She's going to hell

Cat evolution, indeed. Everyone knows God made kittens 6,000 years ago as pets for dinosaurs. Read More......

Reuters: Delay's job in "mounting jeopardy"

Good. Read More......

Open thread

I'm still stunned by that bizarre CNN story earlier this evening about the Amanpour spy issue. I'm sure Christiane is happy to find out that the Bush administration says they didn't spy on her because, well, you know, it's against the law. And here I thought it was legal for the NSA to spy on innocent American journalists. Thank God CNN's ace reporters clarified that confusion.

CrooksAndLiars.com should have the video soon, then I'll post it and you all can weigh in.

Special points for the first person to count the correct number of suppressed giggles from CNN reporter John King.

More on CNN tomorrow.

PS I just had a thought. Rather than have Senator Specter waste days of time, and lots of money, holding hearings investigating exactly what the administration did with its secret and very likely illegal domestic spy program, maybe we could just have CNN ask an anonymous Bush administration source if it's illegal for the administration to break the law? Read More......

Will Congress let NSA whistleblower testify?

From the Washington Times, no less

In his Dec. 16 letter, Mr. Tice wrote that his testimony would be given under the provisions of the 1998 Intelligence Community Whistleblower Protection Act, which makes it legal for intelligence officials to disclose wrongdoing without being punished.

The activities involved the NSA director, the NSA deputies chief of staff for air and space operations and the secretary of defense, he stated.

"These ... acts were conducted via very highly sensitive intelligence programs and operations known as Special Access Programs," Mr. Tice said....

A former National Security Agency official wants to tell Congress about electronic intelligence programs that he asserts were carried out illegally by the NSA and the Defense Intelligence Agency.

Russ Tice, a whistleblower who was dismissed from the NSA last year, stated in letters to the House and Senate intelligence committees that he is prepared to testify about highly classified Special Access Programs, or SAPs, that were improperly carried out by both the NSA and the DIA.

"I intend to report to Congress probable unlawful and unconstitutional acts conducted while I was an intelligence officer with the National Security Agency and with the Defense Intelligence Agency," Mr. Tice stated in the Dec. 16 letters, copies of which were obtained by The Washington Times.

I didn't realize there was a whistleblower statute covering spies. That would appear to cover any government employees who came forward to the NYT, and it suggests that Bush's investigation of the whistleblower could constitute illegal retaliation. Read More......

Is there a man left inside of Arlen Specter?

Seriously. Put all the Republicans in Congress together in one room and see if they can scrape together a set of balls between them. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA) claims he's going to hold hearings on Bush's illegal domestic spying later this month, but what kind of hearings will Specter hold? Potemkin hearings? Or something more real, investigative, and objective?

The White House today refused to say whether they'd cooperate with Specter's hearing. We know the White House refused to cooperate with the independent, bipartisan September 11 commission, and that commission was trying to figure out how to stop us all from getting nuked by Osama. Even so, the White House would have nothing to do with it. What makes anyone think the White House is going to cooperate with hearings investigating whether they did in fact violate federal law by wiretapping innocent American citizens in our country? Fat chance.

This is a White House that doesn't even think it's covered by the rule of law, that's why they spied on us illegally in the first place. Does Arlen Specter really think there's a bat's chance in hell they're going to recognize Congress' constitutionally-demanded oversight in this matter, at least without a fight?

And more importantly, is there enough of a real man, a real US Senator, left inside of Arlen Specter, after years of kow-towing to the far-right wing of his party just to save his job (what little of it is now left), to actually now DO his job and find out what the hell the administration is doing, whether it's legal, and what should be done about it?

Time will tell.

(And for you feminists out there I thought of asking if there was a woman left inside of Arlen Specter, but that didn't sound right...) Read More......

CNN covers Amanpour spy story

Ok, CNN just did the story. Here's the quick summary:

Jacki "Blog Chick" Schechner did a good summary of how the story broke online. Then national security correspondent David Ensor gave his report. And it was, uh, a bit surreal.

A senior intelligence official has denied that Christiane Amanpour or any CNN journalists are or have been "the target" of any NSA wiretapping (any CNN journalists? how about any journalists period? strange qualification for the official to make). Ok. Not that they'd admit it to you if they were spying on you, but even if true, what if Amanpour or other journalists just happened to have been overheard?

