Impeachment

Once in a century rip-off

Producer: Carlo Basilone | TheRealNews.com

GEORGE W. BUSH, US PRESIDENT: I want to thank the leaders of the House and the Senate for coming. I appreciate our presidential candidates for being here as well.

CARLO BASILONE, TRNN (VOICEOVER): President George Bush pushed for a multi-billion dollar Wall Street bailout plan in an historic meeting attended by the two men fighting to succeed him. But at the end of the meeting, the top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee said that no agreement on the deal had been made.

SEN. RICHARD SHELBY (R-AL), RANKING MEMBER, SENATE BANKING COMMITTEE: We haven't got an agreement. There's still a lot of different opinions. Mine is it's flawed from the beginning. I said that the other day at the banking committee. Secretary Paulson and Chairman Bernanke, had they considered other alternatives? Some of you recall a silence—they hadn't. But they should.

Are We On The Verge of The Deluge?
New Questions as the Bailout Sparks A War
by Danny Schechter | CommonDreams.org

New York - The Hank and Ben Show was doing so well in the ratings. They crafted a plan -- ok, only 3 pages but still a prodigious effort in an era when so few can agree on the need for heat on a freezing day. But now the great unraveling has begun. Remember Karl Marx's lesson on the dialectic: thesis leads to anithesis resulting in synthesis. Maybe.

They sold the Democrats on the need for a bailout. They made it big so the rest of the world would notice and be impressed. They started out unreasonably demanding total power knowing they would have to compromise and so allow all sides to win something and hence come aboard.

National Protests Erupt Over Bailout Plan
by Haider Rizvi | InterPressService

NEW YORK - The George W. Bush administration's plan to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to rescue giant Wall Street firms from their current financial meltdown has unleashed a spontaneous wave of protests across the United States.

Protesters said they want the Congress to protect millions of U.S. citizens who are on the verge of losing their homes due to bad lending practices of creditors instead of doling out public money to big investment firms responsible for ruining the economy.

"People are up in arms about this," Matt Holland of the TrueMajority.org, an advocacy group comprising 700,000 members that played a major role in organising the protests, told IPS. "Our members are livid. They're hitting the streets."

Finally, the Story of the Whistleblower Who Tried to Prevent the Iraq War
by Norman Solomon | CommonDreams.org

Of course Katharine Gun was free to have a conscience, as long as it didn't interfere with her work at a British intelligence agency. To the authorities, practically speaking, a conscience was apt to be less tangible than a pixel on a computer screen. But suddenly -- one routine morning, while she was scrolling through e-mail at her desk -- conscience struck. It changed Katharine Gun's life, and it changed history.

How Wall Street Can Bail Itself Out Without Destroying The Dollar
by Thom Hartmann | CommonDreams.org

For Grover "Drown Government In The Bathtub" Norquist, this bailout deal will work out very well. At a proposed cost of $4,780 per taxpayer, it'll further the David Stockman strategy of so indebting us that the next president won't have the luxury of even thinking of new social spending (expanding health care, social security, education, infrastructure, etc.); taxes will even have to be raised just to pay for the bailout. It'll debase our currency, driving up commodity prices and interest rates, which will benefit the Investor Class while further impoverishing the pesky Middle Class, rendering them less prone to protest (because they're so busy working trying to pay off their debt). It'll create stagflation for at least the next half decade, which can be blamed on Democrats who currently control Congress and, should Obama be elected, be blamed on him.

Kucinich introduces “voter foreclosure” bill
By Jonathan E. Kaplan | ColoradoIndependent.com

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) introduced legislation today to bar political parties from challenging the eligibility of voters whose homes have been foreclosed.

Kucinich, who ran losing presidential bids in 2004 and 2008 and faced a stiff primary challenge earlier this year, drafted the legislation following a report in the Michigan Messenger that a Macomb County Republican Party official said he planned to gather lists of foreclosed homeowners to challenge their eligibility.

The Obama campaign and the Democratic National Committee have since filed a lawsuit in federal court over the reported plans.

