Anti-terror indictment timing is interesting

After the infamous Miami Seven arrests a few years ago that just happened to occur during another White House time of trouble, I have to admit I am interested in today's announcement, considering the most latest time of trouble for the White House. It's too early to tell yet whether this is indeed an important indictment or just another diversion but considering that the most recent event in this case seems to date back to 2000 and the alleged future bomber had no bombs, though he was equipped with a crossbow and metal darts, well...

Unfortunately this administration has shown a keen interest in crying wolf whenever they are in trouble and they have no issue with manipulating our legal system for their own self benefit, I'm going to be very interested in seeing how this story evolves. Ultimately I find it sad that as an American, I can't have more faith in the system but this is what happens after seven years of Bush and Republican rule. Read the rest of this post...

Is John Warner retiring? He only raised $500 in the first quarter of 2007

John Warner only $500 raised in the first quarter. Senator Mark Warner sounds good:

U.S. Sen. John W. Warner (R-Va.) reported Thursday that he has raised only $500 in campaign contributions during the first three months of the year, fueling speculation he may not seek a sixth term next year.

If Warner retires, Virginia could again become a key battleground in the fight to control the Senate as Republicans would be forced to hold onto a Senate seat they've had since 1978. Democrats control the Senate 51-49.

Warner, 80, has been coy about his political future in recent interviews, saying he would like to continue to serve but will ultimately do what he thinks is "best for Virginia." Among the candidates likely to be interested in succeeding Warner is Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.). On the Democratic side, national party leaders are talking to former Gov. Mark R. Warner.

In his quarterly report to the Federal Elections Commission, Warner reported raising $500 in January, February and March, which was 60 times more than he spent during the same period, according to the FEC. Warner has $667,272 in the bank.

H/T to JFS for the heads up on this one. Read the rest of this post...

It's not just Imus

From Media Matters:

On April 11, NBC News announced that it was dropping MSNBC's simulcast of Imus in the Morning in the wake of the controversy that erupted over host Don Imus' reference to the Rutgers University women's basketball team as "nappy-headed hos." The following day, CBS president and CEO Leslie Moonves announced that CBS -- which owns both the radio station that broadcast Imus' program and Westwood One, which syndicated the program -- has fired Imus and would cease broadcasting his radio show. But as Media Matters for America has extensively documented, bigotry and hate speech targeting, among other characteristics, race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, and ethnicity continue to permeate the airwaves through personalities such as Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Michael Smerconish, and John Gibson.

Read the rest of this post...

Leaked Rahm memo tells House Dems to hold firm against Bush on Iraq

See, and you all thought Rahm was evil. (He is, of course, but he's our evil.) More from TPM Muckraker. Read the rest of this post...

Open Thread

Another day, another Bush scandal...actually, it's more like another hour, another Bush scandal. That crew is so much worse than even we imagined...and we all thought they were pretty bad.

The latest? Read the rest of this post...

CBS fired Imus

Breaking News "CBS has fired Don Imus from his radio show".

Here's the report:

CBS announced Thursday its decision to cease broadcasting the Imus in the Morning radio program, effective immediately, on a permanent basis.

Imus initially was suspended for two weeks for calling the Rutgers women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" on the air last week, but outrage continued to grow and advertisers bolted from his programs.

"From the outset, I believe all of us have been deeply upset and revulsed by the statements that were made on our air about the young women who represented Rutgers University in the NCAA Women's Basketball Championship with such class, energy and talent," said CBS President and Chief Executive Officer Leslie Moonves, in announcing the decision.

"Those who have spoken with us the last few days represent people of goodwill from all segments of our society – all races, economic groups, men and women alike," added Moonves.

Read the rest of this post...

Ken Mehlman appears - on John's flight back to DC

So look who John ran in to at O'Hare today -- former RNC Chair Ken Mehlman. He's on John's flight back to DC so John had to get a picture, which he promptly e-mailed to me. As far as I know, they didn't get a chance to talk. I doubt that Kenny reads AMERICAblog although we used to write about him all the time:
Read the rest of this post...

White House lost FIVE MILLION e-mails, CREW reveals

FIVE MILLION e-mails were lost by the White House according to a just released report from CREW called "WITHOUT A TRACE: The Missing White House Emails and the Violations of the Presidential Records Act." FIVE MILLION...that's insane.

