Supreme Court Nominee Never A Judge & Report Details Katrina Relief Efforts Hampered By Iraq War in Today's Details 10/3/05

- President Bush nominated White House counsel Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court on Monday, turning to a lawyer who has never been a judge to replace Sandra Day O'Connor and help reshape the nation's judiciary. (Now this is the kind of thing that makes you wonder if tales of Bush hitting the bottle might actually have some merit. The only strong support this president had left was the ultra right wing of his party and now he's gone and alienated them. Now the neocons are accusing the President of cronyism - something they dismissed when discussing the head of FEMA and that being the reason for the miserable failures in the aftermath of Katrina. It's simply a joy to watch. Bottom line is I think this appointment is an appointment made from a position of weakness. No arrogant, in your face appointment here. No threat of taking 'nuclear options'! Now we'll see if that base of religious conservatives puts pressure on their local representatives with threats of voting them out next November. THAT would be a very interesting turn of events.)

- Relief efforts to combat Hurricane Katrina suffered near catastrophic failures due to endemic corruption, divisions within the military and troop shortages caused by the Iraq war, an official American inquiry into the disaster has revealed. The confidential report, which has been seen by The Independent, details how funds for flood control were diverted to other projects, desperately needed National Guards were stuck in Iraq and how military personnel had to "sneak off post" to help with relief efforts because their commander had refused permission.

- The U.S. military investigation of the June 24 shooting death of Yasser Salihee, a Knight Ridder Iraqi correspondent, has confirmed that he was killed by an American soldier and then left dead in his car -- but concluded that the killing was necessary.

- Election officials and observers said Sunday that with 80 percent of the ballots counted in Afghanistan's national and provincial elections, they had found significant incidents of fraud.

- New York Times reporter Judith Miller tried a year ago to make a deal with the prosecutor investigating the leak of a CIA operative's identity but the prosecutor would not agree then to limit her testimony to Vice President Dick Cheney's top aide, her lawyer said on Sunday.