White House knew the New Orleans levees failed even though a day later they denied it. Folks, they lied again.

There is nothing George Bush won't lie about.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Bush administration officials said they had been caught by surprise when they were told on Tuesday, Aug. 30, that a levee had broken, allowing floodwaters to engulf New Orleans.

But Congressional investigators have now learned that an eyewitness account of the flooding from a federal emergency official reached the Homeland Security Department's headquarters starting at 9:27 p.m. the day before, and the White House itself at midnight.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency official, Marty Bahamonde, first heard of a major levee breach Monday morning. By late Monday afternoon, Mr. Bahamonde had hitched a ride on a Coast Guard helicopter over the breach at the 17th Street Canal to confirm the extensive flooding. He then telephoned his report to FEMA headquarters in Washington, which notified the Homeland Security Department.

The president of the United State is a liar. And the Republicans used to tell us that Bill Clinton's one lie about oral sex was going to send all American children to hell, yet now we have a White House and a president who do nothing but lie about everything. Everything.

The Republicans control the White House, Congress, the Supreme Court, the US Senate and the US House. If you want to keep electing liars, if you're happy the way the country has been going the past five years that the Republicans have controled everything, then keep voting Republican. You get the government you deserve. Read More......

ThinkProgress breaks Bush-Abramoff story wide open

The articles aren't making clear that it was our buddies at ThinkProgress who blew the Abramoff-Bush connection wide open.

They got their hands on Abramoff's emails proving he had met Bush 12 times, and more. And now it's a massive story. Darn those bloggers.

From MSNBC:

Jack Abramoff said in correspondence made public Thursday that President Bush met him “almost a dozen” times, disputing White House claims Bush did not know the former lobbyist at the center of a corruption scandal.

“The guy saw me in almost a dozen settings, and joked with me about a bunch of things, including details of my kids. Perhaps he has forgotten everything, who knows,” Abramoff wrote in an e-mail to Kim Eisler, national editor for the Washingtonian magazine.

Abramoff added that Bush also once invited him to his Texas ranch.

The messages were made public by the American Progress Action Fund, a liberal activist group. Eisler confirmed their accuracy to Reuters but said he did not intend them to become public.

“They reflect the feeling of frustration he has not just with Bush but with all these guys claiming they didn’t know him,” said Eisler, who knew Abramoff through a book he wrote about the Pequot Indian tribe.

Abramoff pleaded guilty to fraud charges in early January and is cooperating with prosecutors in a corruption probe that could implicate lawmakers and officials across
Washington.

Bush has said he never had a discussion with Abramoff and does not remember having his picture taken with him.

Read More......

Kentucky blogger makes local House race competitive

Periodically we like to highlight a political 'blogger that may not be getting the attention he or she deserves. So kudos to Mark Nickolas at bluegrassreport.org for fighting the blue fight in one of the reddest of states, Kentucky.

Mark and I both got some love from Business Lexington this week. Mark led the fight online to convince Democrat Ken Lucas to come out of retirement and take back the seat representing Kentucky's fourth congressional district. Now it's gone from a sure Republican hold to one of the hottest congressional races of the year - all due to one local blogger.

You may remember this race -- French-Canadian wingnut Geoff Davis got a TON of help from his close pal Tom DeLay to edge out Nick Clooney (yes, THAT Clooney) for the open seat created by Ken Lucas' retirement. Davis also the guy that compared Jack Murtha to Ayman Zawahiri, Osama Bin Laden, and Abu Musab Zarqawi.

The Kentucky Democratic Party didn't have a candidate to face Davis until Mark Nickolas kept pushing for Lucas.

Not too shabby a day's worth for a blogger. Read More......

Extra! Extra! Senator Harry Reid caught doing...

...absolutely nothing. Read More......

