Death Watch: 1600 Pen. Ave.

[Ocean Breeze]

Death Watch at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
By DOUG THOMPSON
Oct 21, 2005, 08:12
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For all practical purposes, governing the nation has stopped at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue as aides deal with an increasingly despondent President, mounting scandals and defecting dissidents from the Ship of State.

White House insiders say George W. Bush’s mood swings have increased to the point where meetings with the President must be cancelled, schedules shifted and plans changed to keep a bitter, distracted leader from the public eye.

“He’s like a zombie some days, walking around in a trance,” says one aide who, for obvious reasons, asks not to be identified. “Other times he launches into angry outbursts, cussing out anybody who gets near him.”

Aides say gallows humor has descended on the White House, where the West Wing is now referred to as “death row” and Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove, along with Vice Presidential Chief of Staff Scooter Libby, are known as “dead men walking,” a reference to the last walk death row inmates take to the execution chamber.

With indictments expected against Libby or Rove or both any day now from the Valerie Plame scandal, the White House mood has a “Final Days” aura (“Final Days” was the title of Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward’s book about the last days of the Nixon administration). Although no one expects President Bush to be impeached or resign, Internet blogs buzzed this week with talk of a possible resignation by Vice President Dick Cheney.

“That’s bullshit,” says one longtime Republican consultant. “They’ll have to carry Dick Cheney out of here on a stretcher.” But Rove and Libby will be gone if they are indicted and some wonder if the President, whose ability to govern is already limited by despair and detraction, can function without Rove, often referred to as “Bush’s brain.”

“Rove’s role is diminished already,” says one White House aide. “He still meets with The President daily but all this has taken its toll. He looks terrible.”

So does White House Chief of Staff Andy Card, who has served longer in the job than anyone in modern times. Card works 16 and 17-hour days and, in the words of one Republican member of Congress, looks “completely burned out.”

But holding the White House together behind what has been one of the better Presidential propaganda machines is proving next to impossible as the American public and even members of Bush’s own party desert him over the war in Iraq, the nomination of White House counsel Harriett Miers to the Supreme Court, the Hurricane Katrina debacle, rising gas prices and the Valerie Plame scandal.

“The façade is gone and we are now seeing the Bush White House in all its incompetent glory,” says retired political science professor George Harleigh. “They’ve ignored reality for too long.”

With Congress distracted by growing scandals swirling around former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Washington has become a daily killing field for anyone involved in the GOP leadership.

This week, Former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s right-hand man unloaded on the Bush Administration during a speech to the New American Foundation, saying American foreign policy had been hijacked by “a Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal” that has destroyed this country’s credibility with its allies.

“I’m not sure the State Department even exists anymore,” Col. Larry Wilkerson, Powell’s chief of staff, told the audience of journalists and scholars. “It, like so many others things, have been destroyed by George W. Bush’s ‘cowboyism.’”

Wilkerson dismisses the Administration’s attempts to improve America’s image abroad.

“You can’t sell shit,” he said.

Wilkerson isn’t the only high-profile Republican operative bailing on Bush. Bruce Bartlett, who served as a Senior Policy Advisor in Bush’s father’s administration, is about to release a book: Imposter: How George W. Bush Bankrupted America and Destroyed the Reagan Legacy. Bartlett lost his job at the National Center for Policy Analysis, a conservative Texas think tank, when word of his book project leaked out.

Republicans, the last to finally acknowledge the lies and duplicity of the Bush White House, no longer trust the Administration. When current Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testified before Congress this week and claimed “significant progress” in Iraq, Republican Senator Lincoln Chaffee of Rhode Island fired back: “Well, we all wish that were true, but we can't kid ourselves, either.”

But Wilkerson, a veteran with 31 years in the Marines and a former director of the Marine War College, sums up what, sadly, will be the legacy of George W. Bush:

“If there is a nuclear terrorist attack or a major pandemic you are going to see the ineptitude of this government in a way that'll take you back to the Declaration of Independence.”

 

[jimmoyer]

This feels to be true. I'm not sure to what degree, but even Bush Sr's advisor Brent Scowcroft disagrees with the son vehemently.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Re: RE: Death Watch: 1600 Pen. Ave.

This feels to be true. I'm not sure to what degree, but even Bush Sr's advisor Brent Scowcroft disagrees with the son vehemently.

It DOES feel to be right. Seeing bush in his "live appearances" ......it is very evident that the chap is loosing control ........his grip. Behind the scenes it would make sense that his behavior is deteriorating.........

and THIS Is the most concerning factor.......as the US is being led by a mentally disturbed person. aka inadequate personality type. ( something many o f us have recognized for some time now.)

sadly he has never had the "right stuff" to be leader of what was a very fine nation.

