This is the beginning. All we have been asking are answers. Then due to stonewalling and distaine, we are now going to get answers with supeona sp. power.

Hey, wasn't that Badgad Bob McDermott sitting alongside Conyers? ONe of the Democrats biggest Saddam supporters?

And Fidel's favorite American whore, Maxine Waters was right there in front also!

Never saw such a bunch of losers in my life in such a small room.

Was Joe Wilson sober? That's surprising. You know he has a REAL drinking problem and when he is drunk he starts bragging about his TROPHY wife that works for the CIA. Oppps, you suppose I let the cat out of the bag..........or did JOE WILSON WHEN HE WAS DRUNK and BRAGGING!

That was it? 30 people in a tiny little basement hole with people crammed together at little linen covered desks?

That was IT???

I hear Conyers and Durbin are RELATED!

America HATES Durbin today. Tomorrow they will HATE CONYERS!

What total FOOLS!

Wasn't that Badgad Bob McDermitt sitting by Conyers along with Fidel Maxine Waters?

What a total JOKE!

Better luck next time!

who wants to bet the Bush administration puts the petition in the WPB file(waste paper basket file)?

Brian: not until they start calling the so called "signers" on the so called "petition" to see if they really put their name on it or it was all forged!

I know my name is on it and I NEVER AUTHORIZED IT!

So this list is as phony as a $3 bill!

Great Job True Patriots! And Bradblog for being first to post, heard it on Mike Malloy. The truth will bear out....

Jimmo,

Six members of the D.C. chapter of Freerepublic.com held a small counter-protest in support of Bush's policies.

Where were you? They sure needed another person for their teensy-weensy protest for bush.

Shame on you, you slackard.

Thank you for posting this so soon. Thanks to Congressman Conyers, the 105 representatives who signed, and all of the REAL Americans who signed! It's really sad that so many others are TOTALLY uninformed to what is happening to our Country. Then, there are those who are in formed but fail to accept the truth and choose to remain ignorant.

THE UNDER ASSISTANT MIDDLE EASTERN INTELLIGENCE MAN

original lyrics by bdpoe

With stars in his eyes and stripes on his sleeves
Talking of things that you wouldn't believe
They got stockpiles over there said he speaking with care
We've got to strike fast
We'd better beware
But I talked to the inspector who found nothing there
With orders from above the truth he hides when he can
The Under Assistant Middle Eastern Intelligence Man

We were so surprised to find out we'd been conned
When it was our bombs being dropped hours before dawn
It was done on purpose to insure the peace
Who was it that appointed us the world's police
At the table over lunch he looked so fit and tanned
The Under Assistant Middle Eastern Intelligence Man

One day he took me on a grand tour
showing me things I don't want to see no more.
The naked pyramids
The dog and pony show
Unspeakable things I'd rather not know
Who is this Houdini that escapes from every trap
Secretly plotting the next target on some crumbled soiled map
Don't be deceived I'm not even his fan
The Under Assistant Middle Eastern Intelligence Man

Things have changed since the first official story
Creating false victories for greed's greater glory
Even the opposition bought into the game
Still we can't get away from the Kennedy claim
While families suffer in pain as soldiers get killed and maimed
Who forced us to revisit the past in Vietnam
The Under Assistant Middle Eastern Intelligence Man

Brad - My apologies if we're not supposed to post lyrics, and I understand if you want to remove them.

I was just looking for something else and stumbled across these lyrics.

***

When I did a google news search on "Downing Street Memo" a week or so ago, I think I got like a half dozen hits.

Now, on the "front page" of google news, there is a link to 344 related stories. It's like the dam has broken. And for certain people in the White House, it can only go down from here.

Damn it feels good to be part of "6 or 7" who helped changed history. We're obviously not done yet, but we turned it around y'all! Be loud and be proud!

Anybody besides me mentally exhausted after today?

I don't think we will ever know the truth. Point is whenever King George is attacked he attacks the attacker. I would not be suprised to see the muck come up on conyers et al. It can't be true that 1/2 million Americans don't believe the president. Brings back the words of another GOP president "I am not a liar".
Ed

jimmo, what makes you think the names are forged by Rep Conyers? Thats libel.Lets see you prove it.

I'm testing some html for the first time.....
Jimmo, buddy do you know what this is?
WTC 7 Demolition 09/11/2001

Check out the New York Times Headline:

Antiwar Group Says Leaked British Memo Shows Bush Misled Public on His War Plans

"Antiwar Group"?

"Antiwar Group"??!!!

120 congressmen and over 500,000 people sign a petition and they label this a story about an "anti-war" group.

What's more, Bush didn't just mislead the public --- he mislead CONGRESS about war.

Okay, I'm not and the 6 or 7 others are not satisfied hand delivering 640,000 or 10,000,000 signatures to the Bush house on Pennsylvania Ave. I'm not even satisfied with 105 or 250 Congressmen delivering on the letter.

Okay, sorry..., Congressman Conyers, He is truly the tops. I was never prouder to be a Democrat, to stand, or to watch CSpan while he led the beginning charge on the Bush monstrosity. He is so awesome... So, everyone, get some rest, take a deep breath and hold on. The American Revolution was begun right there in that crowded little room.

Now! I am just so disgusted with the delivery process of those petitions and the obvious contempt that the Bushies have for every single signature on them.

Isn't it about time that 1700 lawsuits be filed directly against the commander in chief declaring deception and misdeeds in luring their children into harms way in an illegally declared war. No, not a class action, but 1700 individual lawsuits, 1700 wrongful death charges filed against Bush and company. Oh wait, I forgot to include the other 10,000 or more that were injured through deception. Oh, wait, maybe the families of the 100,000 Iraquis that have been killed need to have a few good lawyers filing lawsuits against the monster regime.

I mean, they created a war based on false premises, and the Downing Street Memos show it, and they don't even bother to deny it! It's time to take them to the cleaners. Don't you think so? Time to hit them with something that puts them up against the wall.

Onward Congressman Conyers! Onward Brad and the 6 or 7 of "we the people". You are American Heroes!
Gh

Jimmo, All you do is insult people you don't agree with. Try going for a run maybe. It might just be a matter of being inside too long looking at a computer screen to rant at and not getting enough exercise.

Actually,

I think Jimmo is some idiot's 14 y.o. - home skooled - couldn't - get - out - of - Kindergarten - if they - gave - him - the - answers - to - the - test idiot son.

It's been a hard (maybe hard is the wrong word) year for Jimmo:

First, Michael Jackson was acquitted, which has ruined the fantasy that Jimmo had nurtured since puberty. And now Americans are finally realizing that this administration is corrupt. I don't know how the strange perversions of the Republican mind work, but I've seen Blue Velvet. I'm sure that it also involves Jeff Gannon, the College Republicans, and pleading rationalizations to an angry wife about how you were taking a dump but fell on a football trophy. It starts with a tingling feeling during the Rush Limbaugh show and ends with homophobic denunciations of gay sponges.
-----------------------

It's not over, but there is a horizon to this Republican nightmare. It's time for the neocons to scatter like roaches, just like they did in Vietnam. And we need to keep on marching.

THANK YOU! THANK YOU!

