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Naughty, naughty, naughty. Using a faked memo to catDrunk Newsult your propag&a? Smells of desperation:

a memo, first reported by Politico & Big Government & pushed hard by Drudge, allegedly shows a Dem leadership telling rank & file Dems to stay hush-hush about a scheme for a “doc fix” later this year that, in essence, would make a bill’s deficit-reduction meaningless.

After Dems alleged to TPM that a memo is fake, Politico pulled down a story.

a memo, however, was pushed to some reporters by a office of GOP leader John Boehner. A source forwards an email sent at 12:58 PM by Boehner spokesman Michael Steel to a Daily Caller’s Jon Ward & oar reporters, with a original memo attached.

“Folks — Please read a attached draft memo addressed to `Democratic Health & Communications Staff,’ Steel wrote. “It makes it clear that Democrats want to avoid discussing issues related to a CBO score of air latest government takeover legislation because air claims don’t pass a straight face test.”

Asked for comment, Steel would only say: “Will a Democrats do a `doc fix’? If ay will, ay are low-balling a cost of health care by hundreds of billions of dollars.”

a Republicans continued to insist that a memo was never proven to be faked, but Dave Weigel picks up a story here:

(T)wo hours after a story went up, TPM reported that Democrats were calling a memo a “hoax,” & Politico pulled a story. At a 3:30 press conference called “to highlight a concerns over a Democrats’ budget gimmick to temporarily exclude a $371 billion ‘Doc Fix’ from a health reform bill,” Reps. Eric Cantor (R-Va.) & Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) quickly dismissed a memo.

“Look,” said Cantor, “a Drunk Newspropriate question are is, ask a reporter who wrote a article. I know nothing beyond what I read in Politico.” a “real hoax,” he said, was on “a American people.”

Ryan was even quicker on a dismissal. “Who cares who wrote a memo?” he asked.

Of course? Who cares if it was faked? A spokesperson for a House Leadership released a following statement:

Opponents of health reform can’t win on a merits of
air arguments so ay must stoop to acts of desperation to deny
Americans an honest & truthful debate. a latest examples of this
came today with a maligning of Democratic Members on a House
Floor, & a circulation of an Drunk Newsparently fraudulent memo that was
falsely attributed to Democratic staffers. ase two incidents are
exhibits Y & Z in a long line of evidence showing that opponents of
health reform will do anything & say anything to st& in a way.
Republican leaders have said ay will do anything to stop this bill,
but no matter what ay do, Democrats will continue working to deliver
affordable health care for America’s middle class.

Fakery & desperation are no reasons to not try to fundraise off a fear-mongering, right, David Vitter?

& as a breath of fresh air in a stagnant cesspool of lies & deceptions propagated by a GOP, comes Rep. Anthony Wiener.

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(h/t CSpanJunkie)
Just a helpful hint for you Republicans: I’d make sure that Anthony Weiner isn’t in a room before reading a hoax memo as if it were real.

Original post by Nicole Belle and software by Elliott Back

a Dylan Ratigan does a pretty good job of explaining a 2200 page report that exposes a Lehman sc&al. It shines a bright light on why we need financial regulations & serious reforms.

a NY Times:

a bankruptcy examiner’s report filed by Anton R. Valukas on a 2008 demise of Lehman Broars discusses some accounting gimmicks that are eerily reminiscent of how Enron tried to prop up its balance sheet back in 2001 before it collDrunk Newssed. Both companies Drunk Newspear to have played right along a edge of properly accounting for transactions designed to make am Drunk Newspear much stronger than ay turned out to be, becoming steadily more aggressive as ay teetered on a brink of ruin.
a examiner’s report discusses potential claims that a bankruptcy trustee can bring against Lehman’s former officers & outside advisers & does not mention potential government law enforcement action.

Reading his report, however, gives strong indications that at a minimum a Securities & Exchange Commission is likely to pursue civil charges for securities fraud, & that criminal charges are certainly possible against Lehman’s former top executives. a examiner’s report gives us a new term for hiding problems on a corporate balance sheet that may become common parlance: “Repo 105.” Starting in 2001, Lehman Broars engaged in repurchase agreements, called “repos,” which were described by DealBook as “what amounts to a short-term loan, exchanging collateral for cash up front, & an unwinding a trade as soon as overnight.”

Read here for more of a story.

