The ACLU filed today's lawsuit after obtaining a heavily redacted version of the Presidential Advance Manual from the Justice Department. This manual is the Bush administration's guide for planning presidential events around the country, and it repeatedly instructs organizers about "the best method for preventing demonstrators," "deterring potential protestors from attending events," "designat[ing] a protest area . . . preferably not in view of the event site or motorcade route," and the like.

"The White House has gone too far in its attempt to make dissent invisible," said Chris Hansen, a senior ACLU attorney who is lead counsel in this case. "When taxpayers foot the bill for a public event, the president does not have the right to use a partisan litmus test to stack the audience with his political supporters."

"When the president attends a public event, the First Amendment does not allow him to speak or listen only to those who agree with him," said Arthur Spitzer, Legal Director of the ACLU of the National Capital Area and co-counsel in the lawsuit. "Public places cannot be 'cleansed' of all dissent just to make the president look popular on television."

First, as always, work with the Secret Service and have them ask the local police department to designate a protest area where demonstrators can be placed, preferably not in view of the event site or motorcade route.

The Rally Squad's task is to use their signs and banners as shields between the demonstrators and main press platform. If the demonstrators are yelling, the rally squads can begin and lead supportive chants to drown out the protesters (USA! USA! USA!)

O'REILLY: Right. They called in advance. We're going to do this because we're getting a little - look, it's just like me and Stuart Smalley, Franken, that idiot. I played right into his hands when he had his book out. You know, they want to get in a fight with you.

COULTER: If I could just say, I sort of object to your description of this as if I lost a fight. I don't think they would have done it to anyone else. I don't think they would have called in on…

O'REILLY: Were you surprised that she called in?

COULTER: ...your pal Al. If Al Franken were on, they wouldn't have had the wife of someone he had made a nasty joke about call in. But still I am more of a man than any liberal is. So you know, I don't care.

President Bush held up Israel as a model for defining success in Iraq, saying Thursday that the goal of the U.S. mission there is not eliminating attacks but enabling a democracy that can function despite continuing violence.

"Our success in Iraq must not be measured by the enemy's ability to get a car bombing in the evening news," he said. "No matter how good the security, terrorists will always be able to explode a bomb on a crowded street."

There (in Israel), Bush said, "Terrorists have taken innocent human life for years in suicide attacks. The difference is that Israel is a functioning democracy and it's not prevented from carrying out its responsibilities. And that's a good indicator of success that we're looking for in Iraq."

If there is an all-out war between the United States and various radical Muslim groups worldwide, who would you rather have in charge - Democrats or Republicans?

Democrats 41%
Republicans 38%
Both the same
(not listed) 9%
Don't know
(not listed) 12%

President Bush, moving toward a constitutional showdown with Congress, asserted executive privilege Thursday and rejected lawmakers' demands for documents that could shed light on the firings of federal prosecutors.

Bush's attorney told Congress the White House would not turn over subpoenaed documents for former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor.

In reaction, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy accused the administration of shifting "into Nixonian stonewalling" and revealing "disdain for our system of checks and balances."

"Increasingly, the president and vice president feel they are above the law," said Leahy, D-Vt., after getting the news from Fielding in an early-morning phone call. "In America no one is above law."

A statement just out from House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI):

"The President's response to our subpoena shows an appalling disregard for the right of the people to know what is going on in their government. The executive privilege assertion is unprecedented in its breadth and scope, and even includes documents that the Adminstration previously offered to provide as part of their 'take it or leave it' proposal. This response indicates the reckless disrepect this Administration has for the rule of law. The charges alleged in this investigation are serious - including obstruction of justice and misleading Congress - and the White House should be as committed to this investigation as the Congress. At this point, I see only one choice in moving forward, and that is to enforce the rule of law set forth in these subpoenas."

Update: And this just in from Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA), the chairwoman of the subcommittee that's led the House's investigation:

"It's tough to get lectured on the Constitution from the same Administration that said the Vice President is his own branch of government. The fact is that the Bush Administration, which has publicly declared its commitment to getting the truth on this issue, has stonewalled from the beginning. Mr. Fielding should understand two things: that nobody in their right mind would accept a White House offer that would condone perjury, and that saying 'take-it-or-leave-it' for months is not actually negotiation."

"The rescue of the bald eagle from the brink of extinction ranks among the greatest victories of American conservation," said John Flicker, president of the National Audubon Society.

"Like no other species, the bald eagle showed us all that environmental stewardship has priceless rewards," Flicker said. "In every state, parents and grandparents can still point to the sky and share a moment of wonder as a bald eagle soars overhead."

Warren E. Buffett was his usual folksy self Tuesday night at a fundraiser for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) as he slammed a system that allows the very rich to pay taxes at a lower rate than the middle class.

Buffett cited himself, the third-richest person in the world, as an example. Last year, Buffett said, he was taxed at 17.7 percent on his taxable income of more than $46 million. His receptionist was taxed at about 30 percent.

Buffett said that was despite the fact that he was not trying to avoid paying higher taxes. "I don't have a tax shelter," he said. And he challenged Congress and his audience to see what the people who "clean our offices" are taxed, to loud applause.

CNN's Nancy Grace Pregnant With Twins

TV's legal eagle, Nancy Grace, has revealed that she is four months pregnant with twins. But that's not her only headliner: she also snuck off and got married!

