Impeachment; Impeach Bush and Cheney; Pink Is Patriotic; And A Comprehensive Report

PINK PATRIOTS; LISTEN UP PELOSI THESE ARE REAL WOMEN WITH INTEGRITY Washington Post (Code Pink)


Pelosi's Sinking FortunesOpEdNews, PA - Jul 3, 2007


DON’T MISS THE CONCLUSION OF THIS POST BY NOAM CHOMSKY

by Dave Lindorff [Much more to follow on and from Dave later in this post]

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took power in the House of Representatives in January on a wave of public enthusiasm and hopes that Congress would finally start holding the president to account.

Not quite six months out, it's becoming apparent to Democrats who were looking to her for leadership that she's not about leading an opposition party; she's about posturing and hoping for better days in 2008, but not much else.

Californians voted for Democrats in Congress because they wanted to end the Iraq War, and because they were, and are, fed up with the anti-democratic antics of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

Pelosi's own California Democratic Party Convention recently overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on her and the Congress to impeach the president--something that Pelosi stubbornly refuses to allow to happen.

Now her failure to act to stop the war, and her refusal to permit a Bush impeachment bill to be filed on her watch, are hitting her where it hurts--in the polls.

According to a report today by Media News in Sacramento, written by Steve Geissinger, Pelosi's support in California, which was at 52 percent in March, has slumped 13 percent to just 39 percent since then. That's Bush territory she's entering.

It would be nice to think Pelosi would see this decline in support on her home turf as a signal that she needs to do something radically different, but she's been pretty pig-headed so far about taking on the president.

In fact, as I wrote in yesterday's column, the Speaker is now on record as saying that impeaching the president would be a "waste of time" and that defending the Constitution "isn't worth it" unless she knows in advance that she can succeed.

Not particularly inspirational talk for an opposition leader, is it?

Well, maybe Pelosi's weakness explains why the number of members of Congress who have signed on to Rep. Dennis Kucinich's once ignored Cheney impeachment bill (H.Res. 333) has jumped to 13.

The snowball is rolling downhill and it's starting to get bigger, and to roll faster.

Bush's commutation of Scooter Libby's jail sentence, which was done at the urging of Vice President Dick Cheney, and which is clearly designed to keep the convicted felon from turning state's evidence (making it obstruction of justice), should give that ball a big push in the right direction.

Maybe the July 4 weekend is the right time for California Democrats to start looking for someone to challenge Pelosi for her seat. Even a write-in campaign would be worth it.

Meanwhile, Democrats in Congress should take a cold, hard look at Pelosi's home numbers, at the crash in public support for the Democratic Congress, which has fallen from a high of 65 percent last November to just 23 percent, and at the feelings of their own constituents, and consider whether maybe they should look for a new and gutsier leader.

Either than, or they should start working on their resumes.

At this rate, 2008 could be a Democratic bloodbath.

LINDORFF is co-author, with Barbara Olshansky, of 'The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office' (St. Martin's Press, 2006, now out in paperback).

A Philadelphia-based investigative journalist and columnist, his work is available at

www.thiscantbehappening.net

Dave Lindorff, a columnist for Counterpunch, is author of several recent books ("This Can't Be Happening! Resisting the Disintegration of American Democracy" and "Killing Time: An Investigation into the Death Penalty Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal").

His latest book, coauthored with Barbara Olshanshky, is "The Case for Impeachment: The Legal Argument for Removing President George W. Bush from Office (St. Martin's Press, May 2006). His writing is available at http://www.thiscantbehappening.net
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Et tu, Sherrod, Zack and Charlie? (And more: a Kucinich aide leaves)
Cleveland.com


Cheney’s Dodge (Columbus Dispatch)
Vice President Dick Cheney contends that because the vice president has legislative as well as executive duties, he is not subject to secrecy-oversight rules that apply to all other parts of the executive branch.

Cheney's executive-branch role is clearly the predominant one and the rules should apply fully to him. Since the earliest days of the administration in 2001, President Bush has relied on the more-experienced Cheney for advice and to lead discussions at cabinet meetings.

Cheney, who was defense secretary for the president's father, President George H.W. Bush, left his mark on post-9/11 homeland-security policies and on the decision to go to war in Iraq.

Bush, Cheney think they're above the law Tuesday, July 3, 2007 3:24 AM
Columbus Dispatch

Thank you for last Tuesday's Dispatch editorial "Cheney's dodge," regarding Vice President Dick Cheney's most recent show of slick legal maneuvering, arrogant power and disdain for our representative form of government. This administration speaks highly of the rule of law but shows no duty to actually follow it.

They are of the do-as-I-say, not-as-I-do crowd, which is why most of the world now views the United States as an aggressor and moral hypocrite. Impeachment now is our patriotic duty.

The world is watching our civics and government class, and holding the president and vice president accountable for crimes against the Constitution is the most responsible way to teach about democracy and to check the powers of the executive branch.

OpEdNews
I beg your forgiveness for the following analogy, but this site is like a Liberal’s Ammunition bump; that’s not a contradiction in terms if you’re a Declaration of Independence person first, and a second amendment liberal…sounds a potential revolutionary to me…smile.

COLUMNISTS

Bush 'the decider,' but Cheney makes the menuCassopolis Vigilant.com

Tuesday, July 3, 2007 1:10 PM EDT

Read The Washington Post's year-in-the-making four-part series on Vice President Dick Cheney. It ought to take your breath away.

Reporters Bart Gellman and Jo Becker try to pry the veil of secrecy off the White House, where Cheney has used his experience as Jerry Ford's chief of staff, secretary of defense and House Republican whip and broad authority granted by President George W. Bush to if not establish his own fourth dimension of the federal government, then to at least bend something as unwieldy as Washington bureaucracy to his will instead of settling for funeral-trotting figurehead.

"What (Cheney and his minions) miss is that in times of war, a prerequisite for success is people having confidence in their leadership. This is the great failure of the administration - a complete and total indifference to public opinion," the Post, which interviewed 200 men and women "who worked for, with or in opposition to Cheney's office," quotes a "former White House ally."
Cheney, 66, of course, declined to be interviewed.

We probably don't know the half of what's stowed in those "man-size Mosler safes" in his office since it's taken six years to get this accounting of moves made after 9/11 in the early days of the war on terror.

He may have repealed gravity by now or become chief justice of the Supreme Court.
Cheney covers his tracks.

And he conceals his role not just from Americans, but from other top Bush advisers.He pioneered stamping even talking points for reporters with "Treated As Top Secret/SCI," or Sensitive Compartmented Information," as though their disclosure could damage national security.

The names or size of his staff? None of our business. He generally releases no public calendar and ordered the Secret Service to destroy visitor logs.

A federal office that insisted on auditing his compliance Cheney proposed by abolished.
Bush ultimately makes decisions on war in Iraq, the budget and who sits on the Supreme Court, but the president may not even realize the extent to which Cheney shapes his options.

In one instance the Post cites, Cheney may have been Bush's sounding board for advice the vice president originated himself. He seems accountable to no one, even though Cheney used to counsel that all proposals should be tested against other views and that unvetted decisions lead presidents to costly mistakes.

"The irony with the Cheney crowd pushing the envelope on presidential power is that the president has now ended up with lesser powers than he would have had if they had made less extravagant monarchical claims," notes Bruce Fein, an assistant deputy attorney general under Ronald Reagan.

In great detail, the Post tells how "astonished" Attorney General John Ashcroft was upon learning that the Justice Department was denied a voice in the tribunal process as Cheney took the lead on military commissions to try al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters.

On Nov. 14, 2001, when Cheney announced to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that terrorists do not "deserve to be treated as prisoners of war," President Bush hadn't yet made that decision and wouldn't for another 10 weeks that Geneva Conventions would not apply to al-Qaeda or Taliban fighters captured on the battlefield.

Donning Harry Potter's invisibility cloak to dodge any public or congressional scrutiny is a great advantage in waging bureaucratic turf war.

Guys like Scooter Libby kneaded the law like pizza dough to make it fit Cheney's positions.
With his private access to the Oval Office, the Secretary of State, the National Security Adviser and Federal Reserve Board chairman count themselves among those Bushwhacked by Cheney going behind their backs. Bush lets Cheney play a role Cheney never allowed guarding Ford's door.

Clearly, Cheney's power derives from a strong will to prevail coupled with meticulous preparation and a chief executive inclined to delegation.

Cheney is said to enjoy the nitty-gritty of economics.

He "reaches down" to second-tier officials better informed on subjects he tackles, knowing his interest will also grab their bosses' attention.

Piercing his secrecy, of course, lets us glance past his Darth Cheney public persona to someone who seems more like a conservative ideologue than evil, "griping privately to confidants about the administration's failure to control spending."

Nixon numbers: A Newsweek poll shows 26 percent of American approve of the job President Bush is doing - lowest since Tricky Dick's 23 percent in 1974.

With 19 months to go, the record is within Bush's grasp.

"Nixonian stonewalling": That's what congressional investigators are calling Bush's refusal to produce White House documents. Congressional panels are investigating whether the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys, including former Cass County prosecutor Margaret Chiara, were carried out for improper political motives.

FOX PUNDIT: CHENEY IN 'SECURED UNDISCLOSED BUNKER OF HIS MIND'

David Edwards and Josh CatonePublished: Sunday June 24, 2007-

Fox News Sunday held a round table discussion this morning regarding Dick Cheney's assertion that he is not part of the executive branch and should thus not be subject to an executive order concerning the handling of classified information by executive offices.

Host Chris Wallace wondered why the Vice President would have decided to stop complying with the executive order in 2003, since he had complied with it prior to then, and former Vice President Al Gore also complied with it.

Conservative pundit Bill Kristol (NEOCON) replied that the measure was a "pain in the neck" for the executive staff and argued that there is no reason for archivists from the National Archives to "come investigate the security procedures of the Vice President's office."

"Maybe they have a reason because he stopped complying with the law," shot back panel member Juan Williams.

"THERE'S NO LAW," insisted Kristol.

"Yes. There's an executive order," said Williams. "What you have is, not only is it that there is classified documents, we don't know where they go, what happens to them, emails disappear in this White House, and you say, 'Well, what happened to the emails?' 'Oh no, we have a private account.' This is all a dodge, this is a game in order to keep Dick Cheney in, I guess, some sort of secured undisclosed bunker of his mind."

The following video is from Fox's Fox News Sunday, broadcast on June 24.

Ex-Interior official gets more time on inside( Philly.com)

J. Steven Griles had his jail sentence doubled by a judge who did not like how he deflected blame.
By Matt Apuzzo
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - A federal judge yesterday chastised the Interior Department's former deputy secretary and doubled his proposed prison term to 10 months for lying to senators in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal and making excuses about it in court.

