WHO’S THE BOSS?

Look as if there are EVEN MORE covert (and illegal?) surveillance activities the Bush gang is hiding from us. And they’re trying to bully the news media from talking about them

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/washington/09hoekstra.html
In a sharply worded letter to President Bush in May, an important Congressional ally charged that the administration might have violated the law by failing to inform Congress of some secret intelligence programs and risked losing Republican support on national security matters. . .

The letter from Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the Republican chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, did not specify the intelligence activities that he believed had been hidden from Congress. . . But Mr. Hoekstra, who was briefed on and supported the National Security Agency's domestic surveillance program and the Treasury Department's tracking of international banking transactions, clearly was referring to programs that have not been publicly revealed. . .

“Minority Report” has arrived: the era of pre-emptive arrests

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/09/us/09plot.html

OK, the Hamdan decision was by any standard a massive repudiation of Bush’s policies in Guantanamo – so what comes next? He declares it as a victory, of course

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_digbysblog_archive.html#115237362447361101
[NYT] "It didn't say we couldn't have done — couldn't have made that decision, see?" Mr. Bush said at a news conference in Chicago. "They were silent on whether or not Guantánamo — whether or not we should have used Guantánamo. In other words, they accepted the use of Guantánamo, the decision I made."

[Digby] I'm the decider, see. They accepted my decision, see.

Whenever he sounds this moronic I'm reminded that it's probably how it was explained to him. That "see" is the tip-off. He can't actually understand the decision and then go out and expect that people won't think he's a complete idiot for saying what he just said. He doesn't get it. Nobody can spin that badly, not even him.

As TBOGG put it, this is Bush's version of: "That chick at the bar? She's totally digging on me." . . .[read on]

One little problem. . .

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/015259.html
[Jeralyn Merritt] Nice try, Mr. President, but Guantanamo wasn't the issue in the case -- the use of military tribunals was. . .

The Bush gang sees Guantanamo suicides as a plot against THEM. A neat trick, that

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/07/bush-administration-says-detainee.html

By the way, for the record, the Guantanamo prisoners are now properly described as “prisoners of war” – not "detainees,” "enemy combatants,” or other euphemisms

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2006_07_02.php#008968

In Iraq. . . .

http://www.juancole.com/2006/07/national-unity-government-on-vergeof.html
National Unity Government on Verge of Collapse . . .

One thing the North Korea fiasco has shown us: that the tough-guy, confrontational approach that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Bolton, et al reflexively fall back upon DOESN’T WORK when you don’t have the threat of military action to back it up – and the North Koreans know it

http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/3124

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7879.html

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/07/08/MNG1FJROPG1.DTL
At his news conference, Bush took pains to counter a question based on intelligence information that North Korea has expanded its nuclear weapons capability in recent years. When a reporter cited such reports. Bush declined to dispute the basis of the question, but challenged the reporter: "Can you verify that?"

"We don't know -- maybe you know more than I do -- about increasing the number of nuclear weapons," Bush said.

In a series of congressional hearings last year, top U.S. intelligence officials, including then-CIA Director Porter Goss, testified that North Korea's nuclear capability had increased since 2002, when intelligence assessments estimated it possessed one or two nuclear weapons. Goss in the Feb. 16, 2005, congressional appearance said: "They have a greater capability than that assessment. ... It has increased since then."

Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, asked during a Feb. 28, 2005, hearing about the assessment that North Korea had one or two weapons, cited a "potential there for a number of weapons to be in their possession" and said the government in Pyongyang was "regularly" producing fissile material for weapons. . .

Does the Bush gang even think their nominees NEED Senate confirmation any more?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/06/AR2006070601462.html

What do the newly disclosed visits of Jack Abramoff to the White House tell us?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7884.html

More: http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/004514.html

Is the Abramoff scandal finally going to loosen Grover Norquist’s stranglehold over Republican policy?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/08/AR2006070800983.html

He doesn’t think so: http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/7/9/2185/11476

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2006_07_09.php#008973

Fractures in the Republican party: is the hard right all that’s left?

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/8/134449/5110
[McJoan] [W]e have another agenda designed to alienate, anger, and motivate the basest of their base voters. Leaving behind many moderates. . .

More: http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_digbysblog_archive.html#115238970102835536

A sign of desperation: Republicans are using the terrorist sledgehammer to pound away on the immigration issue

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/07/AR2006070701247.html

More of this, please

http://makeashorterlink.com/?A1C55316D
[AP] The Republican plan to privatize Social Security could cause huge debt for decades, a Democratic candidate seeking a House seat in Iowa, a state with a high concentration of elderly residents, said Saturday. . .

Tom DeLay runs in the Republican primary, so he can keep raising money he plans to use for his legal defense, NOT his campaign. As soon as he wins the primary, he withdraws from the race and transfers his residency to Virginia, so he can argue that he CAN’T run from TX-22. Now the courts have ruled that he must remain on the ballot – and so he suggests that he will unretire and re-enter the race. (From Virginia?)

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001084.php

Follow-up to the Murray Waas story (in the U.K., not any major American outlet)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1813640,00.html
President George Bush directed his vice-president, Dick Cheney, to take personal charge of a campaign to discredit a former ambassador who had accused the administration of twisting prewar intelligence on Iraq . . .

Katherine Harris (R-FL): at this point, all you can do is laugh

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2006_07_02.php#008972
You could devote an entire blog to Katherine Harris (someone already has) so we try to ration the Katherine Harris posts. But each day brings a new Harris temptation and, as much as you try to stay off the sauce, sometimes you fall off the wagon.

The latest installment in the soap opera that is the Harris campaign finds Harris, burned by her connection to defense contractor MZM, trying to shift the focus by claiming that her opponent, Sen. Bill Nelson, accepted illegal campaign contributions several years ago.

The problem is Harris' former campaign manager was named as a co-conspirator in that case. Oops. . .


Sunday talk show line-ups

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/08/AR2006070800841.html
FOX NEWS SUNDAY: Rep. Peter Hoekstra (R-Mich.); Undersecretary of State R. Nicholas Burns; former State Department counselor Wendy R. Sherman; former CIA director R. James Woolsey; and historian Mary Beth Corrigan.

THIS WEEK (ABC): Sens. Richard G. Lugar (R-Ind.) and George Allen (R-Va.); James H. Webb Jr., Allen's challenger in the Virginia U.S. Senate race; and NBA veteran Alonzo Mourning.

FACE THE NATION (CBS): Burns; and Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.).

MEET THE PRESS (NBC): Burns ; New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson (D); former assistant secretary of defense Ashton B. Carter; and Robert L. Gallucci, dean of the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service.

LATE EDITION (CNN): Burns; Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.); Iraqi Ambassador Sameer Shaker Sumaidaie; author Peter Bergen; Fouad Makhzoumi, chairman of the Future Pipe Group; former secretary of state Alexander M. Haig Jr.; and former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Bonus item: Make my day

http://www.crooksandliars.com/posts/2006/07/08/adam-carolla-hangs-up-on-coulter/
ADAM CAROLLA: Ann Coulter, who was suppose to be on the show about an hour and a half ago, is now on the phone, as well. Ann?

