Countdown Newsletter -- 1/23/06: A Picture Is Worth...

[Patsy Stone]

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Tonight on Countdown
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An adviser to President Bush said Monday that Bush's photographs in the company of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff amount to a coincidence and shouldn't be interpreted any more seriously than that. "He doesn't have a personal relationship with him," White House counselor Dan Bartlett said of Bush and Abramoff, who recently pleaded guilty to federal charges stemming from his lobbying practices and has pledged to cooperate with government prosecutors. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10987915/

The Bush Administration's campaign to rally support for their NSA domestic spying program in advance of Senate hearings on February 6 now matches the intensity of their all-out 2005 push to establish private accounts for Social Security. Unlike that uphill fight on unfamiliar territory, however, they're fighting this battle on familiar turf, employing the same arguments and tactics they used against Democrats in 2002 and 2004. There's just one little tweak: They are taking care to note that they aren't questioning Democrats' patriotism -- just their approach to fighting terrorism. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3626796/

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

Water supplied to a U.S. base in Iraq was contaminated and the contractor in charge, Halliburton, failed to tell troops and civilians at the facility, according to internal documents from the company and interviews with former Halliburton officials. Although the allegations came from Halliburton's own water quality experts, the company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney denied there was a contamination problem at Camp Junction City, in Ramadi. http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.asp?feed=AP&Date=20060123&ID=5435687

The father of a U.S. journalist kidnapped in Iraq told her captors in a statement televised Monday that she was not their enemy and would tell their story. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10988431/

Howard Stern may be coming down with a Sirius case of the bleeps. High-level executives of the satellite broadcaster are developing an internal standards-and-practices document that will set boundaries for Stern and other shock jocks, The Post has learned. http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/62098.htm

The wildest road trip since "Animal House" rocks on. The next stop for Big Ben, The Bus and all those Terrible Towels will be the Super Bowl in Detroit, thanks to a 34-17 dismantling of the Denver Broncos on Sunday in the AFC title game. "We were sitting, looking at an outside shot to be in the Super Bowl," Steelers linebacker Clark Haggans said. "This is an unbelievable feeling to be here right now." http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10978878/

According to a formula devised by Dr Cliff Arnall, a health psychologist at Cardiff University, today is the unhappiest day of 2006. Factors involved in his calculation include Christmas debts, poor weather, failed New Year's resolutions, returning to work and children going back to school, and the fact that it is a Monday. http://www.ajc.com/news/content/health/stories/012306worstday.html

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

Finally,
From the waist up, they looked like perfectly normal commuters. That wasn't good enough for police. Eight pranksters who dropped their pants and showed their underwear on the subway on Sunday were taken into custody and issued summonses for disorderly conduct. All were ultimately released, said Improv Everywhere, the group that organized the stunt. The group said more than 160 riders participated in the fifth annual No Pants Subway Ride before police halted their No. 6 train about 5 p.m. http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/N/NO_PANTS_SUBWAY_RIDE?SITE=NWCN&TEMPLATE=STRANGEHEADS.html&SECTION=HOME
I'm just glad I didn't have to see it. As a New Yorker, I put up with quite enough already.

-- Carey Fox

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

More:
Ford Motor Co., the nation's second-largest automaker, said Monday that it will cut 25,000 to 30,000 jobs and idle 14 facilities by 2012 as part of a restructuring designed to reverse a $1.6 billion loss last year in its North American operations. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10946664/

A five-story building collapsed Monday in central Nairobi with more than 280 construction workers inside, killing at least 10 people and injuring more than 60, witnesses and officials said. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10987710/

Russia accused Britain on Monday of running a James Bond-style spying operation in Moscow using a receiver hidden in a fake rock to gather secret information. Russia's FSB state security service confirmed a state TV report implicating four British embassy employees in an operation that entailed using a dummy rock equipped with a receiver to gather secret information. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10664114/

The Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear an appeal from the maker of the BlackBerry in the long-running battle over patents for the wildly popular, handheld wireless e-mail device. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10989832/

Legions of tiny bloodsucking bugs are biting their way through the Big Apple, making this the city that never sleeps ... tight. Bedbugs are back, and they're not just rearing their rust-colored heads in New York City. Experts say they're spreading to other states and countries. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10987651/