Political Fleshfeast - Recommended Diaries

Multitudes of Matryoshkas

Miss Devore — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 19:53:39 GMT

WASHINGTON -- Russia is showing signs of returning to its authoritarian past and its invasion of Georgia will require the U.S. to re-evaluate the strategic relationship between the superpowers, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.
Joining in the hard-line rhetoric, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accused Russian President Dmitry Medvedev of failing to honor a promise to withdraw troops quickly from Georgia under terms of a cease-fire he signed Saturday.
"I hope this time he'll keep his word," Rice said after Medvedev announced the withdrawal would begin Monday.
Shadows of the Cold War emerged as the Bush administration struggled for the appropriate response to Russia's aggression against its smaller U.S.-backed neighbor, which Moscow ruled for most of the two centuries before the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.
"I think that there is a real concern that Russia has turned the corner here and is headed back toward its past rather than toward its future, and my hope is that we will see actions in the weeks and months to come that provide us some reassurance," Gates said.

http://rawstory.com/news/2008/...

The events of today must be put into the perspectives of the various mythologies woven with respect to our history with Russia/The Soviet Union. Chief among these, is that the brave Ronald Reagan waved a verbal wand that dumped Communism into the dustbin of history. Gorbachev's pereistroika gradualism was too slow for the West (and he was an admitted atheist) so the US set their sites on the vodka-sodden Boris Yeltsin to usher in freedom and democracy. (Karma gave us our own sodden president who managed to run the ship of state into an iceberg, before it sought to eliminate icebergs completely.)

"I hope this time he'll keep his word," Rice said

The idea that we are surprised by Putin's boots.....not even our great Russian expert Condi "could have foreseen..." should have no one complaining about that other guys "politics of hope." But the sense that we have to worry about Cold War II, is another regression to our good and evil simplicities. It was Georgis's president who unwisely invaded South Ossetia; some say this gave Putin the green light to overreact and further his desire to reestablish empire. A cease fire is signed, without signs that it is actually taking place. And now there are Georgians who are claiming the South Ossetians are engaged in ethnic cleansing of Georgians:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

Where will the truth come from? Things have not been so kind to Russian journalists:

(CBS/AP) Dmitry Kholodov, a reporter who investigated military corruption, was killed in October 1994 when a briefcase he had picked up at a Moscow train station following an anonymous call blew up in his office. Colleagues said he had been told it contained evidence.
Six men charged in the killing, including four former members of an elite paratroops unit, were acquitted in two separate trials, in 2002 and 2004; the Russian Supreme Court upheld those rulings in June 2005.
Natalya Skryl, a business reporter for Nashe Vremya in Rostov-on-Don, was beaten over the head in March 2002 and died the next day. Colleagues said she had been investigating a dispute over control of a metals plant, and that was the most probable reason for her murder.
Investigators initially excluded robbery as a motive in the killing - because she had jewelry and a large sum of cash on her when she was found - but later ruled the opposite, according to CPJ.
"It is extremely important to break the circle of inconclusive investigations in regard of the recent murders of journalists in Russia," said Miklos Haraszti, the media freedom advocate of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. "The violent death of any member of the media stifles the free spirit of journalism. But in this case, the expediency of action is extremely important also because Anna Politkovskaya was an outspoken critic of government policies."
Suspicion in the killing of Politkovskaya, whose body was found in the elevator in her apartment building on Saturday, has fallen on the Moscow-backed Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov. Politkovskaya, one of the few Russian journalists writing about widespread human rights abuses in Chechnya, had been a persistent critic of Kadyrov, whose security forces are alleged to be involved in widespread abductions and torture.
Novaya Gazeta said on its Web site it believed her murder was either revenge by Kadyrov or an attempt to discredit him.
In a recent radio interview, Politkovskaya said she was a witness in a criminal case against Kadyrov concerning his alleged involvement in the kidnapping of two civilians - an ethnic Russian and a Chechen - who were tortured and killed.
Politkovskaya also angered other powerful people - including the Russian military - with her investigative reporting and human rights advocacy.
Novaya Gazeta said Sunday its reporters would conduct their own investigation, and it called Politkovskaya's slaying revenge for her coverage of Chechnya, which included the story planned for Monday.
"We never got the article, but she had evidence about these (abducted) people and there were photographs," Deputy Editor Vitaly Yerushensky, told Ekho Moskvy radio.
Politkovskaya's death was the most high-profile slaying of a journalist in Russia since the July 2004 assassination of Paul Klebnikov, the U.S.-born editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine. That crime was believed linked to Klebnikov's investigation of the murky business world in Russia but remains unresolved; two ethnic Chechens accused of carrying it out were acquitted earlier this year.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories...

You will note in the excerpt above, that those accused of killing the journalists mentioned were acquitted. And you will note that the first killing mentioned was back in 1994.

How long did democracy and freedom last in Russia? Long ago, I remembered reading that young US college students were sent to consult in Russia on the ways and means of freemarketdom, much like a 23 year old Republican supporter got to manage the Iraqi stock market after the 2003 invasion.

In an extraodinary piece of testimony before the US House Committee on Banking and Financial Services in 1999 the following was read into the record. (I would recommend reading the whole piece as it shows Bush I & BClinton complicity)

The following is Anne Williamson's testimony before the Committee on Banking and Financial Services of the U.S. House of Representatives, presented Sept. 21, 1999.
It shows how the historic opportunity given the U.S. to help transform Russia into a free, peaceful, pro-Western country was squandered in the form of a bruising economic rape carried out by corrupt Russian politicians and businessmen, assisted by Bush and (especially) Clinton administrations engaged in political payoffs to Wall Street bankers and others, and by ineptitude and greed on the part of the U.S. Treasury and the Harvard Institute for International Development, assisted by fellow travelers and manipulators at Nordex, the IMF, the World Bank, and the Federal Reserve.
The losers were the Russian people and (mainly) U.S. tax-payers.
And the winners? Ms. Williamson names names, and that's why the elite media has shut out her book. She indicates their heroes are thieves, and they are afraid she may be right.
. . . I should like to add just a few words about myself by way of introduction. I am the author of Contagion: The Betrayal of Liberty, Russia, and the United States in the 1990s, which will be available to Committee Members and the American public in time for the nation's Thanksgiving holiday. Prior to beginning my work on the book, I covered just about all things Russian for a broad range of publications which included inter alia The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Mother Jones, Art and Antiques, Premiere, Film Comment and SPY Magazine. From the late 1980s until 1997, I maintained homes in both Moscow and the United States. And therefore I can say for much of the last decade I had the privilege of being a witness to a dramatic history and the pleasure and excitement of sharing with the Russian people their remarkable land, language and culture. And it is with a profound gratitude to and a deep respect for that noble, heroic and too long-suffering people that I speak to you today.
In the matter before us - the question of the many billions in capital that fled Russia to Western shores via the Bank of New York and other Western banks - we have had a window thrown open on what the financial affairs of a country without property rights, without banks, without the certainty of contract, without an accountable government or a leadership decent enough to be concerned with the national interest or its own citizens' well-being looks like. It's not a pretty picture, is it? But let there be no mistake, in Russia the West has truly been the author of its own misery. And there is no mistake as to who the victims are, i.e. Western, principally U.S., taxpayers and Russian citizens whose national legacy was stolen only to be squandered and/or invested in Western real estate and equities markets.
The failure to understand where Communism ended and Russia began insured that the Clinton Administration's policy towards Russia would be riddled with error and ultimately ineffective. Two mistakes are key to understanding what went wrong and why.
The first mistake was the West's perception of the elected Russian president, Boris Yeltsin; where American triumphalists saw a great democrat determined to destroy the Communist system for freedom's sake, Soviet history will record a usurper. A usurper's first task is to transform a thin layer of the self-interested rabble into a constituency. Western assistance, IMF lending and the targeted division of national assets are what provided Boris Yeltsin the initial wherewithal to purchase his constituency of ex-Komsomol [Communist Youth League] bank chiefs, who were given the freedom and the mechanisms to plunder their own country in tandem with a resurgent and more economically competent criminal class. The new elite learned everything about the confiscation of wealth, but nothing about its creation. Worse yet, this new elite thrives in the conditions of chaos and eschews the very stability for which the United States so fervently hopes knowing full well, as they do, that stability will severely hamper their ability to obtain outrageous profits. Consequently, Yeltsin's "reform" government was and is doomed to sustain this parasitic political base composed of the banking oligarchy.

http://www.russians.org/willia...