Robert Fisk: Six years in Guantanamo
The Independent

Sami al-Haj, an Al Jazeera cameraman, was beaten, abused and humiliated in the name of the war on terror. He tells our correspondent about his struggle to rebuild a shattered life

Sami al-Haj walks with pain on his steel crutch; almost six years in the nightmare of Guantanamo have taken their toll on the Al Jazeera journalist and, now in the safety of a hotel in the small Norwegian town of Lillehammer, he is a figure of both dignity and shame. The Americans told him they were sorry when they eventually freed him this year – after the beatings he says he suffered, and the force-feeding, the humiliations and interrogations by British, American and Canadian intelligence officers – and now he hopes one day he'll be able to walk without his stick.

The TV cameraman, 38, was never charged with any crime, nor was he put on trial; his testimony makes it clear that he was held in three prisons for six-and-a-half years – repeatedly beaten and force-fed – not because he was a suspected "terrorist" but because he refused to become an American spy. From the moment Sami al-Haj arrived at Guantanamo, flown there from the brutal US prison camp at Kandahar, his captors demanded that he work for them. The cruelty visited upon him – constantly interrupted by American admissions of his innocence – seemed designed to turnal-Haj into a US intelligence "asset".

IRAQ: The Biggest Hospitals Become Sick
By Arkan Hamed and Dahr Jamail | Inter Press Service

Not even the elevators work now at Baghdad Medical City, built once as the centre for some of the best medical care.

One of the ten elevators still does, and the priority for this is patients who have lost their legs -- and there are many of them. The rest, the doctors, patients and students at the four specialised teaching hospitals within the building complex, just take the stairs, sometimes to the 18th floor.

This is in a city that had been given dreams of great development five years back, around the time of the U.S.-led invasion. And much of the corporate-led media in the U.S. and Europe still insists that the situation in Baghdad has "improved".

Peace Activists Go To Trial in DC for "Ghosts of War" Action in Senate Gallery By Joy First

Ten activists will be tried at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in Washington, DC beginning September 29, 2008. They are being charged with “Unlawful Conduct” and face a possible sentence of up to six months in jail if they are found guilty.

On March 12, 2008, the defendants went to the Senate gallery, put a piece of cloth over their heads to dramatize the suffering and death resulting from the war and occupation of Iraq, and called on the Senators to end the funding for the war. “The right to peacefully and nonviolently petition the government is a cornerstone of democracy,” said Eve Tetaz, a 77-year-old activist who is a former teacher and was arrested during the action. All of the activists participating have had training in nonviolent civil resistance, and have participated in actions calling for an end to the war since 2003. This action was organized by the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance.

Financial Terrorism
By Darrell Koerner

George Bush should be immediately impeached for practicing Financial Terrorism. His rape of the American people and the US Treasury proves that we are now living in a fascist nation. Over the last eight years We the People have been repeatedly lied to, our Constitution ignored and trampled on, and our treasure squandered in the protection and pursuit of corporate profits. Bush and his team of war criminals and terrorists in the White House should be impeached by Congress and then tried in The Hague for war crimes.

Obama's Main Issue: The Economy Stolen By Bush. Obama Must Call For Impeachment!
By Buzz Davis, Chair, WI Impeachment/Bring Our Troops Home Coalition and member, Veterans for Peace Impeachment Committee, Chapter 25 and the National VFP Impeachment Committee

Obama was going to use the economy to cruise to victory. He has set aside the issues of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, never picked up the issue of impeachment and now Mr. Bush (and probably Karl Rove) have take the issue of the bad economy away from him - just like an adult taking a ball away from a young child.

Bush says we are in crisis and instant action must be taken, he (the decider) has decided and Congress must follow or be blamed for a worsening economic crisis by both Bush and McCain.

Congress Has 43,457,362 Reasons to Help Goldman Sachs
Embattled Firm and Its Employees Spread Millions Around Washington in Donations and Lobbying Expenses
By AVNI PATEL and BRIAN ROSS | ABCNews.com

Not all their money has gone for mansions and Ferraris.

The embattled Goldman Sachs investment banking firm and its employees have spent more than $43 million dollars on lobbying and campaign contributions to cultivate friends and buy influence in Washington, D.C. since 1989, according to an ABC News analysis of campaign finance records compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics.

As a group, Goldman Sachs bankers have been the country's top political campaign contributors this year and have given $29.5 million in contributions since 1989, according to the Center.

LINK.

