Friday, March 31, 2006

SOME HELP......MAY NOT BE ENOUGH

This morning the Senate Judiciary Committee met to consider...and debate...Sen. Russ Feingold's resolution for censure of Bush for ordering the NSA to wiretap the conversations of unsuspecting American citizens. Russ needed support from the rest of the Democrats, and from his witnesses there to testify.

Russ got help from his witnesses, and some from the other Dems......which may not be enough. Fuckin' spineless bastards!

First from Reuters via Google News:

John Dean backs uphill case for censure of Bush

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former White House counsel John Dean said on Friday that U.S. President George W. Bush's domestic spying program raised more concerns about abuse of power than the Watergate scandal that toppled his boss Richard Nixon.

Dean, who served time in prison for his role in Watergate, testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee on behalf of a seemingly futile Democratic bid to censure Bush for the eavesdropping program that is part of his war on terrorism.

"I appear today because I believe, with good reason, that the situation is even more serious," Dean, whose testimony three decades ago help lead to Nixon's resignation in 1974, said in support of the seldom-used measure to discredit a president.


....and now from New York Times via Google News:

Censure Resolution Sparks Bitter Debate in Senate

WASHINGTON, March 31 — President Bush's once-secret surveillance program sparked a bitter debate today before the Senate Judiciary Committee over what kind of president George W. Bush has become and how he stands in history.

The committee met to consider a resolution by one of its members, Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, to censure the president over the surveillance program. The resolution was not voted on and is almost surely going nowhere, but it still had the power to ignite feelings.

Under Mr. Bush's theory of government, Mr. Feingold said, "we no longer have a constitutional system consisting of three co-equal branches of government. We have a monarchy."

Senator Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the panel's ranking Democrat who was congratulated on his 66th birthday today in a rare moment of bipartisan friendliness, sided with Mr. Feingold, although stopping short of saying he would vote for censure.

The Congressional resolution of force passed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, makes no mention of surveillance, Mr. Leahy said, yet "the administration claims now that Congress unconsciously authorized warrantless wiretaps."

"This is 'Alice in Wonderland' gone amok," Mr. Leahy said. "It is not what we in Congress said, and it certainly was not what we in Congress intended."


Go read both articles. True to form, the Dems are spineless and the Repubs are trying to legitimize Bush's illegal behavior.

HOW HISTORY WILL REMEMBER BUSH

Meet the F*ckers

POLITICAL LABELS

Political labels, just about everyone has one. If you have ever taken a stand on a political issue....which I know most of you have....you've been labeled by someone.

Whether you are a liberal, or a progressive, or a democrat(I know, I didn't need to through this one in), or a socialist, or a communist, or maybe even a moderate republican, you will probably find humor in what I have below. If you're a republican/neocon, or just a plain ol' repub, yor're probably gonna get pissed.

If you are offended by this....waaaa, that's too bad. And for those who maybe/are offended remember one thing: It was King Louis XVI who BANKROLLED THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION!


And now for your enjoyment, the following:

Bush French Clothing Label

Sunday, March 26, 2006

FEINGOLD IN '08?........COULD HAPPEN

I've written about it before....and, yeh, I think Russ would be a good President. If you stop to think about what some of the other "hopefuls" have done, along with their spinlessness, there is not one who has consistently stood up for us.

From the Associated Press via the Boston Globe:

Feingold's censure resolution may pay off

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., discusses his resolution to censure President Bush during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington in this March 16, 2006 file photo.

WASHINGTON --While only two Democrats in the Senate have embraced Sen. Russ Feingold's call for censuring President Bush, the idea is increasing his standing among many Democratic voters as he ponders a bid for the party's presidential nomination in 2008.

Feingold, a Wisconsin Democrat, insists his proposal has nothing to do with his political ambitions. But he does challenge Democrats who argue it will help energize Republicans.

"Those Democrats said that within two minutes of my announcing my idea," Feingold said in a telephone interview last week. "I don't see any serious evidence of that."

A Newsweek poll taken March 16-17 found that 50 percent of those surveyed opposed censuring Bush while 42 percent supported it, but among Democrats, 60 percent favored the effort.

Feingold's resolution would censure the president for authorizing a warrantless surveillance program, which the senator contends is illegal. Co-sponsors are Democratic Sens. Tom Harkin of Iowa and Barbara Boxer of California.

