December 13, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

LIBERAL WASHINGTON POST?

The cliche about the "liberal media" is almost a Pavlovian response among right-wingers. The media are right on, of course, if there is criticism of Democrats or liberals. But if the media dare criticize the manifold failings of conservatives they suddenly morph into "liberals." So it's interesting that the Washington Post editorial page wrote an almost glowing tribute to the late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. A tyrant is a tyrant is a tyrant. This commentary from Glenn Greenwald is at www.glenngreenwald.blogspot.com:

That is why it is so jarring and amazing to read the Editorial Page of the Washington Post -- in the form of Fred Hiatt -- defend and laud one of the most vicious and reprehensible tyrants of the last 30 years.

What kind of media do we have where one of the most prominent editorial voices views the slaughter of political opponents, pervasive torture, death squads, state-sponsored terrorism, military coups, and merciless, bloody tyranny as nothing more than some necessary, perhaps unfortunate measures, benevolently invoked to preserve order and mitigated -- even justified -- by the pursuit of free market economics? That is just perverse for anyone to argue, but particularly perverse for a newspaper editorial page.

It is not the least bit surprising to see the National Review hold a "symposium" in which its authoritarian-loving participants gush with admiration for the lawless and violent despotism of Augusto Pinochet. That is who they are.

But to see the "centrist" Post Editorial Board join them in paying homage to this despicable, murderous dictator -- a tyrant who, even ten years after his coup, was so brutal and inhumane that even the dictator-loving Reagan administration eventually tried to help push him out of power -- reveals all one needs to know about how radical our political dialogue and newspapers have been transformed in a relatively short period of time.

THE PHONY "WAR ON CHRISTMAS"

If a retailer doesn't say "Merry Christmas" right-wingers tell us Christians in the United States are being persecuted. If a Nativity scene isn't permitted on government property, it means Christians are under attack. Conservatism in general is ridiculous, but the "war on Christmas" takes it to a new extreme. Assuming these people read, they should read some history about real persecution. Real persecution meant things like crucifixion, torture, prison. What makes the "war on Christmas" even more ludicrous is the mixing of commercialism with religion. Do these people really want their religion to be associated with a big sale on Game Boys? This article by R. J. Eskow is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Question: What's motivating these guys who go around claiming there's a "War On Christmas," besides self-promotion and political cynicism? Answer: Whiny 60's-style self-pity, and the notion that their feelings matter.

Word to these self-described Christians: Jesus didn't talk about your feelings. He talked about your deeds. History is filled with the example of Christians who sacrificed for their beliefs by suffering poverty, imprisonment, even torture and death. (See Tom Fox for a recent example.)

Here's your idea of martyrdom: Some business people asked their staff to say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas." You heard about it. And that made you feel bad.

As trials and tribulations go, it beats getting stoned to death like St. Stephen. These businesses are only trying to be considerate toward the feelings of others, but the airwaves are ringing with your howls of anguish.

December 12, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

THE BUSH-PINOCHET CONNECTION

Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet died a few days ago. I don't think Pinochet has many mourners except some loons on the far right who consider a dictator a good guy if he advertises himself as anti-Communist. The United States helped inflict Pinochet on Chile by overthrowing the democratically-elected government of Salvador Allende. Pinochet proceeded to murder and torture for seventeen years. It's not surprising that the Bush family has connections to Pinochet. Robert Parry spells out the Bush-Pinochet connection in this article at www.consortiumnews.com:


Gen. Augusto Pinochet’s death on Dec. 10 means the Bush Family can breathe a little bit easier, knowing that criminal proceedings against Chile’s notorious dictator can no longer implicate his longtime friend and protector, former President George H.W. Bush.

Although Chilean investigations against other defendants may continue, the cases against Pinochet end with his death of a heart attack at the age of 91. Pinochet’s death from natural causes also marks a victory for world leaders, including George H.W. and George W. Bush, who shielded Pinochet from justice over the past three decades.

The Bush Family’s role in the Pinochet cover-up began in 1976 when then-CIA Director George H.W. Bush diverted investigators away from Pinochet’s guilt in a car bombing in Washington that killed political rival Orlando Letelier and an American, Ronni Moffitt.

PINOCHET AND THE FREE MARKET

One reason Augusto Pinochet is a hero to right-wingers is that Pinochet implemented many of the crackpot free market ideas dear to right-wingers. Pinochet did things like abolish the minimum wage, privatize the pension system, and slash taxes on business. The consequences were a fiasco, and should be a warning to us. This article by Greg Palast is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

In 1973, the year General Pinochet brutally seized the government, Chile's unemployment rate was 4.3%. In 1983, after ten years of free-market modernization, unemployment reached 22%. Real wages declined by 40% under military rule.

In 1970, 20% of Chile's population lived in poverty. By 1990, the year "President" Pinochet left office, the number of destitute had doubled to 40%. Quite a miracle.

Pinochet did not destroy Chile's economy all alone. It took nine years of hard work by the most brilliant minds in world academia, a gaggle of Milton Friedman's trainees, the Chicago Boys. Under the spell of their theories, the General abolished the minimum wage, outlawed trade union bargaining rights, privatized the pension system, abolished all taxes on wealth and on business profits, slashed public employment, privatized 212 state industries and 66 banks and ran a fiscal surplus.

December 11, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


NO MAGIC ELIXIR

In right-wing land the magic elixir is tax cuts for the rich and "privatizing" functions previously performed by the government. Then we all will live in Lollipop Land and drink from lemonade springs. Unfortunately, the right-wing magic elixir is pretty toxic. Tax cuts for the rich just produce massive deficits and massive inequality. Privatizing produces corruption and inefficiency. Paul Krugman looks at the results of privatizing under George W. Bush in this column linked at www.welcome-to-pottersville.blogspot.com:

It’s now clear that there’s a fundamental error in the antigovernment ideology embraced by today’s conservative movement. Conservatives look at the virtues of market competition and leap to the conclusion that private ownership, in itself, is some kind of magic elixir. But there’s no reason to assume that a private company hired to perform a public service will do better than people employed directly by the government.

In fact, the private company will almost surely do a worse job if its political connections insulate it from accountability — which has, of course, consistently been the case under Mr. Bush. The inspectors’ report on Afghanistan’s police conspicuously avoided assessing DynCorp’s performance; even as government auditors found fault with Landstar, the company received a plaque from the Department of Transportation honoring its hurricane relief efforts.

December 10, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


BUBBLE BOY

George W. Bush in his usual syntax-butchering way once said something about "being encapsulated in a bubble." Bush seems to reside in a permanent bubble. After the much advertised Iraq Study Group report, Bush doesn't seem inclined to change his disastrous course in Iraq. This column by Jonathan Chait is at www.latimes.com:

And now that the Baker-Hamilton report is out, the commissioners are carefully patronizing the commander in chief. As this newspaper reported, "Members of the commission said they were pleased that Bush gave them as much attention as he did, a full hour's worth. 'He could have scheduled us for 20 minutes plus 10 minutes for the cameras,' said former Atty. Gen. Edwin M. Meese III." Wow, a commission devoted hundreds or thousands of man-hours to addressing the central conundrum of U.S. foreign policy, and the president gave them a whole hour of his time!

In return for these considerations, the commission generously avoided revisiting the whole question of who got us into this fiasco and how. As the Washington Post put it, "The panel appeared to steer away from language that might inflame the Bush administration." Of course, "inflame" is a word typically associated with street mobs or other irrational actors. The fact that the president can be "inflamed" is no longer considered surprising enough to merit comment.

