TPM: "What a sorry, sorry, unfortunate president -- caught in his lies ...

[understandinglife]

... his half-truths, his reckless disregard ... caught with, well ... caught with time. Time has finally caught up to him. And now he doesn't have the popularity to beat back all the people trying to call him to account. He could; but now he can't. So he's caught. And his best play is to accuse his critics of rewriting history, of playing fast and loose with the truth -- a sad, pathetic man.

Chronicling the full measure of the Bush administration's mendacity with regards to the war is a difficult task -- not because of a dearth of evidence for it but because of its so many layers, all its multidimensionality. It's almost like one of those Russian egg novelties in which each layer opened layer reveals another layer beneath it. Hard as it may be, in the interests of getting Mr. Bush past the phases of denial and anger, let's just hit on some of the main themes.

Much more at the link:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/006989.php

An excellent summary by Josh Marshall that concludes with "The judgment of history hangs over this guy like a sharp, heavy knife. His desperation betrays him. He knows it too."

It is time, my fellow citizens to insist that every responsible member of Congress either file articles of impeachment against both Bush and Cheney or/and force them to resign.

It is time.

I would hope the effort of demanding impeachment and/or resignation would become a DU Activist endeavor of history-making proportion.

Thank you.


Peace.

[Carolab]

1. IMPEACHMENT NOW!

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=5340571&mesg_id=5340586

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2244226&mesg_id=2244229

[understandinglife]

11. For all those blog-pundits and others who want to play politics with ...

... the current situation, instead of moving to impeach both Bush and Cheney and prosecute their neoconster associates, I have the following to say:

We have war criminals in the White House and THAT is what WE must remedy -- NOW, not a year from now, or after "2008" or .... .

This is not about POLITICS and someone should sit folk like Markos down and explain that to him in terms he can hopefully grow to understand.

We must bring Bush, Cheney and the neoconsters to justice and that must happen irrespective of any political consideration.

The world is watching US - you and me and every other American citizen to see if we have the capacity to be what we claim, rather than merely making noise about government of the people, by the people, for the people - about the rule of law.

Let's get with it, everyone. The whole world is watching US.

Peace.

[MissWaverly]

14. Thank you, I also answered impeachment to KOS post

there must be accountability about Iraq, this is not about politics,
it is about war crimes and an unecessary and immoral war, it's about
unrestrained torture and WP. Bush must be held accountable.

[understandinglife]

17. Thank you. Link to my comment at dKos:

http://www.dailykos.com/comments/2005/11/12/142933/14/353#353


Peace.

[MissWaverly]

25. I agree totally

Time to bring them to justice is now.

This is an American issue; not a partisan issue

Why is it that it always boils down to Republican vs Dems, this is
a moral issue, a UN issue, we must act credibly as a nation, we
are in the wrong here, we need to start working on rectifying what
we have done.

[EuroObserver]

33. These are war crimes (but there's no war declared)

And these are certainly crimes against humanity.

[readmylips]

2. Hardball yesterday caught Cheney on tape lying....

Denying to one reporter about something he had discussed with Tim Russert. Matthews played the tape showing how cheney had said exactly what he was now denying. I can't remember what it was but Matthews just wanted to show how Cheney is a lier.

[understandinglife]

4. Crooks & Liars has a tape on Cheney and the 9/11, Iraq Myth.

On Hardball, David Shuster issued a report about the alleged link that the WHIG's spun between Iraq and 9/11.

Isn't it interesting that Dick Cheney said Iraq and 9/11 were not connected back in '01?

Russert: Do we have any evidence linking Saddam Hussein or Iraqi's to this operation?

Cheney: No.

Links to the video and more:

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/11/12.html#a5835

Is this the episode?

Thank you.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

3. Newsweek: "Autumn of Discontent"

... President George W. Bush is sinking deeper and deeper into political trouble, according to the latest NEWSWEEK poll. Only 36 percent of Americans approve of the job he is doing as president, and an astounding 68 percent of Americans are dissatisfied with the direction of the country—the highest in Bush’s presidency. But that’s not the worst of it for the 43rd president of the United States, a leader who rode comfortably to reelection just a year ago. Half of all Americans now believe he’s not “honest and ethical.”

Link to Marcus Mabry's article:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10013594/site/newsweek/site/newsweek



And, his mommy didn't tie his shoe lace for him, either -- Photo credit: J. Scott Applewhite - AP

If we can force the media to expose the full extent of Bush and Cheney's lies, they're done.


