Weekend Watchdog
Campaign for America's Future:
Several politicians are booked to discuss the virtual pardon of Scooter Libby: Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. and Orrin Hatch, R-Utah on CBS' Face The Nation; Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich. on ABC's This Week and Reps. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Chris Cannon, R-Utah on Fox News Sunday.
The critical question for all of them is:
Does the commutation of Scooter Libby's jail sentence amount to obstruction of justice on the part of President Bush?
Several have directly accused Bush of obstruction of justice, including Ambassador Joe Wilson, blogger-journalists Marcy Wheeler and Josh Marshall, and our own Rick Perlstein. Also, Washingtonpost.com's Dan Froomkin noted that our Founders did not believe the pardon power included the power for the president to "stop inquiry and prevent detection" of crimes associated with himself.
More questions on the CfAF site as well as links to give feedback to the Sunday bobblehead shows. Bill Scher will be on Sam Seder's AAR show to discuss. You can stream Sam's show here.
Hidee ho!!!
Ahh Ruthless People. You got me.
The poor Repugs.
Conyers is going to eat them alive.
100 killed in attack in Iraq bombing today. Another corner turned! Maybe these attackers can get George Bush's "Mission Accomplished" banner and hang it at every market place bombing from now on. When I think back to that combat dodging chicken hawk liar-in-chief strutting across that aircraft carrier in a flight suit I still get nauseous to this day.
American forces in Iraq 155,000. British forces down to 5.500. So much for the "Coalition of the Willing"!
(Tried to put the article link here but it's not working here)
Impeach these lying warmongering war criminal bastards now!
"Several have directly accused Bush of obstruction of justice..".
As have all but the willfully blind. Certainly the American people know the score.
Should congressional democrats fail to grasp the nettle of impeachment, with all that would portend, they will have dishonored themselves.
Isn't the power to pardon absolute? Can there really be such a thing as obstruction of justice when it comes to a pardon?
The truly pathetic part of this entire mess is that BUSH DOESN'T CARE!!! He and Cheney do NOT CARE about the law, the Constitution, or, least of all, anybody's opinion. The Public, the Citizens of the United States of America, all be damned! These criminals are going to continue to do exactly what they want. They know that nobody is going to impeach them, because the votes just aren't there. So, unless the Joint Chiefs of Staff march into the White House and arrest these clowns for Treason, which as Arlo Guthrie once said "ain't very likely and we wasn't expecting it", nothing will come of this, as nothing has come of the Plame affair, Gonzales, torture, wiretapping, the odious Military Commissions act, the Iraq war, anthrax (which everybody seems to have forgotten all about), the endless stream of lies and plain bullshit that pours out of the White House. Nothing. Write to the JCS and beg them to arrest these fools. Or be prepared to watch them destroy America until next year, at least. And there is no doubt in my mind that they will try to pull some "terrorist" stunt to rig the next election too.
NOT ONLY SHOULD AMERICA'S GREATES PRESIDENT, GEORGE W. BUSH, PARDON SCOOTER LIBBER, BUT HE SHOULD ALSO AWARD HIM THE PRESIDENTIAL MEDAL OF FREEDOM FOR HIS SPLENDID SERVICE TO AMERICA!!!!!
HATERS BE DAMNED!!!!!
Site Monitor: Please don't post in all caps or all bold. It's hard to read and annoying to others. It looks like you can be annoying very well without it.
I just hope that someone will answer the Clinton comparison with this:
"What on Earth are you talking about? What does this case have to do with Bill Clinton?
"This is about the sitting President freeing the man who could have implicated that President in outing a CIA operative for political reasons.
"That is impeachable."
This will never lead to an impeachment. The right is so in control of everything still no matter what the president does they will always excuse him. As stated above over 100 killed today in Iraq in one bombing and Drudge the right wing talk points site does not mention it. Although he does mention that 100 goats were killed in a car crash.
Round and round and round and round
Take the long way home
The 12 Commandments
• I will alter my car's engine to run on water and get 100 miles to the gallon.
• I will command my pug to stop shedding.
• I will keep planet Earth safe from attacks from the Cybermen, the Daleks, and the Borg.
• I will install an asteroid shield over the planet.
• I will lead America to give up meat, high fructose corn syrup, cigarettes, beer, reality TV, and computer porn.
• I will compel Microsoft to release a robust and secure version of Windows for less than $100.
• I will persuade Bill O'Reily, Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Rupert Murdock, Sean Hannity and a dozen other blowhards to be chosen later, to colonize Mars.
• I will fly around the Earth at super speed, reversing its rotation and turning back time to January 1st, 2000. I will then kidnap Ralph Nader and keep him hostage on the Planet of the Nubile Underwear Models Who Dig Nerdy Older Guys in Wrinkled Suits.
• I will change male biology so that men can get pregnant, then arrange for every anti-abortion male in America to be artificially impregnated.
• I will raise Jerry Falwell from the dead, slap him, then send him to Mars.
• I will telepathically implant an actual clue in the head of each and every pundit and journalist in Washington, DC.
• I will require FDA and USDA officials who insist that contaminated foods and GM crops are perfectly safe for the public, to eat only that food themselves and to feed it their spouses, children and grandchildren.
