how a swarm looks to a bee

the backs of other bees

I never heard of a 'blogswarm' until yesterday, and now we are one.  Night Light is following the lead of other bloggers who are swarming on the issue of  potentially impeachable conduct by President Bush regarding the War in Iraq.   AfterDowningStreet.org is leading the pack (er, swarm), and Shakespeare' Sister has organized Big Brass Alliance, a confederation of bloggers who are working (live! and ...) in concert to pursue the impeachability question.  You see, much to our surprise, the mainstream media has failed to pursue this story, despite the reams of information provided by Paul O'Neill and later by the Downing Street Memo.

A number of lefty bloggers have joined Big Brass Alliance so far.  Some of the big guys like Atrios, Daily Kos, Political Animal, and Talking Points Memo are conspicuously absent.  I wonder why.   Daily Kos is, however, covering the story of John Conyers' petition drive seeking an inquiry, as is Raw Story.   I haven't checked all the others, but I imagine they are too.

In a sec I'll let Shakespeare's Sis tell you more about it.   The part that I'm still trying to compute is the little-reported revelation that Tony Blair had to pressure Bush to attack al-Qaeda and Afghanistan at all.   Bush was so eager to get Saddam, that he apparently didn't even want to bother going after the guys who actually attacked us.   Blair had to hammer him on the issue, according to the public account of the U.K.'s then-ambassador to the US, Sir Christopher Meyer.   

Meyer also implied there was a quid pro quo:    Bush would only attack Afghanistan and Bin Laden if Blair promised to help in Iraq.  (from a Salon article by Juan Cole)  And John Kerry managed to lose to Bush on the national security issue anyway, despite the fact that some of this information was already available.

There's more info.  Tell' em, Sis:

1. After Downing Street is a Coalition of veterans' groups, peace groups, and political activist groups, which launched ... a campaign to urge the U.S. Congress to begin a formal investigation into whether President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war. The campaign focuses on evidence that recently emerged in a British memo containing minutes of a secret July 2002 meeting with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top national security officials.

2. The name is a reference to the Downing Street Memo, a British memo recently made public in the London Times, which contained the minutes of a secret July 2002 meeting between British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his top national security officials.

3. After Downing Street reports: In response to the release of the memo, “John Bonifaz, a Boston attorney specializing in constitutional litigation, sent a memo to Congressman John Conyers of Michigan, the Ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, urging him to introduce a Resolution of Inquiry directing the House Judiciary Committee to launch a formal investigation into whether sufficient grounds exist for the House to impeach President Bush. Bonifaz's memo ... begins: ‘The recent release of the Downing Street Memo provides new and compelling evidence that the President of the United States has been actively engaged in a conspiracy to deceive and mislead the United States Congress and the American people about the basis for going to war against Iraq. If true, such conduct constitutes a High Crime under Article II, Section 4 of the United States Constitution.’"

Do what you can.  Let's hope this story is beginning to gain some momentum.   I hate cliches, especially this one, but let's hope this is a 'tipping point.'    Help us push it until it tips.  Please sign the petition. If you've got a blog, please get on board the Alliance.  If you don't, get one.  There's never been a better time to be in the truth-telling business.

Comments

[jillian]

bzzzzzzz! =^..^=