Oil Equals Militancy in Bolivia

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/01/23-1

Torture Exemption 'Illegal'

CIA torture exemption 'illegal' *President Obama's decision not to prosecute CIA agents who used torture breaks international law, a UN expert says.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/americas/8006597.stm

Change a Bit Earlier

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/22/opinion/22collins.html?_r=2

Join Kucinich

http://www.kucinich.us/
one of our last patriots in Congress. . .

Let's Back Him Up

http://kucinich.us/
[The only member of Congress willing to address the various crimes of the Bush Administration. Will we help him stand?]

Willing to Hold Impeachment Hearings

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/07/10/pelosi-house-judiciary-co_n_111976.html

Impeachment Storm, Wexler

Capitol Hill is buzzing today with major developments regarding our campaign for impeachment hearings for President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Just today, in what could be described as a perfect impeachment storm:

• Karl Rove once again thumbed his nose at Congress and the American people by brazenly ignoring a lawful congressional subpoena to testify before the House of Representatives;

• Judiciary Chairman John Conyers indicated his willingness to use the power of inherent contempt against Rove if necessary;

• Rep. Dennis Kucinich introduced another article of impeachment on Bush's lies regarding the Iraq war; and

• Speaker Nancy Pelosi was quoted today saying that the House Judiciary Committee should address the issues that Kucinich raises in the House Judiciary Committee.

After years of work by so many of you, the time appears ripe to finally hold Bush and Cheney accountable.

Conyers Opens Door to Inherent Contempt for Rove

Karl Rove has simply refused to appear, as he is legally required to do. His actions, endorsed by the Bush/Cheney Administration, are a challenge to our system of checks and balances and Congress must respond to this type of outrageous behavior with appropriate severity.

Today, Judiciary Chairman John Conyers courageously stated today that inherent contempt will remain an option for the House of Representatives so long as Rove and this Administration refuses to abide by the law.

We must now bring Mr. Rove (and other renegade Bush officials) in compliance with the law.

This is a defining moment for Congress: Will we continue to allow legislative power to be eroded by an out of control executive branch that ignores the rule of law - or will we finally put an end to this congressional capitulation and properly force Administration officials to testify in full view of the American people?

It is time for Congress to hold Karl Rove in inherent contempt. I congratulate Chairman Conyers' positive move in this direction, and we must work to move other Members of Congress in support of the use of inherent contempt. Inherent contempt properly enables the House Sergeant of Arms to physically take custody of Mr. Rove and bring him to the House of Representatives to testify.

How do you think a state or federal judge would react to a witness refusing to comply with a legal subpoena? The wayward witness would be arrested.

Should the Congress of the United States be shown any less respect than any courtroom in the nation?
Should the Congress react any differently than how any American judge would react? Absolutely not.

We are long past the time for threats and negotiation. We must bring Mr. Rove in front of the full Judiciary Committee, under oath. No administration official - not even the President - is above the law. They cannot be allowed to redefine it at will. We must all appear when called or suffer the consequences.

Speaker Pelosi's Shift on Hearings and Rep. Kucinich's New Article of Impeachment

After stating unequivocally that impeachment "is off the table," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated to CBS News today that the House Judiciary Committee should address the issues that Rep. Kucinich's has raised in his impeachment resolution.

Pelosi's words provide genuine hope for our cause of accountability for this Administration. We must use Speaker Pelosi's openness to new hearings in the Judiciary Committee to pursue aggressively the serious allegations against Bush and Cheney relating to lies about the Iraq War, the illegal use of torture, the improper disclosure of the identity of a covert agent, the political firing of US attorneys, and on and on.

I again congratulate Congressman Kucinich on his continued leadership and work on behalf of this vital cause.

This issue now reaches far beyond the substance of the Judiciary Committee's original inquiry regarding the firing of US Attorneys for political purposes. The crisis at hand relates to our most fundamental laws and of our Constitution. It is, in many ways, more serious than the Constitutional crisis surrounding Watergate – yet the national media ignores the facts and ramifications of this renegade Executive.

Congress has a duty to protect the balance of powers. Mr. Rove, Mr. Bolten, and Ms. Miers have taken actions that severely undermine these powers, and we should not rely on a federal court alone.

The political tide begins to be turning and that is why I feel so strongly that we should aggressively push for inherent contempt for Karl Rove and impeachment hearings for President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Thanks you for your work and your commitment to our constitution.

