The conservative ethos in a nutshell

The Democratic Activist
Do you find this as jaw droppingly unbelievable as I do?

We now have a conservative military writer calling for "... censorship, news blackouts and, ultimately, military attacks on the partisan media."

Military attacks ... on journalists?

In the Journal of International Security Affairs, Ralph Peters wraps the modern conservative ethos into a convenient nutshell for us, and illustrates all by himself better than any defender of American constitutional values ever could one of the main reasons our country is currently in such precarious straits:

The point of all this is simple: Win. In warfare, nothing else matters. If you cannot win clean, win dirty. But win. Our victories are ultimately in humanity's interests, while our failures nourish monsters.

"Win at any cost. Just win, baby. Nothing else matters. Nothing. NOTHING. If you can't win clean, win dirty. We're right, therefore anything and everything we do is okay. I'm BIGGER than you ... so SHUT UP!"

Glorify the bully. The Rule of Gold, instead of The Golden Rule. Power over principle. The end justifies the means.

The essence of evil.

Still quite alive and well on the American right ... embraced by all but perhaps one Republican member of congress (Ron Paul), and all but a few dozen congressional Democrats.

There's no question that the same ugly potential exists on the left – but for now the problem is squarely with the firmly rooted infection of ultra-nationalism (barely latent fascism) that's taken over America's right wing.

What's more important to you: the country, or the constitution?

If you answered the former, you've got the virus.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Demand a special prosecutor!

Unbelievably ... America chose to join the cabal of torturing nations

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Do you know the tragic story of the death of Alyssa Peterson, a U.S. interrogator in Iraq and former Mormon missionary who killed herself in Tal Afar on September 15, 2003 after refusing to take part in the torture of U.S. detainees?

From a recent article by Greg Mitchell appearing in The Huffington Post:

Appalled when ordered to take part in interrogations that, no doubt, involved what we would call torture, [Alyssa] refused, then killed herself a few days later, in September 2003.

"Peterson objected to the interrogation techniques used on prisoners. She refused to participate after only two nights working in the unit known as the cage. Army spokespersons for her unit have refused to describe the interrogation techniques Alyssa objected to. They say all records of those techniques have now been destroyed."

The official probe of her death would later note that earlier she had been "reprimanded" for showing "empathy" for the prisoners. One of the most moving parts of the report, in fact, is this: "She said that she did not know how to be two people; she ... could not be one person in the cage and another outside the wire."

The U.S. military lied about Alyssa's death, and tried for years to cover up the truth and keep even her own parents in the dark about how she died. Eventually, our government was forced to admit the facts about what had happened to Alyssa.

It's an incredible, awful, and heart-wrenching story, particularly for Mormons, particularly right now, as the spotlight of truth finally begins to fully illuminate the abject prevarication, gutless terror, and brutal depravity of the Bush/Cheney torture program and the horrible crimes committed under their orders in the name of all Americans.

Click here and here to read about Alyssa's story.

Critically important is the recently revealed fact that the Bush/Cheney torture program was originated and conducted for a purely political purpose. America's "enhance interrogation program" was not, as we've been deceitfully assured for so long, implemented to "save American lives" and to "prevent another terrorist attack on U.S. soil."

Not at all.

Contrary to the big lie continually fed to us by Bush, Cheney and others in their administration in an attempt to keep knowledge of their brutal, self-serving, truly Machiavellian criminality secret from the country they were supposed to be serving, the recently released report from the Senate Armed Services Committee makes clear that one of the central reasons that the United States began – for the first time in our history – an official policy of torturing prisoners in our custody was to elicit false confessions of a link (any link) between Sadaam Hussein and Al-Qaeda so that President Bush could justify and rally support for his planned invasion of Iraq. Although the CIA had already had already made clear that there was so such link to be found, the Bush/Cheney Administration was desperate and determined to find one, even if it meant relinquishing the power of our moral example in the world, abandoning America's most cherished and central values, and turning our country, the United States of America, the same one that Ronald Reagan called a "shining city on a hill," into a torturing nation, one of the "bad guys," a trampler of the rule of law and the commandments of common human decency.

How unbelievably, stunningly, and horribly surreal this is. What in the world has happened to us ... that in this country, this America, we're even asking the question "Does torture work?"

Jesse Ventura, Navy Seal and former pro wrestler and governor of Minnesota, a self-described Goldwater conservative, proved the deceitfulness of the Bush/Cheney pro-torture neoconservatives during an interview on May 11, 2009 with Larry King (following are excerpts from the transcript):

[Waterboarding is] drowning. It gives you the complete sensation that you're drowning. It is no good, because you – I'll put it to you this way, you give me a water board, Dick Cheney, and one hour, and I'll have him confess to the Sharon Tate murders.

That's why torture is no good in a court of law, because if you're torturing someone, they are going to tell you what they think you want to hear to stop the torture.

Let me say this: they say it's prevented things by us torturing.

If that's the case, then why haven't we caught bin Laden? Because we got his people ... and if we tortured them, they ought to be able to tell us where he's at. See, it don't work. We haven't captured bin Laden. We haven't done anything.

Torture does not work.

America is the Constitution. Absent the rule of law equally applied to all her citizens, America no longer exists. She is defeated. Dead. Gone. Torturing prisoners is against the law, and those who commit or order such serious crimes must be punished accordingly, if America herself is to survive.

Remember George Washington, who refused to torture British prisoners during our nation's most critical time, our war for independence from England ... even though the British were torturing our own prisoners and the very survival of our newly born country was at stake?

Remember World War Two, when German soldiers fought fiercely just to be captured by the Americans rather that the Soviets, because they knew the treatment they'd receive as U.S. prisoners would be entirely different than what they would face as Soviet captives?

Remember when we, the U.S.A., were the "good guys?" Although we've never been perfect or without sin as a nation (far from it), we used to value holding the moral high ground and for more than 200 years earned the respect and admiration of the entire world (and the eager cooperation of most of it) for doing so.

If we don't loudly and actively condemn this barbarity and act swiftly and surely to prosecute those who ordered, enabled, or committed torture in our name (remember, some detainees were tortured to death in U.S. custody – a capital crime), we risk no less than the loss of our identity as a nation that stands for, not against, the rule of law.

Manadel al-Jamadi – tortured to death in U.S. custody (Nov. 2003)

From a recent article by Juan Cole:

... Obama is unwittingly allowing the Right to lay the groundwork for permanent move to presidential dictatorship. Obama says he doesn't want to re-litigate the last 8 years. That is frankly disingenuous. The last 8 years was never litigated. And crimes were committed. If they are not addressed, they will become norms, not crimes.

The United States must not torture – because torture is wrong, and because nothing is more profoundly un-American. And because it's illegal. And because it doesn't work. And because it works against us.

Period.

Please join with me and many, many others all across America in calling for serious congressional inquiry and the appointment of a well-funded, independent special prosecutor to investigate and hold accountable all those (from whatever political party) who so flagrantly violated our nation's most fundamental laws and values abrogating torture of detainees:

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Attorney General Eric Holder
Office of the Attorney General
U.S. Department of Justice
Washington, D.C., 20530

Phone: 202-514-2001, 202-353-1555

Fax: 202-307-6777

Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

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President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Phone: 202-456-1111

Fax: 202-456-2461

Email form: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

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Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Capitalism: Down For The Count

The Democratic Activist
Just 53% say capitalism is better than socialism, according to Rasmussen, the conservative polling outfit.

20 years after communism went down for the count, capitalism is now on the ropes, battered, passing out, and going down. It seems that the accelerating endangerment of the American middle class coupled with the recent terrifying economic collapse caused by greedy, self-interested, fat cat Wall Street pirates let loose to police themselves and take whatever plunder they can steal from us (now in the trillions of dollars), Americans are waking up and starting to notice that both communism AND capitalism have clearly failed as economic systems.

The Rasmussen poll illustrates a long-term, leftward trend strongly favoring socialism over capitalism. According to the poll, American adults under 30 are almost evenly divided, preferring capitalism to socialism by a very slight majority (37% to 33%). That demographic is the future. In twenty years this segment of the population be occupying the seats of power in our culture, with likely an even more pro-socialist and anti-capitalist younger demographic coming right up behind them.

Hopefully, by that time, the steep tilt we're seeing in America away from Reagonomic, "free market," "free-for-all," "survival of the fittest," "you're on your own," "win at any cost" capitalism and toward cooperative collectivism will settle on a sensible compromise between the extremes of capitalism and communism, an American version of European democratic socialism, as the system that is capable of providing the greatest good for the greatest number in our country.

The future foreshadowed by the Rasmussen poll is a hopeful one, in which the selfishness of the Ayn Rand, "got mine ... get yours," "greed is good," Reagan 1980's is finally replaced with a societal ethos based on The Golden Rule (Matthew 7:9-12, Luke 6:27-31) instead of the Rule of Gold ("He who has the gold makes the rules").

