Common Sense Democracy

Funny clip of Jon Stewart on the Late Show.

YouTube - Late Show - 2006.10.11 - Jon Stewart (Part 2)

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Via MSNBC.com - McCain criticizes Bill Clinton on North Korea

“I would remind Senator (Hillary) Clinton and other Democrats critical of the Bush administration’s policies that the framework agreement her husband’s administration negotiated was a failure,” McCain said at a news conference after a campaign appearance for Republican Senate candidate Mike Bouchard.

“The Koreans received millions and millions in energy assistance. They’ve diverted millions of dollars of food assistance to their military,” he said.

While this may be true, it’s ridiculous to somehow say that the problem with the current state of North Korea is because of Bill Clinton. The Bush administration has had several years, almost as many as Clinton, to formulate his own policy and take leadership on this situation. What a complete cop-out. Besides that, McCain needs to watch where he’s pointing his finger. He’s been in the Senate longer then either Clinton or Bush were president. You can’t just sit on your ass in the Senate and wait for the President to create policy and then blame everyone else for nothing going right. Are you going to tell me that a powerful Senator can’t take a leadership role in forumulating our government’s policies and do the right thing? This is the epitomy of the GOP blame game.

Why doesn’t he just include the first Bush administration’s failure to deal with North Korea in his criticisms? They had just as little of a policy framework. At least the Clinton administration actually visited Pyongyang.

I would hope that people would see right through this garbage. The GOP is just getting nervous that while we were out attacking Iraq, who had no nuclear weapons, 2 other countries have become a greater threat to our security.

Let’s go GOP… it’s your command, you’re on watch. Take the helm.

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More information about Bob Woodward’s new book.
Bush chief of staff urged Rumsfeld be fired: book - Yahoo! News

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Upcoming interview with Bob Woodward. Via CBS News:

Veteran Washington reporter Bob Woodward tells Mike Wallace that the Bush administration has not told the truth regarding the level of violence, especially against U.S. troops, in Iraq. He also reveals key intelligence that predicts the insurgency will grow worse next year.

In Wallace’s interview with Woodward, to be broadcast on 60 Minutes this Sunday, Oct. 1, at 7 p.m. ET/PT

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/28/60minutes/main2047607.shtml.

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This video clip is a must see… Olbermann does a brilliant job of concisely summarizing what a lot of us have been thinking for a long time.

Tags: President+Clinton, Clinton, sandbagging, President+Bush, Olbermann+Commentary, Olbermann

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President Clinton gave a powerful interview on Fox News. He went on the offensive and blasted away at the reporter and the right-wing propaganda machine. I thought it was a great interview and it’s refreshing to see someone finally articulate so well without some prepared speech. Watching Clinton really makes you appreciate his public speaking talent and also really makes you realize what a bumbling idiot George Bush is.

I’m glad Clinton went on the offensive. This country needs more heated debate, more INFORMED debate, on what the hell is going on. Clinton believes in what he’s saying. Bush just says what he wants people to believe.

At one point, Clinton said to the reporter:

“And you’ve got that little smirk on your face and you think you’re so clever. But I had responsibility for trying to protect this country. I tried and I failed to get bin Laden. I regret it. But I did try. And I did everything I thought I responsibly could. …

You can click here to view a clip of the Fox News interview at Google Video –>

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 I ran across a few of the news stories surrounding the speech of President Chavez to the U.N. today. The phrase that immediately comes to mind is, “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” I do not necessarily think Chavez is a great man and he certainly has his faults as far as fair treatment of his people, but Chavez is right and I don’t like Bush either. The Bush administration has squandered the power and influence of America around the world. The laughing has turned to hate.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez tore into his U.S. counterpart and his U.N. hosts Wednesday, likening President Bush to the devil and telling the General Assembly that its system is “worthless.”

“The devil came here yesterday,” Chavez said, referring to Bush, who addressed the world body during its annual meeting Tuesday. “And it smells of sulfur still today.”

Chavez accused Bush of having spoken “as if he owned the world” and said a psychiatrist could be called to analyze the statement.

He also said the U.S. government was the “first enemy” of its people. We are being lied to, decieved and led into conflicts where our sons and daughters are being killed for a cause most don’t support or endorse.

John Bolton, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, dismissed the speech, saying, “I think that [Chavez’s] rhetoric today shows exactly what kind of man he is.”

Bolton said: “We’re not going to address that sort of comic-strip approach to international affairs.

And of course, as their usual defense, the Bush administration, specifically John Bolton, attacks the messenger without hearing the message. To use Bolton’s own words, I think that BUSH’s rhetoric at the U.N. shows exactly what kind of man HE is. If they weren’t so consumed with pointing fingers and finding someone to blame, the Bush camp might actually find wisdom in stepping outside itself to listen to why the world hates us.

