Domestic American Enemy #1, The George W. Bush Administration?

Hillary Clinton* plays the "Turban Card," passing around to the press an OLD PHOTO of Obama, wearing a TURBAN at the Afghan Embassy or somewhere...

*The HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN, as of tonight, has not been able to deny a role in the release of the picture; 'Even rumors of Hill' conspiring with Matt @ Drudge Report. Hmmph!

Texas Governor George W. Bush... Boldly Going Where NO MAN Has Gone Before... (Okay, scratch "boldly")

UNCONSCIONABLE: Former Gitmo Prosecutor: Pentagon Official Said "We Can't Have Acquittals"

Paul Kiel @ TPM Muckraker:
Former Gitmo Prosecutor:
Pentagon Official Said "We Can't Have Acquittals"
(EVEN IF ANY TOWEL-HEADS INNOCENT?)
At this point, it's not even controversial to say that the military commissions at Guantanamo Bay are a sham. The current chief judge there has written that the military tribunals have “credibility problems." And the former chief prosecutor, after resigning, publicly criticized the system as "deeply politicized."

Now that former prosecutor, Col. Morris Davis, has given more evidence of that politicization in an interview with The Nation after the six Gitmo detainees were charged. Davis says that in an August, 2005 meeting with William Haynes, then the Pentagon's general counsel, Haynes seemed to completely discount the possibility of the military tribunals acquitting any of the detainees. Now, of course, Haynes has been installed as the official overseeing the whole process, both the prosecutors and the defense. From The Nation:

"[Haynes] said these trials will be the Nuremberg of our time," recalled Davis, referring to the Nazi tribunals in 1945, considered the model of procedural rights in the prosecution of war crimes. In response, Davis said he noted that at Nuremberg there had been some acquittals, something that had lent great credibility to the proceedings.

"I said to him that if we come up short and there are some acquittals in our cases, it will at least validate the process," Davis continued. "At which point, [Haynes's] eyes got wide and he said:
'Wait a minute, we can't have acquittals.
If we've been holding these guys for so long, how can we explain letting them get off? We can't have acquittals, we've got to have convictions.'" ...

That's the Pentagon attorney who's been put in charge of the "military tribunals." Why even hold the tribunals? We could just execute the enemy-combatants, and save a bunch of time, stress, and money. [Dead men tell no tales! 'Of innocence, torture, or anything else that might make Georgie wet his pants (or look bad)!]

From a Constitutional/legal standpoint, that line is truly shocking. Truly! It's not surprising, I suppose from the Bushies. They don't give a sh!t about the law, or the rights of other... people! Not when protecting their own asses, and perpetuating their multitude of lies is involved. I think that might be a: Definition of "evil."

Barrack Obama: Oh, My... God.

Barrack Obama BLOWS OUT Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin, Washington, + Hawaii*... and more[?], tonight in the Democratic Primary Contest. It puts him ahead of her in Delegates, pledged or whatever, and bolsters Obama's "joe-mentum" further.

Bye Hill'! 'Bill!!

I dunno! I don't think I really like this two-party "primary" system, or scheme -- or whatever -- we have to go thru.
Can we start over? Or... Can Al (Arnold? No!) jump in, later?

*Obama BEAT Hillary, 3-to-1, in Hawaii:
HAWAII: Obama 76% ; Clinton 24%

PRESIDENT'S DAY?

************************************
2/19, UPDATED: Commending the staff, here at the Juncture: For this post, (original-art) pic, and title, and nothing else... We really hit it out of the park, with this post! [Submitted to the Academy, this day...]

We did it for Madison, Monroe, Taft & Lincoln, JFK and the rest, who certainly roll-in-their-graves whenever they realize/remember that somehow, some way, George Junior - the fratboy-kid from Texas - is in their company; 'ever more...
Poor bastards, Herb.

