C I Ain't That Dumb, But They Is
About that Rove indictment...it will EVENTUALLY get here. Geez, Fitz is slow. Yeah, yeah, I know he's a pro, Prissy just isn't that patient for justice to be served.
ABC- which has been doing better reporting lately CIA Leak Case Heats Up Hazy Summer Have no fear Dearest Readers, Rover will be forced out. When? Apparently only Fitz knows for sure. Prissy bets he doesn't talk on the phone too much or House of Dubya would know too.
Fitzgerald has assembled evidence that Rove was active during that period in July 2003 in defending the president's reasons for going to war.
"Past forecasts of a timetable for Fitzgerald's decision have proved wrong. What is the new forecast? We asked a lawyer who was at one time involved in the case and who does not want to make predictions with his name attached.
"Soon," he said, "Fitzgerald can't delay this much longer."
What does soon mean, we asked.
"Oh," he said, "one hot day when you least expect it.""
Paul Hackett filled in for Ed on the Ed Shultz Show this Memorial Day and it was lively as always! Hackett is a true patriot that Ohio can be proud of.
Sometimes one can do more good "outside" the system, than even from working within it. With no campaign for Senate, Hackett is free to be a critic and assist in holding our politicians accountable. Ohio likes him, he was sure to draw a crowd where ever he went.
We are glad to see Paul Hackett didn't decide to go home and shut the door!
Hot Links
Wayne Madsen-June 1, 2006 -- Rocky shoals for Bush marriage? Informed sources Inside the Beltway report that First Lady Laura Bush has established temporary residence in the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC as a result of a tiff with President Bush over an extramarital relationship involving her husband. Mr. Bush's tryst is said to involve Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. It is not known how long Mrs. Bush plans to remain at the Mayflower, however, her security detail has been present at the hotel during hours when the First Lady would normally be residing in the White House. While she was National Security Adviser, Rice, who has never been married, referred to George W. Bush as "my husband" before she corrected herself and said, "the president." Rice was speaking at a dinner when she made her "husband" remarks.
WMR is tracking the Laura Bush story.
Good for you, Laura. Prissy doesn't see how you stood it as long as you did, dear. The Globe is also reporting this story. Notice Bush did not sue The National Enquirer regarding the September story, which claimed Dubya was back on the sauce...
Reuters Fundraiser admits funneling money to Bush campaign
Noe's scheme netted $45,400 for the Bush campaign and he became a top fund-raiser for the party in Ohio, raising more than $100,000 for Bush and other Republicans. Bush beat Democrat John Kerry in Ohio by 118,000 votes, a victory that was pivotal to his reelection.
And...The state scandal involving Noe relates to a $50 million investment in rare coins Noe was permitted to make on behalf of Ohio's worker's compensation bureau. He has pleaded not guilty to 53 charges of mishandling and stealing from the fund, and goes on trial on August 29.
Prissy's previous July 18, 2005 post on Coingate-more timely than ever for new Dearest Readers COIN GATE in Ohio Linked to Bushes and Florida
Florida Investigator Who Got Too Close to Florida "Coin Gate" Silenced by Jeb Bush's Gangsters Story Unfolding Room 132 at the Knight's Inn in Valdosta, Georgia. Florida Department of Transportation Investigator Ray Lemme had the goods on the Bushes. He paid with his life. Lemme was anxious to meet his contact, driving a beeline direct route from Tallahassee using I-10, Rt. 221, and US 85, to Exit 16 intersection of I-75 and US 85 (Knights Inn, 2110 West Hill Ave., Valdosta, Georgia). The Knights Inn is fairly remote from I-75, surrounded by empty lots and woods with few potential witnesses in the vicinity.
Wayne Madsen FLORIDA PANHANDLE, June 10, 2005 -- Experienced federal investigators, acting independently, have discovered a covert funding channel used by the 2000 and 2004 Bush-Cheney campaigns and the administrations of Jeb Bush in Florida and Bob Taft in Ohio to illegally funnel foreign and other questionable money into Republican coffers.
