Quick Truths

- Despite claiming he was at Ground Zero “as often, if not more” than 9/11 rescue workers, former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s mayoral archive reveals that from Sept. 17 to Dec. 16, 2001, “he was there for a total of 29 hours.” In that same period, “many rescue and recovery workers put in daily 12-hour shifts.”

- Yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid wrote a letter to Bush asking that he provide all documents and other information sought by the House and Senate Judiciary and Intelligence Committees in order to conduct oversight of the implementation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

- The State Department’s “$5 billion construction efforts abroad have come under increasing strain.” In a cable sent this summer, “U.S. diplomats complained of building delays and shoddy workmanship, underscoring problems with State’s one-size-fits-all approach to building.” The IG is now probing the use of sole-source contracts at the U.S. embassy in Baghdad.

- The “number of coalition military deaths in the war in Iraq has reached 4,000,” with the majority of the fatalities — 3,702 — suffered by U.S. soldiers. Forty-four U.S. troops have died this month.

- “People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and the Guantanamo prison, according to a new tracing program.” It was not known whether changes were made by an official representative of an agency or company, a CIA spokesman said, but it was certain the change was made by someone with access to the organization’s network.

- Today, White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe dismissed a report by the Washington Post that claimed Bush aides were resisting the open testimony of Gen. David Petraeus. “General Petraeus and Ambassador Crocker will testify to the Congress in both open as well as closed sessions prior to the September 15th report,” he said. “That has always been our intention.” Apparently, that message hasn’t been communicated to Congress:

- This morning, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-VT) “asked the Justice Department’s Inspector General (IG) to investigate potentially false or misleading testimony given by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales during his appearances before various congressional committees.” Leahy highlights several contradictory statements made by the Attorney General on the NSA’s spy program, the use of National Security Letters, and his role in the U.S. attorney purge:

Consistent with your jurisdiction, please do not limit your inquiry to whether or not the Attorney General has committed any criminal violations. Rather, I ask that you look into whether the Attorney General, in the course of his testimony, engaged in any misconduct, engaged in conduct inappropriate for a cabinet officer and the nation’s chief law enforcement officer, or violated any duty — including the duty set out in federal regulations for government officials to avoid any conduct which gives the appearance of a violation of law or of ethical standard, regardless of whether there is an actual violation of law.

Read the full release.

- In a July hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Robert Mueller revealed that he took notes of the infamous White House visit to Attorney General John Ashcroft’s hospital room because the events were so “out of the ordinary.” Chairman John Conyers wrote to Mueller after the hearing to request access to his notes. Today, Conyers’ office put out a statement explaining that the Judiciary Committee has taken a look at Mueller’s notes, which were “heavily-redacted.” Yet, even from the amount the Committee was able to read, Conyers reported that it is clear there was a craven effort to take advantage of “a sick and heavily-medicated Ashcroft“

- After the recent resignation of Karl Rove, media outlets speculated on what the rest of President Bush’s term will look like without “the Architect.” The President is “fighting lame duck status,” reported the AP. In response, White House Press Secretary Tony Snow shot back: “As the president has said many times, he’s going to sprint to the tape.”

But even Tony Snow doesn’t want to be around for that sprint. In an interview with the conservative Hugh Hewitt show, Snow signaled that he will not stay until the end of the term. He also mentioned that there are “probably a couple” of other high-level resignations “coming up in the next month or so.”

- Yesterday, the LA Times reported that the September progress report on Iraq “would actually be written by the White House,” instead of Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker. The Washington Post echoed the admission in an article today, describing the report as “the Bush administration’s progress report.” But the WaPo’s editorial page is still pushing the myth that “the September report will represent the sole word of Petraeus,” writing that “The general is expected to elaborate on that progress in a report to Congress.”

One million dollars. That’s how much it cost the Defense Department to ship two 19-cent washers after a South Carolina small supplies shipping company exploited an automated shipping system designed to quickly get supplies to American troops. Charlene Corley, the owner of C&D Distributors LLC, pleaded guilty yesterday to wire fraud and money laundering when she and her late sister Darlene Wooten overcharged the government by over $20 million through a loophole in the automated system. (AP)

Quick Truths

From Think Progress

“President Bush was presented with a letter Monday signed by 50 high school seniors in the Presidential Scholars program urging a halt to ‘violations of the human rights’ of terror suspects held by the United States.” The handwritten letter said in part, “We do not want America to represent torture.” Bush “took a moment to read it and talk with a young woman who handed it to him.”

“Iraq’s conflict is exacting an immense and largely unnoticed psychological toll on children and youth that will have long-term consequences.” A World Health Organization survey of Iraqi children under 10 found that 47 percent reported being “exposed to a major traumatic event over the past two years.”

239. Number of bills the House of Representatives has passed and sent to the Senate only to be held up, with conservatives “objecting to just about every major piece of legislation that [Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV)] has tried to bring up.”

Yesterday’s Supreme Court decisions show the new “muscle” of the conservative majority, but USA Today notes a division between the far-right justices who are “eager to overturn previous decisions” and the new Bush appointees who are “reluctant” to “completely gut court precedents.”

“The U.S. Conference of Mayors narrowly endorsed a resolution Monday calling for the Bush administration to begin planning for the swift withdrawal of troops from Iraq.” The war is reducing federal funds “for needed domestic investments in education, health care, public safety, homeland security and more,” the resolution states.

The ACLU and other civil liberties groups have declared today a Day of Action to Restore Law and Justice. The ACLU will be “rallying on Capitol Hill and visiting congressional offices asking Congress to restore the right of habeas corpus.” Christy Hardin Smith has toll-free call-in numbers so you can contact your representatives, or sign MoveOn’s petition HERE. ACLU’s FindHabeas will be live-blogging throughout the day.

50,000. Estimated number of Iraqi refugees, “many alarmingly young,” now employed as sex workers and prostitutes in Syria.

Quick Truths + Political Purity at Civil Right Division

From Thinkprogress;

A bipartisan group of senators, including “several conservative Republicans,” introduced legislation Tuesday to use the Iraq Study Group’s recommendations “as the foundation for future U.S. policy in Iraq.” The bill aims to “begin the withdrawal of U.S. combat brigades by early 2008 if certain benchmarks are met.”

