Big Dick Cheney's Impeachable Crimes

It's long, It's dense, but it pretty well answers the people who want you to believe that Cheney and Bush are caring patriots who only have your safety at heart.

I think our Founding Fathers would be appalled, that in some 200-plus years, we never used that clause they put in our Constitution, except fecklessly, and in one case, successfully. The Articles of Impeachment that threatened Richard Nixon certainly were the reason he decided to resign.... And if you look at Clinton, and the peccadilloes for which they brought impeachment proceedings against him, as compared with the "high crimes and misdemeanors"—and that's a direct quote from Article II of the Constitution—with regard to Cheney and Bush, I think there's a helluva lot better case, with regard to Cheney and Bush." —Lawrence Wilkerson

Settle in and read the whole thing.

Bill Maher: “Traitors don’t get to question my patriotism!”

Go, Watch!

Four years, and where IS Bin-Ladin?

Bob Cesca at Huffington

If an American citizen is caught cheating on their taxes, they're fined and imprisoned; if an American citizen races up to a yellow light and it turns red just as they're passing under it, they're photographed without their permission and fined; if an American citizen talks about farting or nipples on the radio, they can be fined $325,000 by your federal government. Holy hell, it's a federal offense to make a copy of a DVD or CD, whether you plan to sell it or not!

But the last four years have proved that it's perfectly legal to go to war based on lies, fabricated evidence, propaganda, media manipulation; then to lie about its progress every step of the way; then to allow massive unregulated -- practically encouraged -- war profiteering at the taxpayer's expense; then to ignore the international rules of warfare by permitting torture; then to ignore rational solutions for redeployment; then to cut the budget for veterans; and the list of trespasses against morality, decency, the Constitution, and the American way of life goes on and on and on.

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In the spirit of Johnathan Swift: A Simple Proposal.

thereisnospoon of My Left Wing notices that there has been a distinct change in the conduct of government corruption...

Usually, you see, corruption takes a little bit of work: special interest "X" gives you money for your campaign; you return the favor on the sly by giving handouts to special interest "X"; special interest "X" takes you on special junkets to keep your loyalty.

These a**holes, on the other hand, don't even think they need to stoop to such effort. The corruption doesn't even happen in exchange for campaign contributions; it's a direct connection from policies of mass bloodshed to increased profits in their overly bloated personal bank accounts. The Republicans in this administration--from Cheney to Rumsfeld to everyone else--are content to own direct stock in companies that have direct interest in killing Americans, killing foreigners overseas, and letting our wounded veterans rot in substandard medical facilities. They literally make a DIRECT PROFIT from death and destruction, while they make decisions to lie the American people into creating even more death and destruction.

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Wonder how they will explain the Pentagon telling Shrub that Global Warming is real - and a threat.

Mark Townsend and Paul Harris of The Observer

The findings will prove humiliating to the Bush administration, which has repeatedly denied that climate change even exists. Experts said that they will also make unsettling reading for a President who has insisted national defence is a priority.

The report was commissioned by influential Pentagon defence adviser Andrew Marshall, who has held considerable sway on US military thinking over the past three decades. He was the man behind a sweeping recent review aimed at transforming the American military under Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

Climate change 'should be elevated beyond a scientific debate to a US national security concern', say the authors, Peter Schwartz, CIA consultant and former head of planning at Royal Dutch/Shell Group, and Doug Randall of the California-based Global Business Network.

An imminent scenario of catastrophic climate change is 'plausible and would challenge United States national security in ways that should be considered immediately', they conclude. As early as next year widespread flooding by a rise in sea levels will create major upheaval for millions.

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Three things to think about.

Get some aluminum foil, make yourself a hat and think about these points from the New Zeland Scoop.

UQ Wire: Illegalities Suggests Bush Role In 9/11

By Sherwood Ross

The trouble with thinking 9/11 was an inside job staged by George W. Bush & Co. is that it defies belief any U.S. president might be capable of such an iniquitous crime against his own people.

