Month: July 2006

GOP Intel Chair Warned Bush about Keeping Secrets from Congress

Jon Ponder

Lapdog shows teeth: In late May, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Peter Hoekstra (R-Michigan) sent a letter to President Bush warning him about keeping government spy operations secret from the Congress:

In a sharply worded letter to President Bush in May, an important Congressional ally charged that the administration might have violated the law by failing to inform Congress of some secret intelligence programs and risked losing Republican support on national security matters.

The letter from [Hoekstra] did not specify the intelligence activities that he believed had been hidden from Congress.

But Mr. Hoekstra, who was briefed on and supported the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance program and the Treasury Department’s tracking of international banking transactions, clearly was referring to programs that have not been publicly revealed.

Recently, after the harsh criticism from Mr. Hoekstra, intelligence officials have appeared at two closed committee briefings to answer questions from the chairman and other members. The briefings appear to have eased but not erased the concerns of Mr. Hoekstra and other lawmakers about whether the administration is sharing information on all of its intelligence operations.

This begs a question:

Question: does Hoekstra really want to oversee what the Administration is doing or is he distancing himself from the nastiness that will eventually come out?

The Times posted a PDF of the letter here.

Jeb Tries to Disown Nutjob Crony After Islam Slurs

Trish

Momma always said to watch who you hang around with: Jeb Bush is recoiling like a man who discovered a snake under a rock after anti-Muslim comments on a Florida radio show from his faithful Repug beard in the black community.

Jeb wasted no time yelling, “Ho-lee shee-it!”

The always-good-for-a-shocker Rev. O’Neal Dozier is at it again, this time venting his spleen not on gay people but on Muslims.

God’s man in South Florida says he doesn’t want a mosque in his neighborhood, because Those People are terrorists and their religion is a cult. But you, not being a Man or Woman of God, couldn’t be expected to know that.

”I don’t look for everyone to believe what I believe, because everyone is not as astute about religion as I am,” said Dozier, pastor of the Worldwide Christian Center in Pompano Beach. ”That’s my life.”

Right ho. Still, some people feel the good rev should have devoted a little more study to the matter.

…Altaf Ali, executive director of the Florida Chapter of the Council of American-Islamic Relations, said he has tried unsuccessfully to meet with Dozier.

”I want a chance to respond and refute these accusations,” Ali said Friday. ”It appears that he doesn’t have that much knowledge about Islam.”

Jeb, who appointed Dozier to the powerful Broward County Judicial Nominating Commission to help select county and circuit court judges, wasted no time yelling, “Ho-lee shee-it!”

On Friday, Gov. Bush’s office issued a statement distancing him from Dozier.

”Gov. Bush in no way shares Rev. Dozier’s views on Islam,” said Alia Faraj, Bush’s spokeswoman.

Of course, it suited Jeb fine until now for Dozier to be a nutcase in other areas.

In the past, Dozier has asked Gov. Bush’s appointments to the Broward circuit and county courts if they were ”God-fearing,” and inquired about their parenting abilities.

Clinton Praises Bush on Immigration Reform

Jon Ponder

I’m sure there’s nothing the White House likes more than praise for Dear Leader from President Clinton:

Former President Bill Clinton praised President Bush on Saturday for supporting reforms that would allow millions of illegal immigrants to seek citizenship but said the debate in Congress is being fomented by Republicans who want to divide America.

“I’m proud of him for doing it and I thanked him for doing it,” he said of Bush during a “Cafe con Clinton” breakfast speech to the annual conference of the National Council of La Raza, the nation’s largest Hispanic civil rights advocacy group.

Clinton said Bush’s roots in Texas — which has one of the nation’s largest Hispanic populations — have helped him view immigrants as people rather than statistics.

“It’s hard to demonize people if you know them,” he said.

But Clinton also argued that the nation’s government is controlled by Republican ideological hard-liners who want to use immigration to divide Americans and distract them from issues such as the war in
Iraq and the health care crisis.

Instead of equal opportunity, they support a “financial elite” because they favor “concentrated wealth and power,” Clinton said.

“They believe in a government that is secret, unaccountable and that maximizes its own power,” he said. “They really believe the world works better if they run it and we keep our mouths shut.”

Poll: Schwarzenegger Moves Ahead in Re-Election Bid; Bush Down to 30% in California

Jon Ponder
Arnold has changed his public persona from the Terminator to Kindergarten Cop.

In the first poll after the Democratic primary, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has moved ahead of his challenger, Phil Angelides. According to the nonpartisan Survey and Policy Research Institute poll, Schwarzenegger leads by seven percentage points, 44 percent to 37 percent.