"I always said I wanted a family," Grace told Access Hollywood. "I grew up in happy, loving family [and] I wanted it too. But until now I just thought it wasn't meant to be for me. And as part of God's mysterious plan, I'm given this wonderful blessing late in life -- and I could not be happier."

47-years-old, and happier than ever! The CNN "Headline News" host married Atlanta-based banker David Linch in April. The couple reportedly met when they attended Mercer College together in the late 1970s.

Shoulda pulled out

Tony Blair was no poodle, President Bush said in a newspaper interview published Wednesday.

"I've heard he's been called Bush's poodle," The Sun quoted Mr. Bush as saying. "He's bigger than that."

"Somehow our relationship has been seen as Bush saying to Blair 'jump' and Blair saying 'how high?' but that's just not the way it works," Mr. Bush said. "It's a relationship where we say were both going to jump together."

The CIA released hundreds of pages of internal reports Tuesday on assassination plots, secret drug testing and spying on Americans that triggered a scandal in the mid-1970s.

The documents detail assassination plots against foreign leaders such as Fidel Castro, the testing of mind-altering drugs like LSD on unwitting citizens, wiretapping of U.S. journalists, spying on civil rights and anti-Vietnam war protesters, opening of mail between the United States and the Soviet Union and China and break-ins at the homes of ex-CIA employees and others.

The 693 pages, mostly drawn from the memories of active CIA officers in 1973, were turned over at that time to three different investigative panels _ President Ford's Rockefeller Commission, the Senate's Church committee and the House's Pike committee.

The panels spent years investigating and amplifying on these documents. And their public reports in the mid-1970s filled tens of thousands of pages. The scandal sullied the reputation of the intelligence community and led to new rules for the CIA, FBI and other spy agencies and new permanent committees in Congress to oversee them.

President Bush was presented with a letter Monday signed by 50 high school seniors in the Presidential Scholars program urging a halt to "violations of the human rights" of terror suspects held by the United States.

The students had been invited to the East Room to hear the president speak about his effort to win congressional reauthorization of his education law known as No Child Left Behind.

The handwritten letter said the students "believe we have a responsibility to voice our convictions."

"We do not want America to represent torture. We urge you to do all in your power to stop violations of the human rights of detainees, to cease illegal renditions, and to apply the Geneva Convention to all detainees, including those designated enemy combatants," the letter said.

White House opposes move to declassify report on Iraq's WMDs

WASHINGTON (Map, News) - The White House is resisting a move by both Republicans and Democrats to fully declassify a Senate report on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Republicans say the public disclosure would help show that the CIA made honest mistakes in its 2002 assessment that Iraq owned stockpiles of WMDs, when in fact it no longer did.

But the White House believes the declassification would trigger another round of negative news media coverage and Democratic-led congressional hearings, said a Senate Republican, who asked to remain anonymous because of ongoing private discussions.

The dispute revolves around an obscure federal panel, the nine-member Public Interest Declassification Board.

Last November, incoming Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman John D. Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and the outgoing chairman, Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., signed a letter to the board asking for a review of two committee reports.

DubyaMD's

SEC. RUMSFELD: Not at all. If you think -- let me take that, both pieces -- the area in the south and the west and the north that coalition forces control is substantial. It happens not to be the area where weapons of mass destruction were dispersed. We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat.

The order aimed to create a uniform, governmentwide security system for classifying, declassifying and safeguarding national security information. It gave the archives' oversight unit responsibility for evaluating the effectiveness of each agency's security classification programs. It applied only to the executive branch of government, mostly agencies led by Bush administration appointees, as opposed to legislative and judicial offices.

In the executive order, Bush emphasized the importance of the public's right to know what its government was doing, particularly in the global campaign against terrorism. "Our democratic principles require that the American people be informed of the activities of their government," the executive order said.

The President's (poll numbers) have sunk so low we learn today he cannot even run the Vice President. A Bush Executive Order commands everyone in the Executive Branch to report on handling of classified material, but Dick Cheney has not done so since 2002. Today the House Oversight Committee revealed that in 2004 the Information Security Oversight Office (ISOO) tried to inspect Cheney's office but was denied entry. In fact Cheney responded by trying to destroy ISOO.

Why the lack of cooperation? His office says "the reporting requirement does not apply to Cheney's office which has both legislative and executive functions." In other words, his functions outside the Executive Branch exempt him from oversight "by" the Executive Branch.

But if he's outside the Executive Branch, he's not a legislator and not a judge, there remains only one possible alternative: Vice President Dick Cheney is a rogue nation.

Despite the recent capture of his top lieutenant, Mr. Cheney continues to defy the rule of law, attempting to destroy ISOO, an office of the US government after all, and barring inspections in true Saddam style, leaving only one possible remedy.
Invade him.

The Bush administration is nearing a decision to close the Guantanamo Bay detainee facility and move the terror suspects there to military prisons elsewhere, The Associated Press has learned.

President Bush's national security and legal advisers are expected to discuss the move at the White House on Friday and, for the first time, it appears a consensus is developing, senior administration officials said Thursday.

The advisers will consider a proposal to shut the center and transfer detainees to one or more Defense Department facilities, including the maximum security military prison at Fort Leavenworth in Kansas, where they could face trial, said the officials. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were discussing internal deliberations.
Will They?

Decision on Guantanamo not imminent, U.S. says

"No decisions on the future of Guantanamo Bay are imminent," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino. "The president has long expressed a desire to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and to do so in a responsible way."

"It's no longer on the schedule for tomorrow," said White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe. "Senior officials have met on the issue in the past, and I expect they will meet on the issue in the future."
Or Won't They?

