I'm not really a gamblin man. As a very financially reserved person, giving away money to hunches and luck isn't my style. But just as November 2004 came and went i vowed to many close to me that Bush would be impeached before 2008 and its even more likely that they'll get wise and impeach Cheney as well if not before.

Now, I read of a man in Ireland who placed a bet that Al Gore, JR. that is...would be the next highest official in the US to get jailed. Not sure what his reasoning was, but he honorably lost the best the other day when Al Gore III got jailed instead of his father. He coughed up some good dough to those he bet.

But it seems now I will get my wish and maybe if I'm lucky someone will remember my bets. As I type the papers are blooming with stories of impeachement in a way that has not reached this furvor thus far in this ludicrous game of cat and mouse with Dems and GOP.

Cheney is clearly a criminal on so many levels, but if nobody prosecutes whats it worth to call him that. Pelosi has been clear about this too many times that she will now have to stand up and say, "times up, impeachment is on the table." If we are organized she won't have much of a choice.

What I noticed in my calls last week was that of the entirety of the Democrats I called on the Judiciary committee, all who answered said they had been receiving higher than normal requests for Cheney's impeachment, brought on even more from the Libby commutation.

A good thing to ask when calling congress is, "have you been getting a lot of calls on this?" so you can see how much you are not alone. They usually are quick to tell you how busy they are. One staffer punk even said, "look, I don't need your shpeel (sp) on why we should impeach Cheney" and drew back a nub. He must not have heard my opening comment, "I'm recording this conversation".

I'll post audio shortly for these calls, but they are very informative about what is drawing attention about this administration and the rising support for impeachment.

The newest poll numbers show half of US citizens polled approve of impeaching Bush and more than that on impeaching Cheney. Activists aren't going to be too surprised at this, but they should seize the opportunity to do some radical organizing before interest turns to apathy.

One idea lobbied around our house was to set up "lemonade" impeachment stands in places where a person would be allowed to sit in public, especially high traffic areas near movies, etc. Put "Petition for Impeachment of Bush and Cheney" on the front of a table and then inform people and have them sign. Then pass these on to both your congressional rep and to your Senator's office.

I live in Texas, so the idea of getting John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Huchinson to vote for impeachment may be out of our reach in some eyes, but that isn't stopping us from putting a petition forth so History will know we had a support in Texas to impeach and these Senators were bound by their conflicts of interest in serving us.

The same is true for the countless numbers of citizens I know in one of the local districts that is controlled by John Culberson. If we sat in some of his areas and had petitions, we'd swamp his office easily with support for impeachment. He would balk, because he's a card carrying lifer of the GOP talking points crowd.

Then we have the argument that the Senate must have enough votes to remove the president and that may not come because of the 2/3rds split needed and the 50/50 or so tie in party line votes now. I pointed out to staffers that it is likely if you put this vote before the house, the population will do the rest in being fired up. Without it on the table polls show half, on the table, I bet it will really divide the group more along a 70/30 split.

If I were a bettin man, I'd be bettin for impeachment as inevitable. But even as a non-betting man, I have one general wager out there, and even if I never see a dime, the original wish and confidence is that the people might see what is happening for what it is, corruption unparalleled in our time taken down by their arrogance, willful disregard for law, justice, and common descency.

house.gov

look up your rep, and the reps on the judiciary committee. call each Democrat and demand opposition to Bush's policies and violations, and ask them to sign House Res. 333. Remind them of their constitutional oath. Further if your representative isn't on the Judiciary or Oversight committee, remind the staffer that you need representation on that committee, and could the colleague please take care of our needs.

then call the democratic caucus, and the leadership offices of Pelosi, Hoyer, and Conyers and be firm in your desire for impeachment hearings.

This morning I am reading from one of the many online opinion sections from supposedly reputable TV stations. I come across someone who referred to a WSJ article claiming that Fitzgerald has a grudge against Libby for an earlier court encounter where Fitzgerald was going after Marc Rich and Libby was defending Rich. Its the classic, "So...we meet again!" scenario.

Now as it would be, I got lucky a few months ago watching CSPAN3 when they aired a Libbyathon if you will, and one of the things aired was the testimony of Libby before the house on the pardon of Marc Rich. Of course as usual, I taped it.

