Jeffrey Feldman makes note of this from yesterday's press conference:
THE PRESIDENT: Earlier today, my staff met with congressional leaders about the resignations of U.S. attorneys.
Says Feldman:
President Bush repeated "resignation" 4 conspicuous times in his 12-minute appearance, yesterday, including the coveted opening line of the entire event. So important is this word to the White House that they even used it in the title they gave the press conference on their website ("President Bush Addresses Resignations of U.S. Attorneys").
The Boy King also said he was willing to give Congress "unprecedented" access by deigning to let Harriet Miers and Karl Rove go up to the hill and openly lie testify with no transcript and without being under oath. Henry Waxman begs to differ, saying "Contrary to the President's contention, there is extensive precedent for officials in these positions to appear before Congress."
The authoritarian cultists of the base with their arctic-temperatured IQs may slavishly embrace the opportunity to dismiss this all as partisanship, but they excell at nothing so much as projection and we should expect that they would harken back to the Clinton witch hunt and look into their own hearts for motivation. They do not have the capacity to look at the simple fact that Bush is flat-out lying when he speaks to them, and to us, and to draw appropriate conclusions. They didn't see the petulant child pitching a temper tantrum yesterday, they saw what Chris Matthews sees:
God, he was Jim Bowie at the Alamo tonight! I‘ve never seen him like that, at least in a long time.
The Cult of the Codpiece is still, it seems, intact.
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Zero!
oooo. close. but no cigar.
OOOh good one Jane. Can I plagerize that?
forced resignations = fired. or so I’ve been told.
Hi Jane!!
Lhp, anything new last couple of days :)
If Bush sees this pretzel he might choke. Better keep it away from him.
Jane -
Borrowing one of Steely Dan’s album titles, how does pretzel logic work? :)
since I ended up near the top (so rare for me – usually 3 threads behind), I thought I would post this:
Do you suppose Leahy or Conyers could use some experienced advice on issuing sticky subpoenas and contempt citations? Well, I hear Al Gore is in town. This from Rep. Gore back in the day (to Joseph Califano):
“Mr. Secretary, in our society, laws, principles, and rights are often in conflict. We have two in conflict in the instance.
On the one hand, we have article I of the U.S. Constitution. On the other we have section 301(j) of the Federal Food and Drug Cosmetic Act.
You have chosen to place more importance on section 301(j) of the Federal Food and Drug Cosmetic Act than on article I of the U.S. Constitution.”
Congressional Research Service (CRS) Report, Congressional Investigations: Subpoenas and Contempt Power; 4/2/2003.
Accept no substitues.
Chris Matthews needs to just blow the Preznint and get it over with.
Do you suppose he spits or swallows?
I don’t understand why people are questioning the president when he’s fighting terror.
Perfect Jane!
and snowballs was sporting same Codpiece proudly today in his presser.
(replaying now on cspan 3)
Jane. So glad to see your wonderful hand at work again. Stay warm. Stay happy. Hope your appetite is strong.
TRex @ 8
gargles then swallows, i bet.
TRex — spew alert, please!
“unprecedented” my ass. only for his majesty. been reading on the history of subpoenas and contempt citations. a long line of dubious characters. and 3,000 pages? has anyone counted how many are unduplicated or are just pure junk?
From thinkprogress:
Gonzales reaches out. “Embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales met this afternoon with several Republican Senators, including Orrin Hatch, Jon Kyl, John Cornyn and Jeff Sessions. … The lunch meeting held at the Department of Justice, sources said, was initiated by Gonzales. A source familiar with the meeting says it was an attempt by Gonzales to reach out to Republicans who have been decidedly unhappy with how he has handled the US Attorney mess.”
What did the fly on the wall hear & see?
I’m not sure that kind of talk is appropriate for this blog ;)
posted this downstairs – has it already been discussed here ???
via Think Progress
(pdf warning)
more e mails emerge from 18 day gap
Salt Lake City Tribune has more
[Mod Note; correct link is here] link
TiredFed @
11
Appetite good. Nothing really seems to affect that.
wow. talk about dubious characters. Hatch, Kyl, Cornyn and Sessions? can you think of a more unsavory bunch? never mind.
eCAHNomics @ 15
just getting the story straight, ….moving right along……
cbl @ 17
cbl, that salt lake trib link takes me to a www3 website for internet protocols.
please explain.
Rove and Miers can ‘chat’ with Congress?
but they can’t do so publicly or under oath?
Participants in the “chat” can take notes but not transcribe?!?!
Are they permitted to remember the chat, deerleader?
JH. glad to hear. my mother-in-law (we were buddies before I met her daughter) had a twofer, leukemia and lymphoma. two years of chemo and she’s back to her fighting weight (115). no more CA. tough row to hoe but they do amazing things these days. better living thru chemicals, eh?
Speaking of arctic temperature IQ’s, Brit Hume’s “Grapevine” cohorts just discussed global warming – you guys can’t miss this, hope C&L will have it later.
scary, ain’t it?
oops. gotta run. basketball practice. makes one a tiredfed. l8r
Lindy @ 21
bad linky
try this for the SLC Tribune
sorry Lindy,
here ya go
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_5487582
You know, sometimes I think the neo-convicts are living in some sort of parallel universe unconnected to the real world…
I know there have always been different operational paradigms for dems and repugs, but these past 6 years are too much like the twilight zone…
TiredFed @
7
Great idea. But how about priming the pump first?
The Dems should give the private, unsworn interviews a try. Immediately after the Rove meeting, Conyers and Leahy should make the following statement:
Let Rove deny it (as Lyndon Johnson might put it). Wait a news cycle.
If Rove does not appear, Dems should enforce the subpoenas.
