What a Tremendously Terrible Idea, Featuring Hot Tub Tom DeLay

From TPM Muckraker (please excuse me while I go vomit):

DeLay's Third Act?

Josh Bolten, who's just been tapped to replace Andy Card as White House Chief of Staff, reportedly wants an outsider to replace him at the Office of Management and Budget.

The necessary qualification? Well, you might say he needs an expert at moving money around. Let's see...

Sources said that he is considering former and current House members for the post.

One associate even suggested that retiring Rep. Tom DeLay was being considered, though the most likely pick would be from a conservative budget association.

No word on whether DeLay would be allowed to fulfill his duties while sitting at the defense table during his trial in Texas..

Happy Passover

to my Jewish friends.

Happy Full Moon to my Wiccan and werewolf friends.

Happy day before TGIF for my drinking friends.

Boy, Are the Bushies Ever Trying to Get Shed of Rumsfeld

... or at least, make us believe they are so they can treat Rummy as the only one responsible for George and Dick's egg-cellent Iraqi adventure. Apparently, they want someone even more Bushie to lead up the attack on Iran... perhaps Scott McClellan or that little gnome woman lawyer friend of Dubya's will be available.

American Defense Contractors Using Cheap Illegal Labor

SusanG at DailyKos posts this damning story:

CBS visits a building site where construction of housing for officers at Trident Submarine Base is underway and finds a military subcontractor using the cheapest labor it can find:

These men, most in their 20s and all born in Mexico, spoke in shadows because they are here illegally, and fear talking to the press could get them fired. Talking about the long hours and low pay -- less than half what a union member makes -- about $13 or $14 an hour.

Despite dozens of arrests at military bases around the country, government construction sites continue to be fertile ground for undocumented workers, something Centex, the Texas-based conglomerate who has contracts with the federal government, was hesitant to discuss...."

Sometimes, they check your documents," says one man. "Sometimes no. If you show up to work, they need you to work. So it's not always the case."

"But, it almost doesn't matter," says another man. "Because they treat you as if you don't have any rights."

35 US Military Deaths in Iraq So Far in April

Those 35 - and we're only at the 12th day of a month with 30 days - already outnumber all the US military deaths in Iraq in March.

The Hyperbole on Iran Has Officially Begun

Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo is hot on the case:

Okay, we may not be able to stop or counter the cresting wave of Iran nuclear bamboozlement. But we can at least give you the play-by-play along with color commentary that we can refer back to when we're discussing possible Iran disengagement strategies in 2010.

Here's a gem just out from Bloomberg, courtesy of TPM Reader TB.

Headline: "Iran Could Produce Nuclear Bomb in 16 Days, U.S. Says"

Gee, You Never Know Who Will Turn Up on the Terrorist No Fly Watch List

You know, people like those who've been busy giving service to our country. From AssPress on MSNBC:

MINNEAPOLIS - A Minnesota reservist who spent the past eight months in Iraq was told he couldn't board a plane to Minneapolis because his name appeared on a "no-fly" list as a possible terrorist.

Marine Staff Sgt. Daniel Brown, who was in uniform and returning from the war with 26 other Marine military police reservists, was delayed briefly in Los Angeles until the issue was cleared up.

South Dakota

Let me share this killah cartoon from My Left Wing.

Thank You and Rest in Peace, Rev. William Sloane Coffin

My Left Wing reports that peace activist Rev. William Sloane Coffin has died.

Billmon Shares My Incredulity at the "Yawning" Nature of the Media on the Nuclear Iran Issue

From Billmon at the Whiskey Bar:

Maybe it's just me, but I've been at least a little bit surprised by the relatively muted reaction to the news that the Cheney Administration and its Pentagon underlings are racing to put the finishing touches on plans for attacking Iran – plans which may include the first wartime use of nuclear weapons since Nagasaki.

I mean, what exactly does it take to get a rise out of the media industrial complex these days? A nuclear first strike against a major Middle Eastern oil producer doesn't ring the bell? Must every story have a missing white woman in it before the cable news guys will start taking it seriously?

I suppose I could understand it if all we had was Sy Hersh's word that the administration is planning another "pre-emptive" war in the Middle East. After all, we're talking about the same reporter who peddled all those crazy, unsubstantiated allegations about torture at Abu Ghraib prison. You can't be too careful with a journalistic loose cannon like that.

But now that Sy's Iranian nightmare – including the nuclear aspect of it – has been confirmed by the semi-official media, you'd think we could expect a little more ruckus about it from someone other than Helen Thomas. (No disrepect intended to Thomas, but she's probably the media personality the White House would most like to see taking point on this story.)

Even by the corrupt and debased standards of our times, this is a remarkable thing. The U.S. government is planning aggressive nuclear war (the neocons can give it whatever doublespeak name they like, but it is what it is); those plans have been described in some detail in a major magazine and on the front page of the Washington Post; the most the President of the United States is willing to say about it is that the reports are "speculative" (which is not a synonym for "untrue") and yet as I write these words the lead story on the CNN web site is:

ABC pushes online TV envelope

Nobody Wants to See John Ashcroft Now Either

As Atrios notes, Vancouver practically cannot give away tickets to see former Attorney General and still pompous self-righteous schmuck John Ashcroft speak. I might pay to have him shut up, however.

Bush and Colin Powell Lied About Iraq Mobile Labs But the Media Should Apologize?

Just when you think this White House cannot possibly get anymore brazen, Judd at Think Progress brings us this:

On May 29, 2003, President Bush said “We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories.” This morning the Washington Post revealed that a Pentagon field report transmitted to Washington on May 27, 2003 “had already concluded that the trailers had nothing to do with biological weapons.”

Today during the White House press briefing, Scott McClellan demanded a public apology from the news media for covering the story:

You know, I saw some reporting talking about how this latest revelation — which is not something that is new; this is all old information that’s being rehashed — was an embarrassment for the White House. No, it’s an embarrassment for the media that is out there reporting this.

I brought up with some of you earlier today some of the reporting that was based of this Washington Post report. And I talked to one of network about it…they expressed their apologies to the White House.

I hope they will go and publicly apologize on the air about the statements that were made, because I think it is important given that they had made those statements in front of all their viewers. So we look forward to that happening as well.

McClellan’s complaint is that the Washington Post and others suggest that President Bush may have known about the report before he made definitive statements that the trailers were for the purpose of building biological weapons.

When McClellan was asked when the White House became aware of the Pentagon field report, however, McClellan couldn’t say. He told the press corps “I’m looking into that matter” but the answer was “not the point.”

Did Bush Tell the Prosecutor What He Told Us, I.E. a Lie?

Martin Schram makes a very important point in this Ventura County Star newspaper column:

There is only one major question that remains publicly unanswered concerning President Bush in the special prosecutor's probe of the leak campaign to discredit Iraq war critic Joseph Wilson that ended up outing his wife, ex-CIA covert agent Valerie Plame.

It isn't the famous: What did the president know and when did he know it? (We now know a good bit about what this president knew and when he knew it. And what he did after he knew it.)

It is: Did the president tell the special prosecutor's team all the truth he knew, or did he tell them the same thing he told us back then?

We need to know because what Bush was telling us in 2003 — that he knew nothing about the leaks and wanted to find and fire all leakers — ran the narrow gamut from misleading half-truth to bald-faced untruth.

Of course, it is not a federal crime for a president to lie to the American people when he is not under oath. (No, the usual punishment we inflict upon incumbent presidents who lie is to re-elect them.)

But it is a crime for anyone to mislead, impede or lie to federal investigators — whether they are not under oath to tell the truth or not. For a president or a vice president, it can be an impeachable crime. (This point was argued most persuasively by congressional Republicans a few years ago as they made a federal case out of an incident that was not about national security, but consensual oral sex.)

Thanks to Buzzflash for the link.

Comprehensive US/Iraq Database

Invictus at Blah3 brings us this:

It's all here. Frankly, it's overwhelming.

Immigration Bill Fallout

Denny Hastert and Bill Frist are working to distance themselves from the bill's harshness, the cowards! From the WaPo:

In the wake of this week's massive demonstrations, many House Republicans are worried that a tough anti-illegal-immigration bill they thought would please their political base has earned them little benefit while becoming a lightning rod for the fast-growing national movement for immigrant rights.

House Republicans rushed through legislation just before Christmas that would build hundreds of miles of fence along the U.S.-Mexico border, require that businesses verify the legality of all employees' status through a national database, fortify border patrols, and declare illegal immigrants and those who help them to be felons. After more lenient legislation failed in the Senate last week, the House-passed version burst into the public consciousness this week, as hundreds of thousands of protesters across the country turned out to denounce the bill.

Yesterday, House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) issued a joint statement seeking to deflect blame for the harshest provisions of the House bill toward the Democrats, who they said showed a lack of compassion. "It remains our intent to produce a strong border security bill that will not make unlawful presence in the United States a felony," Hastert and Frist said.

Elsewhere in WaPo, Bush also acts like the cowardly lion on immigration:

White House spokeswoman Erin Healey said she would not divulge internal discussions about what the president agreed to say last week, but she asserted that Bush has been "very engaged in this issue." She reiterated his support for a comprehensive bill that would tighten border patrols, toughen the enforcement of laws outlawing employment of undocumented workers, and expand a temporary guest-worker program for both illegal immigrants and legal foreign workers seeking access to the U.S. labor market.

Last night, citing Bush's Saturday radio address, in which he spoke of "a promising bipartisan compromise," Healey said Bush had expressed "strong support" for the Senate agreement.

With Bush on the sidelines, it may be the demonstrators who will drive the process forward.

As he watched tens of thousands of marchers in the streets of Phoenix, Rep. John Shadegg (R-Ariz.) noted that the demonstration kicked off with a rendition of the national anthem amid a sea of U.S. flags. Shadegg voted for the House bill, but he said yesterday's orderly, patriotic marches should help the cause of lawmakers from both parties who want to temper the bill and add an avenue to legal employment.

American Majority Believes Bush Did Wrong in CIA Leak

From Ed&Pub on the latest Gallup poll:

A new Gallup poll released today finds that most Americans are critical of President Bush's actions in the Plame/CIA leak scandal, but only one in four is following the matter closely.

Overall, 63% of Americans believe Bush did something either illegal (21%) or unethical (42%), while 28% say he did nothing wrong. While many more Democrats are critical, 3 in 10 Republicans also find that Bush did something illegal or unethical. The more closely people are following the issue, the more likely they are to say he did something illegal rather than merely unethical.

The poll, conducted April 7-9, 2006, shows that just 25% of Americans are following the matter "very" closely, while another 39% are following the issue "somewhat" closely. Another 36% are not following the issue closely at all.

Despite the latest turns in the CIA leak case, and news from Iraq, the president's overall approval rating did not fall still further, hanging on at 37%, which is in line with most other polls.

I'm Still Peeved About the Censoring of Cheney Being Booed Loudly and Roundly at Nationals Opener Tuesday

I just can't believe that the TV media in particular - and even the Washington Post - took what certainly was a news item: loud public booing and catcalls during VP Dick Cheney yesterday as he threw out (badly) the opening ball at the Nationals opener, and hid it from the public.

Feds: Proof of US Citizenship Needed for Health Care

Nice. Keep illegal immigrants out of even basic health care. For heaven's sake... how awful!

Ewww... Sushi is Almost Exclusively Tied to the Evil Reverend Sun-Myung Moon

Dedalus brings us this at Blah3 (and ouch... I just had some very nice California Roll last Friday, too):

Ah sheesh, can't a guy enjoy a nice piece of unagi anymore? There's a whole lot of people who know the Unification Church better than me, but I don't think I've ever even heard of this angle: to paraphrase Bill Maher, when you dine on sushi, you dine with Moon:

In a remarkable story that has gone largely untold, Moon and his followers created an enterprise that reaped millions of dollars by dominating one of America's trendiest indulgences: sushi. [....]

Adhering to a plan Moon spelled out more than three decades ago in a series of sermons, members of his movement managed to integrate virtually every facet of the highly competitive seafood industry. The Moon followers' seafood operation is driven by a commercial powerhouse, known as True World Group. It builds fleets of boats, runs dozens of distribution centers and, each day, supplies most of the nation's estimated 9,000 sushi restaurants.

Although few seafood lovers may consider they're indirectly supporting Moon's religious movement, they do just that when they eat a buttery slice of tuna or munch on a morsel of eel in many restaurants. True World is so ubiquitous that 14 of 17 prominent Chicago sushi restaurants surveyed by the Tribune said they were supplied by the company. [....]

Moon predicted in 1974 that the fishing business would "lay a foundation for the future economy of the Unification Church." In fact, while Moon and businesses affiliated with him reportedly have poured millions of dollars into money-losing ventures including The Washington Times newspaper, the seafood ventures have created a profit-making infrastructure that could last-and help support the church-long after the 86-year-old Moon is gone.

Ugh, ugh, UGH.

Venezuela Has 5 Times the Crude Oil of Saudi Arabia?

That's what the BBC's Greg Palast said today on Democracy Now.

This makes Hugo Chavez much more of a player on the world stage and this comes at a time when the Bushies are trying so hard to oust Chavez, regardless of the fact that his people want him to stay. The Bushies already helped stage a coup to get rid of Chavez, who made it back.

I've never quite reached a conclusion as to whether Chavez is a good guy or a bad guy. But the more I watch the Bushies try to take him out, the more I begin to question if Chavez is on the side of better than the Bushies. The Bushies seem to oppose any democratically elected leader, anyone who sides (at least to some degree) with the normal people, and anyone who doesn't just gouge on gas. Which is why we've been buying gas almost exclusively at Citgo for quite awhile now, even though the closest station is nearly 25 miles away (but no gas station is close to us in the hinterlands).

Asia Times: Bush Will Rebound Because He Will Attack Iran

This is a chilling column from Spengel in Asia Times which basically predicts the GOP will win the mid-term 2006 elections by a landside because Bush will be back on top because Bush will use the nuclear option and attack Iran.

Goddamn.

Fox News: Aren't Immigration Rallies Perfect Opportunity to Arrest Illegal Immigrants?

Can they arrest Bill O'Reilly for sexual deviancy and the rest of them for flat out lying with an FCC license while they're at it?

Think Progress has the story.

Berlusconi Won't Go Quietly

The Times informs us that, like George Bush in 2000, Silvio Berlusconi will contest the results of the Italian election and try to use a cooked court to decide the results in his favor. Fascist.

So Why the Hell Was the Reaction - Thunderous Boos - to Cheney Today Suppressed?

All day long, I've seen all these folks coming in on a search that pulled up my note last year about Cheney (and Bush before him) booed as they threw out the first ball at the start of baseball season. But when I was watching today's event on the news, I always saw Cheney with NO sound track whatsoever.

Now I know why the searches and why the no sound track: because Cheney was met with far MORE negative reaction today than last year. Fox News killed the audio during the live airing, but CNN and MSNBC where I saw it replayed just ran no audio with it to hide the fact that he was greeted with jeers. Never did the folks working the desk mention one goddamned thing about it while I watched either.

Makes you wonder what else they spin... like we don't know.

Another Article on Iran

Reader Jane posting in comments recommends this additional article on Iran and the Bushies plans for it.

As First Amendment Violators, Bush and Justice Department Earn "Muzzle" Prizes

From Wired:

President Bush and the Justice Department are among the winners of the 2006 Jefferson Muzzle awards, given by a free-speech group to those it considers the most egregious First Amendment violators in the past year.

Bush led the list, compiled by the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, for authorizing the National Security Agency to tap the phones of U.S. citizens who make calls overseas. The wiretaps were conducted without authorization from a federal court. The White House defended the warrantless wiretapping program as necessary to fight terrorism.

The Justice Department earned a Muzzle for demanding that Google turn over thousands of Internet records, prompting concerns that more invasive requests could follow if the government prevails.

"If individuals are fearful that their communications will be intercepted by the government, such fears are likely to chill their speech," the Jefferson center said.

Other winners of the 15th annual awards include the Department of Homeland Security for barring an air marshal from expressing concerns about public safety; the Yelm, Wash., City Council for banning the words "Wal-Mart" and "big-box stores" at public hearings; and students at the University of Connecticut who heckled conservative columnist Ann Coulter.

Speaking of Iraq: Newt Gingrich Wants Us Out

From Editor and Publisher, from (sadly) US 2008 prez candidate Newt Gingrich:

"It was an enormous mistake for us to try to occupy that country after June of 2003," Gingrich said during an informal question-and-answer session at the school, according to the newspaper. "We have to pull back, and we have to recognize it."

I agree with Newt here, but I sure as hell don't want him for president.

Four More Marines Die in Iraq Today

This after we lost several over the weekend.

