BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 17 Sep 08 - 09:35 AM

It has been nearly two years since Congress first began asking questions about the firing of nine United States attorneys, who appear to have been removed for partisan political reasons. Mr. Rove may have been directly involved in these possibly illegal firings, but he has not told Congress what he knows. In defiance of a legally binding subpoena, he refused this summer to appear before the House Judiciary Committee.

Congress's investigation of the United States attorneys matter is of the utmost importance. It now seems clear that the Justice Department under Attorney General Alberto Gonzales operated as a partisan political actor, using its prosecutorial authority to help the party in power win elections. That was a grave abuse, which undermined American democracy.

There are real victims in this scandal. Don Siegelman, the former governor of Alabama, was sentenced to seven years in prison as a result of a prosecution that appears to have been politically motivated. Mr. Siegelman is free pending an appeal, but he has already served part of the sentence and could end up returning to prison.

Congress is also pushing to obtain testimony and documents from Joshua Bolten, the White House chief of staff, and Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel. Mr. Bolten and Ms. Miers have also defied Congressional subpoenas. The House voted to hold them in contempt in February, and it is fighting in court right now to force them to testify.

A Federal District Court judge appointed by President Bush ordered them to comply with the subpoenas, but the administration appealed the ruling. Attorney General Michael Mukasey is also doing his best to block Congress from getting the testimony it is entitled to. Clearly, the administration's goal is to run out the clock, to get out of town before the subpoenas are enforced.

The House needs to start pushing just as hard on Mr. Rove. The important step is for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to schedule a vote on holding him in contempt in the next two weeks. The House is eager to adjourn — the members want to get back to their districts so they can campaign for re-election. But it would be a mistake to leave without taking this vote.

There are many vital principles at stake, but none is more important than the power of Congress itself. In this era of expanding presidential authority, Congress is a critical check on executive branch abuses. It cannot perform this function if it allows members of the executive branch to flout its subpoenas and its oversight.

NYT

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Sawzaw
Date: 17 Sep 08 - 12:43 AM

Obama warns Pakistan on al-Qaeda

BBC

Barack Obama delivers foreign policy speech
Mr Obama said Pakistan must do more to tackle al-Qaeda
US presidential candidate Barack Obama has said he would use military force if necessary against al-Qaeda in Pakistan even without Pakistan's consent.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 16 Sep 08 - 01:18 PM

"The Pakistani military said on Tuesday its troops would fire on foreign forces if they crossed the country's borders but denied that this was a change of policy.

The comments came after the United States sent commandos into Pakistan to fight the Taliban and Al Qaeda earlier this month, and as confusion continued to swirl over a possible Monday incursion by United States forces into Pakistani territory along the border with Afghanistan.

Local residents and a Pakistani government official said Monday two American helicopters were repulsed in South Waziristan when Pakistani soldiers fired at them.

But the Pakistani and United States military publicly denied any such incident, and a Pakistani intelligence official said that an American helicopter had mistakenly crossed the border briefly, leading Pakistani ground forces to fire into the air.

On Tuesday, a military spokesman, Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, said the army reserved the right to use force to defend the country and its people, but he said there was "no change in policy."

Asked what the Pakistan military would do if there was a future incursion by American troops, he said: "There is a big if involved. We will see to it when such a situation arises."

Tensions have been mounting since the United States intensified its campaign in Pakistan's border areas against militants suspected of having ties to Al Qaeda and the Taliban. The United States has become increasingly frustrated that the militants use the border areas as a refuge to stage attacks against American and NATO soldiers in southern Afghanistan.

On Sept. 3, helicopter-borne American Special Operations forces made their first publicly acknowledged ground operation on Pakistani soil, when they attacked Qaeda militants in a Pakistani village near the border with Afghanistan.

Following that raid, in an unusually strong response, Pakistan's military chief, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, said that his forces would not tolerate such incursions and would defend the country's sovereignty "at all costs."

The raid complicated relations with the new civilian government in Pakistan, which is trying to stabilize the country after the resignation in August of President Pervez Musharraf, whom the Bush administration regarded as a strong ally in its campaign against terrorism. "

---

This appearance of yet another Bush-inspired flop in international relations begins to crystallize on the horizon.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 10:55 PM

The location of a President Bush fundraising event in Florida has been changed after event planners realized that the original host is under an IRS investigation. The event was originally scheduled to be at the home of John Boswell, whose Boswell House Ministries is undergoing an IRS probe.



(The Progressive)

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 14 Sep 08 - 02:27 AM

FOR YEARS, critics have accused the Bush administration of being in bed with the oil industry. They thought they were speaking figuratively, but they weren't.

According to a scathing new report by the inspector general of the Interior Department, employees of the department who handle royalty payments from the oil and gas industry for drilling on federal land have accepted gifts from industry executives - and had sexual relations with them as well. With admirable understatement, Inspector General Earl Devaney declared, "Sexual relationships with prohibited sources cannot, by definition, be arms-length."

His office's investigations, he said, revealed "a culture of ethical failure" and an agency rife with conflicts of interest.

The report justifies the skepticism of many in Congress over the industry's recent push to use high oil prices to win permission to drill in the Outer Continental Shelf. A department that is as cozy with industry as the report spells out cannot be counted on to protect the public's financial, safety, or environmental interests - especially if the oil industry starts drilling in crucial fishing areas like New England's Georges Bank.

Devaney's report zeroed in on officials in the department's Minerals Management Service who handled contracts with oil companies that paid their royalties in barrels of petroleum, which the government then sold. But the report also puts a new light on revelations in recent years that the service has looked the other way and allowed the industry to escape royalties altogether for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. According to government auditors, the failure of service employees to collect payments aggressively could cost taxpayers $10.5 billion over 25 years.

The Clinton administration shares blame for this loss of revenue. In the 1990s, the administration persuaded oil companies to drill in deep-water areas with the promise they would not have to pay royalties on oil they discovered. Interior officials failed to include a standard provision that royalties would be due if the barrel price of oil exceeded $34, which it long since has. This omission was brought to the attention of Bush administration officials no later than 2004, but they never made any effort to renegotiate the contracts. (Boston.com)

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 06:39 PM

SALACIOUS CONFLICT OF INTERESTS: The IG report is full of accounts detailing the unethical relationships between government officials and the oil industry, calling it "a culture of ethical failure" and "a culture of substance abuse and promiscuity." The report notes that "employees frequently consumed alcohol at industry functions, had used cocaine and marijuana, and had sexual relationships with oil and natural gas company representatives," despite being subject to restrictions on taking gifts. Royalty in Kind (RIK) officials, however, attempted to rewrite the ethics rules to cover up their misdoings. Two employees engaged in "brief sexual relationships" with oil and gas representatives, yet they did not recuse themselves from work with those companies and officials. Oil giant Chevron gave roughly $2,500 over the course of five years, "most of it spent on meals and drinks." Three others, Shell, Gary-Williams Energy Corp. and Hess Corp., also were named as gift-givers. Other agencies, such as the Minerals Revenue Management (MRM), were implicated as well. MRM Associate Director Lucy Denett created a "lucrative contract" for her special assistant Jim Mayberry, upon Mayberry's retirement and later sought to increase funding for the contract. Gregory Smith, who managed RIK at MMS, was said to have demanded sexual favors from an employee; Attorney General Michael Mukasey in May 2008 "declin[ed] to prosecute Smith on various charges," the report notes.  

