Daily Kos: Bush Tactics Compared to Hitler! In the White House!

don't know who asked the question and don't think it really matters. The point is it's being asked in the press room:

Q Scott, a few days ago, conservative columnist Paul Craig Roberts had a column where he compared the administration's use of September 11th with Hitler and the Reichstag fire as a blanket cover for extraordinary measures. Now, this is coming from a conservative columnist; this is not Nancy Pelosi. Doesn't this concern you that these kind of reactions have come up especially with all the revelations about the NSA and spying?

Imagine if a Democrat had mentioned the administration and Hitler in the same paragraph? No matter what the context was the right would be calling for his head like when Durban talked about the FBI reports of torture and mentioned Stalin. To have a right wing columnist make the comparison, and to have anybody in the press corps ask about it in the White House, wouldn't have happened a year ago. To me it's the latest turning of the tide in the popular media. They are catching on.

Well something that pops up here at TCS occasionally is the Reichstag Fire and for good reason.

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The new Buzzward Impeach - and don't stop there.

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Of course they did - you wouldn't want them to audit a Republican by mistake.

IRS tracked taxpayers' political affiliation

WASHINGTON – As it hunted down tax scofflaws, the Internal Revenue Service collected information on the political party affiliations of taxpayers in 20 states.
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“The bottom line is that we have never used this information,” said John Lipold, an IRS spokesman. “There are strict laws in place that forbid it.”

Yes it is official the IRS only plans to obey strict laws.

Any wishy washy laws that you can probably whine you're way out of will be obeyed.

I wonder if Bush considered the whole FISA law strict? I'm guessing he doesn't.

I wonder what Alito's opinion is on strict laws vs. the wishy washy laws?

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If this journalist broke the story of forced abortions in China on his blog - would Microsoft take it down?

Blind China activist under house arrest since Sept

BEIJING (Reuters) - A blind activist in China and his family have been placed under house arrest for four months and he was beaten by thugs when he tried to venture out, after exposing forced abortions in his home province on the east coast.

Club-wielding goons believed to be hired by local authorities have been posted outside Chen Guangcheng's one-storey brick home in Dongshigu, a farming village in Shandong province, since September 6 to prevent him, his wife and 71-year-old mother from leaving, Chen said.

"China is lawless," the 34-year-old activist told Reuters by telephone. "They're worried I will expose more of their crimes."

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Alito - The discussion shouldn't be abortion - it should be that he views the Presidency as an elected monarchy. With Bush as President and people like Alito on the bench, America will be heading in a dangerous direction.

Samuel Alito v. James Madison

No member of the Senate who takes seriously the oath they have sworn to defend the Constitution will vote to confirm judicial activist Samuel Alito's nomination to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

To a greater extent than any nominee for the high court in recent memory, and very possibly in the long history of the country, Alito has placed himself clearly and unequivocally at odds with the original intent of the authors of the Constitution and the incontrovertible language of the document.

Alito is consistently on record as favoring steps by the White House to -- in his words -- ''increase the power of the executive to shape the law."

Who needs the legislative branch, the President gets to shape laws. Who needs the judiciary, the President gets to interpret laws. Who needs freedom, the President is the law.

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Seriously at what point do we just rename the House of Representatives The Big House?

TIME.com: Disgraced Congressman 'Wore a Wire'
Sources tell TIME that Duke Cunningham wore a wire after agreeing to cooperate with a graft probe

Washington's power players have always bragged about being well-wired, but for disgraced former congressman Duke Cunningham, "wired" wasn't just a figure of speech. In a week when legislators are focused on the question of who else might be brought down by ex-lobbyist Jack Abramoff’s cooperation with prosecutors as he seeks lenient sentencing over his two federal guilty pleas this week, sources tell TIME that in a separate investigation, ex-Rep. Cunningham wore a wire to help investigators gather evidence against others just before copping his own plea.
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The identity of those with whom the San Diego congressman met while wearing the wire remains unclear, and is the source of furious — and nervous — speculation by congressional Republicans.

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Oh Freedom's just another word
for profits we could lose

Microsoft Confirms Dropping Chinese Journalist's Blog

Microsoft Corp. on Wednesday confirmed that it took down the blog of outspoken Chinese journalist Zhao Jing, saying that it was complying with China's laws.
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"Most countries have laws and practices that require companies providing online services to make the Internet safe for local users," the company said. "Occasionally, as in China, local laws and practices require consideration of unique elements."

Microsoft is not the first U.S. tech company to help the Chinese government in controlling the media. Yahoo in September gave information about journalist Shi Tao's personal email account to Beijing, which later jailed him for 10 years on charges of divulging state secrets.

It's also not unusual for U.S. search engines, such as Google, Microsoft MSN, and Yahoo, to censor their Chinese-language search results at the request of the government.

Sooo... local laws eh? So if a historian on MSN Spaces does a historical analysis of the brief 4 year life of Al-Askari who died back in 873 that offends Iranian law (as it may be sacrilegious to the Shia) is it taken down? And when Microsoft takes it down it is taken down everywhere (world wide).

