More proof that Bush weakens America

cross-posted at TennesseeFree.com

This is the strategy: we get rid of Saddam while going after WMD, don't find any so we go after ragtag bombers and al Qaeda destroying Iraq's infrastructure in the process. We create a civil war killing hundreds of thousands, and now take on the enormous financial burden of rebuilding that country with contractors that have shown a history of waste, corruption and mismanagement... and tie up our military and reserves in a continuing quagmire. While the wingnuts are congratulating themselves on the success of 'the surge,' US deaths are going back up again in Iraq. January was the worst month for US troops since Sept. and Afghanistan is not getting any better.

Now, thanks to this strategy of GW Bush, America is safe, right?

A report from the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves says:

(AP)

The U.S. military isn't ready for a catastrophic attack on the country, and National Guard forces don't have the equipment or training they need for the job.

A weaker America, the result of cowboy diplomacy . . . thanks Dumbya.

Read the story

(And the GOP front runner McCain wants to stay in Iraq for 100 yrs).

The albatross of Iraq around McCain's neck

cross posted at TennesseeFree.com

He just doesn't get it.

First, look at the most recent polls (all Jan '08) - very consistent:

• LA Times/Bloomberg: 63% say bring the troops home within a year or right away, 31% say stay as longs it takes.


• CNN/Opinion Research: 63% oppose the war, 34% favor

• ABC News/Washington Post: 69% disapprove of the way Bush is handling Iraq, 30% favor

John McCain says it would be fine with him to stay in Iraq 100 years and that Clinton would surrender to al Qaeda. This is bogus and here's why:

Four major problems for McCain:

1. Al Qaeda, whose presence in Iraq didn't exist before Bush invaded, remains tiny and they are hated by Iraqi Sunnis and Shiites. Iraqis have vowed to fight al Qaeda to the death, and they hugely out number them. The Iraqis will eventually crush al Qaeda, and further, al Qaeda in Iraq remains no threat to the US.


2. McCain says we can sustain our presence in Iraq 100 years. Gen. Casey says the Army needs 3 or 4 years and substantial resources to recover from Iraq and that the “current demand for our forces exceeds the sustainable supply.”


3. The American people by a margin of 2 to 1 want the US out of Iraq.


4. Lastly, John McCain is a hypocrite. During Clinton's presidency, he argued vehemently to bring the troops home from Haiti and Somalia - regardless of the consequences.

1994 — “The right course of action is to make preparations as quickly as possible to bring our people home. It does not mean as soon as order is restored to Haiti, it doesn’t mean as soon as Democracy is flourishing in Haiti, it doesn’t mean as soon as we’ve established a viable nation in Haiti, as soon as possible means as soon as we can get out of Haiti without losing any American lives.”

1993 — “Date certain, Mr. President, are not the criteria here. What’s the criteria and what should be the criteria is our immediate, orderly withdrawal from Somalia. And if we don’t do that, and other Americans die, other Americans are wounded, other Americans are captured, because we stayed too long, longer than necessary, then I would say that the responsibilities for that lie with the Congress of the United States who did not exercise their authority under the Constitution of the United States and mandate that they be brought home as quickly and safely as possible. ... the argument that somehow the United States would suffer a loss to our prestige and our viability, as far as the No. 1 superpower in the world, I think, is baloney.”

These videos of McCain arguing to bring the troops home are going to be great for the Dems in the campaign if he gets the nomination.

Highlight of the GOP debate

The Democratic debate:
Electric atmosphere, contention, powerful dialog, good humor, tons of applause, laughter, and audience enthusiasm. CNN reports it’s the highest-rated primary debate in recorded history.

The Republican Debate:
Good tough questions by Russert, very little laughter or audience enthusiasm, almost no applause except for a big outburst after an anti-war comment by Ron Paul. ABC Live blog said McCain offered a “clunker of an answer” but credited him for offering Giuliani some ‘9/11 love’ that he craves. ABC live blog described the debate as a “snoozer” and “zzzzzzzz.”

