Friday, June 01, 2007

FELONS IN THE WHITE HOUSE: ROVE and GRIFFIN

NOW WE KNOW WHAT "CAGING VOTERS" MEANS.... read the story below, but first this message from Basham & Cornell Progressive Talk:

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FELONS IN THE WHITE HOUSE... continued
U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin, right hand man to Karl Rove, resigned Thursday after BBC Television reported that Congressman John Conyers requested the network’s evidence on Griffin’s involvement in ‘caging voters.’



BBC Television had exposed 2004 voter attack scheme by appointee Tim Griffin, a Rove aide. Black soldiers and the homeless targeted.
by Greg Palast

There’s only one thing worse than sacking an honest prosecutor. That’s replacing an honest prosecutor with a criminal.

There was one big hoohah in Washington yesterday as House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers pulled down the pants on George Bush’s firing of US Attorneys to expose a scheme to punish prosecutors who wouldn’t bend to political pressure.

But the Committee missed a big one: Timothy Griffin, Karl Rove’s assistant, the President’s pick as US Attorney for the Eastern District of Arkansas. Griffin, according to BBC Television, was the hidden hand behind a scheme to wipe out the voting rights of 70,000 citizens prior to the 2004 election.

Key voters on Griffin’s hit list: Black soldiers and homeless men and women. Nice guy, eh? Naughty or nice, however, is not the issue. Targeting voters where race is a factor is a felony crime under the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In October 2004, our investigations team at BBC Newsnight received a series of astonishing emails from Mr. Griffin, then Research Director for the Republican National Committee. He didn’t mean to send them to us. They were highly confidential memos meant only for RNC honchos.

However, Griffin made a wee mistake. Instead of sending the emails — potential evidence of a crime — to email addresses ending with the domain name “@GeorgeWBush.com” he sent them to “@GeorgeWBush.ORG.” A website run by prankster John Wooden who owns “GeorgeWBush.org.” When Wooden got the treasure trove of Rove-ian ravings, he sent them to us.

And we dug in, decoding, and mapping the voters on what Griffin called, “Caging” lists, spreadsheets with 70,000 names of voters marked for challenge. Overwhelmingly, these were Black and Hispanic voters from Democratic precincts.

The Griffin scheme was sickly brilliant. We learned that the RNC sent first-class letters to new voters in minority precincts marked, “Do not forward.” Several sheets contained nothing but soldiers, other sheets, homeless shelters. Targets included the Jacksonville Naval Air Station in Florida and that city’s State Street Rescue Mission. Another target, Edward Waters College, a school for African-Americans.

If these voters were not currently at their home voting address, they were tagged as “suspect” and their registration wiped out or their ballot challenged and not counted. Of course, these ‘cages’ captured thousands of students, the homeless and those in the military though they are legitimate voters.

We telephoned those on the hit list, including one Randall Prausa. His wife admitted he wasn’t living at his voting address: Randall was a soldier shipped overseas.

Randall and other soldiers like him who sent in absentee ballots, when challenged, would lose their vote. And they wouldn’t even know it.

And by the way, it’s not illegal for soldiers to vote from overseas — even if they’re Black.

But it is illegal to challenge voters en masse where race is an element in the targeting. So several lawyers told us, including Ralph Neas, famed civil rights attorney with People for the American Way.

Griffin himself ducked our cameras, but his RNC team tried to sell us the notion that the caging sheets were, in fact, not illegal voter hit lists, but a roster of donors to the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign. Republican donors at homeless shelters?

Over the past weeks, Griffin has said he would step down if he had to face Congressional confirmation. However, the President appointed Griffin to the law enforcement post using an odd little provision of the USA Patriot Act that could allow Griffin to skip Congressional questioning altogether.

Therefore, I have a suggestion for Judiciary members. Voting law expert Neas will be testifying today before Conyers’ Committee on the topic of illegal voter “disenfranchisement” — the fancy word for stealing elections by denying voters’ civil rights.

Maybe Conyers should hold a line-up of suspected vote thieves and let Neas identify the perpetrators. That should be easy in the case of the Caging List Criminal. He’d only have to look for the guy wearing a new shiny lawman’s badge.
******

Conyers, Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee investigating the firing of US Attorneys, met Thursday evening in New York with Palast.Rove-Protege Tim Griffin Resigns As U.S. Attorney

The U.S. Justice Department has notified Arkansas’s congressional delegation that Interim Eastern District U.S. Attorney Tim Griffin is resigning effective Friday, June 1.

Griffin, a former protege of Karl Rove, was formerly research director of the Republican National Committee. In 2004, BBC News published a report showing that Griffin led a “caging” scheme to suppress the votes of African-American service members in Florida.

OVER 70,000 black soldiers were on the list.

Griffin became the poster boy for the politicization of the U.S. attorney process. Former Justice official Kyle Sampson noted that getting Griffin into office “was important to Harriet [Miers], Karl, et cetera.” The traditional 120-day term for “interim” U.S. attorneys had expired for Griffin on April 20, yet the Justice Department continued to allow him to serve.

*** Read the full story, “Caging Lists: Great White Republicans Take Voters Captive” in Greg Palast’s Armed Madhouse: Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales from a White House Gone Wild. The new edition, with a new chapter on Theft of the Election, will be released April 24th (by Penguin/Plume in paperback).

Catch our original BBC Television story here - on Palast’s brand new YouTube channel

107 comments:

  1. OBI WAN WORFEUS said...
    Lydia Cornell said...

    These caging lists were lists of our troops -- minorities -- whom they shut out of voting

    1:36 PM

    OBI WAN WORFEUS said...
    If this is true, I can't imagine anyone wriggling out of this one.

    The country will be up in arms.

    1:37 PM

    OBI WAN WORFEUS said...
    Oh well, maybe voltron can stumble in and explain to us all how it was for the good of the country.

    1:40 PM

    OBI WAN WORFEUS said...
    You know, in every other administration White House visitor logs were considered public.

    After all the people own the building, and they elect the leaders. They have a right to know who's visiting there.

    But suddenly in comes the worm known as Bush, and that haggardly band of maggots he calls a cabinet.

    And suddenly after 2 centuries, White House visitor logs are "SECRET".

    How f@$@KING stupid does a person have to be to not understand that that the only reason they'd fight to keep the logs secret, is because they are up to NO GOOD?

    How stupid?

    Right now we don't have a government.

    We have a SYNDICATE.

    1:58 PM

    OBI WAN WORFEUS said...
    Organized crime has taken over the Federal Government.

    1:58 PM

    Tim Griffin resigned. Greg Palast handed over the caging lists last night to Congress.

    2:36 PM

    OBI WAN WORFEUS said...
    IYou're right.

    Its also kind of funny how the information came to light. They sent the emails to the Democrats!


    By accident.

    BAWAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

    3:06 PM

    OBI WAN WORFEUS said...
    Sorry. I realize its no laughing matter, but its just so funny that the numbskulls sent the emails to the wrong place.


    Up until now we've been the ones feeling the brunt of their incompetence.

    Now it looks like their own incompetence in being unable to even set up their own email servers correctly, is going to come back and bite them right on the ass.

    3:12 PM



    OBI WAN WORFEUS said...
    You know how you can spot a republican in a server room?

    It's easy.

    He'll be the one scratching his head.

    3:13 PM

    ReplyDelete
  2. I have just finished reading the post Lydia, and its incredible.

    70,000 black voters, and the RNC tried to claim they were "contributors".


    BAWAHAHAHAHHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHA

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  3. Excellent post, Lydia. Nice to see you again. I thought Larry had you locked away in a closet. ;-)

    Here's an interesting side note. Tim Griffin is now having talks with the Fred Thompson campaign.

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  4. Thanks Tomcat,

    If it gets out in the MSM, Griffin will be -- and should be -- indicted. This is a felony.

    Can you believe there are no good investigative journalists besides Palast -- and he's not even allowed on American airwaves because he is too truthful?

    Can this really happen in America? I am still dazed and confused. It's astounding that we have no real press in this country, bloggers aside.

    I mean remember the days of ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN? Even filmmakers aren't touching this president. The truth has to get out sideways. It's nuts.

    Bob Woodward's book State of Denial and Palast's book Armed Madhouse should both be made into films.

    Tomcat, by the way, I have been down with bronchitis for 10 days, and am in final stretches on a big project.

    So Mike and Larry have been manning the blog.

    XOXO
    LYD

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  5. I heard about Griffin and Rove's OTHER minions glomming onto Fred Thompson hopefully they will be in jail or discredited to much to be associated with ANY reputable political candidate or EVER hold a government job again!

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  6. People will be up in arms when they learn the soldiers votes were blocked because they were black or Mexican.


    There are like millions of cases of voter suppression being revealed where the republicans supressed voters likely to vote democrat.

    Of course the most blatant example was picking the head of the "Commitee to elect George W Bush" to be in charge of the recount that determined the outcome.

