Fitz: If Libby didn't purjure and obstruct, it would be Cheney going to prison instead posted by
Wally 11:42 AM
Special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald has made it clearer than ever that he was hot on the trail of a coordinated campaign to out CIA agent Valerie Plame until that line of investigation was cut off by the repeated lies from Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.
In Friday's eminently readable court filing, Fitzgerald quotes the Libby defense calling his prosecution "unwarranted, unjust, and motivated by politics." In responding to that charge, the special counsel evidently felt obliged to put Libby's crime in context. And that context is Dick Cheney.
Libby's lies, Fitzgerald wrote, "made impossible an accurate evaluation of the role that Mr. Libby and those with whom he worked played in the disclosure of information regarding Ms. Wilson's CIA employment and about the motivations for their actions."
The investigation, Fitzgerald writes, "was necessary to determine whether there was concerted action by any combination of the officials known to have disclosed the information about Ms. Plame to the media as anonymous sources, and also whether any of those who were involved acted at the direction of others. This was particularly important in light of Mr. Libby's statement to the FBI that he may have discussed Ms. Wilson's employment with reporters at the specific direction of the Vice President."
I wonder if Cheney threatened to take Scooter hunting if he didn't take the dive for him?
"I see here today is progress, significant progress" posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 10:43 AM
Gawd I hate this little twerp. He's just like McCain. Everything is so rosey over there.....You can walk down any street......They just LOVE us! Hey Joe, why do you have to make unannounced visits to Iraq? Scared?
Lieberman Confronted By Troops In Iraq: "When Are We Going To Get Out Of Here?"
BAGHDAD, Iraq - Spc. David Williams, 22, of Boston, Mass., had two note cards in his pocket Wednesday afternoon as he waited for Sen. Joseph Lieberman. Williams serves in the 82nd Airborne Division from Fort Bragg, N.C., the first of the five "surge" brigades to arrive in Iraq, and he was chosen to join the Independent from Connecticut for lunch at a U.S. field base in Baghdad.
The night before, 30 other soldiers crowded around him with questions for the senator.
He wrote them all down. At the top of his note card was the question he got from nearly every one of his fellow soldiers:
"When are we going to get out of here?"
More quotes:
"He looks just like me," he said. "I didn't want to come back. . . . We're waiting to get blown up."
"I don't want him to snap his fingers to get things fixed," Williams said, referring to Lieberman. "But he has influence."
"We're not making any progress,"
"It just seems like we drive around and wait to get shot at."
But as he waited two chairs down from where Lieberman would sit, Hedin said he'd never voice his true feelings to the senator.
"I think I'd be a private if I did," he joked. "It's just more troops, more targets."
"It's like everything else in this war,"
"It hasn't changed."
As for Lieberman:
"Overall, I would say what I see here today is progress, significant progress from the last time I was here in December. And if you can see progress in war that means you're headed in the right direction."
"I think it's important we don't lose our will," he said. "To pull out would be a disaster."
Take another hit Junior posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 9:48 AM
On Iraq, Bush Says Public is With Him
WASHINGTON - Confronted with strong opposition to his Iraq policies, President George W. Bush decides to interpret public opinion his own way. Actually, he says, people agree with him.
Democrats view the November elections that gave them control of Congress as a mandate to bring U.S. troops home from Iraq. They are backed by evidence; election exit poll surveys by The Associated Press and television networks found 55 percent saying the U.S. should withdraw some or all of its troops from Iraq.
Bush says Democrats have it all wrong: the public does not want the troops pulled out - they want to give the military more support in its mission.
"Last November, the American people said they were frustrated and wanted a change in our strategy in Iraq," he said April 24, ahead of a veto showdown with congressional Democrats over their desire to legislation a troop withdrawal timeline. "I listened. Today, General David Petraeus is carrying out a strategy that is dramatically different from our previous course."
The Surge in Troop Levels and Blood Letting - May is Deadliest Month Since Nov. 2004 posted by
Wally 7:03 AM
Two more US soldiers have been killed in Iraq, the military announced Thursday, confirming that May had become the deadliest month for American forces in two-and-a-half years.
The soldiers were killed Wednesday when a roadside bomb hit their foot patrol and brought US casualties for the month to 116, the most since November 2004, when marines fought a fierce battle to retake the city of Fallujah. great progress
Speaking of Fallujah, how are things going there 2 1/2 years later?
A suicide bomber hit a police recruiting center in Fallujah on Thursday, killing at least 25 people and wounding 50, police said. U.S. forces backed by helicopter gunships clashed with suspected al-Qaida gunmen in western Baghdad in an engagement that lasted several hours. Not So Good
It's not just the troops suffering increasing losses. A truly free and democratic society - the "shining example" that Bush says he is trying to create in Iraq - depends on the free and open exchange of news and information. This is something that tends to be more difficult when your journalists keep getting killed.
The deaths of three more Iraqi journalists were reported on Wednesday, bringing the monthly total to nine and equalling the worst month on record for reporters in the Iraq war.
Iraq is already the deadliest conflict in 25 years for journalists. RSF puts the total death toll of journalists and media assistants in Iraq at 177, while CPJ says 104 journalists have been killed. The figures do not include the latest deaths. No News is Not Always Good News
Don't let all the bad news get you down though. According to Bush, speaking at (of course) a GOP fundraiser, things are going just honky dory in Iraq, and "there has been pretty startling progress". I have to admit, he is partly right. It's pretty frikking startling.
He won't resign. Bush won't fire him. Maybe they'll disbar Gonzales. posted by
Wally 6:19 AM
Like they did to Clinton for lying about Monica.
While the political world obsesses over whether Attorney General Alberto Gonzales can survive the outcry over the politically motivated dismissal of eight United States Attorneys, the legal academy has been debating a different aspect of the fallout:
Could a case be made that the chief law-enforcement officer of the United States should be disbarred?
(snip)
Bar-association rules, which are established by state associations-Mr. Gonzales is licensed in the state of Texas in addition to being admitted to the Supreme Court bar-typically forbid "conduct that involves deceit, fraud or misrepresentation." There are also various means of censuring lawyers for bad behavior that fall short of disbarment, such as a public reprimand.
"Lawyers are not allowed to lie," said Nancy Rapoport, an ethics expert and the former dean of the University of Houston Law Center. "That one, everyone agrees on."
It all comes down to how his testimony is interpreted, and what other information comes available. How many times do you have to say "I don't recall" under oath before it becomes obvious that you're either a liar and perjurer, or severely brain damaged. Either way, you are not qualified to be attorney general.
Hell, at some point (I think "74" times is beyond that point), you're practically asking to be kicked out of not only the Bar Association, but whatever hole in the wall dive-bar you happen to be sitting in (not that any of the dubyaD40.com crew would know about being kicked out of a bar, but...).
Humpday Humor posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 3:36 PM
George W. Bush and a secret service agent are taking a stroll when they come upon a little girl carrying a basket with a blanket over it. Curious, Bush asks the girl, "What's in the basket?"
She replies, "New baby kittens," and she opens the basket to show him.
"How nice," says Bush. "What kind are they?" The little girl says, "Republicans."
Bush smiles, pats the little girl on the head and continues on.
Three weeks later, Bush is taking another stroll, this time with Karl Rove. They see the little girl again with the same basket. Bush says, "Watch this, Karl; it's really cute." They approach the little girl.
Bush greets the little girl and asks how the kittens are doing, and she says, "Fine."
Then, smirking, he nudges Rove with his elbow and asks the little girl, "And can you tell us what kind of kittens they are?"
She replies, "Democrats."
Abashed, Bush says, "But three weeks ago you said they were Republicans!"
"I know," she says. "But now their eyes are open."
Norway is the most peaceful country in the world and Iraq the least, according to a study launched.
The Global Peace Index, published a week before a Group of Eight (G8) summit in Germany, rates 121 countries from Algeria to Zimbabwe on factors including levels of violence, organised crime and military expenditure.
While most European countries including Britain rank in the top, more peaceful, half of the league table, the United States is nearer the bottom in 96th place, while Russia is fifth from last on 118th.
The index is backed by international figures including the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, former US president Jimmy Carter and US economist Joseph Stiglitz, all winners of the Nobel peace prize. It is also supported by Queen Noor of Jordan.
Notables:
1 - Norway 2 - New Zealand 3 - Denmark 4 - Ireland 5 - Japan
Bush actually being honest: posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 10:11 AM
Not that it's a good thing:
Bush envisions U.S. presence in Iraq like S.Korea
President George W. Bush would like to see a lengthy U.S. troop presence in Iraq like the one in South Korea to provide stability but not in a frontline combat role, the White House said on Wednesday.
The United States has had thousands of U.S. troops in South Korea to guard against a North Korean invasion for 50 years.
Democrats in control of the U.S. Congress have been pressing Bush to agree to a timetable for pulling troops from Iraq, an idea firmly opposed by the president.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said Bush would like to see a U.S. role in Iraq ultimately similar to that in South Korea.
Meet the new boss....same as the old boss posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 7:35 AM
Yeah, he might me a "little" better than Wolfie, but he's still a Bushie:
Bush taps Zoellick for World Bank
President Bush today plans to name Robert Zoellick, a former U.S. trade negotiator and career diplomat, for the presidency of the World Bank.
Zoellick will become Bush's nominee to replace Paul Wolfowitz, the former deputy secretary of defense who became World Bank president in 2005 only to make a personnel decision that ultimately would result in his withdrawal under a cloud this summer: Wolfowitz moved girlfriend Shaha Riza from a job inside the bank to a higher-paying bank-financed role at the State Department to avert conflict in his new post.
....
Wolfowitz, as one of the architects of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq at the Defense Department, had entered the World Bank facing animosity from European leaders who opposed the war. Zoelleck, who also was among the foreign policy advisers whom Bush brought to office with him in 2001, is not viewed as representing as much of a hardliner as the neo-conservative Wolfowitz is regarded.
In a January 2000 Foreign Affairs essay entitled "Campaign 2000: A Republican Foreign Policy," he was one of the first of those now associated with Bush's foreign policy to invoke the notion of "evil," writing: "[T]here is still evil in the world - people who hate America and the ideas for which it stands. Today, we face enemies who are hard at work to develop nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons, along with the missiles to deliver them. The United States must remain vigilant and have the strength to defeat its enemies. People driven by enmity or by a need to dominate will not respond to reason or goodwill. They will manipulate civilized rules for uncivilized ends." The same essay praises the "idealism" of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Two years earlier, Zoellick was one of the signatories (who also included Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Elliott Abrams, Zalmay Khalilzad, John R. Bolton, Richard Armitage, and Bill Kristol) of a January 26, 1998 letter to President Bill Clinton drafted by the Project for the New American Century calling for "removing Saddam [Hussein]'s regime from power."
He sounds like a Dick Cheney Neo-Con to me.
UPDATE (Thx Jenna!): It seems our nominee to head the World Bank is a former Enron board member. Yup, Enron. This should end well.
What color is the sky in Bush's "bizarro-world"? posted by
Wally 12:29 PM
Analysis: Bush looks at public opinion on Iraq and declares it supports his decisions
It's one thing to be handed reams of conflicting and contradictory information and come to the exactly incorrect conclution from it, especially if one side of it is blatantly factually incorrect, and intentionally misleading. It's quite another to be told "you're an asshat and an idiot" and interpret that to mean that they agree with you and think you're doing a swell job. In George W. Bush's "opposite world", however, this is the norm.
Confronted with strong opposition to his Iraq policies, President Bush decides to interpret public opinion his own way. Actually, he says, people agree with him.
"Last November, the American people said they were frustrated and wanted a change in our strategy in Iraq," he said April 24, ahead of a veto showdown with congressional Democrats over their desire to legislation a troop withdrawal timeline. "I listened. Today, General David Petraeus is carrying out a strategy that is dramatically different from our previous course."
In Bush-world, increasing troop levels to what they were last year is somehow "a strategy that is dramatically different from our previous course."
"I recognize there are a handful there, or some, who just say, 'Get out, you know, it's just not worth it. Let's just leave.' I strongly disagree with that attitude. Most Americans do as well."
In fact, polls show Americans do not disagree, and that leaving - not winning - is their main goal.
Facts have never been Bush's strong suit, especially when they don't support his ideology. That might be why he doesn't go for all that "science" stuff. Twisting the truth, ignoring factual information, and outright lying are his stock in trade. But standing before the American people and the world and holding a straight face while saying "Red is blue, black is white, up is down" - that's over the top even for George. When you tell people that they don't know what their own opinions mean, even ditto-head morans take offense.
Brother can you spare a half million? posted by
Wally 7:09 AM
The U.S. government recorded a $1.3 trillion loss last year, far more than the official $248 billion deficit, when corporate-style accounting standards are used, an analysis shows.
"We're on an unsustainable path and doing a great disservice to future generations," said Chris Chocola, a former Republican member of Congress from Indiana and corporate chief executive who is pushing for more accurate accounting. Modern method requires that corporations and state and local governments count expenses immediately when a transaction occurs, even if the payment will be made later.
The federal government does not follow the rule, so promises for Social Security and Medicare don't show up when the government reports its financial condition.
Taxpayers are on the hook for $59.1 trillion in liabilities, a 2.3 percent increase from 2006. That amount is equal to $516,347 for every U.S. household. By comparison, U.S. households owe an average of $112,043 for mortgages, car loans, credit cards and all other debt combined.
5 years later - Homeland Security (lack of) Progress Report posted by
Wally 6:33 AM
Who's protecting the homeland? Who's looking after the critical infrastructure in this country and defending it from "terrorists"?
Who knows?
It looks like a bunch of untrained, minimum wage earning rent-a-cops that were hired with no background checks to me.
The security guard industry found itself involuntarily transformed after September 2001, from an army of "rent-a-cops" to protectors of the homeland. Yet, many security officers are paid little more than restaurant cooks or janitors.
(snip)
Congressional investigators reported last year that 89 private guards working at two military bases had histories that included assault, larceny, possession and use of controlled substances and forgery. The Army says it has purged guards with criminal histories from its bases.
(snip)
Bergendahl (a $19,000 a year private security guard at a skyscraper in Los Angeles) said his training usually consists of a real estate manager reading security measures to him every few months. His building rarely has evacuation drills. Management's advice? "Keep your coat buttoned. Keep your shoes shiny," Bergendahl said.
Shiny shoes will somehow protect us all from airplanes and suitcase bombs.
Father, I pray that you will break that spirt of stubborness in George W. Bush, which the Bible says is as the sin of idolatry, and help him to become a man who is willing to listen to wise counsel and be humble enough to repent, i.e. change his mind when it is in the best interest of this nation and it's people. (Link)
After 6 years of pushing Bush as being the next coming of Christ you start whining about idolatry? Moran Candidates repudiate the congress that tried to save Terri Schiavo
I thought Terri was brain dead. Completely brain dead and unresponsive. I read a thread here and linked to a couple sites, and found that wasn't the case at all. I had no idea whhile this was prominent in the news. (Link)
Being completely brain dead is a must for Freeping! Tony Snow's Press Briefing
Amazing I hate the media cause they can’t do their job, then I want them to do their job and then... they once again fall short. (Link)
See what I mean! Gonzo-gate
President Bush is one of our greatest President ever, please take your lies to a left wing lunatic site, they will love you for it. (Link)
Love ya! Liberals Attack Free Speech
These overgrown hippies want to ban everything from cigiretts to french fries. (Link)
Bush diplomacy at work again posted by
Clyde 6:26 AM
Pentagon issues blunt warning to China
The Pentagon is warning China in blunt language that despite Beijing's massive military buildup, it lacks the power for a successful attack against rival Taiwan.
