Once again, President Bush — in a 12-page letter to Senate leaders from Attorney General Michael Mukasey and National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell — has reportedly issued another veto threat as the debate to update terrorist surveillance laws continues, once again putting telecom immunity above protecting the public.
The threat comes as lawmakers are preparing to vote on an update to a 1978 surveillance law without violating privacy rights — Democrats are trying to deny retroactive immunity for telecoms that helped the government spy on U.S. residents after the attacks of 9/11 (although it allegedly started days after taking office), and Republicans continue to rubber stamp the Bush administration’s illegal activities at the cost of every American.
In the letter sent to Senate leaders and top Democrats and Republicans of the Senate Judiciary and Intelligence committees, Mukasey and McConnell wrote “if the president is sent a bill that does not provide the U.S. intelligence agencies the tools they need to protect the nation, the president will veto the bill.”
Once again, just like last August before the ‘Protect America Act’ was passed, McConnell has resorted to his usual lies and fearmongering — “Al Qaeda is improving its ability to attack within the United States by recruiting and training new operatives.” As I’ve noted a few times in the past, McConnell has done a fabulous job of destroying his credibility while Mukasey has done a fabulous job of proving himself to be a mirror image of the former Attorney General he replaced.
Noted by Glenn Greenwald of Salon News in his ‘Fun and games with terrorist threats’ article (I couldn’t have said it better myself):
“This is really, really scary. We better forget about checks and balances and oversight and restraints of any kind and everything else and just make sure that the President can spy on our emails and telephone calls with no oversight, otherwise Al Qaeda is going to slaughter us in our Homeland. And we also better make sure that telecommunications corporations don’t have consequences when they break the law, otherwise we’re doomed, because Al Qaeda is coming.”
The lies and fearmongering have grown extremely old. The consent of Congress in allowing the previouly unimaginable atrocities conducted by this administration under the guise of “protecting Americans” has become even more ridiculous. The constant use of terrorism by this administration to instill fear in the public has gone on entirely too long. Conducting acts of terrorism to scare people is a crime. Senators intentionally rubber stamping the illicits acts of this administration are just as guilty as those committing the crimes. Pay attention Congress. Americans want our country and our privacies back.
If the ‘Protect America Act’ expires with the Senate deadlocked, Bush will have no one to blame but himself.
Someone needs to remind the Bush administration of the story about the boy who cried wolf too many times. Fortunately, we have less than a year of this incredibly inept administration. Unfortunately, as the end of his term comes closer, he will inevitably resort to desperate measures to keep his illicit actions covered up. In the meantime, feel free to contact your Senator(s) and tell them how you feel. The FISA renewal is being debated now. It’s time for the lies and use of terrorism by the Bush Administration to stop and it’s time for our lawmakers to protect their citizens.
Immunity Isn’t Only For The Telecoms
The Bush administration warned that legislative amendments barring retroactive immunity might make telecom providers unwilling to help the government. Not noted in the letter by Mukasey and McConnell is how much the telecoms were paid by the government to participate in the illegal spying, or the fact that Bush is looking for immunity for himself and all who helped him.
Approximately 40 civil lawsuits have been filed (so far) against telecom companies. The threat of ‘crippling financial penalties’ could bankrupt the companies according to the White House. 40 lawsuits probably wouldn’t make much of a dent in the larger telecoms. Either he’s lying or there’s a lot more to the illegal spying affecting millions of Americans. Obviously, what we know so far is only the tip of the iceberg.
