8 years..."Where Do We Go From Here"...

Today is a day for thought, remembrance, reverence and awareness. As we remember that horrible day, the many who left us, and those who lost loved ones...take a silent moment to yourself offering silent strength on this extremely hard day. And too re...member that we are still fighting two wars in it's name...right or wrong... many soldiers are far from home, far from their loved ones.


So while pausing to reflect, offer silence, or whatever you will be doing today to remember that terribly hard day...remember too that we still bleed from this wound. Many people, from many countries, will not see those they love again..at least not on this plane. So please take a moment out of our self-made distracting lives to think of those lost due to ignorance & hate, those we have lost & will lose on the battlefield
Both soldier & civilian, both just & unjust, both war wounded soldiers & the sick untreated heroes of 9/11 today we should give pause & prayer to the 8 year wound which still bleeds. It is the very least we can do on a day such as this...during times such as these. peace.



There is still much to do and so much to repair both politically & internationally, but today for quiet reflection, acknowledgment & thoughts of future actions to find true justice.
Today we think, Tomorrow we act!

That tragic day we found out who we were as a country and as a people. in an instant we learned who we truly were. Most rallied together as one to do all that they could, while others saw only self-serving opportunity from horror. Neither group should ever be forgotten. Those true heroes that put others welfare above their own deserve to not only be remembered but treated as the true heroes they were. Their actions should not be taken for granted. And it is a black mark on each and every one of us for allowing them to go on without the healthcare many of them so desperately need. By rushing in as they did, with no regard for personal consequences, and consequences˚ there were... with only thoughts of saving both friends and strangers alike they showed us what it really meant to be human. And it made me proud to not only be American on that day but more importantly it made me feel proud to be a part of the Human Race. Sadly, that pride was used against us by the greedy, selfish, and corrupt. This too should never be forgotten, and as we continue to struggle with the "War on Terror" that is currently being played out in two separate full blown wars (as well as dozens "covert" operations around the world.), one that made sense (if war can ever really make sense) or at least had something to do with the terrorism of 9/11, Afghanistan and one that made/makes no sense at all in connection with the "War on Terror" that being Iraq, which was a Secular country that gave no love & no haven to terrorist and love American & America for that matter... at least until we showed up and now the broken country is lousy with terrorists. No thanks is necessary Iraq it was our pleasure....or at least it was Cheney, Rummy, Condy, Bushy, Wolfy &Scooter's˚˚ pleasure (aren't they just a fun bunch? so fun and quirky? You would never know it by their cute nicknames that they were all actually War Criminals...but I digress). And no before you even try and say it let me be clear, NO I DO/DID NOT LIKE Saddam Hussein OR HIS VISCOUS CRIMINAL WAY OF RUNNING IRAQ! And yes, it is a wonderful thing that neither Saddam Hussein nor his son's can call themselves the leader of Iraq ever again˚˚˚ nor torture any Iraqis ever again. Unfortunately, the United States apparently picked up where he left off acting on orders from the White House, U.S. Military began a torture program of their own†. Though the preferred the nomenclature of the Bush Jr. Administration was "Enhanced Interrogations" ( but an illegal naked beating by any other name doth smell as sweet?). Although truth be told (no pun intended of course) I think the rebranding attempt would have worked if only they had made it's official euphemism...ahem... I mean nomenclature, just a little more cutesy and likable, ya know they needed to add a y or two at the end of the name or names, like the rest of the gang.

Then perhaps we might not have noticed perhaps, just how illegal things had gotten; Or just how far from U.S. norms and values they had strayed. If only they had remembered the power of the "y" we might not have ever really paid attention (I mean really, it's not the sort of thing we had normally liked to do right?), but alas they didn't and we did. The world as well as the country paid attention...stood up and NO! No more torture, this is wrong... this isn't us.... this is right.... this isn't working is it? ahem... And since we bothered to look away from our latest text message, turned off the music on our iPhone, put down our cafe mocha latte deluxe with half cafe & necturine extract light foam, logged off facebook and turned away from TMZ nightly update, notice the horrors the Bushy Administration inflicted on this country & the world and choose hope, change and a new direction with old improved values & Ideals, the least our new fearless leader can do is show us true justice does exist and what was once wrong can be put right again! In other words the past Administrations many illegal, not to mention highly immoral, actions have consequences too. And those that did harm in our name deserve to be brought to a real justice. This world of ours needs...craves real and lasting peace...we all do...and as one of the best example of a Human-Being, Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. so wisely said: "Without justice, there can be no peace. He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it."





