Yes, it took Dennis Kucinich 5 or so hours to read the litany of Bush crimes into the Congressional record yesterday but really, is that so bad? Evidently so, since news broadcast editors have decided it’s far too banal to mention or even discuss on those television news shows everyone watches to get informed. But what if they were presented in 45-second YouTube bullets, just enough to accommodate the Attention Deficit Disorder set while maybe, just maybe, making them afraid, very afraid of the men who made them very afraid?

Here’s something to start the trend. Pass it on to your friendly George Bush apologist and see what he or she thinks. After all, it’s only fitting that the architect of the Culture of Fear also be the one we fear.

Here are the articles of impeachment in convenient, wallet-sized text bullets.

I will have much, much more to say about this. But for now, I just want to give high praise to Rep. Dennis Kucinich for having the integrity to press ahead with the impeachment of George W. Bush. During yesterday’s House session he spent four hours and forty minutes reading 35 articles of impeachment into the record.

Will this go forward? No. Not with the time he has left. But for history and posterity, the record will show a detailed account of the accusations put forward against President Bush.

Will he also read the accusations against Dick Cheney into the record?

One other thing: Scott McClellan will testify before the House in the Valerie Plame outing case.

Oh, and what should comprise the centerpiece of impeachment: The Senate Report issued last week, which concludes:

The “Phase II” report states — in terms clearer than any previous government publication — that there was no operational relationship between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein, that Bush officials were not truthful about the difficulties the United States would face in post-war Iraq and that their public statements did not reflect intelligence they had at the time, and, specifically, that the intelligence community would not confirm any meeting between Iraqi officials and Mohamed Atta — a claim that was nevertheless publicly repeated.

Before taking the country to war, this Administration owed it to the American people to give them a 100 percent accurate picture of the threat we faced. Unfortunately, our Committee has concluded that the Administration made significant claims that were not supported by the intelligence,” Rockefeller said in a statement provided to The Huffington Post.

“In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed. … There is no question we all relied on flawed intelligence. But, there is a fundamental difference between relying on incorrect intelligence and deliberately painting a picture to the American people that you know is not fully accurate.”

And in other Bush egregiousness, parts of Iowa and Wisconsin are under water partly because levees failed.

I have never been so afraid for the future of this country as I am in these times. In other dark times, I could cling to the knowledge that where there was wrongdoing, it would eventually be exposed. Where there were crimes committed, they would eventually be prosecuted. And where there were crooks and liars, elections would oust them in favor of a new breed, possibly less malevolent. 

But in the Bush/Cheney era of operating in the dark outside of the boundaries of checks and balances, all bets are off. Our justice system has been subverted; the majority in Congress cowed and whipped into submission by the most power-hungry war machine to ever inhabit the White House and we’ve let it happen by not standing up and forcing these evildoers to be held accountable. So confident are they of their success that they daily walk into the spotlight and tell lies easily refuted but nonetheless allowed to stand, they raise their sabers and rattle them with no thought given to the price already paid for their folly, and I suspect that history will show that both of them used the last 8 years in public office to profit themselves and pillage our country in ways we haven’t even imagined yet.

Yet there is no credible movement for impeachment moving through the Congressional majority despite the rising call  from a widely diverse group of voices. Why? Impeachment must be put back on the table and it must be a serious effort, beginning with Dick Cheney. The cost of not impeaching will be expansion of our military aggression into Iran (a Dick Cheney pet project), many more lives lost in Iraq, complete subversion of the courts and justice system, and a body politic so ravaged by the dishonest raping of our 230-year old Constitution that apathy replaces anger which is a very dangerous place to be.

Which of us wants to explain to these children what freedoms their mother gave her life to preserve? The freedom to profit from overseas oil? The freedom to profit from the war machine itself? Or the freedom to stand up and tell this president that we will not sacrifice any more of our young men and women to a flawed and paranoid ideology which has separated completely from reality?

Barbara Boxer:

…now people are dying because of this administration. That’s the truth. And they won’t change course. They are ignoring the Congress. They keep signing these signing statements which mean that he’s decided not to enforce the law. This is as close as we’ve ever come to a dictatorship. When you have a situation where Congress is stepped on, that means the American people are stepped on. So I don’t think you can take anything off the table. Because in fact the Constitution doesn’t permit us to take these things off the table.