As noted by Senator Russ Feingold, the telecoms already receive immunity from lawsuits if they follow the law. The amendment in question, the so-called Protect America Act grants unprecedented powers to the executive branch to engage in widespread surveillance involving Americans with virtually no judicial involvement or oversight. More information regarding retroactive amnesty for telecoms can be found from The Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Links to More Information
Links to the information above, as well as numerous links to and snippets of other information can be found below:
Veto threat for proposed spy laws article from Yahoo! News and The Associated Press
Bush put telecoms ahead of citizens article from Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Fun and games with terrorist threats article from Glenn Greenwald of Salon News
Intelligence Chief Cites Qaeda Threat to U.S. article from The New York Times
Fun and games with terrorist threats article from Glenn Greenwald of Salon News
Ted Kennedy on Retroactive Immunity for the Telecoms: ” We would be aiding and abetting the President in his illegal actions, his contempt for the rule of law, and his attempt to hide his lawbreaking from the American People” article and video from Crooks and Liars
History Channel Admits Anthrax Attacks are an Inside Job video from YouTube
Covering the Tracks of the Anthrax Attacks – What, where, why – who? article from AntiWar.com:
“Four years ago today, letters containing anthrax were postmarked from Trenton, N.J., to five major American media outlets, including ABC News, NBC News, CBS News, the New York Post, and AMI Media, a publisher of supermarket tabloids. Thus began a series of attacks over several weeks that terrorized the nation, infected 22 people, killed five – and played a key role in amplifying the post-9/11 hysteria and paranoia that took the nation on a course set for war.
Three weeks after the first mailings, two letters containing highly weaponized anthrax – far more deadly than the relatively crude concoction contained in the first letters – showed up in the offices of two Democratic senators, Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. The Capitol emptied, most members of Congress fled Washington, and the country – already jumpy as a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks – was practically prostrate with fear.
Remember how the War Party used these attacks to stoke up sentiment for attacking Iraq? Andrew Sullivan declared:
“At this point, it seems to me that a refusal to extend the war to Iraq is not even an option. We have to extend it to Iraq. It is by far the most likely source of this weapon; it is clearly willing to use such weapons in the future; and no war against terrorism of this kind can be won without dealing decisively with the Iraqi threat. We no longer have any choice in the matter. Slowly, incrementally, a Rubicon has been crossed. The terrorists have launched a biological weapon against the United States. They have therefore made biological warfare thinkable and thus repeatable. We once had a doctrine that such a Rubicon would be answered with a nuclear response. We backed down on that threat in the Gulf War but Saddam didn’t dare use biological weapons then. Someone has dared to use them now. Our response must be as grave as this new threat.”
Bush on the Ropes article from Counter Punch
It’s Not Just About Immunity – UPDATED article from Daily Kos
The Case Against Retroactive Amnesty for Telecoms article from The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Contact information for the U.S. Senate
Olbermann’s Special Comment on FISA article and video from AlterNet
Olbermann: Bush push for telco immunity ‘textbook example of fascism’ article and video from The Raw Story
U.S. Military Wanted to Provoke War With Cuba article from ABC News
An article from 2001 detailing Operation Northwoods — how America’s top military leaders drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba in the 1960s.
Obviously, some things never change. To view the documents detailing Operation Northwoods, see the link below.
Operations Northwoods Documents On the Website of the US National Archives and Records Administration article from WantToKnow.info:
“A summary of key quotes from the Operation Northwoods documents is given below these instructions. To access the Operation Northwoods documents in the National Archives, first go to the Archival Research Catalog (ARC) on the website of NARA (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration) at:
http://www.archives.gov/research_room/arc/index.html
Click on the yellow “Search” button in the top of the left column there. Then, in the top box of the page that appears, type “Northwoods” and click on the “Go” button to the right of the box. You will see the following item:
ARC Identifier: 305036 Digital Copy Available
Title: Northwoods, U.S. Military Intervention in Cuba, 1962
Click on the “Digital Copy Available” link of this item. You will then see the first six pages of 181 pages available on Operation Northwoods. This link expires after 30 minutes (along with the URLs of individual Operation Northwoods pages), which is why we cannot provide a direct link for you.
For the most pertinent documents regarding Operation Northwoods, find the “Jump to Page” in the upper left part of this webpage. Click on the arrow to the right side of the box and select the number 22. Then click on the “go” button just to the right of the box. The most revealing 15 pages of Operations Northwoods documents begin on page 129 and continue to 143. To view any of these pages, simple click on the “Larger image” link directly beneath the page you would like to view. You will find the most shocking information on pages 138 to 141.”
