Of all of the testimony given on Thursday by AG Gonzales and the questions posed by Senators in the Committee, the most devastating bits came from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. The above YouTube is via The Muck, who did a fantastic job of getting quick testimony bits up for everyone to view. What I really want, though, is a clip of that devastating bit near the end of the day's testimony, and another glance at the chart that Whitehouse had up showing the increasingly tangled web of influence that the Bush White House political shop had at the Department of Justice by comparison to the very limited connections that the Clinton Administration had when they were in office. The level of infiltration of political management in a department that, by all rights, ought to be as apolitical as possible was as visually stunning as it was intellectually shocking.
If anyone can find that clip for me, I would be very, very grateful.
Here is why: I am wondering if we did such a chart for every federal administrative agency, what would that show? For a group of people at the White House who have little to no regard for the civil servants who work for all of us ensuring that the laws and regulations are implemented to the fullest extent, it seems awfully odd to me that they would concentrate so many tentacles, extending them outward into these agencies, from Rove's Shop….unless there was something in it for them. And, further, it seems to me that showing that visually for all of these agencies — the Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Justice, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Education…all of them.
The list goes on and on where politicization has become the norm where, in prior administrations both Democratic and Republican, that was not the case to the extent that we are seeing under the current regime. Politicization of the fundamental role of governmental agencies, so that they are advancing a single political agenda rather than being concerned about the performance of their duties for the betterment of the whole of the population, regardless of their political affiliation or connection to the White House in terms of influence or money donations? We have the right to the whole truth on this — all of it. What exactly were they after? How many contracts for cronies are we talking about? How much subversion of the laws, and rules and regs in order to advance a political agenda at election time and beyond?
And, for the American public, I think that picture would be worth more than a thousand words.
Related posts:
- Does Obama Policy Allow Politicized Contact Between White House and Justice?
- FDL Exclusive: New Communications Guidelines Emphasize DOJ Independence
- Eric Holder’s Secrets
- A New Mission for the White House Press Corps: Which Health Care Execs Visited Obama?
- Bush Officials Compromised Renzi Investigation for Political Gain
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zed?
Good morning.
I for one would like a statistical chart, showing the total permutations and combinations related to potential sharing of info in the past versus what that total looks like under bushco.
I think it’s an exponential number and far higher than simply the number of players involved.
A picture definitely worth many thousand words…
I’ll bet it ends up looking like a huge spider web.
Dahlia’s got the chart embedded in her article on Slate, if that helps.
Also, darkblack knows where to find it standalone, as it was included in an art piece sometime recently.
It seems to me the over arching pattern of poiticising all forms of government is to skew policy to direct monies certain places.
Follow the money from any government agency that is headed by a Bush crony, see where it goes.
Thanks, Teddy — really appreciate it. I want both the chart and the discussion that Whitehouse was having. I can piece it together from the transcript, but the whole clip, I thought, was simply devastating when watching it. I had it on our DVR and ran it back three times, but I’m technologically hopeless and have no idea how to get it into a YouTube or otherwise.
Exactly right, Christy. — it’s the big picture(s) we need to see. Massive corruption, done on an unprecedented scale — and we’re only seeing the tip of it.
ps: Congrats to the Peanut. These are important milestones.
No clip, but have you seen this Daily Kos diary with graphics of the chart (and links to larger versions.)?
Christy,
I found this link with a pic of the chart.
The Whitehouse according to Whitehouse.
-GSD
JP Stormcrow @ 9
Wow. We can’t use that enough.
This may be a little OT, but since it’s all part of the same big, ugly picture, maybe not.
Inspired by Christy’s prior post and some ensuing discussion: the Crow/Rove encounter, the strong and ever-more-widespread disgust with what Rove has ushered into our country, and so much more.
Let’s launch a campaign to send KKKarl “pink slips” that say “You Work For Us” and telling him it’s time to go.
Any takers?
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/…..-gonzales/
this one from think progress looks promising :)
My guess would be that the same authority to communicate with DOJ was extended to ALL of the same people to all of the other departments and the media. A giant pyramid scheme. Those pyramid schemes always crash, and the people at the bottom are always the losers while the people at the top take all the money, or political capital, or contracts, or control.
The chart is the smoking gun!
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/…..-gonzales/
Has the transcript and the chart as well.
It’s pure unadulturated Fascism.
Right, Norske?
Since Bush’s forte is to turn everything he touches to shit, as a matter of principle, he has to touch everything he can. See?
For the clip and images of the chart, see:
- Thinkprogress.
For the latest news, document dumps, email archives, hearing transcripts and other essential materials in the firings of U.S. attorneys, see:
“The U.S. Attorney Scandal Documents.”
Christy- or anyone- right click over the chart image and it will give you the opportunity to save the image to disk- it’s a gif.
or save this:
http://img.slate.com/media/1/1…..charts.gif
Terrific idea. If this can be diagrammed in a way that is simple to grasp, it will confirm the suspicions of a lot of Americans – Bush violated the principles of how our government should function, turning it into a political tool to support him and his neocon notions.
A friend of mine, a lifelong Republican who has become dramatically critical of the GOP and Bush admin, said he believes that most people in this country are going to tune out the various Bush-tied scandals. He said people are tired of Bush, they know he’s corrupt, and they aren’t surprised by anything he does anymore – they’re riding out the clock until he’s out of office. My thought is that if we can help the public see the dramatic hijacking of our government, that Bush fundamentally changed the US government into a GOP self-feeding political machine, they might sit up & pay attention. There must be a good analogy of a country/state whose governmental functions were used to fully support a political purpose under the guise of a democracy. Any suggestions?
For those who haven’t read it yet, this is a must read on the DOJ scandal:
http://www.harpers.org/archive…..070420xovi
Nola Sue @ 12
I love that idea. Maybe we can send boxes of pink slips to congress, asking them to send them along to Rove and Gonzo.
WaPo
has a transcript.
The issue of how much the Bush Administration has been reaching into normally non-political areas of government and enforcing political ideology there predates the Justice Departments infiltration by a number of years. One might argue that the Department of Justice was the last place in the administration to have Bush’s fingers mucking up the works.
I recall an article in the Washington Post in 2005 regarding a vote about giving political appointees power to ignore the endangered species act (luckily derailed in the Senate). Around this same time period, the Post reported that the Bush Administration had proposed to increase the number of political appointees in all areas of government. At the time, neither news stories surprises me, because there had already been a series of articles about similar attempts in other Departments
This was reinforced subsequent to the 2006 elections, when Bush stated he was going to increase political control over his departments in the face of an incoming “hostile” Congress. This made first page news, but never was followed up on.
Looking at the recent issue with No Child Left Behind, it is evident that this administration has been inserting political allies into positions that were never meant to be political.
I love it when you guys take out the big shovels.I’m sitting in the front row and cheering my brains out.
landofthefree @ 20
From the stats released last week, the best (perhaps only) way to capture the attention of the American public on this is to have Stewart/Colbert simplify & start flogging it (PBS Newshour too, except I can’t remember them flogging many issues in recent history).
After listening to MSM news this morning in regards to the FDA, we should seriously consider putting an emphasis on them in tandem with the USDOJ.
Americans have DIED because of the problems in the FDA. This morning’s report on NBC news actually said that FDA had known about the contamination problems at the peanut butter plant and the spinach grower(s), and that they relied on the food industry to police itself.
Wha…??
Is that why there was no immediate concern about the wheat and corn gluten contamination in pet food, because the FDA trusted the human food providers in this country to check the commodities imports more thoroughly than pet food suppliers?
Was there no wrong doing in the contamination cases requiring investigation by law enforcement? How do we know?
