Ralph Nader: Why the Democrats won’t initiate impeachment

anthony @ 07:45 BST, updated 18:15 BST

My thanks to anon paranoid for alerting me to this video:

When told that “the overwhelming majority of this constituency resolved for impeachment, Congressman Olver vehemently refused; rather, he expressed the opinion that the current autocratic executive in the White House would attack Iran from the air, declare a national emergency, institute martial law, and call off the 2008 elections were the Democrats to initiate impeachment.”

Ralph Nader, activist, author and lecturer, shared his views in the matter of the “Next Steps for the Peace Movement,” at a panel discussion on Oct. 11, 2007. The event was held at Bus Boys and Poets, in Washington, D.C. It was a fundraiser for DemocracyRising.US. For more information, please go to: www.democracyrising.us./ Mr. Nader’s latest book is entitled: “The Seventeen Traditions.”

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Billybobjoe: Bu$hitler, Iran, and Russia

by Geezer Power …9:56 pm

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The Spin, I’m In! “Switch me on..”

by GEF @ 4:02 PM MST

Senator Larry Craig in the Closet: “If I were Gay.. ”

Goldfrapp – Ooh La La

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Another Pesky Packaderm to Leave the Swamp!

by GEF @ 12:22 PM MST

Hastert to Resign Soon, GOP Aides Say

WASHINGTON — Former House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert will resign soon rather than complete his term 15 months from now, ending a 21-year career in Congress, Republican aides said Thursday.

The Illinois Republican had announced in August he would not seek re-election in 2008, but said he planned to finish his current term, which ends in January 2009. Republican aides, speaking on background only because Hastert had not yet publicly announced his new plans, said he now intends to leave office late this year or early next year.

Hastert’s resignation would trigger a special election, probably in early 2008, in his Chicago-area district that includes Aurora and Elgin. Republicans hope to hold the seat ahead of the November 2008 election, which some fear will draw large numbers of Democratic voters unhappy with President Bush and the Iraq war.

Hastert, 65, was the longest-serving Republican speaker in history. He took the post in January 1999 after two better-known party members were forced aside by scandals and intraparty rivalries.

When Republicans lost control of the House in the 2006 elections, Hastert lost the speakership, and his retirement plans did not surprise colleagues.

Hastert’s office did not respond to press calls early Thursday.

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Author: Intel agencies morphed Iraqi defector’s lies into something from Walt Disney

anthony @ 19:30 BST

David Edwards and Muriel Kane | Raw Story | Published: Wednesday October 17, 2007

Los Angeles Times reporter Bob Drogin, who first broke the story of “Curveball,” the Iraqi defector who provided much of the false information about WMD’s that was used to justify the US invasion of Iraq, appeared on CNN Wednesday to discuss his new book on the subject.

Drogin explained to CNN that Curveball was merely an Iraqi engineer who went to Germany in 1999 and started spinning stories about Saddam Hussein’s fleet of mobile biological weapons laboratories. His claims couldn’t be verified, but “the Bush administration believed it, even though the CIA had never talked to him.” According to Drogin, Curveball was lying to the Germans and inflating his own importance because “he was trying to get asylum” and wanted “to basically jump the line.”

Drogin said the real problems arose not from anything Curveball did, but with what became of his stories after they reached the US. “It was analysis that was being passed from one agency to another agency and it kept changing, it kept morphing as it went. So he told one story and by the time Colin Powell is up at the United Nations … it was like it had gone to Walt Disney or something.”

Dorgin primarily blames the intelligence agencies — and particularly George Tenet — for the failure to detect Curveball’s lies, writing in his book that “Time and again, bureaucratic rivalries, tawdry ambitions and spineless leadership proved more important than professional integrity.”

“People who tried to raise warnings, tried to raise red flags, were pushed aside, were cast out, were treated like heretics,” Dorgin told CNN. “It’s really sort of bizarre. It’s a cult over there.”

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Russia’s Putin : “Iran Is Not Afraid” Of US, Israel “Believe Me”

anthony @ 19:35 Bst

Darryl Mason | Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has confirmed that he is backing Iran against the full force of the NeoCon-led propaganda campaign designed to force people in the US, the UK, Australia and across Europe to accept the ‘reality’ of the need for a new war in the Middle East.

Putin recently declared that Iran does not possess nuclear weapons, is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program and poses “no threat” to any nation, least of all the United States.

