Four Iowans were arrested today while attempting to make a Citizens' Arrest of Karl Rove in Des Moines, Iowa. Citing Iowa Code provisions for making Citizen's Arrests as well as citing Federal Statute violations they claimed Rove had violated, the four were stopped at the gate of the Wakonda Country Club in Des Moines where Rove was scheduled to speak at a Republican Fundraiser.
The four arrested were retired Methodist minister and Peace and Justice Advocate, Rev. Chet Guinn, 80, as well as three Des Moines Catholic Workers, Edward Bloomer, 61, Kirk Brown, 25, and Mona Shaw, 57. All four were cited for trespassing and released.
The four maintained that they were acting within the guidelines of Iowa Code that obligate private citizens to make such an arrest if they believe a felony has been committed and turn Rove over to police officials to bring Rove before a judge for formal indictment. By law, a federal judge should consider the charges and determine if an indictment should be made.
Tonight is the annual "Stateman's[sic] Dinner" in Nashville. It is the state party's major fundraising event for upcoming state sente and house elections. This is the 32nd annual event, and includes a new feature: NO PRESS ALLOWED.
"Section 1. The prerogative of the Executive to issue Pardons notwithstanding, no Pardon or Commutation shall be considered valid if issued to reprieve a current or former member of the Executive's Administration, or a current or former offical in his or her political party.
Section 2. Any Pardon shall be valid only insofar as it applies to a specific conviction against an individual obtained in a Court of the United States."
(Note: I changed "President" to "Executive" in Section 1 in order to ramify the States.)
OK, if it's not obvious to "some" why I'm refloating this proposal now, consider this,
Karl Rove has threatened a GOP high-tech guru and his wife, if he does not "'take the fall' for election fraud in Ohio," according to a letter sent this morning to Attorney General Michael Mukasey, by Ohio election attorney Cliff Arnebeck.
In his email to Mukasey today, Arnebeck writes:
"We have been confidentially informed by a source we believe to be credible that Karl Rove has threatened Michael Connell, a principal witness we have identified in our King Lincoln case in federal court in Columbus, Ohio, that if he does not agree to 'take the fall' for election fraud in Ohio, his wife Heather will be prosecuted for supposed lobby law violations."
Now I am sure our fine, honest Attorney General will move with all possible dispatch to protect a potential witness to electoral fraud that changed the outcome of a national election...Doncha Think?
John McCain met with Lance Armstrong yesterday at the LIVESTRONG summit. Armstrong asked him what he does to stay fit and according to CBS.com he said:
Armstrong also asked what McCain did to stay fit. The Arizona senator said he enjoyed hiking and swimming, and mentioned that he hiked the Grand Canyon with his son.
While this neither takes into account the latest Quinnipac Poll showing McCain gaining ground in Colorado, Michigan, Minnesota or Wisconsin, it also doesn't show the 4% Foreign Tour bounce that Gallup is reporting (see above).
What does that mean? A short sweet diary below. Hey, a steampunk's gotta work ;)
Missouri has a bunch of great contests this year, and the Lieutenant Governor's race is one where we stand a strong chance of replacing a Republican incumbent with a great Democrat.
Peter Kinder, the incumbent, got caught up in a sex scandal when his Chief of Staff was arrested for having pornographic conversations with a cop he thought was a thirteen year-old girl. The police report is nauseating. Kinder drew himself into the fray by declaring, 3 hours after the arrest, that an investigation had determined state computers weren't used, and the criminal conversations took place during "comp time".
I must apologize I don't write diaries, but this is breaking in the blogs and needs more juice. Karl Rove has been accused of threatening a primary witness in for the plaintiffs in the King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell. Check out Brad Blog as well as ePluribusMediafor a backgrounder on the new "IT Forest Gump" genious computer Guru who has handled IT business for the Republicans since they lost New Hampshire in 2000.
Update: King Lincoln Bronzeville v. Blackwell link
OMG: Criminal "threatening" corrected thanks to Shpilk
updated: Meet Matthew Kairis an attorney with the law firm Jones Day, who represents one or more of the "defendants" in this case.
Rove knows he is in deep doo doo, caught without a paddle, and the roar of a flush approaching seems to be causing some consternation. That's my impression of Rove's latest propaganda effort to create the impression that he is denying involvement in the persecution and prosecution of governor Don Siegelman.
Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX, member House Judiciary) questions Rove in a letter "before ... Siegelman's initial indictment in May 2005, did you ever communicate ....?" What about after May 2008? Okay, Smith is not good at asking questions. And Rove is not very good at answering the question completely. The report was aired by Dan Abrams on Verdict:
Same old, same old from Rove, of course, so no surprise. What is new here is Smith's involvement! Has a Republican member of the Judiciary Committee now participated in an effort to obstruct justice?
