Who's Sorry Now?

It was a pleasant weekend for those of us who have been against the Iraq War from the beginning. The Washington Post had an article on the bitterness and regrets of those in the Bush administration who concocted and ran the war and have now left. Some of them have nightmares. Nothing like the nightmares of the prisoners of Abu Ghraib or Guantanamo or the Black Sites, but hey, a few nightmares are progress. Maybe they will have more, and then they will have mental breakdowns and they can experience electroshock therapy -- that would be a nice payback for them. In the New York Times magazine, there was an article about Kanan Makiya, an exiled Iraqi scholar who was a big cheerleader for the war, and who seems to have given Bush and Cheney a rationale that they could use as a cover for their real motives. At the end of the article, there's an interesting interview with Ali Allawi, who was the Minister of Finance in the Iraqi transitional government in 2005 and into 2006. Allawi was opposed to the war, but went to Iraq to try and put Humpty back together again. He failed. And, of course, there's Blackwater. Whoops. Americans have recently gotten a good look at our very own right wing death squad (paid for by us to the tune of 445,000 per soldier, per year), and we know there are more RWDSs where that one came from. And I loved the headline of David "the Pig" Brooks' op-ed in last week's Times, "The Republican Collapse" -- is there a lovelier phrase? I used to send letters to David Brooks asking when the New York Times was going to fire him. He never responded.

All the same, though, the emerging consensus (another vast rightwing conspiracy to my mind) is that everyone's intentions were good, if not great. Makiya, for example, knew all the horrors that Saddam Hussein had committed against the Iraqis and the Iranians, and just wanted to get him out of there, even if the odds, as he calculated them, against actually establishing a stable government were 20-1. He thought Ahmed Chalabi was going to be the Nelson Mandela of Iraq. And the same for Meghan O' Sullivan, who was about THIRTY when the fates of the Iraqis were put into her hands -- she just wanted to help. As for Karl Rove and that Permanent Republican Majority -- well, he didn't mean to hurt anyone -- really, the one who's been hurt here is Karl himself (also the refrain of Clarence Thomas).

What I see here, especially when you add in the Israelis and the Neocons and Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, is a perfect storm of opportunism, opportunism compounded of ignorance, greed, self-regard, power-lust, and sheer shallowness. "Opportunism" is when you use someone else for your own ends, thinking that you will pretend to give the other guy what he wants and in doing so, you will get what you want. I think the World Champion Opportunist Award these days goes to those Israelis who ally themselves with the American Rapture people, knowing full well that in Rapture theology, the wholesale conversion of the Jews is the prerequisite for the Second Coming of Jesus. These Israelis will work with people who anticipate another Holocaust -- who hope for it -- in order to get American money and arms for Israel. That is opportunism taken to a new level -- but not that new.

The Iraqi exiles thought they would use the American government and military to get their country back. The Neocons and Israel thought they would use the Americans to get rid of Saddam and remake the Middle East so that Israel would be more secure. Rove thought he would use "war" to entrench his power base. Cheney thought he would use the exiled Iraqis to get access to Iraqi oil fields and to establish an authoritarian presidency in the US. Bush thought he would use everyone to get a sense that he had both avenged his father and outdone him. Tony Blair thought he would use his alliance with Bush to press some of his own programs, like helping Africa and distinguishing Britain from Europe. Rumsfeld thought he would use the war to remake and outsource the army, thereby enriching his friends. Erik Prince thought he would use the American taxpayers to get rich and also to move toward an American theocracy. The religious right thought they would use the war and consequent "patriotism" issues to consolidate, fleece, and militarize their base. The Free Market theorists thought they would use taxpayer money to experiment with privatizing the Iraqi economy. The result is failure and recrimination, not to mention a refusal by almost every one of these people to take responsibility for what they've done. As they see it these days, bad things in Iraq just happened somehow.

