The Immoral Presidency of George W. Bush

[michelle]

A MUST READ!!!!!! [SNIP]:

George Bush in Hell
Submitted by Sussel on Wed, 2005-09-28 10:02. Media
George Bush in Hell
by David Michael Green

You would not want to be George W. Bush right now.

Not that you ever would anyhow, but especially not now. Indeed, there are indications that not even George W. Bush wants to be George W. Bush right now.

That second term in office, the one that just a year or two ago seemed so precious that he was willing to launch a war just to obtain it, now feels like a life sentence. Plans for four years spending political capital now look a lot more like endless months of capital punishment.

The Bush Administration has nowhere to go but down, and that is precisely where it is headed. Poll data show that even members of his solid-to-the-point-of-twelve-step-eligibility base are now deserting him as his job approval ratings plunge like so much Enron stock, lately crashing southward through the forty percent threshold. With almost his entire second term still in front of him, Bush is poised to set new records for presidential unpopularity. That scraping noise you hear? It's the sound of sheepish voters creeping out to the garage late at night, furtively removing "Bush-Cheney 2004" bumperstickers from the back of their SUVs when no one is looking.

Read the rest at: www.afterdowningstreet.org/?q=node/3167

[DT1]

It seems this disasterous,unconstitutional occupation of the White House is disintegrating before our eyes...

(update courtesy of capitolhillblue.com)

GOP Leaders to Bush: 'Your Presidency is Effectively Over'
By DOUG THOMPSON
Nov 4, 2005, 08:13

A growing number of Republican leaders, party strategists and political professional now privately tell President George W. Bush that his presidency "is effectively over" unless he fires embattled White House advisor Karl Rove, apologizes to the American people for misleading the country into war and revamps his administration from top to bottom.

"The only show of unity we have now in the Republican Party is the belief that the President has failed the party, the American people and the presidency," says a longtime, and angry, GOP strategist.

With the public face of support for Bush eroding daily from even diehard Republicans, the President faces mounting anger from within his party over the path that may well lead to loss of control of Congress in the 2006 midterm elections and the White House in 2008.

"This presidency is in trouble," says a senior White House aide. "Even worse, I don't know if there is a way out of the trouble."

Congressional leaders journeyed to the White House before Bush left on his South American tour this week to tell the President that his legislative agenda on the Hill is dead, his latest Supreme Court nominee faces a tough confirmation fight in the Senate and he is facing open revolt within party ranks.

"The Speaker is having an increasingly difficult time holding his troops in line," says a source within the office of House Speaker Dennis J. Hastert. "Anger at the President grows exponentially with each passing day."

At a recent White House strategy session, internal party pollsters told the President that his approval rating with Americans continues to slide and may be irreversible, citing his failed Iraq war, the failed Supreme Court nomination of Harriet Miers and his failure to deal decisively on a number of fronts, including Hurricane Katrina, the economy and the Valerie Plame scandal.

In meetings, leaders and strategists have suggested a number of things that Bush must do to try and save his presidency and GOP prospects in upcoming elections, including:

Apologize to the American people, Congress and our allies for misleading them on the reasons for invading Iraq;
Revamp the White House staff from top to bottom;
Fire Rove.
"We keep coming back to Rove," says a GOP pollster. "He has escaped indictment, so far, but the feeling within the party is that another shoe is ready to drop and the longer he waits to jettison Rove the greater the damage. As long as Karl Rove remains at the President's side, the Bush presidency is effectively over and he is just riding out the days until the nation elects a Democrat to replace him. Even with Rove gone the damage may be irreparable."

Bush, however, has dug his heels in on Rove. When a GOP strategist suggested last weekend that the President fire Rove, Bush exploded.

"You go to hell," he screamed at the strategist. "You can leave and you can take the rest of these lily-livered mother******s with you!" The President then stormed out of the room and refused to meet further with any other party leaders or strategists.

Bush's escalating temper tantrums and his intransigence on political issues increase Republican worries about the long term effects on both his presidency and the party's prospects in upcoming elections.

"Right now, George W. Bush is the Republican Party's chief liability," says a GOP strategist who has advised Presidential campaigns for 30 years. "The entire political future of the party and perhaps the nation now rests on the shoulders of a President that no one - Democrat or Republican - believes in or trusts."

[DT1]

I have been extremely busy this week,
but I had to grab this and share it with all of you.
(reprinted courtesy of rense.com)

Dissecting The Obvious
By Jim Kirwan
[e-mail]
11-6-5

Since the first appearance of George W. Bush as a presidential hopeful, ominous clouds of suspicion and credibility have shadowed his every move. Over the five years since the beginnings of this still unfolding legend that will ultimately become what Bush leaves to the nation and the world - the questions concerning the veracity of this strange presidential imposter have only deepened as both national and global events keep pace with the continuing failures of this presidency.

The Office of the Presidency in the US is the one and only office that was created to take responsibility for this nation and for its survival, it was not meant to become some kind of ceremonial office for a National Cheerleader whose sole purpose seems to be the private gain of his friends at the public's expense - nor was the presidency meant to be a place to be protected from criminal charges by a bunch of underlings.

The Presidency is at the heart of American politics, and what this president heads is the Administrative branch of a government that has grown impossibly huge since the end of WWII. Yet as the scale of this branch of government has grown, its officers have shunned responsibility for their own actions in inverse proportion to the direct expansion of their powers and their propensity for lawlessness. This obscenity applies most particularly to this president, which is what has created the nightmares that are only now beginning to unravel.

Trust has always been at the heart of the leadership in any nation, especially in this one. And Bush has done everything in his power to dissuade the public that there is anything that anyone could look to him to accomplish "In the Public's Interest." Yet he still sits in that office, and continues to play his shabby shell games to hide the truth of all his actions, regardless of the consequences that are now everywhere in abundance. From Iraq to Katrina, from the economy to health care, from the environment to the deficit from every corner his obvious ineptitude in the decisions he makes is raising the stench of his failures to new levels of intolerance. As his judgment, his inability to envision, and his real purposes continue to rise unchecked, his falling poll numbers are finally beginning to reflect the truth. His reception at The Summit of the Americas is only the latest clear signal from those outside the USA that George W. Bush is not only without credibility, but is in fact a key element in what is wrong with the world today.

Bush apparently has never understood that trust is at the heart of integrity, whether that occurs in a one on one situation or whether this comes from him as titular leader to his people. Responsibility and the acceptance of that concept is the key to the Office of the Presidency and there is nothing in the world that causes Bush to run away from reality faster than to demand that he take "responsibility" for his actions. Without acceptance of responsibility there can be no legitimate leadership of anything, much less the presidency of this country.

All nations and governments, just like everyday people are judged on how exactly they keep their promises, because that goes a long way to determining how credible whatever they might propose really is. Presidents of the United States must also meet this time honored human standard, a standard that goes well beyond our ever-changing legal system.

This began in earnest with the rearrangement of the military Chain of Command, regarding any attack upon this nation, and what this government did to absolve boy-George from any and all responsibility for what happened on 911 - well before that black day was planned. Some powers of the Presidency cannot be delegated, and the powers of the Commander-in-Chief fall into that category. www.rense.com/general50/fromthesmokin.htm

A US President has very clear responsibilities. But GWB has allowed himself to be divested of those responsibilities that give weight to the title of the Presidency - along with authenticity. Bush demands that he be taken seriously, but how can anyone take a self-appointed national cheerleader seriously, especially given this man's Herculean failures in every area he has tried to affect? He has substituted national terror for National Security and terminated clear and effective leadership during any national emergency. What happened to sound judgment and balanced fiscal plans in a rapidly changing world beset with energy demands and shortfalls that stagger the mind? Why is the USA falling behind so many other countries in health and national preparedness not to mention quality of life? The only thing this government excels at is their attempted stealth management of the real problems that the New World Order has brought to the 95% of us that are not power barons.

Why are our borders not secure, why do the individual states no longer have their national guards here in the very states that they were created to assist? We have a government that is fixated on creating diversions so that we do not see what they are really doing with all that they had when they took over. This government has squandered our resources, our job opportunities, our national reputation and given our lives to a bunch of soulless corporations that care nothing about those who work for them, but only about more money legal or otherwise.

From the beginning, George W. Bush has run from responsibility wherever he has encountered it. Now his tawdry White House advisors are expected to take the fall that he and Cheney so richly deserve. Can anyone seriously believe that Libby or Rove ever did anything major without the full and riveted attention of their immediate superiors? It is this troubling thorn of actual "responsibility" in the paw of the White House that is causing the Jackals all those sleepless nights - because everybody knows that this is not even the tip of the corruption or the crimes - merely the entry point that will begin to erode the myth of their "absolute power."

