An amazing photo of the masses of people who turned out for the inauguration

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A fervent prayer on this Presidential Inauguration Day 2009

i will be watching the oath-taking in d.c. live from here in aqaba, jordan, at 7 p.m. local time... this is a moment of such tremendous historical significance it's almost impossible to capture it in words and i'm not even going to try... i will leave that task to others, others much more adept at recording things for posterity than i... what i would like to offer, however, is my fervent wish - nay, my fervent prayer - that our new president restores the values that i believe my country is built on, the constitution that has guided us since the beginning and the pride that i would like to again feel about my country's place in the world... and, as much as it pains me to say it, that will not be possible unless and until we can shake off our collective denial about the criminals we have tacitly enabled to lead us over the past years and make sure that accountability and the rule of law is upheld... without that, all of our efforts to march hand-in-hand to a brighter day will be hollow and ultimately ineffective...

all blessings, good will and the brilliant white light of truth and love to you, president obama, on this, the most auspicious day of my lifetime...

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While we're occupied with another mindless distraction - Sarah Palin - the endless war machine cranks inexorably forward

as much as i'd LIKE to believe that the up-coming election matters and that, if barack obama is our presidential choice, things might REALLY change, i can't read news like this without being smacked in the head with the reality that all the levers of unfettered executive power will remain in place, the stage will continue to be solidly set for endless war, and our united states constitution will still lie in tatters on the floor of the oval office as the next president takes the oath of office on 20 january 2009...

As the nation focuses on Sen. John McCain's choice of running mate, President Bush has quietly moved to expand the reach of presidential power by ensuring that America remains in a state of permanent war.

Buried in a recent proposal by the Administration is a sentence that has received scant attention -- and was buried itself in the very newspaper that exposed it Saturday. It is an affirmation that the United States remains at war with al Qaeda, the Taliban and "associated organizations."

Part of a proposal for Guantanamo Bay legal detainees, the provision before Congress seeks to “acknowledge again and explicitly that this nation remains engaged in an armed conflict with Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated organizations, who have already proclaimed themselves at war with us and who are dedicated to the slaughter of Americans.”

The New York Times page 8 placement of the article in its Saturday edition seems to downplay its importance. Such a re-affirmation of war carries broad legal implications that could imperil Americans' civil liberties and the rights of foreign nationals for decades to come.

It was under the guise of war that President Bush claimed a legal mandate for his warrantless wiretapping program, giving the National Security Agency power to intercept calls Americans made abroad. More of this program has emerged in recent years, and it includes the surveillance of Americans' information and exchanges online.

"War powers" have also given President Bush cover to hold Americans without habeas corpus -- detainment without explanation or charge. Jose Padilla, a Chicago resident arrested in 2002, was held without trial for five years before being convicted of conspiring to kill individuals abroad and provide support for terrorism.

funny just how little of this evolving horror story surfaces in our national discourse... by all rights, the deliberate, creeping destruction of everything the united states stands for should be the lead story in every news outlet in the country and the number one issue on the lips of every candidate for public office, national, state and local... our future as a nation hangs in the balance and what are we talking about...? why, hockey mom, sarah palin, of course... how pathetic is THAT...?

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Scott Horton: "The curtain continues to fall over American democracy"

i notice that even i, as one who has ranted and raved for nearly three years about the shredding of our constitution, have fallen into a mild torpor over the continuing abuse of our fundamental constitutional principles by the bush administration... maybe i'm just tired of repeating myself... maybe i'm just tired... am i still deeply disturbed over what's happening...? yes, more than i can possibly express, but perhaps most of all by our national denial that a crisis even exists, overlain by our childlike belief that the november election will be our salvation...

scott horton...

[T]he darkness continues to descend in Washington, the powers of the state continue to grow and the mechanisms of accountability rot away unused. Americans are focused on the selection of a new president. Many of them share the naïve assumption that on January 20, 2009, when a new leader takes the oath of office from the south steps of the Capitol Building, the Founders’ constitutional order will once more be set aright and the extra-constitutional excesses of the Bush years will be but a bad memory. But whoever is installed as the new guardian of presidential power will not likely part with many of the rights that Bush claimed and was allowed to use, unchallenged.

[...]