Open thread

Just to remind folks, the Classified Ads on AMERICAblog are only $25 a pop. Why? Because they're not about making money, they're about promoting small blogs, small businesses, small books, etc. I don't allow any big companies, or big non-profits, or big people to buy them, I only accept ads from small ventures that can't afford to buy a "real" ad on a big blog. So, check out the classified - they're the ads in the left-hand column, about half-way down - they're text only, but they run for a week for 25 bucks. We only run around 5 or so at a time, so yours will be posted in the order I receive it (assuming I approve it), that means it could sit a few weeks for the other ads to run their course.

You can order the classifieds here. And the reason 2 week purchases are exorbitantly priced is that I don't want people buying up a big chunk of ad space for only $100 or $200 - if that happens, other people won't get their turn. You get a week. And as I said, this is not going to really plump up my bank account, I'm telling you this as a chance for you to push your favorite small venture. Read More......

Read More......

CNN's new employee, William Bennett, slanders Islam over cartoon issue

UPDATE: C&L; has the video of Bennet slandering Islam.

Well, I think CNN just bought itself a few more riots with their wonderful new employee, far-right conservative William Bennett, and his blanket slander of the world's one billion Muslims. This should be fun.

BENNETT: Let's go beyond cartoons. The other story out of Iran is the story of two young girls who were raped. The girl defended herself and stabbed her attacker. She is now sentenced to be hanged under Islamic law. This isn't a caricature, this isn't a cartoon, this is a peak into the soul of that faith, when it's run through a government. It's a real story and it deserves to be criticized.

ZOGBY: It's not a peak into Islam, it's a peek into the outrages that take place in contemporary Iran, which is not synonymous with Islam...

BENNETT: It's recognized Islamic theology, it is Islamic theology...

ZOGBY: The policy of the Catholics during the Inquisition is not synonymous with my church, nor is the policy of the Islamic extremists synonymous with the Prophet Mohammed. Let's be fair and use one standard. I agree, we have a double standard and frankly I think the way this story is cast is the wrong double standard.

BENNETT: Here's the standard. Catholicism is as Catholicism does, Judaism is as Judaism does, and by God Islam is as Islam does and what it's doing right now I wouldn't wanted to associated with.

ZOGBY: As President Bush has said correctly, hundreds of millions of believing Muslims do not practice these things, did not burn embassies, do not behead people...

BENNETT: Where are they? Where are they?

Yes, according to CNN's newest employee, Islam is a terrible faith, period.

CNN wanted to win some of the FOX audience by hiring far-right extremists like Bennett, and by God, by making slanderous comments about one of the world's leading religions, I'm sure CNN will increase its audience, in America at least. Sure, they're going to attract scores of neo-Nazis and Klansmen, but hey, ratings are ratings I guess. (Though I can't wait to see the reaction in Arab countries to Bennett's outrage.)

CNN should be proud of what it did today to further an intelligent discussion on a terribly important issue. Let's take bets on how many riots and deaths CNN is now going to be responsible for based on this segment alone. Read More......

Religious right outs high school kid for political gain

From the American Family Association's propaganda organ (note, I've x'd out the names of the kid's parents):

Two Christian parents say their son was a victim of homosexual indoctrination at the prestigious "Governor's School of North Carolina."

The Governor's School of North Carolina describes itself as "program for intellectually gifted high school students, integrating academic disciplines, the arts, and unique courses." But one North Carolina couple is suffering some after effects of their son's involvement in the program. xxxx and xxxx xxxxx say after their son attended a Governor's School seminar called "The New Gay Teenager," he began telling them he was unsure of his "sexual orientation."....

xxxx xxxxx says he noticed a big difference in his otherwise normal son upon his return from the school.

"He [said he] was thinking now that he perhaps was gay -- and of course I was floored by this [pronouncement] and was, like, 'where did this come from?' This kind of came out of left field," the dad says.