THE DRILLING DEBATE: The MMS, the agency that would oversee the expansion of offshore oil drilling, is now front and center in the oil drilling debate in Congress because of the IG report. This week, House Democrats announced that they would bring an energy bill allowing for expanded oil exploration off the coasts. "On the eve of Congress starting this big debate you've got a horror story of mismanagement and misconduct in programs that are going to be a key part of the discussion," Sen. Ron Wyden, (D-OR) observed. Conservatives are attempting to block the legislation because it would eliminate an estimated $17 billion in tax breaks for oil companies over 10 years. "So we're saying: OK, you want to drill, this is how it will be. No more subsidies," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told reporters Thursday. Pelosi said the energy measure in Congress will now include a "strong integrity piece" to shield the government from oil industry influence.

SCANDAL-CLAD DEPARTMENT: The revelations from the IG are the latest in scandal-clad Interior Department. The IG previously found that the Department under-collected billions of dollars of revenue owed the U.S. taxpayer from oil companies that produce and sell oil and gas from public lands and waters. Government workers "routinely failed to seek out legal advice on complicated deals and that the agency used outdated computers and a $150 million software program that resulted in royalty money going uncollected." J. Steven Griles, former mining lobbyist and Interior Department Deputy Secretary, pleaded guilty in 2007 to obstruction of justice in the Jack Abramoff scandal. "Vice President Dick Cheney packed the top posts at the Department of the Interior with lobbyists who had spent their careers representing the very industries they were now being asked to regulate," the New York Times noted yesterday.

(From The Progress Report)

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 05:57 PM

From a review of Ron Susskind's "Th Way of the World", in the NY Times:

"...More startling are Suskind's revelations about the Iraq war and the handling of prewar intelligence regarding weapons of mass destruction. In one instance, Suskind says that denials by the foreign minister of Iraq, Naji Sabri, that his country possessed W.M.D. were simply rewritten — "almost certainly altered under pressure from Washington," Suskind writes — into a false assertion that Sabri had substantiated suspicions about active Iraqi biological and nuclear programs.

Even more disturbing is the story of a former Iraqi intelligence chief named Tahir Jalil Habbush. Suskind describes in gripping detail secret meetings between Habbush and British intelligence in January and February of 2003. Habbush insisted that Saddam Hussein had abandoned his weapons programs but would not publicly admit it, so as to maintain a facade of deterrence against regional rivals like Iran. Not only did the White House dismiss Habbush's statements, Suskind writes, but an irritated Bush even asked whether the Iraqi could be asked for "something we can use to help us make our case." A subsequent $5 million C.I.A. payment to Habbush, disclosed by Suskind, has the smell of hush money.

Then comes what may be the ultimate bombshell: that the White House in structed the C.I.A. to forge a letter, backdated to July 2001, stating that the 9/11 hijacker Mohamed Atta had trained in Iraq and, furthermore, that Iraq had received suspicious shipments (presumably of yellowcake) from Niger with Al Qaeda's help. The letter was to be written and signed by Habbush on Iraqi government station ery and addressed to Hussein himself. This preposterously convenient summary of what a perfect case for war might look like almost resembled some wry gag from The Onion. But at the end of 2003 the letter did, in fact, turn up in a British newspaper, before seeping into the American media.

Suskind does not establish who dreamed up this pernicious document. But he says one of his sources, a former senior C.I.A. operative named Robert Richer, recalls being ordered directly by George Tenet, then the director of central intelligence, to have Habbush transcribe it himself from a draft produced by the White House. ­Richer even remembers "the creamy White House stationery on which the assignment was written," as Suskind puts it. Since the book's release, however, Tenet, Richer himself and another key source have adamantly denied that such a thing occurred. (Tenet also denies that Habbush's prewar claims were muffled.)

Even in the context of the past seven years, the stupid brazenness of a forged letter drafted on White House stationery does test credulity. But any claims made by Suskind, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and a Pulitzer Prize winner, should not be casually dismissed. That no credible challenges have been made to numerous other scoops in his book suggests an attempted covering of exposed der rières. Still, his release of partial transcripts from recorded interviews with Richer has not definitively affirmed his reporting.

Suskind's point isn't about proving liabil ity. Rather, the Habbush episodes, if accurate, illustrate a creeping amorality in the way America has managed its war on terror. As our moral standing suffers, so does our ability to shame other nations into cracking down on their nuclear black markets. And so does our battle for the hearts and minds of people like the Afghan exchange student, the Pakistani émigré, the possibly innocent Guantánamo detainee and the followers of Benazir Bhutto. Their conclusions about America may determine whether Rolf Mowatt-Larssen will have the pleasure of being remembered as a Chicken Little, or will experience the horror of becoming a prophet of atomic disaster.

Michael Crowley is a senior editor at The New Republic...."

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 12 Sep 08 - 10:30 AM

It seemed inevitable that bad things would happen when President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney packed the top posts at the Department of the Interior with lobbyists who had spent their careers representing the very industries they were now being asked to regulate. But it was left to Earl Devaney, the department's inspector general — and the busiest gumshoe inside the federal bureaucracy — to demonstrate just how bad things could be.

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In three extraordinary reports delivered to Congress this week, Mr. Devaney found that officials at the Minerals Management Service — the division responsible for granting offshore oil leases and collecting royalties — accepted gifts, steered contracts to favored clients and engaged in drugs and sex with oil company employees as part of what he described as a broader "culture of substance abuse and promiscuity."

At the center of the scandal is the royalty-in-kind program, under which the service takes delivery of oil and gas in lieu of cash payments from energy companies, then sells it to refiners. The program is vulnerable to manipulation at either end of the transaction, by overvaluing the oil and gas when it is received or undervaluing it when it is sold.

The program obviously needs a complete overhaul. It has already been the subject of multiple investigations — by Mr. Devaney; Dirk Kempthorne, the interior secretary; the Justice Department; and Congress — for mismanagement and conflicts of interest. In an earlier report in 2007, Mr. Devaney found that the agency had failed — through negligence and possible ethical lapses — to collect billions of dollars in royalties from oil companies for leases in the Gulf of Mexico.

His new reports add more shameful details, including allegations that agency employees accepted gratuities and other favors — meals, ski trips, sports tickets and golf outings with industry representatives — "with prodigious frequency."

Mr. Kempthorne, who has already transferred some employees and almost certainly will fire more, can take some comfort from the fact that nearly all of the misbehavior occurred before he arrived in Washington in 2006 to replace Gale Norton as interior secretary.

The White House can take no comfort at all. The people it brought to Washington to run the department had no interest in policing the oil, mining and agricultural interests they were sworn to regulate and every interest in promoting industry's (and their own) good fortune. The most notorious of these was J. Steven Griles, a mining industry lobbyist who really ran the agency for four years and who later pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice in the Jack Abramoff scandal.

The fruit of these terrible appointments was aptly described by Mr. Devaney two years ago when he appeared before a House subcommittee. "Short of a crime," he said, "anything goes at the Department of the Interior."

It now appears that crime could be part of the mix.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 11:22 PM

On 9-11 and McCain (Sorry for the HTML goof).

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 08:26 PM

The other news of note is that Russia is sending a friendly delegation to the OPEC conveniton for the first time. This opens up a real can of worms in balance of power consideration. Russia sponsors Iran's militarism and is traditionally at arm's length, to say the least, with the Saudis for whom the US is their power agent. Interested in participating in future price spikes and power games over oil, Russia is feeling their way into amicable relations with OPEC, possibly in consideration of getting past their peak-oil supply years, who knows. But it sure complicates things and simply reinforces the motivation for the US to move rapidly toward energy independence.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Ed T
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 08:17 PM

Has good USA friend India been lost and replaced by China and Iran?

Iran to develop Caspian Sea oil reserves with India, China
Tehran looking East for financing energy projects

Global Research, September 11, 2008
Xinhua - 2008-08-23

Iran is in talks with India's Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC) and China's offshore oil corporation for the development of oil reserves in the South Caspian Sea region, the Press TV satellite channel reported Saturday.