But there is a huge and frequently overlooked co-conspirator in all of this and that is the antiquated rubberstamp machine that we call the Congress of the United States. This is the institution that holds the purse strings that has enabled all the lies and all the abuse of power that the Outlaws have engaged in. Had congress placed strings on the funding, taken a more disciplined view, or demanded an open and determined oversight of what this White House did with all that money over so many years - but that's all just history now. www.rense.com/general50/club.htm

There is however still one opportunity to get to the heart of this darkness - and that lies in determining the degree of determination that this congress could now show in actually airing the Intelligence Committee's remaining half of their in-depth report on the misrepresented intelligence that led directly to the Weapons of Mass Destruction debacle. With over 15,000 damaged and debilitated US troops, not to mention all the death and destruction that we caused to ourselves and others in the world, we must sooner or later begin to find the root causes for this war and for the crimes that have evolved out of the policies set by this administration. The real target here must include the presidential edicts that govern secrecy (including his father's immunity from scrutiny during his stint as vice-president) on far too many levels - war or no war.

Currently the USA has a leadership that cannot lead because it is hopelessly mired in failure, in presidential mistrust and in complete incompetence no matter what this Leadership turns its energies to, and this must change. Impeachment was the legal means written into the Constitution to address this problem and if we are serious about continuing to have a nation we should begin to consider this option very carefully because the world will not wait for us to find the convenient moment, because as far as the planet is concerned, we are way too late already. Paris is burning now, with a similar disconnect between the haves and the have-nots, must we wait for a backlash here, or can we turn the national spotlight on the depths of this nightmare and finally begin to disentangle the truth beneath all the lies?

Ask yourself if you really know who this government is. For that matter ask if this nation has anything to do with the welfare of the majority of those who live here. What continues to be given to the corporations in Corporate Welfare is an outrage that puts social welfare payments into the category of Pennies vs. Billions, yet no politician even mentions this giveaway. Billions upon billions are being thrown away on wars and treachery, while those who pay taxes and put up with all the lies are being left to fend for themselves. This can only end if Congress and the public finally begin to look at what the United States has become, versus what whatever the thoroughly corrupt Spinmeisters have most recently tried to make this nation into.

There is a rare opportunity before us now, but we have to begin to make some demands of those who supposedly serve us if any of this is to ever be any different. We tried letting the politicians and the corporations restrain themselves, and that did not work, Maybe we need to devote some real effort toward finding out just who it is in government and elsewhere that gives a damn if any of us live or die!

kirwan

[DT1]

After sending this to my "representitives",I thought I would post it here,in case you missed it:

Democrats: Get Up and Walk Out
By William Rivers Pitt
t r u t h o u t | Perspective

Sunday 22 January 2006

MEMO
To: Congressional Democrats
From: William Rivers Pitt
RE: A bold maneuver


- - - -

I have a wild and crazy idea.

George W. Bush's delivery of the State of the Union address will take place on Tuesday, January 31, a little more than a week from now. It is my strong belief that every single Democrat present in the House chamber for the speech should, at a predetermined moment, stand up and walk out. No yelling. No heated words. Every Democrat should simply stand silently and leave.

Crazy, I know. Crazy, and possibly the best idea ever put before a body of Democrats since the New Deal.

Understand this, congressional Democrats, and understand it well: you are not dealing merely with a body of political opponents in the GOP. You are dealing with a group of people that want you exterminated politically. The days of walking the halls of the Rayburn Building, sharing a bourbon with a colleague from the other side of the aisle, and hammering out a compromise are as dead as Julius Caesar. Collegiality is out. Mutual respect is out. They want you gone for good. Erased. Destroyed.

And you have been far too polite about this. The writing has been on the wall for a while now. Back in 1995, Republican Senator Phil Gramm said, "We're going to keep building the party until we're hunting Democrats with dogs." That was eleven years ago. If you listen close, you can hear the beasts baying in the distance, waiting to slip the leash. Your limp tactics in the face of the assault upon you, your vacillation, your strange hope that maybe the GOP will be nicer tomorrow, has left you all smelling like Alpo.

For the love of God, you are being compared to Osama bin Laden all over network television because some within your ranks have had the courage to question the war in Iraq. It hasn't been subtle. Bin Laden, according to the right-wing talking heads, is getting his talking points straight from Howard Dean. These are the out-front spokespeople for the folks running the GOP right now. If you think there is compromise to be had with these people, if you think there is quarter to be given to you, then I have a nice, big red bridge to sell you in San Francisco.

I know you believe the Abramoff scandal is going to be your bread and butter in the upcoming midterm elections. I hate to break it to you, but you have already been outflanked. The television nitwits have flooded the airwaves with the meme that this is a "two-party scandal," despite the fact that Abramoff would have sooner lit himself on fire than give money to a Democrat. As you have been collectively incapable of setting the record straight in public, with the exception of a two-minute crunch between Howard Dean and Wolf Blitzer on CNN that left Blitzer spluttering impotently, understand that "this scandal affects both parties" is now commonly accepted fact all across the land.

Oh, yeah, P.S., the investigation is being run out of the Department Justice. If this scandal does touch some sixty Republican officeholders, as Abramoff's donation history indicates, do you really think this White House is going to let the investigation get far enough to do real damage? If so, I again need to mention that big red bridge I have for sale.

In all likelihood, however, the White House won't even need to derail the Abramoff investigation to save Republicans from their ridiculous greed. Did you see the Washington Post headline from Friday? It read, "Rove: GOP to Use Terror as Campaign Issue." In reality, the headline should have read "GOP to Use Terror as Campaign Tactic." Once again, the Republicans are going to try to win midterm elections by scaring the hell out of the American people. This time, the fear factor will center around Iran and nuclear weapons.

The intelligence specialists in the United States, Germany and Israel all agree that Iran is between three and five years away from being able to manufacture nuclear weapons. This, of course, is based on the premise that such manufacture is Iran's goal. Take it as a given that it is, and we have at least three years to use diplomacy, economic pressures and possibly sanctions to keep them from creating these bombs.

But "three to five years" isn't going to help the GOP win the midterm elections. They need things to be scary, and they need things to be scary now. The same right-wing groups that ginned up the fantasy that Iraq was laden with weapons of mass destruction, and was an imminent threat, are now at work building up a martial froth about Iran. They did this in time for the midterms last time, and are preparing to do it again.

United Press International carried a story last Thursday about a group called the Foundation for Democracy in Iran. This group, according to the UPI story, claims that, "Tehran is planning a nuclear weapons test before the Iranian New Year on March 20, 2006." FDI, according to the story, offered absolutely no proof to back this claim. But that's not three to five years. That's less than ten weeks. Scary stuff, right?

Take a closer look, however, and you can see the fingerprints of the architects of our current Iraq boondoggle all over this. The Foundation for Democracy in Iran is run by a man named Kenneth Timmerman. Timmerman is umbilically connected to the godfather of right-wing think tanks, the American Enterprise Institute. It was the American Enterprise Institute that spawned the Project for the New American Century, the think tank that gave us Cheney, Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld, the original noise about Iraqi WMD, and the idea that a military takeover of the entire Mideast is a bully idea. The same people that terrorized the American people into unnecessary war in Iraq are preparing to do the same with Iran, and all in time for the midterms.

One must also note the irony of the suggested date for this Iranian nuclear test. March 20, 2006, for those not paying attention, is the three-year anniversary of our invasion of Iraq. And round and round we go.

You've been outflanked, Democrats. Abramoff won't help you, and the noise machine is preparing to terrorize the American people into such a distracted state that anything you say in the next ten months will be lost amid the howling. The midterms are pretty much a done deal, and your continued marginalization will proceed at speed.

You can stomp your feet and yell at the wall. You can put your head in your hands and weep. You can sit silently and be simply satisfied that your own job-for-life is secure, thanks to your friendly district back home, and be damned to actually doing anything of substance. In other words, you can continue to do what you've been doing since this outrageous assault on basic American democracy began.

Or you can stand up.

It takes a spine to stand up. Find yours. Get up and walk out of the State of the Union speech. Turn your backs on the blizzard of lies and empty promises that are sure to pour forth from that podium. Give it exactly what it deserves.

Walk outside to the steps of the Capitol Building and hold a Counter-State-of-the-Union. Lay out your plans for a better future. Explain how you will reform the system that spawned Mr. Abramoff. Demand answers and explanations about what is happening in Iraq, what is happening over at the National Security Agency, and why this administration believes itself to be completely above the law.

I can even offer a bit of text for your opening statement. "Three years ago during this very speech," your leading spokesperson can say from those steps, "Mr. Bush told us that Iraq was in possession of 26,000 liters of anthrax, 38,000 liters of botulinum toxin, 500 tons - which is one million pounds - of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent, 30,000 missiles to deliver the stuff, mobile biological weapons labs, al Qaeda connections, and uranium from Niger for use in a robust nuclear weapons program. He said all this three years ago, during this all-important annual address, and all of it was a lie. The American people deserve an explanation."