Poll Shows Now 45% of Americans Want Bush Censured for His Actions

Without doubt, this number will rise substantially in coming weeks.

Secret Police Arrest Al Qaeda Critic for "Destructive Thoughts"

A Human Rights Watch release published at Common Dreams' newswire:

NEW YORK - April 11 – Saudi authorities in the northern city of Ha’il should immediately release Rabbah al-Quwai’i, a journalist for Riyadh’s al-Shams newspaper, Human Rights Watch said today. The group also urged Turki al-Sudairy, Saudi Arabia’s minister for human rights, to open a public inquiry into the role of the country’s security and intelligence services in al-Quwai’i’s arrest.

On April 3, Saudi Arabia’s domestic intelligence agency, (al-mabahith), arrested al-Quwai’i, 24, on charges of “doubting the [Islamic] creed” and for “harboring destructive thoughts.” Al-Quwai’i had been a frequent contributor to Internet discussion forums in Ha’il and was the editor for the media section of the Saudi Internet forum “A Body of Culture,” (Jasad al-Thaqafa). His writings questioned prevalent religious doctrine and in particular criticized thinking that in his view contributed to acts of violence in Saudi Arabia by al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula.

Al-Quwai’i’s arrest added a new twist to his trouble with the mabahith, which had failed to investigate death threats he received in November 2005 because of his Internet writings. International human rights law protects free speech, including criticism of religion and society, but bans incitement to violence, such as death threats.

Progressive: I Like It!

I happened to catch this dictionary.com definition of a Progressive on Common Dreams' site tonight and I liked it enough to want to share because it's idealistically how I see myself.

Pro.gress.ive

adj.
Moving forward; advancing.
Proceeding in steps; continuing steadily by increments: progressive change.
Promoting or favoring progress toward better conditions or new policies, ideas, or methods: a progressive politician; progressive business leadership.
n.
A person who actively favors or strives for progress toward better conditions, as in society or government.

Paul Krugman on Bush and Iran

Since The Times put the editorial columnists like Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman behind a premium subscription wall, I've had to depend on the kindness of strangers and reprint sites to enjoy them (I'm sure many of you are in the same boat).

Today's - or rather, yesterday's dated April 10th - column from Krugman comes courtesy of Common Dreams; again, it's one I encourage you to read in full, but as usual, here's a snippy-snip:

"But he wouldn't do that." That sentiment is what made it possible for President Bush to stampede America into the Iraq war and to fend off hard questions about the reasons for that war until after the 2004 election. Many people just didn't want to believe that an American president would deliberately mislead the nation on matters of war and peace.

Now people with contacts in the administration and the military warn that Mr. Bush may be planning another war. The most alarming of the warnings come from Seymour Hersh, the veteran investigative journalist who broke the Abu Ghraib scandal. Writing in The New Yorker, Mr. Hersh suggests that administration officials believe that a bombing campaign could lead to desirable regime change in Iran - and that they refuse to rule out the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

"But he wouldn't do that," say people who think they're being sensible. Given what we now know about the origins of the Iraq war, however, discounting the possibility that Mr. Bush will start another ill-conceived and unnecessary war isn't sensible. It's wishful thinking.
...
Why might Mr. Bush want another war? For one thing, Mr. Bush, whose presidency is increasingly defined by the quagmire in Iraq, may believe that he can redeem himself with a new Mission Accomplished moment.

And it's not just Mr. Bush's legacy that's at risk. Current polls suggest that the Democrats could take one or both houses of Congress this November, acquiring the ability to launch investigations backed by subpoena power. This could blow the lid off multiple Bush administration scandals. Political analysts openly suggest that an attack on Iran offers Mr. Bush a way to head off this danger, that an appropriately timed military strike could change the domestic political dynamics.

Does this sound far-fetched? It shouldn't. Given the combination of recklessness and dishonesty Mr. Bush displayed in launching the Iraq war, why should we assume that he wouldn't do it again?

Paul Krugman on Bush and Iran

Since The Times put the editorial columnists like Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman behind a premium subscription wall, I've had to depend on the kindness of strangers and reprint sites to enjoy them (I'm sure many of you are in the same boat).

Today's - or rather, yesterday's dated April 10th - column from Krugman comes courtesy of Common Dreams; again, it's one I encourage you to read in full, but as usual, here's a snippy-snip:

"But he wouldn't do that." That sentiment is what made it possible for President Bush to stampede America into the Iraq war and to fend off hard questions about the reasons for that war until after the 2004 election. Many people just didn't want to believe that an American president would deliberately mislead the nation on matters of war and peace.

Now people with contacts in the administration and the military warn that Mr. Bush may be planning another war. The most alarming of the warnings come from Seymour Hersh, the veteran investigative journalist who broke the Abu Ghraib scandal. Writing in The New Yorker, Mr. Hersh suggests that administration officials believe that a bombing campaign could lead to desirable regime change in Iran - and that they refuse to rule out the use of tactical nuclear weapons.

"But he wouldn't do that," say people who think they're being sensible. Given what we now know about the origins of the Iraq war, however, discounting the possibility that Mr. Bush will start another ill-conceived and unnecessary war isn't sensible. It's wishful thinking.
...
Why might Mr. Bush want another war? For one thing, Mr. Bush, whose presidency is increasingly defined by the quagmire in Iraq, may believe that he can redeem himself with a new Mission Accomplished moment.

And it's not just Mr. Bush's legacy that's at risk. Current polls suggest that the Democrats could take one or both houses of Congress this November, acquiring the ability to launch investigations backed by subpoena power. This could blow the lid off multiple Bush administration scandals. Political analysts openly suggest that an attack on Iran offers Mr. Bush a way to head off this danger, that an appropriately timed military strike could change the domestic political dynamics.

Does this sound far-fetched? It shouldn't. Given the combination of recklessness and dishonesty Mr. Bush displayed in launching the Iraq war, why should we assume that he wouldn't do it again?

Fun with American History

MissM reprises a pretty funny story about immigrants and American History from the All Spin Zone. Go read it and get a much-needed laugh.

BTW, About That Rise in Gas Prices

While the media is spinning it that the sharp rise in the past two weeks of gas prices has to do with the discovery that there is actually less availability than before or that production has topped out, that's not entirely the case.

Instead, the prices first spiked with the initial news about the Bushies' plans toward Iran, which called far more attention to Iran's nuclear testing. When the White House did more saber rattling - guess what? - the prices for crude went higher.

Now, some of us predicted this kind of game playing when you have two gas/energy company men in the White House. But everyone is going to pay through the nose for this.

Iran

The announcement about the tests this morning did not help, of course. But none of us can afford to believe the Bushies that they are pursuing only diplomatic measures on Iran.

We heard this on Iraq as well and it simply was not true. We've learned many times and in many ways that Saddam and Iraq were on target even before 9/11 and certainly afterward. I think Iran's been on the drawing board for a long time as well.

Hearing Bush on it yesterday and Rumsfeld pooh-poohing it today made me believe them less rather than more; they wouldn't need to expend such hyperbole if they had nothing to hide.

DNA and the Duke LaCrosse Team

Even among the media, there has been widespread surprise that the D.A. in the area of North Carolina where the supposed acts of sexual violence took place, allegedly by white members of the Duke LaCross team, against an "exotic dancer" is choosing to pursue charges despite the failure of DNA to tie these men to the event.

Unfortunately, I think this speaks volumes about the lack of understanding people have about DNA and scientific crime scene analysis in general. It is NOT unusual to fail to have DNA evidence, despite what CSI tells you. Also, the kind of DNA analysis done in a very short period of time is not the kind of exhaustive testing that can be done over a period of sometimes months. DNA is only recovered in a portion of crimes; the same is true with fingerprints and other forms of evidence. Crime shows make it so fancy and certain, but it just often is not. Also, DNA analysis is still relatively new; there is so much we still do not know about it.

I am glad to see some of the members of the community beginning to rally around the supposed victim, reminding the public this woman was not just an exotic dancer but a college co-ed, a mother of two small children trying to support those kids the best way she could. I don't know if events played out as she said or if the Duke LaCrosse team - all or in part - is guilty. But I do know that even a prostitute can be raped and sodomized against his or her will and this is violence whenever a person says No and is still acted upon anyway.

Raw Story: Secret Service Documents Call More Question Around Jeff Gannon

Like they're weren't enough questions about JD Guckert/Jeff Gannon already.

