An Open Letter to Al Gore

Dear Mr. Gore,

I am a lifelong Democrat and I am writing to urge, to beg, to plead with you to enter the Presidential race.

It's not that the other candidates are not qualified, they most certainly are. All have their own personal charms of which I am fond of, but none of them are you, Al Gore.

Why does that make a difference?

Because it's not that we just want you to be our President. We NEED you to be our President.

After watching An Inconvenient Truth there is nothing clearer in the world of politics today.

This is about saving our planet.

The candidates the Democrats have put forth are all nice, but I am not sure any of the serious contenders have the "political will" as you put it to take this country and force it into the right direction. Even John Kerry whom I admire, respect, worked hard for in 2004 and recently wrote a book on the environmental issues we must face doesn't have your credentials in this area.

I can attest that the Democratic base would come out in support of your candidacy but that you now have cross over appeal.

Most of America finally seems to "get it" about what is going on with our atmosphere. The sense of urgency is there on a majority of Americans' minds. Your message has started to be dissemenated to the masses.

But we need a leader who can stand strong and implement the changes required to reverse this process. You are that man.

The past 6+ years of the Bush Administration seemed to have accelerated global warming even further and their ignorance is bliss policies on the environment will have created quite a mess to have to clean up after. I have faith that nobody else is prepared for this job like you are.

You stated that we should be prepared for more than just the war on terror in the movie. I agree. I have an Eight year old son who may be facing the worst case scenarios when he is a middle aged adult. That scares the hell out of me a lot more than worrying about whether a terrorist is going to hijack a plane or not.

I say this with all due respect and sensitivity to the victims and families of 9/11, but the war on terror is microscopic in scope to what could occur if this Global Warming scenario plays out.

This is a chance for you to implement the policies required to take your message of change and make it a reality. As President of the United States you will be a power broker who can use our immense leverage to get the rest of the world on board will a full environmental surge.

It is our generation's call to save our planet and save humanity from itself.

You are that generation's leader.

Please run for President. America and the entire world needs you.

Sincerely,
Rp

The Desperate Ramblings of The Right

Just when you thought you heard it all the Right Wingers came out swinging and ended up sounding completely nuts.

Let's start with the craziest idiot of them all, Dick Cheney.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich had planned on introducing his Articles of Impeachment in a press conference today that he plans to present in the House of Representatives. In an effort to avoid the obvious embarrassment that such a press conference would cause, Cheney's staff issued a release that Cheney was ill and going to the hospital once more. Only Cheney wasn't ill and he feigned the situation to garner sympathy. It worked too as Kucinich pulled his press conference. Then just as he does so, Cheney shows up at a press conference himself and blasts Harry Reid. To which Reid responded hilariously, "I'm not going to get into a name calling match with somebody who has a 9 percent approval rating."

Luckily Kucinich went back and decided to do that press conference today. Although chances of impeachment without actual charges are slim, it raises the profile of such charges and might open the door a bit wider down the road.

Bush himself came out with a rather crazy comment (like that's a shocker). Apparently according to Bush, the 2006 Mid-Term elections in which Democrats swept into power amidst the anger of Americans about the Iraq War, really was an election telling Bush to commit to the surge and THAT was the change of direction we the voters wanted. The elections were a mandate for the surge.

I shit you not:

Last November the American people said they were frustrated and wanted change in our strategy in Iraq. I listened. Today General David Petraeus is carrying out a strategy that is dramatically different from our previous course. But the American people did not vote for failure, and that is precisely what the Democratic leadership’s bill would guarantee.

Oh it gets crazier...

Republicans are now saying if Democrats go after the Bush Administration's Emails, then they will go after Clinton's emails.

This is hilarious for THREE reasons.

1. They are the minority party and don't have subpoena power to get ANYTHING. They couldn't even subpoena a television listing from TV guide if they wanted to. Welcome to the minority pals, you have ZERO power!

2. Independent Counsel already did this! Remember Ken Starr's old office? They tried everything, gathered every inch of info and NEVER found an impropriety in the Whitewater deals, which was the entire witchhunt that the GOP went on to get Clinton in the first place. Sorry, nothing to see here idiots.

3. What is it with these fucking guys? Bush has been in office for 6 years and it's still "Clinton's fault" with every single thing their leadership does. Regardless of HOW wrong their guys are they are always willing to try to turn it onto Clinton somehow. 50 years from now if they somehow manage to con Americans into electing another GOP President it STILL will be Clinton's fault when that guy inevitably fucks up.

