It is quite enjoyable to see Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA) methodically take apart Victoria Toensing. Also Rep. Waxman states at the end that the record will be held open “to put in other things that might contradict some of what you [Toensing] had to say.” Continue reading Toensing: “I didn’t talk to Miss Wilson or the CIA”
Link: Supporting our troops has to mean more than mouthing the words. It has to mean more than waving a flag, and it has to mean more than feeling good about the military. Feelings are nice, but for too long all Americans have been called upon to do in this war is to feel. Americans should be called upon to act, to remedy shortcomings in veterans’ health care and raise military pay, to make sure that those who fight for us abroad won’t be helpless at home, won’t be jobless and even homeless, their sacrifices shoved aside. The troops who … Continue reading Columnwhoring: On Ribbons
Valerie Plame testified before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee today. Here is part… UPDATE: Whoa! From Editor and Publisher… NEW YORK Dr. James Knodell, director of the Office of Security at the White House, told a congresisonal committee today that he was aware of no internal investigation or report into the leak of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame. The White House had first opposed Knodell testifying but after a threat of a subpoena from the committee yesterday he was allowed to appear today. Knodell has testified that those who had participated in the leaking of classified information were … Continue reading Plame Testimony
Senator Mary Landrieu has called for an investigation on the defective pumps from MWI and the contracting for such.Via Spocko’s Brain… In addition to calling for an investigation into whether the Corps installed pumps they knew to be defective, Sen. Landrieu requested that the GAO determine if the pump design and installation contracts were given for any reason other than merit. One point of note perhaps is that MWI had been tapped almost immediately after Katrina for rental pumps to dewater NOLA. From a September 12, 2005press release by MWI… MWI currently 12 very large Hydraflo pumps on site to … Continue reading Landrieu calls for New Orleans pump investigation.
There’s been a dearth of Fox on the blog lately. Main reason: He HATES holding still. A. Continue reading Friday Ferretblogging: Fox Edition
From the latest Gallup Poll: Bush Job Approval – 35% (up from 32%) Cheney Job Approval – 34% (down from 40%) Pardon Libby No 67%Yes 21% (and only 34% of Republikkkans think Libby should be pardoned) Continue reading Pardon My Ponies
Bush Boom. The government’s measure of inflation at the producer level rose sharply in February, reflecting a broad increase in prices on everything from gasoline to cigarettes. The Labor Department said today that its producer price index, which takes account of the prices businesses charge one another, rose 1.3 percent last month after falling 0.6 percent in January. The rise was a reminder that while inflation may have settled down somewhat, it still remains a significant threat to the economy. Continue reading Inflation Booms
Let’s kick off yesterday’s gaggle with Pony Blow’s lame attempts to swat down questions about Scandal Number 1,582.
Abu G Gets The Kiss Of Death
Q Tony, it’s getting hard to find a Republican around town who says that Gonzales will survive this. Is there any feeling inside the White House that Attorney General Gonzales will survive this?
MR. SNOW: The President has confidence in the Attorney General. He’s made that clear, both privately to the Attorney General, and he made it clear yesterday in the press conference.
Q But if you have an ever-growing number of Republicans on the Hill calling for resignation or expressing strong —
MR. SNOW: Well, you’re asking me if; we have one publicly declared.
Q You do have more Republican opinion that Gonzales should not keep his job.
MR. SNOW: Well, again —
[snip]
MR. SNOW: The President has confidence in the Attorney General.
Q He had confidence in Rumsfeld, too.
Continue reading “Today On Holden’s Obsession With [Yesterday’s] Gaggle”
NBC’s Martin Savidge reports on the defective pumps in New Orleans (2 min.)… And from Matt at Fix the Pumps… 3) The test last Saturday, like the one last night, only went for about an hour. That was not mentioned in the Times-Picayune article. But ALL the floodgate pumps (there are no spares in case one or more fails during a storm) will have to run for 12 or maybe 24 hours during a tropical storm or hurricane. Why isn’t the Corps running tests for the media that last that long? Because they know the pumps and their drive units … Continue reading NBC News on Defective Pumps in New Orleans
The New York Times’Jim Rutenbergshares his observations after a week spent traveling with the Chimpster in Central and South America. Try as they might to make President Bush utter the name of his chief Latin American nemesis, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, reporters who covered Mr. Bush’s five-nation trip through South and Central America could not succeed. Mr. Bush faced at least 11 questions about Mr. Chávez either in interviews immediately preceding his trip or in the mini-briefings he held in each country he visited, including a couple in which Mr. Bush was directly asked about the avoidance. Yet not … Continue reading The Name Not Spoken, And A Taco Bell Commercial
For old times’ sake. Her not being there hurts like a rug burn.
Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!! Continue reading Alberto Gonzales: Porn ‘Stache Edition
How is it that the aide that Senator Arlen Specter says slipped a provision into the re-authorization of the PATRIOT Act allowing the Attorney General to install US Attorneys without Congressional approval is now himself the US Attorney for Utah? The provision was added to the Patriot Act renewal while staffers were working out differences in the versions of the bills that had passed the House and the Senate. Brett Tolman, now the U.S. attorney for Utah, was then Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter’s staffer handling the issue and added it at the request of the Justice Department, Specter … Continue reading Time For Arlen To Explain
CNN.com’s current bright yellow breaking news alert: The Senate Judiciary Committee approved by voice vote today the use of subpoenas to compel testimony from five Justice Department officials about the firings of eight U.S. attorneys. Continue reading Oh, It’s On Now!
