David Corn

to view a partial list of crimes committed by FBI agents over 1500 pages long see
http://www.forums.signonsandiego.com/showthread.php?t=59139

to view a partial list of FBI agents arrested for pedophilia see
http://www.dallasnews.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=3574

DC,

"was just one of several new and top secret intelligence programs initiated after 9/11 that were legally dicey."

My understanding is illegal wiretaps started well BEFORE 9/11 - anybody reporting on that?

Speaking of Cheney:

Liz Cheney: Obama's An Idiot Or...Well, He's Pretty Much Just An Idiot And A Dangerous One At That
—DrewM.

Liz Cheney has an Op-ed in today's WSJ. It's juicy red meat that also is a devastating take down of the fool 52% of the people voted for.

She starts with Obama's fanciful tale of the ending of the Cold War during his speech in Moscow and then gets going.

It is irresponsible for an American president to go to Moscow and tell a room full of young Russians less than the truth about how the Cold War ended. One wonders whether this was just an attempt to push "reset" -- or maybe to curry favor. Perhaps, most concerning of all, Mr. Obama believes what he said.
Mr. Obama's method for pushing reset around the world is becoming clearer with each foreign trip. He proclaims moral equivalence between the U.S. and our adversaries, he readily accepts a false historical narrative, and he refuses to stand up against anti-American lies.

...Asked at a NATO meeting in France in April whether he believed in American exceptionalism, the president said, "I believe in American Exceptionalism just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism." In other words, not so much.

The Obama administration does seem to believe in another kind of exceptionalism -- Obama exceptionalism. "We have the best brand on Earth: the Obama brand," one Obama handler has said. What they don't seem to realize is that once you're president, your brand is America, and the American people expect you to defend us against lies, not embrace or ignore them. We also expect you to know your history.

BTW- She said today she's open to running for office.

Cheney/Cheney '12
Bringing Back The Evil

Daily Kos Far Left Nutjob Caught In Blogging Scandal

A Vancouver reporter accused Free Republic of allowing racist comments this weekend.

But, oddly enough, this same Vancouver Sun reporter, Chris Parry, has a very controversial background. He has advocated on Daily Kos for liberals to post hate speech on conservative blogs and blame it on conservatives.

What a strange coincidence?
Gawker reported:

But the real story here is that this same reporter and Daily Kos contributer has advocated on his Daily Kos blog any number of egregious offenses, among them: posting hate speech on sites like Free Republic and blaming it on conservatives.

Parry posted under the name "hollywoodoz" on Daily Kos, where his signature was "Fool me once, I'll punch you in the f*cking head." Parry outed himself as hollywoodoz here, where he discloses the company he helped start. In essence: Parry, the journalist, found his story right where he'd been circling it for a very long time, and reported it as news. Sigh.

Bottom line: Parry's noble intentions are paving him a road to hell...

Jammie Wearing Fool reports that "naturally the Freepers are tearing him a new one."

Chris Parry has advocated attacking blacks and blaming Republicans.

Google-Bomb O'Reilly as a "terrorist sympathizer"

Just when you thought things couldn't get any crazier, a warped diarist from the Daily Kos hate-site is attacking a conservative website for hate speech.

Obama July 2: Recovery Will Take Months... Obama July 12: Recovery Will Take Years
Change!
Obama says the recovery will take months.
Barack Obama on July 2, 2009:

U.S. President Barack Obama said on Thursday there were signs that the "economic storm" that has made millions jobless was waning, but warned that it would still take the United States many months to recover.
Ten days later...

The recovery will take years not months.

Barack Obama on July 9, 2009:

Obama: Recovery Will Take Years Not Months.
"It was, from the start, a two-year program, and it will steadily save and create jobs as it ramps up over this summer and fall."
Does this guy really know what's going on?

Related... The Obama Administration is not making much sense these days.

New Info Brings More Questions On Secret CIA

We've gotten some more information in recent days about that secret CIA program that the agency withheld key information from Congress about, and that CIA director Leon Panetta promptly shut down when he learned about it last month. But the new reports only raise more questions.

On Saturday, the New York Times reported that the CIA withheld information about the secret program "on direct orders" from then-Vice President Dick Cheney. The Times did not identify the program, but noted that, according to intelligence and congressional officials, it involved neither the CIA's interrogation program nor its domestic intelligence (e.g. warrantless wiretapping and surveillance) activities.

http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/new_info_brings_more_questions_on_secret_cia_progr.php

Hard Dick

It's a pretty simple story. The CIA was enmeshed inone more "Bush-era torture and anti-terrorism" program (as CBS frankly puts it) when then-Vice President Dick Cheney ordered the agency to NOT brief the appropriate members of Congress on its existence.

