Recap of the officials on the Palfrey records.

And connecting the dots...


1. Rep. David Vitter of Louisana.

Here is what is interesting:

HUSTLER Magazine asking Vitter to comment on an article HUSTLER reporters were working on, Vitter ran to the Associated Press in an attempt to get ahead of the story," said the statement e-mailed to RAW STORY. "As of 2 p.m. West Coast time on Monday, only Larry Flynt and the HUSTLER investigative team knew that Vitter’s phone number appeared on the phone records of Deborah Jeane Palfrey, the so-called D.C. Madam. Within hours of obtaining the phone records, Flynt's team found what ABC News has so far been unable to ferret out."

Sex and politics are what Larry Flint heart for. That's how Vitter got busted...

2. Former Undersecretary of State Randall L. Tobias was one official who was identified. Tobias, the former point man on promoting abstinence in US-led HIV/AIDS prevention efforts. As AIDS Czar, Tobias was charged with distributing the $15 billion allocated to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR).

As AIDS Czar, he discussed the rules in an interview with PBS' FRONTLINE where he detailed a legal requirement that recipients of U.S. aid denounce prostitution:

The Congress I think very appropriately has put into the legislation that created this program that organizations, in order to receive money, need to have a policy opposed to prostitution and sex trafficking. I don't think it's too difficult for people to be opposed to prostitution and sex trafficking, which are in fact two contributing causes to the spread of HIV/AIDS. I think when organizations initially became aware of that requirement, some organizations were concerned about what the implications of that might be, but we implemented that in the first year with non-U.S. organizations. We're now implementing that requirement with U.S. organizations. And so far, I really know of no problems that we've had on the ground.

3. Harlan Ullman, a military affairs analyst and author. A military theorist responsible for the "shock and awe" strategy openly discussed prior to the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq.

In 1996, Ullmann, then an analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), published Shock and Awe: Achieving Rapid Dominance. The premise of the book was that, rather than relying on old-fashioned gimmickry like destroying the enemy's military capability, we could instead win wars by "sufficiently intimidating and compelling factors to force or otherwise convince an adversary to accept our will." Ullman approvingly cited the nuking of Hiroshima and the Germans' blitzkreig as examples of shocking and awing civilian populations into submission.

What do they have in common? Seems like they all stem from the Bush Administration's 2004 strategy and re-election: family values, separation of church and state, Iraq war, and maintaining a controlled Republican party in office. And who else will be added on the list to connect the dots??