We have just scratched the surface of corruption instilled by the Bush Administration...

[Blackhatjack]

The public wants to believe that all of the scandals coming to light now are unrelated.

The truth is that for the last 6 years, there has been a systematic and coordinated effort to engage in corrupt practices across the entire framework of our government, for the purpose of installing a permanent Republican majority and rule of this country.

We already see that his Administration is willing to 'throw out a body' to try and stop further investigation of a scandal, and hide the identity of the real planners and implementation of the plans from the public.

This is going to depend upon true patriots standing up for what is right, and reigning in the criminals. IF we are successful, this will make Watergate look like a walk in the park.

If the criminals are successful this will be characterized as a collection of unrelated incidents led by 'rogue' individuals, protecting the ultimate legacy and power of those in control.

In any event, this will be a historic time in which to live ....

[babylonsister]

1. I cannot bear the thought of the 'criminals' being successful once again.

There's so much water under that bridge, you'd think there'd be massive flooding by now.

[Lars39]

2. Your second sentence hit the mark.

"...the entire framework of our government..."

[bryant69]

3. I think it will be up to Historians to put it together

I think they've stalled just long enough; all too soon we will be in full on campaign mode, and investigations will slow if not stop.

Kind of sad.

Still Waxman and others might not be deterred, so there's still some hope.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[Blackhatjack]

9. I disagree. I think the campaign season will be different this time...

Waxman and Leahy and others will be making headlines for a long time as more and more corruption of the Republican Party and Bush Administration officials is revealed.

The biggest scandal has yet to break for the public, and that is the suppression of Democratic voters and manipulation of voting machines/totals to change the outcome of elections. THis has been in the news, but once there is a Congressional investigation that exposes documentation and testimony that shows the votes of the American people were manipulated to change the results of the last two elections, there is going to be a massive outcry from the public for change.

[blm]

18. Bush1 was investigated HEAVILY by good Dems which helped Bill Clinton win in 92

and then as soon as he took office in 1993 he decided to let Bush and his cronies off the hook for their crimes of office. Those crimes are the roots of 9-11 and this Iraq war and the fascist push towards New World Order as dictated by House of Bush and House of Saud.


http://consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

>>>>>>>

My book, Secrecy & Privilege, opens with a scene in spring 1994 when a guest at a White House social event asks Bill Clinton why his administration didn’t pursue unresolved scandals from the Reagan-Bush era, such as the Iraqgate secret support for Saddam Hussein’s government and clandestine arms shipments to Iran.

Clinton responds to the questions from the guest, documentary filmmaker Stuart Sender, by saying, in effect, that those historical questions had to take a back seat to Clinton’s domestic agenda and his desire for greater bipartisanship with the Republicans.

Clinton “didn’t feel that it was a good idea to pursue these investigations because he was going to have to work with these people,” Sender told me in an interview. “He was going to try to work with these guys, compromise, build working relationships.”

Clinton’s relatively low regard for the value of truth and accountability is relevant again today because other centrist Democrats are urging their party to give George W. Bush’s administration a similar pass if the Democrats win one or both houses of Congress.

Reporting about a booklet issued by the Progressive Policy Institute, a think tank of the Democratic Leadership Council, the Washington Post wrote, “these centrist Democrats … warned against calls to launch investigations into past administration decisions if Democrats gain control of the House or Senate in the November elections.”

These Democrats also called on the party to reject its “non-interventionist left” wing, which opposed the Iraq War and which wants Bush held accountable for the deceptions that surrounded it.

“Many of us are disturbed by the calls for investigations or even impeachment as the defining vision for our party for what we would do if we get back into office,” said pollster Jeremy Rosner, calling such an approach backward-looking.

Yet, before Democrats endorse the DLC’s don’t-look-back advice, they might want to examine the consequences of Clinton’s decision in 1993-94 to help the Republicans sweep the Reagan-Bush scandals under the rug. Most of what Clinton hoped for – bipartisanship and support for his domestic policies – never materialized.

