As there are many who were unable to follow the hearings live and given the historic importance of them, I am making my raw notes — essentially live blogged, but not posted during the hearings — available here right away…Please note that these are raw notes, not necessarily quotes even if some of them are in quotes. I did try and type as closely as I could to what was being said however.
Hopefully this will give those of you unable to listen live, an idea of these EXTRAORDINARY hearings which were chaired by Congressman John Conyers’ and just adjourned in the 15′ by 30′ room in the basement of the Capitol Building!…Simply extraordinary hearings…
(The hearing will re-air on C-SPAN 2 tonight, Thursday, at 8pm ET, and late-night at 1:56am on C-SPAN 1 at 1:56am Friday “morning”, And again on Friday at 8pm ET)…
Complete Audio now posted, courtesy of BRAD BLOG secret weapon, David Edwards!
– Streaming RealAudio
– Mirrored Streaming RealAudio
We will try to get the prepared testimony from the witnesses as soon as we can…
Though the hearings were remarkable, we don’t believe they were the cause for 4.9 earthquake we experienced here in Los Angeles during the hearings (we’re fine, but the ground did shake)…
PRESENT (Members joined throughout the hearings): Conyers, Maxine Waters (CA), Barney Frank (MA), Jim Moran, John Tierney (MA), Shiela Jackson Lee, McDermott, Maurice Hinchy (NY), Barbara Lee, Charles Rangel (NY), Zoe Lofgren (CA), Jerry Nadler (NY), Wexler (FL), Watson, Woolsley, Jay Ensley (WA), Jan Shackowski (IL), Markey, Kaplin (OH?), Corrine Brown (FL), Mccullam, Baldwin, Van Holland (MD), Don Paine, DiSolice, DiFazzio, George Miller, Gregory Meeks (NY), Rush Holt (NJ)
AMB. JOE WILSON (first to testify)
“My wife did not have anything to do with my being hired for this job” (paraphrased)
“There is no reason to believe our departure from Iraq, or our departure five years from now will effect [the ongoing violence]”
CINDY SHEEHAN (second to testify): NOTE: Ms. Sheehan will be a guest on this weekend’s BRAD SHOW, Saturday 7p – 11p ET
(Just 11 Days after Bush’s “No weapons under there” jokes, according to Ray McGovern later)
“This aggression on Iraq was based on a lie of historic proportions.”
Quotes Mickey Hersowitz, Bush’s original ghostwriter on his autobiography: “If I have a change to invade…political capital…”
“Seems my boy was given a death sentence before he even joined the Armed Services in May of 2000.”
Coming home in flag-draped coffins, images, as if they are ashamed of our children, that our leaders won’t even let them see.
Reads letter from a guy who’s brother had hung himself with a garden hose after returning from Iraq.
“Casey (her son) and his buddies have been killed to line the pockets of already wealthy people”
An investigation into the DSM is completely warranted…to hold someone accountable for the many deaths that have occurred…I don’t care if it’s Democrats or Republicans.
The innocents being killed don’t care what political party this is about.
How many more families with members in Iraq will get visits from the grim reaper in military uniforms informing them their children have been killed?
CALLED HER SON’S DEATH: “Pre-meditated Death”
“PLEASE hold someone accountable.”
“I hope this is the first step in bringing the lies to the light and bringing justice to those who can no longer speak for themselves.”
27-YEAR CIA ANALYST, RAY MCGOVERN (third to testify):
NOTE: Mr. McGovern was a guest on last weekend’s BRAD SHOW. Archives are available at that link.
Thanks the whistleblowers who released the Downing Street documents.
The V.P. (?) said “We now know that Saddam has weapons…we have testimony including from Saddam’s son-in-law.”… This is a lie. You can read it in his testimony that he said “all WMD were destroyed.”
CONSTITUTIONAL ATTY, JOHN BONIFAZ: (last to testify)
NOTE: Mr. Bonifaz was a guest on BRAD SHOW two weeks ago. The archives for part of that interview are available. Some of interview lost in archives due to a technical problem..
“Military action against Iraq was necessary to protect U.S. against continuing threat against U.S. posed by Iraq…and to deal with attacks against U.S. on September 11th, 2001”
That was not true.
“If the President of the United States has committed High Crimes, he must be held accountable. The Constitution demands no less.”
FROM THE Q&A SESSION:
MCGOVERN: Attorneys said that “Regime change is not a legal basis for war”
BONIFAZ: “The question is whether the President subverted the Constitution”
MAXINE WATERS: “V.P. Cheney made visits to CIA and it appears that it was more than one visit. We have been watching a VP who has done any number of things…he’s the former CEO of Halliburton…has had a hand in no bid contracts… Appears to not be concerned about what the American public thinks about this and these documents…There’s been a manipulation of intelligence information…that they had to make the intelligence fit the conclusion that they were indeed going to invade Iraq. Is there anything else we should know about what the V.P. did?”
MCGOVERN: “Many people have asked me about this. If it’s unusual for a sitting Vice-Predident to make such visits to the CIA. It’s not unusual, it’s unprecedented!” I was there for 27 years, not once, even when George H.W. Bush was sitting President, did a sitting V.P. come on a working visit to CIA headquarters. He came at least 9 times…It’s incredible that that should be happening.”
On Tenet being present when V.P. spoke to analyists: “this is the real outrage. The head of an agency needs to protect his people from this kind of pressure from outside influence…How can that be done when their boss is standing right over there shoulder?
“here’s your Director standing over your shoulder…if this doesn’t have an effect …The management of the CIA has been so corrupted, so politicized, there’s a real question…In my mind on whether the agency can come up with anything reliable when it’s already known what the Administration wants to hear.”
Sadly, the pressure worked. Most of the people have now left, and the type of people who would bend to this kind of politicization are left.
BARNEY FRANK: “Some in the administration have said ‘big deal, we already knew that’…Well if we knew that, why the hell didn’t they do something about it?”
