Last week's Saddleback Civil Forum on Presidency, quite appropriately dubbed "The Faith Forum", heralded a new age for the Presidency of the U.S.A. - that of the President-Pontificate.

What better way to celebrate the 7th anniversary of Ignored "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in the US" PDB Day than with a conviction in a sham show trial?

Yup, it's been seven years since that infamous daily briefing at the Crawford pig farm ranch, an event which Bush marked by taking the rest of the month off.

The day after he received the memo, "Bush seemed carefree as he spoke about the books he was reading, the work he was doing on his nearby ranch, his love of hot-weather jogging, his golf game and his 55th birthday," the Washington Post noted. Today — 2,557 days later — Bin Laden still remains free and "determined to strike in U.S."

But they got his driver. Sort of.

After closing arguments Monday, Charles D. Swift, a former Navy lawyer who has represented Mr. Hamdan for years, said the two-week proceeding here had been a trial that did not follow the American rule of law and that the defense believed American courts would eventually correct the legal errors here. Mr. Swift called the military commission "a made-up tribunal to try anybody we don’t like."

The not-guilty verdict on the conspiracy charge was a setback for the military prosecutors. The charge had asserted that Mr. Hamdan joined in the conspiracy that included the 2001 and other major terror attacks by helping transport and protect Mr. bin Laden....

Michael J. Berrigan, the deputy chief defense counsel for Guantánamo, said the defense was encouraged by the verdict. "For a team that was expected to strike out at every pitch," he said, "we at least hit a triple."

He described the conspiracy charge that was rejected by the panel as the government’s main charge, and noted that when Mr. Hamdan was originally charged in 2003 the only charge he faced was conspiracy.

So, while they don't have bin Laden, and have no convinctions of anyone involved in that conspiracy, they've got Hamdan on "material support." And, as the Center for Constitutional Rights, which has led the legal battle over Guantanamo for the last six years, points out they've sealed the undermining of long-standing traditions of jurisprudence:

"Hamdan’s trial violated two of the most fundamental criminal justice principles accepted by all developed nations:  the prohibition on the use of coerced evidence and the prohibition on retroactive criminal laws.

The trial will not create finality – the decision to keep these cases out of the ordinary criminal courts will produce years of appeals over novel legal issues raised by the untested military commissions system. Even after those appeals are finished, the process will never be seen as legitimate by the world.  This case was the first trial run of the commissions system, and the decision proves nothing except that the system itself should be scrapped. Terrorism-related crimes should be tried in the time-tested domestic criminal justice system, a system whose rules have been designed over the centuries with one goal: to seek out the truth."

While those years of appeals proceed, the Pentagon intends to detain all of the defendents forever, anyway, even those who are acquitted. As if that will keep the world from noticing that bin Laden is still at large and the "War on Terror" has been a complete debacle.

Blitz Busts Bush on Early Iraq WMD Invasion Plans in 2000

copyright © 2008 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

As Governor of Texas, the Presidential hopeful warned us.  If we were to select him as Commander-In-Chief he would not send mixed messages. Americans might have read George W. Bush's lips.  Pressure would be applied in abundance.  A thousand points of light illuminated the path the then possible Chief Executive proposed.  Yet, no one wished to believe a prominent person, the son of a former President of the United States could be so cruel.  

How should Obama counter-spin the accusation that he has a pre-September 11th mindset?  We've heard this recently and will hear it again.

"Once again, we have seen that Senator Obama is a perfect manifestation of a September 10th mindset," McCain foreign policy adviser Randy Scheunemann said.

Since Obama has recently hired me to be his speech writer and political strategist (he hasn't heard this yet, but would I make that up?), I thought I'd publish my first contribution to his campaign here.  

In essence he needs to claim September 12, 2001 as his... and every day since then too.   Here's what he says:

Yesterday I took the subway down to the vicinity of the old World Trade Center site for the first time in  a couple of years for an interview about my new book at the Dow Jones headquarters directly across the highway.  It's always shocking to see the scale of the site and the lack of progress in turning it into -- anything.  It's still a giant hole, which only serves to remind you what is missing there besides the twin towers.  That is, some 3000 lost souls.

One of them was my good friend, Jon Albert.  

So any visit is extremely painful, while also reinforcing what most of us New Yorkers did not feel -- that we should attack a country that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack.  

Martin Luther King, "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam"

copyright © 2008 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it.
He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.
~ Martin Luther King, Junior

Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
~ Martin Luther King, Junior.

Cheney the man who cares

copyright © 2008 Betsy L. Angert.  BeThink.org

In a "glowing" statement, perhaps meant to glorify the horrific deaths of the soldiers slain in Iraq, Vice President Dick Cheney offered, "I think it's a reminder of the extent to which we are blessed with families who've sacrificed as they have."  The man who, in his youth sought five deferments in order to avoid service during the Vietnam War, went on to state, "A lot of men and women sign up because sometimes they will see developments."

The media flap about what Rev. Jeremiah Wright says in his sermons surprised me, but I don't know why.   What did white folks think black people did in their churches?  Why, the same things we white people do in our white people churches, of course.  White Catholics must have thought they take communion every week and pray for the pope, while white Lutherans figured they sing "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" accompanied by a pipe organ.  And then, I guess the white Christians figured, the pastor tells them to be nice to people, because that's what Christianity is, was, and has always been, forever and ever, Amen.  Right?