Here was a rare moment of audience enthusiasm:

The Bush Legacy

THE LEGACY OF GEORGE W. BUSH’S PRESIDENCY

The Country He Inherited, The Country He Leaves Behind

THE ECONOMY	JANUARY 20, 2001	TODAY UNDER BUSH
REAL GDP GROWTH1	4.09% Over Prior 8 Years	2.65% Over Prior 7 Years
NATIONAL DEBT2	$5.7 Trillion	$9.2 Trillion
BUDGET DEFICIT/SURPLUS3	$431 Billion Surplus over the Previous Three Budget Years	$734 Billion Deficit over the Previous Three Budget Years
NEW PRIVATE SECTOR JOBS CREATED4	1.76 Million Jobs Per Year Over Previous 8 Years	369,000 Jobs Per Year Over Previous 7 Years
AMERICANS IN POVERTY 5	31.6 Million	36.5 Million
QUALITY OF LIFE	JANUARY 20, 2001	TODAY UNDER BUSH
AMERICANS UNINSURED & CHANGE IN UNINSURED LEVEL6	38 Million Uninsured 4.5 Million Less in 2 Years	47 Million Uninsured 8.5 Million More in 6 Years
ANNUAL TOTAL PREMIUM COST7	$6,230 for Family Premium	$12,106 for Family Premium
MEDIAN HOUSEHOLD INCOME & CHANGE IN MEDIAN INCOME8	$49,163 $6,000 Increase in 8 Years	$48,023 $1,100 Decrease in 6 Years
PRICE OF GAS9	$1.39/Gallon	$3.07/Gallon
COST OF COLLEGE10	$3,164 per year	$5,192 per year
PERSONAL SAVINGS RATE11	+2.3%	-0.5%
CONSUMER CREDIT DEBT12	$7.65 Trillion	$12.8 Trillion
UNITED STATES & THE WORLD	JANUARY 20, 2001	TODAY UNDER BUSH
U.S. TRADE DEFICIT13	$380 Billion	$759 Billion
STRENGTH OF U.S. DOLLAR14	1.07 Euros per Dollar	0.68 Euros Per Dollar
COMBAT READINESS15	All Active Duty Army Divisions Were Rated At The Highest Readiness Levels	Not A Single Active Duty Or Reserve Brigade In The U.S. Considered “Fully Combat Ready.”
FOREIGN OIL DEPENDENCY16	52.75% of U.S. Liquid Fuel Consumption is Imported	60.38% of U.S. Liquid Fuel Consumption is Imported
VIEW OF AMERICA ABROAD17 PEW POLL OF TEN NATIONS	58.3% Viewed America Favorably	39.2% Viewed America Favorably
GREAT BRITAIN’S VIEW OF U.S.	83% Favorable	56% Favorable
INDONESIA’S VIEW OF U.S.	75% Favorable	30% Favorable
TURKEY’S VIEW OF U.S.	52% Favorable	12% Favorable
GERMANY’S VIEW OF U.S.	78% Favorable	37% Favorable

---

¹ Bureau of Economic Analysis

² Department of Treasury

³ Congressional Budget Office

⁴ Bureau of Labor Statistics

⁵ United States Census Bureau

⁶ United States Census Bureau

⁷ Kaiser Study of Employer Health Care Benefits

⁸ United States Census Bureau

⁹ Energy Information Administration

¹⁰ Higher Education Coordinating Board of Washington State

¹¹ Bureau of Economic Analysis

¹² Insurance Information Institute

¹³ United States Census Bureau

¹⁴ OANDA.com: The Currency Website

¹⁵ Speaker of the House Fact Sheet, 11/29/07

¹⁶ Energy Information Administration

¹⁷ Testimony of Andrew Kohut; President, Pew Research Center; 3/17/07

Congressional hearings scheduled to investigate 473 days of missing White House emails

Cross posted from TennesseeFree.com

An investigation into White House compliance with the Presidential Records Act is the subject of a hearing scheduled for Feb. 15 by the House Oversight Committee.

