The President Implicated!!!

This is some of the most dramatic footage to come out of the investigations into the US Attorney scandal so far. This is former Deputy Attorney General James Comey testifying before Congress about the time Alberto Gonzales tried to illegally pressure a gravely ill John Ashcroft into signing off on the illegal wiretapping program after he had transferred his authority to James Comey.

Conservatives Never Take Responsibility For Themselves

Here is another example of what I have been saying for years, that Conservatives do not believe in responsibility and will do everything they can to avoid taking responsibility for their decisions and actions.

Wolfowitz Blames Media For Resignation

May 28, 2007 06:05 AM EST

LONDON — Departing World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz in a radio interview broadcast Monday blamed an overheated atmosphere at the bank and in the media for forcing him to resign.

Wolfowitz, who has announced he will step down June 30, denied suggestions that his decision to leave was influenced by an apparent lack of support from the bank's employees.

"I think it tells us more about the media than about the bank and I'll leave it at that," he told the British Broadcasting Corp. "People were reacting to a whole string of inaccurate statements and by the time we got to anything approximating accuracy the passions were around the bend."

Wolfowitz said that he was pleased the bank's board accepted that he had acted ethically, and in good faith in his handling of a generous compensation package for his girlfriend and bank employee Shaha Riza in 2005.

"I accept the fact that by the time we got around to that, emotions here were so overheated that I don't think I could have accomplished what I wanted to accomplish for the people I really care about," he said.

By tradition, the United States _ the bank's biggest financial contributor _ names an American to run the institution.

Wolfowitz's departure ends a two-year run at the development bank that was marked by controversy from the start, given his previous role as a major architect of the Iraq war when he served as the No. 2 official at the Pentagon.

Gee Wolfie, you don't think the fact the Bank's employees hate you could have had anything to do with the fact you were showing favoritism to your girlfriend by giving her promotions and $60,000 raises, do you?

No, of course you don't...

John Stewart Distills the Essense of Gonzo-Gate

I like the comments of the guy who posted this video on youtube.

Even though he won't admit it, I think Jon Stewart understands the workings of our government more than most in the media. He has to understand it so much more than the average reporter. He not only needs to know what's going on, but has to comprehend it on a level that allows him to find humor in it.

Stewart Dissects Goodling's Testimony

The Corporate Media is Officially Useless

This makes me SO furious!

Monica Goodling got in front of Congress the other day and stated that Tim Griffin engaged in Caging of black votes in Arkansas during the 2004 Presidential election and that she had informed her superiors about it! That means Gonzo, McNulty and Kyle Sampson all lied when they claimed they didn't know anything about it.

As John Conyers pointed out it is becoming clearer and clearer that the White House was pulling strings in the Justice Department to use them for unethical, partisan political purposes.

If you are unaware, Caging is an illegal voter supression tactic that investigative reporter Greg Palast of BBC News has been reporting on for years. According to his investigations, the Republican party engaged in caging back in 2000 and again in 2004.

Monica just confirmed that in sworn testimony in front of Congress!!!
That is the ultimate smoking gun!

She also stated that she believed she had broken the law ("crossed the line of the law" was the actual phrase) in using partisan tests for positions within the Justice Department.

But what did CBS News decide to report?

They simply copied a report from the Ultra-Rightwing website, National Review, who's Orwellean headline read, "No Smoking Gun from Goodling"

Bush's Latest Attack On the Constitution

This is scary. This went by pretty much ignored by the mainstream media. The President has created a mechanism by which he could take control of the entire federal government.

On May 9th, President Bush issued a Presidential Directive (NSPD 51) that redoes the Continuity of Government in case of an emergency (as if the Constitution did not already address that).

The purpose of the directive:

This directive establishes a comprehensive national policy on the continuity of Federal Government structures and operations and a single National Continuity Coordinator responsible for coordinating the development and implementation of Federal continuity policies. This policy establishes "National Essential Functions," prescribes continuity requirements for all executive departments and agencies, and provides guidance for State, local, territorial, and tribal governments, and private sector organizations in order to ensure a comprehensive and integrated national continuity program that will enhance the credibility of our national security posture and enable a more rapid and effective response to and recovery from a national emergency.

