Labels: Paul Wolfowitz, Shaha Riza, Steve Clemons, World Bank
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posted by profmarcus at
4/21/2007
[T]he political ideology of winning over the West and the world for an Islamic Caliphate is NOT specific to some extremist group of Muslims. This is mainstream Islam and Shari’a. Historical, traditional and authoritative Islamic law mandates every Muslim to work to that end through personal development (or internalized Jihad), and outreach (or dawa), and external Jihad or war.
[...]
[U]nless someone investigates each and every one of the mosques and Islamic day schools in the US to determine what brand of Islamic law each one follows and how committed the organization, its leaders and followers are to Shari’a and Jihad, we will be effectively participating in our own destruction because we have accepted the Politically Correct notion that those of us in the West are not capable of or permitted to distinguish between good religious teachings and religious teachings which are in fact a disguise for a murderous and quite dangerous hegemonic political ideology.
[...]
[H]istory and empirical fact make absolutely clear that mainstream Islam is the evil we face and the enemies are the majority of Muslims around the world who pledge allegiance to Shari’a, even if they observe it in the breach.
[...]
[W]hile we don’t explicitly condone or promote citizen militias, we do condone and promote a fully informed and politically active citizenry. If we will not be the eyes and ears for law enforcement, they have already proven they will turn a PC-blinded eye and ear to the noble religion of peace. We will not.
It is our plan to update this work at least every year so that the networked cells operating out of these mosques and day schools will know someone is tracking them.
[...]
We want to prevent the next criminal act before it even has time to fructify into a conspiracy of evil and deeds of violence and mayhem. We want to expose Islam in America for what it is at its source and the source of Islam has always been its mosques and educational institutions. Without the network of theological and Shari’a-focused instruction, Islam is lost. Our goal is to inform ourselves, the American People, what it means to be a faithful Muslim in America at any given mosque or Islamic day school in the country. It will be up to all of us as Americans to use this information to turn things around. Immigration reform; profiling; criminalizing the teaching or preaching of Shari’a as an overt act of criminal conspiracy.
Labels: Atrios, Dave Gaubatz, domestic terrorism, Glenn Greenwald, Islam, Muslims, Sharia
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/21/2007
"All levels of command tended to view civilian casualties, even in significant numbers, as routine and as the natural and intended result of insurgent tactics," Bargewell wrote [Maj. Gen. Eldon A. Bargewell's 104-page report on Haditha]. He condemned that approach because it could desensitize Marines to the welfare of noncombatants. "Statements made by the chain of command during interviews for this investigation, taken as a whole, suggest that Iraqi civilian lives are not as important as U.S. lives, their deaths are just the cost of doing business, and that the Marines need to get 'the job done' no matter what it takes."
Labels: Eldon Bargewell, Haditha, Iraq, Iraq death toll, U.S. Marine Corps
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/21/2007
George W. Bush likes to present the “war on terror” as a clear-cut moral crusade in which evildoers who kill innocent civilians must be brought harshly to justice, along with the leaders of countries that harbor terrorists. There are no grays, only blacks and whites.
But evenhanded justice is not the true core principle of the Bush Doctrine. The real consistency is hypocrisy: violence which Bush favors – no matter how wanton the slaughter of innocents – is justifiable, while violence that goes against Bush’s interests – even an insurgency against a foreign military occupation – must be punished without remorse as “terrorism.”
In other words, if Bush hates the perpetrators, they are locked up indefinitely without charge and, at his discretion, can be subjected to “alternative interrogation techniques,” what most of the world considers torture. The rule of law is out the window. Wild West hangin' justice is in. Even the ancient fair trial right of habeas corpus is discarded.
However, when the killers of civilians are on Bush’s side, they get the full panoply of legal protections – and every benefit of the doubt. Under this Bush double standard, therefore, right-wing Cuban terrorists Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, though implicated in a string of murderous attacks on civilians, get the see-no-evil treatment.
[T]he Bush family regards terrorism – defined as killing civilians for a political reason – as justified or at least tolerable in cases when their interests match those of the terrorists.
Terrorism is only a moral evil to the Bushes when the violence against civilians clashes with the Bush family’s interests.
