Scotland Yard Lies

Brazilian Did Not Wear Bulky Jacket
Relatives Say Met Admits That, Contrary to Reports, Electrician Did Not Leap Tube Station Barrier

Jean Charles de Menezes, the Brazilian shot dead in the head, was not wearing a heavy jacket that might have concealed a bomb, and did not jump the ticket barrier when challenged by armed plainclothes police, his cousin said yesterday.

Speaking at a press conference after a meeting with the Metropolitan police, Vivien Figueiredo, 22, said that the first reports of how her 27-year-old cousin had come to be killed in mistake for a suicide bomber on Friday at Stockwell tube station were wrong.

"He used a travel card," she said. "He had no bulky jacket, he was wearing a jeans jacket. But even if he was wearing a bulky jacket that wouldn't be an excuse to kill him."

Flanked by the de Menezes family's solicitor, Gareth Peirce, and by Bianca Jagger, the anti-Iraq war campaigner, she condemned the shoot-to-kill policy which had led to her cousin's death and vowed that what she called the "crime" would not go unpunished.

**********

Mr de Menezes was shot seven times in the head and once in the shoulder at 10am last Friday after being followed from Tulse Hill. Scotland Yard initially claimed he wore a bulky jacket and jumped the barrier when police identified themselves and ordered him to stop. The same day the Met commissioner, Sir Ian Blair, said the shooting was "directly linked" to the unprecedented anti-terror operation on London's streets.

This is sad. "Shoot to Kill" cannot be the rule of engagement in a civilized society, or we are no longer free.

SCOTUS Nomination is Payback for Florida 2000

Roberts had larger 2000 recount role
The role of U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts in the 2000 election aftermath in Florida was larger than has been reported. Roberts helped prepare the Supreme Court case.

TALLAHASSEE - U.S. Supreme Court nominee John Roberts played a broader behind-the-scenes role for the Republican camp in the aftermath of the 2000 election than previously reported -- as legal consultant, lawsuit editor and prep coach for arguments before the nation's highest court, according to the man who drafted him for the job.

Ted Cruz, a domestic policy advisor for President Bush and who is now Texas' solicitor general, said Roberts was one of the first names he thought of while he and another attorney drafted the Republican legal dream team of litigation ''lions'' and ''800-pound gorillas,'' which ultimately consisted of 400 attorneys in Florida.

Until now, Gov. Jeb Bush and others involved in the election dispute could recall almost nothing of Roberts' role, except for a half-hour meeting the governor had with Roberts. Cruz said Roberts was in Tallahassee helping the Bush camp for ''a week to 10 days,'' and that his help was important, though Cruz said it is difficult to remember specifics five years after the sleep-depriving frenetic pace of the 2000 recount.

Steal me the Presidency, win a prize! I still will give anyone who can produce a picture of John Bolton & John Roberts together in Florida a handsome reward. Except for the poor grooming and bad mustache, they're the same guy. Right Wing Nutjobs 'R Us.

Even Howie Kurtz sez: SCOTUS Nominee is Hard Right

A great post on dailykos.

The Failure of the Media

The Media's failure in the runup to the Iraq Debacle is well documented. DSM, "mushroom clouds," Plame, et al. make this abundantly clear.

History repeats itself, now on the Roberts nomination, as Howard Kurtz observes:

As you plow through the blizzard of memos he wrote as a government lawyer, you get the sense of a man who is more conservative, more combative and more sarcastic than he has been portrayed in these walk-on-water profiles. It's no surprise that this Harvard man clerked and lawyered his way to a Supreme Court nomination.

You will, by the way, hear almost none of this on TV. Understanding the memos requires walking through the background and legal context of each controversy at the time, and television has no inclination to do that unless there's an inflammatory phrase that the pundits can argue about. (TV people keep talking about the battle over the documents while saying very little about what's in them.) It is, in short, a classic newspaper story.

Roberts is quite familiar with bureaucratic dodges and the art of Washington insincerity, the documents suggest.

Kurtz misses something though, the utter failure of the New York Times, AGAIN. The Administration line is repeated practically verbatim in their Roberts coverage. A classic newspaper story this may be, but the New York Times has proven it is no longer a classic newspaper.

