Replies: 531 Comments

Comment #1: i beat hank said on 6/13/05 @ 10:02pm ET...

congrats

Comment #2: Bill_o_Carolina said on 6/13/05 @ 10:04pm ET...

I did too I think!

Thank youMr. Conyers. You are an American hero.

Comment #3: hank said on 6/13/05 @ 10:07pm ET...

Mr. Conyers: You did it. I know I said you wouldn't. 540,000 signatures. That is really really great.

I also said the mainstream media would never cover the Downing Street Memo. I was wrong about that too.

So many memos have come out saying the exact same thing: Bush lied to me about the war. I am upset as an American and deeply thank you for helping me see the light.

I apologize for every bad thing I ever said about you or anyone else on this blog.

Comment #4: Jack said on 6/13/05 @ 10:08pm ET...

Wow, Hank, I never thought I would see the day. It is amazing that even an ignorant jerk like you can see the truth.

Comment #5: Doug Kenline said on 6/13/05 @ 10:09pm ET...

Keep on bloggin' JC!

http://www.givemeliberty.org

Comment #6: Hank said on 6/13/05 @ 10:10pm ET...

Jack: I know I have been an ignorant jerk. It will take me many many years and good deeds to make up for it. I am going to buy 100 copies of What Went Wrong in Ohio and send them to my wingnut friends in the hopes that they too will see the light.

Comment #7: Jack said on 6/13/05 @ 10:11pm ET...

Hank: You also need to stop wearing your grandmother's clothes. It is strange and perverted and, plus, they smell like mothballs.

Comment #8: understandinglife said on 6/13/05 @ 10:11pm ET...

Good evening Congressman Conyers,

Your leadership continues to inspire and accelerate the process of justice and the focus on the need to return all US Nationals from Bush's illegal war on Iraq as soon as logistically reasonable.

You may be familiar with this May 1 2005 document, but in case not, please check:

"May 1 EXPOSÉ ABOUT THE U.K. ATT'Y GENERAL complements the DSM:"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3847225

Peace and thank you,
UL

http://www.missionnotaccomplished.us

Comment #9: Hank said on 6/13/05 @ 10:12pm ET...

Jack: Thanks. I know I need professional help.

Comment #10: James H. Swan said on 6/13/05 @ 10:14pm ET...

Congradulations! Mine's in there somewhere. Please keep informing us as to the count.

And, hey, what with the Michael Jackson verdict being released today, not Thursday, we'll all be watching to see if Homeland Gestapo puts us at COLOR RED on the 16th. ;-)

Comment #11: Chris said on 6/13/05 @ 10:18pm ET...

Thank you, Congressman Conyers for all the hard-work you've done for all of us, Americans. I shutter to think where we'd be without you, sir. We're all standing right behind you 100 percent!

Comment #12: bpilgrim said on 6/13/05 @ 10:19pm ET...

Thank you Sir, for taking on this CRITICAL issue for weTHEpeople and our great nation that DESERVES an ACCOUNTING from this administration.

Comment #13: Patrick Monk said on 6/13/05 @ 10:19pm ET...

Oh Hank honey,welcome to the light side, you are forgiven. You have given me hope that there is redemption for all us grievous sinners and lambs who have strayed from the fold. Hallelujah and glory be. He has been saved !!!
Now if we can only get to Rush.

Comment #14: Joz said on 6/13/05 @ 10:22pm ET...

Where is a list of the over 100 members of congress who have signed the letter?

Comment #15: Genghis Khan said on 6/13/05 @ 10:25pm ET...

Where can I find a page with a rolling count of the signatures to Rep. Conyers' letter?

Comment #16: Faith said on 6/13/05 @ 10:30pm ET...

Great news! Please continue to let us know what more we can do to help, JC.

Comment #17: bleever said on 6/13/05 @ 10:36pm ET...

We've got your back, Mr. Conyers.

Whatever we can do, just ask.

Comment #18: Paxil said on 6/13/05 @ 10:40pm ET...

I'm with Joz, where's the list of members of congress?

Eleven new signatories, who are they?

Comment #19: Markus said on 6/13/05 @ 10:41pm ET...

Can't wait to see what's next, Mr. Conyers.

Well done, and thanks for your persistence!

Folks, Hank is still worth ignoring.

Comment #20: faux news channel said on 6/13/05 @ 10:52pm ET...

Great job Mr. Conyers, I would love to see Bush under oath if at all possible. America deserves answers, after all the needless losses in Iraq.

ps Congrats to all Republicans who woke up from the coma this weekend.

Comment #21: Take Back America said on 6/13/05 @ 10:56pm ET...

Keep up the great work Congressman Conyers, your a shining star in an otherwise dark sky.

Comment #22: Emily said on 6/13/05 @ 10:58pm ET...

Great work Mr. Conyers! Here is information about rallies going on that day he delievers the petition. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x3851704

Comment #23: Eliot said on 6/13/05 @ 10:58pm ET...

Please read:
http://www.reachm.com/amstreet/archives/2005/06/13/counterspin-central-memo-to-dems

Get ready for the latest Pro-Bush spin on Memogate. It goes like this:

“The latest British memo hitting the news today actually PROVES that Bush made no “political decision” to go to war with Iraq, and that they all believed that Iraq had WMDs.”

The only problem with this spin, is that it’s dishonest. But don’t expect Tweety or Russert to figure this out on their own. So I am going to provide a handy dandy talkng point to explain how the Downing Street “memo” is actually still valid.

The current British memo being debated is dated July 21, 2002.

It was prepared in advance of a meeting between US and British officials to discuss their Iraq strategy.

Thus, it reflects the British pre-meeting perception of the US position on Iraq.

In that memo, the Brits expressed the view that “no political decision” had been taken by Bush on an invasion of Iraq.

The Downing Street “memo” is actually the minutes recorded by a high level British intelligence official AT THAT MEETING. It is dated July 22, 2002.

Therefore, the impressions in those minutes are later in time, and more accurately reflect Bush administration intentions and policy than the pre-meeting memo.

Before the meeting, as I noted above, the Brits believed that “no political decision” to go to war had been made by Bush.

AT THE MEETING, however, they learned otherwise. And this was recorded in the minutes taken at the meeting:

“C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime’s record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.”

Note the “perceptible SHIFT in attitude” comment. This means that pre-July 22, 2002, the Brits believed that Bush had not yet decided on war. But after July 22, 2002, they percived a “shift in attitude” toward war being “inevitable.”

Contrary to the spin you will no doubt see and hear all day from Republican pundits, talk radio, Fox News and the warfloggers, the latest memo does NOT undercut or invalidate the Downing Street “memo.” It actually complements and supplements it.

Please make sure these facts are spread as widely as possible in order to counter the propaganda onsluaght from the Rightwing Noise Machine.

UPDATE: The American Progress Action Fundbreaks down the memos in more detail.

They also have the full text of all the secret British memos, including the two I described above.

In essence, then, there is more smoke coming out of this gun than out of Cheech and Chong’s VW Van.

By Hesiod 7:15 am War: Iraq, Intelligence Issues, International Law, Foreign Policy, Defen/

Comment #24: Hoot said on 6/13/05 @ 11:03pm ET...

Rawstory has a great timeline of the events leading to war.

Comment #25: ljm said on 6/13/05 @ 11:14pm ET...

COngratulations, Mr. Conyers, you did it. Now I hope Semsenbrenner will behave for the hearing on Thursday. RawStory does have an interesting timeline. I hope the documents they have posted today are authentic. We don't need anymore Rather events with memos.

Comment #26: dolphin said on 6/13/05 @ 11:28pm ET...

I am so happy that the MSM is finally reporting the DSM and asking questions.....The truth will finally prevail.....I still would like to know is anyone knows anything about us using WMD in Fallujah????Anyone?

Comment #27: Judy Barrett said on 6/13/05 @ 11:33pm ET...

Take your vitamins, Mr. Conyers! You're one of a kind, and we need you. But for current laws prohibiting such a practice, many of us would love to clone you.

You're a ray of light in a dark time, and I'm hereby sending you my best wishes, and am going to trot on over to your contribution page and give what I can.

Freud said that immortality is being loved by many anonymous people. You're immortal now, Mr. Conyers. (Please don't take this compliment lying down!)

Comment #28: Charlie C. said on 6/13/05 @ 11:34pm ET...

Dear Congressman Conyers,

I can't thank you enough for having the will and determination to "stand up" to the Administration no matter what repurcussion they may try to "assault you with personally!"

I still am "outraged" by Congressman Sensenbrenner's complete abuse of power by abruptly ending your hearing last Friday "illegally!" I also read something this evening that the "Divine Cristocrats" are trying to "ramrod" through a bill that basically "destroys" legislation that was enacted after the Watergate Scandal which will now open the door from the $40,000 private contribution up to $2 Million to Congressional Representatives! WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO END THIS ABSOLUTE ABUSE BY THESE GOP NEO-NAZI'S??

I am going to include an excerpt from Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz's website regarding how "W" and the administration "attacked her" on her comments regarding the Terri Schiavo case. I REALLY DO THINK THAT Congressman Sensenbrennerand the Administrations actions are no different than that of the Third Reich and they are Neo-Nazi racists and they are "anti Semitic" too!

Democracy thwarted at Judiciary Committee Hearing on the Patriot Act
Chairman silences Democrats at a hearing on the Patriot Act by cutting the microphones



WATCH THE VIDEO HERE (Adjourns illegally around 1:50:40)

June 10, 2005
(Washington, DC) -- Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, in her new role as a member of the Judiciary Committee, today witnessed first hand the disrespectful conduct of the Republican majority at a Committee hearing today, requested by the Democratic minority, to hear testimony on civil rights and civil liberties abuses resulting from the USA Patriot Act.

“What happened today was not only an attempt to silence Democratic Members of Judiciary, it was a silencing of Democracy in America,” said Rep. Wasserman Schultz. “As a new member of the Judiciary Committee, I was appalled by the treatment we received today and the disrespect that Minority Chairman Conyers was shown. Minority Chairman Conyers has dedicated over forty years of his life to this country as a member of the House of Representatives --he and the Americans who are deeply concerned about the Patriot Act deserve better.”



The majority acted shamefully today, attempting to silence Democrats at the Judiciary Committee hearing this morning on the impact of the Patriot Act. Throughout the hearing, run by Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, witnesses and members were cut-off in mid sentence, the Chairman refused to yield to Democratic members points of order, or points of personal privilege. Finally, the hearing was adjourned by the Chairman, in violation of the Rules of the House and cutting off the microphones of Democratic members while they attempted to speak.



Sixteen provisions of the USA Patriot Act automatically sunset (expire) at the end of the year unless reauthorized by Congress. As such, the Judiciary Committee is holding hearings on the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act.



The hearing this morning was the first time in roughly ten years that the minority on the Judiciary Committee has been forced to invoke its right to continue hearings in order to have its own witnesses.



Earlier this week, the Chairman, scheduled a series of hearings on the reauthorization of the USA Patriot Act, however, many of the hearings were on non-controversial parts of the Act. The hearings did not address some really obvious and important issues like section 215, which authorizes FBI access to library records and racial profiling. In an amazing slight, the only witness the Chairman would allow was the Deputy Attorney General of the United States who, of course, supports the permanent enactment of the Act. THE MINORITY DID NOT GET TO CALL A SINGLE WITNESS.



In response, the Judiciary Committee Democrats invoked Rule11 of the House rules allowing us to request our own hearing, which the Chairman held this morning, on a Friday, even though the House adjourned on Thursday and most members had returned to their districts.

Here's Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman's statement after being "attacked by the Administration" about her comments about "W" on the Terri Schiavo case.

Response to Accusation from the White House about Rep. Wasserman Schultz's Terri Schiavo Floor Statement
March 21, 2005
(Washington, DC) -- Unfortunately, today the White House accused Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) of making an “uninformed assertion” when she stated that the President Bush that supports federal intervention in the Terri Schiavo case is in conflict with the Texas Governor Bush who signed into law the 1999 “Advance Directives Act” that allows doctors to decide –even against the wishes of the guardian- to remove life support from patients whom doctors deem in an “irreversible condition.” Responding to this comment, Rep. Wasserman Schultz made the following statement:


“The facts in this case are black and white,” said Rep. Wasserman Schultz. “It's in direct conflict with the President’s position on the Schiavo case.



The White House’s comments today are especially troubling because the “Advance Directives Act” which then Governor Bush signed into law in 1999 does not call for federal intervention.



“Obviously, as Governor of Texas the President felt that state courts, not federal courts, were the proper venue in which families could appeal end-of-life decisions,” said Jonathan Beeton, Communications Director for Rep. Wasserman Schultz. “Now the President wants the federal government to supersede the decision of an individual’s guardian or spouse.”



# # #


Attached: 1) Rep. Wasserman Schultz floor statement discussing the Texas “Advance Directives Act.”

2) Sec. 166.046 of the Texas “Advance Directives Act.”





1) Excerpt of Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz’s Terri Schiavo floor statement – 3/20/05



“I noticed today that President Bush has returned from Crawford hoping to sign this legislation if passed by the Congress. It is important to note that President Bush, when he was Governor of Texas in 1999, signed a Texas law that was just used a few days ago, to allow a hospital to withdraw, over the parent’s objections, the life-support of a six-month old boy.



President Bush signed a law, the Texas Advance Directives Act, when he was Governor of Texas. This law, that has been used several times and as recently as a few days ago, liberalized the situations under which a person in Texas can avoid artificial life support. Under it, life support can be withheld or withdrawn if you have an “irreversible condition” from which you are expected to eventually die. Indeed, this law, signed by then Governor Bush allows doctors to remove patients from life support if the hospital’s ethics committee agrees; only allowing the family 10 days finding another facility that might accept the patient, barring any state judicial intervention.



It appears that President Bush felt as Governor, that there was a point at which when doctors felt that no further hope for the patient had been reached, that it is appropriate for an end-of-life decision to be made –even if it was just by the hospital or long-term-care facility treating the patient.



There is an obvious conflict between the President’s feelings on this matter now as compared to when he was Governor of Texas. So I think that it’s an interesting conflict to what he’s saying today.”





2) (section 166.046 of the 1999 Texas Advance Directives Act)



Sec. 166.046. PROCEDURE IF NOT EFFECTUATING A DIRECTIVE. (a) If an attending physician refuses to honor a patient's advance directive or a treatment decision under Section 166.039, the physician's refusal shall be reviewed by an ethics or medical committee. The attending physician may not be a member of that committee. The patient shall be given life-sustaining treatment during the review.

(b) The patient or the person responsible for the health care decisions of the individual who has made the decision regarding the directive or treatment decision:

(1) shall be informed of the committee review process not less than 48 hours before the meeting called to discuss the patient's directive, unless the time period is waived by mutual agreement; and

(2) is entitled to:

(A) attend the meeting; and

(B) receive a written explanation of the decision reached during the review process.

(c) The written explanation required by Subsection (b)(2)(B) must be included in the patient's medical record.

(d) If the attending physician, the patient, or the person responsible for the health care decisions of the individual does not agree with the decision reached during the review process under Subsection (b), the physician shall make a reasonable effort to transfer the patient to a physician who is willing to comply with the directive. If the patient is a patient in a health care facility, the facility's personnel shall assist the physician in arranging the patient's transfer to:

(1) another physician;

(2) an alternative care setting within that facility; or

(3) another facility.

(e) If the patient is requesting life-sustaining treatment that the attending physician and the review process have decided is inappropriate treatment, the patient shall be given available life-sustaining treatment pending transfer under Subsection (d). The patient is responsible for any costs incurred in transferring the patient to another facility. The physician and the health care facility are not obligated to provide life-sustaining treatment after the 10th day after the written decision required under Subsection (b) is provided to the patient or the person responsible for the health care decisions of the patient unless ordered to do so under Subsection (g).

(f) Life-sustaining treatment under this section may not be entered in the patient's medical record as medically unnecessary treatment until the time period provided under Subsection (e) has expired.

(g) At the request of the patient or the person responsible for the health care decisions of the patient, the appropriate district or county court shall extend the time period provided under Subsection (e) only if the court finds, by a preponderance of the evidence, that there is a reasonable expectation that a physician or health care facility that will honor the patient's directive will be found if the time extension is granted.

(h) This section may not be construed to impose an obligation on a facility or a home and community support services agency licensed under Chapter 142 or similar organization that is beyond the scope of the services or resources of the facility or agency. This section does not apply to hospice services provided by a home and community support services agency licensed under Chapter 142

Excerpt from Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz's Bio on her website:

Doesn't it seem that "W" has it out for Congresswoman Wasserman Schultz? These actions and attacks borderline what I regard as being "anti-Semitic!"

"In Washington she continues to expand on her reputation as a fighter for the families of South Florida, as a person whose word is as good as gold and who knows that she was sworn in to work hard in Washington for her constituents. Her reputation preceded her and on her first meeting with President Bush at the White House, he asked her if she was the one that “gave my little brother a hard time down in Florida.” That bit of levity aside, Wasserman Schultz arrived in Washington with the reputation as a force to be reckoned with, someone who works hard on behalf of children, education, health care, Social Security, Medicare and the security of every American."

Just thought others would want to know a little more about the Administration's policy of calling everyone else a "liar!"

Charlie C.
Dallas TX

Particularly shameful acts of the majority Republicans during this morning’s Judiciary Committee Hearing:

Comment #29: Tobes said on 6/13/05 @ 11:46pm ET...

I just read that Washington Post story, and quite frankly, I am miffed.

First of all, I think the actual DSM--and not the pre-meeting memo--is the kicker out of the two. Yet, the Post article is obsessed with the pre-meeting memo (which says the US had no post-war Iraq plan--oh no!) rather than really getting into the DSM (which is more fundamental because it has to do with the premise for war IN THE FIRST PLACE. no war = no NEED for postwar planning, anyway! get it?). This prioritizing of the pre-meeting memo went so far as to even influence the title of the article.

The article also states that: "British officials who had just returned from Washington said Bush and his aides believed war was inevitable and were determined to use intelligence about Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction and his relations with terrorists to justify invasion of Iraq."

But I believe this is a gross mischaracterization of the Memo! The Memo alludes to the fact that there was insufficient or no legit intellgence about Saddam having any WMD. So any "use" of such intelligence would have been based on fabricated intelligence! The article fails to point this out, and so it makes Bush's actions seem less criminal by implying there was actually legit information on Saddam having WMD.

I am disappointed by the story.

There needs to be more written in the MSM, and more critical focus on the DSM.

Cmon Washington Post, get it together!

Now, maybe the Post already devoted a full story to the DSM, and if so I missed it and I apologize for that (and I hope it was better than this sh!t).

Comment #30: Hannah said on 6/13/05 @ 11:48pm ET...

Attn. Rep. Conyers and Staff:
Here are a couple of great analyses that you should read prior to Thursday's meeting.

This is by Steve Soto, who is an amazing strategist:

http://www.theleftcoaster.com/archives/004611.php


This one has some interesting thoughts:

http://coldfury.com/reason/?p=671

Please check them out! And keep up the great work!
Hannah

Comment #31: RobK said on 6/13/05 @ 11:50pm ET...

Dolphin,

I heard that we used napalm or a napalm-like weapon in Fallujah but never heard any follow-up. Horrible thought but I don't want to believe it unless it can be verified.

Any one hear?

Comment #32: Faith said on 6/13/05 @ 11:57pm ET...

Dolphin and RobK,

Yes, we posted quite a bit about the use of DU (depleted uranium) on the last thread. Do a search on depleted uranium on the Net and you'll learn about its tragic consequences for both our troops and the Iraqi citizens.

Comment #33: dolphin said on 6/14/05 @ 12:18am ET...

Faith
Thank you for info....Do you suppose that JC could have a demo hearing on this?
This is so crazy.....We attack Iraq for WMD's and then we use them......Also, Cheney said today in an interview with Ahole Hannity that Saddam had harbored terrorists in Iraq.......he is still lying and getting away with it.......Nuts....

Comment #34: Vyan said on 6/14/05 @ 12:32am ET...

The U.S. absolutely DID have a post-war Iraq plan - it was written in 1998 following the passage of the Iraq Liberation Act.

The problem is that it was written by the Clinton Administration and people like Richard Clarke, so naturally Bushco ignored it.

Vyan

Comment #35: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 12:35am ET...

EXCELLENT Work, Rep. Conyers !

CONGRATULATIONS EVERYONE !

We should all feel PROUD and EMPOWERED FOR MORE !

MORE answers, more diclosure, more truth, more responsibility, more accountability.

Might I suggest emailing Rep. Sensenbrenner in advance and reminding him that we'll all be watching his level of commitment to democracy ?

Roll, baby, roll ...

Comment #36: sofa said on 6/14/05 @ 12:36am ET...

Mr. Conyers, you have my eternal gratitude.

Comment #37: Sandra said on 6/14/05 @ 12:36am ET...

repost...

Bombshell As Six More British Documents Leaked

06/13/05 - - Six new secret British documents have been leaked and are provided below. These were retyped from the originals to protect the source, RawStory.com has verified the authenticity .

Iraq options paper: Full text

The following, titled "IRAQ OPTIONS PAPER," was prepared and dated March 8, 200. It presents possible courses to war. Continued

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


British foreign secretary Straw says case for Iraq is weak

he following is purported to have been penned by the British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw--U.S. equivalent of Secretary of State--concerning a possible war in Iraq. Straw indicates the case for war is weak; that the Iraq situation has remained unchanged; and that the United States would not have gone to war without September 11. Continued.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Condi committed to regime change in early 2002

The following, is purported to be written by Blair foreign policy advisor David Manning, indicates that now-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was committed to "regime change" in early 2002. It also outlines some problems a postwar Iraq might face. Continued

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Iraq: The British legal background

The following was said prepared as an Iraq legal background for war. It is not dated. Continued

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


'What has changed is not the pace of Saddam's WMD programs'

06/13/05 - - This memorandum, said from Blair political director Peter Ricketts and dated Mar. 22, 2002, indicates the challenges that an Iraq war would face. It indicates that it would have been carbon copied to then-Secretary of State Colin Powell and President George W. Bush. "The truth is that what has changed is not the pace of Saddam Hussein’s WMD programmes," the document says. Continued

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


'The need to wrongfoot Saddam on the inspectors'

The following is said from Christopher Meyer, British ambassador to the US from 1997 through February 2003, and dated in March of 2002. Strikingly, the document speaks of a "need to wrongfoot Saddam on the inspectors" and suggests British intelligence and diplomacy draws a great deal on articles written by Sy Hersh in the New Yorker. It also describes a meeting with then-Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz. Continued.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9125.htm

Comment #38: Sandra said on 6/14/05 @ 12:50am ET...

Next MSM Push...

Downing Street Memo Video

Here's a video that was put together by the Downing Street Memo folks.

Video-WMP only


"It's tempting in the flurry of minutes and memos and articles to get so wrapped up in the story that you forget exactly who the story is about. It's not about impeaching the President. It's not about Republicans and Democrats. It has, and always will be, about them. About those heroes who sacrificed and trusted their government. About those with brave hearts who cannot speak now from the grave. And so, it is up to us to speak for them. It is up to the media to ask the questions that would have flowed from their lips, were those heroes alive today."

For all the up-to-the minute info: http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/

Play it now with your RealPlayer:

http://switchboard.real.com/player/email.html?PV=6.0.12&&title=sacrifice1&link=http%3A%2F%2Fmovies.crooksandliars.com%2Fsacrifice1.wmv

AMERICAN MILITARY DEATHS IN IRAQ: 1702
AMERICAN MILITARY WOUNDED IN IRAQ: 12762

source: antiwar.com
http://www.antiwar.com/casualties/

IRAQI CIVILIAN DEATHS (MINIMUM): 22248

source: iraqbodycount.net
http://www.iraqbodycount.net/

Comment #39: Erik said on 6/14/05 @ 12:51am ET...

Congressman Conyers,

This is incredible news. I am proud to have played a part in such a historic event. Even if all I did was sign you petition and share my views with as many people as I could get to listen to me(or corner long enough to make my point).

I would like to tell you that I will be in attendance Thursday in Washington and will continue to make people listen. If you read the e-mail that I sent to your office over the weekend, I will have a copy of it with me in case I am lucky enough to meet you in person.

Since I wrote that letter I have been getting louder. I have been approached to start a web site and I have been pushing for support from all over the net. This is a new medium to me, but I have good help. If you have a moment, please visit my site. It's still a work in progress, and we haven't released the final name due to domain security, but we even have an ex-patriot branch within our very young (as of right now, not even 24 hours) organization. They will be demonstrating in support of your exploits from Prague, Czech Republic. And we may even be getting more across America and Europe. All in support of your efforts to return America to it's rightfully place in the hearts of the world as a country to look up to, not one that looks down on them.

Here is my URL:

myeasybase.com/Patriot_s4truth.html

Again, thank you and congratulations. I'll see you Thursday in D.C. And if I'm lucky, maybe I, or you, could read my letter to the crowd.

Erik.

Comment #40: Erik said on 6/14/05 @ 12:54am ET...

Sandra,
Check out the site.

myeasybase.com/Patriot_s4truth.html

My partner got it up in record time.

Comment #41: Suzanne said on 6/14/05 @ 1:17am ET...

Representative Conyers, you are a beacon of light and a true patriot. It is amazing to me how undaunted you've been in seeking out the truth and it was great hearing your voice last week on the Randi Rhodes show. You remain an inspiration to us all, and we're all grateful whether you hear from us directly or not. THANK YOU, SIR!

Comment #42: Sandra said on 6/14/05 @ 1:18am ET...

March for Truth

Wow Erik! Very impressive. You certainly have been busy.

Best to you in Washington and in all your endeavors. I'll be keeping a close eye on events.

Thanks again for all your help in the MSM push.

Cheers!

Comment #43: fooj said on 6/14/05 @ 1:30am ET...

Congressman Conyers,

You are a tireless patriot! Your leadership and passion for honor and integrity ignite a flame of promise for all Americans. Hope sustains us. You have the heart of a lion, Mr. Conyers! We need you now more than ever before.

Truth is our most powerful weapon!

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers. And for a time they may seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it- always."- M. Gandi

In appreciation and peace,
fooj

Comment #44: fooj said on 6/14/05 @ 1:33am ET...

M. Gandhi (typo, oops!)

peace.
fooj

Comment #45: Grace Reid said on 6/14/05 @ 1:39am ET...

