Blogtopia* RoundUp, Thursday, June 14, 2007

Happy Flag Day!

The Solicitor General will not fight for defrauded investors -- even though dozens of state attorneys general have -- on direct order from Herr Bush. There go defrauded investors rights and probably the pensions of the Enron workers. Robert Borosage, commonsense.com: Bank Shot: Bush Shafts Enron's Victims, via The Left Coaster

Speaking of lawsuits, (the good) Roger Ailes skewers Robert Bork delightfully.

At HuffPo, comedian Kate Clinton riffs on the gay bomb. You heard that right, the Air Force requested $7.5 million to develop a bomb to turn our enemies gay.

I'm surprised this request for millions for the gay bomb wasn't approved, as the New York Times reports today that the Justice Department has been take over by theocrats enforcing nonexistent religious discrimination. Or, as one clever blogger put it: Crusading Crackpots Taking over the DOJ

Speaking of DOJ, the multiple investigations have gotten into the White House. Former White House Counsel and exclamation point lover Harriet Miers and former White House political director Sara Taylor have both been subpoenaed to appear before Congress. Taylor's US Attorney email messages, and those of her deputy, Scott Jennings, were both sent on their Republican National Committee email accounts. Subpoena duces tecum, anyone?

Legal Genius Bush Says: Surveillance Legal BECAUSE I SAY SO

He also said Harriet Miers was the most qualified person to serve on the Supreme Court, so there you go.

Shorter Bush: 9/11, 9/11, 9/11, an enemy, al Qaeda, 9/11, 9/11, nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah.

WaPo: NSA Call-Tracking Program Sparks Alarm
Bush Insists That Citizens' Privacy is 'Fiercely Protected'

President Bush, responding to a newspaper report on a previously undisclosed program to track the phone call patterns of millions of Americans, insisted today that U.S. intelligence activities he has authorized are lawful and aimed strictly at the al-Qaeda terrorist network.

In a hastily arranged appearance before reporters at the White House, Bush reacted to a USA Today report that says the National Security Agency has been secretly using records provided by the three largest American telephone companies to build a massive database of foreign and domestic phone calls. The program was launched shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks with the aim of analyzing calling patterns to detect terrorist activity, the paper reported. The effort involves collecting phone numbers but does not entail recording or eavesdropping on phone conversations, it said.

The NSA declined comment, saying only that it "operates within the law."

I got this picture from one of my favorite bloggers:

Art Pottery, Politics and Food: "Our intelligence activities strictly target al Qaeda..."
--12:03 pm Statement

While I'm thieving, check out his pic of Michael Hayden, the most qualified person to run the CIA:

The Look & Feel of Harry

The Incompetence, The Corruption, The Cronyism: April 28, 2006 edition

I think Paul Krugman should have titled his column today "The Incompetence, the Corruption, and the Cronyism", but he called it The Crony Fairy (behind the TimesSelect wall; Middle Earth Journal has the column here.)

On the other hand, the history of the Bush administration, from the botched reconstruction of Iraq to the botched start-up of the prescription drug program, shows that a president who isn't serious about governing, who prizes loyalty and personal connections over competence, can quickly reduce the government of the world's most powerful nation to third-world levels of ineffectiveness.

And bear in mind that Mr. Bush's pattern of cronyism didn't change after Katrina. For example, he appointed Julie Myers, the inexperienced niece of Gen. Richard Myers, to head Immigration and Customs Enforcement — an agency that, like FEMA, is supposed to protect us against terrorism as well as other threats. Even at the C.I.A., the administration seems more interested in purging Democrats than in improving the quality of intelligence.

So let's skip the name change for FEMA, O.K.? The United States will regain effective government if and when it gets a president who cares more about serving the nation than about rewarding his friends and scoring political points. That's at least a thousand days away. Meanwhile, don't count on FEMA, or on any other government agency, to do its job.

I see the Bush MO for destroying government as follows:

The Corruption: Lie about your political aims (Compassionate Conservatism, Against Nation Building); cheat to get into office (Florida 2000; Ohio 2004)

The Cronyism: Reward friends and bagmen (Pioneers) with appointments (Michael Brown, Harriet Miers, Tom Ridge) to jobs they can screw up.

The Incompetence: Run federal agencies into the ground (FEMA, Army Corps of Engineers, EPA, OSHA).

Declare war and go home to reap the profits (probably to be employed in Iraq very soon.): Proclaim that government doesn't work, get lame members of Congress to support abolishing government agencies.


In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for. As for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican. H.L. Mencken

Another Republican Talking Point Poll

This one's on MSNBC. You say "up-or-down vote", I say "Harriet Miers."

Go give 'em a piece of your mind.

Live Vote
Should the Senate give Alito an up-or-down vote?

Yes, he has been thoroughly examined and the outcome is certain anyway. Get on with it.

No, he would be a dangerous addition to the court. Any means possible, including a filibuster, is justified to stop his nomination.

Vote to see results

The Incompetence, The Corruption, The Cronyism: November 4, 2005 edition

The Incompetence:

Heckuva Job Brownie, aka Mike Brown, late Director of FEMA, who is still on the federal payroll, is back in the news. Even this kind of breathtaking stupidity can't get the breathtakingly stupid President to just fire your ass.

In Katrina's aftermath, FEMA chief mused about his future

On Aug. 31, two days after the storm flooded the city, a FEMA regional director sent Brown an urgent e-mail about patients dying "within hours," a lack of food and water, hundreds of rescues and a situation "past critical."

Brown's response? "Thanks for update. Anything specific I need to do or tweak?"

[]

E-mails released last month by Collins' committee showed that Brown and his press secretary, Sharon Worthy, were concerned about time for dinner at a Baton Rouge, La., restaurant and an upcoming TV interview while a FEMA regional director, Marty Bahamonde, warned of the desperate situation at the New Orleans Superdome.

Wednesday's release added further insight into their concerns, with one showing Worthy advising Brown to roll up his sleeves to "just below the elbow" the way President Bush did: "In this crisis and on TV you just need to look more hard-working ... ROLL UP THE SLEEVES."

The Corruption:

A 62-year-old Republican state legislator from Hawaii was convicted of sexually molesting a 27 year old woman on an airline flight. Ewwwww. The incident happened on a flight to California, so that's where the trial took place. He didn't even reveal he had been charged until he was convicted.

Testimony against legislator includes details of molestation

The 27-year-old woman who accused state Rep. Galen Fox of sexually molesting her on a United Airlines flight testified that she awoke to find his hand inside her jeans and rubbing her crotch.

[]

In her statement, the woman, identified only as Jane Doe in court documents, told the FBI that she had taken a sleeping pill because she wanted to rest and fell asleep holding a folded airline blanket on her lap, her arms crossed over her blanket.

She said she awoke to a warm sensation pressing against her crotch. Lifting her blanket, she saw Fox's right hand rubbing her crotch, according to a statement of probable cause filed by Special Agent Rodney G. Fung of the FBI's Los Angeles International Airport Office.

According to the affidavit, the woman jumped up and said, "What the ---- are you doing?" to which Fox allegedly replied, "I touched you, I'm sorry I touched you." The woman alerted her parents who sat across the aisle from her and then notified flight attendants, who moved them to other seats.

[]

The woman testified that Fox apparently unfastened the button and zipper of her jeans, and she awoke to find his hand inside her jeans and groping her, Goswami said.

The Cronyism:

So, former baseball owners and Republican fundraisers are experts on intelligence? President La La La, I Can't Hear You thinks so:

In the Company of Friends
Bush may be besieged by charges of cronyism, but they don’t seem to have affected his picks for a panel assessing intelligence matters.

President Bush last week appointed nine campaign contributors, including three longtime fund-raisers, to his Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, a 16-member panel of individuals from the private sector who advise the president on the quality and effectiveness of U.S. intelligence efforts. After watching the fate of Michael Brown as head of FEMA and Harriet Miers as Supreme Court nominee, you might think the president would be wary about the appearance of cronyism—especially with a critical national-security issue such as intelligence. Instead, Bush reappointed William DeWitt, an Ohio businessman who has raised more than $300,000 for the president’s campaigns, for a third two-year term on the panel. Originally appointed in 2001, just a few weeks after the 9/11 attacks, DeWitt, who was also a top fund-raiser for Bush’s 2004 Inaugural committee, was a partner with Bush in the Texas Rangers baseball team.

