Israel Kills 30 Civilians at Shelter, Witnesses Tell U.N. from AfterDowningStreet.org

Israel kills 30 civilians at shelter, witnesses tell U.N.
By Kevin Flower | CNN.com

Israeli forces shelled a house where they had ordered about 100 Palestinian civilians to take shelter, killing about 30 people and wounding many more, witnesses told the U.N.

Israel Defense Forces said it is looking into the allegations.

"Credible eyewitness accounts" described the incident, which occurred in the volatile Gaza City suburb of Zeitoun, said Allegra Pacheco, deputy head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for the Palestinian territories. Pacheco spoke to CNN on Friday.

Witnesses reported that "about 100 civilians were evacuated" to a house Sunday, and the structure was shelled Monday, she said. The witnesses told the U.N. that two of the survivors said their children died.

"There was no order given to move civilians from one building into another," Israeli security sources said.

However, Pacheco said, "The eyewitness accounts that we have received state that the IDF ordered them to go into this house."

Officials are simply passing along witness reports and not making "accusations of deliberate actions or any legal conclusions on the part of the IDF," Pacheco said.

"There needs to be further fact-finding on what occurred in this house," she said, adding that U.N. officials have yet to speak to the IDF and the Israeli government.

Her remarks came a day after the International Committee of the Red Cross issued a blunt press release saying ambulances obtained access to several houses in Zeitoun "affected by Israel shelling," days after they asked to go into the neighborhood.

The release slammed Israel -- an uncharacteristic move for the agency, which is known for its neutrality and quiet, behind-the-scenes activities.

According to the release, the ICRC had wanted "safe passage for ambulances" to the neighborhood since Saturday, but didn't receive IDF permission until Wednesday.

The ICRC and the Palestine Red Crescent Society "found four small children next to their dead mothers in one of the houses. They were too weak to stand up on their own. One man was also found alive, too weak to stand up. In all, there were 12 corpses lying on mattresses," the ICRC said.

Rescue teams found 15 wounded people and three corpses in other houses, said the ICRC, which casts the shelling as a single incident.

"The ICRC believes that in this instance the Israeli military failed to meet its obligation under international humanitarian law to care for and evacuate the wounded. It considers the delay in allowing rescue services access unacceptable," the ICRC said.

Pacheco said she could not say if the incident witnesses described to the U.N. was the same incident in the ICRC report. But they took place in the same area, she said.

"In the Zeitoun area, it's been a closed area, and there has been fighting and there have been injured. There are other homes and buildings where there were injured who were not evacuated," she said.

Witnesses told the U.N. they had been calling for ambulances to collect dead and wounded people in the Zeitoun buildings, she said.

"This was very much similar to what the ICRC reported yesterday as to what the medical personnel found when they went into the neighborhood," Pacheco said.

The Israeli army built earthen walls that made ambulance access to the neighborhood impossible, the ICRC said.

"The children and the wounded had to be taken to the ambulances on a donkey cart," the ICRC said.

Pierre Wettach, the ICRC's head of delegation for Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories, called the shelling incident "shocking."

"The Israeli military must have been aware of the situation but did not assist the wounded. Neither did they make it possible for us or the Palestine Red Crescent to assist the wounded," he said in the ICRC news release.

Pacheco on Friday described "a serious protection crisis" in Gaza where civilians are "very vulnerable" to death and injury.

"There is no safe space for civilians. There are no bomb shelters, safe havens, places to flee," she said.

rest at http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/38834

From Think Progress: UNDER THE RADAR

ADMINISTRATION -- BUSH REWARDS IRAQ WAR LOYALISTS WITH PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM: On Monday, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino announced that "President Bush will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom to Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, and former Prime Ministers Tony Blair of the United Kingdom and John Howard of Australia." Perino noted that the three leaders have been loyal to Bush foreign policy, stating, "All three leaders have been staunch allies of the United States, particularly in combating terrorism." Support for the Iraq war has become a good predictor of whether one will receive the president's highest honor. Past recipients include Norm Podhoretz (2003), L. Paul Bremer (2004), Gen. Tommy Franks (2004), Gen. Richard Myers (2005), George Tenet (2004), and Gen. Peter Pace (2008). Given this standard, there are no better recipients than Howard and Blair. Howard joined Bush's Coalition of the Willing and kept a large number of Australian troops in Iraq until his defeat last year.  Similarly, Blair, derided in Britain as "Bush's poodle," had been Bush's strongest Western ally and helped push the invasion of Iraq. Uribe also joined Bush in contributing forces to the Coalition of the Willing.