BONIFAZ: “‘Democracy’ as a reason for war, was not submitted to Congress in the letter that Bush submitted” (Only after WMD began to not be found was ‘Democracy’ used as a reason for the invasion).
MCGOVERN: By September 2002, hundreds of tons of bombs had already been dropped. The war had already started.
SHIELA JACKSON LEE: “This war has shown the highest number, percentage-wise, of suicides…Makes an “official apology to Sheehan”…”I want to apologize on behalf of the institutions of this nations, on behalf of the Senate and the House and if I can extend on behalf of the executive branch….to apologize for what happened…believes the nation owes you and the families of those who went to serve on the front lines an apology.
BONIFAZ: “This idea of preemption has no basis in International Law…This was a problem that the British Lawyers had…You have to have an iminent threat and prove that somebody is about to attack you…[The war] is illegal and that’s something the American people need to understand.”
WILSON: “Our obligation is to ensure we have not sent them over there to die under false pretenses in our name”
BONIFAZ: “On preemptive war doctrine. The prez announced..and when he did so…By it’s own terminology, the preemptive doctrine requires proof that there is something to preempt! Which is why the DSM documents are so important.”
JIM MORAN: “What do you think was the real reason for going to war?
MAXINE WATERS: “OUT OF IRAQ” Congressional Caucus has now been established. Pelosi’s Amendment to ask for an exit strategy by Bush being voted on RIGHT NOW.
CHARLES RANGEL: Can’t thank this panel enough. “I have sat through two impeachments…quite frankly, the evidence that appears to be building up on whether a Prez has deliberately mislead the congress…on the most important decisions a Prez can ever make…whether to place American lives in harms way…Having not heard all the testimony in these Historic Hearings…Has anyone testified whether the case is sufficient to start an official Inquiry into whether or not the proof was sufficient to go to war?”
BONIFAZ: “Yes, we have at AfterDowningSTreet.org…All we’re asking at this point is for answers to these questions. To know the truth whether or not the Prez. Engaged in a deliberate campaign to deceive…If that’s all it was after an investigation, a failure of intelligence, then so be it…But if the memo from Richard Dearlove was accurate, then we all deserve to know the truth about whether the Prez deliberately lied…we owe it to the people of the united States to find out.”
MAURICE HINCHEY: All of us in the entire nation owes all of you a deep debt of gratitude…The idea that tht Prez lied to the American people in regard to war…What’s being done today is incredibly important and I’m deeply indebted to you, Mr. Conyers for making it happen….The fact that we’re in a tiny room dicussing this, indicates how irresponsible this Congress is…Congress has abrogated its responsibility completely to oversee this Administration…It’s unfortunate but today in Washington we have a Monolithic government, we do not have the checks and balances required…Seems to me this policy has made us LESS secure…Despite Tenet saying “Yes, it’s a slam dunk Mr. President, we’ll get the information you’re looking for”…Senate Intelligence committee said they were going to complete that report earlier this year…They haven’t
MCGOVERN: State of Intelligence has never been more in shambles….When Tenet came back and said to his managers we have to do a National Intel. Estimate but it has to come out the way Cheney wants it…In my day, we all would have laughed and said “You’re kidding”…or if he wasn’t kidding, we all would have walked out…In this case, the worst Nat Intel Est. in the history of this nation…three weeks later came out. … A thorough house cleaning is required, and I dare say, if Bolton is confirmed, the rest of the good people remaining will leave too…To answer your question, character does count and we didn’t have it at the top of the Intel community…The Intel oversight committees have shown themselves incapable of doing anything about this, but perhaps you can raise the consciousness…
WILSON: Sanctity of intel process needs to be maintained…and that has been sacrificed…There are any number of people who are afraid to come out of the woodwork…many are afraid to because of what happened to my wife…The message was “If you do what Wilson did, we’ll do to you what we did to Wilson’s wife.”…Let me say once again that being married to my wife is not having a skeleton in my closet!
JERROLD NADLER: Country now at unique moment. Five different crisis we’re now facing simultaneously. 1) War 2) War wrecking our armed forces 3) Seem to be wrecking our Intel ability 4) Lack of hearings and oversight, and we can’t get congress to hold real hearings 5) Credibility crisis concerning Prez who may have lied us into war…to a Congress who never would have authorized had they known….”Only question is was the President a fool or an aid?”… I remember during Viet Nam…We had a Dem prez and a Dem congress and that congress started hearings that forced…proved to hold the President’s feet to the fire…We all remember particpating in Impeachment hearings against Prez Clinton in which basis was the Prez lied regarding a matter of Private conduct…Regardless of our conclusions of that, most of us thought that wasn’t impeachable because it didn’t subvert the structure of government…A Prez who deliberately lies to congress in order to induce it to support war CLEARLY would meet the bar for impeachment.
BONIFAZ: [In re: validity of DSM] It’s clear this was intended to be secret, was at Tony Blair’s private residence, Dearlove’s briefing (he is equivalent of our CIA Director), he reports that the President had decided to overthrow Saddam which would be “justified between conjunction of WMD and Terrorism”…some people would say this wasn’t the intention…that’s why we need an investigation…But it was a private meeting, so Dearlove would have no reason to exaggerate anything…Our view is there needs to be an investigation to discover this…
JERROLD NADLER: Sen. Pat Roberts said there would be investigation after the Election and now he says “Forget about it”.
MCGOVERN: Richard Dearlove was just back from D.C. the whole purpose of the Downing Street briefing was to tell what he had just learned from Tenet and Rice and the officials in Washington….Dearlove says this is a major change from before…and Dearlove describes the change as inevitably leading to war.
