George H. Bush calls Dick Cheney "Arrogant" and "Iron ass." Oh now it's on!

Courtesy of The Guardian: 

Former US president George HW Bush has hit out at Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, two of the most senior figures in his son’s administration, labelling them too “hardline” and “arrogant” in their handling of the 11 September attacks. 

A new biography of the 41st president – Destiny and Power: The American Odyssey Of George Herbert Walker Bush – reveals that Bush Sr held Cheney and Rumsfeld responsible for the hawkish stance that “hurt” his son’s administration, Fox News reported on Wednesday. 

“The reaction [to 9/11], what to do about the Middle East. Just iron-ass. His seeming knuckling under to the real hard-charging guys who want to fight about everything, use force to get our way in the Middle East,” Bush told Meacham in the book, which is due to be published next week.

Of course Papa Bush does not extend the same criticism to his son:  

“He’s my son, he did his best and I’m for him. It’s that simple an equation.”

Well what did you expect?

Still Bush senior coming out against Cheney, Rumsfeld, and the response to 9-11 is huge.

And it comes at a rather inopportune time for Darth Cheney as there is a resolution about to be introduced to the Senate to honor the former VP and war criminal:  

Starting in December, the likeness of former Vice President Dick Cheney will grace the U.S. Capitol, in accordance with a Senate tradition honoring former vice presidents. 

The Huffington Post was tipped off by a Senate resolution "authorizing the use of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center for the unveiling of the marble bust of Vice President Richard Cheney on December 3, 2015."

Yeah well they better plan on having around the clock security because I CANNOT imagine a more likely target for vandalism than a bust of Dick Cheney.

Personally my all time favorite fantasy is seeing Cheney, Bush, Rumsfeld, Rove, and Wolfowitz all marched off in chains to serve out the rest of their lives on a federal penitentiary as war criminals.

President Obama abandons plan to remove all troops from Afghanistan, will leave 5,500 in place at end of term.

Courtesy of the New York Times: 

The United States will halt its military withdrawal from Afghanistan and instead keep thousands of troops in the country through the end of President Obama’s term in 2017, Mr. Obama announced on Thursday, prolonging the American role in a war that has now stretched on for 14 years. 

The current American force in Afghanistan of 9,800 troops will remain in place through most of 2016 under the Obama administration’s revised plans, before dropping to about 5,500 at the end of next year or in early 2017, Mr. Obama said. 

Some of the troops will continue to train and advise Afghan forces, while others will carry on the search for Qaeda fighters and militants from the Islamic State and other groups who have found a haven in Afghanistan, he said. 

In abandoning his ambition to bring home almost all American troops before leaving office, Mr. Obama appears to be acknowledging that Afghan security forces are still not near ready to hold off the Taliban on their own.

So we remain the occupying force that Donald Rumsfeld swore we would never be. 

As much as this upsets me it is pretty clear that considering what happened in Iraq after the withdrawal of American forces that the President does not feel he has much of a choice.

Of course it seems obvious that expecting the situation to improve enough someday to justify complete troop withdrawal now seems like a pipe dream. At some point whoever is in charge (Hi Hillary!) is simply going to have to say "fuck it" and bring the troops home knowing that everything is going to go to hell when they leave. 

But until that happens America continues to be trapped in an endless war, with no end in sight.

Lucky us.

Donald Rumsfeld says that he never thought forcing democracy on Iraq was a good idea. Now he tells us.

Courtesy of MSNBC:

In an interview with British newspaper The Times, Rumsfeld said that efforts to oust Saddam Hussein and replace his tyrannical regime with democracy were unworkable, and that he had concerns about the plan from the beginning. 

“I’m not one who thinks that our particular template of democracy is appropriate for other countries at every moment of their histories,” Rumsfeld told The Times. “The idea that we could fashion a democracy in Iraq seemed to me unrealistic. I was concerned about it when I first heard those words.”

WTF?

Rumsfeld has just as much blood on his hands as do Bush, Cheney, and Wolfowitz, among others. And there is nothing he can say now that will wash them clean.

Remember this is the guy who once said:

"There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know."

Sounds to me as if there were more knowns than unknowns, but this asshole didn't have the balls to say them out loud when it could have prevented the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Iraqis.

I wonder how many more rats will jump ship in the months to come?