The warnings were going straight to President Bush each morning in his briefings by the CIA director, George Tenet, and in the presidential daily briefings. It would later be revealed by the 9/11 commission into the September 11 attacks that more than 40 presidential briefings presented to Bush from January 2001 through to September 10, 2001, included references to bin Laden.

The slogan Remember 9/11 is thinly veiled code for Will for Revenge.

Remember 911 is not to be read literally.  The bearers of this slogan dont know much about what happened.  Virtually all of these people don't know shit about 911.  

Of course, that's not the point.  You can even ask them.  They will tell you so, if they say anything at all.  Verbalization of ideas might be too much to ask for.  An incredulous look, a roll of the eyeballs, is generally the most you'll get as often as not, if you dare to ask one of the slogan bearers what they know about 911, if you dare.  "I know enough" might really be all they know.  I would take them at their word, because cases exist where further inquiry as to their knowledge has resulted in attempts at verbal and physical intimidation and retaliatory behavior.

No, the point of Remember 911 is, an exhortation to peers to remember there's some revenge still due.  And no matter what revenge we have done already, there's always room for more revenge.  Revenge is the thirst that will not be slaked.

The Iowa caucuses are just days away, and Giuliani has decided to formulate his closing argument around his favorite subject: 9/11.

Today’s New York Times reported:

"Mr. Giuliani’s retooled stump speech compares the Sept. 11 generation to the generation that won World War II. He is running a new television advertisement that shows firefighters atop the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center site. And this week, Mr. Giuliani, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination, seized on the assassination of Benazir Bhutto and the suicide bombing in Pakistan to warn audiences that it "reminds us of the kind of world that we live in."

Everyone remembers September 11, they say.  OK let us see what you remember:  I'll help you remember 2001 which consisted of more than only a September.

3,000 Americans died cruel early deaths, in bombings in America.

41,000 Americans died cruel early deaths, in traffic in America, plus that much again every year since.

Prior to September 11, 2001:

1. Ignore the terrorism threat.

2. Install George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney into place as President of the U.S.

3. Destroy America’s military, economy and infrastructure.

4. Create the ideal circumstances for an attack.

After September 11, 2001:

5. Make sure that all of my relatives and connections are not questioned about the September 11 attack on America.

6. Make sure that I, Osama bin Laden, am not captured at Tora Bora.

7. Divert attention away from me and the Taliban to Iraq and get rid of my enemy, Saddam Hussein.

8. Remove American military forces from Saudi Arabia.

9. Become entangled in an occupation of Iraq and destroy America’s military.

10. Borrow money to spend trillions of dollars on an occupation of Iraq and ruin America’s economy.

11. Launch an attack on my other enemy, Iran.

12. Make sure that oil rises to $100/Barrel.

Someone was trying to convince me of the absurdity that 9/11 was an inside job and since I had trouble making ends meet, I  figured people at this site would be better at making the counterarguments. So if for those who have already tied the loose ends together, can you please tell me what the counter arguments are for:

1. How it's possible that the Pentagon could be hit despite having anti-aircraft missiles and having an airforce base next door and despite all of the urgent warnings that an attack within the US was imminent AND that at 8:16 it was known that a plane had been hijacked. Not to mention Norman Pinetta's testimony of Cheney barking that the orders still stand. Let alone that the flight path of that plane maneuvered in such a way as to be virtually impossible by even an  ace pilot..

more below...

In the latest of a seemingly endless series of shocking revelations about the Bush Administration's attempts to punish anyone who attempts to hold them accountable to the rule of law, it is being reported today that the CIA is investigating its own Inspector General for investigating the CIA for committing acts of torture.

A historian I know just made this video and posted it on YouTube.  It is very powerful and should be disseminated as widely as possible, especially now while Congress debates the way forward for Iraq.

Now it should be incandescently clear that no one who has any concern for the integrity and life of America today can ignore the present war.  The world now demands a maturity of America that we may not be able to achieve.  It demands that we admit that we have been wrong from the beginning of our adventure in Vietnam; that we have been detrimental to the life of the Vietnamese people.  The situation is one in which we must be ready to turn sharply from our present ways.  In order to atone for our sins and errors in Vietnam we should take the initiative in bringing a halt to this tragic war, and set a date that we will remove all foreign troops from Vietnam....

i can still remember the day when i figured george bush's "war on terror" was lost.  it was the moment dick cheney, donald rumsfeld and karl rove started talking about pre-9/11 mindsets, and specifically accusing the democrats of lacking a fundamental patriotism shared by the rest of america.

it was all just very wrong.

there were so many problems eminating from the one little concept.  first of all, it presumed (and they stated) that this as a different kind of war, one that we had never faced before.  but that wasn't true.  not only was it not true, but it was insulting to those of us who lost friends, family or loved ones in the beirut barracks bombing and all the terrorist events that followed.  (i went to high school, and had a gifted class, with lt. wayne plymel.)  there had been plenty of terrorist tragedies involving americans -- it's just that the republicans hadn't wanted to notice.  what was it that they said?  that bill clinton had been obsessed with al qaeda?

"Everything changed after 9/11" is the mantra of the Bush administration; echoed by our "media".  And; with no disrespect to those who died that day six years ago in New York and Washington, D.C. and in a field in Pennsylvania; if that  catastrophic event is the criteria for "everything changing", then why did not subsequent catastrophic events over the last 6 years make "everything change" again?  

A more recent catastrophic event in 2005 wiped out a whole city and almost as many civilian lives as the events that the Bush administration says "changed everything" and yet it brought about no changes in the way the administration handled anything.