S U N L I G H T !!!

Bush is also behaving in a deranged manner by releasing airliner bombing terrorists from jail.

Cuban & Christian terrorists are AOK, Muslim ones, not so much.

-SD

gosh he is scary

ever get the sense that most of what bush says is his own addled filtering of something someone else told him?
the musings of a very slow child.

oy

I can certainly appreciate why Ms. Pelosi is keeping the impeachment issue off the table – she is 3rd in line. So it’s up to others – Conyers, Leahy, Waxman. I see Dennis Kucinich is jumping the gun, but dont we have enough on Cheney right now for treason?

Aren’t we approaching Captain Queeq levels of mental illness here?

When I read about the rug comment, I genuinely thought he was talking about that rug the Senator bought in Iraq for five bucks.

retirin’ in five @ 7

Aren’t we approaching Captain Queeq levels of mental illness here?

it was the ice cream! dude. like your handle but when do you change it to four? I’m outta here in 4.1.

So the $64,000 question is what’s gonna happen next? Gonzales went up and made an ass of himself, so what? The WH has never responded to outside pressure, and i don’t think they will now. The Dems need to continue to rachet up the pressure by impeaching Gonzales.

And I almost fell over yesterday when the dude on KO said the Dems will cave on the deadline for withdrawl. Talking about it as if it is inevitable. They can’t be that cowardly can they?

i think the dems feel the tradeoff is no impeachment for the slow but sure wresting of the toys from junior.
they are losing sight of the bigger picture, though. if these crimes against the nation, the constitution, against humanity don’t qualify for impeachment proceedings, it’s possible nothing — except a blow job — ever will.
meanwhile, bush exudes the suppressed glee of a pampered young bully who knows he’s getting away with something AGAIN.

Gonzo said something at the end of his testimony that I find really troubling (besides, all the rest of it). He said something to the effect of, if there was a crime committed in the DOJ, the burden of proof is on Congress. That’s basically a challenge. The Senators response was lame, saying that a higher level of justice was expected from the AG, rather than calling him on the fact that he has been witholding evidence.

But my point is, that when Gonzo says this, or when Cheney says that Iraq is going well, or when Bush says I’m keeping Gonzo and I’m vetoing the Iraq spending bill, they are basically saying “come on, bring it. If you think you can do something, do it. Otherwise, fuck you. I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing.” At some stage, someone has to call them on this stuff, or it’s going to keep happening.

I see a similarity between the mental state of the VT murderer and the president in that people are aware of the sickness but nothing can, or will, be done legally to protect the public. This is not something I enjoy saying or thinking.

TiredFed — with this BushCo global economy, the five is on hold. Four point one? I’m envious.

Twisted Martini @ 10

So the $64,000 question is what’s gonna happen next? Gonzales went up and made an ass of himself, so what? The WH has never responded to outside pressure, and i don’t think they will now. The Dems need to continue to rachet up the pressure by impeaching Gonzales.

And I almost fell over yesterday when the dude on KO said the Dems will cave on the deadline for withdrawl. Talking about it as if it is inevitable. They can’t be that cowardly can they?

if the past is prologue, yes, they can be that cowardly. but it sounds like Reid and Pelosi are finding their Constitutional cojones and are prepared to take a stand. wont bet the bank on it, though.

Sally @ 12

I see a similarity between the mental state of the VT murderer and the president in that people are aware of the sickness but nothing can, or will, be done legally to protect the public. This is not something I enjoy saying or thinking.

mental illness is never a happy topic.

Watching all this is just surreal.

The only word I can come up with to describe these people who so obviously are in deep denial.

They are just Weird!

retirin’ in five @ 13

TiredFed — with this BushCo global economy, the five is on hold. Four point one? I’m envious.

think small. small house. somewhere in Mexico maybe.

TiredFed @ 16. Exactly.

Will GWB be the first President to be institutionalized? OT, it’s unlikely that Gonzo will resign and GWB will never ask for his resignation. The regime is down to the inner circle and they will stay hunkered down in the bunker. They know they still have allies in Congress, Republican Party sycophants and loyalists and Joe Lieberman, and recognize that by and large the American public is ignorant and apathetic. They also know the MSM is lazy, complicit and compromised. They also know the Dems in Congress will continue to play out their kabukiesque roles as the “loyal” opposition. They know the Dems will not take off the gloves and the false pretense of civility and go for the jugular. The only place the remaining perps of this Administration are going is to the mattresses.

Good morning gang. Hail to the Chief(s). That NYT editorial is smoking. I can’t remember a more angry piece from a major newspaper. Must be closet bloggers.

Georgesimian @ 12

Gonzo said something at the end of his testimony that I find really troubling (besides, all the rest of it). He said something to the effect of, if there was a crime committed in the DOJ, the burden of proof is on Congress. That’s basically a challenge. The Senators response was lame, saying that a higher level of justice was expected from the AG, rather than calling him on the fact that he has been witholding evidence.

But my point is, that when Gonzo says this, or when Cheney says that Iraq is going well, or when Bush says I’m keeping Gonzo and I’m vetoing the Iraq spending bill, they are basically saying “come on, bring it. If you think you can do something, do it. Otherwise, fuck you. I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing.” At some stage, someone has to call them on this stuff, or it’s going to keep happening.

actually i found that exchange between gonzo and schumer most inspiring, since schumer slapped him down handily, in the manner of a professor tired of having to explain the simple stuff. he correctly noted that in fact, if the ag was taking responsibility for the firings, then it was HIS responsibility to bring some answers and he hadn’t done that. back atcha, gonzo.

i too weary of the all-too-cautious incremental steps the dems are taking but i think every step teaches them that yes, they can do more, that the nation is in fact with them. look at them as having been pistolwhipped and vilified and political-abuse victims for the better part of 6 years. if they lack the stomach for some of what must be done, i think it’s understandable. it’s not entirely forgiveable, but understandable.

…think magic carpet ride.

Why isn’t more being made of the fact that Bush has filled, not just the DOJ, but every department full of incompetent Bushies with no qualifications for their jobs. Brownie is the biggest example, but in every department, they are all over the place. He just stuck that Swift Boater into Ambassadorship in Brussels. It’s one of the biggest reasons he screwed up in Iraq. The EPA has been gutted. NASA has taken Global Warming out of its mandate. The CIA has been disenfranchised. He has totally destroyed our government.

Does this mean, he is planning a coup d’etat? I mean, if all the commanders in the army are Loyal Bushies, and all the heads of Government, what’s to stop him?

McClatchy one two punch -

On virtually every significant decision affecting election balloting since 2001, the division’s Voting Rights Section has come down on the side of Republicans, notably in Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Washington and other states where recent elections have been decided by narrow margins.

Joseph Rich, who left his job as chief of the section in 2005, said these events formed an unmistakable pattern.

“As more information becomes available about the administration’s priority on combating alleged, but not well substantiated, voter fraud, the more apparent it is that its actions concerning voter ID laws are part of a partisan strategy to suppress the votes of poor and minority citizens,” he said.

McClatchy

Scarecrow @ 21

Good morning gang. Hail to the Chief(s). That NYT editorial is smoking. I can’t remember a more angry piece from a major newspaper. Must be closet bloggers.

Scarecrow,

Your piece this morning is excellent and please continue to tracj what Bush is saying. FDL should run a piece everyday just tracking the guy. For example, it may be better that he is in the gym and not out but it is my sense from reporting that Bush spends a minimum of three hours a day, on average!!, just working out.

It would also be worth investigating and writing about how Bush got into Harvard Business School with his record at Yale.

Wow. What a relief. He’s optimistic.

I truly wish that I had the ability to bury my head in the sand and the money to let others worry about everything including the multiple effects of my decisions. Imagine how happy I could be?

Instead, I live in the real world.

One of the central themes of the Iliad is that what the humans have and the gods lack is mortality. Thus the human struggle is what makes life meaningful and the petty quarrels of the gods and their effects on mankind are repugnant.

I am continually dismayed at how the current administration and its acolytes act like Homer’s gods and make decisions and pick fights with no regard for the bulk of humanity. I wish that I could be more comforted that, like the gods of Homer, their lives lack meaning because they do not suffer and do not have to think about the consequences of their actions like “mere” mortals. Instead, I am merely disgusted by their behaviors.

I get AP and Reuters news feeds, and generally scour everything. BUT, I cannot find one thing on the FBI raid on Renzi’s “money front” office in Arizona.

Is this what the MSM calls “unimportant news?”

I am aghast at these incompetent boobs. Were they all raised as little Fascist propagandists under the Fourth Reich?

dmg @ 21

Georgesimian @ 12

Gonzo said something at the end of his testimony that I find really troubling (besides, all the rest of it). He said something to the effect of, if there was a crime committed in the DOJ, the burden of proof is on Congress. That’s basically a challenge. The Senators response was lame, saying that a higher level of justice was expected from the AG, rather than calling him on the fact that he has been witholding evidence.

But my point is, that when Gonzo says this, or when Cheney says that Iraq is going well, or when Bush says I’m keeping Gonzo and I’m vetoing the Iraq spending bill, they are basically saying “come on, bring it. If you think you can do something, do it. Otherwise, fuck you. I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing.” At some stage, someone has to call them on this stuff, or it’s going to keep happening.

actually i found that exchange between gonzo and schumer most inspiring, since schumer slapped him down handily, in the manner of a professor tired of having to explain the simple stuff. he correctly noted that in fact, if the ag was taking responsibility for the firings, then it was HIS responsibility to bring some answers and he hadn’t done that. back atcha, gonzo.

i too weary of the all-too-cautious incremental steps the dems are taking but i think every step teaches them that yes, they can do more, that the nation is in fact with them. look at them as having been pistolwhipped and vilified and political-abuse victims for the better part of 6 years. if they lack the stomach for some of what must be done, i think it’s understandable. it’s not entirely forgiveable, but understandable.

I guess you’re right. But I really wish he had been challenged more on the papers that he has refused to turn over and the missing WH emails, which he basically said that if Congress wanted them, he would be of no help to them.

Scarecrow @ 21

Good morning gang. Hail to the Chief(s). That NYT editorial is smoking. I can’t remember a more angry piece from a major newspaper. Must be closet bloggers.

So very uncivil! What will Dave Broder say???

GWB
”There are jobs Americans aren’t doing. … If you’ve got a chicken factory, a chicken-plucking factory, or whatever you call them, you know what I’m talking about.”

Tired and fathered.

Later, when he talked about his hope for succeeding in Iraq,
Bush said, “Remember the rug?”

That’s codex for: You’ll find the 5M emails there, along with the WMDs.

”The best thing about my family is my wife. She is a great first lady. I know that sounds not very objective, but that’s how I feel. And she’s also patient. Putting up with me requires a lot of patience.”

…and 11 prescriptions.

”There are some similarities, of course” between
Iraq and Vietnam. “Death is terrible.”

A mind is a terrible thing.
(h/t to SNL)

at this point, i have to laugh
beats the alternative

Scarecrow -

Good morning – as we review yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee proceedings and comments in yesterday’s FDL threads about Alberto Gonzales’ testimony, I wanted to mention a United States Code section that has been discussed in recent weeks on FDL threads:

28 USC 541

(a) The President shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a United States attorney for each judicial district.

(b) Each United States attorney shall be appointed for a term of four years. On the expiration of his term, a United States attorney shall continue to perform the duties of his office until his successor is appointed and qualifies.

(c) Each United States attorney is subject to removal by the President. (My emphasis)

In light of yesterday’s testimony, let us retrace our steps and ask the following questions: (1) To what extent was the President involved with dismissal of the United States attorneys? (2) Does 28 USC 541 or a related statute or regulation give the President the authority to delegate removal of a United States attorney to someone else? (3) Did the Patriot Act amend the wording of any of the subsections of 28 USC 541?

FYI 1€ = $1.3601 last night

It is good to see the realists at it early.

You are right — the question is indeed “What now!” What we have really is insanity, because it is politics, and the WH Gang having some sort of dissociative state, have lost sight of the fact. I do hope there are enough GOP public and private politicians who are sufficiently realistic to understand how devastating their losses are going to be if they do not fix things now.

Whichever of you posted above that you think Reid/Pelosi haven’t the guts to leave a fixed time in their bill, are right in my opinion.

It is not only that they haven’t the gumption to get that this is the moment to stare the man down, they are handicapped by the long-standing “canker on the face of the body politick” sodding A**AC, pulling their chains!

Perhaps some GOP members will help them out.

