Prosecution

Click below to check 'em out and order a deck or two.  These are beautiful playing cards, a full deck of 52 plus a joker, information cards, and a box with directions for making a citizen's arrest inside.  You can play any card game and, at the same time, learn a little about the top 53 U.S. war criminals (and what you can do to hold them accountable). Click here:

https://codepink.myshopify.com/products/war-criminal-playing-cards

This project originated 22 months ago when AfterDowningStreet produced a list of the top 50 U.S. war criminals, a thousand voices proposed making a deck of cards, and CODE PINK volunteered to do it.  Some changes have been made to the line-up, however, and you'll have to buy the cards to see who made the final cut.  Below are links to related pages on AfterDowningStreet and CODE PINK:

http://afterdowningstreet.org/warcriminals

http://www.codepinkalert.org/section.php?id=414

By David Swanson

As John Yoo's visit to Mr. Jefferson's university here in Charlottesville approaches, one is tempted to ask the same question people around here ask about everything: WWJD? What would Jefferson do?

Of course, it's almost taboo among the most serious peace and justice advocates to cite positive precedents from Jefferson, because he was a slave owner. But Jefferson's views on the structure of a government don't actually become less admirable (or more) when we remember the horrors he inflicted on the people at Monticello.

By David Swanson

Early one mornin' the sun was shinin',
Prisoners layin' in bed
Wond'rin' when the guards would come
And kick them in the head.
The folks who wrote the torture memos
Sure did have it rough.
They never got enough exercise.
The new condo wasn't big enough.
One victim standin' at the side of his cell
Blood dripping on his shoes
Admitted Iraq had WMDs
Lord knows that made the news but was it true,
Tangled up in Yoo.

Yoo was married to his belief
That nobody could force
A president to obey the law
And wartime only made that worse.
Yoo drove that point as far as he could
And overruled the rest
Of the lawyers who gave into him
All agreeing it was best.
He turned around to look upon
The damage he had done
I heard him whisper over his shoulder,

By David Swanson

We're about to witness the pretense of war lawyer hearings without the war lawyers (commonly known as torture lawyers by those willing to ignore their role in "legalizing" aggressive war). This may highlight for many observers the little-known fact that Congress no longer has the power of subpoena.

By David Swanson

Everything you're reading about torture lawyers John Yoo and Jay Bybee getting off the hook is wrong. They are not torture lawyers, they are not off the hook, there never was any hook, they may not be lawyers for long, impeachment and indictment are on the agenda, and you have a role to play.

By David Swanson

Dick Cheney's statutory crimes are notable for their severity, their number, and his public confessions to them.  Torture is the least of it.

We can start with the crimes found in the three articles of impeachment contained in H Res 333 in the 110th Congress:

1. "Cheney has purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction to justify the use of the United States Armed Forces against the nation of Iraq in a manner damaging to our national security interests, to wit:" (H Res 333 goes on to list evidence).

By David Swanson

It's not that I really object to lies about Obama. Most people lie about Obama to make him look good, for the same reason they lie about death or God -- because they can't handle the truth. Others lie about Obama because Fox News told them to or because he's black, but they mostly make him look better too ("socialist!" "pacifist!" "government healthcare!"). What does disturb me is the entire 16-page afterword to John Yoo's book in which he criticizes Obama for all the wrong things, praises him for all the wrong things, and packs both procedures so full of lies that only a Fox News viewer could claim to understand it on a first reading.

Yoo describes the state of the world as Obama became president:

Listen here http://www.theurbanjournal.org

By David Swanson

Former prime minister Tony Blair's testimony was streamed live at 4:30 a.m. ET at the Iraq Inquiry website and on other sites, such as the UK newspaper the Telegraph which allowed viewers to rank Blair's responses on a "Lie Meter". Telegraph readers' top desired questions pre-hearing were:

An organization of attorneys, journalists, and advocates today filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act requesting the long-suppressed report from the Department of Justice's Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR) regarding the conduct of President Bush's top lawyers in the Office of Legal Counsel who authored memos purporting to authorize torture and aggressive war.

The request, reproduced below along with a transmittal letter, asks for the OPR report that has long been promised by Attorney General Eric Holder, as well as an earlier OPR report completed during the last months of the Bush administration. The request also seeks the 10 page rebuttal of the 2008 report by then- Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

By David Swanson

Compare Tony Blair's latest confession to mass murder with Bush's. The BBC has just aired an interview of Blair in which he was asked whether he would have attacked Iraq even if he had known there were no "weapons of mass destruction" there. Blair replied:

"I would still have thought it right to remove him."

Annotated Aggression: Being Jay Bybee
By David Swanson

By David Swanson

One of the best features of a visit to Los Angeles is the opportunity to hang out with the guy who put Charles Manson in prison, the most successful criminal prosecutor we're ever likely to see, Vince Bugliosi (105 convictions in 106 felony jury trials, 21 convictions in 21 murder trials). I spoke with him on Tuesday about his forthcoming documentary film (pre-order DVD here http://www.indiegogo.com/bush ).

http://www.indiegogo.com/bush

http://www.prosecutionofbushmovie.com

Meet Vince Bugliosi at this event:

David Swanson: "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union"

Los Angeles, CA

November 23, 2009

At St. Bede's Church in Mar Vista at 7:30 p.m.

3590 Grand View Blvd., LA 90066 (Mar Vista)

Sponsored by:
CODEPINK: Women for Peace
Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles
Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains
Westside Progressives
Winograd for Congress

CONTACT THE EVENT ORGANIZERS:

Ilene Proctor
proctor at anet dot net

Marcy Winograd
Winograd4congress at gmail dot com

The University of Virginia, to the shame of us alumni, contracts with the Pentagon, builds a research park nextdoor to a military spying center, employs the guy in charge of derailing the 9-11 commission, and now proposes to record the oral history of George W. Bush's misleadership.

David Swanson is a U.S. author, blogger, and activist. He is the author of "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" and of the introduction to "The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush," by Dennis Kucinich. He co-founded AfterDowningStreet.org and is the Washington Director of Democrats.com



http://www.davidswanson.org/



http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/



http://www.democrats.com/



http://www.rationalradio.org/



Other Speakers at the Rational Radio Progress Forum:

Thom Hartmann

Cindy Sheehan

Jes Sprouse

Melissa Roddy

Nicole Torre

Steve Munson



and performances by



Code Red

Tunde Obazee

The Ackermans

David Rovics