Possible 1 Million Iraqi will have left Iraq by years end

AP's article on the mass displacement of Iraqis due to the ongoing civil war:

Unrelenting violence and insecurity in Iraq could cause as many as 1 million Iraqis to flee their homes this year, the world's migration body said Friday.

"The numbers of people that are being displaced are increasing every day," said Jemini Pandaya, spokeswoman for the International Organization for Migration. "The security situation is not improving. It's not changing."

Pandaya said the organization's estimate was made "on the assumption that security conditions will continue much as they are."

The possibility of neighboring countries, such as Syria, closing their borders would mean even more of the displaced would only be able to get as far as other parts of Iraq.

On Thursday, the U.N. refugee agency appealed to the European Union to do more to protect refugees fleeing Iraq, saying the war was the cause of the biggest displacement of people in the Middle East in recent history.

Read the rest here

Recently, President Bush said he would allow more Iraqis in this country.

Before we invaded their country, this was not the case. Saddam was bad but people had electricity and water. Had they put the Iraqis to work rebuilding their country right after the invasion, much of this would not be necessary.

Sam Seder Show on Air America

One of my favorite radio shows is the Sam Seder Show on Air America Radio, 9AM to 12 noon EST.

I have been listening to his show since Air America first came on the air. His first show was with Janeane Garafolo and was named Majority Report Radio and was on in the evening. Now he is alone and has moved to mornings.

Sam is a great supporter of the netroots blogosphere. He has many from the Liberal blog world on his show. Kos from Daily Kos, Atrios from Esheton, Firedoglake, Liberal Oasis are just a few.

If you have a chance, listen in on his show. Here's the stream addy:

http://play.rbn.com/?url=airam/airam/live/live.rm&proto=rtsp

or you can link from here.

If you have an XM radio, you can listen at AARXM 167.

Reid: Senate cloture vote on Iraq resolution this Saturday

From Think Progress:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced today that he will delay the Senate’s recess and hold a cloture vote on the Iraq resolution on Saturday. “Time is of the essence,” Reid said, and we are “determined to end the silence and find a new direction.”


Link

Senate Dems To Force Up Or Down Vote On Bush's War Plan
Washington Post | Shailagh Murray | February 15, 2007 01:41 PM

Senate Democratic leaders abruptly switched course in the Iraq war debate today, shelving a complicated non-binding resolution that has run into procedural hurdles, in favor of a House version that simply states Congress's objections to President Bush's troop escalation plan.

Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) this afternoon announced that the Senate would take a rare Saturday vote on whether to proceed to consider the House resolution, which is expected to pass that chamber Friday, with some Republican support.

Read the entire article here.

Congress opened debate on the measure on Tuesday and is expected to vote by Friday. Read the Resolution Here.

US Building New Secret Spy Base in Australia

From Raw Story again. What a great news site!! I reccommend it highly.

Secret new US spy base to get green light

AUSTRALIA'S close military alliance with the United States is to be further entrenched with the building of a high-tech communications base in Western Australia.

The Federal Government is about to approve the base after three years of secret negotiations with Washington.

The Age has been told the base, which will be built on defence land at Geraldton, will provide a crucial link for a new network of military satellites that will help the US's ability to fight wars in the Middle East and Asia. It will be the first big US military installation to be built in Australia in decades, and follows controversies over other big bases such as Pine Gap and North West Cape.

The deal has come to light amid heightened political debate over the alliance with the US and in the same week that the US finally told Australia it would not allow it to buy its best fighter aircraft, the F-22 Raptor.

Check out the rest here.

Auditors find poor accounting in Iraq

Another "Ya Think?" moment. With this government it never stops!

AP's story of...

Billions wasted in Iraq
The U.S. government is at risk of squandering significantly more money in an Iraq war and reconstruction effort that has already wasted, overcharged or poorly tracked $10 billion in taxpayer money, federal investigators said Thursday.

The three top auditors overseeing contract work in Iraq told a House committee that Defense and State department officials condoned or otherwise allowed poor accounting, repeated work delays, bloated expenses and payments for work shoddily or never done by U.S. contractors.

That problem could worsen, the Government Accountability Office said, given limited improvement so far by the Department of Defense even as the Bush administration prepares to boost the U.S. presence in Iraq.