Gannon’s ready access to President Bush and his work for a news agency that frequently plagiarized content from other reporters and tailored it to serve a conservative message may raise new questions about the White House’s attempts to seed favorable news coverage. Democrats have sought to paint Guckert in the context of other efforts by the Administration to “plant” positive spin by paying for video news releases and columnists to espouse their views.

Guckert made more than 200 appearances at the White House during his two-year tenure with the fledging conservative websites GOPUSA and Talon News, attending 155 of 196 White House press briefings. He had little to no previous journalism experience, previously worked as a male escort, and was refused a congressional press pass.

Perhaps more notable than the frequency of his attendance, however, is several distinct anomalies about his visits.

Guckert made more than two dozen excursions to the White House when there were no scheduled briefings. On many of these days, the Press Office held press gaggles aboard Air Force One—which raises questions about what Guckert was doing at the White House. On other days, the president held photo opportunities.

On at least fourteen occasions, Secret Service records show either the entry or exit time missing. Generally, the existing entry or exit times correlate with press conferences; on most of these days, the records show that Guckert checked in but was never processed out.

In March, 2003, Guckert left the White House twice on days he had never checked in with the Secret Service. Over the next 22 months, Guckert failed to check out with the Service on fourteen days. On several of these visits, Guckert either entered or exited by a different entry/exit point than his usual one. On one of these days, no briefing was held; on another, he checked in twice but failed to check out.

“I’d be worried if I was the White House and I knew that a reporter with a day pass never left,” one White House reporter told RAW STORY. “I’d wonder, where is he hiding? It seems like a security risk.”

Others who have covered the White House say not checking in or out with the Secret Service is unusual, especially in the wake of Sept. 11. The Secret Service declined to comment.

The City with the Lowest Quality of Life?

For the third year running, it's Baghdad.

Oh gosh. Come to think of it, that's exactly how long *we* have controlled Baghdad, isn't it? Hmmm.

More Than Two Million Marched on Monday

That's the number the UK Independent pegs Monday's immigration rallies at. Wow.

Ed&Pub's Greg Mitchell Follows Up on US Propaganda on al Zarqawi et al

I couldn't believe this story which I highlighted yesterday got almost no attention today - the media was too busy trying to discredit Sy Hersh today for his "we're gonna nuke Iran" article - specifically, that the US government has planted propaganda to increase the supposed importance of terrorist players like al Zarqawi. But at least Editor and Publisher's Greg Mitchell was paying attention.

I encourage you to read the piece in its entirely, but here's a snippy-snippet:

“Leaks to reporters from U.S. officials in Iraq are common, but official evidence of a propaganda operation using an American reporter is rare,” Ricks observed. He quoted Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, the U.S. military's chief spokesman when the propaganda campaign began in 2004: "We trusted Dexter to write an accurate story, and we gave him a good scoop."

Filkins, in an e-mail to Ricks, said he assumed the military was releasing the Zarqawi letter "because it had decided it was in its best interest to have it publicized." He told Ricks he was skeptical about the document's authenticity then, and remains so now.

But Ricks' article, if anything, underplays the impact of the letter in February 2004--and if Filkins had qualms about its authenticity, it hardly deterred him and his paper from giving it serious, and largely uncritical, attention.

Christians Sue for the Right to Discriminate

Lovely. From the Chicago Tribune.

Criminal Diebold-Voting Conflict of Interest

Why I can rarely find anything on this story in the U.S. but can in other countries just boggles my mind and fries my... well, another part of my anatomy.

The Secretary of State in Ohio during the 2004 presidential election, a man who caused much concern at the time, turns out to hold a large number of shares in Diebold, the electronic voting folks. His story is probably as bogus as the Ohio 2004 presidential vote results.

Ohio is reeling with a mixture of outrage and hilarity as Secretary of State J. Kenneth Blackwell has revealed that he has owned stock in the Diebold voting machine company, to which Blackwell tried to award unbid contracts worth millions while allowing its operators to steal Ohio elections. A top Republican election official also says a Diebold operative told him he made a $50,000 donation to Blackwell's "political interests."

A veritable army of attorneys on all sides of Ohio's political spectrum will soon report whether Blackwell has violated the law. But in any event, the revelations could have a huge impact on the state whose dubiously counted electoral votes gave George W. Bush a second term. Diebold's GEMS election software was used in about half of Ohio counties in the 2004 election. Because of Blackwell's effort, 41 counties used Diebold machines in Ohio's highly dubious 2005 election, and now 47 counties will use Diebold touchscreen voting machines in the May 2006 primary, and in the fall election that will decide who will be the state's new governor.

Blackwell is the frontrunner for Ohio's Republican nomination for governor. The first African-American to hold statewide office, the former mayor of Cincinnati made millions in deals involving extreme right-wing "religious" radio stations.

As part of his campaign filings he has been required to divulge the contents of his various stock portfolios. Blackwell says that in the process he was "surprised" to learn he owned Diebold shares. According to central Ohio's biggest daily, the conservative Republican "Columbus Dispatch," Blackwell claims his multi-million-dollar portfolio has been handled "by a financial manager without his advice or review."

Thanks to Buzzflash for the link.

Bush and GOP Keep Falling in Polls - Lowest Figures Yet for This Particular Poll

What a surprise (yawn); from WaPo:

Political reversals at home and continued bad news from Iraq have dragged President Bush's standing with the public to a new low, at the same time that Republican fortunes on Capitol Hill also are deteriorating, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News poll.

The survey found that 38 percent of the public approve of the job Bush is doing, down three percentage points in the past month and his worst showing in Post-ABC polling since he became president. Sixty percent disapprove of his performance.

With less than seven months remaining before the midterm elections, Bush's political troubles already appear to be casting a long shadow over them. Barely a third of registered voters, 35 percent, approve of the way the Republican-held Congress is doing its job -- the lowest level of support in nine years.

Our Anti-Democracy White House Tied to Illegal 2002 Phone Jamming Case in NH

Goddamn them! From the AssPress:

WASHINGTON - Key figures in a phone-jamming scheme designed to keep New Hampshire Democrats from voting in 2002 had regular contact with the White House and Republican Party as the plan was unfolding, phone records introduced in criminal court show.

The records show that Bush campaign operative James Tobin, who recently was convicted in the case, made two dozen calls to the White House within a three-day period around Election Day 2002 — as the phone jamming operation was finalized, carried out and then abruptly shut down.

The national Republican Party, which paid millions in legal bills to defend Tobin, says the contacts involved routine election business and that it was "preposterous" to suggest the calls involved phone jamming.

The Justice Department has secured three convictions in the case but hasn't accused any White House or national Republican officials of wrongdoing, nor made any allegations suggesting party officials outside New Hampshire were involved. The phone records of calls to the White House were exhibits in Tobin's trial but prosecutors did not make them part of their case.

Democrats plan to ask a federal judge Tuesday to order GOP and White House officials to answer questions about the phone jamming in a civil lawsuit alleging voter fraud.

Repeated hang-up calls that jammed telephone lines at a Democratic get-out-the-vote center occurred in a Senate race in which Republican John Sununu defeated Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, 51 percent to 46 percent, on Nov. 5, 2002.

Hundreds of Thousands Marched Today in Over 90 Cities

(applauding loudly)

Picture lifted shamefully (as opposed to shamelessly) from the great Skippy of Skippy International.

"Thank You for Smoking": The Movie

Have you seen it?

Skippy has and liked it. But I'd love to hear your opinion since I want to go see it (as a neighbor of the place that produces the cheddar cheese derided in the film, Cabot Creamery as well as a neighbor of Bill Macy - at least, he did live here close to David Mamet).

Iran: When, Not If

The president's happy horseshit today aside, Stranger and Invictus at Blah3 are discussing when we'll strike Iraq. Like them, I think that - unless something greatly changes - our strike on Iran is probably a certainty (something I am very, very, very sad to think).

Time's "Why Iraq Was a Mistake"

MissM reprints some of the key passages from the above-referenced article by a retired military man that I think is well worth reading.

Christian Coalition Shrinks as Debt Grows

Couldn't happen to a nicer group of people. From MSNBC from the WaPo:

In an era when conservative Christians enjoy access and influence throughout the federal government, the organization that fueled their rise has fallen on hard times.

The once-mighty Christian Coalition, founded 17 years ago by the Rev. Pat Robertson as the political fundraising and lobbying engine of the Christian right, is more than $2 million in debt, beset by creditors' lawsuits and struggling to hold on to some of its state chapters.

