I Read The News Today, Oh Boy: November 19, 2008

Life: Yr. End Issue-Sculpture Garden
"Monumental Head," bronze sculpture by Alberto Giacometti photographed in garden of Hirshhorn estate in Greenwich, Ct., 1973, Photographer Gjon Mili

The morning news shows are leading with today's message from Al Qaida threatening and insulting President-Elect Barack Obama. I am greatly amused to see the corporate media identify "house negro" as a racial insult, as Rush Limbaugh has been calling Obama "Barack the Magic Negro" for over a year and they have ignored his blatant racism.

Obama will appoint Eric Holder as his Attorney General, the first black AG in history. Pros: Holder has come out strongly in favor of the Geneva Conventions and against torture and Guantanamo. Cons: His corporate work, with Scooter Libby to get Marc Rich a pardon, and getting Chiquita Brands a slap on the wrist for hiring death squads to kill union organizers in Columbia. As I always say of defense lawyers, he's the best lawyer money can buy, so hopefully he will bring his prodigious skills over to the light for Obama. Here's a dailykos diary on the value of corporate lawyers.

Much gnashing of teeth from the corporate media about Hillary Clinton as SOS. Must be a good appointment then, if David Broder and David Ignatious and Thomas Friedman and Maureen Dowd are all wailing "Not Hillary!" They might get their way anyway, as Hillary is said to be unsure whether or not to accept the appointment.

Headline of the day: Texas grand Jury indicts Cheney, Gonzales

Rich, heartless bastard Mittwit Romney says: Let the auto companies go bankrupt. Yeah, let hundreds of thousands of workers eat cake. The progressive policy must be precisely the opposite. Here's a more responsible solution: The Right Way to Bail Out the Auto Industry

The Minnesota Senate recount starts today, with Norm Coleman holding a 215 vote, .008% lead. As Franken's spokesperson said, the score is 0-0 with 2.9 million votes to be counted. And as an aside, Traitor Joe Lieberman wrote an editorial for a Minnesota paper defending his pal Norm Coleman. The Senate Democrats should be ashamed of letting Judas Joe keep his committee chairmanship.

Looks like Missouri is no longer the nation's election bellwether, as McCain will take the Missouri electoral votes with a 4355 vote margin.

I Read The News Today, Oh Boy: November 10, 2008

DailyMail: Megaleledone setebos: A relative of octopuses

The Bush Administration secretly issued an order in 2004 that allows our government to attack Al Qaeda in many countries. I want to know why they released this secret now. Getting ready for pardon week, perhaps?

In another secret move in late September, while Congress and the country agonized over the bailout bill, Hank Paulson's Treasury Department and the Bush Administration secretly changed a 22-year-old bank regulation to give banks a $140 billion dollar tax break. Bush is going to break the bank before he leaves office, just to leave Obama in as big a hole as humanly possible. Pigs at the trough.

The Bushies are also planning to throw more billions to AIG. Who's palling around with socialists now? Jerome a Paris at dailykos asks, can Obama stop the looting? Before it's too late?

In more bad economic news, Circuit City filed for bankruptcy (can't believe that their genius plan of firing the experienced salespeople and hiring no-knowledge newbies didn't work!) and DHL is laying off thousands.

Obama meets President Clusterfuck in the White House today. Here's Obama's account of his first meeting with Shrub. What a weirdo.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Is The Easter Bunny

I have this Easter Bunny scoop EXCLUSIVELY here at Main St. USA based on superduper topsecret authority. Bushco is suppressing that particular confession for obvious reasons, as it does not fit into their "get Gonzo off the front pages" plan.

Apparently, while we've been torturing Mohammed for the past five years, he's confessed to EVERYTHING they've ever asked him about. 31 terrorist acts in total. Who'd a thunk it? Torture works. We get everything we want. He has also confessed to being the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus and Borat.

WaPo (front page): Alleged Architect Of 9/11 Confesses To Many Attacks

Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, confessed at a Guantanamo Bay military hearing that he planned and funded that al-Qaeda operation and said he was involved in more than two dozen other terrorist acts around the world, according to documents released by the Pentagon yesterday.