Vice President Exempts His Office from the Requirements for Protecting Classified Information

The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an "entity within the executive branch."

As described in a letter from Chairman Waxman to the Vice President, the National Archives protested the Vice President's position in letters written in June 2006 and August 2006. When these letters were ignored, the National Archives wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in January 2007 to seek a resolution of the impasse. The Vice President's staff responded by seeking to abolish the agency within the Archives that is responsible for implementing the President's executive order.

In his letter to the Vice President, Chairman Waxman writes: "I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions. ... [I]t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive branch officials."

Documents and Links:
Chairman Waxman's Letter to the Vice President
Letter from National Archives to the Attorney General
Second Letter from National Archives to the Vice President's Office
First Letter from National Archives to the Vice President's Office
Fact Sheet on the Vice President's Efforts to Avoid Oversight and Accountability

Big oil companies spared tax hikes

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a $32 billion package of tax breaks for renewable energy that would have been financed mostly by new taxes on major oil companies.

Democrats came three votes short of overcoming a threatened GOP filibuster that was keeping the measure from being attached to a broader energy bill. Republican senators argued that the nearly $29 billion in additional taxes on major oil companies would have led to reduced production and higher gasoline prices.

Because of Republican opposition, Democrats needed 60 votes to allow the package to come up for a vote, but fell short, 57-36. With a number of senators not voting, Democrats could resurrect the measure later, though there was no immediate indication of that.

$3.00/g

The document states: "ON 9/19/01, A 727 PLANE LEFT LAX, RYAN FLT #441 TO ORLANDO, FL W/ETA (estimated time of arrival) OF 4-5PM. THE PLANE WAS CHARTERED EITHER BY THE SAUDI ARABIAN ROYAL FAMILY OR OSAMA BIN LADEN...THE LA FBI SEARCHED THE PLANE [REDACTED] LUGGAGE, OF WHICH NOTHING UNUSUAL WAS FOUND." The plane was allowed to depart the United States after making four stops to pick up passengers, ultimately landing in Paris where all passengers disembarked on 9/20/01, according to the document.

Overall, the FBI's most recent document production includes details of the six flights between 9/14 and 9/24 that evacuated Saudi royals and bin Laden family members. The documents also contain brief interview summaries and occasional notes from intelligence analysts concerning the cursory screening performed prior to the departures. According to the FBI documents, incredibly not a single Saudi national nor any of the bin Laden family members possessed any information of investigative value.

"Eight days after the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history, Osama bin Laden possibly charters a flight to whisk his family out of the country, and it's not worth more than a luggage search and a few brief interviews?" asked Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. "Clearly these documents prove the FBI conducted a slapdash investigation of these Saudi flights. We'll never know how many investigative leads were lost due to the FBI's lack of diligence."

In case you're wondering how something like this could be allowed to happen:

Officials: Iraq security plan succeeding despite 3 more mosques bombed

BAGHDAD - Inside a fortified conference room and through the prism of U.S. and Iraqi military officials, a security plan to pacify the country was working on Wednesday. Outside, extremists blew up mosques, lobbed mortars into Baghdad's heavily protected Green Zone and generated a steady drumbeat of violence.

Just hours before a top U.S. military spokesman said that troop buildups, added checkpoints and other measures launched in February were showing signs of success, suspected Shiite militiamen bombed two Sunni mosques south of Baghdad. An explosion damaged a third Sunni mosque south of the capital hours later.

No deaths were reported in the morning bombings of the Usama Bin Zaid and Abdallah Al Jobori mosques in Iskandariyah and in the afternoon one at the Sfoog mosque in Jbala. But coming the day after a truck bombing outside a Shiite mosque in the capital killed at least 78 people, the attacks stoked fears that retaliatory bombings of Muslim religious sites would escalate.

Twenty-nine unidentified bodies were found dumped on Baghdad's streets

How's that Surge?™

"Destroying human life, in the hopes of saving human life, is not ethical."

"America is also a nation founded on the principle that all human life is sacred."

Hmmm......would you like to rephrase that?

Poll: Stem Cell Use Gains Support
Poll: Public Backs Stem Cell Research
Bush vetoes embryonic stem-cell bill
Poll: Americans Disapprove of Bush Stem-Cell Veto

Poll: Majority wants Iraq pullout date set
Most Americans back Iraq pullout timetable: poll
CBS Poll: Public Backs Iraq Timetable
Bush vetoes Iraq timetable
Poll: Americans disapprove of Bush's Iraq veto

Poll: American, Republican Support for Embryonic Stem Cell Research Increasing
Americans Believe President Bush Should Not Veto Stem Cell
Bush to veto stem cell bill today
Take a guess what the next headline will be. Anyone?

The August 2002 memo, written by a senior Justice Department lawyer, said that for an interrogation technique to be torture, it must inflict physical pain that is difficult to endure.

Written for then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and shared with the CIA, the memo did not lay out specific techniques that could be used. Yet it drew a blurry line that could not be crossed by defining torture as any technique that produces pain equal to a serious physical injury, such as "organ failure, impairment of bodily function or even death."

After nearly two years, the Justice Department disavowed the document in 2004. Rizzo said he agreed with the conclusion reached then, that the language appeared "over-broad." But asked if he wished he had spoken up about its contents, Rizzo said no.

"I can't honestly sit here today and say I should have objected," he said.

