The BRAD BLOG has learned that Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) and a number of other Congressional Members will announce their intention to hold open Town Hall Meetings across the country on July 23rd to discuss the “Downing Street Documents” with constituents.
The meetings, to be held on the same day around the country in the members’ various Congressional Districts, will mark the third year anniversary of the creation of the original Downing Street Minutes document. That document, released nearly two months ago, revealed that the Bush Administration had determined at least eight months prior to the War on Iraq that they intended to topple Saddam Hussein through military means, and planned to “fix” the intelligence and facts around the policy.
Earlier this month, a letter was delivered to the White House signed by 122 Congressional Members and more than 560,000 American Citizens asking George W. Bush to answer a number of questions concerning the information contained in the minutes written by the head of British Intelligence, Richard Dearlove. The White House has still refused the courtesy of a reply to that letter.
MORE: We are told that “at least” 10 U.S. Congressional Members will be holding these Town Hall Meetings, and that — unlike Bush and Cheney’s phony Town Hall Meetings — the forums will actually be open to the public for discussion. No loyalty pledges to be required before attending. The number of Congressmen and women to hold hearings is expected to increase in the days and weeks ahead prior to the July 23rd date.
AND MORE… AfterDowningStreet.org is helping to organize the Town Hall Meetings, and offers quite a few links on how you can help from your home town!
AND STILL MORE… Conyers has now released further details on his blog, including a link to sign up for information, help with hosting house parties on the day of the Town Hall meetings and an email address to send questions and suggestions for the event.
He goes on to say, in his blog item, that this event is a “follow up to our hugely successful hearing we held in the basement of the Capitol Building on June 16.” Perhaps it should be suggested that all such July 23rd House Parties be held in basements or storage closets just to get into the spirit of things!
Oh, this ought to be good.
…using the (in)famous ‘Town Hall Meeting’ format to get the people involved.
And, quite likely, ~not~ cherry-picked for attendees…
The NeoCon forces will be scrambling to interfere.
I think that any discussion of the DSM has to include a discussion about the PNAC as policy in this administration. The two are undeniably linked. The merits of the PNAC policy must be given the attention they deserve as this right-wing manifesto has become American Foreign Policy.
Gee, I wonder if the DSM will come up in tonight’s speech?
For the lighter side of the DSM, scroll down at:
http://www.hairytruth.blogspot.com
This is a prudent step. Each Democrat, Liberaterian, Green Party, Independents & other candidates of each Congressional Districts should tell their constituents that the President has LIED on the Iraq war. The Republicans candidates are supporting that lie. They are a partner in the crime. There is blood all over for these lies. The voters need to PUNISH the Republican congressmen, Senators, councilmen, Mayors, etc. by NOT VOTING for the Republicans.
America needs to wake up!!
Considering the recent public opinion polls I’d guess there could well be a lot of antry Americans, exercising their July 4th exuberant right of free speech to tell their congressmen they’re not happy about Iraq.
Bush & Co. should watch the Blazing Guns of Navarrone if they want to see some smoking guns. Then they’ll be better prepared for the smoking guns like the DSM.
Hey Brad,
Congradulations – I was at Raw Story and clicked on a link for this story and it brought me here to your Blog.
Usually it’s the other way around… guess you scooped them on this one!
Can’t wait ’till there is a meeting here in Sacramento.
Can’t wait to "exercise my July 4th exuberant right of free speech." (Apologies to Mark H)
Also at Raw Story is an article from today’s Washignton Post covering Downing street rather extensively. http://www.washingtonpost.com/w...701584_pf.html
Call me a skeptic but I have a stinking hunch that the Neocons will try to intercede with an important news event to over shadow a great forum. But unlike the Neocons, I will enjoy seeing how the "enemy" copes with a timetable!
Call me a skeptic but I have a stinking hunch that the Neocons will try to intercede with an important news "event" to overshadow a great forum. But unlike the Neocons, I will enjoy seeing how the "enemy" copes with a timetable!
If this be true, then a forum is presented to the citizens of the US to repudiate this administration, at long last.
Bando Bling said "Districts should tell their constituents that the President has LIED on the Iraq war", OTOH, I think, "close, but no horseshoe".
What should happen instead is that we change shoes. We constituents MUST tell our district representatives that "the President has LIED to to bring us a war!"
Then, when the spotlight is on, add the components truths that should administer a coup de grace.
1) That the US has been using MK-77 (a new form of incendiary,… napalm on steroids, if you will) on the populace of Iraq, while lying to the our British allies about it!
2) We have been systematically committing slow motion genocide on both the Iraqi and Afghani populations, as well as our own soldiers, by utilizing radioactive muntions and weaponry in contravention of General Shinseki’s 1993 guidelines of DU usage.