The curtain continues to fall over American democracy. Americans understandably are sickened by the tragi-comedy that spreads itself across this stage. But their faith in another presidential election and another leader is misplaced. They need to reserve their faith not for the new, but for the old: for the constitutional model that the Founders left. It needs to be forced to work. And all those who undermine it must be held to account. That includes the should-be watchdogs, who slobbering at the prospect of a few drug-drenched sirloins hurled their way, are failing in their duty to protect their true masters: the American people.

We live in the age of the Great Betrayal, in an age in which too few are willing to state the obvious. There is still time to check the progress of tyrannical power, but the hour grows late, and the sounds of alarm no longer seem to register with a somnolent populace.

all i can do is keep pounding the drum even when it takes every ounce of strength i have left to keep doing it...

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Neither Barack nor Hillary will renounce interpretive signing statements

this is PRECISELY why i have been making daily full burnt offerings to whatever gods there may be that the bush cabal is forced from office prior to 20 january 2009, and the unlawful and unconstitutional mechanisms of unfettered power are both rolled back and forcefully repudiated...

Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) and Barack Obama (D-IL) will not commit to ending President George W. Bush's practice of signing statements -- a tactic whereby the president adds his interpretation to laws passed by Congress, possibly allowing his office to circumvent the law -- according to a little-noticed article Monday.

Sen. John McCain R-AZ), however, asserts he would. Asked by a Washington Post reporter, he said he'd never consider it.

"Never, never, never, never," McCain said. "If I disagree with a law that passed, I'll veto it."

Signing statements are a long-time presidential practice, dating to the fifth US president, James Monroe. No constitutional provision or federal law prohibits their usage. They didn't become popular, however, until President Ronald Reagan -- before Reagan, just 75 such statements had been issued.

this is no reason to vote for mccain, but it certainly throws another kind of light on barack and hillary...

p.s. let me be clear... i see nothing wrong with a president adding a statement to a bill upon signing... those messages can be used to communicate many things, but to use them as a means to declare that the president of the united states reserves the power to defy the intent of the law he is signing cannot be one of them...

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"Fear the loss, perceive the danger, and do something about it!"

a reasonably comprehensive run-down in the current state of affairs...

The Defense Department has developed a "Strategy for Homeland Defense and Civil Support" against terrorism that pledges to "transform US military forces to execute homeland defense missions in the...US homeland." The Pentagon is presently collecting files on antiwar protesters and is prepared to maximize "threat awareness" and to seize "the initiative from those who would harm us." The Pentagon's National Counterterrorism Center's central repository now includes the names of 325,000 "terrorist" suspects.

In October 2003, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld approved a secret "Information Operations Roadmap" calling for "full spectrum" information operations, including a strategy for seizing the Internet and controlling the flow of information. It views the world wide web as a potential military adversary and speaks of "fighting the net."

The U.S. Army Internet website displays information about the Pentagon's "Civilian Inmate Labor Program," including "policy and guidance for establishing civilian inmate labor programs and civilian prison camps on Army installations." The program underwent a "rapid action revision" on January 14, 2005 to provide a "template for developing agreements" between the Army and corrections facilities for the use of civilian inmate labor on Army installations.

In yet another exercise in September 2005, the Pentagon's U.S. Northern Command conducted a top secret operation known as Granite Shadow that involved emergency military operations within the continental United States without civilian supervision or control. Under the plan, military special forces units operating under unique rules of engagement involving deadly force were deployed to enforce "unity of command."

The original mission of FEMA was to assure the survival of the United States government in the case of nuclear attack, with a secondary responsibility to coordinate the federal response to natural disasters. However, FEMA has come to operate as a secret government in waiting, with powers far beyond that of any other federal agency.

Specific and detailed executive orders now empower FEMA to: take over all transportation, highways and seaports; seize and operate all communications media; take over all electric, gas and petroleum power, fuels and minerals; take over all airports and aircraft; take over all railroads, inland waterways and public storage facilities; take over all farms and food resources; register all persons and force civilians into work brigades; take over all health, education and welfare functions; and establish control over the mechanisms of production and distribution of energy sources, wages, salaries, credit and the flow of money in all U.S. financial institutions.

