Meanwhile, George W. Bush Continues To Exert Diabolical Mind Control Over Barack Obama...

The ninth year of the Bush Administration continues unabated! Joe Wilson and Valarie Plame get the shaft once more:

CREW learned today that the Obama administration is opposing our request that the Supreme Court reconsider the dismissal of the lawsuit, Wilson v. Libby, et al. In that case, the district court had dismissed the claims of Joe and Valerie Wilson against former Vice President Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and Richard Armitage for their gross violations of the Wilsons’ constitutional rights.

Agreeing with the Bush administration, the Obama Justice Department argues the Wilsons have no legitimate grounds to sue. It is surprising that the first time the Obama administration has been required to take a public position on this matter, the administration is so closely aligning itself with the Bush administration’s views.

In fact, the Obama administration has gone one step further, suggesting Mr. Wilson failed to provide any evidence that Mr. Cheney, Mr. Rove or Mr. Libby harmed him. This is particularly ironic because the government had moved to have the case dismissed before the Wilsons had the opportunity to uncover the details of how Ms. Wilson’s covert identity was revealed.

Melanie Sloan, the executive director of CREW and one of the Wilsons’ attorneys, said:

We are deeply disappointed that the Obama administration has failed to recognize the grievous harm top Bush White House officials inflicted on Joe and Valerie Wilson. The government’s position cannot be reconciled with President Obama’s oft-stated commitment to once again make government officials accountable for their actions.

George W. Bush: All knowing, all seeing, all powerful.

Or so it would seem... Guess we will just have to hope that one day, there will be change.

Comments

[PeterUK]

The Loyal Opposition did well to elect President Groundhog Day.

[markg8]

Rove and Cheney are gonna get theirs and who cares about Libby, Cheney's buttboy, anymore? Seeing as Wilson's allegations about yellowcake from Niger were proved correct and the result helped cripple the reputations of Cheney, Rove and Libby, and since it has made Wilson a media star, I'd have to agree the whole affair hasn't harmed him, it's helped him. For instance if they hadn't outed his wife Hillary would have had no use for Wilson as a surrogate on the campaign trail in 2007 and 2008.

[Eric Blair]

Wilson pimped his wife out when he was shopping his story around, and as Andrea Mitchell admitted, "everybody knew she was in the CIA".

No story here, except that its amusing to see that Mark is reduced to hurling 4th grade threats and insults in to the ether at people who do not even know he exists.

[PeterUK]

"Rove and Cheney are gonna get theirs "

No they are not.The hysteria of yesterday is over move on.Are there not enough problems being created by the present incumbent of the White House. Do you really want to drive a Trabant?

[Dennis the Peasant]

Mark is having trouble with Typepad (again), so I am posting the following comment for him.

From markg8:

"Eric - Wilson didn't reveal his wife was CIA. Nobody did until the Bush WH decided she was fair game (as Karl Rove put it) in their hamhanded effort to damage Wilson's credibility and distract from the fact they either had the yellowcake documents forged themselves or grasped at those very obvious frauds as part of the effort to justify their invasion of Iraq.

Mark Mansfield, DCI's Hayden's public affairs officer, made it very clear to Bob Novak after the congressional hearings in 2007 when Novak, still trying to defend some shred of their lies about Plame, wrote a column claiming there is a difference between "undercover" and "covert". Mansfield e-mailed him: "At CIA, you are either a covert or an overt employee. Ms. Wilson was a covert employee".

Andrea Mitchell is a prime example of the clubby incestuous relationships in Washington between Republicans and the Washington press corps. What starts as a rumor (spread by Karl Rove to Judith Miller, Matt Cooper, Bob Novak et al) gets chatted up at DC cocktail parties til some wingnut at the WSJ op-ed page, Mark Halperin or Bob Novak decides to transcribe the rumor with "unnamed WH officials" as the source. Matt Drudge, who is the assignment editor for the Washington press corp, headlines it with his blaring siren.

What starts as a rumor becomes "conventional wisdom" by the time a twit like Andrea Mitchell or Chris Mathews hears about it.

