March 13, 2007
Gonzales Chief Aide Quits After Prosecutor Firings
March 13 (Bloomberg) -- The chief aide to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned amid revelations that President George W. Bush's White House staff initiated the decision to fire federal prosecutors.
The Justice Department announced the resignation of Kyle Sampson, who was Gonzales's chief of staff. Sampson may be called to testify by Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee who are demanding to know more about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. Democrats have likened the dismissals to a political purge.
The corruption within the Bush White House expands to every part of the government now. It will take generations to undo what they've done.
An Impeachable OffenseMarch 13, 2007
Army IG's report points to faulty rating of wounded soldiers
ARLINGTON, Va. — An Army Inspector General's report released Monday details shortcomings in the Army's system for rating how wounded soldiers are.
Among the findings: The Department of Veterans Affairs system for disability ratings needs to be updated to better represent how soldiers are injured, the report says.
The Army Times has reported that critics claim the Army is deliberately giving wounded soldiers less of a disability rating than they deserve to save money, but the Army has vehemently denied this.
March 13, 2007
Senator Tom Johnson of SD Recovering
March 13, 2007An Impeachable Offense
Poll: Bush Does Not Support Wounded Vet
A poll suggests a vast majority of U.S. citizens believe the Bush administration is not doing enough to help wounded Iraq veterans.
The CBS News/New York Times poll found that 76 percent of respondents -- including a majority of those who identified themselves as Republicans -- are critical of the administration's policies towards wounded vets, CBS News reported Tuesday.
The poll follows a week of Congressional hearings regarding poor treatment of veterans at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
Additionally, a 59 percent majority of respondents continue to oppose President Bush's decision to send 24,400 additional troops to Iraq. However, the number of respondents supporting Bush's decision, 36 percent, is a 7-point increase from a January poll.
March 14, 2007
Gonzales contradicts himself four times in nine minutes
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales faced the cameras for all of nine minutes yesterday, but he managed to contradict himself at least four times as he fought off calls to resign over the firing of U.S. attorneys.
Suddenly, the administration is in potentially a bigger flap than the Libby trial ever presented: allegations of political meddling with federal prosecutors at the highest levels of the White House with the complicity of Gonzales, the man Bush dubbed "mi abogado." And Schumer could not quite suppress a smile as he took the stage in the Senate television gallery, proclaiming, "This has become as serious as it gets."
Schumer said he was unsatisfied with Gonzales's sacrifice of his chief of staff. "Kyle Sampson will not become the next Scooter Libby, the next fall guy." Echoing a phrase used in the Libby trial, the senator continued: "The cloud over the Justice Department is getting darker and darker."
The central problem is no one is willing to raise the taxes to pay for the war or for veterans benefits; in other words, no one favors the war, not even the commander in chief.
An Impeachable OffenseMarch 14, 2007
Investigators say Bush effort to relieve backlog likely will be unsuccessful
WASHINGTON - The Veterans Affairs' system for handling disability claims is strained to its limit, and the Bush administration's current efforts to relieve backlogs will not be enough to serve veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, investigators said Tuesday.
In testimony to a House panel, the Government Accountability Office and Harvard professor Linda Bilmes detailed their study into the VA's claims system in light of growing demands created by wars. They found a system on the verge of crisis because of backlogs, cumbersome paperwork and ballooning costs.
March 12, 2007
Sen. Chuck Hagel: before this is over, you might see calls for his impeachment
"I believed what the administration said, that war would be a last resort," Hagel told Esquire magazine in an interview. "And the second thing is, at a critical time like this, the president needs a strong hand, and to some extent, you've got to trust him, until he lies or screws up or something."
Hagel also told Esquire that Bush appears to believe he's no longer accountable. "You can impeach him, and before this is over, I don't know. It depends how this goes."
March 2007
Full Report
If It's Sunday, It's Still Conservative
- Despite previous network claims that a conservative advantage existed on the Sunday shows simply because Republicans controlled Congress and the White House, only one show, ABC's This Week, has been roughly balanced between both sides overall since the congressional majority switched hands in the 2006 midterm elections.
- Since the 2006 midterm elections, NBC's Meet the Press and CBS' Face the Nation have provided less balance between Republican and Democratic officials than Fox Broadcasting Co.'s Fox News Sunday despite the fact that Fox News Sunday remains the most unbalanced broadcast overall both before and after the election.
- During the 109th Congress (2005 and 2006), Republicans and conservatives held the advantage on every show, in every category measured. All four shows interviewed more Republicans and conservatives than Democrats and progressives overall, interviewed more Republican elected and administration officials than Democratic officials, hosted more conservative journalists than progressive journalists, held more panels that tilted right than tilted left, and gave more solo interviews to Republicans and conservatives.