From today’s Froomkin: The use of RNC e-mail by White House staffers is apparently is not entirely unusual. Also in Tuesday’s document dump was a Jan. 8, 2007 e-mail from Steve Bell, the chief of staff to Sen. Pete Domenici, about the senator’s preferred replacement for fired U.S. attorney David Iglesias. Bell sent that e-mail to three people — including one “kr@georgewbush.com”. I wonder who that was. Continue reading Drop Karl A Line For Me
Michele Bachman is a carrier (via TBogg). An email sent by U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., may violate federal law and House Rules. The email from Bachmann’s press secretary, Heidi Frederickson, was published on the weblog Dump Michele Bachmann. It had been sent from Frederickson’s government account. The email told constituents that “Michele has been the focus of lots of media lately and most of it not friendly.” The letter went on to ask constituents to “take just a moment of your time to write 50–100 words about why your support Michele,” adding that the congresswoman “would appreciate seeing that … Continue reading Stupidity is Contagious
So we have another Bush administration head serving at the pleasure of the President who didn’t know what was going on under his purview. Donald Powell who is Bush’s Gulf Coast hurricane recovery czar maintains he never saw the memofrom an Army Corps of Engineers expert which warned that the pumps ACE installed in NOLA were defective and likely to fail in a storm. He also stated this on the risk that NOLA residents faced… As for whether the city was as safe as the Corps claimed, Powell said:“We got through a hurricane season without a hurricane so we didn’t … Continue reading NOLA’s Defective Pumps and Bush’s Katrina Czar…no hurricane, no foul
Oyster has a must read post on the NOLA pumps. Oyster finds the attorney, representing MWI the Jeb crony company and maker of the defective pumps in NOLA, is a Bush pioneer. Said crony attorney is now doing damage control on PumpGate. Oyster is spot on…fire. Here is just a bit… And I’ll try to make it as politically clear as possible: a year and a half after a devastating Federal Flood, we have Bush crony lawyers defending a Bush crony companywho got a multi-million dollar post-Katrina contract and made defective pumps for a city struggling to recover from disaster. … Continue reading NOLA Pumps and Bush Cronyism
I love this shit! The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote Thursday on whether to authorize subpoenas to 14 current and former administration officials, including White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, John Bresnahan reports. Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), the panel’s ranking Republican, are expected to convene the committee Thursday to vote on the subpoenas for Rove, Miers and William Kelley, a former top aide to Miers. The committee will also vote to subpoena six of the fired U.S. Attorneys and five Justice Department officials, … Continue reading Hot Damn!
Chimpy explains his role in the US Attorneys scandal. Q Thank you, Mr. President, President Calderón. On the dismissal of U.S. attorneys, there have been allegations that political motivations were involved. Is political loyalty to your administration an appropriate factor? And when you talked to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales last year, what did you say, and what did you direct him to do? PRESIDENT BUSH: Thanks, Kelly. I’ve heard those allegations about political decision-making; it’s just not true. Secondly, just so you know, I get asked — I get complaints all the time from members of Congress on a variety … Continue reading What Did He Know And When Did He Know It
Andrew Cohen lays out the case against Alberto Gonzales in three devastating WaPo blog entries. Part I. Part II. Part III. Continue reading Devastating
The Iraqi government misses the Assministration’s stated benchmarks. The Bush administration, which six months ago issued a series of political goals for the Iraqi government to meet by this month, is now tacitly acknowledging that the goals will take significantly longer to achieve. In interviews this week, administration officials said that the military buildup intended to stabilize Baghdad and create the conditions for achieving the objectives would not be fully in place until June and that all of the objectives would not be fulfilled until the year’s end. A “notional political timeline” that the administration provided to Congress in January … Continue reading Maliki Gets A Big Fat F
The Pentagon goes right up to the line, then balks at describing the continued violence in Iraq as a Civil War. A Pentagon report released on Wednesday said a struggle for power among sectarian groups is now the main feature of the war, and said violence reached a new high in early 2007, although the figures were compiled before the crackdown began on February 14. [snip] In a quarterly report on Iraq to the U.S. Congress, the Pentagon said: “The conflict in Iraq has changed from a predominantly Sunni-led insurgency against foreign occupation to a struggle for the division of … Continue reading Ivil-say Ar-way
Ipointed this out at the time, but now more than ever it bears repeating: Dana Peroxide is a big fat liar. From the Mar 6, 2007, gaggle (Fitzmas Day!): Q And six of the eight people who were fired said today that their thoughts would be welcomed by the Justice Department and they could be freely and openly debated, but that that’s not the case. Is the administration trying to stifle dissent from these people? MS. PERINO: I would refer you to Justice Department for the merits of their decision. But what I can tell you is that the Justice … Continue reading Dana Peroxide, Pants A-Fire