The annual report on China's military, released Friday, is likely to add to rising tension between Washington and Beijing at a time when U.S. lawmakers are considering bills that would punish China for what they contend are predatory trade practices.
The report was released on the day the largest high-level Chinese delegation ever to visit the United States left Washington after economic meetings with frustrated lawmakers and with senior Bush administration officials yielded few results.
In the report, the Defense Department explicitly describes what would happen if China should attack Taiwan, the self-governing democratic island that Beijing claims as its own. It says China does not yet have "the military capability to accomplish with confidence its political objectives on the island, particularly when confronted with the prospect of U.S. intervention."
Can the draft be far behind? posted by
Clyde 6:10 AM
Some recruits to get larger bonuses starting May 29
The Army has increased the ceiling for some enlistment bonuses, while offering special seasonal bonuses of up to $15,000 for recruits who ship to basic training on short notice.
Changes to the Enlistment Bonus program for the active component take effect May 29 and apply to the inventory of bonus specialties announced May 11.
Standard enlistment bonuses are available to qualified applicants with no military service or fewer than 180 days of active federal service, and who score in the top 50 percent of the armed forces entrance exam.
Under the May 24 changes, the total bonus amount for two-year enlistments increased from $6,000 to $15,000, and for a three-year enlistment from $10,000 to $25,000.
A Sign From the Heavens - Bush says "I stand by Gonzo" while sparrow makes editorial comment by crapping on him posted by
Wally 12:35 PM
Bush keeps saying that he listens to God. Well George, were you listening to this?
Giving one of his rare presidential press conferences since becoming the US leader in 2000, Bush was busy defending the beleagured US attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, when the avian heckler swooped by to deliver its whiter than white verdict.
The bird is yet to be formally identified, some say it was a pigeon, others, a sparrow, but its contribution to the proceedings was brief and to the point. Guardian
Actually, according to ABC's Ann Compton, the bird shit on him as he was saying "I've got confidence in Al Gonzales doin' the job." If that's not a sign from above....
Washington - US President George W Bush, who has warned that a hasty US pullout from Iraq would be catastrophic, said on Thursday that US forces would leave if the fledgling Baghdad government asked them to.
"We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a sovereign nation," he said at a White House press conference.
"If they were to say 'leave', we would leave."
Hey President Pissypants! Don't you remember this? We do:
BAGHDAD (AP) - A majority of Iraqi lawmakers have endorsed a bill calling for a timetable for the withdrawal of foreign troops and demanding a freeze on the number of foreign troops already in the country, lawmakers said Thursday.
The legislation was being debated even as U.S. lawmakers were locked in a dispute with the White House over their call to start reducing the size of the U.S. force here in the coming months.
The Iraqi bill, drafted by a parliamentary bloc loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was signed by 144 members of the 275-member house, according to Nassar al-Rubaie, the leader of the Sadrist bloc.
The Democratic Leadership just gave a big F-U to the troops, to the American people, and to their constitutional responsibilities to uphold their end of the "Balance of Power".
The Democratic Leadership just gave King Bush everything he asked for and then some, including a crown and scepter.
They gave him his unrestricted blood money. They gave it to him with no timelines. They gave it to him with no benchmarks. They gave it to him with no "troop readiness" requirements. They gave it to him with no restrictions. They gave it to him with no accountability or responsibility. They gave his Iraq occupation legitimacy. They gave him credibility by going along with his straw man of "cutting off funding for the troops" bullshit. They gave him strength by cowering before him and caving to his tantrum.
The only thing they didn't give to him was a fucking blowjob, because then they'd have grounds for impeachment. And impeachment is "off the table."
Use the "Post a Comment" link to submit your caption of the boy king getting cozy with Chinese Vice Premier Wu Yi while Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson watches.
Bush / Broken Record* - The next few months will be a critical time posted by
Wally 10:49 AM
This morning King George celebrated his victory over the Democratically controlled Congress, and their apparent upcoming coronation of him as King - seeing as they've abdicated all authority, responsibility, and governing power to him - by pulling another "Friedman", announcing that the next few months were the critical ones in Iraq. Which is the exact same thing we've been hearing from he and his royal family for the past 4 years. The same "critical few months" over and over and over. It's like "Groundhog Day", but with explosions and gunfire and dead and mutilated bodies and blood and gore and violence and fear.... We're watching an extremely violent, bloody, and expensive remake of "The Money Pit", with the phrase "two weeks" replaced by "next few months".
Bush told a news conference that the last troops in a 30,000-troop buildup should be in place by mid-June, and said "This summer is going to be a critical time for the new strategy."
"We expect heavy fighting in the weeks and months" ahead, Bush said. He said more American and Iraqi casualties should be expected.
What does he care about casualties, they're not his kids. Just a bunch more "commas".
We will now OWN this WAR. posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 10:16 AM
In general, this bill makes us sick to the stomach. From giving Bush a blank check like he wanted to turning their back on the will of the American people. I can't believe, in less than 6 months time, the Democratic majority has already caved in to one of the most unpopular presidents of all time. Not to mention, he may be the second worst hated man in the world's history. Nancy? Harry? Where is that "accountability" you so proudly wore as a badge?
To make things worse, read this:
VOTE ALERT: Dick Cheney Dems Plan to Hide Votes On Iraq TODAY
Today is the day House Democrats are expected to vote on Iraq - except, news out of Washington this morning says the leadership has come up with a nifty little trick to try to prevent the public from seeing who voted for giving Bush a blank check, and who voted against it. If you thought Democrats were behaving like cowards by caving into a President at a three-decade low in presidential polling and giving him the very blank check they explicitly promised not to give him during the 2006 election, you ain't seen nothing yet. We are watching the rise of the Dick Cheney Democrats - that is, the rise of Democrats who endorse governing in secret and hiding the public's business from the public itself.
Here's how it is expected to work today in a process only Dick Cheney could love (though you never know - it could change at the last minute). Every bill comes to the House floor with what is known as a "rule" that sets the terms of the debate over the legislation in question. House members first vote to approve this parliamentary rule, and then vote on the legislation. Today, however, Democrats are planning to essentially include the Iraq blank check bill IN the rule itself, by making sure the underlying bill the rule brings to the floor includes no timelines for withdrawal, and that the rule only allows amendments that fund the war with no restrictions - blank check amendments that House Democratic leaders know Republicans will have the votes to pass.
KEITH OLBERMANN - THE PRESIDENT HAS FAILED - CONGRESS HAS FAILED posted by
Wally 7:45 AM
K.O. tees off on Bush and the Democratic leadership over the Iraq occupation "compromise" in a special comment. Click the image to watch.
......The Democratic majority has agreed to finance the deaths of Americans in a war that has only reduced the security of Americans. The Democratic leadership has given Mr. Bush all that he wanted, with the only caveat being not merely meaningless symbolism about benchmarks for the Iraqi government, but OPTIONAL meaningless symbolism about benchmarks for the Iraqi government.
The Democratic leadership has in sum claimed a compromise with the administration where the only things truly compromised are the trust of the voters, the ethics of the Democrats, and the lives of our brave and doomed friends and family in Iraq.
You, the men and women elected with the simplest of directions - stop the war - have traded your strength, your bargaining position, and the uniform support of those who elected you for a handful of magic beans.
You may trot out ever political cliche from the soft soap inside the beltway dictionary of boilerplate sound bites about how this is the beginning of the end of Mr. Bush's carte blanche in Iraq, about how this is a first step. Well Senator Reid, the only end at it's beginning is our collective hope that you and your colleagues would do what is right, what is essential, what you were each elected, or re-elected to do, because this "first step" is a step right off a cliff.
WASHINGTON (Dow Jones) -- President Bush is likely to veto legislation that would create hefty fines and criminal penalties for gasoline price-gouging, the White House said Wednesday.
The threat came as the House prepared to vote on a Democratic plan aimed at battling rising gasoline prices by requiring the Federal Trade Commission to define "price gouging." The bill would create fines and criminal penalties, including jail time, for industry executives found guilty of gouging.
The White House, in a formal statement of administration policy, said the legislation amounted to price controls that would hinder oil companies and retailers from responding to market signals, potentially worsening fuel shortages.
"Gasoline price controls are an old -- and failed -- policy choice that will exacerbate shortages and increase fuel hoarding after natural disasters, denying fuel to people when they most need it," the White House said, adding that Bush's senior advisers would recommend a veto of the House bill or any similar legislation that makes it to his desk.
Mary Cheney gives birth to Anakin Skywalker posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 3:23 PM
Get it?
Mary Cheney's baby is born
Vice President Cheney's daughter Mary gave birth today to Samuel David Cheney.
Under Virginia law, Mary's partner of 15 years, Heather Poe, "will have no legal relationship with her child. She can't adopt as a second parent. She won't have her name on the birth certificate." President Bush will still not say whether or not he supports gay adoption.
Greg Palast: Goodling/Sampson Obstruction of Justice evidence? posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 3:09 PM
Goodling/Sampson Obstruction of Justice evidence?
BBC Television's Newsnight has 500 "missing" Rove office emails including a series of self-incriminating notes which provide "the keys to the kingdom" behind the prosecutor firings.
In the opening to today's testimony before Congress, Monica Goodling, former Department of Justice White House Liaison, testified that Deputy Attorney General Kyle Sampson lied. At issue was, says Goodling, Sampson's denial "that he had some knowledge of allegations that Tim Griffin had been involved in vote 'caging' during the work on the President's 2004 campaign."
What is 'caging'? Why is it so important that it lead Goodling's testimony? Why is Tim Griffin's involvement kept secret? And what are 'the allegations'?
U.S. Navy sends carriers near Iran - this should end well posted by
Wally 11:54 AM
The U.S. Navy staged its latest show of military force off the Iranian coastline on Wednesday, sending two aircraft carriers and landing ships packed with 17,000 U.S. Marines and sailors to carry out unannounced exercises in the Persian Gulf.
The carrier strike groups led by the USS John C. Stennis and USS Nimitz were joined by the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard and its own strike group, which includes landing ships carrying members of the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit.
The Navy said nine U.S. warships passed through the narrow Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday. Merchant ships passing through the busy strait carry two-fifths of the world's oil exports.
Aircraft aboard the two carriers and the Bonhomme Richard were to conduct air training while the ships ran submarine, mine and other exercises.
Goodling Says Deputy Attorney General Misled Congress posted by
Wally 11:44 AM
Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty knew about extensive White House involvement in the firings of U.S. attorneys before he provided inaccurate information about the issue to Congress, a former senior Justice aide testified this morning.
Monica M. Goodling, speaking publicly for the first time about her role in the prosecutor firings, also said McNulty urged her not to attend a private Senate briefing, saying that her status as White House liaison would raise questions among lawmakers about possible White House involvement in the dismissals.
"I believe the deputy was not fully candid about his knowledge of the White House's involvement," Goodling testified at the House Judiciary Committee, which has granted her immunity from prosecution in exchange for her testimony.
Comblicker to Homewrecker posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 11:17 AM
Wolfowitz splits from girlfriend
Washington, May 23 : Outgoing World Bank president Paul Wolfowitz has not only lost his job, but his girlfriend, too.
Wolfowitz was asked to resign from the World Bank over a controversial pay and promotion package that he had arranged for his brunette girlfriend, Shaha Ali Riza.
Sources were quoted by the New York Post as saying that Riza, a brilliant feminist with a promising diplomatic career, was upset by all the publicity and the implication that she was getting ahead with the help of a powerful man.
"She was furious about the embarrassment," one source was quoted, as saying.
The Bush administration is developing plans to "internationalise" the Iraq crisis, including an expanded role for the United Nations, as a way of reducing overall US responsibility for Iraq's future and limiting domestic political fallout from the war as the 2008 election season approaches.
(snip)
Four years after bypassing a hostile security council, the Bush administration is expected to take the Iraq question back to the UN at the annual opening of the general assembly in September.
"We foresee a very significant role for the UN and its agencies. The UN has great expertise that is badly needed in Iraq," a senior US diplomat said at the weekend. The World Bank and IMF would also be asked to do more, he said.
Isn't that exactly what every sane person was saying back in 2002 when Bush was doing things like bugging phones in efforts to strong-arm the U.N. into going along with, and thereby legitimizing his unilateral invasion of Iraq? Weren't the voices on the left, and the center, telling him that without UN approval, his war was illegal?
Instead of paying attention, he called those of us who weren't "with him" traitors and terrorist appeasers. When the United Nations balked at his war, he said they were "irrelevant", and without waiting for a vote (destined to fail) on a second resolution giving international approval, he ordered inspectors and diplomats out of Iraq and issued a final warning. Thus began Bush's war.
Now that it's working out exactly as predicted - a failure on a massive scale - Bush is flip-flopping and crying to the U.N. for help. He's even reaching out to France!
Times sure have changed since the old days when John Bolton was the ambassador to the U.N., holding such diplomatic beliefs about the organization to which he was the U.S. representative as "There is no such thing as the United Nations....If the U.N. secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference." (he actually said that).
The question now is, will the U.N. agree to help, or will they tell us the same thing Colin Powell warned Bush about before the invasion "you broke it, you bought it".
Side note: the article also mentions that a former White House official who is familiar with administration thinking, predicted Mr Bush would ask Congress to agree to another "Friedman", extending the surge for 6 more months after Gen Petraeus presents his "progress report" in early September. Is anyone surprised?
Remember this guy? Bush says he's still causing problems. posted by
Wally 6:42 AM
Shame we didn't catch him either dead or alive.
Bush declassifies more info saying bin Laden ordered attacks outside Iraq
Seeking to rally support for the war, President Bush is pointing to U.S. intelligence asserting that Osama bin Laden ordered a top lieutenant in early 2005 to form a terrorist unit to hit targets outside Iraq, and that the United States should be first in his sights.
The information...was declassified by the White House on Tuesday. It expands on a classified bulletin the Homeland Security Department issued in March 2005.
The Bush White House in the past has declassified and made public sensitive intelligence information to help rebut critics or defend programs or decisions against possibly adverse decisions in the Congress or the courts. On a few occasions, the declassified materials were intended to be proof that terrorists see Iraq as a critical staging ground for global operations. Osama bin Who?
What an incredible revelation: Osama bin Laden determined to to strike in United States. Perhaps Bush didn't get the memo.
Maybe if Dubya had expended the effort to catch him, "dead or alive" back when he had the chance, instead of pulling most of our troops out of Afghanistan for his little misadventure in Iraq, bin Laden wouldn't still be giving such orders. But back in 2002 Bush had more important things to worry about than capturing the criminal who had caused the worst terrorist act in United States history. After all, as George himself said back on March 13,2002:
He's just -- he's a person who's now been marginalized. His network, his host government has been destroyed. He's the ultimate parasite who found weakness, exploited it, and met his match.
So I don't know where he is. You know, I just don't spend that much time on him... to be honest with you.
I truly am not that concerned about him.
Marginalized, huh? Than why is he still in the news? If he's "been marginalized" and "met his match", than why is he still ordering attacks on the U.S.? Mr. President, are you still not that concerned about him? When you abandoned Afghanistan in order to invade and occupy Iraq, you opened up a whole new country for him to play and hide. You have embarked on a recruiting campaign for al-quaida beyond his wildest dreams. You have made bin Laden more powerful and relevant than he ever could have imagined. When he reads your words and watches your speeches, is Osama thanking you, or laughing at you? Probably both.
So I ask you again, George, are you still "truly not that concerned" or have you flip-flopped on him again?
Click it, or Impeach it! posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 1:05 PM
Bush Drives Without Seatbelt
ABC News' Tara Woodside Reports: President George W. Bush was caught on tape Sunday driving his pick-up truck in Crawford, Texas without a seatbelt.
