Ape Shit

How did we come to this? We now have a President who refuses to speak, a Vice President who speaks but when he speaks says nothing, and a National Security Adviser who had the Senate going ape-shit over his "see no evil, hear no evil, say no evil" monkey routine during the Venable hearing.

Which might give the opposition an idea: why not send the whole lot of them to the Senate where they could be questioned and very likely detained?

PCIJ provides the full lowdown below: (bert and banana photo courtesy of inq7)

"During the questioning, Gonzales tried to shield the President from any culpability in the signing of the Venable contract, leading some senators to remark that he was trying to be a fall guy for Mrs. Arroyo. Although they tried as hard as they could, the senators could not get Gonzales to answer the following questions:

Whose idea was it to get the contract? Gonzales said the idea came to him after the resignations of the Hyatt 10 on July 8, but he could not say who told him to get in touch with Venable and whether the president had a direct hand in the choice of the firm.
Whose idea was it to let private donors foot Venable’s bill? In an interview with GMA 7 news earlier this week, Gonzales said it was the president’s. Today he was no longer as categorical. He gave a vague answer to the effect that he and the president talked about getting private donations to pay for the hefty contrac
Who introduced him to Venable? He said could not name names without clearing it with the broker, whoever it was. Sen. Serge Osmeña asked leading questions whether it was businessman Tomas  Alcantara, the president’s chief of staff.
What is the extent of the President’s involvement in getting the contract? Gonzales said he was given verbal authority to get the services of a lobby firm but had not shown the president a copy of the actual contract.
Has Venable been paid for its services? Previously, Gonzales had told GMA 7 that the firm had been given a three-month advance, that there was work rendered, and a report filed. Today he said he’s not sure but he assumes Venable had been paid. He explained that while the National Security Council is the implementing agency for the contract, it was not the Council but private donors, who would pay for it. When asked if he had a receipt for the payments, Gonzales said no, but he will find out. Do you have receipt? No, but he will find out.
How was the contract rescinded? Gonzales said he called one of the Venable lawyers this week and asked for a “mutual termination” of the contract, which would mean that the three-month cancellation fee need not be paid. But further questioning showed there was no written agreement that the fees would be waived and because of this, the provisions of the contract, which stipulated cancellation fees, were still in effect. Gonzales said he was not sure whether the phone call sufficed to cancel the provision on cancellation fees."

Comments

[Leonard]

There are about 310 known species of monkeys in the world. It is believed that there are still undiscovered species out there. You may want to know that there are TITI Monkeys http://www.wcs.org/international/latinamerica/centralandes/nwbolivia/madidimonkey/madidimonkey_description and TAMARIN Monkeys http://www.primates.com/tamarins/tamarin.htm It may not sound good if the senate questions Mr. Gonzalez : "Tamarin ka ba? Or Titi ka ba?" - that's why the detention is perfect,because, maybe - just maybe - the senate may have found a new monkey species in Gonzalez...the TIGAS TI (Bleep!) MONKEY.