Is Bush ever going to tell us why we are there still. I thought that they were doing all the work, that we were just there as backup.

From the AP (Bolds are mine)

The U.S. military death toll in March, the first full month of the security crackdown, was nearly twice that of the Iraqi army, which American and Iraqi officials say is taking the leading role in the latest attempt to curb violence in the capital, surrounding cities and Anbar province, according to figures compiled on Saturday.

The Associated Press count of U.S. military deaths for the month was 81, including a soldier who died from non-combat causes Friday. Figures compiled from officials in the Iraqi ministries of Defense, Health and Interior showed the Iraqi military toll was 44. The Iraqi figures showed that 165 Iraqi police were killed in March. Many of the police serve in paramilitary units.

According to the AP count 3,246 U.S. service members have died in Iraq since the war began in March 2003.

At least 83 American forces died in January and 80 in February, according to the AP tabulation.

The Iraqi figures were gathered from officials who released them on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to give out the numbers.

Additionally, the Iraqi ministry figures listed 1,872 Iraqi civilian deaths for the month, about 300 more than the AP tabulation, which is mainly gathered from daily police reports nationwide.

The civilian death toll for the month was down significantly from 2,172 in December, the highest month casualty figure since the AP began keeping records of civilian deaths in April 2005.

However, the number of civilians killed in March was in the same range as for the first two months of this year; 1,604 in January and 1,552 in February, according to the AP count.

Nearly a third of the Iraqi civilian deaths, more than 500 people, where killed in three big bomb attacks in the last week of the month and revenge killings of Sunni men in Tal Afar the night after a Shiite market was bomb in the northwest Iraqi city.

This is a must read, It is all about keeping power forever. I guess they forgot that once you have power you have to lead.

From the LA times (Bolds are mine)

THE SCANDAL unfolding around the firing of eight U.S. attorneys compels the conclusion that the Bush administration has rewarded loyalty over all else. A destructive pattern of partisan political actions at the Justice Department started long before this incident, however, as those of us who worked in its civil rights division can attest.

I spent more than 35 years in the department enforcing federal civil rights laws — particularly voting rights. Before leaving in 2005, I worked for attorneys general with dramatically different political philosophies — from John Mitchell to Ed Meese to Janet Reno. Regardless of the administration, the political appointees had respect for the experience and judgment of longtime civil servants.

Under the Bush administration, however, all that changed. Over the last six years, this Justice Department has ignored the advice of its staff and skewed aspects of law enforcement in ways that clearly were intended to influence the outcome of elections.

It has notably shirked its legal responsibility to protect voting rights. From 2001 to 2006, no voting discrimination cases were brought on behalf of African American or Native American voters. U.S. attorneys were told instead to give priority to voter fraud cases, which, when coupled with the strong support for voter ID laws, indicated an intent to depress voter turnout in minority and poor communities.

The fact is you know Bush is lying because his lips are moving. Bush is playing Chicken with our troops. He keeps tiring to peddle a lie that if HE vetoes the Iraq Spending supplemental the troops will run out of money by April 15^th. Keep in mind the Congress passed the bill to fund the troops, it is the “President” that is going to veto the funding.

The fact is, the April 15^th date is something he pulled out of his ass, like most things.

PRNewswire-USNewswire

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid made the following statement upon receipt of a Congressional Research Service (CRS) analysis of the Army's ability to finance its operational needs with existing funds well beyond the April 15th date asserted by President Bush.

In a thorough review of Army data and the Defense Department's existing legal authorities, non-partisan budget experts at CRS informed the Congress that the Army could maintain its wartime operations well into July 2007 with funds the Army has already been provided.

"This study confirms that the President is once again attempting to mislead the public and create an artificial atmosphere of anxiety. He is using scare tactics to defeat bipartisan legislation that would change course in Iraq. After waiting months for this Administration to send us its funding requests, both houses of Congress worked quickly to pass the emergency supplemental bill for our troops. Congress has acted in good faith and will send the President a conference report for his signature well ahead of the July 2007 date CRS identified. If the President vetoes this bill, he is making the choice to continue down the same failed path in Iraq.

