Former Bush Official Charged For Erasing Computer Files

By GottaLaff

I have a feeling that, little by little, more and more members of the Bush crime family will be finding themselves in this awkward little stress position:

Former U.S. Special Counsel Scott Bloch was charged today with criminal contempt of Congress in connection with his notorious use of Geeks On Call to scrub his computer while under investigation for misusing his office, according to a court filing in federal court in Washington. [...]

That was in late 2006.

I just adore skipping down Memory Lane, especially when it leads me to a happy ending.

The "new beginning between the U.S. and Muslims around the world"

By GottaLaff

As it should be:

President Barack Obama appointed a special envoy Saturday to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, the 57-nation organization that calls itself the "collective voice of the Muslim world."

He is Rashad Hussein, an Indian-American Muslim who has been a deputy associate White House counsel, described by Obama as "an accomplished lawyer and a close and trusted member of my White House staff." [...]

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be speaking Sunday at the 7th annual forum and Obama took the opportunity Saturday to laud the event and reiterate what he calls the "new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world" - a relationship that he says has been marred by "misunderstanding and mistrust."

Please read the whole thing here.

Our president shines when it comes to making an effort to bring people together... and his willingness to ignore the small-minded pummeling from his opponents in order to rectify the ill will created by 8 years of BushCo.

Hoyer expects House to let tax cuts expire on incomes over $250K

By GottaLaff

Undoing BushCo is not unlike undoing that pesky button after Thanksgiving dinner. You can breathe again:

The House is unlikely to extend President George W. Bush’s cuts for taxpayers earning more than $250,000, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said Wednesday.

Hoyer said tax cuts for those making under $250,000 were likely to be extended.

“I think we will continue the middle-class [tax cuts] but the brackets above $250,000 will not be continued,” Hoyer said.

Now all we'll hear about is the political risk, hand wringing, vicious attacks, lies about "raising" taxes (as opposed to restoring them to pre-BushCo rates), a doomed Obama, and the demise of the Democratic party.

How about the equity of such a move? How about reviving the middle class and-- What's it called again? Oh yeah-- democracy.

Or wasn't giving big fat money-laden corporations power over our elections enough?

NIH authorizes use of first human embryonic stem cells under new policy

By GottaLaff

Hey boys and girls! In the mood for some good news? So am I! Ready? Set? Go!

The Obama administration Wednesday approved the first human embryonic stem cells for experiments by federally funded scientists under a new policy designed to dramatically expand government support for one of the most promising but also most contentious fields of biomedical research.

The National Institutes of Health authorized 11 lines of cells produced by scientists at the Children's Hospital in Boston and two lines created by researchers at the Rockefeller University in New York. All were obtained from embryos left over by couples seeking treatment for infertility.

This is where the word "hope" really hits home for me. My mother died of Alzheimer's exactly one year ago. 'Nuff said.

Oh, and in case nobody noticed, President Obama kept a campaign promise:

President Obama fulfilled a campaign promise in March by signing an executive order lifting the Bush restrictions and ordering the NIH to develop guidelines to decide which lines could be ethically used. In a political compromise, the guidelines finalized in July limited funding to lines created from excess fertility clinic embryos as long as they were deemed to have been obtained ethically. The lines have to meet a strict set of criteria, such as making sure couples were not offered any financial incentives, knew the embryos would be destroyed for research and were offered the option of instead donating the embryos to other couples.

Together now, kids, let's hit the big blue button!

Obama Ditches Another Bush Rule

By GottaLaff

Scrubbing out another Bush stain. GObama!

The latest rule to get the boot was finalized in December 2008 and upped the number of hours truckers could stay behind the wheel, despite safety concerns about driver fatigue. [...]

They issued the same rule three times [3], even though the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., struck it down in both 2004 and 2008.

That BushCo, always looking out for their fellow Americans.

Obama administration scraps Bush logging plan

By GottaLaff

That's what we're talkin' about:

The Obama administration on Thursday scrapped the Bush administration's last-ditch attempt to boost logging in Northwest forests by scaling back protection for the northern spotted owl.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Thursday that a plan to increase logging on federal lands in western Oregon could not stand up to challenges under the Endangered Species Act. He said the Department of Interior would develop new measures protecting the spotted owl.

Removing the Bush stain makes you feel clean and sparkly all over.