In the latest of a string of departures of White House aides, U.S. budget director Rob Portman announced on Tuesday he is stepping down after just over a year on the job.

Portman's departure is among several changes in the White House staff recently. White House counselor Dan Bartlett, a longtime member of Bush's inner circle, plans to leave the administration within the next few weeks and will be replaced by former Republican party chief Ed Gillespie.

White House political director Sara Taylor and deputy national security adviser J.D. Crouch have also left.

"The legacy of President Bush and former House Budget Committee Chairman Nussle is one of $3 trillion in new debt and six years of deficit spending," said Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel, who is a member of the House leadership.
Reuters

Already, Democrats are signaling that Nussle's combativeness may place his nomination - which is subject to Senate confirmation - in peril.

"Mr. Nussle has a reputation, deserved or not, of being an intense partisan, quite different from (outgoing budget director) Rob Portman," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D. He said he had heard concerns about the nomination from about a half-dozen senators, and "there are going to be issues with this confirmation."
Guardian

State Treasurer Suspended After Indictment on Drug Charges

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP, WLTX) -- South Carolina Treasurer Thomas Ravenel has been suspended from office, following his indictment by a federal grand jury for distribution of cocaine.

.....

The indictments accuse Ravenel, 44, and Michael Miller, 25, of distributing less than 500 grams of cocaine starting in late 2005. They're officially indicted on charges of conspiracy to possess and intent to distribute.

Officials say Ravenel bought the drugs from Miller to share with other people. U.S. Attorney Reggie Lloyd says Ravenel didn't sell any of the drugs. Lloyd says the investigation is just beginning.

.....

Thomas is also the founder of Ravenel Development Corp., a commercial real estate development company. As well, he serves as the state chairman for former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign. Late Tuesday, Giuliani's campaign announced he stepped down from that role.

Rudy! Rudy! Rudy!

"The administration is thumbing its nose at the law," said Rep. Conyers (D-MI), one of the lawmakers who commissioned the GAO study.

Bush's signing statements have drawn fire because he has used them to challenge more than 1,100 sections of bills -- more than all previous presidents combined. The sample the GAO studied represents a small portion of the laws Bush has targeted, but its report concluded that sometimes the government has gone on to disobey those laws.

"The findings of this report should come as no great surprise: When the president tells federal agencies they don't have to follow the law, they often don't.... This report should put to rest any doubts as to the real impact of signing statements. The Constitution does not bestow upon the president the power to simply ignore portions of laws he doesn't like."

"The White House cannot pick and choose which laws it follows and which it ignores. When a president signs a bill into law, the president signs the entire bill. The administration cannot be in the business of cherry-picking the laws it likes and the laws it doesn't."
Boston Globe

The GAO's findings are legally significant, said Bruce Fein, a conservative constitutional lawyer who served on an American Bar Association task force that excoriated the president's use of signing statements in a report last year. White House officials have dismissed such concerns as overblown, suggesting that the statements were staking out legal positions, not broadcasting the administration's intentions.

But the GAO report suggests that the dispute over signing statements is not an academic one, Fein said, adding that Congress could use the report to take collective legal action against the White House.
WashPost

'Renegade' Joins Race For White House

Sen. Barack Obama has a new tag: "Renegade."

That's what Secret Service agents are calling the Illinois Democrat, in the time-honored tradition of giving "secret" code names to presidential candidates and other protected dignitaries. As is custom, the Obama moniker reflects something of the man himself (though he might prefer "progressive" or "independent").

Is the same true for a woman?

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) may hope so. Her code name is "Evergreen," given to her when her husband (former president Bill Clinton, a.k.a. "Eagle") first became a protectee.

Other candidates have not been as lucky. Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.) was dubbed "Minuteman" after winning the Democratic nomination -- and, indeed, lasted not much longer than the name suggested. Former vice president Al Gore, sometimes derided as wooden, started out as "Sawhorse" but eventually became "Sundance" -- although the reason for the change is unclear.

President Bush, a protectee dating back to the days when his father was president (and with a reputation for rowdiness before he became a teetotaler) is "Tumbler." Former president Jimmy Carter, who taught Sunday school, is "Deacon." George H.W. Bush is "Timberwolf," and Ronald Reagan was "Rawhide."


Tumbler!

E-mail records are missing for 51 of the 88 White House aides with Republican Party accounts, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee reported Monday.

The committee found that although then-White House counsel Alberto Gonzales ordered presidential staff to preserve official e-mails from outside accounts, he failed to enforce that policy.

The committee found 88 officials who held GOP e-mail accounts; the White House had acknowledged 50.

In a statement released Monday evening, campaign lawyer Eric Kuwana said the documents "are from a limited period of time years ago, have no articulated connection to the investigations of the committee, and very well may be the type and nature of political documents that are specifically exempt from the Presidential Records Act."

You know, it's interesting, if you -- I'm sure people who watch your TV screens think the entire country is embroiled in sectarian conflict and that there's constant killing everywhere in Iraq. Well, if you listened to General Casey yesterday, 90 percent of the action takes place in five of the 18 provinces. And around Baghdad, it's limited to a 30-mile area. And the reason I bring that up is that while it seems to our American citizens that nothing normal is taking place -- and I can understand why, it's a brutal environment there, particularly that which is on our TV screens -- that there is farmers farming, there are small businesses growing, there's a currency that's relatively stable, there's an entrepreneurial class, there's commerce....there are people living relatively normal lives who I believe -- strongly believe that they want to continue that normalcy....
10/25/2006

President Bush had a nearly hour-long secure video teleconference with Iraqi leaders on Monday and came away impressed and reassured by the progress they're making on political, security and economic reforms, the White House said.

