Rove Confronted by Claremont Citizens

Reading these reports makes it clear the people of Clairmont were willing to take risks to present Mr. Rove with the legacy of his Bush years. May he realize the damage he's done and do something useful. Bravo, citizens!

Rove speech greeted with protests, bomb threat, claims of pepper spray

Wes Woods II, Staff Writer

Article Created: 09/16/2008 12:32:27 AM PDT

CLAREMONT - Karl Rove, the former Deputy Chief of Staff and senior advisor to President George W. Bush, discussed presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama and gave his take on the legacy of the current president.

But hundreds of protesters greeted Rove before, during and after his speech.

When Rove tried to leave the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum, at least two people and possibly a third claimed they were pepper sprayed while campus officials said they were not.

A bomb threat was also determined to be unfounded, campus officials added.

Rove's speech took place from 6:45 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday inside the Claremont McKenna College Athenaeum at 385 8th St.

One of the most important resources is time," Rove said about the 2008 presidential election.

Rove said Obama had not seized the narrowing election days to "advance his case."

For instance, Obama linked the country's economic problems to Bush and McCain instead of showing "he's up to the job" with a specific proposal.

Rove said he felt Bush was a "successful" president but they had "done a lousy job of explaining" why he was.

Rove listed the million dollar AIDS relief fund for Africa, the accountability of the No Child Left Behind performance program, large amounts of money invested in alternative energy and privatizing social security.

After the speech, Todd Logan, 21, of Pomona College, said he saw two people get hit by pepper spray when Rove was led out by security while other students reported three.

Some students said they were hit by the vehicle Rove was drove off campus in but officials denied their claims.

Henry Watkins, consultant for Claremont McKenna College, said no students were hit with pepper spray or hit by a vehicle.

A bomb was reported at 7:31 p.m. inside of nearby Collins dining hall but was later found to not be true, Watkins said.

http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_10471652

You can go to LA IndyMedia’s coverage [link below] for all the photos, but here’s a couple along with excerpts:

Karl Rove detained for crimes against humanity in Claremont
by Rockero Wednesday, Sep. 17, 2008 at 3:10 AM
rockero420@yahoo.com

16 September 2008
CLAREMONT - Over 300 justice activists detained Republican mastermind Karl Rove for over an hour yesterday in Claremont, demanding he be brought to justice for crimes against humanity, democracy, and general moral sensibility. Despite fervent efforts, they were unsuccessful in executing a citizen's arrest.

[...] The drums were beating and the chants were flowing. Someone or a group of someones had spiked the fountain outside the Claremont McKenna College's venerable Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum so that the waters ran as red as the blood that flows in the streets of Iraq. Participants, some of them masked, carried signs reading "Karl Rove I Want You [with a picture of Uncle Sam] Tried for War Crimes," "KKKarl Rove

[...] One of the most beautiful actions of the night was a song, inspired by Bush's reference to Rove as the "architect" of his 2004 "re-election"¹ springing seemingly spontaneously from the crowd:
"Architect of terror
architect of hate
throw the man in jail
lock his ass away"
[...] We realized our only chance for action was at Rove's egress, so we decided to cover every exit, ostensibly to issue a citizen's arrest. A large crowd gathered in front of a limo parked in back of the Athenaeum just beside the rear exit. A small group kept its eyes on a small side entrance guarded by two nervous security guards. The largest remained outside the north entrance, although for some reason, most of us remained within the confines of our partial plastic-chain enclosure of a "free speech zone." There we used a combination of approaches, from reaching out to heckling, on the shameless fascists exiting the event. These tie-choked, starched-collar, spiked hair white fraternity boys foamed at the mouth to see such an energetic group daring to peacably assemble and demand redress of greivances. Perhaps they felt they were protecting their rich parents and Claremont's conservative elite when they yelled at us, calling us "hippies" Most of the demonstrators yelled "Arrest Karl Rove!," but some near the front had more interesting messages for the [... error in original text]
Then, a large group mobilized toward the south entrance of the building. It seemed that they had been attracted by a police mobilization and the fact that cars had pulled up at a small roundabout there. Lines formed, and police brought out their riot gear. I saw them pull out a large, red-colored weapon. Some of the protestors said it was used for pepper spray. A confrontation seemed imminent. I saw one cop pushing one protestor away from a car. But nothing really happened.
At various times, organizers requested that people cover one exit or another when it appeared (based on cop activity) that Rove may be leaving. How do we know, I wondered, that the cops aren't going to take advantage of this to smuggle this guy out?
Which is what happened. A rumor circulated that Rove had made to another (yet somehow connected) building and was attempting to escape from a distant side door. Nonetheless, people went running. The paper today claimed that a bomb threat caused the shift in manpower that distracted a number of protesters. But we knew the real reason the cops claimed there was a bomb.
People who refused to be tricked stuck to where they knew Rove was. There, some of them were maced, which allowed Rove's driver to exit, plowing through the few remaining activists without regard for their safety in the midst of the confusion.[...]
http://la.indymedia.org/news/2008/09/220462.php