Click here to read about the Rasmussen poll and get further details.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Obama Sells His Soul

The Democratic Activist
Those of us whose jaws nearly dislocated from continual dropping at the arrogance, cruelty, and moral and ethical bankruptcy of the Bush/Cheney administration are now having to come to grips with an emerging pattern of evidence too dreadful to have imagined only a few months ago.

Notwithstanding pronounced improvement over the previous president in several important areas, it's becoming increasingly clear that, on the critical matter of civil liberties, Obama may end up being just as bad as (or worse than) Bush ever was.

Excerpts from a recent post by Glenn Greenwald:

So candidate Obama unambiguously vowed to his supporters that he would work to ensure "full accountability" for "past offenses" in surveillance lawbreaking. President Obama, however, has now become the prime impediment to precisely that accountability, repeatedly engaging in extraordinary legal maneuvers to ensure that "past offenses" -- both in the surveillance and torture/rendition realm -- remain secret and forever immunized from judicial review. Put another way, Obama has repeatedly done the exact opposite of what he vowed he would do: rather than "seek full accountability for past offenses," he has been working feverishly to block such accountability, by embracing the same radical Bush/Cheney views and rhetoric regarding presidential secrecy powers that caused so much controversy and anger for the last several years.

I could literally spend all day highlighting passages from the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross) Report that will turn the stomach of any minimally decent human being. Those morally depraved individuals who continue to mock and dismiss the notion that the U.S. Government, at the highest level, ordered the most brutal and inhumane torture should be compelled to read the Report in its entirety (and the Report is confined to 14 individual "black site" prisoners; it says nothing about what was done to the tens of thousands of other detainees at Guantanamo, Bagram, in Iraq and elsewhere -- many of whom died in our custody).

Andrew Sullivan highlights but one of the key passages from Mark Danner's article demonstrating the similarities between standard Soviet torture techniques and the ones the U.S. used repeatedly on our detainees. Note how warped our political culture is: Sen. Dick Durbin was forced to tearfully apologize on the Senate floor for accurately comparing our treatment of detainees at Guantanamo to the techniques used in Soviet gulags and by Gestapo interrogation squads, but those who perpetrated these war crimes have apologized for nothing, remain welcome in decent company, and are still shielded by our Government from all accountability.

Is this the vaunted "transparency," and "change you can believe in" that Obama endlessly promoted as the centerpiece of his campaign?

The following interviews by Keith Olberman explain in lay terms just how the terribly, terribly bad the Obama record on constitutional liberties is turning out to be. In them, Olberman rightly expresses dismay and disgust at how Obama is out-Bushing Bush in defending and even surpassing the dictatorial, autocratic, un-American claims of virtually unlimited executive power that Bush and Cheney became infamous for espousing and that Obama himself so strongly decried only months ago during his run for the presidency:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

To avoid distraction from the economic crisis, disdain from some within the intelligence community, and a likely right-wing political smear and media onslaught, President Barack Obama, the constitutional law professor and new hope of the free world, has apparently decided to turn his back on the rule of law ... and to allow the crippling, disfiguring disease of irresponsibility, unaccountability, corruption, greed, and inhumanity at the root of our governmental, economic, and cultural problems to continue to progress unchecked.

Will band-aids, denial, broken promises, and repeating the awful mistakes of the recent past do anything real to heal the deeply serious, systemic illness of character of which our current economic woes are merely the most urgent current symptom?

No, they won't. In fact, by putting off the day of reckoning and allowing the true cause of our troubles to continue to fester, these dysfunctional responses only worsen our already rather dire predicament.

If you agree, here's how you can ...

TAKE ACTION!

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Contact President Barack Obama, Attorney General Eric Holder, and mainstream media companies and DEMAND immediate criminal investigation and prosecution of ALL Bush administration officials responsible in any way for the brutal torture of detainees in U.S. custody or illegal surveillance activities conducted against American citizens within the borders of our own country and an abrupt end to the Obama administration's wholehearted embrace of Bush's doctrine of imperial presidential power:

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President Barack Obama

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500

Phone: 202-456-1111

Fax: 202-456-2461

Email form: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

-

Attorney General Eric Holder

Attorney General Eric Holder

Office of the Attorney General

U.S. Department of Justice

Washington, D.C., 20530

Phone: 202-514-2001, 202-353-1555

Fax: 202-307-6777

Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

-

Mainstream Media

Click here and here to contact various mainstream media outlets.

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Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Time Travel: Glass-Steagall Repealed in 1999

The Democratic Activist
Free-marketeers (nearly everyone in both houses of congress, Republicans and Democrats over the past 30 years) thought getting rid of Depression-era restrictions on banks couldn't possibly do any harm. All that "market regulation" stuff was "so 1930's." What we needed for the new century was "freedom," since the captains of finance (conservatives all) could certainly be trusted to police themselves and would never be so irresponsible as to risk the farm on dangerous speculative gambling.

Got that wrong!

As BuzzFlash put it ... find your deregulation villians and heroes here (the 1999 article in the New York times reporting on the repeal of Glass-Steagall):

CONGRESS PASSES WIDE-RANGING BILL EASING BANK LAWS

Exerpts from the article:

''The world changes, and we have to change with it,'' said Senator Phil Gramm of Texas, who wrote the law that will bear his name along with the two other main Republican sponsors, Representative Jim Leach of Iowa and Representative Thomas J. Bliley Jr. of Virginia. ''We have a new century coming, and we have an opportunity to dominate that century the same way we dominated this century. Glass-Steagall, in the midst of the Great Depression, came at a time when the thinking was that the government was the answer. In this era of economic prosperity, we have decided that freedom is the answer.''

''The concerns that we will have a meltdown like 1929 are dramatically overblown,'' said Senator Bob Kerrey, Democrat of Nebraska.

The opponents of the measure gloomily predicted that by unshackling banks and enabling them to move more freely into new kinds of financial activities, the new law could lead to an economic crisis down the road when the marketplace is no longer growing briskly.

''I think we will look back in 10 years' time and say we should not have done this but we did because we forgot the lessons of the past, and that that which is true in the 1930's is true in 2010,'' said Senator Byron L. Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota. ''I wasn't around during the 1930's or the debate over Glass-Steagall. But I was here in the early 1980's when it was decided to allow the expansion of savings and loans. We have now decided in the name of modernization to forget the lessons of the past, of safety and of soundness.''

Senator Paul Wellstone, Democrat of Minnesota, said that Congress had ''seemed determined to unlearn the lessons from our past mistakes.''

''Scores of banks failed in the Great Depression as a result of unsound banking practices, and their failure only deepened the crisis,'' Mr. Wellstone said. ''Glass-Steagall was intended to protect our financial system by insulating commercial banking from other forms of risk. It was one of several stabilizers designed to keep a similar tragedy from recurring ...''

Interesting that by and large it was only the sparsely populated left wing of the Democratic Party (Boxer, Wellstone, Feingold, Harkin, etc.) that thought repealing Glass/Steagall back in 1999 was a bad idea. The left got it right. Paying proper respect to skeptics of unchecked corporatism in just this one case could have entirely prevented the economic crisis and collapse through which the entire world must now suffer.

Why does the Democratic Party leadership (including, unfortunately, President Obama himself) still insist on flirting with discredited conservative economics while thumbing its nose at its prescient liberal base?

Perhaps the better question is how can the Dems as a group be moved back to the left where they belong?

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Why can't I assess my own assets ... like banks can?

The Democratic Activist
When you or I apply for a refi loan, do we get to assess the value of our home ourselves because we think the market for that asset is "distressed," and in so doing hide our poor financial health and low aggregate net worth?

Certainly not. Don't be silly.

We have to pay $400 for a 15-minute independent property appraisal that determines the current market value of our home.

Well ... bankers have just been given the right to assess the value of their own assets, to just make self-serving guesses as to what they'd be worth in a "normally functioning market," in order to make themselves appear financial viable and hide their true insolvency!

One easy going rule for a small cadre of wealthy, powerful, corrupt Wall Street pirates, and another entirely different, difficult, harsh, and unforgiving rule for all the rest of us mere average Americans.

Excerpts from an article appearing in today's Huffington Post:

Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fl.), who quizzed Herz on the accounting rule, said that the demand to change the rules is "representative of exactly the kind of thing that's put us in this position in general...We have people who break every rule in the book and then they think that the answer to their problem ss is to break more rules. It's given us some real insight into the human nature and the pathology of the people who have created these problems for America."

If banks are allowed to determine the value of their assets without regard to current prices, investors have less trust and confidence in the integrity of their books and their assets, which could further freeze markets and further drive down prices.

Treasury Secretary Timothy, testifying before Congress on Tuesday, expressed some support for the rule change, calling it a "constructive set of changes" that struck a balance "between preserving confidence in the quality of public disclosure, which is very important to getting through this, [and addressing] some of the complications of applying those standards in a market like we're experiencing today."

This is beyond outrageous, exasperating, ridiculous, and utterly unacceptable.

