Declaring Independents » Bush Lies

The Death of Scandal in America

Editors — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 04:26:43 +0000

THE DEATH OF SCANDAL
IN AMERICA

……..

HAS IT BEEN….EXAGGERATED?

Bush Lied and People Died…

McCain and Palin are Lying and

Nobody’s crying.

HAS AMERICA LOST ITS SENSE OF SHAME?

IF SO, DOES THAT MEAN
AMERICA IS …. LOST?

This DI “Current Issues” includes
sub-sections entitled:

“THE NEW NORMAL”

By Leonard Pitts

“PORNOGRAPHIC PROOF OF ‘THE SURGE IS WORKING’ LIE” . . .

And

“THE LIE OF “GUILT BY ASSOCIATION”

(THE LEGACY OF LIES IS PASSED…

FROM NEO-CON KING GEORGE INTO

PALIN’S AND McCAIN’S COWARDLY HANDS)

And

NEW NEO-CON “WMDs” . . .

(“Whoppers of Mass Deception”) =

The Lie of: “GUILT BY ASSOCIATION”

By Dusty Schoch

And

LEN’S REJOINDER:

“THE LIES AREN’T JUST THOSE OF THE POLITICIANS…

I AGREE ABOUT THE WMD’S, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE

“M & M’s”…

(“Media Mendacity”)

… AND (Maybe) A RAY OF HOPE”

And…

A trailing comment by writer,

Sally Doud

By: DI Editors, Dusty Schoch, Leonard Carrier, with Leonard Pitts “in the middle” and Sally Doud at anchor.

October 20, 2008

DUSTY

Well, maybe I wish it were otherwise, but I personally still have a sense of shame; I still think I KNOW scandal when I see it, but the thing that scares hell out of me is the scandal most current in America , which is the scariest scandal in American history…the death of scandal in America.

I remember reading an article in the NY Times entitled “The Death of Scandal” and I remembered how shocked I was to read—and agree with it. The muckraking writer at the time was writing how appalled he was back in 1990-something at Congress’ voting itself a 20-percent pay raise during the worst recession since the “Great Depression.” He dubbed this the “death of scandal” because none of his fellow writers or talking TV heads were raising hell about the shameful event. And it was shameful. And they (Congressmen) got away with it. Why do I say that? (1) Because they weren’t impeached… any more than we’ll impeach our nominal “representatives” for (in addition to doing the same thing this past year) the recent bailout which was a case of grand larceny, treason, compounded by the pork barrel aggravation of the primary felony, and (more importantly) (2) because you (reader) very likely don’t recall the event (the pay raise).

Today two things made me feel that scandal in America is not only dead, but quite possibly (and according to Pulitzer Prize columnist Leonard Pitts—see below) buried for good. Today I received in the mail a piece of McCain propaganda claiming Obama was in conspiracy with Ayers’ bombing our nation’s capitol. I won’t debate that claim and thereby lend it any dignity. It is an outright lie. Lies told by politicians are under American law “privileged” – Obama is a public figure and therefore cannot sue McCain for publishing falsehoods unless he can prove actual malice. I think he could, but the lies McCain is pouring on Obama through malicious campaign managers are like rapid fire from a Bonsai machine-gun nest on Iwo Jima.

The second thing I encounter as a clear and certain nail in scandal’s coffin is Leonard Pitt’s article saying precisely that. His subject is not one lie in particular that our governing administration has launched, but rather a listing of the lies that inductively establishes that the Bush administration and his corporate commanders do little else but lie to us…to the paralyzing point that we are, as a people, now insensitive to the fact that LIES HAVE BECOME… “NORMAL” NOW IN AMERICA.

Before I resume my lament for the demise of truth and scandal in America, I give you the eulogy of Leonard Pitts, hopefully to be followed (after my amens) by the further lamentations of our own resident Historian and Philosopher, Leonard Carrier.

LEONARD PITTS’ LAMENT:

“THE NEW NORMAL”

Leonard Pitts Jr.: The new normal

We are numb to the values we’ve lost since 9/11

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Meanwhile, back at the War on Terror …

You remember the War on Terror, don’t you? It was in all the papers. Back before presidential politics sucked the air from the room and your 401(k) shrank till it was worth maybe dinner and a movie, it was considered quite the important news story. Abu Ghraib? Extraordinary renditions? Fight ‘em over there so we don’t have to fight ‘em over here? Surely you recall.

I only ask because of a news story that broke last week to a yawn of media disinterest. The Washington Post reported on two secret White House memos explicitly endorsing the use of waterboarding – simulated drowning — on so-called high-value terrorism suspects. This is, says The Post, the first time the still-classified memos have been disclosed. They were written in response to requests from then-CIA Director George Tenet, who worried his agents might be hung out to dry if the practice were discovered and the people or their representatives demanded someone’s head.

According to The Post, the White House issued written authorizations in 2003 and 2004. Yet in 2006, President Bush told the nation, “The United States does not torture. It’s against our laws, and it’s against our values. I have not authorized it — and I will not authorize it.”

Which was, of course, a lie.

You’d think the latest proof of that lie — yet another smoking gun to stack with all the others — would merit attention. But a computer search on Thursday turned up only seven newspaper stories mentioning the memos. Searches of the CNN and FOX news Web sites also came up dry, though the story did appear on MSNBC’s site.

If you think my point is that the media missed an important story, it isn’t. No, the point is that normal is not where we thought it would be.

You remember how it was just after Sept. 11, 2001, right? Some of us vowed we would never enter a skyscraper again. Some of us didn’t want to leave our houses again. The minutiae of popular culture became staggeringly unimportant. Humorists like David Letterman and my colleague, Dave Barry, wondered if they could ever return to the business of laughter.

We were scared dry. And some of us said: Get used to it. This was the new normal.

But skyscrapers did not close from lack of use. We did not become a nation of agoraphobics. We did not lose our interest in singers and movie stars. Messrs. Letterman and Barry went back to work.

Fear, which had cut through us like a hot poker, became instead a low-grade fever, ambient noise, wallpaper, something you feel without feeling, hear without hearing, see without seeing.

Then you look up one day and realize how profoundly that fear has changed your world. People are imprisoned without charges or access to attorneys and it’s routine. People are surveilled, their reading habits studied, their telephone usage logged and it’s commonplace. People, including children, end up on a secret list of those who are not allowed to fly, nobody will tell you why, there is no appeal and it’s ordinary. We swallow lies like candy, nod sagely at babblespeak and it’s unexceptional.

Torture is inflicted with White House approval, the president lies about it and it’s just another Tuesday.

Once upon a time, Americans were fond of looking upon backward nations, upon places where law was whatever the king said it was, and noting with pride that we do things differently in our country. But that was a day long ago and a country long gone.

If we miss the one or mourn the other, you’d never know it to look at us. We live through what feels evermore like a Joe McCarthy fever dream. We feel without feeling, hear without hearing, see without seeing and do not protest what we have become.

Because this is normal now.

Leonard Pitts Jr. is a columnist for the Miami Herald).

First published on October 21, 2008 at 12:00 am

Dusty again….

