Countdown: Impeachment & Subpoenas, Bush Continues To Evade Justice
By Logan Murphy Tuesday Jul 15, 2008 9:00pm
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The House has sent articles of impeachment against George Bush to the House Judiciary Committee, however Speaker Nancy Pelosi now says that an actual impeachment VOTE isn't on the table. On Wednesday's Countdown, Jonathan Turley gives his expert analysis on this epic fail as well as the latest attempt by the president to obstruct Congressional oversight by claiming executive privilege in the CIA/Plame leak investigation.
As for Bush's executive privilege claims, Turley goes right for the jugular. Attorney General Michael Mukasey all but begged the president not to make him testify about Dick Cheney's role in the Plame case and has ignored a subpoena to appear to testify about the matter before Congress -- which Turley says should prompt Congress to charge him with Inherent Contempt. That's not likely to happen, and as Jonathan points out, Democrats who voted for Mukasey are now getting what they paid for:
"...This is why, when Senators Shumer and Feinstein saved Mukasey's confirmation, this is what they purchased. And, what Congress needs to do, the only thing they can do, is bring back Inherent Contempt and to say they're going to start to exercise contempt on their own, that the deal is off. Attorney General Mukasey has broken a very long standing promise to be a faithful broker, to bring these cases to the grand jury - he won't. And Congress has a right to now say we're going back to doing this stuff ourselves."
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$50 says the Democrats won't do it. The leadership has spines of jello.
Well who would of thought Makasey was going to turn out to be just like Gonzo? Besides everyone on every progressive blog site.
I'll believe the Democrats have any balls when I see them.
How disappointing. At this point, what are the democrats afraid of?
impeach. then PROSECUTE. that is the ONLY solution.
this needs to be the mantra of all of the people, with a single voice that will
repeat over and over and over and over and over again.
they're afraid that you'll find out all their dirty little secrets if they bring any of these fuckers up on trial. Yeah, wouldn't it just be peachy if they turned in their blackmailing republican fiends? then they'd spill the beans on all the other dirty deals they make with each other to get their own way at the expense of the American People, who are still fast asleep in the American Dream...
sad, and depressing. Buuuuut, I bet it's still true.
but, they're not going to do jack. Bush is going to walk and so are all his neocon thugs. There will be no war crimes trials, there will be no impeachment, there will be no criminal indictments. Why? Because the Dem leadership is no better than the Repugs. They are all contemptible imperialist morons. Obama is better than McCain, but only insofar as one uses a "worse than" scenario. Obama will not do anything to put the Thugs in jail, because he's up for the job of emperor, and I would humbly submit that he's got his own military objectives that are similar to those of the neocons - acquisition of resources for the hungry retarded empire - and will likely have to do LOTS of nasty nasty things in order to keep America from shivering in the dark, and in the air to Las Vegas for that fun filled weekend, and eating all the food they possibly can. since the USA doesn't make anything, al the economics are vampiric, and based on massive resource extraction to feed the consumption/growth machine. And Obama's NOT going to want somebody hounding him to jail in 2012 for invading Fragistan for its vast reserves of Dilithium crystals...
You people are so screwed...
Face it. Game over. You lose. Just like Russia did, just like Nazi Germany did, Just like the UK did, Just like France did, Just like Rome did... Welcome to the trash heap of history, you dinosaurs. You've made your fossil bed, but still you toss and turn...
I keep having this dream:
January 20th, 2009. Barack Obama is sworn in as the next President of the United States. He shakes hands with outgoing President Bush and VP Cheney, smiles back and then says, "Arrest them." The Secret Service does as this new boss commands and take Bush & Cheney into custody.
Sadly I know it is just a dream. But one needs dreams to keep going, don't we? :)
PS: What would be interesting is whether or not Bush & Cheney would dare skip the inaugural out of a fear this might actually happen. I just can't imagine them NOT showing up.
tweakerbell, you sound just like my friend Kristi! lol
And at the end of this process an American corn-pone Hitler may be waiting to set everything and everyone straight.
are you kidding Mugsy? LOL, G-Dumb wouldn't miss that for the world! hehe, he's probably waiting for it day by day so he can give us all the finger and stomp off like the Boy-King he is.
