Cheney Pushes Bush to Act on Iran
WASHINGTON - The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned.
The shift follows an internal review involving the White House, the Pentagon and the state department over the last month. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: “Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo.” 
The White House claims that Iran, whose influence in the Middle East has increased significantly over the last six years, is intent on building a nuclear weapon and is arming insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The vice-president, Dick Cheney, has long favoured upping the threat of military action against Iran. He is being resisted by the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the defence secretary, Robert Gates.
Last year Mr Bush came down in favour of Ms Rice, who along with Britain, France and Germany has been putting a diplomatic squeeze on Iran. But at a meeting of the White House, Pentagon and state department last month, Mr Cheney expressed frustration at the lack of progress and Mr Bush sided with him. “The balance has tilted. There is cause for concern,” the source said this week.
Nick Burns, the undersecretary of state responsible for Iran and a career diplomat who is one of the main advocates of negotiation, told the meeting it was likely that diplomatic manoeuvring would still be continuing in January 2009. That assessment went down badly with Mr Cheney and Mr Bush.
“Cheney has limited capital left, but if he wanted to use all his capital on this one issue, he could still have an impact,” said Patrick Cronin, the director of studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The Washington source said Mr Bush and Mr Cheney did not trust any potential successors in the White House, Republican or Democratic, to deal with Iran decisively. They are also reluctant for Israel to carry out any strikes because the US would get the blame in the region anyway.
“The red line is not in Iran. The red line is in Israel. If Israel is adamant it will attack, the US will have to take decisive action,” Mr Cronin said. “The choices are: tell Israel no, let Israel do the job, or do the job yourself.”
Almost half of the US’s 277 warships are stationed close to Iran, including two aircraft carrier groups. The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise left Virginia last week for the Gulf. A Pentagon spokesman said it was to replace the USS Nimitz and there would be no overlap that would mean three carriers in Gulf at the same time.
No decision on military action is expected until next year. In the meantime, the state department will continue to pursue the diplomatic route.
Sporadic talks are under way between the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, on the possibility of a freeze in Iran’s uranium enrichment programme. Tehran has so far refused to contemplate a freeze, but has provisionally agreed to another round of talks at the end of the month.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, has said that there are signs of Iran slowing down work on the enrichment plant it is building in Natanz. Negotiations took place in Tehran last week between Iranian officials and the IAEA, which is seeking a full accounting of Iran’s nuclear activities before Tehran disclosed its enrichment programme in 2003. The agency’s deputy director general, Olli Heinonen, said two days of talks had produced “good results” and would continue.
At the UN, the US, Britain and France are trying to secure agreement from other security council members for a new round of sanctions against Iran. The US is pushing for economic sanctions that would include a freeze on the international dealings of another Iranian bank and a mega-engineering firm owned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Russia and China are resisting tougher measures.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian News and Media Limited 2007
It’s so nice to read that these scumbags have learned nothing from the fiasco they created in Iraq.
Their response: Attack another country in the Middle East and try to force democracy onto yet another nation that didn’t ask for it.
One thing is certain–a war in Iran will definitely take the spotlight off the Iraq mess.
what is it they were saying in North Korea, and in Vietnam? beneath every vietnamese there is an American trying to break free?
Bush and Cheney not only lived through those two embrassments of the empire’s imperalistic wars, they’ve lived through their own imperial failure and still don’t get it. They have no concept of history, we knew that, but clearly they don’t even have any concept of the PRESENT. And these are our leaders? they’re insane (literally, im serious), and they’re out of touch with reality. They will drive this country into the ground as long as corperate profits can be made.
But you know what’s going to happen. PNAC and the oligarchy will attack America again, blame it on someone else (muslims), and we will be invading (liberating as they call it) Iran before you know it. Meanwhile the country, which will inevitably lose it’s mind after another terrorist attack, will stand by and watch as the tyrants take more of our liberties, including the seizure of a third term for Bush and Cheney
They have learned a great deal. You assume they don’t want war.
ALL evidence shows that they are intentionally attempting to escalate war with the entire middle east. Iran simply has the weaker world position per barrels of oil.
Iraq has just been training grounds for their mercenary forces.
The last 4 years have just been the first phase of their plan.
Fortunately moderate Muslims are on to them and are not taking the bait.
Plan on seeing more fraudulent, staged and counterfeit reasons for ATTACKING Iran.
Impeach him now, before he launches WWIII and destroys life on Earth. This is f’ing serious. What’s his obsession? It’s like he’s playing Monopoly and just hasto-hasto-hasto get three properties in a row (Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan) so he can add houses and hotels.
We need to stop assuming that they are stupid, or insane.
Everything makes perfect sense from their viewpoint because they have a different goal than we do, (a hidden agenda).
They have nothing to lose and a New World Order to gain.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUKNL1319819320070716
You won’t be reading about this in the US press except for a tiny article buried in the back of the paper.
But what difference will allowing inspections? Never made a difference before.
Impeachment is the only thing that will halt them. Don’t count on that happening without a serious public backlash building up to critical mass. Turn those screws.
This has nothing to do with democracy,
that is a red herring they are using to gain support for their goal, which is to dominate economically.
Cheney is insane.
Meanwhile:
Halliburton VP, Sherry Williams testifies at a Senate hearing about the company’s dealings with Iran– Halliburton is charged with selling nuclear technology to Iran. Halliburton, the notorious U.S. energy company, sold key nuclear-reactor components to a private Iranian oil company called Oriental Oil Kish as recently as 2005, using offshore subsidiaries to circumvent U.S. sanctions. The story is particularly juicy because Vice President Dick Cheney, who now claims to want to stop Iran from getting nukes, was president of Halliburton in the mid-1990s, at which time he may have advocated business dealings with Iran, in violation of U.S. law.
Source: “Halliburton Secretly Doing Business with Key Member of Iran’s Nuclear Team,” Jason Leopold, GlobalResearch.ca, Aug. 5, 2005
HELP!
SAVE THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION!
Impeach George W. Bush and Richard Cheney!
YouTube Video: HELP!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kE_HW76kuAA
Call House Speaker Nancy Pelosi!
202-225-4965
Clark Kent - I think you are on to something. Remember a few months ago when Cheney was making “gaming metaphors” with respect to the Iraq situation. I think he believes it is a game, and he is heartlessly disconnected from the suffering that he is personally responsible for.
I’ve played a few wargames in my day (you know board games), and what often happens with aggressors is that they get overextended out of desperation. When defending against said aggressors, this is the time to strike.
Peace,
Ken Hausle
* I support HRes333 - Impeach the VP (with or without Pelosi and her f****** table)
** Is it not obvious - time is of the essence
An assault on Iran would likely shut off oil from the Persian Gulf, and if Bush and Cheney do this at the end of their term, it would mean that their cronies in oil and finance would make incredible profits in the short term.
Thus, I must disagree with DrSpock above - these guys have indeed learned something from their debacle in Iraq. They’ve learned that military action that destabilizes the Middle East pushes oil prices through the roof (how else did ExxonMobil ‘earn’ world-record $40 billion profits?).
Obviously, the main goal in the Middle East is to control oil production, particularly from Iraq. In Iraq, it costs $1/barrel to lift oil, which can then be sold for $60/barrel or so. Iraq has 115 billion barrels in proven reserves, and likely at least twice that in its largely unexplored western regions. Control is the key word - which means that they might prefer to see Iraqi oil kept in the ground, rather than see an independent Iraq that is capable of undercutting oil prices by flooding the global market with cheap crude.
This isn’t about a ‘war on terror’, this is all about a war for oil. If Bush & Cheney wanted to win Iraqi hearts an minds, all they’d have to do is:
a) quit trying to get the Iraqi government to pass an oil law that puts control of Iraqi oil in the hands of small secret committees and international oil corporations.
b) erase Iraq’s odious debt, run up by Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war but also including ‘war reparations payments’ to Kuwait and/or Saudi Arabia. This debt is being used to blackmail the Iraqi government into giving up control of the oilfields.
This would mean that the entire reason for the war would be moot, however. Notice that Bush and Cheney and Leiberman never, ever define what they mean by ’success in Iraq’?
All Iraqis know about this, and they also know all about the fraudulent ‘reconstruction contracts’ given to Bechtel and Halliburton. However, thanks to the corrupt corporate media in the United States, relatively few American citizens understand the actual situation.
“However, thanks to the corrupt corporate media in the United States, relatively few American citizens understand the actual situation.”
And then they start screeching about how you are hateful and Hillary is the liberal heroine poised to liberate us from the vast right wing conspiracy.
