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Folly is the cloak of knavery.
 – William Blake

Tom Toles, Washington Post

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The Huffington Post

Brent Budowsky

Democratic Leaders Made Their First Major Mistake: Agreeing to Bipartisan Iraq Group

01.31.2007

Today, George W. Bush is one of the most dangerous men in the world. With an Iraq policy in collapse, escalating the mistakes that led to failure, and catastrophic loss of public support he is considering another preemptive war, against Iran.

For Democratic leaders to agree to a sham bipartisan group sends a radically dangerous signal to Bush and Cheney. They will conclude rightly or wrongly, that Congress lacks the will to resist whatever moves he makes.

Today there is a perception management campaign underway, similar to the pre-war campaign about WMD in Iraq, designed to condition the public and Congress to accept action against Iran…

It is a dangerous mistake for Democrats to give any pretense of bipartisanship to a policy rooted in the extremism of escalating Iraq on one hand, threatening Iran on the other, while rejecting all diplomacy…

[Click the title, above, to read the entire essay.—Caro]

Of our own government.
Associated Press

U.S.-Iran tensions could trigger war

By JIM KRANE and ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writers
Wed Jan 31, 4:38 PM ET

Citing Iranian involvement with Iraqi militias and Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, the Bush administration has shifted to offense in its confrontation with Iran — building up the U.S. military in the Persian Gulf and promising more aggressive moves against Iranian operatives in Iraq and Lebanon.

The behind-the-scenes struggle between the two nations could explode into open warfare over a single misstep, analysts and U.S. military officials warn.

Iraq has become a proxy battleground between Washington and Tehran, which is challenging — at least rhetorically — America’s dominance of the Gulf. That has worried even Iraq’s U.S.-backed Shiite prime minister, who — in a reflection of Iraq’s complexity — also has close ties to Iran.

Iran and the United States are already sparring on the ground…

Associated Press

U.S. may have botched training of Iraqis

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press Writer
Wed Jan 31, 2:56 PM ET

Training the police is as important to stabilizing Iraq as building an effective army there, but the United States has botched the job by assigning the wrong agencies to the task, two members of the Iraq Study Group said Wednesday.

“The police training system has not gone well,” said former Rep. Lee Hamilton, who co-chaired the bipartisan commission…

According to the report, co-authored by Hamilton and former Attorney General Edwin Meese, the U.S. erred by first assigning the task of shaping the judicial system in a largely lawless country to the State Department and private contractors who “did not have the expertise or the manpower to get the job done.”…

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American Idle

TPM Muckraker

Negroponte: Iraq NIE Coming “First Thing Next Week”
By Paul Kiel – January 30, 2007, 10:50 AM

That long awaitied National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq is finally coming Monday, according to outgoing Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte.

He made the remark during this morning’s hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

The NIE, requested last July by Democrats, has been a long time coming. The situation came to a head a couple of weeks ago when an administration official reportedly explained in a closed door session of the Senate Judiciary Committee that intelligence officials were just too busy getting the plans together for President Bush’s escalation of troops in Iraq to finish up the NIE.

Outraged, Democrats demanded that Negroponte finish up the estimate, which, they argued, should have been completed before Bush’s announcement of a new strategy in Iraq, and not after.

So now the NIE is finally on its way. What will it say? The public — and Congress — will just have to wait until next week. Negroponte refused to characterize the findings of the estimate in any way…

Let’s wait and see, shall we?  We’ve been lied to too many times.
TPM Muckraker

Admin to Tell Congress NSA Spying Details
By Justin Rood – January 31, 2007, 12:42 PM

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will share with congressional leaders details of the NSA’s domestic surveillance program that were seen by the court which approved the program’s application, AP reports.

Gonzales said the documents will be shared with Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Arlen Specter (R-PA), chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, as well as staff and members of the House and Senate intelligence committees. They will not be made public.

