Category: john yoo

Welcome to 2006

Greetings and best wishes to all you folks out there in Wonketteland. We hope that the new year finds you well and, you know, poised to perhaps wrap yourself up in the comforting embrace of, say, a new book.

What's in store for 2006? Well, it's going to be another year of known knowns and known unknowns and unknown knowns. Certainly the basic storyline is this: Abramoffukkah will play itself out, putting many of your incumbent members of Congress' re-election hopes at risk -- a key component in the Democrats continuing win-by-default strategy. This will be countered by the surely-not-timetabled but baldly obvious drawdown of Iraq-theater troops, which will be sold in such a way that it will all but ensure the safe re-election of those same members of Congress.

Regardless, we hope you've made your New Year's resolutions, but we remind you that in our current political climate to word those resolutions very carefully -- if you don't, John Yoo will come along and insist that your self-help plans accord President Bush a whole array of crazy-ass new powers. One minute, you're vowing to lose ten pounds, the next you're having your ass-fat harvested to keep Ahmed Chalabi's lips shiny and supple. — DCEIVER

READ MORE: abramoffukkah , elections , john yoo

Daily Briefing: 'It Just Disintegrated Our Capacity'

• Former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) says Congress rejected White House request for the authority to eavesdrop on U.S. citizens: "I can state categorically that the subject of warrantless wiretaps of American citizens never came up. I did not and never would have supported giving authority to the president for such wiretaps. I am also confident that the 98 senators who voted in favor of authorization of force against al Qaeda did not believe that they were also voting for warrantless domestic surveillance." [WP, WP]
• Congress has turned on Bush. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): "What you have seen is a Congress, which has been AWOL through intimidation or lack of unity, get off the sidelines and jump in with both feet." [WP, LAT]
• Republican lawmakers "largely have themselves to blame for the muddled and haphazard finale of the Congressional session." [NYT]
• House and Senate extend the Patriot Act for five weeks, pushing fight into the new year. [WP, NYT, LAT]
• Bush approves reduction of U.S. combat forces in Iraq; troop level could fall to 130,000. [WP, USAT]
• John Yoo, "a mere deputy assistant attorney general in the legal counsel office," was the main author of controversial legal policies; viewed as an aggressive force among conservative legal scholars. Yoo: "If you're being criticized for what you did and you believe that what you did was right, you shouldn't take it lying down. You should go out and defend yourself." [NYT]
• Michael Brown warned Tom Ridge in 2003 that the bureaucracy of the DHS would strangle FEMA's effectiveness: "People became distracted from the mission, because we spent so much time and energy fighting for resources and working on reorganization. It just disintegrated our capacity." [WP, WT]

• Supreme Court has shied away from defining the precedent of the eavesdropping program. [NYT]
• Administration cites '78 law to defend eavesdropping program. [NYT]
• Most Congressional leaders initially supported the eavesdropping program. [NYT]
• Republicans "hold" the Senate Intelligence Authorization Bill for the first time in 27 years. [WP]
• Congress approves $29b for the Gulf Coast. [WP]
• Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) distances himself from Christian group that advocated intelligent design. [WP]
• 72% of Americans disagree with Pentagon's propaganda campaign in Iraq. [USAT]
• Independent writers and researchers are often quietly backed by lobbyists without disclosure. [NYT]

READ MORE: Democrats , Republicans , SCOTUS , White House , congress , eavesdropping , fema , george w. bush , gulf coast , homeland security , iraq , john yoo , lindsey graham , michael brown , national security agency , patriot act , rick santorum , senate , tom daschle , tom ridge

Daily Briefing: The New Caliphate

• Time reporter Viveca Novak says Karl Rove was the likely source of a July 2003 article about Valerie Plame. Novak: "I remember [Rove's lawyer] looking at me and saying something to the effect of 'Karl doesn't have a [Matt Cooper] problem. He was not a source for Matt.' I responded instinctively, thinking he was trying to spin me, and said something like, 'Are you sure about that? That's not what I hear around Time.' He looked surprised and very serious." [Time, NYT, WSJ]
• Sen. Frist threatens to use the "nuclear option" to save Samuel Alito from a filibuster. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): "We're not close to a deal." [WP, NYT, LAT]
• White House flack Trent Duffy: "What you will see more of next year is the president going back to the basics -- winning the war and growing the economy and creating jobs." [WT]
• Sen. Clinton's quiet, centrist approach to Iraq "is drawing increasing scorn from liberal activists." [WP]
• Ronald Brownstein on Alito's abortion memos: "It's still not clear these disclosures will seriously threaten Alito's confirmation. And if they do not, both sides might need to rethink basic assumptions about the politics of the Supreme Court." [LAT]
• Gov. Mark Warner (D-Va.) tours battleground states for a head-start on '08. Warner: "As Democrats, what we have to do is put forward ideas and candidates that can win in places like Florida, that can win in places like Virginia." [NYT]

• Administration officials warn of impending caliphate; Rumsfeld says Iraq could "serve as the base of a new Islamic caliphate to extend throughout the Middle East, and which would threaten legitimate governments in Europe, Africa and Asia." [NYT]
• House and Senate have different views to the future of Medicaid. [NYT]
• Attorney, professor, and author John Yoo believes "the constitution itself gives the president lots of leeway, allowing him to invade Iraq without congressional permission and to disregard such treaties as the Geneva Convention." [LAT]
• Gov.-elect Corzine's appointment of Robert Menendez to his N.J. Senate seat fulfills childhood dream. [USAT]
• Investigators conclude John Snow's ownership of bonds did not represent a conflict of interest. [WSJ]

READ MORE: 2006 , 2008 , bill frist , caliphate , donald rumsfeld , george w. bush , hillary clinton , john snow , john yoo , jon corzine , karl rove , leak investigation , lindsey graham , mark warner , matt cooper , patrick fitzgerald , robert menendez , ronald brownstein , samuel alito , time magazine , trent duffy , valerie plame , viveca novak

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