Comments (16)

mbbsdphil wrote on March 19, 2007 3:54 PM:

When will Mr. Bush attend his first military funeral? He is the author of over 3200 of them. He could go to one at Arlington National Cemetery, about five minutes by motorcade from his White House gym. He could go to one near Crawford, Texas, after clearing a little brush, or Kennebunkport, Maine, after seeing mom and dad. He could go to one in Maryland, after one of his frequent stays at Camp David. Or, does this President not have the courage of his convictions?

Ian wrote on March 19, 2007 4:05 PM:

I think the Carol Lam, CIA investigation a really interesting angle. When did Porter Gos resign? I always thought that his resignation was a bit odd, coming when it did.

Mrs Panstreppon wrote on March 19, 2007 4:08 PM:

Guaranteed to make you laugh. In an earlier comment here, someone posted a link to a 3/17/07 story by Mark Kernes on the AVN website about that "good" obscenity case taken on by USA-AZ Paul Charlton.

The title says it all: "Attorney Says Justice Dept. Sold Same 'Obscene' Material As His Client"

The defendant in the case, Five Star Video, is accused of selling four sexually-explicit dvds. But, as the attorney for Five Star has pointed out, Castle Megastores, a chain of 19 adult video stores including one in Arizona, has been bouhgt and sold the same four sexually-explicit dvds in 2005 and 2006.

Castle Megastores apparently is in bankruptcy and "under the supervision of the U.S. Trustee's Office of the Department of Justice, and the United States Bankruptcy Court of the District of Arizona."

Someone, please, please, ask AG Gonzales if he is going to prosecute himself for selling pornography.

Link to the AVN story:

http://avn.com/index_cache.php?Primary_Navigation=Articles&Action=View_Article&Content_ID=285692

anon wrote on March 19, 2007 4:16 PM:

The Salon article briefly mentions the Rick Renzi investigation led by Paul Charlton's office in Arizona. What a coincidence -- a US Attorney who a) happened to be investigating a prominent Republican and b) finds himself on a White House hit list. Where have I heard that story before?

hungrycoyote wrote on March 19, 2007 4:17 PM:

Where's the Memo? Here's any interesting interview with Bud Cummins where he points out that at DOJ they write a memo for everything, and yet the have not produced a memo about why they fired each of the United States Attorneys:

http://www.pbs.org/now/news/311-transcript.html

"And the thing that's most persuasive to me, and maybe you'd had to work in the Department to really understand it, but the people that worked in Main Justice, what we call Main Justice in D.C. don't make a decision about changing a light bulb without writing a 30 page memo. They write memos to their bosses about anything. They always cover themselves."

[snip]

"Don't you think if they were gonna disclose all those embarrassing e-mails, that by now they would've shared the memo where they analyzed 93 U.S. Attorneys on their performance? The—the—the memo hasn't been produced because it doesn't exist, because such an exercise never took place. But there's no excuse, they could cure this problem today by just conceding that performance was never on the table when they made the decisions about my seven colleagues. And it's outrageous to me that they haven't done that."

Anonymous wrote on March 19, 2007 4:23 PM:

Where's the Monday afternoon document dump that we were promised by the White House?

FatKat wrote on March 19, 2007 4:28 PM:

As I sit here listening to the Senate floor, and listen to these Senators speak about the emails, firing, and who to endorse which bill...What I have come to a conclusion that most of them speaking are going to try and stone wall any change in the Pat. Act because they want it "their" way with "their name" attached to it! I guess we as citizens just are stupid and don't understand the process!!!

Mrs Panstreppon wrote on March 19, 2007 4:49 PM:

H.C., Either Bud Cummins is in denial or he is reluctant to accuse the DOJ of doctoring documents.

Cummins to NPR: "...and I separate myself because they've admitted the truth in my case, that I asked was to leave so that another person could serve in my place. And they were within their legal discretion to ask me to leave. They asked me to leave. I left. And they're pretty squared away in my case."

The DOJ released a US Attorneys - Appointment Summary chart dated February 2005 and Bud Cummins has a strike through his name as does Carol Lam and Margaret Chiara.

As Kyle Sampson explained to Harriet Miers, the strikethrough indicates that Cummins was regarded by the DOJ to be weak, an ineffectual manager and prosecutor and someone who chafed against Administrative initiatives.

Is the DOJ now lying about why Cummins really got the boot? Why does Bud Cummins refuse to acknowledge that he was rated so poorly in 2005?