This is what is called a clear-cut violation of the law. It violated The 1947 national security provisions of the Truman-era which require such briefings.

http://marccooper.com/

Warrantless wiretapping in place before 9/11.

Today, the Washington Post publishes additional details about the Bush administration’s warrantless wiretapping, noting that the National Security Agency approached Qwest “more than six months before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.” But the Body Politik’s Igor Volsky points out that President Bush has claimed that the program was put in place in response to 9/11:

After September the 11th, I vowed to the American people that our government would do everything within the law to protect them against another terrorist attack. As part of this effort, I authorized the National Security Agency to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations. [5/11/06]

Kagro X adds, “If Qwest’s competitors were already abetting this bloodless(?) coup before 9/11, then the ‘administration’s’ domestic spying not only has little if anything to do with response to terrorism, but it also objectively failed to prevent 9/11.”

http://thinkprogress.org/2007/10/13/warrantless-wiretapping-in-place-before-911/

******

From October 2007?

" one of several new and top secret intelligence programs initiated after 9/11 that were legally dicey."

Why play the M$M meme of "AFTER 9/11?"

Bush and Cheney were breaking the law by illegal wiretaps before 9/11.

Qwest refused to participate in the illegal wiretaps before 911.

Bush Authorized Domestic Spying Before 9/11
By Jason Leopold
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Friday 13 January 2006

http://www.truthout.org/article/jason-leopold-bush-authorized-domestic-spying-before-911

******

Links to declassified docs that prove the claim in 2006.

Dick "Watergate" Cheney: NO WONDER he's mad Libby got no full pardon!

Not everyone realizes (I didn't) that Dick was in the Nixon White House for every day of Watergate, from 1971 through and beyond the 1974 resignation, and he was already Deputy Assistant to the President by Ford's time, so he must have been in on that pardon caper. (Not saying it was his idea, but he obviously came to love it.)

So, no surprise he figured he could get away with anything under Bush, he had the ace in the hole: "Listen here, you stupid peasants, every anti-Constitutional act of mine, each and every felony, betrayal of my oath of office, they're all covered by this pardon thing I used before (and it's golden, as Blago might say). If you're not happy, Overreach THIS, 'cuz I'm the wiseguy who tells Bush what to sign and what not to sign!"

http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/talk/blogs/mare_nostrum/2009/07/dick-watergate-cheney-no-wonde.php

Dick Cheney 'hid plans to kill al-Qaida operatives abroad'

• Ex-CIA officials say foreign leaders were also in dark

• Investigation demanded into post-9/11 strategy

Dick Cheney, the former vice president, ordered a highly classified CIA operation hidden from Congress because it pushed the limits of legality by planning to assassinate al-Qaida operatives in friendly countries without the knowledge of their governments, according to former intelligence officials.

Former counter-terrorism officials who retain close links to the intelligence community say that the hidden operation involved plans by the CIA and the military to launch operations, similar to those by Israel's Mossad intelligence service, to hunt down and kill al-Qaida activists abroad without informing the governments concerned, even though some were regarded as friendly if unreliable.

The CIA apparently did not put the plan in to operation but the US military did, carrying out several assassinations including one in Kenya that proved to be a severe embarrassment and helped lead to the quashing of the programme.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/13/cheney-cia-al-qaida-assassinations

Cheney needs to go to jail.

Obama Extends Bush’s Legacy of an Imperial Presidency

CHRISTOPHER MARTIN JR. TIMES-DISPATCH COLUMNIST
Published: April 12, 2009

Obama Extends Bush's Legacy of an Imperial Presidency Executive privilege. Presidential signing statements. Warrantless wiretapping. Detention without charge. The unitary executive theory.

Americans inattentive to events unfolding in the nation's capital would likely identify these policies as artifacts of the Bush administration, evidence of failed attempts to balance rights and security -- and reminders of our flirtation with an imperial presidency. They are long gone, most would contend, banished from the halls of the White House since the historic inauguration of Barack Obama in January.

But they would be wrong. These policies are not the ghosts of the Bush presidency but, rather, tools and theories that have been utilized with surprising consistency and defended by the new president and his aides during the first 50 days of his administration.

Indeed, beneath the Obama administration's thin veneer of transparency and beyond the rhetoric of trust and accountability, one finds domestic and national security policies that radically strengthen and empower the executive branch -- in some cases, facsimiles of the Bush policies that Obama and his surrogates publicly ridiculed on the campaign trail just months ago.

On the issues of presidential signing statements, the use of the "enemy combatant" designation, and the invocation of executive privilege, President Obama has proven frequently and recently -- particularly in the past several weeks -- that he is not unlike his predecessor when it comes to the liberal exercise of presidential power.

