I've been looking forward to you having this position again for years!!!

Jan.4 2007 will go down in history as the day we started to restore our Constitution and Democracy.

I first reported this great news in your last thread, but now, it is official. We here at Conyers Blog are behind you every way, and if you need any assistance in your duties as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, please let us know.

Neerav (a.k.a. "Angry Democrat")

Congratulations on being elected to the House Judiciary Chair position; I look forward to next year, to your continued work, and sharing information. Happy Holidays to you, your family, and staff, as well!

Now that Democratic voters have given our Representatives the tools needed to try and clean up this mess, will you actually do what MUST be done or have you basically been neutered and we should expect nothing but the usual Whitewash in 07'?

It is quite clear to anyone with 2 brain cells to rub together that this administration is guilty of more crimes than could even be addressed in the next 2 years.
It is very clear that both Bush/Cheney are guilty of War Crimes, Crimes against humanity, Treason, just to name a few.
There is an abundant amount of evidence that proves this well beyond any reasonable doubt.
They have already been tried and convicted by 3 separate War Crimes Tribunals as you well know.

Knowing that IF any REAL investigations are done then these crimes are going to be proven with ease, then tell me exactly how "Impeachment is off the table" can possibly be upheld without breaking your Constitutional Duty to bring these Treasonous War Criminals to justice?

Are We the People going to be forced to do the job we have elected this 110 Congress to do? If so I guarantee it wont be pretty and as far as I'm concerned all Congressmen that are refusing to bring these criminals to justice & whitewash these crimes WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE.
You may just be the driver in the bank robbery but that still makes you complicit in the crimes.

Enough is enough.

... comment deleted by Patriot ...

Thank you for your kind and reassuring message to us.

We have wished and waited long and hard for the reality of your appointment as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Congratulations to you -- THE most deserving of persons to hold that Chairmanship.

After 6 long years of "evil" suffered by this Country and the world, the "swim upstream" will be hard and long. I believe we Americans are up to task in that effort -- LIKE NEVER BEFORE!

We'll see you January 4, 2007.

In the meantime, I wish you, your family and all your staffers a most warm and happy holiday season!

Sincerely,

Tahoebasha1

http://www.okcitykid.bravejournal.com

I got a really nice email message from you thanking me for my help. For the last couple weeks I've been very critical of you.

Strange, do you not pay attention to what I write on your blog or is what I write supporting your cause that you can't talk about until you do the investigations you intend on doing that will lead to justice.

Maybe, I hope so.

PUT IMPEACHMENT BACK ON THE TABLE - I'M HUNGRY

It is good news for this country.

Just as many of us were dismayed with the congressman's reluctance to talk about impeachment, many of us are thrilled at this news and the way Mr. Conyers is representing himself now.

Congrats, Congressman Conyers. I have always believed you to be a man of your word (though as a politician you have to parse carefully at times), and that you will carry through the work begun in the 109th Congress.

Since GWB is so fond of catch-phrases like the current "Way Forward", how about a nice "on the table" Christmas trinket from the House. Let's roll...

See my blog post here.

Many people wonder why Pelosi and Conyers have said, "Impeachment is off the table."

We are a Nation where the "rule of Law" is the foremost important aspect that not only needs to be protected, but also adhered to. This means we can not enter into the books a verdict, guilty through impeachment, without first having the necessary trial to determine the proper outcome. And to do so, we can not enter into the court without the proper hearings to determine the charges that need to be brought forth. And that can not happen until proper investigations occur. And to have proper investigations, we need, MUST HAVE oversight.

Why should this process be any different if we are to show to the world what accountability looks like?

Yes, the Congressman has spent several years documenting the fine workings of this criminal Administration. However so, these exploratory investigations and fact finding missions weren't sanctioned by the Republican in charge of the Committee, Sensenbrennor, who instead turned a blind eye to the mounting evidence.

With all of this said, I look forward to the process that the Congressman has set before him. It will be tough, long and difficult. Much patience will need to be exhibited from all. But most certainly, support and encouragement will be required from us "The People" so that the Congressman may lead the way.