Link to CNN.com - Chavez: Bush ‘devil;’ U.S. ‘on the way down’

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Via MoveOn.org

This week, the Senate is planning to quietly hold a vote that would pardon President Bush for breaking the law by illegally wiretapping innocent Americans without warrants. According to Senator Leahy, the bill would "…immunize officials who have violated federal law by authorizing such illegal activities."¹

President Bush broke the law, and courts are starting to agree. Judiciary Committee Chairman Arlen Specter once said the program was illegal "on its face." But he has now caved to pressure from Vice President Cheney, and introduced legislation that marks a new low: the bill justifies everything the president did. Worse, it makes it legal to wiretap Americans, in secret, without warrants or oversight, whenever the administration wants to.²

So far, Democrats and some Republicans are holding strong against the bill, and there are good chances to stop it if enough of us speak up. Can you sign the petition opposing the Republican move to pardon President Bush for breaking the law?

http://pol.moveon.org/dontpardon/?id=8810-4350126-WPTqUDpta5J5XPeC8AcqTg&t=2

Many legal experts agree that the president’s program to wiretap Americans who have nothing to do with terrorism violates the law. President Bush already has the authority to wiretap suspected terrorists—and we support that. In fact, his administration can tap anyone it likes as long as it gets an OK from a court a few days later.

Congress should be trying to hold him accountable—that’s their job. Instead, some Republicans are trying to let President Bush off the hook completely. In fact, the legislation would give the president even more unchecked power.

Here are some quick facts about the Cheney-Specter bill:

• It allows President Bush—and every president after him—to wiretap Americans indefinitely, in secret, without a warrant and without any oversight. ³
• It effectively pardons the president for any illegal behavior by forcing Congress to concede that he has the inherent authority to conduct the program⁴—something federal courts, numerous legal experts and many leading Republicans disagree with. ⁵
• It completely guts FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act) which has protected the privacy of Americans against illegal wiretaps for close to 30 years.⁶
• It prevents any legal challenges from taking place in the public court system. Instead, it moves all cases to a secret court, where only Bush administration officials can argue it. ⁷
• It would help "immunize" any officials who broke the law in this program from being held accountable in the future. ⁸

Since the program was exposed in December of last year, we’ve learned that President Bush personally blocked a Justice Department investigation of the program, Vice President Cheney also personally intervened to stop telecom companies from testifying to Congress about it, and a federal court recently ruled the program unconstitutional.⁹ In an effort to protect himself from further consequences, the president is pressuring Congress to let him off the hook.

This is an important issue and it will help remind Americans, in an election year, what Republicans are all about—accumulating power for themselves, and trampling the system of checks and balances designed to stop that. Can you sign the petition today?

http://pol.moveon.org/dontpardon/?id=8810-4350126-WPTqUDpta5J5XPeC8AcqTg&t=3

It’s the Senate’s job to act as a check on the president’s power. If they can’t do it, they shouldn’t be in Washington.

Thanks for all you do,

–Nita, Eli, Jennifer, Wes and the MoveOn.org Political Action Team
  Monday, September 18th, 2006

Continue reading this post…

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This issue just really fires me up. Let’s take it piece by piece.

Three leading high-profile Republican senators and former Secretary of State Colin Powell broke from the party loyalists and voted against the Bush administration’s proposal on the rules for interrogating wartime prisoners.

Bush held a news conference to discuss.

Questioning of suspected terrorists “won’t go forward” unless Congress clarifies a U.S. standard for the treatment and interrogation of wartime prisoners, President Bush warned on Friday.

Can you say…  bunch of crap?! This sounds like some spoiled kid on the playground who refuses to play on the swings until the other kids go away. Why can’t the intelligence officers, military personnel and other law enforcement officials play by the rules, just like they have for the last 50 years, and do their job as professionals. He makes it sound like everything will just come to a screeching halt if the new rules are passed. One of the things that differentiated American forces from other countries during World War II is that captured prisoners knew they would be treated fairly and humanely, even in most cases, better then their own governments. Often times the only way for enemy soldiers to live was to surrender to US forces, rather then face returning to their commands defeated.

“You cannot ask a young intelligence officer to violate the law,” Bush said. “If Congress passes a law that does not clarify the rules … the program is not going forward.”

So basically he’s saying, we want conduct interrogations in a certain way, which is currently against the law so please change the law so we can continue to do it without doing anything wrong. Just ingnore the fact that what they are doing is morally wrong.

“My job and the job of the people here in Washington, D.C., is to protect this country,” Bush said.

Um… yeah, but your job is also to uphold and defend the constitution of the United States. When did we, as a society, decide crimes against humanity was ok as long as we are protecting ourselves?

“I believe Americans want us to protect the country, to have clear standards for our law enforcement, intelligence officers, and give them the tools necessary to protect us within the law.”

