Rockin' the Cabal

Last week, Colin Powell's former Chief of Staff spoke out against the administration and their incompetence. Retired Army colonel, Lawrence Wilkerson, spoke before the New America Foundation, an independent public policy institute, to reveal what he believes to be the Bush administration's arrogance and ineptitude-as reported in today's New York Times.

"We have courted disaster in Iraq, in North Korea, in Iran," said Mr. Wilkerson. "Generally, with regard to domestic crises like Katrina, Rita ... we haven't done very well on anything like that in a long time. And if something comes along that is truly serious, something like a nuclear weapon going off in a major American city, or something like a major pandemic, you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that will take you back to the Declaration of Independence."

Wilkerson doesn't believe the current CIA Leak investigation is the most grave scenario for America. He believes the gravest implications for the U.S. and the world is the overall dysfunction of the Bush regime. This is a bomb going "Tick, tick, tick."

As for the Iraq War, Wilkerson stated "the case that I saw for four-plus years was a case that I have never seen in my studies of aberrations, bastardizations, perturbations, changes to the national security decision-making process. What I saw was a cabal between the vice president of the United States, Richard Cheney, and the secretary of defense, Donald Rumsfeld, on critical issues that made decisions that the bureaucracy did not know were being made." At the time of implementation, Mr. Wilkerson noted that they were "presented in such a disjointed, incredible way that the bureaucracy often didn't know what it was doing as it moved to carry them out."

As for George W. Bush himself, according to Wilkerson: "you've got this collegiality there between the secretary of defense and the vice president, and you've got a president who is not versed in international relations and not too much interested in them either." While not "evaluating the decision to go to war," Mr. Wilkerson told his audience that under the present circumstances "we can't leave Iraq. We simply can't." In his view, if American forces were to pull out too quickly, the U.S. would end up returning to the Middle East with "five million men and women under arms" within a decade.

The NY Times goes on to report that overall, Wilkerson is appalled at the way the war was launched and conducted, and outraged by "the detainee abuse issue." In 10 years, he said, when this matter is "put to the acid test, ironed out, and people have looked at it from every angle, we are going to be ashamed of what we allowed to happen." Mr. Wilkerson said he has taken some heat for speaking out, but feels that "as a citizen of this great republic," he has an obligation to do so. If nothing is done about the current state of affairs, he said, "it's going to get even more dangerous than it already is."

Now that is a true American patriot.

I'll Take An 8x10 Glossy

...of Tom's mugshot. The poor Hammer is having one hell of a month. Today a Texas court issued a warrant for the former House Majority Leader to appear for booking. Where he will get fingerprinted and a mug shot. Bail was set at $10,000 before his first court appearance on conspiracy and money laundering charges. Delay's attorney Dick DeGuerin stated that the warrant was "a matter of routine and bond will be posted." He failed to say when the Hammer would surrender to authorities. Perhaps us Democrats can have the Department of Homeland Security hunt him down, like Delay had them hunt down Democrats in Texas.

Delay has been charged with funneling corporate money into state GOP legislative races through the National Republican Party. Texas law prohibits use of corporate money to elect state candidates. He is also charged with conspiracy to violate state election laws and money laundering. Both of which are felonies, which required him to step down as House majority leader. Delay has denied all of these charges, but let's take a look at his innocence thus far:

1. Delay's Campaign Committee, TRMPAC, Indicted for Facilitating Illegal Campaign Contributions. Delay cronies Jim Ellis and John Colyandro were personally indicted on charges of conspiracy to violate Texas campaign finance laws. (Washington Post, 3/4/05)

2. DeLay Received Private Admonishment for Continuing with Gingrich's K Street Project. In 1999, the House Ethics Committee sent a letter to DeLay privately admonishing him for pushing the Electronics Industry Association to hire former Rep. Bill Paxon (R-NY) as a lobbyist instead of former Rep. Dave McCurdy (D-OK). The plan was part of DeLay's push to load K Street power lobbying firms with Republicans, which he re-launched in 2004, despite being admonished for it by the Ethics Committee in 1999. (Congressional Quarterly Weekly, 5/15/1999)

3. Delay Admonished for Taking Bribes for Votes. DeLay violated House standard procedure and kept the 15-minute House vote on Medicare open for 3 hours. Later on, the House Ethics Committee conducted an investigation into whether DeLay threatened and bribed representatives into voting the Medicare law, including a large contribution of "$100,000-plus" for the campaign of the son of a member of Congress. (Washington Post, 2/6/04)

4. Delay Admonished for Trading A "Seat At The Table" During Energy Bill Negotiations To Westar in Exchange for Cash. An energy company, Westar, gave more than $56,000 in cash to DeLay for a "seat at the table" during energy bill negotiations. As a result, language was added to a bill that specifically benefited Westar. (Washington Post, 10/7/04)

5. DeLay Admonished for Abusing Leadership Position and Used Influence To Track Private Airplane. DeLay abused his leadership position and used his influence to direct the Department of Homeland Security track a private airplane carrying Democratic members of the Texas legislature who were rebelling against a DeLay-led Texas redistricting plan. (Washington Post, 10/7/04)

This is the GOP leadership? Of one of the 3 branches of federal government? Is this bringing dignity and morality back to Washington D.C.?