Yet, subsequent Bush actions, such as lying the nation into war against Iraq, makes one wonder if the man didn’t create the 9/11 massacres to justify his attacks on Afghanistan, Iraq, and Iran.

After all, his record reveals him to be a serial liar, warmonger, tyrant, torturer, and usurper of his peoples’ civil liberties.

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Did Cheney Allow 9/11 Plane To Strike Pentagon?
Sherwood Ross

Although the official 9/11 Commission Report(CR) said Vice President Richard Cheney did not arrive at the Presidential Emergency Operations Center(PEOC) under the White House until "shortly before 10 a.m." that tragic day, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta testified when he arrived in the room at 9:20 a.m. Cheney was already there. (CR published no testimony from Mineta.)

The timeline is important because if Cheney arrived at 10 a.m. it would have been about 20 minutes after the Pentagon was allegedly struck by a hijacked airplane at 9:38 a.m., too late for him to authorize the Air Force to shoot it down. Some 125 Pentagon employees perished in the attack.

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Karen Kwiatkowski On Feith, Cheney & Planning Iran
David Swanson

SWANSON: Who's running this show, Bush or Cheney or a group?

KWIATKOWSKI: I suspect it is Cheney, and Cheney's network of like-minded, old Cold Warriors struggling for money, power and relevance in a post-Cold War age. Hence the war on terror, hence the demonization of Russia, Iran and China by members of the Cheney clique. Cheney and those who share his worldview in Washington are dinosaurs, but they have big teeth, big appetites, and they aren't dead yet. Apparently, Cheney is also personally feared by many Republicans and Democrats alike. I don't know why. Are they afraid he'll curse at them and call them names? Bush doesn't seem to be much of an organization man. He seems more like the Paris Hilton of politics. He goes to the parties, he shows up, he has a good time, but doesn't take anything too seriously. Cheney seems to take world domination seriously, and he has a lot of friendly, and fearful, folks on board.

More on Kwiatkowski

Joe Conason's Opinion Piece On Dick Cheney's Creditability

The New York Observer - Op-ED

...Cheney cares nothing for those facts. As the official who most vehemently assured us of the certain existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he remains immune to the kind of embarrassment that would have required an honorable man to resign from office long ago.

During his latest foreign trip, he warned Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Representative Jack Murtha (D-Penn.) that the redeployment of U.S. troops from Iraq would “validate the Al Qaeda strategy,” as if Mr. bin Laden somehow lured the United States into invading Mesopotamia. Reiterating the point later, he added: “Al Qaeda functions on the basis that they think they can break our will. That’s their fundamental underlying strategy: that if they can kill enough Americans or cause enough havoc, create enough chaos in Iraq, then we’ll quit and go home.”

Actually, we now know that the occupation of Iraq—the Cheney strategy—has strengthened Al Qaeda immeasurably by recruiting thousands of young Muslims to its cause. We know that because the National Intelligence Estimate prepared for the Bush administration a year ago said so. According to The Washington Post, a newspaper whose editorial page supports the war, officials familiar with the classified document said the N.I.E. concluded that “rather than contributing to eventual victory in the global counterterrorism struggle, the situation in Iraq has worsened the U.S. position.”

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Repeat after me... It was never about the oil. Yeah, Right, Whatever.

Remember we didn't go into this war for oil. Just because Bush, Cheney and half of the president's staff are oilmen had nothing to do with going to war. You know that American troops protected the Oil Ministry from chaos and looting, while the seat of government, priceless antiquties, and vast ammo dumps were left to fend for themselves. The reason was to maintain order, don't 'cha know? Why, we went to war to destroy those WMDs, er, uh, Saddam had nuclear weapons, er, ah, to spread democracy.

Remember we didn't go into this war for oil...

Simbaud at King of Zembla

On Monday, Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki's cabinet in Baghdad approved the draft of the new Iraqi oil law. The government regards it as "a major national project". The key point of the law is that Iraq's immense oil wealth (115 billion barrels of proven reserves, third in the world after Saudi Arabia and Iran) will be under the iron rule of a fuzzy "Federal Oil and Gas Council" boasting "a panel of oil experts from inside and outside Iraq". That is, nothing less than predominantly US Big Oil executives.

