Suitably Flip

Waste-Ted Money

Remember when Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) was outed by the blogging community as the King of Pork?  Well he's at it again:

Congressional champions of ballistic missile defense led by Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, have won another funding battle to increase the number of Ground-Based Midcourse Interceptors, or GBIs deployed around Fort Greeley, Alaska.

This is the second year Stevens' subcommittee has added not only many millions for interceptors but also language expressing dissatisfaction with the Missile Defense Agency's direction.

It is yet unknown how many additional interceptors can be expected for this additional $200 million, but the bigger issue is that Sen. Stevens obviously doesn't see the big picture. 

Many nations, Russia and China most notably, hate the idea of a US missile defense system.  They have been somewhat reserved in their critiques because of the limited number of interceptors we are planning to deploy, that is, only enough to defeat a threat from Iran or North Korea.  Deploying additional missiles, especially without consideration of the non-trivial policy implications, is irresponsible. 

Additionally, Sen. Stevens' fervent pursuit of pork will force the Missile Defense Agency to build additional infrastructure (silos, command and control connectivity) and to increase the number of maintenance and operations personnel.  In the end, this move will likely cost taxpayers at least $500 million. 

Sweet.

Dennis Miller: Brilliant Neologist

Hannity & Colmes' splendid new sidekick offered us a cunning coining Friday night:

"Aquavelvajad (or whatever that waste of a bad beard's name is)"

Mark Foley (R-FL) Resigns Over Kiddie Sex Scandal

Awful.

Saying he was "deeply sorry," Congressman Mark Foley (R-FL) resigned from Congress today, hours after ABC News questioned him about sexually explicit internet messages with current and former congressional pages under the age of 18.
...
Hours earlier, ABC News had read excerpts of instant messages provided by former male pages who said the congressman, under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to sexual organs and acts.

ABC News will have a full report tonight.

Allahpundit sheds no tears over this Democratic pickup.
Sister Toldjah says, "Good riddance."

Acknowledging that the facts are yet to flesh out, I tentatively say "ditto" and "ditto".

Bizarrely, Foley's website lauds in detail the Congressman's work in protecting children from sexual predators, and specifically from online threats.

As a founder and co-chair of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus, Mark has been instrumental in the development and passage of legislation designed to protect our children.

He authored legislation that became law -- the Volunteers for Children Act -- that gives volunteer organizations that work with children, such as scouting and sports groups, access to FBI fingerprint-based background checks to ensure that they are not inadvertently hiring child molesters.

He has also cosponsored legislation toughening the penalties levied at those who hurt children and, most recently, has joined forces with the Administration and Congress to fight child predators. His Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act, which has passed both the House and Senate, will overhaul the way we track and monitor predatory pedophiles. He has also introduced and cosponsored legislation designed to eliminate child pornography and exploitive child modeling web sites.

Over the years, Mark also has worked closely with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and John Walsh (host of Fox TV’s America’s Most Wanted) on a variety of child protection programs. Among the latest of these is a program designed to show children how to protect themselves from online predators.

Photo-Finish

With 12 minutes of trading to go, the Dow is $0.12 (0.001%) below its all time high closing price of 11,722.93.
 

Tantalizing...

Update: Wa-waa.  Sorry, please play again tomorrow.

The Sandman Gets Political

This is very revealing.  I don't know what it reveals exactly, but it's interesting nonetheless.

2nd Quarter Breather More Breathery Than Thought

The final read on 2nd quarter GDP growth was released by the Commerce Department this morning.  At 2.6% year-over-year growth, it fell short of the previous estimate of 2.9%.

Still, this immediately followed the first quarter blowout of 5.6% annual growth.  It's also getting to be old news, as we're just two days from the close of the third quarter.  In the second quarter, we were still in an environment of tightening Fed policy, whereas now we've chalked up two consecutive pauses and the markets are even pricing in the possibility of an ease in interest rates on the near horizon.  What's more, energy costs have pulled way back, with crude oil now 20% below than its summertime peak.

When we get the advance 3rd quarter number, it may indeed show that growth continued at its moderated pace, but I don't buy the forecasts that show sub-3% growth continuing through the 4th quarter as well.  Between the continued strong economic fundamentals and newly improved monetary policy and energy prices, I don't see how we don't resurge, barring unforseen shocks like a strong hurricane, geopolitical flare-ups, etc.

Still, the downward revision was a sufficient bummer to pare back early morning market gains that had the Dow trading above its record closing price.  It remains tantalizingly close to its January 2000 high, at roughly a third of a percent from uncharted territory.

Dow Set To Party Like It's [Two Weeks After] 1999

Is today the day the Dow breaks its all-time high close of 11,722, set on January 14, 2000?  Could be.

The index edged to within 10 points of the mark in early trading today.  A new record seemed likely earlier this morning, until the Commerce Department released an unexpectedly cruddy durable goods report, showing  demand broadly weakening by 0.5% in August.  The metric is a volatile one, but it's considered a leading indicator of manufacturing activity.

If the weekly oil inventory report due out later this morning manages to push oil prices down, that could be the final push the Dow needs to move into record territory.

Update:  The weekly inventory data is out.  It shows a 4th consecutive weekly drawdown and oil prices are rising as a result.  While this isn't helpnig stocks, an unexpected jump in U.S. home sales is buoying the market's spirit somewhat.

Meanwhile, the Dow continues to flirt with its record high.

Bubba's Tell

I guess we should've known as soon as the finger-wagging began that Clinton was selling us another bill of goods.

Former advisers ridiculed ex-President Bill Clinton yesterday for saying he had a plan to invade Afghanistan, topple the Taliban and kill Osama Bin Laden after jihadists nearly sank the destroyer Cole.

"The only order we got from [Clinton] after the Cole was to put together a target list for air attacks," said Michael Scheuer, who led the CIA's hunt for Osama Bin Laden under Clinton.

"What I was involved in could in no way be called a full-fledged plan to attack and overthrow the Taliban," he said.
...
Fran Townsend, a former top intelligence adviser in Clinton's Justice Department and now Bush's anti-terror czar, rolled her eyes when asked about Clinton's invasion plan.

"There were lots of things that seemed new" in Clinton's recollections on Fox, Townsend said.

All wet?