In a rambling statement delivered Saturday to a closed-door military tribunal, Mohammed declared himself an enemy of the United States and claimed some responsibility for many of the major terrorist attacks on U.S. and allied targets over more than a decade. He said that he is at war with the United States and that the deaths of innocent people are an unfortunate consequence of that conflict.

"I was responsible for the 9/11 operation, from A to Z," Mohammed told a panel of military officers through a personal representative, who read off a list of 31 terrorist acts that were either carried out or planned but not executed. According to transcripts released by Defense Department officials last night, Mohammed later spoke in broken English and Arabic, saying, "For sure, I'm American enemies."

This last sentence proves that he is the real Borat.

I mean, really. The "hearing" at which Mohammed "testified" (in a language other than his own) took place on March 10th. The purpose is to determine whether he is an enemy combatant. The Washington Post has a pdf link to the entire transcript. On page 10, Mohammed asks to present witnesses. His request is denied on the grounds that his witnesses are not relevant. The 31 terrorist acts to which he confesses are presented in the form of a written list which is read into the record by his "Personal Representative" (question, was this a lawyer? Embarrassing if so.) This list was clearly written by someone other than Mohammed as his broken English is miraculously repaired. He says things like "I was the Media Operations Director", "I was the Operational Director", as though al Quada was really a modern US corporation. Jeez.

The whole thing is a kangaroo court and the corporate media is jumping up and down as though this farce had some basis for respect. It is a farce. The guy may be guilty as hell, but the US makes him look like a victim by torturing and railroading him. Couldn't we just have subjected him to the greatest legal system in the world? Just another way in which the Bush Administration has used 9/11 to attack our Constitution and degrade us in the eyes of the world. The shame.

Cheney is a Synonym for Warmongering Chickenhawk Moron

Sorry for lack of posts, I went to a family wedding this weekend and now am laboring to glaze my work for a sodafiring Friday.

For entertainment today, I recommend reading Liz Cheney's (yes, daughter of Dick) op-ed in today's Washington Post. Then read the hundreds of comments. 46 pages of 'em right now. Here's mine (page 22):

Fact-free BS masquerading as opinion in the WaPo. First off, Lieberman isn't a Democrat -- he's a member of the Lieberman for Connecticut Party. Second, winning is no longer an option. The time for winning was when we invaded Iraq, based on lies, with a too-small force and a ridiculous strategy conceived by the stupidest foreign policy team in the history of the United States. We're just enjoying the fruits of being greeted as liberators, like your idiot father said. Why is the Post letting the idiots who got us into this mess tell us how to get out? Why not give a column to someone smart, oh, someone like Scott Ritter, or Al Gore, or a liberal blogger, or any of the smart people who said, there are no WMD, this whole thing is being made up by Cheney and PNAC, the British tried this 80 years ago and it didn't work, why don't we stick with the real problem which is Al Qaeda and bin Laden and forget about secular Hussein? Oh, that would hurt your cocktail party reputation. Got to stay in the Kewl Kids Klub. Thanks for nothing, WaPo.

A Quiz for Lawmakers

Next Hurrah: A Quiz for Lawmakers

I did OK; got 3 of 16 wrong (9, 10, 16), so give me an 81.

Silvestre Reyes (D-Tx), the new Chair of the Intelligence Commmittee, will probably have a hard time:

Democrats’ New Intelligence Chairman Needs a Crash Course on al Qaeda

And let's not even talk about Bush and his intelligence gap.

Howard Dean Was Right

I am a proud Deaniac. Oh, I swallowed my doubts and supported John Kerry after he got the nomination, but I was on the Dean train before he got cow-catchered off the tracks by the corporate media's playing fast and loose with his speech in Iowa. Because Dean was smart and knew what was really going on. Glenn Greenwald has an excellent post reminding us what Howard Dean had to say about North Korea and Iraq before Bush's ill-fated adventure began.

