The Bush 'Bully Doctrine'

Below is an interesting excerpt from Ron Suskind's new book - The One Percent Doctrine. The bad boy story from Bush's college days further confirms what many have already observed.

The Bush policy of ignoring the rule of law and the foreign policy of world domination are merely the outgrowth of the bully's personality disorder.

The game was tight. The other team's captain, Gary Engle...went up for a shot. Bush slugged him — an elbow to the mouth, knocking him to the parquet. "What the hell are you doing?" Engle remembers saying. "What, you want to get into a fistfight and both of us end up in the fucking emergency room?" Bush just smiled.

Moments later, at the other end of the court, Engle went up high for a rebound and felt someone chop his legs out from under him. Bush again. Engle jumped up and threw the ball in Bush's face. The two went at it until two teams of future business leaders leapt on their captains, pulling them apart. Engle, angry and vexed by what had happened, began wondering why the hell Bush would have done what he did. He lost his composure, and his team lost its leader.

A few years later, Engle...bumped into Jeb Bush....Engle, a Republican contributor, had thought from time to time about his game against George. Nothing like that had happened to him before or since. This was his chance to get a little insight about it. He told the story. Jeb kind of laughed, Engle recalled. "In Texas, they call guys like George 'a hard case.' It wasn't easy being his brother, either. He truly enjoys getting people to knuckle under."

Via Kevin Drum

Bush Politics King George Republicans One Percent Doctrine

Al Gore: Quote of the Day

"Bush is insulated -- his staff smiles a lot and only gives him the news that he wants to hear. Unfortunately, they still have this delusion that they create their own reality."

--Al Gore, July 13-27, 2006,
issue of the ROLLING STONE (via)

Also from the Rolling Stone article titled, Gore 3.0:

It's not unreasonable to hope that Gore runs, but the dream of a Gore candidacy also underscores the pathetic core of today's Democratic Party: It has become so unusual to hear a mainstream Democratic politician speak from a sense of conviction that when one does, people practically start begging him to run.

The only thing wrong with this assessment is the qualifier: "practically."

Actually, we are flat out begging.






More on beseeching Gore

Al Gore: 'I Wish Bush Would See the Movie' (Daily Show Video)

Al Gore Global Warming Politics Bush Rolling Stone Tennessee Inconvenient Truth Gore in 2008 President Gore

NYT: Bush Fought the Law & the Law Won

Bush's favorite newspaper opines today that the Supreme Court's latest decision for the rule of law and against lawbreaker Bush, means the pResident must cease his habitual 'trampling' on the laws of the land. It means Bushie must find a way to get his war on 'within the bounds of law.'

New York Times:

The Supreme Court's decision striking down the military tribunals set up to try the detainees being held in Guantánamo Bay is far more than a narrow ruling on the issue of military courts. It is an important and welcome reaffirmation that even in times of war, the law is what the Constitution, the statute books and the Geneva Conventions say it is — not what the president wants it to be.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan, a Yemeni being held in Guantánamo, has been charged with conspiring to help Al Qaeda. The Bush administration has contended that he and the other prisoners there are not covered either by Congressional laws governing military trials or by the Geneva Conventions on treatment of prisoners of war. Instead, Mr. Hamdan was put on trial before a military tribunal where defendants can be excluded from the proceedings and convicted based on evidence kept secret from them and their lawyers. Prosecutors can also rely on hearsay, coerced testimony and unsworn statements.

The Supreme Court held that these rules violate the standards Congress set in the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which requires tribunals to offer the same protections, whenever practicable, as other military trials. It also ruled that the tribunals fall short of the kind of trial required by the Geneva Conventions. It rejected the administration's claim that these venerable international standards cannot be invoked in an American court.

The Bush administration could go to Congress and ask for a special law that allowed it to create a unique system of justice for Guantánamo detainees. That is an argument for another day. The message of this ruling is that the executive branch cannot continue in its remarkable insistence that because there is a war on terror, it no longer needs to follow established procedures that would subject it to scrutiny by another branch of government. The justices rejected the administration's constant refrain — made in everything from its "enemy combatant" policies to its defense of the National Security Agency's domestic spying — that the authority Congress granted the president to use force after Sept. 11, the exigencies of wartime, or simply the inherent powers of the presidency allow President Bush to trample on existing laws as he sees fit. . . .

This is the latest in a series of rebukes to the Bush administration. The court has already rejected its claim that the Guantánamo detainees have no right to be heard in American courts, and that an American citizen designated an enemy combatant can be held indefinitely without being brought before a judge.

The current conservative court is not hostile to law enforcement or presidential power. But it is proving to be admirably protective of individual freedom and the rule of law. Rather than continue having his policies struck down, President Bush should find a way to prosecute the war on terror within the bounds of the law.

Guantánamo Bush Constitution SOTUS Supreme Court Al Qaeda Hamdan Geneva Conventions

Supreme Court Stands Up To Bush

I'm surprised. The Supreme Court has actually ruled that the Geneva Conventions matter, and that even the pResident has to comply with the law of the land.

Imagine that!

The SCOTUS blog says this is HUGE.

New York Times snippets:

Supreme Court Blocks Trials at Guantánamo

The Supreme Court today delivered a sweeping rebuke to the Bush administration, ruling that the military tribunals it created to try terror suspects violate both American military law and the Geneva Conventions.

As a result, the court said in a 5-to-3 ruling, the tribunals violated both American military law and the military's obligations under the Geneva Conventions.

...[T]he reasoning adopted by the majority called into question the justification Mr. Bush has used for other programs that have come under Congressional scrutiny, like the warrantless wiretapping conducted by the National Security Agency.

"Nothing prevents the president from returning to Congress to seek the authority he believes necessary," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in his own concurring opinion. ..

Neal Kaytal, a professor at Georgetown University Law School who also represented Mr. Hamdan, called the ruling a "rebuke" to a system of "fake courts." He said that the court had left it up to Congress to address the question of whether terror suspects should be treated differently from people charged with other crimes.

"But the court has said that our fundamental values are at stake," he said, arguing that the ruling should be seen as a "caution to those who would rush in."

Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, which represents more than 200 Guantánamo inmates, said ... "What this says to the administration is that you can no longer decide arbitrarily what you want to do with people. It upheld the rule of law in this country and determined that the executive has gone beyond the constitution and international law."

The Opinion

Hat tip to Alternate Brain

Guantánamo Bush Constitution SOTUS Supreme Court Hamdan Geneva Conventions Scalia

Al Gore: 'I Wish Bush Would See the Movie' (Daily Show Video)

The Daily Show - 2006.06.28 - Al Gore (Part II)
You can see Part 1 here.

I saw An Inconvenient Truth last night. Everyone broke into applause at the end. People just stood there stunned in the aisle watching the screen until the last credit was gone. Some people cried. No one told me that the film ended with a tune by Melissa Ethridge.