Starting today, the Transportation Security Administration is allowing airline passengers to bring some gels and liquids on planes.  The heightened security measures have been a result of last month’s uncovered plot to bring down US-bound commercial airliners.  I have been curious (thanks to Jack Bauer) as to the feasibility of binary gel/liquid explosives  The only feasibility analysis I have found is from the Register, a British technology news organization.

Its conclusions are quite surprising considering TSA’s extensive measures.  The chemical said to have been used in the plot is triacetone triperoxide (TATP).  Terrorists are unlikely to openly transport TATP onto a plane for fear of prematurely blowing themselves up with this “notoriously sensitive and unstable” chemical nicknamed the “the mother of Satan.”  However, transporting the precursors (the purported plan) and manufacturing TATP on a plane is “not quite as simple as ducking into the toilet and mixing two harmless liquids together.”

The Register explains the dangerous act of concentrating the off-the-shelf hydrogen peroxide, one of the three ingredients of TATP, and the difficulty of transporting the ingredients of destruction:

It's all right to mix the peroxide and acetone in one container, so long as it remains cool. Don't forget to bring several frozen gel-packs, a thermometer, a large beaker, a stirring rod, and a medicine dropper. You're going to need them.

The process of making TATP requires several hours of persistent and dangerous preparation.  Once the materials are successfully mixed, they need to be dried for a couple of hours.  Even assuming that other passengers don’t mind that a lavatory has been commandeered for five hours, the results may not be catastrophic.

While it's true that a slapdash concoction will explode, it's unlikely to do more than blow out a few windows. At best, an infidel or two might be killed by the blast, and one or two others by flying debris as the cabin suddenly depressurizes, but that's about all you're likely to manage under the most favorable conditions possible.

I'm Thinking of a Number That Starts With 5

Can you guess what it is?

Update:  Drudge notes the other shoe dropping.

State Department Comes Down Wtih Popitis

Why does this require an apology?

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro showed up late at JFK for his flight home with no ticket and proceeded to pay for one in cash, triggering (not surprisingly) the secondary screening treatment.  When he then caused a "ruckus" and refused to submit to frisking, security attempted to handcuff him, but he resisted.  He was finally detained and held for around 90 minutes, then released.

Sounds like he got off pretty easy, what with his forceful thwarting of airport security.  Still, Maduro is doing his best to make an international incident of it and the State Department is kowtowing.

U.S. State Department officials called Saturday's incident regrettable and said they had apologized to Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro. But he said that was not enough.

"We were detained during an hour and a half, threatened by police with being beaten," Maduro told reporters at Venezuela's mission to the U.N. "We hold the U.S. government responsible."
...
"They tried to put on some handcuffs," he said, describing it as a threat. "They would have had to take us out of that airport dead if they tried to touch us."
...
Maduro said Venezuela would challenge his detention, calling it "flagrant violation of international law" and his diplomatic immunity.

"We demand a response, justice," said Maduro, saying he was detained "illegally, abusively" and that those responsible should be punished. He said the 118 nations of the Nonaligned Movement — through its president Cuba — was lodging a protest.

Osama Death Watch

Hot Air and Mary Katherine are tracking the latest updates on what could make for one heckuvan October surprise.

The best case for an evil Rove-led conspiracy?  That reports of OBL's demise were cooked up to coax bin Laden into rushing out a new videotape, proving his continued existence under harried, perhaps less secure conditions, making him more succeptible to a blitz leading to his capture or extermination sometime in the next several days, in turn leading to a big Bush bounce and lengthened coattails to preserve the Congressional majority come Election Day.

Unlikely though, as this would require that Jacques Chirac would be playing ball (as the documents that sparked speculation of Osama's death were leaked under his watch).  I'll say with roughly 5 pints of French blood in my veins that I have trouble believing the French President would even consider backing our play in such a ruse.

Still, with the incredible Irish comeback over Michigan State tonight (delighting my alma mater and my other 5 pints), there's a certain improbable magic in the air.

Multi-Millionares Need Not Apply

Well, la dee da.

For the first time, Forbes magazine's list of the 400 richest Americans consists exclusively of people worth $1 billion or more. As a group, the people who made the rankings released Thursday are worth a record $1.25 trillion, compared with $1.13 trillion last year.

Economic News Double Header

There are two big items on the block today: an update on domestic oil inventories and the results of today's Federal Reserve meeting.

Even before either report is out, Wall Street is doing a bit of celebrating.  Oil futures have fallen to $61 per barrel, a six month low, while the Dow has popped up within striking distance of its all-time high.  Expectations are that the inventory data will show softening energy demand and that the Fed will stand pat with its month-old neutral stance toward interest rates.  Strong earnings reports in both technology and financials further fueled the jubilation.

Stay browsed for updates once the reports are released later today.  Even if the Fed does as expected and continues to pause, any change-ups in the statement's language can lead to some fun market whipsawing.

Update:  The Department of Energy's report shows distillate fuel and gasoline inventories growing, while crude oil inventories dropped modestly.  All three remain well above last year's levels.

Update: The Fed sticks at 5.25%

2nd Iraqi Province To Make Full-On Freedom Manifest

You go, Dhi Qar.

With all its history in tow, Dhi Qar province in southern Iraq is looking toward the future. It’s scheduled later this month to become the second of Iraq’s 18 provinces to be transferred to provincial Iraqi control.

This means Coalition security forces will pull back and let the local provincial police and Iraqi military handle security of the province, a key step for the eventual withdrawal of Coalition forces from the country.

Both Coalition officials and Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki have said they hope to have all 18 of the country’s provinces under Iraqi control by the end of next year.
...
“In the next days, Coalition forces in the province of Dhi Qar will hand over the security responsibility to Iraqi civilian authorities. This result is a clear evidence of the capability of Iraqi security forces, Police (and) Army, of guaranteeing security in Dhi Qar autonomously," De Pascale said. "It is also evidence of the maturity of the population in Dhi Qar. From now on, they will be able to contribute to the security, the social and economic growth of the province of Dhi Qar and Iraq."

 

The Coalition transferred neighboring Al Muthanna province on July 13. Since then, Al Muthanna’s local police and military forces have had full responsibility for the province's security and continue to run operations there without Coalition prodding.

NIMBY Epitomized

So today is the day.  Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, duly issued visa in hand, comes to my quiet corner of east midtown Manhattan to crazy up the joint.

