An attack on truth

brent budowsky, writing in the huffpo, lays it on the table...

Today's radio address by George Bush included some of the most demeaning, deceptive, dishonest and delusional words ever spoken by an American President.

The President said that in the 2006 elections the American people did not vote for Congress to substitute its judgment for his.

What a bald faced lie and what a slander of the very idea of American democracy.

The President made many misstatements in his radio talking points today, but this one is most noteworthy because it dramatizes every reason that George Bush widely seen as America's worst President in history by a growing number of historians.

This is not an attack on Democrats, it is not an attack on opponents, this is an attack on the American voter, this is an attack on the very idea of liberty, freedom and democracy.

This is an attack on truth.

what can i say... i emphatically agree...

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Gonzales' Justice Department

i'm grabbing a lengthy excerpt from a post by emptywheel at the next hurrah who is quoting daniel metcalfe... it's an extremely interesting and, i think, particularly perceptive overview, analysis, and summary of what took place when gonzales took over at justice...

But the process of agency functioning, however, became dramatically different almost immediately after Gonzales arrived. No longer was emphasis placed on accomplishing something with the highest-quality product in a timely fashion; rather, it became a matter of making sure that a "consensus" was achieved, regardless of how long that might take and with little or no concern that quality would suffer in such a "lowest common denominator" environment. And heaven help anyone, career or noncareer employee, if that "consensus" did not include whatever someone in the White House might think about something, be it large, small or medium-sized.

In short, the culture markedly shifted to one in which avoiding any possibility of disagreement anywhere was the overriding concern, as if "consensus" were an end unto itself. Undergirding this, what's more, was the sad fact that so many political appointees in 2005 and 2006 were so obviously thinking not much further than their next (i.e., higher-level) position, in some place where they could "max out" by the end of Bush's second term.

[...]

On one side, you had hard-nosed prosecutors who, for the most part, already had several years' experience under their belts (with little micromanagement from Ashcroft's people) and knew what they were doing already. On the other side, you had political aides who, among other things, had precious little management experience for their positions and were not necessarily adept at playing well with others, even when those others were political appointees like themselves. One need look no further than the extensively disclosed e-mails from Kyle Sampson, Mike Elston [chief of staff to McNulty], Monica Goodling and [Deputy Associate Attorney General] Will Moschella to get a clear picture of this.

Does this mean that at least some of the eight replaced U.S. Attorneys made the list because they failed to get along in a sufficiently deferential fashion with such Main Justice appointees? I'd certainly bet the oldest of my two cars on it, perhaps even the newer one, based upon what I've seen over the years and what I've read in e-mail form more recently. And it surely follows from everything else I've observed that in such a situation, even with the presumed cover of "consensus" decision-making, such appointed aides would scramble mightily, in the most derisive of terms (captured only partially on the disclosed e-mails), to castigate the U.S. Attorney victims of their management inexperience, lest they themselves be held to blame.

And that then, with little sense (of irony or otherwise), they would proceed to publicly tarnish the reputations of several U.S. Attorneys while in the next breath redacting records based on an asserted need to "protect their (i.e., the U.S. Attorneys') privacy." Even putting such callousness and privacy violations aside, and moving swiftly past the image that they "eat their young," it is painfully clear that these political aides got carried away again and again.

this is a very useful insight... scary too...

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Traveling - kinda sorta

i decided to head back to the states a week early... somebody is actually making noises about PAYING me something... the catch...? i have to BE there... < sigh > i screwed myself up trying to change a free ticket on the stateside flight legs, so i might get stuck in miami until tuesday... anyway, light posting today and we'll see what happens tomorrow and the first of the week...

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Oh, yes, by all means, let's "allow the government to keep information obtained 'unintentionally' "

they've knocked themselves out earning our confidence and trust, i can't imagine anyone having any objections to this...

The Bush administration yesterday asked Congress to make more non-citizens subject to intelligence surveillance and to authorize the interception of foreign communications routed through the United States.

Currently, under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, individuals have to be associated with a foreign terrorism suspect or a foreign power to fall under the auspices of the FISA court, which can grant the authority to institute federal surveillance. The White House proposes expanding potential targets to include non-citizens believed to possess, transmit or receive important foreign intelligence information, as well as those engaged in the United States in activities related to the purchase or development of weapons of mass destruction.

The proposed revisions to FISA would also allow the government to keep information obtained "unintentionally," unrelated to the purpose of the surveillance, if it "contains significant foreign intelligence." Currently such information is destroyed unless it indicates threat of death or serious bodily harm.

they've gotta go... all of 'em... please, dear lord, help us get rid of them while we still have a recognizable country...

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This is big, this is bad, Bush, Rove, Gonzo and company may well be toast

my head is reeling...

All Things Considered (NPR) moments ago aired a blockbuster of a story by Ari Shapiro, who said that he had sources with access to the White House who blew the Bush administration's cover story on the firing of the US Attorneys. The plan originated with Karl Rove, and his idea was to fire all the US Attorneys in order to conceal the fact that the mass firing was meant specifically to get rid of just a few of them.

NPR now has new information about that plan. According to someone who's had conversations with White House officials, the plan to fire all 93 U.S. attorneys originated with political adviser Karl Rove. It was seen as a way to get political cover for firing the small number of U.S. attorneys the White House actually wanted to get rid of. Documents show the plan was eventually dismissed as impractical.

this is huge shit, i think... let's see where it goes...

(thanks to smintheus at kos...)

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Dear Patrick Fitzgerald

day or night, awake or asleep, hunt me down and let me know what his answer is...

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), a Washington-based legal watchdog organization, has called on Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald to re-open an investigation into White House adviser Karl Rove's role in the identity leak of former CIA agent Valerie Plame.

"It looks like Karl Rove may well have destroyed evidence that implicated him in the White House's orchestrated efforts to leak Valerie Plame Wilson's covert identity to the press in retaliation against her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson," said Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director.

this little wisp of a connection has been floating around for the last couple of days, since the "amazing disappearing emails" story broke... fitz may think he got 'em all, but i betcha serious money he's thinking twice now...

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Ok, here's what I don't get

if i stepped into a position like karl rove's, a deputy chief of staff to the president of the united states, i would be humbled by what i would consider to be a sacred obligation to serve my country in the most upstanding, ethical, squeakiest clean way possible, to serve as nothing less than a paragon of virtue that would bring honor to me, my boss, and my country... every single day, i would be cognizant that i was not there to serve anything other than the common good, and all that i did must meet that end... when i worked at united airlines, there was no question in my mind that we were there to provide a safe, reliable, efficient, economical, and fast way to move people and goods from one point to another...

yeah, i know there are lots of different kinds of people out there and it's evident that there aren't nearly enough who think like i do, but what, i would like to know, makes it such a difficult concept that it doesn't take root in the minds of our public servants...? it irritates the ever-loving shit outta me to have to read crap like this...

[I]n January 2006, special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald informed the Scooter Libby defense team that some of Rove’s emails from his White House account in 2003 were not saved as required by federal law.

