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January 07, 2006

Chris Matthews via Atrios. Note the obvious pattern:

Suddenly, the man who handed out campaign cash like Johnny Appleseed is watching those ONE THOUSAND DOLLAR gifts being sent back to charity like Christmastime fruitcake. Even HILLARY CLINTON'S got some hot Abramoff cash to shed.

Everybody is giving away their money, giving it away. Hillary Clinton even giving A THOUSAND BUCKS away.

There are some outlying names that keep popping up. Hillary Clinton gave back ONE THOUSAND DOLLARS today.

I wish there was a way to transcribe spittle along with the propaganda. Matthews is oozing with both.

04:15 PM | Comments (1) | Posted By Bob Cesca

Full story.

04:04 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca

January 06, 2006

The ILLEGAL (yeah, "warrantless," too, that's what makes it ILLEGAL) wiretapping of millions of Americans is shaping up to be yet another uber-Nixonian-redux chapter. Why, you ask? Well, perhaps you heard about Andrea "Mrs. Alan Greenspan" Mitchell's "speculative" comment that Christiane Amanpour's phone line was tapped? Mrs. Greenspan was interviewing the NYT's James Risen, who broke the wiretapping story in the first place. Here's the comment in question:

Mitchell: You don't have any information, for instance, that a very prominent journalist, Christiane Amanpour, might have been eavesdropped upon?

Now you won't find that on the NBC website transcript, because it's been removed. Wiped clean. Sorry, Winston, but 2 + 2 really can be 5 after all. Except, of course, Orwell didn't envision blogs, which have been reporting the hell out of this little Big Brother move by NBC.

But now WHY oh why would Andrea Mitchell "hypothetically" name drop Amanpour? I mean, why would she be "hearing" that Amanpour was bugged? Amanpour's just a CNN reporter, right? I mean, a better reporter than Andrea Mitchell could ever dream of being, but the day Screech worked at the school paper he was probably a better reporter than Andrea Mitchell could dream of being. I don't like Andrea Mitchell, in case you can't tell. If you've never seen her before, check her out -- and keep a sweater handy: she will make your flesh crawl. Then think about her and Alan Greenspan together. In bed. Make it two sweaters. She's also really chummy with Scooter Libby. Okay, two sweaters and a down jacket.

But why Amanpour? Well, here's the thing: Amanpour is married. It gets better. But why listen to me when Americablog runs it down so nicely:

1. Such a wiretap would likely include [Amanpour's] home, office, and cell phones, and email correspondence, at the very least.

2. That means anyone Christiane has conversed with in the past four years, at least by phone or email, could have had their conversation taped by the US government.

3. That also means that anyone who uses any of Christiane's telephones or computers (work or home) could also have had their conversation bugged.

4. This includes Christiane's husband, former Clinton administration senior official Jamie Rubin, who was spokesman for the State Department.

5. Jamie Rubin was also chief foreign policy adviser to General Wesley Clark's presidential campaign, and then worked as a senior national security adviser to John Kerry's presidential campaign.

6. Did Jamie Rubin ever use his home phone, his wife's work phone, his wife's cell phone, her home computer or her work computer to communicate with John Kerry or Wesley Clark? If so, those conversations would have been bugged if Bush was tapping Amanpour.

7. Did Jamie Rubin ever in the past four years communicate with any elected officials in Washington, DC - any Senators or members of the US House? Any senior members of the Democratic party?

8. Has Rubin spoken with Bill Clinton, his former boss, in the past 4 years?

See, that's the "shades of Watergate" part: wiretapping top Dems running against the CREEP in office. That's what Nixon did. That's why it's called "Watergate," because they were doing the bugging at the DNC campaign headquarters in the Watergate building. So you really can't get anymore "Watergate" than bugging the DNC election campaign.

This is a HUGE story, folks. But like the Watergate burglary, it's being severely underreported by the MSM.

Of course a full 24 hours have passed and NBC has yet to explain Mitchell's comment or their wiping of it. They're (and you know who "they" are: the Bush administration and their friends in the MSM) hoping it will drift away into the forgetful ether occupied by people like whoever it was that was sending anthrax letters to the top Dems in congress who opposed the Patriot Act (yeah, hey, right! Who was that guy?! Why'd we never catch him...huh...white girl missing...Robert Blake killed his wife...coal mine...plane on the runway...sale on at Wal-Mart?! I'm going!).

But, again, thanks to the internet that elected president Al Gore helped usher into being, blogs exist. And they're going to do the 5th Estate's job, whether the 5th Estate likes it or not. So comment it up, send this link to friends, keep knocking on their door of lies and tell them the truth has a warrant and it's coming in.

05:02 AM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer

January 05, 2006

"President" Bush is a master at breaking the laws of our nation. He's also pretty good at bending them, and the latest example of this is making recess appointments.

While the world was distracted by Ariel Sharon, Jack Abramoff, and the Sago coal mine, Bush is quietly slipping people into power without Congressional approval. On 1/4, he appointed Ellen Sauerbrey to serve as Assistant Sec. of State for Population, Refugees, and Migration. This is a position that affects the lives of millions worldwide. Like Mike "Heckuva Job" Brown at FEMA before her, Sauerbrey has zero experience in the department she is now running. She does have a track record of being anti-choice and anti-contraception. Literally millions of women worldwide need grown-up people with real experience helping them with things like pregnancies from rape and AIDS. Instead, Bush gives them another small-minded, unqualified bufoon. And of course he knew that Sauerbrey wouldn't pass muster even in a GOP Congress so he did it when they were on vacation. While not strictly illegal, this is certainly an abuse of the good faith of the American people. But what's new, Georgie.

10:35 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By John Christian Plummer

January 04, 2006

Bush claims that during wartime he can do whatever is necessary -- even breaking the law and violating civil liberties -- in order to protect the nation. Some thoughts...

Okay.

The war on terrorism is going to be a long war.

A war without a definitive end.

Bush can do whatever he wants during this war... That has no end.

When do his self-proclaimed and illegal executive powers end?

When he leaves office? But what if he decides to use his power to suspend elections or remain in office despite the elections? Can he use his wiretaps to coerce reporters into going along with him? Has he already?

Welcome... To the Bush Empire. Enjoy your stay.

Oh, and Andrea Mitchell knows about someone who isn't a terrorist, but who was illegally wiretapped. Here.

06:24 PM | Comments (0) | Posted By Bob Cesca