Hot Potato Mash

DEMOCRATS COLLUDING WITH BUSH TO GUT 4th AMENDMENT TO COVER THEIR OWN CULPABILITY

That's right folks. Democrats will pass a Bill in the House tomorrow that will eviscerate the 4th Amendment and grant after the fact immunity to lawbreaking corporations in an effort to cover their own asses. Is it possible to get any more craven?

To put this law in context, even the Republican controlled Congress couldn't get this legislation passed. But now that the Dem leadership has been exposed to have had knowledge about the Bush administration's illegal spying on Americans (and did nothing), Dems are jumping at the bit to coverup their actions.

And just where o where is Barack Obama? As the Democratic Party leader all he need do is make a simple phone call telling Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to shelve the destruction of the 4th Amendment until after the election. Yet, despite his repeated claims to be adamantly opposed to this legislation and for the rule of law, he remains dead silent. Nice leadership.

Face it people, unless Barack Obama changes course by tomorrow he will prove himself to just another politician. And the right wing noise machine will be able to rightfully claim that Obama is all rhetoric and no substance.

PLEASE CALL THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN AND TELL THEM TO KILL THIS BILL BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE: (866) 675-2008 [Dial 6, then 0, on the menu]

Keith Olbermann

THE LAST ROUNDUP

Is the government compiling a secret list of citizens to detain under martial law?

The scariest article I have ever read!

Bush administration, main core, martial law

Democracy In Action... In Korea

The Bush administration fights to prevent meatpackers from testing for mad cow disease:

The Bush administration said Tuesday it will fight to keep meatpackers from testing all their animals for mad cow disease.

The Agriculture Department tests fewer than 1 percent of slaughtered cows for the disease, which can be fatal to humans who eat tainted beef. A beef producer in the western state of Kansas, Creekstone Farms Premium Beef, wants to test all of its cows.

Larger meat companies feared that move because, if Creekstone should test its meat and advertised it as safe, they might have to perform the expensive tests on their larger herds as well.

A quarter-million Koreans protest in Seoul during a 72-hour-long marathon candle vigil against the import of US beef...

How great is this story? Here we once again have the Bush administration whoring for industry to the detriment of the American people. Yet, the mainstream media doesn't cover the story and Americans don't have a clue about it. But 250,000 turnout over three days to protest the sick actions of the American government in KOREA!

Of course the media can't report the ginormous protest because that would mean informing Americans about the disgusting actions of the Bush administration.

(h/t Big Dan)

Bush administration, democracy, Korea, mad cow

VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: Dr. William Pepper on James Earl Ray's Innocence, Sirhan Sirhan's Innocence, 9/11 Truth and Prosecuting War Crimes

Dr. William F. Pepper is an internationally acclaimed lawyer who defended James Earl Ray in a 1999 civil trial (supported by Martin Luther King's family) where the jury found Ray not responsible for the MLK assassination. Now Pepper is defending Sirhan Sirhan for the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy, a case he says is “an easier one than the assassination of Martin King and the innocence of James Earl Ray”.

Last Wednesday Pepper spoke about all of his projects, including 9/11 truth and prosecuting the Bush administration for war crimes, to a packed celebrity filled house in Los Angeles. Among those in attendance were Ed Asner, Gina Belafonte, Judd Nelson and 9/11 author Professor David Ray Griffin. Videos of his talk follow below... 

Part 1 (6:21) - Introduction 

In Part 1 Pepper talks about his background, childhood and motivation. He also speaks about the time he spent in Cuba playing baseball where he got to know Fidel Castro. According to Pepper, Castro foresaw much of what is happening in the United States today:

“When, in that massive country to the north, the masses of the people ever understand what it is that their ruling class has done to them and is doing to them, there will be such a torrent of opposition. They will rise like never before and then there will be the world’s greatest social revolution, the American second revolution.”

The video concludes with Pepper explaining how he came to work for Robert F. Kennedy and Martin King: 

 

Part 2 (5:36) - Martin Luther King, Jr. Assassination/James Earl Ray Innocence 

“Took me ten years to convince myself that [James Earl Ray] was an absolute patsy” - Dr. William Pepper 

In Part 2 Pepper begins with the Martin King assassination and explains how he became involved with James Earl Ray's defense some nine years later. He also goes into detail about the 30 day civil trial against Loyd Jowers, et al, where a jury found Ray not responsible for King's assassination after listening to 70 witnesses under oath. 