Labels: Bush Doctrine, Cuba, Fidel Castro, George Bush, George H.W. Bush, Habeas Corpus, Iraq, Luis Posada Carriles, Orlando Bosch, Robert Parry, torture, U.N. Convention against Torture, war on terror
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/21/2007
Labels: Blacksburg, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, video games, violence, Virginia Tech
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/21/2007
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."
House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) sought yesterday to pressure the Bush administration into divulging sensitive policy information, scheduling a committee vote for Wednesday on his plan to issue four subpoenas for the information.
[...]
"I never found it necessary to issue subpoenas to either President Bush's father's Administration or the Reagan Administration," Waxman said in a statement. "We were always able to reach an accommodation that respected our legitimate interests. I hope that will continue to be the case with this White House" and the information will be provided voluntarily.
Labels: Bush Administration, constitutional crisis, George Bush, George H.W. Bush, Henry Waxman, House Oversight Committee, Impeachment, Ronald Reagan, subpoenas, Supreme Court, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/21/2007
Labels: 2008 Election, Iraq, John McCain, MoveOn
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/20/2007
"On April 16,2007, you appeared on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and discussed the leak of [former covert CIA Agent Valerie Plame] Wilson's identity," Waxman (D-CA) wrote to Andrew Card, the former White House Chief of Staff. "[White House Counsel Fred] Fielding's position appears to be that it is appropriate for you to discuss these matters on The Daily Show, but not before a congressional committee. You will not be surprised to learn that I take a different view of this matter."
Card served as Bush's chief of staff from the President's inauguration until April 2006. In March, Waxman sought "an on-the-record interview regarding the disclosure of Ms. Wilson's covert identity and the White House procedures for handling classified information," with Card.
But the White House Counsel rejected the request because "former senior White House officials such as the Chief of Staff to the President have historically not been available to Congress to testify, or to be interviewed, about their activities in serving the President," according to the Congressman's letter.
Labels: Andy Card, CIA, Congress, Fred Fielding, George Bush, Henry Waxman, Jon Stewart, The Daily Show, Valerie Plame, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/20/2007
Watching the painfully inept testimony of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales brought to mind the memorable comment in 2002 by ex-White House insider John DiIulio, who described how politics dominated everything in George W. Bush’s government.
“There is no precedent in any modern White House for what is going on in this one: a complete lack of a policy apparatus,” said DiIulio, who had run Bush’s office of faith-based initiatives. “What you’ve got is everything – and I mean everything – being run by the political arm. It’s the reign of the Mayberry Machiavellis.”
The American people are finally waking up to the consequences of what DiIulio observed during his one-year stint on the inside. Everything is about the building and maintenance of power, not via sound policies but through political tactics – ranging from the conduct of the Iraq War to the handling of federal prosecutors.
[...]
The larger picture appears to be that the Bush administration is still subordinating almost everything – from longstanding traditions on prosecutorial independence to the protection of intelligence officers – to President Bush’s political needs.
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, Bush Administration, constitutional crisis, Department of Justice, George Bush, Iraq, John DiIulio, Mayberry Machiavellis, Republicans, Robert Parry, US Attorneys
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/20/2007
John Podhoretz responds to his fellow National Review columnist [John Derbyshire]: “The notion that a human being or group of human beings holding no weapon whatever should somehow “fight back” against someone calmly executing other people right in front of their eyes is ludicrous beyond belief, irrational beyond bounds, and tasteless beyond the limits of reason.”
Labels: Blacksburg, John Derbyshite, John Podhoretz, National Review, Virginia Tech
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/20/2007
The chart compares the Clinton protocol for appropriate contacts between the White House and the DoJ on pending criminal cases with the Bush protocol. According to Whitehouse, the Clinton protocol authorized just four folks at the White House to chat with three folks at Justice. The chart had four boxes talking to three boxes. Out comes the Bush protocol, and now 417 different people at the White House have contacts about pending criminal cases with 30-some people at Justice.
pro·to·col
Pronunciation: 'prO-t&-"kol, -"kOl, -"käl, -k&l
Function: noun
1 : an original draft, minute, or record of a document or transaction
2 a : a preliminary memorandum often formulated and signed by diplomatic negotiators as a basis for a final convention or treaty b : the records or minutes of a diplomatic conference or congress that show officially the agreements arrived at by the negotiators
3 a : a code prescribing strict adherence to correct etiquette and precedence (as in diplomatic exchange and in the military services)
Labels: Bill Clinton, Department of Justice, George Bush, protocol, Sheldon Whitehouse, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/20/2007
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales came under withering attack from members of his own party yesterday over the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys, facing the first resignation demand from a Republican member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and doubts from others about his candor and his ability to lead the Justice Department.
