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How much longer until Republicans turn on Bush? What will it take?

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originalpckelly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 05:31 PM
Original message
How much longer until Republicans turn on Bush? What will it take?
Edited on Sun Apr-09-06 05:46 PM by originalpckelly
What is an impeachable offense? When is it too much for even devout Republicans that they call for his resignation or impeachment? How many laws does the President have to break or decide no longer apply to him? How many people must be tortured or rendered extraordinarily? How many people have to die because of his incompetence in disasters? When will this stop? Is there nothing that will make Republicans understand he is a bad person? Will the allegations of the President considering using nukes do it?

Is this enough for Republicans to stand up to the President?

The Events of 9/11/2001
He was warned about the potential for airplane hijackings on August 6, 2001 in a Presidential Daily Briefing and took no actions to increase airport security. This inaction may have lead to the deaths of approximately 3,000 people on or about the 11th of September in the year 2001. The text of that daily briefing is included as evidence:

Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in U.S.
Clandestine, foreign government, and media reports indicate Bin Ladin since 1997 has wanted to conduct terrorist attacks in the US. Bin Ladin implied in US television interviews in 1997 and 1998 that his followers would follow the example of World Trade Center bomber Ramzi Yousef and "bring the fighting to America."
After US missile strikes on his base in Afghanistan in 1998, Bin Ladin told followers he wanted to retaliate in Washington, according to a service.
An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an service at the same time that Bin Ladin was planning to exploit the operative's access to the US. to mount a terrorist strike.
The millennium plotting in Canada in 1999 may have been part of Bin Ladin's first serious attempt to implement a terrorist strike in the US. Convicted plotter Ahmed Ressam has told the FBI that he conceived the idea to attack Los Angeles International Airport himself, but that Bin Ladin lieutenant Abu Zubaydah encouraged him and helped facilitate the operation. Ressam also said that in 1998 Abu Zubaydah was planning his own US attack.
Ressam says Bin Ladin was aware of the Los Angeles operation.
Although Bin Ladin has not succeeded, his attacks against the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 demonstrate that he prepares operations years in advance and is not deterred by setbacks. Bin Ladin associates surveilled our Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam as early as 1993, and some members of the Nairobi cell planning the bombings were arrested and deported in 1997.
Al-Qa'ida members—including some who are US citizens—have resided in or traveled to the US for years, and the group apparently maintains a support structure that could aid attacks. Two Al Qa'ida members found guilty in the conspiracy to bomb our Embassies in East Africa were US citizens, and a senior EIJ member lived in California in the mid-1990s.
A clandestine source said in 1998 that a Bin Ladin cell in New York was recruiting Muslim-American youth for attacks.
We have not been able to corroborate some of the more sensational threat reporting, such as that from a service in 1998 saying that Bin Ladin wanted to hijack a US aircraft to gain the release of "Blind Shaykh" 'Umar 'Abd al-Rahman and other US-held extremists.
—Nevertheless, FBI information since that time indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.
The FBI is conducting approximately 70 full field investigations throughout the US that it considers Bin Ladin-related. CIA and the FBI are investigating a call to our embassy in the UAE in May saying that a group of Bin Ladin supporters was in the US planning attacks with explosives.


Illegal Electronic Surveillance
He authorized a program of electronic surveillance that allows the National Security Agency to surveil our people without court orders. This program is in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 and the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution. This is an usurpation of the Judicial Branch and its check upon the Executive. The House and Senate intelligence committees were not appropriately informed of the program as required by the National Security Act of 1947. The President and his allies have repeatedly accused individuals critical of the program of indirectly supporting al-Qaeda. He omits the fact that al-Qaeda is aided even more by the destabilizing of our government, which this is but one part of.

The War on Terror, The Iraq War, and Torture
His 2003 State of The Union Address contained false statements as to the nuclear threat Iraq posed. The National Journal recently published a story stating the President knew this information to be incorrect and that is a violation of 18 U.S.C. 1001(a, c.)

He launched a war upon the nation of Iraq. This war is unnecessary, as Iraq had no significant quantities of weapons of mass destruction or programs to create said weapons. The President created fear and subsequently support for the war by indicating the smoking gun, "could come in the form of a mushroom cloud." Iraq had no nuclear weapons or development programs for said weapons. It remains unclear why exactly the President exaggerated the threat to the USA from Iraq. As of April 7, 2006, the number of American soldiers killed in the Iraq War is 2,347.

