FLIPFLOPALOOOOOZA
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Bob FertikWant to meet our members? Click 'Join' above!
Mark your calendar: today, July 18, 2005, marks the beginning of the end of the Bush administration.
Here are the 13 words Bush said today that sealed his fate:
If someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration.
Unfortunately that's not what Bush has been saying for the past two years, particularly on June 20, 2004:
Q. Do you stand by your pledge to fire anyone found to have [leaked Valerie Plame's name]?
THE PRESIDENT: Yes.
Everyone in the blogosphere knows this. Everyone in the press corps knows this.
Bush just flip-flopped. You know how it goes: "First I was against leaking, before I was for it."
But this was no ordinary flip-flop, because he did it right in the face of the entire press corps, which was hanging on every word.
This flip-flop is in a class all by itself. I hereby christen it: FLIPFLOPALOOOOOZA!
Bush's credibility was in deep doo-doo long before FLIPFLOPALOOOOOZA.
According to a brand new ABC poll, only 25% think the White House is "fully cooperating" with the investigation, down from 47% when the investigation began in September 2003.
In a poll taken last week, only 41% thought Bush was "honest." When they take the next poll, Bush's "honesty" rating will be down around 1% - and only if they include people in permanent vegetative states (and those who think people in PVS can communicate).
I can't wait for the TV talk shows tonight - especially for Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, and Joe Scarborough. They can try to spin themselves all the way through to China, but the American people will just laugh at their stupidity.
And speaking of laughs - don't think Jon Stewart wasn't watching :)
This could be the best night on TV since Richard Nixon's resignation in 1974 - and that was before 24-hour cable!!!
Updates:
Poor Scotty. It's no fun defending lies after you've been caught lying for two solid years.
A friend raises the interesting point about whether there's a grandfather clause on the president's new no-felons-employed here rule. If you committed a crime during Iran-Contra, can you work in this administration? Or does the rule -- presumably -- only apply to felonies commited in the course of employment.
More Josh Marshall:
Gaggle follow-up to-do list.
A few points that might do with clarifying. Under the president's new policy, is an indictment sufficient for dismissal, or conviction necessary? Assuming conviction is necessary, can staff continue to serve while the case is taken up on appeal?
It turns out that we have two follow-up questions for the president: First, why don't you know all the facts about the Plame case yet? And second, how is it that you used to know all of the facts -- or at least enough of them to "know" that Rove wasn't involved -- but that you don't know all the facts anymore?
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Well Bob, you were right. The press is catching on.
President Bush on Monday vowed to fire anyone found by a federal probe to have acted illegally in the exposure of a
CIA agent, in a shift from a broader pledge to dismiss leakers in the case.
Bush, whose top political adviser Karl Rove has been caught up in the investigation, told reporters he did not know all the facts and urged them to wait until the inquiry was complete before "you jump to conclusions."
"I would like this to end as quickly as possible so we know the facts, and if someone committed a crime they will no longer work in my administration," Bush said at a news conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Asked on June 10, 2004, whether he stood by his earlier pledge to fire anyone found to have leaked the officer's name, Bush replied: "Yes." On Monday, he added the qualifier that it would have to be demonstrated that a crime was committed.
The Democratic Party accused Bush of lowering the "ethics bar."
White House spokesman Scott McClellan faced a new barrage of questions about the controversy after the president spoke, and he rejected suggestions Bush had added a new condition to his dismissal vow.
"No, I disagree," McClellan told reporters.
"I think that you should not read anything into it more than what the president said at this point," he said. read more...
Email the Whitehouse and Congress, here's some text to use:
From the Washington Post - July 21, 2005
-A classified State Department memorandum central to a federal leak investigation contained information about CIA officer Valerie Plame in a paragraph marked "(S)" for secret, a clear indication that any Bush administration official who read it should have been aware the information was classified, according to current and former government officials.
-It is a federal crime, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for a federal official to knowingly disclose the identity of a covert CIA official if the person knows the government is trying to keep it secret.
You can twist these words and spin as much as you want but we are getting closer to the truth. You know the truth. You are hiding behind a wall of lies and we are tearing it down! It would behoove you to come clean now if you desire to save face. If this drags out any longer then you can rest assured that we the people will scream for long prison terms befitting the crimes your people have committed in our collective name! America, our great country, deserves no less.
Fire Karl Rove!
fixing the crime...
Bush just made it OK --to be 'leaker' and /or a 'threat to national security'; until you are indicted and/or 'convicted' of the crime...
Bush just changed the rules for 'infractions of aides'; standards of accountability. --7/2005.
Just like everything else this administration done wrong; all they have to do "fix the policy, fix the rules, fix the documents".
Typical of 'White House 'crooks and liars.
Bush is playing around with
Bush is playing around with words again, as in "if a crime was committed". IMO, the BA is going to try and prove there was no "crime" technically, and therefore Rove does not have to be "fired".
Perhaps they will find someone else to fall on their sword for this, hoping to quiet the media storm.
This issue must be fanned to its full firey strength. Keep the heat on!