I ALMOST FEEL AMERICAN AGAIN.

Wow! Those were beautiful pics. These people are real Americans. I am actually in tears looking at them. A sense of relief, like maybe, just maybe, this really is it this tme. Look at how many stacks of signatures. There's my name...right there in Conyers hand.

I'm sick that they had to remain outside the gates...was Bush taking a nap? No interrupting as he bike rides? What a frickin punk coward the lot of these people are.

Here's what I'd LOVE to see, ALL the reporters just asking Scottie a gadzillion questions one day, all about the DSM, in various fashion, details, just to make him run from his "pulpit" and cry...make him crazy. Nothing but the DSM, all day press briefing...squeeze that punk like the poison pimple he is...

Baghdad Bob? LOL it's Baghdad Bush. I can see him now..."the economy is good" as you see people in the background lined up at the employment office, cars being towed as repossessed as people can no longer pay for them.

""The insurgency is in its very last last last thros." In the background you see car bombs going off, babies lying dead, numbers of military coffins stacking up past 1700.

"We have carried on this war with the utmost respect to the Iraqi people. We have kept civillian casualties as low as humanly possible" In the background you see bombs marked "napalm- Fallujha Freedom"

"no one in the white house is gay" In the background you see JimmyJeff showing Scottie how to bark and the meaning of beg." I believe that's an 8" leash he's got him on.

"Climate change is something we don't know about and even though I said this same thing 4 years ago, we need to study it some more to make sure" Zipping his parka up on a fine July afternoon.

ok, I could really go on and on and on.

now how would you know that your name is on the list? Me thinks that you put your name on the list so that you could say it wasn't authorized so it negates the whole thing? Lol. I don't think so.. Look at the stacks again. Ok, now lets take your name off. Now look at the stacks again. You don't matter.

THE DAM HAS BROKEN AND THE BUSHIES WON'T SURVIVE THE FLOOD. Impeachment, Impeachment na na na na na na. I don't care what fundies say...coz I know we have won. It;s all over but the counting and we'll take care of that. lol

JIMMO u the guy who runs freeperville eh? Make sure you read my post about Baghdad Bush and you should know that perhaps some fundies hate Durbin but the world hates Shrubco now and they will hate Shrubco tomorrow and even better is that the other half of America that don't already hate shrubco will hate shrubco very very soon. I should say third instead of half. Have you seen those polls. Whew!

Of course they will put it in the trash. But we have copies. Lots of copies. (at least a half a million) *so it won't do them any good to try to break in and steal the tapes. :laugh:

you hear that Jimmo? Oh and thanks earlier to admitting that you added your name fruadulently intending to try to discredit a govt. document. How else would you know your name is on there.? Did you flip through the pages as Conyers was carrying them to coocoobananas? See your name on it then did ya? DOH!

I attended a protest this evening in my home state of California. It was in support of investigating and getting answers on the DSM. Had a great time with my fellow patriots. We met in front of KTLA on Sunset Bl in Los Angeles and we walked on up to CBS. But I seriously doubt you'll see any of us who were there on MSM. But it was great to get out and do something. I made a sign that said "MEMO-rize This: "We The People". It was my first protest but it won't be my last... Like one of the themes Brad uses, "Making Democracy Fun Again"...

Here's the questions I'd like to see the MSM asking Bush and his Scottie over and over again until they provide real answers, starting tomorrow:
1) Do you or anyone in your administration dispute the accuracy of the leaked document?
2) Were arrangements being made, including the recruitment of allies, before you sought Congressional authorization to go to war? Did you or anyone in your Administration obtain Britain's commitment to invade prior to this time?
3) Was there an effort to create an ultimatum about weapons inspectors in order to help with the justification for the war as the minutes indicate?
4) At what point in time did you and Prime Minister Blair first agree it was necessary to invade Iraq?
5) Was there a coordinated effort with the U.S. intelligence community and/or British officials to "fix" the intelligence and facts around the policy as the leaked document states?

This is the first time that I have felt even rmotely commected to the policy making process. I am indeed proud to have my name on the list that was delivered to the White House today. This bunch of spoiled bullie chicken hawks that are residing in our capitol are a step closer to being diganosed as certifiable meglamainics and marched out of our Capital in straight jackets and locked away in Super Max never to see the light of day again! Keep on keeping the pressure on! Write the NY Times about their headline...Anti War Group???

This Link is just amusing. PLEASE everyone check it out.

MSNBC POLL

Did we, the 6 or 7 vote? I think Jimmo needs to vote an even it up.

Kira thanks made my day.

Jimmo?... Jimmo?..... Hello?
:::Thump:::Thump:::
Is this thing on?

I think scotty beamed him up

Jimmo sounds desperate.

The momentum is building, and it won't stop.
Jimmo, get out of the way of our righteous anger.
We are going to steam roll over the neocons.
Get on board, or get under the steam roller.

Re: Jimmo - Hey y'all, don't feed the lil troll fella, please? He's already said on other threads that he, too, signed Conyers petition, he's just bored and trying to stir things up in here.

Mean Liberal #17 - Careful with those stereotypes. I know your intent was to target the troll, but there are others in here who homeschool, for various reasons - especially since the NCLB mandates kicked in and money was pulled from resources for academically gifted students. I won't bore you with personal experiences, but trust me, I did what was best for my child.

****

I've been an activist since I signed my first petition in elementary school ( to have the afternoon bathroom break lengthened by five minutes, and yes, we got it . It's hard to be patient, especially when the wheels don't seem to be turning at all, but if you really want changes, you have to dig in and be prepared to stick it out - for YEARS, if that's how long it takes.

Sometimes things happen immediately, sometimes they take years - my longest fight, to stop clearcut logging in the National Forest where my ancestors are buried, took over 20 years - but we won (and got some bad guys taken down in the process).

Sometimes activism produces very strange allies (one of the most recent battles in my home state was the Lottery Scholarship Equity Bill, where we had fundamentalists fighting alongside pagans and atheists to make score requirements equal for all - and yes, it took a couple of years, but we won that one too)

Sometimes we win, sometimes we lose - but being silent is not an option. Passive acceptance of a wrong is NOT AN OPTION.

Have courage, and gather your strength - there is still much to be done.

Yes, the petitions will probably be thrown in the trash - but it won't matter, the image is burned into the eyes and hearts of those who witnessed it. I'm pretty sure the letters and faxes we send are tossed there too, and the emails are deleted - but with every signature, we indicate intent - WE ARE NOT GOING AWAY! Those cameras kept rolling, and the images they recorded are being broadcast worldwide. The bell can not be unrung.

Our fight was to get this into the public eye, and we have succeeded - in a HUGE way.

By our actions, we have changed the future, not just of our country, but of the WORLD. We have made a difference!

And hell YES it feels good!

The White House is in it's "last throes" of hypocracy

Come gather round people wherever you roam
And admit that the waters around you have grown
And accept it that soon you'll be drenched to the bone
If your time to you is worth saving
Then you'd better start swimming or you'll sink like a stone
For the times, they are a changing

Comment 2 by Jimmo Hi Jimmo you little baby boy you. Are you still sucking your wittle thumb. You such a good little Neo Con Here boy here boy.