Unclaimed Territory: Invading Iraq and the North Korean threat -- a historical reminder

Contrary to the propaganda campaign enabled by the passive, mindless 2003 media, most anti-war advocates (such as Howard Dean) did not oppose the war in Iraq because war itself is wrong or even because preemptive war in response to a truly imminent threat is wrong. They opposed it because the evidence that Iraq posed an imminent threat was so shady and unconvincing and that the case that no other options short of war existed was so unconvincing (anyone with doubts about that should just go read Dean's speech -- "Secretary Powell's recent presentation at the UN showed the extent to which we have Iraq under an audio and visual microscope. Given that, I was impressed not by the vastness of evidence presented by the Secretary, but rather by its sketchiness").

More importantly, Dean pointed out that there were far greater threats to U.S. security than Saddam Hussein -- and he particularly emphasized the threats posed by North Korea and Al Qaeda, which would be neglected -- if not outright ignored and worsened -- by the mammoth, unpredictable and highly dangerous project of invading Iraq and attempting to re-build it into a stable democracy (see e.g. the resurgent Taliban, the uncaptured Osama bin Laden, the takeover of much of Iraq by Al Qaeda and Iran, and yesterday's North Korean nuclear test). The only way to see the Bush movement as "serious, weighty, tough" foreign policy thinkers, and the only way to see Democrats like Dean as "frivolous and weak on defense," is to completely ignore (or distort) history and to operate from the premise that being terribly wrong is a sign of seriousness and wisdom and being completely right is a sign of frivolity and weakness.

Lying About 9/11

WaPo: Two Months Before 9/11, an Urgent Warning to Rice

NYTimes: 9/11 Panel Members Weren’t Told of Meeting

WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 — Members of the Sept. 11 commission said today that they were alarmed that they were told nothing about a White House meeting in July 2001 at which George J. Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, is reported to have warned Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, about an imminent Al Qaeda attack and failed to persuade her to take action.

Sy Hersh Reports: They've Been Listening To Our Phone Calls

Seymour Hersh, New Yorker;
NATIONAL SECURITY DEPT.
LISTENING IN

[T]he N.S.A. began, in some cases, to eavesdrop on callers (often using computers to listen for key words) or to investigate them using traditional police methods. A government consultant told me that tens of thousands of Americans had had their calls monitored in one way or the other. “In the old days, you needed probable cause to listen in,” the consultant explained. “But you could not listen in to generate probable cause. What they’re doing is a violation of the spirit of the law.” One C.I.A. officer told me that the Administration, by not approaching the FISA court early on, had made it much harder to go to the court later.

Bush, May 11, 2006 (whitehouse.gov)

First, our international activities strictly target al Qaeda and their known affiliates. Al Qaeda is our enemy, and we want to know their plans. Second, the government does not listen to domestic phone calls without court approval. Third, the intelligence activities I authorized are lawful and have been briefed to appropriate members of Congress, both Republican and Democrat. Fourth, the privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities.

We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans.

Legal Genius Bush Says: Surveillance Legal BECAUSE I SAY SO

He also said Harriet Miers was the most qualified person to serve on the Supreme Court, so there you go.

Shorter Bush: 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, an enemy, al Qaeda, 9/11, 9/11, nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah.

WaPo: NSA Call-Tracking Program Sparks Alarm
Bush Insists That Citizens' Privacy is 'Fiercely Protected'

President Bush, responding to a newspaper report on a previously undisclosed program to track the phone call patterns of millions of Americans, insisted today that U.S. intelligence activities he has authorized are lawful and aimed strictly at the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

In a hastily arranged appearance before reporters at the White House, Bush reacted to a USA Today report that says the National Security Agency has been secretly using records provided by the three largest American telephone companies to build a massive database of foreign and domestic phone calls. The program was launched shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with the aim of analyzing calling patterns to detect terrorist activity, the paper reported. The effort involves collecting phone numbers but does not entail recording or eavesdropping on phone conversations, it said.

The NSA declined comment, saying only that it "operates within the law."

I got this picture from one of my favorite bloggers:

Art Pottery, Politics and Food: "Our intelligence activities strictly target al Qaeda..."
--12:03 pm Statement

While I'm thieving, check out his pic of Michael Hayden, the most qualified person to run the CIA:

The Look & Feel of Harry

Rumsfield: The Real Torture Guy

And I've been calling Attorney General Abu Gonzales Torture Guy. He approved the policies; Rumsfield participated in the torture. No wonder the retired generals are out to get him. Real members of the military oppose torture. If we torture the enemy, we approve a policy that will be surely used against us.