How local? Does a strict anti-obscenity law in nowhere, Arkansas require that the blog entry about a Mapplethorpe exhibit be taken down? Or by local law does it really just mean "Chinese law."

Do American companies have a responsibility to continue freedom of access when their business model is based on freedom of access?

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Beyond outrageous

Cheney grasps at straws to excuse breaking of laws
a cat has claws at the end of ends paws
A sentence has a pause at the end of its claws

Cheney Cites Justifications For Domestic Eavesdropping
Secret Monitoring May Have Averted 9/11, He Says

Hmmm... really? Then why didn't you do it? Because you know what Mr. Cheney? It was legal, all you needed was a warrant, which you could get even after you started wire tapping (so the whole immediate and rush and emergency and urgent excuse is thrown out the window... you just had to ask within 72 hours of having started).

Vice President Cheney said yesterday that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks might have been prevented if the Bush administration had had the power to secretly monitor conversations involving two of the hijackers without court orders.

Oh My, that is quite a qualifier there isn't it.

Kind of like me saying you are the best Vice President we've ever had who hides in bunkers and is often called a cyborg.

See, the wire taps would have only stopped 9/11 if they were done without a court order. Why? Because breaking of the law was a prerequisite of saving lives - or something - not sure.

Anyway you know what may have averted 9/11 Cheney? How about FBI bureaucrats following up on solid leads about flying lessons? How about making the cockpit doors secure? How about paying attention to the "Osama to attack america" memo that Harriet handed your "boss?" How about if you all listened to Clarke and others when they said this was a big issue? How about getting the drones that were following Osama back up in the air rather then let the CIA and Pentagon get into a turf war about it for months and months? Maybe if you guys weren't ooohing and ahhing over the map of Iraq during you energy meetings you might have had time to consider the possibility? How about Ashcroft decided terrorism was more of a threat to American lives then porn for the first 9 months of his reign?

Or maybe none of those things would have made a difference.

But the idea of spying on someone illegally would somehow have been more effective then spying on someone legally is just inane.

(actually here's one thing that probably would have made a difference when it comes to the Pentagon attack: How about Bush reacting immediately to the news of the second tower being hit and scrambled jets over Washington with an order to shoot down any non-responsive civilian craft. And how about this time scramble them from the military airport that is closest to Washington?)

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Attytood via AMERICAblog: Why would Bush spy on Christiane Amanpour?

"I think the press was muzzled, and I think the press self-muzzled. I'm sorry to say, but certainly television and, perhaps, to a certain extent, my station was intimidated by the administration and its foot soldiers at Fox News. And it did, in fact, put a climate of fear and self-censorship, in my view, in terms of the kind of broadcast work we did."

The next day, Fox blasts her as an "al-Qaeda spokeswoman." And two years later, we are left to wonder if she was spied upon by the American government.

Coincidence?

This drove me to post this to their comments section:

Made me think of the O'Reilly statement from his sex tapes:

If you cross FOX NEWS channel, it's not just me, it's Roger Ailes who will go after you. I'm the street guy out front making loud noises about the issues, but Ailes operates behind the scenes, strategizes and makes things happen so that one day BAM! The person gets what's coming to them but never sees it coming. Look at Al Franken, one day he's going to get a knock on his door and life as he's known it will change forever. That day will happen, trust me.
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Ailes knows very powerful people and this goes all the way to the top.
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Top of the country. Just look at who's on the cover of his book [Franken's book - the cover has Bush and Cheney on it], they're watching him and will be for years. [Al Franken's] finished, he's going to be sorry he ever took Fox News channel on."

O'Reilly over at Fox News seems to think that Fox and the administration are one in the same, and that if you bother Fox News, the administration will get all over you. Let's repeat:

"...they're watching him and will be for years."

Thanks to The Smoking Gun for the transcript.

Bush and his people do not like those journalists who question the President, and isn't afraid to punish them under the guise of "fighting terror" (watch out because after there is no more terror Bush on his fifth term will be "fighting humor").

Today I just read this: Branded

This week last year I was preparing for a trip to Ohio to conduct interviews and research for a new book I was writing. My airline tickets had been purchased on line and the morning of departure I went to the Internet to print out my boarding pass. I got a message that said, "Not Allowed." Several subsequent tries failed. Surely, I thought, it's just a glitch within the airline's servers or software.

I made it a point to arrive very early at the airport. My reservation was confirmed before I left home. I went to the electronic kiosk and punched in my confirmation number to print out my boarding pass and luggage tags. Another error message appeared, "Please see agent."
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I'm sorry, sir," she said. "There seems to be a problem. You've been placed on the No Fly Watch List."
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Mam, I'd like to know how I got on the No Fly Watch List."
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"All I can tell you is that there is something in your background that in some way is similar to someone they are looking for."

