Lighten up, ok...?

from esteemed daughter... too good to pass up...

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The Rove, Libby, CIA leak, Bush, Cheney, fabricated intelligence pot continues to simmer

good... it can't be allowed to drop off the screen no matter how many bullshit spins and outright lies are tossed out to try and make it look like no big deal...

A high Qaeda official in American custody was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the foundation for its claims that Iraq trained Al Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to newly declassified portions of a Defense Intelligence Agency document.

The document, an intelligence report from February 2002, said it was probable that the prisoner, Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, "was intentionally misleading the debriefers" in making claims about Iraqi support for Al Qaeda's work with illicit weapons.

The document provides the earliest and strongest indication of doubts voiced by American intelligence agencies about Mr. Libi's credibility. Without mentioning him by name, President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Colin L. Powell, then secretary of state, and other administration officials repeatedly cited Mr. Libi's information as "credible" evidence that Iraq was training Al Qaeda members in the use of explosives and illicit weapons.

Among the first and most prominent assertions was one by Mr. Bush, who said in a major speech in Cincinnati in October 2002 that "we've learned that Iraq has trained Al Qaeda members in bomb making and poisons and gases."

yeah, ok... so, more and more, the evidence is accumulating that there was a deliberate effort to mislead congress and the american people into a war in iraq... are we surprised...?

but, here's the big, fat, money question...

While there has been no suggestion that Mr. Bush did anything wrong, the portrait of the White House that was painted by the special counsel in the indictment of Mr. Libby was one in which a variety of senior officials, including Mr. Cheney, played some role in events that preceded the disclosure of the officer's identity.

Mr. Bush was not mentioned in the indictment. But the fact that so many of his aides seem to have been involved in dealing with the issue that eventually led to the leak - how to rebut or discredit Joseph C. Wilson IV, a former diplomat who had challenged the administration's handling of prewar intelligence - leaves open the question of what the president knew.

The White House has also kept a tight lid on information about what Mr. Bush learned afterward about any involvement that Mr. Cheney, Mr. Libby, Mr. Rove and others may have had in the leak.

sure as hell does... i wonder if he can feel the walls closing in...?

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Are you ready to gag on some WH Alito spin...?

if not, read no further...

Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito's opinions on abortion, discrimination and other contentious issues are the work of a mainstream jurist, not the ideologue depicted by critics, the White House argues in a voluminous briefing book meant for Republican senators.

Alito's dissent in a 1991 abortion ruling showed "concern for the safety of women," the material says. By approving a requirement for spousal notification, he "reflected the position advanced by the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania."

A 1996 dissent in a sex discrimination case in which Alito sided with the employer shows he "simply questioned the wisdom of a 'blanket rule'" on dismissing such complaints before trial, in the White House view.

it really doesn't matter how much you polish a turd...

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Saturday photoblogging - Colonia, Uruguay

colonia, uruguay, lies across the rio de la plata from buenos aires... the center of the town is a unesco world heritage cultural site, preserving a very early portugese fishing settlement... it's a lovely little town just made for walking...



getting there from buenos aires is quite a treat... the standard ferry trip is three hours... the hydrofoil ferry trims that time to a mere hour and, lemme tell ya, that sucker flat out FLIES... it's HUGE too, inside and out...



if anybody's interested, i've put together a walking and subway guide to buenos aires from the perspective of someone - like me - who prefers to get acquainted with a city the old-fashioned way - on foot...

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The Buenos Aires Herald on comfort levels, Bush and the protests

[A]nti-Bush protesters could be flattering themselves if they fancy that they are making the United States president feel more uncomfortable here than back in the US with the fierce criticism he faces there.

they've got a point...

george has never been one for much foreign travel... he seems to do it only out of bare necessity then hightailing it back home to the safety of the wh, camp david or crawford bubble... with his domestic support washing away like a sand castle on the beach and rove mostly unavailable to tuck him in at night, even those havens of refuge are no more... not what the headline of the national public radio story would lead you to believe...

Bush Leaves D.C. Troubles Behind for S. America

ha... guess not...

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WH "ethics" briefings

ain't that the way it is...? once the horse is already out of the barn... now i know for sure that bush was serious about running the wh like a business... in corporate life, the ethics briefings were ALWAYS scheduled right after a senior officer got his or her tail in a crack...

President Bush has ordered White House staff to attend mandatory briefings beginning next week on ethical behavior and the handling of classified material after the indictment last week of a senior administration official in the CIA leak probe.

miers' office is in charge of putting them together...

oh, btw, those pesky polls...? tish-tosh...

"I understand that there is a preoccupation by polls by some," the president said. "The way you earn credibility with the American people is to declare an agenda that everybody can understand, an agenda that relates to their lives, and get the job done."

the way you earn credibility with the american people (let's be real - ANY people) is to tell the truth, to not spin every word that comes out of your mouth, to live, act and relate to people like you're a fellow human being and to show that you're a man of your word... without that, nobody cares about your damn "agenda," worthwhile or not...

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Summit protestors in Mar del Plata, Argentina [UPDATE]

[UPDATE]

the protests take a violent turn... not good...

Protesters set fire to American flags and a bank. Several young people threw sharpened sticks toward police, who carried plastic shields and wore orange vests. Some shops, including a minimarket and a pastry store, had their windows shattered during the rioting. Protesters dragged furniture from some stores and used it as fuel to set fires to keep police back.

Mass protests at the
Summit of the Americas
in Mar del Plata



Protestors display the famous image
of Che Guevara who was born in
Rosario, Argentina

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FINALLY, some heat being generated over the proposed domestic role of the military

i've been wondering when this issue was going to catch fire... maybe this will do it...

Several governors are fuming over a Bush administration suggestion that the active military take a greater role in disaster response, calling it an attempt to usurp state authority over National Guard units.

Governors in Washington, Mississippi, Michigan, Arkansas, West Virginia, Delaware and Alabama are among those who have panned the idea, questioning whether it would even be constitutional.

Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer, among the harshest critics, said the issue promises to be a major topic at the Western Governors Association meeting in Phoenix next week.

"I'm going to stand up among a bunch of elected governors and say, 'Are we going to allow the military without a shot being fired to effectively do an end-run coup on civilian government? Are we going to allow that?'" Schweitzer said.

you're goddam right it's an "end-run coup on civilian government..." that's the whole friggin' idea... washington national guard maj. gen. timothy lowenberg makes his reservations particularly clear...

"Some might liken this to a policy of domestic regime change."

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Zogby FINALLY does the impeachment poll and, guess what...?

nothing - absolutely NOTHING - could give me a bigger sense of relief than to see that criminal gang booted from the corridors of power so we could get on with cleaning up their horrendous mess and moving this country forward...

A new poll of likely voters by Zogby International has found that a majority of Americans support Congress considering the impeachment of President Bush if he “did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq,”

[...]

The poll, to be released this afternoon, finds that 51 percent of likely voters want Congress to eye impeachment, while 45 percent do not.

[...]

Among all adults surveyed, the numbers were higher: 53 percent supported impeachment, while 42 percent did not.

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Terrorism fear-mongering losing steam

think progress notes that, for the first time, more americans disapprove of bush's handling of the u.s. campaign against terrorism than approve... from a 92% approval and a 5% disapproval in october 2001 to a 48% approval and a 51% disapproval at the end of last month, the drop has been steady and relentless... bush's defining issue and the fear-mongering that has kept it alive is going flat...

(from the washington post/abc poll...)

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"Just say no" to FTAA

once again, the headline tells the story... (italics mine)

Bush Tries to Improve U.S. Image at Summit

he's got a lot o' improvin' to do... today in mar del plata, argentina...

[A]n estimated 10,000 demonstrators shouting "Get out Bush!" marched in the streets of this seaside resort, illustrating the skepticism that many South Americans have toward U.S.-led negotiations for a Free Trade Area of the Americas stretching from Alaska to Argentina.

[...]

"We're going to say 'No to Bush' and 'No to FTAA,'" said Argentine labor leader Juan Gonzalez. "We don't have any confidence in anything he might propose here. Whatever it is will only prolong hunger, poverty and death in Latin America."

do ya think they're a tad skeptical about the u.s. having their best interests at heart...?

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Bush, delusional as usual, pushes "free trade" in Argentina

The fourth Summit of the Americas was to open Friday under tight security. Thousands of police officers were stationed behind barricades that cordoned off large sections of this city, as officials sought to prevent the two-day meeting from being overwhelmed by demonstrations.

The Bush administration had hoped the meeting would help revive stalled plans for a Free Trade Area of the Americas, a zone that would stretch from Alaska to Argentina.

"From our point of view, the Free Trade Area of the Americas has defined the summit process," said Thomas A. Shannon Jr., assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere.

as of yesterday, the summitteers were still dickering on whether or not to even INCLUDE MENTION of the ftaa in the summit statement... hugo chavez reflects the tone of many in the region about the ftaa... (refer back to my post yesterday about latin american attitudes toward the u.s...)

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez, one of Bush’s leading antagonists in the region, has said that the Mar del Plata Summit would serve to “bury” the US’ FTAA dreams for good.

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The poor shouldering the burden of fighting - and dying - in Iraq

it's the american way...

[N]ewly released Pentagon demographic data show that the military is leaning heavily for recruits on economically depressed, rural areas where youths' need for jobs may outweigh the risks of going to war.

[...]

Many of today's recruits are financially strapped, with nearly half coming from lower-middle-class to poor households, according to new Pentagon data based on Zip codes and census estimates of mean household income. Nearly two-thirds of Army recruits in 2004 came from counties in which median household income is below the U.S. median.

just another example of the economic divide that's deepening in this country... the war is making gazillionaires out of those who bear virtually none of its consequences... of course, that's not a situation that's unique to today... it's been the case throughout most of history... today, however, it's just one hell of a lot more visible and, thus, a lot harder to tolerate...

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Justice for DeLay, Texas and Repub majority-style

when you have a state that operates like this, no wonder there's been a problem...

The task of finding a supposedly apolitical arbiter for DeLay's trial was complicated by the fact that Texas -- like seven other states -- elects its judges in partisan elections. It also allows elected judges to make financial contributions to partisan causes, and it even permits those with business before the courts to subsidize the judges' political campaigns.

ah... it all makes sense now... justice as politics... and, even though the justice that was selected is claimed to be non-partisan (retired san antonio judge pat priest), here's a little bit on the chief justice of the texas supreme court, wallace jefferson, who selected him... it seems that texas gov. rick perry, who appointed jefferson in 2004, and jefferson...

...shared a campaign treasurer in 2002 with Texans for a Republican Majority, the group indicted along with DeLay for allegedly funneling illegal corporate contributions into the House elections that year. Jefferson also was endorsed by the group, and one of its brochures listed him as a VIP guest at one of the group's fundraisers.

i can't wait to hear what molly ivins has to say about it all...

and, as if delay's texas goings-on weren't interesting enough, the house ethics committee decided to swing into action by announcing the hiring of a new chief counsel, william o'reilly, in response to delay's request to investigate allegations that he improperly traveled overseas at the expense of lobbyists... introducing mr. o'reilly...

O'Reilly previously represented the R.J. Reynolds tobacco company in antitrust litigation. R.J. Reynolds is one of DeLay's longtime financial supporters -- having given to both his election campaigns and his legal defense fund -- and recently flew DeLay to Texas on one of its corporate jets for his first court appearance.

i know... it's probably silly of me to even THINK such a thing, but wouldn't it seem that they'd want to avoid even the APPEARANCE of impropriety or conflict of interest...? wouldn't that be somewhat helpful if, for nothing else, than to prevent folks like me from pointing and shaking my head...?

(from the washington post...)