The first soldier wounded in Iraq is gay. What would Pace have us do with gay soldiers who give their lives and limbs to defend our country....treat them as sub-humans? or show them just how must bigotry and prejudice exists in the US military?
Pace probably doesn't know that around 70% of soldiers are ok with gays serving in the military and a huge chuck already know soldiers who are out. It's time for this Neanderthal to retire.
March 13, 2007
Gay group demands apology from Pace
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A gay advocacy group is demanding that the Pentagon's top general apologize for calling homosexuality immoral.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff likened homosexuality to adultery. Marine General Peter Pace said the military should not condone homosexuality by allowing gays to serve openly in the military.
Let's see what we do this with moron. First, Pace supported a war for no reason; a war that killed tens of thousands of innocent people. Then he supported military personnel who tortured POWs in Guantanamo Bay and Iraq. Then he supported generals that ignored abuses of veterans. But, in the face of all these gross violations of human dignity, he thinks gays are a problem? The man is not well.
March 13, 2007
Gen. Pace: Homosexuality "Immoral"
WASHINGTON—The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday he considers homosexuality to be immoral and the military should not condone it by allowing gay personnel to serve openly, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Marine Gen. Peter Pace likened homosexuality to adultery, which he said was also immoral, the newspaper reported on its Web site.
"I do not believe the United States is well served by a policy that says it is OK to be immoral in any way," Pace told the newspaper in a wide-ranging interview.
It appears we have a consensus; the US and British governments approved gross violations of the Geneva Conventions, including torture. The only remedy is impeachment and removal from office.
March 12, 2007
British judge says government okayed Iraq abuse
BULLFORD (Reuters) - A judge said on Monday the reason he had ordered charges dropped against the most senior British officer to be tried for prisoner abuse in Iraq was because headquarters had approved some of the abuses.
The British military has denied that its commanders approved abusing prisoners.
But a witness, Major Anthony Royce, testified during a court martial of seven other soldiers over the death of an Iraqi hotel receptionist that some abuse was approved by higher-ups at British brigade headquarters.
I maintain that you can't be a republican and a Christian. Evangelicals knew Bush was torturing POWs and they voted for him anyway. If they didn't know, there's no excuse. Either way they're damned. Where were evangelicals when their votes would have counted?
March 12, 2007
Evangelicals slam torture in war on terrorism
DALLAS (Reuters) - A major U.S. association of evangelical Christians has condemned torture by the U.S. military and reaffirmed its commitment to environmental activism, positions that highlight broader splits in a movement associated with conservative causes.
"United States law and military doctrine has banned the resort to torture or cruel and degrading treatment. Tragically, documented cases of torture and inhumane and cruel behavior have occurred at various sites in the war on terror," the National Association of Evangelicals said in a statement.
Evangelical Christians have been among the staunchest supporters of the U.S. war in Iraq and the broader war on terror and many rankle at criticism of the American military which they see as unpatriotic and even un-Christian.
But divisions have emerged among the 60 million U.S. evangelicals as prominent figures publicly embrace causes such as global warming that are usually associated with the left of America's political divide.
The era of Bush is exactly the same as Reagan. They were both uninformed idiots who borrowed money and gave it away. If anyone still thinks Reagan was responsible they need therapy.
With $3 trillion of debt under Bush and $1.6 trillion under Reagan it's impossible to say either of these men were fiscal conservatives. They were big spenders and the party loved them for it.
March 12, 2007
Republicans See Divided Party and Trouble in '08
In a survey that brought to life the party's anxieties about keeping the White House, Republicans said they were concerned that their party had drifted from the principles of Ronald Reagan, its most popular figure of the past 50 years.
Forty percent of Republicans said they expected Democrats to take control of the White House next year, compared with 46 percent who said they believed a Republican would win. Just 12 percent of Democrats said they thought the opposing party would win the White House.
Bush and Rove poll their conservative base and the base wants a pardon. There will be a pardon. It's only a matter of timing. The sad thing is the republican base has been wrong so many times, on so many issues that the opinion of the base is worthless.
March 12, 2007
Poll: 69 percent oppose pardon for Libby in CIA leak case
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nearly 70 percent of Americans oppose a presidential pardon for former White House aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby after his conviction on perjury and other charges related to a CIA agent's exposure, according to a CNN poll out Monday.Just 18 percent said they would support a pardon for Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney, while 69 percent said they opposed the idea. Meanwhile, a narrow majority said they believe Cheney was part of a cover-up in the case.
Criminals in the White House, the Justice Department, the CIA, the FBI, the Military...why hasn't Bush been impeached yet?
March 12, 2007
Gonzales must go after 'abuse of power'
US Senator Charles Schumer, who led the charge, cited a report last week that the FBI had misused its power under the Patriot Act as another egregious misstep by Mr Gonzales, who as White House counsel argued that war on terror detainees should not be afforded all the protections of the Geneva Conventions."The Justice Department must be above politics. Attorney-General Gonzales is a nice man, but he doesn't understand he's no longer the president's lawyer," Senator Schumer said on CBS television.
