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TechnoratiAdministration Opposes Plame Appeal
The Obama administration Wednesday took the side of top Bush administration officials - including most-vocal recent critic, former Vice President Dick Cheney - in the ongoing fight over the outing of CIA operative Valerie Plame.
![[Valerie Plame pulls out of her driveway on her way to work on Friday, Dec. 9, 2005 in Washington. (AP Photo/Kevin Wolf)]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/plame-2.jpg "plame-2.jpg")
The Justice Department asked the Supreme Court not to hear an appeal of a lawsuit brought by Mrs. Plame and her husband, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV, against several top Bush administration officials. The department's move continued the Bush administration's policy to fight the suit, which has already been dismissed by two lower courts.
"The decision of the court of appeals is correct and does not conflict with any decision of this Court or any other court of appeals," said the brief filed by Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Assistant Attorney General Tony West, and Justice Department attorneys Mark B. Stern and Charles W. Scarborough. "Further review is unwarranted."
The Justice Department filing agreed with the lower courts that none of the Wilsons' several legal arguments gave an appropriate basis for such a lawsuit.
The Supreme Court has not acted on the Wilsons' request that it hear the case.
The Wilsons filed suit in 2006 against top Bush administration officials who they say violated their constitutional rights by publicly disclosing that Mrs. Wilson was an undercover CIA operative. The lawsuit names Mr. Cheney, former White House senior adviser Karl Rove, former Chief of Staff to the Vice President I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby Jr. and former Deputy Secretary of State Richard L. Armitage.
"We are deeply disappointed that the Obama administration has failed to recognize the grievous harm top Bush White House officials inflicted on Joe and Valerie Wilson," said Melanie Sloan, one of the couple's attorneys and the executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington. "The government's position cannot be reconciled with President Obama's oft-stated commitment to once again make government officials accountable for their actions."
The White House referred questions about the case to the Justice Department, which declined to comment.
The case follows a classic Washington scandal that has come to be known as "Plamegate."
Fallout from the controversy led to the conviction of Libby on charges of lying to a grand jury investigating the leak of Mrs. Plame's identity, though he was not charged with the actual leak. President George W. Bush commuted Libby's 2 1/2-year prison sentence, without his having spent a day behind bars, after the sensational trial that peeked into the sometimes cozy and questionable relationship of Washington journalists and their politician sources.
The scandal had its roots in the 2003 State of the Union address, in which Mr. Bush said Saddam Hussein has recently tried to buy uranium in Africa. Mr. Wilson became a vocal and public critic of this claim, which the Wilsons say led the Bush administration to leak that information to columnist Robert Novak as an act of revenge. Mr. Armitage was later revealed to be the leaker.
Stephen Dinan contributed to this report.
135 Comments so far
Show Allhi this is john madden for ace hardware stores. this week for sale our latest corporate
tool barrack obama. this tool can fix EVERYTHING. HEALTHCARE REFORM you say.
just give 206 mil. and the problem is fixed. global warming nuclear power say 100 mil
fixed! on and on.the only change is what he didn't grab out of corp. amerika's piggybank!
Thank you CD for allowing a late post hee,
Most of the commentary here has devolved, a bit, fro the topic and delved into a broader strategy. Some of which makes sense. However,
The primary problem,IMHO, is that most fail to see the real issue by dividing everyone up on side issues of no import. The only issue of any import at this time is nothing but regaining control of this country from corporate fascists that for the last nine years have stripped all of us of our 'inalienable rights' to the benefit of the one party system we love to bitch about.
Guess what? This is a non partisan issue! Either the people, as opposed to political party weasels, enable each other on the basis that we agree on this single issue or nothing will get done on any other important issue that does not benefit the fascists who are manipulating the game board.
Think and read and write. Don't just write and think a little bit to make a partisan point. THAT is not the issue. The issue is WE ARE ALL losing this FUCKING country!
GET IT?
Obama has proven to be a coward, pure and simple. He rode the colour train and the train to restore the constitution and rule of law. He lied! He is now because of his lack of action turned himself into a WAR CRIMINAL. He is a TRAITOR to the country and should be removed and imprisoned with all the rest of them. Stop talking about it and lets do something! Any leaders about?
Bring America Back !!!!.................This just might be the last straw which has Mr Cave-in Obama proving He deserves only 4 Years in the Oval Office, not one minute more.
***Outing a US intelligence officer is Treason ! US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald found one little lie of Scooter Libby of Team Bush ! Contrast that to Fitzgerald's 30 minute televised conviction of the Gov of Illinois, without so much as a Trial !!!
Real easy to see which side of the political fence Patrick Fitzgerals swings on !!!
****Somehow, I just don't see Harvard as proud of its Constitutional Law Expert Obama, as it was say, of JFK !
One term only for Barak.
President Bait-n-Switch is who he is. We got a taste of this last August when he voted to continue allowing warrant-less wiretapping. He's slicker than Slick Willy. He makes me wonder if his inspiring speeches at Arizona St and Notre Dame were just meant to keep us coming to the slop trough. Obama was elected as the backlash candidate to George W. Now he's morphing into Bush.
If there isn't a more cut-and-dried case for the Wilson's then I don't know what is. Seems to me this country is hopelessly off-track.
I don't know if he's slicker than Bill Clinton, but his agenda is further to the right than Bill's.
