DSM Hearing Report

Shakepeare's Sister has a play-by-play of the Downing Street Minutes meeting that occurred today on Capitol Hill. I heard it in the car on C-SPAN radio. If you get a chance, check it out on C-SPAN 2 tomorrow night at 8PM EDT--or for you impatient folk or those who actually have something better to do on Friday nights, go to C-SPAN's web site for the video. There were some startling new revelations by a former CIA analyst and some heartrending testimony by a woman whose son was killed in action in Iraq. The head of AfterDowningStreet.org and the former Ambassador to Iraq also testified.

I was surprised how many times the word "impeachment" came up in such polite society. I, for one, have heard enough to want more investigation into whether the Bush Administration, and the President and VP in particular, knowingly misled the Congress and the American people into a devastating war, the end of which is nowhere in sight.

After the meeting, Rep. John Conyers met his supporters in Lafayette Park and marched over to deliver his letter to President Bush, onto which over 565,000 Americans and 120 U.S. Representatives signed. Yep, over half a million people want the President to answer a few basic questions:

1)Do you or anyone in your administration dispute the accuracy of the leaked document?
2) Were arrangements being made, including the recruitment of allies, before you sought Congressional authorization to go to war? Did you or anyone in your Administration obtain Britain's commitment to invade prior to this time?
3) Was there an effort to create an ultimatum about weapons inspectors in order to help with the justification for the war as the minutes indicate?
4) At what point in time did you and Prime Minister Blair first agree it was necessary to invade Iraq?
5) Was there a coordinated effort with the U.S. intelligence community and/or British officials to "fix" the intelligence and facts around the policy as the leaked document states?
6) What is your major malfunction, numbnuts? Didn't your Mommy and Daddy show you enough attention when you were a child?

Okay, I added the last one, on account'a having watched Full Metal Jacket on Memorial Day.