The half-life of these mutagenic isotopes is 4.5 billion years, the length of time the Earth has existed!
3) Additionally, that we have found the isotope U-236 in the remains, rubble and bodies (both dead and alive) of those around the "penetration bombings".
Important? Yes!
Finding U-236 indicates this radioactive isotope in our soldier’s urine sample indicates that (as U-236 is a resultant isotope of fission) we are using the waste from our nuclear power plants to make these bombs, shells and bullets!
All along, Nevada has worried we would encase them in glass and bury them in Yucca Mountain and menace Las Vegas.
But, oh no! We had better uses.
The leveling and poisoning of Fallujah in retaliation for the killing of four mercenaries working for Amerikan Korporate Armies.
Town Hall Meetings? Let me at them! Let the games begin. But be expecting the GOP barbarians to storm the gates of them meeting and quelch the dissent!
The Last Throes of US Dominance
Moreover, the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating. The British, who are even shorter on troops than the U.S., cannot maintain their troop strength in Iraq and also contribute forces to stem the resurgence of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The U.S. and Britain, it seems, are trapped in two quagmires.
Who’d a thunk it?
A Canadian neighbour who is very worried and concerned about the direction of the US (and there are many, many of us, because it affects everyone on this globe) wishes all of you reasonable, peaceful, intelligent, and level-headed American friends the best of luck in exposing and deposing (and hopefully imprisoning) the out-of-control psychopaths who have hijacked your country and threaten the peace and stability of the civilized world. Bring down the criminal cabal of Bush & Co. We’re rooting for you big time!!!
Thanks Tim,
Hopefuly people are starting to wake up. Iknow a number of people who were so gung-ho on Bush at election time who now come to me with their tails tucked under proclaiming that I had told them so.
Thanks again for your support.
Much appreciated, Tim.
The testimony on the Halliburton/KBR abuses is chilling. Reports that U.S. fatalities are underreported (hospital deaths don’t count) are disturbing. The House will not authorize VA funds for returning injured vets. GWB keeps spouting the same nonsense.
We must keep sounding the alarm until MSM cannot ignore our numbers. I’m reading, signing and contributing. Thanks to everyone (except Jimmo) who contributes to this blog and others.
How about John Conyers for President.
God wasn’t BUSH wonderful tonight?
I watched his speech with my 19 year old son home for 3 weeks from the US Air Force and my 17 year old son ready to join the Marines when he graduates. I am so proud of both of them.
It is a shame they have to see you one percenters bitch, whine, and complain even though you had everything in life handed to you. You are so selfish you don’t even want to enable 40 million people in the world to live in freedom and democracy.
Shame. That is all I can say: shame and please move to Canada. PPPPLLLLEEEEAAAASSSEEE!
{Religious hatred and intolerance deleted.}
Jim S at dKos links to new figures put out by the VA adjusting the war injured they will be treating upward to 103,000!
{Personal attacks, insults and hate-speech towards other commenters deleted.}
No mention of the DSM –ANYWHERE– on cable TV tonight, even though that’s the reason the presidents numbers are tanking. And they keep talking about the president tanking. This is where the MSM fails us. We’ve had decent coverage here and there. Who on TV is representing the 100% who were lied to, or at least the 52% who KNOW they were lied to?
Jim, Jimo, Jimmo, James, Troll,
You are in the minority and your minority is shrinking. Bush thinks the blood of our children is "worth it". "It" being the profit of his cronies.
As misguided as you are, I truly hope that your children return safely and that our human targets are all removed from this unnecessary danger.
Jimo, First of all, Please place links to your facts instead of just putting it out there and expecting everyone to mindlessly believe you. You can do it like this:
Link name
No spaces though, except in the link name and between the first "a" and HREF.
Second,
The 103,000 link is to yahoo news, who attribute it to Reuters. The story states "assumed it would have to take care of 23,553 patients"…"that number had been revised upward to 103,000".
That’s 103,000 patients, not visits. There are many definitions of patient (and here)that could be construed to mean either an individual visit, or a client of a medical practice encompassing multiple visits.
It might be useful to know where you got your interpretation. Without it, your outburst on the topic will be rightfully disregarded.
This is fantastic! If something important needs to be done, and those responsible refuse to do it — then just DO IT yourselves. America doesn’t need those relatively few evil doers — it can function despite them, and without them!
Please remember to help whistleblowers – there would not be the elation at the possibility that the madmen who have taken over our country might be ousted if not for the brave British Deep Throats who released the DSM and subsequent Memos supporting the Minutes.
