I'm shocked, I tell you!  Just shocked!

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist broke some of the rules that govern the very body he leads.

It seems he failed to follow all of the Senate's rules on finanical disclosure. He failed to note that he and his wife are the lone trustees in charge of a family foundation which carries his name.

Frist is currently under investigation for sharing shares of a stock he owned, at a time when insiders where selling, and the stock reached a 52-week high.

Frist failed to follow disclosure rules

Disclosure forms lacked listing of senator, wife as trustees

Ohio Secretary of State (and Gubernatorial candidate) Ken Blackwell, a Black Republican, has hired LeBron James' former manager to assist him with Black voter outreach.

The very fact that a Black politician has to hire a publicist to help him connect with Black voters, is absolutely amazing to me.  It shows how out of touch Mr. Blackwell is with the issues that affect his own community. Memo to Mr. Blackwell: If you're really interested in connecting with your fellow African-Americans, how about championing those policies that will positively impact their lives?  If you are truly sincere about making inroads in the African-American community, then how about making sure that next time, there are enough voting machines placed in African-American neighborhoods, so they aren't reduced to waiting in line 4 and 6 hours to vote.

As an African-American myself, Ken Blackwell is proof to me that just because someone looks like me, and shares my same skin color, doesn't mean they necessarily represent my interests or values.

Blackwell Hires LeBron Publicist For Black Voter Outreach

Good reads:

1.   Report on prewar intelligence lagging; Information Democrats want most might not come out until after election

2.  Report: State Dept. hid costs of Iraqi projects; Some cost overruns hidden, Congress not informed, New York Times says

Steven Green, a former private with the 101st Airborne Division, is accused of raping and murdering an Iraqi girl, and murdering three of her family members as well.  And he compares murder to "squashing an ant."  During an interview, he said:

"I came over here because I wanted to kill people. The truth is, it wasn't all I thought it was cracked up to be.  I mean, I thought killing somebody would be this life-changing experience. And then I did it, and I was like, 'All right, whatever.'  I shot a guy who wouldn't stop when we were out at a traffic checkpoint and it was like nothing. Over here, killing people is like squashing an ant.  I mean, you kill somebody and it's like, 'All right, let's go get some pizza.'"

"Killing people is like squashing an ant:" former US soldier

Robert Westerfield, 83-year old resident of Crawford, Texas, speaking on anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan's recent purchase of land in Crawford:

"I wish she’d stay away. Crawford’s a Republican town, and she’s a dumb Democrat."

Another resident, Bill Johnson, went on to say "I don’t want her rights taken away. Her son fought and died for this country.  But on the other hand, she needs to be respectful for what our country stands for." 

Perhaps Mr. Johnson needs to be schooled himself on "what our country stands for."  Because the last time I checked, as a supposed democracy, our country stood for the right to peacefully assemble and to speak out against the policies of the government that represents us.  Which is all Cindy Sheehan is doing.

Gee, I love to see compassionate conservatism in action, don't you?

What is it about Republicans that cause them to have such hatred for someone who has never personally done anything to them?  Someone who's only offense is that they would DARE to speak out against the policies of the incumbent Administration. 

To our Republican friends: No one is saying you have to agree with Cindy Sheehan's political views.  But it would be nice if you could at least respect her right to express those views, instead of calling her "a pretty big prostitute" (conservative commentator Glenn Beck did).

Crawford, Texas upset with Sheehan's purchase

Protester bought land near Bush's ranch to use for antiwar demonstrations

It's a sad commentary on life in America under George W. Bush, that the United Nations has to school the United States government about caring for the poor and disadvantaged in the aftermath of disasters.

Today, a United Nations human rights panel said that the United States needs to step up to the plate, when it comes to protecting the poor and minority (particularly African-American) populations during the next disaster, in order to avoid the problems experienced after Hurricane Katrina.

The report notes that poor and Black Americans were especially affected by Hurricane Katrina, and urged the U.S. government to work harder to ensure their rights are taken into consideration, in terms of reconstruction (i.e. housing, education, health care).

This is a report that should not even be necessary.  There was a time when the rest of the world body looked to the U.S. for leadership on issues of human rights and the poor, etc.  Not anymore.   I guess George Bush wasn't really joking when he told a wealthy crowd one time: "This is an impressive crowd.  The haves and the have mores.  Some people call you the elite. I call you my base."

U.N. body rebukes U.S. over Katrina response

Says reaction shows U.S. needs to ensure rights of poor, blacks in disasters

Yesterday here on the blog, I mentioned that Republicans were going to FINALLY allow a vote on increasing the minimum wage, but at a cost.  I noted that the Republicans were going to hold a vote on the minimum wage, BUT at a cost. They wanted to entrap the Democrats into voting against the bill, by filling it up with goodies for their ace boon coons in the business industry. (Read my entry here: http://progressiveminds.bloghi.com/2006/07/27/just-for-political-reasons-a-republican-congressman-on-raising-the-minimum-wage.html)

Well as it turns out, I was dead on it!

Word comes today that Republicans hope to hold the vote on the minimum wage, but force Democrats to vote against it, by adding in a cut in inheritance taxes on multimillion-dollar estates.  In other words, they want to tie in the minimum wage increase to a cut in estate taxes.  Mind you, the estate tax is something that affects less than 1% of the American people (i.e your Torri Spelling types).