......and.....

Feingold said his sole purpose was to hold Bush accountable, but he argued that it's also good politics.

"These Democratic pundits are all scared of the Republican base getting energized, but they're willing to pay the price of not energizing the Democratic base," he said. "It's an overly defensive and meek approach to politics."

Some Democrats have accused Feingold of putting his 2008 presidential ambitions over helping Democrats try to recapture the House and Senate in this year's midterm elections. Should Feingold run, his opposition to the war in Iraq, the Patriot Act and the spying program would help position him as the liberal candidate.

...............

More at the link.

REPUBLICAN PROBLEMS

Looks like it's not only the Democrats who don't have a plan. Seems like the Republicans don't have a "plan" either....or a clue.

From the Washington Post:

GOP Struggles To Define Its Message for 2006 Elections

Republican efforts to craft a policy and political agenda to carry the party into the midterm elections have stumbled repeatedly as GOP leaders face widespread disaffection and disagreement within the ranks.

Anxiety over President Bush's Iraq policy, internal clashes over such divisive issues as immigration, and rising complaints that the party has abandoned conservative principles on spending restraint have all hobbled the effort to devise an election-year message, said several lawmakers involved in the effort.

While it is a Republican refrain that Democrats criticize Bush but have no positive vision, for now the governing party also has no national platform around which lawmakers are prepared to rally.

In January, Bush laid out a modest menu of ideas on health care and energy independence, but Congress has made little movement on them. Senior White House officials consulted with lawmakers earlier this year about jointly crafting an agenda that would allow Bush and Republicans in Congress -- both suffering from depressed public approval ratings -- to get off the defensive. A Republican familiar with the process said these discussions did not result in a consensus.

New House Majority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) has been wrestling with the same problem, so far without success.

The struggles reflect philosophical differences among competing factions within the party, but they also underscore the political consequences of holding power. Republicans insist they remain united around core principles of smaller government, lower taxes and a strong national defense, but can no longer agree on how to implement that philosophy and are squabbling over their delivery on those commitments.

.............

You can read the rest at the link above.

IS THIS THE MONSTER BUSH HAS CREATED?

I really didn't think our troops could, or would, do something like this. Bush's little war has fucked with and fucked-up our military.
This is a long read, but damn-it, it needs to be read.
Here's part of the article, follow the link for the rest.

From UK Times Online:

Iraqis killed by US troops ‘on rampage’
Hala Jaber and Tony Allen-Mills, New York
The Pentagon is finding claims of abuse by US forces tougher to dismiss, as campaigners demand harsher punishment for violent soldiers.

THE villagers of Abu Sifa near the Iraqi town of Balad had become used to the sound of explosions at night as American forces searched the area for suspected insurgents. But one night two weeks ago Issa Harat Khalaf heard a different sound that chilled him to the bone.

Khalaf, a 33-year-old security officer guarding oil pipelines, saw a US helicopter land near his home. American soldiers stormed out of the Chinook and advanced on a house owned by Khalaf’s brother Fayez, firing as they went.

Khalaf ran from his own house and hid in a nearby grove of trees. He saw the soldiers enter his brother’s home and then heard the sound of women and children screaming.

“Then there was a lot of machinegun fire,” he said last week. After that there was the most frightening sound of all — silence, followed by explosions as the soldiers left the house.

Once the troops were gone, Khalaf and his fellow villagers began a frantic search through the ruins of his brother’s home. Abu Sifa was about to join a lengthening list of Iraqi communities claiming to have suffered from American atrocities.

According to Iraqi police, 11 bodies were pulled from the wreckage of the house, among them four women and five children aged between six months and five years. An official police report obtained by a US reporter for Knight Ridder newspapers said: “The American forces gathered the family members in one room and executed 11 people.”

The Abu Sifa deaths on March 15 were first reported last weekend on the day that Time magazine published the results of a 10-week investigation into an incident last November when US marines killed 15 civilians in their homes in the western Iraqi town of Haditha.

...........

In Abu Sifa last week, Khalaf’s account was corroborated by a neighbour, Hassan Kurdi Mahassen, who was also woken by the sound of helicopters and saw soldiers entering Fayez’s home after spraying it with such heavy fire that walls crumbled.