Opportunism often looks good on the surface, but it is based on manipulation rather than relationship, and masks an absolute misunderstanding of human nature. What happened with the Iraq war was no mistake and no accident. It grew out of the failure of conservatives, from the time of Ronald Reagan, at least, to understand and accept the necessity of government in a complex and populous society, and therefore to think about what government could and should do. The more they refused to think about it, the less they knew. Reagan, with his smiling soothing phrases and his tone of benign condescension, served as an appealing front man for what the nasty and unlamented Lee Atwater himself called "ruthless ambitions and moral decay". Reagan Republicans thought of government as a mechanism for increasing their own power and wealth. They never accepted that the US has many different regions, ethnicities, and enclaves, all of which have equal claim to citizenship. From at least the 1960s, the Republican Party has worked actively to pit region against region, class against class, and ethnicity against ethnicity, and to reap profits therefrom. Men like Karl Rove came to think habitually in terms of propaganda, manipulation, and deceit.

These were the people Makiya and Chalabi turned to for help against Saddam. These were people who were so cavalier that they didn't bother to read the reports of their own experts about how difficult the aftermath of the invasion would be. Allawi was smarter, though. He says in the Times, "Ahmad Chalabi, Kanan Makiya, all of these people became media stars, but their influence on decision making was next to nothing. I can't believe that a person like Wolfowitz or Cheney or whoever it was in the neocon cabal would allow themselves to be manipulated... They are far too cynical. They have their own agendas. And these agendas were boosted by Iraqis who seemed to be singing from the same song sheet. The Iraqis gave them credibility, gave them substance. But I don't think they were influenced by them."

Various rightwingers maintain that if the Iraq adventure had worked out, we would all be praising the Bush administration. What they don't understand is that it could not have worked out because of how it was conceived and the shallowness of the motives behind it. This was evident in 2003. In fact, it was evident in 2000. When the vote in Florida turned out to be rigged, or at least suspect, Bush and Cheney did, not what honorable men to, but what opportunists do -- they used intimidation (against the vote counters) and influence (on the Supreme Court, notably with Clarence Thomas) to seize what might or might not have been theirs by right (everyone who has read The Best Election Money Can Buy knows that Jeb and Katherine Harris also set up the Florida vote ahead of time, but I think it was in the counting that the real theft took place). Bush could have exerted himself both publicly and privately to make the vote count as scrupulous as possible. He did not. The apple was offered to him and he bit it. He never understood what elections represent in the US -- not seizure of power but acceptance of responsibility -- and so he has never understood his position or his job. His idea and Cheney's idea was that they were going to use their jobs to get what they could for themselves and their powerbase, just as they used the election controversy to get the job. They have surrounded themselves with people of like mind and those who don't think this way have left or been forced out.

The clusterf**k of opportunism that is the last seven years was bound to end in a cluster of fingerpointing and grievance. People hate feeling used and betrayed, even as they are using and betraying others. Remember when Bush expressed his annoyance at the ingratitude of the Iraqis? And have you noted the resentment of the religious right at being the last to know that nobody in the Bush administration actually cares about their agenda? Were the Republicans grateful to Katherine Harris? Nope -- they let her humiliate herself in front of the whole nation. Those Iraqis -- they sure don't show much loyalty to Blackwater. Even Alan Greenspan has done what he can to divorce himself from the very people he sucked up to five years ago.

Is it possible to have no sense of civic responsibility at all? Yes -- that's what Free Market theory, and the last generation of Republican culture is about. It elevates commerce and deal-making above every other human activity, and therefore glorifies opportunism. A generation of coaching by Free Market gurus has robbed Americans of the means of a decent existence.The reason we can't get out of Iraq is that none of the opportunists dares to admit why he or she wanted to make a war there in the first place, and so we, the American people, don't actually know what the goal was and can't ever judge whether it has been achieved. Though Cheney's goal was to secure the oil, he can't admit that to the Iraqis, who don't want to give up the oil. If the Iraqis' goal was to use our military to fight the battle and then take over themselves, they ceded that goal every time they flattered the Americans. If the Israelis consider their existence to be worth every American sacrifice of money, corruption, and human life, they dare not say so. If the military industrial complex really is happy to profit from death and destruction, do they actually pretend to their children that they are human? A lot of PTSD says they do. I could go on.