As I mentioned yesterday, Democrats have been begging and pleading for the GOP-led Congress to allow a vote on increasing the minimum wage, all to no avail.  Congressional Democrats have been so anxious to increase the minimum wage, that they have threated to block any raises for themselves until the GOP allows a vote on the minimum wage.

Now if the GOP were serious about wanting to increase the minimum wage in this election season, they would allow a vote on the minimum wage ONLY, WITHOUT trying to marry it to this silly estate tax decrease.

GOP makes conditions on wage increase

Maj. Paeta Hess-von Kruedener is missing and presumed dead after Israel attacked his UN observer post.

And his wife says that attack was intentional. 

"The building was clearly marked, their vehicles were clearly marked, they were clearly marked as UN observers,"  says Cynthia Hess-von Kruedener. "So why were (the Israelis) firing on that base? ... In my opinion, those were precision-guided missiles, so the attack was intentional."

UN observer's wife calls attack 'intentional'

If, after listening to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's speech to a join session of Congress the other day, you thought it sounded like something BushCo. came up with, well, you may be on to something...

During the daily White House press conference, spin-meister Tony Snow said there had been "conversations about the speech" before-hand."

Read: BushCo. told Maliki just what to say to Congress about this unpopular war.

False Consciousness About Iraq

Did the White House write Maliki's speech to Congress?

The Republican Party really has no desire to enact policies that are beneficial to the average American; hence their downright hostility to raising the minimum wage.

But Republicans recognize that in this election season, even if they don't WANT to raise the minimum wage, they need to "just for political reasons."

Republican Congressman Mike Castle of Deleware says "Whether people like it or not, we need to go ahead with it. There's a general agreement among Republicans (opposing the raise) that `maybe we don't like it much, but we need to move forward with it just for political reasons.'"

The Democrats in Congress have been begging and pleading to raise the minimum wage, and some have even threated to block their own pay raises until the minimum wage is raised. And now, it seems that although the GOP will try to hold a vote on raising the minimum wage, but at a price.

They want to entrap the Democrats into having to vote AGAINST the bill, by adding "poison pills"  and sweetheart deals for their business allies.

House GOP pressing vote on minimum wage

1.  Report: U.N. observers' calls unheeded

2.  Dobbs: Why is the president ignoring our laws?

3.  US Blocks UN Council From Condemning Israel Strike On Post

Another Republican cutting and running from the Republican Party, lol!

Republican Michael Steele (running for the Senate from the state of Maryland) says being a Republican is an impediment and he doesn't want George Bush to campaign for him.

He told the Washington Post "It's an impediment. It's a hurdle I have to overcome. "I've got an 'R' here, a scarlet letter."

Senate GOP candidate slams party

Tony Snow doing his best Ja Rule interpretation: It's Murda!

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow (or "Snow Job" as I like to call him) has apologized for his statement last week that George Bush believes stem cell research is the equivalent of murder.

Last week, after Bush issued the first veto of his presidency, Snow said "The president believes strongly that for the purpose of research it's inappropriate for the federal government to finance something that many people consider murder. He's one of them."

Snow apologizes for ‘murder’ statement

Spokesman says president would not use term with stem-cell research

Republican Senator Arlen Specter says he is preparing a bill that will allow the United States Congress to sue George Bush over his presidential signing statements, in which he frequently declares that he doesn't have to follow a bill that he just signed into law.  He says his bill will be ready by week's end.

Specter said in a statement on the floor of the Senate "We will submit legislation to the United States Senate which will...authorize the Congress to undertake judicial review of those signing statements with the view to having the president's acts declared unconstitutional."

And speaking of Bushie's infamous signing statements in which he declares himself above the law, an American Bar Association task force on Monday calls the signing statements unconstitutional, and said that rather than attaching conditions to bills, Bush has an obligation to either 1) veto legislation, 2) sign it, or 3) take no action.

And one final footnote on Arlen Specter: I applaud his desire to sue Bushie over these signing statements.  But Specter sure is a walking contradiction!  One minute he is in cahoots with the Administration to retroactively write Bush's illegal warrantless spy program into law.  And the next, he wants to sue BushCo!

Specter prepping bill to sue Bush

Italy's former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, is denying that he and the Sismi military intelligence agency knew anything about a request from the Central Intelligence Agency, that Italy help the CIA kidnap Muslim cleric Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr and fly him to Egypt.  Nasr says he was tortured in Egypt.

But one of the suspects in the case, Marco Mancini, says that Simsi knew more about the request than people have admitted in public. And Mancini's lawyer, Luigi Panella, says his client has evidence that his superior knew about the operation as well. 

But Panella says Mancini refused the CIA's request to assist in the kinapping. "They were aware of the fact that the Americans had proposed a joint operation to seize Abu Omar. This is true. Mancini and his men, who were heads of all of northern Italy, refused (the mission)."

Italy spy boss refused CIA's kidnap request: lawyer

Color me surprised!  George Bush is in violation of another federal law.

He was mandated by the United States Congress to estimate the future costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, with the only exception being if the Administration determines estimates cannot be provided because of national security reasons.

Here is a portion of the law:

The President shall provide to the Congress a report detailing the estimated costs over the period from fiscal year 2006 to 2011 of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, or any related military operations in and around Iraq and Afghanistan, and the estimated costs of reconstruction, internal security, and related economic support to Iraq and Afghanistan… the report referenced above shall be submitted no later than January 1, 2005.