ZOE LOFGREN: Meeting in basement of Congress because rest of Congress are participating in coverup…there is no other way to say it…We are sitting here in the basement today HOPING that the press can get out the word of what the American people need to know….I sat on the Clinton Impeachment and it didn’t meet the standards…But lying to Congress…we can’t even get a room to meet in!…Ken Mehlman said on Meet the Press, “This report has been discredited…totally discredited by everyone’s who looked at”. Is the RNC Chairman correct? Has this report been discredited?
MCGOVERN: The notion that the DSM have been discredited by investigations done months before the documents even came out is ludicrous.
BARNEY FRANK: Some who are defending the prez argue that the memo is false, and others say they knew it all along. Which one is it?
ZOE LOFGREN: People of the U.S. own the congress, not the lobbyist, not the special interests.
BONIFAZ: The Downing Street documents are the equivalent to a taping system in the White House in the Nixon Administration…Imagine Congress saying we don’t want those tapes! OF COURSE the congress wanted those tapes…and these DS Minutes should be investigated by congress in the same way!
JOE WILSON: Niger Yellowcake was made up out of whole cloth.
CINDY SHEEHAN: Every military family in here…We have not been told the truth…The DoD refuses to talk to us about it….We gave something that should have never been asked from us, our children, and they won’t sit down with us and tell us the truth…If this admin. doesn’t have anything to hide then they should be down here testifying today!
NOT SURE WHO: Thank you Mr. Chairman for your 40 years of service to this congress, to this country…Mr. Wilson, we all should apologize for the way the CIA has treated you…
SHAKOWSKY: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This investigation could change the course of history. …There is at least one hero in this room, and that is Cindy Sheehan…She has worked through her grief and turned that into a force to prevent other mothers from going through the same.
SHEEHAN: We won’t let it die…Everything seems to slide off this Administration…It took a colation of grass roots organizations to make this stick…To make the media pay attention to this.
BONIFAZ: I recognize that the idea that the president may have participated in a conspiracy to decieve the Congress and the people of the United States of America may be hard to believe…but this memo is a smoking gun from the highest British offficials, and we owe to the American people to investigate and follow that investigation where ever it may lead.
JAY INSLEE: We are not going away. They have hit the mattress on this, and their reply is “we don’t need to respond”. There is no greater need to respond when they are putting our armed forces through this and this assertion is made.
CONYERS: There are going to be a number of “next hearings”…We could use a little subpeona power around here…Do any of you have any knowledge of any other primary source documents that supports the other side of this argument? That supports the president’s letter to Congress? …Did Congress abrogate it’s responsibilities to be the final constitutional voice into whether this country goes to war?
BONIFAZ: We know of no contemperaneous document that refutes the Downing Street Documents…To the second question, it was my view and the view of many that the President did not have the authority to wage this war in the first place. That’s why we sued the President in the first place…I believe that Cong. did unlawfully transfer it’s decision making power to the President…Some in Congress said “I trust the President, the President said the nation is facing an imiment threat…If he believes that the nation is facing an imminent threat, then I want to vote for this resolution and give him the final say.”…Setting aside that the President doesn’t have the final say (constitutionally)…those members of Congress must now face that they may have been duped, deceived, snookered into leading this country into war.
CONYERS: A lot of people are waiting for us to get down to the Whitehouse…
SHEILA JACKSON LEE: The people who lost today where those Americans that didn’t get a proper hearing on these matters.
CONYERS: We have a lot of work today as a result of this first panel…
(Parents who had children killed stand up to give testimony unscheduled! American parents. And British parents alike).
CONYERS: We’re grateful to all of you who came…
(Brother of man who was killed working on Iraq Survey Group thanks them for this hearing.)
CONYERS: We’re going to Lafayette Park across from White House where there are many people waiting for us. 560,000 Americans have already joined us…Asking the Prez to respond to a letter signed by now 122 members of Congress….Let us now continue the even more difficult part of sorting out the dozens of recommendations of high quality that have been made here, that it is now encumbant upon us to investigate.
…And unlike some chairman…I now ask for unanimous consent to adjourn this meeting.
(This previous BRAD BLOG article gave hard numbers on Congressmen/women and Citizens signed on to Conyers’ Letter)
Photos from the Congressman’s House Call…
PARDON THIS CRASS COMMERCIAL REMINDER…But as so many are now linking up to these notes, and the audio recording, etc., now might be a good time to mention that The BRAD BLOG is run almost entirely on DONATIONS…Please feel free to help me continue!. Thanks.
Thank you Brad.
Peace.
http://www.missionnotaccomplished.us – Impeachment of Bush and Cheney; indictment and prosecution of all members of the Bush regime who participated in the deception, should be campaign promises of any candidate worthy of our vote in the 2006 Congressional elections.
The hearing was amazing and historical. I also hope to have a link to the complete video on my growing news site, once it is available.
Thank you Brad for your in depth coverage of this very historical event that the corruption of our government put in a very small box (room).
The truth will come out . . . it always does. Wish I were down in LaFayette Park right now on the walk.
The hearings were great. Conyers is a hero. What a crime that they were stuck in a broom closet in the basement. But the dignity of the witnesses and the questioners more than overcame their surroundings.
It was especially moving at the end when several people stood up to speak the name of their relative who died for this illegal war. I hope everyone who missed it will be able to watch the rebroadcast Friday night.
As always Brad, thanks for this blog, your radio show and all that you do.
Hallelujah. Thanks to those who took the time to appear and give their compelling testimony.
To the Honorable John Conyers, THANK YOU for calling this forum to order. It’s comforting to see that at least someone has the stones to call ’em like they see them and challenge these violations of constitutional law.
Barney Frank.. raised a very valid point, if it is as suggested that people knew this was all a sham to begin with then those who acted to sell these deceptions are also complicit.
you go mr. conyers. when bush finally decides to respond, please do not take his word. he has lied about everything else, he will lie about this. we cannot ever let this rest. we owe it to our children.
Thanks for these most useful notes, Brad.