After all, Clinton's response to the stagnant Republican economy he inherited was (1) domestic stimulation, (2) cutting military spending, and (3) raising taxes on income above a certain level (a level which only the wealthy reach). It worked! Budget deficits turned into surpluses, and the nineties were boom years.
Obama is doing just one of these tried-and-true Democratic economic tactics: domestic stimulus. In the other two areas he's taking the Republican approach: increasing military spending, and not raising taxes on the multi-millionaires. In a nutshell, that's why we're screwed.
The disillusionment continues. Real health care reform (HR676-Single Payer/Improved Medicare For All) doubtless next. Too many pols owned by the wealthy (and thus powerful)!
So sad for America it cannot remove the fear of getting sick.
I unpluged Rupert's propaganda box and voted Green. It's still unpluged.
I think Dennis Kucinich is honest. Unusual for anyone in politics.
I wonder who was behind the anthrax attacks - Cheney and his death squads I suppose.
You think Kucinich's honest? That's not very reassuring is it? Think again, there's nothing honest about the man, at the end he always endorses the criminals. Don't let his cheap talk fool you.
If he were honest, if he had any shame, after the way his party tied him down and shut him up during the debates in the last 3 or 4 presidential elections, the clown would've quit this disgraceful enterprise and run as an Independent.
If he were serious as a candidate, that is. But he's not. He does serve a purpose, he keeps the left voting Democratic. For that, he causes greater harm to the American people than Rush Limabaugh and Bill O'Reilly combined.
Now at last we have a truly teachable moment. Now at last we are realizing en masse what the tiny residual Real Left of defiantly unapologetic socialism has been saying for decades: Barack Obama/John McCain/Hillary Clinton/Sarah Palin or Barack McCain/John Obama/Sarah Clinton/Hillary Palin or Barack Palin/John Clinton/Sarah Obama/Hillary McCain -- the names and the party labels and even the campaign promises make absolutely no difference.
The associated elections are merely the Big Lies that conceal the one-party regime of the United States and hide the fact that the ruling class long ago reduced this once-promising nation to nothing more than their United Estates, at the same time reducing all of us outside their hereditary aristocratic ranks to serfs, slaves and -- when we can no longer be profitably exploited -- to cast-offs abandoned to the euthanasia of denied health care and general neglectfulness.
Now of course we are beginning to awaken to the fact that the sole purpose of government and governance at all levels of these United Estates is the propagation of capitalism and the maximization of profit -- that is, the absolute protection of the ruling class and the total subjugation of all the rest of us. Which explains without need for further elaboration precisely why there is no meaningful difference between Democrat and Republican.
Not that our new understanding matters; if it did, those of us who dare write as I do would have long ago been slain or imprisoned. But we are tolerated because our words are no more than solitary lamentations in the darkness. The de facto peasantry of the United Estates was long ago opiated to abject submission by the irresistible combination of theocracy, trinket materialism and pharmaceutical feel-goods. Thus even if we manage to rouse a few others from their zomboid state, it is far too late to make any difference at all. Not now, not ever.
Thus too the ultimate (and ultimately perverse) form of Obama's "change we can believe in": our dawning realization that here in the sweatshops and slave pens of these United Estates, the only function of hope is the intensification of subsequent hopelessness, prelude to the proper mindset for total surrender: final acceptance that “resistance is futile.”
True change will eventually come, of course. That is the one constant of human history and natural science. But since we have been methodically stripped of all the historically mandated prerequisites for successful revolution -- and will never again be allowed to regain them -- there will be no change save the worsening burdens of our own shackles, whether in our lifetimes or the lifetimes of our children and grandchildren.
Indeed when true change finally arrives on the Big Plantation of the United Estates, it will come either as it did to the Confederate Estates -- in the form of a relentlessly invading army -- or as environmental apocalypse beyond imagination: the extinction of our entire species.
I only read your first paragraph. There ARE differences between the people you mention. Hillary is significantly more progressive than the others, and Palin is a right-wing extremist. The lesson here is: do your homework before voting, don't vote based on media spin or horse-race analysis, and vote for the best candidate including third-party candidates.
Yes and Albert Speer was "significantly more progressive" than Josef Goebbels -- but both were part of Hitler's inner circle.
As to Hillary Clinton, she is "progressive" in exactly the same sense that Lyndon Baines Johnson was a "peace candidate," Jimmy Carter a "protector" of reproductive rights and Bill Clinton a "defender" of welfare recipients and organized labor.
As to "homework," the one overriding lesson of my professional life -- a career spanning half a century in social-documentary photography, investigative reporting and other modes of writing and editing (with substantial alternative-press involvement too) -- is that in today's world of Moron Nation and its sustaining Big Lie Media, research is effectively pointless.
The lies are like onions: peel away one layer and you find another layer with the same stench and substance. Should you penetrate the stench and get to semifactoids (as I did with Obama via his academic-journal endorsements of continued Fourth Reich imperialism), it makes no difference. You will be shouted down by the candidate's disciples for violating their codas of cultoid conformity, and even if you are indifferent to that sort of anti-intellectual hatefulness (as I damn well am), your findings will never be granted publication. And -- precisely as Goebbels pointed out 70-odd years ago -- that which is suppressed does not exist.
Hitler needed his Gestapo because Germany was a civilized, educated nation in which the population had to be reduced to functional imbecility to serve the goals and objectives of the Third Reich. No such obvious forms of oppression are required here in Moron Nation because (thanks to total Big Business control of public schools and media), the ruling class has absolute power to shape and re-shape the electoral mentality at will -- and we were already dumbed-down to national idiocy decades ago.
Hence Hillary Clinton is able to accomplish one of the greatest intellectual frauds of all time. She presents herself as a lifelong champion of reproductive choice when in fact her support for the job-destroying, health-insurance-canceling North American Free Trade Act (NAFTA) and its anti-labor, anti-environment ilk prove her to be as anti-choice as any of her bible-pounding colleagues in “The Family” (for which see Jeff Sharlet), the ruling class/Protestant Fundamentalist inner circle that runs Moron Nation much as Opus Dei ran Franco’s Spain.
Alas, Hillary’s anti-choice viciousness is sufficiently oblique it takes a bit of thinking to ferret it out, which means she is able to hide it beneath the all-concealing blanket of Moron Nation’s conditioned reflex of anti-intellectuality.
Nevertheless please try to follow the logic: reproductive choice is an integral part of healthcare. But because the United States regards health care as a privilege of wealth rather than a human right, the only people allowed reproductive choice are those who can afford health insurance: the ruling class of course, and those fortunate enough to have jobs that offer such coverage as part of their compensation packages. While NAFTA and its counterparts impact the ruling class only by increasing their already-obscene wealth, such treaties hurl the rest of us into often-permanent unemployment. All of us lose, typically forever, our health insurance; those of us who are women also lose all reproductive choice save abstinence.
Historical note: years ago, welfare provided reproductive choice to the poor, but welfare funding for abortions was terminated forever by Carter in 1977 -- a typical Democratic post-election betrayal -- and after subsequent years of methodical shrinkage, the last vestiges of welfare-funded reproductive choice (i.e., birth control pills, IUDs etc.) were eliminated by Bush II. (Gotta force us peasants to breed: how else will the ruling class keep its slave pens full?)
The bottom line is that by her support for NAFTA and other such measures, Hillary proves herself to be as anti-choice as any bible-thump misogynist.
So please don’t burden me with protestations about Hillary’s “progressive” values. On issues that count -- that is, on the class-struggle issues of jobs, labor rights, health insurance (and thus reproductive choice) -- careful analysis will show she is as much a tool of the ruling class as Sarah Palan is.
Hillary Clinton is simply more dishonest than Palin -- which is merely to say that Hillary is a typical hidden-agenda, bait-and-switch Democrat just as Palin is a typical froth-at-the-mouth, theofascism-embracing Republican.
Verily, it makes for entertaining theater. But that is all it is -- seductive histrionics to conceal the tyranny of a one-party state. Once a candidate is in office -- and just as Obama is proving -- the campaign rhetoric makes no difference at all: the ruling class governs as it always does, exactly as it has governed since the coup of 22 November 1963.
Hillary Clinton is pro-choice, she did not support NAFTA when Bill was President and she did not support it as a Senator, and she is not a religious extremist. So much for your "investigative" prowess.
I couldn't read the rest of your post. You're all opinion and no facts (except for incorrect ones). From your rhetoric, your "progressiveness" appears a false flag. I have nothing more to say to you.
To everyone else, by "homework" I mean looking at her Senate voting record. It is far more progressive than Obama's, on a vote by vote comparison during the years they were in the Senate together. And, that is an incontrovertible fact.
Three points quickly:
(1)-Hillary Clinton's (enthusiastic) support for NAFTA is a matter of record, likewise her (opportunistic) opposition to CAFTA. What her historical-revisionist disciples now attempt to redefine as "opposition to NAFTA" was in fact merely opposition to the timing of its presentation. Her Senate record on so-called "free trade" generally -- measures that are by definition anti-labor and anti-environment -- indicates strong support. And such support is as definitively anti-choice as it is anti-labor and anti-environment. As I noted above: in the United States, unless one is a member of the ruling class, access to any reproductive choice beyond abstinence is determined entirely by whether one has health insurance. Since free trade means staggering losses of U.S. jobs and thus of health insurance, it also means loss of reproductive freedom. Before you impugn my “prowess,” investigative or otherwise, Google around a bit first: in this instance Google Hillary Clinton/NAFTA and Hillary Clinton/Free Trade (with or without the /).
(2)-Hillary's association with "The Family" aka "The Fellowship" is another matter of record, documented in detail by Jeff Sharlet ("The Family/The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power," Harper Collins, New York: 2008), and confirmed by several other sources. Again Google, this time Hillary Clinton/The Fellowship, again with or without the slash.
(3)-I have never claimed to be a "progressive"; indeed I find the cultoid overtones of the term repugnant. I am quite simply an uncontrite socialist, not specifically Marxian but enough so influenced I have come to realize that any inquiry into history, sociology. economics or psychology that does not begin with the historical truth of class struggle is doomed to end in ignorance if not delusion. Which is of course the very reason even the notion of class struggle is so harshly tabooed.
I am sorry if you find these facts personally offensive, but that does not make them any less real.
Finally, after eighty-four comments, a mention of Dennis Kucinich, the one honest and fearless candidate who would have avoided the death trap of belonging to a negligible party, and who was excluded from the debates by the same corporate media that dole out the "news."
