6.30.2004 "A Near Miss for Key Rights" By Jonathan Turley LA Times.

6.30.2004 "THE STOVEPIPE" by SEYMOUR M. HERSH "How conflicts between the Bush Administration and the intelligence community marred the reporting on Iraq's weapons." New Yorker Issue of 2003-10-27

6.29.2004 "Moore: Anti-Bush Documentary 'Fahrenheit 9/11' Ranked No. 1 in Each State That Voted for President" ABC News

6.29.2004 "Let's say the obvious. By making Iraq a playground for right-wing economic theorists, an employment agency for friends and family, and a source of lucrative contracts for corporate donors, the administration did terrorist a very big favor." Paul Krugman Pointer from Atrios

6.28.2004 "Evidence of Niger uranium trade 'years before war' By Mark Huband" Financial Times Pointer from Josh Marshall who has some interesting information on the subject, which he won't tell us.

6.27.2004 "U.S. Edicts Curb Power Of Iraq's Leadership" By Rajiv Chandrasekaran and Walter Pincus, Washington Post Foreign Service Pointer from Memeorandum

6.27.2004 "The Rev. Sun Myung Moon's self-coronation at the Dirksen Senate Office Building before a dozen members of Congress provides a window into the doings of a cult leader with a criminal record who is steadily buying his way into the mainstream of political life." By Dennis Roddy, Post-Gazette.com

6.26.2004 Fahrenheit 9/11 is #1

6.26.2004 "Administration Tries to Rein In Scientists" "The Bush administration has ordered that government scientists must be approved by a senior political appointee before they can participate in meetings convened by the World Health Organization, the leading international health and science agency. ... A WHO panel met in Lyons, France, this month and declared formaldehyde a known carcinogen - relying on studies that Bush administration political appointees in the Environmental Protection Agency had rejected as inconclusive." By Tom Hamburger, LA Times Staff Writer Pointer from Memeorandum

6.26.2004 "Voting official seeks terrorism guidelines" By ERICA WERNER, The Associated Press Pointer from Aaron
But, in case of a terrorist attack, voting may not be an issue- A shadow government is already in place. See also

6.25.2004 "The Cuban-American backlash -- Part III" Carpetbagger

6.25.2004 "The Fox poll has Bush up by 6 points (48-42) ... Gallup has Kerry up by 4 (49-45) in the identical Kerry-Bush RV matchup." Talking Points Memo

6.25.2004 "With action on the Federal Marriage Amendment slated for next month, gay activists are renewing calls to "out" closeted members of Congress, as well as gay staffers who work for members who support the amendment." ... "Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), who came out in 1987, told the Blade outings may be appropriate "if the congressman is rabidly anti-gay." He said he came out because "it would be helpful in our fight against homophobia if I joined approximately 432 of my House colleagues in being honest about my sexual orientation." The Hill

6.25.2004 "The Commerce Department surprised economists with a downward revision to first-quarter gross domestic product, cutting economic growth to a 3.9 percent annual rate from the 4.4 percent reported a month ago." Reuters

6.25.2004 "Treasury Examines Vote On United's Loan Request" By Keith L. Alexander, Washington Post Staff Writer "... House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.), whose district includes United's headquarters in Elk Grove, Ill., has been an advocate for the airline."

6.25.2004 "Jihad Vs. McWorld" by Benjamin R. Barber, 1992. Pointer from AlterNet

6.24.2004 "Condom Wars" By Doug Ireland , LA Weekly
But see also:
6.24.2004 "Bush Backs Condom Use to Prevent Spread of AIDS" Pointer from Memeorandum

6.24.2004 "Ten Appalling Lies We Were Told About Iraq" By Christopher Scheer, AlterNet. Posted June 27, 2003

6.24.2004 CNN LARRY KING LIVE

KING: Do you have thoughts on the war? 

REAGAN: Sure, I have thoughts on the war. 

KING: And what do you think? 

REAGAN: And I think we lied our way into the war.

6.24.2004 "Imperial Amnesia" -- By John B. Judis

6.24.2004 Bad Apple guard dogs

6.24.2004 "THE NAME GAME -- Professor Juan Cole utterly demolishes the story about the Fedayeen Saddam guy who supposedly attended an Al Qaeda conference in Kuala Lumpur:"

6.24.2004 Does McCain-Feingold bar Michael Moore's ads? Pointer from Memeorandum

6.24.2004 "The Rev. Moon Honored at Hill Reception" Pointer from Memeorandum

6.24.2004 Who ordered the airliners shot down?

6.23.2004 "U.S. Drops Effort to Gain Immunity for Its Troops" By WARREN HOGE, New York Times "UNITED NATIONS, June 23 - The United States bowed to broad opposition on the Security Council today and announced that it was dropping its effort to gain immunity for its troops from prosecution by the International Criminal Court."

6.23.2004 Bill O'Reilly lies about lying about Al Franken

6.23.2004 New development in the Plame case: "At the prosecutor's request, Libby and other White House aides have signed waivers saying they agree to release reporters they have talked to from keeping confidential any disclosures about Plame." The Washington Post Pointer from Carpetbagger

6.23.2004 "Adminstration: Torture Memos Inoperative" Prof. Michael Froomkin See also "Bush Ordered "Humane" Treatment in Feb. 2002. Then What?" here

6.23.2004 "The Bush administration may have broken the law on Medicare." "An April 26 Congressional Research Service memorandum determined that the Bush Administration's cover-up of Foster's estimates may have violated at least five federal laws: ..." ... "Frustrated that their requests for Foster's other estimates and related documents have prompted Bush administration foot dragging, at best, all 19 Democrats on the House Government Reform Committee sued the administration in federal court May 17 to compel the release of these data." ... "Democrats complain most loudly about this outrage. Republicans, conservatives, and libertarians, however, should be at least as furious that federal bureaucrats in a GOP administration used coercion and lies to engineer a $534 billion expansion of the welfare state." Deroy Murdock, National Review Online Pointer from Carpetbagger

6.23.2004 "NBC exclusive: 9/11 commission interviews FBI officials who contradict Ashcroft testimony" By Lisa Myers, Senior investigative correspondent NBC News More information in Carpetbagger's article

6.22.2004 "The Supreme Court's decision on patients suing HMOs in state courts was, to be sure, discouraging. But it does offer Dems, and John Kerry in particular, a terrific political opportunity. Carpetbagger