"Instead of holding press events to score political points, I call upon the President to tone down his rhetoric, stop the veto threats of a bill he has not yet seen, and sit down with the congressional leadership to discuss how our two co-equal branches of government can get an emergency spending bill passed that funds our troops and makes America more secure."

TPMmuckraker is reporting that Sara Taylor, the aid to evil Karl Rove, resigned today. She was very much part of the events arounf purgegate, and was tossed under the bus by Kyle Sampson. Rats rushing off the ship?

ThinkProgress has a great story on how the White House started using NON-White House email systems so that they could avoid the law.

From ThinkProgress

U.S. News reported recently that several White House aides “said that they stopped using the White House system except for purely professional correspondence. … ‘We knew E-mails could be subpoenaed,’” said one aide.

In a new letter to White House counsel Fred Fielding, House Government and Oversight Committee Chairman Henry Waxman reveals new e-mail communications that provide further evidence that White House employees were trying to circumvent the archives system:

New Scott Jennings E-Mails. Scott Jennings, the deputy director of political affairs in the White House, and his assistant used “gwb43.com” e-mail accounts to communicate with the General Services Administration about a partisan briefing that Mr. Jennings gave to political appointees at GSA on January 26, 2007. When Mr. Jennings’s assistant emailed the PowerPoint presentation to GSA, she wrote: “It is a close hold and we’re not supposed to be emailing it around.”

New Job Appointment E-Mails. Mr. Jennings also appears to have used his “gwb43.com” account to recruit applicants for official government positions through the “Kentucky Republican Voice,” an internet site that describes itself as “the best source for Kentucky Republican grassroots information.” One posting from May 2005 advertised 17 vacancies on assorted presidential boards and commissions. A second posting from May 2006 sought applicants for various boards within the Small Business Administration. In each case, these postings encouraged applicants to contact Mr. Jennings at his “gwb43.com” address.

New Abramoff E-Mails. Susan Ralston, who was Karl Rove’s executive assistant, invited two lobbyists working for Jack Abramoff to use her RNC e-mail account to avoid “security issues” with the White House e-mail system, writing: “I now have an RNC blackbeny which you can use to e-mail me at any time. No security issues like my WH email.” Ms. Ralston similarly wrote Mr. Abramoff: “I know [sic] have an RNC laptop at the office for political use. I can access my AOL email when necessary so if you need to send me something that I need to read, you can send to my AOL email and then call or page me to check it.”

Asked about White House policy and procedures regarding use of e-mail accounts, spokeswoman Dana Perino did not cite any specific policy or guidance issued to White House staff for the preservation of presidential records, and she acknowledged that certain officials in the White House have been given access to political e-mail accounts. In his letter to Fielding, Waxman requests “all policies, guidance, and other communications provided to White House officials regarding appropriate use of nongovernmental e-mail accounts.”

The White House e-mail system has been crafted to comply with the Presidential Records Act. Ordering White House employees to use the in-house e-mail system “is intended to establish procedures for former and incumbent Presidents to make privilege determinations.”

The irony — as Kevin Drum writes — is that by not using the White House system, staffers “using private accounts specifically to evade legitimate congressional oversight” might lose their claim to executive privilege.

I am glad to see that the Democrats are growing a set of balls and standing up for our troops against the abuse of the President. The Democratically controlled Congress on both side passed the war funding bill. Bush is scared out of his scull, never before has Congress ever stood up to him, and he does not know what to do.

He is calling all of the House Republicans to the White House, attempting to shore up support for his veto. Never in my life have a ever heard of a president needing to shore up support for a veto. Why is he doing this? Easy, the Republicans know that if he vetoes this bill, a real argument can be made that the Republican president stopped funding for the war. If you want proof of this theory, you need look no further than the Senate vote on this bill, even with the timetables, the Republicans would not filibuster this, because they knew it would not look good to filibuster the funding of the troops. The Republicans also fear that if the President vetoes this bill the Democrats my not bring it’s successor to the floor, ending the war by default, and the blame will be on the Republicans. This president has only vetoed one bill in his whole life, a stem cell research bill, do Republicans really want the other bill Bush vetoes to be funding for our troops? The war is unpopular to the American people, and the Republicans are already bleeding to death, they may be willing to throw Bush under the bus to save their asses.