"Well, let me get this straight then," I said. "Our government is looking for a guy who may have a mundane Anglo name, who pays tens of thousands of dollars every year in taxes, has never been arrested or even late on a credit card payment, is more uninteresting than a Tupperware party, and cries after the first two notes of the national anthem? We need to find this guy. He sounds dangerous to me."

"I'm sorry, sir, I've already told you everything I can."

"Oh, wait," I said. "One last thing: this guy they are looking for? Did he write books critical of the Bush administration, too?"

I have been on the No Fly Watch List for a year. I will never be told the official reason. No one ever is. You cannot sue to get the information. Nothing I have done has moved me any closer to getting off the list.

The author of that post is James Moore

James Moore is an Emmy-winning former television news correspondent and the co-author of the bestselling, Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential. He has been writing and reporting from Texas for the past 25 years on the rise of Rove and Bush and has traveled extensively on every presidential campaign since 1976.

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Advize and Consent my Ass - there's a war on!

King George must be allowed to appoint who he needs to keep america safe because him saying america is being kept safe is more important then any old piece of paper written by dead white men and actually being safe.

via Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall

Crony all-nighter!

From Roll Call:

"President Bush is expected to announce a list of recess appointments to a host of key federal positions as early as tonight or Thursday morning, including two controversial nominations that Democrats have attacked as patronage appointments for unqualified nominees."

Former senate staffer Tracy Henke and Julie Myers (wife of Michael Chertoff's chief of staff and niece of former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Richard Myers) are the names the article mentions. Both are in line for DHS appointments.

My apologies for cutting and pasting the whole piece, its just too good to pass up and too hard to summarize for a lazy person like me. Tell you what, stop reading right now and just go to: Talking Points Memo - it's got lots of good stuff, and is easier to read (if you're into that sort of thing).

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In honor of finally seeing Syriana last night (which I really liked) I decided to repost an entry from last spring - with some additions (I also decided to repost because I'm lazy and not above doing repeats).

Originally this post was in honor of one of TCS's favorite authors, Philip k. Dick.

So now let us don our tin foil hats and present:

Suicides and the Bush family

• Lets hope "Jeff Gannon" doesn't check into any hotels, because one of the key members of the first Bush White House male prostitute scandal committed suicide in a Boston hotel 5 months after the story broke.

  Spence openly boasted of working with both the CIA and ranking members of the Reagan and Bush administrations.
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  "The sex? That's done all the time," a former Bush economic adviser told the press. "If a foreign diplomat wants a companion, the State Department provides it. It doesn't matter if it's a man or woman. They have a special fund set up for that." What the unnamed adviser did not say was that such services were provided not as a courtesy to the dignitary, but as a way to compromise and control. Allegations quietly arose that the callboy ring, and Spence's parties, were part of a CIA sexual blackmail operation. Spence's Washington mansion was said to be overflowing with surveillance equipment, including hidden cameras and microphones and an abundance of two-way mirrors. It was also alleged that cocaine flowed freely at Spence's parties, and that he could have been involved in bringing drugs in from El Salvador.
  
  The Spence story never really registered on the national media's radar screen. Despite being a largely Republican scandal, it was completely ignored by such pillars of the purportedly liberal press as the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. The story soon disappeared entirely and Washington and the media proceeded to pretend as though nothing had ever happened. According to a Washington Times reporter, the paper trail was quickly covered up. Some 20,000 documents pertaining to the case were sealed by court order and the U.S. Attorney's office issued a gag order on the release of information. By the time that Craig Spence turned up dead in a Boston hotel less than five months after the story first broke, he had been all but forgotten. He had earlier told a friend: "I may be disappearing soon. It will be sudden. It may appear to be a suicide, but it won't be."

• Speaking of cocaine and the CIA, Gary Webb was an investigative reporter who linked the CIA to crack cocaine trafficking in Los Angels. He died of self-inflicted gunshot wounds to the head. Yes he shot himself in the head more than once.
  
  
• Mark Lombardi drew pictures demonstrating the links between Bush, James Bath, and the bin Laden family and many other favorites of the conspiracy crowd. He committed suicide.
  
  
• We already mentioned Hatfield who committed suicide in a hotel room. He wrote the book "Fortunate Son" which alleged that the reason Bush "volunteered" for community service in the early seventies was to erase a cocaine bust from his records.
  
  
• Investigative reporter Danny Casolaro committed suicide in a Hotel room in 1991. He was working in a conspiracy "theory of everything" called "The Octopus" that linked the CIA, October Surprise, BCCI, and pretty much everything else.
  
  
• Margie Schoedinger was suing Bush for sexual assault. She committed suicide on September 22, 2003.
  
  
• Raymond Lemme was an investigator for the Florida Department of Transportation who was investigating claims of voter fraud (the article explains why FDOT would be involved). He committed suicide in a hotel.

Nothing to add really. There are troubled people in the world and the troubles of the world can be too hard to bare. That said, that's quite a list.

