So no real shock here, the most secretive White House since Nixon has told the congress that is not going to cooperate with the investigation into the AG purge. It has also signaling that it is not going to turn over the emails that were sent about the AG purge on non-White House email systems (Systems used by the White House, and owned by the RNC).

From Politico.com

White House Counsel Fred Fielding, in a letter today, told Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary committees, that the White House has not budged in its refusal to allow the panels to question several White House aides, including Karl Rove, about what they know regarding the firing of eight U.S. Attorneys, moving the two sides closer to a constitutional battle over the scandal.

Fielding also appears to be trying to head off an attempt by Conyers to obtain e-mails and documents from the Republican National Committee regarding the firings. Roughly 50 White House officials, including 22 current aides, used e-mail accounts controlled by the RNC to send messages, including some related to the prosecutor firings, and Conyers asked RNC Chairman Mike Duncan to turn over those records today.

Fielding also said that "it was and remains our intention to collect e-mails and documents from those [RNC-controlled] accounts as well as the official White House e-mail and document retention systems" as part of a broader deal with the two committees on staffer testimony.

As you may or may not know the White House under the direction of Karl Rove decided to use a secret e-mail account (gwb42.com) in order to get around various laws such as the Presidential Records Act and the Hatch Act. Using an e-mail server owned by the Republican National Committee White House officials said possible illegal e-mails to circumvent the law. Last week or so Congress sent a letter to the RNC telling them to make sure they keep records of the e-mails because there is some curiosity from Congress as to what is so important that it's worth breaking the law.

Well today the White House said it mishandled the use of these accounts and is doing its best to make this clearly illegal act go away. They have rolled out their lackey to start creating the smoke and mirrors, that will hopefully make this issue go away. I was thinking about it, the Bush administration has a lawyer that will vouch for anything, look no further than the current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales who was happy to write a memo saying that torture was A-OK. Is the White House really full of such incompetent ambulance chasers? checkout the comments of the current White House legal talking head, Stanzel.

From the AP

The White House said Wednesday it had mishandled Republican Party-sponsored e-mail accounts used by nearly two dozen presidential aides, resulting in the loss of an undetermined number of e-mails concerning official White House business.

Congressional investigators looking into the administration's firing of eight federal prosecutors already had the nongovernmental e-mail accounts in their sights because some White House aides used them to help plan the U.S. attorneys' ouster. Democrats were questioning whether the use of the GOP-provided e-mail accounts was proof that the firings were political.

Democrats also have been asking if White House officials are purposely conducting sensitive official presidential business via nongovernmental accounts to get around a law requiring preservation - and eventual disclosure - of presidential records. The announcement of the lost e-mails - a rare admission of error from the Bush White House at a delicate time for the administration's relations with Democratically controlled Capitol Hill - gave new fodder for inquiry on this front.

"This sounds like the administration's version of the dog ate my homework," said Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. "I am deeply disturbed that just when this administration is finally subjected to meaningful oversight, it cannot produce the necessary information."

The Republican National Committee set up the accounts for about 20 Bush aides, such as Karl Rove and his deputies, who get involved in politics, spokesman Scott Stanzel said. Having the GOP create non-White House addresses and provide separate BlackBerries, laptops and other communications gear was designed to avoid running afoul of Hatch Act rules barring federal employees from engaging in political activities with government resources or on government time, he said.

Under President Clinton, White House aides used separate equipment for political spadework but did not have separate accounts.

John McCain has a long history of not caring what the American people thing. Look no further than his comments on Sept of '06.

Well it looks like the American people don't really think John McCain is being honest when it comes to his desperate defense of the Bush Iraq plan. According to a new CBS Poll 39% of Americans thing John McCain is a liar when it comes to his rosy assessment of Iraq. 29% think he is right on (we call that the Bush base, the 28% or so of people that think Bush can do no wrong, ever).

This is the guy that wants to be the president, he hates Americans, he hate what we think, and what we say. He wants to parent us, not lead us.

End this damn war now!

