Cheney Lied About Wiretapping Program

I think we can start putting impeachment papers together for Gonzo and Dick. Heck lets pull Andy Card back for a few indictment charges. It’s interesting that this revelation happened yesterday but with the exception of Keith, the MSM is pretty quite about it.

Capitol Hill Blue:

Vice President Dick Cheney lied about his involvement in developing President George W. Bush’s controversial and illegal program to use the National Security Agency to spy on Americans.

New revelations show Cheney was hip deep in developing the policy, often overruling the objections of Justice Department officials and blocking the promotion of one official who disagreed with him on the warrantless wiretapping program.

Article continued and detailed in the Washington Post:

Comey’s disclosures, made in response to written questions from the Senate Judiciary Committee, indicate that Cheney and his aides were more closely involved than previously known in a fierce internal battle over the legality of the warrantless surveillance program. The program allowed the National Security Agency to monitor phone calls and e-mails between the United States and overseas.

Comey said that Cheney’s office later blocked the promotion of a senior Justice Department lawyer, Patrick Philbin, because of his role in raising concerns about the surveillance.

You have to love Schumer.

“Mr. Comey has confirmed what we suspected for a while — that White House hands guided Justice Department business,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.). “The vice president’s fingerprints are all over the effort to strong-arm Justice on the NSA program, and the obvious next question is: Exactly what role did the president play?”

Bush’s War Czar Doubts Surge Will Work

Well isn’t that interesting Congress will probably agree to his nomination and Bush will probably fire him.  

From Capitol Hill Blue; June 7, 2007:

President George W. Bush’s handpicked “war czar” doubted the President’s latest “troop surge” would work and expressed his doubts during a White House policy review.

Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute has confirmed he voiced his skepticism that the plan would work unless the Iraqis stepped up to the plate and launched its own “surges” to stop the actions.

The revelations come as Lute faces his first day of confirmation hearings before the Senate.

Can A Knight Be President????

Here’s a question for you.  Remember when Rudy G. was knighted by Queen Elizabeth, he was a private citizen then but now he’s gong public again. So…..

…..I started to think about the Constitution, you know that document that doesn’t matter anymore. Well here’s the deal Article 1 Section9  of the U.S. Constitution says:

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince or foreign State.

1) Did he get permission from Congress to do this? I’m sure he did.

2) Can a U.S. citizen who has been knighted be elected president? I don’t know.

BTW: Rudy can not be called “Sir” because he is a foreigner and it’s an honorary knighthood, but he can use KBE (Knight of the British Empire) behind his name.

Bush Nominates Another Hate Monger

From the Center For Constitutional Rights: 

President George W. Bush continues to fail the citizens of the Gulf Coast in his refusal to offer the Senate a viable candidate for the vacancy on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans. Judge Leslie Southwick’s record of racial insensitivity and his blatant discrimination against the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender community should automatically disqualify him from holding a position where he is responsible for upholding civil rights.

It is extremely troubling that a man who argues that a woman’s sexual orientation is enough of a basis to deny her custody of her child and who also justifies the use of racial slurs in the workplace can even be considered for such a critical position. In a time when the Gulf Coast region needs a Court of Appeals bench that is sympathetic to the needs of diverse communities, Judge Southwick should not be an option.

Furthermore, President Bush’s nomination of yet another white candidate is an affront to the large Black community that lives within the Court’s jurisdiction. In a region of the country where Black citizens constitute the largest percentage of the local population, not one Black judge has ever served on the District Court of Appeals. President Bush has continued this trend by refusing to nominate a Black candidate since he has been in office.

All Senators who value human rights should oppose the nomination of Judge Leslie Southwick to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.

39 “Disappeared” In U.S. War On Terror

You really have to scratch your head and wonder how Bush, his administration and branches of this government can continue to lie to the world about secret prisons; how can they live with themselves. World organizations who research, track, document abuse, disappearances and deaths of the world’s citizens continue to beat their heads against the wall as they are continually stonewalled by Bush. Are families imagining that they are missing someone? Are these families misleading the human rights agencies? Is everyone in the world lying and making up tragic events in their lives? I think not.

Bush would like you to think so, because he is the only one that is correct on everything. Or so he and his cronies would like you to believe. Bush and the departments that go along with him are responsible for the imaginary “non-events”. They are the true tragedy to the world’s families.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Six human rights groups urged the U.S. government on Thursday to name and explain the whereabouts of 39 people they said were believed to have been held in U.S. custody and “disappeared.”

The groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said they filed a U.S. federal lawsuit under the Freedom of Information Act seeking information about the 39 people it terms “ghost prisoners” in the U.S. “war on terror.”

“Since the end of Latin America’s dirty wars, the world has rejected the use of ‘disappearances’ as a fundamental violation of international law,” professor Meg Satterthwaite of the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at New York University’s School of Law said in a statement.

Don’t forget Bush is above world opinion and law.

The report said suspects’ relatives, including children as young as seven, had been held in secret detention on occasion.

CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano dismissed the report, saying the CIA acts in “strict accord with American law” and its counter-terrorist initiatives are “subject to careful review and oversight.”

“The United States does not conduct or condone torture,” he said.

Of course we conduct torture. What does Paul Gimigliano think water boarding is, surfing?  Putting a seven year old or any child in an adult facility such as Gitmo is torture. People disappearing to never been seen of or heard from again is torture for their families. The BS that this administration continues to give about their compassion, their love for democracy and the protection of freedom is just that; bull shit.  

The arrogance and behavior of Bush is the same delusional, paranoid behavior of Pinochet, the Nazi, and Joseph Stalin. In the past organizations throughout the world have put a stop to the behavior of regimes and dictators, and Bush should not be an exception. 

War on Terror: 

Hitler used the 1933 burning of the Reichstag (Parliament) building by a deranged Dutchman to declare a “war on terrorism,” establish his legitimacy as a leader (even though he hadn’t won a majority in the previous election)

Continuing the family business. Good boy George:

Ultimately, Bush’s real peers are not US presidents but Third World dictators, like Pinochet, many of whom his father also put in office.

Stalin’s GULAG:

 Implementing Soviet internal politics with respect to perceived enemies of the state (“enemies of the people“), the agency conducted arrests and executions of Soviet and foreign citizens. Millions were rounded up and sent to GULAG camps and hundreds of thousands were executed by the NKVD. Formally, most of these people were convicted by NKVD troikas (“triplets”) – special courts martial.

Bush must be taken to the world court and prosecuted for war crime. The idea that his actions are done in the name of protecting us from terror is exactly what Hitler said. The horrors of Stalin’s GULAG’s are being played out at GITMO and at secret prisons. Pinochet’s crimes against humanity are an everyday event in Iraq.

History is again repeating itself. We have a choice to make; are we going to continue to sit by and allow Bush to continue these atrocities or are we going to stand up with the world organizations and hold Bush accountable. I hope it’s the latter.