"It's clear that you've got an environment now where the key leaders are working together on these issues," during the 52-minute teleconference the president had with Iraq's prime minister, president and two vice presidents, White House press secretary Tony Snow said.

Snow acknowledged that U.S. officials have heard similar positive statements from Iraqi leaders before, but said: "We think they are very serious in moving on the key items.... I think the president was impressed and reassured by the sense of seriousness that he heard".

Rove may lead Bush library

President Bush isn't leaving it to strangers to take care of his legacy project, the George W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum. Playing key roles are political aide Karl Rove, first lady Laura Bush, and former Chief of Staff Andy Card. The trio has been interviewing architects and touring similar research campuses for tips. We hear that some are urging Bush to put Rove in charge once it's built.

My Pet Goat

"I think everybody anticipates that there's going to be a new strategy in the fall," McConnell said on CBS's Face the Nation. "I don't think we'll have the same level of troops, in all likelihood, that we have now. The Iraqis will have to step up, not only on the political side, but on the military side, to a greater extent."

The odds of building a stable Iraqi government by September are slim, even with the addition of 30,000 U.S. troops to give lawmakers in Baghdad security, said the top U.S. general in the Middle East country.

The man who led the initial American effort to reconstruct Iraq after the war believes the country is on the brink of a genocidal civil war and its government will fall apart unless the US changes course and allows a three-way federal structure. He has also urged talks with Iran and other regional players.

"The Iraqi government has been a pretty big disappointment. We've given them an enormous opportunity here, over the last four years, to have a normal country. And so far, they haven't been table to take advantage of this opportunity and our commitment will not be there forever", says Senator McConnell.

A federal judge said Thursday he will not delay a 2 1/2-year prison sentence for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby in the CIA leak case, a ruling that could send the former White House aide to prison within weeks.

U.S. District Judge Reggie B. Walton's decision will send Libby's attorneys rushing to an appeals court to block the sentence and could force President Bush to consider calls from Libby's supporters to pardon the former aide.

No date was set for Libby to report to prison but it's expected to be within six to eight weeks. That will be left up to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons, which will also select a facility.

PMITA

A coalition of non-governmental groups on Wednesday took the UN Security Council to task for its "shocking silence" on alleged violations of international law by US-led forces in Iraq and urged an early end to their mandate.

In a scathing report, the Global Policy Forum slammed the conduct of US-led coalition forces and their Iraqi government partners who "have held a large number of Iraqi citizens in 'security detention' without charge or trial, in direct violation of international law."

(snip)

"As a consequence, the US and its allies regularly kill Iraqi civilians at checkpoints and during military operations, on the basis of the merest suspicion," the 117-page report said.

"In addition to combat deaths, coalition forces have killed many Iraqi civilians," it said, adding that "a 2006 study estimates more than a half million 'excess' deaths since 2003."

Iran moves to execute porn stars

Iran's parliament on Wednesday voted in favor of a bill that could lead to death penalty for persons convicted of working in the production of pornographic movies.

With a 148-5 vote in favor and four abstentions, lawmakers present at the Wednesday session of the 290-seat parliament approved that "producers of pornographic works and main elements in their production are considered corruptors of the world and could be sentenced to punishment as corruptors of the world."

The term, "corruptor of the world" is taken from the Quran, the Muslims' holy book, and ranks among the highest on the scale of an individual's criminal offenses. Under Iran's Islamic Penal Code, it carries a death penalty.

The "main elements" refered to in the draft include producers, directors, cameramen and actors involved in making a pornographic video.

Bowchickabowbow

The Senate Judiciary Committee's subpoena for Taylor compels her to testify on July 11, while the House Judiciary Committee's subpoena for Miers compels her testimony the next day.

It's the first time during the five-month investigation that Congress is compelling testimony from White House insiders over the firings. Not yet on the subpoena list is President Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, but only because Democrats have not yet finished interviewing those below him, the officials said.
Subpoenas

The new records provide a peek at the actions of the White House, which has repeatedly refused Democratic demands for records and sworn testimony related to the issue.

"These documents show that the White House played an integral role in the firings and their aftermath," said House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.). "This only underscores the need for White House cooperation with this investigation."

The 46 pages of e-mails show that Miers and others -- including her deputy, William Kelley, and the White House political affairs director at the time, Sara M. Taylor -- were involved in spirited and sometimes angry e-mail exchanges as the secretive firings operation began to unravel in public. Many of the exchanges also included D. Kyle Sampson, who coordinated the firings as Gonzales's chief of staff.

White House officials appeared to be particularly concerned about the political fallout over the firing of prosecutor Bud Cummins of Little Rock, who was replaced by Tim Griffin, a former Rove aide. On Feb. 16, for example, Taylor sharply criticized the testimony of Deputy Attorney General Paul J. McNulty, who had told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Cummins was removed to make way for Griffin. The subject line of the e-mails read: "McNulty Strikes Again."
WashPost

A former senior Department of Justice official acknowledged Tuesday that he initially provided inaccurate testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week.

Bradley Schlozman, a former acting assistant attorney general and U.S. attorney, clarified his testimony in a letter to committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).
We knew he was lying

(WTNH) _ The Connecticut for Lieberman Party is calling on Senator Joseph Lieberman to resign from the U.S. Senate following his remarks made Sunday on CBS' Face the Nation regarding military action against Iran.