Congressman,
By noontime today a group within AfterDowningStreet.org will have contacted representative leadership of 185 unions and professional organizations representing membership of more than 58 million Americans. We have sent them:
1. cover letter with MoveOn.org address
2. The Downing Street Minutes
3. Your letter with MoveOn.org address.
We are hoping that your letter and this issue reaches the greatest number of Americans in advance of the hearings on Thursday. God bless and God speed.

Posted at:
CONYERS LETTER TARGET 10 MILLION (Update)

Comment #46: Ron Toahani Jackson said on 6/14/05 @ 2:10am ET...

From the great NAVAJO NATION!
Ahee'yeeh- Thank you
Rep. Conyers

Comment #47: Erik said on 6/14/05 @ 2:13am ET...

Grace,
Im about to get some organizational tools up on my partner and my's website to facilitate coordinated protest as far and as wide as possiable. If they cant make it to DC, they can do it from down the street.
Here's the link:

myeasybase.com/Patriot_s4truth.html>

Check it out and pass it along. Thanks
Erik

Comment #48: BigBearJohn said on 6/14/05 @ 2:21am ET...

Some EXTREMELY salient quotes from newly released docs supporting DSM:

"we dismissed assassination of Saddam Hussein as an option because it would be illegal"

"29 In the judgement of the JIC there is no recent evidence of Iraq
complicity with international terrorism. There is therefore no justification
for action against Iraq based on action in self-defense (Article 51)
to combat imminent threats of terrorism as in Afghanistan."

32 For the P5 and the majority of the Council to take the view that
Iraq was in breach of 687;

* they would need to be convinced that Iraq was in breach of its
obligations regarding WMD, and ballistic missiles. Such proof would need to be incontrovertible and of large-scale activity. Currentintelligence is insufficiently robus to meet this criterion.

Check out:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3851888&mesg_id=3851888

Comment #49: brian said on 6/14/05 @ 2:52am ET...

All this attention to the british minutes is diverting attention away for the real villains, the neocons and the secretive Office of Special Plans
Did Blair Know About the OSP?
And When Did He Know It?
http://www.dissidentvoice.org/June05/Amr0609.htm

It was this office that provided the false intelligence to the white house, bypassing the usual checks.
Will Mr Conyers please do something to expose this sinister office to public view?
Brian

Comment #50: PetGoat said on 6/14/05 @ 3:18am ET...

The dominos are falling, the silence is breaking, the wall of lies is
crumbling. Thank you, Representative Conyers. Our nation owes
you a great debt.

Comment #51: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 3:31am ET...

Hank, you can redeem yourself for the mental illness they put on you by calling for his full resignation.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article6869.htm

The Christian Fundies, the dominionist empire has been planning this war long since the beginning. They've brainwashed the masses, curtailed the abuses, and Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney and his friends purposefully created made up evidence in order to "get" their war.

Larry Franklin, Bush Administration official and spy is being indicted by the F.B.I. Do your part and take action with all congress members including James Sensenbrenner to call for true accountability.

http://www.usalone.com/warlies.htm

Their feet must be held to the fire. The criminally insane neocons have hijacked our country, with the help of satan following fundamentalists.

http://www.yuricareport.com

This must not be allowed to stand. Represenative Sensenbrenner, the moderate, must be unbrainwashed. He must do what is right for the country, not his rich dispicable Nazi donors.

sensenbrenner@mail.house.gov Make him wake up and see the light. He must not be afraid to uphold the rule of law, and hold them to account for mass crimes. No more games, we call for the truth.

Doug Eldritch

Comment #52: Vivian Ervin said on 6/14/05 @ 3:43am ET...

Please provide us with the names of any democratic representatives who refuses to join you in your DSM petition to Bush.

Comment #53: Vivian Ervin said on 6/14/05 @ 3:43am ET...

Please provide us with the names of any democratic representatives who refuses to join you in your DSM petition to Bush.

Comment #54: Doug said on 6/14/05 @ 3:59am ET...

To Vivian and others,

Senator Biden refuses to do so. As does Senator Nelson for starters. There are many democrats "in name only" who refuse to do what is right for the country. They are viciously misguided, and must be pummeled with the facts until they act.

Doug

Comment #55: Rusty said on 6/14/05 @ 4:15am ET...

After the S.S. Bush Regime slammed into the DSM iceberg, Captain George W. Bush stared into space for seven minutes, scowled, smirked, left the bridge, went back to his cabin, and prepared to kiss his ass goodbye. But then he heard that friendly voice in his ear, smirked again, grabbed a map of Syria and a megaphone, climbed atop a pile of ice, and declared, “Those people who put that iceberg there will hear from all of us soon!”
Shoving women and children out of the way, Second Officer Dick Cheney headed for the boat deck, intent upon ensuring that his Halliburton friends got into the lifeboats first. Communications Officer Karl Rove called FOX News on his cell phone and informed them that this would be a good time for a week of runaway bride updates. Back on the bridge, Captain Bush gave Navigation Officer Condi Rice a husbandly hug, and they both agreed that the S.S. Bush Regime never hit that DSM iceberg, that all those chunks of ice on the deck were thrown there by “liberals” who hate America, and that “Hank” and his buddies “Nvanm” and “Kermit” would save them.
In the rapidly flooding radio shack, Communications Officer Karl Rove had to go to Plan B and informed the mainstream media that the good ship Bush Regime had been torpedoed by a traitorous liberal submarine. The mainstream media was duly outraged, and dropped its runaway bride updates to broadcast a special bulletin, “Assault on Our Leader.”
In the ship’s library, Minister of Information Scott McClellan looked up the word “iceberg” in the dictionary and started rehearsing his talking points. Down in the engine room, Don Rumsfeld called the bridge with good news and bad news for Captain Bush. “The good news, Mein Kapitan, is that Freedom is on the March in the engine room.”
Captain Bush nodded proudly. “OK, what’s the bad news?”
“The bad news is that the engine room is flooding, the power just went out, and we’re all trapped in here. In five minutes, we’ll either burn to death or drown.”
Satisfied with the progress being made in the engine room, but sensing that something wasn’t quite right, Captain Bush called a few friends for advice. Pat Robertson promised to walk across the ocean for help, the National Rifle Association suggested shooting the women and children first so there would be more room in the lifeboats for hunters, and Tom DeLay proudly produced his trained parrot, Tail Gunner Joe, who can tell lies about John Conyers in six languages.
As the bridge lights went out and the S.S. Bush Regime split in two, Captain Bush declared the voyage a catastrophic success. Karl Rove tossed Grover Norquist out of the last lifeboat and started rowing for the S.S. Bill Frist, which just happened to have an opening for a Communications Officer.
As the Bush Regime sank beneath the waves; Bibles, guns, stock portfolios, and Reagan biographies bobbed to the surface amidst the fleeing lifeboats. The guns were snatched up first, then the stock portfolios, then the Reagan biographies, and then the Bibles.
After a long night on the dark, empty ocean, the Bush Regime survivors were spotted and rescued by the French guided missile destroyer, Francois Mitterand. From Dick Cheney on down to Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter, the survivors demonstrated their gratitude by calling the French sailors defeatist appeasers, sodomites, surrender monkeys, and degenerate quiche eaters.
Former Captain Bush immediately requested political asylum. His host, Capitaine Jean Jacques LaFayette regretfully declined, explained that La France rarely grants asylum to homeless, unemployed fascists, and handed former Captain Bush a cell phone and a list of the Coalition of the Willing. After lengthy negotiations, the Fiji Islands agreed to take Condi Rice and Don Rumsfeld, Samoa got stuck with Dick Cheney, and Iceland grudgingly accepted Scott McClellan and Jeff Gannon/Guckert.
Australia took the rest, except for former Captain Bush, whose request for political asylum was rejected by every country on the planet. To this day, no one really knows where George W. Bush ended up. His presidential library is empty except for a John Conyers autographed copy of What Went Wrong in Ohio, a display of a vacant F-102 cockpit donated by the Texas Air National Guard, and a sacred petition signed in letters of light by 500,000 American patriots.

Comment #56: Charlie Cregor said on 6/14/05 @ 5:06am ET...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1120959,00.html

Former Bush aide: US plotted Iraq invasion long before 9/11



By Neil Mackay



GEORGE Bush’s former treasury secretary Paul O’Neill has revealed that the President took office in January 2001 fully intending to invade Iraq and desperate to find an excuse for pre-emptive war against Saddam Hussein.
O’Neill’s claims tally with long-running investigations by the Sunday Herald which have shown how the Bush cabinet planned a pre- meditated attack on Iraq in order to “regime change” Saddam long before the neoconservative Republicans took power.

The Sunday Herald previously uncovered how a think-tank – run by vice-president Dick Cheney; defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld; Paul Wolfowitz, Rumsfeld’s deputy; Bush’s younger brother Jeb, the governor of Florida; and Lewis Libby, Cheney’s deputy – wrote a blueprint for regime change as early as September 2000.

The think-tank, the Project for the New American Century, said, in the document Rebuilding America’s Defences: Strategies, Forces And Resources For A New Century, that: “The United States has for decades sought to play a more permanent role in Gulf regional security. While the unresolved conflict with Iraq provides the immediate justification, the need for substantial American force presence in the Gulf transcends the issue of the regime of Saddam Hussein”.

The document – referred to as a blueprint for US global domination – laid plans for a Bush government “maintaining US global pre- eminence, precluding the rise of a great-power rival, and shaping the international security order in line with American principles and interests”. It also said fighting and winning multiple wars was a “core mission”.

O’Neill was fired in December 2002 as a result of disagreements over tax cuts. He is the first major Bush administration insider to attack the President. He likened Bush at cabinet meetings to “a blind man in a room full of deaf people”, according to excerpts from a CBS interview to be shown today.

“From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,” O’Neill said. “For me, the notion of pre-emption, that the US has the unilateral right to do whatever we decide to do, is a really huge leap.”

O’Neill and other White House insiders have given the journalist Ron Suskind documents for a new book, The Price Of Loyalty, revealing that as early as the first three months of 2001 the Bush administration was examining military options for removing Saddam Hussein.

“There are memos,” Suskind told CBS. “One of them marked ‘secret’ says ‘Plan for Post- Saddam Iraq’.”

Another Pentagon document entitled Foreign Suitors For Iraqi Oil Field Contracts talks about contractors from 40 countries and which ones have interests in Iraq.

O’Neill is also quoted in the new book saying the President was determined to find a reason to go to war and he was surprised nobody on the National Security Council questioned why Iraq should be invaded.

“It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it,” said O’Neill. “The President saying, ‘Go find me a way to do this.’”

White House spokesman Scott McClellan rejected O’Neill’s remarks. He said: “We appreciate his service. While we’re not in the business of doing book reviews, it appears that the world according to Mr O’Neill is more about trying to justify his own opinions than looking at the reality of the results we are achieving on behalf of the American people.”

11 January 2004

As I noted earlier regarding the Administration's attack on Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz,"IF YOU CRITICIZE "W" OR THE ADMINISTRATION, YOU ARE AUTOMATICALLY ACCUSED OF BEING "UNPATRIOTIC" AND YOU'RE THE ONE WHO IS LYING BECAUSE THE ADMINSTRATION CAN DO NO WRONG AND IS NOT ACCOUNTABLE TO ANYONE FOR THEIR ACTIONS BECAUSE THE'RE SUCH FINE BORN AGAIN CHRISTIANS AND HAVE NO SIN!

Can you subpoena people such as Richard Clarke and Colin Powell to testify Congressman Conyers?

Please keep up all the goo work

Comment #57: GreyHawk said on 6/14/05 @ 7:07am ET...

The Battle for America has begun.

Be a part of history. Join the Patriots.

;)

(Hope the HTML coding works...if not, "whoops"...)

Comment #58: the real HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 8:17am ET...

No Smoking Gun

By Michael Kinsley

Sunday, June 12, 2005; Page B09

After about the 200th e-mail from a stranger demanding that I cease my personal coverup of something called the Downing Street Memo, I decided to read it. It's all over the blogosphere and Air America, the left-wing talk radio network: This is the smoking gun of the Iraq war. It is proof positive that President Bush was determined to invade Iraq the year before he did so. The whole "weapons of mass destruction" concern was phony from the start, and the drama about inspections was just kabuki: going through the motions.

Although it is flattering to be thought personally responsible for allowing a proven war criminal to remain in office, in the end I don't buy the fuss. Nevertheless, I am enjoying it, as an encouraging sign of the revival of the left. Developing a paranoid theory and promoting it to the very edge of national respectability takes a certain amount of ideological self-confidence. It takes a critical mass of citizens with extreme views and the time and energy to obsess about them. It takes a promotional infrastructure and the widely shared self-discipline to settle on a story line, disseminate it and stick to it.


It takes, in short, what Hillary Clinton once called a vast conspiracy. The right has enjoyed one for years. Even moderate and reasonable right-wingers have enjoyed the presence of a mass of angry people even further right. This overhang of extremists makes the moderates appear more reasonable. It pulls the center of politics, where the media try to be and where compromises on particular issues end up, in a rightward direction. Listening to extreme views on your own side is soothing even if you would never express them and may not even believe them yourself.

So, cheers for the Downing Street Memo. But what does it say? It's a report on a meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and some aides on July 23, 2002. The key passage summarizes "recent talks in Washington" by the head of British foreign intelligence (identified, John Le Carre-style, simply as "C"). C reported that "Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. . . . There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action."

C's focus on the dog that didn't bark -- the lack of discussion about the aftermath of war -- was smart and prescient. But even on its face, the memo is not proof that Bush had decided on war. It says that war is "now seen as inevitable" by "Washington." That is, people other than Bush had concluded, based on observation, that he was determined to go to war. There is no claim of even fourth-hand knowledge that he had actually declared this intention. Even if "Washington" meant actual administration decision makers, rather than the usual freelance chatterboxes, C is saying only that these people believe that war is how events will play out.

Of course, if "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy," rather than vice versa, that is pretty good evidence of Bush's intentions, as well as a scandal in its own right. And we know now that this was true and a half. Fixing intelligence and facts to fit a desired policy is the Bush II governing style, especially concerning the war in Iraq. But C offered no specifics, or none that made it into the memo. Nor does the memo assert that actual decision makers had told him they were fixing the facts. Although the prose is not exactly crystalline, it seems to be saying only that "Washington" had reached that conclusion.

And of course Washington had done so. You don't need a secret memo to know this. Just look at what was in the newspapers on July 23, 2002, and the day before. Left-wing Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Scheer casually referred to the coming war against Iraq as "much-planned-for." The New York Times reported Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's response to an earlier story "which reported preliminary planning on ways the United States might attack Iraq to topple President Saddam Hussein." Rumsfeld effectively confirmed the report by announcing an investigation of the leak.

A Wall Street Journal op-ed piece declared that "the drums of war beat louder." A dispatch from Turkey in the New York Times even used the same word "inevitable" to describe the thinking in Ankara about the thinking in Washington about the decision "to topple President Saddam Hussein of Iraq by force."

Poor Time magazine, with a cover date of July 22 but actually published a week earlier, had the whole story. "Sometime last spring the President ordered the Pentagon and the CIA to come up with a new plan to invade Iraq and topple its leader." Originally planned for the fall, the war was put off until "at least early next year" (which is when, in fact, it happened). Unfortunately, Time went on to speculate that because of a weak economy, the war "may have to wait -- some think forever," and concluded that "Washington is engaged more in psy-war than in war itself."

Some people you have to hit over the head. Hey, you folks at Time, why are you ignoring the Downing Street Memo?

Comment #59: the real HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 8:18am ET...

Why It's Time to Deport Liberals

by J.B. Williams

Monday, June 13, 2005

During the run-up to the 2004 election, hundreds, if not thousands of liberals promised to leave America for good if Bush was re-elected. Best I can tell, not one of them kept their promise. Instead, they have only become more obnoxious in their efforts to dismantle America.

America’s liberal movement isn’t what it used to be. The old live and let live, make love not war liberal who just wanted to be left alone to pursue his often drug induced euphoric consequence free utopian existence has been replaced. I liked this old liberal. He did himself all kinds of harm, but generally speaking, he didn’t hurt anyone else. He was passive by nature, spending most of his time hanging out in his marijuana patch listening to the Beatles. I miss this old liberal.

The new liberal is a horse’s ass of an entirely different color. He is a bitter hate-filled America loathing Marxist, just as determined to bring the world’s most powerful nation to its knees as any foreign enemy in history.

The new liberal doesn’t just hate George W. Bush or Dick Cheney. As their newly elected Messiah so proudly pronounced — "they hate everything they stand for". Things like a strong military, a vibrant free capitalist economy, and a foreign policy that hinges on strength rather than weakness, real moral principles and true personal liberty. They hate it all.

America is the freest nation on earth (despite liberal demands for more government control of everything). We have the lowest unemployment rate of any nation on earth, the largest number of self-made millionaires, and the highest average standard of living anywhere, even the richest poor people on the planet. We are the most generous nation because we are the most powerful nation on earth. Liberals don’t like any of it and they can’t think of one good thing to say about the founding principles of the country they love to hate.

They don’t like gun toting heterosexual married people with children, the financially self-sufficient, people not hooked on drugs or alcohol, people of religion, unborn children or those who defend them, or anyone too smart to fall for their socialist spineless drivel. In short, they don’t like most Americans.

They spend all of their free time looking for new ways to undermine everything America has ever been or was ever intended to be. So why are they still here?

Today’s liberal sees nothing wrong with a million abortions a year. He sees nothing wrong with tyrannizing the most productive members of our society for benefit of those who contribute nothing to society. He sees nothing wrong with art in the form of pornography, but everything wrong with a public display of the Ten Commandments.

He sees nothing wrong with terrorists preaching death to Americans in Mosques and on street corners across this nation, but everything wrong with the pledge of allegiance or a morning peace prayer in our school houses.

He believes that if you work smart enough, hard enough and sacrifice long enough to become wealthy on your own, you owe a share of your spoils to those who won’t do the same - that his government owes it to him, to take those spoils from you against your will if need be.

He believes that all sexual perversions are just "alternative lifestyles" that must be tolerated in the name of creating an open society. He believes that those who don’t support such ideas are bigots.

He believes that all religions are deserving of equal status, including the not so peaceful religion of Islam, the always entertaining satanic cult, and the religion of no religion, atheism. To the modern day liberal, there is no real difference between religions.

He looks at terrorists firing upon American soldiers from behind the cover of female Muslim attire as victims of brutal American oppression. But he sees a terrorist prison camp where the American people pay for clean housing, three squares, a free Koran and a free prayer rug aimed at Mecca for every detainee as a Nazi Gulag.

He sees legal immigration and illegal immigration as the same thing. A chance to recruit another liberal voter in search of free stuff from America’s feeding trough.

He does not believe in self-governance or self-reliance, but rather in absolute government control over every aspect of American life. He doesn’t believe in a free market economy, but rather a government controlled economy designed to arbitrarily redistribute wealth.

He doesn’t believe in freedom, just free stuff. He does not believe in national sovereignty. In the United Nations run by thugs, thieves and third world tyrants, he trusts.

He looks at failing government controlled health care systems around the world and determines that America should do that too. He looks at the impending disaster of open societies in Europe and determines America should follow in their footsteps.

He looks at one self-proclaimed war hero who refuses to release his military records to support his hero status and sees a real honest to goodness war hero. But he looks at more than 200 confirmed war heros who claim the other is a fraud and a traitor, and sees more than 200 liars.

Now, it stands to reason that today’s liberal just might not be too bright, since there is quite literally no way to make sense of any of his logic. But it’s impossible to believe that anyone could actually be so foolish. So it is more likely that there is simply an agenda behind all this foolishness.

That agenda is the dismantling of everything American. They intend to continue to systematically replace our free market economy with a government controlled welfare state that will make every American equal, equally poor that is.

They intend to replace our One Nation under God with a Godless society dependent upon man made laws rather than morality based self-governance. The facts are simply indisputable.

They have already replaced our right to life endowed by our Creator with a government sanctioned right to murder our unborn and our physically or mentally challenged no longer of use to society. They have already replaced our right to free religious expression with a non-existent separation of church and state clause that effectively outlaws religious expression.

All of this is at odds with the vast majority of Americans, yet it continues. If America is to continue being America, the enemy within must be dealt with. The time for tolerance has passed.
We have tolerated far too much already. America’s survival depends entirely upon our ability to foster and nurture true American principles and ideals. Those who would undermine these ideals must be no more welcome in our country than those who seek to destroy America through more brutal means. Though the means are different, the threat is the same.

America can not be all things to all people. It can either be America, or it can be something much less. It is time to deport those who like nothing about the country that unwillingly feeds and provides protection for their ill conceived agenda.
Immigrants who seek to make America more like their homeland need to simply return to their homeland. If they won’t do it voluntarily, we should help them.

I don’t hate anyone. But I will no longer tolerate people intent upon destroying my country!

I hear France is looking for a few good socialists

Comment #60: Helena Montana said on 6/14/05 @ 8:24am ET...

Just...thank you.

Comment #61: hank said on 6/14/05 @ 8:26am ET...

Comment #58: the real HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 8:17am ET...

No Smoking Gun

By Michael Kinsley

Sunday, June 12, 2005; Page B09

After about the 200th e-mail from a stranger demanding that I cease my personal coverup of something called the Downing Street Memo, I decided to read it. It's all over the blogosphere and Air America, the left-wing talk radio network: This is the smoking gun of the Iraq war. It is proof positive that President Bush was determined to invade Iraq the year before he did so. The whole "weapons of mass destruction" concern was phony from the start, and the drama about inspections was just kabuki: going through the motions.

Although it is flattering to be thought personally responsible for allowing a proven war criminal to remain in office, in the end I don't buy the fuss. Nevertheless, I am enjoying it, as an encouraging sign of the revival of the left. Developing a paranoid theory and promoting it to the very edge of national respectability takes a certain amount of ideological self-confidence. It takes a critical mass of citizens with extreme views and the time and energy to obsess about them. It takes a promotional infrastructure and the widely shared self-discipline to settle on a story line, disseminate it and stick to it.

It takes, in short, what Hillary Clinton once called a vast conspiracy. The right has enjoyed one for years. Even moderate and reasonable right-wingers have enjoyed the presence of a mass of angry people even further right. This overhang of extremists makes the moderates appear more reasonable. It pulls the center of politics, where the media try to be and where compromises on particular issues end up, in a rightward direction. Listening to extreme views on your own side is soothing even if you would never express them and may not even believe them yourself.

So, cheers for the Downing Street Memo. But what does it say? It's a report on a meeting of British Prime Minister Tony Blair and some aides on July 23, 2002. The key passage summarizes "recent talks in Washington" by the head of British foreign intelligence (identified, John Le Carre-style, simply as "C"). C reported that "Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. . . . There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action."

C's focus on the dog that didn't bark -- the lack of discussion about the aftermath of war -- was smart and prescient. But even on its face, the memo is not proof that Bush had decided on war. It says that war is "now seen as inevitable" by "Washington." That is, people other than Bush had concluded, based on observation, that he was determined to go to war. There is no claim of even fourth-hand knowledge that he had actually declared this intention. Even if "Washington" meant actual administration decision makers, rather than the usual freelance chatterboxes, C is saying only that these people believe that war is how events will play out.

Of course, if "intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy," rather than vice versa, that is pretty good evidence of Bush's intentions, as well as a scandal in its own right. And we know now that this was true and a half. Fixing intelligence and facts to fit a desired policy is the Bush II governing style, especially concerning the war in Iraq. But C offered no specifics, or none that made it into the memo. Nor does the memo assert that actual decision makers had told him they were fixing the facts. Although the prose is not exactly crystalline, it seems to be saying only that "Washington" had reached that conclusion.

And of course Washington had done so. You don't need a secret memo to know this. Just look at what was in the newspapers on July 23, 2002, and the day before. Left-wing Los Angeles Times columnist Robert Scheer casually referred to the coming war against Iraq as "much-planned-for." The New York Times reported Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's response to an earlier story "which reported preliminary planning on ways the United States might attack Iraq to topple President Saddam Hussein." Rumsfeld effectively confirmed the report by announcing an investigation of the leak.

A Wall Street Journal op-ed piece declared that "the drums of war beat louder." A dispatch from Turkey in the New York Times even used the same word "inevitable" to describe the thinking in Ankara about the thinking in Washington about the decision "to topple President Saddam Hussein of Iraq by force."

Poor Time magazine, with a cover date of July 22 but actually published a week earlier, had the whole story. "Sometime last spring the President ordered the Pentagon and the CIA to come up with a new plan to invade Iraq and topple its leader." Originally planned for the fall, the war was put off until "at least early next year" (which is when, in fact, it happened). Unfortunately, Time went on to speculate that because of a weak economy, the war "may have to wait -- some think forever," and concluded that "Washington is engaged more in psy-war than in war itself."

Some people you have to hit over the head. Hey, you folks at Time, why are you ignoring the Downing Street Memo?

Comment #59: the real HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 8:18am ET...

Why It's Time to Deport Liberals

by J.B. Williams

Monday, June 13, 2005

During the run-up to the 2004 election, hundreds, if not thousands of liberals promised to leave America for good if Bush was re-elected. Best I can tell, not one of them kept their promise. Instead, they have only become more obnoxious in their efforts to dismantle America.

America’s liberal movement isn’t what it used to be. The old live and let live, make love not war liberal who just wanted to be left alone to pursue his often drug induced euphoric consequence free utopian existence has been replaced. I liked this old liberal. He did himself all kinds of harm, but generally speaking, he didn’t hurt anyone else. He was passive by nature, spending most of his time hanging out in his marijuana patch listening to the Beatles. I miss this old liberal.

The new liberal is a horse’s ass of an entirely different color. He is a bitter hate-filled America loathing Marxist, just as determined to bring the world’s most powerful nation to its knees as any foreign enemy in history.

The new liberal doesn’t just hate George W. Bush or Dick Cheney. As their newly elected Messiah so proudly pronounced — "they hate everything they stand for". Things like a strong military, a vibrant free capitalist economy, and a foreign policy that hinges on strength rather than weakness, real moral principles and true personal liberty. They hate it all.

America is the freest nation on earth (despite liberal demands for more government control of everything). We have the lowest unemployment rate of any nation on earth, the largest number of self-made millionaires, and the highest average standard of living anywhere, even the richest poor people on the planet. We are the most generous nation because we are the most powerful nation on earth. Liberals don’t like any of it and they can’t think of one good thing to say about the founding principles of the country they love to hate.

They don’t like gun toting heterosexual married people with children, the financially self-sufficient, people not hooked on drugs or alcohol, people of religion, unborn children or those who defend them, or anyone too smart to fall for their socialist spineless drivel. In short, they don’t like most Americans.

They spend all of their free time looking for new ways to undermine everything America has ever been or was ever intended to be. So why are they still here?

Today’s liberal sees nothing wrong with a million abortions a year. He sees nothing wrong with tyrannizing the most productive members of our society for benefit of those who contribute nothing to society. He sees nothing wrong with art in the form of pornography, but everything wrong with a public display of the Ten Commandments.

He sees nothing wrong with terrorists preaching death to Americans in Mosques and on street corners across this nation, but everything wrong with the pledge of allegiance or a morning peace prayer in our school houses.

He believes that if you work smart enough, hard enough and sacrifice long enough to become wealthy on your own, you owe a share of your spoils to those who won’t do the same - that his government owes it to him, to take those spoils from you against your will if need be.

He believes that all sexual perversions are just "alternative lifestyles" that must be tolerated in the name of creating an open society. He believes that those who don’t support such ideas are bigots.

He believes that all religions are deserving of equal status, including the not so peaceful religion of Islam, the always entertaining satanic cult, and the religion of no religion, atheism. To the modern day liberal, there is no real difference between religions.

He looks at terrorists firing upon American soldiers from behind the cover of female Muslim attire as victims of brutal American oppression. But he sees a terrorist prison camp where the American people pay for clean housing, three squares, a free Koran and a free prayer rug aimed at Mecca for every detainee as a Nazi Gulag.

He sees legal immigration and illegal immigration as the same thing. A chance to recruit another liberal voter in search of free stuff from America’s feeding trough.

He does not believe in self-governance or self-reliance, but rather in absolute government control over every aspect of American life. He doesn’t believe in a free market economy, but rather a government controlled economy designed to arbitrarily redistribute wealth.

He doesn’t believe in freedom, just free stuff. He does not believe in national sovereignty. In the United Nations run by thugs, thieves and third world tyrants, he trusts.

He looks at failing government controlled health care systems around the world and determines that America should do that too. He looks at the impending disaster of open societies in Europe and determines America should follow in their footsteps.

He looks at one self-proclaimed war hero who refuses to release his military records to support his hero status and sees a real honest to goodness war hero. But he looks at more than 200 confirmed war heros who claim the other is a fraud and a traitor, and sees more than 200 liars.

Now, it stands to reason that today’s liberal just might not be too bright, since there is quite literally no way to make sense of any of his logic. But it’s impossible to believe that anyone could actually be so foolish. So it is more likely that there is simply an agenda behind all this foolishness.

That agenda is the dismantling of everything American. They intend to continue to systematically replace our free market economy with a government controlled welfare state that will make every American equal, equally poor that is.

They intend to replace our One Nation under God with a Godless society dependent upon man made laws rather than morality based self-governance. The facts are simply indisputable.

They have already replaced our right to life endowed by our Creator with a government sanctioned right to murder our unborn and our physically or mentally challenged no longer of use to society. They have already replaced our right to free religious expression with a non-existent separation of church and state clause that effectively outlaws religious expression.

All of this is at odds with the vast majority of Americans, yet it continues. If America is to continue being America, the enemy within must be dealt with. The time for tolerance has passed.
We have tolerated far too much already. America’s survival depends entirely upon our ability to foster and nurture true American principles and ideals. Those who would undermine these ideals must be no more welcome in our country than those who seek to destroy America through more brutal means. Though the means are different, the threat is the same.

America can not be all things to all people. It can either be America, or it can be something much less. It is time to deport those who like nothing about the country that unwillingly feeds and provides protection for their ill conceived agenda.
Immigrants who seek to make America more like their homeland need to simply return to their homeland. If they won’t do it voluntarily, we should help them.

I don’t hate anyone. But I will no longer tolerate people intent upon destroying my country!

I hear France is looking for a few good socialists

Comment #62: The Truth Shall Set You Free said on 6/14/05 @ 8:47am ET...

#61,like many, you have been programmed to go against your own self interests.

In your warped state of mind and grossly misinformed thinking you fail to see how you are being used by these modern day fascists.

Take a step- back and understand how we are much more alike than we are different.

Divide and conquer is only thing the leadership of your party have to hold onto power. Without a perseved enemy they quickly die a fast death.

Comment #63: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 8:47am ET...

The "fake" hank and the brainwashed mass of his followers, need to tune out the lies and see who has really destroyed america.

It wasn't a bunch of liberals, conservatives...And it wasn't mary mapes.

No, instead logic wins above all.

http://www.rawstory.com/exclusives/muriel/path_of_war_timeline_613.htm

It was the neocons and their imperialistic agenda. The dream has long since passed. Nobody "hates" america, rather than what its been turned into. The difference is of course, the difference between night and day.

The entire basis of the war was a lie and all the premises leading up to it. Document after document validates it, backs it up, and confirms it.

Now the time of denial has long since passed into the ether. We inquire with full investigation, and resolution, as to what this all really means and what has established here.

Then we hold them all accountable for their criminal, heinous, crimes. A lie is a lie on any other name. Whether its a white lie, or a very big enormous lie, the lies become more and more destructive as reason is put on the backseat. The lies will be answered to.

It is this road which they will walk now, and demand to know the truth.

Doug

Comment #64: Kryten42 said on 6/14/05 @ 9:29am ET...

dolphin #33: The USA is the ONLY Nation to willfully use WMD's since WW2.
Which is the only Nation on Earth to *actully* use nuclear weapons on another Nation?
Who used Agent Orange?
Who used fuel-air bombs?
Who uses depleted uranium?
Who uses various chemical weapons? (like mustard gas in Iraq)

the list of American attrocities makes any other Nation (including Iraq) pale into insignificance.

Sorry. Truth sux, I know!

Why did the USA and the UK conspire to murder many innocents (including American and British POW's) in Dresden in 1945?

I Cried Tears For Dresden

And this (from a book I have about Dresden):
(quote)
Punctually at 11:30 a.m., the third wave of bombers, the two hundred eleven American Flying Fortresses, began their attack. Once again, the area of destruction was extended across the city. But what the survivors all remember were the scores of Mustang fighters diving low over the bodies huddled on the banks of the Elbe, as well as on the larger lawns of the Grosse Garten, in order to shoot them up. Other Mustangs chose as their targets the serried crowds that blocked every road out of Dresden. No one knows how many women and children were actually killed by those dive-bombing attacks. But in the legend of Dresden destruction, they have become the symbol of Yankee sadism and brutality, and the inquirer is never permitted to forget that many choirboys of one of Dresden's most famous churches were among the victims.

In their salvage work, the Nazis relied on some 25,000 Allied prisoners of war, concentrated in and around the city. Dresden, as was known very well in London and Washington, was not only a hospital city but a prisoner-of-war city -- still another reason why the German authorities assumed it would not be attacked. Faced with the appalling scenes of suffering, the prisoners seemed to have worked with a will, even after some of their fellow-prisoners had been shot under martial law for looting.
(/quote)

Brings a whole new meaning to 'Friendly fire'! And nothing has changed!

Why did the USA destroy with nuclear weapons, Hiroshima and Nagasaki?

It's time to stop all the BS and start with the honest *truth*!! Time to take off the rose colored glasses! Only then can the USA build strong foundations and become the great Nation it has the potential to be! Right now, I put the USA in the same box as Pol Pot's Cambodia! And I was there! I saw it!

I am totally sick and tired of the baseless and hypocritical "Moral Superiority Complex" the USA has had for decades. When do Americans begin to talk less, and do more? When do Americans STOP causing atrocity after atrocity!

If talk truly is cheap, then America is bankrupt!

You can probably guess that I am very annoyed! I am very annoyed that the kind of soulless, depraved *people* who destroyed 3 totally peaceful (and beautiful) cities at the end of WW2 are the same now running the USA! And it must stop.

Good night.

Comment #65: Jean said on 6/14/05 @ 9:41am ET...

Thanks Rep. Conyers for all your hard work and to everyone that is helping in the effort. Here is another leaked document of evidence in a confidential report from the U.S. State Department.

Privatising
By: Line Thomsen

Published date: 31/8/2003

Editor’s note: BBC investigative reporter Greg Palast is also the author of the recent bestseller “The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,” a look at the American political process. He is also one of two journalists who obtained a document from the administration of US President George Bush titled “Moving the Iraqi Economy from Recovery to Sustainable Growth,” a confidential report of 101 pages from inside the US State Department and written prior to the invasion of Iraq. It outlines the plan for what it terms “the postconflict economy” and involves the mass privatization of virtually every Iraqi government asset.

He decided to grant an interview to the Bulletin because “you speak to some people in Iraq, and they ought to know what is planned for them.”

Same old question: Was oil really the reason for war?

The leaked document, which only Palast and a reporter from The Wall Street Journal have managed to obtain, contains plans of “private sector involvement in strategic sectors, including privatization, assets, sales, concessions, leases and management contracts –– especially in the oil and supporting industries.”

“Said more plainly; it is a plan to sell off the oil fields, the pipelines and the oil infrastructure of Iraq to private business and to turn what is left of Iraq into a freemarket paradise,” Palast said.

“The plan is obviously made to make it easier for the giant operators that could possibly afford to take over Iraq’s oil wealth,” he said.
Palast’s suggestion to what organizations would possibly take over the oil wealth included “two giant American operators, two British and one Russian operation.”

Needless to say, Palast’s theory and the leaked document echoes the European and Middle Eastern claim that the reason to start the war was oil.

The document does not only indicate that US is planning to privatize every economically beneficial asset, but also the very backbone of Iraq, its laws.

“The plan contains details of how to rewrite Iraq’s laws, including the nation’s copyright laws, the nation’s business regulations laws, taking over the banking sector and includes such strange things as writing for Iraq its application to join the World Trade Organization. On top of that, the plan includes a detailed rewriting of Iraq’s tax code,” Palast said.

The plan in action

Quoting the plan, Palast reads: the US government will, through a private contract: “Design fiscal regimes for petroleum, mining and transit pipelines, for para-legislations, implementing regulations and strategies for implementations and identify priorities of revenue tax reform. … If property tax regimes fit tax policy strategy; to provide support for regulation and implementing instructions and procedures and appropriate staffing and training of taxing personnel.”

Interestingly, the document also outlines plans to use the World Economic Forum, rather than the World Bank, which is designed for postwar reconstruction. The World Economic Forum is a private organization, controlled by multinational corporations with no experience or authority to take over a nation’s economy.

“By eliminating the World Bank, they indicate that there is no time for the World Bank’s indirect methods. The grab for the assets has to be done before a government is elected, which would stop it –– any government is going to want to maintain some Iraqi ownership over Iraqi resources, which is not in the plan. It is a deliberate go-around around the World Bank.”

Though Palast himself is one of the most well-known critics of the World Bank, he said that:

“Compared to Paul Bremer and the World Economic Forum, the World Bank is a wonderful agency. That is how bad this is.”

The document is said to contain a whole section on tax administrations and how to eliminate all the trade laws of Iraq. From Palast’s reading, it appears that almost nowhere in this document does the one key element, Iraqis, appear.

“There are only a couple of places where the document states that they will “include members of an Iraqi government in the decision making.”

Is this why Garner was sent home?

From reading the document, Palast said he is confident he knows why Gen. Jay Garner, the former head of the US-led administration in Iraq, was removed in May.

“Jay Garner was savaged and he was defamed, by a terrible whisper campaign that he was incompetent … because he got off the airplane and said that there would be elections within 90 days. Also he said that no elected government of Iraq, no matter what religion, political viewpoint or philosophy would ever sell off its oilfields. That is why he got sent out.”

“Making such statements could only mean that Garner was not aware of the US plan,” Palast said.

Palast continues to gather evidence that Bremer knows the plan very well and is implementing it. He has already let out contracts for reorganizing the Iraqi banking industry and convened a special meeting with the World Economic Forum.

“What for?,” asked Palast rhetorically. “They are putting the plan into direct action”.

The war was long planned

Among the other disturbing facts of the document obtained by Greg Palast is the date it was constructed. According to Palast, the document appears to have been written long before the war.

“The draft I have obtained is dated February 2003, but given the extreme, extraordinary detail of what it discusses, it is clear that this plan was written months, maybe even a year, before the invasion. Certainly it was written well before we had any idea that there would be a conflict in Iraq. This makes it obvious that the US administration was thinking of a war with Iraq long before Saddam Hussein was publicly declared a threat to America,” Palast said.

Published date: 31/8/2003
Author: Line Thomsen
http://www.baghdadbulletin.com/pageArticle.php?article_id=146&cat_id=1

Jean

Comment #66: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 9:43am ET...

Conyers should stop worrying about Downing Street and start worrying about Main Street Detroit.

Year after year crime in Detroit tops the nation’s list of high school drop-outs, violent crime, and crime in general. The roads and highways there are atrocious. Downtown Iraq looks better and is safer than Detroit. Perhaps Mr. Conyers should ask the president to bomb his district --couldn't make it any worse. Perhaps then the federal government will come in and rescue Detroit from its own oppressive, inadequate leadership.

Comment #67: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 9:46am ET...

Yes, little Hank - anyone who thinks the Bush Administration acted illegally / immorally / illogically (and btw, it's all three) ... is a Godless Communist.

Gosh darn, you figgered our lil' ol' Evildoer plan out ... back to Paris, comrades !

Yeehaw !

Comment #68: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 9:49am ET...

Yup, Kermie, we KNOW ya'll want this to go away.

That's what makes our pursuit of accountability all the more fun.

... btw, it's great to see Repugs recognize that the Feds have a role in society. What happened to "Government is the problem"

Oh, right - it wasn't your government.

btw2, is publicly inciting the bombing of Detroit on a congressman's open forum potentially illegal ?

Kermit can be contacted at: mailto:raygarrettjr@gmail.com

Comment #69: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 9:54am ET...

I don't want it to go away, quite the contrary. I pray that some Dan Rather want-to-be runs with this story. Please, please, please CBS, CNN, PMSNBC, please oh God please, run this story.

Comment #70: The Truth Shall Set You Free said on 6/14/05 @ 9:56am ET...

#66, hey green frog/copy&paste hank, stick to the topic at hand. Oh, that's right keeping in lockstep with this administration you're trained to do everything possible to hold this scandal down.

Sorry for you, the UK with it's real media is way ahead of you fascist bastards.

Judgement Day Cometh!

Comment #71: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 10:01am ET...

Kermie, if you could only have one, which do you want more:

1) The bombing of an American city (which you called for in #66)

or ...

2) The DSM & DSM2 stories to run in the national media - which has already happened (thanks to the efforts of these people and others) ?

Comment #72: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:02am ET...

Why is it that you commies think that any discussion that doens't tow the party line is "of topic.

And speaking of copy and pasting, read through some of these posts and count how many of your comrads paste DNC talking points and email from the revolutionist left.

Comment #73: The Truth Shall Set You Free said on 6/14/05 @ 10:02am ET...

Breaking: NBC Verifies Memos!

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8207731

ahhh, poor Kermie!

Comment #74: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:03am ET...

Mike #71

Define American

Comment #75: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 10:03am ET...

Kermit, do you want to retract your public call for the destruction of an American city or not ?

Comment #76: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 10:05am ET...

Do you want to retract your call for the destruction of the city GM is HQ'd in or not ?

Comment #77: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:05am ET...

the truth?? #73

Verifiying that a bunch of comiies are shooting of their mouths about them and standing up for there credibility are two different things.

Comment #78: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 10:06am ET...

... Kermit, your stated concern for the GM workers who you now want to bomb (Post #66) is truly touching.

Comment #79: The Truth Shall Set You Free said on 6/14/05 @ 10:07am ET...

#77, Kermie start loosening your boot laces, no more goostepping for you.

Comment #80: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 10:09am ET...

Didn't our glorious leader say the evil-doers want to kill us ?

Folks, I think Kermit may be part of an Al-Qaeda (not so) sleeper cell.

He has stated that he thinks Detroit, Michigan, should be bombed (Post #66).

Maybe if I notify our glorious leaders in Washington, they might want to look into this - and then we can all be that much safer.

Comment #81: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:10am ET...

#78 Mike,

I think that operation Shock and Awe proved the precision of our weaponry. I do hear you concern though.

Well, I guess we could do what we did with saddam and practically beg Mr. conyers for years on end to stop oppressing and manipulating his constituency before we finally bomb.

Comment #82: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:13am ET...

#78 Mike,

I never expressed my concern for GM workers. What are you smoking man. You can't claim your stash is for medical use anymore dude.

I have no sympothy for the union thugs working at GM. They are whats wrong with this country

Comment #83: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 10:15am ET...

All you need to know about the lunatic right-wing in this country is in Kermit's post at #66.

Detroit should be bombed ... because the roads are bad and there are high-school dropouts.

Hey - now the Iraq strategy seems so much clearer !

I'm not a communist, Kermit. Nobody on the various pages of the blog has ever said anything about communism or socialism EXCEPT those freaked-out Repugs desperately casting about for some way to slander this effort.

But it's working against you guys. You're just seeming more pathetic and desperate every day.

Kermit, are you planning on retracting your call to bomb Detroit ?

Comment #84: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:18am ET...

#83 mike,
I never threatened to bomb anyone. I simply gave Mr. Conyers a suggestion on how to clean up his ghetto. God knows he needs all the help he can get.

Comment #85: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:21am ET...

I'm neither a fascist nor racist; however, that never stops you commies from regurgitating that tired mantra

Comment #86: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 10:21am ET...

Oh, and pot smokers, too. Commies and pot smokers ! What's next, gays ?

THAT'S why this country is going down the tubes - commies & pot smokers & gays (& minorities), right ?

Yeehaw ! Well, I guess you need to start your stated desire to bomb American cities soon, then.

Kermit, could you elucidate (look it up if you need to) who you would like to bomb, in order ?

For example, would you bomb union workers first, or take out pot smokers before them ? I'm guessing the former, since you've already expressed your desire in that regard.

Comment #87: Patriot - aka Mary said on 6/14/05 @ 10:22am ET...

I'm am soooooooo tired! After a 20 hour marathon of programming, I have most of it done, and you can start using it more now. I've added news and links, and you can add items to those. Please do so.

Help us get this spread even further. Here are some suggestions:

ACTIVATE!

Go to a March

# If one's not organized in your city, organize it!
# Form a car pool to share rides into cities.
# Offer space for overnighters, such as a church fellowship hall or field for campers.
# Take extra bottles of water, for yourself and to share. Don't forget a first aid kit
# Take posters and signs. BE RESPECTFUL!
# Park outside the city and take public transportation to avoid parking problems.
# Contact the organizer in your city. They are inside, just login or leave a message at the Contact link above.
# Contact the media!!!!!

Can't go to a March?

# Contact the media to inform them of the Thursday's march and the cities they are going to.
# Email your friends and coworkers about the Marches and direct them to this web site.
# Tour the site and look for bugs and errors. Login and search there, too. Notify support of any errors found.
# Add links to "In the news..." and "Meanwhile..."
# Add "In the news..." and "Meanwhile..." to your web site.
# Give some money to the costs of this site. A link will be up shortly. This is NOT tax deductable (at this point), it's a gift. When this march is covered on Thursday, this site will get a lot of attention and I'm really worried about the costs.

March for Truth Erik wrote a wonderful statement for the front page. Please go read it. Thanks to those of you who've visited and logged in.

Note! Erik found an error in the username in the profile, so that's fixed.

There's a forum, chat, reference library, live support (me!), calendar, newsletter, many options.

I'll put up a share-a-ride page, too, but right now.. i just want to rest my poor little head!

Enjoy and thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to give this gift to this cause. Please help make it grow. Thanks again!

Comment #88: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 10:25am ET...

Good job, Mary ! Thank you ...

Kermit, you called for the bombing of Detroit, Michigan, in Post #66, and it's there for all to see.

Because ... the roads are bad.

Like I said, EVERYTHING you need to know about the nutcase right-wing is right there.

Whether we're referring to the DSM leaks or the rants of crazed lunatics like Kermit, the American people are realizing what's going on.

Comment #89: The Truth Shall Set You Free said on 6/14/05 @ 10:28am ET...

#85. Kermie, history tells us your ideology along with the almost blueprint planning ( flash back to Goebbels )Bush, Rove and company have been carrying it out over the last 5 years.

Over your many postings in this blog you expressed yourself in exactly those defining terms. It's striking how insulated and blind they have your horde.

Comment #90: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:28am ET...

mike # 86,

You truly have staggaring vocabulary. Well lets see.

How many people did our former president bomb? I at least want to bomb more people than him.

Comment #91: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 10:30am ET...

Keep on diggin' Kermie - you'll be comfortable in there.

"I at least want to bomb more people than him."

Comment #92: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:31am ET...

The truth shall set you free,

I'll list the people i'd like to bomb when you guys list the babies you want to kill

Comment #93: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:32am ET...

It astounds me the concern that y'all have for terrorists yet the unborn child skwurming away from the abortionists knife doesn't faze you

Comment #94: The Truth Shall Set You free said on 6/14/05 @ 10:35am ET...

Now Now Kermie, No more crazy right-wing talking points.

Start thinking for yourself, it's not as lonely and scary as it might seem.

Comment #95: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:36am ET...

Perhaps you need for someone to explain right and wrong to you, but for me it's innate.

Comment #96: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 10:37am ET...

ahh, changing the subject. Their favorite tactic.

Pro "Life" Kermie ? Doesn't seem compatible with PUBLICLY CALLING FOR THE BOMBING OF AN AMERICAN CITY.

Go somewhere else with the abortion / women's rights issue.

This is a forum concerned with Bush's high crimes and misdemeanors.

Comment #97: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 10:37am ET...

Kermit is an example of how sick 40% of the country is. They have literally trumped other world countries in mental illness, by listening to the vial hate speech touted on television all day long.

Bombing cities, standing up for the oklahoma city bomber, and following criminals. Truly not a surprising display.

Now everyone can see these people for what they are, here in broad daylight. There's nowhere to hide.

And yet as always, they will blame liberals and conservatives and those who did not do this to them. They will blame them and call for their deaths, just like the original Nazi, Germany.

And of course this is a good thing, it is on behalf of god. Heil Reich. Except when the reasonable and well informed won't take it anymore.

The awakening sleeping giant cometh. Lets push for the truth.

Doug

Comment #98: Sandra said on 6/14/05 @ 10:37am ET...

Comment #87: Patriot - aka Mary

see:
Comment #57: GreyHawk said on 6/14/05 @ 7:07am ET...

I sent Erik email.

Thanks be to GreyHawk!

Comment #99: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:38am ET...

you quote the Bible when describing yourself truth, to what church do you belong?

Comment #100: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 10:39am ET...

Kermit is an example of how sick 40% of the country is. They have literally trumped other world countries in mental illness, by listening to the vial hate speech touted on television all day long.

Bombing cities, standing up for the oklahoma city bomber, and following criminals. Truly not a surprising display.

Now everyone can see these people for what they are, here in broad daylight. There's nowhere to hide.

And yet as always, they will blame liberals and conservatives and those who did not do this to them. They will blame them and call for their deaths, just like the original Nazi, Germany.

And of course this is a good thing, it is on behalf of god. Heil Reich. Except when the reasonable and well informed won't take it anymore.

The awakening sleeping giant cometh. Lets push for the truth.

Doug

Comment #101: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 10:42am ET...

Post #66 extra:

"Downtown Iraq ... " ???

Yet another display of that great Repug grasp on geography / the globe.

"Year after year ... " Rep. Conyers manages to get the support of the voters there.

Are you a constituent, Kermie ?

(Meaning, were you calling for the bombing of your own house ?)

Comment #102: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:42am ET...

Doug #97,

I know that you left wingers like to imagine yourself as the enlightened amoung us. You compare me to folks who took the lives of innocent children, women, and men in oklahoma just because of a little toungue in cheek humor and lively debate which hurts no one. I would dare say most of us think that this is fun.

I take great offense to your remars and comparisons. I think you succeded in highlighting your own inability to strengthen your arguement without raising your voice.

Comment #103: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:44am ET...

Good point Mike #101:

Perhaps I was using the same Map that Clinton did when he bombed the chinese embassy in kosovo.

Comment #104: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 10:44am ET...

Now Kermie is talking bible (#99).

Bible, church, pot smokers, inciting violence ... ANYTHING to divert discussion away from Bush's impeachable offenses.

Comment #105: Faith said on 6/14/05 @ 10:46am ET...

Aw, shucks, I'm disappointed in our green frog friend. I thought we had come to an understanding that respectful conversation and debate work much better.

#58, did you even read what you posted? The first piece says, "Of course, if 'intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy,' rather than vice versa, that is pretty good evidence of Bush's intentions, as well as a scandal in its own right. And we know now that this was true and a half. Fixing intelligence and facts to fit a desired policy is the Bush II governing style, especially concerning the war in Iraq."

Comment #106: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:46am ET...

Mike I used the term as an endearing remark kind of like "Main street, USA." Perhaps I should simplify and stop using metephore and sarcasm so everyone can follow.

Comment #107: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 10:46am ET...

Perhaps you were.

"A little toungue in cheek humor and lively debate ..."

vs.

"Perhaps Mr. Conyers should ask the president to bomb his district --couldn't make it any worse."

Comment #108: Patriot - aka Mary said on 6/14/05 @ 10:48am ET...

*98 Sandra and #57 Greyhawk, yes, that's a great site. Please go to OUR March for Truth site and add news items and relevant links. It's ready for public adding. Let me know if you have any errors. I'm going to rest of bit... my head is falling off my neck.

John Conyer's March for Truth Collalition!

Comment #109: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:48am ET...

#107 mike

Your point? That's good comedy

Comment #110: The Truth Shall Set You Free said on 6/14/05 @ 10:50am ET...

#99, Oh, now Kermie want to bring religion into the discussion.

Kermie, I was raised Catholic then I realized what a corrupt scam most organized religion can be. My strong belief in God is now conducted one on one with the man no matter where it is I be.

Remember, Hitler professed to be a Christian as well.

poor Kermie, desperately trying to shape and change the discussion any way he can.

Comment #111: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:51am ET...

#107 Mike,

The suggestion was tounge in cheek because I was giving a suggestion that Mr conyers could follow to get some sweet federal money to apply to his ghetto. God knows we are sending enough to Iraq

Comment #112: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 10:52am ET...