Jewish organizations and exiled Iranian opposition groups protested against Ahmadinejad's visit to New York over his calls for Israel to be wiped off the map, his questioning of the Nazi Holocaust and Iran's human rights record.

In his maiden U.N. speech last year, Ahmadinejad delivered an anti-Western tirade and offered to share Iran's nuclear technology with other developing countries.

The NYU College Republicans will also be protesting Ahmadinejad's attendance today - check back later for video footage.

The Other September 2001 Attacks

Remember these menacing words?

"9/11/01
This is next
Take penacilin now
Death to America
Death to Israel
Allah is great"

Michelle Malkin restrospectively chronicles the unsolved anthrax attacks that killed 5 Americans and began 5 years ago today.

* Bob Stevens, 63, picture editor of the Sun newspaper, died on 5 October in Boca Raton, Florida. Anthrax spores were found on his computer keyboard
* Thomas Morris Jr, 55, Washington, worked at the Brentwood office which handled an anthrax-laced letter sent to Senator Tom Daschle
* Joseph Curseen, 47, worked at the same office
* Kathy Nguyen, 61, worked in a New York hospital
* Ottilie Lundgren, 94, lived in a rural community in Connecticut. Her case and that of Ms Nguyen are the only ones that have not been traced to tainted mail

Al Qaeda Warns of Attack on NYC, DC

Allah provides an alarmism round-up, based on a Pakistani report that al Qaeda is readying an attack, to be triggered by a forthcoming audio cavecast from Big Osama himself.

Let's not rush out to repent our sins just yet, but it appears this kind of public warning before a big attack is not without precedent.

Stop the ACLU posts this picture of FBI-wanted terrorist Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, claimed to be involved in a planned nuclear attack on American soil.  The State Department is offering $5 million for information leading to his capture.

Wizbang, and My Vast Right Wing Conspiracy have more.

San Diego Teacher Not Staying Classy

Per Brendan at The Conservative Revolution:

Teacher Tears Down '911 Never Forget' Flyer at San Francisco Catholic School.. Says it Offends Muslims: Developing...

I was informed that a high school teacher at St. Ignatius College Prepatory in San Francisco tore down a flyer that students put up that said, "911: Never Forget." The teacher allegedly told the students that the flyer was "offensive to Muslims." This was a Jesuit Catholic school, mind you.

I am working to find out the name of the teacher, and to gather more details. I will make this information available as soon as I can. It is unfortunate that these types of things keep happening, but with your help we can make sure these students are allowed to put up the flyers.

Developing...

                    

Bluto Eyes Opportunity to Nab Olive Oyl

I have to say, I was WAY out front on this one.  I've been telling my parents since the early 80's that eating spinach would make me sick.

Outinterpret. Outdefine. Outclarify.

President Bush gave a Rose Garden press conference this morning, urging Congress to pass legislation to strengthen our ability to prosecute the war on terror.  Part of this initiative is an effort to clarify Common Article 3 of the Geneva Convention, which comments on the treatment of detainees.

The word "clarify" seems to led a lot of people to leap to what they assume is a more accurate term - either "redefine" (as Colin Powell put it) or even "rewrite" (as Keith Olbermann so aptly distorted it), tearing their eyes out about the retribution we'll bring upon our own troops at the hands of foreign detainers.

But Common Article 3 disallows "outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment."

This does indeed require clarification.  Every word of that quote longer than four letters is highly subjective.  Is hearing loud Celine Dion music outrageous?  Maybe to me (well, indeed to me), but maybe not by objective measure, depending on how one would clarify "outrageou".  Is it degrading to be kept in an uncomfortably cold (though not health-endangering) room?  To some degree, certainly.  In addition to the discomfort, it probably lets you know that your captors probably don't love you, which is always hard.  But does it rise to the level of "humiliating and degrading treatment" the Convention seeks to prohibit?  It seems to me that it doesn't; after all, the very condition of being detainee is surely humiliating to some degree, but it doesn't mean that Article 3 disallows holding prisoners entirely.

Still, I could be wrong.  Maybe the horrors of a cold room lie just beyond the threshold expressed in that nebulous statement.  The point is we can't know with clarification of these mealy standards.

No one's rewriting the Geneva Convention.  No one's redefining it.  Colin Powell's objection that the proposed clarification would "reinterpret it", thus putting our troops at greater risk, has garnered a lot of ink recently.  But top JAG lawyers disagree.  In a letter sent yesterday to John Warner And Duncan Hunter, respectively chairmen of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees:

"We do not object to section 6 of the Administration proposal, which would clarify the obligations of the United States under common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions, and section 7 of the Administration proposal, which would address crimes under the War Crimes Act.  Indeed, we think these provisions would be helpful to our fighting men and women at war on behalf of our Country."

- Major General Scott Black, U.S. Army, Judge Advocate General
- Major General Charles J. Dunlap, Jr., U.S. Air Force, Deputy Judge Advocate General
- Rear Admiral Bruce Macdonald, U.S. Navy, Judge Advocate General
- Brigadier General James C. Walker, Staff Judge Advocate To The U.S. Marine Corps
- Colonel Ronald M. Reed, U.S. Air Force, Legal Counsel To The Chairman Of The Joint Chiefs Of Staff

Clarification sounds not only appropriate, but long overdue.  I'll note, however, that - given that even American pundits and military retirees are wringing their hands over the dastardly impropriety - bad actors overseas might well use the subtlety of distinction (at least on a very superficial level) between due clarification and opportunistic rewriting to simply cast aside Genveva Convention protections in their treatment of U.S. soldiers.  Some proactive and deft international relations might go a long way toward keeping that from happening.  Perhaps the stage is being set to take the issue up at the United Nations this weekend.

The Effects of Tanking Oil

It's misguided of course to credit the President with the dramatic fall-off in oil prices over the last couple weeks (which instead owed to reduced hurricane forecasts, the end of the summer driving season, Iran's mild overtures toward enrichment suspension, BP reopening Prudhoe Bay, and the discovery of the second largest oil field in the country), but he certainly took it on the chin politically as prices were rising, so why not give some misplaced credit (or at least remove the misplaced blame) as prices come hurtling back down?

Visually speaking, a comparison of Bush's recent approval ratings (per Rasmussen) and crude oil futures looks something like this (approval ratings inverted):

More Links Between Saddam and al Qaeda

No matter how much evidence like this surfaces, the conventional wisdom that Saddam was a terror-free dictator who had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11 and whose only offenses were the slaughter of his own people and his neighbors seems to have a tenacious grip on public perception.