During the campaign, Obama vociferously objected to the Bush administration's excessive use of signing statements -- constitutionally questionable executive interpretations of congressional legislation -- and pledged to preserve legislative intent should he ever be compelled to issue one. But just a few weeks ago, Obama "clarified" his interpretation of protections for executive branch whistleblowers passed in the omnibus spending bill. The signing statement, which argued that the president retains control over intrabranch communications, has provoked a firestorm of criticism from both the left and the right.

Then, this past month, newspaper headlines declared that the Obama administration had reversed Bush's policies governing the detention of terrorism suspects by jettisoning the "enemy combatant" designation that had arguably permitted an end run around due process protections in the Constitution. But legal experts rightly point out that while the terminology has changed, the official policy permitting detention without charge has not. In fact, many believe that Obama has more aggressively pursued the right of the president to detain terrorism suspects than his predecessor.

And what has become of the presidential secrecy -- putatively justified by executive privilege -- for which Bush was relentlessly lambasted during the election? Despite Obama's commitment to transparency and his longstanding pledge to openness "in the face of doubt," the administration recently affirmed a Bush-era policy to keep secret details of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, an intellectual property treaty currently under negotiation. And Obama's decision to centralize power over health care, housing, energy, and economic policy in the hands of extra-constitutional "czars"-- who cannot be called to testify before Congress -- has raised the ire of the legislative branch.

Liberal Democrats are up in arms over Obama's about-face on questions of executive power, and disenchanted supporters have begun to ques tion the "change" message on which their candidate ran. But the American public and outraged commentators should have seen all of this coming.

James Madison certainly did. The Founding Father -- who authored the Constitution and served as the country's fourth president -- understood human nature as simultaneously self-interested and other-regarding.

"Enlightened statesmen will not always be at the helm," he warned in Federalist No.10. By connecting "the interest of the man" with "the constitutional rights of the place," Madison accounted for the self-aggrandizing tendencies of enterprising men and intentionally built into his institutional design a dynamic relationship between each of the three branches (Federalist No. 51).

Through the separation of powers, checks and balances, bicameralism, and federalism, power in the three branches waxes and wanes over time, allowing American institutions to respond to changing events, both at home and abroad. While many argue that Madison was a legislative supremacist -- highlighting his opposition to presidential declarations of war and his remonstrance against Washington's Proclamation of Neutrality -- it is clear that his separation-of-powers system was intended to both constrain and empower each of the three spheres, including the executive.

Just as the 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States produced a powerful president, the current economic exigency has naturally given rise to enhanced presidential leadership.

Transcendent Madisonian institutions align presidential interests and decision-making power with the needs of the country, not campaign pledges and assurances. In these times of crisis and emergency -- which demand strong leadership from a powerful executive -- we should embrace, not resist, President Obama's attempts to consolidate power. In some sense, Madison's enduring separation-of-powers system makes such centralization inevitable.