Gimme a break Turley. All your insightful legal posturing is good for your ego, but
you know as well as 99.9 percent of us "in the know", the Dems are not going to
do anything....as already evidenced by their incompetance as to H. Miers/J.Bolten/
Gonzo/Rove/et.al. Mr. Turley you are a fine legal scholar, but you are not dealing
with honorable persons in this Admin., so "talk is cheap" and telling us what needs
to be done is just repeatative and redundant..."NOT gonna happen" because Congress is also incompetent and inept.So let's move on.
fuk muk
what has the Democratic leadership and a snowman got in common?
'sno Balls.
All talk and no action.
I want to know what dirt Bush has on the democratic leadership in congress.
Several wrote on another thread that if Bush were impeached under just that one article put forth by Kucinich, he would not be able to pardon anyone as he left office. I don't know if this is true and maybe someone can enlighten me, but if Bush is not impeached and pardons Rove, for example, for any role he may have had in the Siegelman matter, Pelosi, Reid, Conyers, et al. will have perpetrated a great crime on one of their own. Unbelievable.
We have criminals in charge of the executive, an accessory after the fact in the attorney general and their bag lady in charge of the house of representatives.
This is a huge joke. The joke is on us.
We need a Jeffersonian revolution to sweep the entire lot of these scoundrels away.
Impeach Pelosi!
brithumeistheantichrist @ 4:
I agree. You would think that Bush and Co. have incriminating photos of all the dems receiving (or giving) bl*wjobs for the way the dems are behaving.
brithumeistheantichrist @ 4:
Their constitutional responsibilities.
NEOCONs knew this was coming. so they are 3-4 steps
ahead of everybody....now to find out up to half of gitmo
prisoners did nothing and torture was much more than
h2o boarding....makes me sick.....they did this to piss
people off in the mid-east....keep the "war" going
$50 bucks? I'll bet a thousand that nothing ever is done about any of these crooks. That is why congress holds such a vaulted position in the hearts of Americans. Pelosi is so deluded about the reasons, I could scream. Law? What law? We have no constitution, and Bushco will skate out of office with nobody following. The courts are stacked, the media is paid for, congress is intimidated (and complicit), and we appear to have no legal means of holding them accountable. Anybody know anything different?
doggiebobo @ 12:
Yeah, let's just put our heads in the sand! Very smart.
McCain the Liar @ 15:
Here's Glenn Greenwald's answer to that question:
The Motivation for Blocking Investigations Into Bush Lawbreaking
''...just so long as I'm the dictator...'' dubya slips out the truth often
enough @ 22:
Nope, I sure don't know anything different from what you stated. And I certainly am
not going to take you up on the $1Grand bet...
chicano2nd @ 23:
Please no more Pelosi!
Mustn't boil complexities down into their constituent components. Best to keep things complex and the people mystified. Reality is off the table.
My God, how many different ways do you want to feel frustration. Let it go. Pelosi hasn't the balls for anything but granny tough talk, followed by acquiesence
Just more evidence that it's all a sham. Some scripted play. An Amurikan tragedy. W destroys Amurika and congress might get around to possibly, potentially, maybe, someday making some gesture or taking some form of action that might lead to....nothing. I know! They're waiting until after the inauguration of the next president to impeach W. Well, of course! That really makes sense in a congressional sort of a way.
Hearing on Impeachable Offenses Scheduled for July 25th in House Judiciary Committee
The hearings will be televised!
Investigate, Impeach, Imprison.
Not that they seem to need my money, but absolutely no donation from me unless Pelosi and weak friends move on somebody, Rove, Bush, Cheney, Hell even Perino for a crosswalk violation. Do SOMETHING that looks of backbone and I'll donate to the DNC, otherwise only Feingold or Boxer or someone who FIGHTS!