At a hearing two weeks ago, Leahy and Specter had pressed Gonzales on why the administration was not more forthcoming with Congress on details of the program.

… that no matter what Bush and Gonzales say now, they broke the law before they supposedly flip flopped.
The New York Times

Bush Is Not Above the Law

By JAMES BAMFORD
Published: January 31, 2007

LAST August, a federal judge found that the president of the United States broke the law, committed a serious felony and violated the Constitution. Had the president been an ordinary citizen — someone charged with bank robbery or income tax evasion — the wheels of justice would have immediately begun to turn. The F.B.I. would have conducted an investigation, a United States attorney’s office would have impaneled a grand jury and charges would have been brought.

But under the Bush Justice Department, no F.B.I. agents were ever dispatched to padlock White House files or knock on doors and no federal prosecutors ever opened a case.

The ruling was the result of a suit, in which I am one of the plaintiffs, brought against the National Security Agency by the American Civil Liberties Union. It was a response to revelations by this newspaper in December 2005 that the agency had been monitoring the phone calls and e-mail messages of Americans for more than four years without first obtaining warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, as required by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

In the past, even presidents were not above the law…

Steve Greenberg, Ventura County Star

The New York Times

Bush Directive Increases Sway on Regulation

By ROBERT PEAR
Published: January 30, 2007

WASHINGTON, Jan. 29 — President Bush has signed a directive that gives the White House much greater control over the rules and policy statements that the government develops to protect public health, safety, the environment, civil rights and privacy.

In an executive order published last week in the Federal Register, Mr. Bush said that each agency must have a regulatory policy office run by a political appointee, to supervise the development of rules and documents providing guidance to regulated industries. The White House will thus have a gatekeeper in each agency to analyze the costs and the benefits of new rules and to make sure the agencies carry out the president’s priorities.

This strengthens the hand of the White House in shaping rules that have, in the past, often been generated by civil servants and scientific experts. It suggests that the administration still has ways to exert its power after the takeover of Congress by the Democrats…

[This has actually been going on since the beginning of the Bush-Cheney administration.  The only reason for a new announcement is as an in-your-face taunt toward the Democrats.  Remember the right-wing motto: Always be offensive.—Caro]

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… from the Bush administration.  It needs more.  And more.  Always more.
AMERICAblog

Senate agrees to minimum wage increase, Republicans force even more tax cuts for business
by John in DC – 1/31/2007 12:19:00 PM

Typical. The republican answer to everything: cut taxes for business. Particularly telling of the Republican mentality, the following quote:

“The Senate has recognized that our economy is interdependent,” said Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo. “One simply cannot claim credit to be helping workers at the same time that they’re hurting the businesses that employ them.”

Funny that for the past six years, when Mr. Enzi and his republican colleagues were in charge, I seem to recall massive tax cuts for businesses, repeatedly, and not a lot of help for their workers. But now, suddenly, we need to tie any help for workers to even MORE tax cuts for business. It’s the only idea Republicans have left – cut taxes for business.

Buck Fush

Capitol Hill Blue

Bush’s bald-faced hypocrisy on leaks

Tuesday, January 30th, 2007

By DALE McFEATTERS

The Bush White House sternly and piously denounced leaks of classified and sensitive information even as the president and his aides were assiduously and selectively leaking secrets that would help make their case.

Inside the Beltway, this kind of two-facedness is well within the standards of acceptable hypocrisy, but it may be a shock to the system of some of the president’s more ardent supporters who took the White House’s mock outrage at face value.

The probe that culminated in the perjury-and-obstruction trial of “Scooter” Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Cheney, originally set out to determine who leaked the identity of a CIA agent married to a Bush administration critic. The answer, now that the case has come to trial, appears to be: Who didn’t?…

Who’d a thunk it?
Blah3

We Can All Stop Wondering Why Ari Quit

Monday, January 29 2007 @ 08:46 EST
Contributed by: Invictus

NY Times:

Mr. Fleischer, testifying in Mr. Libby’s trial under a grant of immunity, said Mr. Libby told him over lunch on July 7, 2003, that the wife of a critic of President Bush’s Iraq policy worked for the Central Intelligence Agency.