U.S. Weighted Radioactive Poisons article from The Washington Post:
“Early in the Cold War, the U.S. Army explored the potential for using radioactive poisons to assassinate “important individuals” such as military or civilian leaders, according to newly declassified documents.
Approved at the highest levels of the Army in 1948, the effort was a well-hidden part of the military’s pursuit of a “new concept of warfare,” using radioactive materials from atomic-bomb production to contaminate swaths of enemy land or to target military bases, factories or troop formations.
Military historians who have researched the broader radiological warfare program said in interviews that they had never before seen evidence that it included pursuit of an assassination weapon. Targeting public figures in such attacks is not unheard of; last year an unknown assailant used a tiny amount of radioactive polonium-210 to kill Kremlin critic Alexander Litvinenko in London.”
US flouts human rights with secret prisons, torture: HRW article from The Raw Story
US military may not be ready for attack article from Yahoo! News and The Associated Press:
“WASHINGTON – The U.S. military isn’t ready for a catastrophic attack on the country, and National Guard forces don’t have the equipment or training they need for the job, according to a report.
Even fewer Army National Guard units are combat-ready today than were nearly a year ago when the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves determined that 88 percent of the units were not prepared for the fight, the panel says in a new report released Thursday.”
Military Medical Care Practices Questioned After Marine Death article from CBS2Chicago News
American Veterans in Crisis article from TruthDig:
“When young American men and women sign up to serve in the U.S. military, our government makes them a basic promise: If they are wounded in the line of duty, they will get the care they need. Unfortunately, for tens of thousands of veterans from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, that’s a promise that only exists on paper.”
Veterans not entitled to mental health care, U.S. lawyers argue article from The San Francisco Chronicle:
“Veterans have no legal right to specific types of medical care, the Bush administration argues in a lawsuit accusing the government of illegally denying mental health treatment to some troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.
The arguments, filed Wednesday in federal court in San Francisco, strike at the heart of a lawsuit filed on behalf of veterans that claims the health care system for returning troops provides little recourse when the government rejects their medical claims.”
FEMA and Bush Administration: Screw The Poor article from FireDogLake
Dems Defeat Republican Fast Tracking of Spying and Telco Immunity Bill article from Wired.com Threat Level
Nadler Is Blocking Impeachment article from OpEdNews
Mainstream Press Still Gets Wiretapping Debate Wrong article from Wired.com Threat Level
Rummy Resurfaces, Calls for U.S. Propaganda Agency (Updated) article from Wired.com Danger Room
U.S. Asking Iraq for Wide Rights on War article from The New York Times
More like demanding wide rights in typical Bush administration fashion.
White House in panic over Sibel Edmonds? article from Daily Kos:
“Just sixteen days after the UK Times’ published a blockbuster article, For sale: West’s deadly nuclear secrets, about how certain top US government officials were enabling Turkish and Israeli interests in supplying the nuclear black market, President Bush quietly announced on Tuesday that he wants Congress to approve sales of nuclear technology to Turkey.
Is this a reaction to the Times article? It sure looks like it. I wouldn’t be surprised if we soon start hearing about retroactive immunity for the guilty parties, just as we are seeing in the illegal spying case currently in the Senate.
As always happens in this case, the silence in the US media is deafening.
Two years ago, Bush’s efforts to sell nuclear technology prompted much “indignation and furor,” but not a single major US media outlet has yet reported the proposed deal with Turkey. Agence France-Presse put out a report on its wires which has been picked up around the world, but that’s about it.”
Fox News: Bush Is ‘Really Reflecting On His Place In History,’ Trying To ‘Equate Himself’ With Lincoln article and video from ThinkProgress.org:
More proof that the president is arguably certifiable:
“Fox News reporter Bret Baier “was granted unprecedented access by George W. Bush” to put together a one hour documentary that reflects back on his presidency. The documentary will air this Sunday night.
On the personal level, Lincoln had none of Bush’s obstinacy and egotism. He scorned yes men, and surrounded himself with Cabinet officials better known than he was, refusing to purge even those actively working against his own political interests. […]
Most important, Lincoln was a lawyer. It is hard to find any sign that Lincoln thought himself above the law. He had none of Bush’s scorn for procedures and rights. […]
George W. Bush is Lincoln the way Dan Quayle is Jack Kennedy.
