Logs of Abramoff's White House visits ordered released

Bush has said he didn't know Abramoff . It seems Bunnypants may have been telling the truth, as Jack never visited the White House as he was living there. The first Secret Service reports will show Jack visited the White House 200 times in a ten month period.


BY KENNETH R. BAZINETNew York Daily News

WASHINGTON - A federal judge has ordered the Secret Service to release all records of disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff's visits to the White House - which could prove an embarrassment for President Bush.

The logs are expected to show who Abramoff met with at the White House as well as when and how long he was there.

Bush has said he didn't know Abramoff, who pleaded guilty in a massive influence-peddling scandal. But photos show the two posing for pictures at the White House. Abramoff also raised more than $100,000 for Bush's 2004 reelection campaign.

In a three-paragraph ruling, U.S. District Judge John Penn ordered the Secret Service to release the logs by May 10.

"The American people deserve the truth concerning admitted felon Jack Abramoff's visits and meetings with Bush administration officials in the White House," Tom Fitton, president of conservative-leaning watchdog group Judicial Watch, said Monday.

Judicial Watch filed suit to get the logs released after Freedom of Information Act requests by it and the liberal-leaning legal watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington were denied.

"We don't know what these records will show, but it's time we get more of the facts on the table," added Fitton, whose group made a name for itself during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton over his trysts with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Pleading guilty to conspiracy and bilking clients out of millions of dollars, Abramoff agreed to testify for federal authorities in their influence-peddling probe, which has reached as high as the offices of ex-GOP House leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Rep. Bob Ney, R-Ohio. Several people have been charged in the case, and more indictments are expected.

Pigboy turned himself in Friday at 4 PM, knowing thatBush would have a couple of fresh scandals before thelazy press bastards got back to work on Monday.

Grease Fire Rages Through Midwest

Grease Fire Rages Through Midwest

May 2, 2006

MILWAUKEE—A raging grease fire has spread across the southern half of Wisconsin and into the neighboring states of Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota, killing at least eight and leaving hundreds injured or missing after the intense heat and acrid odor of charred pork and cheese-filled breading overwhelmed the region.Grease Fire
Arm & Hammer donated 100,000 pounds of baking soda to help extinguish the massive blaze.

Six of the dead reportedly tried to put out the grease flames with water, causing the fire to spread; two others perished after running back into their burning homes to save bacon still cooking on their stoves.

By Tuesday evening, more than 700,000 acres of Midwestern greaseland—including tens of thousands of patio grills, outdoor beer gardens, supper-club kitchens, and barbecue pits—had been destroyed in the blaze.
Beloit, WI Fire Chief Paul Tolley said the fire was spreading faster than crews could react.

"The main problem is it's being fed at every turn. The homes and businesses here are oversaturated with corn dogs, melted cheese, and any number of deep-fried items," Tolley said. "Every time we think we have it under control, it hits a Hardee's and everything turns to chaos."
Officials said the grease blaze began after a Dodgeville, WI resident attempted to submerge an entire 21-pound turkey in a makeshift deep fryer Sunday. The fire then leapt rapidly from pancake house to pancake house, intensifying when flames reached a dense patch of diners at the peak of the brunch rush, which Dodgeville Fire Chief Ed Bouchard called "the worst possible timing."

"With the fact that the nearby park was still greasy from Saturday's brat fest, the situation quickly turned ugly," Bouchard said. "My crews simply did not have the baking-soda reserves to contain it."

The fire fanned out in all directions from the area, cutting a swath through truck stops, doughnut shops, and even mini-golf concession stands.
While most residents have fled to leaner ground, some have stayed behind to coat their homes in a flour, egg, and milk mixture in the hopes that it will protect the interior from the flames.

Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who recommended that citizens only deep-fry when absolutely necessary, said Tuesday that the fire could "cripple the economic and meal-time power of Illinois and the rest of America's Grease Belt for a generation."Grease Fire Experts have warned for years that the region was overdue for a disaster of this kind, saying that decades of poor grease management and a culture of fried and heavily buttered food created a highly incendiary "grease core" spread across thousands of homes, restaurants, and offices. Landfills overflowing with greasy waxed paper and cardboard only added to the danger.

"It would have taken enormous discipline and fortitude on the part of Midwesterners to change their combustible eating habits," said Iowa State University Professor of animal-rendering sciences Anita Close. "Unfortunately, these are unrealistic expectations."

Officials say the lack of rain has helped contain the blaze, but are worried that even light showers passing over the area could be disastrous.

"This fire could very well spatter south into the heart of fried-chicken and waffle country, or up to the cheesesteak districts of the Northeast," Tolley said. "If that happens, God help us all."

MSNBC confirms: Outed CIA agent was working on Iran

"A full 10 seconds of silence passed after a reporter asked Sleazy and Rumsfeld what the intense secrecy and security surrounding their visit to Iraq signified about the stability of the country three years after the U.S.-led invasion. Rice turned to Rumsfeld to provide the answer. Rumsfeld glared at the reporter.




