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Re: Just revisited Vicfar's review... (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Thanks, talyseon. I'm working on it.
Meanwhile, don't neglect to watch Representative Kucinich present the Articles of Impeachment to the House Judiciary Committee, tomorrow morning (Friday, July 25, 2008). The Hearing will be carried on Cspan. The word is that former Democratic Lion, Chairman John Conyers, will give the evidence short shrift. And that raises the question, does a proposed Federal investigation of his wife's activities on the Detroit City Council have anything to do with his change in tone?
If so, that should really raise a righteous fire storm.
Keep those phone calls and Email going to the Committee!
Alex
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Jul 24 '08
1:08 pm PDT
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Just revisited Vicfar's review... (Reply to this comment)
by talyseon
which led me over here. I don't revisit reviews too often, but your review here is such a useful reference.
We need something new from you. Give us some good scathe, man.
Cheers!
Talyseon.
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Jul 23 '08
11:20 am PDT
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Re: Re: Re: Quick comment... (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
The important thing, Jennifer, is that you make those calls to the Judiciary Committee. The day after you left this last comment, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who happens to my Representative in Congress, announced under some pressure evidently that John Conyers' Committee would take up Representative Dennis Kucinich's proposals to Impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick ChEney! She predicted that the matter would never reach the Floor, but that hearings would probably be held.
Keep phoning. We can maybe change that, too.
Regards.
Alex
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Jul 12 '08
11:54 am PDT
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Re: Re: Quick comment... (Reply to this comment)
by jenniferkateab
LOL :)) ~~J
Not that it matters much ~ I'm just a stickler for the minutiae...
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Jul 08 '08
5:04 pm PDT
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Re: Quick comment... (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Thank you, Jennifer: The comment should probably prompt me to make a hundred typo corrections on Our Vice-President's name.
Reminds me (and should remind me); I understand that the family refer to themselves in their inner circle as The 'Cheen-ees.
Thanks for the reminder.
Alex
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Jul 08 '08
11:10 am PDT
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Quick comment... (Reply to this comment)
by jenniferkateab
A timely topic that seems to be brushed under the rug in the mainstream news. At least, I haven't seen this covered, even on PBS nightly report.
An easier problem to fix ~ you might want to correct your typo and change Chaney to Cheney...
Best,
Jennifer
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Jul 07 '08
8:29 pm PDT
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Re: what a mess (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Thanks very much, Jan. You give us the state of the nation very purely and clearly.
If enough of us Email and petition, perhaps we shall attract the attention of a few more brave souls.
Short of reaching for our pitchforks, that is all we can do in a democracy.
Alex
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Jun 18 '08
10:29 am PDT
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Re: Re: Re: Follow-up (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Vic, while you may be right on several essential points, you are wrong on the process.
The Democratic Party HAS been slightly to the right of center (in the sense of any modern Western democratic system) since the 1970'a; it hasn't been left of center since the assassinations of the 1960's, and that shift to the right accelerated with the coming of the Nixon, then the Reagan administrations. You are also quite right that the Democratic Leadership, especially with a slim to none majority in the Congress, is very cautious, fairly well cowed by any suggestion that they are really for reform to benefit the majority of ordinary folk, far less wild-eyed "socialists" who might want to institute a simple, workable national health plan, or bring to justice the most wasteful, criminal, treasonous Administration in American history.
In other words, like the Bush Gang themselves, the Democratic Leadership are saying, "Let's take it easy, guys. Maybe we can sort this out after the next election." The problem is that we never sorted out what the assassinations or Watergate were really all about, never learned a clue from Iran-Contra, failed to question at all why our Muslim Man in the Middle East (Saddam) was so bold in initiating the Gulf War. After the 2008 Election, unless action is taken now, both Democrats and Republicans will tend to say: "Time to move on. Old news. We're in a war with Iran. Iraq and Afghanistan have fallen apart again. The economy is in the tank. You want us to indict one hundred officials of the Bush Administration for squandering over five trillion dollars on various boondoggles, much of it never accounted for. ARE YOU NUTS? LET'S GET REAL, CITIZEN!"
That's why what Dennis Kucinich did was so admirable. He stood up to the leaders of both parties, and made the case NOW that the Leadership begin to lay out the evidence for the kind of cases that an Attorney General like John Edwards just might be unable to ignore, when he straightens up his desk at the Justice Department in January 2009.
