Impeachment: Not Just for Blowjobs Anymore
By Cedwyn
Posted on Thu Dec 29th, 2005 at 02:53:31 AM EST
Neither is it just for democrats, liberals and other assorted leftists anymore. Congressional republicans have joined the calls for an investigation and the momentum for impeachment is steadily growing. Bob Barr, a former U.S. Representative who was active in Clinton's impeachment is now turning the same ire on shrubya, saying "This is just such an egregious violation of the electronic surveillance laws." Robert Levy, a Senior Fellow of Constitutional Studies at the Cato Institute - and Board Member of the Federalist Society - makes some excellent points regarding limits on presidential power before concluding that shrubya has "overreached." I think he was euphemizing.
In a recent interview with Diane Rehm, conservative scholars Bruce Fein and Norm Ornstein were a bit more blunt. Ornstein is quoted as saying, "I think if we’re going to be intellectually honest here, this really is the kind of thing that Alexander Hamilton was referring to when impeachment was discussed." Fein was not so reserved:
I think the answer requires at least in part considering what the occupant of the presidency says in the aftermath of wrongdoing or rectification. On its face, if President Bush is totally unapologetic and says I continue to maintain that as a war-time President I can do anything I want – I don’t need to consult any other branches – that is an impeachable offense. It’s more dangerous than Clinton’s lying under oath because it jeopardizes our democratic dispensation and civil liberties for the ages. It would set a precedent that … would lie around like a loaded gun, able to be used indefinitely for any future occupant.more...
How about investigating the spies?!?!
US probes eavesdropping leakWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department has launched an investigation to determine who disclosed a secret NSA eavesdropping operation approved by President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks, officials said on Friday.
"We are opening an investigation into the unauthorized disclosure of classified materials related to the NSA," one official said.
Earlier this month Bush acknowledged the program and called its disclosure to The New York Times () "a shameful act." He said he presumed a Justice Department leak investigation into who disclosed the National Security Agency eavesdropping operation would get under way.
Justice Department officials would give no details of who requested the probe or how it would be conducted.
The disclosure of the covert domestic spying program has triggered concerns among both Democrats and Republicans, with many lawmakers questioning whether it violates the U.S. Constitution.
Several lawmakers have backed a planned hearing on the issue by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter, a Republican from Pennsylvania.
Bush and senior administration officials have argued that the policy of authorizing -- without court orders -- eavesdropping on international phone calls and e-mails by Americans suspected of links to terrorism was legal and necessary to help defend the country after the September 11 attacks.
The White house has sought to play down the impact on civil liberties, saying the program was narrow in scope and that key congressional leaders were briefed about it.
Bob Barr on Bush
Former Republican Representative Bob Barr first
roasts Dubya for the NSA illegal wiretap scandle.
Now, Barr
skewers Dubya for the all-too-predictable bobbing and weaving going on now.
What's the Veep hiding?... and for whom is he hiding it?
By Rebecca Carr
Cox News Service
December 25, 2005
WASHINGTON -- It's no secret that Vice President Dick Cheney has a penchant for secret undisclosed locations.
Now comes a report from the Center for Public Integrity, a nonpartisan research organization based in Washington, that found that Cheney and his staff 
have "sidestepped" travel disclosure rules that require executive branch employees to specify who pays for travel and how much it costs when they deliver speeches at universities, think tanks and trade groups.
Cheney is withholding information that should be public under rules passed by Congress as part of the 1989 Ethics Reform Act, said Roberta Baskin, executive director of the center.
Over the past four years, Cheney has made 275 speeches and appearances, including 23 speeches to think tanks and trade organizations and 16 to colleges and universities, according to the center's research. By calling it "official travel," the center said, the public has been footing the bill rather than the group sponsoring his speech.
President Bush and other high-ranking executive branch officials routinely file reports with the Office of Government Ethics detailing who paid for their travel, food and lodging when they have delivered a speech or attended a conference, according to the center's report.
