Bush administration

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Gonzales Changes Tune on 'Legitimate' CIA Probe

Ex-AG compares torture to speeding (really)

(Newser) - Alberto Gonzales did not mean to endorse Eric Holder’s probe of alleged CIA torture during the Bush administration by calling it “legitimate,” the former AG tells the Washington Times, which broke the story. “I don't support the investigation by the department because this is a matter...

Gonzales: Holder's CIA Probe 'Legitimate'

(Newser) - Bush Attorney General Alberto Gonzales is on the same page as Eric Holder when it comes to investigating allegations of CIA torture. “As chief prosecutor of the United States, he should make the decision on his own, based on the facts,” he tells the Washington Times. Gonzales, who's...

Holder to Crank Up Civil Rights Enforcement

Holder restoring Civil Rights Division to pre-Bush status

(Newser) - The Obama administration plans to revitalize the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and beef up efforts against racial discrimination, the New York Times reports. Attorney General Eric Holder has been working to redirect the focus to tackling discrimination in high-impact areas like housing, voting rights, employment, and bank lending, where...

Ridge Takes Back Threat Level Claim in His Book

Retreats on earlier suggestion that politics played a role

(Newser) - Former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge says the Bush administration “never pressured” him to raise the US terror threat level, backing down on a claim made in his book, USA Today reports. In the book, Ridge writes that John Ashcroft and Donald Rumsfeld pushed him to elevate it before...

Obama's Approval Rating Sinks to 50%

(Newser) - President Obama's job-approval rating slipped to 50% in Gallup poll results out today, a new low for the 10-month-old administration, the Los Angeles Times reports. The drawn-out health care reform debate apparently is dragging down the number, which hit 69% after the inauguration. The disapproval number is 43%. "It's...

CIA Manipulated Every Detail of Interrogation Sessions

Top-level approval of interrogation techniques could complicate Justice probe

(Newser) - As the CIA discloses internal reports concerning “enhanced” interrogation techniques on detainees at secret prisons, the ugliest details—threats of execution and harm with a power drill—have grabbed headlines. But the documents also reveal an intriguing level of control that the CIA and Department of Justice maintained over...

Holder Launches Probe Into CIA Torture Allegations

(Newser) - AG Eric Holder today named a special prosecutor to investigate allegations of torture against CIA operatives who interrogated terror suspects during the Bush administration, the Washington Post reports. John Durham, who is currently probing the destruction of interrogation tapes, will look into fewer than 12 cases detailed in a CIA...

Mock Executions Among CIA Torture Tactics

(Newser) - A report long suppressed by Bush administration officials set to be released next week says the CIA used mock executions as part of post-9/11 interrogations, Newsweek reports—though federal law prohibits threatening prisoners with “imminent death,” and the practice wasn’t authorized by the Justice Department, unlike other...

Bush Officials Deny Ridge Terror Claim

(Newser) - Members of President Bush’s administration today denied accusations by former Homeland Security secretary Tom Ridge in an upcoming book that the White House pressed him to raise the terror threat level ahead of the 2004 election. Former White House chief of staff Andrew Card and former homeland security adviser...

Ridge: Bush Wanted Terror Threat Raised for Election

Ridge tell-all dangles shocking revelation

(Newser) - The publisher of Tom Ridge's forthcoming book has dropped a potential bombshell: It says the Bush White House pressured the Homeland Security chief to arbitrarily raise the terror threat alert level on the eve of the 2004 election, ostensibly to boost its chances, reports US News and World Report. Ridge...

Cheney Turns on 'Soft' Bush as Memoir Takes Shape

(Newser) - Dick Cheney has decided the "statute of limitations" has expired on some secrets from the Bush era, associates tell the Washington Post. Discussing his memoir-in-progress, the former vice president has made it plain that he felt President Bush was getting soft in his second term, and moved away from...

Rove Pushed for Firing of US Attorney in NM

(Newser) - The House Judiciary Committee released documents today that Democrats say put Karl Rove and former Bush counsel Harriet Miers at the center of the US attorney firing scandal, Politico reports. “Karl Rove and his cohorts at the Bush White House were the driving force behind several of these firings,...

Administration Alums Plan Facebook for Bushies

Bushies want an alternative to left-leaning Facebook

(Newser) - The Bush-Cheney Alumni Association is taking to the Internet, reports Politico, by setting up a social networking website for people who worked in the Bush administration. The Bushies-only site is expected to launch in a few months, says the head of the BCAA, who expects “thousands” to sign up....

Gonzales: I Haven't Spoken to Bush

(Newser) - Two years after leaving the Justice Department in disgrace, Alberto Gonzales is still trying to get back on his feet. In an interview with New York Times Magazine's grand inquisitor Deborah Solomon, the former AG says he's living in an apartment in Lubbock, Texas, where he'll begin a teaching gig...

8 Candidates Face Hurdle: They Worked for Bush

But some say they'll use their past to help their bids

(Newser) - Some eight Bush administration staffers are now seeking public office—and their fates will likely be tied to Americans’ perception of the previous president, the Hill reports. While they say they value their time in the White House, their work under W will probably hurt them, writes Reid Wilson. Still,...

Networks Complain About Obama Hour
Networks Complain About Obama Hour
Aug 3, 2009 10:28 AM CDT

Networks Complain About Obama Hour

Broadcasters say 'overexposed' prez wastes valuable time

(Newser) - Networks are not happy about the primetime hour that President Obama's July 22 news conference took up, reports Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post. Rahm Emanuel called the top brass at all three networks to ensure they carried the event. The networks both resent the pressure and complain that they’...

Obama Nominates US Attorney Fired Under Bush

Nevada prosecutor to get old job back

(Newser) - A US attorney fired by the Bush administration is set to get his old job back, the Washington Post reports. Daniel Bolger, whose 2006 firing is among those being probed for partisan motivation, has been nominated by President Obama to again be the federal prosecutor for Nevada. Former Attorney General...

Michelle O. 'Doing a Great Job:' Laura Bush

(Newser) - Michelle Obama's performance as first lady is getting high marks from her predecessor, Laura Bush. Speaking after a change-of-command ceremony for the USS Texas submarine in Connecticut, Bush said today she's watched the current first lady from afar and is impressed.

Emails Show Rove Knee-Deep in Attorney Firings

(Newser) - Karl Rove was intimately involved in the firing of at least three of the US Attorneys sacked for purportedly political reasons during the Bush administration, emails obtained by the Washington Post show. One note mentions a senator who “asked that we remove the US Atty” and “couldn’t...

Holder Warns of Homegrown Terror Risk

AG: 'American people would be surprised'

(Newser) - The chilling big picture suggests that “the radicalization of Americans” who leave the country and return wanting to do “harm to the American people” is a growing threat, Eric Holder tells ABC News. It’s “something that didn’t loom as large a few months ago as...

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