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  7. Next in line would be the BROTHER of George W Bush ordering the State Police to set up road blocks on the only road leading out of Broward County Florida, an all black and all democrat district, to keep the black voters from getting to the polls.

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  8. Has someone forwarded this caging stuff over to Olbermann? Seems to me this is good content for one of his special comments.

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  9. I love their BS excuse that 70,000 homeless and minority soldiers were donors to the RNC...............................BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!

    I dont think I could come up with somthing more stupid, assinine or riddiculous if I tried.................yeah people that couldnt afford a home were donating money to those benevolent and loveable repugs.................to be that inbred stupid and incompetent..........you cant make material like this up.

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  10. And they don't even blink when they say it.

    They are practiced and skilled liars to be sure.

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  11. MCH1968 said...
    Has someone forwarded this caging stuff over to Olbermann? Seems to me this is good content for one of his special comments.


    Seems to me this is good content for a Grand Jury.

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  12. Man the saying evildefeats itself or turns on itself is so true!!!

    Their incompetence is coming back to bite them............so we are to believe that one Griffin was targetting the homeless and minority soldiers being used as cannon fodder for King George's war as likely contributors to the RNC.

    And secondly that Gonzalez the man in charge of the DOJ knew nothing about what was going on in his own department and cant recall ANYTHING asked of him.........can you believe an attorney and a high level cabinet member where attention to detail and having a superior memory are required could play Sargent shultz and claim to know nothing and say I cant recall almost 100 times.............it boggles the mind!

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  13. NY Times
    MADRID, June 1 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought Friday to minimize any sense of division within the Bush administration over Iran after the head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog agency delivered a pointed warning against what he called the “new crazies” pushing for military action against Tehran.

    “The president of the United States has made it clear that we are on a course that is a diplomatic course,” Ms. Rice said here. “That policy is supported by all of the members of the cabinet, and by the vice president of the United States.”

    Ms. Rice’s assurance came as senior officials at the State Department were expressing fury over reports that members of Vice President Dick Cheney’s staff have told others that Mr. Cheney believes the diplomatic track with Iran is pointless, and is looking for ways to persuade Mr. Bush to confront Iran militarily.

    In a news conference on Friday, Ms. Rice maintained that Mr. Cheney supported her strategy of trying to deal with Iran’s nuclear ambitions through diplomacy. A senior Bush administration official separately denied that there was a deep divide between Ms. Rice and Mr. Cheney on Iran.

    Bush can't havde his sweetie and his uncle fighting.

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  14. Obi Wan Worfeus said "...They are practiced and skilled liars to be sure."

    Practiced? Sure. Skilled? Not so much. They are actually pretty bad at lying, it's just that a large percentage of people in this county are blooming idiots.

    They sing their songs about being Christian and their catchphrase "what would Jesus do?" and then they turn around and do the least Christian things imaginable like cutting medicaid and medicare, brag about it -- and idiots vote for them.

    They talk about how big government is the problem and not the solution and turn around and try to legislate who we date and marry, what we do in our bedrooms, what we watch on tv, what we see in our movie theatres, what we see on the internet, what we do with our own bodies (more women than men on that one), brag about it all -- and idiots vote for them.

    They sing their song about how pro-life they are and then declare wars on countries for trumped-up reasons, do away with health care for the young, old, and poor (here in Missouri, they actually eliminated Medicaid entirely. It's been replaced by something called HealthNet that you have to sign up for on the internet -- like a lot of poor people have access to the internet!), torture people at will, brag about it all -- and idiots vote for them.

    They cry the good cry about being persecuted as "Christians" and whine about being called "homophobic" but have no problem lableing the gays as "abominations". They brag about how they are restricting equal rights -- and idiots vote for them.

    They arent good liars at all. A good liar is believable in their lies and certainly never admits to lying-- these guys just lie and then brag about doing doing the opposite knowing full well that there are millions of Republican voters out there who have a collective IQ similar to that of a small soap dish. They know they can get away with it.

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  15. NY Times:
    WASHINGTON — Jessica Cutler, the former Senate aide whose online sex diary landed her a book deal and a Playboy photo spread but got her kicked off Capitol Hill, has filed for bankruptcy.

    Cutler, an aide to then-Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, created the "Washingtonienne" blog in 2004 and began posting racy details about her sex life with six men, including a Senate colleague and "a few generous older gentlemen" who she said paid many of her living expenses.

    When the blog was discovered, Cutler was fired. She moved to New York, wrote a novel based on the scandal, posed naked and started a new Web site that describes her as "a published author who jumps out of cakes for money."

    Under the occupation heading of her Web site, it reads: "I'm freelancing."

    Cutler has spent much of her time fending off a lawsuit by ex-boyfriend and fellow DeWine staffer Robert Steinbuch, who contends Cutler's blog publicly humiliated him. He is seeking more than $20 million in damages.

    Those moral Republicans.

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  16. An analysis of public testimony and dates by RAW STORY may reveal that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales continued to discuss the process that resulted in the firing of eight US Attorneys with members of his staff other than Monica Goodling after Justice Department offices began an internal investigation into the matter. Gonzales had insisted that he did not discuss the firings to avoid biasing the outcome of the investigation.

    "At some point, it's clear that the Attorney General stopped talking to people," former White House liaison Monica Goodling told the House Judiciary Committee on May 23.

    Bedtime for Gonzo.

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  17. Great post Lydia.

    This is huge! Yet so many laws have been broken- BIG LAWS.

    Many lower levels of "The Crime Syndicate of Pennsylvania Ave." have been indicted and convicted, but the ones that I want to see brought to justice are (at least have been up to this point in time) "The Untouchables" - you know who I mean.

    I still remember all of the bush lovers in 2000 & 2004 accusing us of being conspiracy nuts and their constant cry of "Get over it!"

    I'm 100% convinced that our country was the victim of a political coup in 2000 and everyone (including the bush lovers- although they'll never admit it) know that bush stole the presidency in 2004. I'd like to shove it right down their effin' throats (trying to be respectful and watch my language as a new guest here).

    Anyway, thanks for posting that. I intend to link to it tomorrow.

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  18. Chuck:

    Your post about the Real ID Act is a must read.

    Most don't understand the implications.

    ReplyDelete
  19. WASHINGTON, June 1 — American commanders are expressing frustration at the increasing death toll in Iraq caused by makeshift explosives, which have killed 80 percent of the Americans who died in combat over the last three months, despite the billions of dollars being spent to fight the threat.

    Skip to next paragraph
    The Reach of War
    Go to Complete Coverage » The proportion of American deaths caused by explosives has sharply increased, even as the Pentagon has made a major effort to defend the troops with armored vehicles, to detect or disarm the weapons, and to attack the bomb-making cells and those who finance them.

    The bombs are known as improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s, and the Pentagon has formed a “Joint I.E.D. Defeat Organization” to combat the users. But in an interview on Friday, the director of that group said he recognized that the threat could not truly be defeated.

    “It can be mitigated, minimized, made into a nuisance,” said the director, Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs, a retired Army officer who took over the project in December 2005. “This is a very tough problem.”

    The total of American deaths in April and May was the highest of any two-month period since the war began, and the 80 percent ratio caused by makeshift explosives is higher than it has ever been, up from 50 percent in January.

    The increase coincided with the more aggressive operations being mounted by American troops in Iraq as part of the stepped-up campaign that President Bush ordered in January.

    Pentagon statistics released Friday showed that May was the third deadliest month of the war in Iraq. The official combat toll stood at 117 late Friday, but some deaths from the final days of the month will not be included until next of kin are notified, officials said.

    From the 50 percent rate for combat deaths in January, which represented a dip in the long-term trend, the share caused by explosives climbed to 59 percent in February and an average of about 80 percent for March, April and May.

    Pentagon officials said they did not compute such monthly statistics before this year, but estimated that improvised explosive devices were responsible for about 70 percent of the overall combat deaths since the devices first appeared on the battlefield of Iraq in 2003.

    The military plans to spend more than $4 billion to combat explosives this year, after spending about $5 billion over the three previous years. The spending has led to the deployment of better-armored vehicles to protect soldiers and new technology to detect and defuse the bombs, but commanders and Pentagon officials say their efforts have produced no more than temporary gains.

    “I do believe that we are instinctively prone to look for technological solutions,” said one senior Pentagon official. “That’s the way we are wired, and that’s the American tradition.

    “But bigger armor, more high-tech detectors and jammers will only take you so far. We never will solve the problem until we can get better intelligence and can break up these I.E.D. cells. And that will require changing the attitudes of the local population toward these explosions and those responsible for them. The Iraqis will have to help us root out the people involved.”

    Across Iraq and Afghanistan, explosives are in ample supply. Improvised bombs can be detonated at a distance by a variety of off-the-shelf systems, some as simple as a wire attached to a doorbell and some controlled by radio or cell phone.

