I had to laugh as confident Cheney hatchet man David Addington dropped Nancy Pelosi's name during torture hearings last week.  It was right out of the Senate hearings in The Godfather II - where the Corleones have systematically corrupted key legislators, and are sending tough, coded messages even in their own public testimony.  

Addington's message: 'Chairman Conyers, if these hearings go any further than today, I'll publicly ask why your precious Speaker - who my staff secretly briefed about these interrogation methods starting in 2002 - hasn't been called as a witness.  You've earned enough political capital; I won't be charged.  Don't push it.'

This perfectly fits an observation in yesterday's diary We Can End FISA Obstruction Next Week:

The Bush administration has done what the best con artists and criminals love to do: get The Mark involved in something illegal so they never go to the police - or even better, get police and prosecutors themselves involved.

We have an utterly unique opportunity between now and the day in July that FISA is raised again in the Senate.

Many recent diaries, a damning poll, and strong appearances by Prof. Jonathan Turley on Olbermann's Countdown (links below) all lead to the same conclusion: we - the Democratic base and increasingly the American people - are realizing that the Democrats in power are accessories, colluding with the Bush administration to prevent crimes they participated in from ever being prosecuted.

Turley makes the compelling (some would say obvious) case that Democrats' 'mysterious collapses' on FISA, Iraq, impeachment, even censure - almost every issue - has its roots in what Turley calls criminal collusion.  In the guise of "compromise", Democrats are carefully obstructing justice, sparing themselves from subpeonas and prosecution.

In the next 2 weeks we have our best chance - and maybe our last - for a "Mr Smith" moment where someone actually speaks this truth into the record on the Senate and House floor and changes the game.  

I have already begun speaking directly with Judiciary Chair John Conyers and his staff about this.

Let's use this forum to help make it happen.

When it comes to having good judgment, John McCain certainly has had his lapses.  Whether it was his tremendous leadership during Hurricane Katrina or it is his flip flop and double talk with respect to his own campaign finances, or whether it is his pandering to the very people that he railed against and who sold him down the river a few years back or whether it is losing his temper to his own republican colleagues in the Senate, the list is long.

But the most notable is the background behind McCain’s "transformation" on campaign finance reform – his relationship with Charles Keating, his wife’s relationship with Keating, the financial entanglement between the McCains and Keating and the $2.3 billion that We the People paid to bailout Lincoln Savings & Loan as a result.

Early caucuses and primaries have been a great distraction for bushco business as usual--anything not candidate related has a good chance of slipping under the radar. This diary is an update to the investigations of the EPA's denial of California's proposed greenhouse gas regulations.

Another day, another revelation of blatant obstruction of justice by the Bush administration.  The White House admitted yesterday that they had destroyed email tapes that including the period of March to October, 2003.  This is the time period related to the leak of a CIA operative's name to the press.  According to the White House, they lost the originals and recycled the backups from this critical period.  The announcement came minutes before a court-ordered deadline for turning over the information.  Oops.

For the past seven years, like so many on this site, I have dreamed of the day when some authority could force accountability from our current administration.  My hopes that Congress could provide oversight, supervision and accountability were certainly a little too optimistic.

If you look back at the past thirty to thirty-five years it is easy to see that the only meaningful way to deal with the power of the executive branch, especially this executive branch, is to appoint a special prosecutor.  For this administration there was only one situation where we have gotten anywhere close to the bottom of what was going on.  (Well, maybe the DOJ scandal was an exception.)  Yep, it was the Patrick Fitzgerald investigation.  Now perhaps we have been given the impetus we needed to force the appointment of another.

2007 started with such promise - there would be "big changes" - or so we were told.  And on some levels (mainly personal), it has delivered - I still have my job (and it is better than at the beginning of the year), YKos was great, I have a baby on the way....but in the world of politics and around the world, things don’t look as rosy as we may have thought back when a new Congress took session.  Some of this is the fault of Democratic leadership, a lot of this is the fault of Bush and the republican party, or the corporate media, or the fault of nobody.  But, a lot did go on this past year, and all I can say is that I hope 2008 holds out more in terms of delivery and less in terms of broken promises, frustration, disappointment, bewilderment and lowered expectations.