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has approved a proposal that would allow an independent outside panel to decide which ethics complaints merit investigation by House ethics committee. “This is gigantic,” said Sarah Dufendach of the watchdog group Common Cause. “If they really do this, it will be a very serious step forward.”

The House oversight committee is expanding its investigation “into ties between jailed GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff and the White House and have contacted several Abramoff associates recently about testifying to Congress.”

“International family planning groups cut off from aid because of their position on abortion could gain access to U.S.-donated contraceptives under legislation approved by a House panel Tuesday.” The bill also “gives Bush and future presidents the right to waive current law that requires that one-third of U.S. aid for HIV/AIDS prevention be spent on abstinence programs.”

“The United States will refuse to agree to targets and timetables for cutting greenhouse gases” at G8 summit, President Bush’s science adviser reiterated yesterday. “At this point in time we are not prepared to adopt that proposal,” James Connaughton told reporters.

Scholzman Confesses that groups who help "minorities" must be "Liberal"

Bradley Schlozman has emerged as a central figure in the politicization of the Justice Department, particularly for his focus on squashing the voice of minorites prior to major elections.

As an interim U.S. attorney in Missouri, Schlozman brought felony indictments of four workers in the minority advocacy group ACORN just a week before the 2006 election. That move ran counter to a longstanding policy in the Justice Department, and voter fraud charges against ACORN were dismissed. Schlozman also killed an investigation of Native American voter suppression in Minnesota, a practice that was resulting in “electoral discrimination against Indian voters.”

As TPMMuckraker noted, Schlozman played dumb today when asked about the political leanings of ACORN. But later in the hearing, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) caught Schlozman baselessly labeling groups that reach out to minority voters as the “liberal” counterparts to the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society

I guess this means that agencies who are attempting to fuck minorities in ze goat ass - must be "conservative"? Scholzman after denying that he used a partisian litmus test for highing at the Civil Rights division also bragged about how many Republicans he'd hired.

During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing yesterday, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) asked Justice Department official Bradley Schlozman about evidence that he hired officials for their conservative or Republican affiliations. Schlozman insisted that such qualities were “irrelevant to the hiring decision for a career position.”

But minutes later, Schumer asked Schlozman, “Did you ever boast to anyone that you hired a certain number of Republicans or conservatives for any division or section at the Justice Department?” Schlozman said he had. “I probably have made statements like that,” he said

Can you say d.o.u.c.h.e.b.a.g?

I knew that you could.

Vyan

Quick Truths

BP’s ‘environmentally responsible’ image takes a hit.

“BP’s ceaseless efforts to promote itself as an environmentally responsible energy producer took a serious blow yesterday after a US congressional committee said ‘a mountain of evidence’ showed the company’s cost-cutting on maintenance had led to a large oil spill in Alaska. The US government said it was ‘highly likely’ to fine BP over the leaks.”

If Iraq parliament wants withdrawal, we do too.

“Some key Republican supporters of President Bush’s Iraq war policy said this week that if the Iraqi parliament calls for the withdrawal of U.S. troops, their position could change dramatically.” Rep. Adam Putnam (R-FL), the No. 3 House Republican, says, “I suspect we would respect their wishes. … I think that it would reflect a successful, healthy and well-running parliamentary organization that was delivered to that nation by the sacrifices of our fighting men and women.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) made similar statements this weekend.

Hurricane chief: Govt wasting millions on PR campaign.

“The federal government is spending millions of dollars on a publicity campaign that could be used to plug budget shortfalls hurricane forecasters are struggling with, the National Hurricane Center’s director said Thursday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is spending up to $4 million to publicize a 200th anniversary celebration while the agency has cut $700,000 from hurricane research.”

ABC and CBS ignore Comey testimony.

Media Matters notes, “ABC and CBS still have not reported — on either their evening news or morning news broadcasts — former deputy attorney general James B. Comey’s account of what NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams May 15 called a rare glimpse of a high-level, late-night power struggle over the National Security Agency’s warrantless domestic wiretapping program.”

The civil lawsuit brought by outed CIA agent Valerie Plame “is expected to face a withering attack this morning at a court hearing in Washington,” where attorneys for Vice President Cheney, Scooter Libby and others will urge Judge John Bates — a Bush appointee and former Ken Starr aide — that “the case be thrown out.”

“Newly declassified data show that as additional American troops began streaming into Iraq in March and April, the number of attacks on civilians and security forces there stayed relatively steady or at most declined slightly, in the clearest indication yet that the troop increase could take months to have a widespread impact on security.”

Al Gore will release his new book The Assault on Reason next week. Gore tells Time that he began questioning why “our democracy hasn’t responded” to both the climate crisis and the Iraq war. “So I started thinking, What’s going on here? … Our democracy was pushed around by false impressions and wasn’t able to hold its focus,” he says. “That’s the common denominator. Once I’d thought through all of that, I couldn’t not write this book.”

Filmmaker Michael Moore is “launching his own probe into the U.S. government’s investigation of him for making an unauthorized trip to Cuba to film scenes for his latest movie ‘SiCKO,’” beginning with a Freedom of Information Act request seeking all documents regarding the investigation.

“The Justice Department on Wednesday told an angry Senate Judiciary Committee chairman it does not have documents described in a subpoena that demands all materials relating to Karl Rove’s possible involvement in the U.S. attorney firings. Instead, it said, Rove’s lawyer must have them.”

Quick Truths

Quick Truth's from Thinkprogress

CBS Fires General Batiste

As ThinkProgress has reported, CBS has terminated Gen. John Batiste’s consulting contract with the network over his appearance in a VoteVets ad. CBS News’ blog sought comment from Linda Mason, CBS News Vice President, Standards and Special Projects. Here’s what Mason said about Batiste:

“When we hire someone as a consultant, we want them to share their expertise with our viewers,” she said. “By putting himself front and center in an anti-Bush ad, the viewer might have the feeling everything he says is anti-Bush. And that doesn’t seem like an analytical approach to the issues we want to discuss.”

