Comments are e-mailed to info@gwbworsetver.com we welcome them all and will post messages we feel are appropriate.
Bush is the worst president in history!
Back ] Home ] Next ]
Up ] Right Choice in 08 ] Flip Flop Express ] The Endless War - IRAQ ] Lying SOB named ] The Good George W Bush Has Done ] [ Seedy Gonzales ] Impeachment Now! ] Republican Scandals ] Enery Alternatives ] A Corporate Presidency ] I SPY - George Bush ] Political Pundits ] FAUX News ] Blogs & Political ] New Mexico Contacts ]
 

Unprecedented - Democratic Rep. Rangel Files Ethics Charges Against Himself

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., filed an ethics complaint against himself Wednesday with the House ethics committee.

The move is believed to be unprecedented.

Rangel took the unusual action in response to recent news coverage by The Washington Post and The New York Times, which recently ran stories raising questions about his involvement in raising money for an academic center named in his honor at City College of New York, and his Harlem rent-controlled apartments.

"No one's ever filed anything against me saying that I've done anything wrong. What I want to do is have a preliminary investigation of the facts to see if I did go over the line because there's no question I was bringing people together," Rangel said in an interview with FOX News, speaking about the fundraising.

"I'm just so proud of what I've done that if there is some blurry line there, let's clear up the line and let everyone know what it's all about," he added.

Rangel doesn't deny using congressional letterhead to ask non-profit organizations to contribute to the academic center. As far as the name goes, he said the college already had decided to name the center after Rangel.

But ethicists cited by the Post criticized Rangel's activities, saying Rangel's position on the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, which has broad authority, could make someone feel like he or she had to donate money to get favorable treatment by the congressman. They also said there's a chance a congressman would steer funds toward a center with his name on it over projects that could be more worthy.

At a press conference last week, Rangel said none of the people who received fundraising requests had business before his committee like the Post claimed. He also called on the Post — or anyone else — to file ethics charges against him, although it technically is not an option afforded to those who are not members of the House.

Rangel initially was not going to bring up the apartment issue, but he told FOX on Wednesday that he wanted the House ethics committee — officially known as the House Committee on Standards of Official Conduct — to also clear up that matter.

"I'm not thinking about moving. I know I'm right legally. But when I met with you reporters, I thought that if I was going to do the stationary (matter), and if it's a question of ethics, let the ethics committee exonerate me. There is no market rent. And I'm paying the maximum," Rangel said.
 
Bradley Schlozman Admits GOP Loyalty Test For Prospective Prosecutors
070613_cb_schlozmanex.jpg
Via TPM Muckraker:

In written answers to questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, Bradley Schlozman, the former Justice Department official and U.S. attorney who’s been at the center of the firings controversy, admitted that he’d once urged hiring certain prosecutors for his office based on their political affiliation. It’s against civil service laws to do so.

But he had a reason, he explains (how good a reason, you can decide for yourself). When serving as the interim U.S. attorney for Kansas City, Schlozman had been unable to hire assistant U.S. attorneys on his own, as Senate-confirmed U.S. attorneys are able to do. For that, he had to go through the central office, or in this case, Monica Goodling, the Department’s White House liaison. He’d “heard rumors,” he writes,”that Ms. Goodling considered political affiliation in approving hiring decisions for career positions.” Goodling, of course, admitted in testimony to Congress that she’d made sure that only Republicans were hired for certain non-political positions.

And so, Schlozman explains, in order to “maximize the chances” of being able to hire his desired candidate, he “once noted the likely political leanings of several applicants” in a conversation with Department officials.

But there was no damage done! Schlozman adds that none of his desired candidates were hired. Read more…

ALBERTO "Seedy" GONZALES RESIGNS
FINALLY, 3 Down (Rummy, Rove and Seedy) and just 2 to Go (Bush and Cheney)
 

Ari Fleischer blames Dems for Gonzales’ mistakes - By: Steve Benen at Crooks and Liars
I’d almost forgotten how breathtakingly dishonest former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer can be. Yesterday, on Fox News, he blamed congressional Dems for “politicizing the Justice Department, unfairly so and dangerously so.”