I was never a flatearther, but I didn't realize how overwhelming the evidence is. And I sure never thought I'd be sitting spellbound on the edge of my seat while I heard the science.

Like everyone else says, you have to see this film!

Afterwards, I rushed home to see Al Gore on the Daily Show. Memorable lines: "I think I carried Florida" and "I wish pResident Bush would see the movie."

Bush says he won't see it, and with a mind as closed as his, what really is the point? Flatearth Bush is trying to convince the Supreme Court that "the federal government has no obligation to restrict greenhouse gases." You can't make this stuff up.

Goddess, wouldn't it be an earthsaving change to have a president who cared about something bigger than himself?

DraftGore.Com
Draft Gore 2008
Scientists OK Gore's movie for accuracy
Al Gore Gets Rock Star Welcome at Nashville Book Signing

Al Gore Global Warming Politics Bush Jon Stewart Daily Show Video Tennessee Nashville Inconvenient Truth Gore in 2008

Bush Protest: King George Comin' To Memphis

Memphis Says: There's Only Room for One King In Memphis



King George in Memphis Protest
Fri, Jun 30
10 :00 AM - 12:00 PM
Sidewalk Directly Opposite GRACELAND
(3765 Elvis Presley)
Bush in Memphis
Counter-Demonstration








Bush Politics King George Bush Protest Memphis Tennessee Elvis

The Wreckage in the China Shop

Fighting Terror
by Bob Herbert

After all the sound and fury of the past few years, how is the U.S. doing in its fight against terrorism?

Not too well, according to a recent survey of more than 100 highly respected foreign policy and national security experts. The survey, dubbed the "Terrorism Index," was conducted by the Center for American Progress and Foreign Policy magazine. The respondents included Republicans and Democrats, moderates, liberals and conservatives.

The survey's findings were striking. A strong, bipartisan consensus emerged on two crucial points: 84 percent of the respondents said the United States was not winning the war on terror, and 86 percent said the world was becoming more — not less — dangerous for Americans.

The sound and fury since Sept. 11, 2001 — the chest-thumping and muscle-flexing, the freedom fries, the Patriot Act, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the breathtaking expansion of presidential power, Guantánamo, rendition, the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars — seems to have signified very little.

An article on the survey, in the July/August edition of Foreign Policy, said of the respondents, "They see a national security apparatus in disrepair and a government that is failing to protect the public from the next attack." More than 8 in 10 of the respondents said they believed an attack in the U.S. on the scale of Sept. 11 was likely within the next five years.

Many of the respondents played important national security roles in the government over the past few decades. They included Lawrence Eagleburger, who served as secretary of state under George H. W. Bush; Anthony Lake, a national security adviser to Bill Clinton; James Woolsey, a former director of the Central Intelligence Agency; Richard Clarke, who served as counterterrorism czar in the Clinton and George W. Bush administrations and was in that post on Sept. 11th; and Lawrence Korb, an assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan.

Noted academics and writers who specialized in foreign policy and national security matters also participated in the survey. "Respondents," according to a report that accompanied the survey, "sharply criticized U.S. efforts in a number of key areas of national security, including public diplomacy, intelligence and homeland security. Nearly all of the departments and agencies responsible for fighting the war on terror received poor marks.

"The experts also said that recent reforms of the national security apparatus have done little to make Americans safer. Asked about recent efforts to reform America's intelligence community, for instance, more than half of the index's experts said that creating the office of the director of national intelligence has had no positive impact in the war against terror."

The respondents seemed, essentially, to be saying that the U.S. needs to be smarter (less like a bull in a china shop) in its efforts to combat terrorism. "Foreign policy experts have never been in so much agreement about an administration's performance abroad," said Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations and a participant in the survey. "The reason is that it's clear to nearly all that Bush and his team have had a totally unrealistic view of what they can accomplish with military force and threats of force."

The respondents stressed the importance of ending America's dependence on foreign oil, saying that could prove to be "the single most pressing priority in winning the war on terror." Eighty-two percent of the respondents said that ending the dependence on foreign oil should have a higher priority, and nearly two-thirds said the country's current energy policies were making matters worse, not better.

"We borrow a billion dollars every working day to import oil, an increasing share of it coming from the Middle East," said Mr. Woolsey, the former C.I.A. director. The respondents also said it was crucially important for the U.S. to engage in a battle of ideas as part of a sustained effort to bring about a rejection of radical ideologies in the Islamic world. That kind of battle requires more of a reliance on diplomacy and other nonmilitary tools.

If the respondents to this survey are correct, the U.S. needs to be moving in an entirely different direction. The war against terror cannot be won by bombing the enemy into submission. The bull in the china shop may be frightening at first, but after a while it's just enraging. We need a better, smarter way.

Via donkey o.d.

Bob Herbert Politics Bush Cheney War on Terror Terrorism Republicans Election 2006

4th of July Flag Burning Special Fails

Countries that have banned flag burning include Iran, Cuba, and Iraq under Saddam Hussein.

Nevertheless, Rep. Harold Ford (D) approves of the GOP's 4th of July Flag Burning Special.

Ford aspires to assume Bill Frist's seat in the Senate and apparently plans to model himself after Frist:

Had I been in the Senate for yesterday’s vote, I would have voted in favor of the constitutional amendment banning desecration of our flag. Free speech is one of our nation’s most cherished and important values. But just as important is the protection of our flag, which is the clearest symbol of those values. . . If elected to the Senate, I will be proud to be the final vote necessary to see that it gets that protection.

Via Alex over at Forward with Ford, where evidence is presented which suggests that the wannabe Democratic Senator has always been in favor of desecrating the U.S. Constitution by adding a flag protection amendment.

The Constitution Desecration Amendment failed by only one vote - which proves that we already have too many radical conservatives in the Senate.

So, why do we need Ford?

Next week, look for Ford to suggest amending the Ten Commandments:

Thou Shalt Not Burn Flags.
Thankfully, we can depend on some Democrats - those who voted against the 4th of July Flag-Burning Amendment include: Feingold, Biden, Dodd, Kerry and Rodham Clinton.

Related Post: Harold Ford Courts Ultra Right Wing

Flag Burning Harold Ford Democrats Tennessee 2006 Frist DINO Republicans U.S. Senate

Poll Gives Hope for Gay Equality In TN

by Callie, aka Red State Exile

It appears Gov. Bredesen may be eating some crow when Tennesseans go to the polls to vote on marriage equality. His prediction that the anti-gay marriage amendment will pass by either 85% or 95% could be terribly off-base.

Out & About Nashville, a local gay and lesbian newspaper, released the findings of a recent Zogby poll showing that “59% of Tennessee voters agree that gays and lesbians should have the same rights under [the] law as other Americans.”

