Free Republic

Who should be the LAST person in DUmmieland to mock the apocalypse prediction? Try the perpetrator of the Karl Rove indictment hoax aka WILLIAM RIVERS PITT. Perhaps the guy who made the apocalypse prediction should claim that it will happen within the next 24 business hours because that is how the Pitt prediction still stands. Supposedly the indictment is still in an sealed envelope and merely needs to be opened and revealed to the public. Remember, Pitt has NEVER owned up to confessing to the error of his prediction so the irony of his mocking of the apocalypse prediction...

WOO! HOO! I’ve gone 6 months without smoking! My sacred lungs have been untarnished by toxic nicotine fumes that whole time. Not once did I ever relapse and suck down hard on a cigarette. Okay. Who am I kidding here? Of course I relapsed. I mean why do you think no more triumphalist postings from me on this topic since I BRAGGED about hitting the 50 day no smoking mark? So why this confession? Because it is sooooo much better for you to rag on me for having absolutely no willpower than for you to remember this date. What...

A federal judge has ordered the Justice Department to release notes and summaries of former Vice President Dick Cheney's 2004 interview with Special Prosecutor Pat Fitzgerald in the CIA leak case, but is allowing the deletion of what may be some of the most interesting details in the documents. In a ruling issued Thursday morning, Judge Emmet Sullivan flatly rejected claims by both Bush and Obama appointees at DOJ that the entirety of the records should be withheld because their disclosure could discourage White House officials from cooperating in future investigations. The judge said the prospect of such inquiries was...

Former top White House official Karl Rove will be interviewed tomorrow as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into the firing of U.S. attorneys during the Bush administration, according to two sources familiar with the appointment. He will be questioned tomorrow by Connecticut prosecutor Nora R. Dannehy, who was named last year to examine whether any former senior Justice Department and White House officials lied or obstructed justice in connection with the dismissal of federal prosecutors in 2006. Robert D. Luskin, a lawyer for Rove, declined comment this afternoon on the imminent interview. So did Tom Carson, a spokesman for...

It is May 12. Pied Piper Pitt Day! Let the bells ring out in joy! Gather up your family for the celebrations! Today we honor the man who on May 12, 2006, just 24 business hours ago, broke the big journalistic scoop that Karl Rove had already been indicted.It was shortly after this revelation and arrest of Rove that William Rivers Pitt became the toast of the journalism world. He quickly left Truthout behind to become a regular guest on MSNBC and a respected pundit published far and wide. He could often be spotted in Peter Luger's steakhouse holding...

In a remarkable screw-up, a Department of Justice official today accidentally distributed to the media a document containing the names of nearly 20 confidential witnesses interviewed during a federal probe targeting the operators of a fraudulent investment scheme. In announcing felony charges against two men for their roles in an alleged $15 million Ponziesque swindle, the spokesman for Chicago U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald (he of Rod Blagojevich- and Scooter Libby-prosecuting fame) e-mailed reporters a 62-page U.S. District Court complaint filed against John Walsh and Charles Martin, principals of the now-defunct One World Capital Group. Included in the document was a...

Under pressure from African-Americans in the House, Democratic leaders appear to be backing down from their vow to bar Roland Burris from the Senate under any circumstance. When scandal-tarred Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich named Burris to Barack Obama’s Senate seat last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) issued a statement in which he said that Burris “will not be seated by the Democratic Caucus.” But as Burris made his way from Chicago to Washington on Monday, Reid took a softer line. “Of course, Roland Burris has not been certified by the state of Illinois,” he said. “When that takes...

Gigot: You said that--recently, you wrote for The Wall Street Journal--that although you are a Republican, you take no pleasure in seeing a prosecutor break--violate his ethical obligations in prosecuting a Democrat. How did Patrick Fitzgerald violate ethical standards? Toensing: There's a very strict rule for prosecutors, Paul, and that is, you are not supposed to say anything that would heighten public condemnation of the defendant. In other words, you're not supposed to try to taint the jury pool. We, people in criminal law, call it, you're not supposed to talk outside the four corners of the complaint or the...

