I am not human," Vice President Dick Cheney said twice during a 10-minute statement today following news that he had refused to comply with subpoenas, created and advocated for the "Unitary Executive Theory" which is used by the White House to defy laws duly enacted by Congress and thereby justify dictatorial action, played a key role in setting up illegal spying programs, coordinated a campaign to obstruct the investigation conducted by Patrick Fitzgerald, organized a campaign of retribution against whistleblower Joseph Wilson that included the outing of a covert CIA operative, led efforts to institute the routine use of torture, spearheaded a campaign to manipulate pre-war intelligence, created a secret Energy Task Force which operated in defiance of open-government laws, directed massive no-bid contracts to his company, Halliburton, profiting from the same illegal war he had defrauded the American public to launch, and threatened an aggressive attack on the nation of Iran.
Not a single media outlet in the nation reported:

A major push in the House of Representatives to impeach Attorney General Alberto Gonzales helped spur his resignation. That Cheney and Bush have committed impeachable offenses is not disputed by anyone in Washington. They have made refusing to comply with subpoenas a routine occurrence. The House Judiciary Committee in 1974 passed an article of impeachment against then President Richard Nixon for the same offense. In possibly the most direct attack on the separation of powers possible, President Bush has posted numerous "signing statements" drafted by Cheney's office on the White House website announcing his intention to violate laws that he himself signed into law. A Government Accounting Office study looked at a sample of these signing statements and found that in 30% of the cases examined, the executive branch has proceeded to violate the laws in question. Of course, Bush has confessed to violating the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and is on videotape on several occasions over a period of years dishonestly claiming he was not doing so. Far from being unaware of this, Congress has gone to the trouble of legalizing it.

Yet, the 20 cosponsors of articles of impeachment against Cheney do not have the support of the Democratic leadership. Congressman Rahm Emanuel has told the Washington Post that the Democrats want to be sure to keep the occupation of Iraq going until the 2008 elections. Senator Hillary Clinton's military advisor has told Ted Koppel that she intends to keep the occupation going until at least 2017. Asked what she thought of this, an ordinary American said "What's the scam? You're writing for the corporate media and you want to know what I think? Do you have me confused with some billionaire with a similar name? All right, I'll play along. I think Congress is throwing our nation away and endangering the planet for the sake of an election strategy that is doomed to fail because a lot of other people agree with me. The Democrats aren't weak on terror, as I'm sure you'll end up writing. They're weak on Bush and Cheney."

Richard Walton, Phillipe + Jorge’s favorite lefty in the bullpen, throws us an article from the August 27 issue of the Nation, Alexander Cockburn’s “Beat the Devil” column, titled, “How the Democrats Blew It in Only Eight Months.” (Cockburn is what P&J call one of our “long-duration personal saviors,” with apologies to the Church of the SubGenius. Nearly three decades ago, his late, lamented “Press Clips” column in the Village Voice was one of the inspirations for the Cool, Cool World.)

Cockburn hits the nail on the head when he hammers the Congress-controlling Democrats, who have deservedly seen their institutional approval rating slump into the teens. Why? Because they all shouted out their virtues on the promise of ending this obscene Iraq war, and have done shit about it since taking the reins. The war has escalated on their watch, they have approved military budget increases (although our forces are still under-armed and under-protected), and they have allowed the authorization of warrant-less wiretaps.

Cockburn also points out how this lily-livered bunch has been silently bending over to Dubya the Dumb’s demands, while flapping their arms and gums over the disgraced, jumped-up Bush butt-boy and torture enthusiast Alberto “VO5” Gonzales. This has directed attention away from major problems — like an unraveled foreign policy, the abortion that is (still) the Katrina aftermath, and a totally broken health-care system.

P&J join Cockburn in his opinion that there is no excuse for this. Who among the Dems (besides Russ Feingold) has the balls to demand an immediate pullout?

All they are doing now (besides ignoring the US troop death toll, which is pushing 4000, with no end in sight), is trying to figure out if Georgie Boy may have had a point in comparing Iraq with Vietnam.

