Day: May 1, 2006

Bushco Clamping Down On — Everybody

Buck Banks

Zip it: Last week I posted a quote by Paul Joseph Goebbels, Hitler’s Nazi propaganda minister: “It is the absolute right of the State to supervise the formation of public opinion.” Seems like Bushco has taken that as its motto and, as it often does, extrapolated it to the next illogical step: “It is the absolute right of the State to form and control public opinion and limit the free flow of information among citizens — absolutely.”

As reported in the “New York Times” yesterday, it’s becoming clear the administration is starting to play hardball with journalists over leaks. That the Leaker-In-Chief is leaking, I mean leading the charge against media is more than a little ironic, since he don’t read it and he don’t watch it, preferring to get his “fair and balanced” news in the form of easy-to-digest bullet points from his aides.

The administration and its allies say that all avenues must be explored to ensure that vital national security information does not fall into the hands of the nation’s enemies.

In February, Senator John Cornyn, Republican of Texas, asked Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales whether the government’s investigation into The Times’s disclosure of a National Security Agency eavesdropping program included “any potential violation for publishing that information.”

Mr. Gonzales responded: “Obviously, our prosecutors are going to look to see all the laws that have been violated. And if the evidence is there, they’re going to prosecute those violations.”

Obviously, Herr Attorney General believes he’s got some legal traction, otherwise he wouldn’t have said “all the laws that have been violated.” Look out, journos, the presumption of innocence offically has been replaced by the assumption of guilt by decree of the nation’s chief lawyer.

And then there’s the FBI’s recent boneheaded move to reclassify and confiscate the files of late columnist Jack Anderson, in what Molly Ivins calls the “Great Bush Reclassification Project.” Apparently, there are some who believe the skeletal remains in those boxes of notes are potentially damaging to … somebody. See, guys, the story broke years ago, cat’s out of the bag, game over, fergetaboutit. For the record, Anderson’s son Kevin has said that there’s no way in hell the FBI’s getting his daddy’s notes, and that he and his family members are willing to go to jail to protect the notes.

On yet another front, the “National Journal” reports that the CIA has changed the rules governing what former agents and current contractors can write about the agency.

According to several former CIA officials affected by the new policy, the rules are intended to suppress criticism of the Bush administration and of the CIA. The officials say the restrictions amount to an unprecedented political “appropriateness” test at odds with earlier CIA policies on outside publishing.

The move is a significant departure from the CIA’s longtime practice of allowing ex-employees to take critical or contrary positions in public, particularly when they are contractors paid to advise the CIA on important topics and to publish their assessments.

But in recent years, former employees have written memoirs and opinion pieces challenging the CIA and the Bush administration, particularly for its use of prewar intelligence to justify the war in Iraq. The board did not find that any of those pieces revealed secrets, a fact that makes the CIA’s new review standards troubling, former officials and intelligence-community analysts said.

Many of those experts believe that public criticism provides an important source of alternative analysis — something the CIA needs to understand terrorism, global disease, and other emerging threats. But the White House and CIA Director Porter Goss view spies-turned-authors as political liabilities who embarrass an already battered administration, former officials said.

Bushco already has mounted an almost unprecedented assault on personal freedom with the illegal wiretapping of U.S. citizens and increasing government access to personal information. Now it is closing the circle by quashing the press and muffling the voice of dissent among its employees.

Meanwhile the Leaker-In-Chief has it within his power to declassify anything at any time and leak it to anybody. Mr. President, would you please declassify my personal dossier and leak it to me so I can see what your evil minions know about me and my life? Please? I’ll turn in an enemy of the State in return. Honest.

Colbert Lampoons Bush at WH Correspondents Dinner

Buck Banks

Satiricaliness: Stephen Colbert, whose loopy character on Comedy Central’s “Colbert Report” is known for his “truthiness,” delivered a major dose of it to a displeased President and Mrs. Bush Saturday night at the White House Correspondents Dinner, according to Editor & Publisher:

A blistering comedy “tribute” to President Bush by Comedy Central’s faux talk-show host Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night left George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close.

‘I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq.’

Earlier, the president had delivered his talk to the 2,700 attendees, including many celebrities and top officials, with the help of a Bush impersonator.

Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk-show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, “and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

He attacked those in the press who claim that the shake-up at the White House was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. “This administration is soaring, not sinking,” he said. “If anything, they are re-arranging the deck chairs on the Hindenburg.”