See? It's easy. All it takes is courage.

What I am talking about is political theater on a grand scale. No opposition party in American history has ever turned their backs on a President and walked out of a State of the Union address. No opposition party has faced the degree of potential extermination the Democrats face today. The stakes have never been higher. You are dealing with a President who wants to make his Executive powers absolute, and with a Republican party that has been usurped from soup to nuts by extremists that would be cartoonish if they were not so very real.

Abramoff won't help you. The fear factor will subsume you. You can sit there and take it, clapping politely as the ram rolls towards you, or you can stand up and make yourselves relevant again. To walk out of the speech would be a huge statement, bold and potentially dangerous. But if you don't do something bold, something grand and unprecedented, something to take back the initiative, you will join the Whigs in the dustbin of history.

Stand up. Walk out. You have a week to get this organized.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
William Rivers Pitt is a New York Times and internationally bestselling author of two books: War on Iraq: What Team Bush Doesn't Want You to Know and The Greatest Sedition Is Silence.

[Anwaar]

Terrific !!

Thanks DT-1

[michelle]

JACK ABRAMOFF, MISANTHROPIC CRONY OF THE
BUSH ADMINISTRATION

The Abramoff case gets more interesting with each passing day. Prosecutors on the case are investigating several members of Congress and other public officials.
Now Noel Hillman, the chief prosecutor in the Jack Abramoff case, has stepped down
because Bush nominated Hillman for a seat on the federal bench this week. How convenient.

[Prosecutor Will Step Down from Lobbyist Case]

[Nominating a Judge or Interfering with an Investigation?]
Both stories: www.truthout.org/docs_2006/012706J.shtml


So what's Bush hiding from us? Why did he deny a friendship with Abramoff?:

Mr. Bush's position, which he offered at a news conference on Thursday morning that was peppered with questions about Mr. Abramoff, was that the photographs were so common as to be almost meaningless and that it was part of his job "to shake hands with people and smile." He said he could not remember posing for the pictures, or, for that matter, even meeting Mr. Abramoff.

"I had my picture taken with him, evidently," Mr. Bush said. "I've had my picture taken with a lot of people. Having my picture taken with someone doesn't mean that I'm a friend with them or know them very well."

He said, "I'm also mindful that we live in a world in which those pictures will be used for pure political purposes, and they're not relevant to the investigation."

Take a look at this dirty laundry list. Jack Abramoff, talk of the devil!

"The devil is no idle spirit, but a vagrant, runagate walker, that never rests in one place.----The motive, cause, and main intention of his walking is to ruin man."
T. Adams

Interesting reading below, notice all the references to Bush.........Michelle


A crash course – “Abramoff 101,” if you will.
From: cherylsealreports.com/endtoendevil.html

Looking at the assembled "pieces," the Abramoff scandal can be divided into five main categories, each being an aspect of this multifaceted and truly evil slimebag. Here they are:

1. Abramoff the traitor.

As the generic definition of treason is "an effort to undermine a nation's government," then we can safely assign to Jack Abramoff (forthwith JA) his premier title: TRAITOR. Since the early 1980s, JA's primary agenda has been to turn the US government into a one-party system - ie., a rightwing dictatorship. In short, JA has sought to overturn the US government as we know it in order to insure the financial goals of himself and other NeoCons. Here's an Abramoff quote from the 1983 College Republican "manifesto": “It is not our job to seek peaceful coexistence with the Left. Our job is to remove them from power permanently”:

While head of the College Republicans (1981-1985), JA turned this organization into a sort of neo-brown shirt outfit, cranking out mean-spirited, unscrupulous powermongers like Karl Rove. The organization was not just mean-spirited, it was corrupt. Years after leaving the position as top dog, Abramoff was raking in kick backs from the CR. In 2002, he received about $10,000 for what was "officially" described as "accounting and legal services." The group laundered hundreds of thousands of dollars to itself through other organizations. The Seattle Times reported "Some of the most prolific donors said they were unaware they had been giving so much money to the group because the fund-raising letters often came under the names of other official-sounding organizations, such as "Republican Headquarters 2004," and led some to believe the money was going to Bush's re-election campaign." Instead, most of the funds went back to a money-laundering outfit called Response Dynamics Inc. (RDI).

The goal of all of these intrigues, of course, was to fuel the takeover of the US government at all levels, from the White House to the House of Representatives with rightwing Republicans. There was no "ideology" involved, except as a surface "hook" to reel in the clueless. The only objective was POWER, plain and simple. The issues tossed about by the "new GOP" - issues like "family values," "democracy," and "fiscal responsibility" - were simply phony "promos." lThey were thrown out like bait, just like the plasma TVs or stereo systems offered to lure the gullible to signing onto a rip-off timeshare scheme.

Those who say that Abramoff was an "equal opportunity, bipartisan" crook with no such agenda are just as dishonest and intentionally misleading as JA himself. JA has had a partisan agenda from day one. Media Matters reports that "a search of the Center for Responsive Politics database of campaign contributions did not find any contributions from Abramoff to Democrats or Democratic leadership political action committees." Abramoff may have peddled his influence to a few corrupt blue-dog Democrats, but he had no intention of furthering the Democratic party in any way, shape or form.

2 Abramoff the White Supremacist:

JA was one of the driving forces in shoving the GOP further to the right, and in a direction that can only be described as a "neo-confederate" mind set. In the 1980s, Abramoff had close relationships with South Africa's aparthied government, even taking funding for an anti-Communist movie project from the fascist South African army. In addition, Abramoff treated native Americans with cold contempt - ripping them off as cynically as any "Indian hater" of the 19th century. Not only did Abramoff steal tens of millions from six different tribes while he purported to be helping them lobby for casinos, he actually took money from one Texas tribe as a pro-casino lobbyist while sucking up millions more from another tribe in LA that was lobbying against the TX tribe's efforts. Seems like the only thing JA DIDN'T try was install smallpox-infected slots (as a 21st century version of blankets) on reservations.

In addition, Abramoff ran sweatshops in the Marianas Islands, in which native workers were outrageously exploited. Activist writer Geoff Parrish described this nightmare: "Conditions in the Marianas' sweatshops are horrific. Women are lured from China, Thailand, the Philippines, Bangladesh, and other Asian countries--often with the promise of living and working in the United States. Once they reached Saipan, the main island in the Northern Marianas chain, workers found themselves toiling eight hours a day for $3 an hour, then being forced to "donate" an additional four hours each day (reducing the gross pay to $2 an hour). In off hours the workers were not allowed to leave a crowded housing compound patrolled by armed guards. The Women were forced to live 20 per room, eat poor-quality food, and were charged by the company for housing and food through further reductions in their pay. Women were not allowed to date or marry, and pregnant women were forced to have abortions. Those who broke the rules were beaten."

Guess who insured that Abramoff's slave labor camps would be exempt from any regulation? G.W. Bush . Oh, yes – his aid bought and paid for by Abramoff. Of course, Bush is allowing the same slave labor system to prevail in Iraq and Afghanistan now, too.

3. "Casino Jack" the Mob Crime Boss:

Abramoff was able to buy the SunCruz casino fleet in 2000 through fraudulent means. The Miami Herald reported how JA paid GOP Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio (you know - the state that fixed the 2004 presidential election) to smear the original owner in high places: " Ney placed critical remarks of former SunCruz owner Konstantinos ''Gus'' Boulis in the Congressional Record in 2000. He called Boulis a ''bad apple'' and praised [Abramoff right-hand man] Kidan as a businessman with a ``renowned reputation for honesty and integrity.'' " The Herald continues, "After the SunCruz sale, according to law-enforcement sources, Abramoff and Kidan approved contributing $10,000 in SunCruz money -- on behalf of Ney -- to a national campaign fund to help elect Republicans to Congress. Prosecutors in Washington and South Florida believe that the partners donated the SunCruz money in Ney's name as an illegal payback for his critical comments of Boulis." Once Abramoff had control of the SunCruz fleet, he proceeded to defraud the company of tens of millions of dollars in money-laundering and wire-fraud schemes.

There is direct - but currently totally covered-up - evidence linking "Casino Jack" to the murder Boulis in 2001. Boulis was killed by Mafia hit man 'Big Tony' Moscatiello and two other mobsters, Anthony Ferrari and James Fiorillo. Moscatiello, his daughter, and Ferrari, cashed, between them, $240,000 in payments from Abramoff's Casino, paid out for no discernible reason. Of course, only a few bloggers like Mad Cow have put all these nasty facts end to end in their real succession.

