A new study documents “hundreds of false statements” by President George W. Bush and his administration in the days leading up to the Iraq war. Each carefully-crafted lie was designed to bolster Bush’s case for invasion of Iraq.
The news is not that Bush lied. Everybody with a functioning brain knows the President of the United States is a serial liar. The news is not that someone managed to document the hundreds of falsehoods used to justify an illegal and immoral war. Lies, when examined closely, fail the smell test.
Sadly, the real news is that Bush continues to serve as President, continues to lie at will and no one in a position to do anything about it will lift a finger to serve the needs of the United States.
If we can tear ourselves away from the breathless news of the drug-induced death of another celebrity or the name-calling of the Presidential primary season we need to concentrate of the reality of Americans continuing to die for a war based on hundreds, if not thousands, of lies.
George W. Bush is a murderer. There is no diplomatic way to put it. He lied to fulfill his plans to invade Iraq at any cost. He and his administration manufactured a mountain of lies about phony weapons of mass destruction, fantasy mobile chemical plants and a non-existent link between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden to launch the most-expensive war in American history, sending thousands of Americans to their death and crippling the U.S. economy.
He abused, and continues to abuse, the power of his office, shredded the Constitution, approved illegal wiretaps and surveillance of Americans, sanctioned torture of prisoners, authorized abuse of civil and individual rights, and put together the most corrupt Presidential administration of modern times.
Yet he is still President. Why? Why doesn’t the collective power of Congress – Democrat and Republican – rise up in righteous indignation? Why doesn’t the House impeach this criminal and the Senate try him and throw him and his cabal out of office?
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi took “impeachment off the table” as soon as the Democrats took over control of Congress in the 2006 midterm election. Why? Whose palms got greased? What deals were cut? The people spoke and the Democrats ignored the tide of political opinion. Why?
The standard line out of Pelosi’s office is that the nation cannot, in a time of war, endure the trauma of a Presidential impeachment. So she and her fellow co-conspirators, leave America at risk every day that Bush remains in office.
Bush is a liar. That is a proven fact. Bush is a criminal. That has been established. Bush is a mass murderer. When he sent Americans to die in a war based on lies he crossed that line as well.
Congress, under the Democrats, has failed to serve the will of the American people. Every day that they allow George W. Bush to remain in office is another day that the future of America remains in doubt.
23 thoughts on “Why is Bush still President?”
Why are we the people waiting for Congress to impeach “the bush”? I call for Americans to organize and plan a peaceful American Revolution to oust the current leadership. The Bush administration and all of government is supposed to work for the people! We the American people are the stakeholders. Our children are depending on us to act and protect our freedom and liberty to our right to live as a peaceful nation to better human kind. We must not allow the oil industry self interested bush administration to make the world hate America. By us allowing our government to continue with the lies and destruction of human life foreign and domestic is basically say we agree with the Bush policy.
We must all march and protest peacefully to have the Bush administration removed immediately. Then the world will say that the American people are truly democratic and will bond together for justice. The Bush administration must be brought to trial.
Where to start? Let’s use technology. Email all house and congress members. Attain permission to peaceful march and protest in all our city’s town halls and government offices across America from sea to shinning sea!
Think, Plan, Act….cause change to happen
A correction to my post of the 25th. I said the House was also working on an immunity bill. They are not. Their bill does not give the Telcos a free ride. My apologies.
Notwithstanding, I’m troubled that there aren’t more postings about the intelligence act reauthorization effort, and the Senate Democrats success in blocking cloture on Monday. We really don’t need a continuation of these authoritarian measures, especially when they’re carried out extra-legally.
But it looks like there’s a ray of hope that the immunity provisions may not become law. The cloture vote (to cut off debate and end a Democratic filibuster on the bill) required a 3/5ths majority to pass. It failed by a vote of 48 Yeas, 45 Nays, and 7 Senators Not Voting.