    The United States has accused Iran of assisting Shiite insurgents in Iraq with more advanced designs that are able to penetrate even some armored vehicles.

    And there is a ready supply of unemployed or angry men willing to plant the devices.

    “The problem will not subside even when there is a stable situation of some kind reached in either Iraq or Afghanistan,” General Meigs said. “This is going to be around. This is too easy for an insurgent.”

    The anti-I.E.D. organization devoted 78 percent of its budget in the current fiscal year, ending Sept. 30, to defeating the explosives, with 13 percent of the money going to attack bombing networks and 9 percent to training the force.

    In an acknowledgment that the priority should be “developing the kind of intelligence that is needed to go after these folks,” General Meigs said, the share of money in the next fiscal year devoted to attacking the network would rise to 31 percent, while 62 percent of the budget would be reserved for detecting and defusing the bombs.

    A far greater number of the bombs are found and cleared today, or prove to be duds, than are effective in attacks. For security reasons, the organization does not release the total number of bomb attacks in Iraq, but General Meigs said bombers had to plant six times as many of the devices for each casualty than when the improvised explosives first appeared.

    “But that is not a satisfactory solution in our view, nor will it be in the view of soldiers and marines, nor will it be in the view of the families that support them,” he said. “You are not going to avoid casualties. It is our job to help commanders in the field to minimize them to the absolutely greatest extent possible.”

    Cracking into the bomb-making cells is difficult, and not only because they are far smaller and far more decentralized than traditional military targets of American intelligence.

    “The societal pattern in Oruzgan Province in Afghanistan is very different than in Diyala Province in Iraq,” General Meigs said. “So is the social structure. The motivations and ideology are different.”

    In Iraq, those assessing the threat divide their adversaries into three basic camps.

    Those associated with Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia strive for the spectacular bombing, of a mosque, government building or marketplace, in order to generate hostility and headlines.

    Those placed by Shiite forces are increasingly sophisticated, using technology the United States says is from Iran and can puncture armored vehicles. The Sunni-based insurgents plants bombs of a more homemade variety, but still deadly.

    I thought Bush said things were going well.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Chuck said...
    Great post Lydia.

    This is huge! Yet so many laws have been broken- BIG LAWS.

    Many lower levels of "The Crime Syndicate of Pennsylvania Ave." have been indicted and convicted, but the ones that I want to see brought to justice are (at least have been up to this point in time) "The Untouchables" - you know who I mean.

    I still remember all of the bush lovers in 2000 & 2004 accusing us of being conspiracy nuts and their constant cry of "Get over it!"

    I'm 100% convinced that our country was the victim of a political coup in 2000 and everyone (including the bush lovers- although they'll never admit it) know that bush stole the presidency in 2004. I'd like to shove it right down their effin' throats (trying to be respectful and watch my language as a new guest here).

    Anyway, thanks for posting that. I intend to link to it tomorrow."


    You KNOW it Chuck these thugs absolutely think they are untouchable.............but my hope is pride goeth before the fall and with the hubris these clowns have........they have a LONG way to fall!

    Your absolutely right we were the victim of a political coup in BOTH 2000 and 2004 but slowly the TRUTH is starting to come out and hopefully these treasonous criminals WILL be held accountable!

    ReplyDelete
  21. That Real ID act is chilling scary stuff Chuck, it IS a must read............all I know I will NEVER carry an RFID license they can charge me with driving without a license all they want I will NEVER go along with or support a fascist police state EVER!

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  22. Too bad there isn't a reverse coup this year.

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  23. we dont need a coup Larry the repugs dont stand a chance in hell in 2008 they are finished for a LONG time.

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  24. I don't know Mike. Pelosi and Reid are through cutting deals for themselves.

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  25. Lydia:

    Just wanted to say hi and Great post! :)

    This is a busy weekend for me and so I won't be online as much...

    ReplyDelete
  26. What I CANT figure is WHY Webb and Murtha supported giving Bush a blank check they both SEEM sincere to me so I can only assume that the democrats have SOMETHING up their sleeve............i HOPE its impeachment but if I had to guess I would say that now that the war is funded for a year they are going to back the repugs into a corner where they have to either take a stand and support ending the war or be labeled pro war and aligned with GWB with an election looming that the overwhelming majority of the American people are CLEARLY against!

    See Rove knows the wedge issue quite well and if my guess is right, the repugs will have to choose between being supporting Bush and the war or being in touch with the will of the American people, whom they serve at the pleasure of sice they are public servants and elected officials!

    ReplyDelete
  27. Calling John Ashcroft
    The House and Senate Intelligence Committees have asked the former attorney general to testify about his role in a dramatic showdown over a controversial eavesdropping program.


    Will he play ball?

    The Senate and House Intelligence Committees are asking former attorney general John Ashcroft to testify about a March 2004 hospital-room confrontation during which he refused to sign off on a continuation of President Bush’s warrantless eavesdropping program, according to congressional and administration sources.

    The sources, who asked not to identified talking about sensitive matters, said the Senate Intelligence Committee has tentatively scheduled a closed-door hearing for later this month. The panel plans to question Ashcroft, his former chief of staff David Ayres and former deputy attorney general James Comey about a heated dispute with the White House that roiled the Justice Department three years ago. The House committee is also planning a separate closed-door hearing with Ashcroft, according to a spokeswoman for Ashcroft.

    The requests for Ashcroft’s testimony reflect the mounting frustration on the part of committee leaders in both chambers who feel they have been denied vital information about the wiretapping issue by the Bush administration. Despite having received numerous private briefings from senior administration officials over the last year, members were stunned to learn just how deeply troubled the Justice Department was about aspects of the program—a glimpse they got only when Comey publicly testified about the program at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last month.

    The invitation from Capitol Hill could also create a dilemma for Ashcroft, who prides himself on his loyalty to President Bush—despite clear tensions that arose with the White House over wiretapping and other issues related to the war on terror. Ashcroft, 65, now a Washington lobbyist, has steadfastly refused to make any public comment about the eavesdropping dispute. While confirming the House request, his spokeswoman, Juleanna Glover Weiss, said he was out of town and would be unavailable to discuss the matter until next week.

    Administration officials and congressional staffers say Ashcroft will have difficulty finding a reason to refuse to talk about it at this point—especially in closed-door hearings, given that Comey has already publicly recounted the dispute. Although Ashcroft is a private citizen, Justice officials expect that he will likely seek their guidance on how far he can go in discussing the issue. A meeting has been scheduled for this Monday by Senate Intelligence Committee aides and Justice Department officials to discuss the “contours” of the testimony, one official said. If Ashcroft declined to cooperate, the committees could ultimately issue subpoenas.

    In startling testimony May 15, Comey recounted how Alberto Gonzales, then White House counselor, and Andrew Card, then White House chief of staff, went to George Washington University Hospital on the evening of March 10, 2004, in an attempt to persuade a barely conscious Ashcroft, who had just undergone emergency surgery for gallstone pancreatitis, to sign a document recertifying what Comey called a “particular classified program.” (He indicated that a just-completed internal Justice review had led him to conclude that the department could no longer certify its legality.)

    But Ashcroft refused—and deferred to Comey as the acting attorney general, according to Comey—who said that when President Bush reauthorized the program anyway the next day, he, Ashcroft and FBI Director Robert Mueller were all prepared to resign. A story in this week’s NEWSWEEK magazine reported that as many as 30 senior Justice Department officials would have resigned over the matter. “This was a showdown,” a former senior Justice official was quoted as saying in the story.

    Comey refused discuss publicly the nature of the disagreement. But he indicated that, after a meeting with Mueller, President Bush subsequently agreed to changes that the Justice Department was prepared to accept. But that has still left the two intelligence committees—which have oversight responsibility for the surveillance program—with a host of unanswered questions.

    In December 2005, The New York Times first publicly disclosed that after September 11 the White House began a highly classified program designed to intercept phone calls and e-mails of U.S. citizens speaking to Al Qaeda suspects abroad without seeking approval from a special foreign-intelligence surveillance court. In the aftermath of that disclosure, the administration downplayed reports that there were any legal disagreements over what was being done. Michael Hayden, who headed the National Security Agency when the program began, told the Senate Intelligence Committee last year that the Justice Department and the White House had given “consistent” guidance that the program was legal. Gonzales, in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last February, said that, “there has not been any serious disagreement … about the program that the president has confirmed."

    At the same time, the Senate committee has been consistently rebuffed in their requests to obtain key documents related to the program—including memos and opinions about the program from the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) and the actual presidential orders authorizing the eavesdropping, according to a report released by the panel this week accompanying its passage of a new authorization bill for the intelligence community. Although the Justice Department has turned over internal OLC memos to Congress in the past, and frequently makes them public on its Web site, they have refused to do so in the case of the wiretapping program under orders from the department’s client: the White House. Democratic Sen. Jay Rockefeller, the panel’s chairman, said the committee will refuse to consider the president’s request to revise the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to accommodate the wiretapping program until it receives the documents it is seeking. A Justice Department spokesman declined comment, but pointed out that in a public statement following Comey's testimony, the department said Gonzales had acknowledged there had been "disagreements about other intelligence activities" and that "the fact and nature of such disagreements have been briefed to the Intelligence Committees.”