J. Steven Griles is the highest administration official sentenced in the probe. He pleaded guilty to obstructing a congressional investigation, but his lawyers tried yesterday to deflect blame for his faulty testimony.

U.S. District Judge Ellen Segal Huvelle was not pleased.

Politico.Com

Republicans duck and dodge over Scooter
By: Jonathan Martin Jul 3, 2007 08:54 AM EST

REPUBLICANS REALIZE THEY HAVE A SCOOTER PROBLEM.

Just listen to how hard they're trying to change the subject.

Former Gov. Mitt Romney downplayed President Bush’s decision to spare Dick Cheney's former top aide from jail as “a reasonable outcome” that he supports, but it’s other pardons he wants to talk about.

"I did hear that Hillary Clinton was apparently critical of the pardon — and if anyone in America should be silent about pardons, it should be Hillary Clinton. Her husband's administration handed out pardons like they were lollipops.”

Romney's dodge may be the best way for Republicans to play the difficult hand the president dealt them on Monday.

Whether they know the Byzantine details of the case or not, 65 percent or more of Americans have consistently indicated opposition to pardoning I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby over his attempt to obstruct the Valerie Plame investigation.

Candidates have a tricky balance to strike as they jockey to win the affection of Republican primary voters who are fed up with Bush in some respects (e.g., immigration) but admire him in others (e.g., willingness to stand up to the Democrats).

OPEDNEWS.com (Stephen Pizzo)

Hello, 911? I'd Like to Report a Crime
by Stephen Pizzo
http://www.opednews.com-

What's it take to get a guy impeached these days? I mean, less than ten years ago it was lying under oath in a civil case involving alleged sexual harassment.

Since then someone has apparently raised the bar -- to someplace in low-earth orbit.

No, I'm not talking about impeaching George W. Bush – not that he doesn't richly deserve a thorough impeaching.

I'm talking about his sidekick, Tricky Dick the Second.

We've all suspected for a long time that Dick was up to no good.

And, while no one has yet been able to lift his finger prints from any of the many crime scenes that have turned up, and keep turning up, circumstantial evidence has pointed to him in almost every case.

But as of yesterday we now have a firm, undeniable set of prints. We now not only have a preverbal, but the gun is still in Cheney's hand and he's waving it proudly around in a "you'll never take me alive, coppers," manner:

WASHINGTON —

For the last four years, Vice President Dick Cheney has made the controversial claim that his office is not fully part of the Bush administration in order to exempt it from a presidential order regulating federal agencies' handling of classified national security information, officials said Thursday....According to documents released Thursday by a House committee, Cheney's staff has blocked efforts by the National Archives' Information Security Oversight Office to enforce a key component of the presidential order: a mandatory on-site inspection of the vice president's office.

At least one of those inspections would have come at a particularly delicate time — when Cheney's former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and other aides were under criminal investigation for their suspected roles in leaking the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame. (Full)

Impeachment an independent thought for someLos Angeles Times, CA - 28 minutes ago"This is an impeachment 4th of July," Byron De Lear, a Green Party activist, said Wednesday. He called removing Bush and Cheney "a patriotic duty to restore ...

MoveOn Puts Impeachment Back on the TableYahoo! News - Jul 3, 2007Leading bloggers have also launched a targeted campaign to specifically lobby Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee to put impeachment back on ...

A Conversation on ImpeachmentHuffington Post, NY - 18 hours agoby Taylor Marsh Speaker Pelosi has said that "impeachment is off the table." For many, the commutation of Libby's sentence has been the tipping point. ...

-California activists inaugurate Impeachment Center on Independence DayRaw Story, MA - 11 hours agoThe Impeachment Center's opening comes as one House Democrat took aim at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's statement that impeachment remained 'off the table. ...

Why impeachment of Cheney and Bush is imperativeOnline Journal, FL - 21 hours agoThis is the message the American people who aren’t clamoring for the impeachment and removal of this demonic duo aren’t grasping. ...

Tom Paine's 4th of July Advice for CongressYahoo! News - 12 hours agoYet, they avoid the inevitable demands of the impeachment power conjured by the founders of the Republic and intended for application in moments such as ...

David Swanson: 14 Congress Members for ImpeachmentScoop.co.nz, New Zealand - Jul 3, 2007And Congressman Jesse Jackson Jr. has spoken out in support of impeachment. He is clearly either signing on or introducing his own articles of impeachment ...

Bush Impeachment – Libby Commutation Makes it ImperativeOpEdNews, PA - 17 hours agoNixon’s actions in the Saturday Night Massacre lead directly to several articles of impeachment being filed against him in congress in the ensuing days. ...

Jackson: Impeachment Is the Right ResponseThe Nation., NY - Jul 3, 2007By calling for consideration of the impeachment of the president for abusing the pardoning – and the related commutation of sentences -- privileges of his ...

National-Security Breaches: Time for ImpeachmentScoop.co.nz, New Zealand - Jul 3, 2007By Bernard Weiner, Co-Editor By taking impeachment "off the table," Nancy Pelosi and John Conyers may have made partisan sense during the run-up to the

MoveOn. Org revives Cheney ImpeachmentFree Market News Network, FL - Jul 3, 2007Talk of impeachment seems to have faded a bit from the campaign trail, by a common consensus of the leading candidates. But it may be coming back. ...

Weston protesters demand President’s impeachmentWeston Forum, CT - Jul 3, 2007About 10 people gathered with signs and petitions at Weston Center Saturday morning, June 30, to call for the impeachment of President George Bush and Vice

Put Impeachment on the TableHuffington Post, NY - Jul 3, 2007Upon becoming Speaker of the House, Speaker Nancy Pelosi quashed the possibility of impeaching President Bush. It's time to reconsider that. ...

-Pelosi on Impeachment and Defending the Constitution: Just Not ...OpEdNews, PA - Jul 2, 2007Remember, when bills of impeachment were first filed against Nixon, only some 25 members of Congress supported the idea of impeachment, and no one thought ...

Rep. Johnson signs onto Cheney impeachment billWIS, SC - Jul 2, 2007In backing the resolution, Johnson is bucking House Democratic leaders, who have said impeachment won't be considered and have warned the liberal wing of

Rep. Johnson signs onto Cheney impeachment billColumbus Ledger-Enquirer, GA - Jul 2, 2007In backing the resolution, Johnson is bucking House Democratic leaders, who have said impeachment won't be considered and have warned the liberal wing of

Impeachment in KennebunkportColumbus Free Press, OH - Jul 1, 2007I spoke on a national radio show yesterday about impeachment, and the host asked people to phone in and argue with me, but every single caller supported ...

No Choice But ImpeachmentSeeing the Forest, CA - Jul 2, 2007We can't think that impeachment will get in the way of "getting things done." This is about principles and the Constitution. This is about Rule of Law and ...

Declaring our Independence of a Tyrannical GovernmentOpEdNews, PA - 7 hours agoApparently, for some, the issues of impeachment and indictment are confused. While I support impeachment, it must be understood that impeachment is a ...

Is The Constitution Worth It?Seeing the Forest, CA - 6 hours agoThen Mike Stark asked about impeachment. In the response she said, I made a decision a few years ago, or at least one year ago, that impeachment was ...

Blacked Out by the Corporate Media, Impeachment AdvancesThe Baltimore Chronicle, MD - Jul 2, 2007Your donation is essential to our survival. by Dave Lindorff When will the corporate media finally begin to honestly report on the impeachment story? ...

Philadelphia Emergency Anti-War Convention webcast NOW in response ...Bay Area Indymedia, CA - 6 hours agoThis historical moment demands that we bring together diverse movements from the antiwar, peace and social justice, impeachment, 9/11 truth, civil liberties ..

Bush: Pardon for Libby Remains on the TableYahoo! News - Jul 3, 2007John Nichols' new book is THE GENIUS OF IMPEACHMENT: The Founders' Cure for Royalism. Rolling Stone's Tim Dickinson hails it as a "nervy, acerbic, ...

Reflections on Independence, Volume 5 Reflections on Independence ...The Daily Scare, OH - 20 hours agoYet it is heartening to look back five years to my first call for impeachment and revolution, and to realize how many millions more have spoken out ...

Commuting ScooterOpEdNews, PA - Jul 3, 2007Madison would probably have called for Bush's impeachment when Bush first refused to investigate or hold anyone accountable for leaking Valerie Plame's ...

Obama: Impeachment is not acceptableUSA Today - Jun 28, 2007Obama, a Harvard law school graduate and former lecturer on constitutional law at the University of Chicago, said impeachment should not be used as a ...

Doug Cunningham: Impeachment resolution gets scorn, supportTimes Herald-Record, NY - Jul 1, 2007Last week, I lambasted the Middletown Common Council for adopting a full-scale resolution, calling for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President ...

LETTER: Shoe on the other foot for RepublicansFreeport Journal-Standard, IL - 3 hours agoWhen former President Clinton was going through impeachment for lying under oat about a consensual sexual affair, all I heard from the Republicans was the ...

Understanding Pardons and CommutationsU.S. News & World Report, DC - Jul 3, 2007The one exception: Pardons may not be used to halt impeachment proceedings. The framers of the Constitution intended the pardon power to be used to preserve ...

Minnesota Democrats... Follow Rep. Keith Ellison's Lead, Support ...OpEdNews, PA - Jul 1, 2007I realize not everyone is completely ready or in favor of impeachment, however, amongst my progressive/liberal friends, mostly it seems that many of us ...

Relections on Independence DayOpEdNews, PA - 14 hours agoIn light of what can only be called war crimes, impeachment seems very lenient. Please call your congressmen/congresswomen. This has to stop. ...

Timing is everythingOpEdNews, PA - Jul 3, 2007by Sherwin Steffin Page 1 of 1 page(s) All across the blogosphere are heard calls for the impeachment of Bush and/or Cheney. Others suggest that a Federal ...

Obama and Impeachment [Across the blogosphere, folks who wanted to support Obama are asking: “Why Barack; why did you do this?] (Ed.)OpEdNews, PA - Jul 1, 2007Obama believes that it would be improper to impeach Dick Cheney, because (and I am paraphrasing now) impeachment should be reserved for serious crimes, ...

Call out the Instigatoruruknet.info, Italy - Jul 3, 2007I have remained silent when Senator Barack Obama said that impeachment is only reserved for "grave, grave" breeches! Well, BushCo has created hundreds of

St. Paul / Ellison for Cheney impeachmentPioneer Press, MN - Jul 1, 2007Keith Ellison, D-Minn., has added his name to an uphill effort to remove Vice President Dick Cheney from office through impeachment, a spokesman confirmed ...