On the short list, the following Democrats voted WITH the Republicans to cut off debate and grant the immunity:
Ben Nelson — Nebraska
Mark Pryor — Arkansas
Blanche Lincoln — Arkansas
Mary Landrieu — Louisiana
Those Democrats, Republicans, and “Independents” not voting:
Joe Lieberman (I)– Connecticut
John McCain (R) — Arizona
Tom Harkin (D) — Iowa
Bill Nelson (D) — Florida
The one “good guy” Republican voting against the cloture vote:
Arlen Spector — Pennsylvania
The issue of granting immunity to major, multinational corporations who voluntarily turned over information to the National Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency without even ASKING for a court order, and then having them plead that they were being “Good American Citizens” ought to be a fundamental part of this Presidential season.
Multinational corporations do NOT have the interests of the United States as their highest value. The disinterested pursuit of profit — whether it means supporting death squads in a Third World backwater, clearcutting timber in the Amazon, or freely surrendering our core rights of privacy — are what they call the “cost of doing business.”
If we are to halt the further erosion of our freedoms, the four Democratic Senators who voted WITH the Administration need to be targeted for removal from office. If they’re running now; vote for and financially support somebody else. If they’re getting ready to run; find a candidate to run against them and work for that person! For those who didn’t vote one way or the other, ask them “why;” and don’t accept bafflegab and obfuscations if they try to tap dance around the issue.
And while you’re at it, send Arlen Spector an e-mail and say “Thanks.”
ADB
Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid are the worst pair of Congressional leaders in the last 70 years (and I stop there only because I don’t know about the previous ones). They knew there was no chance of conviction. Even if they could get all 50 Democrats to vote to convict, Joe Lieberman and at least 33 of his Republican cronies would vote no. The process thus would have taken huge amounts of time and energy away from their expected flood of legislative accomplishments. And they didn’t really believ their mandate was good for more than two years; were afraid to attack, lose, and return to minority leadership posts. Then Boehner and McConnell outflanked them at every turn on the agenda for which they abandoned impeachment, rendering the nominal leaders sputtering fools. (Hey, I tend to vote Democrat and I’m astounded by these worthless twits.) Heck, Nancy and Harry may not even realize that if they pulled it off they could be President and Vice President! (Can you feel the nation shuddering???)
ADB. Excellent points! However, show me a Democrat who will follow your points for correction. I have searched the candidates of both parties for some kind of correction and none of them have the strength to stand up and be counted. It sickens me that Bush and Cheney will walk out and be forgotten and the rest of us left with a broken government and unpayable debts and deficits.
20 years ago my husband, a Libertarian, quit voting as he saw the end as you describe it. I continued to fight for the individual freedoms that I saw dissolve every year under both parties. I finally realize that America is beyond repair and economically we will never regain our respect for individuals. The American dream cannot be found when the government controls our future.
Thank you for your wonderful points.
Doug, a few days ago you asked for definitions of “freedom.” Another writer asked whether or not this is all “existentialist crap?” Yet another asked why this blog and others like it haven’t caused at least a blip on electoral radars?
It seems to me that these are the kinds of questions that embody what may be the worst aspects of liberalism and Democratic rhetoric; that we are quite content to bump our gums on every subject under the sun, and when we get close to an understanding of a potential solution, we backpedal and equivocate; or worse, we turn on each other with a nastiness that virtually ensures that no one will take us seriously otherwise.
George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will continue to erode our basic freedoms knowing full well that even with a Democratic takeover of Congress and perhaps the Presidency, we liberals will not go back and systematically undo their damage. This administration will hang on to the bitter end, lining their pockets and corroding ordinary justice, and walk off Scot free because we will not hold them accountable — ever!
