by TChris

Old story, new actor. A Bush administration appointee mismanages his agency, refuses to take responsibility, and resigns without being held accountable. The star of today's story: Carl J. Truscott, former director of the mostly useless Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

[Truscott] violated ethics rules by requiring 20 employees to help his teenage nephew prepare a high school video project, part of a wide-ranging pattern of questionable expenditures on a new ATF headquarters, personal security and other items, according to a report issued yesterday. Carl J. Truscott, who previously served as head of President Bush's security detail at the Secret Service, also took several trips with excessive numbers of ATF agents, including a $37,000 journey to London in September 2005 with eight other employees, according to the report.

Truscott demeaned female employees and wasted money on the construction of ATF's new headquarters (he requested a nifty hidden television in the director's office and another TV in the director's private bathroom). Truscott paid for his excesses by cutting back on vehicle maintenance and bullet proof vests.

In true Republican form, on display so regularly these days, Truscott professed to feel wounded by the report, refused to acknowledge fault, and blamed everyone but himself. (To be fair, he hasn't blamed Clinton ... yet.)

Patrick Fitzgerald, true to his modus operandi, has turned some more defendants in the Illiniois corruption probe, and now, three weeks prior to election day, has indicted the top aide to Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich.

Businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko was charged with operating a fraud scheme in which he, millionaire political contributor Stuart Levine and other insiders used Levine's position as a member of two state boards to pressure companies to pay kickbacks in exchange for state business. Levine is among those previously charged in the case.

Rezko's lawyer Joseph Duffy says:

The indictment unsealed Wednesday "appears to be the creation of Stuart Levine, a twice-indicted individual desperate to curry favor with the government to avoid being held accountable for his many years of corruption," Duffy said.

From Big Tent Democrat

Even Professor Reynolds sees this dog wont hunt:

Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid collected a $1.1 million windfall on a Las Vegas land sale even though he hadn't personally owned the property for three years, property deeds show.

. . . UPDATE: Reader Anthony Calabrese thinks there's probably less here than the AP story suggests:

I am a long time reader -- also a tax lawyer. While my practice does not involve real estate investments, I think it may be much ado about nothing. Generally, if you transfer property to a company in return for an interest in the company, there is no federal income tax on the transfer. If the company was an LLC (as stated in the media reports), the company was probably a partnership for tax purposes. There would be no LLC level tax as profits and losses would pass through to the partners.

So I can see no real tax issue. The only issue is that Reid might have been hiding his ownership of the property, but holding investment property in an LLC is fairly common in order to protect the owners from torts or bankruptcy. I think this is simply an issue of someone forgetting to file a form.

Good for Professor Reynolds.

A former aide to President Ronald Reagan and veteran Republican advisor was sentenced to 5 to 10 years in state prison.

A veteran GOP consultant was sentenced today to 5 to 10 years in prison for luring two male college students into his home on separate occasions, holding them captive in his spartan apartment and threatening them with Mafia retaliation if they contacted their friends or family.

A jury convicted Leon Abramovitz, of Shadyside, in July on charges of theft, coercion, false imprisonment, unauthorized practice of law, simple assault, indecent assault and making terroristic threats. His victims, 24-year-old and 22-year-old University of Pittsburgh students, were lured into his home with the promise of jobs tailored to their career goals.

by TChris

At this writing, no details are available beyond the basics:

A small aircraft crashed into a high-rise on the Upper East Side, setting off a fire and startling New Yorkers, police said. There were conflicting reports on whether the aircraft was a small plane or a helicopter.

CNN has more. A witness indicates that the aircraft, or parts of it, may have hit the condominium tower while falling from above.

Update: The NY Times reports confusion as to whether the aircraft struck near the 20th floor or the 40th floor. The latest AP story indicates that this was likely a tragic accident, not an act of terrorism.

Second update: The small plane was piloted by Corey Lidle, a major league pitcher who was recently traded to the Yankees. Lidle was apparently a relatively inexperienced pilot, flying a plane he'd recently purchased. News reports on the radio indicate that three others are dead.

Guest Post from Big Tent Democrat

The sight of Christopher Hitchens' head spinning as he discovers Henry Kissinger's influence over our Iraq policy is certainly satisfying in a perverse way. I can not say that I am immune to it myself. But this bit from Hitchens' column is what got my attention:

It might also help explain a lot. During the Bremer period of governance in Baghdad, both the transfer of sovereignty to Iraqis and the calling of elections were fatally postponed (perhaps when it was hastily discovered that a combined Kurdish and Shiite list could win a vote). It has proved difficult, if not impossible, to regain the political ground that was lost in that time. Shall we never be free of the malign effect of this little gargoyle and his ideas?

