Condi Above The Law

Condi Rice has shown she has little regard for the law of the land by rejecting a House subcommitteee subpeona for her to testify in that whole bothersome "Who cooked the false intelligence on Iraq?" investigation.

Can the Secretary Of State invoke executive privilege? Not really, but they'll do anything to prevent themselves from either perjurying themselves or telling the truth about who forged what document that got us into a war that has no exit strategy.
Meanwhile Gen. Betrayus appeared before Congress to say that setting a timetable is wrong, that the surge will work, despite all evidence to the contrary. How many more Americans will be sent to their deaths in a war that should have not been fought in the first place?
Not enough for Hilary Clinton who feels The US should confront Ira militarily. Easy for her to say, her love ones won't be sacrificed to save the corpocracy and the paranoiacs who run Israel, to whom she made the remarks.
Which brings me to Dennis Kucinich, who today introduced articles of impeachment against Dick Cheney.

Article I, that Richard Cheney had purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and the Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the United States armed forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security.

That despite all evidence to the contrary, the vice president actively and systematically sought to deceive the citizens and the Congress of the United States about an alleged threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.

That preceding the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, the vice president was fully informed that no legitimate evidence existed of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The vice president pressured the intelligence community to change their findings to enable the deception of the citizens and the Congress of the United States.

Of cousre Condi doesn't want to testify. Cheney and Bush goes and she has to go back to working for ordinary old oil companies. Poor gal.

The Suffering Of The Bushes

On Wednesday's Today show, Laura Bush stated that "No one suffers more than their president and I do", when it comes to Iraq. Certainly the people of Iraq aren't suffering. The 15 people who died and 25 who were injured when a suicide bomber blew up a police checkpoint today, they aren't suffering. The families of the eleven US troops that died on Monday aren't suffering, having lost loved ones for a war that has no obtainable mission (Why are we there this week? Al Qaeda? WMD? Links to 9/11? democracy?)
I'm sure , other than in the polls where Bush numbers are low, and Cheney's even lower, Bush hasn't really had to suffer at all. Sure, he's had to actualy meet with vetted crowds to try to sell the war again, causing to have to suffer the humiliation of flying in Air Force One, ride in limousines, and shake people's hands, hard work for someone who calls the greatest accomplishment of his presidency catching a seven pound fish on a stocked lake on his private ranch. I'm sure he suffers no pangs of conscience, because he has shown himself to be part of a group of sociopathic criminals who have no conscience.
It's been almost four years since Bush declared our mission in Iraq "accomplished", yet we keep sending more troops there to finish what should have never been started in the first place. And as more and more troops are slaughtered, how long will it be until the idiots of the world realize they can never be accomplished because for an army to win, they must believe they have the moral law on their side. Our invasion and ongoing occupation is a clear violation of international, so we are not on the side of right. And since the claims made by the ADDministration as to why we went there all turned out to be lies, the only reason we went there was to secure the oil for Big Oil, and enrich the defense contractors, who have seen their top CEO pay double in the last four years (at taxpayer expense).
So if Laura and George want to play the vicitms in this whole mess, there's one way to fulfill their martyr complex.................

The Emperor's Same Old Clothes

The president is coming to town tomorrow, already the blockades have been put up and the local media is in pre-orgasmic state unseen since Jerry Ford's funeral. A protest is also planned (of which I will not be attending due to work obligations) featuring Ray McGovern a retired CIA analyst who took on Donald Rumsfeld when the latter was Secretary of Defense.
Bush needs to preach to the kool-aid drinking choir, and they don't get much more kool-aid drinking than East Grand Rapids, where Bush is scheduled to speak. He needs to convince the few remaining supporters that the war in Iraq isn't lost, and even more important, it is still part of the war on terror. Because Zarqawi was there (allegedly), it makes perfect sense to destroy a whole sovereign nation to kill one man (unless that sovereign country is Pakistan, and the one man is Osama Bin Laden)

