01/23/2008
Website Exposes Nearly 1000 Bush Administration Lies on Iraq
A new website from the Center for Public Integrity focusing on ethics in government and public policy as assembled thousands of pre-war statements on Iraq from Bush administration officials in a searchable database:
"Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith of the research center say their work has documented 'at least 935 false statements' on hundreds of occasions, particularly that Iraq had unconventional weapons, links to Al Qaeda, or both. The database shows how even after the invasion, when a consensus emerged that the prewar intelligence assessments were flawed, administration officials occasionally suggested that the weapons might still be found."
The NYT notes: "Muckrakers may find browsing the site reminiscent of what Richard M. Nixon used to dismissively call 'wallowing in Watergate.'"
Except that these days there appears to be no accountability.
Late last week, Tammy Baldwin, in a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial, called for impeachment proceedings to begin: "The abuses of this administration demand a formal response. Congressional oversight is a fundamental part of our constitutionally-proscribed system of checks and balances...I had hoped that Congress could begin to repair the damage that has been done to our democracy, our Constitution and our standing in the world, so that censure or impeachment could be averted. Unfortunately, this administration not only fails to accept responsibility for its misdeeds, but it also blocks attempts to right the wrongs and address the tragic consequences of those misdeeds. We have seen the American people's will thwarted by the exercise of veto power. We have seen subpoenas ignored. We have seen signing statements used to circumvent the law of the land...If we fail to take action to either impeach or repair the damage, then the next president will 'inherit' unchecked powers. Unchecked powers are unacceptable no matter who is president."
According to Counterpunch, nine of 23 members of the House Judiciary Committee now favor starting impeachment hearings.
(via think progress)
Sphere: Related ContentPosted 10:20 AM EST by Andy in Dick Cheney, George W. Bush, Iraq, News, Tammy Baldwin | Permalink
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I would love to see Bush impeached but at this point, by the time it inches it's way through the court system, he'll already be out of office and shopping for a place for his presidential library. But I say, Go for it anyway! Even if he gets impeached on his last day in office, it'll still be a glorious day!
Posted by: JJ | Jan 23, 2008 10:49:17 AM
JJ, I hear you, impeachment would be the best way to end this dimwits career, but, the Dem's are too cowardly to even try.
Posted by: Sebastian | Jan 23, 2008 10:59:11 AM
Andy, spare your readers the anti-Bush hysteria.
The Center for Public Integrity is a group of lefties funded by George Soros. Expecting them to be fair and honest where President Bush is concerned is like expecting water to be dry.
I know you're an angry, bitter left-winger, Andy, but there are some facts in the way of you fantasy.
Bush won the 2000 and 2004 elections fair and square.
Bush did not deliberately mislead the country into war with Iraq and then not plant the WMDs he was expecting to find.
The Dems will not impeach Bush. And after the Clinton impeachment debacle, the Repubs will never allow Bush to be removed.
Get used to these truths.
Posted by: David | Jan 23, 2008 11:22:51 AM
I know you're a deluded, arrogant right-winger, but there are some facts in the way of your fantasy: No one with any knowledge of the events in Florida in 2000 or Ohio in 2004 think that Bush won fair and square. And if you were less blinded by your foolish love for a criminal, you would actually read any of the neverending books on what happened before the war and discover that Bush and Cheney did deliberately mislead us.
Posted by: ted | Jan 23, 2008 11:58:50 AM
I gave up on all hope of this when Pelosi announced "Impeachment was off the table" shortly before being sworn in as Speaker of the House.
To me that just STUNK HIGH of Washington back-room politics. It's over, all we can look forward to is less than a year left to the Fucker-in-Chiefs reign.
I am truly depressed over the state of our nations politics. Back in the 1980's, we looked at Reagan as "The absolute worst Presiddent in our nations history!" Now he's looked at in a near-saintly glow. I just feel every president and the office has been consistently worse than the previous. I fear what will replace this idiot; when we look back at W as a great leader compared to what will then be sitting in office.
There was a movie with Luke Wilson (Str. to video) called "Idiocracy", where he plays a mediocre, under-achieving slacker accidentally frozen in time, to come out several centuries down the road as the most intelligent man on the planet. It is our future...