Cheney is deadly serious about pushing ahead with aggression against Iran, and his argument for why we must is so strikingly similar to the arguments for engaging Iraq that they cannot go unanswered.

From the mouth of George Bush himself, some recent lies about Iraq:

Actually, I was hoping to solve the Iraqi issue diplomatically. That’s why I went to the United Nations and worked with the United Nations Security Council, which unanimously passed a resolution that said disclose, disarm or face serious consequences. That was the message, the clear message to Saddam Hussein. He chose the course.

The truth: Iraq claimed over and over that they were not developing weapons of mass destruction. They cooperated with the UN Weapons Inspectors, who did not find evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Colin Powell, whose words to the UN probably did more to sell the American public on the war in Iraq has publicly denounced that UN speech as being based upon flawed intelligence, innuendo and exaggeration, has said more than once in public that he regrets ever going to the UN without doing an independent fact-check first.

And on July 10th, this statement of policy was released by the Bush administration, which essentially threatened to veto any bill sent up by Congress which limited the executive powers on Iraq. In addition, there was a small paragraph dealing with Iran:

The Administration strongly opposes amendments to the bill that to restrict the ability of the United States to deal effectively with the threats to regional security posed by the conduct of Iran, including Iran’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons. The Administration also notes that provisions of law that purport to direct or prohibit international negotiations, covert action, or the use of the armed forces are inconsistent with the Constitution’s commitment exclusively to the presidency of the executive power, the function of Commander-in-Chief, and the authority to conduct the Nation’s foreign policy. If the bill were presented to the President with provisions that would prevent the President from protecting America and allied and cooperating nations from threats posed by Iran, the President’s senior advisers would recommend he vetoed the bill.

Once again, you have the Bush/Cheney spinning machine madly spinning the tale that there is a threat to develop nuclear weapons. Yet, Iran has agreed to allow UN inspectors in, and also to scale back its enrichment of uranium. Does this sound like a country ramping up a nuclear weapons program? This is the lie that Bush and Cheney used on us with Iraq. Do not allow them to use it on us to excuse aggression against Iran. The Iran excuse is Cheney’s agenda, which he is pushing hard, despite resistance from Condoleeza Rice and Robert Gates.

It’s time: Cheney has to be impeached first. I am saying it to my representatives in Congress via fax and email and phone, too. Bruce Fein, a conservative, has this to say:

Then President George W. Bush outsourced the lion’s share of his presidency to Vice President Cheney, and Mr. Cheney has made the most of it. Since 9/11, he has proclaimed that all checks and balances and individual liberties are subservient to the president’s commander in chief powers in confronting international terrorism.

Fein goes on to list Cheney’s ‘abuses and excesses’, including the creation of military commissions (tribunals) to prosecute ‘war crimes’, kidnappings, secret detentions, and torture, championed torture, advocated signing statements intended to defy Congress, engineered the warrantless domestic surveillance program, assisted in the politicization of the justice department and subsequent subversion of justice in the form of the Libby pardon, and abused executive privilege while simulateously claiming not to be part of the executive branch of government, declaring himself a sort of fourth branch, unchecked by normal constitutional limits.

What more do we need? Impeachment is an imperative, not an option. Please write your representatives and urge them to begin impeachment proceedings against Cheney and then Bush. It is time for us to stand against the dictatorial and subversive nature of these men and reclaim this democracy which is of the people, by the people and for the people. All of them.

Related:

• Bush Directive for a “Catastrophic Emergency” in America: Building Justification for Waging War on Iran?
• Attack on Iran: Pre-emptive Nuclear War
• Reining in an Out-of-Control Executive
• National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive – May 9, 2007
• The First Problem in Iraq is BUSH
• Bruce Fein (Slate): Impeach Cheney: The Vice President Has Run Utterly Amok and Must Be Stopped
• Ellison Says Principles are Behind Effort to Impeach Cheney
• Robert Naiman: How Much Capital Will Cheney Have to Push War With Iran?
• Top GOP Senator: White House ‘F-ed Up’ the War…The Fur is Going to Start to Fly
• Bill Katovsky: Impeach Bush — Not Such a Bad Idea After All
• Iran Makes Major Nuclear Concessions

Technorati Tags: impeach, bush, cheney, iran, iraq, dictatorship

Back in January I said we needed to impeach Cheney first.