In 2000 the BBC had this to say about the Russian oligarchy, msit especially Boris Berezovsky:

Russia's new oligarchs
Who pulls the strings of power in Russia?
The answer is not as simple as it might first appear. Mr Vladimir Putin, like Boris Yeltsin before him, got elected with the help of a handful of businessmen.
Known as oligarchs, these businessmen wield a great deal of influence over Russia's political and economic life.
They bought most of Russia's national resources at bargain basement prices, often in return for favours to key politicians.
With a little help from their political friends, they are all back in business, despite having been hit hard during the financial crisis.
Boris Berezovsky is the first among equals of the oligarchs.
Mr Berezovsky says that oligarchs will be more powerful than ever in Putin's Russia.
"Mr Putin cannot decide there will be no oligarchs in Russia. If anything, their role will increase," he says.
A mathematician turned car dealer, he is now the richest man in Russia, with a personal fortune estimated at more than $3bn.
He is also the most influential oligarch politically, close to both Boris Yeltsin and his successor Vladimir Putin.
Mr Berezovksy owns a big stake in the state television channel ORT, which he has used to ruthless effect to discredit Mr Putin's opponents in the election.
Mr Berezovsky has fought back from dismissal from his government position by Mr Yeltsin and a prosecution for corruption. In December he was elected to the Duma, giving him immunity from prosecution.
He says he now wants to retire from politics.
He began his rise to power when he started a car dealership, LogoVAZ, in 1989, to sell Ladas.
He profited from an investment by General Motors and was worth $300m within a few years, eventually owning the company that makes Ladas.
Mr Berezovsky gained control of Russia's most modern oil company, Sibneft, privatised in 1995.
He later bought a stake in Lukoil, Russia's largest oil company, using its pension fund to buy a controlling stake in the television channel ORT and the former state-run Izvestia newspaper.
Mr Berezovsky actually profited from the Russian crisis, as the currency devaluation allowed him to export his goods cheaply.
Unlike the other oligarchs, he does not control his economic group through a holding bank.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/bus...

In 2007, Naomi Klein, commenting on the Wolfowitz "scandal" at the World Bank, asserts that he is only the perfect standard bearer, for the historical corruption of the institution:

But the area where the World Bank has the most tenuous claim to moral authority is in the fight against corruption. Almost everywhere that mass state pillage has taken place over the past four decades, the World Bank and the IMF have been first on the scene of the crime. And no, they have not been looking the other way as the locals lined their pockets; they have been writing the ground rules for the theft and yelling "Faster, please!" - a process known as rapid-fire shock therapy.
Russia under the leadership of the recently departed Boris Yeltsin was a case in point. Beginning in 1990, the World Bank led the charge for the former Soviet Union to impose immediately what it called "radical reform". When Mikhail Gorbachev refused to go along, Yeltsin stepped up. This bulldozer of a man would not let anything or anyone stand in the way of the Washington-authored programme, including Russia's elected politicians.
After Yeltsin ordered army tanks to open fire on demonstrators in October 1993, killing hundreds and leaving the parliament building blackened by flames, the stage was set for the fire-sale privatisations of Russia's most precious state assets to the so-called oligarchs. Of course, the World Bank was there. Of the democracy-free lawmaking frenzy that followed Yeltsin's coup, Charles Blitzer, the World Bank's chief economist on Russia, told the Wall Street Journal: "I've never had so much fun in my life."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/comm...

In today's LA times there is a review of a book by Alan Cowell:

"The Terminal Spy: A True Story of Espionage, Betrayal, and Murder', focusing on the murder of Litvenenko:

His title and subtitles, "The Terminal Spy: A True Story of Espionage, Betrayal, and Murder -- The First Act of Nuclear Terrorism and the New Cold War," suggest just how rich. It's hard to imagine, however, that even Cowell could have foreseen this complex tale's urgently prophetic dimension, since it's a story that repeatedly leads back to Vladimir Putin, shedding important light on the Russian strongman's exercise of power and on his attitude toward the West. As the Georgian crisis grinds on, understanding Putin and his brand of statecraft are matters of more than passing interest.
Cowell, a longtime correspondent for the New York Times, was reporting from the paper's London bureau when the Litvinenko story broke. The Russian had begun a lifetime involvement in intrigue as a counterintelligence agent in the Soviet KGB. After the fall of communism and the disintegration of the Soviet Union, he entered the domestic branch of the FSB, successor agency to the KGB, joining an organized crime unit. Like many a Russian with an eye for the main chance in that wild west interlude, Litvinenko attached himself to one of the emerging oligarchs fattening like carrion birds on the chaotic and corrupt privatization of former state resources -- in his case, Boris Berezovsky.
At one point, Litvinenko intervened to keep his patron from being framed by elements of state security for the murder of a television commentator at a station Berezovsky owned. The mogul fled the country and Litvinenko became a whistle-blower, alleging widespread misconduct and corruption in the FSB, which had him jailed for his trouble. Upon his release, Litvinenko joined Berezovsky and a growing number of Russians in London exile. There, he continued an obsession with Putin and what Litvinenko correctly saw as a reemerging Russian authoritarianism with its roots in the security services -- in other words, a creeping coup by elements of the old KGB.
While denouncing Putin in interviews with journalists and filmmakers, Litvinenko worked at putting together a private security business. It was in that connection that he joined another former KGB man, Andrei Lugovoi -- who was visiting from Moscow -- for drinks at London's popular Millennium Hotel bar. Litvinenko took a few sips of green tea with honey. Three weeks later, after a stunning and agonizing illness, he was dead.

http://www.latimes.com/feature...

You will note Berezovsky, numero uno Russian oligarch, and considered close to Putin in 2000 flees to London with Litvinenko, a persistent Putin critic. he is ostensibly murdered by Lugovoi..

Cowell plays out all the byzantine possibilities behind this killing with heroic clarity. (Lugovoi, by the way, made it back to Russia and was elected to the Duma, the lower house of parliament, as a nationalist deputy. Putin has refused a British request that he be extradited.)

What insight can be drawn from these episodes about what is going on in Russia and the rest of the world today?

It is obvious that there is a scramble for resources among those with the capacity to play the game, and that those resources are not going to go to any population at large. Because the powerful also hold the media resources that can lead people to believe some simple morality play is being enacted, while the world wealthy can can hide the dismal truth.

The American Psychological Association, APA, is Mentally ILL

Stupiddy — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:47:40 GMT

The real face of the APA

The APA is a disturbed organization that refuses to condemn torture and the kidnapping of children. It is not opposed to the torture of animals.

Anyone who belongs to the organization who is not in revolt is disturbed.

Is there a way of treating these people? Can they be helped? It is well known among psychologists and therapists alike that therapists, be they psychiatrists, psychologists or therapeutic social workers are the most difficult clients to treat.
Psychologists have their own elaborate "defense mechanisms" developed through their "training" and "education".

Psychology is merely an art, not a science. To put it simply, most people go into therapy because they FEEL badly. Psychologists treat these patients with a variety of unproven, non scientific techniques which often simply develop the disturbance of the client.

There may be some therapists who have understanding and are effective to a point. They are most certainly marginalized. They have to be outsiders. Outside of the APA that's for sure.

In order for a therapist to stay in "business" they must maintain a list of clients. This presents two problems. Therapists must be careful not to threaten the patient or they will leave therapy and the therapists income is affected. What threatens any client the most is TRUTH. Clients typically want to be massaged and are not really interested in "changing". Every therapist stumbles into finding that out who "treats" patients. There must be an uncomfortable, painful experience, a revelation of these "bad feelings" for any "client" in therapy. Self awareness is an uncomfortable painful experience to anyone who is invested in not being aware of themselves. This is also a problem for the "client". They cannot develop themselves, uncover their "problems" when one of the therapist prime considerations is their income.

The APA, like any individual does not want to know itself, to see itself as a perverse, corrupt supporter of terror, kidnapping and torture.

The APA ethics office wants to know if interrogations of innocent people who have been kidnapped, imprisoned and never charged with a crime by an illegal invading army can be interrogated in an "ethical" manner. So says Stephen Behnke. Stephen Behnke is a disturbed personality. He views interrogation without context. And that's a kind of denial and intellectualized rubbish common among people who go around masquerading their disturbances by obtaining degrees in psychology and then joining "ethics" committees which further obfuscate some perverse inner criminal urges.