An Impeachable OffenseMarch 13, 2007
Army surgeon general forced to retire
WASHINGTON— The Army's top medical officer was forced into retirement yesterday, yet another after effect of the disclosure of shoddy conditions for outpatients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.The ousted officer, Lt. Gen. Kevin C. Kiley, the Army surgeon general, became the third high-ranking official to lose his job because of shabby living quarters and bureaucratic tangles endured by wounded troops returned from combat.
"I submitted my retirement because I think it is in the best interest of the Army," Kiley said in a statement released by the military. "We are an Army Medical Department at war, supporting an Army at war. It shouldn't be and it isn't about one doctor."
An Impeachable OffenseMarch 12, 2007
The Justice Department's false statements
Based on the DOJ's false assurances, Congress dismissed away the concerns of Russ Feingold and The Post and overwhelmingly voted to re-authorize the Patriot Act. In doing so, they re-authorized the dramatically expanded NSLs, which were first authorized (in expanded form) in September, 2001.In other words: all of those assurances we gave you in order to convince you that we were using NSLs in strict accordance with the law were false. Now that the IG Report proves that what we told you is false, we are retracting what we said, and when we get around to it, we will also correct the false testimony we gave at Congressional hearings and the false assurances we gave you in secret, classified meetings -- all of which successfully convinced you to re-authorize the Patriot Act.
It is inconceivable that these false assurances were made in good faith. They were plainly the by-product of either deliberate deceit or a reckless indifference to finding out whether those statements were true. The IG Report documents that the illegal use of NSLs was not isolated in any way, but instead, was pervasive and systematic. As the Washington Post Editorial yesterday noted:
March 11, 2007
The Army is ordering injured troops to go to Iraq
As the military scrambles to pour more soldiers into Iraq, a unit of the Army's 3rd Infantry Division at Fort Benning, Ga., is deploying troops with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body armor, according to medical records.On Feb. 15, Master Sgt. Jenkins and 74 other soldiers with medical conditions from the 3rd Division's 3rd Brigade were summoned to a meeting with the division surgeon and brigade surgeon. These are the men responsible for handling each soldier's "physical profile," an Army document that lists for commanders an injured soldier's physical limitations because of medical problems -- from being unable to fire a weapon to the inability to move and dive in three-to-five-second increments to avoid enemy fire. Jenkins and other soldiers claim that the division and brigade surgeons summarily downgraded soldiers' profiles, without even a medical exam, in order to deploy them to Iraq. It is a claim division officials deny.
The solution is simple, force republicans in the House and Senate to raise taxes and pay for the war. The war will end within 24-hours.
Obey is a twit. He knows he can't pass a new resolution to end the war and he knows Bush would never sign the resolution even if it passed both chambers. So instead of doing something that forces the issue, he'll support meaningless resolutions that have no chance of changing anything. It's time for him to go.
March 7, 2007
Dave Obey, "Idiot Liberals" and Ending the War
However, the troubling thing out of the spat is not Obey's behavior: it is the reaction to it by the progressive movement, and what that reaction really says. The idea that Jack Murtha - the guy who voted for the war, the guy who was one of the most outspoken pro-war Democrats, the guy who has never seen a defense bill he didn't try to increase - is now an antiwar saint beyond reproach, but Dave Obey is some sort of pro-war villain is so fundamentally absurd it suggests that at least some who liken themselves as progressive movement leaders really are "idiot liberals" because they have positively no idea how the hell basic movement building or power works (mind you - I'm not saying Jack Murtha hasn't been courageous in opposing the war of late- he has, which is why I thought he should have been Majority Leader - but the point is that the basic understanding of "allies" and "enemies" can be wholly misunderstood).
It's insane to consider Fox a news channel. It's GOP propaganda and should be ignored by all thinking people. Fox was wrong about Whitewater, WMD, the war in Iraq, surpluses, deficits, tax cuts and so much more. People who want to be dumb watch Fox and nothing Dems do will get them to stop.
March 7, 2007
Stung by Remarks, Nevada Democrats Cancel Debate on Fox
Criticism had been mounting ever since the Aug. 14 debate for Democratic presidential candidates was announced last month. Liberal blogs and groups as well as some Nevada Democrats had demanded that Fox be removed as a sponsor, arguing that its coverage was slanted toward Republicans.Nevada's Democratic leaders had stood firm against pressure over what had become an unpopular decision, until the Fox chairman, Roger Ailes, made a remark about Mr. Obama on Thursday night at an awards banquet here. In a series of jokes about various public officials as part of a speech, Mr. Ailes said, "It is true that Barack Obama is on the move. I don't know if it's true that President Bush called Musharraf and said, 'Why can't we catch this guy?' "
Every day the media pushes Bush's war even though the war's been lost for over a year. I'm not sure why it's still a story. It's time to move on and expose the lawlessness throughout the entire Bush White House.