ANN COULTER: Hello.

CAROLLA: Hi Ann. You’re late, babydoll.

COULTER: Uh, somebody gave me the wrong number.

CAROLLA: Mmm… how did you get the right number? Just dialed randomly — eventually got to our show? (Laughter in background)

COULTER: Um, no. My publicist e-mailed it to me, I guess, after checking with you.

CAROLLA: Ahh, I see.

COULTER: But I am really tight on time right now because I already had a —

CAROLLA: Alright, well, get lost.

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***

DOUBLETALK

An excellent question

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/07/why-are-bush-supporters-celebrating.html
John Amato astutely asks an excellent question: why are all of the Bush supporters celebrating the unauthorized leak to the Daily News of the FBI's arrests of alleged terrorists who were talking in Internet chat rooms about blowing up the Holland Tunnel . . . [read on!]

Another exaggeration to plant fear in the public consciousness?

http://www.slate.com/id/2145356
[Alexander Dryer] In general, the papers seem confused how to play the tunnel bombing story, given that the FBI's breakup of a Miami "terror cell" last month appears to have been over-hyped. The NYT throws the most cold water on the plot's significance, quoting security officials who question whether there was any substance behind internet chat-room bravado. . .

More:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2006_07_02.php#008963

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2006_07_02.php#008966

Following up on the story yesterday, that the US military has started enlisting soldiers with racist, skinhead affiliations – in case this doesn’t already appall you, here’s why it’s such a bad idea

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_digbysblog_archive.html#115229009920629930
[Digby] I'm not sure there's anything more stupid than hiring a bunch of neo-nazi's to occupy a foreign country. But it is par for the course with the Bush administration. . .

I definitely believe that racism lies at the heart of why many people supported a war against a country that had not committed any crime against ours --- and why they don't care if there were any WMD or any other justification. One dead arab's as good as another dead arab. It didn't matter which arab country we invaded as long as we invaded one and fucked some of "those people" up.

But regardless of the strain of racism that already exists in that warzone, putting white supremecists in their midst and allowing them to spew their Nazi propaganda among those frustrated, frightened, bored soldiers is a recipe for disaster. . .

More: http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/3122

http://billmon.org/archives/002516.html
[Billmon] These crazed fascists obviously have to be identified and weeded out of the ranks as quickly as possible -- otherwise they might start doing horrible things, such as, oh I don't know, firing tank cannons at journalists, raping and killing 15-year old girls and then burning their bodies, going house to house methodically shooting everyone they find, savaging prisoners with dogs, and forcing fathers to watch the anal rape of their sons. . .

Ron Suskind’s new book, “The One Percent Doctrine” sounds great – here’s the digest version

http://www.tpmcafe.com/blog/yglesias/2006/jul/07/the_one_percent_doctrine
[Matt Yglesias] Suskind tells a story in which you have an administration that, at the beginning, simply doesn't know very much about international terrorism and doesn't care to learn much more about it. They think other things are more important, they have a limited amount of time, and so they're focused on that. Then comes 9/11 -- a devastating event. And, of course, at that time nobody knew what else might be coming down the pike. Decisions needed to be made, and quickly, by people who weren't especially well-versed in the situation. . .

Bush on Bin Laden: doubletalk? I think we need a bigger number

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/07/07/bush/index.html

Bush on North Korea

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/07/08/MNG1FJROPG1.DTL
[Friday] Bush ducked questions about a possible U.S. military response to North Korea, and he emphasized that he would continue pursuing diplomatic solutions, even if they prove "slow and cumbersome."

But he rejected conducting negotiations one-on-one, insisting that he needed China and other neighbors at the table so that North Korean leader Kim Jong Il did not make the United States appear to be the blockade to an agreement.

"One thing I'm not going to let us do is get caught in the trap of sitting at the table alone with the North Koreans," Bush insisted, rejecting the criticism by Democrats who say such talks would be the only way to break the logjam.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060708/ap_on_re_as/nkorea_missiles
[Saturday] U.S. offers bilateral talks with N. Korea
A U.S. envoy expressed support for China's proposal to hold informal six-party talks on the North Korean nuclear threat and offered to meet bilaterally with North Korea on the sidelines of those discussions. . .

Bush’s good friend in Russia

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/07/communism-20.html

Bush: thoughtful steward of the environment (don’t miss it)

http://www.prospect.org/weblog/2006/07/post_769.html

Paul Krugman gets in a well-earned “I told you so”

http://64.226.238.78/PA/pk/pk214.shtml
Over the last few months a series of revelations have confirmed what should have been obvious a long time ago: the Bush administration and the movement it leads have been engaged in an authoritarian project, an effort to remove all the checks and balances that have heretofore constrained the executive branch.

Why don’t you tell us what you REALLY think? (thanks to Susan Madrak for the link)

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/gate/archive/2006/07/07/notes070706.DTL&nl=fix
[Mark Morford] I was having cocktails recently with a group of people, among whom were two lifetime Republicans, each in his 60s, corporate businessmen, one admittedly slightly more moderate than the other (to the point where, after once hearing a senator read off a long list of Bush’s hideous environmental atrocities, actually let his conscience lead his choice and ended up voting for Kerry) but nevertheless both devoted members of the party.

Bush came up, as a topic, as a cancer, as a fetid miasma in the air. They were both shaking their heads. They were sighing heavily. They were both, in a word, disgusted. The more staunchly conservative of the two even went so far as to say he was so embarrassed and humiliated by this president, by this administration, so appalled at all the war atrocities and the wiretapping and the misuse of law, the fiscal irresponsibility and the abuse of the lower classes and the outright arrogance, that if the Dems could somehow produce a decent moderate candidate with a brain, he’d have zero problem switching allegiances and voting for him. Or her.

It may not sound like much. It may not seem like a major shift. But it is, in its way, sort of massive. For thoughtful Repubs with a conscience (they actually exist, I have seen them), there is little left to defend. There is little this administration has done among all categories of ostensible GOP values that they can look to with any sort of pride. Medicare? Shrinking the budget? Smaller government? Less intervention in our lives? Reduced spending? Increased respect in the international community? Responsible international citizen? Ha. Name your topic, BushCo has failed. Spectacularly. Intentionally.

Bush’s new (“new”) media strategy

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/07/07/BL2006070700714.html

Huh? http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7879.html

More b.s. http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_digbysblog_archive.html#115231152616504243

Bush’s Larry King interview: underneath the fluff and deceit, a few inadvertent revelations . . .

http://www.first-draft.com//modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6476

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7872.html

Drip, drip, drip

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/07/AR2006070701317.html
Lobbyist Jack Abramoff had a half-dozen White House appointments in the early months of the Bush administration . . . In May, the Secret Service released partial data showing two White House visits by Abramoff. In a letter faxed to Judicial Watch yesterday, a Justice Department lawyer said that the Secret Service had recently learned of other visits when it "unexpectedly discovered computer files" containing entry and exit logs on the visits. . .