TiredFed @
9

retirin’ in five @ 7

Aren’t we approaching Captain Queeq levels of mental illness here?

it was the ice cream! dude. like your handle but when do you change it to four? I’m outta here in 4.1.

Watch for our Benighted Emperor to start showing extreme symptoms of Queeg. He will get more and more weird as soon as he has to confront his own character flaws. Then he will be dangerous.

Like Nixon, the acts will continue to get irrational.

Messianic complexes are quite ugly.

Good morning, all… coffee is almost ready.

retirin’ in five @
14

TiredFed — with this BushCo global economy, the five is on hold. Four point one? I’m envious.

You guys are killin me, when you stay in school till you are frickin 50 it sort of sets back retirement! Look like the old soldiers home for my sorry ass.

WaPo’s Dana Milbank has an obituary on Gonzales’ tenure.

Even the WaPo editors say Gonzales’ time is up.

Guess we know what will go out with the late Friday afternoon news dump.

Morning firepups. Glad you could join us. Lunchtime here. Have a look on Guardian Unlimited(Wish I could do links!) under Steve Bell Cartoons. I promise you’ll like it.

Georgesimian @ 11

Gonzo said something at the end of his testimony that I find really troubling (besides, all the rest of it). He said something to the effect of, if there was a crime committed in the DOJ, the burden of proof is on Congress. That’s basically a challenge. The Senators response was lame, saying that a higher level of justice was expected from the AG, rather than calling him on the fact that he has been witholding evidence.

But my point is, that when Gonzo says this, or when Cheney says that Iraq is going well, or when Bush says I’m keeping Gonzo and I’m vetoing the Iraq spending bill, they are basically saying “come on, bring it. If you think you can do something, do it. Otherwise, fuck you. I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing.” At some stage, someone has to call them on this stuff, or it’s going to keep happening.

Amen! Call bullshit and go after the lying hypocrites.
OT I want to thank Christy and all the firepups for keeping me up on the Gonzo hearing yesterday. Your time and commitment are greatly appreciated for those of us who couldn’t watch or listen.

A video clip of Dubya from the ‘townhall’ event in Ohio yesterday, if y’all are feeling particularly masochistic…

Scarecrow @ 20

Good morning gang. Hail to the Chief(s). That NYT editorial is smoking. I can’t remember a more angry piece from a major newspaper. Must be closet bloggers.

haha. I think we’re out of the closet now. oops.

Um…George?
People have actually made up their minds about George Washington. Historians still study him because, you know, that’s what they do. Study the past. Hell, I’m studying slavery, but that’s not because the jury is still out on whether or not it’s a bad thing. Everybody has pretty much decided that it was. We’ve made up our minds on slavery. And George Washington. And, sad to say, I think we’ve made up our minds about you.

You can cling to the hope that David Brooks IV will write a new history of your administration in 2064 that makes the novel claim that you, in fact, were not a worse President than Millard Fillmore, but I wouldn’t count on it.

dmg @ 11:

“they are losing sight of the bigger picture, though. if these crimes against the nation, the constitution, against humanity don’t qualify for impeachment proceedings … bush exudes the suppressed glee of a pampered young bully”

fine lines!!!

Georgesimian @ 29

I guess you’re right. But I really wish he had been challenged more on the papers that he has refused to turn over and the missing WH emails, which he basically said that if Congress wanted them, he would be of no help to them.

honestly, at that point in the hearing — with schumer giving up his time because as he noted there was no point — it felt like everyone in the chamber knew that gonzo was just some useless webkinz doll they took no sport in slapping around.
the repubs on the panel were more effective than the dems in showing how little gonzo is respected. and they know that they’re not gonna get any help from the department of obstruction of justice, so they’re going to have to either figure out another way to go about getting the info they want, or accept that this is just one more piece of unfinished busco business.

OT. Coming soon, Moyers probe of MSM and Iraq.

http://www.editorandpublisher……1003574260

Stephen Parrish, CPA @ 32

To what extent was the President involved with dismissal of the United States attorneys?

did you-all hear any kind of answer to this yesterday?

Here is a little game. Who does this describe?
“There were no alternatives. And, like all ideologues and ‘conviction politicians’, the self-reinforcing components of his ‘world-view’ meant that he was always in a position to deride or dismiss out of hand any ‘rational’ arguments of opponents.” Guess wwwhhhhoooo!

TiredFed @ 6

I can certainly appreciate why Ms. Pelosi is keeping the impeachment issue off the table – she is 3rd in line. So it’s up to others – Conyers, Leahy, Waxman. I see Dennis Kucinich is jumping the gun, but dont we have enough on Cheney right now for treason?

TiredFed – please read John Marshall’s comments about what constitutes treason in his opinion rendered in 1807 in Ex parte Bollman.

Look, up yonder in the sky, now, what is that I pray ?
It’s a bird it’s a plane, it’s a man insane, it’s my President LBJGWB
He’s flying high way up in the sky just like Superman,
But I have got a little piece of kryptonite,
Yes, I’ll bring him back to land.
Said come out Lyndon Georgie with your hands held high,
Drop your guns, baby, and reach for the sky.
I’ve got you surrounded and you ain’t got a chance,
Gonna send you back to Texas, make you work on your ranch,
Yeah, yeah, oh yeah.

He can call Super Woman and his Super Dogs,
But it sure won’t do him no good,
Yeah, I found out why from a Russian spy
That he ain’t nothing but a comic book.

We’ll pull him off the stands and clean up the land,
Yes, we’ll have us a brand new day.
What is more I got the Fantastic Four
And Doctor Strange to help him on his way.

Said come out Lyndon Georgie with your hands held high,
Drop your guns, baby, and reach for the sky.
We got you surrounded and you ain’t got a chance,
Gonna send you back to Texas make you work on your ranch,
Yeah yeah, oh yeah.

Yeah, gonna make him eat flowers.
Yeah, make him drop some acid …

Whichever of you posted above that you think Reid/Pelosi haven’t the guts to leave a fixed time in their bill, are right in my opinion

.

this was published 2 days ago –

Democrats Would Make Iraq Timetable in Bill ‘Advisory’

WaPo

Georgesimian @ 23

Why isn’t more being made of the fact that Bush has filled, not just the DOJ, but every department full of incompetent Bushies with no qualifications for their jobs. Brownie is the biggest example, but in every department, they are all over the place. He just stuck that Swift Boater into Ambassadorship in Brussels. It’s one of the biggest reasons he screwed up in Iraq. The EPA has been gutted. NASA has taken Global Warming out of its mandate. The CIA has been disenfranchised. He has totally destroyed our government.

Does this mean, he is planning a coup d’etat? I mean, if all the commanders in the army are Loyal Bushies, and all the heads of Government, what’s to stop him?

heads can (and will) be replaced. what is much more worrisome is there will be Browniebots wandering all over the Fed govt after this. One of the Cong committees got a letter from DOJ employees about scary changes in recruiting practices for permanent civil servants.

Ouch… Reading those quotes by the boy-king made my butt sting.

I think it’s physical deflection to draw attention away from how my heart aches that we’ve gotten to this place–being ‘led’ by this ethically-challenged, maturity-lacking, intellectual fraction of a man–at the dawning of this new millennium.

OT — Raven and TiredFed — divorce in late thirties tends to push back one’s retirement, also.

Bush is certifiable. Great post, Scarecrow — as per usual.

So…what time today do they announce that Gonzo collapsed in a weepy blubbery mess when Cheney slapped him and told him he had to go is resigning to spend more time with his family?

I say 5:00.

As in any banana republic there still is the military to rein in these crazies sooner or later, with Iraq added for good measure.

Fineline @ 44

dmg @ 11:

“they are losing sight of the bigger picture, though. if these crimes against the nation, the constitution, against humanity don’t qualify for impeachment proceedings … bush exudes the suppressed glee of a pampered young bully”

fine lines!!!

thanks for the kind words.
i find that fdl brings out everybody’s A game.

Sally @
13

I see a similarity between the mental state of the VT murderer and the president in that people are aware of the sickness but nothing can, or will, be done legally to protect the public. This is not something I enjoy saying or thinking.

I have been thinking the same thing.

Maunga, I think that Pelosi will keep the deadline in, but Reid is dealing with lots of self serving turds like Joe Biden who are all talk and no balls.

retirin’ in five @ 54

OT — Raven and TiredFed — divorce in late thirties tends to push back one’s retirement, also.

Bush is certifiable. Great post, Scarecrow — as per usual.

and divorce in your 40s ends any notion of it at all.

Why do the Dems use these opportunities so reactively? Why not a focus on what Gonzo knew about Carol Lamm’s investigations of corruption at CIA? I kept hoping for – Ok you didn’t bother to discuss the “immigration issue” what conversations did you have with anyone about the corruption investigation?

retirin’ in five @ 54

OT — Raven and TiredFed — divorce in late thirties tends to push back one’s retirement, also.

Bush is certifiable. Great post, Scarecrow — as per usual.

I didn’t even mention that part! And of course three wasted years in the green machine followed by 10 of decompression. Screw it, “speed on brother hell’s only half full. Just happened to be watching the Dead do Touch of Grey right now.

raven @ 36

retirin’ in five @
14

TiredFed — with this BushCo global economy, the five is on hold. Four point one? I’m envious.

You guys are killin me, when you stay in school till you are frickin 50 it sort of sets back retirement! Look like the old soldiers home for my sorry ass.

“retirin” is more like getting out of jail fo rme. I will finally be able to do what I want, and it sure wont be sitting around in a rocking chair. I think of it as a second career – the fun one.

citizen k @ 61

Why do the Dems use these opportunities so reactively? Why not a focus on what Gonzo knew about Carol Lamm’s investigations of corruption at CIA? I kept hoping for – Ok you didn’t bother to discuss the “immigration issue” what conversations did you have with anyone about the corruption investigation?

Gone-zo’s response to anything incriminating, or that would lead towards the White House, was “I don’t remember”. He’s lying, but finally that is what led Shumer to give up on further questions.

TiredFed @ 63

raven @ 36

retirin’ in five @
14

TiredFed — with this BushCo global economy, the five is on hold. Four point one? I’m envious.

You guys are killin me, when you stay in school till you are frickin 50 it sort of sets back retirement! Look like the old soldiers home for my sorry ass.

“retirin” is more like getting out of jail fo rme. I will finally be able to do what I want, and it sure wont be sitting around in a rocking chair. I think of it as a second career – the fun one.

I took mine up front just in case I didn’t make it!

Stephen Parrish, CPA @ 32

I thought the DoJ got all these folks to resign; so the claim is that none of them was fired or “dismissed.” But it looks like constructive dismissal, as some of our attorney commenters have pointed out.

dmg @ 44

Georgesimian @ 29

I guess you’re right. But I really wish he had been challenged more on the papers that he has refused to turn over and the missing WH emails, which he basically said that if Congress wanted them, he would be of no help to them.

honestly, at that point in the hearing — with schumer giving up his time because as he noted there was no point — it felt like everyone in the chamber knew that gonzo was just some useless webkinz doll they took no sport in slapping around.
the repubs on the panel were more effective than the dems in showing how little gonzo is respected. and they know that they’re not gonna get any help from the department of obstruction of justice, so they’re going to have to either figure out another way to go about getting the info they want, or accept that this is just one more piece of unfinished busco business.

exactly. Let the republics do the dirty work. did you hear what Shumer said after the hearing? He said all but one mind was already made up that Gonzo had to go -and he actually named Hatch! would be nice to know there are more than enough votes to convict even before impeachment proceedings begin.

Don’t know what happened. my input came and went. Steve Bell cartoon on Guardian Unlimited is right on thread.You’ll like it.

It was right there sorree!!!

“Bush tells Pelosi Syria attacks were State Dept.’s fault. “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told colleagues yesterday that she was incredulous after President Bush pulled her aside at the end of a meeting Wednesday and told her he did not criticize her recent trip to Syria. After all, Bush and other senior administration officials and top Republicans had slammed the speaker publicly for meeting in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But in a private meeting with Democratic lawmakers yesterday, Pelosi said Bush told her in an unsolicited comment that it was actually the State Department that criticized her.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/…..pts-fault/

Delusion ain’t just a river in Egypt.

Er…um – I meant denial.

- Tom

Texas Betsy @ 57

Sally @
13

I see a similarity between the mental state of the VT murderer and the president in that people are aware of the sickness but nothing can, or will, be done legally to protect the public. This is not something I enjoy saying or thinking.