Early this a.m. I reviewed DOJ email PDF 10.1 that included the various resignation letters. Looked to me like the Attorneys had been provided “resignation” instructions and/or boilerplate text. Here is how I characterized that section of the PDF:
Next several pages are resignation letters, most of which include the stock phrase “Serving the United States as a United States Attorney has been the highest honor and most fulfilling duty of my public career.”
p 21 – 12/14 resignation letter of John McKay to Judge Gonzalez. Mentions pride in “extensive use of Title III wiretaps and unprecedented law enforcement information sharing through…LInX”
p 22 – 12/14 resignation letter of John McKay to Pres Bush
p 23 – 12/18 resignation letter of Paul Charlton to AG
p 24 – 12/18 resignation letter of Charlton to Pres Bush
p 25 12/19 resignation letter of Bud Cummins to AG. Includes “Your leadership has been marvelous.”
p 26 – 12/19 resignation letter of Cummins to Pres Bush
p 27 – 1/16 – resignation letter of Carol Lam to AG
p 28 – 1/16 resignation letter of Lam to Pres Bush
p 29 – 1/17 resignation letter of Daniel Bogden to AG
p 30 – 1/17 resignation letter of Bogden to Pres Bush
p 31 – 1/17 resignation letter of David Iglesias to AG. Includes “As the son of an immigrant father from Panama, this job has been the culmination of the American dream…It was a tremendous honor to serve for a trailblazer like yourself…I respectfully recommend FAUSA Larry Gomez to serve as Interim United States Attorney….I will be sending you a token of my appreciation – a hand-made mola my cousin in Panama made for you. I think you will like it. Vaya con Dios.”
p 32 – 1/17 resignation letter of Iglesias to Pres Bush. Refers to being part of administration “in a watershed period of America’s history” and knowing he “wanted to be part of [Bush’s] team” the first time they met in summer 2000.
p 33 – 2/23 resignation letter of Margaret Chiara to AG
hey, about that NH phone jamming thingy -
TPM
WOW. Does anyone know where he gets his drugs? I mean the gov’t chemists and growers MUST be making some serious sh*t for the Chimpster. Too bad the rest of us can’t have some.
http://www.americanprogress.or…..court.html
Re: MZM
“Remarkably, the first sale made by the fledgling company was to the Bush White House. The product: “office furniture.” The White House continued doing business directly with Wad(sic), giving him several additional contracts worth more that $600,000.”
cc in nm @ 29
I think you’ll like this video
Big Brother State
egregious @ 5
YEP, most of the more prominent Fedral Practitioners are up in arms. EW keeps finding fascinteing tidbits and I’ve been trying to data mine the DOJ website and USAO websites to nail down details. It’s maddening.
Fromthe DOJ website it looks like there were 21 USA’s not appointed in the normal way, not just the 8 we knew they were trying to do.
Also, and this may be up at the Muck, from the document dump it appears that there are 2 more that were slated to resign on March 9th.Obviously events intervened to prevent that, but we can’t tell yet whether or not they ever got the phone calls lowering the boom.
Their names were redacted. EW, genius that she is, did her count the characters in the redacted word trick again, and one of those names has 10 letters.
dakine01 @ 33
Afghanistan??
TRex @
8
We actually have seen Fluffer Chris so excited that he was drooling.
-GSD
cbl @ 28
Thank you.
Cult of the Codpiece good one! insightful humor! This Authoritaian Personality thing might be sexual in nature Chris Mathews and most of the MSM seem to like being lied to and bossed around. Bush does wrong and they buy his excuses and cover for him like the family of an alcoholic often does. Enablers show their love by helping the disfunctional people in their lives continue to function.
TiredFed @
19
How about Bush, Cheney, Rove and Gonzales?
Paging Lorena Bobbitt, Paging Lorena Bobbitt
I dunno. I hope the Alamo analogy turns out accurate. Complete massacre, you know.
God, he was Jim Bowie at the Alamo tonight! I‘ve never seen him like that, at least in a long time.
Works for me. We know how that Alamo thing ended.
Hi Cujo! Great minds…
gimme one of the bugman’s glue traps. i know exactly where to put it.
The analogy of the Alamo is actually an apt one. Jim Bowie did not survive it.
I’d say Matthews swishes it around a bit and then spits, like a wine tester, although he certainly doesn’t examine it for clarity.
We shouldn’t forget that there actually are some USA’s who did resign. Tom Heffelfinger in MN mysteriously needed to find time to spend with his family and was replaced by Racheal Paulose, senior counsel to Paul McNulty. We had some close elections in MN so it fits into the scheme of positioning partisan attorneys in swing states.
http://www.mncampaignreport.co…..iaryId=298
(Phoenix Woman mentioned this story a while back)
The Bush deal on the attorney firings scandal is just the latest in a long series. John McCain thought he had a deal on torture which Bush promptly vitiated with a signing statement. Then there was Arlen Specter’s deal on the warrantless NSA wiretapping which would have given the Administration even more than it was asking for by retroactively legalizing all aspects of the program and then some. And there was the Warner, McCain, and Graham deal which resulted in the infamous Military Commissions Act which threw out habeas corpus, scorned the Geneva Conventions, established kangaroo courts, and sanctioned torture (again).
So when Bush offers up Alberto Gonzales who was going to testify anyway and whom no one believes anymore about anything, a safe venue for Karl Rove to lie in, and a decidedly incomplete and selective release of documents, this is in keeping with what they have done before.
In other words, when Bush people start talking about deals, hold on to your wallets, folks, and anything else you value.
What the world needs now is more oxytocin and more oxytocin,
and something to cut the testosterone.
eCAHNomics @
15
With that bunch? Much guffawing and a quick circle jerk between courses.
Many thanks to you and EW for your indefatigable efforts. It sounds like you are ahead of the pack as usual. Keep up the great work!
Thx Elliott… I’m can only get dial-up in the wilds of northern NM at this point (very painful), unless I do the satellite thing… so I will download this later tonight and watch…
Chrissy has some serious issues re Georgie.
I’m just saying
I caught Matthews last night and almost couldn’t believe my ears. What President Bush was he talking about? Certainly not the one I saw on teh teevee.
cc in nm @ 53
you’re welcome!
Jim Bowie was ill and was confined to his cot in his quarters during the battle of the Alamo.
old gold @ 42
sorry, I can’t resist…
Do you know what you get when you call 1-800-bobbitt?
Cut-off….
Great article by Feldman – thanks for highlighting it here.