Executive Order 11921 provides that, once a state of emergency has been declared by the president, the action cannot be reviewed by Congress for six months.

The John W. Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007 contains a provision entitled "Use of the Armed Forces in Major Public Emergencies." One effect of the provision is to expand the president's limited power to deploy the military within the United States only "to suppress, in a State, any insurrection, domestic violence, unlawful combination, or conspiracy" to include "natural disaster, epidemic, or other serious public health emergency, terrorist attack or incident."

The Act authorized the president to assume local authority "if domestic violence has occurred to such an extent that the constituted authorities of the State or possession are incapable of maintaining public order." The president now has the power, without any advance notice to Congress, to declare marital law in any city experiencing a civil disturbance or riot similar to any of those experienced in the past 40 years and to deploy the military, irrespective of the wishes or consent of local and state authorities.

On May 9, 2007, President Bush signed a "National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive" defining the "Catastrophic Emergency" leading to "Continuity of Government coordinated efforts by the Executive Branch to ensure that National Essential Functions continue to be performed." Such emergencies include "any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions." Continuity of Operations includes the continuation of mission-essential functions "during a wide range of emergencies, including localized acts of nature, accidents, and technological or attack-related emergencies."

In its definition of "Enduring Constitutional Government," the Presidential Directive envisions a "cooperative effort among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of the Federal Government;" however, it (the effort) is to be "coordinated by the President, as a matter of comity with respect to the legislative and judicial branches..." Comity is defined by Black's Law Dictionary as, "Courtesy; complaisance; respect; a willingness to grant a privilege, not as a matter of right, but out of deference and good will." In other words, the "Enduring Constitutional Government" will be run by the president and any "cooperative" role played by Congress and the judiciary will be at his pleasure.

Even though Article I, Section 1 of the Constitution provides that, "All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States..., " President Bush has, pursuant to his own directives, given himself the unrestrained power to declare whatever he imagines to be an emergency. Once he does so, he alone controls the entire apparatus of government. He will become responsible for arranging for the "orderly succession" and the "appropriate transition of leadership" of the other two branches of government, and he will do all of this with the able assistance of his Vice President, who has the primary job of coordinating things.

Conceivably, at his or her sole discretion, existing and future presidents have the power to use any provocation, including the election of a successor president hostile to his or her existing policies, to declare a state of emergency and to seize and operate the government as a dictatorship for an indefinite period of time.

More realistically, an increase in street and campus protests against the Iraq War, similar to those of the Sixties, could easily lead to the imposition of martial law in the Unites States as an extension of the War on Terrorism. Or, as the current recession deepens into a depression with wide-spread unemployment, hunger and civil unrest, martial law could be imposed and military work camps established. Irrespective of how it plays out, every scenario involves mass preventative detentions, without trial, by the military and requires federal confinement facilities.

Accepting the fact that the president has the power to detain as many American citizens as he chooses, is the government actually building facilities to concentrate them?

In January 2006, the Department of Homeland Security awarded a $385 million contract to former Halliburton subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root (KBR), to provide detention centers in the United States to deal with "an emergency influx of immigrants into the US, or to support the rapid deployment of new programs." Unexplained were these "new programs" and why they require a major expansion of detention centers.

A clue to the definition of "new programs" can be found in President Bush's claim that "the territory of the United States is part of the battlefield" against terrorism and that he has the power as Commander-in-chief to detain indefinitely any American citizen he designates as an enemy combatant. He signed the Military Commissions Act in October 2006 that suspends habeas corpus rights for everyone he deems to be an enemy combatant and allows him to confine them indefinitely without trial or access to counsel. Once detained under the Act, "no court, justice, or judge shall have jurisdiction to hear or consider any claim or cause for action whatsoever...."

The KBR contract is open-ended and authorizes a payment of up to $385 million per deployment. It is administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which envisions the development of at least four detention centers, each detaining up to 5,000 single males and females, families with children, and the sick and criminal. Established at "unused military sites or [leased] temporary structures," each facility will be able to accommodate the sick and criminals for extended detentions and to arrange for the "rendition" of potential terrorists to sites outside the continental United States.

