Home / thinkprogress.org rss archive / September-07-2007


Grand Old Prosecutors.
In written answers to questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, Bradley Schlozman, the former Justice Department official who headed the Civil Rights Division, “admitted that he’d once urged hiring certain prosecutors for his office based on their political affiliation. It’s against civil service laws to do so.” Today marked the 50th anniversary of the creation [...]

Senate okays aid to overseas groups that support abortion.
The Senate yesterday defied a White House veto threat and overturned “a long-standing ban on U.S. funding for overseas family planning groups that support abortion.” Seven Republicans joined 44 Democrats in reversing the ban, which was first implemented by President Ronald Reagan. President Clinton rescinded it, but it was then reinstated by Bush. (Bush v. [...]

Doolittle: My critics are ‘weasels.’
Today, Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) denounced his critics as “weasels,” even “as his chief of staff appeared before a federal grand jury investigating Doolittle’s ties to jailed lobbyist Jack Abramoff.” In the past, Doolittle has compared himself to the Duke students who were falsely accused of rape, stating “that the destruction of the reputations of [...]

Thompson: Osama Bin Laden Is ‘More Symbolism Than Anything Else’
Speaking to reporters in Iowa today aboard his “brightly colored campaign bus,” Fred Thompson spoke about the war in Iraq and the war against terrorist networks. He claimed — without any evidence — that “Americans are beginning to move in his direction in their support for the war in Iraq.” He also dismissed the [...]

Bush acting like George Allen is still a senator.
Yesterday, President Bush nominated E. Duncan Getchell, Jr for a seat on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Virginia. Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) issued a statement criticizing the appointment, noting that Getchell was not on a list of nominees recommended by him and Sen. John Warner (R-VA). Instead, President Bush relied on an [...]

A loyal Bushie to the very end.
Yesterday, in one of his final speeches as Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales “spent almost an hour” at the Coast Guard Academy “defending the legal decisions his office and the president made to oppose terrorism.” From the Hartford Courant:He also defended the holding facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and the legal protections of its inmates and [...]

Court Strikes Down Gag Rule for National Security Letters
Yesterday, in a well-reasoned decision, a federal judge in New York struck down under the First Amendment a particularly extreme provision in the Patriot Act — the “gag rule” that applied to National Security Letters (NSLs). As discussed in my Senate Judiciary testimony this April, NSLs are subpoenas issued by the FBI, with no [...]

Graham: We’re ‘Kicking Ass’ In Iraq, Political Reconciliation Likely ‘Within Weeks’
Yesterday, prominent Iraq war proponents were featured at a panel at the American Enterprise Institute, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), a vocal supporter of President Bush’s escalation.Graham cheerfully explained that in his eight visits to Iraq, he has never come back as optimistic as after his most recent one. Graham claimed political reconciliation is on [...]

Right wing outraged by correct labeling of Iraq report.
Yesterday, the Washington Times reported that Congressional leaders have begun calling the upcoming Iraq assessment “the Bush report” rather than crediting it to Gen. David Petraeus — a change that the paper and other right wingers claim is an effort to “undermine” Petraeus’ credibility. But, as TPM’s Greg Sargent points out, the legislation calling for [...]

168,000:
U.S. force levels in Iraq, an “all-time high.” Maj. Gen. Richard Sherlock, director of operational planning for the Joint Staff, said that “the arrival of more combat brigades will temporarily push the total to as high as 172,000 over the coming months before it falls back to about 160,000 troops by November or December as [...]

Schmidt caught plagiarizing in newspaper column.
In her recent column on bus safety, Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-OH) warned school children to “never bend down near or under the bus to pick something up that has fallen.” An observant Ohio blog, The Daily Bellwether, noticed that parts of Schmidt’s column were strikingly similar to columns written by former Ohio State Highway Patrol [...]

Right Wing Attacks Zakaria For Stating Facts About Ethnic Cleansing In Iraq
On ABC’s World News with Charles Gibson on Wednesday, Newsweek International editor Fareed Zakaria said that fears of genocide in Iraq after an American withdrawal are misplaced because large-scale ethnic cleansing has already occurred:One of the dirty little secrets about Iraq is that Iraq has increasingly been ethnically cleansed. It’s sad to say, but the [...]

Petraeus on Iraq: ‘It has not worked out as we had hoped.’
In anticipation of the White House’s report next week, Gen. David Petraeus sent a letter to U.S. troops today. Brandon Friedman, who served in Iraq and is now a senior adviser to Vote Vets, obtained a copy of the letter and notes that most of it “essentially says what everyone expects him to say.” On [...]

ThinkFast: September 7, 2007
Though Gen. David Petraeus has told President Bush “that he wants to maintain heightened troop levels in Iraq well into next year,” a senior U.S. official says the general is willing to consider a slight drawdown of “between 3,500 and 4,500 U.S. troops from Iraq early next year.” Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID) lashed out at [...]

67 percent:
Number of citizens around the world who “think US-led forces should leave Iraq within a year, according to a BBC World Service poll of 23,000 people across 22 countries. Just one in four (23%) think foreign troops should remain in Iraq until security improves.”

Rohrabacher claims China’s president is trying to kill Bush.
This week, President Bush met with China’s President Hu Jintao in Australia at the APEC summit. In “his usual understated way,” Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) issued a statement yesterday asking: “If this were 1936, would President Bush be anxious to sit next to Adolf?” “One bit of advice, Mr. President,” Rohrabacher said, “I wouldn’t be [...]

New Twist In Saga Over ‘Petraeus Report’: There Will Be No Report
In the latest twist to the ongoing saga over the Petraeus White House report, a senior military official tells the Washington Times today that there will actually be no report at all:A senior military officer said there will be no written presentation to the president on security and stability in Iraq. “There is no report. [...]