Please read and rec this!

Today, June 5th, 2008, Senator Rockefeller has released the long, long overdue "Phase II" report on how the Bush Administration used intelligence to make the case for war in Iraq.

I had pretty much given up on the Phase II ever coming out, or if it did come out, it would be a whitewash.

Here is the stunner: The Phase II is out, and judging by the press release, the Phase II report is NOT a whitewash.. I am shocked at how strong the language is. Read below for some quotes.

Future US Presidents (ALL of them) will look back on a Bush administration that either got away with lying to start a war, or they’ll look back on an administration that was held accountable.

If Bush and Cheney get away with it, well, good luck to you, and especially your children and grandchildren.

If someone as inarticulate as George W. Bush, and someone as unlikable as Richard B. Cheney can get away with it, then just about any administration can.

Good luck to you, I say.

One of the most practical reasons to persue impeachment and conviction for both Cheney and Bush is that they are still dangerous. Impeachment and conviction should be considered an urgent matter of national security.

Duh!

They lied to start one botched war with Iraq, and for that they deserve to have the case vigorously brought against them. The decision by Pelosi to deliberately let Bush off the hook for that High Crime was absolutely the wrong decision. After lying to start one war and getting away with it, what guarantee do we have that Bush-Cheney won't do it again? None.

The Iran NIE shows that they have been flat out lying with their belicose Iran hype, just like Iraq in 2002-2003.

Impeach and convict them for what they have done.

But also impeach and convict them to prevent the damage that they can still do.

Keep going for more discussion.

All this time I thought that a big part of our problem was convincing the Democratic "leadership" that there is a strong case that Bush lied to start the war in Iraq. I was wrong. According to Nancy Pelosi, the case is "well known". Where we differ is that Pelosi believes it is simply NOT an impeachable offense for the President to take the country into war based on lies. I never imagined that we could be in this position where we have to convince a Democratic Congress to hold a Republican President accountable about a "well known" case that he lied to start a war.

Pelosi's point of view is incredibly shocking to me, and she's got some serious explaining to do. Her statement that the case is "well known" raises a lot more questions than it answers. For example, what would be an impeachable offense? If lying to start a war doesn't make the list, then what does?

A youtibe video & transcript are below, and also my questions for the Speaker.

Powell's former Chief of Staff, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, helped put together Powell's famous presentation at the UN in February 2003, just weeks before the war.

Wilkerson has come forward a number of times, and this time, he's put Impeachment investigations on the table. On CNN this weekend, Brian Todd introduces the story to Wolf by saying that "Wolf, this is the first Republican official, the first former member of the Bush Administration to publicly discuss the idea of Impeachment. Just as significant, this man was closely involved in much of the diplomatic maneuvering before the war"

Will this finally put Impeachment on the table? If this does not, what will? Will this high-level insider in the Bush administration get ingored by Congress, just like all the other whistle blowers do? It's up to you!

Video, and more, below.

Over at the Brad Blog, which is one of the best blogs, if not THE best, on voting reform, Brad put up an interesting post about how the new Republican governor of Florida, Charlie Crist, "continues to get far in front of Congressional Democrats concerning issues of Election Reform." Crist wants to eliminate touch-screen voting machines, and he recently succeeded in restoring the voting rights of former felons who have served their time.

More...

Ok, I think we've reached the point in the Foley scandal that it is time to bust out the haiku poems. Thats 3 lines of 5, 7, then 5 syllables. Haikus can rhyme, but normally don't - that makes them mystic sounding. Here goes:

DC...panic...sweat
malox, empty. pepto, gone.
adult diaper dearth

hastert, disastert
the G O P falls fastert
fat bastert resigns?

Foley fondle fallout
rabid dogs foam, snarl, bite
a new order comes

There's more!

I am going to call my two Republican Senators, and tell them to vote "YES!!" on the Torture Bill. There are lots of reasons to do so, if you want to LOSE the War on Terror as quickly as possible. I'm going to pile on the sarcasm and reverse psychology and go as far as I can with these points until I get hung up on. I guess I'm in a foul mood.

Here goes...

I did a rough but reasonable calculation to come up with the figure in the title, making just a couple assumptions. Primarily, 2 assumptions: the size of the database, and the number of Americans spied upon.

Database size:
If the NSA phone database is "the largest database ever assembled in the world," and the largest database that I can find was approaching 900 TB, as of 2 years ago at Stanford University, then I make the assumption that the NSA's database is 2,000 TB. It could be larger or smaller.

Number of Americans: I'll just pull the number '150 million' out of my ass. The true number could be larger or smaller.

Divide the database size by the number of Americans, and you get 13.3 MB per American in the database. I opened a spread sheet file on my computer, and had 2,000 characters on 1 printed page. Using that as another assumption, 13.3 MB divided by 2,000 characters per page gets you 6,650 pages for just 1 American!!

Please jump the hump...

On last night's (10-18-05) episode of Hardball, I was shocked to hear Pat Buchanan, of all people, talk about a far-out conspiracy theory that the forged Niger uranium documents were part of a broad conspiracy to get the United States into war! If these same words were uttered by any progressive or liberal, you'd probably hear the charge "conspiracy theorist," thrown at them to automatically discredit him or her.

I have to ask, if Patrick Buchanan can talk about this in public, why can't the Democrats? We were lied into war, and our brave soldiers are dying every day for it. Who among the Democrats will talk about this in public and represent the 100% of Americans who were lied into war?

