The WAWG Blog

Gonzales Can’t Explain Why He Granted Authority to Cheney and His Chief of Staff and Counsel to Intervene in Justice Probes – Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) questioned the Attorney General about the independence of the Justice Department and communications with the White House on pending cases or investigations. He then pointed to a May 4, 2006 memorandum signed by Gonzales which showed that the Office of the Vice President had been granted parallel privileges with the Executive Office of the President on communicating directly with the Justice Department’s staff on criminal and civil matters. “What – on earth – business does the Office of the Vice President have in the internal workings of the Department of Justice with respect to criminal investigations, civil investigations, and ongoing matters?” the Senator asked. Gonzales was stumped, “As a general matter, I would say that’s a good question.” Whitehouse then pointed out that in the same memo, the Chief of Staff and Counsel of the Vice President were also explicitly granted the same authority. “On its face – I must say – sitting here, I’m troubled by this,” Gonzales added.

Gonzales May Have Revealed Classified Meeting and Committed Perjury – In his testimony, Gonzales revealed for the first time a meeting with the so-called “Gang of Eight” — the two top Republican and Democratic Congressional leaders and the chairmen and ranking members of both chambers’ Intelligence committees — on the same day as the Ashcroft hospital visit, where the members of Congress were supposedly briefed on “vitally important intelligence activities.” In revealing this meeting, Gonzales may have undercut his previous testimony in which he claimed the disagreement at the Justice Department was “not about the terrorist surveillance program that the president announced to the American people.”

One “Gang of Eight” member, Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA), who was present at this classified briefing took issue with Gonzales even speaking about the meeting, “‘The attorney general is selectively declassifying material from a classified briefing, which I find improper.'” Meanwhile, Harman questioned the appropriateness of Gonzales even revealing that there had been a classified Gang of Eight meeting. “He doesn’t have the authority to do that,” she added. Another “gang member,” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), when asked if he believed Gonzales had perjured himself, responded, “”Based upon what I know about it, I’d have to say yes.”

Update: Documentation has just been found that directly conflicts with Gonzales’ testimony. He will be given a chance to correct his testimony. If he does not. perjury charges will most likely be filed.

Provisions of Federal Election Guidelines Meant to Prevent Investigations From Influencing an Election Have Been Mysteriously Deleted – During the Gonzales hearing yesterday, Diane Feinstein brought up the fact that the new 2007 version of the “Federal Prosecution of Election Offenses” guidebook had significant alterations and omissions from the prior version (1995) in the area related to preventing new prosecutions from being timed in a manner that could impact the results of an election. There used to be some pretty strict guidelines related to such timing, which were violated by some of Bush’s US attorneys in their quest to gain Republican advantage. Gonzales had no idea what Feinstein was talking about and couldn’t answer why those changes were made.

Border Fence May Speed Extinction of Plants and Animals – “We know as habitats become fragments whether by roads, fences or walls animals become much less capable of roaming widely,” said Dr. Joel Berger, a senior scientist with the New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society. “As these restrictions occur animals become isolated and with isolation the risks of local extinctions greatly increase,” he said. At stake is the sheer diversity of life in a region of lush subtropical vegetation threaded by a great river, lying between vast arid landscapes to the west and the Gulf of Mexico to the east. Isolation makes populations more prone to sudden die-offs from disease or drought and also limits their genetic pool.

Republican South Carolina Treasurer Indicted on a Federal Cocaine Charge
South Carolina Treasurer Thomas Ravenel resigned from office Tuesday, more than a month after he was indicted on a federal cocaine charge.

National Intelligence Estimate Lacks Supporting Evidence, Possibly Politicized – Current and former intelligence officials say the Bush Administration’s National Intelligence Estimate regarding terrorist threats to the United States does not provide evidence to support its assertions and may have inflated the domestic threat posed by the Lebanese political and military group Hezbollah, perhaps because it receives financial support from Iran. Speaking under condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, several intelligence officers asserted that the report was sloppy and lacked supporting evidence. “As regards to the Hezbollah ‘threat,'” the official added, “they just threw that in. “Nobody in CIA talks to Hezbollah, and they’re living off their assessments from back in the 80s, which they really never got right anyway.”

