocado in real guacamole: 4, or what I’m guessing is about 80% of the total mass in the dish.

Amount of avocado in Kraft Store-Bought “Convenient” Guacamole: 2%.  Read more 

Of course, I beat TPM on this days ago, but this is an unimportant little read blog, so let me quote the professionals now catching up:

Today, President Bush finally signed the Coburn-Obama database bill into law. A handful of large blogs from across the political spectrum, aided by hundreds of readers, banded together to push for the bill’s passage, which will create a searchable website of federal grants, loans and contracts.

But when the bill arrived on the President’s desk, he saw fit to invite bloggers who are reliably conservative.

Somehow our invitation got lost in the mail. I think that means only one side of that inspriring blog union got to meet the President. Unless Wonkette… no.

It was an oversight, no doubt.

Gosh! They didn’t call me either. And I’ve dissed Obama! Sob. Anyhoo- don’t ever let anyone tell you winger blogs are anything but utter tools. I’m sure Glenn’s latest “project” will take off and last for generations beyond counting.  Read more 

You heard about it before, but you know it was only the tip of an iceberg we will never fully comprehend, except in the form of the bill we’ll all be paying unto the next generation:

Instead, the suit alleges, KBR used the military’s supplies for its own football party  Read more 

From the Nashville Tennessean this morning. Wonder if a trend is underway, or did they just get caught?

A voter registration group with Republican ties has been banished from Wal-Mart stores in Tennessee for failing to meet the retailer’s standards of nonpartisanship and may soon be shut out of stores in California and Nevada, the retailer’s spokesman said Tuesday.

Liberty Consultants wanted to register Wal-Mart shoppers in seven traditionally GOP suburban counties around Nashville. But the request was denied after the firm’s owner, Gary Thompson, acknowledged to Wal-Mart that he had been hired by Tempe, Ariz.-based Sproul & Associates.

Ah, a blast from the past. Remember these “Sproul” folks?”  Read more 

Brad and JFK are buddies:

A damning and detailed feature article, written by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for Rolling Stone and documenting evidence of the theft of the 2004 Presidential Election is set to hit newstands this Friday, The BRAD BLOG can now confirm. The online version of the article will be posted tomorrow (Thursday) morning.  Read more 

Tom Skilling of WGN-TV Chicago is the best TV weatherman in America, all classes and probably all-time. He has the misfortune to be the brother of Jeff Skilling, of Enron infamy, who has just been convicted of everything but aggravated sidewalk-spitting and a count or two of insider trading. It’s an interesting morality play of two brothers, products of the same genetics and environment and all that, both very talented guys, one of whom used his abilities for Good and the other…not so much. Story, breaking, here at the Chicago Tribune. Who also own WGN TV, the Cubs, and a lot of other things, but that’s a rant for another time.  Read more 

Good news for the long-suffering residents of Florida! They are in a position to save vast amounts of money, time, aggravation from being subjected to campaign ads and answering polling phone calls, and have local news airtime freed up from election coverage to focus on people fallen overboard from cruise ships, eaten by alligators, run away from weddings, and other more significant topics. They can just cancel the next gubernatorial election right now, as the winner has already been declared*:

A reverend who introduced Republican gubernatorial candidate Charlie Crist during a breakfast with other pastors Monday said the Lord came to him in a dream two years ago and told him Crist would be the state’s next governor.  Read more