Bill Maher has a most interesting take on what is THE impeachable offense

[tavalon]

He says it's the seven minutes that the pResident sat in the classroom after he was told that America was under attack on 9/11. Now, I have mused in the past that Bush may have known what was coming down and that's why he didn't rush out, but Bill Maher has a different take yet. He points out that the phrase "Mr. President, America is under attack" was not enough information for Bush to choose inaction especially in the nuclear age and that had this been a nuclear attack, those seven minutes could have meant being able to prevent further attacks or at least retaliate and that by seven minutes later, in a nuclear age, it could have been all over. Therefore, in those seven minutes, he was practicing negligence that rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors.

I'd never thought of it that way.

[greccogirl]

1. Bill Maher

is an idiot. I lost all respect for him after Halloween.

[AIJ Alom]

5. Yes the costume was tasteless, but this thought on the inaction of

the president has substantial merit. Croc hunter with stingray barb aside (which he should publicly apologize for), Maher has brought to light an unimaginable scenario, one that parallels and transcends 9/11/01 in horror. In case of nuclear attack, the US would have been completely wiped out.

[durrrty libby]

8. Yes,that costume was tasteless, and the guy does

love to stir things up

All in all, is a good thimg that we have people like him

[Buzz Clik]

20. Really? Your respect for his politics is influenced by his choice of costume?

That's a tad superficial, doncha think?

[greccogirl]

21. NO. Anyone who could be that cruel

I will not waste time on.

[AIJ Alom]

2. Excellent point. If it were a nuclear attack from say Russia or China

(heaven forbid), this lame duck should not be carrying "the football". Without a shadow of a doubt, W proved this on 9/11/01. Excellent point by Maher.

[emanymton]

3. Oh All The Gibberish. Impeachment - Yes, But For Criminal Acts ...

not incompetence or being inept.

The 'seven minutes' are many things but 'high crimes and misdemeanors' they ain't!

[acmavm]

17. They are the pentultimate example of incompetence.

[murielm99]

4. He had to have known

what was coming down. And some of the people with him had to have known.

* might be stupid enough to sit around for seven minutes during a nuclear attack, but he has staff members who know better.

This is one more reason to suggest that he (they) KNEW.

[sam sarrha]

13. his brother made an executive order in FL days before preparing for terrorist attack, they had to

have known... 20 countries warned the government in the months before the attack. Italy notified the us that they had arrested terrorists that had information about the attack in computers.. just months before...

there is no doubt they knew it was coming and they knew when where and how and probably the seat numbers of the terrorists... which is why they said that if they knew ... they would have. my mother-in-law said shit like that after fucking with my life..

[sandnsea]

6. That's incompetence, not a crime

The determination to go to war is the impeachable offense. John Dean has laid it out before. Anyway, the DSM proves Bush knew Iraq wasn't a 'grave' danger, not to mention shuffling money from Afghanistan to Iraq war plans without the approval of Congress. Bush never had authorization to liberate Iraq in any manner as well. I don't know how he's gotten away with Operation Iraqi FREEDOM, Congress didn't authorize that.

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. It's called Dereliction of Duty

and yes it is a crime.

[sandnsea]

15. Some say Clinton was derelict too

Choices he made led to the 9/11 attacks, bombings were using the military to divert attention, etc etc. These kinds of things are highly subjective and would be very difficult to prove in an impeachment trial. I think Bush's behavior that day was horrible, but the collective wisdom has given him a pass. There are other things he's done that are so much more serious as to the long term well-being of this country that I think his inaction on 9/11 is a diversion. We should keep hammering away at that so people come out of this ridiculous Bush hero trance, but so much worse would never be uncovered if we were to try to impeach over reading a children's book.

[DoYouEverWonder]

16. Clinton did not sit on his hands in public

during a terrorist attack on the US while it was in progress.

In Bush's case, the dereliction of duty charge is easy to prove by the fact that he stayed at Booker Elem for over 1/2 hour after he was told about the 2nd plane and did nothing to respond to the attack while it was in progress.

Not only did Bush do nothing, but Cheney, Rumsfeld and Myers did nothing either. They all knew the attack was in progress and all of them sat on their hands until after the Pentagon was hit. Their stories about their reactions that morning are all in the public record and it is just a matter of connecting the dots.

One person not reacting might be stupidity but when all the people in the top leadership positions react the same way, then it's a conspiracy.

[sandnsea]

18. Bush planned 9/11

Yeah, go ahead and run with that. :eyes:

What-ever.

[DoYouEverWonder]

19. The PNAC planned 9-11

Bush was just their frontman.

[grasswire]

7. actually, I think it was longer than seven minutes.

He entered the classroom at 9:03, already knowing about the first WTC crash. At 9:06 he learns about the second crash. He sits there for nearly ten minutes reading with the kids. Then he goes to a back room and works on his speech. Then he goes back to the kids and makes the speech. He leaves the school after 9:30.

The very detailed timeline is available at http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_911_timeline&day_of_9/11=bush

[OneBlueSky]

10. THE question that has never been answered -- or, to my knowledge, . . .

even ASKED by any official body, is "Why the hell didn't the Secret Service hustle his ass out of there?" . . .

were they just incompetent, and failed to do their jobs? . . . not likely, given their reputation . . .

or did they KNOW that Bush was in no danger? . . . and if so, HOW did they know? . . . and WHO told them? . . .

[sam sarrha]

14. dozens of countries told us in the previous months we were go'n to be attacked by planes...they kn

in the previously 2 years 40 countries gave is information they had acquired about that attack

[Robeson]

11. That is a good point. If this had been the old days of the Soviet Union...

...vs. the U.S., we would all have been dead by that delay. So how did he know it wasn't as serious, or was going to be? Hhhmmn...:think:

[sam sarrha]

12. he was informed about the first attack on the way there, he lied when he said he saw the first plane

hit the tower in the ready room.. there was no video of the crash at that time transmitted, the stupid pilot thing was very odd.. except for the following.. I'm a pilot.. implying he wasn't stupid and was in control... that was entirely made up in advance, indicating there was involvement.. he also made the same verbal error later several times in a row indicating he had a script previous.