As one Washington and Lee professor recently told me: Barack Obama may now live in the White House, but James Madison still rules America.

~~~~~~~~~

Obama needs to go to jail.....

Whitehouse: Roberts Court Already Activist

[...]

Whitehouse explained:

The "umpire" analogy is belied by Chief Justice Roberts, though he cast himself as an "umpire" during his confirmation hearings. Jeffrey Toobin, a well-respected legal commentator, has recently reported that "[i]n every major case since he became the nation's seventeenth Chief Justice, Roberts has sided with the prosecution over the defendant, the state over the condemned, the executive branch over the legislative, and the corporate defendant over the individual plaintiff." Some umpire. And is it a coincidence that this pattern, to continue Toobin's quote, "has served the interests, and reflected the values of the contemporary Republican party"? Some coincidence.

For all the talk of "modesty" and "restraint," the right wing Justices of the Court have a striking record of ignoring precedent, overturning congressional statutes, limiting constitutional protections, and discovering new constitutional rights: the infamous Ledbetter decision, for instance; the Louisville and Seattle integration cases; the first limitation on Roe v. Wade that outright disregards the woman's health and safety; and the DC Heller decision, discovering a constitutional right to own guns that the Court had not previously noticed in 220 years. Some "balls and strikes." Over and over, news reporting discusses "fundamental changes in the law" wrought by the Roberts Court's right wing flank. The Roberts Court has not kept the promises of modesty or humility made when President Bush nominated Justices Roberts and Alito.

So, Judge Sotomayor, I'd like to avoid codewords, and look for a simple pledge from you during these hearings: that you will respect the role of Congress as representatives of the American people.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/13/whitehouse-roberts-court_n_230715.html

*****

Spot on!

Dick Cheney's fantasy war

New revelations about the Bush administration's secret post-9/11 anti-terror operations demand a full investigation

[...]

Barack Obama has opposed such an investigation, fearing it would ignite a partisan conflagration that could stall his ambitious agenda. But events have overtaken him. Holder seems determined to assign a prosecutor to look into torture. Members of Congress, outraged over being kept in the dark, are pushing for an investigation into the CIA's secret programmes. So we will learn more.

The main problem with multiple investigations, though, is that they inevitably produce a fragmentary, at times contradictory picture of what went wrong. Only a very ambitious effort – like the much-praised 9/11 commission – can really examine the links between widely disparate activities across the government: CIA interrogations, NSA signals intelligence, the briefs of lawyers in the White House and justice departments and, of course, the mostly-unseen hand of Cheney's office.

It appears only far more shocking revelations could move Obama to sign off on that. But after the past weekend's info-dump, you never know.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2009/jul/13/cheney-cia-black-ops

CIA Had Secret Al Qaeda Plan

Initiative at Heart of Spat With Congress Examined Ways to Seize, Kill Terror Chiefs

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124736381913627661.html

Probe of Cheney's Covert CIA Plan Urged

Congressional Leaders Never Told about Operation Ordered by then-VP to Kill Al Qaeda at Close Range

(AP) The CIA never briefed Congress on a sensitive counter-terrorism plan because former Vice President Dick Cheney told CIA officials not to.

That's what Democrats say the CIA director Leon Panetta told them when he met with the Intelligence Committees last month immediately after he learned about the program and killed it.

"You can't have anybody, you can't have a vice president or a president or a senator say 'Don't follow the law," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/07/13/eveningnews/main5156599.shtml

Marcy Wheeler: GOP Will Investigate Clinton's "Blow Job" But Not CIA

Marcy Wheeler of FireDogLake, appeared on MSNBC Monday to argue for an investigation of secret C.I.A. operations under President Bush. But all of the post-segment discussion focused on her use of the word "blow job", which drew an apology from the anchors.

Wheeler was responding to Townhall's Matt Lewis, who argued that looking backwards and "investigating policies and activities that happened in a previous administration" would set a bad precedent.

"[Y]our idea is that after investigating Bill Clinton for a blow job for like five years, we shouldn't investigate the huge, grossly illegal things that were done under the past administration, only because Alberto Gonzales was too much in the back pocket of Dick Cheney to do it while he was still in office," Wheeler said. "That's ridiculous."

After the segment ended, the Tamron Hall and David Shuster expanded on her "passionate" choice of words.

"I'm sure she apologizes for that choice of words, she's very passionate about it," said Hall.

David Shuster chimed in: "We all say things sometimes when we're passionate that we don't intend, and especially on a dayside family-oriented cable television news network."

"I'm sure she apologizes, and we do, too," concluded Hall.

Watch:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftHGC9J2vfY

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/13/marcy-wheeler-says-blow-j_n_230967.html

******

Go Marcy!

Send Evidence of Torture to the DOJ

We've uncovered more than 100,000 pages that show both that hundreds of prisoners were tortured in U.S. custody, and that the torture policies were devised and developed at the highest levels of the Bush administration -- yet there remains debate on whether or not the government will hold those who authorized torture accountable.