Leonard’s (Pitts) thesis is on the money, but his list of major lies is a minor league tallying of the neo-con Bush administration scoreboard of lies. I can’t wait for Len’s list to supplement mine, but when I’m composing the list that make America today the ordainment of Orwell’s prophesies in “1984” they go something like this:

[Note: I’m putting them in no particular order because there is no way to quantify them by any measure of ethical “evil”…they are all simply and purely lies, with differing degrees and venues of disastrous effect: I’ll list the lies therefore in random order and briefly note a damage assessment: ]

LIES AND EFFECTS:

LIE —-There are WMD’s and Al Qaeda connections in Iraq —

“Iraq was involved in the 9/11/01 attack on America.”

Bush in fact stated:

“I have also determined that the use of armed force against Iraq is consistent with the United States and other countries continuing to take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations, including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001. United States objectives also support a transition to democracy in Iraq, as contemplated by the Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 “ (Public Law 105-338).

EFFECT: 680,000 deaths and 7 years of trillion-dollar war and national bankruptcy; thousands of US military deaths.

We now have proof that Bush knew these were lies before Colin Powel made his speech to the UN. We now have abundant proof of that treason.

LIE: “We have found the weapons of mass destruction.”(late May, 2003).

Bush—it turns out– was referring to two tractor-trailers obtained by U.S. forces in Iraq. The CIA and the Defense Intelligence Agency had concluded these vehicles were mobile bio-weapons plants. Yet they had found not a trace of biological agents on either. No one has been charged for these lies on the basis of which war was waged and continues to be waged, and no one has been fired, much less impeached for this treason. Well, Colin Powel, sick of his complicity in the lies did in fact quit…which I say is the clearest ever case of “too little and too late” and that any self-respecting national warrior would have fallen on his own sword for the lies he spoke as America’s representative in the United Nations’ Security Council on the eve of war.

EFFECT: (SEE ABOVE)

(Bush said this; Cheney said this; Colin Powell said this; Condi Rice said this; John Bolton said this; Paul Wolfowitz said this…all numerous times. )

LIE: “Global Warming is a Doubtful Theory, not a Reality. James Hansen’s NASA report on Global Warming makes it clear that global warming is an unconfirmed theory based on questionable models.”

Hansen didn’t report that; Bush’s lawyer did; we now have the proof of that treason. This was an instance of our political leaders’ literally

re-writing reported science to suit themselves, and lying to us in the process.

EFFECT: As a result, America stayed out of Kyoto Accord conferences and the ecological demise of the world is rendered far more a likely (if unthinkable) event. Global warming continues because we are doing nothing officially about it. When Adolph Hitler established his openly-fascistic and totalitarian regime he publicly burned the books of the “leftist liberals” opposing him. Bush criminally revised the scientific books of the time (our time). We have the proof of that fascistic treachery and treason.

LIE: Bush: “I will pull U.S. Troops out of Iraq if asked by the new Iraq government .” “This is a sovereign nation; they are on their feet”.

When that sovereign country voted, it was overwhelmingly in favor of U.S. departure (reported by the French Associated Press June 19, 2005). The French Press wrote: Eighty two Iraqi lawmakers from across the political spectrum have pressed for the withdrawal of the US-led occupation troops from their country. Speaker Hajem Al-Hassani, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP): “We have asked in several sessions for occupation troops to withdraw. Our request was ignored,” read the latter, made public on Sunday, June 19.

EFFECT: War continues. See above.

Here’s my question (Dusty’s): Why are we reading about these lies our president is telling us…in a French Newspaper??

As a result, the war continues 3+ more years, thousands more die, billions per week spent. Halliburton and Blackwater thrive; America dies–a little more each day–in a pool of lies.

LIE: “The U.S. government does not wire tap without a warrant” . (Bush campaign speech, 2004.) What he said was:

“Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires — a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we’re talking about chasing down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order before we do so.” See video at http://www.bradblog.com/?p=2182

At the very moment Bush was telling this lie, he had given the NSA power to tap our phones and get a court order (warrant) 3 days later.

EFFECT: You and I and America have lost our Constitutional guarantees of privacy and freedom from unlawful search and seizure. Since then, King George has installed a Standing Army on U.S. soil, in further violation of the U.S. Constitution and no one is making any noise about it. No one is crying.

This is now known and undisputed matter. Bush is still uncharged with treason. Bush has not been impeached.

LIE: “THE SURGE IS WORKING!!!”

EFFECT: We are conned into supporting the mythological war on terror in Afghanistan and Iraq that has killed over a half million people over the past 7 years, increased terrorism globally and locally (in the two countries the U.S. preemptively invaded) and has created the trillion-dollar drain on the U.S. economy which has bankrupted America and brought us to the brink of a global economic collapse and depression.

This was a lie almost as big as “WMD’s and Al Qaeda Connections” and twice as skillful. There is magician’s legerdemain in this lie…classic “misdirection” and professional con-artistry. In claiming “success” in the final chapter of a war which has failed from its inception because it was launched on false pretenses on an innocent country, you can validly claim a relative “improvement” in an absolutely bad thing. But your argument is unsound and fatally flawed and logically absurd…but no one seems to get the joke…so I’ll tell it in a simpler (if slightly ribald) way:

PORNOGRAPHIC PROOF OF SURGE LIE . . .

It’s like–in the course of a forceful rape–the rapist begins to shout, “This is really going well…She is losing her will and ability to fight me off; You see what I told you when I started this thing! It was so dark, I thought it was my wife. Then, when I jumped on her, I still thought it was her because of all that shock and awe my wife always puts up when I surprise her like that…with the favor of my affections. Then, when things got going, I realized it was not my wife, but rather her sister, who came to babysit because my wife was at her mother’s. But BECAUSE as we were already into the thing, and BECAUSE as I realized that my wife’s sister was frigid and clearly needed to learn the fine art of healthy heterosexuality—which is the kind of sexuality I do so well—I realized that it was in everyone’s best interests that I continue doing what I had started until she learned what she needed to know. I will always maintain that this was not no rape, no how! She had no right to resist my teaching her what she needed to learn. And now I can prove I was right. When I had the courage just now to step up the pace of our carnal….coalition, she clearly lowered her resistance to me. Her fingernails are no longer digging into my eyes or my neck; the bleeding is almost stopped and she has totally quit that awful screaming. I have increased my pace and rest my case. Take this to the jury room with you now… because it’s my last and final Johnny Cochran word on the serious subject of sexual resurgence and surge: “ When there ain’t no squeal, the rape ain’t real. Yeaaaaaaa….Surge !!! ” [that last triple exclamation point indicates an ejaculatory declaration for those of you numbed and dumbed-down enough to believe the other lies I just told].

The preceding lies (political and pornographic) listed are to me simply the ones that come immediately to mind. The Bush administration has been telling lies like this on a daily basis for the past 8 years. What effect has this had on America?…Hearing the lies, having the facts of those lies laid out before them for nearly a decade, during which NO ONE HAS BEEN PUNISHED FOR THOSE LIES except a few isolated murderers and torturers tossed out of the U.S. Armed Forces by war monger brass as sacrificial pawns in the lying game. Everyone knows that the “go ahead” for torturing prisoners went right up to and into the White House.