David M. Walker, comptroller general of the GAO, Congress' auditing arm, said his agency has been pointing out problems for years, only to be largely ignored or given lip service with little result.

"There is no accountability," Walker said. "Organizations charged with overseeing contracts are not held accountable. Contractors are not held accountable. The individuals responsible are not held accountable."

"People should be rewarded when they do a good job. But when things don't go right, there have to be consequences," he said.

And further down in the article, surprise, surprise...

Of the $10 billion in overpriced contracts or undocumented costs, more than $2.7 billion were charged by Halliburton Co., the oil-field services firm once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Investigation...

Rep. Henry Waxman (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif., who chairs the panel, has pledged scores of investigations of fraud, waste and abuse — with subpoenas if necessary — on the Bush administration's watch. He decried the overpricing identified by the DCAA, a figure that has tripled since last fall.

"According to the Pentagon auditors, more than one in six dollars they have audited in Iraq is suspect," Waxman said.

Read more here.

Today's News and Links

From Think Progress:

CNN: White House Now Blames Briefer For Going Too Far On Iran Intel

Today, CNN reported that the White House is now blaming the anonymous intelligence briefer who presented the information. According to CNN’s Ed Henry, the White House says the anonymous intelligence briefer went “a little too far” in stating the evidence. But, as Henry said, “that begs the question why the administration has taken so long to clarify those comments.” Watch it Here

And from Raw Story, plenty of news. Here are the headlines and the link:

Exclusive: Top Republican aide says leadership won't force members to vote in favor of Bush 'surge'

2008 candidate looks to revoke Bush's 2002 Iraq authority...

Justice Department leaks own talking points to reporters

Cheney ally blasts Pentagon's report on pre-Iraq war intel

Waas: Cheney's 2002 phone call set stage for CIA leak probe

And here's Raw Story's Link

Olbermann's Good News!!

From Think Progress

MSNBC extends Olbermann’s contract. “Keith Olbermann will continue to be a thorn in Bill O’Reilly’s side for at least four more years,” MSNBC reports. Olbermann has agreed to a “second term” with NBC News that “will take him into 2011.” Besides hosting “Countdown,” Olbermann will now “contribute occasional essays to ‘NBC Nightly News’ and there will be two prime-time ‘Countdown’ specials a year on NBC.”
More Here

Now we'll still have a liberal voice on MSNBC that airs the news the others don't.

Congrats Keith!! Hope you're making more money!

Chinese Horoscope - Year of The Pig

Chinese New Year starts on February 18. It's the Year of the Pig. Now don't take that as an insult. You might like the description.

THE PIG

The Pig is a fun and enlightening personality blessed with patience and understanding. People born under the sign of the Pig enjoy life and all it has to offer, including family and friends. They are honest and thoughtful and expect the same of other people. Pigs can be perceived as oblivious or gullible because they do care about others so much that they will do just about anything for a friend in need.

PIG FACTS:

People born in the Year of the Pig share certain characteristics. The Pig Sign is an abbreviated way of characterizing that individual’s personality. Following are features associated with the Sign of the Pig.

Twelfth in order, Chinese name—ZHU, sign of honesty

Hour—9pm-10:59pm Month—November

Western Counterpart—Scorpio

CHARACTERISTICS

Hardworking, Giving, Willing, Helpful, Materialistic, Gullible, Oblivious, Obstinate

Were you born in a Pig year? 1911*1923*1935*1947*1959*1971*1983*1995*2007

And from Raw Story:

Chinese soothsayers: Year of Pig signals conflicts before new world order

Read the very interesting Raw Story article here

Now here's a real Ya Think?

BBC is reporting that "Iraq Invasion Plan Delusional"!

The US invasion plan for Iraq envisaged that only 5,000 US troops would remain in Iraq by December 2006, declassified Central Command documents show.

The material also shows that the US military projected a stable, pro-US and democratic Iraq by that time.

So who was the braintrust that said this?

The documents - in the form of PowerPoint slides - were prepared by the now-retired Gen Tommy Franks and other top commanders at the time.

The documents were presented at a briefing in August 2002 - less than a year before the US invasion of Iraq in April 2003.

The commanders predicted that after the fighting was over there would be a two- to three-month "stabilisation" phase, followed by an 18- to 24-month "recovery" stage.

