The Hollywood Liberal

Chief Libby trial blogger says she believes prosecutor ‘wants Cheney,’ ‘won’t rest on laurels’
Raw Story

This weekend, RAW STORY interviewed Marcy Wheeler, one of the blogosphere’s most tireless observers and analysts of the CIA leak investigation and the I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby Trial.

In the interview, she revealed that she believes that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will press forward with his investigation, and that his ultimate target is Vice President Dick Cheney: “I’m not entirely convinced that Fitzgerald’s done. I used to be conservative on that, believing that he was done. But there are little snippets of hints that he’s not.”
In the interview, she revealed that she believes that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will press forward with his investigation, and that his ultimate target is Vice President Dick Cheney: “I’m not entirely convinced that Fitzgerald’s done. I used to be conservative on that, believing that he was done. But there are little snippets of hints that he’s not….”

“We figured out that Armitage was the Novak/Woodward source in March,” Wheeler said in an implicit critique of mainstream coverage of the Plame story, “and we were able to do that because we were able to do things that journalists wouldn’t do.”…

Wheeler believes that Fitzgerald will bring that indefatigable nature to this trial: “I think Fitzgerald clearly wants Cheney and he’s not the kind of person who rests on his laurels after getting one conviction.

HL’s Take
Does Fitzgerald really have the Cojones to go after the Evil Dick? I doubt it. Even if he does, by the time they get to a trial and conviction Cheney will be out of office. Bush will surely pardon him before that happens. Come on Pat. Lets start speeding up the process here.

Heres another one courtesy of Bob Geiger.com
60 Minutes did some interviews with the troops on Sunday night. See whats really going on with the guys on the front in these two video clips. Don’t believe what the chickenhawks who have never been over there like Bush, and Cheney, listen to the guys who are dealing with this quagmire everyday.

Major Swift Boat Donor To Kerry: “You’re A Hero”

Bob Geiger.com
Excerpt:
There are some things that you just don’t want to read about or watch on a full stomach — this is one of those.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on Tuesday to consider the nomination of Sam Fox, a wealthy St. Louis businessman, to be the new U.S. Ambassador to Belgium. While it is not unusual for big political donors to be rewarded with ambassadorships — and Fox is a huge donor to all things Republican — what made everyone take note of this guy is that Fox gave a whopping $50,000 to help fund the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth smear campaign against John Kerry in 2004.

And in being questioned by the Senate panel yesterday, Fox had to face one of the senior members of that committee in… Senator John Kerry.

What followed was riveting theater, with Kerry coldly staring down a clearly-nervous Fox and Bush’s nominee withstanding a barrage of questions from Kerry that the Massachusetts Senator nicely referred to as questions of Fox’s “judgment” while many of us would have just flat-out called him a scumbag.

Kerry: …notwithstanding the comments you made, you did see fit to contribute a very significant amount of money in October to a group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, correct?

Fox: Correct.

Kerry: Why would you do that given what you just said about how bad they are?

Fox: Well, Senator, I have to put it in the proper context and bear with me. Marilyn and I have lived the American dream — there’s no question about it. My father came here with the clothes on his back and the Fox family and the Woodman family have truly lived the American dream that’s been very, very good to us….

Kerry: So, well, who asked you to give to the SBVT?

Fox: I can’t tell you specifically who did because, you know, I don’t remember. As a matter of fact, if I…

Kerry: You have no recollection of why you gave away $50,000?

Fox: I gave away $50,000 because I was asked to.

Kerry: But you have no recollection of who asked you to give away $50,000?

Senator Barack Obama (D-IL), who was chairing the meeting, told Fox that he found his answers to Kerry “somewhat unsatisfying” and said that “The swift boat ads were of a different degree, even in the ugly arena of politics. They were extraordinarily well publicized, that there was essentially a fraud being perpetrated on the American people. It had a profound impact on the election.”

And Obama tied a nice bow around the whole afternoon by basically calling Fox, who spent the entire time disavowing any knowledge of the Swift Boaters’ mission or methods, a liar.

HL’s Take
And that is precisely why Barack Obama can become President and Kerry can’t. Honesty. Obama calls him a liar, Kerry doesn’t bother to fight back and just accepts the loss that didn’t even really happen. Of course this Fox guy will probably get his post anyway. Hell Kerry will probably even vote Yes for him. At least we know Obama won’t. Thats lots more, check out the whole article.