Even now Harry Reid, Jay Rockefeller, the Senate GOP monobloc, and the House Democrats are crafting bills that will allow the multinational telecommunication giants, flying under the false flag of being “patriotic Americans,” a free pass on unauthorized national security phone taps, when they should be stood up in the dock for violating their highly touted business practices to “safeguard” user privacy; wilfully disregarding the terms and conditions of the Telecommunications Act of 1996; and trashing the protections guaranteed us by the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
It may be one of the particularly ugly aspects of the blogosphere that we think that these mutterings actually constitute a demonstration of our rights — and within our cosy little coteries they are. But they have become weak willed alternatives to reaching for our checkbooks AND musketry, taking our actions to the street, and getting back into the faces of the fascisti. The elections coming this November fall 40 years after the Weathermen and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) went into the teeth of Richard Daley, Bull Connors, and Lyndon Johnson; 40 years since Dr. King AND Stokely Carmichael AND Angela Davis took it to the streets in Birmingham, Berkeley and Chicago; and 40 years since those of us returning Vietnam Vets directly condemned a phony war that was eating out the heart and soul of our nation.
Some may look back and call that the Children’s Crusade. But it was marked by the willingness of all of us from that period to take visible public stands and call for unified action; and by damn we made a difference!
What a pity that we can’t even get close to a Children’s Crusade because our niche marketed heirs are much happier drinking the Kool Aid, tracking their 401Ks, and ecstatically following Pied Pipers.
We have 10 months to get beyond nattering to where we can compel social change. Some few steps should include:
1. Make it an article of faith that you will not vote for anybody who voted for the Iraq War and the Patriot Act, and let the candidates know that now.
2. Impeach Bush and Cheney for high crimes and deceptions and let the people decide if it’s good for the Republic or not.
3. Declare an absolute policy of no amnesty for any multinational corporation that violates any aspect of our privacies, freedoms, environmental health, or means of earning a livelihood.
4. Demand the restoration of the rights of habeas corpus for ANY person accused of ANY crime against the United States and its citizens.
4. Convene courts martial, grand juries, and appoint special prosecutors to bring civil indictments of the liars and charlatans who cooked the books on Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the “War” on Terror.
5. Seek out and discredit every one of the Neo-Cons, Theocrats, and Rovers who have broken our economy, sent our sons and daughters to die in the desert, corrupted our scientific and medical processes in the guise of religion, twisted education into the rote memorization of irrelevancies, steered lucrative contracts to corporate “friends,” and stripped us of meaningful work and honorable retirements.
It is imperative that we raise again the real threat of Direct Action, and insist that this Congress in this election cycle takes steps to undo the damage of the last 7 and the last 16 years of GOP misrule. If we do not move against this administration and its quislings and fellow travelers, and do it now, you can be certain that by this time next year this really will be only “existentialist crap.”
ADB
I don’t give up. I have a very clear agenda that was formed over 60 years ago. The best government to suit us as individuals is local government. The masses want all the social issues to be included in the Federal Government and even our Constitution to be changed to cater to Christians.
Rick, I still protest to my representatives and the sad part is that nobody is running on individual freedoms in Arizona. Both Senators Kyl and McCain will go along with any plan from the White House; no matter whether it is GOP or Democrats. We call is it ass-kissing here. Our House members will go along with anyone who prohibits abortions and gay marriages. I moved to the wrong state. I’m too old to change anyone and probably should take up serious drinking which is my family’s habit. Oh, not to care and be oblivious to all this political crap.
If people really cared, there would be massive protest rallies. Senators and congressmen would be deluged by mail protesting the status quo.
It is obvious this is exactly the kind of government Americans are satisfied with.
God help America.
I called my very conservative (R) Senator a few months back and asked this same question, which was premised on Cheney getting the axe too. Talked to his chief of staff… a pleasant fellow, who had only one question: Do you really want Nancy Pelosi to take over?
My reply didn’t matter… the die has been cast.
Ditto for those with Democrat Senators too.
This is known as fascism.
— Kent Shaw
Bush is still president because he serves his constituency extremely well. His constituency is (obviously) corporate and financial interests. They can tolerate his abuse of the American people and institutions as long as they themselves benefit. This fact is manifest in all of this administration’s activities.
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