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Sleepy Time Time

Good. Cheney was in need of a good ripping!

ATHENS, Georgia (AP) – Vice President Dick Cheney has bullied federal agencies and given absurd advice about the nation’s risk and Iraq, Walter Mondale said Friday.

Mondale said behavior such as Cheney’s never would have been tolerated when Mondale was vice president.

“I think that Cheney has stepped way over the line,” Mondale said at the opening of a three-day conference about former President Jimmy Carter at the University of Georgia.

Mondale, who served under Carter, said Cheney and his assistants pressured federal agencies as they prepared information for President Bush.

“I think Cheney’s been at the center of cooking up farcical estimates of national risks, weapons of mass destruction and the 9/11 connection to Iraq,” he said.

That does not serve the president, because he needs facts, Mondale said.

“If I had done as vice president what this vice president has done, Carter would have thrown me out of there,” Mondale said. “I don’t think he could have tolerated a vice president over there pressuring and pushing other agencies, ordering up different reports than they wanted to send us. I don’t think he would have stood for it.”

More at CNN

30 months???? How bout 30 years! Plea bargains and alcohol rehab. I love how all these crooks end up in alcohol rehab. I got news, alcohol doesn’t make you a corrupt bribe taking crook. You know, federal employees are subject to random drug testing. I think that every member of congress and even the White House staff (including the President) should be subject to drug and alcohol testing. I mean afterall, the President has his hand on the nuclear button…..do we want a drunk or drug addict to be the one with his hand on that button? Just a thought….
Dang…I sure wanted to see him put away for longer than 30 months!

(CBS/AP) Former Rep. Bob Ney was sentenced Friday to 30 months in federal prison for his role in a congressional bribery scandal.

Ney was the first member of Congress to plead guilty to corruption charges in the scandal revolving around Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff - but that investigation continues and he might not be the last, CBS News correspondent Bob Fuss reports.

Ney admitted he took gifts, meals, free trips and even gambling chips from those who wanted favors, including Abramoff. Ney, who was an influential member of the House Republican leadership, denied wrongdoing right up until he accepted a plea bargain, after which he immediately entered an alcohol rehabilitation program.

Read more at CBSNews

Russ Feingold questioning Alberto Gonzales

I still want to see someone wipe that friggin smirk off this evil bastard’s face.

This is for Patriot. I have tried to find the transcript of his speech, to no avail. If anyone has it, I’d appreciate you sending it to me at questiongirl@blueherald.com. Too bad McGovern isn’t still in the Senate!

Former Sen. George McGovern gave one hell of a speech at the National Press Club in Washington last Friday, but it didn’t seem to get much attention.

The 84-year old South Dakota Democrat and 1972 presidential candidate, whose antiwar campaign was snowed under by Richard Nixon, gave another scorching antiwar speech, this time against the Iraq war.

He said he hopes to live to be 100 because he wants to “get American soldiers out of the Iraqi hellhole Bush-Cheney and their neo-conservative theorists have created in what was one called the cradle of civilization. ”

McGovern, who served 18 years in the Senate before losing his seat to Republican Jim Abdnor in 1980, hasn’t been heard from much lately, but he was definitely front and center as he challenged President Bush by directly addressing him with “some impertinent questions.”

McGovern, whose own military credentials are unassailable — he flew 35 missions as a B-25 pilot in World War II — asked a series of 16 questions of Bush, ranging from “How can you sleep at night knowing that 3,014 young Americans have died in a war you mistakenly ordered?,” to “… after such needless death and destruction, first in the Vietnamese jungle and now in the Arabian desert, can you order 21,500 more American troops to Iraq?”

Read more at the HuffingtonPost

You know, I think most of these committee hearings are on C-Span 3, which I don’t have. Damn it. This one should be a good one! I have to check and see if I can watch or listen to these live on C-Span.

Rep. Waxman has requested the testimony of three key witnesses regarding Iraq reconstruction efforts at the first Oversight Committee hearing on waste, fraud, and abuse, to be held the week of February 6th.

L. Paul Bremer, former head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, has been requested to testify regarding reconstruction activities during his tenure at the CPA, as well as an audit report from January 2005 that concluded that more than $8.8 billion in cash under CPA’s control was disbursed without adequate financial controls or accountability.

Stuart Bowen, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction, has been requested to testify regarding the audits and field inspections conducted by his office related to reconstruction activities in Iraq.

Timothy Carney, Coordinator for Iraqi Transitional Assistance, has been requested to testify regarding the newly created position of Coordinator, his role in assisting the Iraqi government with reconstruction efforts, and his prior service in Iraq.

Source: here

The Chinese have the new PlayStation 3 now and Bushie is upset. Take your ball and run on home, G-Dubya.

“…asserting the United States’ right to deny adversaries access to space for hostile purposes“… What arrogance we have!

U.S. criticizes China over missile test

WASHINGTON - The United States criticized China on Thursday for conducting an anti’satellite weapons test in which an old Chinese weather satellite was destroyed by a missile.

The Bush administration has kept a lid on the test for a week as it weighs its significance. Analysts said China’s weather satellites would travel at about the same altitude as U.S. spy satellites, so the test represented an indirect threat to U.S. defense systems.

“The United States believes China’s development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area,” National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. “We and other countries have expressed our concern to the Chinese.”
…

The head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, Lt. Gen. Michael Maples, told Congress last week in his annual threat address that China and Russia are the “primary states of concern” regarding military space programs.
…

In October, President Bush signed an order asserting the United States’ right to deny adversaries access to space for hostile purposes. As part of the first revision of U.S. space policy in nearly 10 years, the policy also said the United States would oppose the development of treaties or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space.

“Freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power,” the policy said. “In order to increase knowledge, discovery, economic prosperity and to enhance the national security, the United States must have robust, effective and efficient space capabilities.”

Source: Yahoo! News

Finally, logic is being met and progress is being made. This new congress didn’t meet my expectations starting out. But here is action we all can appreciate!

House rolls back oil company subsidies

WASHINGTON - The House rolled back billions of dollars in oil industry subsidies Thursday in what supporters hailed as a new direction in energy policy toward more renewable fuels. Critics said the action would reduce domestic oil production and increase reliance on imports.

The energy legislation was the last of six high-priority issues that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., had pledged to push through during the first 100 hours of Democratic control. The bill passed by a 264-163 vote.
…

Democrats said the legislation could produce as much as $15 billion in revenue. Most of that money would pay to promote renewable fuels such as solar and wind power, alternative fuels including ethanol and biodiesel and incentives for conservation.

“The oil industry doesn’t need the taxpayers’ help. … There is not an American that goes to a gas pump that doesn’t know that,” said Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Pump prices topped $3 per gallon last year as the oil industry earned record profits.

The bill, Hoyer said, “starts to move our nation in a new direction” on energy policy.

Source: Yahoo! News

Bill O’Reilly on The Colbert Report