Bush wants retroactive-telecom-immunity to conceal/immunize (his!) THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION's, and not the phone companies', ILLEGAL ACTIVTIES

BILL KRISTOL IS AN IDIOT...

Think Progress, on
Bush's illegal spying...
Then neocon Bill Kristol
saying something stupid:
[W/ SOME EDITS.]

The Bush administration secretly conducted spying in violation of the Constitution and the law [ILLEGALLY] for four years before The New York Times disclosed it in 2005. For years, the White House lied about these activities to the American public. For example, in 2004, Bush claimed that “a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way.” At least one telco refused to comply with the Bush administration’s request because it knew the actions were illegal.

Even now, the administration continues to lie about the consequences of the Protect America Act expiration. Just yesterday, Bush stated that it will now “be harder for our government to keep you safe from terrorist attack.” But as an expert from the Cato Institute admits, this statement isn’t true: “There’s no reason to think our nation will be in any more danger in 2008 than it was in 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, or 2006.”
*******
Bill Kristol:
It’s ‘Unbelievable’ That Congress Won’t Give
Bush ‘The Benefit Of The Doubt’ On Spying...

Today on Fox News Sunday, Weekly Standard editor Bill Kristol mourned that an “emboldened” Congress refused to give telecommunications companies retroactive immunity for cooperating with the administration’s warrantless wiretapping.

Kristol said it was “unbelievable” for lawmakers to question the judgment of administration officials. [WHAT?] Instead, he argued, Congress should just give them the “benefit of the doubt”:

I think it’s kind of unbelievable, frankly. It’s a judgment call. [IT'S NOT A JUDGMENT CALL.] We don’t know. [WE'VE SEEN IT ALL, BILL, WE KNOW!] Not to give the administration the benefit of the doubt when they have career people, military people, intelligence people like Mike McConnell and Mike Hayden, and the attorney general, Mike Mukasey — I mean, these are not political hacks. [BUSH CRONIES, HACKS, LIARS] These are not ideological people.

When they say this is important for our national security, the Congress — to block
this legislation I find pretty amazing.

It's not complicated, at all, Mr. Kristol.
It's not "amazing;" and it's not "unbelievable."
Giving Bush/Cheney the "benefit-of-the-doubt," however, would be: unbelievably stupid!
[Moron! ...Dee-de-dee!]

So... I rest my case, ladies and gentlemen:
BILL KRISTOL IS AN IDIOT.
Goodnight, Herb.

MSNBC's KEITH OLBERMANN Comments: "...YOU ARE A LIAR, MR. BUSH."

KEITH OLBERMANN, FROM MSNBC:

Mr. Bush, you say that our ability to track terrorist threats will be weakened and our citizens will be in greater danger. Yet you have weakened that ability!

You have subjected us, your citizens, to that greater danger! This, Mr. Bush, is simple enough for even you to understand.

For the moment, at least, thanks to some true patriots in the House, and your own stubbornness, you have tabled telecom immunity, and the FISA act.

You. By your own terms and your definitions, you have just sided with the terrorists. You’ve got to have this law, or we’re all going to die. But, practically speaking, you vetoed this law.

It is bad enough, sir, that you were demanding an ex post facto law that could still clear the AT&Ts and the Verizons from responsibility for their systematic, aggressive and blatant collaboration with your illegal and unjustified spying on Americans under this flimsy guise of looking for any terrorists who are stupid enough to make a collect call or send a mass e-mail.

But when you demanded it again during the State of the Union address, you wouldn’t even confirm that they actually did anything for which they deserved to be cleared.
“The Congress must pass liability protection for companies believed to have assisted in the efforts to defend America.”

Believed? Don’t you know? Don’t you even have the guts Dick Cheney showed in admitting they did collaborate with you? Does this endless presidency of loopholes and fine print extend even here? If you believe in the seamless mutuality of government and big business, come out and say it! There is a dictionary definition, one word that describes that toxic blend.

You’re a fascist — get them to print you a T-shirt with fascist on it! What else is this but fascism? Did you see Mark Klein on this newscast last November?