Bush impeachment essentialHattiesburg American, MS - Jul 1, 2007By Robert Regl For the survival of our constitutional republic, the impeachment of President Geporge Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney is absolutely ...

An unpardonable story of DC hypocrisyChandler News-Dispatch, MN - 14 hours agoThe Libby case followed the same pattern of hype and hypocrisy established during Clinton‘s impeachment scandal. It‘s as if we‘re all sentenced to relive ...

Sweet blog special: The Libby grant of executive clemency.Chicago Sun-Times, United States - Jul 2, 2007... as leader of the Congress, Speaker Nancy Pelosi withdrew the notion of impeachment proceedings against either President Bush or Vice President Cheney. ...

7/3: Between Iraq And A Hard PlaceNational Journal, DC - Jul 3, 2007There is also widespread support for beginning impeachment proceedings against Bush based on obstruction of justice grounds. Initial reactions include: Rep. ...

Blacked Out by Corporate Media, Impeachment AdvancesOpEdNews, PA - Jun 30, 2007by Dave Lindorff Page 1 of 2 page(s) The corporate media are disgracing themselves even further, if that is possible, on the impeachment story. ...

Impeachment? Why?OpEdNews, PA - Jun 30, 2007Does somebody like me think impeachment would actually solve anything, do I think that any good would come out of doing all of the investigations and ...

US Rep. Johnson Joins 10 Others on Cheney Impeachment BillPolitical Affairs Magazine, NY - Jun 30, 2007Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), had been a strong supporter of impeachment, including, among other things, introducing her own Articles of Impeachment against ...

Expanding the cloak of secrecyThe Phoenix, MA - Jul 3, 2007... willfully disobeyed such subpoenas . . . thereby assuming to himself functions and judgments necessary to the exercise of the sole power of impeachment. ...

Scott Spoolman: Last straw: I'm now on board to impeachThe Capital Times, WI - 12 hours agoI was going to wait for Bush and Cheney to invade Iran before joining the call for their impeachment. Bush has now changed my mind. ...

Reflections on Independence, Volume 5OpEdNews, PA - Jul 3, 2007Yet it is heartening to look back five years to my first call for impeachment and revolution, and to realize how many millions more have spoken out ...

Bush, Cheney deserve impeachmentArizona Republic, AZ - Jun 25, 2007Vice President Dick Cheney has forgotten that we have three branches of government in order to have balance of power. That is what keeps our democracy in ...

IT'S OFFICIAL / CHENEY AND BUSH ARE ABOVE THE LAWOpEdNews, PA - Jul 3, 2007The second step is to take action which means Impeachment proceedings as soon as possible ~ starting with Cheney and ending with Bush. ...

US Rep. Johnson Joins 10 Others on Cheney Impeachment BillAtlanta Progressive News, GA - Jun 29, 2007Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), had been a strong supporter of impeachment, including, among other things, introducing her own Articles of Impeachment against ...

Pelosi on Impeachment: "Constitution Is Worth It If You Can Succeed"ePluribus Media - Jun 30, 2007by wanderindiana Bloggers Mike Stark and Dave Johnson recently grilled Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on the subject of impeachment. ...

Lack of Libby coverage surprisingStatesman Journal, OR - 17 hours agoFor those who feel impeachment is not the answer, then obviously salvaging any truth or learning any lesson from the totally flawed path Bush’s people have ...

[Breaking] Rep. KEITH ELLISON (D-MN) SIGNS IMPEACHMENT RESOLUTION 333OpEdNews, PA - Jun 29, 2007Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) calling for impeachment hearings to commence against Vice President Richard B. Cheney. Members of ImpeachforPeace had met with Rep. ...

Letters: Impeachment, Iraq, Hmong, etc.Sacramento Bee, USA - Jun 30, 2007I am tired of Cheney yielding his king-like power to influence so many issues and to appear to be above the law. Impeachment would be in order -- stop him ...

Washington Democrat adds voice to Cheney impeachment driveRaw Story, MA - Jun 29, 2007A Democratic Congressman from Washington state became the latest Member of Congress to add his voice to the calls for the impeachment of Vice President Dick

McDermott to Cheney: ‘Resign or face impeachment’The Hill, DC - Jun 29, 2007told Vice President Dick Cheney to “resign or face impeachment” Thursday night as three more House Democrats lent their support to a plan to impeach the

'Bring Cheney to heel'Louisville Courier-Journal, KY - Jul 3, 2007Fortunately, our Constitution provides a clear mechanism for doing so: impeachment. The time to begin impeachment proceedings against Cheney has come. ...

BARACK YOU CAN’T ESCAPE THIS. IT’S ALL OVER THE PLACE!

Obama Opposes Bush, Cheney ImpeachmentNewsMax.com, FL - Jun 29, 2007Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday he opposes impeachment of either President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney. ...

Obama says he opposes impeachmentJoliet Herald News, IL - Jun 29, 2007AP WASHINGTON -- Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday he opposes impeachment of either President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney. ...

Obama says he opposes impeachment of either Bush or Cheneynwitimes.com, IN - Jun 28, 2007By AP WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday he opposes impeachment of either President Bush or Vice President Dick ...

Articles of Impeachment Against President George W. Bush (repeat)Huffington Post, NY - Jun 28, 2007Here are four Articles of Impeachment as put forth by the Center for Constitutional Rights. Each of the four have substantial supporting documentation, ...

Obama says he opposes impeachment of either Bush or CheneyJournal Gazette and Times-Courier, IL - Jun 28, 2007By AP WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday he opposes impeachment of either President Bush or Vice President Dick ...

Obama says he opposes impeachment of either Bush or CheneyThe Southern, IL - Jun 28, 2007By AP WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said Thursday he opposes impeachment of either President Bush or Vice President Dick ...

Waters, Lee, Woolsey - Impeachment Way to End WarScoop.co.nz, New Zealand - Jun 28, 2007During Q&A, the 3 of them rushed in between votes, and made a prepared statement of reading the 3 articles of impeachment (H Res 333). ...

Let's impeach himSalt Lake Tribune, United States - Jul 2, 2007Mayor Anderson was right then, and he is right now in calling for the impeachment of George Bush, who in many ways has created the question of whether or ...

Bush critic says Ulster County missed the boat on impeachment ...Kingston Daily Freeman, NY - Jun 29, 2007KINGSTON - A supporter of a proposed "impeachment resolution" in Ulster County thinks the county Legislature has missed its chance. ...

Obama Against Impeachment Of Bush, Cheney Despite Shortcomings []RTT News, NY - Jun 28, 2007Obama said impeachment should be reserved for "grave" breaches of the president's authority, although he has been distressed by the "loose ethical standards ...

Reagan Official Calls for ImpeachmentFree Market News Network, FL - Jun 28, 2007

Impeachment causes confusionCincinnati Enquirer, OH - Jun 27, 2007BY SARAH HARDEE ENQUIRER CONTRIBUTOR ELSMERE - After canceling and rescheduling a special meeting intended for the reading of articles of impeachment ...

Subpoena Issue May Open ImpeachmentFree Market News Network, FL - Jun 28, 2007Keith Olbermann announced on Wednesday's Countdown that the White House is refusing on grounds of executive privilege to honor Senate subpoenas and release ...

LaRouche to Speaker Pelosi: BAE Scandal Demands Cheney's Immediate ...Mathaba.Net, UK - Jun 27, 2007... Nancy Pelosi drop her stubborn and ill-conceived rejection of the need to remove Cheney from office, and take the lead in his immediate impeachment. ...

Will George Bush Ever Suffer the Consequences?Huffington Post, NY - Jul 2, 2007The Democrats have been screaming about how impeachment is off the table for the last six months (at least). So, what do Bush and Cheney have to worry about .

Putin visits Bush at family estateEuronews.net, France - Jul 2, 2007Meanwhile, in a nearby town just a kilometre away, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets calling for the impeachment of President Bush. ...

How the People May Bring Criminal Charges Against BushOpEdNews, PA - Jul 2, 2007An overwhelming number of those favoring Bush's impeachment say that there is "plenty" to warrant Bush's removal from the office he seized.

A Crook in the White HouseBrad Blog - Jul 2, 2007But undoubtedly information in Libby’s possession would amount to evidence for impeachment. And it was probably useful to Bush to puncture one immediate

Impeachment - Now More Than EverUnCapitalist Journal - Jun 26, 2007It's been 7 months since Nancy Pelosi took impeachment "off the table". We've heard all the Republican talking points adopted by the corporatists wing of ...

Rev. Dave Steffenson: Impeachment must be used to stop Bush ...The Capital Times, WI - Jun 26, 2007Impeachment is the legal equivalent of a recall election at the presidential level. The recall of Bush and Cheney must be started now! ...

George Mason University student government changing open meetings ...Student Press Law Center, VA - Jul 2, 2007Beales said he was not very concerned about the first two impeachment trials, but he and other editors wanted to ensure the president's trial would be open. ...

Would Cheney Preside Over His Own Impeachment Hearing? KXNet.com ...Reiten Television KXMB Bismarck, ND - Jun 26, 2007But what’s funny is that if impeachment hearings were actually commenced, Cheney would preside over them in the Senate The Senate shall have the sole Power ...

McDermott joins call for Cheney's removalSeattle Times, United States - Jun 29, 2007Jim McDermott said Vice President Dick Cheney should resign or face impeachment. McDermott had not been among members of Congress calling for impeachment of ...

The 'I' wordBoston Globe, United States - Jun 23, 2007Polls show the public does not think impeachment should be a priority. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has repeatedly declared impeachment to be "off the ...

Impeachment of Bush and Cheney is essentialOpEdNews, PA - Jun 24, 2007by Bob Regl Page 1 of 1 page(s) For the survival of our constitutional republic impeachment of Bush and Cheney is absolutely essential, but the Democratic ...

The Vices of Cheney: Where Impeachment Must BeginHuffington Post, NY - Jun 24, 2007That is, against the beginning of impeachment proceedings in the House. The prevailing assumption has been that it would be necessary to impeach and convict ...

BAE Scandal Demands Cheney's Immediate ImpeachmentExecutive Intelligence Review (EIR), VA - Jun 25, 2007... Nancy Pelosi drop her stubborn and ill-conceived rejection of the need to remove Cheney from office, and take the lead in his immediate impeachment. ...

MySpace Page Pushes for Letters to Congress About ImpeachmentAssociated Content, CO - Jun 22, 2007There are growing amounts of individuals online that believe that impeachment proceedings for the two leaders of our Nation would be the best thing for the ...