Abramoff/Mehlman (more)

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2006_07_02.php#008960

New Hampshire Republican operative is about to testify that he acted under White House and RNC orders

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/07/nh-phone-jammer-white-house-made-me-do.html

More: http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Man_indicted_in_election_day_phone_0707.html

This could be big: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7878.html

Bill Clinton speaks out on Plame scandal, Karl Rove

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/015258.html

Texas: it may not surprise you to know that they AREN’T quite treated like the other 49 states

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2006_07_02.php#008964

More hints that may eventually unravel where those forged Niger uranium documents came from . . .

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/004511.html

In a nutshell, here’s why progressives are fed up with Joe Lieberman (D-CT)

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_digbysblog_archive.html#115231514155185065

John McCain (R-AZ) has a carefully tended rep as a good guy, a straight shooter, and a basically decent human being – for a politician, that is. Then you hear stories like this. . . .

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/john_mccain_/2006/07/why_is_chelsea_clinton_so_ugly.php

The self-correcting blogosphere: Kos says the Ann Coulter plagiarism charges are “overblown”

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/7/11290/58796

Or not: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2006_07_02.php#008956

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/07/07/coulter/index.html

Bonus item: Dick Cheney (2000) – you can look it up!

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/7/11629/86748
CHENEY: This is a special interest of mine. I would like a chance to elaborate further, if I might. The facts are dramatically different. I'm not attacking the military, Joe. I have enormous regard for the men and women of the U.S. military. I had the privilege of working with them while I was the Secretary of Defense. No one has a higher regard than I do for them. It's irresponsible to suggest we shouldn't have that debate, that we should ignore what is a major, major concern . . .

There is no more important responsibility for a President of the United States than his role as Commander in Chief. When he decides when to send our young men and women to war. When we send them without the right kind of training, when we send them poorly equipped or with equipment that's old and broken down, we put their lives at risk. We will suffer more casualties in the next conflict if we don't look to those basic problems now.

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***

WRONG WAY

Bush’s failed, rudderless foreign policy

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/07/bush-foreign-policy-failures-are.html

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_07/009134.php
[Kevin Drum] [T]he Bush administration literally seems to have no foreign policy at all anymore. They have no serious plan for Iraq, no plan for Iran, no plan for North Korea, no plan for democracy promotion, no plan for anything. . .

More: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/07/06/BL2006070600772.html

World War III?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7868.html

As you know, a common mantra for the Right is that things are better than we’re hearing in Iraq, because the media is overcovering bad news and ignoring all the positive signs. Guess what? It’s actually the opposite

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/07/06/iraq/index.html
[Tim Grieve] The news out of Iraq today is bad -- a car bomber killed 12 and wounded 41 this morning -- but a Newsweek reporter says the underlying story may be worse. In an interview with Foreign Policy, Rod Nordland, the magazine's chief foreign correspondent and former Baghdad bureau chief, says that conditions in Iraq are "much worse" than they're described in the U.S. press. . . . The reason? The Bush administration does a "great job of managing the news," and the military has begun to crack down on embedded reporters who might otherwise offer a clear assessment of facts on the ground. . .

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/node/1042
“The military has started censoring many [embedded reporting] arrangements. Before a journalist is allowed to go on an embed now, [the military] check[s] the work you have done previously. They want to know your slant on a story — they use the word slant — what you intend to write, and what you have written from embed trips before. If they don't like what you have done before, they refuse to take you. There are cases where individual reporters have been blacklisted because the military wasn’t happy with the work they had done on embed.”

More: http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/B6860B61-BE4F-43A0-A012-3998AE078966.htm

More evidence of how desperate the military has become to find recruits

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/07/washington/07recruit.html
A decade after the Pentagon declared a zero-tolerance policy for racist hate groups, recruiting shortfalls caused by the war in Iraq have allowed "large numbers of neo-Nazis and skinhead extremists" to infiltrate the military, according to a watchdog organization. . . . "We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad” . . . .

More: http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/07/bush-administration-turns-blind-eye-to.html

We know where you live. . .

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/07/thug-and-intimidation-tactics-of-far.html
[Glenn Greenwald] One of the favorite tactics used by [white supremacist] groups is to find the home address and telephone number of the latest enemy and then publish it on the Internet. . .

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/6/161421/5156

Abramoff/Mehlman

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/07/06/mehlman/index.html

Tom DeLay can’t get off the ballot in Texas, may have to run a race with no campaign money, no organization, and no chance of winning. Ha!

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/6/12718/48744

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7866.html

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001068.php

http://www.first-draft.com//modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6473

The Ann Coulter plagiarism case may be getting serious

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001071.php

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7858.html
[Steve Benen] For her part, Coulter is, as usual, lashing out wildly, but there's one thing missing from her response. . . Careful readers will note that within the venom, a denial is nowhere to be found.

Bonus item: George and Laura on Larry King Live

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/07/bush-and-laura-on-larry-king.html
[Joe] Laura Bush dismissed polls saying her husband is unpopular...saying that when we travel around the country, it's not what we see. Does she not know that those crowds she sees are hand-picked?

More: http://www.first-draft.com//modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6474
[Alessandra Stanley] Two kinds of celebrities go on "Larry King Live" on CNN: those with something to sell and those with something to hide. . .

Extra bonus item: next to Terri Schiavo, I think we’ve found the only thing that can make Bush cut short his vacation time

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/07/bush-to-vacation-less-campaign-more-in.html

Extra, extra bonus item: this is so stupid, I’m speechless

http://www.slate.com/id/2145246
President Bush is on the case: "I think we have a problem on global warming," he boldly told People. "I think there is a debate about whether it's caused by mankind or whether it's caused naturally, but it's a worthy debate. It's a debate, actually, that I'm in the process of solving by advancing new technologies." . . .

More: http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/7/7/03653/84950

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***

WHAT HAS HE DONE?

The mess Bush has made

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/05/AR2006070501634.html
[Richard N. Haass, a former senior Bush administration official who heads the Council on Foreign Relations] "The danger is that Mr. Bush will hand over a White House to a successor that will face a far messier world, with far fewer resources left to cope with it."

More: http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/07/bush-at-60-building-legacy-of-more.html

[NB: Let’s be clear. The number of international crises cropping up all at once now isn’t just bad luck or historical accident – these are direct results of Bush decisions or inaction]

“What Bush did to Joe Wilson”

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/07/05/what_bush_did/index.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html
[Dan Froomkin] Isn't it about time Bush stopped pretending ignorance about this story -- and came clean on his own role? Why should that information only be shared with criminal prosecutors? . . . Is it approved White House procedure to distribute misinformation? Is it okay to out a covert CIA operative? If it's not okay was he disappointed in how top deputies like Cheney and Rove -- both still very much at work at the White House -- carried out his orders?

The arrest of two Italian intelligence officials for a kidnapping plot involving Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr (aka: Abu Omar) may eventually catch up the CIA and other US intelligence operations

http://www.prospect.org/weblog/2006/07/post_734.html

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/05/world/europe/05cnd-italy.html

Could this eventually unravel the forged Niger documents (which also came via Italian intelligence) – the ones that led to the entire Wilson/Plame mess in the first place?