The tape shows the president casually cruising on his ranch in his white Ford pick-up truck with NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer in the passenger seat. Bush smiles for the camera, his seatbelt visibly unbuckled.
In Texas, it is illegal to drive on public roadways without a seatbelt. However, the law is different on private property.
"If he was on private property, he was not breaking the law," said Tom Vinger, spokesperson for the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Ironically, this is the start of National Seatbelt Week, a campaign by the government's National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, to get Americans to buckle up.
Stop me if you've heard this one before: Bush says we'll know about Iraq progress in a few months posted by
Wally 11:30 AM
President George W. Bush said on Monday he believes September will be an "important moment" to assess the extent of progress in Iraq under his much-criticized troop buildup plan.
Once again he is claiming that the next few months will be key for making progress, and that we can't jump to conclusions before then.
He expects to get an assessment of the impact of the troop buildup plan from the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, at the end of the summer.
"I see it as an important moment, because David Petraeus says that's when he'll have a pretty good assessment as to what the effects of the surge has been."
It's refreshing to see that he's still listening to the generals - whenever they tell him exactly what he wants to hear. In this case, he's saying "give it a few months"
If it seems that we've heard something like this before, maybe it's because this kind of reasoning has been used so often in reference to the Iraq occupation that it has even been given a name.
The Friedman, or Friedman Unit (F.U.), is a....unit of time equal to six months.
The term has been used in general to describe any pronouncement of a critical period for the U.S. occupation of Iraq. Such pronouncements have been made by numerous politicians and military officials involved in the war.
Examples of the F.U. abound:
"The next three-to-six months will be critical." ~John McCain, Sept. 10, 2003 "Overall, I think a year from now, we will have a fair amount of progress [in Iraq] if we stay the course." ~John McCain, Dec 8, 2005 "We're either going to lose this thing or win this thing within the next several months." ~John McCain, Nov. 12, 2006
"The developments over the next several months will be critical." ~Lt. Gen. David H. Petraeus, Oct. 5, 2005
"We've got, I think, six months." ~Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.), Nov. 17, 2005 "We've got to stay firm for the next six months. It is a critical period..." ~Sen. John W. Warner, November 27, 2005
"I think the next few months will be crucial." ~Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.), July 3, 2003
"The next few months will be critical." ~Sen. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.), July 22, 2004
"The next months will be critical." ~U.N. Ambassador John R. Bolton, Aug. 4, 2005
"The important thing is to realize we are about to enter into a very critical six months" ~Tony Blair, Jan. 5, 2004
"I think the next nine months are critical." ~Zalmay Khalilzad, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, June 29, 2005 "The next six months will be critical in terms of reining in the danger of civil war. If the government fails to achieve this, it will have lost its opportunity" ~Zalmay Khalilzad, June 7, 2006 "He has a window of a couple months..." ~ Khalilzad, September 30, 2006
"I think between now and Christmas [six months] is the crucial time." ~General Barry McCaffrey, June 11, 2006
"The next three months are critical." ~Lee Hamilton, Iraq Study Group co-chair, September 20, 2006
"The next six months will be a decisive period that will determine Iraq's future" ~General George Casey, January 19, 2007
"The next six months will be very critical in Iraq" ~Chuck Hagel, August 18, 2005
"I think it'll be rather clear in the next sixty to ninety days as to whether this plan's going to work." ~John Boehner, January 23, 2007
That's just a start. There are years and years of "6 months" out there on the Google. How many more "Friedmans" will we go through. How many soldiers and civilians won't make it through the next one.
When will it end? posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 9:15 AM
Damaging, if true:
Bush could double (combat force in Iraq) by Christmas
The Bush administration is quietly on track to nearly double the number of combat troops in Iraq this year, an analysis of Pentagon deployment orders showed Monday.
The little-noticed second surge, designed to reinforce U.S. troops in Iraq, is being executed by sending more combat brigades and extending tours of duty for troops already there.
The actions could boost the number of combat soldiers from 52,500 in early January to as many as 98,000 by the end of this year if the Pentagon overlaps arriving and departing combat brigades.
Separately, when additional support troops are included in this second troop increase, the total number of U.S. troops in Iraq could increase from 162,000 now to more than 200,000 -- a record-high number -- by the end of the year.
... "It doesn't surprise me that they're not talking about it," said retired Army Maj. Gen. William Nash, a former U.S. commander of NATO troops in Bosnia, referring to the Bush administration. "I think they would be very happy not to have any more attention paid to this."
How the Pentagon keeps meeting its goals. Recruiting 13 year olds. posted by
Wally 7:06 AM
In an ongoing effort to meet recruiting goals in the face of bad publicity - a.k.a. the Iraq occupation - the Pentagon has over the past few years taken the steps of lowering standards for education and test scores, eased restrictions on criminal records, and found ways to sidestep substance abuse issues. But it's not just retards, criminals, and druggies that the military is interested in. Who they really want are our children.
With over half of America's 1 million active and reserve soldiers enlisted as teens, the military is luring kids as young as 13 using a PR machine that would make Joe Camel proud.
As of March 31, the U.S. military included 81,000 teenagers. Its 7,350 17-year-olds needed parental consent to enlist, and only this April were all barred from battle zones.
But the military aims even lower, marketing itself to children as young as 13 with multimedia videos, school visits and cold calls to teens' homes and cell phones. In Junior ROTC, kids get uniforms, win medals, fire real guns and play soldier, while adults trained in psychological manipulation steer them toward the army. The Army's JROTC website lists such motivating activities as "eating at concession stands."
A recruiters' handbook discusses creepy seduction techniques with all the subtlety of predatory stalking. Adult recruiters skilled in "projecting credibility" lurk in snack joints, set up laptops playing action-packed videos, proffer rides and promise friendship and fatherly advice. With blacks particularly skeptical of the war effort, the military is aggressively targeting Hispanics with multimillion dollar marketing campaigns that include chatting up mothers and attending church. Recruiters get non- English speaking parents to sign enlistment papers for 17-year- olds by letting them believe that service is mandatory, or that they were approving blood tests, according to the New York Times.
The manual also suggests such ethical techniques as "bribing" teachers and guidance councilors, etc.
With Bush's ongoing and eternal "war on terror", and his misadventures in the middle east, it's no surprise that the Pentagon is having trouble meeting recruiting goals. But that does not give them an excuse, nor can there ever be an excuse for going after innocent and vulnerable children and teens just because of the need for cannon fodder. Recruiting children is supposed to be something we read about with horror being done by guerilla militias in third world nations. It is not something we should expect, or accept of our own government.
Pussies! Dems again cave to the boy king, drop timelines from Iraq Occupation bill posted by
Wally 6:26 AM
After weeks of refusing to back down to President Bush on setting a timetable on Iraq, House Democratic leaders face having to explain to their party's rank and file why they've now relented.
Party officials said Monday the next war spending bill most likely will fund military operations and not demand a timeline to bring troops home, although it will contain other restrictions on Bush's Iraq policies.
Oh la-de-freaking-da, it will contain "other restrictions". I'll believe it when I see it. It seems the Democrats are intent on making an honest man of Bush - no easy feat - when he accuses them of "political theater", since they seem incapable or unwilling of backing up their words with actions or results. All talk, no action. Once again they are giving the spoiled rich brat everything he wants just because he threw a temper tantrum. Nancy, you're a mom. You should know better.
Even if deadlines for troop withdrawals are dropped as expected, Democratic leaders are claiming victory in the high-profile fight with Bush.
Victory? And how, exactly, is this a victory?
The Democrats' new bill also was expected to include the first federal minimum wage increase in more than a decade, a top priority for the Democrats who took control of Congress in January.
That's not a victory. That's a failure and a terrible strategic blunder. The minimum wage increase is a bill that should have been sent up to the hill clean, as a stand-alone bill. Let the Republicans vote on the minimum wage, on the record, so everyone can see. Let Bush either sign it or veto it, while the whole country is watching. By burying the minimum wage in this weakass Iraq Occupation bill, the Dems not only show off their lack of spine by caving to Bush, they throw away one of their premium campaign issues. Can they find another way to fuck it up and give Dubya his "trifecta"?
Here we go again... posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 1:19 PM
The King of "Pure Political Theater" accuses dems on Gonzo "no-confidence" vote
President George W. Bush said Attorney General Alberto Gonzales continues to have his full support and called an attempt by Senate Democrats to hold a no- confidence vote on the embattled Justice Department chief "pure political theater."
"He has got my confidence, he has done nothing wrong," Bush said today in response to a question during a news conference at his Texas ranch. "I stand by Al Gonzales."
Democratic Senators Charles Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California are proposing the Senate vote on a no-confidence resolution as soon as this week.
"It is this kind of political theater that has caused the American people to lose confidence in how Washington operates," Bush said today.
This, from the man who snuck into Baghdad in the middle of the night so he could get a photo op holding a PLASTIC turkey surrounded by troops on Thanksgiving 2003. This from the man who's party still worships as their demi-god a Hollywood icon - Ronnie Reagan, a party who may very well select Fred Thompson, another actor to run for President in 2008. The party of Aaaaahnold.
Pure political theater my ass. Being accused of "pure political theater" by Dubya is like having Britney Spears accuse you of showing too much skin because you flashed an ankle from under your burka.
On a good note, by "standing by" Gonzo, Bush just gave him the kiss of death, just like he did to Rummy, Wolfie, and of course, Brownie.
I've got your "political theater" right here on this platter.
I can't believe Bush keeps using the words "political theater." Here's a post we did back in March regarding this.
Gonzo won't quit? Fine, fire him. Senate readies "no-confidence" vote. posted by
Wally 6:53 AM
The top Republican on the Senate committee investigating Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Sunday he believes Gonzales could resign before a no-confidence vote sought this week by Senate Democrats.
Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he believed a "sizable number" of GOP lawmakers would join Democrats in expressing their lack of confidence in the attorney general.
"I have a sense that before the vote is taken, that Attorney General Gonzales may step down," Specter said on CBS' "Face the Nation."
"Votes of no confidence are very rare," Specter said. "Historically, that is something which Attorney General Gonzales would like to avoid. I think that if and when he sees that coming, he would prefer to avoid that kind of a historical black mark."
It's a shame they can't fire him outright. A vote of no confidence is purely symbolic in the Senate, but considering how rarely it's been used, it's pretty strong symbolism. On the other hand, it's not like this administration has ever been concerned with the opinions, ideas, or interests of anyone outside of the administration. Bush may say, like he said about President Carter, that the vote is "irrelevant" and go back to clearing brush.
At my home I have a picture of President Bush under the picture of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Link)
Right beside the black velvet Elvis portrait and the gold rimmed Dale Earnhardt plate set Lindsey Graham's statement on Immigration Bill
I can call a turd a rosebud doesn't make it one (Link)
I could call a dim-witted coke-sniffing dry-drunk a president also! Bush defending Immigration Bill
The worst thing he did was make the Democrats right. He made them right about Iraq, and he's making them right that he probably will be one of the worst presidents in our country's history. (Link)
No, the TRUTH made us right moran!!! Ron Paul and 9/11
Ron Paul, a Michael Moore clone. An evil person who blames the United States for 9/11 (Link)
The truth is a bitter pill to swallow! Ron Paul just tried forcing it down your throat. Gonzo - Ashcroft - NSA Spying
Gonzalez was another one of the totally incompetent George W. Bush's totally incompetent puppet appointments. (Link)
Looks like there some discontent amongst the freepers this week and I am seeing more and more corn shaped canoes floating away from the turd in the punchbowl. Still, there is enough Bushbots and mind-numbing crap floating over there that I need a shower. WHERE'S MY LOOFA?
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says his long friendship with President Bush makes it easier to say "no" to him on sticky legal issues.
Gonzales' critics say the attorney is far more likely to say "yes," and they say that leaves the Justice Department vulnerable to a politically determined White House.
Probably not since Watergate has an attorney general been so closely bound to the White House. Gonzales has pushed counterterrorism programs that courts found unconstitutional and filled the ranks of federal prosecutors with Republican loyalists. In doing so, he has put Bush's stamp on an a Cabinet department that is supposed to operate largely free of the White House and beyond the reach of politics.
"This intertwining of the political with the running of the Justice Department has gone on in other administrations, both Republican and Democrat," said Paul Rothstein, a professor at Georgetown Law School. "But I think it's being carried to a fine art by this president. They leave no stone unturned to politicize where they think the law will permit it. And they push the line very far."
Securing the border - in Iraq posted by
Clyde 6:02 AM
Border agents recruited for Iraq duty
A military contractor is recruiting current and former agents with the U.S. Border Patrol to teach Iraqis how to secure their national borders.
The U.S. State Department has asked Virginia-based DynCorp International to find 120 people with Customs and Border Enforcement experience to go to Iraq for the training.
The company already has 700 police trainers in Iraq. The department made the request for border security trainers in late March.
Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano said she was worried that DynCorp's effort is distracting from security along the U.S.-Mexico border. She and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson wrote President Bush this week to say the deal "makes no sense."
More Republican family values posted by
Clyde 6:29 AM
Former SD Legislator Arrested On Sex Charges
A former South Dakota lawmaker is accused of molesting his own foster children and legislative pages.
Ted Klaudt, 49, a Republican rancher from Walker, faces a long list of charges: eight counts of rape, two counts of sexual exploitation of a minor, two counts of witness tampering, sexual contact with a person under 16, and stalking.
Court documents mention five possible victims. Three were foster children between the ages of 15 and 19 who lived with Klaudt's family. One is a cousin of one of those girls, and the fifth is a friend of Klaudt's daughter.
In the most disturbing accusation, the girls say Klaudt had them convinced they could earn up to $20,000 by donating their eggs to a fertility clinic. And even though he has no medical training, the girls say Klaudt did all the supposed "exams" and "procedures" himself.
Bush's involvement questioned posted by
Clyde 6:14 AM
Reporters Demand Answers On 'Ashcroft Hospital Visit'
At a press briefing this morning at the White House, reporters peppered Bush spokesman Tony Fratto with questions about the growing intrigue surrounding the attempt to get a hospitalized Attorney General John Ashcroft to sign off on domestic spying. President Bush deflected questions on the matter yesterday, refusing to confirm that he had dispatched two aides to the hospital or even that the incident too place.
Fratto seemed to confirm that it happened today, correcting one reporter who said it happened in a "hotel room", saying it was actually a "hospital room."
Reporters also appeared to trap him when he re-stated the president's position that the White House will not comment on this because it involves a classified program, even though the hospital visit itself is not classified. A reporter replied: If it's so secret and vital, why aren't you proposing that charges be brought against James Comey, the former #2 in the Justice Department, who revealed the details in congressional testimony earlier this week?
They also jumped on his statement that the proper committees in Congress had been briefed on the allegedly illegal program, thereby suggesting that they had approved it. Reporters asked if they indeed did approve it (which is unlikely). Fratto dodged that one.
"Positive signs in Iraq." posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 3:00 PM
Here's to your "positive signs" repukes:
Four arrested in Iraq 'honor killing'
BAGHDAD, IRAQ (CNN) -- Authorities in northern Iraq have arrested four people in connection with the "honor killing" last month of a Kurdish teen -- a startling, morbid pummeling caught on a mobile phone video camera and broadcast around the world.
The case portrays the tragedy and brutality of honor killings in the Muslim world. Honor killings take place when family members kill relatives, almost always female, because they feel the relatives' actions have shamed the family.
In this case, Dua Khalil, a 17-year-old Kurdish girl whose religion is Yazidi, was dragged into a crowd in a headlock with police looking on and kicked, beaten and stoned to death last month.