Finally. NPR aired a piece on Conyer’s hearings. I almost cried it made me so happy. Although a brief, they described the DSM, provided a strong quote from Cindy Sheehan, and provided a link to the DSMt on their webpage.
Finally.
The pendulum is swinging friends. Mid-term elections are around the corner, and expect to see those republicans not wanting to be caught on the wrong side of history begin to defect. If the dems gain the majority maybe we’ll begin to get to the truth.
Cross-posted your entry, thank you very much for all the hard work you have done on this.
Thank you Brad. By the way, the hearing is being re-aired on Friday night (tomorrow 6/17) at 8:00 pm on CSPAN2.
Anyone have a link to watch this online now instead of waiting until the re-broadcast?
Excellent Brad! Thank you for blogging on as the earth shook, rattled and rolled beneath your feet! California better stay put until I get home!!! Don’t slide off into the ocean without me please! 🙂
Blessings, light and love to Rep Conyers and all those brave patriots who stood today and spoke truth for US ALL! Will send a thank you to C-SPAN for filming this and re-airing it on C-SPAN2 tomororw night!
viewer@c-span.org
Cross-posted your entry, thank you very much for all the hard work you have done on this.
Great job, Brad – keep it up.
THANK YOU REP. CONYERS !!!
I am so pissed,Absolutely no coverage,I wish I had the phone numbers to the media,I’d like to call and ask what their going to do with all that footage that was shot today at the hearings,and how come there was no coverage. Does anybody have any of those numbers? I know I’ve seen them posted but of course I didn’t save them. We have got to make a lot of noise about this. Can anybody help me out? Hopefully the big ones Nbc,cnn,fox(who didn’t even send anybody),cbs and abc. Thanks in advance
Skinny:
I do think it is encouraging to hear the MSM finally starting to cover this historical document & events surrounding it…
…however…
It’s still getting unfair treatment (even from NPR).
Take Fred Kaplan (of Slate & NPR) as exhibit "A".
Thanks to the new media, though, this can’t last forever.
Bravo Brad for consistently providing all these updates over the last several days. It’s wonderful to have access to breaking news.
GOT IT
http://www.cspan.org/homepage.asp
Charlie
the Forum was extraordinary! They Called everything a coverup. Noted the conspiracies and Demanded an inquiry into the need for impeaching Not only Bush, but Cheney, Rummy, etc. The facts are indisputable. They are criminally liable and should be impeached and then tried at the HAGUE. I won’t feel safe until they are all in jail…Hopefully guantanamo like. Irony is always fitting!
The hearings were even more powerful than I had hoped. True patriots!!!
I forgot to say Thank You Brad .The hearing was Awesome.I hung on every word and even shed tears when Cindy Sheehan spoke about her flat faced baby. How awful for her.What wonderful couageous people that were on the panel and also the congress that showed up. It was a great day,I wish I could have seen the delivery of the petition.But of course no coverage and I am so frustrated about it Arrgghhhhhhhhhh!
😀 😀
Thank you, Brad. Thank you, everyone!
Laura #14 –
FAIR’s Media Guide
Hey, you should have hot-linked my siren directly from my server, just like I do with all them images I post.
Get a clue young man, it saves on them bandwidth bills.
Brad, any word yet on the complete list of the congresspersons who signed onto the letter after the original ‘Band of 88’?
Thank-you Brad for your 1st class coverage of this important event! Even though I’m half a world away, I can feel the buzz, the excitement and oh yeah, the aftershocks 🙂
These are SEISMIC times in America and the plates are shifting by the hour!
To perceive the Truth, takes open eyes
To hear the Truth, takes open ears
To hold the Truth steady in
a raging sea of lies,
takes a strong will…
More than these, to sit there
and type the truth, as it’s spoken,
THAT takes a rare passion
to keep the
Truth alive.
Thanks,
Brad!
Its a slap in the face and disrespect of the american people when this issue gets c-span3 coverage, while a case of just 1 missing individual get countless hours of press.
now on c-span!!!
Programs 1-10 of 483
House Judiciary Cmte. Democrats Meeting on Downing Street Memo and Iraq War
Rep. John Conyers, House Judiciary Cmte. Ranking Member, chairs a meeting on the Downing Street Memo and pre-Iraq War intelligence. Witnesses include: former ambassador Joe Wilson, CIA analyst Ray McGovern, Cindy Sheehan, mother of fallen American soldier, and constitutional lawyer John Bonifaz.
6/16/2005: WASHINGTON, DC: 3 hr. 5 min.
CORRECTION: Now on http://WWW.C-SPAN.ORG recent tapings…
Programs 1-10 of 483
House Judiciary Cmte. Democrats Meeting on Downing Street Memo and Iraq War
Rep. John Conyers, House Judiciary Cmte. Ranking Member, chairs a meeting on the Downing Street Memo and pre-Iraq War intelligence. Witnesses include: former ambassador Joe Wilson, CIA analyst Ray McGovern, Cindy Sheehan, mother of fallen American soldier, and constitutional lawyer John Bonifaz.
6/16/2005: WASHINGTON, DC: 3 hr. 5 min.
That was fabulous – I have my fingers crossed that Karma eventually hits this criminal crowd with a sledge hammer – one can hope.
Fantastic – Will keep eye out to the media – and see how they spin it – I dare say it will be the "ignore and will go away" but one can hope that the bloggers will keep hammering away.
:satisfied:
Thank you so much John Conyers. Your leadership shows Presidential material. This meeting was the first step… we can not drop the ball. Thanks BradBlog!!!
Please do your patriotic duty and vote!
Its a slap in the face and disrespect of the american people when this issue gets c-span3 coverage, while a case of just 1 missing individual receives countless hours of press.
NOW! NOW! NOW! 8:18PM ET
John Conyers’ hearing is on C-SPAN2!!!!