The poll questioned Tennesseans on the upcoming change to the Tennessee Constitution and their voting plans. Surprisingly, only 60% of respondents supported the amendment while 33% didn’t. A significant portion (6%) had yet to make up their minds. With other states passing these amendments by margins as great as 86% in Mississippi, gay Tennesseans see a reason to hope that eventually their fellow citizens will treat them as equals.

Randy Tarkington, campaign manager for the Vote No on 1 effort to defeat the amendment, said, “We are happy with these polling numbers as a starting point for our campaign because what they show is that the voters of Tennessee support fairness and they have serious misgivings about adding discrimination to our state’s constitution.”

The survey also found that as many as 55% of Tennessee citizens are weary of changing the Constitution.

Cross-posted at Red State Exile

Bredesen Amendment 1 Gay Politics Same-sex Marriage Homophobia Gay Marriage Bush Hate Amendment 2006 Election Democrats Tennessee Poll

Survey: Swing Voters Want a Liberal Government

A new survey of swing voters finds that the Republican Party's best chance of success in the upcoming election is to transform itself into an ultra liberal party. But I understated that. Read below and I think you will agree that what these swing voters want is a very progressive agenda. In other words, it's time for the Daddy Party to give it up.

And, yes, the survey included voters in Tennessee.

Now all we have to do is put a stop to the Daddy Party's control over the voting machines.

The survey of swing voters was conducted in eight states with highly competitive senate races: Pennsylvania, Montana, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Ohio, Missouri, and Minnesota and Tennessee.

The survey finds that among swing voters our pathetic Presidential Poser has a job approval of 29 percent. Sixty-six percent of the swing voters disapprove of the Bush train wreck. A whopping 73 percent of the very likely voters say that the Bush train wreck is on the wrong track.

More than 80 percent expressed serious concern with the federal budget deficit, and 74 percent accused the Republican-controlled federal government of putting the needs of the wealthy and of corporations ahead of average working families and the underprivileged.

When it came to the issue of increasing government investments in education, health care, and technologies that would aid our energy independence, swing voters overwhelmingly said they would support congressional candidates who promised to do so. According to the poll, more than three-quarters of swing voters wanted more investment in public education programs such as school improvements, Head Start, and college aid.

More than 70 percent said they would support candidates who would reverse huge Republican tax cuts for the rich and the trend of paying for those tax giveaways by gutting health care programs and spending on public education.

More than 60 percent of swing voters view current spending on the war in Iraq as a wrong priority and would rather see that money spent on social programs like public education, health care, and advances in technology. Large majorities also said they would support candidates who would roll back tax cuts for large corporations and the very rich in order to help pay for these investments.

About 7 in 10 swing voters view the Republican-controlled federal government as too intrusive in their personal lives.

Only four percent of the respondents in the USAction poll identified strongly with either major political party, about 13 percent identified "weakly" with either of the two major parties, and 80 percent described themselves as independent voters. More than 9 in 10 voted in the 2002 mid-term congressional elections, and 99 percent voted in the 2004 presidential election.

Hat tip to Political Wire

Politics Bush Cheney Liberal Progressive Agenda Republicans Democrats Election 2006 Poll Bush Job Approval Tennessee

Frist Blames CNN for GOP Failures

Raw Story reports that Senator Bill Frist (R-TN) explained on CNN this morning that the Daddy Party's dismal poll numbers are the fault of CNN.

Frist also proves, once again, that he is almost as inarticulate as King George.

CNN host Miles O'Brien asked Frist why recent polls show that show 54% of Americans will vote for Democrats in the upcoming elections while only 38% planned to vote for Republicans. Frist explained that the people's concerns were being addressed by the Republican Senate but told O'Brein those were the sort of issues "you may not cover and others may not cover."

"Well, you know, it's part of my job and your job and your whole coming into this was, again, saying [from] Harry Reid that we are spending all of our time on marriage -- which is important. That we're spending all of the time on flag without mentioning what we've done of the floor for six weeks. Iraq, the war on terror, making you safer... where's your coverage of that? What you do is concentrate on things that are spun to you from the other side of the aisle and that's why that message doesn't get out."

S-townMike over at Enclave has more.

Bill Frist Politics Bush Election 2006 Democrats Republicans Frist Tennessee

Bush to Resume War on Social Security

Josh Marshall reports that Bush plans to resume his effort to abolish Social Security - just as soon as the election is over.

The liberal blogger is going to track positions on Bush's War on Social Security. Marshall asks that you find out your Congressperson's position and forward the info to him.

Should any political party attempt to abolish social security, unemployment insurance, and eliminate labor laws and farm programs, you would not hear of that party again in our political history. There is a tiny splinter group, of course, that believes you can do these things. Among them are .. a few .. Texas oil millionaires, and an occasional politician or business man from other areas. Their number is negligible and they are stupid.

--President Dwight Eisenhower, Republican, 11/8/1954 (King George was 9 years old)

Politics Bush Election 2006 Eisenhower Social Security Dubya Politics Republicans

Joss Whedon: Equality Is Like Gravity

On May 15, 2006, Joss Whedon was honored by Equality Now for his contribution to gender equality in film and television. This is the speech (video) he made at the Equality Now event.

Joss Whedon is the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Whedon is currently working on a new film: Wonder Woman.

Why does Joss Whedon create strong female characters?

Watch the video and he’ll tell you.

About Equality Now:

"Equality Now works to end violence and discrimination against women and girls around the world through the mobilization of public pressure."

"There are two ways to fight a battle like ours," said Whedon, best known for creating the iconic female character series 'Buffy The Vampire Slayer', and a dedicated supporter of Equality Now. "One is to whisper in the ear of the masses, try subtly and gradually to change the gender expectations and mythic structures of our culture. That's me. The other is to step up and confront the thousands of atrocities that are taking place around the world on an immediate, one-by-one basis. That's a great deal harder, and that’s Equality Now. It's not about politics; it's about basic human decency."

Thanks to Vanessa at Feministing

Feminism Joss Whedon Gender Equality Wonder Woman Equality Now Video

Rush Limbaugh Busted for Impotence

Now we know why Rush and CNN's Daryn Kagan broke up. Guess Kagan is too feminazi for the shock jock with the dysfunctioning penis.

Just imagine the thrill for all the inmates if Rush has to do hard time for illegal possession of Viagra.

And now we know why Rush has such a bad case of angry white male syndrome.

Yes, Virginia, Rush Limbaugh has been busted for illegal possession of Viagra.

And the world can't stop laughing.

Who knew, karma had such a mean feminist streak?

WaPo:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Rush Limbaugh could see a deal with prosecutors in a long-running prescription fraud case collapse after authorities found a bottle of Viagra in his bag at Palm Beach International Airport. The prescription was not in his name.

