Bush Administration Served Michael Moore With Subpoena

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Filmmaker Michael Moore revealed on Thursday’s “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno that the Bush Administration had served him with a subpoena regarding his recent trip to Cuba made as part of his new film, Sicko.Moore told the audience that he was notified of the subpoena backstage.

“I haven’t even told my own family yet,” Moore remarked. “I was just informed when I was back there with Jay that the Bush administration has now issued a subpoena for me.

"I was there to help them and now I’m going to face this further harassment from the Bush people," Moore said, according to a transcript. “Aren’t they busy with something else?"

Yes Mr. Moore, they are busy not answering the subpoena by our Congress, claiming Executive privilege. I see they will expect you to answer them or face who knows what from them.

Gonzales For The President Not The People

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Documents indicate eight congressional leaders were briefed about the Bush administration's terrorist surveillance program on the eve of its expiration in 2004, contradicting sworn Senate testimony this week by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
The documents underscore questions about Gonzales' credibility as senators consider whether a perjury investigation should be opened into conflicting accounts about the program and a dramatic March 2004 confrontation leading up to its potentially illegal reauthorization.

Gonzales, who was then serving as counsel to Bush, testified that the White House Situation Room briefing sought to inform congressional leaders about the pending expiration of the unidentified program and Justice Department objections to renew it. Those objections were led by then-Deputy Attorney General Jim Comey, who questioned the program's legality.

"The dissent related to other intelligence activities," Gonzales testified at Tuesday's hearing. "The dissent was not about the terrorist surveillance program."

"Not the TSP?" responded Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y. "Come on. If you say it's about other, that implies not. Now say it or not."

"It was not," Gonzales answered. "It was about other intelligence activities."

A four-page memo from the national intelligence director's office says the White House briefing with the eight lawmakers on March 10, 2004, was about the terror surveillance program, or TSP.

The memo, dated May 17, 2006, and addressed to then-House Speaker Dennis Hastert, details "the classification of the dates, locations, and names of members of Congress who attended briefings on the Terrorist Surveillance Program," wrote then-Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte.

It shows that the briefing in March 2004 was attended by the Republican and Democratic House and Senate leaders and leading members of both chambers' intelligence committees, as Gonzales testified.

Schumer called the memo evidence that Gonzales was not truthful in his testimony.

"It seemed clear to just about everyone on the committee that the attorney general was deceiving us when he said the dissent was about other intelligence activities and this memo is even more evidence that helps confirm our suspicions," Schumer said.

Senator Leahy made it clear that if it turns out there were inaccuracies in Gonzales testimony he would would refer the matter to the Inspector General and the appropriate action would be taken.

Should this Attorney General be charged with anything?

Was HMO Suppose To Be The Best Care For America ?

The term "HMO" was developed in the early 1970s as part of a Nixon Administration strategy to promote the growth of prepaid plans as a way of improving the capacity and efficiency of the nation's health system.

Insurance companies make as much money for their stock holders and their company as possible, was this how it was suppose to be?

Michael Moore on Hardball talks about the HMO and show part of a clip from Sicko about how Nixon started this manage care.

Conservative Question To Michael Moore

Loyalty To Bush Above The Needs Of The Country!

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Watch senators grill the attorney general »

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., grilled Gonzales on whether the attorney general provided misleading statements when he said there had been no dissenting views in the administration on the domestic surveillance program that then operated without warrants.

"How can you say you should stay on as attorney general when we go through exercises like this?" Schumer asked. "You want to be attorney general, you should be able to clarify it yourself."

How can this manner of man respresent this country when his loyalty is to President George Bush?

Bill Maher On George Bush

During the stand up comedy of Bill Maher on HBO, he called President Bush a clown and proceeded to ridicule him.

Technorati Tag: Bill + Maher Bush Video

Pentagon To Hillary Clinton: You're Helping The Enemy

Part 1

Part 2

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The Pentagon told Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton that her questions about how the U.S. plans to eventually withdraw from Iraq boosts enemy propaganda.

In a stinging rebuke to a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Undersecretary of Defense Eric Edelman responded to questions Clinton raised in May in which she urged the Pentagon to start planning now for the withdrawal of American forces.

A copy of Edelman's response, dated July 16, was obtained Thursday by The Associated Press.

"Premature and public discussion of the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq reinforces enemy propaganda that the United States will abandon its allies in Iraq, much as we are perceived to have done in Vietnam, Lebanon and Somalia," Edelman wrote.

He added that "such talk understandably unnerves the very same Iraqi allies we are asking to assume enormous personal risks."

Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines called the response "at once outrageous and dangerous."

"Redeploying out of Iraq with the same combination of arrogance and incompetence with which the Bush administration deployed our young men and women into Iraq is completely unacceptable, and our troops deserve far better," said Reines, who said military leaders should offer a withdrawal plan rather than "a political plan to attack those who question them."

Kerry jumped to Clinton's defense, deriding what he called smear tactics by the administration.

"They will say anything, do anything, and twist any truth to avoid accountability," said the Massachusetts senator.

Keith Olbermann put together a speech that sums up what this President and his administration has become and how they will be looked on in history.

What say you?

A Country Under Siege

Reid said today, “Because Republicans continue to block votes on important amendments to the Defense Authorization bill, we can make no further progress on Iraq and this bill at this time.

For these reasons, I have temporarily laid aside the Defense Authorization bill and have entered a motion to reconsider.

But let me be clear to my Republican colleagues — I emphasize the word “temporarily”. We will do everything in our power to change course in Iraq. We will do everything in our power to complete consideration of a Defense Authorization bill. We must do both.

Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Jon Kyl (R-AZ) raced to the television cameras this afternoon to offer hyperbolic attacks against Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, following Reid’s decision to pull the entire Defense Authorization bill from consideration. McCain and Kyl were quick to dishonestly politicize Reid’s maneuver, after obstructing passage of the bill over opposition to an Iraq redeployment amendment.

The Republicans have under minded legislation to support the troops, not allowing anything to be done about the troops, and stalled the bill to fund Walter Reed.

Remember the Neaclear Option, April 26, 2005, "GOP leaders are threatening a rule change to prohibit the use of filibusters to block judicial nominees and have stepped up their criticism of the Democrats for using the tactic on some of Bush's nominees to the federal appellate courts. They say they are prepared to invoke what has become known as the "nuclear option" to ensure that Bush's nominees receive an up-or-down vote on the Senate floor."

How can the Republicans cry wolf when they are in charge of the Senate, but fine it OK, when they are no longer in charge?

When did we hand control of this country to the Republicans and why did we give this country to President Bush?

Surging The Surge

Gen. David Petraeus, has repeatedly said that the United States must wait until September to assess the success of the President’s escalation policy in Iraq. General Pace said the joint chiefs are developing their own report and thinking about another surge or a decrease in the Military troops in Iraq.

Reid accused conservatives of “protecting the President rather than protecting our troops” by “denying us an up or down vote on the most important issue our country faces.” He stated "We have no alternative except to keep them in session to explain their obstruction,"

Thanks to the Senate Republicans, most Americans now know the Senate needs 60 votes to over turn anything that President Bush wants to do and at this time this President will continue with his failed strategy and just might resurge the surge.

Senator's Jim Webb And Lindsay Graham Have It Out

Yesterday on Meet the Press, Senator Jim Webb and Senator Lindsay Graham had it out on the Troops in Iraq and the Presidents surge. This is a must see!

Republicans have always out talked Democrats to get their point accross and yes, in the past the Democrats would allow them to do just that. Now there's a new day and a new sheriff in town. The Democrats are having none of that anymore as Senator Graham found out from Senator Webb.

The Schmooze Award

According to Mariuca, schmoozing is the natural ability “to converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection.” Good schmoozers effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well.

Here are my 5 recipients of the Power of Schmooze Award:

JollyRoger of Reconstitution 2.0: A great Blog with very good writing. This is one site that has a great political opinion and up to date news of today, I make a trip to this site daily.

Lizzy of The OCD Gen X Liberal: I think I make a visit to this site everyday, because Lizzy has a way of making one feel welcome and her posts are sometimes lite in humor, it's just a site with writing you would enjoy reading and coming back to again and again.

DivaJood of Journeys with Jood: Another lite humor site with very good writing on political and news opinions. It's a post where every Friday, you are introduced to Ellie Bean. You will have to pay this site a visit to find out just who Ellie Bean is.

kip of 152: This is one of the Blogs I recently started to visit and I must say that I really enjoy what kip has to talk about, not to mention the great writing. He has a Political opinion that's introduced while you read his post.

Suzie-Q of Suzie-Q: Another great site that I visit daily. There's some great writers at this site who also have their own posts. I know that most readers are familiar with Larry and Mentarch, they are just some of the writers that Q has on her site.

Now these Schmooze-tastic bloggers have to pass the award along to five more people that have shown their ability to enter into the huge online conversation that is the "blogosphere". :)

Bush's Urge To Surge

I know I said that I would have my picks for the Schmooze Awards in my next post. Excuse me, but I had to post this story on Bush before it got old.