Mason’s concern is hypocritical. CBS hasn’t shown a similar level of apprehension for being painted “pro-Bush” when former White House communications director Nicolle Wallace appears on its programming. Nor has it been concerned when its military analyst Michael O’Hanlon advocated in favor of Bush’s Iraq policy.

Nicolle Wallace has propagated talking points advanced by her old colleagues in the White House communications office. Some examples:

“The Democrats have to walk a fine line and be careful. People don’t want to turn on the TV and see every story being about the obstruction of people trying to do things.” [Washington Post, 3/7/07]

“Well, you know, people ask me all the time, ‘Do they [in the White House] get it? Do they get how bad things are?’ And the answer is yes.” [CBS Evening News, 12/12/06]

At the end of the day, no matter how discontent some voters are, they really don’t want to see Democrats in control of the Congress. [CBS Evening News, 10/23/06]

It’s apparently only advocacy when you’re opposing Bush. Americans United notes that it took two weeks for CBS to fire Don Imus for racial slurs, but two days to fire Batiste for speaking up on Iraq.

Petraeus condemns torture.

In an open letter yesterday, Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, “admonished his troops regarding the results of an Army survey that found that many U.S military personnel there are willing to tolerate some torture of suspects and unwilling to report abuse by comrades.” From the letter:

I was concerned by the results of a recently released survey conducted last fall in Irasq that revealed an apparent unwillingness on the part of some US personnel to report illegal actions taken by fellow members of their units. The study also indicated that a small percentage of those surveyed may have mistreated noncombatants. This survey should spur reflection on our conduct in combat. …

Some may argue that we would be more effective if we sanctioned torture or other expedient methods to obtain information from the enemy. They would be wrong. Beyond the basic fact that such actions are illegal, history shows that they also are frequently neither useful nor necessary.

UPDATE: Andrew Sullivan calls it a “stunning letter“:

[I]t’s one of the most important letters to come from a senior military official in a very long time. The very fact that it is necessary reveals the extent of the damage that Bush and Rumsfeld and Cheney have done. But the fact that it is addressed to every servicemember in the field from their commander in the field shows that honor is not dead in the US military, and that repair is possible.

Justice officials detail Goodling’s partisan witchhunt.

The New York Times reports:

Two years ago, Robin C. Ashton, a seasoned criminal prosecutor at the Department of Justice, learned from her boss that a promised promotion was no longer hers.

“You have a Monica problem,” Ms. Ashton was told, according to several Justice Department officials. Referring to Monica M. Goodling, a 31-year-old, relatively inexperienced lawyer who had only recently arrived in the office, the boss added, “She believes you’re a Democrat and doesn’t feel you can be trusted.” […]

Ms. Goodling would soon be quizzing applicants for civil service jobs at Justice Department headquarters with questions that several United States attorneys said were inappropriate, like who was their favorite president and Supreme Court justice. One department official said an applicant was even asked, “Have you ever cheated on your wife?”

Ms. Goodling also moved to block the hiring of prosecutors with résumés that suggested they might be Democrats, even though they were seeking posts that were supposed to be nonpartisan, two department officials said.

On Friday a Federal Judge approved Goodling's Immunity Deal to testify before Congress.

Quick Truths

From Thinkprogress:

The Pentagon’s announcement yesterday that 35,000 soldiers in 10 Army combat brigades will begin deploying to Iraq in August as replacements makes it “possible to sustain the increase of U.S. troops there until at least the end of this year.”

“Partial data on attacks gathered from five U.S. brigades operating in Baghdad” show that total attacks since the escalation began in February “were either steady or increasing. In some cases, certain kinds of attacks dipped as the U.S. troop increase began, only to begin rising again in recent weeks. Overall, ‘the number of attacks has stayed relatively constant’ in Baghdad, said one U.S. officer.”

“The government’s methods for deciding compensation for emotionally disturbed veterans have little basis in science, are applied unevenly and may even create disincentives for veterans to get better, an influential scientific advisory group said yesterday.”

“Led by California, 31 states representing more than 70% of the U.S. population announced Tuesday that they would measure and jointly track greenhouse gas emissions by major industries.” The new Climate Registry is seen as a “crucial precursor” to regulating global warming pollution.

“Christians are fleeing in droves from the southern Baghdad district of Dora after Sunni insurgents told them they would be killed unless they converted to Islam or left,” marking “the first apparent attempt to empty an entire Baghdad neighborhood of Christians, the Christians say.”

House war opponents craft new bill.

“A week after President Bush vetoed a Democratic war spending measure that set a timeline for withdrawing U.S. forces from Iraq, House Democrats said Tuesday they hope to vote later this week on a second proposal that would impose new conditions on the administration’s prosecution of the war.”

[T]he plan developed by Reps. David Obey, D-Wis, and John P. Murtha, D-Pa. — and referred to by some Democrats as the “short-leash” plan — would guarantee about $30 billion in funding only through July for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At that point, the Bush administration would be required to report on the Iraqi government’s progress on a series of benchmarks, including disarming sectarian militias and passing laws to equitably share oil wealth across the country. Congress would then take a second vote to approve further funding through the end of September.

Gonzales angered when WH ties to firings were exposed.

On Feb. 7, 2007, Alberto Gonzales’ spokesman Brian Roehrkasse told two top Gonzales aides that the Attorney General was “extremely upset” that his deputy, Paul McNulty, had told the Senate Judiciary committee the day before that U.S. Attorney Bud Cummins had been fired to make room for an aide to Karl Rove. But why was he upset?

When the Roehrkasse e-mail came to light, he told the press that Gonzales had been upset because he believed that “Bud Cummins’ removal involved performance considerations.” But on April 15, Congressional sources tell TIME, Gonzales’ former chief of staff Kyle Sampson told a different story. During a private interview with Judiciary Committee staffers Sampson said three times in as many minutes that Gonzales was angry with McNulty because he had exposed the White House’s involvement in the firings — had put its role “in the public sphere,” as Sampson phrased it, according to Congressional sources familiar with the interview.