[...]

The controversy surrounding Rove this week has involved his RNC email account. The RNC acknowledged that, while they instituted a new policy in 2004 to preserve emails, there appear to be no records from White House senior political adviser Karl Rove until 2005, leaving open “the possibility that Rove had personally deleted the missing e-mails.” According to the RNC, the Committee took action specifically and singularly against Rove in 2005 to keep him “from deleting his e-mails from the RNC server.”

one of the things foremost in my mind would be that everything i did would be part of the historical record, potentially available and open at any time to public scrutiny, something i would consider right and appropriate for someone serving as a steward of the public trust... i would be almost obsessive about making sure that records were properly kept, maintained, and accessible right from the moment i first set foot in my office... i guess that's just me...

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THIS is why they're stalling on the emails

with what's come out already, from documents that have no doubt ALREADY been "sanitized," can you IMAGINE what's left to be uncovered...? these people are so-o-oo-o-o-ooo SCREWED... (and it couldn't happen to a nicer bunch...!)

from today's document dump...

The Justice Department identified five Bush administration insiders as replacement U.S. attorneys almost a year before most of the prosecutors were fired, contrary to repeated claims that no such list had ever been drawn up, according to documents released today.

E-mails sent to the White House in January and May of 2006 by D. Kyle Sampson, then chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, list potential replacements for U.S. attorneys in San Diego, San Francisco, Grand Rapids, Mich., and Little Rock, Ark.

The replacements on the list were all high-level administration insiders, including two who have gone on to different U.S. attorney postings: Jeff Taylor, now chief prosecutor in the District, and Deborah Rhodes, now U.S. attorney in Alabama. The others were Rachel L. Brand, currently head of the Office of Legal Counsel, and Daniel Levin, a former senior Justice and White House official, the memos show.

Justice officials have previously said that only Tim Griffin, currently acting U.S. attorney in Little Rock, was specifically identified as a replacement candidate for one of the fired prosecutors.

the plan was to place these folks in vacancies that had been CREATED for them to fill... in order to create the vacancies, some reasons had to be cooked up as to why the incumbents were being given the boot... it's so patently obvious...

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It's official - the far right extremists want a dictatorship

hell, we've been seeing a dictatorship being fashioned right before our eyes for 6+ years, why should it surprise anybody to see it finally admitted in print...? glenn greenwald, one of the more solid voices out there, has some comments (boldface mine...)

The Weekly Standard's Michael Goldfarb participated in a conference call with former Senator George Mitchell yesterday, during which Mitchell advocated a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. This is what Goldfarb wrote about that call:

Pam Hess, the UPI reporter who gave us this extremely moving and persuasive glimpse of the liberal case for the war in Iraq, asked if timetables for withdrawal "somehow infringe on the president's powers as commander in chief?" Mitchell's less than persuasive answer: "Congress is a coequal branch of government...the framers did not want to have one branch in charge of the government."

True enough, but they sought an energetic executive with near dictatorial power in pursuing foreign policy and war. So no, the Constitution does not put Congress on an equal footing with the executive in matters of national security.

needless to say, greenwald comes back forcefully...

The notion that our Constitution vests anything like "near dictatorial power" in the President in any area -- let alone areas as broadly defined as "foreign policy and war" and "national security" -- is so utterly absurd that no response ought to be required.

[...]

One of the principal purposes of the Federalist Papers -- which Goldfarb obscenely cites as though it supports his twisted views of dictatorial omnipotence in America -- was to assuage widespread concerns (or, as Scalia put it, "mistrust") that the President would be, in essence, a new British King. That fear was not eliminated or even diminished, but instead was particularly pronounced, with regard to the President's role as "Commander-in-Chief," which is why there are so many safeguards in the form of Congressional powers designed to limit that role. All of this is excruciatingly basic and obvious, really not much beyond what seventh grade civics students are taught about what distinguishes a Republic from a "dictatorship."

as each day passes, i am less able to distinguish the two...

(thanks to crooks and liars...)

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Big Tent Democrat is pissed off with Obama

i have to agree...

Look at what one of his key advisors Samantha Power said:

I got to talk a little bit about it with Samantha Power, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author on the subject of genocide and an informal advisor to Mr. Obama's campaign who is helping to write the speech. "We're going to hear something very unusual on the left, which is a genuine pride in what America can be again," she told me.

That is outrageous! This is Obama and his campaign in a nutshell - 'look how great I am, I am not like those other Dems who hate America, religion and Republicans.'

yes, that IS outrageous...

i was just now commenting on larisa's blog... she's traveling in a 3d world country and experiencing a fair amount of anti-american sentiment, and i was reflecting that i get the same here in argentina... however, as always, when i show warmth and goodwill and a willingness to accept people as they are, people almost never fail to reciprocate... folks are still very warm to the american PEOPLE, they just don't care for our government, and who can blame them...

i happen to care very much for my country and hate to see what a relatively small group of criminals is doing to it... i don't spend most of my waking hours blogging because i hate the u.s...

obama had better get a goddam clue... he's already lost me...

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Federalist Society...? Check... Sworn loyalty oath...? Check...

no... no revelations of loyalty oaths - YET... but we haven't heard from monica goodling either...

Today, the House Judiciary Committee released a new set of documents from the Department of Justice relating to the firings of eight U.S. Attorneys.

The last page of document set 3 contains an email from Monica Goodling with an attached Excel spreadsheet on “USA data (GWB).”

The spreadsheet appears to assess a list of U.S. Attorneys based on a variety of different qualifications, including prosecution experience and political experience. But there is one column dedicated solely to an assessment of whether the attorneys are members of the Federalist Society. ... The far right column contains a data column for “FedSoc”...

a commenter at think progress asks...

#8

If Bill Clinton tracked the same for ACLU members, would that be O.K.?

Comment by Jake — April 13, 2007 @ 1:28 pm

uh... that would be a no... affiliation with professional associations, community organizations, and interest groups are certainly appropriate items for a resume, but they fall into the "other" category, and are included only to indicate community involvement, a willingness to expand or support your profession, and/or other interests that are the marks of a well-rounded individual... i've looked at and evaluated tons of resumes, and, i can tell you, those things are looked at for those reasons only and should NEVER, EVER become part of a qualifications screening...

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Of COURSE, Spitcomb has "our FULL confidence"

he's already a made man in the bushco mafia, one of the real goodfellas...

“Of course President Wolfowitz has our full confidence,” Deputy White House Press Secretary Tony Fratto said yesterday.

if the opportunity arose, i'm sure they would ALSO express FULL confidence in scooter libby, tom delay, jack abramoff, duke cunningham, don rumsfeld, paul bremer, kyle sampson, monica goodling, bernie kerik, and mark foley...

(thanks to think progress...)

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Fred Fielding's "unified offer"

TPMmuckraker translates the latest from the white house on the requested documents...

You can read the letter White House counsel Fred Fielding sent last night to Congress about the U.S. attorneys investigation here.

