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March 31, 2007
NOLA Blogging - House Gutting Edition
The innards of the house on the outside.
More debris. In the background, a FEMA trailer. Even though many of the houses look surprisingly good from the outside the insides are still a nightmare. Hence, people are living in the FEMA trailers while they get their houses in shape.
Protective gear.
A Micky Mouse Christmas ornament.
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ADDED: Athenae has more pics and narrative as does Sinfonian.
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March 30, 2007
NOLA Blogging - Crawfish Edition
Stirring the pot.
Steamy.
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NOLA Blogging
The view from my room:
I'm going to assume it gets better than this.
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Noted In Passing
I'm off to New Orleans this morning to meet up with the First Draft Krewe to do some good works. And have a bit of fun.
I'm not sure what sort of connectivity I'll have let alone time but I'll try to post some updates and pictures when possible.
Normal blogging should resume Tuesday.
Laissez les bontemps roulez!
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March 29, 2007
Headline Of The Day
NY mobsters used strip club for training: prosecutor
Who knew Sammy "The Bull" Gravano could pole-dance?
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Corporatocracy
By now this can come as no surprise:
Julie MacDonald, the deputy assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks, acknowledged that on several occasions she released internal information from the Interior Department and Environmental Protection Agency into private hands, including the California Farm Bureau Federation and the Pacific Legal Foundation, Interior Inspector General Earl Devaney concluded.
The Pacific Legal Foundation was founded by Reaganuts and is about as bad as you can imagine. Besides receiving funding from ExxonMobil, our old pal Dickie Scaife is also financial supporter.
As for Ms. MacDonald, here's what gives the game away:
Twice she sent internal EPA documents to people whose e-mail addresses ended in chevrontexaco.com, the report said.
While the House Natural Resources Committee is going to hold hearings in May, Interior's Inspector General has found no "illegal activity" in any of this. And that's the real scandal.
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Protecting Their Own
Senate GOoPers attempted to shut down today's Judiciary Committee hearing.
The attempt failed and the hearings are back on track.
What are the Repubs afraid of?
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It's All About The Benjamins
Or mammon, as the case may be. Garance:
At first I thought the invitation to this was spam, but no, there really is such a thing: The 2nd Annual Faith Based Marketing Summit is taking place in Dallas come mid-April, combining the two great American traditions of Godly people and sales. Featured speaker last year: Greg Stielstra, author of Pyromarketing: The Four Step Strategy to Ignite Customer Evangelists and Keep Them for Life.
And it's Atheists like me that threaten Christianity.
Right.
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BushCo™ In A Nutshell
Stanley Cutler on the claim of executive privilege:
The political pliability of executive privilege is nicely illustrated by the maneuvers of Brett Kavanagh, now a D.C. Circuit Court justice. When he worked for Kenneth Starr in 1998, Kavanagh was the sentinel at the gate, ever alert with his rapid response team to challenge the Clinton White House's myriad claims of executive privilege. But in November 2001 he re appeared as a principal author of George W. Bush's luxuriant assertions of executive privilege for himself and his predessors (principally, his father) in an executive order effectively suspending the Presidential Records Act.
"Hypocricy" comes to mind. As does "dishonesty." A bucketful of adjectives fit here.
And doesn't it inspire confidence in the justice system that Kavanagh sits on a court?
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Abu Gonzo Loses The USAs
Midnight is nigh for Gonzales:
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales endured blunt criticism Tuesday from federal prosecutors who questioned the firings of eight United States attorneys, complained that the dismissals had undermined morale and expressed broader grievances about his leadership, according to people briefed on the discussion.[...]
Several of the prosecutors said the dismissals caused them to wonder about their own standing and distracted their employees, according to one person familiar with the discussions. Others asked Mr. Gonzales about the removal of Daniel C. Bogden, the former United States attorney in Nevada, a respected career prosecutor whose ouster has never been fully explained by the Justice Department.
[...]
Mr. Gonzales attended the Chicago meeting after abruptly cutting short a news conference in which he was asked about the dismissals and his own status. He reacted unemotionally to the criticism in the private session, responding that he had not previously heard of their specific complaints, including the McNulty memorandum.
Of course Abu Gonzo reacted unemotionally; he's rock-stupid and can (for now, at least) count on the patronage of George.
As was reported yesterday:
"It's unreal - it's open warfare over there," a former Justice official with close ties to Gonzales' team told the Daily News.
Gonzo's finished. But George hangs on to him probably not out of loyalty (George's loyalty is only to himself) but because Gonzo serves as a firewall. Take him out and the only member of the "Texas Mafia" left is Rove. And Rove presents a great big target. Take out Rove and George himself is finished.