I know the Obama Administration is far far from evil, obviously. I believe they truly want to do good deeds in the name of mankind. I have a faith in this Administrations government that I haven't had my entire life. That said I hope and pray every day that I am not being one of those blind followers. Believing and seeing only the beautiful rhetoric than realities of action on the ground. And though often Obama has proved that my faith, hope in him is not without merit, that is not to say there have been times that I have found him lacking in overt strength of action in response and conviction. Only time will tell. I know practically no other president has had to face as many calamities all at once as this president & his administration has. But he/ they must know that the old ways haven't worked for us very well and definitely not lately. We need to strongly embrace a new way of affirming our convictions, a new way of settling problems, a new way of handling embarrassing choices by past administrations....no longer can we afford to wipe these damaging embarrassments under the proverbial table (especially the one in the oval office) we must learn to face our past and take accountability for our past misdeeds. I only hope President Obama sees this as clearly as I do. Real justice must finally come for us as a nation, as well as a people, to be able to move forward and thrive...to be able to grow and survive.
Dear Readers today is a very heavy day. The eleventh or September till the end of time should be as such. And the people and event must be remembered and cared for. That said we are not the only country, the only people who seek a life free from pain, fear and terror. The entire living planet seeks the refuge of a peaceful existence. The question is are we willing to do are part to make the desire a reality? Do we...does this Administration have the fortitude to fight for the peace we all so desperately want and need. I sure hope so. If not there will be a wake of hard times in Earth's future and our part in it will be in question. So I choose to believe in the possibility of now...and the strength of conviction of President Barak Obama and his Administration. Today of all days we should include them in our thoughts of peace and love. They have much on their plates...more I am sure then we could possibly conceive of or even fathom.
So with all these things in mind I leave you with this.... Two more wondrous quotes from one of the strongest, most powerful man the world has been blessed to know:


"Power at it's best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at it's best is love correcting everything that stands against love."
- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr
Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? 1967




"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere"
- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Letter from Birmingham Jail, April 16, 1963


Peace be with you fellow strangers and friends of RandomCrazy Creatives


˚ Most of the rescue workers now have lifelong serious health problems & what's worse many of not most do not have proper Health insurance coverage so go without medicine and without the health care they so deserve...though I believe we all deserve to have health coverage, but that is another topic for another day.

˚˚ What no y name for Scooter? No wonder they threw him to the wolves and is currently in jail for crimes of treason...oh wait he's not...they pardoned him....awwwww...isn't that cute.

˚˚˚ Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces on December 13, 2003. Later brought to trial by the interim Iraqi government (set up by U.S. led forces). November 5, 2006 Saddam was convicted of charges related to the 1982 killings of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites and was sentenced to death by hanging. December 30, 2006 Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti died by execution.

†In all, 98 detainees have died while in U.S. hands, with 34 identified as homicides, at least eight of which were tortured to death…

Keith Olbermann - 8 years in 8 minutes

*********************************

so much damage...so much to do...good luck President Obama

Bush Legacy talking point analysis by Keith Obermann

As the years go on and we are bombarded with talking points...if nothing else please remember this video. It is our responsibility to learn from history and the only way to truly do that is to have a true history to learn from.

So as someone who is able to remember the real, now practically deified, Regan years (no matter how young I was) and Bush, Sr.... I beg of you remember the truth of these last eight years and share your voice when you hear talking point spin regurgitated into every day life.

History is written by those willing to not just remember it but by those who give it a voice.

Welcome the New Era!

OUR NEWEST FIRST FAMILY

This morning I woke up so proud to be an American.

It has been a long time since I have felt that way. While America can be great we often choose not to meet our greatest potential...last night we were the great nation I know we can be.

These last eight years have been particularly hard. We have had to watch as the administration led by George W. Bush take all the international goodwill offered us after that tragic day on September 11, 2001 and squander it on corrupt and selfish endeavors. More than that it was thrown back in their face; between state sanctioned torture to starting a unilateral first strike war in Iraq. Here in the United States of America they used fear and bully tactics to divide us into a sort of stunned submission. Stripping us of all it means to be and live in America; from taking away some of our most basic of human freedoms through the Patriot Act, to attacking some of our most basic of human rights by attempting to change the Constitution to include prejudice, by not only belittling but doing all they can to take our voice away through immoral election tactics. I could go on and on with all that has occurred these horrible last eight years...but it's not about them and their evildoing ways any longer.

Though truth be told, I believe we deserve to see those who have abused their power held accountable and brought to justice. Valerie Plame and we the people deserve at least that much. Treachery and treason should never be ignored or allowed...and we must never again allow our government to trick us or lie to us for the purposes of starting an unnecessary unjust war. We can no longer allow anyone to wave the American Flag with one hand while using the other to remove money and benefits so bravely earned by our troops. Whether you are for or against the war in Iraq or Afghanistan the military deserve our respect and real support; in action and deed not just lip service for political or personal gain.

