Bodies of 22 Slaying Victims - Some Shot, Some Beheaded - Found in Iraq

From the LA Times (oh yes, it's getting better in Iraq each and every day, just ask the president):

BAGHDAD — Twenty-two bodies were discovered Monday in the southeast Baghdad neighborhood of Um Maalif, including one identified as that of a police colonel from the southern city of Karbala, a hospital official said.

All had been shot and most were believed to be Shiite Muslims. Two were beheaded.

The night before the bodies were discovered, men dressed in Iraqi national guard uniforms raided the neighborhood, a police official said today.

When a local resident tried to stop the men, he was shot, the official said.

The raiders then led away several other residents, including two members of the Iraqi security forces assigned to guard electric plants. The men are believed to be among the dead discovered Monday.

Is Rumsfeld Usurping the Peace Corps? This is Nuts!

From WaPo:

The U.S. military, struggling to fill its voluntary ranks, is offering to allow recruits to meet part of their military obligations by serving in the Peace Corps, which has resisted any ties to the Defense Department or U.S. intelligence agencies since its founding in 1961.

The recruitment program has sparked debate and rising opposition among current and former Peace Corps officials. Some welcome it as a way to expand the cadre of idealistic volunteers created by President John F. Kennedy. But many say it could lead to suspicions abroad that the Peace Corps, which has 7,733 workers in 73 countries, is working together with the U.S. armed forces.

"Does this raise red flags for the Peace Corps community? I'd say yes -- emphatically so," said Kevin Quigley, president of the National Peace Corps Association, an organization of returned volunteers, staff and supporters. "We think a real or perceived linkage between the Peace Corps and military service could damage the Peace Corps and potentially put the safety of Peace Corps volunteers at risk."

Fitzgerald: Zeroing in on Rove?

From Kos:

He's like the Terminator, and the target is clearly Rove.

Staking out a grand jury is no easy business, and only a few (broadcast) entities chose to do that last Friday with the grand jury empanelled to hear evidence in the Wilson/Fitzgerald investigation.

Amazingly, given all the focus on the story, no one seems to have reported the identity of those who appeared.

Until now.

Based on ABC News sources (and our own video camera) it appears that at least two witnesses testified before the grand jury last Friday, both close associates of Karl Rove.

ABC News has learned that one was Susan Ralston, Rove's long-time right hand. The other, per ABC News' Jake Tapper, was Israel "Izzy" Hernandez, Rove's former left hand (and now a top Commerce Department official). It isn't clear if either had been asked to testify before last week [...]

The biggest two questions in this case now involve just what prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has in mind.

First, what makes him interested in Judith Miller? And, second, who is on the list of people he thinks might have committed a crime? The appearances of Ralston and Hernandez suggests at least part of the focus remains on Rove, although his attorney tells ABC News that he still believes Rove is not a target of the investigation.

At press time, The Note was not able to satisfactorily source our reporting on the topics that Ralston and Hernandez were asked about, so that must wait for another day.

"Now Get Back to Work"

Those were the words uttered by the president after speaking with the shuttle crew today. Humorous? Didn't come off that way, even if he did mean it in that vein.

Ironic, too, for a man who takes 2-3 hours off in the middle of most days, retires VERY early, and is on his way to a 5 week vacation at Crawford, his 50th such trip - JUST TO CRAWFORD - in his 4.5 years in office. Mind you, he vacations at far more places than his pretend ranch, such as Kennebunkport, on friends' yachts, at Camp David. Last estimate was that this president - at a time of such national insecurity, when most Americans are working more and more and getting less and less benefits like health care and paid vacations - has spent nearly 50% of his presidency on vacation.

I'm not particularly amused. The VP also takes a month or more off just in one section each year; usually in Wyoming during the month of July (or more).

No Surprise: Bush's Gonzales Balks at Releasing Supreme Court Nominee's Paper Trail

Nope, no surprise here:

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) - U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said on Monday he would have "very serious concerns" about sharing internal documents requested by Senate Democrats in the debate over John Roberts' nomination to the Supreme Court.

In an interview with Reuters, Gonzales also said the Justice Department does not routinely respond to such requests unless they come from the full Senate Judiciary Committee, which will begin confirmation hearings on Roberts on Sept. 6.