But here's the shorter version of the "offer":

Dear Congress,

You'll get what we want you to get when we want you to get it, or you'll get nothing.

Best,
Fred Fielding

In the letter, Fielding says that the White House's offer of March 20th stands. It's a great offer, he says. And carping from Democrats and some Republicans like Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) about it fails "to credit fully the extraordinary nature of the disclosure we are prepared to provide."

The offer, remember, was 1) to turn over records of all relevant communications from a White House official to a party outside the White House (but no internal communications are to be turned over) and 2) Karl Rove and other White House officials would meet with Congress privately, but there would be no transcript and no oath. The offer also restricts the range of questioning.

But it gets better. Those RNC-issued email accounts belonging to White House staff are also to be covered under the deal. And Fielding says "it was and remains our intention to collect e-mails and documents from those [RNC-controlled] accounts."

In other words, whatever emails Congress gets, they'll have to get through the White House -- and they won't get anything unless they get it as part of Fielding's "unified offer," his “carefully and thoughtfully considered package of accommodations.”

dear fred,

please take your "unified offer" and carefully but firmly insert it into that special place where the sun does not shine...

respectfully,

profmarcus

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Subpoena possible for Satan's #2, Sara Taylor

keep plugging away, guys...

The Senate Judiciary Committee announced yesterday that it will likely authorize subpoenas for Karl Rove's top deputy in the White House. The message came as the committee authorized subpoenas for other Justice Department and White House officials, and suggests that interest has grown among investigators in Taylor's role in the firing of 8 U.S. Attorneys by the Bush administration.

can you imagine what it must be like to work for satan's doppelganger, what kind of xylocaine you must have to inject in your values, principles, ethics, and moral scruples before you come to work of a morning...?

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How high can the NYT pile shit in defense of Don Imus?

a lot higher than i would have suspected...

Mr. Imus is an old-school radio guy caught in a very modern media paradigm. When he started 30 years ago, if he made the same kind of remark, it would have floated off into the ether — the Federal Communications Commission, if it received complaints, might have taken notice, but few others.

this comment, to me, is almost as offensive as what mr. imus himself had to say... i've deliberately not posted anything on this tempest in a teapot because, plainly and simply, i don't give a rat's ass, but this knocked me off my early morning pegs...

i happen to have followed radio all my life (60 years this december), and, i can tell you, there is no way in HELL imus would have MADE a similar remark 30 years ago... 30 years ago, radio talk was a civil place, a benign place which, while maybe not all that substantive, was at least characterized by a certain decorum, the kind you would find in living rooms and coffee shops all over the country... imus may be old, but he certainly ain't "old-school..." imus represents the rise of the shock jock, the breed who made names for themselves by deliberately adopting the argot of the locker room and the all-night drinking and poker parties so beloved of testosterone devotees...

dating myself, i remember that it was morton downey jr. who really brought this type of broadcasting sewage fully into the public eye back in the early 80s... in fact, when downey left radio and turned to tv, his replacement was rush limbaugh... in any case, "old-school radio guy" is a patent lie and the new york times should be ashamed...

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"Bush is responsible for everything that happens in Iraq"

leave it to juan cole to cut to the chase...

In Middle Eastern autocracies like Syria, the television news will show long clips of the president sitting with some visitor, with the sound off but some music in the background. It seems to go on forever. Stories about Bush's comments on an event like the parliament bombing are the American equivalent of those toadying, lingering camera caresses. Bush is responsible for everything that happens in Iraq, because he created this situation with his greed and ineptitude. If you were going to do a story on his reaction to a bombing in the Green Zone, it should be about how he didn't do enough to stop it. Or, you could ask why he keeps suggesting that there is a moral derangement in the bombers, which explains everything. The bombers aren't just immoral, they are using kamikaze tactics in a political cause (ending the US military presence in their country and dislodging the government set up under US auspices). Diverting attention from their politics to their immorality is a way for Bush to deny that his own political project in Iraq provoked this response.

the principal point of professor cole's post is to express his frustration at how, despite the fact that the iraqi parliament bombing in the green zone is evidence of a greatly worsening situation in baghdad, the u.s. media gave the implications little play, opting instead for the usual o.j. simpson/anna nicole smith effluvium, this time in the form of don imus, and then bush's ridiculous statement of condemnation in response, as if he might possibly APPROVE...

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Is Wolfie going to bite the big one...?

steve clemons, never too far off the mark, thinks it may be sooner rather than later...

Paul Wolfowitz's tenure at the World Bank may end in the next day or two. Rumors are spreading like wild fire at the Bank that he plans to resign tomorrow.

I have no official information confirming this -- other than that several senior staff in two specific Executive Directorships at the World Bank and some other senior staff at the IMF and other staff are reporting to me that Wolfowitz's resignation is imminent. I'm not sure, however, that there views are not collective speculation.

this would truly be a wonderful turn of events... wolfowitz is a despicable human being who was placed in his world bank position for the precise same reason alberto gonzales was placed at the department of justice, and the precise same reason john bolton was placed at the u.n. - to extend the power and leverage of the criminal, neocon cabal into every aspect of domestic and international organizations...

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A general observation: things are rapidly going south for Bushco on many fronts

i can't possibly snip, excerpt, and comment on all that's going on, so, here's some links...

from
think progress...

RNC has no Rove emails pre-2005

White House Stonewalls Waxman’s Inquiry Into Cheney-Linked MZM Contracts

Perino ‘Defends’ Email Statements: I Didn’t Lie, I Just Had No Idea What I Was Talking About

Major document dump expected today

White House lost 5 million emails

White House withholds the evidence


from
TPMmuckraker...

Immunity for Key Justice Aide?

(i'm going to excerpt a tad from this one...)

Will Congress grant Monica Goodling immunity from prosecution in order to compel her to testify about the Bush Administration's firing late last year of eight U.S. Attorneys?

Sources tell TIME that discussions are under way on Capitol Hill about whether to offer just such a deal to the key former aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. The discussions — still largely informal — follow Goodling's assertion of her Fifth Amendment privilege to refuse to testify about her role in the controversial firings. Were Goodling to receive some form of immunity, she could be legally compelled to testify or risk facing charges of contempt of Congress.

Karl Rove, Blackberry Junky

Rove Emails Missing from RNC Server


hey, there's lots more... go keep up with things... it's all breaking fast...

AMERICAblog

Raw Story

TalkLeft

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Pattern recognition, Bushco style

glenn greenwald employs one of my favorite (and most lucrative) skills...

New York Times, today:

"some official e-mails have potentially been lost."

The Politico, March 24, 2007:

In DOJ documents that were publicly posted by the House Judiciary Committee, there is a gap from mid-November to early December in e-mails, which was a critical period as the White House and Justice Department reviewed, then approved, which U.S. attorneys would be fired

Newsweek, February 28, 2007:

what happened to a crucial video recording of Padilla being interrogated in a U.S. military brig that has mysteriously disappeared?