Lieberman said on the national television program that, "we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians."

The Connecticut for Lieberman Chair, Dr. John Orman, called for Lieberman's resignation saying that he "crossed the line" and "no longer represents the views of the citizens of Connecticut."

Orman, a longtime critic of Lieberman, took control of the minority party back in January.

Was George W. "Fabulous" Bush there for the test?

Aside from these pictures, there is ample evidence suggesting that the Commander Guy had more than one reason to flaunt his codpiece in front of an aircraft carrier full of sailors, or for engaging in some more intimate moments - which we would really rather not know about - with Vladimir Putin: "I looked the man in the eye.... I was able to get a sense of his soul."

Things like this, and a whole litany of "Fabulous" examples put together by Betty Bowers make us wonder, is the Pentagon hiding something? (of course they are). Did they really try to build a bomb to turn people gay? If so, was George Bush a part of the testing program?

NOTE: We at dubyaD40.com don't really give a rat's ass about Bush's, or anyone else's sexual preferences - with the exception, of course, of really hot women who we think should all find us irresistably attractive. We don't care if you're gay, bi, straight, curly.... that's your own personal thing, and none of our affair. What pisses us off is the frikking hypocracy of the right-wing christo-fascist nazi brigade telling everyone they can't love who they want to love, and then being caught with their pants down doing what they've been crusading against. People like Ted Haggard and Mark Foley, for instance.

War Takes Up Less Time on Fox News

On a winter day when bomb blasts at an Iraqi university killed dozens and the United Nations estimated that 34,000 civilians in Iraq had died in 2006, MSNBC spent nearly nine minutes on the stories during the 1 p.m. hour. A CNN correspondent in Iraq did a three-minute report about the bombings.

Neither story merited a mention on Fox News Channel that hour.

That wasn't unusual. Fox spent half as much time covering the Iraq war than MSNBC during the first three months of the year, and considerably less than CNN, according to the Project for Excellence in Journalism.

The difference was more stark during daytime news hours than in prime-time opinion shows. The Iraq war occupied 20 percent of CNN's daytime news hole and 18 percent of MSNBC's. On Fox, the war was talked about only 6 percent of the time.

The independent think tank's report freshens a debate over whether ideology drives news agendas, and it comes at a delicate time for Fox. Top Democratic presidential candidates have refused to appear at debates sponsored by Fox. Liberals find attacking Fox is a way to fire up their base.

Fox "News"

There is no confidence in the attorney general on this side of the aisle," said Arlen Specter (R-PA).

"I think his continued tenure does not benefit the department or our country," said Sen Susan Collins (R-ME).

"They can have their votes of no confidence, but it's not going to make the determination about who serves in my government," Bush said in Sofia, Bulgaria, the last stop on a weeklong visit to Europe.

Voting "yes" were 45 Democrats, seven Republicans and one independent.

Voting "no" were no Democrats, 37 Republicans and one independent.

Full Roll Call

The Bush administration cannot legally detain a U.S. resident it suspects of being an al-Qaida sleeper agent without charging him, a divided federal appeals court ruled Monday.

"To sanction such presidential authority to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain civilians, even if the President calls them 'enemy combatants,' would have disastrous consequences for the constitution - and the country," the court panel said.

In the 2-1 decision, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel found that the federal Military Commissions Act doesn't strip Ali al-Marri, a Qatari national and legal U.S. resident, of his constitutional rights to challenge his accusers in court.

Sheriff under fire in Paris Hilton case

This is not the first time that Lee Baca, the sheriff who opened the jail door for Paris Hilton, has had his judgment questioned.

He's been accused of using his authority to benefit friends and supporters. Since taking office he's accepted thousands of dollars worth of freebie meals, sports tickets and trips.

-snip-

Last year, the Los Angeles Times reported Baca put one of his closest friends on the payroll as a $105,000-a-year adviser.

The newspaper also said he had accepted more than $42,000 in gifts since taking office, including some from those who do business with his department.

In 2004, he took more gifts than California's other 57 sheriffs combined.

New AG?

Lieberman: Bomb Iran

Conn. Senator Says The U.S. Should Strike If Tehran Keeps Helping Anti-U.S. Forces In Iraq

The United States should launch military strikes against Iran if the government in Tehran does not stop supplying anti-American forces in Iraq, Sen. Joe Lieberman said Sunday on Face The Nation.

"I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq," Lieberman told Bob Schieffer. "And to me, that would include a strike into... over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers."

The Senator said he was not calling for an end to the limited diplomatic efforts that are underway between Washington and Tehran.

"We can tell them we want them to stop that, but if there's any hope of the Iranians living according to the international rule of law and stopping, for instance, their nuclear weapons development, we can't just talk to them," Lieberman said. "If they don't play by the rules, we've got to use our force, and to me that would include taking military action to stop them from doing what they're doing."

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Friday he has decided against recommending Marine Gen. Peter Pace for a new term as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Gates said he had originally intended to seek another two-year term for Pace, but concluded that would have resulted in a divisive Senate confirmation focusing on the Iraq war.

But Gates said that after consulting with senators in both parties, he had concluded that "the focus of his conformation process would have been on the past and not on the future."

Gates said the decision had "nothing to do" with Pace's leadership in the war.

U.S. President George W. Bush will skip a visit on Saturday to Rome's historic Trastevere neighborhood for security reasons, a spokesman for the religious group he was to have visited there said on Friday.