Federal Elected Officials Get Free, Government-Provided Health Insurance – But Nearly 50 Million Americans Have No Health Insurance

Punishment for Expressing Your Views

• In West Virginia, Renee Jensen put up a yard sign saying “Mr. Bush: You’re Fired.” She’s questioned by the Secret Service.
• In Alabama, Lynne Gobbell put a Kerry/Edwards bumper sticker on her car. She’s fired from her job.
• In Vermont, Tom Treece had his high school students write essays and make posters either defending or criticizing the Iraq War. After midnight, the police entered his classroom and took photos of the student artwork.
• A man walked up to Dick Cheney, calmly told him he thought his Iraq policy was reprehensible, and walked away. A few minutes later he was arrested by the Secret Service, in front of his 8-year-old son, for “assault”.

Regards,

Jim

Alberto Gonzales Contradicts Prior Statements, Confirms Existence Of Other Spying Programs

Karl Rove and White House Aides Gave Political Briefings to Diplomats – White House aides have conducted at least half a dozen political briefings for the Bush administration’s top diplomats, including a PowerPoint presentation for ambassadors with senior adviser Karl Rove that named Democratic incumbents targeted for defeat in 2008 and a “general political briefing” at the Peace Corps headquarters after the 2002 midterm elections. The briefings, mostly run by Rove’s deputies at the White House political affairs office, began in early 2001 and included detailed analyses for senior officials of the political landscape surrounding critical congressional and gubernatorial races. The documents show for the first time how the White House sought to ensure that even its appointees involved in foreign policy were kept attuned to the administration’s election goals.

New York Governor’s Aides Used State Police to Gather Information on Rival – New York governor Eliot Spitzer’s aides, including one of his closest advisers, improperly used the State Police to gather information about the governor’s chief rival, Joseph L. Bruno, the State Senate majority leader, in an effort to plant a negative story about Mr. Bruno and damage him politically.

Classified Plan Shows US in Iraq Through 2009 – The American command in Iraq has prepared a classified, detailed plan that foresees a significant American role for the next two years.

USDA Sent $1.1Billion to Deceased Farmers – The Agriculture Department sent $1.1 billion in farm payments to more than 170,000 dead people over a seven-year period, congressional investigators say. The auditors said they found that the department has not been conducting the necessary checks to ensure that subsidy payments are proper. “USDA has made farm payments to estates more than two years after recipients died, without determining, as its regulations require, whether the estates were kept open to receive these payments,” their report said.

British Will Be Required To Disclose Religious, Sexual & Political Beliefs When Flying To U.S. – Highly sensitive information about the religious beliefs, political opinions and even the sex life of Britons traveling to the United States is to be made available to US authorities when the European Commission agrees to a new system of checking passengers. The EC is in the final stages of agreeing a new Passenger Name Record system with the US which will allow American officials to access detailed biographical information about passengers entering international airports. The information sharing system with the US Department of Homeland Security is designed to tackle terrorism but civil liberty groups warn it will have serious consequences for European passengers. And it has emerged that both the European parliament and the European data protection supervisor are alarmed at the plan.

Milwaukee Election Records Indicate Apparent Forgery, Ballot Box Stuffing in 2004 Presidential Election – The signatures on the cover pages of the inspectors’ reports look to me to be obvious forgeries. Both the names are bogus (e.g. Joe Doe, Jane Smith) and, in my opinion, are clearly written in the same hand. The hand which “signed” the inspectors’ reports does not match any of the signatures redacted from the poll book list. Creating false canvass reports is a felony under WI Stats 12.13(2)(b)4. The numbers concerning the number of ballots handled do not match. The Optech IIIP Eagle optical scanner claims it scanned 1219 ballots. On the poll book certification page, the poll workers checking in voters and handing out blank ballots claim they handed 1071 ballots to electors. On the Inspectors’ reports with the forged signatures, it is claimed only 981 ballots were handed to electors. If I believe the machine and the poll book, then the ballot box in Ward One was stuffed with 148 extra ballots.

