BushCo hates bloggers in the name of national security

The Bush Administration strenuously opposes Sen. Arlen Specter’s media shield law. Why?

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the bill would erect roadblocks to gathering information “from anyone who can claim to be a journalist, including bloggers.”

The legislation gives an overly broad definition of journalists that “can include those linked to terrorists and criminals,” wrote Attorney General Michael Mukasey and National Intelligence Director Mike McConnell.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the nation would be more vulnerable to “adversaries’ counterintelligence efforts to recruit” those shielded by the bill.

Bullshit, bullshit, and bullshit.

We know the real reason they’re saying this is the same reason Mukasey took top blog Talking Points Memo off the AG’s daily e-mail news summary mailing.

They hate bloggers.

Why?

TPM got former AG Alberto Gonzales canned over partisan firings of district attorneys.

Bloggers got House Democrats to stiffen up and pass a FISA bill without telco immunity.

Bloggers took Bush, Uncle Fester Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld et al to task on Iraq long before the mainstream media had a clue.

George W. Bush, for the remaining nine and a half months of his term (not starring Mickey Rourke as Bush) wants to spy on bloggers.

It’s that simple.

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"A*ses of Evil"

Ordinarily I don't pay too much attention to campaign junk. I couldn't tell you where my Gary Hart button ended up. Occasionally, however, I am introduced to a bit of campaign paraphernalia so perfect that even I am tempted to drive to an event in Iowa. The Hill is reporting that campaign entrepreneur Jeremy Beggun is hawking campaign buttons picturing George Bush, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld with the caption "Asses of Evil." The Hill reports that even Beggun draws the line somewhere. He isn't selling "Asses for Evil" T-Shirts. Yet.

Could one of our Iowa folks pick up a button. I will be happy to pay you for it including postage. Thanks to Rawstory for the photo.

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None Dare Call It Art

Tonight I thought we might all benefit by visiting an art gallery. If you are in New York any time soon you should visit the New York Public Library's main Fifth Ave. branch. It has put up mugshots of several well known administration figures. The Daily News has a slide show. In the alternative, the AP has a video story.



UnitedOffensiveIII's "liner" notes after the break.

Mug shots' of Bush, Cheney featured in library exhibit

The New York Public Library is displaying an unusual set of photographs: images of Bush administration officials doctored to make them look like police mug shots.

The half dozen pictures were created by two Brooklyn artists, Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese, as part of a privately financed exhibit called "Line Up" in the landmarked public space on Fifth Avenue.

Also in the mug shot gallery are images of Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former Bush adviser Karl Rove, former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

The dates on each image match days when each official spoke about Iraq in ways the artists consider criminal - with sound clips of them speaking, along with a camera flash going off and a prison door closing.

Some have criticized the library for displaying political satire in an institution that receives public funding.

Matthew Walter, spokesman for the New York Republican State Committee, said: "It is simply inappropriate to have political attack in the form of egregious doctored photographs of the president and other high-ranking officials who have dedicated their lives to public service in a taxpayer-funded building frequented by schoolchildren and the general public."

The library said the exhibition "has no political agenda."

The photographs are part of a larger exhibit called "Multiple Interpretations: Contemporary Prints in Portfolio at the New York Public Library," which will be up through Jan. 27.

The library has a long tradition of collecting political satire and caricature, library spokesman Herb Shaer said Friday.

"It's the mission of the library to document what's happening in the culture, and this is an artist's response to what's happening to the world around them," he said.

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Rumsfeld To Testify In Tillman Fratricide

The following announcement is reprinted from the House Oversight Committee website, Rep. Henry A. Waxman, Chairman.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007
Defense and Security, The Tillman Fratricide
The Tillman Fratricide: What the Leadership of the Defense Department Knew

On Wednesday, August 1, 2007, at 10:00 a.m. in 2154 Rayburn House Office Building, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will hold a hearing to examine what senior Defense Department officials knew about U.S. Army Corporal Patrick Tillman’s death by fratricide.

In April, the Committee held a hearing investigating the death of Cpl. Tillman.

The following witnesses will testify:

* The Honorable Donald Rumsfeld, former Secretary of Defense
* Gen. John P. Abizaid (Retired), Former Commander, U.S. Central Command
* Gen. Richard B. Myers (Retired), Former Chair, Joint Chiefs of Staff
* Gen. Bryan Douglas Brown (Retired), Former Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command
* Lt. Gen. Philip R. Kensinger, Jr. (Retired), Former Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command.

It looks like this time the Committee is going into a hearing with the witnesses they want instead of just the witnesses the Administration says they get.

Any guesses as to how many times Donald Rumsfeld says "golly, I cannot recall?"

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