But the Bush Administration has failed to provide Congress with those required estimates.  What's more, they HAVE NOT cited national security as the reason for failing to abide by this law.

Rather, in May 2005 Joshua Bolton (who was then head of the Office of Management and Budget) said that the Pentagon could not compile the estimates because "there are too many variables to predict accurately."

Futher evidence that this Administration has no respect for the law, and no respect for the oversight responsibility of the United States Congress.

Bush Refuses To Estimate Future Costs of Iraq War, Violating Federal Law

They might as well put up the "No Experience Required" sign at the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division.

According to an article in the Boston Globe, the Bush Administration has set about chaning the Division, and not for the better (what a surprise)!

According to the Globe, the Bush Administration has filled the permanent ranks of DOJ's Civil Rights Division "with lawyers who have strong conservative credentials but little experience in civil rights."  (Just like they hired the Chief Rules Enforcer of the International Arabian Horse Association, to be the Head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency).

Since 2003, only 42% of the lawyers hired to work in the Civil Rights Division, actually have experience in civil rights. In the two years prior to that, 77% of the lawyers hired had a background in civil rights.

What's more, in 2002, then Attorney General John Aschcroft changed the rules to give BushCo.'s political appointees more say in the hiring process.  Why is this important?  Because traditionally, past administrations have recognized the need to keep the Civil Rights Division as non-partisan as possible.  Consequently, hiring for career jobs in the Civil Rights Divsion, had been handled by career civil servants, NOT political appointees.  But BushCo. changed all of that.

Not only are they changing how they hire, but they are changing WHO they hire. The number of new hires with traditional civil rights background experience has fallen, and the number of new hires with conservative credentials has increased.

What's more, under BushCo., the Civil Rights Division is filing FEWER cases alleging voting rights and employment discrimination against African-Americans, and has instead chosen to file MORE cases alleging reverse discrimination against Caucasians.

Jon Greenbaum worked in the Voting Rights Section of the Civil Rights Division from 1997 to 2003, and he says "The clear emphasis has been to hire individuals with conservative credentials," he said. ``If anything, a civil rights background is considered a liability."

Civil rights hiring shifted in Bush era

Conservative leanings stressed

Seems like former Vice President Dan Quayle has no love for the poor.

He was attending a John Mellencamp concert, but got a little miffed and walked out of the concert.

So what caused Quayle's anger?

Mellencamp intro'd the song "Walk Tall" by saying "This next one is for all the poor people who’ve been ignored by the current administration."

The truth hurts, doesn't it?

Dan Quayle walks out of Mellencamp concert

Former VP miffed about anti-Bush comment before ‘Walk Tall’ song

George Bush likes to say that freedom is on the march. 

But a terrorism expert told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday of this week that Al Qaeda is on the march as well.

Bruce Hoffman of the Rand Corporation testifed "Today, al-Qaida has not only regrouped, but it is on the march." He went on to also say "Today, al-Qaida is also frequently spoken of as it if is in retreat: a broken and beaten organization incapable of mounting further attacks on its own and instead having devolved operational authority either to its carious affiliates and associated or to entirely organically produced, homegrown, terrorist entities. Nothing could be further from the truth."

Hmmm...I guess that what happens when the President of the United States says he doens't know or care where the man responsible for nearly 3,000 murders on 9/11 is.

On the march 

So long, war on poverty!  We hardly knew ye!

Remember Bush standing in New Orleans' Jackson Square last September, trying to pretend like he gave a darn about poverty? He said then "All of us saw on television, there's . . . some deep, persistent poverty in this region.  That poverty has roots in a history of racial discrimination, which cut off generations from the opportunity of America. We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action."

Confront poverty with bold action?  Sounds like a plan to me! 

But just where is that "bold action," Bushie?  We're still waiting.

At the Washington Post points out, the issue of domestic poverty did not come up in Bush's most recent State of the Union speech, and he has not allocated any money towards any new anti-poverty initiatives. 

And White House Press Secretary Tony Snow says Bush is not likely to mention poverty when, in a bait-and-switch from the past 5 years, Bush finally decides to address the NACCP Annual Convention on Thursday.  Snow said "After all, the goal is prosperity."  So why let the pesky issue of poverty get in the way, right Tony?

Bush's Poverty Talk Is Now All but Silent

Aiding Poor Was Brief Priority After Katrina

Prosecutors in Chicago have concluded that in the 1970s and 1980s, Chicago police tortured scores of African-American suspects in the hopes of extracting confessions from them.

But sadly, the statue of limitations has run out, and thus the perpretrators cannot be prosecuted.

Probe: Black Chicago suspects tortured

"The Decider" is at it again!  It seems he decided he can't be investigated by the Department of Justice.

Yesterday Attorney General Alberto Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee that George "The Decider" Bush personally blocked an investigation by the Department of Justice, into his warrantess domestic spy program.  The Decider blocked the investigation by refusing to grant security clearances to attorneys who were attempting to probe the program.

Gonzales told the Judiciary Committee "The president decided that protecting the secrecy and security of the program requires that a strict limit be placed on the number of persons granted access to information about the program for non-operational reasons.  Every additional security clearance that is granted for the [program] increases the risk that national security might be compromised."

In The Decider's world, he is King. He is judge and jury.

Bush Thwarted Probe Into NSA Wiretapping

Security Clearances for Justice Department Investigators Were Denied, Gonzales Says

Here's one Republican who doesn't mind a little cutting and running.