The White House assertion that no emails are missing is "an unsubstantiated statement that has no relation to the facts they have shared with us."
-- House Oversight Chair, Henry Waxman

In what appears to be a continuing illegal coverup, White House spokesman Tony Fratto said today, "we have absolutely no reason to believe that any e-mails are missing," despite evidence from a chart created by White House employees. The chart showing 473 days of missing emails was created not by one person as the White House suggests, but rather "represents the work of three teams of information technology specialists," according to Ann Weismann, chief counsel for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.

Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., says the White House spokesman's comments suggesting no e-mails had disappeared conflicted with what congressional staffers were told in September.

Some of the missing emails were from October 2003 when the criminal investigation was heating up into the Bush administration's leak of the identity of CIA operative Valerie Plame.

It's a game now. Bush & Cheney are trying to obfuscate and delay investigations and accountability as they know their days are numbered. There are so many issues of corruption, abuse of power, and violations of law... if they can tap dance long enough, they may be able to stall investigations and impeachment.

Stories here:

WP

AP

At this moment Congress must stand for truth. If we fail to act history may well judge us complicit in the alleged crimes of VP Cheney

Congressman Robert Wexler (D-FL), a senior member of the House Judiciary Committee, delivered a speech on the floor of the House of Representatives calling for impeachment hearings for Vice President Dick Cheney. The full text of the speech is available here.

When is our chickenshit Congress going to stand for the truth, justice, and accountability?

Impeachment may not be the best political thing to do, but if you believe in justice, accountability, the rule of law, and our Constitution, it is the American thing to do.

White House mounts illegal coverup - 'loses' millions of emails in violation of Presidential Records Act

The Presidential Records Act directs the president to take all necessary steps to maintain presidential records to provide a full accounting of all activities during his tenure. This is the law.

Previously, the White House refused to submit emails that were likely pertinent to Plame leak, the politically motivated US Attorney firings, and the White House association with convicted felon Jack Abramoff.

This time, minutes before midnight Tuesday under a court-ordered deadline that forced the White House to reveal information it has previously refused to provide, the White House says the emails were lost, taped over by a back up tape system.

In the period of July until October of 2003, the White House was dealing with the Valerie Plame leak - precisely the time these tapes were erased or "recycled". They couldn't explain why, after October, they suddenly stopped "recycling" their tapes. Nixon lost 18 minutes of tape, Bush has lost millions of emails, months of communications.

What? They spend more than $10 million an hour 24/7 in Iraq and they can't buy a fresh tape to preserve presidential records as required by law?

Do they expect us to believe this?

AP:

White House says they reused email tape

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has acknowledged recycling its backup computer tapes of e-mail before October 2003, raising the possibility that many electronic messages — including those pertaining to the CIA leak case — have been taped over and are gone forever.

The disclosure came minutes before midnight Tuesday under a court-ordered deadline that forced the White House to reveal information it has previously refused to provide.

Among the e-mails that could be lost are messages swapped by any White House officials involved in discussions about leaking a CIA officer's identity to reporters.

Before October 2003, the White House recycled its backup tapes "consistent with industry best practices," according to a sworn statement by a White House aide.

Backup tapes are the last line of defense for saving electronic records.

Separately, the statement reveals the extent to which the White House is apparently unable to answer how many e-mails are missing from White House servers.

The White House "does not know if any e-mails were not properly preserved in the archiving process," said the statement by Theresa Payton, chief information officer for the White House Office of Administration. "We are continuing our efforts," said Payton, whose staff is responsible for the White House e-mail system.

If the e-mails were not saved, the White House might have violated two laws requiring preservation of documents that fall into the categories of federal records or presidential records.