Bush can parade around East (as it's residents prefer to call it, disassociating and distancing themselves from the minorities and Polacks in regular ol' Grand Rapids) without fear of someone pointing out, hey! look! the president's not wearing any clothes! even though he has been parading around with naked glee at playing the Commander-in-Chief (until he realized, too, that the war was lost and began to seek out a "war czar" to be the scapegoat for the failures of his latest surge)for the last six years or so.
So by the time I leave work, the president wil be flown out of town, the peace demonstrators will all be beaten by police (who says we're not becoming a fascist state?)and hopefully the highways won't be blocked so the presidential motorcade doesn't have to share the roads with us common people that just got done paying the taxes that afford him the ability to fly around and make speeches for wars that can never be won.
UPDATE-My job is out by the airport, so I always worry when Bush or Cheney come to town that I'll be stuck in traffic while these wipes roll by in their motorcade. AS I was leaving the radio station I was tuned top said the highway from the airport to the Gerald Ford Museum would be shut down for the motorcade, so I quickly got on because I didn't want to be stuck with no gas waiting. Then I realized that the highway would be shut down the other way, so I continued on homeward. That's when I realized that Bush would becoming toward me on the other side. That when I looked ahead and noticed a line of cars with flashing lights coming from the other direction. Down went my window, out went my arm, and up went the finger, saluting him and his entourage as they sped pass. I don't know if he saw it or not, but all the way home I felt good (Even though I think flipping the bird is quite grotesque).

A Worthwhile Democrat

Sometimes you have to wonder what goes on in the minds of Democratic party supporters. Hillary Clinton is considered the front runner for her party's nomination because-she has raised a lot of money. What kind of democracy do we have when only the elites with disposable cash can buy a candidate for either party, and how can we expect said candidate to affect change when they are in the same pockets as the opposition? Barack Obama is also a contender, based on the fact that-well, he does have a certain air about him, but, really, what has he or Sen. Clinton done to affect change while in the senate?
Then there's John Edwards, who has been commended for standing by his wife while she has cancer, as if there was any alternative. (Well, there is, and in the Republican Party it's called serving her with divorce papers while she recovers from surgery a/k/a "Family Values") Has John Edwards done anything to end the war in Iraq?
No. The only Democratic party member worth a damn running is perrenial candidate Dennis Kucinich. Reading the voters, who, in frustration with ineptitude of the Republican majority, voted for change in the last election, Rep. Kucinich has announced plans to impeach Dick Cheney. Kucinich can be contacted at:
2445 Rayburn HOB
Washington, DC 20515
Phone (202)225-5871
Fax (202)225-5745
Of course, this, as every other bit of governing has been put on hold following the shootings at Virginia Tech. Which brings me to a post I read over at mike votes. Imagine if shootings like this occured three or four times a day. Every day. For a year. Then you may get an idea of what life is like for Iraqis following the illegal US invasion of that country under falses pretenses concocted by-Dick Cheney. If that's not reason enough to remove him, I'm sure there are thousands of others.

The Refuge Of Scoundrels

The Bush ADDministration has failed to comply with two subpeonas issued by Congress in two separate matters. The first, dealing with the US attorneys firings of which Attorney General Gonzales was scheduled to be "grilled" on today, until the shooting at Virginia Tech conveniently occurred.

Now Gonzales' testimony will occur Wednesday, while under the non-stop coverage of the tragedy (I'm not saying this was a black op) is played out for the next couple of months as the corporate media exploits and examines every angle of it until the next runaway bride or mass murder occurs. And anything incriminating Gonzales may say will be second to the big story.
Back to the subpeonas, the Justice Department failed to comply with a subpeona issued by John Conyers for documents relating to the case, with requested documents not supplied, or in redacted form. Which is the complete opposite of what the oversight committee asked for from them. Although I can't say for sure, the reasons that Justice will give will likely be the old dodge of the Bush regime, "national security".
In other subpeona news, Condaleeza Rice may face a subpeona if she fails to comply with an oversight committee's request for information on intelligence used to justify the invasion of Iraq, and other issues. Although, once again, the information will not be released, not because it's detrimental to the Bush regime (which it most certainly would be), but for the refuge of scoundrels, "national security" issues.
How convenient it has been for this administration to have an excuse to destroy the Constitution, as well as start many wars planned before they stole their power, and commit any number of crimes, then have the whole "national security" smokescreen to hide behind. Almost makes you think they may have had something to do with the whole thing. Either that, or fortune has smiled upon them more times than they deserve.