Sen. John Thune of South Dakota says that if he were up for re-election this year, George Bush would be persona non grata to him.

Thune said "If I were running in the state this year, you obviously don't embrace the president and his agenda."

Well Mr. Thune, if you were a person of principle and truly concerned about the state of our union, you would not embrace this failed agenda of George Bush's under any circumstances, irrespective of whether or not you are running for re-election.

Thune says he'd distance himself from Bush

It seems the Republican Party it coming up a little short in its so-called effort to reach out to African-American voters.  (Geez, ya think?)

It is any wonder?  The "leader of the free world" can't even make up his mind whether he wants to dialogue with us.  For five years, he's rejected invitations to speak at the annual conferences of the NAACP, and this year, he's sent word that MAYBE he'll speak.  (They should be so honored, Bushie).

Maybe the Republicans will finally make serious inroads with African-Americans, when they finally realize we care more about substance over style.  Maybe they need to realize it's not enough to put a Black face on something (read: Condi Rice).  Just because someone looks like me, doesn't mean they represent my interests or values.

Republicans Coming Up Short in Effort to Reach Out to African-American Voters

In a column for Time magazine, Joshua Micah Marshall asks a very important question: will the Bush Crime Team toy around with the terror alerts, to coincide with the mid-term elections and the GOP's dismal poll numbers?

As Marshall points out, it's a very valid question, in light of their past history.

In part, he writes:

The 18 months prior to the 2004 presidential election witnessed a barrage of those ridiculous color-coded terror alerts, quashed-plot headlines and breathless press conferences from Administration officials. Warnings of terror attacks over the Christmas 2003 holidays, warnings over summer terror attacks at the 2004 political conventions, then a whole slew of warnings of terror attacks to disrupt the election itself. Even the timing of the alerts seemed to fall with odd regularity right on the heels of major political events. One of Department of Homeland Security chief Tom Ridge's terror warnings came two days after John Kerry picked John Edwards as his running mate; another came three days after the end of the Democratic convention.

So it went right through the 2004 election. And then not long after the champagne corks stopped popping at Bush campaign headquarters, terror alerts seemed to go out of style. The color codes became yesterday's news. With the exception of one warning about mass-transit facilities in response to the London bombing on July 7, 2005, that was pretty much it until this summer. I live in lower Manhattan and my wife works in a building overlooking Ground Zero. So I want to know when something's really up and not worry that I'm getting bamboozled to amp the President's approval rating.

Toying With Terror Alerts?

Now this is real talk from Russian President Vladimir Putin! 

George Bush, of all people, tried to lecture Putin on democracy. (Like Bush would know democracy if it bit him in....well, you get the picture).

At a joint press conference, Bush said "I talked about my desire to promote institutional change in parts of the world like Iraq where there's a free press and free religion, and I told him that a lot of people in our country would hope that Russia would do the same thing."  Putin left Bush a little red-faced when he replied "We certainly would not want to have the same kind of democracy as they have in Iraq, I will tell you quite honestly." (Speak on it, Putin!  Speak on it!)  Bush then replied "Just wait."

Well, we're waiting, Bushie.  We've been waiting for just over three years now.  And we have yet to see democracy take place in Iraq.  And as far as "free religion" in Iraq?  I know you're not very big on reading, Bushie.  But just in case you didn't get the memo.  Fake IDs have become big business in Iraq.  Now why on earth, I hear you asking, would fake IDs be a huge deal in Iraq?  Well, it's because people are desparate to hide their true identity.  They're afraid of getting killed for being part of the wrong sect.  Does that sound like "free religion" to you?

Putin Chides President's Comment on Democracy

As violence increases, Iraqis turn to fake IDs

Sectarian brutality has many carrying documents hiding their names

Let's travel back in time, shall we, for the quote of the day.

It comes courtesy of George Herbert Walker Bush, the 41st President of the United States.

On April 26, 1999, he attended the dedication ceremony for the CIA building that was being named after him (he once served as CIA Director).

And he used the dedication ceremony to talk about the traitors who disclose the names of confidential, covert CIA sources.

He said "We need more protection for the methods we use to gather intelligence and more protection for our sources, particularly our human sources, people that are risking their lives for their country....I have nothing but contempt and anger for those who betray the trust by exposing the names of our sources.  They are, in my view, the most insidious of traitors."

It is this quote from former President Bush, that Ambassador Joseph Wilson and his wife Valerie Plame use, in their preliminary statement in the complaint they have filed in federal court against Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, and Scooter Libby.

Read the complaint filed in federal court here: http://wilsonsupport.org/Docs/File_Stamped_Complaint.pdf

Former CIA officer claims conspiracy outed her identity

The House of Representatives today renewed the 1965 Voting Rights Act (the most important civil rights legislation of our time).

But they did so without the help of 33 Congressmen and women---all Republicans!

It seems some Southern conservatives are a little sensitive, shall we say, about the fact that their states (who have a history of racial discrimination, by the way), are subject to federal oversight of their election laws.

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, Republican of Georgia, said "By passing this rewrite of the Voting Rights Act, Congress is declaring from on high that states with voting problems 40 years ago can simply never be forgiven."

Memo to Rep. Westmoreland: This isn't about not forgiving the sins of the past.

Westmoreland doesn't like the fact that her state of Georgia is one of those that must receive approval from the Department of Justice, or a federal judge, before changing their election laws.

But recent events in Georgia have shown that this oversight is necessary. 

