Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Of Rove, Hillary and God/How Dems Enable Gonzales







I've been on the road the past day and not paying much attention to post-Rove Washington. Is the air a little cleaner? Is there less humidity?

His departure was well-timed with the cover of the current Economist , which asks, Is America turning left? The answer: yes, in some ways that are, for the Economist editors, a wee bit worrisome (though those editors do make sure to note they are no fans of a Republican Party held hostage to social conservatives). But the lead editorial has a wonderful line. The article notes that even if the U.S. is moving leftward on social issues (like health care) and trade matters, it still is far to the right of European nations run by conservatives, such as France and Germany. To reinforce this point, the edit notes that Hillary Clinton "mentions God more often than the average European bishop." Well put.

By the way, that The Economist could even ask this question shows how far short Rove fell of his goal to engineer a strategic and permanent realignment in American politics. The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray--especially when they (the men, that is) start stupid wars.

GIVING HIM THE ROPE. My assistant Matthew Blake, who remains in Washington, reports:

Members of Congress say they want Attorney General Alberto Gonzales out, with even Republicans calling him "not credible." But the heated rhetoric contradicts the extraordinary power that Congress has handed Gonzales.

The Los Angeles Times reported on Tuesday that Gonzales is "putting the final touches" on implementing a "little-noticed provision in last year's reauthorization of the Patriot Act" that allows the attorney general's office to "fast-track" death penalty cases.

What speeding up executions has to do with protecting the United States from terrorists was never covered in the debate over the law's reauthorization, but the Times explains that last year's Patriot Act: Part II permits Gonzales to overrule a federal judge's evaluation on whether a defendant in a death penalty case was fairly represented. Once the attorney general decides the defendant had adequate counsel he can reduce the amount of time a death row inmate has to file a federal appeal from a year to six months.

The provision will quicken executions but provides no standards for evaluating whether a defendant had been adequately defended. Instead Gonzales will have the discretion to determine that. (When Gonzales was Bush's top legal adviser in Texas, he and Bush did little, if anything, to ensure death row inmates had received adequate counsel.)

It was another "little-noticed provision" in the second Patriot Act that allowed Gonzales to fire U.S. attorney Bud Cummins and replace him with Tim Griffin (a Rove crony) without Griffin having to be confirmed by the Senate.

When the second Patriot Act was before a GOP-controlled Congress, most Senate Democrats went along, and the bill passed in the Senate by a 95-4 vote. And last week, the Democratic-controlled Congress decided it trusted the attorney general to approve wiretapping conversations without federal court oversight.

Over the past year, Democrats in Congress have presented a more-than-convincing case that Gonzales has abused his power as attorney general. But many Democrats in the House and Senate have been his enabler.

Warning: blogging will be intermittent this week and next.
Posted by David Corn at August 15, 2007 04:10 PM

20 comments:

Gerald said...

War with Iran Is a Certainty

Dear Posters:

As I try to assess the increasing nonsense that enslaves us, here are some conclusions.

As the Stock Market pummels downward, Bush is hyping the fear that Iran is a terrorist nation. He will not answer the fact that Nazi America is the leading terrorist nation in the world. He blames the roadside bombings on Iran but he refuses to speak of the cluster bombs that he has given Nazi Israel to install in Lebanon that continue to explode in Lebanon and killing Lebanese.

Bush wants Nazi Americans to blame Iran for the Iraq killings and the downward spiral of the Stock Market. He is trying to refocus on Iran so he can drop nuclear bombs upon the Iran and the Iranians. The dropping of nuclear weapons upon Iran and her people will take place a short time after Rover departs the WH. Rover has probably resigned so that he will not be blamed for Cheney’s incessant diatribe to nuke Iran. Nazi Israel’s constant blabber to nuke Iran is also another reason for his resignation.

Bush is also trying to find reasons to justify his satellite spying inside Nazi America. He claims power short of God’s Almighty Power.

High sources deep inside covert operations of the USA have informed me that I am on the list as an enemy combatant. I have maintained friendly relations with some these sources even after I left the Nazi Party around 1984.

Sincerely,
Gerald

capt said...