When asked

Paul Kanjorski asked, "Did you represent a crook who stole money from the United States government, was a fugitive and should never have been given or granted a pardon by the facts that you know?"

"No, sir," Libby responded. "There are no facts that I know of that support the criminality of the client based on the tax returns."

So, is Libby an incompetent lawyer who didn't know if Marc Rich's evidence showed innocence, or are the rightwing nuts suddenly picking the exact wrong case to use to attack Clinton again?

The man of the hour, Scooter Libby, sorry Paris move over, is on the record as saying the example A, Marc Rich, is innocent of tax evasion, though calling him a traitor for his business choices, and now the supporters of Libby's commutation, pardon, and damn near sainthood, are saying this terrible guy Marc Rich was just another example of how terrible Clinton was.

Perhaps has come the time for the rabid right wing to bite its own head off by the gnashing of its own teeth. Its like the old Shel Silverstein poem of Hungry Mungry, who ate up everything, "till nuthing was nuthing was nuthing was left to eat".

Amen.

Call CSPAN and ask them to air the Libby testimony about Marc Rich again...enjoy

Then call your Congress and tell your representative what you want them to do, on Cheney and CO. LLPFWCAP.

I first became politically active in the anti-Apartheid movement around Houston as a teen. It led me to the anti-death penalty case with Clarence Brandley. I still owe many thanks to a man named Mike and my family friend Linda for taking me to meetings and the various satellite topics on race, poor struggle, and housing issues.

But after the release of Mandela, Sisulu, Clarence Brandley and the beginning of a young man's life, I went to sleep as a citizen only occassionally standing up to my boss, and being a regular person with my own chutes and ladders to deal with.

I grew up with all the American images in my life from Rambo on the big screen, duck and cover, Rocky beating the Russian, fall of communism. I grew up reading Soldier of Fortune, Stephen K Hayes ninja books, Pistolero, and other very military oriented books on aircraft, Sun-tzu, and of course James Bond was always available.

Since my father passed away when I was 13, I didn't have a very strong father figure to get me through transformative years from boy to man, I had to find them in the culture and from the few who I would be around. Even then, my father wasn't a military man, nor were his family members. My mothers side had military members though and

Visions of flying helicopters led me to recruiters at 17, and stability for my family led me back at 25. I didn't enlist either time after I realized I was being lied to about what was to be given to me or my family in return for service. But outside of that, I was the demographic, young caucasian man who was a retail manager for stores and had good credit.

Then the governor of Texas ran for the White House. As a parent who already didn't like the condition of Texas after his governorship, I certainly was worried about his assent to the highest office.

The furvor from the right wing of America was so inconsistent with the George Bush I knew anything about. For one, as a musician in Houston, my friends included a lot of older musicians who had gone to drug or alcohol rehab and among a couple of of them, there was a certainty that Bush had gone to a program like the Palmer Drug Abuse Program (PDAP). Because I didn't know the centres I just took it as a possibility at best, not evidentiary in substance.

Alarm number one, Cheney picks himself as candidate for VP. WHAAA?!? How in the hell does that happen? And more clearly the next question was, how can you trust the person next to him who says, "Sounds good to me!"

Now, I based some of my view on my background as a manager where I had to hire or was in the process and we looked at candidates for management and services. Here was a Presidential candidate, Bush, who was already suspect in my mind picking Dick Cheney, who frankly I didn't know much about. But it wasn't the "left wing" media that convinced me this was about to go awry.

On July 27, 2000, I was at the hospital days before my maternal foundation, my grandmother, and so was my retired Master Chief uncle. When candidate Bush came on TV, he said, "That's my President!" in a room full of family, and she said,...and I'm ironically glad to quote, "Over my dead body!"

I will never share fully how much she meant to me, and that her death transformed me, but those words were Liberty. She spoke with a strength that defied her cancer riddled body. And this was from someone who never acted very political in front of me before. She was also his mother, and as they say, "Honor thy mother and thy father."

His rationale was that Bush understands what it means to be afloat on a ship built by the lowest bidder. I was shocked to hear him say this until I considered what he did in my life time, which was sit in an office and chaperone new recruits to our home to eat a good meal from time to time. We were in Houston and he was south of Dallas. Isn't Dallas pretty far from water for a navy boy?...I digress.