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It's official... Wingnutsylvania lays it all at Bill's feet

i've been surfing blogs again... big mistake... haven't done it for quite a while... most of it i can just cluck my tongue over but, occasionally, something pops up that's just too good to resist...

EVERYTHING on earth is the fault of Bill Clinton. Whether it stems from the Whitewater Scandal, Travelgate, Filegate, Chinagate, Pardongate, the conviction of Henry Cisneros, the alleged rape of Juanita Broaddrick, or Clinton's refusal to accept Osama bin Laden as a prisoner from the Sudanese government, or his refusal to submit the Kyoto Accords to the Senate for a vote (global warming) - the genesis of the (you fill in the blank) problem, began under the Clinton Administration.

and, oh, yes... he's serious... he's quite serious... that's why it was too good to resist...

nitey-nite...

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Good news for public broadcasting - a litmus-tested crony bites the dust

good news...

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting Board of Directors said Thursday that embattled former board chairman Ken Tomlinson has resigned.

The board has been reviewing a CPB Inspector General's report--called for by a pair of congressmen--on Tomlinson's relationship with the board stemming from Tomlinson's attempts to add more conservative programming.

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Bush and Cheney - especially Cheney - doing the swan-dive

once again, there's nothing like a good visual, backed up with some numbers, to tell the story... check out cheney's 19%...



(from the cbs news poll, november 2, 2005...)

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The Summit of the Americas - what Bush is flying into

it's very unlikely that he will leave his bubble, even for a moment, but, if he does, he's not going to be very happy with what he sees...



Burning the U.S. flag
in Buenos Aires

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DeLay's revolving judges

ok, ronnie... that's one for you... now, let's see what else is up deguerin's sleeve...

Two days after U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay won a fight to get a new judge in his case, prosecutors on Thursday succeeded in ousting the Republican jurist responsible for selecting the new judge.

Administrative Judge B.B. Schraub recused himself after District Attorney Ronnie Earle filed a motion asking for his removal from the case.

Schraub said he will ask the chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court name a judge to preside over DeLay's conspiracy and money laundering trial.

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Northwest will "delay" voiding contracts in return for 60%

the "bankruptcy as business strategy" juggernaut keeps on rollin'...

Northwest Airlines said on Wednesday that if it can get temporary savings worth 60 percent of its total USD$1.4 billion labor savings goal, the airline could delay a hearing on its request to void its contracts.

Northwest said it was in talks with unions representing its pilots, flight attendants and ground workers about possibly extending until mid-January the deadline for the request in a bankruptcy court hearing. The hearing on Northwest's motion is set for November 16.

Northwest has asked for court permission to void contracts of work groups that do not yield required savings.

hold still there for just a minute while i put this gun to your head... now, what was it you were trying to tell me...?

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Grumblings and concern for potential violence during the Summit of the Americas

which starts tomorrow in mar del plata, argentina...

IV SUMMIT of the Americas
Nov 4-5, 2005
Mar del Plata, Argentina

things have been a little rocky the past two days in buenos aires... opinions differ about whether indicents on tuesday and yesterday are connected with the summit...

Violence hit the Buenos Aires city suburbs for the second day running yesterday, further escalating security concerns ahead of the two-day Summit of the Americas due to start in Mar del Plata tomorrow. A day after fury erupted at the Haedo train station on Tuesday, scenes of violence were reported yesterday in the district of Avellaneda, as shots were fired at the local City Hall during a demonstration by state workers.

the outbursts have also sparked calls for non-violence and upped the vigilance of security officials...

[M]any of those in the forefront of stoking up feelings against the superpower presence of United States President George W. Bush at the summit have been sufficiently alarmed by the potential for violence to take steps to keep anti-Bush activities within reasonable bounds.

the negative feelings toward bush run deep in latin america, particularly in argentina, a proud and fiercely independent country...

"I don't like Bush because I don't think he understands poverty or the problems of developing countries," said Luis Alvarez, 47, a Buenos Aires resident with a degree in economics. "Poor countries want to have political independence, too -- the freedom to make decisions for themselves."

doesn't understand poverty...? NO...! george...? not understand POVERTY...?

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Rove on the block

Bush's top advisers are considering whether it is tenable for Rove to remain on the staff, given that Fitzgerald has already documented something that Rove and White House official spokesmen once emphatically denied.

gee... that raises the same question about cheney, does it not...? and scott mcclellan, does it not...? and bush himself, does it not...?

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Why does the U.S. insist on being a rogue state?

the nyt asks the very question i asked yesterday...

Why does the Bush administration keep forcing policies on the United States military that endanger Americans wearing the nation's uniform - policies that the military does not want, that do not work and that violate standards upheld by the civilized world for decades?

yes, why...?

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35%

and there ya have it... quoting ross perot, that "giant sucking sound..."

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Rummy to U.N. - No Guantanamo for you...!

secret prisons, unwillingness to guarantee geneva rights and no international scrutiny... how did we come to this point...?

Amid growing concern over the fate and conditions of inmates engaged in a lengthy hunger strike at the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld Tuesday said he would not permit U.N. investigators to interview detainees there.

[...]

On Oct. 27, the Pentagon invited three U.N. experts -- special rapporteurs on torture, religious freedom, and arbitrary detentions -- to visit Guantanamo, but added that they would not be permitted to meet with detainees.

at least the icrc is still allowed in...

He stressed that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will continue to have unlimited access to the prisoners, some of whom have been held for four years without trial.

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Libby talked to Bolton who talked to Fleitz who talked to Bolton who talked to Libby

oooooooo... steve clemons, your hunches are eerily prescient...

The 22-page indictment posted on Fitzgerald's website Friday says that on May 29, 2003 Libby "asked an Under Secretary of State ('Under Secretary') for information concerning the unnamed ambassador's travel to Niger to investigate claims about Iraqi efforts to acquire uranium yellowcake. The Under Secretary thereafter directed the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research to prepare a report concerning the ambassador and his trip. The Under Secretary provided Libby with interim oral reports in late May and early June 2003, and advised Libby that Wilson was the former ambassador who took the trip."

