Former FBI Director, J Edgar Hoover had a plan in the nineteen-fifties to arrest twelve thousand people in the US who were considered a threat to national security.
The papers, classified until, now also detail how Hoover pushed for the suspension of habeas corpus.
Tell The Truthiness ; We of course know that President Bush has taken on, pretty much all of Hoover's mantle, with warrant-less wiretapping, the optional Geneva Convention and the suspension of habeas corpus. Hoover would feel like what he was planning was unambitious compared to the current president.
Keith Olbermann's video reminds us of the extraordinary unconstitutional actions of this presidency.
A snugly dropped bombshell into the public domain on this weekend, just before Christmas, the CIA has taken out the trash.
Back when the 9/11 commission were requesting information to compile their very watery report in 2003, repeated requests were made to the CIA on interrogation of al-Qaeda suspects.
This footage is the same footage that was later revealed to exist, but was then reported to have been erased. So for about the eight-hundredth time in the last four years, public confidence in the CIA is shattered and the flawed commission report has another swiss cheese-like hole shot through it's authority which is big enough to fly a plane through.
Tell The Truthiness ; Once again, the real news is 'dumped' at a time of year when it will get the least coverage and analysis by the papers and networks. Take out the trash, sounds like something out of The West Wing, oh, it is, click here.
For Mitt Romney, the Concord Monitor has staked it's claim against the GOP hopeful, Christmas could come as a welcome relief. They made it pretty clear, "Romney should not be the next President."
For Rudy 'we love him because we don't know what he will do next' Giuliani reality struck, not once, but twice. Firstly, his campaign plane had to return to the airport when he complained of severe headaches. Secondly, having been released from hospital, he's now be struck a second blow. A review of the records concerning his expenses has partially exonerated the former mayor, but not many media outlets have been as loud about this as about condoning him.
Mike 'the family favourite fire and brimstone' Huckabee is trying to subliminally become more religious through his famed campaign video with the white cross shelving behind him by Southern Baptists and Ikea.
The same people who analyze terrorist video tapes are trying to discover if there's a one second frame of Huckabee dressed like Roddy McDowell in Fright Night sprinkling holy water over Hillary Clinton in it...
Plus Barack Obama will be pleased this Christmas with a new poll that puts him two percent over Hillary Clinton's twenty-eight percent in New Hampshire.
Hillary Clinton's fortunes are mixed with the Des Moines Register endorsing her (plus John McCain) because of her "readiness", but some in her camp are worried it's only a matter of time before the Republicans make use of Mr and Mrs Clinton's Secret Service records. As part of the service detail, records are kept of where they go and who they meet with. Though these are secret, the Clintons have received tip-offs that those details are regularly given to senior Republicans.
Tell The Truthiness : And the one wish all the candidates have for Christmas? That's easy, they all wish they had Ron Paul's money and his military 'money bombs' as his supporters call them.
PS If only Bush had dropped money bombs in Iraq in 2003, how different the World could be.
He may have suffered a faltering attempt to stand for President and be off air while the writer's strike drags on, but the father of twenty-first century news comment has been acclaimed.
Stephen Colbert has been named by the Associated Press as their Celebrity of the Year.
The man who speaks not his mind, but his gut on all things news, has done it again.
Tell The Truthiness ; A merry American Christmas to our celebrity of the year, Stephen Colbert.
There doesn't seem to be a single person who believes there was any sense accompanying the decision to have Chuck Norris feature in campaign videos for Mike Huckabee.
You can't really blame Mike Huckabee, as he's doing as much as possible to keep people from writing about him being the biggest card-carrying Christian in the campaign. To any waivering voters in Iowa who believe he is reasonable, please pay close attention if you're listening to him. You might suddenly be distracted, look back and hear him saying the planet is only six thousand years old (as shown by the video below) and that he called abortion a "holocaust."
Don't look into his eyes!
Tell The Truthiness ; Get ready for the negative ads post-Christmas, of Mike Huckabee threatening you to vote Republican and go to heaven, or vote Democrat and die. Hey, other GOPers did it at the midterms.
A report into the voting machines due to be used in Ohio for the general election in November has found them open to tampering. A federally funded study found investigators could remove memory cards and put extra votes into the machine count.