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  28. Well its about time Clif!

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  29. Ashcroft should have testified a long time ago, I dont think Congress is doing enough to get rid of Gonzalez!

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  30. I knew about the "caging," which means the Chimpromised MSM HAD TO have known about it. Don't expect to see anything other than a byline here and there. The MSM is faithful to their monkey.

    "Free speech" is only for those who sing the Chimpy song, after all. Today we talk about how the rights of service members who did their country proud are being "guarded" by Chimpy's Pentagon. Would one of our Chimpleton trolls care to support THIS?!?

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  31. I posted about Kokesh last night JR.........it makes me sick how far our country has degenerated where these hippocrites CLAIM to support the soldiers and CLAIM to support freedom of speech, but that is the FARTHEST thing from the truth its just another dishonest repug talking point!

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  32. Why ar Reid, Peloisi and Murtha so quiet?

    Please tell me this Rove-Gonzogate-Griffin info isn't going to go away, like every other crime magically does.

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  33. Man, I can't keep up with you guys over here. :)

    By the time I toodle back in I'm lost in the conversation & trying to catch up. HA!

    Mike & Larry: I'm glad you appreciated that Real ID piece. It is a scary, Orwellian type nightmare in our very near future. I just keep picturing a cop in full riot gear coming up to me and my family as we are walking down the street saying, "Your ID, citizens". I'm sure it will be a great catalyst for the up & coming Police State.
    Thanks for the comments.

    Lydia: I'm worried that it will go away like so many other treasonous acts. We're on corruption overload with this crew in power. I mean, everyday its something new and you can't even remember them all. They've gotten so used to getting away with everything that their confidence surpasses their arrogance.

    If you get a chance, read my list of outrages & illegalities HERE. I'm sure I forgot more than I remembered.

    It is just beyond my ability to believe or understand how they've managed to turn this country (and world, really) upside down in such a short period of time. I would guess that this has been in the works for longer than we think.

    OK, I'm rattling. My nerves are sparked and I'm typing this in at 3:15 AM.

    ReplyDelete
  34. I agree with Worfeus: They are good liars.

    A good liar gets away with his lies, no matter how transparently bad they may sound. That's all that counts. So far, Bush et al have done precisely that.

    ReplyDelete
  35. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rebounded above $69 a barrel Friday as fresh downstream problems in the United States reignited fears over gasoline supplies as the summer peak in gasoline demand in the world's largest consumer approaches.

    Oil prices had been steady near $68 but moved higher after the operator of the largest refined products pipeline in the United States postponed a planned restart of a damaged 1.3 million barrel-per-day gasoline pipeline.

    More of the Bush economy.

    ReplyDelete
  36. NAIROBI, June 2 (Xinhua) -- The United States Navy on Friday carried out an attack on a village in the semi-autonomous northeastern Somali region of Puntland where Islamist militants are reported to have set up a base, officials said on Saturday.

    Spread the war Bush.

    ReplyDelete
  37. "Surge" Report Card Not Good

    "Metrics" of Surge Show Reverse Effect And Widening Conflict

    It's only June and initial statistics are showing the Iraqi civilian deaths for May are up almost 30% over last month at 1,944. Fighting is intense in Western Baghdad despite the increased troop and police numbers and murders attributed to sectarian violence have tripled. Iraqi police estimate that pre-surge estimates were around ten a day and now they average 30 a day. All at a time that the U.S. military insists that Iraqi civilian casualties due to sectarian violence are down. Who should we believe in this reverse Vietnam-era body count game?

    Every indication seems to point to dramatically increased levels of violence and capability amongst violent groups inside and outside iraq. U.S. military deaths hit 124 in May and even contractor deaths have increased dramatically although there is no hard data for judging the exact number of contractor casualties (146 since January) or even the total number of contractors now closer to our original estimate of over 120,000. Everything is surging in Iraq.

    There has been no data to indicate a decrease in car bombings, mortar attacks or violent incidents since the "Surge" began. The military has insisted that the true effect of the surge will not be known for many months and not even by the much touted September milestone.

    In an time when "metrics" or hard data is in vogue used to gauge success or failure of actions there has actually been a restriction of data. The Iraqi government initially accused the UN of exaggerating the death toll and then refused to release figures. Then journalists were banned from covering violent attacks "for their own safety"

    The idea that the insurgents are increasing activity to defuse the U.S. move is a credible scenario but in places like Diyala and Al Anbar province the surge is a non event. There is increased fighting with Iraqi on Iraqi violence being promoted by the creation of local militias. Even the Mahdi army which was magically tamed to coincide with the surge is gearing up for a fight now that Moqtada is back. Life in Baghdad has not been better, it is just the sound of waiting for the other shoe to drop. Electricity, fuel and other basics are in short supply, checkpoints make movement more difficult. Bridges are beginning to be taken out, creating problems for rapid reaction or movement of police.

    Those who focus on the global scene might have noticed the rapid export of violent technology and tactics to Afghanistan. EFP's are being used in our other half decade old counterinsurgency that also begs for a solution. Looking else where Lebanon is now a war zone where "dead enders" are fighting pitched wars using crowded refugee camps as battle grounds. The Iraqi diaspora is straining the capacity of both Jordan and Syria spreading the virus of violence into once peaceful domains. Even Northern Iraq is not immune from the friction along its border.

    Much of the surge required emptying out Kurdish units from the peaceful north to bolster Baghdad neighborhood watch centers. Naturally the worse case scenario would be an illegal incursion by Turkish forces against separatists elements. Both Kurdish leaders are pushing back and promising not to just roll over.

    The surge was a simple and effective idea: put more troops at levels that will hinder the unrestrained violence so that the Iraqi Government could focus on stabilizing. Both those ideas may be wishful thinking. The internal and external increase in violence and scale of that violence is most likely yet another indicator of Iraq's inevitable spin into chaos.

    September, as General Petraeus was clear to tell Slogger will not be a good or relevant time to show progress, " We are literally still just setting the footprint...but until we get all those forces in and have really worked with them for a while I think it’s difficult to see what’s going to happen,”

    Agreed, but it is appropriate to wonder that even with the surge working in Baghdad there may be bigger problems ahead.

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  38. CHUCK - great posts on your blog. And I love the reptilian photos of Voldemort.

    Love this comment too, which I've read before:

    "...We have had repressive governments before, but none has legislated the end of habeas corpus, nor openly supported torture, nor declared the possibility of war without end. No government has so casually ignored the will of the people, affirmed the right of the President to ignore the Constitution, even to set aside laws passed by Congress..."

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  39. Given the circumstances, "a little common sense" sounds like it's desperately needed, but in short supply.

    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.

    "Someone in the Marine Corps needs to exercise a little common sense and put an end to this matter before it turns into a circus," Kurpius said.


    The main controversy surrounds Marine Cpl. Adam Kokesh, who attended a recent Iraq war protest with other veterans. He wore fatigues -- with military insignia removed. Kokesh is no longer on active duty, and he received his honorable discharge after one combat tour in Iraq, though he remains part of the Individual Ready Reserve.

    Apparently, his attendance at the protest event was enough to spark a controversy. Kokesh was photographed at the event, and is now under administrative review. If punished, Kokesh could lose out on educational and other benefits he is eligible to receive, and may no longer qualify for job opportunities that require a security clearance.

    It's a curious way to support our veterans, isn't it?

    -- Steve Benen

    If the Bush administration attacks on veterans free speech rights is losing them the hierarchy of the Veterans Service Organizations, he is losing most veterans along with them because those groups have a very well established groups of people who are up on things which affect veterans and links into both the MSM and congress and can mobilize the voting membership.

    Not good thing when they piss the vets off.

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  40. It NEVER fails when ever the Neo Cons are in trouble and on the ropes and/or breaking news of their corruption comes to light there is some kind of death or BS terrorist plot that is foiled..........it Never fails.

    Like I said last week how much you wanna bet that the diplomacy with Iran was a ruse or smokescreen to make Bush APPEAR reasonable............I bet there will either be terrorist plots uncovered linked to iran or a real act or terrorism allegedly linked to Iran so Bush can justify his war.............same with Iraq the war is becoming REAL unpopular I would be surpised if an act of "terrorism were to occur and Rove links it to Iraq to scare pople and try to justify and garner support for his treasonous war!