Brahmanism: This is the sum of duty: Do naught unto others which would cause you pain if done to you.: Mahabharata 5:1517

Christianity: All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.: Matthew 7:12

Islam: No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother what which he desires for himself. Sunnah

Buddhism: Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful.: Udana Varga 5:18

Judaism: What is hateful to you, do not to your fellowmen. That is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary.: Talmud, Shabbat 31:a

Confucianism: Surely it is the maxim of loving-kindness: Do not unto others that you would not have them do unto you.: Analects 15:23

Taoism: Regard your neighbor's gain as your own gain, and your neighbor's loss as your own loss.: T'ai Shag Kan Ying P'ien

Zoroastrianism: That nature alone is good which refrains from doing unto another whatsoever is not good: for itself. : Dadistan-i-dinik 94:5

=

"A human being is a part of the whole, called by us, "Universe," a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest -- a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty. Nobody is able to achieve this completely, but the striving for such achievement is in itself a part of the liberation and a foundation for inner security." : Albert Einstein - (1879-1955) Physicist and Professor, Nobel Prize 1921

===

Thanks ICH Newsletter!

Gerald said...

Maybe my Church has a moral compass

Gerald said...

I was watching the Catholic channel and on the program was the Director of a council in sainthood. He said that Americans have a tougher time being considered for sainthood because Americans enjoy the good life in comparison with other countries. If he thinks that American life is simple with Hitlers in the WH, then he is totally unaware of American life and he should be relieved of his duties on the council.

Nazi America has a ton of persons who should be considered for sainthood!!!

Anonymous said...

Over the past year, Democrats in Congress have presented a more-than-convincing case that Gonzales has abused his power as attorney general. But many Democrats [and Republicans] in the House and Senate have been his enabler.

capt said...

(2) For Real? Top Think Tank Calls for President-for-Life-Bush ...


Editor's Note: Article excerpted below was posted at beginning of August @ FamilySecurityMatters. But Internet conversation recently heated up with several threads running this week and one today at FreeRepublic.com. Several reports link FamilySecurityMatters directly to Bush Admin. Article was removed from site but remains in cache. Among the board of advisors for Family Security Advisors are Barbara Comstock, Monica Crowley, and Laura Ingraham. (Might do well to repudiate as well as remove - or explain hoax or joke?) Recent threads at Democratic Underground and FreeRepublic.com.

Excerpt:

"President Bush can fail in his duty to himself, his country, and his God, by becoming 'ex-president' Bush or he can become 'President-for-Life' Bush: the conqueror of Iraq, who brings sense to the Congress and sanity to the Supreme Court. Then who would be able to stop Bush from emulating Augustus Caesar and becoming ruler of the world? For only an America united under one ruler has the power to save humanity from the threat of a new Dark Age wrought by terrorists armed with nuclear weapons. ... He could then follow Caesar's example and use his newfound popularity with the military to wield military power to become the first permanent president of America, and end the civil chaos caused by the continually squabbling Congress and the out-of-control Supreme Court." -FamilySecurityMatters

See full article here:

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:cnnnSRimWmcJ:www.familysecuritymatters.org/index.php%3Fid%3D1208571+%22president+for+life+bush%22+site:familysecuritymatters.org&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us&client=firefox-a

=====

More on think tank - thread from Democratic Underground

http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:3_LNfPkLZmsJ:www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php%3Faz%3Dshow_mesg%26forum%3D389%26topic_id%3D1574242%26mesg_id%3D1574242+family+security+matters+president+for+life&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

You can't find the story now, they removed it after DU'ers, and other people possibly, exposed the story a little group called Family Security Matters was running.

But, just because they removed it, that doesn't mean it doesn't exist anymore.

(Story excerpted on thread begins.)

"President Bush is reviled; he has become another victim of Democracy.

By elevating popular fancy over truth, Democracy is clearly an enemy of not just truth, but duty and justice, which makes it the worst form of government. President Bush must overcome not just the situation in Iraq, but democratic government.

However, President Bush has a valuable historical example that he could choose to follow.

When the ancient Roman general Julius Caesar was struggling to conquer ancient Gaul, he not only had to defeat the Gauls, but he also had to defeat his political enemies in Rome who would destroy him the moment his tenure as consul (president) ended.

Caesar pacified Gaul by mass slaughter; he then used his successful army to crush all political opposition at home and establish himself as permanent ruler of ancient Rome. This brilliant action not only ended the personal threat to Caesar, but ended the civil chaos that was threatening anarchy in ancient Rome – thus marking the start of the ancient Roman Empire that gave peace and prosperity to the known world.

If President Bush copied Julius Caesar by ordering his army to empty Iraq of Arabs and repopulate the country with Americans, he would achieve immediate results: popularity with his military; enrichment of America by converting an Arabian Iraq into an American Iraq (therefore turning it from a liability to an asset); and boost American prestiege while terrifying American enemies.