But hey Clinton's not the only Democrat that should be held in the lowest possible regard. According to former GOP Rep. Tom Delay, Democrats are committing treason or at least very close to it for saying this war is lost. Ironically Delay did the exact same thing when it came to Clinton's Kosovo campaign. Is there a reason that guy is not in prison yet? Most certainly the Texas D.A. who is building the case against him has enough corruption proof to nail him by now.

Got to love the nutcases on the Right. They're going to sound even crazier in two years when they are pushed out of office for generations to come.

-Rp

Boris Yeltsin Dies...

Boris Yeltsin's passing is a sad but all too true reality of what happens when someone mistakenly forces changes that a country is not ready to handle.

He was the face of the former Soviet Union in the 1990s and most certainly one of the most curious figures in world history. Yeltsin was a former ally of Mikhail Gorbachev but had a falling out with him and eventually ended up being elected to Russian Parliament and quitting the Communist Party. He led a coup that overthrew the Communist Government and then preceded to lead the country into decline.

Gorbachev was a much more cautious leader who was leading the Soviet Union to a much more free state but doing it in slower steps. Yeltsin who led the coup out of his own impatience, later made poor decisions that would bring the country to the brink of economic ruin. He used force to deal with conflicts much the same way his Communist predecessors had and he became completely inactive during the latter part of his Presidency. He would later name Vladimir Putin his handpicked successor and many believe Putin's disdain for the freedom of press and speech has made the state very communistic in rule once again.

There are certainly examples here we could follow. As appealing as freedom seems to all people, cautious approaches are needed. To just go in and overthrow a government can create complete and utter chaos if an alternate, well reasoned plan isn't instantly ready to be inserted in the place of the ruling party's policies. Not that revolutions are a bad thing, as the American Revolution proves, but we had some brilliant people working on the next government to be put in place and sadly Yeltsin and company did not.

As it applies to us, Bush led the charge to overthrow Saddam Hussein in Iraq but had no plan beyond that. Several Iraqi constitutions were scrapped before the one tenuously in place currently was accepted. The Iraqi parliament has been unstable at best and a joke at worst. The Iraqi economy hinges on oil in which the major groups in Iraq have not agreed to share and evenly distribute profits from, not to mention we seem to want a take from this.

Sometimes even though democracy sounds terrific to countries in a dictator-led state, it must be achieved through the free will of the people and not by force of an outside party. It must be planned for in economical, environmental and regional political terms, not just for appearance only.

Russia is just starting to recover from many years of mismanagement based on an impatient leader's coup to force a new democracy. In it's wake is a very similar government as the one overthrown.

We face a similar reality in Iraq.

Freedom is not a slogan, it is a well reasoned state of the people with well reasoned solutions to prevent collapse.

Rp

Looks like the US Attorney Scandal just got Local...

Interesting news.

From WISCTV:
Milwaukee U.S. Attorney To Be Interviewed In Attorney Probe
Interviews Were Requested By House Committee

MILWAUKEE -- A U.S. House committee looking into the recent firings of eight federal prosecutors listed U.S. Attorney Steven Biskupic of Milwaukee among the additional individuals that it wants to interview as part of the probe.

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers sent the request to Acting Assistant Attorney General Richard Hertling, asking to interview them "on a voluntary basis" regarding the firings.

Biskupic, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said over the weekend that he had been told his name was on a list of targeted prosecutors whose performance and loyalty to Bush were questioned.

Things aren't looking good for Bush on this front. He should try to get people thinking he's Presidential in some other way. :insert sarcasm: Maybe he'll get lucky and another national tragedy like the Virginia Tech shootings will occur to help boost his popularity ratings again.

According to CNN's Suzanne Malveaux, he does well in these. :shakes head in disbelief:

Well, except when he waits FOUR DAYS to address those poor Katrina victims and then took a nice little photo op tour while there. Not to mention the inaction there. New Orleans has still not recovered and FEMA has messed up in every way possible, including evicting people from their trailers and giving them no place to live to letting food that was meant for relief spoil recently.

And oh yeah he did squander the World's goodwill after 9/11 so standing on that rubble and declaring war against al-Qaeda didn't help unify anyone since they were already unified previously and it ended up declaring a war that he never actually ended up carrying out correctly as Osama Bin Laden is still roaming free..

Okay so how exactly are these good moments for him?

-Rp

An Open Letter to the RNC

It seems that the RNC is weighing in on the decision to hand over the emails that the Bush Administration has not released. The Administration is trying to force the RNC into giving them the emails first so they can edit or dispose of them no doubt.

Congress is likely to issue subpoenas and Bush will lose this challenge anyway. That is if they don't get their hands on these emails first and attempt to destroy or alter the evidence.

I decided to write an open letter to the RNC on the subject. I am sure my opinion matters for nothing but speaking to them in political terms, terms they seem to understand, is the right way to go. Basically they need to run away from Rove, Bush and Cheney as fast as they can...