I would warn the President not to veto the Iraq War spending bill, because when it is all said in done the fact remains that the Congress passed the funding, and a Republican president vetoed it.

Kyle Sampson, former Chief of Staff of the Justice Department, and right hand man to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will throw Gonzales under the bus when he testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee later this week reports The US News and World Report.

Sampson will show that Alberto knew what was going on, and in fact was very much in the loop, contrary to the Attorney General’s statement. This means that the United States top law enforcement officer has knowingly lied to the Congress and the American people. This is a great precedent for Bush’s America.

They write

When Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’s former chief of staff, D. Kyle Sampson, testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee this Thursday about the controversial firings of eight U.S. attorneys, he’s unlikely to throw any big bombs at the Bush administration that are of the magnitude of a direct link between Bush’s political advisor Karl Rove and the dismissals, a close associate of Sampson’s tells U.S. News. But Sampson will set off some fireworks by contradicting a key assurance that Gonzales made to Congress and the American public last Tuesday that he was not in the loop during the long deliberations leading up to the firings.

Gonzales probably spoke to Sampson 20 times a day and had a daily morning management meeting on a range of issues with Sampson and other key officials also involved in the U.S. attorney deliberations. Gonzales had delegated the replacement plan for U.S. attorneys largely to Sampson and was monitoring it at “the 30,000-feet level,” Sampson’s associate says. But Sampson will testify that the attorney general not only discussed the idea while he was still White House counsel and signed off at the end but also was “aware of the arc of the whole process” in between, says this source. “The idea that there were no discussions on this overall issue,” says the source, “the attorney general could not have meant to say that.”

While Sampson’s testimony won’t implicate White House officials, it won’t rule out their involvement– including Rove’s–in the selection of the fired U.S. attorneys either. In fact, it will only give Democrats in Congress new fodder to demand the testimony under oath of Rove and other key Bush officials– something Bush has so far said he won’t tolerate, citing executive privilege. Sampson is likely to testify that although he exchanged E-mails and had discussions with then White House counsel Harriet Miers and her deputy, William Kelley, what happened “behind the curtains” in the White House was largely invisible to him.

The US Military is so overtaxed that the DOD has notified 1800 Ready Reserve Marines that they may be called up for a tour in Iraq. Here is what the Ready Reserve is, when someone signs up for the service, say 4 years, their contract says that are to spend 4 years active duty, and 4 years inactive duty, in other words the Ready Reserve. For the most part, these people leave the service and go on about their civilian lives.

It is almost unheard of to call up these forces, the DOD is strapped, and god knows that we would never ask for a draft, because nothing would end this war faster.

From the Stars and Stripes

The Marine Corps plans to notify 1,800 Marines in the Individual Ready Reserve this month that they could be mobilized for one year, to include an expected seven-month deployment to Iraq, said Maj. Steven O’Connor, Reserve liaison officer at Headquarters Marine Corps Public Affairs.

Troops in the IRR have left active duty but still have time on their obligation to serve. Unlike other reservists, they do not drill.

Of the Marines notified, about 1,200 are expected to get orders to join the I Marine Expeditionary Force in Iraq, O’Connor said Monday.

That breaks down to 1,067 sergeants and 133 captains, said Lt. Col. Jeff Riehl, of Manpower and Reserve Affairs.

Of the roughly 60,000 Marines in the IRR, about 25,200 are eligible for this callup, Riehl said.

Riehl gave the following breakdown of how many Marines the Corps is looking to call up per Military Occupational Specialty:

• Aviation maintenance, 361
• Logistics support, 225
• Infantry, tanks and artillery, 223
• Motor transport, 178
• Communications, 97
• Intelligence, 95
• Military police, 21

In August, the Corps announced that it planned to mobilize up to 2,500 Marines in the IRR to stem a shortfall of 1,200 Marines. The Corps had been relying on volunteers from the IRR, but fewer Marines in the IRR had volunteered to be mobilized.

