Dubyaville

BBC reports on a tent-city that has sprung up near Los Angeles, made up of citizens who have lost their homes in the current banking crisis. It’s name is Dubyaville, in honor of our President W. (via)



As Bob Cesca points out, when will American news media cover this story?

A Terrible Idea

AP reports: “A small group of Republicans facing election fights next year have rallied around war legislation they think could unite the GOP: a call for an end to U.S. combat in Iraq, but not until President Bush is out of office.”

A few months ago, we were told by many Republicans to “wait until September” before we judged whether or not the surge is working. We need to evaluate the evidence, they said! Now they want us to wait another 16 months until President Bush is out of office and only then pull the plug, without any more blather about evaluating the evidence at that time?

If Iraq is seen to be a bad idea 16 months from now, it is an equally bad idea today. In fact, it is a terrible, horrendous, disgusting idea today.

The hypothetical Republican legislation reported above leaves the Decider guy (that’s President Bush, you know) to mismanage the war for another 16 months. It sends another thousand or so Americans to their death. It will result in thousands more American injuries, and some of those injured in the next 16 months will be maimed and require life-long medical care. It disrupts the lives of our 150,000 troops for 16 more months, whose families and personal lives have been horribly disrupted already. It wastes (as a guess) 200 billion dollars more, money that is desperately needed at home. It decimates our armed forces and makes us unresponsive to other global threats, for years to come after we finally get out of Iraq. It does not make us any safer. It does nothing to stop terrorism (as Iraq was never about terrorism). It does nothing to catch Osama bin Laden. It does nothing to make things better in Iraq.

I suppose, however, this new legislation would allow Republicans to sound like they want to get us out of Iraq, but without having to challenge the Decider guy or to hurt his feelings. What cowardly Republicans they are. This is why I said the idea of waiting 16 months to stop the war is disgusting. It is apparently more important to not cross the President and provide some cover for themselves when they run for re-election than to save the lives and health of our troops.

What is even more frustrating is that Democrats should be chanting the above criticisms of such an approach today. And tomorrow. And every day. Democrats need to tell the American public, every single day, what the true costs of the Iraq war are. We don’t see them doing that, but we keep hoping that one day the Democrats will actually lead on these issues, and shape the narrative. Until then, I shall write more letters to my Congressmen, and hope and pray.

Where Are Those Republicans Now?

Think Progress has a nice study of those who were involved in the planning of the Iraq war. Seems they have all prospered either inside the Bush Administration, and none have been penalized for their incompetence.

How about those Republican Senators who voted to convict President Bill Clinton of charges of perjury and obstruction of justice when Clinton was impeached in 1999? Of those Republican Senators, 25 are still in office, and not one of them has spoken a single public word about President Bush’s commutation of the sentence against I. Lewis Libby, despite their impassioned rhetoric against Clinton and why it is not proper to lie.

And then there is Fred Thompson, formerly minority counsel for the Senate Watergate Committee in 1973. Thompson, now a likely candidate for president as a Republican, seems like a hero on his website and in his book for his role in Watergate. However, according to a Democratic investigator for the committee, Scott Armstrong, quoted in The Boston Globe: “Thompson was a mole for the White House. Fred was working hammer and tong to defeat the investigation of finding out what happened to authorize Watergate and find out what the role of the president was.” Naturally, Thompson believes I. Lewis Libby deserves a full pardon.

Lovely history of these Republicans, isn’t it? Kind of makes me proud I have never been a Republican.

Olbermann to Bush: Resign

Wow! A must see video! Keith Olbermann accuses the President of the United States of lying, subverting the constitution and a long list of other crimes. He asks Bush to resign.

The Libby Pardon: Bush is Compassionate Only to Conservatives

Paul Begala:

George W. Bush is One Tough Hombre
Tough enough to execute Karla Fay Tucker — and then laugh about it. Tough enough to sign a death warrant for a man whose lawyer slept through the trial — and then snicker when asked about it in a debate. Even tough enough to execute a great-grandmother who murdered her husband — after he abused her. A friend of mine at the time asked Bush to commute her sentence, telling him, “Betty Lou ain’t a threat to no one she ain’t married to.” No dice.

Mr. Bush is tough enough to invade a country that was no risk to America, causing tens of thousands of civilian deaths and shedding precious American blood in the process. Tough enough to sanction torture. Tough enough to order an American citizen arrested and held without trial.

But if you’re rich and right-wing and Republican, George is a real softie. As George W. Bush demonstrated in giving Scooter Libby a Get Out of Jail Free Card, he is only compassionate to conservatives.

Also see Glenn Greenwald. Also, David Corn provides a guide to rebutting right-wing lies about the Libby case.

How Many Scandals?

How many scandals, with fingers and evidence pointed directly at the White House, does this country have to endure before Congress finds the courage to impeach?

Here is a partial list of scandals perpetrated by the evildoers in the White House: taking no action after being informed that Osama bin Laden was determined to strike inside the USA; lying about weapons of mass destruction to get the United States into a war with Iraq; the incompetent management of wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; Abu Ghraib; Katrina; Walter Reed; outing of undercover CIA agent Valerie Plame, causing huge damage to the country’s ability to monitor weapons of mass destruction; firing of United States attorneys for political reasons afterd pushing those same attorneys to pursue politically motivated investigations.

Any one of these scandals ought to be ground for impeachment. Any one of these would have been grounds for impeachment when Bill Clinton ... oh wait, the standard was different then. Now let me think for a minute ... which party wanted Clinton impeached and which party has done nothing from 2001 through 2007 to investigate and punish President Bush and his gang of criminals? Which party will try to stop any impeachment today?