Double Standards at the New York Times

Dave Lindorff's This Can't Be Happening! posts some truth about the Grey Lady:

The New York Times, which claims to draw a clear distinction between its news articles and its commentary articles, dropped any pretense of such a distinction in its minimalist "coverage" of yesterday's dramatic effort by Rep. Dennis Kucinich to force the House to consider the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney.

In a small 230-word piece on Kucinich's privilege motion, and the subsequent vote to send his H Res. 333, now called H. Res. 799, to the House Judiciary Committee, after it has been consigned to limbo for over 6 months by the House leadership, the Times succeeded in dissing both Kucinich and the notion of impeaching the vice president.

As the anonymous Times reporter wrote in the lead of this hit piece:

"It is hard to know which effort has longer odds, the bid by Representative Dennis J. Kucinich, Democrat of Ohio, to become president of the United State, or his bid to unseat Vice President Dick Cheney by impeaching him".

read the rest...

Impeachment is On The Table

Tomorrow (Tuesday, November 6)Congressman Dennis Kucinich has called for a "privileged resolution" on Dick Cheney's impeachment. If not now when? This has gone on long enough. Call [(202) 224-3121]AND email your Representative. Let then know you have had enough and encourage them to support and vote yes on Dennis Kuchinich's brave move, H. Res 333. If your rep. is among the 21 co-sponsors, let them know you are pleased with their decision to start the process of holding this administration accountable for the evils perpetrated upon our country and the world at large. 54% of Americans now agree that Cheney should be impeached. Please don't let this opportunity go by to make your opinion count.

Call your member of Congress toll free:
1-800-828-0498
1-800-862-5530
1-800-833-6354

ALSO TONIGHT: Dennis Kucinich will be on the phone, Monday, November 5 5:30 MT
4:30 PT. 6:30 CT 7:30 ET. If you want to listen, call (641)715-3300 The access number is: 324341# This is a one-way call with no restriction on the number who are on the line to listen. Please get everybody together and put it on a speaker phone!

House Resolution 333, Articles of Impeachment against the Vice President, has 21 cosponsors. They are: Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Robert Brady (D-PA), Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Rep. William Lacy Clay (D-MO), Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA), Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA), Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Rep. Henry Johnson (D-GA), Rep. Carolyn Kilpatrick (D-MI), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), Rep. James Moran (D-VA), Rep. Donald Payne (D-NJ), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Rep. Edolphus Towns (D-NY), Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), Rep. Diane Watson (D-CA), Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA) and Rep. Albert Wynn (D-MD).

And while you're there, let your rep. know that Mukasey as A.G. is a pretty piss poor idea. Anyone that can't say water-boarding is torture is just trying to cover Geogre Bush' ass.

One more request: Please call Kucinich's office and show him a little love for having the balls to make a showing.

Kucinich Goes All In

From the Office of Congressman Dennis Kucinich:

WASHINGTON, D.C. (November 2, 2007) — Congressman Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) announced today that he will be offering a privileged resolution on the House floor next week that will bring articles of impeachment against the Vice President, Richard B. Cheney.

“The momentum is building for impeachment,” Kucinich said. “Millions of citizens across the nation are demanding Congress rein in the Vice President’s abuse of power.

“Despite this groundswell of opposition to the unconstitutional conduct of office, Vice President Cheney continues to violate the U.S. Constitution by insisting the power of the executive branch is supreme.

Read the rest...

From reader Op 99: How CBS covers a presidential candidate...

Calling Madam Speaker

PLEASE CALL Nancy Pelosi’s office right now. Here’s the deal as forwarded to me:

House Speaker Pelosi’s office is taking calls voting
for Impeachment of Bush/Cheney at 202-225-0100.

Folks, each of you who have been wanting Impeachment,
need to commit right now to ask at least 10 others to
call and ask each person to commit to asking 10 others
to call and so on. It needs to happen fast and NOW.
Let’s BLITZKREIG the Speaker’s office with demands for
Impeachment of Bush AND Cheney.

