Impeach Bush--Index 15
November 2, 2005
GOP Theocracy
Gary Hart: "The New American Theocracy requires judges who will go along and who will continue going along for the remainder of their lives. The ultimate goal is a Supreme Court philosophically attuned to the principles and purposes of those seeking a state that incorporates and promotes their religious beliefs."

November 6, 2005
An Impeachable Offense

Report Warned Bush Team About Intelligence Suspicions
DITSUM No. 044-02: "It is possible he does not know any further details; it is more likely this individual is intentionally misleading the debriefers," the February 2002 report said. "Ibn al-Shaykh has been undergoing debriefs for several weeks and may be describing scenarios to the debriefers that he knows will retain their interest."

November 7, 2005
An Impeachable Offense

Antiwar Sermon Brings IRS Warning
The Internal Revenue Service has warned one of Southern California's largest and most liberal churches that it is at risk of losing its tax-exempt status because of an antiwar sermon two days before the 2004 presidential election.

November 6, 2005
An Impeachable Offense

The Pro Torture President
"I think the administration is making a terrible mistake in opposing John McCain's amendment on detainees and torture," Hagel, R-Neb., said on "This Week" on ABC. "Why in the world they're doing that, I don't know."
McCain, citing the Senate vote as well as support from the public and from former Secretary of State Colin Powell and others with government service, said he will push the issue with the White House "as far as necessary."

November 4, 2005
Vatican: Faithful Should Listen to Science
Monsignor Gianfranco Basti, director of the Vatican project STOQ, or Science, Theology and Ontological Quest, reaffirmed John Paul's 1996 statement that evolution was "more than just a hypothesis. A hypothesis asks whether something is true or false," he said. "(Evolution) is more than a hypothesis because there is proof."

November 5, 2005
Criminal

U.N. Audit: U.S. Should Repay Iraq $208.5M
AMMAN, Jordan - A U.N. auditing board has recommended that the United States reimburse Iraq up to $208.5 million for contracting work carried out by KBR, a subsidiary of Halliburton, in the last two years.

November 5, 2005
Criminal

Halliburton Not Paying Immigrants for Katrina Cleanup
The job was supposed to pay $7 an hour. But six weeks later, Ojeda still hasn't been paid the $600-plus he said he is owed for eight days of dawn-to-dusk labor.

November 5, 2005
An Impeachable Offense

Smoking Gun on Manipulation of Iraq Intelligence?
It shows that an al-Qaeda official held by the Americans was identified as a likely fabricator months before the Bush administration began to use his statements as the basis for its claims that Iraq trained al-Qaeda members to use biological and chemical weapons, according to this Defense Intelligence Agency document from February 2002.

November 4, 2005
53% of Americans Support Impeachment
By a margin of 53% to 42%, Americans want Congress to impeach President Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

November 4, 2005
GOP Leaders to Bush: 'Your Presidency is Effectively Over'
A growing number of Republican leaders, party strategists and political professional now privately tell President George W. Bush that his presidency "is effectively over" unless he fires embattled White House advisor Karl Rove, apologizes to the American people for misleading the country into war and revamps his administration from top to bottom.

November 5, 2005
Criminal

Tomlinson Accused of Spending Federal Money for Personal Purposes
People involved in the inquiry said it involved accusations that Mr. Tomlinson was spending federal money for personal purposes, using board money for corporation activities, using board employees to do corporation work and hiring ghost employees or improperly qualified employees.

November 5, 2005
Action Alert

Guardsmen Lose $14,000 Re-enlistment Bonus
A Department of Defense decision to renege on war-time promises to pay bonuses to more than a dozen re-enlisting Washington National Guardsmen has sparked outrage from prominent elected officials and state National Guard officers working to rectify the situation.

November 4, 2005
Fitzgerald Likely Going After Cheney
What Is Likely To Occur Next?
It has been reported that Libby's attorney tried to work out a plea deal. But Fitzgerald insisted on jail time, so Libby refused to make a deal. It appears that only Libby, in addition to Cheney, knows what Cheney knew, and when he knew, and why he knew, and what he did with his knowledge.

October 26 2005
Barbra Streisand: If Not Now... When
If there was ever a time in history to impeach a President of the United States, it would be now. In my opinion, it is two years too late. We should have done this before the election to spare the country the misjudgment, the incompetence and the malfeasance of this administration. Let us remember that UN weapons inspectors asked for more time to search Iraq for WMDs. Two months into their search, the Director General of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, stated that he found no evidence that Iraq had revived its nuclear weapons program since its elimination in the 1990s.

November 2, 2005
On the Wal-Mart Money Trail
Among such projects, the Waltons tend to fund the most mind-numbing and cultish, giving in 2003 alone nearly $3 million to Knowledge Is Power (KIPP) schools and millions more to other schools using the KIPP curriculum, which emphasizes regimented recitation rather than critical or creative thinking.

