NightBlogger

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. Brown and Shaw made a similar attempt last March when Rove spoke at the University of Iowa, Iowa City. Brown and Shaw were arrested and released without charges following that attempt. Deaths in the Middle East since the March attempt number in the thousands including, 151 more US troops have been killed in Iraq, and 284 killed in Afghanistan as well as far more citizens of those two nations. More

Sens. Barack Obama and John McCain might not burn up the campaign trail around Western New York this election year, but the University at Buffalo may have scheduled the next best thing. GOP strategist Karl Rove and former Democratic vice presidential candidate John Edwards will debate the issues of the presidential campaign Sept. 26 as part of the university’s Distinguished Speakers Series, The Buffalo News has learned. More

Glenn Greenwald:

“While Katie Couric impressively argued that the media did fail to do its job — pointing out that the White House threatened networks which were perceived to be too critical with cutting off access to the war and that anyone who questioned the war was deemed unpatriotic and all of that “affected the level of aggressiveness that was exercised by the media” — the painfully empty-headed Charlie Gibson and the mindlessly establishment-defending Brian Williams both insisted that the media did a perfectly fine job and that they would do nothing different.”

Read Glenn’s post here

Chris Matthews whines about how the press was manipulated by Bush and White House instead of admitting the media didn’t do their job. Journalists can’t be manipulated if they’re objectively reporting the news instead of serving as government stenographers.

SilentPatriot
crooksandliars
Although Scott McClellan’s memoir is chock full of juicy bits about George Bush, Karl Rove, Scooter Libby and the myriad pre-war lies the White House force-fed America, perhaps the most important (and most overlooked) critique McClellan levels is aimed squarely at the “liberal media” and how they acted as “deferential, complicit enablers” of the administration’s “propaganda” leading up to the war. On the TODAY show this morning, Matt Lauer asked “the big three” — Charlie Gibson, Brian Williams and Katie Couric — whether they thought McClellan was accurate in his criticism of the press. Their answers are revealing to say the least. [Throw in Chris Matthews, Larry King and Wolf Blitzer; they all did the Brian Williams thing].

To her credit, Couric admits that mistakes were made and that she could have done a better job vetting the administration’s claims; although she also admitted that the White House threatened to cut off her access after she filed critical reports. But Gibson and Williams (along with, one would assume, the majority of the elite press) simply lack the ability to recognize that they were duped, and that they thus duped their viewers. Indeed, as Glenn documents in a lengthy post today:

“This is why most establishment journalists will never be convinced that they failed to do their job, no matter how much evidence is presented: because of the understanding they have of what ‘their job’ actually is.” More

LARA JAKES JORDAN/Ap
Washington Post
The House Judiciary Committee has subpoenaed former White House adviser Karl Rove as part of its inquiry into whether the Bush administration politically meddled at the Justice Department. Accusations of politics governing decisions at the agency led to the resignation of former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

The subpoena issued Thursday orders Rove to testify before the House panel on July 10. He is expected to face questions about the White House’s role in firing nine U.S. attorneys in 2006 and the prosecution of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, a Democrat. House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers had negotiated with Rove’s attorneys for more than a year over whether the former top political adviser to President Bush would testify voluntarily.

Photo marcn
Los Angeles Times

How quickly things change in this season’s presidential politics.

Today, Clinton began citing Rove as the ultimate expert on who was the strongest Democratic candidate in the Nov. 4 general. And we’ve got the exclusive maps below to prove it, all four confidential pages.

No, really!

Campaigning in Kentucky today for tomorrow’s….

…primary vote, Clinton sought to justify why she’s staying in a race it’s virtually impossible for her to win mathematically. She said, as she often does, “€œThere has been a lot of analysis about which of us is stronger to win against Sen. McCain, and I believe I am the stronger candidate.”€ Fine. Very familiar.

Then, she veered off into new territory. “Just today,” Clinton said, “I found some curious support for that position when one of the TV networks released an analysis done by — of all people — Karl Rove, saying that I was the stronger candidate. Somebody got a hold of his analysis and there it is.”€

Read more