Raw Story: Salon: Rumsfeld 'personally involved' in interrogation of Qaeda detainee that turned 'harsh'

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was "personally involved" in the interrogation of an al-Qaeda detainee that turned "harsh," according to an explosive report at Salon.com based on an Army inspector general's report released through an FOIA request.

Salon: What Rumsfeld knew
Interviews with high-ranking military officials shed new light on the role Rumsfeld played in the harsh treatment of a Guantánamo detainee.

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was personally involved in the late 2002 interrogation of a high-value al-Qaida detainee known in intelligence circles as "the 20th hijacker." He also communicated weekly with the man in charge of the interrogation, Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Miller, the controversial commander of the Guantánamo Bay detention center.

During the same period, detainee Mohammed al-Kahtani suffered from what Army investigators have called "degrading and abusive" treatment by soldiers who were following the interrogation plan Rumsfeld had approved. Kahtani was forced to stand naked in front of a female interrogator, was accused of being a homosexual, and was forced to wear women's underwear and to perform "dog tricks" on a leash. He received 18-to-20-hour interrogations during 48 of 54 days.

Suicide by Witness Chair

Zacharias Moussaoui makes his case for his 72 virgins in heaven:

WaPo: Moussaoui Testifies Over Attorneys' Objections

Zacarias Moussaoui testified in an Alexandria courtroom this morning that he was tapped by Osama bin Laden to hijack a plane and fly it into the White House as part of the terrorist attacks that claimed nearly 3,000 lives on Sept. 11, 2001.

Testifying at his own death-penalty trial, over the objections of his attorneys, Moussaoui said he had not known the precise date the attacks were to take place, but that he knew they would involve the White House, the World Trade Center and other targets.

He said he was supposed to head a five-man crew that also would have included Richard Reid, a British citizen who tried to set off explosives in his shoes aboard a transatlantic flight two months after the Sept. 11 attacks.

[]

Questioned by defense lawyer Gerald Zerkin for less than 30 minutes, Moussaoui was asked: "Were you scheduled to be a pilot in the operation that was to be run on Sept. 11, 2001?''

He replied: "Yes. I was supposed to pilot a plane to hit the White House. I only knew about the two planes of the World Trade Center in addition to my own plane.''

Prosecutors have argued that Moussaoui should be executed because he lied to the FBI when he was arrested in August 2001 -- and Moussaoui appears to have made much of their case in his testimony today by admitting that he lied "because I wanted my mission to go ahead.''

When he pleaded guilty, Moussaoui signed a document admitting he had lied to allow his "al-Qaeda brothers to go forward" with the plot. Asked today who he meant, he named Mohamed Atta, the leader of the hijacking teams who piloted the first plane that hit the World Trade Center.

Well, he wanted to go down in flames. He'll get his wish. The government tried to drive a stake in its own case against him with the cheating FAA lawyer, etc., and Moussaoui made himself Dead Man Walking by his desire to tell his story. The urge to be heard is always powerful. Who will ever know if he is telling the truth. If you're facing life in prison at a minimum, why not make yourself seem really important?

Dana Milbank essay, WaPo: A Terrorist's Grand Delusion

Vacationing Bush Administration Ignored FBI Agent's Attempts to Prevent 9/11

While President Smirky McAWOL spent the month of August 2001 on vacation, FBI agents in Minnesota spent a fruitless month trying to get the FBI in Washington to take their information seriously. Testimony in Moussaoui's trial yesterday established that Agent Harry Samit made more the 70 separate attempts to get the Bush Administration to realize that Moussaoui was a serious threat, and that he was plotting to hijack an airplane. Samit contacted his superiors at the FBI, as well as FBI's London, Paris and Oklahoma City offices, FBI headquarters files, the CIA's counterterrorism center, the Secret Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Federal Aviation Administration, possibly the National Security Agency (he couldn't say the name in court), and the FBI's Iran, Osama bin Laden, radical fundamentalist, and national security law units at headquarters. Yet no one took him seriously.

When incompetent, idiotic liars run the government, disasters happen.


