Wonkette

The Washington PR firm that bravely paid off Iraqi journalists to publish make-believe “good news” is back on the job with an all-new $6 million (or $20 million) contract.

Lincoln Group had already collected more than $100 million from the Pentagon when it was caught bribing reporters to run fake articles about how well that whole U.S. occupation was going.

How will the DoD’s favorite propagandists spend the new millions? We’ll break it down, after the jump.

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* Cheney urged to address the hunting accident “as early as today.” [WP]
* Scott McClellan did not disclose hunter’s heart attack to reporters during White House press briefing; hunter’s death could spark a grand jury investigation, possibly with criminal charges. [WP, NYT, NYT, W$J, USAT]
* Reporters cornered McClellan at the briefing. David Gregory: “Don’t tell us that you’re giving us complete answers when you’re not actually answering the questions.” David Sanger: “This is our briefing; we get to ask the questions.” [WP]
* Tension between the White House and Cheney’s staff is “palpable”; Cheney “plays by rules of his own making.” [NYT, USAT]
* White House successfully suppressing House investigation of NSA eavesdropping. [WP]
* Jack Abramoff’s “reputation for close relationships with the White House and congressional officials enabled him to charge stratospheric fees from his lobbying clients”; lobbyist’s successful work for Malaysia “suggests closer ties than previously acknowledged between the disgraced lobbyist and the highest levels of the Bush White House.” [LAT]
* Sen. Reid (D-Nev.) wrote at least four letters on behalf of tribes that Abramoff represented; staffers were in frequent contact about legislation. [LAT]

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Wonkette’s Forward Operating Base Operative writes in with an update on the Iraqi elections, including a heart-warming scene that makes us think maybe the Lincoln Group was onto something with their Osama bin Moe sitcom idea:

As I was driving in my Stryker to a polling site to let my Iraqi born interpreters to vote, one told me he thought this election was another “poke in the insurgents eye.” I thought about this, then I did the old “Three Stooges eye poke” thing to him…which he deftly parried with the old “Three Stooges hand in front of the nose” move. Then we both did the nyuk, nyuk, nyuk bit…and laughed till our balls hurt.

FOBO skips over the “Tom Clancy” stuff and goes straight for Marxist Brothers right after the jump.

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Reading the New York Times’ massive front-page story Sunday on the U.S. military’s propaganda efforts, we were charmed by these ideas generated by the now-infamous “Lincoln Group,” sadly left on the drawing board:

Lincoln proposed variations of the satirical paper “The Onion,” and an underground paper to be called “The Voice,” documents show. And it planned comedies modeled after “Cheers” and the Three Stooges, with the trio as bumbling wannabe terrorists.

The latter, clearly, offers the most intriguing possibilities, including the image of a terrorist slapping his nose up and down and saying “nyuck-nyuck-nyuck” after a car bomb explodes early. MORE »