I think this is the tipping point, right here, the intersection between one’s immediate family and their health and the gross politicization of every government office. If every family in the country was aware that the food on their shelf, the food they ate this morning, last night, last week was suspect and that neither the FDA and the USDOJ did anything about it, we could well see real action.
Rayne- Howie had a good post about the pet food thing yesterday.
Dawkins on wnyc.org.
With regard to the fact that Rove et. al. have turned our entire government into a Repug political machine. Assuming (hoping) the Dems retake the WH in 2008, will it be really hard to return the government to pre-Rove balance? The Dems would probably need to purge the people the Goodlings put into the “non-political” positions. Of course, the Repugs will scream that the Dems are doing what they accused Repugs of doing. Any thoughts?
EPUing myself from last thread:
Listen to W’s gaggle here:
http://thinkprogress.org/
He is saying that Gonzo recommended the firings to him, and that “we” chose who to fire.
Isn’t that flying right in the face of Gonzo’s testimony? Am I just mis-hearing this?
Rayne at 27 – Exactly so. The WaPo has an article on that today that is infuriating — all of it was preventable.
Does anyone know the Whitehouse/Leahy backstory from the hearing? When Leahy gave Whitehouse more time to ask about the chart, and said he’d never seen anything like it in 32 years — that was really effective. Are our guys getting better as they have their Majority feet under them and their gavel hands more calloused? Do you suppose Whitehouse hadn’t shown the chart to Leahy before? That’s quite a bombshell to drop without informing the Chair it’s coming, especially for a Freshman.
It was extraordinary political theatre — based on the liveblogging alone! — but I’d love to know if anyone’s heard about the setup. It bodes well for our side. Christy, you are right: all the Cabinet Departments have a similar chart that need to be brought into the light. This reminds me of the Alexander Butterfield moment when the Oval Office tapes were revealed for the first time publicly.
Valley Girl @ 29
Thanks, VG — any chance you have a link? I’m afraid I have a jillion windows open doing research on USA’s, afraid to open another or use one to find it.
eCAHNomics @ 21
that is an excellent article. Thank you for sharing.
You’re absolutely right, Christy. It’s much bigger than just DOJ.
Does anyone remember the news about a year ago or so that they’ve installed commissars in every department or office? I can’t be the only one who remembers this.
The way it was phrased, IIRC, was that as a matter of policy they added new political appointees to a very wide range of offices throughout the executive branch. I remember thinking at the time how closely that resembled what Stalin did in the Soviet army.
Pretty clearly, these new appointees are liaisons with the White House and are in charge of at least two things: public communication and personnel.
That was Goodling’s job at Justice. But I’m pretty sure it was one of these people who muzzled those guys in Beltsville (?) about global warming– remember that episode where a top scientist could only be interviewed with a political officer present? And they’ve been rewriting all kinds of official papers to toe the party’s line.
This is a comprehensive and near-complete political subversion project throughout the federal bureaucracy, and it’s been going on for a long time.
landofthefree @ 23
I would think that several million individual letters addressed to Rover would be a lot more impressive that boxes! Here is a new site that we all need to look at. Let’s all join and help them out (he he!!).
http://www.davidallgroup.com/2…..mment-2922
Thanks, StormRyder at 25, that’s what I was thinking of–
Bustednuckles @
6
Probably even easier than that as IIRC, BushCo has installed a political apparatchik in each and every agency and ALL information and decisions are supposed to go through them.
Christy –
This is a complicated problem.
There’s always been a phenomena known as “burrowing” where Schedule C (”Plum Book”) political appointees convert to permanent Federal civil service positions. The Reagan to Bush transition saw quite a few of these, as did the Bush to Clinton transition; Clinton to Bush, not so much.
From a social science/operations research perspective, it’s very difficult to support a hypothesis that the actions of these individual employees work to support a specific partisan agenda; however, when you encounter them, it’s clear that their party affiliation comes before their interest in Federal service.
There’s another politicization issue that applies only to the current Bush administration, and it involves policy such as the modification of Executive Order 12866, which creates a requirement for political review of proposed guidance documents. This, combined with other policy initiatives, have considerable influence on many aspects of both what work Federal agencies do, and how they can do it.
Chimpropriety.
What made Whitehouse’s chart so effective was the way he set it up. He got Gonzo to agree that the DOJ ought to operate independently, then cut him off at the knees. From the outset, the Bush administration took as its starting point “Well, if Clinton did it this way, then we’ll do it exactly the opposite.” Whitehouse understood that, looked for the DOJ-WH policy memos, . . . and voila! . . . the chart.
It’s not that the WH ought not to have contact with executive agencies — it’s that the WH ought to respect the work of the agencies enough to let them actually do it! Set the policy, by all means, but let the agencies do their work.
Following Whitehouse’s lead, the charts I’d love to see would be about who is allowed to speak to the press. A while back, there was a big dustup about government scientists being prevented from attending international conferences because they could not be trusted to spin properly.
Who can talk to the press — on the record — at the NIH? CDC? Interior? EPA? HHS? Homeland Security? And, can they do it without getting permission from the White House? I’d love to see the memos from the WH to the department PR people, describing the relationship between the two.
I’m wondering how Whitehouse was able to establish all of those connections? Whistleblowers or does he know a whole lot more right now than we could even imagine. Establishing 417 connections in a WH that is so secretive is verrrry interresting.. I lay odds that he’s gotten right into the motherlode.
FYI
Christy Hardin Smith @ 33
If they can’t save us from food contamination from the fields and the manufacturing plants here in the U.S., even after knowing about the problems for YEARS, how the hell are they going to save us from a food-borne terrorist-planted pathogen?
They have succeeded in doing Grover Norquist’s bidding, drowning the government.
I just wish I could fix Grover a nice spinach salad and peanut-butter-on-gluten-fortified-wheat-toast sandwich to celebrate his victory.
LS @ 32, re GWB’s gaggle…
God, I’m going to lose my mind if I hear one more of these criminals say
Bush. Rummy. Cheney. Abu, in his most inept performance yet, last week, had the gall to trot that patronizing sh*t out.
At least, in this clip, GWB further demonstrates how totally out of touch he is by saying that Abu “answered every answer he could possibly answer, honestly answer, in a way that increased my confidence in his ability to do his job.”
There must be a good analogy of a country/state whose governmental functions were used to fully support a political purpose under the guise of a democracy
Well, there’s Hitler. He was democratically elected.
scory at 40 — Very interesting stuff. Thanks so much for that link — fascinating. And very, very illuminating.
Rayne- Howies column here.
CHS- instructions above for getting chart from Slate article.
LS @ 44
It’s all from the two policy memos — one from Janet Reno and the other from the early Bush White House. Check the transcript, and he describes exactly where the numbers came from. He even invited AGAG to correct him if they were wrong . . . but I haven’t heard any calls for a clarification from DOJ since the hearing.
This might help this situation ~ FINISH THE JOB! http://www.sunlightfoundation.com/node/2457
Anyone else missing the Preview and Refresh buttons? Still there on the last thread. I’m flyin’ blind here. Preview is your friend and I miss it!
Rayne @ 28
Add in the proposed docket item involving (among other things) the definition of ‘chocolate’ by the FDA. It’s a big rule change, being pushed by ADM. Think it isn’t going to affect you? It’s got all kinds of little hidden things. This is part of a commment (#35) over at Making Light:
1) The Six Categories of Variations:
1. ‘Addition of ingredients intended solely for technical, nondistinctive effects, such as emulsifiers, stabilizers, or antimycotic agents.’