If you agree, here's how you can ...

TAKE ACTION!

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Public comments are being collected by the The Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) until 4/1/09:

-

Email:

director@fasb.org

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Snail mail:

Technical Director,
FASB
401 Merritt 7, PO Box 5116
Norwalk, CT 06856-5116

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IMPORTANT: In your comment, be sure to include the following text (do so in the subject line for email messages, or in the first line of your letter):

File Reference: Proposed FSP FAS 157-e.

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Here's a sample message (feel free to copy all or part of it):

Mark-to-market rules must NOT be changed for a small subset of Americans, i.e. rich bankers, while the rest of us, ordinary Americans, get no such favor. If I go to refinance my home mortgage, will I be allowed to value my home at some fictional future price, because the current market for this asset, my home, is currently "distressed?"

OF COURSE NOT! Because I'm not a wealthy Wall Street billionaire banker!

Why should special rules be created that make life easy for a small subset of the American population? Doing so flies directly in the face of both the letter and the spirit of the U.S. Constitution (violating equal protection). It is literally un-American to allow one small class of people cushy privileges that the rest of the population doesn't have.

Again ... do NOT change mark-to-market rules to allow banks to hide their insolvency. I'm not allowed to assess the current value of my own assets, neither are you ... why should they be allowed to do so?

Please inform me as to the final decision made by the FASB on this matter.

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Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Krugman scores again

The Democratic Activist
Paul Krugman's right on the money, as usual:

I’ll leave to others the question of who knew or should have known that the bonus firestorm was coming; but it’s part of a pattern. At every stage, Geithner et al have made it clear that they still have faith in the people who created the financial crisis — that they believe that all we have is a liquidity crisis that can be undone with a bit of financial engineering, that “governments do a bad job of running banks” (as opposed, presumably, to the wonderful job the private bankers have done), that financial bailouts and guarantees should come with no strings attached.

This was bad analysis, bad policy, and terrible politics. This administration, elected on the promise of change, has already managed, in an astonishingly short time, to create the impression that it’s owned by the wheeler-dealers. And that leaves it with no ability to counter crude populism.

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03/20/aig/

No question ... Obama's blowing it.

Conservative cabinet appointments have in fact foreshadowed a dangerous reluctance to abandon faith in the champions of Wall Street "free-for-all" capitalism and instead shift the power back to responsible regulation by those not devoted mainly to the cause of the ultra-wealthy and über-powerful in America.

Why is common sense liberalism still so radiocative in Washington even after America's economy goes critical right before our eyes due to injuries sustained in a horrible Reaganomic trainwreck?

Will Obama (finally) take Krugman's advice, bite the bullet, temporarily nationalize zombie banks and institutions like AIG, clean out the corrupt culture of "me first" greed that still so pollutes the waters of America business and finance, roll back the Reagan tax cuts on zillionaires, etc. – before it's too late to actually make a difference?

If not, he may find his own political capital account is bankrupt before his first 100 days are over.

You know what to do.

O's contact info:

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President Barack Obama

Phone: 202-456-1111

Email form: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

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Thank you.

Pass it on.

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UPDATE 3/22/09 : Frank Rich of the New York Times seems to agree with my assessement. In his latest excellent piece, Rich ponders the calamitous consequences should Obama's cozy relationship with and ridiculous coddling of Wall Street turn out to be his administration's "Katrina Moment." Read it here.
The Democratic Activist

Republicans Consider Nationalizing U.S. Banks ... But Obama And Dems Say No!

The Democratic Activist
The stimulus package just passed was better than nothing, clearly the right type of thing for our country to be doing at this juncture (though its spending provisions may well be far too small in scope to actually get the job done).

Nevertheless, much as I hate to say it, it's President Obama who's pulling in the wrong direction in the battle to restart the heart of the American banking industry and by extension that of the entire world economy.

Things have gotten so bad that, unbelievable as it sounds, even die-hard Republicans in Congress like Lindsey Graham and Peter King now want to do the right thing and will consider nationalizing U.S. banks ... but not Obama!

Huh?

That's right. Read all about it right here.

When far-right conservatives are to the left of tippity-top Democrats like Obama and Schumer on the most crucial economic question facing the nation in 80 years, calling as they are for sensible democratic socialist economic solutions to pull our bacon from the fire in the current financial emergency in which we find ourselves ... you KNOW something really is WAY, WAY out of whack.

The Swedish Solution is in fact just what we need to turn this ship around. It worked for the Swedes in the 1990's, and it's probably the best shot we Americans and the rest of the world have at this point in time.

But first we'll need to convince our new Democratic president and old donkeys in Congress to stop beating around the Bush, follow Graham's and King's advice, bite the nationalization bullet, and finally get this ball in the hoop before it's too late:

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President Barack Obama

Phone: 202-456-1111

Email form: http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

---

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Are High Federal Officials Above the Law? Prosecute Bush and Cheney!

he Democratic Activist

Obama's in charge now ...

And there's a new sheriff in town. Eric Holder's been deputized as the nation's new Attorney General.

But will Holder act?

Or did Obama's new A.G. make a deal with Republicans in exchange for confirmation not to uphold the law equally and fully investigate and prosecute heinous felonies committed by the Bush Crime Family?

Will the new Attorney General restore the rule of law in America, or establish as precedent that ours is a bifurcated legal system that holds average people harshly accountable even for relatively minor infractions but forks over "Get Out Of Jail FREE" cards to those elected to high federal offices who commit the most dastardly domestic and international crimes?

Activists ... do your duty!

---

Attorney General Eric Holder

Phone: 202-514-2001

Email: AskDOJ@usdoj.gov

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Call!! Email!!

Do it now!!!

Thanks.

Pass it on.

The Democratic Activist

PRESIDENT OBAMA

The Democratic Activist
It happened.

Hell has frozen over.

No matter how messed up our current circumstances are, no matter how bad things may get, we will always be able to remember that the impossible DID, in fact, happen on January 20, 2008 ... and that we can, therefore, make it happen again.

Yes, indeed ... we can!

Actually, hell has frozen over a many times throughout history. Let's not forget that the fact America exists at all is itself a miracle.

The four minute mile was regarded for the longest time as unbeatable, impossible (as was producing light without fire, climbing Mount Everest, conversing with people not present, or going for a stroll on the moon). In all of recorded athletic history, no one had run a sub four minute mile. This was still the case in May, 1954, when Roger Bannister finally did the "impossible" by finally breaking the four minute barrier. Within three years, 16 other runners were suddenly able to do the same thing. Now, gifted high school kids routinely run miles in under four minutes.

When you finally actually see a unicorn, in the flesh, right before you ... how do you ever look at the word "impossible" and think the same thing? These kinds of events crack "reality," and allow us to come out of our shells, transformed.

Today is a great day to be alive. I'll never forget it. Had breakfast and saw the television coverage of the presidential inauguration at my mother's home, with my mother, brother, wife, and 15-year-old daughter (who later watched President Obama's swearing-in ceremony in her first period history class ... how perfectly appropriate).

Miracles happen. Today was further proof.

And it's a good thing ... because we'll be needing at least a few more miracles in pretty short order!

For now, it's time to breathe in the air of a new world, watch the latest "unachievable" milestone recede in the distance, and marvel at the magnificence, the incredible good, of which we human beings are capable.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Your tax dollars at work

The Democratic Activist

Why is the ultra-conservative Bush administration requiring no real accounting of bank bailout funds?

Aren't prudence and accountability supposed to be core conservative values?

Hundreds of billions of dollars of our money ... and ... no tracking or reporting? None, whatsoever?

What's going on, here?

Why are we allowing this?

Distilled from a recent article by Frank Rich of the New York Times:

The question in the aftermath of the Madoff calamity is this: Why do we keep ignoring what we learn from the black boxes being retrieved from crash after crash in our economic meltdown?

Last week ABC News asked 16 of the banks that have received handouts from the Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program the same two direct questions: How have you used that money, and how much have you spent on bonuses this year? Most refused to answer.

Congress can’t get the answers either. Its oversight panel declared in a first report this month that the Treasury is doling out billions “without seeking to monitor the use of funds provided to specific financial institutions.” The Treasury prefers instead to look at “general metrics” indicating the program’s overall effect on the economy. Well, we know what the “general metrics” tell us already: the effect so far is nil. Perhaps if we were let in on the specifics, we’d start to understand why.

In its own independent attempt to penetrate the bailout, the Government Accountability Office learned that “the standard agreement between Treasury and the participating institutions does not require that these institutions track or report how they plan to use, or do use, their capital investments.” Executives at all but two of the bailed-out banks told the G.A.O. that the “money is fungible,” so they “did not intend to track or report” specifically what happens to the taxpayers’ cash.

Nor is there any serious accounting for executive pay at these semi-nationalized companies. As Amit Paley of The Washington Post reported, a last-minute, one-sentence loophole added by the Bush administration to the original bailout bill gutted the already minimal restrictions on executive compensation.