I have been thinking the same thing.

one’s a fish outta water
the other’s swimmin in oil

OT — Raven and TiredFed. “I think of it as a second career – the fun one.” Yes sir. Me too. Whatever it was I set out to be forty years ago, I doubt that it is what I am today.

Raven — three years, huh? Well, you RA mofo. You f**cked up, son. 3Apr67-2Apr69. US — and (gleefully) proud of it.

GWB honestly thinks God picked him out to lead our country. For a man with limited faculties (probably toasted by his drug use), it must be a terrible shock to have reality step so firmly into his delusion.

If he was a harmless local eccentric, I’d feely sympathy for him. His delusion has resulted in the deaths of thousands and thousands and thousands of people, as well as the ruin of our reputation and relationship with most other countries. God bless England, but even they’re running out of patience with us.

GWB is a weak and stupid man who has been run by amoral people.

Chetnolian @ 67

Don’t know what happened. my input came and went. Steve Bell cartoon on Guardian Unlimited is right on thread.You’ll like it.

It was right there sorree!!!

Is this the one you are talking about?

Scarecrow @
66

Stephen Parrish, CPA @ 32

I thought the DoJ got all these folks to resign; so the claim is that none of them was fired or “dismissed.” But it looks like constructive dismissal, as some of our attorney commenters have pointed out.

In a comment posted this week, someone else mentioned 5 USC 2302 in connection with prohibited personnel practices.

OT I just was watching the Imus replacement show on MSNBC and David Gregory had Mary Matalin on. She just totally owned him. My God, the problem with the MSM in one shot.

Did he ever fess up about Ari?

Cheney owns Russert, but it looks like Gregory as well.

retirin’ in five @ 71

OT — Raven and TiredFed. “I think of it as a second career – the fun one.” Yes sir. Me too. Whatever it was I set out to be forty years ago, I doubt that it is what I am today.

Raven — three years, huh? Well, you RA mofo. You f**cked up, son. 3Apr67-2Apr69. US — and (gleefully) proud of it.

The judge say, “son, you are going somewhere on your 17th birthday, what’s it gonna be?” “Got in a little home town jam, sent me off to Vietnam”! 11/10/66-9/3/69! And then I end up doin half my tour in a NG outfit from RI! Zin Loi mofo.

One word for Chimperor: Thorazine

kdh22 @ 77

One word for Chimperor: Thorazine

Got any xtra, this is a bum trip.

TomR @
69

“Bush tells Pelosi Syria attacks were State Dept.’s fault. “House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told colleagues yesterday that she was incredulous after President Bush pulled her aside at the end of a meeting Wednesday and told her he did not criticize her recent trip to Syria. After all, Bush and other senior administration officials and top Republicans had slammed the speaker publicly for meeting in Damascus with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. But in a private meeting with Democratic lawmakers yesterday, Pelosi said Bush told her in an unsolicited comment that it was actually the State Department that criticized her.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/…..pts-fault/

Delusion ain’t just a river in Egypt.

Er…um – I meant denial.

- Tom

I guess that means that Dana Perino works for Condi.

Stephen Parrish, CPA @ 48

TiredFed @ 6

I can certainly appreciate why Ms. Pelosi is keeping the impeachment issue off the table – she is 3rd in line. So it’s up to others – Conyers, Leahy, Waxman. I see Dennis Kucinich is jumping the gun, but dont we have enough on Cheney right now for treason?

TiredFed – please read John Marshall’s comments about what constitutes treason in his opinion rendered in 1807 in Ex parte Bollman.

gotcha. IANAL so treason may not be the right term (even tho it feels like it). will research more (thanks!) but this from Wiki:
That is, treason is essentially a “military” offense. For instance, no amount of anti-government speech can qualify as treason, although giving away military secrets might.
hmmm. methinks betraying a CIA agent’s identity sure sounds like it could fit the bill, tho maybe not for this SCOTUS.

kdh22- with a Haldol chaser ;)

retirin’ in five @ 71

OT — Raven and TiredFed. “I think of it as a second career – the fun one.” Yes sir. Me too. Whatever it was I set out to be forty years ago, I doubt that it is what I am today.

Raven — three years, huh? Well, you RA mofo. You f**cked up, son. 3Apr67-2Apr69. US — and (gleefully) proud of it.

You guys are more on topic than you think. I noticed again yesterday in reading the letter from a retired DOJ staffer. All these political inserts are notably young, just like Garner’s rabble in Iraq. What you have is a country being run by student politicians. I was a student politician. I’ll tell you what I understopod about the World back then; nothing, zero, nada, NOT A THING.They’re the same.Scary isn’t it?

raven @ 78

kdh22 @ 77

One word for Chimperor: Thorazine

Got any xtra, this is a bum trip.

Hey Raven – whazzzz up?

For the record, I gave up those activities years ago. So sorry, don’t have any at all much less extra. PEACE!

citizen k @ 61

Why do the Dems use these opportunities so reactively? Why not a focus on what Gonzo knew about Carol Lamm’s investigations of corruption at CIA? I kept hoping for – Ok you didn’t bother to discuss the “immigration issue” what conversations did you have with anyone about the corruption investigation?

There are two committees investigating DOJ, Leahy’s Senate Committee and Conyer’s House Committee. They have a division of labour. Abu G was hauled before Senate because they have the Constitutional advise and consent. Conyers and Waxman will be chasing down the other stuff.

What’s interesting to me is that a couple of weeks ago, already, they were saying that gonzales was doing very, very poorly in the preparatory meetings.

I gathered at the time they were trying to lower expectations.

But what amazed me was the guy’s inability to see where the questions were going, his failure to even take the life preservers being offered, his need to go on and on and make it worse and worse.

Clearly expectations for this guy cannot be lowered enough!!!

twolf1 @
73

Chetnolian @ 67

Don’t know what happened. my input came and went. Steve Bell cartoon on Guardian Unlimited is right on thread.You’ll like it.

It was right there sorree!!!

Is this the one you are talking about?

Thanks twolf1 —

Chetnolian — you’re right; that picture is worth 832 words, or so.

cleter @ 55

So…what time today do they announce that Gonzo collapsed in a weepy blubbery mess when Cheney slapped him and told him he had to go is resigning to spend more time with his family?

I say 5:00.

it is Friday after all.

cbl @ 81

kdh22- with a Haldol chaser ;)

Cocktails anyone?

dmg @ 60

retirin’ in five @ 54

OT — Raven and TiredFed — divorce in late thirties tends to push back one’s retirement, also.

Bush is certifiable. Great post, Scarecrow — as per usual.

and divorce in your 40s ends any notion of it at all.

will bite my tongue more oftener! have had 2 divorces in the family. can see how that might put a crimp on things.

For the record, I gave up those activities years ago. So sorry, don’t have any at all much less extra. PEACE!

Ha, me too. Totally clean and sober for 13 years. The scary thing about sobriety is that you remain fundamentally the same person you always were, just nothing to blame it on!

Tom Toles has an excellent cartoon about the Supreme Court decision on abortion: Toles

Funny, I saw a scary interview with Lynne Cheney (after all hell broke loose with Plame, Scooter and Whittington) and she said something very similiar: that history would be the judge. The Cheney/Bush “Lion in Winter” BS must be what they’re using at the WH to massage themselves with. (And of course there is always that everpresent X*n*x fairy ready to wave the wand.)

Scarecrow @
86
twolf1 @
73
Chetnolian @ 67
Don’t know what happened. my input came and went. Steve Bell cartoon on Guardian Unlimited is right on thread.You’ll like it.

It was right there sorree!!!
——

Is this the one you are talking about?
——

Thanks twolf1 —

Chetnolian — you’re right; that picture is worth 832 words, or so.

That’s it. Thanks twolf1

Hi, Fire-dog-lake-friends! Huge kudos to Christy and all the team for the wonderful job done on the live blog of the AG hearing: I can tell you that I haven’t seen anything so informing in the official news here in Italy in a long time. I wish there was a community like yours here I could use to get the same in depth information I get from you about the political situation of my country… I am afraid that we, as Italians , are at least 10 years behind the USA in this specific field … well so I know how I am going to spend the next 10 years worth of my spare time …

… By the way I have heard little or nothing about the hearings in the official Italian press… go figure… since the media have such “liberal bias” (…rolls eyes…) even here in Italy!

Coming to the specifics of the hearings it was really a dreadful performance the one the AG gave: whenever he did not hide himself behind the “I do not recall” and “I do not understand” sound-bites nearly every single senator who questioned him simply shredded him to pieces, democrats as well as republicans (I know, I know not for the same reason). I have really never seen such display of arrogance, incompetence and complete lack of honesty in a single interview.. and believe me considering the scandal ridden state of the Italian political landscape in the last … well 15 years at least… I have seen my fair share of crooks on the stand (for some “fun” google “Mani Pulite / Clean hands… worse political scandal to hit my country… sigh!!). I cannot really understand how anyone in the Republican party can even consider to stand behind this guy: it’s practically political suicide, no matter how much spin you place on it, how many time you bleater “Nothing inappropriate happened” the guy appears to be guilty as sin of political pandering in the administration of justice. And the typical conservative is supposed to swallow that and not complain: not a chance..
The only one that would get something from the fact that he sticks around is the president: with him around he has a nice expendable proxy where to unload all the blame for the upcoming corruption scandals that are surely coming to the light now that the political wind is finally shifting (just take a look at the last two FBI raids…)

If the GOP was honest (!!) enough to ask Nixon, who was the president, to go, how could they possibly spare a small time player like Gonzalez, with the prospect of being clobbered in the 2008 elections with his incompetence and corruption ? I can understand (in a manner of speaking) that lizard brains like Cheney and Bush really do not give a **it about the future, happy as they are of having screwed up half of the world and most of the USA, but should I really believe that the people in charge of the GOP cannot see the sound defeat that waits ahead if they do not change the image the public have of them? One really has to wonder if they sucked up some some heavy drugs with their kool aid..

Ok, I have used enough of your space keep up the good work !

P.s: As usual I ask the “grammar police” to be merciful with this Italian trying to express himself in a language that is not his..

P.s.s: I want to send my most heart felt compliments to the great “firepup” SnarKassandra (aka Cassie): it is a heart moving experience for me to see someone as young as you are being able to meaningfully participate to a community like the one of Firedoglake.com. It has been a depressing experience to see how low is the average self consciousness of the people of your age, no little of it due to the constant bashing of the media that start working on transforming young people into brainless zombies from the moment they are born. You are the living proof that with the right contribution (kudos to Aunt Texas Betsie !) no matter how difficult is the starting point (and I understand that yours was really a difficult one due to problems in you family) one can still be a striking human being as the one you are sure to grow up into…

If anyone sees (reads?) her during the day when I will be soundly asleep please pass my compliments along to her … Hat off to young SnarKassandra!

And so it goes..
(Kurt I really,really miss you…)

raven @ 90

For the record, I gave up those activities years ago. So sorry, don’t have any at all much less extra. PEACE!

Ha, me too. Totally clean and sober for 13 years. The scary thing about sobriety is that you remain fundamentally the same person you always were, just nothing to blame it on!

Or you can change into a person that doesn’t need to blame quite so much on anything.

Or you can change into a person that doesn’t need to blame quite so much on anything.

Or die tryin.

raven @ 90

For the record, I gave up those activities years ago. So sorry, don’t have any at all much less extra. PEACE!

Ha, me too. Totally clean and sober for 13 years. The scary thing about sobriety is that you remain fundamentally the same person you always were, just nothing to blame it on!

Growing up is hard to do, huh? I have no regrets. Learned a sh*tload from those days!

Scarecrow,

You are certainly right about the NYT’s editorial -
Mr. Gonzales came across as a dull-witted apparatchik incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch.

Twisted Martini @ 10

So the $64,000 question is what’s gonna happen next? Gonzales went up and made an ass of himself, so what? The WH has never responded to outside pressure, and i don’t think they will now. The Dems need to continue to rachet up the pressure by impeaching Gonzales.

And I almost fell over yesterday when the dude on KO said the Dems will cave on the deadline for withdrawl. Talking about it as if it is inevitable. They can’t be that cowardly can they?

betcha diane feinstein isn’t the only democrat making wads of cash off the war…

BillE @
75

OT I just was watching the Imus replacement show on MSNBC and David Gregory had Mary Matalin on. She just totally owned him. My God, the problem with the MSM in one shot.

Did he ever fess up about Ari?

