Amy Goodman calls out Pelosi

Cheney, Bush and Habbush
By Amy Goodman (Truthdig) :

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is on a book tour in which she is being hounded by activists and questioned about her declaration that “impeachment is off the table.” She responded on the TV talk show “The View,” “If somebody had a crime that the president had committed, that would be a different story.”

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind may have provided the evidence she doesn’t want to see. Suskind has just published a book called “The Way of the World.” He makes an explosive charge: that the Bush administration instructed the CIA to forge a letter that would support its claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and was linked to al-Qaida. He also charged that the person whose name is on the forged letter, the former head of Iraqi intelligence, the man who was the jack of diamonds in the U.S. military’s “most wanted” deck of cards, Tahir Jalil Habbush, was given $5 million in hush money.

[...]

...The upcoming presidential conventions will be filled with vague promises of change. Congress should prove it and fully investigate Cheney, Bush and Habbush."

Technorati tags: Amy Goodman, Truthdig, Nancy Pelosi, Ron Suskind, "The Way of the World", Habbush, al-Qaida, Bush, Cheney, CIA, Impeachment

VIDEO: Here's the Proof on Nancy Pelosi

The Progressive:

She admits she hasn't even read Dennis Kucinich's articles of impeachment, even though she previously said she didn't know of any laws Bush has violated.

See for yourself.

Also See:

• EXCLUSIVE: Pelosi Clashes With Protesters Over Impeachment


• YouTube - Nancy Pelosi: Speaker of the House of Bush

Technorati tags: Impeachment, Nancy Pelosi, Dennis Kucinich, The Progressive, youtube, video

Dennis Kucinich: Thanks to You, Impeachment Will Be Heard

Bob Fertik reports:

Tell your Representatives to support impeachment by cosponsoring H. Res. 1345:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/142

Rep. Dennis Kucinich has led the fight for impeachment since April 2007, when he defied Speaker Pelosi and courageously introduced 3 Articles of Impeachment (H.Res. 333/799) against Vice President Cheney. On June 10, Kucinich defied Speaker Pelosi again and introduced 35 Articles of Impeachment (H.Res. 1258) against President Bush.

When Pelosi refused to allow hearings on any of the 38 Articles of Impeachment, Kucinich returned to the floor of Congress to introduce one more Article of Impeachment against President Bush (H.Res. 1345).

Thanks to massive pressure from Democrats.com and our pro-impeachment allies, Speaker Pelosi finally allowed Chairman Conyers to hold a hearing this Friday. Kucinich will finally get a few minutes to argue for impeachment, along with Rep. Robert Wexler, former Rep. Liz Holtzman, and former Salt Lake City mayor Rocky Anderson. Kucinich made a video to thank us for our efforts.

H.Res. 1345 focuses on Bush's ultimate crime - invading Iraq on the basis of lies. The evidence is overwhelming that George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Karl Rove, Andy Card, and other top officials deliberately manufactured those lies to "sell" an invasion whose real purpose was to gain control of Iraq's oil and establish military bases in the heart of the Middle East.

This was the agenda of the Project for a New American Century that Bush adopted after stealing the 2000 election. And it's the reason Bush and John McCain are determined to stay in Iraq forever, even though Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki supports Barack Obama's plan to remove all our troops by 2010.

When Kucinich testifies on Friday, he will naturally face hostile questions from rightwing Republicans who impeached President Clinton. But Kucinich will also face hostile questions from key Democrats who oppose impeachment.

Some of these Democrats supported the invasion of Iraq: Howard Berman (CA28), Rick Boucher (VA09), Adam Schiff (CA29), Brad Sherman (CA27), and Anthony Weiner (NY09).

But most of these Democrats oppose impeachment because they are cowering in fear of a counterattack from the White House and FOX News: John Conyers (MI14), Artur Davis (AL07), Bill Delahunt (MA10), Zoe Lofgren (CA16), Jerry Nadler (NY08), Linda Sanchez (CA39), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL20), Bobby Scott (VA03), Betty Sutton (OH13), and Mel Watt (NC12).

Only a few Judiciary Democrats understand that the Founding Fathers gave Congress the power of impeachment as the only way to stop a President from defying the Constitution and becoming a dictator, as Bush has done: Robert Wexler (FL19), Tammy Baldwin (WI02), Steve Cohen (TN09), Keith Ellison (MN05), Luis Gutierrez (IL04), Sheila Jackson Lee (TX18), Hank Johnson (GA04), and Maxine Waters (CA35).

If anti-impeachment Democrats get their way, Friday's 2-hour hearing will be the only "impeachment" hearing for this entire Congress - and then Bush will try to pardon himself and everyone else before leaving office next January, just as his father pardoned six Iran-contra criminals.

So it is crucial for all of us - now over 500,000! - to tell our Representatives today to support impeachment by cosponsoring Kucinich's H. Res. 1345:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/142

And if you can do more, please make free calls to every Judiciary Democrat who opposes impeachment through CauseCaller:
http://www.causecaller.com/causes.php?c=House_Judiciary_Democrats_Impeachment
Simply enter your phone number and click the "Start Calling" button. (Click "Call me back if I accidentally hang up" in case you hang up by mistake.) In a few seconds, your phone will "magically" ring and CauseCaller will say the name of the first Representative on the list. Listen carefully for the name of each Member so you can repeat the name to the receptionist - or just say "The Representative." Don't hang up between calls - let the receptionists hang up and CauseCaller will dial the next Representative.

If you want to do even more, call your favorite radio or TV talk shows and tell them how important Friday's hearings will be, and how strongly you support impeachment for whichever reasons are most important to you. Prepare your thoughts in advance so you sound informed and determined.

