Gotham Notes...

Monday, July 25, 2005

The Heart of the Wilson / RoveBush Scandal


via AMERICAblog:

The Wilsons' lawyer, Christopher Wolf, shows a humanity missing from way too many lawyers in this country. Especially from those in D.C.

He then gets to the core issue in this entire slimy and sordid GOP affair:


Two years following the Wilson op-ed and the [Robert] Novak column, we know that Joe was right—there was no basis for the administration's claims regarding Iraq's nuclear plans. After Joe's op-ed appeared, White House officials admitted they were wrong to include the claim in the president's State of the Union. The White House has never retracted that retraction. We know that but for Joe's whistle-blowing, the administration would not have admitted that it was wrong to use the nuclear scare as a ground for war.

And we also now know that the only reason Valerie Wilson was mentioned was because, as Time magazine put it, the administration had declared "war on Wilson" for his whistle-blowing. The outing of Valerie seemed intended to send a not-so-subtle message to other potential critics, "Mess with us, and we'll mess with your family."


This is not really about who said what to whom, when. That's merely the peg on how all the secrets slowly become public.

This is about how people entrusted with the highest offices of the United States government systematically abused the trust they've been given, using political privilege to further a long-cherished ideological ideal that has nothing whatsoever to do with the best security or economic interests of the United States: the invasion of Iraq, and later the invasion of Iran.

Whatever distortions and flat out lies were necessary to achieve this aim were sanctioned at the highest levels. Everyone within the administration willingly jumped onto the same page. Those who didn't, like former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, were slimed and forced out.

Anyone who dared interfere with the RoveBush administration's plans was to be politically eliminated.

Aside from his receiving a full-frontal Family Values assassination for his Times Op-ed piece, Joe Wilson should have been given the very Medal of Freedom that rightfully will get stripped from George Tenet one day.


posted by Gotham 11:37 AM
0 comments


Today's Dope of the Day: John Fund


John Fund in today's WSJ, explains just how tenacious the Right's stranglehold on Victimhood is.

America doesn't need any 5 cent cigar! It needs Term Limits for SCOTUS seats, so we can keep rotating the stock. Most justices are named by GOP presidents anyway, so let's have the ability to bounce out the ones we don't like when their terms are up.

That way we can continue to politically polarize the one place we haven't fully politically polarized yet!

Yipppppeeeeeeee!

And this is all because liberals hate us and hate America.

This is true because John Fund told us so.


posted by Gotham 10:51 AM
0 comments


BooHooHooHoo...Poor WSJ...


The poor Wall Street Journal.

Sniff. Forced to do the bidding of that evil corporate world. Sniff, sniff. Anyone have a tissue?

I love this editorial. It starts out great: Many good, good Americans are being screwed by the healthcare debacle in this country. OK, great start.

But instead of shining its sizeable media spotlight on the greed and avarice of the health insurance companies or the healthcare delivery system, WSJ turns its focus on the real culprit: state legislatures!

AHA!

A bit of background. One of the reasons that the health insurance industry is so difficult to attack is that a few years ago, they got their friends in the Congress to pass legislation exempting them from the federal court system (and thereby, federal regulation), placing them under the jurisdiction of each of the different states and their laws.

Basically you can see the benefit. If they lose on the federal level, they're stuck. But if they can play on the state level, they can happily work on your underpaid, underloved, thoroughly unknown state assemblyperson to vote their way. And if they lose in New York, say, well there's always Missouri. If they lose in New Jersey, there's always Delaware.

Sweet racket.

In the '40s and '50s, that just what they called this type of thing: The Rackets.

It's what the FBI spent their time on. They were called, "Racketbusters."

But without any visible "Racketbuster" around the ol' FBI compound these days, the health insurance crowd are now happily putting pressure through their official party organ, the WSJ, on the state legislatures that have had the courage to stand up to the industry and force them to offer services that residents of the state demand.

This is an opening salvo in the frontal attack on the hardline regulatory legislatures around the country. Those which appear interested in doing the people's business rather than the company's.

BooHooHooHoo.


posted by Gotham 10:35 AM
0 comments



From AMERICAblog:

With every passing day and every exploding scandal, we're seeing the CEO Bush and exactly how it was that he was able to run any number of business concerns into the ground when he was a younger man.

Now, he's doing the same from the Oval Office.

The stock analysts would be suggesting you sell right about now.

Many in the GOP are starting to look more closely at their political portfolio.


posted by Gotham 3:46 AM
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Let Them Eat... Yellowcake!


Hundreds of Children Starving in Niger

3.6 people in Niger are facing the prospect of starving to death.

A third of them, children.