Pepper believes that Ray's civil trial should serve as a template for getting out the truth in a wide range of cover-ups including the Robert F. Kennedy assassination and 9/11. He thinks using the courts is an effective way to get the truth into the public record despite the efforts by the mainstream media to prevent its dissemination to the public.

 

Part 3 (9:56) - Robert F. Kennedy Assassination/Sirhan Sirhan Innocence 

“I found from just a preliminary examination of the record that [the Sirhan Sirhan case] on the law, on the facts of the case, was an easier one than the assassination of Martin King and the innocence of James Earl Ray” - Dr. William Pepper 

In the first half of Part 3 Pepper details the startling evidence that necessitates a second shooter in the assassination of Bobby Kennedy. For starters the medical examiner states that Kennedy was shot four times from the rear including one shot about an inch behind his right ear which conflicts with all the witness testimony that Sirhan was always three to five feet in front of the likely Democratic presidential nominee.

Secondly, the analysis of audio recordings from the assassination with formerly unavailable new technology has led to the determination that 13 shots were fired at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. Sirhan's gun only held 8 bullets. In other words: 

“There had to be a second shooter there” - Dr. William Pepper

In the second half of Part 3 Pepper details the efforts taken by the prison and the Department of Corrections to prevent his legal team from psychoanalyzing Sirhan Sirhan.

Part 4 (4:59) - Robert F. Kennedy Assassination (Continued) 

In Part 4 Pepper continues the RFK assassination discussion and his efforts to clear Sirhan Sirhan whom he says is innocent:

“The problem we face is if we get our client clearly innocent of the killing of Bob Kennedy – which he is, clearly innocent of that killing – he has five other counts of attempted murder” - Dr. William Pepper

In addition to the belief in Sirhan's innocence Pepper believes the case is important because it is representative of a larger problem facing the country:

“Each of the things I’m talking about are symptomatic of a pervasive sickness in this country. This is not the country we were all led to believe it was or should have been. This is what has emerged because we have had a small group of criminals grab power over a period of time following the orders of the people in the shadows who really do dominate life and justice and the injustices that exist in the society.” - Dr. William Pepper

Part 5 (8:36) - 9/11 

“The 9/11 matter is, in my lifetime, the most traumatic assault on democracy and the safety of this Republic.” - Dr. William Pepper

Part 5 is dedicated to finding out the truth about 9/11. Pepper supports two different ways for accomplishing this goal. First, he backs an effort to create a new commission to investigate 9/11 by New York state referendum. Volunteers are currently trying to get the necessary 30,000 signatures from registered New York voters to get the measure on the ballot.

The second approach is to once again file a lawsuit in the courts. Pepper is leading this effort on behalf of the Jersey Girls and plans to sue, among others, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, who is widely believed to have sent $100,000 to lead 9/11 hijacker, Mohammed Atta.

Part 6 (8:03) - War Crimes 

“I’m determined that what I saw in Vietnam and what is happening in Iraq will not go unpunished. Absolutely determined that that’s the case. What that means is this entire gang of war criminals in Washington are going to have to be prosecuted” - Dr. William Pepper

Part 6 covers what Pepper believes is his most important project -- the prosecution of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, David Addington, Doug Feith and Richard Pearl, et al, for war crimes.

Pepper plans to accomplish this monumental task by following the precedent set in the case of Chilean dictator General Augusto Pinochet. In that case, a Spanish judge issued an international arrest warrant for Pinochet whose charges including 94 counts of torture.

Ultimately Pepper hopes for a conviction in absentia of the American war criminals which would prevent the guilty from ever stepping foot outside of the United States.

NOTE: To order a DVD of the night's entire programming, which includes a lively Q & A session with Dr. William Pepper and a talk by Professor David Ray Griffin on new 9/11 evidence, please contact Kathleen at quantumysticKFR@gmail.com to request a copy.

“An Act of State: The Execution of Martin Luther King, New and Updated Edition” (William F. Pepper)

“Orders to Kill: The Truth Behind the Murder of Martin Luther King, Jr” (William F. Pepper)

Technorati Tags: 11, administration, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Dr. WIlliam Pepper, Fidel Castro, George W. Bush, iraq, James Earl Ray, Jersey Girls, Martin Luther King Jr., puppy, Robert F. Kennedy, september11, Sirhan Sirhan, torture, war crimes

THE PROSECUTION OF GEORGE W. BUSH FOR MURDER

Famed Charles Manson prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi says George W. Bush should be prosecuted for murder.

