Winking: Palin to Bush

This day in 2004.....

This day in 2004 the electoral map was predicting Kerry 247 - Bush 285 and the "actual results" were Kerry 251 - Bush 286.

Today, the electoral maps put Obama at 375, 306, and 350.

We're getting close to Nov 4th. The polls and electoral map are in our favor, but we still need to GOTV!!!

Bush Family Legacy: Ties to Hitler and Nazis

I am going to use this blog entry as an archival location, which will be constantly updated, that will contain documentation of the Bush family ties to Hitler and the Nazi Party. There is so much evidence spread throughout the internet(s), and hopefully I can create a single unique location that will reference all appropriate materials. Perhaps some crafty internet(s) guru could create a Wiki type tool for this important topic? *hint hint*

• How Bush's grandfather helped Hitler's rise to power: Rumors of a link between the US first family and the Nazi war machine have circulated for decades. Now the Guardian can reveal how repercussions of events that culminated in action under the Trading with the Enemy Act are still being felt by today's president.
  

• The Hitler Project. Bush Property Seized - Trading with the Enemy: In October 1942, ten months after entering World War II, America was preparing its first assault against Nazi military forces. Prescott Bush was managing partner of Brown Brothers Harriman. His 18-year-old son George, the future U.S. President, had just begun training to become a naval pilot. On Oct. 20, 1942, the U.S. government ordered the seizure of Nazi German banking operations in New York City which were being conducted by Prescott Bush.

• Documents: Bush's Grandfather Directed Bank Tied to Man Who Funded Hitler (FOXNews.com): President Bush's grandfather was a director of a bank seized by the federal government because of its ties to a German industrialist who helped bankroll Adolf Hitler's rise to power, government documents show.

• Bush Family ties to funding the Nazis during WWII (YouTube Video): Bush Family - The First Family of Treason - How the Bush Family helped bankroll the Nazi War Machine. This is an excerpt from Alex Jones' latest film, 9/11 Martial Law: Rise of the Police State (Below is the same video).
  

• Bush-Nazi Link Confirmed: Documents in National Archives Prove George W. Bush's Grandfather Traded with Nazis - Even After Pearl Harbor: After 60 years of inattention and even denial by the U.S. media, newly-uncovered government documents in The National Archives and Library of Congress reveal that Prescott Bush, the grandfather of President George W. Bush, served as a business partner of and U.S. banking operative for the financial architect of the Nazi war machine from 1926 until 1942, when Congress took aggressive action against Bush and his "enemy national" partners.

Some Detainees Are Drugged For Deportation

H/t Digbys

The US government routinely injects psychotropic drugs into detainees to keep them sedated during deportation flights. , in violation of international human rights standards.

The U.S. government has injected hundreds of foreigners it has deported with dangerous psychotropic drugs against their will to keep them sedated during the trip back to their home country, according to medical records, internal documents and interviews with people who have been drugged.

The government's forced use of antipsychotic drugs, in people who have no history of mental illness, includes dozens of cases in which the "pre-flight cocktail," as a document calls it, had such a potent effect that federal guards needed a wheelchair to move the slumped deportee onto an airplane.

"Unsteady gait. Fell onto tarmac," says a medical note on the deportation of a 38-year-old woman to Costa Rica in late spring 2005. Another detainee was "dragged down the aisle in handcuffs, semi-comatose," according to an airline crew member's written account. Repeatedly, documents describe immigration guards "taking down" a reluctant deportee to be tranquilized before heading to an airport.

[...]

bin Laden determined to strike US

Flashback: Aug. 6, 2001 (H/t to TP)

Six years ago today, President Bush received a classified intelligence briefing that warned bin Laden was determined to strike inside the U.S. Bush was described as being “carefree” on the day he received the briefing at his Crawford ranch in Aug. 2001. Condoleezza Rice later dismissed the urgency of the briefing, claiming it was “not a warning” but rather an “historical memo.”

War costs may top $1 trillion over 10 years

The cost of military operations and diplomatic efforts in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere around the world could top $1 trillion over the next decade, according to Congressional Budget Office estimates provided to the House Budget Committee Tuesday.

The budgetary forecasts hinge largely on the size of the force deployed to Iraq between 2008 and 2017, a matter that Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England told the panel is nearly impossible to predict. "That's a long way in the future" to estimate both costs and force levels, he said.

