Liberal Repercussion

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2468552

March 26, 2004, 3:25PM
Indictment threat on DeLay's mind
Defense fund reportedly discussed
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle

U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay apparently is preparing for the possibility that a Travis County grand jury may indict him on charges of violating state campaign finance laws.

DeLay, R-Sugar Land, told a group of Houston supporters earlier this month he may need to raise more money for a legal defense fund.

A Capitol Hill newspaper reported Thursday that he has discussed with other Republicans the possibility of temporarily stepping down from his leadership position if he is indicted.

DeLay and a committee he founded, Texans for a Republican Majority, are the subject of a grand jury investigation being led by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat. The investigation focuses on whether TRM spent corporate money to influence the 2002 state House races in violation of Texas law.

DeLay and his aides have denied any wrongdoing and called the investigation a political witch hunt. However, DeLay apparently is preparing for an unfavorable outcome.

posted by Rei Toei @ 5:34 p.m.

robe may force DeLay to step down

Don't know whether the bigger story is that Tom Delay has got his vile ass in a crack, or that the Washington Times is reporting it.


http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20040325-125459-8381r.htm

WASHINGTON, March 25 (UPI) -- Aides to House GOP leader Tom DeLay denied a report that DeLay is discussing temporarily leaving his post if he is indicted for campaign finance abuses.

Roll Call, a Capitol Hill newspaper, reported Thursday that DeLay, R-Texas, has begun quiet talks with a handful of colleagues about the possibility of stepping down, which would be required under Republican conference rules.

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle, a Democrat, has been investigating whether Texans for a Republican Majority, a non-profit group and related political action committee with ties to DeLay, broke Texas law during the 2002 state legislative elections by using corporate donations.

Even if he is indicted, DeLay could return to his leadership post if he is cleared of the allegations, the charges are dismissed or reduced to a non-felony.

DeLay has denied any wrongdoing, decrying the inquiry as a politically motivated witch hunt with Republicans saying it is in response to the successful GOP redistricting effort in Texas, an effort led by DeLay.

A DeLay aide told UPI no meetings on the subject of the representative's stepping down have taken place and his office has only responded to queries from members this week about the once-forgotten caucus rule.

"The majority leader has first-hand experience with high-profile Democratic attempts to criminalize politics," said DeLay's communications director, Stuart Roy. "This (investigation) is no different.

posted by Rei Toei @ 6:02 p.m.

Day One
9-11 Investigation Hearing Transcripts

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A17798-2004Mar23.html

Day Twp
9-11 Investigation Hearing Transcripts

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A20349-2004Mar24.html

posted by Rei Toei @ 5:46 p.m.

GOP Moves to Declassify Clarke Testimony
(AP) - In a highly unusual move, key Republicans in Congress are seeking to declassify testimony that former White House terrorism adviser Richard Clarke gave in 2002 about the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist said Friday. Frist said the intent was to determine whether Clarke lied under oath — either in 2002 or this week — when he appeared before a bipartisan Sept. 11 commission and sharply criticized President Bush's handling of the war on terror.

posted by Rei Toei @ 4:14 p.m.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jessica Smith or Trevor FitzGibbon

Friday, March 26, 2004 Fenton Communications, (202) 822-5200


BUSH DOWNGRADED BIN LADEN
AS A THREAT, AFTER TAKING OFFICE


Prior to 9/11, Bush Administration Said It Was

“A Mistake” to Focus on Al Qaeda Leader



Report Corroborates Richard Clarke’s Testimony This Week



On April 30, 2001, CNN reported that when the new Bush Administration released the government’s annual terrorism report, it made a serious change: “There was no extensive mention of alleged terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden,” as there had been in previous years.



When asked why the Administration had reduced the focus, “a senior Bush State Department official told CNN the U.S. government made a mistake in focusing so much energy on bin Laden.”



The report directly contradicts the White House’s continuing assertion that fighting terrorism was its “top priority” before September 11th.



The move to downgrade the fight against Al Qaeda before 9/11, despite repeated warnings that an Al Qaeda attack was imminent, is consistent with other Administration behavior. Specifically, the Associated Press reported in 2002 that “President Bush’s national security leadership met formally nearly 100 times in the months prior to the Sept. 11 attacks, yet terrorism was the topic during only two of those sessions.”



Meanwhile, Newsweek reported that internal government documents show that, before 9/11, the Bush Administration moved to “de-emphasize” counterterrorism. When “FBI officials sought to add hundreds more counterintelligence agents” to deal with the problem, “they got shot down” by the White House, the magazine said.



For full citations and links to the cited documents, visit: http://www.misleader.org.



///

posted by Rei Toei @ 4:11 p.m.

Government Executive Magazine reported the stunning news at the tail end of its article:

A former FBI translator said Wednesday that the bureau had "real, specific" information relating to the Sept. 11 attacks before they happened. Sibel Edmonds worked for the agency working from Sept. 20, 2001 to March 2002.

Edmonds said she was hired to retranslate material that was collected prior to Sept. 11 to determine if anything was missed in the translations that related to the plot. In her review, Edmonds said the documents clearly showed that the Sept. 11 hijackers were in the country and plotting to use airplanes as missiles. The documents also included information relating to their financial activities. Edmonds said she could not comment in detail because she has been under a Justice Department gag order since October 2002.