"The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder" (Vincent Bugliosi)

George W. Bush, Vincent Bugliosi, Murder

THIS MAN HATES YOU AND YOU COULD BE MAKING HIM RICH!

Jarrow L. Rogovin is the multi-millionaire founder and current President/Chairman of the Board of Jarrow Formulas, a formulator and supplier of nutritional supplements. With an extensive product list - including vitamins, herbal formulas, protein powders, pet formulations and antioxidants - you may well be a customer of Jarrow Formulas. If so, you are more than likely enriching a man who hates you and thinks you are a traitor that hates your country.

Jarrow L. Rogovin, you see, hates liberals, Democrats, Barack Obama (oh does he hate Obama!), the anti-war crowd, Europeans, Muslims (maybe more than he hates Obama) and perhaps above all else -- me!

I know this because over the last five weeks or so, I have traded a number of emails with Jarrow. Below I quote directly from those emails and ask readers, Jarrow Formulas customers and anyone googling “Jarrow L. Rogovin” to ask themselves whether this is someone you want to deal with, never mind enrich.

Patriotic American Jarrow L. Rogovin on liberals:

“Dupes are leftwingers.” “what vicious liars liberals are.” “We are winning the war.  At this point, liberals are traitors. They want America to lose. That is how much they hate the country. It is as horrible as it is revolting as it is tragic as it is despicable. They should never be forgotten nor forgiven.” “demonstrate how truly ridiculous liberals are.”

“At the risk of sounding like Ann Coulter, you come across as a typical liberal:  All sound and fury signifying fecklessness.” “You really are a piece of leftwing shit.” “I smelled a real liberal rat. Now it's like the dailykos.org and a pice of leftwing Nazi shit.” “The point is:  There are brainless fools like you who vote.  It's not their class.  It's your collective stupidity.” “You can't respond to what's on hand. You're a liberal.” “I'm sick and tired of liberal rantings”

“You, however, come across as a bleeting, liberal sheep:  Blathering blah-blah banalities without surcease.” “You really are a piece of leftwing shit.” “I'm sick of you people” “I really enjoy sending the columns to leftists. They hate it. I love it.” “libs are clueless about what's good for Israel.” “Further, you and the leftwing ACLU, and the scum trial lawyers are using the fear tactics” “The point of the NY Times editorials is that liberals -- who are really illiberal in the extreme -- are really completely corrupt fascists.”

Successful businessman and philanthropist Jarrow Rogovin on me:

“sputtering, stammering, incompetent ignoramus” “churlish, childish and wilfully ignorant” “Demented” “pathetic” “deranged” “nuts” “juvenile” “confused” “child” “unwell” “wannabe schoolyard bully” “child” “vulgar grade schooler” “horrid child” “obnoxious brat” “weird” “idiot” “nutball” “schmuck” “illiterate” “too fucking stupid clueless” “ignorant slut” “idiotic” “thick, ignorant slut skull” “naïf”

“SO pathetically IGNORANT” “Ignorant schmuck” “amazingly dense” “sick, shallow ‘mind’” “confused” “useless idiot” “You're an ass, sir, an absolute ass” “stupid, useless, shit-for-brains, fucked up little jackass!” “YOU ASSHOLE.  YOU STUPID LITTLE NINNY SCHMUCK” “you fucking crack pot piece of shit-for-brains idiot” “YOU ARE SOOOOOOOOOOOOOO STUPID!!!!!!!!!!!!!” “YOU STUPID SCHMUCK BASTARD!” “fuck yourself” “IDIOT!”

“The only thing that doesn't get out is the build up of crap in your skull.  Paranoid, leftist idiot. Stupid, pathetic, paranoid schmuck” “infected schmucks like you” “Your insane. Inane but insane” “just go fuck yourself. Put on your AC/DC crap and go fuck yourself. You sick, stupid, pathetic, hopeless little bastard. You're a pathological passive-aggressive twerp. Just go fuck yourself already” “And shove it up your anti-elitist ass” “your stupid, pathetic little shit of a schmuck” “shit you have for brains”

“Right, Fuckhead?” “Passive-aggressive geeky schmuck” “pathetic moron” “Passive-aggressive jerk” “You are way, way, way to pathetically ignorant” “You're an ignoranus, a stupid ass” “may I wish you a heartfelt Drop Dead!” “You're a bore and a fool” “You really are a piece of leftwing shit.  You're a disgusting piece of crap. Period.” “Go fuck yourself. Preferably with a branch from a St. Joseph's Coat rose bush.”