November 4, 2005
40,000 protest Bush in Argentina
'Bush, facist, you are a terrorist!' protestors shouted under rainy skies, as they packed streets around the summit, where the US president is hoping to revive interest in a Free Trade Area of the Americas pact. Organizers say that up to 40,000 protestors, including anti-globalisation demonstrators, will take to the streets here today to voice their opposition to Bush and the summit.

November 4, 2005
Save our Future, Cut Defense Spending
The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation says we now spend more on our military than the rest of the world combined spends on theirs. There is no country that could conceivably defeat us militarily, though we certainly do manage to get ourselves stuck in some unpleasant places.

November 4, 2005
Greenspan Warns U.S. on Budget Deficits
On the budget front, Greenspan called on Congress to get the nation's fiscal house in order and bring the swollen deficits under control.

"Unless the situation is reversed, at some point, these budget trends will cause serious economic disruptions," he said.

November 2, 2005
Knight Ridder Hit With Hostile Take Over from Pro GOP Group
PHILADELPHIA (November 02, 2005) -- As you probably know if you're a newspaper junkie, and may not know if you're a normal human being, a Florida-based investment group -- with zero fanfare -- has bought up 19% of the stock of Knight Ridder, Inc., the owners of the Daily News and the Philadelphia Inquirer, not to mention the Miami Herald, the San Jose Mercury News, and a bunch of other big names in the dead-tree world.

November 3, 2005
Conservative PBS Chairman Forced to Resign
"Mr. Tomlinson's departure from the CPB Board, however, comes as welcome news. There's no doubt in my mind that Mr. Tomlinson's legacy at the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a negative one, and that he has done far more harm to the CPB than good.'

November 3, 2005
In Texas, Judges Make Partisan Donations
The Texas Ethics Commission shows almost 800 judges in Texas — ranging from justices of the peace to the Texas Supreme Court and the Court of Criminal Appeals — have given $775,000 in state elections since 2000.

November 3, 2005
Judge Picking New Judge In DeLay Case was Endorsed by DeLay's PAC
Schraub asked Texas Supreme Court Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson to name a judge to preside over DeLay's trial, and Jefferson selected semi-retired Senior Judge Pat Priest of San Antonio. Jefferson's involvement, however, could invite yet another challenge. Jefferson was endorsed by the DeLay-founded Texans for a Republican Majority in 2002.

November 4, 2005
Hagel Knew Nothing Of Secret CIA Prisons
OMAHA, Neb. -- U.S. Sen. Chuck Hagel, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Thursday he was not aware of CIA-operated, secret prisons in eastern Europe used to interrogate top al-Qaida suspects, but he condemned the concept.

November 4, 2005
Oil firms' profits too high
Tradition says: When a hard wind blows through an orchard and ripe apples fall to the ground, the farmer promptly gathers them up and is spared the work of picking them off the trees, and it's called a windfall.

We've been down the road before of taxing windfall oil profits. The crude oil windfall profit tax passed in 1980 produced a good deal of revenue during its lifetime, but economics scholars have divided opinions over whether it was this tax or market forces that gradually brought down the price of crude oil in the 1980s.

November 4, 2005
Concord Coalition Attacks Senate Spending Cuts
"It makes no sense for Congress to bang heads over spending cuts and still wind up with a bigger deficit simply because they can't control their urge to cut taxes," he said. "It's like running around the block and then chowing down on a burger and fries."

November 4, 2005
Deficit Reduction Contains $35 Billion in New Spending
About 15 percent of the $35 billion in savings over the next five years would come through eliminating $5.4 billion in subsidies to some regional insurance companies that signed onto Bush's Medicare prescription drug program getting under way in January.

Still, there is plenty of sugar to go along with the fiscal medicine. The bill contains about $35 billion in new spendingto go along with the cuts:

November 3, 2005
ABC Poll: November 3, 2005

Bush Approval Ratings
  Approve Disapprove
Overall job   39%   60%
Economy   36     61  
Iraq   36     64  
Health care   34     61  
Gas prices   26     68  


November 3, 2005
Media overlooked Roberts's conflicting statements
Then, in a March 31 press release in which he commented on the release of phase one of the report, Roberts stated: "I don't think there should be any doubt that we have now heard it all regarding prewar intelligence. I think that it would be a monumental waste of time to replow this ground any further."

November 3, 2005
Rebellion Against Abuse
LAST MONTH a prisoner at the Guantanamo Bay military base excused himself from a conversation with his lawyer and stepped into a cell, where he slashed his arm and hung himself. This desperate attempted suicide by a detainee held for four years without charge, trial or any clear prospect of release was not isolated.

