Free Trade With Colombia

Imagine a country where CEO's live in fear. In just the past five years, 400 CEO's -- from manufacturing, banking, real estate -- have been shot down in cold blood. (Thousands over the past 15 years.) Almost none of these murders have been solved. Indeed, over the past five years the percentage of CEO murders simply brought to trial has declined from 30% to zero. CEO's now more or less live in fear.

Can you imagine the US have friendly relations with such a place? Can you imagine a president expending political capital to treat that country favorably in an international agreement? Right. Of course not.

via Christopher Hayes

Bush, playing the national security card, wants this to pass.

[Passing free trade with Colombia] “will advance American national security interests in a critical region,”

Eh, what's a little death when there is a profit to be made?

The Ironic Headline Of The Year

"Bush 'disappointed by Democrats' direction on Iraq"

Bush is disappointed by the Democrats.

Perhaps Bush should be disappointed by, oh, I don't know, Bush?

"'I'm disappointed that the Democratic leadership has chosen this course,' Bush said."

Lots of disappointment going around these days

via CNN

The Commander In Chief Wants To Appoint Commander In Chief

If the title of this post sounds confusing, it is entirely accurate. President Bush, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces (says right there in the Constitution) wants to appoint a War Czar to, um, command the armed forces.

"The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, but it has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job, according to people close to the situation."

And once again, we see how Bush doesn't want to take responsibility for anything he is supposed to do.

"The very fundamental issue is, they don't know where the hell they're going," said retired Marine Gen. John J. "Jack" Sheehan, a former top NATO commander who was among those rejecting the job. Sheehan said he believes that Vice President Cheney and his hawkish allies remain more powerful within the administration than pragmatists looking for a way out of Iraq. "So rather than go over there, develop an ulcer and eventually leave, I said, 'No, thanks,' " he said.

Gives one a warm feeling to know the White House doesn't "know what the hell they're doing," doesn't it? But, we knew that already.

Oh, but it gets better...

"The White House has not publicly disclosed its interest in creating the position, hoping to find someone President Bush can anoint [italics mine-very regal sounding, though] and announce for the post all at once. Officials said they are still considering options for how to reorganize the White House's management of the two conflicts. If they cannot find a person suited for the sort of specially empowered office they envision, they said, they may have to retain the current structure."

I would like to emphasize this little tidbit from the article:
"If they cannot find a person suited for the sort of specially empowered office they envision, they said, they may have to retain the current structure"

"If they cannot find a person suited" for the job? What the hell is Bush there for? He's the damned Commander in Chief!!!

This is the most amazing act of passing the buck I have ever seen. Well, I guess it's progress when Bush finally realizes what the rest of the country has known for a long time, he can't do his job.

Boy, I bet Bush wishes he could just cut more taxes and be done with it.


via The Washington Post

Romney And Giuliani: If There Was Any Doubt Why You Should Not Vote For These Two Dangerous People...

...here it is:

"Crane says he was disappointed with Romney's answer to his question the other night. Crane asked if Romney believed the president should have the authority to arrest U.S. citizens with no review. Romney said he would want to hear the pros and cons from smart lawyers before he made up his mind. Crane said that he had asked Giuliani the same question a few weeks ago. The mayor said that he would want to use this authority infrequently."

via NRO

The above qoute clearly reveals the basic disregard and contempt Romney and Giuliani (and, I wager, the Republican Party, in general) hold toward the United States The Bill of Rights.

Many of you may recall this from Civics class:

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Amendment V

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

I've italized part of the 5th Amendment to indicate where the current President of the U.S. says he is taking his authority for detaining U.S. citizens. The problem is, war has never been declared (only congress can do that, "Article One, Section Eight of the Constitution says 'Congress shall have the power to ... declare War,'")

What BushCo has done is say that because they this is not a normal or conventional "war" (which, remember, has not been declared!) where the U.S. is fighting a country (meaning no battle field in the traditional sense like Bull Run or Iwo Jima, etc.), but an ideology, BushCo feels everywhere is the battle field and, because of that, Bush feels he has the authority to treat the whole of The United States of America as a petentioal "battle field." When the whole country is a battle field in BushCo's eyes, that means we are all potential enemy cambatents and are, therefore, exempt from the 5th Amendment. This philosophy seems to be the same philosophy of Romny and Giuliani.

Stay informed.

Update
I just noticed Glenn Greenwald has a much more detailed post about this very subject. It's, like, synergy, man! Synergy

Stupid Wildlife Part II

"Bush Fish and Wildlife Service appointee not only sends internal government reports to industry lobbyists but also to online gaming 'virtual friend' for unbiased second opinion"

via Talking Points Memo

Which directly contradicts what I posted earlier:

"Chris Tollefson, a spokesperson for the service, says that while it's accurate to characterize the agency as trying to keep the draft under wraps, the agency has every intention of communicating with the public about the proposed changes; the draft just hasn't been ready. And, he adds, it could still be changed as part of a forthcoming formal review process."