Lying scoundrels covering their corrupt asses. There has never been a time in US history where impeachment was more deserved or appropriate.

Huckabee the Theo-con . . .one of the most dangerous men in America

Mike Huckabee wants to change the US Constitution to reflect the laws of his church and god:

"But I believe it's a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living God. And that's what we need to do, to amend the Constitution so it's in God standards rather than try to change God's standards so it lines up with some contemporary view of how we treat each other and how we treat the family." - Mike Huckabee

Mike Huckabee is the embodiment of the American version of the Taliban. With this statement, he is negating the separation of church and state and further professes to make his interpretation of "god's law" the law of the land ... this land, our USA. He is a clear-cut theocrat.

We don't need a theocracy in America.

It is amazing that a guy with a degree in religion from Ouachita Baptist University and a seminary school drop out has risen to the level of winning a state presidential primary. It is absolutely frightening! Particularly when we hear statements from him like:

"When we become believers, it's as if we have signed up to be part of God's Army, to be soldiers for Christ..." - Mike Huckabee, 1/08 Windham, NH

Huck proved himself a good soldier for god by subverting his boss while Lt. Governor of Arkansas. Huckabee's boss, Governor JG Tucker was advised not to proclaim 'Christian Heritage Week' in Arkansas, he did not think it was appropriate to honor a particular faith. But when Tucker went out of town for a week and Huckabee became the acting chief executive, he enthusiastically signed the proclamation, declaring at a later celebration that he was taking a stand against "Christophobia."

George Grant was the co-author for Huckabee’s 1998 book, Kids Who Kill: Confronting Our Culture of Violence. That was the book where Huckabee and Grant lumped homosexuality with pedophilia, sadomasochism and necrophilia as “institutionally supported aberrations.” That line, which Huckabee defended, may well have come from Grant’s 1993 book, Legislating Immorality: The Homosexual Movement Comes Out Of The Closet. In that book, Grant compares homosexuality with pedophilia and bestiality. He also calls for the death penalty for gays, saying “[t]here is no such option for homosexual offenses” except capital punishment.

I thought Muslim theocracies were the only places that called for criminal penalties for gays?

The Huckster claims he knows all about Muslims, because of his 'theology degree'. The only problem is that he lied about that too. Right Mike. Good christian values: lie about your resume, cover up acts of animal cruelty, persecute gays, and change the Constitution to reflect your religion. Not to mention your trouble with ethics as governor of AR.


More on Huckabee's connections with theocratic Christianists.

H/T: BTB
TheocracyWatch.org

Polls say anything is better than the leadership of GW Bush

In the year 2000, we saw a disaster for America in the Supreme Court's selection of GW Bush as President. . . and we were right.

ABC poll:
An unprecedented number of Americans: 79% say the next president should set the nation on a new course rather than following the direction in which Bush has been leading. (And two-thirds feel that way strongly).

CBS poll:
An unprecedented number of Americans: 75% think the country is off on the wrong track.


Here's the GW Bush resume

If you do not support the impeachment of GW Bush, you are not a good American

Why?

Either,

1) you are ignorant of the high crimes and misdemeanors of Bush and Cheney;

or

2) you do not believe in the principles of the American Constitution, justice, and accountability, and you condone Bush/Cheney's repeated violations of the Constitution, their transgressions of international law, their repeated lies to the American people, their continued abuse of power, and their barbaric policies that have reduced America's reputation world-wide to historic lows.


Washington Post:

Why I Believe Bush Must Go

Nixon Was Bad. These Guys Are Worse.

By George McGovern

Sunday, January 6, 2008; Page B01

American democracy has been derailed throughout the Bush-Cheney regime. The dominant commitment of the administration has been a murderous, illegal, nonsensical war against Iraq. That irresponsible venture has killed almost 4,000 Americans, left many times that number mentally or physically crippled, claimed the lives of an estimated 600,000 Iraqis (according to a careful October 2006 study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) and laid waste their country. The financial cost to the United States is now $250 million a day and is expected to exceed a total of $1 trillion, most of which we have borrowed from the Chinese and others as our national debt has now climbed above $9 trillion -- by far the highest in our national history.