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Of Sasquatch...
But the notion of widespread voter fraud, as these prosecutors found out, is itself a fraud. Firing a prosecutor for failing to find wide voter fraud is like firing a park ranger for failing to find Sasquatch. Where fraud exists, of course, it should be prosecuted and punished. (And politicians have been stuffing ballot boxes and buying votes since senators wore togas; Lyndon Johnson won a 1948 Senate race after his partisans famously "found" a box of votes well after the election.) Yet evidence of actual fraud by individual voters is painfully skimpy.[...]
Or consider Washington state, where McKay closely watched the photo-finish gubernatorial election of 2004. A challenge to ostensibly noncitizen voters was lodged in April 2005 on the questionable basis of "foreign-sounding names." After an election there last year in which more than 2 million votes were cast, following much controversy, only one ballot ended up under suspicion for double-voting. That makes sense. A person casting two votes risks jail time and a fine for minimal gain. Proven voter fraud, statistically, happens about as often as death by lightning strike.
[...]
Identification requirements often sound simple. But some types of paperwork simply aren't available to many Americans. We saw this with the new Medicaid proof-of-citizenship requirement, which led to benefits being cut off for many longtime citizens. Some states insist that voters provide photo IDs such as driver's licenses. But at least 11 percent of voting-age Americans, disproportionately elderly and minority voters, lack the necessary papers. Required documentation such as naturalization paperwork can cost as much as $200. By contrast, when the poll tax was declared unconstitutional in 1966, it was $1.50 ($8.97 in 2007 dollars).
I'll add that it's...curious that the GOP hasn't made a big deal of the New Hamphire Phone Jamming Case given that it's proven voting fraud. I'm sure that the fact that this was carried out by the RNC and possibly the White House (even Jack Abramoff makes an appearance!) has nothing to do with the lack of interest from the Repubs.
It would be cynical to suggest otherwise.
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March 28, 2007
Shareholder Revolt
"In beloved Iraq, blood flows between brothers in the shadow of illegitimate foreign occupation and hateful sectarianism, threatening a civil war," he said, in unusually strong criticism of the U.S. presence in Iraq.
Combine this with today's column by the WaPo's Jim Hoagland:
President Bush enjoys hosting formal state dinners about as much as having a root canal. Or proposing tax increases. So his decision to schedule a mid-April White House gala for Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah signified the president's high regard for an Arab monarch who is also a Bush family friend.Now the White House ponders what Abdullah's sudden and sparsely explained cancellation of the dinner signifies. Nothing good -- especially for Condoleezza Rice's most important Middle East initiatives -- is the clearest available answer.
Abdullah's bowing out of the April 17 event is, in fact, one more warning sign that the Bush administration's downward spiral at home is undermining its ability to achieve its policy objectives abroad. Friends as well as foes see the need, or the chance, to distance themselves from the politically besieged Bush.
[...]
But the Saudis, too, know how to read election returns. They see Bush swimming against a tide of scandal and stench that engulfs his most trusted aides. In the traditional Saudi worldview, this is a moment to hedge, not to indulge in the kind of leadership needed to break the Israeli-Palestinian deadlock or the deadly morass of Iraq.
It would appear that the Saudis are starting to realize that they've made a bad investment in BushCo™. It will interesting, to understate it, to see how they decide to cut their losses.
And I guess this means no more hand-holding.
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More St. John
You know how yesterday St. John talked about how safe it is to walk around Baghdad? Well, McCain now says that he never said what he said on camera:
“Well, I’m not saying they could go without protection. The President goes around America with protection. So, certainly I didn’t say that.”
That's some straight talk.
[Video at link.]
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Who Owns The GOP?
Mullah Dobson, of course:
Focus on the Family founder James Dobson appeared to throw cold water on a possible presidential bid by former Sen. Fred Thompson while praising former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who is also weighing a presidential run, in a phone interview Tuesday. Related News"Everyone knows he's conservative and has come out strongly for the things that the pro-family movement stands for," Dobson said of Thompson. "[But] I don't think he's a Christian; at least that's my impression," Dobson added, saying that such an impression would make it difficult for Thompson to connect with the Republican Party's conservative Christian base and win the GOP nomination. [Emphasis added.]
Who the hell is Dobson to decide who's a Christian and who's not? Was he elected by some fundie version of the College of Cardinals? And why does the media consider Dobson and his ilk to be the True Voice of Christianity?