Later the excellent, but now on hiatus, site The Free Speech Zone added this suicide:

To this list I would add David Kelly, a UN weapons inspector who came back from Iraq to report that there were no WMD. He predicted he would be "found dead in the woods" and he was correct. Police called it a suicide but paramedics questioned that.

If I really wanted the tin foil hat on tight I'd repeat my post about the Bush family and coincidences (you know like Neil Bush scheduled to have a dinner with Scott Hinckley, brother of John Hinckley Jr. the day John shot Reagan... the dinner was cancelled).

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Your tax dollars at work - giving out $40 vouchers to everyone who owns an analog TV and doesn't get cable. But the truth is that is only fair because at the same time they give out the vouchers - they break the TV. Everyone of them. Analog TVs without cable (or satellite) are just so much toxic landfill (even when turned off) in just a few years. Kiss your TV goodbye come 2009.

FORTUNE: Congress botched digital TV

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I thought I Knew Jack, I did not.

Fascinating read at Wikipedia: Jack Abramoff

After a campaign managed by Grover Norquist and aided by Ralph E. Reed, Jr., Abramoff was elected chairman of the College Republican National Committee. "It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left," Abramoff was quoted as saying in the group's 1983 annual report, "Our job is to remove them from power permanently". Abramoff "changed the direction of the committee and made it more activist and conservative than ever before," notes the CRNC.

This guy is a die hard Republican - through and through. This is a Republican scandal. And Jack is everywhere the GOP has been for years. And he's been doing scams for years too.

Abramoff spent ten years in Hollywood, producing such movies as Red Scorpion, an anti-communist film made just after his term with the College Republicans ended. This movie was filmed in South Africa at a time when that nation had a white supremacist government. The film is rumored to have been funded by the South African army; this led to protests from anti-apartheid groups.

Abramoff joined Citizens for America, a pro-Reagan group that helped Oliver North build support for the Nicaraguan contras and staged an unprecedented meeting of anti-Communist rebel leaders in 1985 in Jamba, Angola. His membership ended on a sour note, however, when the group's millionaire founder, Lewis Lehrman, a former New York gubernatorial candidate, concluded that Abramoff had spent his money carelessly.
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In 2002 Abramoff founded the Eshkol Academy, an orthodox Jewish school in Maryland. David Lapin served as the dean. According to emails revealed during the US Senate hearings into the Abramoff-Reed Indian Gambling Scandal, Lapin was paid $20,000 a month, through Abramoff's Capital Athletic Foundation. The Eshkol Academy closed in 2004 after questions were raised in the press about Abramoff's financial dealings with Indian tribes. In 2004, thirteen former Eshkol employees sued the Academy, demanding nearly $150,000 in back salary. The teachers' complaint claims that the Capital Athletic Foundation "was used to launder funds from the tribes to Eshkol." Federal tax records show that various Indian tribes donated more than $1 million to the foundation, which in turn benefited the school.

An much more entertaining and mind boggeling read is the Salon article: The tale of "Red Scorpion" which is worth the price of admission (watching an ad). It gives many details of Jack's relationship with Angolan warlords, the South African government and army (during the apartheid era), and more.

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AMERICAblog noticed an interesting part of an interview between Andrea Mitchell and Risen the writer of the book about Bush spying:

Mitchell: Do you have any information about reporters being swept up in this net?

Risen: No, I don't. It's not clear to me. That's one of the questions we'll have to look into the future. Were there abuses of this program or not? I don't know the answer to that

Mitchell: You don't have any information, for instance, that a very prominent journalist, Christiane Amanpour, might have been eavesdropped upon?

Risen: No, no I hadn't heard that.

Then checking the MSNBC site just two hours later the transcript had changed to:

Mitchell: Do you have any information about reporters being swept up in this net?

Risen: No, I don't. It's not clear to me. That's one of the questions we'll have to look into the future. Were there abuses of this program or not? I don't know the answer to that

Mitchell: You are very, very tough on the CIA and the administration in general in both the war on terror and the run up to the war and the war itself Â? the post-war operation. Let's talk about the war on terror. Why do you think they missed so many signals and what do you think caused the CIA to have this sort of break down as you describe it?

The bit about spying on a reporter, a reporter who is named, Christiane Amanpour just disappeared. Poof.

Americablog had another fasinating post about why this mention of Amanpour could be big (and if NBC decided to edit it out of their transcript, it very well may be big):

3. That also means that anyone who uses any of Christiane's telephones or computers (work or home) could also have had their conversation bugged.

4. This includes Christiane's husband, former Clinton administration senior official Jamie Rubin, who was spokesman for the State Department.

5. Jamie Rubin was also chief foreign policy adviser to General Wesley Clark's presidential campaign, and then worked as a senior national security adviser to John Kerry's presidential campaign.

6. Did Jamie Rubin ever use his home phone, his wife's work phone, his wife's cell phone, her home computer or her work computer to communicate with John Kerry or Wesley Clark? If so, those conversations would have been bugged if Bush was tapping Amanpour.