Its HUMMER drivers like you that try to make their penis bigger by doing things like OING TO NASCAR, VOTING W, USE RACIAL SLURS AT THE DINNER TABLE, BEAT YOUR WIFE BECAUSE YOUR DADDY BEAT YOU. YOUR NOT A MAN. Your weak.

Let me tell you who the men are. The guys & gals you send to Iraq who die and die again while you go to Blockbuster and rent Platoon movies because you have no courage to go their on your own. So while you beat your war drum with your sissy friends, remember that.

You are very pathetic. McDermott has more character in his ass then you will have in your whole life achievment.

You people are disgusting. I mean, look back and read your comments.

Hey Jimmo, you say your name is on the petition. Just what is it and where do you live? A few of my buddies here, just returned from Iraq and said they would love to meet you in person. Of course, a sniveling coward like you would never divulge your real name or that safe little hiding place behind your computer.

I wouldn't disclose my name and location on a site with frieks like this either.

We already know your name and location. Freieks? Ya gotta get closer than that you freak. :laugh:

Hey is there anyone available who can videotape events such as this? Or who IS videotaping events such as the hearing, and presentation of petition? I think it would be to (everyone's) advantage to make an effort to videotape the reams of testimony, index it, then upload it to internet archive. Stick a creative commons or public domain license on it, and people making documentaries on the Bush administration will have a greater pool of ammunition. Thou the testimony was aired on CSPAN3, that's not nearly as useful as having bonna-fide public domain footage. CSPAN3 owns the copyright on that footage. We need footage taken with independent video cameras.
...
If anyone living in Washington has any DV or Digital8 tapes (or any format), and wants the footage put up on Internet Archive, I'm up to the task. If you want to see an example...
http://www.archive.org/d...Last-Chance-911-Timeline
...of course it contains copyrighted footage, so its not exactly what I'm talking about, but the quality and verstility of the footage is. I uploaded a huge 2.8GB MPEG-2 file (and smaller, easier to download files too) because that is what a video editor looking to recycle footage will be looking for.
...
I'm not presently interested in making a documentary about Bush administration, but I AM interested in helping others who are. If anyone has any video footage they want shared, please contact me, I'll make sure it gets put up on Internet Archive as quickly as possible, in as high-quality a format as possible.
...
I'm not just talking about these hearings, and stuff in the past. If you have a video camera, are able to tape an upcoming event, please do so. I imagine there must be tons of peole with video cameras at these functions, but for some reason the footage is not being shared effectively.
-g

Let's see,
Bush responds to the memo and lies - he compounds the lies he to to the congress and the people of the U.S.
Bush ignores the memos - more impetus for investigation.
Bush responds to the memo and tells the truth - he admits he lied to congress and the people of the U.S.

Seems any way you look at it, this criminal is going to pay for his crimes.

Hey jimmo/Hank, so much for this going away last week. lol, you must be so pissed. Goodnight to you!!

I live close enough to DC. I did not get to make it down there yesterday, but I recommend keeping your eyes on Indy Media (Independent Media) site for DC for pictures and videos.

INDY MEDIA (US)

And DC INDY MEDIA

I wonder if Rep. Conyers had used the name "Jeff Gannon," would he have been allowed in?

The picture of these brave, honorable people standing at a gate sickens me.

It shows those within the White House to be shameless and ill-bred cowards.

Maybe Congressman Conyers should have had a porn star or male hooker deliver our message in the future. They seem to have easy access to the White House these days.

Comment #3 by JIMMO: What about the 566,000 signatures you didn't mention? By the way, my inside sources informed me that "JIMMO" is Jim Sensenbrenner.

Take your gavel, and go home.

JPENTZ,

The clips on indymedia are typically WMV or MOV and small. Defenitely, there ARE people interested in video taping these events and sharing the footage.

But the small clips being uploaded simply aren't suitable for anyone trying to make a broadcast quality or DVD quality documentary. They're fine for anyone hooked up to net who wants to check out what happened. But the footage isn't suitable for recycling into other projects.

Possibly Indy Media wouldn't be keen on hosting GB size files. But IA is willing to. No reason the smaller clips can't be on both IM and IA. I sure ain't dissing Indy Media.

I'm hoping to help anyone who is uploading the smaller clips, but hasn't uploaded larger, recyclable footage files due to bandwidth restrictions, or maybe not knowing how to do it.

Today is the 1st day I'm making this reqest. I'll go make it again on Indy Media and Internet Archive.
-g

We all must realize the difference between factual news, and unfactual balance to the news, which is where the MSM fails. Covering Conyers, is covering an event, a factual event. Covering a rightwing pundit smearing Conyers, is unfactual news. It's covering a what some guy is saying about a factual event. And the MSM doesn't point out what's facts and what's non factual news. The MSM covers Bush saying there were over 200 convictions from Gitanimo Bay. This is false, you had to go to Jon Stewart's Daily Show News, to hear a news show point out that statement was false. MSM has got to start pointing out to viewers when people they cover in the news make false statements. Did any MSM news point out, after Bush's statement, that is was false? Because they didn't, people think it's true. That's how important it is for the MSM to start pointing out when people they are giving a forum to, are lying. Is it a lie, that Conyers is marching to the White House with 566,000 signatures? No. This is covering a factual event. When the MSM starts parading rightwing pundits on the news, smearing Conyers, this is not news. It's giving a forum to some guy giving false opinions about a factual event.

The biographer for Dubya has written that when he spoke to Governor Bush that George said he wanted to invade Iraq and he would use the political capital from being a Commander in Chief during war in order to pass all his legislation.

When Bush was a candidate for president he said during a primary debate that if he was given the chance he'd invade Iraq and take out Saddam.

Treasury Secretary O'Neal said that as early as his first meeting with Bush (and the cabinet) that Iraq was 'on the table'.

Apparently the former British ambassador to the U.S. has written his memoirs and is saying that during a dinner in Washington about 10 days after the 9/11 attacks that Bush told Blair, (paraphrasing) "In a few weeks we're going into Afghanistan, but that won't last long and after that we're going into Iraq. Are you with us?" He wrote that Blair was flummoxed, but said, "Yes." Was that the first time Bush semi-publicly told anyone we were going into Iraq?

When was the decision first made?

What gave Bush the idea that he could fulfill his wish to go into Iraq with public support?

It seems 9/11 was part of that, but who assisted him in deciding it would be doable?

Was it Condi Rice who said, (again paraphrasing) "We can take advantage of this (9/11) and see it as an opportunity."

Was there not anyone in the White House or Pentagon or elsewhere in the government who said, "No!"?

There are many questions which need to be answered. If the Republicans in Congress won't ask them then the public will just have to replace those congressmen and let Democrats take charge, so we can get on with the nation's business --- asking questions and kickin' butt.

The Real America has Spoken!!!!! The Honorable John Conyers is the oldest representative. Why wouldn't they let HIM in the gates to the White House? Why didn't Dubya accept the petition and signatures from him personally-as a show of good intentions? Betcha he was probably peeping from behind one of the curtains..hahahahaha...

Lest not you forget Dubya..you will one day be an ordinary citizen again...will you go into permanent seclusion?