Note to Bret Baier: Lincoln wasn’t “hated” when he left office. He was assassinated just after being re-elected by an overwhelming margin.”
Bush Loves Promoting Torture Promoters article from AlterNet:
“The Bush Administration nominates one of its favorite pro-torture lawyers for a top DOJ post. Again.”
New Hampshire Primary – Sham Chain of Custody video from YouTube.com
A disturbing video that need’s to be watched by everyone, especially voters.
Brattleboro to vote on arresting Bush, Cheney article from The Rutland Herald
Dear Soldiers: Your Government Lied to You article from AntiWar.com
The Homeland Security Campus: Repress U article from GlobalResearch.ca:
“Free-speech zones. Taser guns. Hidden cameras. Data mining. A new security curriculum. Private security contractors. Welcome to the homeland security campus.
From Harvard to UCLA, the ivory tower is fast becoming the latest watchtower in Fortress America. The terror warriors, having turned their attention to “violent radicalization and homegrown terrorism prevention”–as it was recently dubbed in a House of Representatives bill of the same name–have set out to reconquer that traditional hotbed of radicalization, the university.
Building a homeland security campus and bringing the university to heel is a seven-step mission:”
Anti-war group says war crimes are “encouraged” article from News 10 Now New York:
“The killing of innocent civilians is policy,” veteran Mike Blake said. “It’s unit policy and it’s Army policy. It’s not official policy, but it’s what’s happens on the ground everyday. It’s what unit commanders individually encourage.”
If Bush Is Leaving Office In Less Than A Year, Why Are They Still Intent On Destroying Our Privacy? article from OpEdNews
Kucinich: Trashed by his own Democratic Party article from OpEdNews:
“Representative Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio was prevented from participating in the Democratic presidential debate Tuesday night after the Nevada Supreme Court ruled that MSNBC was not required to include him; … MSNBC had no immediate comment. It is likely to be described as a First Amendment victory by the news organization, as its lawyers had argued that it had a right, as a privately owned network, to determine who to invite.” Brian Stelter, New York Times, January 16, 2008″
White House e-mails missing for a week after Saddam’s capture article from The Raw Story:
“The full picture of what happened inside the White House in the days after Saddam Hussein’s capture may be lost forever because of improper record keeping by the Bush administration that has caused millions of e-mails to be lost.
E-mails are missing from the White House Office for a one-week span in December 2003 beginning the day after US troops captured Saddam Hussein in Iraq, according to a report detailing events on some of the 473 days in which up to 10 million internal Bush administration e-mails are believed to have gone missing.
The report was released over the weekend by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which is suing to force the White House to detail how it archives e-mails to determine if it is in line with federal law.”
Rep Wexler: Bush’s State of Disunion article from Daily Kos:
“Tonight, President Bush will issue what will thankfully be his final State of the Union address; but, little of what he says can be trusted.
For the past seven years, we have watched as America has moved steadily backwards. We have become a nation that is less free and less fair. We have become a nation that no longer values the right to privacy and has tragically retreated from our cherished foundations.”
We’ve Got 99 Problems, But A Human-Animal Hybrid Ain’t One article from the Center for American Progress:
“A Look at the Biggest Winners and Biggest Losers Under the Bush Administration.”
Fact-Checking Key Assertions in the State of the Union Address article from The Washington Post
More of the usual lies from the president during his final State of the Union address such as the fact that the surge isn’t working. We’re paying militias in Iraq not to shoot our soldiers. When we stop paying them, who knows what will happen. It also involves information about the economy Bush lied about and a few other things.
Kristolizing Iraq – What a Great Freakin’ War article from CounterPunch:
“For months–nay, years!–I’ve been ranting about how screwed up the war in Iraq has been, and how disastrous have been its consequences.
What a fool I’ve been! In reality, it’s actually turned out pretty great.
That’s what I learned when I read William Kristol’s recent New York Times piece, “The Democrats’ Fairy Tale”. In a stroke of thoughtfulness, generosity and uncanny prescience, the Times was kind enough recently to hire Kristol to write a regular column for their op-ed page. I guess that’s because Ariel Sharon was unavailable and David Duke was on vacation.