Asked if the change had been made because of security concerns, Sant'Egidio spokesman Mario Marazziti said: "Yes, clearly."

Italian security officials had been nervous about Bush visiting Trastevere although they decided it would go ahead.

Rome authorities had planned to effectively shut down the entire neighborhood while Bush was there.

Using an online person search built from phone directories and other public records, Thomas Potter of Olmsted Falls, Ohio, turned up three listings for "Usama bin Laden."

The first listing put the al Qaeda leader at the California headquarters of media giant FOX Entertainment Group. The second placed bin Laden in the office of a Bethesda, Md., Internet firm owned by the son of a former Defense Department official. And the third pinpointed bin Laden's secret hideout as an unidentified location in Hermitage, Tenn.

"I understand that the FBI is offering $25 million," Potter wrote in an e-mail to the Department of Justice, alerting them to his findings. "I would like to know if the reward is tax free and if I could please receive it in cash."

Today the Senate Judiciary Committee passed an important bill to restore habeas corpus, the sacrosanct Constitutional right to challenge government detention in court, by a vote of eleven to eight.

Habeas corpus was revoked by last year's Military Commissions Act, which has been assailed as unconstitutional and un-American by leaders across the political spectrum. Today's habeas bill was backed by the Judiciary Committee's Democratic Chairman, Patrick Leahy, and its Republican Ranking Member, Arlen Specter. "The drive to restore this fundamental right has come from both sides of the aisle," said Sharon Bradford, an attorney at the bipartisan Constitution Project, in response to today's vote. "Restoring America's commitment to the rule of law is not a partisan cause; it is a patriotic one," she added.

Today's vote means the habeas bill can now be brought to the Senate floor at any time. One source with knowledge of the legislative plan said Majority Leader Harry Reid has committed to bringing the bill to a vote within the month.

Some Democrats are pushing Reid to go further, advocating more comprehensive human rights protections and a repeal of the entire Military Commissions Act. Senator Chris Dodd, the most aggressive defender of the Constitution in the presidential race, is pushing legislation that would not only restore habeas, but also ban the use of evidence obtained through torture and recommit the U.S. to the Geneva Conventions. "We must recognize that our security is enhanced by upholding our nation's historic legal principles as we vigorously pursue terrorists," he said in a statement today.

violated the U.S. Constitution, ignored centuries of legal practice and conflicted with U.S. calls for other nations to respect human rights.

"I implore those who supported this change to think about whether eliminating habeas truly makes America safer in the world, and whether it comports with the values, liberties ad legal traditions we hold most dear," he said.

In an interview with TIME, Simpson confirmed that the "Karl" cited in her sworn statement was Karl Rove. "There's absolutely no question it was Karl Rove, no doubt whatsoever," she said. She also said she has phone records to back up the date and duration of her phone calls.

A coalition of human rights groups is demanding the United States account for 39 so-called "ghost detainees," terror suspects it believes have been secretly imprisoned, and has published their names in a report released Thursday.

Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and four other groups have drawn up a list of 39 people they claim are held by U.S. authorities and are still missing.

"What we're asking is where are these 39 people now, and what's happened to them since they 'disappeared'?" Joanne Mariner of Human Rights Watch said in a statement.

In a rare legal clash pitting a mother against the US military, Specialist Lisa Hayes of the New Hampshire National Guard surrendered yesterday to Army authorities after being charged as a deserter for refusing to fight in Iraq until a custody case involving her 7-year-old daughter was resolved.

In February, Hayes received emergency leave from her second deployment to Iraq after an alleged domestic violence incident at her former husband's house, where her daughter, Brystal Knight, was staying. As the resulting custody case moved slowly through the courts, the military ordered her back to Iraq.

Hayes, 32, a licensed nursing assistant in civilian life from Rindge, N.H., could face up to two years in a military prison if found guilty of desertion in a court martial, though an Army spokeswoman said yesterday that she would probably be discharged instead.


As the custody case unfolded, the Guard extended her leave three times before ordering her back to Iraq. Hayes did not report for duty, and on March 25, she was declared absent without leave. A month later, that charge was upgraded to desertion, in accordance with military rules.

Iraqi politicians have passed a resolution requiring the government to seek parliamentary permission before asking the UN to extend the mandate for US-led forces in Iraq.

The measure was approved on Tuesday and reflects a growing disenchantment with the US-backed government.
Aljazeera

The parliament today passed a binding resolution that will guarantee lawmakers an opportunity to block the extension of the U.N. mandate under which coalition troops now remain in Iraq when it comes up for renewal in December. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, whose cabinet is dominated by Iraqi separatists, may veto the measure.

The law requires the parliament's approval of any future extensions of the mandate, which have previously been made by Iraq's prime minister. It is an enormous development; lawmakers reached in Baghdad today said that they do in fact plan on blocking the extension of the coalition's mandate when it comes up for renewal six months from now.

Reached today by phone in Baghdad, Nassar al Rubaie, the head of Al-Sadr bloc in Iraq's Council of Representatives, said, "This new binding resolution will prevent the government from renewing the U.N. mandate without the parliament's permission. They'll need to come back to us by the end of the year, and we will definitely refuse to extend the U.N. mandate without conditions." Rubaie added: "There will be no such a thing as a blank check for renewing the U.N. mandate anymore, any renewal will be attached to a timetable for a complete withdrawal."

