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Imperial Bush
A closer look at the Bush record -- from the war in Iraq to the war on the environment

2004 Campaign
Will Americans take the exit ramp off the Bush presidency in November?

Behind Colin Powell's Legend
Colin Powell's sterling reputation in Washington hides his life-long role as water-carrier for conservative ideologues.

The 2000 Campaign
Recounting the controversial presidential campaign

Media Crisis
Is the national media a danger to democracy?

The Clinton Scandals
The story behind President Clinton's impeachment

Nazi Echo
Pinochet & Other Characters

The Dark Side of Rev. Moon
Rev. Sun Myung Moon and American politics

Contra Crack
Contra drug stories uncovered

Lost History
How the American historical record has been tainted by lies and cover-ups

The October Surprise "X-Files"
The 1980 October Surprise scandal exposed

International
From free trade to the Kosovo crisis

Other Investigative Stories

Editorials

Readers React to Latest News

October 3, 2006

Editor's Note: Below are readers' comments about some of the latest developments in the news:

I am not writing about one of your posting, but rather about the almost total lack of coverage of the fact that Bush has created a habeas corpus loophole. Nowhere do I see it truly covered for the outrage it is. I have seen a couple mentions of how the definition of enemy combatant is overly inclusive. That is not nearly so bad as throwing out habeas corpus.

Throwing out habeas corpus means that Bush can declare anyone he doesn't like as an 'enemy combatant" and there is never any judicial review. No recourse. So it does not matter whether the person actually intended to blow up something here in the US or if the person just combed his hair in a way that Bush doesn't like. He can declare them both enemy combatants and those two people are in jail for as long as Bush likes.

This is truly, truly outrageous. We have now become a police state, and the news doesn't cover it with blaring headlines. This is huge. He has just flamed the Constitution. Bush can then put any political opposition figure including Howard Dean, Harry Reid, you, me, my neighbor, a mistaken pick up in jail, and we will languish there for as long as Bush likes.

Please, please write something with huge, huge headlines. This is incendiary and outrageous.

Ly in upstate NY

The Republicans and the Bush administration have been running campaigns of pompous, puritan rhetoric for years; with claims of bringing real values back to the Capitol and the Nation.

Those GOP values are turning out to reveal themselves as "Liars and Deniars," and the more that is revealed, the more there is to deny.

GOP values... the values of Abramoff, Delay, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, and the now publicly disclosed "naughty email values" of Foyer of Florida. The GOP has such unspeakable values that the media often cannot bring itself to speak of them. Maybe that's why there is so much secrecy in the Bush White House.

Sally Bookwalter

Fairview Park, OH

The guy who writes Consortium is sometimes a bit over the top, but there's
more than a grain of truth in what he says. As opposed as I am to national
policies these days, I cannot say that all that is going wrong in this
country can be laid at the feet of only one party or one person--as the
article tends to infer. However, I do find it intriguing that the
information about the emails and Instant Messages was held back for quite
some time after leadership received it. I do suspect that the craving for
power is a progressive disease . . . .

Grace, Mercy and Peace,
JJ Bodine

I have never seen anything more hypocritical than the Republicans in this
Congress and White House. For eight long years they hounded President Clinton and his brilliant wife for peccadilloes that many of them were engaging in, only in more serious and life-ruining ways.
I think this should be shouted from the housetops and not allowed to die out for a long time to come. Serious infractions against moral and ethical conduct in Bush's background have never been called to proper attention of the people because of the sycophantic press and other factions and I think now, for the sake of the country, it is time to clean house. Thanks for your very informative communications.

MPM

This also reminds me of the scandal of the Catholic Priests who were protected for years over the molestation of the young boys & girls by the men who were also tagged as GAY when we both know that GAY is not the real deal here... there is a big difference between a molester of children & a gay person.

Gay people are either born gay and prefer the same sex.. they do not have sex with children. child-moslesters have sex with children .. which is a crime.

now the Republican party are acting like the Pope.. who just moves the guilty priests around from one church to another .. where they continue to molest.

now another question, why do they continue to blame booze as the reason they molest?   is it a safe house for them to hide?

Now with the newest school shooting it takes this crime off the air.........for how long?

long enough to have the American Goldfish to forget?   will the media elite allow this to happen?

did you ever see the film Conspiracy Theory? where the CIA picks up people and brainwashes them .. with a code word they instantly drop what they are doing and go out and kill... then even if they get caught .. they have know idea why they did it.. just some lame excuse .. like the guy that killed John Lennon or the guy that shot Reagan.. the list is endless for attempted assassinations .. or completed assassinations.

I am not paranoid.. but I do believe that these kind of things do happen.

the kind of press that this school today is getting we should be hearing about the pages in the GOP & the cover-up from the GOP .. it goes to the heart of the votes that were passed giving GWB a blank check for TORTURE .. I think if all this news broke before the VOTE .. those 12 democrats who crossed over just may have not done so if they knew this before hand.

Also if we do take over both houses in congress.. can we undo all of GWB's evil doings and take back his powers ? beginning with impeachment & would not leader of the Democratic party of the House become President ?

I think they were holding back the report of the Iraq info & the report of the pages along with other news that broke until after the BLANK CHECK FOR BUSH until the vote was done.. how bad are they?

chil

     --

Mr. Parry:

I keep thinking about Hitler’s disastrous Stalingrad campaign. Maybe time to remind folks of some history? It does seem like there are some comparison’s with Bush.

Oh, my heart aches.

B.G. Bandler
Jalisco, Mexico

"The big question, whether the American people will view Bush's 'world war
III' as a necessity or as a mad rush to destruction," is almost entirely a
matter in the hands of corporate mass news media, and we know where they
stand, and, coincidentally, they know where we stand, and that is, that
corporate media are confident we'll do nothing to rein in their treachery
and bias in favor of the adminstration, preferring to complain and gripe
about "spiineless democrats," etc.
jp

I keep hearing that the new torture law will make our troops less safe. Since Bush can pick up anyone, even citizens, and lock them away forever, couldn't any other country do the same with our citizens that happen to be traveling in their country? Shouldn't American tourists now be concerned that they might be detained by any country forever? What argument would we have that they be tried or released when we don't do it?

Gerald Westermann

Corona, CA

This is my first visit to your site. Thank you for keeping your archived stories available to the public.

I remember well the sick feeling I had on the day of Reagan's first inauguration, hearing about the release of the hostages. I knew they had to have done something devious to bring this about, and knowing that President Carter and Vice President Mondale were weeping in their limousine as they learned more about the release just killed something in me.

I was a journalism student back then and like nearly everyone else I knew, rabidly anti-Reagan. Listeneing to the pundits eulogize him during his state funeral made me wonder if we have developed amnesia. I worked for a television production company, McNeil-Lehrer-Gannett Productions (producers of the NewsHour on PBS) during his administration and what I recall is the Iran-Contra sleaze, and white, middle-class people being homeless.

I found your website and the story about the October Surprise and George H.W. Bush's role in it from Gerald Plessner's site, and I think I linked to his from Crooks and Liars. I've been checking on a few left-of-center/progressive websites that I read daily and I haven't seen this item picked up yet, but it would be political dynamite if there were a document a la The Smoking Gun that would confirm this story. Can you imagine the perp walk hysteria that would surround a former president being charged with treason? Can you imagine Ann Coulter's apoplectic face? Perhaps you'd rather not.

I, too, fear for this country because of the resurgence of the Imperial Presidency. I thought we stomped on that monster in August, 1974, but apparently I am wrong.

Thanks for doing what you do and I will send a comment to the Huffington Post about this event.

Ellen Rozsa

Stamford, Conn.

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