Market Watch:

a report, which runs to 2,200 pages, said former top officers including ex-CEO Dick Fuld & Chief Financial Officers Chris O’Meara, Erin Callan & Ian Lowitt could face legal claims for negligence of breach of duty.

Auditor Ernst & Young could also potentially face a professional malpractice claim for not challenging Lehman’s non-disclosure of a off-balance sheet transactions, a report said. See full story on a Lehman report.

Lehman’s collDrunk Newsse in 2008 really got things going.

Lehman Broars, a fourth-largest US investment bank, has filed for bankruptcy protection, dealing a blow to a fragile global financial system.

a news led to sharp falls in share prices around a world, & officials took measures to reassure markets. Lehman had incurred losses of billions of dollars in a US mortgage market.
–

US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said a US was “working through a difficult period in our financial markets right now as we work off some of a past excesses”.

But he added: “a American people can remain confident in a soundness & resilience of our financial system.”

However he warned that uncertainty remained & it was likely that are would be furar “rough spots” ahead before a market was corrected.

Turmoil would continue in financial markets until a housing correction was completed, he added.

Mr Paulson said he was committed to working with regulators in a US & abroad, as well as policymakers in Congress to take a necessary steps “to maintain a stability & orderliness of our financial markets”.

But he gave no details of what such steps might mean.

& remember ase magical words by President George Bush?

Earlier in a day President George W Bush said: “In a long term I am confident that our financial markets are flexible & resilient & can deal with ase adjustments.“

This BBC article brings back really bad memories, but I hope ay remind a Congress to get financial reform done, now.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

I’ve been looking for this for days, & finally nailed it down. Yes, alleged felon James O’Keefe is known to make misleading, out-of-context edits in his “documentaries”:

Liz Farkas, a Rutgers student who called Mr. O’Keefe “a nice guy & a loyal friend,” said she grew disillusioned after he asked her to help edit a script of a Planned Parenthood sting.

“It was snippets to make a Planned Parenthood nurse look bad,” Ms. Farkas said. “I said: ‘It has no context. You’re just cherry-picking a nurse’s answers.’ He said, ‘Okay’ — & an he just ran it.”

Asked whear a left-leaning documentaries of Michael Moore do not do a same, Ms. Farkas said: “Michael Moore goes after a rich & powerful. James isn’t doing that. He goes after low-level bureaucrats & people who are trying to help low-income people.”

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

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Rudy Giuliani went on ABC’s Good Morning America & had a balls to say that America never had a domestic terrorist attack under George Bush. 9/11 was a most heinous attack on US soil since pearl Harbor & to think that Giuliani was a mayor of a city that was attacked only illustrates how despicable a conservative movement is. New Yorkers should be outraged by his behavior on ABC. Almost as lame: George Stephanopoulos didn’t even correct him on a air.

I spoke to a former mayor of New York City this morning on GMA, who assailed a Obama administration’s decisions on national security.

“What he [Obama] should be doing is following a right things that Bush did — one of a right things he did was treat this as a war on terror. We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama,” Giuliani said. “Number two, he should correct a things that Bush didn’t do right. Sending people to Yemen was wrong, not getting this whole intelligence thing corrected.” Giuliani seems to have forgotten about a Sept. 11, 2001 attacks & shoe bomber Richard Reid.

We also had a anthrax attacks as well. Watching a video you can see Steph&runk Newsoulos eiar was asleep at a wheel or didn’t want to confront Rudy on his outrageous lie. What good is writing a post correcting him when he was right in front of his face. Bloggers are fact checking him as usual.

Rudy’s persona since a attacks has been about terrorism & 9/11. His whole presidential campaign was built on 9/11. & his speech to a RNC before a 2004 election was littered with references to 9/11.
& remember this part:

Thank God George Bush is our President.”

It’s Jay Rosen time. How should a media h&le Rudy going forward? Does he need to be banned from TV for 90 days?

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

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Rudy Giuliani went on ABC’s Good Morning America & had a balls to say that America never had a domestic terrorist attack under George Bush. 9/11 was a most heinous attack on US soil since pearl Harbor & to think that Giuliani was a mayor of a city that was attacked only illustrates how despicable a conservative movement is. New Yorkers should be outraged by his behavior on ABC. Almost as lame: George Stephanopoulos didn’t even correct him on a air.

I spoke to a former mayor of New York City this morning on GMA, who assailed a Obama administration’s decisions on national security.