And if you're near Washington DC, join Veterans for Peace to lobby Congress on Thursday and hold a pro-impeachment rally on Friday:
http://www.democrats.com/node/17211

Lots more details and actions here:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/34943

Thanks for all you do!

Update 1: The evidence of Bush's war crimes and other impeachable offenses grows daily. Investigative reporter Jane Mayer's new book The Dark Side provides more evidence that Bush authorized torture. The British Parliament accused Bush of torture.

Yet Attorney General Mukasey told Congress he won't prosecute anyone who followed Bush's illegal torture orders. Even worse, Bush's rightwing supporters have begun a propaganda campaign for blanket pardons of everyone in the Bush administration!

TRANSCRIPT:

I want to thank you for the support which you have given to my efforts to hold this administration accountable for taking us into a war based on lies and for the destruction of the rule of law and the destruction of cherished constitutional principles.Because of your support, this Friday in Washington, DC, I will make a presentation before the Judiciary Committee of the House of Representatives at which time I will make the case that this president has violated his oath of office, violated United States law and international law, has separated our nation from our constitution, and has taken us on a course that has been so profoundly anti-democratic that it has threatened the core of our nation.Because of your support, I have been able to advance this series of matters right to the table of the Judiciary Committee.Because of your support, I have been able to create an opening so we’re finally getting a chance in Washington to discuss the abuses of power, to discuss a war based on lies, to discuss the whole architecture of constitutional principles that have been taken down.Every serious matter that faces the people of this country today can be linked to an administration which is not accountable.For example, the price of gasoline. You know that Vice President Cheney with the permission and blessing of President Bush held secret meetings with leaders of the oil industry where they laid out maps of Iraq far in advance of the attack on Iraq. You know and I know the war was about oil, and if we can force the vice president of the United States to have to testify, we can get the information that is necessary to be able to prove that not only has US law been violated, but that the public trust has been under a continuous assault by an alliance between the White House and the oil companies.You look at the sub-prime lending fiasco with millions of Americans having the dream of home ownership threatened, and you look at an administration that took the cops off the beat at the Securities and Exchange Commission that enabled the Fed to look the other way when they should have been disciplining the banks. The American people had a right to expect the government would protect their interests.When you look at the shakeout in the stock market and all these small investors who are losing their life savings, again the Bush administration and their alliance with interest groups, violating an oath of office, enabling these interest groups to steal from the American people, over and over and over again.For the first time we are going to have a chance to raise these issues in the Judiciary Committee in the context of a hearing at which I am going to present the Articles of Impeachment so that the Committee cannot say, well, they just didn’t know. We are going to force this issue because of you.We are in danger of losing our country to war based on lies, to destruction of our civil liberties, but it is your commitment and your willingness to stand up and speak out that has enabled me to take a stand and to say not only are we going to save what is right and save what is dear to us, but we are going to hold this administration accountable so that it never happens again.This is truly our moment. Friday is the beginning. Thank you for supporting this effort with signing petitions, with your emails and your letters and your phone calls.I pledge to you that I will continue my efforts to defend a way of life that the American people have a right to expect – to expect to have a government they can call their own – to expect to have a government that will tell them the truth – to expect to have a government that is worthy of the tradition of democracy.Thank you.

original post | digg story

Technorati tags: Dennis Kucinich, Impeachment, Congress, Impeach, Bush, Cheney

Stalling on Impeachment

Veterans For Peace in a dramatic confrontation with Chairman Conyers over his indecision on impeachment

"Since June 9, when Rep. Kucinich's introduced 35 articles of impeachment, the articles have remained shelved in the House Judiciary Committee. Chairman Conyers has the ability to bring the articles to a vote in the committee, but he is undecided on a course of action. In a June meeting with Veterans For Peace, Rep. Conyers promised to present his decision on impeachment in early July. However, Conyers failed to present such as decision during a meeting held with Veterans For Peace (VFP) on Wednesday, July 9. Members of VFP believe that Conyers is deploying stall tactics and that he has no intention of moving forward with impeachment. Conyers, once again, has promised to present his decision in a meeting planned for July 25."

The Real News Network - Story

Technorati tags: Impeachment, Impeach, Bush, Cheney, Conyers, Veterans for Peace

Bush Impeachment Debate Focuses on Subpoenas

David Swanson: Refusing Congressional subpoenas is an impeachable offense.

The Real News: "With the Democratic leadership still staunchly against impeachment, it remains unlikely that Chairman Conyers will bring hearings on Rep. Kucinich's 35 articles of impeachment. David Swanson suggests that the most likely road to impeachment would include article 27, which charges the Executive with failing to comply with Congressional subpoenas."

Technorati tags: The Real News, Cheney, Bush, Impeachment, Congress, Impeach, Subpoenas, David Swanson

Sign On: Petition to Impeach President George W Bush

Our many voices can be one! Join America's most Courageous Congressman.

Only one Congressman had the personal courage and the profound respect for our Constitution to stand on the floor of the House of Representatives and exercise his right and his responsibility to bring Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush - Ohio Representative Dennis J. Kucinich.

Now is the time for Americans to speak with one voice to support his bold and historic efforts to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. (click here)

Beginning today, Americans who cherish our Democracy and the Constitutional principles upon which it was founded can stand up, speak out, and take action by signing the one official petition that carries the full and unqualified support of the one and only original sponsor of the impeachment resolution:

Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich.

Read the Articles (click here) and exercise your right to be heard by signing the official Kucinich Petition.

Technorati tags: Impeachment, Impeach, Dennis Kucinich, Petition, Activism, Bush, Cheney

McClellan, Impeachment & Congress

The Real News reports:

"Bruce Fein says McClellan's book confirms Bush has committed impeachable offenses."

