Billionaires for Bush

 About Nixon but still applies

"You Haven't Done Nothing"

We are amazed but not amused
By all the things you say that you'll do
Though much concerned but not involved
With decisions that are made by you

But we are sick and tired of hearing your song
Telling how you are gonna change right from wrong
'Cause if you really want to hear our views
"You haven't done nothing"!

It's not too cool to be ridiculed
But you brought this upon yourself
The world is tired of pacifiers
We want the truth and nothing else

And we are sick and tired of hearing your song
Telling how you are gonna change right from wrong
'Cause if you really want to hear our views
"You haven't done nothing"!

Jackson 5 join along with me say
Doo doo wop - hey hey hey
Doo doo wop - wow wow wow

We would not care to wake up to the nightmare
That's becoming real life
But when mislead who knows a person's mind
Can turn as cold as ice un hum

Why do you keep on making us hear your song
Telling us how you are changing right from wrong
'Cause if you really want to hear our views
"You haven't done nothing"!
Yeah

Sing it loud for your people say
Doo doo wop - um um um
Doo doo wop - stand up be counted, say

STEVIE WONDER

Senators Kerry, Levin, Stabenow, Schumer, Lautenberg, Rockefeller, Reed, Feinstein, Dorgan, Harkin, Kohl, Durbin, Carper, Salazar, Boxer, Inouye, Corzine, Wyden, Mikulski, Obama, Murray, Bayh, Johnson, Clinton, Sarbanes, and Landrieu.

DEVELOPING...

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Heat_rises_over_leak_24_Dem_senators_call_for_hear_0725.html

Posted by: monkey at July 25, 2005 02:19 PM

I am surprised but thrilled that Sen Mary Landrieu is on board...its about time!!
just called in my support to her office.

WH Press Corps, still after Scotty:

Monday's WH Briefing: McClellan Faces the '12-Hour Gap'

By E&P Staff
Published: July 25, 2005

NEW YORK Questions from reporters for Press Secretary Scott McClellan at today's White House press briefing ranged widely, from the Roberts nomination to the Supreme Court to continuing disputes with North Korea. Still, reporters kept returning to the Plame/CIA leak case, with several questions centering on an emerging angle now known as the "12-hour gap."

continue~
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000991278

The 12-hour gap is worse than you think

On Friday, Sept. 26, 2003, the CIA directed the Justice Department to launch a criminal probe into the leak. Three days later, on Monday, Sept. 29, 2003, the WH counsel's office was formally notified about the investigation. And then 12 hours after that, Gonzales told White House staff to preserve materials. In other words, the amount of time Bush aides were given to, perhaps, discard and destroy relevant evidence after the DoJ began its work wasn't just 12 hours; it was several days.

It's not as if the Gonzales notification — on the morning of Tuesday, Sept. 30, 2003 — told Rove & Co. something new. MSNBC told the world about the investigation that Friday night. This means Rove & Co. learned on Friday night that they were being investigated, but weren't formally told to start securing relevant materials until Tuesday morning. In case the MSNBC report wasn't clear enough, a front-page article was published in the Washington Post about the Justice Department's criminal investigation a full 48 hours before WH staffers were told to preserve potentially incriminating evidence.

There are new questions about when Gonzales told WH Chief of Staff Andy Card about the investigation, but this seems largely irrelevant. Card and the rest of the Bush gang didn't need word from the WH counsel's office on Sept. 29, 2003, to know that an investigation was underway; they, like the rest of us, learned about the probe days before hand.

The Bush gang didn't have 12 hours to cover their tracks — they had a whole weekend.

It's also important to note that Rich's discussion of the 12-hour gap, while important, isn't new. Senate Dems tried to raise hell about this two years ago, but no one — in Congress, the administration, or in the media — listened.
continue~
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/4796.html

from the CNN archives:::
October 9, 2003

Dems blast White House on leak probe
Senators reiterate call for special prosecutor to investigate

October 9, 2003
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Four leading Democratic senators accused the White House on Thursday of bungling a probe into the leak of an undercover CIA officer's name in what the outed operative's husband calls an attempt at political intimidation.

In a letter to President Bush, Minority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and three others said the White House has made "at least five serious missteps" in the leak probe so far.

The biggest is leaving Attorney General John Ashcroft in charge of the probe rather than naming a special prosecutor to handle it, as they have called for previously, they said.

"We are at risk of seeing this investigation so compromised that those responsible for this national security breach will never be identified and prosecuted," the senators wrote.

The letter was signed by Sens. Joseph Biden of Delaware, ranking Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Carl Levin of Michigan, ranking Democrat on the Armed Services Committee; and Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, one of the first lawmakers to call for an investigation of the leak.
snip~
White House counsel Alberto Gonzales will review staffers' records of any contacts related to the matter before turning them over to investigators.

The White House calls the procedure standard, but some Democrats suggest it would allow Gonzales to keep track of damaging information or the focus of the investigation.

Other missteps the senators cited in their letter Thursday include:

• Failing to order employees to preserve evidence until three days after the Justice Department probe began.

• Not delivering that order to all staff until the following day.

• Waiting another day to extend that order to the Pentagon and the State Department.

In addition, the senators wrote, White House press secretary Scott McClellan's declaration that three senior officials were not responsible for the leak "has now put the Justice Department in the position of having to determine not only what happened, but also whether to contradict the publicly stated position of the White House."

McClellan said Tuesday he had questioned White House political adviser Karl Rove, National Security Council aide Elliot Abrams and Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff about the leak and was told "they were not involved."

continue~
http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/10/09/leak.main/

Video Special: Mike Farrell | Dehumanizing America
http://www.truthout.org/multimedia.htm

This is part two of a five-part series from the Los Angeles teach-in on the Downing Street Memo.

Today, Mike Farrell connects the dehumanizing of Americans to the use of the death penalty and torture.

Tomorrow, Iraq Veterans Against the War co-founder Tim Goodrich will describe the increased use of bombings in Iraq in 2002 before Bush went to the UN or Congress.

~New headline from the Wash Post today:::

What Did the President Know?

By Dan Froomkin
Monday, July 25, 2005;

Now that special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald is said to have expanded his investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's identity to encompass a possible White House cover-up, what the president and the vice president knew would appear to be much more relevant.

Fitzgerald interviewed both President Bush and Vice President Cheney more than a year ago, at what seemed at the time like the tail end of his investigation into the leak of CIA agent Valerie Plame's identity.

Bush and Cheney were not placed under oath -- the reasoning apparently being that they had no direct involvement in the potential criminal activity under investigation: the leak itself. We don't know much about either interview, beyond the fact that Bush had his personal attorney at his side.

But now Fitzgerald's investigation appears to have turned its focus to discrepancies in the testimony of White House senior adviser Karl Rove and vice presidential chief of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. Fitzgerald may be trying to determine whether evidence exists to bring perjury or obstruction of justice charges.