Well, CNN reports that the administration told them today that "by law" NSA has to destroy any wiretaps that inadvertently pick up conversations with Americans or people who work for US companies "by law" it is required to be erased.

Ok, stop right there.

By law? You mean the same anti-wiretapping law that George Bush just broke and just told us he doesn't have to abide by because we're at war and he's commander in chief? Come on guys, I can't believe no one at CNN cracked a smile when they heard this. And please don't present this as definitive proof without noting the fact that the administration says it can break the law and many think they have broken it already. Not to mention, this totally contradicts what the president told us about taping conversations of 500+ American who have supposedly spoken with Al Qaeda affiliates - he's already admitted that Americans can be taped.

So you mean if Christiane spoke to a source who was an Al Qaeda affiliate the administration would NOT tape the call and if they did accidentally, they'd delete it? Give me a break. And in any case, Bush already admitted to tapping Americans so this defense is already moot. Unfortunately, CNN didn't mention that fact either.

And finally, while I'm glad CNN dug into this, asking a "senior intelligence official" to look into this - then having him get back to you and say "nope, nothing there, we didn't break the law" isn't really very conclusive evidence, don't you think? Did you expect him to get back to you and say "yes, we are tapping journalists?"

One of Atrios' readers published a rush transcript that reads correct to me:

ENSOR: Well, John, I'm told considerable manhours today went into making sure the answer to CNN would be accurate. A senior US intelligence official tells use that our colleague Christiane Amanpour has never been targetted by the National Security Agency, and nor has any other CNN journalist. Now, the NSA as you know is the eavesdropping intelligence agency, the US government's big ear, and from time to time, the official says, wiretaps overseas or other intercepts turn out to include Americans, or what they call 'US persons', which includes people who works for US companies, it does so inadvertently. But if the NSA finds it has tape and transcript of such a person, by law, it is required to be immediately erased, deleted, gotten rid of. US intelligence officials rarely comment on who they may or may not have collected information about, but because of all the web blogosphere attention this was getting today, this senior official was willing to look into it for us, and to be quite clear in his denial -- frankly, I get the impression the NSA is as puzzled by Andrea Mitchell's question, and NBC's decision to put it out on the web, as we were.

Another Atrios reader summed up my thoughts exactly:

I want to have David Ensor shilling for me if I'm ever pulled over for speeding.

"But officer, my sources tell me drivers from time to time go too fast, but by law must immediately slow down. You don't need to see his identification."

Read More......

About that Wal-Mart story

There's a story going around about Wal-Mart, and I'm sorry, but I don't buy it. I'm not saying the story is wrong - it's not - but the conclusions folks are taking from the story... well, I just don't agree.

Here's the deal. On Wal-Mart's Web site you can find the movie "Planet of the Apes." And if you look at "similar items," you'll see an MLK history and other stuff dealing with the black community. Though now that I check, it's no longer showing "black" items - though I did see them on the site earlier.

A lot of folks are now sending this around accusing Wal-Mart of racism. Sorry, but that's ridiculous.

There's lots to criticize Wal-Mart over, but the Planet of the Apes isn't one of them. Companies can be evil, but they're not stupid, or not THIS stupid. Wal-Mart has been accused recently of discriminating against people with disabilities, but they weren't dumb enough to put it on their Web site.

All I'm saying is that just because Wal-Mart sometimes sucks doesn't mean they suck in this instance. I just don't believe any major American corporation is going to link the Planet of the Apes and black people, it's just not gonna happen. Something obviously went awry here, but I just refuse to buy that racism is the cause. Sorry.

Wal-Mart just released the following statement:

MEDIA STATEMENT

We are heartsick that this happened and are currently doing everything possible to correct the problem. The offensive combinations that have been identified will be removed from the site by 5:30 CT today. However, with thousands of movie items available, there is an almost endless number of possible combinations. Because of that, we will be shutting down our entire movie cross-selling system until the problem is resolved.

We are deeply sorry that this happened.

Our system, like those of most other on-line buying sites, refers buyers interested in a particular movie to other movies through a technical process known as "mapping."

Walmart.com's item mapping process does not work correctly and at this point is mapping seemingly random combinations of titles. We were horrified to discover that some hurtful and offensive combinations are being mapped together.