In order to gain power, the Republicans long ago (and knowingly, thanks, Mr. Atwater and others) handed the citizenry, and themselves, a bill of goods, a set of philosophical and economic ideas that were bankrupt. The citizenry, suckers that we were, bought it because it appealed to their worst selves. The price we have paid and will continue to pay in Iraq for this bad bargain is a steep one, and could break the bank. But if we don't understand how we got here, we could buy it again, because the politicians and the pundits still have it for sale.

Comments

[sophson]

as usual, jane nails it! i keep asking myself where are the democratic party leaders. i can't help but think they(except carl levin)must continue to be thinking about being reelected and not putting up a stronger resistance to the republican warlords, torturers thieves, and holy rollers. my kids grand kids and their kids will be paying for this nine billion dollar fiasco.

[RedRooster]

sophson,
you and I are asking the same question..."where are the democratic party leaders"? Where is the passion, where is the conviction of the once-great political party on the left?

There are more great and impassioned speeches about any number of subjects held in one month across my family's dinner table than I have seen or heard from Democratic Party Leaders over the last seven years.

Jane Smiley, as a follow-up to you excellent post, perhaps you attempt to answer the following question:

"Where are the Democratic Party leaders"?

[Kendo Nagasaki]

Jane: an excellent insightful analysis well written.

Would you now please write up articles of impeachment for Bush, Cheney et al ?

Lawyers do not seem to be able or willing to do it.

[mosh]

The lawyers have done it, and excellently. See the Center for Constitutional Rights dandy and thorough treatise. It's the lawmakers who refuse to act -

I get tired of reading what we all know already - where is the call for impeachment? The Congress should do it's constitutional duty and bring articles of impeachment against these criminals, anything less implicates them - how dare Pelosi take this remedy off the table - as one scandal after another emerges. All we do is yak, yak, yak - the Congress needs to act.

[Tennessean]

Jane, you've nailed it perfectly. The 'clusterf**k of opportunism,' a perfect storm of machiavellian manipulation. To me, it is nothing short of a coup.

Who's Sorry Now? The vast majority of Americans, and indeed, the world. We have been hijacked America. We've been taken hostage, and 'rendered'--some of us 'disappeared'--to another world: A world of lies, corruption, torture, authoritarianism, fascism. What inevitably follows is poverty of the spirit, and poverty of the purse. The 2000 coup is costing us dearly every day we allow it to continue. If you have not already done so, read Greg Palast's "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy." Read, "The Great Risk Shift," by Jacob Hacker. Read, "The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism" by Naomi Klein. Hopefully, it'll 'Shock and Awe' you into waking up. They have stolen America and transformed it into something else entirely. If we don't do something to stop them, we'll be the ones who are 'sorry now'. That means you, Speaker Pelosi, and the rest of the collaborators who continue to allow it to happen. Stop the money for the war. Stop extensions to violations of FISA. Stop the bleeding of our blood and treasury, our spread of authoritarianism around the globe, the theft of democracy for profiteering corporatism, the sell-out of our values for fascism. Stop it. Stop it now. Impeach Bush and Cheney. They are war criminals.

[gardenbookie]

Now we are engaged in a great (civil) war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war.

The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. (in part - the Gettysburg Address)

It's time for less talk, more action. Nay. It's past time. It's past time for the "united people" of the "united states" to "unite". No partisanship. No right/left wing. No religious bias. No racial lines. No gender lines.

Who wants to start?

[Lane]

me! count me in!
you got any ideas how to get this country back on track?