Authorities believe she was killed for being seen with a Sunni Muslim man. She had not married him or converted, but her attackers believed she had, a top official in Nineveh province said. The Yazidis, who observe an ancient Middle Eastern religion, look down on mixing with people of another faith.
Is Cheney in more trouble than we thought? Lawyers seeking immunity for him in Plame case posted by
Wally 1:45 PM
Attorneys for Vice President Cheney and top White House officials told a federal judge yesterday that they cannot be held liable for anything they disclosed to reporters about covert CIA officer Valerie Plame or her husband, former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.
The lawyers said any conversations Cheney and the officials had about Plame with one another or with reporters were part of their normal duties because they were discussing foreign policy and engaging in an appropriate "policy dispute." Cheney's attorney went further, arguing that Cheney is legally akin to the president because of his unique government role and has absolute immunity from any lawsuit. Treason
About that "absolute immunity from lawsuit" thing. Let's set the Way-Back machine to May of 1997:
A unanimous Supreme Court ruled yesterday that Paula Corbin Jones can move forward with her sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton. The court's forceful decision rejected Clinton's argument that sitting presidents should have legal immunity from allegations involving their personal conduct. Oops!
Well isn't that a nice little kick in the balls, Dick. Bit in the ass by a ruling straight from your own playbook. The righties were SO happy and excited about that SCOTUS ruling back them. I wonder what they'll be saying about it now that it's considered "precedent". Any takers on a bet that they'll be crying for the activist judges to overturn it?
Comments from our Speaker Of The House Czar. posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 1:37 PM
Nancy,
Just send him the same bill over-and-over again:
"The domestic initiatives on the bill in the original we sent to the President are emergencies. Katrina, hurricane disaster assistance, health care for America's children, all of those issues are emergencies. But because the President made it an issue that they were not appropriate on the war funding bill, we said, 'Okay, take those off. And then accept the bill that we sent that includes everything you have asked for our troops and more.'
"But it has accountability in it. The President's representatives said no. Then we said, 'Okay, you have a problem with timelines, we'll give you a waiver on that.' They said no.
"So it is clear that the difference between the Democrats and the President is the issue of accountability. He will not accept any accountability or responsibility for what has happened there. Going into the meeting we had hopes that we could find our common ground, one where the line would be drawn on accountability, without an open-ended war without end, with a blank check. For we are speaking out with the wishes of the American people. To create a new direction in Iraq -- that can only happen with accountability."
How Many Warrantless Wiretapping Programs is Bush Running? posted by
Wally 10:07 AM
Alberto Gonzalez appeared before the US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on NSA surveillance authority in February 2006. In response to a question from Sen. Chuck Schumer about rumors that former Deputy Attorney General James Comey objected to the prospect of warrantless wiretapping targeting American citizens inside the Unites States, Gonzalez testified that "There has not been any serious disagreement about the program that the president has confirmed." Wash Post
In shocking testimony yesterday, Comey revealed the extraordinary means employed by the Bush administration to try to strong-arm him into signing off on what he considered to be an illegal wiretapping program. American Progress
One of two things must be true:
1) Gonzalez lied under oath and tried to hide the fact Comey disagreed with the program that the president has acknowledged to the American people.
2) Gonzalez was not lying, and there is at least one other program which Comey objected to, but which Gonzalez was not referring to, and which Bush has never admitted to.
Which of these is correct seems pretty clear in light of this clip from the chilling PBS Frontline documentary "Spying on the Homefront" originally aired May 16, 2007.
The Frontline documentary was pretty enlightening and frightening, describing what's really going on at the NSA and CIA. You can watch the entire program online at the link above.
"So many people in America think this does not affect them. They've been convinced that these programs are only targeted at suspected terrorists.... I think that's wrong.... Our programs are not perfect, and it is inevitable that totally innocent Americans are going to be affected by these programs." ~ former CIA Assistant General Counsel Suzanne
Meantime, while "totally innocent Americans" are being affected and Constitutionally violated, Gonzo is still allowed to sit there smirking and lying and wielding practically unfettered power, above the law and answerable only to the boy king. How long will it be until he joins the long list of Bushie "firings resignations".
The impossibility of being fired by George W. Bush posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 10:06 AM
It must be nice to have a position in the Bush Administration. You get paid large sums of money, can break the law when you please, and never have to worry about getting fired. Where do I apply?
Paul D. Wolfowitz yesterday resigned as president of the World Bank over his role in arranging generous pay raises for his girlfriend, ending a prolonged, extraordinarily charged battle that some officials say has badly damaged the poverty-fighting organization. He will step down June 30.
June 30th? How nice must it be to be forced to resign for ethics violations and get to tell the boss "I'll just hang around and collect a check until the end of next month." If it was you or me, it would be more like "Get a box. Get your stuff. Get out. You have 30 minutes and a guard will be watching to make sure you don't take anything that's not yours."
Wolfowitz will be able to collect a $400,000 performance bonus due him on June 1, according to two senior bank officials. US officials asked him to stay on as a caretaker until the end of June to allow time for the naming of a successor.
What? I've been at my job for a lot longer than him. If I screw, what are the odds that I'll get a half million dollar bonus as they escort me out the door? What does a person have to do to get "fired" in the Bush administration?
In the end, the 24-member bank board, in a statement that all but exonerated Wolfowitz, said, "He assured us that he acted ethically and in good faith in what he believed were the best interests of the institution, and we accept that. We also accept that others involved acted ethically and in good faith."
The statement, the result of protracted negotiations among the board, Wolfowitz, and his lawyer, Robert Bennett, is at odds with a 52-page report made public this week by an internal committee of seven board members. It found that Wolfowitz broke the bank's code of conduct and criticized him for "questionable judgment and a preoccupation with self-interest over institutional best interest."
They're clearing his name too. Isn't that nice of them. They should be running him out like a common pygmy, but instead they're giving him a golden handshake and practically apologizing for ruining his career, as if it's their fault for his lack of morals and ethics. Unbelievable.
The Iraq War: Going, Going, ... posted by
Wally 3:12 PM
How should the American people interpret the extraordinary fact that George W. Bush couldn't convince a single retired four-star general to sign up as the new "war czar" for coordinating the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan - and finally had to settle for an active-duty three-star general who had opposed Bush's "surge" in Iraq?
Though Bush insists that he's "a commander guy" who follows the advice of experienced generals, the appointment of Lute belies Bush's claim. The reality is that last December Bush and his neoconservative advisers overruled the judgments of the two field commanders for Iraq and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in ordering the "surge."
Bush then replaced the field commanders, Gens. John Abizaid and George Casey, with Admiral William Fallon and Gen. David Petraeus. That allowed the President to resume the fiction, at least temporarily, that he listens to his commanders while castigating his Democratic critics as "politicians in Washington" who think they know best.
(snip)
The views of Lute and many other U.S. commanders were reflected in the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, which reported in December 2006 that the situation in Iraq was "grave and deteriorating" and recommended a drawdown of U.S. military forces combined with a stronger commitment to train Iraqi forces and renewed diplomatic talks with Iraq's neighbors.
Give it a shot posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 2:24 PM
Dems Seek No-Confidence Vote on Gonzales
Two Senate Democrats said Thursday they will seek a no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales over accusations that he carried out President Bush's political agenda at the expense of the Justice Department's independence.
Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California, who have led the investigation into the conduct of White House officials and Gonzales, said the attorney general has been too weakened to run the department.
Just when such a vote might occur in the Senate was uncertain.
Their announcement is the latest in a series of blows suffered by Gonzales this week, including new criticism from Republicans and the prediction of one GOP veteran that the investigation into the firings of federal prosecutors would end with the attorney general's resignation.
Bush still hates our troops posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 1:19 PM
White House: 3.5 percent pay hike unnecessary
Troops don't need bigger pay raises, White House budget officials said Wednesday in a statement of administration policy laying out objections to the House version of the 2008 defense authorization bill.
The Bush administration had asked for a 3 percent military raise for Jan. 1, 2008, enough to match last year's average pay increase in the private sector. The House Armed Services Committee recommends a 3.5 percent pay increase for 2008, and increases in 2009 through 2012 that also are 0.5 percentage point greater than private-sector pay raises.
(snip)
Bush budget officials said the administration "strongly opposes" both the 3.5 percent raise for 2008 and the follow-on increases, calling extra pay increases "unnecessary."
Oh please oh please oh please! posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 10:01 AM
Gore on running: 'I haven't ruled it out'
Former Vice President Al Gore has not "ruled out" a presidential bid in 2008, he told Time Magazine in an interview published Thursday.
But Gore also said he has "fallen out of love with politics" and that he can advance his cause in other ways than the presidency.
"If I do my job right, all the candidates will be talking about the climate crisis," Gore told Time's Eric Pooley. "And I'm not convinced the presidency is the highest and best role I could play. . . It would take a lot to disabuse me of the notion that my highest and best use is to keep building that consensus."
Yet, when pressed on the prospect of a third presidential run, Gore said, "I haven't ruled it out. But I don't think it's likely to happen."
And Then There Were Five - 2 more GOP Senators Call For Gonzo's Removal posted by
Wally 7:11 AM
Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) joined other GOP senators and Democrats in calling for Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez to step down.
In a written statement Wednesday, Hagel -- who is considering a run for president -- said the "honesty and capability" of the attorney general must be unquestioned, and that Gonzales "can no longer meet this standard."
"He has failed this country. He has lost the moral authority to lead," Hagel said.
Several other Republican lawmakers -- including Sens. John McCain of Arizona, John Sununu of New Hampshire and Tom Coburn of Oklahoma -- have called for Gonzales to resign over the firings of at least eight U.S. attorneys last year.
Another Republican, Kansas Sen. Pat Roberts, suggested to The Associated Press on Wednesday that Gonzales should consider stepping down: "When you have to spend more time up here on Capitol Hill instead of running the Justice Department, maybe you ought to think about it."
Arlen Specter hasn't had very nice things to say about him either. How long will the rest of the GOP be willing to stomach what Gonzo is serving to them and their party before they abandon him completely?
Personally, we at dubyaD40.com hope he hangs on to his job for a long time, lingering in the headlines and halls of Congress, keeping the story of corruption and malfeasance alive. One, it is a perfect microcosm of the administration, highlighting how they operate. Two, as long as the GOP clings to him and gives him credibility, is makes them look complicit in his crimes. The longer they support him, the worse they look. Hell, we're hoping he's still there next November when elections roll around. Three, it makes things easier and more fun for us.
The surge is working. If by work you mean demolition and destruction. posted by
Wally 6:25 AM
UK foreign policy think tank Chatham House, in a fit of obviousness, is reporting that war torn Iraq "faces the distinct possibility of collapse and fragmentation"
Well no shit Dick Tracy. What great powers of deduction must they have to be able to peice together the rare and elusive clues that exist in Iraq to figure that one out.
Its report says the Iraqi government is now largely powerless and irrelevant in many parts of the country.
It warns there is not one war but many local civil wars, and urges a major change in US and British strategy, such as consulting Iraq's neighbours more.
Brilliant! Who could have thought of that? Except everybody. They also noted that not everyplace in Iraq is equally dangerous.
"Most insurgent attacks remain concentrated in just four of Iraq's 18 provinces, containing less than 42% of the population," a Foreign Office spokesman told the Press Association news agency.
"We are seeing positive indicators that within Baghdad levels of violence are coming down," he said.
That's because when we "surged" our troops in Baghdad, the resistance left and went elsewhere to fire things up over there. When we move our troops to quell that violence, they'll move back to Baghdad, or somewhere else, just like they've done over and over and over for the past 4 years, in a deadly game of "Whack-a-Mole."
Possibility of collapse my ass. It would have been a much more impressive feat by Chatham House if they were able to report on what in Iraq is still standing, and therefore still subject to to collapse.
Detain him! posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 1:25 PM
If this were you or I, we'd be in some serious trouble:
Senate Committee to Gonzales: AHEM
Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena for any of Karl Rove's emails in the Department's possession that might be relevant to the U.S. attorney firings. The deadline was 2 PM yesterday. The deadline came and went. And now Chairman Pat Leahy (D-VT) and ranking member Arlen Specter (R-PA) are angry.
(snip)
"You ignored the subpoena, did not come forward today, did not produce the documents and did not even offer an explanation for your noncompliance," the senators wrote in a lettter to Alberto Gonzales today. "Your action today is in defiance of the Committee's subpoena without explanation of any legal basis for doing so."
The senators set a new deadline, this Friday at May 18, 10 AM. If the Justice Department does not respond to the subpoena, the senators ask that they at least explain why they're not responding "so that the Chairman and the Committee can assess any objections to the subpoena or privileges claimed by the Department."
White House throws Wolfowitz to the wolves posted by
Wally 10:42 AM
It looks like the White House has given up on Wolfowitz's chances at the World Bank, and are cutting him loose and cutting off support.
The Bush administration, shifting strategy in the face of mounting opposition to Paul D. Wolfowitz, opened the door Tuesday to his resigning voluntarily as World Bank president if the bank board dropped its drive to declare him unfit to remain in office.
(snip)
"The general view from capitals, with the exception of the Japanese," said a senior European official, "is that it is impossible to disentangle the charges of misconduct and corruption from the credibility of the bank, which is going around the world lecturing countries not to engage in misconduct and corruption."
The list of Bush insiders that have not been publicly disgraced, humiliated and kicked out of office is growing ever shorter. It won't be long until Gonzalez is forced out, and then who will be left besides George, Dick, and Condi?
When John Ashcroft says you're being unreasonable, it's a safe bet you've gone too far posted by
Wally 7:40 AM
Ashcroft: "Domestic Wiretapping is Illegal. Not Gonna Do It" Bush: "Ashcroft's a pussy. I'm the decider. I don't need his approval. Do it anyway"
Congress knew it was illegal. The Department of Justice knew it was illegal. Even Bush knew it was illegal.
But he wants to be able to do anything he wants, any time he wants, with no rules, no restrictions, and no questions asked. Like he told Bob Woodward in 2002 "I'm the commander. See, I don't have to explain why I say things. That's the interesting thing about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."
When the warrantless wiretapping became too much of an invasion of Civil Liberties for even John "I'm so insane that I lost my Senate seat in MO to a dead guy" Ashcroft to stomach - which is really saying something - when Ashcroft, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and other senior DOJ officials threatened to resign over the issue, Bush took it upon himself to continue it, even without Dept. of Justice approval.
Testifying before Congress, former deputy attorney general James Comey said that he was in charge of DOJ while Attorny General John Ashcroft was in the hospital recovering from emergency surgery. As acting head of the department, he had refused to sign off on the reauthorization of the warrantless wiretapping program after the department's Office of Legal Council told him that it was illegal. Apparently the White House had other ideas.
Comey said on the evening of March 10, 2004, Gonzales and Andrew Card, then Bush's chief of staff, tried to bypass him by secretly visiting Ashcroft in the hospital. Ashcroft was extremely ill and disoriented, Comey said, and his wife had forbidden any visitors.
Gonzales began to explain to Ashcroft why they were there. Comey said Ashcroft rose weakly from his hospital bed, but in strong and unequivocal terms, refused to approve the eavesdropping program.
"I was angry," Comey told the committee. "I had just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man, who did not have the powers of the attorney general because they had been transferred to me. I thought he had conducted himself in a way that demonstrated a strength I had never seen before, but still I thought it was improper."
Gonzales and Card quickly departed, but Comey said he soon got an angry phone call from Card, demanding he come to the White House. Comey said he replied: "After what I just witnessed, I will not meet with you without a witness, and I intend that witness to be the solicitor general of the United States."
