"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total."

representative barbara jordan, speaking during the house judiciary committee hearing on the impeachment of richard nixon, july 25, 1974...

“Earlier today, we heard the beginning of the Preamble to the Constitution of the United States, ‘We, the people.’ It is a very eloquent beginning. But when the document was completed on the seventeenth of September 1787 I was not included in that ‘We, the people.’ I felt somehow for many years that George Washington and Alexander Hamilton just left me out by mistake. But through the process of amendment, interpretation and court decision, I have finally been included in ‘We, the people.’

“My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution.... [As was said at] the North Carolina ratification convention: ‘No one need be afraid that officers who commit oppression will pass with immunity.’”

barbara jordan is quoted by ray mcgovern, writing in consortium news, about the absolute necessity of moving forward with impeachment proceedings against dick cheney, and using the one unassailable, publicly admitted crime, the use of warrantless domestic wiretapping in direct violation of fisa, as the grounds...

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As the Gonzales no-confidence vote approaches, think of this: "Words seem inadequate in the face of such blithe noncompetence"

strong stuff...

Dan Metcalfe says he thought he had seen it all as a former senior Justice Department lawyer whose career stretches back to the Watergate scandal of the Nixon administration.

Over the years, Metcalfe says, he has taken pride in being able to work with Republican and Democratic administrations as director of the department's Office of Information and Privacy, which he co-founded in 1981.

But he says he has never seen anything quite like Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales.

Metcalfe, 55, retired in early January, just before the storm erupted over the dismissal last year of nine U.S. attorneys. The House and Senate Judiciary committees are investigating whether the prosecutors were fired in order to squelch political investigations against Republicans or failing to aggressively pursue voter fraud charges against Democratic-leaning groups.

In an interview, Metcalfe said, "I think the way in which the firings themselves were handled was abominable, the way in which the ensuing controversy was handled was abysmal, and the way in which Gonzales has handled himself is absolutely appalling."

"As a long-term Justice Department official, I am embarrassed and increasingly incensed that he is still in there," he said.

[...]

Sheer political expediency, avoidance of individual responsibility, defensive personal aggrandizement, irresponsible "consensus" decision-making, disregard for long-standing practices and principles — it was all there, and it was tainted at most every turn by unprecedented White House involvement.

[...]

To put it mildly, it's hard to imagine that anyone but the most die-hard political appointees at the Justice Department would have any confidence in Gonzales today — and even that small amount of support would be based on blind loyalty rather than painful reality.

[...]

It is the arrogance of power, the palpable disdain for the rule of law, and the utter disregard for the Justice Department's integrity that brings this so very close to the Watergate era.

[...]

Gonzales has now shown himself to be so lacking as to defy complete description; words seem inadequate in the face of such blithe noncompetence. Suffice to say that his standing relative to other attorneys general comports with how this president compares with his own predecessors.

it's difficult for me to comprehend a former senior doj official making statements like that and not having them set the country on fire... it shows just how effectively we've been dumbed down and how much we prefer our narcotic consumer pleasures to the responsibilities of citizenship... we're behaving just like congress, sticking our heads in the sand and hoping it all blows over soon...

i'll repeat what i said earlier... the r's are going to stick by bush and vote against the no-confidence measure, it will fail, bush and gonzo will congratulate themselves for pulling off another one, the dems will put their tails between their legs, continue with their various hearings, and warm themselves with fantasies of what they could be with a little more testosterone... but it's like the little dutch boy, sticking his finger in the dike, trying to hold back the sea - when it goes, it's going to go in a rush...

the r's know, if they abandon george now, the dike will most definitely give way, and they'll be standing right there, dead center, watching an oncoming wall of water... it's the classic rock and a hard place dilemma... there's only one thing left to do, and that's for congress to re-assert - aggressively re-assert - its role as a separate but equal power under the constitution, whatever form that may take... the crisis is upon us, and, even though congress is wishing mightily for it to go away, it's not going to... it's time to stand up and fight...

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With George at 28%, the WSJ still sees a bright spot

they wouldn't say "shit" if they were up to their eyeballs in it...

Despite President Bush's low popularity, he is still getting better marks than the weakest ratings for Richard Nixon and Jimmy Carter, according to a new analysis from Harris Interactive.

In an April poll, Harris found that President Bush's popularity had sunk to the lowest level of his presidency, with 28% of U.S. adults giving his job performance positive ratings and 70% rating him negatively.

why is george bush still our president...? what can we do TOMORROW to get him out...?

