I am almost starting to think that this administration sees Nixon as a play book, not a mistake. The only difference is now we have a congress to spineless to impeach. Well the cover-up over the US attorneys has gone up a noch. In the letter that the team of lawyers in the White House sent to congress telling them to shove their subpoenas up their asses they showed there cards a little. Back in March of this year Bush said, “the Justice Department made recommendations, which the White House accepted.” This was a total lie. Today in the “Screw You Congress” memo attorney Paul Clement wrote confirmed what we have all known, the White House had there grubby little hands all over the attorney purge.

ThinkProgress says it best…

In his letter, Clement reveals what investigators have suspected from the very beginning — that the White House was intimately involved in the attorney scandal. Upon examination of the White House documents, Clement writes:

Among other things, these communications discuss the wisdom of such a proposal, specific U.S. Attorneys who could be removed, potential replacement candidates, and possible responses to congressional and media inquiries about the dismissals.

Well I am sure that the Republicans are kicking them selfs in the ass right now, because their witch hunt of Clinton for the most part blew the claim of Executive Privilege right out of the water. We are about to see if the government is real anymore, because the courts are going to get evolved, and people are going to have to choose to do their job, or Bush, and then we as Americans will know who stands for what…

From Forbes

President Bush, moving toward a constitutional showdown with Congress, asserted executive privilege Thursday and rejected lawmakers’ demands for documents that could shed light on the firings of federal prosecutors.

Bush’s attorney told Congress the White House would not turn over subpoenaed documents for former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor.

“With respect, it is with much regret that we are forced down this unfortunate path which we sought to avoid by finding grounds for mutual accommodation,” White House counsel Fred Fielding said in a letter to the chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees. “We had hoped this matter could conclude with your committees receiving information in lieu of having to invoke executive privilege. Instead, we are at this conclusion.”

Thursday was the deadline for surrendering the documents. The White House also made clear that Miers and Taylor would not testify next month, as directed by the subpoenas, which were issued June 13. The stalemate could end up with House and Senate contempt citations and a battle in federal court over separation of powers.

Nothing on the MSM sites yet, but the Congress wants more info on the wiretapping Americans illegally thing. Thank god George hired almost a dozen new lawyers in the last 3 weeks.  Guys, it is about to get good in Washington, because Bush thinks he is king, and Congress is nothing…

“The Gavel” has a great breakdown on the House Budget Committee hearing today entitled “Foreign Holdings of US debt: Is Our Economy Vulnerable?”  I highly recommend going and taking a look at this, one of the amazing facts to come out in this hearing is that our national debt is almost exactly the same amount the Republicans gave rich corporations as well is the wealthiest .01% in tax cuts.  Our current national debt, according to experts at this hearing, is due directly to the Republicans paying off the wealthy, in turn guaranteeing healthy donations.

I like to personally thank the Republicans are once again looking out for themselves over Americans, looking out for themselves over the health of our nation, and guaranteeing that future generations are strapped with debt for their entire lives.  Thanks guys!

If the office of the Vice President is not “entirely within the executive branch” and where the hell is it? this is got to be one of the finest examples of “F*ck the Constitution” ever to come from the mouth of such a hateful, sickening, “elected official”.

from Congressman Waxman’s Committee of oversight and Government website

The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”

As described in a letter from Chairman Waxman to the Vice President, the National Archives protested the Vice President’s position in letters written in June 2006 and August 2006. When these letters were ignored, the National Archives wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in January 2007 to seek a resolution of the impasse. The Vice President’s staff responded by seeking to abolish the agency within the Archives that is responsible for implementing the President’s executive order.

In his letter to the Vice President, Chairman Waxman writes: “I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions. … [I]t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive branch officials.”

A fact sheet prepared by Chairman Waxman describes other instances in which the Vice President’s office has sought to avoid oversight and accountability.

Salon.com has an interesting story about the failure of the attempts by the neoconservatives to establish a unitary executive. The story is definitely worth a read. One of the most interesting parts of the story is the following…

in its defense, he says without a hint of irony or sarcasm, “not everything we’ve done has been illegal.” He adds, “not everything has been ultra veres” — a legal term referring to actions beyond the wall.

I do not think that it’s unfair to assume that with a quote, “not everything we’ve done has been illegal” but some of the things you’ve done were clearly illegal.