It just so happens that this week, a federal judge blocked the state of Georgia from implementing its revised voter ID law.  Last year, Georgia tried to implement a voter ID law which would have required residents without ID, to purchase a state-issued ID in order to vote.  But a judge struck it down, saying it was tantamount to an unconstitutional poll tax, because there was a fee attached to the IDs.

The state legislature revised the law to make the IDs free, but the federal judge says that it still denies equal protection under the law.

So you see, Rep. Westmoreland, this isn't about the need to forgive the racist past of certain states.

This is about today.  Here and now.  It's about ensuring that equal access to the ballot box, and not imposing unreasonable barriers that block minority access to the ballot box.

House OKs renewing 1965 Voting Rights Act

Ga. judge blocks voter ID law enforcement

Remember the Summer of 2001, which former CIA Director George Tenet described as the "summer of threat" and when his hair was "on fire", as signs pointed to an impeding terrorist attack?

Well, if you remember that time, you probably remember that George Bush stayed on vacation.  Even after receiving the August 6 Presidential Daily Briefing entitled "bin Laden determined to Strike Within the United States," he stayed cool maxing and relaxing at the Crawford Ranch.

Well, he's got a different plan this summer.

It turns out that THIS is the "summer of threat" for George W. Bush.

Little Georgie is afraid the Republicans might suffer a meltdown at the hands of the voters in this November's mid-term elections. So the White House is sending word that Bush may very well cut his vacation time in Crawford short.  White House officials believe a lot is at stake, and so they want Bush to cut his vacation short and get on the road.

It would have been nice if they felt this same sense of urgency when bin Laden was preparing to attack us. I guess that made no difference to them, though.

But the Republicans possibly losing one or both houses of Congress?  The Bushies believe that's worthy of an S.O.S.

On the road: Will Bush get less Crawford this August?

At today's memorial service for George Bush's ace boon coon Ken "Kenny Boy" Lay, the Rev. Dr. Bill Lawson seems to have gotten a little caught up.  (And blasphemous too, I feel).

He compared Ken Lay (who had been facing the possibility of decades in jail) to Jesus Christ and Martin Luther King Jr., and said "He was taken out of the world right at the right time. History has a way of vindicating people who have been wronged."

Hmmmm...maybe he should tell that to the former Enron employees who can no longer afford to send their kids to college because of Lay's antics.

Memo to Hillary Clinton: We need actions, not words. We need politicians who will be there when the rubber meets the road.

I was intrigued by your recent comments on the highly question Presidential vote outcome in Ohio nearly two years ago.

You said "I hope everybody from Ohio is watching this election like a hawk. Don't let them pull anything over your eyes again."

I welcome your words, Hillary. But I ask: where were you in January 2005, when the U.S. Congress met to certify the results of the Presidential election. As you are aware, because of the questionable outcome in Ohio, some members of the House of Representatives objected to the certification of Ohio's electors. And only ONE Senator, Barbara Boxer, signed onto the objection, thus forcing a mandatory debate in Congress on what happened in Ohio in 2004.

If you are so concerned about the integrity of Ohio's election system, why didn't you sign onto the objection?

We need politicians who will truly be there when the rubber meets the road. We don't need politicians just interested in a 20-second soundbite that will get their base excited.

Janet Jackson once asked the question "What have you done for me lately?"  And that's a question that we very might well ask the United States Congress.

When members of this Congress go back to their respective districts and states to campaign for re-election this year, they won't have much of a record to run on. Because they haven't accomplished much (except for being a rubber stamp for the Bush Crime Team and refusing to exercise their responsibility for oversight).

Even former House Leader Dick Armey says "I'm not sure what this Congress has accomplished."

Congress has many unfinished tasks

So the Bush Crime Team told us we were going into Iraq to liberate the Iraqi people from a brutal dictator.  And gee, it's worked so well!

Here's a glimpse of life for many Iraqis, post-"liberation."

Selling fake IDs in Iraq has become big business, as many Iraqis seek fake IDs in order to try to stay alive.

As the sectarian violence (read: civil war) between the Sunnis and Shiites continues, and one can be killed for simply having the wrong name, many Iraqis are trying to hide their true identity.

This liberation thing is really working out so well for them. 

As violence increases, Iraqis turn to fake IDs

Sectarian brutality has many carrying documents hiding their names

Just call him the Briber-in-Chief.  George Bush's foreign policy stinks so bad, that he's been reduced to bribing the Russians into supporting it.

The United States is expected to make some major consessions to the Russians over the storage of nuclear fuel.  In exchange, the U.S. wants Russia's backing in its foreign folicy, specifically regarding Iran and North Korea.

And as the Wall Street Journal put it, the United States "needs Russia more than Russia needs the U.S."

But perhaps insteading of being reduced to bribing nation's into supporting it's foreign policy, perhaps BushCo. should try a less arrogant, more common sense approach to foreign policy.  In other words, no more "either with us or against us."

Normally you can count on Republican Representative Pete Hoekstra to be one of the loyal Bush kool-aid drinkers/apologists.

But even he appears to have had enough of Bush's secret government.

Rep. Hoekstra says Bush may have violated the law by hiding intelligence activities, including one major program, from the U.S. Congress.  He says he became aware of some secret intelligence activities being conducted by BushCo., only after whistleblowers within the intelligence community, informed him about them. 