4. Abramoff as White House Puppeteer:

Records from JA's own firm reveal that JA began working on cultivating his power base with Bush as early as 1997. JA and his assorted "interests" directly paid out tens of thousands to Bush and the GOP in campaign contributions. As a Bush "Pioneer," JA personally raised $100,000 for Bush's 2000 campaign. USA Today reports, "In President Bush's first 10 months, GOP fundraiser Jack Abramoff and his lobbying team logged nearly 200 contacts with the new administration as they pressed for friendly hires at federal agencies and sought to keep the Northern Mariana Islands exempt from the minimum wage and other laws....The meetings between Abramoff's lobbying team and the administration ranged from Attorney General John Ashcroft to policy advisers in Vice President Dick Cheney's office, according to his lobbying firm billing records."

Oh, but it gets worse.

JA planted his own "eyes and ears" in the White House. In 2001, Sue Bonzon Ralston became Special Assistant to the President & Assistant to the Senior Advisor Karl Rove. According to Ralston's bio, "Ms. Ralston assists Mr. Rove in overseeing the strategic planning, political affairs, public liaison, and intergovernmental affairs efforts of the White House." What makes Ralston particularly despicable is that although she herself is a Philippine American, she has assisted JA in insuring that conditions for workers in the Marianas Islands, many of them Philipinne women, remain abysmal and exploitive. But Ralston is swimming in White House crap up to her eyebrows. The New York Times reports, "It was Ms. Ralston who patched through a phone call from Matt Cooper, the reporter for Time magazine, to Mr. Rove on the day in July 2003 that they discussed Mrs. Wilson, then known by her maiden name, Valerie Plame. And Ms. Ralston, while in Mr. Abramoff’s employ, drafted a memorandum about his suites at local arenas, which he used to entertain clients and public officials who have since gotten in trouble for accepting his favors."

5. Abramoff as GOP Money Launderer:

First and foremost, JA is the GOP's chief money launderer and influence buyer. This should not be "breaking news," as the networks this week are spinning the story. As Lou Dubose of the "Texas Observer" points out, since the JA story first broke, "the media has focused on the stunning $82 million Abramoff and Scanlon billed six tribes for lobbying and public relations work. Far less attention has been paid to the political contributions, by Abramoff’s account $10 million, made by the six tribes. That piece of the story involves the K Street Project, which moves the money of corporate lobbyists and their clients into the accounts of Republican candidates, PACs, and issue advocacy groups." If to this you add the cumulative amount of GOP-driven legislation "purchased" by lobbyists with money funneled through Abramoff and power funneled through the White House, the net "benefit" to the GOP is staggering.


So as you listen to the mainstream media's version of the Abramoff tale in the coming days, you may find yourself stunned by just how few questions - and answers - are forthcoming.

[DT1]

Another superb analysis from rense.com:


Bush's Tyranny For
A Bankrupt Nation
By Mike Whitney
2-6-6

President Bush has consistently defended his massive $500 billion tax cuts. He has insisted that deficit spending be a "permanent" part of the national budget. His economic plan has eroded the confidence of central banks around the world and increased the federal debt by a whopping $3 trillion. Still, he persists in his claim that deficits should be an enduring function of government.

Doesn't this confirm that bankrupting the country is an integral part of the Bush grand strategy?

What more proof do we need?

Imagine someone stealing your credit card and running up a $450,000 bill year after year and then defending the theft as necessary to "create more jobs" as the "trickle-down" theorists do?

Would you take such a person at his word?

Deficits are theft; and the determination to make these lavish tax cuts for the wealthy permanent proves beyond a doubt that it is part of a larger strategy to bring about an economic meltdown that will change the political complexion of the country.

What else could it mean?

Dick Cheney recently opined, "Reagan proved that deficits don't mean anything."

Liar.

In fact, Cheney was part of the Reagan administration when Reagan's tax cuts created monstrous $200 billion deficits, up 75% from 1980. The effects were devastating. Unemployment jumped to 10%, the 30 year mortgage skyrocketed to 15%, the economy ground to a standstill, and the nation plunged into the deepest recession since the 1930s.

Cheney fully understands the suffering that deficits produce. Now, he wants to continue that misery as a permanent function of government.

Why?

Is it really so important to reward the "fortunate 1%" that the administration would risk the economic well-being and solvency of the nation?

And, what is the relationship between the ocean of debt produced by the Bush team and their strengthening of police-state apparatus like unlimited spying on Americans, the NSS (Bush's new Secret Police), the uniform Federal ID program, the Patriot Act, and Halliburton's $385 million contract from Homeland Security to construct new detention and processing facilities within the United States?

Is the ascendancy of the police-state intended to balance the catastrophic effects of economic destruction? Or, do the new instruments of repression anticipate the "political turmoil" (Warren Buffet's words) that naturally results from financial collapse?

The Bush master-plan is no different than the economic shock-therapy the United States has directed at the third world for decades. The strategy is simple and straightforward, but virtually foolproof in achieving its objectives; the crushing of the middle class and the subsequent shifting of the nation's wealth to the "oligarchy of racketeers" who run the system.

The levers of power have all been faithfully assembled by Bush operatives, while America's $3 trillion trade deficit looms overhead like the sword of Damocles. As the underpinnings of economic wellbeing continue to deteriorate; causing further job-flight, credit spending, and soaring energy prices; the power-brokers at the head-of-state calmly arrange the instruments of repression they'll need to maintain order.

Did we really imagine the chickens would never come home to roost?

Regardless of what the public-relation gurus on the business channel say, the state of the union is disastrous. Bush has intentionally looted the treasury and torpedoed America's economic future. Federal Reserve chief, Alan Greenspan cooperatively kept interest rates low so the greatest swindle in history could take place while the drowsy American public snoozed away.

Thanks, Alan.

Americans refuse to believe that bubbles (housing or stock market) are brought about by the deliberate and politically-motivated actions at the Federal Reserve.

Huh?

Everyone agrees about the effects of high interest rates; why would there be so much uncertainty about low interest rates?

Just as high interest rates slow the economy by making loans on investment more expensive; so too, low interest rates naturally produce increased speculation by making cheap money available to a greater number of people. Greenspan knew as early as 1996 that the stock market was over-inflated when he warned that "there was a stock market bubble at this point" that is "a problem we should keep our eye on". (Remember "irrational exuberance"?) Still, he accommodated his friends in Washington and Wall Street by waiting until tens of thousands of Americans had lost their savings (and retirement) before ratcheting up interest rates and cooling down the spec-market. The final loss to investors was an estimated $7 trillion dollars, an amount that pales in comparison to the current housing bubble which "The Economist" calls "the greatest bubble in history". Again, it was Greenspan who instigated the housing bubble by dropping rates to a paltry 1.5% following the decline in the stock market. Regrettably, the results will be even more ruinous this time.

Never the less, low interest rates are an effective way of creating bubbles and thereby transferring wealth from one class to another. The other two "tried-and-true" methods are tax cuts and hyperinflation; both parts of the Greenspan legacy. (Expect a weakening dollar as the effects of the massive trade deficit set in)

To argue that the Federal Reserve does not support a political agenda that favors elite interests, is to say that it is not a privately-owned institution (which it is) which operates in conjunction with major investors; particularly the energy giants, the mainstream media, arms-manufacturers, and the political establishment. The Federal Reserve is joined at the hip with the Bush White House. In fact, the administration is merely a reflection of the values and goals of the financial powerbrokers at the central banks.

Don't expect any complaints from Alan Greenspan about the rough-treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The cadres of elites are of "one mind" on the current global crusade for a new world order. If that means torturing a few thousand innocent people; so be it.

Doomsday

There are numerous signs that the nation's free ride will soon be over. Gold is skyrocketing as perceptive investors see the cracks and fissures appearing in the economic foundation that binds the debtor-kingdom together. Twitchy investors are watching for news about Iran, rebel attacks in Nigeria, or a potential sell-off of greenbacks in China. Market analysts may feign equanimity but they are walking on the knifes-edge expecting the worse.

But, the worse is unavoidable; the country is dead broke. Last year alone Americans not only spent more than they earned for the first time since the great Depression; they also borrowed an additional $600 billion from their home equity to pay off credit card debt and consumer loans! This tells us that the all signs of growth in the economy are the result of credit spending. Home equity has become the new ATM card, demonstrating once again that the country is running on fumes.

This quarter's slow growth of 1.1%, shows that the well has run dry and consumer spending (which accounts for 70% of GDP) is down for the count. Interest rates are going up, the dollar will soon be sinking, energy costs are soaring, and the unemployment line is getting longer.

Time to find a nice comfy spot beneath the freeway on-ramp...and bring your own cardboard.

