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Dan Abrams explores Karl Rove's odd and malicious involvement in the Siegelman case with Congressman Artur Davis (D-Alabama), who wants Rove to testify before the Judiciary Committee, and Harper's Scott Horton.
Technorati Tags: Dan Abrams, Don Siegelman, Karl Rove, Rep. Artur Davis, Scott Horton
Some good folks at George Washington University interrupted a Karl Rove speech with a “War Criminal” banner (video below). HUGE props to the student protesters even if their banner wasn't quite as professional as the “Free Don Siegelman” banner I presented Rove with last month.
You will note at the end of the video that Rove explains that all the animosity displayed towards him around the country is because he is a “myth”. Rove used the same myth reasoning to explain away all the scandals associated with him when I heard him speak last month as heard in the video below.
Transcript:
Question: It’s basically a widespread belief that when it comes to politics you play it rough. They have accused you of outing CIA agent Valerie Plame, planning the dismissals of US attorneys on political grounds, collusion with Jack Abramoff and most recently plotting the downfall of Don Siegelman. Do you play rough?
Rove: Ah, you know, in each one of those instances things have proven to be or turned out to be either non-existent or not true. But if there is no evidence for it, Rove is responsible. It’s like the 60 Minutes thing on Don Siegelman…
Question: Did you see it?
Rove: Yeah I did, you know, this woman says that she was a longtime Alabama operative and I asked her to get pictures of Governor Siegelman with - naked pictures of him with his aides - and, ah, that this is a number of requests I’ve made to her.
The fact of the matter is that I never met with this woman. I never made this request of her or anybody else. If she was a political operative she wasn’t involved in any of the campaigns that I was involved in in Alabama. I’ve never met the woman.
And I frankly thought it was really unusual, you know, there was CBS – this woman says she met with me in 2001 – I’m at the White House, where did we meet? You know, she was an opposition researcher, ah, who paid her? When did I start making these requests? I mean, I, I, the woman lied. I don’t think I’ve ever met the woman. I know I’ve never taken a meeting with her.
And yet the CBS – look, I’m a myth I’m not a human being. I may appear to be flesh and blood but I’m a myth.
Hopefully someone will have another appropriate banner waiting for Rove at the next stop of his hugely lucrative speaking tour.
Technorati Tags: Don Siegelman, Karl Rove
From the NY Times:
In a telephone interview shortly after he walked out of a federal prison in Oakdale, La., Mr. Siegelman said there had been “abuse of power” in his case, and repeatedly cited the influence of Karl Rove, the former White House political director.
“His fingerprints are smeared all over the case,” Mr. Siegelman said, a day after a federal appeals court ordered him released on bond and said there were legitimate questions about his case.
Surprisingly, despite first hand knowledge of the depravity of Bush administration and the incompetence, weakness and lack of spine of the Democratic opposition, Siegelman still hopes that Congress will force Rove to answer questions about his case:
The former governor, a Democrat, said he would “press” to have Mr. Rove answer questions about his possible involvement in the case before Congress, which has already held a hearing on Mr. Siegelman. On Thursday, the House Judiciary Committee signaled its intention to have Mr. Siegelman testify about the nature of his prosecution.
From his lips to gods ears as it will clearly take intervention from a higher power to get the Democratic led Congress to do the right thing for once.
Read the entire NY Times article.
Hot Potato Mash coverage of the Siegelman case.
Technorati Tags: Don Siegelman, Karl Rove
While I cannot confirm that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals read my “Free Don Siegelman” banner (at right with Karl Rove), it clearly got the message and released the former Alabama Governor from prison pending his appeal:
A federal appeals court approved the release of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman on bond Thursday while he appeals his convictions in a corruption case.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the former governor had raised “substantial questions of fact and law” in challenging his conviction, which Siegelman claims was politically motivated.
Siegelman's attorney, Vince Kilborn, summed up the ruling well:
“It's a sweet day. He's an innocent man and he's been in prison for nine months”
Sweet indeed.
Read more about Siegelman's release from the AP.
See all my coverage of the Siegelman case here.
Technorati Tags: Don Siegelman
The NY Times' Nicholas D. Kristof believes that “staying in Iraq indefinitely undermines our national security by empowering jihadis”. He adds, that if you disagree with this assessment and “believe that staying in Iraq does more good than harm, you must answer the next question: Is that presence so valuable that it is worth undermining our economy?” All supporters of the continuing occupation of Iraq should be forced to answer that question in light of the following:
Granted, the cost estimates are squishy and controversial, partly because the $12.5 billion a month that we’re now paying for Iraq is only a down payment. We’ll still be making disability payments to Iraq war veterans 50 years from now.
Professor Stiglitz calculates in a new book, written with Linda Bilmes of Harvard University, that the total costs, including the long-term bills we’re incurring, amount to about $25 billion a month. That’s $330 a month for a family of four.
A Congressional study by the Joint Economic Committee found that the sums spent on the Iraq war each day could enroll an additional 58,000 children in Head Start or give Pell Grants to 153,000 students to attend college. Or if we’re sure we want to invest in security, then a day’s Iraq spending would finance another 11,000 border patrol agents or 9,000 police officers.
Imagine the possibilities. We could hire more police and border patrol agents, expand Head Start and rehabilitate America’s image in the world by underwriting a global drive to slash maternal mortality, eradicate malaria and deworm every child in Africa.
All that would consume less than one month’s spending on the Iraq war.
Moreover, the Bush administration has financed this war in a way that undermines our national security — by borrowing. Forty percent of the increased debt will be held by China and other foreign countries.