Peace.

[Olney Blue]

29. OMG- he looks like Nixon in that photo.

[milkyway]

40. Somebody should tell dimwit that a President trying to dress like a bike

messenger looks like a fucking idiot.

[proud patriot]

5. America Deserves Better

Bush-n-company are a disgrace .

[stevedeshazer]

13. Damn right we deserve better

WAY better. These criminals will be the butt of jokes for DECADES.

:patriot:

[glitch]

28. Centuries.

Should we survive them.

[understandinglife]

6. Laura Rozen: The Bush Narrative Collapses

There's the White House narrative that the Bush administration only went to war in Iraq because the CIA duped them into believing Saddam had reconstituted its nuclear weapons program and had stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons, and frequent powwows with the Al Qaeda leadership. And then there's the less and less suppressable truth. Check out Atrios here and here. If the Bush administration weren't afraid of a real investigation, they'd have been pushing for it a bit harder, don't you think? So why are they so afraid of it?

Update: Thinking about this a bit more, it occurs to me, isn't the last thing the Bush administration can afford more of now is the appearance of a cover up of how it used pre-war intelligence? From a sheer politics point of view, isn't Bush just going to look more and more dishonest and unethical to voters? More like Cheney?

More at the link:

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/003051.html

Indeed.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

42. Laura Rozen: "WSJ editorial board comes out for torture. I wish I had 100

... WSJ subscriptions to cancel. Appalling and history's scum. I will never post another WSJ story here.

http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/003054.html

I wouldn't even use the WSJ as liner for our 3 kittie's litter pans ...


Peace.

[Mme. Defarge]

52. Back during the 2001 election fiasco,

I declared my home a WSJ-free-zone!

[understandinglife]

7. Bruce Jentleson: Dissent is Not Disloyalty

The most disturbing aspect of President Bush's speech yesterday is not that he said what he said. The politics are pretty obvious - try a little rally `round the flag to dig out of trouble. What's most disturbing is that he and others in charge of America's foreign policy may actually still believe what they're saying.

Would that the Democrats were as persuasive as Bush says they're being on Iraq . . . we might actually have won an election were that truly true. No, support for the President's Iraq policy is falling because (a) the American public understands that this is about results not just resolve, and (b) through his own actions and inactions, statements and misstatements George W. Bush has forfeited his standing as a straight shooter and has put himself in the position of the public not just disagreeing with his policies but only 40% left believing he is honest and trustworthy.

More at the link:

http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/11/12/85548/795

"We trusted the President about Iraq. He lied to us. -- That's all the Dems need to say on all the talking head shows Sunday and over and over again in the weeks, ahead.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

8. Mark Kleiman: "Thrift! Thrift, Horatio!"

http://www.markarkleiman.com/archives/gwb_the_beloved_leader_/2005/11/thrift_thrift_horatio.php


Peace.

[understandinglife]

9. Robert Schlesinger: "Is anyone surprised at how full of shit (Bush) is?"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x5334771


Peace.

[ginnyinWI]

10. He would have been better off personally to have lost the election

The GOP could have preserved his image as a strong warrior,etc. But now their lies have caught up with them.

This will be good for the Democrats in the long-term. Just unfortunate in the short-term because we have to go through witnessing the death throes of the Bush administration, and because we could have had a good Democrat in office all of this time fixing what's gone so wrong.

[Kralizec]

12. Aye! ¡Hasta la Victoria siempre! n/t

[understandinglife]

15. "If it weren't tragic it would be a New Yorker cartoon. The president ...

... of the United States, in the final stop of his forlorn Latin America tour last week, told the world, "We do not torture." Even as he spoke, the administration's flagrant embrace of torture was as hard to escape as publicity for Anderson Cooper."

Link:

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Frank_Rich_We_do_not_torture_1112.html

One of the snipits that Raw Story has posted from a Frank Rich article to appear in the Sunday NYT. It may well be the ideal item to send to all those fellow citizens who still think they can trust Bush, Cheney and the neoconsters.



Peace.

[understandinglife]

39. "The vice president, not satisfied that the C.I.A. had already been ...

... implicated in four detainee deaths, was busy lobbying Congress to give the agency a green light to commit torture in the future.

<clip>

The fallout from the Scooter Libby indictment reveals that the administration's credibility, having passed the tipping point with Katrina, is flat-lining.