In March, one of its most effective chapters, the Christian Coalition of Iowa, cut ties with the national organization and reincorporated itself as the Iowa Christian Alliance, saying it "found it impossible to continue to carry a name that in any way associated us with this national organization."

Berlusconi Out?

It's looking like this could be the case, although reporters in Italy now indicate the lead by his centrist Democrat challenger is narrowing.

Let us hope Berlusconi goes.

France's Protesters Get Results

France has backed off on the law that sent millions to the streets.

Hmmm... something to be learned from this?

Christian Science Monitor: Leaker in Chief

One last one before I go beddie-bye (and in that first paragraph, I sure as hell question the president's right to declassify information selectively for his own selfish purposes!):

The president is not accused of illegality. And no one questions his legal right to declassify information. But critics are now charging Mr. Bush with hypocrisy - a development that makes efforts to put his presidency back on track all the more daunting.

"Here's why this hurts: It reminds people again that the intelligence was bad and we're in Iraq without end for some of the wrong reasons, and that's at the heart of his 36 percent," says Larry Sabato, a professor of politics at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, referring to Bush's job approval rating in recent polls.

Democracy Falters in the Arab World, Despite the Bushies Worst Efforts

The more the Bushies pushed, the worse it has gotten:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates, April 9 — Steps toward democracy in the Arab world, a crucial American goal that just months ago was cause for optimism — with elections held in Iraq, Egypt and the Palestinian areas — are slowing, blocked by legal maneuvers and official changes of heart throughout the Middle East.

Analysts and officials say the political rise of Islamists, the chaos in Iraq, the newfound Shiite power in Iraq with its implication for growing Iranian influence, and the sense among some rulers that they can wait out the end of the Bush administration have put the brakes on democratization.

"It feels like everything is going back to the bad old days, as if we never went through any changes at all," said Sulaiman al-Hattlan, editor in chief of Forbes Arabia and a prominent Saudi columnist and advocate. "Everyone is convinced now that there was no serious or genuine belief in change from the governments. It was just a reaction to pressure by the international media and the U.S."

Want Another Eight Years of Bush? (GOD! NOOOOO!)

Then vote John McCain, says this piece in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer (by my hero, Helen Thomas) which I think makes a lot of (very sad) sense:

In his bid for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, Sen. John McCain is moving to the right.

The Arizona Republican, who failed to win the Republican presidential nomination in 2000, is the most visible Republican on television, outside the White House, and seems to never pass up an opportunity to appear on Sunday talk shows.

All this appears to be part of his effort to transform his image as a maverick independent so that he can make his pitch to the conservative Republican base that will vote in the party's primaries and caucuses two years hence.

Electing McCain would be an extremely grave mistake; it was before he moved to the right and it's even moreso now.

Ariel Sharon: A Little Late, Eh?

WaPo says Ariel Sharon will finally be ruled "incapacitated".

I think brain dead is probably quite a bit more honest and to the point, no? This is ridiculous.

Meanwhile, what's happening to the Palestinian people in the wake of the Hamas election and all the attention on Sharon is just criminal. It's getting much worse for the normal people now, and it was already abyssmally tough before.

Washington's Leak Culture

The LA Times explores this in enough detail that you will probably want to read.

Colin Powell: Huge Mistakes in Iraq

Read it here, including the fact that we did not have enough troops on the ground and ignored early warning signs of trouble.

I Cannot Stress Enough

how big a deal the propaganda story in the WaPo is. If this is not the lead story throughout this week, then something really is irreparably broken with our media because this administration has a most vested interest in keeping bin Laden and al Zarqawi as the chief bogeymen; to have a revelation that this has been manufactured (something so many of us have believed to be true even before 2001) is a huge step forward.

This is a Big Deal: From WaPo

From today's WaPo, as linked to by Buzzflash - read beyond the quote for why I think this is a huge deal for us:

The U.S. military is conducting a propaganda campaign to magnify the role of the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq, according to internal military documents and officers familiar with the program. The effort has raised his profile in a way that some military intelligence officials believe may have overstated his importance and helped the Bush administration tie the war to the organization responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The documents state that the U.S. campaign aims to turn Iraqis against Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, by playing on their perceived dislike of foreigners. U.S. authorities claim some success with that effort, noting that some tribal Iraqi insurgents have attacked Zarqawi loyalists.

For the past two years, U.S. military leaders have been using Iraqi media and other outlets in Baghdad to publicize Zarqawi's role in the insurgency. The documents explicitly list the "U.S. Home Audience" as one of the targets of a broader propaganda campaign.

Some senior intelligence officers believe Zarqawi's role may have been overemphasized by the propaganda campaign, which has included leaflets, radio and television broadcasts, Internet postings and at least one leak to an American journalist. Although Zarqawi and other foreign insurgents in Iraq have conducted deadly bombing attacks, they remain "a very small part of the actual numbers," Col. Derek Harvey, who served as a military intelligence officer in Iraq and then was one of the top officers handling Iraq intelligence issues on the staff of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told an Army meeting at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., last summer.

English journalist Robert Fisk said on last Friday's Democracy Now - and something he has indicated before - that he has strong doubts about whether al Zarqawi has been alive for sometime. Apparently, it's unheard of in Muslim tradition not to honor the death of one's parent. Yet when his mother died in early 2004, there was NO word from him. He feels that al Zarqawi may have died a long time ago and that the U.S. has chosen to run him as a phantom for media purposes.

Lieberman: May Run for Senate as Indy if Dems Fail to Nominate Him

According to reporting at DailyKos, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, who has seemed FAR more like a right-wing GOP hawk than a Dem since Bush came to power, has said he will NOT rule out running as an Independent if the Connecticut Dem party fails to give him the nomination over Ned Lamont, his primary Dem challenger.

I don't see Lieberman making it as an Indy. I'm not sure he'd win as a Dem this time out either.

Can You Figure Out Why Dept of Homeland Insecurity Harassed This Fellow?

I cannot. But we're hearing more and more incidents where - besides being fascinated with very young girls - these folks are just bullying people.

I especially liked the part where "they're looking into it" but they're sure the guy was wrong. Uh huh.

Blair's Envoy Warns of Arrested Iraqis Disappearing into Black Hole Created by Coalition

Very, very disturbing, especially when read on Iraq's "Freedom Day":

Iraqis arrested by coalition forces have disappeared into a 'black hole' with no records of where they are being held, Tony Blair's personal envoy on human rights has warned.

Ann Clwyd said if the scandal of the missing prisoners had been taken more seriously from the start by the US, it could have helped prevent the abuse of detainees in their jails.

In an interview with The Observer, the Labour MP said she was 'very unhappy' at the rising numbers still detained - and called on the Iraqi government to publish a report on claims that inmates were tortured by Iraqi jailers.

Clwyd, appointed after decades of campaigning against Saddam Hussein's regime, reports directly to the Prime Minister and has until now rarely discussed her work.

She has spoken out amid growing criticism of Britain's failure to stop abuses in Iraq, arguing that suggestions Blair was unwilling to confront the US administration on such issues were wrong: 'I know, in conversations he has with the people of influence in the US, he doesn't pull his punches. He pushes them, sometimes with direct results.'

Clwyd's own files include two alarming cases highlighting the issue of the missing - and the scale of effort required to trace them.

The first involves an elderly woman arrested shortly after the war in the middle of the night by US soldiers. With her family unable to find her, relatives in Britain sought Clwyd's help.

Oh, Mr. Rumsfeld?

The Army is facing a major shortage of officers... not to mention body armor, bullets, soldiers, reservists...

Shall I go on?

Rem... Remi...Remin....Remind...Reminde...Reminder

Blah3 is looking for its first million visitors before the end of April. They have an interesting crew of posters frequently offering different material than you find on 99 out of 100 other blogs.

Stop by, visit, and don't bite. ;)

Our Economy and the Dollar

Monkeyfister at Blah3 offers us a fascinating bit of information I did NOT know about. Did you?

So Much For Dollarizing Tthe Global Economy...