NOW…

THE LEGACY OF LIES IS PASSED…

FROM NEO-CON KING GEORGE INTO

PALIN’S AND McCAIN’S COWARDLY HANDS

Heading now into a new presidential administration, we find ourselves occupying a nation of not only DUMBED-DOWN, BUT NUMBED-DOWN people… a nation of shorn sheep either incapable of distinguishing truth from the lies daily told them, or … much worse, INDIFFERENT to the practice of being lied to by the new aspirant to the post of PREVARICATORS’ COMMANDER IN CHIEF… which would be the duplicitous duo, John McCain and Sarah Palin. They are consciously and conspicuously paying other You/tube truth assassins to promulgate known lies to the effect that (1) Obama is “Islamic”, and (2) Obama is a “terrorist” like his friend Ayers, and that (3) Obama is a radical anti-American “racist” like his old friend and preacher, Rev. Wright or “political bully” like his father’s fellow tribesman, Kenya’s Odinga.

NEW NEO-CON “WMD” . . .

(“whopper of mass deception”) =

THE LIE OF “GUILT BY ASSOCIATION”

The oldest form of lying and character assassination is the gambit of “guilt by association”. It’s illegal under American criminal law—which requires the state to prove that the accused actually “helped” his criminal friend with the criminal enterprise. McCain and Palin make no pretense of claiming Obama encouraged or took part in any of his friends’ alleged mistakes or transgressions. They ask you to condemn Obama because he befriended them or “associated” with them. Those claiming to be among the “born-again” Christian “right” are hypocritically not telling us to love our enemies and at the same time, they are telling us that befriending (loving) a criminal makes one a criminal. Christ not only associated with and forgave criminals, he did so in their company on Golgotha and with his last breath. Who among us has not had one of our friends or associates breach some law or accepted moral code? But what is illegal in criminal law is the rule in politics: It’s the oldest legal weapon in the coward’s arsenal, and our presidential contenders, McCain and Palin in their desperate and hopefully dying effort to catch up with Obama in the polls are spreading lies just for that reason—They are inveterate cowards. They are abandoning the battle of issues and policies and launching a battle of hatred.They are hatefully spreading lies suggesting Obama is guilty because he has associated with allegedly guilty people—not because he aided or participated in any guilty conduct. That is not only a lie, and now only a cowardly lie, it is—quite clearly—anti-American. The question that remains, however is much more daunting – Has America changed its conceptions of “right and wrong” or simply discarded them? Have “lies” told in America about Americans to Americans become the new “norm” ? Have we decided as a people that “truth” is just another disposable pawn in the “game” of politics? Have we arrived at Orwell’s point of democracy’s demise – 1984, the year of Big Brother’s dictatorship constructed on the platform of the Big Lie?

Leonard Pitts thinks America is incurably conned; that we’ve been lied to so much that “lies” have become perceived by our masses as “normal” instead of “scandal”.

My jury on this question is still out. I’m still holding out hope (which no longer rises to the dignity of “belief”) that America will wake up, smell the coffee, remember the tea, and ultimately recall what it was like short decades ago when two brave reporters probed and dug in the loam of truth in the Beltway deeply enough to prove that a U.S. President had committed crime and lied to us about it…and when as a result, there were actual consequences of that scandal…consequences which involved accountability and a changing of our nation’s leadership.

Nixon’s crimes of petty burglary and cover-up do not compare in degree of criminality to the high crimes and misdemeanors (major international war crimes, crimes against environmental nature, and domestic crimes, compounded by lies to cover up those crimes) committed by our incumbent President and his administration…so many crimes that Americans seem to be now sufficiently numbed and dumbed down to accept more lies as a “normal” matter of American political course.

Has America become the proverbial “frog in the pot” of tepid water, which when warmed at the deceptively slow rate of one degree per minute, becomes lethally boiling before the frog realizes he has sat on his haunches so long he has lost the ability to leap for his…life?

Obama is offering us our only chance for change—a CONCEIVABLY LAST CHANCE–to save ourselves from the waters about to boil us into oblivion as a leader among free nations. Our nation under the leadership of the Republican Neo-Cons has been lied to to the point it is questionable whether “we-the-people” consider lies anything more than “normal politics”. If McCain and Palin win, there will be categorical and catastrophic proof that we have been dumbed and numbed down to that languishing level.

God help us if Leonard Pitts is right.

Dusty

10 21 08

War is still our only enemy, but lies are its arsenal and ignorance its ally.

LEN’S REJOINDER

THE LIES AREN’T JUST THOSE OF THE POLITICIANS…

I AGREE ABOUT THE WMD’S, BUT WHAT ABOUT THE

“M&M’s”

(“Media Mendacity”)

… AND (Maybe) A RAY OF HOPE

Indeed, why do foreign news agencies have to tell us what’s going on in our own country? Just recently the British announced that their economy is in recession; whereas, we keep hearing that “maybe” our own country might be heading there. What? With foreclosures mounting, the auto industry languishing, and unemployment at more than 6%, is our government trying to tell us that we’re not in recession when we’ve been in one for months? You would think that U.S. news agencies would be as honest as the ones in the U.K., but that’s not what we get from our mainstream media. They eagerly publish the lies spewing from our present government, but refuse to refute these lies except maybe on the back pages of subsequent issues of the newspapers.

Is Leonard Pitts correct in saying that lying has become the norm, and that scandal has died in this country? I prefer to think it’s not so. I think that the majority of people in this country hate what’s been going on for the past eight years and can’t wait to replace the corrupt, lying, utterly contemptible Bush administration with an honest one that ministers to the needs of the American people and not to the greed of the wealthiest among us. Of course, 24% of our citizens still support the policies of George W. Bush; but that was about the percentage of those who supported the Tories during our American Revolution. There will always be those who, for one reason or another, just don’t “get it”—the holocaust deniers, the global warming deniers, the Sarah Palin lovers, the Muslim haters, the racists and the fear-mongers who show us daily just what we need to overcome.

In speaking about the “death of scandal,” I was reminded of a bit in the film, “The Duchess,” which portrayed the life of the Duchess of Devonshire in the late 18^th century. The Duke of Devonshire was one of the most powerful men in England at the time, a philandering plutocrat who could make or break the careers of aspiring politicians in the Whig Party. Because the Duchess—immensely popular with the poets, politicians, and playwrights—could not openly criticize the Duke for his adulterous ways, she conspired with the playwright, Richard Sheridan, to have his play, “A School for Scandal,” performed before the Duke and others. Everyone knew that the play was about the scandalous behavior of the Duke, and that this was the way the Duchess chose to broadcast her complaints to everyone. What I am suggesting is that our mainstream press has become an exercise in “a school for scandal.” With the main newspaper and broadcasting outlets being controlled by the wealthiest among us—just as the Duke of Devonshire “controlled” what was said about him—what we have at our disposal are a myriad of “Duchesses” who are forced to get out the facts by other means. This, of course, is what Leonard Pitts does in his columns; and it is what Dusty Schoch and I do on this site, and it is what Daily Kos, Mother Jones, and Arianna Huffington do on the internet. The internet can’t be controlled, just as the playwrights and poets can’t be controlled. That’s why Plato, the consummate elitist, wanted the poets banned from his Utopian Republic.