Posted by: Rad | Jan 23, 2008 11:59:51 AM
Oh David, please. Spare us your silly, deluded defense of Bush. No one who's been paying attention for the past 8 years has any doubt that the elections were, at best, fishy... and there's no question that Bush and his cronies manipulated and lied their way into the Iraq war. I agree with Republicans on lots of things, but these two issues are just not good talking points for the right. Better change the game plan.
But this silly attempt at impeachment, when Bush only has a little time left in office, is pathetic. You know I'd rather walk on my lips than criticize my congresslesbian (she represents my district), but this should have happened YEARS ago. Back then it would have been the right thing to do... now it just looks like a bunch of boomers surfing the zeitgeist.
Lame.
Posted by: Brian | Jan 23, 2008 12:08:23 PM
Impeachment is such weak tea. Especially at this date.
Let's wait till after January 2009. Then we can all demand that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Tenet, Woo, and Addington be tried for their many war crimes and, if convicted, executed. Torturers deserve nothing less.
Posted by: 24play | Jan 23, 2008 12:12:32 PM
You know David you fiscally irresponsible big government Republicans always make me chuckle. As if the same people like you whose reality is based on existing on a 6,000 year old earth understand truth is hilarious. Yeah, you people believe in truth all right, as long as your truth doesn’t consist of science and facts.
But I must say, it is nice that you’re here instead of planting bombs at women’s clinics.
Posted by: 1♥ | Jan 23, 2008 12:24:01 PM
Amen 24play. High Treason is punishable by execution.
Posted by: Tom | Jan 23, 2008 12:33:16 PM
SeaBass is funny. "Won the elections fair and square" Ha ha ha! He calls Andy an angry bitter left-winger when he is clearly a deluded, ignorant-of-the-facts, obviously blindfolded conservative. If Elizabeth Hasselbeck can see that light, you can too.
Posted by: FernLaPlante | Jan 23, 2008 12:57:17 PM
"Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
The Downing Street Memo, 23 July 2002.
Posted by: John C | Jan 23, 2008 1:17:20 PM
24play is right. They should all be sent to the Hague for trial, for crimes against humanity.
Posted by: Brian | Jan 23, 2008 1:34:10 PM
Whenever somebody makes a valid and factual point, the sad and bitter cheap-labor conservative right-wingers will often use the word "hysteria" to describe those who make such points.
This is considered a success when getting out your message.
That poor David sounds like a big mess.
Posted by: Rey | Jan 23, 2008 1:57:12 PM
Impeachment isn't too late: we need to restore faith in the constitution and our tri-partite system of government.
Posted by: David R. | Jan 23, 2008 2:07:41 PM
Impeachment or execution. Whatever. But SOMETHING needs to be done. Otherwise, what is the deterrent to avoid the same situation in the future with some other nutjobs.
Posted by: gay as life | Jan 23, 2008 2:31:49 PM
Ahh, but they can't be sent to the Hague because Bush has refused to let the US join the International Criminal Court---perhaps to save his own ass, knowing his crimes...
Posted by: Paul R | Jan 23, 2008 2:44:21 PM
Why doesn't someone in POWER/Politics come RIGHT OUT and ASK Nancy Pelosi...IF she or anyone else in the DNC is being BLACKMAILED ie: DOMESTIC SPYING by the GOP/BUSH/CHENEY? ..and this is WHY she TOOK Impeachment OFF the Table? WHY?
Posted by: Disgusted American | Jan 23, 2008 3:04:33 PM
24play, indeed this whole gang of war criminals should by tried at the Hague, and the ultimate penalty is entirely appropriate for the authors of aggressive war (the first count at Nuremberg), mass murder and torture. But how do we keep the liar-in-chief from pardoning all of them on his last day in office? (Can he pardon himself?)
Brian, you are lucky to live in lovely Madison and to have the courageous Tammy Baldwin as your representative. Don't knock her! I wrote to my congressman, a Democratic hack, a year ago setting out several articles of impeachment and did not even get the courtesy of a reply.
Impeachment is for "boomers surfing the zeitgeist?" Hardly. The archetypical boomers are the Clintons, smug Ivy League elitists who are about securing their own power, snookering the people with liberal platitudes as they sell them out. Their zeitgeist is "I've got mine, bud."
Posted by: Eric | Jan 23, 2008 10:21:48 PM