Other appointees included former Commerce secretary Don Evans, a longtime Bush friend; Texas oilman Ray Hunt; Netscape founder Jim Barksdale, and former congressman and 9/11 Commission vice chairman Lee Hamilton. Like DeWitt, Evans and Hunt have also been longtime Bush fund-raisers, raising more than $100,000 apiece for the president’s campaigns. Barksdale and five other appointees—incoming chairman Stephen Friedman, former Reagan adviser Arthur Culvahouse, retired admiral David Jeremiah, Martin Faga and John L. Morrison—were contributors to the president’s 2004 re-election effort. Friedman also served a year on the intelligence board under President Bill Clinton, who appointed chairmen with very different profiles from Bush's Pioneers: former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Adm. William Crowe, former Defense secretary Les Aspin, former House speaker Tom Foley and former GOP senator Warren Rudman. (Clinton did also appoint two donors who gave $100,000 apiece to the Democratic National Committee: New York investment banker Stan Shuman and Texas real estate magnate Richard Bloch.)

In this world of sin and sorrow there is always something to be thankful for; as for me, I rejoice that I am not a Republican.
H. L. Mencken

Just For Laughs

When Harry met George
By John Kenney, JOHN KENNEY is a humorist who has just finished his first novel.

From the Los Angeles Times, the imagined correspondence of Harriet Miers to "cool" George W. Bush.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

Not much to say today. It's raining. I got my hair cut. Had to replace a mount on my rear tire ($169). It's still raining.

Karl Rove begged not be indicted today, for four hours. The New York Times still isn't talking. Rumor has it that Judith Miller may resign. Good riddance. Josh Marshall asks a couple of interesting questions: What did Harriet Miers know about the Plame outing and the subsequent cover-up? What does she know about what the President knew?

Still waiting for the Bush Administration's traditional post 5:00 p.m. Friday news dump, calculated to draw as little attention as possible to bad news.

No photo ops for Bushie today. Guess the White House didn't like seeing the word "staged" used so much by the MSM.

Hey, did I mention that I'm going to England next week, for two weeks? Whee-hoo!

Publication of this blog will be suspended until November 1st.

Maybe by the time I return it will have stopped raining.

A-HEM

From the smoking gun:

The Harriet And George Letters
Bush-Miers Texas correspondence reveals mutual admiration society

The sycophantic letters of Harriet E. Miers (HEM) to George W. Bush.

My firm had an employee once who wooed me with constant flattery. She wanted to work for me. It was embarrassing, and I never trusted her for a moment because it was so transparently brownnosing.

These letters remind me of that woman. Sad.

I wish some handwriting expert would opine on the flowery, loopy handwriting. Looks like a 9th graders. Apologies to any 9th grader reading this. Mier's handwriting looks like she should be drawing hearts over her "i"s.

Still haven't decided a position on Miers, though I don't think it matters what position the Democrats take on Miers. The right wing is going to take her down.

High Crimes and Misdemeanors

From attytood "Covering Philly and the world like Cheese Whiz":

The President's day: One high crime and two misdemeanors

Misdemeanor No. 1: In using religion as a key basis for offering Miers a job, the president would appear to have violated the spirit, if not the letter, of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. According to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Title VII of the law "prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin."

Misdemeanor No. 2: More specifically, one could make the case that Bush's actions are also in violation of the Civil Service Reform Act of 1978, which specifically covers federal employees. According to the same EEOC primer: "The CSRA prohibits any employee who has authority to take certain personnel actions from discriminating for or against employees or applicants for employment on the bases of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age or disability."

High crime: As you might expect, the "high crime" here is more serious, and is also the area where it's hardest to argue that the president did not cross the line. We are referring to Article VI, Clause 3 of the U.S. Constitution, which states that "no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States."

You Know the Bloom Is Off Your Presidential Rose...

...when the Washington Post publishes articles like this:

For President Under Duress, Body Language Speaks Volumes

...The president was a blur of blinks, taps, jiggles, pivots and shifts. Bush has always been an active man, but standing with Lauer and the serene, steady first lady, he had the body language of a man wishing urgently to be elsewhere.

