Bush administration officials unveiled a bold new assertion of executive authority yesterday in the dispute over the firing of nine U.S. attorneys, saying that the Justice Department will never be allowed to pursue contempt charges initiated by Congress against White House officials once the president has invoked executive privilege.
Reagan official warns of a Bush 'police state' coming. Thom Hartmann began his program on Thursday by reading from a new Executive Order which allows the government to seize the assets of anyone who interferes with its Iraq policies.
He then introduced old-line conservative Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury under Reagan who has recently become known for his strong opposition to the Bush administration and the Iraq War -- by quoting the "strong words" which open Roberts' latest column: "Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran." Audio interview
Eric Edelman, Under Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon, wrote a letter blasting Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton, arguing that she is boosting enemy propaganda by asking how the U.S. plans to eventually withdraw from Iraq. He says she is 'emboldening the enemy'.
Clinton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has privately and publicly pushed Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Joint Chiefs Chairman Peter Pace two months ago to begin drafting the plans for what she said will be a complicated withdrawal of troops, trucks and equipment.
Hillary has hit back with a stern letter but it's important for those watching this story play out, to research for yourself this Edelman neocon who is a close associate of Cheney and Wolfowitz and of course a member of PNAC. There is no question, after researching his background, that he used our pentagon to play politics and further his stature and his party, the Republican powerhouse, in over-running this nation.