CHICAGO – Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says he is not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing and plans to stay on the job. In his first official statement since his arrest on corruption charges last week, Blagojevich (blah-GOY'-Uh-vich) says he will fight until he takes his "last breath." ... The Democratic governor says he intends to "answer every allegation in a court of law."

Let's run down the list, shall we... 1. Allison Davis, Obama's boss at his law firm, was a player in the extortion attempt in the Board Games case. Davis also partnered with Rezko and received taxpayer subsidies to rehab apartments and homes, getting deal after deal from Mayor Daley. Daley, Davis, Rezko, Blago, and Obama have all worked together to obtain government funding for said "housing development". In exchange, the slumlords have financed Blago and Obama's political careers. 2. Two politicians specifically received donations from the kickback schemes. You guessed it. Blago and Obama. From the first pay-off, 20K was...

Rahm Emanuel, President-elect Barack Obama's pick to be White House chief of staff, had conversations with Gov. Rod Blagojevich's administration about who would replace Obama in the U.S. Senate, the Tribune has learned. The revelation does not suggest Obama's new gatekeeper was involved in any talk of dealmaking involving the seat. But it does help fill in the gaps surrounding a question that Obama was unable or unwilling to answer this week: Did anyone on his staff have contact with Blagojevich about his choice for the Senate seat?

WASHINGTON (AP) - People who have been briefed on the Illinois governor corruption investigation say Barack Obama chief of staff Rahm Emanuel is not a target of the probe. Emanuel, a Chicago congressman who would have been a likely contact between the Obama transition office and Gov. Rod Blagojevich, has been a focus of media attention since Obama said Thursday he has asked for an internal review of contacts between his staff and Blagojevich. Emanuel has been refusing to answer questions about whether he's the "president-elect adviser" referred to in the criminal complaint that accuses Blagojevich of putting Obama's Senate...

Which would be the more heavily-guarded place to be for a political figure who's received death threats?: a. A school concert in a public venue. b. A press conference in the company of the President-elect of the United States of America. If you answered 'b,' you're thinking like me and presumably most people. If you answered 'a,' you're A.B. Stoddard. The associate editor of "The Hill" newspaper offered up her strange excuse for Rahm Emanuel's failure to attend press conferences with Pres.-elect Obama in the course of an MSNBC appearance this afternoon during which she also claimed that "President-elect Obama...

Director of Illinois Dept. of Veterans' Affairs visits Quincy Duckworth comments on consideration for Senate By Alexis Hunt Saturday, November 08, 2008 at 9:48 p.m. QUINCY, IL -- Now that Barack Obama will be moving to the White House, his seat in the U.S. Senate representing Illinois will have to be filled. Obama met with Governor Rod Blagojevich earlier this week to discuss it. Illinois law states that the governor chooses that replacement. There's already been speculation about his selection...from Congressman Jesse Jackson, Junior to Illinois Department of Veterans' Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth. Duckworth made an appearance in Saturday's Veterans'...

Yesterday the American Patrol Report focused on Barack Obama's links to the Service Employee International Union (SEIU). Within hours we learned that the SEIU was intimately involved in the Gov. Blagojevich's selling of Obama's Senate seat. "Among the revelations contained in the complaint brought against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich yesterday was the description of an official with the Service Employees International Union acting as an apparent intermediary between the governor and Barack Obama's camp in discussions over Obama's http://www.americanpatrol.com/

CHICAGO (AP) -- A spokeswoman for Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich says one of his top aides has resigned. Spokeswoman Kelley Quinn on Wednesday said Deputy Gov. Bob Greenlee resigned. The reason for his resignation wasn't immediately clear. Greenlee's resignation comes a day after Blagojevich was arrested on federal corruption charges. Greenlee was promoted to be a top aide to Blagojevich in June, replacing former Deputy Governor Sheila Nix. Greenlee had been a top administration aide previously. State records indicate the 33-year-old Greenlee lives in Chicago and earned $149,000 a year.