Will this inconvenient bit of disconfirming data be any different?

A deputy prime minister of Iraq yesterday offered a sharp contradiction of the conventional wisdom here that Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Al Qaeda had no connection before the 2003 war, flatly contradicting a recent report from the Senate's intelligence committee.

In a speech in which he challenged the belief of war critics that Iraqis' lives are now worse than under Saddam Hussein, Barham Salih said, "The alliance between the Baathists and jihadists which sustains Al Qaeda in Iraq is not new, contrary to what you may have been told." He went on to say, "I know this at first hand. Some of my friends were murdered by jihadists, by Al Qaeda-affiliated operatives who had been sheltered and assisted by Saddam's regime."

A Kurdish politician who took his high school exams from inside a Baathist prison, Mr. Salih said he was the target of the alliance between jihadists, Baathists, and Al Qaeda in 2001, when a group known as Ansar al-Islam tried to assassinate him. In 2002, envoys of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, one of the two Kurdish parties sharing sovereignty over northern Iraq between the two Iraq wars, presented the CIA with evidence that the organization that tried to kill Mr. Salih had been in part funded and directed by Saddam Hussein's Republican Guard.

Musical Pork Revisited

Captain Ed notes two discordant media accounts (one of which has to be read to be believed) of the recent blog effort to sniff out the "secret holders" on the Senate's counter-pork bill.

(If you're just joining us, it turned out to be Senators Ted Stevens (R-AK) and Robert Byrd (D-WV) who were left standing when the music stopped.  Once they released their holds, the bill was passed unanimously by both houses of Congress.)

Previously:
A Victory For Taxpayers (and Bloggers)
Pork-Out Debrief: Round-Up and Reaction
Suitably Flipping the Byrd
Hold the Phone - Another Secret Holder Lurks!
The Silent Triumverate
Secret Holder Being Sniffed Out

Guess What?

Oil's down again.  Yes again.  If you're keeping score at home, that makes 7 declines in the last 7 trading sessions and roughly a 15% decline in just over a month.  Light, sweet crude futures briefly dipped below $65 per barrel a couple times during today's trading.

Today's catalysts: BP is gearing up to restart Prudhoe Bay production, OPEC agreed to maintain output levels, and Iran suggesting for the first time that it might suspend enrichment activities during negotiations.

Update:  Afternoon selling has pushed oil even lower.  Way lower.  At less than $64 per barrel, prices are now more than 17% off their August highs.

Let's update the happy chart for the occasion.

Previously (this is getting a little ridiculous):
The Sawbuck Slide
If Oil Falls In the Futures Market, Does It Make a Front Page
Oil's Big, Big End of Summer Clearance Sale
Walker Ridge - Get Ready To Love These Words
Crude Watch
Coming In November: Falling Oil, Economic Bliss, Some Elections
Had Enough, Crude?  Yeah, You Stay Down.
Oil Tanks Again

Giuliani Expects WTC Illness

From the Albany Times-Union:

Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said Monday that his health and the health of his wife and his aides could have suffered from exposure to toxic smoke from the burning World Trade Center five years ago.

"I spent as much time here as anyone. She did. She did,'' Giuliani said, indicating his wife, Judith, and his spokeswoman, Sunny Mindel. "[Former Deupty Mayor] Joe Lhota did, and Joe got ill. [Former Deputy Mayor] Rudy Washington did and Rudy clearly got sick as a result of Sept. 11.

"We're going to have a get-together tonight with all the people that we kind of survived with. And I'll check with them. I'll see. I'm sure that some of these people are going to have symptoms, and maybe it's not now. They're going to have them five years from now or 10 years from now. And they should be taken care of.''

Oliver Stone's Other Shoe Drops

The absence of JFK-style conspiracy mongering in Oliver Stone's World Trade Center (which I haven't yet seen, but has been widely described as unexpectedly apolitical) may have been - I suppose not surprisingly - little more than a head fake before the director got back to basics.

(HT: Drudge)

Moscow --   U.S. filmmaker Oliver Stone, who surprised many with the patriotic flavour of his new film World Trade Center, hinted in Moscow yesterday that he is considering a more controversial follow-up investigating the "conspiracy" around 9/11.

"There is a great story in a movie, a conspiracy by a group of people in the American administration who have an agenda and who used 9/11 to further that agenda," he told journalists in Russia.

There could be a "fascinating project [on] what happened after Sept. 11," the director said at his packed press conference on the fifth anniversary of the attacks.

Stone accused U.S. President George W. Bush of mishandling the fight against Osama bin Laden's militants and using the crisis to stoke fear and bolster his own power at home in a way that was "right out of George Orwell."

Andrew Kates: 9/11 Victim

On September 11, 2001, a senior managing director at Cantor Fitzgerald named Andrew Kates was killed in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center.  Kates worked on the 105th floor of the North Tower (WTC1).  The 37-year old husband and father of three was later profiled in The New York Times, in a piece celebrating A Life Enjoyed to the Fullest.

On the Saturday morning before Sept. 11, Andrew Kates woke up to find his three children bouncing on the bed, all ready to play. "He just looked right at me and said, 'I love our family,' " said his wife, Emily Terry.

He spent every spare moment with his two daughters and son, ages 5, 3 and 1. He gave them piggyback rides around their Upper West Side apartment. They played hide-and-seek. Every weekend last winter, he packed hot chocolate and took the two older ones, Hannah and Lucy, ice skating for hours in Central Park.

An athletic 37-year-old, he had brown hair, green eyes and dimples creasing both cheeks. His son, Henry, looks a lot like him. He managed to see the best in every situation, whether it was at home or on the job at Cantor Fitzgerald in 1 World Trade Center, where he was a senior managing director.

Perhaps it sounds like a cliché, his wife said, but he did manage to enjoy life to the fullest. "He is one of the people I know who had very few regrets about his life."

Andy's widow Emily Terry and their three children, Henry, Lucy, and Hannah shared some of the details about their lives on the one year anniversary of 9/11 in an interview for New York Magazine.  Terry discussed the importance of community support, the kindness of fellow New Yorkers, and the haunting impact of Ground Zero.