Jump the hump to see quotes from the transcript

I mean shit!, it's over whelming.

Bush is getting called out for lying us into a war. That includes you too, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, etc, etc. Two key state governors going down: OH gov at 17% with convictions, and Ahnold getting into a quagmire of his own scandals. Rove-Treasongate, with Libby, Fliescher, Ashcroft, Miller, Novakula and the whole gang. DeLay. My goodness. How many tenticles does this one have? Hastert - getting paid by foreigners to yank a bill on the floor of the House? The Duke-ster Rep in CA, totally busted. San Diago mayoral race, the Dem got screwed by Diebold, but it was caught (we'll see...)

And that's just the recent stuff this month, off the top of my head. This has all the earmarks of a corrupt party going out like a super nova.

Which scandals did I forget?

I got a response from Rick Santorum in the (paper) mail yesterday on the Downing Street Memo (DSM). Those following this issue may want to read what his points are. The letter makes it clear that Rick Santorum's office has a detailed understanding of the DSM contents. But the response to the DSM information relies on so much revisionist history and propaganda, it is scary that people like these have the power to start wars that result in the deaths of so mahy people, at the expense of our troops, tax dollars, national reputation, national security, etc. I took great care to proof read the retyping of Santorum's letter for DKos consumption.

Jump over the hump!

Nancy Pelosi was just on TV (CNN, I think) hammering away at Karl Rove. Pelosi should be commended for having the ovaries to go after Rove ferociously, however, she and others are missing opportunities all over the place to make one point that should be central:

Bush lied us into war, and is covering it up.

Rove's motive was to discredit Joe Wilson because Wilson was exposing that the President knowingly used bad intelligence to lie and hype the case for war. The war in Iraq was Bush's first and only choice. Diplomacy and peace never had a chance. Bush knew the intelligence was bad, and whistle blowers had to be punished. Bush's best intelligence was very shakey, and Bush knew it.

On the TV, nobody is representing 100% of the population.

Watching the "news" channels after President Meat Puppet's speech (by the way, why is he flipping written pages that he doesn't even glance at?), I cannot find any mention of the DSM, or any mention of the fact that the reason we are in Iraq is because Bush lied to the American people, and lied to Congress.

If I could grab my TV by the collar and slap it silly, and if I could yell at it and it would do some good, this is what I'd say:

Who is representing the 100% of our 1,700 dead soldiers who were lied to? They volunteered to give their lives to defend America if need be, but instead they are sent to die in Iraq, because the President lied.

Who is representing the 100% of our 15,000 wounded soldiers, with their faces, arms and legs blown off, who were lied to?

I saw an ad for the Byrd campaign. I've seen some of his speeches, and I belive Byrd is a great Senator and a great American. So I decided to send him a little cash, and this:

Re: Thank you for  your contribution - Dear Senator Byrd...

I donated to your campaign, even though I live in PA and have no political party, because I think Senator Byrd is doing a heroic job of holding the Bush administration accountable. Unfortunately, there aren't enough like Senator Byrd, and the Neoconservatives continue to gain unlimited and unchecked power. If there were more like Byrd, Barbara Boxer, Howard Dean and John Conyers, I would definitely register Democratic.

(more below...)

In the Boston Globe today, 5/31/05, Ralph Nader calls for the impeachment of Bush, based on the fact that Bush lied about Iraq.

The 'I' Word

"THE IMPEACHMENT of President Bush and Vice President Cheney, under Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution, should be part of mainstream political discourse."

I agree. 50% of Americans now believe that Bush "deliberately misled" us into war with Iraq. That was at 31% at the start of the war, and has trended upward ever since, despite the main stream media. Will somebody wake up Congressional Democrats? I'm pretty sure that 50% is mostly on the Left side of the aisle.

More comments on the Nader opinion and general purpose activism below...

I don't get the desire to "freep" online polls. Whatever the result is, nobody is going to take it seriously, and only those who went online to that particular poll will know about that poll, because nobody is going to report the results of an online poll.

We've got US soldiers and innocent Iraqis getting killed every day for lies. We've got 44 million Americans in the richest country with no health insurance, some of them dying right now, because of bad luck and no compassion from their fellow citizens. US democracy is being dismantled and a police state is being put up in it's place, on a daily basis. Etc, etc.

Furthermore, these kinds of polls seem like manipulation. They take 5 minutes to come up with a badly worded question, and then the liberal blogosphere sounds the alarm and spends many many hours of collective (wo)man-hours to "freep" the poll.

It's an effort sink.
It's a time sink.
You're being manipulated.

I'm in the middle of a letter writing frenzy that I'd like to suggest/share to others, if you have a little time and determination to help correct the egregious wrongs that Bush has perpetrated in our name.

I'm knuckle-deep in envelopes, stamps, copies of the Downing Street Minutes, and my personal letter to my 1 Representative and 2 Senators. I want copies of the Downing minutes everywhere. And not just any ol' copies. Highlighted copies. Underlined Copies. Annotated Copies. To each and every office of my 1 Rep and 2 Senators (21 offices total).

It will send a clear message.
You can't spin these minutes
We know exactly what they mean
We want answers and actions now
We are outraged

Anyone protecting Bush will be scared shitless. They know their system of control depends on us being uninformed (therefore, not outraged).
Please see below