He could then follow Caesar's example and use his newfound popularity with the military to wield military power to become the first permanent president of America, and end the civil chaos caused by the continually squabbling Congress and the out-of-control Supreme Court.

President Bush can fail in his duty to himself, his country, and his God, by becoming “ex-president” Bush or he can become “President-for-Life” Bush: the conqueror of Iraq, who brings sense to the Congress and sanity to the Supreme Court. Then who would be able to stop Bush from emulating Augustus Caesar and becoming ruler of the world? For only an America united under one ruler has the power to save humanity from the threat of a new Dark Age wrought by terrorists armed with nuclear weapons."

(Story excerpt ends.)

http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:cnnnSRimWmcJ:www.f...

Google's Caching Service, don't you love it?

Here is the link to the original BTW:

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/index.php?id=12085...

But, what about Family Security Matters?

Well, it turns out that "Family Security Matters (FSM) is a front group for the Center for Security Policy (CSP), a conservative Washington think tank "committed to the time-tested philosophy of promoting international peace through American strength." (The phone number listed on the FSM website is answered by the CSP.)

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Family_Secur...

So now we are led to the Center for Security Policy, and who's connected to that group?

Dick Cheney, Vice President of the U.S. under George W. Bush, was an early member of Center's Board of Advisors (which is now called the National Security Advisory Council).

Twenty-two CSP advisers -- including additional Reagan-era remnants like Elliott Abrams, Ken deGraffenreid, Paula Dobriansky, Sven Kraemer, Robert Joseph, Robert Andrews and J.D. Crouch -- have reoccupied key positions in the national security establishment, as have other true believers of more recent vintage."

http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Center_for_S...

=====

Free Republic thread debates merit:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1882070/posts

(Article updated with initial post times)


More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Seems like no politician from any party will ever say no to King Bunnypants so maybe this is not just a hoax?



capt

David B. Benson said...

capt --- That is scary.

I hope you are right that this is some sort of hoax or discrediting ploy...

capt said...

Dow Industrials plunge 300 points




NEW YORK - Wall Street plunged again Thursday, extending an almost relentless downward spiral after problems at Countrywide Financial Corp. confirmed investors' fears that credit problems are spreading. The market shrugged off the Federal Reserve's injection of $17 billion into the banking system, and the Dow Jones industrial average fell more than 300 points.

Investors' confidence, already diminished by months of bad news about mortgages and credit, took a further pummeling after Countrywide, the nation's largest mortgage lender, said it was forced to draw on an $11.5 billion credit line to fund operations.

The Dow's drop pulled the blue chip index into what's known on Wall Street as a correction, a 10 percent drop in stock prices from their highs. Since the Dow reached a closing high of 14,000.41 on July 19, it has fallen 1,364 points.

The market seemed unfazed as the New York Fed — which carries out the central bank's market operation — announced an overnight repurchase agreement worth $12 billion. This was on top of a 14-day "repo" worth $5 billion announced before the market opened.

Central banks around the world have been supplying billions of funds to banks in the past week to make cash available for lending and keep interest rates from rising amid signs that credit was drying up. The Fed uses a repo to buy securities from dealers, who then deposit the money into commercial banks.

But, it has done little to offset fears about steeper losses for financial institutions squeezed by weeks of volatility that showed no signs of abating. Analysts contend many institutional investors want the Fed to be even more decisive.

"The concern out there is how bad are these problems with some of the financials, and everyone is looking for the Fed to aggressively cut rates to bail out the market," said Peter Dunay, an investment strategist with New York-based Leeb Capital Management. "The Fed is not eager to cut rates each time the market declines, and they're sending a message to the market that you might be on your own for a little bit."


More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Financial handbasket-to-hell crash helmets - Check!



capt

capt said...

DB,

If not a hoax - those folks are off their rocker.

Almost nothing would surprise - Prez directive 51 says Bunnypants "takes over" everything in the event of an emergency he defines.

That is as scary as it can get, eh?



capt

capt said...

BLACK FRIDAY Lyrics
Artist: Steely Dan



When Black Friday comes
I'll stand down by the door
And catch the grey men when they
Dive from the fourteenth floor
When Black Friday comes
I'll collect everything I'm owed
And before my friends find out
I'll be on the road
When Black Friday falls you know it's got to be
Don't let it fall on me
When Black Friday comes
I'll fly down to Muswellbrook
Gonna strike all the big red words
From my little black book
Gonna do just what I please
Gonna wear no socks and shoes
With nothing to do but feed
All the kangaroos
When Black Friday comes I'll be on that hill
You know I will
When Black Friday comes
I'm gonna dig myself a hole
Gonna lay down in it 'til
I satisfy my soul
Gonna let the world pass by me
The Archbishop's gonna sanctify me
And if he don't come across
I'm gonna let it roll
When Black Friday comes
I'm gonna stake my claim
I'll guess I'll change my name


More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Tomorrow might be a very black Friday.



capt

capt said...