And as most of the cable TV punditocracy laughingly trip over themselves trying to pronounce the name of the place, the Bush administration only knows that it's a place—out there, somewhere—which, handily, they can use to punch former Ambassador Joseph Wilson IV bloody over his having the temerity to truthfully point out to Americans that their leaders cooked the books and lied to them after September 11, in order to gain their backing for an Iraq invasion, which had been the cherished Neo-Con dream for well over a decade.

Phyllis Schafly and Sen. Rick (Man-on-Dog) Santorum want you to care about "the child."

As long as it's not yet alive.

And not, god forbid, black.


posted by Gotham 2:11 AM
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Saturday, July 23, 2005

Losing the Genius Label...


To quote a dear friend's line on current events:

Turd Blossom Circles the Bowl.

From Raw Story:

L.A. TIMES MOVES PERJURY WITH ROVE TO FRONT PAGE


posted by Gotham 2:52 AM
0 comments


The War for the GOP


This is bad for the GOP. Really bad.

GOP candidate calls for impeachment

Watch for more of this kind of headline in the months ahead.


posted by Gotham 2:36 AM
0 comments

Friday, July 22, 2005



It's important to remember why this ongoing D.C. scandal is such a big deal.

Yes, it may well point at Karl Rove. But Karl Rove is George W. Bush is Karl Rove is George W. Bush, etc., etc.

The two are intrinsically, utterly aligned. They are intertwined to the point of being emmeshed.

This is why the step Bush has taken to fully back Rove with every photo op of every day is so foolhardy. This way, yes, he won't have said something stupid which would get him in hot water with the investigation. And will still have gotten his message across.

But he is also lashing himself and his presidency to the most ruthlessly vicious political operative in, perhaps, the country's entire history. And as with most other "ruthlessly vicious political operatives," Rove has made many enemies and is apt to trip over his overwhelming hubris and end up in flames.

So all that is left to the president is prayer. Pray that Rove isn't indicted and possibly/probably convicted of any of an array of possible crimes. Because the math is so simple:

If Rove goes down, Bush goes down.

Period.

Especially if Bush were to be stupid enough to pardon a thoroughly disgraced villian like Rove. Americans would storm the White House with torches.

For now, their hands are tied. So, all they can do is lash out.

McClellan 'Thanks' Roving Reporters for Conducting Plame Probe 'From This Room'

While Scotty McClellan is doing the "No comment" meltdown during press briefings, someone as savvy as ol' Karl usually is should tell the president that Karl Rove is going down.

And that he is taking the national GOP down with him.

But mostly, that he's taking the president of the United States down with him.

Even if there is no specific proof of any wrongdoing on Rove's part as of this date, the American people are following this story in shockingly high numbers. And with every day, middle-of-the-road GOPers are turning on the president. In increasing numbers.

Ironically, because of his decades-long friendship with Rove, the president will find that his best friend and political guru is the very man responsible for destroying Bush's otherwise fully incompetent-but-powerful administration.

Henceforth, we will see RoveBush. Or BushRove.

One person: each part who cannot, and does not, function or exist without the other part.

One name. One presidency. One ideology. One career left in tatters.

One world left in flames.

One nation left in tears.

RoveBush.


posted by Gotham 2:15 AM
0 comments

Wednesday, July 20, 2005

As Karl Rove Morphs Into Susan Smith...


Well, after a brief, but well-earned respite from BushRove-gate for the nomination of conservative Judge Orange Alert to a SCOTUS seat, we return to our happy warriors.

From The American Prospect:

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

By Murray Waas



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.


Oops... . I hate when I forget things I meant to say, too.


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.


Next, BushRove will be leaking that the journalist was a black man, whoever he was. Or maybe, "it was an Hispanic man...Yeah, it was an Hispanic guy. No...Actually, it was a black guy after all. Can't recall, the light wasn't great in that parking garage, y'know?"


posted by Gotham 6:59 PM
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Sunday, July 10, 2005

Well, Here You Have It, Then...


Nancy Benac of AP (with an assist from Donna Cassata) lays it out about as clearly as you need:

Bush's Judges Already Making Their Mark

Along with this sidebar:

A Look at Judges Appointed by Dems, GOP

So this is where we find ourselves:
Our nation, once strong and revered, is the Alamo.

The Bush administration, with its array of thousands of troops of hungry, corrupt, greedy, un-American zealots and crackpots, is Santa Ana.

Basically, as a country and as a society, we fight or we die.


posted by Gotham 11:49 AM
0 comments

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

It's A New York Thing...


From The Atlanta Journal-Constitution via Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington:


Dean slam at GOP puts Democrats in tricky spot

By SCOTT SHEPARD, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution


Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is trying to get voters to hold the Republican Party responsible for the "culture of corruption" he sees in Washington, but Dean is getting virtually no help from fellow Democrats in the House of Representatives.

