June 29, 2007

Bush Asserts Executive Privilege

President Bush, in a constitutional showdown with Congress, claimed executive privilege Thursday and rejected demands for White House documents and testimony about the firing of U.S. attorneys.
His decision was denounced as ``Nixonian stonewalling'' by the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Bush rejected subpoenas for documents from former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor. The White House made clear neither one would testify next month, as directed by the subpoenas.

Document is publicly viewable

June 27, 2007

Voinovich, Lugar call on Bush to plan Iraq withdrawal

In an ominous sign of wavering GOP support for the White House's Iraq strategy, two more Republican senators have called on President Bush to begin planning the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq.
Ohio Sen. George Voinovich sent a letter to the president today, stressing the need for a "comprehensive plan for our country's gradual military disengagement from Iraq."
And Indiana Sen. Richard Lugar, the widely respected former chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Monday evening went to the floor of the Senate to call on the president "to downsize the U.S. military's role in Iraq."
"Our course in Iraq has lost contact with our vital national security interests in the Middle East and beyond," Lugar said in an anguished address that expressed deep reservations about the president's policy as well as disappointment with the highly partisan debate over the war in Washington.

Former Interior Official Gets Prison

A federal judge chastised the Interior Department's former No. 2 official and doubled his proposed prison term to 10 months Tuesday for lying to senators in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and making excuses about it in court.
J. Steven Griles was the department's deputy secretary and is the highest administration official sentenced in the probe. He pleaded guilty to obstructing a congressional investigation, but on Tuesday his lawyers tried to deflect blame for his faulty testimony.
U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle was not pleased.
"Even now you continue to minimize and try to excuse your conduct," she told Griles before doubling the five-month prison term he and prosecutors had agreed on.
Document is publicly viewable

June 23, 2007

Dick Cheney, YOUR FIRED!

Cheney has been instrumental in eroding privacy rights for all Americans -- except himself.

Dick Cheney's refusal to comply with a presidential order regulating the handling of classified information might be scary were it not so ludicrous.

Cheney's rejection of mandatory inspections required of all federal offices to make sure they are properly protecting top secret documents defies basic standards of good government and common sense. And his argument that he needn't comply because his office isn't part of the executive branch is specious. Moreover, after clashing with the National Archives' Information Security Oversight Office, which conducts the routine inspections, Cheney's vindictive staff reportedly tried to abolish the unit. That's like trying to disband the Internal Revenue Service for demanding a tax audit. Has the veep taken leave of his senses?

READ THE FULL STORY:

My Response:
Cheney, who do think you are? You don’t work for big oil, (or do you) you work for me, YOUR FIRED!

June 12, 2007

S.J.RES.14

A joint resolution expressing the sense of the Senate that Attorney General Alberto Gonzales no longer holds the confidence of the Senate and of the American people.

Thank you Democrats, Republicans and Independent for voting YES on S.J.RES.14, Good Job.

Not Voting, Obama, and you want to be President? You can’t do your job now.

Not Voting – 7

Biden (D-DE)
Brownback (R-KS)
Coburn (R-OK)
Dodd (D-CT)
Johnson (D-SD)
McCain (R-AZ)
Obama (D-IL)

Republicans voting yes on S.J.RES.14, Coleman, Collins, Hagel, Smith, Snowe, Specter, Sununu and Sanders.
Thank You

YEAs ---53

Coleman (R-MN)
Collins (R-ME)
Hagel (R-NE)
Smith (R-OR)
Snowe (R-ME)
Specter (R-PA)
Sununu (R-NH)
Sanders (I-VT)
~
Independent voting No, Lieberman
Lieberman, you are not an Independent, you are a Republican. Find another job.

NAYs ---38

Lieberman (ID-CT)

READ THE FULL STORY

June 08, 2007

Republican With Abramoff Ties To Plead Guilty

A Republican activist will plead guilty to obstructing Congress in the influence-peddling scandal centered around former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, her
lawyer said on Wednesday.
Italia Federici also will plead guilty to tax evasion at a court hearing on Friday, lawyer Jonathan Rosen said.
Federici had close ties to senior Interior Department officials as head of the Council of Republicans for Environmental Advocacy, or CREA, a nonprofit
group founded by former Interior Secretary Gale Norton.
According to criminal charges filed by the government, Federici in 2001 introduced Abramoff to her sometime boyfriend, ex-Deputy Interior Secretary
Steven Griles.

June 04, 2007

Violent Crime Up For Second Year



The number of violent crimes in the United States rose for a second straight year in 2006, marking the first sustained increase in homicides, robberies and other serious offenses since the early 1990s, according to an FBI report to be released Monday.

The FBI's Uniform Crime Report will show an increase of about 1.3 percent in violent offenses last year, including a 6 percent rise in robberies and a slight rise in homicides, according to law enforcement officials, who described key findings in advance of the report's release. That follows an increase of 2.3 percent in 2005, which was the first significant increase in violent crime in 15 years.
Fire, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales