big ol’ hat tip CSPAN Junkie

Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman calls Rove’s voluminous written response to a ranking House Judiciary Committee Republican, “written answers to the wrong questions.”

So, what is the right question?

It might start like this:  Did Karl Rove speak to his long time buddy Bill Canary about taking down Don Siegelman?  Canary is the one pointed to by Republican Attorney Dana Jill Simpson in her (ahem) sworn testimony to Congress.  Canary is not an Alabama official.  He is not DoJ and therefore falls out of the scope of Rove’s answer, that he “never communicated, either directly or indirectly, with Justice Department or Alabama officials…”  Canary, of course, is married to Leura Canary, U.S. Attorney in Alabama’s Middle District.

Rove does assert in his unsworn statement that he “never attempted, either directly or indirectly, to influence these [Siegelman case] matters.”  U.S. Attorney Alice Martin in Alabama’s Northern District and Leura Canary are the “girls” gunning for Siegelman according to Simpson’s sworn testimony to Congress. Bill Canary says, he has “no recollection” of making the “my girls” comment.

Canary and Rove put their heads together managing the campaign of William Pryor (now a Bush appointed Judge) back in 1998.

Talking Points Memo has posted Rove’s 9 page response to Republican member of the House Judiciary Committee Rep. Lamar Smith (TX).

As of early Thursday morning, more than 101,000 people have called for Congress to hold Rove in Contempt and throw him in jail.

ht Air America

Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman talks to Air America’s Sam Seder at Netroots Nation.  Seder gets Siegelman to discuss the travel restrictions imposed on him then lifted soon after.

Is the Department of Justice too politicized at this point to conduct an investigation of its own activities?

The above interview with TPMtv shows former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman firing off a litany of problems with DoJ investigative efforts:

1. Special Counsel’s Office which has been or is investigating Rove, the White House, and itself (DOJ) and is preventing investigations and covering up investigations.
2. DOJ refuses to release documents subpoenaed by the House Judiciary Committee.
3. OPR and the Office of Inspector General contacted Siegelman lawyers asking for evidence.  Siegelman explains why this is absurd.
4. OPR and OIG already have the power to subpoena witnesses.
5. They already have relevant documents.
6. OPR and OIG have the testimony of a Republican lawyer that puts Karl Rove “at the scene of the crime.”
7. OPR and OIG know the players accused of going after Siegelman for political reasons.

Number 1 refers to OSC chief Scott Bloch ordering a Siegelman case probe closed because he had not authorized it.  Bloch also diverted attention away from Rove and White House involvement investigations and limited probes into hiring and promotions based on Bush loyalty.   The FBI (the law enforcing arm of DOJ) raided Bloch’s home and office.

Number 2 refers to documents relevant to the House Judiciary investigations into the cases of Siegelman, Dr. Cyril Wecht of Pennsylvania, Georgia Thompson of Wisconsin, and the firing of U.S. Attorneys.  Here’s what ousted U.S. Attorney David Iglesias recently had to say:

Other reasons anything done by DoJ is suspect:

• Disturbing disregard for Acting Attorney General James Comey while Ashcroft was bedridden.  While hospitalized, Ashcroft was visited by future AG Alberto Gonzales and Andy Card to sign off a wiretapping program which had already been rejected.
• DOJ Honor’s Program politicized.
• DOJ purged employee applications with liberal buzz words.
• A House Judiciary report on political prosecutions highlights a disproportionate prosecution rate among Democrats versus Republicans.  It was 80% to 20% respectively.
• DOJ’s OPR ignored Equal Employment Opportunity Commission findings against U.S. Attorney Alice Martin.
• Non-cooperative stance of present AG Michael Mukasey.
• The tendency in government now is to protect whoever is holding office.

Perhaps the unreliability of DoJ is the reason Siegelman has called on John McCain to push Karl Rove toward accountability:

ht Air America

Government lawyers prosecuting Osama bin Laden’s driver undermined their own case by trying to admit evidence obtained through torture.  Monday Judge Keith Allred threw out statements made by Salim Hamdan ruling the prisoner was subjected to “highly coercive” treatment while in Afghanistan.

The judge, also a Navy Captain, did allow the prosecution to retain evidence from interrogations at Guantanamo Bay, however.  Hamdan’s defense attorneys say all of the defendant’s statements are corrupted by abusive treatment including sleep deprivation and solitary confinement.  Hamdan has testified that access to medical care was denied unless approved by interrogators.

Hamdan has been held at Guantanamo since 2002.  He won a 2006 Supreme Court case striking down the original rules of Military Tribunals.  A subsequent change in the laws governing Military courts has also been deemed unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court.

video courtesy: Brave New Films

As of Tuesday more than 87 thousand people have signed a petition asking the Judiciary Committee to hold Karl Rove in comtempt for ignoring a House subpoena and to send him to jail.  Above former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman mentions the Send Karl Rove to Jail dot com site and his own, http://ContemptforRove.com .