Chevron to acknowledge aiding Saddam.

“Chevron, the second-largest American oil company, is preparing to acknowledge that it should have known kickbacks were being paid to Saddam Hussein on oil it bought from Iraq as part of a defunct United Nations program, according to investigators. … At the time, Condoleezza Rice, now secretary of state, was a member of Chevron’s board and led its public policy committee, which oversaw areas of potential political concerns for the company. Ms. Rice resigned from Chevron’s board on Jan. 16, 2001, after being named national security advisor by President Bush.” (Via Atrios)

Bush backing Wolfowitz despite ethics violations.

“The White House said on Tuesday the World Bank could continue to be effective with embattled World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz in charge.”

Quick Truths

Quick Truths from Thinkprogress:

Breaking: Senate approves Iraq withdrawal bill.

“The Senate on Thursday narrowly passed legislation ordering U.S. troops to begin coming home from Iraq by Oct. 1. The vote was 51-46. The House on Wednesday passed the same war spending bill, and President Bush next week is expected to receive, and swiftly reject, the legislation. The veto could fall on the fourth anniversary of the president’s Iraq ‘victory’ speech, which is Tuesday.”

UPDATE: AMERICAblog has video of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) remarks HERE.

UPDATE II: A case of the pot calling the kettle black — the “White House warns of a ‘P.R. stunt.’” Dana Perino said, “If it is the case that they withheld money for the troops in order to try to play some ridiculous P.R. stunt, that is the height of cynicism.” 1:23 pm

Buying The War.

You can watch Bill Moyers’ full documentary HERE. Glenn Greenwald writes:

If you didn’t watch Bill Moyers’ documentary last night regarding the joint, coordinated behavior of our government and its media in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq, I can’t recommend it highly enough. […]

One of the most important points came at the end. The institutional decay which Moyers chronicles is not merely a matter of historical interest. Instead, it continues to shape our mainstream political dialogue every bit as much as it did back in 2002 and 2003. The people who committed the journalistic crimes Moyers so potently documents do not think they are guilty of anything — ask them and they will tell you — and as a result, they have not changed their behavior in the slightest.

28 percent: President Bush’s approval rating in a new Harris survey, the lowest of his
presidency.

“Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she has already answered the questions she has been subpoenaed to answer before a congressional committee” and suggested she is not inclined to comply with the order. “I am more than happy to answer them again in a letter,” she told reporters.

“White House officials conducted 20 private briefings on Republican electoral prospects in the last midterm election for senior officials in at least 15 government agencies covered by federal restrictions on partisan political activity,” the White House acknowledged yesterday.

“The Justice Department has asked a federal appeals court to impose tighter restrictions on the hundreds of lawyers who represent detainees at Guantánamo Bay,” proposing “new limits on the lawyers’ contact with their clients and access to evidence in their cases.”

“The White House has turned over to a House committee about 200 pages of documents” related to a suspicious contract it had with a company owned by Brent Wilkes, who pleaded guilty to bribing former Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-CA).

Vyan

Quick Truths

Quick Truths from Thinkprogress:

An “obscure federal investigative unit known as the Office of Special Counsel” is launching a broad investigation into key elements of the White House political operations that “for more than six years have been headed by chief strategist Karl Rove.” The administration-led inquiry will be a unified investigation covering many facets of Rove’s operations. “We will take the evidence where it leads us,” said Scott J. Bloch, a Bush appointee who heads the Office of Special Counsel. “We will not leave any stone unturned.”

U.S. Central Command has retired the phrase “the long war” to describe the struggle against global extremists, after cultural advisers became concerned that the concept “alienated Middle East audiences by suggesting that the United States would keep a large number of forces in the region indefinitely.”

“World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz met yesterday with senior managers to promise unspecified changes in his leadership and to appeal for their help.” “He is not going to resign,” his lawyer said. “His mood is just fine. … He feels people are trying to interfere with his job to get at world poverty.”

Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D-NY) “will soon introduce a bill to legalize same-sex marriage — what he calls ‘a simple moral imperative,’” becoming “the first governor in the nation to introduce a gay marriage bill.”

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee will conduct a hearing today into misleading information from the battlefield. The hearing will focus on the death of Army Ranger Specialist Patrick Tillman in Afghanistan and the capture and rescue of Army Private Jessica Lynch in Iraq, and question why inaccurate accounts of these two incidents were disseminated.

From the Randi Rhodes Show.

Boris Yeltsin dies at 76.

FLASHBACK: 1995 – Yeltsin takes a swipe at the press corps and Bill Clinton simply loses it. One of our favorite Yeltsin moments…

Bush actually thinks Gonzales did a great job. The GOP can’t wait to get GonzalesGate behind them. Sorry freaks, after Fredo there’s still Rove, Miers and the Chimp in Chief himself…

Give ‘em hell, Waxman! Let the subpoenas fly, baby.

VIDEO: Newt Gingrich tries to prove that he’s psycho enough to win the support of the mouth-breathing, Rapture Right GOP base by blaming Liberalism for the VTech shootings.

Meanwhile, Congress (finally) starts to grumble about the plan to design and build a new generation of f’n nukes!

ARMY TIMES (what the troops read): Brain injuries are not enough to keep you out of Bush’s filthy oil war. And PTSD sufferers are redeployed, misdiagnosed or simply thrown out. Criminal.

Depleted uranium continues to eat our troops and alive as we litter the globe with it in the name of empire.

And Maliki orders a halt to Bush’s “Baghdad Wall”.

Also, Sheryl Crow and Karl Rove square off over Global Warming. In Crow’s (and Laurie David’s) own words…

And World Bank execs want Wolfowitz gone. Not only did Wolfie get his girl a plum gig at the State Department, she also received an unprecedented security clearance for a foreign national.

Vyan

RNC To Waxman: We’ll Only Show You The Emails We Want You To See

Source: Thinkprogress

In a new letter to the Republican National Committee, House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman writes that the RNC has provided only minimal information regarding White House officials’ use of RNC e-mail accounts. The purpose of Waxman’s inquiry was in part to determine the extent that White House staff used “non-governmental e-mail accounts to conduct official government business.”

