Friday, June 13, 2008

May The God Of Your Choice Bless Dennis The Menace

Impeach and convict The Dubster! Then extradite him to The Hague so that he can stand in the dock with the ghosts of all of the war criminals who preceded him. Then take him to the gallows and let him dance at the end of a rope. Allow the miserable bastard to make one last wiseass comment before the trapdoor lever is pulled. That ought to wipe the fratboy smirk off his damnable face!

You go, Dennis The Menace! Caesar had his Brutus, Charles I had his Cromwell, and George W. Bush may profit by their example!

If this be (fair & balanced) treason, make the most of it.


[x Al Jazeera]
Drive To Impeach Bush "To Continue"
By Staff Report

A US congressman and former presidential candidate has vowed not to give up his fight to impeach the president over going to war in Iraq, after the House of Representatives sidelined his bill, possibly until after George Bush leaves office.

Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) said if hearings on the issue were not held within 30 days, he would introduce more articles of impeachment against Bush to the US congress.

The House of Representatives voted on Wednesday to send Kucinich's impeachment bill to a committee in what has been seen as a delay tactic.

The House Judiciary Committee is not likely to hold hearings before the end of Bush's term in January.

The prospect of impeaching Bush was long ago declared "off the table" by Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat and the leader of the House.

The House Judiciary Committee is chaired by John Conyers, a Democrat who had once vowed to hold impeachment hearings.

Rule of law

Kucinich, a Democrat, told Al Jazeera that the impeachment attempt was not just about the past, but also about the future.

"If we do not establish that the rule of law must apply to the president of the US now, what we are doing is through our inaction creating a precedent that would let the next president know that he could go ahead and wage war without congressional approval.

"That he could approve of wiretapping, rendition, spying, torture or anything because congress wouldn't act.

"We need to take a stand now not just for justice for what's happened over the last six, seven years but also to restrain any abuse of power in the next administration."

Kucinich's articles of impeachment include charges that Bush manufactured a false case for going to war against Iraq.

They also charge Bush with failing to provide troops with vehicle armour, illegally detaining both foreign nationals and Americans, condoning torture, mishandling the government's response to Hurricane Katrina and undermining efforts to address global warning.

"It is imperative that members of congress have a thorough opportunity to read the articles of impeachment and study the documentation," Kucinich said in a statement.

Embarrassing debate

But an election looms in which every House seat, a third of those in the senate and the presidency are up for grabs.

Consequently, with the legislative schedule shortened, House leaders are against spending the remaining time on impeachment proceedings.

Republicans, seeing a chance to force Democrats into an embarrassing debate, voted to bring up the resolution, but the Democrats countered by pushing through a motion to scuttle the bill from the floor.

Kucinich has tried before to impeach members of the Bush administration.

Last year, he introduced a resolution to have Dick Cheney, US vice-president, removed from office.

Republicans were forced to vote in favour of taking up the measure to force a debate, where the resolution was eventually killed.

[Al Jazeera Satellite Channel is the Arab world's only independent, professional news and information television channel. Located in Qatar, and financed by the state of Qatar, Al Jazeera (which means "the peninsula") has been broadcasting since 1996, and is uniquely positioned to broadcast the Arab world's point of view to the Western public. Western media often pick up interviews and reports from Al Jazeera, and rebroadcast them, translated for their own viewers. A fully Arabic-speaking channel, Al Jazeera enjoys access to the Muslim community's leaders, and news sites. It is believed that Al Jazeera's entry into reporting breaking news events that were previously uncovered by Arab news agencies, broke ground for more serious reporting to be done by journalists in the other Arab countries. Western leaders claim that Al Jazeera has an anti-US, anti-Israel bias, and a distinct affinity for Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network.]

Copyright © 2008 Aljazeera,net


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Calling Rat! Bring Your "No Stupidity Zone" Sign!

Rick Shenkman wants to sell his book about U.S. voter stupidity, so he softens the rhetoric. However, in this blog, the truth shall set you free! It's no accident that in this blog the followers of the Grand Old Party are referred to as "Dumbos." The comic little elephant wasn't stupid, but his name fits the majority of folks who supported The Dubster — not once (Had enough?) — but twice: go to Google and look it up in Googleunder U. S. Elections: 2000, 2004. Fool us once, shame on us. Fool us twice, shame on The Dubster. Those same Dumbos will vote for The Geezer as well. In his new blog, Shenkman will award Dunce Caps for our upcoming political conversation in 2008. The ultimate stupid political argument gets 5 Dunce Caps. I'd just bring in Rat and let him bash the stupids over the head with his "No Stupidity Zone" sign. Full disclosure: I'd give this blog at least 3 Dunce Caps most of the time. If this is (fair & balanced) hebetude, so be it.


[x HNN]
The Dunce Cap Scorecard
By Rick Shenkman

It would be stupid to say that the American people are stupid--as stupid as saying the American people are smart. It's impossible and silly to generalize. But our politics are often stupid. And there are times when no other word, harsh as it is, seems to capture the essence of the turn politics have taken.

But what do we mean by stupid? To help determine whether a mistake is just a mistake or whether it's a sign of rank stupidity I have devised a five-part test. Call it the Dunce Cap Scorecard.

On the blog we'll rank debates by how stupid they get. One or two Dunce Caps is normal for any debate. Five Dunce Caps and you know you're in a deep pile of stupid.

These are the five tests:

First, is sheer ignorance: Ignorance of critical facts about important events in the news, and ignorance of how our government functions and who’s in charge.

Second, is negligence: The disinclination to seek reliable sources of information about important news events.

Third, is wooden-headedness, as the historian Barbara Tuchman defined it: The inclination to believe what we want to believe regardless of the facts.

Fourth, is shortsightedness: The support of public policies that are mutually exclusive, or contrary to the country’s long-term interests.

Fifth, and finally, is a broad category I call bone-headedness, for want of a better name: The susceptibility to meaningless phrases, stereotypes, irrational biases, and simplistic diagnoses and solutions that play on our hopes and fears.

[Rick Shenkman is the editor and founder of George Mason University's History News Network, a website that features articles by historians on current events. An associate professor of history at George Mason University, he can regularly be seen on Fox News, CNN, and MSNBC. He is a New York Times best-selling author of six history books, including Legends, Lies & Cherished Myths of American History and Presidential Ambition: How the Presidents Gained Power, Kept Power and Got Things Done (HarperCollins, 1999). His latest book is Just How Stupid Are We? Facing the Truth About the American Voter (Basic Books, June 2008).

Educated at Vassar and Harvard, Mr. Shenkman is an Emmy award-winning investigative reporter and the former managing editor of KIRO-TV, the CBS affiliate in Seattle. In 1997 he was the host, writer and producer of a prime time series for The Learning Channel inspired by his books on myths. In 2008 he was elected a Fellow of the Society of American Historians. He gives lectures at colleges around the country on several topics, including American myths and presidential politics.]

Copyright © 2008 History News Network


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