Gonzales: "I Don't Recall" 74 Times

"I don't believe that you're involved in a conspiracy to fire somebody because they wouldn't prosecute a particular enemy of a politician or a friend of a politician," said Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina. "But at the end of the day, you said something that struck me: that sometimes it just came down to these were not the right people at the right time. If I applied that standard to you, what would you say?"

Ouch. Not even Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, with perhaps the exception of Orrin Hatch, came to the defense of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. And could you blame them?

Gonzales said he takes full responsibility for the firings that he says were appropriate, but doesn't have a reason for firing the attorneys, except to say that it was recommended to him by his senior staff. He fired seven prosecutors and didn't even look at the paperwork for the reasons why until afterwards. Either he is lying or incompetent. Either way, he should be gone.

Meanwhile, it Backwardsland, Curious George continues to support Gonzo.

Q Dana, does Attorney General Gonzales's testimony on Capitol Hill have any bearing whatsoever on his job status?

MS. PERINO: As I've said many times, the President has full confidence in the Attorney General. The Attorney General looked forward to the hearing that is taking place right now. Of course, the President has not seen any of that testimony. As I told you, he's had a busy morning, and now we're on our way to Tipp City, Ohio. And I haven't seen any of the testimony, either. But clearly, we would hope that there were no preconceived notions, or canned talking points that the senators had in mind before they had this hearing. They said they wanted to get to the facts, and I'm sure that the Attorney General will be fully responsive to their request.

Q So is it fair to say that no matter what the testimony, no matter what the back-and-forth, that the President plans to stick with Attorney General Gonzales?

MS. PERINO: I think -- yes. I think the President has full confidence in the Attorney General and whenever that changes for any public servant, we'll let you know, and I see no indication of that.

Senator Durbin along with others asked whether he had conversations with Karl Rove regarding the attorneys in question. Why in the hell would the Attorney General of the United States be having a conversation with a political advisor, someone who has nothing to do with the Department of Justice? On that basis alone, Gonzo should go.

Senator Leahy questioning Gonzo. Now this is "Must see TV"!

Gonzales Postponed Until Thursday

The Senate Judiciary Committee postponed a hearing that had been scheduled for Tuesday in which [Attorney General Alberto] Gonzales was to appear to defend his actions in the dismissals.
Senator Patrick J. Leahy, the Vermont Democrat who is the committee’s chairman, and Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, its senior Republican, delayed the hearing until Thursday because of the shooting rampage at Virginia Tech.

Okay, the tragic event that happened at the Viginia Tech campus is definitely something that could be considered worth postponing Gonzo's hearing for a couple of days. But am I being callous, or am I the only one who is already tired of the minute to minute coverage of this story by every cable media news outlet on television? Is it that slow of a news day that Tucker Carlson is actually doing a remote from the V.Tech campus? Do I really need to know about the entire life of yet another disturbed teenager?

At the very least, I would like to hear someone, anyone say that due to the tragedy, the Gonzales hearing was postponed. But I heard nothing. I would like to think that as another media frenzy develops (there seems to be one every week), that someone is keeping their eye on the rest of the world.

Charlie Rangel: Bush Is A Fraud

Speaking today at the National Press Club, Rep. Charles Rangel was asked the following question:

"You have said that the Bush Administration's rationale for invading Iraq was the biggest fraud ever committed on the people of this country. How do you defend this strong statement?"

RANGEL: "Well, we've lost 3,500 Americans, 30,000 seriously wounded, hundreds of thousands of people who have died; and the reason we lost them is because the President made a decision to make an appeal to Congress for the authority to go to war; and the reasons that he gave was that they had weapons of mass destruction, that Saddam Hussein was directly connected to 9/11, and that he was also connected to al-Qaeda. None of those things turned out to be true.

Now we could say that the President wasn't intelligent enough to understand the intelligence reports. Or we could say, 'Give the guy a break, he's never left Texas except to visit Mexico, so how could he know?'. Or we should say that everybody who was around him at the time indicating that he should follow Osama bin Laden, that he insisted he wanted to get Saddam Hussein.

Now maybe in these nice, prestigious halls, I should find a word that's more sophisticated - but in Harlem, it's fraud."

The follow up question was if that is his position, why isn't Congress starting impeachment proceedings for Bush and Cheney? He simply said, "Because we don't have the votes." He also added that in his opinion, he didn't think it was a good idea to impeach a president during a time of war.

Say what you want about the guy, but it's nice to hear honest words for a change. It's nice to hear 'lie' instead of 'misspeak'. It's good to call out someone for what they are, instead of worrying you'll be misquoted or fear backlash from your comments. Good for you, Charlie.

Everyone Wants Timetables Except Chimpy & Darth

Six Iraqi Cabinet members are abandoning their posts at the command of Muqtada al-Sadr, who is blaming the Iraqi leadership's refusal to respond to demands for a timetable for a U.S. withdrawal.

So, the Democratic Congress wants a timetable, the Iraqis want a timetable. EVERYONE WANTS A TIMETABLE!... except Chimpy and Darth Cheney.

The Commander in Thief has the gall to ask Democratic leaders of Congress for a meeting regarding Iraq, only to insist it is not a negotaition, it is not a compromise, nothing will change his position. Then why have the damned meeting?!

To the credit of Congressional leaders, they declined the meeting. "What the president invited us to do was come to his office so that we could accept without any discussion the bill that he wants," Pelosi said at a news conference in San Francisco. "That's not worthy of the concerns of the American people, and I join with Senator Reid in rejecting an invitation of that kind."

Where Have All The Bees Gone?

Months ago, there were reports of bee colonies with Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD). It seems that CCD occurs "when a hive's inhabitants suddenly disappear, leaving only queens, eggs and a few immature workers... The vanished bees are never found, but thought to die singly far from home. The parasites, wildlife and other bees that normally raid the honey and pollen left behind when a colony dies, refuse to go anywhere near the abandoned hives."

Theories of what causes CCD have ranged from global warming to mites and pesticides. Now a new study is causing scientists to claim that radiation from mobile phones may be the problem for bees.

In the U.S., 60 % of the West Coast commercial bee population has been lost and 70% has been lost on the East Coast. But the problem has reached global proportions. CCD has since spread to Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Greece. And last week John Chapple, one of London's biggest bee-keepers, announced that 23 of his 40 hives have been abruptly abandoned.

It's a little more alarming than trivial because most of the world's crops depend on bee pollination, exposing the delicate balance that we take for granted. Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared, "man would have only four years of life left".