Pro-Impeachment Ornament To Hang On White House Christmas Tree

Amazingly, it is December already and 2008 is coming to an end. Of course that means we're in the throes of the holiday season and for those of the Christian faith, spruce and pine trees are being dressed up in millions of homes across the country.

Over at the White House, George and Laura's last tree will be adorned with a very special ornament care of an artist in Seattle. That is, at least until they get wind of this story that sweeping the blogs today.

From The Washington Post:

When Deborah Lawrence got the invitation from the White House, the Seattle-based artist decided to make a lefty political statement.

But she never expected it would hang on the official Christmas tree.

Laura Bush asked members of Congress to pick local painters to decorate ornaments for this year's 20-foot Fraser fir in the Blue Room. The globes (to be unveiled by the first lady tomorrow) are supposed to showcase something special about each congressional district. Washington state's Rep. Jim McDermott contacted a local arts organization, which asked Lawrence, a collage artist, to create the local entry.

"I was at first nauseated, then realized it was an opportunity," said Lawrence, 55, who frequently combines politics and satire in her work and saw this as the perfect way "to highlight Jim McDermott because he's a hero of mine."

Now that is an early, heartwarming Christmas story! The White House claims they'll leave it up but you never know how Bush will take the news of a little artistic ornament that speaks truth inside the Bush's current residence.

The White House Has A Fact Checker?

With all the wasteful spending in Washington, one particular job is on or near the top of the list when it comes to ridiculous positions. There are many different spot one can fill in the White House, and particularly in the Bush White House. Yet one job that has no business being there is that of Staci A. Wheeler....the White House fact checker.

From The Washington Post:

Staci A. Wheeler, the White House's director of fact checking, is -- at $60,000 -- either being paid way too little or way too much, depending on how you want to look at it.

Even veteran Washington correspondent Dan Froomkin knows what's up. Instead of trying to keep up this facade of truthfulness (truthiness is in no short supply) they could use that sixty grand to pay down the debt, or even start a truthiness department. No offense to Ms. Wheeler, but come on, who do you think you're fooling?

Waxman Wants To Eliminate The Next Karl Rove

The current Karl Rove has already done irreparable damage to the American political debate and the Constitution by his sinister and illegal actions. He has already left the current White House, escaping from justice with the help of the unconstitutional actions of George Bush such as floating above the law with a Congress too inept to do its part to stop him. Despite the shamefulness of many invertebrates on the Hill, there is hope for the future from one Representative who walks with his shoulders back and his head held high.

From The Hill:

Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), who has primary jurisdiction over the executive branch, is considering legislation to eliminate Karl Rove-type advisers in future administrations.

The chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hints broadly that such a bill could ban the use of federal funds to finance such a politically partisan office.

“Why should we be using taxpayer dollars to have a person solely in charge of politics in the White House?” Waxman said in an interview. “Can you imagine the reaction if each member of Congress had a campaign person paid for with taxpayer dollars?”

Congressional oversight of its members can be stringent at times when it comes to mixing politics and government business, at least superficially. Seriously though, the White House has no business employing Karl Rove or anyone else like him in a political role. For the past seven and a half years George Bush has treated the White House as a never ending political tool to extend power as far as he can possibly reach for. Having Karl Rove around for the majority of that time was a huge asset in that regard. Now in 2009 as we try to return to a more democratic country, ridding ourselves of a political office in the White House is smart idea, though still far short of holding Karl Rove and the rest of Bush's cronies responsible for their heinous crimes.

Army Wants To Clean Up Contracting, White House Tells Them Not To

With the army facing ridiculous contracting budgets, higher-ups in the force decided that something had to be done to stop the financial bleeding of the military branch. Coming up with ideas to stop the no-bid contracts, fraud, waste and organizational structure that has been depriving the troops sounds like a plan. Though when it comes to waste, the White House is the expert on making sure it doesn't stop, so they forced the Army to not do anything.

From The Huffington Post:

The Office of Management and Budget, President Bush's administrative arm, has shot down a service plan to add five active-duty generals who would oversee purchasing and monitor contractor performance.

The boost in brass was a key recommendation from a blue-ribbon panel that last fall criticized the Army for contracting failures that undermined the war effort in Iraq and Afghanistan, wasted U.S. tax dollars, and sparked dozens of procurement fraud investigations.

As the Army's contracting budget ballooned _ from $46 billion in 2002 to $112 billion in 2007 _ it had too few experienced people negotiating and buying equipment and supplies, according to the panel. Worse still, there wasn't a single Army general in a job with contracting responsibilities. That meant the profession had little clout at a critical time.

