I Hate to Say I Told You So...
The Bush Administration has known well how to avoid punishment for Hatch Act violations: simply to have those who commit those violations to quit. Therefore, it should be no surprise that Mukasey has announced Goodling and her friends will avoid any charges for their violations.
"No One Could Have Predicted," Republic of Georgia Edition
Was the Administration really surprised by the Georgian incitement of Russia in South Ossetia? Or were they more surprised that Russia didn't fulfill an apparent agreement about their inevitable response?
Okay, the Cookies Were Stupid and Silly, But Plagiarizing Your Foreign Policy Too?
For the third time this campaign season, McCain has gotten caught stealing his campaign materials. This time, though, the source was particularly pathetic: McCain stole content for his speech on Georgia from Wikipedia.
John Yoo: "It Sucks to Have Judges Protecting the Constitution"
John Yoo claims the Supreme Court has never before protected the Constitution.
The Fight against Poverty Was a Lie, Too
Shortly before John Edwards confessed that he risked all the Democrats' hopes for a Democratic president next year, he shut down his anti-poverty program.
Bush's Cover-Up
Murray Waas predicts that, after the two pending IG reports on politicization of DOJ come out, it'll increasingly appear that Bush is invoking executive privilege to cover up the White House involvement in that politicization. That may be right--but I doubt that's going to create the legislative firestorm that Murray predicts.
Habbush's Freedom Fries Forgeries
Ron Suskind writes about a letter created with the help of Tahir Jalil Habbush Al-Tikriti in The Way of the World. He doesn't mention, though, that the US seems to have planted two more letters from him.
Kill Game: The Path Of Destruction From The Amerithrax Investigation
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bmaz"Have you no sense of decency, ... at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" These prophetic words were spoken on June 9, 1954 by Joseph Welch, attorney for the United States Army, at the nadir of the shameful McCarthy hearings. George Bush, being a failure as a student of history, and Dick Cheney simply disdainful of it, our government has deigned to repeat history by persecuting, oppressing and causing the death of people, many of them innocents, common citizens and bystanders, all over the globe. Was Bruce Ivins yet another one of them?
Google Maps Says Maybe, Maybe Not
The WaPo reveals that Bruce Ivins' supposed window in which he could have mailed the anthrax from Princeton was just barely long enough for him to have done so. That revelation offers more questions than it answers.
Release Ivins' Lie Detector Test
Apparently, Bruce Ivins passed a lie detector test in 2001. I realize people can sometimes game those tests. But we're talking about an emotional instable guy.
If the Questions Are So "Novel" Then How Can You Argue the Privilege Exists?!?!?
Fred Fielding, with a straight face, admits that he and the White House were just making shit up when they invented "absolute immunity."
Cheney and Your 3 Ounce Shampoo Bottles
Suskind provides details of how Bush and Cheney ordered up a torture scare just in time for elections. And as a result, you're still surviving off of hotel shampoo when you travel.
Your Expensive Commute Has Gone To Line Maliki's Pocket
Henry Waxman comes up with a stat that will definitely put the financial cost of the Iraq war in concrete terms.
China Exhibits Very Bad Judgement in Whom to Intimidate
The Chinese just detained the plane carrying the White House press corps to the Beijing Olympics. A horrible, heavy-handed tactic, no doubt. But not a good choice of targets, IMO.
Not a Question of If, But Who, Forged the Letter
While there appears to be little doubt that the December 2003 Habbash letter was a forgery, what remains unclear is precisely what confluence of bureaucratic in-fighting created the letter.
What Would Scott McClellan Say...
Boy, Karl Rove is nothing if not consistent.
Native Tears
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bmazVia the Washington Post, the verdict has been rendered at long last in the Cobell litigationA federal judge ruled Thursday that American Indian plaintiffs are entitled to $455 million in a long-running trust case, a fraction of the $47 billion they wanted. The Native Americans have been screwed once again by the white man.
Bioterrorism on a Grassy Knoll
Joe Persichini, the Assistant Director of the DC FBI Field Office, is going to be the guy who goes down in history as having claimed that Bruce Ivins was acting alone. Thing is, the evidence doesn't prove that claim.
Anthrax Timeline, Two
My anthrax timeline updated with the dates from the DOJ document dump. Boy, if I were Steven Hatfill, I'd be pissed, even with my $5 million.
"It Was Ivins, With a Flask, 200 Miles from the Site of the Crime"
So our crack DOJ wants us to believe that, by providing a lot of circumstantial evidence that places Bruce Ivins in the same room as a flask full of anthrax used in the attack, they've proven not only that Ivins was involved in the crime, but that he was the only one involved in the crime.
In other words, they haven't solved this crime, but they want us to all go away