In the new letter, Waxman reveals that the RNC’s response thus far has been to propose that any Congressional requests for emails be filtered through “eight search terms, such as ‘political briefing,’ ‘Hatch Act,’ and ‘2008.’” Waxman notes that these proposed search terms would not have produced the RNC email that transmitted a copy of Karl Rove’s Powerpoint slides that were presented at a General Services Administration meeting. That e-mail read: “Please do not email this out or let people see it. It is a close hold and we’re not supposed to be emailing it around.”

Waxman says that before Congress can agree to the RNC’s proposed “search terms,” the RNC must provide basic information about the extent their email accounts have been used to transact government business:

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/18/waxman... /

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This issue has also been looked at by diarist on Dailykos who surmises that the letter sent by White House directing the RNC to refuse the Waxman document requests just might amount to Obstruction of Justice.

Vyan

They DID Fight Back

Source: Daily Kos, New York Times

Of all the arrogant ignorance displayed in the past couple of days regarding the Blacksburg Massacre, nothing trumps what John Derbyshire and Nathaniel Blake had to say Tuesday about the alleged passivity and cowardice of students at Virginia Tech. As numerous commenters pointed out, it's easy to pin medals on yourself from the comfort of your parents' basement. Today, we've got more of the same from Mark Steyn at NRO.

While many of us think we would react calmly and bravely in a dire emergency - and it is worth the exercise of preparing oneself psychologically and physically for such circumstances - none of us knows for sure how we would behave until we actually come face-to-face with peril. Would we rush to pry some stranger or some stranger's children from a burning car as the flames sped toward the fuel tank? Would we take on the bully pounding the class nerd behind the school? Would we join the passengers of the hijacked plane and crash the cockpit door? Easy to type "of course" on the keyboard. Easy to be a hero when there's time to ponder it over a martini. Easy to mock people who don't measure up to your never-tested standards. Talk is cheap, and brave talk is cheapest of all.

What we now know is that some of those who faced the gunman at Virginia Tech did selflessly risk their lives to save others.

As reported in the The New York Times (and noted in jhritz's Diary), one of those was Engineering Professor Liviu Librescu, an Israeli Holocaust survivor, who blocked Cho Seung-Hui from entering the room, urging students to escape. Many did. He was murdered on the spot.

Read more: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/4/1...

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In additional to the armchair cowboy's such as Derbyshire, Blake and Steyn the usual suspects from Fux News have also jumped into the fray.

Michelle Malkin: “Enough is enough, indeed. Enough of intellectual disarmament. Enough of physical disarmament. You want a safer campus? It begins with renewing a culture of self-defense — mind, spirit and body. It begins with two words: Fight back.“

Living in the same delusional fantasy world where America still has a chance to be greated with flowers and candy in Iraq are Fox's John Gibson and Joe Napolitano who imagine that what this situation really needed was an appearance by Wyatt Earp for an old-style western shoot-out:

GIBSON: So, theoretically, in this lecture hall where all 31 were killed, there could have been someone with a carry permit carrying their gun to shoot the shooter?

NAPOLITANO: No, because the same people that just dropped the ball, as Bo just described, that allowed 32 additional people to die, also said: “Virginia lets you carry a gun at a gas station or a bank or a stadium, but not on a college campus, where you may protect kids.”

Before we turn a school campus into the "O.K. Corral" perhaps we should think about not letting people who've been diagnosed as suicidal and prescribed anti-depressants have accesss to firearms in the first place.

Vyan

FBI Raids Rep. Doolittle’s Home (R-CA)

Source: Roll Call

The FBI searched the Virginia home of Rep. John Doolittle (R-Calif.) last Friday in its investigation into the ties of the congressman and his wife, Julie, to disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to law enforcement and other Congressional and K Street sources. <…>

Doolittle has been under fire for paying his wife’s company, Sierra Dominion, a 15 percent commission on all contributions that the company raised for Doolittle’s campaign committee and leadership PAC. Her only other clients were Abramoff’s former firm, Greenberg Traurig; Abramoff’s former restaurant Signatures; and the Korea-U.S. Exchange Council, which Ed Buckham, a former chief of staff to ex-Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), created.

The Justice Department previously subpoenaed Julie Doolittle’s files.

Doolittle also received contributions from indicted defense contractor Brent Wilkes and his associates, and investigators are probing whether those contributions are linked to any official action Doolittle took to help Wilkes’s company obtain millions of dollars in government earmarks.

Read more: http://thinkprogress.org/2007/04/18/breaki... /

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The fallout from the Abramoff Scandal continues to rain down upon the head of yet another Republican Congressman, in this case California Republican John Doolittle's home was raided by the FBI as part of a federal investigation of the Congressman and his wife, and her company.

Waxman says that before Congress can agree to the RNC’s proposed “search terms,” the RNC must provide basic information about the extent their email accounts have been used to transact government business:

Quick Truths

From Thinkprogress:

On the fourth anniversary of the fall of Baghdad and the toppling of Saddam’s statue, up to one million Iraqi Shias summoned by Moqtada al-Sadr “have gathered in the holy city of Najaf for a mass demonstration calling for US-led troops to leave Iraq.”

The Washington Post interviews a man who helped sledgehammer Saddam’s statue: “We got rid of a tyrant and tyranny. But we were surprised that after one thief had left, another 40 replaced him. Now, we regret that Saddam Hussein is gone, no matter how much we hated him.”

President Bush heads to the Arizona border today for a speech debuting his new, more hard-line conservative approach to immigration “devised after weeks of closed-door meetings with Republican senators.”

Salon.com has uncovered further evidence that the military, in a desperate effort to fill its ranks for President Bush’s escalation, “sent soldiers with acute post-traumatic stress disorder, severe back injuries and other serious war wounds back to Iraq.”

“After weeks of arguing over when the military will run out of money, House and Senate Republicans hope to up the rhetorical ante this week by formally calling on Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to bring the House back from a two-week spring recess to finish drafting the controversial $120 billion-plus Iraq War spending bill.”