From AP

Beginning immediately, all active-duty Army soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan will serve 15-month tours - three months longer than the usual standard, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Wednesday.

It was the latest move by the Pentagon to cope with the strains of fighting two wars simultaneously and maintaining a higher troop level in Iraq as part of President Bush's revised strategy for stabilizing Baghdad.

"This policy is a difficult but necessary interim step," Gates told a Pentagon news conference, adding that the goal is to eventually return to 12 months as the standard length of tour in Iraq and Afghanistan.

He said the new policy does not affect the other main components of the U.S. ground force in Iraq: the Marines, whose standard tour is seven months, or the Army National Guard or Army Reserve, which will continue to serve 12-month tours.

Gates acknowledged that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are making life difficult for many in the military.

"Our forces are stretched, there's no question about that," Gates said.

He said the new policy also seeks to ensure that all active-duty Army units get at least 12 months at home between deployments. He said it would allow the Pentagon to maintain the current level of troops in Iraq for another year, although he added that there has been no decision on future troop levels.

Without changing the standard tour length to 15 months, the Army would have been forced to send five brigades to Iraq before they completed 12 months at home, Gates said.

Some units' tours in Iraq had already been extended beyond 12 months by varying amounts. The new policy will make deployments more equitable and more predictable for soldiers and for their families, Gates said.

"I think it is fair to all soldiers that all share the burden equally," he said.

The frustration of the boy king is becoming apparent to everyone. Today in a speech at the VFW George Bush stringed so many mistruths together in one sentence it was almost hard to wrap your mind around it. For instance he said, “It's now been 64 days since I have requested that Congress pass emergency funding for these troops. We don't have all of them there”, What he is not telling you is his last request for Iraq war funding was made to a Republican-led Congress and it took them 119 days to comply. The Democrats acted twice as quickly as the Republicans ever did. He went on to say, “…the Democrat leadership in Congress has spent the past 64 days pushing legislation that would undercut our troops, just as we're beginning to make progress in Baghdad.” This is also nothing more than spin, what the Democrats have done is to fully comply with his war funding request giving him every penny he asked for him. Bush is not happy with is that the Democrats have said that they understand what the American people want and this will be the last request Bush sees. The Democratic message is clear “You have about a year to finish the job because the will of the American people is all but gone.” In short Bush is panicking because he sees the gig is up, in chaos he could steal, and the Democrats have chosen to end the chaos.

As I said in the beginning of this post, President Bush is holding the troops hostage. You need to look no further than the following statement made by him today, “Some of our forces now deployed in Afghanistan and Iraq may need to be extended, because other units are not ready to take their places. In a letter to Congress, the Army Chief of Staff, Pete Shoemaker, recently warned, 'Without approval of the supplemental funds in April, we will be forced to take increasingly draconian measures, which will impact Army readiness and impose hardships on our soldiers and their families.'" This is a slap in the face to the troops, today in the news it was reported that over 15,000 troops will have their current tours of duty extended. Also reported today National Guard troops in three states to the tune of 13,000 troops have received notice that they will be shipped to Iraq, in direct violation of agreements made between the states and the Department of Defense that state National Guard troops will not be deployed more than once every five years. One unit that received letters today have been stateside less than two years. So how can the president say that if the Democrats don't fully comply with this failed policy that somehow the troops will be redeployed or extended when in fact that is exactly what is happening and they have all the money they need. Bush is using the troops and their families as hostages to keep the war in Iraq going so he and his buddies at Halliburton can keep bilking money from the war zone.

The democratically lead House, via the House Judiciary Committee has just subpoenaed Alberto “I like Torture” Gonzales to hand over the documents the committee has requested. Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote in the letter than followed the subpoenas “I look forward to your timely compliance so that we can proceed with getting to the truth”

What now Alberto? You had your chance to comply and still cover some of your ass, but you stalled, and now we want to see it all!

From the Reuters, via the Washington Post

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales received a subpoena on Tuesday from a U.S. congressional panel for documents related to the firing of federal prosecutors, a controversy that has prompted calls for his resignation.