Without the cover of the U.N. mandate, the continued presence of coalition troops in Iraq would become, in law as in fact, an armed occupation, at which point it would no longer be politically tenable to support it.
Alternet

"It ended," Bush said in his stop at this former Soviet satellite. "The people of the Czech Republic don't have to choose between being a friend of the United States or a friend with Russia. You can be both. We don't believe in a zero-sum world."

Bush said he would make case directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"My message will be Pootie-Poot - I call him Pootie-Poot - you shouldn't fear a missile defense system," Bush said. "As a matter of fact, why don't you cooperate with us on a missile defense system."

Part II (7 minutes 52 seconds)

"If it is not safe for a combat veteran to come home and speak his mind, then it is not safe for anyone."

Marine Cpl. Adam Kokesh, who has already received an honorable discharge from active duty but remains part of the inactive military reserves, has been charged with being photographed wearing fatigues, with military badges removed, during a protest of the Iraq war.

The nation's largest combat veterans group on Friday urged the military to "exercise a little common sense" and call off its investigation of a group of Iraq war veterans who wore their uniforms during anti-war protests.

"Trying to hush up and punish fellow Americans for exercising the same democratic right we're trying to instill in Iraq is not what we're all about," said Gary Kurpius, national commander of the 2.4 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars.

"It's the political activity that is prohibited, not the type of event that it was," Lapan said. "If it had been a pro-war rally, it would still have been a violation."

To score political points, the Democratic majority in the House has shown it is willing to undermine the gains our troops are making on the ground.

The Democrats have sent their message, now it's time to send their money.

After a daylong hearing Monday, a three-person Marine board recommended he receive a general discharge under honorable conditions, one step below an honorable discharge. It would let Kokesh keep all of his benefits.

"What that means is he is not dishonorable, and he's only kind of honorable, so in effect, the board picked the safe route," said Kokesh's attorney, Mike Lebowitz.

Said Kokesh about the ruling "I do not think it was in the Marine Corps spirit to take the easy road or to not take a stand. In the words of Dante, the hottest layers of hell are reserved for those who in times of moral crisis maintain their neutrality, and I think that's what happened here today."
LINK

Arkansas GOP head: We need more 'attacks on American soil' so people appreciate Bush

In his first interview as the chairman of the Arkansas Republican Party, Dennis Milligan told a reporter that America needs to be attacked by terrorists so that people will appreciate the work that President Bush has done to protect the country.

"At the end of the day, I believe fully the president is doing the right thing, and I think all we need is some attacks on American soil like we had on [Sept. 11, 2001]," Milligan said to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, "and the naysayers will come around very quickly to appreciate not only the commitment for President Bush, but the sacrifice that has been made by men and women to protect this country."

Milligan, who was elected as the new chair of the Arkansas Republican Party just two weeks ago, also told the newspaper that he is "150 percent" behind Bush in the war in Iraq.

Wacko

"Had the plot been carried out, it could have resulted in unfathomable damage, deaths and destruction," Roslynn R. Mauskopf, the United States attorney in Brooklyn, said in a news release that announced charges against four men. She added at a news conference, "The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded are just unthinkable."

But the criminal complaint filed by the federal authorities against the four defendants in the case ... suggests a less than mature terror plan, a proposed effort longer on evil intent than on operational capability.

(Ms. Mauskopf noted in her news release that the "public was never at risk" and told reporters that law enforcement "had stopped this plot long before it ever had a chance to be carried out.")

"It has a bit of the gang that couldn’t shoot straight to it," Mr. Sonnett said. "It would have served the federal government well to say that."

"Nothing could be as bad as the authorities made it sound. The fact is that pipelines are hit all the time. The leftists in Colombia have hit pipelines dozens, probably hundreds, of times, and the technology is such that sensors in the pipelines shut them down. To suggest they'd blow up half of Queens and probably all the way to Pennsylvania was ridiculous."

In telling the American public about this foiled plot, we have to be sensitive to the need to protect sources and methods since we are dealing with the ongoing threat from al Qaeda -- and you'll appreciate that's why the President doesn't name the countries, the particular allies or the particulars of the sources and methods to glean the operational leads that led to the disruption of the plot.
Feb 9, 2006

A newly disclosed effort to keep Vice President Dick Cheney's visitor records secret is the latest White House push to make sure the public doesn't learn who has been meeting with top officials in the Bush administration.

"The question it raises is 'what are these guys hiding?'" said Christopher Lehane, former special assistant counsel to President Clinton, now a Democratic consultant. "They can live with it because they've only got a year or so left, but it doesn't do a lot for public confidence in open government."

White House spokesman Tony Fratto said Thursday, "I can't comment on a case in litigation, and I can't speak to the decisions made by other administrations."

Bush to mother: Don't sell on eBay

Several mothers who have lost children at war in Iraq took part in a new talk show today on National Public Radio.

One of them, Elaine Johnson, recounted a meeting that she had with President Bush in which he gave her a presidential coin and told her and five other families: "Don't go sell it on eBay."

........

"My son was killed November 2, 2003,'' Johnson said. "After they had my son's memorial in Colorado Springs -- that's Fort Carson -- I was interviewed by the Gazette Newspaper, and that started it all.

"They said they had a mother or a person to ever lashed out at the president, criticize the president of being insensitive,'' she said. "So a couple of days after that they called me and said that President Bush would like to meet me. And I said well okay, only at his cost because I was not spending my money to meet him.''

Laddy-freaking-da