Phil Gramm Resigns As McCain Adviser

By- Suzie-Q @ 12:30 PM MST

Phil Gramm Resigns From McCain Campaign

July 18, 2008 08:10 PM EST |

NEW YORK — Phil Gramm, a top adviser to presidential candidate John McCain, is resigning from the role as campaign co-chairman after his comments that the United States had become a “nation of whiners” who constantly complain about the state of the economy.

The former U.S. senator from Texas and past presidential candidate made the remarks earlier this month. McCain immediately distanced himself from the comments, but they have been criticized constantly as McCain tries to show he can help steer the country past its current financial troubles.

Gramm had also suggested that the country was facing a “mental recession” instead of real economic problems. Gramm said in a statement late Friday that he is stepping down as a co-chair of the campaign to “end this distraction.”

Special Counsel To Investigate CIA Rendition?

By- Suzie-Q @ 11:35 AM MST

Judiciary Committee chairman requests special counsel to investigate CIA rendition

RAW STORY
Published: Thursday July 10, 2008

BREAKING 4:02 PM ET // FROM A HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE RELEASE…..

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Foreign Affairs Chairman of the International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight Subcommittee, Bill Delahunt (D-MA), today called on Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint a special counsel to investigate the rendition of a Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, to Syria.

Returning home to Canada in September 2002, Mr. Arar was detained at JFK airport in New York based on false intelligence suggesting ties to terrorist activity. Despite finding that he would likely be subject to torture, Mr. Arar was then removed to Syria at the direction of the Commissioner of the INS and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. Mr. Arar was subsequently imprisoned for nearly a year and tortured.

In June, the former Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Clark Ervin testified before a joint Judiciary and Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing that he believed that U.S. officials intended to render Mr. Arar to Syria, rather than allowing him to continue on to Canada, because of the likelihood that he would be tortured in Syria.

Upon Mr. Arar’s return to Canada in 2003, the Canadian government conducted an exhaustive investigation concluding that no evidence linked Mr. Arar to terrorist groups or suggested a security threat and awarded him nearly $10 million in damages. The DHS Office of the Inspector General conducted its own four-year investigation into the matter, yet its investigators lacked subpoena authority and were frequently stymied by numerous privilege claims.

“Mr. Arar’s rendition to Syria, with the knowledge he would be subject to torture, demands a thorough investigation into the conduct of the Department of Justice and U.S. immigration officials,” said Conyers. “Given the involvement of high-ranking administration officials in this matter, and the stonewalling encountered in the DHS Inspector General’s investigation, the appointment of a special counsel is clearly necessary.”

“The Inspector General’s public report reveals that Administration officials sent Mr. Arar to Syria knowing that he likely would be tortured,” said Rep. Nadler. “This is at odds with everything we stand for as a free and just nation, and the Administration’s unwillingness to expose how and why this happened has fueled public concern and criticism. We urge Attorney General Mukasey to appoint an outside special counsel to investigate Mr. Arar’s case to ensure a fair investigation is conducted to examine these serious allegations of wrongdoing.”

“The startling revelation that attorneys within the Office of the Deputy Attorney General were intimately involved in this case is sufficient cause for an outside review,” said Delahunt. “This is the only way to make sure that those who had a hand in Mr. Arar’s rendition to torture will be held accountable.”

The full text of the correspondence may be found here.

Iglesias: Rove Will Refuse To Testify ‘To Keep Himself From Being Indicted’

By- Suzie-Q @ 8:45 PM MST

Iglesias: Rove Won’t Testify ‘To Keep Himself From Being Indicted’

Think Progress- By Ali at 2:30 pm

Last week, Karl Rove ignored a subpoena and refused to testify before Congress, choosing instead to take a trip abroad. This morning, David Iglesias, one of the U.S. Attorneys politically purged under Alberto Gonzales, told MSNBC’s Mike Barnicle he believed Rove “had information that…would show illegal activity” and thus will refuse to testify “to keep himself from being indicted”:

IGLESIAS: Which I believe is the reason why he is refusing to testify in front of the Congress. He has information that I believe would show illegal activity, interfering with ongoing federal criminal investigations. So Rove is not testifying I think basically to keep himself from being indicted.

Barnicle also asked Iglesias whether Rove played a role in his firing, to which Iglesias replied, “Absolutely”:

BARNICLE: Do you think he has anything to do with your being dismissed?