Cops have an old saying that you're not paranoid if someone really is following you. We cannot forget that our president has already seized extraordinary dictatorial powers and that he really is spending millions of dollars for the construction of detention facilities to support the "rapid development" of his "new programs." Nor, can we ignore that, contrary to international law, the United States government is in fact detaining hundreds of "unlawful combatants" in prison facilities in Guantanamo Bay and at other secret locations around the world. Finally, we have to accept: that our government is abusing and torturing these detainees to obtain information that will be used against them should they ever come to trial; that they have no access to the federal courts to appeal their detentions; that they cannot consult with counsel without the presence of military monitors, who also read their legal mail; that they cannot review or challenge the "classified" evidence against them; and that they cannot confront or cross examine the witnesses against them.

There's another old saying, "If you snooze, you lose." We have a very narrow window of opportunity between the time we recognize a deadly threat and when we do something about it. Given the highly-advanced technological age we live in and the ready availability of overwhelming military force, once our freedoms are lost, they will be gone forever, whether or not every single one of us is "bearing arms."

Two weeks ago, Congress took an important first step in restricting the president's power by repealing a largely unrecognized section of the 2007 Defense Appropriations Act that, last year, effectively transferred command of the National Guards from state governors to the president. With the unanimous support of the National Governors Association, the National Sheriffs' Association and other law enforcement agencies, Congress restricted the power of the president to order the National Guard of any state to be used within that state or in any other state without the consent of the appropriate state governors.

We must immediately stop the deployment of National Guard troops to fight the illegal war in Iraq and bring them all home where they belong. Remaining under the control of state governors and given time to rest and the resources to re-equip, a well-trained and properly deployed National Guard, acting in support of local law enforcement, will be able to maintain order in most, if not all, domestic disturbances, natural disasters and terrorists attacks. If we survived the assassinations and riots of the Sixties, and 9-11, without martial law, we should be able to get by today without military intervention or the president's help.

There is no time to lose! Congress must immediately hold hearings on the power of the president to declare martial law, to deploy the military within the United States, and to detain American citizens, without trial or benefit of habeas corpus. Congress must establish the constitutional limits of presidential power by statute, rather than to allow the president to do so by his own executive orders.

The incursions on civil liberties in the United States in the past 25 years, and particularly since 9-11, are mind boggling. It matters not whether you are a Democrat or Republican, rich or poor, conservative or liberal, you have been deprived of substantial freedoms guaranteed by the Bill of Rights, unnecessarily, in the War on Terrorism. Fear the loss, perceive the danger, and do something about it!

once again, repeating myself ad nauseam, none of the above should remain in place when the new president takes the oath of office on 20 january 2009...

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Watching the political reality show

wow...! i've been a captive audience of cnn in the houston airport for the past several hours... (yeah, i know, i don't HAVE to pay attention, but it keeps sucking me in...) needless to say, it's pretty much all about the candidates, south carolina, the campaigns, the pundits, their endless opinions about every little meaningless detail, etc., etc., ad nauseam... since i almost NEVER watch tv news, to some extent, i'm seeing it with fresh eyes, and the thing that strikes me is just how much of what we're seeing is a carefully choreographed little reality show along the lines of "survivor..." all the themes are woven in - personal attacks, sex, winning, losing, the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat... it's about ratings... it's about voyeurism... (did i mention it's about sex...?) it's about pandering to people's latent racism, intolerance, sexism, ageism, you name it... in short, it's just another GODDAM DISTRACTION, something designed to keep us all wrapped up in something that basically doesn't mean jack shit... you and i know that, the way this whole deal works, no matter WHO is elected, not a goddam thing is going to change... no matter who takes the oath of office on 20 january 2009, he or she will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of whoever forked over the most money to get 'im there... i'm disgusted just watching it and can't help but feel that i'm getting out of the country at a good time...

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Questions for Iowa caucus winner Barack Obama

yep, yep, and yep...

Will you appoint an independent investigator to hunt down and expose the evidence of wrongdoing by your predecessor?

Will you roll back the Unitary Executive powers that Bush has claimed?

Will you take the necessary steps to restore Habeas Corpus?

Will you restore the Fourth Amendment so that citizens will be safe in their homes from their own government?

Will you close Gitmo and the Secret Prisons?

Will you launch FULL investigations into the politicization and subversion of the DOJ and the intelligence agencies?

