Health Care debate.

I've been feeling that this debate has morphed in to a alternate reality in which congress is in a total state of confusion.

And health care will end up, in some nightmare scenario.

Posted via email from Bluesun2600

Libby on Parole

It's simply unbelievable that these people are running this country. Everything they touch turns around and bites them in the end. The question that I have is just how long can they keep this house of cards up before congress grows some and starts impeachment of this administration. The rule of law should mean something.

Photo Credit: gmarcelo

Judge: Libby order surrounded by doubt

A federal judge suggested on Thursday that President Bush had come very close to acting unconstitutionally in the way he fashioned legal relief for former vice presidential aide I. Lewis Lobby, but the judge ultimately concluded that he had to uphold the President's clemency action. In a ten-page opinion bristling with actual and implied criticism of the President's handling of the Libby commutation Read More...

Technorati Tags: Libby, POTUS, Commutation, Law, Scandal

Fredo must go!!

If Bush won't fire Gonzales then Congress should impeach him out of office. With these new allegations that he has yet again given false testimony. His contempt of congress is beyond don't at this point. Hell, at this point I think it is hard to find anyone connected with this White House that will have their reputations intact at the end of this administration.

Nadler: Attorney General Gonzales Must Resign, Special Prosecutor Needed

"Attorney General Gonzales has shown an apparent reckless disregard for the rule of law and a fundamental lack of respect for the oversight responsibilities of Congress," said Rep. Nadler. "The man entrusted with enforcing our nation’s laws must also abide by them – and Mr. Gonzales has apparently failed in that duty. Providing false, misleading or inaccurate statements to Congress is a serious crime, and the man who may have committed those acts cannot be trusted to investigate himself. A Special Prosecutor is necessary to investigate this and the countless other violations of the law apparently committed by this Executive Branch." Read more...

Technorati Tags: Gonzales, DOJ, Congress, Scandal

Worse Than Watergate

So says an editorial in the Denver Post. I agree with is, but what amazes me is that no one has pulled the trigger in congress.  Here we sit with arguably on of the most corrupt administrations in are history.  If you don't believe that just look at how many people connected with this administration are already in jail.  Not counting those like Libby who should be in a cell now.

List compiled in 2005! on Salon.com

1. Memogate: The Senate Computer Theft
2. Doctor Detroit: The DOJ's Bungled Terrorism Case
3. Dark Matter: The Energy Task Force
4. The Indian Gaming Scandal
5. Halliburton's No-Bid Bonanza
6. Halliburton: Pumping Up Prices
7. Halliburton's Vanishing Iraq Money
8. The Halliburton Bribe-apalooza
9. Halliburton: One Fine Company
10. Halliburton's Iran End Run
11. Money Order: Afghanistan's Missing $700 Million Turns Up in Iraq
12. Wiretapping the United Nations
13. The Boeing Boondoggle
14. The Medicare Bribe Scandal
15. Tom DeLay's PAC Problems
16. Tom DeLay's FAA: Following Americans Anywhere
17. Tom DeLay's Golf Fundraiser
18. The Medicare Money Scandal
19. Ground Zero's Unsafe Air
20. Intel Inside ... The White House
21. Iraq: The Case for War
22. Niger Forgeries: Whodunit?
23. In Plame Sight
24. Abu Ghraib
25. Guantánamo Bay Torture?

Now This is just part of one list from 2005 more have been added in the last few years like Katerina, Dick Cheney's Hunting accident.

Drudge Retort

DOJ Attorney: Bush Worse Than Watergate

John S. Koppel: As a longtime attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, I can honestly say that I have never been as ashamed of the department and government that I serve as I am at this time. The public record now plainly demonstrates that both the DOJ and the government as a whole have been thoroughly politicized in a manner that is inappropriate, unethical and indeed unlawful.

Technorati Tags: Scandal, White House, Potus, VPotus

Others are thinking the same thing, as I am.

Daily Kos: A Pardon on the Installment Plan; An Investigation Sabotaged

It should be noted, for future record, that the President of the United States has just used his power of clemency to sabotage an active criminal investigation into the office of his own Vice President. In some parallel universes, I have heard tell that such a thing was once itself considered corruption, or obstruction. Read more...