I know now is a time when we must come together to heal for a better world...for us all. I also feel that in my heart of hearts I want history to know the truth about the corruption that took place, I want them to know that all the corrupt Neo-cons, CEO's, War-mongers, and Greedy Power-hungry did to this world. I want history to know that we held them accountable and that we ultimately demanded justice. Whether Democrat or Republican, whether adviser or office holder, it is time that the corruption that has been allowed to go unchecked and unpunished in this country is not just stopped but brought into the light. We can not fully heal without full knowledge of what we are healing from. We must not sweep the destruction of corruption that has taken place under the proverbial rug anymore! We must heal as a whole people, which means healing not just together but truthfully and with open eyes. We came too close to losing our Democracy. Democracy is a very beautiful, special thing but it is also fragile and must not only be cherished but so too must it be nurtured and protected. We can not afford to forget these facts and hope to grow as a country or a people.

Today is about the potential and power of now, as well as, the future of what can be... it is about who we are as a nation and what we can become.

Today is proof positive all things are possible.

We must never give up on what we believe to be right or true.

We must never relinquish our optimism or hope to the self-serving or greedy.

I am so proud of our country.

Today marks a new day...a new era and a chance for a better tomorrow.

Sarah Palin Gender Card - The Daily Show

ARGH!!!

It's all so appalling. What about the Constitution? The Bill of Rights? Where are our leaders? Who is strong enough to speak out against the injustice that occurs time and time again? When will this apathetic nonsense end? How can this be us? How can any of the last 8 years be America? Who are we? What have we become?

U.S. Finds That Iran Halted Nuclear Arms Bid in 2003

By Dafna Linzer and Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writers

A major U.S. intelligence review has concluded that Iran stopped work on a suspected nuclear weapons program more than four years ago, a stark reversal of previous intelligence assessments that Iran was actively moving toward a bomb.

The new findings, drawn from a consensus National Intelligence Estimate, reflected a surprising shift in the midst of the Bush administration's continuing political and diplomatic campaign to depict Tehran's nuclear development as a grave threat. The report was drafted after an extended internal debate over the reliability of communications intercepts of Iranian conversations this past summer that suggested the program had been suspended.

"Tehran's decision to halt its nuclear weapons program suggests it is less determined to develop nuclear weapons than we have been judging since 2005," a declassified summary of the new National Intelligence Estimate stated. Two years ago, the intelligence community said in contrast it had "high confidence that Iran currently is determined to have nuclear weapons."

The new estimate, prepared by the nation's 16 intelligence agencies, applied the same "high confidence" label to a judgment that suspected Iranian military efforts to build a nuclear weapon were suspended in 2003 and said with "moderate confidence" that it had remained inactive since then.

Even if Iran were to restart its program now, the country probably could not produce enough highly enriched uranium for a single weapon before the middle of the next decade, the assessment stated. It also expressed doubt about whether Iran "currently intends to develop nuclear weapons."

Iran put a stop to weapons-related activities, including efforts to study warhead design and delivery systems, shortly after U.N. inspectors began probing allegations of a clandestine nuclear program. The timing of that decision, according to the intelligence estimate, "indicates Tehran's decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic, and military costs."

National security adviser Stephen J. Hadley told reporters yesterday that the new conclusions validate the administration's long efforts to pressure Iran, most recently through economic sanctions. Democrats countered that the findings rebutted Bush's portrayal of Iran as an imminent nuclear threat.

Senior officials said the latest conclusions grew out of a stream of information, beginning with a set of Iranian drawings obtained in 2004 and ending with the intercepted calls between Iranian military commanders, that steadily chipped away at the earlier assessment.

In one intercept, a senior Iranian military official was specifically overheard complaining that the nuclear program had been shuttered years earlier, according to a source familiar with the intelligence. The intercept was one of more than 1,000 pieces of information cited in footnotes to the 150-page classified version of the document, an official said.

Several of those involved in preparing the new assessment said that when intelligence officials began briefing senior members of the Bush administration on the intercepts, beginning in July, the policymakers expressed skepticism. Several of the president's top advisers suggested the intercepts were part of a clever Iranian deception campaign, the officials said.

Intelligence officers then spent months examining whether the new information was part of a well-orchestrated ruse. Their effort included "Red Team" exercises in which groups of intelligence officers tried to punch holes in the new evidence, substantially delaying publication of the NIE.