When the Department of Justice - the top of the law enforcement ladder in the nation - has to be strong-armed to even want to touch law enforcement powers because they cross too far over the "civil liberties" boundary, you know those powers are unreasonable. When even John "throw a sheet over that statue of Justice because her boob is showing" Ashcroft says you are going too far... well, that's like Paris Hilton telling you to lay off the partying and get a job.
Most importantly, when the President personally intervenes and authorizes a program that is so illegal that the highest law enforcement officials in the land threaten to resign, it is blindingly obvious that he has violated his oath to uphold and defend the Constitution of the United States. Isn't that worse than getting a blowjob? Can we please impeach him yet?
Meet your new "War Czar" decider guy posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 7:30 AM
I always thought the Commander-in-Chief was the "War Czar?" I figure Dubya will pass the buck to this guy when the Iraq war gets even worse.
Bush Taps New 'War Czar'
After a frustrating search for a new "war czar" to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, ABC News has learned that President Bush has chosen the Pentagon's director of operations, Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, for the role.
In the newly created position of assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan policy and implementation, Lute would have the power to direct the Pentagon, State Department and other agencies involved in the two conflicts.
Lute would report directly to the president and to National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
Filling the position had become a priority for the White House, after a handful of retired generals told the White House they did not want the job. Among them, retired Marine Corps four-star Gen. Jack Sheehan, who proved an embarrassment to the White House after he wrote an op-ed piece in the Washington Post saying there were "huge shortcomings" in the White House view of the strategy in Iraq.
Gonzo: "The buck stops..... over there, on HIS desk!" posted by
Wally 6:44 AM
Taking his cues from the the Commander Guy of the "accountability administration", Gonzales stood before a group of reporters and announced that, as the head of the Department of Justice, as the top law enforcement official in the nation, as the number one guy responsible for all things happening in the DOJ, he was willing to accept accountability. So he bravely and forthrightedly admitted that the attorney firings were all his deputy Paul McNulty's fault and that he had nothing to do with them.
"You have to remember, at the end of the day the recommendations reflected the views of the deputy attorney general. He signed off on the names," Gonzales told about 50 reporters at a National Press Club breakfast this morning. "The deputy attorney general would know best about the qualifications and the experiences of the United States attorneys’ community, and he signed off on the names."
Gonzales repeatedly singled out McNulty, who yesterday announced his resignation, as being his closest adviser on personnel issues. He said McNulty also was responsible for giving chief of staff Kyle Sampson and White House liaison Monica Goodling their controversial firing powers.
Gonzales later said McNulty was also responsible for not catching Osama bin Laden, for the slow response to Katrina, For the Bears losing the Super Bowl, and for sneaking into his house and hiding his car keys so he couldn't find them this morning, almost making him late to the press conference. While this may have been a welcome change from his Sergeant Schultz "I know nothing" routine, it doesn't do much to portray him as a competent leader, or one who should be allowed to keep his job. In short, either he's lying (sometimes under oath) about breaking the law, or he's an incompetent moran. Or both.
Gonzo gets greasy with the Crisco Kid posted by
Clyde 12:07 PM
White House pushed Ashcroft on wiretaps
President Bush's warrantless wiretapping program was so questionable that a top Justice Department official refused for a time to reauthorize it, sparking a battle with top White House officials at the bedside of an ailing attorney general, a Senate panel was told Tuesday.
Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday that he refused to recertify the program because Attorney General John Ashcroft had reservations about its legality just before falling ill with pancreatitis in March 2004.
Comey, the acting attorney general during Ashcroft's absence, said then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and former White House Chief of Staff Andy Card responded by trying to get Ashcroft to sign the recertification from his bed at George Washington University Hospital.
During that dramatic meeting, also attended by Comey, Ashcroft lifted his head off the pillow and appeared reluctant to sign the document, pointing out that Comey held the powers of the office.
Wolfowitz shows the class, tact, and eloquence we expect from a good "Bushie" posted by
Wally 9:35 AM
"If they fuck with me or Shaha, I have enough on them to fuck them too."
Classy guy, that Wolfowitz. Definitely world leader material there. Just the kind of professional statesmanlike person we want representing our nation to the world.
An angry and bitter Paul Wolfowitz poured abuse and threatened retaliations on senior World Bank staff if his orders for pay rises and promotions for his partner were revealed, according to new details published last night.
Those neo-cons sure do hate getting caught in their crimes, don't they? There is nothing they fear more than having the truth about them revealed. Nothing sets them off more than someone actually paying attention or investigating what they are doing.
Investigators sent their completed report to the bank's governing board, containing a string of withering criticisms of Mr Wolfowitz's behaviour and casting doubt on his ability to continue running the bank, a multibillion-pound international agency with 12,000 staff based in Washington.
It concluded that "the damage done to the reputation of the World Bank group" should lead the bank's board to "consider whether Mr Wolfowitz will be able to provide the leadership needed to ensure that the bank continues to operate to the fullest extent possible".
It also said: "Mr Wolfowitz's contract requiring that he adhere to the code of conduct for board officials and that he avoid any conflict of interest, real or apparent, [was] violated."
It seems that he's in deep doo-doo (or as he would say, "shit") at the World Bank. But as one would expect, Paulie-Potty-Mouth still has the unbridled support of George W "Fuck Saddam, we're taking him out" Bush, and Dick "Go fuck yourself" Cheney, and the rest of the cast of the "Keep Your Kids Out Of Earshot" administration. I'm not sure who that makes look worse - them, for supporting a weasel like Wolfie, or Wolfie, for having the support of snakes like them.
Another Victim of the Attorney Firing Scandal - Gonzo's Deputy Quits posted by
Wally 7:48 AM
Gonzo's second-in-command is bailing out.
Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty said Monday he will resign, becoming the highest-ranking Bush administration casualty in the furor over the firing of U.S. attorneys.
He claims in his resignation letter that he's quitting because of family matters - specifically, "financial realities of college-age children". With the controversy swirling around him and the Justice Department, and with the recent resignations of Kyle Sampson and Monica "now that I have immunity I'm going to sing like Pavaratti" Goodling, can there be any doubt about the real reasons for his leaving?
McNulty irked Gonzales by testifying in February that at least one of the fired prosecutors was ordered to make way for a protege of Karl Rove, President Bush's chief political adviser. Gonzales, who has resisted lawmakers' calls to resign, maintains the firings were proper, and rooted in the prosecutors' lackluster performances.
On Feb. 6, McNulty told a Senate panel that at least one of the ousted prosecutors was asked to leave without cause - Bud Cummins in Little Rock, Ark., who was told to resign so that Tim Griffin, a former aide to Rove and the Republican National Committee, could take his place.
McNulty also told Congress that the decision to fire the eight U.S. attorneys in December was made solely by the Justice Department. He was furious after learning later that Sampson had discussed the potential firings with the White House since at least January 2005.
I can't say I'm sad to see him go. McNulty was the spokesman for the House Judiciary Committee Republicans during the Clinton impeachment, and he's worked to handcuff prosecutors going after corporate fraud in the wake of Enron. A typical Bushie - protecting the interests of the corporate bigwigs while they fleece the rest of us. I just wish he'd take Gonzo with him.
He still sucks! posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 7:45 AM
Lieberman Helps Collect Cash for Collins
Sen. Joe Lieberman (D-Conn.) is never going to win any popularity contests among his party's liberal base - a fact he seems decidedly unconcerned about despite his 2006 Democratic primary loss to Ned Lamont.
Not only has Lieberman endorsed Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine.) -- one of Democrats' biggest targets in the 2008 cycle -- but he's planning to co-host a fundraiser for her on June 21 in Washington, D.C.
The event, which will be held in a Capitol Hill location still to be determined, will feature Lieberman and Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) -- a very rare bipartisan fundraiser. Attendees are being asked to raise $3,000; $2,000 would come in the form of a political action committee donation while the other $1,000 would be a personal contribution, according to an electronic invite for the fundraiser obtained today by The Fix.
"Let's try to make this a bi-partisan tour de force," reads the invite.
Another General Speaks Out - If the President Won't Listen, Congress Must posted by
Wally 6:18 AM
In the new ad by VoteVets.org, Retired Major General Paul Eaton takes to the airwaves to say that the President doesn’t listen to his commanders on the ground. General Eaton should know whether the President really listens to his commanders on the ground or not. He recently retired from the US Army after more than 33 years service. His most recent operational assignment was Commanding General charged with reestablishing Iraqi Security Forces from 2003-2004, where he built the command and established the structure and infrastructure for the Iraqi Armed Forces.
Commander Guy Bypasses Supreme Court's Ruling on Air Pollution - Imposes his own rules anyway posted by
Wally 11:40 AM
President Bush responded to a Supreme Court environmental ruling by settling on regulatory changes that don't need congressional approval, the White House said Monday.
Last month, the high court rebuked his administration for its inaction on global warming. In a 5-4 decision, it declared that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases qualify as air pollutants under the Clean Air Act and thus can be regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency.
White House press secretary Tony Snow said the president's new announcement is "his latest effort to ensure that the nation's taking aggressive steps to reduce gas consumption and to reduce dependence on foreign energy sources."
"He will ask the administration to start implementing the 20-in-10 program through regulatory action," Snow said. "At the same time, he will continue to urge Congress to pass legislation to advance the goal."
About that "20 in 10" plan - Bush says he'll reduce fuel comsumption by 20% in 10 years. What he's not telling you is that it's not a "real" reduction. It is a 20% reduction over projected annual gasoline usage. In other words, he's lying.
Congress passed the Clean Air Act a couple decades ago. The Supreme Court once again uphheld it as the law of the land. And now Bush is telling Congress, the Courts, and the American people "suck it, I'm the decider" and doing whatever the hell he wants. Again. Just like all those "recess appointments" and "signing statements" he's used so often.
Smoke seen entering congressional anal cavity posted by
Clyde 11:23 AM
Tenet to cooperate with panel's investigation
Former CIA Director George Tenet has agreed to cooperate with the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform as the panel investigates the Bush administration's pre-war claims about Iraq's efforts to acquire uranium.
Tenet will testify before the panel and has agreed to provide a deposition prior to his appearance, according to a committee release.
Waxman's staff also announced Monday that a hearing with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been pushed back to June 19 from Tuesday. Rice has been subpoenaed to appear but has indicated that she will not comply.
According to a committee release, however, Waxman still expects Rice to testify on the issue of whether the White House overstated Iraq's attempts to acquire uranium from Niger.
Active duty Generals to revolt Bush's occupation posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 8:44 AM
Mutiny!
Appearing on NBC's Chris Matthews Show this morning, Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Cynthia Tucker revealed that sources within the military are warning of "a revolt from active-duty generals if September rolls around and the president is sticking with the surge into '08."
Noting that retired generals such as Gen. John Batiste have already begun voicing their discontent with the president's strategy in Iraq, Tucker added that the generals "don't want to fall by the wayside like the generals in Vietnam did, kept pushing a war that they knew was lost."
When President Bush vetoed the Iraq timeline legislation earlier this month, he claimed that "the measure would 'impose impossible conditions on our commanders in combat' by forcing them to 'take fighting directions from politicians 6,000 miles away in Washington, DC.'"
But despite past claims that "the right force level" will be determined by "the sober judgement of our military leaders," the Bush administration has a proven track record of disregarding the advice of military leaders. As recently as last December, when the White House was first pushing its escalation plan, the administration explicitly ignored "the unanimous disagreement of the Joint Chiefs of Staff."
Bush - 2001: "I looked deep into Putey-poot's eyes and gazed into his soul." 2006: "Condi, you go talk to that Putin a**hole" posted by
Wally 7:10 AM
How things have changed in the past 6 years. In 2001, Bush and Putin were taking friendly rides at the ranch in Dubya's pickup truck, palling around laughing joking, looking into each others' eyes. Oh the sweet innocence of budding romance.
"I looked the man in the eye. I found him to be very straightforward and trustworthy. We had a very good dialogue. I was able to get a sense of his soul." June 18, 2001
Those were the days. Lately, the couple has fallen on stormier times. The "seven year itch" came a year early for George and Vladimir.
Testy, suspicious and defined by misunderstandings and perceived hurts, the relationship between the Cold War powers has worsened steadily on Bush's watch.
Really, what hasn't worsened steadily on Bush's watch?
It was not supposed to be this way, not with two leaders who seem to like one another, generally good economic times in both countries and converging interests in the fight against terrorism. Rice, Bush's longtime top foreign affairs adviser, is even a specialist on Russia and a fluent Russian speaker.
Perhaps Condi's expertise on Russia is why Bush sent her to Moscow to try to clear things up. Or perhaps it's a dig at Putin directly - sending his "other" romantic interest - as if to say "I don't need you anymore Pootie, I've got Condi now." Or maybe he sent her as his go-between "You tell him I'm not talking to him until he apologizes...." like a 7th grader with an unrequited crush. Or maybe it's just brush-clearing time in Crawford and Bush is too damned lazy to do it himself.
Anyway you look at it, Bush has managed to f**k up another foreign relation, taking the nation and the world backwards 20 years. He's managed to rekindle the Cold War - the one that the GOP hero Ronnie Raygun claimed to have ended with his declaration of "Tear down this wall." Seeing Bush restart that war shouldn't surprise anyone though - starting wars is the only thing he's good at.
God Bless George W. Bush for what he has tried to do for his country and God forgive William J. Clinton for what he did to his country. (Link)
Bush screwing the country = good Clinton and a chubby brunette = baaaad!
Captured soldiers in Iraq
Demand unconditional surrender like WWII. Mecca... like Hiroshima... Medina like Nagasaki... Imperial Japan surrenders... Islam finished... SAME THING...
Then we can hit Ankara, Sarajevo, Jakarta, Grozny, Paris, Bonn and Detroit yadda yadda yadda
Illegal Immigration
they don't want to be citizens, they just want to rape and pillage. Sending millions of $$$'s to their poor relatives in their home country. They have no intention of becoming americans...... WAKE UP (Link) Lower case "a" when spelling americans is un-American! Go back to where you came from!
Sebelius and the Kansas Tornado
An interesting side note Google Earth released a template yesterday with good resolution and you can see that the city has lot's of volunteers in it right now. (Link)
Oooo he used the Goo-Glee
The NRA supporting terrorist's 2nd amendment rights
If we have terrorist suspects running around in this country, their trying to legally purchase firearms is not one of my biggest worries. (Link)
Mr. Bush - Tear down this wall! posted by
Clyde 7:02 AM
Iraqi parliament objects to Baghdad wall
Iraq's parliament objected Saturday to the construction of walls around Baghdad neighborhoods and called on Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to testify about other security issues.
Construction of the walls - particularly in the Baghdad neighborhood of Azamiyah - has been criticized by residents and Sunni clerics who say it is a form of sectarian discrimination. Even followers of radical Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr complained, fearing their strongholds in the capital will soon be split by the barriers.
U.S. and Iraqi officials have defended the construction of the barriers, which began last month, as a temporary measure to protect the neighborhood during the 12-week-old security crackdown in Baghdad. When the wall is finished, Azamiyah will be gated and checkpoints manned by Iraqi soldiers will be the only entries, the U.S. military said, stressing that the decision was made in coordination with the Iraqis.
The National Guard isn't as strong as it should be because of the war in Iraq and American communities will suffer as a result, retired Air Force Gen. Melvyn Montano said Saturday.
Delivering the Democrats' weekly radio address, Montano said the strain means it will take longer for Greensburg, Kan., to recover from a devastating tornado that leveled the town a week ago.
"Crucial equipment used by the Guard for disaster relief is now in Iraq instead of standing ready to respond to crises here at home," said Montano, who was once adjutant general of the New Mexico National Guard.