The report quoted the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) deputy director Hojatollah Ghanimifard as saying that NIOC has been discussing the issue with India's ONGC Videsh, the overseas arm of the ONGC, and China's state-run China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

NIOC is reviewing proposals to make the terms of the current contracts more attractive to international oil companies by offering them production-sharing contracts for the first time, the report said.

Under such contracts the developer is entitled to a share of production, which allows them to recoup their investment costs and make improved profits.

Over the past 20 years, the NIOC has mainly offered pay-back contracts to developers under which the investors receive a pre-agreed remuneration rate for their investment. The rate is typically determined by the global price of energy and the field hitting targets, and is paid over a 25-year period.

Some developers have voiced concerns over pay-back contracts, saying the contracts have serious market risks to developers as their profits depend on the fluctuating global price of energy.

'We think this region might be the exception to the rule,' Ghanimifard said. 'Since it is deep water, it looks like the production cost per barrel would be much more than in other regions like the south, or the Persian Gulf.'

The Brazilian state-run oil company Petrobras is currently drilling three wells in the Caspian Sea.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 05:34 PM

KATRINA -- REPORT SAYS MILLIONS WASTED ON NO-BID CONTRACTS FOR KATRINA RECOVERY: According to a report by the Homeland Security Department's office of inspector general, "The government wasted millions of dollars on four no-bid contracts it handed out for Hurricane Katrina work." The Associated Press called the report "the latest to detail mismanagement in the multibillion-dollar Katrina hurricane recovery effort, which investigators have said wasted at least $1 billion." In the new report, investigators cite temporary housing contracts that were "awarded without competition to Shaw Group Inc., Bechtel Group Inc., CH2M Hill Companies Ltd. and Fluor Corp." by the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA). Investigators found that FEMA "did not always properly review the invoices submitted by the four companies" and "also issued open-ended contract instructions for months without clear guidelines on what work was needed to be done and the appropriate charges," which "wasted at least $45.9 million." Approximately $20 million of the wasted money went towards "a camp for evacuees that was never inspected and proved to be unusable." FEMA said that it "generally agreed" with the report and "would further investigate the $45.9 million in questioned costs and recoup the money as necessary."

ETHICS -- REPORT DETAILS 'CULTURAL OF SUBSTANCE ABUSE AND PROMISCUITY' AT GOVT. OFFICES: Yesterday, the Interior Department's inspector general revealed that 13 government officials "handling billions of dollars in oil royalties improperly engaged in sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them." The report notes that nearly a third of the Denver Minerals Management Service's 55-person office "received gifts and gratuities from oil and gas companies." The report reveals that government officials tried to rewrite ethics rules in order to accommodate their partying and cover up their misdoings. In the summer of 2006, Royalty in Kind (RIK) employees wrote up a document titled, "Initiative to Clarify Guidance for RIK Interaction with Industry," which would codify employees' "uniqueness." Employees also illegaly took drugs, often while at the office. Gregory Smith, Program Director of the RIK, referred to cocaine as "office supplies" and rewarded his employees for obtaining it for him. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) criticized "how cozy the relationship between Big Oil and the Administration's regulators have been." The AP called the scandal part of a "culture of substance abuse and promiscuity." (The Progressive newsletter)

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 05:24 PM

..."THE CHALLENGE: Seven years later, Bush has squandered the goodwill of the world. Global opinion of the United States is lower than at almost any time in history. Our country remains deeply involved in wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, which continue to drive extremist anti-American ideologies. Tragically, even though it has used the rhetoric of freedom and democracy to defend its policies, the Bush administration remains wedded to a national security strategy that prioritizes the use of military force and denies the full range of American economic, political, and cultural power. Recently, senior U.S. intelligence analyst Thomas Fingar presented the findings of  a new report, "Global Trends 2025," that "assesses how international events could affect the United States in the next 15 to 17 years." Fingar said that "the U.S. will remain the preeminent power," but he saw U.S. leadership eroding "at an accelerating pace" in "political, economic and arguably, cultural arenas." The Washington Post reported that, according to Fingar, "the one key area of continued U.S. superiority -- military power -- will 'be the least significant' asset in the increasingly competitive world of the future."

BUSH'S FAILED APPROACH: Despite the changing world dynamic, military power continues to be the asset which the Bush administration has most often used in the misnamed and misconceived Global War on Terror. After routing al Qaeda and its Taliban hosts from their base in Afghanistan in late 2001 and 2002, Bush turned his attention to Iraq, where the U.S. military continues its occupation to this day at a cost of over $12 billion a month. More than one in five Iraqis has been displaced since the 2003 invasion, both inside and outside the country. The 2007 troop surge, while helping to reduce violence, has also frozen in place "a fragmented and increasingly fractured country," with no sign that Iraq's leaders are prepared to make the tough power-sharing compromises necessary for a stable future Iraq. As a result of the unfinished war in Afghanistan, the Taliban, and al Qaeda eventually regrouped in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border areas, and have carried out an increasingly destructive insurgency. According to the Foreign Policy/Center for American Progress 2008 Terrorism Index, which surveyed 117 national security experts from across the political spectrum,  "eighty percent of the experts say that the United States has focused too much on the war in Iraq and not enough on the war in Afghanistan." Yesterday, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. Michael Mullen warned Congress that the United States. is "running out of time" to succeed in Afghanistan and that sending in more troops will not necessarily guarantee victory.

THE PROGRESSIVE APPROACH: Mullen's other comments offer a clue to the way forward. In discussing the Afghanistan front, Mullen noted the "poor and struggling Afghan economy" and "significant political uncertainty in Pakistan" as major barriers to real security and progress in the region. As Center for American Progress Senior fellow Brian Katulis and co-author Nancy Soderbergh argue in their new book, "The Prosperity Agenda," American leadership "has been absent from the scene of many other important global issues -- oil dependency, food shortages, climate change, global poverty, and stopping the spread of nuclear weapons." Americans must expand their conception of national security to encompass more than military solutions for what are in many cases environmental, economic and political problems. With the continuing rise of economic competitors such as China and Russia, the United States must acclimate its security policies to an evolving multi-polar reality in order to work more effectively to deal with problems like Iran's nuclear program. And with the persistence of non-state actors such as Al Qaeda, the United States must look to a more comprehensive approach to national security, one that addresses the conditions which give rise to terrorism, and rethink its reflexive dependence on military power as the first option against potential threats."

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 04:08 PM

Facing a new reversal in federal court, the Bush administration is finding its options narrowed in its effort to stop congressional testimony from former White House counsel Harriet Miers and chief of staff Joshua Bolten regarding the firing of nine U.S. attorneys in 2006.

The administration had asserted a blanket claim of executive privilege in the face of congressional subpoenas, but U.S. District Judge John Bates rejected that claim as unprecedented and, on Tuesday, denied the Justice Department's request for a stay pending an appeal.

Under the ruling, Miers and Bolten now must appear before the House Judiciary Committee to testify about the White House role in the firings and produce documents sought by the committee.

"The Court will deny the Executive's request for a stay," Bates ruled Tuesday. "Hence, the Executive should respond to the document aspect of the subpoenas by producing non-privileged material and identifying more specifically the materials it is withholding on a claim of executive privilege.

"It is on Ms. Miers's appearance that the dispute principally focuses This decision should not, however, foreclose the parties' continuing attempts to reach a negotiated solution. Both sides indicated that discussions regarding an accommodation have resumed."

Bates's ruling said the White House "has failed to demonstrate that it has a substantial likelihood of success on the merits of the absolute immunity issue or that it has even raised a question 'so serious, substantial, difficult and doubtful,' as to warrant suspending the effect of the July 31st Order pending appeal."