And that raises the issue of what -- if anything -- Rove and Libby told Bush and Cheney about their roles.

So does that mean Fitzgerald might call Bush and Cheney to testify before the grand jury -- under oath? Might he even have done so already? We have no idea, of course, because the White House isn't saying anything at all about the investigation anymore.

Either way, the CIA leak story is taking on more and more of the trappings of the classic Washington political scandal -- the saving grace for Bush being that his party controls Congress, and that thus far, Republicans have closed ranks behind him.

But get ready for more and more talk about the parallels between this story and the Clinton intern scandal -- and of course, Watergate.

We're already hearing some of the prototypical questions being raised. Here's former presidential adviser David Gergen, on ABC's "This Week" yesterday: "What did the president know and when did he know it?"

continue~
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

and here's the video link to David Gergen asking his question on ABC:
GERGEN: 'What did the President know and when did he know it?'
Even David Gergen asks 'The Question' on ABC's This Week!
'I think this is a big, serious story,' says the advisor to three Republican Presidents (including Nixon)
continue~
http://www.bradblog.com/archives/00001624.htm

We certainly cannot attribute Ms. Roberts right wing activism with her husband but Santorum is once again practicing smash mouth in your face politics regarding an issue most progressives take most seriously. This is what Pa better be ready for. Santorum is not only anti abortion but he is a part of their most radical agenda promoted by Randal Terry and Operation Rescue.

Please help me in my efforts next year to defeat this monster and send his bags packing.

Santorum: Mrs. Roberts' work not relevant
The Associated Press
Last Updated 5:46 am PDT Monday, July 25, 2005
WASHINGTON (AP) - The fact that Supreme Court nominee John Roberts' wife does free legal work for an anti-abortion group should not be relevant to his confirmation hearing, a Senate Republican leader said Monday.
Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, chairman of the Senate Republican Conference, said Jane Roberts' work for Feminists for Life should have no influence on her husband's decisions as a justice. Santorum is one of the Senate's most outspoken abortion opponents.

"My wife has opinions on things that may or may conform with mine and I think most couples are in that situation," Santorum said on NBC's "Today" show. "I don't think your wife's activities should have any impact on what a judge is going to do. I certainly would think that he would tell you they don't, nor should they. It's the facts of a case and the law of a case."

http://democrats.senate.gov/leak.html

Santorum: Mrs. Roberts' work not relevant

So, it begs the question:
If Mrs. Roberts work is not relevant to her husband, why did the GOP slimers go after Mrs. Wilson's work, to strike back at her husband?????
Inquiring mind wants to know.

Can someone please explain to me how releasing documents linking Roberts to the Federalist Society violates lawyer/client privilege? That is truly bizarre and does not relate to anything I have ever read in legal ethics case law or guidelines, either in state or federal ethics rules.
And how in the world could Roberts be on the Federalist Steering Committee and not be a member? Do these folks think we are stupid?

Several news organizations, including The Associated Press, reported immediately after his nomination that Roberts had been a member of the Federalist Society. The AP and others printed corrections after the White House said later that Roberts doesn't recall ever belonging to the group.

The Washington Post reported Monday that it had obtained from a liberal group a 1997-98 Federalist Society leadership directory listing Roberts, then a partner in a private law firm, as being a steering committee member in the group's Washington chapter.

Roberts has acknowledged participating in Federal Society events and giving speeches for the organization.

But on Monday, presidential press secretary Scott McClellan said, "He doesn't recall ever paying dues or being a member."

Roberts was on Capitol Hill on Monday for a fourth day of private meetings with senators who will sit in judgment of his nomination as Democrats began seeking documents he may have authored while working for two Republican presidents.

Roberts worked in the Reagan White House counsel's office from 1982-1986. He also was principal deputy solicitor general, a political appointment in the administration of the first President Bush.

Some records already are available to the public at the presidential libraries of Ronald Reagan, in Simi Valley, Calif., and George H.W. Bush, in College Station, Texas. Others have yet to be cleared for security and personal privacy by archivists and, under law, by representatives of the former administrations and the current president.

The Senate Judiciary Committee has yet to ask for such material for its hearings. But some Democrats, including Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts, have urged the White House to release "in their entirety" any documents written by Roberts.

Citing privacy and precedent, Fred D. Thompson, the former Tennessee senator guiding Roberts through the process on behalf of the White House, said Sunday the Bush administration does not intend to release everything.

Material that would come under attorney-client privilege would be withheld, Thompson said, calling it a principle followed by previous presidents of both political parties.

Defarge, Oncall, Ira, and all--our least favorite junior senator from Pa. is the guest on the Daily Show this evening. Since I didn't mention him by name, I haven't outed him, right? RIGHT?

I'm trying to find information about the false Niger documents.... I know that some docs were "stolen" from the Italian embassy... who stole them? That the signature was ten years old.... why? Where are the other stolen documents? What were forged documents doing in existence?

I feel as though this is important... I'm beginning to suspect that this administration was involved in the floating of these documents to the intelligence community....

Anyone know where I can get some answers to my questions? Can't seem to find any.
Thanks.

Chuck in Houston for Amy:

If you can find the name of the lady Italian Journalist involved, you might could google the name. I'm waiting on a phone call -- in the meantime I'll see what I can come up with and post below.

Chuck in Houston for Ira:

I can't explain how client privilege relates to POTUS counsel with the exception of classified material. Can anyone explain to me how a CIA operative's identity could be leaked without someone in the executive branch having broken a law or at least a serious internal procedure?

Chuck in Houston

Amy--If only I had info on the Niger forgaries! Here are some links to get you started:

http://www.dkosopedia.com/index.php/Niger_uranium

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_07_11.php#003169

What I came here for was to link to this intriguing inside story about Valerie and Joe Wilson, from a neighbor:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/opinion/editorials/2005-07-24-wilson-neighbor_x.htm

Excerpt:
"I have another view from my window, of a neighbor who is a working, devoted mother of 5-year-old twins, a volunteer for charities, a woman active in her church, and a caring person. Soft-spoken, self-effacing and very private, Valerie is very easy to label "the lovely woman next door."

"Furthermore, this little scheme offered a bonus: Since Tenet and McLaughlin had bought into the BND's information, if it all went haywire responsibility could be laid to rest at the feet of the CIA. Not the OSP, not the INC, not the BND, not Mossad, not the neocon ideologues.

"Once again, we see use of a bold tactic: The use of a foreign spy shop as a go-between, in order to legitimise and circulate bogus (but ideologically useful) data within the U.S. intelligence community.

"If you feed Curveball's shoddy information through German intelligence, with no CIA experts allowed to see him, and ignore the German protestations that he could not be trusted, you can have the lies fed into the American system without any caveats about reliability. The added bonus is that by using the CIA to convey the information, you can then blame the CIA when trouble erupts.