2. ‘Use of safe and suitable flavors and flavor enhancers in foods generally, and use of safe and suitable ingredients such as salt substitutes, sweeteners, and vegetable fats and oils where appropriate’
This seems to be where the chocolate / oil substitute could be in play. They never mention chocolate specifically, but…
‘Where a standard allows for the addition of a particular vegetable fat or oil, the use of any safe and suitable vegetable fat or oil would be allowed.’ (pg 19)
3. ‘Use of advanced or more efficient technologies to produce ingredients of all types, such as enzyme technologies that enhance the properties of egg yolk used in mayonnaise.’
4. ‘Use of alternate manufacturing processes, also known as “alternate make” procedures, for those standards that specify particular processes’
They give as an example:
‘This approach would be consistent with the FSIS’ revised policy with regard to roasted projects. Although FSIS policy formerly required that “roasted” only be used to describe meats cooked by use of a dry heat method, the Policy Book now provides that “roasted” may be used to describe products that have been subjected to cooking methods that result in a roasted appearance‘ (Pg 22)
5. ‘Changes to a product’s basic shape…’
6. ‘Improvements in nutritional properties that do not rise to the level of a defined nutrient content claim…’
#2 would also cover things like artificial sweeteners, I’d think.
LS @ 44
emptywheel and I had that very conversation. She pointed out that the charts reflect policy — meaning this was published somewhere.
The emails produced in the USDOJ and Abramoff document dumps also provide documentation; for every time a staffer received an email from the the White House or vice versa and failed to push back as not acceptable by chain of command or policy, there was evidence of a default protocol for open communications.
Peterr @ 51
I see. I thought during his description to Gonzo, he said that his staff had been able to establish 417 connections. I didn’t realize that the written policy laid it all out.
Rayne @ 28
PJ @ 53
This applies to my comment at 41. The changes that OMB have enacted essentially require that any agency scrub all of their proposed regulation and guidance for specific purpose, which can be explicitly partisan or supportive of specific organizations.
It’s not good, at all.
Off to lunch.
Lou Costello,
Try refreshing your browser.
Rayne 54, That was my impression – that the staff had gone back and connected the dots, so in combination with the Bush policy, it makes sense.
original NYT reporting on appointment of ‘political officers’
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01…..ref=slogin
OfT but speaking of food, you can save chocolate from being re-defined. But please act now, the FDA deadline for public comment (instructions at the link) is 4/25!
Bustednuckles @ 57
THX ~ PEACE
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/ The following is from this site…the outsourcing of government seems to be a lucrative deal for loyal Bushies…a little bit like after the fall of the Soviet Union when the government assets were for sale….an odd similiarity
April 23, 2007 — On August 28, 2006, WMR reported on how the U.S. visa issuing process was being outsourced to cronies with no accountability for the visa fee funds received from U.S. embassies abroad. We reported on what was occurring with the “I-Visa,” a special visa required for journalists wishing to visit the United States:
Certain U.S. embassies, like those in Copenhagen and Berlin, through a bank wire contrivance, require visa fees to be paid into special bank accounts established by the various U.S. embassies. In Germany, the Bush cronies have cut a deal with a small outfit called Roskos and Meier OHG, a 23-person subsidiary of the giant banking consortium, Alianz Group. Roskos and Meier has only been around since 1994 when Messrs. Roskos and Meier formed their company to provide insurance and financial services in the Berlin-Brandenburg area. Now they have a lucrative sweetheart deal with the U.S. embassy to confirm that visa fees have been paid from individuals applying for visas at the Berlin embassy and Frankfurt consulate. The visa payments go to a special account established at Dresdner Bank AG Berlin, Bank Routing Number (BLZ): 120 800 00, Account No. (Kontonr.): 405 125 7600. In Denmark, the journalist visa money (600 Danish Kroner) is wired to a special embassy account at the Jyske Bank Reg. No. 5013, account number 200200-2. Internet banking or bank-to-bank payments are not permitted. The U.S. embassy in Helsinki requires journalists to pay 85 Euros into Nordea Bank account #221918-16629.
We have now been informed that the US visa application process is being further outsourced by the State Department’s Bureau of Consular Affairs to outside local contractors in cities around the world. The Bush administration claims it is tightening up U.S. border patrols. The State Department’s program clearly shows that the Bush claims about national security are fraudulent.
This is one of those issues that’s damned important- but which will never catch on with the general public- who doesn’t see how the politicization of the justice dept is a dangerous thing. They figure it’s always politicized.
Maybe there are 5,000,000 missing WH system emails because they hardly ever used the WH system – only the Mike Connell system – I’ll bet they’re not missing, they are on Connell’s system.
Check out this month’s Vanity Fair. Robert Kennedy Jr has an article about placement by the Bush admin in numerous agencies for political purposes. It isn’t a meritocracy but any stretch of the imagination.
Bathtub Government. Bankrupt the government both financially and ethically, so that no thinking, sane American citizen would ever concider asking his government for protection or succor.
P J Evans @ 53
Agh. I think I’m going to barf.
I’ve now sworn off American-made chocolate anything until after February 2009. French chocolate only, thank you.
ValleyGirl — thanks for the link. Yeah, Howie was all over it.
rw at 62 — Exactly, which was why that chart that Whitehouse used was SO effective. The visual difference that you could tangibly see at a glance between the Clinton years and the Bush years was really startling. And I’ve been following this very closely — but it was a HUGE leap, even for me who knew how different things were to start with on this.
Very, very effective. More of that, please.
LS @ 54
Reno’s policy listed the 7 individuals involved (4 WH and 3 DOJ). Gonzo’s speaks of officials and their offices, so presumably there was some work finding out how many people worked in each of those offices.
Rayne@67-
Swiss chocolate all the way, baby!
LS @
44
Now THAT is an interesting question.
Redd
The chart is helpful- but it doesn’t help to dramatize the risk- for that we need anecedotes or history. The Vanity Fair thing is good- but trying to relate this administration to the Nazis will still be seen as whacked out by most americans.
I’m not sure how to get people’s attention- but it’s interesting that many gooper senators seem fairly concerned- don’t know if it’s for the right reasons.
TeddySanFran @ 34
To follow up on Teddy’s comments -
Why, oh why? did Whitehouse wait ’til the very end to bring up the chart subject? Iirc, this was on his second round of questioning (somebody correct me, if wrong). These people *know* media is going to filter out early in the show.
Also, I assume Whitehouse is at the bottom of the lineup due to senority but there should be some way he can be moved up for earlier questioning since he does such a superior job.
This is a question about the previous threads topic…Have the email servers from the RNC been confiscated by the Judicial Committee?? Can’t they get a court order or something to retrieve them post haste??
Changing the definition of chocolate? Is nothing sacred??!!
Fern @ 71
You notice, also, that Gonzoles didn’t contest the veracity of the chart, either.
Unfortunately, it was the last 5 minutes of the hearing when Senator Whitehouse put up the chart. It was remarkable, but Senator Hatch, whose staff had slipped in the key change to the Patriot Act, had left the hearing. Hatch was the only senator who kissed A–. Several were remarkable, but as I called Whitehouse’s office this a. m., he was the STAR!
Rayne @
46
When the government’s drowned, how will defense and other Federal government contractors be affected? What happens to what is in some cases their primary or sole source of revenue?
re: chart graphic
go to any page linked above showing the graphic.
right-click on image, save to local drive, upload to your image server, insert wherever you like.
note: consider copyright laws as they might apply, use at your own disgression.
Assuming the level of infiltration at the DOJ carries across most if not all agencies — not an unreasonable assumption, given recent history — it’s no wonder these folks are doing such a piss-poor job at actually governing. They’re far to busy interfering with the government to spend any time or effort actually, you know, governing.