President Bush helped raise $10.5 million for the national Republican Party at its annual gala on Thursday night, the smallest take in years for the event that came only months after the GOP lost control of both houses of Congress.
The Republican National Committee's spring fundraising gala hosted by the president raised $17 million last year, $15 million in 2005 and $14 million in 2003. When Bush was seeking re-election to the White House in 2004, the dinner brought in a record $38.5 million.
Bush defended his policies on the Iraq war, to a friendly reception, but didn't directly criticize Democrats, despite tussles with them over a war spending bill.
Shortly after Bush left the dinner, on Capitol Hill the House voted, largely along party lines, to pay for military operations in Iraq on an installment plan, defying Bush's threat to veto it in a test of wills over the unpopular war.
Between 100,000 and 300,000 barrels a day of Iraq's declared oil production over the past four years is unaccounted for and could have been siphoned off through corruption or smuggling, according to a draft American government report.
Using an average of $50 a barrel, the report said the discrepancy was valued at $5 million to $15 million daily.
The report does not give a final conclusion on what happened to the missing fraction of the roughly two million barrels pumped by Iraq each day, but the findings are sure to reinforce longstanding suspicions that smugglers, insurgents and corrupt officials control significant parts of the country's oil industry.
The report also covered alternative explanations for the billions of dollars worth of discrepancies, including the possibility that Iraq has been consistently overstating its oil production.
A majority of Iraq's parliament has signed a proposed bill that would require a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. soldiers from Iraq and freeze current troop levels.
The bill would create a timeline for a gradual departure, much like what some Democratic lawmakers in the United States have demanded, and would require the Iraqi government to secure parliament's approval before any further extensions of the U.N. mandate for foreign troops in Iraq, which expires at the end of this year.
Iraq’s Kurdish president, Jalal Talabani, said Friday that his country may need U.S. troops for one or two more years. The statement came after lawmakers in Baghdad backed a drawdown in the number of foreign troops in Iraq.
Talabani told students at Cambridge University that all of Iraq was safer because of Saddam Hussein's removal and that many people were living normal lives. "I think that in one or two years we will be able to recruit our forces, to prepare our forces and say goodbye to our friends," he said.
Iraq gets billions while we get the shaft posted by
Clyde 4:06 AM
Congress Gets Warning On Budget
The White House threatened yesterday to use the president's veto to prevent Democrats from increasing spending on education, health care and other domestic programs.
In a letter to lawmakers, the president's budget director, Rob Portman, said the administration opposed a spending blueprint nearing completion on Capitol Hill that is expected to authorize about $20 billion more for the fiscal year that begins in October than the White House has requested.
"The administration does not believe that the first step on a path to a balanced budget should be a substantial increase in federal spending," Portman wrote, "yet that is precisely what is called for by the Democrats' budget plan."
Bush cannot veto the blueprint, which needs only the approval of Congress to take effect. But he is prepared to veto any of 12 separate spending bills that will be needed to implement it, said Portman's deputy, Steve McMillin.
The Iraqis want a "timeline" too posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 11:22 AM
Bush brags about bringing democracy to Iraq, about creating a free and sovereign nation - an example for the entire Middle East. We keep hearing about how this is their country, run by a representative Iraqi government chosen by the Iraqi people, and we're just there to keep the peace (that would be a hilarious statement if it wasn't so tragic). So what does it mean when a majority of those democratically elected Iraqi government officials tell us they want to know when we're going to get the hell out of their country?
Radical Shiite politicians pressed Thursday for legislation demanding a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S.-led troops and a freeze on the number of foreign forces already in the country - even as the U.S. Congress debates the fate of the troubled mission.
The proposed Iraqi legislation, drafted by the parliamentary bloc loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, was signed by 144 members of the 275-member house, according to parliamentary officials.
The Sadrist bloc, which holds 30 parliamentary seats and sees the U.S.-led forces as an occupying army, has pushed similar bills before, but this would be the first time it persuaded a majority of lawmakers to sign on.
Granted, this hasn't been passed by the parliament yet, but it's still not exactly the warm welcome of flowers and candy that Rummy predicted would greet our troops. The majority of the American people want a timeline for us to pull out. Now the majority of the Iraqi government wants the same thing. Bush has managed to ignore the will of the people back home, so why would anyone think that he'll listen to a bunch of dark-skinned people halfway around the world.
Still no word about gender though posted by
Clyde 10:38 AM
Coulter Cleared of Vote Fraud, but FBI Agent's Intrusion on Her Behalf Is Being Investigated
Ann Coulter has been cleared of allegations that she falsified her Florida voter registration and voted illegally -- after a high-level FBI agent made unsolicited phone calls to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office to vouch for the conservative pundit, according to a Friday piece by Jose Lambiet of the Palm Beach Post.
Lambiet wrote that when the FBI heard about the calls, it immediately launched an internal review of Supervisory Special Agent Jim Fitzgerald's involvement. "We're looking into it," FBI spokeswoman Ann Todd told Lambiet, while declining to say whether Fitzgerald acted on his own behalf, as an FBI agent, or on someone else's orders.
"This doesn't bode well in terms of the public's impression that celebrities receive preferential treatment," said Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections Arthur Anderson. "I'm curious about how anyone can justify the FBI's intrusion."
A federal judge approved an immunity deal Friday allowing former Justice Department aide Monica Goodling to testify before Congress about the firing of eight federal prosecutors.
Goodling, who served as the department's White House liaison, has refused to discuss the firings without a guarantee that she will not be prosecuted. Congress agreed to the deal, Justice Department investigators reluctantly agreed not to not oppose it and U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan gave it final approval Friday.
"Monica Goodling may not refuse to testify," Hogan began his brief order, which said that Goodling could not be prosecuted for anything other than perjury in connection with her testimony.
Ruh roh Rove! posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 1:10 PM
Murray Waas:
Administration Withheld E-Mails About Rove
The Bush administration has withheld a series of e-mails from Congress showing that senior White House and Justice Department officials worked together to conceal the role of Karl Rove in installing Timothy Griffin, a protege of Rove's, as U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
The withheld records show that D. Kyle Sampson, who was then-chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, consulted with White House officials in drafting two letters to Congress that appear to have misrepresented the circumstances of Griffin's appointment as U.S. attorney and of Rove's role in supporting Griffin.
In one of the letters that Sampson drafted, dated February 23, 2007, the Justice Department told four Senate Democrats it was not aware of any role played by senior White House adviser Rove in attempting to name Griffin to the U.S. attorney post. A month later, the Justice Department apologized in writing to the Senate Democrats for the earlier letter, saying it had been inaccurate in denying that Rove had played a role.
Retired General Batiste takes Bush to task posted by
Wally 10:21 AM
VoteVets.org Launches 'Generals' Ad Blitz Please donate to VoteVets.org to help get these ads on the air.
You wanted it, you got it! VoteVets.org is today launching a three-ad series featuring three retired generals, two of whom were George Bush's commanders on the ground. In the first ad, retired Major General John Batiste takes the President on, directly, when he says that he's just 'listening to commanders on the ground' in Iraq. Batiste should know if the President is listening or not, since he was one of those commanders!
Our ads are airing in states and districts of those Members of Congress who are very close to breaking with the President on Iraq, and joining the troops and American people. They are: Senators Susan Collins, John Sununu, John Warner, and Norm Coleman, and Representatives Mary Bono, Phil English, Randy Kuhl, Jim Walsh, Heather Wilson, Jo Ann Emerson, Tim Johnson, Mike Rogers, Fred Upton, and Mike Castle. Mentioning them by name at the end, the local spots will call on them to "Protect America, Not George Bush."
Next week, we'll launch another ad with retired Major General Paul Eaton. And, after that, the campaign will wrap up with a powerful ad from former NATO Allied Supreme Commander, General Wesley Clark. Help keep our ads on the air. We're trying to raise $100,000 to get these ads on nationally.
Olbermann - GOP Congressmen Meet With Bush, Tell Him He and the White House No Longer Have Credibility on Iraq posted by
Wally 10:06 AM
Yesterday afternoon, 11 Republican Congressmen had a private meeting with the President, the Secretary of Defence, the Secretary of State, the Chief Political Advisor Karl Rove, and White House Press Secretary Tony Snow and others. The delegation was headed by Mark Kirk of IL and Charlie Dent of PA. It was in the words of one of the participants the most unvarnished conversation they've ever had with the President. Another said he has met with 3 Presidents and had never been so candid. They told the President, and one said "my district is prepared for defeat. We need candor, we need honesty Mr. President." .... The Republican Congressmen then went on to say "the word about the war and it's progress can NOT come from the White House or even you Mr. President. There's no longer any credibility."
This is what the REPUBLICANS are telling Bush. Not that I have any faith that he'll listen to them anymore than he listens to anyone else telling him anything except exactly what he wants to hear, but it's about damn time his own party starts speaking the truth to him.
Turning the heat up posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 9:23 AM
11 Republicans Berate Bush Over Iraq In Private White House Meeting
In a sign of the growing fissure between the White House and its congressional allies over the war, NBC News reports tonight that 11 Republican members of Congress pleaded yesterday with President Bush and his senior aides to change course in Iraq.
The group of Republicans was led by Reps. Mark Kirk (R-IL) and Charlie Dent (R-PA), and the meeting included Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Karl Rove, and Tony Snow. One member of Congress called the discussion the "most unvarnished conversation they've ever had with the president," and NBC's Tim Russert said it "may have been a defining pivotal moment" in the Iraq debate.
Russert described the conversation:
[O]ne said "My district is prepared for defeat. We need candor, we need honesty, Mr. President." The president responded, "I don't want to pass this off to another president. I don't want to pass this off, particularly, to a Democratic president," underscoring he understood how serious the situation was.
Brian, the Republican congressman then went on to say, "The word about the war and its progress cannot come from the White House or even you, Mr. President. There is no longer any credibility. It has to come from Gen. Petraeus." The meeting lasted an hour and 15 minutes and was, in the words of one, "remarkable for the bluntness and no-holds-barred honesty in the message delivered by all these Republican congressmen."
KS Gov. Sebelius: We sure could use our Nat'l Guard troops about now. Bush: Shut up bitch, you've got what you need. Pentagon: Actually, she's right posted by
Wally 8:11 AM
After the tragedy that struck Greensburg, KS. last week, Governor Kathleen Sebelius brought up the fact that half of the Kansas National Guard troops and equipment was over in Iraq, and that is sure would be nice to have them available to help out hte people impacted by the tornado. Bush, of course, being allergic to any form of criticism or truth, threw a hissy fit about her comments.
Turns out, according to the Pentagon, she was right, and he was wrong.
The Pentagon, bearing the brunt of criticism for shortfalls in National Guard supplies in the wake of last week's devastating tornado in Kansas, acknowledged Wednesday that Army National Guard units currently had only 56 percent of their required equipment.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates told a Senate hearing that equipment levels are the lowest since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
"There's no question that there's been a drawdown of equipment in the National Guard," Gates said, adding that even before Sept. 11, guard units normally were equipped at about 75 percent.
Tornado season is just beginning. Hurricane season is coming soon.
Another Power Grab? Or (tinfoil hat time) Does He Know Something He's Not Telling? posted by
Wally 7:10 AM
Bush Changes Continuity Plan Administration, Not DHS, Would Run Shadow Government
President Bush issued a formal national security directive yesterday ordering agencies to prepare contingency plans for a surprise, "decapitating" attack on the federal government, and assigned responsibility for coordinating such plans to the White House.
Other former Bush administration officials said the directive formalizes a shift of authority away from the Department of Homeland Security to the White House.
Under an executive order dating to the Reagan administration, responsibility for coordinating, implementing and exercising such plans was originally charged to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and later DHS, the Congressional Research Service noted in a 2005 report on a pending DHS reorganization.
The new directive gives the job of coordinating policy to the president's assistant for homeland security and counterterrorism -- Frances Fragos Townsend, who will assume the title of national continuity coordinator -- in consultation with Bush's national security adviser, Stephen J. Hadley, with the support of the White House's Homeland Security Council staff.
After witnessing the effectiveness and efficiency with which this group of clowns has performed their jobs over the past 6 years, I can only say one thing, if such a national emergency ever does happen. We're f**ked.
I wonder why the directive didn't also include a contingency plan for Congress in case of such a disaster. Could it be that Bush doesn't want the "continuity" plan to include the continuity of the nation as a republic? As he said on more than one occasion, it would be easier if he was dictator.
I'll take off the tinfoil helmet now. But with insane power-drunk megalomaniacs like Bush, Cheney, Rove, etc. in charge, it's hard not to wonder about their motives.
Going after the root of the evil - U.S. attorneys probe shifts from Gonzales to Rove posted by
Wally 6:55 AM
Democrats are shifting their attention on the botched firings of eight federal prosecutors from Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' fitness to head the Justice Department to the White House role in the dismissals.
(snip)
"All of that goes to the larger question," House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Michigan, said Wednesday in a telephone interview. He said the bigger question is who put together and approved the list that caused the eight U.S. attorneys to lose their jobs.
Conyers is holding a subpoena for White House political adviser Karl Rove but has not issued it. Meanwhile, the Senate Judiciary Committee last week subpoenaed Gonzales for all e-mails the Justice Department has gathered regarding Rove and the firings.
Will we get to see Karl "frogmarched out of the White House" after all?
Are they wearing flak jackets and helmets in the "normal outdoor markets in Indiana in the summertime" too? posted by
Wally 1:59 PM
The safest place in Iraq has been the Green Zone pretty much since the war began 4 years ago. In fact, some would say that it has been the only safe place in Iraq for the past few years. Which begs the question, if the U.S. Embassy has felt the need to "issue a strict new order telling all employees to wear flak vests and helmets while in unprotected buildings or whenever they are outside" inside the safest place in Iraq, just how bad is the rest of the country?
The order, obtained by The Associated Press, has created a siege mentality among U.S. staff inside the Green Zone following a recent suicide attack on parliament. It has also led to new fears about long-term safety in the place where the U.S. government is building a massive and expensive new embassy.
Because of the "recent increase of indirect fire attacks" - the military term for mortar and artillery barrages - the order told embassy employees that until further notice, "outdoor movement" must be "restricted to a minimum."
"Remain within a hardened structure to the maximum extent possible and strictly avoid congregating outdoors," the order said.
Government employees who work outside of a "hardened structure" such as the current embassy building or travel "a substantial distance outdoors" must wear "personal protective equipment," meaning flak jackets and helmets, the order said.
If they're wearing flak jackets and helmets INSIDE the Green Zone, what are they wearing on the outside? Body bags? Tanks? Do they ever leave? Or has the Green Zone become a de-facto prison - albeit a voluntary one.
Somehow I don't think Mike Pence (R-IN) was being entirely honest when he described his trip to a Baghdad market with John McCain as "like a normal outdoor market in Indiana in the summertime." Then again, as a Republican, he can't be expected to let little things like "facts" get in the way of ideology and dogma.
Bad news about Gonzo. Bad news about Wolfowitz. Bad news about Iraq. Bad news in Kansas. What to do? Cry "TERROR!" posted by
Wally 1:40 PM
The news is all bad lately, if you're a Republican, especially if you're a Republican in Bush's inner circle.
Alberto Gonzales is keeping himself in the news trying to weasel out of losing his job. So is Wolfowitz as pressure mounts for him to resign. The Democrats are preparing to hand Bush another Iraq war bill that the public supports, but he won't like one bit because it puts him on a short leash. The tragedy in Greensburg, KS has renewed debate over using the National Guard so heavily in Iraq, and bringing up memories of the failures of the Katrina recovery. And that's just the beginning.
