Iraq: The War Card – The Center for Public Integrity
By Charles Lewis and Mark Reading-Smith

President George W. Bush and seven of his administration’s top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein’s Iraq. Nearly five years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses.

On at least 532 separate occasions (in speeches, briefings, interviews, testimony, and the like), Bush and these three key officials, along with Secretary of State Colin Powell, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, and White House press secretaries Ari Fleischer and Scott McClellan, stated unequivocally that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (or was trying to produce or obtain them), links to Al Qaeda, or both. This concerted effort was the underpinning of the Bush administration’s case for war.

It is now beyond dispute that Iraq did not possess any weapons of mass destruction or have meaningful ties to Al Qaeda. This was the conclusion of numerous bipartisan government investigations, including those by the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (2004 and 2006), the 9/11 Commission, and the multinational Iraq Survey Group, whose “Duelfer Report” established that Saddam Hussein had terminated Iraq’s nuclear program in 1991 and made little effort to restart it.

In short, the Bush administration led the nation to war on the basis of erroneous information that it methodically propagated and that culminated in military action against Iraq on March 19, 2003. Not surprisingly, the officials with the most opportunities to make speeches, grant media interviews, and otherwise frame the public debate also made the most false statements, according to this first-ever analysis of the entire body of prewar rhetoric.

President Bush, for example, made 232 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and another 28 false statements about Iraq’s links to Al Qaeda. Secretary of State Powell had the second-highest total in the two-year period, with 244 false statements about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and 10 about Iraq’s links to Al Qaeda. Rumsfeld and Fleischer each made 109 false statements, followed by Wolfowitz (with 85), Rice (with 56), Cheney (with 48), and McClellan (with 14).

http://www.publicintegrity.org/WarCard/

Navy Wins Exemption From Bush to Continue Sonar Exercises in Calif. – washingtonpost.com, By Marc Kaufman, Washington Post Staff Writer

The White House has exempted the Navy from two major environmental laws in an effort to free the service from a federal court’s decision limiting the Navy’s use of sonar in training exercises.

Environmentalists who had sued successfully to limit the Navy’s use of loud, mid-frequency sonar — which can be harmful to whales and other marine mammals — said yesterday that the exemptions were unprecedented and could lead to a larger legal battle over the extent to which the military has to obey environmental laws.

In a court filing Tuesday, government lawyers said President Bush had determined that allowing the use of mid-frequency sonar in ongoing exercises off Southern California was “essential to national security” and of “paramount interest to the United States.”

[mjh: Right — national security. To stop all those terrorists who use submarines instead of donkey carts.]

ABC News: New Lows in the New Year for Bush Ratings, ANALYSIS by GARY LANGER, ABC News

Beset by growing economic concerns on top of the long unpopular war in Iraq, President Bush starts the last year of his presidency with the worst approval rating of his career.

Just 32 percent of Americans now approve of the way Bush is handling his job, while 66 percent disapprove. Bush’s work on the economy has likewise reached a new low. And he shows no gain on Iraq; despite reduced violence there, 64 percent say the war was not worth fighting, 2 points from its high.

Given these complaints, 77 percent in this ABC News/Washington Post poll say the country is headed off on the wrong track — the most since the federal government shut down in a deeply unpopular budget battle in early 1996.

Three post-World War II presidents have gone lower than Bush in overall approval — Jimmy Carter (28 percent), Richard Nixon (24 percent) and Harry Truman (22 percent). But after three straight years in the doghouse, Bush is just two months away from Truman’s record of 38 months without majority approval — far beyond any other.

Bush’s ratings have stayed remarkably stable lately; he received between 33 and 36 percent approval in nine ABC/Post polls in 2007. The change in this poll, while not statistically significant, marks his first foray below one-third approval.

Intensity of sentiment, moreover, remains very heavily against the president. Fifty-one percent strongly disapprove of his work overall, while just 16 percent strongly approve — strongly negative by better than a 3-1 ratio.
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Poll: Americans Think U.S. On Wrong Track, Economy And The War Have Americans Voicing Pessimism About The Future Of The Country – CBS News

Assessments of the current state of the nation are grim as Americans have begun to choose who will vie to be the country’s next president. 75% of Americans think the country is off on the wrong track – matching the highest number ever recorded in the CBS News/New York Times Poll – and approval of President Bush remains low.

Concern about the direction of the country is accompanied by growing alarm about the condition of the economy – now the country’s most important problem. Perceptions of the condition of the national economy continue to drop, and most Americans think the worst is yet to come.

Three in four Americans think the country is off on the wrong track, matching the highest number recorded in the twenty-five years since CBS News began asking the question. Only 19% say it is headed in the right direction, matching the all-time low reached last June.

Worries about the direction of the country coincide with a low job approval rating for the president. 29% of Americans approve of the way President Bush is handling his job as president. Approval has hovered around 30% for the past year.

Why I Believe Bush Must Go
Nixon Was Bad. These Guys Are Worse.
By George McGovern
Sunday, January 6, 2008; B01

As we enter the eighth year of the Bush-Cheney administration, I have belatedly and painfully concluded that the only honorable course for me is to urge the impeachment of the president and the vice president. …

Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses. They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time. Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world. These are truly “high crimes and misdemeanors,” to use the constitutional standard. …

I have not been heavily involved in singing the praises of the Nixon administration. But the case for impeaching Bush and Cheney is far stronger than was the case against Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew after the 1972 election. The nation would be much more secure and productive under a Nixon presidency than with Bush. Indeed, has any administration in our national history been so damaging as the Bush-Cheney era?