Kucinich is a fraud of the greatest order. If he had any honesty in him, he would've left the preposterous Democratic Party, run as an Independent and denounced Obama as the scoundrel that we all knew he was a long time ago. Instead, he stayed and endorsed Obama. The big fraud known as Kucinich serves as gate keeper, he keeps idiots on the left from leaving the Democratic Party instead of voting for real candidates on the left.
THAT is asinine! Many pols have done good things within the Democratic Party, and Kucinich is one of them.
Besides that, think of the careerists who remained in government during the Bush years (rather than resigning in disgust) and helped to turn things around during the latter years and win back Congress from the Repugs. These same people are now helping Congress, federal prosecutors and investigative journalists with documents relating to the many crimes committed by the Bush gang.
Can you imagine how much worse it would have been if everyone in government for the eight Bush years had been an unqualified crony or ideologue? It's always better to have conscientious people working from both the inside and the outside.
Now, Kucinich's endorsement of Obama prior to the Iowa caucuses . . . that's another matter. I don't know if he's offered any explanation for that. I'd like to hear one from him. Perhaps, he knew things about John Edwards' personal life that would have doomed his candidacy. He's too smart not to have known that Hillary Clinton's Senate voting record was far more progressive than Obama's. He's too smart not to have known that Hillary Clinton is far more progressive than her husband. He's too smart not to have known that Obama was connected to Illinois crooks and corrupt pols. He should have endorsed Hillary rather than Obama before Iowa. Think how much different things might have turned out if Obama had not upset Clinton in that first primary! We might have President Hillary now, and the list of current policies that are the same as Bush's old policies would be much, much shorter.
Nevertheless, Kucinich did the right thing by staying in the party. He is now in Congress, questioning Bush crooks in committee hearings, and speaking and voting against the worst of Obama's initiatives.
Your innocence is what's asinine. Kucinich's ZERO, his mission is to keep blind fools like you hoping that the Democratic Party will one day in the far future do something half-decent for Americans. What on God's green earth has he done, except give us cheap talk? Nothing.
When it came down to what really matters, ACTION, Kucinich has always sided with the criminals.
That's total crap.
Folks, everything that is going on in the Beltway these days is but an underscore of the fact that there is no such thing as "Two Mainstream Parties" in American political life. There is but one party - the corporate party. To think otherwise is to beat a dead horse. And the people themselves? They don't have a revolutionary bone in their bodies or they would have taken to the streets for any number of issues. Were these things happening in any number of countries in Central or South America there would most certainly be mass protests, riots and armed resistance. North Americanos have grown too soft and passive.
wow! sure got hot in here today! your not kidding buster. that kucinich guy maybe he
could of done something.last week i talked to bob fertik and he said nobody would demon-
strate against obama because we liked him. boy oh boy what a difference a week makes!
Remember the debates? Recall that Hillary, McCain and Obama got 90% of the talking time?
There were a couple of good candidates who barely had time to speak their names. We ignored them.
I am one of the guilty ones.
I hope not to be so deluded the next time, and I hope that millions of Americans will ignore the glitter and listen to the serious candidates, and I hope the TV cameras will give them a little more time.
But I am not going to count on it.
Considering the lies told -- based oh so loosely on CIA intelligence -- that "justified" the war on Iraq; and the fact of his findings regarding the Niger yellowcake reported to the CIA and revealed by Joe Wilson in his op-ed; and considering that the Cheney administration was so hell-bent on fabricating the alQaeda/Saddam connection, that torture was implemented to coerce false confessions to forge a non-existent link and further "justify" their war of choice. The CIA appears to be an impotent pawn whose veracity is conveniently either solid gold, or highly doubtful, depending on the moment and the need. So, what exactly is Obama trying to protect in blocking this suit? Who will be damaged by the revelation of treasonous activities in outing a covert operative? Or, if the prevailing thought is that CIA are bumbling idiots who don't know facts from fiction, then what is there to protect? Let the truth come out, I say. It could lead us on a merry treasure hunt of revelations of wrongdoing that leads far beyond the apparent petty retaliation emanating from the then-Vice President's office.
We can talk or comment all we want about this president(he's in and he's gonna do what he is told to do), who I did not vote for because as 2008 got closer to where the mainstream media sorted out the people they wanted as the R & D contestants and it was then that obama went on record to corporate america and the american izraeli public affairs committee assuring them of the full backing and support of the government, and it was the point where I decided not vote for either party, so to do my duty and vote, I went for a 3rd party knowing there would be no chance of victory.
What I paid attention to was the senate and house of representatives seats up for election and that is where more could get done when those incumbent crooks are voted out and it might be easier to get a 3rd party voted in either side of congress.
Maybe that would help more or maybe not but it really seems to be the last 'civil' way of regaining OUR government back from the crooks that have taken it but it just may be too late because in the S & L scandal in the 80s all those 'honest' CEOs and 'top professional' business men found the best way to game the system and make out like the bandits that they are, by doing CONTROL fraud which is corrupting all the departments and regulators into going along with the theft and breaking of laws that are on the books without being caught , and catching them with the government and law enforcement we have today is just about impossible, now, because these crooks were allowed and today's crooks are allowed to continue their criminal endevours without fear of accountability, the theft is considered a legal way of 'doing business'.
Read Danny Schechter's piece on today's posts Danny Schechter: Frauds R' Us: The Scams and Crimes of Wall Street
Then read William Blacks book 'the best way to rob a bank is to own one'
But to relate the theme of the post, it was criminal what was done to Plame but since when does that bother criminals who know that they will not be held accountable
At this point, how about a civil suit? Is that possible?
