TGIF/Weekend edition - May 25-27, 2007
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In the Rose Garden, It Was All Al-Qaeda
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Clinton, Obama vote 'no' on Senate Iraq bill |
Congress Bows To Bush, OKs Iraq Funds |
Do you ever wonder what we don't know that Bush has done? I do.
The-World-Is-A-Safer-Place-Without-Saddam News
US military deaths in Iraq at 3433 Houston Chronicle, TX -
Bush uses bin Laden to defend Iraq war policy Xinhua, China
Bush predicts bloody summer in Iraq Boston Globe, MA
Minimum-wage hike piggybacks on Iraq bill to ensure its passage
Bush Brings His Honor and Dignity To The Troops
The system for delivering badly needed gear to
Marines in Iraq has failed to meet many urgent requests for equipment from
troops in the field, according to an internal document obtained by The
Associated Press.
Of more than 100 requests from deployed Marine units between February 2006 and
February 2007,
less than 10 percent have been fulfilled, the document says.
More Honor and Dignity
A former top Justice Department aide testified on Wednesday that she had “crossed the line” in considering the political beliefs of applicants for nonpartisan legal jobs and suggested that earlier testimony by Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and another top official about the dismissals of federal prosecutors may have been flawed.
Disturbing News
Rescuers bringing out big guns — hoses — for whales San Mateo County Times, CA
The San Francisco Treat
"My future plans are to get
back to California as fast as possible," Rice told a classroom full of school
children in this city near Stanford. Rice began teaching political science at
Stanford in 1981 and was Stanford's provost from 1992-99.
"Take it to the bank: She's coming back to Stanford," State Department spokesman
Sean McCormack told The Associated Press.
Rice will rejoin the university as a professor, not in an administrative role,
he said.
Republican Shenanigans
Frist in Running For World Bank President Post: WSJ CNBC, NJ
Politics At Work In Inquiry, Bush Says Washington Post
John Boehner Gets Emotional, When Talking About America YouTube
Republican presidential candidates exchange jabs on immigration
Paul stirs GOP presidential race Houston Chronicle, TX
Edwards: Bush bad, hopefuls worse Los Angeles Times, CA
Going, Going, Gonzo
Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer says the Senate will take a "no confidence" vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales after it completes action on the immigration reform bill. Under the current working schedule, that would be about the week of June 11th. But his efforts will still face both procedural and political hurdles before getting to such a vote.
Rock-The-Voter News
Fury grows over US immigration bill The Christian Science Monitor
Report: Corzine gave former girlfriend $6 million The Trentonian, NJ
"Giuliani has been paying his wife $10,000 a month to help write his speeches. That's every wife's dream, isn't it? To put words in your husband's mouth, and get paid for it." --Jay Leno
Outing the Lobbyists
The House voted Thursday to drag into public view the role that registered lobbyists play in soliciting and collecting contributions for political campaigns, exposing for the first time one of the most effective ways that influence-seekers ingratiate themselves with lawmakers and presidents.
Biz-Tech News
Oil Rises on Concern Over Gasoline Supply, Nigerian Oil Strike Bloomberg
Bush Says US `Watching' China's Actions on Currency (Update1)
Dell will sell 2 computer models at Wal-Mart International Herald Tribune
Nasdaq to pay $3.7B for Swedish exchange CNNMoney.com
A powerful commentary on gun violence
The Goods on Goodling and the Keys to the Kingdom
by Greg Palast
This Monica revealed something hotter — much hotter — than a stained blue dress.
In her opening testimony yesterday before the House Judiciary Committee, Monica
Goodling, the blonde-ling underling to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and
Department of Justice Liaison to the White House, dropped The Big One….And the
Committee members didn’t even know it.
Goodling testified that Gonzales’ Chief of Staff, Kyle Sampson, perjured
himself, lying to the committee in earlier testimony. The lie: Sampson denied
Monica had told him about Tim Griffin’s “involvement in ‘caging’ voters” in
2004.
Huh?? Tim Griffin? “Caging”???
The perplexed committee members hadn’t a clue — and asked no substantive
questions about it thereafter. Karl Rove is still smiling. If the members had
gotten the clue, and asked the right questions, they would have found “the keys
to the kingdom,” they thought they were looking for. They dangled right in front
of their perplexed faces.
The keys: the missing emails — and missing link — that could send Griffin and
his boss, Rove, to the slammer for a long, long time.
Kingdom enough for ya?
But what’s ‘caging’ and why is it such a dreadful secret that lawyer Sampson put
his license to practice and his freedom on the line to cover Tim Griffin’s
involvement in it? Because it’s a felony. And a big one.
Our BBC team broke the story at the top of the nightly news everywhere on the
planet - except the USA - only because America’s news networks simply refused to
cover this evidence of the electoral coup d’etat that chose our President in
2004.