Watch:

Technorati tags: The Real News, Cheney, Bush, Impeachment, Congress, Scott McClellan, Bruce Fein

Force Congress to Impeach Bush/Cheney: Step One

From PledgeToImpeach.org comes news of a strike:

Dear Pledges,

When you signed your pledge to participate in a strike to force Congress to impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney, we promised you that your pledge would only be called in if we knew we had enough people on board to effectively shut down the nation, leaving Congress no alternative but to impeach Bush/Cheney. Though we have made substantial progress toward that end, we have not yet gained that certainty. What we do have is a growing solidarity between PTI, other impeachment groups, and now several labor unions, all working to close down our nations largest sea ports on April 30 and May 1. (Los Angeles, Long Beach, Newark, and Houston). Though this is not a calling of your pledge to stay home from work and shopping, it is a request that you find every way to support this action. Why? Because this action can give large numbers of determined Americans confidence in our cause and our ability to organize an effective national strike for justice through
impeachment/peace/fair labor practices.

In our effort to help the International Longshoremen's Union and IWW Union(Port Truckers) in their strike, we are asking that you hand out the attached flyer at every truck stop, or sea port near you, and inform every suffering truck driver, harbor worker, or otherwise outraged American that the day to warn Congress that American National Solidarity is near at hand and that we will soon be capable of calling an effective national strike that will force and end to the reign of corruption in Washington.

The Pledge To Impeach "Plan for Victory" to front-load enough people before delivering the ultimatum - "Impeach or We Strike!" to Congress remains the most viable among all stated plans. By joining with the truckers and longshoremen we are forming a real partnership with labor; one that we will continue to cultivate until we have a movement large enough to
force Congress to act.

We urge you to go to the pledgetoimpeach.org website to get up to speed on what we and the truckers and dock workers are doing on May 1, and why they are doing it, Between now and April 30, distribute the attached flyer, carry the Impeach or We Strike! sign. Then, at your own discretion, take sick/vacation leave, and refrain from any unnecessary purchases on April 30 and May 1.

This is not the strike that will bring us our goal of impeachment, but we feel it can be a major step toward it. Time is running short and it should be clear that the November election will not bring the change we need, regardless of who wins. Tell your co-workers to join you in staying home.

After three years of organizing it is time to act with determination and inform Congress that the people will not be ignored, or exploited any longer. If they won't defend the Constitution of the United States, then we will.

Over the last three years Pledge to Impeach has refused to participate in many actions we considered doomed to fail. We believe this action can lead to our day of victory, and we believe in the people taking it. We told you that demonstrations alone, that petitions alone, that vigils alone would not be effective. We told you that Kucinich and Wexler were not for real, and they have proven it. We now ask that you not fail to act when your action will bring results. Take part in defending America by helping expand an action that can lead to our first act of National Solidarity,

Spread the word. Our future depends on us.
PledgetoImpeach.org

SIGN THE PLEDGE HERE.

Technorati tags: Impeach, Impeachment, Bush, Cheney, strike, pledgetoimpeach.org, activism

Nixon was forced to resign over far less ....

The New York Times reports on White House E-Mail Gone Missing:

Historians eager to search through the daily minutiae of the Bush administration can expect scandalously little help from the White House’s shoddy and suspiciously gap-ridden e-mail archives. Estimates of the number of missing e-mail messages range into the millions.

The gaps coincide with critical periods like the run-up to the Iraq war — and the rollout of specious intelligence — as well as the period when the White House was leaking the identity of the former C.I.A. operative Valerie Plame Wilson. Also missing are communications from Karl Rove, the president’s former political guru, and 50 other White House staffers who used e-mail accounts at the Republican National Committee....

Technorati tags: New York Times, Missing E-mails, White House, Rove, Valerie Plame Wilson, Iraq War, Bush

Required Reading

Blogger has been playing nasty tricks with my ability to post over the past several months, but I finally found a slow, but do-able, work around. Now, I'm playing catch-up. In case you missed these ... now's your chance to read up.

The War on "Terror"

• ZNet | No “War on Terror”

  "One of the most telling signs of the political naiveté of liberals and the Left in the United States has been their steadfast faith in much of the worldview that blankets the imperial state they call home. Nowhere has this critical failure been more evident than in their acceptance of the premise that there really is something called a 'war on terror' or 'terrorism'..."

Iraq

• Iraq: They Call This Stability?:

  "Life in Iraq, the Pentagon boasts, is returning to normal. But the truth is a very different story...."

• Officers Agree: The Military is in Trouble

  "The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are taking a huge toll on the American military. Who says so? The nation’s military officers, who are in as good a position as anyone to know...."

McCain

• For McCain, Self-Confidence on Ethics Poses Its Own Risk


• Does the Brownshirt Party have Aces up its Sleeve?
  Paul Craig Roberts writes a nightmare scenario:

  "The Brownshirt Party
  has chosen John “hundred year war” McCain as its presidential candidate. Except for Cheney, Norman Podhoretz, and billy kristol, McCain is America’s greatest warmonger...."

Obama

• Obama's Campaign: An Emotional Escape Hatch from the Bush Era

  When Americans vote for "change," what they're really saying is, "Get us out of here!"

• Making Sense of Barack Obama | The Third Way: Finding Balance In Mideast Analysis

  "While the right wing has been engaging in a shameful smear campaign against Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama, the hard left has been slamming him for “kowtowing” to AIPAC...."

• AlterNet: Where Would Obama Take the Nation?

  "We could expect more truth and transparency for starters...."

• The Kennedy Factor - The Opinionator - Opinion - New York Times Blog

  "...Clinton wouldn’t have as easy a time working the legislative bureaucracy as she’d have her supporters believe. And Obama — messy desk notwithstanding — might not do such a bad job of it."

