Turdblossom Indicted; Announcement Coming This Week:
"Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald ... served attorneys for former Deputy White House Chief of Staff Karl Rove with an indictment charging the embattled White House official with perjury and lying to investigators related to his role in the CIA leak case ... very likely that an obstruction charge against Rove would be included with charges of perjury and lying to investigators ... An announcement by Fitzgerald is expected to come this week ..."

Cheney Next?
"The role of Vice President Dick Cheney in the criminal case stemming from the outing of White House critic Joseph Wilson's CIA wife is likely to get fresh attention as a result of newly disclosed notes ... The notes—apparently obtained as a result of a grand jury subpoena—would appear to make Cheney an even more central witness than had been previously thought in the criminal probe."

Desperate Housewife - White House Wife, That Is ...
"The White House has been forced to turn to its sole remaining crowd-pleaser - the First Lady, Laura Bush - in a frantic battle to stave off a Democrat takeover of Congress in elections this autumn."

It's Over for Rover:
" Within the last week, Karl Rove told President Bush and Chief of Staff Joshua Bolten, as well as a few other high level administration officials, that he will be indicted in the CIA leak case and will immediately resign his White House job when the special counsel publicly announces the charges against him ..."

B-b-b-baby You Just Aint Seen N-n-nothin' Yet:
"...NSA staffer Russell Tice will testify ... next week that not only do employees at the agency believe the activities they are being asked to perform are unlawful, but that what has been disclosed so far is only the tip of the iceberg. Tice will tell Congress that former NSA head Gen. Michael Hayden, Bush’s nominee to be the next CIA director, oversaw more illegal activity that has yet to be disclosed..."

Don't Tug on That - You Don't Know What It Could Be Attached To  ...
"Clearly, over the last month you've had several things pop at the CIA that insiders call unprecedented in the Agency's history. And I don't think we can dismiss the possibility that they may interconnect in ways we don't yet understand ... At a minimum, if Foggo was the prime mover behind investigating and firing McCarthy and today he's barred from entering the CIA campus and the target of a corruption investigation, the whole McCarthy saga deserves a fresh look."

Dazed and Confused:
"(Bush) used patriotism as a bludgeon to intimidate all dissent against his inexplicable war with Iraq. At every turn he behaved with insolence and hubris and his failure has been manifest. Now he lives in a bubble, wandering around dazed and confused about what is happening to him ... Perhaps that's why his fall has been so steady --- the slow realization among the people that being a leader takes more than a manly swagger and a down home accent. "

Fan Mail ... CW from Jarkarta Writes:

"Kiss my ass you f***ing liberal scum! Viva la Bush! Your quasi-blog sucks! Whats a matter, can't even write anything original yourself? Gotta sponge off the REAL bloggers?" You make me sick."

When in doubt of your argument, your intellect, or the likelihood that anyone will listen to you, use plenty of exclamation marks. Now that I  think about it, wasn't Paul Wolfowitz at the US embassy in Jakarta for a few years?  Could CW be a long-lost love child, perhaps...?

The Turd Blossom Effect:
"... the Bush administration ... strong-armed all of the nation's leading telecom firms (except Qwest which valiantly held out)  ...No wonder why the Bush administration evaded the FISA Court and process ... If Rove is indicted in this environment, Bush's favorability rating will fall to 24%.  Momentum is on the side of those in doubt of Bush as well as his administration's integrity and competency."

So, So True:
"Just in case it wasn't clear, it's rather a big deal with the guy who just quit as #3 of the CIA gets his home and office raided by the FBI."

Karl Rove Indictment Today?
"Well, it could be today ... Everybody is buzzing about when or if. It’s a big if, big when. There is a lot of talk because he is still being interviewing by the special prosecutor. He keeps being hauled before the grand jury. So something is going on here with the special prosecutor."

Bush Down to 29%:
"Of 1,003 U.S. adults surveyed in a telephone poll, 29% think Mr. Bush is doing an 'excellent or pretty good' job as president, down from 35% in April and significantly lower than 43% in January. Approval ratings for Congress overall also sank, and now stand at 18% ... 69% say 'things have pretty seriously gotten off on the wrong track.'"