ENVIRONMENT -- EPA INACTION CONTRIBUTED TO TENNESSEE COAL ASH DISASTER: On Dec. 22, a billion gallons of toxic coal sludge burst through a retention wall in eastern Tennessee and spread across 300 acres, causing massive property and environmental damage. The New York Times reports today that the Tennessee dump and more than 1,300 other similar dumps across the United States are "unregulated and unmonitored," as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has refused to act after facing push-back from the Big Coal. "The lack of uniform regulation stems from the E.P.A.'s inaction on the issue, which it has been studying for 28 years," the Times reports. "In 2000, the agency came close to designating coal ash a hazardous waste, but backpedaled in the face of an industry campaign that argued that tighter controls would cost it $5 billion a year." Regulation is essential, however, as "environmentalists, scientists and other experts say that regulations could have prevented the Tennessee spill." In fact, in 2000 the EPA "came close to prohibiting ash ponds" like the one in eastern Tennessee, but never acted. "We're still working on coming up with those standards," said Matthew Hale, director of the office of solid waste at the EPA. "We don't have a schedule at this point." Yesterday, a coalition of environmental groups announced it would sue the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) on behalf of 40 families, "arguing TVA broke federal law by not fully disclosing the extent of spill contamination."

ECONOMY -- PENCE CHALLENGES AMERICANS TO 'CHECK' HIS FACTS: GUESS WHAT? HE'S GOT THEM WRONG: Appearing on C-SPAN's Washington Journal yesterday, Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) repeatedly claimed that the solution to the economic crisis was to "do what Ronald Reagan did" and implement "across-the-board permanent marginal tax reductions." Towards the end of his interview, however, a caller challenged Pence's idea, saying that deficits exploded under Reagan, forcing the first President Bush to raise taxes. Pence replied that the caller was right that Reagan "saw deficits and the national debt grow," but he claimed it was the fault of spending in Congress because Reagan's tax cuts "resulted in more than a doubling of the revenues." Pence then asked viewers to "check me on this" because "people can check things easily on the Internet these days." As Media Matters noted, revenues did not get close to doubling under Reagan. "According to the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), when adjusted for inflation to constant fiscal year 2000 dollars, receipts (revenues) increased from $1.077 trillion to $1.236 trillion during Reagan's term in office." Additionally, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has found that income tax "receipts grew noticeably more slowly than usual in the 1980s, after the large cuts in individual and corporate income tax rates in 1981." In contrast, "income tax collections grew much more rapidly in the 1990s," when "marginal income tax rates at the top of the income spectrum were raised," according to CBPP.

from Think Progress: The Bush Legacy Propaganda

President Bush repeatedly argues that neither he nor his contemporaries are yet able to fully assess his legacy. Rather, he and his advisers say -- again and again and again -- that "history will judge" whether he was an effective president. Despite this oft-repeated claim, the President seems disinclined to leave any of his legacy to chance. In recent weeks, he and his advisers have offered assessments of the Bush era that are increasingly at odds with reality. Condoleezza Rice, for example, argued that Bush engaged the United Nations more than any other president. And just yesterday, Bush told a crowd that Donald Rumsfeld did an "outstanding job" as Secretary of Defense. In a similar vein, the White House recently released a report entitled, "Highlights of Accomplishments and Results of the Administration of George W. Bush" that featured a list of "100 Things Americans May Not Know About the Bush Administration Record." As Frank Rich wrote for the New York Times, "This document is the literary correlative to 'Mission Accomplished.'" As Rich notes, much of the legacy report's claims about the Bush administration's economic, social, and international accomplishments are only true under very narrow conditions, suggesting that the President hopes that Americans would blind themselves to the broader failures of his presidency.