    ReplyDelete
  41. Mike somebody asked me what I thought about the latest third rate terrorist catch we have, and here is my answer;



    Given the way this administration has shown the tendency to “hype” the abilities of the terrorists they catch and the fact most of what the terrorist are doing is thinking or talking about doing something before the spin machine gets a hold of the “news” and turns it into the next “big attack”.

    Two things occur to me.

    1. They are trying to justify their slimy spying, and other illegal activities especially the torture, hyping what they have to try to get the American sheeple to agree torturing people like Jose Padilla(remember what he was ORIGINALLY charged with, which he has not been tried on?), the Miami wonder children who with out their FBI enabler would have been the keystone cops version of a terrorist group. The people who bought cell phones to make a profit which they used for a couple of days, the newest “attack” group which seems about as well trained as the Ft Dix group so stupid they went to “kinkos” for help.

    The Administration keeps throwing the Faux Noise Crowd a little “red meat” to keep them scared widdle gutless people they are, so they will continue to support the worst President Ever, and hold the reichwing noise machine together. It is just a simpler version of the lies they told to get the war in Iraq, a little truth a lot of made up facts and the MSM to spread the alarm.

    2. The second thought which occurs to me is a subtle attack on peoples thoughts, and an attempt to intimidate people who disagree with this illegal war and immoral occupation of a foreign country in violation of quite a few previous UN mandates to other countries including the ONE which the US used in 1991 to expel Iraq from Kuwait. By going after people who verbalize questionable ideas they can use it as a way to limit what is acceptable for ideas in this country. They start after them and try to get damning hearsay and quotes to play in the MSM, in stead of trials like they did to Jose Padilla, who was the dirty bomber until they actually had to PROVE IT!!!

    The way they have treated him is a crime in and of itself, but they use slander about him in the MSM to further their illegal assaults on everyones civil rights to gain more power for their unitary executive which is a violation of the US constitution BTW.

    They will continue to stir up the base with outlandish “catches” like this which when the truth is exposed is much less then they claim. Yes people think and sometimes do things which are not legal, but what they claim and what turns out to be TRUE for some reason is miles apart, but the front page stories are already out there. As long as they can keep front page headlines, even if the details on page three don’t jive with the headlines they have what they want.

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  42. A parked car bomb struck an open-air market north-east of Baghdad today, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than two dozen, police said.

    The blast happened just after noon as the commercial area was packed with shoppers in Balad Ruz, police said, giving the casualty toll.


    The victory of a "surge" where is it?

    ReplyDelete
  43. By Ron Scherer | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
    New York - Late last year, business turned negative on the economy. There were concerns the Federal Reserve might hike interest rates to counter inflation and worries over the sharp drop in new home construction. As a result, this past winter many companies decided to reduce their inventories to be prepared for the worst.

    That belt-tightening, combined with a slackening in exports, sapped the US economy in the first quarter. Those drags were apparent Thursday after the Commerce Department revised downward an earlier estimate of gross domestic product growth from 1.3 percent to 0.6 percent, the slowest growth in more than four years.

    Looks like Bush's "surge" on the economy.

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  45. BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Six U.S. soldiers were killed in five separate attacks across Iraq on Saturday, the U.S. military said on Sunday, days after it recorded its deadliest monthly toll in more than two years.

    The attacks were in Baghdad and in the volatile Diyala and Nineveh provinces to the north of the capital. All but one of the soldiers were killed by roadside bombs.

    Another result of the Bush "surge."

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  46. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Oil rebounded above $69 a barrel Friday as fresh downstream problems in the United States reignited fears over gasoline supplies as the summer peak in gasoline demand in the world's largest consumer approaches.

    Oil prices had been steady near $68 but moved higher after the operator of the largest refined products pipeline in the United States postponed a planned restart of a damaged 1.3 million barrel-per-day gasoline pipeline.

    Another result of the Bush economy.

    ReplyDelete
  47. AP | DAVID RISING | June 2, 2007 02:26 PM

    Masked demonstrators showered police with grapefruit-sized rocks and beer bottles, then were driven back with water cannon and tear gas during a protest march Saturday against the upcoming Group of Eight summit in Germany.

    The clashes left smoke from burning cars and the sting of tear gas drifting through the harborfront area in the north German port of Rostock. Some 146 police were hurt, 18 of them seriously.

    Another result of the Bush persona.

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  48. By Gordon Lubold | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
    Page 1 of 3

    Washington - May's spike in the American death toll in Iraq is the result of the administration's new approach in Iraq – as much as it is the enemy's own "surge" of attacks against US forces.

    In strategic terms, it's called taking it to the enemy.

    But analysts warn that if the number of US casualties continues at their current high level through the summer, that could raise questions about whether the strategy is actually working.

    Truthful view of Bush's war.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Sunday Talk
    * Meet the Press: Bob Shrum (D), James Carville (D), Mary Matalin (R), Mike Murphy (R). Topic: Decision08
    * Face the Nation: Sen. Ken Salazar (D-CO); Rep. Peter King (R-NY); roundtable of NYT's David Sanger, Politico's John Harris and CBS' Lara Logan.
    * This Week: Rep. John Murtha (D-PA); Iraqi Pres Jalal Talabani; roundtable of Sam Donaldson, Cokie Roberts, and George Will; NASCAR's Kyle Petty
    * Fox News Sunday: Newt Gingrich (R-GA); US Amb to Iraq Ryan Crocker; activist/author Ayaan Hirsi Ali
    * Late Edition: Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA); Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL); Elizabeth Edwards (D); Donna Brazile (D); J.C. Watts (R); WMUR pol. dir. Scott Spradling; WMUR's Jennifer Vaughn; NH Union Ldr's Tom Fahey; Tagg Romney (R-Mitt's son); roundtable of Candy Crowley, John Roberts and John King

    ReplyDelete
  50. Washington Monthly:

    CHENEY AND IRAN....Remember that report from Steve Clemons last week about how Dick Cheney is hoping to get Israel to attack Iran in order to provoke a shooting war that will suck in the United States? Today in the New York Times, Helene Cooper confirms it:

    In interviews, people who have spoken with Mr. Cheney's staff have confirmed the broad outlines of the report, and said that some of the hawkish statements to outsiders were made by David Wurmser, a former Pentagon official who is now the principal deputy assistant to Mr. Cheney for national security affairs.

    Good 'ol David Wurmser. A neocon's neocon. Co-author in 1996 of "A Clean Break," the infamous document that proposed giving up on peace in the Middle East in favor of armed attacks on Syria, Iran, Lebanon, and, while we're at it, Iraq too. A man who proposed attacking South America in retaliation for 9/11. The guy who keeps Cheney bucked up when things look bad.

    Bush and Cheney- Lovers of War, Creators of Evil.

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  51. Clif, thats EXACTLY right this latest foiled terrorist plan just like many in the past is about justifying Bush's illegal unconstitutional spying on Americans program and justify and garner support for the war............if you notice these rag tag pack of fools captured and labeled terrorists had only ideas, many of which they have had for a decade or more with no kind of real progress being made to bring their evil plans to fruition, they had no funding, no real operational capacity and decades outdating plans and information........YET the Fear and Smear crowd make it like this was some immeninent threat by a formible well organized and well funded group that could have happened immediately were it not foiled by the omnipotent all powerful GWB and his brilliant Big Brother type fascist police state programs, as well as his war on terror in iraq that intelligence agencies say has done the EXACT opposite and made us much less safe.

    Lets look at Reality GWB and his administration are total failures that have to resort to lies, manipulation and deception to mask their failure incompetence and treasonous lies that have greatly compromised our national security, military and economy.

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  52. I hope you all will forgive me for getting a few things off my chest. Comment if you wish, ignore if you wish but at the end will be a challenge I have made and would encourage you to do the same. If my comments offend you, I'm sorry but they are how I feel.

    Aside from the war, my biggest problem with the Bush Administration and the Republican Party as a whole is the hijacking of Christianity. When I was in college, I was approached by the various Christian groups and introduced to their beliefs and the 'unconditional' love and so on -- you know the spiel -- and I believed them. I finally found a home (literally) with the United Methodist Church and with the Roman Catholic Church. Even though there were numerous denominations, we were all Christian and started behaving very ecumenically. In fact, I even started a Wednesday night tradition of attending Wednesday evening services at the Methodist Student Center and everybody trooping down the street to the Catholic Newman Center to attend Mass. We did a lot of good -- we helped the poor, we visited the sick and elderly, we cleaned up neighborhoods, we were Christians through and through. Everybody was welcomed - nobody turned away. Life was good and I was at peace with my world.

    I didnt pay much attention to politics until a number of years later -- I voted, primarily for democrats but mostly for individual people I thought sounded like they stood for what I did. I was as mad as anyone about the ridiculousness of the 2000 election but mostly shrugged my shoulders and figured all would be ok -- they survived 8 years of Clinton, we could survive 4 years of Bush.

