Was "Threat Level" Changed for Bush Era Political Gain?

C'mon. Was there ever any question, really? I would be shocked if they didn't monkey around with the rainbow-threat level chart. It's probably what it was created for in the first place.

[Excerpt]

Ridge: Rumsfeld and Ashcroft wanted to raise terror threat level because it helped Bush’s approval rating.

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette pours through Tom Ridge’s new book and offers the relevant passages where the former Homeland Security chief discusses the Bush administration’s desire to increase the terror threat level for political reasons. Ridge reveals that Attorney General John Ashcroft and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld argued in favor of raising the threat level by noting the correlation it had with Bush’s approval rating. . .

Read more at: Think Progress

Ashcroft's Memory is Bad

I almost didn't post this. I mean, former Attorney General Ashcroft has a bad memory? This is news? Everybody in the Bush Administration allegedly has a bad memory. They even forget when one of their cherished talking points has been debunked by audio and video, and go on to repeat them again.

But the combination of the following headline and the accompanying picture hit my absurdist comedy sweet spot. So here it is. . .

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Ashcroft: Sometimes I Confuse What People Tell Me With Reality

. . .In his opening statement, Ashcroft admitted that he had "limited recollection" of the events pertinent to the committee's inquiry. Specifically, "it's been difficult . . . to distinguish between what I in fact recall as a matter of my own experience, and what I remember from the accounts of others. . ."

Read more at: TPM Muckraker

Bush Administration War Criminals?

Here's a great piece from Countdown with Keith Olbermann, with Constitutional Law Professor Jonathon Turley, explaining more about the group of "principals" at the White House who came up with our strange torture policy.

John Ashcroft Unaware of Torture Memo?

Photo from source, TPM Muckraker

It's a very strange world when former Attorney General John Ashcroft is the good guy. First there was that whole hospital room fiasco, where he refused to take part in a Bush Administration scheme, and now this. He was left out of the loop on the "torture memo," most likely because he would not have approved it. What a cast of characters.

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Ashcroft Didn't Sign Off on Yoo Pentagon Torture Memo

More evidence that John Yoo was the most powerful deputy assistant attorney general in the Justice Department's history. The Washington Post reports this morning that when Yoo issued his now-infamous March 14, 2003 memo to the Pentagon, neither Attorney General John Ashcroft, nor his deputy Larry Thompson "were aware. . ."

Read more at: TPM Muckraker