News reports have identified the Undersecretary as Marc Grossman. This is technically correct, in that he is the one who had received the June 10, 2003 classified Intelligence and Research memo for Libby about Wilson's Niger trip, in addition to information about Plame's covert CIA status and her relationship to Wilson.

But the attorneys said that two former Libby aides, John Hannah and David Wurmser, told the special prosecutor that Libby had actually first contacted Bolton to dig up the information. Wurmser, who worked as a Middle Eastern affairs aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was on loan from Bolton's office.

[...]

The attorneys also said that Frederick Fleitz, Bolton's chief of staff and concurrently a senior CIA Weapons Intelligence, Nonproliferation and Arms Control official, supplied Bolton with Plame's identity. Bolton, they added, passed this to his aide, Wurmser, who in turn supplied the information to Hannah.

Upon receiving this information, Libby asked Bolton for a report on Wilson's trip to Niger, which Wilson presented orally to the CIA upon his return. Fleitz was one of a handful of officials who was in a position to know Plame's maiden name, the sources said.

Fleitz is named in the indictment as an unnamed CIA senior officer, they added.

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And, speaking of hypocrisy... Bush's response to Libby...

always thinking, that robert parry...

While Bush’s statement was surely intended to remind the public that Libby has yet to be convicted of a crime, it was remarkable to hear Bush endorse the presumption of innocence and due process after all he has done to erode those principles.

For four years, it has been a central legal precept of the “War on Terror” that Bush has the absolute right to imprison anyone of his choosing, including American citizens, who are then denied even a day in court, let alone a fair trial or presumption of innocence.

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Flu plans may include travel curbs

it's the "other steps" that bother me the most...

Sustained person-to-person spread of the bird flu or any other super-influenza strain anywhere in the world could prompt the United States to implement travel restrictions or other steps to block a brewing pandemic, say federal plans released Wednesday.

this administration is just ITCHING to implement plans to curtail individual freedoms and to make it sound like they're only doing it for our own good... this same subject keeps coming up in different forms - using the military as first responders in national disasters, changing or eliminating the posse comitatus act, using the military to enforce influenza quarantines, the possibility of declaring martial law, wiretaps, search warrants, demanding library and medical records... inch by surreptitious inch, the camel is pushing more than its nose under the tent...

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Rail rage: disgruntled commuters or a lead-up to the Summit of the Americas?

yesterday in buenos aires...

It all started at 8.20 am when hundreds of passengers were left stranded because of a locomotive breakdown at the Haedo train station in the Greater Buenos Aires district of Morón. Witnesses said a group grew impatient and began hurling stones at the halted train. Within minutes, the demonstrators had torched the eight-car convoy and wrestled with firefighters who were trying to put out the flames. Another train standing on the adjacent tracks met the same fate a few minutes later.

[...]

The government said the unusual outburst of anger was an orchestrated move by radical leftwing groups . . . The TBA train company blamed the violence on a group of activists en route to Mar del Plata to protest at the presence of US President George W. Bush at this week’s Summit of the Americas.

or...

[M]ost media reports seem to agree that the incidents began as spontaneous commuter rail rage caused by cancellation of a replete train left waiting for 50 minutes but were rapidly exploited by vandals and looters.

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Bankruptcy as a business strategy (cont'd)

Delta Air Lines asked a bankruptcy court judge to allow it to void a contract with its unionized pilots after talks with the group failed to secure USD$325 million in annual concessions the company says it needs, according to a newspaper report on Wednesday.

there's zero satisfaction in being able to see something like this coming... there will be more, you can be sure...

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Go to hell, NYT

their story on yesterday's closed door senate session leads with this headline...

Partisan Quarrel Forces Senators to Bar the Doors

if you're only a headline reader, and many are, what does that tell you...? well, one thing it doesn't tell you is anything whatsoever about the serious, real and urgent reason WHY THE SESSION WAS CALLED...

Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session on Tuesday over the Bush administration's use of intelligence to justify the Iraq war and the Senate's willingness to examine it.

instead it sounds like a schoolyard recess spat...

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Eschewing Geneva... Why can't the U.S. conform...?

why does the u.s. have this thing about not conforming to accepted international standards, particularly the geneva conventions...? after all, we've been observing them since 1949... from the international criminal court to the metric system, we want one set of rules for us and another set for everybody else...

The Bush administration is embroiled in a sharp internal debate over whether a new set of Defense Department standards for handling terror suspects should adopt language from the Geneva Conventions prohibiting "cruel," "humiliating" and "degrading" treatment, administration officials say.

Advocates of that approach, who include some Defense and State Department officials and senior military lawyers, contend that moving the military's detention policies closer to international law would prevent further abuses and build support overseas for the fight against Islamic extremists, officials said.

Their opponents, who include aides to Vice President Dick Cheney and some senior Pentagon officials, have argued strongly that the proposed language is vague, would tie the government's hands in combating terrorists and still would not satisfy America's critics, officials said.

i totally fail to see how the humane treatment of prisoners outlined in geneva, vague though it may be, "ties the government's hands..."

meanwhile, we're still busy telling the rest of the world how it should behave...

Echoing international concern about the arrest and suspected abuse of an opposition leader in Uzbekistan, two American senators introduced a resolution on Tuesday calling on the Uzbek government to ensure that the detained politician is treated fairly and in accordance with his human rights.

our hypocrisy is on display daily around the world...

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Secret prisons... Sigh... I told you so...

yeah, i hate to say i told you so... my post from 26 october, entitled "How many Abu Ghraibs do we REALLY have...?" said this...

U.S. human rights groups have denounced before the U.N. Human Rights Committee that there are perhaps dozens of secret detention centres around the world where Washington is holding an unknown number of prisoners as part of its "war on terror".

[...]