Leonard Rubinstein said on Democracy Now that psychologists and psychiatrists have been at the very heart of the development of torture techniques used at Guantanamo.

This is easy.

Why would someone design a torture program that involved humiliation, stripping a person naked, techniques that inevitably led to rubbing shit on prisoners, tying them up, forcing them to touch each others genitals and in some cases rape, forced oral sex between a father and a son, sexual abuse of minors? (This is the stuff we have videos on. God knows what else is out there.)

The answer is this. These psychologists were able to justify the expression of their own disturbed personal fantasies through an organized governmental program.

It's an expression of the madness of the psychologists who were involved in interrogations programs, whether planning them or participating in them. These are clearly, very, very deeply disturbed sado masochistic fiends. Some of whom undoubtedly are engaged in illegal activities with minors, who probably are involved in illegal kidnapping and torture of human beings.

Past President of the APA Martin Seligman tortured animals and came to some bizarre
conclusions on how to help the CIA in it's torture programs by torturing humans at random intervals until they became utterly passive to torture.

The Seligman theory on which the CIA reportedly relied for its interrogation techniques is "learned helplessness." In the 1960s, Seligman did a series of experiments with dogs in which he shocked them repeatedly - and for no apparent reason related to their behavior, but at random. After a period of time experiencing this terror, dogs that once would have tried to escape their cages no longer did so, Seligman found. This "learned helplessness" has been the basis for extensive research on why people in certain situations don't appear to fight back against those terrorizing them. According to The Dark Side, key officials view this theory as "the paradigm" on which to build interrogation techniques.

Seligman's ideas no doubt come from B.F. Skinner whose interest was in positive reinforcement. Skinner's view was that negative reinforcement yeilds results that aren't long lasting. He was not a proponent of negative reinforcement especially a pointless random negative punishment. Random interval punishment was the worst kind for any organism. Seligman's ideas again are simply an expression of his own problems. He likes to torture. I'm sure an examination into his private life would be very interesting.

This is simple.

Why would any human being torture animals?

Because they find it pleasurable. Dr. Seligman can hide all he wants behind the idea that he was investigating animal behavior for "scientific purposes", but it's easy to see he was simply "getting off".

And that is what torture by the U.S is all about. It's been proven to be utterly pointless. The reason we are torturing people is because the people doing the torture are expressing violent sexual urges in a controlled atmosphere where they cannot be held responsible for their actions. That's all that this is.

So the APA had in the past elected a very disturbed man in the form of Seligman to represent them and their collective disturbance. It's no coincidence.

Getting a degree in psychology does not prevent a person from being disturbed. In most cases a disturbed person who gets a degree in psychology enhances their disturbance by building a wall built around their disturbance. A wall built from socially approved degrees and socially recognized status that innoculates them from criticism.

Tinkerbelle in chains!

Miss Devore — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 20:20:54 GMT

The elimination of Tinkerbelle & Peter Pan from the pages of pff by peeder was certainly auspicious:

Cinderella, others arrested in Disneyland protest
ANAHEIM, California (AP) -- Cinderella, Snow White, Tinkerbell and other fictional fixtures of modern-day childhood were handcuffed, frisked and loaded into police vans Thursday at the culmination of a labor protest that brought a touch of reality to the Happiest Place on Earth.
"Tinkerbell" and other Disney characters were handcuffed Thursday in a protest outside the gates of Disneyland.
"Tinkerbell" and other Disney characters were handcuffed Thursday in a protest outside the gates of Disneyland.
The arrest of the 32 protesters, many of whom wore costumes representing famous Disney characters, came at the end of an hour-long march to Disneyland's gates from one of three Disney-owned hotels at the center of a labor dispute.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/...

and, yes, I blame peeder. this is the way the world ends....

It's The Democrats, Stupid!

buddydrama — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 23:56:21 GMT

an obvious parody of buhdydharma's It's The Republicans, Stupid!

Post partisan my ass! That MIGHT be a good theme as a campaign strategy. It MIGHT appeal to an electorate tired of the incompetent, ineffectual and just plain stupid brand of government they have been getting for the last eight years....you know, since the failure of The Democrats to impeach George W. Bush....

It might sound nice... evenhanded, reasonable, mature and responsible and all that shit. But it ignores the simple and undeniable fact that if you fail to remove the Imperial President from power, he passes on that power to the next President.

Because of the Democrats.

Nearly everything the President has done in the last eight years has been illegal. From the micro (failing to appear before congress) to the macro (Illegal War, Torture, Wiretapping) the Democrats have had full power to Impeach the President and restore the RULE OF LAW to this country.... and have failed every single time.
So Barack may have a good strategy, as far as distracting the weak willed from realizing the obvious necessity of Impeachment. But someone simply must point out the obvious. Since the Democrats have held power the country has gone to hell in a handbasket due to their loyalty to corporations over people, failure to uphold their oath to the Constitution and pure stinking DEMOCRATIC incompetence.

This election is a referendum on Obama. This election is about throwing out the politicians who work for the corporations and bringing in new politicians who also work for the corporations.

Only the powerful banking families have transformed America into the success that it is today:

Broke, ten trillion dollars in debt, in two incredibly profitable wars, in a recession and a credit crisis that is sure to create a perfect buying opportunity for the very rich who saw this recession coming a mile away and have shifted their resources to capitalize on getting Americans thrown out of their homes. A nearly limitless pool of slaves, with low wages, high inflation and unemployment, few if any good jobs being created, our prestige, moral leadership and international reputation in tatters and with 80 percent of Wage Slaves saying we are on the wrong track. (but who cares what they think)

Who put us on the wrong track by failing to Impeach the President?

The Democrats.

Are you better off than you were 8 years ago?

Of course not. Why?

The Democrats failed to Impeach the President.

We have lost over 4000 American soldiers and spent hundreds of billions of dollars on a profitable war. Why?

Military Industrial Complex.

Is there a destructive amount of partisanship in American politics? Sure there is....why?

The Democrats have made it so. Starting with the failure to impeach the most impeachable President in American history, thus failing to hold the administration responsible for politicizing the Department of Justice, lying us into the Iraq war, warrantless wiretapping and illegal signing statements. On whose 'watch' did this all happen?

The Democrats.

This election IS about Barack Obama's experience or qualifications (or hairstyle). Because the Media decides what elections are about and they like window dressing. (look at the Edwards story)

It should be about..... the Democrats. Who failed to Impeach, thus leaving the constitution and the RULE OF LAW in the trash bin of history.

And WE have to hammer that home until the corporate owned, status quo supporting, John McCain worshiping media pulls their head out of...their enormous asses... and allows the voting machines to steal the election just like last time.

Republican President George Bush and his rubberstamp Republican Congress have, pardon my French, fucked this country into a shithole. They have had eight years in the spotlight with carte blanche to do whatever they want. In that time, the Democrats have rolled over like dogs and allowed them to continue the war, destroy the middle class and turned the Constitution into little more than toilet paper. They must be removed from power for the good of the country. This election is about them, The Democrats.

The majority of the American people get their news from the corporate media, and the corporate media reads the blogs. That's why we ban people who tell the truth openly and loudly from all of our faux-blogs. Stating clearly that Impeachment is the only way to ensure that the next Presidency won't be an Imperial one, won't take a lot of time (JUSTICE HAS NO TIME LIMIT), and is absolutely necessary to restore the RULE OF LAW in this country is far too obvious for most people to understand. That's why it's better to just talk about the campaign non-stop and try to distract them from the only issues that matter: IMPEACHMENT and the RULE OF LAW.

While Obama, right or wrong, takes the high road, let's all continue to pretend that he's only "acting corporate" and will change instantly when elected. Just like Nancy Pelosi was only kidding about keeping impeachment "off the table" before the Democrats won a congressional majority in 2006. She changed her tune the minute she was elected Speaker of the House and began a rigorous campaign to impeach the obviously criminal President (no wait, that didn't happen, why do we support the Democrats again?).

WE need to make sure the rest of the populace continues to follow this charade of a Presidential Campaign and never wakes up to the fact that they are economic slaves in a meat grinder. No matter how much Obama flip flops to the right, we need to continue to support him like blind slaves chained in Plato's cave mindlessly watching our idiot boxes. The Military Industrial Complex owns this country lock, stock and barrel. Democracy is merely a control mechanism to keep the slaves in line. No matter how much the media wants to make this election about Obama, it is really about one crucial theme:

Impeach the President, stupid!