    Then came the 2004 elections and my world crashed around me. All around the country, states were voting discrimination into their Constitutions. Religious leaders for the denominations I treasured most were calling for people of faith to turn entire groups into second-class citizens -- strictly because God had made them a bit differently. A very dear friend of mine at work was driven to tears by extremely unsensitive comments delivered by a Baptist, the day after she had been legislated away from a life of happiness and legal protections with her chosen partner. The very people that had welcomed me into their hearts with open arms had driven me into a crisis of faith that I still haven't fully recovered from. How could a religion about acceptance of love and forgiveness make such horrible comments? How could constitutions be written in a way to actually restrict rights, rather than granting them? How could a loving God allow people to use his name in that way?

    And nobody seemed to realize what was really happening.

    I saw Republicans take the religion that I had embraced and that had embraced me and turn it into an instrument of hatred and evil. They took the fact that most straight people are uncomfortable with the thoughts of homosexuality and used it to drive people to the polls in November -- solely so that Bush would be reelected. Most of the Republican leadership probably dont even give two snots about gay people and their getting married, but they sure as hell pretended that they cared.

    Sad thing was, in all the arguments for and against gay marriage -- I never once heard anybody suggest that it would become mandatory. None of our heterosexual marriages would have become null and void. It would not have affected us one way or the other.

    In fact, the opposite is true. The insane drive to "save marriage" from the homosexuals has led us to a longer war, the ill-conceived "surge", thousands more troops killed that wouldnt have been, tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis killed that wouldnt have been, in Missouri the elimination of Medicaid, the elimination of various Constitutional rights ... read over your complaints in the blog, that's what an irrational fear of gay people has brought us.

    And it's all based on a lie. Read your gospels -- not once does Jesus condemn or even mention homosexuality. Sure, it's condemned in other parts of the bible, but so is wearing polyester, playing football, talking to a lady who is not your wife ... and so is killing, but Republicans have no problem ignoring those parts of the bible.

    I have issued an open challenge to my diehard Republican co-workers -- find me a passage in the Gospels where Jesus condemns homosexuality and I will vote a Republican straight ticket in the next election. However, the other part of the challenge states that if I can find where Jesus talks about helping poor people, then they have to vote a Democratic straight ticket. So far, nobody has taken me up on my challenge.

    Oh, and just for the record, I'm not even gay. But when rights are restricted for some, it won't take long before they're restricted for all. And as a Christian, I cannot stand by and watch anybody be excluded from enjoying the life God has given them.

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  53. We've reached an entertaining point in Bush's presidency -- normal weeks are now newsworthy.

    For a lame duck, President Bush looked remarkably spry last week, announcing a series of policy initiatives that caught many in Washington off guard. [...]

    On Tuesday, Bush announced new sanctions against Sudan and a nominee for World Bank president who was quickly embraced by both parties and allies around the world.

    On Wednesday, the president announced a summit with Russian President Vladimir V. Putin and an initiative that he said would double spending on AIDS prevention in Africa.

    And on Thursday, Bush announced a new effort against global warming, saying he would lead a push to get the world's largest emitters of greenhouse gases to commit to cutting back.


    Even if we put aside the merit of these various proposals and nominations, in most presidencies, this would generally be characterized as a normal week. The White House talked up a few policy initiatives, engaged in a little foreign affairs, and offered a World Bank nominee. Seeing this, DC is suddenly caught "off guard." The president now appears "remarkably spry." Why? Because the Bush gang managed to go a few days without a colossal screw-up or major new scandal.

    "I think we've had a very great week this week in announcing initiatives that the president has been building on over his time here at the White House," spokesperson Dana Perino said Friday.

    Talk about your soft bigotry of low expectations, Bush and his team now congratulate themselves for Basic Governing 101. It's kind of sad, really.

    -- Steve Benen

    So when they screw up it is the new normal, but when they just do the job with out screwing up it is news?


    NICE,

    heck of a job Georgie...........

    ReplyDelete
  54. With more than 70,000 legs to carry the weight, this massive story is certain to lead to dark endings for Pinky and the gang.

    Thank you, Lydia, for bringing the beast into the light.

    And Greg, if you're reading this: What can I say?

    Yep, Keith Olbermann, when you return from vacation, I hope there will be something waiting for you. I can see his smile.

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  55. This campaign could be interesting;

    Congresswoman Fran Drescher?

    Actress Fran Drescher, best known for starring in the sitcom The Nanny, plus her roles in such cult classic movies as UHF and This Is Spinal Tap, may attempt to turn her current activism on behalf of cancer patients into a future bid for elective office. The actress told The New York Daily News, "I do see myself getting involved in politics in that way down the road, becoming an elected official, but right now the big thing I'm climbing is the 'Cancer Schmancer Movement.'" If she were to run for office, the News hypothesizes that she would run as a Democrat against Congressman Peter King (R-NY).

    *********************************

    A Nanny for Congress?

    Well it looks like they really need one,

    both parties.......

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  56. Only in the delusional Bushland with the fiasco in Iraq and the devolving situation in afghanistan would they think this was a good time to;

    Neocons Tried To Provoke War With China?

    By Cernig

    Here's the single scariest thing you'll read this weekend.

    The same top Bush administration neoconservatives who leap-frogged Washington’s foreign policy establishment to topple Saddam Hussein nearly pulled off a similar coup in U.S.-China relations—creating the potential of a nuclear war over Taiwan, a top aide to former Secretary of State Colin Powell says.

    Lawrence B. Wilkerson, the U.S. Army colonel who was Powell’s chief of staff through two administrations, said in little-noted remarks early last month that “neocons” in the top rungs of the administration quietly encouraged Taiwanese politicians to move toward a declaration of independence from mainland China — an act that the communist regime has repeatedly warned would provoke a military strike.

    The top U.S. diplomat in Taiwan at the time, Douglas Paal, backs up Wilkerson’s account, which is being hotly disputed by key former defense officials.


    If true, and I have to say that the actions and words of the warmongers in the Bush administration suggest very strongly that it is, then this is a massive story. Remember the Bush administration warning about "mushroom clouds over American cities"? Well, this deliberate pursuit of idiocy could easily have led to exactly that - and no Bin Laden, Saddam or evil Iranians in sight.

    **********************************

    I guess he could get the rest of the army Marines and National Guard units to ship out to Taiwan but come this fall what does every one do, change places, those assigned to Iraq and Afghanistan ship to Taiwan, and those in Taiwan take up the posts in Iraq and Afghanistan?

    Heck of job you clowns.....

    ReplyDelete
  57. Associated Press | HAMID AHMED | June 3, 2007 08:58 AM

    Fourteen American soldiers were killed in three deadly days in Iraq, the U.S. military said Sunday, including four in a single roadside bombing and one who was struck by a suicide bomber while on a foot patrol southwest of the capital.

    The blast that killed the four soldiers occurred Sunday as the troops were conducting a cordon and search operation northwest of the Iraqi capital, according to a statement. Two other soldiers from Multi-National Division -- Baghdad were killed and five...

    Another result of the Bush war for oil.

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  58. Associated Press | NICOLE WINFIELD | June 3, 2007 02:04 PM

    Russian President Vladimir Putin warned that U.S. plans to build a missile defense system in Eastern Europe would force Moscow to target its weapons against Europe.

    The threat, in an interview published Sunday in Italy's Corriere della Sera and other foreign media, marked one of Putin's most strident statements to date against the U.S. plans and came just days before he is to join President Bush and other leaders at a Group of Eight summit in Germany.

    Bush's dream come true. More business for the defense industry.

    More weapons for another Bush war.

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  59. Heck of job you clowns.....
    -------------
    Hi Clif:

    Wow! Could they have screwed things up any worse than this?

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  60. Bush's dream come true. More business for the defense industry.

    More weapons for another Bush war.
    ------------
    Hi Larry:

    It seems that way... dang warmongers!

    ReplyDelete
  61. Reuters | June 3, 2007 02:44 PM

    Hustler magazine is looking for some scandalous sex in Washington again -- and willing to pay for it.

    "Have you had a sexual encounter with a current member of the United States Congress or a high-ranking government official?" read a full-page advertisement taken out by Larry Flynt's pornographic magazine in Sunday's Washington Post.

    Look out Republicans. More scandals are on the way.

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  62. ...full-page advertisement taken out by Larry Flynt's pornographic magazine in Sunday's Washington Post.
    -----------------
    Larry:

    Sounds like he is serious!

    LOLMAO

    ReplyDelete
  63. Democratic debate is currently on CNN.

    Why can't Mike Gravel have equal time????

    ReplyDelete
  64. Suzie:

    I hope he gets dozens of takers. Those moral Repugs better look over their shoulders.

    ReplyDelete
  65. 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.

    Republican leaders wishing for more attacks on U.S soil.

    Another result of the Bush presidency.

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  66. Washington Post:

    Insurgents in Iraq are growing more sophisticated and deadly in their techniques as the US "surge" pushes forward, reports the Washington Post.