WaPo:
FBI Was Warned About Moussaoui
Agent Tells Court Of Repeated Efforts Before 9/11 Attacks

An FBI agent who interrogated Zacarias Moussaoui before Sept. 11, 2001, warned his supervisors more than 70 times that Moussaoui was a terrorist and spelled out his suspicions that the al-Qaeda operative was plotting to hijack an airplane, according to federal court testimony yesterday.

Agent Harry Samit told jurors at Moussaoui's death penalty trial that his efforts to secure a warrant to search Moussaoui's belongings were frustrated at every turn by FBI officials he accused of "criminal negligence." Samit said he had sought help from a colleague, writing that he was "so desperate to get into Moussaoui's computer I'll take anything."

That was on Sept. 10, 2001.

[]

MacMahon zeroed in on increasingly urgent warnings Samit issued to his FBI supervisors after he interviewed Moussaoui at a Minnesota jail in mid-August 2001. Moussaoui had raised Samit's suspicions because he was training on a 747 simulator with limited flying experience and could not explain his foreign sources of income.

By Aug. 18, 2001, Samit was telling FBI headquarters that he believed Moussaoui intended to hijack a plane "for the purpose of seizing control of the aircraft." A few days later, he learned from FBI agents in France that Moussaoui had been a recruiter for a Muslim group in Chechnya linked to Osama bin Laden.

AP: FBI Agent Slams Bosses at Moussaoui Trial

MacMahon walked Samit through e-mails and letters the agent sent seeking help from the FBI's London, Paris and Oklahoma City offices, FBI headquarters files, the CIA's counterterrorism center, the Secret Service, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Federal Aviation Administration, an intelligence agency not identified publicly by name in court (possibly the National Security Agency), and the FBI's Iran, Osama bin Laden, radical fundamentalist, and national security law units at headquarters.

[]

MacMahon introduced an Aug. 31 letter Samit drafted "to advise the FAA of a potential threat to security of commercial aircraft" from whomever Moussaoui was conspiring with.

But [FBI headquarters agent Mike] Maltbie barred him from sending it to FAA headquarters, saying he would handle that, Samit testified. The agent added that he did tell FAA officials in Minneapolis of his suspicions.

UAE Port Security Takeover Update

George Bush has never vetoed a bill in his five disastrous years in office. Yet, despite the fact that this deal stinks to high heaven (the US never conducted the mandatory investigation before approving it), now Bush is ready to veto. Anything for his great and good friends the UAE.

Mr. "We'll get bin Laden, dead or alive" once passed up a chance to get bin Laden. Why? Because Osama was hanging out with his friends the UAE royal family.

This deal stinks. Will Congress have the spine to scuttle the deal?

ThinkProgress: Administration Failed To Conduct Legally Required Investigation Before Approving UAE Port Deal

The law [] makes the 45-day investigation mandatory in cases like the Dubai World Ports transfer.

[]

Yet, the investigation never happened. Bush administration officials “could not say why a 45-day investigation did not occur.”

Eschaton: Jolly Old Pals

From March, 2004:

The Central Intelligence Agency did not target Al Qaeda chief Osama bin laden once as he had the royal family of the United Arab Emirates with him in Afghanistan, the agency's director, George Tenet, told the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks on the United States on Thursday.

Had the CIA targeted bin Laden, half the royal family would have been wiped out as well, he said.

I don't see how it's a good idea to hand over ports to Bin Laden's pals.

Again, this is not about an "Arab company," this is a company owned and controlled by the hereditary oligarchy of the UAE, many of whom, apparently, were Bin Laden's jolly old pals.

New York lawmakers stunned by Bush's ports veto threat
The six ports include NY and NJ


Previous posts:

So Who Did Review the UAE/Ports Deal?

Terrorist Funders Would Control US Military Equipment Shipments As Well As US Ports

If Terrorist Funders Run Our Ports, Terrorists Win

Privatization Gone Wild - Bushco Puts Terrorist Funders in Charge

Bush Invites Saudi Conspirator to SOTU

Jeremy Scahill on HuffPO:

A 9/11 Conspirator in King Bush's Court?