But CBO officials, at the request of House Budget Chairman John Spratt, D-S.C., estimated that the total costs of operations would range from $924 billion to just over $1 trillion if the size of the deployed force decreases from 210,000 today to 75,000 by 2013.

That compares to a CBO estimate in February of $840 billion total cost. But if the size of the deployed force shrinks to 30,000 troops by 2010, war costs would range from $481 billion to $603 billion between 2008 and 2017, CBO said Tuesday.

Bush Breaks Disapproval Records: Impeachment Imminent?

H/t to C&L

dubyah is the most unpopular President [sic] for the longest stretch of time in A
American history. Keith reports on the latest poll findings confirming this sad, sad fact, and conservative Republican & former Reagan Deputy AG Bruce Fein talks about why Bush must be impeached.

Caption This: The Decider

Criminalizing the Antiwar Movement

From Global Research

The Executive Order entitled "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq" provides the President with the authority to confiscate the assets of whoever opposes the US led war.

A presidential Executive Order issued on July 17th, repeals with the stroke of a pen the right to dissent and to oppose the Pentagon's military agenda in Iraq.

The Executive Order entitled "Blocking Property of Certain Persons Who Threaten Stabilization Efforts in Iraq" provides the President with the authority to confiscate the assets of "certain persons" who oppose the US led war in Iraq:

"I have issued an Executive Order blocking property of persons determined to have committed, or to pose a significant risk of committing, an act or acts of violence that have the purpose or effect of threatening the peace or stability of Iraq or the Government of Iraq or undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people."

In substance, under this executive order, opposing the war becomes an illegal act.

The Executive Order criminalizes the antiwar movement. It is intended to "blocking property" of US citizens and organizations actively involved in the peace movement. It allows the Department of Defense to interfere in financial affairs and instruct the Treasury to "block the property" and/or confiscate/ freeze the assets of "Certain Persons" involved in antiwar activities. It targets those "Certain Persons" in America, including civil society organizatioins, who oppose the Bush Administration's "peace and stability" program in Iraq, characterized, in plain English, by an illegal occupation and the continued killing of innocent civilians.

The Executive Order also targets those "Certain Persons" who are "undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction", or who, again in plain English, are opposed to the confiscation and privatization of Iraq's oil resources, on behalf of the Anglo-American oil giants.

The order is also intended for anybody who opposes Bush's program of "political reform in Iraq", in other words, who questions the legitimacy of an Iraqi "government" installed by the occupation forces.

Moreover, those persons or nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), who provide bona fide humanitarian aid to Iraqi civilians, and who are not approved by the US Military or its lackeys in the US sponsored Iraqi puppet government are also liable to have their financial assets confiscated.

The executive order violates the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the US Constitution. It repeals one of the fundamental tenets of US democracy, which is the right to free expression and dissent. The order has not been the object of discussion in the US Congress. Sofar, it has not been addressed by the US antiwar movement, in terms of a formal statement.

Apart from a bland Associated Press wire report, which presents the executive order as "an authority to use financial sanctions", there has been no media coverage or commentary of a presidential decision which strikes at the heart of the US Constitution..

Broader implications

The criminalization of the State is when the sitting President and Vice President use and abuse their authority through executive orders, presidential directives or otherwise to define "who are the criminals" when in fact they they are the criminals.

This latest executive order criminalizes the peace movement. It must be viewed in relation to various pieces of "anti-terrorist" legislation, the gamut of presidential and national security directives, etc., which are ultimately geared towards repealing constitutional government and installing martial law in the event of a "national emergency".

The war criminals in high office are intent upon repressing all forms of dissent which question the legitimacy of the war in Iraq.

The executive order combined with the existing anti-terrorist legislation is eventually intended to be used against the anti-war and civil rights movements. It can be used to seize the assets of antiwar groups in America as well as block the property and activities of non-governmental humanitarian organizations providing relief in Iraq, seizing the assets of alternative media involved in reporting the truth regarding the US-led war, etc.

In May 2007, Bush issued a major presidential National Security Directive (National Security and Homeland Security Presidential Directive NSPD 51/HSPD 20), which would suspend constitutional government and instate broad dictatorial powers under martial law in the case of a "Catastrophic Emergency" (e.g. Second 9/11 terrorist attack).

