Last week, Congressman Dennis Kucinich delivered a petition bearing more than 100,000 names to the Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, urging that impeachment proceedings begin:
Add your name to the petition... If you haven't already?
Showing posts with label Impeach. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Impeach. Show all posts
8/5/08
What Was My Favorite Hockey Blog Thinking?
It is a Canadian sports Blog done by the local Anglophone newspaper, the Montreal Gazette, and one of the Habs Inside/Out Bloggers did have something to say pertaining to American politics the other day... Though, I am not sure exactly what it meant? heh
7/16/08
Bush Impeachment Will Go To Committee
And this time it doesn't look like they are sending it there to bury it:
Kucinich Says Unidentified Foreign OfficialRead on... But before you go to read that, why is torture not on that list? It should be.
Wants to Speak at Impeachment Talks
An unidentified government official of a U.S. ally wants to participate if and when Rep. Dennis J. Kucinich makes his case to impeach President Bush before the House Judiciary Committee, according to the Ohio Democrat.
The House voted, 238-180, on Tuesday to send Kucinich’s latest impeachment effort (H Res 1345) to the Judiciary Committee.
Chairman John Conyers Jr. said he will hold a broad hearing on the general topic of abuses of power by the Bush administration.
“There’s never been one [hearing] that accumulated all the things that constitute an imperial presidency,” Conyers said, explaining that the anticipated hearing would review more than a year of committee inquiry into such matters as the firing of U.S. attorneys, the leak of the identity of former CIA operative Valerie Plame and the information provided to Congress in the run-up to the Iraq War.
6/30/08
U.S. army study says Iraq occupation was understaffed
No Kidding?
While bush was claiming that major combat operations had ended:
Take heart, dear reader, that our fearless leader took his military commanders advice on troop levels and... Oh wait! he ignored the military, never sent in the 300,000 troops they wanted and lied about the Friedmans too.
I would feel used if I didn't know this since the day they sacked General Shinseki for telling them, and us, the truth about needed troop levels.
All they need is to get their warmongering McCain in to the White House and we can be sure to be playing whackamole in Iran for a hundred years too!
U.S. army study says Iraq occupation was understaffed
DENVER - A nearly 700-page study released Sunday by the army found that "in the euphoria of early 2003," U.S.-based commanders prematurely believed their goals in Iraq had been reached and did not send enough troops to handle the occupation.
FULL STORY
While bush was claiming that major combat operations had ended:
That was only about 7 Friedman units ago.Planners in the Iraq headquarters said 300,000 troops would be needed for the occupation. Even before the invasion, some planners had called for 300,000 troops to be sent for the invasion and occupation.
...snip...
Some commanders told the authors they asked about plans for making the country stable and got no answers.
...snip...
Its writers said it was clear in January 2005 that the Army would remain in Iraq for some time, the writers concluded.
Take heart, dear reader, that our fearless leader took his military commanders advice on troop levels and... Oh wait! he ignored the military, never sent in the 300,000 troops they wanted and lied about the Friedmans too.
I would feel used if I didn't know this since the day they sacked General Shinseki for telling them, and us, the truth about needed troop levels.
Retired generals speak out to oppose Rumsfeld:In case you don't remember exactly what Shinseki said to get pushed out the door by the bush administration:
"In this, Powell echoed former Army chief of staff Gen. Eric Shinseki, who told Congress just weeks before the 2003 invasion that several hundred thousand US troops would be necessary to secure Iraq after the invasion. For this he was publicly contradicted by then Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz. Rumsfeld named General Shinseki's replacement a year before he was to retire and broke custom by not attending his retirement ceremony."
--- csmonitor.com
McCain makes a good point with his "whackamole" comment, but clearly the only other thing that McCain is correct in when he talks about sending 20,000 more troops to Iraq is at the end of the video where he says, "I don't know where the troops are going to come from."
He hasn't a clue that it would take a draft to get enough troops. Firstly, because we already don't have the troops to spare. And, secondly, because you need to be looking at the several hundred thousand pairs of boots on the ground deemed neccessary by General Shinseki, before he was chased out of the military by the neocons for being honest, if you really want to secure Iraq and you get the idea of how wrong McCain is.“Something on the order of several hundred thousand soldiers, are probably, you know, a figure that would be required. We’re talking about post-hostilities control over a piece of geography that’s fairly significant with the kinds of ethnic tensions that could lead to other problems. And so, it takes significant ground force presence to maintain safe and secure environment to ensure that the people are fed, that water is distributed, all the normal responsibilities that go along with administering a situation like this.” [Sen. Armed Services Committee testimony, 2/25/03]
Now, of course, several years later we have a bush flack in charge named Petraeus. Nothing more than a yes man for the neocons and eternal war. He took over from a reasonable Admiral that stood in the neocons way when it came to attacking Iran.
All they need is to get their warmongering McCain in to the White House and we can be sure to be playing whackamole in Iran for a hundred years too!
4/1/08
How Many Shovels Have YOU Used?
How many times have you actually picked up a shovel and buried a friend? A colleague? A comrade? A fellow soldier?
You can't buy me on the truth...
Do you even know how many American soldiers are dead because of Iraq? How many are seriously injured? How do I politely say "Fuck you!" because you very likely did not know? Hell! The majority of you don't seem to care.
You know you couldn't answer these simple questions.
If you are afraid of hearing my opinion on these facts... Don't ask me to tell you the truth. Because I will. Too bad for you if you don't like the answers. Too bad for you if you can't handle the truth.
You can't buy me on the truth...