The CIA has just now declassified the report that was used to justify the invasion of Iraq. Guess what? It does not justify the invasion of Iraq.

Courtesy of Vice:  

For the first time, the public can now read the hastily drafted CIA document that led Congress to pass a joint resolution authorizing the use of military force in Iraq, a costly war launched March 20, 2003 that was predicated on "disarming" Iraq of its (non-existent) WMD, overthrowing Saddam Hussein, and "freeing" the Iraqi people. 

A report issued by the government funded think-tank RAND Corporation last December titled "Blinders, Blunders and Wars" said the NIE "contained several qualifiers that were dropped…. As the draft NIE went up the intelligence chain of command, the conclusions were treated increasingly definitively." 

An example of that: According to the newly declassified NIE, the intelligence community concluded that Iraq "probably has renovated a [vaccine] production plant" to manufacture biological weapons "but we are unable to determine whether [biological weapons] agent research has resumed." The NIE also said Hussein did not have "sufficient material" to manufacture any nuclear weapons. But in an October 7, 2002 speech in Cincinnati, Ohio, then-President George W. Bush simply said Iraq, "possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons" and "the evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program." 

One of the most significant parts of the NIE revealed for the first time is the section pertaining to Iraq's alleged links to al Qaeda. In September 2002, then-Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld claimed the US had "bulletproof" evidence linking Hussein's regime to the terrorist group. 

"We do have solid evidence of the presence in Iraq of al Qaeda members, including some that have been in Baghdad," Rumsfeld said. "We have what we consider to be very reliable reporting of senior-level contacts going back a decade, and of possible chemical- and biological-agent training." 

But the NIE said its information about a working relationship between al Qaeda and Iraq was based on "sources of varying reliability" — like Iraqi defectors — and it was not at all clear that Hussein had even been aware of a relationship, if in fact there were one. 

"As with much of the information on the overall relationship, details on training and support are second-hand," the NIE said. "The presence of al-Qa'ida militants in Iraq poses many questions. We do not know to what extent Baghdad may be actively complicit in this use of its territory for safehaven and transit."

That is just a portion of a much longer article, virtually all of it refuting what we were all told during the build up to the invasion, and Vice also has the actual report embedded for those who want to read it for themselves. 

Here is what really sticks in my craw.

This report was supposedly readily available to both the Senate and Congress to help its members make perhaps the MOST important decision of their careers, and yet still they voted to support Bush and his unnecessary war.

To my mind that makes those who voted in favor partly culpable for the damage that resulted from the decision to move forward even in the face of such unconvincing evidence.

Which also means, and yes I know I'm on thin ice with some of you, Hillary Clinton.

More from the article:

According to the latest figures compiled by Iraq Body Count, to date more than 200,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed, although other sources say the casualties are twice as high. More than 4,000 US soldiers have been killed in Iraq, and tens of thousands more have been injured and maimed. The war has cost US taxpayers more than $800 billion. 

And as President Obama recently pointed out the fallout from the war is far from over since it was instrumental in the creation of ISIS.

Of course it will not make any difference in the general, especially since it is likely she will run against the brother of the man who started the war in the first place, but it is just one more reason that voting for Hillary in 2016 will feel more like an obligation rather than a privilege.

German human rights group files criminal complaint against Bush Administration in wake of torture report.

Courtesy of Democracy Now:  

A human rights group in Berlin, Germany, has filed a criminal complaint against the architects of the George W. Bush administration’s torture program. The European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights has accused former Bush administration officials, including CIA Director George Tenet and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, of war crimes, and called for an immediate investigation by a German prosecutor. The move follows the release of a Senate report on CIA torture which includes the case of a German citizen, Khalid El-Masri, who was captured by CIA agents in 2004 due to mistaken identity and tortured at a secret prison in Afghanistan. So far, no one involved in the CIA torture program has been charged with a crime — except the whistleblower John Kiriakou, who exposed it. We speak to Michael Ratner, president emeritus of the Center for Constitutional Rights and chairman of the European Center for Constitutional and Human Rights, and longtime defense attorney Martin Garbus.

So here's my question.

Are we going to allow ourselves to be shown up by the Germans? 

After all we have several human rights groups here in America, so what in the hell is the holdup?

Today is the day that they are releasing the CIA torture report. About damn time!