The first question on most peoples’ minds has to be is the new president-elect involved and will he be drawn into this? It’s been known for a long time that Obama has had strong ties to Rezko (see, i.e., ) who is revealed yet again in these tapes as the governor’s bagman. If you wanted anything done in Chicago, it appears that you had to do it through payoffs for the governor to Rezko. But the investigation into Governor Rod Blagojevich's selling Obama's Senate seat could involve the president-elect's closest aides...

Lynn Sweet reported that on November 5, 2008, Obama "wrapped up a day of planning for his transition at the office of his friend" John Rogers, the Ariel financial founder. The meeting reportedly took 6 hours. It has been reported that Obama met with/was going to meet with Blagojevich to discuss who would replace Obama in the Senate. Rogers is reportedly (per an LA Times blog) a campaign contributer to both Obama and Blagojevich. Obama denies speaking with Blagojevich about his replacement. Yeah, right.

ON NOW! LAWYER will speak shortly

TV station reported Obama met with Blagojevich: Topic was filling vacated Senate seat. © 2008 WorldNetDaily Barack Obama told reporters yesterday he had no contact with Gov. Rod Blagojevich about filling his vacated Senate seat, but a Nov. 5 news report said the president-elect planned to discuss the subject in a meeting with the Illinois governor that day. The report by KHQA-TV's Carol Sowers, posted on the website of the Quincy, Ill., station, said "one of Obama's first priorities" on the day after his election was a meeting with Blagojevich planned that afternoon to discuss the Senate seat. A story...

"...John Harris re-stated Rod Blagojevich's thoughts that they should ask the President-elect for something for Rod Blagojevich's financial security as well as maintain his political viability. Harris said they could work out a three-way deal with SEIU and the President- elect where SEIU could help the President-elect with Rod Blagojevich's appointment of Senate Candidate 1 to the vacant Senate seat, Rod Blagojevich would obtain a position as the National Director of the Change to Win campaign, and SEIU would get something favorable from the President-elect in the future..."

President-elect Barack Obama is calling for the Illinois governor to resign. Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs says the president-elect agrees with other prominent politicians in Illinois and elsewhere that "under the current circumstances, it is difficult for the governor to effectively do his job and serve the people of Illinois."

NEW YORK – While prosecutors are making no allegations against Barack Obama in the massive criminal complaint unsealed yesterday against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, a separate civil case in Chicago asserts the president-elect benefited from a shady land deal orchestrated by convicted felon Antonin "Tony" Rezko.

Sweet catch by Tapper, showing why he got that promotion. Obama today…“I had no contact with the governor or his office and so I was not aware of what was happening, ” Obama told reporters today in Chicago. “It’s a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that, I don’t think it’s appropriate to comment.” …versus Axelrod on November 23, as seen below. Be sure to read Tapper’s post, as he has plenty more on The One’s long history as a friend of — and advisor to — Blago. Axelrod himself begged off Blagojevich’s first gubernatorial campaign because “I was concerned about...

Merry Fitzmas, DUmmies! It's here, the day you've been waiting for, for all these many business months! Only it's not Karl Rove doing the frog-march. It's a DEMOCRAT, longtime Obambi ally, Illinois Gov. Rod "I want to make money" Blagojevich. "A political corruption crime spree," a "staggering" level of corruption, "a truly new low"--that's how Fitzie described Blago's expletive-laced pay-to-play plotting caught on tape. Yet in the face of MASSIVE evidence of Blago's blatant bribe-seeking--even trying to SELL Obambi's vacant Senate seat--SOME DUmmies think it's just Rethuglican persecution, or else they minimize what Blagojevich did by saying Rethugs do...