From Randi Rhodes:

On top of Bush’s BS surge, we now learn that an additional 12,000 National Guard troops will be shipped off to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Why did the Ft. Irwin troops give Chimpy such an icy reception on Wednesday? Maybe they are sick of badly injured troops being denied rehab and getting sent to their base to falsely bolster manpower readiness stats. Criminal.

AUDIO: Cheney keeps lying about Iraq/al-Qaeda links then never existed. On Limbaugh yesterday, Cheney used Zarqawi as his proof.

FACT: Saddam and Osama hated each other, and Hussein tried to get Zarqawi himself but Zarqawi was protected inside the US controlled no-fly zone.

FACT: There were zero credible links between Iraq and al-Qaeda and the White House knew that BEFORE the war.

FACT: What did the bin Laden’s and Hussein (and Bush’s) actually have in common? Their bank.

Meanwhile, chlorine gas shows up again as a suicide car bomber kills at least 27 in Iraq.

From hometown hero to being happy to be tucked away in a state psych ward, Bush’s throw away soldiers find themselves lost and suicidal once they get home.

Even the new Army uniforms are all f’d up.

On the campaign trail, Mitt Romney tap dances over lying about being a lifelong hunter. He’s hunted twice in life…once at age 15, once last year, when he first joined the NRA.

John Edwards takes some heat over soliciting donations from those who sent well wishes to Elizabeth via their campaign’s website.

Minnesota’s aborting pigpens in the name of the RNC.

Giuliani vs Rapture Right…can a pro-choice Republican make it through a presidential primary nowadays?

And a Purge of the Prosecutors update: People are demoting themselves in protest of the Bible quoting, 33 year old US Attorney in Minneapolis. Moreover, Rachel Paulose is best friends with Monica “5^th Amendment” Goodling.

Karl Rove crony Tim Griffin claimed to have prosecuted 40 cases. In fact, he only served as an assistant on 3 cases, all settled in plea bargains.

And one of the excuses offered for the purge of David Iglesias was his attendance record. Turns out he’s a Navy Reserve officer. Whoops.

Quick Truths

From Thinkprogress

18: The percentage of Iraqis that have confidence in U.S.-led coalition troops as the war enters its fifth year today. Six in 10 Iraqis say their lives are going badly, and only one-third expect things to improve in the next year. Nearly 90 percent “say they live in fear that the violence ravaging their country will strike themselves and the people with whom they live.”

Almost two years before the FBI publicly admitted this month that “it had ignored its own rules when demanding telephone and financial records about private citizens, a top official in that program warned the bureau about widespread lapses.”

Former U.S. Attorney David Iglesias, who was fired “after Republican complaints that he neglected to prosecute voter fraud,” had been “heralded for his expertise in that area by the Justice Department, which twice selected him to train other federal prosecutors to pursue election crimes.”

Last week, the White House pressured the Office of Management and Budget to withhold earmark data from the public. OMB Director Rob Portman said privately last week: “My hands are tied” due to directives from the White House. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) remarked, “I think the American people should be very disappointed.”

A new twist on the “illegal immigration hunts” sponsored by right-wing college groups: A Boise State University student group is “promoting a speech about immigration with a ‘food stamp drawing’ that requires climbing through a hole in a fence and offering fake identification for a shot at winning dinner at a local Mexican restaurant.”

And From Randi Rhodes

Valerie Plame Wilson testified Friday morning under oath in front of the US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Everything we’ve told you thus far on the outing of this undercover CIA agent has been confirmed by the CIA itself in advance of the hearing. Randi has the must-hear clips and analysis.

Meanwhile, Americans are against a Libby pardon 3 to 1.

New evidence puts 1) Karl Rove at the heart of the purge of the prosecutors, and 2) shows that Gonzales lied to Congress (what else is new). Expanded info/explanation

Sen. Gordon Smith (R-OR) becomes the 2^nd Republican calling for Gonzales to go.

The buzz is that, like in the case of Libby, a guilty Gonzales will go down but Rove, like a doughy pasty white cockroach, will survive. Plus, a 3^rd Republican, Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R - CA), says Gonzales should go.

VIDEO: One of the purged prosecutors speaks out

From our No S**t File, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed’s confessions were exaggerated. Gee, really?

Moreover, KSM’s BS “confession” not only failed as a new-cycle topic changer, it also means that the truly guilty parties have a better chance at getting away with the crimes he that he has taken credit for committing. Chimpy, you’re doing a heckuva job.

Evangelicals come out against torture (how very brave and just 6 short years after it started).

More black site prisons…

Also, Rep. Jean Schmitt (R-OH) plays slip & slide in a pool of vomit. LOL!!!

FLASHBACK VIDEO: Schmitt calling Murtha a coward on the floor of the House

And Grandpa McCain takes the “Straight Talk Express” out of storage, adding a twist of irony to his already shattered credibility.

Quick Truths

From Thinkprogress

The Pentagon has “begun plotting a fallback strategy for Iraq that includes a gradual withdrawal of forces and a renewed emphasis on training Iraqi fighters” in case the President’s escalation fails. The new strategy is more in line with the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group and is “based in part on the U.S. experience in El Salvador in the 1980s.”

Salon reports that the military “is deploying troops with serious injuries and other medical problems, including GIs who doctors have said are medically unfit for battle. Some are too injured to wear their body armor, according to medical records.”

Tourism to the United States has dropped by 17 percent since 2001. “Two-thirds of respondents worried they could be held back at airports because of a mistake in form filling or a misstatement to immigration officials. Half said officials were rude and that they feared them more than the threat of terrorism or crime.”

Some within the White House are calling on President Bush to uphold his pledge to “have the highest of high standards” when it comes to granting pardons. “What you saw was a vice president’s office that was out of control,” a former White House staffer tells Newsweek, arguing against pardoning Scooter Libby.

“A new federal rule intended to keep illegal immigrants from receiving Medicaid has instead shut out tens of thousands of United States citizens who have had difficulty complying with requirements to show birth certificates and other documents proving their citizenship.”

Quick Truths

From Thinkprogress.