CONGRESSMAN,
President Bush has decided to let the historians rewrite your documentation of his misdeeds into one of America's finest moments. Where, instead of going to war based on false information, lies, and deceits, he's decided to let the rewrite include his discretionary tales of how Saddam was a bad enough man that needed to be taken out of power so that his sphere of influence wouldn't grow past the borders of Iraq any time in the near future and pose a threat to our intere$t$. Of course this rewrite will include the side joke concerning OIL, you know the one... Operation Iraqi Liberation. Where we're greeted with flowers and the MISSION takes a mere days or weeks, but most certainly not(!) months. He really meant to say on that deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln on May 1, 2003 that, "Phase one, Removal, was completed and that Phase Two, DeBaathification was next. You know where they send Saddam's old storm troopers home fully loaded, armed, and equipped to fight another day. And that's where we get Phase Three. The Insurgency. To be followed up with a course that leads no where that we must stay on until Iraq is unstable, provides the launching pad and training ground for TERRORISTS, and becomes center stage for unrest in the Middle East." See, he was right after all. The historians will see to it; That President Bush was merely looking forward into the future and prognosticating, not what could be in Iraq, but what will be in Iraq IF we let him bring it. A true Decider.

Or how about the decision to decide which laws and rules he, President Bush, reserves for himself to decide if, when, and how he shall follow? Habeas Corpus? Detention? Torture? Wiretapping? Science? Free Speech? Most certainly this decision will be left for the re-writers of history to reflect that this Decider decided that the decision to engage in lawlessness was the proper decision to make because...drum roll please...NATIONAL SECURITY...(ba-dum-pa-tsh). And we all know that National Security trumps all laws, even the Constitution that ALL PUBLIC SERVANTS are sworn to uphold, preserve and protect, because after all, it IS just a piece of (parchment) paper, NO? Nothing more, RIGHT?

And wait until those historians get a hold of the 9/11 commission's 'cover-up revelations'. Where they took the testimonies from people who knew when to know just enough to not be held responsible for failing to protect the American people, even though they knew OF the warnings that proceeded the event, HAD run mock drills the year prior that mimicked the very events, and seemingly sat through it all reading My Pet Goat because while 'America was under attack', whispered by Andy Card into the ear of George Bush, the Secret Service had the security of the President under their control. And then don't forget about all the brave medals and accommodations for a job well done...er...protecting America.

Yes, this and much more shall be left for historians to "get correct" if the books aren't tallied properly. What better way to close history but with a real investigation AND ACCOUNTING of the wrong doings. Because as you know Congressman, that merely holding hearings and investigations don't amount to a hill of beans IF there is no tally of votes. The significance of all your hard work to date, concerning this cabal, is just a foot note in the history books, much of which is completely ignored by the press and therefore the people. All because the Committee Chairman refused to even hold discussions and investigations. Had he, there would have been a necessity to vote on the next step.

I look forward to this next necessary and long over due step. It most certainly looks to be a promising chapter in the annals of history...no?

This is a wonderful thing for The Country, its' People, and thier future.

I can't wait to read Rustys' holiday poem about it.

Congratulations, Mr.Chairman, and seasons greetings to all.
Frosted Flake
Might have to drop the "Frosted" after all.

I look forward to your agenda in 2007.

SP Biloxi

All I can say is "ahhhhhhhhhhhhh.......".

Now on to the subpoenas...

--
Those who forget history
Condemn the rest of us to repeat it.

Congratulations on your recent appointment. I view your courage to be a major contributing factor in encouraging many Americans to rise up in protest over the Consitutional abuses allowed by the current GOP Congress. Thank you for that.

But I'm not a very trusting soul. I lived through Watergate. I lived through the Warren Commission report. I lived through the SS/FDIC scam and cover-up during the 80's. I lived through the Iran/Contra scandal and impeachment of Clinton for an act of fellatio. Forgive me if your appointment doesn't make my heart go all a-twitter. I've been disappointed before.

