The Political Chase

ABA to Bush: You’ve Been A Bad Boy

The American Bar Association (ABA) says that President Bush has exceeded his Constitutional powers.

The American Bar Association denounced President Bush’s warrantless domestic surveillance program Monday, accusing him of exceeding his powers under the Constitution.

The nation’s largest organization of lawyers adopted a policy opposing any future government use of electronic surveillance in the United States for foreign intelligence purposes without first obtaining warrants from a special court set up under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

Now this puts co-president Dick Cheney in a bit of a predicament. Surely if Cheney had not gunned down an attorney, the administration would move tort reform to the top of their legislative agenda after the ABA’s pronouncement. Of course, Cheney may try to dance that through Congress with all due haste for his own personal protection.

Technorati Tags : George+Bush, Dick+Cheney, ABA, American+Bar+Association

David Gregory Challenges Scott McLellan

White House Press Secretary Scott McLellan and NBC’s David Gregory duked it out in today’s press gaggle.

The most heated moment occurred during McClellan’s off-camera gaggle, featuring NBC’s David Gregory, one of McClellan’s most persistent inquisitors during the past year. As Gregory raised his voice while asking a question about the incident, McClellan told him to “hold on” and pointed out that “the cameras aren’t on right now. You can do this later.”

“Don’t accuse me of trying to pose to the cameras,” Gregory replied, his voice rising. “Don’t be a jerk to me personally when I’m asking you a serious question.”

“You don’t have to yell,” McClellan said.

“I will yell,” said Gregory, jabbing his finger in McClellan’s direction. “If you want to use that podium to try to take shots at me personally, which I don’t appreciate, then I will raise my voice, because that’s wrong.”

“Calm down, Dave, calm down,” said McClellan, evenly.

The two men spoke privately after the gaggle, Gregory said later in an interview.

The official transcript, which does not include the above exchange, is located here. Crooks and Liars has the video.

Technorati Tags : Dick+Cheney

Cheney’s Hunting License Not Valid

TalkLeft is reporting that Dick Cheney did not have a valid Texas hunting license.

Late Update: Jeralyn did not have a reference link at the time. Here”s a reference link.

Cheney and The Brady Bunch

From US Newswire:

James and Sarah Brady made comments today related to Vice President Cheney’s reportedly accidental shooting yesterday in Texas.

“Now I understand why Dick Cheney keeps asking me to go hunting with him,” said Jim Brady. “I had a friend once who accidentally shot pellets into his dog - and I thought he was an idiot.”

“I’ve thought Cheney was scary for a long time,” Sarah Brady said. “Now I know I was right to be nervous.”

Technorati Tags : Dick+Cheney

Good Things To Know About Your VP

Dick is a real gun lover and “good shot to boot.”

Dick Cheney is a true gun aficionado.

Cheney’s collection, our sources say, is in the hundreds of guns, including pistols, shotguns and machine guns — from antique Thompsons to the most modern European automatic machine guns.

To let off some steam… the Vice President has been known to go out to the federal training center in Maryland where the Secret Service does its own gun practice.

A typical Cheney visit, told to us by a person who attended one, included the Vice President bringing some 30 guns from his own collection.

On the ranger, Cheney would blow away his targets — with Thompson machine guns, the latest German and Austrian machine guns, Lugars, MP5s, shot guns, you name it.

One after another an aide would hand the Vice President his latest armament, and Cheney would fire away, no doubt imagining al-Qaeda terrorists in his gun sights.

We’re told Cheney is a good shot to boot.

Cheney is not shy about his shooting activities. Another Cheney friend tells us that at the Cheneys’ Christmas party last year he showcased to guests a video of himself shooting while hunting.

Technorati Tags : Dick+Cheney

Go Figure

What’s wrong with these two sentences?

“Mr. Whittington is fine,” Ms. Armstrong said. “He’s sitting up in bed, yakking and cracking jokes.”

Mr. Whittington, 78, was taken by helicopter to Christus Spohn Memorial Hospital, where he was listed in stable condition in the intensive care unit on Sunday, according to Michele Trevino, a hospital spokeswoman.

Technorati Tags : Dick+Cheney

A Principled Man

“Principle is okay up to a certain point, but principle doesn’t do any good if you lose.”