"I look forward to your timely compliance so that we can proceed with getting to the truth," Democratic Rep. John Conyers of Michigan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, wrote in a letter to Gonzales that accompanied the subpoena.

The House of Representatives and the Senate are investigating the Bush administration's dismissal last year of the eight U.S. attorneys.

While the administration has insisted the firings were justified, Republican and Democratic critics question if the dismissals were politically motivated.

Gonzales, who with President George W. Bush's public support has rejected calls to resign, is to appear next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee, which plans to authorize subpoenas of its own on Thursday for administration documents.

 

It is said, “Sunlight is the best antiseptic” for the slow among us, it means that exposing something to public scrutiny is often the best way to clean house. Sunlight, or the lack there of, is what has allowed Bush to commit the countless crime, by hiding and obfuscating their actions. This is the case in the still forming scandal over the White Houses’ use of a parallel email system, to avoid a law that requires all email in the White House to be saved and archived.

Karl Rove and the Republican National Committee setup and ran an email system within the White House so that they could attempt to get around violating the Hatch Act.

The LA Times has more (Bolds are mine)

When Karl Rove and his top deputies arrived at the White House in 2001, the Republican National Committee provided them with laptop computers and other communication devices to be used alongside their government-issued equipment.

The back-channel e-mail and paging system, paid for and maintained by the RNC, was designed to avoid charges that had vexed the Clinton White House — that federal resources were being used inappropriately for political campaign purposes.

Now, that dual computer system is creating new embarrassment and legal headaches for the White House, the Republican Party and Rove's once-vaunted White House operation.

Democrats say evidence suggests the RNC e-mail system was used for political and government policy matters in violation of federal record preservation and disclosure rules.

In addition, Democrats point to a handful of e-mails obtained through ongoing inquiries suggesting the system may have been used to conceal such activities as contacts with lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who was convicted on bribery charges and is now in prison for fraud.

Democratic congressional investigators are beginning to demand access to this RNC-White House communications system, which was used not only by Rove's office but by several top officials elsewhere in the White House.

The prospect that such communication might become public has further jangled the nerves of an already rattled Bush White House.

Some Republicans believe that the huge number of e-mails — many written hastily, with no thought that they might become public — may contain more detailed and unguarded inside information about the administration's far-flung political activities than has previously been available.

Joe. the piece of shit from the same state that bore us George Bush is now working to undermined America, and make up crap out of whole cloth.

From ThinkProgress

Today on CNN, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT) said he “strongly disagrees” with Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) bipartisan delegation to Syria, calling it a “mistake” and “bad for the United States of America.”

Lieberman added, “I say this because we’re in a war. We’re in a war against the Islamic terrorists who attacked us on 9-11-01.” CNN anchor Wolf Blitzer responded, “But they had nothing to do with 9-11.” Lieberman dodged the issue and changed topics.

Watch it: Here

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), who visited Syria last year, defended Pelosi’s trip. “I believe in the maxim, hold your friends close and your enemies closer,” Specter said. “President Ronald Reagan declared the Soviet Union to be the Evil Empire. Immediately thereafter he undertook negotiations with them.” Specter said he has been to Syria 14 times over the last two decades “and have been able to be helpful in a number of situations that I can document.”

Digg It!

Transcript:

SPECTER: I believe that Assad can be negotiated with. I’ve made 14 trips there, Wolf, in the last two decades, and have been able to be helpful in a number of situations that I can document. And I think opening discussions with Syria are very, very important, and I’d rather Condoleezza Rice did it, but if not, it’s up to Speaker Pelosi and Arlen Specter and others.

BLITZER: What about Senator Lieberman, what do you think?

LIEBERMAN: I respectfully and strongly disagree with Arlen Specter and with Nancy Pelosi. I believe her visit to Syria was a mistake, that it was bad for the United States of America and good for the Syrians. And I say this because we’re in a war. We’re in a war against the Islamic terrorists who attacked us on 9-11-01. Syria is a state sponsor of terrorism.