Make sure Attorney General Holder sees the evidence. Send him a selection from the thousands of pages of government documents that the ACLU has uncovered, and demand that the Justice Department appoint an independent prosecutor to investigate.

http://aclu.org/accountability/action.html

Obama needs to go to jail.....

Posted by: freddie | July 13, 2009 5:42 PM

Right after Bush and Cheney finish their 30 year term in jail, I will personally put Obama in their newly vacated cell.

Can anyone explain how Dick Cheney was able to order the CIA around? As a VP he has zero authority to do anything of the sort unless Bush authorized it.

Glenn Beck Slams Softball Questioning Of Sotomayor... But There Were No Questions Today (VIDEO)

Glenn Beck is very upset with the softball questions that the Senators offered up to Judge Sonia Sotomayor during her first day of confirmation hearings. To prove his point, Beck played a video montage of Democratic senators praising Sotomayor, notably in statements and not questions.

Unfortunately for Beck, there were no questions today. The first day of the hearings is when Senators and the nominee make opening statements.

Beck did include one clip of a GOP senator, Lindsey Graham, telling Sotomayor "unless you have a complete meltdown, you're gonna get confirmed. And I don't think you will." Beck ridiculed Graham for this: "Does anybody remember when Lindsey Graham wasn't a worm?"

WATCH:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS5tsxYJ_ys

My email reply from Ron Paul...

Dear Mr. xxxxxx:

Thank you for contacting my office expressing your view that those who have been found guilty of breaking United States law with regard to torture should be prosecuted.

As one who believes strongly in our Constitution and the rule of law, I agree with you that no one should be above the law in the United States.

Please see below an article I recently wrote on this topic.

Please feel free to contact my office in the future with any other questions, comments, or suggestions.

Texas Straight Talk

05-25-2009

Torturing the Rule of Law

While Congress is sidetracked by who said what to whom and when, our nation finds itself at a crossroads on the issue of torture. We are at a point where we must decide if torture is something that is now going to be considered justifiable and reasonable under certain circumstances, or is America better than that?

“Enhanced interrogation” as some prefer to call it, has been used throughout history, usually by despotic governments, to cruelly punish or to extract politically useful statements from prisoners. Governments that do these things invariably bring shame on themselves.

In addition, information obtained under duress is incredibly unreliable, which is why it is not admissible in a court of law. Legally valid information is freely given by someone of sound mind and body. Someone in excruciating pain, or brought close to death by some horrific procedure is not in any state of mind to give reliable information, and certainly no actions should be taken solely based upon it.

For these reasons, it is illegal in the United States and illegal under Geneva Conventions. Simulated drowning, or water boarding, was not considered an exception to these laws when it was used by the Japanese against US soldiers in World War II. In fact, we hanged Japanese officers for war crimes in 1945 for water boarding. Its status as torture has already been decided by our own courts under this precedent. To look the other way now, when Americans do it, is the very definition of hypocrisy.

Matthew Alexander, author of “How to Break a Terrorist” used non-torture methods of interrogation in Iraq with much success. In fact, one cooperative jihadist told him, "I thought you would torture me, and when you didn't, I decided that everything I was told about Americans was wrong. That's why I decided to cooperate." Alexander also found that in Iraq “the No. 1 reason foreign fighters flocked there to fight were the abuses carried out at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Our policy of torture was directly and swiftly recruiting fighters for al-Qaeda in Iraq.” Alexander’s experiences unequivocally demonstrate that losing our humanity is not beneficial or necessary in fighting terror.

The current administration has reversed its position on releasing evidence of torture by the previous administration and we must ask why. A great and moral nation would have the courage to face the truth so it could abide by the rule of law. To look the other way necessarily implicates all of us and would of course further radicalize people against our troops on the ground. Instead, we have the chance to limit culpability for torture to those who were truly responsible for these crimes against humanity.

Not everyone who was given illegal orders obeyed them. Many FBI agents understood that an illegal order must be disobeyed and they did so. The others must be held accountable, so that all of us are not targeted for blowback for the complicity of some.

The government’s own actions and operations in torturing people, and in acting on illegally obtained and unreliable information to kill and capture, are the most radicalizing forces at work today, not any religion, nor the fact that we are rich and free. The fact that our government engages in evil behavior under the auspices of the American people is what poses the greatest threat to the American people, and it must not be allowed to stand.

Sincerely,

Ron Paul
======================
He's not even my Congressman anymore, but he still responds.

When it's even on Faux News that the CIA lied to Congress, then the wingnuts still denying it must not have gotten the memo. They have to admit it now.
Here's a clip on Faux... Chris Wallace interviewing Feinstein and Cornyn. Watch Cornyn 'pulling a republican' by trying to change the subject.

Feinstein: CIA Concealment Outside of the Law, Should Never, Ever Happen Again