Priti Patel, an attorney and representative of the New-York based group Human Rights First, reported to the Committee members on the secret detention centres for individuals allegedly linked to terrorism.

[...]

According to Patel, these are transient facilities in Iraq and Afghanistan that are close to conflict zones, but move around, to wherever the United States decides.

now, in today's wapo, we read...

The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.

The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents.

why is the u.s. always the LAST to know...? ah, but to quote rummy...

My goodness gracious.

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The Family Research Council, the filibuster, Keith Olbermann and Media Matters

david grossman of media matters takes us back to april of this year when keith olbermann reported on the family research council's flip-flopping on the use of the filibuster... i guess it's THAT TIME AGAIN...

Keith Olbermann uncovered the right-wing Family Research Council (FRC) flip-flopping over the use of the filibuster back in April 2005 as conservatives in the U.S. Senate were making noise about using the “nuclear option” to end the filibuster. Given FRC’s statement after Samuel Alito’s nomination that “(t)his is a moment in American history that has been decades in the making and Family Research Council plans to be a full participant in this process on behalf of America's families”, their flip-flopping over the use of the filibuster is again newsworthy.

On the April 25 edition of MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann, host Olbermann recounted a statement made July 2, 1998, on National Public Radio by FRC senior writer Steven Schwalm:

OLBERMANN: As mentioned, the filibuster stretches back not merely to Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but to the presidential administration of Franklin Pierce 152 years ago. And, as a last measure of the defense of the minority, it has had many supporters over the years, like the very people of faith who sponsored yesterday's "Justice Sunday," the group Family Research Council.

Yesterday, it was opposed to filibusters. Seven years ago, it was in favor of them. That's when Clinton and a then-Democratic plurality in the Senate wanted a man named James Hormel to become the ambassador to Luxembourg. Hormel, of the Spam-and-other-meats Hormels, was gay, as the Senate minority bottled up Hormel's nomination with filibusters and threats of filibusters, minority relative to cloture, to breaking up a filibuster.

They did that for a year and a half. The Family Research Council's senior writer, Steven Schwalm, appeared on National Public Radio at the time and explained the value, even the necessity, of the filibuster.

"The Senate," he said, "is not a majoritarian institution, like the House of Representatives is. It is a deliberative body, and it's got a number of checks and balances built into our government. The filibuster is one of those checks in which a majority cannot just sheerly force its will, even if they have a majority of votes in some cases. That's why there are things like filibusters, and other things that give minorities in the Senate some power to slow things up, to hold things up, and let things be aired properly."

It's been said many times, many ways, that was then, and this is now.

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They're comin' out of the woodwork... Wilkerson, Scowcroft, Ritter, Wilson and now...

U.S. terrorism experts Daniel Benjamin and Steven Simon have reached a stark conclusion about the war on terrorism: the United States is losing.

Despite an early victory over the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan, the two former Clinton administration officials say President George W. Bush's policies have created a new haven for terrorism in Iraq that escalates the potential for Islamic violence against Europe and the United States.

America's badly damaged image in the Muslim world could take more than a generation to set right. And Bush's mounting political woes at home have undermined the chance for any bold U.S. initiatives to address the grim social realities that feed Islamic radicalism, they say.

again, no news to anybody who's paying attention... at least the msm is beginning to consistently counter the incessant wh spin...

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And here's why Reid is rightfully pissed

[T]he obstruction of justice alleged in this case kept us from knowing material things about our leaders at the moment we were deciding whether to keep them in office. In more common speech, obstruction of justice is a coverup, and the coverup worked -- just as the Watergate coverup in 1972 kept facts from the public that would have guaranteed Richard Nixon's defeat.

not to mention those who have continued to be sent to their deaths as a result...

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Can an old Bush learn new tricks?

The White House obviously hopes that in pushing steadily ahead, Bush, like Reagan and (eventually) Clinton, can regain the nation's approval.

Don't count on it.

Why? Because this president seems characterologically incapable of doing the things he needs to do to have a legitimate shot at restoring public trust.

back in my corporate days, i was regularly asked, "can you teach an old dog new tricks...?" routinely, my answer was to ask two questions in return... one, how old is this dog...? and, two, how many tricks has he learned so far...?

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DeLay's judge removed

In a courtroom victory for Rep. Tom Delay, the judge in the campaign-finance case against the former House Republican leader was removed Tuesday because of his donations to Democratic candidates and causes.

so, i guess the message is, if you're a judge, you can't participate in the political system...

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Senate in closed session on national security [UPDATE]

harry reid invoked rule 21, shut down the senate, and called all 100 senators to the floor to discuss the intelligence that led the u.s. to war in iraq...

you GO, harry...!

[UPDATE]

Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, questioning intelligence that President Bush used in the run-up to the war in Iraq and accusing Republicans of ignoring the issue. [...] After about two hours, senators returned to open session having appointed a six-member task force — three members from each party — to review the committee's progress and report back to their respective caucuses by Nov. 14.

serving notice... enough is enough...

(see banner to support harry reid on right column...)

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Mar del Plata, Argentina, gets ready to greet George Bush

IV SUMMIT of the Americas
Nov 4-5, 2005
Mar del Plata, Argentina

The IV Summit of the Americas, which will take place in Mar del Plata, Argentina, on November 4-5, 2005, is the highest hemispheric political forum. The 34 Heads of State and Government of the Americas will attend this Summit, whose efforts will be directed at building and implementing a shared agenda on the theme of the IV Summit “Creating Jobs to Fight Poverty and Strengthen Democratic Governance.”

(the caption on the picture with the child and the tank reads, "señor bush... is this the education you promised us...?")

Bush opponents have vowed to gather thousands of anti-Bush demonstrators in Mar del Plata for a peaceful citywide march Friday, the day the summit begins.

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The "Cabal" - a spiderweb of interconnections

as larry wilkerson put it, a "cabal" has been running our national security policy since bush took office... tompaine offers a compelling visual...