"I've been enveloped by this community," she marvels. "I just felt like people were taking care of me. I felt like they wouldn't let me fall, wouldn't let me collapse." Congregation members virtually lived with her during the first few months. Suzanne Waltman, a friend and fellow Rodeph parent, says, "People at Rodeph really understood the workload of three children."

At night, the kids often talk about their dad, and when they go to bed at 8 p.m., Terry often falls asleep in their room. "I feel incredibly sad for them," she says. "My son was 11 months when it happened, and yet when he sees a picture of Andy, he says, 'Dad.' Henry saw someone recently from the back who looked like Andy, and he got so excited." She pauses to compose herself. "It sounds so goofy, but on September 11, Henry walked across the living-room floor for the first time." Before the towers collapsed? "Nope."
...
A patrician blonde who looks elegant even in khakis and a T-shirt, Terry, 39, a native New Yorker who attended Chapin and then Haverford, met her future husband in Boston in 1985. She attended Boston University, earning a master's degree in art history; Andy went through Harvard's M.B.A. program. She left a job at the International Center of Photography after her first child, Hannah, was born. Even though Andy was in a fast-track job at Cantor, they didn't live in Master of the Universe style: Their apartment is a two-bedroom rental (the three kids sleep in one room), and they vacationed every year in relatively inexpensive Lake Champlain.
...
She finds herself clinging to the unexpectedly kind gestures. She got a visit from an ironworker who found one of Andy's credit cards at ground zero. "The guy tracked me down, and his wife called to say he had made something for us from metal from the World Trade Center." Walking over to the fireplace, she shows off a small cross on the mantel. "I was worried when the man saw my daughter's sign on our door -- WE'RE JEWISH -- that he'd be embarrassed about bringing us a cross. I thought it was really touching."

She's never been to ground zero -- the place haunts her. "I keep coming to this image of this huge hole, which is what it feels like," she says. "Sometimes I'm inside the hole, and sometimes I'm standing at the edge of the hole. But I'm never away from the hole, I'm always near it."

Four years after that first anniversary, Hannah is 11, Lucy is 9, and Henry is almost 6.  The five years since Andy's tragic death have undoubtedly not masked the enormity of the loss suffered by Emily and her children, nor the difficulty of growing up without such a loving and dedicated father.  Hopefully, family and friends, combined with the community support that Andy's family found in the months immediately following 9/11, have continued to be a source of strength.

Andy was also survived by his brothers Seth and Paul and his mother Judy.

A Harvard Business School obituary remembered Kates as a devoted, successful, athletic, charismatic friend and family member.

Terry, whom Kates married in 1993, said her husband "was very athletic. He was a serious bike rider and swimmer and played tennis. He ran the New York Marathon in 3 hours and 15 minutes."

Kates’s interest in business was already apparent while he was an undergraduate at Wesleyan University in Connecticut, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. He and some friends started a business washing athletes’ clothes. He sold the business after he got his degree in 1985.
Terry said that family came first for Kates. "Every Saturday morning, the kids would all come into bed with us," she said, "and we said, ‘We have a lovely family.’ We knew we had an incredible thing going."

"He was a thoughtful husband and a doting father," his brother Paul said. He described Andy as charismatic, with a wide circle of friends. "Everybody he touched, everybody he met - whether it was for three days, three weeks, or three decades - was affected by him," Paul said. "He was always the focus of whatever group he was in."

Terry recalled speaking to Andy soon after American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the building just a few stories beneath him.

"I got a call from him," Terry recalled. "He just said, ‘A plane hit the building. It’s on fire. I love you very much.’"

Any readers with personal knowledge, remembrances, or other pictures of Andrew Kates, please submit them either by comment or e-mail.

A list of links to tributes to the other 2,995 victims of the 9/11 terror attacks is available here.

Update:  If you're having trouble with the 2,996 links above, project coordinator D.C. Roe's site seems to be down temporarily, presumably due to high traffic.

The Sawbuck Slide

For you scoreboard watchers, oil is now more than $10 cheaper per barrel than it was a month ago.  Today's fall of more than $1 extends a 14% retreat.

If prices had instead risen $10 in that time frame, we'd be saddled with $86 oil; pundits, partisans, and Pelosis would light themselves aflame with vitriol and despair, lamenting the pending global collapse at the hands of greedy oil barons and non-enlightened drivers of pure-bred cars.

Instead, we've got $66 oil.  Try getting a barrel of milk for less than double that.  Those no-good, greedy dairy farmers, gouging cereal-loving Americans.

You think I'm kidding?

My prediction: we dip below $60/barrel before demand for home heating oil begins pushing prices higher again.

Previously:
If Oil Falls In the Futures Market, Does It Make a Front Page
Oil's Big, Big End of Summer Clearance Sale
Walker Ridge - Get Ready To Love These Words
Crude Watch
Coming In November: Falling Oil, Economic Bliss, Some Elections
Had Enough, Crude?  Yeah, You Stay Down.
Oil Tanks Again

Bygones

Um... what?

(Hat Tip: Urban Elephants)

"Phase II" Pre-War Intel Report Released

Today, the Senate Intelligence Committee releases its Phase II report on pre-war Iraq intelligence.

The intelligence committee issued a portion of its analysis, labeled Phase I, on prewar intelligence shortcomings in July 2004. But concluding work on Phase II of the study has been more problematic, because of partisan divisions over how senior policymakers used intelligence in arguing for the need to drive Saddam from power.

Last November, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, forced the Senate into a rare closed-door session to discuss the delay in coming out with the new data.

The 400-page report to be released Friday covers only two of the five topics outlined under Phase II. Much of the information — on the intelligence supplied by the INC and Chalabi and the overestimation of Saddam's WMD threat — has been documented in numerous studies.

This afternoon, I'll be joining a conference call with the staff of committee chairman Pat Roberts (R-KS) to discuss the findings.

Stay browsed for updates.

Update:  The two sections of Phase II being released today are now available online.

• Postwar Findings about Iraq's WMD Programs and Links to Terrorism and How they Compare with Prewar Assessments
• The Use by the Intelligence Community of Information Provided by the Iraqi National Congress

A Victory For Taxpayers (and Bloggers)

Score one for government transparency.  And another one for accountability.  And also for American taxpayers.  And, well, maybe one for the blogosphere.

From Majortity Leader Bill First:

Tonight I’m proud to report that the Senate unanimously passed S. 2590, the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006.

