Bush Scandals

Salon.com has a piece up urging Democrats to dump Obama and go with a candidate who will restore their party to its New Deal era politics. According to the column by Matt Stoller, there are a number of reasons why they should, including: Read below the fold...

The responses to my previous entry were exactly what I hoped they would be: lively. And I'm not done yet, not by a long shot. I'm going to expand upon a comment I made in the other thread. Read below the fold...

I seem to recall that someone, late last month, posted an entry arguing that it is immoral for Democrats not to run a primary challenge against Barry Obama in 2012, in light of the things he's done to institutionalize Bush-Cheney crimes. (Glenn Greenwald chronicled the latest violation of the Constitution by Obama on his own blog, which you can read here). Read below the fold...

It's really that simple, explains David Swanson of After Downing Street at the Rutherford Institute recently. Bush and Cheney vastly and unilaterally expanded the powers of the White House. Failing even to try to pursue impeachment and criminal proceedings against the Bush-Cheney guaranteed that his successor would push all those limits even further. Even if we had tried and failed at impeachment, for the rest of Bush's term there would have been some restraint, and some limits defined for this administration too.

Find all three videos here, Swanson's speech and a good Q&A. Read below the fold...

At what point do progressives stop being Democrats' whipped dogs and start acting like a movement capable of putting the Dems in their proper place as the party of the people? David Sirota wrote today about Obama's latest call to increase war spending beyond its already ludicrous proportions. Read below the fold...

By David Swanson

Former prime minister Tony Blair's testimony was streamed live at 4:30 a.m. ET at the Iraq Inquiry website and on other sites, such as the UK newspaper the Telegraph which allowed viewers to rank Blair's responses on a "Lie Meter". Telegraph readers' top desired questions pre-hearing were: Read below the fold...

I'm sure everyone's read by now that James O' Keefe, creator of the infamous fake "Pimp and Ho" ACORN videos, was arrested today for allegedly attempting to wiretap Mary Landrieu's office. And I certainly appreciate the irony here, having been repeatedly brushed off when I called up Landrieu's office and voiced my opposition to the telecom immunity bill. Read below the fold...

If a group of dedicated scholars, attorneys, journalists, and activists had tried to generate a comprehensive list of impeachable offenses committed by George W. Bush as president, and only 35 of them had been introduced into Congress, one of the many discarded ones, in rough and overly detailed form, might have read something like this: Read below the fold...

Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare Of Peace And Prosperity Is Finally Over'

WASHINGTON, DC–Mere days from assuming the presidency and closing the door on eight years of Bill Clinton, president-elect George W. Bush assured the nation in a televised address Tuesday that "our long national nightmare of peace and prosperity is finally over." ...

...Bush swore to do "everything in [his] power" to undo the damage wrought by Clinton's two terms in office, including selling off the national parks to developers, going into massive debt to develop expensive and impractical weapons technologies, and passing sweeping budget cuts that drive the mentally ill out of hospitals and onto the street.

Read below the fold...

Boston Globe:

President Obama will maintain a lid of secrecy on millions of pages of military and intelligence documents that were scheduled to be declassified by the end of the year, according to administration officials.

Read below the fold...

I'm sure you all recall the early days of the NSA Hoovering up all domestic data warrantless wiretapping scandal, when they referred to it as the "Terrorist Surveillance Program" and assured us that they were only targeting Al-Qaeda operatives.

Naturally, this turned out to be a lie enhanced duplicity technique, because it turns out they were spying on all of us everyday American citizens. Nobody was off the target list, and we were all potential Al-Qaeda operatives. Read below the fold...

Interesting times:

(TPM link)

So, as far as I can tell, Rep. Jane Harman [D-Ca] was conspiring with the Israelis to drop some spy charges in exchange for some lobbying on her behalf, and Alberto Gonzales had an NSA warrantless wiretap™ (wait for it) on her phone and overheard the deal. Read below the fold...

The Kansas City Star's political blog is reporting that an investigation by the Justice Department and the Inspector General's office found former US Attorney (and Bush appointee) Brad Schlozman "violated federal law" by considering "political and ideological affiliations when hiring and taking other personnel actions relating to career attorneys, in violation of Department policy and federal law" during his term in office. Read below the fold...

Some people think this is the key issue before us. Not being one to argue unnecessarily, and always pleased to join a good cause, I suggest all who agree on its importance consider voting for the following question now leading the pack at Obama’s “Change.gov” website:

"Will you appoint a Special Prosecutor - ideally Patrick Fitzgerald - to independently investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping?"

Read below the fold...