But the simple fact that you had the courage to stand alone while people like Hillary did their very best impression of a neo-con, gives my cynicism cause for pause.

If anyone in the House is capable of doing the work that is necessary to regain the public's trust in Congress, IMO, it is you. Thank you for that too.

But like I said, I'm not a very trusting soul. You've got my attention, and my best wishes. My complete trust? Get a few convictions under your belt, then we'll talk about trust.

No offense intended. It's just that America has been down this road before and it's all beginning to look too familiar.

Diplomat's suppressed document lays bare the lies behind Iraq war.
The Independent

The Government's case for going to war in Iraq has been torn apart by the publication of previously suppressed evidence that Tony Blair lied over Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction.

A devastating attack on Mr Blair's justification for military action by Carne Ross, Britain's key negotiator at the UN, has been kept under wraps until now because he was threatened with being charged with breaching the Official Secrets Act.

In the testimony revealed today Mr Ross, 40, who helped negotiate several UN security resolutions on Iraq, makes it clear that Mr Blair must have known Saddam Hussein possessed no weapons of mass destruction. He said that during his posting to the UN, "at no time did HMG [Her Majesty's Government] assess that Iraq's WMD (or any other capability) posed a threat to the UK or its interests."

Mr Ross revealed it was a commonly held view among British officials dealing with Iraq that any threat by Saddam Hussein had been "effectively contained".

He also reveals that British officials warned US diplomats that bringing down the Iraqi dictator would lead to the chaos the world has since witnessed. "I remember on several occasions the UK team stating this view in terms during our discussions with the US (who agreed)," he said.

"At the same time, we would frequently argue when the US raised the subject, that 'regime change' was inadvisable, primarily on the grounds that Iraq would collapse into chaos."

He claims "inertia" in the Foreign Office and the "inattention of key ministers" combined to stop the UK carrying out any co-ordinated and sustained attempt to address sanction-busting by Iraq, an approach which could have provided an alternative to war.

Mr Ross delivered the evidence to the Butler inquiry which investigated intelligence blunders in the run-up to the conflict.

The Foreign Office had attempted to prevent the evidence being made public, but it has now been published by the Commons Select Committee on Foreign Affairs after MPs sought assurances from the Foreign Office that it would not breach the Official Secrets Act.

It shows Mr Ross told the inquiry, chaired by Lord Butler, "there was no intelligence evidence of significant holdings of CW [chemical warfare], BW [biological warfare] or nuclear material" held by the Iraqi dictator before the invasion. "There was, moreover, no intelligence or assessment during my time in the job that Iraq had any intention to launch an attack against its neighbours or the UK or the US," he added.

Mr Ross's evidence directly challenges the assertions by the Prime Minster that the war was legally justified because Saddam possessed WMDs which could be "activated" within 45 minutes and posed a threat to British interests. These claims were also made in two dossiers, subsequently discredited, in spite of the advice by Mr Ross.

His hitherto secret evidence threatens to reopen the row over the legality of the conflict, under which Mr Blair has sought to draw a line as the internecine bloodshed in Iraq has worsened.

Mr Ross says he questioned colleagues at the Foreign Office and the Ministry of Defence working on Iraq and none said that any new evidence had emerged to change their assessment.

"What had changed was the Government's determination to present available evidence in a different light," he added.

Mr Ross said in late 2002 that he "discussed this at some length with David Kelly", the weapons expert who a year later committed suicide when he was named as the source of a BBC report saying Downing Street had "sexed up" the WMD claims in a dossier. The Butler inquiry cleared Mr Blair and Downing Street of "sexing up" the dossier, but the publication of the Carne Ross evidence will cast fresh doubts on its findings.

Mr Ross, 40, was a highly rated diplomat but he resigned because of his misgivings about the legality of the war. He still fears the threat of action under the Official Secrets Act.