President Bush’s “proposal to create a tax deduction for health insurance, if enacted into law, could reduce Social Security benefits for many Americans because the deduction would apply not only to income taxes, but also to payroll taxes that go to Social Security.”

A recent trip to Iraq has made House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) “even more certain of her view that moving troops out of Iraq is the best way to bring stability to the region.” After meeting the past three days with scores of U.S. military commanders and regional political leaders, she said, “I believe redeployment of our troops is a step toward stability in the region.”

Sen. Joseph Biden (D-DE) had planned to sit down over the weekend with Sen. John Warner (R-VA) and hammer out a consensus, bipartisan resolution opposing Bush’s escalation in Iraq. “But Warner, who has been making backroom deals for 28 years in the Senate, informed Biden late on Thursday: No deal.”

146: Number of levees nationwide that the Army Corps of Engineers “says pose an unacceptable risk of failing in a major flood.”

Iran’s ambassador yesterday “outlined an ambitious plan on Sunday to greatly expand its economic and military ties with Iraq,” including assuming major responsibility for Iraq’s reconstruction, “an area of failure on the part of the United States.”

Quick Truths

From Randi Rhodes:

Meanwhile, many Dems are still somewhat skeptical of the presidential hopefuls to date; hence the draft Gore movement gains more and more steam.

Speaking of Gore, ultra-conservative Supreme Court justice Antonin Scalia says “get over it” to critics of the Unconstitutional selection of Bush in 2000.

VIDEO: It’s another creepy, surreal media appearance by Nosferatu Cheney

VIDEO: Republican Senator Chuck Hagel blasted his gutless colleagues yesterday for failing to stand up against Bush’s Iraq escalation.

Also from Hagel, a stunning revelation that Bush’s original “use of force” resolution for Iraq actually covered the entire Middle East (page 3).

As General Petraeus prepares to carry out Bush’s BS escalation, one must wonder why he’s so optimistic given that it goes against everything he said needed to be done.

With more blood and treasure being dumped into Iraq, the handful of forces struggling in Afghanistan receive their stop-loss orders.

Vietnam and Iraq headlines…déjà vu all over again.

Bush has created 1.6 million new veterans, but that’s not anything he’s particularly interested in dealing with.

On the TreasonGate front, a CIA briefer testified about how outing Plame could result in the arrest, torture and killing of anyone she came in contact with.

And we learned that Libby gushed over meeting Tom Cruise to discuss the plight of Scientologists in Germany. Just another way Scooter was soooo busy defending the nation that he couldn’t possibly remember a little thing like outing an undercover CIA operative who worked on matters of WMD.

Senate Repugs insist on giving billions to the rich as a condition to not block the minimum wage increase. Getting a 60+ seat majority in 2008 is almost as important as taking back the White House.

India’s getting nuclear gifts from both sides. First Bush gives away oversight-free nuke technology in exchange for mangos and now Russia will give India 4 more reactors.

Bush’s State of the Union forgets that Louisiana and Mississippi are states in the union.

And it’s MLK Day Texas style: afro wigs, fried chicken, etc. That meshes nicely with Limbaugh’s latest racist Obama slur. Geez.

Meanwhile, Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) actually upstages the president’s State of the Union speech with the Democratic response.

Little wonder given the pile focus-grouped happy talk Bush spewed last night. Watching Pelosi and Cheney bob up and down was the most entertaining part of the evening. Randi will handle debunking the BS.

VIDEO: Bush’s SOTU Speech

VIDEO: Webb’s Response

VIDEO: Did Grandpa McCain fall asleep?

Also, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee gives a thumbs-down to Bush’s Iraq escalation.

A brief look at cronyism and war.

Five American contractors are killed in Iraq when their helicopter either crashed or was shot down. 4 of the 5 were shot in the back of the head.

Scooter Libby claims that he’s just a patsy and the White House set him up.

House Dems push though a bill that would cut pensions for felonious Members of Congress.

And John Kerry is to announce today that he is NOT running for president in 2008.

And ThinkProgress

Senate conservatives yesterday blocked legislation to raise the federal minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25, “insisting it include new tax breaks for restaurants and other businesses.”

The Congressional Budget Office reported yesterday that President Bush “can balance the budget within five years, or he can get Congress to extend his tax cuts beyond their scheduled expiration — but he can’t do both.”

In the Scooter Libby trial yesterday, former Associate CIA Deputy Director Robert Grenier testified that — pursuant to a request — he told Libby that Valerie Plame worked at the CIA in June 2003, a month before Libby claimed to have learned that information from NBC’s Tim Russert. Another CIA employee said he delivered a stark warning that the Bush administration’s leak “could lead to the deaths of people who aided American intelligence gathering abroad.”

Christine Todd Whitman, the former head of the Environmental Protection Agency under George W. Bush, said the president “missed the ‘perfect opening’ to call for a cap on greenhouse gas emissions in his State of the Union address Tuesday night

Vyan

Quick Truths

From Randi Rhodes

Among the crucial stories that the Corporate Media has ignored over the past few days is Torture Czar Alberto Gonzales proclaiming that Constitution does not guarantee habeas corpus! He did this using logic that would also render the Bill of Rights moot.

The same day Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT), now chairman of the Judiciary Committee, blew his top over Gonzales’ stonewalling about sending an innocent Canadian to Syria to be tortured. Randi has the clips.

At least 27 US troops were killed in Iraq over the weekend. Saturday was the third deadliest day since the invasion.

Support the anti-escalation resolution. Contact your senators and have your friends do the same.

POLLING: Americans do not want an escalation in Iraq if Congress passes the resolution.

VIDEO: Republican Chuck Hagel answers Cheney’s BS charge that the anti-escalation resolution undercuts the troops.

VIDEO: Project for a New American Century leader Bill Kristol goes after Congressional Dems for being “irresponsible.”

The Pentagon has pulled the plug on case workers for the wounded.

The Iraqi death toll climes ever higher. And more bombs are going off as I type.

Surplus US Military parts that made it to Iran and China have been traced back to the Pentagon.