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/004507.html

http://crookedtimber.org/2006/07/05/the-music-for-mancini/

A House committee subpoenas Donald Rumsfeld in connection with charges of retaliation against an Abu Ghraib whistleblower

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001056.php

More: http://talkleft.com/new_archives/015242.html

http://makeashorterlink.com/?K39325F5D
"If the department won't even return a call, after three months ... we really have no choice but to subpoena the material and compel their attention to our request," added the committee chairman, Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., who signed the subpoena. . .

Iraq govt formally announces that it will conduct its own investigation into the rape-murder charges against US servicemen (what, they don’t trust us?)

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/06/world/middleeast/06iraq.html

A “firestorm” http://www.juancole.com/2006/07/malikis-basra-security-initiative.html

The issue of amnesty for guerillas who have killed US troops isn’t over yet, either

http://www.juancole.com/2006/07/al-hakim-amnesty-for-guerrillas-who.html

Sick, sick, sick

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_digbysblog_archive.html#115213814574939152
[Paul Craig Roberts] Americans who get their propaganda from Fox "News" or are told what to think by right-wing talk radio hosts are outraged at news reports that U.S. troops planned and carried out the rape and murder of a young Iraqi woman. They are not outraged that the troops committed the deed; they are outraged that the media reported it. . .

The Duke Cunningham cast of characters: what a menagerie!

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001054.php

Will John Ashcroft (former Attorney General) get caught up in the Abramoff scandal too?

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001052.php
With Ashcroft, as with so many other power players, Abramoff gained access by hiring someone who already had it. It was former Ashcroft aide Kevin Ring, who joined his firm in 2000. Ring had been Ashcroft's counsel when he was a Senator on the Judiciary Committee. . .

Remember the “Gang of 14” that agreed to withhold certain controversial court nominations in order to avoid filibusters that could lead to the so-called “nuclear option”? Two of the controversial cases were Brett Kavanaugh and Terrence Boyle. Well, so much for agreements – Kavanaugh’s already been confirmed, and Boyle’s coming back for review. I think the Democrats have been had (again)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gang_of_14

http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/07/05/judge_the_horizon/index.html

The right-wing has a planned, long-term (and highly effective) media strategy – and they’re sticking to it

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7857.html
[Steve Benen] As journalists expose more serious wrongdoing — secret prisons, secret wiretaps — the pushback and level of heated rhetoric has become considerably more intense. Instead of just an antagonistic attitude, the Bush gang has come to view news outlets as another rival to crush for political gain. . .

More: http://www.newyorker.com/talk/content/articles/060710ta_talk_remnick
[David Remnick] The Bush Administration knows very well what it is doing and in what climate. The press––particularly the mainstream outlets the White House finds most irritating––is in a collective state of anxious transition, hurt by scandals (Congressman King was quick to mention Jayson Blair, the Times serial fabulist), by the appearance of a blizzard of new technologies and ideologized alternatives like Fox News, and by a general sense of economic, even existential, worry. . . [read on!]

The Democrats don’t

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7855.html

“Unilateral surrender” http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7856.html

The end of the level media playing field

http://mediamatters.org/items/200607050006
Media to GOP: Heads you win, tails you . . . win [read on!]

Sometimes you just have to chuckle: Ann Coulter complains that plagiarism charges against her have been raised by a “tabloid” – hey Ann, no one BUT tabloid readers/viewers take you seriously in the first place

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2006_07_02.php#008939

Nevertheless, the investigation IS serious: http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001055.php

No charges for Rush on phony Viagra prescriptions

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060705/ap_on_en_ot/limbaugh_viagra

[NB: Though it IS interesting to learn that he has a psychiatrist]

The ridiculous lie of abstinence-only policies on STD’s

http://www.slate.com/id/2144903/nav/tap1/

Theocracy watch: now THIS is scary – very, very scary

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/5/19462/93626
[Hunter] Bartholomew's Notes on Religion bring us this case of a Jewish family in Delaware that objected to extensive Christian proselytizing by their public school district. As a result, the family was roundly attacked, subjected to threats, and has now been explicitly singled out by an organization called Stop The ACLU. . . who, as the haphazard nature of the posts on their website indicate, are not so much interested in stopping the ACLU as supporting Bushism and advocating against everyone from Hans Blix to liberalism in general. Including, if need be, sixth graders.

In a recent turn of events, Stop the ACLU published the home phone number and home address of the family on their website, highlighting it as the first instance of an ongoing "project" called "Expose the ACLU Plaintiff".

Expose them to what? Why is the publication of this address and this family especially noteworthy? Because the family in question previously had to relocate due to harassment and threats against them -- including oblique threats from members of the very school board in question. . .

Bonus item: Cheers and Jeers explains to Sen. Ted Stevens (R-AK) how the Internet works

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/5/7452/32234
The Internets is a series of gerbils, one gerbil for each "user." When you "send" a "message" (or, in Stevens-speak, "an internet"), the gerbil takes it down shorthand and scurries through a series of tubes to its destination. . .

But, seriously: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060704/wr_nm/google_netneutrality_dc

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***

WORSE THAN NOTHING

Bush betrays Latinos, admits that he doesn’t have enough “political capital” even to resist his own right wing on immigration. Who blinked first?

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/05/washington/05immig.html
Republicans both inside and outside the White House say Mr. Bush, who has long insisted on comprehensive reform, is now open to a so-called enforcement-first approach that would put new border security programs in place before creating a guest worker program or path to citizenship for people living in the United States illegally.

Worse than nothing: http://talkleft.com/new_archives/015237.html

Bush to troops: You’re great, you’re winning. . . oh, and by the way, get used to an extended, bloody commitment for a long time

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/washington/04cnd-prexy.html

“Destroying Ramadi in order to save it”

http://www.first-draft.com//modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6453

More: http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/3113

Hmm. . . . Our good friends in Iraq don’t trust us to bring the rape-murder culprits to justice

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060704/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_060704163945

And now this: was the kidnapping and beheading of three US troops in June a retaliation for the original rape-murder?

http://talkleft.com/new_archives/015238.html

Ugly Americans

http://billmon.org/archives/002509.html

Double standard? I don’t think that’s a strong enough term for it

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_digbysblog_archive.html#115199391579838317
[Digby] Even the Plame affair, which was also a national security issue, did not engender a wholesale attack on the freedom of the press. The criticism generally was focused on the cozy relationship between extremely powerful government actors and certain reporters. I don't recall any calls to try the Chicago Sun-Times for treason because they allowed Robert Novak to print Valerie Plame's name. . .

It’s gotten insane: http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/07/light-holiday-fare.html

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_07_02_atrios_archive.html#115202050405697981

Joe Lieberman: Bush’s favorite “Democrat"

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/7/4/15047/28441

Joe Lieberman: doesn’t care what Democratic primary voters think

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_digbysblog_archive.html#115199391579838317

Are the Democrats afraid to play hard-ball politics with redistricting?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/04/AR2006070401041.html

Bonus item: how do they get away with it? (thanks to Atrios for the link)

http://www.findingavoice.com/mt/archives/000298.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***

I LOVE AMERICA

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/7/3/151923/7785

The big news of the day: Murray Waas reports that Bush told Fitzgerald that he gave the order to release classified information to discredit Joe Wilson. Whether he directly ordered outing Wilson’s wife Valerie Plame may be doubtful – but the main significance of the story is that Bush was DIRECTLY and INTMATELY involved with the discussions, and certainly knew the key players on his staff who later did leak her CIA affiliation

http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/0703nj1.htm

More: http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7841.html

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001045.php

Why are we hearing about this story NOW?

http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/3109

Well, the Iraq rape/murder atrocity is no longer a hypothesis: soldier charged

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060703/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/iraq_us_investigation

How screwed up are things in Iraq? Zarqawi had several government officials speed dialed on his cell phone

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/07/03/zarqawi.ap/index.html

Bush quietly and without fanfare shuts down the CIA unit searching for Bin Laden (better to quit than to fail, eh?)