They missed the if-you-can’t-beat-them-join-them update.
I think it is more than 50% likely that we will attack Iran.
They will retaliate against US interests abroad or in the US itself.
This or the mass protests against the aggression against Iran will be pretext for declaring a “state of emergency” in the country.
This will enable the current junta to postpone elections.
The resulting outcry will enable the current administration (junta) to begin rounding up dissenters and interning them in the facilities already constructed or under construction for just that purpose.
Having come so close already to complete fascist control of the country they are not gonna give it all up.
Especially since free and fair elections are obviously set to completely defeat the neo-con agenda.
People……we are on the doorstep of complete fascism in this country.
I for one am doing all that I can to flee this country while there is still a chance.
I suggest you do the same.
Those who oppose the neo-con fascist agenda are in exactly the same position as the German Jews were as the Nazis began their pogroms.
With few exceptions only those Jews who had the foresight to make the difficult decision to leave their homeland survived the coming holocaust.
We are the new Jews.
And they are the same totalitarian murderers.
If I am succesful in getting out I will post my whereabouts on this site and do all that is within my power to assist all those trying to leave.
May God help us all.
I ain’t going nowhere.
I’m staying here. I am staying in my home, my house.
Peace,
Ken Hausle
* I support HRes333
** time of time…..
huckleberry wrote:
“We need to stop assuming that they are stupid, or insane.
Everything makes perfect sense from their viewpoint because they have a different goal than we do, (a hidden agenda).
They have nothing to lose and a New World Order to gain.”
Well, i’m tired of people defending the presumed ’sanity’ of these people.
If ‘Everything makes perfect sense from their viewpoint’ is a definition of ’sane’, then there is no such thing as insane.
From my viewpoint, these people are COMPLETELY insane. No matter what their viewpoint may be, the actions they are taking will lead to the complete disruption of the living Earth, which will ruin their game no matter how they define it. The fact that they think their plan makes sense is completely irrelevant.
Even without the disruption of the biosphere, the ‘New World Order’ they think they are going to gain will never happen either, and their game will end in a pile of wreckage, as it always does for power-mad tyrants. World war for world domination is not SANE, no matter how you define sanity. Planning for nuclear war and building trillion-dollar space weapon systems for global domination is not SANE, no matter how you define sanity.
Most importantly, the question of their sanity or insanity is completely irrelevant for US. However you interpret or define their mental ‘health’, WE NEED TO STOP THEM.
And more importantly even than that, we need to recognize that this horrific crisis has been coming for a long time, and the task we have if we are going to have any hope of stabilizing the biosphere and stopping power-mad tyrants goes much deeper than stopping Bush and Cheney. We need to dismantle the entire project of corporate capitalism. It’s not just due to Bush and Cheney that the corporate contracts in Iraq are structured the way they are, this vision of corporatist domination has been being refined for many decades. The challenges ‘we the people’ face are huge. We need to be honest with ourselves about what these challenges are. We cannot make tweaks and adjustments to our ‘way of life’. We need a radical change in our culture, our relations among ourselves, and our relation to the living Earth.
My first post here, sorry it’s a long one.
webwalk
We all have to put ourselves in the position of these clowns at this moment in world history. They must feel that their “backs are up against the wall.”
There’s no way given Bush or Cheney’s psychological makeup, and the demons and forces that drive them on both real and imaginary, and the historical impulses that prop them up and flow in their veins, that this group plans to leave its tenure as a total failure. Even if they all have determined for us that “history is ended.”
Indeed they probably plan to end history, but on their own terms. That is what would twist the vainglorious of their ilk.
But given all that, the pressure they must feel to continue along the path of destruction and carnage has to be phenomenal.
For most of us, it seems kind of absurd before we ourselves are called to accountability for our own failings. How it is happening is riveting.
Paul Craig Roberts had a good take on it this am if you hadn’t read it yet:
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts07162007.html
There is no way out but impeachment for the human population left on this earth, and that movement seems to be standing dead in it’s tracks, looking on mutely at a nightmare play out before it’s eyes.
‘I’m staying here. I am staying in my home, my house.”
Except on July 23, when we will all be in DC for the march from Arlington Cemetary to the Capitol.
We will sit down on Memorial Bridge and clog up and in other key intersections all the way there. Be there!
This is why congress is criminally negligent in not starting impeachment proceedings for Bush and Cheney before they launch an attack without congressional approval!!!!
Once again it looks like Israel, to its own utter detriment, is pulling the strings, same as they did with their so-called “intelligence” indicating for sure that Iraq had WMD.
Hopefully the US Congress will be given at least the same opportunity as Israel to influence any decision about attacking Iran but it looks doubtful since the Bush administration is working so hard these past few months to show that Iranians are attacking US troops in Iraq! All in all a very bad business, appalling when you take into account that the “mini-nukes” and bunker busters are in fact bombs between 10 and 100 times more powerful than those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
Looks like Ms. Rice knows her place.
Aren’t womenfolk suppposed to always stay ten paces behind the men?
huckleberry is correct and not.
They are totally sane. Their agenda from day one has had nothing to do with oil. It has everything to do with forcing the return of Christ.
Which is just totally insane because Christ isn’t coming back.
I’d guess that Cheney and Bush want to get the intensifying light and heat off themselves. Badly.
I would think they are beginning to move into panic mode as more and more is revealed about their devilishly duplicitous demonic doings.
Especially, Mr. Cheney. Attacking Iran would solve alot of problems, especially for this current Prince of Darkness.
And for the regressive-neo-nazi-cons in general. Increased international chaos would focus the country back on “fighting our enemies” and would as well, deflect the rapidly building consensus that impeachment is simply necessary.
Simple. Just cook up a “solid” reason, why attacking Iran must be done. Then sit back and say,
“I dare you to impeach the wooden boy-pupper Commander in Chief /// and his Ventriloquist, second in command — in a time of war — when ‘international state-sponsored terrorism puts us all at terrible risk.”
Voilà!
Pretty simple solution.
Regressives win again…unless —
progressives get their act together - fast.
The headline itself is a crock; the rest is utter nonsense. Cheney’s in charge, how much clearer does it have to be? The Loonitary Decider is pure, 100% front man puppet snake oil bullshit artist. We’re supposed to believe he even understands what the hell’s going on, no less that he’s, like, deliberating and weighing, er, ideas and such?
Barf.
The better the Dems do in the polls, the more likely an attack on Iran is. It will provide a temporary distraction from the failed Iraq invasion and occupation and will “unite” the country around a new cause, another losing imperial adventure.
Politically, it would work. In all likelihood, the Cheney/Bush cabal may even be able to formally suspend constitutional rule with a state of emergency order. Clearly, the majority of Dem politcos and the US population would roll over for that.
As many above and many others have pointed out, the real-life consequences of such an attack would be horrendous and beyond imagination. When leaders of both our ruling parties and the Israelis have publicly said they may use nukes against Iran (”all options are on the table”),the above comment about the end of the world does not seem all that hysterical.
American capitalism and financial system is at the end of the rope. Nation is in deep depth; Social Security Fund is nowhere to refunded with the absence of REAL manufacturing industry to speak of; middle class is gradually awakeing to the cold reality of being sold out, while baby boomers are waiting for the big surprise in mere 2 years from now.
So, in order to forestall all incoming discontent this junta will “do whatever it takes” to avoid repetition of 1929 when plutocracy barely withstood the popolist tsunami.
Let us stop bashing these people and consider them stubborn or idiotic. They are fighting for essence of American “Republic”; theirs is existential fight. Will be all of us happy if they loose? I bet we will. But it ain’t be pretty battle.
Anyway, see Crossing the Rubicon by Michael Ruppert over at Amazon.com. It would seem that Iran’s been on the “pre-planned” agenda for quite some time now.
There may well be a larger set of goals and objectives than we are currently noticing.
frank1569:
I agree with you that the whole theater with bush, rice, cheney is exactly that, low style vodeville. Militarists vs. financiers, who are afraid to rock the boat might be real actors. Their squabbles are of no interests to us. Former bomb, latter starve; that is the whole difference.
Webwalk,
You make some great points.
What I disagree with is this:
“The fact that they think their plan makes sense is completely irrelevant.”
I believe it to be relevant for the simple reason that we need to truly understand them in order to counter them.
For the sake of discussion, let’s pose Bushey-Chain as adversaries on our chessboard. We are all seemingly at the point where we can agree that they do not have our best interests at heart and are not only working to undermine many different classes of people, but apparently are actively working to destroy us. So for the sake of discussion let’s think of them as political adversaries (if not mortal enemies).