[...]The law was in essence drafted, behind locked doors, by a US consulting firm hired by the Bush administration and then carefully retouched by Big Oil, the International Monetary Fund, former US deputy defense secretary Paul Wolfowitz' World Bank, and the United States Agency for International Development. It's virtually a US law (its original language is English, not Arabic) . . . .

Big Oil is obviously ecstatic - not only ExxonMobil, but also ConocoPhillips, Chevron, BP and Shell (which have collected invaluable info on two of Iraq's biggest oilfields), TotalFinaElf, Lukoil from Russia and the Chinese majors. Iraq has as many as 70 undeveloped fields - "small" ones hold a minimum of a billion barrels. As desert western Iraq has not even been exploited, reserves may reach 300 billion barrels - way more than Saudi Arabia. Gargantuan profits under the PSA arrangement are in a class by themselves. Iraqi oil costs only US$1 a barrel to extract. With a barrel worth $60 and up, happy days are here again.

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12 reasons not to go to war with Iran

12 clear reasons to keep our cotton pickin' hands off Iran. Utley reports that Bush reads Scottish preacher Oswald Chambers. Chambers preaches that when your plans go awry, it's not because you have the I.Q. of a houseplant. Instead it's God 'testing' you. (And, by extension, I guess, well over 20,000 US troops as well.)
Now keep calling your congresscritter until they finally tell these fools, "No More!"
Jon Basil Utley at AntiWar.com

An article about Iran in The American Conservative by former CIA officer Phil Giraldi says that Bush may attack before Tony Blair retires in April. Blair has already just sent two British minesweepers to the Gulf.

U.S. war plans are reportedly counting on a few weeks of war (as they did with Iraq) to disable Iran's nuclear and military industries. The concept that the U.S. could simply destroy much of Iran then proclaim the war over neglects all the lessons of Iraq, namely that a wounded Muslim nation only gives up when it wants to. Repeatedly, the U.S. loses when we expect enemies to play by American rules.

Following are consequences we must anticipate following such an American attack:

1. Iran would blockade the Straits of Hormuz.

2. War quickly gets out of hand. U.S. plans to destroy Iran's anti-aircraft and military infrastructure could easily escalate to destroying Iran's oil-loading and shipment facilities. This would take even more millions of barrels off the market for a prolonged period. ...Jim Cramer warned on MSNBC's Scarborough Country on Jan. 30 that war would quickly drive U.S. gas prices to $5 per gallon.

3. The whole world's prosperity would be at risk if oil didn't flow again quickly. Any such severe shock to the world economy would cause foreigners to cut back on financing U.S. deficits, with a consequent sharp rise in U.S. interest rates. This would cause very severe repercussions to the whole U.S. economy

That's three. Go on and read the rest.

One of the best things about Scooter Libby's trial...

Besides catching Darth Cheney in it's web, that is... Is showing the world just how screwed up the "Liberal" MSM really is.
Eric Boehlert at Media Matters

So as the facts of the White House cover-up now tumble out into open court, it's important to remember that if it hadn't been for Fitzgerald's work, there's little doubt the Plame story would have simply faded into oblivion like so many other disturbing suggestions of Bush administration misdeeds. And it would have faded away because lots of high-profile journalists at The New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, and NBC wanted it to.

In a sense, it was Watergate in reverse. Instead of digging for the truth, lots of journalists tried to bury it. The sad fact remains the press was deeply involved in the cover-up, as journalists reported White House denials regarding the Plame leak despite the fact scores of them received the leak and knew the White House was spreading rampant misinformation about an unfolding criminal case.

And that's why the Plame investigation then, and the Libby perjury trial now, so perfectly capture what went wrong with the timorous press corps during the Bush years as it routinely walked away from its responsibility of holding people in power accountable and ferreting out the facts.

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Even the Fat-Cats are beginning to realize that Emperor Cheney is nuts.