6.22.2004 "AP sues for access to Bush Guard records" Seattle Post-Intelligencer More information in Carpetbagger's article

6.22.2004 "Pentagon's Wolfowitz Says Iraq Is No U.S. Quagmire" ... "but said U.S. troops could be there for years, until Iraqi forces can defend the country on their own." By Deborah Zabarenko -- Reuters

6.22.2004 "Rumsfeld OKd marathon questioning, prisoner threats" BY KEN FIREMAN AND CRAIG GORDON, Newsday.com

6.22.2004 "It Ain't Lyin' If… Bush's words may be semantically secure, but his intent has always been to mislead." Matthew Yglesias, American Prospect Online

6.22.2004 The Noonday Conspiracy -- Paul Krugman

6.21.2004 "Plame Game keeps getting bigger -- but no one seems to notice Carpetbagger

6.21.2004 "All bad news is to be edited, deleted, or hidden" Carpetbagger

"This seems like a familiar story. A celebrated national park has been crippled by the Bush administration's budgets ... "But that's not the familiar part. As this administration has done repeatedly, the report detailing the funding problems for the Olympic National Park is being hidden from the public Carpetbagger

6.21.2004 "Hastert joins colleagues in GOP scandal club" Carptbagger

6.21.2004 "9/11 Commission tells Cheney to put up or shut up" Carpetbagger

6.21.2004 "Saudi Arabia and Pakistan let terrorists 'flourish' before 9/11"Carpetbagger

6.21.2004 "Eighty-eight military linguists discharged from duty for being gay " ..."So let me get this straight: the need for linguists has reached a desperate level and translations may literally help save countless American lives. We can't keep up with the flood of information that needs translating now, but yet we're asking well-trained linguists, including Arab language specialists, to stop working and leave the military. It's a simple question of national security vs. a gay-free military -- and the government has decided to back the latter." Carpetbagger

6.21.2004 What we know about Ahmed Hikmat .

6.21.2004 "PLAN B" by SEYMOUR M. HERSH New Yorker "As June 30th approaches, Israel looks to the Kurds."

6.21.2004 "Supreme Court To Decide Major Cases Soon" Michael Froomkin

6.21.2004 The Cheney Connection By Doug Ireland, LA Weekly "Was Halliburton, the oil conglomerate once headed by Dick Cheney, involved in a massive $180 million bribery scheme in Nigeria on Cheney's watch? Hopes that the veil may finally be lifted on yet another odoriferous Halliburton scandal were raised this month, when it was announced that the Securities and Exchange Commission has finally opened a formal investigation into the alleged bribery -- which French authorities have been probing for a year." ... "Tesler (a Halliburton London lawyer) admitted making two payments from the $180 million fund to Halliburton execs: a $385,000 payment to Albert J. "Jack" Stanley, president of KBR and a close associate of Dick Cheney -- a payment which Stanley had sent to a numbered bank account in Zurich, baptized "Amal"; and another payment of $350,000 to top KBR exec William Chaudan -- who had the money routed to an anonymous bank account on the island fiscal paradise of Jersey." ... "A Department of Justice inquiry into the slush fund quietly begun earlier this year under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act has gone nowhere -- partly because it has limited itself only to asking Halliburton for documents, partly because the national press has shown almost no real interest in the story..."

6.21.2004 "The Sour Smell of Spoiled Ballots" By Greg Palast Alternet "One million black votes didn't count in the 2000 presidential election; this year it could be worse."

6.21.2004 "Invasion rationales wither as facts unfold" ... Did the President and his top advisers lie to the American people? Or were they themselves deceived, by the INC, faulty intelligence and their own tendency to hear what they wanted to hear?
For now, those questions are unanswerable and essentially besides the point.
What matters is that Americans grasp a central point: The multipronged rationale behind this rushed invasion has been revealed as a house of cards."
Philadelphia Inquirer Pointer from Atrios

6.21.2004 "But just the fun of it, here are a couple of the more entertaining White House lies I've come across." Carpetbagger

6.21.2004 "The end of the $73 million witch hunt - Independent counsel Robert Ray's final Whitewater report confirms what was clear from the start -- Bill and Hillary Clinton were innocent." By Joe Conason Salon March 22, 2002. Pointer from Carpetbagger

6.21.2004 "New Abuse Charges - Allegations of mistreatment of female detainees" By VIVECA NOVAK AND DOUGLAS WALLER Time.com "Meanwhile, a class action filed in California on behalf of former detainees raises the specter of brutal physical abuse."

6.21.2004 "Will Michael Moore's Facts Check Out?" By PHILIP SHENON, New York Times "As the Sept. 11 commission has found, the Saudi government was able to pull strings at senior levels of the Bush administration to help the bin Ladens leave the United States. But while the film clearly suggests that the flights occurred at a time when all air traffic was grounded immediately after the attacks ("Even Ricky Martin couldn't fly," Mr. Moore says over video of the singer wandering in an airport lobby), the Sept. 11 commission said in a report this April that there was "no credible evidence that any chartered flights of Saudi Arabian nationals departed the United States before the reopening of national airspace" and that the F.B.I. had concluded that no one aboard the flights was involved in Sept. 11." ...
"And as reporters have found, the White House still refuses to document fully how the flights were arranged."

6.21.2004 "Thomas B. Griffith, President Bush's nominee for the federal appeals court in Washington, has been practicing law in Utah without a state law license for the past four years, according to Utah state officials." By Carol D. Leonnig Washington Post Staff Writer Pointer from Drudge

6.21.2004 From Anonymous, Author of Imperial Hubris "For myself, I can't figure out what American interest we would have in Saudi Arabia if it wasn't for oil. If they all killed each other to their heart's content, it wouldn't affect America at all." Per Spencer Ackerman, Talking Points Memo

6.20.2004 From John Dean, Worse Than Watergate, page 139:
"Sadly, one could literally fill a fair-size book with nothing but Bush and Cheney's false statements about Saddam's purported nuclear capabilities and ties to al Qaeda. In fact, the nonpartisan Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has, in effect, done just that with its January 2004 study, WMD in Iraq: Evidence and Implications. The study's findings are devastating and, in point of fact, make liars of Bush and Cheney. All of their key assertions are examined in detail and shown to be wanting. Established evidence is lined up in charts beside the assertions of Bush-Cheney, making the administration's dishonesty obvious." (Links added)
See also: "Cheney's 'Irresponsible' Speech" By Ray McGovern, AlterNet Posted July 31, 2003