Interestingly, Secretary Of State Jennifer Brunner called for replacement machines to be optical scan machines, which involve manually filled out paper ballots.
Tell The Truthiness ; Florida is also scrapping touch-screen machines. Maybe November's election may have an accurate result, unlike the previous two.
As pro-waterboarders try to justify the torture method from the apparent thirty-five seconds it took before the confession of an alleged al-Qaeda member, the President has once again had to search for his veto stamp.
The 222-199 vote in the House, sends the bill to the Senate for consideration to ban waterboarding. Despite the Democrats and some Republicans involved, if the President is going to veto anyway, shouldn't there be another way of overruling Mr Bush?
Tell The Truthiness ; This has happened with the war funding bill and now with this. There's only so many times you can keep slamming your head against a wall before it cracks open all together. Come on Pelosi, you must have some other ideas?
Sherri Shepherd is quickly becoming the daytime version of Rudy Giuliani with her priceless comments.
After blasting us with the news that the Earth is flat and that she didn't think anything happened before the Christians arrived, she's gone one better.
Whoopi Goldberg tried her best to save Sherri and the discussion on sexual stereotypes and transgender children. However Sherri said she would stop her son from playing dress-up at school if he was allowed to put on a dress.
Tell The Truthiness ; Why did they hire Sherri Shepherd of all people?
We know a bit more know on the process of the release of info on the 'Iran stopped it's nuclear programme'. George Bush was told there was new information on Iran's nuclear programme several months ago.
However, it's then said that he didn't know what the information was. Plus it's not been confirmed whether the Director Of National Intelligence, Mike McConnell told the President that all previous intelligence could be considered invalid.
Tell The Truthiness ; So, did the President know? If he did, how long ago did he know? If the intelligence was faulty, was Mr Bush told this, or did he choose to continue ratcheting up the non-story on Iran in absence of any valid information? Mr Bush, you couldn't stop talking on Monday, want to talk out the answers to these questions? We're ready to listen.
In an intriguing and bizzare story, Osama Bin Laden may have been found.
Found by a documentary film maker, the man behind 'Super Size Me', Morgan Spurlock. His new film, 'Where In The World Is Osama Bin Laden?' , Spurlock went to try and seek the big man and it's rumoured, he's found him.
The film is to be shown at the Sundance Festival in January, we'll find out then.
Tell The Truthiness ; You just never know, could he really?
President Bush went on TV this morning and decided to say that nothing has changed and that instead Iran is still a threat.
Despite the National Intelligence Estimate, parts of which were made public yesterday indicates that Iran shut down, of it's own accord, it's nuclear weapons programme.
So spin has taken over and the President has done his own revisionism of current events and has ignored yesterday's report.
Tell The Truthiness ; Have they been telling us the truth, or has the President and administration been determined to go into Iran as long as they've had the same wish about Iraq? So is the President lying, again?
One thing seems to have been missed in all the protests and riots in Pakistan recently. Yes, the application of power by President Musharraf has been questioned. The real motives about the return of Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif have been talked about.
But on one, visually stunning aspect of this uprising, never seems to get a mention.
The people who have been protesting have been wearing suits.
Yes, like those hippies and young people against the Vietnam war, or the masked protesters during the 'Battle For Seattle' in 1999, these people have their own 'First.'
Television and print media has shown people in suits and business attire protesting and rioting. Lawyers.
Tell The Truthiness ; When middle class, mild mannered, well tailored lawyers take to the streets, you know there is something very wrong with your country.
In an effort to give the US a view of what the young people of Pakistan think about current affairs, Good Morning America conducted an interview with four such people.
Well done GMA and ABC?
Not really.
When the folks interviewed said that the majority of Pakistanis do not believe that Osama Bin Laden is real, simply being a character conveniently created for the United States own ends, ABC didn't want people finding out.
So the video was pulled from ABC's website.
Just like the Fox News thing the other day, we're proud to show a viewpoint. So here it is.
Tell The Truthiness ; Not everyone has the same opinion, ABC and the rest of the mainstream media needs to show that. Even if some might not like that view or find it comfortable.