Fuck Georgia's Territorial Integrity

Cranky Old Bitch — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 00:44:21 GMT

All week long, ever since the Russian tanks rolled into South Ossetia, the US politicians and their puppets in Europe and Israel have been chanting the same unanimous refrain: "Georgia's territorial integrity."

And after all the chorus is done and all the hot air expended and all the diplomatic shuffling, a single voice prevailed: Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister. "The world can forget about Georgia's territorial integrity."

And as he had said, so it was done.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/t...

President Saakashvili was forced to accept defeat yesterday as he signed a peace agreement that gives the Russian Army the right to patrol on Georgian soil.
In a critical amendment to the ceasefire drawn up by President Sarkozy of France, the Kremlin forced Mr Saakashvili to accept that Russian troops could control a buffer zone of Georgian territory up to 10km beyond the border of the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
Mr Saakashvili was humiliated further when the final text of the agreement, delivered personally by Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State, removed a reference to Russian recognition of Georgia's territorial integrity.
It referred only to independence and sovereignty, a day after Sergei Lavrov, the Russian Foreign Minister, said that the world could forget about Georgia's territorial integrity.
Vladimir Putin's mastery checkmates the West
Michael Binyon says Russia has been biding its time - but its victory in Georgia has been brutal and brilliant
...
The West had been insisting that the two sides withdraw their forces to the positions they occupied on August 6, before Georgian troops entered South Ossetia. Now, at Moscow's insistence, Georgia has been forced to accept that Russian "peacekeepers" in South Ossetia have the right to patrol outside the breakaway region. The details were included in a letter signed by President Sarkozy that accompanied the ceasefire agreement, clarifying Russia's security powers.
Dr Rice said that the clarifications were meant to protect Georgian interests. US officials argued that the wording of the original document was too vague over the extent of Russia's freedom to roam on Georgian soil in "peacekeeping" operations. "With the signing of this accord, all Russian troops, and any paramilitary and irregular troops that entered with them, must leave immediately," she said.
However, the revised document states that Russian peacekeepers who were in South Ossetia before the war started could stay and extend their patrols temporarily for up to 10km (6.2 miles) into Georgia.
Officials say that these additional powers would expire as soon as a team of international monitors arrived to observe the ceasefire. However, President Medvedev reinforced Russia's diplomatic supremacy in a meeting with Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, at his residence in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, close to Georgia's other breakaway region of Abkhazia.
He rejected her insistence that Georgia's territorial integrity was a "basic point" for any peace settlement in the Caucasus. In a clear signal that the Kremlin is preparing to recognise Abkhazia and South Ossetia's independence, he reclaimed Russia's right to be the sole arbiter of the region's future shape. "If someone continues to attack our citizens, our peacekeepers, then of course we will answer just as we did," Mr Medvedev said. "Russia, as guarantor of security in the Caucasus and the region, will make the decision which unambiguously supports the will of these two Caucasus peoples."

Point, Match and Game to Putin in the opening round of Cold War II.
This is not simply, as The Times would have it, a humiliating defeat for Saashkavili and his "brave little democracy."

It is a humiliating defeat for George W Bush, for Condoleeza Rice, for John McCain, for Barack Obama, for Sarkozy and Merkel - for the entire necon Territorial Integrity Chorus.

They made declarations they couldn't back up, they made threats they couldn't carry out, they made promises they couldn't fulfill. The US has been exposed as utterly impotent to confront the Russian military fait accompli.

Two questions remain. First, how did this accomplishment take place? Second, what comes next?

I may consider the latter question at another time. Now, I am concerned with the first.

Here's what we know:

1] Saashkavili is dumber than a bag full of hammers.

2] About a month ago, Condoleeza Rice visited Saashkavili and laid down the word: don't go starting any military adventures with the Russians.

3] Someone slipped Saashkavili the word that if he started military adventures and invaded South Ossetia, his good friends in the West would back him up against any Russian reaction, never mind what Rice had said.

Note that 2] contradicts 3].

Now it is well-known that Darth Cheney regards Condoleeza Rice as a peacemongering wuss and his office is constantly trying to stir up wars while Rice keeps trying to fend them off. It is plausible that someone might have approached Saashkavili and whispered into his ear that he should ignore what Rice had told him, that he represented Cheney's office, or Israel, or John McCain, and it was all set up to support Georgia if the got into trouble with Russia that he couldn't handle.

Here is where the connection with Randy Scheunemann comes in http://www.truthdig.com/report...

But I think that might be a red herring, after all. I think the entire episode may have been planned from the beginning by Putin.

According to this conspiracy theory, it was Putin who sent agents into South Ossetia to stage provocations in order to lure Saashkavili in. It was Putin who employed an agent to pose as a representative of Cheney or some other force of evil, telling him to ignore Rice's warning, promising to back him up if he got into trouble with Russia.

The key to this plan is, of course, Factor 1], Saashkavili's stupidity. Putin baited him, hooked him, played him, and landed Geroge W Bush and all of NATO.

The theory is consistent with the facts that

A] The US was caught flat-footed. Clearly, no one in the US govt had any idea this thing was going down. No preparations had been made. Bush was at the Olympics, oblivious, ogling women in bathing suits.

B] Putin was not caught flat-footed. His forces were in place, ready to move, and they moved with blitzkrieg speed and efficiency to take their objectives - not just in S Ossetia but in
Abkhazia.

The cui bono meter is pointing in one direction, but the accompli is already fait and there's not a damn thing the US can do about it until Round 2.

How Isreal Blackmails The World With Their Nuke, for Eric Shitface

ran scot — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 04:52:18 GMT

Like most people who have an interest in geopolitical economy, especially war, I read:

The Samson Option: Israel's Nuclear Arsenal and American Foreign Policy

This was written by Seymour Hersh, not some crazy dude who calls in regularly to Alex Jones or some shit. No, the dude who broke the the My Lai Massacre and the helped crack the Abu Ghraib prison scandal. So cram it in your sugar hole, Eric Shitface, about my fucking sources.

Israel blackmails other countries with their nukes, and have for over 40 mother fucking years. I don't give a fuck if they are Jewish, Muslim or Spaghetti Monstererers. What I do give a fuck about is if one nation-state uses global thermal war as a bully stick against other nation states, especially while pretending they don't have them so they can't be inspected.

The title of the book itself is a torah, or Old Testament, reference to Samson. When that dude was going down, he knocked over the pillars of a Philistine temple so he could take several thousand innocent Philistines with him. Funny how some things never change.

Anyway, here's some shit that is on the dust jacket of said book:

How Israel created a false control room at the Dimona nuclear facility to hide from American nuclear inspectors its use in creating nuclear weapons.

How Israel threatened to use nuclear weapons on the third day of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, blackmailing U.S. President Richard Nixon into airlifting military supplies.

That Israel holds a few neutron bombs in additional to several hundred other nuclear weapons.

The U.S. did not understand that Israel saw the Soviet Union as its number one threat; that even before he became President Nixon's National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger had told Israeli leaders that the U.S. would not help Israel if the Soviets attacked it; that Israeli missiles targeted the Soviet Union from 1971 on; that the Soviets had added four Israeli cities to their target list; that the Soviets had threatened Israel after the 1973 war because Israel kept breaking ceasefires with Egypt.

Hersh includes two threatening sounding quotations from Israeli leaders. He writes that a "former Israeli govt official" with "first hand knowledge of his government's nuclear weapons program" told him: We can still remember the smell of Auschwitz and Treblinka. Next time we'll take all of you with us.

So really, take your talking points back to your safe shack of Naranjastan where you can hide in your echo chamber.

Seriously.

ImpeachmentWatch Day 68 (2008-08-16)

buddydrama — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 22:57:51 GMT

banned from Daily Kos

syndicated at impeachmentwatch.wordpress.com

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." -- Edmund Burke

Welcome to Day 68 of ImpeachmentWatch™, your daily diary that tracks Impeachment, whether the Mainstream Media covers it or not.

No one is above the law. Impeach the President Today!