Technorati Tags: White House, Scandal, Pardon

Shrub even srewed up the commutation, possibly.

Now Scooter might not even have the supervised probation that Shrub mentioned in his commutation. In essence, even the handicap of supervision in his life for 2 ½ years may be gone, because the federal law states that you must sever some amount of time in order for him to have supervised probation.

SCOTUSblog

Judge questions supervision of Libby

Lawyers were ordered to file papers by Monday on "whether the defendant should be required to report to the Probation Office immediately, whether he should be allowed to remain free of supervision until some later, more appropriate time, or, indeed, whether the plain meaning of [the statute] precludes the application of a term of supervised release altogether now that the prison sentence has been commuted." Read More....

Technorati Tags: Scandal, Scooter Libby, Commutation

My current take on Scooter

After listening to pendents for the last 24 hrs. I now feel that this is all part of the cover-up that has been in place from the beginning for Scooter's silence. This Commutation of his sentence now keeps him from testifying before congress because since all charges are still their in appeal, he can still take the 5^th before them, blocking any testimony he could have given. Further, now the President himself has stated today, that he could still pardon him at the end of his term. Reseting his legal status and potentially even getting his law license back.

All in all. This just increases my dissatisfaction for our current government.

Technorati Tags: Scandal, White House, Scooter Libby

Up and Down

I thought that we were going to actually have some accountability, but no we get this White House commuting the sentence of Libby to no time served. How the hell is that right in a national security scandal of the outing of Valerie Wilson.

This disgusts me.


Technorati Tags: Scandal, White House

Libby going to Jail. Do not Pass Go.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Court Refuses To Delay Libby Prison Term, Decision Raises Pressure On Bush To Pardon Ex-White House Aide - CBS News

A federal appeals court refused on Monday to step in and delay former White House aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's prison sentence in the CIA leak case.

I can't be more happy that Libby is going to see some jail time before any of the Neo-Con's can get the Shrub to pardon him. I feel, that in some ways, we are watching the beginings of a long slow death of the Republican Party.

And that like the Wig Party that they came from, some new national party may come out of the ruin that these fools have created for themselves and the country. I really believe that in the next 5-7 years that party will not be anything like what we see now.


Technorati Tags: Scandal, White House, VPOTUS

violations of the Presidential Records Act

I cannot believe that no one has or will be held to the fires for these actions taken by this Administration to prevent, not only oversight, but any record of their true actions as the law requires them to do.



Think Progress » Investigation Uncovers ‘Extensive Destruction’ Of RNC Emails, Violations Of Records Act

The RNC has preserved only 130 e-mails sent to Karl Rove during Bush’s first term and no e-mails sent by Rove prior to November 2003.

Technorati Tags: White House, Rove, Criminal Acts

Most Corrupt Administration in US History?

White House officials had debate before deciding to call visitor records confidential - International Herald Tribune



Technorati Tags: White House, Dick Cheney, FOIA, VPOTUS

ENOUGH already!

Tell me at what point do we say,"ENOUGH all ready!" And throw them all out. We have a President that thinks that 750 different laws don't apply to him and or his administration, takes use to war on faulty intell, lies flat out to us on Domestic Spying, outs or compromises CIA officers for political gain, makes are great great grandchildren poor with out of sight spending, And now this:

Drudge Retort: HUD Contractors Must Support Bush

Dallas Business Journal: Housing and Urban Development Secretary Alphonso Jackson said in a recent speech that he canceled a deal with a contractor because the man opposed President Bush. "Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract."

This arrangement violates federal law, according to ThinkProgress.

Technorati Tags: Bush Administration, HUD, Corruption

How they Spy

Noah Shachtman has outlined a two part series of articles by Declan McCullagh and Anne Broache on News.com outline what the NSA's domestic spying program might look like.

Defense Tech: NSA: How They Spy

Technorati Tags: NSA, warrantless taps, Scandal, Intelligence

Killing on US Soil?