Preamble:

“It is well enough that the people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system for, if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.” — Henry Ford

"Capital must protect itself in every possible manner by combination and legislation. Debts must be collected, bonds and mortgages must be foreclosed as rapidly as possible. When, through a process of law, the common people lose their homes they will become more docile and more easily governed through the influence of the strong arm of government, applied by a central power of wealth under control of leading financiers. This truth is well known among our principal men now engaged in forming an imperialism of Capital to govern the world. By dividing the voters through the political party system, we can get them to expend their energies in fighting over questions of no importance. Thus by discreet action we can secure for ourselves what has been so well planned and so successfully accomplished." USA Banker's Magazine, August 25 1924

Welcome to the United Socialist States of America | Free Market Fairy Tales

It is said that the events of 9-11 will define American foreign policy for a generation. Well why not put your feet you, pour yourself a gentleman’s measure of single malt, spark up a smoko & consider this; the events of 9-15 will define American domestic policy & how it relates to a formerly free market for a generation & possibly forever.

Paulson Plan Aimed at Helping `Poorly Run' Banks, Allison Says
By David Mildenberg | Bloomberg.com

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson's proposed $700 billion bank rescue aims to help ``poorly run'' companies and the primary beneficiaries would be Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and Morgan Stanley, said BB&T Corp. Chief Executive Officer John Allison in a critique of the plan.

Treasury ``is totally dominated by Wall Street investment bankers'' and ``cannot be relied on to objectively assess'' the impact of government policy on the financial industry, Allison wrote in a Sept. 23 letter to Congress. The letter was verified by Bob Denham, a spokesman for BB&T, North Carolina's third- largest bank.

China's Banks Limit Interest-Rate Swaps With Overseas (Update1)
By Belinda Cao | Bloomberg.com

Sept. 25 (Bloomberg) -- Chinese banks said they've cut approvals for traders to enter into interest-rate swap agreements with international finance companies to avoid losses as credit markets collapse.

China Citic Bank Corp. introduced tighter limits for swaps with overseas banks after the failure of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., according to Guan Jiaying, the bank's interest-rate swap analyst in Beijing. Traders are favoring domestic counterparties for the contracts, which involve swapping fixed for floating rates, said Ye Yuzhang at Industrial Bank Co. in Shanghai.

Gates defends operations inside Pakistan
By Demetri Sevastopulo | Financial Times

Robert Gates, US defence secretary, yesterday suggested the US was justified under international law in conducting unilateral military operations inside Pakistan to protect American troops. The US has recently stepped up drone-fired missile attacks in Pakistan and US commandos have conducted a covert operation inside Pakistan to combat extremists' attacks against US forces inside Afghanistan.

Mr Gates said Pakistan probably did not agree that international law permitted unilateral action, but he said the Pentagon had an obligation to protect US troops.

Ask tough questions about the bailout
By DAVID CAY JOHNSTON | Poynter.org

(Johnson is the NYTimes reporter who has exposed many financial scandals)

In covering the proposed $700 billion bailout of Wall Street don't repeat the failed lapdog practices that so damaged our reputations in the rush to war in Iraq and the adoption of the Patriot Act. Don't assume that Congress must act instantly, as so many news stories state as if it was an immutable fact. Don't assume there is a case just because officials say there is.

The coverage of the Paulson plan focuses on the edges, on the details. The focus should be on the premise. And be skeptical of what gullible Congressional leaders, most of them up before the voters in a few weeks, say after being given a closed-door meeting on supposed horrors.

WARNING: CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES

US Military Combat & Non-Combat Casualty Report for Week Ending Sept. 23, 2008
Compiled by Michael Munk | www.michaelmunk.com

US military occupation forces in Iraq suffered 20 combat casualties casualties in the week ending September 23 as the official casualty total climbed to at least 68,363. It includes 34,039 dead and wounded by what the Pentagon classifies as "hostile" causes and more than 34,324 dead and medically evacuated (as of August 2) from "non-hostile" causes.

The actual total is over 88,000 because the Pentagon chooses not to count as "Iraq casualties" the more than 20,000 veterans whose injuries-mainly brain trauma from explosions--were diagnosed only after they had left Iraq.

Prosecuting High-level Americans for War Crimes

JURIST Guest Columnist Benjamin Davis of the University of Toledo College of Law says "the whole world is watching" efforts in the United States - highlighted at a recent conference at Andover - to bring U.S. high-level civilians and/or generals to justice for crimes committed in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars....