November 3, 2005
Conservatives Want Activist Judges
A jurist who seeks to overturn long-standing precedent because he or she disagrees with the decision is clearly an activist. This is precisely what the far right is seeking.

November 3, 2005
Oil's gain is consumers' pain
The huge windfall profits dropping in the laps of the major integrated oil companies - Exxon/Mobil alone reported a $9.9 billion profit for the third quarter - are the result of relentless and painful squeezing of American consumers, and of forces that have nothing to do with a free market.

November 3, 2005
Rocco Martino Forged Niger Documents
Brutti said the commission was told that the documents were forged by Rocco Martino, whom he described as a former SISMI informant. Both Brutti and commission chairman Enzo Bianco quoted Pollari and Letta as saying no SISMI officials were involved in forging the dossier or in distributing it.

November 3, 2005
An Impeachable Offensee

Red Cross Demands Access to CIA Secret Prison
The International Committee of the Red Cross has said it wants access to all foreign terror suspects held by the US. Chief spokeswoman Antonella Notari said it was concerned about the fate of an unknown number of people captured as part of the Bush administration's war on terror and allegedly held at undisclosed places of detention.

November 2, 2005
Majority Oppose Alito if He Supports Overturning Roe
If it becomes clear Alito would vote to reverse Roe v. Wade, Americans would not want the Senate to confirm him, by 53% to 37%.

November 2, 2005
Extended Poll Results

Poll: CIA Leak As Big as Watergate
51 percent say the CIA leak is of great importance to the nation. This exceeds the 41 percent who, in January of 1998, said the matter between then-President Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky was of great importance. It is closer to the 48 percent who gave such a level of import to Iran-Contra in February, 1987, although that was a few months after the scandal had broken. 53 percent placed Watergate in that category in a 1973 Gallup poll, which was also some months after the news had broken. Just 20 percent thought the Whitewater scandal in March, 1994 was of great importance.

November 2, 2005
Democrats Take Control of the Agenda
The changing political dynamic was dramatized this week when Democrats launched an unusually bold challenge on war policy: They essentially shut down the Senate to force release of a languishing report on whether the administration distorted or mishandled intelligence in making the case for invading Iraq. Chastened Republicans quickly agreed to investigate the status of the report.

November 2, 2005
Omar al-Farouq escapes
The Pentagon's belated confirmation of the identity of one of the four who escaped in July, Omar al-Farouq, sparked anger in Southeast Asia where he was one of Osama bin Laden's top lieutenants.

November 2, 2005
Intelligence Committee Thwarted Inquiry of the White House
"Any time the intelligence committee pursued a line of inquiry that brought us close to the role of the White House in all of this in the use of intelligence prior to the war, our efforts have been thwarted time and time again," Rockefeller said. "The very independence of the United States Congress as a separate and coequal branch of the government has been called into question."

November 2, 2005
An Impeachable Offense

White House Debates Torture
Since President Bush's decision in February 2002 to set aside the Geneva Conventions in fighting terrorists, government lawyers have debated what legal framework should apply to combatants in a struggle that the administration argues does not fit into the categories of international violence contemplated by the 1949 conventions.

November 2, 2005
An Impeachable Offense

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

The largest CIA prison in Afghanistan was code-named the Salt Pit. It was also the CIA's substation and was first housed in an old brick factory outside Kabul. In November 2002, an inexperienced CIA case officer allegedly ordered guards to strip naked an uncooperative young detainee, chain him to the concrete floor and leave him there overnight without blankets. He froze to death, according to four U.S. government officials. The CIA officer has not been charged in the death (note: "death" is Bush-speak for murder).

November 2, 2005
Another Ethically Challenged GOP Senator: Elisabeth Dole
The Dole committee did have written procedures that assigned separate staffers to receive and deposit contributions, Mitchell said. It also prohibited the deposit of corporate contributions, which are against the law.

November 1, 2005
An Impeachable Offense

Rumsfeld says no U.N. access to Guantanamo inmates
Human rights activists have criticized the United States for the indefinite detention of the roughly 505 detainees held at Guantanamo. Former prisoners have stated they were tortured there, and the ICRC last year accused the U.S. military of using tactics "tantamount to torture" on Guantanamo prisoners. The military has denied torture has occurred. (note: who cares what the military says?)

November 1, 2005
Democrats Win Agreement from Closed Session
Nov. 1 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Senators reached an agreement to monitor a congressional investigation into the Bush administration's use of intelligence about Iraq after Democrats forced an unusual closed session on the Senate floor to draw attention to the issue.