[...]
The numerous uncertainties irritated many of the Republican committee members, who criticized Gonzales for bungling the dismissals and their aftermath, and questioned his apparent disconnection from the process.
Kyle Sampson, Gonzo's Chief of Staff, is a gentleman who well deserves his name given the apparently superhuman feat he's performed of running the Department of Justice for years in exactly the direction his boss did not want it to go. That being said, Gonzales stands by every decision he never made, even the ones he remembers not making.
[...]
Gonzales' Justice Department is run on the basis of consensus and group responsibility precisely because that minimizes personal risk, and that minimizing personal risk is the top goal of many new people at the Justice Department, whose inexperience in the processes of government is "surpassed only by their evident disdain for it." The buck doesn't stop anywhere.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said yesterday that Bush "was pleased with the attorney general's testimony" and that Gonzales "has the full confidence of the president."
"He again showed that nothing improper occurred," Perino said. "He admitted the matter could have been handled much better, and he apologized for the disruption to the lives of the U.S. attorneys involved, as well as for the lack of clarity in his initial responses."
How to hold the executive branch to account? The current dilemma seems like a real mystery, something our Constitution just does not provide a solution for. Even if we could get rid of Gonzales, who would replace him? Who, appointed by George Bush and Dick Cheney, would obey and enforce the law? The answer is simple enough: Nobody.
Alberto Gonzales's tenure as attorney general was pronounced dead at 3:02 p.m. yesterday by Tom Coburn, M.D.
[...]
Gonzales had weeks to prepare for yesterday's hearing. But the man who sat at the witness table sounded like the sort of person who forgets where he parked his car.
[...]
Take Gonzales's tally along with that of his former chief of staff, who uttered the phrase "I don't remember" 122 times before the same committee three weeks ago, and the Justice Department might want to consider handing out Ginkgo biloba in the employee cafeteria.
[...]
For much of the very long day, the attorney general responded like a child caught in a lie. He shifted his feet under the table, balled his hands into fists and occasionally pointed at his questioners.
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, D. Kyle Sampson, Dana Perino, Department of Justice, Dick Cheney, George Bush, Republicans, Senate Judiciary Committee, U.S. Constitution, US Attorneys, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/20/2007
The Democratic National Committee sued the Justice Department on Thursday, demanding it turn over any e-mail traffic with the Republican Party on the U.S. attorneys controversy and criminal investigations.
[...]
Democrats suspect that White House officials used e-mail accounts provided by the Republican Party headquarters to avoid a permanent record of communications with the Justice Department involving political considerations in the appointment of prosecutors.
The Democratic Party's suit in federal court followed the Republicans' refusal for now to turn over e-mails to Congress. White House lawyers first will have an opportunity to review them to determine whether some should be kept secret.
Such a review is "commonplace," said a letter dated Wednesday and released by the Republican committee. Attorney Robert Kelner, representing the RNC, sent the letter to the chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Henry Waxman, a Democrat. Kelner gave no end date for the White House review.
Labels: CREW, Democratic National Committee, Democrats, Department of Justice, emails, Henry Waxman, House Oversight Committee, Republican National Committee, Republicans, US Attorneys, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
I think Gonzales was always a figurehead...
At best a letter-carrier from the White House to the White House functionaries within the Department of Justice.
He cannot recall making a decision, because he never did.
He cannot recall who was in the meetings where decisions were made, because he was never invited to them.
He cannot recall when said meetings occurred for the same reason.
He well and truly does not know; he was never trusted, never consulted, never advised, never included and never, ever made a single judgment call of consequence because,
brace yourself,
the White House, the Congress, and all Republicans everywhere never doubted for a moment that Alberto Gonzales was incompetent.
That was his resume: that he was a dull-witted, scatterbrained toady. That, if ever brought in for hearings, he would be so frustrating to even the GOP caucus that they would be screaming for his removal long before the President ever did.
