Leahy sends holiday greetings to the White House

Leahy as perceived by the accused

Leahy: “I have given the White House’s claims of executive privilege and immunity careful consideration,” wrote Leahy. “I hereby rule that those claims are not legally valid to excuse current and former White House employees from appearing, testifying and producing documents related to this investigation. Accordingly, I direct Mr. Bolten, Mr. Rove, Ms. Taylor and Mr. Jennings to comply immediately with the committee's subpoenas by producing documents and testifying or face possible contempt citations.”

And for dessert

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

I'd like one of your special cream-filled treats about this long.

Get a Clue!

(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

"Wrong! It was Cheney in the Oval Office with the candlestick."

I'm tired of the games these @$#%@#% play.

Cosmic convergence

(Scott Audette/Reuters)

Who knew there would be a full moon during the you tube debate?

Open auditions

The leading contenders for The Hunchback Meets the Creature from the Black Lagoon are shown above.

Perino: WH Does 'Not Seek Permanent Bases in Iraq'

The bases will only be there until the Rapture...........

Perino: WH Does 'Not Seek Permanent Bases in Iraq'

General Lute said on Monday we'll negotiate them. Ali al-Dabbagh wouldn't rule them out. But at the White House press gaggle today, Dana Perino denied the Bush administration's interest in long-term U.S. military bases in Iraq. From AFP:

"We do not seek permanent bases in Iraq," spokeswoman Dana Perino told reporters after Lieutenant General Douglas Lute said Monday that the flashpoint issue would be part of negotiations to decide the future of US troops in Iraq.

George Bush School of Homework?

I don't always read America Blog but I found this interesting....

State Department official Iraq update is really compilation of plagiarized major media articles
11/28/2007 02:43:00 PM ET

Kind of pathetic when the official report from the US State Department on what's "really" happening in Iraq is actually just a bunch of plagiarized paragraphs from the major media in the US. To wit, the following analysis an anonymous friend just sent me. I just checked it out and he's right. State outright plagiarized much of the major media in making its "report." And what's really funny, they even stole a number of paragraphs from a New York Times article when, as I recall, the NYT is the newspaper that George Bush refuses to read because it supposedly has such a "liberal bias."

Who's pulling the strings?

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

But first....

A little roo-roo.
Seriously the door on that paddy wagon is a little disturbing.

Police officers arrest a student during riots in Amsterdam. Police clashed with high school students in several towns and cities in the Netherlands, on the second day students went on "strike" to protest government plans to increase the number of hours they must remain in school. At Amsterdam's Museum square, riot police used water cannons against some of the 1,000 demonstrators and charged them on horseback after students pelted them with apples, eggs and bottles. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
(November 26, 2007)

I don't like the sound of this...

U.S. Navy steps up fuel deliveries to Gulf forces

Here's the story.

LONDON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. military has stepped up chartering of tankers and requests for extra fuel in the U.S. Central Command area, which includes the Gulf, shipping and oil industry sources say.
A Gulf oil industry source said the charters suggested there would be high naval activity, possibly including a demonstration to Iran that the U.S. Navy will protect the Strait of Hormuz oil shipping route during tensions over Tehran's nuclear programme.
The U.S. Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC) has tendered for four tankers in November to move at least one million barrels of jet and ship fuel between Gulf ports, from Asia to the Gulf and to the Diego Garcia base, tenders seen by Reuters show. It usually tenders for one or two tankers a month to supply Gulf operations, which include missions in Iraq.

Remember, the big ships are nuclear powered, so they are good to go.
So what are they bringing in?
The fuel includes JP5, jet fuel, for the carrier-based aircraft. Does this presage increased aerial activity? Like maybe against Iran?

Sometimes satire is superfluous

Huckabee bringing Chuck Norris to CNN/YouTube debate

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee appears to be milking cult hero Chuck Norris' endorsement for all it's worth.

The former Arkansas governor told reporters on a conference call Monday morning that the “Walker Texas Ranger” star will be joining him at the CNN/YouTube debate this Wednesday night.

"[He] will be part of that experience," Huckabee said. "So it will be fun and hopefully very substantive."

Norris officially endorsed Huckabee last October, hailing him as a "respected and fearless leader" and one who's "not afraid to stand up for a Creator and against secularist beliefs."

On a personal level, I would pay good money to see Carlos Ray Norris kick the stuffing out of any of the debate participants any time they stretched the truth.

Fashion? Weak.

REUTERS/Vladimir Nikolsky

Feed me!

Scary immigrant

Reuters

i m at ur border brakin' your wall

Give 'em heck, Harry

Looks like Dr. Holzinger might not be putting on his general's suit as soon as he thought.

From Americablog

A statement from Senator Harry Reid:
The Senate will be coming in for pro-forma sessions during the Thanksgiving holiday to prevent recess appointments.

My hope is that this will prompt the President to see that it is our mutual interests for the nominations process to get back on track.

While an election year looms, significant progress can still be made on nominations.

I am committed to making that progress if the President will meet me half way.

But that progress can’t be made if the President seeks controversial recess appointments and fails to make Democratic appointments to important commissions.

As Democratic leader, I recommend nominees to the President for many important commissions like the Federal Communications Commission, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

These independent agencies are required by law to have Democratic representation.

As a result, the President has a statutory obligation to honor my recommendations and move on them in good faith.

And, up until recently, the President has generally discharged that obligation.

In the last several months, however, the administration has been stalling progress on Democratic appointments.

This problem existed before the August break.

In an effort to solve it, I worked hard to confirm over 40 administration nominees in exchange for a commitment by the President to make progress on a number of important commissions.

When we reconvened after August break, I also worked to quickly move on the President’s new Attorney General.

I did this despite my own opposition to that nominee.

Even with all this hard work on our side, the commitments the administration made to me before August break were not met.

In the almost three months since that break, we have received no Democratic nominees to full-time commission positions.

For some, in fact, absolutely no discernable progress has been made.

With Thanksgiving break looming, the administration informed me that they would make several recess appointments.

I indicated I would be willing to confirm various appointments if the administration would agree to move on Democratic appointments.

They would not make that commitment.

As a result, I am keeping the Senate in pro-forma to prevent recess appointments until we get this process back on track

The shape of things to come

Image from Living World Images

Saudi Arabia is creating an independent 35,000 strong force specifically to guard oil infrastructure. Here's the link via The Oil Drum.

The kingdom started recruiting and training the industrial security force a year ago, after a failed al Qaeda attack on the world's largest oil processing plant at Abqaiq in February 2006.

...Al Qaeda's Saudi-born leader, Osama bin Laden, has called for it to take aim specifically at oil.

"There is a new threat to oil installations from terrorists that has to be confronted," Interior Ministry spokesman General Mansour al-Turki told Reuters.

Look at the trouble in Nigeria (not to mention the stellar production records for Iraq for the last few years.)