Faiz sets the record straight.
  •  It was Alberto Gonzales, not Congress, who fired attorneys for political reasons.
  •  It was Alberto Gonzales, not Congress, who gave the White House political team unprecedented power to intercede in the affairs of the Justice Department.
  • It was Alberto Gonzales, not Congress, who allowed his department to illegally hire attorneys based in part on their loyalty to the Republican Party and the Bush administration.
  • It was Alberto Gonzales, not Congress, who dissembled and misled about the administration’s spying activities.
  • It was Alberto Gonzales, not Congress, who lied in stating that all Bush appointees would be Senate-confirmed

It’s been years since Fleischer embarrassed himself regularly to a national audience. Welcome back to the show, Ari.
 

The CNN Quick Vote on Gonzales Resignation

Did Attorney General Gonzales make the right decision by stepping down?
Yes 84% 77802
No 16% 14451
Total Votes: 92253
The following video is from CNN's Newsroom, broadcast on August 27.

Like President Bush's top political adviser, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales resigned to avoid encroaching Congressional investigations, a fired federal prosecutor said Monday.

During an appearance on CNN, former US Attorney David Iglesias said Gonzales's resignation is "absolutely linked with Karl Rove leaving two weeks ago," and speculated the two resigned "for the same reason": Congressional investigators closing in on their suspected roles in the attorney-firing scandal.

"This is what happens when there is not check and balance" under a Republican-controlled Congress and White House "and all of a sudden you have a new sheriff in town - so to speak - that wants answers to hard questions."

Due to obstruction by Gonzales and other Bush officials, Iglesias added, the extent of the White House's attempt to have politically inconvenient prosecutors fired remains unknown. "We still don't know who put our names on that list," he said. The former US Attorney for New Mexico contends that he was fired after two Congressional Republicans - Sen. Pete Dominici and Rep. Heather Wilson - urged him to speed indictments of a Democratic state senator before the election.

"What triggered this [resignation] was Attorney General Alberto Gonzales going in front of the US Senate and not being fully candid, telling half truths (and) having very convenient memory lapses," Iglesias said Monday. "Had he shot straight with the American people and shot straight with the Senate, perhaps a lot of this would've been mitigated."

The Justice Department's credibility has sunk to Nixon-era levels under Gonzales's soon-to-end tenure, Iglesias charged. "I'm not aware of the Justice Department losing so many top people, probably since ... the early 70s during the Watergate scandal," he said.
 


Bush made "Fredo" fly out to Crawford to discuss the resignation?  

Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, whose tenure has been marred by controversy and accusations of perjury before Congress, has resigned. He is expected to announce the decision to reporters at 10:30 Eastern time this morning in Washington.

Mr. Gonzales, who had rebuffed calls for his resignation for months, submitted his to President Bush by telephone on Friday, a senior administration official said.

Mr. Bush has not yet chosen a replacement but will not leave the position open long, the official said early this morning, speaking on condition of anonymity because the resignation had not yet been made public.

Mr. Bush repeatedly stood by Mr. Gonzales, an old friend and colleague from Texas, even as Mr. Gonzales faced increasing scrutiny for his leadership of the Justice Department, over issues including his role in the dismissals of nine United States attorneys late last year and whether he testified truthfully about the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs.

Earlier this month, at a news conference, Mr. Bush dismissed accusations that Mr. Gonzales had stonewalled or misled a congressional inquiry. “We’re watching a political exercise,” Mr. Bush said. “I mean, this is a man who has testified, he’s sent thousands of papers up there. There’s no proof of wrong.”  * Let's see if the DEMS can grow a pair over the recess and make certain Michael "FEMA Excuses" Chertoff, or someone like him doesn't replace Seedy.  They need to take Bush and this time around, because the DOJ is way too important to allow for an other Bush hack to take the reins.
 