NPR, June 24, 2004:

Key documents are missing from the batch of newly declassified documents the White House released this week on its policies on torture and the treatment of prisoners

USA Today, May 24, 2004:

some 2,000 pages were missing from a congressional copy of a classified report detailing the alleged acts of abuse by soldiers against Iraqi inmates at Abu Ghraib prison

Associated Press, September 5, 2004:

Documents that should have been written to explain gaps in President Bush's Texas Air National Guard service are missing from the military records released about his service in 1972 and 1973

Newsweek, March 1, 2006:

[Federal Emergency Management Agency Michael] Brown's comments about the president surfaced in a transcript of an Aug. 29, 2005, videoconference call produced by Bush administration officials today after they initially told Congress that no such document existed

i have a theory... all these missing items are mixed in with the dust balls behind karl rove's dryer...

(thanks to kagro x at daily kos...)

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Is there anybody left who believes their lies...?

these people are beyond arrogant and i don't know what word to use to capture their depths of duplicity...

"I can say that historically the White House didn't give enough guidance to staff on how to avoid violating the Hatch Act while following the Records Act. We didn't do a good enough job."

In other words, it was an open secret at the White House that the parallel system was to be used for everything you didn't want coming out later -- an understanding that was most likely never made explicit, but a situation that was carefully preserved by not providing apparently any parameters for what sort of communication should be done via the White House system.

how long can we let these people stay in office...? certainly not until 20 january 2009...

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Tough shit, Pete, suck it up... Besides, NM's a great place to retire...

hell like you've never experienced, eh...?

The Associated Press today reports on rumors that Sen. Pete Domenici (R-NM), one of two members of Congress in possible ethical trouble for allegedly contacting the U.S. Attorney in New Mexico to discuss grand jury proceedings, may retire. But the senator's staff pointed to the ample money he has raised as evidence he won't quit.

"Down the road, as the election comes — will questions about his health or the (U.S. attorney) story hurt his campaign?" asked University of New Mexico political science professor Lonna Atkeson in an interview with the AP.

At a recent banquet in Albuquerque, the New Mexico Republican apparently "called recent weeks 'hell' like he had never experienced his entire career."

Since an ethics complaint was filed against the senator in February for calling U.S. Attorney David Iglesias prior to the November 2006 elections and inquiring about the status of grand jury proceedings in a political fraud case, Democrats have seen an opportunity to defeat the longtime Republican senator, comparing him with Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT), who was linked into the Abramoff scandal.

ya know what...? when these guys start boo-hooing, i glaze over... they've enabled the bush administration to march steadfastly down the path to a one-party, authoritarian state for 6+ years without uttering a peep to stop them... they should have thought of the consequences both for themselves and for the country they supposedly were elected to serve before they agreed to play along with criminals...

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Hilarious - NYT says Rudy "goes straight to the pandering"

my god, what a crop of LOSERS we've got running for president... the only one, dem or r, who seems to have a drop of the right stuff is edwards and my jury is still out on him, but THIS is pretty sad...

Americans are weary enough of presidential candidates who blurt out one of those intellectually dishonest sound bites known as “the pander” when they are caught in the last moments of a do-or-die race. But what are they to make of a candidate who goes straight to the pandering, with comments that are offensive to millions of people?

That’s what we found ourselves asking when Rudolph Giuliani told reporters in Alabama that it should be up to the state to decide whether to fly the Confederate battle flag over its Capitol. Never mind that the flag has not flown there for nearly 15 years. Never mind that nobody is pushing to return it. Never mind that lawsuits have been decided on this issue and that millions of Americans find the standard to be a symbol of slavery and repression.

Explaining his let-them-fly-flags philosophy, he declaimed that one of the “great beauties” of American government is that “we can make different decisions in different parts of the country.”

He added: “We have different sensitivities.”

Mr. Giuliani cannot truly believe the issues surrounding the Confederate flag are just a matter of local taste. The Civil War, the civil rights movement and the Supreme Court answered that question. Even the Southern states have largely moved on.

add this to his not knowing how much us po' folks have to pay for bread and milk at the store, and we've got a pretty pathetic candidate on our hands...

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Absolutely, totally unacceptable, and, quite possibly, criminal

'scuse ME...!?!?! this AIN'T an "oopsie..."

The White House acknowledged yesterday that e-mails dealing with official government business may have been lost because they were improperly sent through private accounts intended to be used for political activities. Democrats have been seeking such missives as part of an investigation into the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

Administration officials said they could offer no estimate of how many e-mails were lost but indicated that some may involve messages from White House senior adviser Karl Rove, whose role in the firings has been under scrutiny by congressional Democrats.

and, of course, we get the lame excuses...

Briefing reporters yesterday about an initial review of the private e-mail system, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel declined to discuss whether the political aides were driven by a desire to conduct business outside of potential review. "I can't speak to people's individual e-mail practices," he said.

Stanzel conceded that the White House had done a poor job of instructing staff members how to save politically oriented e-mail and said that it has developed new guidance for the more than 20 staffers who have official as well as political e-mail addresses. He also said that the White House is trying to recover the lost e-mails.

that's why, as conyers has requested, forensic images be made of every goddam hard drive, laptop or desktop, whose keyboard has been touched by the fingers of the suspects, particularly karl rove...

[T]he Committee urges the Department to image forensically the work stations, laptops, and/or other personal computers of key custodians at the White House likely to have material regarding the controversy surrounding the dismissals.

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Yes, "so it goes," but Kurt will be missed

Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died Wednesday. He was 84.

i think i've read nearly everything he's written, and, for me, he's been one of the voices that most clearly reflects the insanity and absurdity that passes for reason and common sense in this modern world... Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance With Death acquainted me with the horrors of dresden, a nightmare conveniently omitted from our history lessons, and his understated comment on death, dying, and all things transitory, "so it goes," has been part of my lexicon ever since... all the best to you on the other side, mr. vonnegut...

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While McCain drives off a cliff, Gates drives the military straight into a wall

words fail me...

In the latest evidence that President Bush’s Iraq escalation strategy is forcing the military to the breaking point, Defense Secretary Robert Gates “said Wednesday that he was extending the tours of duty for active-duty Army troops in Iraq and Afghanistan from 12 to 15 months.”

"support the troops..." whatever...

(thanks to think progress...)

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The chances that the fired attorneys and Rove's swing states aren't connected is 1 in 10,000

drational at kos does some karl rove math...

first, he lists the key 2008 swing states identified by rove...

You know, I think in 2008, there will be a number of states which will be competitive that are familiar states: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, maybe not Florida, Colorado, Arkansas, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nevada, Iowa, New Mexico.

then he matches them up with states in which u.s. attorneys were fired...



then he does a little statistical analysis (i'll spare you the math which i don't follow anyway)...

[T]he odds that the fired USAs and Rove’s Politically Important states randomly matching up the way they did are 1 in seven hundred thirty five thousand, six hundred and twenty seven.

and then, in an update from a commenter who offers a more rigorous chi square (?) analysis, we learn...