The people who say they support the war, don't. Ask them to pay for the war and watch how fast they run away from it. But of course the media is too stupid to ask this basic question of war supporters or Bush.
An Impeachable OffenseMarch 10, 2007
Federal officials secretly schemed to limit payouts for sick and dying nuclear weapons workers
Federal officials secretly schemed to limit payouts for sick and dying nuclear weapons workers, including thousands from the Rocky Flats plant outside Denver, newly released documents show.The officials responsible for helping those workers went behind their boss's back, called on White House officials for help and tried to hide their efforts, according to internal e-mails and memos obtained by a congressional committee and posted on its Web site.
They also wanted to get the White House to override scientific decisions granting compensation and pack the program's advisory board with members less sympathetic to workers.
March 9, 2007
Bush visits spark riots
SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Police clashed yesterday with students, environmentalists and leftist Brazilians protesting against a visit by President George W. Bush and his push for an ethanol energy alliance with Latin America's largest country.Riot police fired tear gas at protesters and beat them with batons in Sao Paulo after more than 6,000 people held a largely peaceful march, sending hundreds of demonstrators fleeing and ducking into businesses to avoid the gas.
To visit Colombia
Authorities did not immediately report any injuries but Brazilian news media said at least six people were hurt after marching three kilometres through the financial heart of South America's largest city just hours before Bush was scheduled to arrive.
There appears to be one absolute truth. Every conservative in the Bush White House is corrupt and incompetent. The media still hasn't grasped this concept. They're still talking about Bush's war in Iraq - a war that was based on lies. They still can't bring themselves to accept the fact that their entire industry is an enabler to his corruption and ineptitude.
March 11, 2007
The Failed Attorney General
First, there was Mr. Gonzales's lame op-ed article in USA Today trying to defend the obviously politically motivated firing of eight United States attorneys, which he dismissed as an "overblown personnel matter." Then his inspector general exposed the way the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been abusing yet another unnecessary new power that Mr. Gonzales helped wring out of the Republican-dominated Congress in the name of fighting terrorism.The F.B.I. has been using powers it obtained under the Patriot Act to get financial, business and telephone records of Americans by issuing tens of thousands of "national security letters," a euphemism for warrants that are issued without any judicial review or avenue of appeal. The administration said that, as with many powers it has arrogated since the 9/11 attacks, this radical change was essential to fast and nimble antiterrorism efforts, and it promised to police the use of the letters carefully.
But like so many of the administration's promises, this one evaporated before the ink on those letters could dry. The F.B.I. director, Robert Mueller, admitted Friday that his agency had used the new powers improperly.
There is zero support for this war. We know this because no one dares raise taxes to pay for it, or reinstate the draft so we have enough troops to win. Not even Bush supports his war (no taxes, no support). He knows his party will bolt if they're forced to pay for his war so he passes the buck to the next generation instead. I don't know who are bigger cowards; Bush and Cheney, the GOP or the US media.
March 11, 2007
Pelosi Cautions Bush Not to Veto an Iraq Bill
WASHINGTON, March 10 — Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker, challenged President Bush on Saturday over his threat to reject an Iraq spending bill if it calls for a troop withdrawal, even as the administration sought to shift money to pay for additional forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.With a House committee set to consider the approximately $100 billion measure as early as Thursday, Ms. Pelosi said a veto would suggest to Iraqi leaders that the United States was not serious about making them more responsible for policing their own country.
March 11, 2007
Bush to add 8,200 troops to Iraq, Afghanistan
ANCHORENA PARK, Uruguay — President Bush approved 8,200 more U.S. troops for Iraq and Afghanistan on top of reinforcements already ordered to those two countries, the White House said Saturday, a move that comes amid a fiery debate in Washington over the Iraq war.The president is sending 4,700 troops to Iraq in addition to the 21,500 he ordered in January, mainly to provide additional support and to handle more Iraqi prisoners than anticipated. He also decided to send a 3,500-member brigade to Afghanistan to accelerate training of local forces, doubling his previous troop increase to fight a resurgent Taliban.
Bush has had four years to win this war and he's failed. What in gods name makes anyone think another year will make any difference? The Congress should pull all funding for the war on terror and bring home the troops within 30 days.
March 11, 2007
The war's endgame
That's the core of the plan that House Democrats are now advancing, with a vote possible before the end of the month. Unlike an earlier resolution that was all talk and no teeth, this bill is clear and powerful, a message to friend and foe in Iraq.Under the new plan, the president would have to certify by July 1 of this year, and again by Oct. 1, that the Iraqi government is making progress toward securing the country, allocating its oil revenues and creating a fair system for amending its constitution.