So, what are the odds that Bush is gonna choke on this pretzel? My guess is that he ends up a bit bruised, falls down, but he survives.
Unlike the original “pretzel choking” moment, I think others around him will not be so lucky. My US DOJ Scandal bracket has:
- the “missing 18 days of emails” start trickling out this Friday and Saturday, but more (and also documents – note SnowJob corrected himself quickly in his presser today when he started to say the admin will provide “all docume… all emails”) will be held back for another week.
- Miers & Sampson will testify, under oath in an open session of Congress by April 1.
- Gonzo “resigns” by April 1.
-Bush declares “mission accomplished”/”victory” over the Democrats by April 4. He claims that the fishing didn’t reveal any wrongdoing.
- Rove refuses to testify and they stall on this, hoping that Miers, Sampson and Gonzo sacrifice is enough. By April 12, the whole scandal becomes bigger than even the Republicans feared, and Rove ends up testifying in limited fashion w/o oath by April 20. (they might move this up to during the post-Easter week, when the public might not be tuning in so much).
Some are luky that way. When my sister was going through her treatment she could almost always go to work immediately after. Here’s to you.
(yet another amazing post, do we even need to say that for FDL anymore?)
ps – caught the link to TRex on Raw Story, FDL Friggin rocks!
In this e-mail here:
http://www.docstrangelove.com/…..-3#Page_25
there appeared to be three names redacted in a list of names of USAs to be forced out. There was also a list of folks “rumored to be leaving” that was completely redacted.
Thx Elliott… I’m can only get dial-up in the wilds of northern NM at this point (very painful), unless I do the satellite thing… so I will download this later tonight and watch…
Albuquerque here, and the wind was terrile today Ahh, spring in NM
from the leftcoaster:
CNN’s Ed Henry today, after watching Tony Snow dance like a high school dork:
I think also, another thing to look at, I followed up a question about executive privilege. You heard Tony Snow at the end there saying the president has no recollection of being involved in this decision to fire the US attorneys. So we asked the question then, well why are you citing executive privilege – or at least suggesting you will, and yesterday the president said the principle at stake here is candid advice from his advisers to the president – if the president was not involved in the decision, then how can you cite executive privilege on something he was really not involved in? And Tony Snow basically said, it’s a good question and I don’t know the answer.
Whoever let Ed Henry into the MSM? He actually does good work. How long before he’s either compromised or fired? Didn’t he come from some inside-the-beltway rag like Roll Call?
Well, they’re different mentions of an unnamed person. So it’s not clear they’re the same. But the weird thing is, these two attorneys are not on DOJ’s list. They refer to their list at one point–it includes all the known ousted attorneys. But there are two more, we know.
WTF !! ! Cspan 3 has Move America Forward. SHOWING IRAQ WAR COMMERCIALS to be released this week. WTF
LandOfTheFree @ 59
Some site had a poll on Gonzo’s resignation. I chose Friday, April 13 at 4:45.
lolo @ 65
disgusting, eh? following commander codpiece’s script by the letter.
pimping war.
Thanx
XYZ and cujo
EW has been doing her usual microscopic analysis and will have sucked all the juice to be had out of these docs before you know it.
More developing I’m sure.
forgive me if this has already been addressed, but if the Judiciary Committee subpoenas Rove and Miers, are they bound to show up as in a grand jury investigation?
If they don’t appear, is Congress’ only recourse to take it before the Supreme Court, or are there other options?
thanks.
I’m going home catch y’all later
Elliott @
50
I’d vote for the afghani and/or Hawaii buds myself…
looseheadprop @ 68
“The details are our friends.”
————–Marcy Wheeler, 2007
Oh btw when you’ve been complimented by the great lhp herself….well there just isn’t anything higher.
Here’s a nice bit from Ed Henry on CNN, via Atrios:
So is this a hoot, or what? If you’re not involved, no priviledge, and if you are involved ….
cc in nm @ 69
Yeah there is another. Stephen PArris CPA (and my hero) linked to a Supreme Court case the other day that involved a Congressional investigation into a corrupt US AG.
WHen DOJ would not enforce the Congressional subpoena, they had the Sargent at Arms go out and arrest the witness.
Congress don’t need no stinkin’ help from ABu, it can enforce it’s own damn subpoena. At least if that case is still good law. I should really go Shepardize it before I get all happy and stuff.
Apologies if this has been posted, I saw it via a commenter at Think Progress:
http://www.realcities.com/mld/…..ton_nation
“the details are our friends”
Sounds like a great title for another book?
Which is, of course, another way of saying “the facts are our friends.”
Which explains why Marcy is a champion of the reality-based community and Kryptonite to the Bush administration.
The harder bush fights the Subpenoas the guilter he looks, the longer this story goes on the more average people get to hear over and over again bush’s spin endlessly repeated by GOP cutouts on the MSM. And they hear our arguments which are differnt because we all have differnt takes on the issue. Karl a lie works if it is repeated endlessly over and over again in a Vaccum with no competeing noise. While Karl lulls you to sleep we work on the concious mind which is alert and pays attention to difference. By being differnt and fighting back for once our methods should destroy karl’s propaganda technique. Lies work fast and best when unopposed and endlessly repeated truth takes time and differences of opinion engage the concious mind. Didn’t Gobbels teach you that lesson Karl?
This came up earlier. The report of the 298Dem’s investigated bu Bushco – do we ave names and/or locations? Would love to see which USA’s did the investigations. Something not mentioned, I’d really, really really like to see the 63(?) investigated repugs.
The authoritarian cultists of the base with their arctic-temperatured IQs…
So cruel! So accurate! And while the Arctic is warming up, Bush’s clods are not getting any smarter.
1,462 DAYZ AND THE KILLIN’ GOEZ ON AND ON AND..
Citizen Hamsher and the Firepup Patriots:
Great post Jane (”…arctic temperatured IQ’s…” ROFLMAO).
Can any of the lawyers out there clear up some confusion out here about whether or not appeals of subpoenas to the executive can be expedited? I kinda remember that the subpoena for the Nixon tapes was rushed right thru the appeals court to the Supremes in a matter of a couple a weeks…will a contest of congressional subpoenas be tied up in the court process for months?