Commentary By: Richard (I love Chile) Blair from All the Spin Zone:  Birds of a Feather: George Bush and Robert Mugabe

Q: What do George Bush and Zimbabwe’s strongman Robert Mugabe have in common?

A: They both like spying on their own citizens. And Mugabe uses Bush to justify his own despotic domestic surveillance program…

When I was growing up, the government of the United States of America seemed to take one obligation very seriously: setting an example for the rest of the world on how to conduct a country’s internal affairs. I’m willing to conceded that perhaps this perception was based largely on propaganda that I was fed as a young lad during my education, but still, I think most of us believed that America was a pretty good place, and that our government led in world affairs by example.

Interestingly enough, America is still leading by example.

With all of the outrage from progressives regarding the Democratic Party-controlled congress giving the Bush regime everything it wanted in the new FISA bill, I suppose we can be forgiven for overlooking a story from one of the most despotic dictatorships on the planet. Like George Bush, Zimbabwe strongman Robert Mugabe recently enacted an eavesdropping law:

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Friday signed into law the controversial Interception of Communications Bill, which gives his government the authority to eavesdrop on phone and Internet communications and read physical mail.

The legislation has drawn outspoken opposition from the political opposition and civil society organizations as trampling on the civil rights of Zimbabweans.

Spokesman Nelson Chamisa of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change faction of Morgan Tsvangirai called it an addition to “the dictator’s tool kit.”

Seedy Gonzales, The DICK, Dubya the lying SOB and the man who knows too little.

Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include — without court approval — certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection of Americans’ business records, Democratic Congressional officials and other experts said.

“This may give the administration even more authority than people thought,” said David Kris, a former senior Justice Department lawyer in the Bush and Clinton administrations and a co-author of “National Security Investigation and Prosecutions,” a new book on surveillance law.

Several legal experts said that by redefining the meaning of “electronic surveillance,” the new law narrows the types of communications covered in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, known as FISA, by indirectly giving the government the power to use intelligence collection methods far beyond wiretapping that previously required court approval if conducted inside the United States.   Read more on how Bush Co. has deceived everyone and how the main stream MEDIA has failed to do it's job yet again!
 

Just How many U.S. Attorneys were fired?
It’s been a little while, but the last time we checked in with the purge scandal, about a month ago, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) asked the AG how many U.S. Attorneys he’d fired during his tenure. He said he didn’t know.

After acknowledging the nine we know about from the purge, Gonzales said, “I’m not aware, sitting here today, of any other U.S. Attorney who was asked to leave — except there were some instances people were asked to leave, quite frankly, because there was legitimate cause.” (Given that he’d just named nine other U.S. Attorneys who’d been fired, it sounded like he was conceding that they’d been fired for illegitimate causes.)

He added, “Senator, there may have been others [fired prosecutors]. I would be happy to get back to you with that kind of information about who has left. But I don’t know the answer to your question. But I can certainly find out.”

The good news is, Feinstein has finally heard back from the Justice Department. The bad news is, DoJ officials have decided not to cooperate with the request.  Once again, Seedy has lied.  How much more of his petty Bull$shit are we going to take?

Dems To Introduce Gonzales Impeachment Resolution

YAHOOOOOOooooooo!  Goodbye Seedy Gonzales.

Seedy Gonzales - the Bush\Cheney Crime Syndicate Consigliere!

Seedy Gonzales Reunion Tour Produces More Lies, Distortions and Whining from Seedy Gonzales

WHOOPS, caught in yet another WHOPPER of a LIE!
FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress today that a 2004 confrontation between current Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and his predecessor, John Ashcroft, who was in a hospital bed, concerned a controversial surveillance program -- an apparent contradiction Gonzales' testimony to the Senate. 

Damn, the TRUTH just keep rearing it's ugly head .. right Alberto?