[pservelle]

Where are you and I know why I found you, do you? We are writing posts with different words but the same content...trust in God and visit: www.WeR4Obama.co.nr (note: NOT.COM) Best viewed by Mozilla Firefox. To the charge I am doing a disservice to the Democratic Party: only because the DP is falling lock step behind the Clintons who cannot lead even if they win. When the DP puts Country ahead of self-interest then I will see what they have to say. Until then, I will listen to Barack.

[Lane]

to pservelle-
Obama will make an excellent Vice President, or in other words, Prez in training, to whichever Dem wins the election. We need some more time to get over the fact that he is young and inexperienced and was raised a Muslim. Just the thought of someone getting elected on the Christian vote then coming out as a Muslim is too much for me to handle. He needs to prove himself first.

[Chinampas]

Does everyone here really believe that the conservatives are solely responsible for the war? Don't forget the promises made last year before the elections. Many of the democratic candidates are now flipping.

[Marlyn]

Half of the Democrats are conservative. We call them the Blue Dogs. And YES they are responsible for the mess along with ALL of the Republicans.

[sugarmoes]

somewhere bin laden (and many of his kindred minds) are laughing their asses off that bush took the bait... and the hook, line, sinker, pole, reel, boat, etc....

[Lane]

Dear sugarmoes;
Bin Laden and Bush were in this together from the beginning! They've both been laughing all the way to the bank in the Caymans.

[PeaceThroughObedience]

These brave men and women of the far right have helped to create the New America-a land where the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer. Obedience is Freedom! All Hail Bush and the New America!! oh and God Bless the Troops ands God bless all the fundamentalists who made this war possible

[mawrm]

The best explanation yet and I think the whole NATION needs to read this piece. You nailed it - at the root of this whole is selfish, self-serving opportunism, our nation be damned.

[GJKBEAR]

ascreenname - I live in San Antonio - the home of John Hagee. Perhaps you have not heard of him or his mission? He preaches about the coming rapture of Armageddon and that it is right around the corner. He also preaches that the Jews need to retake the west bank and replace those Jews that lost their homes to Palestenians because GOD gave that land to the Jews and that Israel is the only land ever given to a people by GOD. [This would seem to refute your point about anti-semitism - Hagee is evidently not one]. This is not a small rinky dink church either - it is a mega church and it is not a synagog - it is evangelical. They held a big conference in Washington recently and he Liberman was a featured speaker. Hagee is pushing for war in Iran so that the rapture will come. So, don't tell me that this evangelical rapture stuff is all bunk - because some of these people are in my city, and this conference drew plenty of supporters. They are all sure that GOD is on their side.

[PeaceThroughObedience]

God is always on hte side of those who wish to start new wars

[rabun666]

A very good article. Chalabi played the neocons and was almost able to take over Iraq. He's smarter than they! The pretend christian Zionists, well the Israeli's watch them on TV and they know they are smarter than they are, so they play them. Very astute and actually very responsible for the sake of Israel whose interests they must have foremost in their agenda. The pretend christian Zionists are told what their best interests are by their phony preachers[biblical harlots] and they are told that Israel is their best interest so the Israeli's aren't going to discourage that and they play the fools. Israeli's know the rapture is a false doctrine[biblical fornication] and that the congregations that believe this are fools and their churches are the gathering places of Satan.As for the 2000 elections GWB knew the fix was in ahead of time when he stated publicly in September 2000 that their was no way he could lose Florida and this was being done at that time by purging the voter roles. The American public don't seem to know that we are supposed to vote for our own best interests and decide that for ourselves rather than someone else telling what their best interest are.