As I sat here basking in the glow of people power I tuned in to the Senate on c-span. and I saw Bob Menendez, Dem NJ agreeing to the amendment by Ed Markey Dem NJ which states that no nation will be allowed to stockpile nukes. He named N. Korea and Iran. And of course was joined by the republicans. Can anyone tell me who died and left us boss of the world? I would like to ask Mr. Markey does this mean that the US will have to forefit their Nukes too? If Bush gets legal justification for war in Iran then what happened in Iraq will be old news. Here we go again. War war and more war.
New PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION! LEGITIMATE paper ballot elections for all to see. IMPEACH AND JAIL ALL LYING MURDERERS involved in destroying IRAQ and this earth. US Forestry Service Chris Servheen can rot in jail with these corrupt scum. He came out in the media and said the Yellowstone Grizzly is doing so well we need to delist them from the endangered specie list.
He failed to say:
1. There are less than 1000 Grizzly Bears in the lower 48 states and 51 were killed last year.
2. The Yellowstone Grizzly populations is angry because they are already being turned into inbreds like the leaders in the Bushit administration. They are isolated from the other barely holding on populations of GRIZZLY BEARS.
3. Since the Bushit Administration reversed former President Clinton’s "Roadless Rule" law, the wildlands that could reconnect the Yellowstone Grizzly population are being destroyed and or developed. This also includes massive destruction caused by offroad vehicles.
4. Legitimate organizations like the National Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) Wild Bear Project Director Louisa Willcox have a plan to reconnect the Yellowstone Grizzly population to the remaining populations if we act now!!! These legitimate organizations are completely against delisting the GRIZZLY BEAR.
5. OH CANADA.. U need to get with the program! Quit hunting GRIZZLY BEARS and clear cutting trees along the border. If you are a real neighbor to the US then place the Bear on the endangered specie list.
6. To Becky Bohrer, Associated Press Writer who’s Yellowstone Grizzly article was picked up by the likes of Yahoo news: Quit writing he said she said stories that do not tell the truth about GRIZZLY BEARS in the lower 48 states and avoid the real facts that could inform an intelligent reader. A reader who cares about wildlife and the last wild animals as opposed to the greedy fcks trying develope the last wildland for gas, oil, and timber interests or to build another bleeding condo tract for human beings. Your Bohring writing sucks!!!
7. John Conyers Jr. for PRESIDENT. A real American who could make this country a world leader once again.
8. Go Brad!!!
Brad,
I am enormously grateful for your website. Thank you. I will send a donation tonight to you as well as to buzzflash. I have not yet seen the video but will watch it tomorrow night, and will tape it as well. I encourage everyone to email their friends and relatives with the time of the rebroadcast on CSPAN tomorrow and encourage them to watch it. Even send it to your republican friends and ask them to watch it and then tell you what they think. It’ll make for a most interesting conversation/debate. Thank you Brad, John Conyers, Randi Rhodes, Mike Malloy, Al Franken, Sam & Janine, Barbara Boxer…my heroes.
WOAH
Look at the MSNBC Poll, right now it stands at
Do you believe President Bush misled the nation in order to go to war with Iraq?
(4445 responses, still open)
Yes
94%
No
6%
o_O
Deja vu all over again- Iran watch
I hadn’t seen post #35 when I composed this:
I don’t know if any of you have had time to check out news concerning Iran, but the statements coming out have an eerie similarity to the "buildup" to the Iraq war. I don’t have any specific links to offer, just a "heads up". Looks to me like Iran is next on Bush’s hit list, if he can get away with another war for Democracy.
p.s. #35 – it’s frightening news– sounds like the hawks are circling. Interesting that you should pick up on the same issue. It is definitely out there.
Bush Irany Drenched Quote of the Day:
"Today, Iran is ruled by men who suppress liberty at home and spread terror across the world. Power is in the hands of an unelected few who have retained power through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy," Bush said in a statement released by the White House.
Laugh? I nearly cried.
Let us hope that future history will record that the end of the current criminal administration began in a broom closet. Remember what George Orwell said, "To tell the truth in a time of universal deceit is an act of heroism."
Nice reporting…did you see what little Scotty McClellan had to say about the hearings? The link is posted on my Blog.
:crazy:
MSNBC played about 25 seconds of your hearings.
My 14 year old son saw the "witnesses" sitting at this little tiny white covered table all scrunched together and said "Dad, they look like they are all in kindergarten or something. Is this some kind of stunt?"
Yes, I told him, Sadly, it is a stunt by a pandering old fool and a bunch of spoiled children that hate this country.
There is hope but there is a long way to go and still many things going against us. First there is the fact that the enemies of this nation are well entrenced, extremely well funded and powerful. It’s not just the politicains it’s the corporations which are far more sinister and much harder to convict. And without the press, which these same corporations control, as they control the politicains, we have a very long hard fight ahead.
But we have stopped an unjust war before, but it started with the only one avenue we have left – the streets. We have to make our numbers known in such numbers that even the blind will see. We have to shout the truth until the deaf hear. We have to march in such numbers it makes the ground shake.
Looks like it’s going to be a very "hot" summer.
See you on the streets.
Brad, I love the fact that you are covering these hearings, but your format is impossible! I have to scroll horizontally for miles and miles to read one complete sentence, and then scroll back to see the beginning of the sentence.
And when you say the hearings are gonna be on CSpan at 8:00 pm or whenever, do you mean EST or PST daylight GMT or what?
But still, you can’t be all bad. (Newsguy)
Awesome. Now we have to keep the pressure on.
Thanks Brad!
Jen#22 Thanks! Laura
Inquiry: listening to CNN-2 streaming rebroadcast in Inida. Someone mentioned a good book about US support of Sadaam regime called "The Spiders Web." That title is a fantasy book title. Does anyone know the correct title?
Thank you for your efforts.
#43 –
Thanks for taking the time to share your desperation and denial. Best wishes to your imaginary son. 😥
I think this might be the book they were talking about.