The Clinton strategy would have made the transition more agreeable, but the result of globalization is roughly the same. Businesses and jobs pack up and leave driving wages through the floor, while the social safety net continues to worsen by congressional edict. The main difference with Clinton is that he strengthened the dollar by balancing the budget and showed little appetite for creating the police-state apparatus that the Bush claque relishes.

The Bush administration is preparing for a quick but agonizing transition. They have painstakingly removed whatever laws stood in the way of autocratic government. The courts will brandish the rubber stamp for the supreme executive, the congress will languish as a ceremonial institution, and the compliant media will shower praise on the Dear Leader's iron-fisted methods of keeping the peace.

Economic disintegration is the catalyst for changing the fundamental institutions of government. The globalists in the White House have played a major role in numerous coups across the planet, all producing the same basic result; a military dictatorship with a strongman at the head of state. America is being readied for a similar transformation.

[michelle]

Reply to: Reply #21
Bush's Tyranny For
A Bankrupt Nation

Hey DT1, Anwaar, and FH readers,

Isn't time we turn our full attention on who's really running the show on our enslaved planet? Check out the following interviews all available for viewing and downloading at the page provided below [end].

Forever Keeping You INFORMED,
Michelle

SLAVE REVOLT
Financial Media Page

These video and audio programs help towards understanding the debt system we've all been enslaved by. This is information about taxes, the gold standard, narco dollars, globalization, and the Federal Reserve.

Video

The Money Masters
Bill Still (3.5 hours - Volumes 1 & 2)

An absolutely mind blowing film that covers the history of money and banking systems throughout Europe and America. It shows how wealth is concentrated, using documented facts. A must see.

THE CAPITALIST CONSPIRACY:
AN INSIDE VIEW OF INTERNATIONAL BANKING

How capitalism financed communism and the role played by international banking.

NOW WITH BILL MOYERS

Bill Moyers interviews Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr., founder and president of the Mises Institute, and discusses the economic costs of war (March 7, 2003).

THE CARLYLE GROUP EXPOSED!
(Opening narration in Dutch)

An amazing account of how the 'Iron Triangle' works. So damn disturbing.

MONOPOLY MEN

"Monopoly Men" - The Federal Reserve, or the Fed as it is lovingly called, may be one of the most mysterious entities in modern American government. Created during Wilson's presidency to protect the economy in times of financial turmoil, its real business remains to be discovered.

Masters of the Universe(Bilderberg)

Daniel Hopsicker investigates international banking and the Bilderberg group.

Secret History of Credit Cards

In "Secret History of the Credit Card," FRONTLINE and The New York Times join forces to investigate an industry few Americans fully understand. In this one-hour report, correspondent Lowell Bergman uncovers the techniques used by the industry to earn record profits and get consumers to take on more debt.

Audio

Wizards of Money

The Wizards of Money is an educational series about the global financial system.

Episode 1 : How Money is Created

Episode 2 : Financial Risk Transfer

Episode 3 : Banking on Poverty

Episode 4 : Wizards and Warlords

Episode 5 : Monetary Terrorism

Episode 6 : Democratizing the Monetary System

Episode 7 : Money Cycle vs Water Cycle

Episode 8 : Trading Nature & Cooking the Books

Episode 9 : Jack and the Sweatshop

Episode 10 : Back to the Twenties thru the Looking Glass-Steagall

Episode 11 : House Lever-Edge at the Derivatives
Casino

Episode 12 : The Imperial Budget and the Mythical Lock-Box

Episode 13 : Bankruptcy Bill's Shootout at the Social Safety Net

Episode 14 : The Trade Federation and the Intergalactic Banking Clan

Episode 15 : Homeland Securitizations & Overseas Vacations

Episode 16 : There's a Generic in my Sharkfin Soup

Episode 17 : Caught Between a Dock and a Sweatshop

Episode 18 : Where Wall Street Crosses Auburn Avenue

Episode 19 : The Education Sweepstakes

Episode 20 : THE BATTLE OF THE DRAGONS - Oil vs Insurance

Episode 21 : Playing Russian Roulette in the Carbon Markets

Episode 22 : Ecotainment Gossip...Mickey Mouse & Smokey Bear?

WHEAT RECEIPTS - A lecture given over 30 years ago by Dr. Stuart Crane that discusses and describes the Federal Reserve System in an accessible, important and at times, very funny way.

Catherine Austin Fitts was an investment banker on Wall St. & worked as Asst. Secretary of Housing under Bush Sr.

02-18-05 RadioActive talks about mortgage bubble mp3

12-13-04 Venice (Solari) mp3

09-13-04 Flashpoints Interview mp3

From the Grassy Knoll Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

01-30-03 Reuniting Magic and Money mp3

01-30-03 Questions & Answers mp3

07-11-02 Steppin' Out of Babylon mp3

Naomi Klein is the award-winning author of the international best-sellers, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies and Fences and Windows: Dispatches From the Front Lines of the Globalization Debate. She is an internationally syndicated column for The Globe and Mail, The Nation and The Guardian.

02-16-05 War and Fleece: Economic Shock Therapy in Iraq mp3

2-05-05 Iraqi Elections and Privatization mp3

12-16-04 Naomi Klein hosts Majority Report Radio Show mp3

11-01-04 Economic Fundamentalism for Iraq mp3

8 part Interview with Naomi Klein (6 min each)

09-21-04 Life After Capitalism: Naomi Klein mp3

01-22-04 Economic Transformation of Iraq mp3

10-30-03 Economic Terror, Deep Democracy mp3

05-13-00 The New Anticorporate Activism mp3

05-13-00 Questions & Answers mp3

G. Edward Griffin, the Founder of Freedom Force International and the author of The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve, The Fearful Master: A Second Look at the United Nations, World Without Cancer and more about Leninism, Fabianism, the Council on Foreign Relations, and world government.

The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin audio

The Creature from Jekyll Island by G. Edward Griffin mp3

WBIG Federal Reserve Week Hour 1 mp3 & Hour 2 mp3

04-17-04 Philip Dru Interviews mp3

02-14-04 Philip Dru Interviews mp3

05-18-03 Philip Dru Interviews mp3

Sherry Peal Jackson is a certified public accountant since 1987. From 1988 to 1995 she was an Internal Revenue agent with the Atlanta district. She currently manages her own CPA firm in the Stone Mountain area and is a certified fraud examiner.

Speaks at the kickoff of "Project Toto" mp3

Juliet Schor, author of Born to Buy, speaks to a conference organized by the BC Teachers Federation about the cradle to grave marketing strategies that companies use to make sure our children learn to be consumers from day one.Juliet Schor: Born to Buy mp3
mysite.verizon.net/res7dhyg/slaverevolt_finance.html

[DT1]

Troubling Questions About Cheney's Boss
Why is the vice president getting nearly all the blame for keeping his shooting escapade secret last weekend? President Bush either kept it hidden just as long--or, equally disturbing, maybe he did not find out about Cheney's role as shooter until much later.

By Greg Mitchell
www.editorandpublisher.com
(February 14, 2006) -- While Vice President Cheney continues to catch flak for grossly mishandling the aftermath of the shooting in Texas last Saturday, it is amazing that, relatively speaking, his boss, President Bush, is not drawing just as much blame. True, Cheney deserves extra scrutiny for breaking several cardinal rules of hunting when he plugged Mr. Whittington, and for whatever else he may be hiding.

But as for the slow reporting of the incident—with a nod to Watergate we will call it "the 18 ½ hour gap"—why is the media dumping it mainly on Vice when perhaps it should be versa? Isn’t the president in charge here?


Good question. And what if the president, contrary to the official story, was not told about Cheney as shootist on Saturday night?

As Thomas Friedman likes to say: Let me explain.

According to the White House, in its updated timeline, Bush found out that Cheney was the triggerman about 8 p.m. Saturday (from Karl Rove)—and yet in all of the accounts, many conflicting, of how the story emerged the next day, the president is never mentioned as having any role in the disclosure.

The ranch hostess/chief witness Katharine Armstrong first told us that she and her mother made the decision to go public of their own “volition, ” as she put, on Sunday morning, leading to the now-famous phone call to the Corpus Christi newsroom. Later she said that she had run the idea past Cheney on Sunday morning and he approved it, or at least said it was up to her.

Now the official narrative is that he discussed it with her Saturday night and they directed the disclosure “together.”

Note in all this: no mention of the president. What we seem to know for certain is that his press secretary was not told about Cheney’s role until 6 a.m. on Sunday.

In other words, if we accept the White House version of events, Bush was informed about 8 p.m. Saturday—and did not inform his press secretary until the next morning, did not talk to his vice president, in fact, did not seem to have any input on telling or holding the story.

So why isn’t Bush getting hammered for that? Why is so much of the focus on Cheney? The president of the United States, in this version, heard about his veep shooting a man in the face and chest and did not direct him or anyone else to report this to the nation? In fact, based on her original quotes, we might assume that we would have never heard about it at all if Katharine Armstrong had not tipped off the local reporter.