Only unvarnished facts here.Noah Shachtman at Danger Room finds a 2006 report written for U.S. Special Operations Command that suggests ways the military should deal with the blogosphere. One suggestion is for the military to hire bloggers to “pass the U.S. message“:
Information strategists can consider clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers or other persons of prominence…to pass the U.S. message. … On the other hand, such operations can have a blowback effect, as witnessed by the public reaction following revelations that the U.S. military had paid journalists to publish stories in the Iraqi press under their own names. People do not like to be deceived, and the price of being exposed is lost credibility and trust.
An alternative strategy is to “make” a blog and blogger. The process of boosting the blog to a position of influence could take some time, however, and depending on the person running the blog, may impose a significant educational burden, in terms of cultural and linguistic training before the blog could be put online to any useful effect.
Do you even know how many American soldiers are dead because of Iraq? How many are seriously injured? How do I politely say "Fuck you!" because you very likely did not know? Hell! The majority of you don't seem to care.
American Deaths Since war began (3/19/03): 4011 3274 3872 3166 Since Capture of Saddam (12/13/03): 3550 2966 Since Handover (6/29/04): 3152 2641 Since Election (1/31/05): 2573 2379 American Wounded Official Estimated Total Wounded: 29496 23000 - 100000 Page last updated 03/31/08 12:07 am EDT Iraqi Casualties US Military Deaths by Month from Icasualties.org Other Coalition Troops US Military Deaths - Afghanistan American Civilian Casualties Sources: DoD, CentCom, MNF, and iCasualties.org 20,000 vets' brain injuries not listed
U.S. lacks mechanism to accurately track troops wounded in Iraq
As many as 1 of every 10 soldiers from the war on terror evacuated to the Army's biggest hospital in Europe was sent there for mental problems.
Between 8 and 10 percent of nearly 12,000 soldiers from the war on terror, mostly from Iraq, treated at the Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany had "psychiatric or behavioral health issues," according to the commander of the hospital, Col. Rhonda Cornum.
That means about 1,000 soldiers were evacuated for mental problems.
The hospital has treated 11,754 soldiers from the war on terror, with 9,651 from Iraq and the rest from Afghanistan, according to data released by the hospital.
Also see The Missing Wounded.
Dates and sources of Americans killed in Iraq since 5/1/03 are documented in this file. Admittedly the file is incomplete, for the Department of Defense does not maintain old records. All data was compiled from http://www.defenselink.mil. If something is amiss in the data collection, please contact Margaret Griffis.
We maintain a daily count based on news reports. It is not intended to be complete. There is no agency that keeps track of accurate numbers of Iraqis killed. JustForeignPolicy maintains a running estimate based on the Lancet study with the rate of increase derived from the Iraq Body Count.
Central Command Department of Defense Cost of War BBC News Coalition Casualty Count The Washington Post JustForeignPolicy Fox News Listing by month
You know you couldn't answer these simple questions.
If you are afraid of hearing my opinion on these facts... Don't ask me to tell you the truth. Because I will. Too bad for you if you don't like the answers. Too bad for you if you can't handle the truth.
3/24/08
4000 Dead American Soldiers In Iraq
4000 Dead American Soldiers In Iraq...
The overall U.S. death toll in Iraq rose to 4,000 after four soldiers were killed in a roadside bombing in Baghdad, a grim milestone that is likely to fuel calls for the withdrawal of American forces as the war enters its sixth year.
The American deaths occurred Sunday, the same day rockets and mortars pounded the U.S.-protected Green Zone in Baghdad and a wave of attacks left at least 61 Iraqis dead nationwide.
As reported in the Seattle times article, Overall US Death Toll in Iraq Hits 4,000, for which the title seems to ignore the hundreds (thousands?) of mercenaries that have died, as well.
One soldier was wounded in the attack:
The four soldiers died when their vehicle was hit by a roadside bomb while on patrol late Sunday in southern Baghdad, bringing the overall toll to 4,000, according to an AFP tally based on independent website www.icasualties.org.
Another soldier was wounded in the attack, a military statement said.
The chaotic and brutal conflict which is now in its sixth year has also wounded more than 29,000 American soldiers, according to icasualties.org.
At least 97 percent of the deaths occurred after US President George W. Bush announced the end of "major combat" in Iraq on May 1, 2003, as the military became caught between a raging anti-American insurgency and brutal sectarian strife unleashed since the toppling of Saddam.
Bear in mind the reality that over one million Iraqis have died since "shock and awe" began indiscriminately killing Iraqis.
And all of this over a pack of lies sold to you by the criminal bush administration...
I know, we went to Iraq to bring the Democracy, to stop the terrorists over there so we wouldn't have to fight them over here, and all that other nonsense.Fortunately, there are some (not the corporate media) who will keep history alive and accurate.
Please, if you have an hour and feel the need to "purge", take the time to review the case for war as made by the Bush Administration in all of its glory.
I only wish this was required viewing for every candidate running for office today, and after viewing it, each candidate were to have to address their vote (if they voted) or their public stands.
3/19/08
5 Years
It has been five years since the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. And so the day of protesting began as per usual in the no free speech zone known as America:
It wasn't long after that until we heard and read the banner news that it was all over:
It is five years later and, right now, 3992 American soldiers have died in Iraq. Innocent Iraqi civilians are still getting slaughtered by supposed friends and foe alike. And bush fanatics talk of 10, 100 OR even ONE THOUSAND more years of this. Nevermind the last five years. What has happened just in the last week in Iraq?
Monday 17 March: 92 dead
Just a typical week in Iraq as bush spreads FreeDumb. Do you really want to do the math on five years of this:
I'll save you the trouble of doing the simple math here...
FIVE YEARS times 52 WEEKS times 21 DEAD IRAQI KIDS equals
A special place place in hell for all of you war cheerleaders...