TOLL ON ECONOMY: The Bush legacy document declares that Bush "instituted pro-growth policies" that produced "six years of uninterrupted economic growth and an unprecedented 52 consecutive months of job creation" and asks, "Did you know the President's tax relief helped fuel growth that led to the largest three year increase in revenues in 26 years?" In reality, the President's "pro-growth policies" served to weaken the economy by nearly doubling the federal debt, championing deregulation on Wall Street, and increasing the income gap. While Bush claims that his tax cuts provided needed economic stimulus and pulled the economy out of recession in 2001, Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman explained simply, "None of this is true." A recent Los Angeles Times poll found that 75 percent of Americans feel that Bush economic policies were responsible for the current weakened state of the U.S. economy. Further, Americans see the error of Bush's reckless economic deregulation, with 62 percent calling for more aggressive regulation on Wall Street. Bush, however, has not learned his lesson. Yesterday, he told the conservative publication Human Events, "I will continue to argue for low taxes, less regulation."

TOLL ON SOCIETY: In his legacy document, Bush claims credit for promoting a "culture of life" by banning the use of federal funds for embryonic stem cell research and instituting regulations allowing health care professionals to refuse to participate in medical procedures that violate their personal beliefs. His ban on federal funding for stem cell research "set research back five to six to seven years in this country," delaying potential treatments for a number of degenerative and life threatening diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's. Similarly, the President's regulatory change allowing health care providers to abstain from procedures they deem unethical allows virtually anyone in the health care sector -- including janitors, receptionists, and volunteers -- to refuse to assist patients with obtaining birth control, abortion, fertility treatments, sterilization, or even referrals to those who would provide such services. As family health insurance premiums nearly doubled, employers became less likely to offer coverage, and the total number of Americans without health insurance grew by 7 million individuals, Bush failed to meaningfully address the nation's health care crisis. In fact, he vetoed expanding the State Children's Health Insurance Program, denying 10 million low-income childrenaccess to health care. Thankfully, in failing to pass his unpopular Social Security privatization plan, the Bush presidency was not as damaging as it could have been. Had he been successful in the drive, retirees would have suffered massive losses as a result of the current financial crisis that he had a hand in creating.

TOLL ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS: The legacy document also tells a story of how Bush "kept America safe and promoted liberty abroad." But this ignores the obvious fact that the attacks of 9/11 happened on his watch, not to mention the roughly 4,000 troops who have died in his wars. Further, while the President claims credit for expanding and strengthening the nation's counterterrorism tools, the U.S. military is weaker now than it was five years ago, the State Department is suffering from staffing shortages and low morale, and Bush's approval of illegal interrogation techniques harmed the CIA's intelligence-gathering initiatives and threatened troops abroad. The President's cowboy diplomacy and his disastrous invasion of Iraq led to unprecedented levels of U.S. unpopularity around the world. But Bush remains untroubled, saying recently, "I think I'll be remembered as a guy who was dealt some pretty tough issues and I dealt with them head-on and I didn't try to shy away."

Muzzle off, Biden makes news - from Politico.com

Joe Biden hasn't said much in public since the election, but one of Washington's most prolific talkers is back – and making news whenever he speaks.

In fewer than five minutes on Tuesday, Biden criticized his own incoming Obama administration and disclosed information his aides have kept secret for security reasons.

And on Monday, Biden declared, "We're at war!" and compared the economic turmoil to 9/11.

Team Obama kept Biden under wraps immediately after the election, but with his Senate swearing-in and upcoming Iraq trip, he's back in front of the microphones.

Chatting with reporters after he was sworn in for a seventh term in the Senate, Biden called it "a mistake" that the Obama transition selected Leon Panetta as CIA director without consulting the Senate intelligence committee.

"I'm still a Senate man and I always think this way. I think it's always good to talk to the requisite members of Congress," Biden said. "I think it was just a mistake."


rest at http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17139.html

The RNC and the "Magic Negro" from Truthout

    This past December, Republican National Committee chair candidate John "Chip" Saltsman distributed a CD to fellow party officials entitled "We Hate the USA." One of the songs on the CD is entitled "Barack the Magic Negro." It was written by conservative satirist Paul Shanklin and aired on Rush Limbaugh's radio program.