It's okay to send internal reports to lobbyists (and "virtual" friends), but not to the general public.

And, again, from my previous post:

"'Please Keep close hold for now. Dale [Hall, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] does not want this stuff leaking out to stir up discontent based on speculation.'"

They'll let lobbyists and virtual friends speculate, though.

Wow, you can't see the forest through the corruption.

Naturally George Bush Reads This Historian...

...what Andrew Roberts writes is completely wrong.

I was a European History Major in college (Medieval France and Renaissance Florence), so the accuracy of any book on history, of any era or place, is, for lack of a better word, sacrosanct. So, to hear Bush likes this charlatan really, well, doesn't surprise me, but makes me fear for out future (at least the next two years).

Just how much does Roberts get wrong in his "history" book? Well...

"The San Francisco earthquake did considerably more than $400,000 in damage. Virginia Woolf, who drowned herself in 1941, did not write for Encounter, which began publication in 1953. The Proposition 13 Tax Revolt took place in the 1970s, not the 1980s—an important distinction because it presaged Ronald Reagan's election in 1980. Michael Milken was not a "takeover arbitrageur," whatever that is. Roberts cannot know that there were 500 registered lobbyists in Washington during World War II because lobbyists weren't forced to register until 1946. Gregg Easterbrook is not the editor of the New Republic. "No man gets left behind" is a line from the film Black Hawk Down, not the motto of the U.S. Army Rangers; their actual motto is "Rangers Lead the Way." In a breathtaking peroration, Roberts point out that "as a proportion of the total number of Americans, only 0.008 percent died bringing democracy to important parts of the Middle East in 2003-5." Leaving aside the question of whether those deaths have brought anything like democracy to Iraq, 0.008 percent of 300 million people is 24,000—off by a factor of 10, which is typical of his arithmetic. If you looked closely enough, I expect you could find an error of one kind or another on every page of the book."

There are more example in the ariticle, so go and read for yourself.

via: Slate

DOJ And The Destruction Of An Idea

Josh Feit over at The Strangers SLOG posted about his dad's birthday and, well, why don't you read it.

The Alberto Gonzales scandal is shocking, and it gets people like me in a fevered partisan pitch about Bush's fascism and his Stalinist purges and the end of Constitutional rule.

But you don't have to be Dennis Kucinich to feel outraged or … hurt.

My dad is long retired. I called him on Monday to wish him a happy birthday. What he wanted to talk about though, was the Attorney General.

You see: My dad worked at the DOJ for over 30 years. Sometimes I forget he worked there because he finished up his career at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. But his heyday was definitely at the DOJ in the Solicitor General’s Office. (I'm proud of my old dad. He argued in the U.S. Supreme Court 13 times, representing the feds, getting a government salary while arguing against some corporate gun who was probably making equivalent pay just for that day's big gig. I got to see my dad argue in the Supreme Court twice.)

"What do you think of this Gonzales stuff?" dad asked me.
Spacing out on the significance of the question coming from my dad, I leapt off into some riff from dailykos probably about contempt of Congress.

"I worked there," my dad said, interrupting me quietly.
"Yeah," I said. "Yeah, I know that."
"I worked at the DOJ," he said. "Isn't this a disgrace?"
I stopped with the rave, and said, "Yeah. It's a disgrace."
We started talking about something else.

Thanks for ruining my dad's birthday, Alberto Gonzales. For that alone—you should resign.

Josh's post, I feel, perfectly encapsulates what the Attorney General scandal really means, the loss of what is supposed to make our country work, the rule of law separate from politics. With BushCo in office we have seen the complete disregard for this country. And I do mean this COUNTRY. The United States of America is not just a group of people in a geographical location, it is an idea. An idea that gives everyone a fair shake, an opportunity to do good and do better and the rule of law. BushCo, for the last six years, has thrown that idea out the window for power and cronyism. I may sound snarky and cynical when I write about what BushCo is doing, but I am truly tired of...of this group of criminals that run our country. It makes me sick to my stomach to see how BushCo has destroyed what this country is supposed to stand for. Just sick.

To paraphrase Josh: George Bush, thanks for ruining The United State of America. Thanks.

Stupid Wildlife

How does BushCo want to change the Endangered Species Act? Why in secret, of course.