In his analysis of the poll, George Skelton, who covers Sacramento for the Los Angeles Times, surmises that the governor has brought conservatives home and made inroads back into the good graces of independent voters. Consummate actor that he is, Schwarzenegger has done this by portraying a different character to the public. Last year, he was the hard-ass reformer ramming his agenda down the throats of Californians for their own good. But after his reform initiatives were voted down last November, he has transformed himself into a kinder, gentler Arnold. As Skelton put it, he has gone from the Terminator to Kindergarten Cop.

It looks like clear sailing to election for the governor — with the exception noted in the poll of Schwarzenegger’s association in the minds of voters with California’s top political pariah, George W. Bush.

Californians of all stripes and persuasions don’t care for the president, whose approval is at 30 percent. In the poll, 65 percent held an unfavorable view of the president’s handling of the economy, and according to the pollsters, almost 90 percent of those who disapprove of Bush’s handling of the economy plan to vote against Schwarzenegger.

DHS Under Scrutiny for Proposal to House Illegal Immigrants on Cruise Ships

Buck Banks

Floating the floating prison idea: We reported on this lame-brained idea when it was first mentioned in June. The suggestion to house detainees on cruise ships came in response to Customs and Border Patrol managers asking their departments for suggestions on how to handle the predictable surge in detainees once illegal immigration is deemed, well, really double-illegal.

Now, what was only a brainstorming idea last month has come back to haunt Michael Chertoff — and no doubt make him wish for a hurricane just to deflect attention — in the form of a letter from two high-ranking House Democrats asking him to, in effect, explain the half-baked notion.

Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., are requesting, in addition to an explanation of why the idea of using cruise ships is even being countenanced as well as why a questionable contract was awarded to a Halliburton subsidiary to build border detention facilities. Here are some excerpts from the letter:

According to a recent account on GovExec.com, Customs and Border Protection “is considering a variety of methods to accommodate what is expected to be a surge in illegal immigrants detained, including holding those arrested on ships to await trial.” One option under active consideration, according to this account, is “buying out-of-service cruise ships or leasing them to create ‘detention barges’ at sea.” These ships “would act as jails, housing alleged violators of U.S. immigration law.”

If accurate, this report raises several red flags.

Recent experience shows that using cruise ships for temporary housing is enormously expensive. In September 2005, the Military Sealift Command, acting on behalf of FEMA, awarded Carnival Cruise Lines three contracts worth a combined $236 million to provide temporary housing to Hurricane Katrina evacuees and emergency personnel. Under these contracts, the federal government paid more than $50,000 to house a single person for six months, almost $300 per person for each night’s lodging (nearly $600 per night double occupancy). As Congressman Lynch pointed out at a recent Committee hearing, it would have been cheaper to rent a suite at the Bellagio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, a two-bedroom apartment at Trump World Tower in New York City, or Fanningstown Castle in Ireland than to house evacuees on cruise ships under the contract with Carnival.

Waxman and Lynch ignore the fact that the Carnival ships were used for housing first responders in New Orleans — on-site where they were needed — not in Las Vegas. But why confuse them with the facts when they are having so much fun picking on Chertoff.

To assist Congress in its oversight of federal spending, we request that you confirm whether the Department is again considering the use of cruise ships to provide temporary housing. If the report is accurate, we further request that you explain what lessons the Department has learned from the experience after Hurricane Katrina and what steps the Department will take to prevent a repeat of the wasteful spending on cruise ships that occurred then. We also request copies of any documents relating to the possible use of cruise ships to house illegal immigrants.

Ouch! We know what documents can do to one’s credibility, eh, Brownie? But wait, there’s more:

In January, the Army Corps of Engineers, on behalf of the Department, awarded Halliburton subsidiary KBR a $385 million contract for “establishing temporary detention and processing capabilities to augment existing … facilities” and to “provide migrant detention support.” This contract “provides for planning and, if required, initiation of specific engineering, construction and logistics support to establish, operate and maintain one or more expansion facilities.”

As the recent report Dollars, Not Sense: Government Contracting Under the Bush Administration released by Congressman Waxman documents, Halliburton’s recent track record as a government contractor in Iraq has been marred by “egregious overcharges” and questioned and unsupported costs in excess of $1 billion. It is unclear how this performance record was taken into consideration in the award of the January contract for detention facilities and what steps the Department and the Corps of Engineers plan to take prevent a recurrence of the waste, fraud, abuse, and mismanagement that have characterized the Halliburton contracts in Iraq.

For these reasons, we also request (1) the documents relating to Halliburton’s bid and selection for the detention center contract and (2) an explanation of what audit and other oversight mechanisms will be applied to the Halliburton contract to protect taxpayer interests.

Dang, that almost makes us feel sympathy for Chertoff — not! This is clearly just another instance of more cronyism, waste and incompetence inside one of the biggest departments in the gubmint.