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/CIA_closes_down_unit_that_was_0703.html

A new development in the “New York Times tries to assassinate Rumsfeld and Cheney” story. The photos in the NYT Leisure puff-piece that showed Rummy’s home WERE TAKEN WITH HIS PERMISSION. Does the right wing think he has a death wish? The Secret Service calls the whole matter ridiculous. So now will the wingers withdraw their outrageous accusations?

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7831.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/3/164642/3346

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/07/what-is-left-of-malkin-hinderaker-and.html

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/4/0133/07793

Another California Republican, Joe Doolittle, gets caught in the Abramoff net

http://www.tpmmuckraker.com/archives/001043.php

Well, it’s official: Joe Lieberman (D-CT) places his own self-interest ahead of his party – but then, who’s surprised by that?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/03/AR2006070300544.html
Facing a stronger-than-expected Democratic primary challenge and sagging poll numbers because of his support of the Iraq war, Sen. Joe Lieberman said Monday he'll collect signatures for an independent campaign if he loses next month's primary. . .

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/3/1316/57667
[Kos] An interesting kind of "Democrat", Lieberman thinks he is. One who doesn't respect the wishes of his state's Democratic voters, one who will split his state's vote on the left and potentially hand the election to a Republican.

And who do you think is going to sign those petitions? Republicans.

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_07_02_atrios_archive.html#115195778578216269
[Atrios] Why do Democrats feel the need to be loyal to a guy who says he isn't loyal to them?

More on “loyalty”: http://www.first-draft.com//modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6449

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_07_02_atrios_archive.html#115194961062688264

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/07/lieberman-abandons-democrats.html

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_07_02_atrios_archive.html#115194514487906792
[Atrios] In typical cowardly Lieberman fashion, he's going to continue running in the Democratic primary while simultaneously pulling petitions to get himself on the ballot as an Independent. . . More than that, he's going to claim he's not going to be trying to run as an independent, but instead as something Made Up, a "petitioning Democrat."

Ned Lamont, Lieberman’s primary challenger

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_07_02_atrios_archive.html#115194666007647442
Members of a party abide by primary results. There is no such thing as an "petitioning Democrat." If there was, Joe could accept the Republican endorsement and run as a "Republican Democrat." . . .

Then there are the other Democrats who refuse to accept the decision of their own party’s primary, if it means that their buddy Joe isn’t the people’s choice

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/3/15429/72262

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7842.html

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_digbysblog_archive.html#115195205978920723
[Digby] So, you see, Lieberman isn't actually leaving the party. He's just decided that he needn't answer to rank and file Democrats who vote in primaries. They do not know what a "real Democrat" is and they cannot be trusted to choose who they wish to represent the Democratic party in the fall election. Therefore, smarter people, like Joe Lieberman and Chuck Schumer, have to step in and tell them what's good for them. Surely, you can understand that. After all, Joe and Chuck have been leading us successfully to victory lo these many years. We should not question their wisdom.

The Bush blip

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/07/bush-bounce-any-improvement-was-very.html
[CNN] BILL SCHNEIDER: Well, some polls did show them going up a very little bit, in last few weeks, after those events just mentioned, somewhere in the range of 37 to 41 percent. But this is the most recent poll. The only one taken since the Supreme Court's Guantanamo decision, which went against the White House and it shows the president with a low number indeed, 35 percent. So any improvement was very short lived. . .

What a fool. People like this are deciding the fate of the Internet

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7838.html
[Ted Stevens, R-AK] "I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why? Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially. . . They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck. It's a series of tubes."

Bonus item: Tom Tomorrow, on the bizarre cognitive dissonance of mainstream media types who promote the views of right-wing commentators who call them traitors (or worse), while at the same time lambasting progressive bloggers as truly dangerous “blogofascists”

http://www.salon.com/comics/tomo/2006/07/03/tomo/index1.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***

AH, WHAT WE REALLY MEANT TO SAY WAS. . .

I think this is a huge story: the Bush gang started domestic surveillance BEFORE 9-11. So how do you justify it now, Big Guy?

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=abIV0cO64zJE&refer=#
The U.S. National Security Agency asked AT&T Inc. to help it set up a domestic call monitoring site seven months before the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks, lawyers claimed June 23 in court papers filed in New York federal court. . . “The Bush Administration asserted this became necessary after 9/11,'' plaintiff's lawyer Carl Mayer said in a telephone interview. “This undermines that assertion.'' . . .

[NB: I think we need a stronger word than “undermines” – how about, “blows their f---ing lies out of the water”]

http://www.mydd.com/story/2006/7/2/143127/9491
[Jonathan Singer] At this stage, it is important to note that there are only allegations that the Bush administration began spying on Americans before 9/11. But should these allegations pan out -- or even if the White House is in some way able to convince the courts to throw out this lawsuit -- it's not clear to me that the President will ever be able to win back the trust and faith of the American people. The recent revelations out of California -- that the state's Office of Homeland Security was spying on political dissenters -- only underscore this. . .

All right. Bring it on! You want to pick a fight with the press, you need to take on people like Dana Priest (don’t miss it – and look at Bill Bennett’s expression!)

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/004493.html

More tasty counterattacks in the Bush gang’s war against an independent press

Bill Keller: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/2/16340/88062

Bill Safire: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/2/171218/8098

John Harwood: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/2/184759/2180

I’m glad the Bush gang and their right-wing mouthpieces are so worked up about secret government information ending up in the wrong hands. So I’m sure they’re going to make a huge stink about this one too, right?

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-abramoff1jul01,1,6127387.story
Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff improperly obtained a top-secret FBI document and tried to use the information to aid his clients in the Pacific Island territories, according to a report released Friday by the Justice Department's inspector general. . .

Guess who are the strongest opponents to Bush’s threats to attack Iran? You guessed it – the people who would actually have to carry it out

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060710fa_fact

Why does ANYONE believe that Iraq as currently constituted can function as a western-style democracy?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060702/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq
The largest Sunni Arab bloc in parliament announced Sunday it was suspending participation in the legislature until a Sunni female lawmaker was freed by kidnappers who seized her and seven bodyguards in a Shiite part of Baghdad on Saturday. . .

Sauce for the goose. . . .?

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/07/hey-associated-press-did-dick-cheney.html
[John Aravosis] Since the Associated Press was so concerned a month or so ago that Harry Reid was invited to tour a few boxing matches in Nevada, without paying for the privilege, I'm just wondering why AP didn't bother inquiring in today's story whether Dick Cheney paid for his VIP access to the NASCAR race. . . .