6.20.2004 Requiem for the war Spencer Ackerman, Talking Points Memo

6.20.2004 Andrew Sullivan breaks with Bush: "I will be excoriated by the same people who always denounce anyone who doesn't toe the Democratic Party line. "What took you so long?" they sneer. Hope, engagement, principle are my answers. I do not regret trying to make conservatism safe for gays. It's still possible to be in favor of small government, low taxes, a tough foreign policy, and to be a proud gay man. My principles haven't changed. Nor will they anytime soon. But when a president allies himself with forces that really do want to keep gay people in jail, therapy, or the closet, it's time to break off. The deal is broken. And no amount of rationalization can make it whole again." ... "I can live with disagreement on the issue of civil marriage itself. But raising the issue to the level of a constitutional amendment is not something anyone can or should live with. It's writing gay people out of their own country. It's the political equivalent of domestic violence. Once that happens you're a fool to stay in the relationship. You're asking for more abuse. You're enabling a movement that seeks to destroy you." From The Advocate, May 11, 2004 Pointer from Jonah Goldberg

Glenn Reynold's reaction: "There are plenty of things that I disagree with Bush on -- stem cell research (and pretty much all other biotech/bioethics issues), abortion, gay marriage, the Drug War, etc. If it weren't for the war, I'd probably be on the fence. But I can't take Kerry seriously on the war, and for me it's the number one issue. For Sullivan, I guess, it's not. I had thought that it was.

6.20.2004 "Kurds Advancing to Reclaim Land in Northern Iraq" By DEXTER FILKINS New York Times Pointer from Talking Points Memo

6.19.2004 "Sept. 11 Panel Seeks Evidence From Cheney" and Rice and Tenant. Guardian Unlimited

6.19.2004 "It behooves us, at this moment, to understand that we cannot usefully go on like this, conflating likability and leadership." By Anna Quindlen

6.19.2004 Interview with ANONYMOUS Talking Points Memo.

6.19.2004 "Bush told he is playing into Bin Laden's hands " By Julian Borger in Washington The Guardian Pointer from Drudge

6.19.2004 Saddam-911 connections: "Still, the administration is perfectly free to make the argument, despite the complete lack of anything that could be termed evidence - other than Laurie Mylroie's raving paranoia. But claiming that that evidence can be found in the pages of the 9/11 Commission's staff statement is like claiming an endorsement of Bush's fiscal policies can be found in the collected writings of Paul Krugman. It's simply absurd." Billmon.

6.18.2004 "CIA contractor charged under Patriot Act" By DAVID KRAVETS, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER "The CIA contract employee accused of abusing a prisoner in Afghanistan is being prosecuted under the Patriot Act in what legal experts are calling a surprising - and to some, troubling - application of the new anti-terrorism law." ... "Eugene Fidell, a defense attorney and president of the National Institute of Military Justice, said invoking the Patriot Act was a well-reasoned response by the federal government, because other options might include trying Passaro in an Afghan court or before an international war crimes tribunal. Fidell suggested it might be politically untenable to turn over a CIA contractor to a local court, and trying Passaro in an international court would be akin to admitting the government's hired hands committed war crimes."

6.18.2004 "U.S. Said to Lack Votes on Immunity from World Court" Reuters

6.18.2004 "PUTIN CAMPAIGNS FOR BUSH'S REELECTION" No More Mister Nice Blog

6.18.2004 "The Bush campaign took another hit this week when the family of late, and popular, President Ronald Reagan demanded Reagan's image be removed from an conservative group's ad endorsing Bush. The family has also told the Bush campaign it does not want the former President's images and words used in any official campaign ads." By TERESA HAMPTON & DOUG THOMPSON Capitol Hill Blue

6.18.2004 The National Security Strategy of the United States of America

"FIVE LESSONS FROM A BAD YEAR. - Silence and Cruelty" - by Paul Berman The New Republic Online "We have learned that there are many paths to hell, and one of those paths is called the "National Security Strategy" of 2002. This is the White House document that affirmed U.S. hegemony over everyone else as the national goal and preemptive war as the policy--two ideas that were guaranteed to strike terror in half the world. The statement affirmed, "For most of the 20th century, the world was divided by a great struggle over ideas: destructive totalitarian visions versus freedom and equality. That great struggle is over"--which, in regard to the Muslim world, is simply not the case." Pointer from Memeoranum

6.17.2004 "[Clarence Thomas'] latest challenge to conventional wisdom came this week in the Pledge of Allegiance case, when he opined that the Constitution protected a state's right to recognize an official church. " ... "Almost everyone has assumed that the opposite is true." LATimes
That's because the opposite is true." Carpetbagger

6.17.2004 "Only the media, says the most powerful secretary of defense in history, can lose the war in Iraq. By that logic, a year's worth of mistakes--an insufficient number of troops to provide basic security; an inability or unwillingness to demobilize militias; a preference for wishing deeply-rooted conflicts in Iraqi ethnic and religious politics away instead of providing a civil forum for their arbitration; the installation of pliant Iraqis onto a council subsequently made powerless; torture--are simply wished away." Spencer Ackerman Talking Points Memo.

6.17.2004 "The Document Sean Hannity Doesn't Want You To Read" Center for American Progress Pointer from Memeorandum

6.17.2004 "Senate Violates Constitution, Tells President He May Not Torture" Jack Balkin

6.17.2004 Billmon speculates on Shrub's speech patterns: "But what really made me sit up and take notice was Levine's casual observation that this particular form of language output failure is closely associated with criminal behavior:"

6.17.2004 "Profiles in Courage:
The Senate voted without dissent yesterday to require the Bush administration to issue guidelines aimed at ensuring humane treatment of prisoners at U.S. military facilities and to report any violations promptly to Congress.
Passage of the proposal by voice vote came after Republicans, facing defeat on the measure, agreed to raise no objections and offer no alternatives if the vote was taken by voice instead of putting all senators on record with a roll call, according to Democratic sources. (emphasis added)"
Pointer from billmon