[TakeNoNeoConPrisoners]

First, let me say that I applaud Jane's eloquent essay on how-we-got-here and why we are in-this-pickle.
Next, the grand opportunity of opportunities here was in the exploitation by these criminals of gaming the system to take advantage for their ultimate gains. Yes, we now must admit that as much as the US Constitution is a grand document, it too is flawed in not being able to foresee and prevent this exploitation. As much as "impeachment" is the tool to reconcile high crimes and misdeameanors, it assumes that their would always be some kind of checks and balances in Congress and the Justice system. But the opportunists gamed all 3 branches of gov't to maintain complete control and thus were able to get away with their crimes. Until the checks and balances are restored, we have no hope of regaining our Constituional form of gov't. And we cannot even rely on the Dems to do that as "Impeachment is off the table."
Sad times, we live in...

[Bozwellian]

Speaking of "opportunismaticals"....where find the correalation of the overview in regards to how so many fingers have been in the pot of these last 6yrs especially--quite on the mark regarding the "movitvations of the lineup that led us ALL to where we are now..but struck too, by the PRESENT form of ultimate "opportunismaticals" going on with the Dems and most especially, Hillary /Camp Clinton...think they reek of such as well and the Dem contingency WILLING to go along to get along and figure that the Clintons are THE best "hope" for a Dem 'victory"/recapture of WH/power/etc...Here find such to be but a dreaded CONTINUATION of all the GOPS have allowed to be perped, just a face/name change and much yadda-yadda'ing going on promising all this or that in order to appease the "whoevers" that might bother to vote, hence see little TRUE hope of a CHANGE FOR THE BETTER...

[Bozwellian]

ie, the Dems still cower and whimper and allow the present helm to over reach and continue to breach the CONSTITUTION regularly..They whimper how THEY have too slim a majority and why if THEY stopped the funding, well a golliGwhizzerino, THEY would be tagged /assigned as responsible for NOT supporting the boots cuz would interrupt supply trains/service etc...UH a thought, perhaps if stopped paying BLACKWATER and other contractors those tax dollars, the funds for the military needs would still be available for "necessities/supplies" but the LARGER war effort would need to be RE_BUDGETED --lol, hopefully with proper "accounting and oversightedness/etc"....The Dems screech about "wiretaps" but then allow further--perhaps anticipating the use for THEIR perogatives/inclinations/effectiveness once thye hold the reins of power so do not wish to have all such go away as it COULD BE USEFUL in THEIR future and the precedent will have been set hoping to deflect its nastiness a thanks of the Gopers but won't fly as they have been way too complicite all along in way too much themselves using the whimpy excuse that they were not the majority or then not ENUFF of a majority....GAAAAAAAAgarino's, we roll on to MORE SAME-O's !!!
...."Opportunism often looks good on the surface, but it is based on manipulation rather than relationship, and masks an absolute misunderstanding of human nature...."

[reedmaker]

The Dems have taken impeachment off the table because they don't have the votes to make it stick--the repugs, though even *they* seem to be beginning to see how dangerous this admin is, would vote with their party rather than upholding their oath to defend the Constitution. The Founders, in all their wisdom, did not foresee this extremely broken two party system that we are burdened with. We are at the point of needing fundamental change...

[KRANKY]

"We are at the point of needing fundamental change... "
_______________________________________________

It is called REVOLUTION.
When the system is broke, and it is futile to repeat failure, then change is undeniable.

What we are now seeing is that we effectively lost our democracy in November/December of 2000. I knew it then. The Black caucus knew it then. Others have slowly accepted the fact.
NOW, the fascists are entrenched and will not leave quietly. We have delayed sacrifice for so long that the ultimate cost will be unthinkable for most, but it must be done if we would restore our constitutional republic.
We would be chewed up and crushed if we fight the war machine directly. We have to be smart, but as far as methods....there is nothing OFF the table.
Our enemies are the supporters and enablers of the de facto Fascist Party, AKA Republican Party and the false Dems...the go-along corporatists that sanction violence, killing, torture, genocide.
These criminals despise reason, thought, words.
The mass murderer bush has called the Constitution " a god-damned piece of paper ".

By not stopping this dissolution of democracy when we could, we now face the inevitable struggle where thousands will die.
Patriots must assure that most of them be the domestic enemies.