I wonder if they don’t understand the distinction, or if they do and just don’t care.
Stephen Parrish, CPA @ 78
Halliburton already answered that question, haven’t they? When they see the handwriting on the wall, they move offshore to a new host like some kind of nasty viral load, out of reach of lawsuits.
Hey guys, I know this is not a clip but if you go to c-span archives, afternoon session for the hearing, you can actually skip through almost to the end and watch the Whitehouse testimony, charts and all.
drinksforall @ 74
As I understand it, the WH wants to review everything in the servers before and if anything is actually handed over. My theory is that they were using those servers for everything, not just limited to political communications, which goes back to the supposedly missing 5 million WH emails. I believe they are missing from the old WH server, because they never were on that server. Mike Connell set up a new WH system a couple of months after Bush took office. That is what has the WH cornered. Mike Connell, Heather Connell, and Tom Synhorst better lawyer-up.
I expect Hatch to soon do a Victoria Toejam and say that the way the Hatch Act is being interpreted is not the way he intended it to be interpreted.
LS@83-
Who are the Connells and Synhorst?
Whitehouse needs to get someone working on his Senate website, pronto. I know he’s new to the Senate, and setting up an office is a big task, but given his performance at the hearings, his webpage could be getting a lot of traffic if it was more than just a placeholder.
Is it impropriety or obstruction of justice?
WH has not fired Gonzo cuz they are knee deep… just like Rove and Plame….
Give Monica an Ari, quickly
LS @ 84
Wrong Hatch.
Bob in Arkansas, USA @ 37
True – but how do you get the VISUAL on TV? When FDL sent boxes of rubber stamps to congress, it was shown on the floor. It was a terrific visual that made the MSM.
My gut instinct is that Rove won’t give the media access to thousands of protest letters he’s received. I love the idea, I’m just wondering how the amount of protest directed towards Rove can be publicized.
(P.S. I don’t understand what you think we should do with the link you provided. It’s to an announcement for an anti-Democrat internet project.)
LS at 83 — The Hatch Act is not a creation of the Senator — it has been in place since the late 1930s, and was put there in reaction to the self-dealing corruption and nastiness in place at the time for a very, very good reason.
conniptionfit @
66
A side benefit is that the stench discourages honorable people from pursuing public service careers. For instance, can you imagine the hit to CIA recruiting after Valerie Plame was exposed?
A further side benefit, of course, is that government processes are tainted by the GOP’s infiltration and abuse. The best example is the way impeachment is now viewed as a completely political tool, after the GOP’s pursuit of Clinton. Watch the right attempt to discredit any DoJ investigations of their allies under a future Democratic President, based on the American public’s (mis)understanding of the politicization of the process. Federal defense attorneys worth their salt will stand on the courthouse steps and regale the press with stories about their clients’ being victims of partisan witchhunts, and it will resonate because of Abu’s misdeeds.
conniptionfit @
85
http://scoop.epluribusmedia.or…..33926/1773
Christy Hardin Smith @
90
Oops.
Rayne @
81
I read recently (and haven’t seen details yet) that KBR has been spun off from Halliburton. That corporate mitosis produced two companies with revenues of approximately ten billion dollars each. Further scrutiny of the notes to each company’s financial statements and/or the 10-Ks filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission may reveal how much revenue each company derived from government contracts.
Christy Hardin Smith @
68
People process information differently, too. That’s why the chart jumped at some of us and might not for others. Graphic representation can be much more effective than written or spoken word pictures.
Americans have never taken chocolate seriously enough. Very few ever consider chocolatier as a respectable profession, and I do not believe that it is offered as a major in any American universities. Community colleges neglect it as well.
It is such a shame… If I were in France right now, I could be buying kilos of leftover Easter chocolates at 50% off.
TeddySanFran @ 91
And the only possible way for the Dems of dealing with this is to Boldly and Loudly do it anyway. I doesn’t matter what the Dems do , the Repugs will mischaracterize it anyway. Get out in front of the people and present your case first.
Here’s the link to the Pet food recall in case no one else has seen it since the updates: http://www.menufoods.com/recall/index.html
Re Chocolate: Don’t give up on American Chocolate completely. Scharfenberger is still amazing chocolate made in small batches in their factory in Berkeley even though it has been bought by Hershey. You can see for yourself. They have a tour. It is one of the only chocolate factories in the world that will let you in. And Ghirardelli is now owned by Lindt and they will not give up their standards either.
Correction Abu’s testimony, I mean. Whitehouse’s charts.
LS,
believe this is the Hatch Act you were thinking of
:)
LS @ 93
on the other hand, it was Orrin who put the hatch in Hatchet Job
Fern @ 75:
The public comment period ends Wednesday (and isn’t it interesting that that wasn’t made public?). Go here (www.dontmesswithourchocolate.com) for an easy way to comment.
cbl @ 100
LOL!
Extended tour of duty for Demo Congress!
judiciary needs to hold up all bush apptmts that come through Abu–no judges, no USattorneys–and they need to skip the recesses till 11/2007; just like the troops have their tour of duty extended.
but first CONG needs to pass and send to the president the rescinding of his interim appointing authority on USAtty.
This may be off topic, but the same kind of chart should be made in reference to Iraq. There was virtually no oversight there, and Bush consolidated his power by giving away billions of contracts to all his buddies. One of the reasons he wants to stay there is because without Iraq, his political friends will lose revenue that after four years, they’ve gotten used to. He installed in every post, a Bushie, who would delegate contracts as directed.
I’d love to see that chart. I wasn’t able to see it during the testimony.
Good idea, a chart for every agency.
Given the powerful impression of the Chart of DoJ-WH/Clinton v. Bush protocols:
Is there anyone out there with a grasp of the names, faces, states and cases who could put together a PowerPoint of the Who’s Who of the Attorney Firings?
Picture this:
*US map
*USAt name/photo w/state
*Outline of cases pursued
Click option: calls out details, time lines, etc.
In my ideal world, there is a Blog with rows of PPT icons where people can get an illustrated narrative of what’s going on…
Education = Accountability
More Educated = Tipping Point
Are prosecutors trained to use the Socratic method? Sen. Whitehouse put on a master’s class demonstration; you could substitute “Glaucon” for “Gonzalez” and “Socrates” for “Senator” and think you were back in one of the dialogues of Plato. Poor Glaucon: he thinks that Socrates is lobbing him softball questions that he can easily agree with, he gratefully answers in the affirmative, and, too late, sees the cage and hears the door sliding shut behind him.
It is a pity that Sen. Whitehouse is not permitted to “converse” with these witnesses for more that 5 or 10 minutes; if he were, we would make an astonishng amount of progress towards finding out what has happened. The AG’s body language when he realized that he had trapped himself suggests to me that he could not have withstood much more, that he would have been relieved to have a chance to talk quite freely. Ironically, isn’t that what the torture approved by the AG is supposed to accomplish? And isn’t that precisely why the more intelligent and thoughtful levels in the military despise torture, because there’s a better way?
I’d like to see a chart comparing the number of Dems investigated vs Repubs investigated.
Even further, the outcome.
Example:
Tom Delay(R)….indicted….still waiting
Georgia Thompson(D)….convicted…..overturned
Yes, why haven’t conferees met on rescinding that part of the PatAct and sent a bill to Bush? Don’t they think the process will be abused further? Do they fear a signing statement? These interims need to be sent packing; getting this law changed should be a high priority.
