ivan

scarey indeed - i had a class of seniors last year, the majority of which were theoritically fine w/ the government posting cameras in all the rooms of their house so they could be observed at all times the spirit of servility is sizzling in its vitality - the benefit of legalizing drugs for these fawks is that it'll facilitate their voluntary culling from the herd

Ashcroft and the Night Visitors By Dana Milbank Wednesday, May 16, 2007; Page A02 As if Attorney General Alberto Gonzales didn't have enough trouble, now comes word that, before coming to the Justice Department, Gonzales preyed on the infirm. In hair-raising testimony before a Senate committee yesterday, Jim Comey, the former No. 2 official at the Justice Department, described what might be called the Wednesday Night Massacre of March 10, 2004. Gonzales, then the White House counsel, and White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card staged a bedside ambush of Attorney General John Ashcroft while he lay in intensive care. Comey, serving as acting attorney general during Ashcroft's incapacitation, testified about how, on a tip from Ashcroft's wife, he intercepted the pair in Ashcroft's hospital room. Jim Comey tells of Alberto Gonzales's bedside manner. (By Susan Walsh -- Associated Press) Washington Sketch A national political reporter for the Post, Milbank writes Washington Sketch, an observational column about political theater in the White House, Congress and elsewhere in the capital. He covered the 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns and President Bush's first term. Before coming to the Post as a Style political writer in 2000, he covered the Clinton White House for the New Republic and Congress for the Wall Street Journal. "The door opened and in walked Mr. Gonzales, carrying an envelope, and Mr. Card," Comey told the spellbound senators. "They came over and stood by the bed." They wanted Ashcroft to sign off on an eavesdropping plan that Comey and others at the Justice Department had already called legally indefensible. Ashcroft "lifted his head off the pillow and in very strong terms expressed his view of the matter" -- that Comey was right. "And as he laid back down, he said, 'But that doesn't matter, because I'm not the attorney general. There is the attorney general.' And he pointed to me." Gonzales and Card "did not acknowledge me," Comey testified. "They turned and walked from the room." The Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee stared. The lone Republican in attendance, Arlen Specter (Pa.), looked down. The 6-foot-8 Comey, slightly hunched in the witness chair, swallowed frequently and kept his hands in his lap as he spun a narrative worthy of Dashiell Hammett. "I thought I just witnessed an effort to take advantage of a very sick man," Comey told the quiet chamber. His voice grew thick and he cleared his throat as he explained how he prepared to resign. "I couldn't stay, if the administration was going to engage in conduct that the Department of Justice had said had no legal basis." Comey had come before the committee to discuss Gonzales's botched firing of U.S. attorneys. Instead, under questioning from Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), he gave his account of Gonzales's dark-of-night attempt to emasculate the department he would soon lead. The testimony had all the more impact because it came the morning after Deputy Attorney General Paul McNulty became the fourth senior official to resign in the prosecutor mess. If Comey's testimony had the grip of mystery yesterday, Gonzales's defense had the feel of farce, as he heaped blame on McNulty for the mishandled firings. "The deputy attorney general is the direct supervisor of the United States attorneys," Gonzales volunteered at a National Press Club breakfast. He added: "I went back to the deputy attorney general and I asked Paul, 'Do you still stand by the recommendations?' And he said, 'Yes.' " At the hearing, Specter offered a different view of McNulty's departure. "It's embarrassing for a professional to work for the Department of Justice today," he said, calling the resignation "evidence that the department really cannot function with the continued leadership or lack of leadership of Attorney General Gonzales." Despite public pleas from a "lonely" Specter, the other Republicans on the committee didn't risk an appearance. Even the White House declined to counter Comey, who has a reputation for honesty. "You've got somebody who has splashy testimony on Capitol Hill -- good for him," presidential press secretary Tony Snow dodged. In truth, nothing Snow could have said would have matched Comey's testimony. Comey recounted how, while driving home at 8 p.m. on that day in 2004, he got word that Mrs. Ashcroft had received a call -- possibly from President Bush himself -- to say Gonzales and Card were coming. "I told my security detail that I needed to get to George Washington Hospital immediately. They turned on the emergency equipment and drove very quickly," Comey testified. "I got out of the car and ran up -- literally ran up the stairs with my security detail. . . . I raced to the hospital room, entered." The room was dark, and Ashcroft was "pretty bad off." In Comey's account, he got FBI Director Robert Mueller to tell his agents guarding Ashcroft not to let Card and Gonzales evict Comey from the room. A few minutes after the bedside confrontation, Card called the hospital. He "demanded that I come to the White House immediately," Comey testified. "I responded that, after the conduct I had just witnessed, I would not meet with him without a witness present." "He replied, 'What conduct? We were just there to wish him well.' " After Card demanded to know if Comey was "refusing to come to the White House," Comey, with the solicitor general, finally arrived at the West Wing at 11 p.m. His narrative covered the next two days, ending when Bush intervened and avoided a spate of resignations. The senators had some trouble finding words for what they had heard. "This story makes me gulp," Schumer said. Specter invoked the firing of the Watergate prosecutor. "It has some characteristics of the Saturday Night Massacre," he said. And the senator left little doubt about whom he blamed. "Can you give us an example of an exercise of good judgment by Alberto Gonzales?" he asked. This time, Comey had no narrative. "Let the record show a very long pause," Specter said.