There ARE clear standards. The President just doesn’t like the standards. He wants unobstructed power to interrogate prisoners any way our government sees fit. What is this “V for Vendetta”???

In spite of how terrible the terrorists are and how much vengence we want, we can’t allow ourselves to collectively sink to their levels, to levels of indecency where moral values and personal rights and liberties, even for prisoners, are cast aside in the blind pursuit of justice.

Article 3 prohibits nations engaged in combat not of “an international character” from, among other things, “violence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture” and “outrages upon personal dignity, in particular, humiliating and degrading treatment.”

Link to CNN.com - Bush: Without my plan, detainee questioning won’t continue - Sep 15, 2006

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I ran across a good commentary by Lou Dobbs. Very well put.

Sometimes I get annoyed that while it’s easy to criticize the President for failing to have a plan to succeed, we must not forget that our government is made up of several branches and 2 opposing parties. In this election season, the leaders can’t simply say the other side is wrong; the leaders must propose a solution and lead us out of the fight. Soldiers are dying while we sit around and point fingers.

The American people cannot be reasonably asked by this president or this secretary of defense to “stay the course” without evidence of a strategy to successfully prosecute the war and defeat the radical Islamist enemy. Otherwise, why are we there? The loyal opposition on Capitol Hill cannot reasonably ask the American people to elect them without articulating a clear new direction and offering a concrete plan for victory. Otherwise, why do we even have a loyal opposition?

Read the full commentary. Source: CNN.com - Dobbs: Patience favors the enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan - Sep 13, 2006

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The film is shot as if it were a conventional television documentary, even though the events are fictional.

Range, who also co-wrote the film, uses footage taken of Bush during three visits to Chicago to create the scenes that lead up top the president being shot.

He also uses special digital effects to superimpose the head of the president on that of an actor pretending to be shot, and he creates a flowery eulogy delivered by President Dick Cheney at the funeral of his predecessor.

The movie opens with demonstrations against Bush as he visits Chicago in 2007. As he leaves a hotel after delivering a speech, he is shot by a sniper in a nearby building.

The distribution rights were purchased for $1 million by Newmarket Films, the same company who distributed Mel Gibson’s “The Passion of the Christ.” The film is set to have a wide release throughout the US.

Of course there are those who only want to be surrounded by the things they agree with and by only those who share their same beliefs. They couldn’t possibly see the film as fictional entertainment.

The 93-minute film’s subject matter has led to protests in the United States, especially from conservatives. Range said he has received five or six death threats.

I find it interesting that people who are protesting this portrayal of the assassination or death of President Bush are also threatening to kill the film’s producer/director/creator. How perfectly ridiculous and hypocritical is that? “We don’t approve of this whole… killing the President drama… so we’re going to kill you”. Very South Park’esque.

Link to Bush assassination film set for U.S. release - via Yahoo! News

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Five years after terrorists used airplanes as weapons to attack the United States, families of some of the nearly 3,000 victims gathered at Ground Zero, the Pentagon and an open field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, for solemn ceremonies. President Bush is taking part in tributes at all three locations hit by terrorists on September 11, 2001.

9/11: The world remembers [>>]

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President Bush welcomes the amir of Kuwait, Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, to the White House and congratulates the amir for the “steady reforms” he has been undertaking in his country that “have served as a notable example for others in the region.”

Bush Praises Kuwaiti Reforms as “Notable Example” for Middle East (U.S. Department of State) [>>]

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Faced with George W. Bush?s disastrous policies in the Middle East and his adamant refusal to change course, the question now arises whether the President has become a ?clear and present danger? to the security of the United States and, indirectly, to Israel.

Is Bush a Clear & Present Danger? (Baltimore Chronicle & Sentinel) [>>]

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Beginning a three-week campaign to defend his war strategy, Bush says bringing troops home now would create a disaster in the Middle East.

President Bush Predicts Victory in War on Terror (Washington Post) [>>]

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An overnight mortar attack east of Baghdad killed six people, including two children, authorities said Sunday, a day after disagreements emerged over handing over control of the armed forces command.

/ Middle East (China Daily) [>>]

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U.S. President George W. Bush and Jordan’s King Abdullah II on Friday exchanged views over Middle East issues by telephone, the White House said.

Bush telephones Jordan King over mideast issues (People’s Daily) [>>]

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WASHINGTON — There may well be a new Middle East taking shape in the horizon, but it looks nothing like the one envisioned by President Bush. Instead of democracy being the order of the day, there is a real threat of Islamist theocracies, led by Iran, imposing their rule.

Commentary: New Middle East realities (Middle East Times) [>>]

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WASHINGTON — At least a score of high Bush Administration officials authorized, and hundreds of US military and other government employees committed, crimes involving the torture of prisoners captured in the Middle East, published reports and legal documents indicate.

Commentary: Many top Bush officials guilty of violating anti-torture laws (Middle East Times) [>>]

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