Brett Arends at AOL Money & Finance

The oil-based energy policies usually associated with Vice President Dick Cheney have just come under scathing attack. There's nothing remarkable about that, of course -- except the person doing the attacking.

Step forward, Jeremy Grantham -- Cheney's own investment manager. "What were we thinking?' Grantham demands in a four-page assault on U.S. energy policy mailed last week to all his clients, including the vice president.

Titled "While America Slept, 1982-2006: A Rant on Oil Dependency, Global Warming, and a Love of Feel-Good Data," Grantham's philippic adds up to an extraordinary critique of U.S. energy policy over the past two decades.

What Cheney makes of it can only be imagined.

[...]

The irony is that this isn't, or shouldn't be, a partisan issue. Grantham singles out the Ford administration for his strongest praise on environmental matters. Everyone since, of both parties, has been a failure, he concludes. "The past 26 years have been such a wasted opportunity," Grantham writes. "This country had previously shown leadership in this field. President Ford got us off to a running start in energy efficiency... With a succession of President Fords, we would have ended up as an environmental leader and a great model."

I would love to know what President Ford's former chief of staff thinks of that.

His name? Richard B. Cheney.

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At Long Last, Sir, Have you no decency?

By Clyde
I was listening to Diane Rehm's News Roundup Friday morning. The Journalists were Linda Wertheimer, Andrew Sullivan and Elanore Clift. The subject of conversation, Bush's expansion of the war and the senate Non-binding resolutions against the expansion.

A caller indicated there would be 45 thousand troops sent, not 21 thousand.

Thoughts were then expressed by these journalists that this president must be affected by the expressed desires of the country. That he would accept the prospect of thousands dying simply to cover his sorry ineptitude would be unthinkable.

Well, think it! This man has no decency! We've known that for more than six years. Each time he has gone before congress assembled, to present his state of the union address, he has used inflammatory points he knew were not valid. That is the expression of a faulsehood. Lying. From his previous record as the governor of Texas, it appears he simply has no regard for human life.

Bush stated he knew nothing about Plame. The grand jury testimony is showing that Cheney was in the middle of the whole thing and was the one who leaked Plame's identity. But the president didn't know...(?)

Bush has now admited that statements that the US was winning in Iraq during the run-up to the elections were false. That he was disturbed by the lack of progress and has been considering this 'New Direction' all that time.

Congress must stand up to thwart this pitiful little man, who would be king. He must not be allowed to further squander the lives of our troops, the lifeblood of our treasure, and the honor for which this country has stood, for over 230 years. He must not be allowed finally to make true the imagined all pervading terrorism he has preached since 9-11-2001. He must be prevented from engaging yet another non-aggressive middleast state in a preemptive war for no other reason than to cover up his incompetence as a head of state, and enraging one and a half BILLION muslims.

Finally as happened in the Army - McCarthy hearings, someone must finally rise and ask this question of Bush, Cheney et. al. "Have you no sense of decency, sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?"

Get ready for it. The sociopath is going to get us into the biggest disaster ever.

Just pray that there are officers who take their oath to uphold the constitution and the law seriously. If we go into Iran, the entire mideast will hate America. If you are afraid of 'turrists', be very very afraid of this mental midget with Cheney's hand up his ass.
Nicole Belle at Crooks and Liars

I've had a knot in my stomach for weeks as the rhetoric out of Washington amped up against Iran. As others have pointed out, this is deja vu, all over again. Sean-Paul Kelley at The Agonist pulls it all together and it paints one very scary picture.

The drumbeat for an attack on Iran is getting louder and louder.

Fears of Iranian economic dominance in Iran are being stoked, although the story is already weeks, if not months old. We've also been told the Iranians are cooperating with the North Koreans in their bid for nuclear weapons. Never mind that the North Koreans use plutonium in their reactors and the Iranians use uranium. Ooops.

...A parade of administration officials from the President on down inform us that Iran is aiding and abetting the chaos in Iraq by providing weapons to Iraqis. Never mind that there is little or no proof that the Iranians are supplying weapons to groups in Iraq actively targeting American forces.no evidence found.)