Will Pelosi's San Franciscan Constituents Demand to Know Why She Obstructed Impeachment?
Pelosi kept saying - if you want change, vote for Obama. Someone in the crowd yelled out, "that's what we elected you to do - make change." The democratically controlled Congress has been limited in passing anything progressive because of the almost unanimous number of republicans and a strong group of conservative democrats who have stopped those type of bills. But when it came to funding the wars, funding the torture and funding the death - many of us believe there were enough Democrats to stop funding bills from passing. But this never happened. Pelosi and "her" democrats went along with all and more of Bush's deluded requests for money. The death and torture went on. People continued to die. Michael Krasny never asks those type of questions of the celebrities who he seems so enamored with. And why is impeachment off the table? It's not about what is right and honest - it's about whatever Pelosi says it is and she somehow decided that it was her personal prerogative to take impeachment off the agenda. If Richard Nixon has only had her as Speaker - he might have survived.
The democrats have become a tawdry group lacking the will or desire to stand up for what is right, what is decent. They continue to wave a flag that is dirty, tattered and crumbling. Pelosi needs to give answers and be held accountable. The people shouldn't accept a heart warming biography in place of the answers as to why torture and death have been allowed to continue.
The big question now: Will the people of San Francisco stand up to the highest powers, to one of their own and demand an accounting? Will they demand to know why their almost full support of impeachment has been ignored? Will they demand to know why Pelosi has not fought tooth and toenail the funding for Bush's illegal and delusional wars? Will they hold Pelosi accountable?

Cindy Sheehan is running as an Independant against Nancy Pelosi in a very liberal district.
The Speaker of the House can be defeated. It has happened before.
Let's take Nancy off the table.
Impeachment Video of the Day

I-M-P-E-A-C-H (song)

Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Recent Highlights

I believe we should let George Bush get away with breaking the law because the attempt to hold him accountable would upset a sizeable portion of Americans who wouldn't like that a President they (allegedly) elected and then (allegedly) re-elected is now facing impeachment.

NEW YORK TIMES -- When House Speaker Nancy Pelosi set out to promote her new motivational book this month, she simultaneously touched off her national why-haven't-you-impeached-the-president tour.
As she made the coast-to-coast rounds of lectures, television interviews and radio chats the past two weeks, Ms. Pelosi found herself under siege by people unhappy that she has not been motivated to try to throw President Bush out of office - even if only a few months remain before he leaves voluntarily.
Pressed on ABC's "The View" about whether she had unilaterally disarmed, the author of "Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters" said she believed the proceedings would be too divisive and be a distraction from advancing the policy agenda of the new Democratic majority.
Then she added this qualifier: "If somebody had a crime that the president had committed, that would be a different story."
That assertion only threw fuel on the impeachment fire as advocates of removing Mr. Bush cited the 35 articles of impeachment compiled by Representative Dennis Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, as well as accusations in a new book by author Ron Suskind of White House orders to falsify intelligence, an accusation that has been denied.*

*NYT fails to mention previous false denials by this administration: We do not torture. We do not wiretap. We did not reveal the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Etcera, etcera. By leaving this information out the NYT makes the claim that the administation's denials are reasonable and should be believed. This is outright ridiculous.

At the moment, the House is officially scheduled to meet for less than three weeks in September before adjourning for the elections and perhaps the year - hardly enough time to mount an impeachment spectacle even if top Democratic lawmakers wanted one.

Note the specious word choice: an impeachment spectacle. It's not about law and order, holding the administration accountable for their crimes and ensuring that no future President will ever yield such imperial power, it's a "spectacle", a circus, or as Wikipedia says:

In general spectacle refers to an event that is memorable for the appearance it creates. Derived in Old English from c.1340 as "specially prepared or arranged display" it was borrowed from from Old French spectacle, itself a reflection of the Latin spectaculum "a show" from spectare "to view, watch" frequentative form of specere "to look at.

Please note that we've seen this dismissive frame before: CNN Anchor Slams Impeachment as "Kabuki Theatre"

Here's how the propaganda model works: Take an issue that is at odds with how elite policy makers view the world, say Rep. Dennis Kucinich's (D-OH) bid to impeach President Bush in early June 2008, and evaluate the media coverage of the event. Kucinich's attempt to impeach the President elicited a mere 132 words in every major media outlet including the New York Times, Washington Post, and CNN.com.

Pelosi slammed in L.A. on failure to impeach Bush
LATIMES: She was in Los Angeles to discuss her recently published book "Know Your Power: A Message to America's Daughters." Instead, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi got slammed by protesters screaming that she has been derelict in her duties for not authorizing impeachment hearings against George W. Bush.

PELOSI: Well, I think that it- I think it was important- When I became speaker- and by the way, a very important position, president, vice president, speaker of the House- I saw it as my responsibility to try to bring a much divided country together to the extent that we could. I thought that impeachment would be divisive for the country.... If somebody had a crime that the president had committed, that would be a different story.

NPR Interview of Suskind - Amazingly, as with every previous piece of evidence, NPR begins the story claiming that without this new piece of evidence Bush and Cheney's lies have looked like well-intended honesty. The nice thing about this is that authors will be able to make big scandals with books for decades to come, each time they find a new smoking gun. The downside is that we may not survive for decades to come if we don't face up to these crimes and prevent new ones like them.

Somebody please send Nancy Pelosi a copy of Ron Suskind's latest book, "The Way of the World."
Remember, Pelosi said last week that if anyone could demonstrate that Bush had broken any laws, then impeachment might be a different story. Never mind that she apparently hasn't bothered to read Dennis Kucinich's 35-count bill of impeachment, or the violations of the laws, treaties, and the Constitution that Kucinich's bill refers to... But if she's too lazy to study Kucinich's bill, the least she could do is examine the smoking gun in Suskind's book.

Claiming an intern error, the House Judiciary Committee has retracted Monday statements regarding updates on the July 25th hearing on alleged presidential abuses, AKA the "non-impeachment" hearings.
A late Wednesday afternoon call showed the Judiciary Committee now claiming congressional procedures will require the official transcripts of the six hour hearing to be held for 90 days, meaning the official transcripts will not be made available to the American public until just before the November elections. A staffer who declined to give her name claimed that Monday's statement that the transcripts would ready for the public on Aug. 3rd was an "intern error," explaining that there are "new people in the office and they don't know."

One of two things indisputably happened. Either a dozen senior Congress members and several well-known expert witnesses went certifiably and collectively insane, or charges of the most extreme executive abuses of power ever heard in the history of this nation were backed up by overwhelming evidence during a six-hour hearing of the House Judiciary Committee focused on the possible need to impeach the President and the Vice President. Either way, a nation with a public communications system worthy of a democracy would have learned the news.

The Declaration of Independence instructs that all just powers of government derive from the consent of the governed. And the core principle of self-government is that the people must know what their government is doing and why intelligently adapt, shape, and direct their political loyalties or energies. James Madison, father of the Constitution, lectured that a people who mean to be their own governors must arm themselves with the power that knowledge gives. Democracy resting on popular or congressional ignorance is a farce. In addition, sunshine is the best disinfectant. The executive branch will be deterred from lawlessness, folly, or maladministration by the knowledge that its actions will be made known to the public or Congress in a timely fashion. The executive branch ceased authorizing torture once knowledge of the practice by the United States in the war against international terrorism entered the public domain. A strong presumption favoring transparency in the executive branch is a constitutional imperative.

"This is not intended to be a mere discussion of violations of law that have occurred," said convener Lawrence Velvel, dean and cofounder of the school. "It is, rather, intended to be a planning conference at which plans will be laid and necessary organizational structures set up, to pursue the guilty as long as necessary and, if need be, to the ends of the Earth."

The blogs are alive with the sound of Impeachment. The notices are rolling into my computer faster than I can open them, sign them and send them out to friends or family. That's called activism, pushing back against this destructive force called Bush.

