This rocks. some Australian guys build a Trojan Horse full of people dressed like Greek solders, and then try to get it past security into various places in Sydney. The only place that denies them access is the Turkish Consulate.

Brilliant!

YouTube - Trojan Horse Test

In his commutation decision, Bush left a $250,000 fine. Libby paid the fine on Thursday.

Yep, guess that fine was just a huge imposition...

White House Criticizes Clintons - The Huffington Post

Fred Thompson -- made exoneration of this convicted felon one of his principal missions over the last two years. And he does so while running around spitting out tough and righteous sermons about the need to restore the "rule of law": "It is a sad irony that a nation that is so dedicated to the rule of law is doing so much to undermine the respect for it," he said in the very same speech where he urged Libby's pardon. One of the prime defenders of Lewis Libby has the audacity to say such things with a straight face because he knows how broken our political and media institutions are.

Greenwald does a nice job boiling down just how screwed up the political right is.

Glenn Greenwald - Salon

The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”

hmmm... Not within the excutive branch... Well it's sure as hell not part of the legislative or judicial branches, so it's either executive or non-governmental, in which case Cheney shouldn't have any access to any government information outside what the general public has.

Oh, and the Secret Service can tell him to provide his own security.

Vice President Exempts His Office from the Requirements for Protecting Classified Information :: Committee on Oversight and Government Reform :: United States House of Representatives

The subject of the document is entitled “National Continuity Policy.”

It defines a “catastrophic emergency” as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government function.”

This could mean another 9/11, or another Katrina, or a major earthquake in California, I imagine, since it says it would include “localized acts of nature, accidents, and technological or attack-related emergencies.”

Oh, you mean like a Reichstag fire?

Bush Anoints Himself as the Insurer of Constitutional Government in Emergency | The Progressive

When the committees began to inquire into the firings of the U.S. attorneys, the official said, Congress had a right to know that the firings were part of an ambitious effort to install administration loyalists throughout the department. The official spoke on the condition that neither his position nor agency be identified, because he feared retaliation from his superiors and the White House for disclosing aspects of the program.

Referring to the firings of the U.S. attorneys and the broader plan targeting other Justice employees, the senior official said, "You cannot separate one from the other. They were one and part of the same plan by the White House."

Murray Waas once again showing why he may be the best political reporter in all of Washington (his only competition coming from Sy Hersh).

NATIONAL JOURNAL: Secret Order By Gonzales Delegated Extraordinary Powers To Aides (04/30/07)

Since March 1, at least 16 army and national police commanders have been fired, detained or pressured to resign; at least nine of them are Sunnis, according to U.S. military documents shown to The Washington Post.

Although some of the officers appear to have been fired for legitimate reasons, such as poor performance or corruption, several were considered to be among the better Iraqi officers in the field. The dismissals have angered U.S. and Iraqi leaders who say the Shiite-led government is sabotaging the military to achieve sectarian goals.

Surge+Purge=Religious Cleansing.

Maliki's Office Is Seen Behind Purge in Forces - washingtonpost.com

It is my argument that, beneath our very noses, George Bush and his administration are using time-tested tactics to close down an open society. It is time for us to be willing to think the unthinkable - as the author and political journalist Joe Conason, has put it, that it can happen here. And that we are further along than we realise.

It is is no longer the lunatic fringe thinking things have gone awry, it is everywhere.

Fascist America, in 10 easy steps | Special reports | Guardian Unlimited

"There are jobs Americans aren't doing. ... If you've got a chicken factory, a chicken-plucking factory, or whatever you call them, you know what I'm talking about."

Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to invoke the other part of the 25th Amendment. You know, the part about mentally...

Remember the rug?

What?

Bush muses on marriage, chicken-plucking - Yahoo! News

In another e-mail exchange revealed during the investigation of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, a White House official was described as warning that "it is better to not put this stuff in writing in [the White House] . . . email system because it might actually limit what they can do to help us, especially since there could be lawsuits, etc." Abramoff responded in an e-mail that the message in question "was not supposed to go into the WH system."

So not only are we looking at missing documents, based on this comment we may be looking at something specifically used to avoid exposure of potentially illegal actions? This is nuts.

White House E-Mail Lost in Private Accounts - washingtonpost.com