Will Iraqi Women fair well under the new Constitution?

As Bush has told us on several occasions one of the reasons we are in Iraq is to give rights to Iraqi women. Today the Iraqi women were allowed to vote for the new Iraq Constitution but what do they think about it and do they feel their lives will be made better because of it?

A Western official in Baghdad said Friday that the proposed constitution was "a good constitution for women, and very frankly that's something we were very insistent upon."

However, Zakiya Khalifa Zaidi, 73, a well-known actress who is now an activist said, "They call this constitution a tent, but they pulled Iraqi women out of this tent. The constitution was written in a very tense atmosphere. That's why we lost many of our rights amid the chaos."

"Women lost ground in the constitution," agreed Hajim M. Hasani, the speaker of the National Assembly.

According to two Iraqi women, Hanna Milla and Atika Muhanned Sayeed their lives will not change for the better, in fact their lives are much worse.

Milla says of her two daughters, "They have become prisoners of their own home," she said.

Was her own life better than those of her daughters? "Of course," she said.

Women "used to complain in Saddam's times," said Milla's colleague, Atika Muhanned Sayeed. "Now, after complaining, they got worse."

Neither woman has seen a copy of the draft constitution. The many amendments, made up to 72 hours before the vote, left them uncertain about just what it held for women, or what it said at all.

The dealmaking also left them deeply skeptical that political leaders would feel bound by the charter. Neither woman plans to vote on Saturday. "It's all just speeches," Sayeed said. "Just words."

Iraqi Women See Little But Darkness, WaPo

This just in...

WaPo is reporting that Rove's fourth stint before the Grand Jury with prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald was just a mere 4 1/2 hours long [ahem]. Sources say he was asked a broad range of questions such as why he did not initially tell federal agents about a July 2003 conversation about Plame with the witness, Time magazine's Matthew Cooper.

Rove's defense team asserts [once again] that he has not committed a crime [cough] but nevertheless anticipates that special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald could bring charges in the next two weeks.

On a lighter note, it would seem Judith Miller, the New York Times reporter who spent 85 days in jail for refusing to testify in the case will not be charged but was told by Fitzgerald that she'll only be called as a witness which would indicate to me someone cut a deal with the prosecutor, uh huh.

Sure hope Rove is practicing his frog walk.

For God's sake, what's it gonna take?

What in the hell is wrong with this country? A President is impeached because he lied about a blowjob and one of the most corrupt administrations in American history is given a free ride.

My God, what will it take for the American public to wake up? Each day that goes by more and more American blood is on Bush's hands. Doesn't it mean anything that Bush lied to take us into a war with Iraq which had nothing to do with 9/11?

It doesn't get much more corrupt than the Bush administration. How about Donald Rumsfeld and his lies? Then there's the Frist, Delay and Rove scandals.

As Americans it is time we did something about the corruption in the Bush Administration. It is time to indict Bush, that's what it's going to take.

Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment

Poll: Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If He Lied about Iraq

Submitted by davidswanson on Tue, 2005-10-11 12:46. Media

NOTE WELL: The After Downing Street Coalition hired Ipsos Public Affairs to do this poll. Ipsos did not sponsor the poll, but was very helpful, cooperative, and professional. Please do NOT complain to them that they did not do the poll for free. If you feel you must communicate with them, please thank them for being helpful.

For Immediate Release: October 11, 2005

Poll: Americans Favor Bush's Impeachment If He Lied about Iraq

By a margin of 50% to 44%, Americans want Congress to consider impeaching President Bush if he lied about the war in Iraq, according to a new poll commissioned by AfterDowningStreet.org, a grassroots coalition that supports a Congressional investigation of President Bush's decision to invade Iraq in 2003.

The poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, the highly-regarded non-partisan polling company. The poll interviewed 1,001 U.S. adults on October 6-9.

The poll found that 50% agreed with the statement:

"If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by impeaching him."

44% disagreed, and 6% said they didn't know or declined to answer. The poll has a +/- 3.1% margin of error.

Among those who felt strongly either way, 39% strongly agreed, while 30% strongly disagreed.

"The results of this poll are truly astonishing," said AfterDowningStreet.org co-founder Bob Fertik. "Bush's record-low approval ratings tell just half of the story, which is how much Americans oppose Bush's policies on Iraq and other issues. But this poll tells the other half of the story - that a solid plurality of Americans want Congress to consider removing Bush from the White House."

Impeachment Supported by Majorities of Many Groups

Responses varied by political party affiliation: 72% of Democrats favored impeachment, compared to 56% of Independents and 20% of Republicans.

Responses also varied by age and income. Solid majorities of those under age 55 (54%), as well as those with household incomes below $50,000 (57%), support impeachment.

Majorities favored impeachment in the Northeast (53%), West (51%), and even the South (50%).

Support for Impeachment Surged Since June

The Ipsos poll shows a dramatic transformation in support for Bush's impeachment since late June. (This is only the second poll that has asked Americans about their support for impeaching Bush in 2005, despite his record-low approval ratings.) The Zogby poll conducted June 27-29 of 905 likely voters found that 42% agreed and 50% disagreed with a statement virtually identical to the one used by Ipsos Public Affairs. (see footnote below)
________________________________________________________
_____________________Ipsos 10/8-9--Zogby 6/27-29--Net Change
Support Impeachment______50% ________42%_________+8%
Oppose Impeachment_______44%________50%_________+6%
Impeachment Margin_______+6%_________8%_________+14%

After the June poll, pollster John Zogby told the Washington Post that support for impeachment "was much higher than I expected." At the time, impeachment supporters trailed opponents by 8%. Now supporters outnumber opponents by 6%, a remarkable shift of 14%.