Six months ago, the Federal Reserve quietly announced that as of March 20, 2006, they would no longer publish "M3" Data. The "M3" was the amount of cash the government printed to put into circulation, propping-up the U.S. economy. As of eight days ago, M3 data is no longer being reported, so there is no way for the public, investors or bond holders to know how much currency exists - and no way to gauge how much a "dollar" is truly worth. Three separate sources in the U.S. Treasury have told us that this week, the Federal Reserve ordered TWO TRILLION dollars to be printed secretly! The U.S. Treasury is allegedly running printing presses 24/7 to accommodate that order. Treasury employees were specifically ORDERED not to talk about this to anyone because it could cause economic collapse. This probably explains why the US Treasury Secretary resigned several months ago and was replaced by a Bush flunkey, and why Greenspan resigned from the Fed several weeks ago, not wanting to go down with the Titanic. We were also told that the whole Immigration Amnesty Debate (especially the well-funded well-attended protests) was deliberately scheduled to take place now, to divert attention from this massive printing/devaluation of the U.S. Dollar. The White House apparently hoped that by the time anyone found out about the flooding of the market with dollars, they could stage an event, such as an air attack on Iran's nuclear facilities, that would distract the public entirely.

Questions About UK Times Article on Niger Document Forgeries

Josh Marshall is on the case.

Maureen Dowd: The Divine Right of the Bushes

(choke)

From today's Dowd:

W. subscribes to the Nixonian theory that when a president does it, it's not illegal — or maybe it's the divine right of kings. God has been pretty active in Republican politics lately: Tom DeLay said God told him to drop out of his re-election race. If the administration were seriously trying to declassify something in the national interest, wouldn't it have President Bush explain his decision or have his Scottish terrier yip it out from the podium, rather than having Scooter whisper it in Judy's ear?

Instead, sounding very Lewis Carroll, the White House claims that when the president leaks something secret, it's not secret anymore. It's the Immaculate Declassification: intelligence is declassified by passing it on to a friendly reporter.

"The president believes the leaking of classified information is a very serious matter," Scott McClellan said. "And I think that's why it's important to draw a distinction here. Declassifying information and providing it to the public, when it is in the public interest, is one thing. But leaking classified information that could compromise our national security is something that is very serious. And there is a distinction." And thank goodness we have a White House that gets that distinction. Democrats who don't, he sniffed, are guilty of "crass politics."

If W. wants the information out, it's good for the country to make it public. If W. doesn't want the information out, it's bad for the country to make it public. L'état, c'est moi.

That's how we got mired in the Iraq war in the first place. The administration ruthlessly held back classified information that contradicted its bogus case for war, and leaked classified information that supported it.

The Bushies keep trying to manipulate reality, but reality bites back. That's not only crass politics. It's lethal politics. L'état, c'est mess.

Did You Know Today is Freedom Day in Iraq?

Well, apparently, they don't know it there either.

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Five roadside bombs killed at least three people in Iraq on Sunday — the three-year anniversary of the Baghdad's fall to U.S. forces. Iraq police and soldiers bolstered security in the capital to prevent attacks on "Freedom Day."

The holiday marks the April 9, 2003 event in which a huge crowd of Iraqis cheered as U.S. Marines hauled down the statue of Saddam Hussein on Firdous Square, marking the collapse of his regime.

American troops killed eight suspected insurgents in a pre-dawn raid north of the capital. Drivers in the capital were stopped and searched by Iraqi forces at extra checkpoints in the city.

Most Iraqis welcomed the end of Saddam's regime, but the insurgency, militias, rising sectarian violence, electricity shortages and political vacuum have all sapped much of the enthusiasm generated by the collapse of dictatorship.

"Iraqis are pleased and displeased," said Qassim Hassan, a soldier. "They are pleased because they got rid of tyranny and dictatorship, but they are displeased because they went from bad to worse. The Iraqi street is seething between sadness and terrorism."

Even U.S. officials acknowledged the mixed nature of the Iraq war's current stage.

Time Also Running Out on Iraq Rebuilding

Of course, we are the ones who leveled much of the country, with Halliburton et al involved in bombing plans so they could cherry pick what they bid on to rebuild. Unbelievable.

But anyhoo... from the AssPress:

BAGHDAD, Iraq - In their makeshift offices in a former Baghdad palace, a small army of American builders and engineers, oilmen and budgeteers is working overtime on last-minute projects to help reconstruct Iraq.

Their time is running short, their money running out.

After three years in which the U.S. government allocated more than $20 billion for Iraq reconstruction, a bill now making its way through Congress adds only $1.6 billion this year, just $100 million of it for construction — not for building schools or power stations, but for prisons.

Does the sharp cut in aid surprise and disappoint the planners here? "Probably both," said Michael P. Fallon, programs chief for the major U.S. reconstruction agency here.

Like we're not breaking new stuff everyday and the electricity still rarely works, although it flowed fine under Saddam. Go figure.

Arlen Spector: Explanation Required for CIA Leak By White House

Yeah, yeah, like Arlen is going to get one.

The Why of Illegal Immigration

Blogger David Sirota tackles this in a piece appearing in the San Francisco Chronicle, notably:

This is the supply-and-demand reality that no amount of emotional rhetoric can change -- and in that reality we can find the way to address illegal immigration: by stopping the demand instead of trying to block the supply. The Academy Award-winning movie, "Traffic," highlighted the perils of waging a drug war that only focuses on trying to block the supply of narcotics, rather than on eliminating the demand for them.

These same lessons can be applied to illegal immigration. The best way to stop illegal entry into our country from Mexico is to tamp down the demand by Mexicans to enter this country illegally. After all, no wall, no fence, no border security measure can be as effective as reducing the demand for entry. This means reforming our trade policy to include serious wage, workplace and human-rights provisions so that cross-border commerce actually improves the lives of Mexican workers to the point where they no longer feel the dire economic need to break our immigration laws.

Think about it this way: Had NAFTA lifted 19 million Mexicans out of poverty as promised instead of helping to drive 19 million Mexicans into poverty, you can bet the flood of illegal immigrants across our southern border would be a trickle instead of the flood it is today. To be sure, politicians are talking about amnesty or guest-worker programs to give workers some kind of legal status. But if those proposals do not come hand-in-hand with a reform of America's trade policies, they are destined to be what they have been in the past -- merely short-term, stopgap measures, not real solutions.

Until America's political leaders start making trade policy address the imbalance between the demand for good jobs and the supply of good jobs in Mexico, illegal immigration will continue to be a major problem right here at home.

Another Watergate

I think Karlo at SwerveLeft makes a compelling argument for the need for another Watergate to rivet the public's attention. But I'd also argue that we've already had a number of issues that I think certainly met the gravity of Watergate or beyond but which someone this administration just smirked and smarmed its way out of thanks to a complicit press and a public all too willing to spend their free time shopping for cheap Reeboks at Wal-Mart.

Big Immigration Rallies Scheduled for Monday

And, as the WaPo tells us, more ethnic groups will join the predominantly Latinos and Latinas already marching.

Elsewhere, AP reports a new poll that has immigration near the top of the list of concerns for the U.S. public:

WASHINGTON - People are now about as likely to mention immigration as the economy when they are asked to name the most important problem facing the United States, though both rank behind war in Iraq and elsewhere, an AP-Ipsos poll found.

Immigration's rise in the latest survey about the nation's top problems suggests the public is keeping close watch on the immigration debate in Congress and reaction around the country.

...The rise in public concern about immigration over the last three months has been substantial.

Is Bush Running Out of Time to Rebound to Push More of His Crap Through?

That's the question posed by WaPo. Let us hope he is out of time.

More on NigerGate: Truth Behind the Lies

From Mick Smith at the Times Online (UK) (a lot here; you probably want to read it in full while this is but a longish snippet):

The revelations in today’s Sunday Times that two employees of the Niger embassy in Rome forged documents apparently proving Niger was selling uranium to Iraq are unlikely to end the conspiracy theories that swirl around the Niger Affair, and not just because the investigation into the Plamegate affair will run and run. There are still a number of minor mysteries that require further investigation, particularly two burglaries in Rome, one at the Niger embassy over the 2001 New Year’s holiday and one at the home of the Niger consul on January 31, 2001. Both break-ins baffled the Italian police, not least because the burglar didn’t seem to be interested in taking any money.

Then there is the fact that some of the alleged Martino documents published in the Italian press appear to be different in a number of respects to the ones that were passed to the US embassy in Rome and eventually to the International Atomic Energy Authority which denounced them as fakes. How could this be? It makes you wonder whether, with the intelligence market drying up for the freelance peddlers of information, they have found an alternative market among elements of the Italian press.

But there might be something more sinister at work. Certainly the Italian authorities appear to think so, briefing darkly to their relatively few friends in the Italian press that the French are deliberately muddying the waters, implicating Italian intelligence officers in the affair to draw attention away from the fact that it was their agent, Rocco Martino, who put the documents into circulation in the first place. Martino was a French spy, run by the French secret service station in Brussels and paid a retainer of between 1,500 and 2,000 Euros a month for his services. If any intelligence service was responsible for the appearance of the forged Niger documents, so the argument goes, it was the French intelligence service, the DGSE.