They projected that the US forces would be almost completely "re-deployed" out of Iraq at the end of the "transition" phase - within 45 months of invasion.

These papers were ordered by NSA, an independent research institute at George Washington University. The NSA said it received the documents last month, after making a request in 2004.

More here

Open Thread

What's happening today? No Anna Nicole please, I am up to here with Anna Nicole!!!

What will Ed Schultz say today about Air America? He's really got a tantrum problem!
Anyone else think he acts like Limbaugh?

Soldier lost limb, Has to pay back Recruiter because he didn't finish tour of duty!

This is the epitome of the old saying "Insult over injury".

The recruiters for the military have been combing the country at High Schools, Colleges and shopping malls offering bonuses if you sign up. So some young people sign up, go to war, get injured and sent home. Then this young person is contacted that they have to give back all or part of the bonus because they didn't fullfil their tour of duty. Our Compassionate Conservative Government at work!

Here's the story:

Soldiers Back From War Fight Different Battle

PITTSBURGH -- Soldiers who were paralyzed, suffered brain damage and lost limbs owe the government enlistment bonus money.

They must pay the money back because they didn’t fulfill their tour of duty.

Bob Truska, who was in the Navy, got an honorable discharge for what the Navy calls a personality disorder.

One year later, he got a bill for more than $3,000, part of his $7,000 enlistment bonus.

Bob said, “I didn’t know of anything I had to pay back after I got out of the military.”

The Navy said his honorable discharge “does not exempt him from recoupement of the unearned enlistment bonus, and his personality disorder is not a disability but could interfere with assignment or performance of duty.”

According to the Defense Finance and Accounting Service, each month from October 2005 through October of 2006, at least 600 members of the military and as many as 1,100 have owed bonus debts totaling anywhere from $2.5 million dollars each month to $4 million.

The money comes from skyrocketing enlistment and re-enlistment bonuses being offered to lure recruits and keep experienced troops in uniform.

Just this past year, the Army doubled its top bonus from $20,000 to $40,000.

Here's the LINK

The U.S. was 20th and Britain 21st in Child Welfare

This is a damning article, from the AP, about the US and Britain's lack of Child Welfare. This is what happens when Corporations rule. And it's what happens when you have a government that is more interested in war than talking care of it's children.

Here is some of the article:

The United States and Britain ranked at the bottom of a U.N. survey of child welfare in 21 wealthy countries that assessed everything from infant mortality to whether children ate dinner with their parents or were bullied at school.

The Netherlands, followed by Sweden, Denmark and Finland, finished at the top of the rankings, while the U.S. was 20th and Britain 21st, according to the report released Wednesday by UNICEF in Germany.

One of the study's researchers, Jonathan Bradshaw, said children fared worse in the U.S. and Britain — despite high overall levels of national wealth — because of greater economic inequality and poor levels of public support for families.

"What they have in common are very high levels of inequality, very high levels of child poverty, which is also associated with inequality, and in rather different ways poorly developed services to families with children," said Bradshaw, a professor of social policy at the University of York in Britain.

"They don't invest as much in children as continental European countries do," he said, citing the lack of day care services in both countries and poorer health coverage and preventative care for children in the U.S.

United States questioned the comparisons made by the study, while Britain said it failed take into account recent social improvements.

The study also gave the U.S. and Britain low marks for their higher incidences of single-parent families and risky behaviors among children, such as drinking alcohol and sexual activity.

Shame! The most powerful nation in the world and our kids are ignored.

Here's the LINK

Other World Powers Meet to form a "Multipolar World"

From The Times, February 15, 2007

Giants meet to counter US power
Jeremy Page in Delhi

India, China and Russia account for 40 per cent of the world’s population, a fifth of its economy and more than half of its nuclear warheads. Now they appear to be forming a partnership to challenge the US-dominated world order that has prevailed since the end of the Cold War.

Foreign ministers from the three emerging giants met in Delhi yesterday to discuss ways to build a more democratic “multipolar world”.

It was the second such meeting in the past two years and came after an unprecedented meeting between their respective leaders, Manmohan Singh, Hu Jintao and Vladimir Putin, during the G8 summit in St Petersburg in July.

It also came only four days after Mr Putin stunned Western officials by railing against American foreign policy at a security conference in Munich.

More Here

Wategate Journalist on Bushco

Veteran reporter Carl Bernstein says the lack of truth and candor from the Bush administration is unprecedented in his experience.

Comparing the Nixon administration's press relations to those of Bush, Bernstein says, "Nixon's relationship to the press was consistent with his relationship to many institutions and people. He saw himself as a victim. We now understand the psyche of Richard Nixon, that his was a self-destructive act and presidency.

"The Bush administration," Bernstein continues, "is a far different matter in which disinformation, misinformation and unwillingness to tell the truth -- a willingness to lie both in the Oval Office, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in the office of the vice president, the vice president himself -- is something that I have never witnessed before on this scale."

RAW STORY has more

A Republican's reason for voting against the surge

A Florida Republican explained on the House floor today that he would not support President George W. Bush's troop escalation because it was bound to be a failure. Rep. Ric Keller criticized an earlier surge policy, warning that "the benefits were temporary, the body bags were permanent."

The junior congressman's speech may signal softening of support among the House Republican caucus for the president's "new direction forward in Iraq."

Rep. Ric Keller is in his fourth term as the Representative from the area of Orlando, FL. He took the House floor earlier today to say that he would vote to support the Democratic non-binding resolution that "disapproves" of the president's plan to escalate the number of troops in Iraq by more than 20,000.

"Interjecting more young American troops into the cross hairs of an Iraqi civil war is simply not the right approach," said Keller.

The Florida Republican offered a harsh criticism of Bush's approach, noting that it had been tried before and failed.

LINK

What's happening today?

Libby's defense misled the court. Many of the judge's decisions on what he would allow in court pertaining to classified evidence was based on Libby's defence saying Libby would testify.

Nearly a dozen Republican congressmen broke ranks with party leaders Wednesday to endorse a resolution opposing President Bush's plan to send more than 21,000 additional troops to Iraq. More Here

Former Bush National Security Council official Flynt Leverett, speaking on Wednesday at a forum held by the New America Foundation, told a crowd in a Senate office building that in 2003 then-Secretary of State Colin Powell received a “grand bargain” offer from Iran and was rebuffed by the White House. Read more at Raw Story


The Bush administration plans to allow thousands of Iraqi refugees to settle in the United States over the next year, a huge expansion at a time of mounting international pressure to help millions who have fled their homes in the nearly four-year-old war.casualties.
More Here

Blog Name Change

This blog was formerly called the Abramoff Journal. Since Mr. Abramoff is now in jail, I am using this blog in a more general sense and will cover more topics. This blog is of a liberal persuasion and I will endeavor to post factual information concerning the government of this country.

Watch for more posts soon!

E-Mails Reveal Deeper Links Between Mehlman and Abramoff

From TPM Muckraker:

"Newly disclosed e-mails suggest that the ax fell [on State Department Official Allen Stayman] after intervention by one of the highest officials at the White House: Ken Mehlman, on behalf of one of the most influential lobbyists in town, Jack Abramoff....

"Besides the Stayman matter, the e-mails reveal Mehlman's role in helping an Abramoff client, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, secure $16.3 million for a new jail that government analysts concluded was not necessary. Mehlman also helped Abramoff obtain a White House endorsement in 2002 of the Republican gubernatorial ticket in the U.S. territory of Guam....

"The senior Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, Rep. Henry A. Waxman of Los Angeles, points to e-mails suggesting that in June 2001, amid negotiations over whether to fire Stayman, Mehlman requested and might have been given two U2 concert tickets in Abramoff's suite at what was then the MCI Center (now the Verizon Center)." (LA Times)

Foley Ethics Probe to Enter Its Second Week
"With the House page scandal weighing on GOP candidates, an ethics committee investigation will enter its second full week with many important figures still to be interviewed....

"[Top] GOP leaders, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert [R-IL] and Majority Leader John Boehner [R-OH] have yet to testify. Nor have senior Hastert aides who dealt last fall with [former Rep. Mark] Foley's inappropriate e-mails to a former page but claim they never told their boss." (AP)

Police Find No Report of Foley Dorm Incident
"U.S. Capitol Police said yesterday that they have no record of an alleged incident in which then-Rep. Mark Foley [R-FL] supposedly tried to enter a Capitol Hill dormitory for teenage pages.