Dear RNC,

This is your chance to restore integrity to the conservative cause and purge the neo-cons from your ranks once and for all. Their policies have made you the minority for years if not decades to come. You are losing the support of moderates everywhere as they choose the Democratic Party to be closer to their beliefs.

You reputation has been tarnished by the arrogance of the Bush Administration. Your integrity has been impugned by the Bush Administration's constant disregard for the law and the lies they have been caught in countless times before. Your conservatism has been questioned by the largest spending administration of all time and it's massive increase in government.

The scandals just keep getting worse and over the next 2 years it could be enough to bury not only your Presidential candidates' chances but also put you in a far deeper minority where you spend generations having to wait your turn again.

There is one way out of all of this for you. Disassociate with the President and his attempt to abuse Executive Privilege and hand over the emails that you are assured to be subpoena'd for.

Let's face it, this will not hold up in the court of law and then you will come off looking even worse for trying to cover up and hide things for an Administration that most view as corrupt and that only 30% of the nation supports. How do you win in this situation?

Handing over the emails will certainly increase the ability to oust Bush and Cheney but it also gives the GOP some credibility in not being a part of the cover up. It provides you with cover in that you were only doing as you were told by the Executive Branch. It allows the party to back away from the unpopularity of this President.

Sure there will be a few sacrificial lambs but Brutus didn't kill Julius Caesar because he wanted power or hated the man, he did it because he believed he was serving the good of the Roman Republic and preventing a tyrant from subverting Roman law for his own power grab.

Here too, the friends of the tyrant must wield their swords... for the good of the Republic.

For the future of the country and the Republican Party, ignore marching orders from the President and do what is right. The courts will uphold your decision if you do.

-Rp

Balls over Brains

Well today was a banner day for Bush.

First he tells us that every email Karl Rove sent from 2001-2005 was missing. That over 5,000,000 emails in all are missing(from as many as 50 staffers).

Then they followed that up with some amazing audacity. Incredible display of balls if there ever was one.

The House and Senate Judiciary Committees issued subpoenas for the emails and for testimony from key aides.

Bush's response? Piss off! He had Fred Fielding, Bush's White House counsel who should know better than to play this game since he was an assistant to John Dean while working for Richard Nixon during Watergate, send a refusal in return.

They asserted executive privilege, which is supposed to be used only in cases of National Security and have now forced Congress into issuing a Contempt of Congress which will bring this matter to the Supreme Court. Even with nutcase Antonin Scalia on that court, Bush faces long odds that he can win this.

This to me opens the floodgates. Win the court challenge and you have access under the Presidential Records Act to see every email from 2001 to the present. Most should be preserved just because there's no way they were able to completely wipe the servers, workstations, multiple accounts of every single person that ever received these emails. It would be damn near impossible.

Go after the servers and it's endgame. I have a feeling you'd find emails involving the intricate details of every major scandal. The lies of the Iraq War build up, details of the 2004 election scam, agreements to reward campaign contributors with government deals, all sorts of stuff. This becomes a huge can of worms and opens the door to every criminal activity and the details therein that will derail Bush and this cabal of crooks not only from their political lives but possibly from regular life when they face criminal charges.

The Administration thinks executive privilege is available to use anytime they don't want people to know how they were breaking the law. This is apparent because National Security is the only time asserting that privilege is considered acceptable. They even went to the lengths to redact (although very poorly) full emails that were released today to prevent people from knowing what they were up to in the US Attorney scandal. Redactions are supposed to only be used for classified information in intelligence memos that are released to the public.

See for yourself.

As if that wasn't enough they even went a step further today in their attempt to become a full blown dictatorship.

They already want the rights to read your mail, are checking your internet searches and they are illegally wiretapping calls. That wasn't enough apparently for Bush today.

They actually had the balls, especially after telling Congress that they will not submit to their oversight and pulling the lost email stunt and blaming them for the troops not being funded (even when it's Bush not signing the funding bill), to go out and ask Congress to revise the 1978 FISA act and allow them to expand their current surveillance capabilities.

Actually I find it quite ironic. Their current illegal wiretapping program allows the Bush Administration to read YOUR emails, yet they won't let Congress read theirs.

They have completely lost it. To think that Congress will give them an inch on this, let alone open up investigations on the current wiretapping crimes they are committing is foolish.

Of course thinking they can win a court battle with Congress over basic law and the Constitution's assertion that Congress and the White House are co-equal branches of Government, well apparently they don't mind taking up this suicide mission.

But maybe that will be Bush's defense when he faces criminal charges. Insanity. A straight jacket is a lot more apealing than a prison cell when you only pretend to be a tough cowboy and really are a cowardly wimp.