Maybe SCOTUS Nominee has a Nanny Problem?

White House To Withhold Nominee's Tax Returns
Document Release Excludes First Bush Administration

The Bush administration will not give Senate investigators access to the federal tax returns of Supreme Court nominee John G. Roberts Jr., White House and congressional officials said yesterday, a break with precedent that could exacerbate a growing conflict over document disclosure in the confirmation process.

Although nominees to the high court in recent decades were required to provide their three most recent annual tax forms, the administration will neither collect such documents from Roberts nor share them with the Senate Judiciary Committee, the officials said. Instead, the Internal Revenue Service will produce a one-page summary.

The White House yesterday began releasing the first of 75,000 pages of documents stemming from Roberts's service as a lawyer in President Ronald Reagan's administration two decades ago but refused to release papers from his time as deputy solicitor general under President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1993. These papers, Bush aides said, concern internal executive branch deliberations that remain privileged.

Senate Democrats and liberal interest groups immediately assailed the decision to withhold the more recent files, sharpening a dispute over the nominee's record.

Many a rich person has faltered at the Senate confirmation door for failing to pay Social Security taxes. I remember my public schoolteacher parents struggling with the SSA and IRS paperwork for the neighbor who cleaned our house once a week during the school year. They felt it was important that she get credit with the Social Security Administration for her work, so she would get the largest social security benefit possible. Now that's a family value. Caring about your neighbors and the people who work for you.

I have no idea why they're not releasing Roberts tax returns. Maybe they're thinking about their next nominee (Gonzales?) and some issue on his tax return. Just sounds fishy to me.

You heard it here first: It's a nanny.

SCOTUS Nominee Has "Cloaked His Views" for Decades

A good analysis from the Boston Globe. Perhaps the New York Times read this analysis, as their piece, earlier titled

"Roberts an early ally of judicial restraint"
and
"In early 1980s, Roberts urged judicial restraint"

is now entitled

Files From 80's Lay Out Stances of Bush Nominee

You'd be better off reading the Globe for analysis:

Roberts showed way to shift the debate
Nominee advised using broad terms

WASHINGTON -- As a young aide in the Reagan administration's Justice Department, John G. Roberts Jr., now a Supreme Court nominee, advised his conservative colleagues to cloak their views behind broadly acceptable terms such as ''judicial restraint," according to memos released yesterday.

In 1981, for example, when the Justice Department was prepping Supreme Court nominee Sandra Day O'Connor for the same Senate confirmation questioning that Roberts will soon face, Roberts counseled her to avoid giving direct answers on legal issues facing the court.

''The approach was to avoid giving specific responses to any direct questions on legal issues likely to come before the Court, but demonstrating in the response a firm command of the subject area and awareness of the relevant precedents and arguments," Roberts wrote in one memo describing the mock questioning sessions he held with her.

In a February 1982 memo, Roberts urged Attorney General William French Smith to adopt a similar tactic in a speech before ''new right" conservative groups. The groups had criticized Smith's record for allegedly failing to appoint top officials and federal judges who were ''ideologically committed to the President's policies . . . with particular emphasis on the social agenda."

Although such attacks were sometimes ''completely unfounded," Roberts wrote, Smith should not defend the conservative credentials of Reagan's appointees because ''such an approach would open us up to criticism from the left and even the center."

Instead, Roberts wrote, Smith should focus on how Reagan's judicial nominees shared a philosophy of judicial restraint.

''I do not think we should respond with a 'yes they are [conservative]'; rather we should shift the debate," Roberts wrote. ''Judges do not implement policy in the true conservative view of things, and the hot issues of today will not be those of ten or fifteen years hence, when our judges will be confronted with new social issues. Our appointments process therefore looks beyond a laundry list of personal views to ascertain if the candidate has a proper appreciation of the judicial role."

Gonzales: Right Turn to SCOTUS?

When I saw this article, I thought "Is Gonzales trying to tell the wingnuts he would overturn Roe if they give him a SCOTUS seat?" Or is he just trying to keep the focus off Karl Rove, Traitor?

AG: High Court Not Bound by Roe V. Wade

WASHINGTON - The legal right to abortion is settled for lower courts, but the Supreme Court "is not obliged to follow" the Roe v. Wade precedent, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Tuesday as the Senate prepared to consider John Roberts' appointment that would put a new vote on the high court.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Gonzales said a justice does not have to follow a previous ruling "if you believe it's wrong," a comment suggesting Roberts would not be bound by his past statement that the 1973 decision settled the issue.

SCOTUS Writes

Documents Show Roberts Influence In Reagan Era

Roberts presented a defense of bills in Congress that would have stripped the Supreme Court of jurisdiction over abortion, busing and school prayer cases; he argued for a narrow interpretation of Title IX, the landmark law that bars sex discrimination in intercollegiate athletic programs; and he even counseled his boss on how to tell the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s widow that the administration was cutting off federal funding for the Atlanta center that bears his name.

No wonder James Dobson likes him so much.

Will Judiciary Committee Democrats Make SCOTUS Nominee Answer the Question?

Roberts, Choice and Unity

A great post on dailykos.

Among the many questions that we have for any nominee that George Bush might put before us, there is one question, given the balance of the Supreme Court, and this President's stated positions on abortion, that is central:

Do you support the substantive consequence of Roe, upheld in Casey, guaranteeing that abortion be safe and legal in all fifty states?

Justice Ginsburg, in her nomination hearings was unequivocal on this:

[The right to an abortion] is something central to a woman's life, to her dignity. It's a decision that she must make for herself. And when government controls that decision for her, she's being treated as less than a fully adult human responsible for her own choices.

We should expect no less an affirmation from any nominee. Our question is not about Judge Roberts's technical views on Roe, or on Casey. Our question is not asking him to state how he might rule in any future case. In this, we need to be clear. We intend to ask Judge Roberts to state before the nation his support for the pragmatic consequence of Roe.

Mrs. SCOTUS Nominee Works for "Feminists for Life"

Anti-Abortion Advocacy of Wife of Court Nominee Draws Interest

WASHINGTON, July 22 - Judge John G. Roberts has left little hard evidence of his views on abortion in recent years and is widely expected to try to avoid the issue in his coming confirmation hearings.

But there is little mystery about the views of his wife, Jane Sullivan Roberts, a Roman Catholic lawyer from the Bronx whose pro bono work for Feminists for Life is drawing intense interest in the ideologically charged environment of a Supreme Court confirmation debate.

Some abortion opponents view her activities as a clear signal that the Robertses are committed to their cause; supporters of abortion rights fear the same thing. Others say that drawing a direct line from her activities to how her husband might rule on the Supreme Court - assuming that he not only shares her views, but would also act on them to overturn 32 years of legal precedents - is both politically risky and in bad form.

No less a Democratic stalwart than Senator Edward M. Kennedy said, at a breakfast meeting with reporters on Friday, that Mrs. Roberts's work "ought to be out of bounds."

Ah, my blustering old senator. This is foolish on Uncle Ted's part. Democrats should rule out no line of questioning until they find out where it leads. We can't afford to ignore the evidence that exists, paltry as it is, that points to Roberts' real views on Roe v. Wade.

Do you think they could let a real trial lawyer question Roberts? I could clear my calendar.

Spare the Big Fat Idiot

John Tierney is at it again, constructing the wingnut defense for when Rush Limbaugh goes to court for his drug crimes:

Handcuffs and Stethoscopes

Why are those mean police after poor Rush? After all, he needed the Oxycontin for his back pain/pilonidal cysts/football knee from high school. Hey, he probably needed it just to squeeze himself into the same house with his ego!

Another candidate for frogmarching.

Bush Taps White Man

So it's John Roberts for the SCOTUS job. James Dobson of Focus on the Family is happy, so we know he's baaaaaaaad. (Steve Gilliard calls Dobson "Focus on the Fuhrer", hehehe)

One Partisan Hack for Another tells us that Roberts worked for the RNC on the 2000 Florida recount (makes him a friend of John Bolton), was one of Ken Starr's deputies under HWBush, and was one of Reagan's White House counsels.

The New York Times, Scrutinizing John Roberts, says we don't know enough about the guy & the Senate must question him closely. Hah, good joke, as that's snowball in hell unlikely. Who on the Judiciary Committee will do the questioning? Those jamokes couldn't cross-examine a mynah bird that could only say yes.


