Magpie

Friday, April 13, 2007

Gee, who could have predicted this?

Four years of Karl Rove's email messages are missing, says a lawyer for the Republican National Committee.

Via Washington Post.

Labels: Emails, Investigations, Iran, Karl Rove, Scandals

| | Posted by Magpie at 10:54 AM | Get permalink

Thursday, April 12, 2007

About those 'missing' White House emails.

Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington says that five million emails were 'lost' over a two-year period.

So Dubya has five million missing messages, versus Nixon's 18 minute tape gap. Like I said, the prez only believes in doing stuff wholesale.

Labels: Dubya, Emails, Scandals, White House

| | Posted by Magpie at 12:00 PM | Get permalink

The current White House scandals aren't a repetition of Watergate.

As much as what Nixon and his henchmen did back in the 1970s threatened the Constitution, they were merely engaging in retail-level criminality.

Dubya and his minions, however, don't do anything unless it's wholesale.

Think about it.

Labels: Dubya, Politics, Scandals

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:37 AM | Get permalink

Why the f'n hell does the US need a 'war czar'?

Yesterday, the Washington Post reported that Dubya is having trouble finding anyone who's willing the be the 'war czar' — a new position that will 'oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies.'

A big question went unasked in the Post's article (and in the blog comments that I've seen): Doesn't the US already have someone whose job it is to oversee the war in Afghanistan and the occupation of Iraq? Someone called the 'commander in chief'?

Just asking.

Labels: 'War on Terrorism', Afghanistan, Dubya, Incompetence, Iraq, Pentagon

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:23 AM | Get permalink

That threat of voter fraud in the US.

You remember it, don't you? That plague of fraudulent voting that was so bad that the Justice Department started a big investigation just after the 2002 elections?

You probably won't be surprised to find out that — like so many other threats that Dubya's administration uses to scare the US public — no significant voter fraud is taking place in the US. In fact, the problem is almost nonexistent.

Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records and interviews.

Although Republican activists have repeatedly said fraud is so widespread that it has corrupted the political process and, possibly, cost the party election victories, about 120 people have been charged and 86 convicted as of last year.

Most of those charged have been Democrats, voting records show. Many of those charged by the Justice Department appear to have mistakenly filled out registration forms or misunderstood eligibility rules, a review of court records and interviews with prosecutors and defense lawyers show.

It's important to note, however, that both the Justice Department was looking at voter fraud — that is, acts by individuals that enabled them to vote when they weren't legally entitled to do so. The department hasn't looked at all at the question of electoral fraud, which is the stuff that political parties and public officials do to swing election results. Like the lack of voting machines in heavily Democratic precincts in Ohio in 2004. Or the butterfly ballots in Florida in 2000.

For some reason, the Justice Department didn't think that electoral fraud was such a problem that it required an investigation. Gee, I wonder why.

Via NY Times.

Labels: Elections, Fraud

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:02 AM | Get permalink

What was that sound I just heard?

It was the sound of the US housing bubble popping. Check out this prediction:

The National Association of Realtors thinks the national median price for existing homes will drop this year for the first time since the organization began keeping records in the late 1960s.

If a group that will find any possible way to put a positive spin on the problems in the housing market can't do any better than predict a price drop, you know that thing are really bad.

Via Housing Bubble Blog.

Labels: Bubbles, Economy, Housing

| | Posted by Magpie at 8:54 AM | Get permalink

Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Don't cross a member of the Bush family.

Their friends will make you pay.

Via Think Progress.

Labels: Jeb Bush, Narcissism, Payback

| | Posted by Magpie at 11:17 AM | Get permalink

Dubya's administration keeps on supporting the troops.

This time, it's a plan to add three months to the tour of duty of troops serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to ABC News, the Pentagon could approve the plan as early as this week.

Every time I think Dubya's gone as low as he can get, there's news like this extension.

More: The Pentagon has made the three-month extension official.

Labels: 'War on Terrorism', Afghanistan, Dubya, Iraq, Pentagon

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:19 AM | Get permalink

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Too much is not enough.

Not for Dubya's administration.

Concerned that the feds don't have enough powers to spy on people, the prez's director of national intelligence is asking for even more.

Via AP.

Labels: 'War on Terrorism', FISA, Paranoia, Spying

| | Posted by Magpie at 2:36 PM | Get permalink

Monday, April 9, 2007

Attorney General Gonzales is having memory problems.

Check this out:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has virtually wiped his public schedule clean to bone up for his long-awaited April 17 testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee—a session widely seen as a crucial test as to whether he will survive the U.S. attorney mess. But even his own closest advisers are nervous about whether he is up to the task. At a recent "prep" for a prospective Sunday talk-show interview, Gonzales's performance was so poor that top aides scrapped any live appearances. During the March 23 session in the A.G.'s conference room, Gonzales was grilled by a team of top aides and advisers—including former Republican National Committee chair Ed Gillespie and former White House lawyer Tim Flanigan—about what he knew about the plan to fire seven U.S. attorneys last fall. But Gonzales kept contradicting himself and "getting his timeline confused," said one participant who asked not to be identified talking about a private meeting. His advisers finally got "exasperated" with him, the source added. "He's not ready," Tasia Scolinos, Gonzales's public-affairs chief, told the A.G.'s top aides after the session was over, said the source....

Perhaps Gonzales would be having an easier time if he tried telling the truth.

Via Newsweek.

Labels: Al Gonzales, Attorneygate, Politics, Scandals

| | Posted by Magpie at 9:03 AM | Get permalink