6.17.2004 "US erred in holding suspect in secret" By Matt Kelley, Associated Press
"Mr. Tenet made his request to Mr. Rumsfeld - that the suspect be held but not listed - in October. The request was passed down the chain of command: to Gen. Richard B. Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, then to Gen. John P. Abizaid, the commander of American forces in the Middle East, and finally to Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the ground commander in Iraq. At each stage, lawyers reviewed the request and their bosses approved it." New York Times
"the reason that the suspect was regarded as so important, apparently, was because he "possessed significant information about Ansar al Islam's leadership structure, training and locations." And yet - here's the mind-blowing part - he was only interviewed once in "one cursory arrival interrogation"! ... "both Tenet and Rumsfeld sign off on this shady business; and then ... nothing! It boggles the mind. Here we have two features of the Iraq occupation that we have slowly come to see close-up: the violation of settled military ethics and international law, authorized by the highest authorities, and complete incompetence." Andrew Sullivan
"Rumsfeld ordered prisoner held off the books" ... "Pentagon officials still insist Rumsfeld acted legally, but admit it all depends on how you interpret the law." Here

6.16.2004 "U.N. Says Globe Drying Up at Fast Pace" MyWayNews Drudge

6.16.2004 Prof. John Yoo and academic freedom. see also:
6.16.2004 "If you sign a contract with your neighbor agreeing that neither of you will plant stinky ginkgo trees on your property, that contract is binding on you and your neighbor. It's not binding for the guy who lives across the street.
Well, Osama bin Laden lives across the street. He lives outside our neighborhood, our community, our laws. He lives outside all of the rules of civilization, at war and peace. Every day, he violates the Geneva Convention before he has his second bowl of muesli. He blows up passenger trains and hijacks civilian aircraft. His henchmen don't wear uniforms, and they don't abide by any of the rules governing professional armies." Jonah Goldberg Did I miss the trial?

6.16.2004 Check out Kinja.com I love this!!

6.16.2004 "Bush declares yet another mission accomplished incorrectly" Carpetbagger "There was no aircraft carrier, no flight suit, and certainly no embarrassing banners hanging overhead, but yesterday, Bush effectively declared "mission accomplished" in Afghanistan

6.16.2004 "9/11 Panel Finds No Collaboration Between Iraq, Al Qaeda -- Findings Contradict Comments by Cheney, Bush" By Dan Eggen Washington Post Staff Writer Carpetbagger

6.16.2004 "Lone Star Justice - Alberto Gonzales' strange views of international law." By Alan Berlow Slate "Gonzales' legal advice in both the Faulder and Tristan cases suggests that, in matters of life and death, he viewed international law and Article VI of the Constitution as irrelevant to Texas or, at best, inconveniences that might easily be circumvented by legal assertions grounded in shaky reasoning. Gov. Bush apparently agreed."

6.16.2004 "'Safe Harbor for Churches' dies in committee" ... "I wish this was an example of lawmakers taking church-state separation seriously and/or being overwhelmed by the persuasiveness of civil liberties arguments. The truth is, however, this proposal was killed because the far right didn't like it either . Carpetbagger

6.16.2004 Bill Moyers:"I don't have to tell you that a profound transformation is occurring in America: the balance between wealth and the commonwealth is being upended. By design. Deliberately. We have been subjected to what the Commonwealth Foundation calls "a fanatical drive to dismantle the political institutions, the legal and statutory canons, and the intellectual and cultural frameworks that have shaped public responsibility for social harms arising from the excesses of private power." From land, water and other natural resources, to media and the broadcast and digital spectrums, to scientific discovery and medical breakthroughs, and to politics itself, a broad range of the American commons is undergoing a powerful shift toward private and corporate control. And with little public debate. Indeed, what passes for 'political debate' in this country has become a cynical charade behind which the real business goes on -- the not-so-scrupulous business of getting and keeping power in order to divide up the spoils."

6.16.2004 Torture Memos "But even absent top-secret status or higher, they should have been kept confidential within the ambit of the president's executive privilege. Having failed to observe this, the next time hard questions are addressed, the proffered answers will likely be hedged for anticipated public consumption. That will serve no one well." Bad grammar leads to fuzzy logic. The National Review

6.15.2004 "When Ignorance Isn't Bliss" By David J. Sirota "Straight from the you-can't-make-this-stuff-up file, the five congressional votes that everyone in America should know about."

6.15.2004 From Fox News!!! "As much as some might try to marginalize this film as a screed against President George Bush, "F[ahrenheit]9/11" - as we saw last night - is a tribute to patriotism, to the American sense of duty, and at the same time a indictment of stupidity and avarice." By Roger Friedman Pointer from Memeorandum

6.15.2004 "GOP memo-theft scandal is percolating along" ... "Last month, the Senate's Sergeant-at-Arms William Pickle concluded a three-month investigation with a report pointing to months of GOP thefts and subsequent leaks to conservatives in the media." Carpetbagger

6.15.2004 "Nation Builders and Low Bidders in Iraq" By P. W. SINGER "From the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison to the mutilation of American civilians at Falluja, many of the worst moments of the Iraqi occupation have involved private military contractors "outsourced" by the Pentagon. With no public or Congressional oversight, the Pentagon has paid billions of dollars to companies that now have as many as 20,000 employees carrying out military functions ranging from logistics and troop training to convoy escort and interrogations. Yet despite the problems and the widespread accusations of overbilling, it appears the civilian leadership at the Pentagon has learned absolutely nothing from the whole experience." New York Times Pointer from Memeorandum

6.15.2004 "The attorney general who cried wolf" ... "In fact, while most of the media missed it, the NYT actually read the indictment and noticed that the alleged mall attack isn't even mentioned" ... "That's right, Abdi was indicted for misstating information on a government travel application and lying on an asylum application about his past. Ashcroft seemed to gloss over these details while emphasizing the alleged plan to attack an Ohio mall. You think he might have just been trying to scare us again?" Carpetbagger

6.15.2004 "Travesty of Justice" By PAUL KRUGMAN "No question: John Ashcroft is the worst attorney general in history" New York Times Pointer from Memeorandum

6.15.2004 "Vice President Deceived Public On Halliburton Contracts" Center for American Progress

6.15.2004 "Bitter at the Top" By DAVID BROOKS "It's been said that every society has two aristocracies. The members of the aristocracy of mind produce ideas, and pass along knowledge. The members of the aristocracy of money produce products and manage organizations. In our society these two groups happen to be engaged in a bitter conflict about everything from S.U.V.'s to presidents. You can't understand the current bitter political polarization without appreciating how it is inflamed or even driven by the civil war within the educated class." New York Times Pointer from Memeorandum

6.14.2004 "It's Official: Bush Administration Received Legal Advice Permitting Torture" "Today the Washington Post published a copy of the Aug. 1, 2002, memorandum "Re: Standards of Conduct for Interrogation under 18 U.S.C. 2340-2340A," from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel for Alberto R. Gonzales, counsel to President Bush. The Memorandum was signed by Assistant Attorney General Jay S. Bybee, whom President Bush subsequently appointed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.