More Iraq Contracting Corruption on Bush's Watch:
"...legislators shifted the Iraq money to the foreign operations accounts at the request of the White House ... This is nothing more than a transparent attempt to shut down the only effective oversight of this massive reconstruction program which has been plagued by mismanagement and fraud."

Election Fraud - Highly Plausible:
"... officials in Pennsylvania and California issued urgent directives in recent days about a potential security risk in their Diebold Election Systems touch-screen voting machines ... 'It's the most severe security flaw ever discovered in a voting system' ...  'For there to be a problem here, you're basically assuming a premise where you have some evil and nefarious election officials' ..."

Big (Lying, Chimp-Faced, Dry-Drunk) Brother:
"We now learn that when Americans call their Aunt Millie, or their girlfriend, or their psychiatrist, or their drug counselor, or their priest or rabbi, or their lawyer, or anyone and everyone else, the Government is very interested. In fact, they are so interested that they make note of it and keep it forever, so that at any time, anyone in the Government can look at a record of every single person whom every single American ever called or from whom they received a call."

***

"In an authoritarian country without a bill of rights and with state ownership of the communications network, such eavesdropping by people and computers is assumed to exist.  But in the United States ..."

Another GOP Election Scandal on Bush's Watch:
"... GOP operative convicted of crimes stemming from a phone-jamming operation against Democratic volunteers in New Hampshire on Election Day 2002."

Another Bush Appointee Lies to Congress:
"Dems say AG Gonzales lied to Congress about the NSA massive call database program. And it looks to us like he did. Read the testimony for yourself ..."

Another GOP Congressional Rep Investigated:
"Federal prosecutors have begun an investigation into Rep. Jerry Lewis, the Californian who chairs the powerful House Appropriations Committee, government officials and others said."

Another GOP Governor Indicted:
"The special grand jury that's been investigating state government hiring practices indicted (KY) Gov. Ernie Fletcher on three misdemeanors for conspiracy, official misconduct and political discrimination."

The Big Bush Legacy:
"The American public needs to think about its future and what things are going to look like when American pretensions about its place in the world ... crumble because of the missteps, dereliction of responsibility, and arrogance of those now in power."

Am tied up in NYC today. Will update this evening. Check out what's happening in Vermont, though ... Hanover Residents Vote to Impeach Bush and Cheney

Bigger Fish Will Fry in Cunningham Bribery Scandal:
"... the regional head of DOD's in-house investigative service ... on the record that someone isn't cooperating and that the scandal is much bigger than anyone thinks ... Who's (Duke Cunningham) protecting? And what would make him think he's better off keeping quiet than telling investigators what they want to know?"

The Most-Hated Administration Ever:
"The sour public mood that has led to decreases in ratings of the president, Congress, and overall national satisfaction is seemingly sparing no one affiliated with the Republican Party. The public's ratings of Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld have hit new lows. Americans' views of key Bush adviser Karl Rove have also been increasingly negative."

Cheney-Halliburton War Profiteering:
"Cheney’s former employer has a long history of benefitting from his contacts in government ..."

Desecration Provides Generations of Fun for Bushes:
"A Yale University historian has uncovered a 1918 letter that seems to lend validity to the lore that (members of) Yale University's secret Skull and Bones society ... including President Bush's grandfather, Prescott Bush — dug up Geronimo's grave."

"Which is Bush: Bonesman or Christian? Any true Christian would renounce ties to an organization in which they had robbed graves, stolen for the brotherhood, drank blood from a skull, sang songs of loyalty to the devil, etc. But Bush has refused to do this, continuing in the benefits of membership without renouncing his association with this immoral, Machiavellian clan."

(More in Christian Words, Unchristian Actions: George W. Bush and the Desecration of Christianity in Modern America)

Happy Jack Abramoff Day:
"After stonewalling for months, the Secret Service has been ordered to turn over their records of Jack Abramoff's visits to the White House by May 10."

Calls for Another Corrupt Bush Appointee to Resign:
"He said, 'I don't like President Bush.' I thought to myself ... you wouldn't be getting the contract unless I was sitting here.  He didn't get the contract ... Why should I reward someone who doesn't like the president, so they can use funds to try to campaign against the president? Logic says they don't get the contract. That's the way I believe."

