The Hightower Report

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IMPEACH BUSH?

With that twisted macho smirk of his, George W. keeps telling us that he's "a war president." So, how's the chief doing? Let's do Bush by the numbers:

•Official count of American troops killed so far in his war of lies in Iraq: 1,965 and rising daily

•Official count of those wounded: 14,755

•Number of weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq: 0

•Total tax dollars thrown into his Iraq war so far, counting the latest $50-billion payment: $260 billion

•Number of Bush daughters, nephews, and nieces who are of prime enlistment age: 10

•Number of Bush family members who've enlisted in his war: 0

•Percentage of Americans who think the Bushites "deliberately misled the public" in order to go to war in Iraq: 52%

•Percentage who now approve of his handling of the war: 32%

None of these are good numbers for the "war president," but there's an even more startling statistic that the establishment media has deliberately failed to report to you – the percentage of Americans who now want Congress to consider impeaching Bush if he lied about his reasons for invading Iraq: 50%!

This new data from Ipsos Public Affairs, the highly regarded, nonpartisan polling company, shows a stunning surge in grassroots support for removing George W. from the White House. It's even more remarkable considering that the media barons have provided zero coverage of the burgeoning sentiment for impeachment. Likewise, not a single congressional Democrat has stepped forward to support what is fast becoming a majority opinion of the people.

The political and media establishment can hide the numbers, but they can't hide for long from the sentiment. To learn more, go to www.afterdowningstreet.org.

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THE REPUBLIC OF OIL

They say you can't squeeze blood out of a turnip, but you can squeeze oil out of a Congress.

Republican leaders and oil industry lobbyists recently squeezed a very oily piece of legislation out of a bare majority of House members – but only by applying every bit of political muscle they have. Using this year's Gulf Coast hurricanes as their excuse, the big oil refiners were demanding new tax breaks and an exemption from some anti-pollution requirements so they could increase the flow of gasoline through their refineries.

At a time when ExxonMobil and the other giants are raking in so much in rip-off profits that they have to use forklifts to make bank deposits, this demand struck most lawmakers as ... well, crude. Still, the White House and GOP leaders never met an oil bill too stinky to hug, so they pushed it onto the floor for passage.

But, amazingly, all of the House Democrats and several Republicans suddenly discovered their backbones. Rising up on their hind legs, a slim majority of members stunned the leadership by voting "No" to the giveaway, pointing out that it would fatten Big Oil while doing absolutely nothing to lower pump prices for the little guy.

That's when the squeeze came. The vote was scheduled to take five minutes, but when all those "No" votes lit up the tally board, the leaders violated their own rules by refusing to gavel the vote closed. Instead of five minutes, the vote stayed open almost 50 minutes, while the leaders leapt onto the floor to beg and browbeat wayward Republicans. Tom DeLay jumped on one, Speaker Dennis Hastert cornered another, and general pandemonium broke out – until they finally got three members to switch their votes, squeezing out a 212-210 victory for the refiners.

As this legislative farce was exploding across the floor, one Democrat shouted, "Doesn't this make the House a banana republic?"

No ... it makes it an oil republic.