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Plame seeks to resurrect lawsuit in CIA leak case

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May 9, 2008 in CIA, Law and Justice, Newz and The Executive Branch. 0 Comments

By MATT APUZZO, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Former CIA operative Valerie Plame is trying to resurrect a lawsuit against those in the Bush administration she says illegally disclosed her identity.

A federal judge dismissed Plame’s lawsuit last year, saying there was no basis to bring a case. Plame’s lawyers asked a federal appeals court Friday to send the case back before the judge and force him to consider its merits.

Plame and her husband, former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, sued Vice President Dick Cheney; his former chief of staff, I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby; former White House political adviser Karl Rove and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage.

Plame’s CIA position was revealed in a syndicated newspaper column in 2003, during a time when her husband was criticizing the march to war in Iraq. Armitage and Rove were the original sources for that story, which Plame believes was retribution for Wilson’s criticism. More…

Housing aid bills face vetoes by pResident Bush

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May 8, 2008 in Economy, Housing, Newz, The Executive Branch and The GOP. 0 Comments

By JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON - Strapped homeowners could refinance into government-backed mortgages and states would get money to deal with foreclosed property under Democrats’ housing aid plan.

The measures, slated for votes Thursday, constitute the most significant action Congress has taken to date to address the housing crisis that’s at the center of the nation’s economic woes.

President Bush has threatened to veto both measures, which he says reward lenders and speculators. Democrats counter that the bills will head off hundreds of thousands of foreclosures, stabilize the shaky housing market, and prevent neighborhood blight.

The centerpiece of their plan is a bill by Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the House Financial Services Committee chairman, to have the Federal Housing Administration relax its standards and back up to $300 billion in more affordable, fixed-rate loans for borrowers currently too financially strapped to qualify.

Those homeowners could refinance into new loans if their lenders agreed to take substantial losses on the original mortgages. Borrowers would have to show they could afford to make payments on the new loans. They would have to share with FHA at least half of their proceeds if they profited from selling or refinancing again.

The plan is projected to help roughly 500,000 borrowers at a cost of $2.7 billion over the next five years.

A separate bill by Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., would send $15 billion in loans and grants to states for the purchase and rehabilitation of foreclosed properties. Proponents say it will prevent blight in neighborhoods plagued by abandoned, foreclosed homes. More…

So, shrub said he’ll veto, because it “rewards” lenders. But the only way homeowners would qualify, is if lenders agreed to take a LOSS on the original note. Does anyone need anymore proof of how much this administration hates poor and working class people? -Sue

House Panel Votes to Authorize Subpoena of VP Cheney’s Top Aide

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May 6, 2008 in Law and Justice, Newz, The Congress and The Executive Branch. 0 Comments

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Democratic-led U.S. congressional panel voted on Tuesday to authorize its chairman to subpoena Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff in its probe of possible U.S. torture of suspected terrorists.

Rep. Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, may issue a subpoena as early as Wednesday for David Addington, who maintains he is immune from being required to testify before Congress. A court fight is likely if he refuses to show up.

The subcommittee authorized the subpoena shortly before beginning a hearing into what Nadler describes as the role of administration lawyers in creating abusive interrogation techniques after the September 11 attacks. More…

Cheney: History will show Bush created a ‘more hopeful world

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May 4, 2008 in Insult and Injury, Middle East, Newz, Policies and Procedures, Politics, The Congress, The Executive Branch, The GOP and The War in Iraq. 0 Comments

From Rawstory:

George W. Bush has made the world a more hopeful place.This from Vice President Dick Cheney, who spoke to a crowd of Oklahoma Republicans Friday evening.

“When the history is written, it will be said this is a safer country and more hopeful world because George Bush was president,” Cheney said, according to Oklahoma’s Tulsa World.Of Iraq, Cheney quipped: “Our strategy is the right strategy. The only way we can lose is to quit.”

If the US departs, he said, it would show America “doesn’t have the stomach for a fight.” Cheney himself received five draft deferments to avoid service in the Vietnam war.To justify a US presence in the wartorn region, Cheney cited the Russian experience in Afghanistan.

“We were engaged in that country, lending support to the mujahadeen against Soviet forces,” he said. “Afterwards, everybody walked away and forgot about Afghanistan. What followed was a civil war and the emergence of the Taliban. In 1996, Osama Bin Laden was invited into Afghanistan. He trained thousands of terrorists, some of whom were part of the attacks here on the United States.”

He didn’t mention the the US pulled out of Afghanistan as well, after the defeat of the Soviets, or that US business, including those in Texas during George W. Bush’s term as governor, engaged in business with the Taliban regime.

“His remarks did not cover any new ground,” the Tulsa paper noted. “He plugged Oklahoma’s Republican congressional delegation and presumptive GOP presidential nominee John McCain, advocated more oil wells and refineries as the solution to rising gasoline prices and predicted dire economic consequences if current temporary tax cuts and incentives are not made permanent.”

Slams Democrats for bill Bush vetoed

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Pray-in at S.F. gas station asks God to lower prices

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April 26, 2008 in Gas Prices, Newz, Religion and The Executive Branch. 1 Comment

From SFGate:

Rocky Twyman has a radical solution for surging gasoline prices: prayer.

Twyman - a community organizer, church choir director and public relations consultant from the Washington, D.C., suburbs - staged a pray-in at a San Francisco Chevron station on Friday, asking God for cheaper gas. He did the same thing in the nation’s Capitol on Wednesday, with volunteers from a soup kitchen joining in. Today he will lead members of an Oakland church in prayer.

Yes, it’s come to that.

“God is the only one we can turn to at this point,” said Twyman, 59. “Our leaders don’t seem to be able to do anything about it. The prices keep soaring and soaring.”

