Cheney vs. Cheney

So, what happened between 1994 and 2003 that made invading Iraq a good idea, Mr. Cheney? It seems all of the negative outcomes of invading Iraq in 1994 are exactly what happened when your administration invaded Iraq in 2003. Did your interest in oil increase?

No End in Sight

Check out this clip from the movie "No End in Sight" a well-made film chronicling the current administrations policies in Iraq.

Go to the movie's website here.

Another Republican in a sex scandal? What are the odds?

Yup, "Republican" and "sex scandal" are wed yet again... and this time, it's even one of those evil same-sex marriages.

You heard me correct; Florida state Representative Bob Allen (R) was charged last week for offering to perform oral sex on a male undercover officer for $20. (article here) Did I mention he is co-chair of John McCain's campaign in Florida?

Which is worse in the eyes of the right wing: performing an act of sodomy or being a prostitute? I'm guessing the combination of the two is grounds for being shot in the face by Dick Cheney.

Fred Thompson and Watergate

Yes, Senate Watergate Committee minority counsel Fred Thompson asked that historical question which revealed a taping system in the White House, but he wasn't the one who originally got the information out of presidential aide Alexander Butterfield; another Republican staffer, Don Sanders, was the one who scored the info.

In fact, when Fred found out about the taping system, he leaked the information to the White House so they were "...fully aware of what was to be disclosed so that [they] could take appropriate action." You see, Fred was a huge supporter of Nixon at the beginning of the Watergate scandal. And Fred was a former campaign manager of Senator Howard Baker (R-TN), the ranking Republican member of the Senate Watergate Committee.

So why did he let out the information about the taping system? He thought it would prove Nixon's innocence. Not until he heard the tapes did he realize how wrong he was about Nixon.

And now, this series of events is being spun as "...gained national attention for leading the line of inquiry that revealed the audio-taping system in the White House Oval Office" by his website.

Oh, did I mention that Thompson urged a pardon for Scooter Libby? Didn't he learn about scandal the first time around?

Read the whole story from Boston.com here.

H W vs. W

April 26, 1999

Former President George H. W. Bush comments on those who expose the name of our sources.



I guess this no longer applies...

It's Time to Resign

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann comments on the Scooter Libby Pardon (let's call it what it is, ok?):

I accuse you, Mr. Bush, of lying this country into war.

I accuse you of fabricating in the minds of your own people, a false implied link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11.

I accuse you of firing the generals who told you that the plans for Iraq were disastrously insufficient.

I accuse you of causing in Iraq the needless deaths of 3,586 of our brothers and sons, and sisters and daughters, and friends and neighbors.

I accuse you of subverting the Constitution, not in some misguided but sincerely-motivated struggle to combat terrorists, but to stifle dissent.

I accuse you of fomenting fear among your own people, of creating the very terror you claim to have fought.

I accuse you of exploiting that unreasoning fear, the natural fear of your own people who just want to live their lives in peace, as a political tool to slander your critics and libel your opponents.

I accuse you of handing part of this Republic over to a Vice President who is without conscience, and letting him run roughshod over it.

And I accuse you now, Mr. Bush, of giving, through that Vice President, carte blanche to Mr. Libby, to help defame Ambassador Joseph Wilson by any means necessary, to lie to Grand Juries and Special Counsel and before a court, in order to protect the mechanisms and particulars of that defamation, with your guarantee that Libby would never see prison, and, in so doing, as Ambassador Wilson himself phrased it here last night, of becoming an accessory… to the obstruction of justice.

This is, by far, the best commentary on the Bush Administration I have read in the last year. Kudos, Mr. Olbermann for putting the facts out in a manner that leaves no doubt as to what you feel.

Read the whole transcripts and see the video here.

The Dick

The Washington Post has created a four-part must-read series on Vice President (and President of the Senate) Dick Cheney.

Part One (6/24/07): Working in the Background

• "Cheney flunked out of Yale but became a highly regarded PhD candidate in political science at the University of Wisconsin -- avoiding the Vietnam War draft with five deferments along the way -- before abandoning the doctoral program and heading to Washington as a junior congressional aide."

• "While lawyers fought over the 2000 Florida ballot recount, with the presidential election in the balance, Cheney was already populating a prospective Bush administration. Brian V. McCormack, then his 26-year-old personal aide, said Cheney worked three cellphones from the round kitchen table of his townhouse in McLean, "making up lists" of nominees beginning with the secretaries of state, defense and the Treasury." Anyone else think Cheney knew something about the election that we didn't?

• "Cheney declines to disclose the names or even the size of his staff, generally releases no public calendar and ordered the Secret Service to destroy his visitor logs."

Part Two (6/25/07): Wars and Interrogations

Part Three (6/26/07): Dominating Budget Decisions

Part Four (6/27/07): Environmental Policy

• Article not yet released... but we can pretty much fill in the blanks on this one. Can you say Exxon?
  

Link to the Main Page of this four-parter here.

This is an AMAZING set of articles that EVERY AMERICAN MUST READ.

Do YOU use RNC e-mail?

E-mail scandals -- the new Watergate.

In March 2007, White House spokesperson Dana Perino said only a "handful of officials" had Republican National Committee (RNC) e-mail accounts. In later statements, her estimate rose to "50 over the course of the administration." Actually, the US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has learned from the RNC (after two subpoenas were issued) that at least 88 White House officials had RNC e-mail accounts.

What's the issue? These e-mail accounts were used for government business, such as communicating with federal agencies about federal appointments. This is a violation of the Presidential Records Act of 1978.

Why would people use their RNC account instead of their official .gov account? As Susan Ralston, Karl Rove's former executive assistant, said in an e-mail to Todd Boulanger, one of Jack Abramoff's associates, "I now have an RNC blackberry which you can use to e-mail me at anytime. No security issues like my WH e-mail." In other words, there's no official paper trail. Plus, the RNC e-mails can be easily destroyed without the White House's involvement or knowledge. In fact, only records for 37 of the 88 accounts are available, and the 37 aren't complete.

Sounds like a scandal, huh? Read the official Committee findings here.