Bonus item: Ann Coulter, accused (again) of plagiarism

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/07/ny-post-accuses-ann-coulter-of.html

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***

ON THE BRINK

Well, now we are starting to see the consequences of the politics of hate and fear the Republicans have brought upon us in the Atwater/DeLay/Rove era. The use of enemies, real or imagined, to unify and motivate partisan coalitions is hardly new, or limited to only one party. But in the post-9/11 period, there is an underlying viciousness to political discourse that I haven’t seen in my lifetime (I missed the McCarthy era). The fact that someone like Ann Coulter, who has spoken repeatedly and explicitly about murdering public officials, members of the press, and others, still has a public platform shows how atavistic things have become.

The latest product of this new politics is the labeling of the press as treasonous (over publishing government leaks – i.e., classified leaks the government DOESN’T want disclosed, as opposed to the ones they do), and serious discussion on television and elsewhere of executing reporters and editors. It isn’t very surprising that the “wingnuts,” as we call them, call for such things – what has changed is the seepage of these ideas into ostensibly “mainstream” commentary.

Where does this end? I don’t know – but the latest turn in the insane spiral of accusation is that the New York Times is trying to assassinate Cheney and Rumsfeld (no, I am not kidding)

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/07/conservative-pundits-reveal-murderous.html
[Glenn Greenwald] I learned today from Michelle Malkin, Powerline's John Hinderaker, Red State, and David Horowitz, among others, that The New York Times not only wants to help Al Qaeda launch terrorist attacks on the United States, but that newspaper also want to do everything possible to enable The Terrorists to assassinate Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld. . . [read on!]

Perhaps you think I’m exaggerating. . .

http://www.thoseshirts.com/rope.html

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/07/conservative-pundits-reveal-murderous.html
[Glenn Greenwald] The outright derangement generated by this madness has now led one of the imbeciles who likely read Malkin and Powerline's blog to post the home address and telephone number of the Times photographers on his website. . .

Another upstanding, patriotic blogger -- after linking to the blog which posted the address of the Times photographer -- has now posted this:

So, in the school of what's good for the goose is good for the gander, we are providing this link so YOU may help the blogosphere in locating the homes (perhaps with photos?) of the editors and reporters of the New York Times.

Let's start with the following New York Times reporters and editors: Arthur "Pinch" Sulzberger Jr. , Bill Keller, Eric Lichtblau, and James Risen. Do you have an idea where they live?

Go hunt them down and do America a favor. Get their photo, street address, where their kids go to school, anything you can dig up, and send it to the link above. This is your chance to be famous - grab for the golden ring. . .

I think this great piece by Paul Waldman sums it all up

http://mediamatters.org/items/200607010004
[T]his week the entire conservative movement -- from the White House to Republicans in Congress to Fox News to right-wing talk radio to conservative magazines -- declared war on the very idea of an independent press. . . [read on!]

And this: http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002765284
[Frank Rich] No sooner were the flag burners hustled offstage than a new traitor was unveiled for the Fourth: the press. Public enemy No. 1 is The New York Times, which was accused of a 'disgraceful' compromise of national security (by President Bush) and treason (by Representative Peter King of New York and the Coulter amen chorus). . . It was a solid piece of journalism. But if you want to learn the truly dirty secrets of how our government prosecutes this war, the story of how it vilified The Times is more damning than anything in the article that caused the uproar. . .

Worse than Nixon

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/1/113653/7497

The damn media is making us lose the war!

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_digbysblog_archive.html#115177870624808903
A US combat commander suggested the United States could lose the war in Iraq if public support for it at home is sapped by negative media coverage. . .

More: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20060630/pl_afp/usiraqmilitary

Yeah, news media, stop telling us about things like this

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7827.html
[Steve Benen] After the incidents at Haditha, Ishaqi, Hamandiya, and Samarra, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki lashed out at the American military, denouncing what he characterized as habitual attacks by troops against Iraqi civilians. That was before this.

[WP] The U.S. Army is investigating allegations that American soldiers raped and killed a woman and killed three of her family members in a town south of Baghdad, then reported the incident as an insurgent attack, a military official said Friday. . . . The alleged crimes occurred in March in the insurgent hotbed of Mahmudiyah. The four soldiers involved, from the 502nd Infantry Regiment, attempted to burn the family's home to the ground and blamed insurgents for the carnage, according to a military official familiar with the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was providing details not released publicly.

Remember, by the way, that the news media HAS often withheld stories at the request of the administration – a favor which, of course, the Bush gang would never abuse

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/004490.html

I think Billmon is onto something

http://billmon.org/archives/002498.html
[P]erhaps the administration suspects, or at least has reason to worry, that the Times is getting close to an even bigger police state atrocity, and are pulling out the stops to try to intimidate Keller and his minions into laying off the story. . .

Alberto Gonzales had one last chance to show whether he views the role of Attorney General as that of defending the law and Constitution, or of taking the side of defending whatever the hell the Bush gang wants to justify itself doing. Can you guess?

http://www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/07/01/gonzales.gitmo/index.html
The Supreme Court decision that ruled against the Bush administration's plan to try suspects being held at Guantanamo Bay prison has "hampered our ability" to deal with terrorists, the U.S. attorney general said Saturday. . .

[NB: The absurdity of his argument is that the ruling doesn’t PREVENT the Bush gang from doing any of the things they want to do, as long as they can get congressional authorization for doing so. And THAT, of course, is what they do not want to do – and don’t think they have to do]

More: http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/1/175215/4562

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_07/009115.php

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/7/1/14377/70288
[Neal Katyal] Not a single person was tried in these military commissions even though the administration said four and a half years ago "We don't have the time to legislate. Congress, you take too long to authorize these commissions. We need to do it right away because we need to try these people." They didn't even indict someone for two and a half years under these commissions. And when they did indict someone, they only indicted a total of ten people.

This was not really . . . about trying terrorists. . . It was about service to an agenda, an agenda of Presidential powers in a time of crisis. . . . The administration took the view that not only would it advance these extreme claims of executive power but it would do so in a context in which they said the courts have no business. . . .

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_digbysblog_archive.html#115177600251221890
[WP] A senior administration official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the issue is still being debated internally, seemed to hint at the potential political implications in Congress. "Members of both parties will have to decide whether terrorists who cherish the killing of innocents deserve the same protections as our men and women who wear the uniform," this official said.

[Digby] The assumption, again, being that these people are all guilty when everyone knows for a fact that many of them are not. That means that this administration just doesn't give a shit if innocent people are held prisoner forever. I suppose that there are people who think that's just the price that must be paid (by someone else) for our "freedom," but moral people cannot believe this.

More: http://billmon.org/archives/002497.html

Meet David Addington, one of the architects of the Bush gang’s totalitarian legal philosophy

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/060703fa_fact1
Colin Powell: “He doesn’t care about the Constitution.”

Then, for comic relief, we have John Yoo: http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/3104
[NYT] John C. Yoo, a principal architect of the Bush administration's legal response to the terrorist threat, sounded perplexed and a little bitter on Thursday afternoon. . . . "What the court is doing is attempting to suppress creative thinking," said Professor Yoo . . .

