GOP Cover-Up a Real Page Turner

Rep. Thomas Reynolds, head of the House Republican election effort, said he told GOP House Leader Dennis Hastert months ago about concerns Foley sent inappropriate messages to a teenage boy. Reynolds, R-N.Y., is under attack from Democrats who say he did too little to protect the boy.

Hastert covered up that information.

Other Foley Facts:
He had Internet sex with a boy during a House vote. The smutty exchanges took place in 2003 while the Florida Republican was waiting to vote on emergency funding for the Iraq war.
According to ABC News, Foley sent instant messages about orgasms to the boy from the floor of the House. Before signing off to vote, Foley asked his teenage friend, "can I have a good kiss goodnight."


Sheer Foley

President Bush said he was "disgusted" by Foley's behavior...but turned away calls for House Speaker Dennis Hastert's resignation for failing to act on reports that Hastert did nothing when confronted with evidence of Foley's inappropriate text messaging.

ABC News had read excerpts of instant messages provided by former pages -- under the age of 18 -- who said the congressman, under the AOL Instant Messenger screen name Maf54, made repeated references to sexual organs and acts.

Interesting note -- on Capitol Hill, Foley, who is 52 and single - and co-chairman of the Congressional Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus - has long been pushing bill against certain images of kids on websites, the Child Modeling Exploitation Prevention Act, or CMEPA. "These websites are nothing more than a fix for pedophiles," Foley said when he introduced the bill in 2002.

--------------------------------------------

from the Associated Press:

Foley, who represents an area around Palm Beach County, e-mailed the page in August 2005. The page had worked for Rep. Rodney Alexander, R-La., and Foley asked him how he was doing after Hurricane Katrina and what he wanted for his birthday. The congressman also asked the boy to send a photo of himself, according to excerpts of the e-mails that were originally released by ABC News.

In 2003, Foley faced questions about his sexual orientation as he prepared to run for Sen. Bob Graham's seat. At a news conference in May of that year, he said he would not comment on rumors he was gay. He later decided not to seek the Senate seat to care for his parents.

According to the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the boy e-mailed a colleague in Alexander's office about Foley's e-mails, saying, ''This freaked me out.'' On the request for a photo, the boy repeated the word ''sick'' 13 times.

U.S. Death Toll in Iraq Nears 2,800

Non-Existent WMDs Lead to Death of 2,791 U.S. soldiers in Iraq


While President Bush speechifies about the importance of spreading "democracy" at the point of a gun in the Middle East, and shows no interest in an exit strategy for his Iraq quagmire, the death toll of U.S. and other coalition soldiers steadily rises. October has proved to be the worst months for U.S. casualties this year...one of the worst months since Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" a bit prematurely three years ago.

Bush Cover-Up Exposed

[For months, President Bush and his henchmen have been downplaying his contact with convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Not unlike Bush's attempts, after the collapse of Enron, to deny his close relationship with Ken Lay, who was W's single largest campaign contributor. But the truth is out: Bush just loves felons.

Now the truth is out - from a GOP-controlled committee in Congress, no less.]

Abramoff and Rove Had 82 Contacts, Report Says

WASHINGTON, Sept. 28 — A bipartisan Congressional report documents hundreds of contacts between White House officials and the corrupt lobbyist Jack Abramoff and his partners, including at least 10 direct contacts between Mr. Abramoff and Karl Rove, the president’s chief political strategist.


The House Government Reform Committee report, based on e-mail messages and other records subpoenaed from Mr. Abramoff’s lobbying firm, found 485 contacts between Mr. Abramoff’s lobbying team and White House officials from 2001 to 2004, including 82 with Mr. Rove’s office. The lobbyists spent almost $25,000 in meals and drinks for the White House officials and provided them with tickets to numerous sporting events and concerts, according to the report.

