I just happened to pick up my little local paper here in Central PA and a small Page 3 column outlines that our friends in the White House have somehow misplaced/lost/deleted/crashed a boat load of emails dating back to 2003.

Oh my my!  What will they do now, as Rove is getting closer to plopping his behind in front of the Judiciary Committee.  Claim that someone shredded the last 8 years of Presidential memos?  

In an interview to be published in The New York Times this Sunday, Rep. Dennis Kusinich continues to  make the case for impeachment – especially amid the Russia/Georgia crisis – as well as arguing for Democrats to come together to back Obama.

Asked why he continues calling for impeachment, Kucinich responds, "This president is capable of taking us into war, in October, on the eve of an election, to try to change the outcome of the election...

"The events in Georgia are a premonition...of an attack on Iran.  When Georgia moved against South Ossetia as the Olympics are starting, the Bush administration begins its own Olympics – the war Olympics."

Whodda thunk that Pakistan has a more vibrant democracy than the good ol' USA?  Perhaps there's a slight angle to this argument, but consider the roles of Bush 'the Guardian of Democracy' & Musharraf 'The Generalismo'.  Now, consider the following:

1.  Pakistan actually sees demonstrations that aren't composed of vapid demonstrators simply wanting personal attention.  In Pakistan the attention often comes from suicide bombers or zealot policemen, yet the heroic lawyers protest on!  When's the last time you saw a group of 1000 climbing fences and sucking tear gas in America - other than spoiled brat (F)anarchists?

2.  The protests actually mean something, as witnessed by the resignation of Musharraf on charges that he violated the constitution.  Charges?  Back in the good ol' USA the we have legislation (FISA again) which officially acknowledges wrongdoing, but there's nary a twitch on the protest line.  

Combine the above with news about the dismal state of American electorate involvement and ability and it suggests that we need a kick in the pants.  Hmmm...Musharraf '08?

More hmmms...HS civics students graded on protest involvement?  Civil disobedience arrests as pre-req for Polisci degrees?

Ok, this will probably get torn to shreds, and my feelings will not be hurt.

The point I hope to make in this diary:
Due to advances in technology and culture no matter who is president their actions will be attacked/and viewed as an impeachable offense by 1/2 the population.

It started with Nixon and has gotten more pronounced as time has gone on.

I doubt it is because the quality of the presidents has gotten any better or worse. I mean they've always been pretty constant, I would think.

<More after the break>

George W. Bush is the worst president in history! As the last months of his lame duck presidency are drawing to a close, we have and will continue to find out more that calls for his impeachment.

The United States has won.  We have missile defense capability which makes MAD obsolete (close to obsolete).  This may actually be seen by some as a declaration of war against Russia.  

Imagine for a moment that we were 100% sure that Russia's nuclear ICBMs and nuclear submarines could not strike it's targets.  What could prevent us from dictating to Russia (or any state for that matter) it's foreign and domestic policy?  

  In the heat of anger for the corruption of the presidency by George Bush we need to remember that impeachment is the constitutional equivalent of an indictment. An indictment only says that there is enough suspicious actions by the person that a trial is warranted.  Indictment then trial...that is the process.  If the trial doesn't result in a conviction, the person is INNOCENT and the indictment false.
  Clinton was impeached. He was put on trial and the Senatem, with a Republican majority, failed to convict him!  So where did it get the GOP?  They got egg all over their face because THEIR OWN SENATORS refused to CONVICT Clinton.  
   Where are the leaders of the impeachment effort?  Every last one of them is out of government!  
   And who is more popular today, Clinton or the Republicans who impeached him?  Read the polls.
   There is a lesson here, my friends.  It is simple.  If you impeach someone and do not convict them, THEY, not you, come out the victors!

That would be, or should be the picture on the postcard I would be sending back from this wonderful and beautiful country.  I would, if I were into sending postcards.

For real, or imagined security concerns or out of just plan caution I'm not going to tell you where I am inside the country.  But I am here, I have been past the walled military compound where Musharraf lives, and have seen the incredible amount of security that lines the streets where he passes.

I have many diary entries planned for when I get back to the states.  

I wasn't even planning to write a diary while here, but recent events have changed my mind.

From Impeachment Left to Right

The 110th Congress isn’t over. We’re starting our work, and then we’re doing it in a period where the Congress is in recess. I’m calling everybody back. -- John Conyers on DemocracyNow, Aug.14,2008

UPDATE: Commenter reports that Conyers now says he did not call committee back, but only "staff," whom I thought stayed on anyway while congressmen were on "District Work Period."  Left message seeking clarification.  On the helplessness expressed in these comments, I direct readers once again to the new project reaching out to campaign contributors of Judiciary members.  The work has been done, folks, it's a little cut-and-paste.  When one button in democracy doesn't work, try another.

House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers has taken the highly unusual step of calling his committee back from summer recess in order to investigate allegations by Ron Suskind..

