Day: July 3, 2005

Schwarzenegger Booed at Mayor Villaraigosa’s Inauguration

Jon Ponder

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger got no love from the crowd at the inauguration of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa on Friday:

Former Vice President Al Gore; the Rev. Jesse Jackson; Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his wife, Maria Shriver; and former California Govs. Jerry Brown, Pete Wilson and Gray Davis were there.

When many in the crowd booed Villaraigosa’s introduction of Schwarzenegger, the new mayor brusquely silenced the protesters. “Angelenos, excuse me,” he said. “There will be civility today.”

Other dignitaries who witnessed the governor’s indignity included New York mayor Michael Bloomberg; the current and former mayors of San Francisco, Gavin Newsome and Willie Brown; the Mexican ambassador Carlos de Icaza and actor David Hasselhof.

I’m told that Natalie Cole brought the house down with “God Bless America.”

Rove Testified That He Talked with Time’s Cooper

Jon Ponder

Lawrence O’Donnell broke the story that Karl Rove was the source of the leak that broke the cover of CIA agent Valerie Plame. He has updated the story in the Huffington Post:

Rove would not let me get one day of traction on this story if he could stop me.

On Saturday, [Rove’s lawyer Robert] Luskin decided to reveal that Rove did have at least one conversation with Cooper, but Luskin told the [Los Angeles] Times he would not “characterize the substance of the conversation.”

Luskin claimed that the prosecutor “asked us not to talk about what Karl has had to say.” This is highly unlikely. Prosecutors have absolutely no control over what witnesses say when they leave the grand jury room. Rove can tell us word-for-word what he said to the grand jury and would if he thought it would help him. And notice that Luskin just did reveal part of Rove’s grand jury testimony, the fact that he had a conversation with Cooper.

Rove would not let me get one day of traction on this story if he could stop me. If what I have reported is not true, if Karl Rove is not Matt Cooper’s source, Rove could prove that instantly by telling us what he told the grand jury. Nothing prevents him from doing that, except a good lawyer who is trying to keep him out of jail.

President Bush’s Statements on Iraq

Jon Ponder

Here we have the conservative connundrum writ large.

Were President Bush’s statements urging the country to war with Iraq meant deliberately to mislead, or do they merely reflect monstrous incompetence on the part of the president and his administration?

President Bush’s statements on Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction, in chronological order, were:

“Right now, Iraq is expanding and improving facilities that were used for the production of biological weapons.”
– United Nations address, September 12, 2002

“Iraq has stockpiled biological and chemical weapons, and is rebuilding the facilities used to make more of those weapons.”

“We have sources that tell us that Saddam Hussein recently authorized Iraqi field commanders to use chemical weapons — the very weapons the dictator tells us he does not have.”
– Radio address, October 5, 2002

“The Iraqi regime . . . possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons.”

“We know that the regime has produced thousands of tons of chemical agents, including mustard gas, sarin nerve gas, VX nerve gas.”

“We’ve also discovered through intelligence that Iraq has a growing fleet of manned and unmanned aerial vehicles that could be used to disperse chemical or biological weapons across broad areas. We’re concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAVS for missions targeting the United States.”

“The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program. Saddam Hussein has held numerous meetings with Iraqi nuclear scientists, a group he calls his “nuclear mujahideen” — his nuclear holy warriors. Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of its nuclear program in the past. Iraq has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes and other equipment needed for gas centrifuges, which are used to enrich uranium for nuclear weapons.”
– Cincinnati, Ohio speech, October 7, 2002

“Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.”
– State of the Union Address, January 28, 2003

“Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.”
– Address to the nation, March 17, 2003

Source: John Dean, FindLaw