Appearing on Fox News Sunday today, Hoekstra commented "We can’t be briefed on every little thing that they are doing. But in this case, there was at least one major — what I consider significant activity that we have not been briefed on. I want to set the standard there that it is not optional for this president or any president or people in the executive community not to keep the intelligence committees fully informed of what they are doing."

On May 18, he sent a letter to Bush, in which he wrote in part that the Administration's failure to brief Congress on these programs "may represent a breach of responsibility by the administration, a violation of law and, just as importantly, a direct affront to me and the members of this committee who have so ardently supported efforts to collect information on our enemies."

It should be clear to any and everyone by now, that George Bush has no respect for the law.  He is a king unto himself.  What is it going to take, for this Congress to impeach him?

Did White House break law on revealing intel?

GOP lawmaker: Bush’s failure to brief Congress may have violated law

White House kept "major program" secret from Congress

Senior Marine officers in Iraq apparently looked the other way after civilians (including women, childen, and an elderly person in a wheelchair) were murdered at the hands of American forces in Haditha, Iraq last year. 

An investigation by Lt. Gen. Peter W. Chiarelli, the 2nd ranking American commander in Iraq, concludes that in the aftermath of the Haditha murders, senior officers failed to follow-up on inaccuracies and inconsistencies after the intial reporting of the incident.  Apparently, there were inconsistencies that should have raised a red flag.

Also of note in Chiarelli's report: there was no effort to correct the record on how the civilians were really murdered.  A military press release initally stated that the Iraqis died because of a roadside bomb; yet, there was no effort to follow-up and accurately report they died at the hands of U.S. marines.

I guess if you look the other way, it really hasn't happened. See no evil, hear no evil.

General Faults Marine Response to Iraq Killings

Marines 'failed to probe Haditha'

Courtesy of Raw Story:

One former intelligence field officer says, and two other CIA officials confirm, that the alleged plot by Muslim extremists to bomb the Holland Tunnel in New York City was nothing more than chatter by unaffiliated individuals with no financing or training in an open forum already monitored extensively by the United States Government, RAW STORY has learned.

“The so-called New York tunnel plot was a result of discussions held on an open Jihadi web site,” said Philip Giraldi, a former CIA officer and contributor to American Conservative magazine, in a late Friday afternoon conversation. Although Giraldi acknowledges that the persons involved – “three of whom have already been arrested in Lebanon and elsewhere - are indeed extremists," their online chatter is considerably overblown by allegations of an actual plot.

“They are not professionally trained terrorists, however, and had no resources with which to carry out the operation they discussed," Giraldi added. "Despite press reports that they had asked Abu Musab Zarqawi for assistance, there is no information to confirm that. It is known that the members discussed the possibility of approaching Zarqawi but none of them knew him or had any access to him.”

Two other intelligence officials with experience in the field on extremist operations concurred--and expressed concern that what could have been an operation to eventually track known extremists (should they eventually make actual contact with funds and training,) seems to have been exposed for political gain.

Some see this latest “ploy” as a direct challenge to a New York Times report this week of the disbandment of Alec Station, the CIA unit responsible for tracking Osama bin Laden since before the September 11, 2001 attacks. Moreover, the article contends that officials say the unit was “disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center.”

Read the rest of the article from Raw Story here:

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/No_Plot_for_NYC_Just_Hate_0707.html

According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, recruitment shortfalls caused by the unpopular war in Iraq, has allowed hate groups (including neo-Nazis and skinheads) to infiltrate the military.

One Defense Department investigator says "We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad."

What's more, recruiters are knowingly allowing people affiliated with these groups to join the military.  Scott Barfield, an investigator with DOD, says  "Recruiters are knowingly allowing neo-Nazis and white supremacists to join the armed forces, and commanders don't remove them from the military even after we positively identify them as extremists or gang members."

Hate Groups Are Infiltrating the Military, Group Asserts

Just call him the Leaker-in-Chief.

George Bush told CIA Leak special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald that he orded Dick Cheney to personally lead the Administration's effort to counter allegations made by Ambassador Joseph Wilson that BushCo. was mispresenting intelligence in order to make the case for war in Iraq. He told Cheney to "Get it out!"

When he met with prosecutors in the CIA leak case on June 24, 2004, Bush told them that he directed Dick Cheney to disclose highly classified intelligence information that would supposedly support the Administration's case for war, and discredit Wilson.

Bush told prosecutors that although he ordered Cheney to leak information to the public, he was unaware that in turn, Cheney had ordered his Chief of Staff at the time, Scotter Libby, to leak classified information to members of the media (read: Judith Miller of the New York Times).

In case our conservative friends miss the point here, Bush's criticism of the New York Times for reporting on the bank records program is hypocritical, to say the least.

Because this is an Administration that doesn't mind leaking classified information to serve their purely political purposes, NOT the public interest.  The Administration used people like Judith Miller of the New York Times as their mouthpiece, to help them carry the WMD water.

And in the process, they disclosed the identity of a covert CIA operative with non-official cover.

Report: Bush Told VP To Rebut Wilson

Bush Directed Cheney To Counter War Critic

This op/ed from former President Jimmy Carter is required reading.

This week, the Freedom of Information Act turned 40 years old, and President Carter says that in today's current climate, "we need fewer secrets."