    "Insurgents are deploying huge, deeply buried munitions set up to protect their territory and mounting complex ambushes that demonstrate their ability to respond rapidly to U.S. tactics," writes the Post. "A new counterinsurgency strategy has resulted in decreased civilian deaths in Baghdad but has placed thousands of additional American troops at greater risk in small outposts in the capital and other parts of the country."

    Another result of the Bush war for oil.

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  67. A veteran of the Iraq war is accusing the military of trying to stifle the freedom of speech he volunteered to fight to protect.

    After serving his country in Iraq, former Marine Sgt. Adam Kokesh grew disillusioned with US involvement there and became an anti-war activist. He participated in demonstrations around Washington, including Operation First Casualty, which was organized by Iraq Veterans Against the War in March.

    Kokesh's anti-war activity and his correspondence with Marine investigators has rankled the military enough that it is working to revoke the veteran's "honorable discharge" designation. Kokesh will appear before a military hearing in Kansas City, Mo., Monday to fight the military's attempt to change his discharge status to "other than honorable.

    Stealing freedom of speech of U.S troops.

    More of the Bush presidency.

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  68. Larry said...

    Suzie:

    I hope he gets dozens of takers. Those moral Repugs better look over their shoulders.
    -------------
    Larry:

    I hope he gets hundreds of takers! LOL

    ReplyDelete
  69. Suzie:

    He will probably get several. The people are tired of those moral elitists.

    ReplyDelete
  70. MarketWatch - Jun 1, 2007
    By Laura Mandaro, MarketWatch. SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Ford Motor Co. said its US sales tumbled nearly 7% in May compared with the year-ago numbers, generally in line with forecasts as it clamped down on low-margin sales to car rental agencies.
    Toyota.

    More of the Bush economy.

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  71. Revised Figures Revised Figures

    BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Sixteen American troops died in Iraq in the first three days of June, marking a bloody start to the month as the U.S. military presses on with its crackdown on sectarian violence in Baghdad.

    A total of 127 American troops died in May, the third worst total for U.S. forces since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Fourteen of the latest deaths were reported on Sunday alone by the U.S. military.

    Results from Bush's war for oil.

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  72. Larry said...

    Democratic debate is currently on CNN.
    ---------------
    Larry:

    I don't have my TV hooked up right now but just my laptop..

    ReplyDelete
  73. Suzie:

    The debate is on CNN and they aren't letting Gravel speak very much.

    ReplyDelete
  74. Suzie:

    You can watch the debate online at CNN.com.

    ReplyDelete
  75. Larry:

    Okay, thanks! :)

    ReplyDelete
  76. I really like John Edwards! :)

    ReplyDelete
  77. Edwards looks much better than Hillary and Richardson.

    ReplyDelete
  78. The sniper fired. It was a clean shot, if there is such a thing. And down for good fell another U.S. soldier.

    His name was Sergeant James Dean, but everyone called him Jamie. He was the farm boy who fished, hunted and tossed a horseshoe like nobody else. He was the guy at the end of Toots Bar, nursing a Bud and talking NASCAR. He was the driver of that blue Silverado at the red light, his hands on the wheel, his mind on combat horrors that made him moody, angry, withdrawn.

    Now here he was, another U.S. soldier, dead. Only Dean was killed at the front door of his childhood home, the day after Christmas and three weeks before his redeployment, shot by a sniper representing the government for whom he had already risked his life in Afghanistan. His wife and parents received the news not by a knock on the door, but by gunfire in the neighbourhood.

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  79. Larry:

    I am always impressed with Edwards and he seems to be a man for the people.

    I do wish Gore would run though..I would love a Gore/Edwards ticket.

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  80. Suzie:

    I don't think Gore will run. I think he likes sitting back and getting better press.

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  81. Larry:

    He said he was thinking about it... so, he hasn't totally thrown it out. As long as he doesn't say he won't run.. I will hope that he does.

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  82. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  83. Suzie:

    If Gore says he is not running, the press will stop following him around for interviews.

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  84. Larry:

    That's true but I still hope he will run. :)

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  85. Somebody should tell Paul Wolfowitz there is a opening at the Iraqi Central Bank

    Reuters: Director of Iraqi Central Bank killed in drive-by shooting

    Ayad Shahab Ahmed, a director of the Iraqi Central Bank, and his brother were killed in a drive-by shooting in the Amil district of southwestern Baghdad, police said.

    Do you think we could get Georgie to convince Maliki to nominate Herr Wolfowitz?

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  86. Wolfowitz needs a job and this would fit him to the tee.

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  87. Oops they lose another General;

    US can forget about winning in Iraq: top retired general

    The man who commanded US-led coalition forces during the first year of the Iraq war says the United States can forget about winning the war.

    "I think if we do the right things politically and economically with the right Iraqi leadership we could still salvage at least a stalemate, if you will -- not a stalemate but at least stave off defeat," retired Army Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez said in an interview.

    Sanchez, in his first interview since he retired last year, is the highest-ranking former military leader yet to suggest the Bush administration has fallen short in Iraq.

    "I am absolutely convinced that America has a crisis in leadership at this time," Sanchez told AFP after a recent speech in San Antonio, Texas.

    "We've got to do whatever we can to help the next generation of leaders do better than we have done over the past five years, better than what this cohort of political and military leaders have done," adding that he was "referring to our national political leadership in its entirety" - not just President George W. Bush.

    Sanchez called the situation in Iraq bleak, which he blamed on "the abysmal performance in the early stages and the transition of sovereignty."

    He included himself among those who erred in Iraq's crucial first year after the toppling of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein.

    Sanchez took command in the summer of 2003 and oversaw the occupation force amid an insurgency that has sparked a low-grade civil war in Iraq.

    He was in the middle of some of the most momentous events of the war, among them the dissolution of the Iraqi army and barring millions of Baath Party members from government jobs: two actions seen as triggering the rebellion among Sunni Muslims, who fell from power with Saddam.

    Sanchez is also most closely identified with the Abu Ghraib scandal, which occurred on his watch.

    Though he was cleared of wrongdoing by an Army probe, Abu Ghraib's images of naked prisoners humiliated by a rogue torture squad cost Sanchez an almost certain fourth star in the Senate, which approves general officer promotions.

    Sanchez, 56, declined to talk about Abu Ghraib or other key events of the war, or say who was to blame for what went wrong.

    "That's something I am still struggling with and it's not about blame because there's nobody out there that is intentionally trying to screw things up for our country," he said. "They were all working to do the best damn job they can to get things right."

    Despite those good intentions, Americans will be forced to "answer the question what is victory, and at this point I'm not sure America really knows what victory is," said Sanchez, who is thinking of writing a tell-all book about his year in Baghdad.

    The US ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker, reacted on Sunday to Sanchez's comments by insisting: "It's just way premature to be talking in terms of victory or defeat."

    "What we're trying to do here is stabilize the security situation, particularly in Baghdad, to allow a political process some time and space to work," he said on Fox News.

    He said time was needed for Bush's "surge" strategy, launched in January, of ploughing thousands more troops into Iraq "to make a difference on the streets and then time for this political process to unfold."

    Sanchez said a large troop commitment would be needed for years to come but conceded it is "very questionable" whether Americans would support it.

    Still, he said, "the coalition cannot afford to precipitously withdraw and leave the Iraqis to their own devices."

    Andrew Krepinevich, a former aide to three defense secretaries who heads the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, shared that assessment.

    "What you are looking at are three factions who are profoundly mistrustful of one another," he said. "Iraq is a country where those on top have brutally repressed those on the bottom, and that is the way they look at seizing power and maintaining power."

    Retired Army General Barry McCaffrey, a ground commander in the 1990-1991 Gulf War, said he's trying to remain optimistic but thinks domestic support for the war will evaporate within 36 months.

    "I personally don't think it's over yet," said McCaffrey, who recently toured Iraq. He said he thinks General David Petraeus, the coalition commander in Iraq, and Crocker can stave off a wider civil war.

    "The question is, can the ambassador and Petraeus open reconciliation talks among Iraqis, and (Secretary of State) Condi Rice keep the regional powers from meddling any more in Iraq? The jury's out," he said.

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  88. Sanchez must be getting ready for the cable news circuit, and the ever present book describing how innocent he is.

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  89. Oh and the "surge" ain't going real well at home with the gutless chicken hawk re-pubies...


    Number of magnetic "Support Our Troops" ribbons sold by the leading manufacturer in 2004:

    4,000,000

    Number sold last year:

    48,000


    Surge On George........

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  90. Exxon probably bought half of those since they seem to do well in "surges."

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  91. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The biggest U.S. airlines, struggling to cement their shaky recovery, face a rising challenge from angry unions looking to recoup billions in wages and pensions lost since 2001.

    They won't let this last long.

