Why I love Buzzflash.com

...editorials like these, that make me think!

Nobody Marched To Impeach Bill Clinton!
A BUZZFLASH GUEST CONTRIBUTION
by Linda Milazzo
NOBODY marched to impeach Bill Clinton. Angry citizens DIDN'T fill the streets, carry signs, and beg a non-responsive Congress to do its Constitutional duty and remove Bill Clinton from his job. Panels WEREN'T held across the nation, moderated by Constitutional scholars who loved their country so much that they traversed its full span to inform packed audiences of the high crimes Bill Clinton had done.

Nope. That DIDN'T happen.

In 1998, thousands upon thousands of Americans DIDN'T call, write, fax, and visit their elected leaders every day imploring them to impeach Bill Clinton. Millions of citizens DIDN'T believe the rest of the world wanted Bill Clinton impeached. Groups of citizen activists DIDN'T band together to camp out at their Representatives' homes and district offices for days, sometimes weeks, holding "Impeach Bill Clinton" signs and wearing "Impeach Bill Clinton" T-shirts. Thousands of cars DIDN'T bear "Impeach Bill Clinton" bumper stickers.

Nope. That DIDN'T happen.

Average citizens DIDN'T travel to Washington, DC to walk the halls of Congress and seek audiences with their elected officials demanding to have Bill Clinton impeached.

Nuh-uh!

"Impeachment Centers" WEREN'T opened dedicated to impeaching Bill Clinton like the one in Los Angeles that opened on the Fourth of July, dedicated to impeaching George Bush and Dick Cheney.

Hundreds of people DIDN'T join together in a park on a national holiday for an impeach-Bill-Clinton-rally the way they joined together in a park in Los Angeles on Wednesday for an impeach-Bush-and-Cheney-rally.

In 1998, the people DIDN'T need to inspire Congress to impeach Bill Clinton. The 105th Congress couldn't wait to throw the popular President out of his job. In fact they impeached Bill Clinton even though we-the-people implored them not to.
Of course, there were some Americans in 1998 who bought the smear and destroy campaign by the rabid Republican spin-machine and rabid Republican legislators to impeach Bill Clinton under the guise of restoring the Presidency. These duped citizens were conned by mainstream media's daily theatrics, directed by then-adulterer Congressman Henry Hyde, then-adulterer Speaker Newt Gingrich, then drug-addict Rush Limbaugh, future-indicted Congressman Tom Delay, and Special Pornographer Kenneth Starr. (My apologies to Larry Flynt).

How ironic for Gingrich and Hyde that Clinton was caught with his pants down just as they were dropping theirs. How further ironic that the lynchpin asserting the case for Clinton's impeachment was Ken Starr's obsessively compiled pornographic tome, whereas Americans today have a virtual library of scholarly books on the Constitutional merits of impeaching Bush and Cheney. Thanks to Mr. Starr's salacious expose, it is likely his lurid accounting of a private consensual affair will be his singular most powerful climax.

The fact is, during the 105th Congress's impeachment of Bill Clinton, Clinton's public APPROVAL rating was a positive 73%. Conversely, as the current 110th Congress takes NO action to impeach George W. Bush, Bush's public APPROVAL ratings range between 28% and 36%.

This means the people's well-liked President Clinton was penalized, while the people's despised President Bush is allowed to stay on. If this isn't a failure of democracy of, for, and by the people, then what is?

link for rest of article

A chorus of hypocrites, that's what the right is.

On ANOTHER DAY Buzz flashed this one...
Smartest thing I read all day.

Subject: How Do You Do It BuzzFlashers?

How do you all keep up the faith? In early May I returned from a trip to Vegas with a girlfriend. My husband asked if I had heard the news that week. No, says I because we never turned on a TV or read a newspaper. He then informed me of the vote wherein congress gave Bush a blank check. I went immediately to my computer and deleted ALL my political sites, have hardly watched the news, changed from our best newspaper to the fluff one and turned a deaf ear to anything political. The news of Scooter Libby tempeted me to return to Buzz. I will vote in 2008 because I have always done so and because women fought and won a difficult battle to get the vote. What I will not do is vote for a Republican or a Democrat. Members of congress will do or say anything to get elected or re-elected. I still believe in our democtatic principles but can not find the words to express the contempt I feel for congress!
Sandra Boynton
Rathdrum, Idaho

To All:
This was sent to President Bush yesterday.

King George the First: 3 July 2007

Delighted to know you commuted the jail portion of Lewis "Scooter" Libby's sentence for perjury. He does not deserve jail for covering your and Cheney's part in a felony, the leak of classified CIA information. Now, American people know Libby was the fall guy for both of you.