Yet another example of the Bush gang editing government reports to delete material that is unfavorable to them – this time, not a matter of national security, but their pathetic response to hurricane Katrina

http://www.first-draft.com//modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6442

Yeah, it’s just so damn hard to get a handle on controlling government spending

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/01/AR2006070100962.html
Nationwide, the federal government has paid at least $1.3 billion in subsidies for rice and other crops since 2000 to individuals who do no farming at all. . .

The Duke Cunningham case is starting to look like one of those branching family trees

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2006_06_25.php#008901

More scandal: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/06/30/state/n124216D83.DTL

“Publicly financed bribery”

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/corruption_in_washington_/2006/07/publicly_financed_bribery.php

More: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/02/washington/02earmarks.html

I’m glad John Aravosis reads the right-wing Washington Times (so I don’t have to)

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/07/wash-times-blasts-bush-over-sending.html
[Washington Times] The president's order assigning the National Guard to enforce border security, such as it is, has been suspect from the beginning. The order sounded forceful and dramatic, but was received with considerable skepticism because on second thought it sounded as mostly sound and little fury, signifying not very much. The president's heart is with amnesty, by whatever they're calling it at the White House, and sending weary and exhausted National Guardsmen to "assist" the Border Patrol will neither secure the border nor staunch the gusher of desperate illegals, mostly Mexicans, pouring into the country in search of work. Immigration reform is as elusive as ever. Counting on the National Guard to render the politics harmless is merely blowing more smoke.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/29/AR2006062901468.html
The Bush administration has been unable to muster even half the 2,500 National Guardsmen it planned to have on the Mexican border by the end of June, officials in the border states said. . .

Sunday talk show line-ups

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_06_25_atrios_archive.html#115168815528572132
* Meet the Press hosts Sens. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY). The roundtable includes author Bill Bennett, CNBC's John Harwood, Washington Post's Dana Priest, and New York Times' William Safire.

* Face the Nation hosts Sens. Arlen Specter (R-PA) and Carl Levin (D-MI) and New York Times' exec. ed. Bill Keller.

* This Week hosts Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Dianne Feinstein (D-CA). The roundtable includes ex-Sen. Fred Thompson (R-TN), Cokie Roberts and Time's Joe Klein.

* Fox News Sunday hosts Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and Jack Reed (D-RI) and NASA Admin. Michael Griffin.

* Late Edition hosts Reps. Peter King (R-NY) and Barney Frank (D-MA) and Griffin.

Bonus item: Someone at Time magazine has a wicked sense of humor

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_07_01_digbysblog_archive.html#115177020603949357

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***

SHAMELESS

One thing we’ve learned about the Bush/Rove approach to governing: everything – EVERYTHING – needs to be evaluated through the lens of political advantage. So the Supreme Court slaps down the Bush philosophy of unlimited Executive authority during wartime, and the first thing they think of is how to make this the framing issue of the 2006 election

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/30/AR2006063001737.html
Republicans yesterday looked to wrest a political victory from a legal defeat in the Supreme Court, serving notice to Democrats that they must back President Bush on how to try suspects at Guantanamo Bay or risk being branded as weak on terrorism. . .

House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) criticized House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi's comment Thursday that the court decision "affirms the American ideal that all are entitled to the basic guarantees of our justice system." That statement, Boehner said, amounted to Pelosi's advocating "special privileges for terrorists."

[NB: There you have it folks, the basic divide between the two parties in this day and age]

http://www.wstm.com/Global/story.asp?S=5099276&nav=2aKD
[AP] White House counselor Dan Bartlett says the administration's task now is to determine how to design military tribunals that will pass constitutional muster. Bartlett says Bush could portray any lawmaker who objects to legislation as supporting the release of dangerous terrorists.

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_06/009108.php

But I don’t think it’s automatic, particularly on the Senate side, that even Republicans will be prepared to give Bush another broadly worded authorization, given (a) his abuse of every degree of freedom they’ve given him before and (b) his patent contempt for their opinions about anything where his authority has been concerned

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html
[Dan Froomkin] The Republican-controlled Congress, which has remained resolutely blind, deaf and dumb as President Bush took national security matters entirely into his own hands, now has little choice but to rouse itself to some sort of action. . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/01/us/01gitmo.html
A leading Senate Republican said Friday that he was not sure that Congress should pass legislation to create new military tribunals for terror suspects, a stance that raised doubts about prospects for a White House plan to establish an alternative to the commissions struck down this week by the Supreme Court. . .

Until now, the White House and particularly Vice President Dick Cheney had been dead set against working with Congress on issues involving the detainees, against the advice of some Republicans and some administration lawyers. By waiting until the court forced the issue, the White House may have made its task more difficult, leaving Mr. Bush with less support in Congress than he had after the attacks of Sept. 11. . . [read on!]

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/06/will-hamdan-have-any-effect-on-bush.html
[Glenn Greenwald] I think there is a very real question as to whether the Bush administration even considers itself bound by Supreme Court decisions which it perceives to encroach on the constitutional powers of the President. This is an unpleasant question which hasn't been examined, but it may need to be now. After all, the administration's theory is that the Constitution vests unlimited power in the President to make decisions to defend the country, and nobody -- neither Congress nor the courts -- has any power to interfere with those decisions. Those decisions are, as the Yoo Memorandum put it, "for the President alone to make."

Indeed, in several of the President's signing statements, the administration seems to have pointedly emphasized the limitations on the Court's power to interfere with the President's decision-making when it comes to defending the nation. . . [read on!]

Reality check: the fact is, this ruling is a terrible rebuke to Bush, and to the craven and submissive Republican Congress that let him construe their authorization for war as a blank check for unlimited Executive power – and this despite previous Court rulings that explicitly said otherwise

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051024/cole
[David Cole] In June 2004 the Supreme Court sharply rejected George W. Bush's assertions that he had unchecked unilateral authority to lock up indefinitely any person he declared an "enemy combatant" in the global "war on terrorism." Writing for the Court, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor declared that a "state of war is not a blank check for the President." . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/30/washington/30hamdan.html
The Supreme Court on Thursday repudiated the Bush administration's plan to put Guantánamo detainees on trial before military commissions, ruling broadly that the commissions were unauthorized by federal statute and violated international law.

"The executive is bound to comply with the rule of law that prevails in this jurisdiction," Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the 5-to-3 majority, said at the end of a 73-page opinion that in sober tones shredded each of the administration's arguments, including the assertion that Congress had stripped the court of jurisdiction to decide the case. . .

The decision was such a sweeping and categorical defeat for the administration that it left human rights lawyers who have pressed this and other cases on behalf of Guantánamo detainees almost speechless with surprise and delight, using words like "fantastic," "amazing" and "remarkable." . . .

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/30/washington/30gitmo.html
Privately, though, some administration officials involved in detention policy — along with many critics of that policy — were skeptical that Guantánamo could or would go about its business as before. "It appears to be about as broad a holding as you could imagine," said one administration lawyer, who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the ruling. "It's very broad, it's very significant, and it's a slam." . . .

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/29/AR2006062902092.html
Senior administration officials acknowledged that the ruling scuttles their plans to put as many as 80 detainees through administration-created "military commissions" -- with extremely limited rights -- and said it is unclear how they will respond. . .

