The last straw?

Just when you think you’ve heard the worst thing this administration can do, something comes out that makes you realize they’re not even close.

Journalist Ron Suskind has a new book coming out and in it he describes how the Bush White house ordered the CIA to forge a backdated, handwritten letter that would tie Saddam Hussein to the 9/11 attacks.

According to Suskind, the letter was commissioned “from the highest reaches of the White House and occurred in the fall of 2003 when the White House ordered CIA Director George Tenet to forge a “fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001.” Writes Suskind; “It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammad Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq.”

While this isn’t totally surprising, it should enrage you… for two reasons.

First, while many of us knew, or at the least now know, that Bush lied us into war, we now seem to have some kind of concrete and traceable proof that Bush knew before he invaded Iraq that there were no WMD’s… and yet he continued to lie to the American public and to Congress.

Second, after the fact it now looks as though Bush & Cheney ordered the CIA to forge a letter to justify the invasion; “The White House had concocted a fake letter from Habbush to Saddam, backdated to July 1, 2001. It said that 9/11 ringleader Mohammed Atta had actually trained for his mission in Iraq — thus showing, finally, that there was an operation link between Saddam and al-Qaeda, something the Vice President's office had been pressing CIA to prove since 9/11 as a justification to invade. […] A handwritten letter, with Habbush's name on it, would be fashioned by CIA and then hand-carried by a CIA agent to Baghdad for dissemination.”

CIA officers Rob Richer (former head of the CIA’s Near East Division) and John Maguire (who oversaw the Iraq Operations Group) are both on the record in Suskind’s book confirming the existence of this letter…
Suskind goes on to not only describe how this is an impeachable offense, but also delves into details about how and why it’s illegal for the President of the United States to use the CIA in this manner.

Yes, it’s also immoral, but if the last seven years have shown us anything, it’s that Bush has no moral code to guide him.

When you add this to the recent New York Daily News article about the Anthrax attacks that revealed the fact that “White House officials repeatedly pressed FBI Director Robert Mueller to prove it [the anthrax attack] was a second-wave assault by Al Qaeda” you start to clearly see that the lengths by which this administration would go to in order to get what they wanted.

It’s a given that the conservative Beltway intelligentsia won’t give Suskind’s revelations a second thought… (it’s not a blow job in the Oval Office mind you, so why should they?) but maybe, just maybe enough Democrats will see revelations like this and they’ll be convinced that the only way to prevent future crimes against the American people will be to impeach Bush…

Stay tuned, though I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Cheers: to a new Newsweek poll that shows Bush's approval at 26%... better watch out Dicky, Bushy is on your heels and knocking on your door...

Heckle: to still not having a clue. As my esteemed collegue pointed out earlier this week, at the nadir of his presidency, George W. Bush is looking for answers.” Unbeknownst “even to many on his staff,” Bush has summoned “leading authors, historians, philosophers and theologians to the White House” to discuss questions like, “Why does the rest of the world seem to hate America? Or is it just me they hate?” Ah, George we hate to tell you but it is you, remember that poll we just talked about? The feelings run wide and deep around the planet.

Heckle: to taking abuse of power to a new level. For the first time in his presidency, Bush commuted a sentence without running requests through lawyers at the Justice Department, White House officials said. He also did not ask the chief prosecutor in the case, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, for his input, as routinely happens in cases routed through the Justice Department’s pardon attorney. And with this administrations track record this is a surprise to who?

Cheers: to the plurality of Americans finally seeing the damn light. Want proof? 69% of voting Americans “disapprove of “President” Bush commuting the 30-month prison sentence of ‘Scooter’ Libby… wow, there is hope for the country… thank God…

Cheers: to the plurality of Americans again as a recent poll by the American Research Group shows that 54% of American adults want the US House of Representatives to “begin impeachment proceedings against Vice President Dick Cheney.” That includes 76% of Democrats, 17% of republicans, and 51% of Independents. Incidentaly, the same poll found 46% of voters in favor of doing the same thing to “President” Bush, including 69% of Democrats, 13% of Republicans, and 50% of independents… (The times, they are a’changing…)

Cheers: to at least doing something to challenge this abuse of power. The Washington Post reports House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers is “expected to move swiftly to conduct hearings on the commutation”, congressional sources said. We at TBWA applaud Rep. Conyers.

Heckle: to the sad fact that U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton believes that President Bush’s commutation of Scooter Libby’s prison term may also wipe out his two-year probation. “Strictly interpreted, the statute authorizing probation indicates that supervised release ’should occur only after the defendant has already served a term of imprisonment,’” Walton wrote. We here at TBWA are not surprised at this turn…

Cheers: to finally growing a pair, as the U.S. this week publicly accused Iran of intervening in the Iraq conflict, claiming that its Revolutionary Guard played a role in an attack that killed five Americans and was using Lebanese militants to train Iraqi insurgents. And we are just calling them on this now?

Heckle: to a study that shows the economic American dream “that children would be more prosperous than their parents, is in question as perhaps never before.” Since 1973, “median family income has been essentially flat,” and men in their 30s “earn roughly $5,000 less than their father’s generation.” For those of us in our 30’s or early 40’s this is not a surprise at all.

Heckle: to the fact that President Bush equated the war in Iraq with the U.S. war for independence during a speech on Wednesday. Like those revolutionaries who ‘dropped their pitchforks and picked up their muskets to fight for liberty,’ Bush said, American soldiers were also fighting ‘a new and unprecedented war’ to protect U.S. freedom. I cannot even begin to express my shock at his comparison….clueless does not even touch the total ignorance of the shit that comes out of his mouth more and more.

Cheers: to the nearly half of the National Hurricane Center’s employees who urged the Bush administration to replace their boss. “The staff of the National Hurricane Center would like nothing more than to return its focus to its primary mission of protecting life and property from hazardous tropical weather,” they wrote, “and leave the political arena it now finds itself in.” As we have said before, when you start playing policitcs in the area of science no one wins…

Well folks it is getting hot here today in the midwest. Mind you not as hot as in the southwest, but hot none the less. Time to post and go for a dip in the pool!

Oh and least I forget, a very happy birthday to my collegue and co-writer, Kemp. Best friend and like minded politico, have a great day pal!

Be good, stay informed….later