With all that bad news being reported about Bush and his pals, what's an administration to do? The same thing they always do - pull the "terror" card.
Six foreign-born Muslims were arrested and accused Tuesday of plotting to attack Fort Dix and slaughter scores of U.S. soldiers - a scheme the FBI says was foiled when the men asked a store clerk to copy a video of them firing assault weapons and screaming about jihad.
Authorities said there was no direct evidence connecting the men to any international terror organizations such as al-Qaida. But several of them said they were ready to kill and die "in the name of Allah," according to court papers.
In addition to plotting the attack on Fort Dix, the defendants spoke of assaulting a Navy installation in Philadelphia during the annual Army-Navy football game and conducted surveillance at other military installations in the region, prosecutors said.
"These homegrown terrorists can prove to be as dangerous as any known group, if not more so. They operate under the radar," Weis said.
"As dangerous as any known group"? They "train" by playing paintball. They get their "intelligence" from delivering pizzas. They are so inept that they plan to attack freaking military bases and think they're going to "light the place up and retreat without any losses". These guys are the Keystone Kops of terrorism - "foiled" by a store clerk copying a video of them "screaming about jihad". Are we supposed to be afraid of these guys, or laugh at them?
I'd be willing to bet that the FBI agent who infiltrated the group is the one who egged them on and suggested these plans just so he could get a big bust. Can anyone be surprised about the timing? Either Rove is getting lazy and careless in his old age, or his alarmist cries of "wolf" have proven unfounded and politically motivated so often that even Fox News viewers no longer believe them.
Is it time to raise the terror alert to Ernie again?
Don't send another bill to him. posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 9:39 AM
If he veto's this, they shouldn't send him another bill. End the war now by not funding it. It's his veto, not ours.
Bush would veto emerging House Iraq bill - spokesman
ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE, May 9 (Reuters) - U.S. President George W. Bush would veto an emerging House of Representatives bill which would include limits on funding for the Iraq war, White House spokesman Tony Snow said on Wednesday.
"There are restrictions on funding and there are also some of the spending items that were mentioned in the first veto message that are still in the bill," Snow told reporters aboard Air Force One.
Asked whether Bush would veto the bill in its current form, Snow said: "Yes."
If things in Iraq are going so well, why does Darth Cheney have to sneak in and out like a thief? posted by
Wally 6:47 AM
Cheney slithered out of his "undisclosed location" to make another "unannounced" visit to Baghdad, in part to tell the Iraqi government not to take a vacation.
BAGHDAD (AP) - Vice President Dick Cheney got a first-hand briefing on conditions in Iraq and the effectiveness of the U.S. military buildup on Wednesday from the top U.S. commander in Iraq in an unscheduled visit intended to press Iraqi leaders to do more to achieve reconciliation among factions.
Cheney made Iraq the first stop on a weeklong tour of the Middle East that will also include stops in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan. The stop had not been announced publicly.
One would think, since according to Cheney, that things are going so well in Iraq, that he would want to be met at the airport with pomp and fanfare, like a returning victorious king that had saved the realm from certain ruin. But no, he slithers in and out like a thief in the night. It's almost as if he's scared someone might have bad intentions towards him.
Cheney also was likely to renew a U.S. request that the Iraqi parliament not take a scheduled two-month break during these troubling times, according to Crocker.
"For the Iraqi parliament to take a two-month vacation in the middle of summer is impossible to understand," said Crocker, who traveled with Cheney from Washington. He has only been on the job since March.
As the poster child of the "do-nothing-during-the-2 1/2-day-work-week" Republican Congress and the partner of the laziest president in history, he has a lot of nerve telling the Iraqi's not to take vacation. Maybe he should have dropped in at Crawford to chat with George about clearing brush for a month while the intelligence community was freaking out about warnings like "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U.S.". Maybe he should have made an unnanounced visit to John McCain's birthday party / fundraiser to tell Dubya to cut off his month long vacation because the Gulf Coast was drowning.
Note that I do agree with him that the Iraqi's shouldn't be taking 2 months off while our soldiers are getting their asses shot up over there. What bothers me is twofold. One, he brags about all the great progress being made to secure Iraq and make it a safe place, and then he has to sneak in and out because he's too much of a coward to show his face in public. Two, he flies halfway around the world to tell them not to take a vacation, but he never had the time or inclination to do the same thing for his presidential puppet or the Congress here at home.
Actually, make that threefold. It bothers me that our soldiers are over there getting their asses shot up, period.
Who woulda thunk it? posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 2:04 PM
Heckuva job!
George Tenet cashes in on Iraq
If you go by the book jacket of his new memoir, "At the Center of the Storm," George Tenet is enjoying the life of a retired government servant teaching at Georgetown University, where he was appointed to the faculty in 2004. The former CIA director played up the academic image when he kicked off the recent media blitz for his new book by doing an interview for CBS's "60 Minutes" from his spacious, book-lined office at the university. His academic salary, and the reported $4 million advance he received from publisher HarperCollins, should provide the former CIA director with more than enough money to live comfortably for the rest of his days and leave a substantial fortune to his children.
But those monies are hardly Tenet's entire income. While the swirl of publicity around his book has focused on his long debated role in allowing flawed intelligence to launch the war in Iraq, nobody is talking about his lucrative connection to that conflict ever since he resigned from the CIA in June 2004. In fact, Tenet has been earning substantial income by working for corporations that provide the U.S. government with technology, equipment and personnel used for the war in Iraq as well as the broader war on terror.
When Tenet hit the talk-show circuit last week to defend his stewardship of the CIA and his role in the run-up to the war, he did not mention that he is a director and advisor to four corporations that earn millions of dollars in revenue from contracts with U.S. intelligence agencies and the Department of Defense. Nor is it ever mentioned in his book. But according to public records, Tenet has received at least $2.3 million from those corporations in stock and other compensation. Meanwhile, one of the CIA's largest contractors gave Tenet access to a highly secured room where he could work on classified material for his book.
Just like Katrina. posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 10:07 AM
The Bush admin promises help but we know they won't. Thanks to your war, cities and towns across America that are destroyed by mother nature will have to wait for our boys to come home.
Gov: Guard isn't in Kansas anymore
President Bush plans to tour the tornado devastation in Greensburg, Kan., tomorrow, amidst a delicate debate with the Democratic governor of Kansas about the readiness of the National Guard for the disaster in the face of guard deployments for the war in Iraq.
Gov. Kathleen Sebelius insists that Kansas has been left in short supply of needed trucks, loaders and other vehicles for disaster response.
"I don't think there is any question if you are missing trucks, Humvees and helicopters that the response is going to be slower," Sebelius said. "We're going to borrow, beg and steal it from wherever you can... The real victims here will be the residents of Greensburg, because the recovery will be at a slower pace." ......
"He assured me that he had additional equipment in his budget a year ago.'' She said. "What the Defense Department said then and continues to say is that states will get about 90 percent of what they had," Sebelius said. "Meanwhile, it doesn't get any better. I'm at a loss."
Those North Koreans have a sense of humor.... posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 8:17 AM
North Korean general cracks George W. Bush joke
SEOUL (Reuters) - In North Korea, where cracking a joke about the country's leader could see you, well, die laughing, poking fun at the U.S. president is obviously not as serious.
As military chiefs from both sides of the Korean peninsula met on Tuesday for talks, a general from the North started proceedings by telling a joke at George W. Bush's expense.
"I recently read a piece of political humour on the Internet called 'saving the president'," Lieutenant-General Kim Yong-chol was quoted as saying in pool reports from the talks.
He then retold the old yarn about Bush who goes out jogging one morning and, preoccupied with international affairs, fails to notice that a car is heading straight at him.
A group of schoolchildren pull the president away just in time, saving his life, and a grateful Bush offers them anything they want in the world as a reward.
"We want a place reserved for us at Arlington Memorial Cemetery," say the children.
"Why is that?" he asks.
"Because our parents will kill us if they find out what we've done."
The last man standing posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 6:29 AM
But will he find support? Doubt it:
Cheney to seek help on Iraq, Iran
WASHINGTON (AFP) - US Vice President Dick Cheney heads Tuesday to the Middle East, seeking help from sometimes wary US allies for stabilizing Iraq and hoping to enlist them to counter Iran's growing regional influence.
But Cheney -- who will visit the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan -- will leave the diplomatic heavy lifting on the Arab-Israeli peace process to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, a top aide said Monday. "I'm not sure that getting another cook in that kitchen makes much sense," a senior Cheney aide told reporters in a pre-trip briefing held on condition that he not be named.
"So my sense is that the division of labor on this was really the vice president would be focused on Iraq and some of the other security challenges that we have in the region," the aide said.
Instead, Cheney will aim to convince Iraq's mostly Sunni neighbors to back the four-month US-led crackdown and convince their fellows in Iraq to end support for the insurgency and embrace the country's shaky political process.
Perpetual war for perpetual peace posted by
Clyde 11:40 AM
The Redirection Is the Administration's new policy benefitting our enemies in the war on terrorism?
In the past few months, as the situation in Iraq has deteriorated, the Bush Administration, in both its public diplomacy and its covert operations, has significantly shifted its Middle East strategy. The "redirection," as some inside the White House have called the new strategy, has brought the United States closer to an open confrontation with Iran and, in parts of the region, propelled it into a widening sectarian conflict between Shiite and Sunni Muslims.
To undermine Iran, which is predominantly Shiite, the Bush Administration has decided, in effect, to reconfigure its priorities in the Middle East. In Lebanon, the Administration has cooperated with Saudi Arabia's government, which is Sunni, in clandestine operations that are intended to weaken Hezbollah, the Shiite organization that is backed by Iran. The U.S. has also taken part in clandestine operations aimed at Iran and its ally Syria. A by-product of these activities has been the bolstering of Sunni extremist groups that espouse a militant vision of Islam and are hostile to America and sympathetic to Al Qaeda.
Tighter restrictions on military blogs anger US soldiers
US troops in Iraq have reacted angrily to Pentagon restrictions aimed at curbing internet postings from war zones.
The Pentagon cited the risk of providing sensitive information to insurgents. Blogs and emails from troops in the field can often be extraordinarily vivid and indiscreet. One last weekend from a soldier in Iraq advised a trooper in the US who was about to deploy in Iraq on ways to watch for and detect explosive devices planted by insurgents.
The Pentagon said blogs had to be cleared first with officers, and that soldiers would be punished if they publicly revealed troop movements, planned raids, travel itineraries, photographs of casualties, new technology or material that could compromise their location.
Reacting to the ban, soldiers said the real reason for the curbs were their negative comments about the war, including scepticism about George Bush's claims about progress. Soldiers in the field and former soldiers, in blogs posted on sites such as Black Five, an unofficial site run by former paratrooper Matthew Burden, said the regulations would be inoperable with most troops obeying the rules but dissidents finding ways round the ban.
Things heat up for White House posted by
Clyde 7:04 AM
Agency seeks subpoena power Oversight office says investigations slowed by government's response time
Last December, Government Accountability Office auditors asked to see inspection reports for federally funded jails housing foreign detainees to ensure safety standards were being met.
The Department of Homeland Security took five months to turn over all of its records, doing so only after senior department officials intervened.
"The records should have been turned over immediately,'' said Norm Rabkin, managing director of the GAO's Homeland Security team. He called the department ``by far the most troublesome agency we deal with.''
As a result of such delays across the federal government, Comptroller General David Walker said he wants Congress to grant him the authority to take sworn testimony from executive branch employees during oversight investigations.
Why does the South Dakota DMV hate the First Amendment? posted by
Wally 1:23 PM
South Dakota is joining the ranks of the "Nanny-states" threatening to recall a license plate that says "MPEACHW" - because ONE PERSON complained that they were offended by it. Well la-de-freaking dah. Guess what, I'm offended by most of the shit that spews out of Fox News and Rush Limbaugh. So South Dakota, if I write you a letter, will you take them off the freaking air. Yeah, didn't think so. Fuckers.
Of course, being a good liberal, the owner of the plates is telling the state of S.D. to suck it.
Protesting in the sky. Gotta love it. posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 10:15 AM
Anti-war planes buzz GOP debate
Two planes are circling the sky above the GOP presidential candidates' debate tonight, dragging anti-war banners.
Funded and organized by an anti-war coalition -- Americans Against Escalation in Iraq -- the small aircraft are pulling banners reading "McCain, Mission Accomplished" and "Republicans, Mission Accomplished?"
The planes were set to circle the event throughout the duration of the debate, which is being hosted by MSNBC and Politico.com and being held at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley, Calif.
The anti-war coalition includes the Service Employees International Union -- a major labor organization -- as well as MoveOn.org and a number of prominent liberal and anti-war organizations.
Did underlining the words make them easier to read? Maybe that's so his finger can follow the line and not cover the letters as he tries to sound out the words.
Does anyone else find it disturbing that the "leader of the free world" is such a moran that he needs to have this part of the speech written down for him?
By the way, the photo came straight from Reuters and was not photoshopped (at least not by me).
National Day Of Prayer at the Capital Draws a Crowd of..... Dozens? posted by
Wally 8:38 AM
So much for the sweeping power of the Christian right. Sure they reign supreme in the current administration, but how much weight do they really carry among the general populace? If yesterdays "Bible Reading Marathon" on the Capitol lawn in D.C. was any indication, not nearly as much as they would like you to believe.
Organizers put out 600 folding chairs on the lawn -- the spot where presidents are inaugurated -- and set up a huge stage with powerful amplifiers. But at 9:30 a.m. yesterday, not one of the 600 seats was occupied. By 11 a.m., as a woman read a passage from Revelations, attendance had grown -- to four people. Finally, at 1 p.m., 37 of the 600 seats were occupied, though many of those people were tourists eating lunch.
Where was everybody?
"This isn't that kind of event," explained Jeff Gannon, spokesman for the host, the International Bible Reading Association.
Jeff WHO?! The "Bible Reading Association" chose Jeff "Hotmilitarystud.com" Guckert as their spokesman? Maybe they should pull their heads out of their bibles, and their asses, long enough to read a newspaper.
Across the Mall, in front of the Supreme Court the Christian Defense Coalition (a coalition created, apparently, because Christians are so abused and marginalized in American society today) held a National Day of Prayer observance. If you didn't see it on the news, there's good reason.
The event attracted only one photographer (from the Washington Times), one reporter (author of the Washington Sketch) and not a single television camera. The participants themselves were late, and only eight showed up.
Is the religious right - the "moral majority" if you will - in it's "last throes"? We can only hope.
Bush: "As the Iraqis stand up, we'll stand down". Iraq government "While you're still standing up, we're all going on vacation" posted by
Wally 9:32 AM
Bush loves to promote his continuing occupation of Iraq by talking about the "great progress" being made, saying we can't leave because the country will fall into chaos (as if that would be any different than what is there now), and claiming that we'll stay only as long as necessary - that "as they stand up, we'll stand down". He refuses to accept a timeline, or even benchmarks for the Iraqi government to meet in order to keep our troops there to prop them up and protect the country from "falling into chaos".
Our men and women continue to be killed and maimed in Iraq in order to support the "democracy" that we've helped to build in that country (remember all those purple fingers?). Congress just approved another 100 Billion dollars for Iraq (which Bush promptly vetoed), pushing our bill to over half Trillion dollars. What is the Iraqi government doing to demonstrate the seriousness with which they take the responsibilities of their new democratically elected government? Two words: Summer Break.
Lawmakers divided over whether to keep U.S. troops in Iraq are finding common ground on at least one topic: They are furious that Iraqi politicians are considering a lengthy break this summer.
"If they go off on vacation for two months while our troops fight - that would be the outrage of outrages," said Rep. Chris Shays, R-Conn.