Historical background on the Lie Factory:

Remember the lead up to the Iraq War?  The hype was thick and well orchestrated. Cheney's gal Friday, Judith Miller, was dishing his dirt in the New York Times from an anonymous source (Scooter Libby, pardoned by Bush), and he cited her articles as proof that his ballyhoo was substantiated by a venerable newspaper (no longer).  The New York Times stood idly by, letting Cheney play this trick on the American public, anonomously corroborating himself via their reknown reporter (infamous now). The NY Times aided and abetted Cheney's artifice, which would unleash death and destruction on thousands, while sweetening the pot of special interests at our expense, without so much as a correction.

Whilst poking around the campaign finances of House Judiciary Committee members, a result of frustration in getting this impeachment business going, I ran across a $9,000 contribution in the current cycle to the unopposed campaign of Artur Davis (D-AL).  Who in the world is McWane Inc., thinks I?  Turns out, McWane Pipe is a company with one of the worst accident records in the country.  Over 4500 workplace accidents in its foundries between 1995 and 2003.  These are not paper cuts.  Serious loss of limb, hands, eyes, and life...  

August 13, An Undisclosed Location. Do you agree with Florida Democrat Robert Wexler and Ohio Democrat Dennis Kuchinich that Bush and Cheney should be impeached? Do you feel that the war in Iraq was conducted with the incompetence that rivals FEMA in New Orleans? Or that it was a mistake? Do you feel that rather than enhance our national security, the war - 4,000 dead, 19,000 wounded, and $1 Trillion spent, has strengthened Iran and weakened the United States? Do you feel that the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, should be an effective emergency response force, or an agency of incompetence and a gold mine of patronage? Do you believe that the Department of Justice should focus on race, religion, party and politics when hiring and firing staff and investigating and prosecuting corruption? Do you work? Do you need health care? Do you want your children to be able to get an education, then find rewarding work? Do you believe in "government of the people, by the people, and for the people?"  The "DemoPunks" don't.

The halls of justice where people once marched lie vacant with only shadows covered by dust and cobwebs. The libraries ransacked and the law books censored to protect the guilty. The arachnids have long but abandoned their webs and the bats their rafters, allowing the repulsive locusts to devour democracy’s rich harvest and watching a parasite’s jaw clamp down on roots in plain sight. This land is barren and is a place where the sound of flapping wings buzzes in the ears like a prairie motorcycle on its way to the wasteland where it rains dust from a seldom traveled road, and where thick smoke from a traveler’s exhaust pipe fills a once blue sky.
Nothing grows here, and the occupants of this land willingly believe that it is too late to harvest, the life giving seeds on their shelves and in their cupboards sitting unplanted. The citizens have surveyed their drought land, seeing what the sand has made of their air, water, soil and livelihoods. A strong gust of wind had knocked the sheriff flat on his back and set tumbleweeds ablaze. There were those who believed that Armageddon was approaching, and to them, hell’s existence was unquestioned. For years, the ever evolving ideals of freedom and liberty gave this land its fertility and its vibrancy.

It is time to start flooding Pelosi's office with DEMANDS.

We must demand Congress be immediately recalled from vacation.

We must demand Congress immediately begin impeachment proceedings against VP Cheney, and if the investigation leads to it, Bush, Rice, etc.

Ron Suskind's book is just the latest evidence of high crimes committed by the Bush administration.

The evidence is everywhere, and it is overwhelming.

So my boss at work, in this big corporation where I slave away regularly, murdered my son.

I'm really angry about it, but you know what?  I just got promoted to the boss's job, and the boss is retiring, so it's really not so bad!

Now that I'm in charge, I can replace all of his cronies, including the guys who covered up my son's murder, and the people who actually helped him do the deed.

It's all okay now, because they're out.  And I'm in.

Above: Vincent Bugliosi on Bush War Crimes, House Judiciary Committee run-up-to-impeachment hearings July 25, 2008

In the hullaballoo over whether Bush really said whether or not there was a link between Saddam and 9/11, in the run-up to the Iraq War, an impeachable offense, we can all stop arguing.

The Authorization to Use Force Against Iraq REQUIRED Bush to certify a link between Saddam and 9/11.  This was raised by John Kerry in the later part of the 2004 campaign, as he was skewered for being both "for" and "against" the war. The point of nuance which Kerry could not adequately articulate was that the approval to use force was conditional on two determinations being made by the president: that Saddam had a connection to 9/11, and that he possessed WMD:

-"I have also determined..

It never fails.  Whenever an impeachment diary get more than a handful of comments, foremost among the reasons offered is the notion that it won't happen because, somehow, Democratic Congressmembers are "complicit" with the crimes and misinformation that form the basis of the charges that warrant impeachment.  We see this even now with clammyc's excellent diary on the recommended list exhorting us to not allow our Representatives to ignore evidence that the Bush administration ordered the forgery of intelligence documents to justify our invasion and occupation of Iraq.  Seriously, people, just stop it.

Judge Nottingham should be impeached for violating my Rights Under Color of Law, a felony, so that the public will have confidence in Rule of Law and the Courts