“This is the first major war in American history where all the additional cost was paid for by borrowing,” Mr. Hormats notes. If the war backers believe that the Iraq war is so essential, then they should be willing to pay for it partly with taxes rather than charging it. (emphasis added)
One way or another, now or later, we’ll have to pay the bill. Professor Stiglitz calculates that the eventual total cost of the war will be about $3 trillion. For a family of five like mine, that amounts to a bill of almost $50,000.
Read the entire Kristof Op-Ed.
Technorati Tags: Nicholas Kristof
It appears that Hot Potato Mash has more Iraq war coverage than the mainstream media. From today's New York Times:
The three broadcast networks’ nightly newscasts devoted more than 4,100 minutes to Iraq in 2003 and 3,000 in 2004, before leveling off at about 2,000 a year, according to Andrew Tyndall, who monitors the broadcasts and posts detailed breakdowns at tyndallreport.com. And by the last months of 2007, he said, the broadcasts were spending half as much time on Iraq as earlier in the year.
Since the start of last year, the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a part of the nonprofit Pew Research Center, has tracked reporting by several dozen major newspapers, cable stations, broadcast television networks, Web sites and radio programs. Iraq accounted for 18 percent of their prominent news coverage in the first nine months of 2007, but only 9 percent in the following three months, and 3 percent so far this year. (emphasis is mine)
The policy debate in Washington that dominated last year’s Iraq coverage has almost disappeared from the news. And reporting on events in Iraq has fallen by more than two-thirds from a year ago.
Clearly the MSM just doesn't care about our soldiers fighting and dying in Iraq. Soldiers like Tomas Young seen in the two videos below and the soon to be released documentary “Body of War”. For more on Young see my post at Brad Blog.
Part 1 (9:03)
Part 2 (5:30)
(h/t Dredd)
Technorati Tags: iraq, msm, Tomas Young
My favorite former blogger, theBhc (aka Kenneth Anderson), who previously wrote amazingly in depth political commentary with a wicked sense of humor at Anything They Say, has finally launched his long awaited new site, SHOCKFRONT.ORG. Check out Ken's short but intense introductory video (1:08) below which is surely a sign of good things to come. And be sure to visit his new site and welcome him back.
Technorati Tags: kenneth anderson
My friend Rob Pearlstein wrote, directed and stars in the above hilarious short (3:54) with Anthony Anderson and J. Robin Miller. Please vote “funny” at the end if you like it!
Technorati Tags: Don Siegelman, Petition
Amy Goodman's introduction to Democracy Now's coverage of “Winter Soldier”:
JON MICHAEL TURNER: 3rd Battalion, 8th Marines.
KEVIN AND JOYCE LUCEY (Part 1): Parents of Corporal Jeffrey Lucey
KEVIN AND JOYCE LUCEY (Part 2):
JASON LEMIEUX: Marine sergeant served three tours in Iraq
Technorati Tags: Winter Soldier
Barack Obama's landmark speech about race and religion. Do not miss this powerful speech (37:39) that will likely be remembered for a long time to come.
“The Audacity of Hope: Thoughts on Reclaiming the American Dream” (Barack Obama)
Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, race, religion
The Boston Globe reports that Hillary is benefitting mightily from Republicans hoping to sway the outcome of the Democratic race:
For a party that loves to hate the Clintons, Republican voters have cast an awful lot of ballots lately for Senator Hillary Clinton: About 100,000 GOP loyalists voted for her in Ohio, 119,000 in Texas, and about 38,000 in Mississippi, exit polls show.
A sudden change of heart? Hardly.
Since Senator John McCain effectively sewed up the GOP nomination last month, Republicans have begun participating in Democratic primaries specifically to vote for Clinton, a tactic that some voters and local Republican activists think will help their party in November. With every delegate important in the tight Democratic race, this trend could help shape the outcome if it continues in the remaining Democratic primaries open to all voters.
Spurred by conservative talk radio, GOP voters who say they would never back Clinton in a general election are voting for her now for strategic reasons: Some want to prolong her bitter nomination battle with Barack Obama, others believe she would be easier to beat than Obama in the fall, or they simply want to register objections to Obama.
This is what Hillary calls momentum. For more on Republican Party preference for Hillary see:
Yet, none of this appears to phase Hillary and her supporters who seem hellbent on fighting dirty 'til the finish in order to tarnish Obama so badly that the super delegates will not be reluctant to overturn the will the people (Obama has an insurmountable delegate lead). Wow. Sick. Gross. Unbelievable. Unreal. Despicable. Outrageous. Contemptible. And stupid.
Technorati Tags: Barack Obama, gop, Hillary Clinton, republican
The short video mashup above (3:10) is from Saturday's peace march in Los Angeles sponsored by A.N.S.W.E.R. LA to mark the 5th anniversary of the Iraq invasion. The rally was different from others that I've attended since the Iraq occupation began in that it was dominated by young people and because I never once saw a camera crew or truck from the mainstream media.
While the mainstream media rarely report more than a sound bite of one of the crazier or scarier people in attendance at these rallies, at least they previously had the courtesy of pretending to take seriously the majority of Americans who remain anti-war. Apparently this is no longer the case.
Meanwhile, one would have hoped that after five years of horrific war - that has cost nearly 4,000 American lives and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives - more than a few thousand people would rally for peace in a city of 10 million. Soon we will be able to add our democracy to the list of the dead.
“Democracy in America (Penguin Classics)” (Alexis de Tocqueville)
Technorati Tags: anti-war, democracy, iraq, March, media, Peace
Don't miss the other helpful tips at SafeNow.Org, a site parodying the scare mongering government website Ready.gov.
(h/t Laurel)