And, obviously, the timing of the nomination is meant to take the heat off Traitor Karl Rove. Looks like Karl could be looking at his own Camp Cupcake as it appears he lied to FBI investigators when he was first interviewed:

An Unlikely Story
Karl Rove's alibi would be easier to believe if he hadn't hidden it from FBI investigators in 2003.

White House deputy chief of staff Karl Rove did not disclose that he had ever discussed CIA officer Valerie Plame with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper during Rove’s first interview with the FBI, according to legal sources with firsthand knowledge of the matter.

The omission by Rove created doubt for federal investigators, almost from the inception of their criminal probe into who leaked Plame's name to columnist Robert Novak, as to whether Rove was withholding crucial information from them, and perhaps even misleading or lying to them, the sources said.

Also leading to the early skepticism of Rove's accounts was the claim that although he first heard that Plame worked for the CIA from a journalist, he said could not recall the name of the journalist. Later, the sources said, Rove wavered even further, saying he was not sure at all where he first heard the information.

How many crimes does Traitor Karl have to commit for Commander Codpiece to fire him? Let's see, treason and lying to federal investigators seem serious enough to me.

Rove must go.

Too Hot To Blog

So I'll just offer some interesting links:

Wingnuttia predictions on SCOTUS nominee: The Hedgehog Report Supreme Court Nomination Challenge

The stupidest article ever written on Title IX: Women Athletes Don't Need Big Brother's Help

Chelsea has signed English wunderkind Shaun Wright Phillips for a 21 million euro transfer fee from Manchester City. He'll make his debut on US soil during Chelsea's US tour next week. Hopefully he'll play at Foxboro on Sunday!

The US's best field player, Damarcus Beasley, has begun to get his due: Beasley is a big-time performer: He's not held back by small stature

Iraq is even worse now for women: Iraq’s war on women

John Tierney writes a column in the NYTimes today supporting people in jail for prescription drug abuse: Punishing Pain Obviously, this is the opening salvo in the right wing war to defend Rush Limbaugh.

Stay cool.

Double Super Secret Background

Matt Cooper says "double super secret background" is his own private joking reference to what other journalists would call deep background.

For a real laugh, read Charlie Pierce:

Rove to the Rescue
He's from the government, and he's here to help.

Corporate Media Gets a Clue

Why the Leak Probe Matters

[Bush's]....leadership on Iraq has been a fiasco. He didn't plan for it: the early decisions that allowed the insurgency to get going were breathtakingly incompetent. He didn't pay for it: Bush is the first president in history to cut taxes during a war, this one now costing nearly $1 billion a week. And most important of all, he didn't tell the American people the truth about it: taking a nation to war is the most solemn duty of a president, and he'd better make certain there's no alternative and no doubt about the evidence.

**********

The GOP's spinners are making it seem that because Plame had a desk job in Langley at the time she was outed, she wasn't truly undercover. As Mahle says, that reflects a total ignorance about the way the CIA works. Being outed doesn't just waste millions of taxpayer dollars; it compromises hundreds of other people in the field you may have worked with in the past.

If Bush isn't a hypocrite on national security, he needs, at a minimum, to yank Rove's security clearance. "Whether you do it [discuss the identity of CIA operatives] intentionally or unintentionally, you have not met the requirements of that security clearance," Mahle told me.

The bigger question is what this scandal does to the CIA's ability to develop essential "humint" (human intelligence). Here's where the Iraq war comes in again. The sooner we beef up our intelligence, the sooner we crack the insurgency and get to bring our troops home. What does it say to the people doing the painstaking work of building those spy networks when the identity of one of their own becomes just another weapon in the partisan wars of Washington? For a smart guy, Karl Rove was awfully stupid.