Bush Domestic Spying "Not Authorized":
"This activity is not authorized," Inman said, as part of a panel discussion on eavesdropping that was sponsored by The New York Public Library. The Bush administration "need(s) to get away from the idea that they can continue doing it."....He called on the president to "walk into the modern world" and change the law governing the wiretaps — or abandon the program altogether.

GOP Running Scared on Congressional Oversight Prospects:
"... Republican attempts to highlight the investigations issue have come almost exclusively in fundraising emails ... but not, so far, as a part of their broader message to ordinary voters. And when you think about it, you can see why they might not be too enthusiastic about a campaign message that draws voters' attention, even obliquely, to the slew of scandals and screwups of the Bush years."

California Dem Leadership Wobbly on Impeachment Resolution:
"An impeachment resolution introduced into the California Legislature ... may be blocked from reaching the floor ... (Democratic) leaders may be wary of losing Republican support for budget and tax measures, which require a two-thirds majority for passage under California law."

Bush vs. Nixon ... Too Close to Call:
"Bush’s ... disapproval rating now exceeds or equals that of Nixon’s in every Gallup poll except one ... the final poll in July, 1974 just before Nixon left office ... What’s really remarkable is this is WITHOUT any congressional investigation of Bush’s misdeeds, plus an economy far better ... than in summer 1974."

Josh Speculates on New Lows for Bush Approval:
"Each point lower digs deeper into the base of truly committed partisans and unquestioning hacks. So knocking off each new point on the way down requires ever greater displays of incompetence, failure and general infamy. And even for President Bush that's a challenge."

Rove Inictment Within Two Weeks:
"Karl Rove's legal team has told me that they expect that a decision will come sometime in the next two weeks. And I am convinced that Karl Rove will, in fact, be indicted ... the lawyers that I've been speaking with who know this stuff say, don't bet on Karl Rove getting out of this."

Bush Further Dismantles US Intelligence Capability:
"... our whole intelligence infrastructure is being chopped apart ... in ways that Congress never envisioned ... More immediately troubling is the fact that all our forward-leaning intelligence capacity is being taken over by ... Don Rumsfeld, a guy who ... is a demonstrated failure at the job, someone who should already have been fired."

Bush Presence in White House Guarantees Failure:
"The truth is that as long as Bush is in power, it doesn't matter whether the troops leave or stay. If they stay, the Bush administration's utter incompetence will ensure ... Iraq's slide into disaster.  Likewise, if the troops withdraw, Bush's incompetence will guarantee ... that it will rapidly get much worse."

Super-Rich Own GOP, GOP Services Super-Rich:
"If you were part of the Republican leadership and were working to make some tax cuts permanent, which ones would you focus on? A tax cut that lowers rates for everyone? Or one that primarily helps the super rich? ... As you can see, the bars on the chart barely even register for anyone making less than a million bucks a year. That's the tax cut the GOP is making its highest priority."

How Bush Lies Killed Policy Debate in America:
"There is a constitutional crisis when the President refuses to follow the law and Congress refuses to hold him accountable.  ... wonkery is at this point counterproductive because the essence of wonkery is an assumption of good faith.  ... The Bush administration has broken that basic compact.  They lie.  All the time.  They approach arguments in utter bad faith from the get-go.  They abuse the process, everything from budget battles to conference committees.  If you approach people like this in good faith, you lose."

Another Bush Nominee Linked to Bribery Scandals:
"While director of the National Security Agency, (Bush Nominee to head the CIA) Gen. Michael V. Hayden contracted the services of a top executive at the company at the center of the Cunningham bribery scandal..."

Another Republican Guilty in Abramoff Scandal:
"Neil Volz, a former chief of staff to Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) who went to work for Jack Abramoff in 2002, is pleading guilty at 10:30 this morning. Volz is expected to help prosecutors advance their investigation into possible bribery schemes between Abramoff and Ney."

Krugman Knows Who Can't Handle the Truth:
"... the administration supporters can't handle the truth. They won't admit that they built a personality cult around a man who has proved almost pathetically unequal to the job. Nor will they admit that opponents of the Iraq war ... have been proved right. So they have taken refuge in the belief that a vast conspiracy of America-haters in the media is hiding the good news from the public."