Limbaugh was detained for more than three hours Monday at the airport after returning from a vacation in the Dominican Republic. Customs officials found the Viagra in his luggage but his name was not on the prescription, said Paul Miller, a spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

Under the deal reached last month with prosecutors, Limbaugh was not to be arrested for any infraction for 18 months in exchange for authorities deferring a charge of "doctor shopping." Prosecutors had alleged the conservative talk-show host illegally deceived multiple physicians to receive overlapping painkiller prescriptions.

Limbaugh also must submit to random drug tests and continue treatment for his admitted addiction to painkillers.

Limbaugh's doctor had prescribed the Viagra, but it was "labeled as being issued to the physician rather than Mr. Limbaugh for privacy purposes," Roy Black, Limbaugh's attorney, said in a statement.

Investigators confiscated the drugs, which treat erectile dysfunction. Limbaugh was released without being charged.

Rush Limbaugh Viagra Rightwing Radio Daryn Kagan Erectile Dysfunction

'Choose Life' Plates Coming to Tennessee

Bump and Update: Today's Southern Baptist Times reports that the state will hand over 50% of the money it collects from the sale of "Choose Life" plates "to pro-life agencies." According to the Gannett owned paper, we can expect our political opponents to begin identifying themselves on the highway by this fall.

Meanwhile over at Tennessee Right to Life (TRL) there is a celebration going on. The anti-choicers are thanking God and Reps. Glen Casada and Phillip Pinion, as well as former state Senator Jim Bryson. And they are thanking "the 1,265 Tennesseans who reserved their state authorized plate."

Brian "Womb Envy" Harris, the devout leader of TRL, urges Gov. Bredesen to hurry up and get the message on the highways, "We now call on Governor Bredesen to immediately expedite the production and distribution of this popular plate. Tennesseans have waited long enough to get this plate on the road and to generate proceeds for agencies which help women and families facing difficult pregnancies."

The TRL website and email alerts request that their followers email Governor Bredesen with that request.

Here's the text (pdf) of the US Court of Appeals opinion which ruled that: "Government can express public policy views by enlisting private volunteers to disseminate its message... " (end of update)


The Supreme Court announced today that it will not hear appeals to stop states from issuing "Choose Life" specialty plates.

Previously, the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit okayed the "Choose Life" specialty plates here in Tennessee and made George Orwell proud by ruling that the Choose Life plates constitute government speech.

So, the state of Tennessee is anti-choice and government speech is apparently protected by the First Amendment. (!)

We can expect Tennessee to begin issuing the plates any time now. A percentage of the proceeds will be used to fund an anti-choice group.

Governor Bredesen - a Democrat who is hugely popular with Republicans - allowed the rightwing bill to sit on his desk long enough to become law.

Thank him: phil.bredesen@state.tn.us

Tennessee does not have a "Pro Choice" plate in the works. Frankly, I don't know anyone in this state who would put a "Pro Choice" specialty plate on their car.

The obvious reason is that the anti-choicers have a well-documented record of violence. If there are any states that do issue "Pro Choice" plates, I'm betting they are very blue.

Via Volunteer Voters

Reproductive Rights Feminism Bush War on Women Abortion Tennessee Choose Life Specialty Plates First Amendment Church and State Pro Choice

Harold Ford Courts Ultra Right Wing

According to conservative blogger Kleinheider, Harold Ford - the Democratic candidate for Frist's senate seat - is running "very strong anti-immigration" ads on the rightwing radio shock jock Steve Gill show.

I can't recall the substance of the ad but it was extremely hardcore. Very strong on employer sanctions. Unequivocally anti-immigration.

This ad, ran on the Steve Gill show of all things, strikes me as a warning shot. Harold Ford is not only refusing to cede the center -- he refuses to cede the Right.

I have to admire this strategy. Harold Ford is striking deep into enemy territory. Ford is smart politician. He has no primary competition. There is a place for liberal and progressive voters to go in the General but Ford is confident they won't go there.

There is also a gay candidate for the Frist senate seat.

The Ford is No Liberal blog quotes Kleinheider approvingly and adds:

Kleinheider is correct: Harold Ford Jr. is cedeing no voters in this race. He is running for the United States Senate to represent everyone, not just a few. And that is the way it should be.

The leader of the DINO Ford Fanclub meant to say that Ford hopes to represent everyone except liberals, progressives, gays, feminists, greens, immigrants, African-Americans, other minorities and, uhm, Democrats.

The Ford is No Liberal blog and Kleinheider provide this mp3 link to the ad, but it's nothing but garble to my ears. If it works for you, or if you see a transcript, let me know.

Immigration Harold Ford Democrats Tennessee 2006 Frist Steve Gill DINO Republicans U.S. Senate

The Kingpin Made Me Do This

Really, the Kingpin made me do it.

Thanks to Mia Culpa for the cool sign maker.

Kos Bush David Brooks The Kingpin Politics Daily Kos Markos Moulitsas Zúniga Media Impeach Bush Tennessee

When Freedom of the Press is Treason

Rep. Peter King (R-NY) says the New York Times has committed an act of treason by reporting on the secret activities of the Bush Administration. (video)

It's treason because "we're at war."

By this reasoning, if the war against terrorism lasts forever, the U.S. Government should forever have the right to conduct its business in secret.

In other words, the First Amendment right to a free press shall be null and void for as long as we are at war against terrorism. Cause in a democracy, we should all just shut up and trust our government.

Peter King has some very peculiar ideas about democracy:

In filmaker Alexander Pelosi's documentary about the 2004 election, Rep. King was caught on camera at a White House event (before November 2004 even rolled around) saying "It's already over. The election's over. we won." When Pelosi asks him how he knows that, he responds "It's all over but the counting, and we'll take care of the counting."

Why do I think Rep. Peter King will have a dramatic change of mind when a Democrat moves into the White House in 2009?

Editor and Publisher:

WASHINGTON The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee urged the Bush administration Sunday to seek criminal charges against The New York Times for reporting on a secret financial-monitoring program used to trace terrorists.

Rep. Peter King blasted the newspaper's decision last week to report that the Treasury Department was working with the CIA to examine messages within a massive international database of money-transfer records.

"I am asking the Attorney General to begin an investigation and prosecution of The New York Times -- the reporters, the editors and the publisher," said Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y. "We're at war, and for the Times to release information about secret operations and methods is treasonous."

The conservative lawmaker called the paper "pompous, arrogant, and more concerned about a left-wing elitist agenda than it is about the security of the American people."

King said he would send a letter to Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez formally requesting a criminal investigation into the report.

Also appearing on Fox News, King said, "The time has come for the American people to realize, and the New York Times to realize, we’re at war and they can’t be on their own deciding what to declassify, what to release. If Congress wants to work on this privately, that’s one thing. But for them to, on their own, for the editor of the New York Times to say that he decides it’s in the national interest -- no one elected them to anything.