For example, then-Vice President Al Gore disclosed more than $180,000 in travel funded by outside groups from 1997 to 2000, according to the center. Records before Gore's second term are no longer kept, so it is impossible to verify whether then-Vice President Dan Quayle filed travel disclosure reports.
Bush files travel disclosure forms, said Baskin, so why doesn't the vice president? more...The Whirlpool wonders about the trips to help his buddy, Tom DeLay.
Did the taxpayers pay to send the Veep to Texas to raise money for the indicted one?
Barron's uses the "I" word...
AS THE YEAR WAS DRAWING TO A CLOSE, we picked up our New York Times and learned that the Bush administration has been fighting terrorism by intercepting communications in America without warrants. It was worrisome on its face, but in justifying their actions, officials have made a bad situation much worse: Administration lawyers and the president himself have tortured the Constitution and extracted a suspension of the separation of powers . . .
Certainly, there was an emergency need after the Sept. 11 attacks to sweep up as much information as possible about the chances of another terrorist attack. But a 72-hour emergency or a 15-day emergency doesn't last four years . . .
Willful disregard of a law is potentially an impeachable offense. It is at least as impeachable as having a sexual escapade under the Oval Office desk and lying about it later. The members of the House Judiciary Committee who staged the impeachment of President Clinton ought to be as outraged at this situation. They ought to investigate it, consider it carefully and report either a bill that would change the wiretap laws to suit the president or a bill of impeachment.
It is important to be clear that an impeachment case, if it comes to that, would not be about wiretapping, or about a possible Constitutional right not to be wiretapped. It would be about the power of Congress to set wiretapping rules by law, and it is about the obligation of the president to follow the rules in the Acts that he and his predecessors signed into law...
Published reports quote sources saying that 14 members of Congress were notified of the wiretapping. If some had misgivings, apparently they were scared of being called names, as the president did last week when he said: "It was a shameful act for someone to disclose this very important program in a time of war. The fact that we're discussing this program is helping the enemy."
Wrong. If we don't discuss the program and the lack of authority for it, we are meeting the enemy -- in the mirror. Barron's Magazine
Secret court modified wiretap requests
Too bad Republicans are in control. Maybe we can get some accountability after the 2006 elections.
WASHINGTON -- Government records show that the administration was encountering unprecedented second-guessing by the secret federal surveillance court when President Bush decided to bypass the panel and order surveillance of U.S.-based terror suspects without the court's approval.
A review of Justice Department reports to Congress shows that the 26-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court modified more wiretap requests from the Bush administration than from the four previous presidential administrations combined.
more...,© 1998-2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
FISA Drinking Game!
Media Matters
destroys the myths perpetuated by the Wrong Wing regarding the felonious encroachment on American privacy by the Bush Regime!
Tune in to any of the Wrong Wing lemming radio shows or FAUX News TV with friends and take a drink anytime you hear them parrot the current Administration talking points.
* Things happen too fast making bypassing the FISA court necessary
* Congress was informed of, and approved of the administration's actions
* Warrantless searches of Americans are legal under the 1978 FISA
* Clinton, Carter also authorized warrantless searches of U.S. citizens
* Only Democrats care about the Bush Regime's secret surveillance
* Debate is between supporing civil liberties or preventing of terrorism
* Bin Laden phone leak shows how leak of spying damages our security
* Gorelick testimony proved Clinton asserted "the same authority" as Bush
* Aldrich Ames case shows the Clinton administration bypassed FISA
* Clinton administration conducted domestic spying
* Moussaoui case proves FISA standard impedes terrorism probes
* A 2002 FISA review court opinion makes clear that Bush acted legally
All lies. All deserving a drink!
Bush must be held accountable
An editorial from The Olympian
George Bush cannot protect democracy by destroying it. Every American should be outraged by the president's attempt to justify domestic spying. It's wrong, and the president should acknowledge that fact. He must be held accountable.
Congress should immediately launch a truly bipartisan investigation into the administration's spying campaign. If the Constitution and laws of the United States were broken, Congress should censure the president. And if the lies, the deceit and lawbreaking continue, Congress should take even more drastic action.