An approximate 200% increase in costs over five years is astronomical and the army is right to do something about it. Unfortunately the OMB rejected their proposal without even giving a reason. Perhaps they might find something not quite legit? Uncovering no-bid contracts and what prompted them maybe? Though honestly at this point they might as well let it be unearthed, because no one is courageous enough to prosecute anyone in the Administration for all the high crimes we know about already. Everybody knows Congress has given up their duty and right to be a co-equal branch, so why not just let it all hang out.

White House Scorns Scotty

The day of and the day after Politico got a hold of Scotty's new book about his life and times at the White House, the Republican machine kicked into high gear. It is easy for them to dismiss anyone outside their tight, little circle, but when one of their own turned against them to make a profit....well, watch out Scotty!

From The Huffington Post:

The White House responded angrily Wednesday to McClellan's confessional memoir, calling it self-serving sour grapes.

"Scott, we now know, is disgruntled about his experience at the White House," said current White House press secretary Dana Perino, a former deputy to McClellan. "We are puzzled. It is sad. This is not the Scott we knew."[...]

"Not once did Scott approach me _ privately or publicly _ to discuss any misgivings he had about the war in Iraq or the manner in which the White House made the case for war," McClellan's predecessor as press secretary, Ari Fleischer, said.

Said Fran Townsend, former head of the White House-based counterterrorism office and now a CNN commentator: "This now strikes me as self-serving, disingenuous and unprofessional."

Perino described Bush as "surprised" by the book but said the president wouldn't have anything to say about it. "He has more pressing matters than to spend time commenting on books by former staffers," she said.

Karl Rove even said, get this, he sounded like a left-wing blogger. Well Karl, not quite. He certainly did expose your criminality and that of the others around you, but like any other self-serving Republican, he made his dime on someone else's expense and remained ethically dubious about his own misgivings. No one seriously believes that crap about Scotty thinking what he said was true when he said it and then realizing it was wrong. That isn't surprising, in fact, it all makes sense. I wonder who'll come out with the next book, perhaps Dana Perino? Tony Snow? Maybe they could pen something together and title it "I don't and didn't know."

NY Times Strikes A Raw Nerve In The White House

When the powers that be get angry at something one does, you know you are on the right path. Well the New York Times is definitely on a speedy track to finding out the Bush Administration's role in the destruction of the 'torture tapes' the CIA made as they waterboarded terrorists in their custody.

Dana Perino blasted the newspaper for printing a story that showed the Administration was more involved in the destruction of the tapes than they let on. The White House at least wants the sub-heading changed, from "White House Role Was Wider Than It Said" to.....well, probably something that reads like "What tapes?" or "Bush saves cat from tree!"

From Yahoo News:

The Times cited "conflicting accounts" as to whether any of the lawyers supported destroying the tapes, but cited one former top intelligence official with direct knowledge of the matter as saying that "there had been 'vigorous sentiment' among some top White House officials to destroy the tapes."

Other officials told the Times that no-one at the White House called for destroying the tapes -- but that no White House lawyer ordered that they be preserved or warned that destroying them might be illegal.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino angrily denounced the Times's sub-headline -- "White House Role Was Wider Than It Said" -- in a highly unusual written statement that demanded a formal correction.

"The New York Times' inference that there is an effort to mislead in this matter is pernicious and troubling, and we are formally requesting that NYT correct the sub-headline of this story," she said.

Perino said that the White House has simply refused to comment on the matter beyond saying that US President George W. Bush did not recall being aware of the videos or the decision to destroy them prior to being briefed recently.

Well of course we are going to get a "no comment" out of them now, we wouldn't want poor Dana to perjure herself or anything. Not that anyone in the White House would commit a crime like that.

Unfortunately for the Times and journalism as a whole, the Times submitted to their pressure and caved in, changing the heading.

Shredding Soars At The White House

As we have become well aware in seven years of the Bush Administration, knowledge and information is bad, especially if it leaks to the press and it implicates the White House in something wrong, or even illegal. That's why George is giving a certain segment of the economy a boost, those hard working shredders in the D.C. area. It's a win-win situation, information gets destroyed and people in D.C. can get jobs as shredders, improving the economy....or something like that.

