Cheney Celebrates Earth Day By Breathing Oxygen

WASHINGTON, DC—At a special Earth Day event Sunday, Vice President Dick Cheney inhaled his first-ever breath of oxygen. “I am…proud to stand before you today and…breathe in the same gas used by…millions of Americans,” said a wheezing and gasping Cheney, whose body is accustomed to compounds of chlorine and sulfur dioxide. “One breath, however, is enough for me. I’m glad the stuff will be out of the atmosphere forever in a few decades.” Cheney then left the press conference to attend a cardiac health awareness dinner, where he feasted on human hearts.

B’Man’s Patriot Watch: Impeachment On or Off The Table? You decide

Impeachment: Why is it “Off the Table”?

On June 9th, Thirty-five Articles of Impeachment detailing high crimes and misdemeanors were presented to the American people by Congressman Dennis Kucinich.

It takes wisdom and courage to stand up and be counted.

Courage to stand up for what is right, whether or not it is popular, or politically expedient.

Dennis Kucinich did! Will you?

Congressman Kucinich has created a path for “We the People” to take immediate action to reclaim our civil rights, our Constitution and our democracy.

It is only through the tools of impeachment that we can hold the administration to full accountability.

Impeachment ON or Off the table”? You decide.

Sign the Official Impeachment Petition.

No President, corporation or individual is above the law.

Produced by Russell Parker
Edited by Chad Ely

Dick(head) Cheney Jokes About WV Incest

Are you rednecks proud of your VP?

By God: You Rednecks ARE Paying Attention to Me

B’Man: This district is my home district (move from there less than a year ago). I only live thirty minutes away now and spent a good bit of time talking about this race with friends and associates I know for the past 6 months (I still spend a good bit of time there). From what I was hearing, it seemed that Travis actually had a shot, so I went on a rampage of discussing his merits, as opposed to Greg Davis and the reTHUGlican beast that was pouring money into a county that had hardly ever received a nickel from the reTHUGlican party at any other point in history.

In other words, as long as they felt that they had the poor southern rednecks brainwashed enough, they didn’t need to spend money or send Dick Cheney (which was a stupid assed move, to begin with). Cheney is so tainted, even in Mississippi that his presence may have been the catalyst to turn the tables.

I just hope that my efforts made some sort of difference and that the assholes reTHUGlicans are learning what a total ass whipping they are going to get this fall. Serves you right, you sorry pieces of Bushie shit. You brought this on yourself and deserve every loss you acquire. Especially in the Southeast.

 

Mississippi Democrat wrests House seat from Republicans

Associated Press May 14, 2008

JACKSON, Miss. —Mississippi Democrat Travis Childers won a special election to Congress on Tuesday, helping his party to a third victory in recent months for seats long in Republican hands.

Childers defeated Republican Greg Davis by 4 percentage points in a special election to fill the final few months of a two-year term in Congress. The seat was vacated when Roger Wicker was appointed to the U.S. Senate after Trent Lott resigned.

The race had attracted national attention, with Vice President Dick Cheney campaigning for Davis on Monday, and Davis running ads trying to tie Childers to Democratic presidential contender Sen. Barack Obama.

Childers, a socially conservative county official, has brushed aside those comparisons, countering that — with his own support of gun rights and opposition to abortion — his social values match those of most voters in the district. The seat has been held by Republicans since 1994.

The win Tuesday allows Democrats to add to their 235-199 majority in Congress — if only for a few months until November’s general elections.

Childers, Davis and two other candidates are expected to face off again in the November election.

Richard Noggin’ Saturday: Young Dick Cheney–Great American

Dick Cheney: Devil’s Spawn?

Posted by Bruce Kluger and David Slavin, Huffington Post at 3:00 PM on April 25, 2008.

A new book takes a hard look at the youthful hi-jinks of our quick-shootin’ Veep.

…Arianna calls Young Dick Cheney “a double-barreled blast of satiric buckshot.” Phil calls it “a page-turner and a side-splitter.” Keith recommends you “bring it with you to Gitmo.” And Lewis says, “If you’ve spent the last eight years gagging on Vice President Cheney and his hijinks, this should take the bad taste out of your mouth.”

In a recent email exchange, Arianna proposed that we celebrate the publication of our irreverent little book by blogging here about its themes. But the theme is pretty simple: we give a deserved poke in the eye to Richard Bruce Cheney, a man who has almost single-handedly steered this nation into a sinister, darkly lit alley, dragging our historic liberties and freedoms behind it like so much roadkill.

