As we all know by now, George Orwell Bush has deemed that the “war on terror” be renamed the “struggle against violent extremism”, so that history will not depict him as losing a war, but engaging in a struggle. I’m not sure it gets him where he wants to be. After all, Mein Kampf translates to “my struggle”. And the … Read More
A Class Act
Bush flips the bird. Quicktime video here. And so, when I put my hand on the Bible, I will swear to not only uphold the laws of our land, I will swear to uphold the honor and dignity of the office to which I have been elected, so help me God. – Bush Acceptance Speech, August 3, 2000. God, are … Read More
The Slippery Slope of Wingnuttery
Let’s see. Where are we in the Republican defense of Rove? Meme roll call: First: “The White House had nothing to do with the leak of classified information.” Second: “Okay, maybe the White House did have something to do with the leak, but nobody identified Valerie Plame by her actual name.” Second and a half: “By the way, Plame had … Read More
Bush, Roberts and Government Secrecy
The Bush White House is once again play hide-and-seek, this time with memos written by Supreme Court nominee John Roberts. While they are turning over some documents from Roberts’ past, they are refusing to turn over documents from 1989 to 1993, when Roberts was deputy solicitor general. The stated reason? Attorney-client privilege. A-C privilege is a sticky wicket, but it … Read More
Kerry Was Right; Bush Was Wrong
. . . about the “war on terror” "I will use our military when necessary, but it is not primarily a military operation. It’s an intelligence-gathering, law-enforcement, public-diplomacy effort. And we’re putting far more money into the war on the battlefield than we are into the war of ideas. We need to get it straight." — John Kerry, April 13, … Read More
Bush Pulls Access To Classified Info
Not pulled from Rove, but from certain members of Congress. The date was 10/5/01, and here’s the executive order in which he does it. What prompted such an action? Well, apparently, some lawmakers had told the Washington Post that they had been informed that more terrorist attacks were likely, a conjecture derived from intelligence documents. Bush couldn’t have things like … Read More
Lying As A Natural Habit
So Scottie sez that Supreme Court nominee John Roberts “doesn’t recall ever paying dues or being a member” of the conservative Federalist Society. But John Roberts himself said that participatws in Federalist Society events and gave speeches for the organization. And the Washington Post reported Monday that it had obtained from a liberal group a 1997-98 Federalist Society leadership directory … Read More
The 12 Hour Gap
People are asking good questions: What did White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card learn from Alberto Gonzales and when did he learn it…and what did he do with that knowledge? . . . Alberto Gonzales admitted that he called Andrew Card right after he was notified that the Justice Department had opened its investigation of the Plame leak…even though … Read More
Former CIA Officers Blast GOP Talking Points
In case you missed it, Josh Marshall has the letter (PDF format) in which eleven former intelligence officers reduce the GOP Plame talking points (e.g., “she wasn’t covert because she had a desk job") to mincemeat.
White House Purges?
It seems that some of the press gaggles archived on the White House website have, um, gone missing. For example, you can no longer access the press gaggle where Ari Fleischer says: But there’s a bigger picture here, and this is what’s fundamental—the case for war against Iraq was based on the threat that Saddam Hussein posed because of his … Read More
Heh Photo
This photo was taken in 2003. Rove and Novak. Rove’s button says—I’m not making this up—“I’m a source, not a target”. “O, Arturo, prince of irony . . .”
For The Last Time, Plame Was Covert
A classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked “(S)” for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials. *** The paragraph identifying her as the wife of … Read More
Rove Being Investigated . . . For Lying To The FBI?
Inside sources are saying so: White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove did not disclose that he had ever discussed CIA officer Valerie Plame with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper during Rove’s first interview with the FBI, according to legal sources with firsthand knowledge of the matter. The omission by Rove created doubt for federal investigators, almost from the … Read More
Timing Is Everything
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Bush is close to a decision on his first nominee to the Supreme Court and could make his announcement as early as Tuesday, Republican sources said. Wow. Okay. "The time is now,” said a Republican strategist close to the White House of Bush’s announcement. Why is the time “now”, Mr. Republican-Strategist-Close-To-The-White-House? Sources said the timing of … Read More
Executive Order No. 12958
Criminal laws aside, Executive Order No. 12958 would require that the White House, independent of any criminal investigation, take affirmative action to determine if there was a leak, and punish the leaker accordingly. Under the executive order, “officers and employees of the United States Government . . . shall be subject to appropriate sanctions if they knowingly, willingly, or negligently … Read More