On September 13-14, 2008, over two hundred people from the United States and abroad gathered in Andover. Massachusetts for the Justice Robert Jackson Conference on the Planning for Prosecution of High Level American War Criminals sponsored by the Massachusetts School of Law. Video of the two day conference and the program are available here. As a participant, I'm providing this note to JURIST as an aide-memoire for those concerned about war crimes perpetrated by US officials that have gone unpunished over the past eight years.

Impeachment of Bush-Cheney

Notwithstanding Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's statement that impeachment of the most senior member of the Administration is off the table, the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney was very much on the table at the conference. In particular, it was noted that the time remaining for the Bush-Cheney administration is about the same time as it took for the impeachment of President Clinton.

Ron Paul Commentary: Bailouts will lead to rough economic ride

Many Americans today are asking themselves how the economy got to be in such a bad spot.

For years they thought the economy was booming, growth was up, job numbers and productivity were increasing. Yet now we find ourselves in what is shaping up to be one of the most severe economic downturns since the Great Depression.

Unfortunately, the government's preferred solution to the crisis is the very thing that got us into this mess in the first place: government intervention.

Ever since the 1930s, the federal government has involved itself deeply in housing policy and developed numerous programs to encourage homebuilding and homeownership.

PRESS RELEASE

On Tuesday morning, September 23, 7:30am, at the front of the National Archives Building on Constitution Ave. in Washington, D.C., five military veterans will risk arrest as they climb a 9-foot retaining fence and occupy a 35-foot high ledge to raise a 22x8 foot banner stating, "DEFEND OUR CONSTITUTION. ARREST BUSH AND CHENEY: WAR CRIMINALS!"

The group has declared its intention to stay on the ledge, fasting for 24 hours "in remembrance of those who have perished and those still suffering from the crimes of the Bush administration," according to a written statement. With a portable PA system, they will broadcast recorded statements from prominent Americans for the impeachment and/or arrest of George W. Bush and Richard Cheney. "Citizens Arrest Warrants" will be distributed to people waiting in line to enter the National Archives.

The veterans emphasized they are taking this action because "Bush and Cheney's serial abuse of the Law of the Land clearly marks them as domestic enemies of the Constitution, they have illegally invaded and occupied Iraq, deliberately destroyed civilian infrastructure, authorized torture, and unlawfully detained prisoners. These actions clearly mark them as war criminals, accountability extends beyond impeachment to prosecution for war crimes even after their terms of office expire."

"If it is too big to fail, it is too big to exist." A MUST watch Bernie Sanders video.

Ten Reasons Why Bush's Proposed Bailout is Larceny

Tell Congress NO BAILOUT here.

Please do it NOW! Go ahead and be cynical about it if you must, but DO it.

Brushing it off with the standard "oh jeez, they're not going to do anything about it, why even bother" makes you part of the problem. It means you're willing to do nothing while your country burns. These people pretending to serve us need to know that you're on to their scam. If more people thought about it this way and actually took action to hold their representatives accountable on a regular basis, maybe we would actually have a Congress that truly served the best interests of the people. Just like the child without an adult around, they will keep their hands in the cookie jar until they know someone is watching.

By Bruce Fein, Washington Times

Have President Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney committed impeachable offenses for which the duumvirate should be convicted and removed from office by duping then-House Majority Leader Richard K. Armey into supporting legislation authorizing war against Iraq with twin lies -- that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had personal ties to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network; and that Saddam had miniaturized nuclear weapons, which could be unleashed by employing al Qaeda as a delivery system?

The facts - uncontradicted by either Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney - are chronicled in Barton Gellman's new book "Angler."

Philippe Sands, the author of Torture Team, will be in conversation with Olenka Frenkiel, an investigative journalist with the BBC, at the Frontline Club in London tonight. We start at 7.30pm UK time (19:30:00 Tuesday September 23, 2008 in Europe/London converts to 14:30:00 Tuesday September 23, 2008 in America/New_York) Tues 23 Sept and we'll be streaming it live:

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/frontline-club

The background

On December 2, 2002 the U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, signed his name at the bottom of a document that listed eighteen techniques of interrogation - techniques that defied international definitions of torture. The Rumsfeld Memo authorized the controversial interrogation practices that later migrated to Guantanamo, Afghanistan, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, as part of the policy of extraordinary rendition.