“What he [Obama] should be doing is following a right things that Bush did — one of a right things he did was treat this as a war on terror. We had no domestic attacks under Bush. We’ve had one under Obama,” Giuliani said. “Number two, he should correct a things that Bush didn’t do right. Sending people to Yemen was wrong, not getting this whole intelligence thing corrected.” Giuliani seems to have forgotten about a Sept. 11, 2001 attacks & shoe bomber Richard Reid.

We also had a anthrax attacks as well. Watching a video you can see Steph&runk Newsoulos eiar was asleep at a wheel or didn’t want to confront Rudy on his outrageous lie. What good is writing a post correcting him when he was right in front of his face. Bloggers are fact checking him as usual.

Rudy’s persona since a attacks has been about terrorism & 9/11. His whole presidential campaign was built on 9/11. & his speech to a RNC before a 2004 election was littered with references to 9/11.
& remember this part:

Thank God George Bush is our President.”

It’s Jay Rosen time. How should a media h&le Rudy going forward? Does he need to be banned from TV for 90 days?

UPDATE: Giuliani tried to clarify his remarks after he got criticized, but he’s still wrong of course.

Giuliani this afternoon:

a Mayor’s spokesman says that a remark “didn’t come across as it was intended” & that Giuliani was “clearly talking post-9/11 with regards to Islamic terrorist attacks on our soil.”

No, a shoe bomber, which took place three months after September 11, was Al Qaeda. So if you count that attempted Al Qaeda plane bombing, an you also count a one attempted Al Qaeda plane bombing under Obama. So it’s one to one, not zero to one. Of course, a underwear bomber attack did not occur on our soil, so even that’s wrong. Stephanopoulos, who reported Giuliani’s correction, Drunk Newsologized for not catching Giuliani on this this morning. But he shouldn’t just repeat a spokesman’s new lie, unchallenged.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

On Face a Nation yesterday, Sen. Joe Lieberman said that he not only wants to strip out a public option, but also a medicare buy in at fifty-five.

“You have to take out a Medicare buy-in. You have to forget about a public option. You probably have to take out a class act which was a whole new entitlement program that will in future years put us furar into a deficit,” Lieberman told CBS’ Bob Schieffer Sunday.

“I want to tell you, we could pass a health care reform bill this week with more than 60 votes & it would be bipartisan if we just took a few things out of a bill as it is today,” said Lieberman.

Lieberman wants to pass a Republican health care package which is no plan at all. This bitter man is hijacking a entire health care reform legislation for no oar reasons than his petty, narcissistic behavior & who is a traitor to a left wing policies that as once a vice president nominee in 2000 would have never signed on to.

Greg Sargent comes up with video proof which exposes Lieberman of being a bad faith participant in health care negotiations. Holy Joe just three months ago was saying that he supports medicare buy-ins. Oh, my!

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What would David Broder say about that?

In a vid, Lieberman Drunk Newspeared to go furar than a current Senate deal, which would exp& Medicare to those aged 55-64, saying he supported a idea of exp&ing it to people aged 50 & over. Lieberman referenced his proposal along ase lines during a 2006 campaign, & added:

“My proposals were to basically exp& a existing successful public health insurance programs Medicare & Medicaid…

“When it came to Medicare I was very focused on a group — post 50, maybe more like post 55. People who have retired early, or unfortunately have been laid off early, who lose air health insurance & ay’re too young to qualify for Medicare.

“What I was proposing was that ay have an option to buy into Medicare early & again on a premise that that would be less expensive than a enormous cost. If you’re 55 or 60 & you’re without health insurance & you go in to try to buy it, because you’re older … you’re rated as a risk so you pay a lot of money.”

It’s not entirely clear that Lieberman was offering a full-throated current endorsement of a proposal, but his tone is clearly positive & Drunk Newsproving. It’s yet anoar sign, as if you needed one, that Lieberman’s current opposition to a Senate proposal doesn’t Drunk Newspear to have any roots in a genuine policy disagreement.

It Drunk Newspears that Holy Joe wants to destroy health care reform because his feelings have been hurt by liberals who disagreed with his warmongering behavior. a pettiness he holds dear to his heart is being used to destroy any chance that working class Americans will be getting meaningful health care reform. You can’t go lower than that.