I have always found the “blame the French argument” suspicious. It has been put to me on a number of occasions and I have never used it, or indeed believed it. Certainly the break-ins took place long before any of the controversy over Iraqi WMD. Bush was barely in office in January 2001. But my research into the Niger affair has uncovered a number of strange facts that suggest there may be more to the French involvement in the affair than I previously believed. An investigation of the various documents that appeared in the Italian press has apparently found that a number of them were faxed from French fax numbers, others were tracked in emails sent via a French server.

Then there is the source of a series of articles in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica critical of the Italian intelligence services. A lot of the information in the articles does not match the evidence I have obtained from very reliable sources, some of whom have a track record of persistently contradicting the pre-war intelligence long before it was discredited, and others who were involved in the leaking of the Downing Street Memos. I am sure the two La Repubblica journalists accurately reported what their sources said. But all sources have motives and not all of them are well-intentioned. The two La Repubblica journalists have just published a book called Il Mercato della Paura (The Market in Fear), which includes their account of the Niger story and cites their source as Martino.

Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald: Cheney, Libby at Center of Concerted Effort to Discredit Niger Doc Critic Joe Wilson

From Sunday's WaPo:

As he drew back the curtain this week on the evidence against Vice President Cheney's former top aide, Special Counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald for the first time described a "concerted action" by "multiple people in the White House" -- using classified information -- to "discredit, punish or seek revenge against" a critic of President Bush's war in Iraq.

Bluntly and repeatedly, Fitzgerald placed Cheney at the center of that campaign. Citing grand jury testimony from the vice president's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, Fitzgerald fingered Cheney as the first to voice a line of attack that at least three White House officials would soon deploy against former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV.

Cheney, in a conversation with Libby in early July 2003, was said to describe Wilson's CIA-sponsored trip to Niger the previous year -- in which the envoy found no support for charges that Iraq tried to buy uranium there -- as "a junket set up by Mr. Wilson's wife," CIA case officer Valerie Plame.

Libby is charged with perjury and obstruction of justice for denying under oath that he disclosed Plame's CIA employment to journalists. There is no public evidence to suggest Libby made any such disclosure with Cheney's knowledge. But according to Libby's grand jury testimony, described for the first time in legal papers filed this week, Cheney "specifically directed" Libby in late June or early July 2003 to pass information to reporters from two classified CIA documents: an October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate and a March 2002 summary of Wilson's visit to Niger.

One striking feature of that decision -- unremarked until now, in part because Fitzgerald did not mention it -- is that the evidence Cheney and Libby selected to share with reporters had been disproved months before.

Man, Lots of Stuff in the News

.... today. I'll try to post all the major links here.

If you see some important ones I failed to note, please post in Comments. Thank you!

More on Seymour Hersh and Iran

Don't forget the Hersh/New Yorker piece in the 4/17 issue! It's worth the time.

The goal in Iran? No shit, Sherlock: regime change. But that Iran would give them a clear line for oil distribution line ain't exactly chopped liver.

Seymour Hersh on the Military and Iran

I was going to post about Sy Hersh's appearance on CNN this morning, but I see that Nico at Think Progress already covered it well, to whit:

This morning on CNN, New Yorker journalist Seymour Hersh addressed the uproar at the highest levels of the U.S. military over plans to launch a massive strike against Iran that would include nuclear weapons:

What I’m writing here is that if this [plan to use nukes] isn’t removed — and I say this very seriously, I’ve been around this town for 40 years — some senior officers are prepared to resign. They’re that upset about the fact that this plan is kept in. … [O]ne thing about our military, they’re very loyal to the president, but they’re getting to the edge. They’re getting to the edge with not only Rumsfeld, but with Cheney and the President.

Nico also includes a link to American Progress so you can watch the interview, at least in part.

Al Qaeda NOT Behind Big July Train Bombings in London

From the UK Observer:

The official inquiry into the 7 July London bombings will say the attack was planned on a shoestring budget from information on the internet, that there was no 'fifth-bomber' and no direct support from al-Qaeda, although two of the bombers had visited Pakistan.

The first forensic account of the atrocity that claimed the lives of 52 people, which will be published in the next few weeks, will say that attacks were the product of a 'simple and inexpensive' plot hatched by four British suicide bombers bent on martyrdom.

Far from being the work of an international terror network, as originally suspected, the attack was carried out by four men who had scoured terror sites on the internet. Their knapsack bombs cost only a few hundred pounds, according to the first completed draft of the government's definitive report into the blasts.

The Home Office account, compiled by a senior civil servant at the behest of Home Secretary Charles Clarke, also discounts the existence of a fifth bomber. After the bombings, police found an unused rucksack of explosives in the bombers' abandoned car at Luton station, which led to a manhunt for a missing suspect. Similarly, it found nothing to support the theory that an al-Qaeda fixer, presumed to be from Pakistan, was instrumental in planning the attacks.

A Whitehall source said: 'The London attacks were a modest, simple affair by four seemingly normal men using the internet.'

Give a Very Warm Web Surf and Welcome to...

MissM's very own blog. She's gooooooood.

Bushies Knew Saddam's Nuclear Efforts Were BS When They Told Us to Worry About the Mushroom Cloud

From the Times:

Reports about Saddam Hussein's nuclear efforts were being discredited by senior officials when President Bush authorized their release.

Gee, what a surprise (NOT).

Is Iraq Worth It?

The LA Times breaks down some core poll results on the above-referenced question along with where the focus is right now by the "powers that be".

Most Intelligent Voice on Faux News in a Bit

Thanks to Skippy for pointing me to My Left Wing where I was able to find a link to hear Mary Scott O'Connor's appearance on the John Gibson Show on Faux... er... Fox News. Class act.

I know Mary has been by here at least once. But she was a refreshingly intelligent change on Fox.

Vermont Dems Vote on Impeachment

Morgan Brown just sent this over:

The Democratic State Committee on Saturday voted tourge the U.S. Congress to begin impeachment proceedings againstPresident Bush, but decided against asking the Vermont Legislature tojoin that call.

Margaret Lucenti, a committee member from Montpelier, said thepresident had misled the country into war, conducted illegalelectronic spying on Americans and violated international torturetreaties."I would hope that any one of these infractions would bring theadministration down... We need to restore accountability in ourfederal government," she said.

"I would hope that any one of these infractions would bring theadministration down... We need to restore accountability in ourfederal government," she said.

Adoption of the resolution calling for impeachment proceedings makesVermont's the fifth state Democratic party committee to take suchaction, following New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin,state party officials said.

Medicare Part D for Duh

Tonight, NBC news referred to the president's assinine Medicare drug coverage plan as "increasingly popular". Exactly on what are they basing this?

I've talked to pharmacists, Medicare recipients, caregivers, and others who all say this is a complete nightmare at best.

Read this, for example, about how cancer patients are suddently getting hit with massive bills for their medications. And the cut-off for signing up for D for Disaster coverage is just about a month away, with many seniors terrified as hell both to sign up AND to fail to sign up.

The Times: Government Study Shows Iraq Separating into Sectarian Instable Groups

Chilling but not altogether unsurprising or beyond belief:

An internal staff report by the United States Embassy and the military command in Baghdad provides a sobering province-by-province snapshot of Iraq's political, economic and security situation, rating the overall stability of 6 of the 18 provinces "serious" and one "critical." The report is a counterpoint to some recent upbeat public statements by top American politicians and military officials.

The report, 10 pages of briefing points titled "Provincial Stability Assessment," underscores the shift in the nature of the Iraq war three years after the toppling of Saddam Hussein. Warnings of sectarian and ethnic frictions are raised in many regions, even in those provinces generally described as nonviolent by American officials.

There are alerts about the growing power of Iranian-backed religious Shiite parties, several of which the United States helped put into power, and rival militias in the south. The authors also point to the Arab-Kurdish fault line in the north as a major concern, with the two ethnicities vying for power in Mosul, where violence is rampant, and Kirkuk, whose oil fields are critical for jump-starting economic growth in Iraq.