Today, police arrested more than 30 people “who blocked entrances at the Internal Revenue Service building” as “part of a day of protests to mark the fifth anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.” Demonstrators also converged in Miami and San Francisco, and other cities across the country.
It wasn't long after that until we heard and read the banner news that it was all over:
MAY 1, 2003:
Mission Accomplished
"My fellow Americans: Major combat operations in Iraq have ended."
-Bush, 5/1/03
It is five years later and, right now, 3992 American soldiers have died in Iraq. Innocent Iraqi civilians are still getting slaughtered by supposed friends and foe alike. And bush fanatics talk of 10, 100 OR even ONE THOUSAND more years of this. Nevermind the last five years. What has happened just in the last week in Iraq?
Monday 17 March: 92 dead
Baghdad: 3 are killed in minibus explosion, Karrada; roadside bomb kills policeman, Mansour; mortar attack kill 5 at soccer field (2 of them children), Ghadeer; mortars hit house, kill 6 children, Sawmar; 7 bodies.
Karbala
Karbala: suicide bomber kills 52 near shrine.
Basra
Basra: gunmen kill policeman; woman's body found.
Anbar
Haditha: gunmen attack checkpoint, kill policeman.
Diyala
Abu Saida: roadside bomb kills 1.
Ninewa
Mosul: roadside bomb kills 1; 10 bodies.
Kirkuk
Udhaim: 3 bodies of neighbourhood patrol found.
Sunday 16 March: 26 dead
Baghdad: car bomb kills 1, Mansour; 5 bodies.
Diyala
Hwedir: 5 policemen die in clashes.
Khanaqeen: roadside bomb kills Kurd.
Muqdadiya: 2 bodies.
Ninewa
Mosul: gunmen kill 2 policemen; roadside bomb kills 1; 3 bodies -one beloning to 11-year-old boy.
Basra
Basra: 4 bodies.
Wassit
Kut: 2 bodies.
Baghdad: 2 bodies.
Diyala
Al-Huwayder: gunmen kill civilian.
3 bodies.
Ninewa
Mosul: truck bomb kills 1 at checkpoint; bodies of 3 brothers found.
Wassit
Kut: 6 die in clashes; gunmen kill 1 during house raid.
Numaniya: body found.
Babil
Iskandariya: gunmen kill civilian.
Friday 14 March: 15 dead
Baghdad: football coach is shot dead, Al-Yarmuk; street sweeper killed by roadside bomb; 2 bodies.
Wassit
Kut: 2 policemen are killed in clashes; motorcycle bomb kills 1; chieftain's son is killed in clashes; bomb strikes minibus, kills 2.
Babil
Hilla: rockets kill 4.
Ninewa
Rabiya: suicide bomber kills interpreter at Syrian border.
Baghdad: car bomb kills 18, Bab al-Sharki; gunmen kill journalist; 3 bodies.
Diyala
Baquba: civilian killed by gunman.
Salahuddin
Al-Hajaj: 3 Sahwa killed by gunmen.
Tikrit: gunmen kill policeman.
Baiji: gunmen kill 2 at checkpoint.
Samarra: 15-year-old girl is shot dead by police who open fire on family car at checkpoint.
Najaf
Najaf: policeman killed in drive-by shooting.
Kirkuk
Al Zab: suicide bomber kills 3.
Kirkuk-Rashad highway: car bomb kills 1.
Wassit
Kut: 2 killed by rockets during clashes.
Ninewa
Daybaka: 1 body found.
Mosul: abducted Archbishop Paulos Faraj Rahho is found dead.
Baghdad: roadside bomb kills 2, Amin; 4 bodies.
Diyala
Bazaiz Buhrz: US forces fire warning shot and kill 10-year-old girl.
Benizad: 5 Sahwa shot and beheaded at checkpoint.
Dali Abass: 1 body.
Kanaan-Balad Ruz: 1 body.
Imam Habash: 2 bodies.
Muqdadiya: 2 bodies.
Salahuddin
Baiji: policeman is shot dead.
Samarra: 3 fuel truck drivers killed by roadside bomb.
Baghdad: gunman kills 1 riding on minibus; 5 bodies.
Salahuddin
Dhuluiya: suicide car bomber kills 8 at checkpoint.
Tikrit: 3 die in US airstrike.
Samarra: 20 bodies found in mass grave -5 of them children.
Wasit
Kut: 22 are killed in clashes, 5 of them children.
Diyala
Muqdadiya: 2 bodies.
Dhi Qar
Nassiriya: roadside bomb hits bus carrying mourners returning from a funeral, kills 16.
Babil
Yusufiya: bomb explodes in building, kills 1.
Iskandariya: gunmen kill 1.
Anbar
Thar Thar: suicide car bomber kills 2 Sahwa members.
Ninewa
Mosul: 5 are killed when gunmen attack police checkpoint; 3 die in a car when US helicopter opens fire.
Basra
Basra: gunmen kill 1.
Just a typical week in Iraq as bush spreads FreeDumb. Do you really want to do the math on five years of this:
I'll save you the trouble of doing the simple math here...
FIVE YEARS times 52 WEEKS times 21 DEAD IRAQI KIDS equals
A special place place in hell for all of you war cheerleaders...
3/17/08
Chris Shays Killer's Eyes
Via tparty (who works for Jim Himes) at My Left Nutmeg:
Chris Shays is no different than bush or McCain. They are all bloodthirsty warmongers in the GOP.
It sounds like Ted Mann asked the wrong question:MLN has the video of Shays being crazy, as per usual."The Iraqis," said Shays, before briefly threatening to end the interview on the subject, "are starting to like us, and that's a fact."The congressman grew animated when asked if that was not an anecdotal judgment, explaining that he had gauged the opinion of Iraqis by going "outside the umbrella of the military" on his frequent visits to the country.