"Whoever was behind this had to have had a long history of involvement in American government and involvement with multiple foreign intelligence agencies. There aren't that many people with that kind of experience. Who was:
1) a neocon in favor of an attack on Iraq; with 2) connections to Feith's Office of Special Plans; and with
3) ties to Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress; and with
4) long-standing documented relationships with foreign intelligence agencies, particularly SISME?"

-----------
From infowars.com, don't want to post a link as I don't know much about the site. But I thought the points made were interesting. What a tangled web....
The person speaking is Reagan's CIA head, Vincent Cannistaro.

Thanks Chuck and Beth. What I'm finding over and over is one name, Michael Ledeen. And lots of suggestion that the documents were actually manufactured here in the US....

So I'm not alone in my suspicion. Heck, even Reagan's CIA head suspects these guys.

I post this for interest only, won't post the link as again I don't know the site reputation.... But this guy whose name is linked to the forged documents all over the internet is an advisor to - you guessed it, Karl Rove.

Everything you need to know about Michael Ledeen

"Would you be surprised to find that a man who was deeply involved in the Iran-Contra scandal during the Reagan Administration, a man who is the darling of the Bush White House and is an adviser to Karl Rove, a man who loves Machiavelli and studies him, a neo-conservative who has close ties to one of America’s leading “Christian” Dominionists—Pat Robertson, and a man who called Pearl Harbor “lucky” and a providentially inspired event— may be the man who is behind the forging of the Niger documents that convinced America to launch a preemptive strike against Iraq?

snip

"Who is Michael Ledeen? Or perhaps more importantly, what does he believe? Here are just a few quotes from his book, Machiavelli on Modern Leadership: Why Machiavelli’s Iron Rules Are as Timely and Important Today as Five Centuries Ago. (Truman Talley Books (St. Martin’s Press), 1999.) Ledeen wrote:

snip

“Moses created a new state and a new religion, which makes him one of the most revolutionary leaders of all time…The execution of the sinners was necessary to confirm Moses’ authority.” (pp. 102-103)

“The winning formula is threefold: good laws, good arms, good religion. We are back to Moses.” (p. 111)

“Good religion teaches men that politics is the most important enterprise in the eyes of God. Like Moses, Machiavelli wants the law of his state to be seen, and therefore obeyed, as divinely ordered. The combination of fear of God and fear of punishment—duly carried out with good arms—provides the necessary discipline for good government.”(pp. 117-118)

“American evangelical Christianity is the sort of ‘good religion’ Machiavelli calls for. The evangelicals do not quietly accept their destiny, believing instead they are called upon to fight corruption and reestablish virtue.” (p. 159)

-------------------------
And it gets worse....

Chuck in Houston for Amy:

The document was produced to someone by the Italian magazine, Panorama.

It got to Cheney sometime before February, 2002, during which the morning intelligence briefing for Cheney included a Defense Intelligence Agency report suggesting that Niger had agreed to sell 500 tons a year of yellowcake uranium to Iraq.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/24/politics/politicsspecial1/24leak.html

On March 7, 2003, the International Atomic Energy Agency announced that the Niger documents were "not authentic." The following day, the State Department concurred that they were forgeries. (Sidney Blumenthal, Salon, July 14, 2005.)

Chuck in Houston

“Paradoxically, preserving liberty may require the rule of a single leader—a dictator—willing to use those dreaded ‘extraordinary measures, which few know how, or are willing, to employ.’ (p. 173)

This quote from Michael Ledeen's book (named in my previous post) might explain the thinking behind this administration's efforts to concentrate power in the executive branch....

I"m starting to think that maybe these guys are dangerous.... I'm starting to have a little smympathy for the WH press corpse....

Scary, scary stuff.

Okay, last post on the subject, from a site called yurikareport:

"It would be foolish for America’s political strategists and congressional leaders to ignore Michael Ledeen and his interpretation of Machiavelli. Mr. Ledeen speaks from the cutting edge of a group of men and women who desire nothing more than to reconstruct America in their own image. This nation is in grave danger. Ledeen belongs to a group of men, including Harry Jaffa, Pat Robertson, Willmoore Kendall to Allan Bloom, who, according to Shadia Drury, scholar and author of Leo Strauss and the American Right, share “the view that America is too liberal and pluralistic and that what it needs is a single orthodoxy that governs the public and private lives of its citizens.”[1]

The belief in a single voice that governs the public should cause all Americans to understand these men want to convert this nation to a permanent dictatorship. Their inspirer was Leo Strauss, a professor who taught Machiavellian methods to many of them at the University of Chicago. ***In fact, Paul Wolfovitz earned his doctorate under Strauss and many of the neo-cons in the White House studied under him.*** Strauss believed every society needs a “single public orthodoxy.” As Drury put it, “a set of ideas that defines what is true and false, right and wrong, noble and base.” Strauss believed that the role of religion was indispensable to the political success of a nation. For a political society had to hold together and act as a unit in lock step with the leader. Strauss believed that religion was the means to inculcate the desired ideas into the minds of the masses. He didn’t care what religion—just as long as it was a religion that could link itself to the political order.

Michael Ledeen singled out the evangelicals as most like the “Machiavellian” model described by Strauss. Evangelicals, while decrying the aberrant power of a Jim Jones over his congregation, have always had little Jim Joneses telling them what to do and how to live from their pulpits all over America. Evangelicals thirst for power, submit to power, and now are harnessed to a power that is driving them toward the completion of the take over of the USA. Our only hope is to wake up the churches and call them to repentance.

And the irony is, as Ledeen points out, if we will stand up and attack the immorality and corruption within the Republican Party, which has reached the lowest depths in the history of our nation, and which the GOP supports, the bedraggled verbally abused Democrats will sit up and notice at long last that they are recognized as the moral leaders they have always been. What Leo Strauss and Michael Ledeen and the other dominionists really hate, is the loving Christian ethics that established FDR's New Deal. You see, the great success of Christian liberalism is that it threatens their greed and that’s what the fight is all about."

See, I told you it gets worse....

Amy:

Try google or yahoo search on: Panorama Italy Uranium

Chuck in Houston

Okay, I found something that ties it all up in a nice package, and I can post the link!

http://dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/7/22/7563/12283

"We find ourselves beginning our journey in Paris with Manucher Ghorbanifar.

Back in 1984, Michael Ledeen put forward the idea of using Manucher Ghorbanifar to make illegal arms sales to Iran."

It's a fascinating read, and as Ambassador Wilson suggests, we need to look beyond the outing of his wife into the web of lies that got America into war on false pretenses. This is as good a place to start as any.

Chuck in Houston for Amy:

Corriere della Sera, a leading Italian daily, had an article, July 19, 2003, where Elisabetta Burba, Panorama journalist, talked about how she got the documents.

Chuck in Houston

Chuck, what I'm really trying to discover is who forged the documents.