But that notion of spending money at a high level means you are getting good product and what it is worth. Further, I was often hearing about very advanced technology and defense spending and it was already fathoms above the next closest nation. Then I remembered how this same man stood by when my grandmother's abusive boyfriend hit me as a 14yr old and his warrior soul took a siesta on that day.

So here was a man who had clearly shown he wasn't able to defend much of anything talking about spending defense money and backing an AWOL governor who was running with a deferment king, and I'm supposed to think I'm getting protection? Please explain this theory to my wushu teachers.

In time I'll go into details about a skip from then to now, other than the primary shift needed to complete this tale for now. After doing radio related to KPFT in Houston, I was exposed to activists from many walks again and was focused on key issues of FCC ownership, death penalty, environmental, and of course, the anti-war crowd.

I started to videotape the news and events on a regular occasion before 2000, but with 9/11, I started a collection of video tapes of news, I'll never fully be able to watch fully, but I can skip around and go back to see how news presented events at the time, and now match up articles I certainly missed while being a stupid primate who watches the finger pointing at the moon, while missing the moon.

I have been fortunate to capture all the 9/11 commission hearings aired on CSPAN, other offical testimony, MeetthePressfacenationthisweekonfoxnewsunday60minutes...you know..the circuit. And it was the one story bubbling along the way that I locked on to and have been most intently focused on for almost 2 years now. The Outing of Valerie Plame was the case that woke me up.

Why is this case such an indicator of what is wrong with this administration and its almost hydra like behavior? Here was a servant of the people who even in the memo released seems more focused on finding WMD than being a politico. And since when did her political affiliation have to be called into question as if an Enemy of the State?

What news wasn't I getting about the Niger documents, and certain lead-up facts that further inform me about context of this War on Iraq. I didn't know about Rocco Martino, Nicolo Pollari, Elizabeth Burba, and about the breakin at the Niger embassy, much less about uranium mines in Niger. I knew about diamonds, water rights, nationalist infighting, and Lamumba, Charles Taylor...does that count?

So I dug, and I dug, through the internet and the congressional staff, and became more focused on what this was all about. I would find lead after lead into areas that are still not exhausting themselves with deadends or with resolutions.

Then I realized that I was mainly digging out the manure pile that has been lumped on us by Karl Rove, Ken Mehlman, Cheney, and of course the right wing media not limited to FoxNews, National Review, NewsMax, and Washington Times, but including the abomination of Robert Novak and others who were still spinning "facts" that no longer matched my sources.

What were my sources? Well, for instance, I took the time to download the Senate Intel report that supposedly confirmed Valerie Plame sent Joe Wilson and that he was some sort of liar. Its a massive document for someone who doesn't read this sort of stuff on a regular basis, but with a cup of coffee and video processing on my main computer, I chose to read the document bits at a time.

Because I had now read this document, each time Brit Hume ran his mouth on TV, I knew where he had read the document and where he had cherry picked portions to justify a continued mitigation of the actions of this administration, and the smear of Valerie Plame and Joseph Wilson.

Because I was now reading the the Libby case documents, I knew testimony that was being reguritated on TV, I could still see where there were authors who were not updating their accounts. I don't know their motivations, but my guess is they are a combination of lazy, bought in, not objective at all, and in some cases, willfully obtuse.

I'm going to work on demonstrating aspects of this case, and closely related topics, for the coming years. I want to examine how we hear stories now, compared to the very details at the early stages that are glossed over later.

1. Why was Alberto Gonzales waiting 12 hours?

2. Did Andy Card notify those who were involved?

3. What was the VP campaign's full scope in leaks?

4. How were advocates of Libby and Cheney using their editorial spaces to distort the facts?

5. Who are the players and what are their records in other scandals or important events?

I can only hope that it will useful in at least helping me focus on what is important to follow and to not be had again.

A court jester once said, 'Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can't get fooled again'.

I'd hate to think I'll spend the next few years being fooled by Fmr. Amb. Joseph Wilson and his wife because I was not able to resolve the vast inconsistencies between the majority of the most credible sources and the squawking of the mouthpieces like Brit Hume, Byron York, Fred Thompson, Gulliani, Tony Snow, and the Libby Defense Fund.

END OF OPENING TOME

FOOTNOTES: Call congress and tell them to uphold their oath to defend the constitution and this nation against threats Foreign and Domestic. I'll be typing away and collecting more articles.