Rove Found in Contempt of Congress

Next step? Let's hope so...away we go!
House panel votes to cite Rove for contempt
By LAURIE KELLMAN – 34 minutes ago
WASHINGTON (AP) — A House panel Wednesday voted to cite former top White House aide Karl Rove for contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena to answer questions about the dismissals of several federal prosecutors as its Senate counterpart explored punishments for an array of alleged Bush administration misdeeds.
Voting 20-14 along party lines, the House Judiciary Committee said that Rove had broke the law by failing to appear at a July 10 hearing on allegations of White House influence over the Justice Department, including whether Rove encouraged prosecutions against Democrats such as former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.
[...] The House vote occurred as members of the Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on allegations of administration wrongdoing ranging from discriminating against liberals at Justice to ignoring subpoenas and lying to Congress.
The Senate proceedings were the latest congressional review of the White House, a constitutionally mandated power that majority Democrats are eager to use. But three months from Election Day, a lame-duck Congress conducting oversight of a lame-duck White House produces mostly talk. There's little time and less willingness to spend the remaining five weeks of the congressional session doing more than holding televised hearings to try to convince voters that President Bush has abused the powers of his office.
The allegations certainly are serious.
Justice Department Inspector General Glenn A. Fine, who reported this week that former department officials broke the law by letting Bush administration politics dictate the hiring of prosecutors, immigration judges and career government lawyers, was among the witnesses to appear Wednesday before the Senate panel.
Fine said his office and Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility are investigating the prosecutor firings and whether Bradley Schlozman, former head of the department's Civil Rights Division, used political or ideological criteria to make hiring decisions.
Under questioning by Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, the panel's senior Republican, Fine said he uncovered no evidence that any Justice officials involved made false statements to Congress or violated criminal law. Politicization of the hiring process for career positions is a violation of civil law and department policy, he said.
The Senate probe sprang from Justice's firings of nine federal prosecutors that sparked congressional investigations last year and led to the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.
House and Senate Democrats said the findings affirmed their contention that career Justice employees were hired and fired based on whether they were deemed sufficiently conservative, a violation of law. Conyers said earlier that he was considering bringing criminal charges against some of the former officials named in Fine's report who may have lied to his committee. Lying to Congress is a crime, but there's little agreement among Democrats on whether a perjury referral against some of the officials is warranted.
But one Republican acknowledged there's reason to look more closely. And everyone wants more answers by the Department of Justice. The question is what will be done now in the twilight of the 110th Congress and the Bush presidency.
[...] Some Democrats skipped right to thinking what can be done starting in January, after a new president and Congress are installed, probably with more Democrats in their ranks.
Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., who led the investigation into the prosecutor firings, is pressing Fine to say whether making such a disregard of civil service rules a crime would deter the kind of conduct his investigation uncovered.
Similar legislation will be considered in the House.
"I will be asking Chairman Conyers to consider legislation to ensure that the politicization of hiring of career employees at the Justice Department never happens again," Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said in a statement.
Associated Press Writer Ben Evans contributed to this story. http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5h-he8f7AdVl4IRQAEFnivpPn6HOAD9289GU00

Rove is in Contempt

If any of us behaved like this we'd be hauled off to prison in a New York minute. The only way to reclaim our standing as a nation that promotes the rule of law for EVERYONE is to prosecute crime WHEREVER it occurs. No exceptions, and this little piggy is ready for the oven.
Please sign the petition and pass it on:
Rove Ignores Subpoena, Refuses to Testify