Bush has told lawmakers that they had no business trying to manage the war and warned that moving toward withdrawal now would risk "mass killings on a horrific scale." The Democrats, tired of Bush's tuff talk, responded by voting almost totally along party lines to require that the United States withdraw most combat troops from Iraq by April 1, 2008.

Even though the Democrats are trying to fight, there is just not much they can really do accept threaten this President. Since there are not 60 votes in the Senate, Bush will have his way.

What this should tell us is, we need more Democrats in the Senate really to make a difference. By the way the Bush administration has a new slogan...We need a surge of facts. This by Snow who said also "That's one of the things we're going to be working on."

Now comes the lie that Bushes are pushing, "The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq," he said, "were the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th, and that is why what happens in Iraq matters to the security here at home."

Are we deaf, dumb or crazy? I really would like for someone to answer this question. Has this President lost it with such lies?

Someone needs to tell this Delusional President that Nothing has gotten better in Iraq. Mr. Egghead, incidents have increased. We have had more Americans killed in the last four months than any other period during the war.

The Schmooze Award

According to Mariuca, schmoozing is the natural ability “to converse casually, especially in order to gain an advantage or make a social connection.” Good schmoozers effortlessly weave their way in and out of the blogosphere, leaving friendly trails and smiles, happily making new friends along the way. They don’t limit their visits to only the rich and successful, but spend some time to say hello to new blogs as well.

I’ve been awarded the Schmooze Award by Leo, over at Lionboi Blues & News. I just want to say, thank you so much Leo, it’s an honor. I will be handing it out to some of my favorite blogging friends during my next post.

Bush To House and Senate, Just Wait!

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President Bush, facing new pressure to start bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq, said Tuesday he won't consider it until hearing a fresh assessment from his top commander there this fall.

"That's what the American people expect. They expect for military people to come back and tell us how the military operations are going," Bush said. "And that's the way I'm going to play it as commander in chief."

Gen. David Petraeus is due in September to present a progress report to Congress on the effects of the recently completed troop buildup in Iraq. Frustration in Congress among leaders of both parties has led to calls for changes in strategy before then.

"We see little evidence of reconciliation and little progress toward meeting the benchmarks laid out by the president," said McCain. A U.S. withdrawal, he said, would increase "the potential for genocide, wider war, spiraling oil prices and the perception of strategic American defeat."

McCain's comments contrasted with those of other Republican senators such as Lamar Alexander of Tennessee who said Tuesday that Bush "needs a new strategy" that is supported by more Americans.

Bush has already started to make excuses for the failed surge by stating, "We just started. We got all the troops there a couple of weeks ago," Bush told the Greater Cleveland Partnership, a coalition of Northeast Ohio companies.

Should we give this surge more time to work or do we start to bring our troops home. What say you?

Senate May Call Patrick Fitzgerald

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Sen. Schumer said "I’ve spoken to Sen. Leahy about this and what we’re thinking of doing is calling Patrick Fitzgerald—the prosecutor before us….he did interview the President and Vice President…not before a grand jury and he might have some very interesting things to say."

The special prosecutor in the leak case, Patrick Fitzgerald, took issue with Bush's claim the prison term was excessive.

The question now is can they call Fitzgerald since Bush and Cheney weren’t under oath?

What say you?

Commuter In Chief

America, here's your Commuter in Chief.... What say you?

Libby Sentence Commuted

"I respect the jury’s verdict. But I have concluded that the prison sentence given to Mr. Libby is excessive. Therefore, I am commuting the portion of Mr. Libby’s sentence that required him to spend thirty months in prison."

This from the man America voted into office as the President of the United States. Bush said his action still "leaves in place a harsh punishment for Mr. Libby."

The president left intact a $250,000 fine and two years' probation for his conviction of lying and obstructing justice in a probe into the leak of a CIA operative's identity. The former operative, Valerie Plame, contends the White House was trying to discredit her husband, a critic of Bush's Iraq policy.

former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani applauded President Bush's decision to commute the prison sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

Fred Thompson said "I am very happy for Scooter Libby. I know that this is a great relief to him, his wife and children. While for a long time I have urged a pardon for Scooter, I respect the President’s decision. This will allow a good American, who has done a lot for his country, to resume his life." This is the same guy that voted to impeach Clinton.

Maybe now Reid and Pelosi will consider the will of the people and impeach this President.

