Where else but Venice, California, would you go to hear an outraged crank argue for indicting the sitting president of the United States for murder in a gymnasium packed to the gills with wild-eyed radicals cheering his every charge?

Which is exactly what we did this past Wednesday, except the crank was no crank, but rather the world-famous former district attorney and best-selling author Vincent Bugliosi, and more than a few radicals in the audience looked to have day jobs and mortgages to pay.

As Linda Milazzo reported recently, Bugliosi-the noted Manson Family prosecutor-was in town to promote his latest book, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder-what he calls a “practical, nuts and bolts blueprint” that he hopes some state or local district attorney will follow to make George Bush pay for his crimes. Bugliosi is sending letters and copies of his book to prosecutors around the country, offering his own pro bono services as anything from bookkeeper to lead prosecutor.

Organized by the Progressive Democrats of Los Angeles and hosted by PDA-LA president Marcy Winograd, the extended book signing drew over 200 to the Venice Center for Peace & Justice in the Arts. A few audience members looked to be straight out of the sixties-albeit a good deal grayer upstairs and broader in the midrift-but many could pass for the teachers, budget analysts, and regular Janes and Joes they mostly were.

Bugliosi’s basic point is that if George Bush took America to war under false pretenses, “he is criminally culpable for the deaths of the 4,000 American servicemen who have been killed in Iraq as well the 100,000 or more Iraqi men, women, and children who have died as result of that war.”

It isn’t enough that Bush and his cohorts blundered us into invading Iraq on intelligence reports they had misread. No, they had to know that they were lying to the American people about their reasons for launching the invasion.

To support his contention that the Bush Administration did knowingly take us into war under false pretenses, Bugliosi cited a CIA assessment of the threat Sadaam Hussein’s Iraq posed to America’s safety and the Manning Memo, a report of a meeting between George Bush, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, and their top aides during the run-up to the Iraq invasion.

Bugliosi points out that the CIA assessment clearly stated that Hussein posed no threat to our country unless he was attacked. “But just days after receiving that report,” Bugliosi said, “Bush told the nation the exact opposite of what the CIA was telling him.” The public version of that report was scrubbed of this observation when it was later released, a further indication that Bush and his advisors knew precisely what they were doing.

Not as well known as the similar but weaker Downing Street Memo, the Manning Memo reports that “Bush was so worried about UN inspectors not finding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that he started talking about ways to provoke Hussein into a war, including by flying U2 spy missions over Iraq,” according to Bugliosi. At that point, UN weapons inspector Hans Blix was reporting that his inspectors were able to perform professional, no-notice inspections anyplace in Iraq. “Hussein’s government was being proactively helpful, according to Blix,” Bugliosi related.

Based on his years of successful prosecutions-105 successful prosecutions without a loss-Bugliosi charged that no innocent person would look for those kinds of excuses in those circumstances. “There is no answer to the Manning Memo but guilt,” he said.

Bugliosi contends that his effort is a nonpartisan one and that he would equally call for the indictment of a Democratic president under the same circumstances.

Asked why he would risk his reputation on such a quixotic venture-he claims to be virtually blacklisted by nearly every mainstream television talk show, which were so happy to see him on previous book tours (including the purportedly left-leaning ones)-he says he has been in a state of rage set in motion especially by Bush’s cavalier attitude about the destruction he has wrought.

As one egregious example, Bugliosi cited Bush’s infamous “perfect day” quote when the carnage in Iraq was at a fever pitch:

“I’m gonna have lunch with Secretary of State Rice, take a little nap, I’m reading an Elmore Leonard book right now – knock off a little Elmore Leonard this afternoon – go fishing with my man Barney [his dog], have a light dinner, then head for the ball game. So it’s a perfect day.”

As to how Bush might defend himself-along with Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condolezza Rice, and any others who were in on the lies-against this murder charge, Bugliosi offered only the defense suggested by the late 20th Century philosopher Richard Pryor on the occasion of being caught by his wife in bed with another woman:

“Who you gonna believe, me or your lyin’ eyes?”

By Dick Price & Sharon Kyle

Editor and Publisher, LA Progressive

www.laprogressive.com

Recent articles by Dick & Sharon

Indicting Bush in Venice

http://www.laprogressive.com/2…

Barack’s Sister Brings the Heat to El Sereno

http://www.laprogressive.com/2…

Have We Forgotten About Iraq?

http://www.laprogressive.com/2…

The Love of a Gay Man

http://www.laprogressive.com/2…

In a letter to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club, Sen. Barack Obama stated his opposition to the California constitutional amendment. As far as I know, this is the first official mention of such a position.

Incidentally, the Alice Pride Breakfast was an amazing success. I’ll have pictures up from the Alice Breakfast and Leno Pride 2008 up soon.

Check the letter out over the flip…

Dear Friends,

Thank you for the opportunity to welcome everyone to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club’s Pridc Breakfast and to congratulate you on continuing a legacy of success, stretching back thirty-six years. As one of the oldest and most influential LGBT organizations in the country, you have continually rallied to support Democratic candidates and causes, and have fought tirelessly to secure equal rights and opportunities for LGBT Americans in California and throughout the country.

As the Democratic nominee for President, I am proud to join with and support the LGBT community in an effort to set our nation on a course that recognizes LGBT Americans with full equality under the law. That is why I support extending fully equal rights and benefits to same sex couples under both state and federal law. That is why I support repealing the Defense of Marriage Act and the “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy, and the passage of laws to protect LGBT Americans from hate crimes and employment discrimination. And that is why I oppose the divisive and discriminatory efforts to amend the California Constitution, and similar efforts to amend the U.S. Constitution or those of other states.