A pro-constitution advert has been denied airtime by Fox News. The advert is critical of George Bush's interpretation of the law post-9/11, especially regarding torture and rendition.
Tell The Truthiness ; Since we are not Fox News and we believe in freedom of speech, we here, post that advert.
You can't make a statement like Karl Rove's from last week and expect people to agree with you. Especially when it's personally thought to be a joke by some and known widely to be a lie by everyone else.
Taking a leaf out of Mr Bush's book and trying a bit of revisionist history by laying the push for the Iraq invasion at the door of the Congress and not the administration was greeted as a joke by Tom Daschle. But it's also members of Bush's inner circle that have backed away from Rove's comments. Andy Card and Ari Fleischer both were critical of what he said.
Tell The Truthiness ; We know that when something like this comes from George Bush, it's not surprising since he isn't recognised for being smart generally. But when it comes from someone who's nickname includes the word 'brain', it does seem like Karl Rove doesn't know what he's talking about.
A US intelligence report has today poured cold water on the chance that Iran has, is about to, or has stashed somewhere, nuclear weapons.
The National Intelligence Estimate says that Tehran stopped it's nuclear weapons program in 2003. Furthermore, if they did decide to restart work today, it would be 2009 before they gained anything worth lobbing to pierce anyone's armour.
Of course, the Bush administration had very little choice but to say the NIE was "positive", but they also stated how dangerous it would be if Iran got hold of a nuclear weapon. You know, in the same way you'd think about a five year old getting their fingers stuck in a wall socket.
Tell The Truthiness ; In both cases, the chance is there, but it's very small. So stop trying to stick the nation's fingers in the nearest socket Mr Bush.
If the lax attitude to the advantages of democracy you thought had been reached by the US government, think again.
At the Court Of Appeal in London, a lawyer for the US government said that kidnapping of UK citizens is legal.
That's right. You may be the United States greatest ally. You may have stood by our shoulder on 9/11. You may have gone into Afghanistan and illegally into Iraq at our behest.
But we will kidnap your own citizens on your soil, if we like.
Because it's now law. Indeed, it's been law since the 1860s.
You would expect the US government then to calm fears by issuing a statement saying it needs amending and in the meantime it is doubtful it would be used?
Tell The Truthiness : However, the US Department Of Justice declined to comment. Typical.
The last hostage in the Rochester, New Hampshire situation has been released.
A few minutes later, the suspect stepped outside, into the middle of the street. Surrounded by a SWAT team, the man, dressed in smart trousers, a white shirt and red tie, took off the 'bomb' he claimed to have, before being taken into custody.
The suspect was known to the local police in Rochester.
No-one has been hurt and the hostages are ok. Congratulations to Rochester police department and all authorities concerned.
President Bill Clinton has also cancelled all events for today. Security has also been stepped up by police at the Clinton's house. Workers in other campaign office across the state have been told to keep all doors locked and be vigilant.
With one of the original four hostages being held, details have come out about the protagonist in this.
Earlier today he visited a hardware store and purchased several items. Some of these are believed to be strapped to his chest. The son of the man is reported to have been told by him, earlier in the day, to watch the news.
The Clinton campaign have released this statement on their website:
"There is an ongoing situation in or Rochester, NH office. We are in close contact with state and local authorities and are acting at their direction. We will release additional details as appropriate."
There were originally three hostages, after the woman and child left. The woman who has just left the building was a hostage, leaving two campaign staff inside being held by the suspect.
The networks which have begun rolling coverage of this, CNN, Fox, MSNBC have been asked by police to not air live pictures of the street in Rochester as it could compromise any action they might take.
The man has asked to speak to Hillary Clinton, who is at an event in Virginia.
A man has taken hostages at the Hillary Clinton campaign office in Rochester, New Hampshire.
Early reports are that the man entered the office and had, what he claimed, was a bomb strapped to his chest. He then let a mother and her child leave. They then ran to a nearby store and raised the alarm.
Another US ally has changed it's stripes to a certain degree, Australia's new Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, will ratify the Kyoto Protocol.