This is not something that I would like to contemplate. The real issue is oversight, and has been since the beginning. What actions can a President order to be done and what hoops does he have to go through to meet his legal obligations under the law? Unfortunately Newsweek doesn't even come close to answering any of these questions other than several Administrations have looked into the issue of Can the President Order a Killing on U.S. Soil?

Technorati Tags: Presidential Powers, Oversight, War Powers

Tricky Dick

I caught Dick Cheney on the NewsHour. This man comes off as so rational, it is scary. But what he says about the legality of the Domestic Spying program is just plain wrong. The thing that is being overlooked is that congress in this case is not the oversight for this program. It is and was the FISA Court. Nothing about this, that has been made public, changes this or gives them these powers. Take a look at the transcript.

Online NewsHour: Newsmaker with Vice President Dick Cheney -- February 7, 2006

Technorati Tags: Warrantless wiretaps, Scandal, Vice President

Law vs. New Technology

I keep on hearing that the FISA Law is old and out of date from people on the web.; And that is one of the reasons that Bush gave his order, well that is a bunch of BullS**T. If he truly felt that the law had problems then why didn't he go to congress. The answer is he did and was told no way by congress. Bush and Company could not except that and did an end run around congress and any oversight. One of the major papers last week said something about how this operation had to be reauthorized every 40 day by the Attorney General and how one of the Deputy Attorney generals refuse to on legel question at one point. When you have so may people thinking that this operation has serious oversight problems the President and his political cronies should not have the final say. He keeps say we couldn't because that would have gone into classified matters that congress couldn't or shouldn't be advise of and/ or could keep a lid on. And the courts were either to slow or held him to, to high of a standard. It also comes out that what few; briefings that had occurred may have mislead congress as to the true nature of his Domestic spying.

Which brings use back to the problem of this President acting as if nothing other than his opinion is required to change the law. This matter more than meets the definition of High Crimes and Misdemeanors to impeach this President. Anyone who cannot see that are constitutional protections at steak here and that without action, are rights are meaningless and only exist at the whim and pleasure of the President needs to do a reality check. The constitution does give great power to the Executive in times of war. But there are legal limits to it's use, congress to this point has not done their jobs under the constitution to balance the power of the Executive branch when it over reaches and endangers are rights.

Related
Wiretaps and Data Mining: Old Law vs. New Technology
Justice Deputy Resisted Parts of Spy Program


Technorati Tags: President, Congress, FISA, Wiretapping, Scandal, Law

Denied wiretaps, So Bypassed them updated

Daily Kos is showing slightly different numbers than the upi story that I sighted earlier in the day.

Daily Kos: FISA Court Modified Inadequate Warrant Requests

Technorati Tags: FISACourt, Courts, Wiretaps, SCOTUS

NSA

Photo Credit: mrrealtime

Defense Tech has been having some very interesting article over the last week dealing with Domestic Spying issue that exploded on the political landscape last week.

Defense Tech: NSA "Tapping Into... Telecom's Main Arteries"
Defense Tech: New Tech Behind NSA Snoop Case?
Wiretaps' Fishy Rationale

Technorati Tags: NSA, NSATechnology, Wiretapping, DomesticSpying

Counter to The Volokh Conspiracy

Daily Kos has an interesting blog on how the NeoCons think that in times of war the President has Monarchy like powers. An interesting counter point to Volokh: Legal Analysis of the NSA Domestic Surveillance Program.

Related
Daily Kos: A Little Bit of Monarchy

Did the Justice Dept. Commit Purgery?

The Washington Post is reporting that one of the eleven Judges, a James Robertson, that sits on the FISA Court has resigned from the court in protest to the Presidents action. But what makes this all the more interesting is the statement further in the article that he had said to colleagues in recent conversations that

he was concerned that information gained from warrantless NSA surveillance could have then been used to obtain FISA warrants. FISA court Presiding Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, who had been briefed on the spying program by the administration, raised the same concern in 2004 and insisted that the Justice Department certify in writing that it was not occurring.

The more that I hear the more that I think that Bush has created a constitutional crisis.

Related:
Spy Court Judge Quits In Protest
White House Elaborates on Authority for Eavesdropping