New data reinforce US housing misery



The chances of a recovery for the US housing sector this year faded as home construction activity fell to its lowest point in a decade last month amid financial market turmoil.

Housing starts fell 6.1 per cent in July to an annual rate of 1.381m units, the lowest point since 1997, government data showed.

There were signs of slowing activity ahead as applications for construction permits fell 2.8 per cent to a 10-year low of 1.373m units.

“As a result of the turmoil in financial markets, rising mortgage rates and tighter credit standards, the turnaround in the housing sector will likely be pushed into next year,” said Gary Bigg, an economist at Bank of America.

US stocks responded to the continued woes in the housing sector with more sharp sell-offs, as Countrywide, the beleaguered mortgage giant, said it would have to draw on $11.5bn of credit. There was flight to the haven of US Treasury bonds, with the yield on the 10-year note down to 4.6 per cent.

Stocks were also responding to comments from William Poole, president of the St Louis Federal Reserve, that the collapse of the subprime lending sector would not lead to a systemic crisis in the financial system. He said only a “calamity” would justify a cut in interest rates.

Economists view a reduction in building and the supply of new homes as necessary to restore equilibrium to the housing market. They want to see inventories reduced so that normal construction activity can resume and prices can stabilise.

But many are now expecting the slump to be deeper and longer than they once thought.

”The housing report indicates that activity continues to weaken and that prospects for a recovery this year are diminishing,” Mr Bigg said.

Abiel Reinhart, an analyst at JP Morgan, said: ”The brief stability in starts in the second quarter was surely a false dawn.”

“The fundamentals remain decidedly negative: inventories are elevated, prices are falling, and credit tightening is exacerbating the supply-demand imbalance,” he added.

Housing starts were weak across the country, except the Midwest, where they increased 2.6 per cent.

Starts fell 11 per cent in the south, 3.7 per cent in the west and 1.3 per cent in the northeast.


More HERE

capt said...

Mueller’s Notes Detail White House’s Craven Attempts To Take Advantage Of Sick Ashcroft



In a July hearing before the House Judiciary Committee, FBI Director Robert Mueller revealed that he took notes of the infamous White House visit to Attorney General John Ashcroft’s hospital room because the events were so “out of the ordinary.”

Chairman John Conyers wrote to Mueller after the hearing to request access to his notes. Today, Conyers’ office put out a statement explaining that the Judiciary Committee has taken a look at Mueller’s notes, which were “heavily-redacted.” Yet, even from the amount the Committee was able to read, Conyers reported that it is clear there was a craven effort to take advantage of “a sick and heavily-medicated Ashcroft“:

“Director Mueller’s notes and recollections concerning the White House visit to the Attorney General’s hospital bed confirm an attempt to goad a sick and heavily medicated Ashcroft to approve the warrantless surveillance program,” said Conyers. “Particularly disconcerting is the new revelation that the White House sought Mr. Ashcroft’s authorization for the surveillance program, yet refused to let him seek the advice he needed on the program.

“Unfortunately, this heavily redacted document raises far more questions than it answers. We intend to fully investigate this incident and the underlying subject matter that evoked such widespread distress within the Department and the FBI. We will be seeking an unredacted copy of Director Mueller’s notes covering meetings before and after the hospital visit and expect to receive information from several of the individuals mentioned in the document.”



More HERE

*****end of clip*****

Are the wheels coming off this administration's wagon? How can anybody think the AG is telling the truth?



capt

capt said...

US documents show Pakistan gave Taliban military aid



The Pakistani government gave substantial military support to the Taliban in the years leading up to the September 11 attacks, sending arms and soldiers to fight alongside the militant Afghan movement, according to newly released US official documents.

Islamabad has acknowledged diplomatic and economic links with the Taliban but has denied direct military support. The US intelligence and state department documents, released under the country's freedom of information act, show that Washington believed otherwise.

The suspicion has lingered that some elements of Pakistani intelligence are still protecting the Taliban and its al-Qaida allies in the autonomous tribal areas along the Afghan border. US officials have warned they might take direct military action without Islamabad's approval.