Now Glenn Greenwald and BraveNewFilms.org agree. It’s time to impeach Cheney, and then Bush.

Sign the Petition

It is time to stand up and reclaim our democracy from the hands of despots and dictators. George Bush and Dick Cheney are doing what they are because we are permitting them to do it. Say “No More!” Start with Cheney, then Bush.

Democracy means using your voice. Now is not the time for silence.

Hat tip: Crooks and Liars

Technorati Tags: impeach cheney, dick cheney, george bush, crime, democracy, impeachment

A new video from ImpeachGonzales.org, summarizing the lies and bull that comprised Gonzales’ testimony before the House and Senate subcommittees:

Technorati Tags: impeachgonzales, alberto gonzales, scandal, lies, politics

Technorati Tags: alberto gonzales, impeach, democracy for america

Please help to stop the next war by going to StopIranWar.com. Listen to General Wesley Clark’s appeal to stop Bush and Cheney from destroying more lives, families, and countries.

Applause to Dennis Kucinich for introducing a resolution to impeach Cheney today. His logic makes sense — first Cheney, then Bush, so that we don’t move from one dictator to another.

As I watched this video and looked on the faces of the boys just a year or so older than my son fighting a war that isn’t as much about freedom as it is ego, my heart broke. How many lives are we going to destroy before we admit that this war was a mistake that we cannot correct?

When it finally ends, we will have many, many veterans who are not yet even 25, maybe not even 21, who will be disabled, will be suffering from post-traumatic stress, and will discover that we have very little to offer them.

Let’s stop, regroup, and take care of the American people Bush claims to represent.

Deep in the night
While madmen sit up building bombs
And making laws and bars
Theyre gonna slam free choice behind us

Last night I dreamed I saw the planet flicker
Great forests fell like buffalo
Everything got sicker
And to the bitter end
Big business bickered
And they call for the three great stimulants
Of the exhausted ones
Artifice, brutality and innocence
Artifice and innocence

Oh these times, these times
Oh these changing times
Change in the heart of all mankind
Oh these troubled times

- “Three Great Stimulants” Joni Mitchell, 1985

And so the times don’t change, particularly with regard to brutality and artifice.

Brutality: When Bush doesn’t get his way, he just does it anyway, like he did today with his horrible recess appointments. Appointing “Mr. Swift Boat” (Sam Fox) to an ambassadorship should be considered the same as flipping off the American people.

Artifice: Orrin Hatch lies about Carol Lam, claiming she was appointed by President Clinton and served as his campaign manager.

Innocence:

— from taminsea
Commemorating the 94th soldier from Fort Lewis to die in Bush’s dirty little war. My oldest son is 26 and served at Fort Lewis until his discharge on September 11, 2002. I’m grateful every day that he is not there, sacrificed at the altar of George Bush’s greed, hubris and brutal policies.

Impeachment proceedings should begin now.

Technorati Tags: Orrin Hatch, Carol Lam, Sam Fox

The attorney scandal is growing by leaps and bounds. As I suspected, the idea germinated somewhere on or around Karl Rove, who of course denies it all. Alberto Gonzales will go, but the buck shouldn’t stop there.

They continue to insist that the idea was first put forth to Gonzales by Harriet Miers. That would be the same Harriet Miers that Bush nominated to the Supreme Court. We should count ourselves lucky that the effort failed spectacularly, because if this idea did originate with her, it proves that she hates our justice system as much as Bush does.

As RJ Escow noted, this scandal will prove itself to be the equivalent of Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre”. Rove and Bush will continue to claim no recollection, but email trails will lead back to them eventually, and already point in that direction.

Robert J Elisberg points out that the Republican party and Bush Administration in particular has now proven themselves to be the enemy of prosecutors, defense attorneys, policemen and even juries. A wonderful quote here:

The Republican Party is no more the “party of law and order” than a kegger is a party of good manners and fine tea.

The next time a Republican struts around, puffing out his chest to make sure you see the plastic flag decal pinned there, and proclaims he’s in the party of law and order, ask whether you can join and if you should bring your toga.

Touche’, Mr. Elisberg.

Does it frighten you at all that we are facing the possibility of one more Bush appointment to the Supreme Court? It should.

Impeach Bush and Cheney now.