Courtesy of USA Today: 

"There are some indications that the release of the report could lead to a greater risk that is posed to U.S. facilities and individuals all around the world," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Monday. "So the administration has taken the prudent steps to ensure that the proper security precautions are in place at U.S. facilities around the globe." 

The report's release by the Senate Intelligence Committee sparked a fierce debate in Congress. 

Some lawmakers said it's important for the report to be released so the U.S. government will never again use torture as a method of interrogation. Others said it will inflame extremist groups in the Middle East and elsewhere and threaten the lives of U.S. diplomats, military members and other Americans overseas. 

The Intelligence Committee is expected to release Tuesday a 500-page summary of a 6,200-page report on the the CIA's use of waterboarding, sleep deprivation, humiliation and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" against al-Qaeda prisoners during the George W. Bush administration. 

While the revelations of torture are not new, the report will detail the broad scope of the controversial practices, which took place at secret detention centers in the Middle East and Asia. It also will allege that the CIA tried to hide what they were doing from Congress and the White House. Perhaps most controversial of all, it will conclude that the CIA's tactics failed to gather any useful information to save American lives. 

"The president believes that, on principle, it's important to release that report, so that people around the world and people here at home understand exactly what transpired," Earnest said. He added that "something like this should never happen again."

There are of course dire warnings that the release of this report will result in attacks on American soldiers overseas, of course many of those are coming from folks who are about to look really bad when this thing comes out, but in the end I think it is important that Americans come to terms with what we did.

We mistreated people for no other reason than somebody somewhere did not like them and told the CIA that they were a terrorists. Based on such slim evidence we captured and tortured some of these people for many years.

These techniques created far more terrorists than we have ever captured or killed, and it has inspired the formation of groups like ISIS which are now terrorizing people all over the Middle East. 

And because we were afraid we turned a blind eye to what was being done in the name of protecting the homeland.

Which by the ways sounds uncomfortably like something that was said in Nazi Germany in the 1940's.

New report by the Senate Intelligence Committee finds that CIA misled the government about the benefits of enhanced interrogation techniques, or what is commonly known as torture.

Courtesy of the Washington Post:  

A report by the Senate Intelligence Committee concludes that the CIA misled the government and the public about aspects of its brutal interrogation program for years — concealing details about the severity of its methods, overstating the significance of plots and prisoners, and taking credit for critical pieces of intelligence that detainees had in fact surrendered before they were subjected to harsh techniques. 

The report, built around detailed chronologies of dozens of CIA detainees, documents a long-standing pattern of unsubstantiated claims as agency officials sought permission to use — and later tried to defend — excruciating interrogation methods that yielded little, if any, significant intelligence, according to U.S. officials who have reviewed the document. 

“The CIA described [its program] repeatedly both to the Department of Justice and eventually to Congress as getting unique, otherwise unobtainable intelligence that helped disrupt terrorist plots and save thousands of lives,” said one U.S. official briefed on the report. “Was that actually true? The answer is no.” 

Current and former U.S. officials who described the report spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue and because the document remains classified. The 6,300-page report includes what officials described as damning new disclosures about a sprawling network of secret detention facilities, or “black sites,” that was dismantled by President Obama in 2009.

Classified files reviewed by committee investigators reveal internal divisions over the interrogation program, officials said, including one case in which CIA employees left the agency’s secret prison in Thailand after becoming disturbed by the brutal measures being employed there. The report also cites cases in which officials at CIA headquarters demanded the continued use of harsh interrogation techniques even after analysts were convinced that prisoners had no more information to give.

Yeah someone tell me again how the Obama administration is the most criminal administration in history, or how President Obama is destroying the reputation of this country.

These techniques were implemented, supported, and defended by George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz.

And every time anybody tried to call them out on using torture they were attacked, undermined, and essentially accused of giving comfort to the terrorists.

Fuck the Bush administration.

Fuck the Republicans who provided them cover.

And fuck anybody who even suggests that we vote another Republican President into office.

Florida Republican candidate suggested that President Obama should be arrested and hanged. Seriously? Update!

Courtesy of Tampa Bay Times:  

As Americans honored the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on Monday, a Republican candidate for Florida House District 68 said President Barack Obama should be hanged for war crimes. 

"I'm past impeachment," Joshua Black wrote on Twitter. "It's time to arrest and hang him high." 