But on further reflection, there is another aspect to Young Dick Cheney that bears mentioning: When we first began working on the book in 2007, publishing “experts” warned us not to bother. “The quickest you can get your book out will be spring of 2008,” they said, “and by then George Bush and Dick Cheney will no longer be relevant.”

Huh? Not relevant?

Just a couple of weeks ago, the Associated Press reported that Bush administration officials, from Dick Cheney on down, signed off on using harsh interrogation techniques against suspected terrorists after asking the Justice Department to endorse their legality.

A few days later, we learned that the Vice President and his wife, Lynne Cheney (who also figures into our book–in a most unflattering light) reported a taxable income of $2,528,068 in 2007–a year in which the American economy slid haplessly into a drainage ditch.

And last Friday, we saw New Hampshire State Representative Betty Hall (D-Brookline)–joined by, among others, former military analyst Daniel Ellsberg and former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark–urge the state legislature to back House Resolution 24, calling for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

We may be just a couple of satirists, but we know relevant when we see it.

Meanwhile, as word about our book has begun to spread in the blogosphere (thank you all), we’re getting a fairly good idea that we made the right choice: When a right-wing apologist-blowhard like Jonah Goldberg starts trashing our book five weeks before its release, you know we’ve hit a nerve.

As the proud parents of our precious, portly bundle of evil, we invite you to take a sneak peek at Young Dick Cheney’’s first baby movie, now showing on YouTube. And, sure, while you’re at it, we hope you’ll treat yourself to a copy of our book, and maybe even grab a few for your friends.

Get your foot ready for the biggest kick out the door of our nation’s history. And enjoy our book. After all, with the countdown to January 2009 finally underway, it’s safe to laugh again.

B’Man’s Patriot Watch: Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-OR04)

Every now and again, I am surprised…

I believe it’s April Fool’s Day here on the floor of the House.  To hear the members of the GOP – the Grand Old Oil Party – talking about how they’re there for the consumers, they want to do something to help American consumers. The same party that benefits disproportionately from massive campaign contributions from the oil and gas and coal industries.  The same party that holds the White House, with two oil men in the White House.  The same party, on the Senate side, defeated our energy provisions because they would have God forbid, made the oil and gas companies pay taxes like other members of the corporate committee.  It would have taken away subsidies.  They’re crying crocodile tears about the massive profits that their buddies are making, their campaign contributors, their sponsors.  And the president, the oil man.  And the vice president, the oil man supply services company.

Q:  Will the gentleman yield?

No, I won’t yield.  Thank you very much.

Now, there’s a few things we could do.  Now, the president’s a big free trader, right?  He’s trying to push us into more free trade agreements.  They say they work great.  He wants “rules-based trade.”   Well, we’re in the WTO, they have rules. The rules say you can not restrict the supply of a commodity simply to drive up the price.  That’s what OPEC’s doing.  Now five members of OPEC are in the WTO.  Will this president – the oil man –- the friend of the Saudis and the others – will he file a complaint in the World Trade Organization against OPEC?  No.  I wrote to him three years ago, asking him to do that.  The answer was no.  If the Saudis and the OPEC countries want to get together and collude to drive up the price of the oil, that’s just fine with George Bush.  He’s all for free trade, and rules-based trade, except when the rules might hurt some of his buddies.  And then, the oil industry just piggy backs on top of that.

Now, there is another thing they could do. They can help us with a provision we put in the Farm bill, which is stalled in the Senate, which would close the Enron loophole. Remember Enron? Ken Boy, the President’s favorite guy? He just died before he went to jail. Well, the Enron boys convinced the Republican Congress to give them a special loophole, to deregulate energy commodities, to allow for massive speculation. And there is widespread agreement in the financial community that about 50 cents of the price that’s being paid at the pump today is being paid purely because of speculation brought about by the Enron loophole. You really want to do something about the high price of oil?  Help us close the Enron loophole. Get your president to file a complaint against OPEC for colluding to drive up the price of oil. Help strip out the taxpayers’ subsidies to the oil, coal and gas industry. You are taking out of their wallets while you are taking it out of their pockets at the pump.

The Costs of War To The Children

B’Man: No… not our children, even though they WILL be paying for this mess that Bush and his crooked crew created. And yes, our children in America are losing alot… money that could and SHOULD be spent on our schools is now being spent on a perpetual game plan of keeping their children (yeah, them, the little camel jockey Muslims that don’t matter to Christian Americans…) in ignorance and turmoil.

