The plan does seem to put a disconcerting reliance on travel trailers, which, with their toxic levels of formaldehyde, have been the bane of the Hurricane Katrina recovery plan. The plan, though, does say that FEMA needs more help from Housing and Urban Development. Indeed, while FEMA deserves our scrutiny, they can’t be asked to both respond to the disaster and take the lead in long-term rebuilding.-MB

Jackson’s words come on the heels of Pentagon chief Robert Gates questioning if private corporations should be used to protect dignitaries in Iraq. And it follows a year of Congressional and Justice Dept. scrutiny after Blackwater security guards opened fire in an Iraq public square, killing 17.

It sounds like occasion for government watchdogs to get the streamers and confetti. But according to the State Dept., Blackwater hasn’t told them that they’re getting out of their lucrative security contracts. And as the Jeremy Scahill reported in The Nation this May, Blackwater is expanding out into "CIA style" intelligence services to private companies. That’s not private security, per se, but it’s in the same family.

We’ll have to wait and see how many controversial business ventures Blackwater really reduces.-MB

In May, the FDA warned that there was salmonella in tomatoes. But as the weeks went by, FDA and Centers for Disease Control officials turned to jalepeno peppers. While under fire from both frightened consumers and the tomato industry, it appears FDA has solved the salmonella case before any fatalities.-MB

But Johnson was granted an interview by Mukasey and rarely delves beyond the setting of talking with this thoughtful, grandfatherly man. We learn Mukasey has a good sense of humor. And he gets up early. What we don’t learn is why he’s done nothing to distance himself from the scandal-plagued Justice Dept. he’s inherited. In asserting executive privilege over Cheney’s interview, categorically refusing to investigate Bush administration officials, not looking at the prosecution of Alabama governor Don Seigelman and doing as little as possible about torture, Mukasey has lost all claims of independence from the White House. But he sounds like he’s studious and gets along with his family.-MB

The Washington Post reported on much of this material Friday, when the EPA released the report of its staff scientists that global warming poses a dire threat. The common thread behind all these allegations is that they’re coming from Jason Burnett, a former EPA official. Burnett has gone to at least three different Congressional committees with stories about his time at EPA.

Burnett’s charges fall in line with suspicions about the Bush administration’s environmental policy. And no one, besides the White House press secretary, is questioning his credibility. Still, it would be nice if at least one more whistleblower could emerge.-MB

And how would the CIA do this? Through public-private partnerships and "consultation with the U.S. information technology industry" (hello, lucrative government contracts!). Both Obama and McCain have vaguely spoken about cybersecurity so perhaps this CIA plan, whatever it exactly is, has legs beyond the Bush administration.-MB

In making these arrests, ICE is conducting wiretapping and raids similar to those for drug lords and mafia leaders. Why doesn’t ICE instead channel its energy toward the employers that hire these illegal immigrants? Stewart Baker, asst. secretary for policy at DHS, says it’s because Congress hasn’t given them such law enforcement power.-MB

Risen has been on this story for a while and he helpfully lays out the basics of the growing scandal. KBR and the Pentagon knew that dangerous wiring was "the most urgent noncombat safety hazard in Iraq." But the issue didn’t get national attention until this winter when Ryan D. Maseth, a green beret, was fatally electrocuted while showering in his Baghdad barracks.

There have been a lot of scandals involving Afghanistan and Iraq war contracts. What’s maybe most interesting about this one is how representative it seems of the Iraq reconstruction effort. KBR has been asked to do everything, including supply food and water. Such deep dependency on contractors makes it almost impossible for the Pentagon to just kick them out of the war zone. Risen has not identified a few bad apples here but tapped into the structural flaws of the Iraq reconstruction plan.-MB