Hillary

• A New Clinton Scandal? Richard Miniter reports:

  "Bill Clinton invited Frank Giustra, a Canadian mining executive, to travel with him to Almaty, the capital of Kazakhstan in September 2005. Apparently, they were not simply sight-seeing...."

Universal HealthCare

• The Road to Universal Coverage
  Robert Reich writes,

  "...Mandates are a sideshow, and fighting over them risks turning away voters from the main event...."

• AlterNet: Health and Wellness: 10 Myths About Canadian Health Care, Busted

Iran

• Bush Won't Let Facts Stand in the Way of Regime Change in Iran:

  "Former UN chief weapons inspector Scott Ritter warns that another war is inevitable, unless we defy Bush's attempts to spin the facts about Iran...."

Politics

• Show Us the Money:

  "As the presidential campaign narrows and its costs skyrocket, detailed disclosure of financial resources becomes ever more important. Of the leading contenders, so far, only Senator Barack Obama has released his full income-tax returns — a level of disclosure once routine for candidates after the political corruption of Watergate...."

• Ari Emanuel: My Brother the Superdelegate and Why I Don't Trust Him to Pick the Next President

The Media

• How the spooks took over the news

  In his controversial new book, Nick Davies argues that shadowy intelligence agencies are pumping out black propaganda to manipulate public opinion – and that the media simply swallow it wholesale.

Big Brother

• Exclusive! The FBI Deputizes Business

  "Today, more than 23,000 representatives of private industry are working quietly with the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security. The members of this rapidly growing group, called InfraGard, receive secret warnings of terrorist threats before the public does—and, at least on one occasion, before elected officials. In return, they provide information to the government..."

• AlterNet: Bush Breaks the Law Again, Gives Himself Line-Item Veto Power

  "In other words, Bush just gave himself the power to decide how the next Administration spends the taxpayers’ money...."

• Secrets and Rights | New York Times Editorial

  "President Bush’s excesses in the name of fighting terrorism are legion. To avoid accountability, his administration has repeatedly sought early dismissal of lawsuits that might finally expose government misconduct, brandishing flimsy claims that going forward would put national security secrets at risk...."

• AlterNet: Key 9/11 Commission Staffer Held Secret Meetings With Rove, Scaled Back Criticisms of White House

  "I smell a rodent...."

The Economy

• Quiz: The Middle Class Squeeze . NOW | PBS

  "Find out how much you know about today's economy and the pressures facing middle-income Americans...."

• The Real State of The Union … Call Bush’s Bluff | OurFuture.org (VIDEO)

Impeachment

• AlterNet: Rights and Liberties: Why Is Impeachment Important? [VIDEO]


• AlterNet: Want to Prevent a Depression? Impeach Dick Cheney

  "Why is it that, since Reagan came to Washington in 1981, "bipartisan unity" has always meant Democratic capitulation to Republicans?..."

Technorati tags: War on Terror, Iraq, Iran, McCain, Obama, Clinton, Universal Healthcare, media, Police state, secretive government, Bush, Cheney, Impeachment, US Economy

MUST READ: Daniel Ellsberg: Bush Likely to Attack Iran

Ignorance is not bliss, folks. Please read the following article and react promptly with letters and phonecalls to your representatives and senators:

AlterNet: ForeignPolicy: Whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg: Bush Likely to Attack Iran, Impeachment a Must

McClellan's Dish: Impeachment is Back on the Table

The most powerful leader in the world had called upon me to speak on his behalf and help restore credibility he lost amid the failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. So I stood at the White House briefing room podium in front of the glare of the klieg lights for the better part of two weeks and publicly exonerated two of the senior-most aides in the White House: Karl Rove and Scooter Libby.

There was one problem. It was not true.

I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the Vice President, the President's chief of staff, and the President himself.

--Excerpt from Scott McClellan's forthcoming book "What Happened"

(Public Affairs Books, due out in April 2008)

Dave Lindorf (Counterpunch):

With that one little statement, released on the Public Affairs Books website this week, all excuses for not impeaching President Bush and Vice President Cheney, not to mention indicting Cheney (who of course has no immunity from prosecution while in office), have evaporated.

Here is rock-solid evidence from a man who, as press secretary, was privy to the inner workings of the White House, of a vile conspiracy involving the two top men in the Bush/Cheney administration, as well as their top three staffpeople, to expose the identity of an important CIA undercover operative, Valerie Plame, and then, when caught, to obstruct a criminal investigation by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, into that crime.

Forget for a moment the administration's other high crimes and misdemeanors and acts of bribery and treason, though many, like defying laws passed by the Congress, or violating the Nuremburg Charter, are surely far more egregious. This particular set of crimes--conspiracy, obstruction of justice, lying, and of course the underlying crime of abuse of power and perhaps treason (since Plame's responsibility as a high-rankiing CIA operative was preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, particularly in the Middle East!)--is serious enough.

There is no way that American democracy can continue to survive, even in its current truncated form, if the Congress continues to duck this issue and pretend that it has "more important things to do," as Speaker Nancy Pelosi and her retinue of "leaders" in the House have continued to claim for an entire year in control of the Congress.

To keep impeachment "off the table," knowing that the president and vice president brazenly lied to the American people and to the Special Counsel's office about such a serious offense, is to make a mockery of the Constitution and the law....

Read more.

Photo Credit: "White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan and President Bush announce that Mr. McClellan is resigning his position on the South Lawn Wednesday, April 19, 2006. "One of these days he and I are going to be rocking on chairs in Texas, talking about the good old days and his time as the Press Secretary," said the President. "And I can assure you I will feel the same way then that I feel now, that I can say to Scott, job well done." White House photo by Eric Draper"

Related Articles:

• Jay Rosen: A World Made More Opaque: Why Scott McClellan Had His Job


• In McClellan's Own Words...* (Excerpt from Scott McClellan's Blockbuster expose', "What Happened")


• Is Impeachment Still Off the Table Pelosi?