An Impeachable OffenseMarch 8, 2007
Bush Debt
$3,105,407,209,442.59
March 08, 2007
March 10, 2007
FBI broke the law
WASHINGTON — Years of suspicion about the government's authority to secretly poke around in Americans' personal information boiled over yesterday when the FBI admitted it did so illegally in some cases over the past three years.At a glance...
- Who did what: Federal law enforcement chiefs say the FBI broke the law in prying into Americans' personal information.
- So what: Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III apologized and pledged to stop it.
- What next: Disciplinary action, not criminal charges, are likely.
When the John Birch Society takes on the press for allowing Bush to destroy the Constitution, then you know it's bad. Where is the congress? Are they still cultivating some balls?
March 7, 2007
Where Is the Press on Internet Surveillance?
ABC just ran a story of whistleblower Mark Klein, AT&T technician, regarding government surveillance of internet traffic by AT&T and the National Security Agency. At a San Francisco switching center, Mr. Klein collected over 120 pages of technical documents showing how NSA installed splitters which would allow of both domestic and international internet communications to be copied.Over at the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Klein's story by was killed at the request of National Intelligence Director John Negroponte and NSA Director Gen. Michael Hayden. However, the New York Times did publish it. An online news video is available here.
I firmly believe NBC and ABC (ABC was awarded the Misinformer of the Year for 2006) don't do news anymore. Instead, they do GOP propaganda.
March 7, 2007
ABC, NBC still haven't covered U.S. attorney firings
NBC's and ABC's nightly news programs have yet to cover the controversy over the Bush administration's dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys, despite considerable congressional attention to the issue, including hearings begun on March 6.On March 6, both the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law and the Senate Judiciary Committee held hearings on the attorneys' dismissals. As The Washington Post reported, the witnesses "testified on Capitol Hill yesterday that they had separately been the target of complaints, improper telephone calls and thinly veiled threats from a high-ranking Justice Department official or members of Congress, both before and after they were abruptly removed from their jobs."
Most liberals could care less about politicians personal lives, but when they run around the country claiming to be morally superior and/or have superior family values, they're not only liars but hypocrites. Bush has lied from the Oval Office so many times we've had enough lies to last a generation.
March 8, 2007
Gingrich had affair during Clinton probe
WASHINGTON - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich acknowledged he was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge against President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, he acknowledged in an interview with a conservative Christian group."The honest answer is yes," Gingrich, a potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate, said in an interview with Focus on the Family founder James Dobson to be aired Friday, according to a transcript provided to The Associated Press. "There are times that I have fallen short of my own standards. There's certainly times when I've fallen short of God's standards."
Gingrich argued in the interview, however, that he should not be viewed as a hypocrite for pursuing Clinton's infidelity.
An Impeachable OffenseMarch 7, 2007
Edwards to Skip Debate Hosted by Fox
LAS VEGAS — Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards won't participate in a debate co-hosted by Fox News Channel and the Nevada Democratic Party, his campaign said Wednesday, as party officials tried to settle a dustup over their partnership with the cable network. Edwards' campaign said Fox News' participation was part of the decision to pass on the Aug. 14 debate in Reno, but it also cited scheduling conflicts.Online activists and bloggers quickly hailed the decision as a victory in their campaign to urge Nevada Democrats to drop Fox News as a partner. MoveOn.org Civic Action says it has collected more than 260,000 signatures on a petition that calls the cable network a "mouthpiece for the Republican Party, not a legitimate news channel."
March 8, 2007
Government Scientists: "Don't discuss polar bears"
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Polar bears, sea ice and global warming are taboo subjects, at least in public, for some U.S. scientists attending meetings abroad, environmental groups and a top federal wildlife official said on Thursday.Environmental activists called this scientific censorship, which they said was in line with the Bush administration's history of muzzling dissent over global climate change.
Under GOP control, our intelligence agencies fell apart and created fake intelligence, our disaster agencies didn't work and Katrina victims were left to die, our military is in shamble, unable to win a war in an unarmed country and Veterans weren't cared for. On top of that the US debt grew at historical levels - $3.1 trillion of new debt since Bush has been in office.
Where is all that money going?
An Impeachable OffenseMarch 7, 2007
GOP Was Aware of Problems at Walter Reed and Did Nothing
Senior Republicans who knew about problems at Walter Reed Army Medical Center while their party controlled Congress insist they did all they could to prod the Pentagon to fix them.But C.W. Bill Young, R-Fla., former chairman of the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, said he stopped short of going public with the hospital's problems to avoid embarrassing the Army while it was fighting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
John P. Murtha of Pennsylvania, who was the ranking Democrat on the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, said he sought appropriations to address problems he found during visits to military hospitals. For example, he obtained money for air conditioners for the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and modern stretchers for a Baghdad field hospital.
