Thursday, January 12, 2006

Bully Boy's blood lust, Iran: Target in focus, Pinochet today and Bully Boy tomorrow



Good evening and let's kick things off with Democracy Now!


Pressure Builds On Iran Over Nuclear Activities
This news on Iran -- Russia, the US, the European Union and China will reportedly hold talks next week on Iran’s resumption of nuclear activities. The Iranian government has removed U.N. seals on its uranium enrichment equipment, sparking an outcry from the United States and Europe. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Iran's move did not violate international law, but may be brought before the UN Security Council. Meanwhile, Western leaders stepped up their rebukes of Iran.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair: "I don't think there is any point in people or us hiding our deep dismay at what Iran has decided to do and when taken in conjunction with their other comments about the state of Israel they cause real and serious alarm right across the world." Iran insists it’s removed the seals to resume research activities, and has no plans for uranium enrichment.
Former Iranian President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani: "They will regret creating any problems for us. God willing, we will get out of it successfully."

They're moving on Iran. Tony Blair gets quoted right above but Condi's wanting the UN to make a move. Two wars weren't enough for Bully Boy, he needs a third. Afghanistan is hardly a "win" and we all know Iraq is a civil war festering. But Bully Boy needs one more war. More people need to die on both sides and it still won't be enough to curb his blood lust.

That's the point of including "Bully Boy Exposed" from Isaiah's The World Today Just Nuts. Bully Boy's got the blood lust. He plays in his blood box. He sucks the blood dry from bones. Nothing can satisfy his blood lust.


Pinochet Stripped of Legal Immunity
In Chile, former military dictator Augusto Pinochet was stripped of his legal immunity Wednesday, clearing the way for him to face charges he murdered political opponents in the 1973 coup that brought him to power. Chilean courts have previously stripped Pinochet’s immunity for other cases, but he has avoided several trials by convincing judges he is medically unfit to stand trial. If the current case proceeds, it would reopen one of the most notorious human rights cases involving Pinochet's dictatorship -- the so-called Caravan of Death, in which 75 jailed dissidents were killed in the weeks immediately after the coup.

Pinochet today, Bully Boy after the Nov. 2006 elections! Let's make it happen.

How can we do that? Impeach. Impeach. Impeach.

Read Elizabeth Holtzman's "The Impeachment of George W. Bush" (The Nation):

Finally, it has started. People have begun to speak of impeaching President George W. Bush--not in hushed whispers but openly, in newspapers, on the Internet, in ordinary conversations and even in Congress. As a former member of Congress who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the impeachment proceedings against President Richard Nixon, I believe they are right to do so.
I can still remember the sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach during those proceedings, when it became clear that the President had so systematically abused the powers of the presidency and so threatened the rule of law that he had to be removed from office. As a Democrat who opposed many of President Nixon's policies, I still found voting for his impeachment to be one of the most sobering and unpleasant tasks I ever had to undertake. None of the members of the committee took pleasure in voting for impeachment; after all, Democrat or Republican, Nixon was still our President.
At the time, I hoped that our committee's work would send a strong signal to future Presidents that they had to obey the rule of law. I was wrong.
Like many others, I have been deeply troubled by Bush's breathtaking scorn for our international treaty obligations under the United Nations Charter and the Geneva Conventions. I have also been disturbed by the torture scandals and the violations of US criminal laws at the highest levels of our government they may entail, something I have written about in these pages [see Holtzman, "Torture and Accountability," July 18/25, 2005]. These concerns have been compounded by growing evidence that the President deliberately misled the country into the war in Iraq. But it wasn't until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA)--and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country's laws--that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate.

If the Bully Boy's a leech, you must impeach.

The hearings today on Alito?

Yawn.

You get all excited from one day and then it's back to butt smooching and "Thank you to you and your family for being here." Notice that Alito never mentioned thanks. Who is the one being honored? The Senate? No.

The Senate's fulfilling its obligation. Any nominee has to be vetted by them. Alito's the one who should be honored. But he sat there smugly time and again basking in the butt smooches.

I'm not a Hillary fan but both my parents think Diane Feinstein needs to step down from the judiciary committee and let Hillary get on it. They don't think you need to be a lawyer to be on the committee but they think you need to be strong and they're as disgusted as everyone else with Diane Feinstein's nonsense in the last three days.

Nina said it last night in the roundtable for the gina & krista round-robin, "Is she trying to play good cop? Because she just comes off like dumb cop. She like Chief Wiggins on The Simpsons."
I laughed so hard when Nina said that last night. (I had permission to quote the round-robin if anyone's wondering.)

I am proud of Ted Kennedy for being a fighter. I think some fought and some just growled. And Diane Feinstein just fanned herself acting like, as Kat's pointed out, The "Little Lady" of the Senate.

I also think C.I. did a pretty great job capturing the mood today in this entry and my favorite part is this:

So what has today been like? Not as lively as yesterday. "Enough of that. Let me move on." Who said that? Which Democrat? Does it matter? Doesn't that seem like those two sentences summed up much of what's gone on so far today? (Diane Feinstein said it today to Alito, for those who missed it.)
Who's worthy of applause in these hearings? Pacifica. They provided America with "gavel to gavel" coverage. (Coverage is still going on so if you're listening, keep listening. If you're not, consider listening via Pacifica.) With prospects very likely that Alito will be the second Supreme Court Justice appointed in less than a year by the Bully Boy, NPR decided that what America really needed was . . . so-called Fresh Air.


Be sure to check out Like Maria Said Paz for Elaine's comments.










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