Another Iraq War Media Blitz by Bush
“I think it does raise the question,
how do you fight and win the war on terrorism?” McClellan said. “And
if Democrats want to argue that we shouldn't be listening to al Qaeda communications,
it's their right and we welcome the debate. …”
W.House
dismisses Democrat's call for Bush censure
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Karl Rove needs to write Scott McClellan a new line, because this one just isn't working anymore.
When I heard this quote read on MSNBC this morning I wasn't surprised.
However, it is particularly desperate and horribly weak. It's the same old,
same old, with no proof offered that it's true, because it is not. It's also an insult to every American. But since the Bush White House doesn't respect
us we can't expect anything else from them.
There's not an American alive who doesn't want to catch al Qaeda. The laws, the Congress and the American people back all legal means to do so. What President Bush wants to do is craft policy that puts the
presidency above the law, beyond Congress and out of reach of any reprisal from
the American people when he breaks our laws. What President Bush and his team want to do is change how things are done. They want the executive to be above the law.
President Bush just gave a speech that was broadcast across
Fox, CNN and MSNBC. He's begun his 3-year push of new propaganda to get support
for the Iraq war, which is going to fall on a deaf nation. Bush was unimpressive, unemotional, giving fiction by rhetorical rote, which was wholly
unremarkable. It was also devoid of reality and facts. How a president could
be so out of touch is something for historians to one day ponder.
Iraq is in the middle of a civil war. That isn't my judgment.
It's the judgment of John F. Burns.
“I think there's been a civil
war in Iraq for some time. I think the question is the scale of it
and the recent signs that it could get much worse than it already is and how
that impacts on the prospect of American troop withdrawals, which have now
come to a crunch point, as you know, with Generals Abizaid and Casey in Washington
to discuss the proposed timetable for drawn downs beginning in the spring
at a time when there is, I think, not much sign at all that the insurgency
is relenting and a lot of indications that a troop draw down could serious
destabilize an already very unstable situation.(snip)
There were many mistakes made, but my feeling
is that if this fails, as I have to say on the balance of the odds it seems
now likely to do. It's probably not going to be because of American mistakes,
but because the mission was impossible in the first place.
Meanwhile, people across this country are calling in to their
senators demanding accountability from the president. Senator Feingold has given
us all somewhere we can put our outrage, our disgust, our abject disapproval.
Senator Feingold is preparing to present his censure resolution
this afternoon. Here's what
Russ Feingold wrote on today.
… … …Today I will introduce a Senate
resolution censuring the President.The facts and the case for censure are clear. The
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, makes it a crime to wiretap
American citizens without a court warrant – which is what the President has
admitted doing. Before the program was revealed, he also misled Congress and
the American people about the wiretapping that was being done. For example,
at a 2004 speech in Buffalo, he said, “Any time you hear the United States
government talking about wiretap, it requires, a wiretap requires a court
order.” And at a 2004 speech in my home state of Wisconsin, he said that
“the government can't move on wiretaps or roving wiretaps without getting
a court order.”When the domestic spying story first broke, the President
went from saying he wouldn't be able to talk about it, to suggesting there
was no other way to wiretap terrorists, to implying that the FISA law is out
of date. He went on to claim that sweeping inherent powers of the presidency
or the authorization of force back in 2001 gave him such authority — neither
of which is legally or factually correct. While the President has cherry-picked
information before, he cannot do the same with the laws of our land.Censuring the President is not something that should
be taken lightly. But the President has BROKEN the law and there needs to
be action and accountability.
Every American who cares about checks and balances and the rule
of law, which includes that the president is not above it, needs to do something.
President Bush can continue his propaganda tour.
We have work
to do.
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