<clip>

Sure, many Democrats (and others) did believe that Saddam had an arsenal before the war, but only the White House hyped selective evidence for nuclear weapons, the most ominous of all of Iraq's supposed W.M.D.'s, to whip up public fears of an imminent doomsday.

<clip>

There was also an entire other set of lies in the administration's prewar propaganda blitzkrieg that had nothing to do with W.M.D.'s, African uranium or the Wilsons.

<clip>

Senator Levin's smoking gun is a widely circulated Defense Intelligence Agency document from February 2002 that was probably seen by the National Security Council.

<clip>

The power of these lies was considerable.

<clip>

There is still much more to learn about our government's duplicity in the run-up to the war, just as there is much more to learn about what has gone on since, whether with torture or billions of Iraq reconstruction dollars.

<clip>

The Times, meanwhile, discovered that Mr. Libby had set up a legal defense fund to be underwritten by donors who don't have to be publicly disclosed but who may well have a vested interest in the direction of his defense.

<clip>

THERE'S so much to stonewall at the White House that last week Scott McClellan was reduced to beating up on the octogenarian Helen Thomas.

November 13, 2005

From 'We Do Not Torture' and Other Funny Stories by FRANK RICH

Much more at the link:
http://select.nytimes.com/2005/11/13/opinion/13rich.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Tid bits rather than entire paragraphs as to give each of you a sense of how useful this Op-Ed will be as we all bring those few Americans who still believe Bush to understand the difference between truth and lies.


Peace.

[BigBearJohn]

16. With the right investigations, Bush, Cheney & Hastert could be removed

[understandinglife]

19. Indeed. As to Hastert, it seems likely that if Sibel Edmonds were ...

... permitted to give open, under-oath testimony, he'd be on his way to a visit with a judge and jury.


Peace.

[Oceansaway]

18. Heads Up on VotetoImpeach.......

Last May I Paypal'd this crooked organization almost $40.00 for the Lawnsign Kit.....after 2 months i didnt get it so i tried to e-mail them and ALL my e-mails were returned....i tried calling them too ( 202-467-6767 )and i always got an answering machine that wouldnt let me leave a message....needless to say, 6 months later and I still havent heard nary a word from the crooks...i guess its buyer beware bigtime with these dudes....yesterday i wrote them a nasty-ass letter telling them what crooks i thought they were and that if i ever heard of them again i'd be bad mouthing them BIGTIME..Vote To Impeach,1901 Pennsylvania Ave.,Suite 607, Washington, D.C.20006.....i noticed a link on this subject to the website, so i'd be real leary about buying anything from them or donating any $$ to them...sign the petition for IMPEACHMENT but be careful....JMO......pretty frik-frakin sad when people ya think are on the up & up stick it up your backside....but for less than $40.00 i found out what buttheads they were....and to think i actually thought that just Republicans were crooks....i guess i was wrong.....

[understandinglife]

21. Welcome to DU. Have never donated or purchased anything ...

... from them so I have no personal experience to compare. Perhaps a call the Better Business Bureau would be something for you to consider.

I was unaware that folk thought only Republicans are crooks; you are the first person I've ever communicated or known who "... actually thought that just Republicans were crooks..."


Peace.

[Time for change]

20. I just signed the impeachment petition you put up in the Research Forum

Unfortunatley, he won't be simply "sad and pathetic" until he is no longer President. Until then, he's more of a great danger to the planet and all its civilizations.

[understandinglife]

22. "Until then, he's more of a great danger to the planet and all its ...

...civilizations.

That is so very true! And, that is why we cannot wait another hour or day or week to get him and his gang out of the Executive Office.

Thank you.


Peace.

[Disturbed]

23. The Dem Party should put together a video of this.

...BUSH DOESN'T CARE ABOUT OSAMA

"I don't know where he is.You know, I just don't spend that much time on him... I truly am not that concerned about him."

When J. Kerry called Bush on this in one of the debates, Bush denied this. The next day a video of Bush saying the above was on TV. Bush clearly lied and yet millions still voted for him. The Corp. Media didn't play this except once. There is the problem. If that tape was played as many times as the Dean scream, perhaps Bush would not have won the election.

[Time for change]

27. Isn't that the truth -- Here's something I just posted on that subject on

another thread:

Without the unwavering support of the MSM and the Republican supporting voting machine companies and the big $$$ from the 1% of our population who benefit from his policies he couldn't get 5% of the vote in a national election -- not today, not in 2000 or 04, not EVER.

[terrya]

24. I have an enormous amount of respect for Josh Marshall

He's dead-on right.