From Kevin O’Keefe

Vin Scelsa continues to play Kakistocracy cuts on WFUV, the largest college radio station in NYC area. He seems to respond to requests to play it, but I have not got a response to a request for on air interview. I would guess he is also continuing to play it on his Sirius show.
Kevin O’Keefe

HL Responds.
Kevin glad to see the band is getting some play in NYC. Vin Scelsa is the best. I was listening to him back in the 80’s on WNEW-FM in NYC. Check out the best new protest band on the scene Spicewood 7, and their album Kakistrocracy.

Here is the latest episode of HL’s NBC New Raw Blog. Live from The Oscars. We have these every Monday. Check out the show.

There is a plane circling the Oscars with a banner trailing behind that says “Bring The Troops Home Now” The whole world wants them home, except Bush, Cheney, Condi, and Rummy.

Bomber strikes Baghdad college; 41 dead

AP
Excerpt:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A suicide bomber triggered a ball bearing-packed charge Sunday, killing at least 41 people at a mostly Shiite college whose main gate was left littered with blood-soaked student notebooks and papers amid the bodies.

Witnesses said a woman carried out the attack at the business school annex to Mustansiriyah University, but Interior Ministry officials said it was investigating the reports. The school’s main campus was hit by a string of bombings last month that killed 70 people.

The attack came as a powerful Shiite militia leader bitterly complained that “car bombs continue to explode” despite an ongoing security crackdown in Baghdad and suggested he was rethinking his cooperation.

Truck blast kills 35 at Iraqi mosque

AP
Excerpt:
BAGHDAD, Iraq - A truck exploded Saturday as worshippers left a Sunni mosque west of Baghdad, killing at least 35 people and injuring more than 60 in an apparent sign of increased internal Sunni battles between insurgents and those opposing them.

The imam of the mosque in Habbaniyah, about 50 miles west of Baghdad, had spoken out against militants fighting the U.S.-backed government, including the group al-Qaida in Iraq.

At least 35 people were killed and 62 injured, said Lt. Abdul-Aziz Mohammed in Habbaniyah, which lies between the cities of Ramadi and Fallujah — both hotbeds of the insurgency.

Former U.N. envoy supports Iraq pullout

AP
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON - President Bush should follow British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s lead and start withdrawing troops from Iraq, former U.N. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke said Saturday.

“Engaging in a broad-based diplomatic offensive, and beginning a redeployment of U.S. forces in Iraq, represents the best way to secure America’s interests in the region and combat the serious threat of terrorist networks,” Holbrooke, who served under President Clinton, said in the Democrats’ weekly radio address.

Americans underestimate Iraqi death toll

AP
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON - Americans are keenly aware of how many U.S. forces have lost their lives in Iraq, according to a new AP-Ipsos poll. But they woefully underestimate the number of Iraqi civilians who have been killed

Iraqi civilian deaths are estimated at more than 54,000 and could be much higher; some unofficial estimates range into the hundreds of thousands. The U.N. Assistance Mission for Iraq reports more than 34,000 deaths in 2006 alone.

Among those polled for the AP survey, however, the median estimate of Iraqi deaths was 9,890.

Cheney defends Iraq war, attacks critics

AP
Excerpt:

Answering growing criticism in the U.S. and Australia, he defended the Iraq war as a “remarkable achievement” in one speech, and dismissed suggestions his influence in Washington is waning.

At a news conference Saturday, Cheney warned that “all options” are on the table if Iran continues to defy U.N.-led efforts to end Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, leaving the door open to military action.

Cheney’s support for the Iraq war — he is considered one of the key proponents of the 2003 invasion — drew protesters into Sydney’s streets for two days.

Cheney: ‘There Does Not Appear To Be A Consensus’ That Global Warming Is ‘Caused By Man’

Think Progress.org
Excerpt:
In its latest report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded it was “very likely” — or more than 90 percent probable — that human activities led by burning fossil fuels explained most of the warming in the past 50 years.

Continuing the Bush administration’s long resistance to the science of global warming, Vice President Dick Cheney said today a consensus is lacking on whether global warming is caused by human activity. From an interview with ABC:

Cheney added later in the interview, “I don’t know. I’m not a scientist.” But he appears comfortable enough in his knowledge to suggest that the scientists are all wrong.