When you take office, will you remove all remnants of "The Bushies" in the DOJ and instruct your newly staffed Department of Justice to vigorously pursue investigations in to the many and various....and many....criminal and suspect activities of the Bush Administration?

OR...

Or will you announce, as so may others have done before you, on so many occasions that the "past is past" and that we "must move on" and let the outrages and illegalities of the previous eight years fade away?

keep in mind, senator (and presidential candidate) obama...

Please remember that many of the perpetrators of todays injustices were also involved in Watergate, were involved in Iran Contra and the Death Squads in Central America. That these people have continued in power, continued to pursue their own agendas out of their twisted ideologies, that these in fact are the very people that have CAUSED the disunity in America that you decry.

The People of America and the world simply cannot unite and heal our differences while these cancers on real democracy exist in our midst, unexposed and unpunished. In order to unite us into a new and healthy nation and restore our role as a world leader, this cancer must be excised.

once again, my deepest wish is that bush and his criminal compadres will be removed from office prior to the end of his term, and, preferably, before the november election... that would give us an opportunity to roll back those abuses and to officially and forcefully repudiate them BEFORE the next president is elected and takes the oath of office on 20 january 2009...

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"I'm tired...I'm stunned...I simply cannot believe...I am nauseated...I am sad...I can't accept..."

all of which leads to this, a conclusion with which i am in complete agreement...

No, I can't get excited about the 2008 elections. I can't accept that we must go through another year of these criminals holding power and that no one will be held accountable, whether through impeachment hearings or real enforcement of the investigations that have been held.

The people who call themselves pragmatists say all the usual things, and seem very sanguine about the possibility of Bush and his crew never being held accountable.

But there's one thing they forget. There will be consequences if this happens. Bad ones. We will have allowed a poison to stay active in our halls of government, we will not have even pruned a branch, much less destroyed this evil at the root. There will be consequences that no amount of electoral victory can assuage.

also, to re-emphasize, the vial of "poison" that will remain "active in our halls of government" will pass directly into the hands of the next president to be inaugurated on 20 january 2009...

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Now, HERE'S somebody who recognizes that we're in a constitutional crisis

it doesn't happen often that a front-page blogger on an "a" list liberal-progressive blog lays it on the line...

meteor blades at daily kos...

I, for one, won't be partying January 20. I'm saving that for the end of that legendary first 100 days first instituted by FDR. Or longer.

Until I see the new President seek a gutting of the Patriot Act. Until domestic spying is controlled by a judicial arrangement far more constraining than the rubber-stamp operation begun 30 years ago after the Church Commission dug into the criminality of U.S. intelligence operations. Until torture in all its forms is renounced and the renunciation backed by dire punishment for perpetrators no matter what high office they hold. Until the Bush Doctrine and its noxious policy of preventive war is rescinded.

And, most importantly, until I see evidence that the first steps are being taken toward upending the military-industrial-congressional-petroleum complex and developing a post-Cold War, post-9/11 foreign policy based on mutual cooperation and recognizing that in the 21st Century global interests will far outweigh national interests if humanity is going to survive until the 22nd Century.

When all that gets underway, then I'll join the revelers.

yes, yes, and yes...

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George W. Bush, Defender of the United States Constitution

a page right of the karl rove playbook... portray yourself as the unequaled champion of the very thing you have worked so hard to destroy...

greenwald...

It's genuinely hard to believe that the writers of George Bush's speech last night to the Federalist Society weren't knowingly satirizing him. They actually had him say this:

When the Founders drafted the Constitution, they had a clear understanding of tyranny. They also had a clear idea about how to prevent it from ever taking root in America. Their solution was to separate the government's powers into three co-equal branches: the executive, the legislature, and the judiciary. Each of these branches plays a vital role in our free society. Each serves as a check on the others. And to preserve our liberty, each must meet its responsibilities -- and resist the temptation to encroach on the powers the Constitution accords to others.

Then they went even further and this came out:

The President's oath of office commits him to do his best to "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States." I take these words seriously. I believe these words mean what they say.