Technorati tags: Impeachment, Karl Rove, Libby, Cheney, Bush, Scott McClellan, "What Happened"

Rep. Dennis Kucinich: Effort to Impeach Vice President Cheney Still Alive

Democracy Now! 11/09/07:

Despite the best efforts of the Democratic leadership, impeachment was indeed on the table this week in Washington. On Tuesday, Congressmember and presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich nearly forced the full House to vote on his measure to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney. House Resolution 333 accuses Cheney of deliberately manipulating intelligence and deceiving the public to build support for the invasion of Iraq and now towards a possible attack on Iran. Twenty-one House Democrats have supported the bill, but it's met fierce opposition from the Democratic leadership.

Democratic leaders were able to send the bill to the House Judiciary Committee, where they expect it to languish. In a bizarre sequence, Republican lawmakers initially voted against tabling the bill after their leadership apparently decided a House debate would embarrass the Democrats. The bill was eventually sent to committee after a back-and-forth wrangling between Kucinich and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer.

Democratic leaders have famously declared that impeachment is off the table. But their view does not fall in line with recent polling figures. An American Research Group poll in July found that fifty-four percent of Americans support beginning impeachment proceedings against Vice President Cheney. Seventy-four percent of Democrats were also in favor.

Congressmember Dennis Kucinich of Ohio introduced the measure. He joins me now from Washington.

Listen to the interview and/or read a transcript here.

Thanks to Information Clearing House.

Photo Credit: "Double Rainbow" � Kucinich 2008 Action Center

Also See:

• Cheney Tried to Stifle Dissent in Iran NIE by Gareth Porter

Technorati tags: Dennis Kucinich, Impeachment, Dick Cheney, media, Democracy Now!

Democrats Bury Cheney Impeachment

The following is an update on Dennis Kucinich's noble attempt to put impeachment on the table.



Thanks to: The Real News.

Technorati tags: David Swanson, Impeachment, Dennis Kucinich, Dick Cheney

Kucinich's Resolution Survives Tabling Attempt, Is Referred to Committee

READ AN ACCOUNT OF WHAT HAPPENED ON THE FLOOR TODAY.

Then send Dennis your heartfelt thanks.

Hat tip to AfterDowningStreet.org.

Technorati tags: Kucinich, Impeachment, Cheney

And Speaking of Impeachment....

Gonzo Flames Out

Democrats.com provides another good perspective:

Even as Conyers wimped out, fate smiled upon us in the smirking face of of Alberto Gonzales, who is just so bad that even Republican Senators can barely stop themselves from screaming at him.

Gonzales testified again today before the Senate Judiciary Committee to explain why he lied to them in his previous appearances. So what did Gonzales do? He lied and lied some more.

Everyone who cares about Justice is outraged. The Senate is finally considering perjury charges. But if the Senate filed charges, guess who'd have to prosecute? Alberto Gonzales' own utterly corrupt Justice Department!

Impeachment is the only cure and it's time for Congress to exercise it. Once they do, they will discover the American people support their efforts to hold Bush & Co. accountable. And an impeachment investigation into Abu Gonzo will lead directly to Cheney and Bush. He must know about some nasty skeletons - why else are they protecting him in the face of Republican outrage?

Tell your Representatives to Impeach Alberto Gonzales Now:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/94

Also See:

• Crooks and Liars: �Alberto Gonzales


• WAPO | Gonzo on the Hill: A Comedic Tragedy:

  "Forget about the politicization of the Justice Department. Forget about the falling morale there. Forget about the rise in violent crime in some of our biggest cities. Forget about the events leading up to the US attorney scandal and the way he has handled the prosecutor purge since. Forget about the Department's role in allowing warrantless domestic surveillance. Forget about the contorted and contradictory accounts he's offered before in his own defense. Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales deserves to be fired for his testimony Tuesday alone," writes Andrew Cohen for The Washington Post.

• ABC News: Bush Aides to Face Contempt Citations

  "Heading toward a separation-of-powers showdown, House Democrats approved contempt-of-Congress citations against two White House aides who have refused to comply with subpoenas for information on the abrupt firings of federal prosecutors," reports Laurie Kellman for the Associated Press.

Technorati tags: Alberto Gonzales, Impeachment, Congress, Perjury, Domestic Spying, news

Office Arrests: The Shame of John Conyers

"Heck of a job, Connie."
John Conyers has completely copped out on his supporters. What's worse, he had them arrested.

Dave Lindorff reports:

"If Rosa Parks had lived two years longer, what happened today in the halls of Congress might have killed her. It certainly would have broken her heart...."

As a result, Cindy Sheehan has kept her promise to her supporters:

I Announce My Candidacy Against Nancy Pelosi in California's 8th. By Cindy Sheehan

"I am committed to challenging a two-party system that has kept us in a state of constant warfare for the last 60 years and has become more and more beholden to special interests and has forgotten the faces of the people whom it represents. I am committed to using our strength as a country to wage peace and to elevate the status of every citizen in our country by converting the enduring war economy to a prosperous one with lasting peace...."

The hard truth is that we can't depend on our elected officials to do ANYTHING unless they are in fear of their jobs. So it is up to each of us to bombard our officials with emails, phone calls, petitions, and protests, stating in no uncertain terms that should they fail to hold the Bush administration accountable for impeachable crimes, we will do everything in our power to vote them out of office.

I've included some recent articles on impeachment to help you make your case. You can also search "impeachment" on my blog for earlier ammunition.

THERE IS NO EXCUSE NOT TO ACT. IF YOU DO NOTHING, YOU DESERVE THE GOVERNMENT YOU GET -- AND IT WON'T BE A DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC.

