The Hollywood Liberal

Senator: Some See Impeachment As Option

ABC News
Excerpt:
Republican Senator Says Bush’s Approach on Iraq Is Driving Lawmakers to Consider Impeachment
WASHINGTON Mar 25, 2007 (AP)— With his go-it-alone approach on Iraq, President Bush is flouting Congress and the public, so angering lawmakers that some consider impeachment an option over his war policy, a senator from Bush’s own party said Sunday.

GOP Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a frequent critic of the war, stopped short of calling for Bush’s impeachment. But he made clear that some lawmakers viewed that as an option should Bush choose to push ahead despite public sentiment against the war.

“Any president who says, I don’t care, or I will not respond to what the people of this country are saying about Iraq or anything else, or I don’t care what the Congress does, I am going to proceed if a president really believes that, then there are what I was pointing out, there are ways to deal with that,” said Hagel, who is considering a 2008 presidential run.

HLs Take
You know if Chuck Hagel wasn’t one of the owners of Diebold, ES&S, Seqouia voting systems, the ones that are responsible for Bush, and all the misery he has visited on the world, and the same voting systems he will use to try to get himself elected, I might almost like this guy. At least he is honest about Bush.

This guy Trump, he’s got a few dollars in his pocket. This guy could be one of Bush’s biggest fans what with all the tax breaks he gets for being mega rich. However The Donald tells the truth about the biggest F**k up to ever take the reigns of power in America. Check it out.

America’s hidden war dead

Chicago Tribune
Excerpt:
More than 770 civilians working for U.S. firms have lost their lives supporting the military in Iraq, and some families are now speaking out

HOUSTON — Like thousands of other Americans who have served in Iraq since the U.S. intervention began four years ago, Walter Zbryski came home in a coffin. Only his coffin was not draped in an American flag or accompanied by a military honor guard.

Instead, the mangled body of the 56-year-old retired firefighter from New York City was shipped back to his family in June 2004 in the bloodied clothes in which he died, with half of his head blown away, according to Zbryski’s brother Richard.

“I viewed the body,” Richard Zbryski said. “What really upset me was that he was laying there floating in at least 6 inches of his own body fluids. They didn’t even clean him up for us.”

Zbryski’s death was not counted among the official tally of more than 3,200 American military personnel who have been killed in Iraq, nor was it noted by the Defense Department in a news release. That’s because Zbryski was not a soldier–he was a truck driver working in the private army of hundreds of thousands of contractors hired by the Pentagon to support the logistical side of the massive American war effort in Iraq.

More than 770 civilian contractors working for American companies have died in Iraq since the U.S.-led invasion began on March 20, 2003, according to an obscure office inside the U.S. Department of Labor, which loosely tracks the figures. If those deaths–of truck drivers and cooks, laundry workers and security guards–are added to the military toll, the human cost of the U.S. war effort in Iraq is nearly 25 percent higher.

HLs Take:
Looks like Cheney’s Army of Halliburton/KBR civilians get even less care then our soldiers. Of course the real soldiers probably have little sympathy for the guys from KBR who make 3 times as much money as members of our own Army, to do the same work. This is one more way that they can get people to keep going to Iraq. They are paying guys like the ex-NYC firefighter to go over there and do the work that they can’t get enough volunteers to do. Don’t expect a state funeral if you happen to get killed over there though. Maybe its just me but it seems there has got to be a better way to make a living.

People who are screwing over America can’t criticize my Patriotism.

The AIPAC Girl, Nancy Pelosi Leaves Iran War In Bush/Cheney Hands

AP
Excerpt:
If George W. Bush launches a pre-emptive war on Iran, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will bear full moral responsibility for that war.
For it was Pelosi who quietly agreed to strip out of the $100 billion funding bill for Iraq a provision that would have required President Bush to seek congressional approval before launching any new war on Iran.
Pelosi’s capitulation came in the Appropriations Committee.
What went down, and why?
“Conservative Democrats as well as lawmakers concerned about the possible impact on Israel had argued for the change in strategy,” wrote The Associated Press’ David Espo and Matthew Lead.
“Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nev.) said in an interview there is a widespread fear in Israel about Iran,
Pelosi’s decision to strip the provision barring Bush from attacking Iran without Congress’ approval “sends the worst possible signal to the White House.”
“The speaker has erred dangerously and dramatically,” writes Nichols. Her “disastrous misstep could haunt her and the Congress for years to come.”
Nichols does not exaggerate.
If Bush now launches war on Iran, he can credibly say Congress and the Democrats gave him a green light. For Pelosi, by removing a provision saying Bush does not have the authority, de facto concedes he does have the authority.
Bush and Cheney need now not worry about Congress.
They have been flashed the go-sign for war on Iran

Here is our latest installment of The HL on NBC News Raw. We do a weekly segment for them every Monday morning where I talk about what we’ve been blogging about in the past week, and what is coming up this week. Here it is, check out the video.

