An audit tells us what's been happening during the "see no evil" years of Republican congressional rule:

"Our troops are going without even as government funds go to pay for such boondoggles as an Olympic-size swimming pool in an unused training camp," said a statement issued by the Senate Democratic Communications Center directed by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. ...

The quarterly audit released Wednesday by Stuart Bowen Jr., the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, found the $300 billion U.S. war and reconstruction effort continues to be plagued with waste, spiraling violence and corruption.

Now that Congress is in an oversight mode, it will be fun to watch as tough questions are asked and avoided.

Hoping, perhaps, to avoid a subpoena, Attorney General Gonzales announced the administration's decision to control the flow of information submit documents to Congress that will (Gonzales asserts) demonstrate the administration's newfound respect for FISA.

The documents, which include applications for electronic wiretaps and orders from the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court, will be made available to congressional committees only and not released to the public.

Now brace yourself for a laugh:

Gonzales said the Justice Department would cooperate with both chambers of Congress. "It's important for us that they understand what we're doing," the attorney general said. "All they have to do is ask."

Some of us would like to know what the administration has been doing for the last six years. It's time for Congress to ask.

Via Scribe in the diaries:

Today, a prosecutor in Munich disclosed the existence of arrest warrants for 13 members of Ghost Air crews, relative to the kidnapping of Khaled al Masri from Macedonia to a US prison in Afghanistan. He was left to molder there for months while Condi and others debated exactly what to do with him, seeing as he really was the wrong guy. Ultimately, they had him flown back to and dumped off pretty close to the same spot he'd been kidnapped from. The US District Court has dismissed his tort suit, on the "state secrets" doctrine; he's appealing to the Fourth Circuit.

TalkLeft background on al Masri is here.

Team Libby has finished cross-examining Judith Miller. She was stronger today than yesterday and Bill Jeffress did not (in my opinion) make any inroads with her or trip her up. I think that the jury will find her credible.

Bottom Line: She is sure that Scooter Libby was the first to tell her that Joseph Wilson's wife worked for the CIA and that it happened on June 23 and again on July 8. She can't say it with 100% certainty but that's her belief based upon her memory and her notes and she has zero recollection of anyone else telling her.

Libby told investigators and the grand jury he learned of Wilson's wife from Tim Russert on July 10th. He says he was so preoccupied with pressing national issues, he forgot that he first learned of Valerie Wilson from Dick Cheney.

If he was so busy with other matters, why was he having a two hour meeting during the workday with Judith Miller at the St. Regis on July 8?

Fitzgerald redirects, a little bumpy, no big deal. Then the legal wrangling starts over Miller's notes and Libby's Aspen letter to Judy.

Barack Obama has been criticized often by me for lacking sufficient commitment to a politics of contrast. My view was well explained by Paul Krugman in his recent column On Partisanship:

Barack Obama recently lamented the fact that “politics has become so bitter and partisan” — which it certainly has. But he then went on to say that partisanship is why “we can’t tackle the big problems that demand solutions. And that’s what we have to change first.” Um, no. If history is any guide, what we need are political leaders willing to tackle the big problems despite bitter partisan opposition. . . . Or to put it another way: what we need now is another F.D.R., not another Dwight Eisenhower. . . .

Thus it is very encouraging to see Obama take a strong contrasting view on Iraq. And not just for the contrast, but because Iraq CAN be the key to a lasting realignment in favor of the Democrats.

When policy and science collide in the Bush administration, it's like an 18-wheeler smashing into a Yugo. Science doesn't survive, as witnesses (including Rick Piltz, formerly of the federal Climate Change Science Program) told the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform yesterday.

Part of his job, Mr. Piltz said, was to compile periodic assessments of government climate research for the Congress. “This report has essentially been made to vanish by the Bush administration,” he said.

The testimony coincides with the release of a report that documents and criticizes the administration's "widespread political interference in federal climate science." The Union of Concerned Scientists surveyed climate scientists, with disturbing results.