All of this has been done without the declaration of war from Congress that the Constitution clearly requires, in defiance of the U.N. Charter and in violation of international law. This reckless disregard for life and property, as well as constitutional law, has been accompanied by the abuse of prisoners, including systematic torture, in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

I have not been heavily involved in singing the praises of the Nixon administration. But the case for impeaching Bush and Cheney is far stronger than was the case against Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew after the 1972 election. The nation would be much more secure and productive under a Nixon presidency than with Bush. Indeed, has any administration in our national history been so damaging as the Bush-Cheney era?

How could a once-admired, great nation fall into such a quagmire of killing, immorality and lawlessness?

It happened in part because the Bush-Cheney team repeatedly deceived Congress, the press and the public into believing that Saddam Hussein had nuclear arms and other horrifying banned weapons that were an "imminent threat" to the United States. The administration also led the public to believe that Iraq was involved in the 9/11 attacks -- another blatant falsehood. Many times in recent years, I have recalled Jefferson's observation: "Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."

The basic strategy of the administration has been to encourage a climate of fear, letting it exploit the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks not only to justify the invasion of Iraq but also to excuse such dangerous misbehavior as the illegal tapping of our telephones by government agents. The same fear-mongering has led government spokesmen and cooperative members of the press to imply that we are at war with the entire Arab and Muslim world -- more than a billion people.

Another shocking perversion has been the shipping of prisoners scooped off the streets of Afghanistan to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and other countries without benefit of our time-tested laws of habeas corpus.

Although the president was advised by the intelligence agencies last August that Iran had no program to develop nuclear weapons, he continued to lie to the country and the world. This is the same strategy of deception that brought us into war in the Arabian Desert and could lead us into an unjustified invasion of Iran. I can say with some professional knowledge and experience that if Bush invades yet another Muslim oil state, it would mark the end of U.S. influence in the crucial Middle East for decades.

Ironically, while Bush and Cheney made counterterrorism the battle cry of their administration, their policies -- especially the war in Iraq -- have increased the terrorist threat and reduced the security of the United States. Consider the difference between the policies of the first President Bush and those of his son. When the Iraqi army marched into Kuwait in August 1990, President George H.W. Bush gathered the support of the entire world, including the United Nations, the European Union and most of the Arab League, to quickly expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. The Saudis and Japanese paid most of the cost. Instead of getting bogged down in a costly occupation, the administration established a policy of containing the Baathist regime with international arms inspectors, no-fly zones and economic sanctions. Iraq was left as a stable country with little or no capacity to threaten others.

Today, after five years of clumsy, mistaken policies and U.S. military occupation, Iraq has become a breeding ground of terrorism and bloody civil strife. It is no secret that former president Bush, his secretary of state, James A. Baker III, and his national security adviser, Gen. Brent Scowcroft, all opposed the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq.

In addition to the shocking breakdown of presidential legal and moral responsibility, there is the scandalous neglect and mishandling of the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe. The veteran CNN commentator Jack Cafferty condenses it to a sentence: "I have never ever seen anything as badly bungled and poorly handled as this situation in New Orleans." Any impeachment proceeding must include a careful and critical look at the collapse of presidential leadership in response to perhaps the worst natural disaster in U.S. history.

Impeachment is unlikely, of course. But we must still urge Congress to act. Impeachment, quite simply, is the procedure written into the Constitution to deal with presidents who violate the Constitution and the laws of the land. It is also a way to signal to the American people and the world that some of us feel strongly enough about the present drift of our country to support the impeachment of the false prophets who have led us astray. This, I believe, is the rightful course for an American patriot.