The American People pay the bills and the salaries---I say we not pay the electric, water, gas or phone bill and garnish Dubya's pay. He will have to concede to talk or head back to Crawford.

I watched the forum and a short video of what Colin Powell and Condi Rice said prior to the Iraqi war was shown. But , I remember during the second election campaign, Cheney said" If John Kerry is elected, we WILL be hit AGAIN." How arrogant of Cheney.

Well, Dubya was re-selected and not another attack..hmmmmmmmm...I got it! Attacks are planned around who is the President..DUH..think about it.

Wonder if that really would have happened if Kerry had won? Would it be our fault or Kerry's fault for being elected or would Cheney be credited for the prediction?

Yes, Gord I know. However, sometimes longer videos do make it on to the site. IF there is a longer video, which there is I am certain, a link to it could appear on Indy Media.

That, Brad Blog and the others are all we have and that is growing. IF a video exists, it would take some effort to scour blogs and indy media to find it. And I am certain one will surface, like one did of George Galloway. It takes effort to find video, but the grapevine grows and, I personally am willing to make the effort, not saying that anyone else isn't.

First of all, there's no way Bush would've lost, with his backers at DIEBOLD. Exit polls showed Kerry won the popular vote by 5 million, and the final count was 3 million. If you buy the MSM's reasoning, there was an 8 million vote swing towards Bush, because the exit pollers, for the first time in history, polled too many voters for one candidate. They did that in the Ukraine, too. I'm being sarcastic, in case you don't realize. The MSM covered the Ukraine exit polls being off, 24×7, and didn't cover their own United States exit polls being off by so much. They also didn't cover the fact that all discrepancies on computerized voting machines and computerized optical scanners went 100% towards Bush, which college professors of statistics have said is 250,000,000-to-1 likelihood. IE, the vote was hacked, and Bush won before the votes were counted. The MSM said the exit polls and college professors of statistics were wrong. Here's why I don't like Kerry: do you remember how quickly he conceded? Then faded into oblivion. I think all we saw less than 24 hours after after he lost (I use the term "lost" loosely), was his ass and elbows running at full speed away from us. Only the Green Party and David Cobb brought up vote tampering. Not John Edwards, either. But, when all is said and done, it'll be poetic justice if Bush gets impeached.

There is a man in my family who Mr. Conyers reminds me of. He is the finest man I have EVER known. He is my wife's grandfather. I respect this man more than my own father, and the reason is simply that he has integrity. He happens to be a republican in his politics but has no room for Bush and his kind. He is a veteran of the second world war. He understands sacrificing for his country. He understands what he fought for. He is a lifelong conservative who voted for John Kerry as a matter of principal and because he saw that Bush is a liar. He has not told me these things directly because he is not one to carry his beliefs on his sleeve. He simply lives his life on principal and conducts himself accordingly. I learned this from my mother in law, who is also a republican who voted for John Kerry as well.

Sorry for this detour about my adopted grandfather but I needed to find a way to express how I feel about Mr. Conyers. In my mind he exemplifies what it means to be an American. He is fair. He speaks quietly and respectfully, but with great integrity and forcefullness. His loyalty is to the Constitution and the country. He is determined and unbowed in the face of repeated attacks on him, and he is tenacious. We are all fortunate that this man is with us at this time in our history

Peace

Sometime when history is written I hope that men like Conyers gets remembered for being true to our nation and standing up when popular opinion is against him.

Cheers for the underdog, keep on sloggin' I wont quit either.

If there is one man in the USA that deserves the Congressional Medal of Honor it is Mr. Conyers. And as far as this lunkhead Jimmy is concerened what he needs is a qick trip down to the local recruiting office. But then I'm not so sure they take physically deformed recruits. Any one know if NO BALLS AT ALL keeps you out?

I think George W. is going to find out that using "GOD" for a sales pitch to justify war and bankrupt this country was a bad idea.

"If Kerry had won" we'd have been hit again? Who was president on 9/11?

Has Cheney been right about anything? Yes...once, except he was Secretary of Defense at the time, under Bush pere. He told him, "Don't get bogged down in Iraq."

If I had the bad fortune to live in a place like Kansas or Pennsylvania where religious fundamentalists had taken over the local school board, I would home school, too. If I couldn't fight it, or move.

The pictures Rep Conyer and others at the White House gate make me happy. They also piss me off. Who is the 17 year old dweeb in a suit sent to greet the him?
This insult and the broom closet sized room for the hearing will backfire big time. Eventually.

First of all, thanks Brad for posting the pics & news. To bad the jerk at the gate was such a rude moron, but what else should we expect from a Bushevik lackey.

Second...this is for jimmo...I SIGNED THE PETITION AND GAVE MY PERMISSION!!!
Just because it wasn't a repuke idea doesn't mean it isn't real. You must be one of those Kos calls a 101st Keyboardists. If you love this war so much, why don't you go and let someone come who doesn't want to be there!

Thanks Brad and all who put so much work into this blog.
This is like an island of sanity, in a sea of ignorance--can't remember where I read this.
Sappy as hell, but oh well.

Behind the Downing Street Memos: the Office of Special Plans

by Justin Raimondo

'Yes, a good deal of this is "old news" – but the Israeli connection is new. And if, as there's ample reason to believe, it can be shown that the Israelis fed us (via Chalabi and the Office of Special Plans) a stream of lies to rationalize a war to save their asses, the growing scandal that they were stealing our secrets blind and selling weapons to China all along may well provide the tipping point in the public's attitude toward the war – and toward our "special relationship" with Israel.

The key, once again, is focusing, not on the lies themselves – most of us can repeat them in our sleep – but on who told them and the crimes they committed in the telling. When the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence looked into the intelligence-gathering that preceded the war, the Office of Special Plans and other obscure neocon-controlled governmental bodies were declared "off limits" to the first phase of the investigation – and then "Phase II" was indefinitely postponed. '
http://antiwar.com/justin/

Buckshot, don't make us all laugh. You represent the kind of fascism we're trying to get rid of in this country. The entire war was an illegal, unmoral mass murder disaster. Anyone who fully goes along with it needs to be out there shooting Syrians, Iranians and Iraqis as we speak- Not here in the United States of America.

Now get out there and stop projecting your hate on the rest of us. The truth of the matter is these people are criminals, and must be held responsible once and for all to the rule of justice. I am a long time republican and recognize this is not about party loyalty. No, it is about right and wrong. What Bush, his band of cult christians and the PNAC, CNP groups did is unquestionably and unequivocably wrong. What America did was right in calling them out on what it was: Lies to the world about going to war. Lies about saving everyone from terror. Lies about protecting everybody through "destroying their privacy" in the Patriot Act.

It's time for you to wake up and stop following the lies, or get out of the way. We don't need anymore liars, we need the truth. The truth will set us free.

Ronald Price

Baltimore Sun
Damning evidence can't be ignored

By David Swanson and Jonathan Schwarz
Originally published June 15, 2005

SINCE ITS publication May 1 by The Sunday Times of London, the so-called Downing Street memo has dominated the media in Britain and on the Internet in the United States. The memo is the official minutes from a secret meeting about Iraq held by British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his inner circle July 23, 2002.