Among the documents acquired by the National Security Archive, an independent group pressing for government transparency, is a confidential memo sent in November 1996, from intelligence report from Islamabad to the Defence Intelligence Agency in Washington, describing how Pakistan's paramilitary Frontier Corps was operating across the border.

The Frontier Corps are recruited from the Pashtun population in the tribal areas, but commanded by officers from the regular Pakistani army.

"For Pakistan, a Taliban-based government in Kabul would be as good as it can get in Afghanistan," a state department briefing paper, dated January 1997, said, adding: "Many Pakistanis claim they detest the Taliban brand of Islam, noting that it might infect Pakistan, but this apparently is a problem for another day."

Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, is under intense pressure from the spread of Taliban extremist influence in his own country, and admitted on Sunday that the movement had support from his side of the border.

"The documents illustrate that throughout the 1990's the ISI [Pakistani intelligence] considered Islamic extremists to be foreign policy assets," Barbara Elias, a National Security Archive researcher, said. "But they succeeded ultimately in creating a Pakistani Taliban. Those years of fuelling insurgents created something that now directly threatens Islamabad."

No one was available for comment at the Pakistani embassy in London yesterday. Privately, Pakistani officials concede that the ISI was instrumental in turning the Taliban into an organised force before 2001, but claim that the committed Islamists in the ISI's ranks have been purged.

Those claims are being viewed increasingly critically in Washington, due to Islamabad's failure to uproot Taliban and al-Qaida militants in tribal regions, like Waziristan. Bush administration hawks and the Democratic presidential contender, Barack Obama, have called for direct US military action in the region.


More HERE

Gerald said...

Make no mistake Hitler will be Nazi America's president for life!!!

Gerald said...

Bush and Rove

Gerald said...

If evil were to take over America, it would have to do it with a smiling face and postures of righteousness.

Most of the evil rulers in history made no pretense to moral virtue. Maintaining their power through terror, they simply intimidated people into submission.

But in a democracy, evil can rise to power only with the people’s consent—at least in the first stage. And this means that deception replaces brute force as evil’s route to the throne.

Evil has thus ascended to power in America disguised as the good.

Gerald said...

However George W. Bush became adept at pretending to be a better man than he is, we know that putting himself together in an effective way took him a very long time—a time marked by many failures covered over by bravado and anaesthetized by alcohol.

And we can see still in his body –in his posturing like some sort of gunslinger, arms out from his side; in his swagger and strut; in the unnatural puffing out of the chest—powerful signs that this is a man who really does not know who he is. He seems constantly seeking the pose of the man in the white hat, an imitation of the heroes of movie westerns.

Gerald said...

The stakes could not be higher.

At present, we in America can talk about these things without worrying about the jackboots at the door. But unless we can awaken our deceived countrymen to the truth about these rulers –unless this country is moved to repudiate fully not only these present leaders, but also the ruthless forces for whom they are the phony public face—that may not always be true.

Gerald said...

Insecurity

Gerald said...

But why rabbis? Their answers are clear. They do it because of their religious obligations to, as the Hebrew scriptures put it, "the widows, the orphans and the stranger."

They do it, too, because of their country's constitutional commitment to democracy and justice.

They do it because as Jews they themselves know what it is to be oppressed.

As a result, these rabbis have risked their own public status in Israel in for the sake of all of these things: for the integrity of the country, for the religious righteousness of Judaism, as a monument to the memory of their own families whose names are listed among the victims of ethnic tensions before this one, and even in behalf of the rights of the "stranger."

Finally, they persist in the face of criticism even by other rabbis, one of whom appeared at the award ceremony intent on defending the government of Israel from opposition to its Palestinian policies.

But the Rabbis for Human Rights remained true to their principles even here. They disagreed with the political positions taken by the rabbi who had insinuated himself onto the program but defended his right to differ.

Clearly the fact that such a group can exist in Israel, sue the government, protect Palestinians and speak in another voice is itself one of the clearest signs, ironically, of Israeli democracy itself.

In the midst of our own differences, despite the cacophony of the morning news and what it implies about our own struggle ahead, such a ceremony renewed the kind of hope this world needs.

After all, in the words of Bishop Gunnar Stalsett, Lutheran bishop emeritus of Oslo and chair of the Niwano Peace Prize Committee, "the rabbis have managed to rebuild the homes of Palestinians bulldozed by the Israelis army, helped Palestinians retain their farm land, harvested their olive produce, planted or provided over 10,000 trees for Palestinian land and joined a coalition of other organizations to oppose the "Separation Barrier" that expropriates Palestinian land, cuts people off from their fields and divides or surrounds village."