The estimate noted that Iran continues to enrich uranium for a civil nuclear energy program. But the intelligence experts said they did not consider this a weapons program because it is being done at openly declared facilities under international supervision.

If Iran were to proceed with a weapons effort, it would not be carried out at known facilities, the officials said, adding that they do not believe Iran is enriching uranium at an undeclared facility.

Congressional leaders of both parties had been pressing the director of national intelligence, Mike McConnell, for the report for months, and some had worried that the delay was the result of the administration's efforts to influence the final result. Those concerns appeared to dissipate yesterday, when the report contradicted not only the administration's views but also the intelligence community's previous assessments -- evidence, to many observers, of the intelligence agencies' new willingness to question assumptions and assert their independence from policymakers.

"The key judgments show that the intelligence community has learned its lessons from the Iraq debacle," said Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV (D-W.Va.), who chairs the Senate intelligence committee. He was referring to long-standing Democratic allegations that intelligence on Iraq was skewed to help promote the administration's desire for war.

In this case, Rockefeller said, "it has issued judgments that break sharply with its own previous assessments, and they reflect a real difference from the views espoused by top administration officials."

While concluding that Iran's weapons program is now halted, the NIE presents a mixed view of Tehran's nuclear ambitions. It portrays Iran's ruling clerics as susceptible to international pressure, having abandoned an extensive and costly covert nuclear program in the face of threatened economic sanctions and global censure.

But the report also depicts Iran as cleverly preserving its options, by making steady strides toward a civilian nuclear energy capability that both complies with international law and puts the country on a course that will allow it to easily develop nuclear arms if it so chooses.

The report also states more confidently than in previous assessments that Iran's military had been actively seeking to build a bomb. Iranian armed forces were "working under government direction to develop nuclear weapons" until the fall of 2003, it says.

The assessment, under preparation for more than 18 months, was completed on Tuesday and President Bush and Vice President Cheney were briefed on Wednesday, intelligence officials said. Hadley said Bush first learned in August or September about intelligence indicating Iran had halted its weapons program and was advised it would take time to evaluate.

Several participants said there was strong debate among analysts during the process, but in the end they agreed on nearly every judgment. A majority of the intelligence agencies assessed, with high confidence, that the closure of the military program marks the end of the weapons effort. The Energy Department and the National Intelligence Council said gaps in what they know make them conclude only with "moderate confidence" that efforts remain on hold.

The State Department's bureau of intelligence and research judged Iran to be slightly further away from producing enough weapons-grade uranium for a bomb.

Last year, Congress required that key judgments from the NIE be declassified. McConnell said in November that he had no plans to issue an unclassified version, but officials said the dramatic shift in the assessment convinced him otherwise. "Since our understanding of Iran's nuclear capabilities has changed, we felt it was important to release this information to ensure that an accurate presentation is available," Donald Kerr, principal deputy director of national intelligence, said in a statement.

Staff writers Walter Pincus, Peter Baker and Robin Wright and staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.

Former aide blames Bush for leak deceit

Former aide blames Bush for leak deceit
By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan blames President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for efforts to mislead the public about the role of White House aides in leaking the identity of a CIA operative.

In an excerpt from his forthcoming book, McClellan recounts the 2003 news conference in which he told reporters that aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were "not involved" in the leak involving operative Valerie Plame.

"There was one problem. It was not true," McClellan writes, according to a brief excerpt released Tuesday. "I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president's chief of staff and the president himself."

Bush's chief of staff at the time was Andrew Card.

The excerpt, posted on the Web site of publisher PublicAffairs, renews questions about what went on in the West Wing and how much Bush and Cheney knew about the leak. For years, it was McClellan's job to field — and often duck — those types of questions.

Now that he's spurring them, answers are equally hard to come by.

White House press secretary Dana Perino said it wasn't clear what McClellan meant in the excerpt. "The president has not and would not ask his spokespeople to pass on false information," she said.

Plame issued a statement saying the opposite.

"I am outraged to learn that former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan confirms that he was sent out to lie to the press corps," Plame said. "Even more shocking, McClellan confirms that not only Karl Rove and Scooter Libby told him to lie but Vice President Cheney, presidential Chief of Staff Andrew Card and President Bush also ordered McClellan to issue his misleading statement."

McClellan turned down interview requests Tuesday.

Plame maintains the White House quietly outed her to reporters. Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, said the leak was retribution for his public criticism of the Iraq war. The accusation dogged the administration and made Plame a cause celebre among many Democrats.

McClellan's book, "What Happened," isn't due out until April, and the excerpt released Monday was merely a teaser. It doesn't get into detail about how Bush and Cheney were involved or reveal what happened behind the scenes.

