She Must Be A Liberty U Grad

by poputonian

Digby suggested earlier that Henry Waxman might hire some prominent bloggers in order to save time and expense on the Plame investigation. Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Why bother when Hank could hire one Republican lawyer from Vermont. This amazing lady has already finished researching the entire catalog of Bush non-crimes, and did so in just fifteen hours.

I spent more than 15 hours researching the specific allegations outlined to support the impeachment resolutions in order to determine their accuracy, because I concluded that if Democrats and Progressives are seeking such a profound change without an election, the facts which are the basis for the proposals must be serious and well documented.

The conclusion of my research: Every single one of the "facts" upon which the resolutions are based is false and misleading.

First, the impeachment documents claim that the president or vice president "lied" in six specific instances about the magnitude of the threat from Iraq. Each one of those six claims is false.

Second, the allegations that the president condoned torture are based on the claim in the impeachment documents that the president implemented a policy of extraordinary rendition in which detainees are sent to other countries where, according to the allegations, "they can be tortured." However, that policy was initiated by the Clinton administration in 1995 and likely known by members of the intelligence committees in Congress for over 10 years -- and there is no talk of impeachment of any congressman who knew about the policy. Indeed, the impeachment documents provide only one example of claimed extraordinary rendition by the Bush administration. In that example, Mahar Arar, the alleged victim of torture, himself states that he was sent back to his native Syria on the basis of information given to American authorities by Canadian law enforcement that he had links to Al Qaeda.

A second claim that senior military officials condoned the abuses at Abu Ghraib has no factual support whatsoever. Indeed, the abuses were discovered and prosecuted by the military, and strongly condemned by the president.

The claim that the president engaged in illegal wiretapping in violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court's requirements is unsupported by any factual evidence. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act court has never sanctioned the president for any abuse of its rules, and has recently reached an agreement with the president about the president's wiretapping policies. Moreover, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act law provides for both criminal and civil remedies for illegal wiretapping. There has not been one civil case filed on behalf of any specific victim of alleged illegal wiretapping, and there have been no criminal prosecutions of violations by the Bush administration of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act law.

Thus Vermont Democrats and Progressives are supporting a resolution to overturn a duly elect national government based on allegations that constitute a sham. Vermont Democrats and Progressives have constructed a mythology to support their hatred for their political opponent, President Bush, and are seeking to overturn the will of the electorate based on that mythology. They should all be held to account for this extraordinary assault on our democratic institutions.

I imagine the Plame investigation would only take thirty minutes or so.