After the war began, he declassified parts of the National Intelligence Estimate that appeared to support his position on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. He did not disclose the other parts that proved his statements in the State of The Union Address were false. It appears he manipulated the press to gain support for the war.

Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson published an article in the New York Times on July 6, 2003 that disputed the Presidents claims about Iraq. Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame-Wilson was exposed as a covert agent for the Central Intelligence Agency, in what appears to be an administration punishment for the article. It remains unclear if the President authorized or knew of this leak before it became a news story, and it also remains unclear who first revealed the identity of Mrs. Wilson. There is an ongoing investigation into this matter by Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald. I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby was indicted for false statements during the grand jury investigation of this leak.

Jay Bybee, former head of the Office of Legal Counsel at the US Department of Justice, authored a memo on August 1, 2002 that outlines an extreme definition of torture. This definition is so liberal in what is considered torture, that it allows clear violations of American and international law. The memo's legal opinion was superseded on December 30, 2004 by another after intense criticism.

Jose Padilla was arrested at O'Hare international airport May 8, 2002. Mr. Padilla was and is an American citizen. He was held with the status of "unlawful enemy combatant" for almost 3 and a half years. He sued over his detention and eventually the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. But just as Mr. Padilla's case was to be heard by the Supreme Court, the administration happened to indict Mr. Padilla November 22, 2005. He was not indicted for the original reason given to the public for his detention, which was that he planned a dirty bomb attack. This indictment effectively nullified the issue because he was placed in civilian custody, and subsequently the Supreme Court declined to hear the case.

On April 28, 2004 a report by the television news magazine 60 Minutes II detailed the torture of prisoners held at Abu Graib prison in Iraq. This in combination with years of allegations of torture at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, extraordinary renditions and the discovery of the Bybee memo makes it highly likely torture was authorized by the President. There have been no Presidents in American history whom have authorized torture.

December 30, 2005 the President issued a signing statement for H.R. 2863. In this statement the President justified construing Title X of 2863 to not apply when national security interests "of protecting the American people from further terrorist attacks" demand so. Unfortunately, Title X is the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, which protects accused terrorists from being tortured. There was no exception made for national security interests, as torture does not usually provide reliable information and because of the potential of torturing an innocent person. This is further evidence that the President authorized torture.

Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina made landfall on August 29, 2005. 1,604 people have been confirmed dead as a result of this hurricane. Thousands more are still missing. The President was cautioned about the deadly nature of the hurricane and was not circumspect of inaction. Is it absolutely certain the President caused the death of at least one person because of his inaction. Therefore President Bush is guilty of involuntary manslaughter outlined in 18 U.S.C. §1112(a). The Gulf Coast region is still recovering from the storm almost eight months later. Many families have been destroyed. It remains unclear if the city of New Orleans and other cities in Louisiana and Mississippi will ever fully recover.

Feel free to add to this.
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originalpckelly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 05:38 PM
Response to Original message
1. Wikipedia is down so I included the cache version. (n/t)
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originalpckelly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 05:47 PM
Response to Reply #1
2. Kick (n/t)
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flyarm Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 05:49 PM
Response to Original message
3. he has to get caught doing the nasty with a pink elephant! n/t
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LiberalPartisan Donating Member (844 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 05:50 PM
Response to Original message
4. Only sex with a consenting woman will do....n/t
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Golden Raisin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 05:59 PM
Response to Reply #4
7. No. It has to be sex with an underage, black boy
and Bush has to be dressed either in a Nazi uniform, wearing a Hitler mustache, or in drag. Seriously, I keep asking myself what DOES it have to take for the Congress and the people to wake up and throw this vile band of thugs out of power? Will the light bulb finally go off when martial law is instituted? When internment camps for "opponents of the regime" are opened? When elections and the Constitution are suspended? How bad does it have to get before we see some action? Apparently pretty damn bad.
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leftstreet Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 05:52 PM
Response to Original message
5. They're turning on him on immigration reform
But it's hard to tell yet where it might lead.
If anywhere.
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Call me Deacon Blues Donating Member (512 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 05:58 PM
Response to Original message
6. Hitler rose to power because the rich industrialists that backed him
thought that they could control him. They were wrong. I don't think the few Republicans left with a conscience are enough to stop George Bush and his mad junta. The bastard is going to nuke Iran, probably before the November election, then God help us all.
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caledesi Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 06:06 PM
Response to Original message
8. Well if we look at Watergate and how that came down....
Polls plummeted on Nixon. Public took notice
In the beginning, the Repubs hid (just like now). After the tapes, polls, and of course the "Saturday Massacre"............they realized they were losing this battle big-time and had to do something.