Bill is angry because the Democrats (and the public–but, oddly, he doesn’t mention that part) still want to end the war–even though it’s been a huge success! They should “celebrate” it, instead! Fortunately, he is clever enough to suss out the real reason for this childish intransigence. It’s not, as Hillary put it, because the Iraqis know the Democrats will shut off the supply valve of endless wasted dollars and soon-to-be casualties headed to Baghdad. As Kristol notes, “That is truly a fairy tale. And it is driven by a refusal to admit real success because that success has been achieved under the leadership of … George W. Bush. The horror!”
Pioneering Blackwater Protesters Given Secret Trial and Criminal Conviction article from AlterNet:
Another shining example of Bush Administration Justice at work.
“Protesters who re-enacted one of Blackwater’s worst civilian massacres in Iraq got jail time, while the real killers remain free.”
Army Blocks Disability Paperwork Aid at Fort Drum article from NPR.org
Listening to the Enemy article from The CATO Institute
Sadly, CATO lowered itself to the Wall Street Journal’s depth, intentionally spreading propaganda for the president and his cronies, posted by a chair holder in constitutional studies. Congratulations CATO, you just flushed your credibility down the toilet too, spreading intentional misinformation to further the illegal activities of the worst presidential administration in the history of the U.S.
Our one-way trip to disaster article from The Boston Globe:
“YOU AND everyone you love are riding on a large bus. The bus driver, unskilled and careless, drives too fast, ignores traffic signals, and barrels off the road occasionally. Because the bus is huge, other vehicles swerve to get out of its way, with cars crashing repeatedly. But your driver just keeps going, leaving carnage in his wake. Naturally, you are terrified – but your reactions are irrelevant.
Finally, the bus itself crashes, killing many. Miraculously, you and your loved ones climb out of the wreckage. A second bus is standing by, and you gratefully scramble aboard. The engine starts up, but then the bus lurches dangerously onto the road, going too fast. Only then do you see that this new bus has the same driver, and he has learned nothing. Welcome to the United States of America. And welcome to the annual State of the Union address.
Every year, the nation looks up from the wreckage, only to see that the same unskilled and careless driver is still at the wheel, bombing along. Each January, he explains himself. You already know what he will say. His one admirable quality is that, over the years, he has always said exactly what to expect. A review of the Bush speeches has an “I told you so” quality, going back to the start. That raises the question, Why have you repeatedly been surprised?
That’s like the driver saying, “This is not the road I thought it was,” as he leaps to safety just as the bus goes off the cliff. We are a nation in free fall. The final insult is that, one more time, the driver gets to lecture us.”
Looking Anew at Campaign Cash and Elected Judges article from the New York Times
Pelosi and Reid have failed America article from The Online Journal:
“By now it should be crystal clear that Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are totally unfit for the leadership positions that they hold in Congress; and so the members of the House and Senate should take immediate steps to force them to resign or to remove them from their positions. Their stonewalling of the American people can no longer be tolerated. Both now have proven that they no longer represent the best interests of this nation.
The people of America have watched the charade that has been taking place in this Congress since the decisive elections of 2006 when the Democratic Party took control of both the House and the Senate. At that point, the majority of Americans had had enough of the insane Iraq War, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, the neocons’ madness, tax cuts for the wealthy, scandal after scandal in this administration and the Republican Party. Americans wanted change, a new direction, a new vision, an end to the blatant attempts to negate the Constitution of the United States.”
AG Mukasey Blocking Gonzales Investigation According to LATimes article from Daily Kos
Surprise, surprise. Notice how the investigator is being crucified in the press too, probably at the will of the president or someone in his administration.
Matthews To McCain: ‘The President Gave Your Speech Tonight’ article and video from Think Progress
If this is the best leadership the GOP has to offer, they may as well pack it up and go home.
Revisiting 9/11/2001 — Applying the Scientific Method report (PDF) from The Journalof911Studies.com
Another look at 9/11 and the fact that we aren’t being told the whole story or the truth by this administration.