There were two alarming things that jumped out at me when I first read this.

First there was this (emphasis mine) :

"Catastrophic Emergency" means any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely effecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions;

Notice the use of the word "or". That means there does not have to be "mass casualties" or "damage" and the highlighted part means it doesn't have to happen here in the U.S.

That means that something that happens overseas, like in Iraq for instance, which merely disrupts our economy (such as OPEC raising the price of oil), would be enough for the President to invoke this and take control of the U.S. Government.

Then there is the key to this whole thing and what makes it so dangerous in my mind:

"Enduring Constitutional Government," or "ECG," means a cooperative effort among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal Government, coordinated by the President, as a matter of comity with respect to the legislative and judicial branches and with proper respect for the constitutional separation of powers among the branches, to preserve the constitutional framework under which the Nation is governed and the capability of all three branches of government to execute constitutional responsibilities and provide for orderly succession, appropriate transition of leadership, and interoperability and support of the National Essential Functions during a catastrophic emergency;

This puts the President in charge of the entire federal government and subordinates the other branches beneath him, which is the ultimate enactment of the Republicans' "Unitary Executive" theory, which has until now been considered unlikely because it is blatently unconstitutional.

But since when has Bush ever cared about the Constitution?

I am forcibly reminded of the character Palpatine in Star Wars, who becomes Emperor after tricking the Senate into granting him "emergency powers".

With hurricane season coming up and scientists predicting a busy hurricane season, we might see this enacted sooner than anyone feared.

What happens if we have another Katrina and Bush decides to enact this? What would we do to restore the Constitution?

I spent the better part of this morning on the phone with the offices of my representatives and with the offices of the chairs of certain committes and apparently none of them were even aware the President had issued this directive. Everyone I spoke to and directed to the white house website to read this were just as alarmed as I am.

I urge everyone who reads this and understands why this should be alarming to everyone to contact their representatives in Congress at 866-220-0044.

Bush Picks a Scapegoat...er, War Czar

It appears that Dumbya has finally found someone dumb enough to take the fall for his bad decisions in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The poor schmuck in question is Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute. He has already been overseeing combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan but now he gets to take all the responsibility for the decisions made by the Commander in Chief.

Is this Bush trying to outsource his own position as Commander in Chief?

As I said before, it seems he doesn't wanna be a "war president" anymore.

The Mother's Day Proclamation - a reading

This is well worth watching! It is a short history of Mother's Day and a reading of the proclamation.



http://mothersdayforpeace.com/

The Mother's Day Proclamation

In America, Mother's Day came about after the Civil War, mostly because of two women Julia Ward Howe, a Northern Poet who is also known for writing "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and Anna Reeve Jarvis, a Southerner who worked through the civil war to improve sanitary conditions and treat wounded from both sides. She also worked to reconcile Union and Confederate neighbors after the war. Both women were devout pacifists and anti-war activists. Julia Ward Howe was one of the first to call for a "Mother's Day" in her Mother's Day Proclamation.

The Mother's Day Proclamation

Arise, then, women of this day!

Arise, all women who have hearts,

Whether our baptism be of water or of tears!

Say firmly:

"We will not have great questions decided by irrelevant agencies,

Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage, for caresses and applause.

Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn

All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.

We, the women of one country, will be too tender of those of another country

To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

From the bosom of the devastated Earth a voice goes up with our own.

It says: "Disarm! Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."

Blood does not wipe out dishonor, nor violence indicate possession.

As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,

Let women now leave all that may be left of home for a great and earnest day of counsel.

Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means

Whereby the great human family can live in peace,

Each bearing after his own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,

But of God.

In the name of womanhood and humanity, I earnestly ask

That a general congress of women without limit of nationality

May be appointed and held at someplace deemed most convenient

And at the earliest period consistent with its objects,

To promote the alliance of the different nationalities,

The amicable settlement of international questions,

The great and general interests of peace.