But these freaks have their own definitions:
"We use that word—Christian—to refer to people who are evangelical Christians," [Focus on the Family spokesman Gary] Schneeberger added. "Dr. Dobson wasn't expressing a personal opinion about his reaction to a Thompson candidacy; he was trying to 'read the tea leaves' about such a possibility."
This ties in nicely with my earlier post about Zombie Republicans. When someone makes their home in Cloud-Cuckoo Land there's no talking to them - - would the "liberal" media come to understand that.
Finally, here's my favorite part:
Dobson's phone call to U.S. News senior editor Dan Gilgoff Tuesday was unsolicited.
Mullah Dobson wasn't speaking off the cuff during some interview; this was a carefully thought out Pronouncement.
To Hell with Dobson and to Hell with his media enablers and to Hell with all of those who don't speak out against this insane egomaniac.
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St. John (Again)
There goes "the Base:"
MCCAIN: Sure. We are going to do just fine. We are going to have fun. That’s the important thing in these campaigns. We are back to the town hall meetings and I love them more than anything else.FOX: You will take a question from anybody about anything.
MCCAIN: And I also have these jerks come on the bus, too.
FOX: You have who come on the bus?
MCCAIN: These jerks from the media.
FOX: Ok. Of course that couldn’t be me, I hope. I haven’t been on a bus in a while without paying a fare.
MCCAIN: Come on. You are welcome on.
When successful Republican presidential candidates talk about their base, they're usually talking about the GOP's social conservatives. When Arizona Sen. John McCain talks about his base, he's referring to the mainstream media.
It would appear that the honeymoon is over.
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Zombies
The truly astonishing thing about the latest scandals besetting the Bush administration is that they stem from actions the administration took after the November elections, when Democratic control of Congress was a fait accompli.[...]
There are, I think, four possible, partial explanations. The first is Rudy-ex-machina-- the hope that the party will nominate somebody who is not perceived to be part of their current mess and who will sweep them back into power no matter how big a hole they may now be digging for him. The second is a strategy to make it impossible for the Democrats to pass any legislation, and then run against the do-nothing Democrats.
The third is that the alternative reality conveyed by the Republican media -- Fox News, Rush Limbaugh and their ilk -- has created a Republican activist base that is genuinely not reality-based, and from which the current generation of Republican pols is disproportionately drawn. And the fourth, pertaining specifically to the inability of the administration to stop politicizing government, is that good government is just not in their DNA. Bush and Rove are no more inclined to create a government based on such impartial values as law and science than they are to set up collective farms.
I think all of Meyerson's possibilities are spot on but I especially favor the third: Talk to any FOX "News"- watching, Rush Limbaugh-listening Republican zombie and you might as well be talking to a crazy person (OK, OK...). They simply live in a different reality where facts become "facts" (at best) and must conform to ideology. Anything that contradicts already held beliefs must be rationalized away or (more commonly) denied (and, it goes without saying, Bill Clinton is responsible for everything bad).
This is the fundamental problem with politics in 21st. century America: One side is utterly irrational. And there's no talking to a crazy person.
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Remember Iraq?
Shiite militants and police enraged by massive truck bombings in the northwestern town of Tal Afar went on a revenge spree against Sunni residents there Wednesday, killing as many as 60 people, officials said.The gunmen began roaming Sunni neighborhoods in the city, shooting at residents and homes, according to police and a local Sunni politician.
Meanwhile, St. John McCain has entered a wonderful world filled with candy canes and unicorns:
BLITZER: Here's what you told Bill Bennett on his radio show on Monday.MCCAIN: Yes.
BLITZER: "There are neighborhoods in Baghdad where you and I could walk through those neighborhoods today."
MCCAIN: Yes.
BLITZER: "The U.S. is beginning to succeed in Iraq."
You know, everything we hear, that if you leave the so-called green zone, the international zone, and you go outside of that secure area, relatively speaking, you're in trouble if you're an American.
MCCAIN: You know, that's why you ought to catch up on things, Wolf.
General Petraeus goes out there almost every day in an unarmed Humvee. You want to -- I think you ought to catch up. You see, you are giving the old line of three months ago. I understand it. We certainly don't get it through the filter of some of the media.
But I know for a fact of much of the success we're experiencing, including the ability of Americans in many parts -- not all. We've got a long, long way to go. We've only got two of the five brigades there -- to go into some neighborhoods in Baghdad in a secure fashion.
A rebuttal from CNN's Baghdad correspondent Michal Ware:
To suggest that there's any neighborhood in this city where an American can walk freely is beyond ludicrous. I'd love Senator McCain to tell me where that neighborhood is and he and I can go for a stroll.