Anthrax Coverup: A Government Insider Speaks Out article from AfterDowningStreet.org:
Here’s a shocker! LOL, ok, not really. More evidence showing an act of terror was performed by someone with a high position in government…
“Is it possible that the anthrax attacks were launched from within our own government? A former Bush 1 advisor thinks it is.
Francis A. Boyle, an international law expert who worked under the first Bush Administration as a bioweapons advisor in the 1980s, has said that he is convinced the October 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people were perpetrated and covered up by criminal elements of the U.S. government. The motive: to foment a police state by killing off and intimidating opposition to post-9/11 legislation such as the USA PATRIOT Act and the later Military Commissions Act.
“After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the Bush Administration tried to ram the USA PATRIOT Act through Congress,” Boyle said in a radio interview with Austin-based talk-show host Alex Jones. “That would have set up a police state.
“Senators Tom Daschle (D-South Dakota) and Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) were holding it up because they realized what this would lead to. The first draft of the PATRIOT Act would have suspended the writ of habeas corpus [which protects citizens from unlawful imprisonment and guarantees due process of law]. Then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, come these anthrax attacks.”
Targets article from NewsGarden.org – What the Anthrax Targets tell us about the Anthrax Terrorist
When Your Name Is Mud at the Airport article from The Wall Street Journal:
“System to Help Innocent Fliers Get Off Terrorist Watch Lists Hasn’t Lived Up to Promise.”
Truth or Terrorism? The Real Story Behind Five Years of High Alerts article from Rolling Stone Magazine:
“Sometimes we disagreed with the intelligence assessment. There were times when some people in the administration were really aggressive about raising the threat level, and we said, ‘For that?!'” – Former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, May 2005
The Bush administration has never shied from playing the fear card to distract the American public from scandal or goad them into supporting a deeply flawed foreign policy. Here a history of the administration’s most-dubious terror alerts – including three consecutive Memorial Day scare-a-thons – all of which proved far less terrifying than the screamer headlines they inspired.”
The Fear Factory article from Rolling Stone Magazine:
“The FBI now has more than 100 task forces devoted exclusively to fighting terrorism. But is the government manufacturing ghosts?”
Bush Issues Signing Statement On Defense Act, Waiving Ban On Permanent Bases In Iraq article from Think Progress:
“President Bush yesterday signed the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act after initially rejecting Congress’s first version because it would have allegedly opened the Iraqi government to “expensive lawsuits.”
Even though he forced Congress to change its original bill, Bush’s signature yesterday came with a little-noticed signing statement, claiming that provisions in the law “could inhibit the President’s ability to carry out his constitutional obligations.” CQ reports on the provisions Bush plans to disregard:
One such provision sets up a commission to probe contracting fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan. Another expands protections for whistleblowers who work for government contractors. A third requires that U.S. intelligence agencies promptly respond to congressional requests for documents. And a fourth bars funding for permanent bases in Iraq and for any action that exercises U.S. control over Iraq’s oil money.
In his “Memorandum of Justification” for the waiver, Bush cited his Nov. 26 “Declaration of Principles for a Long-Term Relationship of Cooperation and Friendship” between Iraq and the United States. This agreement has been aggressively opposed by both Republicans and Democrats in Congress as not only unprecedented, but also potentially unconstitutional because it was enacted without the agreement of the legislation branch.”
Key 9/11 Commission Staffer Held Secret Meetings With Rove, Scaled Back Criticisms of White House article from Think Progress
The Spymaster article from The New Yorker
Bill O’Reilly gets his ass kicked by Phil Donahue!! video from YouTube
Go Phil!!
Soldier Suicides at Record Level article from The Washington Post
Good thing the surge is working.
Iraq Conflict Has Killed A Million Iraqis: Survey article from The New York Times
Chafee dishes on pro-war Democrats article from Daily Kos
Mukasey Channels Gonzales, Claime He “Doesn’t Know” If Bush Violated FISA article from AlterNet:
“Mukasey’s flacking for the administration’s illegal surveillance is deeply unsettling.”