The Gonzales/Bybee/OLC memo concludes that:

under the circumstances of the current war against Al Qaeda and its allies, 
application of Section 2340A [a federal ban on torture] to interrogations 
undertaken persuant to the President's-Commander-in-Chief powers may 
be unconstitutional. Finally, even if an interrogation method might violate 
Section 2340A, necessity or self-defense could provide justifications that 
would eliminate any criminal liability.

6.14.2004 "Ultimately, the best legal commentary on this memo may belong to Professor Jay Leno:

According to the "New York Times", last year White House lawyers concluded 
that President Bush could legally order interrogators to torture and 
even kill people in the interest of national security - so if that's legal, 
what the hell are we charging Saddam Hussein with?

6.14.2004 JAGs come to the rescue. "In January, he and his colleagues filed an incendiary friend-of-the-court brief with the Supreme Court in which, among other things, they compared their commander in chief, President Bush, to the villain of the American Revolution, King George III. In April, Swift went even further, suing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Bush in federal court in Seattle on the grounds that their plan for a military tribunal for his client -- who has still not been charged or given a trial date -- violates the Constitution, federal law, the Geneva Conventions and the Uniform Code of Military Justice." Jack Balkin

6.14.2004 "Waxman Raises New Questions on Cheney " By Robert O'Harrow Jr. Washington Post Staff Writer "As the government prepared for war in Iraq in the fall of 2002, a senior political appointee in the Defense Department chose oil services giant Halliburton Co. to secretly plan how to repair Iraqi oil fields, and then briefed Vice President Cheney's chief of staff and other White House officials about the sole-source contract before it was granted. " Pointer from Carpetbagger who lays it all out.

6.14.2004 "Bush hoping in vain to score political points off Medicare" ... "The entire White House Medicare initiative has been a debacle from the beginning. The administration had to lie about the plan's cost to get it passed (a scandal that is already under investigation ); congressional leaders had to try and bribe lawmakers to vote for it (another scandal under investigation ); and the administration ran expensive and deceptive ads that turned out to be criminally wrong .
And best of all, seniors don't want anything to do with the program and feel like they've been conned." Carpetagger

6.14.2004 "Tackle the Nuke Threat" By Fareed Zakaria Newsweek

6.14.2004 ..."Were we entitled to deal with the prisoners at Abu Ghraib in the way we did? The answer is clearly, No. But that answer carries a lot of freight, because there are people circling the scene who are very anxious to prosecute the United States for war crimes."
... The best evidence of the incongruity of Abu Ghraib with American standards is the universal revulsion felt by the American people when those photographs were published. But right now there are only seven soldiers being prosecuted, and the sense of it is that that does not go deeply enough. If what happened was odious, but what happened did so under the auspices of a well-organized military, then you scratch up against the lessons of Nuremberg, which held superiors responsible for misconduct by subordinates. And people are wanting to know what are the relevant jurisdictions, and what tribunals do we have in mind to convoke in order to satisfy ourselves - and the world - that America wants more than merely to punish the people who did it. We need to punish also the people who let it happen." William Buckley Jr. National Review Online Pointer from Memeorandum

"On Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo, WFB gets it right: ... "We have to know who really sanctioned this. And we have to stop it. Just because some anti-war opportunists are getting on this bandwagon does not absolve pro-war advocates from holding this administration responsible." Andrew Sullivan

6.14.2004 "First Reagan, Now His Stunt Double" Frank Rich New York Times. Pointer from Amar.

6.14.2004 "Contractor Immunity a Divisive Issue -- Interim Government Resists U.S. Proposal to Exempt Foreigners From Iraqi Law " By Edward Cody Washington Post Foreign Service Pointer from Memeorandum

6.14.2004 Regarding the President's June 10th press conference:
"Please note what the President did not say: He did not say (1) that we Americans do not engage in torture, (2) that torture is immoral, (3) that international and U.S. law does not permit it, or (4) that even if the law permitted it, which it does not, we would not engage in it.
Clearly, the President is setting a moral example for the members of his Administration and for the country as a whole. The problem is that it is a disgraceful example. He has used every trick in the book to avoid confronting his Administration's complicity, and he does not even have the moral courage to denounce the most blatant abuses of human rights. Instead, he merely asserts that his subordinates should follow the law, that is, whatever legal arguments they can come up with to defend whatever they want to do.
Jack Balkin

6.14.2004 "The handling of al-Libi touched off a long-running battle over interrogation tactics inside the administration. It is a struggle that continued right up until the Abu Ghraib scandal broke in April-and it extended into the White House, with Condoleezza Rice's National Security Council pitted against lawyers for the White House counsel and the vice president." Newsweek
"Always the VP, always the VP." Josh Marshall
"Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain" Frank Baum.

6.14.2004 "US military reported Iraqi abuses in November: report" ABCNewsOnline Pointer from Google News

6.14.2004 "White House Officials and Cheney Aide Approved Halliburton Contract in Iraq, Pentagon Says" -- By ERIK ECKHOLM New York Times
""These new disclosures appear to contradict your assertions that you were not informed about the Halliburton contracts," Mr. Waxman, Democrat of California, wrote. "They also seem to contradict the administration's repeated assertions that political appointees were not involved in the award of the contracts to Halliburton."
Appearing on the NBC News program "Meet the Press" on Sept. 14, 2003, Mr. Cheney said, "And as vice president, I have absolutely no influence of, involvement of, knowledge of in any way, shape or form of contracts led by the Corps of Engineers or anybody else in the federal government." He referred to the Army Corps of Engineers, which has managed oil infrastructure contracts."
Pointer from Google News

"Waxman's account of the Pentagon briefing - along with recently released internal Pentagon memos obtained by the nonprofit group Judicial Watch and a draft General Accounting Office report obtained by the Los Angeles Times - offers the most complete picture to date of the unusual procedures behind the decision to award the contract without the competitive bidding process usually required to protect taxpayer dollars." LA Times per Newsday.com