The significance of the memo - and additional leaked British documents now surfacing in public view - can hardly be overstated. They conceivably could lead to impeachment proceedings against President Bush.

The Bush administration consistently has made two claims regarding its decision to invade Iraq:

Mr. Bush chose war only as a last resort.

Mr. Bush dealt honestly with intelligence about weapons of mass destruction and alleged Iraqi ties to al-Qaida.

The Downing Street memo contradicts these claims.

Here are some of the key words in the memo, written three months before Mr. Bush received congressional authorization for war, four months before U.N. Resolution 1441 held Iraq in "material breach" of disarmament obligations and eight months before the invasion in March 2003:

"[British intelligence chief Richard Dearlove] reported on his recent talks in Washington. ... Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam [Hussein], through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. ... It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbors, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran."

Other internal British memos from March 2002 and July 2002 reveal British officials discussing Mr. Blair's agreement with Mr. Bush to support an invasion of Iraq and Mr. Blair's insistence that Mr. Bush make a public show of going to the United Nations in order to - as the British ambassador to Washington, Christopher Meyer, put it - "wrongfoot Saddam on inspectors" to create a pretext for war.

The British privately scoffed at the frightening claims made by the Bush administration. In a memo to Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in March 2002, Peter Ricketts, the political director of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, said: "US scrambling to establish a link" between Iraq and al-Qaida "is so far frankly unconvincing."

Anyone who follows the news will not be surprised. A long list of whistleblowers, including former Treasury Secretary Paul H. O'Neill and former National Security Council official Richard Clarke, have reported that the Bush administration was obsessed with regime change in Iraq from Day One and regarded 9/11 as an opportunity to put its plans into action. Removing Mr. Hussein was in the 2000 Republican Party platform. Bush administration misuse of intelligence has been well documented.

But the Downing Street minutes and other recently leaked documents illustrate that the intelligence was wrong by design. The documents show officials at the apex of the government of our closest ally confirming among themselves what were the darkest suspicions about the Iraq war among ordinary Americans.

The evidence suggests that Mr. Bush has lied to Congress and to the American people about the justifications for war. It includes a formal letter and report that he submitted to Congress within 48 hours of launching the invasion in which he explained the need for the war in terms that appear to have been intentionally falsified, not mistaken.

Lying to Congress is a felony. Either lying to Congress about the need to go to war is a high crime, or nothing is.

AfterDowningStreet.org, a coalition of veterans groups, peace groups and other activist organizations, is urging Congress to introduce a Resolution of Inquiry that would require the House Judiciary Committee to hold formal investigations with the power of subpoena. The result would be a determination as to whether the president has committed impeachable offenses.

Democratic Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey of New York, a member of the House Appropriations Committee, said Monday, "I think a Resolution of Inquiry is completely appropriate at this stage. It's something that should be done."

Rep. John Conyers Jr. of Michigan, the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, has not expressed support for a Resolution of Inquiry. But he has asked Mr. Bush in a letter to respond to questions raised by the Downing Street memo. At least 90 members of Congress and about 500,000 U.S. citizens have signed the letter. Mr. Conyers plans to deliver it to the White House tomorrow.

He also plans to hold hearings about the memo tomorrow and participate in a rally in front of the White House.

David Swanson is co-founder of AfterDowning- Street.org, and Jonathan Schwarz is a consultant for the group.

The British media are more confrontational than American media, to put it mildly. At the same time, England's laws have always maintained a lower threshold for libelous statements. If the Downing Street minutes weren't accurate, the writer (and any newspaper taking up the cause) would have been susceptible to libel charges.

The minutes must have been accurate, because they played a major role in the election campaign and cost Blair seats in Parliament. And nobody is crying foul or suing for libel.

So we're left with the imbecilic Scott McClellan saying John Conyers' petition, and the half-million signatures on it, don't count because Conyers opposed the war (sic) all along. According to that logic, unless Tom DeLay or Rick Santorum opposes Bush's policies, any opposition isn't meaningful.

Good news...the way the polls are going, those might be the only two supporters Bush will have left in a few months.

To comment #5:

TALK IS CHEAP; PROVE YOU'RE ON THE PETITION

To JIMMO:

First they laugh at you, then they discredit you, then they fight you, then they lose.

New to me is that Associated Press claims they sort of discovered the remaining 4 memos and also links to them: Sorry, I don't know how to make links

http://news.yahoo.com/ne..._eu/downing_street_memos

http://hosted.ap.org/spe...owdoc/fcolegal020308.pdf

http://hosted.ap.org/spe...dowdoc/manning020314.pdf

http://hosted.ap.org/spe...s/dowdoc/meyer020318.pdf

http://hosted.ap.org/spe...als/dowdoc/ods020308.pdf

http://hosted.ap.org/spe...owdoc/ricketts020322.pdf

http://hosted.ap.org/spe...s/dowdoc/straw020325.pdf

“It’s A Slam Dunk” Debunked
By JOHN F. YOUMANS

Former CIA Director George Tenet’s promise of a “slam dunk” in providing the intelligence required to justify the war with Iraq was not only a pack of intentional lies and misrepresentations, it was also taken out of context.

So what did Tenet really mean when he told President Bush, “It’s a slam dunk?” We were mislead to believe that Tenet was saying he could produce accurate, reliable, hard intelligence and that it would be a “slam dunk” to present and prove it.

The part we didn’t hear, and it is important to understand, is what Bush said to Tenet prior to that statement. Tenet had already briefed Bush on the intelligence he had. It was weak, unreliable and frequently only substantiated by one source. The president was “unimpressed” by the presentation and pressed Tenet saying his information would not "convince Joe Public" and then asked, "This is the best we've got?"

It was then that Tenet replied, “It’s a slam dunk.” It was then that Tenet promised Bush he would bend the intelligence and provide what was needed to convince Joe Public. He was telling Bush not to worry, he would take care of it. And he did.

The hard intelligence was molded, manipulated and fabricated to fit Bush’s preconceived war plan. Tenet, for his part, opted to become a political advocate for Bush's propaganda rather than a protector of the intelligence community.

Office of Special Plans (OSP)

Instead, a rogue Office of Special Plans was created and opened in the Pentagon. It took the hard intelligence from the CIA and others, and transformed it to what the administration wanted it to say. Tenet further ingratiated himself by remaining silent about the OSP. He knew the information Bush, Cheney and Rumsfeld were giving out was false, but did nothing to disclose it.

The OSP was kept so secret even CIA senior intelligence officers did not know about it. The OSP was cherry picking intelligence and packaging it for Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld to take to the president.