I think I now know. I think it's no coincidence that Rove's office has long-standing ties to the players involved in the floating of the false intelligence.

Chuck in Houston for Amy:

The guy that passed Burba the docs was "a security consultant." She then passed them along to the US Embassy.

http://italy.indymedia.org/print.php?id=595061

Read this article -- it's interesting because these folks seem to be the ones that were working on this story for 60 Minutes before it got bumped by the TANG thing.

"What’s long been known about the Niger documents is that an Italian ‘security consultant’ tried to sell them to an Italian journalist named Elisabetta Burba. Burba’s editor at Panorama, in turn, instructed her to take them to the US Embassy in Rome. That is how they came into the hands of the American government"

"The ‘security consultant’ is a small-time information peddler who buys and sells information in the netherworld of diplomatic, intelligence and media circles in Rome. His clients include foreign intelligence services and also the Italian media. He is himself a former member of SISMI.

He received the forged documents from a current SISMI officer who works in the division specializing in weapons proliferation.

We know the identity of both men. Both are in their early 60s. The identity of the ‘security consultant’ we’ve agreed not to disclose. We will publish the identity of the SISMI officer in the upcoming article."

I guess the "upcoming article" would be something inthe Washington Monthly by Laura Rozen and Josh Marshall sometime in the second half of 2004.

Actually, this is quite an informative article, and gets even more interesting after this. Off to find the "Washington Monthly," whatever that is (I seem to remember it advertised on Josh's web log page).

See the London Times for Sunday, Aug. 01, 2004.

See Financial Times June, 2002?
Chuck in Houston

Thanks, Chuck. I'll check it out.
Burba's editor at Panorama, by the way, was a close associate of Ledeen.

The Dailykos piece outlines the American players in all this. The story starts long before the false docs were dropped in Burba's lap....

Man, these guys have been planning this for a decade.

Amy:

I doubt that it will be possible to establish the forger without a serious and professional investigation, possible even an investigation with access to foreign security and US subpoena power. Even to speculate, you'd have to first trace-back the custody of the document as far back as a reliable source will permit.

Chuck in Houston

Chuck, the indymedia link is Josh Marshall.... he's talking about his work on the Rather story, the one that was pre-empted by that OTHER set of forged documents....

the forged documents that neocons knew IMMEDIATELY were forged....

scratches head....

So THIS is why Rove had to release a second set of forged documents - the first set was about to be linked to his office!!

I"m feeling very short of breath....

Posted by: Chuck at July 25, 2005 08:17 PM

Agreed. However, having a theory gives one a place to start. If one doesn't have an idea of who to talk to first, one never starts asking questions.

What is clear to me now is that I'm not the only one who has had these questions floating around in my mind.

Amy...keep connecting the dots.

Hillary Clinton was ridiculed for the "vast right wing Conspiracy", there may have been a better choice of words, but she was and is Correct.

There is a long extablished relationship between Extreme right wing theocratic groups, Extreme right wing Political and right wing military and petroleum interests.
This Bush white house brought them all under one roof. Daddy Bush was strong enough to control them, junior bush cannot. He is at their beck and call.

These people violated the Constitution in reagans white house (Contra hearings, selling Iran restricted Missiles, selling Saddam restricted Lethal Gas, etc, etc) many times. Daddy bush kicked them out of the White house in his term, Clinton came under their crosshairs and was hounded until the lewinsky affair.
Junior Bush is elected with their money and grassroots, and our government belongs to them today.

Get Angry. Get Involved. Get them out.

Chuck in Houston for Amy:

Checkout this one while you are at it:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0410.marshallrozen.html

Chuck in Houston

Daddy bush kicked them out of the White house in his term, Clinton came under their crosshairs and was hounded until the lewinsky affair.
Junior Bush is elected with their money and grassroots, and our government belongs to them today.
Posted by: Toolmaker at July 25, 2005 08:30 PM

This is it in a nutshell. This is how we ended up in Iraq.

I'm angry all right.

Toolmaker, Amy

I just finished reading a long New Yorker article on Douglas Feith. Creepy. Office of Special Plans. Don't hear much about him, Steven Hadley or Richard Perle but without them, we wouldn't be in Iraq.

I wonder when Berlusconi became PM of Italy?

Chuck in Houston

Another Billionnaire for Bush:

Silvio Berlusconi: "leader of the Forza Italia political movement, a party which was established for his entry into politics.

"Berlusconi served as Prime Minister for a short term in 1994. In 2001 he was appointed to the office again; the second Berlusconi government is the longest-lasting in Italy's republican history. On April 20, 2005 Berlusconi tendered the resignation of his government after recent losses in regional elections and internal problems in his coalition, but on April 23, 2005 he formed a new government without many changes.

"He is also the owner and founder of an Italian media empire. According to Forbes Magazine, Silvio Berlusconi is Italy's richest person, with personal assets worth in excess of US$10 billion in 2004, at the time making him the world's 30th richest person."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlusconi

Chuck in Houston

Radiohead had "Hail to the Thief"

Will Rolling Stones release "Neocon"?

*Rolling Stones Announce New Record (xfm.co.uk)
legendary rockers The Rolling Stones have confirmed they’ll release their first studio album since 1997 on September 5 entitled ‘Neo-Con’.

The title is believed to be a critical reference to George W Bush, questioning the political ambitions of the US President’s war ethics. Many fans were unsure that the usually politically correct Stones would even keep the track of the same name on the record, let alone use the title for the record. The lyrics are reported not to flatter National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.

Berlusconi

http://www.redefeatbush.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=132

NMP...

Our children will read a group of a hundred people ( the Gang) that operated a Shadow Government during the Reagan administration, and then again during Junior Bush's administration.
This group entertained the Bin Laden group when it suited them, the Taliban, Al Queda, and other groups the gang betrayed when money and power came into the picture.

Oil, Gas, weaponry and naked embezzlement ( the BCCI bank fraud) is their trade of choice. Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Lewis Libby, John Bolton, Elliot Abrams, Robert Kagan, Michael Ledeen, William Kristol, Frank Gaffney, Jr,...it’s a long list of people who believe they are above the law and operate as such.
I just hope we are able to look our children in the eye when the story is told.

Chuck, Amy, and NMP,

This all reads like a thriller novel. I suspect that Rove got caught in his own dirty trick. He was intimately involved in the construction of phony documents in order to mislead the country into war. After Ambassador Wilson called Bush on the decption following the State of the Union Speech, Rove was angry and unable to accept that his plan was exposed. Because of that, he slipped into Treasonous behavior which is catching up with him.

It's all knitting together - their web of lies - as each lie is exposed it brings us closer to realizing the truth.

The good news is theory is no substitute for a grasp of reality, and the neocon theories are failing across the board. These nuts are going to get thrown out of office based on their own incompetence.

The only question is how much damage they'll get to do to American between now and '08.

