The other night on
The History channel, I watched an episode of
Lost Worlds: Hitler's Super city. What Hitler was Aiming to
construct was a new Germany based on an ideology of ‘ruin value’ –
the idea that all new buildings would be constructed in such a way
that they would leave aesthetically pleasing ruins thousands of
years into the future. He strove to place his people's
achievements on a par with the great civilizations of ancient
Greece and Rome. This remarkable program told a story of how
Hitler was mad, psychotic with grandiose visions for a super race,
lead by a superpower that would one day conquer the entire world.
He tried to rid Germany of its past and reconstruct it as a
personification of his "the Fuhrer’s" spectacular greatness.
They say that history is always repeated and I believe this to be
true. What the neoconservatives with
their absolute power were envisioning for this world was not
unlike that of Hitler's. Scary is too mild a
word for the planned havoc they had wished to
execute upon our nation and the world. But what these ideologues
did manage to carry out, has strained our Nation, our Constitution
to the brink and they should be held accountable for this.
They never feared retribution because they thought (as Hitler did)
their invincible powers could never be taken from them. They
believed they were accomplishing an insidious coup d'état of our
government by manipulation of the masses through fear.
Well, hopefully their plans have been interrupted and now they
should face their just deserts. All ten reasons should be
addressed and penalties should be applied,
THESE TURKEYS NEVER WAS AND NEVER WILL BE ABOVE THE LAW!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ten Reasons to Impeach George Bush and Dick
Cheney
I ask Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney for the following reasons:
1. Violating the United Nations Charter
by launching an illegal "War of Aggression" against Iraq without
cause, using fraud to sell the war to Congress and the public,
misusing government funds to begin bombing without Congressional
authorization, and subjecting our military personnel to
unnecessary harm, debilitating injuries, and deaths.
2. Violating U.S. and international law by authorizing the torture
of thousands of captives, resulting in dozens of deaths, and
keeping prisoners hidden from the International Committee of the
Red Cross.
3. Violating the Constitution by arbitrarily detaining Americans,
legal residents, and non-Americans, without due process, without
charge, and without access to counsel.
4. Violating the Geneva Conventions by targeting civilians,
journalists, hospitals, and ambulances, and using illegal weapons,
including white phosphorous, depleted uranium, and a new type of
napalm.
5. Violating U.S. law and the Constitution through widespread
wiretapping of the phone calls and emails of Americans without a
warrant.
6. Violating the Constitution by using "signing statements" to
defy hundreds of laws passed by Congress.
7. Violating U.S. and state law by obstructing honest elections in
2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006.
8. Violating U.S. law by using paid propaganda and disinformation,
selectively and misleadingly leaking classified information, and
exposing the identity of a covert CIA operative working on
sensitive WMD proliferation for political retribution.
9. Subverting the Constitution and abusing Presidential power by
asserting a "Unitary Executive Theory" giving unlimited powers to
the President, by obstructing efforts by Congress and the Courts
to review and restrict Presidential actions, and by promoting and
signing legislation negating the Bill of Rights and the Writ of
Habeas Corpus.
10. Gross negligence in failing to assist New Orleans residents
after Hurricane Katrina, in ignoring urgent warnings of an Al
Qaeda attack prior to Sept. 11, 2001, and in increasing air
pollution causing global warming.
Impeachment By Spring: We're Off and Running!
It's been just one week since we announced ImpeachForChange in Philadelphia and the response has been tremendous!
Over 23,000 activists signed our petition - even though our
overloaded server turned many away. We upgraded our server so
please try again:
http://www.democrats.com/peoplesemailnetwork/88
and help us reach our goal of 1 million by forwarding the petition
to your friends!
Then print copies of our simplified impeachment petition
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/downloads/petition-4.pdf
and
collect signatures from friends, co-workers, and neighbors.
Then keypunch the email addresses into our invitation letter to
ask the signers to complete the full petition online. Full
instructions here:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/petition
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New Senate Committee Chairs Will Carry Powerful Punch to Bush Agenda
None of these Senate committees will be a rubber stamp for
Bush proposals... with the possible exception of the Homeland
Security Committee, chaired by Senator Joe Lieberman, whose
recent election victory was financed largely by Republicans and
supported by the White House.
