Be INFORMED

Monday, January 26, 2009

Karl Rove Subpoenaed By House Judiciary Committee...

   and that ain't no joke! The architect of the " permanent Republican majority ' really has no choice of ignoring this subpoena and of not appearing before the committee, headed by Chairman John Conyers. Karl Rove no longer has former president Bush/Cheney to cover for his ass with their " executive privilege " claims, nor does Rove have the  " absolute immunity " cover either. That position was tossed out by U.S. District Judge John Bates.

Huffington Post

On Monday, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) issued a subpoena to Karl Rove, requiring him to testify regarding his role in the Bush Administration's politicization of the Department of Justice, including the US Attorney firings and the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. The subpoena calls for Rove to appear at deposition on Monday, February 2, 2009.

snip

"I have said many times that I will carry this investigation forward to its conclusion, whether in Congress or in court, and today's action is an important step along the way," said Rep. Conyers. Noting that the change in administration may impact the legal arguments available to Mr. Rove in this long-running dispute, Mr. Conyers added, "Change has come to Washington, and I hope Karl Rove is ready for it. After two years of stonewalling, it's time for him to talk."

  This is going to get pretty interesting to those of us who keep track of this sort of activity. No doubt, that by now Rove has called every major law firm in the world, hoping to avoid this committee, but that ain't gonna happen. At least, I hope not.

John McCain: Still Stuck On Conservative Talking Points...

  so I would guess that Mr. McCain didn't get the memo from the voters back on November 4th,2008 when he got his ass kicked in an election. Oh, that would have been the election for president which he lost.

   Mr McCain was on Fox News Sunday being questioned by the ever Republican leaning Chris Wallace, so, as you can imagine, it was interesting.

  First we start with proof that McCain really is out of touch with Americans.

   From a video clip which Wallace puts up for McCain to watch, we have McCain saying:

MCCAIN: The message that the American people are sending us now is they want us to work together and get to work.

  So after the clip Wallace has a question for old John.

WALLACE: Given that belief, what do you see as your role towards President Obama?

MCCAIN: I view it as the loyal opposition -- help and work together where I can, and stand up for the principles and the party and the philosophy that I campaigned on and have stood for for many years.

  I have a problem with this answer because McCain says nothing about standing up for the American people in this country. It's all about the party and their principles, few that there are.

   Let's get to the economy, shall we?

WALLACE: Let’s talk about the economy. We’ll get to national security in a moment.

The president is pushing an economic stimulus package of $825 billion that raises some of the issues that were at the heart of your campaign against Barack Obama -- $275 billion in tax breaks, including money for people who don’t pay income taxes; $550 billion in spending, including $200 million to re-sod the National Mall, $360 million to fight sexually transmitted disease.

As that package now stands, can John McCain vote for it?

MCCAIN: No. We need to make tax cuts permanent, and we need to make a commitment that there’ll be no new taxes. We need to cut payroll taxes. We need to cut business taxes.

  Again with those permanent tax cuts! Give it a fucking break, John-boy, will you? Your party has sucked billions out of the U.S. Treasury with those tax cuts to big business. Money which any real government could have used for real issues. How do you keep the government running without taxes John. Oh, that's right. Privatize it, right?

We need to have a commitment that after a couple of quarters of GDP growth that we will embark on a path as we’ll say -- called Gramm- Rudman -- to reduce spending to get our budget in balance.

We’re going to lay an additional 2 trillion, basically, dollars of debt on future generations of Americans. Is there going to be a point where foreign countries such as the Chinese stop buying our debt?

WALLACE: As it stands now, though, you’d vote against it.

MCCAIN: Well, look. I mean, I am opposed to most of the provisions in the bill. As it stands now, I would not support it.

WALLACE: Would you filibuster it?

MCCAIN: Well, let’s -- I mean, I want us all to sit down and negotiate. The Republicans have not been brought in to the degree that we should be into these negotiations and discussions.

So far, as far as I can tell, no Republican proposal has been incorporated. Maybe there has been. I just may have missed it. But clearly, we need to have serious negotiations.

   We already know what the Republican ideas are John. The same as they have always been. More tax cuts and less regulation. the conservative cry throughout the ages. Give us a fucking break.

  When asked about the torture issue and Eric Holder's answers on the possibility of prosecutions to those who may have been involved in this mess, McCain did have the same answer all Republicans, and many Democrats have had.

WALLACE: The president’s choice for attorney general, Eric Holder, said the other day at his congressional hearing that waterboarding is torture, and he left open the possibility that lawyers or CIA officers who participated in some of these activities could be liable to criminal prosecution.

How do you feel about that, the idea of the possibility of investigations and even criminal prosecution of people who were doing what they were told to do during the Bush years?

MCCAIN: I think it’s time to move forward. I believe that waterboarding is in violation of the Geneva Conventions, and I’ve said it for years. But it’s time to move forward.     ( my emphasis )

  Let's move forward and forget about the illegal activities of the Bush administration so that the next group can screw us even more.