The US Attorneys - Summary Appointments chart is online here:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/docs/attorney-firelist/?resultpage=1&

hungrycoyote wrote on March 19, 2007 6:20 PM:

Mrs Panstreppon: But, he also testified about receiving that "threatening" phone call after which he generated the memo. If they had something negative to say about him, why haven't they? Where's the retribution they were alluding to?

This is what he says in the interview about it:

"It was obviously triggered because of that article. And he said, "If this controversy continues to be stirred up, some of these people are gonna find that—that the Department's gonna be put in a zi—position where they're likely gonna have to roll out more embarrassing information to justify these decisions." And I—I had already heard a briefing of that more damaging information that they had privately briefed the Senate Judiciary Committee on, and so had my colleagues.

"And none of us were particular impressed by it. So I didn't really see it as a significant threat. But I did pass that—the fact of the call on to my colleagues. And some of 'em you know, were predictably quite offended."

Doesn't sound like he thought they had any "dirt" on him.

Mrs Panstreppon wrote on March 19, 2007 8:07 PM:

H.C., That's my point. Bud Cummins knows about the 2/05 chart rating the USAs that Sampson sent to Miers and he knows how he was rated. But he gives interview after interview without mentioning it. Why?

If Bud Cummins was out of favor with the Bush administration in 2005, it was not well-known. The National Journal's Hotline updated its 2003 rising state political stars list in December 2005 by relying on interviews with consultants, state party officials and journalists familiar with each state's political landscape.

This is how Cummins was listed:

"U.S. Atty Bud Cummins (R): "Still happy being U.S. Attorney, ... but he's a rising star.""

Again, according to the 2005 chart, Bud Cummins was considered by the DOJ to be, in Sampson's words, one of the "weak US Attorneys who have been ineffectual managers and prosecutors, chafed against Administrative initiatives, etc"

You would think by now that the DOJ would have leaked that Cummins was indeed rated poorly but was permitted to save face by saying he was replaced solely to give Tim Griffin an opportunity.

The February 2005 chart along with some emails from Samspon to Miers is the most substantial evidence offered by the DOJ to date that Carol Lam was in the DOJ's sights long before the Cunningham case.

In another comment here, I speculated whether someone at the DOJ hastily altered the chart by putting a strike through Bud Cummins' name to make it look like everyone was fired for performance reasons. "Speculated" is the
operative word here.

Apparently, Kyle Sampson spent some time putting the chart together and rating the USAs. He told Miers on 3/2/05 that he had updated the chart to take into consideration additional information.

Josh Marshall made a comment today about the chart, questioning its significance. As he pointed out, we don't know how many USAs had strikes through their names. All we know is how seven of the eight fired USAs were rated. John McKay's name is omitted.

I'm curious as to why Bud Cummins was rated so poorly in February 2005, three months after the presidential election. I'm sure Bud Cummins is right on the money when he said the DOJ documents all of its decisions so the reasons for Cummins' terrible evalution should be on record somewhere.

Time to put that weasel, Kyle Sampson, up against the wall.

You are right.

Jim wrote on March 20, 2007 5:24 AM:

The Bush Administration has declared itself to be above the law. They claim the authority to spy on American citizens, the authority to wage military attacks and invasions pre-emptively, the authority to call anyone a "terrorist" and then throw them in jail indefinitely without legal counsel. We have watched the spectacle of top government officials defending their right to torture prisoners. We have seen Bush rule by secret executive orders that flaunt the law while his Attorney General issues opinions that attempt to justify the illegal acts by baroque interpretations and hair-splitting technicalities .

Bush's exercise in nation-building through invasion is bearing its bitter fruit although he has no plan to disengage our troops. In Bush's highly-touted December elections, the Iraqis have voted along ethnic and religious lines. The early results indicate that Iraq will have an Islamist government led by the Shiite majority. The only thing the Iraqis can agree on is that they want the US to leave, the sooner the better. The new government is every bit as brutal as the one it replaces; we have learned of torture and murder carried out by US-trained Iraqi police in the dungeons of the Interior Ministry smack dab in the middle of the Green Zone. Meanwhile, the Islamists in Baghdad are biding their time, waiting for the moment when they can join forces with their brethren in Tehran.

It is no exaggeration to say that America is in crisis. At issue is whether or not we can maintain a multi-party, multi-branch representative democracy. Our Executive branch is operating outside and in direct violation of the law. The opposition party is weak, disorganized, and afraid to speak directly to Bush's seizure of power. Our electoral system has been co-opted by a shadow government derived from the unholy marriage of corrupted politicians and well-moneyed business interests. True power is wielded by un-named plutocrats in secret meetings while the corporation press merrily parrots sound bites and propaganda doled out by "government spokesmen speaking on condition of anonymity".