Dubya - doing for America what he did for Harken and Arbusto.

Reality astonishes theory.

(heard yesterday on Car Talk, NPR)

from the New Yorker article on Douglas Feith:

"History may one day judge the removal of Saddam Hussein as the spark that set off a democratic revolution across the Muslim world. But if Iraq disintegrates, historians will deal harshly with the President and his tactitions, the men most dirctly resonsible for taking a noble idea -- the defeat of a tyrant and the introduction of liberty -- and letting it fail.

Feith, like his superiors in the Pentagon and the White House, is not given to public doubt, but in our last conversation he was uncharacteristically humble. "When I was in Vienna," Feith said, "I went to the Ringstrasse, these enormous buildings, and they were built for the ages -- enormous, imperially scaled buildings. They were built to last. But thse people were absolutely on the verge of destruction of their empire, and they didn't see it. And that was a humbling experience. What I don't believe in, I suppose, is certainty."
----
And when I myself was travelling in Brussels, I saw and photographed a piece of graffiti - it said, "America, you f----d up!" (written inside a red star).

Posted by: not my president at July 25, 2005 08:36 PM

Yes, I've been reading some about them, too....

Unbelievable. These guys are unbelievable. They're nuts. They're insane.

Folks, this is getting mighty interesting. Let's keep putting the pieces together.

Chuck in Houston for Oncall:

It is quite a story. I am always cautious about these sorts of things. Things like that happen, but the people involved know how to play journalists like violins. It's part of whatthey do fora living. Just the one fact stands out for me: there has never been a public US investigation of this forgery. I found that astounding at the time and I still find it astounding. Likewise, I find it remarkable that there was never an investigation of the TANG forgeries. I mean, here we have laws being broken -- forging I mean -- on two occasions that may have effected a decision to go to war and the election of a president. I would think someone in law enforcement somewhere should be looking into these things.

Chuck in Houston

As I recall the sequence of events, the forged documents allegedly referring to yellow-cake uranium and Niger first turned up in Italy, got to England, then to America and into the State of the Union address (against the better judgement of those who already knew the documents were forgeries, but it was good warmongering rhetoric for pResiNitwit)....

Wasn't there something on the old Kerry blog about this? I don't have any links to back up my memory, but I remember reading about it a long time ago.....

Chuck
They won't investigate themselves.

http://news.yahoo.com/fc/us/supreme_court
White House Warns Dems on Roberts Papers
AP
WASHINGTON - The White House on Monday warned Democrats not to make extensive requests for Supreme Court nominee John Roberts' legal writings in previous Republican administrations, saying many such documents are "out of bounds." Separately, the Supreme Court nominee waved off questions about whether he was a member of a conservative legal organization.

{{{ "Warns?!?!?" }}}

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050725/ap_on_go_su_co/federalist_society_1
Federalist Society Has Close Gov't Ties

WASHINGTON - The Federalist Society has close ties to the Bush administration and top legal leaders, including two Supreme Court justices.
The group, formally called the Federalist Society for Law and Public Policy Studies, was founded in 1982 as a debating society by students who believed professors at the top law schools were too liberal. Early advisers were Interior Secretary Gale Norton and Justice Antonin Scalia, a former law professor at the University of Chicago.

Spencer Abraham, the Bush administration's former energy secretary, was a founder of the Harvard Law School chapter.

The group is named after the "Federalist Papers," in which James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and John Jay argued for ratification of the Constitution.

Conservatives and libertarians mainly make up the 25,000 members. The group does not take positions on issues, but members have been promoting Bush's Supreme Court nominee, John Roberts.

Scalia regularly speaks and teaches at Federalist Society events. Justice Clarence Thomas, White House chief of staff Andy Card, former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former Solicitor General Theodore Olson have headlined meetings.

Fred D. Thompson, the former Tennessee senator guiding Roberts through the confirmation process, has been a Federalist Society speaker, as has Roberts.

Emily Gertz | Toadus Operandi
http://www.truthout.org/issues_05/072505EB.shtml
John G. Roberts' enviro record not so green, but also not provoking a lot of protest. Not only are the far-right Family Research Council and the biz-friendly U.S. Chamber of Commerce raving about President Bush's nominee for the Supreme Court, but plenty of liberals have glowing words for John G. Roberts Jr. too. There's no joy to be found in environmental-activist circles, however, where the nomination has been greeted with cautious but real anxiety.

NonnyO,
There was a lot about this at the time, including on the Kerry Blog. Joe Wilson actually did a live chat, and he talked about all of this. I remember he said/write that the outing of his wife was the least of it--that we would discover much more involvement.

Well, he was right, it would appear!

Norman Solomon | "Wagging the Puppy" -- And Unleashing the Deadly Dogs of War
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072505D.shtml
Changing the subject is a key aspect of political damage control ... No one is in a better position to shift the country's media focus than the president. And no technique has been more successful than military action.
Excerpt:
This "sustained engagement" - the supposed "war on terrorism" - has become the ultimate propaganda weapon and open-ended cashier's check for an administration that will do whatever it can to retain power. Already, vast amounts of taxpayer money have been squandered and countless lives have been destroyed. Sooner rather than later, we must void this blank check.

Bob Herbert | What Bush Doesn't Know
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0725-21.htm
Excerpt:
There is still no indication that the Bush administration recognizes the utter folly of its war in Iraq, which has been like a constant spray of gasoline on the fire of global terrorism. What was required in the aftermath of Sept. 11 was an intense, laserlike focus by America and its allies on Al Qaeda-type terrorism.

Instead, the Bush crowd saw its long dreamed of opportunity to impose its will on Iraq, which had nothing to do with the great tragedy of Sept. 11. Many thousands have paid a fearful price for that bit of ideological madness.

Mike Whitney: Decoding Tom Friedman :
The source of the problem is not in the heart of Islam but in the sanctuaries of the American plutocracy, where fantasists who never held a rifle dreamt of leading the nation to war. Their muddled vision has now produced the greatest wave of terror the world has ever seen.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9567.htm

Rumsfeld in Kyrgyzstan to discuss future of US military presence
US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld flew to Kyrgyzstan to discuss the US military presence here with its newly elected leaders amid shifting allegiances that have jeopardized US access to air bases in the region.
http://snipurl.com/ghsx

Did I hear right? Did Bush appoint Bolton?

Well, he was right, it would appear!

Posted by: Karen at July 25, 2005 09:58 PM

Yes, he was more than right. I've a feeling Wilson knows even more than he's already told us... All he's done so far is tell us the truth about the administration's lies involving Niger and the forged documents.

Is it election day '08 yet? I want this administration out of office and replaced by a Dem who will release all the sealed documents we suspect are there and the ones we don't even know about yet. Untangling this nest of pit vipers is going to be nasty, and many will be bitten by them.... We may need a herpetologist and a doctor with anti-venom medication standing by....