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, Bush Administration, Congress, Department of Justice, George Bush, Republicans, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, Chuck Schumer, Department of Justice, Harriet Miers, Karl Rove, lies, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Arlen Specter, Attorney General, Department of Justice, lies, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, Department of Justice, lies, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
"If the White House did nothing wrong, than show us. Show us the documents, provide us with sworn testimony, what was done, why, and by whom. If there's nothing to hide, the White House should stop hiding it," he said.
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, Clara Peller, emails, Patrick Leahy, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys, Wendy's, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
Doolittle’s decision, to be announced Thursday, was confirmed by a Republican congressional staffer who spoke on condition of anonymity because the news was not yet public.
Labels: corruption, House Appropriations Committee, House of Representatives, Jack Abramoff, John Doolittle, Republicans
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
Cho Seung-hui does not stand for America's students, any more than Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris did when they slaughtered 13 of their fellow high-school students at Columbine in 1999. Such disturbed people exist in every society. The difference, as everyone knows but no one in authority was saying this week, is that in America such individuals have easy access to weapons of terrible destructive power. Cho killed his victims with two guns, one of them a Glock 9mm semi-automatic pistol, a rapid-fire weapon that is available only to police in virtually every other country, but which can legally be bought over the counter in thousands of gun-shops in America. There are estimated to be some 240m guns in America, considerably more than there are adults, and around a third of them are handguns, easy to conceal and use. Had powerful guns not been available to him, the deranged Cho would have killed fewer people, and perhaps none at all.
[...]
More bleakly terrible is America's annual harvest of gun deaths that are not mass murders: some 14,000 routine killings committed in 2005 with guns, to which must be added 16,000 suicides by firearm and 650 fatal accidents (2004 figures). Many of these, especially the suicides, would have happened anyway: but guns make them much easier. Since the killing of John Kennedy in 1963, more Americans have died by American gunfire than perished on foreign battlefields in the whole of the 20th century. In 2005 more than 400 children were murdered with guns.
Those who live in a functioning democracy shouldn't need weapons...
It's too bad, that a great country like America has been led astray by its government and a few starry-eyed, foolhardy people.
Every act of violence should be condemned to the fullest. In Iraq dozens of people die every day through acts of terror. Where is the outrage from the US government and the population? In Africa people die from civil war, sickness, thirst and hunger -- where is the outrage from the US citizens? I love the USA, but their president, Mr. Bush has ruined the country's good reputation.
America has lost touch with reality...
[W]hat constantly astonishes us is the vehemence with which the right to own a gun, even after such a crime, is defended. The arguments that are constantly produced (people, not guns, kill people) disguise the fact that it is people with guns who kill people.
Labels: Blacksburg, Columbine, Congress, gun control, military-industrial complex, Virginia Tech
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
The Bush Administration has become a Wagnerian opera. Its fiery immolation of Valhalla is incinerating the entire Republican Party to ashes in the Twilight of the Gods. The Fat Lady has not only sung, she's running for cover.
[...]
There is zero way this Administration can save itself. Six months before the election, I wrote on Huffington Post how the Bush Administration is a house of cards built on a house of sand. There's nothing there to support it. The moment it begins to collapse, I noted, it can only eat away at itself. It's like a rotting tree that begins to give way and then just crumbles, bit by bit. That's what we're seeing now. And we've only touched the surface. These aren't the last scandals, they're just the latest - ones that have happened since the November election. The scandal revelations will keep coming, like a tsunami.
"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.'"
Labels: 2006 elections, 2008 Election, Bush Administration, Congress, constitutional crisis, Impeachment, Republicans, Supreme Court, unitary executive, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, lies, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, Department of Justice, lies, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, Department of Justice, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Department of Justice, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
Labels: Iran, John McCain
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
Conservative commentator Robert Novak writes that while many on the right view White House adviser Karl Rove as their 'Captain Ahab,' a number of liberals refer to him as "evil incarnate."
"The White House is letting it be known on Capitol Hill that [Rove] will play no part in President Bush's forthcoming big push to pass a compromise immigration bill," writes Novak in the latest Evans-Novak Political Report.
Novak implies that one reason for the White House's move is that President Bush's trusted adviser "is viewed by Democrats as evil incarnate."
Labels: Bush Administration, Democrats, George Bush, immigration, Karl Rove, Republicans, Robert Novak, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, Department of Justice, Dianne Feinstein, Senate Judiciary Committee
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
When Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales's top aide contemplated the mass dismissal of chief federal prosecutors two years ago, he advocated keeping the "loyal Bushies." Two years later, the question confronting President Bush is whether to keep Gonzales, the very model of a loyal Bushie.