In part, he writes in an op/ed for the Washington Post:

The events in our nation today -- war, civil rights violations, spiraling energy costs, campaign finance and lobbyist scandals -- dictate the growing need and citizens' desire for access to public documents. A poll conducted last year found that 70 percent of Americans are either somewhat or very concerned about government secrecy. This is understandable when the U.S. government uses at least 50 designations to restrict unclassified information and created 81 percent more "secrets" in 2005 than in 2000, according to the watchdog coalition OpenTheGovernment.org.

-snip-

Increasingly, developed and developing nations are recognizing that a free flow of information is fundamental for democracy. Whether it's government or private companies that provide public services, access to their records increases accountability and allows citizens to participate more fully in public life. It is a critical tool in fighting corruption, and people can use it to improve their own lives in the areas of health care, education, housing and other public services. Perhaps most important, access to information advances citizens' trust in their government, allowing people to understand policy decisions and monitor their implementation.

We Need Fewer Secrets

K-I-S-S-I-N-G!

No wonder we haven't killed Osama bin Laden or taken him into custody yet....he and Bushie are the best of friends, it turns out.

Remember the October surprise of the 2004 Presidential campaign?  It came just four days before Americans went to the polls to vote.  A videotape of Osama bin Laden was released.  In the tape, he criticized George W. Bush.

Many Bush supporters claimed the videotape was proof that Osama wanted John Kerry to win the election. 

But the CIA had another view.

During a 5:00 PM meeting on October 29, 2004 (the day the videotape was released), Deputy CIA Director John McLaughlin began by stating "Bin-Laden certainly did a nice favor today for the President."  CIA officers gathered around the tabled nodded in agreement at McLaughlin's assessment that Osama had done Bush a favor.

So just why did Osama want Bush to remain in office a few more years?  Why was he threatened by the prospect of a President John Kerry?

Some CIA analysts felt that in part, Osama realized that Bush's policies, including the Guantanamo prison camp, the death and torture of Iraqis at Abu Ghraib, and the ongoing violence in Iraq, were helping Al Qaeda recruit an entire new generation of jihadists.  In short: George Bush was Osama's most effective recruitment poster. Jami Miscik, CIA Deputy Associate Director for Intelligence, said "Certainly, he would want Bush to keep doing what he’s doing for a few more years."

According to Ron Suskind in his new book The One Percent Doctrine, the CIA analysts fell silent, as the hard truths began to sink in for them. And they wondered, what did it say about U.S. policy that Osama wanted Bush to keep doing his thing for four more years.

CIA: Osama Helped Bush in '04

Should be required reading for every American citizen---Frederick Douglass' classic speech What To The Slave Is The 4th of July:

Fellow citizens, pardon me, allow me to ask, why am I called upon to speak here today? What have I, or those I represent, to do with your national independence? Are the great principles of political freedom and of natural justice, embodied in that Declaration of Independence, extended to us? and am I, therefore, called upon to bring our humble offering to the national altar, and to confess the benefits and express devout gratitude for the blessings resulting from your independence to us?

Would to God, both for your sakes and ours, that an affirmative answer could be truthfully returned to these questions! Then would my task be light, and my burden easy and delightful. For who is there so cold that a nation's sympathy could not warm him? Who so obdurate and dead to the claims of gratitude that would not thankfully acknowledge such priceless benefits? Who so stolid and selfish that would not give his voice to swell the hallelujahs of a nation's jubilee, when the chains of servitude had been torn from his limbs? I am not that man. In a case like that the dumb might eloquently speak and the "lame man leap as an hart."

But such is not the state of the case. I say it with a sad sense of the disparity between us. am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary! Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice are not enjoyed in common. The rich inheritance of justice, liberty, prosperity, and independence bequeathed by your fathers is shared by you, not by me. The sunlight that brought light and healing to you has brought stripes and death to me. This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me by asking me to speak today? If so, there is a parallel to your conduct. And let me warn that it is dangerous to copy the example of nation whose crimes, towering up to heaven, were thrown down by the breath of the Almighty, burying that nation in irrevocable ruin! I can today take up the plaintive lament of a peeled and woe-smitten people.

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yea! We wept when we remembered Zion. We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst thereof. For there, they that carried us away captive, required of us a song; and they who wasted us required of us mirth, saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. How can we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning. If do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth."

Fellow citizens, above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions! Whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorry this day, "may my right hand cleave to the roof of my mouth"! To forget them, to pass lightly over their wrongs, and to chime in with the popular theme would be treason most scandalous and shocking, and would make me a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, fellow citizens, is American slavery. I shall see this day and its popular characteristics from the slave's point of view. Standing there identified with the American bondman, making his wrongs mine. I do not hesitate to declare with all my soul that the character and conduct of this nation never looked blacker to me than on this Fourth of July! Whether we turn to the declarations of the past or to the professions of the present, the conduct of the nation seems equally hideous and revolting. America is false to the past, false to the present, and solemnly binds herself to be false to the future. Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the Constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery-the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate, I will not excuse"; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, shall not confess to be right and just....

For the present, it is enough to affirm the equal manhood of the Negro race. Is it not as astonishing that, while we are plowing, planting, and reaping, using all kinds of mechanical tools, erecting houses, constructing bridges, building ships, working in metals of brass, iron, copper, and secretaries, having among us lawyers doctors, ministers, poets, authors, editors, orators, and teachers; and that, while we are engaged in all manner of enterprises common to other men, digging gold in California, capturing the whale in the Pacific, feeding sheep and cattle on the hillside, living, moving, acting, thinking, planning, living in families as husbands, wives, and children, and above all, confessing and worshiping the Christian's God, and looking hopefully for life and immortality beyond the grave, we are called upon to prove that we are men!...