“You're a loser” “You're a total lout” “You're a hateful, disgusting piece of paranoid leftist shit” “you little piece of shit” “a leftwing Nazi paranoiac on your hands who is a crypto self-hating Jew” “You make me puke blood. Go to hell.” “despicable” “a loser and insane” “a pathetic bore” “Another meaningless statement from the anus that speaks” “you're a pig, which is...a pathetic bore. A passive-aggressive, pathological, leftwing paranoiac, self-hating bore. Go bore yourself another one. You're a bore.” “Silly Bore”

“self-loathing” “leftwing” “clowns” “childish shit” “flake” “you act like a clown” “an all-but illiterate fool” “boring” “brainless” “You're a worthless, self-hating schmuck” “You've had nothing to say that takes an I.Q. over 95.” “you can't even really think” “You're just a pathetic, embarrassing, fool -- and a fucked up passive-aggressive twerp.” “Otherwise, you're just full of more of your own shit.  Go take a fleet enema.” “dumbshit” “predictable leftist” “morons” “You're a waste of time. SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM SPAM..... ”

“You are an idiot.” “an idiot and a waste” “A leftwing fascist and self-hating Jew” “You're a schmuck, Alan.  Period.” “Jews like you are a Fifth Column. You're dangerous. You're the enemy. You're scum” “a miscreant and a waste” “trash ideas” “blighted fools.” “self-absorbed, inhumane, delusional liar.” “you and your self-deluded ilk” “pathetically stupid” “I wish I could call it naivete.  Unfortunately, it is far worse:  It is a perverse idiocy.” “selfish, sick, self-loathers” “You remind me of the old Hitler-loving peace crowd in the UK.  I have no use, no respect for you. You and your crowd is utterly foul, utterly disgusting.”

“You're scum of the lowest order” “think you're despicable” “We used to call it treason” “You lack even the wilted fig leaf of 'pacifism' for your evil views.  You are so obsessed with Bush Hatred that you are willing to see even millions die.  You are not only a traitor to the U.S. but to the very 'humanity' you feign to be protecting. You are foul, corrupt and evil, a useless idiot if there ever were one. ”

“You wallow in the sty of your self-imposed ignorance” “Hey Schmuck” “putrid, toxic waste” “Fuckheads like you would revel in the problems an arrogant fool like Obama would cause” “a clueless idiot who will never get it” “You're an empty suit.  A nothing.  Your obit would be a question mark after 'Who cares.’” “you're a lying piece of crap” “Go fuck yourself.  Traitor.” “morons” “pathetic puke” “schmucks” “sickos”

And my personal favorite Jarrow Rogovin quote:

“As a parent, [your father] is a miserable failure”
--

And, believe it or not, there are plenty more where those came from!  You can also check out more Jarrow in the comments section to a Joshua Pundit post:

“Limiting Muslim immigration might slow things down but I understand that the percent of under age 18 French that are Muslim is 30%. That is a horror. Europe should have brought in Indians and Chinese for labor because they adapt well to their new countries and are value added. The Arabs are destructive parasites to any culture but their own...

The Europeans really are miserable cowards and have no stomach for a fight. They really don't care enough for their own culture to defend it. In fact, many of the Euroleft are Arabophiles so that compounds the problem even more.”

Also see Jarrow L Rogovin's letter to the L.A. Business Journal criticizing the LA City Council for requiring hotels to (God forbid!) pay their workers a living wage.

UPDATE: This exchange between Jarrow and a customer who wrote him regarding the Israeli Flag on the Jarrow Formulas website is simply not to be missed!