While Cindy Sheehan was being dragged from the House gallery moments before President Bush delivered his State of the Union address for wearing a t-shirt honoring her son and the other 2,244 US soldiers killed in Iraq, Turki al-Faisal was settling into his seat inside the gallery. Faisal, a Saudi, is a man who has met Osama bin Laden and his lieutenants on at least five occasions, describing the al Qaeda leader as "quite a pleasant man." He met multiple times with Taliban leader Mullah Mohammed Omar.

Yet, unlike Sheehan, al-Faisal was a welcomed guest of President Bush on Tuesday night. He is also a man that the families of more than 600 victims of the 9/11 attacks believe was connected to their loved ones' deaths.

From the Center for Cooperative Research: Profile: Turki bin Faisal bin Abdul Aziz al Saud

October 18, 2002: Saudi Acquaintance of bin Laden Given Immunity by Becoming ambassador

Saudi Arabia announces that Turki al-Faisal will be its next ambassador to Britain. Turki is a controversial figure because of his long-standing relationship to bin Laden. He has also been named in a lawsuit (see August 15, 2002) by 9/11 victims' relatives against Saudi Arabians for their support of al-Qaeda before 9/11. It is later noted that his ambassador position could give him diplomatic immunity from the lawsuit. [New York Times, 12/30/02]

He was, indeed, dismissed from the 9/11 victims suit on the grounds that he was acting in an official governmental capacity and therefore immune from suit.

How could Bush put this man in the hall for the State of the Union? He is a vile, cruel man. I mean Bush. The other guy, too.

The Standard Is Probable Cause

When the CEO President delegates his responsibility to defend and uphold the Constitution, shouldn't he pass along a copy of said document to his minions? apparently, the general in charge of the illegal domestic spying program doesn't know his Constitution. I have a few copies to spare. Maybe I'll mail him one. Why don't we all?

From Editor & Publisher (highlighting the invaluable reporting of Knight-Ridder):

Defending Spy Program, General Reveals Shaky Grip on 4th Amendment

NEW YORK The former national director of the National Security Agency, in an appearance today before the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., today, appeared to be unfamiliar with the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution when pressed by a reporter with Knight Ridder's Washington office -- despite his claims that he was actually something of an expert on it.

General Michael Hayden, principal deputy director of National Intelligence with the Office of National Intelligence, talked with reporters about the current controversy surrounding the National Security Agency's warrantless monitoring of communications of suspected al Qaeda terrorists. Hayden has been in this position since last April, but was NSA director when the NSA monitoring program began in 2001.

As the last journalist to get in a question, Jonathan Landay, a well-regarded investigative reporter for Knight Ridder, noted that Gen. Hayden repeatedly referred to the Fourth Amendment's search standard of "reasonableness" without mentioning that it also demands "probable cause." Hayden seemed to deny that the amendment included any such thing, or was simply ignoring it.

Here's the Fourth Amendment: "The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

'Bush Lied, Liberty Died'

George Bush went on the radio yesterday and admitted to violating his oath to uphold and preserve the constitution.

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

President Acknowledges Approving Secretive Eavesdropping

President Bush said yesterday that he secretly ordered the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans with suspected ties to terrorists because it was "critical to saving American lives" and "consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution."

As usual, what Bush said was a bald-faced lie:

As President, I took an oath to defend the Constitution, and I have no greater responsibility than to protect our people, our freedom, and our way of life.

[]

In the weeks following the terrorist attacks on our nation, I authorized the National Security Agency, consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution, to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations. Before we intercept these communications, the government must have information that establishes a clear link to these terrorist networks.

Warrantless intercepts violate the 4th Amendment to the Constitution. You don't have to be a brain surgeon to figure this one out. Even cretins like Bob Barr, former Congressman from Georgia, can figure out that this is unconstitutional.

Bush has gone from Worst President Ever to President Most Likely to be Impeached.

Best blogtopia post title on this subject, from (the good) Roger Ailes:

Bush Lied, Liberty Died

Thanksgiving Break

Heading to Albany, New York tomorrow for Thanksgiving with my best friend, my goddaughter, my mom & my sister & her dog. Pecan pies are cooling on the stove.

I'll be off-line for most of the week so I won't post here until next Wednesday.

In the meantime, here are some sites I have been enjoying lately. Something to read while I'm gone.