You still see it time and time again. Some, like Josh Marshall who says the media is hardwired to Republican memes and sources as if it's their default position, attribute it to inertia. He thinks it takes a long time for the media to recognize there's been a shift in power and are too lazy to garner new sources.

It may have more to do with the desperate state of the print media and lead in the water in DC. Reporters seem to get stupid when they move there."

[Allen]

The Theater of the Absurd continues apace. Apparently the Wilsons, and some other folks, don't quite seem to grasp that you actually have to show harm to sue.

[markg8]

If anybody should sue Rove, Armitage and the whole damn WH it should be the CIA on behalf of the American people. We spent a lot of money training Plame and building up her credibility, not to mention a whole front company called Brewster Jennings & Associates that worked in nuclear non proliferation, i.e. keeping nukes out of the hands of terrorists and states like Iran. That operation is gone now thanks to those reckless, vindictive assholes. It's compromised and defunct. And her contacts, say in Iran, good luck to the CIA trying to build those relationships again.

[PeterUK]

"We spent a lot of money training Plame and building up her credibility, not to mention a whole front company called Brewster Jennings & Associates that worked in nuclear non proliferation, i.e. keeping nukes out of the hands of terrorists and states like Iran"

People like Plame are a dime a dozen.Front companies can be bought of the shelf for a few$100.
The CIA got it completely wrong on Saddam Hussein's WMD,as for Iraq....

[PeterUK]

Mark have you received the new memo yet,

"'I have no interest in spending all of our time relitigating the policies of the past eight years.' " Barrack Hussein Obama.

[Tim]

I can't believe we have to relive this crap all over again, but here goes. Joe Wilson reported that an Iraqi delegation came to Niger. Since Iraq had previously purchased uranium from Niger, and had little need for Nigerian chickpeas or goats, it was assumed that Iraq was seeking more uranium. Certainly not proof that they were, but it buttresses rather than undercuts the argument that Iraq SOUGHT nuclear materials from Iraq.

[richard mcenroe]

Barack Obama, the man with no past, no future and no core, continues to blow with the least breeze like the scraps of Peer Gynt's peeled onion...

[PeterUK]

"Barack Obama, the man with no past,"

Speaking of which.Why have no stories emerged about Obama? No childhood friends,school mates,co-workers,drinking buddies,druggies butt buddies or otherwise have come out of the woodwork.It's as if her just materialised out of the blue.

[markg8]

He was conjured up by the magical mystical powers of AL Qaeda. Oh wait that's not right, he's written two best selling books about his life and political philosophy, has been interviewed in print and on the teevee hundreds of times and you guys just missed it. Just a few weeks ago I read a story in Sports Illustrated about his high school basketball career.

The Audacity of Hoops: How basketball helped shape Obama

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2009/writers/alexander_wolff/01/13/obama/?bcnn=yes

[Mike C.]

Like anybody with two functioning neurons to click together wasn't predicting this kind of crap 12 months ago. The dumb-as-a-box-of-rocks Eee-vil genius Bush had it all planned out back in the 60s.

But meanwhile, what does this week's announcement regarding the new CAFE standards mean to you ? Well, to find out, we go Back to the Future !

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SIND2jRSEhc

Sorry about that, Dennis, but hey - 100 mpg !!!

[PeterUK]

" Oh wait that's not right, he's written two best selling books about his life and political philosophy, has been interviewed in print and on the teevee hundreds of times and you guys just missed it."

Apart from Marxist pedophiles, confessed terrorist bombers and a racist preacher,Obama is Johnny No Mates.
It is also better to live a life first then write the autobiography,otherwise it looks like a script.

[PeterUK]

The Flop flips...again!

“President Obama told human rights advocates at the White House on Wednesday that he was mulling the need for a ‘preventive detention’ system that would establish a legal basis for the United States to incarcerate terrorism suspects who are deemed a threat to national security but cannot be tried,” Sheryl Gay Stolberg writes in The New York Times. “The two participants, outsiders who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the session was intended to be off the record, said they left the meeting dismayed.”