H.L.s Take
And you thought Bush was stubborn

Conyers: Justice Stonewalling on U.S. Attorney Report

muckracker.com
Excerpt:
The Justice Department has “refused to cooperate” with a congressional analysis of whether the administration’s recent firing of U.S. attorneys is unprecedented, according to House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI).

Conyers and Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA) requested the analysis from the Congressional Research Service to see whether prior administrations had done anything like fire seven United States attorneys abruptly and without stated justification as the administration did in December.

But because “the Administration has refused to cooperate with CRS in their examination,” Conyers office says in a press release, the CRS analysis is incomplete. Nevertheless, CRS issued an interim analysis to Conyers and Sanchez, which you can read here.

In the report, the analyst writes that despite contacting the DoJ for information needed to perform his study a month ago, he’s still waiting

HL’s Take
Bush is firing any US attorneys that he thinks might possibly prosecute him and Cheney of crimes in the future, and replacing them with some of his freinds and lackeys. Bush is doing everything he can to prevent anyone from trying to get to him once he is out of office including a provision in the patriot act that says he can’t be prosecuted of war crimes. Conyers and Henry Waxman are ih charge of investigating Bush, they need to make sure they are able to do thier jobs and make Bush and Cheney pay for thier war, and other types of crime against humanity.

Barack Obama went to Texas yesterday to do a little political speechifying in Bush’s home state, here are a couple of short clips. Obama is saying the right things and the crowd is eating it up. check out the clips.

A Trial for Thousands Denied Trial

The Nation
Excerpt:
Something remarkable is going on in a Miami courtroom. The cruel methods US interrogators have used since September 11 to “break” prisoners are finally being put on trial.

This was not supposed to happen. The Bush Administration’s plan was to put José Padilla on trial for allegedly being part of a network linked to international terrorists. But Padilla’s lawyers are arguing that he is not fit to stand trial because he has been driven insane by the government.

According to his lawyers and two mental health specialists who examined him, Padilla has been so shattered that he lacks the ability to assist in his own defense. He is convinced that his lawyers are “part of a continuing interrogation program” and sees his captors as protectors. In order to prove that “the extended torture visited upon Mr. Padilla has left him damaged,” his lawyers want to tell the court what happened during those years in the Navy brig. The prosecution strenuously objects, maintaining that “Padilla is competent,” that his treatment is irrelevant.

US District Judge Marcia Cooke disagrees. “It’s not like Mr. Padilla was living in a box. He was at a place. Things happened to him at that place.” The judge has ordered several prison employees to testify at the hearings on Padilla’s mental state, which begin February 22. They will be asked how a man alleged to have engaged in elaborate antigovernment plots now acts, in the words of brig staff, “like a piece of furniture.”

It’s difficult to overstate the significance of these hearings. The techniques used to break Padilla have been standard operating procedure at Guantánamo Bay since the first prisoners arrived five years ago. They wore blackout goggles and sound-blocking headphones and were placed in extended isolation, interrupted by strobe lights and heavy metal music. These same practices have been documented in dozens of cases of CIA “extraordinary rendition” as well as in prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan

H.L.s Take
Of course we chronicled all of this in The HL long ago. It would be nice if the mainstream media would get involved in this story so more people will be educated as to what our great country is doing to people some of which were rounded up so Bush could claim he was doing something about the “terrorist,” many of them of course have been released without charges after many years, but there are still many in Guantanamo who have not been tried and may be there forever. Torture by the US must stop for many reasons not the least of which is that if the “enemy” knows we are torturing suspects that will make it that much easier for them to do it to our soldiers if they were captured. Our reptuation around the world under Bush is bad enough as it is.

U.S. economy leaving record numbers in severe poverty

Uruknet
Excerpt

We are about to find out if the invasion of Iraq really was a war for oil. The country is on the verge of passing a petroleum law, which will set down rules for investing in its oil industry. That will set off a race among the foreign oil giants, scrambling for their slice of Iraq’s vast oil riches. Britain’s two world-leading oil companies, BP and Shell, both say they want to enter Iraq. Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Total, Russia’s Lukoil and the Chinese will also form part of the rush.

