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WASHINGTON -- Stung by critical stories about their crime laboratory, officials at Army Criminal Investigation Command recently questioned lab employees for hours and scrutinized personal phone records looking for contacts with reporters.

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The Susan G. Komen foundation has reversed its defunding of Planned Parenthood, at least temporarily, but the falsehoods and hypocrisy haven't ended. An investigation has revealed that at least four other organizations have received Komen money while under Federal investigation, while others have been the subjects of recent investigations, and a lot of the money Komen hands out was provided by sponsors who were also being investigated.

The Komen foundation hasn't been leveling with the public. Even its apology was disingenous.

The organization is behaving more like Bank of America, one of its most prominent sponsors. Like a Wall Street bank, its using its monopoly power to crush competitors, dictate its terms to the public, and to speak both disingenously and hypocritically to the American people. The Susan G. Komen organization has become "too big to fail."

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CAIRO, Feb 4 (Reuters) - A crowd of Syrians stormed the Syrian embassy in Cairo smashing furniture and equipment and setting fire to parts of the building in protest over the latest bloodshed in the country, an embassy official and a witness said on Saturday.

Rallies also broke out outside Syria's embassies in Britain, Germany and the United States after human rights activists reported more than 200 people were killed in shelling by government forces in the city of Homs.

In Cairo, embassy official Ammar Mohamed said he had been told by security officials about the overnight attack and arrived at the site to assess the damage. The scene was calm by early morning and Egyptian police were guarding the embassy.

Hundreds of demonstrators gathered at a police station a few streets from the embassy to demand the release of six Syrians who they said were detained during the protest at the mission.

The gate of the embassy in central Cairo was broken and furniture and computers were smashed on the second floor of the building, a Reuters witness said, viewing the site after the attack. Parts of the first floor were burned, he said.

It was the second such attack on the mission. The embassy was broken into last week in another protest against Syria's crackdown on protests against President Bashar al-Assad's rule. (Reporting by Ahmed el-Shimy; Writing by Edmund Blair; Editing by Maria Golovnina)

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Terry J. Allen pulls back the covers a smidge:

“Open-air burn pits have operated widely at military sites in Iraq and Afghanistan,� the Department of Veterans Affairs notes on its website. On hundreds of camps and bases across the two countries, the U.S. military and its contractors incinerated toxic waste, including unexploded ordnance, plastics and Styrofoam, asbestos, formaldehyde, arsenic, pesticides and neurotoxins, medical waste (even amputated limbs), heavy metals and what the military refers to as “radioactive commodities.� The burns have released mutagens and carcinogens, including uranium and other isotopes, volatile organic compounds, hexachlorobenzene, and, that old favorite, dioxin (aka Agent Orange).

The military pooh-poohs the problem, despite a 2009 Pentagon document noting “an estimated 11 million pounds [5,000 tonnes] of hazardous waste� produced by American troops, the Times of London reported. In any case, it says, the waste isn’t all that toxic, and there is no hard evidence troops were harmed. Of course, one reason for that lack of evidence, reports the Institute of Medicine (which found 53 toxins in the air above the Balad air base alone), is that the Pentagon won’t or can’t document what it burned and buried, or where it did so. [...]

[S]ick and dying vets, this time from Iraq and Afghanistan, are trying to trace their cancers and respiratory problems to the toxins of war. Again, the military refuses to release complete data, and claims the data show no harmful effects. Again, the assumption of culpability, and the clean-up efforts will come too little, too late.

A July article in the New England Journal of Medicine studied 80 soldiers disabled with constrictive bronchiolitis, “a very rare finding� in otherwise healthy, young non-smokers. Almost all the cases were traced to “inhalational exposures during service in Iraq and Afghanistan.� The journal lamented : “This group causes particular concern, since their potential toxic exposures are shared by most personnel who were deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan.�

And, oh, yes, by those left to endure the predictable consequences of expedient poisoning. You’re welcome, Iraq. 

Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2004:

We Must Never Forget: February 5, 2003.

Colin Powell went to the UN and engaged in one the most infamous acts of Propaganda in World history.  We must never forget.

 Additionally, Powell violated his oath to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, his fraternity and fidelity to the men in uniform he served with, and his  so-called Powell Doctrine, that he helped create in the mid 1980s.  He destroyed not only his reputation, but everything he stood for.  Moreover, he tuned his back on Duty, Honor, Country, all in slavish obedience to the temporary occupant of the White House.