The Times argues that the Bush Administration's justification for secrecy is lame.

Meanwhile, The Decider is pissed: "The disclosure of this program is disgraceful," he barked, while "jabbing his finger for emphasis."

The Commander's rightwing followers agree, and they agree to such an extent that you can almost see the foam frothing from their mouths:

Treason - Prosecute the NY Slimes!!

And . . . .

Is it Time to Bomb the New York Times?

Politics Bush Cheney Bank Data Program Terrorism Republicans Peter King Election 2006 New York Times First Amendment Republican Corruption Swift Treason

Playing Politics With Iraq

War as Politics
by Bob Herbert

If hell didn't exist, we'd have to invent it. We'd need a place to send the public officials who are playing politics with the lives of the men and women sent off to fight George W. Bush's calamitous war in Iraq.

The administration and its allies have been mercilessly bashing Democrats who argued that the U.S. should begin developing a timetable for the withdrawal of American forces. Republicans stood up on the Senate floor last week, one after another, to chant like cultists from the Karl Rove playbook: We're tough. You're not. Cut-and-run. Nyah-nyah-nyah!

"Withdrawal is not an option," declared the Senate majority leader, Bill Frist, who sounded like an actor trying on personas that ranged from Barry Goldwater to General Patton. "Surrender," said the bellicose Mr. Frist, "is not a solution."

Any talk about bringing home the troops, in the Senate majority leader's view, was "dangerous, reckless and shameless."

But then on Sunday we learned that the president's own point man in Iraq, Gen. George Casey, had fashioned the very thing that ol' blood-and-guts Frist and his C-Span brigade had ranted against: a withdrawal plan.

Are Karl Rove and his liege lord, the bait-and-switch king, trying to have it both ways? You bet. And that ought to be a crime, because there are real lives at stake.

The first significant cut under General Casey's plan, according to an article by Michael Gordon in yesterday's Times, would occur in September. That, of course, would be perfect timing for Republicans campaigning for re-election in November. How's that for a coincidence?

As Mr. Gordon wrote:

"If executed, the plan could have considerable political significance. The first reductions would take place before this fall's Congressional elections, while even bigger cuts might come before the 2008 presidential election."

The general's proposal does not call for a complete withdrawal of American troops, and it makes clear that any withdrawals are contingent on progress in the war (which is going horribly at the moment) and improvements in the quality of the fledgling Iraqi government and its security forces.

The one thing you can be sure of is that the administration will milk as much political advantage as it can from this vague and open-ended proposal. If the election is looking ugly for the G.O.P., a certain number of troops will find themselves waking up stateside instead of in the desert in September and October.

I wonder whether Americans will ever become fed up with the loathsome politicking, the fear-mongering, the dissembling and the gruesome incompetence of this crowd. From the Bush-Rove perspective, General Casey's plan is not a serious strategic proposal. It's a straw in the political wind.

How many casualties will be enough? More than 2,500 American troops who dutifully answered President Bush's call to wage war in Iraq have already perished, and thousands more are struggling in agony with bodies that have been torn or blown apart and psyches that have been permanently wounded.

Has the war been worth their sacrifice?

How many still have to die before we reach a consensus that we've overpaid for Mr. Bush's mad adventure? Will 5,000 American deaths be enough? Ten thousand?

The killing continued unabated last week. Iraq is a sinkhole of destruction, and if Americans could see it close up, the way we saw New Orleans in the immediate aftermath of Katrina, they would be stupefied.

Americans need to understand that Mr. Bush's invasion of Iraq was a strategic blunder of the highest magnitude. It has resulted in mind-boggling levels of bloodshed, chaos and misery in Iraq, and it certainly hasn't made the U.S. any safer.

We've had enough clownish debates on the Senate floor and elsewhere. We've had enough muscle-flexing in the White House and on Capitol Hill by guys who ran and hid when they were young and their country was at war. And it's time to stop using generals and their forces under fire in the field for cheap partisan political purposes.

The question that needs to be answered, honestly and urgently (and without regard to partisan politics), is how best to extricate overstretched American troops — some of them serving their third or fourth tours — from the flaming quicksand of an unwinnable war.

Politics Bush Cheney Frist Republicans Democrats Election 2006 Iraq War Republican Corruption

Frank Rich: Bush-League

The Road From K Street to Yusufiya
By Frank Rich

AS the remains of two slaughtered American soldiers, Pfc. Thomas L. Tucker and Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, were discovered near Yusufiya, Iraq, on Tuesday, a former White House official named David Safavian was convicted in Washington on four charges of lying and obstruction of justice. The three men had something in common: all had enlisted in government service in a time of war. The similarities end there. The difference between Mr. Safavian's kind of public service and that of the soldiers says everything about the disconnect between the government that has sabotaged this war and the brave men and women who have volunteered in good faith to fight it.

Privates Tucker and Menchaca made the ultimate sacrifice. Their bodies were so mutilated that they could be identified only by DNA. Mr. Safavian, by contrast, can be readily identified by smell. His idea of wartime sacrifice overseas was to chew over government business with the Jack Abramoff gang while on a golfing junket in Scotland. But what's most indicative of Mr. Safavian's public service is not his felonies in the Abramoff-Tom DeLay axis of scandal, but his legal activities before his arrest. In his DNA you get a snapshot of the governmental philosophy that has guided the war effort both in Iraq and at home (that would be the Department of Homeland Security) and doomed it to failure.

Mr. Safavian, a former lobbyist, had a hand in federal spending, first as chief of staff of the General Services Administration and then as the White House's chief procurement officer, overseeing a kitty of some $300 billion (plus $62 billion designated for Katrina relief). He arrived to help enforce a Bush management initiative called "competitive sourcing." Simply put, this was a plan to outsource as much of government as possible by forcing federal agencies to compete with private contractors and their K Street lobbyists for huge and lucrative assignments. The initiative's objective, as the C.E.O. administration officially put it, was to deliver "high-quality services to our citizens at the lowest cost."

The result was low-quality services at high cost: the creation of a shadow government of private companies rife with both incompetence and corruption. Last week Representative Henry Waxman, the California Democrat who commissioned the first comprehensive study of Bush administration contracting, revealed that the federal procurement spending supervised for a time by Mr. Safavian had increased by $175 billion between 2000 and 2005. (Halliburton contracts alone, unsurprisingly, went up more than 600 percent.) Nearly 40 cents of every dollar in federal discretionary spending now goes to private companies.

In this favor-driven world of fat contracts awarded to the well-connected, Mr. Safavian was only an aspiring consigliere. He was not powerful enough or in government long enough to do much beyond petty reconnaissance for Mr. Abramoff and his lobbying clients. But the Bush brand of competitive sourcing, with its get-rich-quick schemes and do-little jobs for administration pals, spread like a cancer throughout the executive branch. It explains why tens of thousands of displaced victims of Katrina are still living in trailer shantytowns all these months later. It explains why New York City and Washington just lost 40 percent of their counterterrorism funds. It helps explain why American troops are more likely to be slaughtered than greeted with flowers more than three years after the American invasion of Iraq.