To further illustrate the bizarre nature of this technical issue, the site is also mapping movies such as Home Alone and Power Puff Girls to African American literature.

Read More......

Amanpour unaware of eavesdropping, CNN is looking into it

Getting more and more interesting:

Twenty-four hours after contacting CNN for comment on this post, a spokesperson released the following statement:

"Neither CNN nor Christiane Amanpour is aware of alleged eavesdropping by the government on Ms. Amanpour and we are unable to confirm this story. We are looking into it."

Read More......

Brilliant

From AmericanIdle.net

Read More......

22 House Democrats write Bush asking if reporters or members of Congress were caught up in NSA wiretapping

Excellent, Smithers. Read More......

Frist picks Santorum, head of "K Street Project," to lead ethics reform fight

Hey, why not just put Osama in charge of Homeland Security? (Though I understand his daughter did get a recess appointment.)

Kidding. But not about Santorum. CREW weighs in.

The choice of Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) this week to head the ethics charge in the Senate demonstrates Majority Leader Bill Frist’s (R-TN) deaf ear to the importance of high ethical standards in the Senate.

According to The Washington Post, shortly before Thanksgiving, Senator Frist, asked Sen. Santorum to draft a package of lobbying restrictions.

“Senator Santorum’s history of unethical behavior suggests that he is more likely to undercut any real ethics reform than he is to toughen ethics rules,” Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW said today. “We strongly question Senator Frist’s decision to choose a Senator that CREW listed as one of the 13 most corrupt Members of Congress.”

Among Sen. Santorum’s unethical conduct:

•Sen. Santorum runs the K Street project, created by conservative activist Grover Norquist and former Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), in which he ensures that all top lobbying and trade association jobs are filled by Republicans;

Read More......

Rather public Bush/Rove critic put on "no-fly" list

I know Jim Moore. This is creepy. He's the author of the rather well-known book "Bush's Brain" - it's an in-depth look at Karl Rove. Well, seems Jim got put on the no-fly list. I wonder how Christiane's get around nowadays...

"I'm sorry, sir," she said. "There seems to be a problem. You've been placed on the No Fly Watch List."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm afraid there isn't much more that I can tell you," she explained. "It's just the list that's maintained by TSA to check for people who might have terrorist connections."

"You're serious?"

"I'm afraid so, sir. Here's an 800 number in Washington. You need to call them before I can clear you for the flight."

Exasperated, I dialed the number from my cell, determined to clear up what I was sure was a clerical error. The woman who answered offered me no more information than the ticket agent.

"Mam, I'd like to know how I got on the No Fly Watch List."

"I'm not really authorized to tell you that, sir," she explained after taking down my social security and Texas driver's license numbers.

"What can you tell me?"

"All I can tell you is that there is something in your background that in some way is similar to someone they are looking for."

"Well, let me get this straight then," I said. "Our government is looking for a guy who may have a mundane Anglo name, who pays tens of thousands of dollars every year in taxes, has never been arrested or even late on a credit card payment, is more uninteresting than a Tupperware party, and cries after the first two notes of the national anthem? We need to find this guy. He sounds dangerous to me."

"I'm sorry, sir, I've already told you everything I can."

"Oh, wait," I said. "One last thing: this guy they are looking for? Did he write books critical of the Bush administration, too?"

Read More......

Open thread

Doing a radio interview right now about Andrea Mitchell, station in the northeast... Read More......

Pat Robertson says God struck down Ariel Sharon

These are George Bush's friends.

From the January 5 edition of CBN's The 700 Club:

ROBERTSON: I have said last year that Israel was entering into the most dangerous period of its entire existence as a nation. That is intensifying this year with the loss of Sharon. Sharon was personally a very likeable person. I am sad to see him in this condition. But I think we need to look at the Bible and the Book of Joel. The prophet Joel makes it very clear that God has enmity against those who, quote, "divide my land." God considers this land to be his. You read the Bible, he says, "This is my land." And for any prime minister of Israel who decides he going carve it up and give it away, God says, "No. This is mine." And the same thing -- I had a wonderful meeting with Yitzhak Rabin in 1974. He was tragically assassinated, and it was terrible thing that happened, but nevertheless, he was dead. And now Ariel Sharon, who was again a very likeable person, a delightful person to be with. I prayed with him personally. But here he is at the point of death. He was dividing God's land, and I would say woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the EU, the United Nations or United States of America. God said, "This land belongs to me, you better leave it alone."

