The Bushites' ultimate crime

I suppose Bush can't wait to nominate somebody new for the Supreme Court to take some attention off the Libby indictment.
Why did that very smart lawyer Libby tell stupid lies? What is he protecting Cheney from?

Here is what Joe Wilson wrote In today's Los Angeles Times"

"The attacks on Valerie and me were upsetting, disruptive and vicious. They amounted to character assassination. Senior administration officials used the power of the White House to make our lives hell for the last 27 months.
"But more important, they did it as part of a clear effort to cover up the lies and disinformation used to justify the invasion of Iraq. That is the ultimate crime.
" The war in Iraq has claimed more than 17,000 dead and wounded American soldiers, many times more Iraqi casualties and close to $200 billion.
"It has left our international reputation in tatters and our military broken. It has weakened the United States, increased hatred of us and made terrorist attacks against our interests more likely in the future.
"It has been, as Gen. William Odom suggested, the greatest strategic blunder in the history of our country.
"We anticipate no mea culpa from the president for what his senior aides have done to us. But he owes the nation both an explanation and an apology."

From a military vantage point

Bush's Iraq war is "the greatest strategic disaster in United States history."

--Lt. Gen. William Odom, National Security Agency director under Ronald Reagan

Hopeless Democrats

Here I am, asking myself again why on earth I'm still a Democrat. I suppose it is mainly because of a deep-set hope that one of these days the turkeys running the show are going to go away and some real leaders will take over. Perhaps from among those outstanding few who don't kowtow to anybody and don't keep a Republican-lite mask in purse or pocket.

Case in point: Today on Meet the Press, Senator Schumer of New York was asked if he now regretted voting for the war on Iraq. He very rapidly said No and then even more rapidly began to babble off in another direction.

And so it still goes: John Kerry, Hillary Clinton, et al. Chicken-livered, each one.

(I would vote for Maureen Dowd for Senate, House or president; she speaks plain English and she can spell hypocrisy, cowardice and betrayal.)

Kucinich & the WHIG

Yesterday Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced a "Resolution of Inquiry" demanding the White House deliver to Congress the records, notes, etc. of the White House Iraq Group (WHIG).

Kucinich said, "This group, comprised of the President and Vice President's top aides, was critical in selling the Administration's case for war, We now know that the Administration hyped intelligence and misled the American public and Congress in their effort to 'sell' the war. After over 1,900 American troops have been killed in Iraq, it is long past time for this Congress to ask serious questions about WHIG and its role in the lead up to the war. For two-and-a-half years Congress has sat on the sidelines neglecting its oversight responsibility when it has come to Iraq. We owe it to the American people to hold this Administration accountable and to find out the truth."

How vastly different this country - and world - would be if Kucinich had won the nomination and the presidency.

The winds, they are a-changin'

Here is the official Texas warrant:

"To any sheriff or peace officer of the state of Texas, greetings, you are hereby commanded to arrest Thomas Dale DeLay and keep him safely so that you have him before the 331st Judicial District Court of Travis County."

Will Rove and Libby be next?

Is the House of Bush falling down?

May it be so, and may it be soon.

Is the emperor about to crash?

In today's New York Times, Frank Rich shows how the White House gang of eight marketed this illegal, immoral war on Iraq all of seven months before Bush unleashed it. It is a devastating article.

The next two weeks may bring the day when the long-cracked pedastal under the presidential feet will simply crumble to dust. Whatever comes from the winding-down grand jury, my hope is that George W. Bush will be impeached -- and ultimately indicted for violation of the Nuremberg principles and the U.N. charter in invading Iraq.

If any of this happens, I wonder if the Falwells of the land will make the connection when they read in the Gospel of Luke that "the Lord has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts (and) has brought down the powerful from their thrones." Just a pious thought....

In a few tough and true words

Bob Herbert in his column in today's New York Times:

"Mr. Bush is the standard-bearer par excellence of his party's efforts to redistribute the bounty of the U.S. from the bottom up, not the other way around. This is no longer a matter of dispute. Mr.Bush may not be the greatest commander in chief. And he may not be adept at sidestepping the land mines of language. ('I promise you I will listen to what has been said here, even though I wasn't here.') But if there's one thing the president has been good at, it has been funneling money to the rich. The suffering wrought by Katrina hasn't changed that at all.

"One of the first things the president did in the aftermath of Katrina was to poke his finger in the eyes of struggling workers by suspending the requirements of the Davis-Bacon Act in the storm-ravaged areas. Passed during the Great Depression, the law requires contractors on federally funded construction projects to pay at least the prevailing wage in the region.

"This is one more way of taking money from the working poor and handing it to the wealthy."

Bush as horrible as ever

90% of the US Senate has listened to Sen. John McCain and voted to keep these United States faithful to a moral and legal commitment to avoid the use of torture. But Bush is consistent in his disconnected madness and threatens to use his very first veto.

Today the New York Times quotes a Washington Post editorial that points out that Bush wants to "preserve the prerogative to subject detainees to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. In effect, he threatens to declare to the world his administration's moral bankruptcy."

Arthur Jones' Adios

Arthur Jones has said goodbye to National Catholic Reporter readers "30 years and 55 countries later" by writing a four-part
reflection that ended today. Here is a paragraph from the middle of part four:

"And so to my ultimate astonishment: observing a self-satisfied church that hasn’t even got enough priests to celebrate the Eucharist. A church’s vitality ebbing, and already a quarter-century into a free-fall Dark Ages of its own devising, a Dark Ages from which it will not emerge until well into the second half of this century. It takes about 60 years for a socio-ideological cycle to wind down, and we are only 27 years into the conservative-fundamentalist revival that began with the rise to power -- all in a four-year period -- of John Paul II, Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan and the Ayatollah Khomeini."

From Cindy Sheehan

Cindy can surely cut through all the BS. Here is the last part of her article published on Truthout.org today:

"Finally, I was harrassed at the Capitol Building by a thug security guard, who screamed at me to get out of the building until my next appointment. I complained to another security guard about the disrespectful treatment that I had received from the other guard and he said that most of the employees were "Republicans" and they didn't appreciate what I was doing. I have news for them: this is not about politics - to me, this is about flesh and blood. This is not about right and left, this is about right and wrong. 19 troops were needlessly killed in Iraq this past week. 19 families were destroyed senselessly and avoidably. Hundreds of innocent Iraqis were killed for just being home that day, just being out shopping, or just going about their daily lives. An average of almost three of our young men and women are killed every day in George's abomination. While the War-Hawk Repbublicans are wrongfully supporting a wrongheaded war and the "anti-war" Dems are hemming and hawing about the politics of this administration's misguided and evil policies, how many more families will get the news that their lives have been destroyed in the tragic meantime?"

Reckoning time has come

In today's NY Times, Frank Rich paints a clear picture of how the Washington house of the fat cats is falling down on them. Those of you with a NY Times online or paper subscription (or are on my j&p list) know exactly what I am talking about here. Others might find the article reprinted in their local paper. In the meantime, there is a sort of summary in one Rich sentence: "Every time you turn over a rock, you find more vermin." As he unflolds the story, Rich gives the names of the Bush-Rove gang's front-line bangers (or in more imperial terms, the princes of greed): DeLay, Abramoff, Ralph Reed, Grover Norquist, David Safavian, Joseph Schmitz, Meanwhile, Frist and Blunt (who got DeLay's job) are standing in the wings, perhaps wondering if it is time they found a rock to hide under. It is an article not to be missed. Maybe indeed -- finally, finally -- "The times, they are a changin'."