 

[unclepercy]

Re: RE: Death Watch: 1600 Pen. Ave.

This feels to be true. I'm not sure to what degree, but even Bush Sr's advisor Brent Scowcroft disagrees with the son vehemently.

It DOES feel to be right. Seeing bush in his "live appearances" ......it is very evident that the chap is loosing control ........his grip. Behind the scenes it would make sense that his behavior is deteriorating.........

and THIS Is the most concerning factor.......as the US is being led by a mentally disturbed person. aka inadequate personality type. ( something many o f us have recognized for some time now.)

sadly he has never had the "right stuff" to be leader of what was a very fine nation.[/quote]

Even though this is a left-handed compliment, I'm going to take it and say, "Thank you." Very few compliments we get. Don't forget, we still have the same people here in this country that we had before Bush was elected. Except for those who have died, of course. The spirit, the intelligence, the vigor, and all that America embodied - is alive.

The really sad thing is - you all criticize and giggle over Bush's mistakes, but you can't think of anyone who is any better. Not really. That's what I asked earlier, and it was a very feeble response indeed.

Uncle

 

[peapod]

"The really sad thing is - you all criticize and giggle over Bush's mistakes, but you can't think of anyone who is any better. Not really. That's what I asked earlier, and it was a very feeble response indeed. "

Indeed is right!! hows about bozo the clown, he'd be better than lil chimp. How dare you tell us how sad it is that we criticize bush...hello!!! no! whats really sad is the people that have died because of this greedy fecker! american childern included, sent to fight his oil war so he can line his own pockets. Blah! Do we look like we are giggling over your kings mistakes 8O 8O and excuse me, they were not mistakes! oh I see they are called mistakes now coz they have been exposed for the what they really are.... lil chimp and his gang of cronies stealing another countries natural resources to line their own pockets...uh huh...well you know where you can put your lil speech, and the sun does not shine there...

 

[jimmoyer]

I'm not sure who will lead our nation in 2008.

I like a number of them for different reasons even if I don't agree with them on each issue.

Newt Gingrich, former GOP speaker of House
I liked his "contract with America" something the Republicans have long since strayed away from.

Joe Biden, Democrat Senator from Delaware.
I think he would have been a great ally with Bush on post war planning even to the point of delaying which in retrospect might have been wiser. Yeah he looks a lot partisan, but he was against the Democrats saying this war was about Oil. He knew better. Every President draws the wagons and cannot trust anyone beyond the inner circle, but this guy would have really helped in Iraq.

John McCain, GOP Senator from Arizona.
I thought his campaign finance reform was fundamentally flawed, but I like the guy's character.

Haley Barbor, GOP Governor of Mississippi.
He was both a grunt and a chief and I think this guy knows how to get things done.

I fight all the stupid arguments against Bush, but do find some criticism to be honest and sincere.

 

[peapod]

Yup the sharks smell the blood now...they begin to circle..uh huh..

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Yup the sharks smell the blood now...they begin to circle..uh huh..

yes, indeedie. Soon we will find out how really "loyal" the bush supporters are.


MISTAKES???? who is kidding who?? Every act of the bush cabal has been INTENTIONAL with greed and power as the underlying motive.

just waiting for them to start making excuses......er hmm. more shagging lies. Like how the shag , does one rationalize the killing of thousands??? Particularly when it all started as a shagging lie.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cindy Sheehan, the military mother who made her son's death in Iraq a rallying point for the anti-war movement, plans to tie herself to the White House fence to protest the milestone of 2,000 U.S. military deaths in Iraq.

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"I'm going to go to Washington, D.C. and I'm going to give a speech at the White House, and after I do, I'm going to tie myself to the fence and refuse to leave until they agree to bring our troops home," Sheehan said in a telephone interview last week as the milestone approached.

"And I'll probably get arrested, and when I get out, I'll go back and do the same thing," she said.

The death toll among U.S. military forces since the March 2003 invasion stood at 1,996 on Sunday.

The milestone's approach prompted plans for hundreds of other demonstrations across the United States, but for Sheehan, each military death in the Iraqi war has been a tragedy.

"To me, every single member since Number One has been tragic and needless and unnecessary," she said. "My son was somewhere around 615, and I've been working so hard for peace since my son was killed and now almost 1,400 more soldiers have been killed since Casey died."

Army Specialist Casey Sheehan was killed in Iraq on April 4, 2004.

Beyond Sheehan's plans, a candlelight vigil is planned at the White House to mourn the 2,000-death milestone. Hundreds of other demonstrations are scheduled for the day after the milestone number is reached.

"I hope that this milestone marks the point when the American people realize the U.S. military is not going to stop the violence in Iraq, and they instead start demanding a political solution to this problem," Sean O'Neill, a U.S. Marine who served in Iraq, said in a statement.