And I agree with you. It is time to impeach and remove from office George W. Bush and Richard Cheney. They have abused the trust of the American people. They have brought shame and dishonor to this country. Their crimes demand nothing less.

I've signed the impeachment petition here. Enough is fucking enough.

[wishlist]

26. "Con job" rush to war when inspectors weren't finding anything serious

This point he makes was the reason I knew from the the beginning that Bush's case for war was a big fraud:

"By early 2003, inspections had shown that there was no serious nuclear weapons effort underway -- the only sort of operation which could have represented a serious or imminent threat. From January of 2003 the administration went to work trying to insure that the war could be started before the rationale for war was entirely discredited. They wanted to create fait accomplis, facts on the ground that no subsequent information or developments could alter. The whole thing was a con. It wasn't about WMD."

Bush can try to justify the fears of WMD, but he cannot justify his unprepared rush to war without giving inspectors time and without getting solid intelligence first, let alone any plan for after the invasion.

[EuroObserver]

34. Actually as good as told the Inspectors to get out of there

fast, or get bombed.

[understandinglife]

30. ReddHedd at firedoglake: "And the point that the Preznit and Hadley fail

... to make -- you know, the actual truth of the matter? That Bushie, as President of the United States and the ultimate consumer of intelligence information and controller of its dissemination to Congress, receives a more thorough briefing than said members of Congress when he and his staffers fail to turn over all the information.

Much more of Drawing a Line at Lies at the link:

http://firedoglake.blogspot.com/2005/11/drawing-line-at-lies.html

Gotta love the WaPo's artful understatement regarding W and Hadley's comments -- "Neither assertion is wholly accurate."

When will the WaPo finally do America and the world a giant, factual bit of service and run the headline -- White House War Criminals Must be Prosecuted


Peace.

[EuroObserver]

35. But But But Junior doesn't have the patience to read that stuff?

It's all left up to Uncle Dick?

[BamaBecky]

31. Lets get this OVER WITH as quick as possible for everybody's

sake. Those with the power, "get a move on" the Impeachment!

Bama

[EuroObserver]

32. "his best play is to accuse his critics of rewriting history,

of playing fast and loose with the truth"

Have you noiced how often they use this tactic - accusing their opponents of doing exactly what they know they're doing themselves.

Is this typically Rovian or does it go deeper than that?

[Kansas Wyatt]

36. It's their favorite tactic.

If Republicans are guilty of something and cannot contain it, then they get out ahead of it by accusing their opponent of it.

Worst case, people think that Republicans and Democrats are both guilty of it. So it's a wash, and the Republican doesn't get any dirtier than the Democrat.

Best case, people think that only the Democrats are only guilty of it, since the Republican spoke up, leveled with the people, and accused them of it. Republican wins, and the Democrat pays the price for the guilty Republican's actions.

Either way, the Democrat gets screwed and the Republican gets away with it, because nobody in the MSM could imagine an esteemed elected representative of the Government being such a parasite and lying chicken shit. Unless a Republican accused a Democrat of it.

[dpbrown]

37. Impeachment, now!

This evil, sad, pathetic little man who has never known personal responsibility, and who has had daddy's friends bail him out all his life needs to be shown the door so we can begin getting our country and our world back.

[mwb970]

48. Yes!

We've put up with enough of this. Not convinced? Think about three more years of this horrible administration!

[dennisnyc]

49. Impeachment Begins with Taking Back the House of Representatives in 06!

With a Dem majority in the house it is a REAL possibility.

For info on the campaign go to

www.dccc.org

This is winnable and a dozen Vets are running for the House in 06! This is our 1994 and the platform is coming out on Tuesday!

[understandinglife]

54. No. It begins NOW with every ethical member of Congress filing ...

... well-justified articles of Impeachment. The process can and must start, Now.

This is NOT a partisan issue.


Peace.

[WiseButAngrySara]

38. K and R! Impeachment NOW !!!!!!! .....n/t

[understandinglife]

41. "Impeachment creates the Democrats as a party of principle, rather than a

... a party of careerism and opportunism. Because the country feels that impeachment is right, and those who disagree will at least see it as a principled stand, it takes back that important language of moral fortitude that a governing party must have.

More at the link:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/11/12/183251/71

While I disagree with several of the claims by the person posting this at dKos, the posts contains valuable insights and recognizes the necessity to make Bush's impeachment a focus - particularly well captured by the quoted sentence.