Your statement, “The fact that they think their plan makes sense is completely irrelevant.” seems unsound.
We must understand our adversary to create peace.
I might agree with statements like “They (neo-cons) are cunning, crafty, greedy, unreasonable, power-hungry, unconcerned with the well-being of the people and the planet, etc. This is not the same as insane.
But if we assume that they are foaming mad, we make the same tragic mistake they are making with their adversaries. We then stop dealing with them like fellow-humans and write them off as sub-human.
Bomb, Bomb, Bomb…Bomb, Bomb Iran. Who sang that song?
This should come as no surprise if you read Seymour Hersh’s recent pieces in the New Yorker. Bush and Cheney are convinced that only they are willing to attack Iran, and no future administration can be trusted to do this. This is a key piece in their strategy for US hegemony in the Middle East (Israel is only a surrogate for US power). In their view, the current Iraq tragedy is only a stage in the ultimate scenario of US control of the Middle East, and its energy resources. I am reminded of the days when we condemned the Soviet Union for its “ends justify means” ideology.
These people are still incredibly dangerous and must be impeached. It was heartbreaking to watch Democracy Now this morning in which young Iranians are cycling through Europe and now the US to plea for peace.
What we have is ultra greed (cheney), coupled with the fantasy of “doing God’s work” (village idiot) that is leading our planet by these two, toward the abyss.
I have heard that we have predominatly two groups reincarnated in the US right now, the Atlantian’s (Bill Gates and his ilk, the technocrates), and the Roman’s (cheney/bush and the Republican’s - boomer gen., who see conquest, vast accumulation of wealth, invading and plundering other lands for the elite few as their “right”.)
And we know from history what happened to those societies….
Don’t we?
Hi,
So here’s a question for everyone:
If we believe that Cheney and Bush are planning to bomb Iran, and we understand the consequences of such an attack to be utterly horrific for the Iranians, for the world, and for the United States in many important ways (no need to run through the list of horrific consequences here):
What action will you take to organize ‘we the people’ to STOP THEM (besides blogging at CommonDreams)?
Work with your ‘representatives’ to IMPEACH?
Civil Disobedience to put pressure on our ‘representatives’?
Nonviolent Direct Action to disrupt the actual plans and logistics?
Refuse to pay Federal taxes?
A general strike to disrupt the functioning of the entire country?
Support for US Military resistance to the plans (there have been rumors of grave discontent at high levels of the US Military)?
Resort to the language of the Declaration of Independance about the Right of the People to overthrow their government if it is not working for them?
Leave the country? Well that won’t stop them, but a lot of people left Germany in the 1930s as they saw what was approaching, including Albert Einstein, it’s hard to argue against leaving.
What are the consequences for YOU if you take any of these actions?
What are the consequences for ALL OF US if you do NOT take any of these actions?
webwalk
End war. End global warming and, while we’re at it, globilization. End poverty, malnutrition, maleducation and all of the evils that seem to plague humankind.
It really is a hoot…humankind thinking it has some right to inherit and inhabit the earth and can do something about its miserable conditions. Improve it? HAHA!
All the pretentious bullshit about ending war and poverty is just that. Bullshit!
All the protesters against this and that cause, just that they may be, don’t acknowledge the fact that humankind has fucked the earth with its greed and will continue to do so until its dying end. Can you live without OIL!!!???
You live your lives in comfort, beleiving some soap-opera guru is going to give you the end to your suffering. You may as well be be sniffing fumes from the latrine that has become the wellspring of modern capitalism.
A system that believes it must thrive on continous growth (ie, exploitation of natural and human resources), cannot, in its brightest moments, think it is worthy to survive. Indeed, it will not. But that has yet to be shown. At a theater near you…and comming soon!
Impeach who you will. Throw the tyrannts out…they desrve it! But, until you acknwledge your own complicity in this failing system, you deserve the wall as much as GWB and DC.
Are you really ready to change your life? Can you truly afford to abandon you priviledged life? Are you ready to abandon the Amerikan dream of world domimation?
Peace to all, and, to all, a good night.
emaho is correct.
Here’s what i wrote above:
“And more importantly even than that, we need to recognize that this horrific crisis has been coming for a long time, and the task we have if we are going to have any hope of stabilizing the biosphere and stopping power-mad tyrants goes much deeper than stopping Bush and Cheney. We need to dismantle the entire project of corporate capitalism. It’s not just due to Bush and Cheney that the corporate contracts in Iraq are structured the way they are, this vision of corporatist domination has been being refined for many decades. The challenges ‘we the people’ face are huge. We need to be honest with ourselves about what these challenges are. We cannot make tweaks and adjustments to our ‘way of life’. We need a radical change in our culture, our relations among ourselves, and our relation to the living Earth.”
Love,
webwalk
Bush Makes Power Grab - And Response
posted May 24, 2007
President Bush, without so much as issuing a press statement, on May 9 signed a directive that granted near dictatorial powers to the office of the president in the event of a national emergency declared by the president.
The “National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive,” with the dual designation of NSPD-51, as a National Security Presidential Directive, and HSPD-20, as a Homeland Security Presidential Directive, establishes under the office of president a new National Continuity Coordinator.
That job, as the document describes, is to make plans for “National Essential Functions” of all federal, state, local, territorial, and tribal governments, as well as private sector organizations to continue functioning under the president’s directives in the event of a national emergency.
The directive loosely defines “catastrophic emergency” as “any incident, regardless of location, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the U.S. population, infrastructure, environment, economy, or government functions.”
When the President determines a catastrophic emergency has occurred, the President can take over all government functions and direct all private sector activities to ensure we will emerge from the emergency with an “enduring constitutional government.”
Translated into layman’s terms, when the President determines a national emergency has occurred, the President can declare to the office of the presidency powers usually assumed by dictators to direct any and all government and business activities until the emergency is declared over.
Ironically, the directive sees no contradiction in the assumption of dictatorial powers by the President with the goal of maintaining constitutional continuity through an emergency.
The directive specifies that the assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism will be designated as the National Continuity Coordinator. Further established is a Continuity Policy Coordination Committee, chaired by a senior director from the Homeland Security Council staff, designated by the National Continuity Coordinator, to be “the main day-to-day forum for such policy coordination.”
Currently, the assistant to the president for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism is Frances Fragos Townsend. Townsend spent 13 years at the Justice Department before moving to the U.S. Coast Guard where she served as assistant commandant for intelligence. She is a White House staff member in the executive office of the president who also chairs the Homeland Security Council, which as a counterpart to the National Security Council reports directly to the president.
The directive issued May 9 makes no attempt to reconcile the powers created there for the National Continuity Coordinator with the National Emergency Act. As specified by U.S. Code Title 50, Chapter 34, Subchapter II, Section 1621, the National Emergency Act allows that the president may declare a national emergency but requires that such proclamation “shall immediately be transmitted to the Congress and published in the Federal Register.”
A Congressional Research Service study notes that under the National Emergency Act, the President “may seize property, organize and control the means of production, seize commodities, assign military forces abroad, institute martial law, seize and control all transportation and communication, regulate the operation of private enterprise, restrict travel, and, in a variety of ways, control the lives of United States citizens.”
The CRS study notes that the National Emergency Act sets up congress as a balance empowered to “modify, rescind, or render dormant such delegated emergency authority,” if Congress believes the president has acted inappropriately.
NSPD-51/ HSPD-20 appears to supersede the National Emergency Act by creating the new position of National Continuity Coordinator without any specific act of Congress authorizing the position.
NSPD-51/ HSPD-20 also makes no reference whatsoever to Congress. The language of the May 9 directive appears to negate any a requirement that the President submit to Congress a determination that a national emergency exists, suggesting instead that the powers of the executive order can be implemented without any congressional approval or oversight.
Homeland Security spokesperson Russ Knocke affirmed that the Homeland Security Department will be implementing the requirements of NSPD-51/HSPD-20 under Townsend’s direction.
The White House had no comment.
Matthew Hine
Chattanooga
MattHine@excite.com
* * *
I just read your opinion regarding the National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive recently signed by Bush. This does not surprise me one bit as I have thought from the beginning that he wanted to be a dictator.
My question to you is “Will this directive provide him the authority to “stay” elections thereby keeping himself in office? That could be a dreadful situation and the end of democracy (which has waned under his leadership anyway).
Thanks for the insight into this directive, which the mainstream news had failed to bring forth (too busy with Anna Nicole, Lindsay Lohan, etc.).