Technorati Tags: Jarrow, Jarrow Formulas, Jarrow L. Rogovin, Rogovin

VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: ABC News Democratic Debate Protest In Los Angeles

UPDATE: Face The Nation's Bob Schieffer on Patriotism and Flag Pins (h/t Think On These Things)

Technorati Tags: ABC News, Barack Obama, Charlie Gibson, coporatism, Disney, George Stephanopolous, mashup, media, msm, news, Propaganda, public opinion

THE BADA BING CLUB - ABSOLUTE MUST WATCH - SERIOUSLY

The first video is the ABC News investigative report, “The Principals”, which tells the story of how the highest ranking Bush admin officials - Ashcroft, Tenet, Rumsfeld, Powell (not such a good guy after all), Rice and Cheney - had meetings in the White House where they literally choreographed how prisoners would be tortured.

The second video is Countdown's Keith Olbermann interviewing constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley who was fairly clear about what all of this means:

“Well this is one meeting of principal, they are not talking about the Ali kind. And what you have is a bunch of people talking about something that is a crime for those of us that look at the criminal code and see torture for what it is. This is like meeting at The Bada Bing Club. These people are sitting around, regularly talking about something defined as a crime. And you even have John Ashcroft standing up and saying, ”Maybe we shouldn't be talking about this at the White House“. Obviously that is quite disturbing. It shows that this was a program, not just some incident, not just someone going too far, it was a torture program, implemented by the United States of America and approved at the very highest level. And it goes right to the President's desk.

And it's notable that this group wanted to get lawyers to sign off on this and they found those lawyers in people like Jay Bybee and John Yoo and those people were handsomely rewarded. In Bybee's case he became a federal judge after signing off on a rather grotesque memo that said that they could do everything short of causing organ failure or death.”

All of which makes Ashcroft, Tenet, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice and Cheney - WAR CRIMINALS! WAR CRIMINALS! WAR CRIMINALS! WAR CRIMINALS! WAR CRIMINALS! WAR CRIMINALS! WAR CRIMINALS! WAR CRIMINALS!

Technorati Tags: bush, cheney, CIA, fascism, interview, national security, olbermann, rumsfeld, torture, video

VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: KARL ROVE - 'FREE DON SIEGELMAN'

I got a chance to meet Karl Rove before he spoke at the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles last night. See the video (33 seconds, below) of my brief encounter:

UPDATE: Transcript of the encounter which reveals one particularly interesting line...

Rove: “Hi, Karl Rove”

Alan: “Alan Breslauer”

Rove: “Hey Alan, nice to meet you”

Alan: “Do you mind holding this with me [inaudible - might be ”while we do this“]

Rove: ”What is this, what is this“

Rove: ”No, no, you can hold that one“

Alan: ”I'll hold it, all right“

Rove: ”You can hold that one, you can hold that one“

Rove:  ”I'll look skeptically at it“

Alan: ”Come on, just hold it“

Woman's Voice: ”You don't need to do this. You don't have to do that. No. No“

Alan: ”Sure, sure I do“

Rove: ”Nice to meet you, thanks“

Alan walking away but not in the video: ”Free him“

Why would Karl Rove care one way or the other about Siegelman's freedom if he had nothing to do with the case?

Later, Rove was confronted with a question about the Don Siegelman piece on 60 Minutes. The audio of Rove's answer is available below (2:37) with the transcript following below the video:

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.

Cross-posted at Brad Blog.

Technorati Tags: 60 Minutes, Alabama, Dana Jill Simpson, Don Siegelman, Free Don Siegelman, Justice, Karl Rove

'60 Minutes' Expose On The Malicious Prosecution Of Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman

FASCISM ALERT/UPDATE: This astonishing investigative report was BLACKED OUT in parts of Alabama and New York!

UPDATE: Scott Horton's must read on the 60 Minutes piece

Part 1 (9:52)

Part 2 (3:57)

Cross-posted at Brad Blog.

60 Minutes To Air Don Siegelman Report This Sunday!

ALERT: Set your TIVO/VCR to record “60 Minutes” this Sunday (opposite the Academy Awards)!

The MSM is finally taking up the egregious case of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman who is literally an American political prisoner thanks in no small part to Karl Rove.

For much more on this shocking case check out Scott Horton's great work at Harper's and the Don Siegelman website.

UDPDATE: How is Karl Rove not in prison?

Technorati Tags: 60 Minutes, Don Siegelman, Karl Rove

Egregious Police Action

To: Timothy A. Swanson, Stark County Sheriff strkshrf@raex.com
Postal address
4500 Atlantic Blvd., N.E., Canton, Ohio 44705

(330) 430-3800

Mr. Swanson,

I just watched a video of your officers conducting a brutal strip search of an innocent woman who had sought help from your department. Instead, she was subjected to a brutal and completely unjustified strip search and physical abuse bordering on rape if not including it. There is evidence of numerous violations of the US Constitution as well as blatant and documented violations of numerous other statutory prohibitions and limitations.