Do read that whole post.

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A great refresher course for those who feel They Don't Know Jack: Think Progress: Abramoff: The House That Jack Built

and then checkout the list at Americablog of Jack's political contributions. Try and find the Democrat... come on, I dare ya.

What was that about Abramoff giving money to Democrats?

Here is the list of who Abramoff gave money to, per Michael Petrelis' research:

$172,933 - Republican
$88,985 - special interest
total: $261,918

That's 229 donations and not a DIME to Democrats.

The list of donations is long, but it makes a great visual, so I'm posting it anyway. Next time you hear someone say that this is a bipartisan scandal, whip out this list and laugh.

It is a loooong list.

What's that you say? But I heard from reporters on Fox and MSNBC that is was no big deal and bi-partisan to boot

really?

Americablog:
Hardball's Chris Matthews, FOX's Tony Snow and Britt Hume helped raise money for shady Abramoff charity

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Hi, I'm Emily, I just brought down the decade long GOP hold of Congress

The Raw Story | How they got caught: After lobbyist broke off engagement, ex-fiancee told of illicit dealings to FBI

Michael Scanlon found himself at the center of one of the biggest political scandals in Washington history as a result of cheating and lying—but not the type involving the numerous clients he was paid to lobby Congress for, former coworkers and friends of his ex-fiancee say.

Scanlon was implicated in the Abramoff scandal by his former thirtysomething fiancee, Emily J. Miller, whom he met in the late 1990s while working as communications director for former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), three former associates who worked with Scanlon at DeLay’s office said. Colleagues say Miller went to the FBI after Scanlon broke off their engagement and announced his intention to marry another woman.

Scanlon then turned on Jack and then suddely we've got the Wall Street Journal saying

“Mr. Abramoff says he has information that could implicate 60 lawmakers,”

.Best part of the article:

In May 2004, Miller found herself at the center of attention when—while live on air—she ordered a cameraman for NBC’s Meet the Press to stop filming Colin Powell. A copy of the transcript shows Miller, who also used to work as an NBC staffer, as a brusque press aide. Powell eventually ordered that the interview continue and asked Miller to step aside.

Read the transcript of that interview with Powell.

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Bush Myth 104: He is loyal to his friends.

Baloney. He'll leave you bleeding in a gutter if he thought giving you aid was a true political risk.

Just ask Kenny Boy his really good friend from Enron. Suddenly Bush barely hear of him (of course this was after he hit his head due to a poorly masticated pretzel so maybe his memory was shot).

Just ask Chalabi who went from White House darling to "hmmm... I might have met the guy." When the story of Chalabi possibly spying for Iran broke.

Well know when people ask Bush "Do You Know Jack?" He's saying he's not quite sure.

First Draft - Bush Denies Abramoff

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Wednesday that Bush does not know Abramoff personally, although it's possible that the two met at holiday receptions. Abramoff attended three Hanukkah receptions at the Bush White House, the spokesman said.

The post then notes:

• He was a friend of Bush advisor Karl Rove. H
• e was a Bush “Pioneer,” delivering at least $100,000 in bundled contributions to the 2000 campaign.
• He had just concluded his work on the Bush Transition Team as an advisor to the Department of the Interior.
• He had sent his personal assistant Susan Ralston to the White House to work as Rove’s personal assistant.
• He was a close friend, advisor, and high-dollar fundraiser for the most powerful man in Congress, Tom DeLay.
• Abramoff was so closely tied to the Bush Administration that he could, and did, charge two of his clients $25,000 for a White House lunch date and a meeting with the President. From the same two clients he took to the White House in May 2001, Abramoff also obtained $2.5 million in contributions for a non-profit foundation he and his wife operated.

Though I'm certain no one slept in the Lincoln bedroom, that's what Cheney's house is for.

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Old news, but a good reminder.

Whenever Bush touts the success of his plan to bring Democracy to Iraq by mentioning the Constitution being written by democratically elected officials - remember he didn't want it that way.

How cleric trumped U.S.'s Iraq plan

THE RELIGIOUS EDICT, handed down in June by Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq's most influential Shiite Muslim cleric, called for general elections to select the drafters of a new constitution. He dismissed U.S. plans to appoint the authors as "fundamentally unacceptable."

His pronouncement, underestimated at first by the Bush administration, doomed an elaborate transition plan crafted by U.S. administrator L. Paul Bremer that would have kept Iraq under occupation until a constitution was written, according to American and Iraqi officials involved in the process.
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With no way to get around the fatwa, and with escalating American casualties creating pressure on President Bush for an earlier end to the occupation, Bremer recently dumped his original plan in favor of an arrangement that will bestow sovereignty on a provisional government before a constitution is drafted.
Bremer's unwillingness to heed the fatwa until just a few weeks ago may have delayed the country's political transition and exacerbated popular anger at the occupation, Iraqi political leaders said.

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Two good posts by the bow tie man Tucker Carlson. I generally don't like his stances on issues, and sometimes I think he just takes a stance because he thinks it is "in character" rather than actually what he thinks (and he has shown he actually does think, a rare thing on cable new). He often fights for real conservative ideas, which though I might disagree with at least actually are conservative and ideas he actually believes would help America and not just Kindergarten fascism and Bush worship.

What really smells about Abramoff scandal

Weirdos and charlatans and self-interested hacks like Lou Sheldon and Grover Norquist have long discredited the conservative ideas they purport to represent. Their political allies in Washington and Congress may be tempted to defend them. I hope they don't. We'll all be better off when they're gone.

The second article on the page is:

Bothered by the NSA story

Which I don't completely agree with has the most excellent closing line of them all, and one I'm surprised isn't constantly being used against Bush power grab defenders. When all of the right wing folks started praising the Patriot Act, my first thought was, would they love it if Hillary was President? Heck that is one of the reasons I am willing to believe the GOP has stooped to rigging some elections, they would only allow the Presidency to grab this much power if they knew that a Democrat would never have that power.

Do we really want to empower the president to ignore Congress, our most democratic institution? Bush's defenders aren't bothered by the idea because they trust Bush. But Bush won't be in office forever.

Will they feel the same way when Hillary is president?

Thanks to atrios for pointing out these articles.

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"There is much to be said in favor of modern journalism. By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, it keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community."
- Oscar Wilde

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Please read:

A Life, Wasted
Let's Stop This War Before More Heroes Are Killed

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This is the 4,000th post on TCS.

This site started in early March, 2003 and since then we've averaged a new post every 6 hours 24/7 365 days a year. Though in truth we take the weekends off (except sometimes as Edoc keeps the site timely many weekends) and most posts are actually done during lunch.

With 4,000 posts, just imagine the dozens of really good posts we've had.

Thanks to all who have contributed to TCS over the years: Michael, Edoc, The other Michael, B, The liberal Penguin, Alex, Jer... and I hope I didn't miss anyone else.

Update: Oh my gosh I did forget someone. Thanks also to the fine posts of cookie friend from Japan.

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Sadly true

Top 10 Stories Of 2006

(2) The administration will see steady "progress" in Iraq, even if the new government's first act is to sign a friendship pact with Iran. This "progress" will allow some U.S. troops to be brought home in the summer and fall. Unfortunately, they will have to be sent right back to Iraq in mid-November, after the midterm election. But who could have foreseen that?
...
(10) Americans will suddenly wake up and question the Bush administration about Iraq, about domestic spying, about global warming, about tax cuts. But just then, as the president fumbles for answers, a compelling news event will steal away the nation's attention.

Hard to believe, but another attractive young white woman will vanish.

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New Book Reveals Secret War Operations

Dr. Sawsan Alhaddad of Cleveland made the dangerous trip to Iraq on the CIA's behalf. The book said her brother was stunned by her questions about the nuclear program because — he said — it had been dead for a decade.
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The book said Dr. Alhaddad flew home in mid-September 2002 and had a series of meetings with CIA analysts. She relayed her brother's information that there was no nuclear program.

A CIA operative later told Dr. Alhaddad's husband that the agency believed her brother was lying. In all, the book says, some 30 family members of Iraqis made trips to their native country to contact Iraqi weapons scientists, and all of them reported that the programs had been abandoned.

In October 2002, a month after the doctor's trip to Baghdad, the U.S intelligence community issued a National Intelligence Estimate that concluded Iraq was reconstituting its nuclear program.

I wonder if this is in some of the "same intellegence" that Congress received.

But who are you going to believe - the 30 folks making dangerous trips to Iraq or Chalabi and known to be forged document found in Italy?

Sadly we know the answer.

- rob 4:24 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Freedom's just another word for getting in the way of profits

If you have a Microsoft blog in Chinese that says something the Chinese government might not like Microsoft takes it down - China means billions to them. Freedom? Show me that column in the spreadsheet.

Microsoft takes down Chinese blogger

On December 16th I created a blog and attempted to make various posts with politically sensitive words. When I attempted to post entries with titles like “Tibet Independence” or “Falun Gong” (a banned religious group), I got an error message saying: “This item includes forbidden language. Please delete forbidden language from this item.”

However I was successful in posting blog entries with non-controversial titles, but with politically sensitive words in the text body. For instance, a blog post titled “I love you” had “Tibet independence” in the text body, and a post titled “I am happy” had “Falun Gong” in the body,...
...
This was on Friday December 16th. By Monday the 19th, the whole blog had been taken down, just like Anti’s was on Dec.31st, with an error message: “This space is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later.”

Now, It is VERY important to note that the inaccessible blog was moved or removed at the server level and that the blog remains inaccessible from the United States as well as from China. This means that the action was taken NOT by Chinese authorities responsible for filtering and censoring the internet for Chinese viewers, but by MSN staff at the level of the MSN servers.