Read More......

Hotline inside-the-beltway journal covers Amanpour/Mitchell spy story

UPDATE: Note this little ditty at the end of the Hotline story:

A few blog posts, including one by Philadelphia Daily News' Will Bunch, raise the prospect of whether Amanpour husband/ex-State Dept. spokesperson/KE'04 adviser Jamie Rubin might have been the intended target.

Hotline is a must-read for beltway insiders:

When It Rains, It Amanpours

On the left-hand side, a quieter but curiouser bombshell has dropped, where NBC News has been caught in an error of proportions yet to be determined. Does NBC have evidence that the NSA wiretapped or otherwise spied on CNN's Christiane Amanpour? If so, how did NBC end up accidentally tipping their hand? Or is this all a big misunderstanding? NBC was forced to respond within hours, and it does seem that something more will come of this -- but no one knows how or when that will come about....

And a more:

EAVESDROPPING I: You Bright And Risen Angles

In mid-afternoon on 1/4, DC-based liberal activist John Aravosis pointed out that MSNBC.com had removed a couple lines from its online transcript a segment of NBC's Andrea Mitchell's interview of NYT's James Risen. In the redacted segment, Mitchell suggested the possibility the NSA had spied on CNN's Amanpour. From the original:

MITCHELL: "Do you have any information about reporters being swept up in this net?" RISEN: "No, I don't. It's not clear to me. That's one of the questions we'll have to look into the future. Were there abuses of this program or not? I don't know the answer to that." MITCHELL: "You don't have any information, for instance, that a very prominent journalist, Christiane Amanpour, might have been eavesdropped upon?" RISEN: "No, no I hadn't heard that."

Compare the above to the version available online, which snips the 2nd exchange. More Aravosis: "Since when is NBC in the business of deleting entire paragraphs from their official transcripts? What's going on here?"

Later that p.m., NBC released a statement to Brian Stelter of TV Newser: "Unfortunately this transcript was released prematurely. It was a topic on which we had not completed our reporting, and it was not broadcast on 'NBC Nightly News' nor on any other NBC News program. We removed that section of the transcript so that we may further continue our inquiry."

== An excited Aravosis followed up, calling the statement "incredibly big news": "NBC has acknowledged that they have information to suggest that Bush may have spied (be spying) on ... Amanpour and that NBC is currently investigating that very possibility. This isn't just conjecture anymore, NBC has confirmed it."

Left-leaning Gary Farber: "It's still just speculation about speculation, no matter how much Aravosis likes to trumpet that sort of thing as "confirmed! proven! fact!" and the like, but it's definitely intriguing."

[NOTE FROM JOHN: Left-leaning Gary Farber should read what I write before he gives cute bitchy quotes. The only "fact" that I claim is that Mitchell said it, that she wouldn't have said it unless she had reason to, and that NBC has now admitted they ARE investigating whether Bush spied on Amanpour. Those are incontrovertible.]

== Header over "Simpsons" vocal wizard Harry Shearer's column at Huffington Post: "Hello, Christiane? What's that Clicking?"

== Atrios: "Either way, it is some story. Andrea Mitchell has reason to think/conjecture/know that Amanpour was spied on by the administration, and for some reason as yet unknown she didn't want that little detail being public yet."

== Josh Marshall: "Despite the fact that it's framed as a question, Mitchell inevitably becomes in some sense a fact witness for the underlying claim. She legitimizes the question and strongly suggests she has at least some evidence that it is true. Okay, so someone at NBC screwed up. Mistakes happen. But the bell can't be unrung."

A few blog posts, including one by Philadelphia Daily News' Will Bunch, raise the prospect of whether Amanpour husband/ex-State Dept. spokesperson/KE'04 adviser Jamie Rubin might have been the intended target. Bunch also suggests "her recent reporting would have brought her into direct contact with members of al Qaeda," but also darkly hints that the U.S. gov't believes she is somehow working on behalf of al Qaeda.

Read More......

