Category : impeachment

The two biggest criminals in this country are both implicated in the Plame affair. As Scooter Libby’s trial progresses and things look worse and worse for Cheney’s ex-right-hand-man his defense team is casting blame in every direction… including toward “the top.”

Last week, Libby’s attorney Theodore Wells made a stunning pronouncement during opening statements of Libby’s trial. He claimed that the White House had made Libby a scapegoat for the leak to protect Karl Rove – Bush’s political adviser and “right-hand man.”“Mr. Libby, you will learn, went to the vice president of the United States and met with the vice president in private. Mr. Libby said to the vice president, ‘I think the White House … is trying to set me up. People in the White House want me to be a scapegoat,'” said Wells.

Cheney’s notes seem to help bolster Wells’s defense strategy. Libby’s defense team first discussed the notes – written by Cheney in September 2003 for White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan – during opening statements last week. Wells said Cheney had written “not going to protect one staffer and sacrifice the guy that was asked to stick his head in the meat grinder because of incompetence of others”: a reference to Libby being asked to deal with the media and vociferously rebut Wilson’s allegations that the Bush administration knowingly “twisted” intelligence to win support for the war in Iraq.

However, when Cheney wrote the notes, he had originally written “this Pres.” instead of “that was.

The “meat grinder” is generally taken to mean “the DC press corps”. So, after re-inserting “this Pres” into Cheney’s note it reads: “not going to protect one staffer and sacrifice the guy this Pres. asked to stick his head in the meat grinder because of the incompetence of others.”

It’s not surprising that strategy concerning the Plame affair would be discussed at the highest levels. But Bush has been denying all along that he knew anything about the leak.

When Cheney testifies will he throw Libby under the bus like Addington? I can’t wait to find out. What happens when the top two liars in the country are implicated in a scandal, tied to an illegal war that’s been used to justify illegal wiretapping? Well, if Republicans are in charge: Nothing. However, I have a smidgen of hope that the Democrats will pursue impeachment. They’d better hurry up about it because I keep hearing more and more noise about starting a war with Iran. It sounds like the preparations for a joint U.S./Israeli strike are almost complete.

I noticed this full-page ad in the paper today:

The World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime

They’re calling for a work stoppage and massive protests on October 5th, 2006. BE THERE! Don’t go into work/school. It’s time to resist!

The protests planned include on in downtown Minneapolis. Details below:

Minneapolis, MN

2006-10-05
11:30AM
Federal Building, Minneapolis
Meet at Federal Building. Peaceful migration to Loring Park.
3PM Concert at Loring Park.
minneapolis@worldcantwait.org

Like I said. BE THERE!!!

Yes! Best news I’ve heard all day! Think Progress has the scoop:

Fox News reports a federal district court in Detroit has ruled that the Bush administration’s NSA warrantless wiretapping program is unconstitutional and ordered an immediate halt to it.

Hell yeah!! I wonder what the neocons’ next move will be. The judge has issued an injunction (pdf) (I’m glad to see James Bamford is one of the plaintiffs).

Only problem is: How will we ever know for sure that they’ve stopped the program? We didn’t know when they started it — it was revealed only recently. What mechanism do we have for ensuring that the NSA doesn’t simply change the name of the program and ignore the judge’s order?

The NSA is a rogue agency. We need Congress to crack it wide open and see what it’s been hiding all these years.

That is according to a new poll by Gallup:

A new Gallup poll finds that roughly 2 in 3 Americans urge a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq, with 31% wanting this to start immediately.

Gallup’s director, Frank Newport, sums up the results today: “Taken together, it is perhaps fair to say that a significant majority of Americans would like the United States to either withdraw troops from Iraq or make specific plans to do so, although there is no majority demand that troops be withdrawn immediately.”

The poll was unusual in that rather than give respondents a list of options, it allowed them to respond in their own words. Gallup then grouped the varied responses and labelled them with a common theme.

I’m glad that they let you state your opinion in your own words. I hate it when they have a bunch of preselected choices for you to pick from — what if your option isn’t on there? Anyway, I bet you’re all just itching to know what my response would be. It is this:

I believe we should immediately and without delay impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney. That completed we should apologize to the Iraqi people, and the world community as a whole for the murderous and vile actions of our former leaders. Then we should begin a phased withdrawal, hewing to a timetable set by the Iraqi government and approved by the UN and Congress. During this time (which will probably be pretty damn quick — they want us out of there) we should repay the Iraqis for their suffering in cash, but we should not expect mere money to heal their wounds. Money cannot resurrect the dead, after all. Lastly, we should turn Bush and Cheney over to the Iraqi court system so that they can be tried by the same tribunal currently trying Saddam Hussein. Hell, they could all be co-defendents.

That should put a band-aid on the situation at least. I think the insurgents would be genuinely shocked if we held our leaders to the same high ethical standards they preach. The incarceration of Bush & Cheney along with the withdrawal of American troops (and Coalition troops… both of them) would go along way to ending the daily massacres. They would still have to contend with the possibility of civil war (but then again, so would America), but I think they would at least feel more like talking about their differences, rather than just killing indiscriminately. I think splitting Iraq into 3 countries is a possibility. A Kurdish state, a Sunni state and Shiite state could be formed from the ashes of Iraq, which was arbitrarily formed by the British Empire anyway. Limit them to small, defense-oriented armies and you shouldn’t have to worry about them fighting amongst each other. Hopefully Iraq can be saved, but Bush/Cheney really did a number on that nation. They fucked it up bad.