Bette Russ
Venice, Fla.
http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_107907.asp
It seems that our republic is now a Fascist Dictatorship. Our so called government is only laughing at We-The-People and feeding our children and our fortune into the maw of the Great War Against Civilization.
I doubt that getting on our knees to whine to our House Member will do any good. Elections only change the names and faces on the corporate suits. Perhaps impeaching our Reps is a start. As for me, I’m moving my retirement assets offshore and out of dollars. I’ll leave it to the younger citizens to invest in bayonets and bullets. Maybe, like Caesar’s Gaul, America will be in three parts by the time these tyrants are finished.
whatfools: three parts might be OK, but what about 20 parts or so. I think that is what I have on my map (split by the river of course). But the parts ought to be a confederacy.
A confederacy for Peace. In fact, this could all be done peacefully.
Peace,
Ken Hausle
* I support HRes333 - Impeach the VP
** time OH time
Petition, in case anyone hasn’t signed yet:
http://impeachcheney.org/
HR 333 (Introduced by Kucinich)
ARTICLE I. Fabricated threat of Iraq WMD.
Cheney has purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the United States Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security interests.
ARTICLE II: Fabricated ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda. Cheney purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States about an alleged relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda in order to justify the use of the United States Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security interests.
ARTICLE III: Threatening Iran.
Cheney has openly threatened aggression against the Republic of Iran absent any real threat to the United States, and done so with the United States proven capability to carry out such threats, thus undermining the national security of the United States.
They can try and capture Iran’s oil too, but their wells were tapped long ago and will go into peak and decline before Iraq’s will.
They just don’t like any country that will not see things their way and do what they want.
Diplomacy for them is dictating terms and if they do not surrender and follow their orders, bomb them and invade them.
They can always make some story for their “preemptive/proactive” strike.
What proactive has come to mean is that if you do not agree with us and do what we tell you, we will destroy you. Some new world order….
“We need to dismantle the entire project of corporate capitalism.”
Yes, we need.
“We need a radical change in our culture, our relations among ourselves, and our relation to the living Earth.”
Yes, we need.
How to do it? By organizing and educating. Alas, even unions are a far cry from being instrumental in awakening people beyond their immediate materials needs.
IMHO progressives, socialists and communists were very successful during FDR rule in using crisis to advance their agenda, which until recently was taken for granted: Social Security, rhetoric against Economic Royalist, labor laws and on and on. In the last 3 decades their methods were used by religious fanatics to subjugate GOP with kind of success.
Now it is our turn to work through Democrats again. Only financial crisis may bring capitalism to its knee. Our goal is to be ready intellectually first of all.
Fortunately, commentariat and academia are grossly underequipped theoretically, they live in fantasy land and hence the root of self-destruction. We have to stop calling names and wait for the heroes. We have to stop surfing the ripples of events as unconnected dots. There were many serious essays on this tread let us keep this way.
Dick Cheney before Cheney dicks you.
Support HR333!
The Senate has foolishly voted 97-0 for a Lieberman amendment that tells Iran to (as I recall, can’t find the article) “stop killing Americans” or equivalent wording.
If the intelligence being routed through Cheney’s office “proves” to him that Iran is, indeed, “killing Americans,” how could Iran refute him? Could a UN security council resolution authorizing military action be far behind?
If the Congress won’t impeach these violent fascists, I vote for 50 million people to march to the White House, capture Bush/Cheney/Rove and take them to Guantanamo Bay.
Iran’s oil for export will be gone within 10 years, by the by. They DO need nuclear power for electricity.
(See The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 01/02/2007,for an article by Roger Stern.)
I’m pretty new with political issues; would our president take the advice of the vice president, how could that be? Doesn’t president Bush have the brains to make major decisions?___ Golly gee.
The idea of air strikes against Iran is preposterous – they will only serve to strengthen the current regime immensely. And what would all this gain? At best, air strikes would slow Iranian nuclear projects by a few years, unless the U.S. were willing to follow an air campaign with a land invasion and occupation. Short of that, the cost of buying time with air strikes would likely be a redoubling of Iran’s determination to get a bomb – and an exponential increase in its bitterness towards the United States and its strongest ally in the region, Israel.
An attack would destabilize an already unstable Middle East. Terrorism against U.S interests around the world would increase dramatically. One could forget any hopes of stemming the global jihadi terror threat – Bin Laden and others would rouse the world’s 1.2 billion Muslims with cries that the United States was seeking to destroy Islam. And any hopes of political reform in Iran would be doomed.
Our young men and women in Iraq would be sitting ducks for retaliation – the fanatical Iraqi Shiite cleric, Moqtada Al-Sadr, has already declared that his forces would attack American troops in Iraq in the event that Bush bombs Iran. Given that the Shiites in Iraq have so far functioned as expedient allies of the U.S occupation, and that we’ve lost nearly 3600 troops in four years largely at the hands of the Sunni minority in only a small part of Iraq, it is chilling to think of the consequences if the majority Shiites get involved.
An attack would greatly compromise the world’s oil supply. The price of oil would soar to between $100-200 per barrel. Americans would find the price at the pump at least doubling. The global economy would be crippled. At best, a global recession would follow; at worst, a second Great Depression.
And yet the single thing that can be guaranteed about any air assault on Iran is that, however well laid out the plans beforehand, events will quickly spin out of control. The Bush government, blinded by arrogance, consumed by power, delusional in its divine mission, ridiculously sure of themselves, fearless of other people’s lives, and still ignorant of its mistakes with regard to Iraq, will once again be stunned and unprepared to deal with them.
The result will be disaster for us all.
P.S. There are probably few who haven’t seen this, but in the event not, check out http://www.glumbert.com/media/irack
for a humorous look at not only Bush’s catastrophe in Iraq, but also his newest product roll-out: Iran.
Guess it’s time to look for another Cheney-engineered 9/11.
Too bad the Reichstag is not in New York….
We live in a time of social chaos as a result of two different phenomena. One is that the definition of the family and of appropriate social and sexual relations is changing, in large part because of the empowerment of women, and the other is that we are interacting with others across the globe to an unprecedented extent, transferring and absorbing a great variety of cultural trends as different cultures merge to form a world culture.
During times of great chaos in history, the most extreme predators have had the advantage. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot, among others, all rose during periods of social chaos in their own countries. The predators in our own society, particularly the corporate predators, are doing as well as they have in quite some time. The question is whether we can weather this storm and still have something worth preserving on the other end of it.
I can answer that question.
For heaven’s sake: YES
Peace,
Ken Hausle
* I support HRes333 - Impeach the VP
the axis of evil. the dickster, dubya and hadley (takes over for rummy)
Making countries in U.S. image by killing and plunder is not in the way of real christians. What a horrable example to our young. Right on maelstorm!!
LETS HEAR FROM SOME JEWISH PROGRESSIVES AND HOW THEY PLAN TO PUT PRESSURE ON AIPAC TO STOP LOBBYING FOR BOMBING IRAN…AND SYRIA…
These greedy people running the U.S. government are racists. They believe they are entitled to kill to get wealth, just as they did when they first came over from England on the Mayflower. It’s a pity they haven’t evolved any in nearly 400 years. They have much in common with the Israelis who call themselves “God’s chosen people.”
They may or may not be insane, but they definitely are evil. They know exactly what they’re doing. Bush is as evil as any of them. They pretend to be religious Christians who respect life by being anti-abortion, but they don’t mind dropping bombs on children in Muslim countries.
What kind of morons would rally ’round the flag after attacking a country that was no threat? Only weak-minded, brainwashed people who believe what they want to believe.
There is one possibility in all this to stop Bush, Cheney, & Co. Perhaps we need to revisit 1861 in this country. I am not sure how we could do it, except put immense pressure and influence on state and local politicians. There would not be any violence, but what if we were able to start getting states to secede from the Union??
Stark raving mad.
It would allow us to bypass the whole impeachment ordeal (and Congress), fire up the old Federalist vs. Anti-Federalist debate, and make Bush painfully aware that his precious homeland is falling apart at the seams.
The main reason for this new attack on Iran is to follow the “game plan”. They have no intention of leaving office in January of 2009. They have no intention of allowing a presidential election to be held in November of 2008. The groundwork has all been laid (thanks to a compliant congress and a criminal president). All that’s left is to invade Iran, in essence starting WWIII and voila! their case for suspending elections is made. Martial law goes in to effect and we’re stuck with these warmongers for…..
Face it folks, the complete lack of oversight for the first six years has gotten us to this point. Oversight now is great but probably too little too late.
