Bush Supporters!

I love how Olby claimed that the GOP legislators who met with the president were telling "the truth" about the war without knowing what words had been uttered during the meeting. Olby's version of the truth has to be a real doozy (as per normal).

I thought Russert's fat head would explode as he frothed at the mouth during his revelation. Must-see TV for sure.

Bush Supporters!

--- "I am outraged, as are the majority of Americans. I'm a lifelong Republican, but it's past time for change," retired Maj. Gen. John Batiste told reporters.

"Our strategy in Iraq today is more of the same, a slow grind to nowhere which totally ignores the reality of Iraq and the lessons of history," Batiste said. "Our president ignores sound military advice and surrounds himself with like-minded and compliant subordinates." ---

Add that to your "so called list of traitors"

Bush Supporters!

So who really is behind the firings? Wait, it doesn't matter! Because they can be fired at any time for any reason!

No, actually, they can't. Firing them to interfere with an inconvenient investigation is pretty high up on the list of "reasons you can't fire a U.S. Attorney."

And if there was a coherent reason, we'd have heard it by now, instead of the thoroughly debunked "performance reviews" nonsense - which, of course, leaves Gonzales perjuring himself. Repeatedly. At least, when he remembered what to say, which wasn't very often.

This is just strange. Check out this new promo for Countdown. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lApKeud1j8

He's ordering Cuban food here and talking about Castro, etc.

wasn't the young woman who had the disappointing hotel tryst with Olbermann Cuban?

Was that so hard, E. Schatz?!?!?

Kurt Montandon: No, actually, they can't. Firing them to interfere with an inconvenient investigation is pretty high up on the list of "reasons you can't fire a U.S. Attorney."

No, actually, they can. U.S. Attorneys can be fired for any reason at any time. They are political appointees that do not necessitate the oversight of congress. Even if one of them WERE fired for investigating say, Duke Cunnigham (who's in jail by the way), it still would not be illegal. Congress gave the President the authority to appoint U.S. Attorneys and fire them at his discretion. Fmr. President Bill Clinton fired ALL 93 U.S. Attorneys in 1993 upon assuming the White House. Was that wrong, Kurt? Probably not in OlbyLoon land since he's never mentioned it once.

OWUBF,

Now, now. It took some of us YEARS to develop our Countdown Roundup skills...Ed has had about two weeks.

How about "nice work, E...way to go!"

ESchatz Comes Out Smokin'!!!!!!!!!

Average Clinton C**k Smoker gets behind (get it) a retired gen. who oh gee wizz is smarter than all the other generals in the Military.

Didn't they try this with five generals a few months back.

Let's see a few months ago five generals said they knew everything and now just one says it.

Things must be getting better.

You see smokey it's like this. I'm sure at whatever job your at this month you think you know everything. Meanwhile all the people that have been there longer just think your a fool. get it?

I would have said a--hole but I'm in a nice mood.

Just stick to having your mom copy and paste for you.

Now I'm sure when Clinton fired those 92 lawyers, maybe just maybe one or two of them were working on something important don't you think?

Or did they all just sit around all day and play video pong?

And whats with this Gonzo going back before this panel? What? are they just going to keep bringing him back until he screws up?

Well I guess the Dems are a little slow or they don't care about spending the taxpaters money. Or both!

And the other funny thing is except for this dopey show I've seen nowhere else this Gonzo gate. Not CNN, Not FNC, And really except for 'The Tin Foil Hat Hour' Not even MSLSD!

I guess maybe their talking about it on Air America. That's still on right?

I see Olby was number three again in the demo. Boy what happened to that firm grip on second place?

Look for Edward R. Moron to be in top shape tomorrow. Texas vs. Yankees 1:05 P.M. at the stadium.

Thats if he doesn't end up calling out. Ya know that would be funny. Dopey calls out. But someone gets video of him at the game.

Mo Rocca, is he still funny? Oh wait! He never was.

Well that's it and again ESchatz with a steller performance!!!

Bartender, get that man whatever I'm drinking.

Actually, I am still not happy with the Countdown episode summary. E.Schatz did not research anything to refute Olbermann or his posse - He just repeated aspects of the episode in a critical, mocking manner. That is okay, however. I would rather have something than nothing. I also do not see anything worth redoing until Obsesive Compulsive perfection. Is this what his previous episode summaries initially looked like before he had to redo them all? Nothing too wrong here in terms of mistakes ---

Mr. Cox,

Silly question probably but did Olbermann mention the result of the election in France?