Indeed, everybody seems to understand that if you want to help amend the disaster in Iraq, the No. 1 rule is that you can't acknowledge it's a disaster in Bush's presence. Weekly Standard Executive Editor Fred Barnes, the court stenographer of the Bush administration, recently reported that this was a key factor in the hiring of Defense Secretary Robert Gates.

DEATHS IN VAIN

You have to think that anyone who dies in a war on the losing side has died in vain. People who die, but are part of the winning side, would have had the satisfaction at least of seeing their cause prevail. What is even more in vain is dying when a war is already lost. That is what we're seeing in Iraq. Except for bubble boy George W. Bush and his closest sycophants, there is no doubt this war is lost. Every death now, every wound, is for nothing. Doug Thompson discusses it in this column linked at www.makethemaccountable.com:

The death toll for Americans stands at more than 2,900 and is closing in on 3,000. About the only thing any of us knows for sure is that many more will die before America extricates itself from a war it can’t win and never should have launched.

And let’s not forget the thousands upon thousands of Iraqi civilians who have died and continue to die. Some estimates put the civilian death toll at more than 100,000, a figure that the United States, of course, disputes. But the bottom line is that too many Americans and Iraqis have lost their lives because of George W. Bush’s madness and the madness must stop…

The Iraq Study Group is correct when they say Iraq is a colossal failure by Bush and his minions. It will go down as the worst military, diplomatic and political debacle in this country’s history and will define forever George W. Bush’s failed, miserable, pathetic, insane Presidency…

December 09, 2006

IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

BUSH'S LACK OF CURIOSITY NOT FUNNY

George W. Bush's lack of intellect has provided fodder for late night comedians. But his lack of curiosity isn't funny. The leader of the world's most powerful nation should be curious. He or she should be able to add something to the dialogue about important policy decisions. He or she should care enough about their job to get all the available information about issues like war and the economy. George W. Bush, the "decider," is either so incredibly arrogant he doesn't believe he needs other viewpoints, or so devoid of intellect he doesn't comprehend the job. This article by Cenk Uygur is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Never has there been a public official more unequipped to be President of the United States of America than George W. Bush. The man is simply not up to the job. Even if he really wanted to be or cared to be an effective president, he ... could ... not ... do ... it.

He can't do it on a boat, he can't do it with a (pet) goat. He can't do it in the Green Zone, he can't do it back at home. This man cannot be a good president, Sam-I-Am.

He flat out does not have the intellectual capacity to carry out the requirements of the job. This is not some mean-spirited speculation as to the level of his intelligence. The facts are in. There is nothing left to speculate on. And today we have yet another example of his sheer inability to form a cognitive thought.

Lawrence Eagleburger is a Republican. He was the Secretary of State under George H.W. Bush and was a prominent figure in the Reagan administration. He is a party stalwart and one of the bastions of the Republican establishment. This man obviously wants George W. Bush to succeed. When he met with President Bush, along with all of the members of the Iraq Study Group, he said that after they presented their findings - Bush asked no questions.

December 08, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

BUSH'S FOLLY

Iraq is a daily and continuing tragedy that should never have happened. George W. Bush and his neocons were determined to attack Iraq, mostly for its oil, partly to establish United States hegemony in the region. September 11th provided the cover Bush wanted. He massaged the intelligence to link Saddam Hussein first to nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, which he claimed were a threat to the United States, and later to terrorists like the ones who attacked us on September 11. All of the stated rationales for this war were lies. Bush ignored all the warnings of what would occur if the United States occupied Iraq. Even his own father and former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft warned of the quagmire an occupation would become. Now there has been needless carnage and there is no good end to this fiasco. This column by Paul Krugman is at www.welcome-to-pottersville.blogspot.com:

And so it was with those who warned against invading Iraq. At best, they were ignored. A recent article in The Washington Post ruefully conceded that the paper’s account of the debate in the House of Representatives over the resolution authorizing the Iraq war — a resolution opposed by a majority of the Democrats — gave no coverage at all to those antiwar arguments that now seem prescient.

At worst, those who were skeptical about the case for war had their patriotism and/or their sanity questioned. The New Republic now says that it “deeply regrets its early support for this war.” Does it also deeply regret accusing those who opposed rushing into war of “abject pacifism?”

Now, only a few neocon dead-enders still believe that this war was anything but a vast exercise in folly. And those who braved political pressure and ridicule to oppose what Al Gore has rightly called “the worst strategic mistake in the history of the United States” deserve some credit.

THE LORDS OF LOUD

Among the many bad things that happened during the Reagan years was the end of the Fairness Doctrine. The Fairness Doctrine simply said that opposing political points of view had to be given equal time on the public airwaves. When Reagan abolished the Fairness Doctrine it opened the door for full-time propagandists like Rush Limbaugh to spout their venom and lies without a counter viewpoint. With the major repudiation of the Republican party in the last election let's hope it will mean the demise of right wing radio. This article by Steve Young is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Twelve years of unmerited influence and half-truths swathed in red, white and blue patriotism met its demise this past Tuesday with a dagger to the heart served up by revelations from the Iraq Study Group substantiating that everything right wing talk radio had said was right about the Iraqi, was wrong.

Born the day Rush Limbaugh mid-wifed Newt Gingrich's Contract For (On) America, RWTRR lived a healthy and wealthy life duping a great portion of the America public into voting against their own best interests.

Right wing talk grew larger and louder over its lifetime, adding names like Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly, Michael Savage, Glenn Beck, Neal Boortz, Dennis Prager and many more imitators. They each spent three hours a day catchphrasing words and thoughts - no matter how rickety their evidence (if any) - that the mainstream media would give equal time and space along side the truth.

All of a sudden, the truth was only worth 50% of any issue.

December 05, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

THE UNSAVORY BUSH DYNASTY

It's amazing to think of the impact the Bush dynasty has had on United States history in the 20th and 21st centuries. The Bushes have had their tentacles throughout the U. S government, intelligence agencies, and in foreign policy. It has mostly been a negative impact on the United States, but profitable for the Family. Look at Prescott Bush's dealings with theNazis. Look at George H. W. Bush's tenure at the CIA, and now his war profiteering with the Carlyle Group. Look at the connection to the Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Look at the strong connections to the Saudi royal family, and to the bin Laden family. This article takes a hopeful look at what we hope will be the end of the Bush dynasty. The article by Stephen Lendman is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Above all, this is a family that formed strong ties to the institutions of power that began in industry and Wall Street and was parlayed to become a powerful political dynasty that included a US senator, two governors, a congressman, vice-president, CIA director and two presidents (the current president's father, of course, having been a congressman, CIA director and vice-president before being elected president in 1988).

Prescott, the president's grandfather, had a particularly unsavory connection as recently declassified documents show. He was a director of New York based Union Banking Corporation (UBC) that was a holding company for the Nazis and represented the German steel industrialist Fritz Thyssen who was intimately involved with the Nazi regime. He was also a director and shareholder of various other companies involved with Thyssen. UBC bought and shipped millions of dollars of gold, oil, steel, coal and US treasury bonds to Germany that helped build and support the Nazi war machine. Prescott was also with Brown Brothers Harriman (BBH) when the firm did business with the Nazis during the 1930s that continued during the early years of WW II until the company's assets were seized in 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act.