McCain's hypothesis is easily testable: Drop him off in a random Baghdad neighborhood and let him walk around for a half-hour or so.
C'mon, John, what do you say?
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Newt
The P-G's editorial board on Gingrich:
Newt Gingrich is in rehab. No, not the Betty Ford Clinic. This is moral rehabilitation, in which it appears a right-wing guru is resurrecting the former speaker of the House to run for president in 2008.We wish James Dobson, the redoubtable head of Focus on the Family, lots of luck with that project. He may need to hire an exorcist.
Heh.
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We Need A Blue Dress!
Given the popularity of lawyers -- who rank with weasels, used-car salesmen and journalists in the public's esteem -- the great furor over the Bush administration's firing of eight U.S. attorneys is the season's political surprise.An impartial observer might conclude that it lacked the necessary ingredient to seriously threaten the president -- that ingredient being sex.
Why, if only a blue dress were somehow involved, perhaps the president could be impeached, because in America making incompetent war and lying about it is not an impeachable offense, but making indiscreet love (sort of) and lying about it is.
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March 27, 2007
Circling The Drain
The White House is on its own:
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' allies on Capitol Hill grew scarce Tuesday as he left it largely to aides to carry out President Bush's order to straighten out the story behind the firing of eight federal prosecutors.Senate Republicans exiting their weekly policy lunch no longer bothered to defend Gonzales' response to lawmakers' questions about the firings. At most, they mustered an appeal to withhold judgment until the attorney general testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee on April 17.
If George wants to hitch his entire administration to Gonzo then I won't stand in the way.
On a related issue, the Senate setting a deadline for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, clammyc writes:
The republicans could have made a huge deal about this. Hell, they make a huge deal about everything – even when they were able to do everything without any consequences or anyone else even knowing. They could have fought this bill and stomped up and down and tried to make the Democrats blink. They could have made a big stink about “not wanting to tell the terrorists when they can come out and kill again”.But they didn’t.
They hung Bush – “dear leader” - their leader out to dry. Twisting in the wind. Basically, by not giving him cover here, the message is, in no uncertain terms, “you can’t keep fucking us over like this anymore. If you want your funding, then you gotta figure a way out.”
The problem is that George and Dick have no intention of figuring a way out. Indeed, they may very well conclude that their only way of retaining power is to start another, bigger war - Iran. They're certainly rattling the sabres loudly enough. And if this does happen - next month? - then we'll all be going down with them.
May you live in interesting times, goes the saying.
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Skating Away
Defenestrated Field Marshal von Rumsfeld gets away with it:
U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan threw out a lawsuit brought on behalf of nine former prisoners in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said Rumsfeld cannot be held personally responsible for actions taken in connection with his government job.The lawsuit contends the prisoners were beaten, suspended upside down from the ceiling by chains, urinated on, shocked, sexually humiliated, burned, locked inside boxes and subjected to mock executions.
[...]
"Despite the horrifying torture allegations," Hogan said, he could find no case law supporting the lawsuit, which he previously had described as unprecedented.
I'll let the legal beagles take it from here but from my limited knowledge of the law Judge Hogan probably has no choice in this matter.
But I'd like to be wrong.
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Run Awaaaaaay!
Not only is Abu Gonzo a sniveling toady he's also an abject coward.
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Contempt
Let's face it: if the "administration" simply refuses to budge, the Congress either has to fold its tent and go home, or enforce on its own authority the subpoena power the American people voted for. Given that we've reached this impasse -- and we knew it was coming -- over an investigation into the hyper-partisan and hyper-politicized nature of the U.S. Attorneys, inherent contempt proceedings would appear to be the first and most direct resort of Congress in enforcing its mandate.It would also appear to be the last stop short of impeachment. And with that remedy currently "off the table," Congress needs to speak -- and speak soon -- about how it intends to protect its prerogatives.
Read the whole thing, as the saying goes.
The important thing here is for Congress to assert its power. If the Dems fold on this then they will unleash the "Unitary Executive" in all of its glorious, dictatorial power.
And Congress will become little more than a rubber stamp for years to come.
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Welcome Salon Readers!
A light lunch might be served shortly.
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KO
Keith on Tom Delay's comparing of liberals to Hitler:
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Yay Us
A visit from the Preznitwit:
President Bush will be the commencement speaker at St. Vincent College in Latrobe on May 11, school officials announced yesterday after receiving word from the White House.St. Vincent Archabbot Douglas R. Nowicki, who sent the invitation to the president for the college's 161st commencement, made the announcement at a news conference Downtown.