"There's been no formal request by the committee. We normally respond to a formal request by the committee and not by one senator or a group of senators," Gonzales said in the interview as headed to New Orleans to give a speech.

The documents in question, requested Friday by eight Democrats on the panel in a letter to Gonzales, related to 16 cases Roberts was involved in while deputy solicitor general in the early 1990s in the first Bush administration.

They touch on a host of divisive issues including school desegregation, the death penalty, civil rights and a case in which Roberts echoed the administration position that the 1973 Supreme Court decision that legalized abortion should be overturned.

No One Fucks with Karl Rove, Not Even a Special Prosecutor

Look who's getting his balls handed to him, pickled and shrunken: Fitzgerald, the special prosecutor also investigating the Rove-Plame CIA leak case:

After the limp response House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) gave to the idea of keeping the corruption-busting Patrick Fitzgerald on as the U.S. attorney here, the immortal words of White Sox broadcaster Hawk Harrelson come to mind:

"He gone!"

As Fitzgerald's noose tightens around Mayor Richard M. Daley's City Hall and the trial of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan is coming into view, a historical political battle looms. Will Fitzgerald be allowed to continue his brilliant legal campaign to weed out the grafters of both parties, or will Chicago and Illinois continue to be most corrupt?

The smart money already is on the powerful dealmakers of both parties who want Fitzgerald vised. He's a hunter of big game, and the pursued on the top rungs of the power structure are fed up and fearful. Last week, rumors again surfaced that Fitzgerald would be gone when his term expires in October. So, it's understandable that Hastert--the second in line of succession to the presidency, one of Capitol Hill's most powerful lawmakers and Illinois' top Republican--would be asked Thursday, "how do you feel" about reappointing Fitzgerald.

His non-response betrayed no feeling one way or another: It's not my job; the president appoints the U.S. attorneys. No one has asked for Fitzgerald's resignation.

Question--"Do you think he should continue?"

Hastert--"Well, you know that's a decision that is going to have to be made by the president."

Hastert could have said that he'll try to use his supposedly meager influence at the White House to protect Fitzgerald from the circling buzzards. That he thinks Fitzgerald is doing a hell of a job, that he shouldn't be run out of town by the boodlers.

But he didn't, and in this game, failure to back Fitzgerald puts you on the dark side. Fitzgerald has devoted a lifetime to fighting such bad guys as John Gambino, of the Gambino mob family. And Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, who led the 1993 terrorist attack against the World Trade Center. And Osama bin Laden and the terrorists in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people.

In addition to his duties here, he's also serving as special prosecutor in the CIA-leak investigation.

One of the presumed targets of that investigation, top White House adviser Karl Rove, is a friend to Illinois' Robert Kjellander, a Republican national committeeman, who received an $800,000 consulting fee as part of a bond deal engineered from across the political aisle, by Democrats. Considering such interwoven interests, the public will be left to draw its own conclusions if the White House ousts Fitzgerald.

Illinois voters also would have cause to wonder about the integrity of the Republican Party here, if Fitzgerald is dispensed with. Illinois Republicans often speak about how they must come together in the fight against the common foe, Gov. Rod Blagojevich. So, here's something that can unite them: Fitzgerald must stay and Kjellander, symbol of what's wrong with the party, must go.

The corruption and shenanigans are so bad that they continue as if they were addictions, even with Fitzgerald's presence looming. Last week, for example, a secret list of witnesses gathered by Fitzgerald's people in a case against a patronage supervisor was faxed to City Hall, where it was put into public play, in violation of a court order. Oops, it was an accident, said the supervisor's attorney, a former prosecutor himself. Whatever. The effect still is the same on real and potential witnesses: An intimidating "We know who you are."

Sometimes it all seems like a fantasy.

John Bolton, Slightly Less Popular than Karl Rove?

Editor and Publisher provides a wrap-up of many strong editorials across the nation regarding Mr. Bush's sleazy interim appointment of John Bolton to the UN, such as:

San Francisco Chronicle: "On the long list of questionable appointments President Bush has made during his tenure, [Mr. Bolton] may be the worst of all."

San Jose Mercury-News: "Bush's choice of ambassador is one indicator of how much interest he has in working within international organizations. Not overly much, is the message. If Bolton must be the ambassador -- and Bush will have it no other way -- then the manner of his acquiring the job is fitting."