BLITZER: But they had nothing to do with 9-11.

LIEBERMAN: But they have — but let me tell what you they have to do with what we’re into now. The Bashir Assad Syrian government has allowed terrorists and arms to flow across its country into Iraq that are being used to kill Americans today. Syria has been implicated in the assassination of a very strong popular Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri. Syria is supporting Hezbollah, which is trying to unseat our ally, Senora, in Lebanon. Syria is supporting the terrorist group Hamas against our allies in the Fatah Palestinian movement, and of course, Israel. The administration, in all fairness — people in Washington should know, if they don’t know, the administration has been trying in many ways, in diplomatic discussions with Syria since 9-11, to get Assad to change his behavior and he has not. When Nancy Pelosi goes there, she sends a message of disunity. She legitimizes the Syrian goverment.

BLITZER: So I assume you disagree with Senator Specter’s decision. I want Senator Specter to respond. Why do you think Senator Lieberman, Senator Specter, is wrong?

SPECTER: I believe in the maxim, hold your friends close and your enemies closer. President Ronald Reagan declared the Soviet Union to be the evil empire, and immediately thereafter undertook negotiations with them. Look, Assad is not a boy scout, but we have to deal with him. he’s there. In my conversation with him, I think there are ways to get him to stop arming Hezbollah and to stop arming Hamas. They came on the brink of a solution to the Golan Heights in 1995 and again in the year 2000. That was done by active negotiation that President Clinton engaged in. So there are ways to move through it, and to isolate them has not been successful.

Phoenix Woman over @ KOS pointed this out, and it is worth a repost…

Four things Bush doesn’t want you to know about Nancy Pelosi’s Syria visit:

1. The Israelis are GLAD she’s there.
2. Far from her trying to hurt Israel or the US (as Bush implies), The Israelis think so much of her that they are using her as a trusted go-between from Israel to Syria.
3. There are three Republican Congressmen in Syria meeting with Assad RIGHT NOW.
4. The three Republican Congressmen, including Joe Pitts (R-PA) are in Syria ON BUSH’S ORDERS (or least with his OK).

Bush's surge plan is so important to “Operation Save my Legacy” that he is sending untrained troops into Iraq and causing them to die. This is how the Republicans support our troops, they rush the necessary training our troops need, not to win, but to survive.

From Editor & Publisher (bolds are mine)

Two soldiers killed in Iraq in February may have died as a result of friendly fire, Army officials said Wednesday, not from enemy fire, as the press reported.

The military suspected friendly fire later in February but did not inform the dead soldiers' families of these new doubts.

One of the soldiers died just hours after arriving in Iraq — and was one of those troops rushed to the country in the "surge" who did not receive full training.

The Army said it is investigating the deaths of Pvt. Matthew Zeimer, 18, of Glendive, Mont., and Spc. Alan E. McPeek, 20, of Tucson, Ariz., who were killed in Ramadi, in western Iraq on Feb. 2. The families of the soldiers at first were told they were killed by enemy fire.

According to Col. Daniel Baggio, unit commanders in Iraq did not initially suspect they were killed by U.S. forces, but an investigation by the unit found they may have been.

A supplemental report filed Feb. 28 suggested that the initial report might be wrong and an investigation was under way. It took another month before the families of the two soldiers were told, on March 31, that friendly fire was suspected.

On February 9, the Savannah (Ga.) Morning News reported: "At least 143 soldiers joined Fort Stewart's 1st Brigade too late to participate in a final combat exercise before their units deployed to Iraq. Last week, one of those soldiers - Pvt. Matthew T. Zeimer, 18 - was the first from the brigade to be killed when he was hit by enemy fire in Ramadi, the stronghold of Iraq's Sunni insurgency.

with a Commander in Chief like this who needs enemies.

Bush does not trust the Department of Homeland Security to do their jobs. In today’s cry-baby hissy-fit in the Rose Garden Bush dodged a very well thought out question.