December 03, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

BUSH'S DISCONNECT

George W. Bush continues to make astonishing claims about Iraq. The latest is the claim that the insurgency is an al-Qaeda "plot." I resist calling Bush totally delusional because that might give him an excuse for starting this horrible war in the first place. It wasn't lying, you see, or massaging the intelligence; it was because Bush was delusional. I think he deliberately lied us into the war, and maybe lying has become so habitual it's the first response. In this column Frank Rich looks at the pathetic figure Bush has become, and the tragedy he has inflicted. This column is at roziusunbound.blogspot.com:

The most startling example was his insistence that Al Qaeda is primarily responsible for the country’s spiraling violence. Only a week before Mr. Bush said this, the American military spokesman on the scene, Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, called Al Qaeda “extremely disorganized” in Iraq, adding that “I would question at this point how effective they are at all at the state level.” Military intelligence estimates that Al Qaeda makes up only 2 percent to 3 percent of the enemy forces in Iraq, according to Jim Miklaszewski of NBC News. The bottom line: America has a commander in chief who can’t even identify some 97 percent to 98 percent of the combatants in a war that has gone on longer than our involvement in World War II.

But that’s not the half of it. Mr. Bush relentlessly refers to Iraq’s “unity government” though it is not unified and can only nominally govern. (In Henry Kissinger’s accurate recent formulation, Iraq is not even a nation “in the historic sense.”) After that pseudo-government’s prime minister, Nuri al-Maliki, brushed him off in Amman, the president nonetheless declared him “the right guy for Iraq” the morning after. This came only a day after The Times’s revelation of a secret memo by Mr. Bush’s national security adviser, Stephen Hadley, judging Mr. Maliki either “ignorant of what is going on” in his own country or disingenuous or insufficiently capable of running a government. Not that it matters what Mr. Hadley writes when his boss is impervious to facts.

December 01, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


GEORGE WILL'S SLEAZY ETHICS

Columnist and TV pundit George Will has been a major media presence for decades. You can count on Will to put a shinier gloss on truly repulsive policies. Will should not be accorded the title "journalist" because he has demonstrated he has absolutely no ethics. His latest outrage is to doctor quotes to make George W. Bush, who was acting arrogant and like a creep once again, look like a good guy in an encounter with Senator-elect Jim Webb. Will coached Ronald Reagan years ago and then went on television posing as an objective observer about Reagan's debate with President Carter. This column by R. J. Eskow is at news.yahoo.com:

The Carter/Reagan debate, and Will's role in it, changed journalism forever. Will went on national television that year to comment live and "objectively" on
Ronald Reagan's debate performance - without disclosing that he was working for the Reagan campaign and had helped Reagan prepare for that very debate - using stolen property.

This unethical behavior set a new low for journalistic ethics. What was equally ground-breaking was the fact that, once his behavior was made public, he paid absolutely no professional price for it. No censure, no widespread criticism, no loss of employment.

GINGRICH VS. THE CONSTITUTION

I remember when conservatives took high umbrage about any interpretation of the Constitution that wasn't "strict constructionist." Now right-wingers can't wait to dismember the Constitution. The Bush administration has attacked civil liberties at every level. Serial adulterer and former Speaker Newt Gingrich has suggested that we have to curtail freedom of speech because of the "war on terror." The First Amendment really is inconvenient for right-wingers. Those terrible clauses about freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and freedom of religion give them the vapors. This article by Cenk Uygur is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Newt Gingrich started the attack against the US constitution in the beginning of the week. He launched operation shock and awe by striking against one of the most cherished principles of this country - the freedom of speech. It worked, because after all we've been through in the last six years, I was still shocked by this.

The first amendment! I am not sure I can name something more sacred to the principles of America.

Then Dennis Prager came in and delivered the second blow to the first amendment (if you don't know him, don't worry, you're not alone; he is a buffoonish conservative talk show host who has made a cheap living desperately trying to copy Rush Limbaugh his whole life). Prager went after the establishment clause. He argued that every member of Congress should show their allegiance to the Bible in order to be allowed into Congress. The first amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion." How much clearer did they have to be?

November 30, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


MILTON FRIEDMAN'S LEGACY

Milton Friedman was the economist who laid the groundwork for what became Reaganomics and what we're seeing now with the Bush administration. Friedman was an advocate of unfettered free markets. We see the horrendous consequences of his ideas now. There is a gulf between the rich and the poor, millions of Americans have no health insurance, and the country is mired in massive deficits. It's good evidence that you should never believe the utopian ideas advanced by right-wingers. This article by Dave Zweifel is at www.madison.com:

Economist Milton Friedman died several days ago and to read the glowing obits in much of the nation's press, you'd have thought we just lost a national hero.

Friedman was a hero all right, but not to the nation's working people.

He became the hero of corporate America and all those who believe that government should keep its nose out of the economy and let an unregulated marketplace control the people's destiny.

It was Friedman who legitimized the economic theory that came to be known as Reaganomics, the Ronald Reagan blunder that threw America into the throes of debt under the ludicrous assumption that you could cut taxes, increase military spending and the results would "trickle down" to the country's workers as the economy soared.

SEVEN DOLLARS A DAY

According to a new report, the 60 million poorest Americans reported incomes of less than seven dollars a day. That's like a Third World country, and it's inexcusable. We have billionaires in this country who are getting tax breaks from the Bush administration and we get a litany of excuses for why the government can't assist the poor. If you're in the middle class, you're told you have to get training and more training and yet more training to just stay in place. There's something very wrong here. This commentary by Matthew Rothschild is at www.commondreams.org:

A story on the front page of The New York Times business section on November 28 spells out the problems.

Average real incomes fell by 3 percent between 2000 and 2004.

Most Americans actually lost more than 5 percent.

But not those who were on the top 95th to top 99th rungs of the income ladder. Their income went up 53 percent. And check this out: Those on the top 0.1 percent rung saw their incomes more than triple between 2000 and 2004.

That is obscene.

We have a plutocracy in this country, not just of the rich or the very rich but of the unbelievably rich. This 0.1 percent are the ones who benefit most from the George Bush economy.

As he once put it, “Some people call you the elite. I call you my base.”

Meanwhile, the poorest 60 million Americans “reported average incomes of less than $7 a day.”

Seven bucks a day! That barely gets one meal at McDonald’s.

November 29, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


THE TANKING GOP ECONOMY

Republican propagandists tell us we have a strong economy. Those of us in the real world know differently. The economy is good for the economic elite and not good at all for everyone else. This should once again be a lesson that the economy always tanks when Republicans are in control. They transfer wealth to the already wealthy, direct way too much money to defense, and neglect our basic infrastructure. They hold down wages and export jobs to other countries. This article shows that consumer confidence, home prices, and purchases of durable goods are all down. The article is at www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15938901/:

Three pillars of the economy — consumer confidence, orders for manufactured goods and home prices — showed surprising cracks on Tuesday, flashing signals that growth may slow more heading into the important holiday shopping season.

The New York-based Conference Board said its widely watched consumer confidence index fell to 102.9 in November from a revised reading of 105.1 in October. November’s figure was the lowest since August’s 100.2 and well below economists’ expectations of a 106 reading.

That news arrived on the heels of a government report on durable goods that showed orders for big-ticket manufactured goods plunged 8.3 percent in October — the largest drop in more than six years.

STOP THE CLICHES

Iraq has become a never-ending horror, and George W. Bush continues to mouth platitudes about staying until the mission is complete. What, exactly, is the mission now? We don't belong in Iraq. We never belonged there. Bush has caused the unnecessary deaths of thousands, including members of our own military, and the longer we stay the more unnecessary deaths there are. Even Bush's National Security Adviser, Stephen Hadley, has written a memo that shows grave doubts about the ability of the current Iraqi (puppet) government to resolve the conflict. This column by Maureen Dowd is at www.welcome-to-pottersville. blogspot.com:

President Bush is still playing games, trying to link the need to stay in Iraq with Al Qaeda. “No question it’s tough,” Mr. Bush said at a news conference. “There’s a lot of sectarian violence taking place, fomented, in my opinion, because of the attacks by Al Qaeda, causing people to seek reprisal.”