6.14.2004 "Powell Says Politics Were Not Behind Flawed Terror Report" By Josh Meyer, LA Times Staff Writer Pointer from Google News
"Tim Russert, the host of "Meet the Press," asked Powell: "Why shouldn't the American people lose all confidence in the information their government is giving them from the CIA about weapons of mass destruction, about terrorism, and who knows what else?" See also

6.14.2004 "Soldier's defense team wants 100 witnesses from Cheney on down for Abu Ghraib case" Pittsburgh Post-Gazette Pointer from Drudge

6.13.2004 Re stem cells: "Your move, Mr. President. Deny Nancy Reagan the one thing she asked from you." DemFromCT

6.13.2004 "The Telegraph understands that four confidential Red Cross documents implicating senior Pentagon civilians in the Abu Ghraib scandal have been passed to an American television network, which is preparing to make them public shortly." Pointer from Memeorandum

6.13.2004 "Bush Asked for Vatican's Help on Political Issues, Report Says" By DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK The New York Times Pointer from Memeorandum

"Presidents regularly meet with Popes. Certainly they talk about matters both political and moral, perhaps even theological. But is it the president's place to press the pope to sow religious divisions among American Catholics, a majority of whom seem uncomfortable with the efforts of some in the hierarchy to discipline pro-Choice Catholic politicians? And all that aside is it proper for the president to enlist the Vatican as an arm of his political campaign? The articles noted above make it pretty clear these requests were made for electoral political purposes.
Remember the words ... 'Not all the American bishops are with me'" Josh Marshall

6.13.2004 " Mission creep? A new bill could expand the Pentagon's ability to gather intelligence inside the United States By Michael Isikoff , Newsweek Pointer from Drudge Report

6.13.2004 "Retired Officials Say Bush Must Go -- The 26 ex-diplomats and military leaders say his foreign policy has harmed national security. Several served under Republicans." By Ronald Brownstein, LA Times Staff Writer. Pointer from Memeorandum

6.13.2004 My site has been Shizzolated, know what I'm saying? Apologies to Professor Balkin:

"Balkin goes on be like: "The Big Baby Bush Administration has been pursuing a logic hella much like Nixon's. The President, because tha dude is Commander-in-Chief, does not violate da law if tha dude thinks a particular action is necessary n' shit. Rather, tha dude determines what da law is, know what I'm sayin'? This way of thinking twists da Rule of Law beyond recognition n' shit. It is a chilling reminder of what muthas seduced by power 'n convinced of they utter rectitude will do justify they actions, know what I'm sayin'?

6.13.2004 "A reader sent me a recent item from the LaCrosse (Wisconsin) Tribune that illustrates quite nicely why I sometimes refer to the modern U.S. Army as the armed wing of the Republican Party." Must read From Billmon @ Whiskey Bar.

The Hatch Act:

 "These federal and D.C. employees may not-
use official authority or influence to interfere with an election 
solicit or discourage political activity of anyone with business before their agency 
solicit or receive political contributions (may be done in certain limited situations by federal labor or other employee organizations) 
be candidates for public office in partisan elections 
engage in political activity while: 
on duty 
in a government office 
wearing an official uniform 
using a government vehicle 
wear partisan political buttons on duty 

6.12.2004 Washington Post writes that; "U.S. intelligence personnel ordered military dog handlers at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq to use unmuzzled dogs to frighten and intimidate detainees during interrogations late last year, a plan approved by the highest-ranking military intelligence officer at the facility, according to sworn statements the handlers provided to military investigators."

Much has been made of this already. 
What I have for you is an exclusive. I have uncovered the text of the actual memo! 
In part it reads as follows.... 

"Shall in these confines with a monarch's voice
Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war;
That this foul deed shall smell above the earth
With carrion men, groaning for burial."

A.

6.12.2004 "The head of the interrogation center at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq told an Army investigator in February that he understood some of the information being collected from prisoners there had been requested by "White House staff," according to an account of his statement obtained by The Washington Post." Pointer from Atrios.

6.12.2004 "Army policy bans private interrogators" By MATT KELLEY, ASSOCIATED PRESS WRITER "A policy memo from December 2000 says letting private workers gather military intelligence would jeopardize national security." ... "Thomas White, who quit as Army secretary last year after clashing with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said he opposed hiring contractors to question prisoners." Pointer from Google News.

6.12.2004 "General Granted Latitude At Prison -- Abu Ghraib Used Aggressive Tactics" By R. Jeffrey Smith and Josh White, Washington Post Staff Writers. Pointer from Google News. "Lt. Gen. Ricardo S. Sanchez, the senior U.S. military officer in Iraq, borrowed heavily from a list of high-pressure interrogation tactics used at the U.S. detention center in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and approved letting senior officials at a Baghdad jail use military dogs, temperature extremes, reversed sleep patterns, sensory deprivation, and diets of bread and water on detainees whenever they wished, according to newly obtained documents. "

6.12.2004 "The decision to not permit local elections in occupied Iraq seems to have been made at the highest level of this government. Beyond its unfortunate consequences for Iraqi society, this policy decision has fundamentally tarnished America's good name. After all our promises to bring democracy to Iraq, our refusal to allow any free democracy during our occupation period may be as obscenely un-American as the Abu Graib horrors. " Juan Cole Pointer from Josh Marshall.

6.11.2004 Nixon Interview as reported by Jack Balkin:

"Mr. David Frost: So what in a sense you're saying is that there are certain situations . . . where the President can decide that it's in the best interests of the nation or something, and do something illegal.
Mr. Nixon: Well, when the President does it, that means that it is not illegal.
Mr. Frost: By definition.
Mr. Nixon: Exactly. If the President, for example, approves something, approves an action because of national security, or, in this case, because of a threat to internal peace and order, of significant magnitude, then the President's decision in that instance is one that enables those who carry it out to carry it out without violating a law. Otherwise they're in an impossible position."

Balkin goes on to say: "The Bush Administration has been pursuing a logic very much like Nixon's. The President, because he is Commander-in-Chief, does not violate the law if he thinks a particular action is necessary. Rather, he determines what the law is. This way of thinking twists the Rule of Law beyond recognition. It is a chilling reminder of what people seduced by power and convinced of their utter rectitude will do to justify their actions.