Mark Klein was the AT&T whistleblower who explained in the placid, dull terms of your local neighborhood IT desk how he personally attached all AT&T circuits, everything, carrying every one of your phone calls, every one of your e-mails, every bit of your Web browsing into a secure room, room No. 641-A at the Folsom Street facility in San Francisco, where it was all copied so the government could look at it.

Not some of it, not just the international part of it, certainly not just the stuff some spy, a spy both patriotic and telepathic, might be able to divine had been sent or spoken by or to a terrorist.

Everything! Every time you looked at a naked picture. Every time you bid on eBay. Every time you phoned in a donation to a Democrat. “My thought was,” Mr. Klein told us last November, “George Orwell’s ‘1984.’ And here I am, forced to connect the Big Brother machine.”

And if there’s one thing we know about Big Brother, Mr. Bush, it is that he is — you are — a liar.

“This Saturday at midnight,” you said Thursday, “legislation authorizing intelligence professionals to quickly and effectively monitor terrorist communications will expire. If Congress does not act by that time, our ability to find out who the terrorists are talking to, what they are saying and what they are planning will be compromised.” You said that “the lives of countless Americans depend” on your getting your way.

This is crap. And you sling it with an audacity and a speed unrivaled by even the greatest political felons of our history.

Richard Clarke — you might remember him, sir: He was one of the counterterror pros you inherited from President Clinton, before you ran the professionals out of government in favor of your unreality-based reality — Richard Clarke wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer:

“Let me be clear: Our ability to track and monitor terrorists overseas would not cease should the Protect America Act expire.

“If this were true, the president would not threaten to terminate any temporary extension with his veto pen. All surveillance currently occurring would continue even after legislative provisions lapsed because authorizations issued under the act are in effect up to a full year.”

You are a liar, Mr. Bush. And after showing some skill at it, you have ceased to even be a very good liar.

And your minions like John Boehner, your Republican congressional crash dummies who just happen to decide to walk out of Congress when a podium-full of microphones await them, they should just keep walking, out of Congress and, if possible, out of the country.

For they and you, sir, have no place in a government of the people, by the people, for the people.

The lot of you are the symbolic descendants of the despotic middle managers of some banana republic to whom “freedom” is an ironic brand name, a word you reach for when you want to get away with its opposite.

Thus, Mr. Bush, your panoramic invasion of privacy is dressed up as “protecting America.”

Thus, Mr. Bush, your indiscriminate domestic spying becomes the focused monitoring only of “terrorist communications.”

Thus, Mr. Bush, what you and the telecom giants have done isn’t unlawful; it’s just the kind of perfectly legal, passionately patriotic thing for which you happen to need immunity!

Richard Clarke is on the money, as usual.
That the president was willing to veto this eavesdropping means there is no threat to the legitimate counterterror efforts under way.

As Sen. Edward Kennedy reminded us in December:

“The president has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA.

“But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retroactive immunity.

“No immunity, no FISA bill. So if we take the president at his word, he’s willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies.”

And that literally cannot be. Even Mr. Bush could not overtly take a step that actually aids the terrorists. I am not talking about ethics here. I am talking about blame. If the president seems to be throwing the baby out with the bath water, it means we can safely conclude there is no baby.

Because if there were, sir, now that you have vetoed an extension of this eavesdropping, if some terrorist attack were to follow, you would not merely be guilty of siding with the terrorists. You would not merely be guilty of prioritizing the telecoms over the people. You would not merely be guilty of stupidity. You would not merely be guilty of treason, sir.

You would be personally, and eternally, responsible.

And if there is one thing we know about you, Mr. Bush, one thing that you have proved time and time again — it is that you are never responsible.

As recently ago as 2006, we spoke words like these with trepidation.

The idea that even the most cynical and untrustworthy of politicians in our history, George W. Bush, would use the literal form of terrorism against his own people was dangerous territory. It seemed to tempt fate, to heighten fear.

