Bush and Cheney Burn the Constitution

Picture courtesy of the White House





Pardon me for being so pissed off at this story in the New York Times on President Bush and Vice President Cheney breaking the laws of our nation by secretly setting up torture in the good old USA. Burn the damn Constitution and the Bill of Rights and full speed ahead for the new born King (s)! Most folks have mortgage burning parties, Bush and Cheney are having a Constitution burning party but it’s all hush hush. Don’t tell anyone but they broke the law.

Somebody call the decorator for the White House and get rid of all those old farts that believed in a nation under law. George Washington has to go, he was to much of a moderate liberal and for God’s sake he only had one tooth in his head. Replace George with one of Bugsy Segal smiling at the poker table in Vegas. Jefferson, what a hack! If there was ever a liberal in America this clown topped the cake. Replace his picture with Jesse James of the old west, now that is an American spirit to admire. That pussy footing FDR is a joke and his picture has to go too. Replace him with a real able bodied person that could fend for himself like the Teflon Don John Gotti.

We are a nation of laws and our President took an oath to uphold the Constitution. CNN, or Fox News must have missed the shot where he blew his nose with the Constitution right after the oath. Television blunders happen.

So while the Congress outlawed torture by American military and government agencies, don’t tell anyone but the President, Vice President, and the Attorney General continued on with their version of the law. Like that is a surprise to this writer?

Over at the New York Times they have this to say…


Secret U.S. Endorsement of Severe Interrogations

By SCOTT SHANE, DAVID JOHNSTON and JAMES RISEN
Published: October 4, 2007
This article is by Scott Shane, David Johnston and James Risen.

WASHINGTON, Oct. 3 — When the Justice Department publicly declared torture “abhorrent” in a legal opinion in December 2004, the Bush administration appeared to have abandoned its assertion of nearly unlimited presidential authority to order brutal interrogations.

But soon after Alberto R. Gonzales’s arrival as attorney general in February 2005, the Justice Department issued another opinion, this one in secret. It was a very different document, according to officials briefed on it, an expansive endorsement of the harshest interrogation techniques ever used by the Central Intelligence Agency.

The new opinion, the officials said, for the first time provided explicit authorization to barrage terror suspects with a combination of painful physical and psychological tactics, including head-slapping, simulated drowning and frigid temperatures.

Mr. Gonzales approved the legal memorandum on “combined effects” over the objections of James B. Comey, the deputy attorney general, who was leaving his job after bruising clashes with the White House. Disagreeing with what he viewed as the opinion’s overreaching legal reasoning, Mr. Comey told colleagues at the department that they would all be “ashamed” when the world eventually learned of it.

Later that year, as Congress moved toward outlawing “cruel, inhuman and degrading” treatment, the Justice Department issued another secret opinion, one most lawmakers did not know existed, current and former officials said. The Justice Department document declared that none of the C.I.A. interrogation methods violated that standard.

The classified opinions, never previously disclosed, are a hidden legacy of President Bush’s second term and Mr. Gonzales’s tenure at the Justice Department, where he moved quickly to align it with the White House after a 2004 rebellion by staff lawyers that had thrown policies on surveillance and detention into turmoil. - New York Times

If the laws of our land are not followed by all of our citizens including those from the President down then our nation and our people have a serious problem. Our laws and the legality of them is to be decided by the Supreme Court ultimately and not by a staffer with a law degree at the White House. Congress banned torture but the President probably had one of those pesky signing statements (Making the law written and passed by the Congress void) attached to his signature.

Over at the Gun Toting Liberal they have this to say about this same article...

GTL Comment: Okay, let’s just THINK for a moment — in future conflicts, the way we treat OUR prisoners will set the precedence for how our own troops are treated by our enemies. If you think this brutal, illegal treatment of our enemies is acceptable, then you have ZERO legs to stand on when the enemy inflicts this level of BRUTALITY upon your son, daughter, husband, wife, or friends in uniform. Is this such a “good idea” now? - GTL

One word… IMPEACHMENT! How many ways does the President and the Vice President have to break the law before somebody in the Congress grows some gonads to start the process?

When the laws of our land only apply to the rest of us and not the President or anyone in his administration then our format of government will have no function and that leads to just one thing… Anarchy! Impeach the President and the Vice President for breaking the laws that Congress passed.

Papamoka

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WHY NOT JUST NOMINATE HEDLEY LAMARR AS A.G.?

This CNN story, Bush: Gonzales' 'good name dragged through the mud'gives a glimpse into the bizarro world of the Bush administration.

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- President Bush on Monday said he reluctantly accepted the resignation of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, whose "good name was dragged through the mud for political reasons."
After months of standing by his top prosecutor and "close friend," Bush spoke briefly in Texas to praise Gonzales, saying the attorney general endured "unfair treatment that has created harmful distraction at the Justice Department."
Bush said it's "sad that we live in a time when a talented and honorable person" is impeded "from doing important work."

While we're getting all ripped up about honorable people being impeded from doing important work...anybody ever heard of Valerie Plame? John McCain and John Kerry had THEIR names dragged through the mud by...somebody. It's hard to remember much any more what with all these rats leaving a sinking ship.