From Robert Greenwald & Brave New Films, here's the petition:
As hard as it may be to believe, the House Judiciary Committee is gearing up to vote on whether to hold Karl Rove in contempt. And your signature on the Send Rove to Jail petition provides much-needed attention and support for upholding the law. The petition received over 108,000 signatures-a mighty message that conveys the patriotic outcry over Rove's failure to comply with a Congressional subpoena.
This afternoon, Brave New Films Editorial Director ZP Heller will head to Washington DC with our partners the People for the American Way, the Campaign for America's Future, and the Campaign for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to deliver the petition to Rep. Linda Sanchez (D-CA). They will take our message all the way to the HJC, and Rep. Sanchez will ensure our voices are heard when the HJC votes on holding Rove in contempt.
This is the first critical step in punishing Rove under the law, but it is just the beginning. Once we're through the HJC, we'll take our campaign to the full House. Rove's action is an insult to the most fundamental value of our country and our democracy: the rule of law. It's high time he's held accountable.
Yours,
Robert Greenwald
and the Brave New Team

Send Karl Rove to Jail

From the towers of Manhattan to the levees of New Orleans--let justice be done! When politicians commit crimes and their lawyers encourage it, the people must uphold the rule of law. For the children to know that we knew right from wrong, and were compelled to act, please...each one, tell as many as you can. Most important, sign the message to the House Judiciary Committee. They will act if we tell them to.
Send Karl Rove to Jail


Click on any link below for more background in previous posts, such as Donald Siegelman or Valerie Plame.

Presidential Propaganda Victimizes Veterans' Families

On the heels of the twisted story of why embedded reporter Zoriah Miller became "unembeded" from Iraq comes this story. You can read his story in the prior post. Perhaps you will agree that these two stories together create a bigger picture and an important glimpse into BushCo's deadly media manipulation game.
Committee says fuzzy memories hurt Tillman probe
By SCOTT LINDLAW, Associated Press Writer 7/15/08
SAN FRANCISCO - A "striking lack of recollection" by White House and military officials prevented congressional investigators from determining who was responsible for misinformation spread after the friendly fire death of Army Ranger Pat Tillman, a House committee said Monday.
Although military investigators determined within days that the onetime NFL player was killed by his own troops in Afghanistan following an enemy ambush, five weeks passed before the circumstances of his death were made public. During that time, the Army claimed Tillman was killed by enemy fire.
Rep. Henry Waxman, chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said in April 2007 that his goal was to discern the genesis of the misinformation. "Was it the result of incompetence, miscommunication or a deliberate strategy?" [my bold] he said.
[...] The committee reported a similar lack of information relating to misinformation surrounding Pvt. Jessica Lynch, who was rescued from an Iraqi hospital after she was badly injured and captured in a 2003 ambush. The committee examined how the story of the ambush of her convoy was changed into a tale of heroism on her part.
"As the committee investigated the Tillman and Lynch cases, it encountered a striking lack of recollection," the report said.
The panel concluded that the lack of information "makes it impossible for the committee to assign responsibility [my bold] for the misinformation in Corporal Tillman's and Private Lynch's cases."
[...] The White House also failed to determine whether information about Tillman's death was classified, [my bold] the committee found. Tillman's Ranger unit was routinely involved in sensitive operations along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
Then-White House communications director Dan Bartlett told the committee he had approved release of the president's statement because of intense news media interest.
[...] Speechwriters and fact-checkers expended hundreds of words in e-mail memos trying to confirm that Tillman and his brother Kevin had joined the Army because of the attacks of Sept. 11, but could not do so, because the brothers had rarely or never spoken publicly about it.
Nevertheless, Bush's remarks to the correspondents' association contained what one White House official admitted was a "speculative" statement by Bush: [my bold] "Friends say that this young man saw the images of September the 11th, and seeing that evil, he felt called to defend America."
[...] The committee also looked into the case of Army Spc. Jesse Buryj of Canton, Ohio. It took nine months for his family to learn that his death in Iraq in May 2004 was not the result of an accidental vehicle crash as they were first told. He was killed by fire from U.S. or Polish soldiers in Karbala after a dump truck hurtled through a checkpoint and crashed into the armored vehicle in which he was riding.
Buryj's parents accepted an invitation to meet Bush at a July 2004 campaign rally. They told investigators they had pressed Bush to help them find answers about their son's death, and said Bush agreed to help.
"A few months later, a Bush-Cheney campaign official contacted the family," the congressional investigators found. "Rather than offer assistance, the official asked Specialist Buryj's mother to appear in a campaign commercial for the president. Mrs. Buryj refused."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080715/ap_on_re_us/tillman_friendly_fire

Call the House! Arrest Karl Rove

Now that's a pretty picture! But you know it's only a fantasy unless we put the pressure on. So please, call Congress and/or sign the petition below, then pass it on.

