RoveGate: 12 hour gap is page 2 of the Wash Post on Monday

Good Read More......

Teamsters and SEIU decide to leave the AFL-CIO

Interesting. Read More......

US military caught making shit up? Heavens, no!

It just can't be possible. What a world, what a world... Read More......

Open thread

Phantom Force. Hmmmmm Read More......

The Niger starvation crisis

Quite often scenarios like this are political problems but the current crisis in Niger is a combination of drought, which caused massive crop failures and locusts. Although warnings were given to the rich nations as early as last November, few countries have done anything to help. The situation today is that millions in this poor nation are starving and many children have already died as a result of malnutrition.

With advanced notice of this problem, I have to wonder just what the US and western embassies were thinking with letting this problem pass without any action. I also have to wonder about the effectiveness of the African Union who failed as well to bring proper attention to this looming problem.

As always seems to be the case, what would have cost so little and saved so many had we all taken early action will now cost the world so much more money. Meanwhile the people of Niger, children especially, will suffer and die because we failed to listen. What about the "culture of life" from this administration? Did they ignore these calls because there was no oil or because the people of Niger are black? Read More......

RoveGate: The 12 hour gap

Two points to Frank Rich for resuscitating an issue that I knew about, then forgot about. Namely, that then- White House counsel Alberto Gonzalez knew about the Justice Department investigation of the Valerie Plame leak but then didn't ask the White House staff to preserve all evidence until 12 hours later. In the mean time, he told Andy Card, White House chief of staff about it.

At the time, I remember thinking - gee, giving the staff time to shred the evidence legally? And now the issue comes up again.

Why would Gonzalez give the staff 12 hours? Why would he tell Andy Card THEN wait 12 hours to say "but you can't destroy any evidence"? it's one thing to not tell ANYONE for 12 hours, but to tell the chief of staff that you're going to go through all of his files and his staff's files, but then not give the "don't touch anything" order for another 12 hours. That smacks of obstruction of justice.

I sincerely hope Patrick Fitzgerald has looked into this aspect of the case.

Here's Arianna's blog's take on the gap:

On Face The Nation, Gonzales said the Justice Department contacted him at 8pm and, after responding by saying something to the effect that everyone had gone home for the night, Gonzales asked if it would be okay if he waited until 8am the next day to notify The White House Staff to "preserve all records" etc. Gonzales got permission to do so, but then - again this is Gonzales speaking on Face The Nation - he said he contacted Andrew Card to informally tell him what had happened.

I wish you could have seen Bob Schieffer's face as he came back from commercial break to his next guest, Senator Joe Biden, who he then took up this issue with. Bob Schieffer said to Joe Biden (I'm paraphrasing here...I'll post the transcript when it's available) "You know, everyone in The White House has these BlackBerrys. And you have to wonder what sort of message Andrew Card emailed at 8pm to the other people in The White House...what sort of documents could have been shredded in those 12 hours." There was little Joe Biden needed to add to what Bob Schieffer said. But Watergate - and the famous 18 1/2 minute gap on the audio recording (remember Nixon's secretary, Rosemary Woods posing for a picture in which she tried to demonstrate how she could have accidentally erased those 18 1/2 minutes from the tape?) - suddenly became the "pink elephant" in the room. You could see it on Schieffer and Biden's faces.

Read More......

Suicide truck bomber kills up to 40 in Baghdad

I think this is what counts as a good day in Iraq. Read More......

Wait, I'm Getting Confused...

When you talk about the latest bombing, are you talking about the latest bombing in Egypt, the latest bombing in London or the latest bombing in Iraq?

I feel so sorry for Bush -- it's hard to keep track of them all! Read More......

What did Bush know and when did he know it?

Check out this White House briefing from September 29, 2003.

In it, we see that McClellan said two years ago that Bush "knows" that Karl Rove wasn't involved in the leak. That means that Bush either relied on McClellan's public statements that Rove had told McClellan he wasn't involved, and Rove lied, or that Bush talked to Rove and Rove lied to the president as well, or that Bush knew the truth and permitted his staff to lie. In the best case scenario for Bush, Rove lied to White House staff about the scandal and let them go public with that lie. How does the president tolerate this?

And more importantly, are we to believe that since that time the president never called Karl into his office to find out WHY Karl lied to McClellan and why Karl let McClellan say publicly that "the president knows Karl Rove wasn't involved"? Think about that. Rove's lie made the White House issue a statement that the president himself "knows" Rove wasn't involved. How and why does President Bush tolerate someone who did that, now that we know the truth from Rove's own lawyer, that Rove was the leaker?

Apparently lying to top aides of the president and tricking those aides into publicly making a fool of the president, and a liar of him as well, is no big deal to George Bush.

Q So the President of the United States doesn't know whether or not this classified information was divulged, and he is only getting his information by reading the media?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?

Q He does not know whether or not the classified information was divulged here, and he's only getting his information from the media?

MR. McCLELLAN: No, we don't know -- we don't have any information that's been brought to our attention beyond what we've seen in the media reports. I've made that clear.

Q All right. Let me just follow up. You said this morning, "The President knows" that Karl Rove wasn't involved. How does he know that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I've made it very clear that it was a ridiculous suggestion in the first place. I saw some comments this morning from the person who made that suggestion, backing away from that. And I said it is simply not true. So, I mean, it's public knowledge. I've said that it's not true. And I have spoken with Karl Rove --

Q But how does --

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm not going to get into conversations that the President has with advisors or staff or anything of that nature; that's not my practice.

Q But the President has a factual basis for knowing that Karl Rove --

MR. McCLELLAN: I said it publicly. I said that --

Q But I'm not asking what you said, I'm asking if the President has a factual basis for saying -- for your statement that he knows Karl Rove --

MR. McCLELLAN: He's aware of what I've said, that there is simply no truth to that suggestion. And I have spoken with Karl about it.

Read More......

John McCain on Rove: It depends on what the definition of "negligent" is

On ABC's This Week, Stephanopoulos just read the text of the Classified Information NonDisclosure Agreenent that White House employees are required to sign:

"I have been advised that any breach of this Agreement may result in the termination of any security clearance I hold; removal from any position of special confidence and trust requiring such clearances; or the termination of my employment..."

Stephanopoulos: Do you believe that this agreement should be abided by?

McCain: I do, but that also implies that someone knowingly revealed...

Stephanopoulos: This covers negligent disclosures

McCain: Again I don't know what the definition of "negligent" is.

That's our boy. Read More......

Open thread

Be open Read More......

Suicide bomber kills 20 in Baghdad

Yet another bomber who attacked a police station with deadly results.

Egypt has rounded up 70 people after the bombings in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheik which killed 88 people. It's difficult to say if any of the detained people had any connection to the attacks or if it is more PR related. Read More......

Mugabe seeks new colonial power to dominate Zimbabwe

Fortunately for Mugabe, China seems willing and able to help out with money, military equipment and cheap goods. In a country with 70% unemployment and a foreign debt that could stretch to the moon, Mugabe has been fishing around with countries such as Iran, China, India and Malaysia for assistance with energy and loans. China, who already dominates many local neighboring countries, has been actively pursuing partnerships across Africa for oil and mining resources. Mugabe is so desperate for foreign assistance he has even handed over re-claimed farm properties to China which had previously been seized by the government from white farmers.

Perhaps China has missed the great long-term success that the US has had working with dictatorships. So how does Mugabe like being controlled by yet another world power? Read More......