But the NeoCons have their heart set on bombing Iran before President Bush leaves office, and they don’t let the fact that nobody, including President Bush himself, acknowledges that Iran currently poses a nuclear weapons capability threat, to mess with their blood-soaked dreams.

Putin made clear that Iran feels no fear from the threats of military action coming from the United States or Israel :

“Threatening someone, in this case the Iranian leadership and Iranian people, will lead nowhere,” Putin said Monday during his trip to Germany. “They are not afraid, believe me.”

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World War III Is Going To Be Hilarious

anthony @ 18:35 BST:

The Huff Post’s article alluded to in the article by Michel Chossudovsky posted by Sudhan is worth reading in full:  

Bob Cesca | Huffington Post | Posted October 17, 2007 | 07:12 PM (EST)

Your president giggled and grinned while discussing World War III today.

“But this — we got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding [grinning] World War III [end grinning], it seems like you [begin giggling] ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge [end giggling] necessary to make a nuclear weapon.”

Hahahaha! Yeah! Zinger! That’s funny shit. For the record, here’s his expression while saying the words “World War Three”:

To the rest of the known world, however, World War III a scary thing. It’s just below abortion and above rape on the list of the all time unfunniest topics.

Let’s break it down.

1. Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon, and if they ever developed one, they’d be smart enough to know (despite how we caricaturize Ahmadinejad) that using it would invite their own destruction a thousand times over. Thus, there is no Iranian nuclear threat.

2. Yet the administration is drawing up plans to illegally and preemptively attack anyway, based on the lie that Iran is a nuclear threat.

3. Congress, despite the president’s 24-percent approval rating, won’t stop the White House because of, 1) The Fear, and 2) because Congress has allowed the president and vice president to seize unprecedented power which almost entirely circumvents Article I of the Constitution (among other things).

4. Meanwhile, if we do attack, it appears as if Pooty-Poot might bring Russia in on the Iranian side.

5. And there you go. Knee slapping boners all around. Milk just came out of my nose.

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GOPs to Senator Craig: Get Out!!!

by GEF @ 6:22 AM MST

Ensign to Craig: Leave now

“This wouldn’t be making the national news if it was an ordinary misdemeanor,” Ensign said. “He pled guilty to something that, you know lewd behavior, that’s not the behavior a United States senator should be engaged in.”

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. John Ensign, who chairs the Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee, made clear to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Wednesday he wants embattled Idaho Sen. Larry Craig to leave the Senate — immediately.

“The senator said that by the end of September, if the guilty plea was not overturned, if he was not reestablished on his seniority on committees, that he would resign,” said Ensign, a Republican representing Nevada. “Neither one of those things are going to happen. I call on Sen. Craig, if he loved the Senate and his party, he would keep his word. ”

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Bush’s World War Three

Sudhan@11:25 CET

By Michel Chossudovsky

Global Research, October 17, 2007

” We got a leader in Iran who has announced that he wants to destroy Israel. So I’ve told people that if you’re interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them from have the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon. I take the threat of Iran with a nuclear weapon very seriously….” (George W. Bush, 17 October 2007)

Grin and Laugh: “Here’s his expression while saying the words “World War Three” (Huffington Post, 17 October 2007)

“I believe that. I believe that [the revolt of passengers on the hijacked flight 93 on September 11, 2001] was the first counter-attack to World War III.” (George W. Bush, May 6, 2006)

“This notion that the United States is getting ready to attack Iran is simply ridiculous… Having said that, all options are on the table.” George W. Bush, February 2005)

We are not living a sound and rational World where far-reaching decisions by the US President are based on an understanding of their likely consequences.

A World War III is no longer a hypothetical scenario.

During the Cold War, the concept of “mutual assured destruction” (MAD) was put forth. An understanding of the devastating consequences of nuclear war largely contributed to avoiding the outbreak of war between the US and the Soviet Union.

Today, in the post-Cold war era, no such understanding prevails. The specter of a nuclear holocaust, which haunted the world for half a century has been relegated to the status of “collateral damage”.

US foreign policy under the NeoCons is based on a diabolical and criminal agenda. The “war on terrorism” is a lie; Iran does not constitute a threat to global security as confirmed by a recent IAEA report, Iran does not constitute a threat to Israel.

The US president is a liar, who believes his own lies.

Keep reading . . .

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