All the talk about restoring “confidence” and “faith” in capitalism will be worthless if we still can’t see what’s going on in the counting rooms.

We’ll keep believing, not without reason, that the whole game is as corrupt as the game show in “Slumdog Millionaire” — only without the Hollywood/Bollywood ending. We’ll keep wondering how so many at the top keep avoiding responsibility and reaping taxpayers’ billions while relief for those at the bottom remains as elusive as straight answers from those Mumbai call centers fielding American debtors.

When will we learn that the "free market" simply cannot be trusted to police itself?

Are we still drinking the deregulation Kool-aid?

Still trusting with glassy eyes and lazy characters the words of habitual, unrepentant liars and thieves?

How bad will it have to get for Americans to finally rise up and put a stop to the kind of mind-blowing incompetence, irresponsibility, immorality, and criminality such as that which we've endured for the past eight long years (actually, for the past 28 years)?

When will we fully awaken from our hypnotic, consumerism-induced trance to realize that the religion of exploitative, Reaganomic "free market" fundamentalism proselytized all these years by pro-corporate, "greed is good," media-0wning monopolists has, for the vast majority of average Americans, been nothing less than a huge, manipulative sham and an utter, horrific ripoff?

Will we do so in time to pull ourselves out of this near-vertical nose dive before we splat ourselves full-speed against the pavement ... or is the pain of a brutal economic crash landing the only thing that will shake indolent American consumers out of their chronic passivity and stupidity?

I think we're about to find out.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Above the law, below the pale ...

The Democratic Activist
Could anything, ever, actually land a U.S. president in jail? Is there ANY crime so abhorrent, so egregious, so low-down or pathological that an American president, were he to commit it, would find himself prosecuted and behind bars?

Or is the president, in fact, above the law?

From a must-read article by Glen Greenwald:

"The bipartisan Senate Armed Services Committee report issued on Thursday -- which documents that "former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other senior U.S. officials share much of the blame for detainee abuse at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba" and "that Rumsfeld's actions were 'a direct cause of detainee abuse' at Guantanamo and 'influenced and contributed to the use of abusive techniques ... in Afghanistan and Iraq'" -- raises an obvious and glaring question: how can it possibly be justified that the low-level Army personnel carrying out these policies at Abu Ghraib have been charged, convicted and imprisoned, while the high-level political officials and lawyers who directed and authorized these same policies remain free of any risk of prosecution? The culpability which the Report assigns for these war crimes is vast in scope and unambiguous ..."

And then there's the disgusting, stomach-turning complicity of invertebrate congressional democrats who "looked the other way" as Bush and Cheney legalized torture, committed war crimes, and destroyed many of the most basic, cherished constitutional civil liberties that once comprised the very foundation of our nation ... all in the name of promoting "freedom and American values."

Quoting near the end of the article linked above:

"Here -- from July of this year -- is one of the more remarkable quotes of the Bush era; it's from Nancy Pelosi, who was explicitly briefed on the CIA's torture program in 2002:

Q: You’ve ruled against impeaching George Bush and Dick Cheney, and now Kucinich is trying to pass that. Why do you insist on not impeaching these people, so that the world and America can really see the crimes that they’ve committed?

PELOSI: I thought that impeachment would be divisive for the country. . . . If somebody had a crime that the President had committed, that would be a different story."

What kind of country, what kind of people, knowingly and deliberately allows its elected leaders to order and direct, for years, this kind of rampant illegality, utter immorality, torture and murder, on a wide scale, in its name, with total impunity?

Do Americans believe laws are actually important ... or not? That they should be enforced? Or just written and then ignored?

Is the president a king? Is nothing he does illegal? Is "moving on" more important than preserving the rule of law in America?

Does any people so unethical and irresponsible that it would willingly consent to such wickedness deserve the freedom it so devalues?

Thank you.

Pass it on.

---

UPDATE: Greenwald has just written another piercing article on the subject of America's reformation as a torturing nation, in which he examines the suspect notion of committing war crimes for the "right reasons." Highly recommended.

The Democratic Activist

If It Is Good ... It Is Possible!

The Democratic Activist
Before the hard work begins, let's drink in for a while longer the miracle that's just occurred, and remember The Day: 4 November, 2008.

Only 43 years after the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was passed legally ending Jim Crow apartheid-like oppression in America, Americans voted a black man into office as the next president of the United States!

We can stop pinching ourselves, now. This is not a dream. It's real.

Not just an epic historic milestone in the maturing of America, Barack Obama's victory in last Tuesday's election is also clearly a defining moment in world history, as evidenced by the world's reaction to his selection as America's next president:

---

"Now comes the tough part, of course. But the symbolism of this magnificent choice by the American people cannot but illuminate the world."

"Let me tell you that now I believe in American democracy," said Mostafa Eqbali, a merchant in the Iranian capital, Tehran. "Honestly, I did not think that Obama would be president. I thought that the invisible hands of the big trusts and cartels would not allow a black man to be president of the United States."

"This election is going to improve the image the U.S.A. has in our neighborhoods," Lozes said of France's heavily Muslim working-class enclaves. "The American dream comes back to life."

"A lot of people told me they had tears in their eyes last night. I was one of them," Randa Habib, a Jordanian writer and political analyst, said Wednesday. "I saw his speech. I was very moved. This is a lesson to us all, that blacks and whites in America can have such a shameful past between them, yet they come together and learn how to live together."

"There's a feeling of hope that things will be right in America ..."

"... Obama can make you once again respect the U.S. for its values and democracy and all those things we had forgotten about over the last eight years."

"Your victory has demonstrated that no person anywhere in the world should not dare to dream of wanting to change the world for a better place ..."

"Obama won, the map of the United States was transformed and for Mexico an extraordinary opportunity has opened . . . because it will be infinitely simpler to be a neighbor, partner and friend of the United States with Obama."

"... Today is for celebration, for happiness and for reflected human glory," said Britain's Guardian newspaper. "Savor those words: President Barack Obama, America's hope and, in no small way, ours too."

"It shows that anyone can do anything ..."

(To read the quotes in context, click here, here, and here.)

---


We were petrified that, despite our huge investment of hope and hard work, any one of a number of forces beyond our control would, in the end, rob us of the victory we so desperately needed. The "Bradley Effect." An October surprise. Israel (or the U.S.) would attack Iran. Massive vote rigging. The election would be stolen ... once again.

But it didn't happen. It just didn't happen.

We ... won!

(See here and here.)

The United States and the human race are different, now. Once the impossible appears and stares us right in the face, we can never be the same. Like landing on the Moon in 1969, no one can deny that, if we can do this (and we just did!), we truly can do anything.

Of course, we have much to do in our never ending work to perfect our union, our selves, our world. So many, many things are yet to be accomplished.

But now, truly, we have real reason to be hopeful, even confident, that we can do what needs to be done, that we can in fact be successful. We now have solid, permanent proof positive that nothing good is impossible for America, or for any nation, or for any individual, or indeed for mankind. No matter what else happens, that truth, that fact, cannot be taken from us. It is reality. It is history. It is ours. It is part of Who we are.

Because of this victory of the human spirit, we can never again really believe in resignation, defeat, or despair. From now on, if we choose to believe in those things we can only pretend to do so, because if the United States of America can elect Barack Obama, son of a black Muslim father and a white single mother, as president, in 2008, clearly no good thing is too hard, too unlikely, or genuinely off limits for any or all of us.

Yes, we can.

Yes ... WE CAN!


Thank you.

Pass it on.

---

UPDATE:

Have you come down out of the clouds yet? Is your thinking a bit foggy? Everything still a bit surreal? I think it's called "Joy-Shock."

Joy-shock: marked dizziness and disorientation brought on by the sudden loss of a few pints of cynicism. Often accompanied by exhaustion, euphoria, tremendous relief, teariness, and unexplained crying.

No need for a doctor. Just a few days rest. Then, back to life as usual.

Still, life will never be the same again. It's the end of the world as we know (knew) it. And lots of other cheesy pop song lines.

Highlights from The Day:

The Moment: Live Reaction At Grant Park (Video)

CNN Coverage: Obama Elected President (Video)

NBC calls an Obama win (Video)

Obama Victory Speech (Video/Text)

CNN: Colin Powell Reacts to Obama Victory (Video)

NBC: Change has come to America (Video)

Obama's Victory Celebration in Chicago (Photos)

Grant Park Obama Rally (Photos)

Reactions Around The World (Photos)

See The Obamas And The Bidens Celebrate (Photos)

Tears For Obama (Photos)

Obama Elected President as Racial Barrier Falls

Obama Wins: Why All Americans Have a Reason to Celebrate

Suddenly, it may be cool to be an American again

Tears to Remember

An open apology to boomers everywhere

Grant Park on Election Night

Obama Victory Sparks Cheers Around the Globe

MoveOn.org – The Hope Wall

McCain's Criteria For Veep: Snow White's Looks And Resume. Is That "Good Judgement?"