Support for Clinton Impeachment Was Much Lower

In August and September of 1998, 16 major polls asked about impeaching President Clinton (http://democrats.com/clinton-impeachment-polls). Only 36% supported hearings to consider impeachment, and only 26% supported actual impeachment and removal. Even so, the impeachment debate dominated the news for months, and the Republican Congress impeached Clinton despite overwhelming public opposition.

Impeachment Support is Closely Related to Belief that Bush Lied about Iraq

Both the Ipsos and Zogby polls asked about support for impeachment if Bush lied about the reasons for war, rather than asking simply about support for impeachment. Pollsters predict that asking simply about impeachment without any context would produce a large number of "I don't know" responses. However, this may understate the percentage of Americans who favor Bush's impeachment for other reasons, such as his slow response to Hurricane Katrina, his policy on torture, soaring gasoline prices, or other concerns.

Other polls show a majority of U.S. adults believe that Bush did in fact lie about the reasons for war. A June 23-26 ABC/Washington Post poll found 52% of Americans believe the Bush administration "deliberately misled the public before the war," and 57% say the Bush administration "intentionally exaggerated its evidence that pre-war Iraq possessed nuclear, chemical or biological weapons."

Support for the war has dropped significantly since June, which suggests that the percentage of Americans who believe Bush lied about the war has increased.

Passion for Impeachment is Major Unreported Story

The strong support for impeachment found in this poll is especially surprising because the views of impeachment supporters are entirely absent from the broadcast and print media, and can only be found on the Internet and in street protests, including the large anti-war rally in Washington on September 24.

The lack of coverage of impeachment support is due in part to the fact that not a single Democrat in Congress has called for impeachment, despite considerable grassroots activism by groups like Democrats.com (http://democrats.com/impeach).

"We will, no doubt, see an increase in activism following this poll," said David Swanson, co-founder of AfterDowningStreet.org. "But will we see an increase in media coverage? The media are waiting for action in Congress. Apparently it's easier to find and interview one of the 535 members of Congress than it is to locate a representative of the half of the country that wants the President impeached if he lied about the war. The media already accepts that Bush did lie about the war. We know this because so many editors and pundits told us that the Downing Street Memo was 'old news.' What we need now is journalism befitting a democracy, journalism that goes out and asks people what they really think about their government, especially George Bush."

The passion of impeachment supporters is directly responsible for the new poll commissioned by After Downing Street. After the Zogby poll in June, activists led by Democrats.com urged all of the major polling organizations to include an impeachment question in their upcoming polls. But none of the polling organizations were willing to do so for free, so on September 30, AfterDowningStreet.org posted a request for donations to fund paid polls (http://afterdowningstreet.org/polling). As of October 10, 330 individuals had contributed $8,919 in small donations averaging $27 each.

AfterDowningStreet.org has commissioned a second poll which is expected soon, and will continue to urge all polling organizations to include the impeachment question in their regular polls. If they do not, AfterDowningStreet.org will continue to commission regular impeachment polls.

Footnotes:

1. AfterDowningStreet.org is a rapidly growing coalition of veterans' groups, peace groups, and political activist groups that was created on May 26, 2005, following the publication of the Downing Street Memos in London's Sunday Times on May 1. The coalition is urging Congress to begin a formal investigation into whether President Bush committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war.

2.Here are the complete tables from the Ipsos Public Affairs poll, plus the definitions of regions used by Ipsos and the U.S. Census Bureau.

3. Zogby asked: "If President Bush did not tell the truth about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, Congress should consider holding him accountable by impeaching him through impeachment." Here are (complete tables from Zogby)

4. Pollsters have offered various reasons for refusing to poll on impeachment. For example, Gallup said it would do so "if, and when, there is some discussion of that possibility by congressional leaders, and/or if commentators begin discussing it in the news media."

Don't you just love Helen Thomas

It would seem Scott McClellan took exception with the veteran White House correspondent, Helen Thomas for questioning what Mr Bush meant by "total victory" in Iraq. Here's part of the transcript:

Q What does the President mean by "total victory" -- that we will never leave Iraq until we have "total victory"? What does that mean?

Helen Thomas veteran
White House correspondent

MR. McCLELLAN: Free and democratic Iraq in the heart of the Middle East, because a free and democratic Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will be a major blow to the ambitions --

Q If they ask us to leave, then we'll leave?

MR. McCLELLAN: I'm trying to respond. A free and democratic Iraq in the heart of the broader Middle East will be a major blow to the ambitions of al Qaeda and their terrorist associates. They want to establish or impose their rule over the broader Middle East -- we saw that in the Zawahiri letter that was released earlier this week by the intelligence community.

Q They also know we invaded Iraq.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, Helen, the President recognizes that we are engaged in a global war on terrorism. And when you're engaged in a war, it's not always pleasant, and it's certainly a last resort. But when you engage in a war, you take the fight to the enemy, you go on the offense. And that's exactly what we are doing. We are fighting them there so that we don't have to fight them here. September 11th taught us --

Q It has nothing to do with -- Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11.

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, you have a very different view of the war on terrorism, and I'm sure you're opposed to the broader war on terrorism. The President recognizes this requires a comprehensive strategy, and that this is a broad war, that it is not a law enforcement matter.

I don't know what anyone else might think but it sure sounds to me like Scottie is accusing Helen of supporting terrorism. Which just goes to show once again that if you question Bush about the War in Iraq you must be for terrorism.

To read the official transcript: