This should also be a big story.

Will let it sit in the pile of big stories that never got big when it comes to the whole Plame case.

White House Security Chief Reveals -- No Probe of Plame Leak There

NEW YORK Dr. James Knodell, director of the Office of Security at the White House, told a congressional committee today that he was aware of no internal investigation or report into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame.

The White House had first opposed Knodell testifying but after a threat of a subpoena from the committee yesterday he was allowed to appear today.

Knodell said that he had started at the White House in August 2004, a year after the leak, but his records show no evidence of a probe or report there: "I have no knowledge of any investigation in my office," he said.

Rep. Waxman recalled that President Bush had promised a full internal probe. Knodell repeated that no probe took place, as far as he knew, and was not happening today.

Knodell said he had "no" conversations whatsoever with the president, vice president, Karl Rove or anyone about the leak.

Asked by chairman Rep. Henry Waxman if he knew this was an issue of concern, he said "yes." Asked if he learned this from the White House or the press, he said, "through the press."

Hat tip to First Draft

- rob 5:15 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

As the Plame story continues, and as Bush's Justice Department spontaneously combusts one may think that Bush's administration can no longer continue to work as normal.

Don't worry about that - the Bush administration continues to implement its strategy of putting the businesses of family friends ahead of the lives of Americans. It is very strategical.

ABC News: Corps Placed Faulty Pumps in New Orleans

The Army Corps of Engineers, rushing to meet President Bush's promise to protect New Orleans by the start of the 2006 hurricane season, installed defective flood-control pumps last year despite warnings from its own expert that the equipment would fail during a storm, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The 2006 hurricane season turned out to be mild, and the new pumps were never pressed into action. But the Corps and the politically connected manufacturer of the equipment are still struggling to get the 34 heavy-duty pumps working properly.
...
The drainage-canal pumps were custom-designed and built under a $26.6 million contract awarded after competitive bidding to Moving Water Industries Corp. of Deerfield Beach, Fla. It was founded in 1926 and supplies flood-control and irrigation pumps all over the world.

MWI is owned by J. David Eller and his sons. Eller was once a business partner of former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush in a venture called Bush-El that marketed MWI pumps. And Eller has donated about $128,000 to politicians, the vast majority of it to the Republican Party, since 1996, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

The went with MWI simply because Neil Bush's Ignite! software is too obviously a bad choice for dealing with flood waters.

Update: Typo fixed thanks to commenter

- rob 5:00 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Plame: My Cover Was 'Recklessly' Abused

WASHINGTON -- Valerie Plame, the CIA operative at the heart of a political scandal, told Congress Friday that senior officials at the White House and State Department "carelessly and recklessly" blew her cover to discredit her diplomat-husband.

Plame, whose 2003 outing triggered a federal investigation, said she always knew her identity could be discovered by foreign governments.

"It was a terrible irony that administration officials were the ones who destroyed my cover," she told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Good thing Cheney thought of you as an enemy - his friends he shoots in the face.

- rob 2:30 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

The GOP tries to prove that they are good Christians to the religious right by hating all things Muslim.

House GOP protest Muslim seminar on Hill

WASHINGTON - House Republicans said Monday that Democrats should retract an offer to let the nation's largest Islamic civil liberties organization use a Capitol conference room for a seminar.

But the truth is the GOP is beholden to a cult that preaches burying the cross, and is run by a self proclaimed Messiah.

Let's talk about Moonies for a second shall we?

All of the information below is from the no longer very active but still very excellent blog: "Where in Washington, D.C. is Reverend Moon?"
Rev. Moon owns the Washington Times, the GOP loving paper that losses a $100 million a year. It isn't a business. The Washington Times is a propaganda outlet.

Rev. Moon has loaned millions to Jerry Falwell and others like him. Rev. Moon pays folks like William Bennett and George H.W. Bush handsomely to speak at events.

But let's all remember, Rev. Moon thinks he is the Messiah - not very Christian folks.

- rob 6:59 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

I'm so proud!

TCS is banned in China. (though if you really want to get here if you are there you can go via http://www.thiscentury.org which takes you here even if you are there).

Okay so it's probably the "sucks" in the url they don't like - but let's pretend it is our politics they don't like - that would definitely make TCS seem cool.

Great Firewall of China Test websites

- rob 4:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Bush: Gee - I'd like to let you investigate if we broke the law, but I can't give you clearence to find out if we broke the law.

The definition of acting "above the law" wouldn't you say?

This is old news (heck we might even have covered it here on TCS last year - we were more current back then) - but very relevant news given what is happening with Gonzales these days.

Aborted DOJ Probe Probably Would Have Targeted Gonzales

Shortly before Attorney General Alberto Gonzales advised President Bush last year on whether to shut down a Justice Department inquiry regarding the administration's warrantless domestic eavesdropping program, Gonzales learned that his own conduct would likely be a focus of the investigation, according to government records and interviews.

Bush personally intervened to sideline the Justice Department probe in April 2006 by taking the unusual step of denying investigators the security clearances necessary for their work.

- rob 3:21 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

D'Oh!

Radium Vial Missing From Cleanup Site

PIKETON, Ohio (AP) -- A small bar of radium is missing from a former uranium enrichment plant in southern Ohio, the U.S. Department of Energy reported Tuesday.

- rob 12:46 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Cheney brakes through the 20% basement.

Poll: Cheney's Favorability Rating Sinks To 18 Percent; Bush At 34%

Seriously - I didn't think it was possible to go below 20%.

Remember 4 out of 5 dentists would recommend sugarless gum to their patient's who chew gum. That means 20% of the dentists out there would recommend swirling around sugar in your mouth for dozens of minutes at a time. That is why 20% is the basement. That is the lowest percentage you can ever get now matter how insane the question.

Actually via a quick Google I realize that 4 to 8% of Americans believe Elvis is still alive - so maybe Cheney can continue his downward plunge.

- rob 4:58 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Gee I call lying to a nation to build a case for an ill-conceived war immoral.

But people being how they were born - that seems the moral thing to be.

Top general calls homosexuality 'immoral'

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Monday that he supports the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gays serving in the military because homosexual acts "are immoral," akin to a member of the armed forces conducting an adulterous affair with the spouse of another service member.

- rob 4:16 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Gonzales won't make it through the week - but Rove won't be touched (that's my theory - do you want to hear one about dinosaurs?).

Firings Had Genesis in White House

Gonzales approved the idea of firing a smaller group of U.S. attorneys shortly after taking office in February 2005. The aide in charge of the dismissals -- his chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson -- resigned yesterday, officials said, after acknowledging that he did not tell key Justice officials about the extent of his communications with the White House, leading them to provide incomplete information to Congress.

Lawmakers requested the documents as part of an investigation into whether the firings were politically motivated. While it is unclear whether the documents, which were reviewed yesterday by The Washington Post, will answer Congress's questions, they show that the White House and other administration officials were more closely involved in the dismissals, and at a much earlier date, than they have previously acknowledged.
...
The e-mails show that Rove was interested in the appointment of a former aide, Tim Griffin, as an Arkansas prosecutor. Sampson wrote in one that "getting him appointed was important to Harriet, Karl, etc."

Sampson sent an e-mail to Miers in March 2005 that ranked all 93 U.S. attorneys. Strong performers "exhibited loyalty" to the administration; low performers were "weak U.S. attorneys who have been ineffectual managers and prosecutors, chafed against Administration initiatives, etc." A third group merited no opinion.

I never knew U.S. Attorney's had to swear fealty to the king.

- rob 3:08 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Yet another example of why November, 2006 really mattered (and perhaps took us away from the brink).

Waxman Renews Niger Queries
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform :: United States House of Representatives

Chairman Waxman asks Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to respond to a series of unanswered letters, including two letters raising questions about the President’s claim that Iraq sought uranium from Niger.

For a pretty good roundup of the Niger story we go to Jon Stewart (because unfortunately "real news" outfits never got this story right):

- rob 8:26 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

NY Times catches on. Finally:

The Failed Attorney General

During the hearing on his nomination as attorney general, Alberto Gonzales said he understood the difference between the job he held — President Bush’s in-house lawyer — and the job he wanted, which was to represent all Americans as their chief law enforcement officer and a key defender of the Constitution. Two years later, it is obvious Mr. Gonzales does not have a clue about the difference.

He has never stopped being consigliere to Mr. Bush’s imperial presidency. If anyone, outside Mr. Bush’s rapidly shrinking circle of enablers, still had doubts about that, the events of last week should have erased them.

First, there was Mr. Gonzales’s lame op-ed article in USA Today trying to defend the obviously politically motivated firing of eight United States attorneys, which he dismissed as an “overblown personnel matter.” Then his inspector general exposed the way the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been abusing yet another unnecessary new power that Mr. Gonzales helped wring out of the Republican-dominated Congress in the name of fighting terrorism.

- rob 8:18 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Remember the good old days when you could just steal from the American treasury and put the health of American soldiers at risk just for a buck?

I know... 2001-2006 seems like such a long time ago. Durn them Democrats:

Halliburton to move headquarters, CEO to Dubai

and

Halliburton's Dubai Move Makes Democrats Suspicious

Actually there is no reason to be suspicious. The Halliburton folks are just big Michael Jackson fans (Michael Jackson surfaces in Dubai)

- rob 8:08 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Rove is such a tease.

At first we get all hot and bothered thinking that Rove would finally be outed as the man who'd sacrifice our safety to make sure the president doesn't get bad PR (Plamegate). But it didn't work out. Sure we got Libby, but that was like getting a date with Rove's friend with the "great personality".

But now Rove's getting us all excited again. This time sacrificing our concept of the rule of law and that no one is above the law, by pushing out those who would investigate republicans and for some reason didn't like rusing to judgement on Democrats. No one is above the law, save for the GOP.

White House says Rove relayed complaints about prosecutors

WASHINGTON - The White House acknowledged on Sunday that presidential adviser Karl Rove served as a conduit for complaints about federal prosecutors as House investigators declared their intention to question him about any role he may have played in the firing of eight U.S. attorneys.

- rob 8:03 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Thankfully the Nevada Democratic Party cancelled the Presidential debate they were going to have hosted by Fox News.

Fox News isn't a news channel with a conservative bent, Fox News is Crazy Right Wing Propaganda

Click on the above link for some amazing screen shot from Fox that points out what a "news" outfit it is.

My favorites:
&

& I love that "D" by Foley's name, I can see Fox saying "It's an honest mistake, I mean he is queer." That's the number one cable news network folks.

- rob 7:54 PM - [PermaLink] -

----

Subscribe to the TCS Feed

Having trouble with some of the poor English on this site?
Imagine what it looks like when translated by a machine:

Search TCS

Archive

Archive Index Page

What is this?

This is a "team" blog.  We are a bunch of Americans, whose rising distress in our leader's decisions brought us together to make this site.  As Bush said, he's a "uniter."  Many of us have never even met.
That's the internet for you.

This Century Sucks Store

Buy our cool stuff.
And tell everyone what you feel.  

We have a little Store you can visit.  

Our store's selection of items is constantly growing. Come see what we have.

 

We're also Amazon Associates, so if you want to buy something from Amazon, please search for it below, and we will get a few bucks from the sale.

Search Now:

Sites we often like:

Tin Foil Caps

The Free Speech Zone

The office of the independent blogger

Buzzflash

Tom The Dancing Bug

VerifiedVoting.org

Get Your War On

This Modern World

Eschaton / Atrios

Daily Kos

Contribute to America's Future

It is now more important then ever.

Donate to the Democractic Congressional Campaign Committee

Donate to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee

Some More Site Mottos

"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



"The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home."

"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

More Sites we often like:

more coming...

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