The Democratic Activist

The Huffington Post has it right. Sarah Palin does bear a striking resemblance to beloved Disney Character Snow White.

If only her governmental service resume wasn't also about as thin as Snow White's.

Here is is:

City Council member – Wasilla, Alaska (pop. 9000): 1992-1996
Mayor - Wasilla, Alaska: 1996-2002
Governor - Alaska: 2007 to present (less than half a term in office)

That's it. Three lines.

From John McCain's official statement:

---

Governor Palin is a tough executive who has demonstrated during her time in office that she is ready to be president.

---

Huh??

During her "time in office?" What time in office? Not even two years?

Is this what John McCain calls "good judgement?"

It's clearly a huge, desperate gamble by McCain, because his thesis above is so abjectly ridiculous.

But, apparently, he's counting on the notion that a great many of those disaffected feminist over-50 female Hillary supporters and independents who are so terribly disappointed that a woman wasn't selected as part of the Democratic ticket are so vacuous and gullible that they'll vote for any woman, just because she's a woman.

I'm sorry to say I think McCain may be actually be right about this. That's what scares me. Van Jones, writing in an article for the Huffington Post about McCain's puzzling and potentially disastrous pick for veep, isn't as worried as I am, however (apparently, Palin is so extremely right wing and anti-choice that she opposes rape and incest allowances for abortion, etc).

At least we know the truly stunning Democratic National Convention that just concluded with 80,000 attendees in Denver succeeded in killing the "experience" argument which had been the Republican's best card. Now the G.O.P. appear intent on neutering the "change" argument so masterfully and powerfully presented by the Democrats this past week.

However, with Karl Rove's greasy fingerprints plastered all over it, McCain's cynical "Palin Ploy" is so crazy ... it just might work.

The Obama/Biden camp is going to have to walk a very thin line to avoid losing to this panicky but crafty move (although Palin may strike herself out – she's already under investigation). Obama and Biden must be extremely careful in how they attack this Snow White in governor's clothing, as the Right Wing Smear Machine will be sure to attempt to plaster the word "sexism" all over Obama no matter his team does to warn the nation of Palin's obvious and dangerous lack of qualification to be the president's understudy:

"Obama's attacking Palin because she's a woman! He did it to Hillary, and now he's doing it to Snow White ... I mean ... Sarah Palin! How sexist and awful those Barack Obama people are!

Isn't it refreshing to have the leader of the Democratic Party show in no uncertain terms that he's fully willing and able to scare the pants off the Republicans? Not knowing whether or not Obama had the guts and street smarts to finally take the gloves off had been my greatest worry about his campaign, until now. But after the explosive Democratic convention, it's clear that Barack Obama isn't one bit afraid to catch the crap, call it crap, and throw it right back at the Republicans double-strength and twice as hard.

From an article at Huffington Post about Palin:

---

To think that McCain turned down far more nationally qualified individuals who have now been relegated to subordinate status in the pecking order GOP politics:

1. Mitt Romney
2. Tim Pawlenty
3. Tom Ridge
4. Lindsey Graham
5. Charlie Crist
6. Joe Lieberman
7. Carly Fiorina

How must they feel? Dwarfed at the altar by a total unknown. Each rejected candidate now having to gamely march out before the national media to defend this singular act of a political Hail Mary pass. To steal an old adage of former Secretary of State James Baker... putting Sarah Palin into a debate with Joe Biden is going to be like throwing Howdy Doody into a knife fight!

---

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Your mortgage ... or life-saving medications?

The Democratic Activist
Which would you pay for, if you had to choose? You, or someone close to you, may soon have to make that awful decision.

Even health insurance may not protect you from having to make such a terrible choice.

A quiet new move by insurance companies (made possible by the Bush prescription drug plan) is right now making this horrible delimma an actual reality for many Americans ... who already have health insurance!

That's correct. Even if you're one of the lucky ones who have medical insurance in our wonderful, privatized, for-profit health care system, your prescription drug bill may soon cost more than your monthly mortgage payment – or even exceed your entire income! Although you may only $20 per month for prescriptions today, you could be paying hundreds, or even thousands, by the time you wake up tomorrow morning.

Could the reason television news is ignoring this story have anything to do with all the advertising revenue it collects from the pharmaceutical industry? (More than 33 billion dollars ... in 2004!)

Insurance companies are stealthily incorporating this new prescription benefit system, known as "Tier 4," into many individual and group health insurance plans. A rapidly growing phenomenon, up to 10% of private insurance plans already include tier 4 or even tier 5 drug categories.

(A recent article in the New York Times gives the details.)

Remember when the U.S.A. was the most advanced, prosperous, healthy, humane, ethical, free, loved and respected nation on earth? The "greatest country in the world?"

Not anymore!

When will we stop putting up with the accelerating destruction of the American middle class and of classic egalitarian American values like honesty, accountability, humanity, and the dignity and liberty of all persons?

Will average Americans continue to vote against their own best interests, for a torturing, bullying government "of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations?"

Do we, as individuals and as a nation, first have to crash and burn before we'll open our eyes to the corporatist snow job we've been sold these last 28 years?

Or ... will we finally stand up and utilize those freedoms we still have left to turn our nation away from the cliff's edge while there's still time to do so?

What will it take?

Have we had enough, yet?

Upcoming elections may tell.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

A Poem for George and John

The Democratic Activist
... inspired by "Dick and Jane" books, and by the Inspector General's report confirming what we all knew all along: that George W. Bush, the president of the United States, approved the use of torture and committed war crimes.

Lie, Lie, Lie

~

Lie, lie, lie

See George lie.

Lie George, lie.

Lie, lie, lie.

Lie some more.

See John run for president.

Run John, run.

See John hug George.

Hug, hug, hug.

See John lie like George.

Lie John, lie.

Lie, lie, lie.

Bomb Iran, John, bomb Iran.

Bomb, bomb Iran.

Watch T.V.

T.V. likes George.

T.V. likes John.

Lie T.V., lie.

Lie, lie. lie.

America likes to sleep.

Sleep America, sleep.

Sleep, sleep, sleep.

Lie, lie, lie.

(Copyright © 2008 Chris Borland. All rights reserved.)

~

Reference:

Where Is the Outrage?

OIG Report on U.S. Complicity in Torture

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democatic Activist

FOX Analyst Latest To Invoke Killing Obama!

The Democratic Activist
This is too much. This is beyond too much. This could well be criminal. And this time it's FOX "News" with it's license (or worse) on the line.

I'm not an attorney, but isn't openly and publicly advocating the assassination of a presidential candidate a felony?

On Sunday, 5/26/08, journalist Liz Trotta was interviewed on FOX "News" by Eric Shawn about the recent invocation of the RFK assassination on the campaign trail.

Here's what Trotta said:

"And now we have what some are reading as a suggestion that somebody knock off Osama, uh, Obama. Well, both, if we could."

(Then, she laughs.)

See it for yourself:



To view video of Trotta's remarks in full context, click here (the offending statement begins at approximately 1:23).

For further info on this incredible and despicable FOX "News" crime, click here.

Isn't "broadcasting threatening or intimidating statements about an individual or group" over the public airwaves a violation of FCC rules and grounds for the immediate revocation of the offending station's license?
Are we going to stand for an endless parade of old white people intimating or brazenly suggesting with the help of the mainstream media that an uppity black Democrat who may well be our next president could or should be killed??

First, it was Hillary (who's referred to RFK's assassination multiple times during her campaign against Obama), then Huckabee (video here), and now Fox.

Is a simple apology enough to excuse this kind of dangerous and grossly irresponsible behavior?

Is America already becoming a third-world banana republic wherein raising the spectre of mafia-style, targeted assassination is accepted and fashionable as a domestic political strategy and tactic?

Are we now seeing the advocacy of murdering one's political opponents as the logical extension of the Bush/Cheney/Rove/Clinton/Fox "win at any cost" ethos?

Has FOX's reactionary propaganda network now crossed the line into propagating political violence and hate crime – with the full blessing of the FCC?

How much lower are we Americans willing to let our nation sink?

Here's what you can do:

---

1. Compose a short message referencing this outrage and demand that the FCC act immediately to revoke the license granted to FOX to broadcast in the U.S.

Then, send this message to the FCC "general information, comments, and inquiries" address and to all five FCC commissioners:

General information, comments & inquiries: fccinfo@fcc.gov
Chairman Kevin J. Martin: KJMWEB@fcc.gov
Commissioner Michael J. Copps: Michael.Copps@fcc.gov
Commissioner Jonathan S. Adelstein: Jonathan.Adelstein@fcc.gov
Commissioner Deborah Taylor Tate: dtaylortateweb@fcc.gov
Commissioner Robert McDowell: Robert.McDowell@fcc.gov

2. Turn the message you composed into personal letters addressed to each FCC commissioner c/o the following address:

Federal Communications Commission
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554

4. File an online complaint with the FCC at the following address:

http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm

- For "Complaint Type," chose "Broadcast (TV and Radio), Cable, and Satellite Issues," and then click "Next" at the bottom of the page.