Well, It Looks Like Bush Doesn't Care About Black People

Thanks for the 2% Homey

Tim Russert appeared on the Today Show this morning to discuss the new NBC Wall Street Journal Poll. Tim said that political pollsters have never seen a presidential approval rating this low with African Americans. Yes, Bush's approval rating amongst African Americans is a whopping 2%. Watch the clip of Russert on the Today Show here. I find it curious that MSNBC.com failed to include this embarrassing figure on their site. However, I applaud Matt Lauer and Tim Russert for mentioning it on air today.

As for the rest of the numbers, Democratic pollster Peter D. Hart said: "Any way you slice this data, I think these are just terrible sets of numbers." Once again, the congressional election is being wrapped up, tied with a bow and delivered to the Democrats. 48% of those polled say they prefer a Democratic-controlled Congress, compared with 39% who want the Republicans to control Capitol Hill. That 9-point difference is the largest margin between the parties in the 11 years the NBC/Journal poll has been tracking this question.

Oh and on 29% of those polled believe the country is on the right track. And 29% say Harriet "Bush is so cool" Miers is qualified to serve on the Supreme Court, while 24% think she’s unqualified. Thanks FOX news fans!

Arrogance Can Make You Sloppy

onegoodmove.org

No, that picture is not real, unfortunately. I can dream can't I? Perhaps, I won't have to keep dreaming. In the upcoming October 17th issue of Newsweek, Michael Isikoff reports that Karl Rove has been summoned back to the grand jury for the fourth time over 1 email. "The White House's handling of a potentially crucial e-mail sent by senior aide Karl Rove two years ago set off a chain of events that has led special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald to summon Rove for a fourth grand jury appearance this week. Rove's 4th appearance is creating quite a stir in Washington. A stir that has some believing Fitzgerald may be preparing to bring indictments. This federal grand jury has been investigating the leak of a CIA agent's identity. It expires at the end of October. Robert Luskin, Rove's lawyer, tells NEWSWEEK that, in his last conversations with Fitzgerald, the prosecutor assured Luskin "he has not made any decisions."

Well, you can wish in one hand and crap in the other, see which hand gets filled first. Isikoff goes on to report that lawyers close to the case, say that the Special Prosecutor is focusing on discrepancies in testimony between Rove and Time reporter Matt Cooper about their conversation of July 11, 2003. Cooper testified that Rove told him the wife of White House critic Joseph Wilson worked at the "agency" on WMD issues and was responsible for sending Wilson on a trip to Niger to check out claims that Iraq was trying to buy uranium. However, Karl Rove failed to disclose this conversation during his first interview with FBI agents in the fall of 2003, nor did he mention this conversation during his first grand jury testimony.

After Rove testified, his attorney Robert Luskin discovered an e-mail Rove had sent that same day, July 11th, alerting deputy national security adviser Stephen Hadley that he had just talked to Cooper. In the e-mail, Rove said Cooper pushed him on whether the president was being hurt by the Niger controversy. "I didn't take the bait," Rove wrote Hadley, adding that he warned Cooper not to get "far out in front on this." After reviewing the e-mail, Rove then returned to the grand jury last year and reported the Cooper conversation. He testified that the talk was initially about "welfare reform"—a topic mentioned in the e-mail and that Cooper then changed the subject. Cooper has written that he doesn't recall a discussion of welfare reform.

This Rove e-mail has recently surfaced because an electronic search conducted by the White House missed it as the right "search words" weren't used. In addition to this latest development of evidence, Fitzgerald has also summoned New York Times reporter Judith Miller back for questioning this week: a notebook was discovered in the paper's Washington bureau, reflecting a late June 2003 conversation with Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis (Scooter) Libby, about Wilson and his trip to Africa, says one of the lawyers. The notebook may also be significant because Wilson's identity was not yet public. A lawyer for the Times declined to comment.

Let's see, 2 indictments from a grand jury against Tom Delay, Bill Frist is under investigation, and Rove is on his 4th trip before another grand jury. What was it Dubya said about hitting a trifecta?

Emperor Bush Has No Clothes

A new CBS News Poll finds Bush at his lowest approval rating – ever. An overwhelming majority disapprove of Bush’s performance as president, his handling of the war on terror, the Iraq War, the economy and the general direction of our country. All ratings are at their lowest. More Americans than at any time since he took office think he does not share their priorities. This majority also wants the money for Hurricane relief to come from the Iraq War coffers. A growing number of Americans want U.S. troops to leave Iraq as soon as possible, rather than stay the course, and the highest percentage ever thinks the United States should have stayed out of Iraq.