As former representative Elizabeth Holtzman, who played a key role in the Nixon impeachment proceedings, wrote two years ago, "it wasn't until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) -- and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country's laws -- that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate. . . . A President, any President, who maintains that he is above the law -- and repeatedly violates the law -- thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors."

There has never been a day in my adult life when I would not have sacrificed that life to save the United States from genuine danger, such as the ones we faced when I served as a bomber pilot in World War II. We must be a great nation because from time to time, we make gigantic blunders, but so far, we have survived and recovered.

So, which is it?

Are you a good American, a bad American, or an ignorant American?

Evolution vs. Creationism argument ends with creationist committing murder

The dude went 'Old Testament on him' and demonstrates some good Christian values - by killing an infidel. He was following his Biblical principles.

They entered into a covenant to seek the Lord, the God of their fathers, with all their heart and soul; and everyone who would not seek the Lord, the God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman. (2 Chronicles 15:12-13)

------------------------------------------------
Jail for creationist killer
TheAge.com.au
12/17/07

An English backpacker who killed a Scottish tourist at a New South Wales [Australia] caravan park after a row over creationism versus evolution, has been sentenced to a minimum three years' jail. Alexander Christian York, 33, was found guilty in July of manslaughter over the 2006 stabbing death of Scottish tourist Rudi Boa.

-------------------------------------------------
The murdered tourist, Rudi Boa, was a biomedical scientist. He obviously knew too much and had to be dealt with... Biblically.

The judge concurred and dismissed the murder charge, sentencing the killer Alexander Christian York to a lesser charge of manslaughter with a very light sentence. The judge remarked about the killer: "The offender is a person of good character and the offense is a complete aberration."

But of course, he was killing for God; and to some, that's ok.

Bush lawyers knew about the destroyed CIA interrogation (TORTURE) videos, criminal investigation launched

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into the destruction of CIA interrogation videotapes and Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey appointed an outside prosecutor to oversee the case. The CIA acknowledged last month that it destroyed videos of officers using tough interrogation methods while questioning two al-Qaida suspects. The acknowledgment sparked a congressional inquiry and a preliminary investigation by Justice.

Consider these facts and statements:

• Bush says, "We don't torture."

• Bush reserves the right to torture by subverting the McCain bill to ban torture by issuing a signing statement.

• Four White House lawyers discussed the destruction of the CIA videos, including Harriet Miers, one of Bush's closest associates.

• 9/11 Commission chairman, Thomas Kean says: "Those who knew about those videotapes -- and did not tell us about them -- obstructed our investigation." -

• Bush says he didn't know the CIA 'interrogation' videos were destroyed.

And Bush expects people to believe him?
Covering up possible evidence of torture - another example of compassionate conservatism

UPDATE:

Constitutional expert Jonathan Turley said that as many as six criminal offenses could be involved in the 9/11 Commission charge alone, including obstruction of Congress, obstruction of justice, perjury, and conspiracy.

However, Turley emphasized that the real crime under investigation is not merely obstruction, but the actual torture documented by the tapes. "It is still, even after the last seven years, a crime to torture suspects," Turley commented.

Turley suggested that under those circumstances, the failure to appoint a special prosecutor was a serious problem, because "the investigation will essentially be the Justice Department investigating itself. ... Picking some guy in Connecticut or Cincinnati or Delaware or any other state doesn't make any difference. His boss is Michael Mukasey. And Michael Mukasey's boss is the president of the United States. If torture occurred, he [Bush] was the guy who ordered it."

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Sounds like another Bush lie:

Kind of like when it was revealed that the convicted felon Jack Abramoff had 485 contacts with the White House and raised at least a quarter million dollars for Bush/GOP campaigns, Cheney ordered the Secret Service White House visitors logs destroyed, and millions of White House emails were 'lost.'

After all this, President George Bush says of Abramoff:
"I don't know him"



And the devoted Bushies will tell you - the President never lied.