The chances this association are random is less than one in 10,000.

to quote my dear, departed mother, "well, how 'BOUT that...!"

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When the bridge is out ahead, McCain jams the accelerator to the floor

he always speaks the truth...

The Senator argued that his 'truth-telling' was more important than his political prospects.

iraq is more important to him than being president...

"For my part, I would rather lose a campaign than a war," he remarked.

he is going to defend u.s. presence in iraq no matter what...

At the same time, he defended America's military involvement.

he continues to see al qaeda lurking behind every tree...

"It is obviously true that no military solution is capable of doing what the Iraqis won’t do politically," he said in response to those calling for a withdrawal of US troops. "But, my friends, no political solution has a chance to succeed when al Qaeda is free to foment civil war and Iraqis remain dependent on sectarian militias to protect their children from being murdered."

and (of course) it's all the democrats' fault...

The Senator criticized top Democrats for their stance in particular.

"In Washington, where political calculation seems to trump all other considerations, Democrats in Congress and their leading candidates for President, heedless of the terrible consequences of our failure, unanimously confirmed our new commander, and then insisted he be prevented from taking the action he believes necessary to safeguard our country’s interests," he said.

ya gotta hand it to mccain... when he sees the the bridge out on the road ahead, he just jams the accelerator to the floor... maybe he thinks he can do an evel knievel...

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I don't want Gonzales to resign

from the la times...

53% said Gonzales should step down because he claimed he had no role in the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys last year...

but i DEFINITELY want public testimony under oath...

The poll also found that 74 percent of the public (and 49 percent of Republicans) think that Karl Rove and other White House aides should testify before Congress under oath.

the reason i want gonzales to stay, as i've said before, is that i believe he provides a major firewall for his boss... now, you can argue that, with the firewall out of the way, george will be that much more vulnerable... that may be true, and, in fact, i believe that IS true... however, the longer gonzo stays, the more things are going to spin out of control for bush, the higher the water will back up behind the dam, and the greater the deluge when it finally cracks, bringing the entire house down with it... just one guy's thoughts...

(thanks to TPMmuckraker...)

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McConnell's first legislative proposal is to EXPAND government spying power

un-friggingly-believable...

President Bush’s spy chief is pushing to expand the government’s surveillance authority at the same time the administration is under attack for stretching its domestic eavesdropping powers.

National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell has circulated a draft bill that would expand the government’s powers under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, liberalizing how that law can be used.

i guess what you gotta do when you start making your first big move after taking office is kissing your boss's ass... nice work, mike... now, why don't you go back to booz allen...?

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Guess who wants to micromanage the war?

they have GOT to be kiddin'...

The White House wants to appoint a high-profile overseer to manage the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but has had trouble finding someone to take the job, The Washington Post reported on Wednesday.

At least three retired four-star generals approached by the White House in recent weeks have turned down the position, the report said.

The war "czar" would report directly to President George W. Bush and national security adviser Stephen Hadley and would have authority to issue directions to the Pentagon and the State Department, the newspaper said.

Retired Marine Gen. John "Jack" Sheehan, a former top NATO commander, was among those who rejected the job, the newspaper reported.

"The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going," Sheehan told the Post.

bush has said repeatedly that the commanders are in charge, and has recently been hyperventilating about what he calls attempts by congress to "micromanage" the war... so the solution to the iraq/afghanistan unholy mess is to put in someone in at white house staff level who will tell the pentagon and state department what to do...? what this demonstrates to me is simply one more effort to politicize every executive branch agency and force submission to centralized political control... what else could it possibly be...?

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“I could care less that the results are not what the more conservative members of my party wanted.”

i posted this last year right after karl made his speech...

you've gotta hand it to karl for jaw-dropping, in-your-face insolence and effrontery...

In a speech to the Republican National Lawyers Association in Washington last Friday, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove thanked its members for their "work on clean elections," RAW STORY has found.

"I want to thank you for your work on clean elections," Rove said. "I know a lot of you spent time in the 2004 election, the 2002, election, the 2000 election in your communities or in strange counties in Florida, helping make it certain that we had the fair and legitimate outcome of the election."

this ranks right up there with his all-time greatest hits like the "clean air act..." karl didn't invent the game but he sure as hell plays it better than anyone i've ever seen...

"We have, as you know, an enormous and growing problem with elections in certain parts of America today," Rove said. "We are, in some parts of the country, I'm afraid to say, beginning to look like we have elections like those run in countries where they guys in charge are, you know, colonels in mirrored sunglasses. I mean, it's a real problem, and I appreciate that all that you're doing in those hot spots around the country to ensure that the ballot -- the integrity of the ballot is protected, because it's important to our democracy."

absolutely friggin' AMAZING... if the god of the old testament was still with us, upon the completion of that statement, a lightning bolt would have exploded from the heavens and reduced his satanic rotundness to a pile of fine ash...

now, with the revelations coming out of the justice department that u.s. attorneys were being expected to pursue a partisan policy of voter suppression, the nyt offers us even more evidence of bush administration lies...

A federal panel responsible for conducting election research played down the findings of experts who concluded last year that there was little voter fraud around the nation, according to a review of the original report obtained by The New York Times.

Instead, the panel, the Election Assistance Commission, issued a report that said the pervasiveness of fraud was open to debate.

even more interestingly...

And two weeks ago, the panel faced criticism for refusing to release another report it commissioned concerning voter identification laws. That report, which was released after intense pressure from Congress, found that voter identification laws designed to fight fraud can reduce turnout, particularly among members of minorities. In releasing that report, which was conducted by a different set of scholars, the commission declined to endorse its findings, citing methodological concerns.

A number of election law experts, based on their own research, have concluded that the accusations regarding widespread fraud are unjustified. And in this case, one of the two experts hired to do the report was Job Serebrov, a Republican elections lawyers from Arkansas, who defended his research in an e-mail message obtained by The Times that was sent last October to Margaret Sims, a commission staff member.

“Tova and I worked hard to produce a correct, accurate and truthful report,” Mr. Serebrov wrote, referring to Tova Wang, a voting expert with liberal leanings from the Century Foundation and co-author of the report. “I could care less that the results are not what the more conservative members of my party wanted.”

the consequences of this dishonest pursuit of voter "fraud" by the republican one-party machine are clear: poor, minority, and other historically vulnerable-to-disenfranchisement folks are discouraged from voting, and, when those people don't vote, they have no way to voice their interests and needs, which regularly run counter to the interests and needs of the monied, power classes, who have no trouble whatsoever voting...

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DOJ responds to subpoenas pretty much as expected

you didn't think they'd just send 'em right over, did you...?

Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said, "We still hope and expect that we will be able to reach an accommodation with the Congress," but signaled that Justice will consider opposing the congressional demand.

