THE TRUE PRINCES OF DARKNESS

WHITE HOUSE CAN'T SEEM TO SWEEP THE ABRAMOFF SCANDAL UNDER ITS FILTHY CARPET

Ken sent this great piece from the Wall Street Journal today.

TOO BAD, SO SAD: WHITE HOUSE CAN'T SWEEP ABRAMOFF ASIDE

BUSH CAN'T REMEMBER WHO ABRAMOFF IS YET THINK PROGRESS.ORG HAS DISCOVERED EMAILS WRITTEN BY ABRAMOFF DESCRIBING HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH BUSH.

UH OH! BUSH TELLS ANOTHER LIE

Anyone keeping track? I've lost count. LS

EMAILS DESCRIBING RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ABRAMOFF AND BUSH

NEW YORK TIMES BLISTERING EDITORIAL PIECE ON GONZALEZ'S ARROGANT AND DISINGENUOUS TESTIMONY YESTERDAY

Another great find by Ken.

Except:

On the absurd pretext of safeguarding operational details, Mr. Gonzales would not say whether any purely domestic communications had been swept up in the program by accident and what, if anything, had been done to make sure that did not happen. He actually refused to assure the Senate and the public that the administration had not deliberately tapped Americans' calls and e-mail within the United States, or searched their homes and offices without warrants.

Mr. Gonzales repeated Mr. Bush's claim that the program of intercepting e-mail and telephone calls to and from the United States without the legally required warrants was set up in a way that protects Americans' rights. But he would not say what those safeguards were, how wiretaps were approved or how the program was reviewed. He even refused to say whether it had led to a single arrest.

"THE ART OF SAYING NOTHING"

MAKING ROVE'S BLACKLIST

ONE BRAVE GOP BROKE RANKS WITH HER NAZI WANNABE PARTY BY CALLING FOR AN INVESTIGATION OF THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY

It may be time to bail from your party, Ms. Wilson. Rove is one hyper mean and vindictive dude. Besides, you would be more comfortable in the party of real compassion, real tolerance and real ethical grounding. LS

Another great piece from the NYT today found via Raw Story.com

Excerpt:

The lawmaker, Representative Heather A. Wilson of New Mexico, chairwoman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence, said in an interview that she had "serious concerns" about the surveillance program. By withholding information about its operations from many lawmakers, she said, the administration has deepened her apprehension about whom the agency is monitoring and why.

Ms. Wilson, who was a National Security Council aide in the administration of President Bush's father, is the first Republican on either the House's Intelligence Committee or the Senate's to call for a full Congressional investigation into the program, in which the N.S.A. has been eavesdropping without warrants on the international communications of people inside the United States believed to have links with terrorists.

The congresswoman's discomfort with the operation appears to reflect deepening fissures among Republicans over the program's legal basis and political liabilities. Many Republicans have strongly backed President Bush's power to use every tool at his disposal to fight terrorism, but 4 of the 10 Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voiced concerns about the program at a hearing where Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales testified on Monday.

"REPUBLICAN WHO OVERSEES NSA CALLS FOR WIRETAP INQUIRY

ANOTHER GOP LAWMAKER BREAKING RANKS?

This is rather shocking. Mr. Sensenbrenner has historically and systematically attempted to shut down Mr. Conyers on just about every occasion when Mr. Conyers would demand hearings on the Bush Administration’s arrogant and deliberate obliviousness to the laws that guide our nation. This is the dude who routinely refuses to allow Mr. Conyers to reserve official conference rooms that are normally used for official hearings. On more than two occasions, Conyers has been forced to hold his hearings in a room in the Capitol’s basement, near or actually in the broom/mop/janitor’s closet.

Yet now even Sensenbrenner wants answers? Things must be really, really bad. LS

CHAIR OF THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE CONGRESSMAN SENSENBRENNER SEEKS ANSWERS ON WIRETAP PROGRAM

Sensenbrenner gives Gonzalez until March 2 to respond.

What makes you think the AG will abide by your wishes, Congressman? LS

Another great piece of news found on Raw Story.com

"SENIOR HOUSE REPUBLICAN WANTS ANSWERS ON WIRETAP PROGRAM

NEWSWEEK IS PERPLEXED WITH THE GOP IN THEIR DEFINING BOEHNER AS A FRESH NEW FACE TO FIGHT LOBBYING CORRUPTION

The infinitely tanned Mr. Boehner (who must be going to the skin cancer parlors or he is never at work and is instead beaching or skiing on the taxpayers’ or lobbyists’ dime) is as closely tied to lobbyists as Tom DeLay. Boehner actually rents an apartment in Washington from one of Abramoff's chief lobbyist.

This is Mr. Clean? LS

"How an eight-term congressman with extensive ties to K Street became the new face of the House Republican Party."

BOEHNER THE FRESH NEW FACE TO FIGHT LOBBYING CORRUPTION?

THE PRINCES OF DARKNESS:

HOW THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION’S AND ENRON’S STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES ARE THE SAME

Disturbing and brilliant analysis found on Alternet.com written by Onnesha Roychoudhuri. The author analyzes in piercing detail how the mindset that drove Enron to defraud millions of people is similar to that of the Bush Administration and how such a mindset is responsible for Bush's current legal woes.

The head honchos in the Bush and Enron groups are criminals of the highest order and yet every single player in both groups shares the belief that he has nothing wrong. Not one bloody little thing. The dudes are that bad. They possess no conscience whatsoever and all of them are morally and ethically bankrupt. The Bush/Enron soul mates are immersed in a form of narcissism that is so far gone that all of them are completely incurable. Hell, they don’t even know how sick and twisted they are. LS

Excerpts:

By seeking out loopholes in laws in order to fit their agenda, and deluding the public (and possibly themselves) into thinking that these things were done in public interest, both Enron and the Bush administration have proven masters of generating alternate realities. They are symbols of a new paradigm wherein claims of following the specific letter of the law are accompanied by an incredible contempt for the substance of it.

Many of those following the Enron trial have argued that this case will set a precedent for what will and will not be tolerated in the business world. But the implications of the trial stretch much further. This trial is less about the laws that Skilling and Lay broke and more to do with whether or not supposedly "good intentions" and a deliberately skewed sense of reality can excuse unconscionable actions.

"THE TRIAL OF TRUE BELIEVERS"