The Bush administration is in damage control mode. Unfortunately, it is trying to limit damage to itself, not our nation's political system or our credibility to the rest of the world as the champion of democracy and freedom. Revelations about domestic spying, the abysmal outcome of the Iraq mis-adventure, RoveGate, worldwide torture palaces, and many other scandals have leaked into the public's consciousness through cracks in Bush's Teflon mantle caused by high gas prices and impotent responses to Katrina and Rita. But since Katrina and Rita are no longer newsworthy and gas prices have fallen to a new norm, it appears that the public may return to a post-holiday business-as-usual posture.

The Founders created a system of checks and balances designed to prevent any branch of government from seizing control over the other two. Bush has managed to hang onto power long enough to stuff the Supreme Court with sympathetic justices. That leaves it to the Legislative branch to stand firm against the assault on our way of life.

In 2006, we will find out if they have the stomach and spine to perform their duty.

Bush's Second Term: Four more years of lies, warmongering, social devolution, and fear

Election Day, 2004

It turns out that the electorate either didn't remember or don't care about Dubya's DWIs, his coke bust, or his girlfriend's illegal abortion. The Bush AWOL from the TANG, his insider trading deal with Harken Energy, his long-standing relationship with Enron raider Kenny-Boy Lay- no problem. His incoherent foreign policy, his lies about WMDs in Iraq, his continuous insinuations about connections between Saddam and al-Qaeda, his negligence/incompetence in not putting enough troops on the ground to secure Iraq and its thousands of tons of armaments, his alienation of our former allies- what’s the big deal? His wink-and-nod to torture and murder of prisoners illegally held at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, and dozens of other torture palaces across the globe, his assault on civil rights as guaranteed by the US Constitution- who cares? The no-bid contracts to his family friends at Halliburton, the incessant and insidious religious proliferation into the US government with the "faith based initiative, the gutting of hard-won environmental and workplace safety laws, and countless other crummy, cheap, and downright mean neocon tricks he's played on the general public for the last four years… just more business as usual.

But George somehow managed to score points with Americans on "morals" issues. Are Bush "morals" voters stupid, hypocritical, or just misinformed? Don't bald-face lies count as "morals" issues? Didn't they understand that the PATRIOT Act was anything but patriotic? Don't they understand that the Bush Doctrine violates international law? Can they not see that dubya's Iraq war lies have committed America to years of paying and dying? Don't they get it that Rumsfeld and Cheney churned out lie after lie about non-existent chemical weapons, biological weapons, and nuclear weapons? Is there any moral content to attacking Iraq with insufficient troops to secure the country because it was politically expedient and then having those troops blown up with looted explosives? Doesn't anyone care about the treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay... or see how Abu Ghraib and Gitmo could affect the treatment of American POWs in the future? Didn't anyone, including the press, notice the bait-and-switch where Dubya gave speeches about the phony war on terror and craftily turned the topic of terrorism into phony-baloney fear mongering about Saddam? And what about the practice of doublethink when naming programs and Executive Orders? Giving authority to pollute the environment to the polluters is called "The Clear Skies Initiative." Letting timber companies clear-cut is called "Healthy Forests Initiative." We all know what "No Child Left Behind" really means… it means children will be left out entirely. Perpetual war on terrorism... is war now considered "moral"? How about EnronGate, TortureGate, PlameGate, and HalliburtonGate? Is a no-bid contract to Dick Cheney's former company "moral"? Is it "moral" to gut workplace safety and a clean environment?

If none of those issues resonated, what did Americans vote on? Did the Religious Right wingnuts win this election for Dubya? Did Osama bin Laden's last minute videotape spoil it for Kerry? Do people really vote sound bites and slogans like "no child left behind" and "flip flop" and "invented the internet" and "weak on terrorism"? Did Sinclair Broadcasting and the Swift Boat Vets and Rush Limbaugh play a part? Has our electoral process dumbed-down into a meaningless joke so that the outcome can be determined by a Howard Dean yelp or continuous pounding of the Fear Drum? We need to know.

America has come to yet another crossroads. Oh, we've been the top dog before, we’ve been hated worldwide before, and we've had prior periods of hyper-religiosity. But no nation has ever possessed such a striking imbalance of sheer destructive weaponry nor has any government ever been equipped with such an instantaneous and ubiquitous propaganda machine. Here we have a near-perfect storm of religious fervor bordering upon superstition, jingoist patriotism, attention deficit disorder voters, corporate-whoring media, and irrational fear. Hitler and Goebbels couldn't have dreamed of a better environment in which to seize control. The warpigs are running the show.