    The title of the song is based on a March 19, 2007, Los Angeles Times article entitled Obama the "Magic Negro," written by David Ehrenstein. In the article, Ehrenstein makes the argument that then-Senator Obama lends himself to white America's idealized standards of a less-than-real black man.

rest at http://www.truthout.org/010609R

Nadler Pushes Bill to Overturn Bush’s ‘Midnight Regulations’ from The Washington Independent

That didn't take long.

On the first day of the 111th Congress, House Democrats are already targeting the last-minute regulations passed down by the Bush administration in recent weeks. Among the most controversial of those efforts have been rules to ease environmental restrictions on various industries and expand the rights of healthcare workers to refuse any services they find morally objectionable.

Critical Democrats have been weighing how they might go about overturning some of those regulations — and they have several tools at their disposal. Today, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) chose one route, reintroducing legislation requiring that all regulations arriving in the final three months of the Bush administration must gain approval by the incoming Obama administration.

From Nadler's statement:

We cannot sit idly by as this administration quietly makes last-ditch efforts to erode civil liberties, empower polluting industries, threaten the environment and weaken a woman's right to choose.

rest at http://washingtonindependent.com/24073/nadler-pushs-bill-to-overturn-bushs-midnight-regulations

Pence Challenges Americans To ‘Check’ His Facts: Guess What? He’s Got Them Wrong from Think Progress

ThinkProgress loves a challenge, so we looked into Pence's claim. As he suggested, it wasn't hard to find out on the internet that this common conservative claim is wrong.

As Media Matters noted when Sean Hannity made the same argument, revenues did not get close to doubling under Reagan:

According to the White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB), when adjusted for inflation to constant fiscal year 2000 dollars, receipts (revenues) increased only from $1.077 trillion to $1.236 trillion during Reagan's term in office. Even in unadjusted (current) dollars, Hannity's claim that revenues "doubled" to more than $1 trillion during the Reagan administration is false: From 1981 to 1988, revenues in current dollars increased from $599.3 billion to $909.3 billion.

Additionally, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) has found that "Income tax receipts grew noticeably more slowly than usual in the 1980s, after the large cuts in individual and corporate income tax rates in 1981." In contrast, "income tax collections grew much more rapidly in the 1990s," when "marginal income tax rates at the top of the income spectrum were raised," wrote CBPP.

rest at http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/06/pence-reagan-challenge/

Welcome Fellow Travelers to the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy! from Firedoglake

I think Andrew Sullivan has a much more insightful evaluation of the situation:

Feinstein and Rockefeller sense a real individual with real clout at the agency, whom they cannot control. There may have been a lack of foresight here in not phoning Feinstein ahead of time. But it is also indisputable that many leading intelligence Democrats were deeply complicit in the Bush torture program and his illegal wire-tapping. It was just as important for the president-elect to pick someone not beholden to them either.

Again, I don't have any opinion as to whether Panetta will be good, bad or otherwise.  But just because the Intel whiners and their bruised egos are shrieking about Panetta's lack of "competence" and complaining that Obama has been hijacked by the "intellectual left" doesn't make it so.  Scratch a little deeper, as Sullivan says, and you'll find a bunch of people frightened at the prospect that their own complicity in brazenly illegal acts will be exposed by someone who doesn't have skin in the game.

rest at http://firedoglake.com/2009/01/06/welcome-fellow-travelers-to-the-vast-left-wing-conspiracy/

Feinstein, Harman, and Panetta: Obama Apologizes to Feinstein from Firedoglake

UPDATE: Obama apologizes to Feinstein.

From NBC/Ken Strickland:

Incoming Senate Intelligence Committee Chairperson Dianne Feinstein today said she's had a "substantial conversation" with President- and Vice President-elect Obama and Biden.

"They've apologized profusely," for not consulting with her before naming Leon Panetta as the nominee to head the CIA.

She called the oversight a "mistake," but suggested it was an honest one.

"I've been around a long time," said Feinstein, who's serving her fourth term. "I know this happens… so that's not an issue."

