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I had to go to the county tax collector’s office to turn in the license plate for my Mother’s old car, and they had Faux Nooz on in the waiting room. Some twit [?Neil Cavuto?] was talking to “experts” about the “Dollar Bill” Jefferson indictment.

Thankfully I don’t have to write about it, because back on April 30^th August J. Pollak drew a cartoon that covered the conversation.

1944 – D-Day

President Franklin D Roosevelt told a news conference the invasion did not mean the war was over.

He said: “You don’t just walk to Berlin, and the sooner this country realizes that the better.”

FDR was a real “War President”. He didn’t go around telling people “Mission Accomplished” when there were a lot of battles to come. He was a Democrat and a believer in reality.

1966 – James Meredith, the first black man to enter the University of Mississippi, was shot and wounded after entering Mississippi on a civil rights march.

1968 – Robert Francis Kennedy died after being shot two days earlier following his announcement that he was running for President.

“Laws can embody standards; governments can enforce laws–but the final task is not a task for government. It is a task for each and every one of us. Every time we turn our heads the other way when we see the law flouted–when we tolerate what we know to be wrong–when we close our eyes and ears to the corrupt because we are too busy, or too frightened–when we fail to speak up and speak out–we strike a blow against freedom and decency and justice.”

I doubt he would have written a letter to argue for leniency for “Scooter” Libby.

Update: Cookie Jill at skippy the bush kangaroo posted the RFK anniversary first, and I notice we both chose the same quote.

The fine folks at Crooks and Liars have two video segments on Olbermann’s report: The Nexus Of Politics And Terror.

The timing of the announcements and arrests in these amateur “terrorist plots” is blatantly political. It is nothing more than a variation on the DHS color wheel from the Shrubbery’s first term. They won’t call the white supremacists and “Pro-Life” murderers and bombers terrorists, but the Animal Liberation Front, Earth First, and anyone who’s brown are so labeled.

I have no fondness for idiots who burn things in the name of the environment, because it is stupid – like the by-products of their fires don’t increase global warming. Nor do I appreciate people who “liberate” domesticated animals, so they can “die free” in a very short time because they don’t know how to live in the wild. Such people need to be prosecuted for their crimes, but they aren’t causing widespread panic.

I admit that I’m always suspicious when an “informant” is involved in an FBI arrest. My experience has always been that such people tend to be bigger criminals than those who are informed on. Talking about doing something that you obviously lack the ability to do, is not much of a threat.

The Justice Department has finally gotten around to indicting U.S. Rep. William Jefferson, and we can find out what he did.

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Nearly two years after federal agents reported finding $90,000 in a freezer in his Washington home, U.S. Rep. William Jefferson has been charged with a global campaign to solicit bribes, obstruct justice and engage in racketeering, Justice Department officials said Monday.

The veteran Louisiana Democrat faces 16 criminal counts, said Alice Fisher, assistant U.S. attorney general in the criminal division.

“This case is about greed, power and arrogance,” said Joe Persichini, director of the FBI’s Washington field office, which led the investigation.

In addition to the racketeering and solicitation charges, Jefferson has been charged with money laundering, wire fraud, conspiracy and violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act.

The bad news is that Alice Fisher, who heads the DOJ Criminal Division has never prosecuted a traffic ticket, and this the first case tried under the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Jefferson is a Louisiana politician, a group that make eels seem gritty by comparison. If it’s possible to slip away from a charge of corruption, a Louisiana pol will find it.

I hope this is enough for Speaker Pelosi to cut him loose and take him off the Homeland Security¹ Small Business committee.

1. Update: Mea culpa, I should have verified my memory. He was being considered for Homeland Security, but was finally put on the Small Business committee.

2. Update: He didn’t wait to be told: Jefferson steps down from House committee.

You would think that there would be a few competent lawyers to prevent errors like this. This is the sort of thing that cost junior assistant district attorneys their first cases.

The Associated Press is reporting – Charges dropped for two Guantanamo detainees:

GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL BASE, Cuba (AP) — Military judges dismissed charges Monday against a Guantanamo detainee who chauffeured Osama bin Laden and another who allegedly killed a U.S. soldier in Afghanistan, marking a setback to Washington’s attempts to try detainees in military court.

In back-to-back arraignments for Canadian Omar Khadr and Salim Ahmed Hamdan, of Yemen, the U.S. military’s cases against the alleged al Qaeda figures dissolved because, the two judges said, the government had failed to establish jurisdiction.

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Xan of Corrente has a truly bizarre find, the Shrubbery’s agitprop corps thinks that his plunging poll numbers are because the MSM isn’t getting out the White House message. As Price Floyd, the retired PR head of the State Department points out, when what you say doesn’t match what you do, people stop listening.

In the real world, people compare what is said with reality, and most people accept reality. The 30% who refuse to accept reality, are the only people listening anymore, and it doesn’t make any difference what medium is used for the propaganda.

