Dec 23 2008
I refuse to write another word until The Citizens Petition: Special Prosecutor for Bush War Crimes has over 6307 signatures!
If you ever want me to write again (since I am the Center of the Universe (according to my ego (which is almost ALWAYS wrong) and you hang on my every word and all) you will do something about it!
Plus, I am going to start holding my breath and jumping up and down………..NOW!
Dec 22 2008
We have built it….will they come?
They will if they know about it! If you want to get involved or stay involved in the Citizens Petition: Special Prosecutor for Bush War Crimes, the work that needs to be done now is getting the petition in front of as many eyes as possible.
Here is a link to a text file of the petition https://www.docudharma.com/uplo… All you have to do is Copy and Paste it into an e-mail.
Below the fold is the promotional e-mail I have been sending out. You can also e-mail me and I will send you the HTML for either the petition or the promo mail.
First please mail it to your Senators and Representatives. And don’t forget to ask them to sign it!
Next, we can mail it to the media, here is FAIR’s Media Contact List
And then the blogs, here is Technorati’s list of the Top 100 Blogs. But please mail it especially to the blogs that YOU read and like. Most blogs have a Contact Us link somewhere on their site. Don’t worry about repetition, the more mails that blogs get, the more it will become apparent that this is a ‘hot issue’ and will cover it.
Social Networking sites, such as Facebook, My Space….as well as Digg and Reddit etc. I have a big hole in my knowledge about these sites, so any help and suggestions as to using them to get the petition out is very welcome!
Update! Google produces a Digg link….go Digg!
Finally, your personal e-mail contacts…send it to everyone you know!
Thanks for the effort, in just two days the petition is up to 2343 signers! Just about anyone who sees it and has the two minutes to sign it…..probably will! So every mail you send out is important. Thank You all for your efforts towards bring these War Criminals to Justice!
Dec 22 2008
Crossposted at Docudharma, OOIBC, Daily Kos, Show Me Progress, and They gave us a republic…
If you wish to repost this essay you can download a .txt file of the html here (right click and save). Permission granted.
 Photo: 1931 “The Public Enemy” James Cagney 1931 Warner Bros., Image courtesy of IMDB |
Attorney General Michael Mukasey since his appointment by George Bush, as have previous members of the Bush administration such as Alberto Gonzales, and other enablers such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has waffled, spun, twisted in the wind, squirmed, sweated, excused, equivocated, denied reality and otherwise insulted Americans and the entire world as evidence of torture ordered at the highest levels of the Bush administration has piled ever higher and higher.
No better than the public enemies he is protecting, Mr. Mukasey, like Ms. Pelosi, has become no better than a getaway car driver, no better than a fugitive from justice.
Torture is well defined, immoral, and illegal, in violation of international law, US law, and international treaties. There is no more heinous and downright evil and dehumanizing crime in the history of humanity than torture.
Any person guilty of torture under current US law can be incarcerated for up to 20 years or receive the death penalty if the torture results in the victim’s death.
Mr. Mukasey, while holding office as the highest ranking officer of justice in the United States, is nothing more than an accessory to the crimes that George Bush, Dick Cheney and others have flagrantly engaged in.
Last week outgoing US Vice-President Dick Cheney made a series of remarkable comments in his exclusive interview with ABC attempting to save himself from prison with a blatant plea for pardon from his co-conspirator George Bush.
Michael Ratner, President of the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), explains Cheney’s motives in a video interview with Real News CEO Paul Jay…
Dec 21 2008
Please go to Democrats.com and sign the petition!
Not much of a response, but heartening in its own small way….depending on, lol, how you interpret it!
From Attorney General Designate Holder, in response to the The Citizens Petition: Special Prosecutor for Bush War Crimes.
“Enough folks. I hear you.”
The petition was initially set up to relay every signer to Mr. Holders public e-mail address. Since it’s formal launch yesterday, we are now at 1085 signers and growing. In response to AG Designates Holder’s response, we have stopped sending him each signature and comment that appears on the petition and are now collecting all names and comments for eventual submission to AG Designate Holder, the media and members of Congress.
We have since asked Mr. Holder for a formal statement on the petition. We await it eagerly! But we now know that he is aware of the petition, aware of our concerns, and aware that there is a citizens movement aimed at bring Bushco to justice. In other words…it is working!
Dec 21 2008
President-Elect Barack Obama announced on December 1 that he has nominated Eric H. Holder, Jr. to serve as Attorney General, to take over the running of The Department of Justice in Obama’s incoming administration from current AG Michael Mukasey.
Mr. Holder has been a partner with the law firm Covington & Burling LLP since 2001.
Mr. Mukasey since his appointment as Attorney General, like all representatives of Mr. Bush have done, has waffled, spun, twisted in the wind, squirmed, sweated, excused, equivocated, and otherwise bullshitted America and the world as George Bush’s acolyte under hot lights and pointed interrogations from Congress over evidence of torture ordered at the highest levels of the Bush administration, the president and vice president, that the least informed people in the world all know is well defined, immoral, and illegal under international law, US law, and international treaties. (see addendum)
A war crime, in simpler terms. A war crime that Vice President Cheney has in recent days confessed publicly that the Bush administration intentionally engaged in.
Mr. Holder is the target of the new Docudharma/Democrats.com sponsored Citizens Petition for a Special Prosecutor to Investigate Bush War Crimes. Don’t forget to sign the petition if you haven’t already.
Who is Eric Holder? What are his views and philosophy on the questions of torture, war crimes, secret prisons hidden away from the rule of law, and Bush’s “war on terror”?