Novak’s column outing Valerie Plame Wilson appeared July 14.

And Scott McClellan?

He began his new job on July 15 beating back questions about how unsubstantiated claims that Iraq tried to buy uranium from Africa made their way into the president’s State of the Union address.

AMERICAblog

GOP advised to stop obsessing about gay sex
by Joe in DC – 1/29/2007 12:27:00 PM

Pam Spaulding has a link to an insightful editorial on the GOP’s obsession with all things gay. From the Algomordo (New Mexico) Daily News, the headline reads “Republicans: Stop thinking about gay sex” and the first line is priceless:

It seems to me Republicans spend more time thinking about gay sex than any other group of people in the known world even more so than gay people trying to find other gay people with whom to have sex.

Couldn’t have written it better ourselves. The editorial focuses on a gay-obsessed state legislator in New Mexico. But the sentiment can be applied to George Bush, Sam Brownback, Marilyn Musgrave, Mitt Romney…the list goes on and on….

Senate Allies of Bush Work to Halt Iraq Vote
The new effort is aimed at preventing a potentially embarrassing rejection of the presidents plan to push 20,000 more troops into Iraq.

Humor Ink

3 U.S. troops killed in Iraq fighting
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Three U.S. troops were killed in fighting in Anbar province, west of Baghdad, the military said Wednesday.

Suicide bomber blows himself up in Iraq
BAGHDAD, Iraq – A suicide bomber driving an oil truck blew himself up after he was stopped at a checkpoint near an Iraqi army headquarters north of Baghdad on Wednesday, wounding 9 soldiers, a spokesman said.

Palestinian cease-fire holds on 1st day
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – A cease-fire aimed at halting months of deadly internal Palestinian violence held on its first day, but underlying tensions cast doubt on the future of the stand-down.

Israel examines moving separation barrier
JERUSALEM – Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office on Wednesday said the government is looking into moving a stretch of its separation barrier deeper into the West Bank to include two Jewish settlements

First Arab nominated for Holocaust honor
JERUSALEM – At the height of World War II, Khaled Abdelwahhab hid a group of Jews on his farm in a small Tunisian town, saving them from the Nazi troops occupying the North African nation.

Indonesia, Pakistan say Muslims must unite
JAKARTA, Indonesia – Muslim nations must work together to end spiraling bloodshed in the Middle East, the leaders of Indonesia and Pakistan said Wednesday, as they sought to counterbalance U.S. influence in the region.

Bomb kills 6 policemen in Sri Lanka
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Suspected separatist Tamil rebels detonated a roadside bomb in eastern Sri Lanka on Wednesday, killing six policemen and one civilian, the military said, as soldiers found 12 similar bombs hidden elsewhere.

Ecuador leader’s backers invade Congress
QUITO, Ecuador – Supporters of leftist President Rafael Correa armed with sticks and stones fought their way into the Congress building Tuesday, demanding lawmakers call a referendum on whether the country’s constitution should be rewritten.

Venezuela rejects U.S. official’s remarks
CARACAS, Venezuela – The Venezuelan government rejected comments by a senior U.S. official who called President Hugo Chavez a threat to democracy, saying they revealed that Washington’s overtures for rapprochement were insincere.

Cuba TV shows Castro meeting with Chavez
HAVANA – Cuban state television Tuesday showed a video of a healthier looking Fidel Castro meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and saying his recovery was “far from a lost battle,” in the first images of the ailing leader in three months.

Warrants issued in Germany kidnapping
BERLIN – Arrest warrants have been issued for 13 people in connection with the alleged CIA-orchestrated kidnapping of a German citizen in the agency’s extraordinary rendition program, a Munich prosecutor said Wednesday.