"The Executive's argument boils down to a claim that a stay is appropriate because the underlying issue is important," Bates wrote. "But that is beside the point and does not demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits. Simply calling an issue important -- primarily because it involves the relationship of the political branches -- does not transform the Executive's weak arguments into a likelihood of success or a substantial appellate issue. Hence, the Court concludes that this prong of the stay pending appeal analysis cuts strongly in favor of the Committee."


(Online Journal, AUgust 29 08)

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 01:14 PM

The Bush Administration in the Olde Testament.

Funny, though very grim.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 01:06 PM

Daniel Mudd and Richard Syron, the ousted chiefs of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, could collect as much as $24 million in exit pay (up to $9.3 million for Mr. Mudd and at least $14.1 million for Mr. Syron) unless a federal regulator sensibly says no.

Neither should be rewarded any more than they already have been for their failures.

This is the same Mr. Mudd and Mr. Syron who presided over the near total wipeout of Fannie and Freddie's shareholders and whose mismanagement of the mortgage-finance companies has led to what could become the biggest federal bailout in American history.

The severance would come on top of $12.4 million in salary, bonuses and stock-option profits that Mr. Mudd has taken home since becoming Fannie's chief executive in 2004, according to Equilar research. Mr. Syron also made out big, collecting $17.1 million since he took charge of Freddie in 2003.

As of late Wednesday, the regulator, James Lockhart of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, had not yet decided on the payments.

The two men do not bear sole responsibility for the costly demise of Fannie and Freddie. Widespread regulatory failure allowed the housing bubble to inflate. And Congress also failed in its duty to oversee the companies.

But shared blame is still blame. And as the chief executives, Mr. Mudd and Mr. Syron are much to blame.

We don't minimize the difficulty of their jobs: they had to make profits for their shareholders while also serving the public by providing a steady stream of funds to expand home ownership.

They failed to achieve any prudent balance. Instead, they took risks that boosted near-term profits while feeding the housing bubble that has now burst with such dire consequences for so many Americans.
(NYT)

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 12:51 PM

THe NY Times reports:

WASHINGTON — President Bush secretly approved orders in July that for the first time allow American Special Operations forces to carry out ground assaults inside Pakistan without the prior approval of the Pakistani government, according to senior American officials.

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The classified orders signal a watershed for the Bush administration after nearly seven years of trying to work with Pakistan to combat the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and after months of high-level stalemate about how to challenge the militants' increasingly secure base in Pakistan's tribal areas.

American officials say that they will notify Pakistan when they conduct limited ground attacks like the Special Operations raid last Wednesday in a Pakistani village near the Afghanistan border, but that they will not ask for its permission.

"The situation in the tribal areas is not tolerable," said a senior American official who, like others interviewed for this article, spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the missions. "We have to be more assertive. Orders have been issued."

The new orders reflect concern about safe havens for Al Qaeda and the Taliban inside Pakistan, as well as an American view that Pakistan lacks the will and ability to combat militants. They also illustrate lingering distrust of the Pakistani military and intelligence agencies and a belief that some American operations had been compromised once Pakistanis were advised of the details.

The Central Intelligence Agency has for several years fired missiles at militants inside Pakistan from remotely piloted Predator aircraft. But the new orders for the military's Special Operations forces relax firm restrictions on conducting raids on the soil of an important ally without its permission.

Pakistan's top army officer said Wednesday that his forces would not tolerate American incursions like the one that took place last week and that the army would defend the country's sovereignty "at all costs."

........



(So, now what--war with Pakistan? Oy!! Such tsuris!!!)


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 11:05 AM

On 9-11 and McCain


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: beardedbruce
Date: 11 Sep 08 - 06:43 AM

But in frustrating news for the White House, Americans appear to give little credit to President Bush for the lack of a terrorist strike over the last seven years: Only 37 percent believe the president and his policies are the chief reason there has not been a strike on U.S. soil. Overall, he has a 28 percent approval rating, tying his all time low in CNN/ORC polling.

Opinions on the war in Iraq, on the other hand, have changed slightly, with a slight majority (52 percent) now saying that the Iraq war is an essential part of the war on terrorism. That represents a shift from 2006, when a majority of Americans said the war in Iraq was a distraction.

Support for the Iraq war is also up slightly over the last six months — from 30 percent in June to 37 percent now. But as Americans increasingly approve of the war, it becomes less of an important issue in their choice for president — now only 13 percent of registered voters said it was most important to their vote, compared with the 56 percent who named the country's economic woes as their chief concern.

Just over 60 percent of Americans continue to oppose the conflict however, and two-thirds want the next president to remove most U.S. troops from Iraq within a few months of taking office — numbers that appear to put Republican presidential candidate John McCain on the opposite side of most voters on that issue.

"The good news for John McCain is that most Americans think he would be better at handling terrorism than Obama," CNN Polling Director Keating Holland said. "The bad news is that terrorism seems to matter most to the people McCain already has squarely in his camp — Republicans. Just over 20 percent of Republicans say that terrorism is their number-one issue; for Democrats and Independents, that's in single digits."


http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 03:34 PM

(AP) Government officials handling billions of dollars in oil royalties engaged in illicit sex with employees of energy companies they were dealing with and received numerous gifts from them, federal investigators said Wednesday.

The alleged transgressions involve 13 Interior Department employees in Denver and Washington. Their alleged improprieties include rigging contracts, working part-time as private oil consultants, and having sexual relationships with - and accepting golf and ski trips and dinners from - oil company employees, according to three reports released Wednesday by the Interior Department's inspector general.

The investigations reveal a "culture of substance abuse and promiscuity" by a small group of individuals "wholly lacking in acceptance of or adherence to government ethical standards," wrote Inspector General Earl E. Devaney.

The reports describe a fraternity house atmosphere inside the Denver Minerals Management Service office responsible for marketing the oil and gas that energy companies barter to the government instead of making cash royalty payments for drilling on federal lands. The government received $4.3 billion in such Royalty-in-Kind payments last year. The oil is then resold to energy companies or put in the nation's emergency stockpile.

Between 2002 and 2006, nearly a third of the 55-person staff in the Denver office received gifts and gratuities from oil and gas companies, the investigators found.

Devaney said the former head of the Denver Royalty-in-Kind office, Gregory W. Smith, used illegal drugs and had sex with subordinates. The report said Smith also steered government contracts to a consulting business that was employing him part-time.

Smith, contacted by e-mail by The Associated Press, said he had not seen the report and could not respond. He and nine other employees in the Denver office are mentioned in the reports.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 02:51 PM

Federal Shortfall To Double This Year
Next President To Inherit Deficit Of $500 Billion

washingtonpost.com



A weak economy and a sharp increase in government spending will drive the federal budget deficit to a near-record $407 billion when the budget year ends later this month, and the next president is likely to face a shortfall in January of well over $500 billion, congressional budget analysts said yesterday.

A deficit of that magnitude could severely constrain the next administration's agenda, regardless of whether Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the Republican candidate, or Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.), his Democratic opponent, wins in November. Each has promised billions in new tax cuts or new spending. The expanding deficit also will increase the national debt and could impair future economic growth, particularly if lawmakers are forced to pay down that debt by raising taxes.

This year's deficit will be more than double last year's $161 billion, and it will rise from 1.2 percent of the gross domestic product to nearly 3 percent. If the next president extends some or all of President Bush's signature tax cuts, as both candidates have promised, annual deficits could balloon to as much as 5 percent of the economy, rivaling the dark fiscal days of the early-1990s and those of the Reagan administration, said Peter Orszag, director of the Congressional Budget Office.

The budget picture is likely to grow even bleaker once government analysts factor in the anticipated costs of the Treasury Department's decision last weekend to take over struggling mortgage-finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Orszag declined yesterday to attach a price tag to the takeover, under which Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. has pledged to invest as much as $200 billion to keep the companies solvent. However, Orszag said Paulson's action has bound the government so tightly to the two companies that he will incorporate them directly into the federal budget when he reexamines the nation's fiscal picture in January.