Congratulations. You've now made this kid and his sexuality a national story. I'm sure his classmates are very happy to know that he might be gay, and now much of the country knows. Gym class is gonna be a joy now. And walking home after school? Well, let's just say I'll be very surprised if this kid gets to walk home undisturbed. Are you people that frickin' stupid and naive and careless that you couldn't at the very least leave the parents' name out of the article?

How this helps a teenager's mental well-being, when teenagers already have more than enough to handle, is beyond me. Has no one in the religious right thought about what they're doing to this kid by telling the world about his sexual orientation? Seriously, are you people that uncaring and sick that you would use a child in this way? Are you not the least bit worried about what a young kid might do, facing this kind of national attention, let alone attention from everyone in his hometown?

Jesus, people, maybe it's time you starting put the Christ back in Christian. If you think a school seminar "made" this kid gay, you are out of your minds. Whatever feelings this kid is having, he's had for them for a while, he didn't just develop them at a seminar. The seminar simply gave him the courage to tell his parents what he was feeling. And by blowing this up to a national religious rights public relations offensive, you've taught that kid one very important lesson about coming clean to his parents: Don't. Think you're gay, hide it. Think you're pregnant, hide it. Questioning your religion, hide it. Do you have anything to tell your parents that might concern them, confuse them, or anger them? Hide it. That's what the religious right wants today's kids in America to do - don't trust your parents, courtesy of the religious right.

If that's the lesson you wanted to be teaching kids, to lie and hide things from their parents, well congrats. You just ruined a kid's life. I'd like to think that the radical right would prefer that teenage kids not kill themselves. But honestly, I can't say with any certainty that I believe that to be true.

What would Jesus do? I doubt the religious right hate groups could care less. Read More......

Growing questions about whether Bush lied today about the supposed threat to LA that he supposedly foiled

1. Los Angeles Mayor knows nothing about the supposed threat:

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday he was blindsided by President Bush's announcement of new details on a purported 2002 hijacking plot aimed at a downtown skyscraper, and described communication with the White House as "nonexistent."

"I'm amazed that the president would make this (announcement) on national TV and not inform us of these details through the appropriate channels," the mayor said in an interview with The Associated Press. "I don't expect a call from the president — but somebody."

2. Bush's claim to have thwarted an attack on LA is disputed by former FBI official

TODAY BUSH SAID: Bush Touted Thwarting of Post 9/11 U.S. Terrorism Plot. In a speech today, Bush told members of the National Guard Association of a foiled 2002 Al Qaeda plot to fly a plane into LA's US Bank Tower, the tallest building on the West Coast. Bush said that the terrorist's plan was put into place after 9/11 but "was derailed in early 2002, when a Southeast Asian nation arrested a key al Qaeda operative." Bush added, "Subsequent debriefings and other intelligence operations made clear the intended target and how al Qaeda hoped to execute" the plot, and helped other allies capture the ringleaders." - Washington Post, 2/9/06

BUT IN 2004: FBI Counterterrorism Official Said He Knew of No Thwarted Al Qaeda Attacks. After a CIA official claimed last year that the government had "probably prevented a few aviation attacks against both the East and West Coasts" since 9/11, John Pistole, the FBI's counterterrorism director, said he was "not sure what [the CIA] was referring to." - 9/11 Commission Testimony, 6/16/2004; New York Daily News, 6/17/04

Read More......

White House refuses to respond to new questions about Bush meeting Abramoff a dozen times

New evidence has come forward showing that Bush met Abramoff almost a dozen times - a whole other story than the supposed 5 photo ops the White House claims Bush had. Abramoff says that during the meetings Bush even brought up details about Abramoff's kids, showing that Bush clearly remembered Abramoff and meeting him. But now Bush has no idea who Abramoff is.

Bush is lying to the American people about his ties to Abramoff, as this White House always lies. I wonder if the war resolution gave him that authority too?

ThinkProgress has the transcript and video of Scottie dodging the question today at the White House. Read More......