The patterns of discord mapped by the report confirm that ethnic and religious schisms have become entrenched across much of the country, even as monthly American fatalities have fallen.
Those indications, taken with recent reports of mass migrations from mixed Sunni-Shiite areas, show that Iraq is undergoing a de facto partitioning along ethnic and sectarian lines, with clashes — sometimes political, sometimes violent — taking place in those mixed areas where different groups meet.

The report, the first of its kind, was written over a six-week period by a joint civilian and military group in Baghdad that wanted to provide a baseline assessment for conditions that new reconstruction teams would face as they were deployed to the provinces, said Daniel Speckhard, an American ambassador in Baghdad who oversees reconstruction efforts.

Bush: Wrong Again on Immigration

After the Senate, having been back from vacation just two weeks, decided to go on another two-week hiatus following the failure to pass an immigration bill, President Bush came out swinging today blaming the Dem majority leader, Harry Reid, for his "obstructionist" efforts.

But, while I'm hardly the biggest fan in general of Reid, here's why I think Bush is full of it. First, supposedly a lot of leading GOPers are talking behind the scene that they don't WANT to pass an immigration bill right now. They want to have the issue still being discussed going into mid-term elections the first Tuesday in November. They've done this before on gay marriage and other issues, so I'm perfectly willing to believe they're doing it again.

Second, while the House version of the immigration bill is by far the most draconian and unmanageable, the "compromise" version in the Senate was still something of a nightmare. They drafted this nonsense system where the longer someone has broken the immigration laws, the more they stand to benefit. Only the Senate could think that was a workable plan. No GOPer was going to happily sign onto that initiative and any Dem with an IQ over 50 should not have agreed to it either.

Third, Time Magazine covered this debate in some depth in the most recent issue and while they agree everyone is mad at Reid, they agree just blaming it on Reid is not quite that simple. Read it here.

The GOP is, I believe, the biggest bullshit factor here. It's rich GOPers who scream about immigration while they hire all this cheap labor without visas or green cards. Forgive me, but I just don't hear about huge Dem-leaning businesses where 300 or 3,000 employees all happen to share the same Social Security number. So while Arlen Spector can scream and yell that it's to Dems' advantage not to have an immigration bill, I think the opposite is actually more true: no immigration bill that involves sending all aliens back home will not pass, so it is in Republicans best interest NOT to pass a bill that calls for anything less than deportation or lynching.

The problem, however, goes way beyond state, beyond party, and even beyond country. This isn't a new problem. However, frankly, I'm still surprised people want to come to the land of nuts and roses as much as they once did.

Nor is there going to be any magic solution here. The end result will have to infuriate just about everybody on one point or another. But let's face it: no building of a wall is going to stop illegal immigration. And, if you think we're broke now, imagine how broke we'll be trying to round up 11-12 million illegal immigrants and sending them back home.

Is Joe-Mentum the Only Dem Getting Briefed on Plans to Bomb Iran?

Some think so. The folks at Atrios discuss.

A Liberal is a Conservative Who Got a Foreclosure Notice

Foreclosures on American homes are skyrocketing.

So much for Bush's "ownership" society... or wait, he meant the banks owning the homes.

Lenin May Finally Be Buried

Just 82 or so years after Lenin's death.

Geez, I mean, I'm a packrat but I don't usually keep loved ones or - er... not loved ones around the house for decades. Not unless you count... er.. never mind.

For those of you of the teen persuasion, that's Vladimir Lenin, not John Lennon. To my knowledge, Yoko Ono had nothing to do with the breakup of Russia.

I Have Hurt Myself

And speaking of Joe Lieberman, uber-putz! Actually, I blame Jesus' General, aka Patriotboy, for perhaps breaking my rib from laughing too hard when I saw this posted today (if there is ANY wonder whatsoever how the general wins his Koufax award, there should not be):

Major Lieberman Home State Paper Asks Where Joe is on the Bush Leak Debacle

The Hartford Courant asks why Joe Lieberman is being so mum on the whole issue of the revelation that Bush-Cheney authorized the leak of information that led to the outing of Joe Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA operative. The paper also notes that Lieberman, who has handily won re-election several times, is taking hits for his "perceived coziness" with the Bushies and has "appeared rattled" in recent weeks by his current challenger's strong showing.

I'd like to see Joe's political career end. He worries far too much about what is good for him and too little about what is good for those he represents. This, however, is true of many if not most elected officials, but as I've said before, I think we need a total change in Washington that would involve losing just about everyone currently serving there.

Our Very Broken Immigration Bureaucracy

Important and not altogether surprising revelations on how broken our system is from a former INS official. Nods to Buzzflash for the link to the wire service article.

A Cancer Not on the Presidency But the Nation

The Scranton (PA) Times-Tribune has a very powerful editorial on the Libby-Bush-Plame-CIA Outing issue. Here's a bit:

The administration felt it had to discredit Mr. Wilson, who had put the lie to the president’s claim that Iraq had tried to purchase “yellowcake” uranium to make nuclear weapons. Mr. Libby began meeting with reporters and sharing classified intelligence, including portions of a National Intelligence Estimate supporting the president’s claim.

Mr. Cheney also ordered the outing of Ms. Plame, although it’s not clear from Mr. Libby’s testimony what the president knew and when he knew it.When the scandal broke, Mr. Bush said he would fire anyone caught leaking, a pledge he later amended to read “anyone who broke the law.”

When Mr. Libby was charged with five counts of perjury, obstruction and lying to the FBI, he was allowed to resign. Guess you have to be convicted, too. “I’d like to know if somebody in my White House did leak sensitive information,” Mr. Bush said, revealing himself as either a liar or a fool, perhaps both. Either he authorized the leaks, or Mr. Cheney did so without his permission. Either way, it’s time for a reckoning.

The excuses have already begun. While the White House is dodging questions about Mr. Libby’s testimony, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales insists the president has the “inherent authority to decide who should have classified information.” This is the same great legal mind who advocated torture and secret wiretapping. In other words, if the president does it, it’s not illegal.

It all has an eerily familiar ring, but something is very different this time around. We’re no longer talking about a cancer on the presidency, but a presidency that’s a cancer on the nation.

Brokeback Bill Frist?

You've no doubt heard some of the rumors swirling since Bill Frist sent an invitation out that included a red handkerchief strategically placed in a cowboy's specific back pocket and where you had to undo the cowboy's belt buckle to get to details of the event.

With someone else, I'd just consider it taking advantage of the popularity of a piece of pop culture right now with Brokeback Mountain's incredible popularity (I have not seen it even though I am the child of a cowboy who, at least based on the number of girlfriends he had besides my mother - cough - was NOT gay).

But coming from presidential hopeful Bill Frist, who has proven himself happy to abandon science and common sense to pander to the type of weak-minded Bush-Rove conservative base, it just strikes me as VERY, VERY odd.

From WaPo:

"Don't miss a celebration of southern hospitality," the invite says, "one-of-a-kind music and special friends . . ." though it's unclear who those friends are and what makes them special.

The back of the card shows the cowboy from behind with a red flowered handkerchief sticking out of his right pocket. Wait a minute -- wasn't there something about how this used to be some kind of code in the gay community years ago? A way to signal each other in crowded, noisy bars?

So we checked the GayCityUSA.com's Hanky Codes. Sure enough, there it was in the chart explaining what they mean: red hanky in right pocket. Oh, dear.

More on Iran

The New Yorker has a long and important piece on the Bushies' plan for Iran which, I suspect, will not really wait on any diplomatic endeavors (like Iraq, it seems to be a foregone conclusion what they want to do so they'll make the "news" justify their actions). I encourage you to take the time to read it if you can.

I think we need to pay attention to this and perhaps make it clear to Congress critters and everyone else that we will NOT be duped again. Iran is a much different deal than Iraq; we'll be in much worse shape for the effort.

Tom DeLay

AttaTurk at Rising Hegemon offers this observation on Hot Tub Tom DeLay:

Tom DeLay tells Time that he is leaving Congress for the purpose of assisting orphans, based upon how DeLay has used orphans before for his own political ends and given his work experience, I fear one can draw only one conclusion.

Tom DeLay intends to exterminate Orphans.

And I fear AttaTurk may be right.

A Note to CNN

What the (bleep) is it with CNN thinking that if it happens in Atlanta, it rivets the entire rest of the nation?

It does not.

Yet they spend countless hours on Atlantas stuck on cranes, Atlantans in storms, Atlantas trying to find a dipshit missing bride because a) it's cheap for them to do and b) they think the rest of the country will be gaga for it.

God forbid they spent less time on the weather and more time on political and governmental stuff people could DO something about.