- For "Complaint Category," choose "Unauthorized, unfair, biased, illegal broadcasts" (you'll be charging FOX with violating FCC rules by "Broadcasting threatening or intimidating statements about an individual or group"), and click "Next."

- Then, click "Continue to Online Form" at the bottom of the page, fill out the complaint form (for date, type 5/25/08; use the message you composed to fill in the details of your complaint in section 5.c.), and click "SUBMIT" to send your complaint to the FCC.

5. Call your congressperson and senators – express your outrage and state your demands over the phone to the staff person who takes your call.

Here's the toll-free Capitol Switchboard number (just ask to speak to the office of the congressperson or senator you wish to contact):

1-800-828-0498.

If you wish, you can also send your message as a letter or email to your congressperson and senators. Make sure to insist that they work immediately to pressure the FCC to act quickly and forcefully to punish this despicable behavior of FOX "News" in gross violation of federal law and FCC rules. You can send email messages and get postal addresses for your congressional representatives and senators here (just enter you zip code in the field provided).

6. Sign a petition to help sack Liz Trotta (click here).

7. Contact FOX – and give 'em hell!

FOX NEWS
1211 Ave. of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Phone: 1-888-369-4762
Fax: 212-301-4229
Feedback@foxnews.com

8. Spread the word!

Send a link to this post to everyone you know who cares about restoring sanity and safety to political campaigning in America, alerting them to your specific concerns and urging them to take action.

---

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

"Support the Troops" = 6,000+ Suicides Per Year

The Democratic Activist
From a recent article by Juan Cole:
---

"Memorial Day is about honoring those who have sacrificed themselves for the nation, in our armed forces. We cannot honor them properly unless we know the full extent of their sacrifice.

Investigative reporters at CBS News found that in 2005, 6,250 veterans took their lives, nearly 18 a day. Emanuel Margolis writes,

'Dr. Ira Katz, chief of mental health services for the Department of Veterans Affairs, sent an e-mail to a VA colleague this past February that read:

"Shh! Our suicide prevention coordinators are identifying about 1,000 suicide attempts per month among the veterans we see in our medical facilities. Is this something we should (carefully) address ourselves in some sort of release before somebody stumbles on it?"'

Margolis charges that Katz covered up this startling statistic, showing 12,000 attempted suicides a year while in VA care, when he testified before Congress.

Have 30,000 veterans died of suicide in the past 5 years? Have 60,000 tried to? Shouldn't these deeply depressed men and women be added to the casualty tolls? Is war a plague on the mind of those who fight it?"

---

An SF Chronicle article confirms the story:

VA mental health chief sorry about 'Shh!' on suicidal vets.

Apparently, creating the conditions for 60,000 suicide attempts among American soldiers during the five year course of the Iraq occupation is what the current neoconservative administration calls "supporting the troops."

How long will the American people put up with the continual parade of these kinds of utter disgraces, one after the other, year after year? Have we finally had enough of this garbage? Will we Americans continue to choose this kind of insane, barbaric mis-leadership? Is this what we want? Is this who we are?

We may get the answers, this coming November.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Torture R Us ... The new U.S.A.

The Democratic Activist
Is this really America? Is this what we've become?

-
Enforced nudity, stress techniques, and worse common at Abu Ghraib, et al
-

Yes, it is.

And each one of us who allows it to continue is responsible.

http://www.harpers.org/archive/2008/04/hbc-90002779

http://gailjonas.blogspot.com/2008/03/exposure-bushs-refusal-to-give-up.html

http://gailjonas.blogspot.com/2008/03/torture-r-us-what-do-you-think.html

Here's something you can do:

http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2165/t/1027/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=23997

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

The Fight for Internet Freedom Comes to Stanford

The Democratic Activist
(Update: complete information about the Stanford FCC hearing on 4/17/08, including the precise campus location at which the meeting will be held, start and end times, a map with specific directions, and a meeting agenda – which DOES include a two-hour period for public comment – can be found by clicking here.)

Do you live in or near the San Francisco Bay Area?

If so, be sure to block off 4/17/08 on your calendar as a day to travel to the beautiful Stanford University campus in Palo Alto, California to attend the FCC hearing on Net Neutrality and the future of the internet.



Net Neutrality is the movement to keep the internet on a level playing field so that Joe's Bookstore can compete on an equal basis right alongside Amazon.com, and The Democratic Activist can be accessed just as easily and conveniently as The Washington Times. Preserving a free and open internet is perhaps the central free press issue facing America today, and is a critical economic issue, as well, for anyone who makes their living directly or indirectly through some form of online activity (isn't that just about everyone, these days?).

Here's the scoop ...

Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, and other giant corporations want to own the internet. Recently, they've have been caught red-handed, with their grubby hands deep in the cookie jar, blocking, filtering, and spying on your internet activities. They plan to turn the internet into just another profit-generating arm of the mainstream media, which, like radio, television, and cable, are off limits to ordinary people and smaller companies, available only to big guys with deep pockets. Should giant telecoms succeed in their effort to kill Net Neutrality, to steal the internet for their own private use and profit, it would literally mean the death of the internet as we've always known it.

The purpose of the FCC meeting is to address the question of "Net Neutrality" and the future of the internet from deep within the heart of the beast, in Silicon Valley, California. Internet industry experts will be giving testimony, and – in a rare move – all five FCC commissioners will be coming to Stanford to attend the 4/17 meeting, as well.

Unbounded corporate arrogance!

At the FCC’s first hearing in Boston, Comcast was actually caught paying seat-fillers to pack the room and keep out the public (read all about it, here)! Now is the chance show our support for Net Neutrality ... to make visible our commitment to preserving in law a free, neutral, vital internet as a public resource available equally to all people, all voices, and all businesses in America.

Can you make it to the meeting? Can you let others know about it?

Here's what you can do:

---

1. Attend the FCC meeting at Stanford on 4/17, if at all possible ... and bring others with you!

For the latest info on the event (including the precise location and time set for the meeting, a map with detailed directions, and an agenda for the meeting) click here or call: 877-888-1533, extension 204.

Note: there WILL be a two-hour period near the end of the meeting for public comments. Get your short, powerful, passionate speech ready ... and then deliver it live and in person to all five FCC commissioners!

2. File your own comment with the FCC ... whether or not you can personally attend the 4/17 meeting at Stanford.

Click here and fill out the form with your comment in support of Net Neutrality (your remarks will be automatically forwarded to the FCC).

Here's a sample message:

-

Commissioners,

The internet is a public resource, built and birthed with public money, and today is used with equal access by all Americans. The free and open internet has strengthened, broadened, and enlivened American democracy and the American economy in countless ways. It should, by right, stay that way.

But the internet as we've always known it is now being gravely threatened by a few giant private companies that would rob the American people of this great national treasure and make it into their own private, profit-generating tool. Their plan is to steal the public internet for their own private gain, and turn it into just another arm of corporate mass media like radio, television, and cable.

The FCC must act now to protect the Internet from corporate gatekeepers that want to block, filter and discriminate against the Web sites and services Americans everywhere use every day, and create and enforce strong regulations that would permanently guarantee Net Neutrality -- the principle that all Americans should have equal access to the amazing miracle of the internet.

The internet in America should continue, in perpetuity, to be owned jointly by all Americans. All of us in this country have an equal right to utilize this phenomenal public resource to express our views, conduct business, and otherwise better our lives ... not just a few wealthy and powerful corporations and individuals!

Keep the internet free and open!

Support Net Neutrality!

Thank you.

-

3. Spread the word!

Send a link to this post to everyone you know who cares about a free and open internet. Let's fill the meeting room at Stanford on 4/17 with like-minded Net Neutrality advocates, and show the FCC how very much this issue matters to the American people!

---

At Thinking Out Loud, blogger Gail Jonas has posted a wonderful article on Ben Scott, head of freepress.net, the driving force behind savetheinternet.com and the Net Neutrality movement ... recommended reading for all Net Neutrality Ninjas.

Here is an article in the Stanford Daily about the 4/17 meeting, here is a flyer you can download and use to promote the event, and here is another action page you can utilize to "tell your friends."

Let's do it!

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Will America Sieze The Opportunity To Be Lead By Someone Great?

The Democratic Activist
The speech is amazing. A home run.

This man is not perfect. But he is certainly a good man, maybe a great man, unquestionably a statesman, perhaps even a true, gifted, and inspired leader ... the first one America has had the chance to have in many, many years.

Will America recognize this opportunity? We shall see.

If you haven't already, please consider taking the time to read something that could bring tears of recognized truth and renewed hope to your eyes, as it did to mine.

Then, I invite you to tell someone else of your own hopes for perfecting our nation, or to take further action in your own way to make them come true.