Never mind that W. dropped the ball on Osama, and that his own commanders have estimated that Al Qaeda forces represent only a fraction of the foe in Iraq. Al Qaeda wasn’t even in Iraq until the Bush invasion.

The administration still won’t admit the obvious, that our soldiers are stuck in the middle of a civil war and that it’s going to take more than Dick Cheney powwowing with the Saudis to get us out of it. Stephen Hadley, the national security adviser, gingerly talks of “a new phase” in the conflict.

But reality does break through at moments. As Mr. Bush and Mr. Hadley head to Jordan to try to tell Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki not to go all wobbly, a stunning secret memo from Mr. Hadley has surfaced, expressing severe skepticism about whether our latest puppet can cut it.

November 28, 2006

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IMPEACH CHENEY

APPROPRIATING GOD

People in the United States have a history of using God to justify almost anything they wanted to do. Slavery was Scriptural, so we had slavery. Conquering the continent was "manifest destiny." Since the attacks on 9/11 we've heard countless renditions of "God Bless America." I've wondered if there is God why God should favor the United States over any other nation. This article by Charles Sullivan is at www.opednews.com:

Most Americans somehow believe that we are an exceptional people-God's chosen few. It would not be the first time in history this has occurred. The world is our oyster and it is our's to use as we see fit, even if it does not belong to us. To the physically strongest and morally depraved, to the wealthiest, go the spoils.

Deep down, Americans may reason that if we are to continue our lives of excess, if we are to carry on driving our Hummers and other inefficient motorized polluting obscenities, we need an inexhaustible supply of oil. As keepers of the world's strongest military, we have the means of procuring oil anywhere in the world, and that makes it ours. Might makes right in capitalist America and we have the weaponry to get whatever we want. That is exactly how the west was won-it was stolen at gun point and driven by religious fervor. We must feed the insatiable tape worms of our desires right up to the moment of the Apocalypse.

That kind of thinking, if such mediocrity and willful ignorance can be called thought, is an oft repeated strand that runs through the tapestry of the American psyche. It is one of those strains of fabulous mythology that makes America a difficult place for some of us to live. From the moment of birth onward Americans are conditioned to think that we are not only special, but are superior to everyone else; that we are somehow entitled not only to our share of the world's wealth, but to everyone else's share as well. Thus we remain primitive Conquistadors in our thinking. We believe that we are the truly enlightened, the envy of the world, and everyone aspires to emulate our shining example.

November 25, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

WE CAN HANDLE IMPEACHMENT

There is substantial support for impeaching George W. Bush and Dick Cheney in this country. Many observers will acknowledge that Bush has committed impeachable offenses. But then you'll hear the argument that impeachment would be tie up the government too much and other business would get shunted aside. You don't hear that argument if there is a trial for a mass murderer, or some other miscreant. Bush deliberately lied this country into war. He has consistently violated his oath of office. I don't think the country can afford not to impeach Bush and Cheney. This commentary by Linda Milazzo is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

If America and Americans are to be resurrected in the eyes of the world, proper investigation of the Bush administration is a Democratic mandate. If, as I believe, incontrovertible evidence of Bush and Cheney's high crimes and misdemeanors is uncovered, impeachment proceedings should go forth. Already, prior to any Congressional investigations taking place, volumes have been written delineating the impeachable crimes of Bush and Cheney. High level symposiums have been held. Dozens of Constitutional scholars have spoken, all convinced of their guilt.

Conversely, prior to Bill Clinton's impeachment, just one principal volume detailing his "crime" was prepared. A scandalous and shameful project, salaciously compiled by Special Prosecutor Ken Starr in a political witch hunt that was obvious to the world. The impeachment of Bill Clinton was an international embarrassment. To most of the world, Clinton was a beloved and respected leader, guilty of a personal indiscretion. Not of high crimes and misdemeanors. Not of lying the nation into war. Not of bypassing and ignoring the Constitution. Not of reversing a Constitutionally prescribed centuries old law.

November 24, 2006


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IMPEACH CHENEY

FRESNO TARGETS THE HOMELESS

Rush Limbaugh is king, the right-wing radio station is the number one station in town, and right-wingers defile the letters page of The Fresno Bee. So it's no real surprise that the city would target the homeless. The city thinks it's good policy to take or destroy the personal possessions of the homeless. Alan Autry, the mayor here, is another bad actor turned politician, but Autry fancies himself a good Christian. It's too bad Christianity isn't displayed in public policy. This article by John Ellis is at www.fresnobee.com:

A federal judge Wednesday blasted Fresno for destroying personal property when it clears away homeless encampments and ordered a halt to the practice.

U.S. District Judge Oliver W. Wanger said the city's policy of immediately destroying the belongings of homeless people during sweeps if they are not present to claim them violates their constitutional rights. He called it "dishonest" and "intentionally disparaging."

Wanger also didn't buy the city's argument that storing items for owners to claim later is impractical and expensive.

"That is - I'll be charitable - disingenuous," Wanger said.

RIGHT WING ILLUSIONS

Today's Fresno Bee had another letter to the editor that suggests that the "war on terror" is really a war on Islam itself. It isn't the United States killing Iraqis, the writer says, it's the Moslems themselves. The level of sectarian violence in Iraq is appalling and getting worse, but the majority of the deaths in Iraq have been caused by the United States military. One estimate is that over 650,000 Iraqis have died since the United States invaded. It is troubling that some of these right-wing commentaries advance the idea that all Moslems should be exterminated because we have to protect Western "civilization." Never mind that genocide is not civilized and not consistent with the Christianity so many right-wingers claim to believe. Never mind that most Moslems do not support groups like al-Qaeda. This article is by a conservative who looks at the repression of any ideas that do not adhere to the right-wing party line. The article by Austin W. Bramwell is linked at www.amconmag.com:

Conservatives identify themselves in part by repeating slogans (“we are at war!”) that, like “ignorance is strength,” are less important for what (if anything) they say than for what saying them says about the speaker. At the same time, to rise in the movement, one must develop a habitual obliviousness to truth, or what Orwell labeled “doublethinking.” Anyone who expresses too vociferously too many of the following opinions, for example, cannot expect to make a career in the movement: that the Soviet Union was not the threat that anti-communists made it out to be, that the current tax system discriminates in favor of the very wealthy, that the Bush administration was wrong about the Iraq invasion in nearly every respect, that the constitutional design itself prevents judges from deciding cases according to the original meaning of the Constitution, that global warming poses small but unacceptable risks, that everyone in the abortion debate—even the most ardent pro-lifers—inevitably engages in arbitrary line-drawing. Whether these opinions and others are correct or not matters little to the movement conservative, even if he knows next to nothing about the topic at hand. If you do not reject these opinions or at least keep quiet, you are not a movement conservative and will be treated accordingly.