Our last ray of hope that our Democracy could be saved from the fascists in power was sadly dashed when Obama voted for the FISA Bill to cover-up for the Bush Crime Family. We now know that Obama's second book had a typo in its title. It was supposed to be titled, "The Audacity of Caving".
Gowrge Bushh is a viEEnna weenie.
Bushs' legacy will be "W.orst president ever" and the Iraq war, to our shame, will be forever remembered as an atrocity, unless we redeem ourselves by impeaching these criminals.
All I attribute this outright cowardice to is that there is powerful nuclear dirt floating in the background waiting for some some pretext to excape into the public domain.
All I can suggest is for voters to dump both parties on Election Day and elect people who will represent them, not sectional or ideoligical interests
In these situations I get the distinct feeling that something is going on behind the scenes that we are not privy to. It just doesn't make rational sense, what the Dems are doing. And looking it at it from the outside, with a rational perspective, is clearly a frustrating experience.
Do people like Shumer and Feinstein and Pelosi (and Obama) have guns held to their heads, or are they that horribly corrupt? Because it doesn't seem possible for them to be that stupid.
Daniel @ 38:
So what do you think it is?
Impeachment taken off the table, subpoenas that have no meaning, and sternly worded letters that have no meaning. No outrage from our candidate Barack Obama, as the corporate media and Congress sit idly by while our country crumbles. Damn.
Anyone else having difficulty playing this clip? QuickTime won't function at all, while Windows is so disjointed it is difficult to follow. Maybe just heavy traffic right now?
I know this is a pipe dream, but aren't lawyers who refuse to enforce the law supposed to be brought before the bar and lose the right to argue before the bar, i,e., disbarred as it were?
Isn't the Congress just plumb full of lawyers? I say if they refuse to abide by the terms as set forth by our system of laws, they should be whipped into compliance by their own profession.
How hypocritical this country has become where the common man is obliged to pay a parking ticket or face a subpoena to appear or face the consequences, while these criminals are responsible for heinous crimes against humanity and are tearing down our system of justice and taking a huge dump on our Constitution!
Meanwhile a majority of the people just set back, grab a Bud, turn the tube on to Nascar, professional wrestling (football, basketball, hockey take your pick), or are watching American Idol and not informed enough to realise that their Christian (what a joke that is) representatives in government are busy wrecking the country big time!
"It's crumbelievable!"
By our friends from KRAFT. As in the kraft. Always thinking of us....when they put poisons into their food for our ingestion.
Well, consumers, this looks like it. I hope everyone is planning their last meal(s) soon. For mine I'm going with a surf and turf fisherman's platter (scallops, oysters, calamari, lobster, shrimp, maybe some grouper or monk fish), a nice juicy rib eye flame broiled just past medium rare. Yummie! Baked potato loaded with sour cream, chives, cheddar, and real bacon bits. Wash it down with a Fat Tire amber ale or a Gordon Biersch Marzen (or maybe both). And possibly a banana split or sundae for desert. Then finish off with a fine brandy. Notice I left out vegetable matter. Didn't think I would eat broccoli or asparagus for my last meal did you? What would be the point of that? To stay healthy right before you went into a concentration camp?
See you at Gitmo!
This is a f^cking farce.
They won't do their jobs so they put on a little play.
What are these assholes getting paid for this amateur production of 'Mr Smith Goes to Washington'?
webegeeks...What planet are you living on? One with something called justice? Hahahahaha! Maybe if we live through this we can find some later or set up a government that actually works.
Mugsy @ 8:
Almost shot beer out of my nose! I just wish that I dreamt such happy dreams.
bronco214 @ 46:
That will be happening in a parallel universe. Just not THIS one.
Jimmy @ 32:
...execute.
Symbolic MY ass!
That puss ball needs to be drug behind a humvee and presented with the fate of "Saydam". Will someone, anyone please end this "American Nightmare"!