Impeachment talks waste timeStatesman Journal, OR - Jun 24, 2007I wish people would stop wasting their time, energy and resources calling for President Bush's impeachment. It's not going to happen. ...

Cheney should end all impeachment talkDetNews.com, MI - Jun 25, 2007I'm often asked why, given my lower-than-low opinion of this administration, I don't at least raise the subject of whether George W. Bush should be ...

Eugene Robinson (Detroit)

Cheney should end all impeachment talk

I'm often asked why, given my lower-than-low opinion of this administration, I don't at least raise the subject of whether George W. Bush should be impeached. I answer with three scary words that tend to end the discussion: President Dick Cheney.

Then again, Cheney would probably think of moving into the Oval Office as a demotion. The president, at least, has some accountability to public opinion -- if he's going to defy it, he has to offer some explanation. The president has to hold an occasional news conference, tolerate meetings with his opponents on Capitol Hill and endure lectures from world leaders who question his policies. Cheney can just blow it all off.

Cheney will be remembered not just as the first sitting vice president since Aaron Burr to shoot someone, but also as the first vice president in history clever and determined enough to turn what is usually a ceremonial office into a center of vast independent power.

It's ironic that the latest outrage from Cheney is his claim to be exempt from a presidential order concerning the handling of classified documents because his office is not actually, or at least not exclusively, a part of the executive branch. Cheney, you see, has spent the past six years pushing the envelope of executive authority, asserting for Bush and himself the right to do pretty much any damn thing they want.

Didn't Cheney claim executive privilege as his reason for keeping secret the process he followed in developing the administration's energy policy, including the names of the people with whom he met?

The flap over secret documents is a mere bagatelle, however, compared with the way Cheney has usurped, concentrated and wielded power. A remarkable series of stories in The Washington Post about Cheney's unprecedented role began Sunday with the amazing tale of how, two months after the Sept. 11 attacks, Cheney got Bush to sign an order denying foreign terrorism suspects access to any court of law, military or civilian.

Cheney presented Bush with the order, which had been written "in strict secrecy" by Cheney's lawyer, as the two had lunch. Within the hour, the document had been made official with Bush's signature -- and neither Secretary of State Colin Powell nor national security adviser Condoleezza Rice had been informed.

Rice was "incensed," according to the Post, while Powell didn't learn of the order -- which had enormous implications for U.S. foreign policy -- until he heard it announced that evening on CNN. His response: "What the hell just happened?"

What happened was that Cheney took him to school.

Cheney went on to oversee the development of the shameful philosophical and legal framework the administration has used to justify submitting detainees in the "war on terror" to what Cheney called "robust interrogation" -- and what international agreements call torture. Cheney supported a hair-splitting distinction between torture on the one hand and "cruel, inhuman or degrading" treatment on the other.

I've never bought the theory of the Bush-Cheney relationship as Pinocchio-Geppetto -- it lets Bush off too easily to imagine that Cheney pulls all the strings. But it's clear that Cheney is the toughest, smartest infighter in the administration, and that his toughness and smarts have been employed partly in service of an independent agenda. Cheney came into office believing that the presidency -- and, by extension, the vice presidency -- had been deflated, and he set out to puff them back up again.

Students of public administration should have to take a required course called "Cheney." How he has amassed and employed his power offers a case study in how government really works -- and how a skillful operator can make a bureaucracy dance. Take Cheney's penchant for secrecy, which seems to border on the maniacal. His office stamps "SECRET" on routine documents, including talking points for officials to use with reporters. He keeps papers pertaining to everyday business in huge Mosler safes. Is this loopy? No, he's just putting into practice the dictum that information is power. Sunshine is for losers.

The vice president whose Secret Service code name is "Angler" really does know all the angles. And above all, he knows how to survive. His one-time mentor Donald Rumsfeld is gone, his one-time top aide Scooter Libby is on his way to jail, yet Cheney -- defiantly, disastrously, unbelievably -- remains. It will take years to uncover and undo all the damage he has wrought.

Eugene Robinson writes for the Washington Post. His column is distributed by the Washington Post Writers Group, 1150 15th NW, Washington, DC 20071. You can reach him at eugenerobinson@washpost.com

Thursday, July 5, 2007Flash! US Media Ignore Scary Story! Impossible You Say?(2 comments) US corporate news departments are ignoring, or have missed, a frightening new report on global warming by a NASA top climate expert.

Tuesday, July 3, 2007Pelosi's Sinking Fortunes(2 comments) Pelosi's unwillingness to stand up to a disastrous and criminal administration, to end the war, and to allow impeachment to go forward, is leading her own district's and state's voters to desert her.

Monday, July 2, 2007Pelosi on Impeachment and Defending the Constitution: Just Not Worth It(12 comments) Two bloggers get Pelosi to admit to her pinched and self-seerving view of the Democrats' role in the 110th Congress.

Saturday, June 30, 2007Blacked Out by Corporate Media, Impeachment Advances(25 comments) The number of representatives ready to impeach Cheney keeps growing, but nobody is reporting the development.

Thursday, June 28, 2007Congress Needs to Stop Playing in Bush's Court(1 comments) The Democratic Congress is taking a big risk by pursuing the White House in the federal courts over ignored subpoenas. There is a better way: impeachment.

Tuesday, June 26, 2007Nancy & Harry: Comedic Duo Bring Down the House (and Senate)(7 comments) Doing nothing when they should be acting, and acting when it might be better if they did nothing, Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Reid have accomplished the impossible: making Congress less popular than Bush!

Friday, June 22, 2007Bush's Incredible Shrinking "Coalition"(1 comments) The so-called "Coalition of the Willing" is not so willing, not much of a coalition, and not as big as it used to be.

Wednesday, June 20, 2007Get Out! Iraqi Labor Leaders Blame US for Violence in Iraq(1 comments) The U.S. is behind the violence in Iraq, and it won't end until the occupation ends, say visiting Iraqi labor leaders.

Monday, June 18, 2007Democrats in Congress: The Wheels Are Coming Off(12 comments) Democrats are losing support among not just independents and Republicans, but among their core members, because of an unwillingness to lead and to act on key issues.

Thursday, June 14, 2007Cheney Impeachment Watch: Now There are Eight(2 comments) When will impeachment be considered news by our tarted up corporate media?

Tuesday, June 12, 2007Congressional Failure and the Democrats' Last Chance(3 comments) The Democrats' strategy for 2008 is putting the party, the Constitution, and the survival of American democracy at risk.

Monday, June 11, 2007Things Your Media Mama Didn't Tell You(1 comments) There's a major news blackout on important information that's keeping progressives thinking we're in the minority, when we're really not.

Friday, June 8, 2007Impeachment on a Roll(13 comments) A wave is building, and it could be unstoppable.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Author Makes Case for Impeaching BushDave Lindorff, visiting Charleston, WVA at the invitation of Seneca-2 and the Poly Sci Dept. of West Virginia State University, laid out a case for impeaching the president and jammed with local musicians.

Saturday, June 2, 2007Iraq (and Iran) RagLets have more music and less war.

OK LET’S HAVE SOME PERSPECTIVE: LOOKING BACK……………

Thursday, May 31, 2007Conyers: A Hero of the Constitution(4 comments) There is one place where impeachment is certain to be very much "on the table these days, and it sure would be fun to be a fly on the wall in the Conyers family dining room.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007Where Are All the Signing Statements?(4 comments) Bush no longer needs signing statements, because the Democratic Congress is giving this worst and most unpopular president in history everything he wants.

Friday, May 25, 2007Democratic Blood MoneyCongressional leaders sold out on the war but claim they got a great deal by attaching a minimum wage raise to the Iraq funding bill. They got a lot less than they claim, and are paying for it in innocent blood.

Thursday, May 24, 2007Kerrycrats All! (And a Democratic War in Iraq)Democrats in Congress are trying to have it both ways by giving in to Bush and claiming to oppose the Iraq War. They deserve to lose in 2008.

Monday, May 21, 2007A Widening Chasm Between Congressional Democrats and Voters on Impeachment(3 comments) The leadership of Congress and the Democratic Party is risking becoming a laughing stock if it fails to act on impeaching the president.

Saturday, May 19, 2007Mumia Case on Hold as Appellate Judges DeliberateAfter a Thursday hearing in the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, Abu-Jamal's fate is in the hands of three judges. A decision could come in days or months.

Tuesday, May 15, 2007Justice System on Trial as Mumia Case Reaches ClimaxThe Third Circuit appeal by Abu-Jamal of his conviction for murder of a white Philadelphia cop raises issues of judicial fairness, racism and political influlence in the legal system.

Sunday, May 13, 2007Bush and the Media: Playing Us for Fools(24 comments) You don't try to get a country to help you out of a problem by simultaneously threatening to level them.

Friday, May 11, 2007Impeach Bush or Get Rid of the Impeachment Clause(35 comments) Congress has an obligation to act when the Constitution is under threat. If they won't do it, they should at least have the decency to remove the remedy of impeachment from the document.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007Pelosi's Toothless Threat to Sue Bush Imperils Constitution(11 comments) The president's abuse of power through signing statements is his biggest crime, and now it should be clear even to Pelosi, that the only way to restore Constitutional government is impeachment.

Monday, May 7, 2007The Great Oil Robbery(3 comments) There is no competition in the oil industry, which is why gas goes up while oil goes down.

Friday, May 4, 2007Clinton, Byrd Calling for Revokation of Wrong AUMFIt's the 2001 Authorization for Use of Military Force, not the 2002 AUMF, that is the real threat to America. Why won't Congress revoke it?

Thursday, May 3, 2007Action Alert 2: Vote Now at MoveOn to Support Impeachment!A chance to move MoveOn! Don't pass it up.

Wednesday, May 2, 2007Impeachment: They Think They Can, They Think They Can...(3 comments) The movement to oust Bush and Cheney is finally cracking through media blackout and opposition from the Democratic leadership, as House members join Rep. Kucinich.

Tuesday, May 1, 2007Four Years After May 1, 2003: Are We Winning Yet?(7 comments) It's been four years since "Mission Accomplished" and much of Bush's real mission has been accomplished, but it ain't over yet, and the resistance is building.

Monday, April 30, 2007Rep. Murtha Puts Bush Impeachment Front and CenterImpeachment is "back on the table." Now We have to fight to keep it there.

Sunday, April 29, 2007Mainstream American Journalism is Dead(1 comments) A proud journalism tradition that began with Peter Zenger and Tom Paine has died at the hands of Corporate America.

Wednesday, April 25, 2007Dropping the First Shoe(8 comments) Cheney is facing an impeachment bill in the House. Can Bush be far behind?

Friday, April 20, 2007Huge Win for Impeachment in Vermont(11 comments) Bush and Cheney now may have to start seriously contemplating Nixon's fate.