Please make a call, and thanks so very much.

(800)828 - 0498
(800)459 - 1887
(800)614 - 2803
(866)340 - 9281
(866)338 - 1015
(877)851 - 6437

Impeachment Pie, best served piping hot

And boy, am I hot. The Honorable Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) has filed Articles of Impeachment against Dick Cheney, and not a moment too soon. He made the announcement of his intetions yesterday.

This story got exactly NO PLAY on mainstream media, not even Olbermann's show (in his defense, Allison Stewart is subbing for him this week). The buzz is, because impeachment is a long and involved procedure, by the time it comes to fruition, the point becomes moot. Horse feathers.

The weight of scandal as a result of negligence, malfeasance and criminal enterprise by this administration will ultimately bring it down. It will take actions like this by the Democrats and about 1000 more investigations, but it will happen. The only caveat: The American People. If we do not support and demand further action from our representatives, they get the idea that we don't give a shit and/or are too stupid to care.

Ohio newspaper, The Chronicle -Telegram writes this about Congressman Kucinich's bold move:

WASHINGTON — Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich filed articles of impeachment Tuesday against Vice President Dick Cheney, saying his action is driven by a desire to defend Americans’ right “to have a government that is honest and peaceful.”
The Ohio congressman said Cheney manipulated and fabricated intelligence on weapons of mass destruction to justify the Iraq war.
Kucinich said it was important to introduce the legislation “because the threat of war against Iran is very real.”
“This vice president cannot be permitted to continue to violate both the U.S. Constitution and the U.N. Charter,” he added. [snip] Kucinich had said earlier Tuesday that he was planning to postpone his plans to introduce the articles of impeachment due to Cheney’s health concerns. Cheney was taken to his doctor’s office for an ultrasound of a blood clot in his leg Tuesday. He later returned to the White House to resume his normal schedule, said Megan McGinn, a spokeswoman for the vice president.

Not said in the article was Rep. Kuchinich filed later in the day after Darth Cheney resumed his "normal schedule" of calling Democrats traitors and telling the American people to go fuck themselves.

Today WaPo's Dana Millbank, the cocktail-wienie-eating kiss-ass reporter smirks outwardly while narrating about the futility of Kuchinich's effort. Dennis addresses his rationale for impeachment in the only video of the news conference I could find. Wolf Blitzer takes Dennis on in The Situation Room and gives a bit of honest context and the serious weight this resoultion deserves.



Now, go call your representative to encourage them to go forward with H Res.333 impeachment proceedings and then go give a little love to Dennis Kuchinich for his bravery. It will take the pressure of the American conscience to raise the backbone of spineless politicians in this effort. Please throw your weight into the mix.

Impeachment Pie Anyone?

WaPo's The Sleuth column by Mary Ann Akers, is posting the story,

"Articles of Impeachment To Be Filed On Cheney"

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), the most liberal of the Democratic presidential candidates in the primary field, declared in a letter sent to his Democratic House colleagues this morning that he plans to file articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney.

Lurking Cheney

Remember when Darth Cheney told us last year, "We've got to spend time in the shadows. We have to work toward the dark side, if you will" Oh no Dick, I won't.

If it is possible, Dick Cheney gets creepier by the minute. During Chimpy's speech yesterday, the one where he scolds congress for taking an Easter break which he himself took today, Darth was found lurking in the bushes by CSPAN's cameraman.

Cheney on the Lam

Carol Lam that is...Ms. Lam, before she was fired, was looking into Darth Cheney's possible involvement in the Duke Cunningham scandal. Think Progress writes it up.

To recap, the White House awarded a one-month, $140,000 contract to an individual who never held a federal contract. Two weeks after he got paid, that same contractor used a cashier’s check for exactly that amount to buy a boat for a now-imprisoned congressman at a price that the congressman had pre-negotiated.

That should raise questions about the White House’s involvement.

Crooks and Liars gives a bit more on the story.

News You Can Use

Check in with Juan Cole this morning. He's talking about Cheney and his possibly imminent move to Dubai, to faun over his baby Halliburton...

The IraqSlogger blogs about the surging creep or is the the creeping surge?

Larry Johnson over at No Quarter tells us about the pimple on Andrea Mitchell's ass, oops, make that brain.

Glenn Greenwald writes up how lying to Congress has become a Republican principle.

Bogged Down in Bagdad

Sen. Max Cleland gives it to vice-fucktard Cheney with both barrels. Crooks&Liars.

Shhhh... Be Vewy,Vewy Quiet--It's Cheney

The vice- fucktard blew his own cover with his disclosure of the ubiquitous "I" in his statements to the press aboard Air Force 2.

"I've seen some reporting that says, 'Cheney went in to beat up on them, threaten them.' That's not the way I work," the "senior administration official" said.

Clearly, not able to resist taking credit for his own insane talking points, Crazy-legs Cheney was quoted by the media as ,"unnamed senior administration officials", so perhaps Darth Cheney is also showing signs of a multiple personality disorder.

I don't look at this as anonymous sourcing. I look at this as big-time game playing. The only way to describe it is stupid.-Lucy Dalglish, executive director of The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press

I guess I would add "insane" to Ms. Dalgish's characterization. Tony Snow, administation spokeshole, when asked, declined to lift the prohibition against identifying the unnamed speaker. The Modesto Bee writes it up.

Taliban Targets Cheney

Reuters reports the blast in Bagram, Afghanistan that killed 20 was targeted at Darth Cheney by the Taliban. Darth lives. Read it here.

The People vs. Darth Cheney

GQ, the men's fashion mag weighs in on the public opinion of 'Big Dick'.

With Cheney, there are also no lingering questions about capacity, motive, or malice. Over the past six years, as the country has spiraled into military misadventure, fiscal madness, and environmental meltdown, the vice president has not merely been wrong about the issues; he has been duplicitous, deceitful, and deliberately destructive to the American democracy. These things can no longer be denied by rational minds...read more

Think Progress posts the interview of President Jimmy Carter ripping Dick an new one. Read or watch it here.

Cheney Cracks Up

Frank Rich alone is worth the price of a New York Time subscription. Read his piece, "Why Dick Cheney Cracks Up"

IN the days since Dick Cheney lost it on CNN, our nation’s armchair shrinks have had a blast. The vice president who boasted of “enormous successes” in Iraq and barked “hogwash” at the congenitally mild Wolf Blitzer has been roundly judged delusional, pathologically dishonest or just plain nuts. But what else is new? We identified those diagnoses long ago. The more intriguing question is what ignited this particularly violent public flare-up.

The answer can be found in the timing of the CNN interview, which was conducted the day after the start of the perjury trial of Mr. Cheney’s former top aide, Scooter Libby. The vice president’s on-camera crackup reflected his understandable fear that a White House cover-up was crumbling. He knew that sworn testimony in a Washington courtroom would reveal still more sordid details about how the administration lied to take the country into war in Iraq. He knew that those revelations could cripple the White House’s current campaign to escalate that war and foment apocalyptic scenarios about Iran. Scariest of all, he knew that he might yet have to testify under oath himself.

Chess with Cheney

Sydney Blumenthal has the article "Libby Was Cheney's Pawn" up at Salon.com.
We can only hope Scooter ends up in checkmate.

Cheney knew that the intelligence for the war had been cooked. He was not obsessed with Wilson because he was angry that Wilson was allegedly falsifying information. Cheney was not seized with a feeling of injustice or a need to inform the public of the truth. Cheney is not a fool. "Cheney knows how to read intelligence reports. He knows how to read classified information," Richard Clarke, former director of counterterrorism on the National Security Council, told me. Of course, Clarke said, "Cheney had read the reports" that disproved the administration's line. "Cheney knew it was false," said Clarke. What worried Cheney was that he was keenly aware that the so-called intelligence the administration propagated was phony, shabby and shaky. What also peeved him was that Wilson had said that his mission had been triggered by a request from the Office of the Vice President.

