“God Forgave Me, So Piss Off…”

Posted on by TL

Vittner Gay Flag

Well, that’s what I heard in Senator David Vitter’s statement.

Did you catch Sen. David Vittner’s profound apology? Did you feel his remorse at getting caught? He jumped right to the chase. Amazing! Ted Haggard took a few days, went away for a miracle cure for his indiscretions. But Vitter informs us he talked to the Big Guy a long time ago. It’s over. CNN reports:

“This was a very serious sin in my past for which I am, of course, completely responsible,” Vitter said in a statement given to reporters Monday night. “Several years ago, I asked for and received forgiveness from God and from my wife in confession and marriage counseling.”

So, let’s take a step back. Some restraint is in order here. It’s so easy to just mock these guys when they are exposed for who they really are — when they tell us outright who they really are, and have been, for a long, long time. Let’s just stick to the facts. That’s all we really need here. The Moral Majority, that great granfalloon on the right, defender of The Ten Commandments, God’s voice on earth, has lost yet another apostle.

You told us who you are, Senator. You told us who you have been for a long, long time. You allegedly took calls from alleged D.C. madam Deborah Jeane Palfrey, according to news reports. All the while you were fighting the Left.

I didn’t hear remorse, Senator. I would have heard remorse if you had spent the past several years as champion to the poor, showing some understanding for the rest of humanity. But you didn’t.

I heard arrogance. I heard you telling all of us to piss off. “I got caught. Already settled with God. Go away. Piss off.”

How does it feel to be brought down by Hustler?

Here we go: “The Haves” Want to Have More

Posted on by TL

Bush.

Do you remember him quipping about, “The Have Mores?” It was in a Michael Moore film.

By now we’ve all read the headlines: Bush Denies Congress Access to Former Aides. The Democrats are in an uproar — and I hope they’re joined by more Republicans. “Truth buried will at some point rise,” we wrote the other day. The Wasington Post reports:

President Bush’s move yesterday to block congressional testimony by two former aides provoked immediate condemnations from Democratic lawmakers and escalated a confrontation between the White House and Capitol Hill over the dismissals of nine U.S. attorneys.

White House counsel Fred F. Fielding informed lawmakers in a letter yesterday that Bush was asserting executive privilege for the second time in two weeks regarding requested testimony by former counsel Harriet E. Miers and former political director Sara M. Taylor about the prosecutor firings.

Executive privilege. Well, the president is just wrong:

Mark J. Rozell, a George Mason University political scientist and author of “Executive Privilege,” said the Bush administration’s claim in this case “goes way beyond the proper scope of executive privilege” because it is not limited to specific discussions and amounts to “a blanket prohibition on former aides discussing anything at all.”

Rozell and other legal experts also noted that the White House has little real power to prohibit Miers or Taylor from testifying.

There’s too much smoke here. There must be a fire, somewhere, burning hot. We have a right to know.

New Poll: Majority of Americans Say Impeach Cheney

Posted on by TL

Downward graph

A new poll released yesterday from American Research Group, Inc. shows 54% of all Americans favor the impeachment of Vice President Cheney, and only 40% oppose such a measure. Not surprisingly, 76% of all Democrats favor such action, while only 17% of those who identify themselves as Republican are in support.

The numbers are statistically even for the number of Americans who favor impeachment of the President, with 45% in favor and 46% opposed.

The numbers were more similar between party lines regarding a full pardon of Mr. Libby: 7% of Democrats favor a pardon, and 23% Republicans are in favor. 82% Democrats oppose a pardon, and a full 70% of Republicans oppose a presidential pardon. Republicans were split on Bush commuting Libby’s sentence: 50% supportive, 47% opposed.

The last poll measuring the president’s overall job approval rating showed only 27% approve of the job the president is doing, and 67% oppose.

“Truth Buried Will At Some Point Rise”

Posted on by TL

I haven’t written in a few days, still reflecting on Dick Cheney’s Imperial Vice Presidency.

But today is July 4, 2007. And that gives cause for celebration, and pause. So much to celebrate, and so much has been lost over the past few years. We’ve seen the erosion of our Civil Rights. We’ve witnessed attempts to kill Habeaus Corpus. And we fight a war we simply cannot win, ever.

But we celebrate, and we should.

There is a very good story in today’s New York Times, A Country’s Past Unearthed, and Comes Into Focus. The article concerns an excavation going on in Philadelphia near Independence Hall. The finding is a mansion where George Washington and John Adams once lived. The building served as this nation’s first Executive Mansion while the White House was under construction.