But she reiterated her concerns that Mr. Panetta wouldn't come to the job with significant intelligence experience. While acknowledging the CIA Director's job requires an operational skill set, "it's also a clandestine and covert service agency for the country. And as such, I think on the ground experience as a station agent in various parts of the world is vital."

rest at http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/2821

Bush will use federal funds to install security gate to protect his Dallas home. from Think Progress

Dallas City Manager Mary Suhm confirmed Monday that the younger Bush is seeking to have a gate placed somewhere along the entrance to streets leading to his future Preston Hollow address.

The plan, which requires approval by the Dallas City Council, isn't expected to encounter much opposition at City Hall, and the Bushes' neighbors seem to be on board.

So far, several options to limit access to the Bushes' new street have been discussed. But a final decision on exactly where to place the gate hasn't been recommended, Suhm said.

Federal money would pay for the gate, not the city, she said.

rest at http://thinkprogress.org/2009/01/06/bush-security-gate/

The Price Of Going DRM-Free: Apple’s Hidden $1.8 Billion Music Tax from TechCrunch

"But it looks like the labels prevailed in sticking it to consumers on one last point. Anyone who wants to upgrade their entire existing iTunes Library to DRM-free versions of the same songs, can conveniently do so with one click. But it is going to cost you 30 cents a track to do so. That's right, you have to pay again for songs you already bought. Let's see, 6 billion songs X 30 cents = $1.8 billion in potential upgrade fees. That's a music tax, plain and simple. No wonder the music companies finally relented.'

rest at http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/06/the-price-of-going-drm-free-apples-hidden-18-billion-music-tax/

Bush's 'Accomplishments' on Veterans Issues Are Lies, Evidence Shows from TPR: The Public Record

It's not uncommon for presidents to embellish their accomplishments upon leaving office, but George W. Bush, who will exit the White House leaving the country in the worst shape since Herbert Hoover's tenure, has gone a step further, moving well past exaggeration and straight into the realm of outright lying.

Last month, the White House has published two lengthy reports, "Highlights of Accomplishments and Results of the Administration of George W. Bush," and "100 Things Americans May Not Know About the Bush Administration Record" in an attempt to change the emerging historical consensus about a failed presidency.

What stands out among the combined 90-pages of so-called accomplishments in the reports are the extraordinary claims made by the White House regarding Bush's record on veterans' issues.

Bush claims he "provided unprecedented resources for veterans" over the past eight years and provided "the highest level of support for veterans in American history."

"The President also increased the benefits available to those who have served our Nation and transformed the veterans health care system to better serve those who have sacrificed for our freedom," both reports claim.  "Instituted reforms for the care of wounded warriors...and dramatically expanded resources for mental health services.'

That assertion does not contain even a shred of truth. And the evidence that is publicly available to undercut the president's outrageous claims is overwhelming.

Before the U.S. invaded Iraq in March 2003, documents released by the Department of Veterans Affairs said it expected a maximum of 8,000 cases of post traumatic stress disorder.

The VA's wildly off-the-mark figures about the number of PTSD cases followed statements by Vice President Dick Cheney that the war would be a "cakewalk," promises by former Undersecretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz that the war would be paid for by Iraqi oil revenues, and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld wrong headed claim that the U.S. didn't need to deploy more than 200,000 ground troops to maintain a post-war Iraq.

In January 2008, an Army task force found major flaws in the way the VA treated and cared for veterans suffering from traumatic brain injury last year.According to a RAND Institute study released shortly after the Army published it's task force report, there are now more than 320,000 veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars suffering from major depression, PTSD and/or traumatic brain injury largely due to multiple deployments and the VA has been and continues to be ill equipped to deal with these cases when soldiers return from combat.

Simply put, under Bush's leadership, veterans' healthcare has become worse, not better. Of the 84,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder by VA, only half, about 42,000, had their disability claim approved by VA. Instead of streamlining PTSD claims, President Bush's political appointees at VA actively fought against mental health claims.


rest at http://www.pubrecord.org/nationworld/600-bushs-accomplishments-on-veterans-issues-are-lies-evidence-shows.html

Glossy Book of Lies Will Save Bush Legacy from Gawker

The White House has released an awesome book called "Highlights of Accomplishment and Results" from "The Administration of President George W. Bush." Let's page through it!