‘Politicized’ CIA

After winning Election 1992, Clinton also rebuffed appeals from members of the U.S. intelligence community to reverse the Reagan-Bush “politicization” of the CIA’s analytical division by rebuilding the ethos of objective analysis even when it goes against a President’s desires.

Instead, in another accommodating gesture, Clinton gave the CIA director’s job to right-wing Democrat, James Woolsey, who had close ties to the Reagan-Bush administration and especially to its neoconservatives.

One senior Democrat told me Clinton picked Woolsey as a reward to the neocon-leaning editors of the New Republic for backing Clinton in Election 1992.

“I told that the New Republic hadn’t brought them enough votes to win a single precinct,” the senior Democrat said. “But they kept saying that they owed this to the editors of the New Republic.”

During his tenure at the CIA, Woolsey did next to nothing to address the CIA’s “politicization” issue, intelligence analysts said. Woolsey also never gained Clinton’s confidence and – after several CIA scandals – was out of the job by January 1995.

At the time of that White House chat with Stuart Sender, Clinton thought that his see-no-evil approach toward the Reagan-Bush era would give him an edge in fulfilling his campaign promise to “focus like a laser beam” on the economy.

He was taking on other major domestic challenges, too, like cutting the federal deficit and pushing a national health insurance plan developed by First Lady Hillary Clinton.

So for Clinton, learning the truth about controversial deals between the Reagan-Bush crowd and the autocratic governments of Iraq and Iran just wasn’t on the White House radar screen. Clinton also wanted to grant President George H.W. Bush a gracious exit.

“I wanted the country to be more united, not more divided,” Clinton explained in his 2004 memoir, My Life. “President Bush had given decades of service to our country, and I thought we should allow him to retire in peace, leaving the (Iran-Contra) matter between him and his conscience.”

Unexpected Results

Clinton’s generosity to George H.W. Bush and the Republicans, of course, didn’t turn out as he had hoped. Instead of bipartisanship and reciprocity, he was confronted with eight years of unrelenting GOP hostility, attacks on both his programs and his personal reputation.

Later, as tensions grew in the Middle East, the American people and even U.S. policymakers were flying partially blind, denied anything close to the full truth about the history of clandestine relationships between the Reagan-Bush team and hostile nations in the Middle East.

>>>>>>>>>

[90-percent]

4. "A historic time in which to live"

Yeah, every time I'm watching Keith every weeknight I'm saying to myself; "Here's even more unraveling of what these mafioso have been doing in the White House the last six years!"

Fun watching history being made every day by our newly reemerged system of "checks and balances."

Hoping GWB and Co. are checked and balanced all the way to an International War Crime Court soon!

[no_hypocrisy]

5. But y'know, it's reminiscent of a good confidence game.

When it hasn't been used for a while and its elements are unfamiliar to the general public, it can be redeemed, refreshed, etc. and used again with great success. You can only be cheated if your attention is diverted elsewhere and you trust the person who has you pegged for a mark.

[Iwasthere]

6. Agree

It will soon all come crashing down. And no one is going to have make any radio calls saying, "Pull the administration". Though I wish it could be that easy.

[The Count]

7. "Every tree we barked up so far, had had a cat in it"

[DCKit]

8. Is it my proximity to the WH that has allowed

me to see what's been going on since 2001? That electing a smirking, snarky, farting chimp may have been the worst mistake since 1776? So much for restoring honor and dignity back to the WH.

[JHB]

14. Actually, for most proximity seems to blind them...

You must be right for some other reason :evilgrin: :toast:

[PhilipShore]

10. They are professional swindlers...

they just want to loot the budget, and move the money they stole to offshore accounts -- Dubai, so they can invest it and live off the Interest, for themselves, and for their heirs.

They are the Nixon White House Plumbers.

[IWantAChange]

11. The "Pursuer's" - Waxman, Conyers and Leahy are formidable - I like our chances

of saving Democracy and raising the curtain and exposing the Repukes for what they are - power mad incompetents.

[indepat]

12. Enough to make one wonder if this administration is but one vast criminal conspiracy

whose every initiative is designed to undue the Constitution, our founding principles, the rule of law, and international law.