Inquiry: listening to CNN-2 streaming rebroadcast in Inida. Someone mentioned a good book about US support of Sadaam regime called "The Spiders Web." That title is a fantasy book title. Does anyone know the correct title?
Thank you for your efforts.
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 in support of bush.
Shame on you, you slackard.
Thanks Brad for you work and your energy and determination!
Might be a republican
If the little black jockey in your front yard is real…you might be a republican
If your daughter is a lesbian and your wife writes soft porn…you might be a republican
If you don’t have any relatives or know anyone serving in Iraq…you might be a republican
If you know at least one person who is a good Christian and is serving time in prison for molesting someone underage…you might be a republican.
If you fudge environmental reports instead of breaking into the Watergate hotel…you might be a republican.
If you know Jeff Gannon in more than a spiritual nature…you might be a republican
If you have ever made an obscene gesture into a television camera…YOU MIGHT BE A REPUBLICAN.
If your idea of hosting a GOP house party means renting some Mary Carey videos and tossing your car keys into a bowl along with the others…you might be a republican.
If you have sent a bloody mail a gram to Howard Dean that was written on stationary from the unofficial Strom Thurmond library and Cuban relief army outpost…you might be a republican.
If your idea of CSI is Coulter, Sean Hannity, and Immigration…you might be a republican.
If you deny your own party in order to support the nomination of judicial nominees in order to get a hold of GOP freebie fun bags…you might be a republican.
If you viewed Pearl Harbor as a marvelous chance to improve the economy…you might be a republican
If your idea of election reform is to eliminate the ability of democrats to cast a vote…you might be a republican
If you think a living wage is below the poverty line…you might be a republican
If you have ever been asked to identify a victim so a rapist could go free, if you have ever covered up bruises for a television interview outside a polling station, if you have ever given bad directions to a democrat who was looking for a polling station…you might be a republican.
If you have ever removed names of African American citizens of the state of Florida from the official election tally then years later decided to run for the senate…you might be a republican.
If your Yule log uses batteries…you might be a republican.
If your turn on’s include William F. Buckley…you might be a republican.
If you are so radically right wing you’ll change Charleston Heston’s diaper just to get a chance to shake Oliver North’s hand…you might be a republican.
If your church collection plate is full of polaroids…you might be a republican.
If your home sexual device is rigged for full auto…you might be a republican.
If the arms you trade for hostages come from the shoulders of Iraqi civilians…you might be a republican.
If your idea of a vacation is a beach in earshot of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay…you might be a republican.
If you take the word of an old white man in a dress and don’t use a condom when engaging in illicit sex with an underage white Christian in your congregation and get arrested due to the spread of your DNA…you might be a republican.
If you believe that there will be peace in the middle east if only Al Oueida can be allowed to join in the torture in Abu Grahaid…you might be a republican.
If you date a woman just to get the vote of her husband on your legislation…you might be a republican.
If you can’t to travel on your own money and use campaign funds to justify a delegation to a golf course…you might be a republican.
If you deny the existence of greenhouse gases until they ruin your vacation home..you might be a republican.
If you post on a message board and use continuous profanity and don’t offer any solutions just more empty rhetoric. you might be a republican.
If you criticize the leader of your party for telling the truth about the opposition…you might be a republican.
If you believe that pundits screaming at each other at the same time is constructive…you might be a republican.
If you believe there is such a thing as a compassionate conservative…you might be a republican.
If you believe stem cell research has something to do with the legalization of marijuana…you might be a republican.
If you believe words like genocide and famine are just an advertising gimmick used by the liberal voter…you might be a republican.
If your definition of race relations is the press conference before a Nascar race…you might be a republican.
If you are an embedded reporter and voted conservative on an absentee ballot…you might be a republican.
If you give to a political campaign just because someone reads someone else’s words off a teleprompter…you might be a republican.
If you can’t see that the Democratic Party is in danger of becoming a mirror image of the Republican Party…you might be a Republican.
If you can disseminate between right and wrong and simply choose not to. you might be a Republican.
If you rail against liberals and communists and still smoke illegally imported Cuban cigars…you might be a Republican.
If your idea of a school lunch program is white milk for white students and chocolate milk for African-American students…you might be a Republican.
If you put your house up for sale the very day an African-American family moves into your neighborhood…you might be a Republican.
If you pass a peace initiative and still supply arms to those that are fighting…you might be a Republican.
The Downing Street memo is the smoking gun, the first smoking gun in this administration that is covered in blood and identifies the culprits by name.
Jimmo said "My 14 year old son saw the "witnesses" sitting at this little tiny white covered table all scrunched together and said "Dad, they look like they are all in kindergarten or something. Is this some kind of stunt?""
Jimmo if you get your wish and truth remains hidden from the masses for 4 more years your 14 year old boy will be conscripted ,my question is "how would that make you feel ?
1)proud
2)scared
My 14 year old boy knows only an idiot thinks you can bomb a country to freedom and if something’s a "truth" it can stand on its own merit and need not be hidden away from the publics gaze in some basement room.
PS are you saving to buy his "body armor" or do you prefer "landfill armor"?
Jimmo sez:
My 14 year old son saw the "witnesses" sitting at this little tiny white covered table all scrunched together and said "Dad, they look like they are all in kindergarten or something. Is this some kind of stunt?"
Jimmo’s 14 y.o. brat should know…
That’s because Jimmo’s home skooled 14 y.o. brat is still in Kindergarten
If you force the opposition to meet in a broom closet, and then make fun of them for being in a broom closet… you might be a Republican.
(#43)JIMMO "Yes, I told him, Sadly, it is a stunt by a pandering old fool and a bunch of spoiled children that hate this country."