The tweet caught the attention of Chris Latvala, a Republican candidate for House District 67. 

"You aren't seriously calling for the killing of Obama are you?" Latvala replied. "I know you are crazy but good heavens. U R an embarrassment." 

Latvala added: "I make it my business when so called GOP candidates become an embarrassment to my beloved party." 

Black, 31, of Pinellas Park moved to Florida in 2007 after practicing street evangelism in St. Louis and works as a taxi driver. According to his campaign website, Black entered politics in 2012 when he tried influencing the presidential primary. 

The website says: "Republicans have a serious communication problem. Everything we say sounds like spears." 

Hours after the tweet, Black defended his comment. Obama should be held responsible for ordering a drone strike that killed a U.S. citizen overseas, he said. 

"He should be executed for treason," Black said. "I think the appropriate punishment is death. They killed Benedict Arnold. (Obama) shouldn't be allowed to kill Americans without a trial."

So in the eyes of this wingnut President Obama is comparable to Benedict Arnold, the most famous traitor in US history. Oh yeah, nothing exaggerated about that!

Hey look I am also uncomfortable with the idea of drones killing American citizens (And by the way there have been four.), but I am also aware that police officers shoot and kill suspects all over the country in what are considered life and death circumstances, without benefit of a trial, and as a rule we do not suggest that they be put to death.

And let me point out just how incredibly hypocritical it is to demand that this President be tried of war crimes, when the entire fucking reason we were over in Afghanistan and Iraq is due to the policies of George W. Bush, a man that we KNOW started the wars based on fabricated intelligence.

After we have arrested and imprisoned George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Paul Wolfowitz, THEN somebody can start talking about arresting President Obama.

And on that note the radical fringe falls silent. 

Update: Well guess who got a visit from the Secret Service. 

DJ makes a citizen's arrest of ex-Prime Minister Tony Blair for war crimes. Well good for him!

Courtesy of The Telegraph:  

One of the world’s most controversial political figures had an unlikely brush with reality on Friday, with Tony Blair subjected to a humiliating citizen’s arrest by a DJ working as a barman at trendy London eaterie the Tramshed. 

It appears Blair was caught off-guard during an intimate meal with family and friends. The former Prime Minister has been haunted for almost a decade by the legacy of what many term an illegal war which saw up to a million Iraqis die and the country left ravaged by rival militia groups. 

While Blair is used to facing protests wherever he goes, from high level conferences to book signings, he has never been ambushed in a social setting – until now. 

DJ and aspiring producer Twiggy Garcia told Vice he had fantasised for years about ‘arresting’ Blair. He couldn’t believe his luck when he discovered he was in the very restaurant he was working. It was not a plan, he claimed on Monday but “something I have wanted to do for a few years. I had been waiting for the opportunity after seeing the website arrestblair.org and it just so happened that we were in the same place at the same time.” 

Mr Garcia recalls his “heart rate increased” when he discovered Blair’s “eerie presence” was in the building. He feared Blair’s security detail might have overheard him saying “should I citizen’s arrest him?” 

His motivation? “I believe Blair is responsible for the mass murder of Iraqi civilians after taking our country into an illegal war.”

I love this!

I don;t know about most of you but I have a similar fantasy when it comes to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Karl Rove.

 Apparently this is the fifth time that somebody has tried to place Blair under a citizen's arrest, mostly due to the urging of this website, which offers a reward for anyone who successfully arrests him.

Okay my question is why isn't there an ArrestBush.org, an ArrestRumsfeld.org, and an ArrestCheney.org?

Because I think it would be awesome if the criminals in the Bush administration were afraid to go out into to public for fearing of being accosted by justice loving Americans.

Deaprtment of Justice to grant Bush Administration immunity from prosecution over the Iraq War. Seriously, WTF Obama Administration?

Courtesy of War is Crime:  

In court papers filed today (PDF), the United States Department of Justice requested that George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice and Paul Wolfowitz be granted procedural immunity in a case alleging that they planned and waged the Iraq War in violation of international law. 

Plaintiff Sundus Shaker Saleh, an Iraqi single mother and refugee now living in Jordan, filed a complaint in March 2013 in San Francisco federal court alleging that the planning and waging of the war constituted a “crime of aggression” against Iraq, a legal theory that was used by the Nuremberg Tribunal to convict Nazi war criminals after World War II. 