Either we are a nation of laws and moral values or we are not. We cannot pick and choose which laws to abide by and which to ignore for the sake of convenience or expediency.
more...
Desperate Despot
Dubya has finally admitted that he authorized illegal wiretaps against Americans without a Judge's warrant. But, he doesn't appear to thrilled to talk about it.
It comes as no surprise that Bush doesn't want to discuss his blatant
disregard for the Bill of Rights,
or his attempts to justify his
royal probiscus thumbing.
Now, we can only hope that Democrats and the few decent Republicans left will succeed in their quest to
reclaim Democracy from this pitiful despot and his keepers.
Whaaaaat?
So Dubya finally admits what we all knew:
"It is true that much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong."
But, then backs it up with this gem:
"Knowing what I know now, I would make the same decision to invade."
more...To paraphrase: "We can't hide the truth anymore. All the
BULL
SHIT we told you to justify going into Iraq was exactly what those left-wing nut jobs were saying: bogus. But, even though we know that, we would certainly sacrifice over 2200 young men and women (we're not done yet!) all over again. However, now that you know, we're not sure if we could get away with it again. He he he"
RNC must be operating in Iraq!
BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- With the country's parliamentary elections slated for Thursday and early voting already under way, a truck carrying what are believed to be fake ballots was detained in the Iraqi border province of Wasit, the U.S. military said Tuesday...
more
Ken Mehlman - RNC Coverboy
Slobbering Ann Coulter showing her lack of veracity again!
In her most recent
column, Ann writes,
"In response to Murtha's demand for the 'immediate withdrawal of American troops' ". Now she does attribute with a little phrase, "as The New York Times put it", however, she has had every opportunity to know the truth and chooses to perpetuate a clear and blantant falsehood.
Here is the text of the Murtha's Resolution:
Whereas Congress and the American People have not been shown clear, measurable progress toward establishment of stable and improving security in Iraq or of a stable and improving economy in Iraq, both of which are essential to "promote the emergence of a democratic government";
Whereas additional stabilization in Iraq by U, S. military forces cannot be achieved without the deployment of hundreds of thousands of additional U S. troops, which in turn cannot be achieved without a military draft;
Whereas more than $277 billion has been appropriated by the United States Congress to prosecute U.S. military action in Iraq and Afghanistan;
Whereas, as of the drafting of this resolution, 2,079 U.S. troops have been killed in Operation Iraqi Freedom;
Whereas U.S. forces have become the target of the insurgency,
Whereas, according to recent polls, over 80% of the Iraqi people want U.S. forces out of Iraq;
Whereas polls also indicate that 45% of the Iraqi people feel that the attacks on U.S. forces are justified;
Whereas, due to the foregoing, Congress finds it evident that continuing U.S. military action in Iraq is not in the best interests of the United States of America, the people of Iraq, or the Persian Gulf Region, which were cited in Public Law 107-243 as justification for undertaking such action;
Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that:
Section 1. The deployment of United States forces in Iraq, by direction of Congress, is hereby terminated and the forces involved are to be redeployed at the earliest practicable date.
Section 2. A quick-reaction U.S. force and an over-the-horizon presence of U.S Marines shall be deployed in the region.
Section 3. The United States of America shall pursue security and stability in Iraq through diplomacy.Notice that no where in the entire Murtha Resolution is found "immediate withdrawal of American troops".
The only place where anything close to that is found in The Republican Resolution:
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately.
Resolved, That it is the sense of the House of Representatives that the deployment of United States forces in Iraq be terminated immediately. The only place her comment is found is in THE REPUBLICAN RESOLUTION. As a matter of fact, they felt so giddy about it, they put the phrase in there twice.
Coulter knew it wasn't Murtha's position, but she wrote it anyway. She is, once again, proving her steady decline in value in the forum of ideas and discourse.
Brand X
Larry Beinhart provides
a good start on a list of new Republican Brands.
