Public trusts Dems over Bush to handle Iraq, 58% to 33%

25 point lead. Who's the decider now? Read the rest of this post...

Now Bush is talking about going to Virginia Tech

Because that's what the victims of this tragedy need, a lame duck president desperate to improve his approval ratings. Bush should stay home. Read the rest of this post...

Under oath, Gonzales' former Chief of Staff contradicts Gonzales's previous statements and the written testimony for this week's hearing

Alberto Gonzales has a couple more days to practice his testimony for the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. He's going to need the extra time. As John wrote in a post earlier, ABC News reported tonight that Gonzales' own e-mails contradict the written testimony he provided to the Senate. Now, there's word that the former Chief of Staff to Gonzales, Kyle Sampson, said under oath this weekend that Gonzales hasn't been honest about his role in the firings of the U.S. Attorneys:

The former top aide to Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales has told Congressional investigators that Mr. Gonzales was “inaccurate,” or “at least not complete” in asserting that he had no role in the deliberations about individual United States attorneys who were later dismissed, a Democratic senator said Monday.

The statements by D. Kyle Sampson, the former chief of staff to Mr. Gonzales, during an interview with investigators on Sunday, were made public as the Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday in which Mr. Gonzales was to appear to defend his actions in the dismissals.

Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is the committee’s chairman, and Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, its senior Republican, delayed the hearing until Thursday because of the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech.

In his interview, Mr. Sampson said under oath that Mr. Gonzales took part in discussions last fall about David C. Iglesias, who was removed as the United States attorney in New Mexico, as well as in a June 2006 meeting that addressed concerns about Carol C. Lam, the United States attorney ousted from her job in San Diego, said Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York. Mr. Sampson made similar statements in public testimony to the Judiciary Committee on March 29, but appeared to offer more specifics in the interview.

Mr. Schumer, who has led the Senate inquiry into the Justice Department’s ouster of eight federal prosecutors, said that Mr. Sampson’s testimony raised new questions about the accuracy of Mr. Gonzales’s previous statements, most recently in testimony released Sunday in advance of the Senate hearing, that he had not taken part in deliberations about individual prosecutors designated for removal.

So that means there are already two sources contradicting Gonzales' written testimony -- and he hasn't even testified yet. You'd think that before the Department of Justice publicly released the testimony that someone might have vetted it for truth and accuracy. But, these people have been lying for so long, they don't even know what the truth is.

It's going to be a disturbing spectacle on Thursday. We'll be watching the nation's top law enforcement officer testify when his testimony is already shown to be inaccurate at best. I'm still waiting for the first reporter to actually report that Gonzales is lying.

With these new developments, will Gonzales really show up on Capitol Hill this week? Probably. Like his boss, George Bush, Gonzales is clearly shameless. Read the rest of this post...

Le Monde: CIA ignored warnings of 9/11 attack

This story was in the news here in France on 12 September 2001 but now the details are coming out.

Nine months before al-Qaida slammed airliners into the World Trade Center, French intelligence suspected the terror network was plotting a hijacking — possibly involving a U.S. airline — and warned the CIA, former French intelligence officials said Monday.

But the French warning hinted at a plot in Europe, not the United States, and there was no suggestion of suicide attacks or multiple planes. One former official said al-Qaida may have leaked misinformation to divert intelligence agencies from the bigger, deadlier plot to come on Sept. 11, 2001.

The warning was another example of how intelligence agents sensed al-Qaida was hard at work in the months leading up to Sept. 11 but were unable to piece together fragmented warnings into a coherent plot.

Le Monde first reported the story Monday as it published excerpts of 328 pages of classified documents from France's main foreign intelligence agency, the DGSE. One note, dated Jan. 5, 2001, reported that al-Qaida was plotting a hijacking.

Read the rest of this post...

ABC on VA Tech shooting

"It is an act of evil on a scale that we've never seen in this country before."

Uh, 9/11 (2,992 died), Oklahoma City (168 died), Pan Am 103 (not officially IN this country, but still, 270 people died), John Wayne Gacy (murdered 33 young men and boys), the list goes on. Read the rest of this post...