Mukasey’s radical worldview is now the norm article from Glenn Greenwood of Salon News:
“Yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, featuring day-long testimony from Attorney General Michael Mukasey, was extraordinary for only one reason: for our country, what happened in the hearing is now completely ordinary. While Mukasey may be marginally more straightforward than Alberto Gonzales was — more willing to conform to the procedural formalities of independence — he is, ideologically, a clone of John Yoo and David Addington and is as much of a loyal adherent to the Bush/Cheney extremist worldview as Gonzales ever was.
Mukasey explicitly embraces the most extreme theories of presidential omnipotence and lawlessness and displays as much Cheney-ite contempt for the notion of Congressional oversight as the Vice President himself. He repeatedly endorsed patently illegal behavior — including torture — and refused even to pretend that he cared what the Senate thought about any of it. He even told Republican Senators that they have no right to pass a whistleblower law allowing federal employees who learn of lawbreaking to inform Congress about it, because such a law would infringe on the President’s constitutional powers. In Mukasey’s worldview, the President has unlimited power and Congress has none.
And none of this is particularly surprising, given that — as I emphasized after his nomination was announced — Mukasey is the federal judge who, when presiding over the Padilla case in 2002, endorsed the most tyrannical and un-American power there is, when he ruled that the President even has the power to imprison U.S. citizens indefinitely, even when detained on U.S. soil, with no process of any kind — a position he refused to repudiate during his confirmation hearing.”
Enemies Everywhere article from Glenn Greenward of Salon News:
“Writing about last night’s GOP debate, John Hinderaker of Powerline, Time’s 2004 Blog of the Year, shared this observation:
Businessmen, in my experience, are generally more idealistic than politicians. Businessmen really do make deals with a handshake. No one would dream of doing that with Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi or the Clintons. . . .
I don’t view this as an argument in Romney’s favor. As President, he wouldn’t be dealing with honorable, law-abiding businesspeople. He would be going up against the Vladimir Putins, Osama bin Ladens and Harry Reids of the world.
That passage was then promptly quoted by National Review’s Mark Steyn, who said that Hinderaker “might be on to something.”
And besides, the nation’s poor War Cheerleaders of the Right are always so besieged by vicious Enemies lurking on every corner — people who are ruthless, without scruples, and who are even willing to break the law. Like Vladimir Putin, Osama bin Laden, and Harry Reid.”
Shell’s ‘obscene’ £13.9 billion profit is biggest ever by British company article from The Daily Mail UK:
“Shell smashed all-time British company profit records today, posting 2007 earnings of $27.5billion (£13.9billion), and immediately ran into a storm with union leaders, who are demanding the Government hits the oil giant with a windfall tax.
Shell’s profit surge – it is now making a staggering $75million (£38million) a day – on the back of a booming oil price that touched $100 a barrel this winter, was labelled as “obscene” by Tony Woodley of Unite, the UK’s largest trade union, as Britons struggle with soaring energy costs.
“Shell shareholders are doing very nicely while the rest of us are paying the price and struggling,” said Woodley.”
G.O.P. Exodus in House Bodes Ill for Fall Success article from The New York Times
The Republican party has been badly damaged thanks to our fraudulently elected leader. Good job!!
9-11 Research – An Attempt to Uncover the Truth About September 11th, 2001
9/11 Commission controversy article from MSNBC Deep Background
Yet another reason why outside investigations and oversight of the government is necessary. It’s impossible to get an honest investigation when you have incompetent, corrupted idiots investigating incompetent, corrupted idiots.
Rove Influenced 9/11 Commission Report article from ImpeachForPeace
Need more reason to believe the ‘official version’ of the 9/11 report is bogus, just read the report.
Cheney Pushed For Telecom Immunity: ‘We Haven’t Violated Anybody’s Civil Liberties’ article and audio from Think Progress:
“An interview by Rush Limbaugh of Vice President Cheney and more lies to let telecoms and feds get away with breaking all kinds of laws.