Murtha focused blame for the Walter Reed scandal on the Bush administration and said the Pentagon discouraged patients from talking to lawmakers in both parties.
"My impression is that the military was constrained, even intimidated, from telling me and other congressional members about the real problems and the real needs," Murtha said.
Being "fair and balanced" means newspapers and networks have to employ know liars and hate-mongers. Newspaper editors need to grow some balls.
March 8, 2007
Fourth Paper Drops Coulter
NEW YORK The full statement by Alan English, executive editor of The Times of Shreveport, Louisiana, in announcing this morning that the paper would drop Ann Coulter as a columnist, follows.This is the fourth daily to drop the Universal columnist this week following her use of "faggot" in a reference to former Sen. John Edwards in a speech last Friday. She also said last week that his campaign manager, former U.S. Rep David Bonior, was "fronting for Arab terrorists." The Human Rights Campaign has launched a letter-writing effort aimed at Universal and individual papers.
The fact that so many senators signed onto a bill that allowed the White House to appoint whomever they wanted without knowing is tells us one absolute truth. US Senators don't earn their salaries and should go home.
March 9, 2007
Gonzales Yields On Hiring Interim U.S. Attorneys
Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales agreed yesterday to change the way U.S. attorneys can be replaced, a reversal in administration policy that came after he was browbeaten by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee still angry over the controversial firings of eight federal prosecutors.Gonzales told Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) and other senior members of the committee that the administration will no longer oppose legislation limiting the attorney general's power to appoint interim prosecutors. Gonzales also agreed to allow the committee to interview five top-level Justice Department officials as part of an ongoing Democratic-led probe into the firings, senators said after a tense, hour-long meeting in Leahy's office suite.
March 7, 2007
Firefighters Union Says No to Giuliani
John Edwards, John McCain, Barack Obama, Chuck Hagel, Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, Duncan Hunter and seven other candidates will make their case before the 1,000 delegates who will be attending the Forum and to our entire membership via same-day broadcast on our web site.Early on, the IAFF made a decision to invite all serious candidates from both political parties — except one: former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Regrettably, the situation with former Mayor Giuliani is very different. His actions post 9/11 rise to such an offensive and personal attack on our brother and sisterhood — and directly on our union — that the IAFF does not feel Rudy Giuliani deserves an audience of IAFF leaders and members at our own Presidential Forum.
March 5, 2007
Poll: US Third Most Hated Country on Earth
The BBC has been tracking opinions about countries' influence in the world over three years (2005 – 2007). During that time most ratings have remained relatively stable. There has been improvement in ratings of India, a slight decline in views about Britain and a significant fall in positive evaluations of the United States. Russia, China, and France also lost ground over the period, mainly between 2005 and 2006."It appears that people around the world tend to look negatively on countries whose profile is marked by the use or pursuit of military power," said Steven Kull, director of PIPA. This includes Israel and the US, who have recently used military force, and North Korea and Iran, who are perceived as trying to develop nuclear weapons."
March 7, 2007
Former Navy Sailor Charged With Passing Secrets to Al Qaeda
March 7, 2007 — A former U.S. Navy sailor has been charged with allegedly passing military secrets about U.S. Navy movements through waters in the Middle East to al Qaeda-related Web sites during the spring of 2001, just months after the USS Cole was attacked in Yemen.Hassan Abujihaad, formerly known as Paul R. Hall, allegedly passed information about U.S. Navy warship movements in the Straits of Hormuz in April 2001 while he was a member of the Navy. The information passed along contained details about vulnerabilities of U.S. vessels — including susceptibility to small boat attacks by terrorists.
March 8, 2007
U.S. commander sees Baghdad backlash
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - The new U.S. commander in Iraq said on Thursday military force would not end violence unless talks were held with some militant groups and warned of more "sensational attacks" during the current crackdown in Baghdad.General David Petraeus, at his first news conference since he took command last month, also said he saw no immediate need for more U.S. troops, but reinforcements already requested would likely stay "well beyond the summer".
You may recall Bush rewrote the Presidential Papers Act without the consent of Congress. It's one of the first impeachable offenses I listed on this site in 2001.
An Impeachable OffenseMarch 8, 2007
Historians Fight Bush on Access to Papers
President George W. Bush's 2001 executive order restricted the release of presidential records by giving sitting presidents the power to delay the release of papers indefinitely, while extending the control of former presidents, vice presidents and their families. It also changed the system from one that automatically released documents 30 days after a current or former president is notified to one that withholds papers until a president specifically permits their release.Today the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is scheduled to discuss a new bill that would overturn Mr. Bush's order, said a committee spokeswoman, Karen Lightfoot. The sponsors, who include the committee chairman, Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California, hope to bring the bill to the floor of the House next week.