Why is the commutation of Libby's sentence a big deal? I really don't get it. The president possesses, via "executive privilege" and the other fancy dancy and absolute powers of the presidency, both the power and the authority to commute sentences, issue pardons, and generally do whatever the hell he or she wants to do; such is the nature of the American presidency.
Heck, it was on this very site that an editorial was run praising Gerald Ford, on the occasion of his death, for his having been a "soothing balm of honesty and wholesomeness at a time the nation desperately needed honesty and wholesomeness."
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/12/27/former-president-gerald-ford-di...
Really? The same Gerald Ford who issued, on September 8, 1974, a pardon for Richard Nixon--a man who, though his resignation had prevented the act of impeachment, still faced the possibility of criminal charges--thereby, in effect, immunizing Nixon against being prosecuted for any crime(s) he may have committed while in the Oval Office.
Some other ridiculous acts of, to use the phrase cited in this post, "obstruction of justice" include George H. W. Bush's pardoning of those involved in Iran-Contra, and, leaving aside the Mark Rich pardon (which is a whole other kettle of fish), Clinton's 1999 pardoning of 16 nationalist terrorists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Clinton_pardons_controversy#FALN_Pardo...
Anybody have a problem with the use of presidential powers in the instances cited above? Or do you merely have a problem when Bush does it?
Not liking Bush--which, for the record, I do not--is not a good enough reason. If it's okay for everyone, then it's okay for Bush, too; if it's wrong for Bush, then it ought to be considered wrong when any president does it.
You cannot bestow unto the office of the presidency the rights of an emperor and then be shocked when, HORROR OF HORRORS, the president happens to take advantage of those very imperial privileges, using them for his own purposes, with which you may or may not agree.
The real discussion here should not be about whether Bush's commutation was wrong, but, rather, should concern whether the president--any president--should possess, and continue to possess in future, the right to commute sentences, issue pardons, etc.
I just now saw some kool-aid drinking bobble head saying on CNN that there was no crime and so Libby should have been pardoned. It seems to me that the Dems have the '27 8x10 glossy photos with the circles and arrows and the paragraph on the back of each one explaining what each one was to be used as evidence against' them. We've 'got pictures of the approach,
the getaway, the northwest corner the southwest corner and that's not to mention the aerial photography.' But the damn judge has a seeing eye dog.
(thanks for the inspiration CapnMike)
Not clear why they're bothering to review the issue: House took impeachment off the table. Time for We the People to bypass this non-sense in Congress,and work directly with the states to prosecute this sitting President. Here's what's happening.
Share with your friends.
if the democrats want to get it going, they need to point out that valerie plame testified about her covert status.
the dems inability to frame these simple facts is maddening.
The first rule to be laid down by all moderators tomorrow should be that the conversation is restricted to events that happened in the last six years--this century, if you will. If I were in charge, I'd even go so far as to challenge Republicans to see if they could get through the whole show without mentioning the word Clinton.
All Bush has done is Obstruct Justice or Conspire to Obstruct Justice.
Why else would the Patriot Act make it illegal to reveal to those being spied on without a warrant be told of their queries.
Or The Military Commissions Act give Bush a retroactive Immunity from prosecution for torture and murder.
Why block all attempts to sue over violations of Civil Rights by using National Security as a Stopper.
Criminals have lots of things to hide in the darkness of secrecy and claims of National Security. It's the light of day Bush is afraid of.
LongTooth @ 5:
Well I guess he must have learned this from Daddy Bush, GHW. Daddy pardoned those involved with Iran-Contra in order to "close" any further investigation, so as to protect himself and maybe even Ronnie from any possible criminal proceedings against them. I guess the old saying that "An apple never falls far from the tree" is true in the cases of the Bushies, both father and son.
capnmike @ 7:
Mike I said something similar about a week ago and was put down rather harshly. But, I think you are right. If the Military marched on the whitehouse, they are the only ones that would have enough force to accomplish arrests. I don't want the military to take over the government, I just want them to protect our constitution and respect our laws by arresting the ones who don't. They are probably the only ones with the force to do it.
Scooter is a Long-Time Mossad Agent.
Hey 12
You must be a criminal. Only people that think like that would not understand what is wrong here. When you break the law and have a designated fall guy with the promise that he will pay no penalty by promising a pardon, you are like the gang members that have a child along to give the gun to. Just because you technically have an out does not mean that people do not know what the hell really happened.
!2 @ 14:
I hate to say it but I'm going to have to agree with just about everything you said. The right to pardon is a constitutional right, not an "executive privilege". That phrase was handed down to us by those trying to circumvent constitutional oversite, not passed down by the framers.
I KNEW it the second the administration objected to congressional limits to Clinton's pardons. They were setting the stage for their own follies to come.
tHeGaMeOfLife @ 22:
I had forgotten about Wayne Madsen. These gus have sources inside the beltway and their information is pretty accurate. I have his book, "Jaded Tasks."
http://myfightfordemocracy.blogspot.com/2007/07/new-declaration-of-indep...
I don't want to hear a bunch of head scratching discussions. I want to see articles of impeachment.
Is this really the Last Summer Before Armageddon?
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6134
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=5964
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=6020
And that is only from one site. Pick your poison.
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