This has been coming for a long time. I’ve been watching the politicians in Washington very closely to see exactly how they intended to manage an administration that is so extremely neo-conservative that they are dangerous to this country and the world. I’ve seen heroic stances by some like Dennis Kucinich, Bernie Sanders, Patrick Leahy, Russ Feingold and even Ron Paul. However, this is not enough. We’ve seen Cynthia McKinney disenfranchised as well as others that have stood up to tyranny and war. Meanwhile, while all of this has taken place, the Democratic Party has been split down the middle and has offered no protection or support to any that oppose the horrendous regime in Washington.

I have been at this a long time. Lately I have no desire to write about what I see happening in the world because I’ve already talked about it. I saw the Zeitgeist movie this evening and there was nothing in the movie that I have not already written about. Yes we have been taken for a ride by the people that control this country and that are the International Bankers. Yes the Federal Reserve is robbing us blind and we have known that since Woodrow Wilson told us so. Yes, our education system in this country is producing sub-par graduates without the capacity for critical thing; you know that by just talking to them. We know that the media is controlled by the corporations that are controlled by the bankers who control our government. I know all that.

Baghdad: City of Walls
I watched “Baghdad, City of Walls” on the Real News Network today. I was impressed by the journalist that made the documentary and I wished that the MSM would carry the video. No sooner had I sat down and watched CNN for Barak Obama’s speech, than they broadcast what I had so recently seen on The Real News. http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1171&thisview=item
And http://therealnews.com/web/index.php?thisdataswitch=0&thisid=1170&thisview=item

It’s time that Americans were told the truth about what’s happening in Iraq. Somehow, I had already known about the walls that separate the ethnic neighborhoods in Baghdad, I had read about them on the internet. Nothing surprised me about the video except that CNN had chosen to air it. The story told about the sectarian violence that makes Iraqi’s virtual prisoners inside their enclaves. Sunni and Shiite no longer live together there. To walk outside your “zone” is to invite a bullet to the head or to be taken prisoner and ransomed or killed. In Baghdad there is no “surge”.

We all know by now that the military has lost one of its most respected members, Admiral James Fallon. The circumstances involving his resignation are as many as there are people trying to explain it. Did the Admiral resign because of pressure from the Bush Administration so as the pave the way for an attack on Iran? This seems to be the case from many reports I have read.

Let me be direct and succinct in what I have to say. Having spent almost 21 years in the military myself, I have no regard for an administration that forces good people out of the way to go on more military mis-adventures. An attack on Iran would be a ghastly thing to do at this time, the American people, in my humble opinion will have none of it. This would bring this administration to an end. This would be the death knell of the Bush Administration and end the Republican Party as a political force for many years after.

Things have already changed. The political art of finesse has never been so heightened. Everything has been finessed, all checks and balances seemingly compromised.

From The Hill’s Pundits Blog:

Torture Tapes are the Watergate of Our Times

Brent Budowsky

As I write these words on the morning of Wednesday, Dec. 19, high- and low-level officials of the Bush administration involved in torture, and the destruction of the torture tapes, are consulting their criminal lawyers as The New York Times reports that highest-level lawyers in the administration had discussed the destruction of the tapes.

I predict there will soon be new stories about more torture tapes that were destroyed and new stories about more high-level officials that were either tainted or corrupted by this scandal, and others who opposed this travesty who will ultimately testify about who they approached to attempt to prevent it.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

This film shows a performance artist undergoing, for real, interrogation techniques permitted in the CIA handbook. Warning: Some viewers may find this disturbing. Unsuitable for under 14s. The Directors approached the making of the film in a way that has never been done before, choosing to show the reality of Stress Positions in as authentic a way as possible. They filmed a person being put into Stress Positions over a 6 hour period. There is no acting on the part of the “prisoner” – his pain and anguish is for real.

And to restore Constitutional checks and balances?

Please read LJ's post Why Electing Any Democrat Might Be Utterly Irrelevant about John Dean's new book.

What I am most interested in, is what strategically can be done about this situation?

John Dean states in an interview:

The bottom line for this affair is going to be removing Republicans from the Executive Branch. They have embedded so many people, contrary to the Civil Service laws, that it's going to take not just 2008, but 2012, 2016, and possibly 2020 and 2024 to clear this problem up. If the public ever becomes aware of this, it's going to be a long time before they ever let another Republican back in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

David Swanson talks about U.S. Rep. Dennis Kucinich's impeachment bill

Johanna Neuman | Washington | November 7

LAT -
A resolution against Cheney gets parked in committee. Republicans sought an immediate vote in order to spark a House floor fight.

House Democrats on Tuesday beat back a Republican attempt to force them to vote on a divisive resolution to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney for "fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction" to justify the war in Iraq.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

Gerry Shih and Susana Montes | October 15

The Stanford Daily - ... “Of course it’s about oil, we can’t really deny that,” [former CENTCOM commander Gen. John] Abizaid said of the Iraq campaign early on in the talk.

“We’ve treated the Arab world as a collection of big gas stations,” the retired general said. “Our message to them is: Guys, keep your pumps open, prices low, be nice to the Israelis and you can do whatever you want out back. Osama and 9/11 is the distilled essence that represents everything going on out back.”...

Nick Juliano | September 29

Raw Story - Rep. Dennis Kucinich says he is so concerned about what he sees as the Bush administration's push for a war with Iran that he is considering using a parliamentary measure to force the House of Representatives to vote on impeaching Vice President Dick Cheney.

"We're preparing for another war, and they're going to destroy America," the Ohio Democrat said Thursday on the Ed Schultz show. "We have a government in place right now that has to be challenged. I'm seriously thinking about calling a privileged resolution on impeachment of the vice president and forcing a vote on the floor of the House." More

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

“No School * No Work * No Shopping. Hit the Streets”

http://www.strike911.org/

Michael Collins “Scoop” Independent Media
Washington, D.C.

A general strike is proposed for the United States on September11, 2007, the sixth anniversary of the 9/11/2001 attacks on New York City and Arlington, Virginia. The general strike movement has no clearly named leadership. It’s described as an Internet viral effort. Wikipedia defines viral efforts on the Internet as:

E&P Staff | New York | August 12

Editor & Publisher - It's not the first time that citizen "investigative journalists" have uncovered some embarrassing, or telling, nugget from the past that apparently remained buried for years. But it has happened again with the posting of a now wildly popular video on YouTube that shows Dick Cheney explaining in 1994 that trying to take over Iraq would be a "bad idea" and lead to a "quagmire."

The people who put it up come from a site called Grand Theft Country, the on-screen source appears to be the conservative American Enterprise Institute, and the date on the screen is April 15, 2004. That looks right, by the look of Cheney.

Gelding Congress: House Censure Would be the Final Cut of the Knife

by Dave Lindorff

August 7

Baltimore Chronicle The do-nothing Democrat-led Congress, fresh from handing President Bush the power to spy on Americans without any judicial oversight, and just weeks after providing full funding for the continuation of the bloody war and occupation in Iraq, is now mounting an all-out campaign to co-opt and bury the growing grass-roots campaign to impeach President Bush and Cheney.

With 19 members of the House now signed on as supporters of Ohio Representative Dennis Kucinich’s bill to impeach Cheney (H Res 333), a group which includes six, or more than a quarter of the House Judiciary Committee, and with polls showing clearly that a majority of Americans want impeachment of the president and vice president, it is getting harder and harder for the party leadership to keep a lid on this movement.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing


click to enlarge