6.11.2004 Eugene Volokh explains why corporations have constitutional rights.

6.11.2004 Top Justice Department Advisor, who signed torture memorandum, now has lifetime appointment to federal judgeship. Here Pointer from Howard Bashman

6.11.2004 "State Dept. warned White House on torture" By Lara Jakes Jordan Salon Pointer from Memeoranum

6.11.2004 "A Troubling Dissent"... "By departing from his deeply held belief in state autonomy to side with the Republican Party in a redistricting case, Chief Justice Rehnquist has once again invited the public to question this court's motives." New York Times Pointer from Howard Bashman

6.11.2004 "Ronald Reagan, Hedgehogs and the November Election" By Arianna Huffington, AlterNet "The great lesson of Ronald Reagan's career is the power of knowing what your core vision is - and never leaving home without it."

6.11.2004 "Police to let England fans smoke dope" Here I've always said that marijuana ought to be mandatory.

6.11.2004 "Use of Dogs to Scare Prisoners Was Authorized -- Military Intelligence Personnel Were Involved, Handlers Say" By Josh White and Scott Higham, Washington Post Staff Writers Pointer from Memeorandum

6.10.2004 In a move that can only be called Reaganesque, the President today said that he couldn't recall whether or not he'd read the memos telling him that as Commander in Chief he has "inherent power" to suspend all laws and ignore all treaty obligations
Brilliant!" Mark A. R. Kleiman

6.10.2004 "Bush's Kiss of Death" By Molly Ivins, AUSTIN, Texas - "As Lily Tomlin observed, "No matter how cynical you get, it's impossible to keep up." AlterNet.

6.10.2004 The ethics of torture. Kevin Drum

6.10.2004 "5) If they can do it to Padilla, they can do it to you." Atrios.

6.10.2004 "GOP church politicking plan has another problem ...The GOP provisions would carve out a special protection for the ones they like best -- churches. (Mind you, the bill literally says "churches," not "houses of worship." What about temples, synagogues, and mosques?)
So, if the Republican plan became law, a religious tax-exempt group (i.e., a church) could get away with multiple violations of federal tax law while a secular tax-exempt group could not. It's not a "Safe Harbor for Churches" plan; it's a "special rights for churches" plan.
I'm pretty sure that's unconstitutional" Carpetbagger

6.10.2004 Terror report: "U.S. Will Revise Data on Terror -- The State Department works to amend its report on global attacks after critics alleged an undercount and political manipulation." By Josh Meyer, LA Times Staff Writer " , the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, told Powell that the number of significant terrorist attacks since 2001 hasn't declined as the department claimed, but risen by more than 35%. ... Waxman said a review showed the report stopped counting terrorist incidents on Nov. 11, leaving out several major attacks, including bombings of two synagogues, a bank and the British Consulate in Turkey that killed 62 and injured more than 700. Waxman said a State Department official blamed the Nov. 11 cutoff on a printing deadline." Pointer from Memeorandum

6.10.2004 "Detainees' Medical Files Shared -- Guantanamo Interrogators' Access Criticized " By Peter Slevin and Joe Stephens Washington Post Staff Writers Pointer from Drudge

6.10.2004 "Human Rights Groups Sue Over Iraq Abuses" - By TED BRIDIS , The Associated Press The Washington Post "WASHINGTON - An unusual racketeering lawsuit filed by human rights lawyers accuses U.S. civilian contractors at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq of conspiring to execute, rape and torture prisoners to boost corporate profits from military payments." Pointer from Google News

6.9.2004 "Moon Over Washington -- Why are some of the capital's most influential power players hanging out with a bizarre Korean billionaire who claims to be the Messiah?" by John Gorenfeld The Gadflyer Pointer from Memorandum

6.9.2004 "Prison Interrogators' Gloves Came Off Before Abu Ghraib" - By Richard A. Serrano, LA Times Staff Writer. Pointer from Memeorandum

6.9.2004 "Ashcroft Refuses to Release '02 Memo -- Document Details Suffering Allowed In Interrogations" By Susan Schmidt Washington Post Staff Writer Pointer from Google News.

6.10.2004 "TIA now verifies flight of Saudis -- The government has long denied that two days after the 9/11 attacks, the three were allowed to fly." By JEAN HELLER, St. Petersburg Times Pointer from Josh Marshall

6.9.2004 "Apologia Pro Tormento: Analyzing the First 56 Pages of the Walker Working Group Report (aka the Torture Memo) "On pages 22-23 the Walker Working Group Report sets out a view of an unlimited Presidential power to do anything he wants with "enemy combatants". The bill of rights is nowhere mentioned. There is no principle suggested which limits this purported authority to non-citizens, or to the battlefield. Under this reasoning, it would be perfectly proper to grab any one of us and torture us if the President determined that the war effort required it. I cannot exaggerate how pernicious this argument is, and how incompatible it is with a free society. The Constitution does not make the President a King. This memo does. Discourse.net

6.9.2004 "Praise the Lord and Pass the Thumbscrews" Pointer from billmon (June7 posted at 10:31 link is broken) who says: "And so there you have it: Mary L. Walker - Christian, Republican, Patriot, Torture Attorney." ..."What a monster. But NEVER forget, for a split second, that half of the American people agree with her." (Frank Wilhoit)

6.9.2004 Howard Bashman has listed sites which report on the Defense Department Memo on Torture Here

6.9.2004 "The Mendacity Index Which president told the biggest whoppers? You decide" Wasington Monthly

6.8.2004 "Iraq Claims Full Control of Oil Sector" By KATARINA KRATOVAC, Associated Press Writer Yahoo! News

6.8.2004 "Bush to the US Constitution: Drop Dead" Beautiful Horizons Pointer from Atrios Who says, "Look, the Bush administration should collectively just be thrown into jail. Really."