"The purported nighttime incident has been cited by lawmakers and a key witness in the scandal that involves Foley's interactions with congressional pages and the House's handling of the matter. Unlike sexually graphic electronic messages that Foley sent to teenage boys, evidence of the alleged dorm incident has proved elusive." (WaPo)

Kolbe Camping Trip Being Investigated
"Federal prosecutors in Arizona have opened a preliminary investigation into a camping trip that an Arizona lawmaker took with two former pages and others in 1996, according to a law enforcement official.

"Rep. Jim Kolbe [R-AZ] took the former pages as well as staff members and National Park Service officials on a Fourth of July rafting trip in the Grand Canyon in 1996, his spokeswoman Korenna Cline said Friday." (AP)

Candidates Taking Aim at Lobbyists
"In close contests from Connecticut to California, Republicans and Democrats are attacking each other for getting too close to "special interests" and lobbyists. The accusation, a longtime election staple, is carrying greater heft than usual, election experts agree, thanks to the guilty plea of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff in January and the recent e-mail scandal of former representative Mark Foley [R-FL]...

More Here

Displease a Lobbyist, Get Fired

E-mails show Jack Abramoff's ability to influence White House staffing decisions through his highly placed friends.
By Peter Wallsten
Times Staff Writer

October 15, 2006

WASHINGTON — For five years, Allen Stayman wondered who ordered his removal from a State Department job negotiating agreements with tiny Pacific island nations — even when his own bosses wanted him to stay.

Now he knows.

Newly disclosed e-mails suggest that the ax fell after intervention by one of the highest officials at the White House: Ken Mehlman, on behalf of one of the most influential lobbyists in town, Jack Abramoff.

The e-mails show that Abramoff, whose client list included the Northern Mariana Islands, had long opposed Stayman's work advocating labor changes in that U.S. commonwealth, and considered what his lobbying team called the "Stayman project" a high priority.

"Mehlman said he would get him fired," an Abramoff associate wrote after meeting with Mehlman, who was then White House political director.

The exchange illustrates how, more than two years after the corruption scandal surrounding the now-disgraced Abramoff came to light, people are still learning the extent of the lobbyist's ability to pull the levers of power in Washington. The latest revelations provide more detail than the Bush administration has acknowledged about how Abramoff and his team reached into high levels of the White House, not just Capitol Hill, which has been the main focus of the influence-peddling investigation.

The e-mails, disclosed as part of a report by the House Government Reform Committee, show how Abramoff manipulated the system through officials such as Mehlman, now the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Doing so, Abramoff directed government appointments, influenced policy decisions and won White House endorsements for political candidates — all in the service of his clients.

The report found more than 400 lobbying contacts between Abramoff's team and the White House.

Besides the Stayman matter, the e-mails reveal Mehlman's role in helping an Abramoff client, the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, secure $16.3 million for a new jail that government analysts concluded was not necessary. Mehlman also helped Abramoff obtain a White House endorsement in 2002 of the Republican gubernatorial ticket in the U.S. territory of Guam.

Abramoff pleaded guilty in January to federal charges in a congressional bribery investigation that continues to loom over Capitol Hill and the GOP. A Senate subcommittee concluded that Abramoff fleeced Indian tribes out of millions of dollars in fees that he split with one of his associates.

The scandal has touched just one West Wing staffer, Susan Ralston, a onetime Abramoff aide who resigned this month as executive assistant to strategist Karl Rove after congressional investigators documented frequent contact with the lobbyist's team.

Mehlman said he did not recall the details of his contacts with the Abramoff team, including discussions about Stayman, the former State Department official. But he said such interactions were part of his job as White House political director.

"I was a gateway," Mehlman said in an interview. "It was my job to talk to political supporters, to hear their requests, and hand them on to policymakers."

Mehlman said he had known Abramoff since the mid-1990s and would listen to his requests along with those of other influential Republicans.

"I know Jack," Mehlman said. "I certainly recall that if he and others wanted to meet I would have met with them, as I would have met with lots of people."

Mehlman, a Baltimore native and graduate of Harvard Law School, has remained a GOP power player since stepping down as political director in 2003. He built the party's grass-roots get-out-the-vote strategy, managing President Bush's 2004 reelection campaign before taking over the RNC last year.