We’re in deep, deep trouble.
No reason to panic now! Time to impeach. The fascists are upping the ante and striving to create a distraction. If we experience a new 9-11-type attack maybe we should review the conspiracy theories about the first one that has yielded such political capital to the neo-con fascists. This president and vice president need to be repudiated and the entire direction of the United States changed for the better.
The king and his court are in the castle feasting on their easy victories, laughing at the dirty rabble outside.
And we’re outside wasting our breath, screaming our heads off….as if the walls will come tumbling down.
What’s the answer.
What’s this?! Something is definitely wrong with Mr. Cheney from a psychological standpoint. The United States is unable to handle their war against Iraq; what makes them think they can handle Iran? Tragically, the United States can indeed win a war against Iran, but will need nuclear missiles and bombs for any chance of success. No one in the world will stand for that scenario, well except Israel perhaps. The fact that both Russia and China are against an U.S. assault on Iran should tell the Bush Administration something - like “find sanity” for instance (any nation doing actions in the world that makes Russia and China mad is obviously not a good idea in and of itself)! The one action the Bush Administration can do to cement permanent world hatred of both the United States nation and Americans as a people for their apparent refusal to do anything to stop this scenario should it come to fruition, would be for the United States to invade Iran. The consequences for the world would be too horrific to think about…for sane people.
I don’t even know why the Bush Administration wants to invade Iran other than to increase world hatred of Americans. I mean…I don’t understand what the point is. Global hatred of Americans seems to be the goal for the Bush Administration I guess.
Tell The Bushraelites NO!
Looks like we’re done here.
As soon as Enterprise and her escort ships arrive on station off the Strait of Hormuz, the B1s and B2s should launch at night from Anderson AFB, Guam to start the bombing campaign. Israel and the US are just working out the coin toss as to who will bomb Iran first.
The US weapons deals in eastern Europe have Russia moving to a war footing and Britain has just recently used the spy poisoning case to demand an extradition and trial in Britain (which they knew Russia would never agree to) as an excuse to expel Russian diplomats, which will no doubt provoke an additional response from Moscow.
China has already stated that it will respond if the US threatens its energy interests in Iran (plus they’re getting irritated at the increased US interference with Taiwan and on the Korean Peninsula.
The Neocon PNAC is all wrapped up.
Fighting global warming with nuclear winter. Thanks America.
Just a few points to consider:
1) The war criminals and those responsible for crimes against humanity (as defined by the international law) within the U.S Administration, in the Congress, and in the U.S. military, together with their media shills must be tried and hanged, most probably by the people of the United States.
2) Some may find it hard to believe–especially if they are fans of Faux News–that in comparison, Iran is much more democratic than the U.S.regime. True, they have a theocratic form of government, but they don’t steal elections, they don’t use tamper-prone electronic voting machines, they don’t have to be millioner to run for and be elected. There are no media Mongols or corporate pigs owning the media. Their president walks freely among the population, they have free health insurance for all, etc.
3) An illegal, immoral, and criminal war by Bushites brought Shia in power in Iraq, thereby increasing Iran’s influence in the region as an unintended consequence of the war. Who is to blame?
4) The U.S. cannot occupy Iran even if they could mobilize two million mercenaries. They can only bomb from the skies. Although bombing with conventional weapons may make life miserable for the people, it will not effect a regime change. The U.s. will have to use nukes, with all the consequences for those involved and for the world.
5) A war with Iran will bring the end of the U.S. influence in the region. Even ordinary U.S. citizens will not dare to walk the streets there.
How do we impeach Emperor Haliburton?
Obviously we aren’t holding enough picket signs.
That’ll stop ‘em.
IMPEACH THEM BEFORE THEY KILL AGAIN!!
If I remember correctly, haliburton now has corporate offices outside of the US. OK, no more business in US for haliburton. Simple.
Peace,
Ken Hausle
* I support HRes333 - Impeach the VP
Go to Bill Moyer’s Journal online and watch or read Friday the July 13th program on impeachment with guests John Nichols and Bruce Fein. Very informative (and frightening). We must impeach and take back the powers ‘they’ have before the next president takes office. That is, if we are still here when those evil ones are finished.
Maybe we should just welcome our liberators from Iran and Venezuela, and China, etc…
Please, everyone, “they do not care” “WE must IMPEACH “
These fascists are trying to sspeed up Armageddon, so they can be raised up in the “Rapture” that they think is coming. Nuclear winter is closer to the truth. We do not have any beef with Iran when the bulk of fforeign fighters in Iraq that have been captured are Saudi Arabian, Egyptian and Jordanese. All three of these countries are Bush & Cheney big buddies aand allies. Sort of like Pakistan is our friend so they can keep Osama bin Laden free of us.
Lieberman should simply move permanttly to Israel since he has dual citizenship. He is in favor of bombing Iran, too. A country where most of the people are under the age of 25. They have done nothing to us.
So, just when will the (October) surprise come?
Let’s stop these madmen (and madwomen) before they wreak more havoc!
I read yesterday that Iran was cooperating with the UN inspectors..and I thought this is exactly what was happening when Bush/Cheney ordered the “shock and awe” in Iraq.
It’s all about oil, power, greed.
Remember in the 80’s the US backed Iraq when they invaded Iran.
I do believe if the US bombs Iran, it will be the end of the world.
As for the question who sang..Bomb,Bomb, Bomb Iran..that was McCain. I have believed from day 1 that “9/11″ was created by the Bush Adm and I have never changed my mind. These “men” are capable of anything. A million dead in Iraq…isn’t that enough proof.
Impeach, HR 333, work for Kucinich, protest, and someone please read IT CANT HAPPEN HERE by Sinclair Lewis (1935). It is all in that book..
Bush cannot attack Iran without Congressional approval. Though they approved the Iraq invasion, they are highly unlikely to approve attacking Iran. Even with a phony provocation a la the Gulf of Tonkin, LBJ still had to get a Congressional resolution and that’s when he was riding high in the opinion polls. Bush’s approval rating is in the sewer where it rightly belongs and going along with his insane scheme will reduce the Repugs to a pariah party. Besides, they don’t have any military to fight such a war. The military they do have in Iraq will be massively attacked by the Shia in the event of an attack on Iran and they will be unable to respond to just about anything.
WEBWALK: Good analysis of the word sanity. George Lakoff would approve of your framing it to include that which actually qualifies AS sane.
GEOFF29: When I read your first post I thought of Bush and Cheney as a male version (a lot more lethal) of “Thelma and Louise” going for the finish line by taking thousands along with them.
JEFF MOEHRING: I am thinking the way you are… although whatever America may do to further shake up the tentative balance left on this fragile planet will reverberate everywhere. A professor from University of Florida told me given the direction of basic wind currents (although these systems are also becoming somewhat erratic as a result of global warming and the breakup of covenants among long-established ecosystems) nuclear war’s detritus would not travel to the Southern Hemisphere to the degree it would encircle the earth above the equator.
I really hope FATE or American civil disobedience, or political custodians of conscience (even military caring about their troops next door to the next intended holocaust) ACT to get this deranged never elected duo out of power, before as so many have stated, they arrange events to HOST our nation a lot longer. We are an occupied land… there was a coup, but the media covered it up, so a lot of people did not recognize it as such.
It’s a noble thing to march on DC and to protest the presence of fasism in the US, but all resistence must start at the local nieghborhood level.Organize now,buy cutting back on purchasing of commerce. Stop the engines of production.That is the head of the beast.
Why doesn’t the populace of our country understand the motives of these two greedy old repub party members? They could not care less about the country; their power trip is all they can see and how many more countries and sources of oil they can take down. The frustration gets to me. The people here are so wrapped up in “get it now”, they don’t see beyond the end of their noses. If these two old cowards had to get their guns and be out in front of the troops maybe they would understand; but I doubt it. Truly there is no foresight about how history will treat them. As for me, they go down as the ABSOLUTE WORST we have ever had. So proud I did NOT vote for them.
Desire (To attack!) does not equal capability or legal standing.
And just like Iraq, one of the big reasons for attacking Iran is their threat to be paid in Yen or Euro’s, not Dollars.
A week before we attacked, Iraq Saddam sent a message that he wouldn’t follow through on his threat to go to Euro’s, it was to late BushCo was going to send a message. Our troops are Messengers.
A KNESAL ‘Liberal Warrior’ “Little Beirut”
Although virtually all of the 72 people who commented on this piece oppose a future war with Iran the fact is that millions of Americans will support any action Bush Jr.takes. That blind nationalism and false patriotism must end before the Bush’s will be stopped. Do your best to talk to an American who supports wars with countries that never threatened America.
www.amoralamerica.info
IMPEACHMENT IS ABSOLUTELY ESSENTIAL!!!