Yet the teaser provided enough fodder for administration critics.

"Just when you think the credibility of this White House can't get any lower, another shoe drops," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. "If the Bush administration won't even tell the truth to its official spokesman, how can the American people expect to be told the truth either?"

In the fall of 2003, after authorities began investigating the leak, McClellan told reporters that he'd personally spoken to Rove, who was Bush's top political adviser, and Libby, who was Cheney's chief of staff.

"They're good individuals, they're important members of our White House team, and that's why I spoke with them, so that I could come back to you and say that they were not involved," McClellan said at the time.

Both men, however, were involved. Rove was one of the original sources for the newspaper column that identified Plame. Libby also spoke to reporters about the CIA officer and was convicted of lying about those discussions. He is the only person to be charged in the case.

Since that news conference, however, the official White House stance has shifted and it has been difficult to get a clear picture of what happened behind closed doors around the time of the leak.

McClellan's flat denials gave way to a steady drumbeat of "no comment." And Bush's original pledge to fire anyone involved in the leak became a promise to fire anyone who "committed a crime."

In a CNN interview earlier this year, McClellan made no suggestion that Bush knew either Libby or Rove was involved in the leak. McClellan said his statements to reporters were what he and the president "believed to be true at the time based on assurances that we were both given."

Bush most recently addressed the issue in July after commuting Libby's 30-month prison term. He acknowledged that some in the White House were involved in the leak. Then, after repeatedly declining to discuss the ongoing investigation, he said the case was closed and it was time to move on.
___

Associated Press writer Jennifer Loven contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press.

Bush Vetoes Child Health Insurance Plan

Bush Vetoes Child Health Insurance Plan

By JENNIFER LOVEN
The Associated Press
Wednesday, October 3, 2007; 10:20 AM

WASHINGTON -- President Bush, in a confrontation with Congress, on Wednesday vetoed a bipartisan bill that would have dramatically expanded children's health insurance.

It was only the fourth veto of Bush's presidency, and one that some Republicans feared could carry steep risks for their party in next year's elections. The Senate approved the bill with enough votes to override the veto, but the margin in the House fell short of the required number.

The White House sought as little attention as possible, with the president wielding his veto behind closed doors without any fanfare or news coverage.

The State Children's Health Insurance Program is a joint state-federal effort that subsidizes health coverage for 6.6 million people, mostly children, from families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford their own private coverage.

The Democrats who control Congress, with significant support from Republicans, passed the legislation to add $35 billion over five years to allow an additional 4 million children into the program. It would be funded by raising the federal cigarette tax by 61 cents to $1 per pack.

The president had promised to veto it, saying the Democratic bill was too costly, took the program too far from its original intent of helping the poor, and would entice people now covered in the private sector to switch to government coverage. He wants only a $5 billion increase in funding.

Bush argued that the congressional plan would be a move toward socialized medicine by expanding the program to higher-income families.

Democrats deny that, saying their goal is to cover more of the millions of uninsured children and noting that the bill provides financial incentives for states to cover their lowest-income children first. Of the over 43 million people nationwide who lack health insurance, 9 percent, or over 6 million, are under 18 years old.

Eighteen Republicans joined Democrats in the Senate, enough to override Bush's veto. But this was not the case in the House, where despite sizable Republican support, supporters of the bill are about two dozen votes short of a successful override.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said Democrats were imploring 15 House Republicans to switch positions but had received no agreements so far.

House Minority Whip Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said he was "absolutely confident" that the House would be able to sustain Bush's expected veto.

Senate Minority Whip Trent Lott, R-Miss., said Congress should be able to reach a compromise with Bush once he vetoes the bill. "We should not allow it to be expanded to higher and higher income levels, and to adults. This is about poor children," he said. "But we can work it out."

It took Bush six years to veto his first bill, when he blocked expanded federal research using embryonic stem cells last summer. In May, he vetoed a spending bill that would have required troop withdrawals from Iraq. In June, he vetoed another bill to ease restraints on federally funded stem cell research.

In the case of the health insurance program, the veto is a bit of a high-stakes gambit for Bush, pitting him against both the Democrats who have controlled both houses of Congress since January, but also many members of his own party and the public.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee launched radio ads Monday attacking eight GOP House members who voted against the bill and face potentially tough re-election campaigns next year.

And Gerald McEntee, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union, said a coalition of liberal groups planned more than 200 events throughout the nation to highlight the issue.
© 2007 The Associated Press

So Long And Thanks For All The Fishy

Yahoo! News
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Gonzales departure won't end probes

By DAVID ESPO, AP Special Correspondent1 hour, 34 minutes ago

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' resignation Monday after months of draining controversy drew expressions of relief from Republicans and a vow from Democrats to pursue their investigation into fired federal prosecutors.