"Much of the information that the Congress seeks pertains to individuals other than the U.S. attorneys who resigned," Roehrkasse said. "Furthermore, many of the documents Congress is now seeking have already been available to them for review. Because there are individual privacy interests implicated by publicly releasing this information, it is unfortunate the Congress would choose this option."

one more time, but i suspect this will not be the last...

we MUST NOT FORGET the fact that the bush administration laid out its plan BEFORE the november elections...

In fact, when it comes to deploying its Executive power, which is dear to Bush's understanding of the presidency, the President's team has been planning for what one strategist describes as "a cataclysmic fight to the death" over the balance between Congress and the White House if confronted with congressional subpoenas it deems inappropriate. The strategist says the Bush team is "going to assert that power, and they're going to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court on every issue, every time, no compromise, no discussion, no negotiation."

make no mistake... bushco is prepared to run itself, congress, and the rest of the country right into the wall over this... people who keep chortling about how cool it is that the dems hold congress and have subpoena power had better gird their loins for a fight for the very soul of this country, because that's no more and no less what's shaping up, if the dems don't wuss out, that is...

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They must think they're talking to morons

utterly astonishing...

White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino defended President Bush's escalation or "surge" strategy as a response to polls indicating that a majority of Americans were disapproving of the Administration's handling of the war in Iraq and sought a new direction.

"The American people have wanted change in Iraq, and they got it," Perino said. "The president announced a new policy on January 10th that was quite different and divergent from where we were before."

oh, gosh, dana... my grandma used to tell me that when i got sores on my tongue, it was because i had told a lie... if that's true, your tongue is going to swell up and hurt like hell...

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Finally, some subpoenas

YEAH...!

MSNBC reports that the House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed the Justice Department for a series of additional documents, revealed last week by The American Spectator, that have not been turned over to Congress.

(thanks to think progress...)

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It's taking a while, but a few more people are waking up

over at daily kos, maccabee has a burr under his saddle about the patriot act and the bush administration...

They want absolute power. This was a Junta, a Putsch, a coup. Call it what you will, but it is the creeping fascism that overtook Argentina, and poisoned Germany and Italy and Spain in the last century.

[...]

This administration has always been about the power to stop political opponents, not terrorists. It has always been about the power to force its extreme right wing morality on you, not terrorism.

[...]

The government wants the government to fail.

[...]

How long before we end up in a prison? Or can't get a boarding pass? Or not be allowed to vote? Or give a speech? Or post a highly charged diary?

this is good... the blood pressure level is appropriately high, the outrage intense, and the truth undeniable... one by one, folks are getting that we've been taken over, a quiet coup d'etat starting with the criminal scotus decision of 12 december 2000... the constitutional crisis has been gathering strength like some unholy tsunami since then, but we still are not banding together to protect ourselves and throw the bastards out... please, please, let more people start to wake up...

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McCain tries to get back in the race by calling on -- Dr. Strangelove?

if he's trotting out henry the "ve haf our vays" k and his buds THIS early in the campaign, mccain must realize he's in deep, deep trouble...

Henry Kissinger and three other former US secretaries of state have endorsed Republican Senator John McCain in his bid for the presidency, his campaign team said on Tuesday.

[...]

McCain has also won support from Alexander Haig and George Shultz, who served as secretaries of state under former president Ronald Reagan, and Lawrence Eagleburger, who was secretary of state under ex-president George H.W. Bush, father of the current president.

he IS in deep, deep trouble... as a presidential candidate, when people start laughing at you, you know you're cooked... however, this also reveals just how the entrenched, war-loving, power structure is wedded to somebody like mccain...



The Daily Show on McCain's Baghdad visit

(thanks to crooks and liars...)

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Claiming executive privilege might lead the American public to suspect a cover-up

but, given the outrages perpetrated by bushco for over 6 years and the collective yawns elicited from the american public in response, i'm not so damn sure... yeah, for those who are paying attention, claiming executive privilege in the justice department scandal stinks to high heaven, but, for my esteemed fellow citizens...? unfortunately, most of them are still watching american idol and praying to win the lottery...

President Bush is not only taking on legal precedents, but historical ones as well. When Congress has pressed for testimony, presidents have generally agreed, however reluctantly. Bruce Fein, the conservative legal commentator, urged Mr. Bush to cooperate, noting that President Ronald Reagan waived executive privilege in the Iran-contra inquiry and let national security advisers and cabinet secretaries testify.

This administration could try to delay by challenging the subpoenas in court, a step that could be a drawn-out process. But it would then have another court to worry about: the court of public opinion. Monica Goodling, the Justice Department’s liaison to the White House, has already invoked her constitutional right against self-incrimination. If top advisers start to claim executive privilege, the American public is likely to suspect a cover-up.

if the "court of public opinion" wasn't asleep at the switch, bush and his criminal posse would have been tarred and feathered and run out of town on a rail a long time ago...

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The Justice Department is truly a mess (and FULL of equivocation)

another piece of the puzzle emerges...

A half-dozen sitting U.S. attorneys also serve as aides to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales or are assigned other Washington postings, performing tasks that take them away from regular duties in their districts for months or even years at a time, according to officials and department records.

Acting Associate Attorney General William W. Mercer, for example, has been effectively absent from his job as U.S. attorney in Montana for nearly two years -- prompting the chief federal judge in Billings to demand his removal and call Mercer's office "a mess."

the defense (citing bill clinton, of course)...

Justice spokesman Brian Roehrkasse characterized the fact that U.S. attorneys were filling other Washington-based Justice jobs as both unremarkable and beneficial. He cited four examples of chief prosecutors who also served stints in the deputy attorney general's office during the George H.W. Bush administration, and two similar examples during the Clinton years.

followed quickly by the realization that they're talking out of both sides of their mouths (again, of course)...

"Quite frankly, U.S. attorneys are hired to run the office, not their first assistants," William E. Moschella, the principal associate deputy attorney general, told the House Judiciary Committee last month.

i wonder if this has any bearing on why gonzales is having so much difficulty preparing for his appearance with the senate judiciary committee...? there's just so much "story" to straight...

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The devastating long-term impact of a criminal presidency

we've got less than two years to make this right or we're going to be screwed repeatedly over many years to come... kagro x has the accurate perspective, culled from several sources and fleshed out by his own brand of solid wisdom... go read it here or here... please...

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Opposing a criminal president is "wasting time...?"

ya, right... and standing up for the balance of powers as set forth in the u.s. constitution is obviously a fool's errand as well...

"Once the Democrats figure out how they want to waste time on this, Senator McConnell will decide how to respond," Jon Henke, a spokesman for McConnell, told RAW STORY in an e-mail. "If the Democrats want to waste some time in a pointless personal fight about the Ambassador to Belgium, I’d only note that recess appointments are very common and we don’t recall Democrats citing this law when President Clinton made similar recess appointments."

"a pointless personal fight..." the garbage that issues from the mouths of these enablers is truly astounding, and OF COURSE, bill clinton MUST BE invoked...