Read more here

Now Mehlman is on the Abramoff hot seat!

Rep. Ney pleads guilty; GOP vows ouster

By PETE YOST, Associated Press Writer
1 hour, 4 minutes ago

Rep. Bob Ney (news, bio, voting record) pleaded guilty Friday in the Jack Abramoff influence-peddling investigation, the first lawmaker to confess to crimes in an election-year scandal that has stained the Republican-controlled Congress and the Bush administration.

Standing before Judge Ellen S. Huvelle, Ney pleaded guilty to conspiracy and making false statements. He acknowledged taking money, gifts and favors in return for official actions on behalf of Abramoff and his clients.

Ney did not immediately resign from Congress, and within minutes, Republican and Democratic leaders vowed to expel him unless he steps down. The White House also called for Ney's resignation.

Beleaguered GOP leaders, struggling to overcome fallout from a separate scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley (news, bio, voting record) and teenage male pages, said they would make Ney's ouster the "first order of business" in a postelection session.

"I never intended my career in public service to end this way, and I am ashamed it did," Ney said in a written statement issued moments after his plea.

The 52-year-old lawmaker faces a maximum of 10 years in prison. Huvelle said prosecutors had agreed to recommend a term of 27 months, and said federal guidelines suggest a fine of between $5,000 and $60,000.

Ney did not resign his seat. Several officials have said the congressman is financially strapped and needs his $165,200 annual paycheck and benefits as long as he can continue to receive them.

Ney's lawyer, Mark Touhey, told the judge he would resign before sentencing on Jan. 19. House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other Republican leaders said he would be gone far more quickly than that.

"It is long past time for a new direction that restores integrity and civility to the House," said Rep. Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), the Democratic leader.

Ney is the latest in a string of once-influential men convicted in a scandal that so far has caught several lobbyists and two members of the Bush administration.

Abramoff, the Republican super-lobbyist, admitted guilt in January after secretly cooperating with prosecutors for weeks.

Two former aides to Tom DeLay, the former House majority leader, have also pleaded guilty, as has Ney's former chief of staff.

Additionally, Roger Stillwell, a former Interior Department official, pleaded guilty in August to a misdemeanor charge for not reporting tickets he received from Abramoff.

And former White House official David Safavian, who had been the Bush administration's top procurement official, was convicted of covering up his dealings with Abramoff. He is scheduled for sentencing on Oct. 27.

Ney confessed his wrongdoing in a federal courthouse a few blocks distant from the Capitol, where until recently he wielded a chairman's gavel.

The first charge accused Ney of conspiring to commit "honest services" fraud, a combination of mail and wire fraud often used in public corruption cases. The second count charges Ney with not revealing his gifts from Abramoff on financial disclosure forms.

Ney acknowledged accepting all-expense-paid and reduced-price trips to play golf in Scotland in August 2002, to gamble and vacation in New Orleans in May 2003 and to vacation in New York in August 2003. The total cost of all the trips — in which others, including some aides, participated — exceeded $170,000, prosecutors said.

Ney also admitted accepting meals and sports and concert tickets for himself and his staff.

The Ohio Republican did not speak with reporters as he entered or left the building. It was his first public appearance since quietly entering an alcohol rehabilitation program last month.

The written statement referred to that. "The treatment and counseling I have started have been very helpful, but I know that I am not done yet and that I have more work to do to deal with my alcohol dependency," it said.

The statement read like a cautionary tale for others who might be tempted by the allure of the Capitol. "I never acted to enrich myself or to get things I shouldn't, but over time, I allowed myself to get too comfortable with the way things have been done in Washington DC for too long," it said.

Until recently, Ney had insisted he would seek a new term. He reversed course in August, under pressure from party leaders who feared the loss of his seat if he remained on the ballot. The race to replace him is competitive, with Zach Space, the Democrat, running ahead of Republican Joy Padgett in several polls.

Inside the courtroom, Huvelle spent nearly a half-hour asking the sandy-haired congressman a series of questions about whether he understood the charges and agreed that he had taken money, gifts and favors in return for official actions on behalf of Abramoff and his clients.

At the end she asked him how he pleaded to the conspiracy count, he replied, "I plead guilty your honor."

Asked how he pleaded to the count of false statements, he replied, "I plead guilty, your honor."

LINK