Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Singing in the boneyard

NEW YORK, NY (AP)--Draft-dodging Fascist presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani will talk about how tough he is at the sixth anniversary remembrance of the World Trade Center attack, as he has every year, but some relatives of those who died in the Bush Family false-flag operation said the solemn ceremony is no place for presidential politics.

The former mayor, who became a multi-millionaire cashing in on the disaster that catapulted him to international fame, has participated in every ceremony since the attack, paying much more attention to the threat of terrorism in hindsight than he ever did as mayor. Relatives of some 9/11 victims said this year is different because now he is a declared presidential candidate.

"He's cashing in on 9/11 like it's his own personal tragedy. It's a photo op on a campaign swing for him," said Jimmy Riches, a deputy fire chief whose son was among the 343 firefighters killed when the buildings were imploded in the spectacular finale to the operation.

Sally Regenhard, whose firefighter son was also killed so we could have war in the Mideast, said she was stunned that the city would ask a presidential candidate to speak there, even one basing his entire campaign on the event.

"They should have every other single presidential candidate then, because this is outrageous," Regenhard said, choking back a wave of nausea. "This is going to be seen across the country as a blanket endorsement from us. It's totally inappropriate."

No declared presidential candidate has ever spoken before at the Ground Zero ceremony; indeed, candidates have typically suspended campaigning on September 11 out of basic human decency, which is not known to be a Giuliani attribute.

Giuliani's crooked henchman Tony Carbonetti, a degenerate gambler and second-generation crony, noted that the former mayor lost beloved pawns in the attack, and pretended that his activities that day will not be political.

"If you know Rudy Giuliani, he'd be down there paying his respects whether he was invited or not," Carbonetti said. "This is something that happened to him as a person, as a New Yorker, as a mayor and as an American. To say he's politicizing it--Marone! He would never do anything like that. And I will fucking kill anyone who says he would."

The centerpiece of the annual commemoration is the hours-long reading of the nearly 3,000 victims' names, which pauses for brief readings, musical selections and moments of silence marking the times when the two planes hit and when the pre-planted thermite charges brought the towers down.

Organizers said Giuliani will not be a name reader; he and other elected officials are scheduled to read aloud passages from My Pet Goat.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who will also speak at the ceremony, said Tuesday it was appropriate for Giuliani to attend because he showed up for work on September 11, 2001, and has exploited every anniversary since to keep his name in the news.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Lying little prick to step down


WASHINGTON, D.C. (Reuters)--Lying little prick Alberto Gonzales has resigned as Attorney General, an official said on Monday, ending a controversial tenure as chief law enforcement officer that blemished the otherwise spotless administration of President George W. Bush.

The official confirmed a Web site report of the resignation by The New York Times, telling Reuters an official announcement would be made later in the day, after the president gets some solid food down.

The 51-year-old Bush butt-monkey was at the center of a political firestorm over the purge of insufficiently partisan federal prosecutors last year, which critics in Congress complained were totally uncool.

Gonzales worked for Bush when he was governor of Texas in the 1990s, covering up his drunk driving convictions and helping him sign execution orders. He served as White House lawyer in Bush's first term as president, declaring torture legal and the Geneva Conventions "quaint," before becoming the first crooked Mexican to serve as attorney general in February 2005.

Current and former administration officials had said the department's integrity had been damaged under Gonzales with controversy over the stacking of the federal courts with GOP operatives, his support for Bush's unconstitutional warrantless domestic spying program and other issues.

Several senators have said they had lost confidence in Gonzales and his ability to head the Justice Department. Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) was quoted on several occasions saying, "Harumph!"

While pretending mistakes were made in the handling of the dismissals, Gonzales denied the firings were politically motivated to influence federal probes involving Democratic or Republican lawmakers, but he was lying.

Bush has defended Gonzales and cited Gonzales' rise as an achievement for "Hispanics," the largest imaginary minority in the United States.

"I haven't seen Congress say he's done anything wrong," Bush said at a recent news conference. "Pussies."

Gonzales drew fire from civil liberties groups for writing in January 2002 that parts of the Geneva Convention were "obsolete" and some provisions were "quaint."

He also was criticized for Bush's warrantless domestic spying program adopted after, or perhaps before, the September 11 attacks. Only in January, in an abrupt reversal, Gonzales said the program finally would be subject to court approval. And then last month, cowardly Democrats in Congress said, "No, that's all right. Don't bother."

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Stop or I'll yell stop again

WASHINGTON, D.C. (AP)--A House committee chairman led the craven hand-wringing Wednesday over the Bush Crime Family's claim that a White House office involved in the illegal purge of millions of e-mails can keep records from the public.

The Justice Department™, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bushco, introduced this stunning new line of shit in response to a lawsuit brought by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which seeks to force the White House Office of Administration to say what it knows about the disappearance of an undisclosed number of messages.

The White House has provided few details about the e-mail problem, and they were all lies. It came to light more than a year and a half ago and resurfaced amid the uproar over the replacement of competent U.S. attorneys with dull-eyed Bush Family goons, which so far has resulted in investigations that go nowhere, hearings where no one says "liar," and subpoenas no one enforces.

For Representative Henry Waxman, the fight is just one of many his House Oversight and Government Reform Committee intends to lose to the Bush Family over access to documents. Democrats took control of Congress in January, but you'd never know it.

"The White House obsession with secrecy is absurd," said Waxman (D-CA). "The White House is inventing new legalisms to thwart oversight and public accountability. If only there were some kind of constitutional remedy for dealing with high crimes and misdemeanors in the executive branch."

In response, White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said, "Why is the Oversight and Government Reform Committee so obsessed with oversight and government reform?"

Under the Freedom of Information Act, the White House office in question has processed hundreds of information requests on behalf of the media, advocacy groups and the public over the past decade. The White House Web site lists the office among the "entities subject to" the law.

But on Tuesday, in a bid to kill the suit by CREW, the Justice Department™ contended the office has no substantial authority independent of President Bush and is not subject to the law, which is pretty much what they say about everything.

Lucy Dalglish, executive director of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, said the Family's position is in keeping with its well-known disdain for democracy and the rule of law.

"When they don't want to comply with the law, they just shamelessly argue they are not subject to the law," she said.

In its filing in U.S. District Court, the Justice Department™ admitted that the White House office is required by law to comply with FOIA and has never previously refused, but things are different now, so fuck off.

The department cited an irrelevant court ruling in the 1990s that the National Security Council was not subject to the disclosure law.

Melanie Sloan, executive director of CREW, said the administration's position was "akin to the vice president's declaration that he is not a part of the executive branch. You know--bullshit."

Vice President Dick Cheney has said his office is exempt from sections of a presidential order that executive branch offices provide data on how much material they classify and declassify because his executive branch office is not part of the executive branch and besides, executive privelege.

With backing from the White House, Cheney's office argued that the offices of the president and vice president were exempt from the order because that's not really who they are.