Thursday, April 19, 2007Impeaching Cheney First. Finally!(5 comments) Kucinich's move may not put Bush's impeachment back on the Congressional table, but impeaching Cheney may whet the public's appetite for the main course.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007Betraying Thomas Jefferson(4 comments) The rot in the Democrat Party reaches down to the state legislative leadership, as grassroots efforts at impeachment are being squashed.

Tuesday, April 17, 2007Impeachment Talk: Doonesbury, Dennis and Dick(1 comments) Congressional leaders shrink from the word "impeachment" like nosferati from a crucifix, but Gary Trudeau and Dennis Kucinich are advancing with the talisman, and you can hear the hissing from the Russell Office Building.

Thursday, April 12, 2007Bush's Gravest Impeachable Crime(6 comments) Bush, like Nero before him, has been diddling while the earth literally burns. Worse, he has been preventing action to cool the flames.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007A Terrifying Truth(8 comments) The UN report doesn't tell the half of it. We're on a sinking ship, and if we fight for the lifeboats, we'll all go down.

Monday, April 9, 2007Rep. Danny Davis to Constituents: Make Me Impeach Bush(3 comments) A Congressman says he needs to hear from his constituents so he won't have to go along with the Democratic leadership.

Sunday, April 8, 2007Torture and Selective Outrage(4 comments) Americans and Britains are incensed over word of Iranian mistreatment of British captives, but what about American and coalition torture?

Friday, April 6, 2007Impeachment's Back in the News(6 comments) Mounting pressure from the grassroots may give some members of Congress the guts to stand up to Speaker Pelosi and put impeachment back on the table after all.

Tuesday, April 3, 2007158 Democrats Gone, and Counting (Take That You Weasels)!(35 comments) There's only one way to get the ossified , calculating, gutless and unprincipled Democratic Party leadership to end the war and start impeachment, and that's by quitting the party in protest.

Friday, March 30, 2007A Movement of One, Or Maybe a Million(7 comments) Democrats have to be told they can no longer take progressive votes for granted. If they won't impeach, we're outta here!

Wednesday, March 28, 2007Oil Traders Fear US Iran Attack: Maybe We Should Too(1 comments) When people start putting their money on a bet that a war's coming, it's time to take the idea seriously.

Tuesday, March 27, 2007Impeachment, like Spring, is in the AirUntil recently, it wasn't talked about in polite company, and key Democrats have been working hard to bury the idea, but now, like the crocuses and daffodils, like the cherry blossoms and lilac buds, talk of presidential impeachment is breaking out all over.

Sunday, March 25, 2007Why Dick and Nancy Will Not Become President via Impeachment(3 comments) Republicans would never allow Dick to become president, and Democrats would much rather stick Republicans with a Boehner as number three than have Nancy be the next in line.

Friday, March 23, 2007Congressional Democrats are a Pathetic Joke(9 comments) A Republican from Texas shows more courage and good sense than all the Democrats in the House combined.

Friday, March 23, 2007Third Circuit Appeals Court Sets Date for Oral Arguments in Mumia CaseThird Circuit will hear three challenges to Abu-Jamal's conviction, and an appeal by the DA to have his death penalty reinstated.

Wednesday, March 21, 2007Why Haven't They Impeached Bush (and Cheney) Yet?(18 comments) The Democrats are ducking impeachment not because they are cowards, though some clearly are, but because the party's leaders think they can win in '08 by doing nothing, and are willing to let the Constitution die in the interest of winning the next election.

Friday, March 16, 2007Kucinich Has a Chance to Make a Historic Move and to Stand Out as a Presidential Hopeful(6 comments) Kucinich can force impeachment back on the House table, and even if Pelosi gags on it, he will deserve to move to the head of the presidential pack.

Wednesday, March 14, 2007Democratic Calls for Resignations are Pointless DiversionsIt's not department heads who need to be removed, it's laws that need to be revoked. Do Democrats in Congress have the guts to defend democracy?

Tuesday, March 13, 2007What's Good for Halliburton (and Cheney) is Good for...Dubai(4 comments) The country's number one war profiteer and its vice-presidential patron have hidden behind the myth that Halliburton is just another American company helping with the war effort. Now the truth will be clear.

Tuesday, March 13, 2007Democrats kill democracy and protect a criminal presidency in New MexicoIt was turncoat Democrats, probably pressed by national party leaders, who helped Republicans kill an impeachment resolution in the New Mexico legislature.

Friday, March 9, 2007Bush Dodges Constitutionl Bullet in New MexicoNew Mexico legislature kills impeachment resolution, but the movement continues in Vermont, Washington state, New Jersey, and elsewhere.

Thursday, March 8, 2007Through the Looking Glass in IraqLosing is winning, supporting is screwing. This isn't Orwell, this is Lewis Carroll.

Tuesday, March 6, 2007Libby's Down: Now Let's Get to the Real Story(6 comments) The media and the American public have missed the point. The Libby case is not about leaking or who leaked what; it's about why the leak happened, and so far no one is investigating that.

Sunday, March 4, 2007It's the People of Washington v. Pelosi et al(13 comments) Sen. Pat Murray and Rep. Jay Inslee are carrying Bush's and Pelosi's water for them in the state of Washington.

Monday, February 26, 2007Message to Washington State Legislators (and to those in VT, NM and elsewhere)(3 comments) State legislators have every reason to be standing up and calling for impeachment of President Bush. It's what Thomas Jefferson wanted them to do, when Congress lacks the will to act.

Friday, February 23, 2007Impeachment: Breaking the Dam in Olympia, Washington(1 comments) Washington is ready to consider a measure that could force the House of Representatives to move on impeachment

Wednesday, February 14, 2007Wake Up Congress! Bush is Crazy as a Loon!(2 comments) Co-Dependent Congress and media need to face the facts: The President is a crazed psychopath and needs to be stopped.

Monday, February 12, 2007Iran Charges: Lying White House and Credulous Media(5 comments) Why are reporters swallowing the Pentagon's latest nonsense about Iran being behind Shia bombings in Iraq?

Sunday, February 11, 2007Inappropriate Behavior and Impeachment(4 comments) If a blowjob was inappropriate enough to warrant impeachment, what is inappropriate manufacture of evidence to justify a war four years and still going strong that has killed tens of thousands?

Thursday, February 8, 2007It's Time to Take Away the ToysGiving more money to the military just makes it possible for the war-mongers in Washington to make more wars. It's time to cut the military budget and troop numbers, not add to them.

Wednesday, February 7, 2007Truth or Consequences: Some Questions for President BushIf Cheney should answer some big questions honestly or else resign, so should Bush. And if he won't come clean, Congress needs to step up and begin impeachment proceedings.

Monday, February 5, 2007Borat Goes to Washington: Don't Experiment with the US Economy?(1 comments) We have a Borat government in Washington, and we are the unwitting extras in this production.

Wednesday, January 31, 2007This is Like Hitler's Suicide Order from the Bunker(4 comments) Congress can stop a war with Iran, but only by showing the courage and patriotism to ban the use of troops or the spending or a dime for an attack.

Sunday, January 28, 2007The Case for Impeachment--Now on YouTube(6 comments) There is no need for investigations to precede impeachment. The impeachment process itself begins with an investigation in the Impeachment Committee.

Friday, January 26, 2007Why We Must Impeach the President(4 comments) It's not just that his crimes must be stopped, and that only impeachment can stop him. If he's not stopped, all future presidents will follow in his criminal footsteps.

Thursday, January 25, 2007John Conyers Puts Presidential Abuse of Power Back 'On the Table'(3 comments) Bush's signing statements fundamentally undermine tri-partite government, a key foundation of the Constitution. Conyers' hearing should lead to a bill of impeachment, with at least some Republican backing.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007We're Takin' It to the Street on January 27!Get off the couch, get out of the house, and get to D.C. This is our time. Tell Congress token votes are not enough.

Saturday, January 20, 2007Was Iraq War a 'Blunder' or Was It Treason?(2 comments) Nobody could be as dumb as this administration appears to be in Iraq. There had to be a strategy behind this mess, and if there was, it has been one big act of treason.

Thursday, January 18, 2007What Do Bush and Gonzales Take Us For, Idiots?(11 comments) The new administration policy of obeying the FISA law in spying on people's communications is not about saving face, it's about saving the president's ass.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007Death Watch in the Persian Gulf, and in Washington(3 comments) Congress could stop this madness, but it seems incapable of acting, making war with Iran seem increasingly inevitable, as crazy as it would be.

Monday, January 15, 2007Ignoring Global Warming and Our Kids: Are We All Just Mad?(9 comments) Even if the possibility of a global warming disaster were remote, shouldn't we be acting to prevent it if the possibile result would be the collapse of civilization, or the extinction of human life?

Saturday, January 13, 2007Of Geese, Ganders and a Presidential LoonIt's simple. US attacks Iranian Consulate in Irbil. Someone attacks US Embassy in Greece. Is anyone surprised?

Friday, January 12, 2007What's Good for GM is Gonna Kill Us All(1 comments) Forget all the earlier predictions about global warming getting nasty in 2050 or 2070. It's going to hit us much sooner, and much harder. Hold on to your hats.

Thursday, January 11, 2007Bush's Address: Blood for Face(5 comments) Many Americans, and many, many more Iraqis will die simply because Bush is too cowardly to admit that his Iraq War has been a collossal disaster.

Tuesday, January 9, 2007There is no Justification for Delay in Stopping the War and Starting Impeachment HearingsCalles for delay and for more time to hold hearings and "settle in" are unacceptable when Americans and Iraqis are dying every day.

Sunday, January 7, 2007Democrats are Reverting to Form(16 comments) Afraid to take a stand on a single critical issue facing the nation, Democrats risk becoming irrelevant as a party.

Thursday, January 4, 2007Feeling the Heat in 2007It may get a lot hotter in Washington if the new Democratic Congress starts getting pushed toward impeachment and an Iraq pullout by the grassroots.

Saturday, December 23, 2006Crime of the Century: Are Bush & Cheney Planning Early Attack on Iran?(6 comments) Bush didn't attack Iran before Election Day, but it's looking like he just delayed his disastrous and criminal plan.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006Only the American People Can Save Us Now(4 comments) Sell-Out Democrats have walked into a Bush trap on Iraq, and will pay with a loss of Congress and the White House in 2008 unless they change course fast.

Tuesday, December 19, 2006Sinister Cabal Takes over WashingtonEnemies of America have taken over Washington, and are destroying the country, shipping our youth off to costly, pointless wars, destroying our economy, environment and Constitution, while actively working to divide us by race, region and religion.