H.RES.333 - Impeaching Richard B. Cheney, Vice President of the United States, for high crimes and misdemeanors. [2007-04-24]
Sponser: Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10] Co-Sponsers (27)
Complete Text - Complete Video

H.RES.1258 - Impeaching George W. Bush, President of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors. (35 Articles) [2008-06-09]
Sponser: Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10] Co-Sponsers (7)
Complete Text - Complete Video: Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5

H.RES.1345 - Impeaching George W. Bush, President of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors. (1 Article) [2008-07-10]
Sponser: Rep Kucinich, Dennis J. [OH-10] Co-Sponsers (2)
Complete Text - Complete Video

videos thanks to cspanjunkie.org

"Ernest Hemingway once wrote, 'The world is a fine place and worth fighting for'. I agree with the second part" -- Seven

Mainstream Story Counts
front pages as of 10:00 am PST

ABCNEWS: 0

CBSNEWS: 0

MSNBC: 0

FOXNEWS: 0

CNN: 0

AP: 0

REUTERS: 0

Google News: 0, Impeachment: 13,651

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. -- Margaret Mead

Daily Impeachment Tracker

Day 68 - 2008-08-16
LATIMES: Robert Wexler: Meet me in Denver to impeach Bush
DAILY-RECORD: Bush should be impeached
OEN: It's Distractions That Are Destroying Us And We're Allowing It!
OEN: HIS SATANIC MAJESTY
ADS: Is It Worse Than Watergate? Americans Won't Know - Unless We Investigate, Charge and Prosecute
ADS: The RoveCyberGate Campaign: Stunning Revelations About Election Fraud & How You Can Help Preserve the Integrity of Your Ballot (video)
ADS: Judge Bates Slams the Bush White House's Claims of Congressional Immunity: Why There May Be No Consequences for the White House
ADS: Lawsuit Filed Against Gonzales & DOJ Officials
ADS: The "Magic" of Disappearing Votes (video)
ADS: Vote Fraud: What They Aren't Telling You
ADS: House Judiciary Committee Continues to Pursue White House On Politicization of the Justice Department
ADS: Wag The Dog: How to Conceal Massive Economic Collapse
ADS: Will Pelosi's San Franciscan Constituents Demand to Know Why She Obstructed Impeachment?
RAWSTORY: Bush protesters get $50,000 state settlement

Day 67 - 2008-08-15
NYT: The Why-Haven't-You-Impeached-the-President Tour
POLITICKER: Peace activist Cindy Sheehan qualified to take on Pelosi in CA-8 race this November
THIRD-PARTY-WATCH: What about third parties?
STATESMAN: Bluest of blue states is the only one that Bush hasn't visited
MYOPOLIS: Impeach Bush! The people speak.
MYOPOLIS: Impeach Bush by sending a message to Pelosi
SOCIALIST-WORKER: Challenging Nancy Pelosi
POPULIST-PARTY: Pelosi on Impeachment and Defending the Constitution: It's Just Not Worth It
TPMCAFE: Geneva Fallout: NYT Indirectly Recognizes President's Political Prosecution Against Wecht
RAWSTORY: News crew crashes Denver's DNC 'concentration camp'
NYT: On the Trail, With Gonzo's Wife
DEMOCRATS.COM: Conyers Investigates New Impeachable Crimes
DEMOCRATS.COM: Pelosi Confesses Knowing the Truth About Bush's War Based on Lies: "I don't know what could have been done..." Tell her! (video)
ADS: You Vote. You Think You've Voted. But How Could Your Vote Be Hacked? (video)
ADS: Is It Worse Than Watergate? Americans Won't Know - Unless We Investigate, Charge and Prosecute
ADS: Is Perpetual War Our Future? Learning the Wrong Lessons from the Bush Era
ADS: Pelosi Scapegoats Republicans for Her Failure to Protect & Defend Constitution - Admits She's Impotent Against Them
ADS: Starry, Starry Night - LA Serenades Pelosi on Book Tour (video)

Day 66 - 2008-08-14
ABCNEWS: Documents: Julia Child Part of WWII-Era Spy Ring
ABCNEWS: Deal: Clinton's Name Will Be Placed in Nomination at Dems Convention
CBSNEWS: Consumer Prices Twice As High As Expected
DEMOCRACY-NOW: Suskind on How the Bush Admin Deliberately Faked an Iraq-al-Qaeda Connection (video)
GJ-FREE-PRESS: Former Star Wars program director to speak in GJ today
DEMOCRATS.COM: Pelosi Denies Impeachment Reality in San Rafael
DEMOCRATS.COM: The War Criminals Cannot Define the Democratic Party
ADS: The Fix Is In - Again!
ADS: American Psychological Association Considers Resolution on Torture
ADS: Conyers Announces Review of Allegations of Bush Administration's Forged Iraq Intelligence
ADS: Report Claims Large US Military Build-Up Prepping to Partially Blockade Iran

Day 65 - 2008-08-13
PUBLIC-RECORD: EXCLUSIVE: Pelosi Clashes With Protesters Over Impeachment (video)
MARINIJ: Critics don't divert Pelosi in speech at Dominican
ABCNEWS: Presidential Vacation Delayed
LATIMES: Pelosi slammed in L.A. on failure to impeach Bush
RAWSTORY: House Judiciary to examine claim of White House intel forgery
RAWSTORY: Man continues quest to depose Dick Cheney
RAWSTORY: Turley: Attorney General Mukasey acting 'without principle'
RAWSTORY: Appeals court denies Plame's attempt to sue US officials
TPMCAFE: Improper FBI Access to Wecht Juror Files Taints Prosecutor Reviews of 9-11 Investigation
ADS: The RoveCyberGate Campaign: Stunning Revelations About Election Fraud & How You Can Help Preserve the Integrity of Your Ballot
ADS: AG Mukasey's "Elmer Fudd Defense" on Justice Department Politicization Invites Independent Counsel (video)
ADS: Protestors Dog Pelosi on Her LA Book Tour at American Jewish University
ADS: Pelosi Clashes With Protesters Over Impeachment
ADS: Most Corporations Don't Pay Income Taxes
ADS: Attorney General Mukasey Refuses Justice Dept Prosecution: "Not Every Wrong, Or Even Every Violation Of The Law, Is A Crime"
DEMOCRATS.COM: Pelosi Arrests Citizens Who Challenge Her

Day 64 - 2008-08-12
HUFFPO: No Take-Home Swag: Stripping Bush and Cheney of Retirement Perks
STAR-TRIBUNE: Two more RNC protest suits filed in state court
MEDIAMONITORS: The Sad Saga of American Politics
RAWSTORY: Arkansas town imposes 'martial law' style lockdown
RAWSTORY: Mukasey: No prosecutions in Justice hiring scandal
RAWSTORY: Pelosi indicates openness to offshore drilling vote
ADS: Iraq demands 'clear timeline' for US withdrawal
ADS: This War Report Has Been Approved by Your Government
ADS: More Wars...Other Wars (video)

Day 63 - 2008-08-11
POLITICAL-AFFAIRS: The Cover-up of the Impeachment Coverage
OEN: Bush the Uniter
DEMOCRATS.COM: DCCC Opposes Progressives in Upcoming Primaries
DEMOCRATS.COM: Pelosi Video Contest Award Winner #1
ADS: Springsteen: Silence Is Unpatriotic

Day 62 - 2008-08-10
REUTERS: Coincidence? Guantanamo term ends as Bush's does
ADS: No Executive Privilege for Presidential Advisers Means More Accountability
ADS: Pentagon To Test Unclassified Alternative to Talon
ADS: High Crimes and Misdemeanors
ADS: Is Karl Rove the Anthrax Killer?
ADS: The Anthrax Attacks and the Assault on Civil Liberties
OEN: Impeachment Won't Help; Only Revolution Will Save America
OEN: Should Congress Go Into Special Session For Impeachment Hearings?
OEN: Did Bush Lie About Saddam and 9/11? Authorization to Use Force REQUIRED Bush to Make the Link
DU: Testimony of an Arab-American to the Democratic Platform Committee
HIDDEN-HISTORY: A Summer Reading List for Madam Pelosi
IMPEACH-FOR-PEACE: Order to CIA to forge Iraq-9/11 letter likely from Dick Cheney
PATRIOT-ACT: Impeach cheney for providing false information on terrorism, a felony violation of the USA Patriot Act.
iFORIAN: Congressman Delivers A Petition Bearing More Than 100,000 Names To Impeach Bush

Day 61 - 2008-08-09
SFGATE: Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan on the ballot
ADS: Cindy Sheehan Makes It On Ballot To Challenge Nancy Pelosi
ADS: White House Signals Desire to Negotiate on Subpoenas
ADS: Suskind: Bush Jeopardized Airline Terror Case and Deceived British for Political Advantage
ADS: Iraq War Resister Robin Long Jailed, Facing Three Years In Army Stockade
ADS: New Evidence Suggests Ron Suskind Is Right
RAWSTORY: FBI admits spying on multiple US reporters, apologizes -- Offers no explanation for spying
RAWSTORY: Former President Ford secretly told FBI about panel's doubts on JFK murder
RAWSTORY: Tape: Top CIA official confesses order to forge Iraq-9/11 letter came on White House stationery
RAWSTORY: Lieberman cuts $100,000 check to Democrats, apparently in effort to save post
TRIBUNE-REVIEW: Plan to put Tasers in Uniontown schools gets mixed reviews
OEN: In Pakistan, Impeachment! in U.S., No! Pelosi/Conyers Squirm, Bush/Cheney/Rice laugh
OEN: Did Bush Lie About Saddam and 9/11? Authorization to Use Force REQUIRED Bush to Make the Link