What I believe is happening is intentional. For IF and when we ever leave and allow them to finish whatever it is they are going to do WITHOUT our puppet government and our armed forces installed to control their countryGreen Zone and finally establish the end result, the jig is up.

Another Iran was created due to our idiotic notion that their resources are ours to control. But, I believe that the game plan is working pretty much as they always wanted… or they would have done what the military leaders called for early on… hundreds of thousands of troops to handle the situation after the fall of Saddam. They intentionally DID NOT want that. They wanted turmoil and unrest and they continue to feed from that.

All the while, the children suffer:

Iraqi children desperate to learn in ruined schools

 

Editorial From Gorilla’s Guide: Before you read the text click the image to see two photos from AFP which give an idea of life for school children in Sadr city: 

• At the end of the 1980s, after pouring oil money into schools, Iraq had virtually eliminated illiteracy.
• The education system in Iraq, once the envy of the Middle East, is now in tatters.
• After two decades of economic sanctions and war, one third of Iraqi adults now cannot read
• “The school is crowded and in constant need of repairs. “The most important thing is the plumbing. The pupils’ toilets are closed because of the bad sewage, and there is no running water.”
• Schools in violent areas have shut, while schools in safer areas have been overwhelmed with children from displaced families.

BAGHDAD, April 22 (Reuters) - Even after clashes erupted in the Sadr City slum in Baghdad, Thamir Saadoun still tried to go to school, hoping it would be open. When he got there the guard told him to go home. That was more than two weeks ago.

“I miss my friends. I haven’t seen them for weeks, I want to play with them,” said Saadoun, 12.

“I am fed up from sitting at home. I want to return to school to study and to be a doctor, to treat wounded people in the future if attacks happen.”

 

The education system in Iraq, once the envy of the Middle East, is now in tatters.

Violence, a collapse of school infrastructure and the mass displacement of both pupils and teachers have turned many of Iraq’s schools into fetid overcrowded ruins, jeopardising the futures of millions of children like Saadoun.

At the end of the 1980s, after pouring oil money into schools, Iraq had virtually eliminated illiteracy.

But after two decades of economic sanctions and war, one third of Iraqi adults now cannot read, Education Minister Khodhair al-Khozaei told Reuters.

“It is a problem that cannot be fixed by a magic wand. We need more than 4,300 new schools, existing schools are in bad condition and the population is growing,” he said.

No part of Iraq shows the severity of the crisis more than Thamir’s neighbourhood, Sadr City, a vast east Baghdad slum with an estimated 2 million people and more than 500,000 school pupils but just 260 school buildings, many barely usable.

Its neighbourhoods have been a battle-zone in the past few weeks, as security forces have fought the Mehdi Army militia of Shi’ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr. U.S. attack helicopters constantly hover overhead, hunting gunmen.

In many cases two or even three “schools” operate out of the same school in the slum, using the classrooms in shifts staggered throughout the day.

Hundreds of thousands of people moved into the rapidly expanding Shi’ite slum in the 1990s and few new schools were built for them.

“There is no balance between the continuous growth of the population and a number of schools that is almost fixed,” said Mohammed al-Moussawi, head of the education directorate for east Baghdad.

On a recent visit to the al-Khaldiya Primary School in Sadr City, raw sewage was seeping onto the ground from blocked and leaky pipes, filling classrooms with an oppressive stench.

Three separate “schools” share the same 12-classroom building — about 1,600 pupils in total — arriving in morning, afternoon and evening shifts.

“The school is crowded and in constant need of repairs,” said headmaster Ali Abid Sulaibi. “The most important thing is the plumbing. The pupils’ toilets are closed because of the bad sewage, and there is no running water.”

At the al-Fadhila secondary girls’ school nearby, 50-70 teenage girls are packed into each classroom, with three at each desk that is supposed to seat two.

“How can they understand and cooperate with the teacher inside the classroom?” said English teacher Maani al-Yassiri.

Now That We Know That They Knew

Max and the Marginalized has a new tune out that I did some video work on. Let me know what you think.

Since Bush’s bankshot into the Friday evening news dumpster that he had signed off on torture and that the top echelon of his administration had all sat in a closed room to learn about and rubber stamp all the details of our illegal and unsavory interrogation techniques, the press has continued to ask how Barack Obama should answer for preferring orange juice to coffee, not how Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney, et al should answer for committing crimes against humanity after years of statements to the contrary.

ABC News, which originally broke the torture story ended its very short streak of un-patheticness when George Stephanopoulos and Charles Gibson dragged us through a debate filled with loaded questions that spoke to their Sunday morning circle jerks far more than to the concerns of the American people, and did not mention the torture issue once.