"The DOJ claims that in planning and waging the Iraq War, ex-President Bush and key members of his Administration were acting within the legitimate scope of their employment and are thus immune from suit,” chief counsel Inder Comar of Comar Law said. 

The “Westfall Act certification,” submitted pursuant to the Westfall Act of 1988, permits the Attorney General, at his or her discretion, to substitute the United States as the defendant and essentially grant absolute immunity to government employees for actions taken within the scope of their employment.

Okay I have defended this administration through thick and thin, and often have taken buckets of crap for doing so.

But I simply CANNOT defend this action.

Iraqi woman files class action lawsuit against President Bush over his "war of aggression." Oh PLEASE let this be successful!

Courtesy of Yes magazine:  

George W. Bush keeps a low profile these days, making the rounds on the public speaking circuit, engaging in a bit of philanthropy here and there, occasionally sharing his dog paintings or offering an unsolicited opinion on the immigration debate or national security. 

Given his role in the current media landscape, it may be easy to forget that just 10 years ago he led an invasion of a foreign country that many in the international community saw as criminal. 

Sundus Shaker Saleh, an Iraqi single mother of three, has not forgotten. The violence and chaos that engulfed Iraq following the U.S.-led invasion of 2003 had tragic consequences for her family and ultimately forced her to flee her homeland for an uncertain future. She has left Iraq, but she is determined to make sure the world hears her story and that someone is held accountable. 

Saleh is the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit targeting six key members of the Bush Administration: George W. Bush, Richard Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Colin Powell, and Paul Wolfowitz. In Saleh v. Bush, she alleges that the Iraq War was not conducted in self-defense, did not have the appropriate authorization by the United Nations, and therefore constituted a “crime of aggression” under international law—a designation first set down in the Nuremberg Trials after World War II. The aim of the suit is simple: to achieve justice for Iraqis, and to show that no one, not even the president of the United States, is above the law.

I don't have muhc faith in this actually going anywhere, but an anti-war liberal can dream can't he?

Nonpartisan group finds that, without a doubt, the Bush administration is guilty of torture. Somebody organize a jury while I get some rope.

"Yeah, so we broke the law and used torture, What are ya gonna do about it?" 

Courtesy of Raw Story:

A nonpartisan group led by a former top Bush administration official concluded a two-year review on Tuesday that finds the former president and his top advisers knowingly ordered interrogation techniques that U.S. officials have previously referred to as torture. 

“After conducting our own two-year investigation, weighing the credibility of all sources and studying the current public record, we have come to the regrettable, but unavoidable, conclusion that the United States did indeed engage in conduct that is clearly torture,” former Rep. Asa Hutchinson (R-AR), who served as undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security during the Bush administration, said in an advisory. 

The 577-page review, put together by the advocacy group The Constitution Project, includes interviews with dozens of people who have first-hand knowledge of the discussions about interrogation techniques and their implementation. Although Bush administration loyalists said at the time that “enhanced interrogation tactics” like stress positions, waterboarding, mock executions, sensory deprivation and prolonged diapering were not torture, this report aims to specifically and finally emphasize that these activities meet the clinical definition of “torture.” 

“As long as the debate continues, so too does the possibility that the United States could again engage in torture,” the report says, according to The New York Times, which received an advance copy. 

“What sets the United States apart as a world leader, in addition to our military might, are our values and respect for the rule of law. All the available evidence led us to conclude that, for many of these detainees, the U.S. violated both international law and treaties and our own laws, greatly diminishing America’s ability to forge important alliances around the world,” former Rep. James R. Jones (D-OK) added in the group’s advisory. 

The report also notes dozens of instances in which U.S. officials and U.S courts treated similar tactics as torture when applied to U.S. persons, and urges the Obama administration to declassify a 6,000-page Senate report on the extent of torture’s use during the Bush years. 

“This has not been an easy inquiry for me, because I know many of the players,” Hutchinson told The New York Times. “But I just think we learn from history. It’s incredibly important to have an accurate account not just of what happened but of how decisions were made.” 

Okay so now that this report is finished and it leaves NO doubt that the Bush administration engaged in criminal activities. let's have the whole slimy bunch of them arrested for treason.

All criminal investigations into the Bush torture program have been called off by the Obama administration.

Fuck!

