bush and cheney

That’s the meme the wingnuts are trying to spin right now, following the lead of Byron York:

Vice President Joe Biden's favorable rating has fallen to 42 percent in a new Gallup poll, down from a high of 59 percent just after last year's election. Biden's unfavorable rating in the new poll is 40 percent, up from 29 percent last November. (Eighteen percent of those surveyed say they have no opinion of Biden.)

Biden's average favorable rating during his time in office so far is 45 percent -- well below the average 65 percent favorable rating for Vice President Dick Cheney during Cheney's first year in office. Vice President Al Gore's favorable rating during his first year, 55 percent, was also higher than Biden's. (Gallup did not measure vice presidential popularity before Gore.)

This really isn’t that shocking. Biden hasn’t been front and center on a lot of stuff. We just went from a period of imperial vice-presidencies, lead by Cheney, to returning the office back to it’s constitutionally intended place.

What’s really interesting though is how York finishes his post:

Finally, there is a greater gap between Biden's favorable rating and President Obama's than there was between Cheney and President George W. Bush and Gore and President Bill Clinton. Biden's 45 percent average favorable rating this year is well below Obama's average of 63 percent. Cheney's 65 percent average was near Bush's average of 69 percent, and Gore's 55 percent rating was close to Clinton's average of 57 percent.

Last night President (shiver) Obama ordered the prosecutors at Gitmo to halt all cases for 120 days. Most likely this is so he can figure out what to do with the inmates and finally close down the black eye of the beacon of freedom.

One of the big arguments about Obama closing down Gitmo is what to do with all the inmates. Well we might have a solution now:

Switzerland is ready to consider taking in detainees from the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba if that helps to shut it down, the Swiss government said on Wednesday.

"For Switzerland, the detention of people in Guantanamo is in conflict with international law. Switzerland is ready to consider how it can contribute to the solution of the Guantanamo problem," the government said in a statement.

Switzerland said it welcomed the expressed intention of U.S. President Barack Obama to close the prison and would investigate security and legal implications of possibly taking in detainees. About 255 men are still held there.

Help from the world. That’s something we haven’t seen in a very long time. It’s a sign of the change that is coming and the hope and optimism Obama has given the world. Of course I got a better idea for the detainees. Send them to live with Bush and Cheney.

In Washington state that is. It would be nice if Congress took note of how these states are doing it and decided to join in.

According to former Reagan official Paul Craig Roberts, that is exactly where this country is at now.

Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran.

Bush has put in place all the necessary measures for dictatorship in the form of "executive orders" that are triggered whenever Bush declares a national emergency. Recent statements by Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff, former Republican senator Rick Santorum and others suggest that Americans might expect a series of staged, or false flag, "terrorist" events in the near future.

Many attentive people believe that the reason the Bush administration will not bow to expert advice and public opinion and begin withdrawing US troops from Iraq is that the administration intends to rescue its unpopular position with false flag operations that can be used to expand the war to Iran.

This entire article deserves a good reading.

Robert's article came out on July 16. On July 17th, Bush signed a new Executive Order. Raw Story gives us this synopsis:

Thom Hartmann began his program on Thursday by reading from a new Executive Order which allows the government to seize the assets of anyone who interferes with its Iraq policies.

Perhaps there is some other good for Bush with the current crisis between Lebanon and Israel. That good could be the media taking some focus off of Iraq. Perhaps that is why this story hasn't had much play today:

Bombs killed two worshippers at mosques in Iraq during Friday prayers and the authorities extended a daytime curfew on Baghdad after one of the bloodiest weeks this year.

On the eve of a high-profile meeting intended to demonstrate reconciliation among sectarian and ethnic factions ahead of a White House visit by the prime minister, senior leaders admitted to despair about the chances of averting all-out civil war.

"Iraq as a political project is finished," a top government official told Reuters -- anonymously because the coalition of Shi'ite Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki remains committed in public to a U.S.-sponsored constitution preserving Iraq's unity.

"The parties have moved to Plan B," the official said, saying Sunni, ethnic Kurdish and majority Shi'ite blocs were looking at ways to divide power and resources and to solve the conundrum of Baghdad's mixed population of seven million.

"There is serious talk of Baghdad being divided into east and west," said the official, who has long been a proponent of the present government's objectives. "We are extremely worried."

This is a very significant development in the country. It will be interesting to see how the politics of this plays out if more of Iraq's government moves towards the "plan B". It will ultimately signal an even bigger defeat for Bush and his plans while creating another nation in the Middle East that will most likely be hostile towards us.

Murray Waas has exposed a new hole in the pre-war intelligence in his latest article.

The first report, delivered to Bush in early October 2002, was a one-page summary of a National Intelligence Estimate that discussed whether Saddam's procurement of high-strength aluminum tubes was for the purpose of developing a nuclear weapon.

Among other things, the report stated that the Energy Department and the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research believed that the tubes were "intended for conventional weapons," a view disagreeing with that of other intelligence agencies, including the CIA, which believed that the tubes were intended for a nuclear bomb.  

First we find out that the "Mushroom cloud" story told on MTP by Cheney was actually a manufactured story by the administration. Now we find out that Bush and Cheney knew the aluminum tubes were not for nuclear weapons. The pile of lies by the administration is piling up quick and something needs to be done now.

A source close to the Plame case is saying that Fitzgerald met alone with
Judge Hogan yesterday, presumably to ask for an extension of the Grand Jury.

That is a posting from

Firegodlake Blog.

This could very well be the case. From all reports, the investigation is
taking complicated twists and turns. Fitzgerald is reportedly looking more into
the pre-war Iraq intel and where it came from, and more involvement of Bush and
Cheney officials is being assumed.

If Fitzgerald does end up with an extension, it will surely send a sign that
he has a case in the works. The judge is the one to decide upon an extension,
and if the judge feels all evidence and testimonies thus far have yielded enough
proof that a crime was possibly committed, then he would be more out to grant an
extension. If there is not enough of a case to merit charges, then the judge
would not grant an extension. The decision that comes out of this will
definitely set the stage for the future findings of this case.