Mahassen said that once the soldiers had left — after apparently dropping several grenades that caused part of the house to collapse — villagers searched under the rubble “and found them all buried in one room”.

“Women and even the children were blindfolded and their hands bound. Some of their faces were totally disfigured. A lot of blood was on the floors and the walls.”

Khalaf said he had found the body of his mother Turkiya with her face unrecognisable. “She had been shot with a dumdum bullet,” he claimed.


This shit really pisses me off! I am so fucking tired of Bush and his bullshit moronic crap! His policies are destroying this country and now these same policies, and selfish whims, are turning our troops into butchers! Fuckin' bastard!

Saturday, March 25, 2006

REPUBLICANS TRY TO TAKE THE HEAT OFF BUSH

Poor King George. His poll numbers suck, he's been caught lying....and denies it, he's broken the law, and about half the country wants him impeached. So, to protect their dear leader, the Republicans and neocons have gone on the offensive.......which they do quite well because they are so offensive.

From Reuters:

Republicans try to change subject from Bush

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republicans, beset by an array of political troubles, are cranking up the attacks on Democrats and trying to change the subject from President George W. Bush ahead of November's congressional elections.

With Bush slumping in the polls and Republicans on the defensive over the Iraq war and a series of ethics scandals, the party wants to shift the spotlight away from the White House by convincing voters that Democratic rule would be a dangerous choice.

Republicans hope the strategy will limit the national momentum that Democrats might ride into November and fire up the party's conservative base to ensure they turn up at the polls.

A Time magazine poll released on Friday showed Democrats favored for House seats by a 9-point margin over Republicans. Among the 1,003 respondents, fewer than two in five approved of the job either party was doing in Congress.

Vice President Dick Cheney fired the latest salvos against Democrats on Friday, saying their "sorry record" on security issues proved they were not capable of leading the war on terrorism.

"Some Democrats in Congress have decided that the president is the enemy," Cheney said at a fund-raiser in Orlando, Florida, referring to objections raised against Bush's domestic surveillance program.

Republican Party chief Ken Mehlman has led attacks on Wisconsin Democratic Sen. Russ Feingold's push for a censure resolution against Bush and Democratic calls for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

POLITICAL WOES

Republicans say the strategy is designed to get them off the defensive about their recent political problems, including scandals involving high-profile party leaders and uproars over a now-dead Arab port deal and a secret eavesdropping program.

Those difficulties have eaten away at public support for Bush and the Republican-led Congress in recent polls. But Republicans also believe Democrats, who have yet to develop a unified approach on Iraq or a uniform domestic agenda for the fall, remain vulnerable.




Like a mad dog that's been cornered, the Republicans are showing their teeth.

ANTI-BUSH FEVER?

The word impeachment seems to be brought up more and more in conversations and the "better" press. Could we be seeing the start of a fever brewing here? Why not....even wildfires start out small.

From the Washington Post:

Impeachment Whispers Getting Louder

Calls for the investigation and possible impeachment of Bush are bubbling up in many corners of the nation and on the Internet.



Near Paul Revere Country, Anti-Bush Cries Get Louder

By Michael Powell
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, March 25, 2006; A01

HOLYOKE, Mass. -- To drive through the mill towns and curling country roads here is to journey into New England's impeachment belt. Three of this state's 10 House members have called for the investigation and possible impeachment of President Bush.

Thirty miles north, residents in four Vermont villages voted earlier this month at annual town meetings to buy more rock salt, approve school budgets, and impeach the president for lying about Iraq having weapons of mass destruction and for sanctioning torture.....

...."Why not? The man's been lying from Jump Street on the war in Iraq," Clemons said. "Bush says there were weapons of mass destruction, but there wasn't. Says we had enough soldiers, but we didn't. Says it's not a civil war -- but it is." He added: "I was really upset about 9/11 -- so don't lie to me."

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors voted last month to urge Congress to impeach Bush, as have state Democratic parties, including those of New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina and Wisconsin. A Zogby International poll showed that 51 percent of respondents agreed that Bush should be impeached if he lied about Iraq, a far greater percentage than believed President Bill Clinton should be impeached during the Monica S. Lewinsky scandal.

And Harper's Magazine this month ran a cover piece titled "The Case for Impeachment: Why We Can No Longer Afford George W. Bush."


There's more that goes with this at the link.