As Gonzales heads to Capitol Hill today for a long-anticipated public interrogation about the firing of eight U.S. attorneys, at issue is the very concept of loyalty in Bush's world. With any other president, many in Washington say, the attorney general would already be gone. Bush has defied the drumbeat from both parties to remove Gonzales, but even the White House considers today's Senate hearing make or break.
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, Congress, Department of Justice, loyal Bushies, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
Congressional Democratic leaders are moving to make their proposed timetable for withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq "advisory" as they seek to reconcile two versions of war spending legislation into a single bill that they plan to pass next week, according to several House members.
The compromise language would keep the deadlines included in the original House bill but make them nonbinding, as the Senate version did, and would allow President Bush to waive troop-readiness standards, lawmakers said. Bush has vowed to veto legislation with timetables in it, calling it a schedule of surrender, but Democrats hope to show that they are being flexible and the president rigid by softening the terms. The compromises may cost Democrats votes among antiwar liberals, but they hope to pick up some Republicans.
Labels: benchmarks, Congress, Democrats, House of Representatives, Iraq, Iraq war funding proposal, Iraq withdrawal, nonbinding, Republicans, US Senate
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/19/2007
“The FBI has raided the Northern Virginia home of Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.), according to Congressional sources. No details are publicly available yet about the circumstances of the raid, but Doolittle and his wife, Julie, have been under federal investigation for their ties to the scandal surrounding imprisoned former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.”
Labels: Bush Administration, corruption, FBI, Jack Abramoff, John Doolittle, Republicans
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/18/2007
"The latest school shooting at Virginia Tech demands an immediate end to the gun-free zone law," Gun Owners of America president Larry Pratt said in an e-mail. "It is irresponsibly dangerous to tell citizens that they may not have guns at schools."
The murder of innocent victims is a disgrace, and our condolences go out to those who have lost loved ones in the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech.
More than one year before Monday's unprecedented shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, the state's General Assembly quashed a bill that would have given qualified college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus. Could one legally armed citizen have made a difference at this tragic event?
We also need to ask the question: Do laws prohibiting firearms in certain places really prevent homicidal tragedies?
There is a striking paradox associated with mass murders. They are far more likely to occur in areas that have been designated as gun-free zones.
Labels: Blacksburg, gun control, Virginia Tech
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/18/2007
BLITZER: Looking back on the decisions that you’ve made, at the White House, now at the Justice Department, anything jump to mind? Anything that you deeply regret, a decision that you made?
GONZALES: Oh, I think that you and I would — I’d have to spend some time thinking about that. Obviously I’m not going to say that I am perfect and that I’ve been perfect in doing my job. Obviously I’ve made some recommendations to my client. Some of those recommendations have not been supported in the courts. In hindsight, you sometimes wonder, well, perhaps, perhaps the recommendation should have been something different.
At a press briefing this afternoon, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales acknowledged that mistakes were made in the firing of US attorneys.
"I'm responsible for what happens in the Department of Justice," Gonzales said. "I pledge to find out what went wrong, so it won't happen again."
“I apologize”
“I am sorry”
“could have — and should have — been handled differently”
“I made mistakes”
“I would have handled this differently”
“I should have done more”
“at times I have been less than precise”
“I misspoke”
“That statement was too broad”
“imprecise and overbroad”
“I regret that”
“management missteps”
“should have been more rigorous”
“should have been completed in a much shorter period of time”
“owes them more respect than they were shown”
“should have worked with them”
“I should have communicated the concerns more effectively”
“I should have informed them of my decisions in a more dignified manner”
“could have been handled much better”
“I want to apologize publicly”
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, Department of Justice, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/18/2007
Officials, newspaper columnists and citizens around the world Tuesday described the Virginia Tech massacre as the tragic reflection of an America that fosters violence at home and abroad, even as it attempts to dictate behavior to the rest of the world.
From European countries with strict gun-control laws to war-ravaged Iraq, where dozens of people are killed in shootings and bombings each day, foreigners and their news media used the university attack to condemn what they depicted as U.S. policies to arm friends, attack enemies and rely on violence rather than dialogue to settle disputes.