It is a bit of a sore spot, I suppose. In 2008, on the five year anniversary of the invasion, Shays says he regrets his vote on the IWR because we didn't find any WMD in Iraq:
"Knowing what I know now, I would not have voted (for it), on two accounts," said Shays, of the 4th District in Fairfield County, in a phone interview. "One, there weren't weapons of mass destruction. But the second count is if I had known how poorly we would fight the war the first three and a half years. So, you know we made horrendous mistakes."Yet way back in 2006, when the war was a mere three and a half years old, Shays said we should have gone into Iraq "sooner" and "not for WMD"
Chris Shays is no different than bush or McCain. They are all bloodthirsty warmongers in the GOP.
3/14/08
The Report the Government Didn't Want You to Read
The "Iraqi Perspectives Project - Phase II" is up for your reading pleasure:
ABC News has requested and obtained a copy of the Pentagon study which shows Saddam Hussein had no links to Al Qaeda.
It's government report the White House didn't want you to read: yesterday the Pentagon canceled plans to send out a press release announcing the report's availability and didn't make the report available via email or online.
Based on the analysis of some 600,000 official Iraqi documents seized by US forces after the invasion and thousands of hours of interrogations of former officials in Saddam's government now in US custody, the government report is the first official acknowledgment from the US military that there is no evidence Saddam had ties to al Qaeda.
Meanwhile... The right wing is grasping at straws (and strawman arguments) to try and justify the criminal bush administration's illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Go figure?I am glad they posted it because I didn't like waiting for my copy in the mail. You can find the "Iraqi Perspectives Project - Phase I" over here. Both of the reports are some pretty heavy reading and won't make as much sense if you aren't familiar with the background of the many organizations mentioned (which would explain the right wings confusion, since they never understood any of it from the beginning as evidenced by their screwing it all up) and they are not exactly written in an entertaining style.
3/5/08
Two Vermont Towns Vote to Indict Bush and Cheney
The two sanest towns in the nation:
Brattleboro, Vt., voted today in support of a measure calling on the town's police force to arrest and indict Bush and Cheney. The vote was 2012-1795.Read more...
Marlboro, Vt., passed a similar measure at its town meeting today at which the vote to indict Bush and Cheney was 43-25-3. That's 43 in favor and 3 abstaining. Thus Marlboro beat Brattleboro to it by a few hours. In Brattleboro, the indictment question was on the primary ballots for both parties.
Here's a kit for other towns to use:
http://afterdowningstreet.org/indictkit
Here is background on Brattleboro's indictment ballot initiative, written prior to the vote:
When citizens and voters go to the town meeting and primaries in Brattleboro, Vermont, on Tuesday, there will be a question on the back of all ballots, and a circle to mark Yes and one to mark No:
"Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution and publish said indictments for consideration by other authorities, and shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro police, pursuant to the above mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and prosecuted or extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them?"
2/28/08
U.S. Home Foreclosures Jump 90% as Mortgages Reset
And the results of the bush ownership society start rolling in:
Yes! The banks problems are the most troubling issues. Never mind the millions of American families that are or will be looking for new places to live, *IF* they can with their credit in ruin. Of course, the banks and mortgage companies are more worried about their demands for corporate welfare to keep them afloat through their hard times than they are about Joe and Suzy Sixpack living in the front seat of their car with the kids in the back seat...
This is only the beginning and it is only going to get worse.
Bank seizures of U.S. homes almost doubled in January as property owners failed to make higher payments on adjustable-rate mortgages.
Repossessions rose 90 percent to 45,327 last month from the same period a year ago, according to RealtyTrac Inc., a seller of foreclosure statistics that has a database of more than 1 million properties. Total foreclosure filings, which include default and auction notices as well as bank seizures, increased 57 percent.
``The most troubling thing is that we are seeing more and more of these properties actually going all the way through the process and going back to the banks,'' Rick Sharga, executive vice president of Irvine, California-based RealtyTrac, said.
snip
More than 233,000 properties were in some stage of default last month. Total filings increased 8 percent in January from December, RealtyTrac said today in a statement.
Yes! The banks problems are the most troubling issues. Never mind the millions of American families that are or will be looking for new places to live, *IF* they can with their credit in ruin. Of course, the banks and mortgage companies are more worried about their demands for corporate welfare to keep them afloat through their hard times than they are about Joe and Suzy Sixpack living in the front seat of their car with the kids in the back seat...
This is only the beginning and it is only going to get worse.
2/17/08
Seymore Hersh - Impeachment - A Constitutional Duty
Just a reminder of what patriotism is all about:
(h/t grateful dissident and via the freeway blogger)
"The voice speaking in this message is Seymour Hersh (Pulitzer Prize winning journalist for the New Yorker) - taken from one of his lectures at the ACLU."
"Remind Congress to uphold it's Constitutional obligation to open an investigation against anyone who has committed crimes against it's country.
For more specific information on the Articles of Impeachment of President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales (ed. note, already GONEzo) - please visit:
These sites can help to find your Congress member's contact information.
Criminals stand trial for their crimes. Period.
Richard Nixon was impeached 2 years after a landslide election victory—for crimes far less incriminating than the Bush Administration. In 1973, 50,000 telegrams to Congress forced them to begin impeachment hearings.
Please visit these sites to learn more specifically about the cases against them and how you can help make sure they don't dodge Justice. This is our country, and we can force the House to Impeach them with your help. It's time to relearn what this country's ideals are based upon.