BREAKING: New Justice Dept email contradicts Gonzales' written testimony submitted for this week's hearing

Count the hours before this man resigns. The hearing on Thursday is going to be the likes of which Washington hasn't seen in decades. Alberto Gonzales just got caught lying to the committee AGAIN. More from ABC News:

The e-mail, which came from Gonzales aide Kyle Sampson, appeared to contradict the prepared written testimony Gonzales submitted to Congress over the weekend in advance of his Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday. In his prepared testimony, Gonzales said that during the months that his senior staff was evaluating U.S. attorneys, including Lam, "I did not make the decisions about who should or should not be asked to resign."

But the recently released e-mail from Sampson, dated June 1, 2006, indicated that Gonzales was actively involved in discussions about Lam and had decided to fire her if she did not improve. In the e-mail to other top Justice Department officials, Sampson outlined several steps that Gonzales suggested, culminating in Lam's replacement if she failed to bolster immigration enforcement.

Read the rest of this post...

GOP presidential candidate praises Jewish group for making money "part of the Jewish tradition"

And the winner is... Tommy Thompson, doing his part for making bigotry part of the Republican tradition. Amazing. Read the rest of this post...

Bush warns of death and destruction in America. Unfortunately he got the enemy wrong, again.

George Bush used his same old Iraq talking points today -- just sounding a little more hysterical than usual. And a bit more inappropriate than usual.

You see, America faces many threats, and Iraq is pretty low on the totem poll right now to the parents of every single student who attends Virginia Tech. That doesn't mean Iraq doesn't matter, it doesn't mean that terrorism doesn't matter, but it does mean that we need a president and a political party who can juggle more than one issue at the same time. It's not all about Iraq and September 11.

Here is bush fear-mongering as usual. Of course, the unintentionally sad part is that Bush is detailing for us all the horrible things that are going to happen because he lost the Iraq war.

Click To Play

ThinkProgress has a mash up of the video as well here. Read the rest of this post...

30 dead is a "good day" in Baghdad

Reader Patrick writes:

I know it is too early for comments like this (really, my prayers are with those people in Blacksburg) – but I just have to say it. 30+ kids killed and who knows how many injured and this is all we’re gonna hear about for weeks. But is it really that outrageous compared to what’s going on in Iraq every day? Politicians say Iraq is ok and no worse than any city in America – and the media for the most part don’t hold them accountable for comments like that. If there were consistency, this Tech thing wouldn’t be that big of a story.

Read the rest of this post...

Sure 29+ students are dead, but at least they had their 2nd Amendment rights

UPDATE: 32 now dead.

Why is it legal in America for you to buy an AK-47? Oh that's right, it's your constitutional right to own an AK-47. I'm sure the founders, when considering their "original intent" that the Republicans always lecture us on, had in mind assault weapons when they were really writing about muskets. I don't know what kind of gun the shooter had, but it is far too easy for any nutjob to own a gun in this country, and it needs to stop.

Where are the gun control groups? Oh that's right, the big DC consultants tell all the politicians that guns are a losing issue (though that hardly excuses the gun control groups for going on vacation the past six years). America loves it guns, they tell us. Don't try to pass any laws that might have saved the lives of those 29-plus dead students in Virginia. And why? Because the consulting class would have us believe that the majority of the country would be very upset with any politician who tried to get control of America's horrendous gun violence problem. And where do they get off thinking this? Sure, the 30% percent of the Republican party who wanted to keep Terri Schiavo on a respirator probably also wants your 6-year-old nephew, and Charles Manson, to be able to buy an AK-47. But I'll bet you far more than 51% of the electorate - and 51% is all you need to win - think that we need to do more to get guns under control in this country.

We need to stop trying to convince 100% of the American people that we're right. The Republicans are content with 30% of the public supporting them. Let them have their wacky 30%, while we embrace the 70% (or however many) who are rational, normal, non-extremists who actually believe that kids running around shooting other kids is a bad thing.

It's time to revisit gun control in George Bush's America. Read the rest of this post...

29 dead in shootings at Virginia Tech University

UPDATE: ABC is now reporting 29 killed.

AP has more:

A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech on Monday, killing 21 people and wounding another 21 before he was killed, police said.

"Today the university was struck with a tragedy that we consider of monumental proportions," said university president Charles Steger. "The university is shocked and indeed horrified."