- rob 4:20 PM - [PermaLink] -

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I don't think the GOP is going to like 2006 that much

G.O.P. Lobbyist Pleads Guilty in Deal With Prosecutors

Mr. Abramoff, 46, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion, setting the stage for prosecutors to begin using him as a cooperating witness against his former business and political colleagues. In exchange, Mr. Abramoff faces a maximum of about 10 years in prison in the Washington case. The conspiracy charge included Mr. Abramoff's effort to influence at least one member of Congress and a Congressional staff member.

- rob 4:13 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Despite it being January - there's a lot of sweat in DC

USNews.com: Lobbyist Jack Abramoff may be about to cut a deal, and that's bad news for a lot of folks in the capital (1/9/06)

- rob 3:22 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Good Job James B. Comey - today's hero.

He put America first. And did his job.

Justice Deputy Resisted Parts of Spy Program

WASHINGTON, Dec. 31 - A top Justice Department official objected in 2004 to aspects of the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program and refused to sign on to its continued use amid concerns about its legality and oversight, according to officials with knowledge of the tense internal debate. The concerns appear to have played a part in the temporary suspension of the secret program.

The concerns prompted two of President Bush's most senior aides - Andrew H. Card Jr., his chief of staff, and Alberto R. Gonzales, then White House counsel and now attorney general - to make an emergency visit to a Washington hospital in March 2004 to discuss the program's future and try to win the needed approval from Attorney General John Ashcroft, who was hospitalized for gallbladder surgery, the officials said.

The unusual meeting was prompted because Mr. Ashcroft's top deputy, James B. Comey, who was acting as attorney general in his absence, had indicated he was unwilling to give his approval to certifying central aspects of the program, as required under the White House procedures set up to oversee it.

- rob 3:20 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Does the Pope wear a funny hat?

TIME.com: Has Bush Gone Too Far?
The President's secret directive to let the NSA snoop without warrants sets off a furor

I am happy to see that the press hasn't completely forgotten about this story now that it is January. I was half expecting the press to say "Bush breaking the law and spying on Americans without a warrant? That is so 2005."

Let's see if their coverage continued. As people get back to work this week it might actually be the first time they hear about it. And you know what - people will be pissed. It may surprise Bush, but Americans actually take the whole freedom schtick seriously. Good.

- rob 3:07 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Oil Oil everywhere - but not a drop for my car

Iraq fuel crisis deepens

BAGHDAD -- A fuel crisis in Iraq deepened Friday when the oil minister was suspended for objecting to steep government-imposed price increases for gasoline and cooking oil.

Angry drivers waited in quarter-mile lines at stations in Baghdad, brought by fears of more price increases and electricity failures, which have led them to siphon fuel for use in power generators.
...
Al-Uloum has been replaced by Ahmad Chalabi, the deputy prime minister who served as interim oil minister earlier this year. An aide to Chalabi said it was not clear how long he would stay in the post or whether al-Uloum would return.

Ahh, Chalabi - the Where's Waldo of Iraq.

- rob 3:01 PM - [PermaLink] -

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This article inadvertently sums up what the republicans really think of family values.

Family Values is a scam.

The DeLay-Abramoff Money Trail

The U.S. Family Network, a public advocacy group that operated in the 1990s with close ties to Rep. Tom DeLay and claimed to be a nationwide grass-roots organization, was funded almost entirely by corporations linked to embattled lobbyist Jack Abramoff, according to tax records and former associates of the group.

During its five-year existence, the U.S. Family Network raised $2.5 million but kept its donor list secret. The list, obtained by The Washington Post, shows that $1 million of its revenue came in a single 1998 check from a now-defunct London law firm whose former partners would not identify the money's origins.
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The former president of the U.S. Family Network said Buckham told him that Russians contributed $1 million to the group in 1998 specifically to influence DeLay's vote on legislation the International Monetary Fund needed to finance a bailout of the collapsing Russian economy.
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But the records show that the tiny U.S. Family Network, which never had more than one full-time staff member, spent comparatively little money on public advocacy or education projects. Although established as a nonprofit organization, it paid hundreds of thousands of dollars in fees to Buckham and his lobbying firm, Alexander Strategy Group.
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There is no evidence DeLay received a direct financial benefit, but Buckham's firm employed DeLay's wife, Christine, and paid her a salary of at least $3,200 each month for three of the years the group existed. Richard Cullen, DeLay's attorney, has said that the pay was compensation for lists Christine DeLay supplied to Buckham of lawmakers' favorite charities, and that it was appropriate under House rules and election law.

Lists of favorite charities gets you $3,200 a month for 3 years. I wonder what they'd have paid her if she also included their favorite movies, their preference in sushi, and whether representatives like their envelopes of cold hard cash while walking on a beach at sunset or while having a picnic in a meadow after riding horseback?

If the Democrats can't defeat DeLay and most of the other republicans on this issue then they really aren't worth a bucket of warm spit.