US Has Fallen Behind in Internet Speeds, but It Cost More Here – The world’s fastest internet connection is now in Sweden. Enjoy 1,500 high definition HDTV channels simultaneously. Download a full high-definition DVD in just two seconds. “The most difficult part of the whole project was installing Windows on Sigbritt’s PC,” said network boss Hafsteinn Jonsson.

In 2001, after the explosive growth of the Internet and online businesses in the 1990s, the United States had taken the lead online. In terms of percentage of the population with high-speed access, countries like Japan and Germany had half the penetration we did. France had less than a quarter. Now, all three of those countries have passed us. We’re falling behind in providing high-speed access to the Internet, and just as importantly, our high-speed connections are much slower and more expensive than other countries.

The world may look flat once you’re in cyberspace – but to get there you need to go through a narrow passageway, down your phone line or down your TV cable. And if the companies controlling these passageways can behave like the robber barons of yore, levying whatever tolls they like on those who pass by, commerce suffers.

America’s Internet flourished in the dial-up era because federal regulators didn’t let that happen – they forced local phone companies to act as common carriers, allowing competing service providers to use their lines. Clinton administration officials, including Al Gore and Reed Hundt, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, tried to ensure that this open competition would continue – but the telecommunications giants sabotaged their efforts, while The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page ridiculed them as people with the minds of French bureaucrats.

And when the Bush administration put Michael Powell in charge of the F.C.C., the digital robber barons were basically set free to do whatever they liked. As a result, there’s little competition in U.S. broadband – if you’re lucky, you have a choice between the services offered by the local cable monopoly and the local phone monopoly. The price is high and the service is poor, but there’s nowhere else to go.

What happened to America’s Internet lead? Bad policy.

Regards,

Jim

It’s Time!
Because One Million Americans Have Said So in Writing

Member of House Homeland Security Committee Denied Access To Portions Of Presidential Directive About How Government Will Be Run After a Significant Terrorist Attack – What are they hiding? Is there a conspiracy buried in the classified portion of a White House plan for operating the government after a terrorist attack? It now appears that Bush wants full control of the government after a catastrophic attack and the White House is attempting to block Congressional review of that directive.

Contact your representatives in the House and Senate to let them know your thoughts on this.

The Obstructionist Republican Senate – This year Senate Republicans are threatening filibusters to block more legislation than ever before, a pattern that’s rooted in — and could increase — the pettiness and dysfunction in Congress. Democrats have trouble mustering 60 votes; they’ve fallen short 22 times so far this year. That’s largely why they haven’t been able to deliver on their campaign promises. By sinking a cloture vote this week, Republicans successfully blocked a Democratic bid to withdraw combat troops from Iraq by April, even though a 52-49 Senate majority voted to end debate. This year Republicans also have blocked votes on immigration legislation, a no-confidence resolution for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and major legislation dealing with energy, labor rights and prescription drugs.

Republican Senator Christopher “Kit” Bond Disagrees With Himself – Bond’s January 13, 2006, press release said, “American officials told us that with the improved readiness of Iraqi military forces they are now optimistic about the prospects for stability in Iraq. …there has been significant progress combating the insurgency. He said the United States and Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) have been successful in cleaning out insurgents, turning the areas over to the ISF to prevent the return of extremists and using funds to create new jobs, particularly in Sunni areas.” However, in his statement last week to the Associated Press, he said, “The strategy we had before was not the right strategy. We should have had a counterinsurgency strategy.”

Neocon Bill Kristol Mocks Democratic Candidates by Using Their Spouses, But Declares Republican Candidate’s Spouse is Off-Limits – Kristol declares that FOX News should hold a debate of the Democratic candidate spouses, because they’re so much more interesting than the actual candidates. But when Juan Williams points out that the wife of the Republican candidate Fred Thompson should be included as well…well, that’s just unfair.

Republican Representative Chris Shays’ Anger Management Problem – Most recently he screamed obscenities at a Capitol police officer for not letting a family enter a building through a restricted-access entrance. Other recent acts that might have caused a neutral observer to question Shays’ mental state have included attacking NASA scientist James Hansen in a committee hearing, and literally screaming at the widows of Blackwater contractors who had died in Iraq in a committee hearing, among others.