Fixed Intelligence

Some examples of this fabricated intelligence:
1. “Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.” -Dick Cheney, August 26, 2002
2. “Our intelligence officials estimate that Saddam Hussein had the materials to produce as much as 500 tons of sarin, mustard and VX nerve agent.” - George W. Bush, January 28, 2003
3. “Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised.” -
George W. Bush, March 17, 2003
4. “For bureaucratic reasons, we settled on one issue, weapons of mass destruction because it was the one reason everyone could agree on.” - Paul Wolfowitz, May 28, 2003
5. “Saddam possesses enough anthrax and potentially enough technology to send unmanned aircraft on spray attacks that could wipe out a third of the West Coast." - U.S. Rep Mike Rogers, March 16, 2003,
6. “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.” - Condoleezza Rice, September 8, 2002

Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski

Lt. Col. Karen Kwiatkowski, U.S. Air Force (Ret.), is an excellent first-hand source concerning manipulated OSP intelligence because she saw it happening. Her final posting was as an analyst at the Pentagon. Her writings provide a unique view of the Department of Defense during a period of intense ideological upheaval, as the United States prepared to launch a preventive war. She states, “… the pressure of the intelligence community to conform, the rejection of it when it failed to produce intelligence suitable for supporting the ‘Iraq is an imminent threat to the United States’ agenda, and the amazing things I was hearing in both Bush and Cheney speeches told me that not only do neoconservatives hold a theory based on ideas not embraced by the American mainstream, but they also have a collective contempt for fact.” ( ttp://www.amconmag.com/12_1_03 /feature.html),
http://www.lewrockwell.com /kwiatkowski/kwiatkowski-arch .html)

In another article she states, “… They spent their energy gathering pieces of information and creating a propaganda storyline, which is the same storyline we heard the president and Vice President Cheney tell the American people in the fall of 2002.

The neoconservatives needed to do more than just topple Saddam Hussein. They wanted to put in a government friendly to the U.S., and they wanted permanent basing in Iraq. There are several reasons why they wanted to do that. None of those reasons, of course, were presented to the American people or to Congress.” (http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04 /13/news-cooper.php)

Downing Street Memo

Now, more than two years later, shocking documents proving the facts for war were “fixed” are still being covered up. The Downing Street Memo, written eight months prior to the invasion of Iraq, and other related documents showing the intelligence was fixed, is now the smoking gun. The Times of London printed this explosive document May 1, 2005. But it wasn’t until Prime Minister Tony Blair’s recent visit when he was asked about it, that it got any headwind here in the states. It is slowly receiving more and more attention here at home. (http://www.timesonline.co.uk /article/0,,2087-1593607,00 .html)

The memo reveals:

* Prime Minister Tony Blair chaired a July 2002 meeting, at which he discussed military options, having already committed himself to supporting President Bush's plans for invading Iraq.

* British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw acknowledged that the case for war was "thin" as "Saddam was not threatening his neighbours and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea, or Iran."

* A separate secret briefing for the meeting said that Britain and America had to "create" conditions to justify a war.

* A British official reported on his recent talks in Washington. “There was a perceptible shift in attitude. 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."

U.S. Representatives Demand Answer From Bush

More than 88 U.S. Representatives have signed a letter to President Bush requesting answers about this grave matter. “Thus far, our search for the truth has been stonewalled,” said Rep. John Conyers. “American people deserve answers about this matter and should demand directly that the President tell the truth about the memo.”

Result of Fixed Intelligence

In conclusion, I will quote a mother who lost her son in Iraq. She criticized the United States' "illegal and unjust war" during an interfaith rally in Lexington. Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, Calif., accused President Bush of lying to the nation about a war which has consumed more than $200 billion and claimed more than 1,700 American lives --- including the life of Army Specialist Casey Austin Sheehan. Sheehan ridiculed Bush for saying that it's "hard work" comforting the widow of a soldier who's been killed in Iraq.

"Hard work is seeing your son's murder on CNN one Sunday evening while you're enjoying the last supper you'll ever truly enjoy again. Hard work is having three military officers come to your house a few hours later to confirm the aforementioned murder of your son, your first-born, your kind and gentle sweet baby. Hard work is burying your child 46 days before his 25th birthday. Hard work is holding your other three children as they lower the body of their big brother into the ground. Hard work is not jumping in the grave with him and having the earth cover you both," she said.

Let's get the spotlight on the ties between Bush's cabinet and the PNAC, and how the PNAC's agenda is what's happening to our country right now. Raw Story has an Iraq War-9/11 timeline, but this one's even better. You can click on "Complete 911 Timeline" from this one item from the timeline that's about the PNAC. If you have a few hours, go through the entire timeline. The PNAC's agenda was for the United States to use it's position as the world's only superpower, to pre-emptively strike middle east countries for regime change. The blockbuster is that the PNAC complains that the desired changes are likely to take a long time, “absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event—like a new Pearl Harbor.” -----> 9/11???

They knowingly twisted 9/11, Osama, and the 19 Saudi Arabian hijackers into Sadaam and the Iraq War and the PNAC's dreams and agenda was speeded up. When Clinton was president, the PNAC urged him to do this, but he didn't.

Bush got "selected" president by the Supreme Court, he filled his cabinet with PNAC members (some PNAC members were: Rumsfeld, Wolfowicz, Cheyney, I. Lewis Libby, John Bolton, Jeb Bush).

I have 2 things to say: 1) How did we let this handful of creeps take over our country? 2) Why do I have to point out the ties between the PNAC, their agenda, and Bush's cabinet? Why isn't the mainstream media doing it???

http://www.cooperativere...p?item=a0900paxamericana

The main street media is now controlled by the demands for profit. Just like big business, the media relies on money from advertising paid for by Bush supporters. Support Bush or get fired. Support Bush or not be allowed at the media events.
Jeff Gannon and Mary Carey seem to have the right qualifications.

What I absolutely can not stand is how our media listens to absolutely rediculous answers when they are asked, and not tell them point-blank the answer is not the truth. Instead they just print what they are spoon fed.

What a joke

Dear JIMMO and those others of you who support Bush:

Your blog comment about Conyers and Maxine Walters and Joe Wilson are
typical of the EXTREMELY UNEDUCATED RIGHT WINGERS who think God has ordained
them to instruct the world on how to conduct their lives.

All the while they live corrupt lives of self-righteousness and arrogance
while their children are out F___ing, S___ing (getting STDs), and smoking
crack and taking Ecstacy.

Good luck with your beliefs, pal.

Because when Bush's economic policies finally prove just how bankrupt, both
financially and morally, this nation has become under his so-called
leadership, you are going to find yourself sitting in a gutter wondering
what the hell happened to your ass(ets).

And NONE of your Neo-con buddies are going to help you at all.

They will probably laugh in your face. That is if they don't shoot you in
the face, or put you in one of their upcoming Concentration Camps.

It would be fun seeing the expression on you face when you finally realize
what a stupid a__hole you are.

For Joseph Bloe: I'm not sure these trolls really do support Bush. They never really defend him. All their rhetoric is directed at us, in the form of bile.

Trolls are the 21st century equivalent of what used to be called "white trash" in the Jim Crow era. Mostly poorly educated whites in the Bible belt
(today's "red states") who hated everyone that wasn't like them..."niggers," "Commies," and what George Wallace called "pointy-headed intellectuals."

The word "liberal" now stands for all the hate words that the white trash once used. I think it's well for us to understand that trolls don't really support Bush...they just hate other people who don't.

Dear Robert Mills,

You have a good point.

There certainly are many things that cause people to support (and continue to support after [s]election) one candidate for leadership of our culture/nation versus other candidates.

Many of our population have 'chosen', whether by careful thought and/or unchosen life circumstances, to become recipients of our government's welfare offerings (read bribes), and now continue to choose the bribes (welfare/entitlements) because it appears to be too difficult to get out of the situation due to the economy's inability to make life sustaining employment available.

