Affleck: Bush 'Can Be Hung' for Leakgate

NewsMax ^ | 4/8/06 | NewsMax

[wagglebee]

Actor Ben Affleck has made it very clear where his sympathies lie in the Leakgate affair -- and it isn't with the White House.

Appearing on HBO's "Real Time with Bill Maher," Affleck charged that President Bush "probably also leaked” CIA agent Valerie Plame's name and so "if he did, you can be hung for that! That's treason!” He continued: "You could be killed. That's not a joking around Tom DeLay 'I'll do a year, I bribed the state officials with corporate money.' That's like they shoot you in the battlefield for doing that.”

Affleck also called DeLay a "criminal."

[Mo1]

Is Affleck saying the President should be shot?

Hey Affleck ... any chance you thought you might have in politics ... is now over

[armymarinemom]

Let me guess. He isn't a lawyer but he may have played one on TV or maybe he just slept at a Holidy Inn.

[doesnt suffer fools gladly]

The only leak is Affleck's leaky brain.

[HHFi]

I clicked on this thread solely to find out if it really referred to Ben Affleck. I thought it had to be some other person named Affleck, because why would anyone care enough about the opinion of Ben Affleck on any serious subject, let alone the intricacies of treason law, to write it down? He's barely qualified to offer an opinion on acting.

It does, at least, give me an opening to toss out an idea I had recently to explain why so many of the rabid nutzoid left keep jumping up and down and thinking Bush is going to be impeached, imprisoned, "hung," etc. I believe it all goes back to the 2000 election, and their psychological inability to accept the fact that Bush won. Note all the bumper stickers they slap on their Volvos: "Reelect Gore," "Bush is not my president," "I didn't vote the son of a Bush," etc. Or the way they think they have the right to accost him, threaten him, or demand meetings with him at their convenience.

Since they can't wrap their tiny brains around the concept that Bush really is the President of the United States, they keep judging him by the standards of a private citizen. For instance, if a private citizen revealed classified information, he would be in trouble. But if a president does it, it's not an illegal leak, it is a declassification of information, because the president has the power to do that. He's not just a guy from Texas that Ben Affleck hates worse than reading his own reviews, he's the head of the third branch of government. He is not subserviant to the courts and Congress in the same way a private citizen would be because that would screw up the balance of powers.

If you look at it that way, you'll understand why they keep running off on these quixotic crusades to sue Bush or have him arrested for not running all his command decisions past a judge. Or you could just assume they're nuts, and that would suffice, too.

[doesnt suffer fools gladly]

Good analysis. I also think the seething hatred stems from 2000...of course with some residual hate from Clinton's impeachment.

[old republic]

Under the current legal practice, the President has the authority to declassify information. If the President declassifies it, he is not breaking the law because the information is no longer classified. In order to be illegal, information which is leaked must be categorized as classified. If the President did declassify information in this case, though, it may been politically stupid, les to leak it but it is not treason unless it meets the Constitutional definition of Impeachment in Article III sec.3 of the US Cosntitution which reads:

Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort.

Unless the President's actions reasonably can be said to amount to any of the above, then his actions cannot be accurately called treason under a strict Constitutional definition.

[woofie]

I kinda like the they is nuts explanation but yours is very good.....

[HawaiianGecko]

Is this guy on crack or what?

Affleck has to understand the truth about this. Anyone that can even reasonably think critically has to understand this isn't a leak; from both the technical standpoint (President can de-classify anything on a moment's notice) and even more so from the position that this has absolutely nothing to do with Valerie Plame.

Disinformation from J. Wilson was simply being discredited with declassified truth. Hell, the information declassified wasn't anything that would have been detrimental to the security of the U.S. even if it would have been given to the public before the war began.

One has to come to the conclusion that Affleck, Mahr and their ilk are simply spreading propaganda and horrendous lies and quite simply are getting away with it because the American public is really quite stupid.

 

[RebelTex]

BLOOOOONNNNNNDDDDDDIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEEE!

[Atchafalaya]

Affleck was a spectater. The [message] was made when Sammons stated that after ordering the start of the war Bush went out and walked on a track for a time. He was asked what he had done and he said he was praying. Biden used the anecdote and other acecdotals to formulate that Bush shoots from gut feelings, makes a decision, and then goes and prays that God lets him get it right; Maher creamed, Gigli clapped after the audience beat him to it. He later told Biden " I finally understand it"
Biden says he's running. Remember how Affflec was talking how hot the Kerry girls were (LOL). I'll put 50 that Garner will dump this dork in 5.

[Brian Allen]

<< when's the next "Borne" flick hitting the theaters? >>

Dunno but they can have my Nickel. Matt was pretty cool (Particularly when compared to Borne number one, the woosy pooftah, Richard Chamberlain) and I enjoyed his performance. But Franka Potente carried the Identity remake and for my money they jumped the shark when they whacked her right at the beginning of number two.

[PeskyOne]

He needs to take acting lessons before he tries to act again. His ignorance has been showing in his personal life as well as his political persuasion. Maybe he could be summed up as just "plain ignorant"!

[Junior_G]

Wishful thinking from another Hollywood puke.

[RayChuang88]

And you wonder why people don't like the mutterings of the Hollywood Left.

[jazusamo]

[Maybe he could be summed up as just "plain ignorant"!]

I'm sure you got it more right than I did. :-)

[MarkL]

Bennifer and Mahar on the same show? If not for a movie of the title, the perfect name for the TV show would be called "Dumb and Dumber, the TV show!"

Mark

[rlmorel]

LOL! Beat me to it!!!

[MarkL]

Hey Ben, shut up and act.

Here, let me fix that for you...

Hey Ben, shut up and act take some acting lessons.

There. That's better.

Mark

[OKIEDOC]

Affleck is just another big loud ignorant Hollywood mouth.

For a guy who can't act he should be careful about alienating movie goers.

He may just need a few ticket buying conservatives to save some of the less than stellar bombs he's appeared in.

[MarkL]

Whereas Affleck couldn't be hung without major reconstructive surgery.

Oh, I don't know... "Hennifer" really seemed to like him in that South Park episode.

Mark