The Iraq parliament's recess, starting this July, would likely come without Baghdad politicians reaching agreements considered key to easing sectarian tensions. Examples include regulating distribution of the country's oil wealth and reversing measures that have excluded many Sunnis from jobs and government positions because of Baath party membership.
So while our soldiers are spending their 2nd and third tours there, while we're arguing over what to do about it here, their own damned government is blowing it all off and going home for a couple months.
Hey George, figure it out. They are NEVER going to stand up, UNTIL we stand down.
Bush: "Either you're with me or against me" - Tonight's GOP debate will tell, is there anyone with him anymore? posted by
Wally 8:51 AM
There is one reason that I might actually watch the GOP debate tonight. For more than 6 years, the republicans have stood staunchly behind Dubya, no matter what he did or said, how miserably he failed, how many lies he told, how badly he f*cked up, or how many times he broke the law or violated the Constitution. Tonight, they are going to have to figure out just how to deal with him - and they don't have a clue what do do about it.
As they gather Thursday night at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library for their first debate, the Republican presidential candidates are thrilled at the chance to associate themselves with Reagan. But they may not be able to escape the challenge created for them by the current president.
As much as Iraq or health care or any other issue, the question of how to deal with President Bush is vexing the Republican field. Do they embrace him as a means of appealing to the conservative voters who tend to decide Republican primaries? Or do they break from him in an effort to show that they will lead the nation in a new direction? Do they applaud his policies or question his competence - or both?
When Gore was running in 2000, he made the mistake of distancing himself from the enormously popular Clinton - who even on during his impeachment had an approval rating of 73%. Today, Republican candidates have the opposite problem - dealing with someone who their "base" (all 28% of them) think is a "good" and "moral" man, and who the rest of the country thinks is a joke. Do they shun the base and turn their backs on him? Or do they embrace him and become part of the joke? Or do they try a different tactic, and try to associate themself with another, more popular Republican?
Presumably, the candidates will try to sidestep Mr. Bush by offering a series of tributes to Reagan, identifying themselves as the former president's ideological soul mates.
How ironic that the party who spends so much time and energy bashing the excesses and evils of Hollywood chooses, as their number one hero, a Hollywood actor. I find it fittingly hypocritical.
Next up in the Hot Seat: Mr Rove? posted by
Wally 7:57 AM
Maybe, maybe not. But Leahy wants his emails.
It's been several weeks since Congress requested ALL documents and emails relating to the Federal Attorney firings at the Dept of Justice. The DOJ still has not fully complied, and the signs of a cover-up have become blindingly obvious. Thanks to the hard work of the good people at DailyKos:
From the email trail, we now have evidence of a systematic cover-up by the White House and DOJ. A majority of emails from Kyle Sampson following the firing have been hidden from Congress. A substantial portion of the emails of Brian Roehrkasse, DOJ spokesman, are being withheld. All emails from Rove deputy Sarah Taylor, and a critical email from Rove deputy J. Scott Jennings have been suppressed. This cover-up is clearly planned, and wilfully executed by the DOJ and White House.
In light of the lack of willing cooperation of the DOJ in this investigation, Sen Leahy and the Senate Judiciary Committee have issued subpoenas to force the issue, and Karl is the focus of their attention.
Senators subpoenaed Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales on Wednesday, ordering him to provide all e-mails related to presidential adviser Karl Rove and the firings of eight federal prosecutors.
"It is troubling that significant documents highly relevant to the committee's inquiry have not been produced," Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) wrote in a letter to Gonzales. The subpoena gives Gonzales until May 15 to turn over the information. Chicago Tribune
We'll have to wait to see if Gonzo complies, or if in typical Bush administration fashion, stonewalls and claims to be above the law (which is a rather ironic stance for the top "law enforcement" guy in the nation). With this White House, secrecy trumps legality every time.
Fred F. Fielding, the White House counsel, had offered to provide such e-mail messages between Rove and people outside the White House as part of a broader deal regarding the terms of interviews with Rove and other White House officials. But negotiations have remained stalled between the Judiciary committees and the White House, which has refused to agree to transcripts of any closed-door interviews. Congressional Quarterly
Closed door interviews? What ever happened to the policy of "open government" or "of the people by the people for the people" upon which this nation was founded? Closed doors? Don't just open the doors to the "interviews". Take the damn doors off the hinges, invite us all in to watch and listen, and post the emails, ALL of the emails, online and in the papers. Let us all read them and come to our own conclusions about the inner workings of our government. Let all Americans in on the thoughts, ethics, and motivations of the man behind the curtain - the one they call Bush's Brain. We're all interested in exactly what Rove has been up to all these years.
Bush: "I listen to the generals". The Generals: "like hell you do" posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 6:50 AM
GeeDubya keeps saying that he'll "listen to the generals". Here's what retired Major General Paul Eaton has to say about that, and about the veto.
Dear Mr. President,
Today, in your veto message regarding the bipartisan legislation just passed on Operation Iraqi Freedom, you asserted that you so decided because you listen to your commanders on the ground.
Respectfully, as your former commander on the ground, your administration did not listen to our best advice. In fact, a number of my fellow Generals were forced out of their jobs, because they did not tell you what you wanted to hear -- most notably General Eric Shinseki, whose foresight regarding troop levels was advice you rejected, at our troops' peril.
The legislation you vetoed today represented a course of action that is long overdue. This war can no longer be won by the military alone. We must bring to bear the entire array of national power - military, diplomatic and economic. The situation demands a surge in diplomacy, and pressure on the Iraqi government to fix its internal affairs. Further, the Army and Marine Corps are on the verge of breaking - or have been broken already - by the length and intensity of this war. This tempo is not sustainable - and you have failed to grow the ground forces to meet national security needs. We must begin the process of bringing troops home, and repairing and growing our military, if we are ever to have a combat-ready force for the long war on terror ahead of us.
The bill you rejected today sets benchmarks for success that the Iraqis would have to meet, and puts us on a course to redeploy our troops. It stresses the need for sending troops into battle only when they are rested, trained and equipped. In my view, and in the view of many others in the military that I know, that is the best course of action for our security.
As someone who served this nation for decades, I have the utmost respect for the office you hold. However, as a man of conscience, I could not sit idly by as you told the American people today that your veto was based on the recommendations of military men. Your administration ignored the advice of our military's finest minds before, and I see no evidence that you are listening to them now.
I urge you to reconsider your position, and work with Congress to pass a bill that achieves the goals laid out above.
Dear Dems: NO COMPROMISE! posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 11:59 AM
Despite all of the corruption the past 6 years, a single veto has changed our country. With a stoke of a pen, George W. Bush single handily gave us 2008. At the same time, the Republican party as we know it will be no more. It's official, he and his party OWN the war in Iraq. So Nancy, Harry, NO COMPROMISE!
You sir, are a sick f*ck! posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 10:06 AM
Bush signs Veto with pen given to him by slain soldier's father
ABC News' Ann Compton Reports: President Bush's pen of choice for his veto of Congress' war supplemental bill--only the second veto of his administration--had great significance, the White House says.
According to Deputy Press Secretary Tony Fratto, the pen was given to the president by Robert Derga, the father of USMC Reserve Corpora Dustin Derga, who was killed in Iraq on May 8, 2005. When Robert Derga met the president during the meeting with families of service members two weeks ago at the White House, he asked the president to veto the supplemental bill with the pen he gave him that day.
Bush Cuts Off Funding For The Troops posted by
Wally 7:02 AM
Like a bratty little child holding his breath, Bush is holding the soldiers hostage until he gets his way
Congress yesterday handed Bush a bill fully funding the troops, giving them even more money than he had asked for. He, of course, refused the money and vetoed the bill because he doesn't want to have to play ball by anybody's rules but his own. Instead of accepting the money for the troops, along with some oversight by the only branch of government constitutionally allowed to declare war and fund war, he threw a temper tantrum and said he was taking his ball and going home.
Sorry George. You're not king. You're not dictator. This is a democracy, and if you're going to function in a democracy you are going to have to learn to play nice in the sandbox.
We're not going to subject you to listening to the blathering of the madman. If you want to watch it, here's a link to Bush's ransom speech. But here is the Democratic response to Bush's veto.
"The president wants a blank check. The Congress is not going to give it to him. The president said, in his comments, he did not believe in timelines, and he spoke out very forcefully against them.
Yet in 1999, on June 5th, then-Governor Bush said, about President Clinton, "I think it's important for the president to lay out a timetable as to how long they will be involved and when they would be withdrawn."
Despite his past statements, President Bush refuses to apply the same standard to his own activities. Standards - that's the issue."
To Congress: Don't back down. Do like Biden said and shove the bill down his throat. Hand him back the same bill over and over until he signs it. And if he doesn't, then it's his choice that funding runs out, the war is over, and our troops come home, where they belong.
To Bush: Grow up. We don't know how you were raised, but your daddy can't come to your rescue anymore. You're no longer the rich kid with the neat toys who always has to have his way and get everything he wants or he throws a temper tantrum until he does. We don't know how you were raised, but when we threw a tantrum, we got spanked. Maybe it's time for Nancy to take you over her knee.
President Chucklenuts to address the nation tonight posted by
Dookie The Webmaster 2:07 PM
Chimperor in Chief wants to speak to the nation tonight regarding the Iraq bill our Congress has sent him today. Despite approx. 70% of the public who think we should withdraw our troops, Dubya will remain opposite. He wants to continue spending billions of dollars while our troops die for nothing. His arrogance is further taking his "legacy" and the Republican party down the poophole. The more he ignores the will of the people, the more members our party will have. Come to think of it, the greatest thing to happen to the Democratic party is George W. Bush. You're right Georgie! You are a uniter!
What do Jeb Bush, the Army Corps of Engineers, and the New Orleans drainage pumps have in common? posted by
Wally 12:29 PM
When the Army Corps of Engineers solicited bids for drainage pumps for New Orleans, it copied the specifications - typos and all - from the catalog of the manufacturer that ultimately won the $32 million contract, a review of documents by The Associated Press found.
The pumps, supplied by Moving Water Industries Corp. of Deerfield Beach, Fla., and installed at canals before the start of the 2006 hurricane season, proved to be defective. The matter is under investigation by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress.
In a letter dated April 13, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., called on the corps to look into how the politically connected company got the post-Hurricane Katrina contract. MWI employed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, President Bush's brother, to market its pumps during the 1980s, and top MWI officials have been major contributors to the Republican Party.
While it may not be a violation of federal regulations to adopt a company's technical specifications, it is frowned on, especially for large jobs such as the MWI contract, because it could give the impression the job was rigged for the benefit of a certain company, contractors familiar with corps practices say.
Our Nation is built upon the rule of law and guided by our founding promise of freedom, equality, and justice for all. Law Day is an opportunity to celebrate the Constitution and the laws that protect our rights and liberties and to recognize our responsibility as citizens to uphold the values of a free and just society.
Generations of Americans have served the cause of justice and shaped our legal institutions to ensure that the blessings of liberty extend to every citizen. The men and women of America's legal community have worked to defend the Constitution, protect the innocent, and secure the rights of their fellow citizens. Their efforts have helped make our Nation a shining example of justice.
America's faith in the rule of law has endured through the centuries. Today, we strive to prepare our next generation of leaders to carry on America's tradition of freedom and democracy. The theme of this year's Law Day, "Liberty Under Law: Empowering Youth, Assuring Democracy," highlights the importance of teaching our young people about the vital role they can play in our democratic society. We all have a duty to help our youth become responsible citizens by promoting the virtues that sustain our democracy and fostering a deeper understanding and respect for our Constitution and laws. These young men and women will shape the future of our country, and their spirit and character will help promote justice, equality, and opportunity throughout our country.
The strength of our legal system requires the ongoing commitment of every citizen. As we observe Law Day, we celebrate our Nation's legal heritage and honor those who work to advance the cause of justice.
NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, in accordance with Public Law 87 20, as amended, do hereby proclaim May 1, 2007, as Law Day, U.S.A. I call upon all the people of the United States to observe this day with appropriate ceremonies and activities. I also call upon Government officials to display the flag of the United States in support of this national observance. IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord two thousand seven, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-first.
Okay, fine. I'll write a little somthin'-somthin':
"Law Day" and "George W. Bush" are about as useless as the Pope's pecker. Just read the first paragraph above. Celebrate the Constitution, protect our rights, justice for all, blah blah blah. Uhhh......George? Wasn't the Constitution just a "goddamned piece of paper?" And didn't your AG take away Habeas Corpus? You only want the law that works for you. For example, getting rid of your attorneys that don't toe the line with you. When have you ever abided by the law? Oh that's right, you have "signing statements." It's lucky for America that you or none of your relatives drafted the Constitution many years ago. One only knows what the fine print at the bottom would say.
And finally, you made May 1st "Law Day." This has got to be a May Fool's joke! I feel sorry for it. It has to share the day with other events:
May Day dubyaD40.com's anniversary Mission Accomplished Day Codpiece Day House Payment Day
This Is What Dubya Means By "Winning the Global War on Terror" posted by
Wally 8:58 AM
We all know that Bush lives in "opposite-world" where war is peace, slavery is freedom, and rich white men are the downtrodden impoverished in need of help. So it makes perfect sense that he would consider the current situation "winning the war on terror".
Report Says Terror Attacks Up Sharply
Terrorist attacks worldwide shot up more than 25 percent last year, killing 40 percent more people than in 2005, particularly in Iraq where extremists used chemical weapons and suicide bombers to target crowds, the State Department said Monday Attacks On The Rise
Specifically, since we're celebrating "Mission Accomplished Day" today, as proof that we're winning in Iraq, by Bush's standards, terrorist acts in Iraq are up by 91% from 2005 to 2006.
What's more, to put the icing on the cake of Bush's glorious victory, the cost of the war is about to jump over the HALF TRILLION dollar mark.
The spending on Iraq is almost 10 times what the Bush administration had anticipated.
The bitter dispute over the latest Iraq spending bill has all but obscured a sobering fact: The war will soon cost more than $500 billion.
The combined spending requests would push the total for Iraq to $564 billion, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service. What a BargainThat's only $1,880 for every American citizen - man, woman, or child, or $7,520 for a family of four. Blown up. Literally shot to hell.
Mission Accomplished - 4 Years Later posted by
Wally 6:50 AM
You can also download this video in Windows Media Player format at PeaceTakesCourage.com
4 years ago, on May 1, 2003, George W. Bush declared our "mission accomplished" in the Iraq war.
"In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." - George W. Bush May 1, 2003
Four years later over 3,300 U.S. troops have been killed and many more have been wounded. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed in the ongoing civil war that is ripping the country apart. On this anniversary of "Mission Accomplished" demand an end to the Iraq war and the impeachment of the liar who got us there. Bring our troops home now!
Happy Mission Accomplished Day posted by
Wally 6:23 AM
and Happy Anniversary to dubyaD40.com
Three years and Still Not In Gitmo!
Four years ago today, Little Georgie Dress-Up donned his flightsuit and played make-believe pilot before declaring "Mission Accomplished - the end of major combat operations in Iraq". In order that he might show his support of the troops by using them for a "ridiculous p.r. stunt", he kept the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln at sea, off the coast of San Diego for an extra day, and ordered that it be turned around so that you couldn't see the shoreline in the background of the photos and video footage as he made his glorious speech.
Three years ago today, dubyaD40.com was launched. Our mission still hasn't been accomplished - the criminals are still in power. But at least we haven't been hauled off to Gitmo, yet. So to all our loyal readers, in celebration, join us in lifting a cold beer or two or three in celebration of these coinciding events.
