From an article by The Nation, not exactly a flaming Conservative publication, we read that Rove’s investigator is himself under investigation:

But who is Scott Bloch, and should his vow be taken at face value? The Times story did not provide background on the fellow who will be examining whether Rove and other administration officials may have violated the law by using political email accounts for White House business, by explicitly encouraging government actions for direct partisan gains, and by dismissing David Iglesias, a US attorney in New Mexico. Bloch is a George W. Bush appointee, and his recent record is not one of a relentless pursuer of government corruption and wrongdoing. Here’s an overview:

* In February, The Washington Post reported Bloch himself was under investigation:

The Office of Personnel Management’s inspector general has been investigating allegations by current and former OSC employees that Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch retaliated against underlings who disagreed with his policies–by, among other means, transferring them out of state–and tossed out legitimate whistle-blower cases to reduce the office backlog. Bloch denies the accusations, saying that under his leadership the agency has grown more efficient and receptive to whistle-blowers.

The 16-month investigation has been beset by delays, accusations and counter-accusations. The latest problem began two weeks ago, when Bloch’s deputy sent staffers a memo asking them to inform OSC higher-ups when investigators contact them. Further, the memo read, employees should meet with investigators in the office, in a special conference room. Some employees cried foul, saying the recommendations made them afraid to be interviewed in the probe.

The OSC’s memo, the group said, “was only the latest in a series of actions by Bloch to obstruct” the investigation. “Other actions have included suggestions that all witnesses interviewed…provide Bloch with affidavits describing what they had been asked and how they responded.”

* Two years earlier, the paper reported that Bloch had declined to enforce a discrimination ban:

Since taking office in January 2004, the Bush appointee has been accused of failing to enforce a long-standing policy against bias in the federal workplace based on sexual orientation, unnecessarily reorganizing the OSC to try to run off internal critics, and arbitrarily dismissing some personnel complaints and whistle-blower disclosures in an effort to claim reductions in backlogs.

He has denied such allegations and argued that he has made the agency more efficient at processing cases and, at the same time, more receptive to whistle-blowers and federal workers who have suffered unfair treatment.

* That same year, public interest groups and employees at the OSC accused Bloch of running an overly partisan shop. As Govexec.com reported:

Amendments to a complaint filed against Special Counsel Scott J. Bloch in early March allege that OSC took no action on a complaint regarding then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice’s use of government funds to travel in the weeks before the 2004 presidential election, but vigorously pursued allegations against Democratic nominee Sen. John Kerry’s visit to the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

Three nonprofit whistleblower protection groups–the Government Accountability Project, Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and the Project on Government Oversight–and anonymous career OSC employees filed the initial complaint March 3, listing a series of prohibited personnel practices and violations of civil service laws by Bloch.

The politicization allegations stem from Bloch’s decision to have a group of lawyers report to a political deputy rather than a career senior executive. The complaint states that OSC has pursued trivial matters without regard to political affiliation…but has not evenly handled higher profile cases.

“By most measures, his tenure has been an absolute failure,” says Adam Miles, legislative representative at the Government Accountability Project. “He’s been under pressure to start doing something.” Miles notes that GAP did not initially expect the complaint it filed against Bloch in 2005 to go anywhere. “It was referred to a federal entity called the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency,” Miles recalls, “and we thought it would just rot there.” But the case was handed to Pat McFarland, the inspector general for the Office of Personnel Management. McFarland is a former St. Louis detective who spent 22 years as a Secret Service agent before becoming IG at OPM in 1990.

McFarland’s investigation of Bloch, Miles says, “hasn’t been a totally transparent process but we’re hearing it’s reaching a conclusion–which could be motivation for Bloch to start this investigation into the White House. If OPM does turn up any adverse information on Bloch, it would be more difficult for the White House to get rid of him while he was actively investigating them.” But this could cut the other way. If Bloch is the subject of an investigation, he might be inclined to treat the White House favorably to protect his own position. In either case, there seems to be a conflict of interest. Bloch, Miles says, “may not be the appropriate person to be conducting the investigation” of Rove and the White House.

It is a dizzying situation. The investigator investigating officials who oversee the agency that is investigating the investigator. Forget firewalls. This looks more like a basement flooded with backed-up sewage–with the water rising.

Pot, meet kettle.

Here we go. We don’t know the charges he plans to allege yet, but Rep. Dennis Kucinich plans to start impeachment proceedings against Vice President Cheney.

WASHINGTON — Rep. Dennis Kucinich hasn’t yet won any co-sponsors for articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney that he plans to introduce, but said he encourages other congressional members to read the charges.

“This is something that members have to consider before they sign on,” Kucinich, a 2008 Democratic presidential candidate, told FOX News.