Today, we find ourselves in a Quagmire, where 500 G.I.s will die per year, where 10,000 casualties will occur per year, where $50 to 100 Billion will be wasted per year - now and for the foreseeable future - all because Powell and company abdicated the Principle of Exit Strategy.

Today, Karl Rove sent out CIA Director George Tenent (the man sitting behind Powell at the UN) to feed the media machine, so as to distract their recollection of this date.  But we, the true patriots of this country, must never forget.

Tweet of the Day:

In town for the Nevada caucuses.

High Impact Posts are here. Top Comments are here.

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The reaction to January's jobs report shows how tragically our expectations have fallen, especially among some Democrats and their supporters. Their cheerleading isn't just bad policy or bad politics, although it is both of those things. It's also callous and insensitive to the misery of millions.

It's important to keep explaining what needs to be done to end that misery. To do otherwise is to serve, however unintentionally, an insidious agenda from the right that would lower our expectations until these tragic levels of unemployment are seen as the "new normal."

An increase in jobs is a good thing, of course, even if it's far from what's needed. Here's something else that was good about the report: Conservatives keep telling us that manufacturing jobs have moved offshore permanently, but 50,000 of them were created last month. Now we can put that argument to bed and can get to work creating more of them.

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Know what new playground game has parents worried?

Take the Fark Weird News Quiz and prove your knowledge.

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HAGERSTOWN, Md. — An Army officer ordered a court-martial Friday for a low-ranking intelligence analyst charged in the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history.

Military District of Washington commander Maj. Gen. Michael Linnington referred all charges against Pfc. Bradley Manning to a general court-martial, the Army said in a statement.

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Ben Gazzara, star of "Anatomy of a Murder" and "The Killing of a Chinese Bookie" has died at age 81. The actor, who was a favorite of director John Cassavetes, died of pancreatic cancer at Bellevue Hospital Center, his lawyer, Jay Julien, told the New York Times.

He was a contemporary of higher-profile stars Marlon Brando and Rod Steiger and also studied at the famed Actors Studio in Manhattan. He conquered Broadway, originating the role of Brick in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof," but didn't capitalize on his rising star when Hollywood came calling.

"When I became hot, so to speak, in the theater, I got a lot of offers," he told Charlie Rose in a 1998 interview. "I won't tell you the pictures I turned down because you would say, 'You are a fool.' And I was a fool."

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Facebook's IPO filing this week confirmed what we already knew: Facebook makes the vast majority of its money by selling ads on its site.

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WASHINGTON -- Members of Congress on Friday questioned why nobody has been prosecuted as part of a criminal investigation of mismanagement at Arlington National Cemetery, nearly three years after reports of problems that included misidentified graves first surfaced in the press.

"We are years into this and to my knowledge not a single person has been punished in any way" for one of the worst scandals in the nearly 150-year history of the cemetery, said Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., at Friday's hearing.

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By Associated Press

LOS ANGELES -- Patricia Disney, who was once married to Walt Disney's late nephew Roy E. Disney and was vice chairwoman of Roy's investment company, died Friday after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease.

She was 77.

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Things that appear certain, based on polling:

• Mitt Romney is on his way to a relatively easy win in tomorrow's caucuses in Nevada.
• Romney is also in pretty decent shape in the two late February primaries in Arizona and Michigan, two states that (on paper) set up pretty well for him.
• Gingrich's national standing, at least in the Gallup tracking polls, has taken a mighty dive.

What is quite a bit less clear, however, is if this really does portend the beginning of the end for the Republican presidential horse race. More on that after the jump. For now, the numbers from two days of polling (yesterday's Wrap having been sabotaged by a computer virus beating up my laptop):

NATIONAL (Gallup Tracking): Romney 33, Gingrich 25, Santorum 16, Paul 11

NATIONAL (YouGov): Romney 29, Gingrich 23, Santorum 20, Paul 14

ARIZONA (Rasmussen): Romney 48, Gingrich 24, Santorum 13, Paul 6

GEORGIA (SurveyUSA): Gingrich 45, Romney 32, Santorum 9, Paul 8

MICHIGAN (Rasmussen): Romney 38, Gingrich 23, Santorum 17, Paul 14

NEVADA (PPP): Romney 50, Gingrich 25, Paul 15, Santorum 8

NEVADA (UNLV): Romney 45, Gingrich 25, Santorum 11, Paul 9

And ... as always ... the general election nums, as well:

