Defeating Single Issue Politics by Luke Hiken

Image by Chris Beckett via Flickr

by Luke Hiken
Guest Writer
Dandelion Salad
February 22, 2013

Nobody to the left of Karl Rove would consider sending a petition to the Koch brothers to do anything that was in the interest of the people of this country. That’s because everyone realizes that these greedy, vicious dogs restrict their actions to stealing from the poor and causing whatever harm they can to the largest number of people.

Similarly, nobody in his/her right mind would send letters to General Betray-Us, McChrystal or any of the Pentagon power-brokers that define our foreign policy, asking them to stop murdering defenseless civilians around the world. 

Would the DC Republicans Really Prefer to Have Obama in the White House? by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted on Buzzflash.com
July 19, 2011

The GOP faces a major dilemma in the upcoming presidential election. Before I get into that, let’s define what I mean by “The GOP.” First, I don’t mean most of their public figures. Their elected officials for the most part are bought and paid for employees by those who run the Party. They have neither an independent voice nor independent power (as much as certain Tea Party GOP front men and women may think they do, this is not the case).

Rove’s Vote Trickster: Caging Explained by Greg Palast

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
1 November, 2010

On Tuesday, Tim Griffin, former chief of research of the Republican National Committee, is on the ballot for Congress to represent Little Rock, Arkansas. He’s favored to win. But Griffin is just as happy to win by stealing votes. Here’s a clip from the Elections Files, the Palast team’s investigations for BBC Television and Democracy Now. …

The Politicians’ Bible: Bringing in the Receipts by Walter and Rosemary Brasch

by Walter Brasch and Rosemary Brasch
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.walterbrasch.com
October 25, 2010

It will be cold tonight in Pennsylvania, but that means nothing to dozens of politicians who are in their final week of a ubiquitous campaign to get a government job.

There isn’t a household in Pennsylvania that has active voters that hasn’t been subjected to at least two dozen TV political ads each day, several robo-calls a week, and a dozen or more direct mail full-color 8-1/2-by-11 inch postcard campaign ads. Many households have already received three or four dozen such ads in the past month.

Was Tim Griffin merely a “Rove-bot”? Did Karl Rove write the memos that dunked candidate Griffin in hot water? by Greg Palast

by Greg Palast
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
www.gregpalast.com
Special to the Arkansas Times
25 October, 2010

Greg Palast, the journalist who blew the whistle on Republican vote suppression activities in Florida (“caging”), has communicated with me further following an e-mail I passed along this morning. He has a theory on Republican congressional candidate Tim Griffin’s involvement in the scheme.

Palast’s report:

When Tim Griffin resigned his post as interim federal prosecutor a day after the BBC broadcast linking him to illegal “voter caging,” Griffin insisted he did not know what “caging” was.

Rachel Maddow: Young Sen. Ted Kennedy footage just found + Revisionist History

StartLoving1
August 29, 2009

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more about “Rachel Maddow: Young Sen. Ted Kennedy…“, posted with vodpod

Revisionist History

DaveCarroll4
August 29, 2009

Rove op-ed reveals he had inside information about probe

by Larisa Alexandrovna
Raw Story
August 20, 2009

Lawyer declines to say how he found out accuser didn’t talk to Justice Department

Karl Rove’s latest attempt to proclaim his innocence and demand apologies from those who have accused him of being behind the prosecution of former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman may backfire if it turns out that Rove was improperly receiving inside information after leaving his position as Deputy White House Chief of Staff.

“For more than two years,” Rove writes in the Wall Street Journal, “House Judiciary Committee Democrats and the New York Times editorial board have argued that I personally arranged for Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman to be prosecuted in 2004 for corruption and ordered the removal of eight U.S. attorneys in 2006 for failing to investigate Democrats. The Washington Post editorial board also echoed this last charge. The Times and the Post have published a combined 18 editorials on these issues, which were also catnip to House Judiciary Committee Democrats.”