Now that we know that they knew, we should be holding the administration accountable for it, and demand that the press take a break from its how-will-it-play-narrative-meta drivel and actually cover the fact that top administration officials knew about torture and gave it a green light.

If that sounds like a good idea to you, go sign the ACLU’s petition to demand an independent prosecutor to investigate this, and hop on the letter-writing campaign asking local papers to cover this since the nationals have proven useless.

Sorry about the tome, sometimes it’s necessary. Here is our song (not our first on this matter) called “Now That We Know That They Knew”, about how we’d like to see some proof that no one is above the law and that the phrase “and justice for all” includes people at the top as well.

When Desperate Times Call For Desperate Measures: Call In The Exorcist

h/t The Familographerand C&P’d from MichaelMoore.com. BTW: limited posting today, still on the road in McMinnville, TN today.

Congressional candidate asks for papal exorcism of Bush, Cheney

By Thadeus Greenson / Times-Standard

MENDOCINO, CA — Just hours after Pope Benedict XVI arrived at the White House on Wednesday, North Coast congressional hopeful Mitch Clogg pleaded for his help.

”Your Holiness,” Clogg wrote on his blog, “please exorcise the president.”

Clogg, who also called for a papal exorcism on Vice President Dick Cheney, is challenging Congressman Mike Thompson for his seat representing the North Coast in the Capitol.

On Wednesday, Clogg elaborated on his papal plea from his Mendocino office, talked about why at 69 he’s throwing his cap into the congressional ring and why he feels Thompson is unfit to represent his district.

Identified on the June primary ballot as a public interest journalist, Clogg said he’s had too many jobs to name: White collar jobs, blue collar jobs and government jobs, but he’s always enjoyed researching and writing. The recent note on his blog, he said, wasn’t meant too seriously and was aimed in part to highlight a piece of his district integrally involved in the papal White House visit.

”That was a wise crack, but the fact of the matter is that it is a wine produced in this district that is getting poured in honor of the pope,” Clogg said, adding that the wine is Sonoma’s Sebastiani Vineyards and Winery’s 2005 Dutton Ranch Chardonnay.

While he labeled the post as a wise crack, Clogg didn’t entirely dismiss it.

”These men are evil,” he said of Bush and Cheney. “It’s not just a bad president and vice president, we’ve never had anything like this where the country is being run by a criminal syndicate. It seems like these guys ought to be tarred and feathered, literally, on their way to prison.”

Seeing no help from Congress on the horizon in the form of impeachment, Clogg turned to the pope with his Wednesday blog plea.

”If I believed in the devil, I would believe that Bush and Cheney were inhabited by him,” he said.

Clogg also saved some harsh words for his challenger, saying Thompson is essentially a Republican in Democratic clothing and is too conservative to represent the 1st District.

”As far as I’m concerned, a conservative Democrat is like a black blizzard — it doesn’t happen, it’s a contradiction in terms,” Clogg said.

Thompson said while Clogg is calling him too conservative, the Republicans he runs against call him too liberal, which highlights the fact he is the moderate he’s always claimed to be.

Thompson, Clogg contends, has enabled the war in Iraq by, after initially voting against it, voting for every emergency appropriations bill that has come before Congress. The North Coast congressman has also overseen the dramatic downturn in local fishing and timber industries, Clogg said. Though Thompson has managed to help bring disaster relief funds to town, Clogg said that is too little too late.

He also said Thompson dropped the ball by not pushing for increased governmental oversight of the industries during his almost 20 years representing the district.

Thompson said it’s ridiculous to think he hasn’t pressed for governmental oversight of the industries. The congressman said he’s worked in the California Legislature to augment the state budget to put more feet on the ground to review timber harvest plans, helped bring a lawsuit against the Bush administration for diverting water from rivers and has helped hold hearings on endangered species and water flows.

”I don’t think there’s anyone that’s held this administration’s feet to the fire more,” said Thompson, who also received the Sierra Club’s Edgar Wayburn Award in 2007 for helping pass legislation to permanently protect 273,000 acres of wilderness in Northern California.

Perhaps most of all, Clogg took issue with Thompson for not having pushed harder in the House to impeach Bush and Cheney. In previous conversations with the Times-Standard, Thompson has said he hasn’t done so because he didn’t think the subject would gain much traction with his colleagues.

”The people need to see this, that not only do they have a president that will lie us into an extravagant and devastatingly costly, immoral war, we also have members of Congress that will lie to protect him,” Clogg said.