that's kinda the point, jay - from my conversations with kids in my classes over a decade, many indicate to me that they want the government to play the job of parent to them, even when they're older - they want to not have the option to get in trouble, so support any goverment policy which takes freedom from those who do

going out to ozone this afternoon w/ mike if ya'll wanna congregate in a place less strewn w/ rubbers n' folks crying their eyes out over old-falwell

His efforts have set back basic human rights in this country. That is a real, concrete effect, not mere politicing in a vacuum. If he had preached love and tolerance for all, I might shed a tear at his passing, but this guy represents everything unchristian and evil about American evangelical "christianity". Becuase he beleives in a principle different than you, you hate him. Your no different. Hypocrit. but hypocrism is the precise reason for hating falwell - he espoused the message of jesus, which is the uber-hippy message of love-fucking-everyone-and-under-no-circumstances-ever-do-anything-harmful-to-them-judge-not-lest-you-be-judged-yadda-yadda-yadda - a real cut and dried philosophy - but then falwell comletely fucked it up by judging everyone and creating a situation where his followers felt totally justified in hurting them who on this board is more hypocritical then that?

good quote - i actually read it this time - my favorite snippet: "In sports too, many people are prone to carry their indulgence further than their strength will allow. Why should not the state interfere here as well? Few men know how to be temperate in their sexual life.... Should not the state intervene here too?" that oughta eliminate about 90% of the wankers round here, meself most doubly included!

i'm sure the mormons would be happy to do that if given the power

my one khat experience was comic - a few minutes after my grandmother's burial in arlington national cemetery, my little bro (just a month back from iraq) and i try to see the capital building - we hadn't been there since after 2001 and we're pissed to see that you couldn't walk up the stairs anymore - so i duck behind the magnolia trees and start climbing (beautiful climbing too, say good old beckey 5.4) - my brother starts screaming at me as i'm 10 feet off the groudn "THE COPS ARE COMING MAN!" - i downclimb and emerge from the bushes just as they swarm over me - "were you climbing up there?" "of course not! see you later!" - they escort us off the grounds, dumping us convientely at the national arboretuem - taking the tour of the middle eastern plant section, we note a large variety of khat plants happily growing away beside their plaques - as we'd killed the whiskey flask around the time of the 21 gun we looking for something interesting, and going all multi-cultural seemed right - it must not have been the cia-stash though, didn't seem to do shit or maybe it did? as we were not long thereafter forcibly removed from the air and space musuem by a very large black woman who didn't like our jocund attitude towards closing time so yeah, khat blad - very blad

yet another example of trying to take the brown man's drugs away

what's the lyric? "she don't eat meat but she sure likes the bone"

of course! wtf's the point of living if you can't piss on the graves of your enemies? about the only reason i go to the gym... "for every one of us - living in this world means waiting for our end - let he who can achieve glory before death - when a warrior is gone that will be his best and only bulwark"

we're all fat hypocritical assholes making a mockery out of the very philosophy we espouse? reckon i can live w/ that at least our sheenanigans are cheeky and funny - his were just cruel and tragic...

ANYTHING smokable is worth 30 times it's weight up there

nice pics - go back and edit them w/ line breaks between so we can read the text w/o going crazy

dude! what? that's when you *uncage the soul*!

i actually thought the guy was kinda cool till he starting cracking-down on twinky-winky and then i was like shit, i wanna go to heaven so i can hang out w/ pricks like this? the last thing he ever saw were these little gender-confused bitches having a good laugh on him

i heard he once had sex w/ his mother in an out-house?

a fine TR for sure, but critically lacking a liberal sampling of sublime swear-words - perhaps if it had been an epic?

mount clown magnet der tauntaunwand

'cuz like everyone's so anti-yosemite around here???

WHO WANTS A MOUSTACHE RIDE?!?

ozone and madrone - the later being nice n' overhanging for when the drizzle started

nice! a lot more ice on p1 than that time we contemplated it, eh?

oh wait!

thus the value in a having a tauntaun w/ you on the hoodmordwand- they can smell the roasting whaumpaum rats at timberline lodge from anywhere on the mountain and home in on the p-lot in even the most whited out conditions...