It currently appears to be almost impossible to gather together enough coherent, intelligent and historically knowledgeable people to form a constructive coalition with enough force to overthrow (by vote or violence) those who have taken advantage of the complete apathy and/or stupidity (due to lack of or inadequate education) of our population to take the reins of power.

Nowadays we can get groups together, but they usually quickly disintegrate as they quibble themselves into obscurity.

More power to Mr. Conyers' group, as I think we have finally reached the 'tipping point' on just how much bullshit people are able to process from Bush and his cohorts.

I would love to see Bush and his buddies in a naked pile in the bowels of Abu Ghraib prison enjoying the pleasure of what they seem to label "NON-torture" interrogation.

But I think the imminent economic collapse of our economy will sort things out more quickly and effectively, much as Mother Nature and Gravity solve imbalances in life.

Regarding your point on hate. It is easy to begin to hate others who have more (sometimes lots more) than others have and thus have more flexibility to enjoy the many options in life.

But, at the root of hate is the point at which one has to choose to use one's own abilities to make the most of the situation.

Choose not to use your own abilities, and the alternative is to blame others for your circumstances, which leads to the ultimate form of blame, HATE.

There seems to be a tendency in far too many people to choose the 'handout'.

It probably stems from their not having had the experience of the joy one feels at having done something with their own hands and mind.

Most people have been raised by parents who just raised their children the way their parents raised them. And the dysfunction continues.

Great people usually have a life altering experience during which they have been knocked so low that they realize that THEY are the only one who is going to put the quality into their own life.

After they learn that life lesson, ultimately they are faced with the decision to assist others to choose a life of 'self-actualization" (see Mazlow) and to then experience the joy of 'contribution'.

I am now 60 (born 1944). I am two years ahead of the baby boomers.

As a youth I watched the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, and the assassination of Kennedy unfold on the black and white TV every night during dinner.

I didn't understand how people could be so unloving, hateful and crazy.

I couldn't even appreciate, as I do now, the Vietnam War protesters, even though I thought the War was insane (probably because I was eligible to have to get involved in it at age 20 in 1965).

Now, 40 years later, I am seeing a complete repeat of those situatiions with just slightly different circumstances, but MUCH MORE effective and brutal police technology and mob suppression co-ordination.

Even though people my age had the advantage of the '60s free love experience without the danger of AIDS (mostly just syphilis and gonorrhea), which now pretty much eliminates the option of ever getting to experience that kind of freedom again, it seems that the baby boomers either don't remember history, or just fell into the corruption of living to acquire more things and status and just don't give a damn about the general condition of the rest of their fellow citizens.

It a little like have a fine champagne dinner while sitting a linen covered table in the middle of a junk yard.

Happy Father's Day to those of you that are one.

And all of you tell your own father that you forgive him for raising you so badly that you don't currently know how to be a constructive adult. After all, he was lied to by the government of his time too.

A terrific post from the Huffington blog today:

"[We] have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour. [We] have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The Baghdad communiqués are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient than the public knows... Our unfortunate troops,... under hard conditions of climate and supply, are policing an immense area, paying dearly every day in lives for the willfully wrong policy of the civil administration in Baghdad." - T.E. Lawrence, Sunday Times of London, August 22, 1920"

hairytruth.blogspot.com

Wishing Congressman Conyers a Bloody Nose

John Conyers could have made it onto every front page and evening news but he was too polite and instead followed protocol. What happened? The congressman from Michigan, organizing a coalition of over 100 fellow legislators, and backed by over half a million citizen petitioners, convened a congressional hearing to address the damning evidence presented in the leaked Downing Street memos. The memos show that Bush was hell bent on overthrowing Hussein by means of a war, knew this war would be illegal, and hence moved to manufacture a pretext to deceive the public. The documents --- authentic, undisputed meeting minutes revealed by a British whistleblower --- are ten times hotter than anything Watergate's Deep Throat ever produced. Understandably, the Bush administration does not want this news to be discussed and so they resorted to the cheapest of tricks: First, they scheduled eleven floor votes for the time of the hearing to prevent fellow legislators to participate. Eleven! Totally unprecedented. Second, they repeatedly denied Conyers an adequate meeting room, despite the fact that plenty were available - the building, after all, exists mainly to host meetings! So instead of in a modern conference hall designed to accomodate TV crews, reporters, and citizens, he ends up in a basement room the size of a large closet. Had Conyers been less polite and had he been taking clues from civil rights activists he would have simply stormed and occupied a suitable conference room, resisted arrest by the campus police or gotten into a brawl with Republican bouncers. Not only would it have made the news, any reader or TV viewer with half a brain would have seen the obvious: this government has something to hide. One bloody nose – Conyers’ – could have had a bigger impact than all the coffins back from Iraq.

Martin Voelker
http://memogate.org

Thank You Honorable John Conyers:
Keep up the great momentum!
An awesome tidbit of info regarding September 11th...noted on KPFK Pacifica Radio listening to excerpts from Loose Change Documentary on the
inside job of September 11th...Marvin Bush the Residents brother...was in charge of Security at the WTC and associated Airlines. Talk about connect the dots!!!!!
Continue to be SAFE and Brave John Conyers...
Maybe the idea of providing Lawyers in every state for us ALL to go to sign on to FILE AGAINST THE CRIMES AGAINST OUR PEOPLE BY THIS ADMINISTRATION and dig deep...like deep throat said...follow the money. Just read the info on the insurance payouts in progress to the new 99 year lease signed on the Trade Centers one week before 9/11. THIS STUFF is in PLANE SITE...
Did anyone get that info??? Another DVD on 9/11 in Plane Site...NO PLANE HIT THE PENTAGON.
I hear ATTA is alive and well somewhere...
probably with OBL:o(. Scarey but true with undeniable facts. Search out these documentaries...will raise your hair if you didnt think about this stuff before.
Dont forget...Bush Lied, People Died...we are under attack from within. HOPING THERE REALLY IS HOPE with such Suppression of the WORST TAKEOVER OF ALL TIME. Maybe we can really be believers...SATAN RULES; and We the People/Persecuted...may somehow inherit the earth...whats left of it if there is any truth to the meek shall inherit the earth. I dont mean to get biblical here...I am by no means bible versed.
Best of Luck to US ALL...Keep the faith and the pressure on however necessary!!!!!

For Joe Bloe: In "The Lindbergh Syndrome" I try to show that what is happening in America now isn't new at all. It's history repeating itself. We're now in the fourth Gilded Age.

After the Civil War, Radical Republicans (led by Secretary of War Stanton, in cooperation with Senators Sumner, Wade, Stevens and others) gained political power by blaming the war and Lincoln's assassination on "traitors." Any former Confederate was a traitor, likewise any Democrat, because they were presumed to sympathize. The strategy was called "waving the bloody shirt."

After World War I came the Red Scare and the Palmer Raids, named for Wilson's Attorney General.
Germans had been our enemy in the war, but anarchists, Socialists and labor organizers were targeted on the home front. Palmer actually deported people to the new Soviet Union without evidence, simply because some anarchist had set off bombs, and one had damaged his own house. Honest people lost their jobs and public reputations for their political beliefs.