Two quick points; first, why is Sullivan still a conservative? They spend more money than liberals could dream of spending. They hate groups of people than fascist and they have the intellect of dried prunes. Second, why is it that so many bad people drawn to the republican party? Is it because bigots feel welcome?
March 6, 2007
Andrew Sullivan: Faggot
And for the slur to work, it must logically accept the premise that gay men are weak, effeminate, wusses, sissies, and the rest. A sane gay man has two responses to this, I think. The first is that there is nothing wrong with effeminacy or effeminate gay men - and certainly nothing weak about many of them. In the plague years, I saw countless nelly sissies face HIV and AIDS with as much courage and steel as any warrior on earth. You want to meet someone with balls? Find a drag queen. The courage of many gay men every day in facing down hatred and scorn and derision to live lives of dignity and integrity is not a sign of being a wuss or somehow weak. We have as much and maybe more courage than many - because we have had to acquire it to survive. And that is especially true of gay men whose effeminacy may not make them able to pass as straight - the very people Coulter seeks to demonize. The conflation of effeminacy with weakness, and of gayness with weakness, is what Coulter calculatedly asserted. This was not a joke. It was an attack.
March 6, 2007
Fired Prosecutor Says He Was Warned to Keep Quiet
March 6 (Bloomberg) -- A prosecutor dismissed by the Bush administration last year said he and other former U.S. attorneys were warned to keep quiet about their firings by a senior Justice Department official.H.E. "Bud" Cummins told the Senate Judiciary Committee that Mike Elston, the deputy attorney general's top aide, threatened him with retaliation in a phone call last month if he went public. Cummins said he passed the warning on to five U.S. attorneys who were ousted last December, believing that was what Elston wanted.
IMO, these companies should be banned from having their stock traded on any exchange in the world for at least five years and they should be forced to pay billions in fines. If we can't force them out of business, we can make their lives a living hell.
March 5, 2007
Dozens of Companies Backdated Stocks After 9/11 and Broke the Law
Dozens of companies are being investigated for backdating stock options to the days that followed the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and profiting on the back of the equity-market slump that resulted, The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.The latest development is only part of a wider backdating scandal that implicates more than 140 companies and has caused more than 70 firings or resignations of corporate officials, the Journal reported.
The options paid to top executives or other employees were arranged weeks after the attacks and took advantage of the relatively low value of company's stock, the paper said. Normally options reflect the closing price of the share on the day it is granted, if the stock rises after the day of issue then the individual can exercise the option (buy the stock) and benefit from the premium generated.
What is the White House and the military afraid of...they've used terrorism to justify destroying the Constitution and the Geneva Conventions...what else are they hiding?
An Impeachable OffenseMarch 6, 2007
Pentagon Closes Door on Terror Hearings
Reporters will be barred from hearings that begin Friday in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for the 14 suspected terrorists who were transferred last year from secret CIA prisons, officials said Tuesday.Interest in the 14 is high because of their alleged links to al-Qaida. Among them is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks. He was captured in Pakistan in March 2003.
A New York-based human rights group that represents one of the 14 men accused the Pentagon of designing "sham tribunals." The organization contended that its client, Majid Khan, has been denied access to his lawyers since October 2006 "solely to prevent his torture and abuse from becoming public" and to protect complicit foreign governments.
March 7, 2007
Conservatives Honor Gay Porn Star
I don't know if David Horowitz knew Cpl. Matt Sanchez was once a gay porn star and male prostitute when he introduced him to me at last weekend's CPAC. But he did know that Sanchez was an eager yes-man, and a supposed victim of the campus PC thuggery Horowitz has made a career out of decrying.For his supposed courage in the face of liberal cruelty, Cpl. Sanchez was presented with the Jeanne Kirpatrick Academic Freedom Award at this year's CPAC. Sanchez was the perfect vehicle for the conservative movement's ongoing attempt to wrap itself in the uniform, and to heap resentment on liberals for their supposed anti-military bias.
As several gay blogs revealed late yesterday, Corporal Sanchez was known during his halcyon days as Rod Majors, a majorly well-endowed gay porn star. (Photos of Corp. Sanchez aka Rod Majors in action can be viewed here. I warn you, this link is NOT to be clicked on if you have minors around or if you're in a crowded workplace). According to Tom Bacchus, Sanchez was also a $200-an-hour male prostitute who advertised himself (here) as an "excellent top."
March 7, 2007
Two More Newspapers Drop Ann Coulter's Column
NEW YORK At least two more daily newspapers -- The Oakland Press of Michigan and The Mountain Press of Sevierville, Tenn. -- have dropped Ann Coulter's column. A daily in Pennsylvania had dropped the column two days ago.Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign gay-rights organization announced a campaign late this afternoon to get other Coulter newspaper clients to drop the columnist. This comes a day after HRC started a letter-writing effort that resulted in what it said were more than 20,000 messages urging Universal Press Syndicate to stop distributing Coulter.