Here’s how caging worked, and along with Griffin’s thoughtful emails themselves
you’ll understand it all in no time.
The Bush-Cheney operatives sent hundreds of thousands of letters marked “Do not
forward” to voters’ homes. Letters returned (”caged”) were used as evidence to
block these voters’ right to cast a ballot on grounds they were registered at
phony addresses. Who were the evil fakers? Homeless men, students on vacation
and — you got to love this — American soldiers. Oh yeah: most of them are Black
voters.
Why weren’t these African-American voters home when the Republican letters
arrived? The homeless men were on park benches, the students were on vacation —
and the soldiers were overseas. Go to Baghdad, lose your vote. Mission
Accomplished.
How do I know? I have the caging lists…
I have them because they are attached to the emails Rove insists can’t be found.
I have the emails. 500 of them — sent to our team at BBC after the Rove-bots
accidentally sent them to a web domain owned by our friend John Wooden.
Here’s what you need to know — and the Committee would have discovered, if only
they’d asked:
1. ‘Caging’ voters is a crime, a go-to-jail felony.
2. Griffin wasn’t “involved” in the caging, Ms. Goodling. Griffin, Rove’s
right-hand man (right-hand claw), was directing the illegal purge and challenge
campaign. How do I know? It’s in the email I got. Thanks. And it’s posted below.
3. On December 7, 2006, the ragin’, cagin’ Griffin was named, on Rove’s personal
demand, US Attorney for Arkansas. Perpetrator became prosecutor.
The committee was perplexed about Monica’s panicked admission and accusations
about the caging list because the US press never covered it. That’s because, as
Griffin wrote to Goodling in yet another email (dated February 6 of this year,
and also posted below), their caging operation only made the news on BBC London:
busted open, Griffin bitched, by that “British reporter,” Greg Palast.
There’s no pride in this. Our BBC team broke the story at the top of the nightly
news everywhere on the planet — except the USA — only because America’s news
networks simply refused to cover this evidence of the electoral coup d’etat that
chose our President in 2004.
And now, not bothering to understand the astonishing revelation in Goodling’s
confessional, they are missing the real story behind the firing of the US
attorneys. It’s not about removing prosecutors disloyal to Bush, it’s about
replacing those who refused to aid the theft of the vote in 2004 with those
prepared to burgle it again in 2008.
Now that they have the keys, let’s see if they can put them in the right door.
The clock is ticking ladies and gents…
***************
Greg Palast is the author of the New York Times bestseller, Armed Madhouse: From
Baghdad to New Orleans - Sordid Secrets and Strange Tales of a White House Gone
WILD. For more info, or to hear Brad Friedman, Ed Asner and other troublemakers
read from Armed Madhouse, go to
www.GregPalast.com
"Friends, the press and the government are in bed together in an embrace so intimate and wrong, they could spoon on a twin mattress and still have room for Ted Koppel. Journalists used to questions the reasons for war and expose abuse of power. Now, like toothless babies, they suckle on the sugary teat of misinformation and poop it into the diaper we call the 6:00 News. Demand more of your government. Demand more of your press." --Kent Brockman, on The Simpsons
Even More Honor and Dignity!
A House committee chairman wants to know more about a lobbying campaign by student loan company Sallie Mae that included a meeting with Bush budget officials weeks before the company's chairman dumped $18 million worth of stock.
Bush-Prison-Torture News
A typical workday in the Bush administration
Mile High Ménage a trois
SPANGDAHLEM AIR BASE,
Germany — A Spangdahlem-based airman was sentenced Monday to four months
confinement for her part in a sexual act with two other airmen.
Airman 1st Class Ashley N. Rains
pleaded guilty at a court-martial to two indecent acts charges.
"President Bush was caught driving his truck without a seatbelt on at his ranch, but that's not even the dangerous part, the dangerous part is Dick Cheney was riding shotgun." --Jay Leno
Go-F***-Yourself News
Schakowsky's Bill To Impeach Cheney Divides Locals
Daily Northwestern, IL
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Odd News
Criminalist Lee's Credibility Challenged Washington Post
FDA Approves Lybrel, a Pill Designed to Stop Menstruation
This photo from the Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary, shows a scientist looking at a computer model of the human body. Canadian scientists have created the world's first virtual computer model of a human body, translating a litany of complex medical and genomic data into 4D images to test drugs and surgeons' skills. The virtual man with his skin and skeleton removed to display every vein, artery and organ, floating in a small, dark room with more than 3,000 body parts projected from walls and the floor, was unveiled at the University of Calgary this week.
Photo/Masumi Yajima
I hope your Memorial Day weekend is peaceful.