Arrest Karl Rove
The House Judiciary Committee subpoenaed Karl Rove to testify on July 10, but on July 1 Rove announced he would defy the subpoena.
Could you or I get away with defying a Congressional subpoena? Of course not. So why can Karl Rove? Like George Bush and Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, believes he is simply above the law.
It's time for Congress to prove them wrong by using its power of "inherent contempt" to send the Sergeant-at-Arms to arrest Karl Rove (as imagined in photoshop at left) and bring him before the full House to answer to the charge of Contempt of Congress, and to punish him to the maximum extent allowed by law, including prison.
Before Democrats won Congress in 2006, Nancy Pelosi said the most important reason to put Democrats in control of Congress was "subpoena power." But now Pelosi is quietly blocking the use of inherent contempt.

Tell your Representatives to Arrest Karl Rove:

http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/106

MeClellan Must NOT Profit from Murder

Dear MoveOn member,
There are laws to prevent criminals from profiting by selling their stories. But after spending years defending the Bush administration and perpetuating the lies that led our country into war, Scott McClellan is poised to make bank—his tell-all book is a bestseller and he may make hundreds of thousands or millions.
Meanwhile, our troops are still dying in Iraq.
Coming clean is admirable. But McClellan shouldn't profit off the role he played in our nation's largest foreign policy blunder.
So we have a proposition for him. Let's call on him to donate all of the proceeds from his book to a group that helps Iraq veterans, like Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America. If we make enough noise, he'll probably be asked about it on tomorrow's Sunday shows (he's on all three!)—so please sign on and pass this around. Clicking below will add your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/mcclellan/o.pl?id=12765-575351-ZWr4ub&t=3

The petition reads:

People who helped lie this country into an unnecessary war should not be rewarded for it. Scott McClellan should donate all the proceeds from his book to a group that helps Iraq veterans—like Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

Thanks for all you do.
–Nita, Wes, Ilyse, Eli, and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
Saturday, May 31st, 2008

P.S. Our friends at Americans United For Change just put out this new web video about McClellan. Check it out at the link below:
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=3725&id=12765-575351-ZWr4ub&t=4
Support our member-driven organization: MoveOn.org Political Action is entirely funded by our 3.2 million members. We have no corporate contributors, no foundation grants, no money from unions. Our tiny staff ensures that small contributions go a long way. If you'd like to support our work, you can give now at:
http://political.moveon.org/donate/email.html?id=12765-575351-ZWr4ub&t=5
PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http://pol.moveon.org/
Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.

---

Bush Gets Bashed by Former Mouthpiece

I believe this is a story about chickens not roosting but covering their butts. Let the subpoenas begin!
'Politico': Scott McClellan Hits White House in New Book
By Greg Mitchell
Published: May 27, 2008 7:40 PM ET Wednesday
NEW YORK Former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan is re-emerging, at least, with a memoir due out next week, titled “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception” (Public Affairs, $27.95).
Mike Allen, with a preview copy, calls it, at Politico.com, a "surprisingly scathing memoir." He reveals: "A few reporters were offered advance copies of the book, with the restriction that their stories not appear until Sunday, the day before the official publication date. Politico declined and purchased 'What Happened' at a Washington bookstore."
[...] Here is a sampling of the "explosive revelations" as described by Allen. (You might say that President Bush doesn't get off Scott-free.) The entire preview is at www.politico.com.
• McClellan charges that Bush relied on “propaganda” to sell the war.
• He says the White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war. McClellan repeatedly embraces the rhetoric of Bush's liberal critics and even charges: “If anything, the national press corps was probably too deferential to the White House and to the administration in regard to the most important decision facing the nation during my years in Washington, the choice over whether to go to war in Iraq.
“The collapse of the administration’s rationales for war, which became apparent months after our invasion, should never have come as such a surprise. … In this case, the ‘liberal media’ didn’t live up to its reputation. If it had, the country would have been better served.”
• He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be “badly misguided.”
• The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them — and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts.
• McClellan asserts that the aides — Karl Rove, the president’s senior adviser, and I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the vice president’s chief of staff — “had at best misled” him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity.
* [A]fter Hurricane Katrina, the White House “spent most of the first week in a state of denial,” and he blames Rove for suggesting the photo of the president comfortably observing the disaster during an Air Force One flyover. McClellan says he and counselor to the president Dan Bartlett had opposed the idea and thought it had been scrapped.
*E&P Editor Greg Mitchell's new book is So Wrong for So Long: How the Press, the Pundits -- and the President -- Failed on Iraq.
Don't worry, Mom. I'm clean!
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003808615