Sharon: That's another thing, where is our Taciturn Terriers/Muted Mongrels/Dogs that did not bark segments? They are not there!

No, actually, they can't. Firing them to interfere with an inconvenient investigation is pretty high up on the list of "reasons you can't fire a U.S. Attorney."
Posted by: Edward Schatz at May 9, 2007 11:44 PM

Is that like when Clinton fired the U.S. Attorney who was investigating his white water land deal?

The Factor: I was quoting someone else. I, of course, agree with your point entirely and was trying to make it myself

E. Schatz! I am glad you are here! I would like my nickname dedicated in an official gesture of a posting by Robert Cox on this website that promises never to be monsterously late again for that long and to officially verify me as the one who ended the late spasms that this website has had the past week, tops. Can that be done? I think so.

I'm 'shocked' Olbyonesidedkanoby didn't mention Edwards' hedge fund hypocrisy. He was trying to 'learn about poverty' he says. Edwards=toast. How bout those 10,000 dead people in Kansas, Obama? "I was just tired and delirious" says Hussein.

Was that so hard, E. Schatz?!?!?
Posted by: Obama Watch Us Bicker Formerly in Technicolor at May 9, 2007 11:29 PM

Actually, judging from the recap, yes that was hard. Very hard.

Bartender, get that man whatever I'm drinking.
Posted by: puck at May 9, 2007 11:51 PM

That would be Kool-Aid.

A round for everyone on the house...

OWUBFIT, feel free to e-mail Mr. Cox regarding such a request.

Nah. That would be too much trouble for such little gratification. I will just sit back and relax, joyous in the fact that I was able to divert somnething terrible.

Ulbermahn's favorite Terror group!

Hezbollah builds a Western base
From inside South America’s Tri-border area, Iran-linked militia targets U.S.
By Pablo Gato and Robert Windrem
NBC News
Updated: 9:29 a.m. ET May 9, 2007
CIUDAD DEL ESTE, Paraguay - The Iranian-backed Hezbollah militia has taken root in South America, fostering a well-financed force of Islamist radicals boiling with hatred for the United States and ready to die to prove it, according to militia members, U.S. officials and police agencies across the continent.

From its Western base in a remote region divided by the borders of Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina known as the Tri-border, or the Triple Frontier, Hezbollah has mined the frustrations of many Muslims among about 25,000 Arab residents whose families immigrated mainly from Lebanon in two waves, after the 1948 Arab-Israeli war and after the 1985 Lebanese civil war.

An investigation by Telemundo and NBC News has uncovered details of an extensive smuggling network run by Hezbollah, a Shiite Muslim group founded in Lebanon in 1982 that the United States has labeled an international terrorist organization. The operation funnels large sums of money to militia leaders in the Middle East and finances training camps, propaganda operations and bomb attacks in South America, according to U.S. and South American officials.

U.S. officials fear that poorly patrolled borders and rampant corruption in the Tri-border region could make it easy for Hezbollah terrorists to infiltrate the southern U.S. border. From the largely lawless region, it is easy for potential terrorists, without detection, to book passage to the United States through Brazil and then Mexico simply by posing as tourists.

They are men like Mustafa Khalil Meri, a young Arab Muslim whom Telemundo interviewed in Ciudad del Este, Paraguay’s second-largest city and the center of the Tri-border region. There is nothing particularly distinctive about him, but beneath the everyday T-shirt he wears beats the heart of a devoted Hezbollah militiaman.

“If he attacks Iran, in two minutes Bush is dead,” Meri said. “We are Muslims. I am Hezbollah. We are Muslims, and we will defend our countries at any time they are attacked.”

Straight shot to the U.S.
U.S. and South American officials warn that Meri’s is more than a rhetorical threat.

It is surprisingly easy to move across borders in the Triple Frontier, where motorbikes are permitted to cross without documents. A smuggler can bike from Paraguay into Brazil and return without ever being asked for a passport, and it is not much harder for cars and trucks.

The implications of such lawlessness could be dire, U.S. and Paraguayan officials said. Rep. Silvestre Reyes, D-Texas, chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, said Hezbollah militiamen would raise no suspicions because they have Latin American passports, speak Spanish and look like Hispanic tourists.

The CIA singles out the Mexican border as an especially inviting target for Hezbollah operatives. “Many alien smuggling networks that facilitate the movement of non-Mexicans have established links to Muslim communities in Mexico,” its Counter Terrorism Center said in a 2004 threat paper.

