BushWorld: Sunday Reader Part I

A smorgasbord of food for your Sunday 'Time-To-Impeach' thought ....

• Is the Big Ship America Sinking? By Sam Gindin

  "Are we in the midst of a momentous turn in world politics? Donald Rumsfeld has been shuffled out of the Pentagon. Daniel Ortega, Washington's nemesis from the Sandinista Revolution of the late 1970s, is back as President of Nicaragua. Hugo Chavez has been triumphantly re-elected, and Bolivia and Ecuador also have new left-populist presidents. U.S.-led neoliberalism is scrambling in Latin America; the U.S. state seems to be in the throes of a full retreat in Iraq; and, in its look ahead to the year 2007, The Economist is warning of the dangers of an 'authority deficit' at the level of nation states, international institutions, and the role of 'the superpower'...."

• NY Times: Follow That Lobbyist:

  "THE Democratic majority in Congress has made ethics reform a centerpiece of its agenda — and not a moment too soon. The list of members of Congress from both parties who have either pleaded guilty to or are under F.B.I. investigation for crimes involving their offices is embarrassing.
  
  Unfortunately, the latest reforms (some adopted in the House by rule and others proposed by the Senate in legislation) tighten restrictions without actually addressing the real reasons that Congressional ethics rules have been ineffective in the past. The result is tougher rules that will rarely, if ever, be enforced. Here’s why...."

• Bush's Iran Stance Echoes Iraq:

  "President Bush's tough new stance on Iran and his military buildup in the Persian Gulf recall some of the drumbeats that preceded the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
  
  As then, the Bush administration is making allegations about Iran without providing proof...."

• NY Times: Deadliest Bomb in Iraq Is Made by Iran, U.S. Says:

  "The most lethal weapon directed against American troops in Iraq is an explosive-packed cylinder that United States intelligence asserts is being supplied by Iran.
  
  The assertion of an Iranian role in supplying the device to Shiite militias reflects broad agreement among American intelligence agencies, although officials acknowledge that the picture is not entirely complete...."

NY Times: Inquiry on Intelligence Gaps May Reach to White House:

"The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee said Friday that he would ask current and former White House aides to testify about a report by the Pentagon's inspector general that criticizes the Pentagon for compiling 'alternative intelligence' that made the case for invading Iraq...."

• Leopold and Ash | Libby Testimony Points Directly to Bush, Cheney:

  "According to trial transcripts obtained by Truthout, former White House staffer I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby testified before a grand jury in 2004 that Vice President Dick Cheney instructed him to divulge portions of a then-classified report to New York Times reporter Judith Miller. Libby testified that Cheney said authorization to leak a section of the report had come directly from President George W. Bush, the court transcripts state...."

• NY Times: Trial Exposes White House Crisis Machine:

  "David Addington, chief legal adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, says he was taken aback when the White House started making public pronouncements about the CIA leak investigation. 'Why are you making these statements?' Addington asked White House communications director Dan Bartlett. 'Your boss is the one who wanted' them, Bartlett replied, referring to Cheney. With that, 'I shut up,' Addington recalled recently for jurors in Libby's CIA leak trial, which begins its fourth week on Monday with Libby's lawyers calling their first witnesses...."

• Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: Exposing ExxonMobil, Part II (The Huffington Post):

  "Last week the release of the IPCC Report by the world's 2500 top climatologists closed the scientific debate on global warming once and for all with a grave warning about its apocalyptical consequences to human civilization.
  
  ExxonMobil Corporation reacted by publishing a paid advertisement on the New York Times Op-Ed page and a recent comment on Huffington Post announcing "Plan B." After years of denial the oil giant finally acknowledged the role of fossil fuel emissions in global warming, pledged to stop funding the Competitive Enterprise Institute, the country's most visible global warming denier, and boasted of its own efforts to deal with the catastrophic impacts of climate change.
  
  But behind the scenes, Exxon was engaged in the same old mischief. The American Enterprise Institute, a corporate front group financed by ExxonMobil and staffed by Bush administration dead enders, sent letters to top scientists and economists in the United States, Great Britain and elsewhere, offering them $10,000 each plus expenses for articles explaining shortcomings in the report. Exxon has funded the AEI with over $1.6 million. The Vice Chair of its Board of Trustees is former Exxon CEO Lee Raymond. Over 20 of its staffers have worked for the Bush White House...."

• Art Levine: Dick Cheney's Dangerous Son-in-Law (The Huffington Post):

  "While Vice-President Cheney has been pursuing a war in Iraq that has led to an increase in terrorism worldwide, his son-in-law, Philip Perry, until very recently the general counsel of DHS, has been working behind the scenes to make it easy for those terrorists to hit chemical facilities at home. The upshot, to put it bluntly: more Americans have died in war and are at risk of terrorism because of this family's efforts...."

• AlterNet: The Quiet Plan to Kill Medicare

  Elana Levin writes: "The press has failed to notice that the President's proposed 2008 budget includes a plan to do away with Medicare...."

• AlterNet: Media skeptical of Bush Admin lying about Iran [VIDEO]:

  "Fool the press once, shame on you... fool them twice..."

• AlterNet: Updated: Dems demand paper trail for all e-voting machines!

  Joshua Holland: "Well, that's good news...."

• AlterNet: $9 billion lost in Iraq "doesn't matter" [VIDEO]:

  Joshua Holland: "Hey, it was just the Iraqis' money anyway...."