Former Prime Minister, John Howard, lost the general election, paving the way for Mr Rudd's left wing party to take the majority. He also is against the US strategy of keeping combat troops in Iraq. He has advocated, since 2003, for a greater number of troops performing training of Iraqi forces and peace keeping.
Tell The Truthiness ; Congratulations Mr Rudd. After UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown's 'cooled' attitude to the US, is there anyone left in the "coalition of the willing"? Or is it just Bush and Cheney at this point?
Speaking in a CNN Reliable Sources interview today, Tom Brokaw gave his take on the state of Iraq. He also touched on many other areas when talking to Howard Kurtz.
The ramblings of Rudy Giuliani, the Oprah Obama backing, the runaway train of Hillary Clinton, things don't look good for the Republicans, except for Ron Paul.
But there is one chink of light that may give the GOP a chance, handguns.
Yes, not gay marriage or stem cell research, but handguns. The US Supreme Court will have final say as to whether the District Of Columbia can ban handguns. The DC area has had a ban on handguns since 1976.
So here, finally, the federal government is set to rule on the definitions within the Second Amendment.
Back in May 2006, the White House press secretary was Scott McClellan and he was lying for the President.
That's not just our opinion, it's Mr McClellan. An excerpt from his book says this :
"The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White house briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.
There was one problem. It was not true.
I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the president himself."
Tell The Truthiness ; It all eventually rises to the surface. Bit by little bit.
Everyone's favourite booby-prize candidate, Rudy Giuliani may be painting himself as Mr 9/11, but the opinion of one 9/11 Commission Co-Chairman doesn't think so.
Thomas H. Kean, former New Jersey Governor and co-chair of the 9/11 commission has thrown his backing for President behind Senator John McCain.
The scene of this public endorsement wasn't a town hall, or on the steps of a courthouse, but at Boston's Logan Airport, the location that Flight 11 and Flight 175 departed from before crashing into the World Trade Center towers.
Rudy Giuliani couldn't be reached for comment, rumours that he might have been meeting the President to try and link the Boston Tea Party and the Civil War to 9/11 and al-Qaeda have remained speculation.
Tell The Truthiness ; But of course, since the Republicans held their convention in New York in 2004, with security the broad issue combined with their near constant invocation of 9/11, this event seems rather tame in comparison.
The congressional hearing into the Blackwater shootings had a surprise chapter last week. After denying that he had any connection to the US military contractor, Howard Krongard, who was leading the hearing, made a phone call during a break to find some interesting family details.
On his return to the room, Krongard told the hearing that his brother, 'Buzzy' Krongard attended a Blackwater advisory board meeting. He recused himself and left.
Mr Krongard later said about his Blackwater brother, "we do not discuss our business with each other."
Tell The Truthiness ; We don't mind if you don't know everything about your brother. But when you don't know he's working for a firm that you are investigating for shooting members of the Iraqi public, you really do need some one-on-one time.
Democrats in the US House of Representatives are rounding up votes tonight for a war spending bill which stipulates for troop withdrawals from Iraq.
A reduction in troop numbers would have to start within thirty days of it's passage.
The symbolism is important if nothing else in the bill, since the White House has said the President will veto the bill if it gets passed.
Tell The Truthiness ; Democrats and those Republicans that have seen the light, symbolic actions are fine, but we need to see some real, physical ones to get actual change.
Judith Regan, who used to work for News Corporation, has filed a lawsuit which claims she was asked to lie to protect Rudy Giuliani's presidential race.
Regan argues that she was told, by a senior executive, to lie to federal investigators about an affair she had as part of a campaign to protect Giuliani.
Tell The Truthiness : From the War On Aliens, to this. He's done it again. What shall we call this? The Fooliani News Channel? Foxliani?
Anyone got any suggestions? Email or leave a comment and let us know.
This report is last years UK ceremony of remembrance in London.
The parallels between what happens on the 11th of November in the US and other countries to honor the fallen war dead is telling, especially this year in 2007.
In the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and continental Europe the day is called Remembrance Day. People wear red poppies, a symbol of a fallen solider. The red flowers were the first things to grow on the muddy trenches in northern France after the end of the First World War. People stand for two minutes, at 11:00 in silence. In streets, offices, airports, stations, shops, squares, parks and government buildings. A chance to stop and think.