Wow jimmo, I’m suprised to see you take a sweep at Sennenbrenner and his cheap trick to scuttle the hearings. Off the meds today? His rather obvious and pathetic "new policy" of denying hearing rooms did nothing to stop the hearing but only made sure everyone paying attention & attendence at the hearing understand just why it is important see this matter all the way through.
The Downing Street documents clearly show that Bush and his cabinet members were clearly aware of the illegality for the war and that their later claims of WMD’s in Iraq was utterly baseless. These are not just impeachable offenses – they deliberately staged an illegal war that caused the death of over 100k+ Iraqis – that is a war crime. And as they pointed out in the hearing, Sennsenbrenner is engaged in a cover-up, and hopefully when this is all done, he too will be impeached for his actions.
Good job, JIMMO on calling Sennsenbrenner and his republican cronies the america hating fools they are. Conyers is standing as an example too all democrats right now, and if they stand up to that example we will hopefully see Bush’s impeachment and incarceration before they have a chance to do any more harm to america.
(#43)JIMMO "Yes, I told him, Sadly, it is a stunt by a pandering old fool and a bunch of spoiled children that hate this country."
Wow jimmo, I’m suprised to see you take a sweep at Sennenbrenner and his cheap trick to scuttle the hearings. Off the meds today? His rather obvious and pathetic "new policy" of denying hearing rooms did nothing to stop the hearing but only made sure everyone paying attention & attendence at the hearing understand just why it is important see this matter all the way through.
The Downing Street documents clearly show that Bush and his cabinet members were clearly aware of the illegality for the war and that their later claims of WMD’s in Iraq was utterly baseless. These are not just impeachable offenses – they deliberately staged an illegal war that caused the death of over 100k+ Iraqis – that is a war crime. And as they pointed out in the hearing, Sennsenbrenner is engaged in a cover-up, and hopefully when this is all done, he too will be impeached for his actions.
Good job, JIMMO on calling Sennsenbrenner and his republican cronies the america hating fools they are. Conyers is standing as an example too all democrats right now, and if they stand up to that example we will hopefully see Bush’s impeachment and incarceration before they have a chance to do any more harm to america.
This is very good news. Bush’s numbers keep sliding, and this memo is just what is needed to hit him with a knock-out blow, now that he’s on his heels.
Gandhi said: "All Tyrants fall eventually."
Theologian David Ray Griffin has proven that George W. Bush was somehow connec THE NUMBER ONE ISSUE CONNCERNING THE CROOKED, MURDEROUS BUSH REGIME IS THEIR CONNECTION TO 911Truth,org. I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR 5 LONG YEARS TO SEE BUSH INDICTED FOR TREASON AND HIGH CRIMES
Theologian David Ray Griffin has proven that George W. Bush was somehow connec THE NUMBER ONE ISSUE CONNCERNING THE CROOKED, MURDEROUS BUSH REGIME IS THEIR CONNECTION TO 911Truth,org. I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR 5 LONG YEARS TO SEE BUSH INDICTED FOR TREASON AND HIGH CRIMES
Theologian David Ray Griffin has proven that George W. Bush was somehow connec THE NUMBER ONE ISSUE CONNCERNING THE CROOKED, MURDEROUS BUSH REGIME IS THEIR CONNECTION TO 911Truth,org. I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR 5 LONG YEARS TO SEE BUSH INDICTED FOR TREASON AND HIGH CRIMES
Theologian David Ray Griffin has proven that George W. Bush was somehow connec THE NUMBER ONE ISSUE CONNCERNING THE CROOKED, MURDEROUS BUSH REGIME IS THEIR CONNECTION TO 911Truth,org. I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR 5 LONG YEARS TO SEE BUSH INDICTED FOR TREASON AND HIGH CRIMES
Theologian David Ray Griffin has proven that George W. Bush was somehow connec THE NUMBER ONE ISSUE CONNCERNING THE CROOKED, MURDEROUS BUSH REGIME IS THEIR CONNECTION TO 911Truth,org. I’VE BEEN WAITING FOR 5 LONG YEARS TO SEE BUSH INDICTED FOR TREASON AND HIGH CRIMES
I saw a couple hours of the hearing, and I just can’t wait for the next step. This is something that is perfectly resonating right now: you have more and more americans now backing off the iraq war (and bush), some (freedom fries loving) republicans are even beginning to call for a pullout, and the democrats are starting to understand what it means to actually represent the voice of the american people & the constitution.
Still I think the most important thing is to remember that this is not something that should be looked at a political "advantage" or issue to be weighed and exploited, but highlights a potential danger zone right here in our very own Washington DC. IF HE DID in fact deliberately and knowing lie to the American people and congress, Bush and those in his administration are clearly unfit to direct or lead this country, and do in fact pose a serious danger so as long as they are in power. Once you cross the line staging events to achieve a political end, and that end also includes thousands of dead Americans…THAT is a very serious thing. And if you live in this country then THAT is something you should be seriously concerned in, and proactive in doing whatever you can to get your represented officials to confront. This IS a very serious matter, and it should be confronted like the life or death situation it is.
So…whats next?
Tear down that wall, Mr. Bush!
Answer the Americans who are petitioning their government for information about the Iraq war.
Seymour Hersch.sp? said months ago that Buchco planned to invade Iran in June. You know–like now. Where’s the outrage?
And also, YAAAAYYY!!!
Great site. Thank you for the rush transcript of the meeting.
Several links on the right under "Campaign ’04 Video Ads…" are in need of correction.
Under Other Must See Videos the link for "Sleeping through Bush (Letterman)" is now dead at their end.
As is "150 Top "Bush in 30 Seconds" Videos", and "Bush on OB-GYN’s"
"How Bush Did in Debate #1" has an extra http//
The target of "Running on the Bush Record" has been moved and now redirects to his index page.
Keep bloggin’.
Conyers for president.
Jimmo? Jimmo?
I think scotty beamed him up (from here as well)
For the Downing Street Memo, other British documents and a host of other Iraq-related materials, see:
"The Blair Snitch Project"
Do you believe President Bush misled the nation in order to go to war with Iraq?