We will not fear any longer. We will not fear the international terrorists, and we will thwart them. We will not fear the recognition of the manipulation of our yearning for safety, and we will call it what it is: terrorism. We will not fear identifying the vulgar hypocrites in our government, and we will name them. And we will not fear George W. Bush. Nor will we fear because George W. Bush wants us to fear. -END-

Breaking... Entertainment News: The WRITER'S STRIKE IS OVER

L.A. Times has story...
Finally, (no offense,) Jon Stewart can stop flopping-around-like-a-fish-on-a-boat-deck improvising... Back to The Daily Show! And new Colbert Reports, too. And other stuff as well, I imagine, Herb.

DICK CHENEY, to the dead, the wounded, the families, the displaced, the destroyed, "GO F@*K YOURSELVES!"

ON IRAQ, RECENTLY:
"Damn right, we'd do it all again," Dick Cheney said.
...THINK ABOUT THAT!

"DAMN RIGHT!"
You're "damn right" Dick Cheney would do it again (Iraq). He'd DESTROY IT ALL AGAIN. FAIL, again!!! RUIN Our military, and WRECK all those American/Iraqi families' lives, again! HELL YEAH! "Damn right, he would do it all again:" ABUSE his office & LIE to the world about WHY HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of people MUST DIE needlessly... For his hare-brained (neocon) theory. For oil? 'For his gain, his wealth; and his, amusement.

Damn right, God damnit!

DICK CHENEY callously dismisses all the LIVES HIS FAILED-IRAQ-(DREAM)-OCCUPATION-WAR HAS RUINED: 'The dead, the wounded, the families, the displaced, the orphaned, the destroyed, the innocent, and the forgotten... "GO FUCK YOURSELVES!"

DICK CHENEY, TO THE WORLD:

"GO FUCK YOURSELF!"

BUZZFLASH LINKS TO
THIS, FROM THE BALTIMORE SUN,
AS FOLLOWS...

Dick Cheney: 'Damn right' we'd do it all again. Good grief. The Democrats, Any Democrat, Must Win the White House in November or Democracy and Civilized Standards of Behavior are Doomed!

We concur, at the very least, with Buzzflash's level of DISGUST Re: Dick Cheney. DICK CHENEY IS A NATIONAL DISGRACE, & AN INTERNATIONAL EMBARRASSMENT! Somebody should be "minding" the DICK! You know? Like a babysitter, Herb.

Mitt QUIT Romney QUIT today...

Mitt Romney funded his Republican Primary Campaign, largely with about $60 Million of HIS OWN (FAMILY's) money... OUCH!!!

Can you say, "lifestyle changes," honey?

EXXON: GLUTTONY & GREED, INC.! Bush/Cheney: Thanx for NOTHING! "OILMEN?" ...Whatever...

BUZZFLASH links to New York Times story, thusly:

Bush and Cheney
Now Can Really Say
"MISSION ACCOMPLISHED":
Exxon Mobil Profit Sets Record Again. The company reported Friday that it beat its own record for the highest profits ever recorded by any company, with net income rising 3 percent to $40.6 billion, thanks to surging oil prices.

Chevron too -- record profits!
Yeah... All of 'em,
AS IT TURNS OUT...
[BP, Shell & Connoco
round out the Top 5]

President Bush IS the INTELLIGENCE GAP in the American Government... America, the country, SUFFERS...

From Roll Call:

President Bush “utterly dismissed international opinion polls showing declining approval of the United States.” “When it comes to, where do you want to live, many people [say], ‘I’d like to live in the United States,’” Bush proclaimed.

Bush also told (Roll Call), “absolutely, we are stronger” now than in 2001...

Unbeleivable...
George W. Bush is America's "intelligence gap."

'Bubble, much? It explains a lot, though, the abject ignorance Bush reveals there. Nevertheless... It's still embarrassing, Herb.