Bad Deeds for 7-20-2007

Republicans Attempt to Attach an Anti-Fairness Doctrine Amendment to Education Legislation – Senate Democrats last night beat back a Republican attempt to attach an anti-Fairness Doctrine amendment to education legislation. The doctrine, a former requirement that broadcasters present opposing points of view on political issues, was scrapped in 1987 by the Federal Communications Commission, which said the policy restricted journalistic freedom. The bill by Sen. Norm Coleman, Minnesota Republican, would prevent the FCC from reinstating the doctrine… By a vote of 49-48, senators voted not to consider Mr. Coleman’s amendment after Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, raised a point of order. Senate rules require 60 votes to waive a point of order.

The Executive Orders Needed to Create a Police State are Already in Place – Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Ronald Reagan, said, “Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran.” “Something’s in the works,” he said, adding that the Executive Orders need to create a police state are already in place. “If enough people were suspicious and alert, it would be harder for the administration to get away with it,” said Roberts. “Americans think their danger is terrorists,” said Roberts. “They don’t understand the terrorists cannot take away habeas corpus, the Bill of Rights, the Constitution. … The terrorists are not anything like the threat that we face to the Bill of Rights and the Constitution from our own government in the name of fighting terrorism. Americans just aren’t able to perceive that.” “It’s so obvious to people like us who have long been associated in the corridors of power,” he said. “There’s no belief in the people or anything like that. They have agendas. The people are in the way. The Constitution is in the way. … Americans need to comprehend and look at how ruthless Cheney is. … A person like that would do anything.”

White House Policy Illegally Silences Americans Critical of Bush – Gregory Jenkins, a former high-level White House staffer who enacted a policy that unlawfully excluded individuals perceived to be critical of the administration from public events where President Bush was present. The policy is laid out in an October 2002 “Presidential Advance Manual” This manual is the Bush administration’s guide for planning presidential events around the country, and it repeatedly instructs organizers about “the best method for preventing demonstrators,” “deterring potential protestors from attending events,” “designat[ing] a protest area . . . preferably not in view of the event site or motorcade route,” and the like. As examples, Jeff and Nicole Rank, who were arrested at a Fourth of July presidential appearance at the West Virginia State Capitol because they were wearing T-shirts critical of the president, and Alex Young and Leslie Weise, Denver residents were thrown out of a town hall meeting with President Bush because they had an anti-war bumper sticker on their car. (Gee, were we just talking about a police state in the article above this one?)

Bush Overreaches on Executive Privilege – A report earlier this month by the Congressional Research Service, a nonpartisan agency that studies policy and legal questions for Members of Congress, found that President George W. Bush’s recent assertions of ‘executive privilege’ to fend off Congressional investigators were dubious. Morton Rosenberg, a Specialist in American Public Law at CRS, said that the assertion of privilege recently attempted by the White House went beyond restraints found in recent legal decisions. “[R]ecent appellate court rulings cast considerable doubt on the broad claims of privilege posited by [the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel] in the past and now by the Clement Memo,” Rosenberg wrote in the July 5 report.

Expanding Claim of Executive Authority, White House Official Says Administration Staff Can’t Be Charged – A senior Bush Administration official unveiled a new strategy to combat Democrats in Congress who are clamoring to file contempt charges against officials who refuse to talk about the firings of nine US prosecutors. In sum, this strategy amounts to, “once we say no, we can’t be charged.” Under law, a contempt citation by the House or Senate must be submitted to Washington, D.C. US attorney, who then brings the charge to a grand jury. “It has long been understood that, in circumstances like these, the constitutional prerogatives of the president would make it a futile and purely political act for Congress to refer contempt citations to U.S. attorneys,” the anonymous Bush official added. George Mason University professor of public policy Mark J. Rozell called the administration’s stance “astonishing.” “That’s a breathtakingly broad view of the president’s role in this system of separation of powers,” Rozell told the reporter. “What this statement is saying is the president’s claim of executive privilege trumps all.” The White House did not inform Democrats of the plan, which the Post called a “bold new assertion of executive authority.” Reached for comment, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) told the paper it was “an outrageous abuse of executive privilege” and said: “The White House must stop stonewalling and start being accountable to Congress and the American people. No one, including the president, is above the law.”