I say, never ban the poets, never fail to point out that the Emperor wears no clothes. The American public might not look as if it is paying attention, but I am confident that it is. I see November 5 dawning as a new chapter in our Republic, one in which the old rubbish is swept out, and new policies adopted that will once again show that the United States, after waking from a long nightmare, is ready to fulfill our fondest dreams.

10 22 08

DUSTY PS

Worlds of gratitude to Len for countering my nightmarish worries about another 1984 regime in America on such a promising and positive note!

EARLY COMMENTS FROM DI CORRESPONDENTS

Very well argued. I can’t offer any disagreement.

My only question is how one gets this message out to all those Americans who just don’t care. Francine Prose, in a recent article in Harpers (or maybe New Yorker) took on the huge public outcry when several books purported to be memoir turned out to be fiction. A reading public aghast at the lies! But F. Prose wonders why those lies make more impact than the giant lies of the administration, lies with horrible consequences. She concludes that the public feels helpless before the powers-that-be, thus turns its frustration and anger at lies on the insignificant fake memoirists. A scapegoating, I guess.

All well and good to try and educate this tuned-out public to the real LIES, but I think a number of people (all frustrating when I run into them) don’t want to know the truth. Would rather believe than reason out; believe that huge government lies are only truths too complicated for them to understand and that big-kind-daddy-in-charge will make it all right by the end of the day. That they are free to pursue their daily lives without needing to bother their pretty little heads about “all that “political stuff.” And that’s why I’m glad we’ve had this Wall Street crash, because it starts to disturb these tuned-out Americans as it impinges on their daily lives.

I admit that for a long time I’ve had little hope for the human race, for Americans in particular, but I’ve begun to hope (just a little bit) again with all the young people getting involved in this electoral race. I hope the numbers of involved youth have not been exaggerated by the media, but I guess only the outcome of the election will tell the truth.

Sally Doud, Richmond Va. (Writer; English Instructor, V.C.U.)

10 23 08 [Emphasis added by DI to enhance well-told truth]

(Editorial Note: For any of you DI and B.E.A. correspondents who receive our DI Current Issue Previews, please feel free to send in your reactions immediately so they can be posted on line with the current issues just as the preceding comments of Sally Doud.)

Bush Needs to be Impeached…

Editors — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 23:24:06 +0000

Bush Needs To Be Impeached NOW!

By Timothy V. Gatto

11 June, 2008
Countercurrents.org

If there is one thing that Dennis Kucinich has, it’s the courage to tell the truth, even when the deck is stacked against him. In this case he has an entire Congress (or most of them) that seem to want go along to get along. It will be a cold day in hell when the Articles of Impeachment that he delivered in Congress last night, all 35 of them, ever get out of the Committee where they will sit on them until the new elections , mainly because the majority of Democrats in the House have no sense of justice and of course, no spine.

I was glued to C-Span last night. I was mesmerized by the litany of abuses that this sitting President has perpetrated on not only the people of America, but the World. Step by step, Kucinich meticulously brought every charge against George W. Bush and backed those charges up with times, dates and testimony from Administration insiders. This Congressman has done his homework; there was not a single thing I believe he missed. There were a few things that I didn’t even know this President was responsible for, and I follow him like a hawk.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich read each charge in the same way. He always invoked the phrase that Bush failed to live up to his oath and protect and defend the Constitution of the United States. He ten went to Article 2, section 3 that he must he must faithfully execute the laws of the land. Rep. Kucinich went on to make 35 charges against the President. He mentioned the flawed intelligence leading up to the Iraq War that The President had prior knowledge of and he used this flawed knowledge to deceive Congress. He talked of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG) which issued White Papers with fraudulent information that Iraq was manufacturing nuclear weapons.

Kucinich also brought up as an article of impeachment, the fact that Bush had known about the National Intelligence Estimate that Iran had stopped their nuclear weapons program in 2003, yet he continued to claim that they were close to manufacturing a nuclear weapon, even though they knew that this information had been discounted by US intelligence.

The Articles’ of Impeachment numbered 35. Each was more damning than the one before. He made the case that of this Administration’s systematic deception that was aimed directly at the American people so that this Administration could pursue what it thought appropriate, regardless of the laws of the United States.

You will be able to see the entire broadcast of Rep. Kucinich’s appearance very soon. I watched it live for over three hours. Everything from the President’s cover-up of Global Warming, to the NSA spying on American citizens was mentioned. The case to me was rock solid. There were so many abuses of power of the Bush Administration that even if the judiciary committee threw out half of the articles of impeachment, there would be more than enough evidence to remove Bush from office.

This MUST be done so that Bush cannot pardon the people in his administration. He must be removed from office to show the American people that we will never suffer another law-breaking tyrant in the Executive Branch. His Impeachment proceedings against Vice-President Cheney are still in the Judicial Committee. Why? When is Congress going to take their Constitutional Oversight responsibilities seriously? To this writer, it seems that we don’t have on dysfunctional branch of government, we have two. Congress needs to wake up and go to work. Even in this election cycle they still have an obligation to do their jobs that we pay them for. The things that I heard last night, again and again, made me quite disgusted with my government. This has got to stop, and today is as good a day as any.

We know that the Republicans will try to stop this impeachment proceeding. The question I have for the Republicans is how can they stop these proceedings in good conscience when they understand the number of laws that this President has broken? Is it good government to let “one of your own” willfully flaunt the laws of this nation and thumb his nose at the Constitution? That would be a travesty. It would not bode well for these Republicans in their election efforts now that the truth has been told. We need to get past this criminal administration and bring the rule of law back to this country. We are viewed by the World as a “Rogue State”, a country that willfully ignores the Geneva Conventions and The World Court. This American has been ashamed of his nation’s performance over the last seven years. I’m sure that many Americans other than this one are feeling the same way. At this particular point, your party affiliation should not enter the picture. What is wrong is wrong and that should be the standard, regardless of the office one holds. This is a country of law. When those laws are broken and circumvented, we lose the basic principles of whom and what we are. President Bush should be held to the same standard that we hold all Americans. To do less would impugn our reputation and make America a nation that let’s itself be dominated by lawbreakers.

timgatto@hotmail.com

www.liberalpro.blogspot.com

Democrats Ignore HR 333 call to Impeach

Editors — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 20:30:48 +0000

Democrats Ignore HR 333 call

To Impeach Bush

Isn’t this in itself TREASON?

DW In-House Historian and Philosopher,

Leonard Carrier says…

Yes! IT’S A FACT, but members of Congress who won’t support Dennis Kucinich’s HR 333 to impeach Dick Cheney are simply playing politics. They think they won’t get re-elected unless they just stand on the sidelines and let Bush and Cheney continue their self-destructive ways. The fact that they might also be complicit in an attack on Iran doesn’t seem to faze them.