(24,581 responses, still open)
Yes
93%
No
7%
It took me a while to get that it was a troll post. Really! I thought that he was talking about Sensenbrenner and the Republicans in Congress sticking the hearing in a broom closet.
"Yes, I told him, Sadly, it is a stunt by a pandering old fool and a bunch of spoiled children that hate this country."
Just leaving a trackback ping. I referenced your post in Conyers’s hearing on the Downing Street Minutes, and I’ve got links to other live bloggers there as well.
Rep. Conyers has a blog entry about the meeting here.
Re #68
I too read in about January of a plan to start attacking Iran in June after their presidential election outcome was known. I’ve waited since then for developments. Since I’ve grown so fearful of what your government can do, and what ours is complicit in, I never doubted for a moment at the time of reading that there was some substance in the report. I’ve been listening to our politicians since then, though also felt they might not any of them be willing to join Bush this time round. I always felt Iraq might have been the last and biggest counter given on the understanding there would be no more. (that’s my belief only, I’ve not seen it substantiated anywhere)
However as time went on and Iraq and Afghanistan have grown ever more troublesome for your armed forces (and ours) and Bush’s ratings have gone down, deficit has gone up, I assumed maybe they’d become more willing to negotiate issues instead of bomb. Therefore your news (I’ve been out of things recently, not keeping up) that they’ve now started talking publicly about Iran, has made me worry again about the future.
After all,there will come a point where the rest of the world (including American allies) will gang up against the dangerous bully, even if only for self-survival. And quite honestly, though I would be fiercely anti-American in any such dispute, what would happen to all of us should such an event ever come to pass scares me witless.
Oh, and Brad, I just want thank you for providing these news updates and this forum where a foreigner can listen to what is now almost the new ‘silent majority’ – the reasonable American voice one hears so seldom.
I just realised it is refreshing to come across this site again after a couple of others I know – it is a breath of fresh air to hear more moderate, questioning, and outward looking, more world-savvy, and world considering American voices after a short stint talking to some ‘Heartland’ folks -complete creationists, evolution-despisers, homophobes, and still thick Bush supporters who
state how liberal they are and really believe it! And that isn’t even a political site! They’re the kind who swallow all Fox puts out without thinking and give America a bad name. Some are really so very extreme that they seem caricatures, and give the impression of insular, backwoods living knuckle-draggers, interbreeding to such an extent they’ve become a new species. Mind you with a president not much better, they don’t have a good example to follow.
Oh sorry for the rant, and the O/T, but it made me appreciate this kind of forum where we get to see you’re not all like that, so thank you all.
Donna
The State of the Blog (Celebrity Status)
Just because planes are no longer slamming into buildings doesn’t mean that the terror is over. The real terror begins when it becomes public that the administration was complicit in the attacks. The terror begins when we face the truth that our government has prolonged the war on terror ruthlessly taking thousands of lives in the name of greed.
The underground news organizations of the past, the short wave broadcasts, the letters smuggled out of countries and into the hands of brave magazine publishers are over. Today there are broadcasts of the guilt sprayed across a sea of ones and zeros like targets painted on an electron. The blogger is the new resistance movement but even that has been fortified by greed. The successful blogs have garnered attention and thus have begun to believe more in themselves than in the message. It is not more important to be featured on this radio show or that television news broadcast, face time as they call it in the industry the bloggers are supposed to be fighting against, the message, the truth is what matters and to be seduced by the make-up chair, the readership or the hits on a website is to get away from the central idea, the originator of the movement which has collapsed into a internet form of the Nielsen ratings system.
– Chris Mansel
Hello I hope you can give me Clint Curtis phone number again. I had gotten from you a long time ago and need it again.. I need to speak to him.. thanks so much.. Harriet
After Rep. Conyers brave and patriotic hearing, a Washington Post hack, named Dana Milbank did an absolute hatchet job on Rep. Conyers, and the hearing in general. It was filled with distortions and right wing snide… not a word about how the Rep. Sensenbrunner did everything he could to humiliate and denigrate his fellow Judiciary Committee members. During the hearing, Tom Delay called for in house votes that disrupted attendees purposely, causing Rep. to have to leave the hearing again and again. Democracy in action? Hardly.
I have heard that Rep. Conyers replied to Milbank in the "letters Pages" but I have yet to find it. Anybody out there know of a link to his reply? Thanks again Brad.
Bin Laden was a CIA operative.Rumsfield and Rice were oil company executives.You do the math.go on my blog! http://journals.aol.com/whitebe...eattleliberal/ 😎
Bin Laden was a CIA operative.Rumsfield and Rice were oil company executives.You do the math.go on my blog! http://journals.aol.com/whitebe...eattleliberal/ 😎
Bin Laden was a CIA operative.Rumsfield and Rice were oil company executives.You do the math.go on my blog! http://journals.aol.com/whitebe...eattleliberal/ 😎
Bin Laden was a CIA operative.Rumsfield and Rice were oil company executives.You do the math.go on my blog! http://journals.aol.com/whitebe...eattleliberal/ 😎
🙂 :O 🙁 😉 😛 😀 😀 😛 😉 :angry: :blush: :confused: :doze: :hehe: :laugh: :plain: :rolleyes: :satisfied:
The truth will come out . . . it always does. Wish I were down in LaFayette Park right now on the walk.
CD To MP3 Ripper is an extremely easy and fast-speed tool to digitally convert your audio CD to MP3, WAV, WMA, RM and OGG files. It copies the audio digitally-not through the soundcard-which enables you to make perfect copies of the originals. It’s fast, easy to use while powerful.
This is very good news. Bush’s numbers keep sliding, and this memo is just what is needed to hit him with a knock-out blow, now that he’s on his heels.
Gandhi said: "All Tyrants fall eventually."