But there is another reason to excavate, “The site, which is adjacent to the Liberty Bell Center, was found to be above the mansion’s living quarters for nine household slaves that Washington brought here from Mount Vernon.”

Another very complex circumstance from our nation’s genesis. Founded on freedom, with the right to keep slaves – up north, in Philadelphia.

But it’s the comments of two gentlemen observing the excavation that caught my eye this morning, and this one comment gives me hope in the face of all of the cover-ups that have occurred over the past 6 years:

Two other Philadelphians, Bill Hempsey, 78, a retiree who is white, and Wayne Gibbons, 58, a doctor who is black, stood at the edge of the excavation, listening intently.

“It’s part of history, and it’s been underground,” Mr. Hempsey remarked.

Dr. Gibbons said, “Truth buried will at some point rise,” and added, “Independence Day is something to celebrate, but in the context of understanding the price paid for freedom.”

The men, who had met for the first time only minutes earlier, ended their conversation shaking hands.

“Truth buried will at some point rise.”

Amen.

And happy 4th to all.

Dick Cheney Scares Me

Posted on by TL

Salon.com ran a brilliant piece by Sidney Blumenthal about Dick Cheney today, “The imperial vice presidency.” Thoroughly fascinating exploration and summary of the Washington Post series that we spoke about earlier in the week. Seeing it all summed up so neatly in one place left me with a feeling of fascination — the kind I used to feel in my adolescent days, perhaps, for Hitler. I know it’s easy to toss the “H-word” around, and we do it all too easily in the media and elsewhere. But, at some point, we study Hitler almost as if his actions never impacted us – as if we live elsewhere, not on planet Earth. How could one of those humans, one of those animals, become so powerful, and do so many horribly ungodly things?

Plenty of food for thought, and an exercise in futility, perhaps. Many hours in the dorm room lost to such feeble yet at the time seemingly important discussions.

Indeed, how could Hitler become so powerful?

Enter Dick.

He scares me now. He never did before. Before I let the Washington Post sink in, before I permitted Salon.com to sink in, I relegated Cheney to the comedians — Jon Stewart somehow helped me cope. Letterman made me laugh at it all.  Colbert made sense.  I could laugh at Cheney, and then go on with my day, my week, seven years or so.  I could sleep at night, content that reason would someday prevail, and the long nightmare of the Bush presidency would finally end.

But not any more. The man is dangerous.

Just a small selection:

Cheney has crushed the normal interagency process that permitted communication, cross-fertilization and cooperation at the sub-Cabinet level through all previous modern administrations. At the same time, he has isolated Cabinet secretaries, causing them to be fired when they contradicted him, as he did with Christine Todd Whitman, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency, and former Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill.

Cheney thrives in darkness, operating by stealth within the government, and makes a cult of secrecy. None of these insights are new, except for additional telling details. Reports the Post: “Man-size Mosler safes, used elsewhere in government for classified secrets, store the workaday business of the office of the vice president. Even talking points for reporters are sometimes stamped ‘Treated As: Top Secret/SCI.'”

“Cheney thrives in darkness…?” What the hell does that mean? He is a man so ruthless that even John Ashcroft objected to his ethics:

Of the Bush Cabinet secretaries, former Attorney General John Ashcroft most strenuously confronted Cheney about his seizures of power. Ashcroft was perhaps the most conservative member of the Cabinet, and it was out of a sense of his own constitutional obligation that he objected. When Ashcroft discovered that John Yoo, the deputy assistant in the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, had been recruited by the Cheney operation to write memos on detainee policy that would deny any role in the new legal process to the Justice Department, he was outraged. At the White House he confronted Cheney and Addington. “According to participants [at the meeting],” the Post reported, “Ashcroft said that he was the president’s senior law enforcement officer, supervised the FBI and oversaw terrorism prosecutions nationwide. The Justice Department, he said, had to have a voice in the tribunal process.” But Cheney did not relent. Ashcroft received no meeting to discuss the matter with Bush. Cheney was the gatekeeper — the decider for the Decider.

Indeed, the Decider is a puppet. Cheney is King. And he doesn’t care. Damn the torpedoes. Damn the Democrats. Damn the Republican Party. Cheney no longer has to care:

Despite the recent round of punditry that Cheney’s influence has waned, he remains a formidable force. These are Cheney’s final days; this is his endgame. He will never run again for public office. He is freed from the constraints of political consequences. He now has no horizon. He lives only in the present. He is nearly done. There are only months left to achieve his goals. Mortality impinges. Next month, he will have his heart pacemaker replaced. He disdains public opinion. He does not care who’s next. “We didn’t get elected to be popular,” he said on Fox News on May 10. “We didn’t get elected to worry just about the fate of the Republican Party.”