The sentencing of former Democratic National Committee fund-raiser Joseph Cari Jr. has been delayed at the request of prosecutors. It's a sign the feds want to use Cari as a witness -- again. Cari, who has admitted guilt in a corruption case, is a former campaign fund-raiser for Vice President-elect Joe Biden, U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton and Gov. Blagojevich. He was supposed to be sentenced months ago, after he testified against Tony Rezko, the former fund-raiser for Blagojevich and President-elect Barack Obama. But that was put off, and no new date has been set. At Rezko's trial, Cari testified that...

Update, 3:22 p.m. ET: President-elect Barack Obama offered a brief comment about the Blagojevich arrest following his meeting today in Chicago with former Vice President Al Gore. "I had no contact with the governor or his office and so I was not aware of what was happening," Obama said. "But as I said it is a sad day for Illinois. Beyond that I don't think it's appropriate to comment." Update, 1:55 p.m. ET: Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin (D) is calling for a special election to fill the vacancy caused by the resignation of President-elect Barack Obama. Such a move would...

CHICAGO (Reuters) – President-elect Barack Obama was in no way implicated in the federal corruption charges against the governor of his home state of Illinois, a fellow Democrat, ... "I should make clear the complaint makes no allegations about the president-elect whatsoever," said U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald. Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich was arrested on corruption charges on Tuesday, including trying to sell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by Obama. ... Fiztgerald told a news conference .. he had wanted to stop a "crime spree."

Gov. Rod Blagojevich became the state's first Democratic chief executive in more than a quarter of a century after vowing to reform what he labeled the culture of corruption surrounding his predecessor that had fed deep cynicism among Illinoisans. But little more than a year after replacing George Ryan in office in 2003, Blagojevich found his administration at the early stages of what became a host of state and federal investigations into allegations of wrongdoing involving state hiring, board appointments, contracting and fundraising that battered his tenure. In their prosecution of Blagojevich fundraisers and allies, dubbed "Operation Board Games," federal...

The Sun Times today gave a major clue that Barack Obama will indeed go down with Tony Rezko, sooner rather than later. It looks as though Rezko is about to turn on Alexi Giannoulias, the 30-year old State Treasurer of Illinois (who was elected only because Obama backed him). Here’s where all the clues are…and then we’ll walk you through the local Chicago politics on how today’s hint by the Sun Times has us convinced, for the first time ever, that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald could indeed send Barack Obama to jail. We need to repeat that: we never believed, until...

The Sun Times today gave a major clue that Barack Obama will indeed go down with Tony Rezko, sooner rather than later. It looks as though Rezko is about to turn on Alexi Giannoulias, the 30-year old State Treasurer of Illinois (who was elected only because Obama backed him). Here’s where all the clues are…and then we’ll walk you through the local Chicago politics on how today’s hint by the Sun Times has us convinced, for the first time ever, that prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald could indeed send Barack Obama to jail. We need to repeat that: we never believed, until...

Tonight we talked to someone who works in the federal courts here in Chicago. The buzz in those corridors is that federal prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald has been leading a team of FBI investigators in 10 states working on a RICO case. Today, it was announced that ACORN is being investigated in 10 states. That’s one Hell of a coincidence. We asked why Fitzgerald would be involved in this, because he’s the prosecutor on the Tony Rezko case and we aren’t aware of ACORN being investigated in Illinois. We were told that ACORN was investigated in Illinois years ago, and it...

US election officials believe they have uncovered massive attempted voter fraud less than a month before the country goes to the polls to choose its new president. Eleven separate investigations have now been launched into a voter registration group called the Association of Community Organisations for Reform – or Acorn. The authorities believe they may have duplicated voter forms, employed convicts to register people and even stolen the names of the American football team the Dallas Cowboys in order to create fake voters. The suspicions started when authorities in Las Vegas raided the organisation's offices, removing eight computer hard drives...