November 23, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

BUSH THE DESTROYER

Today there was a devastating attack in Iraq's Sadr City. I wonder if we'll hear Dick Cheney or some other right-wing mouthpiece telling us that the insurgency is in its "last throes." The neocons who wanted this war so badly, who lied and manipulated to get us into it, have written one of the darkest pages of our history. The attacks on 9/11 and all that has happened since show the utter folly and outright criminality of this administration. The attacks on 9/11 were horrific and devastating, but Bush's actions since have magnified the damage beyond belief. We've thrown our principles overboard by "preemptively" attacking a country. We've lied, we've tortured, we've enriched greedy war profiteers. We are responsible for the deaths of innocent people. This column by Chris Floyd is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Short of an all-out nuclear attack, no enemy of the United States today could have ever damaged the nation as badly as Bush has done with his Terror War. No enemy could have deranged America's core constitutional system as badly as Bush has done, turning the government into a lurid perversion of its founding principles. No enemy could have bled America's treasury as dry has Bush has done; not even World War II or the half-century of Cold War left the nation as bankrupt and debt-ridden as it is today, its economy left completely at the mercy of foreign bondholders. No enemy could have devised a better program for undermining the security, solvency and liberty of the United States than Bush's "War on Terror" has proved to be.

So what should be we thankful for today? (In the public sphere that is; I'm not talking here of personal matters.) Perhaps only this: that we have not yet seen the worst of what Bush's Terror War will inflict upon us, and the world.

November 22, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

SO MUCH FOR NEOCON "VISION"

The neocons who were part of a Project for a New American Century lusted to invade Iraq years ago. They were urging President Clinton invade Iraq, which he wisely did not do. They had a more pliable president in George W. Bush. The neocons painted the rosiest of scenarios. We would waltz into Iraq, liberate the people, plant democracy there, and democracy would flower across the Middle East. Establishing U. S. hegemony and getting the oil were major side benefits. Once again, we see that what passes for intellectualism on the right has disastrous consequences. We saw it with Reagan's supply side economics and we've seen it with Bush's horrific foreign policy. This article by Jesse Jackson is at www.commondreams.org:

The very neoconservative ideologues who lobbied for this war of choice even before Bush came to office, who wanted to invade Iraq even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, are bailing out. These are the zealots who eagerly promoted exiles like Ahmed Chalabi to propagate lies about Saddam Hussein's nuclear weapons programs. These are the pundits who filled the op-ed pages and radio and TV shows with lies about Hussein's connections with al-Qaida. They were so intent on launching this war that they were prepared to prey on American fears and mislead the country into war. It would be, as Kenneth Adelman said, a ''cakewalk.'' We would be greeted as liberators. Democracy would break out in what they painted as a secular Iraq, then sweep the region.

Now they rush to disavow any responsibility. Adelman is shocked to see that ''there are lots of lives that are lost.'' He now blames the leaders of the administration that he once adored: ''This didn't have to be managed this bad. It's just awful.'' Richard Perle, a leader of the Chalabi lobby, now says that he didn't realize the invasion would lead to an occupation. The occupation, he says, ''was a foolish thing to do.'' He apparently thought the troops could just overthrow a dictator and democracy would follow as dawn follows night. It's a problem of execution, according to Joshua Muravchik, the neocon publicist, who lays the blame on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. Besides, he now writes, few neocons actually served in the Bush administration, and our ''woes in Iraq'' may be ''traced to the conduct of the war rather than the decision to undertake it.''

November 21, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

DEATH AND POLITICS

There is evidence the Bush administration encouraged the Israeli incursion into Lebanon because the administration wanted to see how Israeli tactics worked. The administration wanted to assess whether those tactics would work in an attack on Iran. It reminds me of the Germans assisting the Fascists in the Spanish Civil War. The Germans got to test how tactics and weaponry worked on a smaller scale before launching World War II. This administration has total contempt for life, for ethics, for morality, and for truth. This article by Sherwood Ross is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

According to an article in The New Yorker, which is setting records for its brilliant coverage of the Middle East, CheneyBush believed a successful Israeli aerial attack on Hezbollah's underground command-and-control centers could "serve as a prelude to a potential American preemptive attack to destroy Iran's nuclear installations, some of which are also buried deep underground." Investigative reporter Seymour Hersh said Cheney reportedly was enthusiastic about the chance to learn from Israel's attack.

So maybe President Bush let on more than he knew when he said the conflict represented "a moment of opportunity." Indeed, the Pentagon expedited the shipment of bombs and fuel for the Israeli warplanes. The scheme was "the mirror image of what the United States has been planning for Iran," a former senior intelligence official told Hersh.

Israel believed by targeting Lebanon's infrastructure, such as highways, fuel depots, bridges, and the Beirut airport, it could get Lebanon's Christian and Sunni populations to turn on Hezbollah, Hersh wrote. But the bombing only united the Lebanese against Israel.

Even though it has strongly denied it, the White House was "closely involved" in the planning of Israel's invasion -- planning that started well before Hezbollah captured two Israeli soldiers last July 12th.

November 19, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

TAX CUTS AND MILITARY SPENDING

Tax cuts for the very rich and massive military spending are about all Republicans have to offer. In letters to the editor of The Fresno Bee right-wingers constantly whine that Democrats will raise their taxes. Taxes take a priority over things like jobs, the minimum wage, poverty, health care, and the environment. In fact, about the only taxes Democrats would raise would be on the upper economic elite, who can certainly afford to pay more in taxes. The attacks on 9/11 showed that massive military spending hasn't protected us. Maybe it's time for a new paradigm, an effort to wage peace. This column by Jonathan Chait talks about the Republican claim that they weren't right-wing enough in this last election. The column is at www.latimes.com:

The largest spending increases under Bush, by far, have come in defense and homeland security, which conservatives support. The next biggest item is the Medicare bill. Horribly designed though it was, you can't say it was unpopular. Poll results indicate that about 90% of the public support adding prescription drug coverage to Medicare.

McCain blamed the GOP loss on "the massive programs such as Medicare prescription drug program … our failure to address their priorities as opposed to our own, and there was obviously a reaction to it." But the Medicare bill was the public's priority.

If Republicans really want to recommit to smaller government, they can run on a simple platform of rolling back the Bush spending hikes. Go ahead, Republicans, I dare you: Promise to slash the Pentagon, eliminate homeland security and take away everybody's Medicare drug coverage.

Of course, they won't really do that. What they'll do is promise unspecified spending cuts that they'll never carry out, along with lots of specified tax cuts that they will carry out. Conservatives are in a perpetual vice, squeezed between their vision for the country and the voters' vision for the country. They'll never reduce government to the size they'd like, but they're too fanatical to admit that they can't.

MISSING RFK

The "what if" question arises for me when discussing JFK, Martin Luther King, and Robert Kennedy. What if they had escaped assassins' bullets? How much different, how much better, would the world be today? I hope a new movie about RFK will stimulate interest in his message of hope and progress that stands in such contrast to the dark vision of a George W. Bush. This column by Brent Budowsky is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Robert Kennedy served in the Navy and grew up in a family of war heroes, but understood that America must always offer the world hope, opportunity and social justice.

The cardinal sin of George W. Bush is that he lives in a politics of fear, resentment, anger and division that has created more terrorism, more anti-Americanism, more damage to our national values and our global leadership around the world than any President in our history.

The cardinal virtue of Robert Kennedy is that he lived in a politics of hope and believed that politics could be a noble profession where American leaders could lift hearts, lift minds, and lift hopes at home and everywhere.

With the Congressional election ended and a presidential campaign about to begin, every Democrat and every American should reflect on the RFK vision of Americanism, American politics and American global leadership.

When next campaign is in full swing in June of 2008, America will commemorate the 40th anniversary of the day Robert Kennedy was taken from us, far too soon, in 1968.

November 18, 2006

IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

RIGHT-WING TALKING POINTS

Any time I want to know the latest right-wing talking points, or spin, all I have to do is visit the letters page of The Fresno Bee. You see the full display of right wing pathology on display.