NATIONAL (Rasmussen Tracking): Obama tied with Romney (45-45); Obama d. Santorum (46-44); Obama d. Paul (45-42); Obama d. Gingrich (49-41)

NATIONAL (YouGov): Obama d. Paul (48-40); Obama d. Romney (49-40); Obama d. Santorum (50-40); Obama d. Gingrich (52-37)

GEORGIA (SurveyUSA): Romney d. Obama (51-43); Gingrich d. Obama (50-44)

MISSOURI (PPP): Obama tied with Romney (45-45); Obama d. Paul (45-43); Obama d. Santorum (47-44); Obama d. Gingrich (49-42)

Some thoughts as we head into the weekend, right after the jump.

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From the GREAT STATE OF MAINE…

Late Night Snarksters Document Teh Crazy:

"I don't know whether Mitt Romney or Newt Gingrich won [in Florida], but we do know one thing for certain: tomorrow both of them can go back to ignoring Latinos."
---Stephen Colbert
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“Newt may be toast already. The Republican establishment have the knives out for him. Tom DeLay said Newt Gingrich was the most despicable human being he has seen since shaving this morning.�
---Bill Maher
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“Mitt Romney is getting some heat today for something he said on CNN. He said he's not concerned about the very poor. ... Romney said the quote was taken out of context and that he absolutely cares about the poor. In fact, his campaign bus runs on the tears of the poor."
---Jimmy Kimmel
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"Rick Santorum says Newt Gingrich is too hot, Mitt Romney is too cold, but he's the 'Goldilocks candidate.' Yes, nothing gets voters excited like comparing yourself to tepid porridge."
---Craig Ferguson
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"A new website just came out that’s designed to calculate how long it takes Mitt Romney to earn your salary. So from now on, whenever Mitt Romney is running late, he can call there and say, 'I'll be there in five teachers.'"
---Conan O'Brien

Lots more at Dan Kurtzman's place. Oh, and something I heard this week on The Daily Show that you should know about:

Jon Stewart: Your opponent, Scott Brown, has said the media doesn’t give you tough questions, so I'm going to start you off with one that I think is very difficult and somewhat complex. You're running for Senate in Massachusetts, [but] you're in New York right now. Who's the better quarterback, Tom Brady or Eli Manning?

Elizabeth Warren: I hate to tell you this, but Tom Brady. The Pats are gonna spank the Giants. We're gonna git'cha! I'm sorry, it's just reality.

We have nothing further to add.

Your west coast-friendly edition of  Cheers and Jeers starts below the fold... [Swoosh!!] RIGHTNOW! [Gong!!]

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Ari Fleischer, official spokesman
for clusterfucks everywhere
 

Oh, for the love of:

Ari Fleischer, former press secretary for George W. Bush and prominent right-wing pundit, secretly helped guide Komen Foundation’s disastrous strategy regarding Planned Parenthood. Fleischer personally interviewed candidates for the position of “Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations� at Komen last December. According to a source with first-hand knowledge, Fleischer drilled prospective candidates during their interviews on how they would handle the controversy about Komen’s relationship with Planned Parenthood.

Well, consider me properly chastened. I should have known right off the bat that, when some group manages to botch up a situation beyond all hope of credible recovery, there was going to be a connection to the George Bush crowd.

Donate to Planned Parenthood

So the Komen Foundation was, in December, looking for someone to help them roll out a strategy for properly caving to the right. And the guy they put in charge of the search? Ari Fleischer. That Ari Fleischer, proud face of such great Bush initiatives as shut up, Iraq will be a cakewalk, nobody here mentioned Valerie Plame and these new tax cuts will be great for the economy.

Yeah, I can't imagine how putting a Bush guy in charge of that process could possibly have ended up as a gargantuan public clusterfuck.

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This feminist football fan will be hoping for a Patriots win, not least to honor the memory of Myra Kraft, who vetoed the team’s draft of a serial abuser of women, made her husband promise that buying a football team wouldn’t mean they’d cut down on their charitable work (they increased it, giving to causes that included closing the gap on health disparities and women’s health), and awesomely, proposed to Bob herself—on their first date.

That said, I remain anxious about Rob Gronkowski, and about history repeating. What are your predictions? Whoever’s closest on final score and throwing yards for the winning Super Bowl quarterback gets to make me write a post on a question or work of their choice.

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