[rjcrane]

I too applaud this exceptional piece of writing. But I would also like to include on this list [even though most of my additions would still be smiling] all of the well connected war profiteers and munitions, arms makers and their enablers in the media who profited and /or continue to profit handsomely from this war for their role in helping to sell it to the America people. This became obvious to me when The Tonight Show with Jay Leno was used as a vehicle by their parent company GE to sell this war. I noted this connection when comedian Dennis Miller started appearing as frequently as every couple of weeks with Jay to basically hawk the war against Iraq starting about in November of 2002 and continuing for months after the invasion. After the initial invasion Dennis showed up again to cheer how well the war was going by mocking the looting of Baghdad's historical museums comparing their ancient artifacts to Pier One items. These appearances by Dennis Miller occurred about the same time Jay donned his GOP/Bush-war supporter flag lapel pin.

RJ Crane, editor
topplebush.com

[reedmaker]

"If the military industrial complex really is happy to profit from death and destruction, do they actually pretend to their children that they are human?"

I think this very pointed question is the perfect damnation of the war profiteers.

I didn't see Dennis Miller on Leno (I can barely stand to even look at either one of them, much less listen), but the interview with one of the Iraq museum's curators after the plundering took place truly broke my heart. He tearfully spoke of the theft and destruction not just of Irag's national treasures but of artifacts documenting the rise of human civilization--a devastating loss to us all.

[JimReed]

The posters have been putting all this effort into telling the bloggers what they need to hear, and now a blogger tells us posters what we need to hear. Thanks. I printed it out. Perhaps we can find a way to use this to advance the situation.

[JohnCitizen]

THE PRESIDENT’S MIND IS MISSING!

WE GET THE GOVERNMENT WE DESERVE… and, boy, we’ve really been getting it for the last 6-1/2 years! Truth, values, competence and results no longer matter in America.

THE PROBLEM: this President is not a rational thinker – his mind accepts information from only two sources: faith and experience. Because Bush is not rational (strictly empirical and subjective), objective facts and evidence such as the recent National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) that found the Iraq war has created more jihadists and terrorists and made America less safe are meaningless to this anachronistic man of several millennia ago. The reality of Iraq is what he thinks it is from the beautiful White House, and our country and our precious soldiers are in for much more of this endless strategic disaster.

GOOD NEWS though... God is speaking directly to George Bush (again) and telling him to go to war with Iran. This new war should go as well as the Iraq war (our President’s last guidance from “a higher authority, another Father” than Bush41) and further help over one billion Muslims in their decision to fight America in a mutual holy war. The Crusades of long ago are living history in the Middle East, and so Muslims are already primed for another war with Christian invaders. Our “bring it on” cowboy President is only rekindling and fueling this centuries-old fire.

Of course, TALKING WITH ADVERSARIES (instead of war) requires rational thought… thus with Bush, American diplomacy is an oxymoron. It will never happen! If past is prelude, Bush’s diplomacy with Iran will be perfunctory and rigged – our mentally unbalanced, messianic President needs to provoke a war, AND HE WILL FIND A WAY!

WITHOUT RATIONAL THINKING, bumping into reality is always a shock! FUTURE SHOCK… roiled Pakistan is just one assassin’s bullet away from going under. When the President finally increases the level of hatred against the United States to where it engulfs Pakistan, then we face nuclear terror, and Biblical Armageddon becomes real and a self-fulfilling prophecy. Oh, the joy, the Rapture!

[djthedj]

I think you give the filthy scum too much credit. He doesn't actually believe crap about God other than that he is special beacuase God ordained him as such. Nope, no hidden faith agenda here, it'a all about stufffing as much money from the treasury into his corporate whore buddies pockets as he can, period. That's what is so dispicable about it, lives mean nothing to him or Cheney when money is involved.

[rjcrane]

I have to agree with your comments. Bush uses religion to line his pockets and those of his supporters and donors with cash. He is the consummate con man and no different than all of the other phony preachers and televangelists who make money selling religion and cheap religious icons to the gullible.