I am sickened and outraged by what I saw. I consider this reprehensible and immoral behavior to be no better than that of thugs in the worst police states and banana republics. I am determined to share this video with as many people as I can get to view it via email and highly trafficked blogs ---many of which reach millions of people. I am quite sure that they will be as outraged by the conduct of “your” officers as am I.

As I understand the facts in evidence, the woman who was brutally and criminally assaulted by your officers was entirely innocent of any wrong doing. At no time were your officers threatened or compromised. This outrage need not have occurred. There is absolutely no justification for this behavior under law. Even suspects are protected against arrest in the absence of “Probable Cause” (read the Constitution); therefore, the criminal, felonious assault by your officers upon someone who was not even suspected of having committed a crime is simply unconscionable and, prima facie, without any moral or legal justification whatsoever. For this --there is no defense, no rationalization.

If I lived in your county, I would demand your resignation and that of the offending “officers” who should, in any case, resign. Anyone perpetrating this kind of atrocity brings shame upon the uniform and upon the profession of law enforcement.

Might I remind --your job is to serve and protect, upholding the law --not breaking it or, otherwise, making a mockery of it.

Lenn Hart

Bush League Justice Series

MSNBC's Live With Dan Abrams ran a four-part series this week titled, “Bush League Justice”, which investigated the administration's abuse of the Department of Justice to expand its power.

Day 1 - Bush Administration's Use Of The DoJ To Expand Its Own Power

The series began with a look into the “department's almost unrecognizable Civil Rights Division” and even includes a snippet of my infamous John Tanner video (without credit!) first posted and reported about on The Brad Blog.

Day 2 - Bush Administration's 'Unprecedented Use' of Signing Statements To Subvert The Law

A signing statement is a president's written interpretation of legislation passed by congress which accompanies his signature when he signs a bill into law. Bush has used signing statements almost twice as much as all the presidents that preceded him combined and has often done so to circumvent the law.

For example, in 2005 congress voted overwhelmingly to ban torture which Bush signed into law. However, Bush also included a signing statement which basically allowed him to ignore the new law.

Day 3 - Partisan Investigations and Prosecutions

Despite the overwhelming criminality of Republicans since Bush was gift wrapped the White House by the Supreme Court, Democrats have been investigated and prosecuted at nearly six times the rate of Republicans at the federal level.

Day 4 - The Controversial Prosecution Of Former Democratic Alabama Governor Don Siegelman

Evidence suggests that Siegelman, who remains in prison, was wrongly prosecuted by prominent Alabama Republicans with the help of Karl Rove.

Dan Abrams concludes the series by stating, “Now while this was the last episode of this series, our ”Bush League“ investigations are far from over. A new Attorney General has taken over. We are going to be watching very closely. The days of Justice Department malfeasance remaining under the mainstream media radar are over. You are on notice.”

The Great Iraq Swindle

Please do yourself a favor and read this Rolling Stone article:

How is it done? How do you screw the taxpayer for millions, get away with it and then ride off into the sunset with one middle finger extended, the other wrapped around a chilled martini? Ask Earnest O. Robbins -- he knows all about being a successful contractor in Iraq.

You start off as a well-connected bureaucrat: in this case, as an Air Force civil engineer, a post from which Robbins was responsible for overseeing 70,000 servicemen and contractors, with an annual budget of $8 billion. You serve with distinction for thirty-four years, becoming such a military all-star that the Air Force frequently sends you to the Hill to testify before Congress -- until one day in the summer of 2003, when you retire to take a job as an executive for Parsons, a private construction company looking to do work in Iraq.

Now you can finally move out of your dull government housing on Bolling Air Force Base and get your wife that dream home you've been promising her all these years. The place on Park Street in Dunn Loring, Virginia, looks pretty good -- four bedrooms, fireplace, garage, 2,900 square feet, a nice starter home in a high-end neighborhood full of spooks, think-tankers and ex-apparatchiks moved on to the nest-egg phase of their faceless careers. On October 20th, 2003, you close the deal for $775,000 and start living that private-sector good life.