Senate Democrats had no choice, though, but to give "independent Democrat" Joe the chairmanship. Consider the alternative: he could change his party affiliation to Republican, thus causing the two parties to share control of the Senate.
It's an excellent slate of long-serving Democratic senators who will serve as powerful, opinionated chairs of influential Senate committees. You can scan the list here at US Senate Committee Chairs for the 110th Congress.
Our country's collective nightmare over the Bush Administration is almost over as the White House is forced to face its last two years with a Democratic Congress. Most certainly, the darkest days of having short-sighted and greedy legislation foisted on middle-class Americans is over.
Ding dong! The wicked witch isn't yet dead, but she's surely dying...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Well, that was a brief bit of civility
Published: November 22. 2006
President Bush's political fortunes have changed for the worst, but he himself is announcing that he hasn't changed a bit.
He still hates not getting his own way on everything.
His immediate actions after proclaiming his deep desire to work with Democrats in a fresh mood of bipartisanship were to reinforce his preference for right-wing religious goals. This is the new civility in the nation's capital? Bush has had it pretty much the way he wanted things for six years; you'd think he would be wondering what hit him. The word hasn't gotten through his isolation bubble, apparently.
Or Karl Rove has not told him yet. Reports are that Rove is still defending his strategy of sticking to the so-called base of mostly Southern far-right extremists, who didn't deliver very well this November. Maybe it's time for the president to look beyond the bubble.
The first move he made was to stick the Democrats in the eye by re-nominating a group of judicial nominees already rejected as too conservative and unqualified by the current Senate. This was no accident. Why did he do it?
Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., a key Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, was outraged, pronouncing them all politically dead on arrival. Again.
"The days of hard-right judges'' are over, Schumer said.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the incoming chairman of the Judiciary Committee, had this reaction to Bush's surprise renominations: "Barely a week after the president promised to change course by working in a bipartisan and cooperative way with Congress, it is disappointing that he has decided to 'stay the course' on judicial nominees by renominating a slate of his most controversial past choices.'' Leahy noted that these candidates had failed to win confirmation under a Republican-controlled Senate.
Message: Forget about getting through the Senate after the Democrats take charge in January.
Here are some of Bush's picks for life-time appointments to the federal bench:
William Haynes II, a one-time lawyer for the Pentagon who helped formulate the administration's torture and enemy combatant policies that have redefined normal understanding of civil liberties.
Terrence Boyle, a former aide to Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., has a record of racial insensitivity.
Michael Wallace, a former adviser to Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., built a GOP-promoted legal case for letting Bob Jones University keep its tax-exempt status despite its open discrimination on the basis of race. He also got a "not qualified'' rating from the American Bar Association.
Peter Keisler is a nominee for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. When President Bill Clinton tried to fill that empty slot, Republican senators blocked him on the grounds that the court didn't need another judge. This is a pretty bad double standard statement for Bush to make.
But the lurch to the right didn't end there.
He also promptly nominated Andrew Biggs, an advocate of privatizing Social Security, to a six-year term as the next deputy commissioner of Social Security, despite the fact that Bush assigned Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Jr. to work with the next Congress to build a consensus on what to do with Social Security.
So, what is going on here? The Democratic majority has said that Social Security privatization is off the table. Period. Public opinion polls show no support for private accounts, which are seen as too risky for the elderly who rely on a dependable retirement income. How can Paulson negotiate in good faith with a deputy committed to a policy that cannot pass?
And just so he didn't overlook any area important to the religious right, Bush also appointed a new chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services who is opposed to contraceptives for women. Eric Keroack works at a Christian pregnancy counseling organization that calls the distribution of birth control pills "demeaning to women.'' He gets to advise the department on reproductive health and adolescent pregnancy, with $283 million in grants to provide "access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them.'' The appointment does not require Senate-confirmation.
And then there's the subject of United Nations ambassador John Bolton, whom Bush is also pushing for confirmation even though he couldn't win Senate approval earlier in a Republican-controlled body. The controversial, abrasive Bolton has a recess appointment, which expires at the end of this congressional term if he is not confirmed by the Senate.
Am I missing something here? Where's the good will and cooperation that Bush promised? It's the same old provocative, bossy attitude of the past six years. But it's not the same old rubber-stamp Republican terrain. If he wants partisan warfare, he'll get it. He's started it and now he's going to be stuck with it.
Marianne Means writes for Hearst Newspapers.
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