The Hill has come out with a list of the “50 Most Beautiful People on Capitol Hill” for 2008, and if you check this link and scroll down three spaces, you'll see that Peter Welch's Communications Director Andrew Savage has made the list. He can be seen here in a photo from his audition for the next “Miami Vice” movie (of course, given his tender age, “Miami Vice” jokes are probably gonna fly right by Mr. Savage…).

The Hill refers to Savage as a “Renaissance Man” and writes:

Along with his ability to ski, bike, cut wood and take pictures, Savage's looks are all natural. His beauty routine is limited to the dictates of personal hygiene.

Well, and forgetting to shave for a few days before the shoot… heh.

Our buddy Andrew's even got one DC blogger speculating that he could be the “white Barack Obama” if he decides to run for office (while granting that he's probably “right on FISA”).

Congratulations, Andrew! Whenever Kiefer Sutherland decides to hang it up, we'll write you a letter of reference for his “24” spot.

Interestingly, this is the second year in a row a Welch staffer has made the list. Last year it was Molly Gray, who the Hill compared to Kelly McGillis.

So, does Welch have something against ugly people? Maybe I'll lead the next office occupation.

If the Welch Staff Swimsuit Calendar gets printed with taxpayer dollars, I'm calling Bill O'Reilly.

The report is in, and the outcome was never in doubt: Bush lackeys Monica Goodling and Kyle Sampson illegally based Department of Justice hiring decisions for career positions on the political positions of the candidates. No surprise, but the details are pretty shocking.

Here's what the law says:

It is the policy of the Department of Justice to seek to
eliminate discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion,
sex, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status,
political affiliation, age, or physical or mental handicap in
employment within the Department and to assure equal
employment opportunity for all employees and applicants for
employment.

And here are some of the questions that Monical Goodling asked when she was conducting interviews:

Tell us about your political philosophy. There are different
groups of conservatives, by way of example: Social
Conservative, Fiscal Conservative, Law & Order Republican.
[W]hat is it about George W. Bush that makes you want to
serve him?
Aside from the President, give us an example of someone
currently or recently in public service who you admire.
“Why are you a Republican?”

Anything at all troubling there?

What about the fact that she blocked a new hire, effectively ending a lawyer's career with the Department of Justice, because she thought she was a lesbian?

Now Gonzalez claims that he never knew that Goodling was using political tests to make her decisions. Wouldn't you think it might occur to him when he stopped getting recommendations to hire people from real law schools like Harvard, Yale, and Michigan, and started getting recommendations to hire people from places like Regent Law School , which is where Goodling went? 

You hear about heads of corporations getting prosecuted for treating the company as their own personal piggy bank. What we have here is even worse: the Republicans using the hiring power of the federal government to corrupt the Justice Department and mold it to their political preferences. As I've observed before, these people simply have no conception that government exists for any reason other than to serve the political interests of themselves and their political allies. 

So is it official yet? Is this the most corrupt administration in history?

The DHS just leaked vague warnings to the press for a POHA (really) Period of Heightened Alert, (Poha is also a type of rice flattened beaten but I digress)Possible threats to the elections and Olympics give rise to new warnings minus a color code change,we are still yellow  .Given the past questionable timing of security color code warnings its easy to be skeptical about this .The growing homeland security industry is here to stay.The word Homeland regretfully may be here to stay,it just doesn’t sound like the United States . Michael Chertoff is handing out the grant money,Joe Lieberman is head of the Senate DHS oversight committee. One almost misses Tom Ridge and his quaint duct tape and plastic your home strategy .Even here in Vermont we have Brian Dubie declaring symbolic emergencies to publicize possible heating fuel shortages.How much our country has changed in 8 years .Some things we now accept as normal,enhanced ID’s ,check points on the interstate,government listening in on telephone calls and of course the big one torture(enhanced interrogation) .Threats are real and need to be dealt with but aren’t we about to loose our soul here in an effort to save ourselves from unknown threats ? Take a look at Homeland Security Today Magazine online to get an idea of the amazing business world of the homeland security industrial complex.The New military industrial complex threat for the 21st Century.The concept explored in one article is the leveraging of existing power of local law enforcement and homeland security assets with surveillance technology.Linking local networks of camera,wireless communications etc. with federal level security personnel.The massive scale of this effort in all it’s homeland glory is quite arresting.

Chertoff Outlines FY 2008 Homeland Security Grants

The focal point of Chertoff’s announcement was an allocation of $1.69 billion under the Homeland Security Grant Program, which reflects an increase of $32 million over FY07. This year’s grants included $861 million for the State Homeland Security Program, an increase of $352 million; $781 million for the Urban Area Security Initiative, an increase of $34 million. In addition DHS allocated almost $40 million for the Metropolitan Medical Response system, and $14.5 million for Citizen Corps.

http://hstoday.us/index.php?op…

Wise Eyes

Thinking about surveillance and detection technology in outmoded ways can blind users to the worst danger of all-what they don’t know and can’t anticipate.People are discovering that using surveillance and detection technologies in new and innovative ways can leverage the existing powers and resources of law enforcement and homeland security assets.“The past half dozen years have witnessed an impressive proliferation of powerful surveillance and detection technologies, most originally developed for military use,” said James ( Keith James is program manager of SoBran Inc., Fairfax, Va., a critical mission safety and security services provider ) “They’ve radically expanded, augmented and automated visual surveillance functions over greater distances and with higher definition and speed the detection of specific chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRNE) materials.  The next step both the first responder and technology development community must take is to deploy these tools in ways that aid the goal of a more proactive, adaptive tactical response to threats.”

http://hstoday.us/index.php?op…