Edmonds has testified before the Sept. 11 commission, the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Select Intelligence Committee.

posted by Rei Toei @ 10:32 p.m.

http://www.thememoryhole.org/bush/bush_gov_papers_lists.htm

The Governor Bush papers, an index and some resources for searching and contributing to them

posted by Rei Toei @ 10:29 p.m.

swiped from the memory hole

From a Classified CIA Assessment of 9/11

Congress' 9/11 report quotes from a CIA document that remains classified to this day. Among the mountains of still-secret material that the investigative staff read was "The 11 September Attacks: A Preliminary Assessment," dated 19 November 2001, and written by the CIA. Here's the clinching sentence from this Agency report:

We do not know the process by which Bin Ladin and his lieutenants decided to hijack planes with the idea of flying them into buildings in the United States, but the idea of hijacking planes for suicide attacks had long been current in jihadist circles.

So we have the CIA admitting that hijacking passenger jets and ramming them into buildings had been a goal of Islamic terrorists for a long time. Yet last week we had Condoleezza Rice--among others--repeating her lie that nobody ever had the foggiest notion that hijacked planes could be used as weapons. Why, if only such an inconceivable, outlandish concept had been known to the government, well, then they could've done something to prevent it. But as this CIA report reveals, the concept was floating around for years. What's your excuse now, Condi?

[The above quotation is on page 214 of Congress' 9/11 report]

posted by Rei Toei @ 10:27 p.m.

"Let me get this right...According to the Bush White House: Richard Clarke is wrong, Paul O'Neill is wrong,
David Kay is wrong, Hans Blix is wrong, the CIA is wrong, the FBI is wrong, the librul media is wrong, blogville is wrong, protesting a pre-emptive unprovoked war is wrong, hunting bin Laden 24/7 with everything our military forces have is wrong (unless it's an election year), John Kerry is wrong, John McCain was wrong down in S. Carolina, Howard Dean is wrong, Max Cleland is wrong, Valerie Plame is wrong, thinking we should all pay a little more income tax when our country is engaged in a war on terrorism is wrong, a solvent government is wrong, taking as much time as necessary to fairly recount votes in a close election is wrong, and for having relied upon any of the aforementioned individuals for advice relating to their field of expertise - the White House was wrong."

--Richard Harvey, Austin, Letter to Altercation

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3449870/

posted by Rei Toei @ 6:05 p.m.

http://www.howardstern.com/

my good friend writes me this:

The reason that clear channel fired him from 6 stations was that Howard had started to rethink about his support of Bush on air. After hearing about Bush being down on stem cell research, anti-abortion, the economy so on and so on. So Howard had said that he will not be voting for Bush. Now we all know how many people listen to Stern and a lot of them will do what he wants them to do. Just on his say so he got both George Pataki and Christie Whitman elected Governor.

So clear channel takes him off of 6 markets.....those 6 markets are swing state markets,

so Howard did some research and finds out that the owners of clear channel are buddy -buddy with the Bush clan, how convenient. Now Stern is pissed and is adamant about getting Bush out of office. For the last month or so since this has started, he is on the air everyday telling his listeners that Bush must be voted out.......consider it DONE!!!

posted by Rei Toei @ 5:40 p.m.

Bush-Cheney 2004
Arlington, VA

advisor: Marc Racicot (RNC)

advisor: Karen Hughes (living in Austin)

advisor: Rob Portman, Ohio Rep. and longtime Bush I family friend

campaign manager: Ken Mehlman, former WH politica director, Rove's protege from Texas

National Finance Chairman of Bush-Cheney 2004: Mercer Reynolds, Ohio financier and Bush's partner in Texas Rangers

California Finance Chair: Bradford Freeman, Los Angeles banker, longtime friend

deputy campaign manager: Mark Wallace former legal adviser in the Department of Homeland Security, worked on Bush 2000 campaign and on Jeb's three gubernatorial campaigns.

political director: Terry Nelson, former RNC official, former political director of the National Republican Congressional Committee and former campaign manager for Rep. Jim Nussle, R-Iowa.

chief political strategist: Matthew Dowd Bush's pollster in the 2000 campaign. He worked for two Democrats — Lloyd Bentsen and the late Texas Lt. Gov. Bob Bullock — before joining Bush's team

deputy national finance chairman: Jack Oliver former deputy chairman of the RNC and finance director of Bush 2000 campaign.

Bush's ad maker: Mark McKinnon loser claiming to be a Democrat from Austin, Texas, did the ads for Bush's 2000 campaign and lost his pants in a spectacular fashion in a cheap attempt to ratfuck Al Gore's campaign

Nicolle Devenish: campaign communications director and symbiote of White House communications director Dan Bartlett

and of course...

VP Dick Cheney, bro Jeb Bush, Mary Matalin

posted by Rei Toei @ 6:31 p.m.

Rove, Small Circle Lead Bush Campaign

By TOM RAUM, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) entrusts adviser Karl Rove to oversee his bare-knuckle bid for a second term.

Yet Rove is but one of a small group of counselors helping to guide the most expensive, and possibly the most corporate-like, presidential campaign in history.

Aides emphasize Bush's hands-on role in the $170 million campaign. For instance, it was his decision to mount an early attack on his presumptive Democratic rival, John Kerry (news - web sites), and to air television commercials naming Kerry. The president also keeps close tabs on fund raising.

Bush and Rove talk daily about the campaign and stay in close touch with those running the Bush-Cheney effort from a nondescript office building across the Potomac River in Arlington, Va. There, Bush seeks political advice from campaign chairman Marc Racicot, a former Montana governor who served as Republican National Committee (news - web sites) chairman, and campaign manager Ken Mehlman, Bush's former White House political director.

posted by Rei Toei @ 6:15 p.m.