November 1, 2005
CBS Lie: Nuclear Option is NOT a democrat phrase
A November 1 Associated Press article republished on CBSNews.com repeated the false claim that "nuclear option," referring to the Republican-proposed Senate rule change to prohibit filibusters of judicial nominations, is a Democratic term. The article on CBSNews.com reports: "[Senate Majority Leader Bill] Frist [R-TN] said he's ready to move against judicial filibusters, using what Republicans call the 'constitutional option' and Democrats term the 'nuclear option.' " Other versions of the AP article, however, do not ascribe "nuclear option" to Democrats. CBS presumably added the language to the AP article.

November 1, 2005
Hannity falsely claimed Ginsburg advocated legalizing prostitution, lowering the consent age to 12
A 1974 report co-authored by Ginsburg did address the constitutionality of prohibitions on prostitution and did refer to legislation that set the age of consent at 12 years. But Ginsburg did not assert a position on either issue, as Media Matters for America previously noted in response to a nearly identical claim made by Wall Street Journal columnist Manuel Miranda.

November 1, 2005
Can we Impeach the Media?

Memo Matthew Used to Slander the Democrat Party
While serving as a U.S. Attorney, Alito failed to obtain a key conviction, releasing nearly two dozen mobsters back into society . . .

U.S. Attorney Alito Failed to Obtain Conviction of 20 Mobsters, Saying "You Can't Win Them All.'

November 1, 2005
Chris Matthews should be fired
Matthews falsely claimed that the document accused Alito of being "lenient on the mob" and made the baseless assertion that, by mentioning a case involving organized crime, Democrats were "go[ing] after [Alito's Italian] ethnicity." In fact, the document, available here, made no mention of Alito's ethnicity and simply noted that he lost a high-profile mob case -- not that he was "lenient" on anybody.

November 1, 2005
Democrats Force Senate Into Closed Session
WASHINGTON - Democrats forced the Republican-controlled Senate into an unusual closed session Tuesday, questioning intelligence that President Bush used in the run-up to the war in Iraq and accusing Republicans of ignoring the issue.

CIA Leak

Uranium Lie Uncovered
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 12, 2003; Page A01

"After Pincus"
NSC, White House, State discuss Wilson
Massinmo Calabresi
TIME
Jul. 31, 2005

Fitzgerald's Website

Libby Indictment
HTML Transcript



November 1, 2005
CIA-Leak Fallout Hinges on June 12, 2003
What happened on June 12, 2003, and the vice president's role that day, almost certainly would be explored in any trial that resulted from the charges against Mr. Libby. In the days before June 12, Mr. Libby repeatedly asked for and received information from the State Department and the CIA about Mr. Wilson's trip, according to the indictment. On June 11 and June 12, he was orally told by both a State Department official and a CIA officer that Mr. Wilson's wife worked at the CIA, though it is unclear if her name was said.

October 27, 2005
Defying the facts, Coulter, York, Limbaugh revived Wash. Times' baseless conclusion that Plame's neighbors knew her covert status
For example, on the October 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh said of Plame: "[E]verybody in her neighborhood knew who she was." Similarly, in separate appearances on the October 26 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter and National Review White House correspondent Byron York echoed the false claim. Coulter declared that "everyone in Washington knew she [Plame] was a CIA agent," then stated that any neighbor of Plame's who claimed that they didn't know is lying and should face "prosecution":

October 31, 2005
Katie Couric Lied: Alito is not "a strict constructionist"
This is not the first time Couric has suggested a false dichotomy between strict constructionists and judicial activists, as Media Matters for America has documented. In describing a July NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll question that asked whether Bush should appoint a judge "who will give greater consideration to the original intentions of the authors of the Constitution" or one that "will give greater consideration to changing times and current realities in applying the principles of the Constitution," Couric summarized the second choice as "a judicial activist."

October 31, 2005
USA Today editorial on CIA leak case riddled with lies
USA Today's editorial falsely declared that "Fitzgerald's two-year investigation ended without charges on the issue it was exploring -- whether anyone knowingly blew Plame's undercover status." According to USA Today, this "raises doubts about its [the investigation's] value." In fact, while Fitzgerald noted in an October 28 press conference announcing Libby's indictment that "the substantial bulk of the work in this investigation is concluded," he also said of the investigation: "It's not over." Fitzgerald added, "[I]t's in ordinary course to keep a grand jury open to consider other matters, and that's what we will be doing."

October 31, 2005
Cable news coverage of Alito nomination skewed right
CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News provided imbalanced coverage of the October 31 nomination of federal appeals court judge Samuel A. Alito Jr. to the Supreme Court -- Republicans, conservatives, and pro-Alito guests dominated the networks' coverage; far outnumbering Democrats, progressives, and Alito critics.

