Tempest in a Tea Pot Dome

It can no longer be denied. The administration of George W. Bush is, for all intents and purposes, over. It's only a matter of time before he and Dick Cheney are forcibly removed from office via the constitutionally mandated process of impeachment. This week's revelation that the "evidence" of Saddam Hussein's mythical weapons of mass destruction program was manipulated by then Undersecretary of Defence, Douglas Feith in order to frighten a gullible American public into signing off on the stupidest foreign policy blunder in American history - is the final writing on a wall already covered in lies. This is big - really, really big - and it's only going to get better... Excuse me...I meant, "worse". Honest, I did!
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When one couples this latest scandal with all that is being revealed in the Scooter Libby trial, it's almost as if we've been given two tasty dishes for the price of one. It really is gift that keeps giving, is it not? The initial claims of Bob Woodward that the outting of Valerie Plaime's classified CIA identity was "laughable" as an offence or that it was nothing more than "a tempest in a teapot" according to David Broder of the Washington Post - are proving to be just a tad hasty. Crimes have been committed - serious crimes. People are going to go to prison for a very long time - or at least until they receive their eleventh hour pardons from Bush.

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I can see it now: there's the president of the United States, secure in his bunker, deep beneath the White House, in the final hours of this nightmare of an administration. He's frantically signing pardons - thousands of pardons - he's overjoyed at the scam he's been able to pull off; "Hee! Hee! Hee! Ah've beat the fuckin' system to a pulp", he drawls as he giggles uncontrollably in that hideous Beavus and Butthead way of his. Just at that moment, an extremely nasty reality hits him on the head like the proverbial trillion dollar shithammer. A trembling Alberto Gonzalez waiting until his own pardon has been firmly secured, gently, hesitantly tries to explain to the First Fool that a president cannot legally pardon himself. In an instant, the blood drains from Bush's face, his eyes bulge and he starts foaming at the mouth. Poor little Alberto, fearing for what's left of his miserable life makes a beeline for the door - but it's too late - in a fit of primitive, blind rage, Bush pounds the pathetic little bastard senseless. Oh, this is going to get extremely ugly, campers! Extremely ugly, indeed.

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Our collective hat must be tipped to the great Chris Matthews of MSNBC. In his grand jury testimony Scooter Libby testified that what enraged the vice president's office more than anything were the reports coming in every evening on Hardball. They were actually having entire transcriptions made of the show! Other than Joe Wilson, no one else was questioning the administration's claim that Saddam had tried to obtain yellow cake uranium from Niger. The evidence presented to the public were obvious forgeries - documents "signed" by a Nigerian official who had been out of power for over a decade, for instance. The corporate news media, to their eternal shame, were merely acting as stenographers for the White House propaganda machine. Matthews, to his eternal credit, wasn't buying it. That his program is, at this moment, still trailing FOX News in the ratings is inexcusable. On Friday evening, while MSNBC and CNN were covering the Feith and Libby revelations, FOX was covering the death of Anna Nicole Smith - and nothing else. They want to distract the people from the issues that really matter by focusing on "info-tainment". Is it any wonder that the faithful viewers of that network are the stupidest people on the planet? I report - You decide. Fair and balanced, you know what I talking about?

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The clock is ticking, folks. Their house of marked cards is beginning to crumble. The sun is setting on what is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the most appallingly criminal presidency in the history of the republic. This administration, I believe, will not survive the year. Maybe I'm wrong but my instinct tells me that I'm not. I sincerely believe that, come New Years Day 2008, Bush will be out of power and on his way to federal prison for the rest of his life. Cheney, given the fragile state of his health, will probably be able to avoid the same, well deserved fate. Judging by his recent interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, it is obvious that he is a deeply sick and disturbed man; a man on the very precipice of existence. That fatal heart attack that we've all been expecting for years is liable to come any moment. If he's forced to testify at the Scooter Libby trial, he'll be dead in a month - count on it - the stress of being forced to tell the truth under penalty of perjury will be too much to bear. He's liable to even drop dead right there in the courtroom. Is that a cruel thing to say? After half a million Iraqi men, women and little children having been murdered for no reason - I ask you - what's one more dead body? Please.

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There is more evidence than can even be accurately catalogued why Bush and Cheney need to be impeached and hauled off to Leavenworth Prison in an ox cart. But that's not going to happen until we demand that the Democrats show some courage and get the process in motion. No more bullshit! We must demand that these disgusting bastards and bitches (Hi, Condi!) be held accountable for their crimes against the people of the United States in general and the people of Iraq in particular.

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We should expect nothing less.

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Pray for peace.

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Tom Degan

Goshen, NY

tomdegan@frontiernet.net