On July 11, 2007 the CIA published its "National Intelligence Estimate" which pointed to an imminent Al Qaeda attack on America, a second 9/11 which, according to the terms of NSPD 51, would immediately be followed by the suspension of constitutional government and the instatement of martial law under the authority of the president and the vice-president. (For further details, see Michel Chossudovsky, Bush Directive for a "Catastrophic Emergency" in America: Building a Justification for Waging War on Iran? June 2007)

NSPD 51 grants unprecedented powers to the Presidency and the Department of Homeland Security, overriding the foundations of Constitutional government. It allows the sitting president to declare a “national emergency” without Congressional approval. The implementation of NSPD 51 would lead to the de facto closing down of the Legislature and the militarization of justice and law enforcement.

"The President shall lead the activities of the Federal Government for ensuring constitutional government...."

Were NSPD 51 to be invoked, Vice President Dick Cheney, who constitutes the real power behind the Executive, would essentially assume de facto dictatorial powers, circumventing both the US Congress and the Judiciary, while continuing to use President George W. Bush as a proxy figurehead.

NSPD 51, while bypassing the Constitution, nonetheless, envisages very precise procedures which guarantee the powers of Vice President Dick Cheney in relation to "Continuity of Goverment" functions under Martial Law:

"This directive shall be implemented in a manner that is consistent with, and facilitates effective implementation of, provisions of the Constitution concerning succession to the Presidency or the exercise of its powers, and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 (3 U.S.C. 19), with consultation of the Vice President and, as appropriate, others involved. Heads of executive departments and agencies shall ensure that appropriate support is available to the Vice President and others involved as necessary to be prepared at all times to implement those provisions." (NSPD 51, op cit.)

The executive order to confiscate the assets of antiwar/peace activists is broadly consistent with NSPD 51. It could be triggered even in the absence of a "Catastrophic emergency" as envisaged under NSPD 51. It repeals democracy. It goes one step further in "criminalizing" all forms of opposition and dissent. to the US led war and "Homeland Security" agenda.

Miers, Bush Chief of Staff to face contempt charges

From Raw story

Former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and Joshua Bolten, the current Chief of Staff to President George W. Bush, will likely be charged with contempt by the House Judiciary Committee on Wednesday this week.

"This investigation, including the reluctant but necessary decision to move forward with contempt, has been a very deliberative process, taking care at each step to respect the Executive Branch’s legitimate prerogatives,” said Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, in a statement. "I've allowed the White House and Ms. Miers every opportunity to cooperate with this investigation, either voluntarily or under subpoena. It is still my hope that they will reconsider this hard-line position, and cooperate with our investigation so that we can get to the bottom of this matter."

Through an attorney, Miers had had earlier stated that she does not fear contempt charges. She refused to comply with a subpoena and appear before the House Committee on July 12 as part of the investigation into the firing of 9 US Attorneys. Bolten also has failed to turn over documents sought by House Democrats. The Bush chief of staff was ordered to comply with the subpoena by 10 AM this morning.

How to Create an Angry American: Expose the Lies

H/T to Informed Consent:

A clever montage of Bush administration falsehoods and denials regarding the Iraq War, via YouTube:

Poll: America disagrees with Libby pardon

66% of Americans believes Bush should not have commuted Scooter Libby’s prison sentence, according to a new Gallup poll.

H/T to Think Progress

Powell tried to talk Bush out of war

From Times Online:

The former American secretary of state Colin Powell has revealed that he spent 2½ hours vainly trying to persuade President George W Bush not to invade Iraq and believes today’s conflict cannot be resolved by US forces.

“I tried to avoid this war,” Powell said at the Aspen Ideas Festival in Colorado. “I took him through the consequences of going into an Arab country and becoming the occupiers.”

Powell has become increasingly outspoken about the level of violence in Iraq, which he believes is in a state of civil war. “The civil war will ultimately be resolved by a test of arms,” he said. “It’s not going to be pretty to watch, but I don’t know any way to avoid it. It is happening now.”

He added: “It is not a civil war that can be put down or solved by the armed forces of the United States.” All the military could do, Powell suggested, was put “a heavier lid on this pot of boiling sectarian stew”.