National Journal: Cheney gave Scooter Libby orders to leak classified info against Wilsom/Plame

FURTHER UPDATE: One thing that is confusing from the Nat'l Journal story is the extent to which Cheney was involved in the leak of Plame's name. But either way, if Bush and Cheney authorized Libby to leak classified information to bolster the case for Iraq, that right there is what we here in Washington call a crime. Especially when the White House and Alberto Gonzales are going nutso over investigating the "crime" committed when the NYT received leaked info about the NSA domestic spying issue. How is it a horrible dangerous crime to leak that info, yet a-okay for Bush and Cheney to authorize leaks left and right with regards to the war in Iraq, which THEY tell us is directly tied to 9/11, so it's classified info of the most important sort?

UPDATE: The National Journal story is here.

Holy shit.

Lewis “Scooter” Libby testified to a federal grand jury that he had been "authorized" by his boss, Vice President Dick Cheney, and other White House "superiors" in the summer of 2003 to disclose classified information to journalists to defend the Bush administration's use of prewar intelligence, according to an article posted today by the National Journal.

Reporter Murray Waas writes that this information comes from attorneys familiar with the matter, and to court records. Waas has broken several stories on the Plame/CIA leak case in recent weeks for the nonpartisan National Journal.

“Libby specifically claimed that in one instance he had been authorized to divulge portions of a then-still highly classified National Intelligence Estimate regarding Saddam Hussein's purported efforts to develop nuclear weapons,” Waas writes, according to correspondence recently filed in federal court by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald.

“Beyond what was stated in the court paper, say people with firsthand knowledge of the matter, Libby also indicated what he will offer as a broad defense during his upcoming criminal trial: that Vice President Cheney and other senior Bush administration officials had earlier encouraged and authorized him to share classified information with journalists to build public support for going to war. Later, after the war began in 2003, Cheney authorized Libby to release additional classified information, including details of the NIE, to defend the administration's use of prewar intelligence in making the case for war.

“Libby testified to the grand jury that he had been authorized to share parts of the NIE with journalists in the summer of 2003 as part of an effort to rebut charges then being made by former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson that the Bush administration had misrepresented intelligence information to make a public case for war. “

Read More......

White House never told L.A. they were an alleged target

This is classic. Of course, Rove wouldn't want to step on a p.r. stunt by actually conferring with local officials. Because for the Bush team, it's all about politics:

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said Thursday he was blindsided by President Bush's announcement of new details on a purported 2002 hijacking plot aimed at a downtown skyscraper, and described communication with the White House as "nonexistent."

"I'm amazed that the president would make this (announcement) on national TV and not inform us of these details through the appropriate channels," the mayor told The Associated Press. "I don't expect a call from the president - but somebody."

Nothing about the White House should amaze anyone anymore. Read More......

Open Thread

Keep it cranking....lots going on... Read More......

Frist & Hastert rigged defense legislation, without anybody knowing they slipped in language protecting pharmaceutical lobbyists from lawsuits

Another BIG story. Basically, Frist and Hastert secretly slipped language into the defense bill, AFTER IT HAD ALREADY BEEN VOTED ON, language that nobody knew about, that wasn't agreed to, so it became law. And why did they do it? Well, Frist has received over a quart of a million dollars from big pharmaceutical lobbyists - so you paint the picture.

Read this entire article:

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and House Speaker Dennis Hastert engineered a backroom legislative maneuver to protect pharmaceutical companies from lawsuits, say witnesses to the pre-Christmas power play.

The language was tucked into a Defense Department appropriations bill at the last minute without the approval of members of a House-Senate conference committee, say several witnesses, including a top Republican staff member.

In an interview, Frist, a doctor and Tennessee Republican, denied that the wording was added that way.

Trial lawyers and other groups condemn the law, saying it could make it nearly impossible for people harmed by a vaccine to force the drug maker to pay for their injuries....