Friday, December 15, 2006Progressives Should Relax about Control of the Senate(4 comments) It might be better for progressives and for the Democratic Party if it remained in opposition through 2008. Besides, Sen. Johnson is a backer of Bush's war.

Monday, December 11, 2006Torture, Impeachment and a Vietnam Veteran's TearsIf we do not impeach the president for torture, we are all guilty.

Friday, December 8, 2006A Congress of Whores and Pipsqueaks(2 comments) Just try to imagine Tom Jefferson or John Adams or one of their Congressional colleagues offering a resolution like this. Try and imagine them ignoring it when if President Washington had lied his way into an illegal war and then kept it going for four years.

Wednesday, December 6, 2006Abu-Jamal Case at Third Circuit, Prosecutor Admits He Had No "True Defense"(1 comments) The Third Circuit Court of Appeals, early next year and 25 years after the shooting, will hear three defense arguments, any one of which could lead to a new trial for the Philly journalist and former Black Panther.

Friday, December 1, 2006Fighting the Iraq War...at HomeSoldiers are returning from Iraq to find that the country no longer supports the war they were fighting. It's a story we've lived through before.

Thursday, November 30, 2006Doomed by Politics, and by Ourselves(1 comments) Constraiined by our defective political systms, it may be that we cannot save ourselves from ourselves.

Tuesday, November 21, 2006Congress Should Immediately Terminate the 2001 AUMF(1 comments) Congress can pull the rug out from under President Bush and his Constitution shredding ways by simply revoking the act he has been using as his justification for dictatorship.

Thursday, November 16, 2006Let Lieberman Go; He's an AlbatrossDemocrats will give up way too much trying to keep Sen. Lieberman in the caucus. Better to just let him be his inner Republican.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006Democrats Get First Test: The Lame Duck CongressDemocrats will show what they're made of--steel or straw--over the course of the next 50-60 days.

Sunday, November 12, 2006Impeachment for Change Kicks off National CampaignActivists meet in the shadow of the Founding Fathers to plot strategy for a national impeachment movement to get Congress to impeach the president.

Thursday, November 9, 2006What Election-Theft Conspiracy?(5 comments) With all the close elections Democrats won, it should lay to rest the conspiracy theories about Republicans stealing elections electronically. Now maybe we can focuse on the real threat--pre-vote deception and intimidation--all of which did happen.

Wednesday, November 8, 2006Election Postmortem: What's Next?(4 comments) The people want action, not accomodation, and action means taking on the President and the Republicans in Congress, not being collegial.

Monday, November 6, 2006It's election eve. Do you know where your country is?Don't sweat the small stuff, and don't examine candidates' positions. This is about retaking Congress, and the country. Vote Democratic.

Friday, November 3, 2006Philly Inquirer: Making Biases News Out of Mole HillsThe Philly Inquirer is bending over backwards to boost Santorum. It's bending journalism standards at the same time.

Thursday, November 2, 2006Kerry and Bush: The Joke's on Us(1 comments) Kerry's pathetic joke shows his true character, but the truth is that most of the American troops stuck in Iraq are there because of policies promoted by both him and Bush. And that's no joke.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006Why Pelosi is Wrong on Impeachment(23 comments) Forget Pelosi's "pledge" of no impeachment. She took an oath when she took office: to uphold and defend the Constitution, and the Constitution right now is in grave danger.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006Let's March in January! A Call to Action on Impeachment(1 comments) The Democratic leadership is not going to let an impeachment hearing get going unless there is a mass popular movement to hold them to their oaths of office and make it happen.

Monday, October 23, 2006Time to Play Truth and Consequences(3 comments) The "new" strategy for Iraq isn't new at all. It's not even a real strategy. It's a campaign slogan. But November 7 is a time to get real, and demand truth...and consequences.

Wednesday, October 18, 2006Bush's Middle East Strategy Lies in Ruins as Republicans Scurry AwayIrtaq sovereignty seen as a joke, Baker calling for help from Iran and Syria, and rumors of retreat from Iraq. No wonder Republicans are running from Bush.

Monday, October 16, 2006Making Sense of the News: Time To Update Some TermsWith confusing terms like Neocon, Democrat and Republican, not to mention a "sovereign" Iraq, it's no wonder so many Americans have trouble figuring out what's going on.

Wednesday, October 11, 2006U.S. Military Has Killed 127-238,000 Iraqi CiviliansUnreported in the U.S. media, the incredible and criminal slaughter of civilians in Iraq by U.S. forces explains why we are viewed as the enemy, not as liberators, in Iraq.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006Crime of Treason and the Treasonous Crime of Silence(3 comments) An attack on Iran would be an act of treason by the President, but the failure to prevent such a crime, on the part of the Democratic opposition in Congress, should also be considered an act of treason.

Monday, October 9, 2006Free Linda Greenhouse! Free the Press!A reporter or editor who doesn't have any political views could scarcely be doing her or his job. Yet media owners want those views kept secret from the public. Who is served by that kind of censorship?

Monday, October 9, 2006Iran War Looms as Eisenhower Carrier Force Deploys(7 comments) With the early deployment Oct. 2 of the Eisenhower Carrier Strike Group, the prospect of a pre-election attack on Iran by an increasingly desperate Bush grows. Keep an eye on the carrier Enterprise now.

Sunday, October 8, 2006Police Spying in the Birthplace of the Bill of Rights(5 comments) The police state isn't coming, it's here. And now it can mean arrest without charge, jail without end, and no access to a lawyer.

Tuesday, October 3, 2006The Real Foley Scandal is Much Bigger than FoleyFar be it from me to complain if Rep. Mark Foley's sexual obsession with teenage boys ends up sinking Republican hopes for hanging onto the House and Senate. But how sad that it would be if it is this, and the coverup of his crimes by the Republican leadership, that undoes the Bush administration, when its real crimes are of such grandeur and seriousness?

Sunday, October 1, 2006Vote Democratic and Always Carry a Toothbrush(17 comments) Since congressional passage of the terrorism bill, the U.S. has returned to a pre-revolutionary, non-democratic state.

Saturday, September 30, 2006"America"--New Lyrics for a New Dark Age(1 comments) The old lyrics to "America" ("My Country 'tis of thee") are no longer appropriate following Congress' trashing of the Constitution.

Thursday, September 28, 2006Cowards, Traitors and the People who enable them(4 comments) There are two organizations that are destroying America, and the American people are letting them get away with it.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006Horowitz Trounced in Debate in Rural Pennsylvania(3 comments) David Horowitz brought his right-wing attack on academia to rural Pennsylvania's Bloomburg University, but was brought up short by a local philosophy professor.

Monday, September 25, 2006Bush War III: Going to War to Save His Hide(8 comments) The administration is gearing up for war, but the threat isn't terrorism, it's electoral defeat in Congress.

Sunday, September 24, 2006Bush Solution to Global Warming: Bomb Iran(1 comments) After six years of ignoring the problem, Bush may finally do something that will slow climate change significantly by raising oil to $200/barrel. The human costs will, however, be incalculable.

Friday, September 22, 2006War Signals?(1 comments) The Bush Administration and the Pentagon have issued orders for a major "strike group" of ships, including the nuclear aircraft carrier Eisenhower as well as a cruiser, destroyer, frigate, submarine escort and supply ship, to head for the Persian Gulf, just off Iran's western coast.

Thursday, September 21, 2006War SignalsThe White House and the Pentagon have ordered a "strike group" of naval vessels to depart for the Persian Gulf October 1. Wary critics of the Administration--and some military leaders--are raising flags that this could signal an "October surprise" attack on Iran. Others are skeptical.

Monday, September 18, 2006Impeachment Talk and Rumors of (More) War(7 comments) As the movement for impeachment grows stronger, and as the likelihood of a Democratic Congress increases, so does White House desperation, and the temptation to attack Iran.

Thursday, September 14, 2006Signs of Fear at the White House(3 comments) It's not strength but fear of impeachment in November that has the president pushing for kangaroo courts and new NSA rules.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006Bush Mourning 9-11? Oh Sure!(2 comments) when has this president been sorry or genuinely sympathetic about anything?

Monday, September 11, 2006Commemorating 9-11 by Impeaching the PresidentThe best way to commemorate those who died on 9-11 would be to honor them by standing up to defend the Republic against those who have sullied their memories by subverting the Constitution and Bill of Rights and started a criminal war in their names.

Friday, September 8, 2006Sen. Feingold Stands Up Again(6 comments) While Democratic Party leaders, and all too many of his colleage in Congress, cower in fear of angering the Bush attack machine, Sen. Feingold has once again demonstrated what progressives should be doing by blocking Sen. Specter's attempt to get the president out of legal trouble.

Thursday, September 7, 2006"Macho" Bush Turns Stoolie Under Pressure(9 comments) The president has ratted out his own allies, and caused political crises across Europe, just to save his own political neck. Some hero. Meanwhile, he's admitted to a war crime.

Wednesday, September 6, 2006No Casey? Santorum in Drag? It Must be Labor Day in Pennsylvania(3 comments) In Pennsylvania, Democrats run away from workers, while Sen. Santorum runs to his wardrobe person for a Labor Day costume.

Monday, September 4, 2006America at War: Killiing People in Order to Free Them?(1 comments) The U.S. doesn't have any regulations limiting where it can drop cluster bombs. All of Iraq and Afghanistan, including its cities, are fair targets.

Thursday, August 31, 2006"The Case for Impeachment" program now available online(10 comments) The media have blacked out news of impeachable crimes, and have ignored "The Case for Impeachment," refusing to review it, but now you can learn about it all, unfiltered, from the authors themselves.

Wednesday, August 30, 2006Exposing Lies and a Black Op: Armitage is the Leaker, but not the Story(1 comments) The media have focused on the outing of Plame itself, but the real story is what the administration was so worried about that led them to go after her and her husband with such a vengeance.

Monday, August 28, 2006Public Hungry For News On Impeachment(4 comments) Reader Response to C-Span and NPR Book Events Demonstrates Wide-Spread Interest in Impeachment Issue. Clearly there is a vast public that is hungry for information about impeachment and Bush's constitutional crimes, but the mainstream media aren't providing it.

Monday, August 28, 2006War? What War?The real threat to America's survival as a democracy is not terrorists, but rather the leaders in government who are at war with the Constitutional.

Sunday, August 27, 2006Reader Response to CSpan and NPR Events on "The Case for Impeachment Demonstrates Wide-Spread Support for ImpeachmentMedia blackout on impeachment had kept people in the dark not just about books on the issue, but on the president's crimes themselves.