Don’t forget Sibyl Edmonds whose courageous testimony about the FBI’s involvement in 911. Ms. Edmonds has a website JUST A CITIZEN with a very good article I’M GAGGED, I’M NOT DEAD YET where she asks people to think of very specific questions about 911 since she can’t speak openly.
She describes the Kafkaesque last court hearing that confirmed the gag order and has a link to her petition that is also on the upper right hand side of The Smirking Chimp.com and it is shameful that only 11,000 people have signed so far.
I worry about Rusty Nelson, the photographer in the Franklin coverup who decided to tell about the unspeakable things done to children by Larry King who sang the National Anthem at Reagan’s last and Bush, Sr.’s first inauguration and has been wisked out of state since Gannongate despite the objections of the safety of his client by John DeCamp who also wrote the Franklin Coverup book. The FBI confiscated Mr. Nelson’s photographs proving his allegations of men in very high positions including Congresspersons who used the child sex slaves provided by Bush, Sr.’s CIA.
And Alisha Owens who spent 15 years in prison, mostly in solitary confinement by a judge whose daughter had been murdered for telling the truth about Bush, Sr. and other top officials involvement in the Franklin scandal use of children as prostitutes and never backed down from her testimony despite the deaths of many of these children who were to testify including her brother on the day she was to testify.
And Troy Boner who had rescinded his testimony after his brother was supposedly shot playing Russian Roulette despite his fear of guns, Troy Boner felt guilty spoke to Johnny Gosch’s mother and said according to the FBI at the time of his testimony it was either lie or die. Troy Boner, in 2003 – time of Presidential primaries committed himself to a psychiatric ward claiming that because of the DeCamp book he was going to be murdered and the next morning was found with blood running out of his mouth and the coroner claimed the cause of Troy Boner’s death was "unknown".
Please support the Whistleblowers by going to Ms. Edmond’s site and former FBI agent, Ted Gunderson’s site who is trying to protect Rusty Nelson from "an unfortunate accident" while he is in prison on trumped up charges. I haven’t been able to find out much about Alisha Owen who was let out on parole then her parole was revoked after Gannongate story broke.
I am Jewish and I am sick to DEATH of the Liberal Surrender Monkeys
GET YOUR COUNTRY TO FIGHT ITS OWN WARS -united states of israel
JIMO your a bigot
The Bush Flag:
Symbol of a Failed Presidency
This flag (hung improperly) was actually used during the big speech last night!!
see the speech photo here.
Good to use at any neocon protest rally!!!
Another mathematical miracle has occurred. As support for the Iraq invasion (not a war, nothing was declared) has declined steadily in the polls, we’re told that the number of people protesting vocally has remained at 1%. That’s almost as remarkable as the 1-in-959,000 possibility that Bush actually won the 2004 election.
We’re all asked to move to Canada. In fact, if every American opposed to the war did move to Canada, her population would exceed ours. Bush would be left will all the guns. NASCAR would still hold races every week, and the Army-Navy football game would be played at the Alamo, with attendance compulsory for every American citizen.
But all the libraries would have to close (Patriot Act mandate, plus nobody who reads books would still be around), schools would have to close (nobody intelligent enough to teach), and science labs would be manned by robots. There would be no newspapers or magazines, and the phrase "think tank" would be banned as threatening to the state.
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts would not be allowed to exist, so no government bureaucrats could vacation on Martha’s Vineyard or Nantucket.
The only good news…Maine would become part of Canada, so the Bush family compound at Kennebunkport would become the property of the Canadian government. The bad news…if W. got sick while vacationing there and went to the hospital, he’d get free health coverage but would have to wait on line for treatment (or he could register under an alias like Cheney and be treated immediately).
All right people. Time for Bush to go.
Click Here and let’s all send a clear message to our Representatives!
How will this work when you live in a Republican state with at least 60% support of Bush with one Repr. and one Senator being a Republican and one Democrat who is a DINO?
Bet the R’s plan their own town hall meetings to coincide with the July 23 date and use them to discredit the DSM.
America is winning the war against public enemy No. 1 – GWB and his administration:
Public isn’t buying Bush’s ‘fake reality show’
Hi, K Ols #29 – The only way to find out is to try it —– (1) it is very possible that many Repub. in your state do NOT support GWB, (2) if the Repubs. hold their own town hall meetings, they could have a smaller attendance than original "Downing Street Documents" town hall meetings. (3) The Iraq war and the DSM affect ALL Americans, regardless of any party affiliation, and generally, Americans want to be told the truth by ALL their political leaders. They will have an opportunity to hear all sides of the DSM issue at these meetings and decide for themselves.
To bad Jimo is too busy waving the flag to acknowledge the truth. Bush is a liar and a war criminal. Hitler also had fools who thought he was doing the right thing.