http://tinyurl.com/ngffeu

So little space, so many twits!

1. NSA surveillance post 9/11. It would have been criminal NOT to intercept Al Qaeda/other terrorists talking/data exchanging with Americans whilst fearing further attacks world-wide. BTW, the intent of FISA was to insure that a warrant would be issued if the intercepts could lead to CRIMINAL charges. The President, under his constitutional commander in chief role has very wide latitude to conduct intelligence gathering operations.
2. Waterboarding/harsh techniques. If using them saved 1 American life, they were worth it. As Supreme Court Justice Goldberg (very liberal/ACLU-type) said in a national security case, "The Constitution is not a suicide pact." The first job of ANY American President is to ensure the safety of Americans and the American Republic.
3. Congress/Cheney CIA program oversight:
The law on informing Congress refers only to official, active programs. This program never went active. Besides, I thought all you Libs WANTED GW Bush to go after and kill Osama???

Bottom line is that America must fight for survival against Muslim, and other, terrorist fanatics, who have no rules. Sometimes we have to do hard and dirty things to ensure our survival. All you pantywaists out there have your right to be indignant and outraged at "America losing its principles" all you want; but you sleep safe at night because of hard core intelligence operatives, soldiers, cops and firefighters. Jobs most of you wouldn't and couldn't do.

Welp, I've seen now what will be passed out to the wingnut masses as talking points absolving chainee.
It'll go like this...

The former officials said that Cheney was never involved in managing the program, and that his instruction not to brief Congress came shortly after the initiative was first proposed.

"It was more like, before you go around and start talking about this, see if it is something you can make happen," said one of the former officials.
from this link...
http://tinyurl.com/mnwdon

Islamophobia Claims the Life of Pregnant Woman

Marwa al-Sherbini, a thirty-two year old pharmacist pregnant with her second child, was at a park in Germany one day and asked a man to leave a swing for her three year old. The man responded by calling her names including "terrorist" and tried to pull off her headscarf. She brought him to court, and won the case, resulting in a 750 euro fine for the perpetrator, simply identified as Alex W. He in turn brought the case to court to appeal, and at the courthouse, ran across the room and stabbed al-Sherbini eighteen times. Her husband Elwi Okaz is in critical condition after being attacked by Alex W., as well as mistakenly being shot at by a guard.

http://www.care2.com/causes/human-rights/blog/Islamophobia-Claims-the-Life-of-Pregnant-Woman/

Truth Commission Needed to Examine Cheney, Assassination Squads, Cover-Ups

[...]

Cheney is a traitor for his role in outing Valerie Plame (and yes, he had Irv Lewis Libby, his chief of staff, try like hell to out her; it is not relevant that Bob Novak took the information from Armitage first). He hid covert operations from Congress. He contemplated assassination squads and for all we know ran some. If Congress doesn't want to look mean-spirited or to risk disillusioning the public with government by prosecuting the former vice president, let's at least have a truth commission that gets documents declassified and lays out his full role so we don't have to wait until 2039 to judge it.

The only thing worse than impunity for crimes is a decades-long cover-up of those crimes from the American people. Complete sunshine on Richard Bruce Cheney's misdeeds is the minimum necessary to work against them being repeated by the next administration.

http://www.juancole.com/2009/07/truth-commission-needed-to-examine.html

Birther Soldier Says "Obama Can't Send Me To War"

Just when you thought the whole "birther" phenomenon could not raise the bar in terms of pure inanity...in the words of the boys in Spinal Tap, this one goes to eleven

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/7/13/753140/-Birther-Soldier-Says-Obama-Cant-Send-Me-To-War

Soldier balks at deploying; says Obama isn’t president
Says he shouldn’t have to go to Afghanistan because Obama is not a U.S. citizen
By Lily Gordon

U.S. Army Maj. Stefan Frederick Cook, set to deploy to Afghanistan, says he shouldn’t have to go.

His reason?

Barack Obama was never eligible to be president because he wasn’t born in the United States.

Cook’s lawyer, Orly Taitz, who has also challenged the legitimacy of Obama’s presidency in other courts, filed a request last week in federal court seeking a temporary restraining order and status as a conscientious objector for his client.

In the 20-page document — filed July 8 with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia — the California-based Taitz asks the court to consider granting his client’s request based upon Cook’s belief that Obama is not a natural-born citizen of the United States and is therefore ineligible to serve as commander-in-chief of the U.S. Armed Forces.

Cook further states he “would be acting in violation of international law by engaging in military actions outside the United States under this President’s command. ... simultaneously subjecting himself to possible prosecution as a war criminal by the faithful execution of these duties.”

Cook, a reservist, received the orders mobilizing him to active duty on June 9.

According to this document, which accompanies Cook’s July 8 application for a temporary restraining order, he has been ordered to report to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., on Wednesday. From there, the Florida resident would go to Fort Benning before deploying overseas.

Documents show Obama was born in Hawaii in 1961, two years after it became a state.

A hearing to discuss Cook’s requests will take place in federal court here Thursday at 9:30 a.m.
~~~~