Pentagons Solution to the Iraq Was? Re-brand It! – The Pentagon secretly ordered a report on ways to extend the occupation of Iraq long, long into the future with the help of “Madison Avenue” marketing techniques, the same techniques used to sell you other products you don’t need and can’t afford. Now available for the public to read, (Enlisting Madison Avenue: The Marketing Approach to Earning Popular Support in Theaters of Operation), the report cost the American taxpayers $400,000 dollars.

Mitt Romney Holds Up Campaign Sign Reading, “No to Obama, Osama and Chelsa’s Moma.”

“War is a racket. Many die. A few profit”–Gen. Smeldley Bultler
“War is delightful to those who have no experience in it.”–Erasmus

Regards,

Jim

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

Bush Administration Now Says They Can Block Your Bank Account – President Bush unveiled a new executive order that allows the administration to block bank accounts and any other financial assets that might be found in this country belonging to people, companies or groups that the United States deems are working to threaten stability in Iraq. It is unclear whether they take your money before or after you get shipped to Gitmo. But look how efficient our government has become: no time-consuming and costly trials.

New Zealand Bans Political Satire Using Images From Parliament
In June, New Zealand’s House of Representatives voted to institute new media rules, which in effect ban the use of images in a way that satirizes, ridicules or denigrates lawmakers. Breaches of these measures can be treated as contempt of Parliament, a charge that can result in imprisonment. In March 2005, speaker Margaret Wilson banned cameras from TV3 for seven days after the network showed associate education minister David Benson-Pope asleep during a parliamentary session.

Rupert Murdoch Had a Hotline to Tony Blair in the Run-Up to the Iraq Invasion – Tony Blair had three conversations with Fox News media magnate Rupert Murdoch in the nine days before the start of the Iraq war, the Government has disclosed. Details of the former prime minister’s contacts with Mr Murdoch have been released under the Freedom of Information Act. After trying to block disclosure for four years, the Government backed down in a surprise change of heart the day after Mr Blair resigned last month

Ex-White House Staffer Guilty in Philippines Plot – A former White House employee and FBI analyst was jailed for 10 years Wednesday for slipping US secrets to plotters in his native Philippines who wanted to overthrow President Gloria Arroyo. The sentencing of Leandro Arangoncillo brings to a close a harmful and disgraceful story of how a formerly trustworthy FBI employee and US Marine can turn into an enemy of the American people and the American way of life,” said the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s lead agent on the case, Weysan Dun. Some of the information was marked “top secret” and related to terrorist threats to US government interests in the Philippines, the Department of Justice (DoJ) said.

Bush Says No To Children’s Health – Legislation to renew a program that gives health care coverage to poor children has been rejected by President Bush because it would expand the function of the federal government at the cost of private insurance. President Bush told the Washington Post “I support the initial intent of the program. My concern is that when you expand eligibility . . . you’re really beginning to open up an avenue for people to switch from private insurance to the government.” According to this article”about 3.3 million additional children would be covered under the proposal developed by Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) and Republican Sens. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) and Orrin G. Hatch (Utah), among others. It would provide the program $60 billion over five years, compared with $30 billion under Bush’s proposal. And it would rely on a 61-cent increase in the federal excise tax on cigarettes, to $1 a pack.”

Chris Matthews Calls Judy Miller a Hero – It’s bad enough that she’s back on teevee, but Chris Matthews called her a hero because she went to jail for Scooter Libby, who leaked and leaked and leaked all over her until we were invading Iraq.

Dick Cheney Lies About How He Became Vice President – Dick Cheney told The Weekly Standard’s Stephen F. Hayes [Weekly Standard is bankrolled by Rupert Murdoch.] why he agreed to be Bush’s running mate, “If the president of the United States asks you to do something, you really have an obligation to try to do it, if you can.” However, when Bush asked Cheney, he wasn’t president of the United States, he was the governor of Texas. And Bush asked Cheny to lead the search for the slot and Cheney choose himself.