How convenient; I see there’s been a settlement by the spinach grower with at least one of the families whose loved one died after eating contaminated spinach. Gee, I wonder if the replacement for Carol Lam, dismissed USA, ever looked at the spinach case…
Stephen Parrish, CPA @ 94
Firewalling, don’t you think? Limiting exposures to the company that remains in the U.S.?
Topanga-lib @ 98
Ghirardelli, yes; and while I respect Scharfenberger, there’s a limit to how much a small division can do once acquired by a firm the size of Hershey.
I mentioned French chocolates because the French are such absolutists about the purity and traceability of their food — and I LOVE French chocolate, like Michel Cluizel’s Chocolat Noir Infinit 99% or Valrhona. (Not so much on Swiss; too milky tasting for my tastes.)
Is anyone watching Harry Reid on C-Span 2 talking about Iraq?
If there is a follow up hearing, dems should agree to pass their time to a staff attorney who can do a sustained interrogation of Senor Gonzalez.
Someone just emailed me that Air America is reporting something to the effect that Bush revealed military operational plans in a speech in Grand Rapids by revealing all the outposts. I can’t find anything on it.
The Whitehouse chart was a powerful presentation, but I haven’t seen one reference to it in the media.
OT–but definitely related:
This tidbit from the Big Night in DC on Saturday from The NYDaily News:
I’d like to see a chart showing my blood pressure.
How about a “job description” for each of the 417?
ccmask @ 117
Seeing mine might send me into cardiac arrest.
Solai @ 109
We’re still waiting for Delay’s federal indictment. Currently, he is only on the hook in the state of Texas.
LS @ 114
Countdown had this last week; Paul Reichkopf (sp?) of an IraqVets group accused W of revealing operational details and troop movements when he showed the 24 embed locations in Baghdad, on big screens at a speech in Michigan. I have seen nothing else on this. Keith (or his guest) compared it to Geraldo’s sketching troop movements in the sand.
oops. forgot to close linky. sorry.
La Toque Blanche, Rue Austerlitz, Lyon. Boutique Chocolat at its finest. 35 euro/kilo, and worth every penny:
http://i167.photobucket.com/al…..GP4445.jpg
TeddySanFran @ 120
OMG. This man is truly stupid. Why the hell wouldn’t his handlers have prevented this?
Wouldn’t one think this might put our troops in danger? Wouldn’t it perhaps deflate morale a bit? And woudln’t it “embolden the enemy” more than, say, declaring that we will end our occupation of this country at a predetermined date?
Wow, his arrogance and stupidity fascinate and terrify me.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..tive-info/
Crooks and Liars link to Bush using chart showing security outposts in Baghdad
let me add something to this – his public use of the chart isn’t news – they used it in their talking points in announcing the surge -
behindthefall @ 107
much agreed! I know I can’t be the only one so utterly flabbergasted by the ineffectiveness of how these Hearings are conducted. It’s like they are mudboggin’ in as deep pigshyte as the chamber will allow.
It was striking to see many of the questioners stop and seem to be stymied by obtuseness.
It was conniption-fit inducing to see one good line of questioning halted by time limits.
It was appalling to see the Senators not ask “reasonable thinking, clarifying” follow up questions. Things that FDLers quick-wittedly simulcasted in Comments. Arrggggh!!!
The Dems need a workshop stat. and then beyond that, they need to coordinate their dam* questions, so that when one 5 minute block expires, the next one picks up where the last one left off.
No wonder we can’t get any answers!!!!
Hey Mods, may we please send them a list of aggregated (wink) questions????
Speaking of chocolate, can anyone recommend a high quality domestic organic chocolate? Of the not organic domestic chocolates, I like Peter’s Burgundy. Scharfenburger is overrated, in my opinion. Good marketing, so-so product.
TeddySanFran @
95
G’Day all.
How’s it goin’, TSF?
IANAL but I grew up among some pretty good ones, and I had a feeling that he would be used to belittle any Repub. talking points since he was the last to speak.
I found his set up and then his chart to be the punctuation mark on a great day by Dem. Senators. Their facial expressions, esp. Leahy, spoke volumes of the deep doodoo Abu was in, and he knew it.
What really struck me was they had already proven Abu’s incompetence and did not necessarily need to present that chart, but Whitehouse did so anyways.
This to me was a warning to Abu, Bush, Rove, etc. that they were just getting started and had the desire and evidence to keep on prosecuting up the chain of command.
Do you attorneys see this angle as I do? And doesn’t if feel good that justice again has a majority voice? Kudos to FDL, et al for helping to make this so.
landofthefree @ 124
Republic spin: There is no evidence that Bush had any understanding of the speech he was reading.
Rayne @ 111 – I am a dark Chocolate fan too and agree your choices are wonderful.
As to Scharfenberger: Hershey needs the cache of a high-end chocolate company and they will be smart to leave it alone. We took the tour just after the aquisition and they swore nothing would change. I hope they are right. (BTW if you haven’t visited the factory, you pull into the parking lot and it smells like the best hot chocolate you have ever tasted.)
On a related subject I have a wonderful book for you. My hubby gave it to me for Christmas. It’s called THE CHOCOLATE COMPANION: A Connoissuers Guide by Chantal Coady. You will drool all the way through it.
In regards to Bush showing the security outpost, while not smart, I doubt it’s dangerous, and a bit of a stretch to make it seem that way.
It’s not like local Iraqis wouldn’t notice a large grouping of American troops and equipment stationed right down the street from them, or in front of their business, or blocking any of the main roads. And even the bad guys are sophisticated enough to pass that information on down the line.
TeddySanFran @ 121
Here is the speech. He refers to maps and photos in it.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news…..420-6.html
landofthefree @ 23
No — it has to come from the American People that he claimed he worked for…
Think of the scene in Miracle on 34th Street when the mailmen dump Santa’s mail on the prosecution’s table.
Now picture a deluge of pink slips flooding across Rove’s desk.
Frankly, we should send’em to Cheney and Bush too.
yellowsnapdragon @ 127
agreed, unless you enjoy the taste of coal tar.
(72% and above cocoa content? too intense for me).
How’s this for improper?
US lawmakers rail against KBR, former Halliburton unit, for alleged abuses on $20B contract.
Raw Story headline: WAXMAN: WHITE HOUSE SECURITY BREACHES: SOON…
From Henry’s site:
New Evidence of Security Problems at the White House
Current and former employees of the White House Security Office have reported to Chairman Waxman that there was a systemic failure at the White House to follow procedures for protecting classified information. According to the security officers, the White House regularly ignored security breaches, prevented security inspections of the West Wing, and condoned mismanagement of the White House Security Office. Letter dated April 23, 2007.
punaise @ 134
It tastes like olive tree bark to me. Nice texture, though.
landofthefree says
April 23rd, 2007 at 9:16 am
Bob in Arkansas, USA @ 37
Here is a new site that we all need to look at. Let’s all join and help them out (he he!!).
http://www.davidallgroup.com/2…..mment-2922
(P.S. I don’t understand what you think we should do with the link you provided. It’s to an announcement for an anti-Democrat internet project.)
Well as many of them that like to troll here and other site’s perhaps the favor should be returned? Ok, I know, it would not be nice to use their tactics against them. My bad!!
Stephen Parrish, CPA @ 136
It would seem that even Republics would find security breaches to be bad. The coming spin by them should be fascinating.
Rayne @
28
Guess what’s happening to the recalled Pet Food?
The Pet Food companies are recycling the Pet Food which has been delivered to pig farms.
Heard this on PBS early this morning.
punaise @ 134
I make homemade chocolates and I find that Scharfenberger is best used only as the outer shell of my confections because it is so strong. A little goes a long way. I use Ghirardelli for the truffle filling inside. Perhaps you will like that better. Also Lindt makes wonderful chocolates too. If you own stock and go to a board meeting you get a big box of everything. Of course you have to go to switzerland….