On Chris Matthews' Hardball Monday evening, MSNBC correspondent David Shuster confirmed what RAW STORY first reported in February: that outed CIA officer Valerie Plame Wilson was working on Iran at the time she was outed.

According to current and former intelligence officials, Plame Wilson, who worked on the clandestine side of the CIA in the Directorate of Operations as a non-official cover (NOC) officer, was part of an operation tracking distribution and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction technology to and from Iran.

Reports Shuster in this rush transcript: "INTELLIGENCE SOURCES SAY VALERIE WILSON WAS PART OF AN OPERATION THREE YEARS AGO TRACKING THE PROLIFERATION OF NUCLEAR WEAPONS MATERIAL INTO IRAN. AND THE SOURCES ALLEGE THAT WHEN MRS. WILSON'S COVER WAS BLOWN, THE ADMINISTRATION'S ABILITY TO TRACK IRAN'S NUCLEAR AMBITIONS WAS DAMAGED AS WELL."

The two things are probably related--tracking Bush junta operatives trying to PLANT nukes in Iraq after the invasion, and Brewster-Jennings covert agents and contacts monitoring and countering the acquisition of nuclear weapons technology in Iran. There was a very curious story about Manucher Ghorbanifar trying to dupe the CIA into thinking the Iranians had stolen Iraq's nukes or nuke material and taken it to Iran (around the time of the Bush invasion). The story evaporated upon investigation, and Ghorbanifar had tried to hide the fact that he was behind it. Ghorbanifar, the notorious Iranian arms dealers with his fingers in Iran-Contra, had been discredited by the CIA as a liar. He was present at the Rome 2001 meeting--with Michael Ladeen and other Neo-Cons, and Italian fascists--where the Niger forgeries were more than likely cooked up.

I've yet to figure out what Ghorbanifar's motive may have been, in the phony Iraq-nukes-to-Iran feint. Like the Niger forgeries, it was easily exposed. Perhaps it was intended to lure out and identify the honest people in the CIA.

Now think back to summer 2003. There is nothing that Bush needed more than a "find" of WMDs in Iraq. The failure to find such weapons is one of the key reasons the Bush junta is in such political trouble today. They lied; everybody now knows they lied. But what if they had succeeded in planting nukes in Iraq--and these had been "found" by the U.S. troops who were "hunting" for the weapons that everybody knew weren't there (accompanied by NYT faux reporter/war propagandist Judith Miller)? And what if they'd gotten away with it? This would have vastly changed the political landscape--or at least the war profiteering corporate news monopoly narrative of our political landscape--then and now.

It seems to me more likely that Ghorbanifar was at that Rome meeting as a procurer of illicit weapons--weapons to be planted in Iraq--than that he was there to cook up the "crude" Niger forgeries. Illicit weapons are his business.

We have also to consider what looks to me like haste and panic in the way the Bushites outed Plame and Brewster-Jennings in the week of July 7-14, 2003. I tend to think that that haste and panic had an immediate cause--and it was not Wilson's article (published July 6), which was expected, but rather something unexpected. My guess is that the unexpected thing was that David Kelly--the Brits chief WMD expert, who had been whistleblowing to the BBC since late May, about the "sexed up" pre-war Iraq WMD intel--when he was interrogated at a "safe house" (first week of July), revealed that he knew about the plot to plant nukes in Iraq. This guess is profoundly influenced by the fact that David Kelly was found dead, in highly suspicious circumstances, four days after Plame was outed (July 18). His office and computers were searched, and four days later (on July 22), Brewster-Jennings--the entire CIA WMD counter-proliferation network--was ADDITIONALLY outed (also by Novak).
The key may be in the otherwise disreputable Hutton report--which reveals that on July 7 Tony Blair was informed that Kelly "could say some uncomfortable things"--COULD say, not HAD said. What were the "uncomfortable things" that Kelly COULD say--that may have gotten him killed? Ten days later he was dead, and, a couple of days later, BJ was outed, putting all those covert agents and contacts at risk of getting killed, and disabling all their projects.

And all this occurred in the heat of the "hunt" for WMDs in Iraq. It's too much coincidence. I think that these things are connected--David Kelly's whistleblowing, interrogation and death, and the Plame/BJ outings.

As for Iran, it seems clear now that it was the Bush junta's main target all along. Iraq, greatly weakened by the first Gulf war and by 12 years of sanctions and "no fly zone" bombings, was a pushover, at first brush. It's an utter disaster now, but it was easy to "shock and awe" a very weak country with no air force and to invade it, and smash it up. It is the launching pad for Iran. That's what that Vatican-sized U.S. compound in Baghdad--and the string of permanent U.S. bases--are all about. The junta's actions in Iraq have nothing to do with "stabilizing" Iraq, and never did. Their goal is permanent U.S. occupation of the Middle East. But they did have to be concerned about American and world opinion. That's why "finding" nukes or other WMDs in Iraq was so important--and who can doubt that this gang of criminals would have planted the weapons if they could have? In fact, it's damned puzzling that they DIDN'T "find" any such weapons--that they didn't get away with it. They'd set it all up, with the Niger forgeries, and 24/7 propaganda about Iraq WMDs in the U.S. war profiteering corporate news monopoly press.