“Obama was succinct about his reversal, according to one person at the meeting, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting was private: ‘He said, “I was a constitutional law scholar. Now I’m commander in chief,” ’ ” per The Boston Globe’s Joseph Williams."

[markg8]

Yeah George Bush and Dick Cheney wrecked the cases against some terrorists so badly by torturing them putting them on trial would certainly result in their release.

In August 2002 Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 Times. That's almost 3 times a day.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003, or over 6 times a day.

Be proud Petey, be very proud.

[markg8]

Republicans are trying to stall the 900+ page Waxman-Markey climate change bill in committee. They've proposed 400+ amendments, and rumor has it one of their tactics would be to demand all 900+ pages of the bill and all 400+ amendments be read aloud. Here's Henry Waxman's secret weapon to counter that. This guy is amazing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_SB7g_Yb-0&feature=player_embedded

[PeterUK]

"Yeah George Bush and Dick Cheney wrecked the cases against some terrorists so badly by torturing them putting them on trial would certainly result in their release. "

You have to get this silly trial business out of your head Mark,all they wanted was information.

"Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003, or over 6 times a day"

OOOooohh! that's almost as bad as murdering 3000 civilians by crushing,burning,asphyxiating and making fall from high buildings.

No sense of proportion lefties.

[Guesst]

I can't remember who was convicted and sent to jail for leaking Plame's "covert status" (that only a few dozen people knew about, and which her husband often bragged about and alluded to at cocktail parties).

And how much money was spent to do it? (Was it more or less than the cost of a gallon of water?)

Wait! It's all coming back to me....

[markg8]

Once again Petey I don't excuse torture committed by my own government, starting a ghastly fucked up war of choice in Iraq on false pretenses, and a whole host of other crimes, because terrorists commit terrorist acts.

To do so is cowardly, morally corrupt and stupidly counter productive. Which pretty much describes why you do.

[markg8]

"which her husband often bragged about and alluded to at cocktail parties)" - links from someone who isn't a lying sack of shit please.

[Eric Blair]

I guess Andrea Mitchell is a lying sack of shit, then, Mark? Did I get that right?

[markg8]

Eric yep. She's an inside the beltway twit on a par with Chris Mathews and Bob Novak, though Novak's the only one of the three who is smart enough to know better.

Their ilk apparently think anything they hear from two people is a corroborated fact. It's supposed to be a reporter's job to be skeptical about what somebody with an ax to grind tells him or her (in DC everybody has an ex to grind) and do some digging and figure out what the truth is. All too often the beltway press corp just regurgitates the latest rumor they hear. Rove was a master at spreading rumors and after awhile dunces like Mathews and Mitchell just treated them as accepted facts.

If you really think Wilson bragged all over town his wife was a CIA NOC on the DC cocktail circuit there ought to be extemporaneous celebrity photos from before the outing showing the two of them at charity fundraisers and such labeled "Ambassador Joe Wilson and his wife, CIA agent Valerie Plame". Or at least "his wife, CIA agent Valerie Wilson".

See if you can find some of those and maybe I'll believe you instead of the CIA who asked the DOJ in the fall of 2003 to prosecute the WH for outing her.

[PeterUK]

"To do so is cowardly, morally corrupt and stupidly counter productive. Which pretty much describes why you do. "

I think you have cornered the market in cowardice,corruption and stupidly counter productive mark.But pleasantries aside,why is your Democrat president carrying on with the policies which you say you detest. I know you are a lefty, so hypocrisy comes naturally, but why are you supporting this turkey if you oppose his policies?

[markg8]

Petey I know you have reading comprehension skills so I'll just let that pass.

[Eric Blair]

Pete, I think it's a clear case of cognitive dissonance with Mark. It's why he gets so agitated.

I'm actually beginning to appreciate Obama's flip flops. It's like he's actually learning something.

It's obvious that Obama (and the people he brought with him) had no real alternative plan for either Iraq, Afghanistan or Gitmo, or any other national security things. So what did they do? They kept on Gates, and followed through with the Bush Administration's plans.