Someone Still Doesn't Get It

In a speech before the Heritage Foundation today, Dick Cheney compared the Democrats stance on Iraq to the far left stance of the Democrats on Viet Nam in the seventies. While at least he is beginning to acknowledge the war in Iraq is as unwinnable as the quagmire that was Viet Nam, he still doesn't get it.
For instance, he blasted Democrats as big spending when the war in Iraq has cost the taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars, with nothing more to show for it than 3297 dead US soldiers, 655,000 dead Iraqi civilians, and, no matter what Cheney may thinkl, no ground is his so-called "war on terrorism".
He also blew off the will of the people, claiming the sweeping change of last November's election as "minimal". claiming a minimum of 3600 votes would have kept the Senate iGOP hands and fewer than 100000 votes would have kept GOP control of the House (forgetting of course that it only took 57000 black voters purged from voter rolls in Florida that put his sorry soggy ass where it is today, and with that they claimed to have a mandate.
Cheney also continued on with his deluded notion that we are fighting terrorists in Iraq, when in reality, we are an occupation force dealing with an insurgency. Cheney would just as soon keep US troops there indefinitely than send "a message to our enemies that the calendar is their friend, that all they have to do is wait us out -- wait for the date certain, and then claim victory the day after." Unfortunately for Cheney, the claendar is not his friend, come January 2009 we will have a new president, and hopefully it won't be one more concerned with lining the pockets of their corporate buddies than dragging out a pointless war based on lies.

Vonnegut On The Corpocracy

I have read one or two of Kurt Vonnegut's books, maybe Slapstick and one or two more, back when I read fiction. I think I may have had a girlfriend who was enamored of his writing as well, plus friends who read his works regularly, but as time went on, I find that few people these days read his work, and Hollywood can't translate his books to film very well. There are no explosions or car chases, no stoic hero shoots bullets from an automatic weapon that only strikes the enemy, and avoids the innocent civilians around him.
But if you read this, you can sense the outrage of a man who laid his life on the line for democracy feels in the twilight of years as that democracy is methodically replaced, piece by piece, with a corpocracy, lead not by great men, but by money grubbing baboons, as the people of the nation rarely read a book wihout a celebrities name attached to it, or read the latest assembly line piece by some hack fiction writer, milking a genre for all it's worth. Some choice quotes from A Man Without A Country:

"Do unto others what you would have them do unto you." A lot of people think Jesus said that, because it is so much the sort of thing Jesus liked to say. But it was actually said by Confucius, a Chinese philosopher, five hundred years before there was that greatest and most humane of human beings, named Jesus Christ.

The Chinese also gave us, via Marco Polo, pasta and the formula for gunpowder. The Chinese were so dumb they only used gunpowder for fireworks. And everybody was so dumb back then that nobody in either hemisphere even knew that there was another one.

We've sure come a long way since then. Sometimes I wish we hadn't. I hate H-bombs and the Jerry Springer Show

How about Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes?

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth.

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.

And so on.

Not exactly planks in a Republican platform. Not exactly George W Bush, Dick Cheney, or Donald Rumsfeld stuff.

For some reason, the most vocal Christians among us never mention the Beatitudes. But, often with tears in their eyes, they demand that the Ten Commandments be posted in public buildings. And of course that's Moses, not Jesus. I haven't heard one of them demand that the Sermon on the Mount, the Beatitudes, be posted anywhere.

"Blessed are the merciful" in a courtroom? "Blessed are the peacemakers" in the Pentagon? Give me a break!

Our president is a Christian? So was Adolf Hitler. What can be said to our young people, now that psychopathic personalities, which is to say persons without consciences, without senses of pity or shame, have taken all the money in the treasuries of our government and corporations, and made it all their own?

© 2005 Kurt Vonnegut Extracted from A Man Without a Country: : A Memoir of Life in George W Bush's America.