So nothing. These bastards destroy our reputation, lie us into two unnecessary wars, spy on our citizens, and damn near near bankrupt the country, and nothing happens to them?

No of course not. But just let President Obama fail to leave a tip after eating lunch and the impeachment hearings will commence posthaste.

Fucking Republicans!

In case you missed it here is "Hubris: The Selling of the Iraq War" narrated by Rachel Maddow

If you did not get the chance to watch this last night I urge you to take the time to watch it here, It is too important to miss in my opinion.

One of my strongest reactions while watching this last night, was to the sheer hypocrisy of the Republican party. Many of who DARE to criticize  President Obama's decisions to end the Iraq War, after supporting the start of it so aggressively while ignoring the fact that the reasons given for going in were based on shaky, if not false, information.

If they had any sense of honor they would have all stepped down from their political positions years ago.

And speaking of shameful we have the insanity of John McCain DEMANDING more information about the four American deaths in Benghazi, while the blood of 4,486 dead United States military members drips from his old arthritic hands.

If ANY member of the Senate should have seen what was happening and put a stop to it, it was ex POW John McCain. But what did he do? He continued to push for an extension of the war well past the point where virtually everybody else had deemed it unnecessary, and wrong.

In a perfect world I would see George Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, Dick Cheney, and Paul Wolfowitz, executed for treason after being tried for war crimes. But I would also like to see John McCain stripped of his office and thrown into jail as well, for supporting a criminal war and ignoring information that he knew to be false.

Open thread for MSNBC's "Hubris: Selling of the Iraq War" hosted by Rachel Maddow.

Here is just one except courtesy of Mother Jones:  

One chilling moment in the film comes in an interview with retired General Anthony Zinni, a former commander in chief of US Central Command. In August 2002, the Bush-Cheney administration opened its propaganda campaign for war with a Cheney speech at the annual Veterans of Foreign Wars convention. The veep made a stark declaration: "There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." No doubt, he proclaimed, Saddam was arming himself with WMD in preparation for attacking the United States. 

Zinni was sitting on the stage during the speech, and in the documentary he recalls his reaction: 

It was a shock. It was a total shock. I couldn't believe the vice president was saying this, you know? In doing work with the CIA on Iraq WMD, through all the briefings I heard at Langley, I never saw one piece of credible evidence that there was an ongoing program. And that's when I began to believe they're getting serious about this. They wanna go into Iraq. 

That Zinni quote should almost end the debate on whether the Bush-Cheney administration purposefully guided the nation into war with misinformation and disinformation. 

But there's more. So much more.

As I am sure many of you know David Corn, of Mother Jones, wrote the book that this documentary is based on with fellow journalist Michael Isikoff. It is definitely going to be "must see TV" for those of us who were railing against this war from the very beginning, and will hopefully provide an incentive for journalists to revisit this issue and perhaps, fingers crossed here, somebody will actually have to answer for why this country was lied into a war, and why so many thousands of our military members were sent to their deaths under false pretenses.

As you can probably tell I am already amped up to see this and if you are as well feel free to leave your impressions here.

Make sure you clear your calendars for the premiere of the documentary "Hubris: The Selling of the Iraq War." Which is scheduled for Monday on MSNBC, and will be hosted by our own Rachel Maddow.

Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

I often call myself a "Bush Democrat" meaning that I was essentially an Independent until George W. Bush was elected, and then I decided it was time to take sides in what I saw as a war against the American people being waged by the Republican party.

I KNEW before the first shot was fired that the reasons given for going into Iraq were false, and I simply could not believe that the media in this country refused to call the administration out on that.

My most constant frustration with President Obama is that he has refused to go after the people that falsified the information that got us into the Iraq War, and the politicians who supported it even though they HAD to have known, or at least suspected, the truth.

I'm not stupid. I have seen the incredibly partisan climate we currently live in, and realize that IF the President had attempted to launch an investigation, or charge the ex-President and his staff with treason, it would have split this country irreparably, and we would right now be fighting that long threatened civil war that some on the Right are itching to start.

Having said that, I for one certainly hope that at some point, with documentaries like this getting the truth out to the American people, the time may soon be right to revisit this criminal enterprise and find justice for the thousands of young Americans who died needlessly in a war that NEVER should have taken place.

Only in my dreams did I think I would ever see this.

