Tuesday, March 27, 2007

Kucinich to investigate "a narrow portion" of 911

* timesunion.com:
"(Kucinich) also said that as chairman of a House subcommittee on domestic policy, he plans to launch an investigation of "a narrow portion" of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He offered few details, but said his subcommittee would be looking at "a few, specific discrepancies in the public record." The 9/11 Commission that published its final report in 2004 never resolved some conflicting facts, Kucinich said. He announced his own look at 9/11 in answer to a question from an audience member. The man complained that the 9/11 Commission was too tied to the Bush administration to offer an unbiased report, and Kucinich agreed."
* glenn:
"Think about this: there are only two instances in the last six years where real investigations occurred in any of the Bush scandals -- this U.S. attorneys scandal (because Democrats now have subpoena power) and the Plame case (due to the fluke of two Republican DOJ officials with integrity, James Comey and Patrick Fitzgerald). And in both cases, it was revealed conclusively that top Bush officials -- at the highest levels of the government -- repeatedly and deliberately lied about what they did. Isn't that pattern obviously extremely disturbing? And imagine what would be revealed had there been real investigations -- journalistic or Congressional -- of all the other scandals that ended up dying an inconsequential death due to neglect and suppression."
* jane:
"I think there is some confusion between the collateral damage that traditonal media are constantly suffering at the hands of the right and what is happening now. The drone of the Wurlitzer constantly telling low information types who probably aren't deep connoiseurs of news anyway that you just can't trust the media is of course omnipresent, but that's somewhat distinct from the pervasive damage done to the esteem with which traditional media is increasingly held in the eyes of opinion makers. Those who are paying attention, those who influence friends and co-workers, those who are most likely to be asked "so, what do you think about that?" are, I think, increasingly disgusted by the unrepentant hackery of Judith Miller or Steno Sue Schmidt, or Fred Hiatt's tourettes-like compulsion to blather nonsense uncontrollably. That kind of damage is deep and pervasive and whether traditional media is oblivious or in denial I cannot say, but I do not get the sense that they are even close to coming to terms with it."

* laura:
"Regarding the significance of the decision of an aide to Alberto Gonzales to take the fifth and refuse to testify to Congress, a Democratic lawyer correspondent writes, "It means that the Griles plea agreement has had its intended effect: letting Bush Administration officials know they can and will be prosecuted for lying to Congress. This means Gonzales' departure from Justice is getting closer ... Republican Senators aren't going to like the spectacle of a former Justice Department official invoking the Fifth - and Senator Leahy will make her appear and take the Fifth." Of the aide, Monica Goodling, who has served as the Justice Department's liaison to the White House, the lawyer notes, "She's a graduate of Regent University Law School in Virginia Beach - a law school that teaches law from a Christian perspective," accredited fairly recently, in 1996."

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