Send a request yourself:
Nancy Pelosi's fax #: 202-225-8259
John Conyer's fax #: 202-225-0072
Impeachment in 2007 - Our Constitutional Duty."
(h/t grateful dissident and via the freeway blogger)
1/31/08
Soldier Suicides Skyrocket
Meanwhile, suicide attempts and self-inflicted wounds are rocketing alongside the suicide rates:
Soldier suicides reach record level, study shows
"I'm very disappointed with the Army," Whiteside wrote in a note before swallowing dozens of antidepressants and other pills. "Hopefully this will help other soldiers." She was taken to the emergency room early Tuesday. Whiteside, who is now in stable physical condition, learned yesterday that the charges against her had been dismissed.
Whiteside's personal tragedy is part of an alarming phenomenon in the Army's ranks: Suicides among active-duty soldiers in 2007 reached their highest level since the Army began keeping such records in 1980, according to a draft internal study obtained by The Washington Post. Last year, 121 soldiers took their own lives, nearly 20 percent more than in 2006.
At the same time, the number of attempted suicides or self-inflicted injuries in the Army has jumped sixfold since the Iraq war began. Last year, about 2,100 soldiers injured themselves or attempted suicide, compared with about 350 in 2002, according to the U.S. Army Medical Command Suicide Prevention Action Plan.
The military is broken and all the idiots in the criminal administration do is offer lip-service:
Increasing suicides raise "real questions about whether you can have an Army this size with multiple deployments," said David Rudd, a former Army psychologist and chairman of the psychology department at Texas Tech University.
On Monday night, as President Bush delivered his State of the Union address and asked Congress to "improve the system of care for our wounded warriors and help them build lives of hope and promise and dignity," Whiteside was dozing off from the effects of her drug overdose.
1/28/08
Thank you Senator Dodd!
Via Missy's Brother at My Left Nutmeg, Americans thank Senator Chris Dodd for working to protect The Constitution and the Bill of Rights in the FISA battle:
The rest of Congress could learn a thing or two about leadership from Senator Dodd, and we thank him for his efforts in protecting our freedoms. Keep up the good work!
Previously brewed in New Milford:
Illegal Surveillance and the Telecoms - Just the Facts
Via PFAW:
Now... There is one aspect of this that gets overlooked by many. BooMan makes a reasonable case that the entire lawsuit issue for telecoms is completely bogus:
What part of these oaths do the politicians that swear to them fail to understand here?
The rest of Congress could learn a thing or two about leadership from Senator Dodd, and we thank him for his efforts in protecting our freedoms. Keep up the good work!
Previously brewed in New Milford:
Illegal Surveillance and the Telecoms - Just the Facts
Via PFAW:
- In December 2005, the New York Times reported that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Americans have had their phones wiretapped by the National Security Agency (NSA) without any judicial review. But the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), passed by Congress in 1978, prohibits domestic spying unless a warrant is first issued by the FISA Court. By authorizing government spies to bypass the process mandated by FISA, President Bush authorized them to break the law.
- The so-called “Protect America Act,” which passed in August, made the situation worse by sanctioning a legal infrastructure under which American citizens might unwittingly be subject to daily, repeated invasions of privacy or violations of other constitutional rights. These liberties are not abstract or optional. Freedom from government spying on our private lives is at the core of what it means to be an American – the kind of personal liberty that hundreds of thousands of Americans have died to protect.
- All parties involved must be held accountable for any illegal activity, including telecommunications companies (telecoms) that satisfied government requests for information about private communications. FISA currently provides sufficient mechanisms to allow telecoms to proceed lawfully with such requests. Every American should have the confidence that our judicial system will ensure that telecoms will not be permitted to circumvent this established process and undermine our fundamental right to privacy.
- It is unacceptable that the FISA reform being debated now seeks blanket immunity for the telecoms’ alleged complicity in the Administration’s actions. If the telecoms never have to testify, Americans may never know the true extent to which they have been targeted for surveillance. We have a right to know what’s been done and how far the overreaching went.
- In protecting the telecoms, the Administration is protecting itself. At a minimum, the Administration should not be given the power to bury the secrets of its domestic spying program by keeping the telecoms out of court. Telecom immunity not only has the potential to excuse illegal activity, it also precludes the public from getting access to information and prevents Congress from conducting effective oversight.
- Immunity compromises will not serve the interests of the American people. Substituting the government as the defendant in telecom lawsuits will only further rob Americans of their day in court by forcing them to sue a government that may use the power of the executive, state secrets, and other “privileges” to withhold information. Reimbursing the telecoms for their legal costs through indemnification rests financial burden on the taxpayers – essentially Americans paying for spying to which they object.
- Congress should err on the side of our Constitution and not bow to political pressure by signing off on telecom immunity. Americans deserve nothing less.
Now... There is one aspect of this that gets overlooked by many. BooMan makes a reasonable case that the entire lawsuit issue for telecoms is completely bogus:
There is no reason to immunize the telecom corporations because they are already immunized if they had a good faith reason to believe they were following the law. The only reason to immunize them is to prevent the truth about the extent of the lawbreaking from coming to light.Even if this were not the case and they acted in bad faith the matter of lawsuits was already settled in the market place:
It has nothing to do with lawsuits and everything to do with covering the asses of the politicians that have acted criminally by illegally spying on Americans. Don't let them switch the topic to something as piddly as minor lawsuits that will cost telcoms a minuscule slice of their profits:And even if the matter was not already settled in the market place... As Russ Feingold said, "Congress can intervene to limit the damages." Do not let them distract you from the fact that the bush administration was illegally spying on Americans, and not just after 911 but before that, according reports:The lawsuit distraction is just that... A distraction from the real issue of the bush illegally spying on Americans.The Bush team argue impending financial doom for the telecom industry should lawsuits be permitted to continue. However, at this time, the financial impact is speculative (pdf file) with a market that “seems unconcerned” about the lawsuits filed against telecoms:
For example, when the complaint in Hepting v. AT&T Corp. was filed and when AT&T’s motion to dismiss the suit was denied, AT&T’s stock price remained essentially unaffected. The entirety of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s regulatory system requiring public filings and disclosures is premised on the idea that, when the relevant information is available publicly, the market is the most effective indicator of the value of a corporation. That the stock price of AT&T was unaffected by the suit indicates the market’s determination that the company’s financial footing remains sound, despite the potential liability.