“Non-Mexicans often are more difficult to intercept because they typically pay high-end smugglers a large sum of money to efficiently assist them across the border, rather than haphazardly traverse it on their own.”

Deadly legacy of a lawless frontier
Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Tri-border has become a top-level, if little-publicized, concern for Washington, particularly as tension mounts with Iran, Hezbollah’s main sponsor. Paraguayan government officials told Telemundo that CIA operatives and agents of Israel’s Mossad security force were known to be in the region seeking to neutralize what they believe could be an imminent threat.

But long before that, U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies regarded the region as a “free zone for significant criminal activity, including people who are organized to commit acts of terrorism,” Louis Freeh, then the director of the FBI, said in 1998.

Edward Luttwak, a counterterrorism expert with the Pentagon’s National Security Study Group, described the Tri-border as the most important base for Hezbollah outside Lebanon itself, home to “a community of dangerous fanatics that send their money for financial support to Hezbollah.”

“People kill with that, and they have planned terrorist attacks from there,” said Luttwak, who has been a terrorism consultant to the CIA and the National Security Council. “The northern region of Argentina, the eastern region of Paraguay and even Brazil are large terrains, and they have an organized training and recruitment camp for terrorists.”

“Our experience is that if you see one roach, there are a lot more,” said Frank Urbancic, principal deputy director of the State Department’s counterterrorism office, who has spent most of his career in the Middle East.

A mother lode of money
Operating out of the Tri-border, Hezbollah is accused of killing more than 100 people in attacks in nearby Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the early 1990s in operations personally masterminded by Hezbollah’s military commander, Imad Mugniyah.

Mugniyah is on the most-wanted terrorist lists of both the FBI and the European Union, and he is believed to work frequently out of Ciudad del Este.

For President Bush and the U.S.-led “war on terror,” the flourishing of Hezbollah in the Western Hemisphere demonstrates the worrying worldwide reach of Islamist radicalism. In the Tri-border, Hezbollah and other radical anti-U.S. groups have found a lucrative base from which to finance many of their operations.

Smuggling has long been the lifeblood of the Tri-border, accounting for $2 billion to $3 billion in the region, according to congressional officials. Several U.S. agencies said that Arab merchants were involved in smuggling cigarettes and livestock to avoid taxes, as well as cocaine and marijuana through the border with Brazil on their way to Europe. Some of the proceeds are sent to Hezbollah, they said.

Many Arabs in the Tri-border openly acknowledge that they send money to Hezbollah to help their families, and the man in charge of the local mosque in Ciudad del Este, who asked not to be identified by name, declared that Shiite Muslim mosques had “an obligation to finance it.”

But the U.S. government maintains that the money ends up stained with blood when it goes through Hezbollah, which is blamed for the bombings of the U.S. Embassy and the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, in the 1980s, as well as the kidnappings of Americans, two of whom were tortured and killed.

Patrick M. O’Brien, the assistant secretary of the Treasury in charge of fighting terrorist financing, acknowledged flatly that “we are worried.”

“Hezbollah has penetrated the area, and part of that smuggling money is used to finance terrorist attacks,” he said.

In Paraguay, looking the other way
The biggest obstacle in the U.S. campaign to counter Hezbollah close to home is Paraguay, whose “judicial system remains severely hampered by a lack of strong anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism legislation,” the State Department said in a “Patterns of Global Terrorism” report.

Since 2004, a draft bill to strengthen money laundering laws has been stalled in the Paraguayan legislature, and the government of President Nicanor Duarte has introduced no draft legislation of its own.

Hampering reform efforts is an endemic reluctance in Paraguay to acknowledge the problem.

Interior Minister Rogelio Benitez Vargas, who supervises the national police, claimed that Hezbollah-linked smuggling was a relic of the 1980s. Today, he said, the Triple Frontier is a safe and regulated “commercial paradise.”

But authorities from the U.S. State and Treasury departments to Interpol to the front-line Paraguayan police agencies all paint a different picture. Eduardo Arce, secretary of the Paraguayan Union of Journalists, said the government was widely considered to be under the control of drug traffickers and smugglers.

Without interference, thousands of people cross the River Parana every day from Paraguay to Brazil over the Bridge of Friendship loaded with products on which they pay no taxes. As police look the other way, he said, some smugglers cross the border 10 to 20 times a day. Earlier this year, Telemundo cameras were present as smugglers in Ciudad del Este loaded trucks headed for Brazil. They could have been laden with drugs or weapons, but no authorities ever checked.