The university reported shootings at opposite sides of the 2,600-acre campus, beginning at about 7:15 a.m. at West Ambler Johnston, a co-ed residence hall that houses 895 people, and continuing about two hours later at Norris Hall, an engineering building.

One student was killed in a dorm and the others were killed in the classroom, Virginia Tech Police Chief W.R. Flinchum.

But hey, don't expect the gun control groups to do anything about it. They, like far too many progressive groups, have simply gone away over the past six years. Pathetic. Read the rest of this post...

John McCain is for cutting spending, unless it's for his $400 billion mess of a war

This catastrophe in Iraq has cost us $400 billion already, and it's expected to cost us several trillion in veterans' benefits and more in the coming years. Nice pool of money we just gave away for nothing. And John McCain wants us to keep giving it away. Bush started this decade with a budget surplus handed to him by Bill Clinton. Bush has now given us a historic budget deficit, and a hemorrhaging war, with no end in site. We can thank John McCain and all the other Republicans who insist on throwing good money after bad in Iraq. Failure has consequences, and Bush has failed us miserably. Read the rest of this post...

Krugman to Dem. candidates: Don't fear your base, embrace it.

Paul Krugman thinks that the Democratic politicians -- and their consultants -- should actually listen to their base because that's where the American people are on Iraq and other key issues. This cycle, catering to the base for the Democrats means catering to the opinions of most Americans. The pundit-types tend to dismiss us as the extreme, turns out we're the mainstream:

It took an angry base to push the Democrats into taking a tough line in the midterm election. And it took further prodding from that base — which was infuriated when Barack Obama seemed to say that he would support a funding bill without a timeline — to push them into confronting Mr. Bush over war funding. (Mr. Obama says that he didn’t mean to suggest that the president be given “carte blanche.”)

But the public hates this war, no longer has any trust in Mr. Bush’s leadership and doesn’t believe anything the administration says. Iraq was a big factor in the Democrats’ midterm victory. And far from being a risky political move, the confrontation over funding has overwhelming popular support: according to a new CBS News poll, only 29 percent of voters believe Congress should allow war funding without a time limit, while 67 percent either want to cut off funding or impose a time limit.

And, as Krugman explains, GOP candidates have a base that is out-of-touch on key issues. But that's not true for the Democrats, if they can ever grasp it:

Democrats don’t have the same problem. There’s no conflict between catering to the Democratic base and staking out positions that can win in the 2008 election, because the things the base wants — an end to the Iraq war, a guarantee of health insurance for all — are also things that the country as a whole supports. The only risk the party now faces is excessive caution on the part of its politicians. Or, to coin a phrase, the only thing Democrats have to fear is fear itself.

Excessive caution is the big risk. Americans have staked out their positions. We need a leader who can take us there. Read the rest of this post...

The American people don't believe Gonzales

By a wide margin, we don't believe our Attorney General's spin. Yes, we can't believe the top law enforcement official in the United States. That says a lot about Gonzales and his boss, George Bush. The Washington Post-ABC News poll has the numbers:

In the poll, 67 percent said they believed the prosecutors were fired by the Justice Department for political reasons, not on the basis of their performance. About eight in 10 Democrats and two-thirds of independents said they saw political motivations behind the firings of the U.S. attorneys, an attitude shared by 53 percent of all Republicans surveyed.

Overall, nearly six in 10 Americans disapproved of the way Gonzales has handled the issue. Among Republicans, 47 percent expressed disapproval of how the Republican attorney general has handled the matter, with 35 percent approving and 18 percent having no opinion.

With widespread public skepticism about the firings and low approval of how the attorney general has handled the matter -- 24 percent approved in this poll -- 45 percent of Americans said the attorney general should lose his job over the issue. Fewer, 39 percent, said he should remain in place; 16 percent expressed no opinion.

Opinion was split along party lines: About six in 10 Democrats said he should lose his job over the issue, but a similar percentage of Republicans thought he should continue on in his position. Forty-six percent of independents said Gonzales should lose his job, 36 percent thought he should keep it and 19 percent were undecided.

Interesting that so many Republicans think Gonzales should keep his job, even though it's clear he's lying. They just accept that Bush and company just lie. Read the rest of this post...