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  92. Larry

    Do you realize that right now is the first time in something like 20 years that there is no US airline in bankruptcy?

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  93. Congress critter Jefferson(D) La. was indicted, maybe they can put him in with Duke(R) Ca. and Ney(r) Oh so they can compare notes about the best way to commit bribery and fraud while in congress.

    Hope he enjoys the government accommodations he will be soon living in.

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  94. MCH1968 said...
    Obi Wan Worfeus said "...They are practiced and skilled liars to be sure."

    Practiced? Sure. Skilled? Not so much. They are actually pretty bad at lying, it's just that a large percentage of people in this county are blooming idiots.

    They sing their songs about being Christian and their catchphrase "what would Jesus do?" and then they turn around and do the least Christian things imaginable like cutting medicaid and medicare, brag about it -- and idiots vote for them.

    They talk about how big government is the problem and not the solution and turn around and try to legislate who we date and marry, what we do in our bedrooms, what we watch on tv, what we see in our movie theatres, what we see on the internet, what we do with our own bodies (more women than men on that one), brag about it all -- and idiots vote for them.

    They sing their song about how pro-life they are and then declare wars on countries for trumped-up reasons, do away with health care for the young, old, and poor (here in Missouri, they actually eliminated Medicaid entirely. It's been replaced by something called HealthNet that you have to sign up for on the internet -- like a lot of poor people have access to the internet!), torture people at will, brag about it all -- and idiots vote for them.

    They cry the good cry about being persecuted as "Christians" and whine about being called "homophobic" but have no problem lableing the gays as "abominations". They brag about how they are restricting equal rights -- and idiots vote for them.

    They arent good liars at all. A good liar is believable in their lies and certainly never admits to lying-- these guys just lie and then brag about doing doing the opposite knowing full well that there are millions of Republican voters out there who have a collective IQ similar to that of a small soap dish. They know they can get away with it.

    7:44 PM

    Michael - this is very well put. When I first saw it I was going to post it on the blog.

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  95. Everyone on the blog, we have a new commenter MCH1968 who has written some amazing comments, this one in particular, which you all may have missed:

    MCH1968 said...
    I hope you all will forgive me for getting a few things off my chest. Comment if you wish, ignore if you wish but at the end will be a challenge I have made and would encourage you to do the same. If my comments offend you, I'm sorry but they are how I feel.

    Aside from the war, my biggest problem with the Bush Administration and the Republican Party as a whole is the hijacking of Christianity. When I was in college, I was approached by the various Christian groups and introduced to their beliefs and the 'unconditional' love and so on -- you know the spiel -- and I believed them. I finally found a home (literally) with the United Methodist Church and with the Roman Catholic Church. Even though there were numerous denominations, we were all Christian and started behaving very ecumenically. In fact, I even started a Wednesday night tradition of attending Wednesday evening services at the Methodist Student Center and everybody trooping down the street to the Catholic Newman Center to attend Mass. We did a lot of good -- we helped the poor, we visited the sick and elderly, we cleaned up neighborhoods, we were Christians through and through. Everybody was welcomed - nobody turned away. Life was good and I was at peace with my world.

    I didnt pay much attention to politics until a number of years later -- I voted, primarily for democrats but mostly for individual people I thought sounded like they stood for what I did. I was as mad as anyone about the ridiculousness of the 2000 election but mostly shrugged my shoulders and figured all would be ok -- they survived 8 years of Clinton, we could survive 4 years of Bush.

    Then came the 2004 elections and my world crashed around me. All around the country, states were voting discrimination into their Constitutions. Religious leaders for the denominations I treasured most were calling for people of faith to turn entire groups into second-class citizens -- strictly because God had made them a bit differently. A very dear friend of mine at work was driven to tears by extremely unsensitive comments delivered by a Baptist, the day after she had been legislated away from a life of happiness and legal protections with her chosen partner. The very people that had welcomed me into their hearts with open arms had driven me into a crisis of faith that I still haven't fully recovered from. How could a religion about acceptance of love and forgiveness make such horrible comments? How could constitutions be written in a way to actually restrict rights, rather than granting them? How could a loving God allow people to use his name in that way?

    And nobody seemed to realize what was really happening.

    I saw Republicans take the religion that I had embraced and that had embraced me and turn it into an instrument of hatred and evil. They took the fact that most straight people are uncomfortable with the thoughts of homosexuality and used it to drive people to the polls in November -- solely so that Bush would be reelected. Most of the Republican leadership probably dont even give two snots about gay people and their getting married, but they sure as hell pretended that they cared.

    Sad thing was, in all the arguments for and against gay marriage -- I never once heard anybody suggest that it would become mandatory. None of our heterosexual marriages would have become null and void. It would not have affected us one way or the other.

    In fact, the opposite is true. The insane drive to "save marriage" from the homosexuals has led us to a longer war, the ill-conceived "surge", thousands more troops killed that wouldnt have been, tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis killed that wouldnt have been, in Missouri the elimination of Medicaid, the elimination of various Constitutional rights ... read over your complaints in the blog, that's what an irrational fear of gay people has brought us.

    And it's all based on a lie. Read your gospels -- not once does Jesus condemn or even mention homosexuality. Sure, it's condemned in other parts of the bible, but so is wearing polyester, playing football, talking to a lady who is not your wife ... and so is killing, but Republicans have no problem ignoring those parts of the bible.

    I have issued an open challenge to my diehard Republican co-workers -- find me a passage in the Gospels where Jesus condemns homosexuality and I will vote a Republican straight ticket in the next election. However, the other part of the challenge states that if I can find where Jesus talks about helping poor people, then they have to vote a Democratic straight ticket. So far, nobody has taken me up on my challenge.

    Oh, and just for the record, I'm not even gay. But when rights are restricted for some, it won't take long before they're restricted for all. And as a Christian, I cannot stand by and watch anybody be excluded from enjoying the life God has given them.

    10:42 AM


    MCH1968 - And this is exactly what I'm writing about, the hijakcing of Christianity!

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  96. sorry I just got back into town and am not feeling well. Will read all your comments later when I have time.

    Sorry for the delay.
    xo

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  97. Get ready for some summer fun because of a hurricane in the gulf;

    Not the Gulf Of Mexico,

    but

    the Persian Gulf,

    in Fact it is on track to go right up the straights of Hormuz where all the tankers go through, and the US Navy currently has two air craft carriers right now, which means for NOW they are trapped.

    The damage could destroy some of the infrastructure not only loading facilities, but since the rain from a tropical storm like a category 5 Hurricane is going to be quite a lot to deal with and the ground in the Arabian Peninsula doesn't accept much rain most will run off and wash out some things we depend on for the oil which come out from there.

    This combined with damage to Oman and Iran facilities oil could get expensive and of course gas a long with it.

    Who would have guess a Hurricane in the Persian Gulf region on the scale of Katrina would be the first sign of higher oil prices.

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  98. Clif:

    I have a family member on the USS Stennis. Not good!

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  99. The Navy has a very good track record as far as hurricanes go, and this storm probably will track into south western Iran, after the mountains of Northern Oman and the shallowness of the straights them selves weaken it, but the storm surge will do quite a bit of damage to infrastructure which was built with no thought of ever getting hit by a hurricane like this, The Navy probably will move the task forces to the north parts of the Persian Gulf as far from the stronger storm track as they can.

    However they will have to avoid all the oil tankers trying to do the same thing, as the storm hits.

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  100. S-Q If you look at this image of the storm and the region, you can see if it tracks into the straights of Hormuz, the follow on path takes it into Iran itself.

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  101. MCH I have been away most of the weekend, i meant to respond to your comments, particularly the one about the liars, I will later tonight.

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  102. Clif, except for watching the debates late last night, I have been busy most of the weekend, I just heard about the storm.............do you think it will have a significant impact on oil and natural gas?

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  103. Only to those who use oil and gas mike,

    I'm sure to the people of Africa who are too poor to buy any, Not so much.....

    The price of Oil has already begun to rise, especially the Tapi crude price which is over 75 dollars a barrel, because Asia gets the majority of it's oil from the Persian Gulf region, the US only about 15% of our crude or products here.

    However since we import some gasoline from both Europe and Asia gas could go up for us once the rise in costs come down the pipeline.

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  104. Chimpy's peers will collect handsomely, as always.

    The more I see, the more I wonder if there's any way out now.

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  105. Clif:

    Thank you for the storm image and it looks to be a big storm!

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  106. Hey guys has anyone heard when Tom DeLay will have his trial he is on tv constantly acting like nothing ever happened.

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  107. Hey everyone, I just posted a new blog BOOB GATE - a collection of my boob/breast philosophy.

    Something a little lighthearted for a change, but it still has a dagger.

    Holly, Tom Delay is the one who drives me the most crazy. He is so debauched, and puffed up on his own ego. Evil incarnate.

    When are they having his trial? How dare he go on TV acting like nothing happened!!

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