March 2007

The Senate has voted 50-48 to reject the amendment by Thad Cochran (R-MS), which would have removed the timetable language from the supplemental bill for the Iraq War. The bill now goes to conference and should pass next week. Gordon Smith and Chuck Hagel sided with the Democrats on this vote.

After yesterday's press briefing about Pat Tillman's death, there were still many questions that lurked. It smelled of a cover-up, and apparently the Tillman family feels the same way:

The family of Cpl. Pat Tillman said Monday the Army investigation into the former NFL player's death by friendly fire in Afghanistan suggests a "conspiracy" and vowed to pursue a congressional investigation into how the death was handled.

Military officials had said earlier that nine officers, including four generals, will face "corrective action" for making critical mistakes in the aftermath of Tillman's death.

The NFL player was killed in Afghanistan in 2004 after giving up a professional football career to fight as an Army Ranger.

In their statement, the Tillman family said they were not satisfied with the Army report.

"In our opinion, this attempt to impose closure by slapping the wrists of a few officers and enlisted men is just another bureaucratic entrenchment," the family statement said. "Once again, we are being used as props in a Pentagon public relations exercise."

The military cited all these false reports made, and yet that wasn't wrong? The most interesting part is how the series of events they described sounds like some group effort to cover it up, yet there is nothing wrong with that and they didn't even look into the intent of this action. What kind of investigation doesn't look into intent?

This brings another issue to light - accountability in our military. We have seen so many problems with out military and the upper brass always blames it on "rogue" elements. Abu Gharib, Haditha, the list goes on. So what kind of military do we have when the commanders and troops don't follow the rules? What kind of leader is our commander in chief when his army acts like this?

A lot of discussion has been brewing over the revelation that people like Karl Rove use a email address from the RNC as compared to the whitehouse.gov email address assigned to all employees. The biggest question lies within the possible violation of the presidential records act. CREW has been following this closely:

Washington, DC – In light of e-mails released by the House Judiciary Committee this week in response to the on-going U.S. Attorney firing scandal, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) sent a letter today to Chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA), asking for an investigation into whether the White House has violated its mandatory record-keeping obligation under the Presidential Records Act (PRA).

[SNIP]

CREW has learned that to fulfill its statutory obligations under the PRA, the White House email system automatically copies all messages created by staff and sends them to the White House Office of Records Management for archiving. It appears that the White House deliberately bypassed the automatic archiving function of its own email system that was designed to ensure compliance with the PRA.

CREW currently is involved in several lawsuits challenging other improper and illegal record keeping practices of the Bush administration. In this matter, CREW cannot bring a lawsuit challenging the White House on its compliance with the PRA because of a legal precedent that relies on presidents to honor the mandatory record-keeping practices, with no judicial review.

Now Henry Waxman is getting into this debate and has told the White House and RNC not to destroy any emails (via Think Progress):

Today's New York Times has obtained documents showing the NYPD spied upon people who were planning to protest the 2004 GOP Convention:

For at least a year before the 2004 Republican National Convention, teams of undercover New York City police officers traveled to cities across the country, Canada and Europe to conduct covert observations of people who planned to protest at the convention, according to police records and interviews.

From Albuquerque to Montreal, San Francisco to Miami, undercover New York police officers attended meetings of political groups, posing as sympathizers or fellow activists, the records show.

They made friends, shared meals, swapped e-mail messages and then filed daily reports with the department’s Intelligence Division. Other investigators mined Internet sites and chat rooms.

From these operations, run by the department’s “R.N.C. Intelligence Squad,” the police identified a handful of groups and individuals who expressed interest in creating havoc during the convention, as well as some who used Web sites to urge or predict violence.

Amazing this comes out during the same time we are going through the attorney purge and the fact evidence is pointing to the U.S.A.s being purged for not going after Democrats enough. So why does the GOP hate democracy so much?