Part One.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Exclusive - Donald Rumsfeld Extended Interview Pt. 1
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Click here for Part Two.  And here is Part Three

Wow! Did you ever think you would see Jon Stewart interview Donald Rumsfeld?

I don't usually watch Hardball anymore, but here Chris Matthews is speaking the gospel.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

This is why I started this blog back in 2004.  It was to talk about the Bush administration and the lies they told to trick this country into fighting these illegal wars.  I had hoped to someday see George Bush, Dick Cheney, and Don Rumsfeld charged as war criminals, and for me that dream is still alive.

Mathews has thrown down the gauntlet, do we have the guts to pick it up?

For my fellow Alaskans the e-mail address for Senator Begich is here, while Senator Murkowski's is here.

Don't we owe it to our fallen warriors to get to the bottom of the lies that sent them to their premature deaths, and to make sure no President will EVER be allowed to mislead the American people into supporting an illegal war ever again?

Obama taps General Shinseki as VA Secretary. Karma bitchslaps Rumsfeld all over the place!

Shinseki’s tenure as Army chief of staff from 1999 to 2003 was marked by constant tensions with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, which boiled over in 2003 when Shinseki testified to Congress that it might take several hundred thousand U.S. troops to control Iraq after the invasion.

Rumsfeld and his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, belittled the estimate as “wildly off the mark,” and the army general was forced out within months. But Shinseki’s words proved prophetic after President George W. Bush in early 2007 announced a “surge” of additional troops to Iraq after miscalculating the numbers needed to stem sectarian violence.

Obama said he selected Shinseki for the VA post because he “was right” in predicting that the U.S. will need more troops in Iraq than Rumsfeld believed at the time.

“When I reflect on the sacrifices that have been made by our veterans and, I think about how so many veterans around the country are struggling even more than those who have not served — higher unemployment rates, higher homeless rates, higher substance abuse rates, medical care that is inadequate — it breaks my heart,” Obama told NBC.

Shinseki, 66, will take the helm of the government’s second largest agency, which has been roundly criticized during the Bush administration for underestimating the amount of funding needed to treat thousands of injured veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan.

When I read this article I literally yelled for joy.

Picking Shinseki means that Obama really is dedicated to righting all of the wrongs committed by the Bush administration over the last eight long years.

Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz treated General Shinseki like a traitor for telling the truth. He dared to sit in front of Congress and tell them that we needed more troops to be successful in Iraq after the invasion, which was contrary to Rumsfeld's desire to run the war on the cheap, and the Bush administration repaid him by shaming him into retirement. THAT is how the Bush administration supported the troops.

And of course, as we all know now, Shinseki was dead on in his estimate of how many troops it would take to secure Iraq.

The only thing Obama could that would be more Karmic then this would be to put Michael Moore in charge of Homeland Security. And you know, that would not bother me one little bit. (My apologies Janet Napolitano, I am sure you will do a fine job as well.)

Rumsfeld memos reveal just how manipulative and disingenuous the Bush administration has truly been.

In a series of internal musings and memos to his staff, then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld argued that Muslims avoid "physical labor" and wrote of the need to "keep elevating the threat," "link Iraq to Iran" and develop "bumper sticker statements" to rally public support for an increasingly unpopular war.

The memos, often referred to as "snowflakes," shed light on Rumsfeld's brusque management style and on his efforts to address key challenges during his tenure as Pentagon chief. Spanning from 2002 to shortly after his resignation following the 2006 congressional elections, a sampling of his trademark missives obtained yesterday reveals a defense secretary disdainful of media criticism and driven to reshape public opinion of the Iraq war.

Under siege in April 2006, when a series of retired generals denounced him and called for his resignation in newspaper op-ed pieces, Rumsfeld produced a memo after a conference call with military analysts. "Talk about Somalia, the Philippines, etc. Make the American people realize they are surrounded in the world by violent extremists," he wrote.

People will "rally" to sacrifice, he noted after the meeting. "They are looking for leadership. Sacrifice = Victory."

So the gist is that Rumsfeld, and we have to assume the rest of the Bush administration, learned early on that keeping Americans frightened allowed them to run roughshod over our rights.

It also allowed them to continue forward with their war plans without any serious challenges.

Is it any wonder that we do not believe a SINGLE thing this administration tells us anymore?

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