Check that dictionary, Kermie - I'm not finding any of the following:

"remars"
"arguement"
"metephore"

And while we're at it, how did Doug "rais[e] [his] voice" on a blog ?

You're backing down now, but the record shows you called for the bombing of Detroit ... because the roads are bad, people drop out of high school, and (presumably) because some folks are signing a letter asking the glorious leader to answer some questions about how he sent the nation into combat.

The fear and concern of Bush's defenders continues ... palpable and very interesting.

Comment #113: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:53am ET...

Truth 110,

Ever visit the Holocaust museum? Hitler killed christians. MOstly catholics.

Comment #114: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 10:55am ET...

The record shows what the record (Post #66) shows.

Subsequent posts show that Kermie now thinks his calling for the bombing of Detroit (Post #109) is "comedy".

Ladies & Gentlemen, we present: the lunatic right-wing.

Comment #115: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:56am ET...

Mike,

Metaphor is lost on you. I’m having conversations with several different people. I hope you can tolerate a few mispealings.

Comment #116: Faith said on 6/14/05 @ 10:56am ET...

Actually, green frog friend makes a great point when he says "God knows we are sending enough to Iraq." Isn't that the truth! Unfortunately, the dollars aren't ending up anywhere near the Iraqi people for reconstruction. In fact, millions of dollars have gone missing. That's why Detroit and so many other cities (including mine) have horrible roads, people living in the streets, and all the rest.

Comment #117: Losing Faith said on 6/14/05 @ 10:56am ET...

I think Kermit is someone joking around. I believe hank is a real rethug apologist, but with the way Kermit is running around calling EVERYONE communists just makes it a joke. Either intentionally or not. Perhaps he just doesn't understand what a communist is.

Comment #118: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 10:57am ET...

"I take great offense in your trying to strengthen the arguments without raising your voice."

No voice raising here, Kerm. Just truth and good old fashioned logic.

The rhetoric displayed in these fascist based belief systems, is long since dead. Imperialistic nations are through. The americas don't need to become one too, and be swindled by a bunch of hoodlums who are speaking for god.

The charades over, Kerm. Extremism should be outlawed, it is deathly to all societies. The senate republicans and democrats forced it on the table, when they passed legislation banning lynching.

We shouldn't allow lynching and we shouldn't allow extremism, all policies of this administration. It's time for it to end. Cry for your emotionally misled soul, and stop breathing in the fumes.

There will never be a greater enemy to democracy itself, than us.

Doug E.

Comment #119: Sandra said on 6/14/05 @ 10:57am ET...

Oh, I see the fascist pig is back again!

Hi Kermit... how's the wife Ms. Piggy?

You come on here and show your backward thinking every day by showing you've already drank the neofascist cult kool-aid by repeating talking points from Dobson, Robertson, Limbaugh, Rove, and the rest of the KKK.

So let's see --- you think that 'all' liberals and democrats are the enemy and we're all baby killers and America haters, we hate freedom and the Bible, and it's all Clinton's fault.

Did I miss anything?

Sad really, what a wasted piece of a human being you're turning out to be... your mother must be so proud.

Either that or your on crack.

Now back on topic................

Downing Street Minutes Momentum Growing Exponentially
We're now 540,000 and counting
The DSM story is growing bigger and bigger every day. I start with the fact that we are now over 540,000 signatures from Americans demanding a response from the Administration...

Go Johnny Go!

Comment #120: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 10:59am ET...

Mike,

Let the record show that you were silent on the whole baby killing issue. Whats the matter Mike, are you a baby killer.

Let the record also show that Mike engages in hate speech towards religious individuals
"I realized what a corrupt scam most organized religion can be."

Comment #121: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 11:01am ET...

And no, that's just another silly talking point. Most people here are actually christians. The people spouting this nonsense all day long, and sensationalism, are not christians.

They are extremists wearing the christian "name", and woefully destroying its very image. Whatever form of religion they follow, it is definitely not the teachings of christ who follows the actual golden rule. It is truly the opposite. Game over.

Doug

Comment #122: The Truth Shall Set You Free said on 6/14/05 @ 11:02am ET...

#113, Ah Kermie, Kermie, Kermie, without a right-wing talking points script you blabbering idiots are like fish out of water.

Read on and be enlightened. You and your party truly are the scourge of modern times.

http://www.nobeliefs.com/Hitler1.htm

Comment #123: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 11:02am ET...

Sandra #119

"So let's see --- you think that 'all' liberals and democrats are the enemy and we're all baby killers and America haters, we hate freedom and the Bible, and it's all Clinton's fault."

I'd give more credit to FDR and Johnson but other than that you nailed it. Could you start writing my posts for a while? I'm getting tired.

Comment #124: Faith said on 6/14/05 @ 11:02am ET...

I had to laugh when green frog said, "Let the record show that you were silent on the whole baby killing issue." Come on, how is that relevant to our discussion about DSM and the illegal war? Frog Friend, you can do better!

Comment #125: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 11:04am ET...

Faith #124

I'm glad some one in here knows how to laugh!

Comment #126: Sandra said on 6/14/05 @ 11:05am ET...

We all know how to laugh... we're laughing at you Kermie!

Such a fool really.

Comment #127: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 11:06am ET...

Kermit is an old Irish name by the way and is actually my name.

Comment #128: Sandra said on 6/14/05 @ 11:07am ET...

And are you really a frog. You're warts are showing!

Comment #129: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 11:08am ET...

#126 Sandra.

Oh how I wish that enlightenment should find me as well as it has Sandra. Please Lord make me a commie so that I may see the light.

Comment #130: Sandra said on 6/14/05 @ 11:12am ET...

Welcome back to the BuzzFlash.com GOP Hypocrite of the Week.

Calling George W. Bush a hypocrite is like calling a thief a criminal. It's just plain redundant.

And that's an apt analogy, because when hypocrisy forces unnecessary death, injury and nightmarish conditions upon thousands upon thousands of people, being a hypocrite is a crime, a war crime.

At one of his staged and carefully choreographed appearances before the White House stenographer corps, Bush called Amnesty International reports of torture at Gitmo -- and we are quoting him -- "absurd."

Okay, okay, the army has basically confirmed torture took place, Bush's then White House Counsel and Rumsfeld authorized it, dozens of detainees have died inexplicably after their "interrogations," but Bush calls it all just "absurd."

Of course, Bush doesn't bother to read much, which is absurd in its own right. If he had read that August, 2001, National Security report warning of imminent Al-Qaeda hijackings in the United States, then 9/11 might not have happened. But that would be too much to ask of a man at war with reality.

And, at the same time he denied torture had taken place under his watch, he was declaring everything "on track" in Iraq. The only problem was he said it on a day that the so-called insurgency was taking a record number of lives, the U.S. "accidentally" arrested the Sunni leader, and Baghdad was being defended as if the siege of Stalingrad were underway. But to George, things were going just swell in his 51st state.

A lot of people who give Bush a pass say things like, "Well he's a hypocrite and he lied to America, but he did get rid of Saddam." Well getting rid of a tyrant and replacing him with evil under a different brand name doesn't make you virtuous; it just makes you a hypocrite.

And that's why Bush hasn't yet condemned the Butcher of Uzbekistan, his good buddy, after hundreds of protestors for democracy were gunned down. Because Bush, born of the privileged class, believes he is entitled to hypocrisy, even when lives are at stake.

Until next week, remember our motto at BuzzFlash.com: So many Republican hypocrites, so little time.

Comment #131: Faith said on 6/14/05 @ 11:12am ET...

If only we could all get along. What happened to the "Golden Rule" that was just cited a few moments ago?

#127, I thought your name was Ray. But Green Frog is cuter, don't ya think?

Seriously, points are better made without name calling. This forum is just a microcosm of the macrocosm, showing how people just can't be civil when beliefs are threatened.

Sigh . . .

Comment #132: Jean said on 6/14/05 @ 11:14am ET...

For all the good work JC is doing and for him to have to come and read the crap posted on here? I'm sincerely sorry Rep. Conyers.

Comment #133: Chris said on 6/14/05 @ 11:16am ET...

When all else fails, Repubs play the "baby-killing" card.

Comment #134: k said on 6/14/05 @ 11:17am ET...

Faith #131,

Faith i've been called racist, fascist, nazi, and likened to the oklahoma city bombers sinse ive been posting here today!.. Perhaps you should concentrate your good will efforts on your comrads.

Ray is my middle name.

Comment #135: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 11:18am ET...

Sorry, kermit not K

Comment #136: Cindy said on 6/14/05 @ 11:18am ET...

Hi All,
I'm new to the blog, but I've been following the Downing Street Memo updates from the beginning. Just wanted to say thanks to all involved in helping keep this petition circulating and special thanks to Mr. Conyers for all his efforts. I'll keep spreading the word, too.

Comment #137: Sandra said on 6/14/05 @ 11:20am ET...

Thanks Cindy!

Comment #138: Faith said on 6/14/05 @ 11:21am ET...

#134, Never assume anything! I wasn't pointing a finger at you. Believe me, I've noticed the venom, and it comes from both sides. And honestly, it saddens me. The world will never change if people can not learn to respect each other, for their differences as well as their commonalities. Peace to ALL of you.

Comment #139: The Truth Shall Set You Free said on 6/14/05 @ 11:22am ET...

#131, What's wrong Kermie, does the truth hurt?

Comment #140: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 11:24am ET...

I guess communists are basically now the 70% of this country who can logically think, cook, eat and live.

Well, I guess in a hypocrites own words "It is patently absurd to think the prisoners base in guantanamo is now a "gulag"."

There is certain hypocrisy when someone has become fascist, and later denies it.

I agree, it is absurd. It's absurd to allow any of these criminals to brainwash people into supporting a new empire. We're crazy of thinking we couldn't have prevented 9/11. We're even crazier of thinking these people actually will prevent more disasters from happening, when in affect, the opposite has happened.

Doug

Comment #141: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 11:26am ET...

#131,

The truth sets me free, you know, like the gospel of christ.

Comment #142: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 11:28am ET...

#140 doug,

I guess comies don't vote Huh? W's guy's still pres.

Comment #143: Sandra said on 6/14/05 @ 11:29am ET...

Good. When you're browsing through Revelations... let us know when you come across the Whore of Babylon.

Comment #144: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 11:30am ET...

sorry for the typo. I meant W"s still President. If 70% of the country agrees with you and 51 percent of the people of the country voted, well, you do the math.

Comment #145: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 11:32am ET...

Ahh, in actuality 60% of america basically voted for "regime change", but you know, a few million votes stolen here...A few million there, and 70,000 stolen by fundamentalists in Ohio.

It was a mission for god, after all. Amerikkka has absolutely the right idea for where it was going.

http://www.votersunite.org

Ouch, a stolen sElection that Kerry wouldn't even fight. Oh well. Back to Amerikkka and the new freedom is on the march Empire.

Doug

Comment #146: Sandra said on 6/14/05 @ 11:32am ET...

Okay... Kermie the Finance degree.

Crunch the numbers and tell me what accounts for Bush's 30% approval rating.

Comment #147: The Truth Shall Set You Free said on 6/14/05 @ 11:32am ET...

#138, Faith with all do respect, I think you need to rethink your observations of this thread.

What it boils down to is, you have someone like Kermie who made a point of posting to a blog that is run by a person and party he greatly despises ( just read his past posts ). He showed up here with a single objective and that was to disrupt.

If some here want to point out to this troll the historic name for his ideology or even call out the scummy talking points he and his party use then so much the better.

If being polite is still an issue for you, perhaps you can ask this person to leave and not disrupt what should be focused and important discussion on DSM.

Comment #148: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 11:34am ET...

Sandra #143,

What are you suggesting?

Comment #149: Thorne said on 6/14/05 @ 11:35am ET...

One thing I don't get is the "commie" supposed insult. Wasn't it de riguer in the 1950s? Haven't we improved our insults since then? Can we move on? Eh tu Kermie.

Comment #150: Sandra said on 6/14/05 @ 11:36am ET...

Sir I am suggesting you re-read your bible and determine those that partake of Babylon and her riches and what the outcome shall come to pass.

Comment #151: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 11:37am ET...

"It was a mission for god, after all. Amerikkka"

"let us know when you come across the Whore of Babylon."

And I didn't believe you when you guys said you love America.

Comment #152: Ren said on 6/14/05 @ 11:38am ET...

has anyone turned kermit in yet? I mean according to the patriot act mentioning a terrorist type event like the bombing of detroit is a terrorist act.

Here's what Kermit said. "Downtown Iraq looks better and is safer than Detroit. Perhaps Mr. Conyers should ask the president to bomb his district --couldn't make it any worse. Perhaps then the federal government will come in and rescue Detroit from its own oppressive, inadequate leadership. "

Comment #153: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 11:38am ET...

#150 Sandra,

I spend every day in the word ma'am. Are you suggesting our country is the whore of babylon?

Comment #154: The truth Will set You Free said on 6/14/05 @ 11:39am ET...

#149, Thorne, it's all they have and of course it carries zero historic accuracy.

Just more mindless right-wing talking points to rally the warped minded into a frenzy.

Comment #155: Faith said on 6/14/05 @ 11:39am ET...

#147,
You make a good point. (Actually, the best way to get rid of someone is to simply ignore him or her. They'll eventually leave.)

I am saddened by some of the participants' willingness on this forum to stoop to the low behavior - name calling, etc., and this does happen from both sides of the issue.

Keep up the great work, JC!

Comment #156: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 11:40am ET...

Ren #152,

Yo've proven you can read, but can you understand?

Comment #157: Thorne said on 6/14/05 @ 11:40am ET...

You have a point there, Ren. Kermie is promoting a terrorist act...

Comment #158: Sandra said on 6/14/05 @ 11:41am ET...

Kermit. Who is it that brings about the mid-east peace agreement by force... who dares to sit upon His throne... antichrist.

I fear you have been deceived by the ultimate deceiver.

If you say you are a true Christian then you need to do some reading.

Comment #159: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 11:43am ET...

But you're wrong, nobody hates america, they hate what its turned into and its lies forged leadership.

Amerikkka is not the same place as America, and one are not and the same nor interchangeable. One is a new imperialistic state, the other was the home of the free and the brave. Pick a card kermit the frog.

Doug

Comment #160: Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 11:44am ET...

There we have it America is Amerikkka, and the whore of babylon here to bring forth the antichrist, spawn of satan to destroy the world.

And you guys wonder why all of america is a red state????

See you all next time

Comment #161: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 11:49am ET...

Did you not notice that public officials are tasering people to death?

You surely must notice that this is not a free country. Fascism has been embraced all over the place. That is why this is even happening.

You should be lucky that Britain has told the truth and brought accountability, because it is very doubtful that the corporate owned america would have.

Doug

Comment #162: Sandra said on 6/14/05 @ 11:51am ET...

Now, I'm not a radical right-wing fanatical evangelical, but it seems clear to this Catholic that Kermie has not done his bible study reading and needs to get busy and perhaps enlightened -- if it be at all possible.

Comment #163: Markus said on 6/14/05 @ 11:52am ET...

Guys, again, please don't feed the trolls.

They live for this.

You guys are on point, and they're doing everything they can to distract you.

Use The Force, do not be led by your emotions to The Dark Side.

Comment #164: Thorne said on 6/14/05 @ 11:56am ET...

Hey Markus, Being new to this I was reading about troll-genesis. I didn't know that the right wing sites don't allow the free exchange of ideas for the most part. Guess that accounts for the hunger for human interaction (albiet anti-social)that these trolls suffer from.

Comment #165: Ren said on 6/14/05 @ 11:56am ET...

I think we should have a chatroom. This should work. If it does work feel free to pop on in and say hi.

Downing
Street Memo Chatroom

or throw in this link to your browser.

http://chat.parachat.com/roam/login.html?room=Downing_Street_Memo_Chat&width=600&height=400&bg=009900&fg=EFEFEF', 'parachat', 'width=600,height=400,location=no,menubar=no

Comment #166: Ren said on 6/14/05 @ 11:57am ET...

Or click on my name should take you directly to the chatroom.

Comment #167: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 11:58am ET...

Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering....The Dark Side are they.

And Kermit, you were and have been misled by the dark side. The america you *think* exists no longer exists. In fact, you are on the wrong side.

It's nothing to do with political sniping and more laughable rhetoric. It's good versus evil. People are genuinely trying to get the real america back, one where a democracy still exists. That's what they're fighting for.

What that television screen says, is the exact opposite of what's really happening. Leave the matrix behind and join the reality based community.

I dare you to stand up with the other patriots who refuse to let america's democracy die.

Doug

Comment #168: Right on Doug said on 6/14/05 @ 12:02pm ET...

Sleeping Tiger has it right when he/she goes to the Constitution for guidance:

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.AND

But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new guards for their future security."

Comment #169: Reverend_X said on 6/14/05 @ 12:07pm ET...

540,000 signatures! Congrats, Conyers! Out of curiousity, how many would it take to inspire Impeachment? I am trying to remember the Constitutional provisions for bypassing Congress. Just a thought.

Comment #170: LeslieM said on 6/14/05 @ 12:10pm ET...

#163 Markus - I agree, feeding the troll(s) is a distraction. It's their purpose. It makes the relevant posts much more difficult to find, read, and respond to.

I stop in a few times a day, but it is starting to get tedious now sifting through the spam.

Several people have suggested a forum type format. And I think that is an excellent idea. All troll and spam posts could be moved to their own section. Good discussion is much easier when organized by topic.

And yes, I'll even volunteer to help with forum if Rep Conyers and his staff decide to implement one.

And... back on topic... Nice job getting signatures everyone. And yippee! We're getting msm coverage.

Comment #171: Charlie said on 6/14/05 @ 12:13pm ET...

Rusty I loved the story!!!

Charlie

Comment #172: Thorne said on 6/14/05 @ 12:14pm ET...

#169 Rev. Is there a provision for bypassing congress althogether? If so...

Comment #173: DOWNING STREET MEMO CHATROOM said on 6/14/05 @ 12:16pm ET...

DOWNING STREET MEMO CHATROOM!

click on link or copy/paste the following.
------

http://chat.parachat.com/roam/login.html?room=Downing_Street_Memo_Chat&width=600&height=400&bg=009900&fg=EFEFEF', 'parachat', 'width=600,height=400,location=no,menubar=no

Comment #174: dean said on 6/14/05 @ 12:27pm ET...

Thank you Mr. Conyers.

Also, I am just thankful that Rove wasn't successful in delaying the Michael Jackson verdict until Thursday in an effort to "distract" the public from the real issues at hand.

Go Conyers!

Comment #175: nvanm said on 6/14/05 @ 12:39pm ET...

Hey there Rev. I think it might take more than .0018 % of the US population to get that going.

To the friendly green frog

Most of what you will get here is Sandra being a bitch, getting called a nazi, and constant misquoting of what you say. Oh and don't forget, you are a bad christian, even if your not one, if you agree at all with Bush.

Comment #176: Sandra said on 6/14/05 @ 12:41pm ET...

C-Span -- Frist and McCain are demanding a vote on Bolton to UN.

This must not happen. Please, now is the time for action folks.

This is not the man for the job and it appears they have no other qualified.

Bolton must not be confirmed!

WRITE NOW VOTE FILIBUSTER!

http://www.usalone.com/bolton.htm

Comment #177: Sandra said on 6/14/05 @ 12:47pm ET...

Comment #175: nvanm

Thanks for the compliment.

Hugs and kisses!

Comment #178: nvanm said on 6/14/05 @ 12:48pm ET...

In case you missed it there Sandra, you have to win elections to choose appointees such as Bolton.

The UN has failed everytime it has been put to the test, with maybe two exceptions being the missle crissis and gulf war 1. Name another time the UN has done something to protect its vision of world peace? Rwanda? Kosovo? Darfur? Vietnam? The list could go on forever.

Comment #179: Katrina said on 6/14/05 @ 12:49pm ET...

Congratulations, Rep. Conyers!! Over half a million signatures! Amazing!

Off topic, but to address poor Kermit's concerns about 'baby-killing', I have a question for him, if he really is concerned about abortion.

Kermit, have you ever seen the statistics on the number of abortions performed during:

1)The Bush Sr. Admin.
2)The Clinton Admins. and
3)Bush 11's Admins.?

I'll give you a hint. If you really care about abortion, why on earth would you be supporting a party under whom the number of abortions are raised by millions whenever they have control of the WH?

Oh, and I hate to burst your RW bubble re 'liberals' and 'commies' etc. Boy, are you people suckers for totally, irrelevant and boring, tired, old, propaganda. *Yawn*. At least be considerate and get some new talking points, pretty please???

I, eg, happen to be a Christian who is pro-life. However, when it comes to life, unlike the hypocritical, Radical RW, I am not selective in confining myself only to the unborn. Which is why I am against the bombing of innocents in foreign countries for the benefit of a few elitist war profiteers who will lie, cheat and kill to get what they want. I can't think of anything less Christian than what this administration is responsible for. The lies, the theft (billions missing in Iraq Oil Revenues, eg) the complete lack of concern and respect for human life!!

I hope that before too long they are all placed under oath, and questioned in a forum where they can no longer spin away the ever increasing evidence that they lied egregiously to get the US into this war.

Someone upthread mentioned that this is for the troops also. I agree. Each day they are dying and they and their families need true, patriotic Americans, like Rep. Conyers to stand up for them and get to the truth.

No one should be afraid of the truth!! Why are you so scared of it, Kermit? Don't you care about your country, at all?

Comment #180: Gina said on 6/14/05 @ 12:53pm ET...

Just wondering, if the administration is so committed to lying like you say Katrina.. why would being under oath suddenly make them tell the truth?

Comment #181: nvanm said on 6/14/05 @ 12:57pm ET...

Which truth is that Kat?

The one going to be spouted by the certified Bush-haters on thursday? If JC wanted the truth, he would ask the people actually at the meeting to testify. We know he wont do this and we all know why. The hearing, dsm, is all about JC getting publicity, attention, whatever mommy didnt give him growing up.

Comment #182: Ohiodem1 said on 6/14/05 @ 1:07pm ET...

#116 Faith - You are wrong, Millions are not missing, BILLIONS ARE! $8.8 Billion missing under Bremer's misadministration. Bush administration said this did not count because Iraq authority was not part of US Government, therefore not subject to US government accountability standards.

Remember this, Germany was bankrupted by reparations after WWI, creating the hyperinflation and conditions that encouraged the development of a climate in which Hitler could flourish.

Our administration pre-ordained that Iraq would pay reparations (remember comments from Bush administration that Iraq Oil money would pay for reconstruction AND the WAR).

Bush administration economic policy has set up conditions for Hyperinflation here (Trillions and Trillions in debt, cutting taxes to the point that debt service several years out will take up number 2 position in federal budget, just behind defense spending.) Countries generally attempt to fix debt crises by spinning the printing presses, i.e., massive inflation, wiping out savings and taking autocratic control of economy and introducing centrally directed draconian economic policies. This is where the administration of George W. Bush is heading.

Comment #183: Thorne said on 6/14/05 @ 1:10pm ET...

Hey Kat, nice you mean the real culture of life...womb to grave, capital punishment. That culture makes much more sense to me than the oddball one of blastocysts and white babies.

Comment #184: spritey said on 6/14/05 @ 1:22pm ET...

Downing St hearings to be held at DNC because Republicans Denying Democrats Use of Rooms on Hill .....Republicans controlling the House Judiciary Committee refused to permit the ranking Democratic Member to use a room on the Hill.

http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/UndertheDome/index.html

Comment #185: Begonia Buzzkill said on 6/14/05 @ 1:30pm ET...

Hearings to be held at DNC because Republicans Denying Democrats Use of Rooms on Hill

On Thursday June 16, 2005, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Wasserman Room at 430 S Capitol St. SE, Washington, D.C., Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and other Congress Members will hold a hearing on the Downing Street Minutes and related evidence of efforts to cook the books on pre-war intelligence.

The hearings are being held at the Democratic National Committee because the Republicans controlling the House Judiciary Committee refused to permit the ranking Democratic Member to use a room on the Hill. http://www.thehill.com/thehill/export/TheHill/News/UndertheDome/index.html Nonetheless, Republicans are welcome to attend.

http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=237&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0

Comment #186: nvanm said on 6/14/05 @ 1:32pm ET...

Possibly because reasonable people know that these hearings are a farce. real witnesses = real hearings. Otherwise, JC shows himself to allied with the loons.

Comment #187: Jamie said on 6/14/05 @ 1:37pm ET...

We must not let this one go.

The Bushco criminals have been lying to the American people, Congress and the world for 5 long years.

Enough is enough!

Impeachment is a must!

Comment #188: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 1:40pm ET...

The Downing Street Memo hearings have been denied a room. In response, they are being moved to DNC headquarters, to begin at 1:00p.m.

HAHAHAHAHAHAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

CONYERS DOES NOT HAVE A ROOM IN WASHINGTON TO MEET IN

CONYERS HAS NO INVESTIGATION BUDGET!

CONYERS HAS NO INVESTIGATION AUTHORITY!

THE WORLD WILL SEE THIS FOR WHAT IT IS: DEMOCRATS MEETING AT A DNC HEADQUARTERS TO HOLD "HEARINGS"!!!

HAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHAHHHHHHHHHHHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

WHAT A TOTAL JOKE!!

I TOLD YOU SO!

Comment #189: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 1:42pm ET...

OHIODEM1:

RE: 8 BILLION MISSING. NOBODY IS SAYING IT WAS STOLEN. WHAT THEY ARE SAYING IS THEY DO NOT HAVE ADEQUATE 'RECEIPTS" FOR ITS DISBURSEMENT.

KIND OF LIKE WHEN YOU TURN IN THAT EXPENSE REPORT AND REALIZE YOU DON'T HAVE ALL THE RECEIPTS BUT YOU KNOW YOU SPENT THE MONEY; YOU SHRUG YOUR SHOULDERS AND YOUR EMPLOYER REIMBURSES YOU AND TELLS YOU "NEXT TIME TURN IN THE RECEIPTS"

MORONS

Comment #190: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 1:44pm ET...

540,000 SIGNATURES IS LESS THAN 22 HUNDRETHS OF ONE PERCENT!

LESS THAN A QUARTER OF A PERCENT OF VOTING AGE AMERICANS SIGNED YOUR PETITION!

THAT IS FEWER THAN THOSE DRIVING AROUND ON EXPIRED LICENSES IN AMERICA!

AHAHAHAHHAHAAH

Comment #191: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 1:46pm ET...