Joe
the difference is when we vote for a rethuglican we know what to expect. we
got torpedoed by obama. btw france is nice. have a democracy have national healthcare
and everything you expect from a democracy including mass demonstration when
the chips don't fall towards the people! so lets review. mass demonstration mass demonstration mass demonstration! comes a time when talking doesn't do it anymore.
i've been there in regards to this method. strikes and demonstrations work as long as
its peaceful and you don't give the powers that be a reason to get violent!
ttt, mass demonstration mass demonstration mass demonstration-is what is lacking, o any at all come to think of it, idiot Republicans demonstrated more for lower taxes or killing little animals, whatever it was, at their TeaParty than liberals, progressives, revolutionaries and wannabes combined protest this country's crimes against humanity.
It's as though there is Thorazine in the water. People needing past life regression therapy to remember who they are..wtf? I remember when being comatose was bad, now it's, "hey homey, you get some rest? you look comatose! yeah, dig it homey, hey, whay da thiz at?"
I postulate that after the govt's humiliation re 'Nam, some serious money got spent studying the logic, psychology and methodology of not quelling dispute, but killing it's seed. Underlying motives are undercut, but mostly the MSM ardently lobotomizes most people.
National Suicide by Television. See that wrecking ball coming through the window Harry? That's your life, what you get for not paying attention.
They don't need a reason to get violent...
They have "agent provacateurs" to dress like protestors and throw things at the cops...
Then they flash a badge and disappear behind the police lines before the skull cracking begins...
Temporary demonstrations are just that...
Only a worldwide long term general strike and boycott of the corporate finance and federal tax system will work...
Then we can have a jubilee to forgive all the debt and redistribute all the ill-gotten goods to the workers of the world...
this sucks. I voted for him, after bush and stolen elections and 9-11 I'd do it again. I hate bush & cheney on a far deeper level than BO saddens me.
He is not lying us into a war.
He did not steal the election.
He and King Abdullah are speaking out for a contiguous Palestine, now.
He sucks, but he pales relative to "the decider" and "so what' cheney....their destruction of this countries soul is unprecedented b4 OR after the fact.
2012 will be here in about an hour or so. Time moves quickly. I've heard good criticism of Obama, but I have heard Zero viable alternatives being organized, none. It's fine to vote for Nader every 4 years, but by definition, he has run for two decades, it is not helping. Have things gotten better in the last 20 years?
I'm happy to take heat for voting for BO, but anyone working on something better? Not something unattainable for principle, ("to keep younger voters informed," yawn) but something that can cause change?
I find Obama critics who lambast BO for being the same as bush or any republican interesting when they also note that he will be a one term president....if he's such a threat to the system, why's he gonna be shown the door?
duciksawce, Of course we have Justice in the good ole U.S. However it is only for corrupt political War Criminals and the fat cat with the big money.Our Judges are as corrupt as the politicians, because most of them are Repugs.
The Wilsons should file a law suit with an international court - obviously the US system has no justice
We are less secure now.
When Cheney-Bush et al. outed a CIA agent to go to war that exposed all of her contacts to sudden death. No one in their right mind will have anything to do with spying for the CIA after this betrayal.
Yes the system is rigged and will be until all qualified candidates get equal representation in the media and election process. If I can vote for someone why aren't they allowed in the debates? And yes I voted for Obama as the lesser of evils which I still believe was better than McCrazy and that Pal'in the ass. But even though Barak has done some good things on certain issues, as the months passed with increasing disappointment, I started keeping a list of issues where Barak was following Bush in negative ways. So here's my list. It's imperfect and there's some overlap but make of it what you will.
Obama Like Bush:
War On Drugs
Support Israeli crimes
Rendition
Executive Secrecy & Privilege
Immunity for Illegal Wiretapping
Troops/War In Iraq
Increase National Debt
Capital Punishment
Gay Marriage rights
Offshore Drilling
Corporate Bailouts
Drone Strikes In Pakistan
Protect Torturers
Cut Veterans Benefits
Silence On Gaza
Appoint Industry Insiders
European missile shield
Boycott UN Session On Racism
Clean Coal
Protect Israeli Spies
Polluters Over Polar Bears
Drop White Phosphorus On Civilians
Military Commissions Trials
Oppose Valerie Plame's Case
More Obama Like Bush:
Nuclear energy subsidies
Grand Canyon uranium mining
Factory farm subsidies
Genetically modified food subsidies
Obama worse Than Bush:
Expanded imperialist war in Afghanistan and Pakistan
Mandatory for-profit health insurance
I voted for Nader, and I'm very glad I did.
"The Wilsons filed suit in 2006 against top Bush administration officials who they say violated their constitutional rights by publicly disclosing that Mrs. Wilson was an undercover CIA operative."
that must be the 007th ammendment..the right for spys not to be screwed over by their bosses.
As much as I feel for the Wilsons, and Hate the bushies...
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
golly gee the last thing i would ever do is side with rush limburgher.you misunderstood what i was alluding to. and 90%+ is very accurate in the senate. folks masquerade as one thing to
get their asses in the door then flip when they smell the money. jack abramowitz mentor
described washington to him like this'' when tou first get here it smells like a cesspool
after two years you say boy this hot tub sure is warm!'' peace out
How does a president who took an oath of office find himself siding with one who is a convicted perjurer...is this not what Libby is?...a being who lied under oath? Of course, most, if not all of Obama's "campaign promises" turned out to be lies....too bad HE was not under oath during the campaign, eh?