Direct link to Iran alleged
José Adasco knows better than most why Hezbollah has the region in a grip of fear.

In 1992 and 1994, terrorists believed to be linked to Hezbollah carried out two attacks against Jewish targets in Buenos Aires, the Argentine capital. In the first, a car bomb exploded at the Israeli Embassy, killing 29 people. Two years later, a suicide bomber attacked the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association, a Jewish community center, killing 85 more.

Adasco, who represents the Jewish association, has never been able to forget that day and the friends he lost.

“Really, to see the knocked-down building, [to hear] the screams, the cries, people running — it was total chaos. Chaos, chaos. It is inexpressible,” he said.

An investigation by Interpol and the FBI found not only Hezbollah’s involvement, but Iran’s, as well. The Argentine prosecutor’s office said the Iranian president at the time, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, ordered the attack to retaliate against Argentina for suspending nuclear cooperation with Iran.

A warrant for Rafsanjani’s arrest remains outstanding, and the prosecutor’s office continues its investigation 13 years later.

Hezbollah tells its story
Alberto Nisman, the Argentine district attorney leading the investigation, said the connection between the Hezbollah attack and the Tri-border is unquestionable. Among other things, he said, the suicide bomber passed through the area to receive instructions.

In the intervening years, Hezbollah has spread throughout Latin America.

On their Web page, local Hezbollah militants in Venezuela call their fight against the United States a “holy war” and post photographs of would-be suicide terrorists with masks and bombs. There are also Web sites for Hezbollah in Chile, El Salvador, Argentina and most other Latin American countries.

“The Paraguayan justice [ministry] and the national police have found propaganda materials for Hezbollah” across the hemisphere, said Augusto Anibal Lima of Paraguay’s Tri-border Police.

And it is not only propaganda. In October, homemade bombs were left in front of the U.S. Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, which is next to a school.

Police arrested a student carrying Hezbollah propaganda in Spanish. One of the pamphlets showed a picture of children and said, “Combat is our highest expression of love and the only way to offer a healthy and uncorrupted world.”

Caracas police were able to detonate the bombs safely. Police Commissioner Wilfredo Borras said they appeared to be “explosive devices made to make noise and publicity” — very different from what would be used if the United States attacked Iran.

“In [the] United States, there are many Arabs — in Canada, too,” said Meri, the Hezbollah member who spoke with Telemundo. “If one bomb [strikes] Iran, one bomb, [Bush] will see the world burning.

“... If an order arrives, all the Arabs that are here, in other parts in the world, all will go to take bombs, bombs for everybody if he bombs Iran.”

© 2007 MSNBC InteractivePablo Gato is a correspondent for Telemundo. Robert Windrem is an investigative producer for NBC News.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17874369/

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MSN Privacy . Legal
© 2007 MSNBC.com

Holy sh-t, Batman... I mean... Joker!!

Better alert Miami!!

TO THE JOKER-PHONE!!

And don't forget the Bibles!!

Olby must have a taste for Cuban that he can't get at home.

Baptiste looks like the dude on the cover on Mad Magazine. When he smiles his teeth make him look dumber than he already looks.

What do you call a cough, cough general that cares so much about our soldiers and the mission but doesn't speak out.

In the words of General Patton: "Well, frankly, he is a PUSSY".

The man has zero credibilty. He's just making himself look like an ass. But then again, he is an ass and an a--hole. I'm starting to get pissed off at O'Reilly. Too many times he is letting the left on his show without an opposing voice. He has had Wesley "Loser" Clark on and last night he defended Baptiste. No surprise there. The other night he had on David Korn and Ellis Henecan. I think the doctor got confused when Korn was born and circumsized his lips. But wait, maybe he knew how he's turn out. He's just another in a long line of goofy looking liberals. I bet old American Patriot would make a chimp laugh.

"And don't forget the Bibles!!"

Don't mind us. You are the one that will be dog paddling in a lake of fire.

You goofy, pussy assed liberal atheist. How's that for preaching?

Oooooooh Laura!

Start swift boating any Iraq vets that dare to oppose Moron in Chief!

"THEY HAVE ZERO CREDIBILITY!!"

Gen. Batiste has more credibility than Rush, Hannity and the other Bush cultists.
If he says we should leave Iraq.
Then how can we disagree with him?
He's not WEsley Clark.