Rove’s attorney Robert Luskin asserted executive privilege as an excuse to ignore Congress; however, President Bush has not invoked the privilege.  And why would he since that would be an admission that the President sought advice on the politicization of the Department of Justice.  Furthermore, Rep. Linda Sanchez of the House Judiciary says absolute immunity only applies to current executive aides.

Siegelman is not alone in alleging political hit jobs.

Here’s ousted U.S. Attorney David Iglesias discussing Rove dodging the House subpoena (starts 3:30 in) to avoid indictment:

video courtesy: Buelahman

I’ve summoned Yakko Warner from retirement to school Senator McCain on simple geography.  Monday on Good Morning America, McCain expresses his concern for the “hard struggle–particularly given the situation on the Iraq-Afghanistan border.”  Of course, this border does not exist.

Yakko cannot help McCain with Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia.

ht frickprogress and katz video

The Jack of all Arts Lee Stranahan produces another parody ad for John McCain.  This one seems to address two of this week’s campaign stories:  Barack Obama’s military plan endorsed by the Prime Minister of Iraq and Barack Obama leads McCain in the polls on all fronts.

Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert held a contest that challenged viewers to make John McCain exciting.

ht Laughing Crows

ht Hadley Rille

ht Ragfoo

ht Wayne Simbro

ht Talking Points Memo TV

(Austin, Texas)  Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman speaks to Talking Points Memo.  Siegelman participated in a panel discussion Friday at Netroots Nation.  Above he discusses being contacted by the Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General and Office of Professional Responsibility.  The DoJ asked Siegelman attorneys for evidence.  Siegelman speaks to the absurdity of such an inquiry.

ht CSPAN Junkie

Concerned about the radical drift from American ideals, Larry Hunter, PhD. writes why he will be voting for Barack Obama.  Hunter is one of the authors of the Contract with America.  He believes that whatever big government may crop up under an Obama administration can be undone over time.  However, the unraveling of the Constitution under the Bush administration may be irreversible.  Executive overreach and a disastrous foreign policy threatens the very nature of America.

Go, MoonCat! Thanks for the video!

General Wesley Clark discusses the “Republican Freak Machine” that recently distorted his comments about Senator McCain.    He also illuminated the problem of electing a Democratic President in a time of war by quoting James Carville:

You’ll never get the American people to believe Democrats will defend them until Democrats stand up and defend each other.”

Mooncat at Left in Alabama also visited with Former Alabama governor Don Siegelman Thursday night.

Thanks to Max and the Marginalized for showing me this:

Rap Artist Nas deals a percussive blow to Fox News and news in general with this music video, Sly Fox.  Best lines:

Propaganda: visual cancer”

“The Fox has a Bushie Tale.”

“I watch CBS and I see BS.”

“Only Fox that I love is a red one.

Only black man Fox loves is in jail or a dead one.”

Set to the tune of Bob Dylan’s Times are a Changing, Jib Jab launches another mini-musical replete with cartoon candidates.

Keith Olbermann spanks Elizabeth Dole, Chris Wallace, and the guy who paid for the anti-Democrat billboard in Florida:

h/t Voters Think

Netroots Nation preview from Talking Points Memo:

China reacts to the idea of Bush prodding the Olympic hosts on their human rights record:

Here’s a CBC report on Omar Khadr:

Updated.

You’re looking at the exit wounds of Omar Khadr, the teenage prisoner who was called “Buckshot Bob” by the soldiers who guarded him.  The notion of buckshot must come from witnessing or imagining the bullets rip through the front of his body from the back.  Yes, he was shot in the back.  The story released by the Pentagon is that Khadr through a grenade that killed a U.S. soldier.

However,  Khadr’s attorney suspects a Pentagon cover-up or manipulation of reality such as in the cases of Jessica Lynch and Tillman.  In February 2008, the Pentagon accidentally released evidence that Khadr was present during an firefight in Afghanistan, but there was no other indications that he had thrown a grenade.

In fact, military officials had originally reported that another of the surviving militants had thrown the grenade just before being killed.

Khadr’s attorney released this video of an interrogation he endured at Guantanamo in 2003 by Canadian Intelligence.

Karl Rove is a no show for the extended deadline given by the House Judiciary Committee.   The Committee has not yet said what their next terrifying step is.  Their options are Contempt of Congress or Inherent Contempt of Congress.  Inherent Contempt seems less likely because, really, have they done anything bold or brave lately?

Rove may not be talking to Congress, but he sure is running his mouth every where else he goes.

From Hot Potato Mash:

Speaking for the first time about his failure to answer a subpoena to testify before the House Judiciary Committee about his involvement in the Don Siegelman prosecution, Karl Rove says the White House is preventing his testimony and also blames MSNBC’s Dan Abrams.”