How could a once-admired, great nation fall into such a quagmire of killing, immorality and lawlessness? …

The basic strategy of the administration has been to encourage a climate of fear, letting it exploit the 2001 al-Qaeda attacks not only to justify the invasion of Iraq but also to excuse such dangerous misbehavior as the illegal tapping of our telephones by government agents. The same fear-mongering has led government spokesmen and cooperative members of the press to imply that we are at war with the entire Arab and Muslim world — more than a billion people. …

Ironically, while Bush and Cheney made counterterrorism the battle cry of their administration, their policies — especially the war in Iraq — have increased the terrorist threat and reduced the security of the United States. …

Impeachment is unlikely, of course. But we must still urge Congress to act. Impeachment, quite simply, is the procedure written into the Constitution to deal with presidents who violate the Constitution and the laws of the land. It is also a way to signal to the American people and the world that some of us feel strongly enough about the present drift of our country to support the impeachment of the false prophets who have led us astray. This, I believe, is the rightful course for an American patriot.

As former representative Elizabeth Holtzman, who played a key role in the Nixon impeachment proceedings, wrote two years ago, “it wasn’t until the most recent revelations that President Bush directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans, in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) — and argued that, as Commander in Chief, he had the right in the interests of national security to override our country’s laws — that I felt the same sinking feeling in my stomach as I did during Watergate. . . . A President, any President, who maintains that he is above the law — and repeatedly violates the law — thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors.” …
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See also: mjh’s blog — John Dean says to censure Bush

Search edgewiseblog for impeach
http://www.edgewiseblog.com/mjh/index.php?s=impeach

ABQjournal Opinion: Letters to the Editor
Bush Sends Parks to the Dogs

THE THEME of “White House Christmas 2007” was Holiday in the National Parks. As a prelude to the airing on HGTV of a tour of the White House, television stations aired segments of a program in which George and Laura Bush appointed their pet dogs as Junior National Park rangers.

According to the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), “Our National Park system— the first and finest in the world— is in dire straits right now.” According to the NPCA, there is an estimated $4.9 billion backlog of park maintenance that needs to be done to preserve our national parks. …

Watching the program in which George and Laura appointed their dogs as junior rangers, I was reminded of the Roman Emperor who appointed his horse as a Roman senator to express the emperor’s contempt of the Roman Senate.

George Bush has been accused of trying to establish an imperial presidency. Judging from his contempt for the National Park system and its visitors, he obviously believes he has achieved his goal.

RONALD GRENKO
Albuquerque

[mjh: Amen, Ron. Note the irony that most National Parks don’t allow dogs (at least, on trails). One year and nine days until the End of the Bush Error.]

W is the new F. mjh

As you read this, keep in mind that Viguerie is an arch-conservative who despises Duhbya for betraying true conservatives. Here, he finds something to praise in Duhbya’s actions.

Having been out of touch with the majority of America all my life, I won’t gloat over Viguerie and his cohort’s absolute disconnect with reality — one of the things that joins them to Duhbya. Too bad conservatives worked so hard to get Duhbya elected twice.

Richard Viguerie Praises President Bush, Criticizes Congressional Republicans, on Water Resources Bill Veto Override

(Manassas, Virginia) Richard A. Viguerie issued the following statement regarding the override of President Bush’s veto of the $23 Billion Water Resources Development Act:

“President Bush deserves great credit for vetoing an outrageous bill filled with irresponsible pork barrel projects. But the Republicans in the Senate and House who voted for override his veto have shown their continual addiction to Big Government and wasteful spending.

“Only 54 Republicans in the House and 12 Republicans in the Senate voted to sustain the President’s veto. That is pathetic!

“What is really unbelievable is that the vote came so close on the heels of this year’s Republican election defeats in Virginia and Kentucky. And this, after the 2006 election disasters for the GOP, shows that either they don’t understand the anger of the voters or they deeply believe in Big Government.

“The Republican brand has been destroyed by the kind of Big Government legislators who voted to override the President’s veto of the Water Resources Development Act. The American people no longer identify the GOP as the party of fiscal responsibility. Republicans who act like Democrats are destroying the Republican Party.

“Most grassroots conservatives are unhappy with the top-tier Republican presidential candidates, and they have closed their checkbooks to Republican national committees. Many big-spending Republican politicians will be shocked to find themselves under attack in the 2008 primary and general elections, as conservatives begin the process of once again (as they did starting in the 1960s) of driving the Big Government Republicans out of office.

“Conservatives hope President Bush will keep his veto pen in action throughout the remainder of his term in office.”
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Richard A. Viguerie pioneered ideological and political direct mail and has been called “the funding father of the conservative movement” for his role in helping build dozens of conservative organizations. He is the author of Conservatives Betrayed—How George W. Bush and Other Big-Government Republicans Hijacked the Conservative Cause (Bonus Books, 2006).

So, Viguerie is prepared to lead the most conservative back to the wilderness. Buh-bye! mjh