To top it all off -- by which point they must have been cackling uncontrollably -- they had him say this:

Others take a different view. . . . They forgot that our Constitution lives because we respect it enough to adhere to its words. (Applause.) Ours is the oldest written Constitution in the world. It is the foundation of America's experiment in self-government. And it will continue to live only so long as we continue to recognize its wisdom and division of authority.

and then we have robert parry...

To many Americans who have been aghast at Bush’s six-plus years of trampling the Constitution, such pronouncements might represent a textbook case of “cognitive dissonance,” a psychological term describing the uncomfortable tension when one’s stated principles are at odds with one’s actions.

For Bush, however, this divergence of words from behavior may be closer to the fable of the Emperor’s New Clothes, when the monarch strutted about in invisible garments while his terrified subjects kept quiet about his nakedness.

In this case, the Washington press corps reported on Bush’s speech as if the President were entirely sincere and left out contradictory facts.

parry, in his usual fine fashion, goes on to define the tactic bush used in his speech, a tactic i will forever associate with karl rove...

In a broader sense, Bush’s Nov. 15 speech reflected what has been a core rhetorical device of the modern American Right, the clever use of cognitive dissonance – the confident assertion of positions that fly in the face of reality.

[...]

Bush has proved to be a master of this technique because he shows even fewer scrupples than the average politician in making claims that are at clear variance with the truth.

For instance, in his last two addresses to the United Nations General Assembly, Bush has hailed the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights although its tenets are in contradiction of his claims that he can kill, kidnap, detain, torture and spy on anyone of his choosing anywhere in the world.

Nevertheless, Bush displayed a well-founded confidence that the U.S. press corps wouldn’t challenge him on these obvious hypocrisies – and he was right. [See Consortiumnews.com’s “Bush to World: Up Is Down.”]

Indeed, one of the most successful features of Bush’s presidency may be his ability to exploit cognitive dissonance to avoid accountability for his actions. While Bush doesn’t blush when his actions belie his words, the American political system can’t seem to cope, incapable of either reconciling Bush’s dishonesty or enforcing any accountability upon him.

god, what a loser... i simply don't know how our country is going to survive with this man at the helm and, worse, if the mechanisms of unfettered executive power that he has put in place aren't dismantled and rendered inoperative by the time the next president takes the oath of office on 20 january 2009...

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Is David Sirota waking up?

maybe there's still hope for david...

To paraphrase Thomas Paine, these truly are times that try progressives' souls... . As Beltway progressives pat themselves on the back and think success means getting on Hardball and movement-building means getting one of the most anti-progressive U.S. Senators in America [Max Baucus, D-MT] to attack rank-and-file progressive Democrats and undermine organized labor behind logo-emblazoned podiums in D.C., the bloodshed in Iraq continues, and the economic war on the middle class seethes here at home.

do ya suppose david's getting a clue...? there's little to no daylight between the r's and the dems, just so's ya know... that's not to say there aren't some good dems and, lord help us, a few good r's, but those that hold the reins of power (power = $$ = power) are simply not about to toss it away simply to satisfy a few piddlin' ideals and principles... the vaunted "realpolitik" that enforces support for every "single tactic and decision" along party lines is, in reality, just more political b.s. as usual... while our dear leaders in congress engage in orgies of fulmination at moveon and rush, our constitutionally-based democratic republic is continuing to be torn asunder, with our civil liberties and the foundations upon which our country is supposedly based left in tatters... and, guess what...? unless strong action is taken NOW, the nightmare WILL continue long past 20 january 2009...

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Our constitutional crisis - nobody wants to call a spade a spade

e.j. dionne offers this perspective...

So when Democratic presidential candidates get together, they argue about who has the best health-care plan. When Republicans have a big discussion, it's about torture and who'll use it when.

[...]

Our two political parties and their candidates are living in parallel universes. It's as if the candidates were running for president in two separate countries.

and herein lies the REAL problem...

The Democratic mind is focused on serious domestic problems, the Republican mind on terrorism and national security.

first of all, dionne totally omits any mention of iraq, arguably the priority issue in the public mind today... even worse, he fails to point out that nobody, NOBODY is stepping forward to call attention to the REAL issue, the one that subsumes all the others, namely our constitutional crisis... meanwhile, as the clock ticks slowly toward 20 january 2009, the gutting of that precious document continues unabated...