Also present was college President H. James Towey, who was installed July 1. He had previously served as assistant to Mr. Bush and director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at the White House.
[...]
Not everyone at the college was as enthusiastic. A group of students yesterday circulated an open letter to Mr. Bush, urging him to decline the invitation.
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Amendment V
No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.
Can Monica Goodling take the Fifth? Christy and Steven D think not.
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They Get Letters
To the Editor:As a lifelong Democrat, I’m ashamed of this pullout vote. It neither serves the best interests of the country, nor will it shorten the war a single day. It may be good political theater, but it’s not leadership.
Iraq can no longer be isolated from Afghanistan, or from the wider war on terrorism. If car bombs are allowed to succeed in Iraq, they will be used elsewhere.
Terror is an idea; it knows no borders. Iraq may be a bloody civil war, but it has surely also become the central front of the war on terror, as the president claims. This is an outcome that many of us who opposed the war predicted, and that we deplore, but that does not make it any less true.
President Bush has made long overdue but well-regarded changes in leadership: his secretary of defense and his military commander on the ground. They should be given a chance.
If Democrats in Congress truly want to shorten the war, they should accept these realities and focus on areas where the president is still lagging, like jobs and economic development in Iraq and regional diplomacy.
Ron Cohen
Waltham, Mass., March 24, 2007 [Emphasis added.]
If George is still in the White House then he hasn't made "well-regarded changes."
QED
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Eat It, "Sensible" Pundits
So much for the idea that the American people don't want accountability:
Americans overwhelmingly support a congressional investigation into White House involvement in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, and they say President Bush and his aides should answer questions about it without invoking executive privilege.In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll taken Friday-Sunday, respondents said by nearly 3-to-1 that Congress should issue subpoenas to force White House officials to testify.
Apparently, a large majority of Americans favor "show trials" and "klieg lights."
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Wheeee!
In the Persian Gulf:
The U.S. Navy on Tuesday began its largest demonstration of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by a pair of aircraft carriers and backed by warplanes flying simulated attack maneuvers off the coast of Iran.The maneuvers bring together two strike groups of U.S. warships and more than 100 U.S. warplanes to conduct simulated air warfare in the crowded Gulf shipping lanes.
They're probably hoping for another Gulf of Tonkin.
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You Are Guilty
Who is surprised by this?
Private businesses such as rental and mortgage companies and car dealers are checking the names of customers against a list of suspected terrorists and drug traffickers made publicly available by the Treasury Department, sometimes denying services to ordinary people whose names are similar to those on the list.[...]
Yet anyone who does business with a person or group on the list risks penalties of up to $10 million and 10 to 30 years in prison, a powerful incentive for businesses to comply. The law's scope is so broad and guidance so limited that some businesses would rather deny a transaction than risk criminal penalties, the report finds.
"The law is ridiculous," said Tom Hudson, a lawyer in Hanover, Md., who advises car dealers to use the list to avoid penalties. "It prohibits anyone from doing business with anyone who's on the list. It does not have a minimum dollar amount. . . . The local deli, if it sells a sandwich to someone whose name appears on the list, has violated the law."
Welcome to the New United States™ where everyone is guilty.
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March 26, 2007
I Wonder Why
If she has nothing to hide:
Monica Goodling, a Justice Department official involved in the firings of federal prosecutors, will refuse to answer questions at upcoming Senate hearings, citing Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, her lawyer said Monday."The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from even her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real," said the lawyer, John Dowd.
[...]
Goodling, who is Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' senior counsel and White House liaison, took a leave of absence this month. She was subpoenaed by the Senate Judiciary Committee along with several of Gonzales' other top aides.
So Goodling's "most truthful and accurate testimony" would put her into "legal jeopardy."
I'll bet.
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ADDED: Laura Rozen:
Of the aide, Monica Goodling, who has served as the Justice Department's liaison to the White House, the lawyer notes, "She's a graduate of Regent University Law School in Virginia Beach - a law school that teaches law from a Christian perspective," accredited fairly recently, in 1996.
Regent University is a Pat Robertson's institution of higher "learning."
'Nuff said.
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Filmmaking For Dummies
Less than three months removed from his congressional career, the former Pennsylvania senator said in an interview last week that he is planning two film projects in part to counter what he characterized as the stream of left-wing documentaries coming from Hollywood and independent filmmakers.The first project, Santorum said, would explore the relationship between radical Islam and the radical leftists in various countries around the world, including Latin America. It would be about an hour in length.
The second would be a longer, broader documentary that he said would aim to ''change the culture of America.'' He declined to go into specifics about the proposal.
[...]