Start actively writing, e-mailing, and faxing and TELL YOUR REPRESENTATIVE THIS MUST STOP!!!
bcimpeach.com is the new Impeachment Center in LA. Go to the website and if in LA area, come in for meetings on Sat. afternoon.
Meanwhile, here is the list of House Judiciary members to contact in addition to your own rep and Nancy Pelosi(hers is 202-225-8259):XX means they are a co-sponsor of H Res 333 Impeach Chaney.
XX means they are a co-sponsor of H Res 333 Impeach Chaney.
FAX Numbers for House Judiciary Committee Members
Name
Last Name
FAX
Tammy Baldwin
202-225-6942
Howard L. Berman
202-225-3196
Rick Boucher
202-225-0442
John Conyers, Jr.
202-225-0072
Artur Davis
202-226-9567
William D. Delahunt
202-225-5658
Keith Ellison
202-225-4886
XX
Luis V. Gutierrez
202-225-7810
Sheila Jackson-Lee
202-225-3317
Hank Johnson
202-226-0691
XX
Zoe Lofgren
202-225-3336
Martin “Marty” T. Meehan
202-226-0771
Jerrold Nadler
202-225-6923
Linda T. Sanchez
202-226-1012
Adam Schiff
202-225-5828
Robert “Bobby” C. Scott
202-225-8354
Brad Sherman
202-225-5879
Debbie Wasserman Schultz
202-225-8456
Maxine Waters
202-225-7854
XX
Melvin L. Watt
202-225-1512
Anthony Weiner
202-226-7253
Robert Wexler
202-225-5974
###
Sunni extremists from Saudi Arabia make up half the foreign fighters in Iraq, many suicide bombers, a US official says.
Baghdad - Although Bush administration officials have frequently lashed out at Syria and Iran, accusing it of helping insurgents and militias here, the largest number of foreign fighters and suicide bombers in Iraq come from a third neighbor, Saudi Arabia, according to a senior U.S. military officer and Iraqi lawmakers.
About 45% of all foreign militants targeting U.S. troops and Iraqi civilians and security forces are from Saudi Arabia; 15% are from Syria and Lebanon; and 10% are from North Africa, according to official U.S. military figures made available to The Times by the senior officer. Nearly half of the 135 foreigners in U.S. detention facilities in Iraq are Saudis, he said.
Fighters from Saudi Arabia are thought to have carried out more suicide bombings than those of any other nationality, said the senior U.S. officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the subject’s sensitivity. It is apparently the first time a U.S. official has given such a breakdown on the role played by Saudi nationals in Iraq’s Sunni Arab insurgency.
He said 50% of all Saudi fighters in Iraq come here as suicide bombers. In the last six months, such bombings have killed or injured 4,000 Iraqis.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/071607B.shtml
So why isn’t the Bush/Cheney Junta screaming about bombing Saudi Arabia like they are about Iran? Is it because both Bush and Cheney have clo$e ties to Saudi Arabia?
greg bacon
Iran has asked Japan to pay them for the oil being exported to Japan in YEN rather than DOLLARS.
Saddam Hussein had asked that EUROS be used to buy Iraq’s oil instead of DOLLARS. This was shortly before he became NOT our best friend anymore. The demonization of this dictator only happened AFTER he broke the US tethers and refused to take direction anymore. No more photo ops with Rummy!!!
Maybe Dick will have a heart attack before his Iran attack, see: http://s3.amazonaws.com/drz/cheney-ailmap-doctorzebra-B.mov
Cheney is right, it’s time for military action.
Politicians are spineless. We need a coup here.
From an overpass I watched Darth’s pure black caravan leaving his central dark seat of evil today around 5:15, headed out to Lord knows what secret undisclosed location deep within a soulless mountain bunker. His bubble of protection and denial is huge, and I was being watched closely lest I give an impulsive gesture, and for all I know think free thoughts.
IMPEACH THIS SUCKER NOW!!!
Brutus, Where are you?
Linda Sutton July 16th, 2007 7:06 pm
Iran has asked Japan to pay them for the oil being exported to Japan in YEN rather than DOLLARS.
——————————————————-
The OPEC countries want something of value for their oil,
NOT US dollars that the FED (read jew bankers)is printing at a record pace. Look at the dollars you have and what little they buy these days. Even that cheap inferior crap imported from China takes many more dollars then it’s worth.
If Bush and Cheney attack Iran they should be promptly impeached and the hanged as war criminals.
People here have discussed an ‘insanity’ diagnosis of C. & B. Having worked quite extensively with people suffering from a wide variety of severe mental illnesses, I believe that they are both clinically insane.
But there is another viewpoint as well, -a more esoteric one, which asserts that their insanity is due to being ‘possessed’, -as by some dark force or devilish ‘entity’.
If this ‘possession’ thing is the case, then we would expect exactly what we are at present witnessing, viz: their cunning and cruelty, all their hundreds of deceptions, the contemptible lies, the masquerading, the mass murders, and many similar atrocious actions, which invariably result in harm, *CHAOS*, death, and widespread pain caused to fellow human beings.
Believe this theory or not, - but esteemed writers on this topic hold that Hitler and his closest henchmen were likewise in cahoots with the most satanic of forces.
And if these ruinous US leaders are actually being ‘overshadowed’, and acting as the puppet-servants of an extremely powerful dark force, then expect no real (sane) logic to their actions, -they will as much kill / sacrifice one of their friends, (eg Saddam) -as anyone else who is no longer useful to their cause.
As I understand it, the arch forces of darkness are crazed beyond measure, and a key to identification is that all of the evil they do, is ever toward one primary aim: and that is to obliterate every lighted, beneficial thing, and eventually bring humanity to it’s knees, and, if possible, -destroy the very planet itself.
Not a pleasing scenario, but such dens of vicious, poisonous darkness have arisen before in human history, ~ but have then been defeated.
Many folk feel that the outlook for America is now just too bleak to contemplate or too far gone to usefully have any impact upon the situation, but that is defeatist, and will just allow the menace to survive longer.
__________________________
Whether people can accord to the viewpoint I depict above, (or not) ~ either way, it is the DUTY of all those who can see clearly that the Bush coven is one of the most despicable and dangerous forces on Earth at present, to now do all in their power to rise up and counter it, in all the very many possible ways, -both big and small.
LETHARGY is untenable,
DESPAIR is not useful,
DOING NOTHING is no longer an option,
and ‘ESCAPING’ – (either by physically travelling to hide in some far-flung field, or via a stupor of drink and drugs) is rank cowardice and a dereliction of duty to our fellow beings.
If we truly admire those often cited here, [Ghandi, Cindy Sheehan, Martin Luther King, et al] then we have to find the courage to emulate those people as best we can. Courage, nobility of spirit, some self-sacrifice, and our determined persistence will, -incontrovertibly, defeat those we recognise to be a danger to our very race.
+++++++++++++++++++
I might also add that *we are not alone* in this fight!
- Though quite a few on the Progressive Left still get upset by words referring to anything remotely ’spiritual’ (-by sadly confusing it with the muddled mess that extant religions have become!) nonetheless, I assert that, -(after approx 25 years of concerted study, as well as many ‘unusual experiences’ in this area), that there are very powerful ‘Lighted Beings’ around, **and they are working extremely hard to achieve the same aims that we broadly subscribe to here**, viz: -the complete overthrow of darkness, and the inception of a much healthier future for mankind as a whole.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Finally, amongst the many posts here, I see no references to that which I spoke of in another thread today, -and that is the now very real threat to the Bush coven FROM WITHIN.
By that, I am alluding to a factor perhaps at present overlooked?
I believe that there are many within the serried ranks of the current US government who, -whilst not being overtly saint-like, are (at root), not entirely bad people. -They still have a grain or two of integrity in them!
~Now just consider what *they* must be going through!
Before their very eyes, they see their VP and ostensible ‘Commander-In-Chaff’, (sic!) now morphing into horrendous figures from the movie ‘Dr Strangelove’ !!
And, -because they are not thoroughly disreputable people, many of them are, **at this very minute** DEEPLY troubled by what they see going on in their nation.
What actions will they take?
Some of them will be feeling impelled to somehow drastically halt the curse that is now clearly bringing America to her knees. These folk have devoted their lives to upholding all they thought was ‘good and right’, but now they are seeing through the ‘Travesty at the Top’.