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The public statement of an impeachment convert

wmtriallawyer at daily kos sees the light...

It's time for all of them to go.

For all this, one needs a catalyst to make [Congress] reach this conclusion. To me, it's Comey's testimony from yesterday. It is so damning in so many ways. It was a deliberate usurping of our Department of Justice by the Presidency. It was an attempt to illegally seize the reins of government to circumvent the Constitution and deliberately trample on the Bill of Rights. Who gave them the right to do this? Who gave them the right to act in such a heinous matter?

Sometimes, it takes a day for this stuff to sink in. When I finally got around to watching Comey's testimony today, it only took a matter of minutes.

They...must...go.

On Katrina, they could hide behind incompetence. On Iraq, they could hide behind the so-called faulty intelligence. But on what has gone on with our Department of "Just-us", there is no more hiding.

It's Nixon again. Maybe worse...Nixon covered it up. These guys were just more brazen about it all.

Even if we're not successful in impeaching, even if it doesn't deliver a single resignation, even if we have to wait until 2009 to get our new President...we MUST CONTINUE THESE INVESTIGATIONS. We MUST CONTINUE TO ASK THE HARD QUESTIONS.

Because we all DESERVE TO KNOW THE TRUTH.

Sorry, this diary is kinda short. I'm just seething right now. I've had it with the lot of them.

Forgive me my past trangressions. I stand on the side of justice now.

to earn your forgiveness, you need to shout this from the rooftops, post it on every available weblog, and preach it to your friends, family and colleagues... the clock is ticking...

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Dear Bill Richardson,

bill richardson has a new tv ad and he's soliciting comments here...



Dear Bill,

The ad is terrific. I really like it, but you're going to have to do more than clever, cute ads to get my vote.

I lived in New Mexico when you were the Congressman for my district and I had the distinct impression at the time that you had a Big Plan for your Political Career, that you were always on the lookout for the Next Big Job that you could add to your resume, and that you wouldn't rest until you could have a shot at The Big Enchilada. That's not a bad thing, to be sure, but let me offer you some thoughts about what I would like from you.

We have a criminal cabal that is occupying the White House. They gained office on the strength of a silent coup d'etat authorized by the Supreme Court decision of 12 December 2000. They have been systematically trampling on the Constitution and the very foundation of the Republic ever since. I would like very much that whoever gets sworn into office on 20 January 2009 NOT do so with the signing statements, the Military Commissions Act, the Patriot Act, the wholesale violations of FISA and the 4th Amendment, the spurning of the Geneva Conventions by authorizing torture, the CIA black prison sites, extraordinary rendition, and the repudiation of anything resembling the balance of powers, still in place. These things have made the country that I thought I knew virtually unrecognizable.

How do you intend to speak out on these things in your campaign, Governor Richardson? If you would like to court my vote, you will have to do so and LOUDLY, VERY loudly. To date, I haven't heard more than a tiny peep.

Sincerely,

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Lying your country into war is an impeachable offense - unless the truth no longer matters

hard on the heels of bill moyers' powerful documentary (i finished watching it earlier today and have to confess there were a few times when i teared up), comes this from guest essayist carla binion, writing at robert parry's consortium news...

It's astonishing that members of Congress are either unaware George W. Bush and Dick Cheney lied the nation to war with Iraq, or they are aware of the fact and don't care. A Congress grounded in reality would have unequivocally acknowledged the administration's lies long ago and taken appropriate action - almost certainly impeachment.

If we say the pre-war lies don't matter and the country should sweep them under the rug and only focus on the best way out of Iraq, what we're really saying is that the truth itself doesn't matter.

If we say we should look away from the fact that thousands of U.S. soldiers and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis died for a lie, we're saying the lost lives don't matter, the war-injured and maimed don't matter, America's honor and integrity don't matter.

she touches on what i sincerely hope will be the logical progression of events...

The investigation and subpoenas should go forward, and Congress shouldn't let administration officials get away with evading the subpoenas or whitewashing and covering up the facts. Given the vast amount of evidence on public record and easily available to Congress, it's likely that any honest, rigorous investigation would lead to impeachment.

i've said it so often, i'm tired of listening to myself, but, as a country, we simply cannot afford to have bush and cheney continue in office until 20 january 2009...

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