The Judiciary wants Rove to testify about his “alleged” involvement with the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman.  The former senior advisor to President Bush claims he mysteriously has executive privilege while simultaneously asserting he never talked to the White House about Siegelman.  Several legal experts have pointed out it’s the President who has to assert the privilege, and that has not been done.

ht bhglitter

Karl Rove is the most sophisticated political analyst I’ve ever met.”

“He’s scary smart.”  –Chris Wallace, Fox News

Fox News’ Chris Wallace is vying for second in the Rich and Famous Failed Son Contest behind George W. Bush.  Listen to him speak worshipfully of Karl Rove during an interview with TV Barn.   The besotted Wallace speaks of Rove’s partisanship and superb analysis as if the conditions can exist at once.   Idealogues cannot make analyses.  It’s like letting Warren Jeffs discourse on protecting children from sex offenders.  It’s an affront to the senses.

And how do illegitimate black baby rumors and Ann Richards lesbian rumors all mingle in Wallace’s mind with the notion of sophistication?  (And I know Wallace doesn’t mean the root: sophistry.)  Wallace is scary idiotic.

Lee Stranhan is on a roll with his third parody in a week.  This one is McToughLovin’.  Best line…

Back when your grandparents were dirty hippies out humpin’ in the mud and dodgin’ the draft, John McCain was proudly serving his country–first in the Naval Academy where he unselfishly let 893 other people get better grades than him.”

Stranahan shows a graph placing McCain at 894th place out of 899 students.  There are two sets of McCain ranking stats I found on the google.  One is in the Stranhan camp; the other camp which includes U.S. News says McCain was 790th out of 795.  Either way, it looks like another Republican D student is eying the White House.  McSame.

a huge ol’ hat tip to Wind Harps

The International Committee of the Red Cross does not need a war crimes tribunal to make a moral call:  prisoners at Guantanamo were tortured and the Bush administration officials who approved the abuse are war criminals.  These conclusions were offered in a report last year to the CIA and are the subject of a book, “The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How the War on Terror Turned Into a War on American Ideals,” by Jane Mayer .

The author documents U.S. counterterrorism since 2001.  Part of her research includes The Red Cross investigators work scrutinizing the Central Intelligence Agency’s interrogation methods determining they were torture.

In the video, Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley weighs in on the possiblity of legal accountability.

“Oil’s at an all time high.

Stock’s are at an all time low.

Foreclosures and unemployment are on the rise.

The good news?  It’s all in your head!”

–Lee Stranahan

Writer, editor Lee Stanahan mocks the Phil Gramms and George Wills of America in Tony Robbins type self-help parody.  Wills says Americans are crybabies.  Gramm says it’s a mental recession, and Americans are whiners.  The reality is we’re paying about $4.09 a gallon nationwide for gasoline.  (Here in Alabama it was $1.38 in 2003!)  The DOW has fallen to around 11,000.  Banks are failing.  Homeowners are losing.  The Republican answer: recession is a state of mind.

Troy King Purged from McCain's Website

The Alabama State Chair of John McCain’s Campaign has been blotted out on the candidate’s website. The Chair is none other than Alabama State Attorney General Troy King–the elected official now overwhelmingly rumored to have been caught in a gay affair by his wife.

You’ll find the old page at McCain’s site cached here, but the scrubbed one cannot be found.  You can see the screenshot of the original here at Pensito Review.

A couple of Alabama newspapers may be sitting on the story pending confirmation from King or the state’s governor.  There still have been no official denials from King, his office, or the governor’s office.

King signed onto the McCain campaign in January.

video courtesy: The Associated Press

Here’s an update on Esmin Green who died surrounded by apathetic spectators at a New York Hospital.  Now a medical examiner has determined the cause of her death: blood clots according to the report.  A week ago, the 49 year old waited in the emergency room at Kings County Hospital Center for nearly 24 hours and died on the ER waiting room floor.  She lay there for more than hour with patients and security guards looking on.  A nurse took her pulse finally and learned she was dead.  Several employees were fired or suspended.

Max and the Marginalized lament the spineless Democrats who caved on FISA and put telecoms above the Rule of Law:

We did our song about FISA and warrantless wiretapping a couple months ago. We didn’t think we’d have to make a video down the line about the Democrats rolling over like little wimpy puppies so that they wouldn’t look like little wimpy puppies on national security. Please, next time, do better.”

h/t Associated Press

We adopted a pregnant stray more than a month ago and now have a houseful of kittens.  Cats can be such good mommies.

So, Karl Rove failed to show up for the Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday where he was supposed to answer questions about his link to the U.S. Attorney who filed the charges that got Don Siegelman put in prison.  Chairman Conyers, after strongly urging Rove to honor the subpoena, strongly urges Rove to comply by July 15th, five days from now.

Rove is out of the country according to Rep. Cannon…what the hell, I know.