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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 05/25/2006 : 23:11:20
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From CNN.com: quote: White House tries to cool Hastert's anger over leak Feds deny network's claim that speaker is probe target
Thursday, May 25, 2006; Posted: 5:11 p.m. EDT (21:11 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The White House tried to cool congressional anger Thursday over a report linking House Speaker Dennis Hastert to a wide-ranging corruption probe, denying the story was leaked to punish Hastert for criticizing the FBI's raid of a lawmaker's office.
Hastert demanded a "full retraction" of an ABC News report that he is being investigated in connection with the Jack Abramoff corruption probe, and he speculated that the leak was meant as retaliation by Justice Department officials.
Hastert has been a particularly vocal critic of an FBI search of a Democratic lawmaker's office Saturday and suggested the leak was meant to intimidate him.
"This is one of the leaks that come out to try to intimidate people, and we're just not going to be intimidated on it," Hastert told Chicago radio station WGN on Thursday.
White House spokesman Tony Snow denied there was any effort to hit back at Hastert, and he said the Justice Department and lawmakers were working out a deal that would return material seized from Rep. William Jefferson's office to the House.
"This White House is interested in maintaining, in recognizing the constitutional concerns of members of Congress and the law-enforcement obligations of the executive branch," Snow told reporters. He said Justice Department officials "are not leaking information to try to undermine the House speaker. It's just false, false, false."
But House aides told CNN that lawmakers from both parties have blamed the FBI for the ABC report.
Rep. Terry Lee, a Nebraska Republican, called the allegations "clear retaliation."
"I guess we shouldn't be surprised that there is retaliation from those that have been criticized, but let's realize what that is -- retaliation," said Lee, who also blasted ABC for "noncredible journalism" during a speech on the House floor.
A lawyer for Hastert also raised the possibly of legal action against ABC News for the Wednesday evening report.
In a letter to ABC News on Thursday, Hastert's lawyer, J. Randolph Evans, said the report by ABC News investigative correspondent Brian Ross "constitutes libel and defamation" and was "a specific and malicious intent to injure and damage Speaker Hastert's reputation," which is the legal standard a public official must prove to win a libel case.
On Wednesday night, the report prompted the Justice Department to take the highly unusual step of denying on the record that the Illinois Republican is the subject of a probe.
(BTW, for non-Americans who possibly might not know this, "GOP" is an acronym for "Grand Old Party," a nickname for the Republican Party. It's survived a long time because it's easy to fit into headlines.)
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 05/25/2006 23:22:53
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2006 : 03:01:33 [Permalink]
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`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son! The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand: Long time the manxome foe he sought -- So rested he by the Tumtum tree, And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood, The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through The vorpal blade went snicker-snack! He left it dead, and with its head He went galumphing back.
"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock? Come to my arms, my beamish boy! O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!' He chortled in his joy.
`Twas brillig, and the slithy toves Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome raths outgrabe.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2006 : 05:30:43 [Permalink]
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quote: Originally posted by filthy
[i]
And I'm looking forward to the perp walk immediately preceding this picture. It would make this old witch real happy to see him frog marched out of the West Wing in shackles. |
Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2006 : 06:55:40 [Permalink]
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quote: Originally posted by Valiant Dancer
quote: Originally posted by filthy
[i]
And I'm looking forward to the perp walk immediately preceding this picture. It would make this old witch real happy to see him frog marched out of the West Wing in shackles.
And shipped off to the Haig posthaste to answer for war cimes. T'would warm the cockles of my heart as well.
It's becoming an interesting year, isn't it?
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2006 : 07:38:50 [Permalink]
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A little more: quote: To Ease Standoff, Bush Seals Seized Files By CARL HULSE and DAVID JOHNSTON Published: May 26, 2006
WASHINGTON, May 25 — President Bush intervened directly Thursday in an increasingly tense constitutional fight between Congress and the Justice Department by ordering that records seized from a Congressional office over the weekend be sealed for 45 days.
"Our government has not faced such a dilemma in more than two centuries," Mr. Bush said in his first statement on the swirl of events surrounding the Federal Bureau of Investigation's search of the office of Representative William J. Jefferson, Democrat of Louisiana, who has been accused of accepting bribes. "Yet after days of discussions, it is clear these differences will require more time to be worked out."
The president said that the material in question would be turned over for 45 days to the solicitor general, the Justice Department official who represents the government before the Supreme Court. That step would allow the Justice Department to say that it had not given up material regarded by prosecutors as lawfully obtained evidence needed for a criminal case.
This is gonna get better than a strychnine taffy-pull to watch.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2006 : 11:09:24 [Permalink]
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Randy
SFN Regular
USA
1990 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2006 : 13:09:49 [Permalink]
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quote: Originally posted by filthy
quote: Originally posted by filthy
quote: Originally posted by filthy
I just enjoy looking at the mug shots.
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"We are all connected; to each other biologically, to the earth chemically, to the rest of the universe atomically."
"So you're made of detritus [from exploded stars]. Get over it. Or better yet, celebrate it. After all, what nobler thought can one cherish than that the universe lives within us all?" -Neil DeGrasse Tyson |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 05/26/2006 : 14:12:20 [Permalink]
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quote: Originally posted by HalfMooner (BTW, for non-Americans who possibly might not know this, "GOP" is an acronym for "Grand Old Party," a nickname for the Republican Party. It's survived a long time because it's easy to fit into headlines.)
The letters GOP has always been a mystery to me. They have always been used in conjuction to, or when referring to the Republican Party, so I thought there was a connection to it, similar to the use of "Dubya".
Now that I finally know what the letters stand for, its use still is a mystery to me. |
Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..." Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
Support American Troops in Iraq: Send them unarmed civilians for target practice.. Collateralmurder. |
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