Correction: This "Vugar Human Infection"!
And just for good measure: Dub...your mother fell outta the nest and hit every branch FACE FIRST on the way down! Nana nana...naaanah!
Smoke Osama outta his cave? You got smoked asswipe!
Curtsie!
Mugsy @ 8:
Great dream. But lets be realistic here- change Obama for Santa Claus.
Life's a bitch in the National Security State.
Charles re #45,
maybe that is what happened, I was abducted by aliens and had all the smart sucked out of my nostrils while I had republican talking points pumped into my butt by the barrelful. Now that explains it ... thanks for bringing me back from my obvious delusion:.)
What does Bush and company have on the democrats? Or are they just as complicit as the republicans? A house of a different color?
webegeeks @ 52:
I sure hope we can laugh them out of existence. Just try to live every day like it was your last. At least we had relative peace today, and it looks like we will somehow (by the hairs on our butts) get through another week. After that, especially with these insane morons in charge, it's anyone's guess.
Harry and Nancy must go.
your mama @ 30:
Your Mama is right. Haven't we all seen enough in the last 7 1/2 years to know that the Dems are absolutely worthless? I don't know why anyone continues to watch Olberman and Turley fantasize about how things should be played out in a country of laws when it's clear that we no longer live in one. Take back an hour of your life every night and skip watching it. Instead, do something pleasant with your time like imagining kicking Nancy "upholding the Constitution is off the table" Pelosi down a flight of stairs or something. So much more satisfying!
JoeN @ 53:
Obviously the Dems have been paid off some how. Clearly we have been sold down a river with no paddles. Maybe the powers that be promised them and their families a place in Mt Weather when the maniacal fools do whatever it is they're planning to do. I don't know, but our elected officials sure aren't representing us. Maybe they decided that humans are the cause of global warming so they came up with a solution. A final solution.
Remember remember,
in early November,
the NeoCon treason and plot.
I know of no reason
why the NeoCon treason
should ever be forgot!
oh suprise , suprise , indeed Im shocked .
Appalling.
If the situation were reversed (as it was 10 years ago, over a blowjob) - if, say, by some miracle the Repubs regain their majority in 2010 or 2012, and they get to go after Obama's Attorney General, or Obama himself, does anyone doubt for a second they would bring charges of contempt if a subpoena to testify were refused?
I don't understand why people don't get that the dems and the repubs are really only about status quo. One right hand and one left hand of the body of total control.
Nothing is going to happen. Everyones afraid of the Bush family. CIA...killing presidents, fixing elections, drugs for arms, money laundering. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iDMktUYvC7k
everyones a dupe, willingly or unwillingly, or they are in on the way things really work, in the real world of power and control.
The slow creep of create problem and provide solution. Why do we think the people who cause the problems are going to be able to fix the problems with the solutions that didn't work earlier? Especially when the same things keep happening over and over.
thank goodness we've got reality tv.
Any hearings will be just like this one was. This body of elected officials is a joke.
Where is the call for Nancy Pelosi Impeachment? come on California! get on it! Where are your balls?
Why the heck don't all you guys get out on the streets and start protesting. I remember watching American's raise hell in the late 1960's and early 1970's. "What inspirational neighbours to the south. They don't take no shit."
Like no offense to any of you very fine people. (I love C&L'ers) but get away from the keyboard and get out there with signs and banners and raise your voices. Get organised and do it. You know you've been lied to and are seeing your country trashed...
make the time, get out there and wear out a pair of shoes and make your voice horse shouting.
Nobody hears you shout on a blog.
Leadership, fear, indecision and politics have nothing to do with it. The Democrat party will NOT seek prosecution against ANYONE in the administration because THEY WERE BRIEFED on TORTURE. The KNEW and they kept quiet. They are all TRAITORS; COMPLICIT in the crimes of the administration. THAT is why they will not act. It has nothing to do with spines, or partisan BS, or elections. It's because they are all just as guilty as bush and cheney - and THEY KNOW IT. And now WE know it.