IGLESIAS: Absolutely. The evidence is clear that he relayed, he took a call from Pete Domenici about me that he talk to the state party chairman here. He was very involved in something he had no business being involved in which is, you know, the oversight of a federal investigation and a federal prosecutor.

Watch it:

But Rove’s involvement in the politicization of the Justice Department may extend further. Besides his alleged interference in the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman, Marcy Wheeler recently revealed a June letter from special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald in which he suggested that Rove tried to fire him in 2005, in the middle of his investigation of Rove.

Last week, Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) insisted that if Rove continued to ignore her committee’s subpoena, he “absolutely” should go to jail.

Evening Jukebox… Night At The Roxbury (What Is Love?)

By- Suzie-Q @ 8:40 PM MST

Night At The Roxbury- (What Is Love?)

Surrender Monkey Bush Going Soft On Terrorism..

GEF @ 8:38 PM ET

WE MUST NOT ALLOW BUSH TO GIVE UP ON IRAQ! IF HE GIVES UP THEN A MILLION MUSLIMS WILL SWIM SINGLE HANDEDLY OVER THE WHOLE ATLANTIC OCEAN AND KILL US ALL…

White House Announces ‘General Time Horizon’ For Iraq Withdrawal; Is It ‘Conceding Too Much To The Enemy?’

When Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki first requested a timetable for withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, the Bush administration swiftly shot down his proposal. “Timelines tend to be artificial in nature,” a Pentagon spokesperson remarked. “[W]e’re looking at conditions, not calendars here,” the State Department remarked.

But today, the White House has seemingly embraced a “general time horizon” for the withdrawal of U.S. troops in Iraq. The AP reports:

Iraqi officials, in a sign of growing confidence as violence decreases, have been pressuring the United States to agree to a specific timeline to withdraw U.S. forces. President Bush has adamantly opposed a timeline, and the White House said Friday that the timeframe being discussed would not be ”an arbitrary date for withdrawal.” […]

The White House says the two leaders, in a conversation on Thursday, agreed that the accord should include ”a general time horizon for meeting aspirational goals, such as the resumption of Iraqi security control in their cities and provinces and the further reduction of U.S. combat forces from Iraq.”

The White House’s concession today comes after years of resistance to even considering the prospect of a timetable for withdrawing troops, particularly when it came from Congress. Some lowlights of the administration’s stubborn rhetoric:

“Why would you say to the enemy, you know, here’s a timetable, just go ahead and wait us out? It doesn’t make any sense to have a timetable. You know, if you give a timetable, you’re — you’re conceding too much to the enemy.” [Bush, 6/24/05]

“Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq.” [Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman, 7/16/07]

“I believe artificial timetables of withdrawal would be a mistake. … I will strongly reject an artificial timetable withdrawal and/or Washington politicians trying to tell those who wear the uniform how to do their job.” [Bush, 4/23/07]

“The…attempt to micromanage our commanders is an unwise and perilous endeavor. It is impossible to argue that an unconditional timetable for retreat could serve the security interests of the United States or our friends in the region.” [Vice President Cheney, 4/13/07]

The White House maintains that agreement “doesn’t reflect a shift in the U.S. position.” An Iraqi government spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, reiterated that an agreement should have the goal of “decreas[ing] the number of American forces in Iraq and later withdraw them.”

Send Karl Rove to Jail

Posted by Basheert @8:29 am MST

From Robert Greenwald
Tell the House Judiciary Committee to hold Karl Rove in contempt and send him to jail.

We call on the the House Judiciary Committee to cite Rove with contempt for failing to comply with a Congressional subpoena. Since Rove regards the law with such contempt, it’s high time the law and Congress hold him in contempt as well. We demand the HJC let Rove know he can’t decide which subpoenas he obeys and which he ignores.

Karl Rove must be tried for war crimes at the Hague - if this country won’t do it, some other country needs to grab him NOWThanks for standing up to Karl Rove!

Here’s what else you can do:

Please forward this video to your friends and encourage them to sign.

Help keep these important videos free by becoming a subscriber for $10/month.

And if you want to have a little fun… add a picture to your petition signature, or even better, make your own photoshop of Karl Rove in jail. It will show up on the site here, but not when we deliver the petition.

McCain’s Views on Women’s Issues / URGENT INFO

Posted by Basheert @ 8:24 am MST

Courtesy of New York Times
July 17, 2008, 9:05 pm
Trust Buster

By Judith Warner

“Viewed purely in the abstract, I think there can be no question that women should have equal rights with men,” Theodore Roosevelt wrote in his college senior essay, in the spring of 1880.