-Rp

Impeachment needs to be ON the table.

Andrew Jackson and Bill Clinton faced impeachment for far less and yet Democrats still haven't put impeachment on the table.

Every day this regime stays in office, they kill more soldiers and Iraqis with their ridiculous war policy, subvert the constitution and make the Presidency the role of a dictator, they work towards eliminating fairness in elections, they harm the environment by rewriting EPA reports, they loot the treasury of tax dollars for their contributor/benefactors, they alienate foreign powers and create enemies for generations to come and as a whole they flip the bird at the rule of law.

How the fuck is impeachment NOT on the table?

With the entire email scandal we're talking about the Presidential Records Law being broken. We already have Oath of Offices broken from other lies involving the war. You can make an easy case that the entire wiretapping fiasco is illegal and I don't doubt that something legally could be done about the way signing statements are being carried out.

The legal arguments are there! This isn't just a leg to stand on, this is an entire army of legs.

Not to mention the man is so ungodly unpopular, there will not be the backlash Republicans faced over the Clinton fiasco. Clinton was popular and most people did not believe he should be impeached over oral sex.

Let me point this out to Democrats who need a slap in the face.

THIS IS WORSE THAN ORAL SEX!

You might be aware of that but many of you seem too timid to act.

Also, this is NOT about retaliation. Had Bush not subverted law at every turn this wouldn't even be a discussion, no matter how much we hate his policies. He and his crew of criminals did this themselves.

My advice to Democrats is this:

Subpoena the emails all the way back to 2001. Find everything you can find. Find the 2004 Election Fraud info, find the Attorney Scandal stuff, find the memos about lying about this war, find all the wiretapping memos you can, find EVERYTHING.

And do it quickly.

America can ill afford anymore time with this man in charge. Our soldiers, our citizens, IRAQI citizens all deserve better.

No more off the table shit.

Once you get the emails the shit will hit the fan. Even Republicans won't carry water for this man anymore.

I haven't read them but I can't imagine a single person that doesn't believe that SEVERAL smoking guns will be found there.

Get the emails. Impeach Bush & Cheney. Begin criminal proceedings.

These men have broke the law numerous times and NOBODY, even the son of a rich oil-invested politician, is ABOVE the law.

Not to mention Americans SUPPORT the impeachment of this President. They supported it in November of 2005 by a 53-42 margin. 51% again supported impeachment in a poll taken on 10/21/06. 58% said they "wished Bush Presidency was over" on 1/25/07.

There are even more scandals out there today. Since January every week has seen a new scandal pass. I am willing to bet that support is higher than it has ever been for ousting Bush.

Democrats have nothing to lose. The people support them against Bush. It's time for some backbone and it's time for some action.

America must show that it does indeed run by rule of law and that applies to everybody. If not, we might as well toss our morality plays on other countries to the side because we are no different than Communism was to the Russian people. After decades of fighting off those "godless communists", it would be the ultimate irony if many of the Republicans who waged that war were the ones who essentially adopted their policies towards their people.

It is our job to demand our country back and take a stand, and as OUR representatives Democrats need to do the same.

-Rp

The Real Problem With The US Attorney Scandal

If you're not a political wonk who understands the process involved, think about the idea of a politician taking office and firing an entire department of people when they are elected just to install their own. That doesn't seem too strange to the average person. When you add the gravity that these are the US Attorneys who are hired to be America's prosecutors of crime in each and every state, well that makes it slightly different.

Prosecutors as well as District Attorneys and most Judges are supposed to be above the political frey. They are defending us after all. The Attorney General also is not the President's personal attorney, they're the people's attorney. Except it hasn't been that way for the past six years.

One can make certain arguments about Clinton eliminating all 93 US Attorneys when he took office and try to point the finger at him as an example (after all isn't he to blame for everything the Right gets themselves into?) but Bush wiped out all those attorneys and started fresh once again in 2001. The process is what it is, even though I have to concede some serious personal misgivings with it.

What made Bush's appointments different is what makes all of his appointments to every office different. There was a partisan bent with hopes of personal gain. These people were put in place in hopes that Karl Rove could use them as Bush's personal campaign legal team. The US Attorneys would be pressed to prosecute Democratic corruption (digging for whatever they could get them on, even if there wasn't much to the charges), to avoid prosecuting Republican wrongdoing and to prosecute cases that made the President look strong, like immigration.

Somehow the US Attorneys became a tool for the RNC to use and not defenders of the public interest.

A perfect case came up in Wisconsin of this ridiculous use of power.

Georgia Thompson, a state purchasing employee who is supposed to make purchases based on saving the Wisconsin taxpayer as much money as possible, bought travel plans through a travel agency that just happened to contribute to Governor Jim Doyle's 2002 campaign.