- Congressman Robert Wexler

Paid for by "Wexler for Congress"

PO Box 810669
Boca Raton, FL 33481

M. Dowd at Her Best

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/18/opinion/18dowd.html?_r=2&hp&oref=slogin&oref=slogin

Interview with Senator Mike Gravel

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/17/former_senator_mike_gravel_calls_for

News (that is not news)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7423099.stm

Why We Must Impeach

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010608C.shtml

The OTHER Rose Parade Today

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_linda_mi_071231_will_media_broadcast.htm

Wexler on Impeachments for Cheney

http://wexlerwantshearings.com/

Olberman

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120807Z.shtml

Assassination of Hugo Chavez

The Assassination of Hugo Chavez
by Greg Palast

Reporting from Lago Agrio, Ecuador
Wednesday November 14

Before The Lord spoke unto Pat Robertson and told him to endorse Rudy Giuliani, family man, for President, the Reverend got a message that higher powers wanted him to arrange a hit on another President:

"Hugo Chavez thinks we're trying to assassinate him. I think that we really ought to go ahead and do it."

Robertson has a tough time separating Church and Hate. But when the vicious vicar declared it was time to take out the President of Venezuela, he was simply channeling the wishes of the Supreme Authority, Dick Cheney.

I'm asking you to see the story they don't want you to see in the USA: from the original investigations filmed for BBC Television, "The Assassination of Hugo"- a special DVD documentary by myself and Rick Rowley. NOT for general release - ONLY available as a gift to donors to the not-for-profit Palast Investigative Fund.

Why must they kill Chavez?

With the help of guerrila cameraman Rick Rowley ("Fourth World War"), I flew to Caracas to get the answer - from Chavez himself. I also talked to the guy who took Chavez hostage in 2002. (I had to wear a wire for that one.)

The answer is right underneath Chavez' feet. Oil. How much? According to the inside documents that fell into my hands from the Department of Energy - LOTS of oil, five times the reserves of Saudi Arabia.

The DVD includes Chavez himself, in our extended exclusive interviews. We go over the Bush plans - for his oil, and for his "elimination." Sing along with the crooning champion of the poor - or, as George Bush titles him, "a demagogue awash with oil money."

Watch the film - from Caracas malls to the oil tankers by helicopter - the story I guarantee you won't get on the Petroleum Broadcasting System.

PLUS two incredibly important reports: "Ecuador: Oiled and Despoiled" - my journey into the mud for Amy Goodman's Democracy Now, PLUS "Florida Con Salsa" - the theft of the Presidential Election in Mexico 2006.

Donate at least $50 and I'll sign'm and send'm to you - or to whomever you designate for the holidays.

Make that donation at least $75 and I'll also send you, signed, "Assassination" AND "The Elections Files," my investigations for BBC, from the original report that busted open the phony "felon" purge by Jeb Bush to never-before-released interviews with Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and fired prosecutor David Iglesias on "caging" voters and the scheme to steal the next election.

Your tax-deductible donation keeps us digging for "Just The Facts, Ma'am." I'm writing this in the rain forest in Ecuador, where oil is prevalent as snakes- but more poisonous. We donate our films to Democracy Now. BBC pays for some of our effort - but not the expensive work of investigation. That's your job. YOU produce our work.

"Palast's stories are so relevant they threaten to alter history." - Chicago Tribune

"Palast … is twisted and maniacal." Hon. Katherine Harris

"America's best investigative reporter … and the funniest." Randi Rhodes, Air America Radio


The Palast Investigative Fund is a 501c3 not-for-profit educational foundation. All donations are tax deductible. 100% of your donation goes to pay our out-of-pocket expenses and investigative team. (Note: Greg Palast takes no fee from the fund.) Make a donation and I'll send you a signed gift, personalized in appreciation for your help. Or write "NO GIFT" and we'll just send a note of our gratitude. Real reporting is real expensive - and you make it possible when Corporate Media won't.

Language Row--Chavez & King of Spain

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7089131.stm
[As BBC rightly points out, the King used the familiar 'you' reserved in Spanish for children and underlings. Yes, Chavez is The America's favorite blow-hard, but, as our very own, vastly impeachable Mr. "Fuck you" Cheney has experienced, bad manners do not promote good manners.]

Impeachment of Both

Much of US Favors Bush Impeachment

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/070707E.shtml

"Nearly half of the US public wants President George W. Bush to face impeachment, and even more favor that fate for Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a poll
out Friday," reveals the Agence France-Presse.