(thanks to think progress...)

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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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Ronald Reagan - Hair Rock

there's nobody quite like hunter when he gets wound up...

Reagan was made for the era: in the time of hair rock, when talent was completely and utterly indistinguishable from fashion, Ronald Reagan was the hair president. His coif was one of destiny: his hair glistened in ways that his soul never quite could. He was a handsome actor of middling quality at a time in American life when being a handsome actor of middling quality was the very best thing you could possibly be, in any profession, in any situation, in any corner of the national zeitgeist. And excesses of both rock and presidency were evolutions from what previously were dark days indeed -- while the fashions and rock of the eighties rapidly were evolving into clothes and hair so expansive that they required elaborate scaffolding, steelwork and cocaine to support them, the seventies had previously been so monstrous that the fashion-humiliated country was not only prepared but vaguely grateful for the gratuitously shallow (but nevertheless high-drama) change.

Ditto on the presidency, in which after two fairly lackluster transitional presidents Reagan and Reagan's glistening coif took over the conservative mantle from the disgraced, now-let-us-never-speak-of-him-again Nixon. Reagan succeeded in bringing the hard-right conservatives back into power, allowing them freer rein than Nixon himself ever did, and Reagan even managed to eclipse Nixon in the very, very important conservative presidential duty of doing something completely frigging illegal, extra-constitutional, and blasphemous against the very concept of America, giving seed to a new crop of conservative felons and near-felons to be worshiped as martyrs by the far right.

Nixon provided the movement with G. Gordon Liddy; Reagan gave us Oliver North. You can find them both, along with others, on Fox News and other conservative outlets to this day, neatly packaged reformed crooks, which in conservatism passes for nobility. And Reagan himself, of course, maintained plausible deniability, which from the multiple Bush eras we have now learned is the entire difference between conservative presidential hero and conservative presidential chump.

i positively SOAR with his verbiage... it's long, it's articulate, it's FUN to read... go enjoy...

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According to Holtzman, Bush is keeping Gonzales to cover his ass

go-l-l-lee, who woulda thunk it...?

Former Democratic Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman, who sat on the House Judiciary Committee that investigated Nixon prior to his resignation, says President Bush may be sticking with embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to avoid a confirmation hearing for his replacement.

well, duh...

but, wait, there's more...

Holtzman said the Senate could use confirmation hearings to investigate whether administration officials miscarried justice in firing US Attorneys on what Democrats say was largely political ground. Those hearings would serve the same role as the Watergate-era special prosecutor's investigation, Holtzman says, adding that the Senate "also might use the opportunity to probe the Justice Department's role in mistreatment of detainees, four years of flouting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and other serious matters."

a-HA...! i've been saying all along that gonzo is part of george's firewall and have speculated repeatedly that, if he were removed, a large chunk of that firewall would be gone, leading to god-knows-how-many new revelations... looks like george is indeed feeling a draft blowing up his dress...

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McGovern: "I expect to see Cheney and Bush forced to resign their offices before 2008 is over"

that would be the greatest gift this country could possibly receive and would be the first step in helping us move past the most serious constitutional crisis in the nation's history...

It is my firm belief that the Cheney-Bush team has committed offenses that are worse than those that drove Nixon, Vice President Spiro Agnew and Atty. Gen. John Mitchell from office after 1972. Indeed, as their repeated violations of the Constitution and federal statutes, as well as their repudiation of international law, come under increased consideration, I expect to see Cheney and Bush forced to resign their offices before 2008 is over.

i have a great deal of respect for george mcgovern and i desperately hope he's right... judging from the mind-boggling revelations that continue to pour forth from washington (just today alone, fercryinoutloud) about the criminal undertakings of the bushco coup d'etat, perhaps it's not out of the bounds of possibility...

(thanks to mcjoan at daily kos...)

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They're in touch with their OWN reality, thank you very much

think progress has this from darth...

Yesterday morning on CBS’s Face the Nation, host Bob Schieffer asked Vice President Cheney if he agreed with Reid’s statement [see below] Cheney replied that it was a “ridiculous notion.” His rebuttal: “I spend as much time as I can to get out and do other things, be at home in Wyoming or, yesterday, I managed to go shopping with my daughter for a birthday present for granddaughters.”

you can live in your own little world and still go out to the mall and even rub shoulders with the po’ folk… cheney lives entirely within the ideological framework of his own mental landscape and is about as out of touch with what most of us would consider ordinary reality as it’s possible to be… i mean, after all, how many of us keep a biohazard suit available in their car…?