Cheney owns Russert, but it looks like Gregory as well.

morning firepups! scarecrow! Bill, i was watching gregory and matalin while i was on the treadmill, which is why i am late to this discussion. arrrgh! can you believe how at the end, gregory looked stricken and said, “you seem irritated at me,” (translation i’m sorry, i didn’t mean to irritate you) and she patted him on the cheek. WTF?

Growing up is hard to do, huh? I have no regrets. Learned a sh*tload from those days!

Don’t look back, they might be gainin’ on you.

twolf1 @ 73

Chetnolian @ 67
Don’t know what happened. my input came and went. Steve Bell cartoon on Guardian Unlimited is right on thread.You’ll like it.

It was right there sorree!!!
——

Is this the one you are talking about?

that is simply stunning. what an amazing piece of cartoonializing!

raven @ 101

Growing up is hard to do, huh? I have no regrets. Learned a sh*tload from those days!

Don’t look back, they might be gainin’ on you.

I keep a club handy to beat ‘em back when I hear ‘em comin’.

kimba1970 @ 94

Hi, Fire-dog-lake-friends! Huge kudos to Christy and all the team for the wonderful job done on the live blog of the AG hearing: I can tell you that I haven’t seen anything so informing in the official news here in Italy in a long time. I wish there was a community like yours here I could use to get the same in depth information I get from you about the political situation of my country… I am afraid that we, as Italians , are at least 10 years behind the USA in this specific field … well so I know how I am going to spend the next 10 years worth of my spare time …

… By the way I have heard little or nothing about the hearings in the official Italian press… go figure… since the media have such “liberal bias” (…rolls eyes…) even here in Italy!

Coming to the specifics of the hearings it was really a dreadful performance the one the AG gave: whenever he did not hide himself behind the “I do not recall” and “I do not understand” sound-bites nearly every single senator who questioned him simply shredded him to pieces, democrats as well as republicans (I know, I know not for the same reason). I have really never seen such display of arrogance, incompetence and complete lack of honesty in a single interview.. and believe me considering the scandal ridden state of the Italian political landscape in the last … well 15 years at least… I have seen my fair share of crooks on the stand (for some “fun” google “Mani Pulite / Clean hands… worse political scandal to hit my country… sigh!!). I cannot really understand how anyone in the Republican party can even consider to stand behind this guy: it’s practically political suicide, no matter how much spin you place on it, how many time you bleater “Nothing inappropriate happened” the guy appears to be guilty as sin of political pandering in the administration of justice. And the typical conservative is supposed to swallow that and not complain: not a chance..
The only one that would get something from the fact that he sticks around is the president: with him around he has a nice expendable proxy where to unload all the blame for the upcoming corruption scandals that are surely coming to the light now that the political wind is finally shifting (just take a look at the last two FBI raids…)

If the GOP was honest (!!) enough to ask Nixon, who was the president, to go, how could they possibly spare a small time player like Gonzalez, with the prospect of being clobbered in the 2008 elections with his incompetence and corruption ? I can understand (in a manner of speaking) that lizard brains like Cheney and Bush really do not give a **it about the future, happy as they are of having screwed up half of the world and most of the USA, but should I really believe that the people in charge of the GOP cannot see the sound defeat that waits ahead if they do not change the image the public have of them? One really has to wonder if they sucked up some some heavy drugs with their kool aid..

Ok, I have used enough of your space keep up the good work !

P.s: As usual I ask the “grammar police” to be merciful with this Italian trying to express himself in a language that is not his..

P.s.s: I want to send my most heart felt compliments to the great “firepup” SnarKassandra (aka Cassie): it is a heart moving experience for me to see someone as young as you are being able to meaningfully participate to a community like the one of Firedoglake.com. It has been a depressing experience to see how low is the average self consciousness of the people of your age, no little of it due to the constant bashing of the media that start working on transforming young people into brainless zombies from the moment they are born. You are the living proof that with the right contribution (kudos to Aunt Texas Betsie !) no matter how difficult is the starting point (and I understand that yours was really a difficult one due to problems in you family) one can still be a striking human being as the one you are sure to grow up into…

If anyone sees (reads?) her during the day when I will be soundly asleep please pass my compliments along to her … Hat off to young SnarKassandra!

And so it goes..
(Kurt I really,really miss you…)

bon giorno Kimba. you must tell us where you are en Italia. Have been many times and plan to live there part time. IMO, the most beautiful country in world (he says, ducking quickly).

bush never went to therapy – so even “on the couch” – so to speak – his thoughts are random.

But clearly his thoughts are going in the direction of “the end is near” – and “even Laura is losing patience.” (my interpretation, of course)

of course there are similarities between vietnam and iraq.

i and a.

get it?

language. see, a decider has to know about language. because you expect me to communicate.

Kind of o/t, but…

Paul Wolfowitz failed to appear at a high-profile World Bank meeting yesterday, sparking rumours that he was on the verge of quitting as president.

Twisted Martini @ 10

And I almost fell over yesterday when the dude on KO said the Dems will cave on the deadline for withdrawl. Talking about it as if it is inevitable. They can’t be that cowardly can they?

That’s Richard Wolffe from Newsweek. They ALWAYS have him on, and he ALWAYS repeats the same meme. I want to throttle him.

Oh. My. God.

He’s lost his mind.

AZ Matt @ 98

Scarecrow,

You are certainly right about the NYT’s editorial -
Mr. Gonzales came across as a dull-witted apparatchik incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch.

We uncivil bloggers would have said, “Gonzales is a dull-witted apparatchik . . . “

Broder would say, “some are unfairly implying that Gonzales comes across as . . .”

George Will would say, “At times, there were uncomfortable parallels to . . .”

Pat Roberts’ grads would say, “Why is everyone being so mean to our righteous General?”

And so on.

TheraP @ 105

bush never went to therapy – so even “on the couch” – so to speak – his thoughts are random.

But clearly his thoughts are going in the direction of “the end is near” – and “even Laura is losing patience.” (my interpretation, of course)

Are you licensed to prescribe? Some of us here think he needs a pharmaceutical intervention.

Mauimom @ 108

Twisted Martini @ 10

And I almost fell over yesterday when the dude on KO said the Dems will cave on the deadline for withdrawl. Talking about it as if it is inevitable. They can’t be that cowardly can they?

That’s Richard Wolffe from Newsweek. They ALWAYS have him on, and he ALWAYS repeats the same meme. I want to throttle him.

Why can’t they be emboldened by their victories yesterday?

DirtyEffingHippie @ 109

Oh. My. God.

He’s lost his mind.

He had a mind to lose?

Scarecrow @ 110

AZ Matt @ 98

Scarecrow,

You are certainly right about the NYT’s editorial -
Mr. Gonzales came across as a dull-witted apparatchik incapable of running one of the most important departments in the executive branch.

We uncivil bloggers would have said, “Gonzales is a dull-witted apparatchik . . . “

Broder would say, “some are unfairly implying that Gonzales comes across as . . .”

George Will would say, “At times, there were uncomfortable parallels to . . .”

Pat Roberts’ grads would say, “Why is everyone being so mean to our righteous General?”

And so on.

Very nice!

raven @
90

For the record, I gave up those activities years ago. So sorry, don’t have any at all much less extra. PEACE!

Ha, me too. Totally clean and sober for 13 years. The scary thing about sobriety is that you remain fundamentally the same person you always were, just nothing to blame it on!

Clas of ‘93, hein! We are a fantastic vintage!

Buon Giorno TiredFred,

I live in Udine a small city in the north east of Italy, about 1 and 1/2 hour from Venice, the border with Austria and Slovenia respectively.

As for being the most beautiful country in the world … of course I have a bias on the matter …

;-P

As far as Bush goes, it must be tough to watch your empire crumble, to watch everything you built fall down because of crappy construction, to be wrong about everything. Like a bad gambler, he blames the cards, the other players, anyone but himself and yet, he keeps making the decisions to throw more money into the pot.

I’ve become a Gonzoholic and I’ve got to get back to work. Let’s hope for, at the very least, continuing subpeonas and Democrats with spines, even if these spines are formed from their strong poll numbers.

whatever one says or thinks about bush i am quite sure he is good at ‘acting’ a certain way.
he can tailor the ‘guy you wanna have a beer with’ nonsense to his audience.

yesterday’s performance was the ‘i gotta share my heart with you’ meme.

did the audience buy it? everything is a stalling game for him until he gets the blackwater troops around the white house.

MICHAEL BESCHLOSS: I guess I probably see it a little bit differently, because if you look at Vietnam, the escalation in Vietnam began in a big way in 1964, ‘65. The big demonstrations against the war began in ‘67.

The polls began to turn. The American people turned against the war in a big way, but, despite all of this, it took Congress until 1970 to vote on something called the McGovern-Hatfield resolution, which would end the Vietnam war by the end of 1970. It failed miserably, didn’t pass.

And the reason it didn’t — this has a big resonance now in 2007 — is President Nixon at the time framed the argument in terms of, “You know, you guys want to vote for this resolution? Go ahead. But you will be putting the American men and women who are in Vietnam, in Southeast Asia, in harm’s way. You’ll be doing something that many people almost consider almost treasonous.”

And in a debate like this, it’s very hard to get people to vote for something like that. We’ve seen very much the same thing in recent months.

In reply to Knut Wicksell @ 84

To me it seems like poor marketing. Obviously, this hearing is substantively futile – your witness is a moronic prevaricator who appears to believe (and may be right) that he can lie with impunity. So there is no question of actual oversight – the only possible utility is to use the opportunity to weaken the President’s political clout and to wedge the Republican congress. So this is the opportunity to make the case that both the administration is run unfairly and incompetently and also tha there is a terrible corruption that is being covered up.

Those quotes were from THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!! He can’t even put together a coherent thought. Ugh.

Clas of ‘93, hein! We are a fantastic vintage!

is that 1993?

Thanks Maui Mom, I am relatively new to KO’s show, having only recently let MSNBC pass the wingnut filter on my TV.

kdh @ 111:

No prescribing ability. Wouldn’t want that either.

There’s no cure for narcissism via medication anyway.

Basically you have a falling-apart narcissist. And he’ll just have to detox from himself – on his own!

raven @ 122

Clas of ‘93, hein! We are a fantastic vintage!

is that 1993?

I know I am old, Raven…….. but! Yes indeed, 1993!

OT to Raven — “The big demonstrations against the war began in ‘67.” October ‘67. The Pentagon. On the roof of one of the three DOD buildings nearby. PFC in Class A’s, trousers bloused in boots, helmet liners, pistol belt, M-14 slung.

kimba1970 @ 116

Buon Giorno TiredFred,

I live in Udine a small city in the north east of Italy, about 1 and 1/2 hour from Venice, the border with Austria and Slovenia respectively.

As for being the most beautiful country in the world … of course I have a bias on the matter …

;-P

so you are between Venezia and Trieste, no? wonderful. my wife loves Firenze, but Venezia is my favorite. well, Rome is hard to top. but the food… dont get me started. methinks this may be the start of a beautiful friendship.

retirin’ in five @ 126

OT to Raven — “The big demonstrations against the war began in ‘67.” October ‘67. The Pentagon. On the roof of one of the three DOD buildings nearby. PFC in Class A’s, trousers bloused in boots, helmet liners, pistol belt, M-14 slung.

Flower in the barrel? Have you read, “They Marched into Sunlight” about the 1st ID “Black Lions” and the demonstrations in Madison that month? Great read. I was in Korea then, same M-14 but no class A’s!

TiredFed

If you need any info on what’s going around here you can count on me..

P.s. I have mistyped Texas Betsy name in my post, please accept my humble apologies and let me reiterate … Kudos to Aunt Betsy and SnarKassandra !

selise @
47

Stephen Parrish, CPA @ 32

To what extent was the President involved with dismissal of the United States attorneys?

did you-all hear any kind of answer to this yesterday?

Did you catch Schumer’s followup comments with reporters at the end of the hearing over CSPAN’s open mic?

He said all tracks lead to the White House. I think they already know, they just weren’t going to bother with Abu G. to make the case. Bet you Sampson’s private session with them clinched it; Whitehouse’s charts yesterday made it very, VERY clear that they already have documented the entire audit trail between the two entities, DOJ and WH.

Hi Everyone,

I have time to read you in the morning because of school vacation. Yesterday was an amazing trip. I spent some time at gaggly…goo…gabbly and the experience was hysterical, ice water in the face, uneffingbelievable.

