Operation Chickenhawk: Draft College Republicans

Generation Chickenhawk: the Unauthorized College Republican Convention Tour



Untitled from huffpost and Vimeo.

This is a very interesting look into the minds the minds of College Republican, albeit from a very biased Max Blumenthal. I love the bumper sticker at the end!

There Should Be a Table to Put This On

I keep hearing the phrase, "Impeachment is off the table." I say, whose table is it off of? On my table, you'll find a big heaping pile of double impeachment for the man (Cheney) and his puppet (Bush).

Look, I've been warning people about Bush and Co., since 2004, when I joined Billionaires For Bush. I thought to myself, "hey, self, use humor to help the masses understand what this administration is all about." Bush won. I wept at my computer the day he won the second election. When I say wept, I mean wept. Big honking tears poured down my face in an uncontrollable assault. AT WORK. Eventually, I tried to look on the bright side and tried to continue the humor for the 2006 election, but seriously now, the greater majority of the country is ready to break under the facade of a sneering Chief Executive and the obvious breakdown of a coherent strategy in Iraq.

I truly think the breaking point to a lot of things came on July 2, when Bush, two days before the celebration of the founding of this country, commuted the sentence of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby. To add insult to injury, last Thursday, while opening up the new White House Press Room, Bush nonchalantly brushed off a question regarding the commutation with this:

First of all, the Scooter Libby decision was, I thought, a fair and balanced decision.

Secondly, I haven't spent a lot of time talking about the testimony that people throughout my administration were forced to give as a result of the special prosecutor. I didn't ask them during that time and I haven't asked them since.

I'm aware of the fact that perhaps somebody in the administration did disclose the name of that person. And, you know, I've often thought about what would have happened had that person come forth and said, "I did it." Would we have had this, you know, endless hours of investigation and a lot of money being spent on this matter?

But it has been a tough issue for a lot of people in the White House, and it's run its course, and now we're going to move on.

You may be moving on, Sir, but some of us won't be moving on until you've moved out. Personally, I hope it's before his present term is up.

I have heard people say that we should let the Administration ride on out into the sunset. Well, no. Time and again this President has treated the Constitution like a doormat that's not good enough to wipe his feet on. Consequently, his emboldened assholery has spread to others, who feel as if the Rule of Law is for Thee and Not for Me. This has got to stop. If we let Bush out of office without even so much as a censure, we will have handed the next President a set of Executive Orders and power that the Executive Branch is not entitled to... impeachment must be put back on the table, and soon.

If you don't believe me, then watch and listen to the man who wrote the first article of impeachment against Bill Clinton.

For the love of the Constitution, tell your Representatives, your Senators, your friends, your family, that the honor of the Constitution demands that Bush and Cheney be impeached. It's your country, people. Don't let your leaders lull you into thinking that it's not, don't let your leaders take it away from you either and don't let them make you afraid of your own shadow. Give them one more kit, and they will take the entire kaboodle. Mark my words. Please. I don't want to have to come back in a few years and say, "I told you so."

Disgraceful

I have never been more ashamed and embarrassed at being an American than yesterday, when I came home, and saw a despicable site: a so-called Christian heckling an American Hindu on the floor of the Senate during opening prayer:


First of all, I grew up in a 1/2 Evangelical Christian household. I do not attend church services and barely believe in any type of religion because of it. Second of all, I believe in the Constitution, and I believe that the U.S. may lean toward Christianity because it was the predominant religion at the time of the country's founding, but there is little or no evidence that the Deists that founded this country thought of it as Christian. Thirdly, how dare these "Christians" interrupt this man?

I cannot tolerate such childish displays, such clearly ignorant sentiments, such clear and adamant claims that this country is "Christian." This is America, indivisible, with freedom and liberty FOR ALL.

Go Read This...

... and then Digg It so that others know about it, too!

July 8, 2007 at 19:44:49 Bush justice is a national disgrace by John S. Koppel http://www.opednews.com

Digg this story

As a longtime attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, I can honestly say that I have never been as ashamed of the department and government that I serve as I am at this time.
The public record now plainly demonstrates that both the DOJ and the government as a whole have been thoroughly politicized in a manner that is inappropriate, unethical and indeed unlawful. The unconscionable commutation of I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby's sentence, the misuse of warrantless investigative powers under the Patriot Act and the deplorable treatment of U.S. attorneys all point to an unmistakable pattern of abuse.

MORE at OP-Ed News Link

Originally published in the Denver Post, July 5, 2007.

The 4th of July

Martha's Vineyard, 2004
Photo by Elderta

On this day of America's Independence, I wish everyone a happy holiday.

Even more so, I wish everyone a knock upside their head to get ya'll out of this damned complacency as your country is being stripped from you by a runaway administration.

Mostly, though, I wish you a good 4th of July. With no rain and plenty of BBQ.

Now, go read about the recent Supreme Court decision regarding Rita v. United States. The case sounds eerily familiar to a certain case that was granted a commutation earlier this week. The lowdown: Victor Rita was convicted of perjury, making false statements to federal agents and obstruction of justice (like Libby) and was sentenced to 33 months in Federal jail (Libby was sented to 30 months). Rita thought the sentence excessive (even though the sentence adhered to DOJ guidelines, like Libby's case did as well) and sued. The case made it to the Supreme Court a few weeks ago and the Court ruled that the sentence was not excessive. There are several similarities between this case and defendant and Libby. The catch: Rita, unlike Libby, is no FOB (Friend of Bush).*

From the Times:

Mr. Rita has performed extensive government service, just as Mr. Libby has. Mr. Rita served in the armed forces for more than 25 years, receiving 35 commendations, awards and medals. Like Mr. Libby, Mr. Rita had no criminal history for purposes of the federal sentencing guidelines.

The judges who sentenced the two men increased their sentences by taking account of the crimes about which they lied. Mr. Rita’s perjury concerned what the court called “a possible violation of a machine-gun registration law,” while Mr. Libby’s of a possible violation of a federal law making it a crime to disclose the identities of undercover intelligence agents in some circumstances.

When Mr. Rita argued that his 33-month sentence had failed adequately to consider his history and circumstances, the Justice Department strenuously disagreed.

Remember also, that Bush seems to have made his "excessive" declaration without consulting the Department of Justice. Maybe then someone would have told him that he was directly going against the third branch of government in his "excessive" commutation. Hmm... who am I kidding? Bush listens to no one but the little God voice in his head.

Now, get up off your butt and do something. Tomorrow, of course. Enjoy your Independence today, while you still can!

*addendum: and he wasn't accused of outing a spy, either!

Motherfucker

So, I'm sitting in the emergency room, waiting to get a CAT scan earlier tonight. This past Friday, I banged my head against a concrete wall while wrestling a kayak off the top of a car, and I developed a headache yesterday that hasn't gone away yet, so I decided to get my head checked out in case of internal injury.

The teevee was on in the waiting room, but I was listening to my Saturday podcast of Seder on Sundays with Sam Seder. I'm listening to Sam talking with Atrios and Glenn Greenwald, and my head is pounding, and I'm a little worried that something may be wrong with my brain, when I look up at the teevee and see the headline, "BREAKING: President Bush pardons I. Lewis 'Scooter' Libby."

I couldn't help it. Although I had already broken my brain earlier in the weekend, I do believe that the news of Bush's pardon was the straw that cracked the remainder of my brainstem. The word "MOTHERFUCKER," came loudly from my mouth. Several people in the waiting room turned towards me, many of whom had no clue as to why this expletive would fall so vehemently from my mouth. I was quite surprised at the force of my invective, though I don't know why I'm even surprised that Bush commuted Libby's sentence. I should not be surprised by anything that this horrible administration does anymore.

After leaving the hospital tonight, I found out that Bush deemed the verdict "excessive" in the sense that Libby should not have been sentenced to 30 months in prison. (Libby still has to pay a fine and faces two years of probation.) NOTE: it's EXCESSIVE to spend time in jail for committing perjury regarding the outing of a CIA agent, according to the President of the United States of America. NOTE again: no matter what right-wing nuts tell you, Valerie Plame was a covert agent at the time of her outing. And once again, NOTE: the judge who sentenced Libby is a Republican (Judge Walton, appointed by Bush in 2001) and the Court that denied Libby's appeal is composed of at least two Republicans. District Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald was appointed by a Republican by the name of James Comey. (Read Fitzgerald's comments on this "excessive" pardon here.)

The Washington Post filed a sickly missive yesterday on how Bush is "besieged and isolated, yet at ease" these days. According to the article, Bush has been gathering people together in private meetings to ponder on his Presidential legacy. Really, President Bush, invite me come on over to one of those meetings, because frankly, this one is easy; your legacy is one of incompetence, thievery, unlawful war, spying, the outing of a CIA operative, environmental disaster, and torture. In a word, you are a motherfucker.

May your legacy follow you where ever you may go.