President Bush pardons himself against potential warcrimes (a reminder)

WTF! That is exactly what everyone should be saying...if they need to PARDON themselves...then they KNOW they did something wrong and they deserve to punishment. And frankly---the only reason I am not totally distraught is because I believe in God...just like they do...and I believe that they are going to have issues explaining this one and that ultimately...God will be just. I have faith in God. I have to. This world has become so discolored with atrocities such as what they have done, if I dont believe in something I'd lose my mind.

our system of checks and balances obviously isn't working. but everyones to busy watching American idol to realize.

WTF x 3
This administration has no boundaries...
why not then?

The level of blatant arrogance never cease to amaze.

Holy jayzus tap-dancing christos, lookit the grapes on Preznit Dubya!

Damn, he's got some mighty gall. I hope the Senate turns it down, I wanna see this guy serve time. Oooooo... it's gonna be sweet.

Doubt it though, the Senate doesn't need this fight right now while people's mortgages are stinking up the market.

Shame on them all. Democrats and Republicans are more interested in campaigns than the 'Rule of Law'. Maybe they will just do away with the Rule of Law. We don't need an outdated Constitution! We can give them black markers and they can cross out any laws they don't want to follow. Nothing left for the American people, no protection for us.

Isnt Bush protected from what he does at the moment by Executive privelage or something along them lines? Perhaps he sees the imminent arrival of a new Democrat administration by a landslide and knows there will be a backlash against the neo cons of the Bush administration. Clearly wants to make 100 per cent sure he wont get chased by partisans wanting him behind bars because lets be hones that wouldnt be all that good for the US national interest. Despite some people perhaps enjoying it. Blair didnt feel the need to do it.

Maybe he will do an executive order? Won't work outside of the country. I'd like to watch his war crimes trial on TV.

An eye 4 an eye...what happened 2 that system?...EXPECIALLY if intentional harm is done...
& we all know Bush did these actions INTENTIONALLY! So whatever he did 2 them SHOULD be done 2 him...That being said...he should die thousands of times over because he has SENT thousands of men 2 their DEATH...
*Pure TRUTH*True PEACE*Total LOVE/UNDERSTANDING*

This appears to be old news. Bill Frist retired from the Senate on January 4, 2007.

All this shit over the last 10 years has burned me out hardcore. I'm so sick of reading about corruption, and evil people getting away unscathed from evil crimes. The united-fucking-states need to crash and burn. TV's need to go black and get people away from hyper-reality, maybe pehaps start to think about whats going on. Start thinking and joining together in action against the capitalist fucktards forcing bullshit ideologies, and material excess down our throats.

Maybe its the all night poker session.

But fuck it, the system wont change. Capitalism will devour the world untill it eats itsef, and by then it will be too late. The institutions of control will keep us in place. Unless celebrities are not role models, TV doesnt tak up 4 hours of our time a day, and profit doesnt take prescident over the well being of 2/3 of the earth...... we are doomed to be an evil plauge upon the rest of this poor earth.

Fuck it. Someone please fucking nuke D.C. You will have my undying gratitude. WIpe out the disease of the capitalists.

Mr Bush [Hell will I use the P word] is entirely used to getting his own way via no-one giving enough of a shit OR backing to actively Do Something About it.


America knew exactly how much of an asshole they had in power when they, as a Nation, voted him back in for a second try, jut to make sure he could fuck it all up good 'n proper.
A man is used to getting his own way via bullying, lying, money in the right hands, any sort of coercion his team of hounds can find a way around. And now there's a faint whiff he's been made, he goes and grants himself immunity.
If he were not the most powerful human being currently in existence, this would be hilarious.



So I say [I ain't American, so I can't] move for Impeachment NOW, while you can, and nail the fucker. Don't wait, as Dennis Kucinich has been shouting for years, until it's too late. Do it NOW. YOu wait any longer, not only will it be a damned site tougher, he may well also have total immunity.



Go on, what the hell you waiting for, WWIII?
he's working on that one right now.....

Why has no one mentioned this is from 2006?

Hi Incredulous

That would be the amazing Do Nothing Democratic Congress I've heard so many bad things about - who amazingly have lower approval ratings than Bush himself.
I was truly impressed by the Speaker's explanation that if they *DID* impeach Bush, there might be a wave of Republican sympathy that would prevent the Dems from winning. That's why she won't allow it.

I'm not sure if that's short term stupidity, long term stupidity or just plain fucking insane.
I watch American politics fairly closely because I find the process fascinating. It's like watching a bunch of pit-bulls slowly nudge each other to death while half the crowd bays for blood and the other wants to arrest the organizers.
The Ref spends $14billion a day to make sure the announcers talk about _something else_. Preferably made up.

The media is either no better or far, far worse. When it comes down to having a legal battle to appear on TV and have any chance of even being noticed you really do have to worry about who runs the show here... Clearly it is not the voters, nor in most cases the candidates. Rather it's a small and highly select group of 'influence wielders' who really badly need wiped out.
because if the current state of the nation is anything to go by, it cannot survive these individuals much longer.

SuperPower to total implosion in only 8 years. Scary stuff.


I hear China's doing pretty well this year......

CosmoPlavix..

please qualify that comment?


Without context it makes no sense at all.

In response to not using the P word. Why not put the real name on it. That would be King George. Isn't that what he and all his dynasty must really think? The war crimes involving torture of prisoners are only the tip of the iceberg. What about all the lies and deceit that have brought us to this boiling point? Those go all the way back to before 911. His wanting to secure a pardon is at least finally an admission of his guilt. I suppose that's a little better than lying right to our faces. The comments I'm reading here are saying we are outraged. And rightfully so.

Mmmm. Interesting. The problem with the specific analogy is that King George III was genuinely crazy - Porphyria to be precise - and for a large part of his Reign was not mentally responsible.

Bush, as far as we are aware, has no such excuse and genuinely believes himself completely justified.

To [inaccurately] quote a recent statement 'I'm sure people all over the world view me as a Warmonger. That's kinda funny as I view myself as a Peacemaker'

"I cannot change what the National Intelligence Estimate says, but I do not agree with it"

Not the words of a man devoid of his senses. The words of a man who is fully aware of the world at large and evidence therein, but who chooses to ignore it and believe himself Right nonetheless.

Bush cannot get apardon for war crimes because under artical 77 of the UCMJ he is considered part of the military comand structure and therefore subject to the same rules and regulations that any comander or soldier is subject. Just because you are the highest in the land you should be held to the highest ideals.

I bet he lieying. Just like that time he excused that giggleing turkey..."It's still OK to keep turkey murder day" (Translated)

Let your representatives know that anyone that supported this will be on your list of people that need replaced. I wonder if Nancy Pelosi knows how much she is hated?

Interesting to see a few people here showing an abject hatred of the US. Even more interestingly these people live there. If global capitalism were to collapse and eat itself does anyone have any good ideas as to what they would like to replace it? How about Communism??

Or good old fashioned Socialism? I'm afraid a large number of people tried these. Now whilst these systems may work in theory they can only really work by force leading to a repression of civil liberties. I think calling for the downfall of the US is just a reponse from people who cant quite think how else to approach the problems within that system so they throw in the towel and come out with things like that. Sure you have a President you didnt vote for and probably dont like very much at all but that doesnt mean your country is rotten to the very core.

Anti Americanism is very fashionable amongst us left wing types, in fact you could argue it has replaced the need to have any other firm values. We used to stand for values that are deemed to be universally expected such as demoncracy, civil rights, standing together for the greater good and now we seem to have a large number of peope who simply want their country to collapse. If it did collapse you sure as hell wont be all that happy with what replaces it. Bush will be gone soon. Then you get a chance to deal with things that really matter like the environment, global security (and dyu know what that might just mean you have to get your hands dirty and suffer some casualties again), rampant corporate greed and repairing your fractured reputation abroad.

The US isnt a bad country. Its just a vast country in terms of size and breadth of interests. Oh and heres one for you. Had Bush not invaded Iraq, what was your solution for dealing with all them people the previous dictator was brutaly surpressing? True Iraq is a total diaster now but what would you have done. Left it alone, left Saddam to continue his very well documented genocide against the kurdish people and murder of anybody who disagreed with him? Perhaps just put them people to the back of your mind whilst supping another latte and typing an angry posting onto a bulletin board about how the war was some sort of vast conspiracy involving Mossad, the military industrial complex and the Bush family? Im playing devils advocate here but ask yourself what you might have done to solve the worlds problems? Becuase much as I dont like him, Bush had a pop at a few of these (sadly like many people in the US he ignored the even more pressing issue of climate change). Discuss...

Proof positive that they are guilty as hell and know it.

graemesmith, your "reasoning" is totally skewed. "Had Bush not invaded Iraq, what was your solution for dealing with all them people the previous dictator was brutaly surpressing? True Iraq is a total diaster now but what would you have done. Left it alone, left Saddam to continue his very well documented genocide against the kurdish people and murder of anybody who disagreed with him?" - and what about all the other tyrants who are as bad as was Saddam? Oh, of course, they are Bush buddies so they get loads of money from him and are considered to be America's friends...

Angelique, the Talion Law is primitive and negative. An eye for an eye and soon the whole world is blind, as Mahatma Ghandi said so well.

Cafferty did;nt mention whether this action would go far enough to pardon former pres Bill Clinton and his Democrat stooges for Bosnia or the Aspirin factory in Iraq

I am all for the removal of any tyranny in any country across the world. I think that human rights are universal and should be applied just as much to people living in middle eastern nations as they should be to people living in the west. Why do we have the right to speak freely but not those living in other nations a long way from us. Surely we owe people without the same freedoms as us some help? I say Bush is wrong over stuff like Guantanamo but the Iraq situation is far more complicated than that. Far more complicated than he anticipated but the US cant just withdraw and leave the county in civil war. That would be very wrong. But it looks like that will happen. Oh and on the subject of other tyrannical regimes ...you mean ones like Iran?

graemesmith

First:

America is not universally hated. The current prominent America ideology of "be like us 'cos we're the best or we'll invade your country and kill your children" is completely fucked. The World eagerly awaits the moment this will change, most likely as a result of the coming election. The Bush Administration has done a *phenomenal* damage to the way your country is viewed, and it will take generations to heal that wound.

Second:

Capitalism, for the best part, works. It is not ideal but as you say experiments in the alternatives have been colossal failures.
That does NOT make spending $14 BILLION per day fighting an unjust way right. Nor does it excuse the sickening tax breaks levied towards making the top 1% of US income holders richer while the rest of the population slips further into debt. It does not 'make right' the sub-prime crisis which is effecting the Global Economy and leaving other nations - including the UK - desperate to avoid the kickback of a blooming recession.
Capitalism works when handled correctly. The Bush Admin has, again, been a disaster as it has been handled by a man who has no concept of being poor, no concept of the cost of anything but the oil he himself lost money trying to find [I understand it takes a special kind of genius to _fail to find oil in Texas_ and bankrupt a company in the effort] and no understanding that borrowing money from people like China and Mexico to PAY for your tax cuts and wars isn't actually a very good idea in the long term.

Third:

The biggest erroder of Civil liberties, Democratic values and general Human Rights in the US today is its President. Or have you not noticed the repeated attempts at passing Laws which pass power to him and away from you? Have you read the Patriot Act which effectively states that anyone the President doesn't like effectively loses all rights?
Please do not mistake Anti-Bush for Anti-American. They are wildly different. I long for the day when America can once again hold its head up high in pride at her achievements and status in the world. You had that with Reagan, you had that with Clinton. Now you have a bloody shambles.
Saying 'well, Bush will be gone soon, *then* we can deal with the important stuff" positively squeels of cop out. Why the Blue Blazing Hell should the American People, never mind the rest of the World, have to wait for the process of electing someone else? Those things are important NOW. They were important 8 years ago and we are rapidly running out of time to make any kind of a meaningful difference. The World cannot wait for Bush, cannot wait for America.

Fourth:

With this statement you destroy any hope at credibility. Saddam Hussain posed no immediate threat to the world at large, to the Middle East and most certainly not to the US At All. More Iraqi citizens have died as a direct result of the US invasion that were killed during the entirely of Saddams reign. [incidentally, during his worst Human Rights violations Saddam was backed DIRECTLY by the US Administration] The country infrastructure was deliberately destroyed with no plan for reconstruction at all, leaving the entire country in disarray. Heroin now floods the streets, unemployment is near universal, insurgents have access to weapons and funding that were previously impossible. The great majority of homes [those left standing] have no regular access to electricity or clean running water.
How, prey tell, is this an improvement?

This situation has been CAUSED by the US invasion. Or can you not see that?

The affects are not 'worse than anticipated' as you say - the affects are exactly as anticipated by the people that Bush and [oh my Gods the shame] Blair chose to ignore.

INcluding me and everyone else who chose to march and make our voices heard during the Don't Attack Iraq protests.

"I am all for the removal of any tyranny in any country across the world." At what cost graemesmith? Usually, one tyrant replacing another. We were doing just fine inflicting misery and suffering on the Iraqi people, before we ever invaded. The sanctions were hurting the people more than Saddam. Yes, we may owe those less fortunate than us some help, but dropping bombs helps no one (unless you count war profiteering). We thought funding the Taliban and training Bin laden was a great idea. You think that the U.S. can't just withdraw from Iraq? You're wrong. We'll be paying for Iraq into the foreseeable future and beyond. What we need to do is get the fuck out of there so we can ask for the check. What gratuity is appropriate to make up for killing thousands and thousands of civilians? What one should think is that the U.S. couldn't start a war based on lies, greed and racism.

Thanks for your comments vierotchka, I was going to quote Ghandi as well. CosmoPlavix are you insinuating that 'Duhbya" would be able to operate a typewriter?

Today, let's not forget the message and wisdom of Dr. martin Luther king Jr. and strive for a better world.
http://current.com/items/75951452_mlk_why_i_m_against_t...

graemesmith, please remind us what the reason was for attacking Iraq in the first place. Then what the second excuse was, and the third, and the fourth. It never was about rescuing a country from a tyrant, it always was about stealing Iraq's oil. See http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/issues/iraqoil

As for capitalism, it contains the seed of its own demise, as we are now beginning to witness.

Might I suggest CosmoPlavix that you have totally misunderstood and misread my postings. It is me that actually is standing up here for universal human rights. In fact I am concerned you may not have read what I said at all having read your response. Read it carefully and look at the Euston Manifesto I posted a link to. It makes for interesting reading.

"The consensus should be to put in place in Iraq a democratic political order and to rebuild the country's infrastructure, to create after decades of the most brutal oppression a life for Iraqis which those living in democratic countries take for granted?rather than picking through the rubble of the arguments over intervention"

You cant argue with that really. But if you like continue to call me a peasant...possible the most interesting insult ever to have been thrown at me. Ten out of ten for originality!

In order for Capitalism to work it needs to be balanced by Socialism.

Since Capitalism is only responsible to the stock holders; thanks to Reaganomics and Nobel Prize Winning Economics Professor Freedman, the only way to put Capitalism in check is to have strong Social laws that protect the rights of the individual person and collective communities from the machinations of Capitalism. These strong regulations and socialized government is the only thing that can constrain Capitalist greed.

jubal.
Bingo. Finally some sense!

"The consensus should be to put in place in Iraq a democratic political order and to rebuild the country's infrastructure, to create after decades of the most brutal oppression a life for Iraqis which those living in democratic countries take for granted?rather than picking through the rubble of the arguments over intervention"

Utopian and patronizing - there again, one is deciding for the Iraqis and wishing to impose on them our vision of what we think they should be. The Iraqis rebuilt their infrastructure within months after Bush Senior destroyed it. Better to leave Iraq and give them a few trillions with which they can purchase what they need to rebuild their own country, they are more than capable of doing so as they have shown in the past.

Vierotchka has a point. The Bush Administration has been all about securing control of the Iraqi Oil Fields calling his desire to have their legislature approve a 100 year lease to the 5 major US oil corporations giving them custodial power over the oil and in exchange, the Oil Companies will give the Iraqi government 10% or the income.

The reason the civil war is being waged in Iraq in the first place is largely caused by certain factions in the Iraqi government and religious leaders are unwilling to simply just hand over their county's natural resources to the United States for 10cents on the dollar. And many of these same people are willing to put their lives on the line to protect their sovreign rights to adminster and exploit their own natural resources, and certainly garner a bigger share of the inc