Who knew? Nancy Pelosi, satisfied and cheerful with the trappings of being the first woman Speaker of the House in US history, has joined the list of George W. Bush's female enablers.
Speaker Pelosi, in REFUSING to fulfill her constitutional obligations to uphold her oath of office to defend the US Constitution from all threats domestice and foreign - against the criminal and unconstitional conduct of the Bush-Cheney White House (from obstruction of justice, to lying a nation into war, to holding secret meetings to determine the nation's entire energy policy [dependence on imported oil, at that]; to illegal spying on American citizens without warrants or oversight; to "outing" undercover CIA operatives as a means of smearing administration critics; to using secretive, no-audit software to steal elections; to using private contractors as a means to reward political allies at the expense of American taxpayers; to ordering the US military to engage in torture, while running kangaroo courts to try and convict lowly female volunteer privates of "abuse".... etc. etc. etc. ad infinitum) now joins the ranks of KAREN HUGHES, CONDOLEEZA RICE, HARRIET MIERS, and other women in the circle of George W. Bush, women whose number-one job has been to ENABLE and SUPPORT their boss.
Harriet Miers helped George W. Bush pioneer the technique of using huge government contracts to reward supporters - and in return get huge KICKBACK campaign donations. As head of the Texas State Lottery Commission, Ms. Miers tore up a billion-dollar lottery contract with the state-certified low-bidder, and instead awarded that contract to a company whose chief lobbyists. Ben Barnes, had helped to quash Bush's Vietnam war era "AWOL" episode from Texas Air National Guard records.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46665
Karen Hughes helped portray George W. Bush as an "honest talker" and a "straight shooter" - despite his glaring AWOL Air National Guard record during the Vietnam war; despite Mr. Bush having "dumped" Harken Energy company stock while on the Board of Directors of that company, without prior SEC notification, and in advance of a revised Profit/Loss statement that turned Harken's stated "profits" into a sea of red ink; despite Mr. Bush's cover-up of a DUI arrest and conviction... and in addition, Ms. Hughes was at the very epicenter of Mr. Bush's campaign efforts (led by campaign advisor Karl Rove) to _smear_ political opponents, up to and including the campaign to portray departing Clinton-Gore staffers as "trashing" White House property... without one photograph of evidence.
Condoleeza Rice, despite being warned, in advance, by both the Director of the CIA and the national "Counter Terror Czar," that "Al Qaida is determined to attack in America" was UNABLE to get President Bush or Vice President Cheney to do ANYTHING to make a potential hijacking or attack even a little more difficult - not even a "General Traveller's Advisory," an almost routine and low-cost method to alert aircrews and the flying public of potential air-travel hazards. And, of course, after the Bush administration's FAILURE to prevent the 9-11 attacks, Ms. Rice immediately became one of the administration's most vocal "hawks," banging the national propaganda drum (nightly 'news' and press-media reports) for an invasion of Iraq in early 2003.
To that list of Mr. Bush's ENABLING WOMEN, we now must add NANCY PELOSI, the ostensibly "Democratic opposition" leader of Congress. Ms. Pelosi is now operating in her COMFORT ZONE - comfortably leading Democratic congressional FUNDRAISING efforts, but doing VERY LITTLE to MOLD, SHAPE, or LEAD the national NARRATIVE - the all-important "conventional wisdom" news narrative - about the urgency to confront and call the Bush White House to account before the White House both "RUNS THE CLOCK OUT" on their term of office... and potentially presents the world and nation with MORE abuses of power as FAIT ACCOMPLI.
In this case, the EXPANSION of the Bush-Cheney war in Iraq to include the BOMBINGS OF IRAN, which at the very, very, very least would trigger huge hikes in oil and gas prices, and STIMULATE MORE anti-American RADICALIZATION of the Muslim nation of Pakistan. But from Mr. Cheney's point of view - and that of Exxon, Halliburton, Chevron, and BP, soaring oil prices are merely the REWARDS of doing business.
NANCY PELOSI has NOTHING TO SAY about Dick Cheney and George Bush using the WARTIME POWERS of the US presidency as a means of BYPASSING CONGRESS and AVOIDING the will of the American people.