You may or may not know this but your elected officials represent people, because shockingly corporations cannot vote. Today the Republicans filibustered a plan put forth by the Democratic leadership to found and stimulate the growth of the alternative fuel industry. The Republicans showed, as if anyone ever doubted, that it is not Americas that is important to them, it is not the people that live in America that is important to them, no, it is Exxon. The same Exxon and made more money last year in any corporation has ever made in the history of the world, I kid you not in the entire history of man on earth no company has been more profit than Exxon. Thank God they have the Republicans looking out.

Now Republicans are telling you that they were stopping the crazy taxing that the Democrats wanted to do on the cash-strapped oil companies, but this is actually a flat out lie, and the Democrats were not raising taxes on the oil companies, but instead allowing some massive tax breaks granted to them when Republicans led Congress expire. So using Republican logic, if you have a coupon, and that coupon expires, the net is a tax increase to the person buying a can of corn.

So to wrap this post up, Republican senators who were elected to represent people use a procedural filibuster to make sure that some of the richest corporations in America do not have to pay taxes that they were supposed to pay, but because of their “generous” donations to reelection campaign’s, were given coupons not to pay. How dare those damn Democrats try to collect taxes from the richest corporations in the history of mankind.

Right now a keg at a frat house has a greater chance of surviving than do out solders in Iraq. Bush war is a disaster for our troops, they are over worked, stressed out of there ever loving minds, and dangerously outnumbered. At this point I feel like they are slaves to George Bush and his total cluster-f*ck of a war. Bring them home NOW.

ABC News Reports…

The U.S. military said 14 American troops have died in several attacks in the past 48 hours, including five slain Thursday in a single roadside bombing that also killed four Iraqis in Baghdad.

Elsewhere, a suicide truck bomber struck the Sulaiman Bek city hall in a predominantly Sunni area of northern Iraq, killing at least 16 people and wounding 67, an Iraqi commander said.

The latest U.S. deaths raised to at least 3,545 the number of American troops who have died since the war began in 2003, according to an Associated Press count.

So much for supporting the troops. up a while back and the U.S. Army mental health experts concluded that the troops are becoming very damaged goods in Iraq. In order to preserve their mental sanity it was recommended that the US troops be given one month away from theater for every three months in the year. This is not a novel idea, it is not some kooky crazy shrinks sitting in air-conditioned rooms pulling stuff out of their asses, it is the same formula we used in World War II (by the way, we won that one). Never in recent US military history have troops been forced to stay in theater for so long.

The response of US command was, “no.” The Army Times is reporting

Instead, commanders are trying to give troops to 2 to3 days inside the heavily fortified bases after eight days in the field, said Brig. Gen. Joseph Anderson, chief aide to the ground forces commander in Iraq, Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno.

The general isn’t talking about the same fortified areas that are being shelled by the insurgents and a far greater frequency than ever before and the level of accuracy never attained. The troops get to spend eight days on the front line, and in return they get three days as sitting ducks. WOW sign me up.

At the same time the commanders on the ground are showing they don’t give a crap about the ground troops in other morale booster hits the newspapers. Although the Secretary of Defense recently announced that all troops would be spending 15 months in theater, that is not enough, and extensions will soon be announced.

So let’s recap, highly trained and skilled army physicians have made a recommendation in order to preserve our troop strengths, the U.S. Army command brass has told on the show their plan up their ass, and if they think they’re stressed now on the current 15 months deployment, they ain’t seen nothing yet

This war has decimated our military, 30% of our soldiers and Marines are coming back mentally damaged, and unable to cope with life. The U.S. Army has shoved them into dark corners and denied them the medical care they so desperately need, this is life in the military under George Bush. As someone who served I can honestly say I would take 50 Bill Clinton’s over one George Bush.

From me I could not make this up if I tried files, the South Carolina chair of the Giuliani 2008 campaign was indicted today on charges of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Now was less than a week ago that we reported that Rudy Giuliani’s Pennsylvania chairman had a long history as a felon. I’m starting to think that Rudy Giuliani has more criminals in his sphere of influence than George Bush had. While I know that Rudy Giuliani actually getting elected president is a long shot, I can only imagine what his cabinet would look like, he would probably be the only president in history that would have to pardon someone before nominating them.

Is this a case of the rats fleeing the sinking ship? White House budget director Rob Portman is resigning and is being replaced by another Republican hack, Jim Nussle. I am not sure what Jim knows about budgets, he was a Congressman who failed to get elected in Iowa as governor. He has been working to bring Iowa home for Rudy. Oddly I did not even know that the White House had a budget director given that all they do is spend it faster than we can print it.