Retired Army Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey, a professor of international affairs at the U.S. Military Academy who visited Guantanamo Bay last week, said the military commissions were destined to fail. He said the government should have used courts-martial and the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ), which grants defendants more rights.

"We put ourselves in an unnecessary legal mess from the beginning, and now we've gotten ourselves in such a mess legally and politically, there's no easy solution," McCaffrey said yesterday. "The UCMJ is the only way to go forward."

More: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_06/009106.php

Heroes of military justice

http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2006_06_01_digbysblog_archive.html#115169238714246611

More on the wholesale politicization of policy under Bush

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2006/06/29/BL2006062901115.html
[Dan Froomkin] It's often said that President Bush is better at campaigning than governing. He certainly seems to enjoy it more.

Five years into his presidency, he still speaks with great contempt about "Washington" -- as if he wasn't running the place. . .

Theoretically, Bush could get himself out of this mess by trying to solve some of the problems afflicting his presidency. But campaigning is easier. . . [read on!]

http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/7822.html
[Steve Benen] Bush considers the war just another political tool. It's to be used to win elections, not to spread democracy or "liberate" anyone. . . [read on!]

Orrin Hatch (R-UT), long considered a serious voice on Supreme Court issues, and sometimes bandied about as a potential nominee himself, spits on the Court in an unbelievable fashion

http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/06/orrin-hatch-hates-our-american-form-of.html
Speaking of the flag burning amendment, Republican Senator Orrin Hatch said the amendment would: "restore the constitution to what it was before unelected jurists changed it five to four." He went on to say, "Five lawyers decided 48 states were wrong." . . .[read on!]

Two words: war crimes

http://billmon.org/archives/002494.html

http://www.samefacts.com/archives/torture_/2006/06/no_need_to_go_to_the_hague.php

Oh, christ

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060630/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_soldiers_investigated
[AP] The U.S. Army will investigate charges that five American soldiers were involved in the killings of four Iraqi relatives, including a woman who had been raped, military officials said Friday. It's the sixth current inquiry into the alleged slayings of Iraqi civilians by American troops. . . Some of the five soldiers also allegedly burned the body of the woman they are accused of assaulting. . .

Let’s run the 2006 campaign on this

http://electioncentral.tpmcafe.com/blog/electioncentral/2006/jun/30/norquist_we_need_60_republican_senators
Last Friday Grover Norquist spoke at an American Prospect breakfast, and Cocco reports he had this to say about reviving efforts to privatize Social Security: “I believe that when there are 60 Republican senators we will move Social Security from the present Ponzi scheme to a fully funded, individually held system.”

The man Bush wanted to head up Homeland Security

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/30/nyregion/30cnd-kerik.html
Bernard B. Kerik, the former New York City police commissioner, pleaded guilty today to two misdemeanor charges as the result of accepting tens of thousands of dollars of gifts and a loan while he was a city official in the late 1990's. . .

The next big Republican House scandal heats up

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2006_06_25.php#008900

Will they succeed in linking Abramoff even more directly to the White House? The evidence keeps piling up

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2006_06_25.php#008899

The White House Communications Director said this

http://mediamatters.org/items/200607010006
On the June 29 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, host Chris Matthews left unchallenged White House communications director Nicolle Wallace's claim that "there is no way" The New York Times could discuss "terrorists already knowing about" a Treasury Department finance-tracking program the Times and other newspapers reported on June 23, "unless they're talking to terrorists." . . .

Bizarro world: the Wall Street Journal, which published THE SAME STORY on the Bush gang’s surveillance of bank records, editorializes that the New York Times is reprehensible for doing so (while they’re not)

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002764884
After remaining mum for the past week, even as controversy swirled around newspapers' revealing the banking records surveillance program, the Wall Street Journal editoral page weighed in today. Although the Journal published its own story just hours after The New York Times -- which has taken the most heat -- its editorial defended its own action while blasting the Times. . .

More: http://americablog.blogspot.com/2006/06/wall-street-journal-tries-justifying.html

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_06_25_atrios_archive.html#115169112752884529

Treason?!?? http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/07/if-this-be-treason.html

Colloquy of the day: should media give up the pretense of “objectivity,” and identify news outlets more explicitly with particular party or ideological positions (as in other countries) – and what happens when one side is playing this game much more effectively than the other?

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2006_06/009110.php

http://atrios.blogspot.com/2006_06_25_atrios_archive.html#115169667964918901

For example

http://mediamatters.org/items/200606300009
A Media Matters analysis of the media coverage of the Iraq war debate shows that the favored Republican talking points on Iraq have gone largely unchallenged in the media and have even been adopted as truths by some media outlets and figures. . .

http://mediamatters.org/items/200607010007
Following reports describing a Treasury Department program designed to track the financial activity of terrorist organizations, the Bush White House and its supporters in the media decried the leakers for divulging classified information and attacked the press for publishing details of the program. But conservatives were silent when the Bush administration previously disclosed -- and the media reported -- classified information to the press in order to bolster its arguments or discredit its political opponents. . .

Theocracy watch

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/01/world/europe/01vatican.html
Scientists who engage in stem cell research using human embryos should be subject to excommunication from the Roman Catholic Church, according to a senior Vatican official. . .

Take hope in this: despite a spate of good news (just before the Supreme Court decision), and fervent media coverage of a big Bush “rebound,” here’s where the polls stand

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2006/06/30/good_news_fails_to_boost_bush.html
"A spate of good news at home and abroad has so far failed to boost how Americans feel about President Bush's job performance. Bush's approval rating slipped to 35% in a Time poll taken this week, down from 37% in March... Only 33% of Americans in the survey said they approved of Bush's handling of the situation in Iraq, vs. 35% in March... His management of the U.S. economy lost supporters, too, as 36% approved, compared with 39% three months earlier."

"Asked whether they would be more likely to vote for the Republican or Democratic candidate in the district where they live if the election were held today, 47% said Democrat and 35% said Republican, a two-point improvement for Democrats."

Bonus item: Must-read of the day

http://glenngreenwald.blogspot.com/2006/06/cultured.html
[Barbara O’Brien] [A] political culture utterly inhospitable to rational political discussion, as ours has become, cannot support democratic decision making. And a political culture in which large factions of people do not agree on matters of political legitimacy or appropriate distribution and use of power is cruisin' for a bruisin'.

How America's political culture became contaminated is too big a topic to explain fully in a blog post. But very basically, I blame two factors that have been interacting for the past fifty years or so. One is the rise and dominance of mass media. The other is a radical right-wing political coalition that has used mass media and other institutions to dominate the nation's political discourse and, eventually, take control of two out of three branches of our federal government. And they're working hard to take over the third. . .

***If you enjoy PBD and support what we are doing, you can help by forwarding a copy of this issue to your friends (using the envelope link below) or by sending them a copy of its URL (http://pbd.blogspot.com).

I don't get anything personally out of this project, except the satisfaction of doing it (I don't run ads, etc). The credit really all goes to the people whose material I copy and redistribute. But if I do have a "mission," it is to get this information into the hands of as many people as I can.***