Josh Marshall on NBC deleting question about whether Bush was spying on CNN's Christiane Amanpour

Josh Marshall:

Okay, this really does require a bit more explanation.

As John Aravosis points out here, Andrea Mitchell is pretty clearly telling us that she has at least some evidence that Christiane Amanpour got swept up in the warrantless NSA eavesdropping that's been in the news for the last two weeks....

the president is arguing that his powers as commander-in-chief give him the authority to set aside that law. Such an unlimited assertion of presidential authority just has no place in our constitutional system; and his continued assertion of such authority is a plenty big enough scandal right there.

But if this were to take a truly Nixonian turn and it turns out that this was being used against political enemies, anti-war groups or journalists then we're talking a whole 'nother ballgame

Read More......

David Brooks rips GOP over Abramoff and sleaze

Wow.

I don't know what's more pathetic, Jack Abramoff's sleaze or Republican paralysis in the face of it. Abramoff walks out of a D.C. courthouse in his pseudo-Hasidic homburg, and all that leading Republicans can do is promise to return his money and remind everyone that some Democrats are involved in the scandal, too.

That's a great G.O.P. talking point: some Democrats are so sleazy, they get involved with the likes of us....

Tom DeLay needs to take care of his own legal problems and give up the dream of returning as majority leader.

But Republicans need to do more than bump DeLay. They need to put the entire leadership team up for a re-vote. That's because the real problem wasn't DeLay, it was DeLayism, the whole culture that merged K Street with the Hill, and held that raising money is the most important way to contribute to the team....

Finally, today before noon, fire Bob Ney as chairman of the House Administration Committee. For God's sake, Republicans, show a little moral revulsion.

Back in the dim recesses of my mind, I remember a party that thought of itself as a reform, or even a revolutionary movement. That party used to be known as the Republican Party. I wonder if it still exists.

What's important here is that while David Brooks likes to sometimes buck the party, he's still a party regular. This proves that there are those on the conservative side who are not happy with the direction the party is going, and they're finally willing to speak out. It's not exactly an avalanche of consternation, yet, but it's still a good sign that we may be able to defeat the most extreme aspects of the GOP by working with their own "reasonable" insiders. Just a thought. Read More......

Who is Bush really spying on?

We know it simply isn't possible that Bush is only spying on Americans talking to Al Qaeda members. That he could have gotten a search warrant for, and we'd have supported him in it. No, Bush's illegal domestic wiretap program is far more extensive, far more intrusive, than that. So what is it? Who is he spying on, what is he doing, that he wouldn't even dare present the program to the court that is by law supposed to approve of it?

More from Mark Schmitt:

Given what we know about these previous episodes in which the executive branch created zones of extreme secrecy, I think it’s quite likely that we will soon learn that the NSA domestic surveillance program involved much more than just tracking people who received calls from known al Qaeda suspects, something that I certainly wouldn’t object to. I don’t know what it will be -- some have speculated that it involved monitoring journalists -- but whatever it is, it was something that couldn’t be justified even within the administration.

Mark also raises an interesting observation:

Roughly speaking, there have been four great showdowns over abuse of executive power in modern U.S. history. The earliest has to do with domestic surveillance by the CIA, and other ill-conceived schemes, as revealed by the 1975 Church Committee hearings. The second, closely overlapping the first, involved all the excesses of the Nixon administration, including Watergate itself, the "Plumbers," the secret bombing of Cambodia, Kissinger"s wiretapping of staffers, etc. The third, the Iran-Contra scandal in the Reagan Administration, seems quaint compared to the fourth, the Bush administration"s NSA domestic surveillance program, and the broader assertion of executive authority to torture and otherwise ignore international law.

These episodes have certain themes in common. Yes, one of them is that they were all hatched in the first term of Republican presidencies and revealed only after reelection...

Read More......

Bush is NOT returning all the Abramoff tainted money

Today's Washington Post reports that Bush is returning just $6,000 in contributions he received directly from Jack Abramoff and his wife. What a joke. The traditional media knows that the individual contributions meant nothing to the Bush fundraising operation. It was all about the bundlers, the people who raised money from others and got credit for that. Abramoff was one of those major Bush fundraiser:

Abramoff raised more than $100,000 for the Bush-Cheney reelection campaign, making him an honorary Bush "Pioneer." But the campaign is giving up only $6,000, which came directly from Abramoff, his wife and one of the Indian tribes the lobbyist represented.