John McCain, who last week named Roosevelt as the model for his particular maverick brand of reformist, environmentalist, Big Stick conservatism, has a very similar take on the question of women’s equality.

He, too, is all for it – in the abstract.

“I am committed to making sure that there is equal pay for equal work, that there is equal opportunity in every aspect of our society and in our economy,” he said last Friday, capping off the presidential campaign’s Week of the Woman with a “women only” town hall meeting in Hudson, Wisc. “Women in America not only take care of their children, manage the household budgets and balance the pressures of work and family, they also run many of the enterprises that keep our economy running.”

He is committed, he added on his campaign bus, “to encourage the participation of women in all walks of life and make sure that any barriers to their advancement are eliminated.”

That’s all good, in the abstract.

In real life, it’s another story.

McCain has opposed legislation aimed at helping women sue in cases of pay discrimination on the grounds that it could make businesses vulnerable to frivolous lawsuits. He criticized Barack Obama’s latest woman-friendly proposals — guaranteed sick days and more family leave — as “big-government” extravagances. He has voted to restrict women’s access not just to abortion but to birth control and affordable prenatal health care, and — though his own memory failed him in recalling this last week — he voted against legislation that would have required insurance companies to include contraceptives as part of their prescription drug coverage.

a question i have asked before

how will humans survive if we kill off other species? even the msm occasionally prints about collapsing ecosystems here and around the world. many of the species with population declines or large decimations in population are our pollinators. we depend on insects to grow our food and to feed other wildlife that is beneficial to our needs. many nations around the world depend on seafood and the oceans for sources of protein for food and fertilizers- what will they do when the dead zones are the oceans?

you don’t have to believe in climate change to be responsible and to give a shit about taking care of the planet. hell, even the pope is weighing in.  it makes common sense not to pollute or destroy the home you live in. you can live a comfortable life without destroying the planet and it’s other species. we do not live in a vacuum. taking in the big picture:

ocean dead zones growing

bee vanishing act baffles keepers

why are thousands of bats dying in new york?

congressional hearings discuss declining bird populations

arctic ice melt faster despite colder winter

scientists warn of overlooked moth decline

orangutan populations decline sharply

“Human activity is wiping out close to one per cent of every other species on Earth every year, a global environmental report said Friday.”- cbc news report

Why the Democrats Won’t or, Rather, Can’t Impeach

anthony @ 12:59 BST

From: Conyers: Hearing For “The Imperial Presidency Of George W. Bush And Possible Legal Responses”

In a release Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) announced he will hold a hearing July 25 examining “the imperial presidency of George W. Bush and possible legal responses.”

The word “impeachment” was not mentioned in the announcement…

Why not?

Under the Constitution, the House of Representatives can instigate impeachment procedings. It cannot do that if the Constitution has been suspended. This is the case if COG (Continuity of Government Plans) are implemented. This was done on 9/11 and it has been argued (see my previous post) they have not been rescinded.

Indeed, it has further been argued that Bush didn’t need to declare a state of national emergency. It was declared by FDR in 1933 and never rescinded. You can read about this in more detail at War and Emergency Power Act Portal to Dictatorship. In 1933, Congressman Beck, speaking from the Congressional Record, states,

“I think of all the damnable heresies that have ever been suggested in connection with the Constitution, the doctrine of emergency is the worst. It means that when Congress declares an emergency, there is no Constitution. This means its death. It is the very doctrine that the German chancellor is invoking today in the dying hours of the parliamentary body of the German republic, namely, that because of an emergency, it should grant to the German chancellor absolute power to pass any law, even though the law contradicts the Constitution of the German republic. Chancellor Hitler is at least frank about it. We pay the Constitution lip-service, but the result is the same.”

We have everything to fear from McCain

Sudhan @11:17 CET

Johann Hari | The Independent, July 17, 2008

When the almost six billion of us outside the US watch the contest for The Most Powerful Man in the World, we tend to focus on the candidates’ foreign policies. If I was Iranian, say, I’d be anxious that John McCain keeps joking in public about killing me. As a bravo-bow after singing “bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran” to the tune of the Beach Boys melody Barbra Ann, he responded to being told exports of cigarettes to Iran are high by guffawing: “That’s a way of killing them!”

But there’s a way in which the next US president will affect you even more directly than foreign policy. By his economic decisions, the next president will help swing the price of the food you eat and the wages you earn – wherever you live on earth.