So, at a minimum, accepting Bush’s story at face value, he should be sharing blame on the 18 ½ hour gap, or even taking the lion's share, since he is, supposedly, the man in charge.

But consider another possibility, which has the added benefit of also being an explanation for all of the above: that the story that Bush learned about Cheney’s as gunman Saturday may not be true... that the president was among the millions of Americans that Cheney wanted to keep in the dark about this detail.

Space prevents me from printing the entirety of Scott McClellan’s press briefing on Monday. But if you read it
at *buzzflash.com you may be amazed to count the number of times he is asked about when Bush was told about Cheney’s trigger-happy role. Over and over McClellan obfuscates, stating that much information developed "overnight," arrived at the White House during the wee hours—he mentions 3 a.m., for example. Typical exchange:

"When did the President know that the Vice President was the shooter? What time? "

"Again, there was additional information coming in that night. And the details continued to come in throughout the morning, into the Sunday morning time period."

It’s clear, to me at least, that he is trying to filibuster and hope the reporters let go of that, and accept his very, very, vague timeline. At other points he seems on the verge of admitting that this news only arrived in the middle of the night.

Finally, when the questions keep coming, he states--sort of--that, yes, the president was told Saturday evening, though even then he does not mention a time, which surely should have been in the front of his mind when he stepped out to attend this key briefing. This was nearly two days after the shooting and the White House still didn’t have its facts straight.

It took a press release later Monday to spell out that Bush supposedly learned about Cheney as shooter around 8:00 p.m. Saturday.

In any event, Bush is now trapped. If he'd admitted that no one woke him up to tell him, and that’s why McClellan didn’t know until Sunday morning, that would have painted a very troubling (though not fresh) picture of a disengaged #1 man who is actually, at best, #2. But at least it would suggest that Bush took action and ordered the story out when he did find out about it.

Yet in declaring that he did know about Cheney’s role at 8 p.m. Saturday—and did absolutely nothing to tell anyone about it—an even more disturbing, and perhaps sinister, picture of the true arrogance of power may emerge.

Wait until more evidence seeps out. Here's a fresh tidbit: Late Tuesday, the Secret Service related that the shooting actually took place at 5:50 p.m. Saturday, 20 minutes later than previously stated--and therefore approaching the 6:18 sunset.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Greg Mitchell ([e-mail]) is editor of E&P.

*mod's note:
I replaced the whitehouse link with buzzflash.com,for obvious reasons.
Quick update:saw on fox tape that he admitted to having
"a beer "on the day of bigtime's blunder...
**Comment by liberalpride at ostreyreport.blogspot.com:

"But the only thing that can be honestly said about any hunter turning into the blinding light of a setting sun and firing a shotgun is that it was DUMB. Which makes their concocted cover story even worse than what probably actually did happen"
.


Never has there been a nation held so hostage to a fiction of character and policy that is so publicly contradicted by the harmful reality of the very same.

I wish you folks would post more.
The louder we get,the sooner we win...

[DT1]

From the mailbag at buzzflash.com:

Subject: Breaking! Cheney Distracts With a Beer & Shotgun
Amidst all of the hoopla surrounding the Cheney-unloads-a-shotgun-round-into-an-elderly- man's-head-and-chest-while-wasted scandal, let's not forget:

Enron; treason and Valerie Plame and jeopardizing National Security; NSA and spying on citizens without a warrant; Able Danger; detaining citizens without charges and due process; serious threats against Whistleblowers with no protection; veterans' benefits slashed; major increase in world terrorism; Terri Schiavo and the Bush/GOP intrusion into your soul; a record national surplus exchanged for record national debt; unchecked Executive power during the most secretive administration in history; Halliburton receives no-bid contracts worth billions and still manages to steal by overcharging the government; Halliburton subsidiary, KBR, is building concentration camps here in the USA; let's not forget Katrina, I'll say it again, Katrina; how about this, Saudi Arabia (the homeland of the 911 terrorists) now controls the top 6 USA ports (imagine Japan controlling our ports after Pearl Harbor, while the war was still going on); then we have royalties for Big Oil on top of record profits for Big Oil; just as good, Bush sets up Big Pharma with a monopoly; 2000 Supreme Court appoints Bush president overriding the majority of Americans’ votes; 2004 record number of reports of presidential election fraud in Ohio and Florida; Downing Street Memo & White House memo (the White House lies us into war); "The Constitution is nothing but a *******ed piece of paper," said Bush; global warming; Abu Ghraib and state-sanctioned torture; mega-financial support for the world's most notorious dictators; skyrocketing health care cost at home; America's international image and reputation shredded to bits; a woman’s right to choose, well, blessed be me, I’m a man; multiple attempts to rob Social Security funds; the un-PATRIOT ACT; a propaganda investigation against the White House presently underway; oh, I almost forgot, Iraq.

And, finally, just one question:
Where the**** is Osama bin Laden?

IMPEACH

Brian

*Mod's update:I just saw the chimp tell the world that he is satisfied with Mad Dog Cheney and his handling of this latest debacle.
Nevermind the stupidity of his statements-
wer'e used to that.
He looked like he was on crack.Who is in charge of his meds?
Isn't this a threat to National Security?
Just wondering...

[DT1]

Who's Counting Bush's Mistakes?

By Stephen Pizzo, News for Real. Posted February 20, 2006.


Given how ambitious and wide-ranging the incompetence of this administration has been, it's high time we started keeping track of its many failures.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said it best, "The louder he spoke of his honor, the faster we counted our spoons."
And no administration in U.S. history has spoken louder, or as often, of its honor.

So let us count our spoons.

Emergency Management: They completely failed to manage the first large-scale emergency since 9/11. Despite all their big talk and hundreds of billions of dollars spent on homeland security over the past four years, this administration proved itself stunningly incompetent when faced with an actual emergency. (Katrina Relief Funds Squandered)

Fiscal Management: America is broke. No wait, we're worse than broke. In less than five years these borrow and spend-thrifts have nearly doubled our national debt, to a stunning $8.2 trillion. These are not your father's Republicans who treated public dollars as though they were an endangered species. These Republicans waste money in ways and in quantities that make those old tax and spend liberals of yore look like tight-fisted Scots.

This administration is so incompetent that you can just throw a dart at the front page of your morning paper and whatever story of importance it hits will prove my point.

Katrina relief: Eleven thousand spanking new mobile homes sinking into the Arkansas mud. Seems no one in the administration knew there were federal and state laws prohibiting trailers in flood zones. Oops. That little mistake cost you $850 million -- and counting.

Medicare Drug Program: This $50 billion white elephant debuted by trampling many of those it was supposed to save. The mess forced states to step in and try to save its own citizens from being killed by the administration's poorly planned and executed attempt to privatize huge hunks of the federal health safety net.

Afghanistan: Good managers know that in order to pocket the gains of a project, you have to finish it. This administration started out fine in Afghanistan. They had the Taliban and al Queda on the run and Osama bin Laden trapped in a box canyon. Then they were distracted by a nearby shiney object -- Iraq. We are now $75 billion out of pocket in Afghanistan and its sitting president still rules only within the confines of the nation's capital. Tribal warlords, the growing remnants of the Taliban and al Qaeda call the shots in the rest of the county.

Iraq: This ill-begotten war was supposed to only cost us $65 billion. It has now cost us over $300 billion and continues to suck $6 billion a month out of our children's futures. Meanwhile the three warring tribes Bush "liberated" are using our money and soldiers' lives to partition the country. The Shiites and Kurds are carving out the prime cuts while treating the once-dominant Sunnis the same way the Israelis treat the Palestinians, forcing them onto Iraq's version of Death Valley. Meanwhile Iran is increasingly calling the shots in the Shiite region as mullahs loyal to Iran take charge. (More)

Iran: The administration not only jinxed its Afghanistan operations by attacking Iraq, but also provided Iran both the rationale for and time to move toward nuclear weapons. The Bush administration's neocons' threats to attack Syria next only provided more support for religious conservatives within Iran who argued U.S. intentions in the Middle East were clear, and that only the deterrent that comes with nuclear weapons could protect them.

North Korea: Ditto. Also add to all the above the example North Korea set for Iran. Clearly once a country possesses nukes, the U.S. drops the veiled threats and wants to talk.

Social Programs: It's easier to get affordable -- even free -- American-style medical care, paid for with American dollars, if you are injured in Iraq, Afghanistan or are victims of a Pakistani earthquake, than if you live and pay taxes in the good old U.S.A. Nearly 50 million Americans can't afford medical insurance. Nevertheless the administration has proposed a budget that will cut $40 billion from domestic social programs, including health care for the working poor. The administration is quick to say that those services will be replaced by its "faith-based" programs. Not so fast...