The massive companies, which together hold or guarantee about half the nation's 12 million residential mortgages, claimed more than $1.5 trillion in debt at the end of the second quarter. Because that debt is backed by a nearly equal amount in assets, Orszag said it will not significantly increase the nation's indebtedness.


Orszag said it was also unclear how the takeover will affect the annual budget deficit. Government accounting methods do not reflect the risk inherent in assuming control of billions of dollars worth of mortgage-backed securities in the middle of the worst housing bust since the Great Depression. As a result, budget analysts said it is possible that the takeover could add tens of billions of dollars to the deficit -- or little to nothing.

"One of the ironies of what we're experiencing is the shortcomings in the way in which the federal government currently accounts for credit transactions. When you engage in actions that do contain risk, it can look like there's a profitable opportunity because the system does not reflect the cost of risk," Orszag said.

much of the increase was the result of measures that received strong Republican support: one to return billions of dollars to taxpayers as part of the economic stimulus package and another to increase war funding. Bush signed legislation this summer to pay for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through the rest of his presidency, bringing total Iraq spending to more than $650 billion and the total for Afghanistan to nearly $200 billion.

"So they're fully responsible for the increase in the deficit," said Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad (D-N.D.). "All of this happened on their watch, under their president."

In January, congressional budget analysts had estimated the deficit would be only $219 billion by year's end. By July, however, the White House was predicting that the number would spike to $389 billion because of new spending. Yesterday, the congressional analysts upped it even further, saying the increase over 2007 had been driven equally by two factors.

The weak economy has clobbered corporate profits, halting the growth of tax collections. And spending has jumped sharply, in part because of tax rebates, as well as a hike in expenditures to cover unemployment insurance and deposits of insolvent financial institutions.

This year's deficit will rival the record of $413 billion set in 2004. With the economy expected to remain sluggish for at least the next several months, the Congressional Budget Office projects that next year's deficit will rise to $438 billion. But Orszag said that number could easily climb to $540 billion if Congress acts in the coming months, as expected, to restrain the growth of the alternative minimum tax and to extend a variety of expiring business tax breaks.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Sawzaw
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 02:37 PM

"Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden said yesterday that he and running mate Barack Obama could pursue criminal charges against the Bush administration if they are elected in November."

They can't do it now?

If Obama and Biden want Bush to be criminally charged, why don't they vote to impeach him now?

Ahhhhhhhh, maybe it is because they are using it as a get elected tool.

Elect me and I might charge them with crimes. Otherwise I am too chickenshit.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 10:51 AM

Our fearless leader, George Bush and his vice president had the brilliant - or as someone has written before, "stupefyingly incompetent" - idea to put our Social Security retirement money into the stock market. Brilliant!

Now oil, gas, energy out of control; food, the basic staff of life, prices going crazy; and guess what? We're going to start raising interest rates. Wow. It sure will be easier now to get and be able to afford a mortgage, won't it?

Of course, the brilliant invasion of Iraq, the one they call Iraqi Freedom, was, almost, the most stupefyingly incompetent idiocy of them all.

I didn't give Dennis Kucinich or Sen. Feingold much thought on their attempts to impeach Bush and Cheney when they first brought their bills up.

I sure wish we had followed through with them against the most incredibly stupid, selfish and criminal presidential thugs our country has ever known.

There are all kinds of natural disasters - earthquakes, floods, hurricanes. So what kind of disaster do we call this administration?

Frank Sears

Buffalo Grove

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 10:07 AM

In the aftermath of the US Treasury's decision to seize control of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, critics have hit at lax oversight of the mortgage companies.

The dominant theme has been that Congress let the two government-sponsored enterprises morph into a creature that eventually threatened the US financial system. Mike Oxley will have none of it.

Instead, the Ohio Republican who headed the House financial services committee until his retirement after mid-term elections last year, blames the mess on ideologues within the White House as well as Alan Greenspan, former chairman of the Federal Reserve.

The critics have forgotten that the House passed a GSE reform bill in 2005 that could well have prevented the current crisis, says Mr Oxley, now vice-chairman of Nasdaq.

He fumes about the criticism of his House colleagues. "All the handwringing and bedwetting is going on without remembering how the House stepped up on this," he says. "What did we get from the White House? We got a one-finger salute."

The House bill, the 2005 Federal Housing Finance Reform Act, would have created a stronger regulator with new powers to increase capital at Fannie and Freddie, to limit their portfolios and to deal with the possibility of receivership.

Mr Oxley reached out to Barney Frank, then the ranking Democrat on the committee and now its chairman, to secure support on the other side of the aisle. But after winning bipartisan support in the House, where the bill passed by 331 to 90 votes, the legislation lacked a champion in the Senate and faced hostility from the Bush administration.

Adamant that the only solution to the problems posed by Fannie and Freddie was their privatisation, the White House attacked the bill. Mr Greenspan also weighed in, saying that the House legislation was worse than no bill at all.

"We missed a golden opportunity that would have avoided a lot of the problems we're facing now, if we hadn't had such a firm ideological position at the White House and the Treasury and the Fed," Mr Oxley says.

...NYT

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 10 Sep 08 - 09:40 AM

Published: September 9, 2008
"President Bush is nothing if not consistent. In a speech on Tuesday, he made it clear that he has no plan at all for ending the war in Iraq and no serious plan for winning the war in Afghanistan.

Mr. Bush wants to have it both ways — claiming success in tamping down violence in Iraq and yet refusing to make the hard choices that would flow from that.

Speaking at the National Defense University, he said he would withdraw only 8,000 more troops from Iraq by the time he leaves office. That would leave 138,000 troops behind — more than were deployed in Iraq before his January 2007 "surge."

All of this seems to be driven more by what is happening in American battleground states than any battleground in Iraq.

While Mr. Bush and his party's nominee, John McCain, both want to stay the course until some undefined "victory" is achieved, American voters have run out of patience. Mr. Bush and his advisers are clearly hoping that this token withdrawal will be enough to keep Iraq out of the news and out of the election debate. (Ironically, Mr. McCain who doesn't want to withdraw any troops at all, had no choice but to declare his support for the president's plan.)

Iraq's leaders have also run out of patience, and they are pushing to have American troops out by 2011. That means the next president — whether it is Mr. McCain or Barack Obama — will have to quickly come up with a plan for a safe and responsible exit. ..." NYT

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 09 Sep 08 - 08:51 PM

ADMINISTRATION -- WATCHDOG GROUPS WARN THAT GOVERNMENT SECRECY IS ON THE RISE UNDER BUSH: According to a new report from OpenTheGovernment.org, "government secrecy is on the rise by almost every measure," the AP reports today. The report cites 14 different measurements to quantify government secrecy, "including patents hidden from the public, secret court approvals for surveillance in sensitive terrorism and espionage investigations and the expanding use of informal labels to keep documents from being disclosed." The group said the United States is now classifying more records as top secret or confidential, employing fewer workers who make federal documents publicly available. There was also an 80 percent decline over the last decade in the number of pages of records declassified, dropping last year to 37 million pages. The report also notes that federal surveillance activity under the secretive FISA court has risen for the ninth consecutive year, more than double the amount in 2000. The White House's penchant for secrecy is well-documented. In January, Sens. Pat Leahy (D-VT) and John Cornyn (R-TX) ), for example, said the White House had tried to "effectively eliminate" the FOIA office. In the 109th Congress, the Justice Department "squelched efforts" to pass the OPEN Government Act.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Barry Finn
Date: 03 Sep 08 - 05:04 PM

Thanks Amos for bringing that to light, that made my day. 7 f&%king yrs I've been hoping to hear someone announce that these criminals would have to stand & have their actions be accounted for. I hate to see an impeachment pass before they're out of office, this I hope will make up for some of that. Nancy P will, in my mind, always be remebered for keeping impeachment "off the table"

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 03 Sep 08 - 03:44 PM

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden said yesterday that he and running mate Barack Obama could pursue criminal charges against the Bush administration if they are elected in November.