• 69% of Americans say things in the United States are on the wrong track — the highest number since CBS News started asking the question in 1983.
• Only 37% approve of Bush’s performance as president,
• While 58% disapprove of his performance.
• 64% of Independents disapprove- this alone will cause the last few hairs on Rove’s head to fall out.
• 32% approve of Bush’s handling of the economy and Iraq.
• Only 32% percent now think he shares their priorities for the country, while 65% think he does not.
• 52 percent of Americans think he cares about people like them at least somewhat, the lowest figure ever.
• And equally embarrassing, 47% have little or no confidence in Bush’s choice of personnel for his administration.
• 54% think the economy is getting worse. This is the highest figure since September 2001. Only one in ten says the economy is getting better.
• 44% blame American oil companies for rising gas & oil prices
• 24% blame the War in Iraq for rising gas & oil prices

As for How the Government Should Pay for Hurricane Relief:

• Cut spending in Iraq 62%
• Reduce highway spending 46%
• Increase budget deficit 35%
• Raise taxes 31%
• Postpone Medicare drug benefits 28%

Level of Confidence in Government’s Ability to Protect You from Terrorism:

• 16% have a great deal of confidence.
• Not very much - 30%
• None - 7%

As for Congress:
• 31% of Americans now approve of the job Congress is doing,
• 57% disapprove. Approval of Congress has never been high, but since March it has been especially low, at about a third. And while most Americans view neither the Democrats nor the Republicans positively, Democrats fare slightly better.

Attention DNC, the Republicans have just handed you the election in 2006 and 2008, don't drop the ball.

A Dead Hero, Can't Protest the War

The Bush Administration has made many attempts to spin the shit of this illegal war into freedom, heroism, liberty and above all, legality. One of their pathetic attempts was to uphold Pat Tillman, the former NFL player who left the NFL to go fight in Afghanistan along side his brother, as the hero of the War on Error. Central Casting couldn't have done a better job of finding the Bush Administration a better heroic leading man. Pat met a horrible and violent death by his fellow comrades in the hills of Afghanistan.

What Americans haven't known until now is that Pat Tillman was a critic of the war in Iraq. He thought it was illegal. It wasn't what he signed up for. He had been rallying his comrades to vote for Kerry in the upcoming presidential election. He frequently spoke out against Bush. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that his mother Mary Tillman is fighting for the truth behind her son's death. “There are too many murky details.” The files the family received from the Army in March are heavily censored, with nearly every page containing blacked-out sections; most names have been deleted. At least one volume was withheld altogether from the family, and even an Army press release given to the media has deletions.

A Chronicle review of more than 2,000 pages of testimony, as well as interviews with Pat Tillman’s family members and soldiers who served with him, found contradictions, inaccuracies and what appears to be the military’s attempt at self-protection.
The documents contain testimony of the first investigating officer alleging that Army officials allowed witnesses to change key details in their sworn statements so his finding that certain soldiers committed “gross negligence” could be softened.

Interviews also show a side of Pat Tillman not widely known — a fiercely independent thinker who enlisted, fought and died in service to his country yet was critical of President Bush and opposed the war in Iraq, where he served a tour of duty. He was an avid reader whose interests ranged from history books on World War II and Winston Churchill to works of leftist Noam Chomsky, a favorite author.

Pat Tillman’s enlistment grabbed the attention of the nation — and the highest levels of the Bush administration. A personal letter from Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, thanking him for serving his country, now resides in a storage box, put away by Pat’s widow, Marie. Pat Tillman, according to testimony, climbed a hill with another soldier and an Afghan militiaman, intending to attack the enemy. He offered to remove his 28-pound body armor so he could move more quickly, but was ordered not to. Meanwhile, the lead vehicle in the platoon’s second group arrived near Tillman’s position about 65 meters away and mistook the group as enemy. The Afghan stood and fired above the second group at the suspected enemy on the opposite ridge. Although the driver of the second group’s lead vehicle, according to his testimony, recognized Tillman’s group as “friendlies” and tried to signal others in his vehicle not to shoot, they directed fire toward the Afghan and began shooting wildly, without first identifying their target, and also shot at a village on the ridgeline.

The Afghan was killed. According to testimony, Tillman, who along with others on the hill waved his arms and yelled “cease fire,” set off a smoke grenade to identify his group as fellow soldiers. There was a momentary lull in the firing, and he and the soldier next to him, thinking themselves safe, relaxed, stood up and started talking. But the shooting resumed. Tillman was hit in the wrist with shrapnel and in his body armor with numerous bullets.

The soldier next to him testified: “I could hear the pain in his voice as he called out, ‘Cease fire, friendlies, I am Pat f—ing Tillman, dammit.” He said this over and over until he stopped,” having been hit by three bullets in the forehead, killing him. The soldier continued, “I then looked over at my side to see a river of blood coming down from where he was … I saw his head was gone.” Two other Rangers elsewhere on the mountainside were injured by shrapnel.

The Pentagon immediately announced that Tillman had died heroically in combat with the enemy, and President Bush hailed him as “an inspiration on and off the football field, as with all who made the ultimate sacrifice in the war on terror.” Not until five weeks later, as Tillman’s battalion was returning home, did officials inform the public and the Tillman family that he had been killed by his fellow soldiers. Was Tillman fragged for fear the last hero chosen by the Bush administration would expose more lies about this illegal war? Read more about the ongoing investigation here.