Eight anti-terror arrests in central England
LONDON (AFP) – Eight people have been arrested under anti-terrorism laws in Birmingham, police said, while one report said a planned major terrorist plot had been foiled.

All-female U.N. peacekeeping unit arrives in Liberia
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The first all-female U.N. peacekeeping unit, made up of 103 women from India, arrived in Liberia on Tuesday to help the West African nation recover from 14 years of on-and-off civil war.

Somalia starts implementing martial law
MOGADISHU, Somalia – Somalia’s interim government began imposing martial law in areas under its control, the prime minister said, as rising violence threatens its tenuous grip on power.

Senators warn against war with Iran
WASHINGTON – Republican and Democratic senators warned Tuesday against a drift toward war with an emboldened Iran and suggested the Bush administration was missing a chance to engage its longtime adversary in potentially helpful talks over next-door Iraq.

Specter: Bush Not Sole ‘Decision-Maker’
WASHINGTON (AP) – A Senate Republican on Tuesday directly challenged President Bush’s declaration that “I am the decision-maker” on issues of war. “I would suggest respectfully to the president that he is not the sole decider,” Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said during a hearing on Congress’ war powers amid an increasingly harsh debate over Iraq war policy. “The decider is a shared and joint responsibility,” Specter said.

House Dems want to change direction of war funds
Democratic leaders in Congress plan to make extensive changes to the Bush administration’s anticipated $100 billion request for new war funds. They want to redirect money from Iraq to military readiness at home and say Iraq, Afghanistan and other NATO countries must carry more of the financial burden.

Group: Training Iraqi police essential
WASHINGTON – Training the police is as important to stabilizing Iraq as standing up an army there, but the United States has botched the job by assigning the wrong agencies to the task, two members of the Iraq Study Group say.

Investigators: Millions in Iraq aid wasted
WASHINGTON – The U.S. government wasted tens of millions of dollars in Iraq reconstruction aid, including scores of unaccounted-for weapons and a never-used camp for housing police trainers with an Olympic-size swimming pool, investigators say.

Dems want trade talks to include protections
President Bush and congressional Democrats fired the opening salvos Tuesday in what could become a major debate about whether the U.S. pursues additional trade agreements.

Obama Pushes for Iraq Pullout Deadline
WASHINGTON (AP) – Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama said Tuesday U.S. combat forces should be out of Iraq by spring 2008 to end “a foreign policy disaster” but he stopped short of endorsing a cutoff in funds.

Clinton attacks Bush’s “irresponsibility” on Iraq
DAVENPORT, Iowa (Reuters) – Democratic presidential contender Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Iowa on Sunday President George W. Bush should find a way out of Iraq before he leaves office and called it “the height of irresponsibility” to leave the problem to the next administration.

Bush ready to sign off on spending bill
WASHINGTON – The White House has signaled its embrace of a $463.5 billion omnibus spending bill, removing doubts that the measure will soon be on President Bush’s desk.

Panel hears climate ‘spin’ allegations
WASHINGTON – Federal scientists have been pressured by the White House to play down global warming, advocacy groups testified Tuesday at the Democrats’ first investigative hearing since taking control of Congress.

Spy chief nominee faces ethical thicket
WASHINGTON – President Bush’s choice for the nation’s next spy chief would give up his $2 million-a-year job at one of Washington’s premier consulting firms for a position that provides him with considerable influence over lucrative secret government contracts.

Libby wants to know Miller’s sources
WASHINGTON – Former New York Times reporter Judith Miller spent 85 days in jail before testifying that White House aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby was one of her confidential sources. Now, Libby wants to know who else she was talking to.

Russert: Not Source of CIA Officer Leak
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — NBC News reporter Tim Russert said Monday that he did not tell vice presidential aide I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby that a prominent war critic’s wife worked at the CIA, as Libby has claimed.

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