[…]

via Raw Story » Rove op-ed reveals he had inside information about probe

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“All Roads Lead to Rove”: David Iglesias on New Evidence Linking Bush Admin to Firings

House Judiciary Committee Releases Rove and Miers Interview Transcripts and Over 5,400 Pages of Bush White House Documents

from the archives:

US Attorneys

Rove-Karl

Siegelman-Don

Gonzales-Alberto

US Attorney Firings/Gonzales/Rove

“All Roads Lead to Rove”: David Iglesias on New Evidence Linking Bush Admin to Firings

Democracy Now!
August 13, 2009

“All Roads Lead to Rove”: Fmr. New Mexico US Attorney David Iglesias on New Evidence Linking Bush Admin to Firings

House Judiciary Committee Releases Rove and Miers Interview Transcripts and Over 5,400 Pages of Bush White House Documents

http://judiciary.house.gov
August 11, 2009

For Immediate Release
Contact: Jonathan Godfrey

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. D-Mich. today released over 700 pages of on-the-record interview transcripts of Karl Rove and Harriet Miers on the U.S. attorney firings and the Bush administration’s politicization of the Department of Justice. Conyers also released over 5,400 pages of Bush White House and Republican National Committee e-mails on these subjects.

The released materials reveal that White House officials were deeply involved in the U.S. attorney firings and the administration made a concerted effort to hide that fact from the American people. “After all the delay and despite all the obfuscation, lies, and spin,” Conyers said, “this basic truth can no longer be denied: Karl Rove and his cohorts at the Bush White House were the driving force behind several of these firings, which were done for improper reasons. Under the Bush regime, honest and well-performing U.S. attorneys were fired for petty patronage, political horsetrading and, in the most egregious case of political abuse of the U.S. attorney corps – that of U.S. Attorney Iglesias – because he refused to use his office to help Republicans win elections. When Mr. Iglesias said his firing was a ‘political fragging,’ he was right.”

Rove deposed — over eight hour period — in US Attorney firings

Dandelion Salad

By John Byrne
Raw Story
July 7, 2009

Judiciary Chairman won’t comment on what was asked, said

Former Bush White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove was deposed by lawyers for the House Judiciary Committee, Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said in an interview Tuesday.

Rove’s deposition took place over a period of some eight and a half hours, beginning at 10 a.m. and ending around 6:30 p.m, ET — and the lawyers took several breaks, Conyers said.

[…]

via Raw Story » Rove deposed — over eight hour period — in US Attorney firings.

Requiem for the Republican Party By Mike Whitney

Dandelion Salad

By Mike Whitney
May 04, 2009 “Information Clearing House”

The experts think the Republican party can get up off the canvas and stage a comeback, but don’t bet on it. The poor GOP isn’t really even a party anymore; it’s more like a vaudeville troupe scuttling from one backwater to the next performing the same worn slapstick. They’ve simply become irrelevant, a “non-party” that no one pays much attention to apart from the occasional zinger on the Daily Show or Letterman. In truth, the GOP is so deeply-traumatized from their shocking fall from power, they’d probably benefit from a spell on the couch. Perhaps if they spent a few weeks in therapy, they’d see what a mess they’ve made of everything.

No one is suggesting that the Democrats are perfect either. Far from it. The Dems seemed to relish the 8 years they spent as Bush’s doormat while the Bill of Rights was split into matchwood and the country was dragged from one war to the next. Bush served two full terms and the feckless Democrats never stood up to him or stopped him even once from doing exactly what he wanted. Wiretapping. Iraq. Torture. Never.

Part of the Bush Legacy — Today’s GOP by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted on Buzzflash.com 04/14/2009
April 17, 2009

George W. Bush left us many toxic messes on the policy side. They have been reviewed endlessly by many others and myself. What he left us on the political process side, the current GOP, may prove be even more toxic in the future. Many analysts say that this Party is “searching for its identity.” That is not true. It has an identity, put firmly in place by Karl Rove and his political puppet George W. Bush.