Friday, August 25, 2006Anti-Personnel Weapons: Israel's Crime, or America's?(1 comments) Israel used anti-personnel weapons in civilian areas, but who supplied them? And besides, isn't the U.S. using even more of these things in Iraq and Afghanistan? So where's the outrage?

Wednesday, July 26, 2006Global Warming's Gathering Stormy insurance company and I just had a little "brush" with global warming. It wasn't pretty.

Wednesday, July 19, 2006Happy Impeachment Day! 10 Reasons to Impeach(4 comments) The case for impeachment just grew much stronger, with the US Supreme Court's powerful decision in Hamdan v Rumsfeld. In that decision, the justices including conservative Anthony Kennedy, declared the President's bogus claim to have "special powers" as commander in chief in "time of war" to be just that--bogus.

Monday, July 17, 2006A Nice Mess Our President Has Made for USas Israel, with Bush's blessing, expands its initial militaristic bullying of Gaza into a full-scale invasion of Lebanon, with daily escalation of the violence threatening to ignite the whole Middle East, a version of Oliver Hardy's famous line springs readily to mind: "Well, here's another nice mess you've gotten us into."

Saturday, July 1, 2006High Court Has Found Bush Guilty of War Crimes(12 comments) the whole top administration, from Commander in Chief George W. Bush on down, is guilty of war crimes. The punishment for committing war crimes ranges from a lengthy jail sentence to, in the event the crimes in question caused the death of any prisoners being held, to death. And there have been many deaths among those who have been held and tortured on orders of the administration

Sunday, June 11, 2006Why Did They Kill Zarqawi Instead of Capture Him?(1 comments) Nobody's going to morn the death of Al Zarqawi, me included, but there are some important questions about how and why he died that need asking.

Monday, June 5, 2006Follow the Money. Oops Bush Won't Let that HappenTough to do when one of the 750 acts the president set aside include a signing statement saying that the Inspector General would have no authority to investigate contracts or corruption issues involving the pentagon

Wednesday, May 24, 2006Gen. Hayden: A Yes-Man for All SeasonsIt is becoming clearer and clearer that the NSA spying, and spying that is being conducted by the FBI, the Defense Intelligence Agency and the CIA, is not about catching terrorists, but is about the same kinds of things that it was about back during the COINTELPRO days of Richard Nixon: political espionage and the destruction of political dissent.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006Excerpts from the new book "The Case for Impeachment"Here are excerpts from some of the chapters of our new book "The Case for Impeachment," just released by St. Martin's Press

Justice Delayed is White House Murder, and a War Crime
by Barbara Olshansky

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_barbara__060725_justice_delayed_is_w.htm


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Click on an alphabetic letter to view author's names starting with that letter:A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z This is a real blast!

May 12, 2007 at 14:34:04
Why they really won't impeach him and how the failure to impeach carries the seeds of the next war.

by Jay Esbe Page 1 of 2 page(s)

http://www.opednews.com-

The calculating, craven, and ultimately treasonous Democrats admit that they’re not impeaching Bush because of a political calculation; that they can win in 08 by leaving him there, and making use of the status quo. As bad as that is however, there are additional reasons which are far more egregious than playing politics with American and Iraqi deaths and ruin.

It must first be remembered that only 22 Democrats voted against the resolution which unconstitutionally ceded Congressional War Powers to the President; The 2nd Iraq War therefor is inarguably a bipartisan disaster with an actual majority of Democrats supporting it.

Although it’s true insofar as they’ve admitted it, that the refusal to hold Bush accountable through impeachment, is a political decision made for the worst possible reasons, the more important reason Nancy Pelosi flagrantly violated her oath of office by saying “Impeachment is off the table”, is because an impeachment would bring about the presentation of evidence; evidence which would not only prove the case against Bush, but also his enablers.

Dick Durbin recently went public with an accusation against Hillary Clinton; that she, and others who sat of the Select Foreign Intelligence Committee, were privy to declassified intelligence that contained additional facts which were exculpatory to Iraq, beyond those which the rest of Congress were presented.

I read the declassified NIE presented to Congress, and like so many others outside of government who studied the matter, I was able to conclude that the case against Saddam Hussien was not only filled with doubt, but that his current possession of the alleged WMD and nuclear capability was highly improbable.

If those of us ordinary citizens who correctly read and interpreted the declassified NIE could come to the right conclusion, how much more then, should the members of the Select Foreign Intelligence Committee who received additional intelligence which weakened an already weak case, even further?

Dick Durbin rightly stated that on account of the rules, he could not go public with his further doubts gleaned from his presence on the committee; to have done so would have placed him in violation of the law. All he could do, was join 21 other house members, and vote against the resolution authorizing military force.

The star witness for the prosecution of Saddam Hussein as a “threat” to the United States and his neighbors, was Hussein Kamel, Saddam’s own Son in law and a defector who provided the entire stockpile list of WMD as read by Colin Powel to the UN Security Council as justification for war.

I do not know what additional exculpatory evidence the Select Foreign Intelligence Committee was privy to, but the transcripts of the interrogation of Hussien Kamel which were declassified and widely available both to the entire Congress, and you and I via the internet, already contained a piece of exculpatory information which was knowingly and willfully withheld from the court (The U.N.) by the Bush administration:

"I made the decision to disclose everything so that Iraq could return to normal." (p.8)…… "not a single missile left but they had blueprints and molds for production. All missiles were destroyed." (p.8) ……."I ordered destruction of all chemical weapons. All weapons - biological, chemical, missile, nuclear were destroyed"

(p. 13)…. We gave insturctions [sic] not to produce chemical weapons." (p.13). -Hussein Kamel, head of Iraq's military industries.LIES, LIES, LIES:

# Prime Minister Tony Blair in his statement to the House of Commons on 25 February 2003, said: "It was only four years later after the defection of Saddam's son-in-law to Jordan, that the offensive biological weapons and the full extent of the nuclear programme were discovered."
# President Bush declared in a 7 October 2002 speech: "In 1995, after several years of deceit by the Iraqi regime, the head of Iraq's military industries defected.

It was then that the regime was forced to admit that it had produced more than 30,000 liters of anthrax and other deadly biological agents. The inspectors, however, concluded that Iraq had likely produced two to four times that amount. This is a massive stockpile of biological weapons that has never been accounted for, and capable of killing millions."

# Colin Powell's 5 February 2003 presentation to the UN Security Council claimed: "It took years for Iraq to finally admit that it had produced four tons of the deadly nerve agent, VX. A single drop of VX on the skin will kill in minutes. Four tons. The admission only came out after inspectors collected documentation as a result of the defection of Hussein Kamal, Saddam Hussein's late son-in-law."

# In a speech on 26 August 2002, Vice-President Dick Cheney said Kamel's story "should serve as a reminder to all that we often learned more as the result of defections than we learned from the inspection regime itself".It is a crime against the court in every court to knowingly withhold exculpatory evidence.

The “WMD stockpile” list which was read before the U.N. Security Council was quoted verbatim from Hussein Kamel’s interrogation transcript. The final statements by Kamel –(Those weapons were all destroyed in 1991) was deliberately dis-included from the evidence as otherwise read from the transcript.

Furthermore, without the witness in question –Hussein Kamel- there was no “list” of WMD. His testimony was the sole basis for the case presented to the U.N. This was more than enough for me and so many others who did their pre-war homework, to conclude that the case against Saddam Hussein was without merit, and even further, to conclude beyond any doubt, that the deliberate secreting of the most important exculpatory statement on record, was proof positive that the Bush administration was lying through their teeth.

The innumerable statements by Bush and Cheney that regarding WMD “There can be no doubt”, was not only the biggest lie ever told in the political history of the United States, but the most easily proven lie ever told. There was nothing BUT “doubt” and they knew it. It was reported by an un-named source inside the White House, that when Colin Powel was first presented with the charges he read before the U.N. Security Council, that he threw the stack of papers into the air and shouted “This is bullshit!”.

Indeed it was, and Powel knew it. But WHY then, did he go on to present a case he knew was a lie?

The answer to that, and many other questions would probably come to light in impeachment proceedings against Bush.

We know that under Bush 41, April Glaspie (State Department) was approached by an envoy from Saddam Hussein regarding his ongoing border dispute with Kuwait, and that Glaspie was clearly told by the envoy that Saddam wanted permission from the United States to use military force against Kuwait to “solve the problem” if he could not solve it peacefully.

We also know, as a matter of record, that rather than Bush 41’s representative telling Saddam’s envoy “Do not attack Kuwait”, Glaspie’s message to Saddam was “Your internal Arab disputes are none of our concern”.

We know also, that through two-terms of the Clinton administration, the so-called “containment” of Saddam Hussein was predicated on economic sanctions which resulted in the starvation deaths of at least half a million Iraqi children, and we further know that –according to the star WMD witness, Husein Kamel – the Clinton administration was engaged in a policy of brutal economic oppression resulting in the loss of innocent life, with the knowledge that Saddam probably had in fact actually complied and destroyed the weapons in question.

This then creates an unavoidable conclusion: The first Gulf War was deliberately fostered by Bush 41 through deceit via the State Department, the decades of so-called “containment” were predicated knowingly to the death of half a million innocent children by the Clinton administration, and that this long range deceit culminated in the final deception; unprovoked, unwarrented war by George W. Bush, with the full support of Bill Clinton; there was a damned good reason Bill Clinton went onto Larry King and had Bush’ back when he said Bush “Didn’t lie”: They all lied. Powel ultimately chose to lie to the whole world because he was up to his ass in decades of deception regarding Saddam; Like any organized crime participant, Powel lied because he was already dirty and he was ultimately forced to.

Any impeachment of George W. Bush has implications far beyond this administration; as the evidence is brought forward, it would inevitably threaten not just Bush and Cheney, but would threaten the entire political establishment through a revelation that “this mess” has been an evolving conspiracy spanning almost 20 years. It would threatened to take down the entire political establishment.

The removal of impeachment from the table and refusal to impeach Bush by Nancy Pelosi, goes far beyond immediate political expediency, as overtly corrupt as that concept alone is; it is protecting the Democratic front runner from voluminous evidence that her husband was first complicit in fraud and crimes against humanity, and that she herself has continued the greatest fraud ever perpetrated upon the American people through her knowledge that in fact Saddam probably did NOT possess WMD.

Whatever she knew, whatever her husband knew, and whatever Bush 41 initiated, is all threatened with exposure were the requisite evidentiary hearing to proceed concurrent with impeachment proceeding against George W. Bush.

This is why the claims by right-wingers of “Yeah but Clinton thought they had WMD” as a defense, carry absolutely no weight with me in my assessment of the situation. No, he didn’t. Bill Clinton knew with certainty by August of 1995, the date of the defection and interrogation of Hussein Kamel, that the ONLY reliable governmental source for any conclusion of U.N. weapons violations, had cleared Saddam and placed him in probable U.N. compliance.
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What If Iran Had Invaded Mexico?