The passage of this legislation is a triumph for transparency in government, for fiscal discipline, and for the bipartisan citizen journalism of the blogosphere.

Without the efforts of ordinary Americans empowered by the Internet, including many hardworking members of the iFrist Volunteers, this legislation might easily have been successfully obstructed. Instead, the unprecedented synergy between online grassroots activists and Senate leadership provides a new model for participatory democracy in action.

I look forward to reconciling S. 2590 with its counterpart in the House and delivering this deserving legislation to the desk of President Bush for his signature.

Previously:
Pork-Out Debrief: Round-Up and Reaction
Suitably Flipping the Byrd
Hold the Phone - Another Secret Holder Lurks!
The Silent Triumverate
Secret Holder Being Sniffed Out

If Oil Falls In the Futures Market, Does It Make a Front Page

Why do I keep posting about oil prices' steady decline?  This obviously isn't particularly newsworthy if it's not getting appreciable news coverage.

Then again, think back to 5 months ago (the last time crude oil futures were this low).  In the late spring and early summer, when oil went on its steady climb, don't you recall a bit torrent of news coverage and political posturing about Big Oil's evil pricing conspiracies and constant wailing for "windfall profit" taxes to put these gluttonous, collusive fat cats in their place?

Unfortunately for oil company assailants, the indominable might of the invisible hand is proving, as ever, that commodity prices are driven by supply, demand, and market speculation thereabout.

The deafening media silence over crude's sustained decline over the last month has spoken volumes about the relative appetite for emotive, hand-wringing indignation over rational reliance on well-overseen free market forces.

For posterity (and to plug this gaping maw in the media's ongoing undercoverage of this dramatic decline) let's reflect on this sustained pullback in light sweet crude oil futures over the last 22 trading sessions.

To recap, key reasons for this decline are a drastic reduction in hurricane forecasts throughout the 2006 season, the end of the summer driving season, an unexpected recent buildup in domestic oil supplies, a presumption that OPEC (the actual, non-American collusive oil cartel that can and does manipulate prices) will agree to maintain current output levels at next week's meeting, and this week's discovery of a simply enormous oil field in the Gulf of Mexico (the second largest ever discovered by this country).

Good, good, good.  Newsworthy, newsworthy, newsworthy.  As long as the media is ignoring it in favor of more hand-wringingly palatable pursuits, rest assured this and other inconveniently happy news will continue grace this page.

Source data:  Department of Energy

Previously:
Oil's Big, Big End of Summer Clearance Sale
Walker Ridge - Get Ready To Love These Words
Crude Watch
Coming In November: Falling Oil, Economic Bliss, Some Elections
Had Enough, Crude?  Yeah, You Stay Down.
Oil Tanks Again

There Goes the Neighborhood

As I live but a block from United Nations Plaza, I think I'm going to need to burrow deep underground before this crazy train rolls into town.

Diplomats at the United Nations were sent into disarray yesterday when President Ahmadinejad of Iran declared that he intended to attend the General Assembly of the world body on September 19 and to debate his country's nuclear program with President Bush, who is due to address the Assembly that day.

However, it was far from clear whether the Iranian president was serious in his suggestion or whether he was merely tweaking the nose of his American opponents.

That silly nose-tweaker.

The speculation, however, was enough to prompt sharp questions from reporters to the press spokesman of Secretary-General Annan about whether a precedent existed for America denying a visa to a president visiting the General Assembly. The spokesman replied that he knew of no such precedent.

Well... in 1988, Secretary of State George Shultz denied a visa to Yasser Arafat, who was attempting to address the U.N. General Assembly.  This was just a week or so after the Palestinian National Council proclaimed independence.

Somewhat different, yes.  Ahmadinejad's state is after all a full privileged U.N. member.  But Palestine was a debating, observing, non-voting member at the time.  So I don't think I'd go so far as to say the move would be unprecedented.

Shultz's reasoning at the time:

..that Arafat, as chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, was an "accessory" to terrorism and consequently barred under American law from entering the U.S.

Hmm... precedenteder and precedenteder.

The U.S. was deplored (surprise!) by the U.N. for the move in 1988, but then again, this is our soil.  If another country wants to start picking up the lion's share of the bill for this toothless, corrupt relic, it can play host and welcome any nuke-crazed madmen with genocidal tendencies it sees fit.

In the meantime, for my money, the ball is in Condi's court.  I won't lose any sleep if Dr. Rice chooses to keep Mad Mahmoud and his Members Only wardrobe out of the country and off my street.

More at Hot Air.

Oil's Big, Big End of Summer Clearance Sale

Got crude?  Suddenly, it's seeming very passe.  Very last season.  It's dragged down another 1.5% today, languishing just over $67.50 a barrel.

But beyond the close of summer driving season, a bundle of factors are nicely plaguing energy prices.

Oil prices fell Wednesday with the close of the high-demand summer driving season in the U.S. and as traders expect OPEC, which meets next week, to maintain current output levels.

Tropical Storm Florence formed far out in the open Atlantic and could strengthen into a hurricane by the weekend, but forecasters said Wednesday it was too soon to tell if it would reach the United States.

Further easing supply concerns, Shell Exploration & Production Co., a unit of Royal Dutch Shell PLC, said its Mars platform in the Gulf of Mexico, which was heavily damaged by Hurricane Katrina, is now pumping 190,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day, or 20 percent more than before last summer's storm.

Add that to yesterday's reserve-swelling news about some very oily ridges in the Gulf of Mexico and some cautious optimism about the rest of the hurricane season, and we've got a genuine pull-back underway.

Don't believe me?

Just ask previous me:
Walker Ridge - Get Ready To Love These Words
Crude Watch
Coming In November: Falling Oil, Economic Bliss, Some Elections
Had Enough, Crude?  Yeah, You Stay Down.
Oil Tanks Again

POW! Right in the Khalid.

Today, the Bush administration announced that 9/11 masterminds and other high-value al Qaeda detainees will be given prisoner of war status by the United States, granting them protection under the Geneva Convention.

The 14 such prisoners now held by the CIA in previously unconfirmed secret prisons, which include 9/11 architect Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Abu Zubaydah, and Ramzi Bin Al Shibh, will be transferred to the Department of Defense where their fates will be determined by whether or not Congress authorizes military tribunals for such POWs.