[JHB]

16. Was that ever actually in question?

n/t

[indepat]

22. No, but sadly tens of millions of Amurikkkans don't see/still support everything done

[WinkyDink]

26. I stopped wondering LOOOOOONG ago. Bushco = mobsters. Period. End of story.

Nothing more, nothing less. Mobsters, all.

But not as well-dressed.

[paparush]

13. Just keep pulling that string and the shit will keep unravelling till there's nothing left.

Which, after all, is the center of the Bush** regime...nothingness.

[H2O Man]

15. Tip of the ice cube.

It is at every level of the administration.

[tanyev]

17. I would go even further.

Permanent Republican majority = totalitarianism. They would perhaps try to maintain the appearance of a democracy, but a one-party state by any other name is still a one-party state.

[EVDebs]

19. You mean Institutionalized Corruption

The CIA/Cunningham/Wilkes/Foggo/GOP-moneylaundering scheme that is unravelling and it the genesis of the USAttny scandal. Congress needs to get to the bottom of this before it takes down another CIA chief or DNI.

The Octopus.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=510581&mesg_id=511794

[CJCRANE]

20. 12/20/2000 was the judicial coup

and on 9/11/2001 they implemented the Counter-Revolution* in order to grab extra-judicial and extra-constitutional powers.

*of course most see it as a lucky accident (for the neocons) that all their "catastrophic event" dreams came true.

[leftofthedial]

21. we are barely penetrating the very very very tippy top of the crusty skin

that has formed on the surface of a vast cesspool of offal.

[Marie26]

23. Yep

Even DU'ers will be shocked at the total, systemic corruption once the truth comes to light.

[Hidden Stillness]

24. We are Safe now Because the Larger Pattern now Shows Itself

First of all, I completely disagree with your presumption that people are not able to notice that these things are connected, especially now. It was extremely muddled before, and Democrats were not even pursuing it, but now the sun is starting to come up and the dark night is over. Even a year ago or so, there were silly threads on DU about how "brilliant" Karl Rove is, and "how do we counter it," etc. Now, Rove is shown to be not only not a "genius," not only a Felon, but one of the stupidest people who has ever consulted anybody on anything, and it is just as much of a scandal that this abusive bastard asshole was not taken care of with a huge fight of opposition, rather than the "D"LC-style crawling that has been happening for all these years, as any other scandal.

A few years ago, there were vague glimmers of clues, and wise thinking, from such greats as John Dean and Bill Moyers--secrecy here, closing down openness there, and then the DeLay-Abramoff scandal. As time goes on, you have attempts to commercialize everything, from Social Security and Medicare to the supplies for the armed forces, recordkeeping for all Goverment departments, etc. Then the shut-down of all Congressional hearings, corporate lobbyists everywhere. Then Carol Lam, etc., uncover a widening defense contractor/Republican bribe-taker scandal, spreading to the CIA, (from where Valerie Plame was destroyed), and--bam--Lam is gone. Could this have been tied to Cuningham, etc., bribes tied to Abramoff, Stevens and the "bridge to nowhere," Conrad Burns of Montana, etc.?...

Cheney, oil executive, convenes an illegally secret "energy panel" made up of...somebody, and--bam--"we" invade Iraq and shut down their oil production, turning the contracts for its ownership over to Halliburton, and driving up the price, with no extra work for the oil industry. This was where, by the way, the hero Bunnatine Greenhouse refused to okay contracts she knew were suspicious and not deserved; she is destroyed and demoted. Meanwhile, one of the largest tax shifts from corporations and the rich, to the middle class and poor, occurs at the same time as crushing new legislation favoring the pharmaceutical and credit card industries is passed. Price-gouging with no legal consequences returns. Meanwhile, at the same time, environmental anti-pollution legislation, and worker and consumer protections, are dismantled.

It is now being discovered just how manipulated the system of appointing--or firing--Federal judges or Prosecutors became under this Administration. Many huge jury verdicts for victims of corporate malfeasance or injury have recently been inexplicably thrown out, among them one huge verdict for heart attack by an untested drug, (oh yes, FDA was taken over by industry stock-watchers as were all other Federal Departments), and another lung cancer from smoking death verdict. All Federal Depts. under Cheny-Bush were changed, so that the head of the department no longer runs it, but instead a (secret, of course) Bush-Cheney-appointed "liason" actually cracks the whip, and orders things to be done as directed from the White House, once illegal also.