"Mr Ross hasn't had any approach to tell him that he is still not liable to be prosecuted," said one ally. But he has told friends that he is "glad it is out in the open" and he told MPs it had been "on my conscience for years".

One member of the Foreign Affairs committee said: "There was blood on the carpet over this. I think it's pretty clear the Foreign Office used the Official Secrets Act to suppress this evidence, by hanging it like a Sword of Damacles over Mr Ross, but we have called their bluff."

Yesterday, Jack Straw, the Leader of the Commons who was Foreign Secretary during the war - Mr Ross's boss - announced the Commons will have a debate on the possible change of strategy heralded by the Iraqi Study Group report in the new year.

(emphasis added mine)

======================================================

The full transcript of evidence given to the Butler inquiry
Supplementary evidence submitted by Mr Carne Ross, Director, Independent Diplomat

======================================================

Ministers were told of need for Gulf war 'excuse,
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article9111.htm

Blair planned Iraq war from start
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-1592724,00.html

Blair 'Knew Iraq Had No WMD'
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/1005-01.htm

=======================================================

Military dot com slant opinion

I hope the Chairman finds the time to review this Op-ed by Mr Galloway.

About Joe Galloway.

Joseph L. Galloway is the senior military correspondent for Knight Ridder Newspapers and a nationally syndicated columnist. One of America's preeminent war correspondents, with more than four decades as a reporter and writer, he recently concluded an assignment as a special consultant to Gen. Colin Powell at the State Department.

Galloway, a native of Refugio, Texas, spent 22 years as a foreign and war correspondent and bureau chief for United Press International, and nearly 20 years as a senior editor and senior writer for U.S. News & World Report magazine. In 1990-1991 Galloway covered Desert Shield/Desert Storm, riding with the 24th Infantry Division (Mech) in the assault into Iraq. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf has called Galloway "The finest combat correspondent of our generation -- a soldier's reporter and a soldier's friend."

I appreciate this forum.
Frosted Flake

Didn't it used to be the tinfoilhats were on the pessimists and the Star Shoulder Sneeches were the guys the president listened to?

When did this change?

Or was it just a lie?
Frosted Flake

Congratulations, Chairman Conyers.

Your election as Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is very welcome news for every American who cherishes justice and expects accountability.

We,ve supported you as we,ve suffered together through six years of degenerate Republican treachery, and we expect to see justice rendered as the Constitution requires. The Founding Fathers wrote our Constitution and entrusted us to honor it and defend it. I,m sure you recognize that fulfilling that trust does not require Nancy Pelosi,s permission or approval. She did not hand you that Chairman,s gavel, Jefferson and Madison and Franklin did.

I,m confident you understand that the anger expressed here has been vehement at times because of the pervasiveness of the crimes we have all witnessed. That anger has steadily intensified since 2000 because we have all been powerless to prevent those crimes, powerless to investigate them, and powerless to indict and convict the perpetrators.

We are no longer powerless. We will be patient. But we are still angry.

Anger is the foundation of political change. Anger was the foundation of the American Revolution, which gave birth to democracy in the world. Anger has forged every rebellion against injustice in human history, and only anger can forge the revolutionary political changes America needs if the current "government" is to be taken away from the corrupt corporate political establishment and given back to the people, so they can govern through their accountable elected representatives, as the Founding Fathers intended.

Anger does not require medication, it IS the medication. This deadly disease Bush and the Republicans have spread throughout our political system and media will never be cured unless anger is prescribed and administered in heavy doses wherever and whenever necessary. Anger is the only rational response to what has been done to us and our country by these Republican fugitives from justice.

Yes. I am still angry.

It angers me that America,s churches are filled with Republicans and America,s prisons are filled with the people they steal from. It angers me that Iraqi morgues are filled with the dead and Iraqi security forces are filled with the people who killed them. It angers me that McCain and Lieberman and Graham and Collins have flown over to Saigon to ask Westmoreland how many more troops he needs. It angers me that the Iraq Study Group is a travesty just like the Bush v. Gore travesty and the 9/11 Commission travesty and the Operation Enduring Freedom travesty and the Operation Iraqi Freedom travesty and the USA Patriot Act travesty and the Terrorist Surveillance Act travesty and the Military Commissions Act travesty. We have become the United States of Travesties.