Under House rules, Representative Kucinich moved that his motion be referred to the House Judiciary Committee. There it joins his previous bill of particulars to impeach Vice President Dick Chaney. Kucinich did the only thing he could do. You misunderstand the Rules of the House, Vic, if you think that he could simply have stood up like a Jimmy Stewart, and asked his fellow Representatives to drop the Speaker's agenda, and take up these much needed impeachments.
If Kucinich is "insincere" and "a demagogue," he certainly was not going about his chicanery properly in these matters. Nothing could infuriate the Democratic Leadership more than to have Kucinich make it look as if they were suggesting the depth of the Bush Administration's depravity, before the Convention, before the Campaign, before the Election, before Barack Obama becomes President.
And yet, the Judiciary Committee will draw on these motions for evidentiary leads when they begin to heavily investigate the connection of the fired Federal Prosecutors to Attorney General Gonzales, Vice President Dick Chaney and President George W. Bush, and the hundred closest legislative friends of Lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
That, if we're lucky, will be the start of investigations into the Big Money, the monstrous crimes; and actions which will send these thieves and perps to the Big House. If not, as you fear, we shall continue to sink into the disastrous sinkhole of fascism in America.
If it works, Dennis Kucinich will be "a profile in courage."
If not, he will be regarded as the disingenuous fool you suggest, and George W. Bush, after his adoption of Catholicism, will confess his sins, be absolved of his sins, and as Old Europe crusades into the Middle East, no matter the consequences, he will have his name put in for sainthood.
The Republican reactionary agenda will have reached the Eleventh Century, at last.
Wait and see how it comes out, Vic.
Alex
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Jun 18 '08
1:02 am PDT
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what a mess (Reply to this comment)
by jankp
I don't know how this is ever get cleaned up. The country changed so much after 9/11 and it may not recover unless citizens stop being apathetic. Thanks for writing this. I'll email them.
Jan
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Jun 16 '08
11:44 pm PDT
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Re: Re: Follow-up (Reply to this comment)
by vicfar
Alex,
the way I read the news (I may be wrong), the House did not approve the bill, it simply deferred it to the Judiciary Committee, which is tantamount to killing it. Kucinich voted to kill his own bill. From what I read about Kucinich, I doubt his sincerity, and I suspect demagogy. The Democrats have no intention of undermining the absolute power of the White House as an institution, because they also favor the shift away from Democracy that is now taking shape in America at the speed of light.
I may be cynical, but I think only an armed revolution could change the situation. There is little doubt that a majority of Americans would like to see Bush impeached, yet there is no political movement that is actually going in that direction. To echo the late Jean Baudrillard, what you have in the US right now is "the simulation of a democracy" with Kucinich playing the head clown.
I hope I am wrong.
Vic
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Jun 15 '08
4:15 am PDT
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Re: Follow-up (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
LOL, as some like to say.
Keep those Emails, cards and phone calls going to the Judiciary Committee:
Committee Phone: 202-225-3951
John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI) Chair 202-225-5126
Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) 202-225-5635
Melvin L. Watt (D-NC) 202-225-1510
Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) 202-225-3072
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) 202-225-7931
Howard Coble (R-NC) 202-225-3065
Trent Franks (R-AZ) 202-225-4576
Keep your eye on Dennis Kucinich's opposite number: Ron Paul. He is about to stir up some good Patriotic trouble.
Alex
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Jun 12 '08
4:49 pm PDT
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Follow-up (Reply to this comment)
by Stephen_Murray
is un-American. It is possible to be too preoccupied by the past (the Balkans), but amnesia is a condition of choice in the US. I would extradite Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice (and Kissinger) to the Hague to stand trial, but we are unlikely to get even something like the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions of South Africa. It IS difficult to have a meaninful sentence with "Bush" and "truth" in it.
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Jun 12 '08
2:30 pm PDT
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Re: gas tax vacation (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
We appear to be in full agreement, Stephen.
As I've noted in an update to my Epinion, yesterday, Representative Kucinich had a vote of the House to move his Impeach Bush resolution to the House Judiciary Committee, where it joins one he proposed against Vice President Dick Chaney last year. Now it is our job to Email the members of that Committee, and its former lion of a Chairman, John Conyers, again and again and again, so that they at least move on the charges contained within the resolution.
Tedious, disheartening business, but the only way we are going to insure that there will be follow-up on the crimes of the Bush Administration after November.