Therein lies the shrewdness of the move, which superficially strikes as a doveward one.  How many legislators are likely to support anything less than full military commissions for these pinnacles of human garbage that wrought unspeakable war crimes on thousands of innocent American civilians?

If the legislation paves the way for tribunals for other detained terrorists, Salim Hamdan (Osama's driver, Gitmo detainee, and successful Supreme Court petitioner) may be getting a lesson in unintended consequences.

On the prospective legislation, the White House released a fact sheet that included the following:

Legislation Authorizing The Creation Of Military Commissions To Try These Suspected Terrorists For War Crimes

 

Today, The President Sent Legislation To Congress To Specifically Authorize The Creation Of Military Commissions To Try These Suspected Terrorists For War Crimes. The Bill ensures that these commissions are established in a way that protects our national security and ensures a full and fair trial for the accused. As soon as Congress acts to authorize the military commissions the President proposed, the men our intelligence officials believe orchestrated the deaths of nearly 3,000 Americans on September 11, 2001, can face justice. We will also seek to prosecute those believed to be responsible for the attack on the USS Cole – and an operative believed to be involved in the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. 

 

The Legislation Also Includes Vital Provisions To Preserve Our Ability To Question Key Terrorist Leaders And Operatives. We will continue to hunt down terrorist leaders and operatives. And as more high-ranking terrorists are captured, the CIA program will be crucial to obtaining the life-saving information they can provide. 

 

Ø The Supreme Court's Recent Determination That Common Article Three (CA3) Of The Geneva Conventions Applies To The War With Al Qaida Put In Question The Future Of The CIA Program. CA3 prohibits "outrages upon personal dignity" and "humiliating and degrading treatment." These and other provisions are vague and undefined and could be interpreted in different ways by American and foreign judges. 

 

Ø We Owe Our Military And Intelligence Personnel Involved In Capturing And Questioning Terrorists Clear Rules So They Can Continue To Do Their Jobs And Protect Our People.  We are asking Congress to pass legislation that will clarify the rules for our personnel fighting the war on terror. We need to ensure that those questioning the terrorists can continue to do everything within the limits of the law to get information that can save American lives. 

 

Passing This Legislation Is A Top Priority, And We Will Work With Congress To Act Quickly To Strengthen And Clarify Our Laws To Meet The Threats Of A New Era. We will ensure that the CIA program goes forward in a way that follows the law, meets the national security needs of our country, and protects the brave men and women we ask to obtain information that will save innocent lives.

Bringing terrorists to justice - it seems to have a universally agreeable ring to it.  Still, I think there's no question that, in the currently polarized political environment, a few agitators will see an angle to work a little mileage out of opposing it.

Frank, commenting at Hot Air, asks perhaps the most pertinent question about Mohammed's state of affairs.

Will the Geneva convention give him a better fitting undershirt?

Margolis and Noonan Sign a Book Deal

Exciting news from the team that brings you Blogs for Bush and GOP Bloggers.

I am please to announce that Mark Noonan and I have signed with World Ahead Publishing to publish a book detailing corruption in today's Democratic Party. The book, titled Caucus of Corruption, will be released early next year.

Who Does Number Two Work For?

You may have heard the happy news that broke over the weekend that U.S. and Iraqi forces nabbed a key terror figure, described as the "number two" leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.  His arrest and subsequent bean spilling reportedly have led to the capture or killing of 20 additional senior al Qaeda members

If it seems like every big fish we haul in is described as being second in command, it's because, as Mark Noonan wryly notes, all members of al Qaeda are Number Two.

Walker Ridge - Get Ready To Love These Words

Bigger'n ANWR:

Tests of a deep-water well in the Gulf of Mexico could indicate a significant oil discovery, three companies announced Tuesday, in the first project to tap into a region that reportedly could boost U.S. oil and gas reserves by as much as 50 percent.
...
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that the region where the well is located could become the nation's biggest new domestic source of oil since the discovery of Alaska's North Slope more than a generation ago.

The Journal said Chevron and Devon officials estimate that recent discoveries in the Gulf of Mexico's lower-tertiary formations hold up to 15 billion barrels' worth of oil and gas reserves, a total that would boost the nation's current reserves by 50 percent.

Of course, if we were also to drill in ANWR, we could see domestic reserves shooting to nearly double current levels.  Reduced reliance on foreign oil, lower energy prices, the creation of tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of jobs... it's a beautiful dream.

For now though, as the disruption of 2,000 acres of tundra is politically unpalatable, let's steel ourselves for the battle sure to be joined by at least one group claiming it's a terrible idea to harvest Walker Ridge.  Disrupting surface currents in the Gulf, perhaps.

Let's also get ready to wring evil oil company Chevron's neck.  Sure they found these massive reserves that could so drastically benefit us all, and yes, that was thanks to the reinvestment of those darn profits they insist on making, but surely now that they've hit the mother lode, we can squeeze some extra money out of them as a penalty for being so piggishly successful.

Crude Watch

Down, down, down.  Crude oil futures hit a multi-month low on Monday.  Trading was light on the New York Mercantile Exchange, what with it being closed, but European trading pushed Nymex crude futures well under $69 $68 a barrel.

Despite upward pressure on oil prices resulting from the continuing krisis of krazy in Iran, the market seems recently lulled by the failure of the U.N. to impose sanctions, instead dispatching Kofi to a mild and unproductive sit down with Ahmadinejad.

Shoving prices further downward were last week's unexpected buildup in U.S. oil inventories and Friday's significant reduction in this year's hurricane forecast.

Recently:
Coming In November: Falling Oil, Economic Bliss, Some Elections
Had Enough, Crude?  Yeah, You Stay Down.
Oil Tanks Again

Have You Seen This Man?

On April 2, Ralph "Bucky" Phillips escaped from the Erie County Correctional Facility in western New York.  The career criminal was a week from finishing a 90-day stint for a parole violation.

On June 10, during a traffic stop in Chautauqua County, a man police say was Phillips shot a state trooper in the abdomen and escaped.  The trooper survived.

Last Thursday, state troopers Donald Baker and Joseph Longobardo were searching for Phillips near the house of family members.  Without provocation, the two men were shot by an unseen sniper with a high-powered rifle.  Baker remains in a medically induced coma, while Longobardo died yesterday from his wounds.

