Friday Pissed Off Bloggin'

Today’s rant is inspired by a myriad of factors, but mainly due to lame emails a colleague keeps sending me. I should’ve cut and pasted the last email and inserted above the following rant, as it was finally the one that set me off. That email listed a bunch of bullet points stating reasons why Bush was not responsible for Hurricane Katrina, how he did not cause the hurricane. Also included were references to the Kyoto Treaty, global warming, and blah blah and so on.

Let me just say that only a wingnut would defend Bush by saying he did not cause Hurricane Katrina. Well NO SHIT. Please tell me one human being that did, does, or will cause hurricanes. Nobody said he caused the hurricane, but they did admonish him for FEMA's slow and unorganized response, led by “Brownie” the horse guy, who Bush DID appoint as head of FEMA. Get it now wingnuts?

Anyhow, below is the email I sent back to that person. I started it off by cutting and pasting an entire article about Rove’s adventures, because it’s a) pertinent to the case for war in Iraq, and b) they wouldn’t read it if I just provided a link.

Please enjoy, have a laugh, make comments, call me a liberal commie ‘merika hatin’ traitor, or make a case for why we are in Iraq and this administrations actions are perfectly acceptable.

Rove Makes Fourth Grand Jury Appearance
By PETE YOST, Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Karl Rove walked into the federal courthouse Friday for a fourth grand jury appearance in the CIA leak probe, following public disclosure of his conversations with two reporters about the identity of a covert officer at the spy agency. It is likely Rove's final chance to convince grand jurors he did nothing criminal in the leak case. Prosecutors have warned the architect of President Bush's re-election campaign that there is no guarantee he will not be indicted. The grand jury's term is due to expire Oct. 28.

The White House has shifted from categorical denials two years ago that Rove or Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, were involved in the leak of a covert CIA officer's identity to "no comment" today.

Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald walked into the grand jury area with Rove early Friday. The spotlight in his investigation recently has fallen on Libby, who was the focus of prosecutors' questions in two grand jury appearances by New York Times reporter Judith Miller. She detailed her conversations with the vice president's top aide about the covert CIA officer, Valerie Plame, and her husband, Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson.

Fitzgerald has a variety of options as he weighs whether anyone broke a law that bars the intentional unmasking of a covert CIA officer. Defense lawyers increasingly are concerned Fitzgerald might pursue other charges such as false statements, obstruction of justice or mishandling of classified information.

For the White House in 2004, the good news about Fitzgerald's probe was that it didn't become an issue during the presidential election year. Witnesses underwent questioning, including Bush and Cheney, White House records were turned over to the grand jury and the administration pledged full cooperation. The president promised to fire any leakers.
Rove, a Texas political consultant who rose through the ranks of Republican politics with the late GOP adviser Lee Atwater, was the architect of Bush's successful drive to re-election. Libby was at Cheney's side during the campaign.

"They are good individuals," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said of Rove and Libby on Oct. 7, 2003. "They are important members of our White House team. And that's why I spoke with them, so that I could come back to you and say that they were not involved. I had no doubt with that in the beginning, but I like to check my information to make sure it's accurate before I report back to you, and that's exactly what I did."

The power to create even more trouble for the administration or wrap up the investigation and return to Chicago, where he is U.S. attorney, lies with Fitzgerald. An experienced prosecutor with a Republican pedigree, Fitzgerald has a reputation for being willing to take on politicians of either political party in corruption probes. Currently, Fitzgerald's office is prosecuting a former Republican governor of Illinois.

The revelations flowing out of Fitzgerald's CIA leak investigation so far offer a public snapshot of Washington at work: A White House with its credibility on the line tries to deal with a political problem by talking confidentially to reporters.

In this instance, the political problem was Wilson and his statements that the administration had twisted prewar intelligence on Iraq. The criticism came as the U.S. military engaged in a fruitless search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The existence of such weapons were the primary reason the administration gave to justify going to war.
Eight days after Wilson made his allegations, columnist Robert Novak identified Wilson's wife as a CIA operative, saying she had suggested her husband for a mission to Africa for the agency.
The trip led subsequently to Wilson's conclusion that the administration had manipulated intelligence to exaggerate the Iraqi threat.
Novak said his sources were two senior administration officials. Rove spoke to Novak about Wilson's wife and is apparently one of Novak's sources. The other is still a public mystery. Novak is believed to have cooperated with Fitzgerald's investigation, though he has declined to comment on the matter.