President Bush, Gonzales' most dogged defender, told reporters he had accepted the resignation reluctantly. "His good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons," Bush said.

The president named Paul Clement, the solicitor general, as a temporary replacement. With less than 18 months remaining in office, there was no indication when Bush would name a successor — or how quickly or easily the Senate might confirm one.

Apart from the president, there were few Republican expressions of regret following the departure of the nation's first Hispanic attorney general, a man once hailed as the embodiment of the American Dream.

"Our country needs a credible, effective attorney general who can work with Congress on critical issues," said Sen. John Sununu of New Hampshire, who last March was the first GOP lawmaker to call on Gonzales to step down. "Alberto Gonzales' resignation will finally allow a new attorney general to take on this task."

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, added, "Even after all the scrutiny, it doesn't appear that Attorney General Gonzales committed any crimes, but he did make management missteps and didn't handle the spotlight well when they were exposed."

Democrats were less charitable.

Under Gonzales and Bush, "the Department of Justice suffered a severe crisis of leadership that allowed our justice system to be corrupted by political influence," said Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who has presided over the investigation into the firings of eight prosecutors whom Democrats say were axed for political reasons.

Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the investigation would not end with Gonzales' leaving.

"Congress must get to the bottom of this mess and follow the facts where they lead, into the White House," said the Nevada Democrat.

Gonzales also has struggled in recent months to explain his involvement in a 2004 meeting at the hospital bedside of then-Attorney General John Ashcroft, who had refused to certify the legality of Bush's no-warrant wiretapping program. Ashcroft was in intensive care at the time.

More broadly, the attorney general's personal credibility has been a casualty of the multiple controversies. So much so that Sen. Arlen Specter, senior GOP member of the Judiciary Committee, told him at a hearing on the prosecutors that his testimony was "significantly if not totally at variance with the facts."

The speculation about a successor began immediately, and included Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff; Asa Hutchinson, former head of the Drug Enforcement Administration; former solicitor general Ted Olson; and Larry Thompson, who was the second-ranking official at the Justice Department in Bush's first term.

Gonzales made a brief appearance before reporters at the Justice Department to announce his resignation. "Even my worst days as attorney general have been better than my father's best days," said the son of migrants.

Gonzales told the Senate Judiciary Committee as recently as July 24 that he had decided to stay in his post despite numerous calls for his resignation.

Several officials said the attorney general called Bush at his ranch last Friday to offer his resignation. Bush did not attempt to dissuade him but accepted with reluctance, they said. The president then invited Gonzales and his wife to Sunday lunch.

Gonzales was one of the longest-serving members of a group of Texans who came to Washington with Bush more than six years ago at the dawn of a new administration.

Karl Rove, the president's chief political strategist, announced his resignation last week. Presidential counselor Dan Bartlett and Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel who was forced to withdraw her nomination for the Supreme Court, left earlier in the year.

Gonzales, too, was once considered for the high court, but conservatives never warmed to the idea and he was passed over.

His appointment as attorney general more than three years ago marked the latest in a series of increasingly high-profile positions that Bush entrusted him with.

A Harvard-educated lawyer, Gonzales signed on with Bush in the mid 1990s. He served as general counsel and secretary of state when his patron was governor of Texas, then won an appointment to the state Supreme Court.

As counsel, Gonzales helped get Bush excused from jury duty in 1996, which kept him from having to disclose a drunken driving arrest in Maine in 1976. The episode became public in the final days of the 2000 presidential campaign.

Gonzales was White House counsel during the president's first term, then replaced Ashcroft as attorney general soon after the beginning of the second.

Both jobs gave him key responsibilities in the administration's global war on terror that followed the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

In a legal memo in 2002, he contended that Bush had the right to waive anti-torture laws and international treaties that protected prisoners of war. The memo said some of the prisoner-of-war protections contained in the Geneva Conventions were "quaint" and that in any event, the treaty did not apply to enemy combatants in the war on terror.

Human rights groups later contended his memo led directly to the abuses exposed in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal in Iraq.

Of greater political concern was the Democratic majority that took office in Congress earlier this year. Leahy soon began investigating the firing of federal prosecutors.

Testifying on April 19 before the Judiciary Committee, Gonzales answered "I don't know" and "I can't recall" scores of times when asked about events surrounding the firings.

His support among Republicans in Congress, already weak, eroded markedly, then suffered further with word of the bedside meeting in the intensive care unit of George Washington University Hospital three years earlier.