Both of Santorum's projects are still very early in the planning stages and neither has the necessary funding yet, he said."
I might actually pay money to see these. Good comedies are few and far between these days.
[Via Election Central.]
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Ooookay...
A woman with three crocodiles strapped to her waist was stopped at the Gaza-Egypt border crossing after guards noticed that she looked “strangely fat,” officials said Monday.
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It's Hard Out There For A Bush
Former Gov. Jeb Bush was snubbed for an honorary degree at the University of Florida — but he can still call himself an honorary alumnus.The university's Alumni Association's Board of Directors passed a resolution Saturday to make Bush an honorary alumnus. The move came on the heels of a 38-28 Faculty Senate vote on Thursday to deny Bush an honorary degree.
You'll never be president, John Ellis Bush. Your brother has seen to that.
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Foolishness
Definitive statements are stupid:
Asked if he could see any situation in which Democrats would bow to a small segment of liberal voters who were pushing for, say, impeachment, Representative Rahm Emanuel, the Illinois Democrat who is the party’s conference chairman and was serving in Mr. Clinton’s White House at this time of that impeachment, responded sharply. “That’s not going to happen,” he said. “Forget it.”“We have to continue on parallel tracks, to show that the other parts of government are moving,” Mr. Emanuel said. “If the only thing coming out of Washington is the confrontation on executive privilege, that’s a moral hazard.”
While politically the issue of impeaching George doesn't have the needed support right now it's idiotic to rule it out so definitively. Things change and never say never, as the saying goes.
Via Steven D, the very conservative Sen. Chuck Hagel:
"The president says, 'I don't care.' He's not accountable anymore," Hagel says, measuring his words by the syllable and his syllables almost by the letter. "He's not accountable anymore, which isn't totally true. You can impeach him, and before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment. I don't know. It depends how this goes."
That's how you do it, Rahm.
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Who Weeps For George W. Bush?
Only the "Douchebag of Liberty," Novakula:
Regarding Libby and Gonzales, unofficial word from the White House is not reassuring. One credible source says the president will never -- not even on the way out of office in January 2009 -- pardon Libby. Another equally good source says the president will never ask Gonzales to resign. That exactly reverses the prevailing Republican opinion in Congress. Bush is alone.
Ick.
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...And More
Former USA John McCay:
John McKay of Washington state, who had decided two years earlier not to bring voter fraud charges that could have undermined a Democratic victory in a closely fought gubernatorial race, said White House counsel Harriet Miers and her deputy, William Kelley, "asked me why Republicans in the state of Washington would be angry with me."McKay said on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the question -- which he took as a challenge to his 2004 decision -- surprised him because the issue had been carefully reviewed by his office and the decision was supported by the FBI's office in Seattle. "We expected to be supported by people in Washington, D.C., when we make tough decisions like that," McKay said.
This doesn't end with Abu Gonzo. In a way, Gonzalez is a distraction.
21 March, 1973:
DEAN: ...let me give you my overall first.NIXON: In other words, you, your judgment as to where it stands, and where we go now---
DEAN: I think, I think that, uh, there's no doubt about the seriousness of the problem we're, we've got. We have a cancer--within, close to the Presidency, that's growing. It's growing daily. It's compounding, it grows geometrically now because it compounds itself. Uh, that'll be clear as I explain you know, some of the details, uh, of why it is, and it basically is because (1) we're being blackmailed; (2) uh, people are going to start perjuring themself very quickly that have not had to perjure themselves to protect other people and the like. And that is just--and there is no assurance--
NIXON: That it won't bust.
DEAN: That, that won't bust.
NIXON: True.
DEAN: So, let me give you the sort of basic facts' talking first about the Watergate; and then about Segretti; and then about some of the peripheral items that, uh, have come up. First of all, on, on the Watergate: How did it all start, where did it start? It started with an instruction to me from Bob Haldeman to see if we couldn't set up a perfectly legitimate campaign intelligence operation over at the Re-election Committee.
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More And More
Now the General Services Administration:
Witnesses have told congressional investigators that the chief of the General Services Administration and a deputy in Karl Rove's political affairs office at the White House joined in a videoconference earlier this year with top GSA political appointees, who discussed ways to help Republican candidates.[...]
When Jennings concluded his presentation to the GSA political appointees, Doan allegedly asked them how they could "help 'our candidates' in the next elections," according to a March 6 letter to Doan from Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Waxman said in the letter that one method suggested was using "targeted public events, such as the opening of federal facilities around the country."
[...]