The president is as isolated, I believe, on the Iraq issue as Richard Nixon was when he was hunkered down in the White House.

however, it's important to note that both bush AND cheney ARE in touch, very much so, as a matter of fact... it's what they're in touch WITH that's the problem... they are both working THE PLAN, and quite effectively too, i might add... it's been several days since i've posted their signal to us all of precisely what they would do post-election... remember, this was dated late october LAST YEAR...

In fact, when it comes to deploying its Executive power, which is dear to Bush's understanding of the presidency, the President's team has been planning for what one strategist describes as "a cataclysmic fight to the death" over the balance between Congress and the White House if confronted with congressional subpoenas it deems inappropriate. The strategist says the Bush team is "going to assert that power, and they're going to fight it all the way to the Supreme Court on every issue, every time, no compromise, no discussion, no negotiation."

they may not be in touch with reality as most americans see it, but they are definitely in touch with their OWN reality, thank you very much...

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Kagro X yesterday

Will oversight and exposure of the Nixon/Bush doctrine be enough? Will Americans finally and miraculously simply awaken to the realities of constitutional transformation? Did the Clinton impeachment really make us so afraid of the process itself that it should be considered unavailable to us in combating the constitutional-level game undertaken by Republicans? Is this really something we can actually debate our way out of? Can we really afford to head into 2008 under the banner of "bipartisan cooperation?"

my thoughts...

personally, i don't give a rat's ass about what it takes to "make impeachment seems like a palatable solution," and, furthermore, i don't even care if impeachment is the vehicle... the constitutional crisis that has been intensifying since the scotus decision of 12 december 2000 is altering the very foundations of the united states and transforming my country into something unrecognizable... "bipartisanship" when dealing with criminals intent on turning the u.s. into a one-party, authoritarian state, with an all-powerful chief executive/commander-in-chief committed to a state of permanent war is simply not acceptable, and waiting until 20 january 2009 is simply too long...

i am convinced that one reason bush is so intent on keeping gonzales around is that gonzo serves as something of a firewall, shielding bush from exposure to the most egregious offenses - e.g. "constitutional hardball" - pushed in large part by the justice department... with gonzo gone, bush will be massively exposed to the very real possibility that the floodgates will open... with that in mind, i think the longer alberto stays on, the more likely that the pressure behind the dam will continue to build, and, when it finally gives way, katy bar the door...

my hope, call it my fantasy, is that there will be revelations so dramatic, so incriminating, so absolutely undeniable, that a bush/cheney resignation will be a given, or, if not, impeachment will be accomplished in short order... god, i hope so... we can't afford another DAY of this administration, much less waiting until january 2009...

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Speaking of Uruguay...! They want Kissinger in connection with Operation Condor...!

i'd no sooner put up the last post than i ran across this...

An attorney for a victim of Uruguay's 1973-1985 dictatorship has asked his government to request the extradition of former US secretary of state Henry Kissinger over his alleged role in the notorious Operation Condor.

Condor was a secret plan hatched by South American dictators in the 1970s to eliminate leftist political opponents in the region. Details of the plan have emerged over the past years in documents and court testimony.

operation condor was the group behind many of the ugly, murderous dictatorships that have plagued latin america in the last 30-40 years, including argentina, bolivia, brazil, chile, paraguay, and uruguay...

Operation Condor ... was a campaign of state terrorism and intelligence operations implemented by right-wing dictatorships that dominated the Southern Cone in Latin America from the 1950s to 1980s, heavily relying on numerous assassinations. The systematic counter-terrorism aimed both to deter democratic influence and ideas disseminated in the region and to control active or potential opposition movements against these governments. This organized counter-terrorism caused an unknown number of deaths, due to the covering up of the different governments involved. According to the "terror archives" discovered in Paraguay in 1992, 50,000 persons were murdered, 30,000 "disappeared" (desaparecidos) and 400,000 incarcerated.[1][2]. There have recently been some attempts of prosecutions against those responsible for this repression, to varied degrees.

[...]

The operation was jointly conducted by the intelligence and security services of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay in the mid-1970s.