I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE MEDIA TO REPORT THAT THE MUCH RAVED ABOUT CONYERS DSM HEARINGS ARE BEING HELD AT THE DNC HEADQUARTERS!

THE JOKE WILL BE THAT THE REPUBLICANS WILL HAVE THEIR OWN SET OF HEARINGS AT THE RNC HEADQUARTERS CALLED AND CALL THEM THE DSM REVOLATIONS AND WHY BUSH WAS RIGHT AND C-SPAN WILL COVER THE RNC MEETING AND NOT THE DNC!

HAHAHAHA

Comment #192: Ren said on 6/14/05 @ 1:47pm ET...

Hank, I hope your negativity and attitude brings you everything you deserve in your miserable life. I hope you are treated as you treat other people, disrespecting their opinions because yours MUST be the right one.

only a fool won't admit he's ever been wrong or could be wrong.

Comment #193: Susan said on 6/14/05 @ 1:48pm ET...

I just dropped by and am increasingly concerned about how this blog secumbs to these trolls, instead of imparting the information and discussion necessary to push forward our agenda of enlightenment.

The reds never do this and it is the only secret of their excess. We don't have to emulate that, but we should ignore the uninformed posts because they distract. Also, citizens engaging in personal attacks are a sign of devolving, not evolving, discourse.

I have participated, myself, but PLEASE DO NOT FEED. They probably pay these guys to do this.

*

Having reflected upon the increased stream of British media reports about what our own government knew and planned, I am very saddened about the state of our country. We must rely on "Fleet Street" journalists to reveal what our own government and complacent media hide from us.

I am also dismayed by people like Michael Kinsley who believe these revelations do not mean much. That is soooo "inside baseball" on this. Of course there was plenty of information about the lies but very few average citizens paid attention because 1) the media did not report an significant opposition and 2) there was an active campaign to deceive and distract. Michael misses that political liberals were skeptical, but many, myself included, thought there must be more to this because the alternative would be such a large lie (and would be disclosed eventually anyway). The risk taken on such a huge issue is still astounding, even if it had unfolded the way the "pointy-headed" neo-cons thought. That this war is an unmitigated disaster helps these revelations gain traction.

The number of signatories on this effort by the courageous John Conyers, Jr. is encouraging. The kool-aid gulpers are waking up and, if prior scandals are any indication, the American public, once informed and aroused, does not respond favorably to being deceived...by anyone, especially someone who gained popularity only because of their trust during a crisis.

When will they see that all the other policies are fake, too?

Comment #194: Susan said on 6/14/05 @ 1:48pm ET...

I just dropped by and am increasingly concerned about how this blog secumbs to these trolls, instead of imparting the information and discussion necessary to push forward our agenda of enlightenment.

The reds never do this and it is the only secret of their excess. We don't have to emulate that, but we should ignore the uninformed posts because they distract. Also, citizens engaging in personal attacks are a sign of devolving, not evolving, discourse.

I have participated, myself, but PLEASE DO NOT FEED. They probably pay these guys to do this.

*

Having reflected upon the increased stream of British media reports about what our own government knew and planned, I am very saddened about the state of our country. We must rely on "Fleet Street" journalists to reveal what our own government and complacent media hide from us.

I am also dismayed by people like Michael Kinsley who believe these revelations do not mean much. That is soooo "inside baseball" on this. Of course there was plenty of information about the lies but very few average citizens paid attention because 1) the media did not report an significant opposition and 2) there was an active campaign to deceive and distract. Michael misses that political liberals were skeptical, but many, myself included, thought there must be more to this because the alternative would be such a large lie (and would be disclosed eventually anyway). The risk taken on such a huge issue is still astounding, even if it had unfolded the way the "pointy-headed" neo-cons thought. That this war is an unmitigated disaster helps these revelations gain traction.

The number of signatories on this effort by the courageous John Conyers, Jr. is encouraging. The kool-aid gulpers are waking up and, if prior scandals are any indication, the American public, once informed and aroused, does not respond favorably to being deceived...by anyone, especially someone who gained popularity only because of their trust during a crisis.

When will they see that all the other policies are fake, too?

Comment #195: Thorne said on 6/14/05 @ 1:54pm ET...

#194 I have to agree Susan. All things considered, right, left or center...very little makes Americans madder than being lied to.

Comment #196: Susan said on 6/14/05 @ 1:57pm ET...

We should mourn the events of last Friday and Senselessness's gaveling down democracy AND NOW no room in the whole Federal government to take testimony about a very important issue inadequately covered by our complacent media. These revelations by the British press are WORLD NEWS. This is what happened in Serbia. Their view of the world was skewed by purposeful control of information about the deeds of their government.

Maybe we need the Voice of America for America.

Rep. Conyers, thanks for making a record of these important assaults on democracy and public information. When are you going to London? Keep going!

They are getting so scared they have Bush and Cheney on FAUX News covering up BIG TIME.

Comment #197: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 1:58pm ET...

Also Represenative Conyers,

Please call on Richard Dearlove and others involved in the minutes meetings. It's time to ask them all the questions we want the answer to, specifically about regime change, policy, and evidence.

It's time to shed light on this once and for all, so please once again push the inquiry. Get some of these members on phone even if possible, or just indirectly present at the hearing.

Doug E.

Comment #198: Susan said on 6/14/05 @ 2:02pm ET...

Raw Story reports that Rep. Nadler has moved to REBUKE Sensennbrenner for last Friday's "hissy-fit". Good! That's infotaining enough to hit the MSM, isn't it?

Bread and Circus. Food fights are next!

Comment #199: Dale said on 6/14/05 @ 2:06pm ET...

Ok, folks. Let's refocus. Set our sights. There's this thing I tell my daughter when her older brother picks on her. I tell her, "He's controlling you. He's displaying his power over you." That drives my daughter nuts. "Ignore him. You know the truth. Your brother is just trying to pull you into a fight."
Some people on this blog haven't moved beyond childhood tactics.
Let's be adults, or at least more mature.
Let's get back to the information on DSM and what needs to be done about it.

Comment #200: Thorne said on 6/14/05 @ 2:08pm ET...

Will the hearings not be televised now? Can satellite LINK or FSTV pick up a feed?

Comment #201: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 2:09pm ET...

DOUG E:

WHAT DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT DEARLOVE AND THE DMS? IT WAS HIS OPINION AS REITUREATED BY ANOTHER GUY NAMED RYCROFT!

IT MEANS NOTHING, ZERO, NADDA, BECAUSE EVEN AMERICAN MEDIA WAS PRINTING IN 2002 THAT IT APPEARS BUSH HAD MADE UP HIS MIND THAT GOING TO WAR WITH IRAQ MAY BE NECESSARY!

DO YOU PEOPLE EVEN READ OR ARE YOU SO BURNED OUT YOU CANNOT READ A SIMPLE MEMO AND FIGURE OUT IT IS THIRD HAND INFORMATION AND EVEN IF DEARLOVE THOUGHT HE WAS RIGHT ABOUT HIS IMPRESSIONS: IT MEANS NOTHING BECAUSE IT IS THE SAME CONCLUSION THAT THE MEDIA CAME TO IN 2002!

Comment #202: Rachel said on 6/14/05 @ 2:15pm ET...

Once again thank you Mr. Conyers for your courage and dedication. The DSM and the six newly discovered memos do beg some very serious questions of this administration. If the Bush administration has nothing to hide then they need to answer these questions and provide minutes of their own meetings. This is information that the American people, the people who are funding this war with our tax dollars and apparently the tax dollars of our children's children, have a right to know. So, Thank you Mr. Conyers for being a true American, a true patriot.

Comment #203: Ren said on 6/14/05 @ 2:15pm ET...

To Hank (the Moron) : If you are so against everyone here, and we are all losers who can't read a simple memo. Why do you insist on staying around and having your say?

To Everyone else : The reason Hank feels this overwhelming need to voice his opinion of Decent is that This is a FREE COUNTRY. And he can Damn well say whatever he wants (within reason). I support his opinion, but I do not support his bashing of the others here. I suggest no further responses be made to Him nor any of the other lurkers trying to pick a fight. As was just said, we give them power. Now we must take it away and ignore their lame brain insults.

Comment #204: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 2:15pm ET...

Hm, I also think it would be of particular importance to get Richard Dearlove's testimony on the matter as well as those involved writing down the minutes.

It seems to give particular eloquence, in the phrases which write out: "The regime change was inherantly seen as illegal....And we were going to have to justify it, as it would be made legal"

Even after pointing this out to Tony Blair, the bombings on Iraq continued. I believe we need an interview of these officials to get their full conversation, since they were actually there.

Remember this little timeline?
http://www.rawstory.com/exclusives/muriel/path_of_war_timeline_613.htm

It's not going away--That's where we need to zero in on John Conyers, the context of the minutes statements in their passage.

Plus, who told Tony what? And how many times did the meetings go on with Condi, Rumsfeld, Bush which stressed the need of "invade Iraq now"? I think we can do more than disseminate the agenda: We can burn right through PNAC's charade by asking the hard questions.

Doug E.

Comment #205: Rachel said on 6/14/05 @ 2:16pm ET...

Once again thank you Mr. Conyers for your courage and dedication. The DSM and the six newly discovered memos do beg some very serious questions of this administration. If the Bush administration has nothing to hide then they need to answer these questions and provide minutes of their own meetings. This is information that the American people, the people who are funding this war with our tax dollars and apparently the tax dollars of our children's children, have a right to know. So, Thank you Mr. Conyers for being a true American, a true patriot

Comment #206: Rachel said on 6/14/05 @ 2:17pm ET...

Once again thank you Mr. Conyers for your courage and dedication. The DSM and the six newly discovered memos do beg some very serious questions of this administration. If the Bush administration has nothing to hide then they need to answer these questions and provide minutes of their own meetings. This is information that the American people, the people who are funding this war with our tax dollars and apparently the tax dollars of our children's children, have a right to know. So, Thank you Mr. Conyers for being a true American, a true patriot

Comment #207: Rachel said on 6/14/05 @ 2:18pm ET...

Once again thank you Mr. Conyers for your courage and dedication. The DSM and the six newly discovered memos do beg some very serious questions of this administration. If the Bush administration has nothing to hide then they need to answer these questions and provide minutes of their own meetings. This is information that the American people, the people who are funding this war with our tax dollars and apparently the tax dollars of our children's children, have a right to know. So, Thank you Mr. Conyers for being a true American, a true patriot

Comment #208: Vyan said on 6/14/05 @ 2:18pm ET...

So let me get this straight, what Dearlove had to say in the DSM is irrelevant because although as head of MI6 where it's his job to gather information on foreign nations and report it to the Prime Minister - in this case, the accuracy of his statement can't be trusted because it was gathered second hand? But at the same time, Conyers' hearing on the DSM isn't worth anything because he's invited Republicans who worked in and with the Bush Administration directly - not Sir Dearlove who supposedly doesn't know what he's talking about anyway?

Dems don't have to prove you guys wrong - your own arguments cancel each other out.

Vyan

Comment #209: Doug Eldritch said on 6/14/05 @ 2:22pm ET...

To add to that Vyan, attorney general Jack Straw seemed to be particularly concerned about the part-- "Justifying reasons for war" and "hiring CIA analysts to cook up the reports for the war" which, I wonder if we can get testimony on the matter of the man Tony Blair hired to write the report?

His report of propaganda created evidence, according to the timeline, was well over 70 pages long and provided substantial cover. Has the report been reviewed?

Doug

Comment #210: The Thruth Shall Set You Free said on 6/14/05 @ 2:25pm ET...

#188, Hank or what ever your real cowardly freeper name is, This is the sad state of affairs living under fascist rule. The controlling fascist powers dictate what can be talked about, where it can be talked about and who can do the talking.

Brace yourself coward, judgement day is on the way.

BTW, get your ass over to Iraq, if you haven't read our armed services are grossly under quota for enlistment.

It's your war tough guy, start fighting.

Comment #211: Read this said on 6/14/05 @ 2:26pm ET...

"Hard work is seeing your son's murder on CNN one Sunday evening while you're enjoying the last supper you'll ever truly enjoy again. Hard work is having three military officers come to your house a few hours later to confirm the aforementioned murder of your son, your first-born, your kind and gentle sweet baby. Hard work is burying your child 46 days before his 25th birthday. Hard work is holding your other three children as they lower the body of their big (brother) into the ground. Hard work is not jumping in the grave with him and having the earth cover you both," - Cindy Sheehan, Military Mom, addressing Bush at a rally in Lexington.

Comment #212: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 2:27pm ET...

June 14, 2005

Judiciary GOP pulls the plug on Conyers 'forums'
By Albert Eisele and Jeff Dufour

If the Financial Services Committee is the best in the House when it comes to bipartisan comity, then the Judiciary Committee may well be the worst.

In December, ranking Democrat John Conyers (Mich.) began holding “forums” — gatherings with all the trappings of official hearings — after Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) refused to hold hearings on topics Conyers requested. The forums have been held in smaller committee rooms, often with C-SPAN coverage and formal witness lists.

In a sign of how far relationships on the committee have soured, majority staff recently announced a new policy to deny any request from a committee Democrat for the use of a committee hearing room.

Majority spokesman Jeff Lungren said the Republicans have given Democrats three opportunities to make clear that the forums are not official committee business. Nevertheless, Lungren said, in at least one case, members were addressing Conyers as “Mr. Chairman.”

“They were unwilling or unable to make those changes,” Lungren said. “At this point, if they want to hold these forums, they’ll have to find some other place to do it.”

Sean McLaughlin, deputy chief of staff for Sensenbrenner, recently wrote to a minority staffer in more pointed language.

“I’m sitting here watching your ‘forum’ on C-SPAN,” McLaughlin wrote. “Just to let you know, it was your last. Don’t bother asking [for a room] again.”

A committee source said committee Democrats are still planning to hold the forums when they find other available space.

TOLD YOU SO!

TOLD YOU SO!

NO ROOM.

NO BUDGET.

NO AUTHORITY.

CONYERS IS SCREWED.

GOOD LUCK ON YOUR PARTISAN "HEARINGS". I HEAR THE REPUBLICANS ARE GOING TO HOLD THEIR OWN HEARINGS ON REMOVING CONYERS FROM THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEEE!

I HEAR THE REPUBLICANS ARE GOING TO HOLD THEIR OWN HEARINGS ON REMOVING CONYERS FROM THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEEE!

I HEAR THE REPUBLICANS ARE GOING TO HOLD THEIR OWN HEARINGS ON REMOVING CONYERS FROM THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEEE!

Comment #213: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 2:30pm ET...

VYAN:

DEARLOVE IS THE SAME GUY THAT SAID SADDAM COULD LAUNCH HIS WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ON 45 MINUTES NOTICE! REMEMBER THAT? WAS HE RIGHT ON THAT?????????

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN CONYERS BLASTED HIM FOR THAT "FALSE AND OUTRAGEOUS STATEMENT"?

SO YOU THINK DEARLOVE IS GOING TO COME RUNNING TO CONYERS AID NOW?

Comment #214: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 2:31pm ET...

Another voice comes out and speaks the truth

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050613-102755-6408r.htm

"A former Bush team member during his first administration is now voicing serious doubts about the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9-11. Former chief economist for the Department of Labor during President George W. Bush's first term Morgan Reynolds comments that the official story about the collapse of the WTC is "bogus" and that it is more likely that a controlled demolition destroyed the Twin Towers and adjacent Building No. 7. Reynolds, who also served as director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas and is now professor emeritus at Texas A&M University said, "If demolition destroyed three steel skyscrapers at the World Trade Center on 9/11, then the case for an 'inside job' and a government attack on America would be compelling." "

The case was always thin, and now confirms that MIHOP did indeed take place. Just as there was no "evidence" to justify Iraq...

And the hearings will take place anyway, despite the usual fascist "wishes" of them not to take place. Nothing's changed.

America demands accountability. Time for the oversight playbook to come crumbling down.

Doug

Comment #215: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 2:32pm ET...

READ THIS:

REGARDING CINDY SHEEHAN;

IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT THE PARENTS OF 1700 BRAVE SOLDIERS KILLED IN IRAQ DID NOT SHOW UP AT THIS EVENT AND ONLY ONE DID: HER.

THAT SHOULD TELL YOU SOMETHING.

ALSO, 200 OTHERS SHOWED UP AT THIS EVENT: TWO HUNDRED FIFTY MILLION AMERICANS DID NOT.

Comment #216: vyan said on 6/14/05 @ 2:34pm ET...

From Democratic Underground.com - a quick chronology of deception highlights (on Iraq):

• In January 1998, leaders of the neo-con Project for the New American Century - a Hard Right think-tank that included such key figures as Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton, Jeb Bush, Jim Woolsey, et al. - wrote a letter to President Clinton urging that he invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein. (Clinton declined; he was going after bin Laden.) Later that year, when musing about a run for President in 2000 and how he would approach Iraq, Bush told his ghostwriter: "If I have a chance to invade, if I had that much capital, I'm not going to waste it."
  
  
• The first Bush Administration cabinet meetings in January 2001, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill reported, focused on finding ways to attack Iraq. Later that year, Bush directed Defense Secretary Rumsfeld to begin considering military options for Saddam's removal. Even after being told by his intelligence analysts that 9/11 was the work of Al Qaida and not Iraq, Rumsfeld began badgering his intelligence crew to try to include Saddam Hussein in retaliation plans. Bush himself cornered anti-terrorism chief Richard Clarke and strongly suggested that he find a way to include Saddam in the mix.
  
  
• In March of 2002, Time Magazine reported that Bush told several senators visiting the White House: "Fuck Saddam, we're taking him out."
  
  
• In July of 2002, without going to Congress for permission, Bush took $700 million from funds Congress authorized for the Afghanistan war against Al Qaida/Taliban forces and diverted them to the coming Iraq War. Meanwhile, of course, Bush was telling the American people that he hadn't made up his mind about attacking Iraq.
  
  
• The recently-revealed, top-secret Downing Street Memo, dated July 23, 2002, which talks about a just-concluded meeting between U.K. and Administration leaders at the Bush ranch in Texas, said that the "intelligence and facts" to justify the Iraq invasion to the public were to be "fixed around the policy." "Terrorism and WMD" would be the basis, the memo reported. Later, Paul Wolfowitz admitted that the Administration was having trouble agreeing on a rationale that would be seen morally acceptable and thus gain wide public support, so they finally settled on WMD - which they were sure would work. And it did, despite the fact that there were no stockpiles of those banned weapons.
  
  
• In the second top-secret Downing Street Memo, released by the Times of London just a few days ago, the briefing paper for that Blair-Bush meeting of July 23, 2002, reveals that the British were worried about the illegality of the war action and that both the U.S. and Britain were anxious to find some legal excuse for their pending attack. They conceived of ways to lure Saddam Hussein into doing something belligerent that would make an attack more acceptable in the U.S. and U.N.; bombing runs by U.S. jets went on for months before the invasion, to try to provoke just such a response. But Saddam, aware of what game was being played, didn't react to the bait. Blair and Bush tried another ruse at the United Nations: they believed Saddam would object to allowing U.N. weapons inspectors back in, and thus create a casus belli, but, surprise, the Iraqi leader said the inspectors could return. Their preliminary work indicated that there were no stockpiles of WMD.
  
  
• The U.N. inspections were cut off abruptly. The "shock and awe" bombing and land invasion began in March of 2003, nearly one year to the date from when Bush told the senators that Saddam was a goner, "we're taking him out."

Comment #217: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 2:34pm ET...

DOUG E:

GOOD GRIEF! DO A GOOOGLE SEARCH ON MORGAN REYNOLDS! HE IS A RETIRED CONSPIRACY NUT! AT THE VERY LEAST BEFORE YOU START QUOTING BLOGS REPORTING THIS AND THAT YOU SHOULD DO A GOOOGLE SEARCH AND DISCOVER JUST HOW CRAZY THESE PEOPLE ARE BEFORE YOU QUOTE IT!

Comment #218: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 2:34pm ET...

Also, I forgot one key point that hasn't been mentioned here but our great colleagues point out: Richard Dearlove was one working for the propaganda machine.

He spouted anything he could say about Soddom to make the propaganda "justifiable". So the very fact that he tells the truth after pushing forth gross fraud, tells us all he had a serious change of heart.

Well not really does it tell us that--It tells us someone right under his nose leaked what really happened. Dearlove at this point would likely have to tell the truth.

Doug

Comment #219: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 2:34pm ET...

im a big wussie gay freakazoid with no life no car no job no girlfriend (except the one i keep chained in the basement).

the smartest thing anybodies in here can do is to ignore me! or maybe send me some money so i can shoot myself. my life is pathetic, i have 2 hairs left on my head, my face is deformed and im a republican so nothing Bush does is ever wrong.

ps : i drink my own peepee

Comment #220: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 2:41pm ET...

Sorry guys, got to go, I have an orthodontist appointment

Comment #221: vyan said on 6/14/05 @ 2:42pm ET...

"Dearlove - 45 MIns". Where is that quote from? Sources please.

I'd like to know the time-frame for that statement compared to the DSM and other events. Was it after the forged Niger documents about "Yellow Cake" Uranium appeared? Was it after President Bush claimed "Iraq could have a Nuclear Weapon with the Year"? Was it before the massive bombing of Iraqi WMD Sites in 1998? Was it before the U.S. Energy Commission revealed that the aluminum tubes Iraq purchased where the wrong type for enriching uranium? Was it after the U.S. claimed that Iraq had "unmanned airial vehicles" that could disperse WMD? (Why they would need this when we had previously sold them helicopters with sprayers on them I don't know...)

Just wondering.

Vyan

Comment #222: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 2:43pm ET...

One other nonetheless key point: David Ray Griffin has proven MIHOP long before this man appeared in the Washington Times.

The Washington Times is owned by Syung Moon. It could be just as easily reynolds trying to leak, and discredit the real MIHOP.

David Ray Griffin has already completely laid out the facts about 9/11 omissions and lies. Clearly, it was an inside job. But it probably didn't involve all the players Reynolds claims.

Doug

Comment #223: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 2:46pm ET...

Sir Richard Dearlove

Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, commonly known as MI6

Simon Jeffery
Wednesday September 17, 2003

Hutton inquiry: stage two
Richard Dearlove, also known as "C", spoke to the inquiry on September 16 from an undisclosed location through an audio link. He was questioned on the 45-minute claim, saying that he did not consider it a claim but rather "a piece of well sourced intelligence".

He said he first became aware of it at the end of August and it that it had come from "an established and reliable source equating a senior Iraqi military officer who was certainly in a position to know this information". Sir Richard told the inquiry that he considered the Commons' foreign affairs committee's criticism that the 45-minute claim had been given undue prominence in the dossier to be "valid" with the benefit of hindsight but said he was not aware of any unhappiness within the intelligence services.

GO AHEAD: "ASK THE 45 MINUTES FOR SADDAM TO LAUNCH WMD" GUY, DEARLOVE WHAT HE MEANT ABOUT THE WORD "FIXED"!

THIS GUY ALREADY HAS ZERO CREDIBILITY WITH CONYERS, WHO CALLED HIM UNBELIEVABLE OVER THE 45 MINUTE TO LAUNCH WMD CLAIM!

Comment #224: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 2:48pm ET...

READTHIS:

REGARDING CINDY SHEEHAN;

IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THAT THE PARENTS OF 1700 BRAVE SOLDIERS KILLED IN IRAQ DID NOT SHOW UP AT THIS EVENT AND ONLY ONE DID: HER.

THAT SHOULD TELL YOU SOMETHING.

ALSO, 200 OTHERS SHOWED UP AT THIS EVENT: TWO HUNDRED FIFTY MILLION AMERICANS DID NOT.

Comment #225: Vyan said on 6/14/05 @ 2:48pm ET...

The WTC collapse was not a "controlled" anything.

The only one with a conspiracy on this matter was Osama bin Ladin, who as it turns out, has a degree in engineering, and used to run his families construction business. If anyone does, He knows how to bring a building down.

Vyan

Comment #226: Sandy said on 6/14/05 @ 2:49pm ET...

Just curious~~~~ if one political party can deny elected representatives of the other political party access to a room in a government building that is owned by the citizens of the United States, does that mean that all members of the political party who are being denied access to facilities in their own building can now stop paying taxes?

Ooops, I forgot! The only legal way to stop paying taxes is to be a wealthy and powerful friend of George Bush and Company.

Comment #227: Doug E said on 6/14/05 @ 2:51pm ET...

Lets not forget that Dearlove said what he did in 2003, a full year or so after the "meetings"...

And everyone was correct to call him on his propaganda as well, since that's all he does is launch propaganda for Tony Blair at that stage of the game. The soddom regime, nuclear threat, was all a ruse as the minutes show.

Dearlove was in on it, which is why I believe his testimony is very much a required part of the record.

Doug Eldritch

Comment #228: Sandy said on 6/14/05 @ 2:55pm ET...

P.S.
Did I mention how much my family and I enjoyed beautiful downtown Detroit while attending a Detroit Tigers baseball game a couple Sundays ago? Almost as much as we enjoyed the UofM/MSU hockey game this past Winter at Joe Louis Arena. But not quite as much as we enjoyed seeing our favorite comedian at the Detroit Opera House this Spring. Greektown was a blast, too. Thanks, Rep. Conyers, for providing us "up north" Michiganians with a place to go that is so full of life and fun!! We'll definitely be back!

Comment #229: Sandy said on 6/14/05 @ 2:55pm ET...

P.S.
Did I mention how much my family and I enjoyed beautiful downtown Detroit while attending a Detroit Tigers baseball game a couple Sundays ago? Almost as much as we enjoyed the UofM/MSU hockey game this past Winter at Joe Louis Arena. But not quite as much as we enjoyed seeing our favorite comedian at the Detroit Opera House this Spring. Greektown was a blast, too. Thanks, Rep. Conyers, for providing us "up north" Michiganians with a place to go that is so full of life and fun!! We'll definitely be back!

Comment #230: Susan said on 6/14/05 @ 2:55pm ET...

Re: Dearlove

When you get sucked into the framing that it's the messenger, rather than the truth of the message, you have not addressed the truth, but only participated in an ad hominam attack. (You need only to go back about a week to the outrageous attacks on Mark Felt about his "Deep Throat" revelations.)

When the truth is told (no one contradicts these Minutes), it doesn't matter if a Martian or Sean Hannity tells it. All else is a red herring.

Re: the demise of democracy in the House Judiciary Committee.

As the minority, it does not matter if Rep. Conyers holds hearing at the local Mc Donalds, while chomping on a Big Mac. The biggest distinction is that all testimony is voluntary and so one misses the rigors of compelled testimony. This type of record is the one the majority (Senselessbrenner) should be doing, but THEY ARE ABROGATING THEIR RESPONSIBILITY BECAUSE THEY ARE EMBARASSED REPUBLICANS.

Thursday, John Conyers stands up for Democracy. We the people rise with him. And when the witnesses testify, they make a record of the TRUTH for posterity.

The mindless glee at thwarting our fact-finding process in some quarters shows narrow-minded zealotry that begs the question:

WHY ARE SOME SO AFRAID OF THE TRUTH?

Comment #231: Read This said on 6/14/05 @ 2:56pm ET...

Hank- You're an idiot. Cindy Sheehan is the President of the Gold Star Families for Peace which means she REPRESENTS families of soldiers who have died in this war. Next time do your homework before you open your mouth, you'll look less stupid.

Comment #232: leslie said on 6/14/05 @ 2:56pm ET...

hank, what sacrifice have you made in this unnecessary war that qualifies you to discredit a mother who gave her son to these lies?

have you yourself signed up to fight? sent over children? grandchildren?

you're a typical republican. bush awol in the national guard, cheney received multiple deferments, rumsfeld never served. and then you and they have the nerve to question the patriotism of a mother whose son has died?

you're disgusting.

Comment #233: Vyan said on 6/14/05 @ 2:57pm ET...

"an established and reliable source equating a senior Iraqi military officer who was certainly in a position to know this information".

One more question: Might this source be CURVEBALL?!

In a scathing report released Thursday, President Bush's intelligence commission found that the CIA "failed to convey to policy-makers new information casting serious doubt on the reliability of a human intelligence source known as 'Curveball."' The commission found that several agency officers said they had doubts about the source and raised those doubts with senior leadership, including then-CIA Director George Tenet. In separate statements Friday, Tenet and former acting CIA Director John McLaughlin denied the accounts. "It is deeply troubling to me that there was information apparently available within CIA as of late September or October of 2002 indicating that Curveball may have been a fabricator," Tenet said in a detailed seven-page rebuttal. "There is nothing more serious or galvanizing in the intelligence business than associating the word fabricator with a human source." <>McLaughlin said "unequivocally" that he wouldn't have allowed Curveball's information to be used "if someone had made these doubts clear."

(Note: This is from a FoxNews Report, so Hank and others might actually believe it for once)

Vyan

Comment #234: Regardind Hank Comment #212 said on 6/14/05 @ 2:59pm ET...

On Thursday June 16, 2005, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Wasserman Room at 430 S Capitol St. SE, Washington, D.C., Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and other Congress Members will hold a hearing on the Downing Street Minutes and related evidence of efforts to cook the books on pre-war intelligence.

Comment #235: Regarding Hank Comment #212 said on 6/14/05 @ 2:59pm ET...

On Thursday June 16, 2005, from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in the Wasserman Room at 430 S Capitol St. SE, Washington, D.C., Rep. John Conyers, Jr., Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and other Congress Members will hold a hearing on the Downing Street Minutes and related evidence of efforts to cook the books on pre-war intelligence.

Comment #236: vyan said on 6/14/05 @ 3:00pm ET...

More on Curveball...

Despite the apparent concerns, the commission found that information from Curveball remained a centerpiece of former Secretary of State Colin Powell's presentation to the United Nations about the need to attack Iraq, as well as in an authoritative intelligence estimate prepared for policy-makers in the run-up to the Iraq war.

Curveball was an Iraqi defector living in Europe who became a source for German intelligence officials, who then passed the information to Americans. He provided detailed accounts of Iraq's purported mobile weapons labs and other aspects of the fallen regime's biological weapons programs that turned out to be false.

Vyan

Comment #237: Doug Eldritch said on 6/14/05 @ 3:00pm ET...

It is true that sensenbrenner and much of his staff is shamed by everything they know, and what they know to be a lie.

But it is not true that all republicans are so shamed or republicans wouldn't be at this hearing testifying. I believe more and more will join and rise up, as the truth comes flooding down over the walls in mass play.

Doug E.

Comment #238: Dale said on 6/14/05 @ 3:03pm ET...

Much as I would like people to be a little more civil, I have to agree with Leslie's assessment of Hank.

Also, I know we've blown away the 500,000 goal. Anyone know where the number stands now?

Comment #239: Here you go hank said on 6/14/05 @ 3:08pm ET...

http://www.goarmy.com/flindex.jsp
http://www.marines.com/
http://www.airforce.com/
http://www.cnrc.navy.mil/

Much luck to you.

Comment #240: Doug Eldritch said on 6/14/05 @ 3:08pm ET...

Vyan: Curveball was apparently an israeli/german intelligence spy for the Bush administration.

What's ironic is there does not appear to be any current information as to his whereabouts.

I think the words about the regime change are especially important. Condaleeza specifically mentions she wants Chalabi in power, who is a known dictator.

Specifically, the part of the meetings that says yes....Regime change "will be" illegal, and that we will in fact "make it" legal. The quizzical part is "make it" legal, just who is making it legal and what are they doing to accomplish this?

It would take quite a bit of strong-arming to make something legal, force it to "comply" with law, would it not?

Comment #241: Vyan said on 6/14/05 @ 3:10pm ET...

Doug, #237

I believe we are still a very long way from that happening. It's not an easy thing to believe that the President is a serial liar and has lead the country into an unneccesary war using false premises. Quite a few mainstream Democrats are having a hard time with it as well. I personally think calls for impeachment are highly premature - there needs to be even better evidence, but more importantly articles of impeachment have to go through the House Judiciary Committee which is currently being chaired by James Sensenbrener. Keeping the pressure up for an independant inquiry needs to be the primay goal, while using Republican stonewalling and corruption against them in the '06 elections.

There's a chance this might backfire against Democrats of course, but finding the truth - even if it isn't the truth Dems expect - is worth the risk.

Vyan
vyan.blogspot.com

Comment #242: Susan said on 6/14/05 @ 3:11pm ET...

One more thought on the messenger/message.

After revealing the Watergate scandals, Mark Felt was later convicted, while in the FBI, for violations of the civil rights regarding surveillance of families of the Weatherman Underground (home grown "terrorists" to you young ones) and was pardoned by Reagan.

Just think: Even though Felt was o.k. with these later acts, he found the scope of the Watergate scandals (over 30 convictions) too damaging to our country to partipate in silence.

At any point in time, we have only to evaluate the facts, not the personal motivations of those who relay them.

A republican leap of logic: if you claim you have Christian motivation, you can kill 100,000 Iraquis and your own children for no apparent reason but greed. The zealot believes his own perceived goodness justifies his actions. What arrogance.

Maybe the Brits are saving us from ourselves.

Comment #243: vyan said on 6/14/05 @ 3:13pm ET...

Vyan: Curveball was apparently an israeli/german intelligence spy for the Bush administration

He was an expatriot Iraqi - with connections their military - who wished to see Saddam brought down. His contact was in German Intelligence, who then shared his information with the U.S., and quite likely other nations such as the U.K.

Vyan

Comment #244: Doug Eldritch said on 6/14/05 @ 3:14pm ET...

I was referring more along the lines of the case of "war" being a lie.

I fully agree on independant resolution of inquiry and review, to get all of the available information into public record.

Let us say "democrats in name only" in the senate committee are behind the coverup, wouldn't you rather get rid of it all in a clean sweep? Or continue to defend that basis hoping it "cleans up" in 2006.

Me, I would say its rather long overdue to just clean the whole house. Take out the real coverup artists, immaterial liars along the way to the absolute truth.

Doug

Comment #245: Doug Eldritch said on 6/14/05 @ 3:17pm ET...

"His contact was in German Intelligence, who then shared his information with the U.S., and quite likely other nations such as the U.K."

Quite right, but who was the "German Intelligence" in this case? Where can we read the full story about curveball by the way.

Comment #246: Susan said on 6/14/05 @ 3:23pm ET...

The lack of investigations is appalling. Remember the Senate Intelligence inquiry into the 911 failures? There was supposed to be a part 2 AFTER the elections, looking more specifically into precisely what failed.

But Sen. Pat Robertson has blocked this and Sen. Jay Rockefeller was "snookered" on this. There will be no inquiry into the Bushco failures pre-911.

And remember, the President's 911 Commission showed up again this week VOLUNTARILY to check on whether there is appropriate on-going compliance with their recommendations of last year (to much dismay, more failures) to protect the public.

I guess that concern stopped after the election, too.

Comment #247: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 3:27pm ET...

Susan: Unfortunately, we have been vindicated. And it was MIHOP.

Watch David Ray Griffins fully skeptical, and credible look at the inside job that was 9/11. It was confirmed to be a MIHOP. And no one aside from the FBI has been blamed for it, which was obstructed by the CIA under orders from oops Donald Rumsfeld.

Comment #248: vyan said on 6/14/05 @ 3:28pm ET...

All the details on Curveball, were contain in the Robb-Silberman Report on Iraq WMD intelligence.

This was, moreover, a problem that was not limited to the NIE. Our review found that after the publication of the October 2002 NIE but before Secretary of State Colin Powell's February 2003 address to the United Nations, intelligence officials within the CIA failed to convey to policymakers new information casting serious doubt on the reliability of a human intelligence source known as "Curveball." This occurred despite the pivotal role Curveball's information played in the Intelligence Community's assessment of Iraq's biological weapons programs, and in spite of Secretary Powell's efforts to strip every dubious piece of information out of his proposed speech. In this instance, once again, the Intelligence Community failed to give policymakers a full understanding of the frailties of the intelligence on which they were relying.

Vyan

Comment #249: Old_Pro said on 6/14/05 @ 3:28pm ET...

What's the matter HANK - getting ansty as the time draws nearer?

Folks - It always gets real interesting when an "agent provocateur" attempts to take over the discussion . .

Just Scroll Past the Troll . . .

=========

Comment #250: Susan said on 6/14/05 @ 3:29pm ET...

Didn't German intelligence not believe "Curveball"? I think only the neo-cons did. If he hadn't existed, they would have created him.

After all, they made up Mohammed Atta stories, etc. When you do the BIG LIES, small details don't matter.

Comment #251: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 3:33pm ET...

It may go beyond that now, since they indicated it was being "fixed" around the policy.

"Curveball" himself could have even been a plant. This inquiry is so important for all of the reasons, because clearly Larry Franklin had an outside contact.

He was in the Pentagon leaking certain bogus intelligence, now indicted by the FBI. Could Pentagon former director, Larry Franklin, had something to do with the proposed "Curveball" minister?

Doug

Comment #252: Charlie said on 6/14/05 @ 3:35pm ET...

Doug #244

I agree with you, I feel there may be Democrats involved in this coverup which is why they are not attcking like they should.

I say clean the house as well.

Any coincidence that both John Kerry, George Bush Sr, George Bush Jr, George Bush Grand Daddy, and 10 members of Bush's cabinet in his first term were all members of the Skull and Bones? A satanic orginazation from what I gather whose roots are german, another member being Adolf hitler. A group commited to the New World Order. A phrase used by only 3 politicians in this century. George Sr, Jr, and Adolf Hitler. Odd ehhh....

Clean the house, and no more elected officials whose alleigence is already taken.

Charlie

Comment #253: Dale said on 6/14/05 @ 3:36pm ET...

Forgive me — what is MIHOP?

Comment #254: Susan said on 6/14/05 @ 3:40pm ET...

To Doug #247:

I saw Griffins on c-span and some of it made sense (like how could FOUR planes be off-track for so long) and some seemed too much (like something else hit the Pentagon). Where did the flight go, then? I need logic.

However, I have become so skeptical that I recently do entertain the thought that my own government may have known about the attack on New York (but not the scope) just to create a "new Pearl Harbor" to implement control over our docile democracy. As I said, those who will engage in these BIG LIES are determined to ururp the government.

I don't want to believe this because I am already so angry at the kool-aid gulpers and flat-earters I could scream. I want to respect my fellow citizens.

Comment #255: Genghis Khan said on 6/14/05 @ 3:40pm ET...

Re: #241

Vyan: Remember that after the facts of Watergate came out, Nixon found few Republicans witless enough to continue to support him.

These guys all care about votes, and when the truth of "MemoGate" is revealed, even the Diebold machines will refuse to accept votes for continued supporters of the Bush Administration.

Comment #256: Doug Eldritch said on 6/14/05 @ 3:41pm ET...

Finally lets go back and over the timeline some.

The Council for National Policy(Codename: Fellowship "house") had their own secretive meetings before the year 2000, as far back as 1999 in fact.

Bush and his officials said during that time, that if he gets a chance to invade, "I'm not going to waste it. I'm going to get everything passed that I want to get passed and I'm going to have a successful presidency."
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1028-01.htm

The audience erupted into applause.

Not long after the fateful speech, in January 2001, Bush made a declaration with supporters: "Iraq was toast"
http://www.derechos.org/nizkor/iraq/doc/bush3.html

They made plans against Iraq and were targeting Iraq. And this is going back as far as before "MIHOP" or any other events. Does anyone else find that extremely odd?

Was the fact the intelligence is "fixed around the policy" the waking point?

Comment #257: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 3:45pm ET...

Susan: I'm afraid the only acceptable point of view is that, basically they were in on it, and in the video something did hit the pentagon.

Whatever it was, David is wise in that he leaves the full truth up to interpretation. But the underlying deception is that, MIHOP is what happened, and there is no way to deny that since they really needed a certain "event".

Comment #258: Susan said on 6/14/05 @ 3:47pm ET...

Doug #244:

I don't think the Dems are so much "covering up" as embarassed. They know they got fooled. I remember thinking in the run-up to "war": this is pre-emptive and it all sounds wrong, but surely the Democrats are being given intelligence we don't see that tells them there is a threat, aren't they? Wouldn't they object if there were no credible threat?

They were all traumatized, but the republicans already had a plan to implement. That's how it happened, with our acquiescense, of course. No one wanted to be un-patriotic.

Comment #259: Dale said on 6/14/05 @ 3:48pm ET...

MIHOP? What is it?

Comment #260: Doug Eldritch said on 6/14/05 @ 3:50pm ET...

I really wish you had been right Susan, but I believe that there are more than several "D.I.N.O." type leaders in the democratic party. One that comes to mind immediately is represenative Harold Ford, he clearly does not care about this.

I hate to be cynical, but there are quite a few in the senate intelligence committee who do not care. Senator Biden himself had to have his arm twisted to even awcknowledge any of this, and I doubt he is interested in it.

Comment #261: Susan said on 6/14/05 @ 3:57pm ET...

To Genghis:

There is a difference with Watergate. It has been said that there would have been no Watergate without republican participation. But the reason republicans turned on Nixon was that Judge Sirica pushed the truth out of the burglers and the Senate Committee had subpoena power. Many Watergate convictions were for perjury and obstruction.

That is why John Conyers is so clever and to be commended. A record without adverse testimony is still a record. If republicans had been in the majority, do you think Nixon's dirty tricks would have come out?

Our hope for the truth will come from events like the unfolding scandals in Ohio with the "coingate" and loss of $215M of state funds related to Tom Noe, a major republican player. They sang for their supper, at long last, and offered up Nixon.

Comment #262: trent said on 6/14/05 @ 4:00pm ET...

will there be c-span coverage of the hearing? I would like to watch it and have a copy as well.

Comment #263: Genghis Khan said on 6/14/05 @ 4:03pm ET...

Re: #254

I could buy the premise that the attack was known and allowed to create the "New Pearl Harbor" that the PNAC controllers in the Bush Administration required for their pre-planned war on Iraq. But having my knowledge of aircraft I can not accept the conspiracy theories that the WTC towers were packed with explosives.

The intense heat and fire engulfing multiple entire floors (rather than just a handful of individual rooms) would have quite easily led to the collapse of those floors, resulting in the collapse of the entire structure. Had the planes hit the top three or four stories, the results would not have been so dramatic. The south tower collapsed to the side where the airplane hit just like a tree falls on the side where the axe hits.

The north tower fell almost directly down, as the plane that hit it did so on center (whereas the south tower plane hit towards the side).

That said, I have no doubts that the information was ingnored in the hopes that the PNAC would get their "New Pearl Harbor". I'm just glad that the wheels are beginning to fall off the war wagon of their "4th Reich".

Comment #264: Doug Eldritch said on 6/14/05 @ 4:12pm ET...

True to form, it would have taken alot of explosives to actually bring down a "tower".

On the other hand, if Osama Bin Laden was already there it could have been the missile. The most decidedly abstract references are the "video" of the missile/military jet hitting the pentagon.

There's endless ways to look at how it was done, but the bottom line becomes it was done. It served its purpose.

We're seeing what we have already seen.

Richard Nixon was an evil, immoral war criminal, a liar, an extremist with ties to the Council of National Policy. He believed what he was doing was on behalf of god and that the liberals were threats to security.

George W Bush was an evil, immoral war criminal, a liar, an extremist with ties to the Council of National Policy. He believed what he was doing was on behalf of god and that the liberals were threats to security.

The first VP was about a hundred times less evil than the second, where Dick Cheney controls the puppet strings in a much more finite way and with more clout.

The results are we are seeing a decadent version of history repeated, one that requires the end of the criminals, lest they return from hell for a third act.

And I believe that will require dispatching of the current democratic party leadership.

Doug

Comment #265: Thorne said on 6/14/05 @ 4:17pm ET...

#262 I was wondering that too Trent way and ago...any answers?

Comment #266: Kymberlyn Reed said on 6/14/05 @ 4:18pm ET...

The Bush spin doctors are at it again. Now they're trying to pin the oil for food scandal on Kofi Annan, claiming to have a 'memo' that points the finger at the Secretary General. Of course this is merely a distraction from the damning contents of the Downing Street Memo, and it's also a way to keep the public confused, but we can't allow them to do so. I don't mean to mitigate the oil-for-food issue, but on a scale of bad to worse, the lies perpetrated by those who wanted war is far worse. As of Sunday, we have lost 1700 young American lives and how many thousands of innocent Iraqi casualties. How many thousands of our young people come back wounded in body and spirit? Rep. Conyers, keep your eyes on the prize. To the rest of us, don't let the spin doctors dictate the issue. Let's make 'em sweat.

Comment #267: Sascha said on 6/14/05 @ 4:22pm ET...

For the upcoming hearings, please consider following piece with great advice how to make the case for impeachment bigger than just the "facts fixed around the policy" line and also which witnesses could deliver great testimony, please read: http://tinyurl.com/d7bod

Comment #268: Susan said on 6/14/05 @ 4:23pm ET...

Wasn't there a program on PBS about how the towers fell? I thought the uniqueness of the structure contributed to this, and the full tanks of fuel.

At any rate, I have my plate full with the RESULTS of 911, the lies, the fraudulent elections, etc. Once they got the high approval polls, they went for all of the neo-con AND kool-aid social agenda.

Comment #269: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 4:31pm ET...

Silence in the Face of Truth: The Downing Street Memo

By Dante Zappala June 13, 2005

Editor: Emily Schwartz Grecko, Intitute for Policy Studies (IPS)

Foreign Policy In Focus - www.fpif.org

For the first 30 years of my brother Sherwood Baker’s life, his mission was to be a responsible citizen. He made oaths and he honored those oaths. This made him a loving father and husband. This also made him a noble and committed soldier. He courageously deployed with his National Guard unit to Iraq in 2004.

For the last six weeks of his life, Sherwood’s mission was to provide convoy security for the Iraq Survey Group. He was killed in action, providing site security for the group that was looking for weapons of mass destruction. Mounting evidence indicates that the weapons’ non-existence wasn’t a mistake. It was a ruse.

continued at ... http://www.fpif.org/commentary/2005/0506silence_body.html

Comment #270: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 4:32pm ET...

More Exposure ! More, I say !

Just as the U.S. media -- albeit a month late -- scramble to get on top of the so-called "Downing Street Memo," the Sunday Times in London unveiled another leaked document which confirms and goes behind the message of the memo. Meanwhile, Walter Pincus of the Washington Post has a related, front-page report on Sunday. "Ministers were warned in July 2002 that Britain was committed to taking part in an American-led invasion of Iraq and they had no choice but to find a way of making it legal," the Sunday Times reports. http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000955273

Comment #271: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 4:33pm ET...

... and an aside - albeit pertinent - for all you defenders of traditional values:

X-rated wanna-be politician Mary Carey vows she'll be on her best behavior tonight when she attends a GOP fund-raiser that President Bush is headlining. http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/318855p-272572c.html

Comment #272: Susan said on 6/14/05 @ 4:39pm ET...

hey Mike,

How can this be worse than the current first lady doing "trashy" stand-up before the National Press? Can you imagine Roselyn Carter or even Hillary Clinton (with her wicked sense of humor) doing such a thing?

I wonder what her "best behavior" is?

Hypocracy, they name is GOP.

Comment #273: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 5:41pm ET...

... just goes to show, Susan, that if the cash is cold, the GOP doesn't mind if the donor is hot ...

Comment #274: Doug Eldritch said on 6/14/05 @ 5:43pm ET...

Anyone ever happen to spoil upon this piece of news?

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/guantanamo-bay_x-ray.htm

It's all over the radio. Clinton apparently knew about the Guantanamo Bay prison projects and approved its expansion in 2000.

There is a certain level of collusion between the clinton-bush era, and this really proves something sticky going on there.

I see no reason at all to ever have a clinton presidency, or bush, as evidenced by the collusion. No, Hillary Clinton or any of them should dare be elected or selected to office.

This is a serious problem showing more complicitness on their part, long before dreaming up 9/11.

Doug E

Comment #275: Jerec said on 6/14/05 @ 5:44pm ET...

Continued thanks, Mr. Conyers, for your efforts to push this through the media.

Comment #276: Doug Eldritch said on 6/14/05 @ 5:47pm ET...

More extra evidence on Guantanamo bay prison projects

http://www.defenselink.mil/contracts/2002/c02262002_ct088-02.html

The area was awarded for prisoner and detainee abuses more than a year before 9/11. There you have it.

Doug

Comment #277: ljm said on 6/14/05 @ 5:48pm ET...

I just saw on Raw Story that Semsembrenner has pulled the plug on the Judiciary Committee holding any more hearings. Please have the hearing on Thursday with CNN coverage even if you have to hold it at IHOP. Does the DCCC have space?

Comment #278: Jonathan Gold said on 6/14/05 @ 5:54pm ET...

Former Bush Administration Official Says 'Official' 9/11 Story Is 'Bogus'

http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20050613-102755-6408r.htm

Washington, DC, Jun. 13

A former Bush team member during his first administration is now voicing serious doubts about the collapse of the World Trade Center on 9-11. Former chief economist for the Department of Labor during President George W. Bush's first term Morgan Reynolds comments that the official story about the collapse of the WTC is "bogus" and that it is more likely that a controlled demolition destroyed the Twin Towers and adjacent Building No. 7. Reynolds, who also served as director of the Criminal Justice Center at the National Center for Policy Analysis in Dallas and is now professor emeritus at Texas A&M University said, "If demolition destroyed three steel skyscrapers at the World Trade Center on 9/11, then the case for an 'inside job' and a government attack on America would be compelling." Reynolds commented from his Texas A&M office, "It is hard to exaggerate the importance of a scientific debate over the cause of the collapse of the twin towers and building 7. If the official wisdom on the collapses is wrong, as I believe it is, then policy based on such erroneous engineering analysis is not likely to be correct either. The government's collapse theory is highly vulnerable on its own terms. Only professional demolition appears to account for the full range of facts associated with the collapse of the three buildings."

Comment #279: Katrina said on 6/14/05 @ 6:02pm ET...

To Gina, post #180 ~ you asked what makes me think putting people who lie with impunity under oath, will make them tell the truth?

Because there are legal consequences for lying under oath, and also because others placed under oath, can make deals to tell the truth for reduced sentences etc. and expose them as liars should they choose to violate the law while under oath.

It's far easier for Cheney et al to go around telling lies with impunity when there is nothing to stop them, no prosecutor, no witnesses contradicting them and no consequences for lying.

Picture Cheney, under oath, being asked about 9/11/Iraq connection, eg. Not by a wimpy reporter, but by a tough prosecutor. He has consistently told this lie with virtually no consequences for years. He cannot do that under oath.

Otoh, so used to lying now, I imagine it will be difficult for them to tell the truth. Their lawyers will probably advise them to take the 5th rather than risk perjury. Because the truth is, they lied and lied and lied, and I can't see them admitting to that ~ unlesss the consequences for not doing so are greater than the consequences for telling the truth.

I think the rats will jump ship when it comes to that and try to save their own skins. None of them have ever been known for their courage, after all.

To Thorne, post #183. :-) Yes, I am pro-life, unlike the phony, hypocritical, so-called Christian right!

What is so outrageous about the revelations of the DSM is that the Bush administration and Tony Blair set up Saddam Hussein so that no matter whether he complied or not, there would be a war. And they USED the UN, rather than, as both of them tried to convince us, turned to the UN to help avoid conflict.

The American people were led to believe that this was why they went to the UN (although Bush never intended to do so, being the cowboy that he is) because the British people would never have gone along with violating International Law, so Blair fooled them into thinking he was trying to avoid doing that.

For the trolls, a little education since they are here ~ it is against International law to invade a country to 'change regimes'! Got it? Against the law, which our cowboy in the WH didn't know or didn't care about, but Tony Blair DID know, didn't care about, but knew his fellow citizens would.

I also agree with not allowing the trolls to derail topics, but since they're here, maybe they can learn something. And they do give us the opportunity to reiterate for lurkers who may have missed some information, the reason why the DSM is so important.

Comment #280: Katrina said on 6/14/05 @ 6:02pm ET...

To Gina, post #180 ~ you asked what makes me think putting people who lie with impunity under oath, will make them tell the truth?

Because there are legal consequences for lying under oath, and also because others placed under oath, can make deals to tell the truth for reduced sentences etc. and expose them as liars should they choose to violate the law while under oath.

It's far easier for Cheney et al to go around telling lies with impunity when there is nothing to stop them, no prosecutor, no witnesses contradicting them and no consequences for lying.

Picture Cheney, under oath, being asked about 9/11/Iraq connection, eg. Not by a wimpy reporter, but by a tough prosecutor. He has consistently told this lie with virtually no consequences for years. He cannot do that under oath.