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Gonzo's working hard to dodge a bullet

hmmmmmmm... if he's not convincing those who are PREPARING him, god help him when he gets in front of the razor-sharp talent he'll be facing with the judiciary committee...

Gonzales kept contradicting himself and ‘getting his timeline confused,’ said one participant… His advisers finally got ‘exasperated”‘ with him, the source added. ‘He’s not ready,’ Tasia Scolinos, Gonzales’s public-affairs chief, told the A.G.’s top aides after the session was over, said the source.”

too bad, so sad...

(thanks to think progress...)

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The Christian right is not going to sink into oblivion (and neither is the Constitutional crisis)

max blumenthal points out the obvious...

Goodling may be out of a job, but thousands of capable Christian right cadres remain, waging the culture war from inside the White House, federal agencies and Republican congressional offices. Together they will continue to inflame conflicts that were previously unimaginable.

Anyone insisting in spite of continuously mounting evidence that the Christian right is going to simply shrink into oblivion because the Democrats control Congress, or because evangelical leaders are prone to scandal, should learn from Goodling's example and take the fifth.

let me hasten to add... anyone who thinks for one bloody second that the constitutional crisis that has been gripping the u.s. since the scotus decision of 12 december 2000 validated the quiet bushco coup d'etat is going to quietly disappear because the dems control congress or even when and if the dems win the presidency in 2008, has got another think coming...

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A helpful summary of current wingnut thinking

honestly, i don't know how this crap keeps ending up in my inbox, but, nonetheless, i'm finding it to be instructive reading... it's from move america forward... no link... you'll have to go dig it out on your own...

The past few days have been very instructive in realizing the stakes in the war on terrorism. Sometimes people in this country try to tell us that there really isn't a war going on - it's just lies by our Commander in Chief, or an intrusive American foreign policy butting our noses where it doesn't belong.

However, we know better. We know for example that the Iranians were able to take 15 British sailors hostage and then the Iranians taunted the world not to put too much pressure on them, or else we could all guess the consequences. The Iranians meanwhile terrorized the British hostages, making them believe they were going to be executed and telling them that if they would only lie and say they were in Iranian waters, they could go home.

In response the British government told the American Navy to stand down in our naval exercises in the region (that were pre-planned and in response to Iran's development of nuclear weapons). A top Iranian terror operative was released in Iraq in a move that the British government insists was not a quid-pro-quo but which many analysts view as exactly that.

The UN did not punish Iran. The European Union did nothing to show Iran that they would face consequences for their actions.

And in this country, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi along with pro-Palestinian Congressman Darrell Issa (a Republican who has been accused of supporting Yasser Arafat and terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah) were in Syria, appeasing the state sponsor of Islamic terrorism.

This has not been a good week for the free nations of the West. Radical, pro-Islamic terrorist factions managed to win on a variety of fronts by showing strength and intimidating the British government and the likes of Nancy Pelosi to bow down to them in submission.

Ronald Reagan once fought against the Communist appeasers in the U.S. by saying that true "peace" could only be found through strength - PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH.

it's fascinating to me how, in a few short paragraphs, literally EVERYONE - Iran, Islam, Britain, Syria, Hezbollah, Palestine, the U.N., the EU, Nancy Pelosi, and Republican Darrell Issa - is characterized as either the enemy or as an enemy appeaser... what a marvelous worldview...

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What did the surviving attorneys do to escape the axe?

the nyt poses an excellent question...

As Congress investigates the politicization of the United States attorney offices by the Bush administration, it should review the extraordinary events the other day in a federal courtroom in Wisconsin. The case involved Georgia Thompson, a state employee sent to prison on the flimsiest of corruption charges just as her boss, a Democrat, was fighting off a Republican challenger. It just might shed some light on a question that lurks behind the firing of eight top federal prosecutors: what did the surviving attorneys do to escape the axe?

well, i don't think it's too hard to guess... why, democratic persecution, of course...

Ms. Thompson, a purchasing official in the state’s Department of Administration, was accused by the United States attorney in Milwaukee, Steven Biskupic, of awarding a travel contract to a company whose chief executive contributed to the campaign of Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat. Ms. Thompson said the decision was made on the merits, but she was convicted and sent to prison before she could appeal.

persecution which was blatantly obvious to the appeals court...

The Chicago-based United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit seemed shocked by the injustice of her conviction. It took the extraordinary step of releasing Ms. Thompson from prison immediately after hearing arguments, without waiting to issue a ruling. One of the judges hinted that Ms. Thompson may have been railroaded. “It strikes me that your evidence is beyond thin,” [said] Judge Diane Wood...

it's looking more and more like the justice department was a principal tool of the criminals at bushco in creating their coveted, one-party, authoritarian state...

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And, now, Larisa - a media lament

as long as i'm picking up from other bloggers, i thought this was worth passing on...

Instead of editorial pages demanding to know why Cheney's friends, handpicked to serve in top positions at the Pentagon, would have lied to their dear chum about something as serious as a war (they likely lied to the President), the major papers were busy making fun of Nancy Pelosi's state - California - as though it were some strange evil appendage without any right to have representation or the ability to produce a savvy diplomat. Let's not forget, that the famous Republican actor who played a fearless Cold War President on TV was from that very same state. The Washington Times, a paper owned by a cult leader who made his fortune off fraud, arms and drug running, and human trafficking and finally declared himself the Messiah to his Christian conservative base, apparently has issues with California. Just how freakish is this thing called beltway journalism going to get?

seriously, i don't know that it can get any more freakish than it already is... of course, i realize that's just an invitation to be proven wrong...

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Every once in a while, Fred Hiatt tosses us a bone

big whoop, and not much of a bone either...

The Iglesias Episode

The firing of the U.S. attorney in New Mexico has not been adequately explained.

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Kagro X yesterday

Will oversight and exposure of the Nixon/Bush doctrine be enough? Will Americans finally and miraculously simply awaken to the realities of constitutional transformation? Did the Clinton impeachment really make us so afraid of the process itself that it should be considered unavailable to us in combating the constitutional-level game undertaken by Republicans? Is this really something we can actually debate our way out of? Can we really afford to head into 2008 under the banner of "bipartisan cooperation?"

my thoughts...

personally, i don't give a rat's ass about what it takes to "make impeachment seems like a palatable solution," and, furthermore, i don't even care if impeachment is the vehicle... the constitutional crisis that has been intensifying since the scotus decision of 12 december 2000 is altering the very foundations of the united states and transforming my country into something unrecognizable... "bipartisanship" when dealing with criminals intent on turning the u.s. into a one-party, authoritarian state, with an all-powerful chief executive/commander-in-chief committed to a state of permanent war is simply not acceptable, and waiting until 20 january 2009 is simply too long...

i am convinced that one reason bush is so intent on keeping gonzales around is that gonzo serves as something of a firewall, shielding bush from exposure to the most egregious offenses - e.g. "constitutional hardball" - pushed in large part by the justice department... with gonzo gone, bush will be massively exposed to the very real possibility that the floodgates will open... with that in mind, i think the longer alberto stays on, the more likely that the pressure behind the dam will continue to build, and, when it finally gives way, katy bar the door...

my hope, call it my fantasy, is that there will be revelations so dramatic, so incriminating, so absolutely undeniable, that a bush/cheney resignation will be a given, or, if not, impeachment will be accomplished in short order... god, i hope so... we can't afford another DAY of this administration, much less waiting until january 2009...