Executive Privilege vs Congressional Investigators

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In a letter to White House counsel Fred Fielding, the heads of the Senate and House Judiciary committees demanded an explanation in 10 days of why the White House claimed executive privilege on subpoenaed documents and vowed to invoke "the full force of law."

"The veil of secrecy you have attempted to pull over the White House by withholding documents and witnesses is unprecedented and damaging to the tradition of open government by and for the people that has been a hallmark of the republic," Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., and Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., told Fielding.

They gave the White House until July 9 to furnish the factual and legal bases for the executive privilege claim and documentation that President Bush personally signed off on it.

Whether or not the White House meets the deadline, "we will take the necessary steps to rule on your privilege claims and appropriately enforce our subpoenas backed by the full force of law," Leahy and Conyers wrote.


The problems among the White House and the Congressional investigators appear to be headed for court. The District of Columbia would favor the Bush Administration as would most courts, thanks to Bush and the Republicans who has been running this country for the past six years.

I would not be surprise if this matter went on long after Bush has left the White House.

El Cenizo, Texas And The Immigration Bill

Welcome to El Cenizo, Texas USA, a border town where Spanish is the official language and nobody bothers illegal immigrants.

In May, 2006, El Cenizo, with a population of 6500 people, became a Spanish speaking town. In 2000, the population was 80.73% White, 0.28% African American, 1.07% Native American, 0.06% Asian, 14.67% from other races, and 3.19% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race was 98.90% of the population.

Today our Senate refused to close debate and advance the legislation, thereby defeating President Bush's plan to overhaul immigration laws.

America has to look at the fact that our agriculture States depend on Mexican workers, therefore America depends on Mexican workers.

I am not judging which position is correct on this issue, there is enough of that going on around this country already.

When you look at El Cenizo, what comes to your mind and does it bother anyone that this Texas city is a Spanish speaking city in America?

Here's a video to put a laugh into the post

Cheney And The Big Joke

The rest of the World looks at America and the people running this country and call us a big Joke. Once again here's Comedy Central's Jon Stewart, giving us all the facts and the joke.

3.8 Million Dollars Bonus To VA Employees

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The Veterans Administration are getting bonuses in the tune of 3.8 million dollars, while soldiers are still waiting for payments.

Freshman Congressman Phil Hare (D-IL), who serves on the House Veterans Affairs Committee, last week called for the resignation of VA Secretary Jim Nicholson. Hare and others are steaming over the latest reports that $3.8 million in bonuses were given to senior officials at the embattled Veterans Administration in 2006. Among those given bonuses—as much as $33,000 each—were regional directors who wrote the VA's faulty 2005 budget, which government investigators have concluded was laden with misleading accounting that included claiming for false savings of $1.3 billion. On Friday, Rep. John Hall, Democrat of New York, chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance, said he was introducing legislation that would freeze all future bonus payments to VA officials until the department cuts the backlog of veteran claims from the current number, between 400,000 and 600,000, to under 100,000.

The VA is saying that these kinds of payments are simply necessary to retain hard-working, quality career officials.

Rep. Hare said; "There are veterans out there with outstanding disability claims who are reading about these bonuses and concluding that the government really doesn’t care about them, or their service or their families. This is a very poor message to send to the nation. We’ve really had to push this administration, which is so quick to put our men and women in harm’s way but so reluctant to assist them once they return."

"There are many homeless veterans out there, as well, and I can only imagine how many of them we could feed for $3.8 million. Secretary Nicholson comes before our committee and paints a rosy picture to the veterans and consistently praises this administration’s VA budget, even while he calls for a $2 million cut in the prosthetics budget. And, at the same time, he gives out bonuses to VA officials that amounts to nearly twice that amount."

"This guy [Nicholson] is the former head of the Republican National Committee. I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or Republican or Independent or Libertarian, as head of the VA you should answer to the veterans first. This is just another example of this administration politicizing every department of the government."

Rep. Chet Edwards, D-Texas, said the House has sent Bush a $64.7 billion spending bill to fund Veterans Affairs. That includes a $6 billion increase for veterans' health care, $3.8 billion more than Bush had requested, Edwards said.

"For weeks, the White House budget office threatened to veto this bill, because it was above their request," Edwards said in the Democrats' weekly radio address. "Fortunately, the president finally backed down on his threat to this historic veterans' bill, but only after it was clear that Congress would override a veto."

Fascist regimes make constant use of patriotic slogans, such as "if you are not for us, you are against us." Well just whom in Bush's Administration acts as if they are for us?

They take advantage of our Vets, while they pay themselves nice sums of money in a nice peaceful working environment.

What say you?