Clogg contends that the topic of impeachment hasn’t gained much traction because nobody’s brought it to the House floor, where it would only need a 50-percent-plus-one vote to pass. If it arrived on the floor, Clogg contends, Democrats would be under tremendous pressure from their constituents to vote to impeach.

Wednesday, Thompson stood by his guns on the topic.

”It was a legitimate assessment of the facts,” Thompson said of his previous statements. “I voted to send a bill to the judiciary committee where it could see if there was evidence of impeachable offenses, and I signed the letter to the judiciary asking them to do their work, but the reality of the situation is there are not enough votes to impeach. It would be a complete distraction for the House and the Senate, and grind things to a halt.”

 

Sean Hannity Sets Up Cheney’s Lies: B’Man Calls It What It Is

And Calls Rednecks on Their Blind Following of Evil

Bush Admin Endorsed Torture Techniques

In dozens of top-secret talks and meetings in the White House, the most senior Bush administration officials discussed and approved specific details of how high-value al Qaeda suspects would be interrogated by the Central Intelligence Agency, sources tell ABC News.

The so-called Principals who participated in the meetings also approved the use of “combined” interrogation techniques — using different techniques during interrogations, instead of using one method at a time — on terrorist suspects who proved difficult to break, sources said.

Highly placed sources said a handful of top advisers signed off on how the CIA would interrogate top al Qaeda suspects — whether they would be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or subjected to simulated drowning, called waterboarding.

The high-level discussions about these “enhanced interrogation techniques” were so detailed, these sources said, some of the interrogation sessions were almost choreographed — down to the number of times CIA agents could use a specific tactic.

The advisers were members of the National Security Council’s Principals Committee, a select group of senior officials who met frequently to advise President Bush on issues of national security policy.

At the time, the Principals Committee included Vice President Cheney, former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell, as well as CIA Director George Tenet and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

National Lawyer’s Guild Says John Yoo Is A War Criminal

h/t Think Progress and the formal NLG (National Lawyer’s Guild) Press Release:

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CALLS ON BOALT HALL TO DISMISS LAW PROFESSOR JOHN YOO, WHOSE TORTURE MEMOS LED TO COMMISSION OF WAR CRIMES

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: April 9, 2008

Contact:
Marjorie Cohn, NLG President, marjorie@tjsl.edu; 619-374-6923
Heidi Boghosian, NLG Executive Director, director@nlg.org; 212-679-5100, x11

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CALLS ON BOALT HALL TO DISMISS LAW PROFESSOR JOHN YOO, WHOSE TORTURE MEMOS LED TO COMMISSION OF WAR CRIMES

New York. In a memorandum written the same month George W. Bush invaded Iraq, Boalt Hall law professor John Yoo said the Department of Justice would construe US criminal laws not to apply to the President’s detention and interrogation of enemy combatants. According to Yoo, the federal statutes against torture, assault, maiming and stalking do not apply to the military in the conduct of the war.

The federal maiming statute, for example, makes it a crime for someone “with the intent to torture, maim, or disfigure” to “cut, bite, or slit the nose, ear or lip, or cut out or disable the tongue, or put out or destroy an eye, or cut off or disable a limb or any member of another person.” It further prohibits individuals from “throwing or pouring upon another person any scalding water, corrosive acid, or caustic substance” with like intent.

Yoo also narrowed the definition of torture so the victim must experience intense pain or suffering equivalent to pain associated with serious physical injury so severe that death, organ failure or permanent damage resulting in loss of significant body functions will likely result; Yoo’s definition contravenes the definition in the Convention Against Torture, a treaty the US has ratified which is thus part of the US law under the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause. Yoo said self-defense or necessity could be used as a defense to war crimes prosecutions for torture, notwithstanding the Torture Convention’s absolute prohibition against torture in all circumstances, even in wartime. This memo and another Yoo wrote with Jay Bybee in August 2002 provided the basis for the Administration’s torture of prisoners.

“John Yoo’s complicity in establishing the policy that led to the torture of prisoners constitutes a war crime under the US War Crimes Act,” said National Lawyers Guild President Marjorie Cohn.

Congress should repeal the provision of the Military Commissions Act that would give Yoo immunity from prosecution for torture committed from September 11, 2001 to December 30, 2005. John Yoo should be disbarred and he should not be retained as a professor of law at one of the country’s premier law schools. John Yoo should be dismissed from Boalt Hall and tried as a war criminal.