Hitchens gets it, as he has throughout, exactly backward. It was the rush to create an Iraqi government prior to a political settlement between the sunni, Shia and Kurd which has been a major engine to the chaos. While the Iraq Debacle was destined for failure no matter what, the rush to Iraqi elections was, in my opinion, the biggest post-war blunder of them all. I'll explain in extended.

Notwithstanding the great efforts by defense lawyers, including Terry Kindlon, an Albany federal jury has convicted two Muslims of terrorism charges in a sting case that has come to be known as the "Doogie Howswer" terror case.

Two Muslim immigrants who were targeted in an FBI sting were convicted on Tuesday of charges they supported terrorism by taking part in a fictitious plot to launder money from the sale of a shoulder-fired missile.

The case had galvanized the area's Muslim-American community, many of whom accused the FBI of using a manipulative and underhanded informant to unfairly target two hardworking immigrants who had no criminal history or direct links to any terrorist figures.

Has Tom Reynolds become radioactive? John McCain may think so.

Erie County Republicans on Tuesday quickly recruited White House power hitter Karl Rove to speak at their annual black-tie dinner Oct. 20 after the front-runner for the party's presidential nomination, Sen. John McCain, dropped out unexpectedly.

In addition to speaking at the dinner, McCain was scheduled to lead a rally in Buffalo for embattled Rep. Thomas M. Reynolds, R-Clarence. McCain's office Tuesday scrubbed both events, claiming that the popular Arizona Republican had a scheduling conflict.

The Senate Majority Project may have been a factor in McCain's sudden pull-out:

Via the Guardian:

North Korea is threatening war against the United States for its ``hostile attitude.'' As North Korea warned of physical retaliation for increased U.S. pressure over its reported atomic test, South Korea discussed preparations for a nuclear attack that could include an expanded conventional arsenal. North Korea said in its first formal statement since the test that it could respond to U.S. pressure with ``physical'' measures.

``If the U.S. keeps pestering us and increases pressure, we will regard it as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical corresponding measures,'' the North's Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. The statement didn't specify what those measures could be.

[Hat tip Patriot Daily.]

If you thought the U.S. used dogs only to scare detainees in foreign prisons, think again. Five states allow the use of dogs not only to scare, but to bite inmates.

Dogs are allowed to terrify and even bite unruly prisoners who refuse to leave their cells in five U.S. states, a human rights group said on Tuesday, comparing the policy to abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said it was unaware of any other nation where such a practice exists, describing it as a well-kept secret and drawing similarities to U.S. soldiers terrorizing Iraqi prisoners with dogs.

"At Abu Ghraib, it was not intended for them to bite the prisoner. Here we're using dogs to terrify. If the intimidation by the dog doesn't work, then the dog goes in and bites," said Jamie Fellner, Human Rights Watch director of U.S. programs.

The states are Connecticut, Delaware, Iowa, South Dakota and Utah.

Legally, I don't think the woman had a shot. Nonetheless, it's good news that the Supreme Court has decided not to hear the appeal of the woman who was the plaintiff in a companion case to Roe v. Wade.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday turned aside the case of Sandra Cano, one of the women behind the legalization of abortion, who had sought to reverse the victory she won 33 years ago.

Cano says she never wanted an abortion and that her difficult early life resulted in her becoming the anonymous plaintiff in Doe v. Bolton, the lesser-known case which the justices ruled on the same day in 1973 as the landmark Roe v. Wade.

by TChris

A hidden cost of the war in Iraq, a cost you won't hear Republicans talk about as they run for reelection:

Nearly one in five soldiers leaving the military after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan has been at least partly disabled as a result of service, according to documents of the Department of Veterans Affairs obtained by a Washington research group. ...

"The trend is ominous," said Paul Sullivan, director of programs for Veterans for America, an advocacy group, and a former V.A. analyst. Mr. Sullivan said that if the current proportions held up over time, 400,000 returning service members could eventually apply for disability benefits when they retired.

Perhaps the president could explain how he intends to pay the war's hidden costs as he urges voters to vote Republican to save their tax cuts. The cost, of course, isn't solely borne by the taxpayer. The disabled soldiers and their families pay a price that can't be measured. Voting for "stay the course" Republicans assures that the number of disabled veterans will continue to climb.