Hipparchia has an article on the latest Florida election debacle: moving the date of the primary. Nothing is a simple as it seems, except the Florida legislature.

Apparently no one bothered to check with the political parties about the shift, and it turns out the primary may have no validity as far as the parties are concerned. Just because they use the labels “Republan” and “Democrat” doesn’t mean they are actually part of those parties – just look at Bill Nelson’s voting record.

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Michael, who is currently in Paris, has a post on Barack Obama’s foreign policy positions. Read it and see what you think.

I’m unhappy with it on several points, but it’s your vote.

Scarecrow at the Pyro Poodle Puddle notes that the Intelligence Science Board, the people who develop procedures and techniques for the intelligence agencies, have re-confirmed what everyone already knew: torture doesn’t work.

We have decades of study on this question, and every time the question is asked, the answer is the same: torture doesn’t work.

The purpose of torture is to coerce someone into doing something against their will, i.e. sign a false confession, make a propaganda statement. No one has ever gotten usable intelligence from torture, all that has ever been obtained is fodder for agitprop.

Laura Rozen found an interesting essay in her post, State, unplugged, by Price Floyd, recently retired director of media affairs at the State Department.

Speaking of the difficultly of his job, trying to put the best face on US foreign policy, Mr. Floyd notes:

We have eroded not only the good will of the post-9-11 days but also any residual appreciation from the countries we supported during the Cold War. This is due to several actions taken by the Bush administration, including pulling out of the Kyoto Protocol (environment), refusing to take part in the International Criminal Court (rule of law), and pulling out of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (arms control). The prisoner abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib and the continuing controversy over the detainees in Guantanamo also sullied the image of America.

His basic point is that people aren’t going to listen to what we say when they see what we do.

From the Associated Press: A border runs through it: Tiny town worries feds

DERBY LINE, Vermont (AP) — Step through the front door of the Haskell Library and you’re in the United States.

Walk across the carpeted floor to the circulation desk and you’re in Canada. But if you sit down on the couch, you’re back in the U.S.

The 106-year-old Romanesque building, which straddles the international border, has enjoyed a kind of informal immunity from border restrictions through the years.

But a U.S. Border Patrol crackdown focusing on three unguarded streets linking Derby Line with Stanstead, Quebec, across the border, could soon change that.

“There’s been an increase in illegal activity, both north and south, in the last little while,” said Mark Henry, the operations officer for the Border Patrol’s Swanton sector, which runs across northern New York, Vermont and New Hampshire. “There have been some significant cases.”

Under the crackdown, instead of parking their cars outside the library in Quebec and walking to the front door in the U.S., Canadian patrons would have to detour through one of two ports of entry linking the municipalities.

You can’t be too careful. Those Canadians in Quebec are known speakers of French.

The article at CNN has a picture inside the library with a line on the floor noting the border.

This is the only creature in Washington that knows the proper response to a Shrubbery press conference.

Update: There’s no truth to the rumor that his name is Jack, nor that he is associated with Hollywood. [His people and Michael Moore’s haven’t met – yet.]

According to the Washington Post: GSA chief violated Hatch Act, report says

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel has found that General Services Administration chief Lurita Alexis Doan violated the federal Hatch Act when she allegedly asked GSA political appointees during a January briefing how they could “help our candidates” win the next election, according to a report by the office.

The Hatch Act restricts executive branch employees from using their position for political purposes. The special counsel’s office, which investigates alleged violations of the law, said it would recommend that President Bush take disciplinary action against Doan, including possible removal from office.

“Her actions, to be certain, constitute an obvious misuse of her official authority and were made for the purpose of affecting the result of an election,” investigators said in a copy of the 19-page report obtained by The Washington Post. “One can imagine no greater violation of the Hatch Act than to invoke the machinery of an agency, with all its contracts and buildings, in the service of a partisan campaign to retake Congress and the Governors’ mansions.”

The report also says that her fate is in the President’s hands, but that overlooks the fact that she is subject to impeachment, like every other officer of the Federal government. This would be a nice “starter” impeachment to shake out any bugs in the system and give everyone a little practice.

EDB at Anecdotes from a Banana Republic in Beirut talks about Dubious Militants & the Violated Sanctity of the Bathroom. Her life is again disrupted by explosions and gunfire in Lebanon and the misinformation of the Lebanese government.

She remembered the Seymour Hersh article in The New Yorker [03/05/07], The Redirection, that mentioned the raise of Fatah al Islam, whom she calls a “kooky Salafist group”.

While you should read the entire article, the short form is Cheney and the Saudis are trying to offset the gains made by Iran as a result of US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and one of their moves was to have the Saniora government invite members of various “kooky Salafist groups” to Lebanon to offset Hezbollah.

[Read more →]

The Chelsea flower show is getting set to begin. This is one of the best shows in the world and they always have a nice website.