"In recent months, the Fish and Wildlife Service has gone to extraordinary efforts to keep drafts of regulatory changes from the public. All copies of the working document were given a number corresponding to a person, so that leaked copies could be traced to that individual. An e-mail sent in March from an assistant regional director at the Fish and Wildlife Service to agency staff, asking for comments on and corrections to the first draft, underscored the concern with secrecy: 'Please Keep close hold for now. Dale [Hall, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] does not want this stuff leaking out to stir up discontent based on speculation.'"

"Many Fish and Wildlife Service employees believe the draft is not based on 'defensible science,' says a federal employee who asked to remain anonymous. Yet 'there is genuine fear of retaliation for communicating that to the media. People are afraid for their jobs.'"

To be fair, "Chris Tollefson, a spokesperson for the service, says that while it's accurate to characterize the agency as trying to keep the draft under wraps, the agency has every intention of communicating with the public about the proposed changes; the draft just hasn't been ready. And, he adds, it could still be changed as part of a forthcoming formal review process."

Every time BushCo keeps things "under wraps," I can't help but see a warning sign blinking "cover up!"

I know I sound like a broken record about BushCo, but there's just so much!

I don't know, maybe what BushCo does is...Christian, or something?

via Salon

You Say Corruption, I Say BushCo

That was a tough week. Wasn't sure if I was going to be able to hold out on the "no politics" pledge, but I made it! Anyway, on with the show....

Gonzales's Senior Counselor Refuses to Testify!

"The senior counselor to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales will refuse to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee in the unfolding U.S. attorneys scandal, invoking her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, her attorneys said today."

And the award for most corrupt administration in recent memory goes to...Bush!

Not sure what legal ramifications there are for invoking the Fifth Amendment for a Congressional hearing, but it doesn't look good for BushCo.
via: Americablog

And how does the White House communicate via email? By not using the White House email system (so easy to subpoena, you know), but using the Republican National Committee's email system!

"Multiple congressional investigations have uncovered evidence that White House appointees regularly communicate using email accounts provided by the Republican Party. As CREW has argued, such activity violates the Presidential Records Act, which requires the White House to preserve such records"

"The RNC has said that the committee provides email addresses to White House personnel so that they can keep their official and political duties separate.

So what's the official/political breakdown for Karl Rove?"

Well, it seems 95% of good ol' Karl's email have been sent using the RNC's email server. Now why would he do that?

via TPMmukraker
and
Talking Points Memo

Sit back, we're not done yet...

Just how in the pocket of the political elite is the main stream press? Just ask Glenn Greenwald.

"Think about this: there are only two instances in the last six years where real investigations occurred in any of the Bush scandals -- this U.S. attorneys scandal (because Democrats now have subpoena power) and the Plame case (due to the fluke of two Republican DOJ officials with integrity, James Comey and Patrick Fitzgerald). And in both cases, it was revealed conclusively that top Bush officials -- at the highest levels of the government -- repeatedly and deliberately lied about what they did. Isn't that pattern obviously extremely disturbing? And imagine what would be revealed had there been real investigations -- journalistic or Congressional -- of all the other scandals that ended up dying an inconsequential death due to neglect and suppression."

via Glenn Greenwald

Should I go on? No? Yes? Oh, alright, one more.

This whole Attorney's General scandal? Nothing but a mistake made with a blackberry,

"'Either Elston did not scroll down on his BlackBerry to read the last section [of the e-mail] or it made no impression on him, because he knew that it did not reflect the department's plan for replacing the U.S. attorneys who would be asked to resign,' says spokesman Brian Roehrkasse."

No longer can you say, "I don't recall," it's "I didn't scroll."

via TPMmuckraker

Quotes Of The Day

"I have no knowledge of any investigation in my office."
-Dr. James Knodell, director of the Office of Security at the White House testifying to the congressional committee today that he was aware of no internal investigation or report into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame 3/16/2007

"I welcome the investigation. I am absolutely confident the Justice Department will do a good job. I want to know the truth. Leaks of classified information are bad things."
-George Bush, President of the United States, 3/11/2004

Sacrifice? We Don't Need No Stinking Sacrifice!

On August 29, 2006, President Bush, in an interview with NBC's Brian Wilson, tells us how missing flights is equal to, I don't know, a soldiers sacrifice, I guess...

WILLIAMS: The folks who say you should have asked for some sort of sacrifice from all of us after 9/11, do they have a case looking back on it?

BUSH: Americans are sacrificing. I mean, we are. You know, we pay a lot of taxes. America sacrificed when they, you know, when the economy went into the tank. Americans sacrificed when, you know, air travel [italics mine]was disrupted. American taxpayers have paid a lot to help this nation recover. I think Americans have sacrificed.

Born with a silver foot in his mouth, indeed.

Worst President Ever