Here were the reasons offered by Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (FL, Dist. 20) for saying impeachment wasn’t a good idea. Ms. Wasserman-Schultz is on the House Judiciary Committee and speaks for Nancy Pelosi. First, she says that we have to concentrate on getting out of Iraq. This is sheer blather. She and other Democrats still keep funding the war. Second, she says that there are more important things to do. This is absurd. It is not more important to set up investigative committees than it is to protect our Constitution. Third, she says that the press would “have a field day” in publicizing impeachment proceedings, crowding out all other news. Well, why not? What more important things do the media have to do, besides spreading “feel good” propaganda from the White House? Last, she says that Americans don’t want to have impeachment hearings conducted. She should fire her poll-takers. Most Americans want to know the facts behind Cheney’s and Bush’s lies to the American public so they could go to war and thus curtail our Constitutional liberties. If Wasserman-Schultz can’t read our citizenry any better than this, she should resign from office immediately.

It seems clear that the Democrats in Congress who don’t support impeachment are the “money” Democrats, those who put the interests of corporations and economic globalization ahead of the interests of the people. These are the ones who secretly want to keep those military bases in Iraq, and who want U.S. corporations to profit from stealing Iraqi oil. They want to be known as being “tough on terror,” when all this really means is adopting an “imperialist lite” view of how to conduct foreign relations, speaking out against Bush and Cheney, but still wanting to do the same thing, only better.

When Bush and Cheney threatened Iran with military force, what did Congress do to blunt this irrationality? Pelosi wanted to pass a House resolution to denounce our NATO ally Turkey for genocide–something that occurred in 1915! Hillary Clinton voted to declare Iran’s Republican Guard–part of the Iranian army–as a terrorist organization! Senator Charles Schumer voted to confirm Mukasey as Attorney General, even though Mukasey doesn’t know what torture is! If progressives have to confront this sort of mentality in leading members of the Democratic Party, it’s going to be a long, uphill struggle.

Stop the President from Attacking Iran!

Editors — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 01:34:28 +0000

Stop the President
from Attacking Iran!

ATTENTION ALL DI READERS:

Dear DI readers and democratic friends everywhere:

Let’s make sure we keep that old aphorism (the one Bush continues to mutter but always mangles it) in mind— “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me three times, shame on ….US!”

We let ourselves and our Congressmen get sucked into wars we’re now clearly losing both in Afghanistan and Iraq because we fell asleep at the switch and didn’t bother to question what the Neo-cons were telling us to make us think this “war on terror” was a “mission possible” in terms of waging pre-emptive war against sovereign Islamic nations, when terror is a tactic and not a corporeal enemy, much less an enemy state.

We can hear the sabers rattling more menacingly every day, and the fascist neo-cons are carefully constructing more mythology to justify yet another invasion in the Middle East. This time, let’s urge our Congressmen to nip it before it buds. If we don’t, it will certainly be primarily our fault.

Senator James Webb and Rep. Mark Udall have introduced a bill, S. 759 / H.R. 3119, to prevent President Bush from attacking Iran without Congressional authorization.

You can use the tool (web link) below—quite easily–to ask your Senators and Representative to support this legislation.

Also, please ask your Senators and Representative to oppose over $90 million for rapid development and deployment of a 30,000-lb “bunker buster” (called the Massive Ordinance Penetrator) that many fear the administration might want to use against Iran.

HERE IS THE WEB LINK TO USE:

DI Editors wish to thank Leonard Carrier for the preceding link….along with all DI staff, editors, contributors and readers…for immediately using it.

Best,

Dusty

11 13 07

President Bush’s Endless War

Editors — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 15:52:05 +0000

President Bush’s Endless War

By: Dr. Leonard Carrier, DW In-House Historian and Philosopher

On September 13 we got President Bush’s plan for Iraq. He announced that incremental withdrawals would take place, but that in 2009 we would still have a significant military presence in that country. In other words, he is determined to hand the war off to our next president so that his own administration will not be blamed for losing it. This might be crafty politics, but his strategy is being paid for in the blood of our servicemen and women, not to mention the blood of Iraqi civilians enmeshed in an intractable civil war. What conceivable good can be gained from policing a civil war? There is none. Our occupation is the fuel that keeps the fires of insurrection burning.

What the President has done is to challenge all those in Congress who demand a timetable for leaving Iraq to put their money where their mouths are, or rather, not to put any more money into funding our occupation. Until now, with a few notable exceptions, Congress has been loath to advocate the only means at their disposal for ending our occupation of Iraq, which is to cut off funding. They have not done so because they are afraid of being accused of “not supporting the troops.” This is a groundless fear. They can vote to provide only those funds used to bring these troops home safely. That is the sensible way to support the troops, not by continuing to let them fall prey to daily insurgent attacks.

John Edwards responded to the President’s speech in a commercial on MSNBC paid for by his presidential campaign. In no uncertain terms, Edwards put the pressure where it should have been ever since Democrats won both houses of Congress last year. Given that President Bush will not yield on his plan of our never-ending presence in Iraq, Congress must simply accept Bush’s challenge and cut off funding for the war. Of course, this will take courage, and the President is betting that Congress does not have the will to do it. Because arguments will not sway this president, the time has come for Congress to put up or shut up.

	Dennis Kucinich has outlined a 12-point plan for withdrawing from Iraq, based on the premise that the solution in Iraq must be political and not military. He argues convincingly that it is not credible to oppose the war and yet continue funding it, and so the Administration should be notified now that Congress will not approve further appropriations to continue our occupation.

In brief, here is what we must do under Kucinich’s plan: (1) announce that we will end the occupation, close our military bases, and withdraw; (2) use funds already appropriated to pay for the safe return of our troops and their equipment, while preparing for the transition of an international peacekeeping force; (3) order all U.S. contractors home and turn over contracting work to Iraqis; (4) convene a regional conference to develop a stabilizing force for Iraq, using the UN to organize this conference; (5) work with the UN to mobilize and authorize peacekeeping forces; (6) develop and fund a drive for national reconciliation among Kurds, Sunnis, and Shiites; (7) restart the failed reconstruction of Iraq, with the jobs going to local Iraqis; (8) along with Great Britain, pay reparations to Iraqis for causing loss of life, injuries, and damage to property; (9) deny any intention to privatize Iraq’s oil assets, allowing Iraq to have political sovereignty; (10) set out a plan to stabilize Iraq’s costs for food and energy; (11) work with the world community to restore Iraq’s fiscal integrity; and (12) establish a policy of truth and reconciliation between the people of the United States and the people of Iraq.

John Edwards has answered Bush’s plan for endless war with a plea to Congress to bring our troops home now. Dennis Kucinich has a detailed plan showing how this can be done. It is time for members of Congress to forget about the possible political fallout and to stiffen their spines and take action. If they do not do so then they remain complicit in Mr. Bush’s war.

Leonard S. Carrier

Should We Impeach Bush and Cheney? Yes or No

Editors — Fri, 01 Jun 2007 07:09:33 +0000

SHOULD WE IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY?… YES…OR NO?

By: Dusty Schoch, DW Foreign Policy Editor

My Memorial Day answer to the question of whether Cheney SHOULD BE impeached has to be…. (as you scroll down the method in my madness will become apparent)…

Yes, yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Yes, yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Yes, yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Yes, yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Yes, yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Yes, yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Yes, yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Yes, yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes Yes, yes yes yes yes yes yes yes 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yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes, yes, yes and yes..