Arthur Silber at Once Upon a Time says the time is now . We must take control of our government NOW, or face complete disaster at the hands of a disinterested puppet.

If ... the Democrats showed some leadership, there is one other issue they desperately need to address: Iran.

They should rescind the Iraq authorization of force resolution (Lindorff's reference is to the earlier one, passed right after 9/11 -- both should be burned to a crisp), since Bush uses the authorizations to maintain that he already has authority to attack Iran (and anyone else he chooses). And they should pass resolutions stating that, if Bush attacks Iran in the absence of a Congressional Declaration of War (remember those?), that will be grounds for immediate impeachment.

And they should draft articles of impeachment NOW, just in case they need them. And they should publish them in every major newspaper, and read them on television every night.

No, it's not the set-up for a really sad joke... Robert Reich asks What Can Possibly Be in Bush's Head?

The points Reich makes are good commentary, but some of the best comments are, remarkably, in the comments. Read them too.

Question: Why is Bush willing to risk his party’s future, as well as his own legacy, by putting more troops into Iraq when it’s clear to almost everyone – including top military brass, foreign policy experts, and most analysts and journalists on the ground there – that Iraq is descending so quickly into civil war that more troops won’t make a bit of difference except causing more American deaths and instigating more violence?

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This is so very wrong. This should be grounds for impeachment.

Troops are being taken from their families and sent halfway around the world to serve their country. When, or if they return, this is the thanks they get. For this reason alone Bush, Cheney and all their rancid cohort must, as Shrub likes to put it, "receive justice".
Bob Geiger

Jonathan Schulze was a United States Marine.

He died earlier this month at the age of 25 -- not in Iraq, but back home, in Minnesota.

He died of wounds received during his seven-month tour of duty in Iraq, wounds different from the ones that earned Schulze two purple hearts. This young man died of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, of wounds to the soul and not the flesh. He died because the government that was there to send him far away to fight in 2004 wasn't there for him when he got home.

[...]On January 11, 2007, accompanied by his parents, he went to the VA hospital in St. Cloud, Minnesota and told people at that VA facility that he was thinking of killing himself. They told Schulze that they could not admit him as a patient and sent him on his way.

The next day, January 12, Schulze called the VA, reiterating that he was feeling suicidal. He was told that he was number 26 on the waiting list.

A man who had risked his life in Iraq and done everything that was asked of him by the United States government, was told by that same government that his sacrifice would be repaid by being 26th on a list of Veterans similarly crying out for help.

[...]On January 16, Schulze called his family and told them that he was going to do it -- he was going to kill himself. His family called the local police, who raced to his house, kicked in his door and found him hanging from an electrical cord.

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Maureen Dowd on 'Daffy' Cheney.

Borrowed from Welcome to Pottersville

Dick Durbin went to the floor of the Senate on Thursday night to denounce the vice president as “delusional.”

It was shocking, and Senator Durbin should be ashamed of himself.

Delusional is far too mild a word to describe Dick Cheney. Delusional doesn’t begin to capture the profound, transcendental one-flew-over daftness of the man.

Has anyone in the history of the United States ever been so singularly wrong and misguided about such phenomenally important events and continued to insist he’s right in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary?

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pending attack on Iran 6 years in the planning. Before, of course, 9/11.

Larisa Alexandrovna and Muriel Kane at Raw Story

The escalation of US military planning on Iran is only the latest chess move in a six-year push within the Bush Administration to attack Iran, a RAW STORY investigation has found.

While Iran was named a part of President George W. Bush’s “axis of evil” in 2002, efforts to ignite a confrontation with Iran date back long before the post-9/11 war on terror. Presently, the Administration is trumpeting claims that Iran is closer to a nuclear weapon than the CIA’s own analysis shows and positing Iranian influence in Iraq’s insurgency, but efforts to destabilize Iran have been conducted covertly for years, often using members of Congress or non-government actors in a way reminiscent of the 1980s Iran-Contra scandal.

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