Biden's comments, first reported by ABC news, attracted little notice on a day dominated by the drama surrounding his Republican counterpart, Alaska governor Sarah Palin.

But his statements represent the Democrats' strongest vow so far this year to investigate alleged misdeeds committed during the Bush years.

"If there has been a basis upon which you can pursue someone for a criminal violation, they will be pursued," Biden said during a campaign event in Deerfield Beach, Florida, according to ABC.

"[N]ot out of vengeance, not out of retribution," he added, "out of the need to preserve the notion that no one, no attorney general, no president -- no one is above the law."

Obama sounded a similar note in April, vowing that if elected, he would ask his attorney general to initiate a prompt review of Bush-era actions to distinguish between possible "genuine crimes" and "really bad policies".

"[I]f crimes have been committed, they should be investigated," Obama told the Philadelphia Daily News. "You're also right that I would not want my first term consumed by what was perceived on the part of Republicans as a partisan witch hunt, because I think we've got too many problems we've got to solve."

Congressional Democrats have issued a flurry of subpoenas this year to senior Bush administration aides as part of a broad inquiry into the authorisation of torturous interrogation tactics used at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp.

Three veterans of the Bush White House have been held in criminal contempt of Congress for refusing to respond to subpoenas: former counsel Harriet Miers, former political adviser Karl Rove, and current chief of staff Josh Bolten. The contempt battle is currently before a federal court.
(Guardian.UK)

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 10:56 PM

ill Clinton's pragmatism was probably why so many conservatives hated him -- thinking him to be opportunistic -- and why some committed liberals disdained him as unprincipled. But he can make a fair case that his presidency did much to preserve the economic viability and leadership of America in a changing world.

Clinton's predecessor, George H. W. Bush, was also a pragmatist, always seeking a "prudent course," and wary of giving offense. He, too, would have cancelled the start of the GOP convention but wouldn't have uttered McCain's line about "Republican hats"; too many GOPers might be offended.

Bush's cautious leadership style was on display in his fateful decision not to press on to Baghdad in the 1991 Gulf War. Bush reasoned that overthrowing Saddam Hussein would fracture the unprecedented international alliance behind the war, which he saw as a model for cooperation in the post-Cold War world.

His son, George W., apparently disagreed -- or maybe just wanted to be different from his father. At any rate, George W. Bush's decision-making style is harder to categorize.

For a while after the 9/11 attacks, he appeared to be a charismatic figure, a forceful moral presence in a time of confusion. But that was probably a figment of the national imagination: In their hunger for leadership, Americans felt reassured by rhetoric borrowed from the Cold War.

The later Bush seemed neither charismatic nor pragmatic, but something closer to an ideologue, stubborn in his commitment to a single path. His moral justification for the Iraq war, about furthering the God-given right to freedom and democracy, struck many as an ex post facto justification for a failed policy. But others took it at face value.

Now, those same people may see some of Bush's pride, determination, and righteousness in the upturned faces of John McCain and Barack Obama.

History offers one indisputable lesson, leadership styles aside: Americans should choose their presidents carefully. (Boston.com)

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 01:51 PM

By Carrie Johnson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, September 2, 2008; 12:09 PM

Former attorney general Alberto R. Gonzales told investigators he did not remember whether he took home notes regarding the government's most sensitive national security programs and did not know they contained classified information despite notations on the papers that they were "eyes only -- top secret," according to a report released this morning.

The Justice Department's inspector general concluded that Gonzales had improperly handled materials about the government's most sensitive national security programs, carrying the notes home in an unlocked briefcase for an "indeterminate" period of time. Gonzales failed to keep them in a safe at his Northern Virginia home because he "could not remember the combination," according to the report.

A National Security Agency official who reviewed the notes told investigators that at least one item in the documents was "zealously protected" by the NSA and that designating the papers as highly classified was "not a close call," the report said.

Improper handling of classified material can result in criminal charges, but prosecutors in the department's National Security Division declined to bring a case after reviewing the allegations and consulting with senior career officials at Justice, according to the report and lawyers involved in the case.


During his government service, Gonzales received at least two briefings on security procedures and signed a nondisclosure form indicating that negligent handling of sensitive information "could cause irreparable injury to the United States or be used to advantage by a foreign nation."

The notes involve some of the government's most secret initiatives, including a warrantless wiretapping program and other top-secret eavesdropping methods. Investigators did not find any evidence that the information had been shared with or seen by people who lacked the proper clearance to review it, though employees at Justice had "regular" access to some of the materials, the report said.

The investigation initially began after allegations emerged that Gonzales, then the White House counsel, had failed to protect notes that he took during a March 2004 meeting between President Bush and congressional leaders in the White House Situation Room, as a program that allowed authorities to secretly monitor communications for evidence of terrorist plots was set to expire.
...

(WaPo)

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 12:09 PM

CORRECTION:

In this video-editorial, the facts behind the lethal error of disbanding the Iraqi army just after the invasion are laid bare. Bremer is revealed as a fabricator and the magnitude of Wolfowitz' arrogance and stupidity are revealed.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 10:23 AM

In ,a href=http://video.on.nytimes.com/?fr_story=54a96b0d367da6ce96eb1401f0e127f76688ddd6>this video-editorial, the facts behind the lethal error of disbandiing the Iraqi army just after the invasion are laid bare. Bremer is revealed as a fabricator and the magnitude of Wolfowitz' arrogance and stupidity are revealed.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Ebbie
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 05:42 PM

The first of many revelations to come:

"Preparing for the criticism, Gonzales' legal team fired back with the 12-page memo and a three-page addendum accompanying it. The documents indicate the attorney general was merely forgetful or unaware of the proper way to handle the top secret papers.
Our Erstwhile Attorney General -(heckuva job, Bertie)

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 09:34 AM

Whatever the president's virtues, they remain unappreciated in his own time. To say that Bush is unpopular only begins to capture the historic depths of his estrangement from the American public. He is arguably the most disliked president in seven decades. Sixty-nine percent of Americans disapproved of his performance in office in a Gallup poll in April, the highest negative rate ever recorded for any president since the firm began asking the question in 1938. And while Harry Truman and Richard Nixon at their worst had even fewer supporters — Truman once fell to 22 percent in his job approval rating and Nixon to 24 percent, compared with Bush's low of 28 percent — no president has endured such a prolonged period of public rejection. Bush has not enjoyed the support of a majority of Americans since March 2005, meaning he will go through virtually his entire second term without most of the public behind him.

Bush has been so far down for so long that his aides long ago gave up any hope that the numbers would change while he is still in office. "There's kind of a liberating aspect to it," Dan Bartlett told me over lunch in July, at a homey steak joint in Austin, where he returned after leaving the White House last year. "It's not that you chase polls, but you're cognizant of them. So if you know they're not going to change, you can just do what you think is right."

If anything, it may be that the low numbers have become almost a badge of honor for Bush. Not that he wants to be unpopular, but he sees leadership as a test. "Calcium" is a favorite term he uses with aides to describe the backbone he admires. "He does make a lot of references to Truman as the model of his late presidency, and the Truman model is unrewarded heroism — or 'heroism' is not the right word: unrewarded courage," Michael Gerson, another former senior adviser to the president, told me. "It fits very much his approach and his self-conception. His view of leadership is defined as doing the right thing against pressure." ... (NYT)

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 30 Aug 08 - 12:30 AM

WASHINGTON — There are competing theories, among Republicans, about the precise moment that their relationship with George W. Bush began to fray.



