This is another example of how consolidation in the "news" media has completely undermined the role that a free press is supposed to play. Just to bring everyone up to speed, the "news" media will also not talk about impeachment unless it is to make fun of it. For an example, see my article Let’s See How Our 'Free Press' Covers Impeachment It includes a link to the laughable coverage of impeachment by CNN.

Also, the "news" media will not talk about election fraud which is rigging the secret vote count. However, it will cover voter fraud which is when someone votes more than once. The big difference is that a handful of people can program the secret vote counting computers to steal an election, and they actually have. Yet, hundreds of thousands or millions would have to vote multiple times to steal a national election.

Of course, the "news" media focus on voter fraud gives the sheeple the illusion that the "news" media and the government are making sure that we have fair elections. Curiously, the "news" media has failed to mention that counting votes in secret is both dangerous and unconstitutional. For examples, see Virginia’s Elections Are UNCONSTITUTIONAL?!?! and South Carolina Elections Are UNCONSTITUTIONAL!?!

If you think that a "news" blackout is bad, then you might be very worried to learn that the "news" media would lie to prevent public access TV from exposing its lies. If you want the truth, see Welcome to the Twilight Zone Where an Increase is a Cut!?! http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5130063694565191849

Finally, Vincent is lucky that he doesn’t practice law in Florida. If he did, then he might get disbarred for exposing corruption like I did.  See, http://www.msnusers.com/FloridaBarvAdams/_whatsnew.msnw

Many others have been attacked by the Florida Bar for standing up to the powers that be including F. Lee Bailey, Jack Thompson, and Montgomery Sibley.

For more information that our "news" media doesn't want you to know about, see my article about the treatment of Florida's 2006 election contests at http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_mark_ada_070919_how_to_take_action_o.htm

Project Vote Count’s Election News http://www.projectvotecount.com/ElectionNews.aspx 

Project Vote Count’s FAQ page http://www.projectvotecount.com/faq.aspx and

My short speech against media consolidation at the FCC Hearing in Tampa http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAni0WoI7LI

by Mark Adams (20 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 312 comments [39 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Aug 11, 2008 at 8:29:17 PM

  (0+)

I'm much older than you, and in the America that I grew up in, we've always had the far right, but in my day they were on the fringes.  They were an embarrassment.  They were an absolute embarrassment to people like Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, even the first President Bush.  But now they've taken over the party. They've always been out there, but they used to be on the fringes, and they've taken over now.

Since Bush is a conservative Republican and so are they, anything he does, anything at all, including murder, is just fine with them, just fine.

That just about says it all.

by JC Garrett (40 articles, 65 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 604 comments [10 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Monday, Aug 11, 2008 at 11:28:54 PM

  (0+)

It is inexcusable whether due to lack of courage or personal benefit from corporate control of major media.

The video interview at Vanguard Press is interesting and makes a nice companion to Mike's article.

by Kathlyn Stone (46 articles, 227 quicklinks, 27 diaries, 690 comments [1 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008 at 10:11:13 AM

  (0+)

Comment from Ratings:   Thanks! I look forward to reading the book.

by Meryl Ann Butler (70 articles, 82 quicklinks, 5 diaries, 721 comments [29 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Tuesday, Aug 12, 2008 at 12:16:40 PM

  (0+)

It's an easy read. Shouldn't take you too long. And it's not bad at all other than the fact that Bugliosi will turn off some readers with his almost over-the-top character assassination of George W. Bush. (I wasn't turned off. I liked it.) He's also hard on the media and no fan of the intellect of the common man. Both are recurring whipping boys for him.

As to his case, it's fairly strong. He does a good job of showing the discrepancies between the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate and the public White Paper released a short time later. He weaves in other facts (like the Downing Street Memos), Curveball and quotes from former administration officials to bolster his case, and at the end of the book one can't help but feel terribly lied to about Iraq's WMD's and the non-existent Iraqi-al Qaeda link.

Bugliosi covers the war powers apect of the case asserting that Bush's powers as commander-in-chief are not expansive enough to allow him to lie to Congress and the American people to get their consent for a war. He cites relevant case law (in the footnotes at the end of the book) stating the limits of the war powers of the executive branch, and I found his postion compelling. The only deficiency that others have noticed is that he does not address the idea of sovereign immunity.

Apparently, former presidents cannot be charrged with civil offenses arising from their official duties and there is some debate as to whether or not sovereign immunity affords them protection from criminal prosecution as well. This is one area of the law I plan to research a little better, and Bugliosi would be doing himself a favor if he did so as well. (He cites Pinochet's trial in Chile as precedent that a former head of state can be tried for crimes committed while in office, but there is no guarantee that the case law here in the US would allow it to go forward.) However, Bugliosi is correct to point out that new case law is created every day and may have to be made in order to prosecute the president once he leaves office (or is impeached and convicted in the Senate, two things that are highly unlikely, especially the latter [as he rightly points out]).

So, as a blueprint for future prosecution there are some holes, but the overall case seems pretty sound. I only wish Bugliosi had more seriously considered Bush's possible role in 9/11, a charge he brushes off as emanating from the "loony left." Then again, with the unfortunate way he handled his JFK investigation, perhaps it's better that Bugliosi steered clear of the 9/11 conspiracy. At least his critics can't charge him with being a "conspiracy theorist," a charge he relishes throwing at many others who have plowed the JFK field long before he did. Perhaps that gives him more credibilty in the minds of some (though his detractors on the far right will love him no more for it). For at the end of the day, Vincent Bugliosi wants to put George W. Bush away for murder in the first or second degree on over 4,000 counts for each US service man and woman he has died in Iraq due to his illegal war.