Colbert told Bush he could end the problem of protests by retired generals by refusing to let them retire. He compared Bush to Rocky Balboa in the “Rocky” movies, always getting punched in the face — “and Apollo Creed is everything else in the world.”

Turning to the war, he declared, “I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq.”
[…]

Quote du Jour

Buck Banks

In the First Amendment the Founding Fathers gave the free press the protection it must have to fulfill its essential role in our democracy. The press was to serve the governed, not the governors. The Government’s power to censor the press was abolished so that the press could remain forever free to censure the government. The press was protected so that it could bare the secrets of Government and inform the people.

— Hugo L. Black (1886-1971), U.S. Supreme Court Justice

Common Cause Wants Justice Department to Investigate Katherine Harris

Trish

This shouldn’t take long.

Common Cause, pain-in-the-GOP-ass extraordinaire group that Jeb once referred to as a bunch of “secret squirrels” is at it again. This time, they’re going after beleaguered Senate candidate U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris (R-Fla.), asking the Justice Department to do its job and investigate the skanky ho bag.

“Bribery takes two…We know Mitchell Wade has been guilty of bribery. The question is, ‘Is Katherine Harris guilty?’

Common Cause wants to know whether Harris broke the law when she and Mitchell Wade met at an exclusive Georgetown restaurant in early 2005. At that dinner — which cost Wade up to $2,800 — Wade offered to hold a fundraiser for Harris and sought her help obtaining $10 million in federal money…

“Bribery takes two,” said [Common Cause Director of Ethics Campaign’s Mike] Surrusco. “We know Mitchell Wade has been guilty of bribery. The question is, ‘Is Katherine Harris guilty?’ “

It’s a violation of Congressional ethics codes to accept anything worth more than $50. Harris didn’t do too well recently explaining this whole $2,800 dinner deal to reporters. One can only imagine how she’ll hold up under Justice Department questioning.

In her interview Wednesday, Harris acknowledged for the first time that Wade had paid for the dinner at Citronelle, reversing a statement from her congressional spokeswoman earlier this year.

But in the interview, Harris also said her campaign had, at some point, “reimbursed” the restaurant.

When asked how she could have reimbursed a business that was owed no money — Wade paid the bill that evening — she abruptly ended the interview and walked off. […]

Happy ‘Mission Accomplished’ Day!

Jon Ponder

Was it only three years ago?

Update by Trish: Sometimes the words “outrage” and “indignation” seem so inadequate. Read what the lying liar said for yourself.

ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CNN) — The following is an unedited transcript of President Bush’s historic speech from the flight deck of the USS Lincoln, during which he declared an end to major combat in Iraq:

And tonight, I have a special word for Secretary Rumsfeld…America is grateful for a job well done…The war on terror is not over, yet it is not endless…we have seen the turning of the tide.

Thank you. Thank you all very much.

Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.

And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country. […]

On Iran: Double or Nothing Is Not a Foreign Policy

Jon Ponder

Josh Marshall:

With respect to what’s coming on Iran, what is in order is a little honesty… The only crisis with Iran is the crisis with the president’s public approval ratings. Period. End of story. The Iranians are years, probably as long as a decade away, and possibly even longer from creating even a limited yield nuclear weapon. Ergo, the only reason to ramp up a confrontation now is to help the president’s poll numbers.

The period of peril the country is entering into isn’t tied to an Iranian bomb. It turns on how far a desperate president will go to avoid losing control of Congress.

This is a powerful message because it is an accurate message. We have many challenges overseas today. Chief among them, as one of [Democratic candidate for Senate in Virginia, and former Republican, James Webb] puts it, is “refocusing America’s foreign and defense policies in a way that truly protects our national interests and seeks harmony where they are not threatened.” The period of peril the country is entering into isn’t tied to an Iranian bomb. It turns on how far a desperate president will go to avoid losing control of Congress.

Go to his heart. Go to his weaknesses. Though the realization of the fact is something of a lagging indicator, the man is a laughing stock, whose lies and failures are all catching up with him.

To the president the Democrats should be saying, Double or Nothing is Not a Foreign Policy.

The great bulk of the public doesn’t believe this president any more when he tries to gin up a phony crisis. They don’t believe he’d have much of an idea of how to deal with a real one. Enough of the lies. Enough of the incompetence and failure.

No buying into another of the president’s phony crises.