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	BlackChampagne -- no longer new; improvement also in question.: Bush Lied, People Died, etc... Thursday, June 05, 2008 Bush Lied, People Died, etc... Looking at the notes from the Senate Intelligence Committee's Phase II report on pre-war intelligence on Iraq, which has finally been released after Republican senators kept it from public consumption for several years, and it's um... yeah. Remember when Clinton lied about oral sex with an intern, and the country (well, the Republican party and the media) was consumed with impeachment talk? For lying to keep sex secret from his S.O., something 99% of the people on earth have done at least once ~~in the last six months~~ their lives? Consider that, and try to figure why Bush, Cheney, Colin Powell, Condi Rice, and most of the rest of the current administration aren't being brought up on charges right now? A few highlights: Statements and implications by the President and Secretary of State suggesting that Iraq and al-Qa'ida had a partnership, or that Iraq had provided al-Qa'ida with weapons training, were not substantiated by the intelligence. Statements by the President and the Vice President indicating that Saddam Hussein was prepared to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorist groups for attacks against the United States were contradicted by available intelligence information. Statements by President Bush and Vice President Cheney regarding the postwar situation in Iraq, in terms of the political, security, and economic, did not reflect the concerns and uncertainties expressed in the intelligence products. Statements by the President and Vice President prior to the October 2002 National Intelligence Estimate regarding Iraq's chemical weapons production capability and activities did not reflect the intelligence community's uncertainties as to whether such production was ongoing. The Secretary of Defense's statement that the Iraqi government operated underground WMD facilities that were not vulnerable to conventional airstrikes because they were underground and deeply buried was not substantiated by available intelligence information. The Intelligence Community did not confirm that Muhammad Atta met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague in 2001 as the Vice President repeatedly claimed. No matter how seriously you take the issue of extra-marital sex, can anyone argue against the fact that every single one of these points is of infinitely more importance than who did or did not gobble the Clenis? That they had incalculably more importance, that they led directly to the deaths of thousands of American soldiers and hundred of thousands of Iraqi civilians? Etc? I think Bush and co are benefiting from outrage fatigue. Everyone hates Bush; he's got the lowest approval rating in the history of American presidential approval ratings (really), people are shell shocked by gas prices, interest rates are shooting up as the housing crisis deepens, the Iraqi occupation has dragged on so long people are just inured to it, etc. When you put the fact that Bush and company consciously lied in the process of instigating the Iraq Attaq on top of all that, it feels almost irrelevant. Like finding a cockroach on your shit sandwich. And since Bush's term is almost over, everyone just sort of wants him to go away. Democrats want him to fall off a bridge, Republicans want him to just vanish without pulling down the ratings of their entire party, and no one really has the heart to stir up impeachment proceedings, no matter how richly they might be deserved. The American people are like Smeagol when he was talking to Gollum/himself in his good phase in the Return of the King movie. "Go away, and never come again." And take nominee McBush with you. Four more years = DO NOT WANT!!1! We'd rather just forget about you than spend the time to try and punish you as you should be punished. This is almost a "how to" lesson for future political criminals. If you do such a horrible job that people spend most of their time trying to forget that you exist, you're unlikely to be held accountable for your sins. The Republicans had to try to bring Clinton down since he was a very popular president. Bush has brought himself down to the point that attempting impeachment at this point would probably make him look persecuted and give him a popularity boost. Labels: bush, politics Posted by: Flux # 7:59 PM Comments: I didn't know the president's word was to be taken over intelligence reports. All of Congress has access to the materials that Bush saw, and they still approved military action. At most, we can blame Bush for mobilizing in Iraq and entrenching us there while it was legal for him to do so, and by the time our presence there required Congressional approval there wasn't much other choice but to stay. Sadly, I've not seen that argument raised even once for some reason. One could make a case that public opinion holds sway in these events, but since the anti-Bush camp maintains that Bush stole the 2000 election despite the wishes of the majority, I guess that's out the window too. Lastly, Clinton was never held accountable for shaving years off of North Korea's nuclear weapons program, so I guess there's some executive leeway when the safety of American citizens is at stake. #: 4:22 PM posted by Anonymous Cool, an actual 25%er, in the flesh. Bravely anonymous in his comment, but still... it's like sighting a unicorn! Interesting take on North Korea. The nation is seldom mentioned by conservatives since the record's pretty clear. Clinton negotiated non-proliferation agreements with the rogue state that kept them in line until Bush came into office and promptly began ignoring and demonized the PRK while obsessing over non-nuclear Middle Eastern nations in his "prove myself to daddy" fervor. Actions which led directly to North Korea conducting successful nuclear and cruise missile tests in 2005 and 2006. But hey, Saddam's dead, Iraq's a peaceful democracy, and like everyone else, I feel safer already. #: 7:19 PM posted by Flux Strange, it must be the circles we travel in. I hear about NK all the time; Clinton (in essence) paid them to promise not to proliferate...and even gave them a nuclear reactor. Oh, and BTW, Kim Jong-Il was conducting cruise missile tests back in 1998. I guess it took him a few years to extract enough nuclear material from the reactor we gave him to get a working nuke together. But that makes it Bush's fault, right? Kim would have NEVER forsaken his agreement with Clinton. Dictators are a trustworthy lot. #: 5:46 AM posted by Anonymous Post a Comment << Home Archives May 2005 June 2005 July 2005 August 2005 September 2005 October 2005 November 2005 December 2005 January 2006 February 2006 March 2006 April 2006 May 2006 June 2006 July 2006 August 2006 September 2006 October 2006 November 2006 December 2006 January 2007 February 2007 March 2007 April 2007 May 2007 June 2007 July 2007 August 2007 September 2007 October 2007 November 2007 December 2007 January 2008 February 2008 March 2008 April 2008 May 2008 June 2008 July 2008 August 2008 September 2008 October 2008 November 2008 December 2008 January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2012

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