There are a lot of very bright cookies in the various US departments, -intelligent men and women, passionate believers in the flag, ‘America the Brave’ -and all that old stuff. But now many of them are feeling betrayed and adrift, confused and very, very hurt…
These folk are near the seat of power, they have access where we do not, they have the means, and now, (increasingly) they have the will to take action.
Alone, or maybe within a small knot of like-minded souls, there are whisperings, there are thoughts of taking that once unthinkable, very final, desperate action…
Remember, it’s been done before, -bumping off a president is not so very hard to do.
I say, “Expect the unexpected!” and, in the meantime, keeping on voicing at all times, in all ways, and in many daily actions, our unalloyed disgust with the devils who now haunt the corridors of power, because, -in so doing, *we are not wasting our breath!* ~we are helping to swell the ranks of those who are becoming an unstoppable force in the world, -those who now demand nothing less than a complete and radical overhaul of all that’s ‘rotten at the top’ …
Why don’t we just NUKE Mexico and Canada? No particular reason. Maybe just to SECURE our BORDERS and to SHOW the WORLD the U.S.A. is not a country to be TRIFFLED WITH.
Linda Sutton: Thank you for posting the phone numbers.
Uncommon Dreams: In “The Spear of Destiny” by Nigel Ravencroft, he quotes Rudolph Steiner (mystic) as realizing that historians, growing increasingly ensconced in materialism, would never understand the degree to which the inner circle of the nazi party roused dark powers. EVERY religion has its belief in demons, guardian angels, discarnate spirits; and most divide them into categories of good and evil. It’s plausible that those intent upon evil do not realize the degree to which they become rent by these forces. Cheney almost qualifies as a scene right out of the Exorcist. I am waiting for his head to spin as he spews venom from his half-human heart. Sometimes even mystics take off for a while, or hide underground till the waves of darkness pass. You have to choose your fights carefully these days.
Purvis: Please read ezeflyer’s post at 2:40 PM. The W has arranged it so that he can declare martial law during any state of emergency (ya think another horrific hurricane would suffice?) and there’s no need for congress to even be involved.
Most of the posters here seem like intelligent, thinking beings who honestly are trying to devise a solution to the predicament into which we Americans have ostriched our way. Waste of time, folks. We are very likely out of time, for impeachment processes, for making our voices heard. Short of a multi-million people revolution, all this rhetoric is wasted on folks who are on the same page.
Get out there and try to make your ‘loyal to the death’ Bushie friends understand where he’s taking our precious country and its even more precious freedom.
We’ve become a society of lemmings. Get up, go to work, (er, drive to work), watch the clock until lunch, pick up fast food at the drive thru, go back to work, watch the clock until it’s time to drive home and watch TV sitcoms until your brain is sufficiently deadened so you can sleep without worrying about silly things like the Iraq holocaust or the melting glaciers or the next “attack’ on the USA. (Can it be called an attack ON this country when the terrorists behind the attack are the hierarchy OF the country?) Rent the movie Wag the Dog and turn on your right brain activity.
The best solution to the problems in the USA is recognizing what the problems truly are. Hint: It’s not about religion. Nice cover story though…
okay folks.
It’s time to do something. We CANNOT LET THIS HAPPEN.
Some might say that “If it’s good for Capitalism, then GO FOR IT!!!”…or…”DAMN THE BODYCOUNT!!!”…What a mess!,. The havoc we reek upon our fellow human beings will surely about-face and give us a well deserved reality check.
The Clean Break paper written by Perle, Wurmser, and Feith, - Names sound familiar.
It is the published blueprint for the whole middle east fiasco.
Written in 1996, published in Israel, any other questions ?
Read it please, it is only 3 pages long, but it is the blueprint.
Wurmser is Cheney’s advisor on IRAN.
http://www.israeleconomy.org/strat1.htm
These imperialists know exactly what they are doing here and there is nothing we can do about it. The American experiment has failed due to a citizenry that allowed itself to be buffaloed by the corporate run public relations industry. They are in the drivers seat. We are in the back seat. They have their pedal to the metal and we are going for a ride, like it or not. You should be used to it. It’s been going on all of your life. It’s always been dangerous and we have had several close calls already. A seat belt is not going to help you here. It is my opinion that if your personal seat in this rig is equipped with an ejector option, deploy it asap and hope for a soft landing. Peace Out
Yes (to who said): July 23, be in DC for the march from Arlington Cemetary to the Capitol.
We will sit down on Memorial Bridge and clog up and in other key intersections all the way there. Be there!
Be there as we storm up the Capital steps.
Bring your placards and flak jackets. It’s going to be tough.
I’m speechless at the passivity of Congress. If Iran is attacked, the Bush administration needs to be charged with war crimes and hanged.
climberbruno, I agree, it may only be a short time from now when we look back from a place of astonished bewilderment at our current naivete and complacency. How quaint it will look for us to have sat with our lattes and voice our outrage(or not)with our laptops while we struggle to survive in some apocalyptic nightmare.
Yes, I think we have been “coup-ed”, so to speak. We have a unitary president, a judiciary supporting that concept and an ineffectual Congress and House. We have the huge corporations controlling our Legislative houses and the our Executive branch…and probably the Judiciary also through corporate support of the religious conservatives. We have a fascist government at this point in operation if not in name.
Yes, I think we will no longer have a vote if this continues (and if it is not already too late).
Only if other nations (i.e. Russia and China) stand up against George will we have a chance to change our system. But, no matter what, Bush and Cheney must be removed..along with Rove, Rice, Yoo, Gonzales, the Supreme Court, and most Republican appointed federal judges
All Senators who voted for the war must be removed. We don’t need people that stupid in charge of our country. They don’t know the words, “Show me the proof!”.
Our election laws must be changed. No more corporate money at any level at any time, now or in the future, can be allowed to influence our elections. I think our method is flawed as it stands.
Elect from the towns to the county; select from the county to the region; select again from the region to the state. Select from the state to the represent the nation. Let party money support and pay for the candidates. No more corporate money.
If Bush and Cheney get axed, they will run to a country without laws of extradiction (? sp). See:
www.politicalcortex.com/story/2006/10/14/119261/843 [”Escape to Paraguay? Rumor of Bush Land Deal”]
www.guardian.co.uk/international story/0,,1928928,00.html
[Paraguay in a Spin about Bush’s alleges 1000,000 acre hideaway: by Tom Phillips Oct 23, 2006
www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5855.htm
I think we have been “out thunked” on this one, guys. And too few Americans can see past their fat guts, get off their couchs, stop eating and drinking to figure any of this out. As long as they have their beer, potatoe chips, TV and Walmart and some form of income, they are good to go.
It is interesting to see the various perspectives on this board including people who think Bush and Cheney are insane. I watched a brief segment (and it was very very brief because I can’t stand looking at Bush) where Bush linked Al Queda in Iraq with Al Queda, which is totally misleading because the two organizations are not at all linked! Bush is being classic Bush - he is spinning everything, trying to confuse the public (it is painfully obvious that he himself is confused), so it will buy into what he says. I am not sure it is so much insanity, but desperation. He knows it is 4th down and 99 yards to the end zone, so he hopelessly is clinging to the method of confusing the public via spin to convince it of his ridiculously flawed logic (I am not sure you can call it logic, it seems more like stupidity). He reminds me of a middle-management guy who knows his employees do not like him because they think he is a tyrant and completely incompetent (which generally is true), yet he will do what he wants. Personally, I would love to get in a shouting match with him, and put him in his place. But he is too
f@#$ing stupid to have an intelligent conversation with anyone, let alone one about politics. No wonder why Cheney gives the orders!
the greatest threat to this country, and the thing i honestly do fear, is not the next terrorist attack itself, but the American publics braindead and paranoid response and reaction to such an attack. and Moreover, I fear the publics apathy and passiveness as our democracy is whisked away by the corperate oligarchy.
I could be wrong though, and I’d hope i am when the time comes. I hope that when the corperate government does try to seize powers, and destory our freedoms that a solid majority of us, the remaining aware and freedom loving people, will stand up and not take it.
Who can reason with madmen?
Yo, gem, you can’t be serious about eliminating all the senators who voted to go to Iraq?!! If you’re a citizen of the USA, surely you must’ve been on the ‘walking around in a dzzed and fearful stupor’ after 9/11. Senators are, after all, people. Human. They believed their leader. All that happened way before most of us realized the Supreme Court had elected a tyrant. The trust has gradually diminished over these years as the truths have been revealed.