P.S. Another potential hole in his case is his failure to nail down a motive for the invasion other than self-defense (which he disproves). He insists that no ulterior motive is necessary for him to prove his case, and he may be technically correct, but a motive would add much weight to his charges. I'm not sure he mentions the word "oil" once in his book, for better or worse.

by Sam Adams (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 90 comments) on Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008 at 4:00:08 AM

  (0+)

The only thing that surprised me about Bugliosi's characterizations of Bush's intentions and profile, psychologically, is that he was not at all over the top, but far too restrained.  Perhaps that comes from a little over-thinking his strategy, in making his case.

 Although in the Tussaud's pantheon of state sanctioned serial killers, Bush may be farther down their totem than some, there is none more bestial in effect at this key point in foreign affairs.  I first had the shudders when I saw him debate Gore, and told everyone in earshot, "Oh, my, there goes the store."  He actually salivated more on cue than any Pavolovian dog when the hosts brought up the subject of capital punishment.  Who, with accurate eyes and memories, can forget it.  I thought they were going to need a gilt drool Cup from the Bush stolen fortunes, to catch all his saliva as he was mentally visualizing all the people he could juice.  I understood that was his REAL Kapital: the blood and guts of people that would serve as scapegoats for the demon of his pride and familial sins and unchecked life of ungodly lusts.  He would offer up whomever, anyone who was easy pickins, who wasn't "fur" him, but agin, whenever and wherever he got the chance.  First stop Iraq, tomorrow the demon barbershops of Fleet Street.

 One look at the guy and you know he's completely nuts, so I think Bugliosi was challenged and daunted a little by closing the gap between MSM propaganda presenting Bush as the sort of Shirley Temple in drag on the USS Good Ship Lollipop of our Lollapalooza of Shock and Awe, damning whatever poor brown Arab soul of a citizen that got in his way, and the real portrait of Bush, such as Bugliosi has painted it, and while Bush continues to throw in a few sacrifical lambs of our own soldiers for OIL "Operation Iraqi Liberation."  I think the proposed invasion of Iran (God Forbid) has already been given the sequel OIL TOO, Operation Iranian Liberation.  The operative part of the name: O.I.L........

 Those monikers would be about the only things that make some kind of sense out of all their Madison Avenue ad buildups for their money, oil, and blood lusts.

 I interviewed a young lady, too young to be dying, out here who said she's has terminal radiation poisoning because of contamination when she was being pulled out of the rubble of the Twin Towers.  She said she was a sort of born in the wool unthinking Republican before 9.11, and was there for Fashion Week as a makeup artist, only to wake up to the smell of twisted masses of metal and burning human flesh.

 She further asserts that she was contaminated by Depleted Uranium, and the only place she could have been so exposed was at that disaster in NYC September11, that massive fiasco orchestrated by these sick forces within our own society.  She had herself privately tested, and it confirmed that she was indeed contaminated with DU.  She said that since then, she is no longer unthinking in her politics, but has actually worked for Cindy Sheehan as a speech writer, and many other current activists of stature. 

 I was touched by her assessment of the entire cabal that stole our country, as others have also done before these Burning Bushes, but with none to match their ill intentions in all our history.  She said that they brought down the Twin Towers just as their personal "video game" thrill, of watching the enactment of death they had "engendered."  Like the little boy at the end of the X files, "I MADE THIS," this is the perfect storm of infantilism wedded to power.  Unchecked "entitlement" that has ascended without conscience or any of the graces of real thought of any kind.

 Father forgive them, they know not what they do.

They are, after all, little children, run amok with toys far beyond their knowledge or grasp.  Exponentially so.

But that doesn't mean we should countenance this grim child's play, or leave their hands on the virtual wheel, the one that is all too real.   

Time has come to take back the wheel from these deranged infants, and put them somewhere, as Roger Waters said, "A little place of their own, where they can watch themselves all day on closed circuit TV, TO MAKE SURE THEY'RE STILL REAL: it's the only connection THEY FEEL !!"

But not Washington, DC, or any other place that threatens the public, the world.  They need to be decked out in orange, and put away. For good.

Truly.  Thank God for  Vincent Bugliosi, and for Michael Collins making this tremendous interview and service to all the world.  We are greatly in their debt, and more importantly, need to rally round their example.

~~John Ervin ~ Native Intelligence Agency

by muservin (4 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 78 comments [5 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008 at 4:38:48 AM

  (0+)

People have to stop acting like sheep. For now, we have the power to set ourselves "free" by voting everyone out of Congress.  We need to replace those long ago bought by corporate interests.  It may have to be done more than once to make the point.

Why do big companies poor money into political coffers? They want special priveleges. To get them their chosen people must be elected. That money is spent to convince us sheep to vote for their bought and paid for politicians.

As voters we have to tune out the commercial ads and ignore the slogans. We have to make it a habit to vote for anyone who is NOT the incumbent member.  We can impose term limits at the polls if we just get people to wake up.

Ask everyone you know..."are you happy with the last 8 years in America"  If not, replace Congress.  Vote in the new guy each time until politicians vanish to be replaced by public servents. Re Elect No One.

( PS... there are a few good people in Congress but most are not concerned with the American People. You know who the good ones are, people like Kucinich who still believe in the Constitution and their oath of office. )

by Paul Kruger (39 articles, 1 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 304 comments [2 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Wednesday, Aug 13, 2008 at 11:29:28 AM

  (0+)