November 1, 2005
Higher taxes vs. long-term debt: Take the taxes
The two-party disregard of public opinion on taxation can be traced to the 1976 United States Supreme Court decision that allowed unlimited amounts of money to be used in political races. Within two years, elected officials were responding to contributors with vested interests - rather than to constituents.

November 1, 2005
U.S. to borrow record $171 billion next quarter
Treasury officials said while higher spending due to the hurricanes was a factor in assessing borrowing needs for the upcoming January-to-March 2006 quarter, they also pointed out that the opening quarter of the year is typically weak for the government because it is paying out tax refunds/

November 1, 2005
Tucker Carlson Lied: Nationalized health care IS cheaper than US
During a discussion about health care on the October 21 broadcast of HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher, MSNBC host Tucker Carlson falsely claimed that less is spent on health care in the United States, as a percentage of gross domestic product (GDP), than in countries with nationalized health care. In fact, the percentage of GDP spent on health is higher in the United States than in countries with government-provided health care, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

November 1, 2005
Bush/Cheney Church calls for withdrawal from Unjust War in Iraq
As people of faith we raise our voices in protest against the tragedy of the njust war in Iraq. We urge the United States government to develop and implement a plan for the withdrawal of its troops. The U.S. invasion has set in motion a sequence of events which may plunge Iraq into civil war.

[note: the next time someone says Bush is a deeply religious man, ask them why he follow his Church's teachings.]

September 2004
Iran-Contra II?
The investigation of Franklin is now shining a bright light on a shadowy struggle within the Bush administration over the direction of U.S. policy toward Iran. In particular, the FBI is looking with renewed interest at an unauthorized back-channel between Iranian dissidents and advisers in Feith's office, which more senior administration officials first tried in vain to shut down and then later attempted to cover up.

October 30, 2005
Gallup Poll: Lying Under Oath is not a problem for GOP
Commentary:: Only 28% of Republicans think Libby committed a crime. The "Rule of Law" party thinks it's ok to give false statemtns to the FBI, lie to the Grand Jury and Obstruct Justice. It's not just the leaders of the GOP that are morally corrupt, it's nearly the entire GOP. Republicans remain in their own delusional world of Rush Limbaugh, Fox News and Gallup polls, safe from the world the rest of us live in.

Gallup began this poll on the day Libby was indicted - before most Americans had a clue what was going on (unless you're a political junkie or watch TV all day). It's how Gallup operates - their polls are ALWAYS skewed in favor of the GOP agenda. For example, Gallup refuses to ask the "impeach" quesiton.

October 28, 2005
The False Moral Superiority of the Bush White House
But at least history can give the Clinton team a clean bill of ethical health. No White House was more thoroughly investigated -- and more thoroughly exonerated. But it's telling that the first time anyone had the courage to scratch the surface of Bush, Inc., he found corruption.

October 30, 2005
Cheney Must Explain CIA Leak Role--or Resign
Nicholas Kristof: If Mr. Cheney can't address the questions about his conduct, if he can't be forthcoming about the activities in his office that gave rise to the investigation, then he should resign. And if he won't resign, Mr. Bush should demand his resignation.

November 7, 2005 issue
Cheney's influence: 'less than zero'
Cheney's influence began to wane from the start of the second term and effectively came to an end as the Fitzgerald investigation gained momentum in recent months. "You can say that the influence of the vice president is going to decrease, but it's hard to decrease from zero," said a senior official sympathetic to Cheney's policies.

October 30, 2005
Clinton to Democrats, Fight or Find Something Else to Do
"You can't say, 'Please don't be mean to me. Please let me win sometimes.' Give me a break here," Clinton said. "If you don't want to fight for the future and you can't figure out how to beat these people then find something else to do."

October 30, 2005
55% in Survey Say Libby Case Signals Broader Problems
But once past the specifics of the charges against Libby, Republicans and Democrats differed dramatically. While a large majority of Democrats (76 percent) said the case is a sign of broader ethical problems in the administration, an equally large majority of Republicans (69 percent) said it was an isolated matter. Most Republicans continued to give Bush high marks for his handling of ethics in government, while Democrats overwhelmingly graded him poorly.

October 30, 2005
AP Poll: Approval of Congress Falls to 35%
Just over a third in the poll, 35 percent, approve of the way Congress is handling its job - down from 44 percent in February, according to the poll of 1,000 adults taken Oct. 3-5. The poll has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

October 30, 2005
Democrat Urges Rove to Quit Over CIA Leak
Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid said he is disappointed that Bush and Cheney responded to the indictment by lauding Libby and suggested they should apologize for the leak that revealed the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame.

October 30, 2005
Hypocrisy and The Miers Case
Who said repeatedly some variation of "every judicial nominee and the American people and the president deserve a fair up-or-down vote?" If you answered virtually every Republican senator, especially Sens. Orrin Hatch of Utah, Sam Brownback of Kansas and Bill Frist of Tennessee, you would be more than right.