The National Lawyers Guild was founded in 1937 as an alternative to the American Bar Association, which did not admit people of color, the National Lawyers Guild is the oldest and largest public interest/human rights bar organization in the United States. Its headquarters are in New York and it has chapters in every state.

The Fascist Blueprint

Naomi Wolf (author of The End of America) lectures on what is happening to America today is EXACTLY what occured in Nazi Germany, Italy, Soviet Union and other fascist states.

What is a Fascist State? Should you be concerned that America is becoming one?

It is happening here… NOW!

From BrassCheckTV:

Mussolini created the blueprint (with inspiration from Lenin), Hitler elaborated on it, Stalin studied Hitler…Here’s how it works (notice how many Bush & Co. is using now.):

1. Invoke a terrifying internal and external enemy

2. Create a gulag

3. Develop a thug caste

4. Set up an internal surveillance system

5. Harass citizens’ groups

6. Engage in arbitrary detention and release

7. Target key individuals

8. Control the press

9. Dissent equals treason

10. Suspend the rule of law

Wolf’s conclusion? Impeachment of Bush and Cheney is not enough. Prosecuting (and jailing) them for crimes committed is the only rational solution.

Share this video widely.

 

Richard Noggin Saturday: Alberto GonzoClone

LATE BREAKING Richard Noggin Addition:

As of 10PM last night, this prick took over as Dickhead of the week.

The Political “Scribe” has been “scribbled” off the Redstate Revolt Honor Roll and added to the lying, Yankee Asshole Roll. 

Hey, Schumer and Feinstein: Are you happy you have endorsed and enabled Mr Gonzales’ Clone of Lying Scumbaggery? When I saw Mr Mukasey make these remarks, tear up and quiver his lip, I didn’t feel his “pain”… I felt outrage. I felt outrage because I know that what he is saying is a downright lie meant to mislead Americans and play on our Patriotic sympathies.

Then, knowing that Mukasey was the Richard Noggin of this week, I read Glenn Greenwald’s piece and understand that I cannot put it any better way:

Michael Mukasey has conclusively proven himself to be an exact replica of Alberto Gonazles — slavishly loyal to every presidential whim and unbound by even the most minimal constraints of truth while serving those whims. Speaking in San Fransisco this week, Mukasey demanded that the President be given new warrantless eavesdropping powers and that lawbreaking telecom be granted amnesty. To make his case, Mukasey teared up while exploiting the 3,000 Americans who died on 9/11 and said this:

Officials “shouldn’t need a warrant when somebody with a phone in Iraq picks up a phone and calls somebody in the United States because that’s the call that we may really want to know about. And before 9/11, that’s the call that we didn’t know about. We knew that there has been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn’t know precisely where it went.“

At that point in his answer, Mr. Mukasey grimaced, swallowed hard, and seemed to tear up as he reflected on the weaknesses in America’s anti-terrorism strategy prior to the 2001 attacks. “We got three thousand. . . . We’ve got three thousand people who went to work that day and didn’t come home to show for that,” he said, struggling to maintain his composure.

At the time of the attacks, Mr. Mukasey was the chief judge at the federal courthouse a few blocks away from the World Trade Center.These are multiple falsehoods here, and independently, this whole claim makes no sense. There is also a pretty startling new revelation here about the Bush administration’s pre-9/11 failure that requires a good amount of attention.

Even under the “old” FISA, no warrants are requiredwhere the targeted person is outside the U.S. (Afghanistan) and calls into the U.S. Thus, if it’s really true, as Mukasey now claims, that the Bush administration knew about a Terrorist in an Afghan safe house making Terrorist-planning calls into the U.S., then they could have — and should have — eavesdropped on that call and didn’t need a warrant to do so. So why didn’t they? Mukasey’s new claim that FISA’s warrant requirements prevented discovery of the 9/11 attacks and caused the deaths of 3,000 Americans is disgusting and reckless, because it’s all based on the lie that FISA required a warrant for targeting the “Afghan safe house.” It just didn’t. Nor does the House FISA bill require individual warrants when targeting a non-U.S. person outside the U.S.

They perpetually lie about issues that are key fear factor points for Americans. Then, this nasty little man, who obviously misled congress during hearings, plays on emotions of people with clear lying intent. Make no mistake that he knows exactly what is legal and what is not.