In the year since then-Rep. Chris Bell (D-Texas) filed a complaint that triggered the current ethics investigation of House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas), not one Democrat has initiated another complaint despite the pleas of outside watchdog groups.

House Democrats are victims of "a kind of mindset that too often creeps in in Washington —to get along, go along," Bell said in a telephone interview from his law office in Houston. "There's not a more adversarial act you can take in the House than an ethics complaint, and some people just don't have the stomach for it."


Here's something we NYers can actually do to help. We've sat for too long, crying the there's nothing for us to do, sitting in the bluest of the blue states. We've got the most liberal, progressive House and Senate representation in the country. So, picketing our Congressman is useless - he already agrees with us, and is in the leadership of fighting whatever it is that the right is cramming down our throats on any given day.

So, again, here's something we can actually do. Call your NY Representative and send a strongly worded request to have them file an ethics complaint against Reps. Bob Ney of Ohio and Duke Cunningham of California, for all the crap they've put this country through and all the money they've stolen.


posted by Gotham 3:02 AM
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Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Sir Duke-Stir


Ahhh...the fragrant, cesspool that envelops the esteemed Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham's (R-CA; San Diego) understanding of the legality of sharing fiscal engrandizements has just landed in our fair city.

This from Josh Marshall at TPM.

I remember this Celestine Miller / William Harris story. The NY Post loved it. As I recall, it was front page all the way: blacks who dared to rise in the educational system, wanting to run for office as a member of the Party of Lincoln, taking bribes and kickbacks. Graft that rightfully belonged to good, Christian white folk.

How dare they?


posted by Gotham 8:03 PM
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Negroponte's Calling Card


Now that "Death Squad John" Negroponte has left Iraq, it's no wonder that folks now find a well-running, brutal Shiite-controlled, secret police contingent working for the new Iraqi govenment.

You know, the newly elected democratic one?

In Negroponte's past, they've normally been called "Death Squads."

You may have been referring to them lately as "Iraqi police."

From The Observer: UK aid funds Iraqi torture units

Now that "Death Squad John" has moved on to the top intelligence spot here in the U.S., the Takrit unit is fully functional.

So, when do the Tacoma, Tucson and Toledo units gear up?


posted by Gotham 2:06 AM
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Monday, July 04, 2005

Civil War, Part II


Milbank: Word From O'Connor Sets Off Pre-Fourth Fireworks


posted by Gotham 3:01 PM
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Gosh, is there a problem with our news coverage?

Pliant American press behaving like Pravda in coverage of the U.S. president


posted by Gotham 3:52 AM
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Gee, Go Figure...


FAUXNew: Democratic Ranks Pleased by Dean Performance

Who'da thunk it?

Howard Dean is the true Democrat. He, in fact, speaks for the rank and file Democrats who you in D.C. will have to face come election time. Whether we be Progressive or DLCer, out here, outside the Beltway, we like him just fine.

The nauseating sight of the pampered, heavily bronzed Sen. Joe Visa from Delaware, complete with laser-bleached day-glo teeth, who's never worked a day in his life, blasting Dean for insulting Republicans for being pampered, heavily bronzed, and never having worked a day in their lives was the capper that shows the world that Sen. Joe is presidential material.

Note to all $3,000 suit Democrats: Shut up and get out of the way!

This is what primaries are for. To take away your cushy spot because you couldn't/wouldn't do your job the way we wanted you to do it.

Either jump on the bus, or be doomed to fall under it.


posted by Gotham 3:44 AM
0 comments


The Rove Decoy


Joe at AMERICAblog is heading in the same direction I've been going down since Friday.

Only four or five key members of the executive branch have a need-to-know clearance to know who covert operatives are.

I'm sorry, but the president's chief political advisor doesn't qualify and isn't on the list.

So, if it indeed WAS Rove who leaked the info on Plame, who at the HIGHEST reaches of our government TOLD HIM? There's your leaker!


posted by Gotham 2:14 AM
0 comments

Sunday, July 03, 2005

What's Behind the Iranian Election?


Before you fall for FauxNews and the Bush administration's echo chamber starting to beat war drums over Iran, let's take a look at what's ACTUALLY going on in Iran with the election of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as president.

NYTimes: For the Poor in Iran, Voting Was About Making Ends Meet

Iran today actually sounds more like America in the Thirties, with its agrarian population pushed into poverty and forced to migrate to the cities in the fruitless search of work.

And just like in every other country in the world's history, politicians who espouse a populist view of economic relief to the swelling masses of poor citizens (in Iran's case, pushing 30% of the country living below the poverty line) wins the day.