One of the biggest Shiite militia leaders decides to make a show of playing nice. And why not, Americans are on the way to kill the Sunnis for him. A pretty good deal if you’re Sadr, Iran, Maliki or Osama.

As the Taliban re-constitutes in Afghanistan, they now are ready to begin offering social services, like their own brand of schools. Just another Bush “Mission Accomplished”.

3,000 more Americans arrive in Baghdad. Keep in mind Bush can keep moving around money that he already has in order to thwart the will of the people. We’ve already seen him under-equip our troops and under-fund our wounded.

On the eve of his State of the Union address, Chimpy is more unpopular than any president since Nixon.

Clinton pulls ahead of McCain in presidential polling and Bill Richardson also enters the 2008 fray.

High grade cocaine is pouring into the country thanks to an over-stretched, broken military.

And Lance Armstrong speaks out on Bush cutting cancer research for the second year in a row.

Quick Truths

From Thinkprogress.

“There is almost no scientific evidence to back up the U.S. intelligence community’s use of controversial interrogation techniques in the fight against terrorism, and experts believe some painful and coercive approaches could hinder the ability to get good information, according to a new report from an intelligence advisory group.”

“The U.S. military has sold forbidden equipment at least a half-dozen times to middlemen for countries — including Iran and China — who exploited security flaws in the Defense Department’s surplus auctions,” the AP reports.

A “much-anticipated” inspector general report to Congress will allege that Interior Department officials “covered up” a problem with oil and gas leases that cost the treasury up to $10 billion. The report “also has been investigating whether Johnnie Burton, head of the agency that collects royalties, might have been told about the problem earlier than she said in congressional testimony last fall.”

“Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, said in an interview that Taliban attacks surged by 200 percent in December, and a U.S. military intelligence officer said that since the peace deal went into effect Sept. 5 the number of attacks in the border area has grown by 300 percent.”

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice “conveniently ignored Egypt’s internal problems during her visit, which include charges of corruption and torture, to name a few. Rice basically thanked Egypt for its cooperation in the region making it clear that, for the United States, ‘stability, not democracy‘ is the priority.”

Quick Truths

From Randi...

Condi Rice not only “augmented” her legacy of lies yesterday in the Senate, but even Republicans can no longer deny how utterly incompetent she is at her job. She also got busted declaring her love for all things Fox.

Following Bush’s escalation speech, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee pounded Condi, Maliki canceled press appearances, and the freak GOP leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, threatened a filibuster on any escalation resolution.

Bush’s backdoor draft of National Guard troops gets uglier and bloodier as the Pentagon scraps the time limits on how long they can keep citizen soldiers on active duty.

There have already been 4 previous troop increases in Iraq and things just keep getting worse.

The troops Bush used for a photo-op yesterday gave him a tepid response and were barred from speaking to reporters afterwards.

If this escalation happens, US troops will fight under one of Saddam Hussein’s former top generals.

Military officers have dubbed Bush’s escalation plan as “JEL” – Just Enough to Lose.

The US raids an Iranian diplomatic installation and detains five people in the Kurd controlled area of Iraq as the The US raids an Iranian diplomatic installation and detains five people in the Kurd controlled area of Iraq as the Iran provocation campaign continues.

A huge problem is that the office raided is an Iraqi government-approved Iranian outpost in the process of becoming a consulate. Plus, what were once good relations with Iraqi Kurds are becoming increasing strained. Great, more Iraqis to shoot at us.

VIDEO: Chris Matthews nails Tony Snow on Bush’s obvious backdoor escalation against Iran.

POLL: The public is slowly warming on Congress now that the grown ups are in charge again and Bush is at his lowest point ever.

The US Embassy in Greece has been hit by a small rocket (no injuries) and is suspected to be an act of domestic terrorism. Law enforcement is investigating. Man, how many enemies has Bush collected?

House Dems pass a stem cell research bill. Today they take on the big pharmaceutical companies.

And Lieberman abandons Katrina survivors in order to cozy up to Chimpy even more. Geez…

Quick Truths

Gerald Ford opposed the Iraq war.

In an interview in July 2004, the former president said he “very strongly” disagreed with the justifications the Bush administration gave for invading Iraq. “I don’t think, if I had been president, on the basis of the facts as I saw them publicly,” Ford said, “I don’t think I would have ordered the Iraq war. I would have maximized our effort through sanctions, through restrictions, whatever, to find another answer.” The interview “took place for a future book project, though he said his comments could be published at any time after his death.”

Bush is busy holding “non-decisional” Iraq meetings

at his Crawford ranch. White House advisers say Bush will deliver his Iraq speech “sometime between New Year’s and his State of the Union address on Jan. 23.” “Two defense officials” said yesterday “that some sort of troop increase appears likely,” but the size and nature of the escalation “still has to be worked out.”

“Many of the American soldiers

trying to quell sectarian killings in Baghdad don’t appear to be looking for reinforcements,” the Associated Press reports. “They say the temporary surge in troop levels some people are calling for is a bad idea” and Baghdad “is embroiled in civil warfare…that no number of American troops can stop.”

The incoming Senate — including Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) and Arlen Specter (R-PA) — plan to revisit the issue of “what legal rights must be protected for detainees held in the war on terrorism.” Reid’s spokesman said the senator would “‘would support attempts to revisit some of the most extreme elements of the bill’ including language stripping detainees of habeas corpus rights.”

The capture of Osama bin Laden is “a success that hasn’t occurred yet,” according to White House Homeland Security Adviser Frances Frago Townsend.

According to a new AP-AOL News poll, Bush is the top villian of 2006, winning “by a landslide.” Bush “far outdistanced even Osama bin Laden, the terrorist leader in hiding; and former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, who is scheduled for execution.” (Bush was also chosen as hero of the year, “by a much smaller margin.”)

By the way - the Grand Canyon was not the product of Noah's Flood - but apparently the Geologist working for the National Park's Service - aren't allowed to say so.

Apparently if you're a progressive blogger -you're unfit for jury duty, but if you're a violent criminal - you're perfectly fit for the armed forces.

Surprise - Surprise, Lie-ber-man supports the escalation - er - "Surge" - although the people who should know - like um - the troops don't.