Barack Obama: "A More Perfect Union."
The Democratic Activist

The Plan To Steal The Internet

The Democratic Activist
(Note: parts this post are not original, utilizing text copied from an email alert I recently received from savetheinternet.com requesting action on this issue.)

Quite simply ... it would be the death of the internet as we've always known it.

Big telephone and cable companies want to own the internet. Their goal is to turn the internet into just another arm of commercial mass media, like radio, television, and cable. But first, they must get rid of Network Neutrality, the fundamental principle that prevents them from discriminating against your favorite Web sites and services.

Under their plan, ordinary people and all but the largest businesses would be practically shut out, unable to host content on the superfast "preferred network" that only the largest companies could afford to utilize, relegated to a grossly undesirable internet "slow lane" that almost no one would use to access news, opinions, or buy products or services.

In firm opposition to the giant telcos' attempt to steal the public internet, Net Neutrality is strongly supported by groups as politically diverse as Gun Owners of America, the Christian Coalition, MoveOn.org, and the American Library Association.

In 2006, the 109th Congress allowed laws that had always guaranteed Net Neutrality to expire, setting the stage for a private takeover of the public's internet by America's largest telecommunications companies.

A new bill by Congressmen Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and Chip Pickering (R-MS) called the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008 (H.R. 5353) would re-establish Net Neutrality as the law of the land. It deserves and needs our full support.

Unless we speak out to our members of Congress, they could move to allow large telephone and cable companies to control what you do, where you go and what you watch online.

Here's what you can do:

---

1. Learn more. Go to savetheinternet.com and check out what's at stake.

2. Join others in sending a loud message supporting Net Neutrality to Congress (click here).

3. Contact your congressional representatives directly. (Click here, then enter your zip code in the field provided). Urge them to give their full and enthusiastic support to the cause of Net Neutrality in general, and to the Internet Freedom and Preservation Act of 2008 (H.R. 5353) in particular.

4. Spread the word about the urgent need to protect Net Neutrality! Send a link to this post to everyone you know who values the democratizing miracle of the free and open internet we've always known, or who depends on it to conduct their business or maintain their livelihood.

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Radio and television were, in their infancy, openly available to ordinary people of modest means to broadcast their own individual messages, if only locally. Now, the internet provides the same ability to any ordinary citizen or small business ... but on an unbelievably vast, world wide scale!

This could, quite easily, all go away – as happened with radio and television – unless we act now to save the internet.

Support Net Neutrality!

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Will this man become the "Elvis" of classical music?

The Democratic Activist
This young conductor is poised to change the history of music.

Slated to take over as the musical director of the L.A. Philharmonic in 2009, Gustavo Dudamel knows how to communicate the essence and beauty of western classical music in a way no one seems to have seen before. He may, in fact, be the one who rescues classical music from cultural obscurity and puts it back at center stage on radios, ipods, and ... well ... stages everywhere, where it belongs.

Dudamel was saved by music and the Venezuelan System (a government-sponsored initiative to train poor children to become accomplished musicians as an alternative to impoverishment and criminal street life). Who knows how many other game-changing individuals like this are just waiting to be given a chance to get past the need simply to survive, so they can share their powerful talents with all of humanity?

If you have a few minutes, give yourself a gift and watch the video piece on Dudamel recently produced by 60 Minutes (be sure to check out each of the ten short clips that make up the piece; all are wonderful).

Gustavo reveals, through his own genius and passion, the special genius and passion inherent within each of us. He reminds us, through music, that this is it. This is what it is to be human. This is what the struggle is for. This is why it all matters.

If you love music, life, or both ... you may never be the same.

Enjoy!

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Now THAT'S an economic stimulus package ...

The Democratic Activist
Want to stave off recession and build a vibrant, robust, modernized American economy?

The answer could be as simple as planting glass wires and legislating federal Net Neutrality rules to finally bring to fruition the dream of an open, lightning-fast, level internet superhighway we were promised during the Clinton years.

The following article gives details:

Broadband Legislation Would Provide Economic Stimulus of $134 Billion Annually

Quoting from the article:

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"A report released by national non-profit Connected Nation measures the national economic stimulus of broadband legislation currently under Congressional consideration. The report details the potential state-by-state impact of legislation to accelerate broadband access and use. Its findings suggest that the U.S. could realize an impact of $134 billion annually from a modest increase in broadband adoption."

---

In Japan, broadband that costs $40 per month gets you speeds literally 50-100 times faster than what you get for that fee in the good 'ol USA.

Unfortunately, what's most important in neoconservative America is protecting the profits and backsides of the telecom industry executives – not economic stimulus.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Oh my God ... in Dallas, of all places!

The Democratic Activist
From an article appearing yesterday in the pages of Star-Telegram.com (web facade of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram):

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"Security details at Barack Obama's rally Wednesday stopped screening people for weapons at the front gates more than an hour before the Democratic presidential candidate took the stage at Reunion Arena.

"The order to put down the metal detectors and stop checking purses and laptop bags came as a surprise to several Dallas police officers who said they believed it was a lapse in security.

"Dallas Deputy Police Chief T.W. Lawrence, head of the Police Department's homeland security and special operations divisions, said the order -- apparently made by the U.S. Secret Service -- was meant to speed up the long lines outside and fill the arena's vacant seats before Obama came on."

---

What in the world is going on, here?

Secret Service personnel order local police to stop checking thousands of people for weapons for one full hour as they enter a live event where Barack Obama will be speaking?

Is this the kind of federal "protection" Obama can expect if he survives long enough to be elected president?

Are we living in the United States of America ... or in some tin-pot, third-world dictatorship where "mistakes" like this end up conveniently eliminating popular young leaders bearing messages of change that threaten the entrenched power structure?

This is exactly the issue I've been most worried about regarding an Obama presidency – the greatly increased probability of an assassination.

After I read this terribly disturbing story, picked my jaw up off the floor, and collected my thoughts, I realized I could think of only two possible explanations for the facts: surreal stupidity, or conspiracy. Either this act of astounding idiocy simply typifies the profound incompetence, utter carelessness, and criminal negligence imposed on us every day by the neoconservative Bush administration ... or it really is in fact evidence of the total willingness of antidemocratic elements in the U.S. political establishment to do absolutely anything, no matter how sick, twisted, brutal, or perverse, including covering up the truth about 9-11, staging another false-flag event to start a war in Iran so that yet another neocon psychopath can take office or martial law can be declared, you name it – to commit any despicable crime of any kind – in order to gain and retain power.

I think we may have to admit that Occam's Razor may actually suggest conspiracy as the simplest way to account for this event and for others so hard to explain any other way. We don't have to go nuts with it, but it could well be that this is the best exegesis for the observable facts at this point.

I don't know why I'm still surprised. But I am.

Here's what you can do:

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1. Pass along this story and a link to this post to as many people as you can (to your entire address book, if possible).

2. Contact major national media to insist on coverage of this story. To do so, click here and here.

3. Get in touch with your congressional representatives and demand an investigation into how such a thing as this could possible happen in today's security-obsessed America. Click here to find and contact your representatives (just enter your zip code where prompted).

---

If this latest great insanity doesn't generate a firestorm of public protest and outrage, probably nothing will. If these alarming facts don''t command the attention of the mainstream media or awaken deep concern within the mind of Joe Average, it's because we're living in denial of the dreadful seriousness of the truly dire situation in which we Americans find ourselves in 2008.

Standing dumbfounded and frozen like a deer staring into oncoming headlights doesn't help.

Action does.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

It's official: George W. Bush is by far the most unpopular president in modern American history

The Democratic Activist
A new poll by the American Research Group found that only 19% of American adults (never mind babies ...) approve of the job Bush was doing as president, while a whopping 77% disapprove.

In blasting through the previous record held by Harry Truman (22% approval, during the Koren War), Bush has succeeded in highlighting the signature accomplishment of his presidency: unpopularity ... of his own administration at home, and of America and Americans throughout the rest of the world.

From an article by blogger Will Bunch:

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And so now George W. Bush has shattered a record that has stood for 55 long years, and there's not any one reason. It's everything, although I suspect that liberals would more likely say Iraq and torture, conservatives would say immigration and runaway spending, and everyone would now say the economy.

It takes more than unpopularity to become the worst president ever, but this may be the straw that broke the camel's back on that front. It should remind us all what the 2008 election is all about, and it's not about Hillary's wardrobe or an off-the-cuff remark or who is the Second Coming of Ronald Reagan.

It's only about who can undo the damage of the last eight years. It's amazing so many people wanted such a difficult task.

-

In light of the coming election, it behooves us to examine the factors that led to Bush's failure as president, his selection by the American people not only once, but twice, as the person best qualified to lead our country, and the refusal (so far) of our representatives to remove him from office – that such tragic mistakes might not be repeated.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Weeping Liberty

The Democratic Activist
Which are worse: criminal, neo-fascist, Republican neocons ... or enabling, quisling, faux-0pposition Democrats?