(click on image to see larger,
readable version)

(thanks to steve at the washington note...)

ca·bal
Pronunciation: k&-'bäl, -'bal
Function: noun
Etymology: French cabale cabala, intrigue, cabal, from Medieval Latin cabbala cabala, from Late Hebrew qabbAlAh, literally, received (lore)
: the artifices and intrigues of a group of persons secretly united to bring about an overturn or usurpation especially in public affairs; also : a group engaged in such artifices and intrigues

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It's our SYSTEM, stupid...!

yes, i'll admit it... i regularly fall into the trap of thinking, damn...! if we could just get rid of bush, rove, delay, frist and the whole criminal gang...! but, sadly, in my heart of hearts, i know better... individuals are merely symptoms of the systemic illness that pervades our nation... all the weeping and gnashing of teeth over the horror of the r's and the passivity of the dems fails to take into account that they are both part of the larger system... to quote pogo's famous line, "we have met the enemy and he is us..."

What if, magically, we were able to investigate and prosecute George Bush for lying us into Iraq, as many have called for? Not only do the congressional Republicans who abetted him deserve investigation, so do the Democrats and previous White House administrations, which are complicit in this too. We've been driving Iraq into the ground for 14 years. Bush's Iraq policies picked up the torch from the Clinton foreign policy team, which in turn took its pointers from the staff of George H.W. Bush.

[...]

[The death totals in Iraq since Bush's invasion] are dwarfed by the number of dead -- by some estimates over a million -- caused by the U.N sanctions that started with Bush I, and continued under President Bill Clinton.

[...]

Scott Ritter, former U.N. weapons inspector for Iraq's weapons programs, recently spoke in a public forum about the U.S. crimes done to Iraq: "This is about a failure of not only the Bush Administration but of the United States of America, and we have to look in the mirror and recognize that, well, all the Bush Administration did is take advantage of a systemic failure on the part of the United States as a whole, a failure that not only involves the executive, but it involves the legislative branch, Congress."

and us, scott... and us... the article opens with this quote from hunter thompson...

By the time Richard Milhous Nixon goes on trial in the Senate, the only real reason for trying him will be to understand how he ever became president of the United States at all ... and the real defendant, at that point, will be the American Political System.

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If you want to get rid of Castro, you fools, drop the embargo

what a bunch of idiots... if the u.s. dropped the embargo tomorrow, castro would be out of power within six months...

U.S. planning for Cuba's "transition" after the demise of Fidel Castro has entered a new stage, with a special office for reconstruction inside the US State Department preparing for the "day after", when Washington will try to back a democratic government in Havana.

The inter-agency effort, which also involves the Defense Department, recognises that the Cuba transition may not go peacefully and that the US may have to launch a nation-building exercise.

victor's 1959 cafe in minneapolis, a cuban restaurant, sells t-shirts with the slogans "illegal food" and "no embargo, no problem..."

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The job is "so much more onerous" than Bush expected

another way to look at it is "dry drunk..."

[T]he President we’re seeing these days is a completely different man.

He has, of course, a lot of reasons to be depressed – no point in enumerating them, you know what they are. But most of all, I think he’s depressed because the job has turned out to be so much more onerous than he expected – he said as much to a friend of mine in September. “You have no idea,” he said, “how hard these five years have been.” This is a fairly breathtaking remark given the number of people who, thanks to this president, are now dead as a result of his five years in the Oval Office, but never mind.

i've never placed a lot of faith in bush's mental stability... anyone who can be so mean, so vindictive, so utterly devoid of compassion, so completely disinterested in anyone but himself, can't possibly have a lot going for him in the serenity department...

(nora ephron in the huffington post...)

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Is impeachment the only way we're gonna be able to save the country...?

robert parry's been kicking impeachment around again... (see "can bush be ousted" and "what to do about the bush problem...")

my fondest wish is that things would become so bad for bush that he would have no choice but to resign... i can hardly bear to watch this country be trashed any more than it has... maybe there's some deus ex machina event that will force him out... i had hopes for fitzgerald and that may still be worth hoping for... but it's looking increasingly like impeachment may be the only way out and even that's a huge stretch...

The conventional wisdom – virtually across Washington’s political spectrum – is that the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney is unthinkable, and without doubt, it would be extremely difficult to engineer.

But a better answer to Americans interested in holding Bush and Cheney accountable is that impeachment is possible – if enough voters want it to happen.

Say, for instance, 75 percent of voters favored impeachment and considered it a decisive issue in how they will cast their ballots. Would politicians facing such a popular groundswell risk their own jobs to save Bush and Cheney?

Or, put differently, what would happen if voters – beginning with state and local elections on Nov. 8 – rejected every Republican on the ballot? Would the public hunger for accountability begin to sink in then?

Crazy? Well, there are signs that even in Red States, Bush is becoming a drag on Republicans.

i just want to see the destruction brought to a halt and i'm caring less and less about how it happens - only that it happens...

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Bush a failed president...? Well, duh... [UPDATE]

georgie wants to make a comeback... this should be good for some laughs...

After fumbling the nomination of a Supreme Court justice and defending an unpopular war that has now cost more than 2,000 American lives, Bush finds his presidency at a new low. A USA TODAY/CNN/Gallup Poll taken Friday through Sunday shows that a solid majority of Americans, 55%, now judge Bush's presidency to be a failure.

[...]

White House aides say Bush hopes to regain equilibrium by focusing on issues he believes Americans outside Washington care most about: the economy,
Iraq, immigration and the bird flu.

"A lot of the issues that we're going to be dealing with ... affect the day-to-day realities of people outside the Beltway," says Nicolle Wallace, the White House communications director.