"Despite the Bush administration's rhetorical support for religious charities, the amount of direct federal grants to faith-based organizations declined from 2002 to 2004, according to a major new study released yesterday....The study released yesterday "is confirmation of the suspicion I've had all along, that what the faith-based initiative is really all about is de-funding social programs and dumping responsibility for the poor on the charitable sector," said Kay Guinane, director of the nonprofit advocacy program at OMB Watch.." (More)

The Military: Overused and over-deployed.


Former Defense Secretary William Perry and former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright warned in a 15-page report that the Army and Marine Corps cannot sustain the current operational tempo without "doing real damage to their forces." ... Speaking at a news conference to release the study, Albright said she is "very troubled" the military will not be able to meet demands abroad. Perry warned that the strain, "if not relieved, can have highly corrosive and long-term effects on the military. (More)

With military budgets gutted by the spiraling costs of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, the administration has requested funding for fewer National Guard troops in fiscal 2007 -- 17,000 fewer. Which boggles the sane mind since, if it weren't for reserve/National Guard, the administration would not have had enough troops to rotate forces in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan. Nearly 40 percent of the troops sent to those two countries were from the reserve and National Guard.

The Environment: Here's a little pop quiz: What happens if all the coral in the world's oceans dies? Answer: Coral is the first rung on the food-chain ladder; so when it goes, everything else in the ocean dies. And if the oceans die, we die.

The coral in the world's oceans are dying (called "bleaching") at an alarming and accelerating rate. Global warming is the culprit. Nevertheless, this administration continues as the world's leading global warming denier. Why? Because they seem to feel it's more cost effective to be dead than to force reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. How stupid is that? And time is running out.

Trade: We are approaching a $1 trillion annual trade deficit, most of it with Asia, $220 billion with just China -- just last year.

Energy: Record high energy prices. Record energy company profits. Dick Cheney's energy task force meetings remain secret. Need I say more?

Consumers: Americans finally did it last year -- they achieved a negative savings rate. (Folks in China save 10 percent, for contrast.) If the government can spend more than it makes and just say "charge it" when it runs out, so can we. The average American now owes $9,000 to credit card companies. Imagine that.

Human Rights: America now runs secret prisons and a secret judicial system that would give Kafka fits. And the U.S. has joined the list of nations that tortures prisioners of war. (Shut up George! We have pictures!)

I could go on for another 1,000 words listing the stunning incompetence of the Bush administration and its GOP sycophants in Congress. But what's the use? No seems to give a fig. The sun continues to shine in this fool's paradise. House starts were up in January. The stock market is finally back over 11,000.

But don't bother George W. Bush with any of this. While seldom right, he is never in doubt. Doubt is Bush's enemy. Worry? How can he worry when he has no doubts?

Me? Well, I worry about all the above, all the time. But in particular, I worry about coral.

Stephen Pizzo is the author of numerous books, including "Inside Job: The Looting of America's Savings and Loans," which was nominated for a Pulitzer.

Mod's note*Please check out loopynews.com-'a newssite I just stumbled upon.

[DT1]

President George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, D.C. 20500

Dear Mr. President:

As a young man I was honored to serve our nation as a commissioned officer and helicopter pilot in the
U. S. Navy. Before me in WWII, my father defended the country spending two years in the Pacific aboard the U.S.S. Hornet (CV-14). We were patriots sworn “to protect and defend”. Today I conclude that you have dishonored our service and the Constitution and principles of our oath. My dad was buried with full military honors so I cannot act for him. But for myself, I return enclosed the symbols of my years of service: the shoulder boards of my rank and my Naval Aviator’s wings.

Until your administration, I believed it was inconceivable that the United States would ever initiate an aggressive and preemptive war against a country that posed no threat to us. Until your administration, I thought it was impossible for our nation to take hundreds of persons into custody without provable charges of any kind, and to “disappear” them into holes like Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and Bagram. Until your administration, in my wildest legal fantasy I could not imagine a U.S. Attorney General seeking to justify torture or a President first stating his intent to veto an anti-torture law, and then adding a “signing statement” that he intends to ignore such law as he sees fit. I do not want these things done in my name.

As a citizen, a patriot, a parent and grandparent, a lawyer and law teacher I am left with such a feeling of loss and helplessness. I think of myself as a good American and I ask myself what can I do when I see the face of evil? Illegal and immoral war, torture and confinement for life without trial have never been part of our Constitutional tradition. But my vote has become meaningless because I live in a safe district drawn by your political party. My congressman is unresponsive to my concerns because his time is filled with lobbyists’ largess. Protests are limited to your “free speech zones”, out of sight of the parade. Even speaking openly is to risk being labeled un-American, pro-terrorist or anti-troops. And I am a disciplined pacifist, so any violent act is out of the question.

Nevertheless, to remain silent is to let you think I approve or support your actions. I do not. So, I am saddened to give up my wings and bars. They were hard won and my parents and wife were as proud as I was when I earned them over forty years ago. But I hate the torture and death you have caused more than I value their symbolism. Giving them up makes me cry for my beloved country.

Joseph W. DuRocher

Mod's note:I applaud Mr.DuRocher's courage and principles.The White House mailbox should be stuffed daily with similar letters from our veterans,telling the boy-king what he can do with his"mandate"...
Please copy and pass this along.
My letter to Chimpy McFlightsuit is brief,consise,and to the point:
STOP THE DYING.STOP THE SPYING.STOP THE LYING.

[DT1]

Pillaging the Treasury and the Constitution
Posted by: Paul Craig Roberts on Mar 28, 2006 - 05:47 PM unitedstates
President Bush passes himself off as a conservative Republican and a born-again Christian. These are disguises behind which Bush hides. Would a Christian invade another country on false pretenses, kill tens of thousands of innocent civilians, and show no remorse or inclination to cease the aggression?

Long-time Republican policy-wonk Bruce Bartlett recently published a book, Impostor, in which he proves that President Bush is no economic conservative, having broken all records in spending taxpayers' money and running up public debt.

Were Bush merely another big spender, his presidency wouldn't differ from other pork barrel administrations, but Bush's radicalism goes far beyond spending. Bush supports outsourcing American jobs, and he has taken an irreverent approach to the U.S. Constitution.

Bush bears no resemblance to a political conservative. A political conservative does not confuse government with country. Patriotism means loyalty to country. Bush, however, demands allegiance to his government: "You are with us or against us!" Critics of the Bush administration are branded "unpatriotic" and even "treasonous."

Loyalty to country means allegiance to the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the separation of powers. It does not mean blind support for a president, an administration, or a political party.

The separation of powers and civil liberties that were bequeathed to us by the Founding Fathers are the protectors of our liberty. Bush, who swore on the Bible that he would defend and uphold the Constitution, has made it clear that he will not let the Constitution get in the way of expanding the powers of his office.

Bush has over-ridden a number of protections in the Bill of Rights. The right to assemble and to demonstrate has been infringed. The Secret Service now routinely removes protesters from the scene of Bush political events. Many unthinking Americans go along with this authoritarianism because they don't agree with the protesters, but once the right is lost, everyone loses it.

Bush has ignored habeas corpus and claims the unconstitutional power to arrest and detain people indefinitely without a warrant and without presenting charges to a judge. This is the most dangerous abuse of all, because whoever is in office can use this power against political opponents. Many unthinking Americans are not concerned, because they think this power will be used only against terrorists. However, as the Bush administration has admitted, many of its detainees are not terrorists. Most are innocent people kidnapped by tribal leaders and sold to the U.S. for the bounties paid for "terrorists."

Bush has refused to obey statutory law, specifically the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Bush claims that as commander-in-chief he has the right to ignore the law and to spy on Americans without a warrant. Many unthinking Americans are unconcerned, saying that as they are doing nothing wrong they have nothing to fear. This attitude misses the point in a large way. If a president can establish himself above one law, he can establish himself above all laws. There is no line drawn through the law that divides the laws between the ones the president must obey and the ones he need not obey.

FISA does not interfere with government spying for national security purposes. Secrecy is protected, because the court of federal judges that issues the warrants is secret. Moreover the law allows the government to spy first and then come to the court for a warrant. The purpose of the warrant is to be sure that the government is spying for legitimate purposes and not abusing the power to spy on political opponents for nefarious purposes.

When presidents sign a bill passed by Congress that they think might be interpreted in ways that could impinge on the powers of their office, they add a "signing statement" to protect traditional presidential powers. Under Bush this practice has exploded. Bush has used signing statements considerably in excess of all previous presidents combined. Moreover, Bush uses the statements not to protect president powers, but to nullify acts of Congress, such as Republican Senator John McCain's law against torture. Bush is using signing statements to turn the presidency into a dictatorship in which the executive is not accountable to laws passed by Congress. The next step is simply to announce that the executive is not accountable to elections either.