So it’s a little worrying that John McCain – who still has a reasonable chance of winning – says: “The issue of economics is not something I’ve understood as well as I should… To be honest, I know a lot less about economics than I do about military and foreign policy issues. I still need to be educated.”

This is a man who can’t tell his Sunni from his Shia, and who opposed the Northern Ireland peace process as a capitulation to terrorism. And he admits he knows even less about the economy than that. On one occasion, he let his irritation with the subject slip by referring to it as “the credit cunt”.

Continued . . .

al gore

“There are times in the history of our nation when our very way of life depends upon dispelling illusions and awakening to the challenge of a present danger. In such moments, we are called upon to move quickly and boldly to shake off complacency, throw aside old habits and rise, clear-eyed and alert, to the necessity of big changes. Those who, for whatever reason, refuse to do their part must either be persuaded to join the effort or asked to step aside. This is such a moment. The survival of the United States of America as we know it is at risk. And even more - if more should be required - the future of human civilization is at stake.”

read and/or listen to rest here

picture and story here

Law Professor: Democrats Let Bush Get Away With It!

GEF @ 6:28 PM ET

Legal scholar: Evidence suggests Bush committed crimes

Law professor rebukes Democrats for letting Bush off hook

Nancy Pelosi needs to hold meaningful impeachment hearings that will focus on evidence that President Bush has committed crimes in office, constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley said Wednesday.

Turley was speaking with MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann about the House Speaker’s indication that she would let the Judiciary Committee hold an hearing to consider an impeachment article introduced by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH).

The problem, Turley says, is that Pelosi has already rendered a “not guilty” verdict on the impeachment question, and the hearing organizers are making sure they won’t be exposing any additional criminal activity. This makes the whole exercise more like a “fancy dress ball,” than a criminal prosecution, he said.

Recalling his testimony to an impeachment hearing during the Clinton administration, Turley said the Republican Congress was focused on its goal of impeaching the president in a way the Democrats simply are not.

“It covered crimes,” Turley said of Clinton’s congressional inquisition. “What [Pelosi and others are] already saying is that they’ll be talking about a wide array of abuses by the president.

“An impeachment hearing needs to be focused and it needs to deal with things directly and frankly, as whether the president committed crimes,” he continued, “And there is considerable evidence to say that the answer is yes.”

Link and Scroll for Video

Conyers: Hearing For “The Imperial Presidency Of George W. Bush And Possible Legal Responses”

By- Suzie-Q @ 1:15 PM MST

Congressional hearing to examine ‘Bush Imperial Presidency’

Raw Story- Nick Juliano
Published: Thursday July 17, 2008

In a release Thursday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) announced he will hold a hearing July 25 examining “the imperial presidency of George W. Bush and possible legal responses.”

The word “impeachment” was not mentioned in the announcement, but it appears the hearing is going to examine issues raised by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) in his resolution to impeach Bush.

“Over the last seven plus years, there have been numerous credible allegations of serious misconduct by officials in the Bush Administration,” Conyers said in a news release. “At the same time, the administration has adopted what many would describe as a radical view of its own powers and authorities. As Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, I believe it is imperative that we pursue a comprehensive review commensurate to this constitutionally dangerous combination of circumstances. Next Friday’s hearings will be an important part of that ongoing effort.”

Conyers did not say who would testify at the hearing, but he laid out a variety of abuses that would be examined, including:

(1) improper politicization of the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorneys offices, including potential misuse of authority with regard to election and voting controversies;

(2) misuse of executive branch authority and the adoption and implementation of the so-called unitary executive theory, including in the areas of presidential signing statements and regulatory authority;

(3) misuse of investigatory and detention authority with regard to U.S. citizens and foreign nationals, including questions regarding the legality of the administration’s surveillance, detention, interrogation, and rendition programs;

(4) manipulation of intelligence and misuse of war powers, including possible misrepresentations to Congress related thereto;

(5) improper retaliation against administration critics, including disclosing information concerning CIA operative Valerie Plame, and obstruction of justice related thereto; and

(6) misuse of authority in denying Congress and the American people the ability to oversee and scrutinize conduct within the administration, including through the use of various asserted privileges and immunities.

After the committee ignored Kucinich’s first impeachment attempt last month, the former Democratic presidential candidate re-introduced a single article on Tuesday. In response, Conyers promised a hearing that would accumulate “all the things that constitute an imperial presidency.”