It is done in silence, with no speeches, no 'celebration', just diginifed, sombre reflection for the dead of past conflicts and those of the present day.
Those in charge of the Veteran's Day events in Long Beach California prevented those veterans taking part who are against the Iraq War because they didn't have the right "spirit".
Tell The Truthiness ; Anyone who's gone off to fight on our behalf and has been lucky enough to come back alive has earned the right to say whatever they like. Regardless of what they say, whenever they wish to say it, censoring them contradicts the very reason they go off to fight.
George Bush was recently playing video games with veterans, which gave his image a bit of a shake, just before Veterans Day, but away from the photo-ops, things are quite different.
He also said during his radio address that he will never forget what is owed to them.
The man is either deceptive or has a short memory. Because today he vetoed a Labor, Health and Education bill which would have included money for veterans support. More shocking are the results of a survey which shows that one in four of the number of people homeless are veterans.
Tell The Truthiness ; We'd forgive you for not playing video games with wounded troops in the future, as long as you give them the money they need when they come back home.
How many more people, of any rank in US government, are there left to be made to tow the line and prop up the President? Recent events indicate not that many.
Daniel Levin, the acting assistant attorney general in 2004, asked to experience the method of torture and reported that "torture is abhorent" in a memo, which was later leaked. He was later pushed out of his job by Alberto Gonzales. Now, Malcolm Nance, a former Navy interrogation instructor has told a house committee that waterboarding is torture.
Tell The Truthiness ; "Physical pain and sheer panic" described the marine in the reconstruction shown in the video of how waterboarding felt. Enhanced interrogation techniques equals torture, plain and simple.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair was given a last-minute 'get out' on the eve of the Iraq invasion, but didn't take it.
George Bush was concerned about the effect the military action would have on his "closest ally" and the UK government. The President was given advice by the United States London embassy that the war vote prior to the invasion could bring down Mr Blair's government.
The reason Mr Blair didn't take the offer from the President? He thought it would look "pathetic".
Tell The Truthiness ; Since 2003 there's been 1,220,580 war casualties in Iraq. What looks more "pathetic" now Mr Blair?
More people believe in ghosts and UFOs than in what President Bush is doing for the US.
34 percent of those polled by AP/Ipsos believe in ghosts and UFOs.
Meanwhile, 31 percent of the same people believe in President Bush's direction for the country.
Tell The Truthiness ; Where were the nutty people who were polled and gave this unbelievable answer? Show us the people who believe in Bush's policies, bring them forth and we'll put them inside the containment unit.
Of all people this week, the Japanese tried to justify plans to fingerprint foreigners by saying there was a member of al-Qaeda in the country illegally.
As long as he had entered legally, that would be fine you see.
Kunio Hatoyama said the man was a "friend of a friend" who was connected to the Bali bombing.
Justice Minister Kunio later produced evidence to back up his story.
Even later he said he had not met the man and couldn' confirm his friend's claim. He had earlier suggested this 'story' was an example of stricter checks needed on vistors.
Tell The Truthiness ; No Mr Kunio, this is another example of a rumour based urban legend story used to scare people to giving up basic liberty to protect their liberty. It's pointless, useless and this has been so done to death by the Bush administration.
Change the record.
This is an interesting piece about the funding of insurgents by the US.
A leaked memo from testimony given by the former New York Mayor, Rudy Giuliani to the 9/11 commission shows that he lied about his knowledge of terrorism.
He is reported in the 9/11 commission memo to have not known about al-Qaeda until after the attacks and that "we had nothing like this".
But in a speech he made at Regent University he said he'd been "studying terrorism" for more than 30 years.
Tell The Truthiness ; Come on Rudy, what more zingers do you have for us? You've got a few more months to keep us entertained before you aren't picked as the candidate.
President Bush used yesterdays visit to California to settle an old score with the Governor of Louisiana. With firemen providing the backdrop and thousands of people with no homes, Mr Bush made a sniping comment about the post-Katrina rescue efforts.
"Its makes a significant difference when you have somebody in the statehouse willing to take the lead."
Tell The Truthiness ; He got asked to compare both disasters, but said it should be left to historians.