American Just Us

Former Alabama Governor Don Siegelman’s been in jail for 247 days without the ability to APPEAL HIS CONVICTION. Although the trial ended 20 months ago, the court hasn’t seen fit to provide his counsel a transcript. Siegelman got 7 years for bribery on a bogus charge created from inuendoes and "indications." And it’s got Karl Rove's greasy fingers all over it. There's a 60s Minutes video included in this post. And if your interest grows, go to www.donsiegelman.com, the “Online Archive for Researchers, the Media & Scholars Interested in the Abuse of Jurisprudence for Political Purposes.” This case was given major attention by Dan Abrams of MSNBC, not just a 10 second sound bite but an investigative report titled: Bush League Justice: Alabama Outrage.
The railroading of Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman
Posted February 25th, 2008 at 10:32 am
Back in October, a nationally known print journalist told Harpers’ Scott Horton, “I’ve never seen anything quite like this. Everything I’ve been told by the convicted defendants checks out as the gospel truth. And everything I’m told by federal prosecutors who pushed the case turns out either to be an outrageous lie or at least a very serious distortion. And the local journalists who wrote the most about the case all behave like they’re accessories after the fact in a criminal investigation.”
The journalist was describing the Don Siegelman case in Alabama, and doing a pretty good job of it.
There’s been quite a bit of buzz in recent weeks about the report “60 Minutes” had been preparing on the controversy and, after having seen it, I’m delighted CBS has made it available for embedding. Please take a few minutes, even if you’ve heard the Siegelman story before, to take a look.
We haven’t struggled for examples of the Bush White House and the Republican Machine making a mockery of our justice system and the rule of law, but this is one of those examples that just leaves one shaking one’s head. No one wants to believe GOP corruption on this scale is even possible, and yet, it’s not only possible, it actually happened. [I want to TESTIFY!]
[...] We haven’t struggled for examples of the Bush White House and the Republican Machine making a mockery of our justice system and the rule of law, but this is one of those examples that just leaves one shaking one’s head. No one wants to believe GOP corruption on this scale is even possible, and yet, it’s not only possible, it actually happened. http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/14685.html
And Jack Abramoff is involved!

Impeachment IS Worth Fighting For

CheneyBush Burned Again: Too Near the Plame
By Bernard Weiner, Co-EditorThe Crisis Papers
November 27, 2007
[…] If a scandal falls in the forest, and nobody hears it, did it happen?
WE KNOW THEIR THUGGISHNESS
Here's the encouraging truth: The American public, despite all attempts by the rightwing media to distract and distort, long ago became aware of the worst crimes, and incompetencies, of the Cheney Bush Administration. […] The Democrats in Congress, the ostensible "opposition party," know all about these Administration transgressions, and much more. But there is no accountability. Nothing gets done. There are no hearings into possible impeachment, no enforcement of "contempt of Congress" charges against key Administration figures who refuse to turn over subpoenaed documents and to testify under oath.
Just suppose Congress decided to call McClellan and Cheney and Bush and Card and Libby and Rove to testify about the Plame-outing coverup. Assuming that the Democrats would ask them probing questions and catch Bush and Cheney in lies, what do you suppose would happen? Can you imagine Pelosi and Conyers changing their minds and putting impeachment back "on the table"? Not likely. But it's still a cause worth fighting for.
http://www.crisispapers.org/essays7w/plame.htm