Mr. Rove has described Mr. Abramoff as a “casual acquaintance,” but the records obtained by the House committee show that Mr. Rove and his aides sought Mr. Abramoff’s help in obtaining seats at sporting events, and that Mr. Rove sat with Mr. Abramoff in the lobbyist’s box seats for an NCAA basketball playoff game in 2002. After that game, Mr. Abramoff described Mr. Rove in an e-mail message to a colleague: “He’s a great guy. Told me anytime we need something just let him know."

Bush Failed to Supoort the Troops

‘There simply aren’t enough troops’
A retired general says higher-ups let soldiers down and the U.S. is playing ‘a shell game.’
By Noam Levey, Los Angeles Times

WASHINGTON | A retired senior general who commanded an infantry division in the conflict said Monday that requests by commanders in Iraq for more soldiers were repeatedly turned down.

“Many of us routinely asked for more troops,” retired Maj. Gen. John R.S. Batiste said, a claim contradicting statements by President Bush and his senior aides that the administration has given the military all the resources it has asked for.

“There simply aren’t enough troops there to accomplish the task,” said Batiste, who has previously called for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign.

“It’s a shell game we’re playing in Iraq, and we’ve been doing it since Day 1. And we’re still doing it today.”

The general’s remarks, echoed by two other retired soldiers Monday, came at a special hearing called by Democratic senators as part of what they said would be an initiative to increase oversight of the war effort.

Bush Tortures Innocent Man

Bush can't get Osama - but he can torture computer geeks

Canadian Was Falsely Accused, Panel Says

Muslim Held by U.S. Was Sent to Syria For Interrogation

By Doug Struck, Washington Post

TORONTO, Sept. 18 -- Canadian intelligence officials passed false warnings and bad information to American agents about a Muslim Canadian citizen, after which U.S. authorities secretly whisked him to Syria, where he was tortured, a judicial report found Monday.

The report, released in Ottawa, was the result of a 2 1/2-year inquiry that represented one of the first public investigations into mistakes made as part of the United States' "extraordinary rendition" program, which has secretly spirited suspects to foreign countries for interrogation by often brutal methods.

Arar, now 36, was detained by U.S. authorities as he changed planes in New York on Sept. 26, 2002. He was held for questioning for 12 days, then flown by jet to Jordan and driven to Syria. He was beaten, forced to confess to having trained in Afghanistan -- where he never has been -- and then kept in a coffin-size dungeon for 10 months before he was released, the Canadian inquiry commission found.

O'Connor concluded that "categorically there is no evidence" that Arar did anything wrong or was a security threat.

Bloody Legacy of Failure

Today I want to update Americans on our global campaign against terror. The United States is presenting a clear choice to every nation: Stand with the civilized world, or stand with the terrorists. And for those nations that stand with the terrorists, there will be a heavy price.
-- October 6, 2001 presidential radio address


Five years after invading Afghanistan, it's obvious that President Bush, who failed to capture Osama bin Laden dead or alive, has no intention of pursuing him in Pakistan. It appears that Pakistan, which has been openly shielding bin Laden for years, doesn't have enough oil reserves to warrant Bush's attention.

His inaction, of course, does not stop Bush from speechifying about the so-called war or terror. He has to generate scary headlines day in and day out to distract the public from his utter failure to lessen the terrorist threat at home and abroad.

Meanwhile, in neighboring Iraq - a country that played no role in the 9/11 attacks or any terrorism against the U.S. - the U.S. death toll has risen to 2666. The number of WMDs found remains at zero.

Remember: Get Osama -- Dead or Alive

[Remember the good old days when Bush promised to get Osama bin Laden for masterminding the 9/11 attacks? Now, after invading Afghanistan and failing to capture bin Laden five years ago, our short-attention-span leader seems about as interested in our number one terrorist foe as he is in those nonexistent Iraqi WMDs].

Bush again vows to capture Osama 'dead or alive'

December 29, 2001--President George W Bush again vowed to capture Osama bin Laden 'dead or alive' and said the United States will keep the terror suspect on the run.

Bush, speaking at a news conference at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, said if bin Laden has fled to Pakistan, the US can count on the support of President Pervez Musharraf.