Former Deputy Attorney General James Comey testified that Ashcroft had refused to reauthorize the wiretapping program. Appearing before the Judiciary Committee, he described a confrontation in which Gonzales — White House counsel at the time — and White House Chief of Staff Andy Card had appealed to Ashcroft to overrule his deputy. The ill Ashcroft refused, saying he had transferred power to Comey.

Comey described the events as "an effort to take advantage of a very sick man who did not have the powers of the attorney general."

Gonzales subsequently denied that the dispute was about the terrorist surveillance program, but his credibility was undercut when FBI Director Robert S. Mueller contradicted him.

Several Democrats called for a perjury investigation, but no further action has been taken.

___

Associated Press writers Lara Jakes Jordan, Jennifer Loven, Matt Apuzzo and Terence Hunt contributed to this story.

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

The Spy Who Bills Us - MotherJones.com

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MotherJones.com

The Spy Who Bills Us
Your telephone company is most likely cooperating with federal wiretapping programs. And guess what? It's illegal.

Patrick Radden Keefe
February 24 , 2006

Article created by the The Century Foundation.

When your phone bill arrives this month, you might want to take a moment to think about how much you trust your telephone company. While the National Security Agency has gotten a lot of press since it was revealed in December that its analysts engaged in the warrantless surveillance of US citizens, the eavesdropping agency would not have been able to conduct the operation without the intimate—and likely illegal—cooperation of private telecommunications providers.

After the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, the NSA adopted a bold new approach. Seeking more unfettered access to the vast communications channels that run through the country, the agency approached executives at major telecommunications companies and requested that they provide the NSA with secret backdoors into the hubs and switches through which our telephone calls and e-mails are routed. Whereas the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requires spies to obtain individual warrants for each target in an investigation, the phone companies provided unfiltered access to the full current of communications—not just Al Qaeda's calls, but everyone else's as well.

One problem with this approach is that it's like drinking from a fire hose. The NSA intercepts about 650 million communications worldwide every day, and, in something of a paradox, the better the agency is at hoovering in phone calls and e-mails, the worse it is at isolating critical and timely information from the white noise. According to recent reports, few of the tips the agency generated from its wiretapping program resulted in the identification of actual terrorists or plots.

Another problem is that trolling indiscriminately through the communications stream is illegal. The mechanism for eavesdropping established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is simple: Target first, eavesdrop second. If there are grounds to suspect that a person is a terrorist or agent of a foreign power, a warrant is granted to spy on that person. With this new program, the agency has inverted the traditional steps: Eavesdrop first, then identify targets within the stream of intercepted communications.

Thus far, administration officials have successfully resisted efforts by Congress to address the probable inefficiency and definite illegality of this procedure, but in outsourcing the logistics of the operation to private telecommunications companies, they may have made a crucial error. Employees of the president might argue that ''executive privilege" frees them from responding to congressional inquiries about sensitive national security operations, but the CEOs of the telecom companies have no such easy out. Earlier this month, USA Today reported that AT&T, MCI, and Sprint are three of the companies that secretly cooperate with the NSA. Democratic Senators Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Russell Feingold of Wisconsin have written to the companies, asking about their involvement in the program, and if the Bush administration continues to resist congressional inquiries, the senators could subpoena executives of the companies and oblige them to explain their involvement.

Times of national crisis grant a certain license to the executive branch, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has argued, in effect, that as long as officials are endeavoring to keep the country safe, they need not answer questions about the particular means they employ to do so. Private companies have no such license, and AT&T, MCI, and Sprint should not be able to hide from the senators or from their own customers. If it is determined—as it probably will be—that the wiretapping program was illegal, then the telecom companies are guilty of violating federal law. In the meantime, it's clear that they have violated their own customer privacy policies. You might want to take another look at yours.

Patrick Radden Keefe is a program officer and fellow at The Century Foundation. He is the author of Chatter: Dispatches from the Secret World of Global Eavesdropping.


© 2006 The Foundation for National Progress

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Carl Rove bye-bye

alas such are the days when such a fine and up standing citizen and Carl W. Rove....i mean...Carl Rove has to leave his beloved in such a fashion....what no jail time?

now what ever is George W. supposed to do....who is he going to play foosball with? oh....these are dark days indeed.....

KEITH OLBERMANN SPECIAL COMMENT *BUSH & CHENEY RESIGN NOW!*

It's those damn Iraqi Politician's Fault...definetely...

Yahoo! News
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Iraq report may mean longer U.S. surge

By ROBERT BURNS, AP Military Writer 37 minutes ago

While many in Congress are pushing President Bush to alter course in Iraq by September if not sooner, his new status report on the war strongly implies that the administration believes its military strategy will take many more months to meet its goals.