Yes. I am still angry.

It angers me that Halliburton,s vaults are full but our Treasury is empty. It angers me that Bush sleeps very well at night but no one else can. It angers me that grieving mothers who want to ask Bush why their sons died are arrested for demanding justice, but Bush is not arrested for destroying justice. It angers me that his illegal presidency has been a degrading spectacle in an endless train wreck of degrading spectacles. It angers me that we may have to endure two more years of the babbling idiocy of this man who cannot speak coherently, cannot think coherently, and cannot even lie coherently.

Yes. I am still angry, Chairman Conyers.

But I am patiently angry.

It,s hard work.

:We're in a hole and getting deeper. All i nees is a bigger shovel!"

Congressman Conyers, I want to send my heartfelt congratulations on the news of your future Judiciary Chairmanship position. It is an honor well deserved.

Thank you also for cheerleading us on to a Democratic House and Senate. You had confidence when I was losing mine, and it helped to be pulled up by the bootstraps.

A new day is dawning.

Okay, Rusty - but you're a little mild in your proposed treatment of anyone advocating NAU - as a friend of mine says, "Tie their family jewels to a stump, and push 'em over backwards." That proposed "Highway" is a travesty, a monstrosity, and maybe illegal besides - and the NAU would, if we are to pay ANY attention to our Constitution and/or those of our neighbors, REQUIRE trilateral TREATIES - not just illegitimate agreements. Administrations since Bush 41 have gotten away with the "Agreements" route which are void on their faces, but somehow the Congre$$ has gone along with them. That's why NAFTA and CAFTA can be abrogated without breaking a sweat, IF Congress has some backbone instead of being an aggregate of wimps.

In any event, "FAST TRACK" authorization for pursuit of such illegitimate "Agreements" must be PERMANENTLY denied this - or any - power-hungry Administration.

NOW - as to "Chemtrails." Basic primer. CONTRAILS are small clouds of ice crystals caused by freezing of water vapor in the exhaust plume of a jet engine. They extend for a short distance behind the aircraft and sublime and disappear soon. They are basically harmless, except for minor pollution. CHEMTRAILS are chemical soups spewed from nozzles in tankers containing high albedo salts of Barium and/or Titanium, plastic filaments, or almost anything the experimenters want to spray on an unwitting populace. Their alleged purpose is to reflect sunlight to cut down on global warming. They may do that: at least they spread out to (frequently) cover the entire sky, and they do NOT dissipate; they drift and eventually end up on the ground. BUT - they ALSO carry down high altitude critters that never existed on the ground before - mycoplasmas and fungi, bacteria and God only knows what else, in addition to the microparticles which are their raison d'être. These particulates are of the size (3 microns and smaller) which can be inhaled, but which the lungs cannot clear. Have you noticed that "Upper Respiratory" infections - frequently fatal - are at an all-time high? Of course not. such things are NOT publicized. (Or they are blamed on the 'flu - which they are not) BUT - if you go to any search engine and type in "Chemtrails," you will get more information than you can read in a month - Rense does a particularly nice job - - - or, you can buy the book "CHEMTRAILS CONFIRMED" by William Thomas, ISBN 1-893157-10-5, which will give you a lot of info. It's all mighty disturbing. Then, to complete your education, you merely have to go out in the back yard on a bright and sunny day, and look up. Odds are very good that you will see aircraft playing tic-tac=toe across the sky, making X's and other interesting figures - and maybe, if you wait awhile, watch them spread out to cover the sky and cut off the sunlight. This cannot be good for the crops. The nay-sayers, of course, say that they are only contrails, and all the fuss is simply paranoid guff. But - I have flown alongside of these things - and I can assure you that contrails come out of engines, not nozzles, and they do NOT spread to cover the sky.