Mitt Romney Proves That He Will Say Whatever He Thinks Your Group Wants to Hear – Mitt Romney on Wednesday said to a crowd in Colorado, “How much sex education is age appropriate for a 5-year-old. In my view, zero is the right amount. Instead of teaching about sex education in kindergarten to 5-year-olds let’s clean up the ocean of filth, the cesspool in which our children are swimming.” This was said in response to Sen. Barack Obama stating his belief “age-appropriate” sex education should being as early as kindergarten. But as freerepublic.com points out “In a Planned Parenthood questionnaire he filled out during his 2002 gubernatorial run, Romney checked ‘yes’ to a question asking, “Do you support the teaching of responsible, age-appropriate, factually accurate health and sexuality education, including information about both abstinence and contraception, in public schools?”

Bill Kristol’s Record
On September 11, 2002, as the Bush administration began its sales campaign for the coming war, Kristol suggested that Saddam Hussein could do more harm to the United States than al Qaeda had: “we cannot afford to let Saddam Hussein inflict a worse 9/11 on us in the future.”

On September 15, 2002, he claimed that inspection and containment could not work with Saddam: “No one believes the inspections can work.” Actually, UN inspectors believed they could work. So, too, did about half of congressional Democrats. They were right.

On September 18, 2002, Kristol opined that a war in Iraq “could have terrifically good effects throughout the Middle East.”

On September 19, 2002, he once again pooh-poohed inspections: “We should not fool ourselves by believing that inspections could make any difference at all.” During a debate with me on Fox News Channel, after I noted that the goal of inspections was to prevent Saddam from reaching “the finish line” in developing nuclear weapons, Kristol exclaimed, “He’s past that finish line. He’s past the finish line.”

On November 21, 2002, he maintained, “we can remove Saddam because that could start a chain reaction in the Arab world that would be very healthy.”

On February 2, 2003, he claimed that Secretary of State Colin Powell at an upcoming UN speech would “show that there are loaded guns throughout Iraq” regarding weapons of mass destruction. As it turned out, everything in Powell’s speech was wrong. Kristol was uncritically echoing misleading information handed him by friends and allies within the Bush administration.

On February 20, 2003, he summed up the argument for war against Saddam: “He’s got weapons of mass destruction. At some point he will use them or give them to a terrorist group to use…Look, if we free the people of Iraq we will be respected in the Arab world….France and Germany don’t have the courage to face up to the situation. That’s too bad. Most of Europe is with us. And I think we will be respected around the world for helping the people of Iraq to be liberated.”

On March 1, 2003, Kristol dismissed concerns that sectarian conflict might arise following a US invasion of Iraq: “We talk here about Shiites and Sunnis as if they’ve never lived together. Most Arab countries have Shiites and Sunnis, and a lot of them live perfectly well together.” He also said, “Very few wars in American history were prepared better or more thoroughly than this one by this president.” And he maintained that the war would be a bargain at $100 to $200 billion. The running tab is now nearing half a trillion dollars.

On March 5, 2003, Kristol said, “I think we’ll be vindicated when we discover the weapons of mass destruction and when we liberate the people of Iraq.”

And now, on July 15, 2007, Kristol wrote an article in the Washington Post titled, “ Why Bush Will Be A Winner .” It looks like there’s not much chance that Kristol will tarnish his 100% record of being wrong.

Bush Plans To Leave More Students Behind – The White House on Tuesday threatened to veto a bill backed by U.S. House of Representatives Democrats that would slash subsidies paid to college student-loan companies such as Sallie Mae, Citigroup and Bank of America. Expected to come up for a House floor vote on Wednesday, the House bill and a similar measure in the Senate have been attacked by the $85 billion student-loan industry, but championed by industry critics, including some student groups. If adopted into law, the bill would likely squeeze large lenders’ profits and chase smaller ones from the sector, industry analysts have predicted. The White House said late on Tuesday that if the House bill went to President George W. Bush “in its current form, his senior advisors would recommend that he veto the bill.”[..] Rep. George Miller, chief sponsor of the measure, said in response: “It’s unfortunate that the president would let a veto stand between millions of students and the college financial aid they so urgently need.”

More Hypocrisy – North Carolina Rep. David Almond allegedly exposed himself in front of a female employee and chased her around the room. She filed a personnel complaint and he has resigned from office. In true Republican tradition, Almond was the vice chairman of the House committee on children, youth and families.

Goons Defacing Private Property
The following is from a letter from a local Democrat to the Harris County Republican Party:

“Earlier today someone stuck the bumper sticker shown below on my wife’s car while it was parked in our driveway (luckily I was able to peel it off). I deeply resent the defacing of private property by Republican thugs. This is not the first time we, personally, have had our property defaced and I am aware of numerous other cases such as the widespread defacement of Lampson and Matula yard signs in Clear Lake last fall.”
(They actually had the nerve to stick this bumper sticker over an “End This War” bumper sticker.)

If you know of any other recent instances of this sort of thing, please let me know.

Regards,

Jim