"We believe he (Musharraf) will help us, if in fact he (bin Laden) happens to be in Pakistan," said Bush.

"Who knows where he is. But one thing is for certain: He is on the losing side of a rout," he said.

He said, "The US is on the hunt and he knows that we are on the hunt. And I like our position better than his."

Asked whether he believes bin Laden is still in control of the Al Qaeda network, Bush said: "Who knows?"

Bush Loses to Constitution on Wiretaps

DETROIT - A federal judge ruled that the government's warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit became the first judge to strike down the National Security Agency's program, which she says violates the rights to free speech and privacy as well as the separation of powers enshrined in the Constitution.

"Plaintiffs have prevailed, and the public interest is clear, in this matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution," Taylor wrote in her 43-page opinion.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed the lawsuit on behalf of journalists, scholars and lawyers who say the program has made it difficult for them to do their jobs. They believe many of their overseas contacts are likely targets of the program, which involves secretly listening to conversations between people in the U.S. and people in other countries.

The government argued that the program is well within the president's authority, but said proving that would require revealing state secrets.

The ACLU said the state-secrets argument was irrelevant because the Bush administration already had publicly revealed enough information about the program for Taylor to rule.

[Two reasons Bush did not gloat over the August 10th roundup of terror suspects in London: (1) The police work and the arrests were done completely by the British and (2) they caught the suspects by following money trails to fake charities in Pakistan, not by eavesdropping illegally on their citizens.]

Bush Milestone Iraq Death Toll

On May 1, 2003, President Bush landed on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln aboard an S-3B Viking jet, emerged from the aircraft in full flight gear, and proceeded to declare that "[m]ajor combat operations in Iraq have ended," all the while standing under a banner reading: "Mission Accomplished."

The U.S. death toll passed the 2,600 mark...and Bush seems to have as much interest in developing an exit strategy as he has in capturing or killing Osama bin Laden.


U.S. Military Death Toll in Iraq: 2,601

WMDs Found in Iraq: Zero

(c) Time Magazine

DeLay Desperate to Get

Name Off Ballot

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Majority Leader Tom DeLay said Tuesday he is taking the necessary steps to remove his name from the November ballot, giving his party a chance to field a write-in candidate in hopes of holding the House seat.

Buffeted by scandal, DeLay said his June 9 resignation from Congress was ''irrevocable'' and maintained that he's no longer a Texan.

''As a Virginia resident, I will take the actions necessary to remove my name from the Texas ballot. To do anything else would be hypocrisy,'' DeLay said in a statement.

DeLay was forced to act after Republicans lost several court fights to remove his name from the ballot in the Houston-area district and replace him with a GOP-chosen nominee. Republicans ended their legal battles Monday when Supreme Court Justice Anton Scalia refused to hear their case, letting the appeals court decision stand.

Lawyers Against Bush

Lawyers' Group Attacks Bush Revisions

HONOLULU (AP) -- The American Bar Association approved a resolution condemning President Bush's practice of writing exceptions to legislation he signs into law.

Delegates, representing 410,000 members, at the ABA's annual meeting approved the resolution objecting to any president using bill signing statements as a way of diluting or changing laws rather than using an outright veto.

Bush has vetoed only one bill, on stem cell research, but written exceptions to some 800 legislative provisions, more than all previous presidents combined.

Bush Favors Embryos Over Grown-Ups

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush used his first veto on Wednesday to block legislation to expand embryonic stem-cell research, putting him at odds with top scientists and most Americans, including some in his own Republican Party.

"It crosses a moral boundary that our decent society needs to respect, so I vetoed it," Bush said.

The legislation, passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate, now returns to Capitol Hill, where it does not appear to have the two-thirds majority needed to overturn Bush's first veto since taking office more than five years ago.

