10-14-05, 8:50 am

The White House (as a whole): Before a televised press conference that included President Bush's 'bantering' with soldiers in Iraq, reporters recorded the following conversation between a White House aide and the soldiers about 'scripted' questions and preparing for their talk with the President:

WH aide: 'Capt. Kennedy are you ready?' Kennedy: 'I am ready, ma’am.' WH aide: 'Okay this is for the money. We are going to time this and remember that if the president cuts it short, if he asks more questions, if you have the microphone and he follows up with a question to you, no matter who has it, Captain Pratt if you have the microphone and the president hears something and he wants more information, you just keep that microphone and talk to the president.' Kennedy: 'Okay.' WH aide: 'But if he gives us a question that is not something that we have scripted Captain Kennedy you are going to have the mic and that’s your chance to impress us all.' Kennedy: 'Okay.' WH aide: 'Which won’t be a problem for you.'

(From Think Progress)

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg: Announced a terrorist threat on the NYC subway, later shown to be a hoax and described by the FBI days before the announcement as lacking credibility, just prior to a mayoral debate scheduled in Harlem. Bloomberg was under intense media pressure for boycotting the debate. The announcement of the terror hoax got him out of going.

Karl Rove: While waiting for a fourth trip to a grand jury without protection from indictment for leaking classified information in order to smear critics of the Bush administration's justification for war, Rove tells ultra right radio personality James Dobson that Supreme Court nominee Harriet A. Miers is a good choice because of her religious values and beliefs on abortion. Dobson took this as a reassurance that Miers had promised to vote in favor of ultra right anti-choice views on abortion and endorsed her on his radio program.

Right-wing radio personality James Dobson: Lets Karl Rove manipulate him into publicly endorsing Harriet Miers of whom most of the rest of the right has expressed disapproval.

Harriet Miers: New York Times runs a file photo of Miers handing a paper to George W. Bush from 2001. Turns out, according to the Los Angeles Times, the photo was dated August 6, 2001 and is a picture of Miers handing Bush a copy of the infamous Presidential Daily Briefing that announced that Bin Laden planned to hijack airplanes and attack targets inside the US with them. The White House refused to act on the intelligence in that report. Harriet Miers, in true White House form, got a promotion to Supreme Court nominee.

Republican Party's ultra right religious base: Is angry that Bush nominated Miers and has launched a campaign against her because she may have hinted at her support for the protection of civil rights for gay people during a 1989 bid for the Dallas City Council. Hard right religious wing-nutters also fumed when Rep. David Dreier (R-CA), reported to be gay by the L.A. Weekly, was briefly appointed to replace indicted former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Defenders of Miers shot back: The views she expressed in 1989 no longer hold; Miers no longer believes in treating gay people fairly. Apparently, she is qualified because she hates an entire group of people?

'Reverend' Pat Robertson: Didn't get the memo on Miers' support for the gay agenda and threatens to withdraw support for Republican Senators who might vote against her. Robertson's warning came just days after he claimed that recent natural disasters point to the end of the world and the Second Coming of Christ. Ignoring Jesus' pronouncement that a rich man has the same chance of entering heaven as a camel does of squeezing through the eye of a needle, Robertson makes no plans to give away his millions in riches to the poor in order to prepare for the return of Christ.



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