Read the whole thing

Frank Rich Politics Bush Cheney Haliburton Republicans Impeach Bush Terrorism Iraq War Republican Corruption

Dark Side Plans to Swiftboat John Murtha

Sean-Paul over at the Agonist is looking for volunteers on the project of investigating and exposing the Dark Side's plan to swiftboat John Murtha.

Surprise, surprise -- MurthaLied is connected to KerryLied.

John Murtha Politics Bush Cheney Swiftboating Democrats 2006 Murtha Lied

David Brooks Attacks Kos

Well, David Brooks doesn't come right out and call Kos a commie, but there's always next week's column. The rightwing columnist does make a pathetic attempt to portray Markos as the evil Lenin of the blogosphere. From the paranoid rightwing view, Markos has only to give the orders to get lefty bloggers to march in lockstep.

But Brooks' overdependence on the absurd "Kingpin" term (19 times!) makes the column read like some lame attempt at comedy.

Note to Brooks: Don't expect a call from Comedy Central.

You ain't Jon Stewart.

Judging from the number of attacks Kos and the left are receiving, it appears that an election is coming and it appears that someone is very afraid. What happens if these attacks make us stronger and more united than ever before?

But see: Welcome NY Times and Newsweek readers.

Respect Must Be Paid -- Obey the Kos
by David Brooks

They say that the great leaders are gone and politics has become the realm of the small-minded. But in the land of the Lilliputians, the Keyboard Kingpin must be accorded full respect.

The Keyboard Kingpin, a k a Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, sits at his computer, fires up his Web site, Daily Kos, and commands his followers, who come across like squadrons of rabid lambs, to unleash their venom on those who stand in the way. And in this way the Kingpin has made himself a mighty force in his own mind, and every knee shall bow.

The Kingpin's first enemy was the Democratic Party establishment, and it pleased him to see Howard Dean take it on. When the Dean campaign hired the Kingpin and his co-author and onetime business partner Jerome Armstrong as paid campaign consultants, this was an appropriate sign of respect, and the Kingpin did lay his hand of blog approval upon the Dean campaign (while disclosing the connection).

When Sherrod Brown, the Democratic Senate candidate in Ohio, hired Armstrong last year to help with his campaign, this was also a sign of respect. The Kingpin had instructed his Kossack cultists to support Brown's Democratic primary rival, Paul Hackett. But the Kingpin switched sides and backed Brown over his former anointee.

The Kingpin often directs his wrath at the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. But the centrist Democrat Mark Warner has also hired Armstrong as a consultant, and the Kingpin has graciously exempted Warner from the seventh circle of Kos hell. Warner is frequently celebrated on Daily Kos as something akin to the second coming of F.D.R.

And so it is in the realm of the Kingpin. Those who offer respect get respected.

But lo, there are doubters. Chris Suellentrop, who writes the Opinionator column on TimesSelect, posted an item on June 16 noting the strange correlation between Armstrong contracts and Kos endorsements. He further reported that the S.E.C. has filed court documents alleging that in 2000 Armstrong touted a dubious software stock on a Web site in exchange for secret payments. Armstrong was accused of building Internet buzz to make money for himself.

The Keyboard Kingpin was displeased by this publicity.

But the Sachem of the Blogosphere restrained his mighty wrath and responded with the cleverness for which he is so justly self-adored. In a private letter to hundreds of his fellow progressive bloggers, the Kingpin declared he would "go on the offensive" in a "couple of months," but in the meantime, a code of omertà was in order. "It would make my life easier if we can confine the story," he wrote. "If any of us blog on this right now, we fuel the story. Let's starve it of oxygen."

But alas! There was a Judas on the listserve, who leaked the Kingpin's missive to Jason Zengerle, who promptly posted a report on The New Republic Web site.

The Kingpin waxed Cheneyesque on the evils of leaking, and this time the squeaking fury of the Kossacks could be heard (to those capable of discerning high frequencies) far and wide. The Kingpin excommunicated The New Republic from the community of the saved. "If you still hold a subscription to that magazine, it really is time to call it quits. If you see it in a magazine rack, you might as well move it behind the National Review," he wrote on Daily Kos.

"The New Republic betrayed, once again, that it seeks to destroy the new people-powered movement for the sake of its Lieberman-worshiping neocon owners," the Kingpin charged. And so the magazine of Walter Lippmann was expunged from the community of the righteous, and its writers cast into the shadow of oblivion.

The Kingpin is not surprised by such betrayals. Sounding like Tom DeLay — who is his moral doppelgänger — Kos says that those who crash the gates and take on the establishment are bound to be attacked.

But the truth is that the new boss is little different from the old boss — only smaller. Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi and many other Democrats bow and scrape. He has managed to spread the gospel of Kossism far and wide, which is not really about ideas and philosophy. "I'm just all about winning," he has said.

And so the Kingpin has his relationships and his understandings and his networks and his compromises. In just a few short years he has achieved a level of self-importance it took those in the pre-blog political class decades to acquire.

He has challenged his enemy and become it.

via Jen at Donkey o.d.

David Brooks Politics Daily Kos Markos Moulitsas Zúniga Democrats 2006

Al Gore Gets Rock Star Welcome at Nashville Book Signing

I wish I could have made it to Gore's book signing here in Nashville. According to the store manager, it was the largest crowd they've seen since an appearance by Johnny Cash.

Roughly 800 people jammed into the bookstore to get a glimpse of the rock star!

Gore's book - An Inconvenient Truth - sold out before he arrived. It moves to #2 tomorrow, and next Sunday will move to #1 on the New York Times bestseller list.


There were actually two protesters at the book store - they were from HillaryNow!

How strange is that?

The City Paper:

“The size of this turnout is about four to five times what I had expected,” Gore told the audience. “I’m so grateful to all of you for coming out today.”

Store Manager Tony Mize said he had not seen a crowd this large since music legend Johnny Cash was on hand to sign autographed copies of his biography 10 years ago.

Mize said the store sold 1,000 copies of the book in the last three days, including 400 between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. this morning.

In fact, Mize said, he received word from the publisher, Rodale Press Inc., that they are out of copies as well.

Gore was also on the David Letterman show last night. It was pretty obvious that Dave is a big fan too.

"An Inconvenient Truth" - now playing in Nashville - will receive a special award from Humanitas. Humanitas "honors screenwriting that helps 'liberate, enrich and unify society.'"