Toledo Blade Anonymous letter to Pulitzer Board spurs investigation by The Blade Disgruntled employee attacks paper's Coingate entry (he thinks the Blade sat on the story for a year)
"“From our perspective, Blade reporters and editors conducted themselves ethically throughout the Coingate investigation, which continues,"the statement from the coin team said. "We're disappointed that anyone would question the quality and integrity of our work."
Firecrackers set off in the newsroom and in fellow reporters'’ cigarettes marked Mr. Tanber'’s first stint at The Blade from 1984 to 1987. And after returning to the newspaper in 1996, his newsroom conduct shifted from pranks to insubordination. After editors declined to publish a column he wrote on Blade time that stated he believed 9/11 happened because of the United States alliance with Israel, Mr. Tanber sent the commentary to the Daily Star, a Lebanese Web site. The column carried his byline George Tanber, Blade staff writer'— without receiving permission from the newspaper, as required by Blade policy. He received counseling from a senior editor.
In 2002, Mr. Tanber was ordered to apologize to a fellow employee for throwing two small balls at him in the newsroom because he claimed the employee was "“staring at him." In response, he submitted the apology on lined grade-school paper, writing five times: "“I will not throw balls in the newsroom and make [the employee] mad."
Hat tip to General Bruce of the Peace Army -NEW LINK!911-Physical Evidence Examined for the Layperson
AOL News No Curbs for Exxon Executive Pay
Shareholders rejected by a 92 percent vote a proposal to prohibit the company from sponsoring groups or events that discriminate. It was aimed at Exxon's sponsorship of the Masters golf tournament, held at a country club that doesn't allow women to join.
Before the meeting, shareholders noshed on doughnuts and viewed company exhibits in the lobby of the ornate Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center.
Across the street, about 50 demonstrators from a group called Expose Exxon donned oil drums and chanted slogans such as "Human need, not corporate greed." Two dozen police officers watched the group, and a police helicopter hovered above.
Most shareholders entered from an underground parking garage and never saw the protesters.
Canadians Healthier Than Americans, Survey Says
No kidding...Dubya's not their Massah...
Knight Ridder Questions abound about Basra's state of emergency
QUESTION: How can al-Maliki disarm militias when they're so politically powerful? Are the security forces strong enough to do that?
ANSWER: It's unclear what al-Maliki can and is willing to do. Iraq's security forces include many members of Shiite Muslim militias, which have been infiltrating the army and the police since at least early last year. In areas such as Basra, the army and police are dominated by Shiites, many of whom also are loyal to the militias. How those units would respond to an order to disarm their own militias is unclear.
Many see Iraq's ability to set up security forces that are free of sectarian agendas as the key to whether the country will continue. If Shiite militias aren't pulled back, many moderate Sunni Muslims may side with the Sunni insurgency as their only protection against the Shiite death squads that operate in and out of the security forces. That could lead to the Balkanization of Iraq along geographic and sectarian lines: western Sunni Arab provinces, southern Shiite provinces and the Kurdish north.
Remember J. Edger Hoover? Why is this man's name still on the FBI building? A passage from Official and Confidential; the Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover, Anthony Summers
"There is no doubt," concluded psychiatrist Dr. Harold Lief, Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the University of Pennsylvania, "that Hoover had a personality disorder, a narcissistic disorder with supiciousness and some sadism. I picked up some paranoid elements, undue paranoia produces what is known as an Authoriarian Personality. Hoover would have made a perfect high-level Nazi." p 434
Edgar's sexuality comes as no surprise to the psychologists. "His basic problem," said Dr. Leif, "seems to me to have been that he was both attracted and repelled by women. Because he separated lust and love it's likely that he idealized mother figures and lusted after the degraded women, which would explain his reported liking of pornography. If I hadn't known anything about his alledged homosexual tendencies, my guess would have been that his primary adaptation to transvestism, which indeed turns out to have been part of the picture."
Sound like any neocons you might know?