[and]

Centre Daily Times (State College, Pa.): “There's something sadly fitting about President Bush naming John Bolton as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations through a tactic known as a 'recess' appointment. Bolton, after all, is the diplomatic world's equivalent of a playground bully.”

How is Ralph Reed Getting Away with a Run for Public Office With His Record?

Here's the scoop from Josh Marshall at Talking Points Memo:

Over his site, Ed Kilgore's got a partial answer to the Ralph Reed mystery. That is, how Reed is still managing to run for state-wide office in Georgia even though he's been centrally implicated in the Abramoff Indian gambling shakedown scandal. Ed says, just be patient. Lots of people in the state seem to realize Reed's goose is cooked. The question, says Ed, is just when between now and election day it all catches up with him.

Well, Perhaps the Jury Still Is Out for Bush on Evolution

I mean, what evidence do we have that he has evolved at all? But "intelligent design" hardly describes Bush, Frist, and the twins, either.

In Exchange for Passage of CAFTA, We Get a Non-Stop Diet of Greasy, Spiked Pork

Think Progress also reports that in exchange for votes on CAFTA - a great idea when, since the passage of NAFTA, the hourly wage in Mexico has actually dropped- they get their favorite vain dreams answered in the transportion bill, like these:

- $200,000 for a deer avoidance system in Weedsport, N.Y.

- $330 million for a highway in Bakersfield., Calif.

- $480,000 to rehabilitate a historic warehouse on the Erie Canal

- $3 million for dust control mitigation on Arkansas rural roads.

- $2.3 million for landscaping on the Ronald Reagan Freeway in California (Truly ironic is the fact that Pres. Reagan once vetoed a highway bill because of its exorbitant spending expenses)

- Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young (R-AK) set aside $231 million for a bridge near Anchorage to be named “Don Young’s Way”

- Rep. Nick Rahall (D-WV) “used his seniority” to “secure $16 million for the eponymous Nick J. Rahall II Appalachian Transportation Institute at Marshall University”

First Emergency Food Shipments Arrive in Niger Today

Just eight short months after urgent aid was begged for the famine-hit area.

Culture of life? So long as the babies are white.

Just Call Karl Mr. Popularity

According to Think Progress, the American public has a slightly more possoble reaction to Bush's brain, Karl Rove, than they have toward gay marriage. But, alas, Karl rates lower in approval than the Iraq War.

Talk about being between Iraq and a hard place!

Forgive Me, But I Enjoyed the Boos at Bolton Yesterday...

and the really pissy attitude by Bush that his "anointed one" isn't being loved. Bush really despises us and he makes that inordinately clear.

Also thought appropriate a quote I heard on Democracy Now this morning re: John Bolton: ""John Bolton is to diplomacy what Jack the Ripper was to surgery." Pretty accurate.

Forgive Me, But I Enjoyed the Boos at Bolton Yesterday...

and the really pissy attitude by Bush that his "anointed one" isn't being loved. Bush really despises us and he makes that inordinately clear.

Also thought appropriate a quite I heard on Democracy Now this morning re: John Bolton: ""John Bolton is to diplomacy what Jack the Ripper was to surgery." Pretty accurate.

While Cheney and Bushies Talk Tough about Iran

The Washington Post today, I hear, offers a report stating Iran is quite FAR from having a nuclear bomb.

Of course, we won't discuss the hypocrisy of a country with the most nuclear weapons (us) - with more in development all the freaking time - constantly threatening other countries for even thinking about them.

Senate Pat Roberts (GOP) Not Happy with Bolton Appointment Either

He says it will weaken Bolton individually and the US as a whole.

But what did we hear all day Monday? That only those mean Dems kept Bolton from his 'rightful" position.

Reuters Chief Pissed at Idea More "Good News" Should be Reported from Iraq

From Editor and Publisher here.

Bush Moons Family and Faked News

You have to see what DailyRead shares with us here.

First, Apologies

Between several power outages, bad connections, and a grueling writing backlog, I'm woefully behind on posting, responding to email and comments and yes, even sleeping. But hopefully, I'll get more time mid week.

Bolton Appointed

This is just dreadful. If you mistook the smirk on Condi's and George's face, understand that they were basically saying, "We don't care what the majority of American voters think, how the rest of the UN or the world thinks - everything gets done our way."

That Bolton could not be confirmed in a Senate that is RUN by the GOP is a powerful thing.