From Radar:

Behold, the Bush Administration in chart form: Federal spending on paper shredding has increased more than 600 percent since George W. Bush took office. This chart, generated by usaspending.gov, the U.S. government's brand spanking new database of federal expenditures, shows spending on "contracts for paper shredding services" going back to 2000. Click here for the full, heartbreaking breakdown. In 2000, the feds spent $452,807 to make unpleasant truths go away; by 2006, the "Cheney Effect" had bumped that number up to $2.9 million. And by halfway through 2007, the feds almost matched that number, with $2.7 million and counting. Pretty much says it all.

Yes, that does pretty much say it all.

There must be so many incriminating documents on that block of Pennsylvania Avenue that shredders from across the country flock to D.C. to get a chance to destroy all sorts of information. Now my question is, for $2.9 million dollars, what is the cost ratio for one piece of paper. That would be interesting to find out.

More Obstruction Of Justice From The White House

As we learn that one man in the White House has given up his appeal of being found guilty of obstruction of justice, another count can be levied against the White House. The last one was for uncovering the identity of undercover agent Valerie Plame. This one is for destroying evidence of torture, despite being told by a judge not to erase the tapes.

From The Huffington Post:

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration was under court order not to discard evidence of detainee torture and abuse months before the CIA destroyed videotapes that revealed some of its harshest interrogation tactics[...].

The CIA destroyed the tapes in November 2005. That June, U.S. District Judge Henry H. Kennedy Jr. had ordered the Bush administration to safeguard "all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay."

U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler issued a nearly identical order that July.

At the time, that seemed to cover all detainees in U.S. custody. But Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, the terrorism suspects whose interrogations were videotaped and then destroyed, weren't at Guantanamo Bay. They were prisoners that existed off the books _ and apparently beyond the scope of the court's order.

Attorneys say that might not matter. David H. Remes, a lawyer for Yemeni citizen Mahmoad Abdah and others, asked Kennedy this week to schedule a hearing on the issue.

Though Remes acknowledged the tapes might not be covered by Kennedy's order, he said, "It is still unlawful for the government to destroy evidence, and it had every reason to believe that these interrogation records would be relevant to pending litigation concerning our client."

Now President Bush is claiming that he only heard about the matter last week. This proves yet again that George is either lying or cannot control his White House. I'm gonna go with the former on this, the President had to know what was going on. His track record for telling the truth is far too f%*ked up to believe him now. I'd believe that he quit drinking cold turkey for twenty years before I'd take his word on not torturing people.

Olbermann Talks About The White House In Crisis

And what a crisis it is:

What Did You Get George Bush For Christmas?

The holidays are fast approaching, people are going gift-crazy. What to get mom, dad, sister, brother, etc etc. It can be so much that we forget to about that poor guy in the White House. What, me get a gift for the worst President in history? What would a crazy left wing, commenting from left field want to get George for Christmas? Hint, it is something he and the country desperately need to look at.

From The Center for Constitutional Rights:

The President needs to be reminded that he swore an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States-his administration has been systematically destroying the Constitution since he took office.

With your help, CCR will flood the Oval Office with copies of the Constitution this holiday season. If you sign this letter, CCR will send it along with a copy of the Constitution to the White House as a seasonal reminder that the Constitution needs to be upheld ; not destroyed.

We have already met our first goal of 25,000 signatures, let's try to send President Bush more than 50,000 copies of the Constitution by January 2008.

So come on and help out, cross George off your list for this year's gifting extravaganza, do your country a favor in the process.

Psst, They're In The White House

The weapons inspectors should have stayed in Washington to find the WMDs. Now the Bush Administration doesn't talk about it, but we must still remember all of their lies.

Um, Dana?

She may say whatever she wants, whether it is believable or not, but she might want to start by fixing that sign behind her.

Ah, The Irony Of It All

If there is one thing you must applaud the Bush Administration for, its their chutzpah. The irony, sad and pathetic as it is, is quite funny when you look at their record and compare it to their actions. Take for example the crisis in Pakistan. The dictator that we have given a billion dollars a year to fight terrorism has now shut down any type of democracy that might have been progressing in that cataclysmic country. The White House has some advice for them (no, not this advice) and from it, you can hear the jokes burgeoning out of the statements.

From ThinkProgress:

During today’s White House press briefing, spokeswoman Dana Perino condemned Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s declaration of “emergency rule” in Pakistan. She said that the administration is “deeply disappointed” by the measure, which suspends the country’s constitution, and believes it is never “reasonable” to “restrict constitutional freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism”:

Q: Is it ever reasonable to restrict constitutional freedoms in the name of fighting terrorism?