DraftGore.Com
Draft Gore 2008

Photo credit: John Partipilo/The Tennessean

Al Gore Global Warming Politics Democrats 2008 Tennessee Nashville Inconvenient Truth Gore in 2008

'One Percent Doctrine' -- Bush the Puppet

Documenting the obvious. . .

"The One Percent Doctrine" by Ron Suskind -- New York Times book Review:

This book augments the portrait of Mr. Bush as an incurious and curiously uninformed executive that Mr. Suskind earlier set out in "The Price of Loyalty" and in a series of magazine articles on the president and key aides. In "The One Percent Doctrine," he writes that Mr. Cheney's nickname inside the C.I.A. was Edgar (as in Edgar Bergen), casting Mr. Bush in the puppet role of Charlie McCarthy, and cites one instance after another in which the president was not fully briefed (or had failed to read the basic paperwork) about a crucial situation.

During a November 2001 session with the president, Mr. Suskind recounts, a C.I.A. briefer realized that the Pentagon had not told Mr. Bush of the C.I.A.'s urgent concern that Osama bin Laden might escape from the Tora Bora area of Afghanistan (as he indeed later did) if United States reinforcements were not promptly sent in. And several months later, he says, attendees at a meeting between Mr. Bush and the Saudis discovered after the fact that an important packet laying out the Saudis' views about the Israeli-Palestinian situation had been diverted to the vice president's office and never reached the president.

Ron Suskind Politics Bush Cheney CIA Democrats Republicans Impeach Bush Terrorism Iraq War

Dowd: We Need Chloe!

by Maureen Dowd

You'd think Michael Chertoff would have something more important to do.

The hapless homeland security chief could snatch more money away from American locales most likely to be hit by Al Qaeda. Or let another wonderful city fall into a watery abyss. Or go on TV and help cable news hype the saga of the Miami gang of terrorist wannabes who look like they couldn't find the local Sears, let alone the Sears Tower.

These guys were so lame they asked an informant for boots, radios, binoculars, uniforms and cash, believing he was Al Qaeda — and that jihadists need uniforms.

Instead, the cadaverous Chertoff was gallivanting on stage yesterday morning with some fictional counterterrorism experts from "24." The producers, writer and three actors from the Fox show appeared at an event sponsored by the Heritage Foundation, at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center. Drawing on his old scripts, Mr. Reagan was a master at mixing fiction and fact, but he was a piker compared with the Bush crowd.

The audience included Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginny, who held a dinner at the Supreme Court Thursday for the Tinseltown terror brigade. Rush Limbaugh, who said that Dick Cheney and Rummy were huge fans of "24," was master of ceremonies for the panel, titled, " '24' and America's Image in Fighting Terrorism: Fact, Fiction or Does It Matter?"

It doesn't in this administration.

Better to have a panel in praise of Jack Bauer than admit we have no real Jack Bauers to find Osama and his murderous acolytes. Better to pretend that rounding up a bunch of Florida losers whose plan was more "aspirational than operational," as one F.B.I. official put it, is a great blow in the war on terror than to really turn our intelligence agencies and Homeland Security into the relentless, resourceful and fearsome organizations they are in fiction — and should be, given the billions spent on them.

Lulled by our spy thrillers and Tom Clancy novels, we used to take for granted that our intelligence agencies were just as capable as heroes on the screen. Jack Ryan, either the Harrison Ford, the Alec Baldwin or even the Ben Affleck version, could have gotten Osama single-handedly in the two hours allotted. Even though they still haven't captured the fiend behind 9/11, W. and Dick Cheney still blend fact and fiction by using 9/11 to justify their wrongheaded venture in Iraq.

As the vice president told CNN's John King this week, when he was asked about his claim that "we would be greeted as liberators" in Iraq: "It does not make any sense for people to think that somehow we can retreat behind our oceans, leave the Middle East, walk away from Iraq, and we'll be safe and secure here at home. 9/11 put the lie to that."

In a macabre metric of improvement, Dr. Death also noted that things were looking up. "There are a lot more Iraqis becoming casualties in this conflict at present because they are now in the fight," he said cheerily.

Some of W.'s closest allies have begun privately calling Vice "an absolute disaster," but when will W. realize how twisted his logic is?

In the new book "The One Percent Doctrine," Ron Suskind writes that C.I.A. officials referred to Mr. Cheney as "Edgar," as in Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, and that W. had to ask his domineering second to pull back a little at meetings and not offer him advice in crowded rooms so they could continue to pretend that Mr. Cheney was not the puppet-master.

On the homeland security set, Mr. Chertoff, flanked by the actors who play the beautiful technogeek Chloe and President Logan, seemed a little fuzzy about whether the fancy technology on "24" exists. He noted, "One thing you don't see on '24' is when the computer's crashing and having to get the I.T. people to come in to reboot and get the computer working again." Given that the F.B.I. is struggling to get a computer system that can simultaneously search for "flight" and "schools," his answer was not all that funny.

Asked about the slashing of anti-terrorism money given to New York, he replied that "we've put a lot of extra money into northern New Jersey." (Wow, I feel better already.)

Mr. Limbaugh slyly suggested the producers give Jack Murtha a cameo as K.G.B. chief. He praised "24" for giving torture a good name.

This past season, the show began exploring what happens when a Nixonian president becomes so obsessed with national security that he starts undermining the country's laws.

That's the kind of fiction you hate to see become fact.

Maureen Dowd Rove Politics Bush Terrorism Chertoff Suskind Miami 7 Sears Tower Cheney 24

Criminal Discussions

First we had reports of imaginary WMDs brought to us by the incredible Rick Santorum himself. Turns out, you have something as dangerous as Santorum's WMDs under your kitchen sink.

Now, cable news can't stop talking about the Miami Seven, a gang of black men caught with no weapons, no money and no connections to any terrorist groups. But they may be guilty of "criminal discussions."

I heard this interesting term on CNN.

My mom has decided to stop talking so much about her intense dislike for George Bush.

It's early in the story; there may be much more to it. But only a fool would take anything from the Bush Administration without a huge dose of skepticism.

In my view, it appears that Rove is busy at work on yet another one of his campaigns based on the politics of fear.

Rove Politics Bush Election 2006 Democrats Republicans Politics of Fear Miami Seven Sears Tower

Pro Choice Protest at Right-to-Life Convention in Nashville

Please consider joining the ongoing protest outside the National Right to Life Convention here in Nashville.

The Directors of the Pro Choice League are here from New York and would love to have you join them outside the Sheraton Music City Hotel.

If you would like to contact the Pro Choice League directors, who are available and would love to come and speak with any of your groups or on any of your radio shows while they are here in Nashville through Sunday, email me.

Pasted below is an excerpt from an email alert from Nashville NOW:

I wanted to let folks know that the National Right to Life Convention is being held 6/22-6/24 here in Nashville at the Sheraton Music City Hotel, 777 McGavock Pike, Nashville, 37214.