He was planning to, acc/Reuters couple hrs ago.

Did I hear right? Did Bush appoint Bolton?

Posted by: Amy at July 25, 2005 10:03 PM

Not yet, Amy. But it's been written about today:

White House May Sidestep Democrats on Bolton
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072505S.shtml
Frustrated by Senate Democrats, the White House hinted Monday that President Bush may act soon to sidestep Congress and install embattled nominee John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations on a temporary basis.

Lawyer’s Painting Met With Calls for Removal
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0725-03.htm
{{{ Photo of "controversial" painting, plus story. IMHO, the painting isn't controversial.... it's accurate! }}}

Jamie Court | Why are the Dems Caving in on Cox?
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0725-22.htm

What Did Bush and Cheney Know?
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/072505Q.shtml
Now that special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald is said to have expanded his investigation into the leak of a CIA agent's identity to encompass a possible White House cover-up, what the President and the Vice President knew would appear to be much more relevant.
Excerpt:
Thom Shanker writes in the New York Times: "The Bush administration's rallying call that America is a nation at war is increasingly ringing hollow to men and women in uniform, who argue in frustration that America is not a nation at war, but a nation with only its military at war."

{{{ ABC has been airing a LOT of shows having to do with Christianity recently. This is not the transcript of a segment about the Christian Exodus people, but toward the end of the nightly news this evening they did do a segment on this group. They are even more extreme than the extreme right, and they are willing to secede from the union to have a theocracy based on their interpretation of the Bible.... }}}

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96695&page=1
S. Carolina Targeted for Christian State
South Carolina Could Be Destination for Christian Exodus

A snippet from today's "Extremely White House Dog & Phony Show"...

Q. I know that none of you are speaking about this because it's an ongoing investigation. Can you explain why Alberto Gonzales would go on TV yesterday and do that, and talk about it?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, what he said was already said from this podium back in October of 2003, and I don't think he got into commenting in any substantive way on the discussion. But the President has said that we will be glad to talk about this once the investigation has come to a conclusion, but not until then. And there have certainly been preferences expressed to the White House that we not get into discussing it while it is ongoing.

P.S. Anytime Scotty opens any answer with something like "Well, what he said was already said from this podium back in October of 2003", I suggest the press answer back with something like, "Yes Scott, but we now know that you don't always tell the truth from that podium, so can you just answer the question now as truthfully as possible and save the American people the grief of having to drag it out of you?"

Now THAT'S the kind of reality television I'm lookin' for!

The Winkest Link

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96695&page=1
S. Carolina Targeted for Christian State
South Carolina Could Be Destination for Christian Exodus

"Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive"--Sir Walter Scott

Unweaving Bush's web of lies will take a lot of doing, preferably by a special prosecutor with subpoena power, or even better, by a House impeachment committee (dare we dream?)

The posts on this thread are part of that unweaving work--recovering the history of the connections between all the players, which may require going back many decades (in the case of the Bush dynasty, for example) in order to pick up the beginning of a thread.

What we are discovering is how the world really works, of the shifting coalitions of people grasping for power, people who are at the very least willing to subvert the Constitution when it suits their purposes (take Reagan and Iran/Contra), or to lie their way into a war resulting in the deaths of more than 100,000 noncombatants in Iraq and thousands of their own countrymen killed or horribly maimed.

On the evidence, there is nothing that these people will not do. Why are they compiling massive databases on the American Civil Liberties Union and Greenpeace? Could they really be arguing that these organizations are worth wasting the time of even a single person on given the intelligence challenge that stopping terrorists poses? Might they see such organizations as dangerous not as terrorist threats, but as exposers of truth threats?

It is easy to slip into ever deepening levels of conspiracy theories as you learn more about how this small group of men has bent the country's politics to their dishonorable and anti-democratic ends over the last several decades.

The existence of a huge intelligence apparatus makes it inevitable that we suspect conspiracy. We know that there are actors who make decisions completely removed from the slightest democratic scrutiny. And that these actors are interacting with people we can see, like the President, or the Vice President, but we cannot know what the secret agents are telling our elected officials.

So when the skein of lies begins to unravel, it is all too easy to see conspiracies everywhere. It is a very tough challenge to sort through the possibilities, to decide how far to go. Our fellow citizens, having not done the research we have done, may even be frightened when we began to say out loud what we have learned, even the plainest version of it; and when we try to take these uncommitted people deeper than they are ready to go, they turn their backs on us, or even flee as if in the presence of mad men and women.

I am always prepared to go deeper, but I need evidence, and evidence can be hard to find. But without evidence that is compelling and believable, I know that I do not have a chance of persuading uncommitted people to change their views.

There is no easy answer. We have to keep looking for the truth, with whatever tools we have. And we have to remember that while we may imagine the worst, we pay a serious price by advancing scenarios with only speculative evidence supporting them. There is a terrible tension here, but we have to learn to live with this tension if we are going to find the thread that can lead us and our fellow citizens to the heart of the labyrinth.

oops, i meant to send that link to a friend....

Awesome post, Dick.

Chuck in Houston with the last bit I found, which is far from being conclusive about anything other than the fact that something fishy is going on:

Well, just to round it out, then around September suddenly though the London Telegraph apprently (http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/001138.html) it comes out that this Rocco Martino had confessed to an Italian Judge that the French made him do it, an assertion that was met with glee by the right-leaning blogs (some fairly purple prose -- not for minors). According to Milan Il Giornale (29-Sep-04), Martino said the Telegraph misinterpreted what he said. Martino, with his lawyer Giuseppe Placidi present, was questioned by an Assistant Public Prosecutor in Rome named Fanco Ionta, and admits to passing the information to the French secret service as well as Panorama, and notes that both clients later informed him: "The femal journalist told me the trip to Niger had not produced anyreal confirmation, and also the French confirmed to me that these reports I had passed on were groundless. But at that juncture thebeans were spilled. Thefile was circulating, the reports contained in it were going around the world, and Bush and Blair were talking about those documents, albiet without actually mentioning them. I turned on the television and I did not believe my ears."

As to the idea that the French were behind it all to embarrass Bush and Blair, Martino said: "I do not know what you are talking about. These are lunatic ravings...."

Well, I do feel a bit of empathy with Rocco, I also often find the TV hard to believe and I would characterize the freerepublic.com as "luatic ravings."

www.globalresearch.ca/articles/MAR410A.html

After this, there are no more articles and the story just goes away until recently.

Chuck in Houston

"It is a very tough challenge to sort through the possibilities, to decide how far to go. Our fellow citizens, having not done the research we have done, may even be frightening when we began to say out loud what we have learned, even the plainest version of it; and when we try to take these uncommitted people deeper than they are ready to go, they turn their backs on us, or even flee as if in the presence of mad men and women."

Dick, you're so right about the risks of talking about these possibilities to "uncommitted people." There is an old saying... those who hear not the music think the dancers mad....