MS. PERINO: In our opinion, no.

George Bush would never, never ever, never restrict our freedoms, right?

"Helping The Terrorists" Meme Does Not Work Anymore

Someone should tell Assistant Attorney General Ken Wainstein that certain GOP talking points do not hold weight anymore. The whole, "you're either with us or against us" and "releasing information that regards the Bush Administration will help the terrorists" does faze most Americans and certainly none that can think clearly. Any shred of trust that the people had in the Bush White House has been gone for a long time now. So Wainstein really should just can it. Instead, he couldn't resist but opine anyways.

From RawStory:

Defending the Bush administration's efforts to immunize telecommunications companies from any responsibility for their assistance in the likely illegal surveillance of Americans after 9/11, a top national security official said any discussion of US surveillance efforts aids terrorists.

"Every nugget of information that comes out in the course of these investigations helps our enemies," Assistant Attorney General Kenneth L. Wainstein, who oversees the Justice Department's national security division, said Wednesday on Capitol Hill. Wainstein was testifying to the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is considering legislation to update a foreign surveillance law.

A key sticking point in the debate over the government's surveillance authority is whether the updated law will provide legal immunity to telecommunications companies that facilitated the National Security Agency's warrantless eavesdropping on Americans' phone calls. President Bush authorized the emergency surveillance, which proceeded without court oversight, immediately after Sept. 11, but many of the program's details remain unknown.

Now lets translate all that garbage. The "enemies" we are talking about are the Congress and the American people that want to hear the truth and serve justice to the telecommunication companies that went along with Bush's illegal wiretapping program. The actual terrorists couldn't give a damn if records were disclosed that showed anti-war protesters and political opponents of the President were wiretapped. As many people already know, this is just a pathetic way for the Administration to deflect embarrassing and incriminating information from getting out.

This Is What Democracy Looks Like In 2007

Bush Has A Manual On How To Deal With People

When I say people, I mean the public that doesn't like him enough to wear anti-Bush t-shirts and protest his ass. Since three out of four Americans and a higher percentage of foreigners detest his Presidency, this manual covers a lot of people. It is a sad situation when things have to come to this between the President and the people he claims to represent. When you can't even face the public, and issue guidelines for the secret service and local police forces.....it makes you wonder what country we really live in.

From ABC's The Blotter:

"As a last resort, security should remove the demonstrators from the event," the manual instructs. The government turned over a heavily redacted version of the manual to the ACLU in the course of the lawsuit.

The first step to keeping demonstrators out of events, the manual tells the president's event staff, is to encourage the Secret Service to "ask the local police department to designate a protest area...preferably not in view of the event site or the motorcade route."

Inside the event space, the manual advises, White House advance personnel should preposition "rally squads" that can swarm any protesters at the event and "use their signs and banners as shields between the demonstrators and the main press platform."

The rally squads can be formed using "college/young republican organizations, local athletic teams, and fraternities/sororities," the manual notes.

The squads can "lead supportive chants to drown out the protesters (USA!, USA!, USA!)," it suggests.

The information was made public when the ACLU successfully sued the White House after ejecting a couple that were protesting the President. Jeffery and Nicole Rank were forcibly removed from a taxpayer-funded Presidential trip that led to their arrest. No charges were pressed, but the incident was enough to make the couple sue Bush for infringing on their rights. The manual didn't really take those little things into account...only to make Georgie look good and not have to deal with citizens that want to express their First Amendment rights.

Silly, I know, those 'rights' are so pesky for Bush and his thugs.

More Rats Jumping Off U.S.S. White House Disaster

Tony Snow"job" told the White House Press Corp today in a not so clever way that he was going to be resigning soon due to 'financial reasons' (yeah, sure Tony) but did not give a specific date. He also mentioned others were going to be departing their posts at the White House. It seems that whoever joined the Bush team has left with deep scars. Tony already had some bad bruises from working at Fox, the White House added the lacerations. The full list was compiled by TP today.

From ThinkProgress:

Snow’s upcoming departure makes him one of a bevy of top administration officials who, since November, have left their posts. ThinkProgress has compiled a list of some of the key resignations:

- White House Senior Political Adviser Karl Rove
- White House Counselor Dan Bartlett
- White House Budget Director Rob Portman
- White House Counsel Harriet Miers
- White House Political Director Sara Taylor
- White House Director of Strategic Initiatives Pete Wehner
- White House Deputy National Security Adviser J.D. Crouch
- Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty
- Acting Associate Attorney General William Mercer
- Justice Department White House liaison Monica Goodling
- Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
- Army Secretary Francis Harvey
- Joint Chief of Staffs Chairman Peter Pace
- Secretary of Veterans Affairs Jim Nicholson
- U.N. Ambassador John Bolton
- USAID Director Randall Tobias

With so many key staff departures, the AP reports that “Bush has decided he might get more done in his final months by going it alone,” making increased use of executive orders and veto power.