Stay tuned for Chertoff’s response, which he’s supposed to supply by July 19.

Harris Tosses Out Nelson Slur; Press Skeptical

Trish

It doesn’t have to be true, it just has to make headlines: Katherine Harris is again making it up as she goes along. At a public forum given by a Republican women’s club in Florida, she pulled from her ass a reference to U.S. Senator Bill Nelson taking bribes.

No Katherine. That was you.

Republican Rep. Katherine Harris accused the man she is trying to unseat in her quest for the U.S. Senate of accepting illegal campaign contributions, as she did last year…

But after a question from a member of the audience about illegal contributions made to her campaign by a defense contractor in 2004, Harris said that she had not known the $32,000 donation was illegal and she has since donated the money to charity.

She then upped the political ante by suggesting Nelson had made a similar mistake.

“That actually happened in the past, and it happened to Bill Nelson,” Harris said. “The difference is that when I did find out, I donated that money to charity. . . He received some $80,000 the same way and he never did reimburse. So there is a little bit of difference, and I’m happy to draw attention to that.”

She never identified the money to which she was referring.

Harris gets more and more delusional with each passing day. I can see her shrieking maniacally as she paces in her hotel room before speeches, wringing her hands and wiping the odd fleck of foam from her lips.

It was only last week that she claimed Democrat fellow House members from Florida fervently wished she would beat Nelson. All seven denied it.

The Orlando Sentinel, which published the latest story, seemed equally unconvinced. The subhead for the article was: “In Kissimmee [Fla.], the U.S. Senate candidate says her chief opponent erred but offers no specifics.”

Quote du Jour

Pensito Editors

War is a biological necessity of the first importance, a regulative element in the life of mankind which cannot be dispensed with. But it is not only a biological law but a moral obligation, and, as such, and indispensible factor in civilization.

— Friedrich A. J. Von Bernhardi, (1849-1930), German general

With Christians Like These, Who Needs Satanists?

Trish

The demented vicious weirdos of Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka were a big no-show at the funeral of a Florida vet killed in Afghanistan, after authorities made it clear that they would be pleased to make an example of them.

If they are not being monitored like their fundamentalist brethren in better-known terrorist groups, there’s something really wrong with national security

Florida’s two-week old law, similar to a national one, bars protests at military funerals. It was enacted just for the sick puppies at Westboro and any other freaks of nature of who might get a similar idea to proclaim that God kills soldiers to exact revenge on gays. Because you know, God can’t just take the direct route and kill gays. Or something.

The Patriot Guard Riders, a group of mostly former veterans on motorcycles, did attend the service. The group formed to protect the families targeted by Westboro and its ilk and its captain, Clayton Murphy, correctly predicted the so-called church members would chicken out.

Murphy praised the new laws but said Westboro members probably won’t show. The group often sends announcements of protests that never happen, he said.

If the protesters come to town, Murphy suggests people ignore them.

“They feed off people who show up to counterprotest,” Murphy said. “When they break the law, let the local law enforcement officers in the area arrest them.”

I’m not exaggerating how bizarre these folks are. Among their teachings are that the idea that God loves everyone is “the greatest lie ever told,” and that God in fact hates America. If they are not being monitored like their fundamentalist brethren in better-known terrorist groups, there’s something really wrong with national security. Check them out yourself at godhatesfags.com, but be warned: you will want to take a hot shower after you visit their site.

What Foreign Policy?

Jon Ponder
Bush has no foreign policy, so he spins his wheels, waiting for 2009. Unfortunately, the rest of us are left spinning with him.

What we know for certain about President Bush is that he is a man of very limited gifts. Even in politics, the only arena besides being a college cheerleader where he has found sucess, he is a one-trick pony. He knows how to conduct slash-and-burn, smoke-and-mirrors campaigns, and that’s it.

Fortunately, his bag of Rovian tricks won’t work in the international arena, so — unfortunately for the future of the United States — is he bereft of ideas — much less solutions — for dealing with international crises, which are too big and complex to dodge or obfuscate with spin and stage management:

the Bush administration literally seems to have no foreign policy at all anymore. They have no serious plan for Iraq, no plan for Iran, no plan for North Korea, no plan for democracy promotion, no plan for anything. With the neocons on the outs, Condoleezza Rice at the State Department, and Dick Cheney continuing to drift into an alternate universe at the OVP, the Bush administration seems completely at sea. There’s virtually no ideological coherency to their foreign policy that I can discern, and no credible followup on what little coherency is left.

As near as I can tell, George Bush has learned that “There’s evil in the world and we’re going to stand up to it” isn’t really adequate as a foreign policy for a superpower but is unable to figure out anything better to replace it with. So he spins his wheels, waiting for 2009. Unfortunately, the rest of us are left spinning with him.