Yesterday, Vice President Dick Cheney appeared as a guest on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show and used the opportunity to stump for retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies that illegally spied on American citizens:
CHENEY: People who don’t want to – I guess want to leave open the possibility that the trial lawyers can go after a big company that may have helped. Those companies helped specifically at our request, and they’ve done yeoman duty for the country, and this is the so-called terrorist surveillance program, one of the things it was called earlier. It’s just absolutely essential to know who in the United States is talking to Al-Qaeda. It’s a program that’s been very well managed. We haven’t violated anybody’s civil liberties. It’s in fact a good piece of legislation.
In Cheney’s mind, breaking the law and engaging in illegal conduct apparently aren’t violations of civil liberties.
Telecoms should not be let off the hook because Dick Cheney says they did “yeoman duty for the country.” They chose to break the law and profited greatly from doing so. (At least one company refused to comply with the Bush administration’s request because it knew the actions were illegal.) As Glenn Greenwald explains, the proper course is to permit these companies to present to a court whatever evidence they relied on to justify their activities and let a judge decide:”
US Military May Not Be Ready for Attack article from The Associated Press
But we’re safer now that our troops are spread out in the Middle East!
Top 5 Iraq documentaries you should watch article from FreeOnlineDocumentaries Blogspot:
Below are 2 from the site with the descriptions. Worth checking out if you want to see the truth about Iraq and Bush’s lies:
1. The War Tapes (2006)
Winner of the Tribeca Film Festival’s 2006 Best Documentary honor. Rather than embed herself with the military in Iraq and subject herself to censorship and biased guides, director Deborah Scranton gave cameras to soldiers who she kept in touch with online. The resulting film features a balanced and unfiltered perspective on the war.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3030987572930384032
2. Control Room
Jehane Noujaim’s film makes it clear that the information war is as important as the war on the ground. “Control Room” shows Western reporters and reporters for the Arab news network Al Jazeera covering the early days of the war. As the military works to spin the news for both audiences, differences in coverage reveal the depth of the cultural divide – an understanding of which should frame your viewing of any other documentary about the Iraq War.
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5468579280837866970
State Dept. Official On Afghanistan: ‘Nobody Can Tell Me It’s Not Going In A Positive Direction’ article and video from Think Progress
It really make one wonder if any one person in the Bush administration has ever told the truth.
Crime of the Century: Time for Congress to Stand Up article from OpEdNews
Times Reporter Subpoenaed Over Source for Book article from The New York Times:
“WASHINGTON – A federal grand jury has issued a subpoena to a reporter of The New York Times, apparently to try to force him to reveal his confidential sources for a 2006 book on the Central Intelligence Agency, one of the reporter’s lawyers said Thursday.
The subpoena was delivered last week to the New York law firm that is representing the reporter, James Risen, and ordered him to appear before a grand jury in Alexandria, Va., on Feb. 7.
Mr. Risen’s lawyer, David N. Kelley, who was the United States attorney in Manhattan early in the Bush administration, said in an interview that the subpoena sought the source of information for a specific chapter of the book “State of War.”
The chapter asserted that the C.I.A. had unsuccessfully tried, beginning in the Clinton administration, to infiltrate Iran’s nuclear program. None of the material in that chapter appeared in The New York Times.”
Don’t be fooled by the myth of John McCain article from The Seattle PI
G.W. Bush Is a Criminal, Like His Dad article from Consortium News
An interesting article detailing the criminality of both Bush’s and the willingness of Congress to turn the other way. Maybe it’s time to blow the lid off all the corruption in Congress. Ignoring it makes Congress just as guilty, although for all intents and purposes, several Congress members are already just as guilty as both Bush’s.
Internet failure hits two continents article from CNN International
You Probably Missed It: The Best Expose of the Bush Cover-up, Lies and Incompetence article from Man With The Muck-Rake blogspot
With Waziristan, Pakistan sliding further into chaos, the CIA seems to be taking matters into its own hands article from Reuters
Was 9/11 Truth Giuliani’s Demise? You’ll be AMAZED What Corporate Media Hid from YOU! article and videos from Prison Planet
Whitehouse.gov robots.txt seems to be hiding a lot of very interesting things
Testimony of a US ex-marine article from InformationClearingHouse
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