But he didn’t stop there, he is insisting that the Telecom Companies being protected:

Mukasey was even more dishonest in demanding amnesty for lawbreaking telecoms. According to today’s admiring Wall St. Journal Editorial, this is what Mukasey said on that subject:

The AG also addressed why immunity from lawsuits is vital for the telecom companies that cooperated with the surveillance after 9/11. “Forget the liability” the phone companies face, Mr. Mukasey said. “We face the prospect of disclosure in open court of what they did, which is to say the means and the methods by which we collect foreign intelligence against foreign targets.” Al Qaeda would love that.

Mike Mukasey was a long-time federal judge and so I feel perfectly comfortable calling that what it is: a brazen lie. Federal courts hear classified information with great regularity and it is not heard in “open court.” There are numerous options available to any federal judge to hear classified information — closed courtrooms, in camera review (in chambers only), ex partecommunications (communications between one party and the judge only). No federal judge — and certainly not Vaughn Walker, the Bush 41 appointee presiding over the telecom cases — is going to allow “disclosure in open court of . . . . the means and the methods by which we collect foreign intelligence.” And Mukasey knows that.

Worse, FISA itself (50 USC 1806(f)) explicitly provides that telecoms are permitted to present any evidence in support of their defenses in secret (both in camera and ex parte) to the judge and let the judge decide the case based on it. Just go read 50 USC 1806(f)of FISA; it’s as clear as day. In fact, it doesn’t merely permit, but explicitly requires, the federal judge to review evidence in secret whenever the Attorney General requests that (”the United States district court in the same district . . . shall, notwithstanding any other law, if the Attorney General files an affidavit under oath that disclosure or an adversary hearing would harm the national security of the United States, review in camera and ex parte the application the application, order, and such other materials relating to the surveillance.”).

But Mukasey also lies about what Americans want, and especially what New Yorkers want:

Michael Mukasey can cry all he wants about the 9/11 attacks. But neither he nor the rest of the Bush administration are the proprieters of those attacks. There were millions of New Yorkers in Manhattan on 9/11 other than Michael Mukasey, who lived and worked there for a long time. Neither Mike Mukasey nor his tearful pleas for unchecked government surveillance power and the erosion of the rule of law are representative of them.

To the contrary, the substantial majority of New Yorkers — and huge majorities of Manhattanites– vehemently reject the Bush/Cheney agenda of dismantling our constitutional framework and basic safeguards in the name of these sorts of fear-mongering and manipulative appeals. Unlike Mukasey and other Bush followers, most New Yorkers have ceased quivering in fear long ago — if they ever did — and have had their resolve to defend our basic constitutional liberties strengthened, not obliterated, as a result of the 9/11 attack and the subsequent, self-serving exploitation of it by Mukasey’s White House bosses. And under no circumstances do Mukasey’s tears provide license for this tidal wave of lies in defense of presidential lawlessness, from our nation’s highest “law enforcement officer.”

The Boehner Crybaby routine is old and tired, Mike. It may play with the assembled crowds within the 31% that worships your King, but the rest are wise to the foolishness.

Investigate. Impeach.

Is An Attack On Iran Inevitable?

The Political Scribe and I discuss the Bush Administration often and sometimes disagree about what is next. At this point, I truly believe that nothing is beyond their evil capabilities and that, if it is at all possible, the Bush administration will ensure the neocon agenda and would do anything, even try to keep Bush/Cheney in power after 2007.

I am doubtful that our system of checks and balances is working at this time and with the past 7 years as a judge of things that ‘could” happen… anything goes. Bush signs “Signing Statements”, purposefully thumbing his nose at America when he breaks the very laws he is signing. The only time he bothers with a veto is on politically significant issues. Otherwise he simply “signs” them away, as if a king and does whatever he pleases… knowing full well that nothing will be done.

He doesn’t gain this power due to Dem weakness, as is portrayed by many. But by downright complicit actions… cavorting with the Crime Boss, as it were.

So, I would not doubt that something “BIG” is on the horizon. Something devastating enough to be able to call for Martial Law and to try and shut down democracy in this country.

Am I a conspiracy nut? Maybe. But please tell me what they have done thus far that I should trust any action they commit? Why should I NOT be concerned and distrustful of them, since everything they have done thus far is dubious and evil?

I have generally thought that another 9/11 style attack might mysteriously happen just before the elections, but with all the blatant lying rhetoric the administration is touting continuously about Iran and the “mis-speaking”, linking Iran with terrorists and insurgents, is beginning to seem purposeful and leading up to something.

Of course, since McInsane is even more radical than Bush, he will be a good replacement for the neocon war mongers’ Bush 3, but that may be the Plan B. So, whether or not the Bushies want to keep control (or the neocon handlers will be satisfied with McInsane), there is a very good potential for a war. besides, Saudi Arabis is preparing for something in the aftermath of Cheney’s recent visit.