Red Rover, Red Rover, Send Karl To Jail

From the left: Karl Rove's America (Paul Krugman, New York Times)

A summary of media coverage, yesterday:

Getting Worried at the White House (Dan Froomkin, Washington Post)

Someone leaked this story. Who do you think "the person who has been briefed on the story" is? Rove Reportedly Held Phone Talk on C.I.A. Officer

And, finally, what may be the worst news of all for Karl Rove: Toothy Norm Coleman of Minnesota has been assigned by the Republican National Committee to lead his defense. Coleman may lead defense of Rove

US, Costa Rica 0-0 tie

Went to the CONCACAF Gold Cup matches at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, MA last night with Coach Mom. We arrived early wearing our DaMarcus Beasley shirts & camped out in the parking lot for an hour of fanwatching. The sun was hot but it was not humid and only about 80 degrees. Thank heavens the game wasn't on Monday, when temps were in the high 90s. The salsa music was blasting and the smells of propane and grilling smoke wafted through the air. Definitely going to be a Costa-Rica dominated crowd. Ticos! Ticos! Ticos!

Our next-door car was from New Jersey. The chatty fan told us that neither Donovan nor Beasley would play (he was wrong on both counts). He was going to the World Cup qualifier v. Mexico in Columbus on September 3rd and we encouraged him to go the Soccer Hall of Fame on August 29th, when John Harkes, Tab Ramos and Marcelo Balboa will be inducted. We are going to all the Gold Cup games on the east coast except for the finals, which are on the same day as AC Milan-Chelsea at Foxboro. Our neighbor informed us that the Gold Cup game would be a much better game. Hah. Better than John Terry, Frank Lampard, Damien Duff, Hernan Crespo, Andriy Shevchenko, Cafu, Paulo Maldini, Kaka, Christian Vieri? I don't think so.

The gates opened at 6:00 p.m. Security was a joke. I walked through the line for searching people with bags. A young security officer (female) looked into my binocular case and glanced at my unzipped purse, not touching either. I could have had a gun or a knife or just about anything. Surprising given this is just days after the London bomb attacks. The stadium had blocked off the stands behind the benches so the 15,000 or so fans were concentrated on one side. We walked up the ramp with a man carrying a heavy marching band style snare drum with metal posts to stand it up. We couldn't bring an umbrella, but this somewhat inebriated fan could have a drum. He sideswiped Coach Mom as we turned the corner & apologized. We watched another drunk fan, running backwards to take a picture of her friends, trip and fall, her digital camera breaking into pieces on the concrete.

Our seats were great, 25 rows up on the 18 yard line. Foxboro also has the silly "take away their soda bottle caps" rule, but at least Gillette, a modern stadium, has cupholders attached to the seat in front of each seat. (And I still have two caps in my purse from our last trip to Giants Stadium!)

The game was a lackluster affair. Keller was a rock in goal, and the defense was OK. Hedjuk played well until he got a silly yellow card late for diving, which means he will miss the quarterfinal game on Saturday. Jimmy Conrad, making his 3rd national team appearance, played very well at the back. He looked a little shaky on his first touch, but after that he made no major errors and won some nice balls in air. Sadly, Tony Sanneh has lost a step & I will be surprised to see him on the World Cup roster. Cherundolo is also a marginal player on the world stage. I see our World Cup back line as Hedjuk, Conrad, Gooch (Oguchi Onyewu), and Bocanegra. Here's my projected World Cup starting 11:

--------------------Keller-------------------

Conrad-----Gooch-----Bocanegra---------Hedjuk

----------------------Lewis-----------------

Donovan-------------------------------Beasley

-------------------O'Brien-------------------

---------------Johnson------McBride-----------

I'd give Spector a chance to crack the back line, but Arena doesn't seem to be giving him the chance to do so. Arena will probably play Reyna over Lewis, but I think Claudio's lack of pace will make him a liability. (Coach Mom would switch Donovan and O'Brien, but otherwise she is OK with my lineup.)

The offense couldn't finish. Not only couldn't we finish, no one wanted to shoot. Too many good offensive sequences ended with a pass that should have been a shot, a dribble into the corner, or just a giveaway. Our best offensive chance happened in the 2nd minute when John O'Brien backheeled the ball to Pat Noonan who smartly crossed the ball which Dempsey slotted in. Unfortunately Noonan was offsides and the US had little more offense until Arena put in Beasley, Donovan, and Wolff for the final 20 minutes.

The Costa Rica crowd was loud and boisterous. We cheered each US effort and apparently annoyed some CR's behind us, who began shouting "Beasley sucks" and "puta" (do you speak Spanish?). However, the CR fan sitting next to Mom was a nice man & they agreed on a few blown offsides calls by the line judge. We shook hands after the game.