I just find it absurd for a president whose entire agenda has depended upon smear and fear and mud-slinging to be upset that his own tactics are used against him. I'm not going to say that Alberto Gonzales is an amoral robot without any scruples. I will say that like many in this administration, he placed loyalty to a man above his loyalty to an oath.

It's happened before....and with Democrats, too. But it makes it no more palatable that it is so. Whether Republican or Democrat; liberal or conservative, this nation deserves a LOT more than what it has received from George W. Bush and those loyal to him, and him only.

The idiotic genius of Karl Rove was his use of the smear long after a campaign ended. For, in the Bush years the campaign never really ended. Each day was a further advance of the offensive, common sense and the constitution be damned.

So I wouldn't be shocked if Hedley Lamarr, the egomaniacal and ruthless attorney general in BLAZING SADDLES had his name put forth to replace Mr. Gonzales.

But then, maybe not. Hedley would be too tame for this outfit.

Michael Linn Jones

Cross posted at Michael Linn Jones... an amazing read!

Rove Finally Leaves in Disgrace

Picture courtesy of the White House

While some people on the right side of the political spectrum will call Karl Rove a saint for his party he is in fact a political disgrace to his President and the Republican Party. Karl Rove was nothing but a bully on the political radar and if you got in his way, either being wrong or right, he would plow through you like a farmer turns the soil every spring. His message was the President’s message and screw you if you thought otherwise.

While he served this President he screwed over his political party for a generation or more because of the isolationist ideology attitude he convinced the President to follow. “You are either with us or against us.” That statement is not by any means the way America was meant to be. That is not by any means the way the founding fathers or past President’s ruled the nation by. Could you picture Jefferson or either Roosevelt’s stating that as a fact to the world? Could you picture Lincoln saying that while he struggled to save the Union and died believing that it could still be saved.

Karl Rove’s only contribution to this country is that he dissolved a once great nation of proud Americans into a nation of “With us or against us” mentality. That is all he did. Sorry to say but he was very successful in doing just that. In his accomplishment he brought the President of the United States down with him. Truman would have been cheered knowing his approval rating was that high in comparison to President Bush.

Division in politics will always be a fact of life in America but Karl Rove raised it to a level that no other President has accepted as a rule to govern by. Karl Rove was this President’s political strategist and with that comes the blame for two separate America’s. That fact is all over the politics of the coming election for President in 2008.

Papamoka

Cross posted at the Gun Toting Liberal

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Alberto Gonzales is Cool With Mini Republicans

Just for giggles and chuckles let me put forth a hypothetical scenario that involves you. You are speeding way over the posted limits and a police officer pulls you over. You know what you did wrong and know the consequences of it but you have a get out of jail card up your sleeve. All you have to say to the police officer is “I don’t recall”. That and the card up your sleeve gets you off without so much as a slap on the wrist.

This is the same scenario played out in our nations capital with the man that is supposed to be in charge of enforcing the laws of the land. I do not recall is not the answer you want to give when you know your hand is glued inside the damn cookie jar. An oops might work but I don’t remember that I broke a dozen laws as Attorney General just does not fly.

Congress is a body of people that make the laws and if the Attorney General forgets what laws apply then a vote of no confidence is in order. President Bush was right in declaring the latest vote on Alberto Gonzales as politics. The only problem is that it is yet one more time that the Republicans fail to face reality that the current administration has been twisting the laws that apply to everyone else to suit what they want.

Over at Yahoo News they have this piece on the never ending deception and bait and switch that is the Bush administration…

GOP blocks Gonzales no-confidence vote

By LAURIE KELLMAN, Associated Press WASHINGTON -

Republicans blocked a Senate no-confidence vote on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales Monday, rejecting a symbolic Democratic effort to force him from office amid blistering criticism from lawmakers in both parties.

The 53-38 vote to move the resolution to full debate fell seven short of the 60 required. In bringing the matter up, Democrats dared Republicans to vote their true feelings about an attorney general who has alienated even the White House's strongest defenders by bungling the firings of federal prosecutors and claiming not to recall the details.

Republicans did not defend him, but most voted against moving the resolution ahead.

Monday's vote was not the end of scrutiny for Gonzales and his management of the Justice Department — more congressional hearings are scheduled and an internal department investigation continues.

Short of impeachment, Congress has no authority to oust a Cabinet member, but Democrats were trying anew to give him a push. Gonzales dismissed the rhetorical ruckus in the Senate, and President Bush continued to stand by his longtime friend and legal adviser.

"They can have their votes of no confidence, but it's not going to make the determination about who serves in my government," Bush said in Sofia, Bulgaria, the last stop on a weeklong visit to Europe.

"This process has been drug out a long time," Bush added. "It's political."

The attorney general said he didn't plan on leaving anytime soon. - Yahoo News

Everyone should get the same turn at the wheel of justice that the President has in his pocket. For that matter I would prefer the laws that simply apply to political appointees by this President. Break any law you want and if Dick and George approve then it is okey dokey. Apparently, the Republican Party has no problem with that either.

One problem with this scenario is that each one of these people that refused to vote for a no confidence vote for the Attorney General also swore to defend the Constitution and as we all know, you might as well use is to wipe your back side according to President Bush.

Personal thanks to Achorn for this list of Senators with confidence in Gonzales...
Papamoka

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