'HUMAN COST OF A LIE'

The American Friends Service Committee was helping coordinate activists to protest the Iraq war.

"On the day after the 2,000th reported U.S. military death in Iraq, people will gather in communities across the U.S. to say that the countries pro-peace majority wants Congress to stop the deaths by stopping the dollars that are funding the war," a coalition of anti-war groups said online at www.afsc.org.

"The clock has stopped ticking for 2,000 Americans in Iraq, and once again there is a media craze, another reason for people to pay closer attention to the human cost of a lie, but for how long this time?" said Camilo Mejia, an Iraq combat veteran who served a year in prison for refusing to return to the war in Iraq.

"Perhaps it's time for the American public to realize that each death counts, American, Iraqi or otherwise," Mejia said in a statement.

Another anti-war group, Peace Action, called on Congress to pull troops out of Iraq.

"Bush's insistence on continued military occupation feeds the insurgency. Congress must now take the leadership role in bringing our troops home," said Kevin M. Martin, executive director of Peace Action.

At the White House, demonstrators plan a quiet vigil.

"We ask that people do not bring signs or posters, just candles and perhaps pictures of soldiers," the notice for this event read. "No megaphones or speeches. Quiet mourning, prayer and song. No opportunities to offend or exclude."

An early October survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press of U.S. attitudes toward the war in Iraq found only 9 percent of respondents thought the war was going very well; by contrast, 22 percent thought it was going not at all well.

Half of all respondents said the United States made the wrong decision in using military force against Iraq; 44 percent said it was the right decision. The survey had an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.

hmm. another form of death watch. Will 2000 US troops dead , finally wake up the warmongers from their coma???

 

[unclepercy]

"The really sad thing is - you all criticize and giggle over Bush's mistakes, but you can't think of anyone who is any better. Not really. That's what I asked earlier, and it was a very feeble response indeed. "

Indeed is right!! hows about bozo the clown, he'd be better than lil chimp. How dare you tell us how sad it is that we criticize bush...hello!!! no! whats really sad is the people that have died because of this greedy fecker! american childern included, sent to fight his oil war so he can line his own pockets. Blah! Do we look like we are giggling over your kings mistakes 8O 8O and excuse me, they were not mistakes! oh I see they are called mistakes now coz they have been exposed for the what they really are.... lil chimp and his gang of cronies stealing another countries natural resources to line their own pockets...uh huh...well you know where you can put your lil speech, and the sun does not shine there...

Remember the old saying, "Put up, or shut up?" Now you can bend over.

Uncle

 

[peapod]

uh huh..put up with what??? do you actually think your words mean anything to me 8O you support a chimp king for pete sakes...although if he was just dealing in bananas, I wouldn't mind....but hey man...how many people have died so your king chimp can fatten up his bank accounts 8O

 

[Ocean Breeze]

"The really sad thing is - you all criticize and giggle over Bush's mistakes, but you can't think of anyone who is any better. Not really. That's what I asked earlier, and it was a very feeble response indeed. "

Indeed is right!! hows about bozo the clown, he'd be better than lil chimp. How dare you tell us how sad it is that we criticize bush...hello!!! no! whats really sad is the people that have died because of this greedy fecker! american childern included, sent to fight his oil war so he can line his own pockets. Blah! Do we look like we are giggling over your kings mistakes 8O 8O and excuse me, they were not mistakes! oh I see they are called mistakes now coz they have been exposed for the what they really are.... lil chimp and his gang of cronies stealing another countries natural resources to line their own pockets...uh huh...well you know where you can put your lil speech, and the sun does not shine there...

Remember the old saying, "Put up, or shut up?" Now you can bend over.

Uncle

:roll: :roll: :roll: :roll:


spoken like a true US BULLY. :x :roll:

Amazing that some can support endorse such unethical conduct that has been demonstrated by the bush cabal. Goes to the character of same. :evil:


seems that the most constructive thing that can happen is the demise of the neocon theofascist (ideology) gov't dressed in republican robes . Only then will some semblance of sanity return to this world

 

[jimmoyer]

Ocean Breeze ? Is your strong belief system also driving you to excess? Do you only see excess in others?

 

[peapod]

No! she is a fine human being...at least in type. :lol: 8) :wink:

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Re: RE: Death Watch: 1600 Pen. Ave.

Ocean Breeze ? Is your strong belief system also driving you to excess? Do you only see excess in others?

jim.........you are out of line. The topic is about Death watch and the black house on Pen ave.

............and that was a cheap shot) :roll:

 

[Ocean Breeze]

No! she is a fine human being...at least in type. :lol: 8) :wink:

luvs ya too sweetpea. :wink:

 

[jimmoyer]

Sorry Ocean Breeze, I just felt a need to protect part of the minority here, like you calling Uncle Percy a US bully. Perhaps both sides exhibit excess and do not admit it?