Murray Waas at the National Journal has been leading the journalistic pack ferreting out the incompetence, corruption and cronyism of the Bush administration. His piece of today, revealing the existence of a heretofore unrevealed Presidential Daily Briefing from September 21, 2001 is a case in point.

Ten days after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, President Bush was told in a highly classified briefing that the U.S. intelligence community had no evidence linking the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein to the attacks and that there was scant credible evidence that Iraq had any significant collaborative ties with Al Qaeda, according to government records and current and former officials with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

The information was provided to Bush on September 21, 2001 during the "President's Daily Brief," a 30- to 45-minute early-morning national security briefing. Information for PDBs has routinely been derived from electronic intercepts, human agents, and reports from foreign intelligence services, as well as more mundane sources such as news reports and public statements by foreign leaders.

Firedoglake is the site for monitoring the Plame case. Great writing, solid legal analysis.

I Blame the Patriarchy (wish I'd thought of that name!). Funny feminist blog by a taco-eating Texan, currently battling breast cancer.


Shakespeare's Sister Another feminist blog, lighter, more popular culture, but with the requisite liberal poliblogging. (Did I just make up that word? I like it. I'm a liberal poliblogger.)

Dependable Renegade, a political photo blog. She posts up 3-5 pics a day with wicked captions.

The Gulag Archipelago

From the front page of today's Washington Post:

CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons
Debate Is Growing Within Agency About Legality and Morality of Overseas System Set Up After 9/11

The CIA has been hiding and interrogating some of its most important al Qaeda captives at a Soviet-era compound in Eastern Europe, according to U.S. and foreign officials familiar with the arrangement.

The secret facility is part of a covert prison system set up by the CIA nearly four years ago that at various times has included sites in eight countries, including Thailand, Afghanistan and several democracies in Eastern Europe, as well as a small center at the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba, according to current and former intelligence officials and diplomats from three continents.

The hidden global internment network is a central element in the CIA's unconventional war on terrorism. It depends on the cooperation of foreign intelligence services, and on keeping even basic information about the system secret from the public, foreign officials and nearly all members of Congress charged with overseeing the CIA's covert actions.

Now that we've taken over and are operating the old Soviet Union secret prisons, what could be next for the Bush Administration? Maybe we could re-open Auschwitz to get rid of those pesky guys at Guantanimo. Because freedom is just one more word for nothing left to lose.

Bush makes Nixon look like a piker.

This is American? I am sickened.

Finally: We Got The Number One in Al Qaeda

We've captured the most senior Al Qaeda

....barber.

Really! He gave the best haircuts! You should have seen his scissors fly! The blunt cuts! Oh, and his work with the clippers: chilling in its exactitude! And what a colorist! Worked miracles with extensions! Facial hair a specialty! He could make Osama bin Laden look like George W. Bush in about 25 minutes! He could make any run-of-the-mill insurgent look like the no. 2 man in Al Qaeda!

Coming attractions: Over the next few months, expect that we will arrest 33 or so of the "2nd in command" to this most senior barber.

You think I'm joking, don't you? Gotcha.

Al Qaeda "barber" arrested in Iraq

BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces in Iraq said on Saturday that they were holding a man suspected of acting as a barber to senior al Qaeda militants and helping them change their appearance to evade capture.

The man, named as Walid Muhammad Farhan Juwar al-Zubaydi -- "aka 'The Barber,"' the U.S. military statement said -- was arrested in Baghdad on September 24, the day before U.S. troops caught up with and killed a militant they described as the most senior al Qaeda leader in the capital, Abu Azzam.,

"'The Barber's' duties included altering senior al Qaeda in Iraq members' appearances by dying hair color, altering hairstyles and changing facial hair in their efforts to evade capture," the military said in the statement.

Also detained on September 24 was Ibrahim Muhammad Subhi Khayri al-Rihawi, the military said, naming him also as Abu Khalil and calling him a "close associate" of Abu Azzam.

"(He) served as an executive assistant for the terrorist emir. He also acted as a banker for Azzam and stored the terrorist organization's funds so they would not be confiscated should Abu Azzam be killed or captured," it added.