For the last four years, StopDubya.com has been showing our visitors (and thank you, over a million of you) how current events have been shaping this nation, its relationship to the world, and our own citizens. If you look into our archives, you will find a chilling trail of events. For example… Bush's unilateral abrogation of the ABM Treaty, the trashing of the Peaceful Use Of Space treaty, the establishment of the Bush Doctrine of pre-emptive war, the Faith Based Initiative, the National Debt Gone Wild, and of course, the illegal, immoral, and unnecessary war on Iraq. These are not the actions of a conservative government. These are the actions of ideologues poisoned by religious fanaticism and a twisted and narrow worldview.

It is clear that Dubya had intentions of invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein even before he ran for President in 2000. His obsession with Saddam has been exposed by whistleblowers including Richard Clarke and Paul O'Neill, people who were on the inside (National Security Advisor and Treasury Secretary) and therefore in a position to know. Dubya's decision to invade Iraq was made before he took office; one of his first acts after the dubious 2000 election was to order those around him to "find a way" to justify attacking Saddam. Other whistleblowers have verified that the Bush Administration gave direct orders to filter raw intelligence in order to make it appear that Iraq was a direct threat to the US. Most of the garbage "intelligence" came from sources like Ahmad Chalabi, discredited Iraqi "resistance" leader. Chalabi was on the payroll of the Iranian government and therefore posed a dangerous security leak with a direct pipeline to US Intelligence. The stories they wove were as imaginative as they were bogus. Drones that could fly across the Atlantic and spray anthrax and VX. Mobile biological weapons labs. Allegations of mass murder and mass graves. Satellite photos of nuclear weapons facilities. Tapes of "intercepted" cell phone conversations. Yellowcake from Niger.

The findings of the 9/11 Commission show that there were no WMDs in Iraq nor did Saddam Hussein have an active program to create them. The same Commission reached the conclusion that many of us already knew; there was no connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam. In fact, they were religious and political enemies. Dubya's propaganda machine spit out lie after lie to the all-too-willing media in the form of statements from "White House spokesmen speaking on the condition of anonymity". We have the "smoking gun" – it’s the public record, populated by the public statements of former Bush Administration insiders. It shows that the Bush Administration conspired to mislead Congress, the UN, and the American people into believing that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and had plans to attack the US with chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons. Think about that last statement. There was a conspiracy by the present administration to deliberately mislead the Congress, the UN, and the American people into believing that Saddam was planning to attack the US with chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons . They did this by direct and indirect lying and by suppressing evidence that did not support their lie campaign. The goal was to persuade Americans and the rest of the world to go to war with Saddam. Americans are now paying the price in human lives lost and shattered and billions of dollars poured into the quagmire of Iraq. We stand by and watch the GI death toll increase at about 2 per day.

There have been many theories advanced regarding Bush’s relentless campaign to drive the nation to war in the Middle East. The least likely theory is that the Bush Administration believed that Saddam Hussein was a military or terrorist threat to the US. Some have suggested that Saddam was threatening to change currency for oil from US dollars to the euro to cause worldwide economic chaos. Others say the war was revenge for Saddam’s assassination attempt on Poppy Bush. Some point to the neocon think-tank PNAC (Project for a New American Century) that postulates the need for American hegemony and control of the world’s oil. Dubya’s slumping poll numbers might have motivated the war as his way to gain instant popularity, since Americans tend to confuse supporting their country and supporting their president as the same thing. There’s another theory that Dubya has deeply rooted psychological problems so the war was prosecuted as a way to one-up his father, with whom he has had many conflicts over the years. Whatever the real reason they picked this war, if they had access to all the information they had and still believed Saddam was a threat, that would constitute gross, paranoid incompetence and incredible stupidity in interpreting the information a nation needs when it embarks on the gravest course of action.

The January elections in Iraq are going to be a watershed event because Dubya has staked his entire case for war on establishing freedom and democracy. (He had to do that because the 9/11 Commission shredded his lies about WMDs and 9/11). One of three outcomes is possible: First, the elections could be a success and the insurgency will run out of steam as the Iraqis accept this as a palatable solution. Second, the elections could be attacked, boycotted, ignored, and disdained by the Iraqis as Bush’s tool to install yet another American puppet government in the region. Chaos and bloody attacks would then escalate. The third possibility is that the chaotic situation in Iraq could expand over the next few weeks and boil over into a nationwide revolt and civil war, causing the elections to be postponed indefinitely. At the time of this writing (Mid-December) it seems that all three possibilities could still happen. If either of the latter two occur, the prospects become very grim. The word “quagmire” will take on another synonym: Iraq.