What an afternoon at the Scooter Libby trial. This is what I came to Washington for -- that sense of being right in the middle of the action, totally engrossed in the moment, never once looking at my watch, and when 5:00 came, wishing we didn't have to go home.

The day began slowly enough, with David Addington still on the stand and Libby lawyer Ted Wells questioning him about documents for almost two hours. Enough about that.

The main attraction was journalist and former New York Times reporter Judith Miller. She looked stunning, very pretty and impeccably groomed. The reporters in the courtroom all turned to watch her stride into the courtroom, chin up. Her lawyer, Washington powerhouse Bob Bennett, took a seat behind the Government's table. She was calm as she took the stand.

Judith Miller testified today in the Scooter Libby trial. She sailed through Fitzgerald's direct examination but started on a downhill course as soon as Bill Jeffress began cross-examining her.

The lawyers and judge are in deep debate over Paragraph 5 to Judith Miller's affidavit in support of a motion to quash.

I'll have details at Firedoglake later tonight. In the meantime, check out Marcy's live-blogging of the testimony, as well as Rory and Clarice at Mediabloggers.

This is how the Tampa police treated a woman who reported being raped.

Polife officers helping the 21-year-old woman search for her attacker jailed her after finding that she failed to pay back money she owed after a 2003 theft arrest. A jail worker later refused to give her a second dose of a morning-after pill to prevent pregnancy because of religious convictions, said Vic Moore, the college student's attorney.

Moral: don't report a rape if you've ever failed to pay a court obligation. Second moral: if the jailer won't let you take your emergency contraception, call the press.

[T]he woman was allowed to take the second emergency contraceptive pill Monday afternoon, a day late, and then only after reporters started calling police and jail officials. Authorities then arranged a special emergency bond hearing on Monday afternoon.

A public school that wants to search a student's urine for evidence of alcohol consumption should seek a warrant based on probable cause. The shortcut taken by Pequannock Township (NJ) High School is offensive: random urinalysis using a dubious screening test.

Urine screenings look for ethyl glucuronide, produced by the body after it metabolizes alcohol. School officials acknowledge the test is sensitive, and false positive readings can be the result of using products containing ethanol, including mouthwash and Balsamic vinegar.

The test claims to detect alcohol consumption up to 80 hours before the urine is collected. Accuracy issues notwithstanding, whether students consume alcohol when they aren't at school, perhaps with a parent's permission, should be addressed by parents, not schools.

"Medical care and treatment are issues between parents and children," said Deborah Jacobs, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey.

Residents of New York City should question whether the NYPD is spending their tax dollars wisely. A woman who had been severely beaten was discovered outside a Hell's Angels Clubhouse in the East Village. Witnesses said she was thrown out of the building, so the police obtained a warrant to search for evidence of an assault. So far, so good, but before knocking and seeking entry, the police assembled a "heavily armed Emergency Service Unit."

Police helicopters circled overhead, sharpshooters were stationed on nearby roofs and officers were armed for a siege ... After several hours, as police prepared to raid the club, a Hells Angels official arrived, examined the warrant and invited them inside.

An attorney for the Hells Angels said police overreacted. "The helicopters, the SWAT teams, the boys and all the toys, the armored personnel carrier -- I think it's a little much," said Ron Kuby, the attorney.

Robert Stein, the former comptroller and funding officer for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq, was sentenced to 9 years in prison after pleading guilty to bribery and money laundering charges.

He admitted conspiring with Philip H. Bloom, a U.S. citizen with businesses in Romania, Bruce D. Hopfengardner, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves, and others including several high-ranking Army officers. Bloom, who controlled companies in Iraq and Romania, bid on projects using dummy corporations and Stein ensured that one of the firms was awarded the contract, according to court documents. ...

The businessman allegedly showered Hopfengardner and Stein with luxury gifts such as cash, premium airline seats, jewelry and sexual favors from women at his Baghdad villa.

Bloom and Hopfengardner await sentencing.