Q You've talked about the consequences of failure in Iraq, and you've said that enemies would follow us home. I wonder, given that, it seems like that's not exactly a ringing endorsement of people who are charged with the responsibility of keeping America safe. So what —

THE PRESIDENT: What was that again, Ed?

Q Well, you say that the enemies would follow us home —

THE PRESIDENT: I will — that's what they'll do, just like September the 11th. They plotted, planned, and attacked.

So after the 100’s of billions in cash, the 1000’s of new hires, the mass amount of cash that has been given to the military industrial complex, we are NO SAFER than we were on Sept 10^th.

This administration just can’t stop lying about everything. They lie even when the truth is a much easer route. FBI used to detain American war protesters, said never happened… but that is a lie.

From the Washington Post

A secret FBI intelligence unit helped detain a group of war protesters in a downtown Washington parking garage in April 2002 and interrogated some of them on videotape about their political and religious beliefs, newly uncovered documents and interviews show.

For years, law enforcement authorities suggested it never happened. The FBI and D.C. police said they had no records of such an incident. And police told a federal court that no FBI agents were present when officers arrested more than 20 protesters that afternoon for trespassing; police viewed them as suspicious for milling around the parking garage entrance.

But a civil lawsuit, filed by the protesters, recently unearthed D.C. police logs that confirm the FBI's role in the incident. Lawyers for the demonstrators said the logs, which police say they just found, bolster their allegations of civil rights violations.

The probable cause to arrest the protesters as they retrieved food from their parked van? They were wearing black — a color choice the FBI and police associated with anarchists, according to the police records.

FBI agents dressed in street clothes separated members to question them one by one about protests they attended, whom they had spent time with recently, what political views they espoused and the significance of their tattoos and slogans, according to interviews and court records.

The revelations, combined with protester accounts, provide the first public evidence that Washington-based FBI personnel used their intelligence-gathering powers in the District to collect purely political intelligence. Ultimately, the protesters were not prosecuted because there wasn't sufficient evidence of trespassing, and their arrest records were expunged.

If you hear McCain tell the story, Iraq is a desert playground where pixies and sand sprites frolic in morning dew. Where people are happy and safe. In short McCain has host his fucking mind.

So to prove his point on how great Baghdad is, he went to Iraq and strolled around. It was a great photo-op for propaganda, but it is what was not in the photos that shows McCain is a coward, and liar. In his little walking tour of a market the brave McCain had over 100 soldiers, 3 Blackhawk helicopters above, and 2 Apache gun ships. Well if I had that much protection I would stroll the streets of hell.

What a Coward, is this the guy we want as president?

We are starting to see the fruits of Bush’s Labor, using inaction to get his way. In other words, not enforcing the laws on the books in order to allow his corporate sponsors to not have to follow them. Sure it is against the law to dump mercury into the ocean, but only if we catch ya, and given that we are not even looking, go ahead.

Well the SCOTUS handed earth a victory today. From MSNBC

In a defeat for the Bush administration, the Supreme Court ruled on Monday that a U.S. government agency has the power under the clean air law to regulate greenhouse gas emissions that spur global warming.

The nation’s highest court by a 5-4 vote said the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “has offered no reasoned explanation” for its refusal to regulate carbon dioxide and other emissions from new cars and trucks that contribute to climate change.

-snip-

Carbon dioxide is produced when fossil fuels such as oil and natural gas are burned. One way to reduce those emissions is to have more fuel-efficient cars.

Three questions
The court had three questions before it.

• Do states have the right to sue the EPA to challenge its decision?
• Does the Clean Air Act give EPA the authority to regulate tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases?
• Does EPA have the discretion not to regulate those emissions?

The court said yes to the first two questions. On the third, it ordered EPA to re-evaluate its contention it has the discretion not to regulate tailpipe emissions. The court said the agency has so far provided a “laundry list” of reasons that include foreign policy considerations.

The majority said the agency must tie its rationale more closely to the Clean Air Act.