Scarecrow, For those of us who know about and recognize mental illness, these last few days have been like the elevator ride I took with the group in Ward 3 whose turn it was to go to the gazebo and smoke. My sister and I stepped on as an unseen attendant unlocked a door and ten people backed us up. The door closed and someone started screaming “Stop touching me..” I held my breath for the ride down.

I work with some disturbed kids and I can’t get them the help they need.

This is an epidemic. Hold your breath.

What is so encouraging about FDL is that I know I am among those who can hold it together with their eyes open. raven, TiredFed, Scarecrow, GSD, so many of you.

GSD, please let me know when you are performing. You’re like my husband making me laugh during labor; agony, infuriating and then… a laugh.

TheraP @ 124

kdh @ 111:

No prescribing ability. Wouldn’t want that either.

There’s no cure for narcissism via medication anyway.

Basically you have a falling-apart narcissist. And he’ll just have to detox from himself – on his own!

Point taken, TherP. Don’t ever see him doing the hard work. Maybe clearing brush is his first baby step.

Good morning from L.A.

Reading the Bush musings from Ohio doesn’t change in any way my opinion of him since he first came to my attention as gov. of Texas-

A Spoiled, Arrogant, Lazy Rich Boy.
Wishes someone would carry him from room to room because everything in life, except his own selfish pleasures, is such hard work…

Mr. Gonzales was even unable to say who compiled the list of federal attorneys slated for firing. The man he appointed to conduct the purge, Kyle Sampson, said he had not created the list. The former head of the office that supervises the federal prosecutors, Michael Battle, said he didn’t do it, as did William Mercer, the acting associate attorney general.

Mr. Gonzales said he did not know why the eight had been on the list when it was given to him, that it had not been accompanied by any written analysis and that he had just assumed it reflected a consensus of the senior leaders of his department. At one point, Mr. Gonzales even claimed that he could not remember how the Justice Department had come to submit an amendment to the Patriot Act that allowed him to fire United States attorneys and replace them without Senate confirmation. The Senate voted to revoke that power after the current scandal broke.

At the end of the day, we were left wondering why the nation’s chief law-enforcement officer would paint himself as a bumbling fool. Perhaps it’s because the alternative is that he is not telling the truth. There is strong evidence that this purge was directed from the White House, and that Karl Rove, Mr. Bush’s top political adviser, and Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, were deeply involved.

Gonzales v. Gonzales
Editorial NYT

Boston1775 @ 131

Hi Everyone,

I have time to read you in the morning because of school vacation. Yesterday was an amazing trip. I spent some time at gaggly…goo…gabbly and the experience was hysterical, ice water in the face, uneffingbelievable.

Scarecrow, For those of us who know about and recognize mental illness, these last few days have been like the elevator ride I took with the group in Ward 3 whose turn it was to go to the gazebo and smoke. My sister and I stepped on as an unseen attendant unlocked a door and ten people backed us up. The door closed and someone started screaming “Stop touching me..” I held my breath for the ride down.

I work with some disturbed kids and I can’t get them the help they need.

This is an epidemic. Hold your breath.

What is so encouraging about FDL is that I know I am among those who can hold it together with their eyes open. raven, TiredFed, Scarecrow, GSD, so many of you.

GSD, please let me know when you are performing. You’re like my husband making me laugh during labor; agony, infuriating and then… a laugh.

ah yes, April vacation. enjoy the rest. hope spring finally catches up to you.

George W. Bush is NOT mentally ill. If he was convicted of a crime, he would easily pass all psych tests. He may be stressed out, but that’s not really the same thing. He has delusions of grandeur, but I’m not sure if that really applies when you actually are the President of the USA.

kimba1970 @ 116

Grazie per unirli nella conversazione, Kimba.

Yes, your press is not unlike ours, with many thanks to that fasciste, Berlusconi; I wish for you as much for Americans that Italy will acquire a free and vibrant press some day. But it may have to begin with you just as it begins here in our blogging.

Arnie @ 33

Thank you for the painful but much needed reminder. I continue to look for offshore investment opportunities.

This pathetic goon really thinks he can go on: now he is building a Berlin/Cyprus/Palestine wall in Baghdad.

We do need to watch out — the Blackwater joke upstairs may not be a joke. Everyone rwding about this private army of Bush/Cheney? Doesn’t the Patriot Act have a wee clause in it that says Bush can “postpone” the presidential election if there is a “military necessity”! Blackwater is indeed be the “SS Leibstandarte Division”.

Now is the time for every single elected Democrat to understand there is a single issue requiring every little opinion and agendum to be subordinate to the destruction of this Administration, now, for the good of the UJS today, and more important, for the US of tomorrow. Handled well they can get enough senatorial GOPers to go with them.

Rayne@130 I also thought Whitehouse was fabulous. I have a question about his chart of contacts between the Bush white house and the DOJ. Do we know how Whitehouse knows about all these contacts? Is it based on e-mail records?

Stephen Parrish, CPA @ 32

Scarecrow -

Good morning – as we review yesterday’s Senate Judiciary Committee proceedings and comments in yesterday’s FDL threads about Alberto Gonzales’ testimony, I wanted to mention a United States Code section that has been discussed in recent weeks on FDL threads:

28 USC 541

(a) The President shall appoint, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a United States attorney for each judicial district.

(b) Each United States attorney shall be appointed for a term of four years. On the expiration of his term, a United States attorney shall continue to perform the duties of his office until his successor is appointed and qualifies.

(c) Each United States attorney is subject to removal by the President. (My emphasis)

In light of yesterday’s testimony, let us retrace our steps and ask the following questions: (1) To what extent was the President involved with dismissal of the United States attorneys? (2) Does 28 USC 541 or a related statute or regulation give the President the authority to delegate removal of a United States attorney to someone else? (3) Did the Patriot Act amend the wording of any of the subsections of 28 USC 541?

good one. have been waiting for someone to release the memo that delegates the authority to the AG and points south. nothing yet. so, were these folks really fired? or can they just show up for work on Monday? (in a prior thread weeks ago, someone suggested they show up and tell the a$$hole to get out of their chair!)

Real job qualification for Bush:Chicken plucker in Chief. He’s dissembling and sinking fast. A mental health professional should intervene post haste.

Did you catch Schumer’s followup comments with reporters at the end of the hearing over CSPAN’s open mic?

Rayne and Firedogs -

last night someone commented Schumer had also been overheard alluding to the Indian Affairs Committee docs – can anyone else confirm that ??

After watching the Gonz grilling again last night, it was remarkable how downright astute his very “studied” recitations seemed (with dates, times, specifics) to questions fed by Republics, compared to his glib homma-homna-homma answers to Dems’ Qs, to which he probably had no prior access.
The giant pachyderm in the living room – the partisan actions of the rest of bu$hCo’s USA appointments – remains.

Georgesimian @ 136

George W. Bush is NOT mentally ill. If he was convicted of a crime, he would easily pass all psych tests. He may be stressed out, but that’s not really the same thing. He has delusions of grandeur, but I’m not sure if that really applies when you actually are the President of the USA.

You’re probably right. Many in the US do not acknowledge nor accept mentally illness or fraility. To many it is a sign of weakness and we all know how weakness of any kind is viewed here. I appauld all those who work in the field of mental health. You are saints.

Twisted Martini @ 123

Thanks Maui Mom, I am relatively new to KO’s show, having only recently let MSNBC pass the wingnut filter on my TV.

You’re welcome. KO is about the only MSNBC program I let through the wingnut filter on my teevee. [Unless I’m really hungering for “To Catch a Predator.”]

It’s clear that MSNBC/NBC has a “stable” of commentators that they use. Some, like Jonathan Turley, Con. Law Professor @ Georgetown, are quite good. Others, like Wolffe are crap.

While David Shuster did a pretty good job during the Libby trial, it would have been better if a) he’d confessed he’d cheated off Marcy’s answer sheet; and b) he insisted they put her on in his place.

KO seems pretty good, and pretty smart, and having the advantage of committing a full 5 min or so to a story is a contrast to the MSM “drive-by” reporting.

KO was particularly pointed last night in his reminder of the shopping list of Republican “dog ate my homework” incidents: doc’s re the treatment of Padilla, levy plans for NO, records re Bush’s alleged service in the TX Nat’l Guard, plus the many related to the current legal proceedings.

This is a point that should be repeated again and again: these guys are sneaky bastards who not only lie but also hide anything that might expose the truth. They are dangerous.

It’s fascinating to watch Bush and his advisors, who are every bit as fucked up as he is, gleefully flooring the accelerator as they aim the car at the bridge abutment.

They are destroying themselves and everything they stand for, as thoroughly and utterly as if George Soros and Hugo Chavez were beaming signals into their brains. They’re Louis XVI, Prince Metternich, Tsar Nicholas and Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu all rolled into one, with about two dozen IQ points subtracted.

Georgesimian @ 12

Gonzo said something at the end of his testimony that I find really troubling (besides, all the rest of it). He said something to the effect of, if there was a crime committed in the DOJ, the burden of proof is on Congress. That’s basically a challenge. The Senators response was lame, saying that a higher level of justice was expected from the AG, rather than calling him on the fact that he has been witholding evidence.

But my point is, that when Gonzo says this, or when Cheney says that Iraq is going well, or when Bush says I’m keeping Gonzo and I’m vetoing the Iraq spending bill, they are basically saying “come on, bring it. If you think you can do something, do it. Otherwise, fuck you. I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing.” At some stage, someone has to call them on this stuff, or it’s going to keep happening.

The closer they get to being caught in corruption and law breaking the more challenges they’ll make. It’s Hubris.

You fail to see its also an acknowledgemnt. These guys don’t know if they’ll came out scott free. The lawyers are keeping them out of jail but that can last only so long. It’s hammer time.

Mae @ 139

Rayne@130 I also thought Whitehouse was fabulous. I have a question about his chart of contacts between the Bush white house and the DOJ. Do we know how Whitehouse knows about all these contacts? Is it based on e-mail records?

I suspect that’s the case, easiest method to document the trail. And I suspect they may have used not only the emails provided in the doc dump related to the USA’s, but perhaps the Abramoff scandal as well, since Waxman had all those emails. Dollars to donuts, I’ll bet you that Karl Rove was intently reviewing that same set of charts yesterday to make that same assessment.

There is some very deep politik going on in the background, and I don’t know that some of the questions that didn’t get asked or pushed were really because 1) the SJC already knows the answers, and 2) they are giving the White House a subtle tell to let them know this, for the benefit not of the White House, but to provide cover for the Republicans who are moving away from Bush. It is much easier to court needed votes from Republican Senators on key issues if they believe they not only cannot side with the White House, but that the Dem Senators have been fair with them. What vote, you might ask? How about Abu’s impeachment — for starters.

Remembering final months of Nixon’s presidency when his mental defects were perfectly obvious, tearing my hair out that such a man could remain in office. Deja vu.

For the future, the Monica Goodlings are very young. They’ll be around for a long time & will pop up over & over again. We much keep track of all those Liberty U., Messiah U., Regents U graduates & bang ‘em down with a mallet every time they pop up. Shoulda done it with Cheney, Rummy, Wolfie et al. Let’s not make the mistake again.

Stephen Parrish, CPA @ 49

TiredFed @ 6

I can certainly appreciate why Ms. Pelosi is keeping the impeachment issue off the table – she is 3rd in line. So it’s up to others – Conyers, Leahy, Waxman. I see Dennis Kucinich is jumping the gun, but dont we have enough on Cheney right now for treason?

TiredFed – please read John Marshall’s comments about what constitutes treason in his opinion rendered in 1807 in Ex parte Bollman.

ok. so here’s a particularly long reply, but maybe there are some Constitutional Law scholars out there who can address it:

Justice Marshall’s comments on the Ex Parte Bollman decision (involving Aaron Burr and James Wilkinson in a plot to overthrow the govt):

‘Treason against the United States shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort.’ “To constitute that specific crime for which the prisoners now before the court have been committed, war must be actually levied against the United States. However flagitious may be the crime of conspiring to subvert by force the government of our country, such conspiracy is not treason. To conspire to levy war, and actually to levy war, the distinct offences. The first must be brought into operation by the assemblage of men for a purpose treasonable in itself, or the fact of levying war cannot have been committed.”
(snip)
“It is not the intention of the court to say that no individual can be guilty of this crime who has not appeared in arms against his county. On the contrary, if war be actually levied, that is, if a body of men be actually assembled for the purpose of effecting by force a treasonable purpose, all those who perform any part, however minute, or however remote from the scene of action, and who are actually leagued in the general conspiracy, are to be considered as traitors. But there must be an actual assembling of men for the treasonable purpose, to constitute a levying of war.”
My bold. Source: Wikipedia.