Technorati Tags: Prosecutorgate, Alberto Gonzales, Robert J Elisberg

Excerpted emails between DOJ and White House officials reveal how far the Bush Administration was willing to go to abuse the power of the Executive Branch in an effort to purge Democrats or perceived to have been too easy on Democrats from the US Attorney’s office. Behold the criteria for choosing which attorneys to purge:

From the official documents released by DOJ:

From Kyle Sampson to Harriet Miers, 3/2/2005, a key to a chart he prepared recommending terminations:

bold=Recommend retaining; strong U.S. Attorneys who have produced, managed well, and exhibited loyalty to the President and Attorney General
strikeout=Recommend removing; weak U.S. Attorneys who have been ineffectual managers and prosecutors, chafed against Administration initiatives, etc.
[Emphasis added]

In essence, the definition of ineffectual hinged on whether they were in lockstep with the Administration. The attorneys with strikeouts in their names in the document following this email were: H.E. “Bud” Cummins, III (Arkansas), Carol C. Lam (California) and Margaret M. Chiara (Michigan).

The second set of documents released is even more damning. Kyle Sampson sent out an email listing the following:

1. Vacancies w/o Candidates
2. USAs Who Have Been (Or Will Be) Nominated for Other Things
3. USAs Who, Rumor Has it, Will Be Leaving in Coming Months
4. USAs in the Process of Being Pushed Out
   : Bud Cummins
5. USAs We Now Should Consider Pushing Out: Paul Charlton (AZ), Carol Lam (CA), Margaret Chiara (MI), Dan Bogden (NV), John McKay (WA)

Sampson then goes on to emphasize that pushing candidates out will only be worth it if they have hand-picked replacements ready to go.

Farther down in the same document, there is this email from Brent Ward to Kyle Sampson regarding obscenity cases:

“We have two U.S. Attorneys who are unwilling to take good cases we have presented to them.  They are Paul Charlton in Phoenix (this is urgent) and Dan Bogden in Las Vegas.  In light of the AG’s comments at the NAC to “kick butt and take names”, what do you suggest I do?”

The third set of documents released details the plan to replace Bud Cummins with a hand-picked Bush insider and assistant to Karl Rove: Tim Griffin.  Pay close attention beginning at about page 60 or so, where a detailed email discussion of handling Cummins’ resignation and Griffin’s appointment begins.  Now, the interesting thing here is how they plan to get Griffin into the office by appointing him ‘interim USA’, allowing him to act on behalf of the administration without going through the official confirmation process.  That starts on page 65.

And then, with regard to the firing of New Mexico US Attorney Iglesias, this little gem from Kyle Sampson to Monica Goodling on 12/14/2006:

fyi, WH wants this guy for NM USA, but Domenici is not so sure
supposedly, Domenici is going to send over names tomorrow (not even waiting for Iglesias’ body to cool)

After the release of these documents, Chairman Conyers released the following statement:

Until recently, the Justice Department persisted in stonewalling the Congress with claims that these firings were “performance related.” Now, these documents prove that assertion to be categorically false. We now know the original plan was to fire all the United States Attorneys. It is absurd to think that the performance of every United States Attorney in the country was sub-par and that they deserved to be fired. So this is about something else.

Is it about political cronyism? Is it about partisan pressure on public corruption investigations?

Now I think he overstates what these documents say. There is certainly discussion about firing all of the USAs, but it’s knocked back rather quickly as the realization dawns that replacing them isn’t such an easy task and the political fallout would likely be swift and harsh. As the quotes above demonstrate, the Administration opted for targeted firings of key US Attorneys who were opposing efforts by the Bush Administration to use the US Attorney’s office to investigate and open prosecutions of key political enemies.

History and more documents will prove that George W. Bush is more corrupt than Richard M. Nixon, that he is possibly the most megalomaniacal President this country has ever had, and his evil will reverberate throughout this country for many years after he finally leaves office.

Speaking of Bush leaving office, it is now time to call for his impeachment. There is certainly enough evidence that leads straight back to his office (and his little dog Rove) to commence proceedings. I say this reluctantly, because I don’t believe this is good for our country or our soldiers fighting so far away, who deserve 100% backing and attention. However, as more and more surfaces, it’s become apparent to me that his evildoing in secret is far more harmful and should be stopped as soon as possible.

Technorati Tags: US Attorneys, impeachment, legal, cronyism