OUR CHILDREN DESERVE BETTER. IF NOT FOR YOURSELF, DO IT FOR THEM.

Democrats.com provides a solid point of view and one way you can help:

"On Monday, Rep. John Conyers brushed off the heroic impeachment efforts of Cindy Sheehan, Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Ray McGovern, Medea Benjamin, David Swanson, 300 dedicated impeachment marchers, 1 million petition signers, resolutions from dozens of cities and towns, and activists who called his office every 30 seconds.

His reasons? First, he doesn't have the support of a majority of the House (218 votes) to impeach Bush or Cheney. Second, FOX News would attack him.

These are simply not acceptable reasons to allow George Bush and Dick Cheney to commit war crimes and shred the Constitution - and we're not going to accept them. Instead, we're going to fight harder than ever for impeachment.

Conyers doesn't have 218 votes today, but we can change that. Tell your Representatives to join the 14 sponsors of H.Res. 333, Articles of Impeachment for Vice President Cheney:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/88
Also call them at 202-224-3121 and demand co-sponsorship of H.Res. 333 now.

Conyers would be attacked by FOX News, but we can change that too. Let's boycott FOX News advertisers:
http://www.democrats.com/boycott-fox-news-advertisers

We must also give Conyers a backbone transplant. Let's flood Conyers and other House Judiciary Democrats with more emails than ever:
http://www.democrats.com/topelosiandjudiciary "

RESOURCES: Why We Must Impeach:

• Jimmy Breslin: Impeach George Bush to stop war lies, deaths


• The Case for Impeachment [VIDEO]

  "Even the man who wrote the articles of impeachment against President Clinton admits Bush has committed impeachable offenses...."

• The Logic of Impeachment By Robert Parry:

  "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has taken impeachment “off the table,” in line with Official Washington’s view that trying to oust George W. Bush and Dick Cheney would be an unpleasant waste of time. But there is emerging a compelling logic that an unprecedented dual impeachment might be vital to the future of the United States....

• The Bush Years: Was Nothing Real? :

  Leonard Pitts, a syndicated columnist based in Washington (McClatchy-Tribune Newspapers) writes,"Richard Nixon was a crook. He was also a liar and an anti-Semite who sought to subvert the Constitution.
  
  I wish he was president again...."

• Former Senate Intel Chairman Graham: The Case For Impeachment 'Is Even More Truthful Today'

  "How many Americans would say that it is a greater dereliction of duty as President of the United States to have a consensual sexual affair or to take the country to war under manipulated, fabricated, and largely untruthful representations which the President knew or should have known. I think the answer to that question is clear...."

• Poll: Much of US Favors Bush/Cheney Impeachment


• Historian Howard Zinn Calls for Activism


• Come on, Obama, and Clinton, and Edwards, and Pelosi: All Aboard the Impeachment Train | The Progressive

Photo Credit: portland.indymedia.org

Technorati tags: John Conyers, Impeachment, Cindy Sheehan, Bush, Cheney, Impeach, news

Not Ready for Mainstream News

Turn off your TV. Watch the video. Get mad. Do something about it.



"Misunderstanding arising from ignorance breeds fear, and fear remains the greatest enemy of peace." -- Lester B. Pearson

• Kissinger’s Secret Meeting With Putin | By Mike Whitney:

  "When a political heavyweight, like Henry Kissinger, jets-off on a secret mission to Moscow; it usually shows up in the news. Not this time...."

• Lies, More Lies, And Damn Lies | By Eric Margolis:

  "As the White House now ponders an attack on Iran, we would do well to recall the famed words of King Pyrrhus of Epirus, `one more such victory and we are ruined.' ..."

• Ship of fools: Johann Hari sets sail with America's swashbuckling neocons | The Independent:

  "The Iraq war has been an amazing success, global warming is just a myth – and as for Guantanamo Bay, it's practically a holiday camp... The annual cruise organised by the 'National Review', mouthpiece of right-wing America, is a parallel universe populated by straight-talking, gun-toting, God-fearing Republicans...."

• U.S. intelligence advisors see failure in fight with Al Qaeda in Pakistan | International Herald Tribune:

  "President George W. Bush's top counterterrorism advisers acknowledged Tuesday that the strategy for fighting Osama bin Laden's leadership of Al Qaeda in Pakistan had failed, as the White House released a grim new intelligence assessment that has forced the administration to consider more aggressive measures inside Pakistan...."

• The State | Pakistan criticizes U.S. terror warning:

  "A U.S. intelligence report that al-Qaida is regrouping in northwest Pakistan is unsubstantiated, Pakistan said Wednesday, and it asked Washington to provide it with 'actionable intelligence.'"

• Peter Galbraith | The War Is Lost:

  Former ambassador Peter Galbraith, vividly lays out the dismal state of Iraq and the various catastrophes likely to flow from most of the major "benchmarks" established by the Bush administration and Congress, if they were ever to become reality.

• Iran: 2nd Round of Talks With U.S. Soon | Guardian Unlimited:

  "Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that his government had accepted a U.S. request for ambassador-level talks on Iraq, to be held 'in the near future.'..."

• Guardian Unlimited: Bush's new faith-based strategy:

  "Has God sent a reminder to the amnesiac president of the United States? How else to account for George Bush's sudden and belated announcement of an international peace conference on the Middle East? It was back in 2003 that the US President reported an even earlier divine directive as told to the Palestinian leaders Abu Mazen and Nabil Shaath:
  
  I'm driven with a mission from God. God would tell me, 'George, go and fight those terrorists in Afghanistan.' And I did, and then God would tell me, 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq ...'. And I did. And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East'. And by God I'm gonna do it.
  
  Presumably Jehovah, operating on an eternal time scale, thought that half a decade or so of indolence on the Israel/Palestine file would not make a difference...."