Operation Condor, which took place in the context of the Cold War, was given at least tacit approval by the United States which feared a Marxist revolution in the region. The targets were officially leftist guerrillas, but in fact included all kinds of political opponents, including their families and others, as reported by the Valech Commission. The "Dirty War" in Argentina for example, which resulted in 30,000 victims, targeted mostly trade-unionists. Chilean MIR members, activists of the Catholic left-wing Peronist group the Montoneros, members of the Argentine MTO (the "All for the Country Movement") or Uruguayan Tupamaros were among those targeted.

It appears that Henry Kissinger, Secretary of State in the Nixon and Ford administrations, was closely involved diplomatically with the Southern Cone governments at the time and well-aware of the Condor plan.

henry is a cold-blooded bastard and richly deserves to face the music for his long years of getting away scot-free... maybe, just maybe, we're going to see some accountability... it'd be nice of the u.s. would get on the bandwagon as well... too much going on in the u.s. with the current crop of home-grown evildoers, i guess...

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The Daily Kos front page wakes up to the need for heads to roll

it's about time something like this was front-paged on kos... i have nothing against daily kos... i visit the site numerous times during an average day... i have, however, been consistently disappointed at the "head-in-the-sand" stance of the major front-pagers regarding the grave constitutional crisis the country faces... yes, it is critically important that there be a strong focus on supporting good, people-powered, grassroots and netroots candidates to help insure that this kind of governmental criminality never happens again, but, the fact remains, it is STILL happening, and the most important thing for the nation right now is to get it to STOP while we still have a country left... reading the kos front page is too often like reading the racing form or sitting in a casino sports book... i take this post by kagro x as a sign some people are starting to wake up...

For the balance of this "administration," then, and for the foreseeable future, the serious prosecution of public corruption may be all but impossible. And that is the true measure of the gravity of this crime.

But the crime is more than just a grave one, it is also evidence of a depravity not seen since Nixon. Veteran watchers of Karl Rove's operations will instantly recognize his infamous m.o. in all of this: make your own weakness a strength, and accuse the opposition of doing precisely what you're actually doing behind the scenes. While Republican corruption was running rampant, Rove's machinations made it appear that it was actually Democratic corruption that was the problem. While Republicans at the federal level were literally looting the Treasury, handing out bricks of cash in Iraq, laundering Abramoff's "lobbying" fees, forcing through illegal redistricting plans, jamming phone lines on election day, suppressing the minority vote, etc., Republican prosecutors were digging for any scraps they could find to use against their political opposition at the local level, where they hoped no one would connect the dots, but which would still have a corrosive effect on the public perception of Democrats. And when Republicans were caught in the act, as DeLay was, what was the first thing he accused the Democratic District Attorney of? Conducting a "partisan witch hunt."

The long term effects of this scandal are incalculable.

[...]

Heads must roll, and they must roll in numbers.

these heads have needed to roll for a very long time... the lies, the outright crimes, the shredding of the u.s. constitution, and the destruction of the very fabric of the united states have been there for all to see for six-plus years... we have to stop it now...

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Harry Belafonte: "...no previous regime tried to subvert the Constitution"

amy goodman captures the fire that still burns in his 80-year old heart...

"The essential difference between then and now is that no previous regime tried to subvert the Constitution. They may have done illegal acts. They may have gone outside the law to do these, but they did them clandestinely. No one stepped to the table as arrogantly as George W. Bush and his friends have done and said, 'We legally want to suspend the rights of citizens, the right to surveil, the right to read your mail, the right to arrest you without charge.'"

he's right, of course... that IS the essential difference between a richard nixon and a george bush... the united states has performed many evil and covert acts over many years, but never in such an in-your-face way as the bush administration, and certainly never with a citizenry so willing to let it happen...

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"Disinformation, misinformation and unwillingness to tell the truth"

this should be pasted on billboards in every city and town in the country...

"The Bush administration," Bernstein continues, "is a far different matter in which disinformation, misinformation and unwillingness to tell the truth -- a willingness to lie both in the Oval Office, in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, in the office of the vice president, the vice president himself -- is something that I have never witnessed before on this scale."

[...]

"This president has a record of dishonesty and obfuscation that is Nixonian in character in its willingness to manipulate the press, to manipulate the truth," he adds. "We have gone to war on the basis of misinformation, disinformation and knowing lies from top to bottom."

too bad bernstein's buddy, woodward, doesn't get it...

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