However, Conyers indicated his unwillingness to actually vote on impeachment, regardless of Kucinich’s presentation.

While no one has really asked lately, the White House has previously brushed off questions about impeachment in the past.

“I’m not going to comment on something as ridiculous as that,” Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino said last year when asked about impeachment.

Kucinich has been relentless in his push to impeach Bush. On Tuesday, the House formally sent his latest impeachment resolution to the Judiciary Committee. Its title: “Deceiving Congress with Fabricated Threats of Iraq WMDs to Fraudulently Obtain Support for an Authorization of the Use of Military Force Against Iraq.”

He also suggested in an interview with Congressional Quarterly that the Judiciary hearing could serve as a forum for some new revelations.

“I’ve been contacted by representatives of a U.S. ally who are seeking an opportunity to appear before the Judiciary Committee,” he told CQ’s Molly K. Hooper.

“Legislative leaders of a foreign capital” have a “new angle that I haven’t thought of before but is relevant,” he said. “This interest in whether we’ve been told the truth has extended to other countries.”

Evidence is Growing: Continuity of Government Plan is Currently in Effect

anthony @ 20:16 BST

http://georgewashington.blogspot.com/

In two previous posts (here and here), I showed that Continuity of Government (COG) plans were implemented on September 11th, and I argued that it is possible that they have never been suspended.

Now, one of the top investigative journalists in the country, Larisa Alexandrovna (the lead journalist at Raw Story), says:

“it seems to me that this administration has justified its crimes by NOT suspending the state of emergency that went up on September 11, 2001. They are using emergency powers if you look at the whole of the spying, military actions inside the US, etc. I would wager that if asked, this administration will admit that we have been in a state of emergency for their tenure in office.”

Remember that Continuity of Government plans — that is, the measures that go into effect in case of emergency — suspend the Constitutional form of government, cut elected officials out of the loop, and may even allow the government to tell the media what it can and cannot report.

Remember also that the entire Homeland Security Committee of the U.S. Congress has been denied access to the government’s Continuity of Government Plans even though it has clearance to view such plans (video; or here is the transcript). Indeed, a member of that Committee has said “Maybe the people who think there’s a conspiracy out there are right”.

If we are in a state of emergency and COG plans are in effect, then Congress acting even more obviously like corporate and military lapdogs than normal and totally ignoring the will of the people would make sense. It would make sense that “impeachment is off the table”, because Congress would not even be sitting at the table under a non-constitutional COG form of government; and Congress certainly would not be a co-equal branch of government with the Executive branch.

If we are in a state of emergency and COG plans are in effect, then the corporate media’s acting even more obviously like the disinformation arm of the government than usual would make sense.

Given the stakes, it is vital that we demand that Congress and the White House state on the record whether or not Continuity of Government plans are currently in effect. We’re not going to make any progress on whatever issue is most important to us — peace, liberty, election integrity/vote fraud, 9/11 truth, etc. — if we are living under a COG regime and we don’t even know it.

And our strategy will be different depending on whether we are living under a COG regime or a Constitutional form of government.

We have to find out one way or another.

McCain Admitted He Is Dumber Than Bush

By- Suzie-Q @ 11:00 AM MST
Flashback: McCain Admits He’s Dumber Than Bush
Crooks and Liars

By: Bill W. on Wednesday, July 16th, 2008 at 3:40 PM - PDT

Another great video catch by Jed:

When McCain was asked last year at a Candidates@Google event how his GPA compared to President Bush’s C average at Yale, McCain offered up some straight talk, my friends:

McCain: My GPA earned me fifth from the bottom of my class at the Naval Academy status. So, the GPA was based –since that was in the Coolidge administration it was a different measurement, but I can assure you in today’s standards it would be barely passing.

For good measure, Jed adds to that a clip from a January interview with Politico’s Mike Allen where McCain admits that he’s “an illiterate” who lacks the ability to utilize decades-old technology. At least Bush knows how to use “the Google.”

One note, if the McCain campaign is going to rely so heavily on his military service to make the case that he’s more fit to be commander-in-chief, why won’t the media actually take a look at his military record, especially considering he freely admits he placed 894th out of 899 in his class? Oh, that’s right. Apparently it’s a secret.

When John Kerry refused to release all of his military records before the election in 2004, which he subsequently did, the press relentlessly pushed him to do so. So why is McCain getting a complete pass? Are there any real journalists left in the U.S. who aren’t part of McCain’s base? Apparently not.