More duplicity from Obama, this time on things environmental: http://www.counterpunch.org/stclair05212009.html
Obama is Bush in Black Face. And congress is just as dismal under Pelosi as it was under Gingrich.
As a comedian said recently: Who elected the mulatto?
they select so we may elect.---this is and has been a one party system.
We the elite select. You the proletariat decide.
malcom x would bitch slap this traitor into the next universe! perhaps some famous orthopedic surgeon could do a spinal implant and then teabagama could ride over to the sports authority and get himself a set of balls! yes golly gee he is the great hope- for
global corps banksters and any corporate thugs! no he can't!
You stole that from Rush Limbaugh. (Except the golly gee part — he left that out.)
James Joyce on Ireland: "Then for a little Irish fun, she betrayed her leaders one by one."
Leaders are rare in the U.S., but we don't mind a little Irish fun ourselves when one comes along.
Yesterday the Senate voted 90 - 6 not to give Obama the money to close Guantanamo. They want to know what he intends to do with the prisoners first.
In other words, a nearly unanimous vote of no confidence.
Obviously 90 percent of the Senate is Repuglican. (None of these people ever hesititated to give the Bush junta what it wanted or dared ask for specifics before jumping on board.)
What can one man do then? He tries to get buy-in, bring as many people under the tent as he can. That plan seems to be failing. Big money, big business, Israel, stupidity, ignorance, and ruthless greed rule.
It appears Obama is going to be Carter-ized, and if that doesn't happen his life will be in grave danger because the Evil Empire has no pity for refomers.
If there's any betrayal, it's not from Obama (so far.) The man's hands are tied.
Vote Green, Independent or Flat-earth Society, Obama is still our last best hope. And his only power comes from wide popular support. Undercut that to your sorrow. That's what the anti-Obama trolls that seem to have gotten the upper hand at Common Dreams want you to do.
Clue:
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts05212009.html
and this from a former Reagan administration official.
Our "last best hope"... Eh?
I am so sorry that your messiah has chosen to have his hands tied to the banksters and MIC...
Having the DoJ support each & every Bush crime, arguing states secrets and National security to support Cheney, Rove, Bush, and their lawyers regarding Plame, Gitmo, torture, extraordinary rendition, FISA, and pre-emptive war makes Obombya a complicit war criminal... An accessory to the Bush regimes crimes by covering for them, as well as using drone attacks on civilians in AfPak...
If he is your " last best hope" then I recommend you set your standard a little higher...
And next time try voting for a candidate based on their record, not their rhetoric...
Turning a country is like changing course on a super tanker. You spin the helm and 5 miles later the ship begans to respond. The United States is not going to come about in 4 years or 8 years, the hatred, distrust -- and now, the hysteria -- are too great.
No miracles. No messiahs.
The DoJ these days seems to be run by real lawyers, not religious nuts and political half-wits as before. No real lawyer is going to tip the hand. You play your cards when the time is right and without media fanfare or public announcements. It sometimes takes a long time to build a case and to convince people to come forward with evidence, not destroy it.
The Bush criminals are not home free yet, but they know their best hope is in derailing the administration.
(Which "best hope" candidate would you recommend? — I mean going by his or her record?)
Nonetheless I understand your impatience.
I get the supertanker analogy... And I would argue that the ship'o'state has already run aground...
The first thing we need to do is stop play-acting with the Democks and Repubes that we can steer it in the right direction someday...
There already are several organized alternatives, like the Green Party, that has a platform based on economic and social justice...
There already are candidates with integrity and a proven track record of speaking truth to power, and putting their life on the line...
There are candidates who are substantitive and transcend superficial labels or images or rhetorical memes just to appear "electable"...
Cynthia McKinney is a progressive African-American woman who was the congressional rep for Atlanta before running in 2008...
She introduced legislation to end subsidized clearcutting of national forests, while creating jobs in all of the impoverished rural towns of America... As a member of the Black Caucus she pleaded Gore & the Senate to investigate the election fraud of 2000... She was the first and few to call for a real investigation of 9-11... She Voted against the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, and the Patriot act... And she launched investigations into the Katrina Debacle...
She garnered the endorsement of the Green Party in 2008... Regardless of Naders choice to run as an independent...
While Owebama was silently christmassing in Hawai'i during the Gaza massacre... Cynthia was on a humanitarian mission in a boat trying to defy the israeli embargo and deliver medicine to Gaza... Yet her boat was rammed repeatedly by the Israeli naval patrol boat and turned back at gunpoint...
Now that is my kind of leader... And my kind of POTUS...
The Party is already happening... We are just waiting for the masses to stop deluding themselves and vote their conscience...
If the party isn't happening in your area, then it is up to you to get it started... Be your own leader... Be your own boss...
Obama was not silent in Hawaii, he actively supported Israel. This was not the first time Obama took this approach, just perhaps the first time many voters were paying attention enough to have it etched into their temporary memory.
Previously, Obama explicitly endorsed Israel's attack on Lebanon, know as the July War 2006. US Ambassador to the UN Khalilzad (now geared to be CEO of Afghanistan) was sent a memo from then Senator Obama stating his full support of Israel's "right to defend themselves"....
McKinney is a valid alternative for those here who find no solace in the world order Obama embraces.