Two major points must be made.

1. Good luck finding a company that doesn't politically contribute to anybody. Until there is public financing of campaigns this is the system we live in. Companies contribute and often times because of similar philosophies with the person they supported are in line when government contracts are being handed out. There is no proof this happened in this case but if you want to bark up that tree take a look at every contributor to Bush and what they have been given in return. Namely Halliburton.

2. It's just a fact that with as many government officials as a State has that bulk purchasing travel plans is the most cost effective way to save money. Government officials are very much like sales people and they need to make trips to other states and countries to broker deals and bring business to the state.

So Georgia, who was not acting out of partisanship but rather trying to save her fellow Wisconsin taxpayers money and doing what her job as a State Purchasing Agent required, was an easy target for Republicans looking to smear Doyle and help Mark Green with the Governor's race.

Bush appointee Steven Biskupic prosecuted the case and has quite the Republican ties. He is the brother of Outagamie County DA Vince Biskupic who unsuccessfully ran as the Republican candidate against Democratic candidate Peg Lautenschlager in the State Attorney General's race. Not to mention a friend of the now in prison on corruption charges (surprise he was a backer of the Bush Campaign in 2000 as well), former Winnebago County DA, Joe Paulus.

Biskupic got a conviction and Republicans everywhere tried to use this to muddy the waters and make Doyle look dirty. It worked to some degree but not enough to swing an election in which they thought they had a close race and instead Doyle came out well ahead.

The election cycle is over and Georgia Thompson, convicted and used as a weapon had to spend 4 months in prison as a political casualty. A victim of how Republicans view people, as pawns in their corrupt system of greed.

The Circuit Court of Appeals nearly laughed the case out of court when they finally heard it.

One judge actually said:

"I have to say it strikes me that your evidence is beyond thin," federal Appeals Judge Diane Wood told prosecutors. "I'm not sure what your actual theory in this case is."

TalkLeft has a very well done rundown of the case.

Now what makes this disturbing is it's not the first time the GOP has used the US Attorney's office, just in the State of Wisconsin to do their political bidding. They tried and failed to get Milwaukee voter fraud allegations prosecuted that turned out as most GOP allegations do, to be bunk.

The point harkens back to the partisan nature in which the DOJ has operated.

Take a look at this list of local public elected officials prosecuted by the Bush DOJ from 2001-2006. Take a look at all those Ds for Democrats. Either Democrats are the most corrupt group ever or Bush is totally going after political enemies to have complete control over everything in this country.

I can't recall a DOJ that was ever this partisan before. Even under Bill Clinton, his own appointee Janet Reno greenlighted the Investigation into Clinton's Whitewater dealings.

But as it turns out most of these DOJ officials are ideologues. Part of the machine that is the Christo-facist Right. Graduates of dubious Universities such as Regent which is a newer college controlled by Pat Robertson type evangelicals that teach a certain mindset rather than challenging their students with multiple perspectives. There are 150 of these graduates working in Bush's DOJ as we speak.

They are not educated in a way that promotes careful deliberation or even respect for the law. They know only God's law and just as Bush continues to usurp the Constitution, they are doing the same in making the DOJ just another weapon in the Republican Party's arsenal.

The DOJ has been prosecuting all the Democrats it can on the local level to get them ejected from office and make the Democratic party appear corrupt to build a longterm majority for Republicans. After all it's usually local officials that step up and run for larger offices later and this is stopping many candidates and killing their credibility before they even get that far. For non-elected officials, the DOJ keeps tabs on protesters and puts them on "terrorist watch lists".

As I have said before, the actions of Rove and Bush make Watergate seem pretty tame.

It's no wonder why the only people that are doing investigations that anybody is approving of are the Democrats. It's been just three months in power and every branch on the tree which Dems have shook has seen countless scandals fall out. Imagine how many there might be after two years of this!

The approval of Congress is up to 40% the highest it's been in over a year. Let's just hope that as the approval trajectory for Congress moves higher in light of their investigations and finally showing some backbone to this Administration, that they continue to uncover and hopefully derail the grand design that Rove implemented by making the DOJ and even the GSA work as RNC political departments.

-Rp

You Wanted a Democracy...

And now you got one. Tens of Thousands all protesting the American presence in Iraq. Al-Sadr calling for Iraqis to redouble efforts to force Americans out. We gave them a voice and they are using that voice to say "Get the fuck out!". Of course millions have marched before and during this war in America and abroad to stop this damn thing before and the Idiot King declared that they were focus groups he wouldn't listen to.

Oh and this is the SHIITES that want us gone. They're the ones that are supposedly our ALLIES over there.

