Bad Deeds for 4-3-07

Romney would start Iraq war again, says his Press Secretary – Mitt Romney’s press secretary, Kevin Madden, tells Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s ‘Hardball’ that the 2008 GOP White House hopeful supports President Bush’s decision for pre-emptive war in Iraq. Madden then answers several of Matthews’ Iraq questions evasively, focusing instead on Romney’s tough stance on fighting “the global jihad.”

Pentagon Continues to Withhold Reports on Iraqi Readiness – Despite repeated requests from the House Armed Services Committee and the Government Accountability Office, the Pentagon has failed to hand over its Transition Readiness Assessments, which are compiled each month by U.S. advisers embedded with Iraqi units and used to assess their ability to take over key functions from the U.S. military. The Defense Department has yet to give a reason for its refusal to turn over the reports, despite at least two official requests being filed since January.

McCain Wrong on Iraq Security, Merchants Say – A day after members of an American Congressional delegation led by Senator John McCain pointed to their brief visit to Baghdad’s central market as evidence that the new security plan for the city was working, incredulous merchants – who described the delegation’s arrival, which featured rooftop sharpshooters, a company’s worth of soldiers redirecting traffic, and attack helicopters – were incredulous about the Americans’ conclusions. “What are they talking about?” Ali Jassim Faiyad, the owner of an electrical appliances shop in the market, said Monday. “This was only for the media. This will not change anything.” Talking Points Memo wonders whether McCain’s “stroll”, already widely ridiculed, is shaping up to become his “Dukakis-in-a-tank moment”. His senior moment, and forgot to mention that there was over 100 soldiers there to protect him. Something like *3* blackhawk helicopters, and people had been placed in the crowd ahead of his walk, etc. Sharpshooters on the rooftops, etc. Oh yeah — body armor.

Cheney’s Fingerprints Seen on Guantanamo Plea Deal – Think Progress makes the case for Vice President Dick Cheney’s likely role in securing a nine-month term for Australian Guantanamo Bay inmate David Hicks, a disproportionately light punishment for a man convicted of “providing material support for terrorism”. Of course, the same deal imposes a 12-month gag order, essentially buying Hicks’ silence on the proceedings until he can no longer impact the re-election chances of Australian Prime Minister John Howard, a staunch Bush/Cheney ally.

Verdict Backing Oil-Royalty Whistle-Blower Is Overturned – In a ruling that could have big implications for whistle-blowers, as well as for the oil and gas industry, a federal judge in Denver has overturned a jury’s verdict in favor of former Interior Department auditor Bobby Maxwell, who revealed that the Kerr-McGee Corporation cheated the government out of millions of dollars’ worth of royalties for oil and gas pumped in publicly owned coastal waters. The judge did not dispute that Maxwell had uncovered cheating by the company, nor the fact that Mr. Maxwell filed his lawsuit as a private citizen after senior Interior Department officials ordered him to abandon his findings. The judge did, however, rule that Maxwell was ineligible to sue Kerr-McGee as a private citizen because he had gathered most of his evidence while on the job, deciding so last week after consistently rejecting that same argument from Kerr-McGee throughout the trial.

Fox News Polls: Profiles In Loaded Questions – Check out these questions, and their responses. Fox’s artful wordings elicited the exact opposite findings of other, more reputable polls on questions involving the Attorney Purge and the Iraq War.

U.S. sends troops back to Iraq early to maintain “surge” – Two of the affected Army units, totaling about 4,500 troops, will return to combat short of their promised year at home, reflecting the strain placed on U.S. forces by commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Bush administration disregarded key information available at the time showing that the Iraq-Niger claim was highly questionable – Dozens of interviews with current and former intelligence officials and policymakers in the United States, Britain, France and Italy show that the Bush administration disregarded key information available at the time showing that the Iraq-Niger claim was highly questionable. In February 2002, the CIA received the verbatim text of one of the documents, filled with errors easily identifiable through a simple Internet search, the interviews show. Many low- and mid-level intelligence officials were already skeptical that Iraq was in pursuit of nuclear weapons. The interviews also showed that France, berated by the Bush administration for opposing the Iraq war, honored a U.S. intelligence request to investigate the uranium claim. It determined that its former colony had not sold uranium to Iraq.

Bush administration criticizes Nancy Pelosi’s trip to Syria while ignoring recent visits by Republican members of Congress – “It’s interesting because three of our colleagues, who are all Republicans, were in Syria yesterday and I didn’t hear the White House speaking out about that,” Pelosi said, referring to the Sunday meeting of Reps. Frank Wolf, Joe Pitts and Robert Aderholt with Syrian President Bashar Assad in Damascus.

Inept Bush and Out-of-Control Cheney Drive Away Another One of Their Own – Former GOP campaign operative Vic Gold now says, “For all the Rove-built facade of his being a ‘strong’ chief executive, George W. Bush has been, by comparison to even hapless Jimmy Carter, the weakest, most out of touch president in modern times. Think Dan Quayle in cowboy boots.” Gold is even more withering in his observations of Cheney. “A vice president in control is bad enough. Worse yet is a vice president out of control.”

White House Counselor Dan Bartlett Tries To Swiftboat Matthew Dowd – Last Sunday on Face The Nation, White House Counselor Dan Bartlett spoke to Bob Schieffer about former Bush campaign strategist Matthew Dowd, who has turned against Bush. In typical Republic fashion, Bartlett goes after Dowd personally rather than speak to the substance of Dowd’s criticisms of George Bush. Bartlett refers to Dowd as a “close friend”, then proceeds to talk about his personal issues to give the impression that the situation in Iraq and obstacles he’s facing in his personal life have somehow clouded his judgment. This is the same despicable tactic we’ve seen Republicans use time and time again against former administration officials like Richard Clarke and Paul O’Neill who dared to speak out against Bush.

Somalia refugees charged for shade – Refugees who have fled Mogadishu by the tens of thousands are suffering atrocious conditions, with some living under trees and paying extortionate prices for shelter or even shade

Did you know that the right-wing magazine, The Weekly Standard, is owned by Fox News’ parent company, News Corp.? – Fair and balanced? More like birds of a feather. [William Kristol, son of Irving Kristol, is the neocon editor for The Weekly Standard.]

Lying Politicians: a video comment by Bob Schieffer followed by video of lying politicians

Regards,

Jim