edgecity

At the end of Attorney general Alberto Gonzales’ testimony, Republican Senator Arlen Specter (R - PA) told Mr. Gonzales and I quote, “I don’t trust you”.

As I follow along the proceedings investigating the firing of US Attorneys, I think about all the Bush Administration actvities that leave me queasy and uncomfortable.

1. the commuting of Scooter Libby
2. the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame, and never holding anybody accountable
3. clear FISA violations regarding domestic surveillance
4. the Bush Administration changing their justifications for the war in Iraq over time and acting as if they hadn’t
5. no WMD in Iraq
6. People indefinitely held without representation in Guantanamo
7. Never holding any high level US officials accountable for Abu Ghraib, nor apologizing to the Iraqi people for it
8. the erroneous claim that Saddam Hussein had anything to do with 9/11
9. somewhere between 40k and 100k americans people mercenaries with guns are in Iraq as security forces and they are not soldiers, but employees of a company called Blackwater funded by me and  you, and Congress doesn’t even know how many there are!
10. writing more signing statements(over 700) in this Administration than all of the previous Administrations combined dating back to George Washington, clearly as a way of circumventing established laws and practices.
11. blaming everybody else when things don’t go well
12. the list goes on and on.

That uneasy feeling is fear. Fear that our democracy, as we know it, is coming to end, and afraid that most of this country doesn’t know anything about it.

President Bush, I don’t trust you.

Vice-President Cheney, I don’t trust you.

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, I don’t trust you.

Carl Rove, I don’t trust you.

Tony Snow, I don’t trust you.

The democratic Congress sees these things happening, yet they fail to stop or even impede the Bush Adminstration from dismantling our Republic and remaking it in their own image. And seeing that that scares me even more. How can we trust any of them now?

I think I finally understand why Bush can’t fire Gonzales. Attorney General Gonzales is one of the major plugs in the dam holding back the reservoir of White House cover-ups. So if Gonzo goes, the Senate must confirm a new AG, and guess what? Congress won’t let a lackey through who will do Bush’s bidding and the dam will burst. So the White House must keep their loyal, lapdog AG in place- it’s a question of survival.

The evidence against Gonzales is now so overwhelming, that any sane President would have to demand his resignation. Unless of course that Presidency would crash and burn as a result. What would a law-abiding AG find in Gonzo’s absence? Just the trail of evidence leading to the long line of politically motivated actions and illegal operations in full swing on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Gonzales’ testimony over the past couple of days would be rolling-on-the-floor laughable if it weren’t an insult to every citizen of the United States. The inquiring Senators were definitely NOT amused.

Here’s a video about this very subject from Talking Points Memo.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=ArwXQFMF9qI&feature=RecentlyWatched&page=1&t=t&f=b

Would somebody please just ask John Ashcroft?

Dear Senator McCain,

As a former McCain supporter, I voted to elect you as a Senator from the great state of Arizona. In April, I wrote to tell you that I will not vote for your Presidency nor will I vote to re-elect you to the Senate.

You continue to support an Administration that recklessly ignores the Constitution of the United States, cuts Congress out of the loop and simultaneously blames them for inaction, and refuses to acknowledge responsibility for years of failed foreign policy, just to name a few.

Since you have chosen to align yourself with neo-conservative ideology that’s dangerous to the future of our country, I see no other choice than to ACTIVELY support the election of another candidate in your next election- regardless of party affiliation.

You still have time to search your soul and do an about face– I trust you want to do what’s best for your country. Vote for censure and support the Impeachment process. Our country IS in a Constitutional crisis. Impeachment IS the remedy laid out in the Constitution for situations exactly like today’s. Talk to Bruce Fein, an author of President Clinton’s Articles of Impeachment, listen to what he has to say.

I urge you to set partisanship aside and act as a statesman. Our beloved Republic is in peril– Do your job as prescribed by the Constitution!

If you had any doubt left about the lack of integrity of the Bush Administration, there’s a good late night read…

Let’s sell Iraq to US Sheep Citizens using high profile Madison Avenue marketing practices! You know. Think of a laundry detergent. Tide. Think of a soda. Coke.

Now. Think of a war. Iraq. Feels good don’t it? If President Bush has his way, you’ll hear it roll off your lips and it will feeeeell gooood! 

http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2007/RAND_MG607.pdf

By the way, this study cost us sheep $400K. How does that feel?

When a newspaper owned by Richard Mellon Scaife, the Pittsburgh billionaire and patron of conservative causes, calls into question the sanity of our President, it’s worth taking notice.

Read this article calling for the redployment of troops in Iraq:

http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003612271

Who is Richard Mellon Scaife? Read this WaPo piece:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/special/clinton/stories/scaifemain050299.htm

As our President fades into madness, our country shows faint signs of life. Thank God.