She now joins Hughes, Rice, Miers, and the fresh-out-of-law-school youmg women installed in the Department of Justice by the Bush White House, Ms Pelosi essentially advancing White House goals and policies...
Who cares about DICK CHENEY's influence on EXANDING US wars, when you can play as the leader of Congress, and rake in those guaranteed big business campaign donations? To steal a para-phrase from former First Lady Barbara Bush, why should Nancy Pelosi worry HER "beautiful mind" (and time in the elaborate Speaker's office) about female privates SENT TO PRISON for following the administration's TORTURE policies... or worry about CIA undercover operations OUTED from the very offices of the West Wing on direct orders from Vice President Cheney.... or worry about the US military troops being sent back on FIFTH and SIXTH tours of duty to Iraq and Afghanistan, so Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney can continue to sell their war as not impacting the American public?
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Cheney pushes Bush to act on Iran
· Military solution back in favour as Rice loses out
· President 'not prepared to leave conflict unresolved'
Ewen MacAskill in Washington and Julian Borger
Monday July 16, 2007
The Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2127115,00.html
photo - Dick Cheney, left, favours military threats, Condoleezza Rice, centre, prefers diplomacy. George Bush, right, has sided with Cheney. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP
The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months, the Guardian has learned.
The shift follows an internal review involving the White House, the Pentagon and the state department over the last month. Although the Bush administration is in deep trouble over Iraq, it remains focused on Iran. A well-placed source in Washington said: "Bush is not going to leave office with Iran still in limbo."
The White House claims that Iran, whose influence in the Middle East has increased significantly over the last six years, is intent on building a nuclear weapon and is arming insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The vice-president, Dick Cheney, has long favoured upping the threat of military action against Iran. He is being resisted by the secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, and the defence secretary, Robert Gates.
Last year Mr Bush came down in favour of Ms Rice, who along with Britain, France and Germany has been putting a diplomatic squeeze on Iran. But at a meeting of the White House, Pentagon and state department last month, Mr Cheney expressed frustration at the lack of progress and Mr Bush sided with him. "The balance has tilted. There is cause for concern," the source said this week.
Nick Burns, the undersecretary of state responsible for Iran and a career diplomat who is one of the main advocates of negotiation, told the meeting it was likely that diplomatic manoeuvring would still be continuing in January 2009. That assessment went down badly with Mr Cheney and Mr Bush.
"Cheney has limited capital left, but if he wanted to use all his capital on this one issue, he could still have an impact," said Patrick Cronin, the director of studies at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
The Washington source said Mr Bush and Mr Cheney did not trust any potential successors in the White House, Republican or Democratic, to deal with Iran decisively. They are also reluctant for Israel to carry out any strikes because the US would get the blame in the region anyway.
"The red line is not in Iran. The red line is in Israel. If Israel is adamant it will attack, the US will have to take decisive action," Mr Cronin said. "The choices are: tell Israel no, let Israel do the job, or do the job yourself."
Almost half of the US's 277 warships are stationed close to Iran, including two aircraft carrier groups. The aircraft carrier USS Enterprise left Virginia last week for the Gulf. A Pentagon spokesman said it was to replace the USS Nimitz and there would be no overlap that would mean three carriers in Gulf at the same time.
No decision on military action is expected until next year. In the meantime, the state department will continue to pursue the diplomatic route.
Sporadic talks are under way between the EU foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, and Iran's top nuclear negotiator, Ali Larijani, on the possibility of a freeze in Iran's uranium enrichment programme. Tehran has so far refused to contemplate a freeze, but has provisionally agreed to another round of talks at the end of the month.
The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Mohamed ElBaradei, has said that there are signs of Iran slowing down work on the enrichment plant it is building in Natanz. Negotiations took place in Tehran last week between Iranian officials and the IAEA, which is seeking a full accounting of Iran's nuclear activities before Tehran disclosed its enrichment programme in 2003. The agency's deputy director general, Olli Heinonen, said two days of talks had produced "good results" and would continue.
At the UN, the US, Britain and France are trying to secure agreement from other security council members for a new round of sanctions against Iran. The US is pushing for economic sanctions that would include a freeze on the international dealings of another Iranian bank and a mega-engineering firm owned by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard. Russia and China are resisting tougher measures.