KEEP THE FAITH, THE SYSTEM HAS BEEN HIJACKED BUT IT CAN BE RECOVERED!!
Colleen military mom @ 54
Matthews is still working through some issues with his father.
Which is appropriate, because so is Bush.
that’s Spocko’s gal Melanie Morgan and Howard Kaloogian
Kaloogian was the guy who posted pics of Istanbul neighborhoods attempting to pass them off as ‘violence free, democracy lovin” Baghdad
Drunk or sober, Mr. Bush yesterday gave us his best “frat president ‘tude, pissed that somebody took his convertible to the car wash with the top down.”
Mr. Bush showed neither leadership nor political sense in allowing himself to be so easily goaded into a slurred temper tantrum by those in his administration who have most to hide from Congressional, indeed, prosecutorial, investigations.
Mr. DeLay is under INDICTMENT. Mr. Cheney just saw his closest aide convicted of four felonies, and felt the prosecutorial breathing close behind him. Mr. Rove is even more concerned: he knows how all the pieces fit together, he cut them that way.
Jane,
I’m not a fan of Chris Matthews, but his invocation of Jim Bowie at the Alamo was rather double-edged, no?
I hope that the President, like Bowie, elects to make the White House his Alamo and gets his ass killed.
Morris Sheppard @ 73
you go to jail?
Morris Sheppard @ 73
I still don’t understand how the White House Counsel could have been aware of this stuff going on in September, and yet Bush has never heard about this. Doesn’t the WH Counsel serve as a legal adviser to the President on policy matters? Why was Miers, if we are to believe what Bush is saying through Snow, involved in this if the President didn’t know about it?
http://www.docstrangelove.com/…..-3#Page_25
That’s the e-mail from Sampson to Miers that talks about “if we push USAs out and then don’t have replacements ready”.
Matthews flips a coin to see whose side he’s on before each show. If it comes up in favor of the Democrats, he keeps flipping until he gets the Republics. Fair and balanced.
Fact for the mass media:
ONLY THE PRESIDENT CAN FIRE U.S. ATTORNEYS.
Thank you.
TiredFed @
14
About 99% useless but the 1% that’s useful is very revealing. Then there’s the matter of the missing 18 days from the middle of November through December 7 2006. Plus whatever else they’re withholding just to obstruct the process.
Some suggested the other night over at TPMuckraker putting together a Wiki of the documents. That would be of limited value IMO since so little of it, in actual page counts, is substantive. Most lawyers I know comb through voluminous produced documents and pick out the “Hot Docs” rather quickly.
Well, on the matter of details, there IS one or two greater compliments. ;-p
But I’ll take LHP’s compliments for today…
Got EPU’d in the last thread…
I’ve been working on a project involving 5th grade science today. One of the questions is about the sun, and, since I spent a fair amount of time reading statements like, “the sun is only a medium sized star”, I had The Sun Song running through my head for much of the day.
…
What other fun science-y songs do you know of?
(The video for Mammal at the link above is mostly cute, but I could have done without seeing that guy lighting his flatulance on fire the second time They Might Be Giants sang “maintaining the very high metabolism rate they have”. You’ve been warned.)
An 18 day document gap? A Nixon redux? A mere coincidence? People of this ilk seem to never learn.
Defining George Bush: Head…meet board.
See a tongue-in-cheek visual of George Bush once again beating his head with a board…as he searches for the Holy Grail…here:
http://www.thoughttheater.com
Give Matthews the benefit of the doubt, he’s fair and unbalanced.
-GSD
Awesome, would love to see Karl baby being handcuffed and taken away in public!!
Pls let us know if it is still a good law….!!
Why does Karl Rove need to be under oath? Because even when he has the threat of perjury hanging over his head, it takes him FIVE TRIES to give testimony that isn’t provably false. That needs to be repeated over and over and over.
al gore at the hearing on lehrer report on pbs==
in response to a repub-
when you have a baby with a fever you take it to the doctor, you don’t consult a science fiction novel…….etc……..wow, wish i had cspan so i could have heard him tear ‘em up………
and i think he’s doing some emotional eating, which shows conflict, maybe he is thinking of running and is not listening to himself…….
emotional eating is stifling your inner motivations, think he’s doin’ a little of that from what i saw……….eatin’ better more whole foods might bring his brain back around to a clear head and to realizing that we need him……and that he could do it, too………
yeah, i know a little snarky, but genuine…….it’s true……..
looseheadprop @
36
Did I mention EW is *dreamy!!!*?
TPhilip @ 90
Cujo has alredy set up a wiki, it’s called Gonzopedia . I think it will be invaluable, since we are not a self-contained lawyer’s office, and the hot docs *are* being identified. The wiki allows us to aggregate and correct our understanding of the whole body of work done by thousands of individuals.
I get this for just not appering, but what happens if a court (SCOTUS) allows the exec priviledge bullshit. We’re just fucked at that point, right?
You know, George Bush said he really feels sorry that all of this about the firings of the USA’s was dragged out in the public.
He so prefers to have his freshly dispatched political cadavers sink silently to the bottom of the lake without anyone knowing.
-GSD
P.S. Has anyone mulled over how Bush belittled Seedy Gonzales by nicknaming him Fredo after the feckless and border-line retarded Corleone sibling?
Cujo359@87
I still don’t understand how the White House Counsel could have been aware of this stuff going on in September, and yet Bush has never heard about this. Doesn’t the WH Counsel serve as a legal adviser to the President on policy matters? Why was Miers, if we are to believe what Bush is saying through Snow, involved in this if the President didn’t know about it?
Does raise interesting mental pictures about what actually goes on at this WH. I suspect that W is informed of very little–it would only confuse him.
The slow relentless wheels of Justice through Congressional Investigations are beginning to turn inexorably toward Impeachment.
Make no mistake about it. Just a matter of time. This nation needs to
be cleansed from the slime of this criminal government. May I make
a suggestion. After Fitzgerald finishes his job in Chicago with
the Conrad Black case, he should resign his post and be immediately
hired by the House of Representatives to begin building a case for
Impeacbment of GWBush and Cheney.