It's odd that the poor and the rich are both extremely adept at voting their own economic self-interests. It's the middle. and upper-middle classes that have such a hard time mastering that basic principle.


Mr. Ahmadinejad, who catapulted to president-elect from near obscurity as the appointed mayor of Tehran, campaigned on a populist message, promising to redistribute the nation's wealth, hold down prices, raise salaries and lift state-supported benefits for the poor. He infused those pledges with the theme of social justice, which resonated in a society where aiding the poor is considered an obligation for the faithful.

His message came at the right time. In 1997 and again in 2001, voters focused their political will on social and democratic freedoms in electing Mohammad Khatami to the presidency. But his promised reforms were hardly carried out, and in the election last week voters appeared to have shifted focus to their pocketbooks. One candidate, Mehdi Karroubi, a former speaker of Parliament, just missed making it to the runoff election for president after promising to pay each family the equivalent of $60 a month if elected.

Average salaries run about $200 a month in Iran, with a salary of $300 to $500 considered generous. But costs are fast outstripping the ability to pay—government figures put annual inflation at about 15 percent, though on some products, merchants say prices rise far faster than that.


But since Ahmadinezhad has a decent record of religious fundamentalism, the brilliant lights in the White House are taking some well needed time off from helping their cronies steal from the U.S. Treasury to whip up a frenzy in the corporate media about Ahmadinezhad being Satan, and the next big threat and all that.

I was surprised to see Wikipedia all over this so early.


Platform

Ahmadinejad has generally sent mixed signals about his plans for his presidency, which some U.S.-based analysts consider to have been designed to attract both the religious conservative and the socially and economically poorer people. The following is based on what is not known to have been denied later by him or his supporters. The main slogan for his campaign was "It's possible and we can do it."

In his presidential campaign, Ahmadinejad had taken a populist approach, with emphasis on his own simple life, and had compared himself with Mohammad Ali Rajai, the second President of Iran—a claim that raised objections from Rajai's family. Ahmadinejad plans to create an "exemplary government for the world people" in Iran. He is a self-described principlist; that is, acting politically based on Islamic and revolutionary principles. One of his goals were "putting the petroleum income on people's tables," referring to Iran's oil profits being distributed amongst the poorer classes.


"Uh-oh. Can't have that. Obviously, another one of those "take our profits to feed the poor" clowns. Mr. Secretary, what do we have on this moron?"

Wikipedia should be given credit for pushing this even to the extent of debunking the wild charges of the Swift Boat Hostages that Ahmadinejad was a nasty, hot-headed leader among their captors. Mr. Ahmadinejad may well have been involved; we can safely assume he was, given his resume. But that's akin to slamming a fifty-plus-year-old American for attending anti-Vietnam rallies or shutting down their campus in 1968. It's what most everyone did in that place and tiime. We can also safely assume that an in-depth story on "Where Are They Now," will show that the individuals involved in the hostage taking have moved into various places of high and low estate within Iranian society, including the Iranian government.

In any event, the photos which the echo chamber has been using to extort Americans to demand we "Nuke'em High Now" have a few flaws in them, to say the least. As in, they're wrong.

Wikipedia also gets this classic shot in:


Allegations

Since he has won the presidential elections a number of unsubstantiated allegations have surfaced on the major Western news media about Ahmadinejad. All this seems to be deliberate and calculated to associate Iran with "terrorism" which has been going on for a quite a long time in the Western media about Iran. Initially a photo of an MKO hostage taker was published, claiming it to be Ahmadinejad (it is interesting, by the way, that Washington now supports the MKO). Later claims were made that Ahmadinjead was involved in assassination of Kurdish leaders in Europe. Again, all major Western news agencies were quick to publish this news with big headers, without any evidence or reasonable investigation into the veracity of the claim. It is likely that more such allegations will start to show up in Western news media. It is interesting that nobody in the West starts questioning the integrity and authority of these news agencies despite numerous such false reports.


So, yes, "Heeeey, wait a minute, here..." is the proper response when you hear ANY story in the Corporate Media about Iran.

Now, if the U.S. took a page from President Bill Clinton's playbook and decided to wage covert economic warfare against the new Iranian leadership, and "felt the Iranian people's pain," and flooded the country with new money, people on the brink of starvation would see us as saviors, not as The Devil we normally portray.


posted by Gotham 11:29 AM
0 comments

Saturday, July 02, 2005

Free Katie Holmes!


Brooke Shields answers Tom Cruise.

Um, let's see...

Brook Shields went to Princeton.

Tom Cruise went to Spago's.

OK, I get it.


posted by Gotham 5:02 PM
0 comments

 

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