In this case, the conspirators were planning to go to war, but had not taken concrete enough actions to constitute treason. Cheney, on the other hand, took concrete actions to expose the identity of a covert CIA agent’s identity (aid and comfort). So the question for you Con Law geeks, does betraying a CIA agent’s identity to the enemy (whoever that may be) constitute treason? Please discuss.

Phoenix Woman @ 146

It’s fascinating to watch Bush and his advisors, who are every bit as fucked up as he is, gleefully flooring the accelerator as they aim the car at the bridge abutment.

They are destroying themselves and everything they stand for, as thoroughly and utterly as if George Soros and Hugo Chavez were beaming signals into their brains. They’re Louis XVI, Prince Metternich, Tsar Nicholas and Madame Ngo Dinh Nhu all rolled into one, with about two dozen IQ points subtracted.

Interesting to watch the WH leakers undercutting Gonzales every other day — “hint, hint, please resign, because you’re embarrassing us and keeping the spot light on us and you need to do this because the Decider never makes these decisions. So please resign. Hint, Hint.”

Mauimom @ 108

Twisted Martini @ 10

And I almost fell over yesterday when the dude on KO said the Dems will cave on the deadline for withdrawl. Talking about it as if it is inevitable. They can’t be that cowardly can they?

That’s Richard Wolffe from Newsweek. They ALWAYS have him on, and he ALWAYS repeats the same meme. I want to throttle him.

He seemed so palpably angry on Olbermann last night…at the Democrats for giving Abu such a hard time.

TiredFed, I have beautiful sungold tomato and basil seedlings in my sunroom; lettuce, radishes, spinach, and more are growing in an old glass greenhouse. I love spring in New England.

TiredFed @ 127

kimba1970 @ 116

Buon Giorno TiredFred,

I live in Udine a small city in the north east of Italy, about 1 and 1/2 hour from Venice, the border with Austria and Slovenia respectively.

As for being the most beautiful country in the world … of course I have a bias on the matter …

;-P

so you are between Venezia and Trieste, no? wonderful. my wife loves Firenze, but Venezia is my favorite. well, Rome is hard to top. but the food… dont get me started. methinks this may be the start of a beautiful friendship.

You’re not far from Vicenza, are you? I’d so love to go there and see all of Palladia’s buildings.

cbl @ 142

Did you catch Schumer’s followup comments with reporters at the end of the hearing over CSPAN’s open mic?

Rayne and Firedogs -

last night someone commented Schumer had also been overheard alluding to the Indian Affairs Committee docs – can anyone else confirm that ??

Oooh…I missed that one!! Bet you emptywheel didn’t though. I’ll have to go back to each of the breaks and the end of the hearing in the videocast at CSPAN to see if I can catch that.

Would dovetail into the population of documents they have to build Whitehouse’s chart.

Good gravy, with a chart like that if built on not only the USA dismissal doc dump but Abramoff and BIA docs, you must realize they are very close to showing RICO.

Be still, my heart!!

Notwithstanding the annoying scandals, not much has changed to justify the huge shift in public perception of the war.

Even with all the terrorism, Iraq’s total death rate is lower than America’s. All those fat, older Americans die faster than shoppers in Baghdad.

If a war with fewer than 4000 dead soldiers is lost, no future war is winnable (although maybe that’s not such a bad thing).

I’ve long held that being an asshole should be an impeachable offense. Well guess what. That’s exactly what our founding fathers had in mind. Here’s an excerpt from a book on the matter:

For more than six hundred years, “high crimes and misdemeanors” has referred exclusively to conduct requiring impeachment. […] An impeachment conviction in the Senate merely removes a statesman from his office of “honor, trust, or profit” with the United States. The criminal law is for personal punishment; impeachment is for keeping statesmen virtuous.

[…]

As Supreme Court Justice Joseph Story wrote in his great Commentaries on the Constitution, it is not only “crimes of a strictly legal character” that are impeachable offenses, but also political offenses, growing out of “personal misconduct . . . so various” that they “must be examined upon very broad and comprehensive principles of public policy and duty.”

So, a “high misdemeanor” refers not, as it is commonly construed, to a criminal offense just short of a felony, but to simple misbehavior — bad demeanor, if you will. As the Rodino Report during the Watergate investigation explained, “From the comments of the Framers and their contemporaries, the remarks of delegates to the state ratifying conventions, and the removal-power debate in the First Congress, it is apparent that the scope of impeachment was not viewed narrowly.” Instead, impeachment has always been viewed as –among other things — a guarantee of the moral behavior of public officials.

[…]

It is exactly this understanding of impeachment that underlies the phrase used in Article I of the Constitution. James Madison said the “first aim” of the Constitution was to ensure that men with the “most virtue” would become the nation’s rulers. The Constitution’s impeachment power was for “keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.” Or as Alexander Hamilton put it, “Men, in public trust, will much oftener act in such a manner as to render them unworthy of being any longer trusted than in such a manner as to make them obnoxious to legal punishment.”

[…]

Having just fought a war to get rid of a king, the framers had “the perfidity of the chief magistrate” clearly in their sights when they included broad grounds for impeachment. They discussed the Constitution’s impeachment power in terms of removing a President who “misbehaves” or “behave[s] amiss,” as two of the delegates put it. Madison wrote that impeachment was meant to remove Presidents for “incapacity, negligence, or perfidity.”

BTW, the above was written by Ann Coulter, when she was making the case for impeachment of Clinton. But what Ann wrote on the “high crimes and misdemeanors” squares with what I found in the Wikipedia on the matter, e.g.:

High Misdemeanor is an archaic term in English Law for a number of positive misprisions, neglects and contempts. The most important example being that of maladministration in high office. [emphais added]

[…]

Maladministration is a political term which describes the actions of a government body which can be seen as causing an injustice … and can include:

* Delay
* Incorrect action or failure to take any action
* Failure to follow procedures or the law
* Failure to provide information
* Inadequate record-keeping
* Failure to investigate
* Failure to reply
* Misleading or inaccurate statements
* Inadequate liaison
* Inadequate consultation
* Broken promises

retirin’ in five @ 7

Aren’t we approaching Captain Queeq levels of mental illness here?

Perhaps more along the lines of Caligula, mebbe? I can sorta see him appointing Barney as a political advisor at this point.

Anyone hear about the Rove’s public comment (yesterday, I think?) to the effect that “I wish the war had never happened. I wish it would just go away”?

Excellent post, scarecrow, about the msm still asleep at the wheel here, with the exception of KO. Can’t wait to see how they’ll spin the impeachment proceedings, or will they just finally cave in to the facts?

Listening to CSPAN “Republicans Only” call-in this morning on the Gonzalez hearing this morning and with the exception of few people who are still whining about being victimized by Dems (same mantra as when Repubs controlled both the WH & Congress, so no surprise there), most of the Republican callers appeared to be for his resignation.

Rayne @ 148. Thanks so much for the insight. I am really hoping that you are correct that the Dems have a thoughtful plan with all of this. I was also interested in a comment above about the probable division of labor between House Judiciary and Senate Judiciary.

Rayne,

Il piacere e’ tutto mio (The pleasure is all mine).

You are right the Italian media and government has been despicable in the last 6 years as much as the one that is plaguing the USA nowadays…

We got Berlusconi out of power but not before he maimed the electoral law and procedures.. As a result of his tricks our Senate is nearly unmanageable due to a razor thin majority… A sad story I will no bother you with today..

Rayne – am ripping through Tivo now :)

artfay @ 146

Georgesimian @ 12

Gonzo said something at the end of his testimony that I find really troubling (besides, all the rest of it). He said something to the effect of, if there was a crime committed in the DOJ, the burden of proof is on Congress. That’s basically a challenge. The Senators response was lame, saying that a higher level of justice was expected from the AG, rather than calling him on the fact that he has been witholding evidence.

But my point is, that when Gonzo says this, or when Cheney says that Iraq is going well, or when Bush says I’m keeping Gonzo and I’m vetoing the Iraq spending bill, they are basically saying “come on, bring it. If you think you can do something, do it. Otherwise, fuck you. I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing.” At some stage, someone has to call them on this stuff, or it’s going to keep happening.

The closer they get to being caught in corruption and law breaking the more challenges they’ll make. It’s Hubris.

You fail to see its also an acknowledgemnt. These guys don’t know if they’ll came out scott free. The lawyers are keeping them out of jail but that can last only so long. It’s hammer time.

No. I DO see that it’s an acknowedgement. That’s what’s scary. They are saying, we did it, what are you going to do about it? And they are acting like there’s nothing that anyone can do about it.

This from Think Progress this morning:

The U.S. military is constructing a 3-mile-long concrete wall in Baghdad “to cut off one of the capital’s most restive Sunni Arab districts from the Shiite Muslim neighborhoods that surround it, raising concern about the further Balkanization of Iraq’s most populous and violent city.”

I assume lots of people are old enough to remember the Berlin Wall. Well, if there is any indication that we are in the middle of a civil war, and have two ideological extremes – Sunni and Shiite – who have hated each other for 1,300 years…

What, exactly, do we hope to accomplish that is in America’s best interests by sitting on a wall between two fanatical religious sects? What?

now is the least time to be worrying about bush’s mental state. bush has been a loser his entire life, its what he is used to – its where his comfort zone is. Only a normal person would be concerned about Rome burning down around them. But a normal person wouldn’t have set all the fires.
.

Rayne @ 148

Mae @ 139

Rayne@130 I also thought Whitehouse was fabulous. I have a question about his chart of contacts between the Bush white house and the DOJ. Do we know how Whitehouse knows about all these contacts? Is it based on e-mail records?

I suspect that’s the case, easiest method to document the trail. And I suspect they may have used not only the emails provided in the doc dump related to the USA’s, but perhaps the Abramoff scandal as well, since Waxman had all those emails. Dollars to donuts, I’ll bet you that Karl Rove was intently reviewing that same set of charts yesterday to make that same assessment.

There is some very deep politik going on in the background, and I don’t know that some of the questions that didn’t get asked or pushed were really because 1) the SJC already knows the answers, and 2) they are giving the White House a subtle tell to let them know this, for the benefit not of the White House, but to provide cover for the Republicans who are moving away from Bush. It is much easier to court needed votes from Republican Senators on key issues if they believe they not only cannot side with the White House, but that the Dem Senators have been fair with them. What vote, you might ask? How about Abu’s impeachment — for starters.

I agree on Whitehouse, but his chart was a display of who was authorized to hold WH-DOJ conversations about specific cases, based on two memos (one Clinton era; one Bush 43). The Bush memo would say something like “staff of the WH Counsel’s Office” and Whitehouse’s staff pulled the WH staff directory and started counting. The emails had nothing to do with it.

His point was that to preserve DOJ independence, you have to limit the possibility of influence from the WH. Under Clinton, only 4 WH and 3 DOJ folks could talk to teach other; under Bush 43, 417 WH and 30 from DOJ.

When Leahy gave Whitehouse more time, that was incredible.

Lizdexic

Yes Vicenza is about 1 and 1/2 hours away (traffic permitting). As for what you can visit between Udine and Vicenza there are so many possible places where you can stop that the same trip can take over two weeks…

kdh22 @ 143

Georgesimian @ 136

George W. Bush is NOT mentally ill. If he was convicted of a crime, he would easily pass all psych tests. He may be stressed out, but that’s not really the same thing. He has delusions of grandeur, but I’m not sure if that really applies when you actually are the President of the USA.

You’re probably right. Many in the US do not acknowledge nor accept mentally illness or fraility. To many it is a sign of weakness and we all know how weakness of any kind is viewed here. I appauld all those who work in the field of mental health. You are saints.

I’ve worked with mental illness before and Bush is definitely not mentally ill. That would also excuse his criminal acts, his incompetence, his mismanagment, his lying, his hubirs, his phony war and everything else. He might have fallen off the wagon, but he is not mentally ill.

kimba1970 @ 160

Rayne,

Il piacere e’ tutto mio (The pleasure is all mine).

You are right the Italian media and government has been despicable in the last 6 years as much as the one that is plaguing the USA nowadays…

We got Berlusconi out of power but not before he maimed the electoral law and procedures.. As a result of his tricks our Senate is nearly unmanageable due to a razor thin majority… A sad story I will no bother you with today..