Monday Morning Open Thread

It's Emancipation Day here in DC today (that's why everyone gets an extra day to file their taxes). It's Patriots' Day in Massachusetts and Maine.

Wild week here in DC -- and it's not just the weather. Bush is going to meet with the Congressional leaders over the Iraq spending bill. He's still beating his chest, acting tough, refusing to negotiate -- and playing politics with the Iraq war. That's just what Bush always does. No policy, lots of play acting.

And, the lying Attorney General testifies tomorrow before the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Start threading the news. Read the rest of this post...

Wal-Mart turning away from organic

So much for their publicity stunt. It's back to traditional foods produced by the finest labs of Kraft and Novartis can produce. Nothing says food like a chemical factory so pass the Cheez Whiz and Jello.

A number of organic farmers across the country say that Wal-Mart has backed off of aggressive plans to offer more organic foods. After placing large orders for organic apples and juices last year, the retailer is cutting back or stopping orders altogether. Wade Groetsch, president at the Florida juice producer Blue Lake Citrus Products, says he stopped shipping his organic orange-tangerine blend to Wal-Mart after a few months. "The sales there just weren't enough to justify our costs of packing and shipping," he says.

A year ago last March Wal-Mart grabbed headlines by announcing its organic push. Stephen Quinn, a top marketing executive, told investors at a Bear Stearns conference that the company would double the number of organic food items in its stores to 400 and offer them "at the Wal-Mart price." But now Karen Burk, a spokeswoman for the company, says that the majority of Wal-Mart stores are offering between 100 and 200 organic food items. She says the company does not have a target, at least not a public one, of stocking 400 organic items in the average store.

Read the rest of this post...

Department of Education fails to protect students from data mining

60 million students across the US impacted. Big Finance keeps trolling for data and the Bush administration offers nothing more than (questionable) hand-wringing and bark but no bite.

The unauthorized searching has grown so pervasive that the Education Department is considering a temporary shutdown of the government-run database to review access policies and tighten security.

Some officials worry that businesses are trolling for marketing data they can use to bombard students with mass mailings or other solicitations.

Students' Social Security numbers, e-mail addresses, phone numbers, birth dates, and sensitive financial information such as loan balances are in the database, which is covered by federal privacy laws.

If we didn't already know this routine, it might even be a surprise to read that the administration is "considering" shutting this down. Will the administration ever lift a finger to protect average Americans? Read the rest of this post...

3,300 US killed in Iraq

Remember when the Republicans used to dismiss the war dead as nothing more than the number who die in routine military accidents? But I can't remember if that was before or after the first, second or third time they tried peddling the "Iraq is safer than major US cities" story. Either way, it's another sad reminder of the cost of this failed experiment.

By the way, overseas everyone is wondering where Condi has been since it seems to have been ages since we last saw her. Is she still part of the team? Read the rest of this post...

60 Minutes catches Imus using the N-word

He denied it. Then they caught him. Yeah, he's really not a racist.

Click To Play

A growing number of conservatives would have us believe that Imus is just as bad as everyone else, you know, just like people who criticize President Bush. Isn't it really the same thing, criticizing President Bush because he's an idiot, a failure, and the worst president ever and picking on a bunch of women because they're black? That's what conservatives are now trying to allege in an ongoing effort to somehow paint Imus' racism as not that bad. And yes, both are "picking on" examples. But one is well-deserved (and true), the other is racist and unacceptable in civilized society (or should be). One is directed at the leader of a free country (who can defend himself, thank you very much), the other is against innocent young college women.

It amazes me how many people on the right still don't understand what America was founded on, and why. Namely, that we led a revolution to overthrow a tyrannical government. That our freedoms have been given to us, and guaranteed in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, in order to insure that such a government does not return. The more we are permitted to openly criticize our government, the freer we are and will remain.

The same cannot be said of spewing racism against innocent young women. It doesn't help thwart the return of the king. It does, however, harken back to 400 years of shameful history that we are still, to this day, trying to put behind us. Calling George Bush a liar, or even a criminal, may shock some (while many others would agree), but it hardly is on a par with racism, historically or otherwise (no presidents nor their ancestors were subjugated for being dumb).

More from Atrios. Read the rest of this post...