As I explained in the post below, Bush staffers have been already been using separate RNC e-mail accounts to conduct official business in order to avoid the law and hide evidence. How? Because White House officials are supposed to use White House email accounts and White House Blackberrys to conduct official business (this is required under federal law and under the White House's own explicit rules). That's because under federal law every single electronic communication of a White House official must be recorded and kept in the federal archives. That makes such communications subpoenable if and when those employees break the law. By using the RNC email system and the RNC Blackberrys the White House thought they were hiding their potential crimes, and in so doing were violating federal law. We learned only yesterday that the White House admitted that their employees destroyed countless emails. Now we know that by countless they meant 5 fricking million.

While nothing should shock us about the Bush administration anymore, this is shocking.

No wonder the Bush people can't run the country and can't come up with a plan for the war. They can't even figure out their own e-mail system (of course, they knew darn well what they were doing, they were destroying the evidence). They even knew it was a problem, but didn't bother to fix it. You know that a lot of those missing e-mails are things they don't want us to ever see. What a coincidence that they started losing those e-mails in March of 2003, right when the Iraq war was starting.

FIVE MILLION. He is truly the worst, and now most corrupt, president ever. He's even worse than any of us could have dreamed up. Read the rest of this post...

New poll: people don't like Gonzales, Bush, or the Iraq war. Heh.

The latest LA Times/Bloomberg poll is really fascinating on a variety of topics. The headline is about Gonzales (whom 53% of Americans think should resign, an extraordinarily high number considering how little most people pay attention to the AG; additionally, 74% think Bush aides should testify under oath about the scandal), but there is also great info about Iraq. There is tremendous support for the Dems' supplemental bill, and, unsurprisingly, views are completely split down partisan lines.

The problem for Republicans, though, regardless of the outcome of the supplemental skirmish, is that the war is not getting any better and will likely get worse over the next two years. I hope I'm wrong about that, and I'd happily embrace improvement in Iraq regardless of any electoral implications. I just don't think that's likely given this administration's track record, and in two years people are going to be unbelievably fed up with the war and with five years of Republican rubber-stamping of an out of control executive.

Everyone, that is, except for Republican primary voters, which is why we now have the embarrassing spectacle of all major Republican presidential candidates supporting the president and his pet war, which are both likely to be massively unpopular in the general election. As independents continue to sour on the war, it will be fascinating to see Republicans try to thread the needle, while Dems will simply be able to stand on principle as the electorate increasingly embraces the progressive position.

My only quibble with the Times article is that it claims Democrats who don't hold the line on the war are "likely to face attacks from the party's antiwar wing". Not that I can speak for All Democrats Everywhere (heaven forbid), but I think the entire party is against the war. Being antiwar is no longer a "wing" or "fringe" position, and that shorthand is lazy and inaccurate. In any case, Republicans are seeing the writing on the wall with public opinion, and it's not pretty. Read the rest of this post...

It's time to subpoena the RNC's computers

Nixon had nothing on these guys. They've deleted countless emails to and from senior White House staff in order to hide the evidence of any wrongdoing, and in clear violation of federal law. But as we learned during another great Republican scandal, Iran-Contra, emails aren't always really deleted after you hit the delete button. The Hill needs to subpoena the Republican National Committee computer systems, now (it was the RNC that provided the senior White House staff with the emails and blackberrys they used to skirt the law). And then the Congress ought to hit any outside email services used by senior White House staff, in clear violation of White House police and federal law, with more subpoenas. Again, delete does not always mean delete.

More from Froomkin at the WashingtonPost.com:

Countless e-mails to and from many key White House staffers have been deleted -- lost to history and placed out of reach of congressional subpoenas -- due to a brazen violation of internal White House policy that was allowed to continue for more than six years, the White House acknowledged yesterday.

The leading culprit appears to be President Bush's enormously influential political adviser Karl Rove, who reportedly used his Republican National Committee-provided Blackberry and e-mail accounts for most of his electronic communication.

Then to add insult to injury, the White House lied today about the entire scandal:

Said [White House spokesman Scott] Stanzel: "I guess the bottom line is that our policy at the White House was not clear enough for employees."

But when I asked Stanzel to read out loud the White House e-mail policy, it seemed clear enough to me: "Federal law requires the preservation of electronic communications sent or received by White House staff," says the handbook that all staffers are given and expected to read and comply with.