Oh one more quote from the article above should prove that my suggestion, rational as it may be, will never happen:

The poll also found that while 64% feel they “understand” the Bush administraton’s argument for staying in Iraq, only 54% understand the Democrats’ view–whatever that is.

The Democrats are so fucking useless. They have no unity, no strategy and no backbone. Isn’t being united the whole point of a political party? I think we could make an argument that the Democratic Party isn’t a party at all. It’s just a distraction for Bush and for America. What a bunch of fucking useless losers. The two party system has conspired to fuck us once again.

Congress as a whole looks totally out of touch since 2/3 of Americans support withdrawal but The House of Representatives opposes withdrawal by an almost-2/3 margin. They say that withdrawal isn’t politically feasible… what the fuck does that mean? You’ve got well over 50% of the population calling for withdrawal and Republicans and Vichy Democrats are saying it’s not feasible?!! Kinda makes you wonder who they’re really serving, doesn’t it? It’s certainly not us.

“All right, you’ve covered your ass now” is what George Bush said to the CIA agent who flew out to his ranch specifically to warn him about intelligence concerning the presidential daily brief entitled, “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US.”

On Aug. 6, a CIA official brought the infamous “Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US” memo to Crawford, to read it out personally to the President and make sure he got the warning. Bush sat in silence as the briefer delivered his fell message. Duty done, the agent awaited the president’s orders, or the president’s guidance, or the president’s questions. He got nothing but a curt, snide dismissal: “All right, you’ve covered your ass now.”

That was it. Bush had nothing else to say about this stark threat of impending slaughter. He had no questions, no advice; the “Commander-in-Chief” had no commands. Just smirking contempt. “You’ve covered your ass.” You’ve gone through the motions, you’ve played your part in the charade, just like me – now get lost.

Even if you give Bush every benefit of the doubt here, even if you put the most charitable construction possible on his behavior – although his proven record of duplicity and malevolence deserves no such charity – even with all this, the very best you could say of his reaction is that it represents a blood-curdling degree of depraved indifference and criminal negligence, worthy of Nero.”

Bush is a real card isn’t he? Funny guy. What kind of games are they playing over there in Washington, D.C.? “You’ve covered your ass” is not an appropriate response to a grave terrorist threat from one of America’s supposed top enemies. What’s going on here? Are we to assume that our president is so surly and callous that he just doesn’t care? Or does it run deeper than that, perhaps into the murky land of “fore-knowledge”?

It’s hard to tell. But one thing is for sure: Bush simply is not competent to run this country. He should be impeached immediately, without delay.

But those Republicans sure do stick together, don’t they? Jeeze, sometimes you’ve got to wonder about their fabled ability to fall in line. Does Karl Rove have incriminating pictures of every single one of them or what? C’mon! Grow some balls, guys (and gals). GW is a menace and we need to impeach him forthwith. Perhaps during the hearings we will find out what really happened in the run-up to September 11th.

“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.”

George W. Bush
8-5-2004

Cheney involved with Plamegate?

Ha! I’m posting again! Just minutes after my last post. So cool…

Anyway, it looks like Cheney may have been the man with the plan when it comes to outing Valerie Plame Wilson as a CIA agent. From the Washington Post:

A court filing last month by Fitzgerald — who has been gradually spelling out what he plans to say during Libby’s trial next year — stated that Cheney had expressed concern about whether Wilson’s trip was a junket set up by his wife. The new filing includes the precise annotations that Cheney wrote on a copy of Wilson’s July 2003 article in the New York Times, titled “What I Didn’t Find in Africa.”

“Have they done this sort of thing before?” Cheney wrote. “Send an amb[assador] to answer a question? Do we ordinarily send people out pro bono to work for us? Or did his wife send him on a junket?”

Fitzgerald’s filing states that Libby learned of Plame’s name from Cheney, in the course of discussions by the vice president’s office about how to respond to a June 2003 inquiry from Washington Post reporter Walter Pincus about Wilson’s trip to Niger. Fitzgerald asserts that those conversations — and earlier ones sparked by a May 2003 column about the trip in the Times — help demonstrate that Libby’s “disclosures to the press concerning Mr. Wilson’s wife were not casual disclosures.”

This doesn’t look good for Dick, who could be in hot water if Libby squeals on him and claims that Cheney was the impetus behind the leak. It certainly seems logical to me that Libby (Cheney’s good friend and ex-chief of staff) would follow up on ideas Cheney had for responding to their detractors.

There’s so many things to impeach Bush and Cheney for, it’s hard to pick a favorite. I’d have to say that Plamegate and the NSA Wiretapping Scandal are definitely contenders, but the whole War in Iraq is a excellent argument for impeachment in my opinion. There seems to be Americans and Iraqis dying at a steady rate, with the Iraqis dying in far greater numbers. I hope that oil is worth it. Peak Oil or not, it’s time to get Bush and Co. out of the White House before they do any more damage.