What a fucking mess.

-Rp

Pregnant Women, Injured Soldiers Sent Back to Iraq

I almost forgot the most disgusting thing I read over the weekend. Friday night I read a horrifying column on Salon.com.

I guess being a small time blogger, I can be forgiven for not mentioning this. What's the Mainstream Media's excuse though?

From the column:

He was shocked by what he saw inside: There were dozens of other hurt soldiers. Some were on crutches, and others had arms in slings. Some had debilitating back injuries. And nearby was another tent, housing female soldiers with health issues ranging from injuries to pregnancy.

-snip-

Military experts say they suspect that the deployment to Fort Irwin of injured soldiers was an effort to pump up manpower statistics used to show the readiness of Army units.

US News & World Report confirmed that the Military is downgrading serious injuries to send these soldiers back and prop up those readiness statistics.

These bastards know no limit on how low they will sink to get money to their political donors. Contracts and Contributors come first. People are just pawns in their big money game.

If this doesn't show (along with Walter Reed) what this Administration thinks about the troops, nothing does. Support The Troops my ass. How about proving it with some action, not a fucking bumper sticker slogan.

These thugs are inhuman.

-Rp

A Relatively Quiet Weekend

There hasn't been too many of these recently thanks to the White House's excessive use of the Friday News Dump but this weekend rolled by without a new scandal to uncover. So that appears to make this one of a handful of weekends in the past 6 years to go in that direction.

I did find two interesting tidbits of information I wanted to share.

President Bush has pretty much rattled off every lie he can muster as to why Iraq was the right idea. He connected Iraq to al-Qaeda (see below for the truth on that), said they were close to having Nukes after buying yellow cake from Niger, used 9/11, random weapons of mass destruction, Iraqi freedom and democracy, defending them against Iranian intervention. You name it, this crew of liars has used it. Even sickeningly enough the real reason why we're there: Oil.

But after most if not all of these were disproven and failed to capture public sentiment the one he continues to spout is that if we don't kill them there, they'll cross the ocean and kill us here.

Now even THAT has been dismissed by experts.

Bush and his liars just can't catch a break can they?

The experts don't just dismiss it, they accuse Bush of exaggerating. He doesn't do that does he? Oh wait....

As if that weren't enough Iraq's former trade defense and finance minister Ali Allawi, cousin to the former interim prime minister Iyad Allwai, has written a book ripping Bush for their incompetent occupation of his country.

When the people you helped put in place and are some of the very, very few to gain anything from the Iraq mess come out of the woodwork to attack you, you know it's time to get out.

Hell, even 52% of REPUBLICANS say we need to get out of Iraq. The Kool-Aid Drinking die hards have abandoned the cause.

Oh this is Bush. He's not smart enough to get the hint.

-Rp

The Global War on Lying Idiots

It has to be rough to live with yourself knowing you lie about everything. Or at least if you have a conscience that is. I am not so sure Dick Cheney has one so the whole feeling guilty scenario may never play out.

It turns out that Dick is still spouting the same lines in trying to make a pathetic connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Even though the Pentagon released a report on Thursday that contradicts this directly after interrogations of Saddam and other Iraqi officials. Of course this is an Administration that would never let facts get in the way of a great big lie.

The whole point of this thing is to keep the connection going to keep Iraq a central point of attack in the whole unending Global War on Terror.

After all, if it's framed that way nobody will defund the War on Terror right?

Well what if we tossed out that term altogether?

After all there is a war in Iraq and a war in Afghanistan. Using the term, "Global War on Terror" is a piece of propaganda to link 9/11 to all of our military actions and continue funding whatever adventures this Administration wants to partake in. Not to mention being a direct flow of cash from taxpayers to Dick's company, Halliburton.

It seems Democrats have finally wised up to this game and are taking this trick on by requesting that the term "Global War on Terror" no longer be used in future legislation.

Cheney was apoplectic to say the least when spoke with Rush Limbaugh about it yesterday.

Personally I think they fear Democrats having the guts to stand up to even these small breaches of public trust. They know 9/11 was a tragic day that touched the lives of most Americans so they invoke it at every turn and use it as a tool to take taxpayers money and blow it on their wars of choice and their politically contributing contractors of preference.

Every single little step Democrats take to change the tactics used by this Administration is a step in the right direction for a country that has had it's reputation tarnished more than Britney Spears in the past 6 years thanks to the people in power.

-Rp

Another reason why Presidential Powers need to be curbed

Two words. Recess Appointments.

Yesterday Bush, after decrying the Democrats for taking their spring vacation (ironically since the guy has spent an average of 2 out of every 5 days on vacation since he took office 6 years ago), did what he always does. He turned around and pulled slimey reprehensible actions behind everyone's back.