What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, to rob them of their liberty, to work them without wages, to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, to beat them with sticks, to flay their flesh with the lash, to load their limbs with irons, to hunt them with dogs, to sell them at auction, to sunder their families, to knock out their teeth, to burn their flesh, to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? Must I argue that a system thus marked with blood, and stained with pollution, is wrong? No! I will not. I have better employment for my time and strength than such arguments would imply....

What, to the American slave, is your Fourth of July? I answer: a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass-fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States at this very hour.

Go where you may, search where you will, roam through all the monarchies and despotisms- of the Old World, travel through South America, search out every abuse, and when you have found the last, lay your facts by the side of the everyday practices of this nation, and you will say with me that, for revolting barbarity and shameless hypocrisy, America reigns without a rival.

There's been a lot of talk about cutting and running lately; specifically, from "stay the course" (whatever that means) neo-cons who want us to make Iraq the 51st state.

Well, my conservative friends, there's some "cutting and running" going on in the CIA that should upset you; although I doubt it will.  After all, Osama WHO?

Turns out the CIA has closed a unit (known as Alec Station) that was focused on hunting down Osama bin Laden.

For a decade, the mission of the Alec Station unit was to hunt down Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants. But that unit disbanded last year (and why are we just now learning of this?) and it's former employees have been re-assigned elsewhere in the CIA.

CIA Spinmeister Jennifer Millerwise Dyck says that despite the closing of the Unit, the effort to find Osama is as strong as ever. Dyck says "The efforts to find Osama bin Laden are as strong as ever."  Really now?  I can't tell! Remind me again why we had him corned in Torra Bora and let him go?

I guess George Bush was, for once in his life, telling the truth when he said he doesn't know or care where Osama is, and he doesn't spend much time on him.  That is George Bush's tribute to the nearly 3,000 people who were murdered on Bin Laden's orders on 9/11, and the loved ones they left behind.

C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden

Joe Lieberman was elected Vice-President of the United States in November of 2000, but was prevented by the Supreme Court from serving.  And considering the fact that he received more votes than Dick Cheney in 2000, you might think that he trusts the voters in this country.

But sadly, Lieberman proved today that he doesn't trust the voters in Connecticut.  

Lieberman is up for re-election this fall, and has a challenger in the primaries, in the form of Ned Lamont. And he announced today that should he fail to pull off a win against Lamont in the primaries, he intends to petition for a spot on the November general election ballot as an "independent Democrat." 

In other words, despite polls that show him with a nice lead over Lamont, Lieberman believes there's a chance he just might lose (maybe his hawkish support of an unpopular, and many believe illegal war, has something to do with that).

And so Lieberman is trying a little CYA.

He doesn't trust the voters to send him on to the general election, and he's determined to put himself on the ballot in November by petitioning as an "independend Democrat."

In other words, Joe Lieberman is no better than the 5 members of the Supreme Court who prevented him from taking office in 2001.  He wants to potentially subvert the will of the voters.

Lieberman Will Petition

Well color me surprised!  George Bush lied!  I'm shocked, I tell you!

It turns out Bush wasn't truthful when he said last week that the United States Congress was briefed on the bank records program.

Sen. Diane Feinstein, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, says she was NOT briefed on the program until the Administration realized the New York Times was going to publish a story on it. 

From yesterday's edition of ABC News This Week with George Stephanopolous:

STEPHANOPOULOS: The White House said they briefed the Congress on this matter and there is no law called into question. Do you believe that a law is called into question and that this program might have been illegal?

FEINSTEIN: Well, I’m on the Intelligence Committee. I can tell you when I was briefed and when the committee was briefed — and that was when it became apparent that the New York Times had the story and was going to run it. And that’s when and why they came to us and briefed us.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So you knew nothing about it before the New York Times was asking questions?

FEINSTEIN: That’s correct.

Under the law, the Administration is required to brief the entire intelligence committee on intelligence programs.  While they can keep secret certain aspects of a program, they cannot hide a program's existence.

What's more, the Congressional Research Service concluded that BushCo's limited briefings to Congress have violated the law.  A Congressional Research Service report said “the Bush administration’s limited briefings for Congress on the National Security Agency’s domestic eavesdropping without warrants are ‘inconsistent with the law.’”

Courtesy of Think Progress:

Feinstein: I Wasn’t Briefed On Bank Records Program Until Administration Knew NYT Was Publishing

EXCLUSIVE: CRS Report That Concludes The Administration Broke the Law

The war in Iraq has become a recruitment poster for global terrorists groups. 

That's the conclusion reached by more than eight out of 10 American terrorism and national security experts who were surveyed this spring for a poll conducted by Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for American Progress.

Michael Scheuer, a conservative Republican and author of the book Imperial Hubris, says "The war in Iraq broke our back in the war on terror." He believes the war in Iraq has served as a "recruiting bananza" and also a valuable training ground for global terrorists.

Likewise, a report from the British parliment draws a similar conclusion. The Foreign Affairs Select Committee says that the war in Iraq has given terrorists a valuable training ground.  And it concludes that despite success capturing Al Qaeda leaders in Iraq, the danger from terrorism and Al Qaeda is actually growing.  Their report also references a deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.

U.S. losing terror war because of Iraq, poll says

British Parliament: Iraq War Making it Hard to Fight Terrorism