If anyone
watched the Blair, Bush news conference last night, I'll bet you are feeling a
bit queasy this morning.LORDIE HAVE MERCY ON US POOR BOOBTUBE VIEWERS! It was so thick with stinky, gamy, thieves' argot, and lavishly loaded with nonsensical 'crappa doo-doo, that when Bush sputtered "Tony, I want to buy you dinner" I thought "phew, it's over at last, now I can start recovering from the nausea of listening to these two bullheaded oafs' oratory they have just spread over our national ears. Yeah, that's what I thought... until the puking, morally unprincipled scallywag, Chris Mathews of MSNBC's HARDBALL, (talk about a spit sputterer) appeared on my TV screen and GOOD GRIEF ALMIGHTY, he made the nauseating blather from the WAR TEAM seem like eloquent dissertation. If you can possibly stomach it here is the video: CHRIS MATTHEWS LIKENS BUSH'S SORRYASS APOLOGIES TO LINCOLN. HUH?
Hear NPR Coverage of the News Conference
Bizzaroland Thanks thinkingblue PS: Please read the below email message sent to me today by my cyber friend Maddi... She really knows how to express her opinion on the preposterous load of worthless nonsense the republicans have been HITTING US OVER THE HEAD WITH for FAR, FAR TOO LONG. The below essay from William Rivers Pitt puts it this way, in so many words, ... GET A LOAD OF WHAT THE "KARL ROVERS" ARE UP TO NOW!
YOUR LAUGH FOR THE DAY! Oh, Oh -- are
they running scared. The "obscure" John Conyers is pushing impeachment
according to the "OBSCURE" Howard Fineman. I know, it's hard for Howard to
believe just how OBSCURE he is -- but he really, really is, Mr. McGillicutty!
But, it's OK for him to think he has THE answers -- no matter how obscure they
are!
And lookee....now comes Elizabeth Dole, holding out her
Tin Lizzie Cup for Donations to counter the Conyers-the-Giant's every move.
Sit down Liz! You and Bob get on down to the rest home -- and take one!
Rove, et al are really saying: VOTE FOR US --
OR -- LOOK OUT -- WE'LL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE. Please don't throw us in the
briar patch!
And, VOILA, FOX is weighing in with its
load-a-crap! B-O-R-I-N-G!
Cheezy-Wheezy...............get a grip
boys! Read all about it! maddi
AND NOW FOR SOME REAL CREAMY ROADKILL SOUP WM RIVERS PITT, TELLING IT LIKE IT IS!
Thursday 25 May 2006
Representative John Conyers Jr. of Michigan is a
small and soft-spoken man. One gets the definite sense upon meeting him that
here is a man who could probably have made a fortune in Hollywood, had he
chosen a different direction in life, playing the role of the wise and kindly
grandfather. He wound up in public service, and today - if you listen to Karl
Rove and the GOP - he is easily the most terrifying man in America.
Back on May 10th, Howard Fineman wrote for MSNBC:
"Then there is the attention being paid - and it's just starting - to obscure
Democratic characters such as Rep. John Conyers of Michigan. As of now, only
political junkies know that Conyers, an African-American and old-school
liberal from Detroit, would become chairman of the Judiciary Committee if the
Democrats regain control of the House. Few know that Conyers has expressed
interest in holding hearings on the impeachment of the president."
A direct-mail piece from Senator Elizabeth Dole
(R-NC) popped up several days ago. In the mailer, Dole warned that unless the
faithful donate money for the midterm elections, rampaging Democrats were
going to, "increase your taxes, call for endless investigations, Congressional
censure and maybe even impeachment of President Bush."
A Fox News online editorial acknowledges the very
real possibility of a Democratic takeover of the House, and proposes several
steps the Democrats should take in such an event, in order to do right by the
country. "Step one," reads the Fox editorial, "would be for the Democratic
leadership to definitively put to rest any loose talk of impeaching President
Bush. They should say in one and two syllable words that impeachment will not
happen once they are in the majority and thus take away a potential rallying
cry for the beleaguered Republicans."
This may be, when all is said and done, one of the
funniest moments in time in all of American political history.
Approval ratings for the Bush administration are at
historic lows, and approval ratings for the Republican Congressional majority
currently languish in a root-cellar beneath those historic lows. There are 159
days until the November 7th midterm elections, and the Republican majority has
absolutely nothing to run on. The economy? They say it is strong but no one
believes them, and rising gas prices don't do their arguments any favors.
Immigration? This is a self-inflicted brawl that has ripped a wide rift down
the middle of the Republican coalition. National security? Iraq.
On top of this big three, the White House and the
Republican Congressional majority are also walking around with NSA domestic
spying, the investigation into the outing of Valerie Plame, the now-axiomatic
belief that Bush left New Orleans to die, and a half-dozen other millstones
hanging around their necks.
The White House can't shed these millstones, because
just about all of these catastrophes came out of 1600 Pennsylvania. The
Republican Congressional majority can't shed them, because they stapled
themselves to this White House a long time ago, and there are no pliers in the
world large enough to extricate them from that association.