Cheney is worse than I ever imagined.

Are we that happy with War?

Posted on by TL

Are we so happy with war that we do nothing?

How many of us have actually called, wrote, or emailed our Representative in Congress or Senators? How many of us called or emailed the White House, knowing that our words are falling on deaf ears. Nevertheless, how many of us have called?

If you’ve found Turning Left, then chances are you care enough to think. You may be here because you don’t like Liberals. You may be here because, like the rest of us, you are looking for answers from time to time. But if you are here, you think. You’re part of that small percentage of Americans who still think about issues.

I’m not going to say that we’re Liberal at Turning Left. I’m not going to say we’re Progressive. I’m not going to say we’re Conservative, or Moderate. I’m not going to label us at all. I am going to say that we think. That’s all we need to do.

Some don’t think. Some preach. Some yell. Some twist the truth.

We’re just after the truth at Turning Left. Just the Truth, and nothing but the Truth.

We just happen to have found it most often by Turning Left.

Put on your left turn signal. Email your Congressman. Email your Senator. Call the President (not sure how “email-capable” he is.) Tell them you want us out of Iraq. Then do the same thing again next week. And the week after. And ask your friends to do the same.

Tell them all it’s more fun on The Left.

Viralink

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I joined Viralink.  This is an attempt to improve our page rank at Turning Left.

Let’s see if it works.

———copy and paste the Viralink and instructions below this line———

Below is a matrix of 120 stars, I have already added a link to my blog onto one of the stars, all you need to do is copy and paste the grid into your blog and add your own link to one of the other spare stars, and tell others to do the same!

 

Viralink

********************
********************
********************
********************
********************

 

 

When I receive a ping back once you have added the Viralink to your site I will add your link to this grid, and each person who copies the grid from here will also link to your site!

Rules
No Porn Sites
Only 1 link per person (i.e don’t hog the viralink!)
Please don’t tamper with other peoples url’s
Enjoy!

 

———copy and paste the Viralink and instructions above this line———

Private Dick

Posted on by TL

Who is really in charge at the White House?  It would appear that one individual clearly stands out above the rest.

Dick.

“Over the next four days, The Washington Post will present an in-depth investigation of the vice presidency of Dick Cheney, the most influential and powerful man ever to hold the office. The stories will examine Cheney’s largely hidden and little-understood role in crafting policies for the War on Terror, the economy and the environment.”

Just a taste of today’s study:

Just past the Oval Office, in the private dining room overlooking the South Lawn, Vice President Cheney joined President Bush at a round parquet table they shared once a week. Cheney brought a four-page text, written in strict secrecy by his lawyer. He carried it back out with him after lunch.

In less than an hour, the document traversed a West Wing circuit that gave its words the power of command. It changed hands four times, according to witnesses, with emphatic instructions to bypass staff review. When it returned to the Oval Office, in a blue portfolio embossed with the presidential seal, Bush pulled a felt-tip pen from his pocket and signed without sitting down. Almost no one else had seen the text.

Cheney’s proposal had become a military order from the commander in chief. Foreign terrorism suspects held by the United States were stripped of access to any court — civilian or military, domestic or foreign. They could be confined indefinitely without charges and would be tried, if at all, in closed “military commissions.”

“What the hell just happened?” Secretary of State Colin L. Powell demanded, a witness said, when CNN announced the order that evening, Nov. 13, 2001. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, incensed, sent an aide to find out. Even witnesses to the Oval Office signing said they did not know the vice president had played any part.

“End-around” hardly does justice to what this man is capable of.  Strong vice president, and buffoon president who allows this to happen.

We need a president who can read the Constitution.

Interpreting the Word of God

Posted on by TL

Opus

Berkeley Breathed does a wonderful job capturing the true spirit of some of those who think they can hear the Voice of God and interpret that Voice for the rest of humanity.

Today at Salon.com.

Enjoy.  Some of the letters written in reaction to this comic strip are even more amusing than the strip itself.  I won’t give Breathed credit for summing up “the entire history of religion in, like, ten panels,” as one writer does, but I do give Breathed credit for his observation that some people take things too far indeed.