Operation Yellow Elephant

from the New York Times: Maya Nath, Benjamin Curtis:

Maya Dwaraka Nath, the daughter of Dr. Shashikala and Dr. Gopala Dwarakanath of Andover, Mass., was married on Saturday to Sgt. Benjamin A. Curtis, a son of Mary Curtis and John G. Curtis of Ann Arbor, Mich. Pandit Srinivasa Sastri performed the Hindu ceremony at Chinmaya Maruti, a Hindu religious center in Andover.

Mrs. Curtis, 28, works in Denver as an associate in the products liability department of the Phoenix law firm Snell & Wilmer. She graduated cum laude from Columbia and received a law degree from New York University. [ . . . ]

Sergeant Curtis, 29, is in an airborne infantry unit stationed at the Army base in Fort Carson, Colo. He returned last year from a two-month deployment in Iraq and expects another deployment. He graduated from Pace University. [ . . . ]

Ms. Nath and Sergeant Curtis were introduced in Chicago in December 2006 by a colleague of Ms. Nath’s at Jenner & Block, the Chicago law firm where she was then working. Both were apprehensive about meeting, as it was a first blind date for each. Ms. Nath was also concerned ...   more »

Blog | Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington

Major development in CREW's lawsuit against the White House Office of Administration. 

Following an on-the-record conference call on March 28, 2008, District Court Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued an Order on March 30, 2008 in CREW v. Office of Administration, ordering the Office of Administration (OA), a White House component, to produce documents and information related to its decision that it is no longer an agency subject to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). 

Judge Kollar-Kotelly agreed with CREW that documents showing when OA determined it was no longer subject to the FOIA and the Federal Records Act are relevant to determining whether OA is an agency and therefore is required to respond fully to CREW's request for documents relating to OA's discovery in the fall of 2005 of millions of e-mails on White House servers.

The documents can be found here. 

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Political Cortex

Mr. Hannity: In the age of international "Islamic" terrorism, preemptive war can sometimes be justified...

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Political Cortex

(NOTE: I apologize for my recent extended delay in publishing this weekly column series. I...

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Bad Attitudes

Via Scaramouche:

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Crooks and Liars

  It’s all about the company you keep (h/t KL):

When Sen. John McCain addressed the nation’s burgeoning mortgage mess last week, he insisted it was time for a little “straight talk.”

“I will not play election-year politics with the housing crisis,” the GOP presidential hopeful insisted while unveiling his plan, which many have since described as friendlier to the mortgage industry than the Democrats’ proposals.

What McCain did not say - which some believe smacks of politics - is that two of his top advisers were recently lobbyists for a notorious lender in the mortgage meltdown.

John Green, the senator’s chief liaison to Congress, and Wayne Berman, his national finance co-chairman, billed more than $720,000 in lobbying fees from 2005 through last year to Ameriquest Mortgage through their lobbying firm, disclosure forms reviewed by the Daily News show.

Ameriquest, which since has been bought out, was forced to settle suits with 49 states for $325 million. More than 13,680 New York homeowners got taken for a ride by the company, records show.

“They would be defined as the most blatant and aggressive predatory lenders out of everybody,” said Bruce Marks, head of the nonprofit Neighborhood Assistance ...   more »