Waxman is getting to the quick, White House starting to feel the pain. Bush is violating the Presidential Records act.

The findings so far

• The number of White House officials given RNC e-mail accounts is higher than previously disclosed. In March 2007, White House spokesperson Dana Perino said that only a “handful of officials” had RNC e-mail accounts. In later statements, her estimate rose to “50 over the course of the administration.” In fact, the Committee has learned from the RNC that at least 88 White House officials had RNC e-mail accounts. The officials with RNC e-mail accounts include Karl Rove, the President’s senior advisor; Andrew Card, the former White House Chief of Staff; Ken Mehlman, the former White House Director of Political Affairs; and many other officials in the Office of Political Affairs, the Office of Communications, and the Office of the Vice President.
• White House officials made extensive use of their RNC e-mail accounts. The RNC has preserved 140,216 e-mails sent or received by Karl Rove. Over half of these e-mails (75,374) were sent to or received from individuals using official “.gov” e-mail accounts. Other heavy users of RNC e-mail accounts include former White House Director of Political Affairs Sara Taylor (66,018 e-mails) and Deputy Director of Political Affairs Scott Jennings (35,198 e-mails). These e-mail accounts were used by White House officials for official purposes, such as communicating with federal agencies about federal appointments and policies.
• There has been extensive destruction of the e-mails of White House officials by the RNC. Of the 88 White House officials who received RNC e-mail accounts, the RNC has preserved no e-mails for 51 officials. In a deposition, Susan Ralston, Mr. Rove’s former executive assistant, testified that many of the White House officials for whom the RNC has no e-mail records were regular users of their RNC e-mail accounts. Although the RNC has preserved no e-mail records for Ken Mehlman, the former Director of Political Affairs, Ms. Ralston testified that Mr. Mehlman used his account “frequently, daily.” In addition, there are major gaps in the e-mail records of the 37 White House officials for whom the RNC did preserve e-mails. The RNC has preserved only 130 e-mails sent to Mr. Rove during President Bush’s first term and no e-mails sent by Mr. Rove prior to November 2003. For many other White House officials, the RNC has no e-mails from before the fall of 2006.
• There is evidence that the Office of White House Counsel under Alberto Gonzales may have known that White House officials were using RNC e-mail accounts for official business, but took no action to preserve these presidential records. In her deposition, Ms. Ralston testified that she searched Mr. Rove’s RNC e-mail account in response to an Enron-related investigation in 2001 and the investigation of Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald later in the Administration. According to Ms. Ralston, the White House Counsel’s office knew about these e-mails because “all of the documents we collected were then turned over to the White House Counsel’s office.” There is no evidence, however, that White House Counsel Gonzales initiated any action to ensure the preservation of the e-mail records that were destroyed by the RNC.

Firedoglake as the covrage!

Judge Walton: He is not a flight risk or danger to the community, but I don’t see the issues raised as close, so I deny his request to be released pending appeal. I will allow him to self report, but unless I am overruled, he will have to report.

Judge Walton: I will rule on the obstruction charge sentence to 30 months, to perjury 24 months, to false statements 6 months, all to run concurrently.

Robbins: Ask for a stay the surrender pending filing motion.

Walton: Denied. Mr. Libby, you have right to appeal

No really the Republicans impeached Bill Clinton for far worst. Please Democrats please impeach this bastard! Look at the damn socks! This egotistical the he had the seal of president of the United States embroidered into this little socks. Wow, what a gay nightmare, IMPEACH!

If you think things are getting hot in Washington, you have not seen anything yet. Remember that Bush as hired 9 new lawyers in the last 10 days, and now it is time to them working.

From US NEWS

US lawmakers Wednesday ordered two former top aides to President George W Bush to testify in an inquiry into the firings of eight federal prosecutors, which majority Democrats allege were politically motivated.

The subpoenas against Bush’s former chief legal adviser Harriet Miers and former White House director of political affairs Sara Taylor step up a confrontation between Congress and Bush over the administration’s running of the Justice Department.

Democrats, who won control of Congress in November elections, charge that Republican operatives at the White House, including Bush’s top political strategist Karl Rove, were involved in the process of forcing out the eight US attorneys last year.

Bush has offered to let top White House aides answer lawmakers’ questions behind closed doors, but Democrats have pressed for public hearings in Congress. A subpoena orders a witness to testify or face legal penalties.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, which is seeking Taylor’s testimony, also demanded additional documents from the White House on the prosecutor firings. Miers was subpoenaed by the House of Representatives’ Judiciary Committee.