Yes and the governing, Mr Bush, should be left to the grown ups.
The US moved to the next stage of painting Iran as the next big bad enemy by imposing sanctions.
Aimed at three banks and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps to "confront the threatening behaviour of the Iranians". This is despite the lack of any new evidence the country poses a threat to it's neighbours and US interests.
Tell The Truthiness ; President Putin's comment on the sanctions "mad people wielding razor blades" seemed very apt for the action of the US administration at the moment.
Next step to war ? A third UN resolution to be tabled for November.
Any reasonable person with a balanced outlook would assume that the chances of government emergency response incompetence following a national disaster just couldn't happen. Especially after Katrina.
You would assume that and you'd be wrong.
First the White House press office said yesterday at 1pm that it was too early for a Presidential visit to California, then by 5pm the press office was saying the President would be visiting. Tomorrow in fact is when he is due to drop into town.
The response of local government officials? You know, not that good. Someone commented he's going to arrive and tell people they're doing a heckuva job. We all know how infamous that phrase became the last time the President used it.
Let's hope he doesn't jinx them. Even if it doesn't, the scale of the task is beginning to overwhelm those doing their best. Firefighters are exhausted after three days and only now is FEMA starting to help on the ground.
Tell The Truthiness ; The people of San Diego have shown they are capable of supporting each other, so the last thing they want is the President poking his nose in. Show up on Thursday if you want George, but it won't make a spot of difference to the people there if you do or not.
With as many candidates, from all sides, trying to appeal to as many people as possible, someone had to break ranks early.
We have a winner!
Rudy Giuliani is reported to have said in a private meeting that he would support a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.
Tell The Truthiness ; Mr Giuliani could contact Larry Craig, he could act as poster-boy for why gay marriage is not needed, since he gets satisfied without the need for it.
With the nation recovering from the news of last week that political commentator Stephen Colbert is to run for President, we take you back now to just before he announced, on Larry King.
Another gem from the Presidential News Conference was when Mr Bush was asked about Blackwater. He tried to spin the firm's record in Iraq by saying that they "provide a valuable service that protects people's lives".
Clearly Mr Bush hadn't heard about the people who were killed in Baghdad by the company and hadn't heard the Iraqi government's decision, following a report to "insist" Blackwater leave the country.
The US is conducting it's own investigation into the shootings and both reports will be reviewed by a joint Iraqi/US commission, after that, decisions will be made on Blackwater's future.
Something of note that may influence those decisions by the US side of that commission ; the US has paid Blackwater $830 million since 2004.
Tell The Truthiness ; Since most of the chiefs at Blackwater are former appointees of Mr Bush, we're totally sure the report from the US will be fair and balanced.
In today's Presidential News Conference, Mr Bush said a number of real zingers.
He said that dealing with Iran was important to prevent "World War Three."
Tell The Truthiness ; That's nice and reassuring then for a country which you have yet to prove poses a threat to the United States. You're not trying to talk up a war are you Sir?
The National Institute for Standards and Technology has been made to admit that the collapse of the twin towers cannot, after a lengthy study, be explained.
A 10,000 page report has revealed also that the temperature of the steel would only have reached, at the most 500 degrees, nowhere near the 1000 degrees needed to weaken and further still from the 1,500 degrees needed to melt it.
So the ability of the towers to collapse at freefall speed is not possible because of the fire. The only other option that has yet to be fully investigated is a controlled demolition using explosives.
The NIST has no word on World Trade Center Building 7, which collapsed at 5.20pm, at freefall speed also, which had minor fire damage and was hit by far less debris from the falling towers than other buildings which remain standing to this day. The NIST promised to look at controlled demolition for Building 7 in August 2006, but has yet to report. When it does, we will let you know the results.
Tell The Truthiness ; We need a new, broad investigation. And we needed it six years ago.
Rudy Giuliani (our unofficial new favourite 'hasn't got a hope in hell chance of winning" candidate) did the impossible today.
We thought he couldn't get better than misleading us to think there was oil on the moon, then he pushed things by saying he would be ready for an attack from aliens.
But he's done it!