Moreover, telecommunications carriers have survived enormous payouts in class action suits in the past. For example, in September of this year, Sprint received preliminary approval from the court for a $30 million class-action settlement. And in 1994, AT&T agreed to pay a $100 million settlement. Just as they have for the other risks incumbent in their business, telecommunications carriers have liability insurance to protect them in the event of an adverse civil judgment. And if, at some point in the future, a series of judgments comes to present a threat of widespread bankruptcy in the telecommunications industry, the government may take action at that time. But any preemptive liability shield is premature and unneeded.
Thus, should the telecom lawsuits proceed and if damages are awarded by the courts and if the damages are not covered by telecom liability insurance, and if Congress then determines that a bailout is needed for the industry, then Congress has the authority to legislate funding to the industry, thus preserving the plaintiffs’ right to a judicial remedy and the public’s right to a transparent government. As Sen. Feingold notes:
Moreover, if the concern is financial liability, why is the immunity so broad that “cases will be dismissed even if they do not seek money damages but only declaratory and injunctive relief.”If the companies engaged in such widespread illegal conduct that the damages would be enormous, Congress can intervene to limit the damages. That’s a far more appropriate response than simply giving the companies a free pass for any illegal conduct.
A former telecom executive told us that efforts to obtain call details go back to early 2001, predating the 9/11 attacks and the president's now celebrated secret executive order. The source, who asked not to be identified so as not to out his former company, reports that the NSA approached U.S. carriers and asked for their cooperation in a "data-mining" operation, which might eventually cull "millions" of individual calls and e-mails.Any reasonable person would realize that invocation of 911 by anyone is completely bogus when the illegal spying was, in fact, started before that date. Equally important here is the fact that it was not just Foreign calls that were being monitored, BUT all of the traffic on their networks:
Like the pressure applied to ITT a half-century ago, our source says the government was insistent, arguing that his competitors had already shown their patriotism by signing on. The NSA would not comment on the issue, saying that, "We do not discuss details of actual or alleged operational issues."
Although the president told the nation that his NSA eavesdropping program was limited to known Al Qaeda agents or supporters abroad making calls into the U.S., comments of other administration officials and intelligence veterans indicate that the NSA cast its net far more widely. AT&T technician Mark Klein inadvertently discovered that the whole flow of Internet traffic in several AT&T operations centers was being regularly diverted to the NSA, a charge indirectly substantiated by John Yoo, the Justice Department lawyer who wrote the official legal memos legitimizing the president's warrantless wiretapping program. Yoo told FRONTLINE: "The government needs to have access to international communications so that it can try to find communications that are coming into the country where Al Qaeda's trying to send messages to cell members in the country. In order to do that, it does have to have access to communication networks."And when I say all of the traffic, I mean telephone calls, both local and foreign, as well as all internet and Email traffic:
Conventional wisdom has long been that the bulk of the surveillance operations -- groundbreaking because they lacked judicial oversight -- involved primarily telephone calls. However, officials say the Bush administration's program frequently went after e-mail and other Internet traffic.These actions by the bush administration go far beyond being simply criminal. They are an attack on the The Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
What part of these oaths do the politicians that swear to them fail to understand here?
- Presidential Oath:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." - For Congress Members:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter."
1/27/08
Some Vermonters uderstand the real issues...
The important ones that our Congress should have dealt with years ago:
Surprisingly, "Vermont is the only state Bush hasn't visited since he became president in 2001." And just in case you are wondering if this might actually happen should the voters decide to pass it... The local police supported the petition drive to get this voted on.
They might want to consider adding the names of everyone that has served in Congress under the criminal years of the bush administration and showed no effort or inclination to put impeachment on the table...
Brattleboro residents will vote at town meeting on whether President George Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney should be indicted and arrested for war crimes, perjury or obstruction of justice if they ever step foot in Vermont.
Surprisingly, "Vermont is the only state Bush hasn't visited since he became president in 2001." And just in case you are wondering if this might actually happen should the voters decide to pass it... The local police supported the petition drive to get this voted on.
"Everybody I talked to wanted Bush to go," [Kurt Daims] said, noting that even members of the local police department supported the drive.
snip
The article goes on to say the indictments would be the "law of the town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro police ... arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro, if they are not duly impeached ..."
They might want to consider adding the names of everyone that has served in Congress under the criminal years of the bush administration and showed no effort or inclination to put impeachment on the table...
1/25/08
Illegal Surveillance and the Telecoms - Just The Facts
Via PFAW:
Now... There is one aspect of this that gets overlooked by many. BooMan makes a reasonable case that the entire lawsuit issue for telecoms is completely bogus:
What part of these oaths do the politicians that swear to them fail to understand here?
If you got this far down reading... Maybe you'll want to Buzz this! :)
- In December 2005, the New York Times reported that hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Americans have had their phones wiretapped by the National Security Agency (NSA) without any judicial review. But the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), passed by Congress in 1978, prohibits domestic spying unless a warrant is first issued by the FISA Court. By authorizing government spies to bypass the process mandated by FISA, President Bush authorized them to break the law.