Putting the Iran Crisis in Context By Noam Chomsky

Unsurprisingly, George W. Bush's announcement of a "surge" in Iraq came despite the firm opposition to any such move of Americans and the even stronger opposition of the (thoroughly irrelevant) Iraqis. It was accompanied by ominous official leaks and statements -- from Washington and Baghdad -- about how Iranian intervention in Iraq was aimed at disrupting our mission to gain victory, an aim which is (by definition) noble. What then followed was a solemn debate about whether serial numbers on advanced roadside bombs (IEDs) were really traceable to Iran; and, if so, to that country's Revolutionary Guards or to some even higher authority.

This "debate" is a typical illustration of a primary principle of sophisticated propaganda. In crude and brutal societies, the Party Line is publicly proclaimed and must be obeyed -- or else. What you actually believe is your own business and of far less concern.

In societies where the state has lost the capacity to control by force, the Party Line is simply presupposed; then, vigorous debate is encouraged within the limits imposed by unstated doctrinal orthodoxy.

The cruder of the two systems leads, naturally enough, to disbelief; the sophisticated variant gives an impression of openness and freedom, and so far more effectively serves to instill the Party Line. It becomes beyond question, beyond thought itself, like the air we breathe.

The debate over Iranian interference in Iraq proceeds without ridicule on the assumption that the United States owns the world. We did not, for example, engage in a similar debate in the 1980s about whether the U.S. was interfering in Soviet-occupied Afghanistan, and I doubt that Pravda, probably recognizing the absurdity of the situation, sank to outrage about that fact (which American officials and our media, in any case, made no effort to conceal).

Perhaps the official Nazi press also featured solemn debates about whether the Allies were interfering in sovereign Vichy France, though if so, sane people would then have collapsed in ridicule.

In this case, however, even ridicule -- notably absent -- would not suffice, because the charges against Iran are part of a drumbeat of pronouncements meant to mobilize support for escalation in Iraq and for an attack on Iran, the "source of the problem." The world is aghast at the possibility. Even in neighboring Sunni states, no friends of Iran, majorities, when asked, favor a nuclear-armed Iran over any military action against that country.

From what limited information we have, it appears that significant parts of the U.S. military and intelligence communities are opposed to such an attack, along with almost the entire world, even more so than when the Bush administration and Tony Blair's Britain invaded Iraq, defying enormous popular opposition worldwide.

"The Iran Effect"

The results of an attack on Iran could be horrendous. After all, according to a recent study of "the Iraq effect" by terrorism specialists Peter Bergen and Paul Cruickshank, using government and Rand Corporation data, the Iraq invasion has already led to a seven-fold increase in terror. The "Iran effect" would probably be far more severe and long-lasting. British military historian Corelli Barnett speaks for many when he warns that "an attack on Iran would effectively launch World War III."

What are the plans of the increasingly desperate clique that narrowly holds political power in the U.S.? We cannot know. Such state planning is, of course, kept secret in the interests of "security." Review of the declassified record reveals that there is considerable merit in that claim -- though only if we understand "security" to mean the security of the Bush administration against their domestic enemy, the population in whose name they act.

Even if the White House clique is not planning war, naval deployments, support for secessionist movements and acts of terror within Iran, and other provocations could easily lead to an accidental war. Congressional resolutions would not provide much of a barrier. They invariably permit "national security" exemptions, opening holes wide enough for the several aircraft-carrier battle groups soon to be in the Persian Gulf to pass through -- as long as an unscrupulous leadership issues proclamations of doom (as Condoleezza Rice did with those "mushroom clouds" over American cities back in 2002).

And the concocting of the sorts of incidents that "justify" such attacks is a familiar practice. Even the worst monsters feel the need for such justification and adopt the device: Hitler's defense of innocent Germany from the "wild terror" of the Poles in 1939, after they had rejected his wise and generous proposals for peace, is but one example.

The most effective barrier to a White House decision to launch a war is the kind of organized popular opposition that frightened the political-military leadership enough in 1968 that they were reluctant to send more troops to Vietnam -- fearing, we learned from the Pentagon Papers, that they might need them for civil-disorder control.

Doubtless Iran's government merits harsh condemnation, including for its recent actions that have inflamed the crisis. It is, however, useful to ask how we would act if Iran had invaded and occupied Canada and Mexico and was arresting U.S. government representatives there on the grounds that they were resisting the Iranian occupation (called "liberation," of course).

Imagine as well that Iran was deploying massive naval forces in the Caribbean and issuing credible threats to launch a wave of attacks against a vast range of sites -- nuclear and otherwise -- in the United States, if the U.S. government did not immediately terminate all its nuclear energy programs (and, naturally, dismantle all its nuclear weapons).

Suppose that all of this happened after Iran had overthrown the government of the U.S. and installed a vicious tyrant (as the US did to Iran in 1953), then later supported a Russian invasion of the U.S. that killed millions of people (just as the U.S. supported Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iran in 1980, killing hundreds of thousands of Iranians, a figure comparable to millions of Americans). Would we watch quietly?

It is easy to understand an observation by one of Israel's leading military historians, Martin van Creveld. After the U.S. invaded Iraq, knowing it to be defenseless, he noted, "Had the Iranians not tried to build nuclear weapons, they would be crazy."

Surely no sane person wants Iran (or any nation) to develop nuclear weapons. A reasonable resolution of the present crisis would permit Iran to develop nuclear energy, in accord with its rights under the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but not nuclear weapons. Is that outcome feasible? It would be, given one condition: that the U.S. and Iran were functioning democratic societies in which public opinion had a significant impact on public policy.

As it happens, this solution has overwhelming support among Iranians and Americans, who generally are in agreement on nuclear issues. The Iranian-American consensus includes the complete elimination of nuclear weapons everywhere (82% of Americans); if that cannot yet be achieved because of elite opposition, then at least a "nuclear-weapons-free zone in the Middle East that would include both Islamic countries and Israel" (71% of Americans). Seventy-five percent of Americans prefer building better relations with Iran to threats of force. In brief, if public opinion were to have a significant influence on state policy in the U.S. and Iran, resolution of the crisis might be at hand, along with much more far-reaching solutions to the global nuclear conundrum.

Promoting Democracy -- at Home

These facts suggest a possible way to prevent the current crisis from exploding, perhaps even into some version of World War III. That awesome threat might be averted by pursuing a familiar proposal: democracy promotion -- this time at home, where it is badly needed.

Democracy promotion at home is certainly feasible and, although we cannot carry out such a project directly in Iran, we could act to improve the prospects of the courageous reformers and oppositionists who are seeking to achieve just that. Among such figures who are, or should be, well-known, would be Saeed Hajjarian, Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi, and Akbar Ganji, as well as those who, as usual, remain nameless, among them labor activists about whom we hear very little; those who publish the Iranian Workers Bulletin may be a case in point.

We can best improve the prospects for democracy promotion in Iran by sharply reversing state policy here so that it reflects popular opinion. That would entail ceasing to make the regular threats that are a gift to Iranian hardliners. These are bitterly condemned by Iranians truly concerned with democracy promotion (unlike those "supporters" who flaunt democracy slogans in the West and are lauded as grand "idealists" despite their clear record of visceral hatred for democracy).

Democracy promotion in the United States could have far broader consequences. In Iraq, for instance, a firm timetable for withdrawal would be initiated at once, or very soon, in accord with the will of the overwhelming majority of Iraqis and a significant majority of Americans. Federal budget priorities would be virtually reversed. Where spending is rising, as in military supplemental bills to conduct the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, it would sharply decline.

Where spending is steady or declining (health, education, job training, the promotion of energy conservation and renewable energy sources, veterans benefits, funding for the UN and UN peacekeeping operations, and so on), it would sharply increase. Bush's tax cuts for people with incomes over $200,000 a year would be immediately rescinded.

The U.S. would have adopted a national health-care system long ago, rejecting the privatized system that sports twice the per-capita costs found in similar societies and some of the worst outcomes in the industrial world. It would have rejected what is widely regarded by those who pay attention as a "fiscal train wreck" in-the-making. The U.S. would have ratified the Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions and undertaken still stronger measures to protect the environment.

It would allow the UN to take the lead in international crises, including in Iraq. After all, according to opinion polls, since shortly after the 2003 invasion, a large majority of Americans have wanted the UN to take charge of political transformation, economic reconstruction, and civil order in that land.

If public opinion mattered, the U.S. would accept UN Charter restrictions on the use of force, contrary to a bipartisan consensus that this country, alone, has the right to resort to violence in response to potential threats, real or imagined, including threats to our access to markets and resources. The U.S. (along with others) would abandon the Security Council veto and accept majority opinion even when in opposition to it.

The UN would be allowed to regulate arms sales; while the U.S. would cut back on such sales and urge other countries to do so, which would be a major contribution to reducing large-scale violence in the world. Terror would be dealt with through diplomatic and economic measures, not force, in accord with the judgment of most specialists on the topic but again in diametric opposition to present-day policy.

Furthermore, if public opinion influenced policy, the U.S. would have diplomatic relations with Cuba, benefiting the people of both countries (and, incidentally, U.S. agribusiness, energy corporations, and others), instead of standing virtually alone in the world in imposing an embargo (joined only by Israel, the Republic of Palau, and the Marshall Islands).

Washington would join the broad international consensus on a two-state settlement of the Israel-Palestine conflict, which (with Israel) it has blocked for 30 years -- with scattered and temporary exceptions -- and which it still blocks in word, and more importantly in deed, despite fraudulent claims of its commitment to diplomacy. The U.S. would also equalize aid to Israel and Palestine, cutting off aid to either party that rejected the international consensus.

Evidence on these matters is reviewed in my book Failed States as well as in The Foreign Policy Disconnect by Benjamin Page (with Marshall Bouton), which also provides extensive evidence that public opinion on foreign (and probably domestic) policy issues tends to be coherent and consistent over long periods. Studies of public opinion have to be regarded with caution, but they are certainly highly suggestive.

Democracy promotion at home, while no panacea, would be a useful step towards helping our own country become a "responsible stakeholder" in the international order (to adopt the term used for adversaries), instead of being an object of fear and dislike throughout much of the world. Apart from being a value in itself, functioning democracy at home holds real promise for dealing constructively with many current problems, international and domestic, including those that literally threaten the survival of our species.

Noam Chomsky is the author of Failed States: The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy (Metropolitan Books), just published in paperback, among many other works.

Copyright 2007 Noam Chomsky