After World War II came the House Un-American Activities Committee, blacklists, and the notorious
"Tailgunner Joe" McCarthy. The same themes predominated...dissent equals disloyalty, intellectuals are dangerous, the only heroes are former soldiers, scapegoats are needed to assuage our fears, and government operates on an us vs. them basis.

Here we are again. Those who ignore the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them.

Dear Robert Mills,

You know your stuff.

You are obviously very aware of the details of history.

I am not a professional historian, but I am aware, now more than ever, of the details of all the historical stuff I learned in school, which at the time was interesting, but felt like a chore.

It has only been in the last decade plus, when PBS has had so many marvelous programs on wars, and other historical events, that I began to see history all coming together in an enormous timeline from the beginning of time.

It truly is amazing how the "Powers" have always controlled everything by maintaining control of the money and science.

I began my quest for truth and how things work, back in 1973 when I read a book by Harry Browne (the previous twice Libertarian Presidential Candidate) called "How you can Profit from the Coming Devaluation", referring to 1964 when the government took the silver out of our coinage.

That action drove the "good" money (Gold and Silver) out of circulation (Gresham's Law).

Now the government controls what it can by counterfeiting paper dollars and coinage that is increasingly more worthless by the minute, but has recently, under the Bush Regime, gone completely out of control and is approaching the point of hyperinflation and such massive debt that it can no longer be controlled.

In 1973, as a result of Harry Browne's book, I began investing, learned about fractional reserve banking, how the futures market works and that all led me to much of the history of our country and the world.

I have traded the futures market for over 35 years and now trade the gold market full time.

For those of you who don't want to end up paupers and at the mercy of the tyrants now in power, I suggest you go to JSMINESET.COM, LEWROCKWELL.COM, DAILYRECKONING.COM,and Harry Browne.ORG, and read what they all have to say every day.

An excellent site for links to the most important info of the day is:
http://www.informationcl...house.info/subscribe.htm (PASTE THIS INTO YOUR BROWSER)

At JSMINESET.COM, you will have to go back in his archives to late 2002, early 2003 and read up to the present to understand what he is saying now.

Get all the books he has recommended and READ THEM FAST!

Learn fast that GOLD is the only REAL MONEY and GETS SOME as fast as you can.

Bush's( he's just the front man for the REAL POWER) whole gig is about to have the wheels come off and when it gets to the point that he can't get away with lying anymore, don't be surprised when he and Cheney and the boys declare MARTIAL LAW.

Currently you can barely cross our borders legally, in or out, and you can't move your money anywhere without the govt taking some or all of it.

Studying the Freemasons, the Illuminati, etc. has given me an insight into Real Power.

I would suggest you go to William Cooper.com and peruse what he has said and put into writing before he was ambushed and murdered by sheriff's deputies in Arizona for being "the most dangerous man in America!"

I met the man once at one of his seminars in Porterville, Ca in 1996, and have some of his books and his tapes on Mystery Babylon, which explains the origin of Freemasonry back to Egyptian mythology.

The man really knew his shit, even though sometimes you thought he was totally crazy.

What he told us would happen, is happening.

It's all very strange to those who just begin to see how deep the power in our world goes and most people initially think it's all crazy crap.

That is until they dig deep enough and try to understand how power works in the Freemasons.

This is just a tip to those of you who think that all this Bush shit is all there is to it.

It goes MUCH DEEPER than that.

This is all about Real Power.

The kind of power that kills people like you swat flies...with no remorse whatsoever.

The real power wouldn't mind if billions of us die.

It would just mean less congestion.

The best thing all of you could do would be to throw your TV "propaganda box" out the window and turn off your radio.

It's ALL on the Internet or out in the streets.

Somehow we have to get organized and drive these bastards back down into hell where they came from.

A last thought:

If you shaved George W. Bush's head and DIDN'T find 666,

You would at least find 665 and 3/4.

*********

FOLLOW THE MONEY!!

josephbloe@adelphia.net

Bush Twins Vow Support Of Military Recruitment Goals
By John F. Youmans (Satire)

As the Bush twins don their new camouflaged military uniforms, they have declared they will do everything possible to assist military recruiters reach their plummeting recruitment goals. "It's the least we can do," one of the twins said. "We believe in Shared Sacrifice. It is the responsibility of everyone to support this war to defend our country from terrorists."

When asked if they would be going to Iraq, both twins shrieked, "Lord no! We haven't signed up. We are going to help others who are less fortunate to sign up." Other Bush family members are assisting. "Uncle Jeb's son George looks great in desert camouflage and he's helping," the twins said. "Noelle said the Army has lowered their drug abuse standards and she is helping them pass the drug tests. I'll ask Dad how that works."

The twins said they would begin their campaign at the Franklin County Army Recruiting station a few blocks from the White House. "We went the other day, but we didn't see anyone we knew. It was scary!" they said. "But we will go to as many poor communities as we can this summer. We know these poor unemployed people need a job and they can even earn money for a decent education."

The Young Republicans meet for their national convention July 6-10 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. Thousands of young war supporters will be present. What an excellent opportunity to pick up some additional military recruits. Young Republicans are being urged to "Be a man and join up." However, a group representative refused to participate in recruitment goals. “That’s got a negative tone,” the spokesman said.

With this effort by the Bush twins, Army recruiting goals are sure to surge soon. “We will even pick up volunteers in our limo, complete with Secret Service agents, to transport volunteers to the recruiting stations.,” the twins promised.

My father always said that people who used foul language just showed their ignorance and lack of vocabulary. A very wise man, my father. So, folks who denigrate those they disagree with, only hurt themselves.

That said, Bob Koeler from the Chicago Tribune had another column printed in the Tennessean. It was up to Bob's ususal high standards and was about the Downing Street Minutes. He also wrote "The Silent Screaming of the Numbers" about how it was well documented that the 2004 election was hacked even more egregiously than the 2000 selection. The documentation is there to be checked out and has been gathered by people of impeccable reputations and expertise.

The truth will come out, and now it is bubbling up. The GOPpers are on shakey ground and they are going under. The thing I think we need to learn, is that the ones we see now are expendable. They are not the power, and when they go down, there are others to take their place. So, "The price of liberty is constant vigilance..." is a true warning for all of us who take freedom seriously.

Don't give up. Our beautiful children and our beautiful world depend on our advocacy, strength, compassion, and dedication. There is the lore that there are always 12 avatars keeping the world together. You never know when you may be one of them, so do your best, laugh at least 3 times a day, love, pay attention, and tell the truth. Bless us all. love,Eliz

Thank you, Eliz Barger for that truly inspiring post #85. Please post more!

I keep thinking of Dylan - the slow one now will later be fast, you'd better start swimmin' or you'll sink like a stone, FOR THE TIMES THEY ARE A'CHANGING - for the better for once in a long while

COME SENATORS, CONGRESSMAN PLEASE HEED THE CALL - DON'T STAND IN THE DOORWAY, DON'T BLOCK UP THE HALL,

FOR HE WHO GETS HURT WILL BE HE WHO HAS STALLED.

FOR THE TIMES THEY ARE A'CHANGING!

Thank you Rep. Conyers, Courage is contagious!