"As a result, personnel working on behalf of the EOP [Executive Office of the President] are expected to only use government-provided e-mail services for all official communication."

The handbook further explains: "The official EOP e-mail system is designed to automatically comply with records management requirements."

And if that wasn't clear enough, the handbook notes -- as was the case in the Clinton administration -- that "commercial or free e-mail sites and chat rooms are blocked from the EOP network to help staff members ensure compliance and to prevent the circumvention of the records management requirements."

Read the rest of this post...

Yesterday, Senator Norm Coleman voted against the stem cell bill. Today, he's hanging out with the Family Research Council.

Yesterday, Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN), who is facing a very tough re-election next year, voted against the real stem cell research bill. Instead, he offered the watered down, competing version. Coleman is sticking with the hard core theocrats. No surprise, then that Coleman is the featured guest for the Family Research Council's "blogger briefing" conference call today about stem cells:

Every Thursday Family Research Council hosts a Bloggers' Briefing conference call that gives bloggers the opportunity to communicate directly with politicians, policy makers, religious leaders, and others who set the agenda within our nation's Capital. Tomorrow at 12:00 PM EST (9:00 AM PST / 10:00 AM MST / 11:00 AM CST) we'll be talking with Sen. Norm Coleman (R-MN) about the embryonic stem cell bill currently being debated in the Senate.

Coleman chose to be a hero to the theocrats. He's going to be a one-term Senator. Read the rest of this post...

What do Don Imus and the Family Research Council have in common?

Fag-bashing.

I just got an email update from the far-right Republican activists at the Family Research Council, and I've been noticing a growing amount of gay-bashing in their literature of late. Their latest? Using the homophobic code "San Francisco values" to bash Pelosi. Now what are those "San Francisco values" the FRC is talking about? Baking Sourdough? What the FRC means is that San Francisco is full of fags. And why say that outright when they can turn it into some kind of subliminal bigoted slur.

In a later installment, we'll show you how the Family Research Council, the Concerned Women for America and the American Family Association are currently promoting a known hate group (we're talking a group akin to the Klan and white Supremacists). Not very Christian. Stay tuned. Read the rest of this post...

The total failure of Bush's war in Iraq -- four year later

The NY Times editorial page looks at Iraq four years later:

Two months into the Baghdad security drive, the gains Mr. Bush is banking on have not materialized. More American soldiers continue to arrive, and their commanders are talking about extending the troop buildup through the fall or into early next year. After four years, the political trend is even more discouraging.

There is no possible triumph in Iraq and very little hope left.

Bush, McCain and the rest of the Republicans may still be optimistic about Iraq. But, they're not realistic -- they never have been. Read the rest of this post...

Thursday Morning Open Thread

CNN is telling me that there's been an explosion in the Iraqi Parliament building -- in the cafeteria. Details are sketchy right now although there are "numerous casualties." But the building is in the Green Zone. As an aside, I have to say that CNN's Kyra Phillips has been doing good work from Baghdad. She's in a no spin mode.

This all plays out against the backdrop of our President's incompetence, stubbornness and inability to deal with the reality in Iraq. That's why Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi have to be so strong.

Start threading, please. Read the rest of this post...

South Africa reportedly running out of burial plots

Having spent six months driving across southern Africa, I became familiar with the painful though common sight of fresh graves on the outskirts of villages and townships. I also became all too familiar with how US tax dollars were being spent in Africa to combat AIDS. The Bush administration is spends millions on the ABC program (Abstinence, Be Faithful, Condoms) which is modeled on the Uganda experience. The Ugandan "success story" has since been questioned both for its actual success as well as the increasing AIDS rate in Uganda. The main thrust of this campaign is to promote abstinence, with condoms being suggested much later, almost as a last option.

In the real world, where people are dying every day, the ABC program is just more American religious right theory that toys with the lives of people in the developing world. When the cemeteries are filling up at rates like this, people need science and real world help, not religious moralizing and bogus theory. This experimentation with others is sickening, not to mention immoral. And to think that people around the world are suspicious of the Bush administration... Read the rest of this post...

McCain chopping campaign staff

Uh oh. This doesn't sound like a campaign that's hitting on all cylinders. Read the rest of this post...