The war clouds are gathering again. This time the target is Iran or maybe Syria and it may be the case that Iran actually is trying to build nukes. They may already have them; there were thousands of nuclear warheads scattered around the skeleton of the old USSR and between Russia and the US there has been a failure to track and destroy those warheads. It seems ironic indeed that Dubya may well be facing a real adversary with real nukes and an economy that hasn't been trashed by 10 years of sanctions. Is the US up to the task? How can we be? Our nation is near bankruptcy, our troops are worn out and spread thin all over the world and our national credibility with those who could help is in the toilet.

StopDubya is changing our focus. We want to encourage the conversation about what legal means we have in this democracy to put the brakes on the rogue government that has tightened its grip on our nation. We fully expect that this administration will try to build the case for additional wars against Iran, Syria, North Korea or other nations and StopDubya will work for peace. We will examine the strategic failures of the last election and explore what the Progressive movement can do to create a permanent place in the national dialogue. And we will continue to point out every slick, nasty trick Dubya and his people try to pull on all of us. Thank you in advance for your participation in this struggle. I appreciate your feedback. Please feel free to write to me at the address below.

Jim wrote on March 20, 2007 5:28 AM:

How pathetic that as the sun begins to set on his failed Presidency, he blames the people of our Nation, saying we have some psychological trauma rather than learning the lessons of his enormous mistakes. He will never understand that a grateful nation would rise with relief, if he only had the wisdom to learn and change, and a grateful world will rise with relief, when his days in
office are done.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history for using 9-11 to create fear throughout the land, rather than bravery, courage and valor.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history for using 9-11 to launch partisan and dishonest attacks on genuine American war heroes because they happen to be members of the other political party.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history for using 9-11 as a reason to become the only President in our history to become a world-wide advocate for torture and detention practices that every leader, of every democratic nation, everywhere in the world, has publicly or privately pleaded with
him to abandon.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history for showing contempt for the advice of our military commanders by allowing the man he compares to Hitler, to escape from Tora Bora, to pursue an obsessive war in Iraq, that many of those same commanders warned him about, while he publicly claimed he always follows their advice.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history for treating the Chief of Staff of the Army with ridicule and contempt, when General Shinseki so honorably tried to warn him.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history, for putting his hand on the Bible and pledging to preserve, protect and defend our Constitution while using 9-11 to claim the unilateral power to break it.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history by accepting the sacred duty to faithfully execute the laws of the land, while using 9-11 to create fears to claim the unilateral powers to violate them.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history for dishonoring a spirit that had Democrats and Republicans singing God Bless America at the doors of our Capitol, to personally promote a politics so venomous, vile and vindictive that he fills the air with talk of treason and enemies lists compiled by hate filled supporters.

Even when one of his media partisans slanders the Army that landed at Normandy and the Marines who took Iwo Jima with preposterous falsehoods that they committed war crimes, the self-styled war president lacks the moral integrity to speak out, for fear of offending what he proudly regards as his base.

Even when the trailer park trash of American politics slanders and demeans some widows of 9-11, this partisan who promised to bring honor and integrity to Washington lacks the moral stature to speak out, even against that.

George W. Bush will be morally impeached by the court of history for trying to frighten our people into war with Iraq, with tall tales of Saddam Hussein working with Osama Bin Laden to create mushroom clouds of nuclear extermination that would kill the people of New York.

George W. Bush will be impeached by the court of history for using 9-11 to fan the flames of fear so violently, that at one point, the Capital City of the land of the free and the home of the brave was turned into a panicked hutch of rabbits running to the stores for duct tape, gas masks, bottled water, and bullet proof vests while the Vice-President of the United States fled to hiding spots at undisclosed locations.

How ironic, how pathetic, and how fitting that as America prepares to honor the heroes of 9-11 the Senate Intelligence Committee issues a report detailing fraudulent exploitation of false intelligence, one of America's national networks exploits 9-11 with a docu-fraud of falsehoods, while our "wartime" President exploits 9-11 one more time, with one more taxpayer financed tour of fear, desperately trying to win one more national election.

Five years ago some of the finest Americans who God ever put on this earth gave their lives for their brothers and sisters, for their neighbors and families, for the country that they and we love so much, so deeply and so passionately.

No one ever took a poll to determine whether these American heroes were Democrats or Republicans, because it does not matter.

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