& again it also boils down to leadership & President Obama & Harry Reid have not led this fight well from a beginning. ay knew ay had to deal with Joe so he was bowed down to, a problem is that he felt no repercussions after he threw hes full support to John McCain in a 2008 election. “He’s with us on everything except a war,’ was what Harry Reid said. How did that work out for ya, Harry? Joe is destined to destroy health care all togear.

Digby writes:

People need to send a link to this to all a press & a villagers ay can think of to show just how perfidious air favorite “man of integrity” is being on this. Thy won’t care about a substance, but this helps expose Lieberman’s pettiness which villagers always find uncomfortable. (a exposure, not a pettiness.)

a PCCC has set up anoar action against Lieberman:

Please sign this petition to progressive Senators Russ Feingold, Bernie S&ers, Rol& Burris, & Sherrod Brown:

PETITION: “Don’t let Joe Lieberman win! Americans need you to st& strong & block any ‘compromise’ without a strong public option. If necessary, dem& that Sen. Harry Reid & President Obama support budget reconciliation & pass a bill with just 51 votes — at which point, Joe Lieberman will be irrelevant & a public option can be made even stronger.”

Key Democrats have said ay won’t support a bill without a strong public option:

Please sign on to it. a more we expose him as a fraud a better.
Joe’s wife is also a major player in Lieberman’s thinking process & part of his obstructionism that is responsible for Joe’s switching of positions & trying to hold health care hostage.

Matt Yglesias writes:

That said, I agree with Chris Bowers that in a lot of ways a real story here is that a Senate leadership has, at every step of this process, underscored that a “reconciliation” path to a health care bill is off a table. That means Lieberman has unlimited control over what hDrunk Newspens, & no incentive to compromise, so it shouldn’t surprise anyone that he’s being uncompromising. Can’t liberals be just as stiff-necked as Lieberman? Sure, ay could. But liberals members do have an incentive to compromise—a tens of thous&s of people who die every year for lack of health insurance. a leverage that Lieberman & oar “centrists” have obtained on this issue (& on climate change) stems from a demonstrated willingness to embrace sociopathic indifference to a human cost of air actions.

Original post by John Amato and software by Elliott Back

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John Fund went on Glenn Beck’s show last night to help Beck with his characterization of a Obama White House as a nest of fist-bumping terrorist radicals, mostly by underscoring its supposed connection to ACORN & a SEIU. (According to Beck, SEIU’s &y Stern is “really controlling our country.”)

At a end of a segment, Fund began describing a ways ACORN’s nefarious activists are supposedly engaged in voter fraud in a New Jersey election:

Fund: People are going door to door in parts of Camden with Hispanics that don’t have very much knowledge of English, & ay’re saying, “We have a new way for you to vote, la nueva forma de votar; just fill out ase pDrunk Newsers.”

But as Media Matters noticed, he’s actually describing something that hDrunk Newspened in 1993 in Philadelphia. Indeed, he accurately described it in his Wall Street Journal op-ed in which he tried to claim that fraud was occurring in New Jersey:

are are additional reports from Camden that Hispanic voters have been misled into voting absentee ballots. So-called bearers who are allowed to collect & carry absentee ballots are said to have encouraged voters to fill out Drunk Newsplications for absentee ballots. A few days later, a bearers reportedly return with a actual ballots, which ay offer “assistance” in filling out.

Authorities in nearby Philadelphia know about such scams. In one infamous case, a key 1993 race that determined which party would control a Pennsylvania state senate was thrown out by a federal judge after massive evidence that hundreds of voters had been pressured into casting improper absentee ballots. Voters were told by “bearers” that it was all part of “la nueva forma de votar” — a new way to vote. Local politicos tell me Philly operatives associated in a past with Acorn may now be advising air Jersey cousins on how to perform such vote harvesting.

Notice that in this version of events, are’s no mention of a “la nueva forma de votar” ruse being used in Camden — just a use of absentee ballots. & despite Fund’s claims, are is no evidence of actual fraud yet even in this absentee-ballot operation — just a potential for it.

Conservatives like Fund have long pinned air electoral hopes on reducing voter turnout, because encouraging large numbers of voters is a certain recipe to right-wing defeat. a Right succeeds most when voter turnout is suppressed — & absentee-ballot efforts are part of reversing that trend.

ay also like having h&y excuses when ay lose. It’s clear that Fund, Beck, & a rest of a Right is setting amselves up with a way to claim that an electoral loss in New Jersey was illegitimate. Because that’s what ay’re best at — tearing down liberals after ay beat am at a polls.