Quiteafewbloggers have posted about the defective NOLA pumps today. One important point on this story that ought to be pointed out is that it was a NOLA blogger who got the Army Corps of Engineers’ document to the AP that brought exposure to this story. That blogger is Matt from the blog Fix the Pumps. Just saying Matt should get some props. (Well and so should all NOLA bloggers. Check out our sidebar for some links) Continue reading Credit where due…to Fix the Pumps blog
AP reports Sen. John Sununu is first Republican in Congress to call for abu Gonzales’ dismissal… “I think the president should replace him,” Sununu said in an interview with The Associated Press.SNIP“We need to have a strong, credible attorney general that has the confidence of Congress and the American people,” said Sununu, who faces a tough re-election campaign next year. “Alberto Gonzales can’t fill that role.” “I think the attorney general should be fired,” Sununu said. Drip drop drip… Continue reading First Republican calls for Gonzales to Go
Michael strikes again (as usual of course) Continue reading Fredo Squared
A couple of fascinating Dan Froomkin-related items, first from his newly re-christened White House Watch blogumn (part blog, part column): One curious aspect of yesterday’s document dump is that it shows e-mails from J. Scott Jennings, who is Karl Rove’s deputy at the White House, coming from an e-mail address at gwb43.com — a domain owned by the Republican National Committee. It makes some sense that White House officials might have and use such accounts when they conduct party business, rather than White House business. But the distinction between party and government business seems to have been forgotten here — … Continue reading Froomkin Gems
This time in a presser held in Mérida, Mexico If Chimpy, Laura, and Limpbaugh Would Go Cold Turkey — That Would Do It I made it very clear to the President that I recognize the United States has a responsibility in the fight against drugs. And one major responsibility is to encourage people to use less drugs. When there is demand, there is supply. And to the extent, Mr. President, that we can continue to make progress to reduce drugs, it will take pressure off of Mexico. So we have a responsibility. Me Fail English? Unpossible! Education is an important … Continue reading Your President… wait for it… SPEAKS!
Yesterday the Bush Assministration trotted out the none-too-convincing Dan Bartlettin an effort to stop the bleeding over the US Attorneys scandal.
Dan Says The US Attorneys Were Fired “For Cause”
Q Dan, can you talk a little bit about, by the White House’s own account, Senator Domenici at some point went to the President and urged him to fire the U.S. attorney in New Mexico, specifically? What did the President do with that information, after Senator Domenici asked him? And what did the President say to Attorney General Gonzales, when they did speak about this?
MR. BARTLETT: It’s important to back up a bit. The issue of U.S. attorneys, as many of you know, these U.S. attorneys serve at the discretion of the President. Many of these U.S. attorneys have served four-year terms. There was a management review process and there was a determination made to remove seven U.S. attorneys for cause.
[snip]
[O]ver the course of several years we have received complaints about U.S. attorneys, particularly when it comes to election fraud cases — not just New Mexico, but also Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
That information, it’s incumbent upon us to share with the relevant Cabinet officers, incumbent upon the President to do that, as well. The President did that briefly, in a conversation he had with the Attorney General in October of 2006, in which, in a wide-ranging conversation on a lot of different issues, this briefly came up and the President said, I’ve been hearing about this election fraud matters from members of Congress, want to make sure you’re on top of that, as well. There was no directive given, as far as telling him to fire anybody or anything like that. That would be under the prerogative of the Justice Department to take a look at those issues, as they obviously were doing.
“Cause” Means Competency In Bushworld
Q But one quick follow. When you say that this was based on managerial decisions, performance — the Justice Department’s own evaluation of Iglesias, the New Mexico U.S. attorney, in 2005 gave him a strong recommendation. So how does that square with then firing him for poor performance?
MR. BARTLETT: Well, he was fired two years later than 2005, and there was a series of issues that they looked at. They looked at his managerial responsibilities and what they had found in a review process that was undertaken at the Department of Justice, that they felt that he was not managing the office as well as it should be; there was issues about his lack of leadership on key committees that prosecutors, U.S. attorneys serve in capacity for the Attorney General. He served on a key immigration subcommittee, and they felt like he didn’t possess leadership skills there and fulfill that job in a way that he should have.
[snip]
Q But this is somebody picked by the President, and he gets a high recommendation, and in two years he loses all these skills and becomes an awful prosecutor?
MR. BARTLETT: Well, again, people like myself, other members of the administration serve at the pleasure of the President. There are a lot of factors that are taken into consideration. He had served many years. You look at the totality of evidence. They believed it was important that they could bring in fresh blood, new leadership in this position — and the other key positions, six U.S. attorney positions.
But when you look at it in its totality, they believe that the U.S. Prosecutor’s Office in the state of New Mexico would be better served, the people of New Mexico be better served with a new U.S. attorney.
Tom.
Q Well, let’s look at it in its totality.
MR. BARTLETT: I’ll talk to Tom, and I’ll come to you. And we will talk about it in totality.
Continue reading “Today On Holden’s Obsession With [Another One Of Yesterday’s] Gaggle[s]”