Rednecks, do not be surprised should we invade or attack Iran with bombs, perhaps even nuclear. These people in charge cannot be trusted to do what is right in the world and should be suspect in every action until they are gone, IF they are gone.

From Black Agenda Report

Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran

by Margarett Kimberly

It is happening. The plans for the Bush administration to begin mass murder of the Iranian people have been put in motion. The plot was stalled temporarily by the National Intelligence Estimate report released last fall, a report which said that Iran did not have a nuclear weapons program. Bush and Cheney were thrown off their game, but not by much and not for long. They were inconvenienced but ultimately took the small set back in stride because they both knew they had nothing to worry about.

They know that the press will report what they say without criticism or analysis. They know that both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have said that all options are on the table with Iran. They know that European nations like France have publicly stated their allegiance to Bush vis a vis Iran. British Prime Minister Gordon Brownalso bowed to Bushian bullying and declared that Iran must not be allowed to become a nuclear power. Now Germany has joined the hall of shame. German Chancellor Angela Merkel groveled before the Israeli Knesset and essentially promised not to protest when Israel assists America in creating an Iranian holocaust. Apparently German sins of genocide against the Jews can only be expiated by complicity with an Israeli genocide.

When historians write about the catastrophes that struck the world in 2008, events that have taken place in March of 2008 will surely loom large. The worldwide economic meltdown finally became impossible to deny, with the Federal Reserve using the workers’ dime to bail out a major investment banking firm, Bear Stearns. Dick Cheney traveled to Iraq, Israel, and Saudi Arabia, making sure his nefarious plans went off without a hitch. John McCain claimed that Iran was the home of al Qaeda, the bogeyman that sends already trigger happy Americans on blood thirsty rampages. Democrats who had the power to stop Bush in his tracks, once again pledged to do nothing.

In 2007 both the Senate and House passed resolutions that backed war with Iran. Impeachment, the one weapon Congress could use to stop further war making, is ignored and forgotten by John Conyers, Chairman of the House Judiciary committee.

In recent days Conyers said he would begin impeachment hearings, but only if Bush attacksIran. Apparently not enough human beings have been killed by Bush and the body count needs to grow exponentially before Conyers will lift a finger. On the other hand, the two-faced Congressman says he fears impeachment because it will hurt the Democrats in the upcoming November election. So it seems he will do nothing, no matter how many people die because of the crimes committed under the Bush regime.

The attack on Iran is an open secret, but Americans, like a wronged spouse, are the last to know. Dick Cheney must have told the Saudi princes of his intended evil doing because Saudi Arabia is planning for “the probabilities of leaking nuclear and radiation hazards in case of any unexpected nuclear attacks in Iran. . . ” Saudis know the deal, while John and Jane Q. Public are still in the dark.

What will the Democrats do when Iranians are nuked? When Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni recently visited the United States, Obama gave her a phone calland told her she shouldn’t worry about an Obama administration. He said all the right things, that Israel has a right to defend itself (kill Palestinians whenever it wants) and agreed that Iran was an evil nation that shouldn’t have the nuclear weapons that Israel has had for decades. So much for change.

The saber rattling and furtive Dick Cheney meetings are just the tip of the iceberg. The worldwide economic crisis is pushing the war agenda more than any other factor. Black Agenda Report said as much nearly one year ago.

“Ultimately, the parasitic class can only maintain its rule by force. Manufacturing nothing, creating no value except on paper, they must finally call upon the Armed Forces to impose their unearned advantage on the planet. Such was the logic of March, 2003. The Great Offensive failed, but the contradictions that compelled the captains of finance capital to order their political servants to wage war, remain - and are in fact more acute than four years ago. They must wage war, again, to fight their way out of the box.”

Every bail out of an investment bank is an omen of an oncoming worldwide financial calamity, but it is also an omen of more American aggression. The Obama/Clinton fight for the nomination is a sorry side show spectacle. In any case, the new war will help John McCain more than it will help the Democratic nominee. Even if the Democrat should win, both Obama and Clinton have stated that they too believe in maintaining America’s empire. Bush’s wars won’t end with a Democratic administration.

In the space of just five years, our nation will be waging another war of aggression and we will all be accessories after the fact. Our country may have also entered into a depression, so we will be poor criminals too. To use an expression coined by Poppy Bush, we will be in deep doo doo. Cheer up though. We won’t be in as much trouble as Iranians. Many of them will soon be dead.