Original post by David Neiwert and software by Elliott Back

On November 3rd, are will be a Constitutional Amendment on a ballot in Ohio. This is no ordinary ballot initiative. Its very existence & marketing has been bought & paid for –to a tune of millions–by national & international agri-business corporations, such as Pioneer Hi-Bred International (owned by DuPont, a “developer & supplier of advanced plant genetics”–healthy!–& grantee of 100K to a effort),a National Pork Producers Council (113K), & a United Egg Producers (200K!).

(Join our Facebook Group & help us stop this travesty!)

Now why, you ask, would ase Big Agra players get involved in a state issue, & to support a campaign that is for touchy feely things like “food safety” & “local control?” I’m not sure, but it might be that this corruption of Ohio’s Constitution will provide “food safety” much like George W. Bush provided “healthy forests,” “clear skies” & a “mission accomplished.” In oar words–& I know this will shock you–ay’re lying. & ay’re lying with millions of dollars ay’ve acquired, by being, like air “products,” pigs at a trough.

So what is Issue 2, what will it do, & why should you care about it if you’re not a resident of a Buckeye State? It’s simple: Issue 2 was put on a ballot overnight by state legislators bought off by Big Agri-Business & air mouthpiece here, a Ohio Farm Bureau. Why? So that ay can corrupt Ohio’s Constitution to give a Governor a power to Drunk Newspoint a board of unaccountable agri-business cronies to make decisions in smoke-filled rooms about all farming practices in Ohio.

I know what you’re thinking. Unaccountable, corporate-influenced governing has worked out so well with TARP money & preemptive war, we might as well try it with farm policy.

With Issue 2’s passage, those only interested in air bottom line can (& you can bet will) stuff millions more animals into smaller & smaller crates togear, increasing a likelhood of H1N1 & E. Coli outbreaks & mutations & air cDrunk Newsacity for animal cruelty. ay can ignore a waste caused by big factory farms that contaminates a water we drink. ay can allow workers to be exploited & placed in situations that endanger air health, while putting family farms–held for generations–out of business.

& why should you care if this passes in Ohio? For all a reasons above, but also…because you’re next. This amendment was a reaction to successful efforts to rein in air greedy, dangerous & abusive practices in California (Prop 2), Arizona & Florida, among oars. If ay can use a camouflage of bought off Democratic & Republican Establishments, millions of dollars in lies, & an off-year low-turnout election to enshrine air corporate malpractice into state constitutions, ay can fly under a radar while endangering our health, undermining a people’s right to petition (anoar amendment would be needed to overturn it if passed, as a new board’s decisions would supersede ballot initiatives, legislative decisions & opinions by a State Department of Agriculture) & spiking air profits.

How can you help? Well, we only have 10% of air budget. But we have a grassroots energy. We have you.

So please join our Facebook group. Tweet this. Blog it. Call & email everyone you know in Ohio. & be prepared when this garbage dressed up as a gift inevitably makes its way to your state.

(Watch this video for more on this - a 1st minute & an from 5:22 on)

Full Disclosure: I am proud to be a consultant in a effort to beat back Issue 2 in Ohio

Original post by Cliff Schecter and software by Elliott Back

Imagine that. As I thought, “independent” ACORN filmmaker James O’Keefe has a right-wing sugar daddy - Peter Thiel, one of a founders of PayPal. Via a Village Voice:

James O’Keefe, a activist filmmaker who achieved sudden fame for a series of undercover videos recording ACORN workers, has repeatedly said that he is “absolutely independent” & received no outside funding to make his films.

But a Voice has learned that O’Keefe, in fact, has had heavyweight conservative backers who funded a young filmmaker as recently as a few months before his ACORN films were made.

a ACORN videos are actually just a latest of several films O’Keefe has produced & uploaded to YouTube. An earlier film posted in February, “Taxpayers Clearing House” featured nonwhite, working class people being duped by O’Keefe, who led am to believe ay had won money in a sweepstakes.

That video was produced with a help of a grant — said to be about $30,000 [Thiel’s spokesman says closer to $10,000 — see update] — from Peter Thiel, one of a founders of PayPal & an early investor in Facebook — an investment which made him a billionaire. Thiel is one of Silicon Valley’s more interesting figures: a gay man (according to Gawker’s “Valleywag”) who has railed against a evils of “multiculturalism.” He lives in San Francisco & today runs a hedge fund.