Jon Stewart ClimbsThe Alberto Gonzales Bull$hit Mountain of Lies

Seedy Gonzales' Mountain of Bull$shit
 Jon braves the elements and attempts to ascend the mountain of lies Alberto Gonzales spewed during Tuesday’s Senate testimony.

video_wmv hold your breat and listen to the Lying Man - for more, visit Comedy Central’s Indecision2008
 

SCHUMER discussed the LIES of Alberto "SEEDY" Gonzales!

video_wmv click to watch Schumer discuss the call to investigate SEEDY Gonzales further… with a Special Investigator.

“The Attorney General took an oath to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Instead he tells the half-truth, the partial truth and everything but the truth. And he does it not once, not twice, but over and over and over again. His instinct is not to tell the truth but to dissemble and deceive.”

More Stonewalling: Gonzales In The Hot Seat Again

"I don't trust you," committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told Gonzales. A powerful Senate Republican on Tuesday told Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to consider appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the firings of federal prosecutors.

Sen. Arlen Specter told the embattled attorney general such that a scenario may now be necessary because, the senator maintained, Bush administration officials have made statements that might have the effect of shutting down congressional supervision.

"The constitutional authority and responsibility for congressional oversight is gone," said Specter, the Judiciary Committee's senior Republican. Gonzales sat just a few feet away, at the witness table, as Pennsylvania Republican declared: "If that is to happen, the president can run the government as he chooses, answer no questions."

The attorney general has the authority to appoint a special prosecutor," Specter added, looking Gonzales in the eye.
 
WHOOPS, Gonzales was told of FBI violations - Gonzales lied about Patriot Act abuses
As he sought to renew the USA Patriot Act two years ago, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales assured lawmakers that the FBI had not abused its potent new terrorism-fighting powers. "There has not been one verified case of civil liberties abuse," Gonzales told senators on April 27, 2005.

He knows no TRUTH!

Six days earlier, the FBI sent Gonzales a copy of a report that said its agents had obtained personal information that they were not entitled to have. It was one of at least half a dozen reports of legal or procedural violations that Gonzales received in the three months before he made his statement to the Senate intelligence committee, according to internal FBI documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.

The acts recounted in the FBI reports included unauthorized surveillance, an illegal property search and a case in which an Internet firm improperly turned over a compact disc with data that the FBI was not entitled to collect, the documents show. Gonzales was copied on each report that said administrative rules or laws protecting civil liberties and privacy had been violated.  *  GONZO has no idea what TRUTH is.. does he?
 

Bush is a total Jackass... President Bush invoked executive privilege Monday to deny requests by Congress for testimony from two former aides about the firings of federal prosecutors.

The White House, however, did offer again to make former counsel Harriet Miers and one-time political director Sara Taylor available for private, off-the-record interviews.

In a letter to the heads of the House and Senate Judiciary panels, White House counsel Fred Fielding insisted that Bush was acting in good faith and refused lawmakers' demand that the president explain the basis for invoking the privilege.

"You may be assured that the president's assertion here comports with prior practices in similar contexts, and that it has been appropriately documented," the letter said.

Retorted House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers:

"Contrary what the White House may believe, it is the Congress and the courts that will decide whether an invocation of executive privilege is valid, not the White House unilaterally," the Michigan Democrat said in a statement.

The exchange Monday was the latest step in a slow-motion legal waltz between the White House and lawmakers toward eventual contempt-of-Congress citations. If neither side yields, the matter could land in federal court.

"I have to wonder if the White House's refusal to provide a detailed basis for this executive privilege claim has more to do with its inability to craft an effective one," he said in a statement.

The privilege claim on testimony by former aides won't necessarily prevent them from appearing under oath this week, as scheduled.

Leahy said that Taylor, Bush's former political director, may testify as scheduled before the Senate panel on Wednesday. The House Judiciary Committee scheduled Miers' testimony for Thursday, but it was unclear whether she would appear, according to congressional aides speaking on condition of anonymity because negotiations were under way. 
 