The signs are that the views of Powell and other critics of the war are finally being heard in the Pentagon, if not yet in the White House. Robert Gates, the defence secretary, is drawing up plans to reduce troop levels in Iraq in anticipation that General David Petraeus, the commander in Iraq, will not be able to deliver an upbeat progress report in September on the American troop surge.

Campaign to Impeach Cheney and Bush

From FarLeft:

8/18/07 - Mark Your Calendars Folks

Write your Representative and both Senators.

If you're looking for reasons to include in your e-mail, try:

* the 8/18/07 impeachment site
* reasons to impeach Bush
* reasons to impeach Cheney

It doesn't have to be a long letter. Something handwritten might be nice. So, mark it down - August 18, 2007 - reserve 30 minutes to make your voice heard.

You can find the address for your Congresspersons at the following sites:

* enter your zip code or click your state
* select your member's name or enter your zip code
* enter your zip code or select your state

Three Solid Sources: Valerie Wilson Was a Covert Agent When Team Cheney Outed Her

From the Pensito Review:

1. In a court filing in May, special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald stated Wilson was covert:

An unclassified summary of outed CIA officer Valerie Plame’s employment history at the spy agency, disclosed for the first time today in a court filing by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, indicates that Plame was “covert” when her name became public in July 2003.

If Fitzgerald submitted false documents to the court, we can assume the jackals on the right would have found this out by now and his head would be on a pike.

2. Valerie Wilson’s sworn testimony before the Oversight Committee of the House of Representatives:

VIDEO

• ThinkProgress also has video of Wilson’s testimony.

I worked in the Counterproliferation Division of the CIA, still as a covert officer whose affiliation with the CIA was classified.

Same as above. Wilson would be facing prison right now for lying under oath, if Republicans had evidence that this statement was false.

3. The CIA has said Wilson was covert — twice:

At the Oversight hearing in March, Chairman Henry Waxman, D-West Hollywood, read a statement that had been approved by the head of the CIA, Gen. Michael Hayden, a Bush appointee:

“During her employment at the CIA, Ms. Wilson was undercover. Her employment status with the CIA was classified information, prohibited from disclosure under Executive Order 12958. At the time of the publication of Robert Novak’s column on July 14, 2003, Ms. Wilson’s CIA employment status was covert. This was classified information. Ms. Wilson served in senior management positions at the CIA in which she oversaw the work for other CIA employees and she attained the level of GS-14 — Step Six under the federal pay scale. Ms. Wilson worked on some of the most sensitive and highly secretive matters handled by the CIA. Ms. Wilson served at various times overseas for the CIA.”

Two months after she was outed, the CIA described Wilson as being an “undercover operative” in a letter to the Dept. of Justice:

On September 16, 2003 the CIA sent a letter to the US Department of Justice, asserting that Plame’s status as a CIA undercover operative was classified information and requesting a federal investigation. Knowingly leaking the identity of a covert agent is a criminal violation of the Intelligence Identities Protection Act (IIPA), and the CIA is required by law to report any such possible criminal violation.

Leaving IIPA aside, the Bush officials who publicized Wilson’s name clearly violated the terms of their high level security clearances, the penalties for which include losing the clearance. But both Armitage and Libby kept their clearances until they resigned. Rove still has his.

Blair Announces Removal of 1600 Troops, Bush Adds 1,000 Troops to Surge: Coincidence?

In the wake of the announcement that Great Britain will be withdrawing its almost 7,000 troops from Iraq, Administration officials are claiming this is good news. In fact, according to ABC News (via ThinkProgres), Vice President Cheney "said the move was actually good news and a sign of progress in Iraq.”

According to the plan, "Britain will withdraw around 1,600 troops from Iraq in the coming months and aims to further cut its 7,100-strong contingent by late summer if Iraqi forces can secure the country's south, Prime Minister Tony Blair said Wednesday."

While this is great news, the MSM has glossed over an additional piece of information: that Bush added another 1,000 troops to the surge last Friday.

According to a press release from the DoD:

"This three-month acceleration affects approximately 1,000 service members. U.S force levels in Iraq continue to be conditions-based, and are determined upon the recommendations of military commanders in Iraq and in consultation with the Iraqi government."