First of all, the GOP has become the only major political party in the non-Muslim world for which a principal plank is homophobia. The “anti-gay marriage” theme sung again and again is just a symbol for the promotion of hatred of the identity group that the German Nazis, once gaining power, went after with a vengeance even before they went after the Jews. And they get away with it. Part of the fault for this lies at the feet of the Democrats, who out of fear for being “labeled” (who knows what, like devoted to the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment?), continue to let them do it unchallenged. Part of it also lies at the feet of the gay and lesbian community that numbers among some its wealthiest members Republicans, who simply will not allow it to raise as an issue the fact that the GOP runs on homophobia.

A Torturous Debate: Controlling the Agenda By Steven Jonas, MD, MPH

by Steven Jonas, MD, MPH
Featured Writer
Dandelion Salad
crossposted on TPJmagazine
March 8, 2009

Hopefully, torture, and how to deal with its purveyors in the Bush/Cheney Regime at both the policy and delivery levels, will be back on the political/policy agenda, once A.G. Holder and his team get set in their new positions.

One of the principal lessons that Karl Rove (gone for now, but don’t forget him) learned from his master teacher Lee Atwater was that he who controls the agenda wins the debate and, in grander terms, the election. Rove was positively brilliant with this tactic, from 2000 until 2006. True Bush policies and programs were never on the agenda, whether in that first election or any of the subsequent ones. Rove was able to do this on both the grand and the lesser scales. And so we came to the debate over torture and Judge Mukasey (Bush’s last undistinguished Attorney General, you may recall) at his confirmation hearing, and the agenda for that debate. I have no way of knowing whether Rove was still active on a day-to-day basis at that time in the Bush White House. My suspicion is that he was, for the tactics they used had Rove’s fingerprints all over them.

Gov Don Siegelman On News Karl Rove Will Testify To Congress + Court upholds most charges

Dandelion Salad

Updated: 3.6.09 added a link to a story on Siegelman’s case

VOTERSTHINKdotORG

http://cspanjunkie.org/

Rachel Maddow

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Updated

Court upholds most charges against former Alabama governor | CNN h/t: After Downing Street

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Rove agrees to be deposed under oath after three subpoenas

Rove agrees to be deposed under oath after three subpoenas

Dandelion Salad

John Byrne
The Raw Story
Wednesday March 4, 2009

The House Judiciary Committee announced late Wednesday afternoon that they had secured the agreement of former White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers to testify in transcribed depositions under threat of perjury.

The Committee did not immediately announce what terms, if any, had been reached with Rove, but said the agreement had been made with representatives of the former Bush Administration. They did say that they would get access to Administration documents, and that Rove and Miers had agreed to testify publicly if called.

“The Committee has also reserved the right to have public testimony from Rove and Miers,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-MI) said in a statement.

Rove’s attorney, Robert Luskin, said the agreement was “good news.”

[…]

via The Raw Story | Rove agrees to be deposed under oath after three subpoenas

h/t: CLG

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House Judiciary Committee Secures Rove and Miers Testimony in U.S. Attorney Firings

For Immediate Release
March 04, 2009

Contact: Jonathan Godfrey
Lillian German

WASHINGTON (DC) – In an agreement reached today between the former Bush administration and Congressman John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, Karl Rove and former White House Counsel Harriet Miers will testify before the House Judiciary Committee in transcribed depositions under penalty of perjury.  The committee has also reserved the right to have public testimony from Rove and Miers.  It was agreed that invocations of official privileges would be significantly limited.

In addition, if the committee uncovers information necessitating his testimony, the committee will also have the right to depose William Kelley, a former White House lawyer who played a role in the U.S. attorney firings.

The committee will also receive Bush White House documents relevant to this inquiry.  Under the agreement, the landmark ruling by Judge John Bates rejecting key Bush White House claims of executive immunity and privilege will be preserved.  If the agreement is breached, the committee can resume the litigation.

Chairman Conyers issued the following statement:

“I have long said that I would see this matter through to the end and am encouraged that we have finally broken through the Bush administration’s claims of absolute immunity.  This is a victory for the separation of powers and congressional oversight.  It is also a vindication of the search for truth.  I am determined to have it known whether U.S. attorneys in the Department of Justice were fired for political reasons, and if so, by whom.”

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Countdown: Rove Subpoenas + Rove’s Claim of Executive Privilege