Moreover, I must re-state that the cause is not partisan. It is essential for America that a focused, intensive effort to impeach Bush immediately become the Nation's number one agenda item.

The message to the rest of the world and the message among each of us citizens must be that we will not rest until we hold accountable the person THE Executive responsible for a massive criminal enterprise - Bush.


Peace.

[goodboy]

43. IMPEACH THE BASTARD! great post, thank you! and thank you TPM!!! (rec'd)

:kick:

NOMINATED!

[understandinglife]

44. Scott Galindez: Honoring Veterans Includes Telling the Truth

November 2005

The Bush administration spin machine is in high gear. "The stakes in the global war on terror are too high, and the national interest is too important, for politicians to throw out false charges," Bush said.

What about the stakes being too high for our soldiers to fight a war based on lies? Oh, and by the way, it's not just politicians who are saying Bush misled the country, a majority of Americans are saying it.

Defending the march to war, Bush said foreign intelligence services and Democrats and Republicans alike were convinced at the time that Saddam Hussein, the former Iraqi leader, had weapons of mass destruction. The United Nations, he noted, had passed more than a dozen resolutions citing Saddam's development and possession of such weapons.

Hmmm, I seem to remember the UN agencies investigating Iraq’s weapons programs reporting that there was no evidence that they had reconstituted the programs. I also remember that there was no vote authorizing the war, because Negroponte and Straw knew they didn’t have the votes.

So George Bush continues to mislead us....

More at the link:

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/111205X.shtml

Just think of what it would have been like if Bush had not lied -- how many lives would not have been destroyed and how different life would be for everyone else.


Peace.

[Carolab]

45. Use your brain

http://www.comearmageddon.blogspot.com

[DemReadingDU]

46. Excellent collection of articles, Recommended!

[emulatorloo]

47. kick n/t

[Stephanie]

50. Thanks

It's over for Bush.

[ginnyinWI]

51. A certain craven chimpy little prez is now playing the Blame Game!

Why am I not surprised. :eyes:

[understandinglife]

55. Debunking the Right: The World Did Not See the Iraqi Threat as Bush Did

http://thinkprogress.org/2005/11/13/debunking-the-right-the-world-did-not-see-the-iraqi-threat-as-bush-did

Yes, no surprise Bush and his neoconsters will never hold themself accountable.

Thus, we must.

"It IS Tribunal Time in the United States of America.


Peace.

[understandinglife]

53. James Fallows: What Bush Isn't Addressing on Iraq

<clip>

So when the President decided on Friday to "respond to the critics" of his Iraq policy, naturally he did nothing of the kind. For the record, here are the three biggest, most obvious points not even addressed in his speech:

1) Everybody was not, in fact, working from the same misleading information.

<clip>

2) To say that Saddam Hussein might have been a threat is not to say that we had to invade when we did.

<clip>

3) As for managing Iraq after the fall of Baghdad, there is no shared blame at all. The Bush Administration owns every aspect of this disastrously bungled situation.

Much more at the link:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jim-fallows/what-bush-isnt-addressin_b_10621.html

"It IS Tribunal Time in the United States of America."


Peace.

[understandinglife]

56. Kevin Drum: MANIPULATING INTELLIGENCE....Did the Bush administration ...

... mislead the country during the runup to the Iraq war? It's true that they turned out to be wrong about a great many things, but that doesn't answer the question. It merely begs it. Were they sincerely wrong, or did they intentionally manipulate the intelligence they presented to the public in order to mask known weaknesses in their case?

The case for manipulation is pretty strong. It relies on several things, but I think the most important of them has been the discovery that the administration deliberately suppressed dissenting views on some of the most important pieces of evidence that they used to bolster their case for war. For future reference, here's a list of five key dissents about administration claims, all of which were circulated before the war but kept under wraps until after the war:

More at the link:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_11/007556.php

Essential reading.

Comments from Josh Marshall on Kevin Drum's analysis:

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/007001.php

[understandinglife]

57. Kevin Drum: "This is what it's come to. A European diplomat talks openly

... about the possibility that the entire thing is a U.S. fraud. The Bush administration is forced to lean on France to establish its own credibility. And the Chalabi fiasco in Iraq combined with the dubious track record of Iranian resistance groups makes the provenance of the laptop about as iffy as Dan Rather's National Guard memos.

As recently as five years ago, none of this would have even occurred to anyone. Today it's the first thing that comes to mind.

Link:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_11/007559.php

ZERO credibility - Bush has achieved the unimaginable.


Peace.