This claim is so preposterous, delusional, and off the charts of truth and history that it should not have hit the public eye without prompting media suggestions that Boy George is completely insane and a danger in his present office. But, of course, the bulk of the Fourth Estate — except for those with cojones, such as Cockburn — is just as enabling as our all-sizzle-and-no-steak Democratic milquetoasts.

Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid? What a joke. Meet the new boss . . .

Is there anyone in our government that is not A lying son of A bitch, including our military leaders?
read the statements below and tell me whats wrong with this picture!
And why is GW and company not being tried for war crimes?

IS THIS REALLY AMERICA?

The findings include:

• Iraq is suffering about double the number of war-related deaths throughout the country compared with last year — an average daily toll of 33 in 2006, and 62 so far this year.

• Nearly 1,000 more people have been killed in violence across Iraq in the first eight months of this year than in all of 2006. So far this year, about 14,800 people have died in war-related attacks and sectarian murders. AP reporting accounted for 13,811 deaths in 2006. The United Nations and other sources placed the 2006 toll far higher.

• Baghdad has gone from representing 76 percent of all civilian and police war-related deaths in Iraq in January to 52 percent in July, bringing it back to the same spot it was roughly a year ago.

_According to the Iraqi Red Crescent Organization, the number of displaced Iraqis has more than doubled since the start of the year, from 447,337 on Jan. 1 to 1.14 million on July 31.

However, Brig. Gen. Richard Sherlock, deputy director for operational planning for the Pentagon's Joint Chiefs of Staff, said violence in Iraq "has continued to decline and is at the lowest level since June 2006."

He offered no statistics to back his claim, but in a briefing with reporters at the Pentagon on Friday he warned insurgents might try intensify attacks in Iraq to coincide with three milestones: the sixth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the U.S., the beginning of Ramadan and the report to Congress.

California voters, disappointed that Congress has been unable to change policy in Iraq, are now giving federal lawmakers their lowest approval rating of the past decade, according to a Field Poll released today.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also is taking it on the chin. Her popularity with state voters has tumbled as Democrats and independents grow impatient with her party's inability to force the White House to start to bring home U.S. troops, the poll showed.

Just 20 percent of California voters approve of Congress' performance, while 66 percent disapprove. That's worse than the 23 percent approval rating state voters gave the Republican-led Congress in May 2006 before the GOP lost its decadelong control in the November elections. It's the lowest rating for Congress since the Field Poll started asking the question in 1996.

"It's a historic low, and I think the main driver has to do with disappointment with the war," said Mark DiCamillo, who directs the poll. "The reason Congress changed hands in the last election was to try to send a signal to change the administration's policy in Iraq. To this point, the Congress has not been at all effective in that regard."

Very Sad...

On every available indicator the year just ended (March 2006 – March 2007) has been by far the worst year for violence against civilians in Iraq since the invasion:
almost half (44%) of all violent civilian deaths after the initial invasion phase occurred in the just-ended fourth year of the conflict
mortar attacks that kill civilians have quadrupled in the last year (from 73 to 289)
massive bomb blasts that kill more than 50 people have nearly doubled in the last year (from 9 to 17)
fatal suicide bombs, car bombs, and roadside bombing attacks have doubled in the last year (from 712 to 1476)
one in 160 of Baghdad’s 6.5 million population has been violently killed since the beginning of the war, representing 64% of deaths recorded so far
These are the stark headlines derived from Iraq Body Count’s ongoing compilation and analysis of media reports of civilian casualties in the Iraq conflict, which has documented 65,000 violent deaths to date.

Even within the last year, there has been a marked upward trend in violence. This trend is reflected in IBC’s monthly figures, which peaked in July at nearly 3,000 and have since remained elevated at around 2,500 or higher throughout the second half of the year. These IBC trends are broadly in line with the Pentagon’s latest assessment of trends in the security situation (which however include attacks on US and Iraqi troops as well as civilians). In the data collected by the Pentagon most casualties were Iraqis, despite that 68% of the attacks targeted US-led coalition troops
Civilians reported killed by military intervention in Iraq
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