The Ohio congressman has generated interest from at least one potential supporter. Freshman Rep. Keith Ellison confirmed that he will consider joining Kucinich’s effort, however, said he would not sign on to anything until he hears the charges against Cheney.

Ellison, D-Minn., noted that when he served in the state Legislature, he filed articles of impeachment against President Bush. Since that May 2006 action, he has supported the idea of launching “an investigation” into whether Bush should be impeached, he said.

Kucinich’s proposal comes ahead of a series of protests this weekend calling for the impeachment of both Bush and Cheney, 66, who on Tuesday briefly returned to George Washington University Medical Center to get his leg “checked out.”

Kucinich, who had planned to explain the charges on Tuesday, delayed announcement of the impeachment articles after hearing of Cheney’s stop at the doctor’s office.

“News reports this morning indicate the vice president was experiencing a medical crisis. Until the vice president’s condition is clarified, I am placing any action on hold,” Kucinich said in a written statement.

While Kucinich prepares to introduce impeachment articles, hundreds of delegates to this Saturday’s California Democratic Convention in San Diego are expected to introduce their own impeachment resolution against the president and vice president, said Jacob Park, national coordinator for the April 28 action.

Park said Democratic activists are bringing up the resolution because they believe Bush and Cheney “misled the nation into war,” are violating civil liberties by not getting warrants to eavesdrop on individuals in the United States and are committing torture in violation of the Geneva Conventions.

Yup, let’s let the mob decide what we do. The important thing is the mob wants Bush and Cheney impeached.

The mob, made up of kids unable to vote yet or unwilling to vote yet, and aging hippies are the ones in charge.

It’s kind of like the inmates in charge of the asylum.

I have this video in my collection and was thrilled to find it on YouTube.

Listen to the explanation of the hymn’s origins and the way he sings it as though it were slaves singing this tune.

Congressional Democrats are looking ahead to the next stage of the political battle over Iraq cutting off funds for war operations after March though it puts lawmakers eyeing the White House in a bind.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has signed on as a co-sponsor of a bill to do that, but which so far has support from only the most-liberal members of the chamber. One supporter is Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, Connecticut Democrat and a presidential hopeful who has challenged the other 2008 candidates to join him.

OK, now you have a bill you can vote for and show how powerful that ‘mandate’ is you got in November. If it’s as you say your presidential candidates should not fear voting for this bill.

Story.

The Democrat-controlled Congress yesterday moved to limit U.S. combat operations in Iraq immediately and withdraw troops as early as July, hardening its stance for a veto showdown with President Bush over war funding.

Congressional negotiators from both chambers agreed to the new language yesterday afternoon, hours after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Congress will no longer “turn a blind eye to the Bush administration’s incompetence and dishonesty.”

“Yes, he is the president, but we are the people’s representatives,” the Nevada Democrat said. “Instead of sending us back to square one with a veto, some tough talk and nothing more, let him come to the table in the spirit of bipartisanship that Americans demand and deserve.”

I am sick and tired of Harry Reid calling the President of the United States incompetent and dishonest because he doesn’t go along with his defeatist attitude.

I can point out a few questionable deals done by Senator Reid, but because that’s not the issue I’ll refrain.

Bipartisanship in Washington means you do what I want. Both parties, but for Reid to call for bipartisanship after he has made a fool of himself in public with his partisan and personal comments about the president I doubt it will get him any points from the president.

If they want out of Iraq defund the war! Do a straight up or down bill to defund the war if you’re so certain you are right about the people being represented by you, Mr. Reid. I believe even more people voted for the president than you, but then I could be wrong.

Story here.

…but I don’t know his name.

I check the obituaries and main stories in my hometown newspaper every day and all I could find on this man’s obituary is this quote:

grandchildren and most of all, being a great husband, father and grandfather to his family. He could be found at Waltz Pharmacy every morning, having his coffee and giving his conservative Republican views on about everything. Coffee time will never be

Whoever he was, may he rest in peace.

Mine can’t but he does have a pretty purr.

Nine American military personnel were killed in a car bombing in Diyala province in Iraq.

BAGHDAD — A homicide car bomber struck a patrol base northeast of Baghdad on Monday, killing nine U.S. soldiers and wounding 20 in one of the deadliest attacks on American ground forces since the war started more than four years ago.

An Iraqi civilian also was wounded in the attack on Task Force Lightning soldiers in Diyala province, a volatile area that has been the site of fierce fighting involving U.S. and Iraqi troops, Sunni insurgents and Shiite militias.

At least 48 Iraqis were killed in seven other bombings, violence that has persisted despite a nearly 10-week-old U.S.-Iraqi security crackdown aimed at pacifying Baghdad.