Frist has received $271,523 in campaign donations from the pharmaceutical and health products industry since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a watchdog group.

He is also a possible candidate for president in 2008.

One more VERY odd thing, the staff director of the Senate Appropriations Committee is talking on the record about this, which is very strange since he's a Republican, his boss is a Republican, and he's pointing the finger at Republicans. He's naming names, including the names of several Republican Senators. It sounds like GOP Senator Cochran, the actual chairman of the Senate approps committee, was left out of the process, they went around him, so Keith, his chief of staff for the committee, is now speaking publicly. Wow.

Keith Kennedy, who works for Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss., as staff director for the Senate Appropriations Committee, said at a seminar for reporters last month that the language was inserted by Frist and Hastert, R-Ill., after the conference committee ended its work.

"There should be no dispute. That was an absolute travesty," Kennedy said at a videotaped Washington, D.C., forum sponsored by the Center on Congress at Indiana University.

"It was added after the conference had concluded. It was added at the specific direction of the speaker of the House and the majority leader of the Senate. The conferees did not vote on it. It's a true travesty of the process."

After the conference committee broke up, a meeting was called in Hastert's office, Kennedy said. Also at the meeting, according to a congressional staffer, were Frist, Stevens and House Majority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo.

"They (committee staff members) were given the language and then it was put in the document," Kennedy said.

PS The Republicans control the Senate, the House, the White House and the Supreme Court. If you don't like what you're seeing, vote for a change in November. Read More......

Wash Times: 1) Bush is spying on American-American phone calls IN THE US; 2) Known Al Qaeda agents are running free inside US; 3) Spy program useless

It's hard to overstate the significance of this article in the Washington Times' magazine.

1) The article makes clear that Bush is spying on Americans talking to Americans inside the United States, even when neither of the two Americans are members of Al Qaeda or an affiliate.

That totally contradicts what Attorney General Gonzales told Congress this past week, and what the president has been saying for over a month - namely, that the ONLY phone calls being tapped are ones with one party abroad and one party being a member or agent of Al Qaeda.

The sources provided guidelines to how the administration has employed the surveillance program. They said the National Security Agency in cooperation with the FBI was allowed to monitor the telephone calls and e-mails of any American believed to be in contact with a person abroad suspected of being linked to al Qaeda or other terrorist groups.

At that point, the sources said, all of the communications of that American would be monitored, including calls made to others in the United States. The regulations under the administration's surveillance program do not require any court order.

2) The article makes clear that Bush's domestic spy program is totally ineffective and unnecessary as Al Qaeda stopped using the phones and email a long time ago.

The Bush administration's surveillance policy has failed to make a dent in the war against al Qaeda.

U.S. law enforcement sources said that more than four years of surveillance by the National Security Agency has failed to capture any high-level al Qaeda operative in the United States. They said al Qaeda insurgents have long stopped using the phones and even computers to relay messages. Instead, they employ couriers.

"They have been way ahead of us in communications security," a law enforcement source said. "At most, we have caught some riff-raff. But the heavies remain free and we believe some of them are in the United States."....

The assertions by the law enforcement sources dispute President Bush's claim that the government surveillance program has significantly helped in the fight against terrorism. The president said the program, which goes beyond the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, limits eavesdropping to international phone calls.

3) The article says that the Bush teams knows of specific Al Qaeda members in the US at the moment, but because of Bush's incompetence he has been unable to find them.

The law enforcement sources said the intelligence community has identified several al Qaeda agents believed to be in the United States. But the sources said the agents have not been found because of insufficient intelligence and even poor analysis.

Rush Limbaugh, FOX News, the right-wing blogs, and the rest of the Republican cheerleading team can all huff and puff as much as they want to defend this president for their own partisan political reasons, but his incompetence is putting our lives, and our way of life, at risk more and more each day. And all the Republicans who voted for Bush can play politics all they want in an effort to cover Bush's ass, but we're talking about our lives here and our future. You voted for this man. Now do something about it. Read More......