This time he appointed three people to offices who had no shot in hell of being appointed. Most notable was Sam Fox as Ambassador to Belgium. Fox is the Missouri billionaire who gave $50,000 to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, who slimed, lied and distorted John Kerry's record so horrifically in 2004. Wonder why Bush didn't denounce those ads? They were the best thing he had... well aside from election fraud scams in Ohio, to win that damned thing. So when the Senate showed Mr. Fox some serious teeth (including a fantastic rebuttal by John Kerry fighting back against the liars who tried to assault his character), Bush asked that the nomination be withdrawn.

Likely with the complete intention of putting him in as long as Congress was looking the other way.

Fox though wasn't the only person that Bush installed.

Bush's second recess appointment, Andrew Biggs, was appointed as deputy commissioner of Social Security. Biggs has been working very hard to privatize social security and had no shot of being put in to work for the very organization he wants to overhaul and dismantle.

Same can be said for the third appointment, Susan Dudley. Dudley, appointed to the Office of Management and Budget in a regulatory oversight capacity has been a stern opponent of regulatory practices at George Mason.

According to Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars:

Some of her targets have included EPA health standards for smog, opposition to lower-polluting cars, opposition to air bags, and opposition to stronger regulations for arsenic in drinking water. For some reason, the Senate had some concerns about her nomination. The White House not only doesn’t care about the concerns, it also decided it doesn’t care about the constitutional nomination process.

Nice. Sort of reminds me of August 2005 when Bush used these same recess appointment tactics to install the no shot in hell of being confirmed, John Bolton.
You know the guy who said, "There is no UN" and that "we could lose 10 stories [at the UN building] today and it wouldn't even matter"?

Yeah that guy, who was appointed during recess to be the US Ambassador to the United Nations. Foxes guarding the chicken coop. Bush seems to like putting people in place to work at the very agencies they want to destroy.

Something like Grover Norquist's whole we need to "reduce government enough so we can drown it in a bathtub" comment I suppose.

The whole point is to deregulate everything for big business to make more of a profit. Get rid of government programs that help the poor and the environment and you can cut taxes for the rich and give corporate subsidies and government contracts. Then those favors turn into money back in the form of large contributions to the Republican party and candidates. Essentially Republicans are stealing your tax money and using government policy as a money laundering scam.

Recess Appointments, much like signing statements and executive privilege have been taken to the extreme by this President. Sure they have always been there and available to all previous Administrations but none of them combined have taken as many liberties with Presidential power as Bush has. When Democrats regain the Presidency and a larger majority in 2008, they need to work to reverse the massive damage this Administration has caused to America and then hand power and accountability back to Congress and the American people.

One final note, while nobody is crediting Pelosi for the end of the Iranian-British hostage standoff one has to wonder. Conventional wisdom says Tony Blair did the negotiating on Britain's behalf. Iranian President Ahmadinejad didn't concede that point and took credit for himself declaring their release a "gift to Britain". But even though she has taken no credit for anything other than supposedly reinforcing Bush's policies (as narrow minded and foolish as they are), Pelosi going over there still has Republicans most notably Dick Cheney himself, in a hell of a tizzy.

The Syrians actually claimed some responsibility for the release of hostages though and that has to make you wonder, if Pelosi had some impact. She might not want to accept credit for fear or political repudiation, but in my view if she helped to get a deal brokered even by just her mere presence and no other implied commentary then it shows what American diplomats could do to ease tensions and correct a lot of the problems we have in the Middle East.

Of course, first you need a President who wants peace, not unending war.

-Rp

Quick rebuttal to Bush's threat RE: Soldiers-Iraq

I just wanted to give props to DUer Solly Mack who wrote up this absolutely terrific post with a ton of news links to back it up that shows that Bush is an absolute hypocrite when it comes to talking about unarmed, untrained soldiers being forced to stay in Iraq.

The war has been fully funded, yet Bushco and the Republicans chose to keep the needed armor and training out of their previous bills.

I hope the Administration gets Bunny Shit in their Easter Basket.

Democratic Underground: "For the Record, Mr. Bush."

-Rp

Manufactured Scandals

So the term "Manfactured Scandal", which Tom DeLay so famously decided to use to describe the real scandal with real legal implications known as the Alberto Gonzales-US Attorney Firing Fiasco, came to mind today.

Republicans have been Manufacturing Scandals pretty well since the Clinton Administration took oath (see Clinton killed Vince Foster and others). This one was a doozy.

Nancy Pelosi goes to Syria to provide a basic function this White House has refused to provide to allies and enemies alike since they took charge in January 2001... Diplomacy.