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Some, like Representative Tom Davis of Virginia, say it was in August 2005, when Hurricane Katrina swamped New Orleans and President Bush viewed the devastation from the air-conditioned comfort of Air Force One. "Symbolically it was terrible, and substantively it was terrible; to me it was the turning point," he said.

Others, like Pat Toomey, president of the conservative Club for Growth, lament the day in 2003 when Mr. Bush signed the Medicare prescription drug benefit into law. "Creation of a new entitlement — this is not what Republicans do," Mr. Toomey said.

Still others, like Representative Deborah Pryce of Ohio, look to November 2006, when Mr. Bush waited until Republicans were crushed at the ballot box to fire Donald H. Rumsfeld as secretary of defense. "I'm very fond of him," Ms. Pryce said of the president. "But it's still hard for me to forgive the fact that the day after I almost lost my election, he fired Rumsfeld."

As the party faithful head to Minnesota to nominate Senator John McCain as their candidate for president, many feel deeply conflicted about the man Mr. McCain hopes to succeed. Eight years after he accepted his own nomination at another convention hall in Philadelphia, Mr. Bush leaves behind a party whose members regard him with deep personal affection, even as they blame him for hurting their political prospects and tarnishing the Republican brand.

Full article here in the NYT.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 01:15 PM

Excuse, Sawz, but the issue of who ordered torture where and when was not the subject of my previous post--and was not conflated there in any degree with any other thing.

If you look it over you will see my post concerns the right of the Congress of the United States to require members of the executive branch to testify before their investigations, such as Harriet MEiers.

Why you think this is associated with torture is beyond me.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Sawzaw
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 01:08 PM

Amos
Date: 08 Mar 08 - 10:43 AM

(AP) President George W. Bush said Saturday he vetoed legislation that would ban the CIA from using harsh interrogation methods such as waterboarding to break suspected terrorists because it would end practices that have prevented attacks.

"The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror," Mr. Bush said in his weekly radio address taped for broadcast Saturday. "So today I vetoed it."

The bill he rejected provides guidelines for intelligence activities for the year and has the interrogation requirement as one provision. It cleared the House of Representatives in December and the Senate last month.

"This is no time for Congress to abandon practices that have a proven track record of keeping America safe," the president said.

No comment could do this justice.

CIA Bans Waterboarding in Terror Interrogations

September 14, 2007 Brian Ross, Richard Esposito & Martha Raddatz

The controversial interrogation technique known as waterboarding, in which a suspect has water poured over his mouth and nose to stimulate a drowning reflex, has been banned by CIA director Gen. Michael Hayden, current and former CIA officials tell ABCNews.com.

The officials say Hayden made the decision at the recommendation of his deputy, Steve Kappes, and received approval from the White House to remove waterboarding from the list of approved interrogation techniques first authorized by a presidential finding in 2002...."

What you have presented here, Amos, is a conflation taken totally out of context which is what you constantly accuse others of doing just because they disagree with you. Bush had already banned waterboarding yet your conflation indicates that he vetoed a bill banning water torture. It covered other interrogation techniques and in fact rescinded the rules that our fickle Congress had approved a year prior:

Presidential Radio Address - 8 March 2008

"....The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror -- the CIA program to detain and question key terrorist leaders and operatives. This program has produced critical intelligence that has helped us prevent a number of attacks. The program helped us stop a plot to strike a U.S. Marine camp in Djibouti, a planned attack on the U.S. consulate in Karachi, a plot to hijack a passenger plane and fly it into Library Tower in Los Angeles, and a plot to crash passenger planes into Heathrow Airport or buildings in downtown London. And it has helped us understand al Qaida's structure and financing and communications and logistics. Were it not for this program, our intelligence community believes that al Qaida and its allies would have succeeded in launching another attack against the American homeland.

The main reason this program has been effective is that it allows the CIA to use specialized interrogation procedures to question a small number of the most dangerous terrorists under careful supervision. The bill Congress sent me would deprive the CIA of the authority to use these safe and lawful techniques. Instead, it would restrict the CIA's range of acceptable interrogation methods to those provided in the Army Field Manual. The procedures in this manual were designed for use by soldiers questioning lawful combatants captured on the battlefield. They were not intended for intelligence professionals trained to question hardened terrorists.

Limiting the CIA's interrogation methods to those in the Army Field Manual would be dangerous because the manual is publicly available and easily accessible on the Internet. Shortly after 9/11, we learned that key al Qaida operatives had been trained to resist the methods outlined in the manual. And this is why we created alternative procedures to question the most dangerous al Qaida operatives, particularly those who might have knowledge of attacks planned on our homeland. The best source of information about terrorist attacks is the terrorists themselves. If we were to shut down this program and restrict the CIA to methods in the Field Manual, we could lose vital information from senior al Qaida terrorists, and that could cost American lives.

The bill Congress sent me would not simply ban one particular interrogation method, as some have implied. Instead, it would eliminate all the alternative procedures we've developed to question the world's most dangerous and violent terrorists. This would end an effective program that Congress authorized just over a year ago.."

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Presidential_Radio_Address_-_8_March_2008

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 11:30 AM

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration is raising the stakes in a court fight that could change the balance of power between the White House and Congress.

Justice Department lawyers said Wednesday that they will soon ask a federal appeals court not to force the president's top advisers to comply with congressional subpoenas next month. President Bush argues Congress doesn't have the authority to demand information from his aides.

U.S. District Judge John Bates strongly rejected that stance last month, ordering former White House counsel Harriet Miers to testify and White House chief of staff Joshua Bolten to turn over documents related to the firing of federal prosecutors.

It was a historic loss for the Bush administration, a stinging ruling in the first such case ever to make it to the courts.

The House Judiciary Committee responded swiftly, demanding Miers appear Sept. 11 as it investigates whether federal prosecutors were inappropriately fired as part of a White House effort to politicize the Justice Department.

The Bush administration had already indicated it would appeal but Justice Department lawyers said Wednesday that they will ask the court to step in quickly and temporarily put Miers' appearance on hold while the appeal plays out. It's a risky move for an administration that has spent years trying to strengthen the power of the presidency.

---

THis should really be put on the Fascism thread. As a student of history, Bush knows full well what the system of checks and balances is designed to prevent, and seems anxious to see it fail.

Sic semper tyrannis.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 10:28 AM

In The Way of the World, Suskind maintains that these principles remain alive with the American people "as a troubled, and troubling decade nears its end."

But, he argues, as he did in The One Percent Doctrine (2006), the Bush administration threw away the moral compass following the attacks on September 11, 2001. Suskind presents new evidence, "the sort of thing generally taken up in impeachment proceedings," that the president and vice president knew Saddam Hussein had no weapons of mass destruction before they made war on Iraq. Little wonder, then, that the US is now viewed around the world as a might-makes-right bully, accountable to no one, not even its own people.

...Suskind's charge that the White House "concocted" a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001, is more difficult to dismiss. In the letter, "Habbush" indicates that Muhammad Atta had received training at the home of Abu-Nidal in al-Dora. He mentions as well that "a small team from the al-Qaida organization" had arranged for a shipment of unspecified material from Niger to Iraq by way of Libya and Syria. When the letter was leaked in December 2003, reporters connected the dots: from Atta in Iraq to 9/11 and from uranium "yellow cake" to weapons of mass destruction.

A 1991 law, Suskind indicates, makes it illegal for any government official to conduct covert action "intended to influence United States political processes, public opinion, policies or media." Rob Richer, former head of the CIA's Near East division and deputy director of clandestine operations, told Suskind that the assignment came on "creamy White House stationery." Others indicated that George Tenet, the director of the CIA, sent it to the Iraq Operations Group. Who actually ordered the operation? Suskind doesn't know. ..."