Anybody Seen the War Czar Lately? – A report this morning notes that the White House is continuing to lobby lawmakers on Iraq policy, in part by offering access to top officials responsible for implementing war policy. “About 200 lawmakers were invited to the Pentagon for a classified question-and-answer session on Thursday with [Ambassador Ryan] Crocker and Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. The two men were to brief lawmakers via satellite from Baghdad. Bush’s new war adviser, Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute, also was to be in the room.”
Is that it for the war czar? He “was to be in the room”?

FEMA Suppressed Health Warnings for Katrina Workers and Victims – The Federal Emergency Management Agency has suppressed warnings from its own Gulf coast field workers since the middle of 2006 about suspected health problems that may be linked to elevated levels of formaldehyde gas released in FEMA-provided trailers, lawmakers said today. At a hearing this morning of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, investigators released internal e-mails indicating that FEMA lawyers rejected environmental testing out of fear that the agency would then become legally liable if health problems emerged among as many as 120,000 families displaced by Hurricane Katrina who lived in trailers. FEMA’s Office of General Counsel “has advised that we do not do testing,” because this “would imply FEMA’s ownership of this issue,” […] Another FEMA attorney on June 15 advised, “[d]o not initiate any testing until we give the OK. . . . Once you get results and should they indicate some problem, the clock is running on our duty to respond to them.”

We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Planning – From Maria Bartiromo’s interview of Condi Rice in the current issue of BusinessWeek:

MB: Would you consider a position in business or on Wall Street?
CR: I don’t know what I’ll do long-term. I’m a terrible long-term planner.

Regards,

Jim

I’ve contended for some years now that there was the potential that the Iraqi’s may not have all the resources needed to make any form of stable government work. This is espicially true since those with the most to offer have probably left the country to avoid being killed.

The recent Iraq experiences, unlike other nations that have developed over time on their own, have been either a dictatorship ruled by secret police or one that is based on lies and backed by a foreign, well-funded and highly-skilled military force that can temporarily push the insurgents from here to there and back again. With these options, the Iraqi’s are either denied their freedom or denied the opportunity to plan their own future without external influences. In either case, the Iraqi nation can’t grow.

The young nation of Iraq is like a child and the Decider has become the parent. It’s time for the parent to give up the child and the lies, and let Iraq become, in whatever way it so chooses, its own nation(s).

Bush Won’t Support the Troops – The Bush administration has said it “strongly opposes” key military pay and benefit gains tossed into the fiscal 2008 defense bill. Initiatives the administration opposes include:

• A military pay raise for next January of 3.5 percent versus 3 percent endorsed by the White House.
• Lowering the age-60 start of reserve retirement annuities for reserve component members by the length of their future mobilizations.
• Expanding eligibility for Combat-Related Special Compensation to service members forced by combat disabilities to retire short of 20 years.
• Directing pharmaceutical manufacturers to provide the Department of Defense with same-price discounts for Tricare retail pharmacy network that are provided on medicines dispensed from base pharmacies.
• The administration also grumbled that the Senate intends to block for another year Tricare fee increases for under-65 retirees and dependents.

FOX News Twists the Senate Iraq Vote – Fox News reported, “…lawmakers vote 52-47 to reject plan to bring troops home by early next year.” However, 52 senators voted to bring them home.

White House Had Drug Officials Appear With Republican Candidates – White House officials arranged for top officials at the Office of National Drug Control Policy to help as many as 18 vulnerable Republican congressmen by making appearances and sometimes announcing new federal grants in the lawmakers’ districts in the months leading up to the November 2006 elections. The appearances by the drug control officials appear to be part of a larger White House effort to politicize the work of federal agencies that may be more widespread than previously known. An e-mail by an official in the drug policy office describing President Bush’s top political adviser, Karl Rove, as being pleased that the office, along with the Commerce, Transportation and Agriculture departments, went “above and beyond” the call of duty in arranging appearances by Cabinet members at campaign events.

Degradation and Manhandling: Document Reveals US Interrogation Techniques – America learned the truth of how 9/11 was organized because a detainee had come to trust his captors after they treated him humanely. It was an extraordinary success story. But it was one that would evaporate with the arrival of the C.I.A’s interrogation team. America’s coercive interrogation methods were reverse-engineered by two C.I.A. psychologists who had spent their careers training U.S. soldiers to endure Communist-style torture techniques. In a bizarre mixture of solicitude and sadism, a memo details how to calibrate the infliction of harm. In short, the sere-inspired interrogations would be violent.