Oh, and by the way, we're still doing that AMERICAblog fundraising this week

I kind of forget this is fundraising week for AMERICAblog. Not for body armor, but for ye olde blog itself.

As you may know, this is now my full time job and sole source of income. I also am paying my regular writers what I can. And we're moving over to a new server, redesigning the entire blog, creating our own software to run the blog, and will need a part-time tech guy managing the site from here on out (that and the hosting will cost us around $2500 a month). So, that's why we're holding monthly fundraisers. The ad revenues are picking up, which is great, and at some point I'd like the ad revenues to be the sole source of income for the blog, using the fundraising from you guys to be for only special projects like the body armor, or helping us launch a particular campaign, or help support a particular candidate. But in the meantime, we need both.

So, if the spirit moves you, consider contributing - think of us as any other magazine your subscribe to, or any other advocacy group you donate to. Except we're cuter.

Thanks so much, JOHN Read More......

Remember that Bush's Vice President, Dick Cheney, voted AGAINST creating a federal holiday honoring Martin Luther King

Tell me again why the speakers should have sat quietly by while Bush and Cheney attended Coretta Scott King's funeral? Oh yes, Cheney was there. The same Dick Cheney who voted AGAINST creating a federal holiday to honor Martin Luther King.

So, tell me again about the great respect Dick Cheney and George Bush have for African-Americans. Speaking of which, how is that New Orleans reconstruction doing?

From USNews & World Reprot:

President Bush was only seconds into his State of the Union speech Tuesday night when we saw our first sign of blatant hypocrisy.

After Bush paid a lofty tribute to the late Coretta Scott King, Republicans and Democrats alike rose in applause. Behind the president, so did Vice President Cheney. He should have remained in his seat.

Perhaps Cheney would like everyone, including the TV viewers, to forget that as a congressman from Wyoming, his vote in 1979 against making Martin Luther King's birthday a national holiday helped block the legislation. Four years later, he voted for it when it was an easier choice....

Following King's assassination in Memphis, the nation needed to honor his memory. It was a fitting and proper thing to do for members of Congress of both parties and both races, and from both South and North.

But Dick Cheney took a pass.

It was not a profile in courage for the same man who with his party ripped into Democrat John Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, given that the vice president took five student deferments to sit out the conflict at home.

Read More......

None of the usual SOTU bounce for Bush

Via Pew, he's stuck at 40:

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted Feb. 1-5 among 1,502 Americans, finds that President Bush received no bounce from his Jan. 31 State of the Union address. Bush's approval rating stands at 40% ­ largely unchanged over the past month.

Explains why they are trying to scare Americans in to liking him again. Read More......

Bush/Rove launch "Campaign of Fear, Version 2006" -- Hillary calls them on it

CNN is reporting that Bush is going to give another speech on terrorism today at the National Guard Memorial. This one is going to be really scary. He's going to tell us about terror plots against America. So, be afraid. Of course, CNN will cover this "major" speech live.

This is all part of the GOP election plan for 2006. Despite being called "angry" by a certain self-loathing GOP chair, Hillary Clinton called the Bush team on their fear-mongering yesterday in a speech before the UAW:

The New York Democrat, facing re-election this year and considered a potential White House candidate in 2008, said Republicans won the past two elections on the issue of national security and "they're doing it to us again."

She said a speech by presidential adviser Karl Rove two weeks ago showed the GOP election message is: "All we've got is fear and we're going to keep playing the fear card."

In that speech, Rove suggested Republicans can prevail in 2006 by showing Democrats had undermined terrorism-fighting efforts by questioning Bush's authority to allow wiretapping without getting court approval first.

Clinton said a convention of United Auto Workers that Democrats should not be afraid to question Bush's handling of the war.

"I take a back seat to nobody when it comes to fighting terrorism and standing up for national homeland security," she said.