Regards.
Alex
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Jun 12 '08
1:09 pm PDT
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gas tax vacation (Reply to this comment)
by Stephen_Murray
That suspending the gas tax will do nothing to reduce dependence in the US on foreign oil even W recognizes. Given the condition of US highways (the recipient of gas tax revenue), the tax is needed.
Of course, Bush (and most Americans) have done nothing to increase fuel efficiency, something that would now be saving drivers money.
As for the "windfall" tax, it seems to me that the demand for oil on the world market is what has driven prices up, not the major US oil companies reducing the flow of oil. Again, using less is the solution.
Bush and Cheney are IMO guilty of multiple high crimes and misdemeanors, but the tax on gasoline at the pump long predated them (not to mention that the state tax here is higher than the federal one...)
Finally, passing bills is one thing Congress does. Defending the Constitution (and, indeed, rights that predated it, such as the right of habeas corpus that was forced on King John at the time of the Magna Charta) is a more important business of Congress, one that it has shirked ever since Sandra Day O'Connor and other GOP appointees to the Supreme Court installed Bush and Cheney in the most flagrant instance of "judicial activism" and disregard for the legendary "original intent" so often touted by McCain et al. in American history.
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Jun 12 '08
12:15 pm PDT
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Re: Incisive essay, Alex... (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Precisely, Vic.
But we must keep after them.
At the very least, all the evidence should be gathered, and everyone warranting prosecution in the Bush-Chaney Gang who has not lit out for Paraguay should be indicted. If they can't be reached, they should be hounded around the World like a school of Moby Dick's!
Dennis Kucinich is one of the few Democrats who has truly been a representative of his constituents and America.
Thank you for the praise.
Alex
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Jun 11 '08
11:14 pm PDT
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Re: I just (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Thanks, Barbara: Much appreciated.
But, please, keep after our representatives to uphold the Constitution.
Alex
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Jun 11 '08
11:08 pm PDT
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Incisive essay, Alex... (Reply to this comment)
by vicfar
Some would go even further with Bush...Bugliosi has written a book arguing that he should be tried for murder and executed. Unfortunately, it won't happen.
Americans should really reflect on the colossal failure of their political system. An administration out of control, and none of the checks and balances used against it. I accuse the Democrats of political opportunism, the US press of complicity, and the American people of undying jingoism temperate by the usual dose of ignorance.
Luckily, there is still someone in the US who can see reality for what it is. More power to him! Perhaps Hollywood will make a film on him in 20 years, when Bush is officially consigned to infamy and everyone is too old to remember that they actually voted for him.
Peace
Vic
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Jun 11 '08
10:52 pm PDT
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I just (Reply to this comment)
by ifif1938
wanted to say thank you....
Barbara
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Jun 11 '08
6:14 pm PDT
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Re: Meahwhile yesterday the corporate oil tax failed.. (Reply to this comment)
by macresarf1
Dear rgathright: I also lament that the "windfall profits" oil tax failed. However . . . a couple of points:
The oil tax bill was in the Senate. Dennis Kucinich is in the House. The Senate vote was 51-43, with only six Republicans voting in the affirmative. Under the rather screwy compromise forced when the Republicans were last in control, a bill must have a sixty vote majority or it is not sent to the President. Whether we are talking about the incredible profits of the Oil Companies or the unprecedented war profiteering, incompetence, and criminality of the Bush Administration, nothing will really get done until ten more Democratic Senators are elected in November.
That to one side, if we do not hold the Bush Administration accountable for their crimes and violations of the Constitution now, after November, all will be "forgotten." That means that the pattern established by Watergate and Iran-Contra will continue. The next time, it may not be a Republican but a Democratic President who decides that he is really the Emperor of the New American Empire. Eventually, that means the United States and probably Mankind will be destroyed.
Representative Kucinich was telling truth to power, and in my opinion, he should be commended for it.
Thank you, rgathright, for your response.
[Macresarf1]
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Jun 11 '08
11:30 am PDT
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Meahwhile yesterday the corporate oil tax failed.. (Reply to this comment)
by rgathright
The man spent so long creating that document.
Why not work with other law makers to pass meaningfull legislation? For example: lifting the gas tax, pushing through more tax incentives to purchase hybrids and electric cars.
I can't stop wondering if our law makers are all on the same page.
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Jun 11 '08
5:58 am PDT
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