Since then, 150 Marines in the IRR have been notified they could deploy, of which 69 have received orders to go to Iraq, O’Connor said.

Things just went from bad to worse for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, it has just been announced that his aid, Monica Gooding plans to plead the fifth when called to testify in front of Congress.

John Aravosis over at Americablog says it best, “that means someone is afraid she may have committed a crime. This issue is no longer about politics, it's now a criminal investigation of the Attorney General of the United States.”

John goes on to post an explanation from finelaw on Fifth Amendment

The Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives individuals the right to refuse to answer any question or make any statement, when to do so helps to establish the person committed a crime or is connected to any criminal activity.

This even further warrants the question, “if everything is so above the board as the president has stated as well as the attorney general, why are we now pleading the fifth amendment”

Here is the AP story (bolds are mine)

Monica Goodling, a senior Justice Department official involved in the firings of federal prosecutors, will refuse to answer questions at upcoming Senate hearings, citing Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination, her lawyer said Monday.

"The potential for legal jeopardy for Ms. Goodling from even her most truthful and accurate testimony under these circumstances is very real," said the lawyer, John Dowd.

"One need look no further than the recent circumstances and proceedings involving Lewis Libby," he said, a reference to the recent conviction of Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff in the CIA leak case.

The White House, meanwhile, continued to stand by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales despite new calls over the weekend for his resignation and documents that indicate he may have been more involved in the dismissals than he has previously acknowledged.

Democrats have accused the Justice Department and the White House of purging the prosecutors for political reasons. The Bush administration maintains the firings were not improper because U.S. attorneys are political appointees.

Goodling was Gonzales' senior counsel and White House liaison until she took a leave of absence earlier this month. She was subpoenaed last week by the Senate Judiciary Committee along with several of Gonzales' other top aides.

There have been questions about whether Goodling and others misinformed Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty about the firings just before he testified before the Senate committee in February.

Well the hits just keep on coming, today the Washington Post Front Page, "GSA Chief is Accused of Playing Politics". What next George, only Republican Vets get help from the VA?

It is called the Hatch Act George, and you just broke the law, AGAIN! Just keep in mind folks that this has been going on for 6 years now, only the Republicans advocated their responsibility and refused to do oversight on Bush. Remember that come 2008, Republicans allowed this mess to happen.

From the Washington Post (bolds are mine)

Witnesses have told congressional investigators that the chief of the General Services Administration and a deputy in Karl Rove's political affairs office at the White House joined in a videoconference earlier this year with top GSA political appointees, who discussed ways to help Republican candidates.

With GSA Administrator Lurita Alexis Doan and up to 40 regional administrators on hand, J. Scott Jennings, the White House's deputy director of political affairs, gave a PowerPoint presentation on Jan. 26 of polling data about the 2006 elections.

When Jennings concluded his presentation to the GSA political appointees, Doan allegedly asked them how they could "help 'our candidates' in the next elections," according to a March 6 letter to Doan from Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Waxman said in the letter that one method suggested was using "targeted public events, such as the opening of federal facilities around the country."

On Wednesday, Doan is scheduled to appear before Waxman's committee to answer questions about the videoconference and other issues. The committee is investigating whether remarks made during the videoconference violated the Hatch Act, a federal law that restricts executive-branch employees from using their positions for political purposes. Those found in violation of the act do not face criminal penalties but can be removed from their jobs.

Cheney is in Florida saying that the US House's funding of the troops is somehow "Not supporting the troops". Hey Dick, if I recall, you are such a coward that you never served in the service. In fact, I think that you went out of your way to get deferments so you did not have to serve. If I recall, you said, "I had better things to do at that time".

So I say to you, Dick, and I will say it in a way that you can understand, "Go fuck yourself you coward"

The House funded the war, and support them so much that they want to bring them home. Thanks to you it is no longer about supporting the troops, it is save them from you guys!

THE HOUSE FUNDED THE TROOPS, THEY ARE GOING TO GET WHAT THEY NEED. YOU GUYS ARE WELCOME TO VETO IT, AND IT WILL BE US THAT DOES NOT SUPPORT THE TROOPS. BIG WORDS DICK FROM A KNOWN COWARD!