The White House denials of Rove's and Libby's involvement collapsed three months ago, when Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper testified that Rove had been one of his sources for a story that identified Wilson's wife. Libby was another of Cooper's sources for the story, which asked the question, "Has the Bush administration declared war on a former ambassador?"
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-IF these allegations and indictments come to fruition, it is another piece of supportive evidence that Bush, Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeld, etc., were complicit in the fabrication and twisting of evidence to invade a nation that was not a threat to us and did not provoke us in any way. This could be the first solid step in building the case for impeachment based on treason, the highest offence by a government official in the United States. All of the topical evidence examined thus far indicates that Bush and his personnel did twist and fabricate evidence to take this nation to war. Much like the OJ trial, it still must be proven in a court of law.

Osama bin Laden had nothing to do with Iraq, 9-11 had nothing to do with Iraq, yet Osama continues to go free and we lose lives daily in Iraq. Currently, we are at about 1960 +/- lives lost in Iraq. This does not include the number of coalition forces, nor does it include the number of INNOCENT Iraqi civilians that have died as a result of the US invasion. That number is estimated at about 20,000 people. That number includes untold numbers of CHILDREN and women. Now, Bush nominates Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court making her religious beliefs the most important credential.

This sets a precedent in Supreme Court nominations. Prior to this nomination, as with ROBERTS, not only was religion NOT a credential, it was also NOT examined during confirmation hearings. Bush said when nominating ROBERTS, that religion was NOT a factor and should NEVER be a factor. He then touts Miers's religion as the main factor. Now, every Supreme Court nomination must past a litmus test regarding religion. Our founding fathers explicitly denounced the mix of religion and civil duty. The idea of the United States is UNITED we stand, DIVIDED we fall.

I do not wish to see Democrats in complete control of the government no more than I want to see Republicans in complete control of the government, for the obvious and glaring reason that absolute power corrupts. Our government was designed with checks and balances to keep what is happening NOW from happening. The Republicans have worked many long years to control every branch of our government and one thing interrupted that process: the election of Bill Clinton to the office of President not once, but twice.

Thus began the 7 year smear campaign, allegations of rape and murder - ALL of which have been proven untrue - to drum up hatred of Clinton, Democrats, and left leaning political theory. The ONLY thing that they could ever pin on Clinton was an affair, and then gussied that up as lying under oath, an impeachable offence.

That same tactic was employed during Bush's second election, after the Florida voting fiasco in 2000 - a state governed by Bush's brother Jeb, and the vote count stopped by AG Republican Katherine Harris. John Kerry was smeared with FALSE allegations, and gay marriage was put on the ballot in 11 important electoral states.

The Republicans have succeeded in engineering the greatest tyranny our nation has ever seen, it's right in front of all of our faces, yet conservatives and Republicans continue to support a man and administration that flat out lied to the American people, sent our troops into war against a nation that did not provoke us in any way, was not a threat to us in any way, and did not have the Weapons of Mass Destruction that Bush claimed they did. Conveniently, none of this is accredited to Bush, the Commander in Chief, the President of the United States. This same man invokes God whenever it's needed, and invokes terror alerts whenever needed, to whip his base into fear and supportive frenzy.

Feel free to send this to that group of friends that send you the emails, that you in turn forward to me. If someone wants to argue facts, I'll be glad to but be prepared to discuss the most obvious and glaring fact: Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11, BUSH and his admin. have ADMITTED THIS themselves, Iraq had no WMD's, and Iraq did not provoke the United States. We have lost almost 2000 of our soldiers with no end in sight. Cheney said last week that we would be in Iraq for decades. Decades is plural, a decade is 10 years, you do the math. If any of your friends cannot get past these FACTS, then any further debate is pointless.

You do not FORCE democracy or freedom on a nation, each and every nation in the world, including this one, must EARN it. They EARN it by WANTING it. Our way of life and culture is very different than that of the middle east. We have no right to FORCE our way of life, our culture, and our various religions on that region of the world. Once that basic principle is understand and enforced, there will be far less TERRORISM in the world.

Think about all of that for a while. Education, not war is the answer. Opportunity is increased and poverty is diminished through education, not violence and war. Currently, the United States is the only industrialized nation in the WORLD that is at war. All other wars are being fought in countries with minimal if any industrialization, minimal education, and are poverty stricken. We are one of the most educated, industrialized, and therefore (supposedly) civilized nations in the world, yet we have a recovering alcoholic evangelical President declaring war on a nation that had nothing to do with the worst Terror attack EVER on American soil while the perpetrators of said attack have not been caught.

To use Mr. Uniter's words: you are either for that policy or against it. ,