He said, during a Republican Jewish Coalition talk whether he was a real Republican, "I gave my blood for the Republican Party in New York."
He said some other things as well, but just quoting this line was more fun.
Tell The Truthiness ; Will Rudy be campaigning on Halloween, or will he be 'resting'? Hmmm.
Larry Craig keeps the bizzare twists coming as not only on the weekend was he inducted into the Idaho Hall Of Fame, but today he appealed against a ruling by a judge.
He is appealing to overturn the judge's ruling that his original guilty plea, for being caught in an airport bathroom on lewd conduct charges, still stands.
Despite his guilty plea at the time, Senator Craig's lawyer said "from the outset Senator Craig has maintained he is innocent of any illegal conduct".
Tell The Truthiness ; If that's the case, why did he plead guilty in the first place? Everyone's still waiting for an answer. Really!?
The above is a video about the warrantless wiretapping, it's not specifically about this case though.
The National Security Agency asked a telecommunications firm early in 2001 to take part in an illegal phone monitoring plan.
A former Qwest Communications International executive, charged with insider trading, claims the NSA approached his company in the last days of February 2001 to take part in the undercover plan.
When they declined, citing the worry that the scheme was illegal, he alleged later that the company lost contracts directly because it had refused to agree to what the NSA was asking it to do.
Tell The Truthiness ; Why did the NSA need to do this monitoring illegally? Why has the Bush administration maintained that warrantless wiretapping came out of 9/11, when clearly people were anxious to use it before? Who knows more than they are letting on? They probably don't recall though.
It was just a matter of time and it was going to be a Democrat and it was going to be on the candidate viewed as the biggesst threat potentially. That's why this weekend, Barack Obama has had to defend himself against bizzare and unfounded accusations that he is a muslim.
Unidentified emails were sent out claiming Obama had joined a christian church to downplay his real religion. The Senator is not muslim, never has been and had successfully put claims first made in January, on Fox News, to sleep that said he was.
Tell The Truthiness ; It's no surprise this came from Fox News, it's no surprise these attacks were made on a black democratic candidate, it's no surprise religion is being used to scare the electorate. What is surprising is how early these smear attacks have started, it therefore will require strong Democratic action to counter this and the coming attacks from these hidden elements in the election campaign.
Those of us who oppose Bush and the current government have had enough, so these attacks are the last desperate actions of people scared of change. We say, bring it on.
You might think he just keeps talking in the hope that someone listens, but this time he really has wadded into the debate on torture, in a big way.
We don't a video of this, but here's the Daily Show's take on the word game the government is playing.
Former President Jimmy Carter has said (ok, he is promoting his book, so we take that he's in the news at all, for any reason, as a given) he is convinced the US is involved in torture that breaks international law and said President Bush has created his administration's own definitions of torture and human rights to allow them to get away with it.
When questioned on CNN Mr Carter said he doesn't "think" he "knows" Bush's government tortures.
The White House continued to hold the line that "we do not torture".
Tell The Truthiness ; Keep saying it and eventually Bush will deny it was ever said, remember like "stay the course"?
Out of a non-US force of 50,000 in Iraq at the beginning of the war, it will drop to a staggering 7,000 by the middle of next year.
Not only is this an example of how the "coalition of the willing" (remember that, gosh it takes us back) has seeped away, but also shows, in stark relief, how much more the burden of this war is being heaped on US troops.
Nearly every country that was allied with the United States is reducing or is planning to reduce it's contribution this year or the next.
Tell The Truthiness ; It might seem inappropriate, but Mr Bush, just declare victory, call the UN to arrange peace keepers and quietly leave. Giving all business interests back to the Iraqis. When we say leave, don't build a couple of airbases on the frontier near Iran or anything. Just leave and give these people back their country. It'll be difficult, but what's happening now is difficult enough to bare. So try the alternative.
Everyone's talking about keeping America safe, making sure business deals on major national infrastructure are sound and that more fuel is from the US and what's Senator Fred Thompson doing?
No, we don't mean in the sense of getting angry, but jumping from certain subjects in a strange pattern.
In one answer about energy independence, he went from oil to national security to the moon. We might have misheard, but did he suggest the US has to go to the moon for the sake of national security?