Day 60 - 2008-08-08
HUFFPO: The Olympics: Unveiling Police State 2.0
WAPO: Foot-Dragging to the Finish
LATIMES: White House really, really doesn't want its guys to testify
GUARDIAN: A tale of two impeachments: President Musharraf is being impeached for using military force to solve political problems, so why not George Bush?
RAWSTORY: Suskind releasing transcript of 'forgery' source
RAWSTORY: Conyers reiterates demand for RNC documents
TPMCAFE: Dod Emails Strengthen Bridge Between President and Illegal FBI Wecht Jury Tampering
ADS: Ron Suskind Will Release (Some) Transcripts from Book Interviews
ADS: Mike Barnicle Interviews Ron Suskind; Raises Question of Bush and Murder (audio)
ADS: Bin Laden Firm to Build Saudi Arabian Prisons to Replace Guantanamo Bay
ADS: Bush's Worst Legacy -- The Desecration of "Patriotism"
ADS: Judge Rules Denver Can Fence In Convention Protesters
ADS: The Age of the Blogger
ADS: Suskind: Congress Preparing To Investigate, He'll Play Tapes If Necessary, Sources Previously Said They'd Testify
ADS: Suskind Revisited
ADS: The DNC Platform: Belief You Can Change In
DEMOCRATS.COM: Who Forged the Habbush Letter?
DEMOCRATS.COM: Condi Lies About Suskind Forgery Charge

Day 59 - 2008-08-07
SCOOP: Pelosi to Oppose Impeaching President McCain
MOTHER-JONES: A Brief History of Claims the White House Has Called "Absurd"
CONNIE-TALK: White House Calls Pulitzer Prize Winner Gutter Journalist
GUARDIAN: Angry denials are not enough
MSNBC: Author stands by his claim of White House forgery
NEWSBUSTERS: CNN Airs Suskind's CIA Forgery Allegations, Impeachment Call
ALLIGATOR: Bush, Cheney deserve impeachment
HELENA-IR: We must impeach
SALT-LAKE-TRIBUNE: Bush the abuser
OEN: Demand Local Law Enforcement Uphold Their Oath to Defend the Constitution . . . and Prosecute Bush and Cheney for Murder
RAWSTORY: Families of 9/11 victims urge reconsideration of settlement rejection
RAWSTORY: White House memo exposes Rove knew of problems with anthrax vaccine
ADS: How Much Do You Want to Bet Bush Issues Pardons of the Crimes You Claim Don't Exist?
ADS: From Coast to Coast - and around the Globe The People Say "Stop War on Iran!"
ADS: Guantanamo Detainee Files First Petition Against U.S. Before Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
ADS: Suskind's Sources Deny Book's Forgery Charge; Suskind Has Sources On Tape?
ADS: How to Put Rove Behind Bars for Years

Day 58 - 2008-08-06
RAWSTORY: Suskind: Sources of WH forgery claim now under pressure to deny it
ADS: South Korea arrests 167 after anti-Bush protests
ADS: Pelosi Avoids Impeachment Question and Bans Non-Police Video Cameras in Philly
ADS: FBI said to have stalked Ivins' family
ADS: SHEEHAN: This is Horseshit
FREEPRESS: Pelosi claims Republicans want impeachment
HUNTINGTON-NEWS: High Crimes and Let the Impeachment Begin
PROGRESSIVE: Now, Pelosi, After this Smoking Gun, Will You Call for Impeachment?
PUBLIC-RECORD: New Book Says Bush Committed Impeachable Offense
NEWS-BUSTERS: Cafferty Highlights Viewer Who Wants Bush 'Executed for Treason'
CAPITOL-HILL-BLUE: The time for impeachment is at hand
NEWS-10-NOW: Congressional candidate calls for impeachment
TPMCAFE: Court Indirectly Reminds Congress Wecht Prosecution Linked With Impeachment
RAWSTORY: Pointing to drug law hypocrisy, pro-pot group labels Cindy McCain 'dealer'
RAWSTORY: Paris Hilton releases campaign ad (video)
ABCNEWS: Nader: Obama Not Black Prez He Hoped For
WSJ: Ralph Nader Sees Hope in Voter Disillusionment
DEMOCRATS.COM: Obama-Hilton: The Hot Ticket!
ADS: That's Life: The Drama of Non-Impeachment
ADS: Secret Plan To Kill Internet By 2012 Leaked?

Day 57 - 2008-08-05
CBSNEWS: Water Cannon Fired At Bush Protesters
MSNBC: Author claims White House knew Iraq had no WMD
MSNBC: Water cannon used on Bush protesters in Seoul
FOXNEWS: President Bush Visit Could Reignite South Korea Beef Riots
AP: S. Koreans fire water cannons at Bush protesters
REUTERS: Bush arrives in Seoul, anti-U.S. protest fizzles
OEN: Impeachment Efforts Are Worth It
OEN: One Week Later: Kucinich, Judiciary, Franks and the Whitehouse Silent
ATLANTIC-FP: Pelosi Secures Her "BUT"
DEMOCRATS.COM: Recipe for a New World Order
DEMOCRATS.COM: Pelosi Makes it Hard to ask $1,000 Question
ADS: George Tenet And White House Admit Iraq Intelligence Chief Told Them Iraq Had No WMD
ADS: NPR Interview of Suskind (audio)
ADS: The 2008 Killer Campaign: A Chicago Story of How Obama's Campaign is Trying to Deaden Opposition to An Attack On Iran
ADS: SHEEHAN: Disenfranchisement: The New American Way?
ADS: SHEEHAN: Know Your Place?
ADS: Excerpt from Suskind's Book
ADS: Bush Unwelcome in Kennebunkport (video)
ADS: WOLF: Dear world, please confront America

Day 56 - 2008-08-04
REUTERS: Massive protest called for Bush visit to South Korea
OEN: Forget Impeachment, Forget the ICC
CAMPUS-PROGRESS: Five Minutes with Dennis Kucinich
RAWSTORY: Economist on bailouts: 'Socialism for Wall St. and the rich'
TPMCAFE: Where To Look When Issuing Subpoeans To President, DOJ
ADS: President's Job Is to Pardon
ADS: Shoot Your Friends First: The Cheney Doctrine
ADS: Nobody Is Above the Law
ADS: Next president should order investigation of Bush-Cheney use of torture
ADS: Will the Antiwar Movement Strangle the State?
ADS: Prosecuting Bush and Cheney
DEMOCRATS.COM: What If McCain "Wins" the Election But Can't Remember What Office He Was Running For? (video)

Day 55 - 2008-08-03
ADS: Bob Barr: Karl Rove is In Contempt of Congress (video)
ADS: Justice Robert Jackson Conference On The Planning For Prosecution Of High Level American War Criminals
ADS: McCain's Goons Spot a Black Reporter, Throw Him Out
ADS: Is It Fascism Yet? (audio)
ADS: As New Evidence Emerges that 'War on Terror' Prisoners were Held on Diego Garcia, Reprieve Demands Immediate Action
ADS: HOW THE UNITED STATES REVERSED ITS POLICY ON BOMBING CIVILIANS
ADS: Protesters Disrupt Obama in St. Pete
ADS: Now In NYC & Soon in Theatres Across the Nation: Stealing America - Vote by Vote
OEN: In the Company of Tyrants
PRESS-CONNECTS: Impeachment ignored
DEMOCRACY-NOW: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Defends Her Opposition to Impeachment
HELENA-IR: We must impeach
RAWSTORY: CIA vet may face repercussions for revealing agency secrets
RAWSTORY: Obama backs away from McCain's debate challenge
RAWSTORY: Army declines comment on anthrax researcher
RAWSTORY: First Wal-Mart union begins in China thanks to gov't

Day 54 - 2008-08-02
ADS: Protest Possible Attack on Iran in Towns and Cities All Over the United States on Saturday, August 2nd
ADS: Anthrax Attacks Inside Job? (video)
ADS: Impeachment Support Makes Wexler a Target (video)
OEN: Please Help: Impeachment has made Robert Wexler a Target
OEN: O'Reilly's Revenge
OEN: Nancy Pelosi and the Hope That Was
COUNTERPUNCH: Bush Judge Does the Right Thing on Executive Immunity
CAPITOL-TIMES: Impeachment hearings need to get done
PEOPLES=WORLD: Let's impeach
METROWEST: Evidence supports impeachment
PACIFIC-FREE-PRESS: The Invisible Candidate: Lighting on the Nader Media Blackout
WAPO: Waiting for Rove
LATIMES: Pelosi hopes her new book is more popular than Congress
NEWSBLAZE: A Message to America's Daughters: Know Your Math!
RAWSTORY: Senate bill would restrict Bush from secret executive orders