Undoing BushCo: Obama reverses endangered species rules

By GottaLaff

Good news abounds these days:

President Obama’s administration has reversed a controversial last-minute rule made by the Bush administration that critics said would have undermined protections for endangered species.

The rule, put in place in the waning days of the Bush administration, would have allowed federal agencies to determine on their own whether their actions would impact threatened or endangered species, bypassing two federal agencies that otherwise administer the Endangered Species Act.

The rule also would have narrowed the scope of actions subject to review and limited consultations government agencies could have made on issues surrounding global warming.

Rolling back the rule will require federal agencies to once again check with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration before taking action that could harm species in trouble.

What's that strange feeling I'm getting?

Got it. I can breathe again.

Environmental groups had contended the Bush-era rule would have taken science out of agencies’ decisions. Groups like the Sierra Club and Defenders of Wildlife hailed the decision. [...]

Business groups, meanwhile, have objected to rolling back the Bush administration decisions, arguing that the consultation process bogs down projects and adds unnecessary and untenable costs.

U.S. court strikes down Bush oil leasing plan

By GottaLaff

Another one down:

An appeals court on Friday struck down the Bush administration's five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing, saying it was put into effect without proper environmental review.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C. ordered the Interior Department to rewrite the 2007-2012 plan, which was challenged by a coalition of environmental groups and Alaska Natives.

Although the case disputes oil development in the Alaska outer continental shelf, the court's ruling mandates a rewrite for the entire nation, said Peter Van Tuyn, an Anchorage attorney who represented an Inupiat Eskimo village and some of the environmentalists who objected to the plan.

CIA Shuts Secret Prisons Under Obama Order

By GottaLaff

This is great news, but all I can think of at the moment is all the damage that's already been done:

The CIA is no longer operating secret prisons used to interrogate terror suspects with harsh techniques such as waterboarding, the agency's director has said.

Leon Panetta confirmed the move in response to an order from Barack Obama, which was one of his first after taking office as US President in January.

"CIA no longer operates detention facilities or black sites and has proposed a plan to decommission the remaining sites," the spy chief said in a letter to agency employees.

"I have directed our agency personnel to take charge of the decommissioning process and have further directed that the contracts for site security be promptly terminated." [...]

Mr Panetta said the CIA retained the authority to detain suspects "on a short-term transitory basis".

But he added agents would use "a dialogue style of questioning that is fully consistent with the interrogation approaches authorised and listed in the Army Field Manual," which bans harsh techniques.

"CIA officers do not tolerate, and will continue to promptly report, any inappropriate behaviour or allegations of abuse," he said.

"That holds true whether a suspect is in the custody of an American partner or a foreign liaison service."

Eradicating the Ugly Bush Stain: Obama Restoring Endangered Species Act Provision

By GottaLaff

There have been so many toxic stains set into the fabric of our nation, and they were all forced on us by BushCo. Remember this one? Thank goodness President Obama found some Shout:

Today President Obama will restore rules requiring U.S. agencies consult with independent federal experts to determine if their actions might harm threatened and endangered species, according to an administration official who asked not to be identified, marking yet another reversal of President Bush's environmental legacy. [...]

The move, the official said, "will restore the status quo ante and allow the Interior and Commerce Departments to determine whether a new rule should be promulgated that will again codify the longstanding consultation practice under the" Endangered Species Act.

House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Nick J. Rahall (D-W.V.), who had decried the Bush rule and had been trying to reverse it through the legislative process, hailed Obama's decision.

"I wholeheartedly support the president's proposal to restore the protections for endangered species that the Bush administration spent so many years trying to undermine," Rahall said in an interview. "It is one more indication that the new administration truly represents change for the better and is committed to the protection of our natural resources and our environment. I think we know who would have been the winner in this fox guarding the hen house scenario advanced by the Bush administration, and it would not be the hens."

The law can handle terrorists

By GottaLaff

Dear Republicans:

One of the most inexplicable things about the Bush/Cheney clique's utter disregard of those values was that we have our own examples of the legal system's competency to deal with jihadi criminality right here in the United States. Since 1996, another jihadi preacher, the "blind sheik," Omar Abdel Rahman, has been serving a life sentence after he and nine of his associates were convicted of seditious conspiracy for plotting attacks in New York and for their role in the first World Trade Center bombing. The mastermind of that attack, Ramzi Ahmed Yousef -- who happens to be Khalid Shaikh Mohammed's nephew -- was arrested in Pakistan, extradited to New York and sentenced in 1998 to life in prison without parole. (According to some media reports, he's since converted to Christianity.)

