The Road to Good Intentions
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.
Sphere: Related ContentArtifice, Brutality and Innocence
Deep in the night
While madmen sit up building bombs
And making laws and bars
Theyre gonna slam free choice behind usLast 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 innocenceOh 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
Sphere: Related ContentRobert J. Elisberg on “The Party of Law and Order”
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
Sphere: Related ContentImpeachment is now a must
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:
- Vacancies w/o Candidates
- USAs Who Have Been (Or Will Be) Nominated for Other Things
- USAs Who, Rumor Has it, Will Be Leaving in Coming Months
- USAs in the Process of Being Pushed Out
: Bud Cummins- 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
Sphere: Related ContentBlog No Evil
The two Edwards campaign bloggers who were under fire last week for exercising their right to free speech resigned today in the face of some interesting ‘valentines’ from some folks claiming to be good, God-fearing Christians, citing concern for the negative impact on the campaign.
Of course, by NOT being attached to the campaign, they’ll be much freer to speak their mind and I’m certain they will. I just wish some of the folks calling themselves Christians would stop. It’s mortifying. Politics and religion shouldn’t be mixed together. Christians shouldn’t be threatening toward others ever. The blend of those two factors is an utter disaster. Score one for the bad guys in good guys’ clothing. What a mess, but at least there’s some serious pushback on the conservatives who sparked and fueled this nasty war of words.
This has been going on for a very long time. Before bloggers, message boards were the target. Back in the dark and gloomy days of the Clinton impeachment, the CNN Community was deluged 24/7 with trolls paid to try and shut down the conversation by spamming the boards over and over again with meaningless rhetoric. We used to play tag-team board moderation — one of us would be banning by the dozen while the other was mopping up the mess on the boards in real time.
If I close my eyes and think about it, I can almost quote them verbatim, because the message hasn’t changed, just the target and the method of delivery. Now that they have a ready-made platform on Fox News, they’ve become bolder, but still uncreative and cretin in their delivery.
Perhaps the campaigns should not pay bloggers at all. Maybe they should provide a platform (similar to the MyBarackObama.com site) for people to blog and that’s it. That way the best political bloggers can maintain their own voices and choices of expression without risking the campaigns, and no one can plaster the ‘paid shill’ label on them in the process (one of the milder accusations dropped this week).
Technorati Tags: John Edwards, Amanda Marcotte, Pandagon, Melissa McEwan
Sphere: Related ContentMr. Bush, This is Madness
I’ve been silent on the recent developments with regard to Iraq, mostly because I’m outraged and confused, and at nearly a complete loss as to how to even talk about it without shouting. I have always believed solidly in our democracy and passively trusted that leaders, when faced with overwhelming political opposition to their plans, will reach for a compromise.
Yet George Bush does just the opposite. Instead of looking for diplomatic or creative solutions in Iraq, he calls for a “surge”. Not only does he call for a “surge”, but he actually begins it BEFORE he brings his pre-State of the Union address to the nation. In concert with the inevitable bloodbath he is initiating, troops are sent to Somalia, bombs are dropped, more lies are told, and Bush once again tries to leverage out-of-the-air accusations toward Iran and Syria as a way to sell this insane plan to the people.
Instead of listening to his advisors, the Iraq Study Group and others, he shrugs and does what he wants anyway. This is not the way of democracy, but then, I’m convinced that Bush has never been a very big fan of democracy.
Bush will leave this legacy: He will be known as the most evil and destructive President to occupy the Oval Office, and by extension, Americans will be forever marked as the fools who allowed this man to wreak havoc upon the world in general and Iraq in particular. If we’re lucky, Iraq only. More likely Iraq, Syria, Iran and any other country he can wreck in his remaining two years.
Bush should be impeached. I said that in a comment on Kris’ blog last night. Yet, as I wrote it, I realized that impeaching Bush would leave us with Cheney, an unacceptable and possibly worse alternative. To that end, it was a brilliant strategy to keep Cheney, because he is the only person I can see that’s more evil than Bush — he is the back-end machinator.
Part of me wants to slap the 50%-plus-one-or-so-voters that put this evil cabal back in office again. Part of me wants to repatriate. What I feel most is a sense of deep disappointment and disillusionment. I have sons and a daughter who Bush would not give a care to sending over there to die. My friends have sons and daughters. My son will graduate from high school this year and have to register for the draft. His friends will register; some will enlist. Some who enlist will die, and their graves will be marked with valor for their individual sacrifice even as our country will be called to account for the crimes our leaders have committed against other countries.
Crooks and Liars has some wonderful posts reacting to last night’s speech. From AttyTood via Nicole Belle, a comparison of Lyndon Johnson’s State of the Union address dealing with the Vietnam issue to Bush last night:
LBJ, Jan. 10, 1967: We have chosen to fight a limited war in Vietnam in an attempt to prevent a larger war–a war almost certain to follow, I believe, if the Communists succeed in overrunning and taking over South Vietnam by aggression and by force. I believe, and I am supported by some authority, that if they are not checked now the world can expect to pay a greater price to check them later.
GWB, Jan. 10, 2007: Tonight in Iraq, the Armed Forces of the United States are engaged in a struggle that will determine the direction of the global war on terror – and our safety here at home. The new strategy I outline tonight will change America’s course in Iraq, and help us succeed in the fight against terror.
And of course, Keith Olbermann’s Special Comment on last night’s lunacy, which can be summarized with this one spectacular question:
Mr. Bush, the question is no longer “what are you thinking?,” but rather “are you thinking at all?”
Go watch the whole thing. There are times where I’ve considered Olbermann to be shrill. This is not one of them.
It could be that shrill is the new black. We may have to be shrill to be heard, because the conventional ways to communicate have not been effective. If you’re a Californian, it’s time to let Dianne Feinstein know that she needs to take a stand against this madness. Call her and demand that she oppose this call to send more of our sons and daughters to their deaths. California: 415-393-0707 Washington: 202-224-3841
Technorati Tags: Iraq, surge, state of the union, keith olbermann, crooksandliars, MSNBC
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