Show us the way, Kimba, you have a head start on us with restoring democracy. The other danger that flirts in the background is the power of energy markets to influence and corrupt decision making; I have fears that Prodi is prone to this. For the sake of Italy, I hope a third party can emerge to dilute the power of a fascist press and energy’s power to corrupt.

That will also apply here, once we have a Dem majority powerful enough to undo the damage of the Bush years; we will need to keep both major parties in check since absolute power is absolutely corrupting.

Buona fortuna a voi nei giorni avanti.

maunga @
138

This pathetic goon really thinks he can go on: now he is building a Berlin/Cyprus/Palestine wall in Baghdad.

We do need to watch out — the Blackwater joke upstairs may not be a joke. Everyone rwding about this private army of Bush/Cheney? Doesn’t the Patriot Act have a wee clause in it that says Bush can “postpone” the presidential election if there is a “military necessity”! Blackwater is indeed be the “SS Leibstandarte Division”.

Now is the time for every single elected Democrat to understand there is a single issue requiring every little opinion and agendum to be subordinate to the destruction of this Administration, now, for the good of the UJS today, and more important, for the US of tomorrow. Handled well they can get enough senatorial GOPers to go with them.

You might want to look at Senator Leahy’s summary of the Patriot Act:
http://leahy.senate.gov/press/200110/102401a.html

As for the wee clause you mentioned, do you know in which section of the Patriot Act it might be located, if indeed the wee clause exists? Please keep in mind that the Constitution contains no explicit provisions for suspending elections. (Meanwhile, I will look for a downloadable version of the Patriot Act so that I can search through it.)

Stephen Parrish, 32:

Re: 28 USC 541

“(b) Each United States attorney shall be appointed for a term of four years. On the expiration of his term, a United States attorney shall continue to perform the duties of his office until his successor is appointed and qualifies.“

Here’s my question; Are the interim appointees considered to be the same as the “successor”, and if the interim appointees are in their jobs at this point more than 120 days, is that a violation of something or is that following the Patriot Act amendment? Shouldn’t the USAs have remained in their positions until their actual permanent successor was appointed and qualified (who would qualify them?). I’m obviously confused, and I know there must be a simple answer.

retirin’ in five @
7

Aren’t we approaching Captain Queeq levels of mental illness here?

Ah yes! “It was the strawberry incident all over again.”

“Queeging out” is a pretty good description of the yesterday/s rambling, incoherent nonsense by Bush.

Erasmus @
156

Notwithstanding the annoying scandals, not much has changed to justify the huge shift in public perception of the war.

Even with all the terrorism, Iraq’s total death rate is lower than America’s. All those fat, older Americans die faster than shoppers in Baghdad.

If a war with fewer than 4000 dead soldiers is lost, no future war is winnable (although maybe that’s not such a bad thing).

I think if the war is directly related to national security, then the American people will tolerate much greater sacrifice than what we’ve had to face in this war. What’s changed is that people have realized that (a) Iraq wasn’t a threat to the US (b) it didn’t have ties to al qaeda, and (c) we are now policing a civil war.

And I can’t challenge you assertion about the US death rate (with all our fat older people dying faster than shoppers in Baghdad? Ouch!), but it’s irrelevant. We’re all going to die – but it expected that for most, it will be of old age, not because they wen’t shopping to feed their families.

cbl @ 161

Rayne – am ripping through Tivo now :)

Shumer had a lengthy off the cuff remarks sesson at the end of the hearing. might be a good place to start.

Peterr @ 165

His point was that to preserve DOJ independence, you have to limit the possibility of influence from the WH. Under Clinton, only 4 WH and 3 DOJ folks could talk to teach other; under Bush 43, 417 WH and 30 from DOJ.

When Leahy gave Whitehouse more time, that was incredible.

We’ll have to agree to disagree. Every email connotes authorization; the underlings in the emails across the breadth of the doc dump never pushed back and said, “Hey, I can’t discuss this without approval from my supervisor.”

In my limited experience in corporate auditing, it certainly looked like there was absolutely no chain of authority in place whatsoever.

Frankly, even the OVP’s communications revealed during the Libby trial looked the same way; for being so hugely concerned about being on message, they had no controls in place about who communicated with whom. They were trusting innately on their selection process of “good soldiers” to provide controls.

…or maybe they’re just washing their hands a lot.

WTF is it with these knuckleheads and Rugs !!!!!

O/T: It’s National Buy Dick Cheney a Cheeseburger Day!

I hate this Goddam war!

Fresh thread, up and running. Morning everyone.

Rayne @ 174

In my limited experience in corporate auditing, it certainly looked like there was absolutely no chain of authority in place whatsoever.

The Decider’s bike rides must not be interrupted.

kimba1970 @ 166

Lizdexic

Yes Vicenza is about 1 and 1/2 hours away (traffic permitting). As for what you can visit between Udine and Vicenza there are so many possible places where you can stop that the same trip can take over two weeks…

Have you been to Ravenna to see the mosaics? One of my favorite cities.

Ed*ard Teller @ 178

I hate this Goddam war!

dont ever watch Lou Dobbs, then. he had a former general on last night who actually said this war, like Vietnam, was winnable!

Our Ms. Christy has a new thread up. The reviews are in!

A minor point, but if any Democratic president or candidate said this:

”There are jobs Americans aren’t doing. … If you’ve got a chicken factory, a chicken-plucking factory, or whatever you call them, you know what I’m talking about.”

we’d be hearing endlessly about how out of touch they are with “the heartland,” and how they came across as elitist. They’d be given the middle name “chicken factory” for weeks.

Scarecrow,
I think George’s musings are the beginning of his early and ongoing mental retirement from the presidency. He’s sick of it and everyone’s sick of him. That’s why he wants to hand over his duties as Commander-in-Chief (makes me ill when I see those words) to a War Czar (makes me even sicker). He frankly doesn’t give a damn.

LS @ 170

Stephen Parrish, 32:

Re: 28 USC 541

“(b) Each United States attorney shall be appointed for a term of four years. On the expiration of his term, a United States attorney shall continue to perform the duties of his office until his successor is appointed and qualifies.“

Here’s my question; Are the interim appointees considered to be the same as the “successor”, and if the interim appointees are in their jobs at this point more than 120 days, is that a violation of something or is that following the Patriot Act amendment? Shouldn’t the USAs have remained in their positions until their actual permanent successor was appointed and qualified (who would qualify them?). I’m obviously confused, and I know there must be a simple answer.

That is an EXCELLENT question, and one that has received very little attention. There are a number of USA positions, not only the Gonzo 8, but others where an interim or a First Assistant USA has been serving instead of a permanent, confirmed USA. This is another manner in which they have avoided the Senate’s responsibility of “advise and consent”; remember Abu’s truly stupid comment yesterday about not wanting a judge to tell him who would be on his staff? He also feels the same way about the Senate — and they know it, since at least two Senators and one state-wide commission formed with the blessing of two other Senators have been pointedly ignored in the USA selection process.

TiredFed @ 182

Ed*ard Teller @ 178

I hate this Goddam war!

dont ever watch Lou Dobbs, then. he had a former general on last night who actually said this war, like Vietnam, was winnable!

But that general has been a booster from the beginning. Dobbs was pushing back, trying to ask — “but don’t we get to a point where we ask, does this make sense?” It was a tense conversation and Dobbs was struggling with this.

Puesto @ 163

This from Think Progress this morning:

The U.S. military is constructing a 3-mile-long concrete wall in Baghdad “to cut off one of the capital’s most restive Sunni Arab districts from the Shiite Muslim neighborhoods that surround it, raising concern about the further Balkanization of Iraq’s most populous and violent city.”

I assume lots of people are old enough to remember the Berlin Wall. Well, if there is any indication that we are in the middle of a civil war, and have two ideological extremes – Sunni and Shiite – who have hated each other for 1,300 years…

What, exactly, do we hope to accomplish that is in America’s best interests by sitting on a wall between two fanatical religious sects? What?

The 00s are all about walls. Wall in Baghdad (not the first BTW-all the blast walls that preceded it), wall in Palestine, wall that Saudi Arabia is building on border with Iraq, wall on U.S. border with Mexico. Unlike Berlin wall, these are all to keep people out. Now what does that reveal about the society we are living in?

New thread from Christy.

The Reviews Are In

Georgesimian @
167
kdh22 @ 143
Georgesimian @ 136
George W. Bush is NOT mentally ill. If he was convicted of a crime, he would easily pass all psych tests. He may be stressed out, but that’s not really the same thing. He has delusions of grandeur, but I’m not sure if that really applies when you actually are the President of the USA.
———

You’re probably right. Many in the US do not acknowledge nor accept mentally illness or fraility. To many it is a sign of weakness and we all know how weakness of any kind is viewed here. I appauld all those who work in the field of mental health. You are saints.
———

I’ve worked with mental illness before and Bush is definitely not mentally ill. That would also excuse his criminal acts, his incompetence, his mismanagment, his lying, his hubirs, his phony war and everything else. He might have fallen off the wagon, but he is not mentally ill.

Hmmmmmm. Try “grandiose paranoia”:

It is worth noting that the term paranoia was previously used in psychiatry to denote what is now called ‘delusional disorder’. The modern psychiatric use of the word paranoia is subtly different but now rarely refers to this specific diagnosis.

Delusional disorder may typically be one of the following types:

* Erotomanic Type (see erotomania): delusion that another person, usually of higher status, is in love with the individual.
* Grandiose Type: delusion of inflated worth, power, knowledge, identity, or special relationship to a deity or famous person (e.g. see Jerusalem syndrome)
* Jealous Type: delusion that the individual’s sexual partner is unfaithful (see delusional jealousy).
* Persecutory Type: delusion that the person (or someone to whom the person is close) is being malevolently treated in some way.
* Somatic Type: delusions that the person has some physical defect or general medical condition (for example, see delusional parasitosis).

The above is from the Wikipedia, but “Grandiose Paranoia” is in the DSM and it says roughly the same thing.

Mauimom

Yes Ravenna is great little city, graced by an incredibly nice surrounding area and some of most friendly people you are going to find in Italy (Emilia Romagna … that’s my kind of place!)

Rayne 186,

They asked him about the “judge” comment more than once…also, what about Whitehouse saying something like, if one is suspicious, one might wonder why the OPR has been called in to investigate, since they only investigate lawyers and lawyers are not the subject of this investigation. Maybe CHS is addressing all this upstairs. I’m going up.

Mornin’ pups! Just getting here in a drive-by while perusing the news sites but seeing the post thought this might be pertinent:

Scarecrow posts:

_”The best thing about my family is my wife. She is a great first lady. I know that sounds not very objective, but that’s how I feel. And she’s also patient. Putting up with me requires a lot of patience.”

One of the gossip columnists at E! online, Ted Casablancas, had a bit in his column yesterday claiming that Stepford Laura is living at the Adam-Hays Hotel in DC. She’s supposed to have moved out because Commander Codpiece is off the wagon big-time.

(Hey, we can’t be serial all the time ya know!)

Rayne @ 137

Just a note, the exchange rate since the first of the month is not maintaining equilibrium, instead is showing an increasing rate of decline. This may be due to foreign assets being withdrawn; native assets being shifted, or some combination. The exchange rate IS the canary in the mine for monetary flows. Always follow the money. Off to siesta. All the best…..

Long time lurker, first time poster…

The NYT editorial summed up exactly how I felt after watching AG’s testimony. I work from home, so I had the MSNBC feed going on my computer. Needless to say, I couldn’t concentrate on the document I was writing because I was so flabbergasted by what I was hearing (or NOT hearing as the case may be…all those “I don’t recall” answers)! I was absolutely astonished at what a bumbling fool this man either appeared to be or actually IS! I couldn’t find words to describe it…so thanks, NYT, for putting words to my thoughts. If it wasn’t so earth-shatteringly frightening that this is the calibur of intellect and honesty leading the country, that hearing would almost be funny. ALMOST.

Keep the faith, everyone, and thanks for always providing me with the “real” news and analysis so pathetically lacking in the MSM!

The only times I have seen bush show real enthusiasm & excitement is when he is rhapsodizing about that damn oval office rug, anticipating his next meal (pig roasts in Europe) or aiming heavy machinery & robotic claws at the press corps. I wouldn’t be surprised if our arrested developement leader thinks these are the highlights of his presidency.