Dead Zone Due to Pollution in Gulf of Mexico Grows to Record Size – Researchers predict the recurring “dead zone” off the Louisiana coast will grow this summer to its largest size in at least 22 years, 8,543 square miles. The “dead zone” in the northern Gulf, at the end of the Mississippi River system, is the second-largest area of oxygen-depleted coastal waters in the world. Low oxygen, or hypoxia, can be caused by pollution from sources including farm fertilizer, soil erosion and discharge from sewage treatment plants

Yummy, Yummy, You Don’t Know What’s in Your Tummy – The Food and Drug Administration went up to Capitol Hill yesterday to testify that the dwindling number of food inspectors coupled with the growing tonnage of found imported into the U.S. from overseas means that we don’t really have any idea what we’re eating.

Regards,
Jim

Bill O’Reilly Smears Daily Kos and Jet Blue – Bill O’Reilly accused the well-respected liberal blog Daily Kos of being a hate-filled website and ambushed the CEO of Jet Blue airlines for sponsoring the Yearly Kos convention. O’Reilly called Daily Kos “a vicious far-left website” and “one of the worst examples of hatred that America has to offer.” He says, “”… this is hate of the worst order. It’s like the Ku Klux Klan. It’s like the Nazi party. There is no difference here.” O’Reilly’s proof that Daily Kos is hate-filled was four comments (out of between 14 and 24 MILLION visits a month) posted by readers of Daily Kos; but nothing from the operators of the website itself. As an example, one of the posted comments was, “The Pope is a primate.” Yes, those readers posted inappropriate comments, but O’Reilly is guilty of misrepresenting the site as hate-filled. And most importantly, O’Reilly forgot to mention that the comments he alluded to on the site could well have been posted by anyone, since it’s an open site. A question one might ask then (one that’s at least as responsible as O’Reilly’s ridiculous attack): Did Bill O’Reilly or one of his producers post those “hateful” comments at Daily Kos themselves? BTW, as a matter of scientific fact, the Pope IS a primate, so is Bill O’Reilly, and so are you and I.

What O’Reilly Missed
Now Daily Kos is even more hate-filled since it has received nasty comments from O’Reilly viewers.

The Pentagon’s public affairs division has become a dumping ground for administration cronies – The “Communications Outreach” program is the latest effort to bypass the traditional media and work directly with talk radio and bloggers and provides talking points and briefings to retired military officials who now support the administration in appearances as media pundits. On board are Erin Healey, a former junior assistant press secretary at the White House, Julie George, who formerly worked as deputy coalitions director for Rick Santorum, and Jocelyn Webster, who formerly worked in the White House’s political operation for Sara Taylor, the Karl Rove aide who now finds herself in a bit of hot water. The relative inexperience of these true-believers is an old theme for the Bush administration.

$7.5B in Earmarks Unclaimed – Senators have not claimed responsibility for at least $7.5 billion worth of projects approved by the Appropriations Committee, according to an analysis by a budget watchdog group. Under seven of 10 spending bills approved by the panel, more than $26 billion has been earmarked for projects sought by both senators and the Bush administration, leaving nearly 30 percent unaccounted for. The Senate Appropriations Committee refutes the findings, arguing that the group misinterpreted a host of appropriations requirements as earmarks. For instance, the panel argues that $6.5 billion requested by the Pentagon for the base realignment and closure program was considered “undisclosed earmarks” by the group’s analysis of the military construction spending bill. But with no clear rules in place, the dispute highlights the murky nature of what exactly constitutes an earmark, or a directive to spend a specific amount of money for an individual project. “There really is no precise understanding statutorily or otherwise about what an earmark is,” said a Senate Appropriations Committee aide.

Republican Blocking 9-11 Commission Recommendations Bill – Legislation to implement recommendations of the commission that investigated the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks hit another snag yesterday when Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) objected to moving the bill to a joint House-Senate conference committee. The bill appeared to be moving to conference this week after Senate Republicans dropped their objections and House Democrats vowed to work through remaining jurisdictional squabbles that have held up the bill for months. But Kyl put his foot down when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) sought unanimous consent to consider a transportation security bill, H.R. 1401, along with the House and Senate versions of the 9/11 bill in the conference committee.