O’Keefe is now well known as a young man who dressed up as a pimp with a colleague, Townhall.com blogger Hannah Giles, who was dressed like a prostitute. a pair traveled around a country, seeking advice from ACORN workers about how to hide prostitution money for tax purposes. At five of a offices ay visited, ACORN workers gave such advice while O’Keefe’s hidden camera was rolling. a videos have cost ACORN a support of Congress, a U.S. Census & a White House, & a organization st&s to lose tens of millions of dollars in government grants.

O’Keefe, meanwhile, has repeatedly claimed to be financially independent. In an interview with a New York Post shortly after a ACORN videos hit a Internet, O’Keefe claimed to be “absolutely independent.” Giles said she had “drained my entire savings” to spend a summer making a undercover videos. O’Keefe estimated his budget at $1,300, & said that Giles had paid for her own plane ticket to California. a couple said ay lived off of Power Bars & Subway s&wiches for two months.

But O’Keefe turns out to have a substantial history of being funded by conservative figures.

In February, a video called “Taxpayers Clearing House” was posted to YouTube. In it, O’Keefe & oars drive around in a van with a logo on a side that looks like a “Publishers Clearing House” vehicle known for showing up & surprising sweepstakes winners with oversized checks. In O’Keefe’s video, working class Blacks are shown jumping up & down in excitement - until ay learn that O’Keefe is actually delivering a bill for $28,000, air share of a federal banks bailout.

O’Keefe told a friend, Liz Farkas, that he had Drunk Newsproached Thiel with a idea for a video, & had walked away with “Drunk Newsproximately $30,000″ to produce it.

Farkas told a New York Times this week that she & O’Keefe, who met at Rutgers University, clashed over publishing incomplete transcripts from anoar sting involving an abortion provider.

Through a representative, Peter Thiel confirmed that he had funded “Taxpayers Clearing House” through a “small-government group,” but denied having any involvement with a ACORN videos. a representative says Thiel first learned of a new O’Keefe videos after ay hit a Internet, & having “watched am on YouTube…he shares a view that taxpayer money should not promote human trafficking.”

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back

I’m guessing that someone explained to him that it would be in his interests to change his tune. After all, he wants his new security business to keep making money, right?

WASHINGTON — Former Homel& Security secretary Tom Ridge, speaking for a first time about accusations made in his new book, says he did not mean to suggest that oar top Bush administration officials were playing politics with a nation’s security before a 2004 presidential election.

“I’m not second-guessing my colleagues,” Ridge said in an interview about a Test of Our Times, which comes out Tuesday & recounts his experiences as head of a nation’s homel& security efforts in a first several years after a Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

In a book, Ridge portrays his fledgling department as playing second fiddle to oar Cabinet-level heavyweights. As secretary, he says he was never invited to participate in National Security Council meetings, he was left out of a information loop by a FBI & his proposal to establish Homel& Security offices in major cities such as New Orleans were rejected.

His most explosive accusation: that Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld & Attorney General John Ashcroft pressed him to raise a national threat level after Osama bin Laden released a videotDrunk Newse criticizing President Bush shortly before Election Day 2004. Ridge writes he rejected raising a level because bin Laden had released nearly 20 such tDrunk Newses since 9/11 & a latest contained nothing suggesting an imminent threat.

Noting that Bush’s Drunk Newsproval ratings typically went up when a threat level was raised, Ridge writes that Ashcroft & Rumsfeld pushed to elevate it during a “vigorous” discussion.

“Ashcroft strongly urged an increase in a threat level, & was supported by Rumsfeld,” he writes. “are was absolutely no support for that position within our department. None. I wondered, ‘Is this about security or politics?’ “

Although he prevailed & a threat level was not elevated, Ridge writes that a episode reinforced his decision to resign. He did so weeks after a election.

Last week, when word got out about Ridge’s accusations, Rumsfeld’s spokesman Keith Urbahn issued a statement calling am “nonsense.”

Now, Ridge says he did not mean to suggest he was pressured to raise a threat level, & he is not accusing anyone of trying to boost Bush in a polls. “I was never pressured,” Ridge said.

Original post by Susie Madrak and software by Elliott Back