• YouTube |Your Cell Phone: FBI can listen even when phone is turned off


• 911Truth.org | US Social Forum Supports Call for Independent, International Investigation into 9/11

  "Thanks to donations from some of our generous supporters, 911truth.org was present at the first ever United States Social Forum, along with 15 other 9/11 truth activists from six states. We attended with the idea we'd have to convince people to look at the need for a real investigation, but what we learned was that most everyone was already aware of some important 9/11 questions and agreed with us! Even better, we introduced a Resolution demanding an "independent, international investigation of 9/11" which received resounding applause by thousands in attendance at the final Peoples Assembly!..."

• Bush Middle East plan starts to unravel | The Guardian:

  "George Bush yesterday encountered the weakest of welcomes for his call for an international peace conference on the Middle East.A day after he unveiled his plan for a conference of Israelis, Palestinians and Arab governments in the autumn, there were few signs of optimism that such a gathering could produce a final resolution to the conflict...."

• AlterNet: If This Is Such a Rich Country, Why Are We Getting Squeezed?:

  Heather Boushey and Joshua Holland report for AlterNet on the contradictory stories of the American economy, where the stock market continues to boom, but at the same time Americans are told their government is unable to pay for a "robust social net.

• Robert Scheer | King George W.:� James Madison's Nightmare:

  "George W. Bush is the imperial president that James Madison and other founders of this great republic warned us about.� He lied the nation into precisely the %u201Cforeign entanglements%u201D that George Washington feared would destroy the experiment in representative government, and he has championed a spurious notion of security over individual liberty, thus eschewing the alarms of Thomas Jefferson as to the deprivation of the inalienable rights of free citizens.� But most important, he has used the sledgehammer of war to obliterate the separation of powers that James Madison enshrined in the U.S. Constitution."

• Administration Drug Officials Appeared With GOP Candidates:

  "White House officials arranged for top officials at the Office of National Drug Control Policy to help as many as 18 vulnerable Republican congressmen by making appearances and sometimes announcing new federal grants in the lawmakers' districts in the months leading up to the November 2006 elections, a Democratic lawmaker said yesterday...."

• AlterNet: Bush Government to Poor Voters: We Don't Want You to Vote

  "The Justice Department is pressuring 10 states to purge their voter rolls, while states are ignoring laws to help low-income Americans register to vote...."

• Energy firms' role in policy? | Washington Post:

  "After a six-year battle the record of who Cheney created our nation's energy policy with is published, and it isn't a pretty picture....."

Technorati tags: news, Bush, Cheney, Russia, Iraq, FBI, GOP, Energy Policy, Impeachment, 9/11, Vote Fraud, Israel, Iran, Pakistan

Impeach Now

Or Face the End of Constitutional Democracy

This is a MUST READ:

Paul Craig Roberts (CounterPunch) writes:

Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran.

Bush has put in place all the necessary measures for dictatorship in the form of "executive orders" that are triggered whenever Bush declares a national emergency. Recent statements by Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff, former Republican senator Rick Santorum and others suggest that Americans might expect a series of staged, or false flag, "terrorist" events in the near future.

Many attentive people believe that the reason the Bush administration will not bow to expert advice and public opinion and begin withdrawing US troops from Iraq is that the administration intends to rescue its unpopular position with false flag operations that can be used to expand the war to Iran.

Too much is going wrong for the Bush administration: the failure of its Middle East wars, Republican senators jumping ship, Turkish troops massed on northern Iraq's border poised for an invasion to deal with Kurds, and a majority of Americans favoring the impeachment of Cheney and a near-majority favoring Bush's impeachment. The Bush administration desperately needs dramatic events to scare the American people and the Congress back in line with the militarist-police state that Bush and Cheney have fostered.

William Norman Grigg recently wrote that the GOP is "praying for a terrorist strike" to save the party from electoral wipeout in 2008.
Chertoff, Cheney, the neocon nazis, and Mossad would have no qualms about saving the bacon for the Republicans, who have enabled Bush to start two unjustified wars, with Iran waiting in the wings to be attacked in a third war.

The Bush administration has tried unsuccessfully to resurrect the terrorist fear factor by infiltrating some blowhard groups and encouraging them to talk about staging "terrorist" events. The talk, encouraged by federal agents, resulted in "terrorist" arrests hyped by the media, but even the captive media was unable to scare people with such transparent sting operations.

If the Bush administration wants to continue its wars in the Middle East and to entrench the "unitary executive" at home, it will have to conduct some false flag operations that will both frighten and anger the American people and make them accept Bush's declaration of "national emergency" and the return of the draft. Alternatively, the administration could simply allow any real terrorist plot to proceed without hindrance.

A series of staged or permitted attacks would be spun by the captive media as a vindication of the neoconsevatives' Islamophobic policy, the intention of which is to destroy all Middle Eastern governments that are not American puppet states. Success would give the US control over oil, but the main purpose is to eliminate any resistance to Israel's complete absorption of Palestine into Greater Israel.

Think about it. If another 9/11-type "security failure" were not in the works, why would Homeland Security czar Chertoff go to the trouble of convincing the Chicago Tribune that Americans have become complacent about terrorist threats and that he has "a gut feeling" that America will soon be hit hard?

Why would Republican warmonger Rick Santorum say on the Hugh Hewitt radio show that "between now and November, a lot of things are going to happen, and I believe that by this time next year, the American public's (sic) going to have a very different view of this war."

Throughout its existence the US government has staged incidents that the government then used in behalf of purposes that it could not otherwise have pursued. According to a number of writers, false flag operations have been routinely used by the Israeli state. During the Czarist era in Russia, the secret police would set off bombs in order to arrest those the secret police regarded as troublesome. Hitler was a dramatic orchestrator of false flag operations. False flag operations are a commonplace tool of governments.