Even conservative Republicans who generally oppose abortion are divided. Bush sees the research as destroying a human life, but others, including Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist of Tennessee and Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah, say the embryos are slated for destruction anyway. Iowa Democratic Sen. Tom Harkein pledged to reintroduce the bill next year and said Bush's veto was a "shameful display of cruelty, hypocrisy and ignorance."

Spy Haunts Cheney and Rove

Former CIA officer sues Cheney, Libby, Rove over leak
Plame alleges Bush administration officials ruined her career

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The CIA officer whose identity was leaked to reporters sued Vice President Dick Cheney, his former top aide and presidential adviser Karl Rove on Thursday, accusing them and other White House officials of conspiring to destroy her career.

In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Valerie Plame and her husband, Joseph Wilson, a former U.S. ambassador, accused Cheney, Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby of revealing Plame's CIA identity in seeking revenge against Wilson for criticizing the Bush administration's motives in Iraq.

The lawsuit accuses Cheney, Libby, Rove and 10 unnamed administration officials or political operatives of putting the Wilsons and their children's lives at risk by exposing Plame.

"This lawsuit concerns the intentional and malicious exposure by senior officials of the federal government of ... (Plame), whose job it was to gather intelligence to make the nation safer and who risked her life for her country," the Wilsons' lawyers said in the lawsuit.

Libby is the only administration official charged in connection with the leak investigation. He faces trial in January on perjury and obstruction-of-justice charges, accused of lying to FBI agents and a federal grand jury about when he learned Plame's identity and what he subsequently told reporters.

Cheney Lets His Employer Down

Army to End Expansive, Exclusive Halliburton Deal
Logistics Contract to Be Open for Bidding
By Griff Witte, Washington Post

The Army is discontinuing a controversial multibillion-dollar deal with oil services giant Halliburton Company to provide logistical support to U.S. troops worldwide, a decision that could cut deeply into the firm's dominance of government contracting in Iraq.

The choice comes after several years of attacks from critics who saw the contract as a symbol of politically connected corporations profiteering on the war.

Under the deal, Halliburton had exclusive rights to provide the military with a wide range of work that included keeping soldiers around the world fed, sheltered and in communication with friends and family back home. Government audits turned up more than $1 billion in questionable costs. Whistle-blowers told how the company charged $45 per case of soda, double-billed on meals and allowed troops to bathe in contaminated water.

Halliburton officials have denied the allegations strenuously. Army officials yesterday defended the company's performance but also acknowledged that reliance on a single contractor left the government vulnerable.

The heavy involvement of U.S. contractors in Iraq has been one of the defining features of the American presence there, with private companies called on for duties as varied as guarding supply convoys and analyzing intelligence.

No contractor has received more money as a result of the invasion of Iraq than Halliburton, whose former chief executive is Vice President Cheney.

Shrub Quits on Finding bin Laden Dead or Alive

C.I.A. Closes Unit Focused on Capture of bin Laden

By Mark Mazzetti, New York Times

WASHINGTON, July 3 — The Central Intelligence Agency has closed a unit that for a decade had the mission of hunting Osama bin Laden and his top lieutenants, intelligence officials confirmed.

The unit, known as Alec Station, was disbanded late last year and its analysts reassigned within the C.I.A. Counterterrorist Center, the officials said.

The decision is a milestone for the agency, which formed the unit before Osama bin Laden became a household name and bolstered its ranks after the Sept. 11 attacks, when President Bush pledged to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice "dead or alive."

Supreme Court Slaps Bush Upside the Head

High Court Rejects

Detainee Tribunals

5 to 3 Ruling Curbs President's Claim Of Wartime Power

By Charles Lane, Washington Post

The Supreme Court struck down July 3rd the military commissions President Bush established to try suspected members of al-Qaeda, emphatically rejecting a signature Bush anti-terrorism measure and the broad assertion of executive power upon which the president had based it.

Brushing aside administration pleas not to second-guess the commander in chief during wartime, a five-justice majority ruled that the commissions, which were outlined by Bush in a military order on Nov. 13, 2001, were neither authorized by federal law nor required by military necessity, and ran afoul of the Geneva Conventions.