Day 53 - 2008-08-01
OEN: Pelosi needs a reason to impeach, I'll give her one
OEN: PARDON ME WHILE I RETCH--THE NATION'S INTERVIEW WITH PELOSI
OEN: Judiciary Backpedals on Reports and Transcripts from "Non-Impeachment" Hearings
CAPITOL-TIMES: Putting the I word on the agenda
PEOPLES-VOICE: The People, the Press, and the Case for Impeachment - Part 2
PEOPLES-VOICE: Bush Accused of Tyranny and Murder - Part 1
RAWSTORY: Bush turning intelligence agencies on Americans
RAWSTORY: Absolute Power, No Responsibility: White House reaction to the Department of Justice hiring scandal
THINKPROGRESS: To Provoke War, Cheney Considered Proposal To Dress Up Navy Seals As Iranians And Shoot At Them
TPMCAFE: DoJ Staff Counsel Confronted With War Crimes Evidence Linking Them To Illegal War Plans in Syria
ADS: Cafferty Covers News on CNN, Still Hasn't Been Fired for It (But why didn't he cover Friday's hearing?) (video)
ADS: Pelosi Again Claims to Have No Evidence of Crimes: This Time in Time Magazine
ADS: AG Mukasey Seeks Extended Definition of "Battlefield" in WOT; Rivals "Onion" Satire
ADS: Rep. Walter Jones Not Opposed to Using Inherent Contempt (video)
ADS: Lobby Rep. Keith Ellison Today
ADS: How to win big in November: Impeach
ADS: RALPH NADER AND ROCKY ANDERSON WILL 'TALK IMPEACHMENT' FRIDAY MORNING IN A NEWS CONFERENCE AT THE UTAH STATE CAPITOL
DEMOCRATS.COM: Is It Time to Abolish the CIA?
DEMOCRATS.COM: The Daves Show
DEMOCRATS.COM: The Two Facts War Supporters Are Least Likely to Know

Day 52 - 2008-07-31
ABCNEWS: US Judge: White House Aides Can Be Subpoenaed
CBSNEWS: Bush Aides Can Be Subpoenaed, Court Rules
MSNBC: Bush aides can be subpoenaed, judge rules
FOXNEWS: Federal Judge Sides With Congress, Says Lawmakers Can Subpoena Bush Administration Aides
CNN: White House aides not immune from subpoenas, judge says
AP: US judge: White House aides can be subpoenaed
REUTERS: Judge: Congress can subpoena Bush aides
ABCNEWS: Bush Rewrites Spy Laws
FOXNEWS: Bush Says Shorter Deployments in Iraq Will 'Ease the Burden on Our Forces'
CQ-POLITICS: Kucinich Seeks to Punctuate His Efforts to Abbreviate Bush's Term
HUFFPO: Impeachment: Key to Dems' Win in November
FAIR: CNN Scoffs at White House Critics
BUZZFLASH: For putting political pressure to protect John McCain ahead of the truth, Katie Couric is our BuzzFlash Media PUTZ of the Week
RAWSTORY: Federal judge rules Bush aides can be subpoenaed, Update: Pelosi says Rove contempt citation possible
RAWSTORY: Judge orders White House to find, preserve e-mails
RAWSTORY: McCain's $520 loafers put 'elitist' shoe on the other foot (video)
RAWSTORY: Bush drug warrior crashes pot press conference
RAWSTORY: Judiciary Committee approves resolution holding Rove in contempt of Congress
TPMCAFE: Incredible DOJ IG Testimony Does Not Reconcile With Evidence
ADS: Impeachment Movement Moving to Denver
ADS: HAS AMERICA BECOME FASCIST?
ADS: News Flash! Bush Judge Does the Right Thing!
ADS: Judge Rules According to Law, Miers and Bolten Must Testify
ADS: Obama Worries Peace Movement
ADS: Randi Rhoads Interviews Dennis Kucinich (audio)
ADS: David Swanson on Blog Talk Radio With Tim Gatto

ImpeachmentWatch Archives: 1-17 - 18-28 - 29-36 - 37-40 - 41-51

Day 0 - 2008-06-09
RAWSTORY: Kucinich presents Bush impeachment articles (video)

Pre-Impeachment
ALTERNET: Colbert says Impeach Bush now or you're a bunch of pussies... (video)
ALTERNET: Why Is Impeachment Important? (video)
ADS: If the People Want Impeachment, Why Can't it Happen?

How to Help
We need to put serious pressure on Conyers, Pelosi and the rest of the House Judiciary. FAX them. A fax, unlike a voicemail or an email, is a physical piece of paper that CANNOT BE IGNORED or easily deleted. Use FaxZero to send 2 free faxes everyday. [h/t Randgrithr]

Nancy Pelosi: 202-225-4188

Harry Reid: 202-224-7327

Jerrold Nadler: 202-225-6923

John Conyers: 202-225-0072

Sending them the List of the Articles of Impeachment might not be a bad idea. Maybe they just haven't had a chance to read the list yet. Or maybe they'd like the complete text.

Other Ways to Help

- Write a letter to your local newspaper in suppport of Impeachment.
- Write a letter to your Congressman supporting impeachment.
- Post stories about Impeachment on your blog and other political websites.
- Wear Orange Every Friday! (and ask your friends and family to wear orange)
- Sign the Petition To Impeach Bush
- OEN: Some things we can do to help impeachment along
- ADS: Some Ways You Can Help Impeach Bush

Don't let the talk of Impeachment die. Dennis has re-introduced the articles of impeachment. It's up to us, the independent bloggers of the internet to keep this story going. The RULE OF LAW demands that we Impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney for the high crimes and misdemeanors they have committed against the people of this country and the world. We are the media now. Stand up and help Rep. Kucinich. Keep this story alive!

A future without impeachment paints a frighteningly bleak picture, a picture that at this point many of us can see but too few of us are acting to prevent. If ever there was a time to act, now is that time. It's time, right now, to promote the necessity of impeachment as widely as possible. It is imperative that the Bush regime be driven from office and held accountable for its many crimes - it's time to act now.
At this point the future in unwritten; which one we get is up to us.

Learn More about Impeachment [h/t Revisionist]

Nancy Pelosi's Table - Youtube - VodPod - Digg - MyBlogLog - FriendFeed - Scribd - ImpeachmentWatch Mobile - Technorati

Cindy Sheehan Will Be on Ballot and she will win. - Removing the Speaker of the House who "took impeachment off the table" will be an important first step to holding the war criminals accountable for their crimes. Cindy Sheehan is running as an Independant against Nancy Pelosi in a very liberal district. She will win. The Speaker of the House can be defeated. It has happened before.

Be the change that you want to see in the world. -- Mahatma Gandhi

Your Vote in November Won't Amount to a Pisshole in the Snow

cometman — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 05:51:42 GMT

Conservative GOP member Stephen Spoonamore tells what he knows about our current voting system in the following series of videos. Here's his bio from the Linkedin website:

Stephen Spoonamore's Summary
20 years experience in most aspects of High Technology facility construction, retrofits, upgrades and equiping. Experience in real-time, extreme high volume, encyrpted and networked communications systems for Banks, TV, Telco, EMS, Military and other uses. Delivered projects in over 50 countries, several earth orbits, one Mars mission, but no projects to date in Antarctica. Served as co-founder/CEO of Creative Production Resources Group for 6 years. 15+years in NYC, currently based in DC.
Stephen Spoonamore's Specialties:
Media/Communications systems, Digital Identity and Authentication Systems, Digital Imagery Systems, Sensor Nets, Intrusion Detection Systems, Electronic Countermeasures, Industrial Minerals, Credit Card Processing, Bank IT Systems, EMS-com - Emergency Management Systems Communications.

I really have nothing to add to these videos except that after watching them, you may want to stop using your credit cards too.

**All eight videos are part of the same interview. I wasn't able to find one longer video containing the whole thing. Please take the time to watch them all.

Part 1:

Part 2:

Part 3:

Part 4:

Part 5:

Part 6:

Part 7:

Part 8: