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Bush End Game
George W. Bush's presidency since 2007

Bush - Second Term
George W. Bush's presidency from 2005-06

Bush - First Term
George W. Bush's presidency, 2000-04

Who Is Bob Gates?
The secret world of Defense Secretary Gates

2004 Campaign
Bush Bests Kerry

Behind Colin Powell's Legend
Gauging Powell's reputation.

The 2000 Campaign
Recounting the controversial campaign.

Media Crisis
Is the national media a danger to democracy?

The Clinton Scandals
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
America's tainted historical record

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

International
From free trade to the Kosovo crisis.

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Editorials

Editor’s Note: Readers had comments on several of our recent stories, including the logic of impeaching both George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, John Conyers’s hesitation on impeachment,  and the hazards from Bush’s wooden-headedness:

Either both are citizens of the United States or not.  If they are, then they are bound by our laws and Constitution. Therefore, as public servants entrusted with protecting the Constitution (and us)................. they are outright criminal in their actions, behavior and in their thought processes.

Impeachment is the only solution and the Democrats must get this one right !!!  Or we as a nation are done.

Please forgive me, I was born under Hitler in Germany, have a daily reminder with the Swastika that I have on my Birth Certificate of the desparate state of affairs of Germany under a dictatorship -- and wish nothing like this would happen here --- but I need to remind everyone that we are more than two thirds there already. The grab for total control will come with the start of another illegal war in Iran................ and what are we as a people going to do??? Suck a..... to a bunch of looney bins? Or are we finally going to tell Nancy Pelosi to stop worrying about her career also???

Only we as a united people can prevent our country from going down the toilet completely. It is two minutes to midnight folks. Let's not miss the chance to put Bush and Cheney and his cohorts where they belong. In the jobless line (and perhaps in jail)......... my secret wish.

Karl Biniarz
Tualatin, OR

Veteran of the USAF at a time when we still gave a damn about what the rest of the world thought of us and our form of Democracy. 

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Republicans would impeach Bush on a dime, but not Cheney.  Therefore, if
Bush is impeached, Cheney gets the Bully Pulpit to campaign form.  No
conservative could lose, when they only need 40% of the vote, and the scam
artists take care of the rest.

How could democrats not know this and harp for impeachment.  Pelosi and
Conyers obviously know this.

Gary Novak
Science is Broken
www.nov55.com

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I am so disappointed in John Conyers.  By now I suppose I shouldn't be since Congress, particularly the House, has refused to begin impeachment proceedings.  Thank you, Ray, for taking Conyers on and not mincing words.  What will it take to wake up this Congress???

Malissa Haslam
Santa Fe, NM

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Thank you for your insightful articles.  Ray McGovern notes again that Conyers states impeachment is off the table.  Perhaps rather than being afraid of Fox News, etc, the power that Bush/Che ney has asserted is very attractive to the democrats.  Think of it this way, as an omnipotent president and congress virtually sidelined, this particular person can do anything.  If this is so, they are either on the same team as bush or unabashedly stupid to think that the election will just swing their way, unless it's of course, rigged (go back to same team theory). 

I can't imagine how you do this every day, I dream about it, worry about it and talk to people all of the time to spread the message.  Problem is, they're mostly thinking that I'm crazy (doesn't help that I'm in Michele Bahcmann's district).  Why?  Because the psyche in general can't handle the facts of this abuse, the psyche refuses to believe what it sees, therefore, suppresses the problem.  Who will help us? 

Janet O'Connell

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It seems like Congress' wariness of impeachment is for two reasons.  One is, as long as the Bush approval ratings keep falling, the better the re-election chances for anyone to the left of Bush.  By Nov '08, those to the left of Bush might include half the Republicans.

The second reason is, some in Congress seem to believe that an impeachment attempt resulting in failure to convict, could actually reduce the odds for ultimate success.

Maybe what they need to do is start racking up some high-profile successes which are more likely to work now, and in the process, get more of the valid reasons for impeachment out in the open to the general public.

One way to start might be what's known as Implied Contempt against Harriet Miers; where they don't have to depend on DOJ; it's all 'in House' so to speak.  The House Sergeant-at-Arms can arrest her, and they hold the entire trial in the House.  A good way to assert their co-equal branch authority.

Meanwhile, simultaneously start hearings investigating impeachment, and keep it in the news, with new revelations every day.  Also at the same time they could publicly announce the sending of weekly letters from the House to the Senate asking in so many words, if they're ready to get on board yet.  Have the delivery timed to interrupt any one of the Senate's long-winded speeches.

Chris Moore
[email protected]

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I ordered your book today. For the information and to help your website survive. I have been an avid reader for quite some time. Although I am not a particularly articulate person, I feel a passion to add what I feel, although it is hard for me to translate this passion into words. I write you often, and on some occasions you published my thoughts in your website, under "reader responses".

I was quite mystified about Sen. Reid’s response to Sen. Feingold`s attempt to censure the president and vice president and some other WH officials. Wouldn’t that process go a long way to satisfy those voters who voted for change in 2006. Is this the work of political handlers again.

As I ponder the events that have us to this juncture in history, there are some things about it all that just do not go away. At one time G.W. said he slept like a baby. I don`t know about him, but I lost many a nights sleep over a lot less problems than the one that beset him. Like, a volatile world, in which a war is going on in a literal tinder box of a region, where there is uncontrollable killing and destruction.

When I try to reason out what and who these people are, do they all sleep like babies at night. They all must have a big blanket of self justification to bolster their grandiose illusions of the righteousness of their agenda. Is it that the president and vice president believe their legacies will be justified in 30 or 40 years after we get Iraqi oil, and our everlasting presence in the region, will fulfill the agenda of the Neocons. 

One plus for them, but what about all the minuses, that have unfolded, with their continuous lies and political spin, bolstered by the money moguls who control the media outlets. Would not any one be alarmed by the minus of losing our civil liberties, the presidents newest statement on the rules of treatment of those they deem enemies of the state. We could go on and on about all the things that have went wrong with their agenda, but what has to make us really wonder is where will they take us in the next year or so.

We know how far they have went so far, but how far will they really go, with instant justification on all fronts, leveled as fair game to them.  Since 9/11, after they politicized it, enabeling them to drag the American public with them, into their sordid affair. Has anyone wondered whether they secretly rejoiced, on that dreadful day. After all, it was the catalyst for all they dreamed of.  Just conjecture mind you, but it will always pose a problem for me to reason out.

Does anyone wonder what a gallon of gas is really going to cost us in the end. So far, 475 billion of taxpayer money. Not counting the government subsidies, or they should really count them.  If they get what they went for, such as Iraqi oil, and the major oil companies divide their rights up there, will someone calculate by considering all, just how those enormous profits for the executives will save the world, all under the cloak of "National Security". Sweet deal.  Corporate greed has a history. Most of the players in this whole rotten agenda will leave with much more wealth then when they entered service to their country. What a mouthful that is. Their has been much written about some of them who have been involved in shady deals, using their government service and influence to enhance their own wealth.

So here we all stand, on the precipice of a possible final curtain for this republic, unless as you say, we can pull off a u-turn.

Thanks and good luck always,
Bill    

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You are exactly right that millions of Americans are outraged by the criminal behavior of this administration. Myself included!

It seems, though, that the congressmen and women cannot seem to get the message that was sent to them last November. Do we go through that again or is an uprising in order here?

I have called, written and e.mailed my Senator (Claire McCaskill) several times and she has voted correctly on many key issues. I have TRIED to contact Senator Bond with what seems to be absolutely no way to get to him. He has insulated himself from his constituents as well as from reality.

It would be really wonderful if someone who can articulate the message as well as you, could contact all the senators and congressional representatives with your message "The Logic of Impeachment".

In the meantime, I will continue to contact these people as often as I can.

Tom Belt
Livid in Liberty, Mo.

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Superb article from Ray McGovern. But there may be another 
explanation for Bush's obtuseness:

That the reason for taking us into a pointless war, which he had 
planned since the moment he entered the Oval Office, may very well be 
to have expanded presidential powers such as are bestowed only in 
wartime. That was Cheney's goal since he served in the Nixon 
administration; now was his chance to make it happen, and he had a 
spoiled rich kid (Bush) to do his bidding.

Thus, for him the mess in Iraq is not cause for concern -- to him, 
it's pure success. It keeps him untouchable.

CH

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many recovering addicts can not alter their positions out of fear of 
falling back into addictions..... in others words behave as the 
president does.

karl brussel
[email protected]

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I want to express my appreciation for today’s fine essay “If the Democrats want to win. .” as I have been mindful of the damage this President and the Fascist wing of the Republican Party have been doing for several years now. Never have I seen a more fearful and intimidated population.

Do you remember when Americans used to read something wacky in a newspaper or see a story on TV and laugh and comment: “Hey, it’s a free country!” Well, I haven’t heard that phrase for a long time now. The governing principles Bush has employed are so clearly intended to override the intentions of the Founders that I am shocked they have been carried so far with so little resistance.

The main attention of this administration has been on news management and the politics of intimidation—incarcerating record numbers of our citizens and thereby fostering the creation of a self enforced attitudinal “soft cage” and “the eye is on you and everywhere” fear mentality. You have not only eloquently expressed my own views, but I am sure those of millions of other Patriots as well.

The people who have been shoved to the side the last few years are the ones who truly share the Founder’s ideals. There is no more time for half measures or negotiated agreements, but only time to fully restore the full principles of the Constitution and rid ourselves of this odious man and his world destroying, death causing, policies and lies, by first beginning impeachment proceedings for both him and Vice President Cheney and then after removal them from office making sure these men are sent to war crimes trials in the Hague.

All the idealism in the world will only crumble for the future if we don’t take a stand now. Only by enforcing the principles of civilization and justice will we all survive. Thank you for so eloquently expressing the feelings and ideals of those who believe that our great republic needs emergency assistance.

Erik Strand

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When I received the message on my computer Unimpeachably Impeachable I was shocked you saying you were convinced those good old boys did some criminal things.
 
As far as I am concerned. President as well as the Vice president should have been impeached ./Remember when he{Bush] said the warning was not one of his priorities? Well let me give you my slant on it. As President a warning that possibly could effect 300 Million People and this was not one of his priorities? Of course when you are an American what is the life of a human being? The way I see this is like this. He Knew exactly how big a damage and loss of life would be plus he was looking for support for his Venture in Iraq. You see Ray I saw the war in all its fury. I was only a young lad at that time. When I see the people here and how they look at war I get sick. The biggest kick I get when I hear them say I saw it on television. Ray I hope the  American people wake up. If not they will have a rude awakening. The way this is going is only the beginning. If the gremlins do not watch it. By the end of the year World War three could be in full swing.

Consortium News is doing a fairly good job but does not hit the people hard enough between the eyes the need to wake up. The majority has no clue of what is going on. I sort of make it my hobby and talk to as many people as possibly.

I do not get any of my news from. Hardly any Radio. No T.V. All I get is from Europe. What I like the most it is true News not Garbage.

J.P.A.M.

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