Today we had another commentary by Mr. Anti-Choice who advises Republicans not to turn to the left. He says that conservatism has been a successful governmental philosophy. I wonder: in what universe? It depends on how you define successful. If giving breaks to big business, destroying the environment, trampling civil liberties, stirring up hatred against minorities, building more prisons, passing all kinds of Draconian laws to regulate personal behavior, tearing down the middle class, and using military repression around the world, then conservatism has been successful. About the only conservative administration I can think of that wasn't totally abysmal is the Eisenhower administration.

Eisenhower didn't try to destroy the New Deal. He did help establish the national network of interstate highways.

He also started the process that became the Vietnam war, and several recessions occurred during his administration. But Eisenhower would be liberal by today's right-wing standards.

A second letter suggested that al-Qaeda would be dancing in the streets with the Democratic Congressional victory. That surely comes from Limbaugh, O'Reilly, or Hannity. I'm not sure fundamentalist members of al-Qaeda even believe in dancing. But the evidence suggests that al-Qaeda has been quite happy to see us bleeding ourselves dry financially and losing our military in the mess in Iraq. Osama bin Laden couldn't have asked for a better recruiter than George W. Bush. Bush has quite literally proven every nasty thing bin Laden could say about the United States.

November 17, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

BUSH'S KANGAROO COURT

In the five years of his stolen presidency George W. Bush has used the word "freedom" frequently. In the meantime, Bush has been attacking international treaties, the Geneva Conventions, and our own Bill of Rights. He has established what amounts to a kangaroo court in Gitmo that would rival the courts in Nazi Germany or the old Soviet Union. This article by the Associated Press is at www.msnbc.msn.com:

The U.S. military called no witnesses, withheld evidence from detainees and usually reached a decision within a day as it determined that hundreds of men detained at Guantanamo Bay were “enemy combatants,” according to a new report.

The analysis of transcripts and records by two lawyers for Guantanamo detainees, aided by more than two dozen law students, found that hearings that determined whether a prisoner should remain in custody gave the accused little opportunity to contest allegations against him.

“These were not hearings. These were shams,” said Mark Denbeaux, an attorney and Seton Hall University law professor who along with his son, Joshua, is the author of the report. They provided an advance copy of the report to The Associated Press late Thursday and planned to release it Friday on the Internet.

November 16, 2006


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IMPEACH CHENEY


ADIOS TO SANCTIMONIOUS HYPOCRITES

Let's be clear. I wouldn't like Tom DeLay, Newt Gingrich, and their ilk under any circumstances. Their Social Darwinist philosophy is repugnant. But what makes these guys even worse is their unbounded hypocrisy. As the author points out, Gingrich and DeLay are gung-ho for the free market, but they've never achieved anything themselves in the free market. They are gung-ho for a big military and military intervention, but they haven't been in the military themselves. They were on their high and mighty pulpits condemning Bill Clinton and other Democrats for corruption or immorality, while wallowing in corruption themselves. This article by Dick Meyer is at www.cbsnews.com:

Politicians in this country get a bad rap. For the most part, they are like any high-achieving group in America, with roughly the same distribution of pathologies and virtues. But the leaders of the GOP House didn't fit the personality profile of American politicians, and they didn't deviate in a good way. It was the Chess Club on steroids.

The iconic figures of this era were Newt Gingrich, Richard Armey and Tom Delay. They were zealous advocates of free markets, low taxes and the pursuit of wealth; they were hawks and often bellicose; they were brutal critics of big government.

Yet none of these guys had success in capitalism. None made any real money before coming to Congress. None of them spent a day in uniform. And they all spent the bulk of their adult careers getting paychecks from the big government they claimed to despise. Two resigned in disgrace.

Having these guys in charge of a radical conservative agenda was like, well, putting Mark Foley in charge of the Missing and Exploited Children Caucus. Indeed, Foley was elected in the Class of '94 and is not an inappropriate symbol of their regime.

OUR OBSCENELY UNFAIR SYSTEM

Right-wingers will howl about "class envy" or "class warfare" if you point out the gross and growing inequalities in our economic system. They have no problem with a very few rich people owning most of the wealth of the country. They have no problem with a despicable minimum wage of $5.15 an hour (although they'd like to abolish the minimum wage altogether). They have no problem with jobs getting sent to cheaper labor markets abroad, or with illegal immigrants getting jobs that pay below decent wages. You're told in this country that if you work hard and play by the rules you can get ahead. But the system is totally stacked against working people now. Even when your productivity surges, your wages remain stagnant. In the meantime, everything else gets more expensive. This is a good article by Senator-elect Jim Webb at www.opinionjournal.com:

The most important--and unfortunately the least debated--issue in politics today is our society's steady drift toward a class-based system, the likes of which we have not seen since the 19th century. America's top tier has grown infinitely richer and more removed over the past 25 years. It is not unfair to say that they are literally living in a different country. Few among them send their children to public schools; fewer still send their loved ones to fight our wars. They own most of our stocks, making the stock market an unreliable indicator of the economic health of working people. The top 1% now takes in an astounding 16% of national income, up from 8% in 1980. The tax codes protect them, just as they protect corporate America, through a vast system of loopholes.

Incestuous corporate boards regularly approve compensation packages for chief executives and others that are out of logic's range. As this newspaper has reported, the average CEO of a sizeable corporation makes more than $10 million a year, while the minimum wage for workers amounts to about $10,000 a year, and has not been raised in nearly a decade. When I graduated from college in the 1960s, the average CEO made 20 times what the average worker made. Today, that CEO makes 400 times as much.

In the age of globalization and outsourcing, and with a vast underground labor pool from illegal immigration, the average American worker is seeing a different life and a troubling future. Trickle-down economics didn't happen. Despite the vaunted all-time highs of the stock market, wages and salaries are at all-time lows as a percentage of the national wealth. At the same time, medical costs have risen 73% in the last six years alone. Half of that increase comes from wage-earners' pockets rather than from insurance, and 47 million Americans have no medical insurance at all.

November 15, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

BUSH'S TORTURE MEMOS

It's really no surprise that orders to torture detainees came from the top of the United States government. But it is good that there is official documentation. Right-wingers won't be able to deny that Bush knew about torture and even took a direct part in authorizing it. Of course, many right-wingers have no problem with torture. Anything and everything done by a reactionary president is fine with them. That's why they need to be put into political and intellectual isolation. This article by Dan Eggen is at www.washingtonpost.com:

After years of denials, the CIA has formally acknowledged the existence of two classified documents governing aggressive interrogation and detention policies for terrorism suspects, according to the American Civil Liberties Union.

But CIA lawyers say the documents -- memos from President Bush and the Justice Department -- are still so sensitive that no portion can be released to the public.

The disclosures by the CIA general counsel's office came in a letter Friday to attorneys for the ACLU. The group had filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in New York two years ago under the Freedom of Information Act, seeking records related to U.S. interrogation and detention policies.

November 13, 2006


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IMPEACH CHENEY


RIGHT WING NASTINESS

Back when Bill Clinton won his first presidential election I remember letters to the editor in The Fresno Bee where the correspondents said they were going to wear black arm bands because of Clinton's victory. Today The Bee had a really nasty letter from a right-wing yahoo who started off by "congratulating" Democrats on our victory and then making the usual tired accusations that it was a victory for al-Qaeda. He rattled off a favorite list of groups right-wingers hate such as the ACLU. That is the essence of right-wing "thought": find people to demonize and hate. Find someone who is different, such as gays or blacks, and find a way to blame all the woes of society on them. Right-wingers never offer anything positive or hopeful. Their philosophy, such as it is, is all about exploitation in one form or another, eternal war, big prison budgets, and enriching the already rich. I wish they'd just shut up, or move to some island so they can prey on each other there.