Would this not galvanize and electrify the process. Who else but
the Fitz to help restore Consitutional Government to this Nation.
cc in nm @ 69
Congress has the authority to order their arrest for contempt of Congress, via Congressional marshalls. That would lead to imprisonment for so long as they refuse to testify before Congress.
If arrest for contempt of court is OK for Judy Miller, arrest for contempt of Congress should be OK with Karl. He could leave jail any time, as long as his first stop is an appearance before Congress. Hasn’t been done in a while.
That would tend to accelerate the judicial review of various claims, which would undoubtedly need to go to the Supreme Court, unless Congress finds a banker’s box or two of smoking guns.
Chris Matthews sees:..A big? woody, how imaginative.
Emptywheel!
What was in the display case at Prettyman?
you made a reference to it a couple days ago
looseheadprop @
76
Yes – and how do you and Marcy like Anatomy of Even More Deceit as another possible title?
TPhilip @ 90
They may not be missing. The documents are so disorganized that folks are still trying to figure out what’s where and when it happened. Here’s a TPM Muckraker article on the topic:
http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/002838.php
My guess is that there are lots of e-mails and documents missing, and folks are going to have to identify them one by one. I’m sure that’s part of the reason the DoJ dumped them on us this way.
As for the DOJ, their credibility is pretty much shot. An 18 day gap? Right before the ax dropped? It doesn’t get much more damning than that. They should just hold a press conference and say, “As part of our ongoing cover-up, we’re not going to give you the e-mails you requested.” They’re now obligated to do ANOTHER document dump (If you’re counting, it’ll be #3.), and they need to swear in whoever’s in charge to answer the following questions:
1. Have you now given us all of the relevant e-mails we’ve requested?
2. Are you sure?
3. Are you absolutely sure? Because we’re getting tired of playing this damn game. When we say “all the e-mails”, we mean “ALL the e-mails”. Is that clear?
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…..cWsPSs0NUE
recent political article about bats
dakine01 @ 71
*puff*
sounds good to me!
cbl @ 83
I want to throw up. Wait until they start running the commercials. They showed it on Cspan. I am floored
Sam @ 103
Do you have a “dog in the barn reading entrails” report? Like you used to do in the old days? I loved those.
What Republican is going to recommend to Bush that he needs to take “Fredo” on his metaphorical fishing trip?
-GSD
Sam @ 103
How’s the Conrad Black case going? I haven’t seen any news articles on it. I guess we won’t until it’s over or something explosive gets revealed.
I favor you suggestion for Fitz’s next career move. Alas, I doubt he’s take it–though he might after seeing his job evaluation.
Elliott @ 106
There were two.
One had original documents about the Teapot Dome Scandal. The other was empty.
I speculated at the time they were holding it empty for the documents from the Libby trial.
Elliott @ 106
The original documents from the Teapot Dome scandal. You know, where we get to get the Seargant at Arms to arrest Turdblossom. You’ll have to ask egregious for a more detailed description, though. She was scoping them out.
Frank Probst @ 108
Hearing that come From Rep. Sanchez would be pure poetry. She’s my newest non-FDL hero. No one will ever replace the pups.
We so love EW
Frank Probst @ 109
If they keep behaving like this they may end up getting fired for cause.
-GSD
P.S. to emptywheel–I’m halfway through “Anatomy of Deceit” now. Love it. Cuts through all the crap with simple, muscular prose. Even some Republicans should be able to follow it.
forgot to add at my post at 97
food is fuel, that is what it is for, and when there’s an imbalance, you are stifling motivations………true………..food is fuel, that is what it is for………and pleasure here and there……..but when you’re lookin’ unhealthy, you have conflicting emotions/motivations that need to be addressed and he is having a problem there in my opinion…….some people read stars, i read how someone looks……..not in a derogatory or judgemental way, but on how they have looked before, he’s strugglin’ with some demons in my opinion, i hope he chooses the ‘public servant’ motivator in his soul……..he’ll be healthier for it from what i saw……..i so hope he wakes up and realizes he is most needed to be a leader, not to just provide information…….but to lead………
lolo @ 111– serious koolaid drinkers who have been used by the powerful for nothing more than to twist and justify their anger/grief over loss.
I cannot believe what I am hearing– they hate us, the majority of Americans and those that we are killing.
Well, actually Mash set it up, I’m just helping fill it in. But we really do need help. We’ve noted that there’s at least one other effort out there, too.
Anyhow, right now we’re trying to parse the documents, and then relate them to specific U.S. Attorneys and other DoJ personnel, and also to particular scandals that may have led to their demise. It’s a big project, and we can sure use any help folks are willing to provide in those areas.
clem @ 85
Figuratively, of course.
The Alamo reference was unintendedly delicious. First, much of the story is myth, as is the story of Custer’s last route. Second, the battle had little impact on the underlying war; the men died needlessly. Third, the men hoped help would come in time, to save about a hundred from being swamped by thousands of heavily armed troops. It didn’t.
What do you need, I have a lot of time on my hands, at the moment
[Mod Note; please only re-quote twice, have mercy on yr mods]
Remember the Alamo?
Bowie’s Waterloo
(to mix historical metaphors)
Norske @ 4:24 pm and Wil @ 4:33 pm -
Wikipedia’s comments: United States v. Nixon
Findlaw: United States v. Nixon, 418 U.S. 683
clem @
85
And as Tim Burton pointed out in “PeeWee’s Big Adventure,” there’s no basement to hide in @ the Alamo…
and as we all know Jim Bowie lived a long and productive life surrounded by friends and family as he gracefully aged……….
oh wait. that’s not it at all…
That was one of the most disgusting displays of fanboy-dom that I’ve ever seen, even from Matthews. Bleeaachh! What a nauseating trio.
egregious @ 115
There were two.
One had original documents about the Teapot Dome Scandal. The other was empty.