Saw this on Bartcop.com

House OKs timetable for troops in Iraq

AP
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON – A sharply divided House voted Friday to order
President Bush to bring combat troops home from
Iraq next year, a victory for Democrats in an epic war-powers struggle and Congress’ boldest challenge yet to the administration’s policy.

Ignoring a White House veto threat, lawmakers voted 218-212, mostly along party lines, for a binding war spending bill requiring that combat operations cease before September 2008, or earlier if the Iraqi government does not meet certain requirements. Democrats said it was time to heed the mandate of their election sweep last November, which gave them control of Congress.

“The American people have lost faith in the president’s conduct of this war,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif. “The American people see the reality of the war, the president does not.”

Republicans were almost completely unified in their fight against the bill, which they said was tantamount to admitting failure in Iraq.
HLs Take:
And of course thats what the Republicans are all about not being able to admit the truth to themselves. Top Generals have said as recently as a few days ago that the war is lost and no amount of extra troops is going to make it better. But as long as Republicans don’t admit to themselves they were wrong (again) they can continue the boondoggle indefinitely, while they all continue to recieve their payoffs and kickbacks. Bush has threatened to veto, but if he does that he does not get his extra hundred billion.

Britain: Iran seizes 15 sailors, marines

AP
Excerpt:
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Iranian naval vessels on Friday seized 15 British sailors and marines who had boarded a merchant ship in Iraqi waters of the Persian Gulf, British and U.S. officials said. Britain immediately protested the detentions, which come at a time of high tension between the West and
Iran.

In London, the British government summoned the Iranian ambassador to the Foreign Office: “He was left in no doubt that we want them back,” Britain’s Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said after the meeting.

The U.S. Navy, which operates off the Iraqi coast along with British forces, said the British sailors appeared unharmed and that Iran’s Revolutionary Guard naval forces were responsible.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said the British Navy personnel were “engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters,” and had completed a ship inspection when they were accosted by the Iranian vessels.

HLs Take
So now the US/British forces are not as strong as the Iranian Navy. This sounds like a BS story to me. Is this the 9/11-Golf of Tonkin incident that Bush and Blair will use to start “Debacle 2 Iran: The Sequel” Where they will get their asses kicked by an Army that is 4 times the size of Iraqs. At least Bush will continue to rake in the cash until he gets out of office.

House OKs subpoenas for top Bush aides

AP
Constitutional Crisis Looms, Watergate 2 at Hand?
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON – A House panel on Wednesday approved subpoenas for
President Bush’s political adviser, Karl Rove and other top White House aides, setting up a constitutional showdown over the firings of eight federal prosecutors.
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By voice vote, the House Judiciary subcommittee on commercial and administrative law decided to compel the president’s top aides to testify publicly and under oath about their roles in the firings.

The White House has refused to budge in the controversy, standing by embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and insisting that the firings were appropriate. White House spokesman Tony Snow said that in offering aides to talk to the committees privately, Bush had sought to avoid the “media spectacle” that would result from public hearings with Rove and others at the witness table.

“The question they’ve got to ask themselves is, are you more interested in a political spectacle than getting the truth?” Snow said of the overture Tuesday by the White House via its top lawyer, Fred Fielding.

“There must be accountability,” countered subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sanchez (news, bio, voting record), D-Calif.

HLs Take
All Bush had to do was fire Gonzalez, and this probably would have all been averted, but we know how stubborn he is. If Rove and Miers refuse to testify they are in contempt of Congress. But guess who prosecutes Comtempt of Congress charges. You got it The Justice Department, and who is the head of the Justice Department? Why its none other then old Torture Boy himself, Alberto Gonzalez. So either the Democrats will have to be the totally spineless weasles they have been up to now, or they are going to have to impeach the bastard. This time they may have the backing of the big money power brokers and multinational corporations to actually do it. At least they are acting like they have some balls this time.