It's the Oil

Published on Tuesday, June 26, 2007 by The Guardian/UK
The Real Casus Belli: Peak Oil

In A World of Looming Fuel Shortage, Britain and The US Formalised Their Energy Fears With A War

by David Strahan

Even as one of the principal architects of the Iraq war washes his hands of the whole bloody mess, there is still only a vague understanding of the real reason behind the invasion, but evidence of the intense interest of the international oil companies continues to build. Only last week, ExxonMobil chief executive Rex Tillerson said in London: “We look forward to the day when we can partner with Iraq to develop that resource potential.” Despite their interest and influence, however, the decision to attack was not taken in the boardroom. Iraq was indeed all about oil, but in a sense that transcends the interests of individual corporations, however large.

The elephant in the drawing room was the fact that global oil production is likely to peak within about a decade. Aggregate oil production in the developed world has been falling since 1997, and all major forecasters expect world output excluding Opec to peak by the middle of the next decade. From then on everything depends on the cartel, but unfortunately there is growing evidence that Opec’s members have been exaggerating the size of their reserves for decades.

Oil consultancy PFC Energy briefed Dick Cheney in 2005 that on a more realistic assessment of Opec’s reserves, its production could peak by 2015. A report by the US Department of Energy, also in 2005, concluded that without a crash programme of mitigation 20 years before the event, the economic and social impacts of the oil peak would be “unprecedented”. The evidence suggests these fears were already weighing heavily with Cheney, Bush and Blair.

In a world of looming shortage, Iraq represented a unique opportunity. With 115bn barrels, it had the world’s third biggest reserves, and after years of war and sanctions they were the most underexploited. In the late 1990s, production averaged about 2m barrels, but with the necessary investment its reserves could support three times that. In a report to the security council, UN inspectors warned in January 2000 that sanctions had caused irreversible damage to Iraq’s reservoirs. But sanctions could not be lifted with Saddam still in place.

Cheney knew, fretting about global oil depletion in a speech in London the following year, where he noted that “the Middle East with two thirds of the world’s oil and lowest cost is still where the prize ultimately lies”. Blair too had reason to be anxious: British North Sea output had peaked in 1999, while the petrol protests of 2000 had made the importance of maintaining the fuel supply excruciatingly obvious.

Britain’s and the US’s fears were secretly formalised during the planning for Iraq. It is widely accepted that Blair’s commitment to support the attack dates back to his summit with Bush in Texas in April 2002. What is less well known is that at the same summit, Blair proposed and Bush agreed to set up the US-UK Energy Dialogue, a permanent liaison dedicated to “energy security and diversity”. Its existence was only later exposed through a freedom of information inquiry.

Both governments refuse to release minutes of Dialogue meetings, but one paper dated February 2003 notes that to meet projected demand, oil production in the Middle East would have to double by 2030 to more than 50m barrels a day. So on the eve of the invasion, UK and US officials were discussing how to raise production from the region - and we are invited to believe this is coincidence. The bitterest irony is, of course, that the invasion has created conditions that guarantee oil production will remain hobbled for years to come, bringing the global oil peak that much closer. So if that was plan A, what on earth is plan B?

David Strahan is the author of The Last Oil Shock: A Survival Guide to the Imminent Extinction of Petroleum Man Lastoilshock.com

Cheney, Rove Distorting Finding of Climate Scientists

The Bush Administration's Secret Campaign to Deny Global Warming
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/062407C.shtml

It is no secret that industry-connected appointees within the White House have worked
actively to distort the findings of federal climate scientists, playing down the
threat of climate change.

But a new investigation by Rolling Stone reveals that those distortions were sanctioned at the highest levels of our government, in a policy formulated by the vice president, implemented by the White House Council on Environmental Quality and enforced by none other than Karl Rove.

Kucinich Moves to Impeeach

Kucinich Officially Moves to Impeach Cheney
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/042507L.shtml

Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) on Tuesday introduced articles of impeachment against Vice President Dick Cheney. Kucinich outlined three charges against Cheney:

that he "manipulated the intelligence process ... by fabricating the threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction" to justify the war in Iraq;

that he deceived citizens and Congress "about an alleged relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda" to justify the war;

and that he has " openly threatened aggression against the Republic of Iran, absent any real threat to the United States, and has done so with the United States' proven capability to carry out such threats."