I speculated at the time they were holding it empty for the documents from the Libby trial.
emptywheel@116
The original documents from the Teapot Dome scandal. You know, where we get to get the Seargant at Arms to arrest Turdblossom. You’ll have to ask egregious for a more detailed description, though. She was scoping them out.
thanks ‘gregie and ew!
My dog Jake did read entrails and make oracular readings. He is
about to take his Spring walk amoung the California mustard
blooming now. He did tell me that destiny calls a person out to
a greater calling. Patrick Fitzgerald is the one to lead the
Impeachment investigation. The call to restore the rule of
Law will visit him soon. How could he not be enraged by the
politicization of Justice under Bush , Gonzalez et al. The integrity
of his professional calling as a Federal Prosecutor is at stake.
A dog sometimes knows when he must fight to the death!
Stephen Parrish, CPA @ 128
I get the squash re EP. But the argument I’ve heard is that they aren’t analogous to the Nixon or Clinton cases. They were officially criminal, yet, this is informational IANAL, does that hold water?
if those commercials show a benign happy baghdad and free prosperous Iraq I guess the question would be…………why stay? looks like everything is just hunky dorey……
funny how one bomb a day can maim and kill all those soldiers in different locales…..no wait…..it’s the ‘magic bullet bomb’…….just like in Dallas………
“God, he was Jim Bowie at the Alamo tonight! I‘ve never seen him like that, at least in a long time.” – CM
“A television news anchor with remarkable depth of experience, Matthews has distinguished himself as a broadcast journalist…In March 2004, he received the David Brinkley Award for Excellence in Broadcast Journalism.”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3080432/
Oy! If Matthews was a sportscaster talking about an athlete, I wouldn’t have a problem with this kind of statement. It’s quite sickening that this fanboy passes himself off as a broadcast journalist every evening.
- Tom
From NYTimes:
Those sessions, nearly 80 in all, are the fodder for a new book by Mr. Branch, tentatively titled “Wrestling History: The Bill Clinton Tapes,” that Simon & Schuster plans to publish in late 2008, the publisher said today.
Just in time for the election, I suppose.
turdpot dome scandal
the return of Sam!
dmac
if you’re still here, thanks for the (((*)))s in the last thread.
it got all tangled there at the end, didn’t it?
Jake!
It was during the press questions yesterday that Bush got wide eyed and wild. Just as I was thinking to myself that a reporter had asked a damn good question, Bush looked like he was trying to head-butt the guy from 10 feet away.
Sam @ 132
Thank you Sam and Jake for responding to my call! As I said, I loved the entrail readings. p.s. for those of you who don’t know, Jake, Sam’s dog, used to do this on a fairly regular basis at FDL. Special, like Punaise, but in a different way.
There was Babs’ bad boy ranting and whining last night because someone wants to take away his toys (Gonzo, Rovo, Harrieto) and today there was Vice President Gore clearly articulating before both Houses of Congress fact after fact about the threat of global warming and being very gracious to the mealy-mouthed Republics attacking his character and the facts. This, dear ones, is what the Supreme Court cost us. It is incredibly sad.
Mabel’s Wig Shack @ 134
the commercial shows antiwar protesters in a bad light (unpatriotic) and then shows a big bomb going off saying if we don’t win in Iraq, this will happen in ‘Murka.
LOL!
HotFlash @ 99
Cujo359 @ 122
Wil @ 126
Our first priority is to just get all the documents summarized. We’re making entries for each PDF file at the Judiciary Committee site, with a separate entry, we hope, for each document in each PDF. For instance, on the page for PDF 2-8, here’s what I wrote for pages 11-48:
http://www.docstrangelove.com/…..uments_2-8
Might be nice to know who they all are, no? Most likely, that would involve the tedious task of reading each applicant’s name, and noting what page(s) it was on.
Other tasks are a bit more complicated, but right now we just need to get the documents summarized so folks can find the information they’re looking for quickly.
Basically, folks who want to help should read the Help page on the wiki, and if they want to help then create a login (no personal info required, really) and then just dig in. We provide links to the Judiciary Committee site, and any pages we’ve started should have links directly to those documents.
Whose entrails does Jake read? Chickens? Rats? TV personalities who love Jim Bowie?
Michael Sperconik (sp?) on Tweety. He can’t understand why the dems are all up in arms aboutthe USA mess cuz “Bin Laden is still out there”
Oh now they’re worried about Bin Laden
CONRAD BLACK BLOG
†hanks, Jane, for this little report! I think about you and send you good vibes all of the time – so it is great to see you post and let us know you are with appetite! We all love you and thank you for being you – and doing all you have done for the country and us citizens!
Kathie
Just read Snow’s presser today. He more or less concedes that there is, in fact, an 18 day gap in the e-mails. (Josh says it looks like the gap starts right when Sampson starts asking if the President is up to speed on the plan. I can’t imagine what might be in the missing e-mails.) I was expecting him to say that the White House thinks that Thanksgiving is an important time to spend with your family, and the White House encourages its members to take extra time off before and after that holiday to promote strong family values.
Gnome de Plume @ 147
hmm… I don’t remember that part. Sam will have to come back and tell us.
Oh, that’s prolly Michael Smerconish, Helen.
Another one of Tweety’s man crushes (from Philly.)
Sorry, Cujo@147 – I thought I got 5 before I got zigged. Will try to do better
Tweety just said that Scooter’s scandal was much more significant because of the cover up, over the cover up, over the cover up- basically saying that the USA firings were not a big deal. I just wrote him an e-mail with the subject line “Wake up and smell the cover up, Chris!”, and gave him the same info about the 18 day gap that I sent him this morning. It would be great if some FDL’ers would send a quick e-mail with the same or similar subject lines to hardball@msnbc.com. Please help get this idea into his big, yellow, brick head.
Elliott———–[”gregie” — these nicknames crack me up]
The Teapot Dome Scandal documents displayed at Prettyman Courthouse were a stark reminder that power can be brought to heel.
The adjacent empty case seemed to me a Sign, that we await justice once again. What about copies of Marcy’s and Glenn’s books there, along with printouts of FDL liveblogs on the case? Why not, think of all the weird stuff you’ve seen in historical museums. This is history in the making.