On the other hand, if people don't talk about the connections, they stay hidden. There is something to be said for repetition, too. It raises people's consciousness. Every interview I have heard with Ambassador Wilson, he's said the same phrase - " ...it's about the cover-up of the web of lies that got America into war under false pretenses." He wants people to dig. He got me digging.

My LTE:

Since 9-11, we've been bombarded with the chorus of, "To Be Patriotic you must Support President Bush"

In 2003, the White House “outed” Valerie Plame’s name as a spy. For years nothing was done to punish the perpetrators of this crime. Now, three years later, Mr. Fitzgerald, the Federal Prosecutor, has discovered that the Vice-President's office and Karl Rove were the original sources of this treasonous leak. Furthermore, John Ashcroft allowed Alberto Gonzalez to tell the W.H. Chief of Staff 12 hours early that the Department of Justice was investigating this illegal act. This means the White House had twelve hours advance notice to hide the evidence before the investigation began.

You might be thinking, "It's politics, and it doesn't effect me."

However, it does!

CIA Operatives testified UNDER OATH, "NEVER BEFORE HAS A PRESIDENT CHOSEN POLITICAL GAIN OVER THE PROTECTION OF HIS CITIZENS. FOR THREE YEARS, YOUR NATIONAL SECURITY AND YOUR SAFETY HAS BEEN DESTROYED BY YOUR PRESIDENT."

The Republican majority is stonewalling an investigation at YOUR expense!

It's not about Political Parties; it's about my security and yours! Call your Representive today and ask for an investigation into this treason!

Heard this on the radio the other day and not sure who said it:

"Asking George Bush to fire Karl Rove is like asking the puppet to fire the hand."

And if the puppet fits . . .

D.U. is scouring press conferences too. Great work everyone here and there!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4188354

Chuck in Houston for All:

I think we need to really read what Dick Bell said above and I actually feel a bit guilty about adding to the momentum on this forgery thing -- I was always just very curious about it. I think we hurt our case when we push beyond what we are able to convincingly demonstrate. One step at a time, as they say. Ultimately, this Niger story is still quite inconclusive. If we speculate too much on inconclusive things, we will lose our focus on the real issues that are on the table today. If we can get the ball rolling on some of those, maybe then some of the truth on the larger questions will start to come out.

Chuck in Houston

There is a terrible tension here, but we have to learn to live with this tension if we are going to find the thread that can lead us and our fellow citizens to the heart of the labyrinth.

Posted by: dickbell at July 25, 2005 10:21 PM

Just a small point here; the thread led Theseus and the others OUT of the labyrinth--once he had killed the Minotaur, whose name may or may not have been Karl...

And Ariadne is the one who thought of the thread. She was a smart lady.

But you are right about the terrible tension. It was easy back in the days of Watergate--the drama of truth vs. fantasy was played out on TV, by the Congress. And THEY were asking the hard questions, and getting the painful answers. We just got to watch. But this time around, each of us has to go into that damn labyrinth and kill the monster and find our way out again.

The nice part is, no one travels alone.

Today's "Marriage Made In Heaven" news...

Bush to host summit promoting corporate gifts to religious charities

(WHITE HOUSE) President Bush says he'll hold a White House summit next spring to encourage corporations and foundations to give more money to religious charities.

Bush announced the summit as he and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with 17 leaders of black churches and community groups.

Jim Towey, who heads the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, says his staff checked the policies of the top 50 Fortune 500 companies and found that 17 percent of their foundations ban or restrict donations to religious organizations.

Towey says next year's summit will show how corporate donations can be targeted to support religious groups' social work instead of their worship.

http://www.kvia.com/global/story.asp?s=3638353&ClientType=Printable

Meanwhile, Hoekstra's counterpart in the Senate, Republican Sen. Pat Roberts (news, bio, voting record) of Kansas, intends to preside over hearings on the intelligence community's use of covert protections for CIA agents and others involved in secret activities.

The chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence could hold hearings on the use of espionage cover soon after the U.S. Congress returns from its August recess, said Roberts spokeswoman Sarah Little.

Little said the Senate committee would also review the probe of special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, who has been investigating the Plame case for nearly two years.

Posted by: dickbell at July 25, 2005 10:21 PM

Excellent analysis, Dick!!!

My "political awareness" of something more than knowing the name of the Pres. & VP started with watching the entire Iran-Contra hearings on TV ca 1986-87. Reagan's "performance" during the hearings led me to suspect his mind wasn't all there; he got the same blank look my senile grandfather had gotten when asked questions, so I suspected ex-CIA chief, then VP Bush, was running the show behind the scenes. I entered college the fall of '87 as a non-traditional student, and one of the seminars for my honors classes met the night Congress voted to go ahead with Bush 41's Persian Gulf War, and the topic the class voted to study was media manipulation, and my journals for the class all had to do with the war and how the media and government spun the war stories. Watching C-SPAN just after the Congressional vote that night - only minutes before I left for class - there was a call-in by someone who said: "I wonder how many people know that the first company to drill for oil in Kuwait belonged to President Bush?" It's a question I've never forgotten, because it remains unanswered. But I came to the conclusion that that war was done for private financial gain for Bush 41.... Fast forward to 2000; I was a TV news junkie for about a year (not much else to do after spinal surgery) and with the questions about empire building and tax cuts, shrubbie's answers led me to instantly know that if he was elected he would start a war in Iraq to finish his daddy's war and that this country would go into a recession, and I journaled extensively about it.

The dots I keep connecting all involve names of people that go back to at least the time of the Iran-Contra scandal, if not before that to the time when Bush 41 was head of the CIA. The same names from the Reagan Iran-Contra era popped up during Bush 41's years, and the same names have popped up in the administration of Bush 43 (Cheney prominently comes to mind).

*IF* there is a "conspiracy" of any kind, it involves the Bush family and their associates, and it goes back at least 20-30 years, since the same names have been repeated at least that long....

In genealogy research there is a saying: "Genealogy without documentation is mythology." The only "valid" genealogy involves getting documents, and that sometimes takes years.

As regards any potential "conspiracy" involving this administration that may or may not connect to previous administrations that all featured many of the same names, I want that paper trail of documents....

Nonny, good post.

British investigative journalists seem to do much better than any so-called journalists here when it comes to connecting the dots over time. Perhaps our best hope is the foreign press....

I'm not sure what I believe after my reading today with regard to ELECTED members of previous administrations, but I do believe that Rove et all, if not their "puppets" as someone so eloquently described this president, have had an agenda for decades, and they will stop at nothing to carry it out. They've written about it, spoken about it, made no secret of it. The methods they have publicly advocated for achieving their agenda are methods that we see being used today.

