We’re working on it. UPDATE: Things should be back to normal now.
Day 19: White House’s Stonewalling on Abramoff Reveals New Hypocrisy
Today in the White House press briefing, Scott McClellan was asked again why the White House refuses to open up records of meetings that Abramoff had with Bush. Here’s what he said:
There’s a difference between responding to questions like that and engaging in a fishing expedition that has nothing to do with the investigation.
This most recent explanation shows the White House has completely spun itself into knots. Whereas the White House used to refrain from comment on matters related to the leak investigation because the questions WERE related to an ongoing investigation, the White House is now arguing it won’t comment because the questions are NOT related to an ongoing investigation.
UPDATE: Isikoff Confirms Abramoff Shopped Bush Photos
Over the weekend, Time magazine and the Washingtonian both reported on five photos of President Bush with Jack Abramoff, but neither publication revealed its source.
Yesterday, ThinkProgress laid out the case for why the source for the photos was likely Abramoff himself. Last night, our hunch was confirmed.
Appearing on MSNBC, Newsweek correspondent Michael Isikoff reported that it was indeed Abramoff who floated the photographs to Washingtonian. Watch the video:
Full transcript below: Read more
Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) on Abramoff:
“I liked him, frankly, because he was a partisan, conservative Republican activist.”
VIDEO: The State of Presidential Credibility
On January 31, President Bush will deliver his fifth State of the Union Address since becoming President. A review of his previous State of the Union addresses demonstrates that Bush often includes lofty, promising rhetoric but falls short on his pledges.
For example, this year, according to news reports, President Bush will “will attempt to shift focus from the polarizing war in Iraq to a more popular domestic priority: taming health care costs.” But President Bush has pledged to tame health care costs in all his previous SOTUs. Meanwhile, the cost of health care continues to skyrocket.
We’ve documented this pattern in a video. Watch it:
We’ve also created a comprehensive document that catalogues the distortions, misrepresentations and broken promises in Bush’s four previous SOTUs. Download it here.
UPDATE: Our video got a mention in the Associated Press write-up of Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s speech today: Read more
Hannity Attacks Media for Calling Domestic Spying “Domestic Spying”
Last night on the Fox News Channel, Sean Hannity and Mary Matalin attacked the “left” and the “news media” for correctly labeling Bush’s warrantless domestic spying program:
HANNITY:This is not about domestic spying, because that’s the way it’s being portrayed by people on the left and by the news media…
MATALIN: …And just using the words “domestic spying” is how the left frames these debates. I looked this up a couple of weeks ago when this argument first started. There are 104,000 hits on references to signals intelligence, which is what this is, electronic surveillance of terrorists. There was 1.5 million references to domestic spying. People hear, “Domestic spying.” It’s completely not that.
Actually, it is. The distinction between this program and previous legal spying programs is that it is directed at people in the United States without first securing warrants.
The right-wing’s new framing of the program as merely another “Terrorist Surveillance Program” is meant to do one thing: confuse the American people.
Blunt spokeswoman attacks bloggers.
“Dale Franks [libertarian blogger] should get the soothing balm ready and beware: Fire ants attach themselves to a person by biting with their jaws, then pivoting their heads and stinging from their abdomens in a circular pattern at multiple sites. They tend to attack and sting in great numbers “” just like bloggers.” — Blunt spokeswoman Jessica Boulanger, 1/24/06
VIDEO: Matthews Slobbers All Over Tom DeLay
Chris Matthews has a hard-hitting interview coming up with Tom Delay. During last night’s Hardball, there was a preview. Watch it:
MATTHEWS: OK, I’ve got to ask you a cosmic question.
DELAY: OK
MATTHEWS: Tom DeLay, you are not in this buisness for the money. You live modestly You commute back and forth from Washington to Houston, Texas. Why? What drives you every day?
How Tom DeLay actually lives:
As Tom DeLay became a king of campaign fund-raising, he lived like one, too. He visited cliff-top Caribbean resorts, golf courses designed by PGA champions and four-star restaurants, all courtesy of donors who bankrolled his political money empire.
Over the past six years, the former House majority leader and his associates have visited places of luxury most Americans have never seen, often getting there aboard corporate jets arranged by lobbyists and other special interests.
Public documents reviewed by the Associated Press tell the story: At least 48 visits to golf clubs and resorts; 100 flights aboard company planes; 200 stays at hotels, many world-class; and 500 meals at restaurants, some averaging nearly $200 for a dinner for two.
Americablog has more.
DeLay’s answer: Read more
“More humans are about to become lab rats
for the pesticide industry, according to a leaked copy of a rule due to be finalized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency later this week.”
Former NSA Director Michael Hayden:
not that familiar with the Fourth Amendment.