Referring to fugitive al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, Clinton said, "You cannot explain to me why we have not captured or killed the tallest man in Afghanistan."

She added, "Since when has it been part of American patriotism to keep our mouths shut?"

It's not. Hillary and the other Democrats have to speak out. Americans don't trust Bush. They know he lies. What would Karl Rove do if the situation were reversed? He'd use their purported strength against them. That means a concerted campaign to let Americans know the truth: Bush is a failure at keeping us safe.

Democrats also cannot let the American people forget that the GOP mastermind of fear, Karl Rove, undermined national security. The Bush White House is harboring a top aide who put the rest of us in danger. Read More......

Dems. promise "pithy agenda"

USA Today reports that the Democrats are working on the 2006 policy agenda -- and it's going to be pithy:

Democratic leaders say they'll soon release a pithy agenda akin to the "Contract with America" that helped Republicans take over Congress in 1994. But the past two weeks underscore the difficulties of setting clear priorities and speaking with one voice.

Seizing the moment offered by President Bush's budget and State of the Union message, Democrats came forward in droves to float dozens of their own ideas and themes. They proposed energy independence in 10 years; universal broadband access in five years; a cleaned up Congress in 100 days; 100,000 new soldiers; 100,000 new engineers, scientists and mathematicians; a 17% tax credit to companies that give health insurance.

It's a good idea to come up with the pithy agenda. But, there better be an even savvier strategy to win that backs up the pithy agenda.

For everyone reviewing the history of how Gingrich led the Republican charge to re-take Congress, it was a long-term political effort accompanied by a short-term policy strategy. The "Contract for America" wasn't launched until late in the campaign of 1994. That didn't come easy for Newt:

Opposition parties typically have trouble coalescing around a single set of ideas. Often they don't even want to. "There's always a reluctance to stand behind a positive agenda for fear it will give ammunition to the other side," says John Pitney, a former House Republican aide who now is a government professor at Claremont McKenna College. He says it took former House speaker Newt Gingrich 14 years to develop the contract that unified his party.

Every day for 14 years, Gingrich and his band of back-benchers challenged the Democratic leadership. They understood that as the minority party, they couldn't do policy, so they did politics. Every day. Hard ball politics. And, eventually, they called him Mr. Speaker.

While the Democratic leaders come up with an agenda, it would be great if a few Democratic Members of Congress actually played politics. Here's an idea, review the Gingrich strategy. Start your own back benchers effort, because, truth be told, most of you -- and your staffs -- aren't really doing policy. Every day challenge the GOP leadership. Play hard ball. It made Gingrich the Speaker. Read More......

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Okay, "nerve gas warnings" last night in the Senate...it's an election year so how long before the terror warnings start again? What's your guess? When will Rove choreograph the first warning and how many til election day? Read More......

Wash Post: Gonzales apears to have lied to Senate Judiciary Committee this week about Bush's domestic spying program

Buried in a front-page story in Thursday's Washington Post are the following two paragraphs:

Shortly after the warrantless eavesdropping program began, then-NSA Director Michael V. Hayden and Ashcroft made clear in private meetings that the president wanted to detect possible terrorist activity before another attack. They also made clear that, in such a broad hunt for suspicious patterns and activities, the government could never meet the FISA court's probable-cause requirement, government officials said.

So it confused the FISA court judges when, in their recent public defense of the program, Hayden and Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales insisted that NSA analysts do not listen to calls unless they have a reasonable belief that someone with a known link to terrorism is on one end of the call. At a hearing Monday, Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the "reasonable belief" standard is merely the "probable cause" standard by another name.

Gee, aren't you glad you didn't swear Gonzales in now, Senator Specter? Absolutely pathetic. The Republicans control the US Senate and the US House, and nothing is going to change until we throw the bums out.

And PS, the article also says the program is illegal. Read More......

Open thread

Gonna slip one of these in before bedtime. Read More......