As far as supertankers go, I like to think of the above example as the stereotypical Joesph Hazelwood defense. Rebuttal: A skipper can do all the course corrections you want and the crew will stand by his side. But, if you're drunk at the helm and late to your watch, we inevitably are headed for the reef.
The issue is judgment, not how a tanker operates under speed.
I hate to keep preachin (not really, my Dad was a Communist) but the best thing we could do for any progressive impulses Obama may have which you suggest are being blocked in his own mind to appease the right wing is to keep criticizing the hell out of him and organize a new left movement... that would do the trick just as Obama has said..."Now you guys go out there and make me do it"
It is the best support we could give him.
Constructive criticism good. Destructive criticism bad.
Thank you.
From the CFR with love. You all kept saying to yourselves, "He isn't really Dick Cheney's cousin, he's CHANGE! He isn't really...."
Now go support Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, Ron Paul, or any non-Council on Foreign Relations candidate.
The CFR protects its own, and the public be damned.
Poor old Ron Paul. He actually seems to think the constitution matters.
They all do before they get elected. Obama is sitting himself up for the big down fall with his Repug cohorts. He is an exact copy of Bush and Cheney. The repugs should be very happy with him. He fooled me and got my vote this time, but he wont fool me next time. The people should cut off his pay check. What has he done to earn one? Calling a C.I.A Agent out is a breach of the national security.What kind of an attorney did he say he is? Add him on th list with the previous War Criminals. What in the world does it take for a political criminal to get locked up?
LOL!
"Now go support Cynthia McKinney, Ralph Nader, Ron Paul, or any non-Council on Foreign Relations candidate."
If those candidates would get together so that we would have a chance and unite progressives, lots of Dems and tired Repub voters would be interested in what you want.
Do you see the math?
Just tryin to Help.
Love the Revolution
When you include Ron Paul as a possible candidate you totally lose me. He is the opposite of progressive and his followers would like you to believe otherwise. I wonder how many of his followers have really studied his background and what he stands for. I worry about the ones who have, and still believe in him.
Back in 2006, the Illinois candidates for governor were dismal…Blagojevich or Judy Baar Topinka. Gott in Himmel! Never were there 2 candidates worse than these two. However, there was another candidate running by the name of Rich Whitney for the Green Party. Because of the voter anger over the choices, Whitney received about 11% of the vote. Now the Greens try to make a big deal over this fact, but really, it was not because of his views that he received so many votes. I voted for him because I researched him, but most voted because he wasn’t “A” or “B”.
There was a CHOICE that many people took to tell the major parties that we didn’t like THEIR candidates. We need to have the nerve to do that on a national level and follow through. Vote 3rd Party…Send the message!
Protest votes are better than nothing, but we must Unite progressives so there will be a message to send.
As I keep asking.....When will Obama become the Grand Wizard of the KKK?
He already is. KKK = Killing Kleptomania Korruption.
The American public are totally naive to have believed Obama and his promise of change. Oh, actually he is changing things....for the worse! He is keeping the wars and torture going and sponsoring the largest heist of the middle class wealth in the history of the world!!! He is putting the final touches on the making of America into a fascist state!
Maybe Obama will be the Republican President in 2012. It would certainly solve the Repugs identity problems, and probably be a better fit for Obama.
And I seem to remember reading about how Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame campaigned for Obama. Very disappointing for them, I'm sure, but they were two among many who believed in "Change you could Hope for".
Ronnie:
Joe Wilson advocated for Hillary Clinton with great intensity. His arguments against Obama for his inexperience and lack of judgment were quite well known over at Huffnpost. Perhaps this is an example of Obama's political payback. Perhaps Joe Wilson knew he had no ally with Obama.
You can find the archives here:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/joe-wilson
ps. Obama can side with Cheney and Libby and Armitage until the end of his Admin, but ultimately USSC decides if they are going to hear the case.
Armitage and Cheney, btw are/were on the same "US-Azerbaijan Chamber of Commerce" board as Zbig Brzezinski. Big Zbig was a enthusiastic supporter of Obama. Obama went to Azerbaijan during the Democratic primaries for what, US votes? Yeah, right....Maybe Wilson saw something bigger in the pipes than many of Obama's supporters....
http://www.usacc.org/content.php?type=page&id=2&chi=5&par=3
Sioux
CHUK: Do you really think Hillary would not have supported the corporate party line? C'mon. We were given a pre-selection of candidates all ON message, and that message is deferential to big money which includes some of the most offensive industries (MIC) known to mankind.
You know, I really don't expect loaded question from you.
As far as "corporate party line" generalities go, of course both Obama and Clinton are DLC. Obama just pretended to be something else.
But I never said or implied Hillary Clinton wasn't part of the "CPL" or whatever. I was correcting Ronnie's misunderstanding of where Wilson stood. Equally, I pointed to other "national security advisers" with tacit connections to two of the three figures mentioned in the above article who Obama is accused of being connected to in deed. Then I loosely speculated if Wilson knew of these long-term trends showing in Obama's inner circle, and what did Obama's Azerbaijan connection mean? All of those I mentioned are connected in direct ways to Azerbaijan and the larger Reagan -now- Bush Doctrine Khalilzad and Brzezinski engage.
