Countdown Newletter -- 04/11/06: Dirty Tricks?

[Patsy Stone]

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Tonight on Countdown
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Phone-jamming records point to White House. Republican officials describe the two-dozen calls to the White House around Election Day 2002 as normal conversations about a close Senate race in New Hampshire. Democrats have suggested in a court filing that another subject was discussed: a GOP scheme that jammed phone lines to keep state Democrats from being encouraged to vote. The phone-jamming operation has led to three federal convictions and a pending indictment. The records show that Republican campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 - as the jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down. http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/1151AP_Election_Phone_Jamming.html

Hillary Calls Bush's Intel Leak Nixonesque. On Monday she accused Bush of declassifying national security information for political purposes and briefly invoked President Richard Nixon before backing off that explosive analogy. "Obviously it was done not just for political reasons, which sounds kind of everyday Washington politics," she told Al Hunt, Bloomberg's Washington bureau chief. "It was done to protect the decision makers from being held accountable for some of the information they used in the run up to the invasion of Iraq." http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1182036,00.html

Countdown w/ Keith Olbermann broadcasts LIVE at 8 pm et, and the count is never complete without you. Join us.

Iran "will soon join the club of countries with nuclear technology," Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Tuesday. Separately, former President Hashemi Rafsanjani said Tehran has successfully enriched uranium for the first time. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12267675/

In the latest edition of The New Yorker magazine, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Seymour Hersh reports that the Bush administration is accelerating plans for military strikes against Iran to squash its nuclear program ambitions and that it is considering using nuclear weapons to take out the country's nuclear facilities. http://www.abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=1825359&page=1

Wringing out the emotional residue of terrorism for jurors considering the plight of Zacarias Moussoui, a middle-aged widow lamented Tuesday that her children haven't been the same since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12266270/

NASA plans to crash a space probe into the moon in 2009 _ a collision so violent it will be visible on Earth through a telescope, the space agency said Monday. The moon crash, part of a larger mission that includes a lunar orbiter, is a quest for ice. Water is the key ingredient for supporting future human outposts on the moon, a goal of the Bush administration. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/10/AR2006041001111.html

That's some of what we're planning for tonight's show.

Have a great day!

-- Carey Fox

Countdown Home: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036677/

More:
A bomb exploded during an Islamic prayer service at a park in this southern Pakistani city Tuesday, killing at least 40 people and wounding dozens. An angry mob burned cars and threw stones at police, who fired into the air to disperse the crowds, a witness said. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12267864/

A jury awarded $9 million in punitive damages on Tuesday to a man who blamed his heart attack on Vioxx, finding that manufacturer Merck & Co. failed to warn about the risks of its arthritis drug and misrepresented the risks to physicians. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12267697/

A British man accused of killing his wife and 9-month-old daughter pleaded not guilty to murder charges Tuesday. Neil Entwistle, 27, is charged with two counts of murder and firearms charges in the Jan. 20 slayings of his wife, Rachel, 27, and their baby daughter, Lillian Rose. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12266842/

Former Enron Corp. Chief Executive Jeffrey Skilling testified in his fraud and conspiracy trial Tuesday that he didn't spearhead a conspiracy to lie about the company's strength and that prosecution witnesses lied when they said he was part of any such scheme. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12266999/

Bausch & Lomb voluntarily suspended shipment of a contact lens solution after federal health officials linked it Monday to a fungal eye infection that can cause temporary blindness. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12257519/

Jennifer Lopez is suing ex-husband Ojani Noa, claiming he demanded $5 million to keep him from publishing a book containing private details about the star and their relationship. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12267529/

Rafita Mirabal does what few would when faced with an angry, 400-pound animal charging at him: He holds his ground. He is armed with nothing but a red cape and a short sword. He is also 9 years old. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12255534/

[RevCheesehead]

1. Nixonesque?

Hillary, dear - that has CHENEY written all over it.

[Berry Cool]

2. Actually, I was going to say the proper word is "Nixonian."

But come to think of it, "Cheneylike" is better.

Well, not actually "like" Cheney, but Cheney.