The "O" Word:
"... Democrats with subpoena power will investigate gas prices, no-bid contracts, billions missing in Iraq, the stifling of science at the FDA and the EPA, secret and ineffective surveillance programs, torture at detention camps, innocents stranded at Gitmo, Big Pharma, and more.  The midterms elections ... are about a new day and a new government, about a Democratic Congress that will vigorously fulfill its oversight duties--wherever they may lead." (emphasis added)

Dean Slams DeLay on Republican Ethics:
"... (the Republican culture of corruption) goes from the White House to the vice president's office, to the leadership of the United States Senate, to the leadership of the United States House of Representatives and in the agencies, corruption has become a way of life and it has to change."

Repeat after Me: It's a REPUBLICAN Scandal:
"It's not a bipartisan scandal; it's a Republican scandal, and that's why the Republicans are scurrying around trying to enact lobbying reforms."

The Frat Boys Who Destroyed American Intelligence:
"This is the group photograph of the Psi Upsilon fraternity from the 1960 Yale yearbook.  As you can see, there's out-going CIA Director Porter Goss, current Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte, and beside Goss is William "Bucky" Bush, the current president's uncle."

Bush Mockery Gains Momentum:
"Ever since Stephen Colbert opened his mouth at Saturday's White House Correspondents' Dinner and pointedly mocked Bush in front of Bush, online buzz on the fake newsman has reached scalding temperatures ... Searches on the eyebrow-raising comedian are up 5,625% this week and picking up speed. Trajectories for "Colbert speech" and "colbert video" are racing off the chart."

Pelosi Pledges Investigations of White House Corruption:
"We will have subpoena power and that's why the Republicans are so afraid ... The cost of corruption is huge to the consumer, whether it is low income seniors paying more at the pharmacy, whether it is all American consumers paying more at the pump or home heating oil. How did we get to this place? That is worthy of scrutiny."

Nostalgic Bush Recalls High Point* of His Presidency:
"You know, I've experienced many great moments and it's hard to name the best ... I would say the best moment of all was when I caught a 7.5 pound (3.402 kilos) perch in my lake ..."
* Per Digby, even this is probably a lie ...

The Fat Lady Begins to Sing:
"'This administration may be over,' Lance Tarrance, a chief architect of the Republicans' 1960s and '70s Southern strategy, told a gathering of journalists and political wonks last week. 'By and large, if you want to be tough about it, the relevancy of this administration on policy may be over.'"

Conservative Talk Show Host Joins The Chorus:
"In historic terms, I believe George W. Bush is the worst two-term President in the history of the country ... a case can be made that he’s the worst President, period ... he’s either grossly incompetent, or a hand puppet for a gaggle of detached theorists with their own private view of how the world works."

Bush Continues Campaign to Destroy US Intelligence Capacity:
"The general considered the Bush administration's likely choice to become CIA director would be the "wrong person at the wrong place at the wrong time," the Republican head of the U.S. House of Representatives Intelligence Committee said on Sunday."

"When the history of the Bush years are written ... the biggest untold story of the era is going to be ... The Death of Policy. George Bush's Republican Party is driven sometimes by ideology, sometimes by corporate fealty, and sometimes by nothing more than stubbornness, but serious policy analysis rarely enters the picture anymore ... The CIA is the latest victim of this corrosive syndrome."

More Goss Links to Hookergate:
"You've got to be relatively deep in the "Hookergate" weeds to follow this one. But Newsweek has now positively identified the CIA party-attender "Nine Fingers" as Brant Bassett, ex-CIA official and former Goss Hill staffer."

Australian Oligarch Controls US Elections & White House TVs:
"Does President Bush owe his controversial win in 2000 to Fox cable television news?  Yes, suggest data collected by two economists who found that the growth of the Fox cable news network in the late 1990s may have significantly boosted the Republican Party's share of the vote in the 2000 election and delivered Florida to Bush."

"... a far-right partisan who has used his empire explicitly to pull American political debate to the right ... an enabler of the oppressive tactics employed by dictatorial regimes ..."

"Fox News all the time at the White House ..."