The committee is also expected to question Doan about her attempt to give a no-bid job to a friend and professional associate last summer. In addition, the committee plans to look at Waxman's charge that Doan "intervened" in a troubled technology contract with Sun Microsystems that could cost taxpayers millions more than necessary.
In the Senate, Doan is facing a similar line of questioning in letters from Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa). Also examining Doan are the GSA's Office of Inspector General and the independent federal Office of Special Counsel, which investigates allegations of Hatch Act violations.
[...]
"Ever since I made the decision to restore fiscal discipline to all divisions within GSA, I have had to face a series of personal attacks and charges," Doan said in a March 7 statement.
Save us from another BushCo™ "martyr," hardworking and patriotic.
Everything they do - everything - is for political power and personal enrichment. All of them.
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March 25, 2007
Battlestar Galactica
WHAT THE FRACK!?!
There be spoilers...
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Your Liberal Media
I'm told that Donald Rumsfeld was asked to guest-edit the newspaper's "Current" opinion section which appears on Sundays. The ex-Defense Secretary is a long-time personal and professional friend of LA Times publisher David Hiller, who supervises the paper's editorial, Op-Ed and opinion pages. Rumsfeld also has strong ties to the LA Times' parent company since he was a member of Tribune Co.'s board of directors for years. Sources tell me that Rumsfeld's selection was suggested and approved by Hiller.[...]
There has been no word as to whether the guest-edit program, or Rumsfeld's participation in it, has been stopped.
[Via Think Progress.]
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Rid Us Of These People
Missouri Governer Matt Blunt:
For fifteen years, Planned Parenthood of Southwest Missouri clinics in Joplin and Springfield have offered free breast and cervical cancer screenings as part of the state's "Show Me Healthy Women" program. Now Governor Matt Blunt has announced that he will cut off all program funding to Planned Parenthood and redirect it to other health clinics. "Patients should not have to go to an abortion clinic to access life-saving tests," Blunt declared. Refusing to fund cancer screening at the clinics, he said, "ensures women may access important preventative care without contributing to abortion providers' goal of facilitating the destruction of innocent life."Here's the twist: The clinics in question do not provide abortion services, though they will discuss the procedure and make referrals.
Whether or not the clinics in question provide abortion services is beside the point.
Here's the deal: Blunt supported the referendum in Missouri allowing human stem-cell research, thus upsetting the yowling freaks in the fundamentalist Christian community. This, it would appear, is an attempt to get back into their good graces. That women will likely die because of his action is fine with him and fine with the Christianists so long as they get their symbolic scalp.
"Pro-life," indeed.
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Tutus
Congressional Democrats ought to form their own ballet company--that's the counsel coming from the Washington sages this Sunday. When Democrats were in the minority, they were dismissed and mocked as ineffectual, irrelevant, and directionless. Now that Democrats chair committees and wield gavels, the Beltway punditry want them to rise on tiptoe and tread gingerly through the maze of mousetraps the pundits have scattered across the floor.
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Question
Is David Broder now senile or is he just willfully stupid?
"The Dean" gets a well-deserved Wanker of the Day award from Atrios.
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Idiot George (Both Of Them)
In today's WaPo George Will decides that everybody is angry anymore but never bothers to try and figure out why. He concludes that it's something like a fashion accessory. Concludes Will:
Today, many people preen about their anger as a badge of authenticity: I snarl, therefore I am. Such people make one's blood boil.
Nyuk nyuk nyuk.
It should go without saying that of all his contemporary examples of anger all but one are liberals and/or Democrats.
Well, I'll cop to being angry but add that my anger is very focussed:
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It's Not Our Government Anymore
I can't imagine that anyone will be surprised by this:
For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations of people who planned to protest at the convention, according to police records and interviews.[...]
But potential troublemakers were hardly the only ones to end up in the files. In hundreds of reports stamped “N.Y.P.D. Secret,” the Intelligence Division chronicled the views and plans of people who had no apparent intention of breaking the law, the records show.
These included members of street theater companies, church groups and antiwar organizations, as well as environmentalists and people opposed to the death penalty, globalization and other government policies. Three New York City elected officials were cited in the reports.
In at least some cases, intelligence on what appeared to be lawful activity was shared with police departments in other cities. A police report on an organization of artists called Bands Against Bush noted that the group was planning concerts on Oct. 11, 2003, in New York, Washington, Seattle, San Francisco and Boston. Between musical sets, the report said, there would be political speeches and videos.