Cheney:Love Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

NYT has some great letters to the Editor up in reaction to Herr Cheney. Here's a sample taste:

To the Editor:

Regarding Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney said the biggest threat is that Americans may not “have the stomach for the fight.” One has to wonder if he feels that the failure in Vietnam was merely a result of the American people’s not having “the stomach” for 10 years of combat and 58,000 American dead.

In classic Republicanspeak, Mr. Cheney obfuscates the premise of why we are at war and narrows the argument to a misplaced matter of courage.

The nauseating irony of someone who did not have the “stomach” to go to war himself accusing the rest of the country of the same failing serves to reveal the extent to which this conflict is without true rationale.

Pier Giacalone
Ridgewood, Queens, Jan. 27, 2007

All I can say is thank God the people are waking.

Dick Cheney is Dangerous

The only antidote for the venom espoused by this hateful man's rabid dog approach to foreign policy, congress and the American people is impeachement. Cheney is the roadblock to success in Iraq. How anyone can argue that "supporting the troops" is to keep them in harm's way? And increase their numbers? This is not only foolish but dangerous. If Dick Cheney weren't so scary and wasn't the vice-criminal in charge, people would point and laugh at his ridiculous posturing. "We have had tremendous successes in Iraq and will continue to have tremendous success..." Pure delusion. Jeffery Feldman has a great piece up on Reframing Dick.

When it says Libby, Libby, Libby...

...On the label label label. Remember that TV commercial from the 70's? Label the Scooter Libby trial file under Partisan Politics.







An observation, if you will (oh, I will...)
With the nation at a new and possibly unprecedented level of partisan polarization, will it be possible for Scooter Libby to get a fair trial? I don't think so and here's why.

A jury trial used to be about who made the best argument and presented the facts of the case in a way that convinced a jury. That criteria seems to have vanished. Now it would seem that stocking the jury with fellow ideologues and spinning a story you know panders to an ideological belief system is all that is required. One's ability to appeal to the public's 'common sense' for a fair and just outcome, to paraphrase Voltaire, is no longer so common. The ideological split has become so deep and the chasm so wide in this country that 'common sense' no longer has to do with the facts only with how they are spun. Keep in mind, this is without considering or opining on the partisanship of the bench.

It shocks me that 'facts' no longer seem relevant. In the world of Fox News the 'information' is clearly at the level of propaganda. The other mainstream media outlets fair only slightly better. If you listened to Bill Moyers yesterday or read any number of articles here, at Media Matters or a dozen other websites that report on media disinformation and misrepresentation (links on my site), you will find this to be true.

Then we come to the issue of dead-eye Dick slated to testify. Try and pick an impartial juror for that bit of testimony. Is the vice president credible? According to the latest polls his approval ratings are so low, the only people who find Cheney "credible" are already drunk on koolaid. One of the questions posed to potential jurors is, "During this trial, you will hear testimony about some of the evidence the Bush administration considered when deciding to go to war in Iraq" one question states. "Based on what you know at this time, do you believe that the administration misled the American people to justify going to war?" Are you fucking kidding me? This question literally precludes the facts that are known to be true. We know BushCo "cherry-picked" intel, we know they lied, what was the question again? Am I retarded? With questions like this, the fix is in from the get-go.

Will Scooter get a fair trial? If he does, he'll go to jail. If it isn't, there's always the presidential pardon.

Cheney Has Another Gun

Texas Monthly have outdone themselves. Give their "Bum Steer Awards" a looky-see. Oops...you need a subscription, but a picture is worth a thousand words.
See the Video!!! (h/t to Op 99 the magnificent and RF for the TM link)