The only government officials who deserve to be removed from office are the ones who were in on the dog-wagging terrorist attack ruse. I suppose there may have been a senator or two in The W’s pocket who were kinda sorta privy to the scam of the century, but you can’t punish every kid who ate the candy that one kid stole from the candy store.
Think before you rant.
Thanks for the links on Paraguay. I was only able to find one of those thru a net search a few days ago.
purvis ames July 16th, 2007 5:52 pm
“Bush cannot attack Iran without Congressional approval.”
Read this article and you will see that the case can be made by Bush and CO. that they already have approval to go into Iran.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-kent/has-congress-already-auth_b_48826.html
God Help Us All.
We may need to rely on the military to not carry out orders. Anyone have any ideas on how to mount such a campaign?
“The Washington source said Mr Bush and Mr Cheney did not trust any potential successors in the White House, Republican or Democratic, to deal with Iran decisively.”
Decisively? The “My way or the highway” approach to foriegn policy has to stop.
Impeach!
WHAT CHENEY WANT - CHENEY GET. OR HE WILL FIRE LITTLE FRAT BOY.
Please pass this on to your favorite U.S. Congressmen.
Haiku Plan of Action to Recover
American Honor and Freedom
RIBIC….RIBIC..(RI-
dicule Bush, Impeach Cheney)..
RIBIC….forthwith, please.
—Eric the Frog (WWII Vet)
[or (your first name) the Frog or the Bird or the Cricket]
RE: Sir Melvin Cleophus July 16th, 2007 4:21 pm
“I don’t even know why the Bush Administration wants to invade Iran other than to increase world hatred of Americans. I mean…I don’t understand what the point is. Global hatred of Americans seems to be the goal for the Bush Administration I guess.”
Lat me see if I can explain it as simply as possible. For those who believe the problem is about oil—it is & it isn’t, money—it is & isn’t, power—it is & isn’t, religion—is & isn’t world domination—is & isn’t. Terrorism? Just a foil & trumped up excuse.
Now try putting these items together as a picture to see how important my last comments will be:
Oil is now traded in USD (United States Dollars)
This is known as the ‘fiat’ currency worldwide.
The USD is backed by nothing of worth (gold, silver, etc) except a promise to pay, and that the value of the USD will be maintained.
The might of the US military is used to force countries to accept the USD as the fiat currency.
If a country signals their intent to change the fiat to another currency they can expect the US to come kick the shit out of them, because such a move would seriously de-value the USD causing possible financial ruin for us (especially if massive creditors, such as China, demanded re-payment in something other than USD).
In the past few years three countries have threatened to change the fiat currency to something else beside the USD, namely Iraq, Iran, & Venezuela. Are you starting to see a picture emerge here?
Iraq made the threat in 2000, and what happened? Invasion due to a very suspect attack on 9/11/2001, but evidence proves the plan (to invade Iraq) was formulated late in 1999.
Within the past year or so Venezuela has made a similar threat, and we’ve seen the BushCo reaction to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (even neo-CON religioso Pat Robertson calling for Hugo Chavez’s assassination).
Within the past week Iran’s rumblings about changing the fiat for Iranian oil became more than talk. A few days ago Iran announced payments for oil shipped to Japan would only be accepted in yen.
If other countries follow the lead of Iran it could cause a precipitous fall in the value of the USD, raising the price of all goods imported into this country. Since outsourcing of US manufacturing overseas has meant we hardly make anything anymore in this country inflation could become overwhelming due to almost EVERY import becoming increasingly more expensive.
Hence, Cheney calling for an attack on Iran is not unexpected.
Note #1: Half of all the 277 US warships are now around Iran’s waters and the third US aircraft carrier (USS Enterprise) just sailed in that direction.
Note #2: Just as Iraq permitted IAEA inspections prior to the March 2003 invasion, Iran has just announced IAEA may start making some inspections of nuclear facilities in their country. (BTW Iraq never kicked the inspectors out in 2003, Bush ordered them to withdraw although they said Iraq was co-operating with the inspections)
Note #3: I think we can expect some sort of ‘false flag’ operation against US interests (or IN the US even), possibly on a scale of the WTC or worse, in the very immediate future, and it will be blamed on Iran, of course.
There was a report in the British press a few months ago that a few generals in the Pentagon were contemplating not following illegal orders to nuke Iran. A military coupe is always possible if Congress fails to begin impeachment proceedings. I think the nuking of Iran which is what Cheney wants to do, may be far more imminent than next year. Two reasons being that all the ships will be in position and there are reports that our huge airfields in Iraq have been supplied with increased aircraft and weaponry. The excuse is that they want to bomb more Iraqis. That may be so. Bush and Cheney seem to love collateral damage of innocent men, women and children. But it takes no great insight to realize that the airfields are in easy striking distance of Iran as well. I’ve heard expert commentary to the effect that if Iran is attacked, nuclear power Pakistan would turn on the US. Turkey has been souring for some time on the Bush administration. Mounting a force of 200,000 men on the Iraq border with Turkey does not bode well. Iran (long ruling the Persian Empire), Pakistan and Turkey (long ruling the Ottoman Empire) all have much larger Muslim populations than Iraq or Afghanistan. Whatever differences these nations have, nuking Iran with the accompanying horrible casualties estimated at possibly a million or more could unite them all against the common threat of the United States. And threat we are.
Bush, Cheney, and the rest should have been arrested, charged with war crimes/crimes against humanity when they had Iraq attacked, and hanged. They have killed more people than Saddam ever did. These bastard thugs have gotten away with crime after crime and nonstop abuse of power.
Huckleberry is correct. This administration has a specific agenda, to destroy the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, and to dismantle the government in its present form. They are not insane, they are focused on a goal we have refused to recognize. Because we have refused to recognize it and take steps to thwart it, they are successful where we are not Approached from this perception, the necessity of stopping this takeover is imminent. We can vilify the bastards as much as we like; vilification is useless. Action is called for, and effective action must recognize the nature of the enemy in order to be effective. Let’s get off the dime, stop raving and get busy blocking their goal and implementing ours with singlemindedness and determination.
Perhaps this link will help. http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=OSB20060314&articleId=2093
It is perhaps more true now than when it was written in March of ‘06.
The Republicrats and the Democans seem willing to allow this to go on, for the remains of the Constitution, Bush’s “god damned piece of paper,” to be shredded and burned, as long as their $ugardaddy Bigbuck$ will guarantee their place at the public trough. That seems, with a very few exceptions, to be the sole job, the sole requirement of politics in the USA. If der Bush threatens that, they roll on their backs and piss themselves like scolded dogs.
We need genuine statesmen again in the United States, but what person of integrity would risk political or physical assassination to run for a soiled office, and have to line up with a bunch of sycophants?
SoiuxRose:
I hope that I am entirely incorrect in my predictions.
But I fear that I AM correct.
We shall see.
I think the reason Cheney is hot to attempt to take out Iran is that he’s convinced that neutralizing Iran is key to getting Iraq under control. Ie. he thinks Iran is giving sufficient support to insurgents in Iraq to destabilize it beyond US control. And in other words, Cheney wants to double or nothing his bet. You have to remember Bush/Cheney are gamblers. They wanted to gamble social secutiry in the stock market, remember? And what do they have to lose? Cheney is dead in 10 years anyway with a heart condition. And Bush is just waiting to resume drinking in some Texas shithouse.
Cheney is already at the craps table (or should I say “crap”) trying to load the dice.
Siouxrose,
“I am waiting for his head to spin as he spews venom from his half-human heart.”
Being a student of English as a foreign language, I love your innovative diction, especially the part I have underlined.
Alexander D,
What you forgot to say was that those people you named (Perle, Wurmser, and Feith) all belong to the self-proclaimed chosen (!) people.
Climberbruno,
One would not push the eject button. From the back seat, one would put two fingers of one’s left hand in his nostrils, pull his head back, and slash his throat with one’s right hand. One would have a better chance of surviving if the car crashes than ejecting from a fast moving car.
Lillulu,
What do you mean if he attacks Iran…? He’s already a war criminal.
____________________
ONE VERY GOOD ADVICE TO ALL POSTERS !!!!!!!!!
You know that when you’re posting here, you’re preaching to the choir, right? Good, after posting your comments here, post the exact same copies on warmongering sites such as Faux News, etc, if they allow posting by readers. In that way, not only you may educate some people, but you may also piss off some dummies, which may make you feel good.
We all must realize, that if we start an air war and sling bombs in Iran, and especially if we use ANY atomic weapons, the United States will in short order be history.
The leaders of both China and Russia have stated, they WILL support Iran. We are not c