Grumpasaurus.com

Just like the Enron they so resemble and admire (and used to work for), the Bush administration just happened to destroy all records of pre-Iraq war emails. How convenient!

The White House has acknowledged recycling its backup computer tapes of e-mail before October 2003, raising the possibility that many electronic messages — including those pertaining to the CIA leak case — have been taped over and are gone forever.

The disclosure came minutes before midnight Tuesday under a court-ordered deadline that forced the White House to reveal information it has previously refused to provide.

Among the e-mails that could be lost are messages swapped by any White House officials involved in discussions about leaking a CIA officer’s identity to reporters.

Note that this, in addition to, you know, hiding the crimes, is almost certainly in violation of the Federal Records Act. To be in compliance with the FRA, records may only be destroyed under the authority of a records disposition schedule approved by the Archivist of the United States.

NARA issues a General Records Schedule (GRS) that gives record descriptions of records that are common to most Federal agencies and authorizes record disposals for temporary records. The Department is responsible for developing agency record schedules-with the approval of the Archivist of the United States-that are tailored to our own agency-specific records that are not provided for in the GRS.

Record schedules are mandatory instructions of what to do with records (and nonrecord materials) no longer needed for current Government business. The records schedules indicate how long a document must be kept before it is transferred to a Federal Records Center, destroyed or transferred to NARA for permanent preservation.

Now, gentle Congresscritters, who is going to be the first to query the record schedules to see if these documents were on the list? Who is going to be the first to issue a subpoena? Who is going to be the first to mention “criminal conspiracy to obstruct justice”?

I’m going with “no one,” but they should. Not only did Congress let the administration get away with rampant lawbreaking for 7 years… they’re going to let them destroy the evidence while they sit around and have bullshit investigations about fucking steroids in a sport?!? Jesus fuck that makes me want to find the nearest protruding object and run into it full force with my eyeball.

The sad part is, I remember when this behavior by the Busheviks used to surprise me.

Sinking ship, rat

Karl Rove, President Bush’s close friend and chief political strategist, announced Monday he will leave the White House at the end of August

That’s ratfucker to you, bub

I hope you’re not planning on taking many European vacations after you’re out of office, Dick.

Vice President Dick Cheney has confirmed that U.S. interrogators subjected captured senior al-Qaida suspects to a controversial interrogation technique called “water-boarding,” which creates a sensation of drowning.

Cheney indicated that the Bush administration doesn’t regard water-boarding as torture and allows the CIA to use it. “It’s a no-brainer for me,” Cheney said at one point in an interview.

Bush, the Sartorial Sailor

Even as he talked about North Korea’s nuclear ambitions and other weighty matters, President Bush on Wednesday returned to his occasional role as fashion critic to the White House press corps.

“If I might say, that is a beautiful suit…. And I can’t see anybody else that even comes close,” the president told NBC’s Kevin Corke, who was wearing pinstripes, in the course of a Rose Garden news conference that focused on North Korea-related diplomacy and the Iraq war.

Corke responded that he would convey the president’s comments to his tailor. “I’ll be happy to pass along my tailor’s number if you’d like that, sir,” he also offered.

Soon after, the president asserted that CNN’s Suzanne Malveaux was the “first best-dressed person here.”

By the time Bush called on Jim Axelrod of CBS, the reporter felt compelled to start with a defensive comment: “My best suit’s in the cleaners,” Axelrod explained to the president.

“That’s not even a suit,” Bush retorted, eyeing Axelrod’s sport coat and slacks.

…

In August, while discussing the war in Lebanon, Bush took note of a suit worn by Ken Herman of Cox Newspapers, saying: “By the way, seersucker is coming back.” Later in the news conference, Bush again referred to the suit, calling it “that just ridiculous-looking outfit.”

Asked about the president’s commentary, White House Deputy Press Secretary Dana Perino called Bush “a personable man,” saying that “although he’s president and that’s a serious job, he does like to reach out to others in friendly ways.”

Sure, if by “friendly” you mean passhole aggresshole frat boy dickhead towel-snapping banter.

“I think this is probably the way he deals with people in social encounters,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. “It may make him feel more comfortable.”

True. He, like every other massively insecure coward, feels most comfortable when he’s in an unassailable position belittling and making those subordinate to him in the social hierarchy bow and quake in fear.

FSM, what a cockhole that guy is.

and by yesterday, we mean you mean six years ago

A Republican congressman knew of disgraced former representative Mark Foley’s inappropriate Internet exchanges as far back as 2000 and personally confronted Foley about his communications.

On Monday, October 2, CREW sent a letter to the DOJ I.G.’s office, attaching exact copies of the emails CREW had sent to the FBI on July 21, 2006. Both the former page’s name and the person to whom the page forwarded Rep. Foley’s emails were clearly visible. Moreover, after CREW sent the emails to the FBI, CREW’s only subsequent contact with the Bureau was one telephone call from the special agent to whom CREW had sent the material confirming that the emails were from Rep. Foley. CREW had no further contact with the FBI.