Bush told ex-staff to ignore subpoena

Says it would be 'unfair' for former director to testify on fired U.S. attorneys

 

The Bush administration is urging a former White House political director to ignore a subpoena and not testify before Congress about the firings of federal prosecutors, her lawyer says.

The Senate Judiciary Committee wants to hear from Sara Taylor at its hearing Wednesday and she is willing to talk. Testifying, however, would defy the wishes of the president, “a person whom she admires and for whom she has worked tirelessly for years,” lawyer W. Neil Eggleston said.

Eggleston stated, in a letter this weekend to committee leaders and White House counsel Fred Fielding, that Taylor expects a letter from Fielding asking her not to comply with the subpoena.
 
From our friends at Crooks and Liars - Gonzales under investigation (yes, again)!
gonzo.jpg
Back on April 19, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testified, under oath, that he had not spoken with “witnesses” in the U.S. Attorney scandal about the events surrounding the purge because it would have been inappropriate. He told the Senate Judiciary Committee, “I haven’t talked to witnesses because of the fact that I haven’t wanted to interfere with this investigation and department investigations.”

A month later, Monica Goodling, immunity in hand, testified that Gonzales’ claim wasn’t quite right. She described a meeting in March, shortly before she resigned from the Justice Department, in which Gonzales asked her questions that Goodling said made her “uncomfortable.” She told lawmakers that the AG seemed to be trying to compare recollections, so their stories would be consistent if they were questioned about their actions. She testified, “I just thought maybe we shouldn’t have that conversation.”

For Gonzales, this raised the specter of two new problems, to add to an already long list. On the one hand, he may have committed obstruction of justice. On the other hand, he may have lied under oath about it. As Rep. Artur Davis (D-Ala.) noted at the time, “It’s very clear that the attorney general was not fully accurate in his testimony. It was an inappropriate conversation on the attorney general’s own terms.”

Apparently, the Justice Department’s own inspector general and Office of Professional Responsibility agree — they’ve launched an investigation into the Attorney General’s conduct.


(Read the rest of this story…)

 

Doc Dump Reveals Former Rove Aide Furious Over Griffin Revelation
Taylor-Rove Via McClatchy:

The White House’s former political director was furious at Justice Department officials for disclosing to Congress that the administration had forced out the U.S. attorney in Little Rock, Ark., to make way for a protege of Karl Rove, President Bush’s political adviser, according to documents released late Tuesday.

Then-White House political affairs director Sara Taylor spelled out her frustrations in a Feb. 16 e-mail to Kyle Sampson, then the chief of staff to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

“Tim was put in a horrible position; hung out to dry w/ no heads up,” Taylor lashed out in the e-mail, which was sent from a Republican Party account rather than from her White House e-mail address. “This is not good for his long-term career.” Read more…

She wasn’t worried about the careers of the U.S. Attorneys they helped ruin, she was upset because Rove’s unqualified, political buddy, Tim Griffin had his reputation damaged. Don’t worry, Sara, Timmy landed on his feet.

 

SURPRISE, Surprise... 'No' to No-Confidence Vote the GOP blocks measure on Alberto Gonzales
Seven Republicans vote to force senators to make official their stance on embattled attorney general, but it isn't enough!

Yes, the Republican's care more about keeping power than they do about JUSTICE, the rule of law and TRUST in one's own government.  How many more times do these Republican enablers need to show themselves for what they truly are before they get booted from office?  When will America wake up and see who is really playing politics?


Finally The NO Confidence Vote Is Set - For Monday 6-11
Today, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-NY) announced that a vote of no confidence in Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will be held this Monday.

"If all senators who have actually lost confidence in Attorney General Gonzales voted their conscience, this vote would be unanimous," said Schumer. "However, the President will certainly exert pressure to support the Attorney General, his longtime friend. We will soon see where people’s loyalties lie."