It is very funny that George Bush just made a statement, in it he decried the Democrat’s vote on war funding as “Political theater” yet surrounded himself with military wife’s and children, speaking of political theater.

During the statement is almost sounded to me like he was going to threaten the troops and their safety in order to make a point. Given that this man has shown that human life means nothing to him, there is no telling what he will do.

Here is my message to Bush: You got the war funding, you got the money you asked for. Take it, or get nothing. You know that the word Representative in “House of Representative” is us, the American people, and while I know that you, Mr. Bush, hate the American people, those in the house speak for us, that is what Representative means. So what you should walk away with is that the American people want this war OVER. You have f*cked it up, victory is no longer an option, all you have to do is ask the Iraqi people, so we need to manage the withdraw, we need to get our men and woman out of there.

Well it is a sad day in American, but under Bush not a shocker, that the Attorney General of the United States, Alberto Gonzales lied to congress about that he knew. In face new documents (Friday news dump) says he not only knew about it, but did it!

Last week he said

QUESTION: How could your chief of staff be working closely with the resident on which U.S. attorneys to be let go and you not know the pecifics?
ATTORNEY GENERAL GONZALES: Well, again, as — I accept responsibility
for everything that happens here within this department. But when you have
110,000 people working in the department obviously there are going to be
decisions that I'm not aware of in real time. Many decisions are delegated.
We have people who were confirmed by the Senate who, by statute, have been
delegated authority to make decisions

Well this was a ball face lie! The AP Has this.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales approved plans to fire several U.S. attorneys in a November meeting, according to documents released Friday that contradict earlier claims that he was not closely involved in the dismissals.

The Nov. 27 meeting, in which the attorney general and at least five top Justice Department officials participated, focused on a five-step plan for carrying out the firings of the prosecutors, Justice Department officials said late Friday.

There, Gonzales signed off on the plan, which was crafted by his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. Sampson resigned last week amid a political firestorm surrounding the firings.

The five-step plan involved notifying Republican home-state senators of the impending dismissals, preparing for potential political upheaval and naming replacements and submitted them to the Senate for confirmation.

The documents indicated that the hour-long morning discussion, held in the attorney general's conference room, was the only time Gonzales met with top aides who decided which prosecutors to fire and how to do it.

The Dems have made statements

Nonetheless Democrats pounced late Friday.

 

"If the facts bear out that Attorney General Gonzales knew much more about the plan than he has previously admitted, then he can no longer serve as Attorney General," said Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, who is heading the Senate's investigation into the firings.

Added House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers:

"This puts the Attorney General front and center in these matters, contrary to information that had previously been provided to the public and Congress."

The developments were not what Republicans, skittish about new revelations, had hoped.

Democrats pass the bill. And within moment the White House said that Bush wants to talk to America. Hey Bush, America wants the war to end right now, and your little whine will not change that. I dare you to veto it, and watch your war funding dry up all together. If you veto it that is all you get.

Oh he is on, I wonder if he is sober this time…

The Republicans have so screwed over America, that Americans are screwing them. A new Pew Research Poll shows that American has rejected the conservative movement, in a big way. According to the report, “Increased public support for the social safety net, signs of growing public concern about income inequality, and a diminished appetite for assertive national security policies have improved the political landscape for the Democrats as the 2008 presidential campaign gets underway.” This is great news for the Democrats; maybe they will grow some spines.

Some of the data is stunning, Americans are less religious now than at the start of the “Republican Revolution” (1994) they are more tolerant of the Gays, and find a greater need for the government to take care of the least among us. Wow, tolerance and helping other, yah definitely a shift away from Republican “values”

What is real telling is this gap in those that identify themselves as Democratic vs Republicans; it almost looks like being a Republican is as unpopular as being a Nazi. This is what happens when the Republicans tell the American people to go stick it. When you become the party of the uber-right, you detest the middle-class, you despise the poor, you are hostel to the minorities and you pray to the corporations.