PAPPY TO THE RESCUE

The filthy Bush administration proves that George W. Bush should never have been president. The Republican party was derelict in even nominating this guy to the office. His history before he became president was ample proof that he was not up to the job: morally, intellectually, or any other way. He was already going into the tank when the attacks occurred on 9/11. The natural instinct of the country was to rally behind Bush. Then the Republican party slime machine, so well perfected and utilized by the Bush family, went into action. They managed to convince Americans that Americans would be in harm's way if Democrats got elected. Now that Iraq has turned into the nightmare so many wiser headers predicted, Pappy Bush is sending in the cavalry. It's too little too late. This article by Ed Naha is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

As usual, when Junior screws up, Bush the elder rides to the rescue. First, it was the appointment of James Baker, Poppy's Secretary of State, to figure out a solution to Dubya's Iraq fiasco. Now, it's Robert Gates, former Bush 1 CIA director, replacing the deep-sixed Defense Secretary Donald ("Old Ironsides") Rumsfeld. To top it off, Lawrence Eagleburger, another Poppy Secretary of State has just joined Baker's Iraq Study Group - replacing Gates on that team.

If nothing else, George W. Bush has been consistent in his trainwreck of a professional life. He has screwed up nearly every position he's held, redefining "The Peter Principle," and has been bailed-out of his messes by friends of his old man.

Even as governor of Texas, he's best remembered for ruining the public school system, lowering pollution standards and wrecking the state's economy. On the plus side, he executed a heck of a lot of people, even poking fun at a female who begged for mercy. Atta' boy!

November 12, 2006

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IMPEACH CHENEY


TREASON?

The Fresno Bee published another charming letter from a right-winger who suggests that criticism of George W. Bush by the media and by politicians is tantamount to treason. Right-wingers are hypocrites and ignorant when they make claims like this. They had no problems with criticizing Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter when they were president. I would point out that our loyalty is to the Constitution, not to the office of the presidency or to the occupant of that office. Treason is lying our country into war, squandering our military, wasting our resources. Right-wingers insist on supporting Bush even though his consistent lies are a clear matter of record. We will spend decades recovering from this truly awful administration, but I fully expect the right-wing revisionist historians to sugarcoat the entire disaster.

NEOCON SPIN: BLAME THE IRAQIS

I just saw the great movie Lawrence of Arabia the first time. It's about how British officer T. E. Lawrence led a coalition of Arabs against the Turkish Empire. Lawrence's dreams were ultimately betrayed because the British and the French were only too happy to enjoy the spoils of the fallen Turks. Western colonialists, who have long oppressed the Arabs so they can take their resources, put on the public face that they are bringing "civilization" to the Arab world. It was like the early Americans who claimed they were bringing Christianity to the slaves, or "civilizing" the Indians. The latest neocon spin on Iraq is that the Iraqis just don't appreciate what we've tried to do for them. They had this great "opportunity" for democracy, you see, but just aren't civilized enough to appreciate it. This article by Robert Fisk is at www.opednews.com:

But those pesky Iraqis, it now seems, "preferred to indulge in old hatreds, confessional violence, ethnic bigotry and a culture of corruption". Peters' conclusion? "Arab societies can't support democracy as we know it." As a result, "it's their tragedy, not ours. Iraq was the Arab world's last chance to board the train to modernity, to give the region a future...". Incredibly, Peters finishes by believing that "if the Arab world and Iran embark on an orgy of bloodshed, the harsh truth is that we may be the beneficiaries" because Iraq will have "consumed" "terrorists" and the United States will "still be the greatest power on earth".

It's not the shamefulness of all this - do none of these men have any shame? - but the racist assumption that the hecatomb in Iraq is all the fault of the Iraqis, that their intrinsic backwardness, their viciousness, their failure to appreciate the fruits of our civilisation make them unworthy of our further attention. At no point does anyone question whether the fact that America is "the greatest power on earth" might not be part of the problem. Nor that Iraqis who endured among their worst years of dictatorship when Saddam was supported by the United States, who were sanctioned by the UN at a cost of a half a million children's lives and who were then brutally invaded by our armies, might not actually be terribly keen on all the good things we wished to offer them. Many Arabs, as I've written before, would like some of our democracy, but they would also like another kind of freedom - freedom from us.

November 11, 2006


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IMPEACH CHENEY


MOVEMENT CONSERVATISM GOES DOWN

Paul Krugman calls the last decade or so of rotten right-wing government "movement conservatism." It has been a marriage of big business, politicians, and the religious right. During that period we've seen a disregard for the Constitution, trashing the Bill of Rights,ignoring the needs of the middle class, abandoning the victims of Hurricane Katrina, ignoring the perils of global climate change, and a disaster in Iraq. This column by Paul Krugman is at www.welcome-to-pottersville.blogspot.com:

But we may be seeing the downfall of movement conservatism — the potent alliance of wealthy individuals, corporate interests and the religious right that took shape in the 1960s and 1970s. This alliance may once have had something to do with ideas, but it has become mainly a corrupt political machine, and America will be a better place if that machine breaks down.

Why do I want to see movement conservatism crushed? Partly because the movement is fundamentally undemocratic; its leaders don’t accept the legitimacy of opposition. Democrats will only become acceptable, declared Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, once they “are comfortable in their minority status.” He added, “Any farmer will tell you that certain animals run around and are unpleasant, but when they’ve been fixed, then they are happy and sedate.”

November 10, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


STAND UP FOR THE CONSTITUTION

If he had any kind of conscience, how could George W. Bush take the oath of office twice, swearing to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution, and even swearing "so help me God"? Bush has shown utter contempt for the Constitution, the Bill of Rights, the rule of law, American citizens, and citizens of the world. Bush and the senior members of his administration need to be impeached and held accountable. The precedent needs to be established that the oath of office to protect the Constitution actually means what it says. This commentary by Robert Shetterly is at www.commondreams.org:

Before the votes were even counted, a strange chorus arose, like toads from the swamp, from every point on the Democratic compass --- so persistent, one might even think it choreographed --- croaking in a dire basso, “Now’s the time to work on fulfilling the Democrats agenda, not the time to hold anyone accountable for the massive corruption or the extraordinary lies that got us into this mess.” Let’s be moderate, let’s be wise, the toads all intoned, let’s don’t disintegrate into partisan bickering about who’s responsible. And, pullleeeease, don’t even utter the word impeachment. No, no, no, let’s repeal the tax cuts for the rich, raise the minimum wage, enact universal health care, raise the mileage on our cars, sign on to the Kyoto Protocol, reduce the debt, fund our schools, fix social security, and work in a bi-partisan way toward an exit strategy from Iraq. All very sensible. Every single one of those things needs to be fought for if we want to have economic and social justice.

But, that’s not enough. I thought one of the corner stones of our democratic republic was the rule of law. Transparency. Accountability. We hold people accountable so every bozo with a zip gun won’t stick up a 7-11 for fifty bucks or start a pre-emptive war by lying to the people. We sent a Japanese soldier to prison for twenty-five years after WW II for waterboarding a United States soldier; we hung Adolph Eichmann. I’m trying to imagine what our response would have been after that war if the Nazis had said, “Look, we lost the war, our cities are rubble, our people starving, we have no infrastructure, don’t waste your money on some stupid, inflammatory trials at Nuremberg about the people who started this war or thought the Holocaust was a cool idea. Sure, mistakes were made, but let’s just get on with re-building.” Very sensible.