What can we expect his reactions to be to the petition? We have only his own words and background to look to for clues.
Dec 20 2008
The introductory essay, now at Daily Kos, soon to be (hopefully!) everywhere.
If you wish to post this essay, or just the petition, on any site or your own blog, please mail us at [email protected] and we will send you the entire essay, complete with HTML code, to post wherever you wish. Please feel free to edit, within the parameters of keeping the original spirit and intent. We enthusiastically give full permission for such use!
Please go to Democrats.com and sign the petition!
With the recent admissions by Vice President Cheney and the release of the Senate Armed Services Committee Report on detainee treatment, what we have known in the blogosphere for years has now….finally….made it into the mainstream. The Bush Administration planned, developed and carried out an organized torture program stretching from Gitmo to Iraq, Afghanistan and secret prisons around the world.
Despite their protestations and attempts to cover themselves with highly questionable legal opinions, this was and is a War Crime. Their politicization and corruption of the Department of Justice has stymied any investigation and left all efforts at accountability and justice to the new Obama Administrations DOJ, and specifically to AG Designate Holder.
Now, even the New York Times is….again, finally…calling for a Special Prosecutor to investigate these crimes.
Dec 19 2008
Please go to Democrats.com and sign the petition!
Dear Attorney General Designate Holder,
We the undersigned citizens of the United States hereby formally petition you to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in War Crimes.
These crimes are being euphemistically referred to as “abusive interrogation techniques” by such respected figures as Senator John McCain. These are euphemisms for torture. Torture is a War Crime. Waterboarding is a War Crime. The CIA has admitted waterboarding detainees. Recently, Vice President Cheney has brazenly admitted authorizing the program that lead to waterboarding, other forms of torture too numerous to list, and ultimately, the deaths by homicide of detainees.
As Major General Antonio Taguba, the Army general who led the investigation into prisoner abuse at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison has stated:
“After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes. The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account.”
The Washington Post recently summarized the Senate Armed Services Committee Report on detainee treatment thusly:
A bipartisan panel of senators has concluded that former defense secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and other top Bush administration officials bear direct responsibility for the harsh treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay, and that their decisions led to more serious abuses in Iraq and elsewhere.
We the undersigned citizens demand a full and thorough investigation immediately upon your taking office. This investigation should be pursued no matter where it may lead and no matter what the political implications may be. To this end, we remind you that you work not on behalf of or for the President or the Congress, but for the People of the United States of America and for Justice itself.
The United States is a representative democracy. The actions of our government officials are done in the name of its citizens. War Crimes have been committed in our name. Torture has been done in our name. The only way to clear our name of War Crimes is to repudiate them through the aggressive prosecution of each and every person involved to the full extent of the law through the appointment of a Special Prosecutor.
.
Dec 19 2008
Sponsored by Docudharma.com and Democrats.com: A Citizen’s Petition to Attorney General-Designate Eric Holder asking him to appoint a Special Prosecutor to investigate and prosecute any and all government officials who have participated in War Crimes.
You can read and/or sign the Petition for a Special Prosecutor to Investigate Bush War Crimes here, or by clicking on the Badge below.
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To embed the Petition Badge linking to the Petition on your blog or website, copy the code from the box above, and paste it where you want the badge to display.
Optionally, you may want to add the following text above or below the badge on your site:
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You can also embed the Citizens Petition For Special Prosecutor promotional video on your blog or website to help promote awareness of the petition:
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From President-Elect Obama’s Change.org
“Ideas For Change In America”
Appoint a Special Prosecutor for the Crimes of the Bush Administration:
President-elect Obama recently said, “if I found out that there were high officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups of those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our Constitution is nobody above the law.”
Attorney General-designate Eric Holder recently said top Bush Administration officials “authorized the use of torture, approved of secret electronic surveillance of American citizens, secretly detained American citizens without due process of law, denied the Writ of Habeus Corpus to hundreds of accused enemy combatants, and authorized the use of procedures that both violate international law and the United States Constitution.”
The Bush administration has refused to investigate its own crimes and President Bush may issue blanket pardons before he leaves. President Obama must appoint a Special Prosecutor – ideally Patrick Fitzgerald – to fully investigate these crimes and prosecute those responsible to demonstrate that we are truly a Nation of Laws and no one – including the President – is above the law.
– Bob Fertik (President of Democrats.com), New York, NY Dec 06 @ 06:02AM PST
Dec 18 2008
This essay is in support of the petition announced in buhdydharma’s Cheney Throws Gauntlet, Admits to Authorizing Murder…Now What?.
There has been endless talk about Pelosi taking impeachment off the table, the complicit Dems and corrupt Repubs, the wretched SCOTUS, the debauched and criminal Executive Branch.
The bottom line is that none of our elected and appointed representatives have, in these past eight years, stood up to this gang of crooks in an effective manner, no one in power has been able to stop them or hold them accountable for their criminal actions.
We are in the surreal position of seeing Democrats, including Obama, speaking out about a corrupt Governor, saying he should step down, be impeached, and yet maintaining a horrible silence about a corrupt and criminal Executive Branch.
Dec 13 2008
The Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized
.
I’ve been writing about, among other things, safety these past couple weeks.
I have to admit that I found the comments challenging — much protest against the notion of safety, of security, and not so much definition of what security and safety really mean.
As a writer, those challenges made me take a second look at what I was writing and expanded my view. As a result, I’ve come to some conclusions on the subject which I would like to share for anyone who is interested.