Ask yourself: Would a government that has lied us into two wars and is working to lie us into an attack on Iran shrink from staging "terrorist" attacks in order to remove opposition to its agenda?

Only a diehard minority believes in the honesty and integrity of the Bush-Cheney administration and in the truthfulness of the corporate media.

Hitler, who never achieved majority support in a German election, used the Reichstag fire to fan hysteria and push through the Enabling Act, which made him dictator. Determined tyrants never require majority support in order to overthrow constitutional orders.

The American constitutional system is near to being overthrown. Are coming "terrorist" events of which Chertoff warns and Santorum promises the means for overthrowing our constitutional democracy?

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions. He can be reached at: PaulCraigRoberts@yahoo.com

Also See:

• Next We Take Tehran | Robert Dreyfuss | Mother Jones


• Cheney pushes Bush to act on Iran

  · Military solution back in favour as Rice loses out
  · President 'not prepared to leave conflict unresolved'
  
  The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned....

Technorati tags: Paul Craig Roberts, CounterPunch, Impeachment, Bush, State Sponsored Terrorism, Democracy, War on Terror, news, commentary

6 Years of Bush: Lawlessness, Waste and Incompetence

Ralph Nader writes (Counterpunch.org):

Thursday, July 12, 2007's Washington Post was another day of well-supported headlines chronicling the lawless, incompetent, wasteful, negligent, bumbling and multiple perils to our nation's security and safety caused by the Bush-Cheney regime.

One headline reads: "U.S. Warns of Stronger Al-Qaeda." The report by the Bush Administration's National Counterterrorism Center was titled "Al-Qaida Better Positioned to Strike the West." Safe havens are being established in remote tribal areas of western Pakistan.

In recent days, George W. Bush has told audiences of the growing menace of Al-Qaeda inside Iraq.

There was no Al-Qaeda in Iraq before Bush's invasion.

Five hundred billion dollars (and vast bloodshed) later and we are left with the Bush government's own assessment of Al-Qaeda's resurgence and spread!

Officials inside and retired generals, diplomats and intelligence specialists outside the Bush government have warned before and after the Iraq invasion of the disastrous consequences of this maneuver. Inside the Pentagon, the U.S. Army personnel, up to four-star Generals, have warned against the invasion but have been muzzled.

Bush's own CIA director-Porter J. Goss-, General William Casey and others declared that the U.S. military presence was fueling the insurgency in Iraq and Goss added that our presence in Iraq is a magnet attracting more people from other countries to learn the skills of sabotage and terror.

Bush's own counter-terrorism advisor in the White House, Richard Clarke, wrote in his book, Against All Enemies, that Osama bin Laden must be beseeching Bush to invade Iraq to inflame the Muslim world and generate new recruits.

Nothing-facts, judgment, the destruction of Iraq, the U.S. casualties, the massive drain on the taxpayers, the distraction from the needs of the American people affect this obsessively-compulsed duo in the White House.

Another headline in the Post that day was an assessment by Bush's CIA chief, Michael V. Hayden that the U.S. installed Iraqi government was unable to govern and that the situation seems irreversible. He added that he could not "point to any milestone or checkpoint where we can turn this thing around." Those words were conveyed to the Iraq study group on the same day (November 13, 2006) that the Group heard Mr. Bush give an upbeat assessment of that same government.

Bush has been chronically detached from the reality of his own advisors.

Also on page one was this stunner of a sting: "Undercover congressional investigators posing as West Virginia businessmen obtained a license with almost no scrutiny from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that enabled them to buy enough radioactive material from U.S. suppliers to build a "dirty bomb," a new government [GAO] report says."

How about that for the Bush's agency that is supposed to keep the atom in safe hands!

Inside on the Business Page is "Armored Vehicles Chronically Late." This latest chapter in the Bush's management by criminal negligence leaving soldiers without adequate body armor for many, many months of preventable fatalities.

The reporter, Renae Merle, writes: "The Pentagon inspector general's office has found that a program to deliver special armored vehicles to protect military personnel in Iraq from roadside bombs has been marred by delays and questionable contracting practices that may have endangered troops." "May have"? When such vehicles are not shipped out, soldiers lose their lives and limbs.

If George W. Bush's daughters, Jenna and Barbara were on those Iraqi roads, wanna bet how fast Laura Bush would get George to focus?

Day after day in the papers and on the television news, the endemic mismanagement of corrupt corporate contracts, flouting of civil liberties, due process of law and inability to get anything done, even in widespread post-Katrina emergencies, produces no accountability, no compelling changes from the Congress, no impeachment proceedings.

Poll after poll shows Bush-Cheney approval ratings below thirty percent. About 70 percent of the people want out of Iraq. And many polls show the public wants the Bush regime to end, believes that Bush does not care for the people like themselves, and that corporations have too much control over their lives.

And not only conservatives are appalled by the gigantic deficits Bush is piling up for future generations of Americans.

This government leaves Americans defenseless when it comes to occupational diseases, medical malpractice, air and water pollution. Bush can't even police defective or contaminated products pouring into this country from communist China.

Because it has no quorum, his Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is just about powerless to impose civil penalties or otherwise regulate or recall defective products, domestic or imported.

As reported in the useful Loyola Consumer Law Review, Bush has not filled the third Commissioner's position for over a year which prevents the CPSC from exercising its authority over dangerous products. The agency is in limbo, while injuries mount.

Ralph Nader is the author of The Seventeen Traditions

Hat tip to Al Buono.

Also See:

• Killing the Constitution: How I Became a Radical Twenty Years Ago Today


• REAGAN AIDES AND THE 'SECRET' GOVERNMENT

Technorati tags: Ralph Nader, Bush, Impeachment, commentary, US Government