Even while the security situation in Iraq remains dire, it seems the prize will be just too great for the oil majors to resist. The country has proven reserves of 115 billion barrels of oil, around the same as Iran, but it is thought that its actual reserves could be anywhere up to 300 billion barrels - which would make it bigger than Saudi Arabia. Much of the west of Iraq remains unexplored.

John Teeling, chairman of Petrel Resources, the explorer listed on London’s AIM market which has had interests in Iraq since 1997, says: “Iraq has 70 discovered, undeveloped fields. You’d die for any one of them. Even the small ones have a billion barrels. If this isn’t the holy grail, it’s right next door to it.”

H.L.’s Take
This is part of the reason that Bush and Cheney are so hellbent on staying in Iraq, and even escalating the war, when everyone else including thier own advisors want to get out. There are still vast resources of oil that Bush has yet to steal over there, he wants to stay in Iraq forever, they are pumping oil out of unmetered wells, and no one knows where it is going. Bush wants to keep grabbing that oil until he leaves office and retires to his 98,000 acre ranch in Paraguay.

U.S. economy leaving record numbers in severe poverty

Bradenton (Fl.) Herald
Excerpt
WASHINGTON - The percentage of poor Americans who are living in severe poverty has reached a 32-year high, millions of working Americans are falling closer to the poverty line and the gulf between the nation’s “haves” and “have-nots” continues to widen.

The plight of the severely poor is a distressing sidebar to an unusual economic expansion. Worker productivity has increased dramatically since the brief recession of 2001, but wages and job growth have lagged behind. At the same time, the share of national income going to corporate profits has dwarfed the amount going to wages and salaries. That helps explain why the median household income of working-age families, adjusted for inflation, has fallen for five straight years.

These and other factors have helped push 43 percent of the nation’s 37 million poor people into deep poverty - the highest rate since at least 1975.

HL’s Take
If the poor are spending all their time working just to make ends meet, they will never have a chance to fight to make a better life for themselves. Stagnant wages, more expensive health care, higher gas prices to get to work. I recently read in a column by a writer who has a fellowship at the Brookings Institute that the minimim wage in 1960, was the equivalent of $12 an hour today. They poor will just keep working and having the government use thier tax money to fight thier wars of corruption. It’s class warfare. They don’t want you to think that but that’s what it is.

NEW: Clear Channel earnings drop 54%

San Antonio Express News
Excerpt
As it lobbies shareholders to vote for an $18.7 billion buyout proposal, Clear Channel Communications Inc. today announced that its fourth-quarter 2006 earnings fell 54 percent.

H.L.s Take
What? the company that owns Rush Limbaugh, Dr. Laura, and helped banned the dixie chicks lost a whopping 54%? Not surprising given the fact that everyone now have come to realize the error of their of ways for supporting this right wing troll organization. I wonder if they will keep paying Rush 30 Million a year to spew his lies if the earnings keep falling at the current pace?

Dubya’s half-billion tower of Babel

Bend (Ore.) Weekly
Excerpt

After six years of incompetence and cronyism, a failed war against terrorism, the quagmire that is Iraq, wars against science, the environment, corporate regulation and the public’s right-to-know, a chummy working relationship with the country’s most reactionary conservative evangelical Christians, a politicized faith-based initiative, giveaways to the energy industry, tax relief for the wealthy, a culture of corruption culminating in the forced resignations and imprisonment of some of the administrations key soldiers, and an attack on fundamental democratic rights and values, the Bush Administration is hatching plans to celebrate itself with a $500 million library (the costliest presidential library ever) to be built after Bush’s second term is over.

H.L.s Take
Is that where he is going to hide the papers about all the illegal stuff that he, his father, and Reagan did? Currently they are being kept under wraps at the University of Texas, where no one can see them. Bush Library, what a laugh. Has there ever been a library named after someone who can barely read? They will probably have a pretty big game boy section though

Hey, you may have noticed we have been down and not happeneing for the past couple of days, that’s because I once again (third time) had to move the site to another web host. I hope we are now in a place where we will be able to stay for a long time and won’t have to go move the whole operation again, which is loaded with hassles. I’ll have some new postings up either tonight or tomorrow for sure. On Monday I will have the latest installment of HLs NBC News Raw Video Blog. The comments are working again so go ahead and let it fly. Talk to you soon
HL

Blair announces Iraq withdrawal plan

AP
Excerpt
LONDON - Britain will withdraw around 1,600 troops from Iraq in the “coming months,” aiming to cut its force to below 5,000 by late summer if Iraqi forces can secure the southern part of the country, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday.