The fidgeting clearly corresponded to the questioning. When Lauer asked if Bush, after a slow response to Katrina, was "trying to get a second chance to make a good first impression," Bush blinked 24 times in his answer. When asked why Gulf Coast residents would have to pay back funds but Iraqis would not, Bush blinked 23 times and hitched his trousers up by the belt.

When the questioning turned to Miers, Bush blinked 37 times in a single answer -- along with a lick of the lips, three weight shifts and some serious foot jiggling. Laura Bush, by contrast, delivered only three blinks and stood still through her entire answer about encouraging volunteerism.

This Made Me Laugh

Perplexed by This Pick

I have nothing against Miers, though I probably will once she dons those black robes and starts voting on cases I care about. Over the years, the president has had more than enough time to peer deeply into her heart, or her soul, or wherever it is he looks to discern what the person under scrutiny thinks about Roe v. Wade . I'm betting that she's no David Souter -- that she quickly signs up with the Scalia-Thomas fringe, even if she lacks Antonin Scalia's right-wing erudition or Clarence Thomas's persecution complex. They'll be like a middle-aged Mod Squad, a trio of groovy avengers fighting for truth, justice and the American Way circa 1805.

Julie (Harriet), Link (Clarence), and Pete (Antonin). I can just see it. Wasn't Clarence still 3/5 of a person in 1805? Harriet didn't exist, constitutionally speaking.

I can't decide where to come down on Harriet. Obviously, she's in Bush's hip pocket. But she's at least taken a few positions in her life that I would agree with (favoring gay rights, etc.). If we defeat her, will we get an even more right-wing wingnut, a la Clarence Thomas, with a better resume, that the Republican majority (55-45) in the Senate will vote in no matter how horrible the record or hateful the beliefs?

Let's hope we get some frogmarching news in the next few days to take our minds off this conundrum. I fear there are no good answers.

Because P.R. Is All They Do

From The Emperor Has No Clothes Dept.;

Bush Works to Reassure G.O.P. Over Nominee for Supreme Court

Behind the scenes, Republican allies of the White House said they were trying to put together a public relations strategy to combat the mounting criticism over the Miers nomination.

You were thinking she would rise or fall on her merits? That's funny. She has no merits.

The Incompetence, The Corruption, The Cronyism - October 5, 2005 edition

After awhile, the three categories run together. It's hard to decide which story goes where, because almost all stories contain all three -- the Bush Administration trifecta, incompetence, corruption and cronyism. Well, here goes.

The Incompetence

Back to FEMA, the disaster of an agency. They bought $100 million dollars worth of ice, but it never made to the Gulf Coast.

Stumbling Storm-Aid Effort Put Tons of Ice on Trips to Nowhere

[T]he odyssey of the ice.

Ninety-one thousand tons of ice cubes, that is, intended to cool food, medicine and sweltering victims of the storm. It would cost taxpayers more than $100 million, and most of it would never be delivered.

More FEMA f**kups:

FEMA suspends Phoenix rescuers over arms

PHOENIX - The Phoenix Fire Department's Urban Search and Rescue team has been suspended by a federal agency because it brought armed police officers for protection on hurricane relief missions. []

The team was credited with plucking more than 400 Katrina survivors from rooftops and freeway overpasses in flooded sections of New Orleans.

Tale of the forbidden pillow offers insights into FEMA work

Parish president: FEMA still fumbling

FEMA still struggling to find interim housing

FEMA and Charity


The Corruption

Mad cow disease, coming to a restaurant near you, courtesy of Bush's incompetent and corporate-protecting FDA. It will be hard to eat meat from anywhere but a farm after learning that calves can be fed chicken shit:

FDA Unveils Proposal to Fight Mad Cow

Contrary to FDA's previous plan, the new proposal does not ban cattle blood, often fed to calves as a milk replacer, or restaurant leftovers from cattle feed. It also doesn't ban chicken litter, which includes spilled feed as well as chicken manure, which scientists believe could contain mad-cow disease if the chickens had ingested tainted protein.

The feed rules are important because the only way cattle are known to get mad cow disease is from eating feed containing contaminated cattle remains.