Speaking of unusual sexuality...Annie got a gun down the front of that skirt? Or is heshe just happy to see the photographer? 
Think Progress FACT CHECK: Right Wing Falsely Claims Iraq Is Safer Than Washington, D.C.
Here'’s why the report is deceptive and false: 1) The King report uses 2002 data for Washington, D.C., finding a violent casualty rate of 45.9 deaths per 100,000 people. That number is badly outdated. Using the most recent 2004 data, the violent casualty rate in D.C. is 35.8 deaths per 100,000. There were 198 homicides total in D.C. for the entire year.
2) According to Pentagon'’s own data released today, there have been 94 violent casualties per day in Iraq between February and May of 2006. (see p.33). That translates into 34,310 deaths per year in Iraq. For an Iraqi population of about 26.7 million, plus another 150,000 coalition forces, the violent casualty rate in Iraq is 128 deaths per 100,000.
3) Lastly, the King report is trying to conflate the data for one urban area in the U.S. with the entire country of Iraq. As OpinionJournal writes, 'The comparison with U.S. cities poses a problem of scale. Just as some municipalities here have high concentrations of crime, Baghdad and some other Iraqi cities have high concentrations of military, guerrilla and terrorist activity. A comparison of Baghdad with Los Angeles or a similarly sprawling U.S. city would be more enlightening than a comparison of Iraq as a whole with cities of well under a million people.'”
Editor and Publisher U.S. Military Admits Iraq Massacre -- Months After Press Reported It (It wasn't headline news, by any means-pp)
"When these investigations come out, there's going to be a firestorm," retired Brig. Gen. David M. Brahms, formerly a top lawyer for the Marine Corps, told The Washignton Post for a Friday story. "It will be worse than Abu Ghraib -- nobody was killed at Abu Ghraib."
An Army lawyer who has heard some accounts of the investigation told thge Post, "It's a lot more serious than people thought at the beginning. It's really bad timing," coming as the repercussions of the Abu Ghraib detainee abuse scandal are waning.
The military had first said that the victims died from a homemade bomb, and later, in a crossfire.
Counterpunch Is the Bush Regime a Sponsor of State Terrorism? The Evil Within by Paul Craig Roberts
Where does the danger to the world reside? In Iran, a small religious country where the family is intact and the government is constrained by religious authority and ancient traditions, or in the US where propaganda rules and the powerful executive branch has removed itself from accountability by breaking the constitutional restraints on its power?
Why is the US superpower orchestrating fear of puny Iran?
The US government has spent the past half century interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, overthrowing or assassinating their chosen leaders and imposing its puppets on foreign peoples. To what country has Iran done this, or Iraq, or North Korea?
Americans think that they are the salt of the earth. The hubris that comes from this self-righteous belief makes Americans blind to the evil of their leaders. How can American leaders be evil when Americans are so good and so wonderful?
The Progressive Haditha Means Time to End Iraq War
Just when you thought things couldn't get much worse for the United States in Iraq, over Memorial Day weekend, details emerged from a Pentagon investigation of a November massacre of 24 civilians by U.S. Marines that some military analysts are calling a bigger scandal than Abu Ghraib.
Final reports by the Pentagon and Congress are sure to set off a firestorm here and abroad.
Point-blank shootings of a seventy-seven-year-old grandfather in a wheelchair, a three-year-old, and a five-month-old baby and mother, who was apparently pleading for mercy when she was killed, are some of the casualties. Not, as The New York Times first reported--giving the Marine Corps' official version of events--armed insurgents. The original Times story said that a roadside bomb aimed at a U.S. convoy killed 20 Iraqis, and a firefight between U.S. troops and insurgents killed several more.
The failure of misleadership begins with the King.
International Herald Tribune Letter from China: Is the U.S. plunging into 'historical error'?
For the next decade or two there will continue to be only one superpower in the world, the United States. China's rise to superpower status seems all but inevitable, but what is remarkable is that China is the country whose modernization is unrelenting, while the United States, not even seriously challenged yet, appears tempted to follow the Soviet example.