"Massacre in the Paradise of Weapons," declared the headline in the Buenos Aires daily newspaper Pagina/12. In an accompanying article, Dario Kosovsky of the Argentine Network for Disarmament said he believes students who commit mass murder are following the example of the U.S. government, which advocates "the use of violence to achieve liberty."
"It is a little incident if we compare it with the disasters that have happened in Iraq," said Ranya Riyad, 19, a college student in Baghdad. "We are dying every day."
"They are always saying that the Arabs and Muslims are behind the terrorism and the killing," said Hussein Kadhum, 26, a traffic policeman in the heavily Shiite city of Najaf, south of Baghdad. "But America has terrorism and they are exporting it to us. We did not have this violence in the Saddam era because the law was so tough on guns."
....
Labels: Argentina, Blacksburg, gun control, Iraq, Pogo, Virginia Tech, Walt Kelly
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/18/2007
posted by profmarcus at
4/17/2007
The famously reclusive Mr. McCarthy, 73, won for his devastating chronicle of a father and son walking alone across a post-apocalyptic America, cold, dark and strewn with corpses and ash. In her review in The New York Times,, Janet Maslin wrote, “ ‘The Road’ would be pure misery if not for its stunning, savage beauty.”
Labels: "The Road", Cormac McCarthy, Pulitzer Prize for fiction
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/17/2007
posted by profmarcus at
4/17/2007
Depending on the State Department's response to a request for information prior to a Wednesday meeting, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice could face a subpoena from the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, RAW STORY has learned. The move could compel Rice to testify on the intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq, and other issues.
"On the 18th, we may hold a business meeting, but that is contingent on whether or not we receive requested information from her,"an Oversight Committee staff member told RAW STORY.
The committee staff member added, "If we do not get the information from the State Department prior to Wednesday, the business meeting may take up the question of issuing a subpoena."
Labels: Condoleezza Rice, Department of Justice, Iraq, Oversight and Government Reform Committee, State Department, WMD
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/16/2007
The Justice Department has missed the 2pm deadline to turn over documents on the U.S. Attorney firings subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee.
Labels: Department of Justice, House Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, US Attorneys
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/16/2007
A major government watchdog organization has warned that White House officials, including Karl Rove, could face a number of obstruction of justice charges for the way they used outside e-mail accounts and failed to properly archive e-mails on White House servers.
"[Special Counsel Patrick] Fitzgerald could decide to reopen the case," said Melanie Sloan, Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, referring to the probe over who leaked the identity of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame Wilson. "And if it turns out that e-mail was deleted from the RNC server as suggested by the Waxman letter, that could lead to new obstruction of justice charges."
Labels: CIA, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Department of Justice, emails, Henry Waxman, Karl Rove, Patrick Fitzgerald, Republican National Committee, Valerie Plame, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/16/2007
Labels: Baghdad, Darfur, Iraq, Virginia Tech
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/16/2007
Bolton's point-blank view [is] that the US had no responsibility to impose order after the invasion, and no responsibility for security within the country. Bolton actually says that the only error Bush really made was not giving the Iraqis "a copy of the Federalist papers and saying, 'Good luck.'" Yes, he says he's exaggerating for effect, but he is conveying the gist of the policy. The casual recklessness and arrogance of these people never cease to amaze. The world is theirs' to play with - and the victims of predictable and predicted violence are left to help themselves...
Labels: 2008 Election, Bush Administration, Democrats, George Bush, Iraq, John Bolton, Middle East, neocons, oil, Republicans, Saddam Hussein, White House, WMD
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/16/2007
Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president? (IF APPROVE OR DISAPPROVE) Do you (approve/disapprove) strongly or do you (approve/disapprove) somewhat?
ALL
Approve (net) 36
Approve strongly 17
Approve somewhat 19
Disapprove (net) 62
Disapprove somewhat 16
Disapprove strongly 46
Don’t know 2
Bush's overall presidential job rating also continued to fall, hitting a low of 36% approval compared to 62% disapproval. The proportion of Americans who say they strongly disapprove of the job he is doing as president is approaching half – 46%. Similarly, only a third of the public backs his handling of the Iraq war, compared to 65% who do not.
Americans predict that the U.S. will face an economic recession, and after a year of increasing optimism about the economy, their outlook has taken a decided downward turn, according to the latest Los Angeles Times/Bloomberg poll. In addition, most want Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez to step down [53%], and think Bush administration staffers should testify under oath before the House and Senate Judiciary Committee about their involvement in the dismissal of U.S. Attorneys last year.