This isn't Watergate
I know that Turdgate isn't Watergate, but what message does it send to the American people about the value that this administration places on providing the American people with the real facts about international affairs and the need to go to war to defend ourselves. We are fighting a preemptive war because of the lies that we were told by Mr. Bush. I know that Mr. Bush was given the power to invade Iraq; however, he used the fear that he created in people by disseminating the lies of weapons of mass destruction to scare many of us and thus to steal a second election. He and his cronies were so upset that someone would tell the truth about Niger to the American people that they set out on a path to discredit and destroy Joe Wilson and his family. Why shouldn't we know the truth? Aren't our children the ones dying in Iraq? How can anyone trust anything Bush says? He has lied repeatedly and will twist the arms of anyone who stands in his way to dispute these lies. He is responsible for Rove. He appointed him, just as Nixon hired the Watergate burglars. Niger just proves that the Downing Memo was correct. Bush and company were trying to fix the intelligence. Joe Wilson got in their way and they went after him. The number of lies that we have been told are legion. Maybe there are some other people who have been ploughed over for telling the truth. It's all about Iraq and it stinks to high heaven. Turdgate is just the tip of this iceberg of lies. The real crime has been committed upon the American people.
Aaaaghh.
Bush was given the power to attack Iraq based upon a staged suite of "intelligence" that was set up in a special viewing room for the Senators. No notes, cameras, or electronic equipment was allowed in. Why do you think this was? Could it be so that there would be no evidence after the fact when the charade came crumbling down? I can just imagine what that room looked like. Picture a children's science exhibit at the museum. Fact sheets, connect-the-dot puzzles, mini-experiments and a big flat panel TV showing simulated missiles leaving Iraq inbound for US East Coast. They probably hired an advertising agency to prepare the "show" and had psychologists analyze and tweak it for maximum effect, using scantily clad Hooters girls.
When I hear republicans say that we voted for the authorization too, it makes me want to puke. No less than 100 Senators were blatantly lied to.
I like the Turdgate tag. Kinda catchy...
ever-changing story
Bio on George W. Bush from http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/presidents/george-w-bush/http://www.ro...
I don't underestimate Bush at all - I know one thing that he is VERY successful at and that is MANIPULATION! Can't the American people see what Bush is doing. We need to keep a list of the lies because I can't even keep up with the "Rove investigation" - the story changes almost every day. It's just like the reason for the Iraq war - if one can't be proved, invent another. Is anyone making a flowchart with all this on it?
First, it's "ridiculous" to think that Rove is involved with the leak.
Then, Rove didn't leak the name - just "Mr. Wilson's wife"
Then, Rove didn't leak name - he was "warning" the reporters NOT to print the story.
Then, Rove didn't leak the name - the reporter leaked the name to him - although he still isn't supposed to confirm or deny operative identity.
Now, I've heard that Plame was NOT a "covert" operative.
Have I forgotten anything? How many times must the story change before America chances on? Watching Ken Mehlman on Sunday, completely grossed me out! Sitting there saying that all the evidence exonerates Rove - it is truly sickening! What about the 1,000 lies made to cover up the first lie? I guess I am supposed to give them at least 10 tries before they get the story tweaked to their liking – Manipulation is all this White House knows.
"They want the federal government controlling Social Security
like it's some kind of federal program."
- George W. Bush in a debate in St. Charles, Mo., Nov. 2, 2000
No, Googal
They didn't underestimate him, they "misunderestimated" him. He said it several times in one speech!!
The beginning of the end?
From your lips to God's ears. The good news is that your comments were picked up by progressive radio host (and historian) Thom Hartmann. The bad news is that the Supreme Court nominee announcement is being pushed up (probably at Rove's request). We cannot allow Plame-gate to die anymore than the Downing Street Memo [really Minutes] and the big problems with electronic voting. We have our work cut out for us!
Peace,
Kate Anne
Why ain't more folks talking
about this????
http://www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=6711
But people are talking...that is, real people...not
the Rove combine/the Bush cabal/the Cheney misfits...and so on.
Here is one good item found at DU from Bernard Weiner at RawStory:
http://www.crisispapers.org
just scroll down to Bernard Weiner, title: "Rove-Plame scandal leading to deeper white house horrors."
I hope that Fitzgerald has good bodyguards/drivers so that he can avoid an unavoidable accident.
Rove & Co is finding out, belatedly, that it difficult to continue to juggle pumpkins and chainsaws.
Plamegate on Hardball all week
with "things you didn't know"
I have long since come to believe that people never mean half of what they say, and that it is best to disregard their talk and judge only their actions. Dorothy Day
Coming to you tv soon
Coming to your tv soon, the parade of WH frogmarchers.
Pay per view
Hell, I would pay for a pay-per-view show!
"They want the federal government controlling Social Security
like it's some kind of federal program."
- George W. Bush in a debate in St. Charles, Mo., Nov. 2, 2000
LOL
That would be reality TV worth watching...
Bush WMD Words of Mass Deception
Immediately after the London bombing liar Bush starts pushing It was "Iraq Al Queda" facts have proven that these terrorists were Britians of Pakistani desent who had traveled to Pakistan for training. Idiot boy Bush looks the fool for pushing more WMD in trying to pursuade the world that he has made it safer. I ask the London public -- Do you feel safer?? Who is keeping track of all Bush's lies and flip flops and why are they waiting to pounce on them. Are the Democrats waiting for the 2008 debates to start the attack??? We need to sieze each and every opportunity to blast Bush and or the Republican party and we need to repeat the proof of each lie over and over and use Bush's policy of "tell it over enough times any anybody will believe anything". We need to make it (the party)look so pathetic (which it is) that no one will want to be associated with it or(him). We need to start now and be inexhaustable in our pressure--- I would have thought that someone would have picked up on this Republican trait by now and tried to duplicate it within the Democratic party (now known as tired old Democrats) Wake up damn it -- I am 67 and a Skydiver and could run the legs off any of you wimppy politicians. Get some spunk!!!
Bob Limbaugh (not rush)
3914 Greenview Pines Ct
Orlando, Fl 32817