"Your greatness will be defined by how we rise to overcome and undo what you have done."

The Greatest Greatness of George W. Bush

William Rivers Pitt, Truthout:
"Your greatness will be defined by how we rise to overcome and undo what you have done. Your greatness will stand forever if we never, ever forget the hard, bitter lessons you taught us. We are responsible for this republic, for our Constitution, and for each other. We are our brother's keeper. You taught us that by becoming our Cain. You nearly slew us, but here we stand, and we defy the place in history you would relegate us to. We defy you, and by doing so, we rise."
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2009 - Time to wake up

2009 - Time to wake up

By Omran Al Sharhan
As conscious human-beings who care about humanity and still maintain hope for a better world, the recent global protests for Gaza should strengthen our faith in creating that better world we all dreamed of. A world in which no country is above International Law, a world with no occupied territories, a world where justice prevails, a world that does not remain quiet when a whole nation is being horrifically imprisoned for decades.

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Gaza death toll rises to 399; 1925 injured:

A Palestinian medic was killed and two others wounded when a missile struck next to their ambulance east of Gaza City, Palestinians said.

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Robert Fisk: The self delusion that plagues both sides in this bloody conflict:

Hamas is not Hizbollah. Jerusalem is not Beirut. And Israeli soldiers cannot take revenge for their 2006 defeat in Lebanon by attacking Hamas in Gaza - not even to help Ms Livni in the Israeli elections.

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Hospital in Gaza City Engulfed by Suffering:

Rawiya Ayad lay in a bed on the ground floor of Gaza City's Shifa Hospital on Tuesday, connected to a respirator. A bandage covered her head, and dried blood scarred her face. Shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike was embedded in her brain, poisoning her blood. She was in a coma.

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The Truth About Those Hamas Rockets

By Dennis Rahkonen

Five years ago, the Bush administration lied about weapons of mass destruction to dupe us into supporting an illegal, immoral invasion of Iraq. A few days ago, Israel trotted out only an infinitesimally more credible excuse -- the Hamas rockets case -- as justification for its own murderous shock and awe in Gaza.

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Obama's Hot Spot Emissaries Named: Ross, Haass, Holbrooke

"Crazy Vice-President Gate."

Olbermann: 'Fatuous, condescending lunatic' Cheney failed to prevent 9/11

"Listen, you fatuous, condescending lunatic," Olbermann erupted. "Your task was not to deal with the aftermath of 9/11 -- it was to prevent 9/11."

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Restore the rule of law after years of lawlessness that have undermined our national security,"

Feingold On Panetta: Very "Pleased" With Choice

Sen. Russ Feingold, a leading progressive Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, supports Leon Panetta for head of the Central Intelligence Agency.
"Leon Panetta has a long and distinguished career in public service and there are few people of whom I have a higher opinion," he said in a statement.
Feingold is widely regarded as a leading opponent of torture, extraordinary rendition and secret detention. Panetta, said Feingold, "has been a strong voice opposing the interrogation practices authorized by the Bush Administration and he is well-equipped to restore our national security, which has been undermined by the current administration's policies."
Feingold added, though, that he would continue to vet Panetta. "I look forward to closely examining his record, hearing his plans for protecting our nation against al Qaeda and other threats, and learning how he will help restore the rule of law after years of lawlessness that have undermined our national security," he said.

Haaretz reports: that the United States has decided to block any Arab initiative that would enable the Security Council to have a direct role in ending the Gaza crisis.

US To Block UN EffortsTo Reach Cease-Fire

Bush Plan Eliminated Obstacle to Gaza Assault

Investors dump $89B in U.S. securities in historic fire sale

The deep river of private money that helped knit together the global economy has abruptly dried up, new government figures show.
As the global financial crisis grew more severe this summer, foreigners sold almost $90 billion of U.S. securities — the greatest quarterly fire sale by overseas investors since the government began keeping track in 1960. U.S. investors also are retrenching; they unloaded about $85 billion worth of foreign holdings in the quarter, says the Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis.
"We've had a global panic. Everyone is pulling their money home," says economist Adam Posen of the Peterson Institute in Washington, D.C.
That's bad for economic growth in the U.S. because it threatens to starve capital-hungry companies and entrepreneurs. But it's especially serious for emerging-market countries that rely heavily on outside financing. Capital flows into countries such as South Korea, Turkey and Brazil were evaporating even before the mid-September Lehman Bros. bankruptcy made things worse.
The reversal of private capital flows signals an abrupt end to a nearly two-decades-long era of financial globalization, says economist Brad Setser of the Council on Foreign Relations. Private flows into and out of the U.S. for purchases of stocks, corporate bonds and federal agency bonds have dropped from around 18% of economic output to near zero "in a remarkably short period of time," Setser says.
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"Integrity", hopefully at long last Integrity in the Justice Department.

