Tom Ridge raised terror level for political purposes

Here's a shocker. Former Homeland Security Head Tom Ridge has said he was pressured to raise the terror alert during certain times when unfavorable news was coming out about the Bush administration. Olbermann has a good video correlating the bad news for Bush and the terror alert notices.

Two questions: 1) why is it that this kind of news often comes out when the leaker has a book to sell? 2) why is it that the terror level lowering never makes the news?

Did Bush administration cover up a massacre?

It seems quite likely. How much longer can we pretend that we're the 'good guys' in Afghanistan?

Bush officials repeatedly discouraged efforts by the F.B.I., the State Department, the Red Cross and human rights groups to investigate the massacre and said that it would undermine our war effort.

The report appears to show how readily Bush officials not only committed war crimes in the commission of torture but embraced war criminals as allies.

Bush administration implemented additional surveillance programs

It has come to light that George W. Bush authorized surveillance that went beyond what the NSA has been known to be doing for a few years now. Furthermore, there is an even more secret program that the CIA refuses to tell us (or apparently, even congress) about. Not surprisingly, it was Dick Cheney himself who ordered this program's concealment from our representatives. Darth Vader strikes again.

FBI Looking for Terrorists contributes to pervasive Financial Fraud

Turns out that all of these Ponzi schemes and otherwise financial fraud might not be as prevalent if the FBI allocated as many resources as in the past to stopping these crimes. Unfortunately, the Bush administration's emphasis on terrorism put more FBI officers chasing bad guys that may or may not exist and less on things that are now putting people on the streets. Another endearing chapter in the Bush administration legacy.

Man About to Reveal All about Bush Administration Dies

'Michael Connell, the Bush IT expert who has been directly implicated in the rigging of George Bush's 2000 and 2004 elections, was killed last night when his single engine plane crashed three miles short of the Akron airport.'

from here

Well, what an unbelievable coincidence! Someone who was being threatened by Karl Rove, et al gets killed right before he divulges any incriminating information on them. Something here stinks of elephant. Kind of reminds me of Bruce Ivens.

Genetic Nondiscrimination

Don't let anyone tell you that the Bush administration was all bad. It actually did do something incredibly far-sighted and significant recently: the President signed the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA) into law. This means that when everyone has their genes sequenced, the insurance companies don't own your soul.

This administration and science do not mix

You know something is going wrong when ten thousand researchers (including, by the way, 52 Nobel Laureates) in one country shed light on an issue. That issue is the current administration's manipulation and misrepresentation of scientific findings in order to forward their policy initiatives. The arrogance that Bush and his cronies exhibit is nothing short of appalling -- they believe that science is just another puppet in their show than can be toyed with as they see fit. Who can forget, for example the attempt of Bush's right hand man at NASA to insert the word "theory" before every mention of the Big Bang?

The administration has demoted the authority of science such that it has virtually no relevance in major policy decisions anymore. Not only that, but it appears that Bush is attempting eradicate the influence of science wherever he can find it, not just in Washington. His advocacy of teaching intelligent design alongside evolution in schools is testament to this shameful state of affairs. Thankfully, the Union of Concerned Scientists have created a helpful little table to help us recognize the administration's often not-too-subtle interference in science's role of informing the public and government.

Hopefully, things will change soon.

Suspension of Habeas corpus

Watch the video, and be amazed at how our liberties have just been signed away by the current president. And then, how he frames his action as a noble effort. And then, how no one does anything about it. Very sad.



From the YouTube video summary:

Today, 135 years to the day after the last American President suspended habeus corpus, President Bush signed into law the Military Commissions Act of 2006. At it's worst, the legislation allows President Bush or Donald Rumsfeld to declare anyone -- US citizen or not -- an enemy combatant, lock them up and throw away the key without a chance to prove their innocence in a court of law. In other words, every thing the founding fathers fought the British empire to free themselves of was reversed today with the stroke of a pen.

George Washington University Constitutional Law professor, Jonathan Turley, joins Keith to talk about the law that Senator Feingold said would be seen as "a stain on our nations history.