It's Just A Matter of Time

Well, another war is almost upon us, as evidenced by the comment on to day's Free Beer and Hot Wings Show advocating the nuking of Iran for exercising their right to nuclear power. I'm sure that will only result in millions of deaths of people who don't trust their government anymore than most Americans do, while their leaders are safe in some undisclosed location, much like the one Dick Cheney was cowering in on 9/11. And of the course, the resulting radiation will only spread throughout much of the Middle East, especially Iraq, where many of the soldiers supported by yellow ribbon magnets will be downwind from it.
Another sign that we're almost ready to shoot ourselves in the foot again is the announcement that Halliburton has wound up it's Iranian contracts giving it's people time to scramble back to Washington to get more no-bid contracts to rebuild Iran after we blow it to pieces. All we need is a reason.
Thank God that void is being filled by the corporate media, who took this article from Reuters containing this little dandy:

Bleichwehl said troops, facing scattered resistance, discovered a factory that produced "explosively formed penetrators" (EFPs), a particularly deadly type of explosive that can destroy a main battle tank and several weapons caches.

from a story about soldiers in Iraq (who should receive some sort of commendation, except, well, they exposed the Bush administration as liars). That's where the Washington Post came, and took the story and changed it to better suit Bush regime lies:

One of the bombs was an explosively formed projectile, a particularly deadly type of device which Washington accuses Iran of supplying Iraqi militants.

See? You can always rely on the corpocracy to cover up each others lies. I have a standing bet with a co-worker that we'll be at war with Iran before the end of the summer (just in time to drive up oilprices for the summer driving season, imagine the windfall oil companies will make from that), but she doesn't think that the Bush regime has the support for another war, but I say they don't have the support for the one they're in now, and it hasn't stopped them for continuing to fight it. Just give the corporate media a little time and they'll have the beer swilling NASCAR watching mouth breathing brain damaged jackanapes up and arms against Iran in no time.

Boy, Have Schools Gotten Tougher Since I Was A Kid

I've mentioned in previous posts of my desire tp move to New York City, because obviously they have the whole crime thing under control there that they have more time to spy on antiwar activists and such. Apparently, all crime has been so removed form the city that police officers have time to now arrest 13-year old girls for writing on their school desks. Boy have things gotten stricter since I was in school.
Now I used to draw on desks frequently, mostly when I didn't have a piece of paper handy, and I don't believe I was ever called on it, even when I was drawing elaborate landscapes in my psychotropic state. So I figured whatever 13 yr-old Chelsea Fraser wrote on her desk must have been absolutely horrible. Did she write an expletive? Did she criticize a teacher? The government? Threaten her classmates?
No. What she wrote that was horrible enough to have dragged from school in front of her classmates in handcuffs was just one word.
Okay. That's it. The one word. Okay.
So I know I am safe moving to New York because all the major crimes in that city have been solved and all the criminals locked safely away, so that the police now have the time to arrest a teenager for writing one word (and a positive word at that) on her desk. So much for freedom of expression.

Who's The Biggest Fool In America?

I'm sure everybody who could weigh on this would have a different take on this, but according to a local Fox News affiliate in Pheonix, it's Britney Spears. Psycho? Possibly. Foolish? Not the most foolish person in America, according to the numbers flashed on the screen during this report.
But I think this really makes the foolish person in America anyone who watches Fox because they claim to be "fair and balanced".

Victims Of The Policies Of Idiots

Freed British sailors today revealed abuses by the Iranian government, including waterboarding, being set upon by dogs, being forced to strip naked and lay on top of each other, and, oh, wait a minute, these are abuse charges against the United States ! It seems the worse the British soldiers had to endure was *gulp*, blindfolding, isolation and a seven year jail sentence if they failed to confess to something they had actually done. Makes the Iranians seem quite civilzed compared to the policies of the Bush administration.
And that's the point. The people of the "coalition of the willing"(to break international law, as well as numerous treaties) can't complain about the way our soldiers are being treated when captured because we have treated our prisoners so shoddily. Saying it's okay for us to do so makes one look like a hypocrite, which is what most war supporters have become.
Bush has called the recent bill passed by Congress which sets a date for troop withdrawal a signal to the terrorists, but we are not fighting terrorists in Iraq, if we were really serious about fighting terrorists, we'd be bombing the mountains of Pakistan where alQaeda is hiding out, regrouping, and rallying more people to it's cause. Luckily for them, they're located in a place that doesn't have a large oil reserve underneath. Because that's what the "war on terror" is all about. Recent rumors of a US led attack on Iran caused oil prices to rise above $70 a barrel (just in time for the millions of Americans heading to Florida for spring break, thank you), proving that we don't actually have to invade a country for the oil monopolies to profit from it.