British troops will stay in Iraq until at least 2008 and work to secure the Iran-Iraq border and maintain supply routes to U.S. and coalition troops in central Iraq, Blair told the House of Commons.

“The actual reduction in forces will be from the present 7,100 — itself down from over 9,000 two years ago and 40,000 at the time of the conflict — to roughly 5,500,” Blair said.

H.L.s Take:
Even the poodle knows when its well past time to get out. Denmark is also pulling it’s troops out of Iraq. Of course Blair, and the leader of Denmark aren’t making millions a day in stolen oil being pumped out of ummetered wells, the way Bush and Cheney are so the financial incentive is not as great.

Audit: Anti-terror case data flawed

AP
Excerpt
WASHINGTON - Federal prosecutors counted immigration violations, marriage fraud and drug trafficking among anti-terror cases in the four years after 9/11 even though no evidence linked them to terror activity, a Justice Department audit said Tuesday.

Overall, nearly all of the terrorism-related statistics on investigations, referrals and cases examined by department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine were either diminished or inflated…..

The errors led Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., to question whether the department had exaggerated the number of terror cases.

“If the Department of Justice can’t even get their own books in order, how are we supposed to have any confidence they are doing the job they should be?” said Schumer, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which oversees the department. “Whether this is just an accounting error or an attempt to pad terror prosecution statistics for some other reason, the Department of Justice of all places should be classifying cases for what they are, not what they want us to think them to be.
H.L.s Take
No suprise here, of course the terror stats have to be amped up to keep the people in fear of another attack so they can continue to have the government shove its nose deeper and deeper up every citizens ass, with more surveillance, more cops, more security, more snooping into our private affairs. They can also justify keeping the unending war going on so we can beat a boogeyman that does not exist.

On a side note: I live right next to the Kodak theatre in Hollywood where the Oscars will be held in 5 days. The theatre is located inside a mall, and even though its still almost a week away there is so much security around you would think we were in the middle of the green zone. They are stopping every car that comes in and searching their trunks, they have those long sticks with mirrors attached to the end of that they use to check under every car, like you see when you are crossing the border back into the US. They have half the street blocked off so you can’t get around the line of cars waithing to be inspected, even if you are not going into the mall. They have Hollywood Bd. closed down so traffic is snarled in every driection, and this has been going on for many days already. Not to mention LAPD everywhere with sirens blasting and helicopters hovering overhead at the drop of a hat. All because they are “afraid” that some “terrorist” is going to bomb the Oscars. What a joke. Of course they have to keep up the charade so that all these people can justify thier jobs, while the people in the neighborhood have to put up with all this BS.

Obama, ‘08 candidates head to California

AP
Excerpt
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. - Jennifer Aniston, Ben Stiller and Eddie Murphy were just some of Hollywood’s hottest celebrities who forked over campaign dollars at a fundraiser for Democratic presidential contender Barack Obama (news, bio, voting record).

Presidential candidates have long been attracted to California by the prospect of high dollars and the opportunity to bask in Hollywood glamor. Now there is also another lure for 2008 candidates like Obama — the prospect the state may move up its primary, creating a treasure trove of delegates to be won in the early run-up to the nominations.

Lawmakers and Schwarzenegger are poised to move the state’s primary to Feb. 5 from June.

The level of presidential activity in the state is unusually intense, with roughly a year to go before votes are cast.

H.L.s Take:
And they could be getting even stronger. I am hearing rumours that Al Gore may declare his candidacy from the podium this Sunday night while he is recieving his Oscar for his film An Inconveinient Truth. That would really shake up Hollywood, Gore will berubbing elbows with every bigwig in town at the after parties. If Gore runs he can win, (I mean he already has won, hasn’t he?)
so long as he learns his lessons from his last campaign and fights this time against the lying republicans. The nation is just now starting to come to grips with our biggest problem. Global Warming, which Al has been studying, and advocating against for years.