The public is less one-sided when it comes to setting timelines for withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Although most do not see progress from President Bush's latest initiatives there, half the country sides with his assertion that setting a timeline for withdrawal of troops from Iraq will harm the forces already on the ground. They are split over whether he should sign or veto Congressional legislation that ties further funding of the war to timelines, and over whether Congress should give in and pass funding that has no conditions, or stand firm, if Bush vetoes the legislation as he has promised to do.
[S]upport for including a guest worker program varies little across political ideology. Fifty-eight percent of liberals, 59% of moderates, and 52% of conservatives all agree that including a guest worker program is a good idea, along with 53% of Democrats, 58% of independents and 56% of Republicans. Race, however, does play a role. While 55% of white respondents want to include a program for immigrant workers, 51% of African Americans favor tougher enforcement alone.
[T]he public sees [the Justice Department] investigation and others in a cynical light. More than six out of 10 said that they believe the Democrats in Congress are undertaking that investigation and others such as the Valerie Plame leak, unauthorized wiretapping of U. S. citizens, and substandard conditions at Walter Reed hospital, for political reasons. Just under three in ten said they believe that a real concern over ethics is the driving force.
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Congress, Democrats, Department of Justice, economy, George Bush, immigration, Impeachment, Iraq, Iraq war funding proposal, Republicans, US Attorneys, Valerie Plame
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/16/2007
Yesterday morning on CBS’s Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer asked Vice President Cheney if he agreed with Reid’s statement [see below] Cheney replied that it was a “ridiculous notion.” His rebuttal: “I spend as much time as I can to get out and do other things, be at home in Wyoming or, yesterday, I managed to go shopping with my daughter for a birthday present for granddaughters.”
The president is as isolated, I believe, on the Iraq issue as Richard Nixon was when he was hunkered down in the White House.
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."
Labels: Bush Administration, Congress, constitutional crisis, Dick Cheney, George Bush, Impeachment, Iraq, Richard Nixon, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/16/2007
Labels: current affairs knowledge, Pew Research Study
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/16/2007
Fortunately some of the coolest heads in this discussion [the Iraq war funding proposal] belong to Senate Democrats such as Barack Obama (Ill.) and Carl M. Levin (Mich.), the chairman of the Armed Services Committee. Both have suggested that if Mr. Bush vetoes a bill containing a withdrawal mandate, as he has promised to do, Congress should nevertheless approve the war funding.
Labels: Barack Obama, Bush Administration, Carl Levin, Democrats, George Bush, Iraq, Iraq war funding proposal, Iraq withdrawal, Senate Armed Services Committee, US Senate, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/16/2007
William A. Galston of the Brookings Institution, a Clinton administration domestic policy adviser and an early opponent of the Iraq war, said his party should note that voters appear just as worried that Democrats would withdraw from Iraq too quickly as they are concerned that Republicans would stay there too long.
"I think it's important to distinguish between the desire to bring this agony to an end and the consequences of bringing it to an end in the wrong way," he said. "I can't prove this, but I believe Democrats will be held responsible if they are seen as advocating a course of action that doesn't take the consequences of failure into account. We cannot afford as a party to be either silent or blithe about the consequences of rapid withdrawal."
[T]he war is not the only area in which the candidates are at opposing poles of the debate. On issues such as taxes and spending, health care, and education, candidates are mostly taking their cue from -- or trying to cozy up to -- their respective ideological bases. In doing so, they risk embracing positions that could complicate later efforts to win the support of independent voters, whose votes will be crucial in November 2008.
Labels: 2008 Election, Brookings Institution, Clinton administration, Democratic left-wing, Democrats, Iraq, Iraq withdrawal, Republicans, Washington Post, William Galston
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/16/2007
Oh this is good.
Michael Battle, the guy who got to fire a bunch of very professional US Attorneys (and who subsequently quit because, stories said, he regretted the whole thing), told the Judiciary Committees that several of the Gonzales 8 were fired for no reason.[Battle] told Congress that several of the prosecutors had no performance problems and that a memo on the firings was distributed at a Nov. 27 meeting attended by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, a Democratic senator said yesterday.