The 3,000th US military death in Iraq was just before the new year.  There were promises of a "new Congress in town" and a change of direction in Iraq.  Another close to $200 billion was approved during the year for "continuing operations" with absolutely no real change in direction.  The "surge" has been an absolute failure - a reduction in deaths due to sectarian cleansing and voluntary temporary stop in violence by al Sadr’s militia with no political benchmarks met is no success in any way.  

Rep. Wexler Wants Cheney Impeachment Hearings

copyright © 2007 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

May I offer my sincerest gratitude to Representatives, Robert Wexler, Luis Gutierrez, and Tammy Baldwin.  These glorious members of the House Judiciary Committee, recently raised the volume on the issue of impeachment for Vice President Cheney.  The three invite us, the average citizen, to join them.  Please express your distress; sign the petition.  Call for Hearings. Without you the Vice President will continue to avoid an official and necessary censure.

It's a wonderful day for the Senate's Republican majority! Err, minority, I meant to say Republican minority. I guess I was confused since the Republicans seem to be unilaterally deciding what does and doesn't get done in the Senate--and, of course, I could have picked dozens of other examples. That's because Senate Republicans broke records today by filibustering their 62nd bill only half way through the session of Congress.

(please view diary for hilarity)

Given that the "ticking time bomb" scenario is basically the alleged moral justification for our government's "torture" policy, it is very surprising that videotapes of interogations just supposedly disappeared.

Image rather than substance is everything for the Bush WH. Hence, Commander Guy, the Environmental and Education President, etc. Therefore, they would have released tapes that would prove enhanced interogation techniques work and moreover, use them to train  interogators the successful means of extracting a "confesion."

On the NY Times site an article by Mark Mazzetti indicates new information that the CIA destroyed tapes of interrogations because they feared that the tapes would provide evidence that could be used to document actions that would place the inflictors at legal risk.

The existence and subsequent destruction of the tapes is likely to reignite the debate over the use of severe interrogation techniques on terror suspects, and raises questions about whether C.I.A. officials withheld information from the courts and from the presidentially-appointed Sept. 11 commission about aspects of the program.

The agency of course claims that it acted legally, and that it was only trying to protect its officers and their families from retribution.  However:

I have to say that the NY Times is finally getting it right in their latest editorial about Bush's efforts to block spending for front-line responders for national security.  

This should be a HUGE rallying point for Democrats because it will allow us to focus on the massively disproportionate security spending going on in Iraq vs. real security at home.  At the same time it will allow congressional dems to home in on the Republican obstructionism that is standing in the way of good legislation.

(crossposted at BlueGrassRoots)

Mitch McConnell is currently employing the most cynical and selfish of tactics within the Senate. Mitch finds himself faced with a minority in the House and Senate, where much progressive legislation has passed in the House and been supported by 50+% in the Senate.

But this would certainly make Democrats look good, as they promised to raise the minimum wage, expand health care and shift course in Iraq. And they have had the votes to pass such legislation.

The filibuster seems to have worked against the Democrats both when in the minority, by causing them to be accused of being obstructionist, and now while they are in the majority, because they don't want to seem like, um... like obstructionists?

Have you ever been "grin fucked"?

I have. And let me tell YOU, it's one of the most dissatisfying way of getting screwed there is.

I first heard the term from my husband, Old Abe. I used to totally crack up whenever he'd say it, because I understood on some visceral level exactly what he meant, and it was just such an appropriate term.

When one is "grin fucked", it's usually the result of being promised something, only to have the promiser later renege. However, "grin fucking" can also take the form of obstruction, kissing ass, and a variety of other unsavory tactics. Note that many of these are employed by members of our current Administration and their pals.

I would like to give you some examples of political "grin fucking".

In my 49 years I have never seen such a childish, tantrumatic, and frankly dangerously unpatriotic display such as has been demonstrated these past two nights by House republicans.  I realize it's tough to be in the minority.  Believe me, as a Democratic supporter, I know what it's like to watch republicans rule over Congress for years like drunken, debaucherous pirates, gleaning what they can while they can before Americans catch wise.  But in the case of last night and today, what occurred was nothing short of sabatoge of our political machinery by the jilted minority.

It's late, and I'm angry.  GAWD let me just catch my cool a minute.  See you after the fold.

Madame Speaker and Senator Reid,

While you are still in search of an effective strategy, Republicans have already found one.  They have vowed to obstruct your every effort.

What, if anything, are you going to do?