I think planting nukes in Iraq was step one, and permitting Iran to obtain nuclear weapons technology was step two. And counter-proliferation experts like David Kelly and Valerie Plame, and the Brewster-Jennings network--people who thought it was their job to work toward peace, not to manufacture war--stood in their way.

Neil Young to Tour for 'Freedom of Speech,' As He Expresses It with New CD

NEW YORK For venerable rocker Neil Young it seems to be all about "free speech" these days. Son of a famed Canadian newspaper man, he announced this week that the will take part in an extensive "Freedom of Speech" tour as part of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young this summer.

At the same time, he released via the Web, with CD to follow, a ferocious new album that expresses free speech to the max, as he takes on the Iraq war and President Bush in full frontal fashion. It's called "Living with War," it includes a song called "Let's Impeach the President"--and it hit #3 on Amazon.com today just on pre-orders. It willl be released May 8.
The "Freedom of Speech" tour will start July 6 in, where else, Philadelphia, travel the country, and wind up back in Pittsburgh on Sept. 10.

Asked this week if he was afraid about a backlash to his CD, Young said, "I'm not in the least bit concerned. I expect it. I respect other people's opinions. That`s part of what makes the United States and Canada and all free countries great, is the fact that you can differ with your friend and you can still sit down at the same table and break bread with your friend."

Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner

Colbert Lampoons Bush at White House Correspondents Dinner-- President Does Not Seem Amused


By E&P Staff

Published: April 29, 2006 11:40 PM ET

WASHINGTON

A blistering comedy “tribute” to President Bush by Comedy Central’s faux talk show host Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night left George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close.

Earlier, the president had delivered his talk to the 2700 attendees, including many celebrities and top officials, with the help of a Bush impersonator.
Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged the Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, “and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”

He attacked those in the press who claim that the shake-up at the White House was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. “This administration is soaring, not sinking,” he said. “They are re-arranging the deck chairs--on the Hindenburg.”

Colbert told Bush he could end the problem of protests by retired generals by refusing to let them retire. He compared Bush to Rocky Balboa in the “Rocky” movies, always getting punched in the face—“and Apollo Creed is everything else in the world.”

Turning to the war, he declared, "I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."

He noted former Ambassador Joseph Wilson in the crowd, as well as " Valerie Plame." Then, pretending to be worried that he had named her, he corrected himself, as Bush aides might do, "Uh, I mean... Joseph Wilson's wife." He asserted that it might be okay, as prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald was probably not there.

Colbert also made biting cracks about missing WMDs, “photo ops” on aircraft carriers and at hurricane disasters, and Vice President Cheney shooting people in the face.Observing that Bush sticks to his principles, he said, "When the president decides something on Monday, he still believes it on Wednesday - no matter what happened Tuesday."

Also lampooning the press, Colbert complained that he was “surrounded by the liberal media who are destroying this country, except for Fox News. Fox believes in presenting both sides—the president’s side and the vice president’s side." He also reflected on the good old days, when the media was still swallowing the WMD story.

Addressing the reporters, he said, "You should spend more time with your families, write that novel you've always wanted to write. You know, the one about the fearless reporter who stands up to the administration. You know-- fiction."

He claimed that the Secret Service name for Bush's new press secretary is "Snow Job." Colbert closed his routine with a video fantasy where he gets to be White House Press Secretary, complete with a special “Gannon” button on his podium. By the end, he had to run from Helen Thomas and her questions about why the U.S. really invaded Iraq and killed all those people.
As Colbert walked from the podium, when it was over, the president and First Lady gave him quick nods, unsmiling, and left immediately.

E&P's Joe Strupp, in the crowd, observed that quite a few sitting near him looked a little uncomfortable at times, perhaps feeling the material was a little too biting--or too much speaking "truthiness" to power.

Asked by E&P after it was over if he thought he'd been too harsh, Colbert said, "Not at all." Was he trying to make a point politically or just get laughs? "Just for laughs," he said. He said he did not pull any material for being too strong, just for time reasons.

Helen Thomas told Strupp her segment with Colbert was "just for fun."

The president had talked to the crowd with a Bush impersonator alongside, with the faux-Bush speaking precisely and the real Bush deliberately mispronouncing words, such as the inevitable "nuclear." At the close, Bush called the imposter "a fine talent. In fact, he did all my debates with Senator Kerry."

Among attendees at the black tie event: Morgan Fairchild, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, Justice Antonin Scalia, George Clooney, and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter of the Doobie Brothers--in a kilt.