THAT IS EXACTLY 3424 YES’S—ONE FOR EACH AMERICAN SOLDIER CHENEY HAS SENT TO HIS & HER DEATH IN IRAQ THROUGH May 23, 2007, AND COUNTING……..

Dusty Schoch May 28, 2007

Bush’s Unceasing War in Iraq

Editors — Fri, 13 Apr 2007 07:26:17 +0000

	Bush’s Unceasing War in Iraq…

Ironically and accurately viewed as:

“ANIMAL EXPERIMENTS DOWN ON THE FARM”*

By: Leonard Carrier. DW’s In-House Historian and Philospher

Everything that’s going on in Iraq, and at home, makes it look like a phony war–no defined enemy and no call for personal sacrifice except on the part of the military. That makes it look more like a “war game” than a real war. The reason I wouldn’t classify it as a war game, however, is that people are getting killed by the thousands (us) and by hundreds of thousands (them).

To me that makes it seem more like a laboratory experiment. We’ve got the rats (Iraqis) at our mercy, and we’re using the cats (our military) to experiment on them. Sometimes the rats fight back and kill some cats. In the background are the animal trainers (like Paul Bremer) who devise a new environment for the rats to live in (flat income tax, privatization of oil revenues) to see how many rats can survive in those new surroundings.

We also have the animal doctors who measure how much depleted uranium it takes to kill the rat-babies. We let the rats form a government–but only under our political trainers. We then devise punishments for the rat-government when they don’t meet certain demands, like controlling violence on the part of certain rat-rebels whose rat-families have been killed by our cats.

If this sounds like speciesism, that’s because it is. We use terms like “raghead” and “greaseball” to describe the rats, and we devise tortures for them for our entertainment, just to let them see how much we detest them (Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib). All the while, we tell the rats that what we’re doing is for their own good, that it’s part of “democratization,” and then we take a poll to see whether we’re convincing any of them. Of the rats we do manage to convince, we tell them that it’s too bad the other rats are now their enemies for collaborating with us, and that they’d better watch their backs. Then we can check to see how effective they are in staying alive.

Orwell had it right. In 1984 his premise was that constant war abroad allowed Big Brother to run roughshod over everyone’s rights at home (except for those running the rat race). Then in Animal Farm he showed how easy it was for the pigs to take over the farm and persecute the other animals. Iraq is our animal farm, and the pigs who control the cats are having a field day.

*This article is a reprint of Dr. Carrier’s recent contribution to our corresponding Blog –http://watchingpolitics.com/?p=3481, with his and their kind permission.

Goose Stepping to Indifference

Editors — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 23:44:07 +0000

BUSH’S N.S.A. (Nazi States of America) MOVES FORWARD

TOWARDS OUR NECON- STATE OF FUNDAMENTALIST FASCISM

AUCHTUNG! – THE TWO NEW GOOSE STEPS:

1. Burning the books (Darwin is burned In Bush’s
new [very] 5,000-year old Grand Canyon)

2. Signing in new law (Dec. 20, 2007) giving him
the right to read our mail

By: DW Foreign-Policy Editor, Dusty Schoch

The Goose-stepping goes on. OVER THERE: Our pre-emptive war-mongering President Bush has his fundamentalist Shiite Muslim puppets in Iraq hang a man who over 25 years ago possibly killed 99.99 percent fewer (148 total) innocent (non militant) Iraqis than Bush has killed so far (estimated between 350,000 and 622,000)- and OVER HERE – only two weeks before (December 20, 2007) signs into law a bill giving him the right to open our mail without a warrant.

But I think Americans are now battered into submission (indifference) in the same way the average German was by Hitler’s Storm Troopers and SS.

And the whole process brings to mind what a news commentator said on NPR this past week that riveted my attention. He was reflecting on the Holocaust and how, otherwise civilized Germans allowed the extermination camps to happen, and just stood by while Hitler’s goons were burning their intellectuals (and their books) and packing off their Jewish neighbors by train to (much) warmer climates.

The speaker said it was possible because the essence of true bigotry is not hatred. Few Germans actually hated their Jewish bankers, store-keepers and neighbors; most of those primarily Christian Germans enjoyed a friendly rapport with their Old Testament compatriots. No—It wasn’t “hatred” in the angry sense that allowed them to become complicit in the world’s most atrocious ethnic cleansing then to date. In fact, hatred is most likely not at the karmic base of cataclysmic events like the Jewish Holocaust.

It’s indifference. It was indifference in 1938-1945 in Germany and it’s indifference on the part of Americans in regard to the humanitarian rights of Iraqi’s, and indifference concerning their own so-called “inalienable” rights to liberty that is allowing fascism to reign in America in the brand new year of 2007.

“GOOSE STEP NUMBER ONE WAS OF COURSE BUSH’S PRE-EMPTIVE INVASION OF IRAQ BASED UPON FALSE CLAIMS OF WMD’S AND AL QAEDA CONNECTIONS”.

GOOSE STEP NUMBER TWO, OF COURSE WAS THE PASSAGE OF THE PATRIOT’S ACT WHICH TRASHED OUR RIGHTS TO HABEAS CORPUS , DUE PROCESS ARREST, LEGAL SEARCH AND SEIZURE WHENEVER BUSH ELECTED TO LABEL US “TERRORIST” .

About this , the silent majority of Americans were indifferent…including 98 percent of our Senators and Representatives in Congress who didn’t even pick up—much less read that published manual on that little sequel to Mein Kampf.

GOOSE STEP NUMBER THREE:

Let’s take time, indifferent ones (our indifference makes us both responsible and complicit in what the Bush Administration is doing in your name), to review what we did not impeach the fascist for back in May of 2006, when it became public knowledge that Bush’s N.S.A. (National Security Agency) began using their Patent 5937422 to invade the privacy of our telephone calls. LET’S TAKE TIME, INDIFFERENT, IGNORANT AMERICANS to review the May 15 Article on this website (hit the “Articles link” and scroll down to May 15 and read the article by Len Carrier and myself entitles: “N.S.A. = Nazi States of America”, or hit this one - http://democratswrite.com/the_democratic_opinion/page150.htm . Why were you indifferent then when your liberties and Constitutional guarantees of privacy were being…trashed?

Why…how can you continue to be indifferent when at the same time Bush is having his puppet regime in Iraq hang Saddam for doing a fraction of the internationally-criminal killing of civilians he himself has ordered…which orders were executed with the use of far more inhumane weapons of mass destruction than mustard gas, including uranium-hardened ballistic shells that slowly sicken and kill with their toxic residues long after they shatter the bone and spill the blood.

GOOSE STEP NUMBER FOUR:

How can you continue to be indifferent when Bush’s administration is ordering its underlings at your Grand Canyon wonder-of-the-world park to cease informing the world’s tourists who visit that sacred place that parts of it are between 230 million and 2 billion years old? What is Bush’s excuse for burning the past 300 years of the world’s archaeologic science? His Christian neo-con neo-Creationalism, that’s what. If you don’t believe it’s going on, read the entire article athttp://www.peer.org/news/news_id.php?row_id=801 and then Google the topic and read some more.