Of course, the FDA's current acting head is a Bush crony:

Acting FDA Head Drops Other Duty
He Bows to Conflict-of-Interest Concerns

Andrew von Eschenbach....the Texas urologist and longtime Bush family friend....

The Cronyism

It would be too easy to use Harriet Miers here two days in a row (but google "Miers crony" and see the hundreds of articles generated since her nomination). No, we'll go to one of the uncovered stories of the Bush Administration: their corporate cronies. And can't we all agree that the last place we want incompetent cronies is in nucular plants? Check out the many links embedded within the original post:

Crony Capitalism at our Nuclear Facilities

What could be worse than our nation's hurricane response being left in the hands of incompetent Bush cronies?

How about the safety of our nuclear plants handed over to an incompetent GOP corporate crony, a company which has repeatedly botched security drills and lied about it to cover up its incompetence.

This is Wackenhut, the foreign-owned security firm that guards many army bases and US nuclear facilities, a company that has:

- botched security drills at the Nevada nuclear test site

- cheated on security drills at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee

- illegally violated whistleblower laws by punishing employees who revealed safety problems at South Texas nuclear facilities

- and generally has been found to violate safety standards or failed tests repeatedly.

So why does Wackenhut keep getting these security contracts?

David Letterman's Top Ten -- Harriet Miers edition

Top Ten Signs Your Supreme Court Pick Isn't Qualified

10. "Lost 10 grand yesterday in the 'case' of Jets vs. Ravens"

9. "Spends most of her time trying to fit the gavel into her mouth"

8. "Her legal mentor: Oliver Wendell Redenbacher"

7. "Asks courtroom stenographer to, 'Quit that annoying tapping!'"

6. "Instead of Constitutional law books, consults set of 'Garfield' paperbacks"

5. "Keeps shouting, 'When does mama get to hang somebody?!'"

4. "When Scalia walks by, she pretends to cough and says, 'Rogaine'"

3. "Authored the book: 'I'm Not Qualified to be a Supreme Court Justice'"

2. "The closest thing to courtroom experience was being an extra on 'Matlock'"

1. "Glowing letter of recommendation from former FEMA director Michael Brown"

The Incompetence, The Corruption, The Cronyism: October 4, 2005 edition

The Incompetence:

This qualified for the cronyism, too, but after I read the second article, about Sen. James Imhofe (R. - Dumbf**kistan) I couldn't resist putting it here.

The Environment Is Doomed

Earlier this year, President Bush appointed 66-year-old Sam Bodman to serve as Secretary of Energy, a guy who for more than a decade ran a Texas-based chemical company that spent years on the top-five lists of the country's worst polluters.

And what action will our incompetent Republican Party take to protect the environment? Have the eternally dumb Imhofe (dumber than a bag of hammers and half as useful) have hearings featuring witness Michael Crichton, writer of fiction, testify about it (yes, truth IS stranger than fiction).

Michael Crichton, Novelist, Becomes Senate Witness

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 - His last book, "State of Fear," was published more than nine months ago, but the reviews were still pouring in on Wednesday, even as Michael Crichton folded his 6-foot-9-inch frame into a seat to testify before the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works.

"More silly than scary," the flier dropped off by the Natural Resources Defense Council said.

"Notable mainly for its nuttiness," an analysis from the Brookings Institution said.

"Does not reflect scientific fact," the Union of Concerned Scientists said.

[]

His is an unpopular and contrary stance when measured against the judgment of groups like the National Academy of Sciences. But it was not those organizations that asked Mr. Crichton to Washington to counsel Congress on how to consider diverse scientific opinion when making policy. It was the committee chairman, Senator James M. Inhofe, a plainspoken* Oklahoma Republican who has unabashedly pronounced global warming "the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people."

In Mr. Crichton, a Harvard medical school graduate who never practiced medicine, he had found a kindred spirit - and a star witness for his committee.

* "Plainspoken" is apparently NYTimesSpeak for "stupid".


The Corruption:

Tom Delay get indicted again, by a different grand jury, for the same conduct, but this time there are two indictments. The man is just a walking ham sandwich. Oh, and this time, if convicted, he could get a life term. And in Texas, life means life.