A few months later, in March 2004, your company magically wins a contract from the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq to design and build the Baghdad Police College, a facility that's supposed to house and train at least 4,000 police recruits. But two years and $72 million later, you deliver not a functioning police academy but one of the great engineering clusterfucks of all time, a practically useless pile of rubble so badly constructed that its walls and ceilings are literally caked in shit and piss, a result of subpar plumbing in the upper floors.

You've done such a terrible job, in fact, that when auditors from the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction visit the college in the summer of 2006, their report sounds like something out of one of the Saw movies: “We witnessed a light fixture so full of diluted urine and feces that it would not operate,” they write, adding that “the urine was so pervasive that it had permanently stained the ceiling tiles” and that “during our visit, a substance dripped from the ceiling onto an assessment team member's shirt.” The final report helpfully includes a photo of a sloppy brown splotch on the outstretched arm of the unlucky auditor.

When Congress gets wind of the fias co, a few members on the House Oversight Committee demand a hearing. To placate them, your company decides to send you to the Hill -- after all, you're a former Air Force major general who used to oversee this kind of contracting operation for the government. So you take your twenty-minute ride in from the suburbs, sit down before the learned gentlemen of the committee and promptly get asked by an irritatingly eager Maryland congressman named Chris Van Hollen how you managed to spend $72 million on a pile of shit.

You blink. Fuck if you know. “I have some conjecture, but that's all it would be” is your deadpan answer.

The room twitters in amazement. It's hard not to applaud the balls of a man who walks into Congress short $72 million in taxpayer money and offers to guess where it all might have gone.

Next thing you know, the congressman is asking you about your company's compensation. Touchy subject -- you've got a “cost-plus” contract, which means you're guaranteed a base-line profit of three percent of your total costs on the deal. The more you spend, the more you make -- and you certainly spent a hell of a lot. But before this milk-faced congressman can even think about suggesting that you give these millions back, you've got to cut him off. “So you won't voluntarily look at this,” Van Hollen is mumbling, “and say, given what has happened in this project . . . ”

“No, sir, I will not,” you snap.

“. . . 'We will return the profits.' . . .”

“No, sir, I will not,” you repeat.

Your testimony over, you wait out the rest of the hearing, go home, take a bath in one of your four bathrooms, jump into bed with the little woman. . . . A year later, Iraq is still in flames, and your president's administration is safely focused on reclaiming $485 million in aid money from a bunch of toothless black survivors of Hurricane Katrina. But the house you bought for $775K is now assessed at $929,974, and you're sure as hell not giving it back to anyone.

“Yeah, I don't know what I expected him to say,” Van Hollen says now about the way Robbins responded to being asked to give the money back. “It just shows the contempt they have for us, for the taxpayer, for everything.”

Operation Iraqi Freedom, it turns out, was never a war against Saddam Hussein's Iraq. It was an invasion of the federal budget, and no occupying force in history has ever been this efficient. George W. Bush's war in the Mesopotamian desert was an experiment of sorts, a crude first take at his vision of a fully privatized American government. In Iraq the lines between essential government services and for-profit enterprises have been blurred to the point of absurdity -- to the point where wounded soldiers have to pay retail prices for fresh underwear, where modern-day chattel are imported from the Third World at slave wages to peel the potatoes we once assigned to grunts in KP, where private companies are guaranteed huge profits no matter how badly they fuck things up.

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Faces Of Death

A real, truly disgusting, snuff film courtesy of Harrison County, Mississippi jailers. The Sun Herald wrote in an editorial:

The haunting images of Jessie Lee Williams Jr.'s beating death in the Harrison County jail are at last in the public domain. The so-called “video” is actually the visual testimony of hundreds of individual frames, taken every two seconds and then played with a result not unlike the earliest moving pictures.

The deadly violence visited on Mr. Williams has a surreal quality as you view jailers in their methodical taking of a man's life. The killing of Jessie Lee Williams is administered through a sickening sequence of merciless acts that included pepper spray, Tasers, kicks and blows of the fist, which left him an almost unrecognizable pulp when his virtually lifeless body was removed from the jail.

And take this warning to heart:

You may choose to view this evidence or not. It is there to see if you wish to do so. The tape is graphic, disturbing and represents the worst instincts of humankind.

Read the entire editorial

Read about the disturbing case

Watch the video