Still at large, Ralph Phillips is now wanted for murder.

Mr. Phillips, a career criminal, has evaded capture through a combination of camping, stealing and relying on a sympathetic network of family and friends, the authorities said. He is suspected of stealing 41 guns, including a number of high-powered rifles similar to the one used in Thursday’s shooting, from a sporting goods store in nearby Ellington, N.Y., the week before the shooting. He is believed to have stolen and abandoned as many as 15 vehicles since his escape.

This menace has long been known as a threat to police.

Sheriff's officials said that when he was released or transferred from the Chautauqua County jail several years ago, he left officials a note threatening "to splatter pig meat all over Chautauqua County.

"State police were hoping a new $225,000 reward for help in Phillips' capture would inspire residents to come forward. Six local people have been arrested in recent days and charged with harboring Phillips, including his daughter and former girlfriend.

State police Saturday said Phillips is a threat, and not just to law enforcement.

"He's a desperate man, he knows he's wanted and his choices are running out," Gibbons said. "If someone in the community comes between him and his freedom, it is our feeling that he will become desperate and possibly hurt them."

More information is available on New York State Police website.  Tips go to (800) 728-0697 or crimetip@troopers.state.ny.us.

Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin Killed By Stingray

Crikey.

THE Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin, is dead.

He was killed in a freak accident in Cairns, police sources said today.

It is understood he was killed by a stingray barb that went through his chest and reportedly into his heart.

He was swimming off the Low Isles at Port Douglas filming an underwater documentary when the tragedy occured.

Irwin, a father of two, was just 44.  Per Wiki:

On September 4, 2006 shortly after 11:00 AM local time, Irwin was killed in a marine accident while filming an underwater documentary in the Batt Reef off the Low Isles near Port Douglas, north of Cairns, Queensland, Australia. It is believed that a stingray barb penetrated his chest causing a fatal wound, though this has yet to be confirmed by Australian officials. In an ironic twist, it has been reported that his new documentary was aimed at demystifying the stingray.

From a 2003 ABC interview:

"I think I've actually got animals so genetically inside me that there's no way I could actually be anything else... I think my path would have always gone back to or delivered me to wildlife. I think wildlife is just like a magnet, and it's something that I can't help."

Irwin took flak for an incident in 2004 in which he involved his son Bob in a croc feeding demonstration, but he certainly struck me as one of the most intrepid entertainers and educators of our time.

Labor Day Sunshine

I hope everyone's enjoying a happy and restful holiday weekends with friends and/or family.  If you're stuck inside, whether for weather or workload, and find yourself assailed with any ghost story hokum about a weak or troubled national economy, salve your brain with these timely economic reminders, courtesy of Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT).

• In the last three years, 5.7 million new jobs have been created in America. In this last month, 128,000 were created.
• The unemployment rate is 4.7 percent – lower than the average for the past 30 years. In my home state of Utah, the reddest state in the union, the unemployment rate is 3.4 percent.
• Manufacturing production has risen 5.6 percent since June 2005.
• This year’s budget deficit is $140 billion less than predicted.

On the subject of delicious (and good for you too!) tax cuts, Hatch said, "Some have criticized Congress for lowering taxes while our nation has to pay for emergencies like two wars and hurricane recovery.  But many critics miss the fact that the president’s tax cuts have boosted productivity, which ultimately increases household income as well as the amount of money flowing into the government’s coffers. These numbers show that Congress’s pro-growth policies have kept the economy on the right track."

Mmm... Growth.

Happy labor day!

Pork-Out Debrief: Round-Up and Reaction

24 hours after Robert Byrd's office confirmed the Senator was the second "secret holder" of the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (following a captivating game of cloakroom and blogger, eliminating Senators without such holds to expose the obstructors), there's been a significant amount of fall-out and follow-up.

Let's recap.

Glenn Reynolds, co-founder of key project catalyst Porkbusters notes coverage in the Chicago Tribune.

To the right of the masthead at the Web site porkbusters.org is a quote attributed to former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott: "I'll just say this about the so-called porkbusters. I'm getting damn tired of hearing from them."

Sens. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Robert Byrd (D-W.Va.) are probably damn tired of hearing from them too, but taxpayers ought to listen up--and applaud. The porkbusters led a pack of bloggers who outed the two senators for bottling up a bill meant to help the public track how its tax dollars are spent.
...
It's a good day for taxpayers and the bloggers who got to the truth. And a bad day for secrecy in the U.S. Senate.

Mary Katherine cites the Congressional Record from August 1, 2003, during which Senator Byrd expressed his displeasure with secret holds.

Wyden: I especially want to thank Rules Chairman Lott and the Senate's foremost authority on the Rules, Senator Byrd, for their commitment to working with us on this resolution. They know all too well the havoc ``secret'' holds can wreak on the Senate agenda.

The Lott-Byrd-Grassley-Wyden resolution would bring the anonymous hold out of the shadows of the Senate.
...
In Chapter 28, "Reflections of a Party Leader," of Volume II of The Senate, the Honorable ROBERT C. BYRD wrote: "To me, the Senate rules were to be used, when necessary, to advance and expedite the Senate's business.''

Tim Chapman rebuts both Byrd's and Stevens' ostensible rationale for their secret holds.

Sen. Stevens’ spokesperson stated that Sen. Stevens placed a hold on S.2590 because of cost concerns.
...
FACT:  Sen. Stevens allowed eight bills, costing a total of $1.8 billion over the next five years, to pass unanimously on the same night on which he placed a hold on S.2590.

Sen. Byrd’s spokesperson stated that Sen. Byrd placed a hold on S.2590 because additional debate, review, and amendment were necessary prior to passage of S.2590.
...
FACT: Sen. Byrd allowed eight bills to pass without debate, four bills to pass without amendment, and two bills to pass without committee oversight on the same night on which he placed a hold on S.2590

Most importantly, Bill Frist renews his commitment to bring S2590 to a prompt vote (after doling out a kindly blog shout out).

I’m very encouraged to see that all one hundred Senators have now answered the blogosphere’s inquiries on the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act. Now is the time to act. In September, I will bring S. 2590 to the floor of the Senate for the vote it deserves.

Good times.

Previously:
Suitably Flipping the Byrd
Hold the Phone - Another Secret Holder Lurks!
The Silent Triumverate
Secret Holder Being Sniffed Out