Connecting the dots has never been more important for America. I think Toolmaker's description of a "shadow government" is probably an apt one.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=96695&page=1
S. Carolina Targeted for Christian State
South Carolina Could Be Destination for Christian Exodus

Posted by: Amy at July 25, 2005 10:12 PM

NonnyO brought this up before... And I won't miss them at all. Better to let them screw ONE state over than screw all fifty.

Book: (download it or read it on-line)

http://www.retrovsmetro.org/book

T-shirts: (recommended by Stephanie Miller, progressive radio)

http://www.clothingoftheamericanmind.com

Posted by: abq john at July 25, 2005 10:33 PM

LOL.

White House Said to Block Roberts Papers

By JENNIFER LOVEN and JESSE J. HOLLAND, Associated Press Writers
29 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The White House intends to deny the Senate Judiciary Committee documents from Supreme Court nominee John Roberts' work in the solicitor general's office from 1989-93, a senior Bush administration official said Monday.

"They will not be released," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the decision has not been made public.

The administration is working on the release of other documents from Roberts' time working for President Reagan in the 1980s, the official said.

But it will claim executive privilege for materials from his time as principal deputy solicitor general — the government's second-ranking courtroom lawyer — for former President George H.W. Bush between 1989 and 1993.

The move risks a clash with Senate Democrats reminiscent to the struggle over the lower-court nomination of conservative lawyer Miguel Estrada, who was filibustered by Democrats after the White House refused to release his documents from the solicitor general's office. Estrada's nomination later was withdrawn.

No Democrats have said publicly they will fight Roberts' nomination. But Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., on Friday called for the White House to release all of Roberts' working papers from his time working for two Republican presidents.

continue~
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050726/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_bush

On To Victory

Not surprising - the first thing Bush did in 2000 was make it harder to get papers from out of not only his own administration, but from all prior administrations.

Monkey

If Bush gets more corporations to donate to faith-based organizations, that will be a form of bribery, to get their cooperation for the 2006 elections.

George H W Bush, James Baker, George Schultz, etc all rose to their height of power during the Reagan era, and continued under GHWB's 4 years.
During the Clinton/Gore 8 years, they looked around for their successor, decided GWBjr was electable, if he was surrounded by the old cabal of "experience", Cheney, Rumsf, etc.
Now perhaps even the richer older group of Bush1 cronies are surprised at the power grab of the neocons...and at the total colossal mess the GWB/Cheney cabal have made of the world.

But the current regime of GWB/Cheney was made possible by the elder poppy Bu$h cronies...let's not forget that.
So are we surprised they are determined that all the documents from GHWB era must remain "secret and classified"?
It makes me wonder what a prosecuting attorney who happens to be a Democrat would uncover, if he had gotten into the WH confidential records of the GHWB and GWB regimes.

Obviously I've missed something-- since when is membership in a group like the Federalist Society some kind of protected secret?

Using Roberts to Distract from Rove

Daniel Schorr's commentary on NPR
Why the ploy isn't working

RealPlayer link:
http://www.npr.org/dmg/dmg.php?prgCode=ATC&showDate=25-Jul-2005&segNum=4&mediaPref=RM&getUnderwriting=1

excellent on topic reading, over at Think Progress:

When The White House Has Something To Hide…

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/07/25/white-house-hide/

abq john at July 25, 2005 10:33 PM

LOL-best I've heard in a lonnnng time

Coming in here tonight i feel like i wandered into the editors office at the Washington Post during watergate.

Do you know of any other blog where you have to read every post because 'each' is riveting?

Woodward and Bernstein, you have scared all the trolls away {{forever}} because you are just too intelligent, they wouldn't even have a clue, how to jump in. (I mean; "You lost, stupid!" just pales. :)

I am not ashamed to admit i have nothing to add. But i want so to appreciate you all.. and thankyou for keeping us all on our toes, filled with good arguments and held in check, (Mr. Bell ;)

but i just might put in here, in tiny letters...
tutter, you so fly! Miss you, your sleeping now and i will be when you get up. Deep sigh. "Aloha!"

posted really at 7:30PM Hawaii time

White House to Release Early Roberts Papers

By Peter Baker and Charles Babington
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, July 26, 2005; A02

The White House will make public the bulk of documents related to Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr.'s service as a lawyer in Ronald Reagan's administration but will withhold papers generated during his time as deputy solicitor general under President George H.W. Bush to preserve privileged internal deliberations, officials said last night.

The policy was crafted in response to demands by Senate Democrats who want to look at files connected to Roberts's tenure in two Republican administrations for clues to his views as a potential justice. The White House said it settled on the policy in consultation with Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) and that some documents would be available for review beginning today.

The agreement to release some Roberts documents came as the White House quietly presses Senate Republicans to start hearings on his nomination before Labor Day, in part to shorten the amount of time that liberals have to research and attack him, Republican sources said yesterday. Specter has said he wants to hold a week-long hearing just after Labor Day following the Senate's August recess. The negotiations on timing and other matters have lasted for days and may not be resolved until mid-week, Senate aides said.

The issue of how much of Roberts's record in government to release has emerged as a key point of contention between Republicans and Democrats since President Bush nominated him last week. Rather than launch a frontal attack on Roberts, Democrats have focused on pressuring the administration for documents, expecting to use any refusal against him as they have with other Bush nominees.

Senior administration officials outlining their response last night said the partial release should be sufficient. "This is an effort by the administration to give all the documents that are appropriate to the Congress to help make sure they have the information they need to move through the nomination process," one official said.

But the White House clearly does not expect Democrats to agree. The officials disclosed the new policy under ground rules requiring anonymity and an embargo until midnight, too late for Democratic reaction. Democrats have pushed for papers from throughout Roberts's government career, including the solicitor general's office.

"I urged the representatives of the White House to be as cooperative as they possibly could," Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) said earlier yesterday after meeting with Roberts. Asked whether Democrats might filibuster the nomination if the administration withholds documents, Lieberman said, "I hope we don't reach that point."

Under the White House policy disclosed last night, all documents related to Roberts stored at the National Archives will be released immediately and sent to the Judiciary Committee. Reporters will be able to review them in a reading room. These documents fill six boxes and stem from Roberts's service as special assistant to Attorney General William French Smith from 1981 to 1982, officials said.

Documents related to Roberts's work in the White House counsel's office from 1982 to 1986 that are at the Ronald Reagan library will be released after review, officials said. The administration will ask the library to expedite its review of the documents and then will review them itself before release. Officials said they might withhold papers at the library with "national security implications, personal privacy concerns and other concerns," but not many. "It is the intent of the administration to disclose all of them," one official said.

But documents stemming from Roberts's work as deputy to Solicitor General Kenneth W. Starr during the first Bush presidency will remain secret except for any that were sent to the National Archives by the Clinton administration in 1998. Such internal memos are key to the solicitor general's deliberations over legal strategy, and releasing them would damage traditional privilege, officials said.

more... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/25/AR2005072501785_pf.html