Dick Durbin sat on his hands KNOWING FULL WELL there were no WMD in Iraq - yet he let the resolution to invade Iraq go forward. He is a TRAITOR.
Isn't TREASON a crime? Yes.
Isn't blowing a stop sign a crime? Yes.
The Difference: The latter is punishable while the former is not in a "post-controlled demolitions of 911" world.
My America is dead.
The country I grew up in, the country I loved so deeply, is dead!
I remember being so proud of her. A beacon of light in an otherwise dark world.
Champion of justice, friend to the downtrodden, we were respected and even loved
around the world. Now we are no better than those countries we railed against
in years past. Just as evil, just as loathsome and just as unlawful.
We have under this administration, committed acts of rendition, spiriting people away
in the middle of the night to foreign countries, to be held for indeterminate amounts of time. We have imprisoned others without trial or due process. We have sanctioned and committed Torture!
We have attacked another country without provocation, because we feared it might develop weapons. Us, Americans, Invaded and destroyed another nation that had not attacked us first.
Members of this administration have engaged in acts of treason, outing a covert CIA agent, simply for political vengeance. They have obstructed justice, wire tapped Americans without a court order, falsified documents, deleted evidence and refused to obey congressional mandates.
The Constitution of these United States, has been rendered useless. The document our fore fathers believed so deeply in, fought for, died for. Reduced to a side note to be trumped by executive privilege.
And where is the dissent? We Americans have always been proud that at least here, In America, You were entitled to a voice. Well, It has been shouted down, replaced with the rhetoric of nationalism. Even those institutions that have in the past championed truth and justice; The free press, The Supreme Court The Congress itself, have been usurped, bludgeoned or coerced into capitulation.
Yes, My America is dead, I wonder, who will mourn for her?
Nancy "Quisling" Pelosi strikes again, geeze what a shame I had my hopes up AGAIN! lol ... Why does this show start to resemble Battlestar Galactica so much ... fucking toasters all of em ...
This guy, Turley is really sharp and right on point. What a shame it is to see our Congress members brought down to the current size they are and its all basted on how and who they voted for in these offices.
That lunatic that calls himself the replacement Attorney General is no better then Gonzales and the two Supreme Court Justices, Roberts and Alito and yet no matter how much we barraged our congress members with emails and phone calls, they insisted on supporting these cheap thugs, only to have them pointing the finger up their noises.
They refuse to listen to the voices of American people, who simply just may be just a little bit sharper then many of them, who have no street sense,when it comes to judging people, especially those of us that came up thro ugh the hood and can spot a criminal before they open their dame mouths and the bastards they have plastered all over our government, put the street brothers and sisters that live and breath crime, to shame.
These are some hard core criminal, perverts and yet Senator Reid, just took them behind the door and came out smiling as if he had accomplished something great, while Alito and Roberts had daggers sticking all through his ass.
How dame disgusting this shit is.
McCain the Liar @ 15:
Abramoff monies, wasnt it 40 out of 45 senators took his lobby cheques from his proxies, around 04/05
All for a paltry couple of grand per senator we get stifled justice.
Pelosi is the problem. Cindy Sheehan taking her seat is our only hope now. I guess we're pretty much screwed.
This frustrates and disappoints me to no end. What's with Pelosi? What's with the Democrats? What's with ALL the elected representatives in Congress? Why do they insist on bowing down to a president with such abysmal approval ratings? Unbelievable!!
HA! Snore. Don't forget to pay your taxes promptly: bu$h needs your money to rule the planet. (The Dems are writing nasty notes, alone in their offices.)
L.A. Confidential @ 10:
You read Jim Kunstler's Clusterfuck Nation Chronicle this week, right?
