WASHINGTON – Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald has informed Karl Rove’s lawyer that he will not be prosecuted in the CIA leak case, NBC News reports.
By JOHN SOLOMON, Associated Press Writer Sat May 6, 7:03 PM ET
WASHINGTON – Prosecutors have e-mails showing Rep. Tom DeLay’s office knew lobbyist Jack Abramoff had arranged the financing for the GOP leader’s controversial European golfing trip in 2000 and was concerned “if someone starts asking questions.”
House ethics rules bar lawmakers from accepting free trips from lobbyists. DeLay, R-Texas, reported to Congress that a Republican advocacy group had paid for the spring 2000 trip that DeLay, his wife and top aides took to Scotland and England.
Pants on fire!
Oh, that’s just a stereotype, it’s not really true. 
From a Conservative, a Lack Of Compassion for Ralph Reed
By Thomas B. Edsall and Dan Balz
Sunday, March 26, 2006; Page A05
Reed, Olasky wrote March 4, “has damaged Christian political work by confirming for some the stereotype that evangelicals are easily manipulated and that evangelical leaders use moral issues to line their own pockets.”
Bush Using Straw-Man Arguments in Speeches – Yahoo! News
Bush Using Straw-Man Arguments in Speeches
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer Sat Mar 18, 12:52 PM ET
WASHINGTON – “Some look at the challenges in Iraq and conclude that the war is lost and not worth another dime or another day,” President Bush said recently.
Another time he said, “Some say that if you’re Muslim you can’t be free.”
“There are some really decent people,” the president said earlier this year, “who believe that the federal government ought to be the decider of health care … for all people.”
Of course, hardly anyone in mainstream political debate has made such assertions.
When the president starts a sentence with “some say” or offers up what “some in Washington” believe, as he is doing more often these days, a rhetorical retort almost assuredly follows.
The device usually is code for Democrats or other White House opponents. In describing what they advocate, Bush often omits an important nuance or substitutes an extreme stance that bears little resemblance to their actual position.
He typically then says he “strongly disagrees” — conveniently knocking down a straw man of his own making.
Bush routinely is criticized for dressing up events with a too-rosy glow. But experts in political speech say the straw man device, in which the president makes himself appear entirely reasonable by contrast to supposed “critics,” is just as problematic.
Because the “some” often go unnamed, Bush can argue that his statements are true in an era of blogs and talk radio. Even so, “‘some’ suggests a number much larger than is actually out there,” said Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania.
A specialist in presidential rhetoric, Wayne Fields of Washington University in St. Louis, views it as “a bizarre kind of double talk” that abuses the rules of legitimate discussion.
From the White House:
The President intends to nominate David C. Sanborn, of Virginia, to be Administrator of the Maritime Administration of the Department of Transportation. Mr. Sanborn currently serves as Director of Operations for Europe and Latin America at DP World. Prior to this, he served as Senior Vice President for North America Service Delivery at CMA-CGM (America) LLC. Mr. Sanborn also served as Vice President for Network-Operations for American President Lines, Pte. Ltd. Earlier in his career, he served as Director for Operations for Sea-Land Service, Inc. Mr. Sanborn is a retired Lieutenant Junior Grade for the United States Naval Reserve. He received his bachelor’s degree from the United States Merchant Marine Academy.
More at Raw Story
And wasn’t it just last week that Ann Coulter, the darling of the GOP was trashing Arabs as ragheads? How is it then that Bush is now suggesting it’s somehow racist to want to stop the UAE from controlling several major US ports. That’s the same UAE that Osama bin Laden’s operatives still use as a logistical hub years after more than half the Sept. 11 hijackers flew directly from Dubai to the United States in the final preparatory stages for the attack.
So, what’s really behind the deal? Who benefits financially from this deal? Or what kind of extortion is going on that would prompt BushCo to threaten a veto of any legislation that would get in the way of this deal going through? Something stinks.
Bush picks Abramoff prosecutor for federal judgeship
Democrats wonder about the timing of president’s move
Philip Shenon, Elisabeth Bumiller, New York Times
Friday, January 27, 2006
Washington — The investigation into Jack Abramoff, the disgraced Republican lobbyist, took a provocative new turn Thursday when the Justice Department said the chief prosecutor in the inquiry would step down next week because he had been nominated to a federal judgeship by President Bush.
The prosecutor, Noel Hillman, is chief of the department’s Office of Public Integrity, and the move ends his involvement in an investigation that has reached into the administration as well as into the top ranks of the Republican leadership on Capitol Hill.
Democrats swiftly questioned the move’s timing and called for a special prosecutor as Bush faced a barrage of questions about why he would not make public “grip and grin” photographs of himself with Abramoff. The photographs apparently show Bush and Abramoff smiling at White House Hanukkah parties and Republican fundraising receptions.
Promote the guy before he does any more damage…
Mr. Abramoff’s Meetings, Again
Saturday, January 28, 2006; Page A20
IF A TYPICAL picture is worth a thousand words, a picture of President Bush with Jack Abramoff, we suppose, might be worth about 10,000. And so we understand the desire of our more visually inclined colleagues to obtain photos of the president and the criminal. But the focus on the photos distracts from a more important question that the president managed to duck in his news conference Thursday: Who in the White House and administration met with Mr. Abramoff, and what were those meetings about?
It is no answer to this question to say, as Mr. Bush did, that “there is a serious investigation going on by federal prosecutors” and “if they believe something was done inappropriately in the White House, they’ll come and look, and they’re welcome to do so.” It is no answer to dismiss questions about Mr. Abramoff and the White House, as press secretary Scott McClellan has, by calling them a “fishing expedition.” If there is one thing that is now clear, anything involving Mr. Abramoff is, by definition, fishy.
Investigator: U.S. ‘Outsourced’ Torture
By JAN SLIVA, Associated Press Writer 18 minutes ago
STRASBOURG, France – The head of a European investigation into alleged CIA secret prisons in Europe said Tuesday there was evidence the United States outsourced torture to other countries and it was likely European governments knew about it.
We outsource it to others to do it for us. See, that’s different than us doing it, and it’s ok. Nothing to see here, move along now…
Bush Aide Says Abramoff Photos Coincidence
1 hour, 59 minutes ago
WASHINGTON – An adviser to President Bush said Monday that Bush’s photographs in the company of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff amount to a coincidence and shouldn’t be interpreted any more seriously than that.
Guy raises over $100K for you, and you don’t know who he is?