Think Progress Reports:  Goodling In Private Email: ‘Send Directly Up To Me, Outside The System’

New Justice Department communications released tonight (06.06.07) include an email from Monica Goodling, former counsel to Alberto Gonzales, directing another official to draw up a directive giving her unprecedented authority to hire and fire political staffers. Goodling tells the official, assistant attorney general Paul Corts, to “send [it] directly up to me, outside the system.”  WHAT?  Two sets of books?

Read the exchange:

Uh oh, little "Miss Goody Two Shoes" just may lose her immunity and may wind up in jail just in time to be pen pals with Paris Hilton.

Raw Story reports:  Leahy, Specter suggest Justice Department investigator probe Attorney General's conduct

The top Democrat and Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee have written to the Justice Department's Inspector General seeking an expansion of an internal investigation to cover the possibility that the Attorney General may have interfered with the subsequent testimony of former top aide Monica Goodling. Goodling described herself as 'not comfortable' with a conversation the Attorney General initiated with her.

"[Goodling] testified that Mr. Gonzales recounted to her his recollection of the process leading up to and including the firing and replacement of several U.S. Attorneys," wrote Senators Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Judiciary Committee Chairman, and Arlen Specter (R-PA), the Ranking Republican on the committee. "Ms. Goodling's testimony prompted Congressman Davis to ask whether the Attorney General was engaged in inappropriately communicating with someone he knew was a participant in and witness to the matters under investigation in order to shape her testimony."


Arianna Huffington's Huffington Post and MSNBC report the Newsweek
claims that almost
30 DOJ Officials Threatened To Resign Over Hospital Visit To Ashcroft.

Bush's Monica Problem - Gonzales, the president's lawyer and Texas buddy, is twisting slowly in the wind, facing a vote of no confidence from the Senate.  Read on:  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18881810/site/newsweek

Schumer: Gonzales will face no-confidence vote

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The U.S. Senate will take part in a vote of no-confidence on embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales after debate on the immigration bill is completed, Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer said Thursday.

The non-binding measure likely will be considered in mid-June, unless the immigration legislation runs into problems. The House plans to vote on a similar measure next month, after a congressional recess.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid authorized the introduction of a resolution requesting the non-binding vote, according to Schumer.  Read on: 
http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/blogs/politicalticker/2007/05/schumer-gonzales-will-face-no.html

Seedy Gonzales - Attorneygate, or the magical firing of (at least) eight U.S. Attorneys!

Don't you just love the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy’s (D-Vt.) statement in response to Monica Goodling’s testimony today. It’s actually kind of funny.

“It is curious that yet another senior Justice Department official claims to have limited involvement in compiling the list that led to the firings of several well-performing federal prosecutors. What we have heard today seems to reinforce the mounting evidence that the White House was pulling the strings on this project to target certain prosecutors in different parts of the country."

You know, it is curious. These questions are pretty straightforward, but no one is able to answer them. Lawmakers asked Kyle Sampson about who drew up the list of U.S. Attorneys to be fired and how those names got on the list. Dunno, he said. They asked Alberto Gonzales. Beats me, he said. They asked Paul McNulty. Ask everybody else, he said. They asked Monica Goodling. Ask anybody else, she said.

As Kevin Drum put it, “Goodling is now the latest high-ranking DOJ official to say that, really, she has no idea why those U.S. Attorneys were fired last year, or who made the choices. The list appeared, somehow, but apparently not from any human hand. It’s a miracle!”

*  excerpted from Crooks and Liars

A case study in water-carrying

 

Up ]
Up ] Right Choice in 08 ] Flip Flop Express ] The Endless War - IRAQ ] Lying SOB named ] The Good George W Bush Has Done ] [ Seedy Gonzales ] Impeachment Now! ] Republican Scandals ] Enery Alternatives ] A Corporate Presidency ] I SPY - George Bush ] Political Pundits ] FAUX News ] Blogs & Political ] New Mexico Contacts ]

George W Bush Is The Worst President Ever
George W Bush is definitely the worst President EVER!
Comments are e-mailed to info@gwbworsetver.com we welcome them all and will post messages we feel are appropriate.