And note how this detail is getting to the press? Chuck Schumer is repeating the supposedly confidential briefings ... on the record.Battle's statements, relayed to reporters yesterday by Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), came as Gonzales prepares for a make-or-break appearance on Tuesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
[snip]
Battle told investigators that he was "not aware of performance problems with respect to several" of the prosecutors when he called to fire them, Schumer said in a conference call with reporters yesterday.
This is a nice touch. Though there was an unspoken understanding no one would mention the USAs who weren't fired, Schumer pressured Kyle Sampson to reveal those names in his statement. And now, rather than getting one of his staffers in trouble for an anonymous leak, Schumer's going to go on the record and reveal the testimony which Abu G has labeled as "confidential." Not in DC, Abu G.
I'm getting the feeling that Schumer has been preparing as diligently as Gonzales for the last two weeks.
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, Chuck Schumer, D. Kyle Sampson, Democrats, Michael Battle, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/16/2007
[A] funny thing has happened on the Democratic side: the party’s base seems to be more in touch with the mood of the country than many of the party’s leaders. And the result is peculiar: on key issues, reluctant Democratic politicians are being dragged by their base into taking highly popular positions.
Labels: 2008 Election, Democratic left-wing, Democrats, James Carville, military-industrial complex, Paul Krugman, Terry McAuliffe
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/16/2007
[Cheney] said he was “willing to bet” that the Democrats would eventually cave in to President Bush’s demands for legislation [on Iraq] with no strings attached.
Labels: Christian Peace Witness for Iraq, Democrats, Dick Cheney, George Bush, Iraq war funding proposal, lies
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/16/2007
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz rejected calls for him to quit less than halfway through his five-year term, saying he still has important work to do alleviating poverty in the developing world.
"I believe in the mission of this organization and I believe I can carry it out,'' Wolfowitz, 63, told a press conference in Washington today. ``This is important work and I intend to continue it."
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, Paul Wolfowitz, World Bank
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/15/2007
Labels: Argentina, Iraq, John McCain, Macedonia, Miami
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/15/2007
What began as a well-intentioned management effort to identify where, among the 93 U.S. attorneys, changes in leadership might benefit the department, and therefore the American people, has become an unintended public controversy.
While I have never sought to deceive Congress or the American people, I also know that I created confusion with some of my recent statements about my role in this matter. To be clear: I directed my then-deputy chief of staff, Kyle Sampson, to initiate this process; fully knew that it was occurring; and approved the final recommendations. Sampson periodically updated me on the review. As I recall, his updates were brief, relatively few in number and focused primarily on the review process.
During those conversations, to my knowledge, I did not make decisions about who should or should not be asked to resign.
I am committed to explaining my role in this process and will do so Tuesday when I testify before Congress.
I am also committed to correcting any management missteps that occurred during this process. In recent weeks I have met with more than 70 U.S. attorneys around the country to hear their concerns and discuss ways to improve communication and coordination between their offices and the Justice Department.
These discussions have been frank, and good ideas are coming out, including ways to ensure that every U.S. attorney can know whether his or her performance is at the level expected by the president and the attorney general. Additionally, I have asked for recommendations on formal and informal steps that we can take to improve all forms of dialogue between the main Justice Department and U.S. attorneys nationwide.
I am also telling our 93 U.S. attorneys that I look forward to working with them to pursue the great goals of our department in the weeks and months to come.
Labels: Alberto Gonzales, Attorney General, Congress, D. Kyle Sampson, Department of Justice, US Attorneys
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/15/2007
posted by profmarcus at
4/15/2007
The White House said Saturday it is agreeing to the Senate Judiciary Committee's request for how to choose someone to help recover some lost e-mails involving official presidential business.
[...]
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Saturday that Fielding called Leahy and Specter to say that allowing the committee input into picking an independent consultant is a good idea.
On Thursday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and the committee's top Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, wrote White House counsel Fred Fielding to request that "we jointly agree on a fair and objective process for investigating this matter, including the use of a mutually trusted computer forensic expert."
"Such a process would help to restore the public's confidence in the White House's desire to comply with the Presidential Records Act," the senators said.
Labels: Arlen Specter, Dana Perino, Department of Justice, Fred Fielding, Patrick Leahy, Presidential Records Act, Senate Judiciary Committee, US Attorneys, White House
Submit To Propellerposted by profmarcus at
4/15/2007
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