— Dick Cheney, White House Chief of Staff,

campaign advice to associates, 1976

Technorati Tags : Dick+Cheney

Cheney Shoots Texas Hunter

Dick Cheney shot a Texas attorney in the face while on a hunting trip. In keeping with the administration’s secrecy modus operandi, the Vice President did not inform the press (definitely not Congress). The Chorpus Christi Caller - Times was the first to report this news.

Cheney’s spokeswoman, Lea Anne McBride, said the vice president met with Whittington and his wife at the hospital on Sunday. Cheney “was pleased to see that he’s doing fine and in good spirits,” she said.

Cheney’s remarks are certainly in keeping with the often promised, compassionate conservatism.

I think I would feel safer shooting a cop than a Texas attorney that owns a 50,0000-acre hunting ranch.

Iran in Rummie’s Cross-Hairs

Toy at Toyus Interruptus has a bead on the Pentagon. Dubya and company are ready to start another war - they’re winding up plans to develop another breeding ground for terrorists. Were Haliburton’s profits down this past quarter?

This report Toy cites  has either a rather odd filing (typo?) date, or - let’s get a good rumor going here - is that the secret message from bin Laden specifying the date to attack.

What’s the tally now? If carried out this will make three wars over five years, two of which we know were failures. Tighten up batter, you’ve got a 3-2 pitch. What will you do?

On the serious side, are we to believe what the administration passes along?

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Never Fear - Sherlock Homes Has Arrived

The FBI (can’t you hear Hannibal saying F-B-I) is casting a dragnet over federal intelligence agencies. They’re attempting to catch the perp that leaked classified information about NSA’s warrantless surveillance program, “The Project.”

Maybe they should focus less on the agencies and on the Office of the Vice President – that seems to be the source for leaking classified information lately.

And, exactly why is the FBI not looking into President Bush violating FISA? Conflict of interests since they are all in the Executive branch. We’ll use that story until tomorrow when it’s not way past time for me to be catching some zzzz’s

A Federal Bureau of Investigation team under the direction of the bureau’s counterintelligence division at agency headquarters has questioned employees at the F.B.I., the National Security Agency, the Justice Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the office of the Director of National Intelligence, the officials said. Prosecutors have also taken steps to activate a grand jury.

The interviews have focused initial+by on identifying government officials who have had contact with Times reporters, particularly those in the newspaper’s Washington bureau. The interviews appeared to be initially intended to determine who in the government spoke with Times reporters about intelligence and counterterrorism matters.

In addition, investigators are trying to determine who in the government was authorized to know about the eavesdropping program.

Technorati Tags : FISA, NSA, surveillance, Bush+Administration, Snoopgate, politics

Time Has Bush Abramoff Photos

Time has pictures of George Bush with Jack Abramoff. And, guess who else is featured in the group? None other than Lee Atwater Jr. – Karl Rove. Time reports they have five photographs; three are on their site as of this post.

Technorati Tags : George+Bush, Jack+Abramoff, Karl+Rove, Raul+Garza, Kickapoo+Indians, politics

The Tiger Has the Same Stripes

I thought Dick Cheney was a sleazy, power-hungry, crook and a liar that will stop at nothing to accomplish his objectives. But, this weekend I have learned that is a far too flattering characterization of the Vice President of the United States. Furthermore, the president is close on his heels. The only reason the president is not equal to or surpasses Cheney, is he hasn’t been in the game as long as Cheney and his intellect is less than the Veep’s.

If you have read any books that detail the Vice President’s modus operandi and insatiable desire for power, you know exactly what I am talking about. For those of you that have not delved into the historical Dick Cheney and George Bush, at the moment, I can think of only one analogy that might depict the stark contrast in what is normally portrayed and “the real deal.” Reading The New York Times’ stories about the administration, especially Cheney, is on the level of what fourth graders read. Reading Larry Flynt’s Hustler, would be a better fit.

Dick Cheney, in my opinion, is as close to being an autocrat as a person can be - he just doesn’t have a name tag with “Autocrat” written on it and neatly placed next to his lapel. World dominance is his personal objective.

Continue reading ‘The Tiger Has the Same Stripes’

Change

Some things change and some things remain the same. From the WP:

That Was Then

" During my stewardship here, I’m going to put everybody under oath when we have testimony, as we do on confirmation hearings."

Judiciary Committee Chairman
Arlen Specter, April 5, 2005

This Is Now

"It is my judgment that it is unnecessary to swear the witness."