And don’t’ forget, while you’re considering this burning of science books, Bush’s earlier falsification of the NASA report (James Hansen’s Goddard Institute) on Global Warming we already covered for you in our March 27 Article: “Bush Lies…We All Die”. If you’ve forgotten it (or become indifferent towards it), check it out again at this link - http://democratswrite.com/the_democratic_opinion/page120.htm

GOOSE STEP NUMBER FIVE

On December 20, Bush quietly claimed sweeping powers to open mail without a warrant. He issued a “signing statement” that declared his right to open our U.S. mail under “emergency conditions,” which we are perpetually in, contrary to existing law. A White House spokeswoman has of course disputed claims that the move gives Bush new powers, and furthermore, that the Constitution allows it

For the complete story see James Meek’s Jan. 4, 2007 article in the Daily News Washington Bureau at http://www.unexplainedmysteries.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=85511

It takes a lot of experience and living to realize that love and hate are not polar opposites in the case of human kind. Hate and love are flip sides of the same coin. The true opposite of love is indifference.

Remember this —both in regard to the rights of Iraqis abroad and Americans here at home—i.e. you and me–what happened in Germany a half century ago. Those weren’t “bad” people. They didn’t “hate” their Jewish neighbors. But they did manage to evolve slowly and subtly into something much worse than hateful bigots… They became indifferent.

While this mongrel fascist, goose-stepping leader of ours continues to whittle away our civil liberties and the civil liberties and lives of our so-called “insurgent enemies” abroad, let’s think more and more about becoming less and less indifferent about these goose-stepping neocon aggressors in our midst.

War is our Only Enemy…

But Indifference is its ammunition

The views expressed in this article represent the opinion of the writer.

A Movie Actor’s Brave Call for Impeachment

Editors — Thu, 04 Jan 2007 23:34:17 +0000

	A Movie Actor’s Brave Call for Impeachment

Sean Penn was named recipient of the 2006 Christopher Reeve First Amendment Award from The Creative Coalition and on the evening of December 18, 2006, in New York City, delivered the following speech:

“The Christopher Reeve First Amendment Award. For the purposes of tonight and my own personal enjoyment, I’m going to yield to the notion that I deserve this.

And in the spirit of that, tell you that I am very honored to receive it. And for this I thank the Creative Coalition and my friend Charlie Rose. It does seem appropriate to take this opportunity to exercise the right that honors us all — freedom of speech.

Note for later:

The original title for the Louis XVI comedy called “Start The Revolution Without Me” was one of my favorites. That original title was “Louis, There’s a Crowd Downstairs.” But I’ll come back to that…

Words may be our most civil weapons of change, when they connect to actions of sacrifice, or good will, but they have no grace or power without bold clarity. So, if you’ll bear with me, borrowing a line from Bob Dylan, “Let us not talk falsely now — the hour is getting late.”

Global warming

Massive pollution

Non-stop U.S. war in Iraq

Attacks on civil liberties under the banner of war on terror

Military spending

You and I, U.S. taxpayers, spend 1 1/2 billion dollars on an Iraq-war-’focused’ military everyday, while social needs cry out.

Health care

Education

Public transit

Environmental protections

Affordable housing

Job training

Public investment

And, levy building.

We depend largely for information on these issues from media industries, driven by the bottom line to such an extent that the public interest becomes uninteresting.

And should we speak truth, we stand against government efforts to intimidate or legislate in the service of censorship. Whether under the guise of a Patriot Act or any other benevolent-sounding rationale for the age-old game of shutting down dissent by discouraging independent thinking and preventing progressive social change.

The most effective forms of de facto censorship are pre-emptive. Systemically, we are encouraged to keep our heads down, out of the line of fire — to avoid the danger, god forbid, that someone in the White House, on Capitol Hill, or a media blow-hard might take a shot at us.

But, as a practical matter, most of the limits on creative expression and other forms of free speech come from self-censorship, where the mechanism of corporate clout offers carrots and brandishes sticks. We avoid a conflict before the conflict materializes. We reach for the carrots and stay out of range of sticks.

Decades ago, Fred Friendly called it a “positive veto” — corporations putting big money behind shows that they want to establish and perpetuate. Whether in journalism or drama, creative efforts that don’t gain a financial “positive veto” are dismissible, then dismissed. We may not call that “censorship.” But whatever we call it, the effects of a “positive veto” system are severe. They impose practical limits on efforts to bring the most important realities to public attention sooner rather than later…

We’re beginning to see more revealing images of this war. But it’s later now, isn’t it? What we have to pay attention to are the results of these “practical limits.” One, is that wars become much easier to launch than to halt.

I’ve got a feeling about how we can begin to change this process and I want to pass it by you. Children grow up in our country — many by the way, under conditions of extreme poverty — and are told from a very early age “You will be accountable!” “With freedom, comes responsibility!” And so the lecture goes…Democratic and Republican alike. Lie-cheat-steal, and there will be consequences! Theft will be punished. Actions that cause the deaths of others will be severely punished. The message, from leaders in Washington, news media, mom, dad, and church is clear. Criminals MUST be held accountable.

Now, there’s been a lot of talk lately on Capitol Hill about how impeachment should be “off the table.” We’re told that it’s time to look ahead — not back…

Can you imagine how far that argument would go for the defense at an arraignment on charges of grand larceny, or large-scale distribution of methamphetamines? How about the arranging of a contract killing on a pregnant mother? “Indictment should be off the table.” Or “Let’s look forward, not backward.” Or “We can’t afford another failed defendant.”

Our country has a legal system, not of men and women, but of laws. Why then are we so willing to put inconvenient provisions of the U.S. constitution and federal law “off the table?” Our greatest concern right now should be what to put ON the table. Unless we’re going to have one set of laws for the powerful and another set for those who can’t afford fancy lawyers, then truth matters to everyone. And accountability is a matter of human and legal principle. If we’re going to continue wagging our fingers at the disadvantaged transgressors, then I suggest we be consistent. If truth and accountability can be stretched into sham concepts, we may as well open the gates of all our jails and prisons, where, by the way, there are more people behind bars than any other country in the world. One in every 32 American adults is behind bars, on probation, or on parole as we stand here tonight.

Which is to say that, globally, the United States is number one at demanding accountability and backing up that demand with imprisonment. But, when it comes to our president, vice president, secretary of state, former secretary of defense…this insistence on accountability vanishes. All of a sudden, what’s past is prologue. And we’re just “forward-looking.” But some people can’t just look forward. Men and women stationed in Iraq at this moment, under orders of a Commander-in-Chief so sufficiently practiced in the art of deception, that he got vast numbers of American journalists and the most esteemed media outlets of this country, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, NPR, and PBS to eagerly serve his agenda-building for war. And the process also induced vast numbers of artists and performers (probably even some in this room tonight) to keep quiet and facilitate the push for an invasion in Iraq.

I’m sure many people who I met in Baghdad, both in my trips prior to and during the occupation, now similarly cannot just look forward. With lives so entirely shattered by a violence of occupation — an ongoing U.S. war effort and the civil war that it has catalyzed. All on the back of a crumbled infrastructure, following eleven years of devastating U.N. sanctions.