Otoh, so used to lying now, I imagine it will be difficult for them to tell the truth. Their lawyers will probably advise them to take the 5th rather than risk perjury. Because the truth is, they lied and lied and lied, and I can't see them admitting to that ~ unlesss the consequences for not doing so are greater than the consequences for telling the truth.

I think the rats will jump ship when it comes to that and try to save their own skins. None of them have ever been known for their courage, after all.

To Thorne, post #183. :-) Yes, I am pro-life, unlike the phony, hypocritical, so-called Christian right!

What is so outrageous about the revelations of the DSM is that the Bush administration and Tony Blair set up Saddam Hussein so that no matter whether he complied or not, there would be a war. And they USED the UN, rather than, as both of them tried to convince us, turned to the UN to help avoid conflict.

The American people were led to believe that this was why they went to the UN (although Bush never intended to do so, being the cowboy that he is) because the British people would never have gone along with violating International Law, so Blair fooled them into thinking he was trying to avoid doing that.

For the trolls, a little education since they are here ~ it is against International law to invade a country to 'change regimes'! Got it? Against the law, which our cowboy in the WH didn't know or didn't care about, but Tony Blair DID know, didn't care about, but knew his fellow citizens would.

I also agree with not allowing the trolls to derail topics, but since they're here, maybe they can learn something. And they do give us the opportunity to reiterate for lurkers who may have missed some information, the reason why the DSM is so important.

Comment #281: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 6:09pm ET...

... ljm,it's true about Sensebrenner pulling the plug - see the link to comments on JC's prior entry.

Also:

U.S. Military Officers: There is No Military Solution In Iraq

The Knight Ridder news agency is reporting that a growing number of senior American military officers in Iraq have concluded there is no long-term military solution in Iraq. Instead, officers say, the only way to end the guerrilla war is through Iraqi politics. Last week Donald Alston, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said "I think the more accurate way to approach this right now is to concede that... this insurgency is not going to be settled... through military options or military operations."

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/06/14/1350246

Comment #282: Too damm nuts to think about ... said on 6/14/05 @ 6:13pm ET...

#278 - Jonathon, this kind of stuff is just sickening to even contemplate ... nevertheless, one thing that has always intrigued me is how little talk there has been about all those records presumably lost in the collapse of the towers.

You know, as in financial records ?

Comment #283: Katrina said on 6/14/05 @ 6:21pm ET...

Oops, sorry for the double post.

Dale asked 'what is MIHOP'

Dale, it means 'Made It Happen On Purpose' referring to 9/11.

LIHOP means 'Let It Happen On Purpose'.

Vyan, post #216, that's an excellent timeline! Thank you. And you ask extremely important questions in your post #221! It would be worth doing the research to answer those questions, particularly the timing of the memos and the Yellow Cake lies. No wonder they were furious at Joe Wilson's report. He was foiling all their plans without knowing it at the time!!

Sandy, another excellent observation in your post #226. How dare Sensenbrenner et al deny Rep. Conyers the use of a room in the Capitol Building. As you so correctly point out, that is OUR building!

Can we start an email campaign to Sensenbrenner demanding that he stop this theft of our right to use our own building?

What ARE they hiding? Why are they so intimidated by, as Hank et al have characterized it, a 'silly hearing'?

Comment #284: Ohiodem1 said on 6/14/05 @ 6:24pm ET...

Vyan #225 - I agree. Two large airliners with hundreds of passengers aboard, and enough fuel for a transatlantic flight crashed into the WTC Towers, ignited massive fires and brought down the towers, nothing else.

Osama bin Laden, did it, why did George W. Bush quit looking for Osama, and switch to Saddam. My opinion is that it was hatred for Saddam Hussein, pure and simple.

Saddam tried to kill his daddy, and Bill Clinton, using and acting on good intelligence foiled the plot, and that is the truth.

Comment #285: Ohiodem1 said on 6/14/05 @ 6:26pm ET...

The source for the 45 minute business was "Curveball".

Comment #286: Susan said on 6/14/05 @ 6:37pm ET...

Katrina #280

This is why Bush and Cheney held hands and refused to be under oath, but rather agreed to be "interviewed", by the 911 commission.

Wide berth is given to political speech, but, as Bill Clinton found out, perjury charges are a way to corner someone.

Comment #287: Jonathan Gold said on 6/14/05 @ 6:38pm ET...

:) You mean like Enron's Financial Records?

Comment #288: Constant said on 6/14/05 @ 6:39pm ET...

Congressman Conyers,

A love note to the House Judiciary Republicans.

Constant

Comment #289: Jonathan Gold said on 6/14/05 @ 6:41pm ET...

Hey guys... I do have a 9/11 site... there's a TON of info, videos, links to other relevant places, etc...

It's www.yourbbsucks.com which is affiliated with www.911blogger.com

Some of you may remember me from www.911visibility.org or maybe even from www.howardstern.com as "Gold9472"...

Comment #290: Thorne said on 6/14/05 @ 6:51pm ET...

This conspiracy stuff is interesting, but I don't go there. It's not that its true, it is more like what do you want to be? A nihilist? an existentialist? or some other philosophy. Whatever you choose I find deconstructing my universe to the point where we are animals killing babies to win games of global dominion...oh, hey, wait...I'm beginning to see your point.

Comment #291: Constant said on 6/14/05 @ 6:52pm ET...

#285

OhioDem,

FYI in re 45-minute.

Comment #292: Markus said on 6/14/05 @ 6:58pm ET...

Comment #164: Thorne

Man, I blink for a couple of hours and look what happens :)

Thorne, yeah, the RW cannot stomach a dissenting opinion. And I would note how hard they are working to distract us from why we are here in the first place. That is evidence enough that we are onto something that makes them nervous.

So ... just ignore them.

Seriously, let them say whatever they want, criticize and insult us however they want, bleat and wail however they want, but ignore them utterly, even if they make rational points.

We do not exist to them, so treat them with the same degree of invisibility.

Comment #293: Jonathan Gold said on 6/14/05 @ 7:00pm ET...

Hijacking the Facts
FBI worked hard to cover up a 9-11 cover-up—and then hide it some more

http://www.villagevoice.com/news/index.php?issue=0524&page=mondo1&id=64920

by James Ridgeway
June 14th, 2005 11:14 AM

WASHINGTON, D.C.—It's no secret the FBI let at least two 9-11 hijackers—Hazmi and Mihdhar—slip through its fingers when they landed in California in 2000 and proceeded to live openly under their own names in San Diego before moving into position for the attack. What makes the situation especially ludicrous is that one of these hijackers rented a room from a San Diego landlord who was an FBI informant on the Muslim community.

That's bad enough. But after 9-11, when the Joint Congressional Intelligence Committee found out what had been going on, the FBI refused to allow the informant to be interviewed by the committee staff or to testify.

The FBI actually took steps to hide this man so Congress could not find him. All this is described at some length in former senator Bob Graham's book Intelligence Matters—the one book on this entire affair written by an actual participant in the behind-the-scenes wheeling and dealing over what was permitted to come into public view about 9-11. Graham was chairman of the joint congressional investigation.

To resolve the informant question, Graham writes, he met with Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI director Robert Mueller, and other top officials. But when he tried to serve a subpoena on one top FBI official, the man shrank away and would not take the piece of paper. In the end, Graham says, he discovered that the FBI was taking its hard line on the informant on orders from the White House.

Now comes the Justice Department's Office of Inspector General with a lengthy description of the FBI's relationship with the landlord asset. Like the congressional committee, the inspector general did not interview the landlord, but relies on secondhand information gathered from FBI agents. The landlord no longer works for the Bureau. The inspector general reports, "In July 2003 the asset was given a $100,000 payment and closed as an asset."

It is interesting to note that the 9-11 Commission was formed in late 2002. The Joint Congressional Inquiry, which discovered the landlord's existence and sought unsuccessfully to question him, issued its final report July 24, 2003.

Comment #294: Jonathan Gold said on 6/14/05 @ 7:04pm ET...

I'm going to say this once in regards to "Conspiracy Theorists"...

Conspiracies happen all of the time. You read about them in your newspaper. If you have an idea how a Conspiracy took place, then you have a "Conspiracy Theory".

If not for "Conspiracy Theories", police would never be able to apprehend a suspect.

Comment #295: Losing Faith said on 6/14/05 @ 7:10pm ET...

I bet hank is that piece 'o' sh*t Tom DeLame.

Comment #296: Doug Eldritch said on 6/14/05 @ 7:17pm ET...

Tom DeLay if you are hank, then you have truly shamed even your most proud constituents.

Look at the corrupt disease you have left in your wake.

http://houseofscandal.org/

And you ask for Michigan to be bombed, and those damn Judicial judges to be held to answer for their behavior!

I wouldn't be surprised if this guy is hanging around. He's got nothing better to do, waiting for his investigations to get over with so he can go off to jail.

Doug

Comment #297: scott d said on 6/14/05 @ 7:18pm ET...

#81 kermit
yes the shock and awe attack was so awesome that we have lost 1675 soldiers since bush said "mission accomplished".
the rest of the world must be shaking in the boots because the worlds strongest military machine cannot defeat the insurgency from a country the size of california which has no organized army, no electricy, no steady supply of weapons,..... i'm sure thats the reason why north korea has stopped making nuclear bombs. iran is so afraid of us that they are doing the same. wake up kermit the world is much larger that the GOP.

Comment #298: hank said on 6/14/05 @ 7:22pm ET...

Comment #188: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 1:40pm ET...

The Downing Street Memo hearings have been denied a room. In response, they are being moved to DNC headquarters, to begin at 1:00p.m.

HAHAHAHAHAHAAH!!!!!!!!!!!!

CONYERS DOES NOT HAVE A ROOM IN WASHINGTON TO MEET IN

CONYERS HAS NO INVESTIGATION BUDGET!

CONYERS HAS NO INVESTIGATION AUTHORITY!

THE WORLD WILL SEE THIS FOR WHAT IT IS: DEMOCRATS MEETING AT A DNC HEADQUARTERS TO HOLD "HEARINGS"!!!

HAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHAHHHHHHHHHHHAHHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

WHAT A TOTAL JOKE!!

I TOLD YOU SO!

Comment #189: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 1:42pm ET...

OHIODEM1:

RE: 8 BILLION MISSING. NOBODY IS SAYING IT WAS STOLEN. WHAT THEY ARE SAYING IS THEY DO NOT HAVE ADEQUATE 'RECEIPTS" FOR ITS DISBURSEMENT.

KIND OF LIKE WHEN YOU TURN IN THAT EXPENSE REPORT AND REALIZE YOU DON'T HAVE ALL THE RECEIPTS BUT YOU KNOW YOU SPENT THE MONEY; YOU SHRUG YOUR SHOULDERS AND YOUR EMPLOYER REIMBURSES YOU AND TELLS YOU "NEXT TIME TURN IN THE RECEIPTS"

MORONS

Comment #190: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 1:44pm ET...

540,000 SIGNATURES IS LESS THAN 22 HUNDRETHS OF ONE PERCENT!

LESS THAN A QUARTER OF A PERCENT OF VOTING AGE AMERICANS SIGNED YOUR PETITION!

THAT IS FEWER THAN THOSE DRIVING AROUND ON EXPIRED LICENSES IN AMERICA!

AHAHAHAHHAHAAH

Comment #191: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 1:46pm ET...

I CAN'T WAIT FOR THE MEDIA TO REPORT THAT THE MUCH RAVED ABOUT CONYERS DSM HEARINGS ARE BEING HELD AT THE DNC HEADQUARTERS!

THE JOKE WILL BE THAT THE REPUBLICANS WILL HAVE THEIR OWN SET OF HEARINGS AT THE RNC HEADQUARTERS CALLED AND CALL THEM THE DSM REVOLATIONS AND WHY BUSH WAS RIGHT AND C-SPAN WILL COVER THE RNC MEETING AND NOT THE DNC!

HAHAHAHA

Comment #299: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 7:23pm ET...

WHERE YA GONNA MEET CONYERS?

AT THE DNC HEADQUARTERS?

LALALA

Comment #300: THE REAL HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 7:26pm ET...

Comment #212: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 2:27pm ET...

June 14, 2005

Judiciary GOP pulls the plug on Conyers 'forums'
By Albert Eisele and Jeff Dufour

If the Financial Services Committee is the best in the House when it comes to bipartisan comity, then the Judiciary Committee may well be the worst.

In December, ranking Democrat John Conyers (Mich.) began holding “forums” — gatherings with all the trappings of official hearings — after Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) refused to hold hearings on topics Conyers requested. The forums have been held in smaller committee rooms, often with C-SPAN coverage and formal witness lists.

In a sign of how far relationships on the committee have soured, majority staff recently announced a new policy to deny any request from a committee Democrat for the use of a committee hearing room.

Majority spokesman Jeff Lungren said the Republicans have given Democrats three opportunities to make clear that the forums are not official committee business. Nevertheless, Lungren said, in at least one case, members were addressing Conyers as “Mr. Chairman.”

“They were unwilling or unable to make those changes,” Lungren said. “At this point, if they want to hold these forums, they’ll have to find some other place to do it.”

Sean McLaughlin, deputy chief of staff for Sensenbrenner, recently wrote to a minority staffer in more pointed language.

“I’m sitting here watching your ‘forum’ on C-SPAN,” McLaughlin wrote. “Just to let you know, it was your last. Don’t bother asking [for a room] again.”

A committee source said committee Democrats are still planning to hold the forums when they find other available space.

TOLD YOU SO!

TOLD YOU SO!

NO ROOM.

NO BUDGET.

NO AUTHORITY.

CONYERS IS SCREWED.

GOOD LUCK ON YOUR PARTISAN "HEARINGS". I HEAR THE REPUBLICANS ARE GOING TO HOLD THEIR OWN HEARINGS ON REMOVING CONYERS FROM THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEEE!

I HEAR THE REPUBLICANS ARE GOING TO HOLD THEIR OWN HEARINGS ON REMOVING CONYERS FROM THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEEE!

I HEAR THE REPUBLICANS ARE GOING TO HOLD THEIR OWN HEARINGS ON REMOVING CONYERS FROM THE JUDICIARY COMMITTEEE!

Comment #213: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 2:30pm ET...

VYAN:

DEARLOVE IS THE SAME GUY THAT SAID SADDAM COULD LAUNCH HIS WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION ON 45 MINUTES NOTICE! REMEMBER THAT? WAS HE RIGHT ON THAT?????????

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN CONYERS BLASTED HIM FOR THAT "FALSE AND OUTRAGEOUS STATEMENT"?

SO YOU THINK DEARLOVE IS GOING TO COME RUNNING TO CONYERS AID NOW?

Comment #301: Doug Eldritch said on 6/14/05 @ 7:28pm ET...

Fake Hank, I'm increasingly of the belief that you are Tom DeLay.

You talk like him, act like him, sing stupid songs that make no sense at all-- You are the opposite of rational.

There is something clearly disturbing and wrong with anyone who acts this way on a daily basis. I encourage you to seek, no demand, professional help.

The real "hank" of the moment already decided to get professional help, but the fake hank, yourself that is...Has not yet decided. I think it would serve everybody that you do.

You in fact are making no sense and showing this country has a real mental illness it can't ignore.

Speaking of which, has anyone heard about this yet?

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Kerry_confidantes_say_senator_is_seeking_others_to_cosign_letter_on_Downing_mi_0614.html

Letters signed by Senator Kerry and others about the DSM being circulated, apparently just announced.

Comment #302: Joe said on 6/14/05 @ 7:29pm ET...

Comment #297: scott d said on 6/14/05 @ 7:18pm ET...

#81 kermit
yes the shock and awe attack was so awesome that we have lost 1675 soldiers since bush said "mission accomplished".

I know you guys want to be accurate and keep track of things so I thought I would point out that President Bush never said "Mission Accomplished"

http://edition.cnn.com/2003/US/05/01/bush.transcript/index.html

However, Bill Clinton did.

http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/9609/04/iraq.objectives/

Carry on. :)

Comment #303: scott d said on 6/14/05 @ 7:36pm ET...

who was it then that flew on to an aircraft carrier in a flight outfit and addressed u.s. troops and said....? please enlighten me

Comment #304: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 7:46pm ET...

DOUG: WE ARE ONE AHEAD OF YOU.

WE TALKED WITH KERRY'S OFFICE LATE THIS AFTERNOON AND WERE TOLD THIS IS ALL JUST ANOTHER INTERNET RUMOR (LIKE THE LAST COUPLE, REMEMBER?)

NICE TRY, BUT YOUR GUY KERRY IS A BORN LOSER, A FAKE WAR HERO, A HAS BEEN, A GIGOLO, AND NOW HE IS AFRAID OF BUSH SO FORGET ANYTHING ABOUT THE DSM!

DON'T HOLD YOUR BREATH FOR ANY SUCH ACTION OUT OF KERRY!

SECOND THOUGHT: HOLD YOUR BREATH.........PLEASE.

Comment #305: Joe said on 6/14/05 @ 7:47pm ET...

You're not forgetting who it was. You're just forgetting what he said. I put the link up so you could review it and see he never said "Mission Accomplished". In fact one quote from the speech is "Our war against terror is proceeding according to the principles that I have made clear to all."

Doesn't sound like he's saying it's over, does it?

Comment #306: Constant said on 6/14/05 @ 7:47pm ET...

Multiple choice exam for the Republican Staffers on the House Judiciary Committee.

[ Enter . . . ]

Comment #307: Jonathan Gold said on 6/14/05 @ 7:48pm ET...

Kerry confidantes say senator is seeking others to cosign letter on Downing minutes

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Kerry_confidantes_say_senator_is_seeking_others_to_cosign_letter_on_Downing_mi_0614.html

Steve Bagley

Two confidants of Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) told RAW STORY Tuesday that he is privately seeking other senators to cosign a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee on the Downing Street minutes.

“Kerry has been enlisting other senators to sign onto a letter to the intelligence committee seeking answers to the Downing Street memo,” said one, “so Americans can trust that security decisions are driven by facts and responsible intelligence, not by political calculation.”

This statement comes after nearly two weeks of silence from the senator, who previously promised to “raise the issue” of the Downing Street minutes in the Senate chamber.

Two days after RAW STORY reported on Kerry’s initial promise to react, Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) delivered his own statement, saying, “The Administration’s dishonesty, lack of candor, and lack of planning have brought us to where we are today, with American soldiers dying, Iraqi civilians living in constant fear, and with no clearer picture of our strategy for victory in Iraq than when we started.”

The reactions from the Massachusetts senators come after action in the House. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) penned a response to the Downing Street minutes five days after it leaked to the British Sunday Times, demanding that President Bush answer new questions about the contents of the secret document.

Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA), who signed Conyers letter, told RAW STORY the missive is part of a plan to “keep agitating the public” and to convince more Republicans and Democrats in Congress to act in response to the Downing Street minutes.

Ninety-four House members have since signed the letter. Conyers also put up a copy of the same memo open for the public to sign, and has since received nearly half a million signatures from across the country. Conyers is expected to deliver it to the President in a Democratic hearing Thursday.

Comment #308: HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 7:48pm ET...

WHERE IS CONYERS GOING TO MEET?

HE LOST HIS MEETING ROOM BECAUSE HE WAS A BAD BOY!

HAHAHAHAAH.

Comment #309: scott d said on 6/14/05 @ 7:49pm ET...

hank -
who is "we"? you talk like you a setting policy.
if kerry is a fake war hero then what is bush? a draft dodger/ a quiter? a coward? at least kerry was over in vietnam in harms way. bush was doing lines of coke off of strippers asses.

Comment #310: Doug Eldritch said on 6/14/05 @ 7:51pm ET...

Also, the story has been confirmed by several sources including the Washington Post.

Actual staff members confirmed the report is accurate. Of course, Tom DeLay and those with him will deny it and say it is all frivilous.

It's what they say about everything after all, in the name of god. I find it fascinating though. Kerry indicates he is doing something, in writing.

Doug

Comment #311: Constant said on 6/14/05 @ 7:54pm ET...

Blog swarm has Karl and George buzzing.

Comment #312: scott d said on 6/14/05 @ 7:55pm ET...

joe- i remember that it was on a banner on the ship he landed on. all of america could see it as he spoke to the troops. so i was wrong. he did not say it with his lips, he let the banner do the talking for him. you were right.

Comment #313: Joe said on 6/14/05 @ 7:56pm ET...

Yep the banner did say it, and let's be fair. It did signal the end of major operations. Saddam's government fell. What followed and how that's going is up for debate, to be sure.

Comment #314: scott d said on 6/14/05 @ 7:57pm ET...

i think we just had the first civil exchange on this board!! congrats to us!!

Comment #315: Doug Eldritch said on 6/14/05 @ 7:59pm ET...

Chairman Sensenbrenner overplays his hand--Abuse of power "Absolute power corrupts absolutely"

"Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) has introduced a privileged resolution in the House which seeks to rebuke House Judiciary Chairman F. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) for abusing his power at a Patriot Act hearing last week, RAW STORY has learned.

The resolution declares Sensenbrenner "willfully trampled the right of the minority to hold an additional day of hearings," and "willfully and intentionally violated the Rules of the House by abusing and exceeding his powers as chairman."

It moves to have the House condemn the Wisconsin's actions and enjoins the chairman to schedule an additional day of hearings on the Patriot Act.

A furor erupted last week after Sensenbrenner shut off the microphones during a hearing on the Patriot Act, accusing Democrats of raising issues unrelated to the Act such as treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay.

Nadler raised his voice as his microphone was switched off, AP said.

"We are not besmirching the honor of the United States, we are trying to uphold it," he declared.

The hearings were held under a rarely-invoked Congressional rule which allows the minority party to call for an additional day of hearings and to choose witnesses if they feel hearings held by the majority party were unsatisfactory."

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/Democrat_introduces_fasttrack_resolution_to_rebuke_GOP_chairman_over_Patriot_Act_0614.html

Tom DeLay should know by now what "house ethics" are.

Sensenbrenner violated them, and the rules, and has been rebuked by a joint ammendment. Effective immediately.

Doug E.

Comment #316: Joe said on 6/14/05 @ 7:59pm ET...

Yay! :)

Comment #317: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 8:00pm ET...

Hank lives - in his world.

http://www.bradblog.com

Resolution Introduced to Rebuke Sensebrenner for Patriot Act Hearing Behavior

Comment #318: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 8:02pm ET...

Hank thinks the denial of a room is going to stop this tide ?

He he he ...

Comment #319: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 8:04pm ET...

Hank says: "FORGET ANYTHING ABOUT THE DSM"

Mike says: You wish.

Squawk ! Kerry is a gigolo ! Squawk ! Forget the DSM ! Squawk !

Comment #320: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 8:06pm ET...

Hank ... I thought you were signing up for the war ?

Comment #321: Xman said on 6/14/05 @ 8:09pm ET...

Hank the crank has all this time on his hands. Like a true coward he and his freeper pals choose to beat the chest state-side where they know their lil asses are safe.

Pathetic war groupies, each and every last one of them.

Comment #322: Mike said on 6/14/05 @ 8:09pm ET...

Joe, how about you get in touch with the twice, some three-time re-deplpoyed NATIONAL guard grunts and tell them that major operations are over.

I'm sure they'll be delighted to know that.

Comment #323: Joe said on 6/14/05 @ 8:13pm ET...

Mike, how about you stop projecting your anger onto me?

Comment #324: Doug E said on 6/14/05 @ 8:20pm ET...

Nonsense, Joe! Why he needs to simply join the military. Show the country you stand behind your promises and join the fleet, Joe.

You have it all ahead of you and a wonderous future of supporting this war. Go ahead and do it, with the "Mission Accomplished" sign on your shirt that you love to talk about right here.

It is time to be patriotic.

Comment #325: Joe said on 6/14/05 @ 8:22pm ET...

It's rather hard to take you two seriously..

Comment #326: Markus said on 6/14/05 @ 8:22pm ET...

SINCE THIS SEEMS TO WORK FOR TROLLS, I THOUGHT I'D GIVE IT A TRY.

IGNORE THEM. THIS IS SO THE WRONG FORUM TO BE ADDRESSING THEM. THEY ARE HERE TO DISTRACT AND TO MUDDLE THE WORKS. EVERY TIME YOU MENTION THEIR NAME YOU GIVE THEM CREDIBILITY, AND ON THAT SPURS THEM. THE ENTIRE REPUBLICAN PARTY TREATS THE PROGRESSIVE THINKER IN THIS COUNTRY AS IF WE ARE INVISIBLE.

PLEASE SHOW THEM THE SAME COURTESY.

THIS IS NO PLACE FOR SPAM WARS, IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO MUDDLE THROUGH THIS FORUM WHILE HAVING TO TRUDGE THROUGH THE DREK OF THEIR TALKING POINTS AND CHILDISH HOSTILITY. THERE ARE *HUNDREDS* OF OTHER FORUMS ON THE "INTERNETS" IN WHICH TO ENGAGE THESE PEOPLE.

PLEASE REMEMBER THAT THIS IS THE HOMEPAGE OF A U.S. CONGRESSMAN.

IGNORE THEM.

IGNORE THEM.

IGNORE THEM.

Thank you.

:)

Comment #327: Xman said on 6/14/05 @ 8:23pm ET...

Daily Kos: CONYERS, DSM ON CAPITOL STEPS!!

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/6/14/173723/085

This sounds like a great idea. The weather is supposed to be great and the turn out and attention would be second to none.

Let's give this some push.

Comment #328: Joe said on 6/14/05 @ 8:25pm ET...

Markus this congressman is from my home state. You're saying I shouldn't post here?

Comment #329: Xman said on 6/14/05 @ 8:26pm ET...

Markus I'm with you on that. They are starting to really take away from the message and deeper discussion.

Everyone ignore the trolls!

Comment #330: Doug Eldritch said on 6/14/05 @ 8:27pm ET...

Also, do you think "Curveball" was related to the trumped up yellowcake charges?

Could they have gotten an israeli/saudi linked spy to make up bogus claims?

It's just interesting to look at the timeline. Right around "yellowcake", the policies were being fixed to gain the evidence. In my eyes, that means an analyst was involved. Or two or more.

Doug

Comment #331: Constant said on 6/14/05 @ 8:31pm ET...

Chairman Conyers,

Congratulations on having your own committee that mobilizes America to pursue Justice.

[ More . . . ]

Comment #332: bloggerman said on 6/14/05 @ 8:38pm ET...

comment to Comment #59: the real HANK said on 6/14/05 @ 8:18am ET..
Its not YOUR country! Its OUR country! IT is divided more than ever since the Bush administration but more than half of United States didn't vote for YOUR president.