LaFourmiRouge @
96
You’re right. I’m lucky enough to live in a town that has had a chocolate factory, The Bloomer Candy Co., founded in 1879.
When I moved here, my in-laws amazed me by making fancy hand-dipped chocolates.
jinny @ 141
I haven’t heard anything out of Republics here about market forces righting all wrongs.
LS @ 84
The Hatch Act was passed in 1939!!! The current Senator of that surname had nothing to do with it.
ot, here is a Guardian column from our friends across the pond, saying in essence, when the F**K are you people going to wake up, quit kowtowing to the NRA, and STOP things like last week’s tragedy at V Tech from happening??
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lead…..38,00.html
Good question.
AZ Matt 137,
Popcorn time again,
“Multiple current and former White House security personnel have informed my staff that White House practices have been dangerously inadequate with respect to investigating security violations, taking corrective action following breaches, and physically securing classified information.”
AnnieW,
correct, Bush’s use wasn’t dangerous b/c we’ve been emboldening our enemies with it for 2 months – at first I thought it was just some graphic hocus pocus they were showing the mouthbreathers as some kind of reassurance . . .
but they really were doing this
10-12 US Military are riding around Baghdad on well established routes – at regular intervals -in the back of unarmoured pick up trucks being driven by Iraqi security personnel
like everything else, they may have quiety stopped the practice by now – but they actually did this to our kids – can’t help but wonder if the 29 of 33 Baghdad KIA were killed this way
thank goodness Petraeus is such a genius
LS @ 114
This was shown on Keith Olberman’s show on Friday. Bush ha the map up showing the positions of our military, etc., in Iraq. Keith was interviewing Paul Rieckhoff and he brought this up.
Brisingamen @ 145
I got it. I didn’t know that, and I’ll bet about 300,000,000 other Americans didn’t either. Thanks to responses like yours, we all learn something.
My that letter was pithy, from Waxman. *evil grin*
I do love that polite turn of phrase implying claws to be used later.
Speaking of chocolate factories, French presidential candidate Nicolas Sarkozy had scheduled a visit to the famous Bouillet chocolate factory on the Croix Rousse plateau in early April. However, a few hundred young folks gathered there and very vocally announced that he was not welcome. Shortly thereafter, his campaign manager announced that Sarkozy’s flight was delayed… he would be unable to make the date.
Croix Rousse is the birthplace of french socialism, and is still a bastion of the left even though it is regarded as “trendy” amongst the less-informed.
Brisingamen @ 145
Just imagine the signing statement if the Decider had signed it instead of FDR.
LS @ 114
Saw that on the local news this weekend, I think it occurred during Bush’s ramble at Tipp City, Ohio. They put up a map of Baghdad with troop locations plainly marked on the map.
conniptionfit @ 66
The one good thing that could come of all of this, if it’s pursued properly, is to reinforce the idea that the wingnuts have spent the past several decades undermining, that government is necessary and worth paying for, and that good government makes a real difference in people’s lives.
Katrina began to bring this back to people’s consciousness, but we need to build on that response, and make sure that people understand that tainted pet food and e. coli in vegetables aren’t just random, they’re a result of a breakdown in government, which happened because people who don’t believe in government were put in charge of it.
Brisingamen @ 153
There is going to be something big coming up on Sundance Channel in early May focusing on troops against the Admin. policy.
Why are deer and elk coming down with Chronic Wasting Disorder? Could the beef feed have been sold for deer food. Been wondering about this for a while now.I’m not too tech savvy. Anyone want to run with this?
This is, ultimately, about Monica Goodling – counselor to the AG, and DOJ liaison to ChimpCo.
If you go further in the second examination by Sen. Whitehouse, he drills Harriet – this exam is, I think, about structure and how it was violated. Whitehouse asks Abu whether he knows how Myers could have possibly known about the facts of the voter fraud case in WA (former USA McKay has said that she confronted him, saying he “mishandled” the case).
Whitehouse implies that Myers either used the word “mishandled” thoughtlessly, carelessly (which he discounts by saying that he has met and spoke with her and regards her as more careful than that), or she had information about the facts of the case and had reached an “evaluative” conclusion about McKay’s handling of it.
If Whitehouse is right, Myers pierced even the existing veil of secrecy that ChimpCo has put up. But how did the information get there in the first place? Goodling? Who is refusing to talk? Would Goodling even accept a grant of some kind of immunity?
yellowsnapdragon @ 127
Organic Chocolate, off the top of my head, Dagobah and Green & Black. I’m not sure if Lake Champlain Chocolate is organic, but it is wonderful.
As to compromises in the Whitehouse security. We have the Larry Franklin spy connection.
Also this fellow, Leandro Aragoncillo who worked security in Cheney’s office too.
The Whitehouse is a den of corruption and espionage.
-GSD
bluejeansntshirt @ 156
That could be a result of worms (there is a new blood worm that is difficult to irradicate in horses which causes wasting) or it could also be due to selenium or something else.
Waxman’s got whistleblowers inside the White House! *swoon*
Brisingamen @ 133
True… but how do you get the media involved? That’s why I suggested Congress be the ones to deliver our pinkslips to Gonzales and Rove.
We could have thousands of hand-written pinkslips put into boxes, then have someone with a media crew in DC to film this being delivered to Rove’s office. Politics TV, do ya hear me?
bluejeansntshirt at 156 — Chronic wasting disease is a natural phenomenon in the deer (and squirrel, for that matter) population that I have seen my entire life. It occurs here in WV when there are overpopulation issues — when the birth rate far exceeds the cull rate from hunting season for several seasons in a row, for example. We have decimated the population of natural predators like wolves, and so in some areas the deer population gets too large…and the wasting disease is one of nature’s ways of taking out the weaker members of the herd to rebalance the population. My dad has been an avid hunter my whole life — in the traditional woodsman take care of the land way, not in the canned hunt creepy Dick Cheney way — and we had a whole library on naturalist issues at our house when I was growing up. My understanding is that this is just something that crops up from time to time when the population gets too dense in a small area. Hope that helps.
Bush definitions:
“Honor and dignity” = nobody goes to jail
Topanga-lib @ 142
I’d like you to be my personal chef.
oh, so sorry for the double zig. Forgot to delete the previous comments.
Christy Hardin Smith @ 164
Thanks much. I’ll pipe down now. Thanks for all you and staff do. You’re my new excedrin.
Chronic Wasting Disease – Egads..
http://www.organicconsumers.or…..t61201.cfm
Brisingamen @ 158
Thanks, I will definately try those.
LS @ 150
That’s ok — it’s a confusing situation. The ONLY reason I have any familiarity with it, is that it’s a segment of the Ethics training Federal employees have to take every blinking year. After 29 years of it, it gets just a tiny bit tedious…*g*.
Re: organic chocolate — I haven’t tasted it myself, but I’ve heard friends rant about this stuff: http://www.lilliebellefarms.com/
The absolute beauty of this security breach story is that every American can understand the importance. This is not rocket science.
They left the keys in the door and went to bed.
PeterR,
happy monday Reverend
per your upthread request for charts – immediately went over to CREW as they usually have really great graphics – but the “site is experencing heavier than normal traffic” and I should come back later
sure hope it’s Waxman, Conyers, and Leahy staffers tying up the toobz
the Raw Story article is up: Waxman: ‘Systematic’ security failures in Bush White House
Brisingamen @
159
If you have a Trader Joe’s market where you live I highly recommend you check out their exceptional (and oh so affordable ) stock of exotic dark and light chocolate bars.