Along with this, they also know, as long as you are President, the Executive Branch of government will not be held accountable for any crimes. After all you have executed near 1000 Presidential Signing Statements into law which only pertain to "We The People"' and not you or your Executive Branch. This truly earns you the title of King George the First, of the USA since our representative form of government with true justice for all is null and void.
Disgusted,
Colonel Colin J. N. Chauret,
USAF Retired Fighter Pilot 31 Years Active Service, 1942-1973
Universal City, TX



Subject: Impeachment
Of commutation, executive privilege & impeachment

The commutation of I. Lewis "Scooter Libby was the last straw!
The Bush Administration has constantly ignored the rule of law and the constitution. While the commutation is within the guidelines of the law it is a direct affront to the citizens of the the jury comprised of "Scooter's" peers, the legal system and the citizens of the United States. Following a lengthy trail, the jury and the judge found the sentence to be impartial and fair. President Bush -- please excuse "President" and "Bush" in the same phrase -- have never recognized a cognizant or a fair and impartial decision. Because of that philosophy, Bush still decided to commute the 2-1/2 year sentence. To minimize the impact of the commuted sentence he agreed to impose the $250,000 fine and two-year probation ... what he thinks is a politically viable solution. IT'S NOT!
It is time for American citizens to say enough is enough. Commutation, executive privilege and impeachment are no longer "off the table." It is time to take "corrective action!" And it is time to begin articles of impeachment for the "ring leader" -- George W Bush -- as well as Dick Cheney, Alberto Gonzales and "Condosleezza" Rice.
This has to happen in order for the USA to regain its reputation -- not only with its citizens, but with the world community.
It is time to act now! IMPEACH ' EM ALL!
AL Ainsworth
Portland, Oregon

Subject: David Brooks: A kinder, gentler bastard
BuzzFlash,
I have long wondered whether the pundit David Brooks was just stupid or an extremely clever master of deception. He projects a kind image by two means; a soft and gentle apologetic persona, and admitting mistakes were made by the extreme right. However, the mistakes are always admitted long after it can do any good. For example, he was a big supporter of the war with Iraq when it mattered. When public opinion needed to be swayed. Now, years later, he admits, that there is a slight possibility it might have been a mistake. That shows, of course, how reasonable he is.
He is oh so gentle, in supporting things like torture, with his gestures and quiet voice, struggling to find a "middle ground." The article he wrote on the Bush pardon of Libby leaves no doubt that he is just a gentler, kinder gentler bastard not at all naive.
Here the facts are well known, at the time of the event. All the evil of the outing of Valerie Plame appears in numerous reports and the sworn testimony during the Libby trial. For him to toe the party line has to be an extremely deliberate and evil act. I am sure a few years from now his rhetoric will soften, when it doesn't matter anymore. But there will be no new facts. He will just use the change in tone to show again how reasonable he is.
A Memo for David Brooks (davidcorn.com)

The soft-on-torture liberal
Subject: The Pledge, The Turn, The Prestige
If you saw the movie “The Prestige,” you have an inkling of the magic act George W. Bush just performed by commuting I. “Scooter” Libby’s legally derived, appealed and reaffirmed jail sentence imposed by a court of law and a jury of his peers.
According to the movie, a magic act consists of three parts. The “Pledge” is the part of a magic act where the magician shows the audience a common object or person and then promises they will see something special happen on stage. In the case of the United States vs. “Scooter” Libby, Mr. Cheney, Bush's stagehand, took Mr. Libby and either convinced him to lie to a Federal Grand Jury or, at the very least, turned the other way while Rove and Libby conspired to block a special investigation of the Valerie Plame national security leak.

The “Turn” is the part where the magician distracts his audience and then proceeds to involve his subject in an amazing feat of magic. In the case of Mr. Libby, the audience was fed a continual stream of disinformation about prosecutor Fitzgerald, Valerie Plame, and Joe Wilson while the affable looking Libby wove a fabric of lies to protect himself and his superiors from spending time in jail. Magically, he claimed his hitherto well-documented keen memory failed him while testifying. He was just confused, his attorneys said. Given his years of service in which he used that very same memory to execute the complexities of his job at the highest levels of government, the loss of memory has become a legendary piece of Houdini history.

The “Prestige” is the final part of the trick, where the magician asks his audience to suspend their disbelief and accept that the magic and reality are one in the same. The willing subject mysteriously escapes one box and appears in another. The audience claps and scratches their heads’ as they leave the theater wondering how it was done.

In three carefully crafted acts our magician, our President, executed his well planned trick. First, he allowed his Vice President and staff to conspire to leak highly classified information. Second, he denied he or any member of his staff participated in the Plame affair and assured us if they did they would be punished according to the law. Third, our President waved his magic pen, ignored the law he told us he would abide by and commuted the jail sentence of his willing subject, I. “Scooter” Libby, who slipped quietly out the back door.

In the end, the “Prestige” had been executed perfectly. But as in any magic act, the reality is always hiding behind the curtain. Everyone knows it. Everyone has come to expect it. Everyone accepts it.

And so we are left wondering, when will George W. Bush and his stage hands be back in town for another performance? Will it be today, tomorrow or perhaps during the next Presidential election? Will the tricks and the tricksters ever leave the stage? Only the magician has the answer and it is unlikely he will ever reveal the secret. Poof!
George Gerber
Doylestown, PA