Bush's government is the first in our history in which there are no dissenting voices and no debate. Uniformity of opinion is more characteristic of a dictatorial government than a conservative one. Bush's government is all of one mind, because all important positions are held by neoconservatives.

Neoconservative is a deceptive term. It means "new conservatives," but there is nothing conservative about neocons. Neoconservatives believe in imposing their agenda on other countries--the antithesis of American conservatism.

In short, real conservatives believe in conserving the Constitution, government accountability, and civil liberties, and avoiding foreign entanglements. Judging by its behavior and its statements, the Bush administration stands completely outside the conservative tradition.

Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at: [e-mail]

[DT1]

Leakgate Back On the Front Burner,Boils Over
(from americanprogressaction.org)

BUSH ADMINISTRATION'S DEFENSE FULL OF LEAKY HOLES: At the heart of the White House and Libby's defense of their actions is the claim that a March 2003 executive order allows both the president and vice president to unilaterally declassify intelligence documents. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales stated yesterday that Bush has "inherent authority to decide who should have classified information." The White House maintains Bush's decision to disclose classified information means he declassified it. But it was unclear if that was the President's intention in this case. First, the action to leak the October 2002 N.I.E. was apparently done "without notifying Cabinet officials or others in the administration, including the CIA authors of the National Intelligence Estimate," raising questions about whether a real declassification ever occurred. Moreover, as Fitzgerald writes in the court filing, then-deputy National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley was engaged in a process to get the N.I.E. officially declassified at the same time Libby was leaking classified portions of the N.I.E. to reporters. On July 18, 2003, the administration decided to officially disclose the contents of the full N.I.E. at a White House press briefing, "suggesting the information had not been declassified until that time." Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, argued on National Public Radio yesterday, "At a minimum, it is grossly improper for the president to order a subordinate to disclose a highly classified document to an uncleared reporter and then have that document treated as continuing to be classified."

Mod's note:Many thanks should be given to David Corn at The Nation,
and buzzflash.com,for being out front on this large,hopefully last stumbling block PR nightmare for this failed,fratboy-king.
We are to understand someone was working overtime(probably like $200 per hour)
declassifying a certain document,
when over the last five years they have vaccuumed up dumptruck loads of them and made them classified?
Alrighty,then.
Midterm elections have no bearing on looming and long overdue impeachment.
It's not personal,it's his policies.

[DT1]

Published on Saturday, April 8, 2006 by CommonDreams.org
If You Don't Mind, Why Don't You Mind?
by Todd Huffman

A favorite line of song, penned by the Canadian band The Magnetic Fields, poses the question: If you don’t mind, why don’t you mind? Where is your sense of indignation? To anyone who isn’t yet appalled by the extent of the disaster that is the Bush presidency, I could not think of how better to ask it: Why don’t you mind?

Not a day goes by without some new disclosure, some new bit of headline evidence that the Bush presidency is the most catastrophic presidency in the history of our great country. The consequences of this fact will effect not only yours and my personal future and fortunes, but those of our children and theirs. Where is your sense of indignation?

What can be safely said is this: Poverty is up by nearly 50 percent since this president took office. Somewhere between five and ten million Americans have lost their health insurance. Income inequality is the highest since the 1920s. Real median income has declined five consecutive years, the longest such streak since the Great Depression. And the Bush budget cuts have left Americans with the most threadbare social safety net since that dreadful era.

Almost 30 percent of American manufacturing jobs have been lost over these past five years. Manufacturing now accounts for less than 13 percent of our Gross Domestic Product, while the finance, insurance and real estate sector accounts for greater than 20 percent. Under Bush, moving money around has surpassed making things as the greatest share of our GDP.

Bush inherited massive budget surpluses but has turned those into massive deficits. While our net foreign indebtedness took over 200 years to reach $1 trillion, just since 2001 it has increased by another $3 trillion. While just five years ago our national debt stood at just over $5 trillion, now it stands at over $8 trillion. America has become a rentier nation, living off unearned income and racking up millions more debt every second of every day. Why don’t you mind?

The trade deficit has exploded to over $800 billion per year, and the United States is having to borrow more than $2 billion per day to pay for our profligacy. And it is China – our greatest strategic adversary – that loans us much of those sums. Never could anyone have imagined that the most powerful and arguably democratic nation the world has ever known would give its most threatening competitor and the world's largest remaining communist nation such direct control over its economic destiny. Where is your sense of indignation?

It does not matter, not much anyway, to Bush Republicans that their out-of-control spending and their tax cuts for the rich have driven this nation into a downward spiral of debt. The spend-and-spend, big business, cheap labor, big government, socially regressive Republican Party has also become the political vehicle of the radically religious who, believing Jesus is coming at any minute, believe therefore that long-term fiscal responsibility is of little concern, to say nothing of social and environmental responsibility.

Under Bush, the United States has become the world’s leading crusader state, led by a congregation of born-again politicians enriching the rich under the guise of Christian compassion, and brandishing Bibles as public policy guides. Rather than public policy based on the national interest, our government’s public policy is now largely based on faith. Faith-based social policy, faith-based war, faith-based science, faith-based education, and faith-based medicine, all are leading our nation down a road to ruin. Why don’t you mind?

Corruption is rampant. Money spent each year by lobbyists in Washington has doubled to $3 billion in just the past six years. Cronies with little experience are given high-ranking positions, or offered Supreme Court judgeships, or given no-bid contracts worth tens of billions of dollars. The Republican majority leader in the House is under indictment and was forced to resign his leadership position, and, on April 4th, his House seat. The Republican majority leader in the Senate is under investigation for insider trading. One Republican congressman has been convicted on bribery charges, and more indictments of GOP members are expected this year as lobbyist-in-disgrace Jack Abramoff spills his guts to the FBI in return for a reduced sentence. Where is your sense of indignation?

The Vice-President’s Chief of Staff resigned under indictment for leaking the name of a covert CIA operative. Special Prosecutor Fitzgerald is continuing an investigation that, before the year is out, might conceivably lead to indictments of the two White House pit bulls: Karl Rove and Vice-President Cheney. Bush himself has now been implicated as Leaker-in-Chief. Meanwhile, the White House smite squad tears down all who dare disagree with its policies, or leave the congregation under protest, and blames the media when it all too occasionally goes off-message and reports the real news.

And let's not forget that President Bush was asleep at the switch before 9/11, ignoring a memo entitled "Bin Laden Determined To Strike Inside the United States". He was asleep at the switch before Katrina washed away a major American city and almost as many people as who died on 9/11. And he is asleep at the switch as the world faces a potential catastrophe in global warming. Why don’t you mind?

The extent of the disaster that is the Bush presidency is almost beyond cataloguing. Readers can easily and will undoubtedly come up with many more examples of incompetence, corruption, deceit, and neglect. But my space is limited, and allows only one more: Iraq.

The war on Iraq, based at best on faulty intelligence and at worst on outright lies has proved a gigantic distortion of national priorities. It has grievously, perhaps irreparably, damaged America’s moral standing in the world. It has caused nearly 2400 American deaths and tens of thousands of Iraqi. It has consumed our treasury to the tune of half a trillion dollars thus far, with no end in sight.

The war on Iraq has sapped our military, our credibility, our economy, and our morale, and has alienated much of the world. The illegal detention and abuse by American soldiers of detainees at Abu Ghraib, Bagram, and Guantanamo have led the Muslim world to believe that democracy is just another costume for tyranny. And, worst of all, the war on Iraq has diverted our attention from destroying the chief culprit of 9/11, and has allowed the greater threats to our country – North Korea and Iran – to accelerate their nuclear weapons programs out of fear of being next on Bush’s "axis-of-evil" hit list. Where is your sense of indignation?

So what can you do? It is easy to feel helpless, or to lapse into indifference. But what these perilous times cannot bear is indifference. We can no longer stand on the sidelines and wait for some non-existent catalyst to suddenly appear and mobilize a movement that we can then join. It is past time to take action. The profile of courage required is in the mirror.

This is an election year. Write letters to the editor. Write letters to your congressional representatives. Call your congressional representatives. Join your local and state Democratic Party organizations. Talk to your family, friends, co-workers, and fellow members of your congregation about writing, calling, and joining together. Good people of all political persuasions opposed to what the Bush Republicans are doing to our country must not rest until we take back the Senate and House this November. We must not rest until in 2008 we take back the White House, the people's house, and hang on it a banner reading "Mission Accomplished".

It will most certainly not be easy. But "not easy" is not a synonym for "let’s give up". Rather, it just means "we have to be more imaginative and work harder and do more and work together to make things right again". We must come alive with the immediacy of our challenges. The time for turning our great nation away from the road to ruin is fast passing.