Documents are not available as they once were. The Civil Rights Department of the Justice Department has been completely killed, and no longer even pursues cases. On and on and on.

It may still be a horrible mystery, but now we know the scope and scale of it; that it is horrific and much, much "Worse Than Watergate." No one believes anymore that Republicans won many recent elections, because, yet again, they bought and took over the once-public count of votes. Now at least, we begin to know. It can be dealt with now.

[DCKit]

28. Well, you tied that up very nicely

Congratulations. And you didn't even sound crazy : )

[wiggs]

25. I believe that as well. We'll be unearthing misdeeds for a decade. nt

[Justice Is Comin]

27. That's why something that appeared so innocuos

at the inception has grown to the level of virtual ulcers for the bushbots.

It has tentacles that lead in every direction. All of them involving crimes. I love emails.

[DCKit]

30. The unmitigated ARROGANCE trumps the emails

[Blackhatjack]

29. This is not popular, but there can be no bipartisanship where corruption is left unexposed...

We have had 6 years of pure unmitigated corruption installed as a way of doing business by this Administration. It will take many more years to fully discover and expose the corruption visited on us, and to hold responsible those who engaged in criminal acts.

Please do not try to promote the idea that the Republican Party will work with the Democrats if only there is a bipartisan approach to everything.

That is a sure way to return Republican backed criminals to power in the future. It has been proven over and over again.

Democrats need to pursue corruption ruthlessly, take no prisoners, and insist that the people responsible pay for their deeds financially and by serving prison sentences. Period.

If Republicans decide to retake their party from these criminals and begin to offer good ideas, we need to listen, but give them no power. It will take decades to fix the damage that has already been done, and we do not need to be 'slow walked and obstructed' in our efforts to identify the wrongdoers and fix the damage.

This may sound harsh, but the welfare of the nation and the future of democracy dictates that Democrats act quickly to fix the problems. The medicine needed should not be watered down for the hope of engendering 'bipartisan support in the future.'

[in_cog_ni_to]

31. I'm wondering if THIS IS WHY John Kerry, MASTER INVESTIGATOR (Iran/Contra), stayed in the Senate?

What better way would there be to avenge the election that was stolen from him than to bring down the very people who stole it?? In the floor speech he gave to tell us he wouldn't be running, he said he could accomplish more if he stayed in the Senate. I wonder if this is what he was referring to? :)

[Blackhatjack]

32. I hope it happens as you suggest --He deserves it.... n/t

[OneBlueSky]

33. BushCo is the greatest organized crime syndicate in the history of the world . . .

greater than the mafia . . . greater than the drug cartels . . . simply the most insidious criminal enterprise ever to grace the planet . . . and it's all being done under the "color of law" -- through the offices of the United States government . . .

when is someone going to put a stop to all this? . . . if Congress waits much longer, we could very well be facing a World War III that NO ONE (other than the criminals themselves) wants . . . a completely unnecessary war of worldwide proportions that will kill millions and very possibly destroy the planet . . .

[symbolman]

34. What I find interesting

is that WE are supposed to follow the Letter of the LAW, while THEY break every law in the BOOK, AND ReWrite them while they're at it..

WHY SHOULD WE FOLLOW THE LAW IF THEY WON'T?

I'd like to see Congress come up with some new laws, that FORCE these guys into a corner - at least use the one available like RICO, they're gangsters, and nothing more, it is more like DISOrganized crime, just that they have all the GUNS in their corner..

I want to see someone ADMIT that this fake 'War' has been nothing more than a GIANT MONEY LAUNDERING OPERATION, period.

It's really just that SIMPLE. With the Treasury being used as an ATM machine by Cheney and others.

The only thing that gives me solace in all of this, is knowing that all those Principals will have to worry about some Moslem Decapitating them for the rest of their lives..

Hence Bush's new way of going out for a STROLL and meeting and greeting his LOVING PUBLIC.