March 5, 2007
Lancaster (Pa.) New Era drops Coulter
NEW YORK At least one newspaper has canceled Ann Coulter's column after she implied that Democratic politician John Edwards is a "faggot."The daily Lancaster (Pa.) New Era, in a note to readers, said it "halted publication of Ann Coulter's syndicated column following her crude characterization of presidential candidate John Edwards as a homosexual at a public appearance on Friday. Coulter's use of name-calling, sarcasm, and overstatement in her columns too often detracts from the arguments she seeks to make. ...
March 6, 2007
BBC survey claims Israel has least positive image of any country
Israel, Iran and the United States are the countries with the most negative image in a globe-spanning survey of attitudes toward 12 major nations. Canada and Japan came out best in the poll, released on Monday.The survey for the British Broadcasting Corp.'s World Service asked more than 28,000 people to rate 12 countries - Britain, Canada, China, France, India, Iran, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Russia, the United States and Venezuela as having a positive or negative influence on the world.
Bush clearly said the Geneva Conventions didn't apply to POWs in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay. He is responsible for these gross violations of International Law.
An Impeachable OffenseMarch 2007
Confessions of a Torturer: The story of Army interrogator Tony Lagouranis
Lagouranis says his own interrogations there were just talking, "right out of the army field manual." Some of the older interrogators, however, were still using harsher methods. Some detainees judged to be uncooperative were stripped of their mattress, blankets, and extra clothing to expose them to the cold in their cells. Others were kept in isolation for months at a time and hooded when they were taken to the interrogation booths, so that they'd see no one but their interrogators. Nevertheless, it seemed to Lagouranis that the administration of Abu Ghraib was getting progressively cleaner. Also, it was common knowledge that the CIA was torturing prisoners, he says, so anything the army did paled by comparison.IN APRIL 2004 the New Yorker and 60 Minutes II broke the story of detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib. Not long after those infamous photos were published, Lagouranis was transferred from Mosul back to Abu Ghraib. CNN broadcasts played constantly in the area where the interrogators wrote their reports, and it was there, while watching congressional hearings, that Lagouranis heard Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld say that the detainees in Iraq were being treated according to the Geneva Conventions. "I also heard [Lieutenant General Ricardo] Sanchez say that dogs were never authorized to be used in Iraq." This testimony flatly contradicted guidelines for interrogations that Sanchez, the military commander in Iraq, had issued in September and October of 2003.
"That's when I got really pissed," Lagouranis says. "I was like, 'Shit, these guys are fucking us over.'"
March 7, 2007
Vermont Votes to Impeach Bush/Cheney
The Nation -- When Vermont Governor Jim Douglas, a Republican with reasonably close ties to President Bush, asked if there was any additional business to be considered at the town meeting he was running in Middlebury, Ellen McKay popped up and proposed the impeachment of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.The governor was not amused. As moderator of the annual meeting, he tried to suggest that the proposal to impeach -- along with another proposal to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq -- could not be voted on.
But McKay, a program coordinator at Middlebury College, pressed her case. And it soon became evident that the crowd at the annual meeting shared her desire to hold the president to account.
So Douglas backed down.
| Republican Senators Up For Reelection Who Voted Against Debating Iraq Surge | |||||
| Lamar Alexander (R-TN) | Saxby Chambliss (R-GA) | Thad Cochran (R-MS) | John Cornyn (R-TX) | Larry Craig (R-ID) | Elizabeth Dole (R-NC) |
| Pete Domenici (R-NM) | Mike Enzi (R-WY) | Lindsey Graham (R-SC) | Chuck Hagel (R-NE) | Jim Inhofe (R-OK) | Mitch McConnell (R-KY) |
| Pat Roberts (R-KS) | Jeff Sessions (R-AL) | Gordon Smith (R-OR) | Ted Stevens (R-AK) | John Sununu (R-NH) | John Warner (R-VA) |
| Senators who changed their votes on Feb. 17, 2007
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March 6, 2007
Libby Found Guilty in CIA Leak Trial
Once the closest adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was convicted Tuesday of lying and obstructing a leak investigation that shook the top levels of the Bush administration.He is the highest-ranking White House official convicted in a government scandal since National Security Adviser John Poindexter in the Iran-Contra affair two decades ago.
In the end, jurors said did not believe Libby's main defense: that he hadn't lied but merely had a bad memory.
March 3, 2007
Fox News Devoted 12 Times More Coverage To Anna Nicole Than Walter Reed
NETWORK ANNA NICOLE WALTER REED FOX NEWS 121 10 MSNBC 96 84 CNN 40 53