Our federal legal system was up to dealing with those conspirators and criminals, as it's up to dealing with Al Qaeda now. When the Bush/Cheney people panicked and forgot that, they granted the jihadis an outsized malevolence, turning them into Islamist superheroes. One of the great things about the bar of justice is that when all are made to stand honestly before it, everyone is cut down to size.

Yours very sincerely,

Tim Rutten (and GottaLaff)

Undoing BushCo: Buh-bye drill, baby, drill edition

By GottaLaff

First Secretary Ken canceled leases to drill in Utah. Now this good news story:

US Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on Tuesday moved away from "drill-only" energy policies as he blocked a last-minute attempt by the administration of George W. Bush to push through the sale of offshore leases to gas and oil companies.

"On January 16, the last business day of the Bush administration, the administration proposed a new five-year plan for offshore oil and gas leasing," Salazar told a news conference.

What Salazar called a "midnight action" by the previous administration favored big oil while ignoring developers of renewable energy. [...]

Salazar also decried the previous administration's decision to give the public just six weeks to comment on the proposal.

"It was a process rigged to force hurried decisions based on bad information ... a process tilted toward the usual energy players while renewable energy companies and the interests of American consumers and taxpayers were being overlooked," Salazar said.

"We need to set aside the Bush administration's midnight timetable for the plan," he said, ordering a six-month extension for the public hearings, putting the deadline back from March to September.

The administration of President Barack Obama, who has pledged to make government transparent and inclusive, would hold meetings in the four regions affected by the offshore lease proposal, Salazar said.

And the new interior secretary has commissioned a report from the US Geological Survey and the Minerals Management Survey (MMS) which would "assemble all the information we have about offshore resources, conventional and renewable."

Salazar's promises to change the way the United States forges its energy policies followed on from action he took last week to block the sale of exploration contracts to gas companies on wilderness land in Utah.

At least it's a step away from the onslaught of those last minute ugly Bush stains. Let's remember these welcome departures from BushCo's destructive policies when we stress over some of the ObamAdministration decisions that disappoint us.

Undoing BushCo: New dynamic in children's health debate

By GottaLaff

SCHIP is back... and it seems the Republicans can't do much about it:

Republicans appear to have overplayed their hand when blocking the expansion of a children's health care program last year.

They face the likelihood that Democrats in the coming weeks will pass a bill that they dislike even more.

With more Democrats in Congress and President Barack Obama in the White House, GOP lawmakers don't have the numbers or a veto threat to do anything about it.

The Senate planned to begin debate as early as Monday on a bill that would increase spending on the State Children's Health Insurance Program by $31.5 billion over the next 4 1/2 years.

Congress approved a similar bill in late 2007 that former President George W. Bush vetoed. [...] But the current legislation contains some important changes.

It is friendlier to states that want to cover children in families with incomes exceeding three times the federal poverty level - $63,600 for a family of four.

Also, the bill calls for covering children of legal immigrants now barred from government-sponsored insurance until they have been in the country at least five years. [...]

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Friday that investing in children's health coverage brings savings down the road because those kids are more likely to become productive adults.

"Some people want to make this a debate about immigration. This isn't a debate about immigration. It's a debate about taking care of our children, children who are here legally," Reid said.

The money to pay for expanding the program would come from a 61-cents per pack increase in the tax on cigarettes as well as tax increases on other tobacco products.

It's called foresight and compassion. Remember those? They're back.

Undoing BushCo: Intel edition

By GottaLaff

The past three days have been, how you say, orgasmic:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

More, more!

Dennis Blair, President Obama's nominee to become the Director of National Intelligence, took a swipe at the Bush administration's methods of gathering intelligence. [...]

Blair, a retired Navy admiral who headed the Pacific Command, pledged a new approach to counterterrorism requiring the intelligence community to carry out missions "in a manner consistent with our nation's values, consistent with our Constitution and consistent with the rule of law," he said in a statement at his confirmation hearing Thursday.

He made a point to stress that he would not support any surveillance activities that "circumvent established processes for their lawful authorization."

"I believe in the importance of review and regulation of the use of those surveillance authorities," he added.

Blair also stressed that there must be clear standards for humane treatment of detainees that should apply to all government agencies.

Blair, who will likely be confirmed, also invited independent monitoring of the agencies he will lead to prevent abuses and protect civil liberties.

Yes. Yes. Yes!