For too long. issues of LGBT rights have been exploited by those seeking to divide us. It’s time to move beyond polarization and live up to our founding promise of equality by treating all our citizens with dignity and respect. This is no less than a core issue about who we are as Democrats and as Americans.

Finally, I want to congratulate all of you who have shown your love for each other by getting married these last few weeks. My thanks again to the Alice B. Toklas LGBT Democratic Club for allowing me to be a part of today’s celebration. I look forward to working with you in the coming months and years, and I wish you all continued success.

Sincerely,

s

Barack Obama

When Arnold Schwarzenegger was tapped to be one of the guests on Tom Brokaw’s first episode moderating Meet The Press, I’m sure he thought it would be the same lazy, glorifying interview that he always gets from a national media that has no idea how he’s governing the state of California and simply knows him from his box-office receipts and magazine covers.  These were the principles that guided someone like Tim Russert, who wasn’t at all balanced when interviewing Republicans, and especially someone like Schwarzenegger, who let that slip in this rememberance of the late NBC host:

…Governor, you were the guest of Tim Russert several times.

GOV. ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R-CA): Several times, and he always did great interviews with a lot of humor, tough questions, but we had a great time, and I really miss him, I have to say that. And he was–I remember when I ran for governor, he called me, and he says, “If you make that, if you win, then I will take care of the rest.” And I said, “What are you talking about?” And he says, “I will get you to run for president. I will make sure that we change the Constitution.” Well, it never happened, but anyway, I miss him very much.

Nice role for a journalist, to assure politicians that he will personally interfere to amend the Constitution in their favor.

But Brokaw actually did his homework a bit, and the difference between a Russert interview and this one was evident in the very next question.

MR. BROKAW: When you ran for governor in 2003, you ran as a fiscal conservative who would change the system. You would bring businesslike techniques. Now you’re facing a $15 billion deficit here in California. Unemployment is running at about 6.8 percent. You’ve got the worst housing crisis since the Great Depression. If you were the CEO of a public company, the board would probably say, “It’s time to go.”

GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: Are you always that positive?

Man, you have to see the video for the look on Arnold’s face when he realized this wouldn’t be a junket.  Priceless.

Inexplicably, Schwarzenegger defended his record by talking about how he “was able to bring Democrats and Republicans together.”  Hmm, I must have been asleep for the past several years when he managed that.

The rest of the interview goes downhill from there.  Evan Halper has a good recap.  Arnold must have been THRILLED when Brokaw moved on to the Presidential race.  It’s particularly amusing when he laments that politicians in Washington can’t get anything done.  That’s right, it’s just the politicians in WASHINGTON that are the problem.

Amazing how the tenor of the interview changes when the interviewer makes the bold step of being prepared.  Arnold never knew what hit him.

This will be a short diary, since it’s more a request for information than a source of it.

While today’s weather in much of Northern California is cooler (especially here on the Central Coast), as of this morning, Cal Fire lists 29 uncontained, major fires (PDF) as of 7AM this morning.  And with these fires, we are getting large amounts of fine particulates in the air.

Though the Bay Area Air Quality Management District has no plans yet to lift its health advisory, weather forecasters are predicting ocean breezes will start clearing out the haze Monday. Children, the elderly and people with heart and lung diseases are advised to limit outdoor activities.

The district issues alerts when airborne particulate levels are expected to exceed federal standards, an average of 35 parts per million over eight hours. Friday’s preliminary average in San Jose was 42 ppm, with levels peaking at 65 ppm, said air district spokesman Jim Smith. Saturday saw considerable improvement, with a preliminary average of 24 ppm, he said. Still, that’s nearly five times the reading a year ago of 5 ppm.

This is important news, but the catch is this: I’m finding it hard to get up-to-date information on whether this alert is still on, or what areas it affects. Anybody have better info?

Here’s a bit more information concerning the health risks, from a post up on KSBW’s site:

Air pollution readings in Northern California were two to 10 times the federal standard for clean air, said Dimitri Stanich, spokesman for the California Air Resources Board. Some areas experienced the worst air quality on record, with the smoke hanging like a fog down to ground level.

Air quality agencies from Bakersfield to Redding are especially concerned about high readings of small-particle pollution. The tiniest particles can penetrate past the body’s immune defenses, traveling deep into the lungs and into the bloodstream.

“When you have it on the scale we are seeing now, it is very dangerous to the general public health,” Stanich said. “This is a very serious problem.”

Stanich advised people to stay inside and keep physical activity to a minimum. Children, the elderly and people with heart and lung problems are particularly vulnerable, but pollution levels are high enough to affect healthy adults.

Health officials have reported an increase in people complaining of eye and throat irritation and coughing. The poor air can also trigger asthma attacks and bronchitis.

They said surgical masks, wet cloths and bandanas are not enough to filter the smoke. Only N95- and P100-rated masks filter out the smallest and most dangerous particles.

Some veterinary offices said pet owners were bringing in dogs and cats with symptoms ranging from weepy eyes and irritated skin to difficulty breathing or unusual lethargy. Vets were advising that pets remain inside until the smoke clears.

Here in Santa Cruz, the air does not seem all that bad, although the color of the sky is “off” somehow. But there is very little up-to-date info to find out how bad the risk is out here.  It would be nice to know, based on the above articles.