Gas prices have been driven relentlessly higher this year by the bull market for crude oil, gasoline’s main ingredient. A gallon of regular now costs $3.89, on average, in California, while the national average has hit $3.58.

To solve the problem, Twyman isn’t begging the Lord for any specific act of intervention. He is not asking God to make OPEC pump more oil. Nor is he praying for all the speculative investors to be purged from the New York Mercantile Exchange, where crude oil is traded.

Instead, he says anyone who wants to follow his example should keep it simple.

“God, deliver us from these high gas prices,” Twyman said. “That’s all they have to say.”

Consumer advocates who have been howling about gasoline prices for months say they understand his frustration, even if they haven’t tried his tactics.

“Given the complete inertia and silence of this White House on a crisis that has people feeling just hopeless, prayer is probably as good as anything,” said Judy Dugan, research director with the nonprofit group Consumer Watchdog. “Frankly, I wish them luck.”

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EPA scientists tell of political interference during Bush reign

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April 23, 2008 in Government, Newz, The Environment and The Executive Branch. 0 Comments

By H. JOSEF HEBERT, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hundreds of Environmental Protection Agency scientists complain they have been victims of political interference and pressure from superiors to skew their findings, according to a survey released Wednesday by an advocacy group.

The Union of Concerned Scientists said that more than half of the nearly 1,600 EPA staff scientists who responded online to a detailed questionnaire reported they had experienced incidents of political interference in their work.

The group sent an online questionnaire to 5,500 EPA scientists and received 1,586 responses, a majority of them senior scientists who have worked for the agency for 10 years or more. The survey included chemists, toxicologists, engineers, geologists and experts in the life and environmental sciences.

The report said that 60 percent of those responding, or 889 scientists, reported personally experiencing what they viewed as political interference in their work over the last five years. Four in 10 scientists who have worked at the agency for more than a decade said they believe such interference has been more prevalent in the last five years than the previous five years.

The EPA has been under fire from members of Congress on a number of fronts including its delay in determining whether carbon dioxide should be regulated to combat global warming. EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson also has been criticized for rejecting recommendations from science advisory boards on a number of air pollution issues including control of mercury from power plants and how much to reduce smog pollution.

In the survey, the EPA scientists described an agency suffering from low morale as senior managers and the White House Office of Management and Budget frequently second-guess scientific findings and change work conducted by EPA’s scientists, the report said.

The survey covered employees at EPA headquarters, in each of the agency’s 10 regions around the country and at more than a dozen research laboratory. The highest number of complaints about political interference came from scientists who are directly involved in writing regulations and those who conduct risk assessments such as determining a chemical cancer risk for humans. More…

White House wants to require international visitors to give fingerprints when leaving US

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April 22, 2008 in Domestic Spying, Newz and The Executive Branch. 0 Comments

ILEEN SULLIVAN AP News

The Bush administration would require commercial airlines and cruise-line operators to collect information such as fingerprints from international travelers and send the information to the Homeland Security Department soon after the travelers leave the country, according to a proposed rule.

The proposal, which will be announced Tuesday, will close a security gap identified after the 9/11 attacks and identify which visitors have overstayed their visas.

Article Continues @ Sourced Site.

Administration Set to Use New Spy Program in U.S.

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April 12, 2008 in Domestic Spying, Newz and The Executive Branch. 0 Comments

By Spencer S. HsuWashington Post Staff WriterSaturday, April 12, 2008

The Bush administration said yesterday that it plans to start using the nation’s most advanced spy technology for domestic purposes soon, rebuffing challenges by House Democrats over the idea’s legal authority.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said his department will activate his department’s new domestic satellite surveillance office in stages, starting as soon as possible with traditional scientific and homeland security activities — such as tracking hurricane damage, monitoring climate change and creating terrain maps.

Sophisticated overhead sensor data will be used for law enforcement once privacy and civil rights concerns are resolved, he said. The department has previously said the program will not intercept communications.

“There is no basis to suggest that this process is in any way insufficient to protect the privacy and civil liberties of Americans,” Chertoff wrote to Reps.Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.) and Jane Harman (D-Calif.), chairmen of the House Homeland Security Committee and its intelligence subcommittee, respectively, in letters released yesterday.

“I think we’ve fully addressed anybody’s concerns,” Chertoff added in remarks last week to bloggers. “I think the way is now clear to stand it up and go warm on it.”

His statements marked a fresh determination to operate the department’s new National Applications Office as part of its counterterrorism efforts. The administration in May 2007 gave DHS authority to coordinate requests for satellite imagery, radar, electronic-signal information, chemical detection and other monitoring capabilities that have been used for decades within U.S. borders for mapping and disaster response.

But Congress delayed launch of the new office last October. Critics cited its potential to expand the role of military assets in domestic law enforcement, to turn new or as-yet-undeveloped technologies against Americans without adequate public debate, and to divert the existing civilian and scientific focus of some satellite work to security uses.

House files contempt motion in court

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April 11, 2008 in Law and Justice, Newz, The Congress and The Executive Branch. 0 Comments

By LAURIE KELLMAN, The Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Bush’s refusal to let two confidants provide information to Congress about fired federal prosecutors represents the most expansive view of executive privilege since Watergate, the House Judiciary Committee told a federal judge Thursday.

Lawyers for the Democratic-led panel argued in court documents that Bush’s chief of staff, Josh Bolten, and former White House counsel Harriet Miers are not protected from subpoenas last year that sought information about the dismissals.

The legal filing came in lawsuit that pits the legislative branch against the executive in a fight over a president’s powers.

The committee is seeking the testimony as it tries to make a case that the White House directed the firing of nine U.S. attorneys because they were not supportive enough of Republicans’ political agenda. More…