November 08, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


LET THE INVESTIGATIONS BEGIN

In the past six years George W. Bush has enjoyed having a Congress that adopted the mantra of see no evil, speak no evil, and hear no evil. It was a rubber stamp Congress that happily went along with every despicable desire of this administration. It's time for the new Congress controlled by Democrats to start turning over the rocks and exposing the full breadth of crimes by this administration. We owe it to the memories of the dead on 9/11, whose memories have been defiled. We owe it to the members of the military who have been killed or maimed in Bush's senseless war. We owe it to the civilians in Iraq who have been killed, maimed, or suffered under the U. S. occupation there. This article by David Swanson is at www.smirkingchimp.com:

Chairman John Conyers Jr. Chairman Henry Waxman. Those titles will prove to be the most important outcome of yesterday's elections, even if the Dems get the Senate too. It's investigation and impeachment time. Vice President Cheney has already announced his plans to "probably" refuse to obey a subpoena from Congress. Democrats need to be preparing for that crisis now. And I don't mean just elected Democrats. I mean you and everyone you know who has the sanity to no longer call themselves Republicans. I mean you, Harold Meyerson, who published an op-ed in the Washington Post advocating a bait and switch: run on health care and education and then take up impeachment after the election. It is now after the election. I mean you, Arianna Huffington, who argued that impeachment would distract from the election and could be addressed later. It's later now. And before you start whimpering about the 2008 elections looming, consider this....

A democracy that limits itself to elections will die. A democracy that appears like Brigadoon for a day every two years and then becomes a dictatorship for 729 days is dead. Citizen activism begins today, November 8th. We have a moral duty to impeach and distant elections be damned. But, even so, consider this...

In each of the nine cases in the past when one party has raised impeachment, that party has benefitted in the next elections. In other cases when a party has failed to press for impeachment when the grounds for it were widely known, that party has suffered. (Remember Iran Contra?) And look at what just happened yesterday.

November 06, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY

A SMOKING RUIN

The grandiose plans of George W. Bush and his neocons to transform Iraq into a compliant puppet state of the United States, especially with its oil, now lies in a smoking and smoldering ruin. The slag heap contains tattered American credibility, the respect we once enjoyed around the world, and thousands of needless deaths. This article by David Olive is at www.thestar.com:

Let it not be said the neo-cons are without a legacy, despite the brief zenith of their influence.

Long after the days of "The smoking gun might come in the form of a mushroom cloud," "Shock and awe," "Mission accomplished" and "Bring 'em on" are mercifully past, historians will chronicle an early 21st-century America so distracted from its real enemy that Osama bin Laden and even the perpetrators of the 2001 anthrax attacks against Congressional leaders are still at large.

An America, too, whose diplomatic influence has cratered, due not only to the unilateral belligerence with which America went to war in Iraq, but also the incompetence subsequently exposed in almost every particular of its Iraq occupation: intelligence breakdowns; acrimonious relations between the civilian and military U.S. occupation leadership; rampant theft by contractors; and the failure to provide Iraqis with security, power, fresh water and other essentials even now, 43 months after the invasion. The resulting diplomatic void has been filled by China and Russia, now resisting U.S. calls for their imposition of sanctions against North Korea and Iran, respectively.

NO MORE RUBBER STAMP CONGRESS

One of the great beauties of the United States Constitution is its system of checks and balances. The legislative branch is there to oversee the executive branch, and the courts are there to oversee the other two branches of government. But since the attacks on 9/11 Congress has been like a puppy dog rolling on its back to have its stomach rubbed. Overseeing the executive branch has been a foreign concept to this Congress. Let's hope for the sake of the country and the planet that Democrats regain Congress tomorrow, and that Congress will live up to its Constitutional responsibility. This column by Paul Krugman is at www.welcome-to-pottersville.blogspot.com:

At this point, nobody should have any illusions about Mr. Bush’s character. To put it bluntly, he’s an insecure bully who believes that owning up to a mistake, any mistake, would undermine his manhood — and who therefore lives in a dream world in which all of his policies are succeeding and all his officials are doing a heckuva job. Just last week he declared himself “pleased with the progress we’re making” in Iraq.

In other words, he’s the sort of man who should never have been put in a position of authority, let alone been given the kind of unquestioned power, free from normal checks and balances, that he was granted after 9/11. But he was, alas, given that power, as well as a prolonged free ride from much of the news media.

The results have been predictably disastrous. The nightmare in Iraq is only part of the story. In time, the degradation of the federal government by rampant cronyism — almost every part of the executive branch I know anything about, from the Environmental Protection Agency to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has been FEMAfied — may come to be seen as an equally serious blow to America’s future.

November 04, 2006


IMPEACH BUSH


IMPEACH CHENEY


BUSH VS. REALITY

George W. Bush is on tape saying things like there was no connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. He's on tape saying that he didn't know where Osama bin Laden is, that he didn't spend that much time thinking about it. Now on the campaign stump Bush is continuing the mythology that Iraq is central to the war on terrorism and that Osama bin Laden would win a major victory with a U. S. withdrawal. In fact, U. S. intelligence agencies have found documents saying that al-Qaeda wants the U. S. to remain bogged down in Iraq. Staying there, losing our military, draining our resources, and attracting recruits from around the world serves the needs of al-Qaeda. This article by Robert Parry is at www.consortiumnews.com:

Bush told the crowd in Missouri that the terrorists “believe that they should establish a caliphate, a governing body, a governing organization, based upon their ideology of hate that extends, initially, from Indonesia to Spain. That is their declared intention.”

Bush may have inserted the word “initially” to frighten Christians into thinking that al-Qaeda would next subjugate the non-Islamic world beyond “Indonesia to Spain.”

But none of this fits with the real-world assessments by U.S. intelligence agencies. In 2005, they intercepted one al-Qaeda missive purportedly from bin Laden’s deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri. He wasn’t dreaming of world conquest but rather fretting about the consequences of a quick U.S. military withdrawal from Iraq.

In the July 7, 2005, letter, Zawahiri worried that the young jihadists, who had flocked to Iraq to fight Americans, would give up the fight and go home if the Americans left.

WAR CRIMINALS

It wouldn't matter if Iraq had been a rousing success in terms of overthrowing Saddam Hussein and installing a "democratic" government. George W. Bush and his cohorts have committed war crimes in launching an unprovoked war against a sovereign nation, in committing acts of torture, and in the use of weapons like white phosphorous against a mostly civilian population. Bush and the senior officials of his administration should be held accountable as war criminals. This article talks about efforts in Germany to do just that. The article by Jeremy Brecher & Brendan Smith is at www.thenation.com:

On November 14 a group of lawyers and other experts will come before the German federal prosecutor and ask him to open a criminal investigation targeting Donald Rumsfeld, Alberto Gonzales and other key Bush Administration figures for war crimes. The recent passage of the Military Commissions Act provides a central argument for the legal action, under the doctrine of universal jurisdiction: It demonstrates the intent of the Bush Administration to immunize itself legally from prosecution in the United States, even for the most serious crimes.

The Rumsfeld action was announced at a conference in New York City in late October titled "Is Universal Jurisdiction an Effective Tool?" The doctrine allows domestic courts to prosecute international crimes regardless of where the crime was committed, the nationality of the perpetrator or the nationality of the victim. It is reserved for only the most heinous offenses: genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including torture. A number of countries around the world have enacted universal jurisdiction statutes; even the United States allows it for certain terrorist offenses and torture.