If you guys like preaching to the chorus, could I be allowed to sing out of key ?

Ruh row.

Uh...okay, back to the Black House on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Ease on down to the E-lec-tric Av-en-ue....

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Sorry Ocean Breeze, I just felt a need to protect part of the minority here, like you calling Uncle Percy a US bully. Perhaps both sides exhibit excess and do not admit it?

If you guys like preaching to the chorus, could I be allowed to sing out of key ?

Ruh row.

:lol: :lol: Don't care how ya sing........just sing :wink:

 

[Ocean Breeze]

The core of the "axis of evil"

October 23, 2005

George Bush is the hub of an Axis of Evil centred on Washington

Freedom and democracy? Or torture and murder? What does the United States of America stand for today? After Abu Ghraib, shocking revelations reach us of Taleban bodies being burnt and placed facing Mecca and Saddam Hussein being subjected to torture.

The United States of America of George W. Bush makes a mockery of his country's culture, history and Constitution. Far from being the land of the free, the land where dreams come true, George Bush's Washington is the Great American Nightmare. With its foreign policy dictated by a clique of conservative corporate elitists, the procedure followed by Washington today is one of bullying, belligerence, deception, deceit, lies, mass murder, criminal negligence, criminal and wanton destruction of civilian structures with military hardware, war crimes and increasingly, torture.

At first came the notion that the sporadic acts of torture were isolated incidents from an apparently undisciplined rabble, which calls itself an army. But with the Pentagon having given the blueprint for the concentration camp at Guantanamo and with the hierarchy knowing fully what went on at Abu Ghraib, Donald Rumsfeld's comments that such incidents are shocking and will be investigated fall flat. In short, he is as much a barefaced, callous liar as his president, George Bush.

Desecration of bodies

On Wednesday 19th October came revelations by an Australian photojournalist, Stephen DuPont, whose footage taken while touring with a US Army patrol was shown on the Australian Special Broadcasting Service's programme, Dateline.

The footage is shocking and immediately conjures up images from Belsen or Treblinka or Dachau.

Two Taleban fighters are apparently doused with petrol and burnt, with their arms and legs splayed out, facing Mecca. Then two psyops specialists from the US army broadcast a message showing the charred bodies with the wording: "Attention Taleban, you are cowardly dogs."

Saddam Hussein tortured

In Iraq, where Abu Ghraib is a monument to the Bush regime's illegal act of butchery which has sent the only stable nation in the region into chaos and which has added a 100,000 death toll to the 500,000 caused by sanctions, in which civilian infra-structures were targeted by military forces armed to the teeth so that rebuilding contracts could be handed out, we now have evidence that Saddam Hussein has been tortured.

Sleep deprivation is a method of torture approved of by the Pentagon and it has been applied to the former President of Iraq to exhaust him during his trial. At the beginning of the opening session of the "court" giving him a "fair" trial, Saddam Hussein declared that he had been kept awake since 02.00 but that he was ready to take on the kangaroo court.

CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart was also quoted, by Reuters, as having confirmed that Saddam Hussein is being subjected to sleep deprivation. "Fair" trial? Under torture? Maybe by George Bush's standards.

Now Amnesty International is fighting to get a decision taken in London in 2004 that information received through acts of torture abroad is admissible.

What is happening in the USA and UK? Where are the morals, where are the standards, where is the respect for international law, for the UN Charter, for international conventions and agreements? The Axis of Evil is centred however on Washington and gravitates around the evil regime of mass murderers and war criminals, with George Bush at the center of the web.

fascinating that just about every news (online) publication now is condemning the bush regime.....and the articles are getting testier and more graphic.

 

[Reverend Blair]

Remember the old saying, "Put up, or shut up?"

Does that mean you want Canadians voting in your next presidential election, or does it mean that you will support whoever we tell you to?

The really sad thing is - you all criticize and giggle over Bush's mistakes, but you can't think of anyone who is any better. Not really. That's what I asked earlier, and it was a very feeble response indeed.

You asked who we thought would make a good president and we answered. What's your problem, didn't like our picks? You really haven't supplied much of a field for us to pick from, have you?

Want to know who I think would make an excellent president? Steve Earle, with George Carlin as VP, Susan Sarandon as chief of staff, and Gore Vidal as senior policy advisor. Maybe we can get Molly Ivins, Michael Moore, and Al Franken in as cabinet members too. Each and every one of those people has more intelligence, better ideas, and more humanity than any member of the Bush White House. Hell, each and every one of them has shown more respect for America than any of the head bozos in the GOP.

Is that response more to your liking, Uncle?