Democrats are now claiming he’s lost the war.

let’s change that to;

“the majority of Americans”

let’s not make this a particent critisism let’s paint the face of reality for ALL Americans.

this is the president’s war, the failure was do to HIS moronic decisions OVERULING our military generals and advisors

not “democrats blaiming the president”, but AMERICANS blaiming the president

ironranger @ 196

The only times I have seen bush show real enthusiasm & excitement is when he is rhapsodizing about that damn oval office rug, anticipating his next meal (pig roasts in Europe) or aiming heavy machinery & robotic claws at the press corps. I wouldn’t be surprised if our arrested developement leader thinks these are the highlights of his presidency.

Don’t forget when he caught the fish! [”perch”?]

Scarecrow @ 151

Interesting to watch the WH leakers undercutting Gonzales every other day — “hint, hint, please resign, because you’re embarrassing us and keeping the spot light on us and you need to do this because the Decider never makes these decisions. So please resign. Hint, Hint.”

And just as with Orrin Hatch’s efforts yesterday to lead him like Fred Astaire led Ginger Rogers, Gonzo just plain refused to take the hint.

Yes, the Boy-King must preserve his Plus-7 Armor of Perceived Infallibility at all times, and besides he likes Gonzo. So the Boy-King’s aides must go behind his back and all but beg Gonzales to step down.

Welcome ehc20!!

Hope to hear from you often.

Georgesimian @ 136

George W. Bush is NOT mentally ill. If he was convicted of a crime, he would easily pass all psych tests. He may be stressed out, but that’s not really the same thing. He has delusions of grandeur, but I’m not sure if that really applies when you actually are the President of the USA.

the standard of mental illness that forgives crime is a higher standard then clinical

this man is mentally ill, the fact that he isn’t insane enough to walk away from a prosecution does not mean he isn’t insane never the less

Rayne @ 174:

From the transcript, Whitehouse is clear that he’s talking about policy, not necessarily practice, as the emphasis added below indicates:

WHITEHOUSE: The documents that I have given you are two letters. One is from Attorney General Reno to Lloyd Cutler, the special counsel of the president, dated September 29th, 1994. It lays out the policy for contacts between the White House and the Department of Justice in the Clinton administration.

[snip]

And what it does — the language is behind me — it says that, with regard to initial contacts involving criminal or civil matters, they should only involve the White House counsel or deputy counsel, or the president or vice president, and the attorney general or deputy or associate attorney general, period.

The more recent memorandum, the other document that you have in front of you is from April 15th, 2002. It represents the policy of the Bush administration regarding White House-Department of Justice contacts.

And there, in the highlighted part on the front, it says that these contacts regarding pending criminal investigations and criminal cases should take place only between the office of the deputy attorney general and the office of the counsel to the president.

And then, if you flip back to the very last page, there’s sort of an exemption paragraph that exempts further the president, the vice president, the counsel to the president, national security and Homeland Security officials, staff members of the office of the attorney general as so designated, and staff of the office of the president, the office of the vice president, the office of the counsel to the president, the National Security Council and the office of Homeland Security.

So I asked my staff to take a look at what the difference was between those two in effect, and if you could.

This is in effect during the previous administration. This is the Clinton protocol. And there were four people — the president, the vice president, the deputy White House counsel and the White House counsel — who could participate in these kind of discussions about cases and matters and initiate them with the Department of Justice.

And on the Department of Justice side, the only people who were qualified to engage in those discussions were the attorney general, the deputy attorney general and the associate attorney general.

So they had narrowed very carefully the field of people who could have these discussions, which I think is a very important safeguard — to narrow that porthole, to police it. It’s almost like there’s an airlock there for those communications.

Now, here’s the result that I asked my staff to put together, if you count all the people who are eligible under the new program.

That, to me — your staff can check on exactly how accurately we’ve done it — but there are, I want to say, five — what were the numbers?

417 folks in the White House who are eligible to have these contacts and about 30-some in the Department of Justice.

And, again from a structural point of view, my question to you is, when over years this issue of White House to Department of Justice contacts has become so significant when, you know, even on the Republican side of the Judiciary Committee there’s intense concern about this over the years.

And it’s been narrowed down to a fine porthole like this. You were the White House counsel at the time. What possible interest in the administration of justice is there to kick the porthole so wide open that this many people now can engage directly about criminal cases and matters, compared to before?

The emails may indicate how this “wide open porthole” was used in practice, but the substance of Whitehouse’s presentation was on the policy.

Forgot about the “perch”, egregious! lol
Thinking about the reporter, Rutenberg, that kneeled before bush when he was playing with the robotic arm, was there a photo of that? Now that would be a perfect visual characterization of our pathetic press. Kneeling for pete’s sake.

I think the signs have been pretty clear since the Brooks Brothers Riot: the Bushies don’t give flying fig about what the American people want. Governing was never their goal. Their goal was to dismantle government to the point where the wealthy and well-connected did not have to be bound by the same rules as the little people. They are all about natural law and laissez faire. They want to legitimize inequality and they have been phenomonally successful at it.
They way they accomplished their goals was they demonized and excoriated anyone who might disagree with them. Them made it uncool to think rationally. Those of us who disagreed and warned about the dangers of electing and reelecting the Bushies were crazy and unpatriotic. And it worked! We’re still fighting to be heard. If we ever manage to get our voices heard for a sustained period of time and get control of the reins of government, the devastation will be so wide and deep that it will take many generations to put it right.
And that suits the Bushies just fine.
Bush is never going to fire Gonzales. He is going to keep saying, “Make me” until we punch his ticket and knock him out. The whole thing is a circus that takes up precious time fixing what is broken. If the Dems are serious about addressing the dangerous waters we have found ourselves, they have to take a look back to the origins of this country and do the same courageous acts that our founding fathers did. They have to be Lincolnesque. They have to gird their loins. Americans are behind them now. It is time to step up and do the right thing.
The place to start is the Presidential Records Act. Indict them.

Peterr @
202

Rayne @ 174:

From the transcript, Whitehouse is clear that he’s talking about policy, not necessarily practice, as the emphasis added below indicates:

WHITEHOUSE: The documents that I have given you are two letters. One is from Attorney General Reno to Lloyd Cutler, the special counsel of the president, dated September 29th, 1994. It lays out the policy for contacts between the White House and the Department of Justice in the Clinton administration.

[snip]

And what it does — the language is behind me — it says that, with regard to initial contacts involving criminal or civil matters, they should only involve the White House counsel or deputy counsel, or the president or vice president, and the attorney general or deputy or associate attorney general, period.

The more recent memorandum, the other document that you have in front of you is from April 15th, 2002. It represents the policy of the Bush administration regarding White House-Department of Justice contacts.

And there, in the highlighted part on the front, it says that these contacts regarding pending criminal investigations and criminal cases should take place only between the office of the deputy attorney general and the office of the counsel to the president.

And then, if you flip back to the very last page, there’s sort of an exemption paragraph that exempts further the president, the vice president, the counsel to the president, national security and Homeland Security officials, staff members of the office of the attorney general as so designated, and staff of the office of the president, the office of the vice president, the office of the counsel to the president, the National Security Council and the office of Homeland Security.

So I asked my staff to take a look at what the difference was between those two in effect, and if you could.

This is in effect during the previous administration. This is the Clinton protocol. And there were four people — the president, the vice president, the deputy White House counsel and the White House counsel — who could participate in these kind of discussions about cases and matters and initiate them with the Department of Justice.

And on the Department of Justice side, the only people who were qualified to engage in those discussions were the attorney general, the deputy attorney general and the associate attorney general.

So they had narrowed very carefully the field of people who could have these discussions, which I think is a very important safeguard — to narrow that porthole, to police it. It’s almost like there’s an airlock there for those communications.

Now, here’s the result that I asked my staff to put together, if you count all the people who are eligible under the new program.

That, to me — your staff can check on exactly how accurately we’ve done it — but there are, I want to say, five — what were the numbers?

417 folks in the White House who are eligible to have these contacts and about 30-some in the Department of Justice.

And, again from a structural point of view, my question to you is, when over years this issue of White House to Department of Justice contacts has become so significant when, you know, even on the Republican side of the Judiciary Committee there’s intense concern about this over the years.

And it’s been narrowed down to a fine porthole like this. You were the White House counsel at the time. What possible interest in the administration of justice is there to kick the porthole so wide open that this many people now can engage directly about criminal cases and matters, compared to before?

The emails may indicate how this “wide open porthole” was used in practice, but the substance of Whitehouse’s presentation was on the policy.

Thanks for the correction, Peterr; obviously I need to read the transcript because there may be much more to learn in it.

But I’ll lay money that the current policy was virtually useless, and that the communications between both entities was a wide-open sieve.

pluege @ 164

now is the least time to be worrying about bush’s mental state. bush has been a loser his entire life, its what he is used to – its where his comfort zone is. Only a normal person would be concerned about Rome burning down around them. But a normal person wouldn’t have set all the fires.
.

insert smiling/laughing/guffawing emoticon here>_____ !!!

“A normal person wouldn’t have set all the fires.” :-]

I just sent the following to my congresspeople and local newspapers. Feel free to plagiarize.

Regarding the embarrassing spectacle of Alberto Gonzales testifying before the Judiciary Committee on Thursday, the only way to make this nonsense stop is to begin impeachment proceedings…and I don’t mean against Gonzales. He is a distraction, a pimple on the hindquarters, as it were.

The real issue is the deep corruption and misprision of the Bush administration. The House of Representatives should cut to the chase and bring articles of impeachment against George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney. And I don’t mean Dennis Kucinich. I mean a bipartisan group, like the “group of 14″ in the Senate from the last Congress, a group of patriots who really care that our country is so far off the rails and want to begin the process of getting back on track. We must take the only legal action available to us against this administration so that no future president can call on their malfeasance and maladministration as a precedent for how America should be governed. Never. Ever. Again.

What i heard him say:

Bush = Saddam

Do what you have to do, amurika

Just one question: is he drinking again ?

rxbusa @ 207

I just sent the following to my congresspeople and local newspapers. Feel free to plagiarize.

Regarding the embarrassing spectacle of Alberto Gonzales testifying before the Judiciary Committee on Thursday, the only way to make this nonsense stop is to begin impeachment proceedings…and I don’t mean against Gonzales. He is a distraction, a pimple on the hindquarters, as it were.

The real issue is the deep corruption and misprision of the Bush administration. The House of Representatives should cut to the chase and bring articles of impeachment against George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney. And I don’t mean Dennis Kucinich. I mean a bipartisan group, like the “group of 14″ in the Senate from the last Congress, a group of patriots who really care that our country is so far off the rails and want to begin the process of getting back on track. We must take the only legal action available to us against this administration so that no future president can call on their malfeasance and maladministration as a precedent for how America should be governed. Never. Ever. Again.

How much of this is system failure I do not know. But when Clinton (bill version) a disbarred lawyer, is on Larry King pontificating about who should be president and carville is still running around and people actually think that Gore, a real honest to goodness

flake, is an alternative in the next presidnetial election, it is hard.

Earth to the President: How many people are still “musing” about Franklin Pierce, or Chester Arthur.” Don’t delusionally flatter yourself by comparisons with George Washington. The parallels end at the shared first name and the office held.

Rayne @ 205

I will not take that bet, and I doubt anyone else around here will either.

;)

TiredFed @ 63

“retirin” is more like getting out of jail fo rme. I will finally be able to do what I want, and it sure wont be sitting around in a rocking chair. I think of it as a second career – the fun one.

You too? I’m out in 4.7 — started working for HHS in when I was 23. Looking at taking a part-time job at someplace fun, like Borders…

Mauimom @ 108

Twisted Martini @ 10

And I almost fell over yesterday when the dude on KO said the Dems will cave on the deadline for withdrawl. Talking about it as if it is inevitable. They can’t be that cowardly can they?

That’s Richard Wolffe from Newsweek. They ALWAYS have him on, and he ALWAYS repeats the same meme. I want to throttle him.

He’s not that bad, what he says is true they will not do anything until the people do anything. I don’t think polls are going to get people to change. I have seen no million person march, I have seen no million person petition… its like Zinn said: They are politicians they can sell out to political “reality” over their ideals (sell their integrity), but we are the people – we should demand what we want.

Cheney/Bush/Rove is OUR Saddam and his two sons. What are we going to do about it?

this is not crazy talk, this is Bush being honest for the first time…

“Putting up with me requires a lot of patience.”

truer words were never said!

“And despite all the terrible news, which I don’t pay attention to, I’m optimistic about our prospects in Iraq…”

that middle phrase speaks volumes, doesn’t it?