Kunstler.com
Wise_Fool @ 9:
Great read, wasn't it!!! .........[7 Tweakerbell Says]
Nico @ 66:
It's all true. Yet, remember, how many Americans sat back and let it happen, and seemed not to care. That is the real sickness; the crime. Distracted people too interested in their own comfort, they sold out the nation they loved, and now it's broken, and maybe beyond repair.
PS another good read Nico at 66
I've changed my mind about Dumbocrats not having a spine.
It takes a hell of a set of balls to be Dem leader and get up in front of their base and the whole country and say I'm going to do what a repuglican would do.
True Dems need to start looking at how to remove the Korporate cancer that has infected the party. Pelousy, Greed, Con-yours and a long list list of high ranking Dems are now the main obstacle to holding this Domestic terrorist administration accountable for the crimes they have committed.
Mr. Kucinich.... How do we remove these people from office and turn the Democratic party over to real Democrats and not these Korporate Republicrats they have turned into?
Kucinich was starting to become an embarassment so now it's up to Mr. John to shuffle up to the plate and prove he's a good little house congressman in the house for the House. Funny how Pelosi can be so certain there won't be a vote. I thought that's what the committee was for but I guess Mr. John has his orders.
Dubya's in a happy place if he can _BE_ not guilty before, during and after the investigation. Gives psychos a job to aspire to.
SO I SAY AGAIN..... the GOP is the party of CHEAP LABOR
JUST LIKE THE ECONOMY... take what you can ... and when it is time to PAY THE PIPER.... r u n......
.................agent orange not treated until many had died........internment camps then "apologize"..... abu grabi the same..... BUSH bank busts.... KENNY BOY LAY (oops... he's dead... sorry... he was really a saint then).....
UNTIL PEOPLE RECOGNIZE THAT THERE IS CLASS WARFARE... nothing will change....
UNIONS....good.....they take from the rich and share with the workers
TAXES....good.... they take from the RICHER and spread it around in services used by the middle class and the poor
THE don't tax.... AND SPEND.... republicans..... know that they are spending YOUR CHILDRENS' MONEY
guns gays abortion ----> THEY REALLY DONT GIVE A FUCK.... any wedge issue to blur THE ISSUE...... CLASS WARFARE !!!!!!!!
If you're a liberal and ou're complaining, ou're part of the problem, having done nothing for 8 years to oust Bush or set things right. The last 8 years are a shameful indictment of liberal pussyhood without a single acheivment to point to.
Obama would go down in American history in the same breath as Lincoln, FDR, Washington, and MLK, if he brought these criminals to justice and undid the damage that have wrought on us all. There is no doubt about that. He would be hailed in history as the savior of the republic. But the same could be said of Pelosi if she allowed impeachment. They know this, so why don't they act and make themselves heroes? Because they can't. They hold no real power. Their strings are pulled just as Bush and Cheney's are. These people are the mere tools of the the truly powerful, and always unseen and unknown rulers of the world.
We can rail away at the neo-con thugs, the impotent democrats, and the move-to-the-right Obama. But the outcries and the blame and all the scorn are misdirected. These people are the sycophants to the relative handful of people who really are in control, and until they are hunted down and disemboweled, nothing will change for the better.
Mugsy @ 8:
I said we're talking about bush /cheney here.
your mama @ 80:
I just love it when the victims of fraud and deceit are blamed for the fraud and deceit. Under this principle, nobody's responsible for any action committed by others except those who are harmed by it. Under this principle, the victims of the holocaust were responsible for the holocaust, not the Nazis. Or the victims of the Inquisition were responsible for their own deaths, not the Church.
Congress, who had the responsibility to protect their constituents' rights, instead voted to save their own hides. Citizen outrage and protest are continually ignored. I'm beginning to think things may already have reached the point where nothing short of a catastrophe or armed revolution can set things right.
To replace miss nancy with a soney hoyer (?) will change what?
recall nancy!!
not only are bush/cheney going to be regarded as the worst executive branch in history this pelosi/reid congress is going to be regarded the most ineffective and cowardly in history