And, where is the accountability on behalf of the American dead and wounded, their families, their friends, and the people of the United States who have seen their country become a world pariah. These events have been enabled by people named Bush, Cheney, Powell, Rumsfeld, and Rice, as they continue to perpetuate a massive fraud on American democracy and decency.

On January 11, 2003, I made an appearance on Larry King’s show following my first trip to Iraq. I suggested that every American mother and father sit down with a scrap of paper and pencil and scribble the following words: Dear Mr. and Mrs. So-and-so — We regret to inform you that your son or daughter so-and-so, was killed in action in Iraq. I then asked that those mothers and fathers complete that letter in whatever way might comfort them should they receive it. When one considers what a bewildered continuation of those words a parent might attempt to write today, it seems inconceivable that this country could’ve ever bought into this war. Who were those mothers and fathers believing in?! We know it’s not the administration alone, but a culture at large, cloaking itself in self-righteousness, religion, and adolescent hero-dreaming machismo. Would they have believed Rush Limbaugh if they’d known he was high as a kite on OxyContin? Would they have believed the factually impaired Bi

“Oh, there goes Sean…he had to go and name-call. They say he can’t help himself.” Or, did I name-call? Maybe I just quickly summed up 7 or 8 little truths. Oh, no, you’re right — I name-called. I said, “putz”. I take it back. Or, do I? Did I say “whore?” Pimp? These are questions. But, the real and great questions of conscience and accountability would not loom so ominously — unanswered or evaded at such tremendous cost — without our day-to-day failure to insist on genuine accountability. Of course we’d prefer some easy ways to get there. But no easy ways exist. Not a new Congress. Not Barack Obama. And, not John McCain. His courage in North Vietnamese prison makes him a heroic man. His voting record in Congress makes him a damaging public servant. We have gotta stand the fuck up and show the world how powerful are the people in a democracy. That’s how we regain our position of example, rather than pariah, to the world at large. And that is how we can be

They tell us we lost 3,000 Americans on 9/11. Is that enough? We’re about to match it. We’re within weeks, if not less, of killing 3,000 Americans in Iraq. I ask Speaker Pelosi, can we put impeachment on the table then? Without former FEMA chief Mike Brown being held accountable, post Katrina (scapegoat though he may have been) we’d have had the same chaos and neglect when Rita hit Houston. Think about it. And, the same people who trumpet deterrence as a justification for punishment when we speak of “crime and punishment,” will boast their positive thinking when dismissing the deterrent qualities of an impeachment proceeding.

What is impeachment? It’s not a Democratic versus Republican event. Not if used responsibly. If the House of Representatives votes to impeach this president, is he thrown out of office? No, he is not thrown out of office. That is not what impeachment is. Impeachment is the opportunity to proceed with accountability and give our elected senators, democratic and republican, the power to pursue a thorough investigation. The power to put the truth on the table. Mothers and fathers are losing their kids to horrifying deaths in this war every single day. Horrible deaths. Horrible maimings. Were crimes committed in enlisting the support of our country in this decision to go to war? For the moment we’re living the most spineless of scenarios; where the hawks abused impeachment eight years ago, now, the rest of us politely refuse to use it today. Let’s give the whistle-blowers cover, let’s get the subpoenas out there, and then, one by one, put this administration under oath.

So…look, if we attempt to impeach for lying about a blowjob, yet accept these almost certain abuses without challenge, we become a cum-stain on the flag we wave. You know, I was listening to Frank Rich this morning, speaking on a book tour. He said he thought impeachment proceedings would amount to a “decadent” sidetrack, while our soldiers were still being killed. I admire Frank Rich. And of course he would be right if impeachment is all we do. But we’re Americans. We can do two things at the same time. Yes, let’s move forward and swiftly get out of this war in Iraq AND impeach these bastards.

Christopher Reeve promised to get out of that chair. Well, I don’t know about you, but it feels like he’s up now and I wouldn’t be standing here if it weren’t on his shoulders. Let it be for something.

Georgie, there’s a crowd downstairs.

Thank you and good night.”

The Spy Who Came in from the Freezer

Editors — Wed, 22 Nov 2006 06:43:56 +0000

The Spy Who Came In From the Freezer

By: Dr. Leonard Carrier DW In-House Historian and Philosopher

Robert Gates has been on ice since 1993, when he left his position as Director of the CIA after Clinton became president. In 2002 Gates became president of Texas A & M University, the institution that houses George H.W. Bush’s presidential library. Now he has been nominated by George W. Bush to be Secretary of Defense. So he has been cooling his heels as president of a university that houses the library of George W. Bush’s father. Is his nomination a coincidence? I don’t think so. Gates had a hard time getting confirmed as CIA Director because of questionable behavior in the arms-for-hostages deal involving Iran and Nicaragua. He was earlier accused of slanting intelligence to favor the views of his old boss at the CIA, Bill Casey, who wanted the threat of the Soviet Union inflated for political purposes. When he was appointed by George H. W. Bush to be director of the CIA in 1991, he was still under a cloud concerning whether he had knowledge of the arms-for-hostages deal. But the first President Bush persisted with his nomination, knowing that Bush’s own protestations about “not being in the loop” concerning this clandestine deal would be supported by Gates.

Now we have another president who seeks protection. The electoral turnaround achieved by Democrats on November 7 shows that George W. Bush’s presidency is in trouble. So now it’s time to call in one of the cold warriors from his father’s presidency to save the son’s legacy. The simple truth is that George W. Bush’s presidency does not deserve to be saved. He led his country into a disastrous and unnecessary war that has killed almost 3,000 of our troops and as many as 790,000 Iraqis—these last numbers supplied by scientists who have reported their findings in Lancet magazine. It seems obvious that Bush’s nomination is a way of providing window dressing for a supposed change of strategy on Iraq. But it is clear from the president’s pronouncements that he intends to stand fast until he achieves “victory” (whatever that can possibly mean now), and that there is no change in his overall policy of having more American troops and more Iraqi civilians killed to satisfy his stubborn insistence that things are going his way. Never mind the stunning “thumping” that his Party got in the last election, this president simply won’t change his mind. What he thinks will appease the electorate is an appointment that his father would—and maybe did—approve, that of an old retainer who was waiting in the wings, who owes his allegiance to the Bush family and whose appointment will do nothing to change Bush’s war policy, but will instead try to make it seem as if this president is actually listening to criticism.

What is shocking about Bush’s nomination of Gates is not just that Gates has no experience in military affairs, but that Democrats like Harry Reid are already supporting his nomination. This is not what the electorate wants. They don’t want Democrats kissing up to the Bush family to save the presidency of the prodigal son. James Webb, the senator-elect from Virginia, gave the best advice on this matter by suggesting that the next Secretary of Defense be chosen by the new Senate. Webb knows what he’s talking about. He was Secretary of the Navy under Reagan, and he knows all about the sycophancy that reeks from this nomination of Robert Gates. So this is a message to Democrats on the Senate. Don’t agree to confirm Gates as Secretary of Defense. Rumsfeld is gone. Let his deputy limp out the remainder of the year. When the new Senate convenes there will be time enough to evaluate the credentials of someone who is dedicated to getting us out of Iraq, not someone whose job it is to protect the royal heritage.

Leonard Carrier