U.S. Draws Costa Rica 0-0, Wins Gold Cup Group

Tie with Costa Rica goes to the U.S.
The United States wins Group B based on its plus-5 goal-differential and now moves to Saturday's quarterfinals.

CONCACAF Gold Cup Notebook: Dempsey continues to impress coach


The temps quickly dropped between games, and we were happy to have brought beach towels in case of rain. Perhaps 4000 fans stayed for the second game. A group of 12 Cubans stood at the rail below us, and about 8 Canadians were over in the Sam's Army seats. I joked about Cuba needing to win or this would be their last day to defect, then read this today:

Cuban soccer player hopes to defect to U.S.

Canada won 2-1 so both teams are likely eliminated. The US will play one of the third place teams. Which team they play will be decided when the hurricane-postponed final group games are played in Miami tonight. Saturday's games are Honduras-Panama at 1:00, US - TBA at 4:00, and the Revs v. FC Dallas at 7:00. If it's 95 degrees as predicted we may only go to the last two games. Have to save our energy for the semis!

Truth to Karl: Resign Now, Traitor

Digby sez:

He Should Resign

John Conyers sez:

Karl Rove Should Resign

The Democrats say:

Democrats Call for Rove to Come Clean or Resign

Karl Rove, you are a lying traitor. And this time you got caught with your mouth open and your pants down. Leaking the identity of a CIA agent who specialized in WMD for cheap political gain disqualifies you for access to the White House.

If I had a plane I'd be skywriting "Surrender Karl" over Rove's house, except he lives in Washington & the FAA would probably have me shot down.

Cell Phones

Cellphone Numbers Overtake Land Lines

This makes me feel old.

When I was a kid, we had one black rotary phone. We were on a party line, and I remember my parents talking about the neighbor who eavesdropped. You could tell if someone else was on the phone when you picked it up, and the polite thing to do was to hang up & try again. It was a big deal when we got regular phone service. At my grandma's house, she had one of those phone numbers like "BUtterfield 8" (BU is capitalized because it stood for the numbers 2 & 8). I can't remember what it was, though. Maybe this is a bit of family history I should research before it is lost in the mists of time.

Karl Rove (Surprise!) Was Matt Cooper's Source

Matt Cooper's Source
What Karl Rove told Time magazine's reporter

From page 2 of the online article:

NEWSWEEK obtained a copy of the e-mail that Cooper sent his bureau chief after speaking to Rove. (The e-mail was authenticated by a source intimately familiar with Time's editorial handling of the Wilson story, but who has asked not to be identified because of the magazine's corporate decision not to disclose its contents.) Cooper wrote that Rove offered him a "big warning" not to "get too far out on Wilson." Rove told Cooper that Wilson's trip had not been authorized by "DCIA"—CIA Director George Tenet—or Vice President Dick Cheney. Rather, "it was, KR said, wilson's wife, who apparently works at the agency on wmd [weapons of mass destruction] issues who authorized the trip." Wilson's wife is Plame, then an undercover agent working as an analyst in the CIA's Directorate of Operations counterproliferation division. (Cooper later included the essence of what Rove told him in an online story.) The e-mail characterizing the conversation continues: "not only the genesis of the trip is flawed an[d] suspect but so is the report. he [Rove] implied strongly there's still plenty to implicate iraqi interest in acquiring uranium fro[m] Niger... "

So Rove both (1) outed Plame AND (2) flogged the administration's lie about Saddam Hussein looking for uranium from Niger.

Let the frogmarching begin.

Journalism is Dead, White House Presser Edition

Day 6: White House Press Corps Silent on Rove

The White House just released the transcript of today’s Gaggle.

For the fourth straight time since his lawyer admitted that Rove was one of Matt Cooper’s sources, no member of the White House press corps asked a question about Rove’s role. (And there are plenty of questions to ask.)

A major figure in the White House is deeply entangled in a major scandal. Why is the White House press corps ignoring the story?

Let's give the bought-and-paid-for corporate media a shout-out from blogtopia. Below is a list of White House correspondents compiled by the Washington Post, with links to their emails. Why aren't they doing their jobs and asking about Karl Rove, the traitor?

List of White House Correspondents