Comment #333: Xman said on 6/14/05 @ 8:41pm ET...

#332, bloggerman, no more, don't feed these freeper cowards.

Comment #334: bloggerman said on 6/14/05 @ 8:43pm ET...

On second thought. After reading all the Hank posts. Wouldn't it be best to act like the current media and just remove what we don't want to see? Make it go away like the current administration?

Comment #335: Doug E. said on 6/14/05 @ 8:46pm ET...

Well someone had to bring up the CNP/Family again and....*shudder* I wonder if there is any saving those guys really? When you think about it, they helped conspire PNAC to defraud the entire government. There is no saving the lies.

And the real "god" out there knows how satanic these people are, or the curtain wouldn't be falling. I believe quite alot of those who have turned to the darkside, are going to be punished in the worst possible way by their own shadows.

It's gotten to the point that, once you pledge alleigance to the satanic offerings of imperialism.....You never get back and suffer all of your consequences by dying and falling by it.

Doug E.

Comment #336: Katrina said on 6/14/05 @ 8:54pm ET...

Susan, you're so right about Bush needing Cheney to hold his hand at the hearings (the ones he tried to stop). What is it with Republicans being so afraid of hearings? They are such scaredy cats!! I know he could not have anyone hold his hand once he is put under oath. I believe he would crumble. Bush is a coward.

I am always grateful when trolls attack the military service of our veterans, like Kerry, a war hero!

It reminds me to remind everyone that Bush was AWOL!! That fact should never be forgotten, as it was intended to be when Karl Rove set up Dan Rather.

There is still a reward of $10,000 available to anyone who can prove that he showed up for duty. Not one person who served with him has come forward to claim it. He was AWOL! That is why he cares nothing for the troops. He cannot relate to them. To him, they are nothing. He hides their caskets. He doesn't acknowledge their deaths.

He used our military to do his own private business in Iraq and had zero concern that so many of them would be killed and maimed.

It makes me so angry that a coward like that, is sending others to die, and as if that were not bad enough, he lied to do it!

Someone said before that the American people will not tolerate being lied to!!

I am sending those DSM to all of my Republican friends and family. I want to make sure they know how they were lied to. They will not be happy, that I know, since they are already beginning to doubt the wisdom of having voted for this president.

Btw, I think Rep. Sensenbrenner needs to hear from the people who own that building in DC.

You can contact him here:

Congressman James F. Sensenbrenner,Jr

120 Bishops Way, Room 154
Brookfield, WI 53005-6294
Telephone: (262) 784-1111

"My e-mail address is sensenbrenner@mail.house.gov . If you contact me through e-mail, please include your postal mailing address and phone number."

http://www.house.gov/sensenbrenner/index.htm

Let him know that he does not own that building and that we, the people, expect an apology from him for even suggesting that we can not use it!!

Go Rep. Conyers!!

Comment #337: Rachel said on 6/14/05 @ 8:59pm ET...

Rawstory.com has a great time table for anyone interested in seeing how the duplicity of this administration thrusted us into a false war. It is a long read because there are so many corrobating events, but rawstory does a good job of summarizing and there are links to support.

Comment #338: Consant said on 6/14/05 @ 9:15pm ET...

Congressman Conyers,

For your Thursday meeting here are some thoughts on how the Downing Street Memo is a smoking fun for a 22 USC 1461 claim, Smith-Mundt.

Very respectfully,

Constant

Comment #339: Xman said on 6/14/05 @ 9:34pm ET...

Have you signed the petition to have C-Span cover John Conyers's hearing on the DSM?

There have been over 2500 signatures so far.

http://capwiz.com/pdamerica/issues/alert/?alertid=7718871&type=CU

P.S. I don't know html code so if someone would like to make the url a active link it would be appreciated.

Comment #340: Jim said on 6/14/05 @ 9:40pm ET...

This is unbelieveable

Judiciary GOP pulls the plug on Conyers 'forums'
By Albert Eisele and Jeff Dufour


If the Financial Services Committee is the best in the House when it comes to bipartisan comity, then the Judiciary Committee may well be the worst.

In December, ranking Democrat John Conyers (Mich.) began holding “forums” — gatherings with all the trappings of official hearings — after Chairman James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) refused to hold hearings on topics Conyers requested. The forums have been held in smaller committee rooms, often with C-SPAN coverage and formal witness lists.

In a sign of how far relationships on the committee have soured, majority staff recently announced a new policy to deny any request from a committee Democrat for the use of a committee hearing room.

Majority spokesman Jeff Lungren said the Republicans have given Democrats three opportunities to make clear that the forums are not official committee business. Nevertheless, Lungren said, in at least one case, members were addressing Conyers as “Mr. Chairman.”

“They were unwilling or unable to make those changes,” Lungren said. “At this point, if they want to hold these forums, they’ll have to find some other place to do it.”

Sean McLaughlin, deputy chief of staff for Sensenbrenner, recently wrote to a minority staffer in more pointed language.

“I’m sitting here watching your ‘forum’ on C-SPAN,” McLaughlin wrote. “Just to let you know, it was your last. Don’t bother asking [for a room] again.”

A committee source said committee Democrats are still planning to hold the forums when they find other available space.

Comment #341: Markus said on 6/14/05 @ 9:42pm ET...

Comment #328: Joe says:
Markus this congressman is from my home state. You're saying I shouldn't post here?

I said no such thing. I said that people who are here to insult, type in all caps, derail the topic off the relative points of Mr. Conyers' blog entiries are to be ignored. You, my friend, are welcome to bait, howl, and whine all you like, but you will no longer be engaged if you have nothing constructive to offer these discussions.

You see what you did there? You used a typical method of diverting from the point, manipulating what I said, and challenging me in order to engage you. Thank you, Joe, for providing a superb example of exactly the point I was trying to make.

So onward, Joe, bray and moan all you want, I am sure your concerns as a constituent are also Mr. Conyers' concerns as a representative of your home state.

I apologize for flip-flopping on what I said, folks; shan't happen again. ;)

Carry on, and DO NOT FEED THE TROLLS!!

They will eventually tire and skulk off on their own.

:)

Comment #342: hank said on 6/14/05 @ 9:53pm ET...

BUSH TAKES OFF THE GLOVES!
Tue Jun 14 2005 21:37:56 ET

President Bush tonight ripped the Democratic Party as a pack of do-nothing obstructionists bent on derailing his agenda of reform, telling Democratic leaders in Congress that on issue after issue, "they stand for nothing except obstruction, and this is not leadership."

Joseph Curl at WASHINGTON TIMES reporting in fresh editions: At an evening congressional gala at the Washington Convention Center -- which drew $23 million for House and Senate Republicans and amounted to the kick-off of the 2006 political campaign season -- the president drew standing ovations from GOP faithful as he hammered Democrats for offering no solutions to the nation's most pressing problems. "If leaders of the other party have innovative ideas, let's hear them. But if they have no ideas or policies except obstruction, they should step aside and let others lead," Mr. Bush said to thunderous applause from more than 5,000 supporters.

The president, who has spent the last several months seeking consensus on his Social Security reform package and reaching out to Democrats with non-confrontational rhetoric, said opposition party leaders are pursuing "the philosophy of the stop sign, the agenda of the road block, and our country and our children deserve better."

"Political parties that choose the path of obstruction will not gain the trust of the American people," he said at the event dubbed "The 2005 President's Dinner."

Mr. Bush said political parties can take one of two approaches: "One approach is to lead, to focus on the people's business, to take on the tough problems, and that is exactly what our party is doing."

"The other approach is to simply do nothing, to delay solutions, obstruct progress, refuse to take responsibility. Members of the other party have worked with us to achieve important reforms on some issues, yet, too often, their leadership prefers to block the ideas of others."

Comment #343: hank said on 6/14/05 @ 9:54pm ET...

BUSH TAKES OFF THE GLOVES!
Tue Jun 14 2005 21:37:56 ET

President Bush tonight ripped the Democratic Party as a pack of do-nothing obstructionists bent on derailing his agenda of reform, telling Democratic leaders in Congress that on issue after issue, "they stand for nothing except obstruction, and this is not leadership."

Joseph Curl at WASHINGTON TIMES reporting in fresh editions: At an evening congressional gala at the Washington Convention Center -- which drew $23 million for House and Senate Republicans and amounted to the kick-off of the 2006 political campaign season -- the president drew standing ovations from GOP faithful as he hammered Democrats for offering no solutions to the nation's most pressing problems. "If leaders of the other party have innovative ideas, let's hear them. But if they have no ideas or policies except obstruction, they should step aside and let others lead," Mr. Bush said to thunderous applause from more than 5,000 supporters.

The president, who has spent the last several months seeking consensus on his Social Security reform package and reaching out to Democrats with non-confrontational rhetoric, said opposition party leaders are pursuing "the philosophy of the stop sign, the agenda of the road block, and our country and our children deserve better."

"Political parties that choose the path of obstruction will not gain the trust of the American people," he said at the event dubbed "The 2005 President's Dinner."

Mr. Bush said political parties can take one of two approaches: "One approach is to lead, to focus on the people's business, to take on the tough problems, and that is exactly what our party is doing."

"The other approach is to simply do nothing, to delay solutions, obstruct progress, refuse to take responsibility. Members of the other party have worked with us to achieve important reforms on some issues, yet, too often, their leadership prefers to block the ideas of others."

Comment #344: HANKS LITTLE BROTHER said on 6/14/05 @ 9:55pm ET...

BUSH TAKES OFF THE GLOVES!
Tue Jun 14 2005 21:37:56 ET

President Bush tonight ripped the Democratic Party as a pack of do-nothing obstructionists bent on derailing his agenda of reform, telling Democratic leaders in Congress that on issue after issue, "they stand for nothing except obstruction, and this is not leadership."

Joseph Curl at WASHINGTON TIMES reporting in fresh editions: At an evening congressional gala at the Washington Convention Center -- which drew $23 million for House and Senate Republicans and amounted to the kick-off of the 2006 political campaign season -- the president drew standing ovations from GOP faithful as he hammered Democrats for offering no solutions to the nation's most pressing problems. "If leaders of the other party have innovative ideas, let's hear them. But if they have no ideas or policies except obstruction, they should step aside and let others lead," Mr. Bush said to thunderous applause from more than 5,000 supporters.

The president, who has spent the last several months seeking consensus on his Social Security reform package and reaching out to Democrats with non-confrontational rhetoric, said opposition party leaders are pursuing "the philosophy of the stop sign, the agenda of the road block, and our country and our children deserve better."

"Political parties that choose the path of obstruction will not gain the trust of the American people," he said at the event dubbed "The 2005 President's Dinner."

Mr. Bush said political parties can take one of two approaches: "One approach is to lead, to focus on the people's business, to take on the tough problems, and that is exactly what our party is doing."

"The other approach is to simply do nothing, to delay solutions, obstruct progress, refuse to take responsibility. Members of the other party have worked with us to achieve important reforms on some issues, yet, too often, their leadership prefers to block the ideas of others."

BLESS YOU PRESIDENT BUSH!

Comment #345: Joe said on 6/14/05 @ 10:00pm ET...

Forget it Markus. Be my guest as I can see the wackos have taken over this congressman's blog. I tried to discuss, scott_d and I were able to come to a meeting of the minds but I can see most of you are just frothing to see something spectacular and using this blog to do it. Whatever.

Comment #346: Markus said on 6/14/05 @ 10:01pm ET...

Link, please.

Comment #347: Markus said on 6/14/05 @ 10:03pm ET...

Very well. You seemed a decent enough sort. Be well.

Comment #348: Old_Pro said on 6/14/05 @ 10:16pm ET...

Folks . . .

You know what the real deal is with these trolling freeper wing-nuts?

They're simply getting ansty as the time draws near . . .

It always gets real interesting when the "agents provocateurs" attempt to derail the issues and take over the discussion . .

Just Scroll Past the Troll . . .

=========

Comment #349: Rusty said on 6/14/05 @ 10:40pm ET...

BUSH CONFESSES HE IS A LYING FASCIST!
Tue Jun 14 2005 21:37:56 ET

Bush tonight ripped the Jews as a pack of do-nothing obstructionists bent on derailing his agenda of reform, telling Jews that on issue after issue, "they stand for nothing except obstruction, and this is not leadership."

Joseph Goebbels at WASHINGTON TIMES reporting in fresh editions: At an evening congressional gala at the Washington Convention Center -- which drew $23 million for House and Senate Fascists and amounted to the kick-off of the 2006 election stealing campaign – Bush drew standing ovations from the fascist faithful as he hammered Jews for offering no solutions to the nation's most pressing problems. "If leaders of the Jews have innovative ideas, let's hear them. But if they have no ideas or policies except obstruction, they should step aside and let others lead," said to thunderous applause from more than 5,000 storm troopers.

Bush, who has spent the last several months lying about his Social Security reform package and sleeping with Jeff Gannon/Guckert, said Jews are pursuing "the philosophy of the stop sign, the agenda of the road block, and our country and our children deserve better."

"Jews who choose the path of obstruction will not gain the trust of the American people," he said at the event dubbed "The 2005 Fuhrer’s Dinner."

Bush said his political party takes only one approach, "which is to lie and steal elections, to focus on helping the greedy rich, to bully the media, and that is exactly what our party is doing."

Sieg Heil!

Comment #350: Jacob Matthan said on 6/14/05 @ 11:05pm ET...

Isn't it great that two innocuous lines in a memo about the oil-for-food programme is now headline news in the MSM but the DSM and all the follow-up memos where tens of thousands of people are DEAD are not!! (SARCASM OFF)

Comment #351: Boze said on 6/14/05 @ 11:23pm ET...

Is there a link showing the list of Members of Congress that have signed Rep Conyer's letter?

Comment #352: Bush Crime Family said on 6/14/05 @ 11:26pm ET...

The American people need to wake up and realize that our country has been taken over by a coalition of war profiteers, energy pirates, and elements of the fringe Christian Right.

Turn off the Faux News people. We need to take our country back from these fascists.

Comment #353: why said on 6/14/05 @ 11:33pm ET...

Do the trolls here quote religion when they totally ignore the book of Matthew? They think hating gays is worse than hating war and oppression.

In any case most of them are too stupid to thin rationally.

Comment #354: scott d said on 6/14/05 @ 11:35pm ET...

joe- good nite and just lets just agree we all want the truth to come out, no matter where it leads. for the people, by the people,we the people, need to know.
when people try to hide, confuse and mislead,look for technicallities and twist words to fit their defence(like clinton did), they look guilty.

i don't think that the american people have the stomach for this type of scandal right now .
i do feel that the british will lead us to force the administration towards impeachment inquiries. things really seem to be unravelling over there. unless a true patriot, like john conyers, on the republican side, steps forward and tells all(or leaks all), we need a full investigation.
i must say, with watergate, there was only one source of information. it seems clear that with paul oneil, richard clark, woodward, karen kwaitkowski,among many others and these 6 memos,all saying basically the same thing, the administration has alot to answer for.

Comment #355: judy said on 6/14/05 @ 11:37pm ET...

Thank you Rep. Conyers. You are a true leader and the dems are with you all the way.

Comment #356: Idiot Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 11:38pm ET...

is just following party orders in calling all opposition communists. This is a tradition amongst all right wing regimes. From Hitler to Apartheid South Africa. If you oppose them, you are a communist. Why? because their propagandists say so. Never mind that most of us cannot stand communisim or any other ideology that needs to be applied by force, including "their" church philosophy and ALL right wing philosophy.
There has never been a right wing government that can survive without a threat. As Goring very aptly summed up the right wing philosophy:
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.

* Hermann Göring, Reich Marshal, at the Nuremberg Trials

Just like all the right wingers in this country.

Comment #357: Dilip Hiro said on 6/14/05 @ 11:42pm ET...

Enough hard facts have surfaced since the war on Iraq a year ago to enable us to plot fairly accurately the path that President George W. Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair followed, culminating in the Anglo-American invasion of a country that posed no imminent threat to the United States, Britain, or any of its neighbors.

In the blame game currently being played in Washington, members of the Bush team are pointing their fingers at Ahmad Chalabi and his Iraqi National Congress for providing misleading or exaggerated intelligence about Iraq's alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD). But the responsibility for propping up Chalabi and his cohorts rests with the very same officials who are now feigning anger at their own henchmen.

It was the U.S. government that funded the INC's Intelligence Clearance Project. And it was Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld who set up his Office of Special Plans (OSP), which provided a channel outside of the established intelligence agencies, for the INC to feed its information directly to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and Vice President Dick Cheney, who is for all practical purposes the executive prime minister to a president uninterested in and incapable of running the day-to-day administration of his government.

Out of this incestuous amplification arose the myth of Iraq's WMD stockpiles. It was an example of political judgment and decision-making preceding actual hard intelligence.

The source of what has happened in Iraq is none other than President Bush himself and his obsession with regime change in Baghdad from the day he assumed office. According to The Price of Loyalty: George W. Bush, the White House, and the Education of Paul O'Neill, written by Ron Suskind, based on his interviews with former Treasury Secretary O'Neill and 19,000 official documents, at the first National Security Council meeting on January 30, 2001,Bush asked "Condi [Rice], what are we going to talk about today?" In her seemingly pre-scripted response, she said, "How Iraq is destabilizing the region, Mr President."

Then followed a presentation by CIA director George Tenet in which he rolled out a large, grainy aerial photograph of an Iraqi factory on a table: "A plant that produces either chemical or biological materials for weapons manufacture." The NSC members hovered over the picture, nodding. But O'Neill, a former Chief Executive Officer of Alcoa, an aluminum manufacturing company, said, "I've seen a lot of factories around the world that look a lot like this one. What makes us suspect that this one is producing chemical or biological agents for weapons?" All that Tenet could offer was circumstantial evidence.

"From the very first instance, it was [Bush's obsession] about Iraq," O'Neill told Sixty Minutes, "It was all about finding a way to do it. That was the tone of it. The President was saying, 'Go, find me a way to do it.'"

As soon as the Pentagon's Afghanistan war ended in January 2002, Bush turned to Iraq. According to Rowan Scarborough, the Washington Times' Pentagon correspondent, and the author of Rumsfeld's War, Bush signed a secret National Security Council directive establishing the goals and objectives for a war on Iraq, one of the classified documents Scarborough obtained, on February 16, 2002.

Little wonder that, soon after, Bush would tell three senators having a meeting with Rice at the White House, "We are taking him [Saddam Hussein] out." And he purportedly said the same thing to Blair when the British leader visited him in early April.

It was in the course of their talks on September 6-7 at Camp David that Blair formally agreed to participate in a war against Iraq, provided Bush sought endorsement for military action from the United Nations Security Council without giving up his option to act unilaterally if that failed.

They also decided that in order to focus world attention on Iraq's WMD and pressure Iraq to allow the UN to resume inspections, Britain should publish a dossier to show that the threat of Iraq's WMD was real. The task fell to Blair because both leaders agreed that a British document would carry more credibility in the Arab and Muslim world than an American one. Such a dossier would also assist Bush in securing a Congressional vote in early October for the authority to declare war on Iraq.

Three days later a draft of the British dossier, Iraq's Programme of Weapons of Mass Destruction: The Assessment of the British Government, was sent to Tenet in Washington. On September 13, Tenet expressed reservations to the statement: "Iraq continues to work on developing nuclear weapons... Uranium to be used for the production of fissile material has been purchased from Africa." This led to a modified version, whereby "recent intelligence... indicates" that "Iraq has purchased large quantities of uranium ore, despite having no civil nuclear program that would require it."

But suddenly, on September 16, the Iraqi government said that UN inspectors could return to Iraq "without any conditions." Once that happened, the raison d'etre for the British dossier disappeared. It had achieved its aim without being released. Any rational leader would then have aborted the project. But not Tony Blair.

Indeed, a new paragraph added to the dossier on September 19 claimed that, anticipating the arrival of UN inspectors, the Iraqi government had already started hiding its WMD. How Britain managed to collect raw information about Iraq's instantaneous concealment activities, assess it, and draw a conclusion about it within 72 hours must remain a matter of wonderment and awe in the annals of intelligence.

The dossier that was released on September 24 was titled Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction. What got many British politicians and citizens worked up was the claim in the document that Iraq's chemical and biological weapons were ready to be fired within 45 minutes of an order being issued by Saddam. Given that the Iraqi dictator allegedly possessed up to 20 medium range missiles, his warheads could have reached two British bases in Cyprus. This would have constituted an attack on Britain.

In the hullabaloo that followed soon after and erupted again at the time of Lord Hutton's Inquiry in August 2003, no witness or expert noticed that the Bush administration made no mention of this 45-minute scenario, even though the Pentagon had beefed its troop presence in neighboring Kuwait by tens of thousands in September 2002. All somebody had to say was: "How come the US, which has so many soldiers in Kuwait did not raise the fearsome scenario of them being hit by Iraq's WMD, for which Iraq's known, permissible short range missiles would have sufficed?"

The moral is that when two or more parties collude to concoct "facts," it is not always possible for them to synchronize their misinformation/disinformation/lies. That is how those who have broken the law collectively often get caught: their individual stories do not tally.

Another major Bush-Blair statement -- that they had exhausted all avenues of peaceful resolution of the crisis before declaring war on Baghdad -- has now turned out to be a lie. On November 7, 2003 the New York Times and the Guardian reported that Saddam Hussein had offered a deal in February 2003 meant to satisfy Bush and Blair on all the important aspects of the crisis: weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, the Middle East peace process, access of American oil companies to Iraqi petroleum, and the democratization of Iraq.

According to these reports (confirmed by all the parties involved), Saddam proposed that up to 2,000 FBI and CIA agents be dispatched to Iraq to look for its WMD anywhere in the country. He pledged that he would go along with any deal to which Israel and the mainstream Palestinian leadership agreed. He promised to give US oil corporations a share in the exploration and extraction of oil in Iraq. And he promised free and fair multiparty elections in Iraq under international supervision in two years.

Imad Hage, acting on behalf of Saddam, met Richard Perle, then chairman of the US Defense Policy Advisory Committee Board, in the lobby of the Marlborough Hotel in central London on March 7, and then they went to an office nearby and there for two hours Hage outlined the Iraqi offer to Perle. But so determined was Bush to invade Iraq that he refused point blank to consider Saddam's offer and resolve the crisis peacefully.

This was in stark contrast to the softly, softly manner in which the Bush administration had been handling – and continues to handle -- the issue of the WMD of North Korea, another member of the so-called Axis of Evil. There has been remarkable delinquency on the part of politicians and pundits in pointing out this disparity.

Equally absent has been an effort to compare and contrast Haiti and Iraq. Recent developments in Haiti show that democracy has failed to become established there. It is a small republic, occupying only a third of the island of Hispaniola, which is in the backyard of the United States. Yet, Washington's efforts since 1971 -- when dictator Francois Duvalier died -- to install democracy there have proven futile.

If this is what the US has to show for its democratization mission, worldwide, in Haiti after 33 years of trying, what chance is there for democracy, planted by invading Anglo-American armies in faraway Iraq, to take root?

Comment #358: of course said on 6/14/05 @ 11:44pm ET...

The Right wing radio is rabid and foaming at the mouth that herr Bush and uber Rumsfeld are being exposed. They hate being called nazis most of all, because it is the truth.
The mantra of right wing politics is not based on logic, it is based on "I'm right because you are wrong and therefore I am going to call you names". Also they have to pay people to continually feed propaganda on a 24 hour basis to gain any kind of support. Failing that, they need to apply their philosophy by force.

Unfortunately, real Christians are being debased by the right wing alliance with extreme fundamentalism which is no better than the extremism of the fundamentalist muslim.

Comment #359: Ohiodem1 said on 6/14/05 @ 11:49pm ET...

Joe #313 - I guess the two battles for Falluja where we lost many Marines and Soldiers were "minor operations". I guess that the 1675 Soldier deaths and 10,000 other casualties are from "minor operations". I guess the major battle taking place in Western Iraq over the last month is a "minor operation".

You cannot spin that.

Comment #360: The jokes on them said on 6/14/05 @ 11:50pm ET...

The right wing radio propagandists have been punting for a "qualified" vote. I expect not disimilar to the white-boys-only-who-own-land sham that is still claimed to be our democratic history. We only became a democracy in the 1920's and the right wingers are incensed with rage about it.

If a qualified vote was effected today, what would the result be? I guess they would have to redefine the land owner as being a semi educated toothless wonder who is being told how to vote by a radical extremist fundamentalist church.

- Do not holiday in Red states
- Do not buy from Red state companies
- Do not buy goods produced in red states

Comment #361: laserflight said on 6/14/05 @ 11:51pm ET...

I cheer on all those who are for the truth, especially John Conyers.
I feel strongly that those of us who throw down with the truth, THEIR OWN INDIVIDUAL TRUTHS and the collective truths, are contributing to our species' evolutionary growth.

Brave to truthsayers. Compassion to the liars. But let's get on with the truth.

Comment #362: Doug said on 6/14/05 @ 11:53pm ET...

Email sent to Sensenbrenner.

Comment #363: To Kermit said on 6/14/05 @ 11:56pm ET...

Kermit

Unfortunately for you:
- Belonging to a religious group other than your own is still legal in the US.
- Worshipping God is still a choice in the US
- Radical Christianity is not applied by force on the citizens of this country.
- Not belonging to a religious group is still legal in the US.

So kindly rant and rave with your personal, illogical, out-dated, religio-fascist ideology elsewhere. You may define your life along those terms, and that is your decision. However, that is also your choice. It is not the choice of everyone around you. Nor is it even acceptable to most people on this planet.

Comment #364: WarpSpasm said on 6/15/05 @ 12:05am ET...

I sent my email Sensenbrenner

Comment #365: expect said on 6/15/05 @ 12:08am ET...

That there will be an extension of Bush's term.
Expect that elections will become even more corrupt

Comment #366: Carolab said on 6/15/05 @ 12:16am ET...

Go, JOHN! We LOVE YOU!

Comment #367: Bulldog Manifesto said on 6/15/05 @ 1:29am ET...

Excellent work! BRAVO!

Comment #368: Vyan said on 6/15/05 @ 2:25am ET...

Curveball screwed the U.S., and it seems he also screwed the U.K. with false and exaggerated claims of Iraqi WMD's.

The only real question is : where the Bush and Blair Administrations willing participants in the screwing, or where they just too stupid and lame to know the difference?

Either way, there's no good answer for Bush apologists.

Vyan