The Factor: I was quoting someone else. I, of course, agree with your point entirely and was trying to make it myself

Posted by: Edward Schatz at May 10, 2007 1:43 AM

Sorry Edward, I pulled a Keith Olbermann and took a quote out of context.

O'Reilly tore apart Wesly Clark last night. Classic. It's scary that the U.S. military once had a General that was so easily steam rolled by O'Reilly. No wonder Clark is a lap dog for felon George Soros. If O'Reilly is not WPITW tonight, Keith must be on vacation.

O'Reilly v. Coward Clark? That's a no brainer...

"BOWERS: So far, the Missouri River and its tributaries have spilled over at least 20 levees, 12 foot tall walls made of dirt, putting downs at risk from St. Joseph in the northwest all the way to St. Louis in the east. Life long resident and town flood manager Glen Dieckmann has never seen anything like it.
GLENN DIECKMANN: This one was just whoops, all of a sudden we've topped the levees.
BOWERS: For him, and many in these parts, all of this is an unwelcome reminder of the historic flood of 1993 which killed 48 people and did nearly $20 billion worth of damage to nine waterlogged states. Big Lake resident Tom Bullock wonders why the government didn't do more after that flood to shore up the levee system.
TOM BULLOCK: The levees that were fixed after '93 here on the Missouri side that I know of, most of it was done by local land owners, farmers. The federal government didn't do crap for us."
CBS News

Wait a minute, wasn't the compassionate Bill Clinton President in 1993? Surely he would have fixed the levees in Missouri. Only cold-hearted Republicans allow levees to break again.

"Is that like when Clinton fired the U.S. Attorney who was investigating his white water land deal?"

Point 1: if Clinton did it it must be O.K.?
Point 2: Clinton didn't do it. Every president appoints their own senate confirmed USA's when they come into office. Clinton did. Bush did. No other president fired a slew of them mid-term, changed the law so that the new ones coming in didn't need Senate confirmation, and was unable to come up with a consistent reason for any of the firings.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled administration induced relativism.

I added the Mo Rocca segment mostly because he is the closest the show came to being interesting plus if you watch the very end Mo mocks Keith's "Murrow-esque" turn away from the camera. Even Keith's friends think it's silly.

Point 1: if Clinton did it it must be O.K.?
Point 2: Clinton didn't do it. Every president appoints their own senate confirmed USA's when they come into office. Clinton did. Bush did. No other president fired a slew of them mid-term, changed the law so that the new ones coming in didn't need Senate confirmation, and was unable to come up with a consistent reason for any of the firings.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled administration induced relativism.

Posted by: VOK at May 10, 2007 1:53 PM

Hey dummy, Clinton had to fire the existing U.S. attorneys including one who was investigating him and one who was investigating another Dem.
New flash. Bush can't change any law so clear that in your mind before you start throwing the word law around.
Which of these U.S. Attorneys is investigating George Bush? None

Now back up to March 25, 1993, when the roles were reversed, with Republicans charging that the Clinton White House had fired all 93 U.S. Attorneys in part to stall the Rostenkowski investigation. Here’s the relevant portion of Stephanopoulos’s White House briefing (unfortunately, the Federal News Service transcript retrieved via Nexis doesn’t include the names or news organizations of the reporters asking the questions):

Q It has been the custom in the past for holdover US attorneys to stay on until their successors were nominated or even in place. Why was that not done in this case?

MR. STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, in this case, we thought it was most appropriate to make sure that everybody was clear from the start that the President would be making his own choices. There will be interim appointments in the meantime, largely from the career service."

President Clinton's mass firing of the U S Attorneys was unprecedented to the following degree. Prior administrations replaced them with their choices over a longer period of time so to disrupt and burden the system as little as possible.

President Clinton did what every president has the right to do, but with his own style. Back home there was a big uproar because US Attorney John Volz had been very actively pursuing our poster boy for corrupt government, Gov Edwin Edwards, D. Which goes to prove that a charge playing politics is by someone playing politics. The Democratic U S Attorney, Eddie Jordan, finally made it happen with a masterful prosecution. I think of him as St Eddie.

All the Presidents firing and replacing any US Attorney at any time in their administration have been acting legally and constitutionally. They have all replaced U S Attorneys pursuing close political allies and friends as well as generally incompetent ones.

Grammie

USA's confirmed by the Senate? Funny, I can't find any record of Senate confirmation of USA's. Nor anything about it in the Constitution.

VOK you need to get your news from someone that actually knows what they are talking about.