- The so-called “Protect America Act,” which passed in August, made the situation worse by sanctioning a legal infrastructure under which American citizens might unwittingly be subject to daily, repeated invasions of privacy or violations of other constitutional rights. These liberties are not abstract or optional. Freedom from government spying on our private lives is at the core of what it means to be an American – the kind of personal liberty that hundreds of thousands of Americans have died to protect.
- All parties involved must be held accountable for any illegal activity, including telecommunications companies (telecoms) that satisfied government requests for information about private communications. FISA currently provides sufficient mechanisms to allow telecoms to proceed lawfully with such requests. Every American should have the confidence that our judicial system will ensure that telecoms will not be permitted to circumvent this established process and undermine our fundamental right to privacy.
- It is unacceptable that the FISA reform being debated now seeks blanket immunity for the telecoms’ alleged complicity in the Administration’s actions. If the telecoms never have to testify, Americans may never know the true extent to which they have been targeted for surveillance. We have a right to know what’s been done and how far the overreaching went.
- In protecting the telecoms, the Administration is protecting itself. At a minimum, the Administration should not be given the power to bury the secrets of its domestic spying program by keeping the telecoms out of court. Telecom immunity not only has the potential to excuse illegal activity, it also precludes the public from getting access to information and prevents Congress from conducting effective oversight.
- Immunity compromises will not serve the interests of the American people. Substituting the government as the defendant in telecom lawsuits will only further rob Americans of their day in court by forcing them to sue a government that may use the power of the executive, state secrets, and other “privileges” to withhold information. Reimbursing the telecoms for their legal costs through indemnification rests financial burden on the taxpayers – essentially Americans paying for spying to which they object.
- Congress should err on the side of our Constitution and not bow to political pressure by signing off on telecom immunity. Americans deserve nothing less.
Now... There is one aspect of this that gets overlooked by many. BooMan makes a reasonable case that the entire lawsuit issue for telecoms is completely bogus:
There is no reason to immunize the telecom corporations because they are already immunized if they had a good faith reason to believe they were following the law. The only reason to immunize them is to prevent the truth about the extent of the lawbreaking from coming to light.Even if this were not the case and they acted in bad faith the matter of lawsuits was already settled in the market place:
It has nothing to do with lawsuits and everything to do with covering the asses of the politicians that have acted criminally by illegally spying on Americans. Don't let them switch the topic to something as piddly as minor lawsuits that will cost telcoms a minuscule slice of their profits:And even if the matter was not already settled in the market place... As Russ Feingold said, "Congress can intervene to limit the damages." Do not let them distract you from the fact that the bush administration was illegally spying on Americans, not just after 911, but before that according reports:The lawsuit distraction is just that... A distraction from the real issue of the bush illegally spying on Americans.The Bush team argue impending financial doom for the telecom industry should lawsuits be permitted to continue. However, at this time, the financial impact is speculative (pdf file) with a market that “seems unconcerned” about the lawsuits filed against telecoms:
For example, when the complaint in Hepting v. AT&T Corp. was filed and when AT&T’s motion to dismiss the suit was denied, AT&T’s stock price remained essentially unaffected. The entirety of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s regulatory system requiring public filings and disclosures is premised on the idea that, when the relevant information is available publicly, the market is the most effective indicator of the value of a corporation. That the stock price of AT&T was unaffected by the suit indicates the market’s determination that the company’s financial footing remains sound, despite the potential liability.
Moreover, telecommunications carriers have survived enormous payouts in class action suits in the past. For example, in September of this year, Sprint received preliminary approval from the court for a $30 million class-action settlement. And in 1994, AT&T agreed to pay a $100 million settlement. Just as they have for the other risks incumbent in their business, telecommunications carriers have liability insurance to protect them in the event of an adverse civil judgment. And if, at some point in the future, a series of judgments comes to present a threat of widespread bankruptcy in the telecommunications industry, the government may take action at that time. But any preemptive liability shield is premature and unneeded.
Thus, should the telecom lawsuits proceed and if damages are awarded by the courts and if the damages are not covered by telecom liability insurance, and if Congress then determines that a bailout is needed for the industry, then Congress has the authority to legislate funding to the industry, thus preserving the plaintiffs’ right to a judicial remedy and the public’s right to a transparent government. As Sen. Feingold notes:
Moreover, if the concern is financial liability, why is the immunity so broad that “cases will be dismissed even if they do not seek money damages but only declaratory and injunctive relief.”If the companies engaged in such widespread illegal conduct that the damages would be enormous, Congress can intervene to limit the damages. That’s a far more appropriate response than simply giving the companies a free pass for any illegal conduct.
A former telecom executive told us that efforts to obtain call details go back to early 2001, predating the 9/11 attacks and the president's now celebrated secret executive order. The source, who asked not to be identified so as not to out his former company, reports that the NSA approached U.S. carriers and asked for their cooperation in a "data-mining" operation, which might eventually cull "millions" of individual calls and e-mails.Any reasonable person would realize that invocation of 911 by anyone is completely bogus when the illegal spying was, in fact, started before that date. Equally important here is the fact that it was not just Foreign calls that were being monitored, BUT all of the traffic on their networks:
Like the pressure applied to ITT a half-century ago, our source says the government was insistent, arguing that his competitors had already shown their patriotism by signing on. The NSA would not comment on the issue, saying that, "We do not discuss details of actual or alleged operational issues."