"We'll be going around the (media) filter to communicate directly with the American people about the things they care about."

this oughta be interesting... let's take 'em one at a time...

iraq - what the hell is he going to say about iraq besides the same damn things he's already said a nauseating number of times...?

the economy - oh, i'm waitin'... what'll it be...? extending the tax cuts...? cutting medicaid...?

immigration - more about a guest worker program to keep his business cronies in cheap labor...? closing the border...? hiring blackwater to patrol the border and placing the minutemen under them...?

bird flu - another way to stir up fear...? declaring martial law and having the military enforce quarantines...?

how about something i care about like getting your sorry ass out of the white house so we can begin cleaning up your horrendous mess...?

i'm not sure i'm ready to deal with this...

[UPDATE]

meanwhile, in an effort to "regain equilibrium by focusing on issues he believes Americans outside Washington care most about..."

The White House on Monday rebuffed calls for a staff shakeup, the firing of Karl Rove and an apology by President Bush for the role of senior administration officials in the unmasking of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

oh, golly, i'm S-O-O-O-O glad he's really serious about regaining our trust...

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Amazing Balkan unity - 9 countries sign a treaty

whaddaya know... all of them are working to make nice with the eu in hopes of someday joining but if it brings them into common purpose, wonderful...

As winter approaches, about two million people in the southern Serbian province of Kosovo face hours of power cuts daily. In Bosnia too, millions face similar problems.

In the rest of Serbia the state-owned production and distribution giant EPS is again warning people that long power cuts will be imminent if consumption is not restrained.

All that will not change this winter. But after the signing of the Energy Community Treaty with the European Union (EU) earlier this week in Athens, experts agree that over the next few years it will.

Nine countries of the region (Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, Albania, Bulgaria, Romania and Kosovo represented by the United Nations administration) joined the treaty that should improve power supply to some 150 million people.

The EU declared that this was "the first time in history that all of these states and territories have signed a legally binding treaty, a milestone in reconciliation after the wars of the 1990s."

cool...

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Bush successfully changes the subject - again

jeffrey feldman issued this warning last week which i felt significant enough to post here and am now posting again...

[A]ny news agency that is currently running the Miers story as a "surprise" is aiding the White House's campaign to distract the American public from the real story: George W. Bush's top aides will soon be charged with serious crimes.

simply change the wording slightly - change "miers" to "alito," eliminate "as a 'surprise'" and make "aides will soon be" to read "v.p.'s top aide has been" and then go look at today's top stories... good job, karl... glad to see you haven't lost your touch...

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Alito: rallying the base

richard viguerie gave bush ex post facto advice following his choice of miers and before her withdrawal...

"President Bush desperately needed to have an ideological fight with the left to redefine himself and reenergize his political base, which is in shock and dismay over his big-government policies."

which he now seems to have taken...

(from this morning's today show...)

COURIC: And ideology trumped gender in this case, right?

TURLEY: I think so. I think the president wanted, first of all, to show he could pick someone who was clearly qualified and has the resume, but he also wanted to rally his base. He’s done both with Sam Alito. No one on the conservative base can be unhappy with Sam Alito. The question is whether they can weather this storm that will be coming, I think, and whether there will be a filibuster.

i think ideology - and bush loyalty - were the principal factors in bush's choice of miers... in bush's mind, the fact that she was female was only icing...

(jonathan turley is a law profession at george washington university... thanks to think progress...)

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Bushco's agenda is moving ahead full throttle regardless...

stirling newberry at kos uses more words per thought than most of us... i have a few comments on his recent diary...

George Bush represents an impulse among one of the groups of elites of America to remake America in their own image. This impulse is to create a top down society, run by economic elites, supported by a wall of true believing retainers, and one where the rest of us grind along making enough to keep us from getting too unhappy, And if we do get too unhappy, then fear can be used to keep us in line.

i don't disagree at all with the fundamental premise... i do, however, think that it's more than an "impulse..." it's a grand plan, detailed and comprehensive and it will continue to unfold, regardless of polls and indictments, as long as bushco is holding the reins of power...

What old line academic, media and other technocratic elites - the people who ran the Liberal Democracy - don't realize is that this impulse to remake society extends even to those who seem more reasonable. They see Bush as incompetent or bumbling. He is bumbling, but he is, like many would be remakers of society, relentless in his pursuit of the cause.

a high percentage of the members of those "other" elites are in full complicity with bushco's agenda... many of them have a high stake in remaining in their positions of power and influence and, in order to do so, must stay aligned with the centers of real power and money...

i also find it hard to accept a "bumbling" bush... i think some calculcations have been made in error, witness the current libby events, but those have been made out of arrogance and zeal rather than incompetence... what appears to us as incompetence i think is deliberate - cause chaos, sow doubt, create fear and distrust... and here's why i think that...

[E]ach crisis will come with a demand for even more power. ... [H]e will get what he wants in the end. ... [H]e has more damage yet to do.

precisely...

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Al Regnery jumps ship

even al regnery is diving off of bush's ship of fools... on the cover of the latest edition of the american spectator, a regnery publication, is the headline: "Bush and His Base..."

Inside is the publisher's note by Alfred S. Regnery, titled "George W. Bush: A Loss for Conservatism?" Considering what Bush has been facing from his right flank, the magazine's latest issue seems almost prescient.

"The falling poll numbers reflect his base, melting away," writes Regnery. " 'Did I put my faith in this man, did I believe his campaign promises, did I work for him, did I send my money -- all for this?' ask conservatives."

regnery publishing, btw, is proud to bring you titles like these... (an alphabetical sample from the regnery catalog - a few from the "a's" and one from the "b's..."

The Abolition of Marriage: How We Destroy Lasting Love, Maggie Gallagher, 1996, 0-89526-464-1, hardcover, $24.95, “In this emotion-charged book, syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher shows the critical condition the institution is in and the devastating effects a broken marriage has on everyone it touches."

Absolute Power: The Legacy of Corruption in the Clinton-Reno Justice Department, David Limbaugh, 2001, 0-89526-237-1, cloth, $27.95, "In this stunning exposé Limbaugh shows how politics determines who gets hammered with the mailed fists of the federal government and who can operate with complete legal immunity"

Ain't No Rag: Freedom, Family, and the Flag, Charlie Daniels, 2003, 0-89526-073-5, hardcover, $24.95, “A take-no-prisoners affirmation of what America truly stands for.”