The MSM oohed and aahed in 2004 over the Bush fundraising prowess. It is well established that the people like Abramoff, who did the bundling of contributions, were the real players in the Bush fundraising operation. And, team Bush tracked those contributions carefully to make sure the right person got the credit.

The Bush people know EXACTLY who gave through Jack Abramoff. All of his money is tainted. They need to give it all back. Abramoff's tentacles reach deeply in to the White House. Don't forget his former aide, Susan Ralston, became the assistant to Karl Rove.

So, considering everything, the biggest joke in this whole scandal was Scott McClellan's response:

But McClellan contested any suggestion that Abramoff's fundraising had won him any special favors or access.

"If someone thinks that money is coming in with strings attached, it doesn't get in the door," he said.

Sure, Scotty. Read More......

Thursday Morning Open Thread

Just did a google...not one story in the MSM on the controversy surrounding Andrea Mitchell's question about Christian Amanpour and NBC's effort to cover it up.

What gives with that? Are they all afraid of being spied on by the Bush Administration? Maybe the nicknames Bush gives the press are really their NSA code names. Read More......

UK caught in anti-Iran spin/war hype

Last autumn UK troops in Iraq had suffered the loss of 10 troops in their zone to explosions and the government quickly hyped the deaths as being directly connected to Iran, raising the level of tension between the US/Europe and Iran. After the pre-war hype against Iraq, many have been alarmed at the anti-Iran noise out of Washington and London, fearing yet another invasion. Now, for unknown reasons the UK government has backed off of Iranian intervention in these deaths and has left families of the deceased wondering what happened. It's always smear, fear and lies.

Government officials now acknowledge that there is no evidence, or even reliable intelligence, connecting the Iranian government to the infra-red triggered bombs which have killed 10 British soldiers in the past eight months.

The twist comes three months after British officials first made strong assertions, widely reported in the media, of an Iranian hand in killing British soldiers. The highly publicised allegations emerged as America was locked in tense confrontation with Iran over its nuclear policy. It led to a major row and the US Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, warned Tehran of the consequences of continuing interference in Iraq.

Pte Hewett's [one of the UK soldiers who was killed in Iraq] mother, Sue Smith, 44, said: "They don't like Iran and they are using this for sympathy towards their attitudes, claiming that they were involved in the murder of our sons. I had the impression from the moment they made that statement that it was purely bully-boy tactics against Iran. It makes me really angry. They should be dealing with the people who killed our sons and not using it as a weapon. The way I look at it, it was just an excuse for another invasion. They have a foothold in the Middle East and they want to go further."

Read More......

19,982,072 visitors to AMERICAblog and counting

We're 18,000 visitors away. At the current clip, we got a lot of traffic in the past day because of the Amanpour spy issue, we should have 20 million by morning in America. Stay tuned. Read More......

Anti-gay Southern Baptist leader arrested for allegedly offering male cop a bj

Can I help pastor to police?

An executive committee member of the Southern Baptist Convention was arrested on a lewdness charge for propositioning a plainclothes policeman outside a hotel, police said.

Lonnie Latham, senior pastor at South Tulsa Baptist Church, was booked into Oklahoma County Jail Tuesday night on a misdemeanor charge of offering to engage in an act of lewdness, police Capt. Jeffrey Becker said. Latham was released on $500 bail Wednesday afternoon.

Latham, who has spoken out against homosexuality, asked the officer to join him in his hotel room for oral sex. Latham was arrested and his 2005 Mercedes automobile was impounded, Becker said....

When he left jail, he told Oklahoma City television station KFOR:

"I was set up. I was in the area pastoring to police."....

Latham is one of four Southern Baptist Convention executive committee members from Oklahoma....

He has also spoken out against same-sex marriage and in support of a Southern Baptist Convention directive urging its 42,000 churches to befriend gays and lesbians and try to convince them that they can become heterosexual "if they accept Jesus Christ as their savior and reject their 'sinful, destructive lifestyle."'

Read More......

Open thread

Just finished watching the movie "Elizabeth." What a great movie. If you haven't seen it, do. Read More......