The main problem with Bush is an non-curious mind - a mind that doesn't care to examine information from many perspectives nor attempt to sift through conflicting data or even learn something new that would require a big investment of time. Therefore he makes decisions more from an emotional base instead of an informed one. So I have to agree with the author of this excellent piece that all that was needed to sell Bush on the Iraq War was to tell him he could get revenge on Saddam for trying to kill his daddy.

What has become a reported fact is that Bush didn't even know about the various hostile religious factions in Iraq at least six weeks before the invasion. He didn't have a clue about Shiites and Sunnis when he had already decided to go to war.

RJ Crane, editor
topplebush.com

[Lane]

dear DJ-
well said!

[kodiak]

Jane, this essay, your assessment of a great and falling Nation is absolutely eloquent. I am an infrequent poster on the net but am compelled to cite the excellence of this work. I wish all Americans could read it.

I am 73 and have seen it all happen.

[JustDavid]

Ditto! Those of us old enough have seen this "set of philosophical and economic ideas that were bankrupt" fail time after time and yet the "politicians and pundits still have it for sale." And it is for sale because it is still selling. Unbelievable! And the polls say 28% of this country still support these proven losers. Unbelievable! One of the more depressing things is that so many of the current candidates still think they have to pander this insanity to get elected.

[TellitLikeItIs]

JustDavid--- Pandering by the "opposition party" is the reason the Congress is getting such poor approval ratings. Even lower than BushCo's (if that's possible!)

[fatcat too]

Incisive analysis; shall we mass-mail it to the dunces on capitol hill?

I love the idea of double impeachment, and would settle for Cheney's, but the votes aren't there though the crimes are. Besides, if impeached, those two would pretend not to notice. The latest news suggests that Bush is
trying to pardon himself in advance for crimes committed under his command of the armed forces.

Can we insist that our representatives and senators restore the constitution to its rightful place? Any suggestions on how we disarm the contractors if we're able to make the House stop funding them? Bush's "line veto" won't work on an appropriation that isn't there.

[Bozwellian]

LOL...well "srot of"...Our elected reps say they can NOT NOT FUND the MILITARY...say that would hurt our boots in their supply lines of bullets and humvees and etc...UH, HOW ABOUT DEMANDING THE STOP FUNDING OF CONTRACTORS ? Few REALLY realize that the number of CONTRACTORS OUTNUMER OUR BOOTS and a PREMIUM DOLLARS...tax dollars fund the CONTRACTORS who are the PRIVATIZED MILITARY FORCE OF THE USA but do NOT have to follow military code or even US LAW or ANY law for that matter and are accountable to no one with an ergo'd therefore'd FREE AGENT to do whatever and never pay a consequence for THEIR "mistakes/poor judements/decisions/actions" those consequences will fall on others...FORBID FUTURE PAYMENTS TO THE CONTRACTORS, allow the FUNDS TO BE ONLY FOR OFFICIAL MILITARY NECESSITIES....yeah, do indeed KNOW/realize WON't happen...we're in for continued SAME-Oings forevermore cuz we do NOT have ethical leadershippers available in ANY poli party or the corporations they connected with/to/etc.

[bethinCary]

There are articles in the Constitution that say the Americans can dissolve govt-for whatever reason they think they need to-article 5 maybe.

Rico statues on Article 6 of the Constittuion would stick, I believe if impeachment were taken up. Article 6 talks about the Constittion being absolut Rule of Law-which has been corrupted to foreign loobies (thier interests first over our own countrys'), the religious right (the DOJ firings showed this), along with lobbying efforts by Dobson and other fundies,allegiances in CIA to secret college organizations and "brothrhoods" would further seal this as would manipulation of the media-using strongarm tactics over Constituional rights by the media, oil lobby to influence foreign policy of our armed services....
my 2 cents.