(Jerusalem Post)

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Donuel
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 12:58 PM

Amos you hae a barrel of ink and good sources but jeez Louise, lighten up on poor George.

All his life the only real success he ever achieved resulted from lying and deception along with hiring other people to do his dirty work like term papers and laundry. Even his military service was full of lying and deception.
So please consider that while George may be a mass murderer he is also severely handicapped in multiple ways.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 12:24 PM

"The National Security Archive released a report Friday Aug. 22, 2008 that sheds even more light on the premeditated lying and deception that took the United States to war in Iraq.   The findings are based on new evidence compiled by Dr. John Prados and published by the National Security Archive. See "White Paper" Drafted before NIE even Requested , "Scoop" Independent News, Aug. 24, 2008.

Most notably, Prados shows the depth of the deception perpetrated against citizens and Congress regarding the alleged threat to U.S. security posed by Iraq. It had appeared that the White House rewrote the Oct. 1, 2002 National Intelligence Estimate and then issued that doctored report to Congress on Oct. 4, 2002. Prados reveals convincing evidence that the Oct. 4 White Paper had already been written by July 2002. He shows that it was only slightly altered after the final NIE arrived. This White Paper served as the basis for the war.

The unavoidable conclusion is that the Bush-Cheney White paper "justifying" the invasion was developed a full three months in advance of the intelligence data and analysis that should have served as the basis for that justification. The National Security Archive summed it up succinctly:

"The U.S. intelligence community buckled sooner in 2002 than previously reported to Bush administration pressure for data justifying an invasion of Iraq,

"The documents suggest that the public relations push for war came before the intelligence analysis, which then conformed to public positions taken by Pentagon and White House officials. For example, a July 2002 draft of the "White Paper" ultimately issued by the CIA in October 2002 actually pre-dated the National Intelligence Estimate that the paper purportedly summarized, but which Congress did not insist on until September 2002." National Security Archive in "Scoop' Independent News, August 24, 2008.

The seemingly endless war in Iraq has become a total disaster on multiple levels for all involved. The awful toll in human deaths and casualties is largely ignored but real nevertheless. Over 4,000 U.S. soldiers have been lost in battle and tens of thousands injured. In excess of one million Iraqi civilians are dead due to civil strife unleashed by the invasion. The U.S. Treasury is drained and the steep decline in respect for the United States around the world is just beginning to manifest.

The United States political establishment responds with collective denial on a scale that's incomprehensible. In the presidential campaign, the only sustained public commentary on the war comes from the Republican presidential candidate John McCain who makes the bizarre claim that U.S. is "surrendering" with victory in clear sight. McCain touts the surge without noting that 4.0 million Iraqis are "displaced from their homes." Nearly ten percent of Iraq's population is either dead or injured and there are 5.0 million Iraqi orphans.

This pathological view of victory claims the "surge' is a success in the context of a devastated population in an obliterated nation lacking in the most essential supplies and services; a nation where death continues on a shopping spree

The report by Dr. Prados makes it clear that the executive branch was responsible for creating whatever information they found necessary to justify war and they did it by posing security threats from Iraq and demanding that intelligence briefers fill in the details

Summary of Findings by Prados, National Security Archive

"A recently declassified draft of the CIA's October 2002 white paper on Iraqi WMD programs demonstrates that that (the White) paper long pre-dated the compilation of the National Intelligence Estimate on Iraqi capabilities.

"Bush administration and the Tony Blair government began acting in concert to build support for an invasion of Iraq two to three months earlier than previously understood.

..." (OpEd News)

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 09:29 AM

Thanks, Sawz, but mindless sheeple-think is a specialty I don't qualify for, so you keep it. You've demonstrated over and over how much you love reciting the party line and the mindless talking point.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Sawzaw
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 12:18 AM

"Even Hitler had some pretty wicked sharp wits to get where he got."

Obama must have some pretty wicked sharp wits to get where he is at, n'est-ce pas??


I saw the perfect website for Amos.
Let us do the thinking for you with the new, one-of-a kind Candidate Calculator.
This handy dandy little website will organize the political chaos and clear the clouds of confusion from your mind. Let us do the thinking for you.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 08:48 AM

One part of Mr. Obama's task will be easy: showing how much damage the Bush administration has done to Americans' lives and their country's reputation.

This administration has the worst job-creation rate in modern history; income growth has been abysmal for most Americans. Whether the problem is lead-tainted toys or predatory credit card companies or irresponsible home mortgage lending by handsomely paid bankers, Americans doubt that their government is able to protect them, or wants to do so.

President Bush's White House has offered no serious answer to the problem of America's energy dependence and no strategy for calming anti-American furies around the world.

...NYT Ed

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,beardedbruce
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 04:17 PM

Amos,

My objection is that you consider "moronic" anything that does not agree with YOUR thoughts on the matter. If you made the attempt to see viewpoints other than your own, you might be able to make far more effective arguements in support of your own viewpoint.

As it stands now, all we can do is to insult you and tell you what an idiot you are for having any viewpoint that we disagree with, if we are to follow your example.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 03:57 PM

Quite to the contrary, I have a wide array of facts to base my opinions on, Bruce.

There are several kind of intelligence. When I call Bush a moronic illiterate, I am referring to the kinds he most obviously lacks. Language skills and human compassion, for example. Even Hitler had some pretty wicked sharp wits to get where he got.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,beardedbruce
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 03:08 PM

"He could not have accomplished what he has without considerable intelligence."

Amos,

Since you have denied Bush any intelligence for so long that YOU would have problems denying it, all this statement shows is that you really don't even believe what you yourself have been saying for years.

You may choose to agree or disagree with what Bush has done- but you have consistantly tried to both attribute evil intent ( with no evidence) and blame it on ignorance. Your constant attacks on the persons that bring up anything NOT in support of your viewpoint are certainly the indication that you have no reason save bias agaisnst Bush to base your own opinions on.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 12:40 PM

Bruce has this thing about flipping polarity on people using their own words. It's probably not intended to be harmful, but he persists even when asked not to. It smacks of an evil psychic judo, playing silly-bugger-mirrors with people's minds, but it saves him the trouble of composing anything genuine.

W's intelligence, Bruce, is of a sort that has no place in the world of decent humans seeking to build a better future, because it is the sort that goes in reverse. It is not that he has none. He could not have accomplished what he has without considerable intelligence. But its deepest underpinnings are inverted, bass-ackward points of departure that color the entire cascade of reason therefrom the shade of spilled sewage.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: olddude
Date: 22 Aug 08 - 11:34 AM

He will go down in History I think as perhaps the worse president we ever had. As far as the Bill of Rights goes - well he certainly got quite of bit of that document thrown out. The one that every american soldier in battle who gave his life willingly to defend. A document that I would willingly give my life for anytime.   I guess a little thing like the oath a President takes "to protect and defend the constitution of the United States" got in the way of his terrorism scares and duct tape. It is going to take a long time for us to recover our credibility if we ever can. So sad. but look at the bright side. Right now there are computers monitoring this thread and everyone who posted to it because they don't need a warrant or judge anymore to justify it. But the oil companies love him and so does his buddies at Haliburton. And the economy, well it is in fine shape for those who are billionairs. Wow what a gift to the american people. The next president no matter who it is will have more than a mess. I don't want the job. I am going to write in Bruce and Ron ... at least I will have good music.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular views of the Bush Administration
From: Donuel
Date: 21 Aug 08 - 12:42 PM

Putting US weapons on the border of Russia and telling them its none of your business, just may have been rude or inelegant.

Russia said they would respond beyond diplomatic means.

They did.

All Bush can do now is posture or make a new Cuban Missle crises.


Better than a Kodak moment...To me this is another Bush Katrina moment