Bruse Fein wrote the Articles of Impeachment of Bill Cinton. He’s a conservative Republican. Here’s what he says about Bush…

BRUCE FEIN: I think he(Clinton) was setting a precedent that placed the president above the law. I did not believe that the initial perjury or misstatements– that came perhaps in a moment of embarrassment stemming from the Paula Jones lawsuit was justified impeachment if he apologized. Even his second perjury before the grand jury when Ken Starr’s staff was questioning him, as long as he expressed repentance, would not have set an example of saying every man, if you’re president, is entitled to be a law unto himself. I think Bush’s crimes are a little bit different. I think they’re a little bit more worrisome than Clinton’s. You don’t have to have–

BILL MOYERS: More worrisome?

BRUCE FEIN: More worrisome than Clinton’s– because he is seeking more institutionally to cripple checks and balances and the authority of Congress and the judiciary to superintend his assertions of power. He has claimed the authority to tell Congress they don’t have any right to know what he’s doing with relation to spying on American citizens, using that information in any way that he wants in contradiction to a federal statute called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He’s claimed authority to say he can kidnap people, throw them into dungeons abroad, dump them out into Siberia without any political or legal accountability. These are standards that are totally anathema to a democratic society devoted to the rule of law.

It gets worse. Our invertebrate democratic congress isn’t performing its repsonsibility by forming Articles of Impeachment. Hold them to account! Nancy Pelosi says, and I quote “Impeachment is off the table”. She is wrong. The future of the U.S. is truly at stake. This is NOT a dramatization. Let’s get Impeachment back on the table.

Here is Nancy Pelosi’s contact information:

Office of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-0100

http://www.speaker.gov/contact/

Call her today!

If you think that impeachment of Bush and Cheney is too harsh or might damage our beloved Republic, find out why the exact OPPOSITE is actually true. If Congress does not begin impeachment proceedings, there will nothing in place to prevent future Presidents from violating the Constitution as this adminsitration has repeatedly done.

This PBS video features both liberal and conservative Constituional experts who AGREE that impeachment is the only course available to us to save the United States of America. I agree wholeheartedly. It’s so refreshing and hopeful to see 2 opposing parties/ideologies meet to defend more important underlying principles– the very principles that made our nation strong and free.

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/07/14/bill-moyers-roundtable-on-impeachment-of-bush-cheney/

 GREAT STUFF!

Here’s a petition for what it’s worth.

http://archive.democrats.com/elandslide/petition.cfm?campaign=impeach

Better, call our beloved gutless House Speaker and demand she begin Impeachment proceedings:

Office of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
(202) 225-0100

http://www.speaker.gov/contact/

here’s a form letter for you if you can’t think of anything personally touching to say:

Dear Speaker Pelosi,

I humbly request that you begin impeachment proceedings against the President and Vice-President. Scratch that, I demand that you do! It’s time to defend our Constitution and our Republic against a band of hooligan miscreants called the Bush Administration. That’s your job! It’s called checks and balances, ever heard of it?

Have you seen this? Wake up, girl!

http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/07/14/bill-moyers-roundtable-on-impeachment-of-bush-cheney/

The New York Times is falling down and bruising America again. 

Dear NYT,

Your article is an insult to America. President Bush isn’t oversimplifying- He’s lying. From your article:

President Bush on Thursday employed a stark and ominous defense. “The same folks that are bombing innocent people in Iraq,” he said, “were the ones who attacked us in America on September the 11th, and that’s why what happens in Iraq matters to the security here at home.”

This is not only an oversimplification of the situation, it is also patently untrue. And the possibility that the Bush Administration doesn’t know this is absolutely remote, don’t you think? So they are lying, what else could it mean? This is academic and beyond dispute at this point. Why won’t you level with New Yorkers and all of America? With Disgust,Mark Schultz
United States Citizen

here’s the article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/13/world/middleeast/13qaeda.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

John S. Koppel is a longtime attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice. A couple of days ago, he authored a scathing indictment of the Bush Administration that is nothing short of a courageous act of patriotism, especially considering he is a current employee of DOJ.

Here is an excerpt:

The public record now plainly demonstrates that both the DOJ and the government as a whole have been thoroughly politicized in a manner that is inappropriate, unethical and indeed unlawful. The unconscionable commutation of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby’s sentence, the misuse of warrantless investigative powers under the Patriot Act and the deplorable treatment of U.S. attorneys all point to an unmistakable pattern of abuse.

This is neither normal government conduct nor “politics as usual,” but a national disgrace of a magnitude unseen since the days of Watergate - which, in fact, I believe it eclipses.

In more than a quarter of a century at the DOJ, I have never before seen such consistent and marked disrespect on the part of the highest ranking government policymakers for both law and ethics.

As usual, the administration has attempted to minimize the significance of its malfeasance and misfeasance, reciting its now-customary “mistakes were made” mantra, accepting purely abstract responsibility without consequences for its actions, and making hollow vows to do better. 

Officials who have brought into disrepute both the Department of Justice and the administration of justice as a whole should finally have to answer for it - and the misdeeds at issue involve not merely garden-variety misconduct, but multiple “high crimes and misdemeanors,” including war crimes and crimes against humanity.

I’m grateful to Mr. Koppel for risking his career in service of what’s nauseatingly obvious to so many patriotic Americans. 

The entire article can be found at the Denver Post.