House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Henry Waxman warned Attorney General Michael Mukasey on Tuesday to turn over a copy of a FBI interview with Vice President Dick Cheney or face contempt charges. The document in question is an interview Cheney gave to the FBI in the investigation of the leak of the identity of Valerie Plame Wilson, a covert CIA agent. “The arguments you have raised for withholding the interview report are not tenable,” Waxman wrote in a letter to Mukasey. “When the FBI interview with the Vice President was conducted, the Vice President knew that the information...

MERRY FITZMAS!!! Today is the second anniversary of Karl Rove's indictment on May 12, 2006. This amazing journalistic scoop of a non-event was provided by that great investigative team of TruthOut fashion photographer, Marc Ash, deranged drug addict, Jason Leopold, and, of course, the Bostonian Drunkard himself, WILLIAM RIVERS PITT. So how to celebrate Fitzmas? Of course, Pied Piper Pitt himself continues to remain mum in his turtleshell, refusing to even acknowledge the reality of his self-humiliation that has turned him into a Web laughingstock. I could have just reprinted one of the many DUFU Fitzmas threads from 2006....

With the announcement of Karl Rove resigning his position from the White House, it is time to revisit that infamous report by MSNBC's David Shuster who on Keith Olbermann's Countdown show on May 8, 2006 flatly stated: I am convinced that Karl Rove will, in fact, be indicted. When a month later it was announced that Rove would not be indicted, a sheepish Shuster came up with several lame excuses for his monumental misreporting as chronicled by NewsBusters editor Brent Baker in his June 13, 2006 post. Under questioning by Countdown substitute host, Brian Unger, Shuster began by blaming the...

Karl Rove, the presidential adviser dubbed "George Bush's brain," has announced he will resign at the end of this month. Hold the applause. This master of back alley political tactics has been the architect of the worst administration in America's history. His very successes were catastrophic for the country. George Bush was never much interested in history or in policy. He didn't travel widely or exhibit curiosity about other nations. His passion was politics. He was an acolyte of Lee Atwater, master of dirty tricks and race-based politics. And in Rove, he found his instrument, a man for whom political...

The hypocritical braying that has greeted George W. Bush's commutation of White House aide "Scooter" Libby's (pictured) prison sentence continues. "The president's critics are contrasting his leniency for Libby with his overall advocacy of stiff sentences," writes the San Francisco Chronicle this week. I think the scandal isn't the President's lenience for Libby, but that Libby was prosecuted in the first place. Here are the facts. A former ambassador named Joseph Wilson wrote an article in 2003, suggesting that the President had played fast and loose with intelligence to justify his invasion of Iraq. The piece appeared in The New...

<p>Judge dismisses Valerie Plame's lawsuit accusing members of the Bush administration of leaking her identity... Developing..</p>

A federal judge on Thursday dismissed former CIA operative Valerie Plame's lawsuit against members of the Bush administration in the CIA leak scandal.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Dissident U.S. intelligence officers angry at former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld helped a European probe uncover details of secret CIA prisons in Europe, the top investigator said on Tuesday. Swiss Senator Dick Marty, author of a Council of Europe report on the jails, said senior CIA officials disapproved of Rumsfeld's methods in hunting down terrorist suspects, and had agreed to talk to him on condition of anonymity."There were huge conflicts between the CIA and Rumsfeld. Many leading figures in the CIA did not accept these methods at all," Marty told European Parliament committees, defending his work against...

The further redacted affidavits filed in the Miller case are now available online. Two interesting facts have struck Just One Minute commenters as we skim through this newly available material. First, Fitzgerald granted Ari Fleischer immunity without requiring him to provide waivers, so that Fitzgerald could not confirm Ari's story with reporters. This seems remarkable, and when you add to it that Fitzgerald claimed in court that he granted immunity to Fleischer without having any idea what he'd testify to, it is astonishing. It may explain why he believed for so long that Libby had been the source to Walter...