This presumably final report of the Bush legacy project, which brought Bush superstars Karl Rove and Karen Hughes back to the White House, is a 50-page book (warning: pdf) detailing every misleading argument you will hear coming from Bush mouthpieces from now until the end of time. Eventually enough of the talking points will be repeated enough times that they will become accepted truths, and Bush will be seen as having been Not That Bad, probably by 2010 or so.

rest at http://gawker.com/5123684/glossy-book-of-lies-will-save-bush-legacy

EU Police learning hacking tricks. They are about to “Remote search” your PCs. from Hacker News

Law enforcement at European Union is working on ethical hacking proposal that will allow them to remotely access and monitor any PC without warrant. This is adopted after a decision by the European Union's council of ministers in Brussels. The move will allow MI5 officers, French, German and other EU forces to ask British officers to hack into someone's computer in your home, hotel or your business without any warrant. Authorities could break into PCs and install key loggers, malware or some sort of spyware to trap all the communications.

rest http://www.hackedinfo.com/2009/01/04/eu-police-learning-hacking-tricks-they-are-about-to-%E2%80%9Cremote-search%E2%80%9D-your-pcs/

Jared Diamond: Why Societies Collapse from The Big Picture

when Elites "insulate themselves from the consequences of their decisions, advancing their own short term interests against the interests of overall society."

rest and video at http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/01/jared-diamond-why-societies-collapse/

Cheney: Bush actions legal if not impeached from Raw Story Breaking News

Cheney: Bush actions legal if not impeached

If you don't get punished, you didn't go anything wrong, right?

That's the message Vice President Dick Cheney gave in an interview with CBS' Bob Schieffer on Sunday, suggesting that a president's actions are legal if those actions didn't result in his impeachment.

Asked by Schieffer if he believed that anything the president does in time of war is legal, Cheney said there is "historic precedent of taking action that you wouldn't take in peacetime."

Cheney referenced Abraham Lincoln as an example of another president who "suspended the writ of habeus corpus" during a war, prompting this exchange:

###

SCHIEFFER: But nobody thinks that was legal.

CHENEY: Well, no. It certainly was in the sense he wasn't impeached. And it was a wartime measure that he took that I think history says today, yeah, that was probably a good thing to do.

###

The vice president spent much of the interview defending eight years of the Bush administration's policies, including its surveillance and interrogation programs.

When Schieffer asked if the Bush administration had gone "too far" in its surveillance program, Cheney said no.

"I don't believe we violated anybody's civil liberties," he said.

Cheney also urged President-elect Barack Obama to continue the Bush administration's interrogation policies.

"I would hope [Obama] would avoid doing what others have done in the past, which is letting the campaign rhetoric guide his judgment in this absolutely crucial area," Cheney said. "We were very careful, we did everything by the book, and in fact we produced very significant results."

rest http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Cheney_Presidents_actions_legal_if_hes_0104.html

Commerce secretary nominee withdraws from Chicago Breaking News

WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama suffered the first blow to his Cabinet today as Commerce Secretary-designate Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew from consideration, citing an investigation of a company's business dealings with the state government he leads.

The New Mexico governor said in a statement released this afternoon that he was withdrawing because the investigation would have "forced an untenable delay in the confirmation process."

"A pending investigation of a company that has done business with New Mexico state government promises to extend for several weeks or, perhaps, even months," Richardson said, without further identifying the subject of the investigation.

A federal grand jury in Albuquerque has been investigating how Beverly Hills, Calif.-based CDR Financial Products won state contracts that generated about $1.5 million in fees after donating $100,000 to political organizations affiliated with Richardson.

CDR and its CEO, David Rubin, have contributed at least $110,000 to three political committees formed by Richardson, according to an Associated Press review of campaign finance records. The largest donation, $75,000, was made by CDR in June 2004 -- a couple of months after the transportation financing arrangement won state approval -- to a political committee that Richardson established before the Democratic National Convention that year.

rest http://www.chicagobreakingnews.com/2009/01/commerce-secretary-nominee-withdraws.html