October 29, 2005
Outed CIA agent 'is facing threats'
Threats have been made against the CIA operative whose unmasking is at the heart of the political scandal rocking President George W Bush's presidency, her husband said yesterday.

October 28, 2005
Births to unmarried women hit record
WASHINGTON — A record number of babies — nearly 1.5 million — were born to unmarried women in the U.S. last year. And those moms were more likely to be 20-somethings than teenagers, according to new federal data released Friday.

October 27, 2005
Trail to the chief - will crisis sink Bush?
The stench of indictments is not so easy to forget, however. "They [the administration] wanted the President to restore honour and integrity to the White House," said Congressman Christopher Shays - a Republican from Connecticut. "Whatever agenda the President wants to pursue, if he hasn't re-established a strong, ethical standard, he's going to fail. Americans don't like to be lied to."

October 30, 2005
Bush faces his Watergate
If one believes that the government of George Bush - actively assisted by that of Tony Blair - conspired to make a fraudulent case for the invasion of Iraq, then it is possible to see this week's events as nothing less the first fallout for the administration of their attempt to cover-up what they did.

October 29, 2005
Very good!

Lacking the 'truth' from Libby, Fitzgerald chose to indict
This is the bottom line, according to the Chicago-based federal prosecutor: Fitzgerald pursued obstruction, false statement and perjury charges because "we didn't get the straight story" from the man who resigned Friday as Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff.

And without the "truth" from Libby, Fitzgerald, investigating who outed a CIA agent -- the wife of an Iraq war critic -- said he is not in a position to know if a "serious national security crime" has been committed.

October 28, 2005
Cheney's top aide indicted in leak case
The five-count indictment alleges that Libby lied to FBI agents who interviewed him on two occasions, perjured himself during two appearances before the grand jury, and obstructed justice when he "knowingly and corruptly endeavored to influence, obstruct and impede" the grand jury's efforts to find out who leaked Valerie Plame's status as a covert agent to reporters during the spring of 2003.

October 28, 2005
Is US becoming hostile to science?
"Among the most significant forces is the rising tide of anti-science sentiment that seems to have its nucleus in Washington but which extends throughout the nation," said Stanford's Philip Pizzo in a letter posted on the school Web site on October 3.

October 28, 2005
Carl Bernstein Finds Plame Parallels To Watergate
"We are obviously watching and the press is beginning to document the implosion of a presidency," Bernstein said Thursday, just hours before the Plame grand jury is set to expire. "How destructive that implosion is going to be, ultimately, we don't know yet.

October 28, 2005
Public More Pleased Than Disappointed by Miers' Withdrawal
In Gallup's Oct. 21-23 poll, a plurality of Americans thought the Senate should reject the Miers nomination, and also showed significant disappointment over Bush's choice.

October 27, 2005
The 'Up or Down Vote' talking point is dead
Editor's Note: The GOP killed Miers' nomination before she had a "hearing" and before she received an "up or down vote." The GOP blast democrats for doing what they've just done with Miers. Hypocrisy is yet another sign or moral decay with the GOP.

This link provides examples of GOP lies, hypocrisies and intellectual inconsistencies regarding an "up or down vote."

October 27, 2005
Third-quarter Oil Profits Soar
  • Exxon Mobil: jumped 75 percent $9.92 billion
  • Marathon Oil Corp.: more than tripled to $770 million
  • Irving: revenue rose 32 percent to $100.7 billion
  • Shell: revenue climbed to $94.7 billion from $89 billion
  • BP Plc:34 percent gain $6.53 billion
  • ConocoPhillips: profit jumped 89 percent to a record $3.8 billion
  • Apache Corp.: net income surged 60 percent to $687 million
October 27, 2005
Weakened Bush dodges fight with conservatives
WASHINGTON, Oct 27 (Reuters) - The withdrawal of Harriet Miers' Supreme Court nomination dealt another blow to a reeling White House on Thursday but short-circuited a political fight with conservative allies that a weakened President George W. Bush could not afford.

October 27, 2005
An Impeachable Offense

Bush campaign fund-raiser indicted
It said Noe disguised $45,400 in personal contributions by recruiting and providing money to 24 friends and associates who made the contributions in their names so he could avoid the individual campaign contribution limit of $2,000. The Bush campaign returned $4,000.

October 26, 2005
May Reagan GOP R.I.P
Ronald Reagan observed, "Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first." Recently, so too does Republican policy-making. This week, under the cover of deficit reduction, the party of Reagan is on the verge of abandoning the party's commitment to controlling spending and free market principles.