Of the 20 wounded in the attack on the patrol base, 15 soldiers were treated and returned to duty while five others and the Iraqi were evacuated to a medical facility for further care, the military said.

It was the second bold attack against a U.S. base north of Baghdad in just over two months and was notable for its use of a homicide car bomber. Militants have mostly used hit-and-run ambushes, roadside bombs or mortars on U.S. troops and stayed away from direct assaults on fortified military compounds to avoid U.S. firepower.

American troops are facing increasing danger as they step up their presence in outposts and police stations in the Baghdad area as part of the security crackdown to which President Bush has committed an extra 30,000 troops.

Sunni militants are believed to have withdrawn to surrounding areas such as Diyala province where they have safe haven. The U.S. command also deployed an extra 700 soldiers to the area last month.

A U.S. soldier also was killed Monday in a roadside bombing in Muqdadiyah, about 60 miles north of Baghdad, a predominantly Shiite area that also is in Diyala, the military said in an earlier statement. A British soldier was shot to death while on patrol in the southern city of Basra, officials said.

The deaths raised to 85 the number of U.S. service members who died have in Iraq in April, making it the deadliest month for American troops since December, when 112 died.

I don’t want one more drop of American blood shed over this war, but I have such strong feelings that if we don’t contain them there and walk away it will embolden the Islamofascists to chase us all over the world to get the world’s strongest and best nation and military.

The President needs to make it crystal clear to al-Maliki there are limits beyond which we will not go and Maliki has to understand his role is to see to it his own forces take up the slack and start defending their own country.

We, as a nation, need to speak with one voice to the public and not have every Congresscritter or Senator standing on a soapbox disagreeing with our policy in public daily.

Take those discussions behind closed doors to preserve even a semblance of unity in our country if that is still possible.

Words spoken by our political leaders are read all over the world and that includes in Islamic countries where terrorists are bred.

Why can’t we stop politicizing this war and just do the right thing for the country? I’m weary of the fighting in Washington and I worry how it affects our military on the frontlines.

Will they feel they have died in vain if they die, or will they still think they have served our country? The military are the ones who are taking all the hits and it’s time to make them feel a little good about the jobs they are doing.

First of all, I thank God for the wonderful family He has blessed me with all my life.

Today I want to brag a bit about our daughter in law. She just turned 33, has a recurrence of Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, for which she will undergo treatment with Rituxan (the drug used for former Sen. Fred Thompson) in Houston the middle of May. I’ll be flying to Houston to be with her during that time as she and my son and family live in Irving, TX, and he’s starting a new job the week before she leaves and can’t go with her.

She got not only her Bachelor’s degree when she went to college, but got her Master’s degree at the same time. It seems, however, the business world was not what God had in mind for her.

She was offered a job in the lab at Baylor Hospital in Irving, TX (referred to as “Little Baylor” and was then offered a job in the pathology lab.

If it hadn’t been for the pathologists in that lab her cancer would have gone undiagnosed. It first manifested itself as thyroid cancer.

She was finally diagnosed with NHL and took treatments of Rituxan last year, but not all of the recommended doses. That was her doctor’s decision.

She enrolled in hystology classes (actually working with the tissue in pathology), and on Friday night at a state convention was named number one for slides she submitted and had to stain by hand as opposed to by machine.

The one who picked the winners after the winnowing process is the Hystology School head at MD Anderson Hospital, where she will be going for her treatment. Until now, no one outside MD Anderson’s program had won this award.

Saturday night she was given the best hystology student in Texas award. It was then that the director from MD Anderson announced to the crowd that someone out there had better grab her up because she is a valuable commodity.

Monday her bosses (the doctors) called her to their office to talk to her about her awards and to introduce her to the new doctor they have hired to replace the man who has had a heart transplant. If he goes back to work at all, it won’t be long hours.

The new doctor had a long conversation with our daughter in law, and she thought it was just a get to know you session. It turns out this doctor is her age, is interested in research and is particularly interested in hemotology and testing drugs on blood. She has a grant from Pfizer right now testing out Drug X to see about curing some sort of ailment a lot of people who have visited Asia get.

She wants our daughter in law to be her assistant in this highly-specialized field. The only ‘problem’ is she would have to attend first year medical school.

The practice will pay for her tuition and pay her salary while she goes to med school for a year.

What a wonderful opportunity she has in front of her! Now if we can just get the NHL in remission for a long time she’ll be able to accomplish what it seems the Lord had destined for her all along.

She could go somewhere else and get higher pay, but she feels a loyalty to these doctors because, as she said, “I owe my life to them.”

The two older doctors treat her as their own child and my grandchildren as their grandchildren.

Congratulations to “L” and let’s see where the Lord takes us next!