Emptywheel has Karl Rove's answers to questions from the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee -- you know, the committee before which Rove won't actually go to testify. It's written questions, no follow-ups, so basically Rove's dream scenario.
Promising follow-up, emptywheel offers this initial reading:
Smith repeatedly asks Rove whether or not he ever communicated with:
Department of Justice officials, State of Alabama officials, or any other individual about the investigation, indictment, potential prosecution, prosecution, conviction, or sentencing of Governor Siegelman
And repeatedly, Rove answers that he has never directly or indirectly communicated with:
Justice Department or Alabama officials [] about the investigation, indictment, potential prosecution, prosecution, conviction, or sentencing of Governor Siegelman
Rove would not make the same denials about talking to "any other individuals" he did about DOJ and Alabama officials.
Now to be fair to old Turdblossom, Rove does add this caveat, repeatedly:
nor have I asked any other individual to communicate about these matters on my behalf
But that's not the same thing as answering whether he spoke to anyone about it all.
Karl Rove being less than fully honest. Big surprise. We know emptywheel (and Kagro X, and other bloggers) will follow up on this. Will Congress?
This is my first installment of research for our diarist clammyc. I had emailed this wonderful diarist when he posted asking for volunteers to lend research to his "hopefully" ongoing .series "It's time to stop Defending Obama" and go on the offensive against McCain. Since I do research for my local Democratic Club and some local candidates, I have found in my freetime I love to research the Republicans. I have really had my eyes opened. Call me naive, but I had no idea of the extent of the corruption and dishonesty that permeates the Republican Party and has for years. I knew I never liked their ideas but researching them on a broader field than just local politics has shown this proud Democrat that while there indeed are some not so savory characters in the Democratic party (which seems to be a disease that afflicts all politicans,) but what I am finding as I follow the tangled web of connections, is that they all tend to lead directly to George Bush, Karl Rove, the RNC and yes, the candidate himself, John McCain.
I ask that clammyc use this diary as one of his installments so please feel free sammyc to post this in your diary as a continuation of your efforts.
event horizon: the boundary of a black hole beyond which nothing can escape from within it
-- Merriam-Webster Online
After five years and change of turned corners and dead enders and last throes, is it possible that we're approaching an event horizon in our Middle East miasma? Stuff seems to happen faster than anyone can deny it occurred these days, and from the sound of things, it won't be too long before we're committed to getting out of Iraq in smart fashion or sucked into staying there until kingdom come.
For months now I've been trying to define and articulate one particular thing about the Bush administration that's always disturbed me, and I've finally figured it out: it's the lack of outrage. It came to me when I was reading TPMMuckraker, specifically the post about political interference by Vice President Cheney's office in getting several pages of the CDC's congressional testimony that referred to climate change and it's effect on human health removed from the report. I kept wondering if President Bush knew about Cheney's plans to censor the remarks beforehand, and if so did he approve? Maybe he didn't find out until afterwards, so what was his reaction?
July 10, 2008: Karl Rove fails to appear before the House Judiciary Committee.
July 10, 2008: The House Judiciary Committee gives Karl Rove until July 15, 2008 to declare whether he will comply with the subpoena he defied earlier in the day.
July 15, 2008: ?
July 19, 2008: The first question for Speaker Pelosi at Netroots Nation is about holding Rove in inherent contempt. Speaker Pelosi expresses support for the efforts of Chairman Conyers.
July 21, 2008: Tick, tick, tick...
There are only about five weeks of active work left in the House of Representatives for the 110th Congress. On August 1st, they will adjourn for a month, returning on September 8th. The target adjournment date thereafter is September 26th.
What do you think our Rove timeline entry will be for that day?
Here's my latest Salon.com animation, featuring Karl Rove and Bill O'Reilly:
And don't forget:
Scott Bateman Animation Show
Tuesday, July 22 7PM (TOMORROW NIGHT!)
Peoples Improv Theater, NYC
Five bucks (cheap!)
Featuring Joe Mande (Best Week Ever), Laura Krafft (Colbert Report), Ali Farahnakian (SNL, 30 Rock) and I watching my animations and discussing the issues--it's like the McLaughlin Group, but funny on purpose.
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein rose to prominence in the journalistic community during the early 1970's. Originally investigating a common burglary at the Democratic National Committee headquarters, they ultimately uncovered a political scandal that brought down a President.
Today, we have our own Woodward and Bernstein and their names are; Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane.
Yes, there is a difference between these two journalistic teams; Woodward and Bernstein's work was published and became front page material.
Follow me after the flip for a look at the work of an investigative team that uncovers a scandal larger than Watergate...
And I thought about the invasion of Iraq. Acase that can be made that it was a war crime, so people who played a central role in selling it, which would include Colin "the most overrated man in America" Powell, too, would appear to me to have some level of liability.
So, do any lawyers out there know if the Hague is in Karl's future.