Although the president told the nation that his NSA eavesdropping program was limited to known Al Qaeda agents or supporters abroad making calls into the U.S., comments of other administration officials and intelligence veterans indicate that the NSA cast its net far more widely. AT&T technician Mark Klein inadvertently discovered that the whole flow of Internet traffic in several AT&T operations centers was being regularly diverted to the NSA, a charge indirectly substantiated by John Yoo, the Justice Department lawyer who wrote the official legal memos legitimizing the president's warrantless wiretapping program. Yoo told FRONTLINE: "The government needs to have access to international communications so that it can try to find communications that are coming into the country where Al Qaeda's trying to send messages to cell members in the country. In order to do that, it does have to have access to communication networks."And when I say all of the traffic, I mean telephone calls, both local and foreign, as well as all internet and Email traffic:
Conventional wisdom has long been that the bulk of the surveillance operations -- groundbreaking because they lacked judicial oversight -- involved primarily telephone calls. However, officials say the Bush administration's program frequently went after e-mail and other Internet traffic.These actions by the bush administration go far beyond being simply criminal. They are an attack on the The Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
What part of these oaths do the politicians that swear to them fail to understand here?
- Presidential Oath:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." - For Congress Members:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter."
If you got this far down reading... Maybe you'll want to Buzz this! :)
1/23/08
The 935 Things I Hate About You
Most people would call it propaganda:
A study by two nonprofit journalism organizations found that President Bush and top administration officials issued hundreds of false statements about the national security threat from Iraq in the two years following the 2001 terrorist attacks.
The study concluded that the statements "were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."
A war by the bush administration on the American people:
The study counted 935 false statements in the two-year period. It found that in speeches, briefings, interviews and other venues, Bush and administration officials stated unequivocally on at least 532 occasions that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or was trying to produce or obtain them or had links to al-Qaida or both.
snip
Bush led with 259 false statements, 231 about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 28 about Iraq's links to al-Qaida, the study found. That was second only to Powell's 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq and al-Qaida.
They've killed hundreds of thousands of people in an illegal invasion and occupation and it was all a pack of lies...
1/20/08
One year and BUSH IS GONE!
Via Think Progress:
Steve Benen at The Carpetbagger Report reminds us that “after seven painful years, the Bush presidency will end exactly one year from today.”What a difference a year can make, eh? Of course, we could still shorten his time in office if some Dems would grow a spine...
1/17/08
Canada Puts U.S. on Torture Watch List
This cannot be all that surprising since at the end of November Canadian Courts tossed out a “refugee/immigration” treaty with the US based, partially, on the courts recognition of the fact that the US tortures prisoners.Via BuzzFlash and from CTV News:
Canada puts U.S. on torture watch list
Omar Khadr's lawyers say they can't understand why Canada is not doing more to help their client in light of new evidence that Ottawa has put the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on a watch list for torture.
Khadr -- a Canadian citizen who was just 15-years-old when he was captured in Afghanistan more than five years ago and taken to Guantanamo -- has claimed that he has been tortured at the prison. Now, CTV News has obtained documents that put Guantanamo Bay on a torture watch list.
Khadr's U.S. military lawyer says the new documents contradict Harper's assurances that his client is receiving fair treatment.
snip
Canada's new focus on torture was ordered by the inquiry into Maher Arar's nightmare in Syria. U.S. authorities sent Arar -- a Canadian of Syrian ancestory -- to Syria after he made a brief stopover in New York in 2002. They wrongly accused him of having links to terrorism in large part because of information provided by the RCMP.
Arar was sent to a Syrian prison where he was tortured for nearly a year. An inquiry into the Arar affair ordered a new focus on torture, and CTV News has learned that, as part of a "torture awareness workshop," diplomats are now being told where to watch for abuse.
Specific places noted for torture on their list include:
- Syria
- Iran
- Afghanistan
- China
- United States
- Guantanamo Bay
- Israel
Here is a CTV News video on the story.
And another video report here.
In November, the Canadian Courts had cited torture as one of the reasons to ditch a treaty with the US on refugee immigration:
Our politicians have gone beyond simply being embarrassing and should be considered criminal if they are not doing everything they can to stop this.Canadian Courts on American Torture Policies:
The Canadian courts don't seem to think too highly of the American torture of prisoners:
The Federal Court of Canada Thursday struck down a refugee agreement [judgment, PDF] between Canada and the US, noting that the US does not meet international refugee protection requirements or respect international conventions against torture. Justice Michael Phelan essentially nullified the 2004 Safe Third Country Agreement , which barred foreign refugees who first arrived in the US from seeking refugee status in Canada and vice versa. Phelan noted that the US has not been compliant with the Refugee Convention or the UN Convention Against Torture. The court also held that the agreement discriminates against refugees based on how they first arrived in Canada and thus violates Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms .This ought to make the crowd that wrapped themselves in faded flags feel pretty good about what they have accomplished under the criminal bush administration. This is the world view of America that you have created and supported.
The nullification of the agreement will likely result in Canada processing thousands more refugees each year. The US and Canadian governments have until January 14 to file an appeal. CTV News has more. [The National Post] has additional coverage.Washington State Democratic Central Committee Passed Bush-Cheney Impeachment ResolutionYeah... Impeach them.Resolution Pertaining to Investigation and Impeachment Proceedings for George Bush and Dick Cheney
WHEREAS, there are already known and admitted illegal and impeachable actions on the part of George W. Bush, some examples being, in broad outline:
a) unlawful wire-tapping of American citizens,
b) deliberate manipulation of intelligence reports for the purpose of starting a war,
c) deliberate violations of international treaties pertaining to acts of war,
d) deliberate violations of international treaties pertaining to prisoners of war,
e) deliberate violations of constitutional rights provided in the Bill of Rights;and... continue reading
[update] For video links and h/t jimstaro at ePluribus Media for video.
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