This is an issue to be used against every single Republican representative. DeLay is their leader, while no longer in name, still in function. The Republican Congress has delayed the start of the congressional session in hopes that the Texas indictments will be rid of so the DeLay can again be leader in name. They condone the corruption of our state.

They are a party to the government being up for bid.

America Before Party.

This is a slogan I want to hit on more here at TCS. If any politician makes a policy decision, a speech, a vote, that is based more on benefiting (or protecting) their party then benefiting America then they need to be voted out of office. Any of them of either party.

Don't give me that "greater good" crap. "This Democrat protected that Democrat so the Democrats could regain control of Congress which is better for the nation." While I agree that at this point a Democratically controlled Congress would be better for the nation that argument is not better for the nation. It harms America, hell it'd harm the Democrats in the long run. That is the argument the Republicans have told themselves and they've let their spirit and ideals slowly rot as they made that argument time and time again. There are many formally fine and noble Republicans in Congress who while I may disagree with them politically stood for their ideals and had the honest belief that their ideals would benefit America, but for political reasons they stood behind Bush or DeLay or Frist a little this time a little that time, just a little bit more until they were gone -- they were rotten and spoiled. They had put their party ahead of America again and again until all that was left was their desire for their own well being and their allegiance to their party. They no longer served the nation. To be truthful a lot of them can no longer care less about the nation.

America Before Party.

Political commentary - both print and TV (and a lot of blogs) - has become the reporting of a sport. You root root root for your "team" (and ignore the player with the criminal issues). Its exciting and fun. You might as well have a fantasy league of your own politicians.

It isn't a sport. Politics determine our government. Government can kill, can destroy, but, and I know this sounds liberal, they can do good and promote good. Government makes a difference. Sport does not - not really.

America Before Party.

Right now the entire might of Congress and the Presidency has blatantly and frequently put the Republican party ahead of America and everyone is worse off because of it.

- rob 2:54 PM - [PermaLink] -

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Happy New Year!
Hopefully 2006 will be a much better year for the world than 2005. I'll raise a glass to that.

Boring Chatter about 2008 Presidential Hopefuls
I caught a few minutes of Chris Matthew's political talk show on television this morning, and they spent a lot of time talking about candidates for the 2008 presidential election. Is there anyone else out there who finds this to be useless gossip of the most boring kind? I'd much rather be talking about issues that matter a great deal in the current political climate -- the spy scandal, Delay/Abramoff scandals, Plame-gate, SCOTUS candidate Alito, elections in Iraq, post-Katrina reconstruction (or lack thereof), etc.

I think the media is letting these issues languish, because they believe americans don't have sustainable interest. Frankly this is a problem of the media format/delivery and not the topics. They need to invest in these stories and illuminate the issues instead of always trolling for the cheap sound-bite. Add that to the wish list for 2006.

Patriotism Surveys in Oregon Schools
The article refers to the questionnaires as "patriotism tests", which is misleading. Nonetheless, it's worth being aware of this so you can be on the watch for more insidious versions of this cropping up in your school district.

Flea Markets Fund Terror, Police Allege
Watch out for counterfeit goods at your local flea market. Police in North Carolina have some strong warnings for you.

"It is a multi-billion dollar a year industry and a majority of the profit goes back to organized crime, it could go to terrorism," Stewart said. "Our information is that a lot of this money actually goes to fund terror cells in the United States."

Who knew those terrorist cells were knocking off handbags, t-shirts and star wars memorabilia?

Again, Happy New Year!

- Edoc 10:52 AM - [PermaLink] -

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"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American people."
- Teddy Roosevelt



"Government has a final responsibility for the well-being of its citizenship. If private cooperative endeavor fails to provide work for willing hands and relief for the unfortunate, those suffering hardship from no fault of their own have a right to call upon the Government for aid; and a government worthy of its name must make fitting response."
 - Franklin Delano Roosevelt



"I am not an advocate for frequent changes in laws and Constitutions, but laws must and institutions must go hand in hand with the progress of the human mind. As that becomes more developed, more enlightened, as new discoveries are made, new truths discovered and manners and opinions change, with the change of circumstances, institutions must advance also to keep pace with the times. We might as well require a man to wear still the coat which fitted him when a boy as civilized society to remain ever under the regimen of their barbarous ancestors."
- Thomas Jefferson



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"All men having power ought to be distrusted to a certain degree."
- James Madison



"I believe in human dignity as the source of national purpose, in human liberty as the source of national action, in the human heart as the source of national compassion, and in the human mind as the source of our invention and our ideas. It is, I believe, the faith in our fellow citizens as individuals and as people that lies at the heart of the liberal faith. For liberalism is not so much a party creed or set of fixed platform promises as it is an attitude of mind and heart, a faith in man's ability through the experiences of his reason and judgment to increase for himself and his fellow men the amount of justice and freedom and brotherhood which all human life deserves."
- John F. Kennedy



"Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are [a] few other Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid."
- Dwight D. Eisenhower

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"There's nothing wrong with America that can't be fixed by what's right with America." - Bill Clinton.