Btw if anyone sees Ed*ard Teller please tell him I wrote up some stuff about music, specifically Why 10,000 people are glad I didn’t become a musician. And more documents surfacing about scandals in Alaska, we may get Diane Benson elected to Congress yet.
KO covering missing emails.
raises hand, gestures wildly . . .
I have a question -
revised Patriot Act was passed on 3/3/6
one of the current USA’s I’m looking at was confirmed by a Senate voice vote on 7/21/06
I thought the language in the rev. bill bypassed Senate Confirmation ????
carolyn urban @ 146
They should auction those opportunities off for charity. I’m sure some Congressmen would pay big bucks for the pleasure of hearing Karl Rove lying his ass off. Sorta like listening to Pavarotti sing, or watching Meryl Streep on stage, except yuckier.
What’s happening w/the Conrad Black trial:
Toronto Globe & Mail Update
egregious @ 157
I love it!
A sign and a signal.
Cujo,
Account is set up, not sure how to exchange personal email for additional information
cbl @ 159
but it doesn’t have to.
Happy entrails to you,
Until we meat again
Happy entrails to you,
Keep smilin’ until then.
Wil @ 163
If you have questions about particular pages, hit the “discussion” button on that page, then either start typing your question or hit “edit” to get the form and then start typing.
If it’s a general sort of question, do that on the Help page’s discussion page.
UPDATE: By the way, any link that’s red in the Wikipedia means an entry doesn’t exist yet. On the main page, there are quite a few document entries that are still red.
Shuster on KO :-)
punaise @ 164
Hey Punaise- trust you remember Sam and Jake. Sam was a “banana slug” btw.
So Keith is covering the e-mails. But we still need to tell Tweety to stop downplaying the USA firings because he thinks it’s not a cover up. Please e-mail him at hardball@msnbc.com to remind him of the missing e-mails. Please tell him to “Wake up and smell the cover up!” Americans will understand the concept of suspiciously missing documents.
punaise @ 164
I’ll see your Roy Rogers and raise you a Nelson Eddy and Jeanette MacDonald: “I’m entrailing you, hoo-hoo-hoo, hooo-hoo-hooooo….”
LS @
57
Substitute “drunk” for “ill”, and it’s the perfect analogy!
punaise @ 165
we’re always smilin’ when you’re around!
who made Schumer the uniuversal spokesman for all of this?
I wanna see Leahy.
Shumer up on KO.
Feinstein, so far, did the clearest job of explaining this mess on Face the Nation Sunday.
The president has basically given us an offer we can’t accept. Chuck Shumer
Via Froomkin from Glenn Greenwald,
Tony Snow in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on March 29, 1998. Of course, he was talking about Clinton. Don’t you wish somebody in the Washington press corps would quote that back to him?
next — in the on-deck circle — the
chairman of the senate judciary
committee, one patrick leahy — a veteran
democrat, out of vermont. . .
An Executive Business Meeting
has been scheduled by the Committee
on the Judiciary for Thursday,
March 22, 2007 at 10:00 a.m.
in the Senate Dirksen Building Room 226.
By order of the Chairman
UPDATED AGENDA
Senate Judiciary Committee
Senate Dirksen Office Building Room 226
Thursday, March 22, 2007 at 10:00 a.m. EDT
I. Committee Authorization
Authorization of Subpoenas in Connection with Investigation into Replacement of U.S. Attorneys. . .
by tomorrow night, there will be authority
for two separate subpoenas, with karl rove’s
name on each. . . his karma’s a-callin’. . .
Valley Girl @ 168
sure – good ole Sam and Jake. Hiya. good thing about non-skeletal UCSC slugs – no Skull & Bones shenanigans on capus.
I have no answer on what kind of entrails Jake reads. He wanders
from time to time the wilderness bordering where he lives. Lots of
predators at work leaving innards behind. Jake comes home and
seems possessed and speaks. The way of the Dog. I am sure
Kobe knows something about this . Sometimes you just
have to take in the smell, the taste and the lingering effect.
All I know is that JAKE WANTS FITZ TO CLEAN THE HOUSE WHITE
AGAIN–TAKE THE STAIN OFF OF THE WHITE HOUSE.
punaise @ 165
and Perry Como, too!?
catch a falling star and put it in your pocket…
Sam @ 179
Jake raises a salute and takes aim at the Hydrant Court of the Land?
angie @ 123
Note that the koolaid drinkers gave Gore a hard time today for expounding that radical lefty theory (red conspiracy) called “global warming”
This is the funny thing. Shrub and the wingnutters are now so extreme and ridiculous on such a range of issues that the party loyalists find themselves having to twist themselves into the strangest and most ironical rhetorical contortions just to keep up with the spinning… the question is, when they just up and give up, or is the Pretzel infinitely malleable.
Shorter Chris Matthews: “What a fine suit of clothes our Emperor is wearing!”
NH
New Hamsher.
Wacked
Oh no. I just knew this graphic would appear again soon.
AVERT YOUR EYES. You have been warned.
New Hamsher
Hugh @ 176
Nice. Or this Snow quote, from the headlining comments from KO tonight, ripping:
“The [Clinton] administration’s ongoing effort to use executive privilege as a way of concealing the truth.”
Someone gonna quote that back to him?
Schumer on KO about disgruntled DOJ employees leaking the rest of the info. Hope they were watching.
Everythingseemssoneat @ 9
We know. It shows in his eyes every time he gets before the cameras.
i have a complaint======
could people please list the REAL LINK instead of comments written over the link???????????
i try to send stuff on–to media, etc…….and pdf links are impossible to send if i can’t catch the link…….have to send them to here, and get the link themselves……..would be much more effective if i could copythe link and then send on…………ie-the missing 18 days emails from earlier……..sent on to the diane rehm show, but couldn’t catch the pdf link quick enough to just send them the direct link……..very aggravating………….so, could people please start posting the DIRECT address instead of a comment over it?????????????????
‘Turdblossom Bloom Scandal”
Marie Roget @ 161
well babsie amiel ain’t no fucking lady, that’s for damn sure.