I've no doubt that the NYPD was concerned with potential violence. But gathering information on a peaceful citezenry and collating it in databases is an aim as well. WaPo:
Each day, thousands of pieces of intelligence information from around the world -- field reports, captured documents, news from foreign allies and sometimes idle gossip -- arrive in a computer-filled office in McLean, where analysts feed them into the nation's central list of terrorists and terrorism suspects.Called TIDE, for Terrorist Identities Datamart Environment, the list is a storehouse for data about individuals that the intelligence community believes might harm the United States. It is the wellspring for watch lists distributed to airlines, law enforcement, border posts and U.S. consulates, created to close one of the key intelligence gaps revealed after Sept. 11, 2001: the failure of federal agencies to share what they knew about al-Qaeda operatives.
[...]
TIDE has also created concerns about secrecy, errors and privacy. The list marks the first time foreigners and U.S. citizens are combined in an intelligence database. The bar for inclusion is low, and once someone is on the list, it is virtually impossible to get off it. At any stage, the process can lead to "horror stories" of mixed-up names and unconfirmed information, Travers acknowledged.
The watch lists fed by TIDE, used to monitor everyone entering the country or having even a casual encounter with federal, state and local law enforcement, have a higher bar. But they have become a source of irritation -- and potentially more serious consequences -- for many U.S. citizens and visitors.
Notice information on US citizens are fed into the database, as well. And what constitutes a "casual encounter" with the police? I'm going to assume any encounter in which identification is produced.
To continue with the WaPo:
In 2004 and 2005, misidentifications accounted for about half of the tens of thousands of times a traveler's name triggered a watch-list hit, the Government Accountability Office reported in September. Congressional committees have criticized the process, some charging that it collects too much information about Americans, others saying it is ineffective against terrorists. Civil rights and privacy groups have called for increased transparency."How many are on the lists, how are they compiled, how is the information used, how do they verify it?" asked Lillie Coney, associate director of the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center. Such information is classified, and individuals barred from traveling are not told why.
And - this is the important part - you have no way to challenge inclusion on the list. Once you're on it you're on it for life (presumably).
According to the TIDE center's acting director, Rick Kopel:
Kopel insisted that private information on Americans, such as credit-card records, never makes it into the screening center database and that "we rely 100 percent on government-owned information."
Kopel could be lying or he could be telling the truth. But we do know that the Feds gather information that isn't "government-owned." One example:
JetBlue Airways confirmed on Thursday that in September 2002, it provided 5 million passenger itineraries to a defense contractor for proof-of-concept testing of a Pentagon project unrelated to airline security -- with help from the Transportation Security Administration.
This is part of a program called CAPPS II:
The U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has announced plans to implement CAPPS II, a controversial passenger profiling and surveillance system that would require you to give your birth date, home phone number, and home address before you can board a U.S. flight. Under CAPPS II, travel authorities would check these and other personal details against the information collected in government and commercial databases, then "tag" you with a color-coded score indicating the level of security risk that you appear to pose. Based on your assigned color/score, you could be detained, interrogated or made subject to additional searches. If you are tagged with the wrong color/score, you could be prohibited from flying.
This is clearly - explicitly - information that isn't "government-owned." So if TIDE isn't including this information then TIDE's information is being combined into another larger database. Who controls that database? And how is that information used?
President Bush signed a secret order in 2002 authorizing the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens and foreign nationals in the United States, despite previous legal prohibitions against such domestic spying, sources with knowledge of the program said last night.
Let's keep in mind Iran-Contra felon John Poindexter's recent "Total Information Awareness" program. While supposedly shut down it was in fact merely renamed:
The National Journal says the administration and its contractors have hidden the continued existence of TIA components by changing some of their names. An e-mail message from one contractor suggests that a big component of the project, previously known as the "Information Awareness Prototype System," now goes by the name "Basketball" instead, the National Journal says. "TIA has been terminated and should be referenced in that fashion," an employee of the contractor warned his colleagues. Similarly, the National Journal says, a project once known as "Genoa II" was renamed "Topsail" when it moved from the Defense Department to the NSA's Advanced Research and Development shop.
Given the current scandal of firing US Attorneys and replacing them with "loyal Bushies" all of the threads above, and others, should lead Americans to ask the question: Who's government is this?
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March 24, 2007
Saturday Palate Cleanser
Shivaree - "I Close My Eyes"
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March 23, 2007
You Know It's Bad...
...when Robert Gates is the voice of reason:
In his first weeks as defense secretary, Robert M. Gates repeatedly argued that the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, had become so tainted abroad that legal proceedings at Guantánamo would be viewed as illegitimate, according to senior administration officials. He told President Bush and others that it should be shut down as quickly as possible.[...]
Mr. Gates’s arguments were rejected after Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and some other g