Put another way, unless things are thought through more clearly, the United States could let insecurity undermine its self-confidence, plunging toward what the Chinese are fond of calling "a historical error."
der SPIEGEL SPIEGEL INTERVIEW WITH IRAN'S PRESIDENT AHMADINEJAD
SPIEGEL: Of course we are entitled to write about the findings of the past 60 years' historical research. In our view there is no doubt that the Germans -- unfortunately -- bear the guilt for the murder of 6 million Jews.
Ahmadinejad: Well, then we have stirred up a very concrete discussion. We are posing two very clear questions. The first is: Did the Holocaust actually take place? You answer this question in the affirmative. So, the second question is: Whose fault was it? The answer to that has to be found in Europe and not in Palestine. It is perfectly clear: If the Holocaust took place in Europe, one also has to find the answer to it in Europe.
On the other hand, if the Holocaust didn't take place, why then did this regime of occupation ... SPIEGEL: ... You mean the state of Israel... Ahmadinejad: ... come about? Why do the European countries commit themselves to defending this regime? Permit me to make one more point. We are of the opinion that, if an historical occurrence conforms to the truth, this truth will be revealed all the more clearly if there is more research into it and more discussion about it.
SPIEGEL: That has long since happened in Germany.
Ahmadinejad: We don't want to confirm or deny the Holocaust. We oppose every type of crime against any people. But we want to know whether this crime actually took place or not. If it did, then those who bear the responsibility for it have to be punished, and not the Palestinians. Why isn't research into a deed that occurred 60 years ago permitted? After all, other historical occurrences, some of which lie several thousand years in the past, are open to research, and even the governments support this.
Glenn Greenwald, First Amendment lawyer Last week, the Bush administration normalized diplomatic relations with Libya -- and is soon to remove them from the list of terrorist countries for the first time since 1979 despite the fact that that Libya's internal repression is among the worst in the world and it is about as far away from democratizing as a country can be. All of those pro-Libya actions are direct and glaring contradictions of our supposed foreign policy principle of only supporting countries which provide democracy and freedom to their citizens (although, purely coincidentally, Libya has developed superb relations with international oil companies).
It's as though we think that Muslims -- whose improved view of the U.S. is allegedly the objective of all of our foriegn policy actions, including our occupation of Iraq -- won't notice the ever-widening gap between our pro-democracy rhetoric and our actions. Of course they notice. And now, even the administration's most vigorous neonconservative boosters are admitting, and complaining, that the administration seems to have given up on these pro-democracy goals, if they ever really had them in the first place:
But as the US struggles to assert itself on the international stage, the presidentÂ’s most radical supporters now dismiss this as mere rhetoric, and traditional conservatives are questioning the wisdom of a democratisation strategy that has brought unpleasant consequences in the Middle East. . . .
“Bush killed his own doctrine,” they said, describing the final blow as the resumption of diplomatic relations with Libya. This betrayal of Libyan democracy activists, they said, came after the US watched Egypt abrogate elections, ignored the collapse of the “Cedar Revolution” in Lebanon, abandoned imprisoned Chinese dissidents and started considering a peace treaty with Stalinist North Korea.
Song by Greenday Life During War Quotes of the Day
Diplomacy means all the wicked devices of the Old World, spheres of influence, balances of power, secret treaties, triple alliances, and, during the interim period, appeasement of Fascism. --Barbara Tuchman,American writer, noted for her popular histories
For diplomacy to be effective, words must be credible - and no one can now doubt the word of America. --George W. Bush
A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age. --Robert Frost
'We have no eternal allies, and we have no perpetual enemies. Our interests are eternal and perpetual, and those interests it is our duty to follow.'--Lord Palmerston, 19th century England-Secretary at War under five prime ministers
'In a world where war is everybody's tragedy and everybody's nightmare, diplomacy is everybody's business.' Lord Strang, 1959(1893-1978), Author of Britain in World Affairs and Diplomat, Under Secretary of State Foreign Affairs