Obama Justice Department Nominees Named

President-elect Barack Obama has announced his choices to fill four top Justice Department positions Monday. David Ogden is being nominated for Deputy Attorney General, Elena Kagan for Solicitor General, Tom Perrelli for Associate Attorney General and Dawn Johnsen for Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel. All four served in Bill Clinton's administration at some point. Kagan is currently the first female dean of Harvard Law School.
"These individuals bring the integrity, depth of experience and tenacity that the Department of Justice demands in these uncertain times," Obama said. "I have the fullest confidence that they will ensure that the Department of Justice once again fulfills its highest purpose: to uphold the Constitution and protect the American people. I look forward to working with them in the months and years ahead."
The full press release:

(Build roads and schools? Not rockets? Why didn't we think of that!)

Bush to Hamas: Stop Wasting Money on War in Middle East

"Since Hamas's violent takeover in the summer of 2007, living conditions have worsened for Palestinians in Gaza. By spending its resources on rocket launchers instead of roads and schools, Hamas has demonstrated that it has no intention of serving the Palestinian people."
President's Radio Address, 1/2/09
Yep. You just gotta hate a government that blows all its money on weapons while its bridges fall down. What's Hamas's problem? Are they evil or just stupid? Thank God we're fighting them there, so they can't get here.

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WASHINGTON -- President Bush rebuffed appeals from the nation's governors on Monday to increase spending on roads, bridges and other public works as a way to revive the economy.
NY Times 2/26/08
And this where we start wondering about whether this retarded murderer even listens to himself when he talks. (Build roads and schools? Not rockets? Why didn't we think of that!) And whether President Bush, or anyone, could really be that unconscious; or if he really believes anything; or if when he gave up snorting coke it was also the last time he looked in a mirror; or if he says these things just to make people crazy. And then we drag in poor old Freud and the narcissism of small differences, and blah, blah, blah. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to move on.
Besides, as Bush always says, it's not up to us to judge him, it's up to history. That and the wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
Anyway, thanks for the tip, G.
On your way out, go ahead and let the door hit you in the ass.

Why Aren't More Americans Dancing To Israel's Tune?

Max Blumenthal, 01.05.2009
Senior Writer for The Daily Beast
The surprising trend in American opinion on Gaza may be because the same pundits who are cheerleading Israel's assault once sold the occupation of Iraq, and with a nearly identical set of arguments.

And there lie the bodies

By Gideon Levy
The legend, lest it be a true story, tells of how the late mathematician, Professor Haim Hanani, asked his students at the Technion to draw up a plan for constructing a pipe to transport blood from Haifa to Eilat. The obedient students did as they were told. Using logarithmic rulers, they sketched the design for a sophisticated pipeline. They meticulously planned its route, taking into account the landscape's topography, the possibility of corrosion, the pipe's diameter and the flow calibration. When they presented their final product, the professor rendered his judgment: You failed. None of you asked why we need such a pipe, whose blood will fill it, and why it is flowing in the first place. Regardless of whether this story is legend or true, Israel is now failing its own blood pipeline test. As Israel has been preoccupied with Gaza throughout the entire week, nobody has asked whose blood is being spilled and why. Everything is permitted, legitimate and just. The moral voice of restraint, if it ever existed, has been left behind. Even if Israel wiped Gaza off the face of the earth, killing tens of thousands in the process, as a Chechnyan laborer working in Sderot proposed to me, one can assume that there would be no protest. They liquidated Nizar Ghayan? Nobody counts the 20 women and children who lost their lives in the same attack. There was a massacre of dozens of officers during their graduation ceremony from the police academy? Acceptable. Five little sisters? Allowed. Palestinians are dying in hospitals that lack medical equipment? Peanuts. Whatever happened to the not-so-good old days of Salah Shahadeh? When we liquidated him in July 2002, we also killed 15 women and children. At least back then, moral qualms were raised for a moment.
Here lie their bodies, row upon row, some of them tiny. Our hearts have turned hard and our eyes have become dull. All of Israel has worn military fatigues, uniforms that are opaque and stained with blood and which enable us to carry out any crime. Even our leading intellectuals fail to speak out on what havoc we have wreaked. Amos Oz urges: "Cease-fire now." David Grossman writes: "Hold your fire. Stop." Meir Shalev wants "a punitive operation." And not one word about our moral image, which has been horribly distorted. The suffering in the south renders everything kosher, as if the horrible suffering in Gaza pales in comparison. Everyone is hungry for revenge, and that hunger is excused by the need for "deterrence," after it was already proved that the killing and the destruction in Lebanon did not achieve it. Yes, I know, war is war. After all, they brought this on themselves. They are a terrorist organization and we are not. They want to destroy us and we seek peace. Still, is there nothing here that will stop this blood pipeline? Even those whose hearts are hardened by "moral righteousness" will have to momentarily halt the bombing machine and ask: Which Israel do we have before us? What will become of its standing in the world, which is now watching the events in Gaza? What are we inflicting on the moderate Arab regimes? And what of the simmering popular hatred we are sowing throughout the world? What good will emerge from this killing and destruction?
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Analysis: US Media Coverage Of Gaza Invasion Largely Biased Towards Israel

He is smaller than life.