Cheney Pushes Bush to Act on Iran – The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: “Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo.” Dick Cheney, has long favoured upping the threat of military action against Iran. The Washington source said Mr Bush and Mr Cheney did not trust any potential successors in the White House, Republican or Democratic, to deal with Iran decisively.

House Committee Members Entangled In Cunningham Scandal Refuse To Release Full Details – An internal investigation that the House Intelligence Committee has refused to make public portrays the panel as embarrassingly entangled in the Randy “Duke” Cunningham bribery scandal. When the committee’s investigation was completed last year, the Republican-controlled panel would not release the results; now that the committee is controlled by Democrats, it still will not release the findings.

Candidates Can “Flood the Zone” With Blog Attacks for a Price

Illegal Funding Activities by the Minnesota Republican Party – Read the memo from former Republican Party of Minnesota finance director Dwight Tostenson to the Party’s Executive Committee alleging the illegal activities and resulting harassment.

Pentagon Destroys Evidence of Alleged Iranian Involvement in Iraq – According to Fox News, the U.S. had startling “new” evidence that Iran was supplying weapons to Iraqi insurgents and that those weapons were being used to kill American soldiers. The only problem is that the military destroyed the evidence.

SIRIUS Radio Calls Their Liberal Channel “SIRIUS Left” and Their Conservative Channel “SIRIUS Patriot” – Well, at least they didn’t call the liberal channel “SIRIUS Traitor”! Seriously, why not call the liberal station “SIRIUS Liberty”? The executive responsible for these sorts of decisions is Dave Gorab. Tell him to change the name.

Bush’s latest catchphrase, “precipitous withdrawal,” has been used before; by Nixon regarding Vietnam

Regards,

Jim

In this twenty-first survey of the web, The WAWG Index monthly average was down by 8.9 percent from June 2007. Of the fourteen categories tracked, 9 were down, 5 were up, and none was unchanged. The largest decrease for July, 71 percent, was for “control of mass media,” last month’s biggest gainer. The largest increase was for “scapegoats as a unifying cause” at 39 percent.

Through July, the 12 month group moving average for all fourteen categories was at 15.5 percent. It was 17.4 percent last month. Of the fourteen categories tracked, 2 were up, 11 were down and one was unchanged from the from the last 12 month period.

US intelligence watchdog silent for over five years under Bush/Cheney – The President’s Intelligence Oversight Board — the principal civilian watchdog of the intelligence community — is obligated under a 26-year-old executive order to tell the attorney general and the president about any intelligence activities it believes “may be unlawful.” The board was vacant for the first two years of the Bush administration and has been silent ever since.

Pentagon balked at pleas from officers in field for safer vehicles – Military officials repeatedly balked at appeals from commanders on the battlefield and from the Pentagon’s own staff to provide life-saving Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle for patrols and combat missions in Iraq. As early as December 2003, when the Marines requested their first 27 MRAPs for explosive disposal teams, Pentagon analysts sent detailed information about the superiority of the vehicles to the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Later pleas came from Iraq, where commanders saw that the approach the Joint Chiefs embraced— adding armor to the sides of Humvees, the standard vehicles in the war zone did little to protect against blasts beneath the vehicles. Despite the efforts, the general who chaired the Joint Chiefs until Oct. 1, 2005, says buying MRAPs “was not on the radar screen when I was chairman.” Air Force general Richard Myers, now retired, says top military officials dealt with a number of vehicle issues, including armoring Humvees. The MRAP, however, was “not one of them.” Something related to MRAPs “might have crossed my desk,” Myers says, “but I don’t recall it.”