The report cited no specific timeframe, but its language suggests what some U.S. commanders have hinted at recently: The troop reinforcements that Bush ordered in January may need to remain until spring 2008.

That's a military calculation at odds with an emerging political consensus in Washington on bringing the troops home soon.

The disconnect between the military and political views on the best way forward is a symptom of four-plus years of setbacks in Iraq — not only missteps by the U.S. government but also by Iraqi political leaders, who have fallen far short of their stated aim of creating a government of national unity.

In the view of some members of Congress — and not just Democrats — the time has long passed for the Iraqis to show that they can parlay U.S.-led military efforts into progress on the political front.

"That government is simply not providing leadership worthy of the considerable sacrifice of our forces, and this has to change immediately," Sen. John Warner, R-Va., said after the White House delivered its war report to Congress on Thursday. Warner was the author of legislation requiring the report.

Hours after the report's release, the House, on a 223-201 vote, approved a Democratic measure requiring U.S. troops to be withdrawn from Iraq by spring. House Democrats pursued the vote despite a veto threat from Bush.

The president apparently has made the calculation that he can ward off political pressure to change course before the next required progress report, set for mid-September. That's when Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, plans to lay out his assessment of whether the counterinsurgency strategy he launched in February is working and recommends to Bush whether to stick with it into the coming year.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice advanced that view Friday morning, telling Fox News' "Fox & Friends" that by waiting until September, "we can make a coherent judgment of where we are and we can chart a way forward."

"I understand people's concern. I understand people's impatience," she said, "but I would just hope that we could recognize that our men and women in the field, our ambassadors, our generals out there, our commanding general, are on a course that was laid out by the president in Jaunary. We ought to stick to that."

By extending troop deployments in Iraq from 12 months to 15 months, the Army has made it possible for Bush to maintain the troop buildup until about April 2008. But if he wanted to go beyond that it would require some even more painful moves by the Army, at the risk of reaching a breaking point.

Although the war is increasingly unpopular, Bush does have support in some prominent quarters for continuing his current military strategy, not only for the remainder of this year but into 2008. John Keane, a retired four-star Army general, said this week that security progress, though slow, is gaining momentum.

"The thought of pulling out now or in a couple of months makes no sense militarily," Keane said.

Between now and September the battle for Baghdad will intensify, likely costing hundreds of American troops' lives, and the Iraqi government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki will be pressured to do more to weed out sectarian influences in the Iraqi security forces and to pass legislation designed to promote reconciliation.

The U.S. casualty rate has increased in recent months, and total U.S. deaths in Iraq since the war began in March 2003 now exceed 3,600.

Petraeus hopes that by September the U.S.-led counteroffensive will have reduced the level of violence enough to create an atmosphere in which political progress can be made, while Iraqi security forces move measurably closer to the point where they can sustain the security gains made by U.S. forces.

"We should expect, however, that AQI will attempt to increase its tempo of attacks as September approaches in an effort to influence U.S domestic opinion about sustained U.S. engagement in Iraq," Bush's report said. AQI is an acronym for the al-Qaida affiliate in Iraq that U.S. officials say has a small number of fighters but an outsized ability to accelerate sectarian violence in Baghdad and elsewhere.

At a White House news conference, Bush pleaded for patience, saying that as difficult and painful as the war has become, the consequences of giving up and withdrawing the troops now would be even worse.

His report to Congress acknowledged shortcomings while asserting that the "overall trajectory" of the military and political effort in Iraq "has begun to stabilize, compared to the deteriorating trajectory" in 2006.

Sprinkled through the report are phrases that make clear the administration believes its military strategy is the right one, that it should be given more time and that positive results are at least months away.

Some examples:

• There are encouraging signs that should, "over time," point the way to lower U.S. troop levels in Iraq.

• Meaningful and lasting progress on national reconciliation may require a "sustained period" of reduced violence.

• Pushing "too fast" for reforms to allow former Sunni Baathists to participate more fully in the government could make it harder to achieve reconciliation. Likewise, it said the time is not right to establish amnesty for those insurgents who fought against the government since 2003, although amnesty is a key goal. At the moment, the report said, "a general amnesty program would be counterproductive" because no major armed group has said it is willing to renounce violence and join the government.

• The report listed eight "core objectives" that will be the main focus "over 2007 and into 2008." These included defeating al-Qaida and its supporters and helping Iraqis regain control of Baghdad.

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On the Net:

Iraq report: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2007/07/20070712.html

Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. The information contained in the AP News report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press.