I have to assume that Obama's adminstration made some effort to review what was going on, and yet, their response seems to be "carry on".

The brilliance here (if you can call it that) is that Obama, by virtue of his cult of personality, can basically do what he wants, and his followers appear to have no real issue with it.

Like Dennis says: "It's all about Bush."

[markg8]

I like what Obama's doing fellas. I actually paid attention to what he's said and done through out his career. I, along with million of others helped elect him. His approval ratings stand at over 60% so the rest of the country (except for the south where the regional party, the Republicans are still strong) likes him as well. Nice to see you guys coming around too. Even if you are deluding yourselves into thinking he's changed what he campaigned on.

[just passin by]

"Even if you are deluding yourselves into thinking he's changed what he campaigned on. "
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Damn, that's good

Did you want to start with earmarks, Gitmo, or tribunals?

But since he campaigned on CHANGE, then I guess CHANGING all the time is good.

It won't stop the berries dangling from his dingle; they'll be clinging there no matter how sharp his turns are.

[Mike C.]

"In August 2002 Abu Zubaydah was waterboarded 83 Times. That's almost 3 times a day.

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded 183 times in March 2003, or over 6 times a day."

Er, has it occured to anybody that that is blatently crapola ? I mean, the obvious purpose of waterboarding is to scare somebody into giving up information. 3 times a day for a month ? 6 times a day for a month ? Don't you think that by at least week two, the whole deal would be about as scary as taking a leak ? By about Day 3, most people would be taking their beach towel and a rubber ducky with them.

I call bullshit on this one. I'm not in the business at all, but I sure as hell could think up something more efective than that if I wanted to torture info out of somebody.

[markg8]

Mike C. waterboarding isn't intended to "scare" anybody into giving up info. It's intended to give you the sensation that you are dying by drowning. Just before you actually do drown to death they stop. Then you cough up the water in your lungs as you gasp for breath.

In August 2002 as they started waterboarding Abu Zubaydah the Bush Administration started banging the drum so loudly for war against Iraq even other Republicans like Scowcroft and Kissinger warned them in op-eds to tone it down.

http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/16/international/middleeast/16IRAQ.html

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15 Leading Republicans from Congress, the State Department and past administrations have begun to break ranks with President Bush over his administration's high-profile planning for war with Iraq, saying the administration has neither adequately prepared for military action nor made the case that it is needed.

We invaded Iraq in March 2003 as they were torturing Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 183 times. Nobody thought either of these guys had any info about Saddam's war plans. Neither are Iraqi and both were Al Qaeda and picked up in Pakistan.

http://74.125.93.132/search?q=cache:W0eP84jNLkgJ:www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/66622.html+torture+Iraq+Al+Qaeda+connections&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&client=firefox-a

"There were two reasons why these interrogations were so persistent, and why extreme methods were used," the former senior intelligence official said on condition of anonymity because of the issue's sensitivity.

"The main one is that everyone was worried about some kind of follow-up attack (after 9/11). But for most of 2002 and into 2003, Cheney and Rumsfeld, especially, were also demanding proof of the links between al Qaida and Iraq that (former Iraqi exile leader Ahmed) Chalabi and others had told them were there."

A former U.S. Army psychiatrist, Maj. Charles Burney, told Army investigators in 2006 that interrogators at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention facility were under "pressure" to produce evidence of ties between al Qaida and Iraq.

"While we were there a large part of the time we were focused on trying to establish a link between al Qaida and Iraq and we were not successful in establishing a link between al Qaida and Iraq," Burney told staff of the Army Inspector General. "The more frustrated people got in not being able to establish that link . . . there was more and more pressure to resort to measures that might produce more immediate results."

Excerpts from Burney's interview appeared in a full, declassified report on a two-year investigation into detainee abuse released on Tuesday (April 21) by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

As more interrogators come forward and say these guys were tortured to elicit false confessions of Al Qaeda-Saddam ties the tighter the noose gets around Cheney. And he knows it.