Fresh thread, up and running for everyone.
Speaking of interesting graphics that make you go WOW, check this article & graphics out from ePluribusmedia.
Rove-ing emails: what else could go missing?
The people running the underground US House of Representatives “political” servers and the official GOP servers are sleeping in the very same bed. The graphics here make it very clear to see.
twolf1 @ 174
Security issues don’t happen in a Republic WH, don’t ya know.
LS @
161
The deer? What about our cows and the massive Mad Cow Disease cover up that took place under our very eyes. Independent inspectors made illegal because it might make the beef that went uninspected look unsafe? People getting fired for finding cows with disease! It was all in the paper. And rather than fix the problem, the US tries to force Japan to accept the beef it doesn’t want.
I applaud the dramatic and inventive turn of mind that prompts the idea of “pink slips for Rover” but the idea, no matter how perfectly executed, would never see the light of day due to security restrictions on snailmail post-anthrax and a complicit TradMed.
We need to pursue political theatre strategies, though, and I don’t mean to discourage such brainstorming. But there will never be videography inside Rover’s office, or the White House complex, by anyone allied with us. And should the unlikely happen, and any pink slips reach Rover, no media outlet would be allowed to film this event or be allowed to remove such film from the West Wing. Nah gah happen.
Recall we had brave carriers of rubber stamps and How Would A Patriot Act who were practically prohibited from filming in Congressional offices. Only Congressional allies were able to get the rubber stamps onto the House floor, and only late at nite.
But it’s a great idea!
Excellent, capital idea! Would confuse the heck out of the 30 percenters; infuriate the rest.
TeddySanFran @
162
… sniff sniff … you ignored my shout out TSF … sniff sniff…
I believe the aggressive tone of the Dem. Senators on Thursday along with Whitehouse’s savaging, points to whistleblowers and solid evidence.
It will be interesting to see at what point Bush & Co. start eating each other, today Bush reiterated his confidence in AGAG – http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…..rosecutors
OT – Decorated Texas Vet To Present G-Dub With A Purple Heart
Re Redshift at 154: the Problem with food contamination isn’t just because of the gutting of the FDA and the breakdown of Government. The Clinton’s did little to address the issue too. The lack of regulation and the rise of powerful agribusiness firms over the last 40 years has made things completely untenable.
A case in point is meat packing and hamburger. (I get this info from my husband’s family who owned a meat packing plant back when their employess could send their kids to college, before Nafta turned them into sweat shops in order to keep up with the giants in the US and Mexico.) It use to be that the scraps were ground into hamburger at a local plant and sent to the local market. Now it is shipped to a vat at a central prosessing plant with all the other scraps from around the county. This is then processed into hamburger sent out to a lot of chains. One bad cow and you have a huge batch of tainted meat. And the number of inspectors has dropped to the point where they are hardly ever there to test it. That’s how a fast food hambuger becomes a game of Russian roulette. My husband banned us from fast food resaturants almost 10 years ago. He thought it would be an outbreak of TB not E Coli but his fears were justified.
Your best defense it to support local farmers.
eyes of the world @ 172
Thanks!
let’s not forget the apparatchik installed at every Federal agency as the regulations officer – may only be appointed by the White House.
yellowsnapdragon @ 170
There’s a great war brewing – U.S. vs Europe – since the Europeans claimed chocolate is not chocolate if it has dairy ingredients.
Belgians, French and Lindt be warned … you are the new axis of evil.
bluejeansntshirt @ 168,
That’s exactly how i felt when I found this blog! It really is a tremendous place, so many people with good ideas, and such a relief to know that others feel the same about our Constitution, our government, etc.
I do hope soon that the House will start drafting articles of
Impeachment on Gonzales. It seems just a matter of time with Bush
saying his boy stays at AG. How long is this country going to
tolerate such a defiance of the will of the people. My dog Jake keeps
asking me what country he’s living in. He does not yet have alzheimers and he has not eaten tainted food.
EPUd while I was out for my noontime constitutional (love that word)
116 BillE says:
April 23rd, 2007 at 8:28 am
TiredFed – And all.
Whats the point of impeachment for any of the administration clowns if the senate can’t remove them?
I’m thinking this could be the subject of a front page piece, but then, I’m not sure we want to give away the store to the opposition. I’m pretty sure they are too ignorant of history to know what’s coming and I dont want to tip Henry’s (or Pat’s) hand.
Hello Petrocelli! Now that we are in EPU, I will shout backatcha. HI!
(Outta respect for the frontpage poster, I try not to chat up the comments with lotsa OfT back-and-forth hi-hello, but that’s just me. Not meaning to discourage your hollah, just saying I wasn’t ignoring you.)
How are you this fine day?
landofthefree @ 165 – I will be happy to share the recipes.
and besides, it looks like there may be more than enough votes in the Senate to impeach anyone who had anything to do with this US Attorneys scandal (mainly cuz they dissed the entire Senate along the way).
Georgesimian:Since chronic wasting showed up in a captive herd in NY, thought they may have sold the beef feed that they could no longer use for other species.
Sam @ 190
How will we be able to tell? *g*
twolf1 @
184
omg
Christy, you did an amazing job keeping up with us last week. If there’s anything we can do for you next time, please let us know. I realize (now) that comments should be offered sparingly, but the true gems in these threads are the comments. I could not keep from laughing hysterically from comments on the Texas Toast threads. Priceless.
bluejeansntshirt @ 157
The deer and elk have been having this problem for several years. It’s apparently related to BSE (and Creutzfeld-Jacob) in its properties.
TeddySanFran @
192
Great … to be alive is the greatest gift … something that the many tragedies keep reminding me.
It was really great chatting with all of you last night, I eventually signed off around 4:30 a.m. Toronto time.
SanFran is the greatest city I’ve yet to visit. Hopefully I will do so this year or next. I have been a fan since the days of Joe Montana & Dwight Clark.
Hi margo &pj, All giving some, and some giving all. I love this community.
TeddySanFran — thanks for the MoDo story last night….didn’t see it till this AM.
Gawd, what a BITCH.
Wonder if she succeeded in her, uh, MISSION that evening. Ick.
AZ Matt @ 137
Well, how the hell else was Gannon supposed to sneak in and out if the WH didn’t loosen up on security?
WH security breaches, shadow communication networks, millions of disappeared official documents, backroom policymaking, etc. etc. etc.
The more I think about it, the more I believe that 10 or 50 years from now, we will still not know a fraction of what took place.
And also that 10 or 50 years from now, the Bush legacy will be little more than an 8-year block of whitespace in American history (perhaps asterisked as “Bush Scandal”)
Go for it, George.
Nola Sue @
47
Rather than demonstrating how out of touch he is, this bit demonstrates (once again) the utter contempt Bush has for everybody outside his immediate circle. I’d bet that his “response” was scripted as part of the month-long AGAG prep session.
Helen @ 173
Actually, I think it is more like they took the door off the hinges, put the info in a FED-X envelope and called them to pick it up (and we paid the postage!!).
Senator Whitehouse politely ripped into Gonzales’s testimony.
I found Senator Durbin’s line of questioning the most piercing. When he asked Gonzales whether Rove or Cheney had talked to him about Fitz being put on any list. Gonzales squirmed more then than at any other time.
My sense is that they have the “blue dress” in regard to conversations about removing prosecutors, especially something McNulty may have testified to having to do with Fitz.
Where was Durbin for the second time around?