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The U.S. in Iraq: "Corroded, inefficient, incompetent, and corrupt"

it's even worse than we thought...

"The corroded and corrupt state of Saddam was replaced by the corroded, inefficient, incompetent and corrupt state of the new order," Ali A. Allawi concludes in "The Occupation of Iraq," newly published by Yale University Press.

[...]

First came the "monumental ignorance" of those in Washington pushing for war in 2002 without "the faintest idea" of Iraq's realities. "More perceptive people knew instinctively that the invasion of Iraq would open up the great fissures in Iraqi society," he writes.

What followed was the "rank amateurism and swaggering arrogance" of the occupation, under L. Paul Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA), which took big steps with little consultation with Iraqis, steps Allawi and many others see as blunders:

- The Americans disbanded Iraq's army, which Allawi said could have helped quell a rising insurgency in 2003. Instead, hundreds of thousands of demobilized, angry men became a recruiting pool for the resistance.

- Purging tens of thousands of members of toppled President Saddam Hussein's Baath party - from government, school faculties and elsewhere - left Iraq short on experienced hands at a crucial time.

- An order consolidating decentralized bank accounts at the Finance Ministry bogged down operations of Iraq's many state-owned enterprises.

- The CPA's focus on private enterprise allowed the "commercial gangs" of Saddam's day to monopolize business.

- Its free-trade policy allowed looted Iraqi capital equipment to be spirited away across borders.

- The CPA perpetuated Saddam's fuel subsidies, selling gasoline at giveaway prices and draining the budget.

< sigh > no surprise, of course, just all the more horrific when your suspicions are given such black and white substance...

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Larry Beinhart continues to pursue the myth of Bushco incompetence

larry is assailing the still-criminal negligence in rehabilitating new orleans and the gulf coast post-katrina, and the failure to capture osama bin laden...

perhaps the assumptions should be questioned... here's what i believe to be the case...

the current administration deliberately failed to effectively respond post-katrina and, likewise, has had no intention of capturing osama bin laden... in the former instance, sending the message that government cannot be relied upon to help us with anything has been undeniably effective... in the second, why take the poster child for endless war out of action...? we are so invested in seeing our government officials as miserably incompetent in their pursuit of the common good that we completely fail to consider the possibility of much darker motives... unless and until we do, the constitutional crisis will continue unaddressed, the unfettered power of the executive will continue to grow, and our country will continue to be transformed into something unrecognizable... and, if unaddressed until 20 january 2009, it may be too late...

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Ooooooooo, NEWT...! You're SUCH a bad boy...!

“The public would be much better served to have another attorney general,” said Newt Gingrich.

we-e-e-e-eelll, i don't think so... i think the public would be MUCH better served by having gonzo hang on until the entire bushco ship of fools is engulfed in flames... now, THAT would be a public service...!

(thanks to think progress...)

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Bushco - throwing red meat to the base or fighting to the death?

on the one hand, you can characterize the recess appointments as a masterstroke of idiocy, but i think this characterization is probably closer to the mark...

The recess appointments helped put the White House where it likes to be: in a robust fight with the Democrats that even the president’s most dispirited backers can get excited about. As one administration official put it, “It allows us to get our footing back, at least, on issues that resonate with the public.”

it may resonate with SOME of the public, but for those of us who are paying attention, it's just more of the same - totally over-the-top arrogance designed to sidestep any accountability and to neuter the balance of powers... and, although i'm getting tired of posting this excerpt, we must not forget the fact that the bush administration laid out the plan they're now following BEFORE the november elections...

In fact, when it comes to deploying its Executive power, which is dear to Bush's understanding of the presidency, the President's team has been planning for what one strategist describes as "a cataclysmic fight to the death" over the balance between Congress and the White House if confronted with congressional subpoenas it deems inappropriate. The strategist says the Bush team is "going to assert that power, and they're going to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court on every issue, every time, no compromise, no discussion, no negotiation."

in that light, i think it's less about playing to the base as it is another naked demonstration of unilateral executive power, just to remind all of us who's REALLY boss...

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What if Ethiopia wanted to buy arms from Iran rather than North Korea?

W.T.F...?

Three months after the United States successfully pressed the United Nations to impose strict sanctions on North Korea because of the country’s nuclear test, Bush administration officials allowed Ethiopia to complete a secret arms purchase from the North, in what appears to be a violation of the restrictions, according to senior American officials.

The United States allowed the arms delivery to go through in January in part because Ethiopia was in the midst of a military offensive against Islamic militias inside Somalia, a campaign that aided the American policy of combating religious extremists in the Horn of Africa.

and so, what are we supposed to do when we read this...? say, oh, ok... makes perfectly good sense to me... never mind that "axis of evil" crap that's been shoved down our throats for years... i mean the bush administration has to have a little flexibility, now doesn't it...?

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In Bushworld, if you're a political ally, a shady past doesn't matter

none of the negatives made any difference... what REALLY counted was the prospect of, first, unwavering bush loyalty, and, second, unquestioning commitment to republican ideology... as long as bernie kerik had that, no problem...

They learned about questionable financial deals, an ethics violation, allegations of mismanagement and a top deputy prosecuted for corruption. Most disturbing, according to people close to the process, was Kerik's friendship with a businessman who was linked to organized crime. The businessman had told federal authorities that Kerik received gifts, including $165,000 in apartment renovations, from a New Jersey family with alleged Mafia ties.

Alarmed about the raft of allegations, several White House aides tried to raise red flags. But the normal investigation process was short-circuited, the sources said. Bush's top lawyer, Alberto R. Gonzales, took charge of the vetting, repeatedly grilling Kerik about the issues that had been raised. In the end, despite the concerns, the White House moved forward with his nomination -- only to have it collapse a week later.

The selection of Kerik in December 2004 for one of the most sensitive posts in government became an acute but brief embarrassment for Bush at the start of his second term. More than two years later, it has reemerged as part of a federal criminal investigation of Kerik that raises questions about the decisions made by the president, the Republican front-runner to replace him and the embattled attorney general.

now, the white house says "the vetting process broke down..."

A reconstruction of the failed nomination, assembled through interviews with key players, provides new details and a fuller account of the episode -- how Giuliani put forward a flawed candidate for high office, how Bush rushed the usual process in his eagerness to install a political ally and how Gonzales, as White House counsel, failed to stop the nomination despite the many warning signs. "The vetting process clearly broke down," said a senior White House official. "This should not happen."

the obvious question is, how many OTHER vetting processes have been short-circuited in order to fast-track bushco and republican party loyalists, qualifications and background be damned...?

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