Dudes got a point, If Barry wants to send him to war and risk his life then the least Barry could do is release his birth certificate....

If Barry had any integrity he would do this for the troops!

You libs are getting all giddy about Cheney is just a phony diversion from Barry's failed liberal policies.

Now that Barry is sinking in the polls the liberal MSM drags out an attack Cheney diversion.

How about you libs concentrate on creating those 2.5 million jobs that were promised?

House intel lays groundwork for CIA investigation

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Intelligence Committee has asked the CIA to provide the committee with documents about the now-canceled program to target al-Qaida leaders with hit teams.

CIA Director Leon Panetta told Congress June 24 that he had canceled the program after learning about the effort to kill al-Qaida leaders.

Intelligence officials said that CIA leaders felt the program never became operational enough to require congressional notification. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jUYIQzuMD55oCy3UG7v6wITLOBewD99EAUT02

CIA linked to Bhutto's murder?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgeq1CuJb0w

Palin, Washington Post, and the End of Newspapers

I’m not going to link to Sarah Palin’s Washington Post op-ed on why unrestricted pollution should be allowed to destroy the planet. Let’s just observe that the Post’s habit of publishing this kind of material is part of the reason why, adverse consequences for a number of writers I like, I wouldn’t shed a tear if the Washington Post Company were to choose to shutter it’s money-losing newspaper and focus on its core competency in the field of standardized test preparation. After all, why does Sarah Palin have an op-ed on climate legislation in the Washington Post? Does she have scientific expertise? Economic expertise? Knowledge of the state of international climate negotiations?

Perhaps during her brief time in the public spotlight she developed a reputation for an unusually solid grasp of complicated policy details? Or is the idea that she’s known for being honest? A good-faith participant in public policy debates?

Well, no. And the fact of the matter is that the Palin op-ed actually fits very comfortably alongside the established norms of Charles Krauthammer, George Will, and Robert Samuelson—words on paper that are neither paid advertisements nor serious efforts to improve people’s understanding of the world.

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/07/palin-washington-post-and-the-end-of-newspapers.php

*****

The WaPo no longer qualifies as a bird cage liner. I mean who wants their pets exposed to that kind of a thing?

CIA faces hostile scrutiny as details of 'dark' programmes are revealed

• Congressional calls for formal investigation mount

• Agency officials believe they're caught up in political war

[...]

"They keep specifying Cheney, but what Cheney did was endorsed by the president and Bush's office. This was not a one-man operation," he said.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/14/cia-bush-cheney-obama-torture

Steele: I'll Woo Blacks To GOP With "Fried Chicken And Potato Salad"

The Young Republicans convention was held in Indianapolis last weekend and their election of a racist, middle-aged woman as President isn't the only controversial item to come out of the GOP gathering.

Local Republican blog Hoosier Access was able to get RNC Chairman Michael Steele to sit down with a group of bloggers and they taped the conversation. The old gaffe-o-matic (or as I like to call him, the Republican Joe Biden!) answers a question from a gay person of color in this clip about the GOP's diversity outreach.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V2DJpcIu5cY

Yes, that's right. To lure African-Americans into the GOP, Steele is offering "fried chicken and potato salad." Since he mentions Republicans should also be reaching out to the LGBT community, I wonder what stereotype he's going to offer us? Buttplugs and Birkenstocks?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bil-browning/steele-gop-woos-blacks-wi_b_231534.html

Criminals like Cheney don't get a free pass just because their time in office has expired. No one is above the law.

The real extent of Cheney's mendacity and venality have yet to be fully investigated.

Republicans apparently love that type of abusive, arrogant. blustering public official, because it makes them feel safe, like little children who don't have to think for themselves.