"Where, as here, no emergency prevents consultation with Congress, judicial insistence upon that consultation does not weaken our Nation's ability to deal with danger. To the contrary, that insistence strengthens the Nation's ability to determine -- through democratic means -- how best to do so," Justice Stephen Breyer wrote.

"The Constitution places its faith in those democratic means," Breyer concluded. "Our Court today simply does the same."

Another Bush Crook Convicted

Official found guilty for covering up Abramoff ties

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A jury found former Bush administration official David Safavian guilty Tuesday of covering up his dealings with Republican influence-peddler Jack Abramoff.

Safavian was convicted on four of five felony counts of lying and obstruction. He had resigned from his White House post last year as the federal government's chief procurement officer.

The verdict gave a boost to the wide-ranging influence peddling probe that focuses on Abramoff's dealings with Congress.

In the Safavian case, prosecutors highlighted the name of Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio. They introduced a photograph of the congressman and Abramoff standing in front of a private jet that whisked them and other members of a golfing party for a five-day trip to the storied St Andrews Old Course in Scotland, and a second leg of the journey to London.

The trial consumed eight days of testimony about Safavian's assistance to Abramoff regarding government-owned real estate and the weeklong golfing excursion to Scotland that the lobbyist organized.

The jury found Safavian guilty of obstructing the work of the GSA inspector general and of lying to a GSA ethics official. It also convicted him of lying to the GSA's Office of Inspector General and of making a false statement to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. He was acquitted of a charge of obstructing the committee's investigation.

This was the first trial to emerge from the scandal surrounding Abramoff, who is a former business partner of Safavian. Abramoff, who has pleaded guilty to federal crimes here and in Miami, would likely be a witness if the Justice Department assembles criminal cases against any members of Congress.

U.S. Death Toll in Iraq: 2,501

WMDS: 0

Bush Cuts Anti-Terror Funding for New York

N.Y.ers a-maized by corn protection
Honcho sez fields more vulnerable than N.Y.C.
By James Meek, New York Daily News

WASHINGTON - The Homeland Security bureaucrat who shortchanged New Yorkers' safety by $80 million implied yesterday that guarding a Nebraska cornfield from an Al Qaeda attack is the same as putting a cop with a gun on the Brooklyn Bridge.

"When you are protecting agriculture in the Midwest, you are protecting the citizens of New York City," Assistant Secretary Tracy Henke told C-Span's "Washington Journal."

Henke - a political appointee in charge of doling out $1.7 billion in security grants to cities under the highest threat of attack - cut funds to New York City and Washington by 40%, even though both are considered Al Qaeda's top terror targets.

A senior U.S. counterterrorism official in Washington scoffed at the insinuation that Al Qaeda is targeting cornfields and grain stores.

"The whole DHS agro-terrorism theory doesn't hold," the official said. Asked if he had ever heard of a credible terrorist threat to the food supply, the official laughingly replied, "Never."

Henke is a Republican political operative and protégé of former Attorney General John Ashcroft with no background in military or intelligence.

Bush Beats Nixon as Worst Prez Since WWII

Dubya stinks? Try worst Prez since WWII, poll sez

The Daily News

Voters aren't just dissatisfied with President Bush - they think he's the worst President since World War II, according to a shocking new Quinnipiac University poll. Bush has sunk so low in the public's estimation that Richard Nixon, who resigned in disgrace after Watergate, looks good by comparison. While 34% of the poll participants rated Bush the worst President, Nixon got the thumbs down from 17% of 1,534 registered voters polled nationwide from May 23 to 30. And Democrats "just plain don't like President Bush," Quinnipiac pollster Maurice Carroll said. The war in Iraq is the primary reason for Bush's unpopularity. But even in the so-called red states, voters disapprove of Bush by a 52%-to-39% margin. Adding insult to injury, former President Bill Clinton emerged in the poll as the second best of the 11 postwar Presidents - right after Ronald Reagan.