6.8.2004 By BILL O'REILLY "Clearly, something is very wrong when inexperienced, poorly trained military reservists are allowed to run wild and abuse prisoners. Clearly, something is wrong when enormous mistakes are made in the occupation of a country whose defeat was a foregone conclusion. I mean everybody knew the USA would defeat Saddam, so why was the aftermath of the war so screwed up? Is this another intelligence failure? Is this a strategic failure on the part of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and his team? We don't know because Mr. Bush rarely holds anyone publicly accountable for doing his or her job poorly. " ... "Enough with the chaos and foolish mistakes like Abu Ghraib. Clean house, Mr. President. There are smart, tough and experienced people who realize what's at stake here. Find them and protect us." Creators Syndicate. Pointer from American Progress

6.8.2004 "The Great Taxer" By PAUL KRUGMAN

6.8.2004 "Lawyers Decided Bans on Torture Didn't Bind Bush"By NEIL A. LEWIS and ERIC SCHMITT New York Times Pointer from Memeorandum

6.8.2004 "To protect subordinates should they be charged with torture, the memo advised that Mr. Bush issue a "presidential directive or other writing" that could serve as evidence, since authority to set aside the laws is "inherent in the president." Josh Marshall, quoting the Wall Street Journal

6.6.2004 "Rumsfeld fears U.S. losing long-term fight against terror"June 6, 2004 BY ROBERT BURNS ''It's quite clear to me that we do not have a coherent approach to this,'' Rumsfeld said at an international security conference." Chicago Sun Times Pointer from Memeorandum

6.6.2004 "The Serious Implications Of President Bush's Hiring A Personal Outside Counsel For The Valerie Plame Investigation" By JOHN W. DEAN FindLaw Pointer from Memeorandum
"Ironically, it was the fair-haired Republican stalwart Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr who decimated the attorney-client privilege for government lawyers and their clients - which, to paraphrase the authority Wigmore, applies when legal advice of any kind is sought by a client from a professional legal adviser, where the advice is sought in confidence."

6.4.2004 " The case of the missing environmental rule" Carpetbagger.

6.2.2004 "Bush Consults Lawyer in CIA Leak Case" (Plame) By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

2.2004 "Watch out! Shoes dropping!" Josh Marshall

6.2.2004 "But the more obvious interpretation is more likely to be correct: that one of Chalabi's neocon buddies got sloshed with him and blabbed, and Chalabi told it to an Iranian who stupidly sent it down an insecure channel.

The phrase "criminal negligence" gets thrown about a lot in politics. But in this case it's precisely applicable. Whoever that drunken buffoon was did something criminally negligent: the crime being defined at Sec. 793 of Title 18 of the United States Code .

The other people who trusted Chalabi weren't criminally negligent. But they were stageringly, astonishingly, earth-shatteringly wrong. Either the President has to fire them, or we have to fire him." Mark A.R. Kleiman.

6.2.2004 "Can Congress push Bush into flip-flopping on reimportation" (of drugs) Carpetbagger

6.2.2004 "Public Broadcasting Veers to the Right" By Chellie Pingree, AlterNet

6.2.2004 "How Copyright Law Changed Hip Hop" By Kembrew McLeod, Stay Free! Magazine per Alternet

6.2.2004 Who owns Iraqi Oil? Kevin Drum at The Washington Monthly

6.2.2004 Steve at No More Mister Nice Blog discredits Iraq/al-Qaeda theories.

6.2.2004 "What would a John Kerry foreign policy look like? In some ways a lot like one the current President's father could endorse" by Joshua Micah Marshall Atlantic Monthly

6.2.2004 New York Times breaks Chalabi Spy details.

6.2.2004 "The New Pumpkin Papers" Billmon writes about Chalabi and Alger Hiss.

6.1.2004 Carpetbagger exposes medicare machinations: "So companies that have been under investigation for fraud, and in some cases forced to pay fines to federal and local governments because of their behavior, have been approved to participate in the White House Medicare plan. Coincidentally, those same companies are responsible for generous contributions to Bush and the GOP.
Remind me, who was it who promised to "restore honor and dignity" to the White House?"

6.1.2004 Organzied Torture: "But this time, between Sy Hersh's last New Yorker piece on the origins and progress of special access program "Copper Green" - and Newsweek's long look at the legal groundwork for torture laid down by the Justice Department and the White House General Counsel, plus what's come to light about Gen. Miller's instructions to the intelligence officials at Abu Ghraib, we've already got a pretty good sense of the story. It seems to go something like this:" Billmon Pointer from Memeorandum

6.1.2004 John McCain per Carpetbagger: "Since the abuses at Abu Ghraib have come to light, American leaders at all levels have rightly expressed outrage and contrition. Yet there also exists an undercurrent of sentiment that seeks to fault America's strict adherence to international humanitarian law, and to blame the organizations that monitor its implementation.
In recent days, some have labeled Red Cross personnel as "humanitarian do-gooders" whose presence in coalition-run detention centers is inappropriate while American soldiers are fighting and dying. Others have warned that the ICRC is on the path toward becoming a left-wing advocacy group, and portrayed the Geneva Conventions as a hindrance to our ability to extract intelligence from prisoners that might save U.S. lives.
It is critical to realize that the Red Cross and the Geneva Conventions do not endanger American soldiers, they protect them. Our soldiers enter battle with the knowledge that should they be taken prisoner, there are laws intended to protect them and impartial international observers to inquire after them."

6.1.2004 Fun with graphics From Aaron

6.1.2004 David Brooks on White House tax cuts: "Their first answer, not surprisingly, is that you have to understand the reality that confronted them when they took office in 2001. Business leaders were calling in to say that economic activity was falling off a cliff. The dot-com bubble was over, manufacturing was getting hit, business confidence was plummeting." ... "Even Decision Economics' Allen Sinai, a big supporter of the cuts, says the stimulus could have been stronger if more of the cuts had been distributed down the income scale. The White House lacks a compelling response to this."

Josh Marshall answers, in a loud voice: "The White House wasn't forced into deep tax cuts with destructive long-term consequences because of an economic emergency they found when they came into office. They came up with the plan when the economy was roaring. ... "This new argument -- that the White House pushed through big tax cuts because of the economic slow-down of early 2001 -- is simply an effort to retrospectively exonerate reckless and dishonest behavior which was demonstrably reckless and dishonest at the time. Columnists should challenge that sort of mendacity, not abet it." Please read the whole article.

6.1.2004 "Even Some in G.O.P. Call for More Oversight of Bush" By CARL HULSE New York Times "Party has trumped institutional responsibility," said Thomas E. Mann, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. "The sense of shared political stakes bridging either end of Pennsylvania Avenue has overwhelmed any sense of institutional responsibility."

6.1.2004 "Defending Against Threats, Fighting for Ideals" by DHinMI At Daily Kos "As it becomes clearer that the most charitable explanation for why we've gotten mired in this Mesopotamian miasma was foolish naïvete by the true believers over at the Project for a New American Century, we will hear more frequent reports of falling morale among our professional soldiers deployed in Iraq." (emphasis added)

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