October 26, 2005
Attack of the Blogs
The online haters have formidable allies amplifying their tirades to a potential worldwide audience of 900 million: Google, Yahoo and Microsoft, plus a raft of other blog hosts. Google is the largest player; its Blogger.com site attracts 15 million visitors a month, more than each of the Web sites of the New York Times, USAToday and the Washington Post. An upstart, Six Apart in SanFrancisco, owns three blogging services--TypePad, LiveJournal and Movable Type--that together run a strong second to Google.

October 27, 2005
An Impeachable Offense

Cheney, Libby Blocked Papers To Senate Intelligence Panel
The new information that Cheney and Libby blocked information to the Senate Intelligence Committee further underscores the central role played by the vice president's office in trying to blunt criticism that the Bush administration exaggerated intelligence data to make the case to go to war.

October 26, 2005
Another ethically challenged appointee

Ex-FDA head held shares in regulated firms
WASHINGTON, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Food and Drug Commissioner Lester Crawford or his wife owned stock in companies regulated by the agency as late as 2004, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

October 26, 2005
ConocoPhillips 3Q Profit Soars 89 Percent
HOUSTON - ConocoPhillips, the nation's third-largest integrated oil and gas company, said Wednesday its third-quarter profit surged 89 percent, reflecting strong prices for crude oil and natural gas.


SUBCHAPTER IV - PROTECTION OF CERTAIN NATIONAL SECURITY INFORMATION
(a) Disclosure of information by persons having or having had access to classified information that identifies covert agent Whoever, having or having had authorized access to classified information that identifies a covert agent, intentionally discloses any information identifying such covert agent to any individual not authorized to receive classified information, knowing that the information disclosed so identifies such covert agent and that the United States is taking affirmative measures to conceal such covert agent's intelligence relationship to the United States, shall be fined under title 18 or imprisoned not more than ten years, or both.

October 26, 2005
Leak Investigation Falsehoods
  • Claim: Fitzgerald's investigation is focused on technicalities; lacks an "underlying crime"; and represents the "criminalization of politics"
  • Claim: Fitzgerald's investigation initially focused on 1982 law
  • Claim: Fitzgerald requested that the scope of investigation be widened
  • Claim: Plame was not covert at the time of the alleged leak
  • Claim: Wilson claimed Cheney sent him to Niger
  • Claim: Plame suggested Wilson for the trip
  • Claim: Wilson lied about the findings from his trip to Niger
October 21, 2005
USA Today/CNN/Gallup Poll
2005 Oct 21-23 (sorted by "extremely important") Extremely important Extremely/Very important
% %
Corruption in government 45 81
Terrorism 45 77
The situation in Iraq 44 81
The economy 43 84
Health care 42 79
Gas prices 41 70
Social Security 38 75
Taxes 35 73


October 25, 2005
McClellan: Cheney Leak and Cheney Support for Torture
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, if you'll let me respond, I will. The President has made it very clear that he does not condone torture, nor would he ever authorize the use of torture -- Q Condone it, but does he allow it?

MR. McCLELLAN: -- and our policy is to comply with our laws and our treaty obligations. That's what we expect everyone to do. If there are ever instances of wrongdoing, we investigate and we follow through and hold people accountable.

October 26, 2005
10 Plots
White House - Overall, the United States and our partners have disrupted at least ten serious al-Qaida terrorist plots since September 11--including three al-Qaida plots to attack inside the United States. We have stopped at least five more al-Qaida efforts to case targets in the United States or infiltrate operatives into our country.

October 26, 2005
Vice President for Torture
VICE PRESIDENT Cheney is aggressively pursuing an initiative that may be unprecedented for an elected official of the executive branch: He is proposing that Congress legally authorize human rights abuses by Americans.

October 26, 2005
20% of Coral Reefs Have Been Destroyed, 50% in Danger
"Twenty percent of the earth's coral reefs, arguably the richest of all marine ecosystems, have been effectively destroyed today," said Carl Gustaf Lundin, head of the agency's marine environment program who helped write the report "Coral Reef Resilience and Resistance to Bleaching."

October 25, 2005
Iraqi Death Toll: 3,870 in six months, 30,000 in war
In one sign of the enormity of the Iraqi loss, at least 3,870 were killed in the past six months alone, according to an Associated Press count. One U.S. military spokesman said it is possible the figure for the entire war could be 30,000 Iraqis, which many experts see as a credible estimate.

October 25, 2005
Only 39% Think Someone in WH Acted Illegally
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Only one in 10 Americans said they believe Bush administration officials did nothing illegal or unethical in connection with the leaking of a CIA operative's identity, according to a national poll released Tuesday. "Thirty-nine percent said some administration officials acted illegally in the matter."