Some Democrats Still Not On Board To Restore Habeas Corpus – The following Democratic Senators have still not signed up to cosponsor the Habeas Corpus Restoration Act of 2007:

Daniel Akaka (D-HI)
Max Baucus (D-MT)
Evan Bayh (D-IN)
Robert Casey (D-PA)
Kent Conrad (D-ND)
Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
Daniel Inouye (D-HI)
Herb Kohl (D-WI)
Mary Landrieu (D-LA)
Blanche Lincoln (D-AR)
Barbara Mikulski (D-MD)
Patty Murray (D-WA)
Ben Nelson (D-NE)
Mark Pryor (D-AR)
Jack Reed (D-RI)
Charles Schumer (D-NY)
Jon Tester (D-MT)
James Webb (D-VA)
Ron Wyden (D-OR)
Tim Johnson (D-SD) (recuperating from brain hemorrhage)

Bush Iraq policy controlled by Bill Kristol – KATTY KAY, BBC reports: “Hawks have been calling the White House all week saying: ‘We hope you’re not going to wobble on Iraq.’ And I understand they’ve been getting reassurance from the White House: ‘No, the policy is not changing.’ Bill Kristol wrote a very condemning article saying that the White House must not change policy, must stick with the surge. The White House called back, said: ‘Why are you giving us such a hit; we’re staying with the surge.” The Weekly Standard [Owned by Rupert Murdock] and the AEI control our foreign policy now….Since the White House complied, Kristol wrote a “Bush was Right” Op-ed in the Washington Post

Five hours after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, Rumsfeld said: “My interest is to hit Saddam Hussein at the same time we go after al-Qaida.” – “We ought not to look only” at Osama bin Laden, Rumsfeld allegedly said before holding a conference call with President Bush. During the conversation, “Rumsfeld says not to focus solely on al-Qaida, consider all those range of options. And the president’s response was yes.”

Does the Bush Administration Support the Troops? Yes, Like a Noose Supports a Hanging Man! – Retired Marine Corps General Anthony Zinni told a gathering of the U.S. Naval Institute and the Marine Corps Association, “We can’t go on breaking our military and doing things like we’re doing now.” Then, invoking parallels with Vietnam, Zinni asserted: “My contemporaries, our feelings and sensitivities were forged on the battlefields of Vietnam, where we heard the garbage and the lies, and we saw the sacrifice. We swore never again would we allow that to happen. I ask you, is it happening again?” There were hundreds of Marine and Navy officers present, and many of them arose to give his denunciation of their civilian leaders a standing ovation.

Zinni also was one of the first Americans to suspect that the Bush administration was lying to the American public about Saddam’s so-called weapons of mass destruction. In fact, Zinni was sitting on the stage at the VFW national convention in Nashville, Tennessee on 26 August 2002 — sitting on the stage behind Cheney as the vice president told the audience: “the Iraqi regime has in fact been very busy enhancing its capabilities in the field of chemical and biological agents, and they continue to pursue the nuclear program they began so many years ago. Many of us are convinced that Saddam Hussein will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon.” Zinni subsequently asserted that he nearly fell off his chair: “In my time at Centcom, I watched the intelligence and never — not once — did it say ‘He has WMD.'” As Ricks adds: “Since retiring he [Zinni] had retained all his top-secret clearances, he was still consulting the CIA on Iraq, he had reviewed all the current intelligence — and he had seen nothing to support Cheney’s certitude.”

Fox News Alert: You’re Stupid! – Bernie Goldberg, on Fox News said, “Except for partisans, you can’t find three people who live between Manhattan and Malibu who even know who Lewis Libby is. […] “We go to the American people and we ask them if they can pick out Kansas on a map and they can’t. We ask them if they can pick out England on a map and they can’t. We ask them who the Vice-president is, they don’t have any idea. Who’s the Secretary of State? “I don’t know.” Then we go to them and ask them what they think of the Lewis Libby commutation? I don’t care what the American people have to say about these things.”

Right-Wing Lawmaker Says Let’s Oppress Burqa-Wearing Women Because They’re Oppressed – A right-wing Dutch lawmaker wants women jailed for wearing the head-to-toe Islamic robe known as a burqa, calling it a “symbol of oppression.” Geert Wilders, whose Freedom Party has nine lawmakers in the 150-seat lower house of Dutch parliament, filed a proposal Thursday to make wearing a burqa in public a crime punishable by up to 12 days jail.

Regards,

Jim