Is it wrong of me to say "No kidding" in regard to the Downing Street memo

[LittleClarkie]

We were misled into war. Do tell.

What exactly does the memo change that we didn't already know? Am I being obtuse? How does it nail Bush in a way that he hasn't been nailed already. The press just ignores it all. It feels like we've had him dead to rights a hundred times, but it doesn't matter.

So is the memo really "all that"? Does it warrant going nuts over? Is it the issue to end all issues, behind which we all should be throwing our weight?

Or not?

My answer: Without a Dem majority in Congress, we're dead in the water. So I'd rather our Dem leaders concentrated on organizing the Party. In some ways, I see the memo as a distraction, like the National Guard memo.

How about y'all?

[JI7]

1. 9/11

one of the problems is there are some Dems who seem to be looking for the one easy thing that will bring down Bush.

when it's really about hard work in various communities across the country.

this is what happened last year. there were people who thought Bush had made of mess in Iraq and that Kerry WOULD do a better job in that area. but when the bin laden tape came out they got scared. and at that point they did not care about whether Bush told the truth as much as they wanted someone they viewed as the most hawkish.

for all the rants from some liberals about how iraq and al qaeda are not connected many also refuse to acknowledge that for many who voted for Bush it was NOT about Iraq. it was about 9/11.

[paulk]

2. if it's true it is a big deal

but we don't have a media anymore that's going to find out if it's true or not. I mean - it's been obvious all along to anyone paying attention that bush rigged the intelligence - the media hasn't covered any of that, why would anyone believe they would start now?

I no longer think it's going to take one big thing to expose the Bush junta for the criminals they are. The "watergate" fantasy is just that. I mean, really - the media has been broken since Iran Contra. It's going to take a sort of underground media - people like ourselves working on turning one person at a time.

[LittleClarkie]

3. I'm definitely worried about the Rovian aspect of all this

Am I to understand that Fox News just covered the memo? There's something terribly wrong with that.

[TayTay]

4. It's misnamed and the media was in bed with the pols

They should be called the Downing Street Minutes as they are transcripts of a meeting that was held, not a memo that was just dashed off and sent around.

I am deeply cynical about anything coming of this. (I also signed the petition and have printed out the stories and will hand them out to everyone I can.) I don't think much will come of it. The press was in bed with the Admin on the War. They wanted the war and people like Judith Miller of the NYTimes have blood on their hands for this catastrophe. The last thing the press is going to do is highlight proof that they were played like a cheap violin.

The British press can do this because they are lively (and freer) than the American corporate press. Our press oligarchy will not make much of this stuff because it makes them look bad. So, I will work to make this known, but I have very little hope that anything will come of it. (The press has the power to ignore this. Imagine that, a story about treason and actual high crimes and misdemeanors by the Admin in print and our corporate-controlled media is too chicken to print it. And for good reason, they will look like the war-thirsty bastards they were who approached the Idiot King on bended knee when he preached his war and asked how they could help. Shame on them. They failed America by failing to do their jobs.)

[sandnsea]

5. It would be

The problem, as I see it, is that too many Dems fully support the war. Even if you could get politically astute Dems, like Hillary, to change course; we'd still have to deal with Leiberman, Landrieu, Nelson, et al. They either believe the intelligence was wrong, or they never cared whether the intelligence was right either. I don't think we'll ever get these Dems to say Bush lied us into a war and if they don't, it would make holding Bush accountable next to impossible.

The only way I see the people getting into this is if we show that Iraq never had anything to do with the war on terror and has been a massive distraction because it was planned before 9/11.

[Der Blaue Engel]

6. "Mislead" and "deliberately calculate and conspire to deceive"

are two very different things as regards impeachability.

No one issue is going to be the one to end all issues, but we should throw our weight as hard as we can behind every last shred or hope of getting rid of this pack of swine.

If it can be proven that their deception was more than mere word games or "bad intelligence," this will be an issue even a GOP Congress can't ignore.

It's like the walls of Jericho. We just need to keep blasting the horns until the right note is hit and the harmonic frequency brings the whole place tumbling down.