On Monday, Amiel Black was overheard saying to a Canadian television reporter “you slut” as she was leaving the courtroom following legal wranglings that delayed the long-awaited opening statements in her husband’s high-profile trial.
*ilbo @ 190
too long, how about ofus – Operation Fuck the US
Wil @
192
Characterized by a shitty pudgy brown flower!
if I recall correctly barbara amiel once snitched on jane fonda for having some diet pills that were unprescribed. as in ‘called the border authorities’ while J.F. made her way home from Toronto. my memory may be incorrect but I seem to recall Lady Black-heart oozing with delight over her little ‘victory.’
dmac @ 189
I believe you mean html links (not pdf). And my short answer is “no.” Here’s what you do — very quick and simple — click the link to open on a new tab (I assume you have tabbed browsing). Copy the link from the browser bar (you’ll have to copy a link anyway), go paste it where you want it to end up.
One extra step.
umm…wasn’t Jim Bowie lying in bed dying of syphylis or TB or something? I guess I can sort of get the analogy when I consider the facts.. just sayin’
Frank Probst @
109
Shumer was on Countdown tonight and remarked [approximately], “there are a lot of disgruntled people @ the DOJ, and we’re going to get the information [on the USAs] eventually, so I think it would be better for [the WH/DOJ] to just provide the info now.”
Hmm, someone’s had a private showing of The Godfather?
or just covered by santorum?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santorum_(sexual_slang)
Wow! Henry is ready for battle. He had his staff prepare the brief last year outlining WH staff testifying before congress, in anticipation of the stonewalling to come.
He is has filled his quiver arrows and is ready for the hunt.
dmac-
open the link in a new window.
you can do that by right clicking the link and selecting open in new window. then you can copy the url out of the address box.
using a comment keeps urls from being cut off by the wordsmith program or something like that.
Cujo359 @
124
Well, since you put it that way :) … I might have a few spare hours this evening.
I still think to a certain extent that all the useful bits have already been identified and the Wiki is superfluous. Plus I hate the name. Every time I see Gonzopedia I think Hunter S. Thompson who was about as far away from Gonzales as is humanly possible. Should have called it Abu-pedia.
Shrub is a pissant. May his soul rot in hell.
punaise @
178
Do the slugs eat the bones directly, or via the plants?
(If the former, perhaps I’ll hike somewhere else….)
PLENIS
The Plenary President
Just heard Dan Bartlett slip up in his interview with Robert Siegel on NPR. They smoothed it over nicely for him in the transcript, tho. God, it’s tough staying on message.
AZ Matt @ 47
He also brought down everyone that followed his idea of “no surrender”.
But Bowie was fighting for the idea of Texas Independance…Bush is fighting for his PERSONAL POWER.
egregious @ 89
Ahhhhh! But “they resigned”…that’s why they are so upset because they don’t know why they are “resigning”.
They “have personal reasons” but they can’t recall what they are….Alzheimers perhaps…but that lack of “recalling” what their personal reasons for resigning are…clearly makes it necessary to allow them to resign (for “performance related reasons”).
oregondave @
195
OR right click, choose “Properties” and copy and paste the link (”Address”) from the Properties box.
Concerning Republican-appointed U.S. Attorney (USA) litigation activities directed at Democrats, I would like to know how many occurred during October 2006, in the month prior to the important November mid-term elections?
1) The Mark Foley/young male House pages sex scandal broke onto the national news scene in late September, early October, and dominated the news through election day in early November. All other news paled in comparison. A major Republican sex scandal. Bad news for the religious base of the Republican Party. Especially when the coverup by Republican House leadership of Mark Foley’s activities hit the news.
2) David Iglesias, the USA in New Mexico, was pressured by Republican politicians and White House political operatives to prematurely release grand jury “sealed” indictments brought against Democrats in New Mexico. Any news coverage, local or national, that didn’t involve Foleygate would be good news for Republican chances in November, but even better news if the good news was indictments or investigations of Democrats. Maybe even bogus claims of voter fraud? Hey, anything to get Foleygate off the front pages.
Get the picture?
Any Republican-appointed USAs who didn’t get with this Rove-orchestrated campaign in October to deflect the nation’s attention from Foleygate and onto indicted or under investigation Democrats (bogus voter fraud claims, for example) would have been considered insubordinate, untrustworthy, not enough of a “loyal Bushie.” Any uncooperative USAs would have been blamed afterward for costing the Republicans control of Congress. They would have to be punished. Fired.
In other words, the pre-election Foleygate scandal acted as one of the catalysts that led to the firing of the eight USAs in early December. If we could get our hands on all the White House and DOJ/USAs emails between early October and early December, I just bet this Foleygate/USAs firing link would be revealed. And it would help explain why the Republican “explanations” for the USAs firings sound so disjointed, laughable and scattershot like a Dick Cheney shotgun blast…it’s all about misdirection.
Great post Jane. “Cult of the Codpiece”. That’s gold! The cultists over identify with a bogus ideology and lack any imagination. They can’t let go for psychological reasons. I’ve been reading on the rise of the 3rd Reich and one salient point was how followers psychologically surrendered their own individuality and reason to become a part of something larger than themselves. Their “Leader” was able to tap into their insecurities, fears and prejudices by publicly exposing his own thereby making it acceptable to the masses. True believers couldn’t let go even at the bitter end when it became painfully apparent that all was lost. Kind of like the “Borg” in Star Trek.
Just as the 29% deadenders can’t let go of their leader so to can’t many in the MSM. They have invested too much (psychologically and professionally) in the leader and to now question the leader is to question their own professional judgement and integrity. They are incapable of such a leap. For this reason I think that most MSM “journalists” and pundits will be on the wrong side of the looming battle between the Executive and Congressional branches.
“Cult of the Codpiece.”
Codpiece doth protect mere sock within.
The act as if partisanship is a trump card which ends investigations. If an investigation is purely partisan but uncovers a crime, the crime is still punished. As Nixon Party operatives know from the Clinton impeachment, partisanship is a perfectly legal basis from which to go after criminals.