Bill and Joni Baird, Directors of the the Pro Choice League, Inc. have come from NY to protest daily at the entrance to the hotel grounds. They will be there beginning Thursday and continuing daily through Saturday from 11:30 to 1:30. I stopped and talked with them today during my lunch hour.

They would welcome any of you who would like to join their daily protest/vigil. Bill has his trademark 8-foot wooden cross inscribed "Free Women from the Cross of Religious Oppression - Keep Abortion Legal".

He said that one of his goals as he meets the attendees at the convention is to get them to recognize that they can reduce the number of abortions by supporting birth control.

Here is an article from Planned Parenthood about the Pro Choice League and Bill's years of fighting to keep abortion and birth control legal and available.

Nashville NOW Reproductive Rights Feminism Abortion Pro Choice Roe v. Wade National Right to Life Convention Pro Choice League Nashville Tennessee

Bush Caught in Another Super-Secret Snooping Program

The Bush Administration has been caught snooping into the financial records of thousands of Americans. Run by the CIA, the super-secret snooping program should convince you to give up any and all illusions that you have something called privacy.

But if you want to hold on to those illusions, do stay tuned for future revelations about surveillance cameras in your home.

The Rightwing bloggers are pissed again. As they see it, the story is not that the Bush Administration has once again been caught secretly snooping into the private business of Americans.

Rather, the story is that the New York Times Blabbermouths Strike Again!

Imagine that. A press that informs citizens about the actions of their government.

What will they think of next?

I'm not sure exactly when rightwingers first became champions of government secrecy, but I checked the 2004 Republican Party Platform and it's not in there.

They really need to put "Championing Government Secrecy" into the new improved Republican platform.

New York Times:

WASHINGTON, June 22 — Under a secret Bush administration program initiated weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks, counterterrorism officials have gained access to financial records from a vast international database and examined banking transactions involving thousands of Americans and others in the United States, according to government and industry officials.

The program, run out of the Central Intelligence Agency and overseen by the Treasury Department, "has provided us with a unique and powerful window into the operations of terrorist networks and is, without doubt, a legal and proper use of our authorities," Stuart Levey, an under secretary at the Treasury Department, said in an interview on Thursday.

The program is grounded in part on the president's emergency economic powers, Mr. Levey said, and multiple safeguards have been imposed to protect against any unwarranted searches of Americans' records.

The program, however, is a significant departure from typical practice in how the government acquires Americans' financial records. Treasury officials did not seek individual court-approved warrants or subpoenas to examine specific transactions, instead relying on broad administrative subpoenas for millions of records from the cooperative, known as Swift.

Nearly 20 current and former government officials and industry executives discussed aspects of the Swift operation with The New York Times on condition of anonymity because the program remains classified. Some of those officials expressed reservations about the program, saying that what they viewed as an urgent, temporary measure had become permanent nearly five years later without specific Congressional approval or formal authorization.

Treasury officials said Swift was exempt from American laws restricting government access to private financial records because the cooperative was considered a messaging service, not a bank or financial institution.

But at the outset of the operation, Treasury and Justice Department lawyers debated whether the program had to comply with such laws before concluding that it did not, people with knowledge of the debate said. Several outside banking experts, however, say that financial privacy laws are murky and sometimes contradictory and that the program raises difficult legal and public policy questions. . .

While the banking program is a closely held secret, administration officials have held classified briefings for some members of Congress and the Sept. 11 commission, the officials said. More lawmakers were briefed in recent weeks, after the administration learned The Times was making inquiries for this article.

Bush Spying on America NSA CIA Swift Republicans New York Times

Radical Right Slugs It Out for Frist's Senate Seat

The 3 GOP contenders for Frist's Senate Seat are: 100% Anti-Choice, 100% Anti-Gay, 100% Anti-Immigrant and 100% Anti-Tax. But never fear, the notoriously illiberal 3 are for something - all 3 are 100% Pro Ultra White Rich Christian Male.

The 3 narrow-minded white male GOP contenders for Frist's Senate seat unveiled their back-to-the-19th-century views yesterday on Steve Gill's morning shock jock talk show on WWTN-FM 99.7.

While they slugged it out with the usual rightwing venom, the 3 seem to have the same views on pretty well everything. They oppose a woman's right to choose. They oppose gay rights - all 3 support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. All 3 are firmly on the anti-immigrant bandwagon. And, of course, all 3 would give themselves tax breaks.

If this were the 1950s, there is no doubt that the 3 rightwingers would all be on record as opposed to miscegenation - "the mixing of different ethnicities or races" - or racial integration and interracial marriage.

But since it's 2006, they're not saying.

Each of the 3 paints the other 2 as evil tax-raisers. There is no evidence that any of the 3 can relate to the ordinary Americans who live and work outside of the wannabe-senators' notoriously affluent white Christian gated-suburban communities.

Bob Corker has a record of being a little less extreme than his political bedfellows, Ed Bryant and Van Hilleary. But in the heat of the slugfest, Corker appears to be quickly disavowing his shamefully moderate past. Below are the rightwingers' predictable views on a woman's right to choose.

'I'm 100% Pro Life' vs. 'I'm Endorsed by Right-to-Life' vs. 'I'd Overturn Roe v. Wade':

Bob Corker: “I am 100 percent pro life. Certainly in 1994, when I ran for the Senate, I came straight out of the construction field and I was asked about the issue, and what I said was that I was personally pro-life but I did not believe it was a government issue. I was wrong … I understand the issue more fully and in a different way. I’m in a different place spiritually. I was wrong in ’94. You can count on me to be a 100-percent pro life as a United States senator.” Corker said he would make exceptions in cases of rape or incest.

Ed Bryant: Noted that he has been endorsed by Tennessee Right to Life. His stand on abortion is consistent, he said — “The feelings of the heart that I’ve had over the years, not something I’ve done for the convenience of getting elected.”

Van Hilleary: “I would vote to overturn Roe vs. Wade.” He said he would make an exception on abortion if the life of the mother was in jeopardy.

While Corker has raised more money, a recent Zogby poll finds each of the 3 radical conservatives to be in a statistical tie with the Democratic contender from Memphis, U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Jr.

Here's a clue for our conservative Democrat, Harold Ford: Instead of telling us how conservative you are, try telling us how - or if - you are any different from these 3 equally dangerous back-to-the-19th-century extremists. (More here on: How conservative is Ford? via the Cursor.)

Think Tennessee progressives have no choice other than to suck it up and vote for our notoriously illiberal Dem? Think again - and again.

Early voting for the Aug. 3 Daddy Party primary begins on July 14.

Bill Frist Politics Harold Ford Election 2006 Democrats Republicans Abortion Reproductive Rights Homophobia Gay Marriage Bob Corker Ed Bryant Van Hilleary Tennessee