Christy Hardin Smith @ 7
haven’t read all the tread, yet. . .
but christy — i will have the set-up,
and the whole thing up on youtube — via
a link from my site by 5 pm this afternoon.
deal?
check my site — i’ll post when it has gone
live. . . kudos on a great point!
re: purple heart to Chimpy for emotional trauma he’s suffered (per Crooks&Liars)
OHHHHH KAAAAAY
that’s it…I’ve had enough. official overload. code red.
bailing out
have a good day, people.
twolf1 @ 184
I also would like to donate the Cowardly bUSH one of mine if they would let me attach it!
TeddySanFran @
197
And they’ll be served with peanut butter and kool-aid in return. They deserve each other.
Gunga Djinn @
209
This should not come as a surprise, remember the medal ceremonies for Bremer, Tenet and Tommy Franks?
Article at antiwar.com about upcoming Pac trial.
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/gs…..leid=10853
Ron Kampeas blog at Jewish Telegraphic agency has more about this trial than any news agency in the states.
LaFourmiRouge @
96
joie de vive
joie du chocolat
Politicization goes hand-up-backside with another Bush article of faith: privatization. (I forget whether that’s the fourth or fifth commmandment, but never mind.)
The State Department, one would think, would be among the traditional “governmental functions” that ought to be immune from the scourge of unqualified, unregulated, unanalyzed privatization. Not.
State, it seems, is heavily into privatizing its fresh, new, more powerful visa process. That’s right, the process by which initially unkonwn foreigners obtain a legal right of temporary entry into the United States is mostly in the hands of, well, foreigners.
According to Wayne Madsen, State is outsourcing the bulk of that process, on a country by country basis, with little apparent coordination. And charging for it. Actually, allowing the contractor to charge for it. Roughly one hundred bucks a head, whether the visa is issued or not. Times 5.8 million or so visas issued. Per year. Do the math.
See, waynemadsenreport.com.
Gonzales: “I can’t remember and you can’t prove I did anything wrong.”
Shorter Gonzales: Nixon’s erased tape and “I am not a crook.” moment.
Patreas: “How is this going to end?”
Shorter Patreas: …
I suppose one lesson for America, with regard to this presidential administration, is that people who are not able to reflect on themselves and their beliefs or history are pretty much doomed to keep repeating themselves. And, with this president that means repeating his understanding of Vietnam over and over again. In his eyes the Republicans only failure of the Nixon/Ford era was in not stonewalling enough to push it off on the next Dem president. Funny how their ’solution’ in Baghdad is to ’stonewall’ (between Shia and Sunni neighborhoods) and their solution in Congress is to ’stonewall’ (Abu refusing to answer). I think we can see a very clear pattern of behavior which will continue in other contexts (missing e-mails for example).
Remember the 2000 SCOTUS decision as it was the ‘enabling act’ which put Bush in power.
Remember 9/11 as the ‘enabling act’ which got all this started in fact.
How’s it going to end? Well, how do such disasters always end if we recall the past? It will end disastrously.
Democrats must stand tall, be strong, be persistent and seek the Truth and the Good — then America will survive and begin to heal.
rwcole @ 72
ITA that Nazism will be perceived as whack, even if accurate. Too easily dismissed as “ferrin”. One homegrown parallel I keep coming back to is McCarthyism. The Red Scare fear that creep fanned is very similar to the “war on terror”.
Best sales tactic is to show TV watching Americans how specific civil rights are being taken away. Redirect the fear to being afraid of wiretapping, credit card monitoring, voting exit polls, etc. Americans (IMHO) pride ourselves on our freedoms. Bushies take them away, for crying out loud. I don’t think the American people (who “need to understand” how Bush is looking out for them) like being played for fools.
Perhaps a visual to go along with the Whitehouse charts is a political cartoon of Bush using the Constitution to clean up from his “soiled and blood-soaked underwear”. (apologies to Sean Penn and political cartoonists for my clumsy attempts to use humor.)
Bearpaw @ 80
Good point. Just chiming in to agree…I notice that Gonzo was so, so focused on covering his butt, he didn’t get the distinction between “improper” and “illegal”. Like, so I’m incompetent–it’s not illegal! What’s the problem? So what if the attys we fired were excellent? Is that relevant to the loyalty required to King George? Again, you need to understand, Senator, nothing improper happened here.
I wish these weirdos would stop playing “capture the flag” and actually look out for our interests. One can dream.
Cuewhiffle @ 205
Rather than demonstrating how out of touch he is, this bit demonstrates (once again) the utter contempt Bush has for everybody outside his immediate circle. I’d bet that his “response” was scripted as part of the month-long AGAG prep session.
I apologize for being so chatty this morning. I guess it’s all bottled up and has to come flying out like pure unadulterated French champagne. Anyway, I wonder if the ability of the Prez et al to lie straightfaced to the TV cameras is based on their internal redefinitions of certain phrases like “ability to do his job”. This is defined by the American people as the ability to uphold the letter of the American law and remembering that “justice for all” means, well, all people. But I sense that to Bush “ability to do his job” means “doing what I need him to do to further the agenda of this President.”
Anyone still out there, or did I kill this thread?
Politicization goes hand-in-backside with another Bush article of faith: privatization.
The State Department, one would think, would do so many things that are “fundamental governmental functions” that they should be immune from unregulated privatization. Not. State, it seems, is privatizing its fresh, new, improved visa application process. Somewhat ironic, given how frequently the administration trades on xenophobia.
According to Wayne Madsen, the process by which unknown foreigners obtain a temporary right to enter the United States is now heavily in the hands of, well, foreigners. Except for the last bit, where a typically junior embassy consular officer quickly interviews you while glancing at the paperwork submitted by outside contractors, who also process the approximately one hundred dollar charge per application.
One hundred dollars each, whether State issues the visa or not. Times 5.8 million visas issued per year. That might be another half billion dollar trail worth following.
See, waynemadsenreport.com
Christy, I found the clip you were looking for on YouTube, complete with the charts.
Matt@137
This is eerily similar to Saddam defying UN inspections, isn’t it?
Speaking of parallels, I love the pink slips to Rove idea, similar to the White House delivering over “3000 emails” to Congress in the name of unprecedented full disclosure. They could be delivered at one of KKKarl’s many Washington parties. maybe we can get Sheryl Crow to deliver them personally?
Should Congress now pass a motion to censure Gonzales? Alternatively, the Constitution says Gonzales serves with the consent of the Senate. Suppose the senate withdrew its’ consent?
perhaps a record (!) — epu’d by
three threads, i think, and yet only
very-slightly off-topic, here. . .
okay — here is a specific link to
the above-promised condensed, edited,
pan-and-scan (w/graphic-cutaways)
youtube’d video/flashplayer
snippet — about 3:10 running
time, total, of sen. sheldon
whitehouse eviscerating the
attorney general over the
astonishingly inappropriate
access low-level white house
staffers (some 447 of ‘em!)
have to criminal cases and
investigations via the alberto
gonzales/george bush formulation
of DoJ — white house access policies.
whew! — take a look! — i’ve been bakin’
da’ pixels all afternoon long, on this. . .
It seems to me that a corollary line of inquiry would be: how much of each agency’s mission is now privatized?
In addition, while the tentacles may be as deep (within these other agencies as they are in DoJ) I suspect with two appointments at the top and the new “watchdog” at the door, BushCo has streamlined the process of managing the message AND shrinking important parts of the government.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01…..mp;ei=5070
What does Gonzo have on Dubya? hmmmm…….
Thank goodness for firedoglake and Christy Hardin Smith. You have exceptional powers of analysis but your insight into the effectiveness of such a visual chart for this particular matter is sheer brilliance.
Thank you. You and the rest of the folks at firedoglake are true patriotic Americans.