The abandonment of Congressional oversight is a lot
of the reason we are in such a sorry state, and that abandonment was authored
by Republicans who were stupid enough and opportunistic enough to trust that
Bush and his people would lead them to the promised land of a permanent
majority. This won't be forgotten by November.
Beyond that, few people are going to rise in
response again to the waving of the bloody shirt of September 11. The
Cunningham and Abramoff scandals continue to grow, chopping down Republicans
left and right. The GOP's usual electoral strengths - morality and security -
are gone, and the Republican base is abandoning them. The cupboard is just
about empty.
What's left? Vote for us, or else we'll be held
accountable! That's just funny.
Usually, the Republican National Committee has to
roll out horror stories about mandatory abortions, the planned annihilation of
every Bible in the land, and the prospect of Jack and Joe's civil union
eviscerating the sanctity of millions of unhappy marriages everywhere. To be
sure, these themes will be played throughout the upcoming election seasons,
but clearly the GOP overmind is not confident that the masses will dance to
the tune.
Thus, the warning: if the Republicans lose in
November, Bush will be impeached, and the Earth will immediately thereafter
hurtle into the sun. This isn't just a lot of smoke and scare-tactics,
however. The Republicans are genuinely worried about what will happen if the
Democrats re-take the House in November. They have ample cause for concern.
Beyond the specter of John Conyers doing an
impersonation of Peter Rodino should Conyers become chairman of the House
Judiciary Committee - in an interesting historical quirk, Conyers sat on the
Judiciary Committee when Rodino shepherded it through drafting the three
articles of impeachment against Nixon, and voted "Yes" on all three articles -
lie a number of other House Democrats whose rise to a chairmanship would be
devastating to the White House.
Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) sits on the Committee
on Government Reform, and will become chairman should the Democrats re-take
the House in November. Waxman, in 1998, founded the Special Investigations
Division within the minority offices on this committee, "to conduct
investigations into issues that are important to the minority members of the
Government Reform Committee and other members of Congress."
There are more than fifty investigations that have
been performed and continued to be performed by Waxman's Special
Investigations Division. Among these are investigations into the torture at
Abu Ghraib, Cheney's notorious energy task force meetings, a variety of
Halliburton payoffs, electronic voting, the administration's response to
Hurricane Katrina, and the vast scandal surrounding administration abuse of
Iraq intelligence and the exposure of CIA agent Valerie Plame.
There is enough meat on that bone to keep Rep.
Waxman, armed with subpoena power, busy as a beaver for the foreseeable
future. It is also worth noting, when considering the formidable arsenal of
information Waxman can bring to bear against the Bush White House, the legacy
of Dan Burton.
Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) became notorious as
chairman of Government Reform during the Clinton administration. He fired off
enough subpoenas to fill an oil tanker, almost all of them inspired by
baseless and scurrilous accusations. Without actually proving much of
anything, beyond the fact that subpoena power is an astonishingly large stick
to hand to someone, Burton managed to keep the Clinton administration tied in
knots for years.
Burton was throwing mud. Waxman will be throwing
fire, if handed the opportunity. Beyond Waxman and Conyers, there will be
Barney Frank chairing the House Financial Services Committee. There will be
Louise Slaughter chairing the House Committee on Rules. There will be Charlie
Rangel chairing the Ways and Means Committee. This list goes on, and on.
As amusing as the GOP's fear of impeachment is, the
truth is that this Constitutional doomsday device is the least of their
worries. Conyers does not have to impeach George W. Bush to throw a few
torpedoes into the side of the Republican battleship. All he has to do, along
with Waxman and the other chairs, is investigate with subpoena power. Tell the
truth in public hearings with the principals under oath. Let the facts come to
light in a way we have not seen for many years.
The result of this would be an even greater
Democratic Congressional victory in 2008, and an incredible series of
obstacles for any Republican presidential nominee to overcome. A drumbeat of
truth about Iraq, Katrina, Abu Ghraib, Halliburton, Plame and all the rest of
it would have every Republican who has ever uttered Bush's name in public
fleeing for their lives. The long-sought permanent majority lusted after by
the GOP would be transformed into a cemented minority, reminiscent of the
shattered state of the Republican party in the aftermath of Watergate.
All of this only comes to pass, of course, if the
Democrats re-take the House. What was considered an incredible long-shot even
a few months ago has become an even-money proposition. Nothing is guaranteed
by any stretch, and events may well transpire that swing the electorate back
in favor of Bush and his Congressional allies. The fiasco that is electronic
voting and the Help America Vote Act will stand in favor of the GOP come
November, as it always has. If the Democrats want to win in November, they
will have to work harder than they ever have before.
For now, it is enough to be amused by the smell
of fear emanating from the GOP. This newest tactic - warning people about the
potential for impeachment - begs one simple question: if they have nothing to
hide, what are they afraid of? The answer, clearly, is John Conyers. He is,
you'll hear soon enough, a terrifying man.
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.
********** Click Here To TELL CONGRESS TO CALL FOR IMPEACHMENT NOW Click Here to See Amy Gooman's Interview With Greg Palast Click Here to See Scarborough's Rage Graphic REAL PICTURES OF WAR
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