Bush is definitely "going at it alone." He lost the support of most Americans a long time ago. Only the die-hard ideologues remain and even some of them have left him to twist in the perilous winds of history. He continues to make a mockery of our democracy and will stop at nothing to run America into the ground. We will be left to pick up the pieces in 2009 and rebuild from there.

White House Subpoenas Michael Moore

Apparent the White House has nothing better to do with its time than harass Michael Moore. The President had him subpoenaed yesterday in order to testify about his trip to Cuba. Since Mr. Moore documented his excursion to Cuba, enabling 9/11 victims to receive ridiculously inexpensive treatment for the ailments that our own government refuses, there is no reason for this. If the White House wants to know what went on, they should see SiCKO.

From RawStory:

Moore told the audience that he was notified of the subpoena backstage.

"I haven't even told my own family yet," Moore remarked. "I was just informed when I was back there with Jay that the Bush administration has now issued a subpoena for me."

Moore declared that the subpoena was unwarranted, saying, "this was a work of journalism."

"I was there to help them and now I’m going to face this further harassment from the Bush people," Moore said, according to a transcript. “Aren’t they busy with something else?"

Obviously the White House refuses to be busy with anything that might actually be good for the country. Instead they take up all their time with hiding secrets from Congress and pulling this type of crap. Leave Michael Moore alone and testify in front of Congress about wiretapping, the Attorney-Gate mess and all the other crimes committed at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

The Arrogance of Tony Snow

Les' questions and Tony Snow's lecture I posted about before is nothing compared to this video clipping. His arrogance is incredible and overpowering and reeks of the contempt of the White House for the rule of law in our nation.

Call The White House (Not The Switchboard!)

Much thanks to the CorrenteWire for doing due diligence in finding the telephone numbers inside the White House. No longer can you be stopped by the switchboard, the brave blog found direct numbers for several offices within the Executive Office along with the (separate?) Vice-President's office uptown.

From CorrenteWire:

Most of the numbers in the Directory match what I’ve been able to glean from open sources, so it looks authentic. The offices are taken from the White House site, and the numbers are formatted like so: 1-202-555-1212 / 1-202-555-1212, where the first number is via internet search, and the second, italic number is from the Directory:
The offices included in the Executive Office of the President.

1. Council of Economic Advisers: (202) 456-1414 / (202) 395-5084
2. Council on Environmental Quality: (202) 395-5750 / (202) 456-6224
3. Office of Administration: (202)456-7921 / (202) 456-2861
4. Office of Management and Budget: (202) 395-4840 / (202) 395-4840
5. Office of National Drug Control Policy: (202) 395-6738
6. Office of Science & Technology Policy: (202) 456-6021 / (202) 456-7116
7. President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board: (202) 456-2352
8. United States Trade Representative: (202) 395-7360 / (202) 395-3230

The offices included in the White House Office.

1. Domestic Policy Council: (202) 456-1111 / (202) 456-5594
2. Homeland Security Council: (202) 456-1700
3. National Economic Council: (202) 456-1414 / (202) 456-2800
4. Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives: (202) 456-6708 / (202) 456-6708
5. Office of the First Lady: (202) 456-7074 / (202) 456-7064
6. Office of National AIDS Policy : (202) 456-7320 / (202) 456-7320
7. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board: (202) 456-1066
8. USA Freedom Corps: 1-877-872-2677 / 1-877-USA-CORPS
9. White House Fellows Office: (202) 395-4522 / (202) 395-4522
10. White House Military Office: / (202) 757-2151

And the Vice Presidential Entity, whatever branch he ends up in:

1. Shooter: (202) 456-9000 / (202) 456-1414
2. Shooter’s Moll, Lynne: (202) 456-7489

Like Corrente asks, please be polite and don't yell too loudly into the phone when expressing your displeasure with our corrupt Decider. Better yet, get your liberal juices flowing and be creative. If they can come up with myriad ways of thwarting the constitution and our faith in good government, so can we by exposing it. Goodluck callers!