In contrast with this new explanation for failing to investigate the Foley matter, The Washington Post has reported that an unnamed FBI official stated that the Bureau decided not to investigate after concluding that the emails “did not rise to the level of criminal activity.”

Melanie Sloan, CREW’s executive director said today, “the FBI cannot have it both ways; either it failed to investigate the Foley emails because they did not rise to a level of criminal activity or because it did not have adequate information to do so. Pick one.

Hmm, could it be the White House intervened, telling the FBI to scuttle the investigation?

Just despicable! With public servants like this we don’t need any enemies!

America deserves better!

::

They were asking for it.

Today on his radio program, Rush Limbaugh blamed Congressional pages for Mark Foley’s misconduct. He said that the communications reported by ABC were example of “young kids” who like to “make fun of gay people.” Rush’s evidence? As a child, he used to order refrigerators over the phone for adults he thought were “odd or weird” as a prank.

Did I mention inhuman and despicable? Bloated Drug Whore Con sure is.

I present to you, the leaders of the right wing blogosphere:

An obscure right-wing blogger, Wild Bill, has outed one of Mark Foley’s victims, a former Congressional page. It is a despicable act. Wild Bill however, gets almost no traffic, so the damage done to the victim’s life could have been minimal.

All that ended, however, when some of the most highly-trafficked right-wing bloggers decided to direct their readers to Wild Bill’s site. First, Roger L. Simon, co-founder and CEO of Pajamas Media — a portal and advertising broker for nearly every major right-wing blog — posted a link to Wild Bill on his personal site. (The Pajamas Media portal also linked to Wild Bill.) Glenn Reynolds of Instapundit — probably the most highly-trafficked right-wing blog — followed suit by linking to Simon’s post and the Pajamas Media post.

Reynolds and Simon (and I’m sure Johnson) are doing their typical “I didn’t post it, I just linked to it” hypocritical cowardly bullshit. There is no level of decency they will not go under. There is no standard they will not lower. They are barely qualified to be considered humans, much less admired for anything they’ve done.

It is nice, however, to see the steady decrease in Instahack’s page hits. This era shall end, this, too, shall pass.

The NRCC is using children as human shields now. Watch as Tom Reynolds (R-NY) uses the children of his constituents as a flak vest from the Foleybombs in a press conference about predatory online sexual solicitation of minors.

Pathetic. I especially want to punch the parents in the nads for allowing their toddlers to be used as props to help defend a sexual predator of pre-age of majority boys.

The Republicans in Congress — and the White House — should be hounded from office for how they have betrayed the military. From Rumsfeld to Cheney to Rice to Bush, we have seen the arrogant abuse of power — to the detriment of the men and women in our armed services. We have seen career military brass hounded out of the service or forced into silence, because they dared to know more than the cardboard cutouts with no combat experience who are running the Bush Administration and Congress.

USA: Maj. General John Batiste’s testimony before Sen. Democratic Policy Committee

I challenge the American people to get informed and speak out. Remember that the Congress represents and works for the people. Congressional oversight committees have been strangely silent for too long, and our elected officials must step up to their responsibilities or be replaced. This is not about partisan politics, but rather what is good for our country. Our November elections are crucial. Every American needs to understand the issues and cast his or her vote. I believe that one needs to vote for the candidate who understands the issues and who has the moral courage to do the harder right rather than the easier wrong. I for one will continue to speak out until there is accountability, until the American people establish momentum, and until our Congressional oversight committees kick into action. Victory in Iraq is fundamental and we cannot move forward until accountability is achieved.

Thank you.

We’ve given you the tools to fight the War On Terror Mr. President but you’re not using them!

::

What a cowardly, weak, self-serving, vile little cretin he is.

Today, Joe Lieberman cut-and-ran from the Democratic party on the slowest news day of the summer.

In announcing he would run as a petitioning candidate in November if he loses on August 8th, he has clearly stated he is no longer a member of the Democratic party. The only thing he is concerned about right now is his own desperate attempt to hold on to power.

Members of a party abide by primary results. There is no such thing as an “petitioning Democrat.” If there was, Joe could accept the Republican endorsement and run as a “Republican Democrat.”

Joe has also clearly stated he thinks he will lose the primary on August 8th. His internal polls must look even worse than I thought.

Just like when Joe ran for Vice President and Senate at the same time in 2000 – meaning that if he and Gore had won, Democrats would have lost a senate seat to a Republican appointment – he is again putting his own career and self-interest ahead of his constitutents and his party (or now ex-party).

In addition, Joe has just created a world of shit for his supposed friends Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer, Chris Dodd, Diane Farrell, Joe Courtney, and Chris Murphy. I wonder what they all think of this.

This is how he treats his friends. This is how he treats his party. On the slowest news day of the summer.

These are the actions of a very weak candidate, and a selfish and cowardly man.

What a sorry sight to see an 18-year incumbent senator running scared from a little primary challenge like this. No backbone. No courage. No integrity.

And not a Democrat anymore, either.

Quite reminiscent of when Holy Joe ran for VP and Senator at the same time (if they lost the presidential election, the CT seat would have gone to a GOP).

Nothing like devotion to oneself, eh, Joe?