I Love Me Some Texas Justice


The Cronyism:

Of course, today's crony is Harriet Miers,

a woman who has excelled in endeavors that require networking and shoulder-rubbing and no actual proof of legal expertise. (General counsel? Lest we forget, Mike Brown's first job at FEMA was as general counsel.) (Amy Sullivan)

Even the wingnuts are crying "crony, crony!"

What Julie Myers is to the Department of Homeland Security, Harriet Miers is to the Supreme Court. It's not just that Miers has zero judicial experience. It's that she's so transparently a crony/"diversity" pick while so many other vastly more qualified and impressive candidates went to waste. If this is President Bush's bright idea to buck up his sagging popularity--among conservatives as well as the nation at large--one wonders whom he would have picked in rosier times. Shudder. (Michelle Magalong)

Just talked to a very pro-Bush legal type who says he is ashamed and embarrassed this morning. Says Miers was with an undistinguished law firm; never practiced constitutional law; never argued any big cases; never was on law review; has never written on any of the important legal issues. Says she's not even second rate, but is third rate. Dozens and dozens of women would have been better qualified. Says a crony at FEMA is one thing, but on the high court is something else entirely. Her long history of activity with ABA is not encouraging from a conservative perspective--few conservatives would spend their time that way. In short, he says the pick is “deplorable.” There may be an element of venting here, but thought I'd pass along for what it's worth. It's certainly indicative of the mood right now...(Rich Lowry, National Review Online)

And, really, she's just your average, run-of-the-mill, crooked corporate lawyer:

Miers Led Law Firm Repeatedly Forced to Pay Damages For Defrauding Investors

In case anyone thought Harriet Miers wasn't a corporate-shill-in-White-House-clothing, take a gander at how Miers did her best Ken Lay impression while heading a major Texas corporate law firm. That's right, according to the 5/1/00 newsletter Class Action Reporter, Miers headed Locke, Liddell & Sapp at the time the firm was forced to pay $22 million to settle a suit asserting that "it aided a client in defrauding investors."

The details of the case are both nauseating and highly troubling, considering President Bush is considering putting Miers at the top of America's legal system. Under Miers' leadership, the firm represented the head of a "foreign currency trading company [that] was allegedly a Ponzi scheme." The law-firm admitted that it "knew in March 1998 that $ 8 million in [the company's] losses hadn't been reported to investors" but didn't tell regulators.

This wasn't an isolated incident, either. The Austin American-Statesman reported in 2001 that Miers' lawfirm was forced to pay another $8 million for a similar scheme to defraud investors. The suit, which dealt with actions the firm took under Miers in the late 1990s, was again quite troubling. As the 9/20/00 Texas Lawyer reported, Miers' firm helped a now-convicted con man "defraud investors and allowed the firm's [bank] account to be used as a 'conduit.'" The suit said "money from investors that went into the firm's trust account was deposited into [the con man's] bank accounts and was used to pay for his 'expensive toys.'"

If you think Miers wasn't involved in any of this -- think again. Miers wasn't just any old lawyer at the firm. She was the Managing Partner -- the big cheese.

Miers Briefs Bush, August 6, 2001

From Atrios:

Full Circle

Can you say "PDB"?

Wingnuts Unhappy About Heckuva Job Harriet

I think I'm sticking with that name for now.

The right wing is shedding Tears for Miers.

Right-Wing Peanut Gallery Hits Miers Hard

Update, 11:50 a.m.: Some major conservative kvetching going on out there, verging on hysteria. People tearing their Bush-Cheney bumperstickers off their cars; vowing never to vote again, never to contribute to the Re-thugs again. Amusing:

Miers

Not Wild About Harry

Well, the SCOTUS nominee is Harriet Miers, Bush's White House counsel. Yes, he has nominated his own lawyer.

So, what do we call her?

Heckuva Job Harriet?

Heckuva Job Harry?

Cheney-Lite? (She heads the search process for the SCOTUS nominee, and picked herself! Just like Cheney headed the Veep search process & picked himself! Whee-hoo!)

H(arriet) M(iers) S(upreme) Pinafore?

The Crony Crone?

SCOTUS Crony-us? (Sounds vaguely Latin)

Or just patently unqualified.



Apologies to Eubie Blake for the title. I'm still wild about him.