October 20, 2005
Key Players in the Plame Affair
Valerie Plame | Joseph C. Wilson IV | Robert Novak | Karl Rove | I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby" | Judith Miller | Matthew Cooper | Vice President Richard Cheney | John Hannah | Ari Fleischer | Scott McClellan | Patrick Fitzgerald | Additional Figures Interviewed by the Special Prosecutor

October 26, 2005
Pentagon Nominee Under Attack: Says Networks Work With Al Qaeda
"Al Jazeera," he added, "has very strong partners in the U.S. - ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, CNN and MSNBC. Video aired by Al Jazeera ends up on these networks, sometimes within minutes."

October 25, 2005
Must Read

The White House cabal
I believe that there are two reasons we should care. First, such departures from the process have in the past led us into a host of disasters, including the last years of the Vietnam War, the national embarrassment of Watergate (and the first resignation of a president in our history), the Iran-Contra scandal and now the ruinous foreign policy of George W. Bush.



October 25, 2005
Cheney Cited as Source in CIA Leak
NEW YORK - Notes in the hand of a federal prosecutor suggest the chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney first heard of the covert CIA officer central to a leak investigation from Cheney himself, The New York Times reported.

October 24, 2005
An Impeachable Offense

FBI broke the Law
In other cases, agents obtained e-mails after a warrant expired, seized bank records without proper authority and conducted an improper "unconsented physical search," according to the documents.

October 25, 2005
Letters Show Frist Notified Of Stocks in 'Blind' Trusts
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) was given considerable information about his stake in his family's hospital company, according to records that are at odds with his past statements that he did not know what was in his stock holdings.

October 23, 2005
CIA Leak expands to include forged Niger documents
WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 (UPI) -- The CIA leak inquiry that threatens senior White House aides has now widened to include the forgery of documents on African uranium that started the investigation, according to NAT0 intelligence sources.

October 31, 2005
Prelude to a Leak
Cheney had long distrusted the apparatchiks who sat in offices at the CIA, FBI and Pentagon. He regarded them as dim, timid timeservers who would always choose inaction over action. Instead, the vice president relied on the counsel of a small number of advisers. The group included Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz and two Wolfowitz proteges: I. Lewis (Scooter) Libby, Cheney's chief of staff, and Douglas Feith, Rumsfeld's under secretary for policy. Together, the group largely despised the on-the-one-hand/on-the-other analyses handed up by the intelligence bureaucracy. Instead, they went in search of intel that helped to advance their case for war.

October 24, 2005
Scowcroft speaks out against Bush
"I thought we ought to make it our duty to help make the world friendlier for the growth of liberal regimes," he said. "You encourage democracy over time, with assistance, and aid, the traditional way. Not how the neocons do it."

October 20, 2005
State by State GOP Scandal Scorecard
Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby  Contributions/Abramoff
        Gov. Robert Riley    Contributions/Abramoff.
                             Contributions/DeLay's
                             ARMPAC,linked to Abramoff
October 24, 2005
Majority of Investors Believe U.S. Economy "in a Slowdown"
In sharp contrast, the majority of U.S. investors describe the current economy as being in a "slowdown" or a "recession" as opposed to being in a "recovery" or a "sustained expansion," according to the October UBS/Gallup Index of Investor Optimism.

October 24, 2005
Senator Clinton Blasts Bush During Atlanta Speech
"Borrow and spend, borrow and spend, that's all we've done the last four years," Clinton said. "This has been the only time in history that our president has taken us to war and cut taxes at the same time. It doesn't add up."

October 24, 2005
Sen. Ted Stevens threatens to resign if he doesn't get his bridges
Sen. Ted Stevens, the veteran Alaska Republican, was dramatic in his response. "I don't kid people," Stevens roared. "If the Senate decides to discriminate against our state . . . I will resign from this body."

October 24, 2005
The Great American Spending Spree
The truth is exactly the opposite. The $2.57 trillion spending plan was America's biggest ever—about $330 billion more than would be generated by tax revenue. How anyone can describe a $330 billion deficit as a lean budget is beyond me.

October 24, 2005
320 Contractors Killed In Iraq
The Washington Post says the killings bring to 320 the number of non-Iraqi civilian contractors killed in the reports since the start of the war in March 2003.

October 23, 2005
NY Times Public Editor Denounces Miller/Times Editor
The Times must now face up to three major concerns raised by the leak investigation: First, the tendency by top editors to move cautiously to correct problems about prewar coverage. Second, the journalistic shortcuts taken by Ms. Miller. And third, the deferential treatment of Ms. Miller by editors who failed to dig into problems before they became a mess.

October 22, 2005
Poll shows Iraqis back attacks on UK, US forces
LONDON (Reuters) - Forty-five percent of Iraqis believe attacks on U.S. and British troops are justified, according to a secret poll said to have been commissioned by British defense leaders and cited by The Sunday Telegraph.