Harm continuing (it never ends) ...

Two recent episodes illustrate the misdirection your government can take when partycrats control matters -- which right now is always and everywhere.

First, we have Alberto Gonzales, a March 2004 emergency meeting with congressional leaders, and leaked documents that indicate the subject of the meeting was supposedly the terrorist surveillance program (TSP). No matter which way the wind blows for you on this subject, somebody is lying. (AP story today - Documents contradict Gonzales' testimony).

Second, we have the revelation that Democratic New York Governor Eliot Spitzer's first and second righthand men were using the state's resources to run down evidence that his primary Republican opponent -- one Joseph Bruno, the state senate's majority leader -- was taking trips and tricks on the state dollar. We have these guys in government (like GWB's Karl Rove) whose sole purpose apparently is politicalthink. Are they really doing the people's business? Why are the taxpayers paying for these peoples' salaries?

In the Gonzales case, we have a meeting. Everybody agrees that it happened in the White House Situation Room. Gonzales says the TSP was not discussed in the meeting. Apparently some new leaked documents contradict that. Well OK. But the truly incredible thing is the "memory" of the congressional leaders in the meeting. Wanna guess how their memories break down? You got it. From the AP story by Lara Jakes Jordan:

House and Senate lawmakers who attended the Situation Room briefing are divided on the accuracy of Gonzales' account of that meeting ... Three Democrats — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller and former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle — dispute Gonzales' testimony.

Rockefeller called it "untruthful," and Pelosi spokesman Brendan Daly said the speaker disagreed that it should be continued without Justice Department or FISA court oversight.
On the other hand, former GOP House Intelligence Chairman Porter Goss, "does not recall anyone saying the project must be ended,' spokeswoman Jennifer Millerwise Dyck said. And former Senate Republican leader Bill Frist stopped short of confirming or denying the meeting's outcome.

"I recall being briefed with the others about the program and it was stated that Gonzales would visit with Ashcroft in the hospital and that our meeting was part of the administration's responsibility to discuss with the leadership of Congress,' Frist said in a statement.

SOMEBODY'S LYING !!!

Back to Spitzer and company.

So Spitzer's henchmen "investigated" a political opponent on the taxpayer's dollar. Now Bruno is perching for investigations by the senate body his party controls. Even the state's Inspector General, Kristine Hamann (a governor appointee) has been co-opted. What in government business is going begging meanwhile?

According to the N.Y. Times: "The controversy appears to be taking a toll on the governor’s agenda. Lawmakers are to return to Albany on Thursday, but a deal announced last week to tighten the state’s notoriously lax campaign finance laws appears to be in limbo and is not expected to be taken up. Lawmakers are expected to vote to create a study commission to consider Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s congestion pricing plan and other approaches to traffic reduction."

SOMEBODY'S WASTING TAXPAYER MONEY !!