Syria is not our ally, but when we alienate them and leave them out of the discussion we are asking to create an even more tenuous relationship with them.

So Bush goes out and criticizes her trip and tries to play her off as a traitor for speaking with a country which sponsors terrorists.

Two things to remember here.

1. Republicans made a similar trip to Syria with cooperation from the White House just a few months back and didn't receive an ounce of flack.

2. As soon as she gets over there the Iranians (allies with the Syrians) release 15 British sailors they were holding hostage.

Wow, could it be that diplomacy actually works? Bush is probably irate because this took away one of their reasons for war with Iran.

Either way this is complete egg on the face of the Administration, to have Democrats going to the Middle East and in one fell swoop cleaning up messes they purposely made.

So that term, "Manufactured Scandal" comes completely into play. Republicans will try to make her seem like a traitor even though some of their own made the very same trip. The problem here is she went, soldiers ended up released and low and behold communication was made.

The problem is Bush is too focused on an Iranian war to want what's best for either side. We mentioned that state sponsor of terrorism label he put on Syria. Turns out Bush and Cheney have been funding Pakistani terrorists in an attempt to wreak havoc in Iran. It was one of the focuses of Cheney's recent visit with Musharraf.

Not to mention the magical word from right wingers that Iran is closer than ever to having Nuclear Capabilities. Of course the right and Israel has made this claim several times...

I just don't buy it. We're pressing this war. We're the ones funding terrorists to attack a country we don't like. We're the ones refusing to talk with them. We're the ones who bullshitted all of our intelligence to make the same exact case about Iraq before we invaded them.

It's interesting to me that any media outlet would take the Bush Administration and their Iranian Nuclear claims with any sort of legitimacy as if they have credibility at this point. Name a single topic since the beginning of this administration and there is likely a lie and a scandal behind each and every one.

Either way Pelosi going over there shows the difference in results between diplomacy and iron fisted ultimatums. Us versus Them doesn't work. It's too bad we've spent the past 6+ years with a President that seems deadset on setting the World's diplomacy tactics back to the dark ages (not to mention setting back science and other sectors of American life).

What a nice glimpse this gives of 2008 and the options on the ballot. The Bush World where nothing gets accomplished and America is hated universally, or the Democratic World where people of all nations can live peacibly and in agreement with one another on key points of life and security.

Time for a change indeed.

-Rp

It's Opening Day and the first pitch is the high heat...

There's been quite a bit of interesting news today, here on what is practically a national holiday for me... Opening Day of the MLB Season.

First, the Majority Leader of the Senate threw the high heat brushback and though Bush may get out of the way, Democrats have sent their message. It's too bad it took this long for the Democratic majority to get on board with Russ Feingold who has been right all along from the Patriot Act to the Iraq War to re-deployment, but it has finally happened.

-Senate Majority Leader signs on to co-sponsor Feingold Iraq Redeployment Bill

Second, John McCain and the Straight Talk Express (or is it the Bullshit Express?) seemed to veer quite a bit off course today. After proclaiming that Baghdad was safe enough that "General Petraeus went out every day in an unarmed humvee" and that "you and I could walk through those neighborhoods", he went out to put his money where his mouth is. Claiming Americans are not getting "the full picture", he went on a stroll... except he was equipped with a bulletproof vest and had 100 soldiers, 3 Blackhawk helicopters and 2 Apache gunships with him on that stroll.

Just your average walk through the park I suppose.

Third, the party which lives to suppress minority voters went to work again apparently. David Iglesias, one of the US Attorneys who were forced out because they weren't doing the political hackery of the Republican party, reports being pressed to prosecute a group that was registering minority voters. The type of Democracy that these people want to spread to the world is one with a very narrow world view. Only the rich and caucasian shall be major parts of this democracy and maybe a few minorities that are willing to be used for their skin color as false examples of diversity.

They are scared to death of minorities being wise to politics and registering to vote because they lose that vote in colossal numbers but worse this is a rather slimy, pathetic way to be using the Department of Justice and the US Attorneys. Who needs to prosecute real crimes? We have elections to win! :barf:

And finally, Bush is not throwing out the first pitch in Washington for the second straight year. Out of 64 previous opening days in Washington, Presidents threw out the first pitch 46 times. From the article: "Except for when the world was at war, only two other presidents, Woodrow Wilson and Richard M. Nixon, missed Opening Day ceremonies two years in a row. And Wilson had suffered a stroke."

So we're talking Bush and Nixon being in the same class permanently for something other than continued failed war policies, illegal political hackery, obsessive paranoia and being the most impeachable Presidents ever... Good company for Bush to be in.

The White House denies it but I think he's afraid of being booed out of the stadium. Can you think of a more deserving round for the boo birds?

-Rp