The end day reality is everybody expected Hillary Clinton to be hard-liner and DLC, too few ever suspected Obama was a bullshit artist. And Brzezinski, who I despise, hated the Clintons. So, if I am guilty of anything it is my deep misgivings over the Azer-connections I briefly list above. The Brzezinski-Khalilzad designed Doctrines will now go into effect risking the stability of Central Asia and Pakistan and the Caucasus Region.
I hope Russian influence in the Caucasus Region blossoms. They have worked on an accord with Armenia and Azerbaijan whereas the US attempted various color revolutions (re Freedom House, Brzezinski, et al). Turkey, Armenia, and Azerbaijan are close to open border deals with CIS oversight. If this happens, and if CIS can secure natural gas to Europe, it will be a major slap to Brzezinski.
Sioux Rose
CHUK: Thank you for the explanation. Perhaps I misunderstood an endorsement for Hillary. Your articulation of the background players is factual. No argument from me there.
Great comment.
It's because of ones like this I still stop by Common Dreams now and then. Lots to think about.
"Maybe Obama will be the Republican President in 2012."
Why not? He's the Republican President in 2009.
The right-wing Republicans are too moderate for Obama. What a scumbag!!
The Republican party moved far to the right under Reagan. Meanwhile the Dems also moved to the right claiming the ground the Republicans vaccated. The progressive movement is only represented by the Green Party currently. Stop listening to people who assert that Obama and the Dems can be pushed to the left. It is a fantasy as current history proves with each passing day, and with each passing agenda of the status quo.
Tell me something I did NOT expect. It will soon be revealed that Barb Bush is in actuality Obama's momma.
Cheney is his daddy
Nice one. At the very least Barb could at least give him a nick-name. What did she coin for the duo made of her husband and Bill Clinton, "the odd couple"?
Government backing Government, no suprise, Government's main concern is to protect itself.
Scarabocion
just another nail in the coffin...
Obama and his fellow dems may have so thoroughly disappointed progressive voters that put them in office that there will be no second term. We expected the criminal elements of the bush junta to be prosecuted. Why bother to vote if the policies won't be changed? Let the repugnants have the credit for bringing down the house of cards.
"Obama and his fellow dems may have so thoroughly disappointed progressive voters that put them in office that there will be no second term"
How much do you want to bet on that? Who is going to oppose him? Ralph? Cynthia? Ron? (You would just love living under a libertarian Government..lol) He does not need the leftist vote to get elected...Only the center....and he owns the center. (Those "nails in his coffin" don't seem to be doing much harm to his approval rating)... This is a two term President and he won't require the services of the Supreme Court of the United States to appoint him to a second term...He will get there on his own...elected
But I do understand your frustration?
"This is a two term President and he won't require the services of the Supreme Court of the United States to appoint him to a second term"
Do I detect pride or gloating here?
Great, so what if you are right? What will we have gotten? The Demo-liberal Validation that mucking with the Constitution isn't such a serious offense after all, and that even lying to the Congress should be kept in a past that won't upset us.
This "new" Administration will have set in stone all the abuses of the past one and ignored the will of a vast majority of voters, leaving American citizens as media drip-fed ghosts in a process completely run by corporations who wheel, deal and steal.
You are right, Dante. I'd add that many of these angry Obama supporters will rush back to support him in 4 years for fear of whoever the Republicans run. They're like Pavlov's dogs, except their motivation is fear instead of hunger.
That is why this is the perfect time to organize a united force for truth justice and peace.
I agree...
No, unfortunately, they'll still fall for the lesser of evils routine, and vote him back in. Or he'll just steal the election.
Said. If he keeps going along this path them we might just see a repug president in 2012.
I will be extremely surprised if the dems don't lose the house and senate in 2010.
Although I haven't voted for a repug. since 1970, There are a few repugs. that I will actually consider voting for in 2010.
He is definitely a one term president. There will be serious challengers within his own party. And all the republicans need to do is find some well spoken slickster and put him or her out there. The republicans are going to win by a landslide in 2012 if Obama keeps on as he has. Because memories are short he will not be accused of continuing Bush's policies, he will be accused of "taxing and spending". We are doomed. Screwed, blued and tattooed.
Frankly, I don't care anymore. I will tend my garden and hope I can get through the rest of my life w/o these corrupt, savage fools doing me in.
I am ashamed to say that I am doing the same, but I care. No matter what we do things will be done their way.
I know one person can make a difference. A friend of mine is working herself into an early grave just for the benefit of other people, and on a local level she has worked wonders. I don't have that kind of energy, and maybe I don't care as much as I wish I did.
Obama, why didn't you just get rich practicing law? I expect to be screwed by the likes of Cheney, may he rot in hell, but you looked so good and promised so much and disappointed so profoundly.
You should have compared his Senate voting record to Hillary's before voting for him. It was obvious he was no progressive. And contrary to popular belief and media spin, her voting record was surprisingly progressive.
Tending one's garden is a good thing, and something I am doing as well.
I hope, however, that tending one's garden starts from one's nose and moves outward. If we expect others to do as we say, not as we do, we're pissing in the wind.
I hope, also, that we include our community, our country, our world, as parts of our gardens. If we don't, then we're just pissing on our gardens (which is not a bad thing for the plants, but it's a handy metaphor).
And what would be the difference between the repug or a democrat prez? Apparently the course these two parties follow is the same. Isn't Obomber following in Bush's steps? I think this team mentality that one team is better than the other is what is causing us a great misery and will continue to cause misery to this country.