Less than a week before Tony Blair announced that close to 1,600 British troops will be making their way home shortly, it seems President Bush has compensated for that difference by adding an additional 1,000 American troops in Iraq.

Since Blair is typically considered Bush's lapdog, it is hard to believe that Bush was not aware of Blair's plans less than a week ago, when the decision to send further US troops into harms way was decided upon.

25 Most Corrupt Officials of the Bush Administration

Here are 15 of the 25 listed at the citizensforethics.org

• Claude Allen White House
  Exhibits
• 
  
  
• Lurita Doan General Services Administration
  Exhibits

• Darleen Druyun U.S. Air Force
  Exhibits

• Kyle "Dusty" Foggo Central Intelligence Agency
  Exhibits

• John Korsmo Federal Housing Finance Board
  Exhibits

• Janet Rehnquist U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
  Exhibits

• Kenneth TomlinsonCorporation for Public Broadcasting
  Exhibits
• 
  

• Eric AndellU.S. Department of Education
  Exhibits

• Lester CrawfordFood and Drug Administration
  Exhibits

• Brian DoyleU.S. Department of Homeland Security
  Exhibits

• Frank FigueroaU.S. Department of Homeland Security
  Exhibits

• J. Steven GrilesU.S. Department of the Interior
  Exhibits

• Donald KeyserU.S. Department of State
  Exhibits

• David SafavianWhite House and General Services Administration
  Exhibits

• Thomas ScullyU.S. Department of Health and Human Services
  Exhibits

Poll: Bush Approval Rating Sinks to 32%

H/t to tpmcafe:

President Bush's approval rating has sank to a dismal 32%, his lowest rating since last May, a new Gallup poll finds. Bush's approval numbers have remained below 50% for two years in the Gallup poll, and the survey also finds that the President's approval rating of 46% on terrorism -- which is often described as his signature issue -- is lower than his disapproval number of 52%.

Another Bush Lie: Troop Surge To Include Almost Double the 21,500 Promised

When President Bush stood before the American people last month, and promised "A New Way Forward" (Tm) in Iraq, he explained to us that this plan would include 17,500 new troops in the Baghdad area (as well as another 4,000 troops in Anbar province).

Well, once again the President "decided" that he wasn't going to share the entire truth with the American people.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) the escalation of troops will not just include 21,500 of our men and women, but closer to 48,000.

Thus far, the Department of Defense (DoD) has identified only combat units for deployment. However, U.S. military operations also require substantial support forces, including personnel to staff headquarters, serve as military police, and provide communications, contracting, engineering, intelligence, medical, and other services. Over the past few years , DoD’s practice has been to deploy a total of about 9,500 personnel per combat brigade to the Iraq theater, including about 4,000 combat troops and about 5,500 supporting troops.

DoD has not yet indicated which support units will be deployed along with the added combat forces, or how many additional troops will be involved. Army and DoD officials have indicated that it will be both possible and desirable to deploy fewer additional support units than historical practice would indicate. CBO expects that, even if the additional brigades required fewer support units than historical practice suggests, those units would still represent a significant additional number of military personnel.

To reflect some of the uncertainty about the number of support troops, CBO developed its estimates on the basis of two alternative assumptions. In one scenario, CBO assumed that additional support troops would be deployed in the same proportion to combat troops that currently exists in Iraq. That approach would require about 28,000 support troops in addition to the 20,000 combat troops—a total of 48,000. CBO also presents an alternative scenario that would include a smaller number of support personnel—about 3,000 per combat brigade—totaling about 15,000 support personnel and bringing the total additional forces to about 35,000.

It seems the DoD is still determining whether it will send the usual amount of support troops along with the surge, but either way this new plan will either require close to 48,000 troops, or our soldiers in harms way won't have the proper support - once again.

In the same report, the CBO estimates the cost of the troop surge "would range from $9 billion to $13 billion for a four-month deployment and from $20 billion to $27 billion for a 12-month deployment, depending upon the total number of troops deployed and including additional costs that would be incurred during the build-up and ramp-down periods."

So, the President has once again mislead the American public and is planning to send a larger number of troops into battle without the support of the American people or the Congress, at a price tag of about $20 million.

(H/T to Dee, via Myspace)

Bush's Valentines