A President Forgotten but Not Gone

WE like our failed presidents to be Shakespearean, or at least large enough to inspire Oscar-worthy performances from magnificent tragedians like Frank Langella. So here, too, George W. Bush has let us down. Even the banality of evil is too grandiose a concept for 43. He is not a memorable villain so much as a sometimes affable second banana whom Josh Brolin and Will Ferrell can nail without breaking a sweat. He’s the reckless Yalie Tom Buchanan, not Gatsby. He is smaller than life.
The last NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll on Bush’s presidency found that 79 percent of Americans will not miss him after he leaves the White House. He is being forgotten already, even if he’s not yet gone. You start to pity him until you remember how vast the wreckage is. It stretches from the Middle East to Wall Street to Main Street and even into the heavens, which have been a safe haven for toxins under his passive stewardship. The discrepancy between the grandeur of the failure and the stature of the man is a puzzlement. We are still trying to compute it.

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The crowning personality tic revealed by Bush’s final propaganda push is his bottomless capacity for self-pity. “I was a wartime president, and war is very exhausting,” he told C-Span. “The president ends up carrying a lot of people’s grief in his soul,” he told Gibson. And so when he visits military hospitals, “it’s always been a healing experience,” he told The Wall Street Journal. But, incredibly enough, it’s his own healing he is concerned about, not that of the grievously wounded men and women he sent to war on false pretenses. It’s “the comforter in chief” who “gets comforted,” he explained, by “the character of the American people.” The American people are surely relieved to hear it.
With this level of self-regard, it’s no wonder that Bush could remain undeterred as he drove the country off a cliff. The smugness is reinforced not just by his history as the entitled scion of one of America’s aristocratic dynasties but also by his conviction that his every action is blessed from on high. Asked last month by an interviewer what he has learned from his time in office, he replied: “I’ve learned that God is good. All the time.”
Once again he is shifting the blame. This presidency was not about Him. Bush failed because in the end it was all about him.

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The U.S. Attorney Question Partially Answered

In a meeting last month with the Barack Obama’s transition staff, representatives of the nation’s top prosecutors caught a glimpse of the president-elect’s thinking on the politically fraught issue of what to do with the the current 93 U.S. attorneys.
“[The president-elect] is going to be smart and be cautious. My gut feeling is it won’t be like it was in 1993,” said U.S. AttorneyJohnny Sutton of Texas’ Western District, a member of the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys. On Dec. 11, Sutton and 15 other members of the committee met with Obama’s DOJ transition chief, David Ogden, and his staff at the Justice Department to advise them on law enforcement issues and to point out areas the committee believes require special attention.
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The Republican Party is terrified by the idea of Eric Holder as Attorney General

Why the GOP Fears Eric Holder

The Republican Party is terrified by the idea of Eric Holder as Attorney General. Of all of the appointments to Obama’s Cabinet, this is the one that fills the Right with horror and dread. They have been working overtime to block this appointment. Since Holder was nominated, they have been defining him in the press and framing the issues in ways that they think they could use to take him out.
It started with his ties to the Clinton White House and that Marc Rich pardon and now they are working to bring up everything from Elian Gonzalez to Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky and any other nonsense they can throw into the air in the hopes of killing this appointment.
Why?
The answer is simple: Holder will investigate the political corruption in Washington.
And for the modern Republican Party an active and righteous Department of Justice prosecuting the crimes of the Bush years is a nightmare that fills them with dread.
And so they plan to go after Holder as their latest effort to obstruct justice.
They must be stopped.

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The Abramoff Scandal is Expanding: More GOP woes for 2009...

For many the Jack Abramoff scandal is old news, ancient history and in the past. As the corrupt Bush Administration winds down many of his corrupt fellow travelers are hoping that the Abramoff scandal is dead and buried—and that their involvement will never bubble to the surface. These Corruptionists hope that the Abramoff scandal is over, but they are just whistling past the graveyard. As Faulkner said:
"The past is never dead. It’s not even past."
Quietly, the professionals at the Department of Justice have been working this massive scandal—that is complex by design—to build cases that move from the outer edges to the heart of political corruption in Washington DC. Abramoff is just a doorway in—not an endpoint—and prosecutors are zeroing in on some big fish in a corrupt stream.
The investigation was very active in 2008 and expanded its scope. More shoes are dropping. More details are being exposed. This is why the GOP fears the future, Obama and Eric Holder.

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