At Any Cost: How Gore Tried to Steal the Election, Bill Sammon, 2001, 0-89526-227-4, cloth, $27.95, "Sammon's political thriller exposes all the behind-the-scenes manipulation and courtroom maneuvering that turned Florida's election upside down"

Brighter than the Baghdad Sun: Saddam Hussein's Nuclear Threat to United States, Shyam Bhatia & Dan McGrory, 2000, 0-89526-251-7, hardcover, $27.95, "Using sensitive documents and insider sources-many of whom spoke at the risk of their lives-investigative reporters Shyam Bhatia and Dan McGrory pull back the veil on the Iraqi nuclear threat"

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Drought in the Amazon basin

MEANWHILE... the rest of the world keeps on turning... not everybody is obsessed with plamegate, even tho' i've been doing a pretty good job of it myself...

A state of emergency has been declared in the 62 municipalities in [the Brazilian province of] Amazonas, primarily because of the critical shortage of transportation and drinking water. The authorities estimate that some 197,000 people in 914 communities have been affected by the drought, and they are now studying evacuation plans.

Some researchers attribute the drought to the fact that the intertropical convergence zone (ICTZ), where the warm moist air currents from the north and south come together and normally bring heavy rains, moved farther north, as a result of the significant rise in sea surface temperatures in the northern Atlantic.

This same phenomenon has been deemed responsible for the record-breaking intensity of storms like Hurricane Katrina, which battered the southeastern coast of the United States in September, and Hurricane Wilma, which thrashed Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula last weekend.

The unusually low water levels in the rivers of the Amazon region should serve as a lesson on the vulnerability of this ecosystem to phenomena that reduce rainfall and are likely to become ever more frequent and intense, Moutinho said.

U.S. scientist Thomas Lovejoy, who has been studying the Amazon for four decades, fears deforestation could reach the point where it breaks the balance needed to ensure the very survival of the forests, unleashing a "vicious cycle" of irreversible destruction. [...] "Many of us believe that this could happen if deforestation surpasses 30 percent," Lovejoy told Tierramérica.

[...]

The Amazon has already lost 17 percent of its forests, but what is considered "disturbed area," including small logging operations not captured by satellite monitoring, is actually much larger, said Eneas Salati, former director of the state-run National Institute for Amazon Research.

Due to climate change, air masses rise up over the Amazon region, lose moisture and come back down hot and dry, a phenomenon that creates deserts when it is ongoing, Salati told Tierramérica.

"This has never happened before in the 40 years that I've been studying the region," he said, adding that there is no record of it taking place before.

flying over that area, as i have done several times over the past year, the smoke from fires often obscures visibility and extends in plumes for hundreds of kilometers downwind... it's a disturbing sight...

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Rove: "...if not criminally, then certainly unethically."

"This is a White House in turmoil right now," said a senior aide, one of many who declined to speak on the record at a time of peril and paranoia. As for Rove, the aide said, some insiders believed that he had "behaved, if not criminally, then certainly unethically."

rove gives unethical a bad name... the man has almost single-handedly taken politics in the u.s. to a new low where anything goes... stories can be fabricated and passed along as rumor and innuendo and, as long as they cast some doubt on their target, they've served their purpose - even when they're later debunked... no wonder listening to fitzgerald was such a positive experience... when you've been suffering from a migraine, even an ordinary headache feels like heaven...

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Bush's relationship with Bush

"All relationships with the President, except for his relationship with Laura, have been damaged recently," the White House adviser says. The closest aide who is undamaged is Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice—who is off minding the rest of the world—and, of course, Bush himself. "The funny thing is everybody's failing now, in which case perhaps it's time to look at George Bush's relationship with George Bush."

ya think...?

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More Fitz"adulation..."

What an impression was made by this display of honesty on a nation that is literally starving for it: Truth, the exacting rectitude we hear so often that our country is founded upon and the champion for. The legitimacy that is so rarely practiced by the self-appointed purveyors thereof; It left us swooning. And now we have seen it again, we have tasted it for the first time in so long, and we like the flavor: Nothing can substitute for the truth.

yep... that pretty well sums up my feelings too...

(thanks to darksyde at kos...)

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Voiding the "blank check..."

steve clemons...

So, while I'm sick about what has happened this week, this is all about taking back the blank check and unconstrained power that the American public gave this White House because of the war.

taking back that "blank check," however, requires that a great deal more be done... it's very interesting to hear a call for some of it coming from, of all places, the right... the american conservative in an article entitled, "Who was behind the Niger uranium documents?" has this to say...

The possible forgery of the information by Defense Department employees would explain the viciousness of the attack on Valerie Plame and her husband. Wilson, when he denounced the forgeries in the New York Times in July 2003, turned an issue in which there was little public interest into something much bigger. The investigation continues, but the campaign against this lone detractor suggests that the administration was concerned about something far weightier than his critical op-ed.

knight ridder makes a similar call and has compiled a good chronology of events surrounding the forgeries to date...

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The White House dodged a bullet because Rove wasn't indicted...?

gimme a break says larry o'donnell...

‘The White House dodged a bullet’ is the single stupidest bit of nonstop echo punditry we’ve heard this weekend. Karl Rove not getting indicted presents the White House with a worse problem than an indictment would have.

[...]

The Washington Post poll shows that the best outcome for the Democrats would be Rove staying in the White House till Bush’s last day. The Post reports, “Barely a third of Americans -- 34 percent -- think Bush is doing a good job ensuring high ethics in government, which is slightly lower than President Bill Clinton's standing on this issue when he left office.” Keeping Rove on the job will keep that number where it is today.

well, i don't know... maybe so... i still think rove is the most dangerous man in america today and having him anywhere close to the seat of power is just asking for it... but, i will concede, perhaps his continued presence is just the ticket for visibly demonstrating just how sick this administration is...

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