Republicans apparently love that type of abusive, arrogant. blustering public official, because it makes them feel safe, like little children who don't have to think for themselves.

~~~

Isn't that why you voted for Barry?

The only difference is that Cheney gets the job done and Barry is failing miserably...

Rep. Cantor Falsely Declares That President Obama's Policies "Have Failed"

http://mediamattersaction.org/factcheck/200907140003

The Picture of the Obama Administration: There's Too Much Color in It for the Republicans

A picture is worth a thousand words, and it's increasingly clear that the GOP doesn't like the picture of the Obama administration; there's too much color in it.

Whatever the disappointments we have had with Barack Obama, it is clear that he has made a decisive commitment to promoting blacks, Hispanics and women to top positions. And it brings back that excitement and promise of "the audacity of hope" to see the number of African-Americans who Obama has appointed to top jobs.

It is perhaps no coincidence that on the day that GOP Senators were "codifying" their objection to a Latina being appointed to a Supreme Court seat, President Obama was appointing an African-American female -- Regina Benjamin, M.D. -- as the Surgeon General of the United States. The concurrence of these two events should not go unnoticed.

It's safe to say that a large majority of the "Limbaugh-Palin-Hannity" populist Republican teabaggers are open or covert racists. The world is changing around them; whites are destined to become the minority in America, as they already have in our largest state, California. This is a scary and -- shall we say -- unsettling thought to a lot of people who have assumed entitlement just for being born white and Christian.

That is one of the reasons Christian fundamentalism plays such a big role in the grassroots of the Republican Party. The leaders of this faction make no bones about believing America is a manifestation of God's will that white Christians should govern.

So, it is a kick in the gut to the populist "white is right" base of the GOP to see President Obama appoint so many people of color to high positions.

http://blog.buzzflash.com/node/8972

Sanford's Media Emails: News Orgs Offered Friendly Spin

Remember, not too long ago, South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford just disappeared off the face of the earth to gently strum Spandau Ballet ballads on his guitar and walk the "sex line" with his Argentinean ladylove, leaving his staff to spin wild lies about his whereabouts, the agreed-to story being that he was out wandering the Appalachian Trail, like a hobo? Well, during that time, all sorts of people were trying to get in touch with Mark Sanford -- something about him having "duties" as the "Governor" of "South Carolina" -- and the records of those calls and emails were released on Monday. The State has collected the best of these, and they include many inquiries from the media, some of which were essentially mash notes.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/14/sanfords-media-emails-new_n_231770.html

******

No surprises which "news-o-tainment" outlets were offering to spin in favor of the lost Gov.

CIA Supervisor Claimed He Used Fire Ants On Detainee; Agency Says It Never Happened

A recently released legal memo describing interrogation techniques showed that Bush Administration lawyers had approved the use of "insects" in interrogations. "You would like to place [Abu] Zubaydeh in a cramped confinement box with an insect," Jay Bybee, then a Justice Department lawyer and now a federal judge, wrote in 2002. He opined that as long as the bug wasn't actually harmful, it would not violate the law to use one to scare a terrorist detainee.

That was the first mention of insects to become public. But the memo's release may make it worth looking back to a brouhaha that occurred in secret at the agency in 2005. A CIA supervisor involved in the "enhanced interrogation" program bragged to other CIA employees about using fire ants while during questioning of a top terror suspect, according to several sources formerly with the Agency. The official claimed to other Agency employees, the sources say, to have put the stinging ants on a detainee's head to help break him.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/aram-roston/cia-supervisor-claimed-he_b_231303.html

*****

The more the CIA contradicts - the more reason there is for a complete investigation.

Sotomayor Surprises Sessions

Ouch!

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R., Ala.), seeking to discredit Judge Sonia Sotomayor’s judicial philosophy, cited her 2001 “wise Latina” speech, and contrasted the view that ethnicity and sex influence judging with that of Judge Miriam Cedarbaum, who “believes that judges must transcend their personal sympathies and prejudices.”

“So I would just say to you, I believe in Judge Cedarbaum’s formulation,” Sessions told Sotomayor.

“My friend Judge Cedarbaum is here,” Sotomayor riposted, to Sessions’ apparent surprise. “We are good friends, and I believe that we both approach judging in the same way, which is looking at the facts of each individual case and applying the law to those facts.”

Cedarbaum agreed.

http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/07/14/sotomayor-surprises-sessions/

New Revelations of Cheney Lawlessness

http://www.commondreams.org/video/2009/07/14

Is Obama Continuing the Bush/Cheney Assassination Program?

Congress is outraged that Cheney concealed a CIA program to assassinate al Qaeda leaders, but they should also be investigating why Obama is continuing—and expanding—U.S. assassinations.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/14-6

Seeing Obama as Norwegians See Him

I just returned from a research trip to Norway where the people I interviewed often brought up the topic of our new President. The first was Kristin Clemet, the director of a conservative think tank. "This spring on a delegation to Washington I was struck again," she said, "by how different the political spectrum is in Norway from your country. Here, Obama would be on the right wing." I checked her view with others -- academics, politicians, activists all over the Norwegian spectrum -- and all but one agreed. In Norwegian terms, our President's positions are very conservative.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/07/08-2

*******

In American "con" just means "con"fused. Norwegians know better.

Sessions Becomes The Subject Of Sotomayor Hearings

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DagoG2iqWSU

Shuster rips Cheney’s refusal to comment on CIA secrecy scandal

http://www.dailykostv.com/w/001929/

*****

Funny thing, wasn't Dick the Bruce very VERY vociferous on the subject just a few weeks back?

Obama On Responsibility For Economy: "Give It To Me"

WARREN, Mich. — Conceding unemployment will get worse before it shrinks, President Barack Obama on Tuesday unveiled a $12 billion plan to help community colleges prepare millions of people for a new generation of jobs. Challenging critics, he said he welcomed the task of turning around the economy.

"I love the folks who helped get us in this mess and then suddenly say, 'Well, this is Obama's economy,'" the president told an outdoor crowd at Macomb Community College, veering off his scripted words. "That's fine. Give it to me. My job is to solve problems, not to stand on the sidelines and harp and gripe."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/14/obama-on-economy-i-want-t_n_232265.html

******

Refreshing to have a top dawg who is man enough to take responsibility, eh?

Freddie correctly declares Obamas policies have failed!