Specter, declining to put Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales under oath, Feb. 6, 2006

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Pin the Tail on the Donkey

Interesting. Who has WMD’s (or close to it) and who did not have WMD’s. From State of War.

If the rest of the administration was eager to take on Saddam Hussein, the post-9/11 climate was completely different at the CIA, where the war against Osama bin Laden was all-consuming. If there was one other long-term threat that worried the agency’s leadership, it was not Iraq, but Iran, with its burgeoning nuclear weapons program and its close ties to terrorist organizations like Hezbollah.

“It is hard for people outside the agency to understand how little we were thinking about Iraq,” recalled one top intelligence official. The CIA’s lack of focus on Iraq – and in particular, the agency’s failure to see Saddam Hussein as an imminent threat to the United States – infuriated the administration’s hard-liners [Rumsfeld, Cheney and Wolfowitz]. They believed that the opportunity for war with Iraq presented by the attacks on New York and Washington could best be exploited by linking Baghdad to 9/11. Failing that, it might be possible to tie Iraq more generally to al Qaeda.

It Is Worse Than Watergate

I know there has been a lot of activity today - Brownie’s testimony, the president’s diversionary tactics announcing the ten "foiled" (not) plots, additional discussion on Dick Cheney and Scooter Libby, the allegations of CIA agent, Paul R. Pillar and other things. I have kept up with those items, but have not taken the time to address them on TPC today. I placed a priority on reading James Risen’s, State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration.

Everybody has access to MSM, but not everyone will read Risen’s book. Given that, I wanted to provide exposure and discussion on something of great importance, but not necessarily at everyone’s fingertips. As I go through this book, I find something on almost every page that is noteworthy, but of course, I can’t do that for all the obvious reasons.

Dick Cheney and George Bush have sorely misled the American people. I know everyone is aware of that, but it merits repeating. Risen makes this abundantly clear in the passages quoted below.

“[J]ust days after the September 11, 2001 attacks, John Yoo, a Justice Department lawyer in the Office of Legal Counsel, wrote an internal memorandum that argued that the government might use ‘electronic surveillance techniques and equipment that are more powerful and sophisticated than those available to law enforcement agencies in order to intercept telephonic communications and observe the movement of persons but without obtaining warrants for such uses.’ Yoo noted that while such actions could raise constitutional issues, in the face of devastating terrorist attacks, he wrote, "the government may be justified in taking measures which in less troubled conditions could be seen as infringements of individual liberties.’

 "During the public debate over the Patriot Act, Bush administration officials noted reassuringly that the legislation would not expand the powers of the NSA, as if to underscore their arguments that privacy concerns over the Patriot Act were being exaggerated by critics of the legislation. Even Yoo made the point, in an op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal, that the Patriot Act’s critics had a cartoonish view of the law. ‘Civil libertarians would have us believe that the Patriot Act allows CIA and NSA agents roam freely through the country detaining anyone they please,’ Yoo wrote. ‘Nothing could be further from the truth.’"

These are not the most notable paragraphs I have read in terms of revelations, but they strike at the very core of what is so terribly wrong with this administration. And I don’t say that simply because of the NSA violating FISA. This is one size fits all. It covers virtually everything that this administration does and stands for.

There were no WMD’s in Iraq. We know the president lied about that.

Dick Cheney, at minimum, was deeply entangled in Plamegate. We know that many, including Dick Cheney, have lied about that.

The president broke the laws of the United States by carrying out warrantless domestic surveillance. We know he and many others lied about that.

To my point. We know the administration is a vast group of corrupt felons, and liars, but it exacerbates the matter exponentially when the administration makes bold face lies, dupes us, and then carries out these high crimes. Why was it so necessary to publish propaganda as Yoo did? The NSA was well under way with "The Project." It was uber-top secret - nobody knew, therefore they had no reason to be in a defensive mode. Yet, the administration sends one of their legal beagles out to act as the town crier and slings bullshit in our faces such as Yoo’s op-ed. If the administration truly felt they were constitutionally justified, why was it necessary to even bring the matter of civil liberties up?

Doing the dastardly deed is bad enough, but to blatantly lie and dissuade the American people on top of it when it wasn’t even necessary…well, to use the words of the Veep, it is reprehensible.

It carries the stench of psychopathic crooks and liars.

Technorati Tags : George+Bush, Dick+Cheney, NSA, FISA, James+Risen, State+of+War, terrorism, John+Yoo, Politics

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