Criminal Inquiry Opens Into Spying Leak - New York Times

Criminal Inquiry Opens Into Spying Leak - New York Times: "President Bush broke the law and lied to the American people when he unilaterally authorized secret wiretaps of U.S. citizens,' said Anthony D. Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union. 'But rather than focus on this constitutional crisis, Attorney General Gonzales is cracking down on critics of his friend and boss. Our nation is strengthened, not weakened, by those whistle-blowers who are courageous enough to speak out on violations of the law.'"

The Hidden State Steps Forward

There is a name for a system of government that wages aggressive war, deceives its citizens, violates their rights, abuses power and breaks the law, rejects judicial and legislative checks on itself, claims power without limit, tortures prisoners and acts in secret. It is dictatorship.
The Hidden State Steps Forward: "The Administration of George W. Bush is not a dictatorship, but it does manifest the characteristics of one in embryonic form. "

Intelligence abuse dj vu - Los Angeles Times

Intelligence abuse dj vu - Los Angeles Times: "So what goes around, comes around. Here we are again, 30 years later, in yet another unwise war, no wiser and once again willing to sacrifice constitutional liberties for security expediency. If there was one lesson all of us who served on the Church Committee learned, it was that there are no secrets, that everything comes out and that the sacrifice of liberty is almost never justified by improved security."

Unauthorized Snooping

Unauthorized Snooping: "It is impossible to believe that Congress, in authorizing the use of force against al Qaeda, understood itself to be making compliance with FISA optional -- particularly because it was, in that same period, relaxing certain provisions of the surveillance statute in the USA Patriot Act. If the authorization of force implied a repeal of a decades-old law that comprehensively regulates domestic surveillance, what other laws does the administration think were repealed?"

TomPaine.com - No Room To Spin

How bush/cheney can continue to spin their lies in the face of the American people is beyond comprehension. When oh when will the democrats start standing together as an opposition party and start speaking out against these criminals.
TomPaine.com - No Room To Spin: "John Prados is a senior fellow of the National Security Archive in Washington, DC, and author of Hoodwinked: The Documents that Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War (The New Press). "

Bush Acknowledges Approving Eavesdropping after lying about it yesterday

The only Senator to vote against the Iraq war and the only Senator with balls enough to tell it like it is.
Bush Acknowledges Approving Eavesdropping - New York Times: "''If that's true, he doesn't need the Patriot Act because he can just make it up as he goes along. I tell you, he's President George Bush, not King George Bush. This is not the system of government we have and that we fought for,'' "

Bush Acknowledges Approving Eavesdropping

BULLSHIT! When will the House start impeachment proceedings?
Bush Acknowledges Approving Eavesdropping - Yahoo! News

New tests fuel doubts about vote machines

A political operative with hacking skills could alter the results of any election on Diebold-made voting machines -- and possibly other new voting systems in Florida -- according to the state capital's election supervisor, who said Diebold software has failed repeated tests.
Herald.com | 12/15/2005 | New tests fuel doubts about vote machines: "A top election official and computer experts say computer hackers could easily change election results, after they found numerous flaws with a state-approved voting-machine in Tallahassee."

Bob Novak Says President Knows Leak Source

Novak said that "I'd be amazed" if the president didn't know the source's identity and that the public should "bug the president as to whether he should reveal who the source is."
Bob Novak Says President Knows Leak Source - Yahoo! News: " Columnist Bob Novak, who first published the identity of covert CIA officer Valerie Plame, says he is confident that President Bush knows who leaked Plame's name. "

Death of an American City

President Bush said it wouldn't happen. He stood in Jackson Square and said, "There is no way to imagine America without New Orleans." But it has been over three months since Hurricane Katrina struck and the city is in complete shambles.
Death of an American City - New York Times: "At this moment the reconstruction is a rudderless ship. There is no effective leadership that we can identify. How many people could even name the president's liaison for the reconstruction effort, Donald Powell? Lawmakers need to understand that for New Orleans the words 'pending in Congress' are a death warrant requiring no signature."

Military Misleads Press, Families, About How 10 Marines Died Last Week in Iraq

Why is it the first stories out are always a complete fabrication and never the REAL information? No wonder the public turns to the comedy channel rather than listening to any of the so called media when announcing pentagon propaganda.
Military Misleads Press, Families, About How 10 Marines Died Last Week in Iraq: "NEW YORK Why did the U.S. military mislead the media and the families of ten Marines killed near the Iraqi city of Falluja while 'on patrol' last week about how they were killed? The military announced on Tuesday that it actually happened at a 'promotion' ceremony and they were not on foot patrol as initially reported"

The incompetence of this administration

continues to boggle the mind.  One has to wonder if the whole whitehouse staff isn't in the oval with bush snorting a line or two.  Their casual attitude toward the country's worst natural disaster is without precedent.

KATRINA -- DOCUMENTS REVEAL WHITE HOUSE'S FAILURE TO ACT: Despite the White House's efforts during Hurricane Katrina to blame state and local officials for not requesting federal assistance early enough, recently-revealed documents include a letter Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) sent to President Bush a day before the Hurricane hit. "I have determined that this incident will be of such severity and magnitude that effective response will be beyond the capabilities of the state and the affected local governments and that supplementary federal assistance will be necessary," Blanco wrote. Five days later, Bush assistant Maggie Grant e-mailed Blanco aide Paine Gowen to say that the White House did not receive the letter. "We found it on the governor's website but we need 'an original,' for our staff secretary to formally process the requests she is making," Grant wrote. "We are on the job but appreciate your help with a technical request. Tnx!" Earlier document releases showed former FEMA director Michael Brown failed to act on information he was receiving about the hurricane's devastation.

 

IS GEORGE BUSH THE WORST PRESIDENT -- EVER?

IS GEORGE BUSH THE WORST PRESIDENT -- EVER? - Yahoo! News: " The History News Network at George Mason University has just polled historians informally on the Bush record. Four hundred and fifteen, about a third of those contacted, answered -- maybe they were all crazed liberals -- making the project as unofficial as it was interesting. These were the results: 338 said they believed Bush was failing, while 77 said he was succeeding. Fifty said they thought he was the worst president ever. Worse than Buchanan.
This is what those historians said -- and it should be noted that some of the criticism about deficit spending and misuse of the military came from self-identified conservatives -- about the Bush record:"

Obama Mouths Mush on War

U.S. Senator Barack Obama has planted his feet deeply inside the Iraq war-prolongation camp of the Democratic Party, the great swamp that, if not drained, will swallow up any hope of victory over the GOP in next year's congressional elections
The Black Commentator - Cover Story: Obama Mouths Mush on War: "It is truly pitiful that the Bush men and DLC-centered Democrats cling to the hope that their Iraqi clients will rescue them from the debacle that was foreordained in March, 2003. Barack Obama has definitively joined the ranks of those who seek to prolong the agony. However, BC's critique is not 'idealistic,' as Sen. Obama might seek to paint it, but practical - 'pragmatic,' if you will. By late summer of 2006, when voters are deciding what they want their Senate and House to look like, if the Democrats have not caught up to public opinion to offer a tangible and quick exit from Iraq, the Republicans will retain control of both chambers of congress. "