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Roy Biggins Donating Member (5 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 06:52 PM
Response to Original message
9. The hard core Republican, you know, that Republican who...
loves their party more than anything else, will NEVER turn on Bush. They are not patriots, but traitors.
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newyawker99 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-10-06 09:54 AM
Response to Reply #9
24. Hi Roy Biggins!!
Welcome to DU!! :toast:
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Arkansas Granny Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 06:57 PM
Response to Original message
10. There are those who will never turn on him because to do so
would be to admit that they had been wrong about it, and, like Bush, they can never admit to making a mistake.
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IChing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 06:57 PM
Response to Original message
11. Bestiality according to this cartoon


But still it isn't enough
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originalpckelly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 09:12 PM
Response to Reply #11
12. Good Cartoon (n/t)
Completely the truth for more Republicans than not.
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mwb970 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 09:23 PM
Response to Original message
13. I heard someone say the R's will impeach the chimp.
I wish I could remember who - Eleanor Clift? Jane Hall? - but whoever it was she sounded really sure and gave a believable argument for it (beginning with the observation that "Republicans were ready to impeach Nixon").
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mitchum Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 10:08 PM
Response to Original message
14. Those goddamn bootlicking toadies will never turn on their lord...
and master.
That's why they need to be put down.
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TahitiNut Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 10:19 PM
Response to Original message
15. They'll love him when they martyr him.
He'll make a fine martyr. I doubt he'll survive beyond August 2008. He's far more useful to the powerbrokers as a martyr than an ex-pResident (loose cannon headed for a melt down).
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Mayberry Machiavelli Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Sun Apr-09-06 10:46 PM
Response to Original message
16. Well, some of them already have, if he's hovering around 1/3 approval.
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Yupster Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-10-06 02:17 AM
Response to Original message
17. If Bush can make it past the 06 elections, then
he won't be turned on. He will at that point have succeeded in being ignored.

The Republican voters will start picking their primary champions and more and more Bush will become irrelevent and therefore will be safe from being turned upon. He'll just be finishing his time.
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IndyJones Donating Member (583 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-10-06 02:40 AM
Response to Original message
18. They already are turning on him...his approval rating is way down!
And it certainly isn't just dems and indies with the disapproval.
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Peter Frank Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-10-06 02:45 AM
Response to Original message
19. How much longer until Republicans turn on Bush?...

Many have already turned their backs on him; but as long this regime can fix elections -- dissident Republicans are probably as intimidated as anyone else!

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originalpckelly Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-10-06 02:59 AM
Response to Original message
20. Obviously...
you don't get a 36% approval rating if haven't lost about 14% of the Republicans.
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cyclezealot Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-10-06 03:06 AM
Response to Original message
21. naw. survival instincts.
Politics is too much spin and mind games. Rats escaping a sinking ship know their limits. Criticism yes. The Life rafts still say SS Titantica. They might criticize the leader in scap goat fashion, but they still subscribe to the same design.
They will foist McCain on us as something different. But, the neo cons will still be in charge, should the American people again go along with their pr mind games.
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Justice Is Comin Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-10-06 03:38 AM
Response to Original message
22. There hasn't been that one
discovery yet that absolutely, unequivocally and unilaterally puts his DNA right on the crime. Everything has always left one layer of onion that doesn't rile the public enough to outrage. Joe and Janet America are s-l-ow to register opinion.

It has to that event where everybody gets it. A despicable revelation. No wiggle room or confusion becasuse of legal prestidigitation. And I think it's coming.

I don't know if it will be in the Fitzgerald filings, the Abramhoff roll overs, a yet unknown whistle blower or what. But I just have a feeling it's coming.

Don't discount the name Specter when it happens either because it may be part of what he does that makes it happen.

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killbotfactory Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Apr-10-06 03:41 AM
Response to Original message
23. He could wipe his ass with the flag, burn the constitution, and eat a baby
And republicans wouldn't turn on him. They care more about their party, and their own power, than the ideals and laws of the USA.
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