1. President Loser: Let us count the things that were lost on Bush’s watch, then let us hang them around his neck, like big French medals. He immediately lost the budget surplus. Then he lost the World Trade Center. Damn near lost the Pentagon too. Then he lost America’s moral standing in the world. He lost an entire American city - New Orleans. Nobody’s ever lost a whole American city before. Then, he lost the War in Iraq.
2. The Grand Old Hypocrisy Party. These were the guys who were going to restore honor to the White House. Bush was a uniter, not a divider. These people are not occasionally found in a hypocritical situation – they are professional hypocrites. They name things the opposite of what they are. Clear Skies means more mercury in the air. A Jobs and Stimulus Package, that actually loses jobs. The president calls his home a ranch, but it’s got no cattle, no horses neither. Bush pretends to run a clean campaign and has Carl Rove slander John McCain and the Swift Boat Veterans slander John Kerry.
3. Loot and Pollute defines all their policies. Loot Iraq, and leave a disaster behind. Loot the treasurey and leave deficits behind. Pollute the air, pollute the water, just so that this month’s Enron can get their loot.
4. The National Incompetence Party. They can’t run a war. They can’t run an economy. They can’t reinforce the levees when the hurricanes are coming. They can’t reconstruct an American city. They can’t reconstruct a foreign country they bombed to bits. They can’t negotiate an international coalition. They can’t create jobs. They can’t balance a budget. They can’t even avoid being indicted.
5. The Name-Calling Party. There are two reasons to call them the name calling party. The first, because it’s what they do. Please, go on any right wing website or blog and read the names they call even John McCain or John Murtha. Let alone Clinton or Schumer. The second, is because it’s time for the left to start doing it. As the game is played now, it is important to accuse your opponent of what you, yourself are doing. Say it first, say it often, don’t flinch when they say it back, just repeat the accusation two more times.
6. The Big Secrets Party. They love secrets. Why? Because if the people knew the truth about what they were doing, they would know they are looting and polluting, they’re sneak thieves, they’re incompetent, they’ve been asleep at the wheel and they’re losers.
7. The Mean Girls Party. Oh my word, aren’t they whiney. Now that they’re in party, they just keep everyone out. They have their secrets, which they don’t have to share, and that makes them better than anyone else in the lunchroom. They all have their nicknames. And they like to play mean dirty tricks on other people and snicker about it later. Nothing they ever do is wrong, because other people made them do it. Anyway, they’re the real victims. You don’t even have to ask, they’ll tell you so. With my apologies to the feminists among us, but they are just like the Heathers.
A Strategury for Victoriousness in Iraq
Dubya gave another typical
speech to our Military. The poor recipients of the dubious honor this time where the Midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy on December 3rd. His White House handlers won't put him in front of any audience not threatened with
Leavenworth for being disagreeable.
While we feel for the young men and women of the Navy that were forced to endure this propoganda puff piece, we recognize that they took an oath to serve and part of that service is to
be the audience for their Commander-in-Chief once in a while.
We don't even mind that the speech writers built in 21 Applause Signals. Let's face it. Following orders is the basic job requirement of our military personnel.
What does bother us in The Whirlpool, however, is this comment read in a
report from Iraq:
In a news briefing from Iraq on Friday, Lt. Gen. Martin Dempsey, the top American military official in charge of training Iraqi troops, surprised some reporters by saying he first saw "Our Strategy for Victory in Iraq" when it was released to the public on Wednesday.Now, we know that there are some critics that think the entire Whirlpool was smacked with a Stupid Stick. But, it doesn't seem like too much of a stretch to think that a "Strategy for Victory in Iraq" would have been developed with the involvement and consultation of the person in charge of the military in Iraq!
Earlier in the Whirlpool Muck there is an offer to
whore out our services for the Administration to prop up their looney positions in Guckert/Gannon fashion. But, the offer was made without any consideration that we'd have to work that hard. The deal's off.
Give Scotty a raise.
If he can come anywhere close to a silk purse out of this sow's ear, he deserves it.
this top secret X-Ray of Bush's Brain:
Ken Mehlman - RNC Coverboy