Abu Azzam was described by U.S. commanders after his death as second only to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in the Islamist network's organization in Iraq.

U.S. forces are keen to show progress in tracking down insurgents.

What's next? The most senior chef? The most senior dialysis nurse? The most senior food taster?

Wanted, dead or alive.

The Incompetence, The Corruption, The Cronyism, October 3, 2005 edition

The Incompetence:

Iraq, Iraq, Iraq. Our troops still aren't equipped, but is that surprising? This is the "greatest strategic disaster in US history", according to retired Army general William Odom.

Troops still without body armor
Shocking Combat Video—Paying for Rumsfeld's Mistakes

Retired general: Iraq invasion was 'strategic disaster'

WASHINGTON -- The invasion of Iraq was the “greatest strategic disaster in United States history,” a retired Army general said yesterday, strengthening an effort in Congress to force an American withdrawal beginning next year., Retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom, a Vietnam veteran, said the invasion of Iraq alienated America's Middle East allies, making it harder to prosecute a war against terrorists.

The U.S. should withdraw from Iraq, he said, and reposition its military forces along the Afghan-Pakistani border to capture Osama bin Laden and crush al Qaeda cells.

“The invasion of Iraq I believe will turn out to be the greatest strategic disaster in U.S. history,” said Odom, now a scholar with the Hudson Institute.

The Corruption:

From TIME:

The Hammer liked to travel. A lot. And apparently he hammered his staff about getting him free perks, so they spent a lot of time soliciting freebies from folks like Jack Abramoff. Problem? That's illegal, Tommy Boy. Enjoy jail.

Power Outage
House leader Tom DeLay's indictment upends the Republicans' to-do list and their outlook for next year's elections. Can they recover in time?

DeLay may not have seen the worst of it yet. Sources tell TIME that while Earle was closing in on DeLay from Austin, Texas, a federal investigation into the spreading scandal around disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, accused with Michael Scanlon (a former press secretary of DeLay's) of bilking their Indian-tribe clients out of $66 million, has begun lapping at the edges of the former majority leader's operation. A former Abramoff associate who was questioned by the FBI in August says, "They had a lot of e-mails, a lot of traffic between our office and DeLay's office." Many of those exchanges involved lavish travel by DeLay arranged by the lobbyist but requested, the e-mails suggest, by aides in DeLay's office. (House members are allowed to accept gifts under limited circumstances but not to solicit them.) Says the source: "There was nothing I saw that hit DeLay personally, but there was a lot of questionable stuff that was going on with his staff. 'Tom wants this. Tom wants that.' Was it really him or just the staff that was being aggressive?" DeLay's office wouldn't comment on the Justice Department investigation, and neither would the FBI.

The Cronyism:

We'll save "Heckuva Job Harriet" for tomorrow. For today, a party hack with absolutely no relevant qualifications appointed to a disaster relief position. Can you say "Heckuva Job Brownie, 2.0"? Meet Ellen Sauerbrey:

Shades of FEMA's Brown in Bush Pick

WASHINGTON — Less than a month after the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency stepped down amid accusations of cronyism and incompetence, the Bush administration is being assailed for nominating another political ally to head a key agency for responding to foreign disasters.

One leading international relief group is publicly opposing the appointment of Ellen Sauerbrey to the State Department's Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration, and others have expressed private concerns over her lack of experience in emergency response work.

Sauerbrey, a former member of the Republican National Committee who was Bush's Maryland state campaign chairwoman in 2000, is the U.S. representative to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

If confirmed by the Senate, which has not set a date for a hearing, Sauerbrey would head an agency with a $700-million annual budget that has responsibility for coordinating the U.S. government's response to refugee crises during natural disasters and wars.

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Sauerbrey, 68, was elected to the Maryland House of Delegates in 1978. She has been a conservative activist for decades but has no direct experience mobilizing responses to humanitarian emergencies.

"This is a job that deals with one of the great moral issues of our time," said Joel R. Charny of Refugees International in Washington, which opposes Sauerbrey's nomination. "This is not a position where you drop in a political hack."

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"I don't want to say this is Michael Brown redux," Charny said, "but what qualifications does she have to deal with the core issue of refugees? The answer is none."