As everybody knows by now, it was Richard L. Armitage, former deputy secretary of state, who was the original source of Robert Novak's now-famous column of July 14, 2003, in which Valerie Plame, wife of Joseph Wilson, was outed as a CIA operative. Novak implied that she was instrumental in getting her husband the mission to Niger to check out reports that Saddam Hussein had tried to purchase yellowcake uranium for his nuclear project. President Bush had mentioned this information in his message to Congress. But when Wilson returned, he wrote an article for the New York Times in which...

When I went to my office Monday, July 7, 2003, Joe Wilson was not in the forefront of my mind. Frances Fragos Townsend was. She had just been named deputy national security adviser at the White House though her background was in liberal Democratic politics, including Attorney General Janet Reno's inner circle during the Clinton administration. Her appointment was a political mystery of the kind I had been exploring for forty years in my column. I wrote the Townsend column Tuesday morning because I had a busy schedule the rest of the day, including a 3 p.m. appointment with Richard...

Senators want Libby prosecutor to testify 14 minutes ago The Senate Judiciary Committee may seek testimony from controversial prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald about the obstruction of justice case against vice presidential aide Lewis "Scooter" Libby, two senators said on Sunday. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the ranking Republican member of the committee, said he wanted to hear from Fitzgerald because, "I still haven't figured out what that case is all about." Libby, the one-time top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was found guilty in March of obstructing an investigation into who blew the cover of a CIA analyst whose husband...

`Suspicion' about Libby's commutation By JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer 25 minutes ago The Democrat probing President Bush's decision to erase the prison sentence of a former White House aide said Sunday there is "the suspicion" the aide might have fingered others in the Bush administration if he served time. The House Judiciary Committee chairman spoke of "the general impression" that Bush last week commuted I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's 2 1/2 year sentence in the CIA leak case to keep Libby quiet. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., has scheduled a committee hearing Wednesday on the matter. Bush contended Libby's sentence was...

Scooter Libby Roundup FACE THE FACTS: The reason Bush commuted Scooter Libby's sentence was SO LIBBY WOULDN'T TALK. Bush “guaranteed not only that Libby wouldn’t talk, but retaining Libby’s right to invoke the Fifth. This amounts to nothing less than obstruction of justice.” Now, the Bush administration is legally protected from having to answer questions. If Libby had been in prison, anyone could have gotten to him. Now, no one can get Libby to say a word about the real culprits, which are obviously Rove and Cheney/Bush. **First of all, it's vitally important to understand what Valerie Plame was actually...

Well, now we know what "compassionate conservatism" means. It means that if you're Vice President Cheney's former chief of staff, and you're convicted of lying to FBI agents and a federal grand jury, you don't have to go to prison -- even when many others have for similar offenses.Lewis "Scooter" Libby was to be sent up the river, or so U.S. Attorney Peter Fitzgerald thought, after being found guilty of those lies in an investigation of a Bush administration leak by which Valerie Wilson had been revealed as a CIA operative. Her husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, was a critic...

While governor of Texas, George W. Bush reviewed 153 writs of execution. He let executions proceed 152 times.How lucky for I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby that Bush has suddenly discovered his mercy gene.On Monday, Bush commuted the 30-month prison sentence that Libby, former top aide to Vice President Cheney, received for perjury, obstruction of justice, and lying to FBI agents in the strange case of the outed CIA agent.In a half-a-loaf gambit, Bush let stand the conviction, two years of probation, and a $250,000 fine. Bush said that the sentence, while within guidelines for the crimes, was "harsh."He also opined -...

The DUmmies still continue to suffer from extreme LDS (Libby Derangement Syndrome) due to the commutation of Scooter's prison sentence to such an extent that even Head DUmmie Skinner had to step in with this statement: "What is up with all the idiotic, over-the-top, foul-mouthed rants?" The THREAD Skinner is complaining about is so deranged that it is titled, "EAT S***. F*** Off. D**." So let us watch the DUmmies wallow in Plamegate Freudenschade in Bolshevik Red while the commentary of your humble correspondent, enjoying the DUmmie implosion, is in the [brackets]: EAT S***. F*** Off. D**. [MERRY FITZMAS!!!]...