Answer: enabling, quisling, faux-0pposition Democrats.

Read ... and weep.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

This could be it ... Conyers can be moved

The Democratic Activist
This could the moment we've been waiting for.

According to an email sent out today by democrats.com, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers may finally be seeing the light:

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"On Thursday, Chairman John Conyers' House Judiciary Committee held a hearing at which Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that he would not investigate torture or warrantless spying, he would not enforce contempt citations, and he would treat Justice Department opinions as providing immunity for crimes.

None of this was new, but perhaps it touched something in Conyers that had not been touched before. Following the hearing, he and two staffers met for over an hour with two members of Code Pink and discussed activism and impeachment, including Congressman Robert Wexler's proposal to begin impeachment hearings on Cheney.

Conyers expressed his concerns about what might happen following an impeachment, the danger of installing a Bush replacement or losing an election. But he said he's listening to several advocates for impeachment, including Liz Holtzman and David Swanson of Democrats.com. He hinted he could be swayed by a convincing argument, leaning out of his chair for dramatic effect."

---

In what may have been the last straw for Conyers, Attorney General Michael Mukasy came right out and said flatly last week that he simply will NOT enforce contempt of Congress citations against White House staff members Karl Rove, Harriet Miers, Josh Bolten, et al. Together with the startling recent admission by the Bush administration that, despite constant denials of the use of torture in interrogations, the U.S. has indeed used waterboarding on prisoners (recently reconfirmed by the U.N. as torture, a war crime), their monarchistic arrogance may finally have become to much for Conyers to stand.

Now will Mr. Conyers move impeachment forward?

Or will he instead go down in history as the man who traded away the essential principle of checks and balances in our American system of government to prevent what he for some reason feared could be negative political ramifications for his party in an election year?

Within the context of impeachment proceedings Bush and Cheney's claims of "executive privilege" would be unquestionably moot and without legal standing. With Mukasey's recent refusal to enforce congressional contempt citations against Bush administration officials, impeachment is now literally the only way left for Congress to exercise it's constitutionally mandated oversight responsibilities.

There's no any longer excuse not to impeach. None. Without impeachment over the refusal of the executive branch to acknowledge and permit congress to exercise its oversight duties, no future president will have any reason to honor congressional subpoenas. The precedent will have been established: "executive privilege" means no one the White House doesn't want to have under oath will ever have to give sworn testimony. The executive branch will no longer be accountable before congress or the people. Congress will have no ability to compel testimony of individuals within the executive branch, and without any meaningful oversight capability or function, no checks or balances will remain within our system of government. No more democracy in America. Monarchy in the U.S.A.

Is the shamelessness of Conyers, Pelosi, and the Democratic Party leadership so extreme as to allow this to happen ... to let the crucial separation of powers doctrine just die, and American democracy with it, without any fight or opposition, on their watch, for the sake of their own pathetic timidity and inexcusable, terminal cautiousness and obsessive concern about possible political inexpediency?

Is this the legacy John Conyers intends to leave to his posterity? Are the Dems really this shallow? This gutless? This embarrassingly, criminally spineless and negligent? Do they actually value democracy in America so very little as to allow this to happen? Are they really such utter sellouts and quislings?

Here's what you can do:

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1. Contact HJC Chairman John Conyers, and demand that he finally allow the Cheney impeachment resolution to move forward and impeachment hearings to begin. Remind Mr. Conyers of the terrible damage and dishonorable legacy that he and other Democratic leaders will leave behind them if they continue to ignore the constitutional requirement to impeach brazen criminals occupying highest elected offices in our land, and in so doing fail in their sworn duty to "support and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic ..."

Any and all forms of contact with Chairman Conyers are important and encouraged at this critical time: phone calls, emails, faxes, letters. Can you generate one of each? Can you do it more than once? Every day this week? A phone call only takes a minute (if the lines are busy, try sending a quick email message or fax).

Here is John Conyers's full contact info:

Chairman John Conyers, Jr.
House Judiciary Committee
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-5126
Fax: 202-225-0072
Email: John.Conyers@mail.house.gov

2. Spread the word! Send along a link to this post to as many people as you can, with your request that they join the impeachment effort at this critical time.

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If Conyers refuses to allow impeachment to go forward in light of Attorney General Mukasey's flat refusal uphold the law and honor congressional authority, Conyers will be known as the man with all the power who nevertheless did nothing while the match was put to the torch that destroyed American democracy.

Mr. Conyers is now, more than ever, the pivot point. He is exactly where all pressure needs to be applied at this moment. Everything is already in place. A bill of impeachment sits waiting for his committee to act on it. The power to begin impeachment hearings is his, and his alone. All that needs to happen is for Mr. Conyers to give the word.

Nearly 80 years old, I bet Congressman Conyers is thinking about how he wants to be remembered. My guess is he does not want to do down in history as the man who could have saved American democracy, but instead chose not to. Right now, finally, he's movable. With our added pressure at this crucial moment to convince him to do what's right for our country and for his own personal legacy, impeachment may actually materialize ... and with it, the hope that our children and grandchildren will live in a democratic United States of America.

Now, more than ever, your efforts and mine are essential. We may finally have the chance to roll the impeachment ball over the top of the hill and down the other side.

Please – now and for the next several days – it's time to deluge John Conyers with communications demanding immediate impeachment of Dick Cheney!

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

The "Protect America Act" is EXACTLY what Orwell had in mind

The Democratic Activist
In a 30-second video making the rounds on YouTube, Senator Russ Feingold gives a masterfully concise explanation of exactly what telecom immunity means, and what we stand to lose, if the Dems let Bush and Cheney get his way just one more time.

The "Protect America Act" (Orwellian for the "Destroy America by Eviscerating the Constitution Act") is precisely what Orwell prophesied in his prescient classic novel, 1984.

This 30-second video says it all:



Should PAA be enacted as permanent law with provisions granting immunity for telecom companies that colluded with the administration in Bush's illegal NSA domestic spying program, 1984 will have come to life in 2008. Criminal and civil cases against guilty telecoms will forever be disallowed, and we will likely never be able to find out the truth about the depth and breadth of the Bush administration's assualt on our privacy rights or hold the individuals involved accountable for these extremely serious crimes against our nation.

Earlier this week, the Democrats once again gave their lunch money to bully Republicans by passing a 15 day extension of PAA, keeping it alive until 2/15/08. In an excellent post on DailyKos two days ago, author mcjoan debriefs us on meeting Senator Feingold held on 1/29/08 "with a handful of bloggers to talk abut critical issues facing the Senate," chief among them being the proposed updates to FISA, PAA, and the urgent need to prevent the granting of immunity to telecom companies guilty of cooperating with Mr. Bush is his illegal NSA domestic spying operations. The post is a must read, and does a fine job of dissecting the complexities of the various amendments being offered to FISA.

In addition, the DailyKos post provides the following list of Democratic senators "most likely to cave to Republican pressure." It's these particular Democrats that we need to target:

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Bayh (IN)
Phone: 202-224-5623
Fax: 202-228-1377

-

Carper (DE)
Phone: 202-224-2441
Fax: 202-228-2190

-

Feinstein (CA)
Phone: 202-224-3841
Fax: 202-228-3954

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Inouye (HI)
Phone: 202-224-3934
Fax: 202-224-6747

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Johnson (SD)
Phone: 202-224-5842
Fax: 202-228-5765
-

Landrieu (LS)
Phone: 202-224-5824
Fax: 202-224-9735

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Lincoln (AR)
Phone: 202-224-4843
Fax: 202-228-1371

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McCaskill (MO)
Phone: 202-224-6154
Fax: 202-228-6326

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Mikulski (MD)
Phone: 202-224-4654
Fax: 202-224-8858

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Nelson (FL)
Phone: 202-224-5274
Fax: 202-228-2183

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Nelson (NE)
Phone: 202-224-6551
Fax: 202-228-0012

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Pryor (AR)
Phone: 202-224-2353
Fax: 202-228-0908

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Rockefeller (WV)
Phone: 202-224-6472
Fax: 202-224-7665

-

Salazar (CO)
Phone: 202-224-5852
Fax: 202-228-5036

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Here's what you can do:

1. Contact your own senators ... and make sure they get the message: NO TELECOM IMMUNITY! (To find your senators, click here.)

2. Contact the 14 senators listed above ... and deliver the same emphatic message.

3. Send a link to this post to everyone you know who values the rule of law and democracy in America, and urge them to do as you've done!

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Emails sent to congressional reps make a big difference, also ... especially when done "in mass." Here's a very simple way to maximize the efficiency and effectiveness of your emailing efforts:

A. Compose a short, passionate, generic template message (150 words or less) urging NO TELECOM IMMUNITY.

B. Go to Congress.org, enter your zip code in the field indicated for finding your representatives, select "Federal," select the the particular officials you wish to contact and the type of message you want to send (email, letter, or *Extra Impact), and send them all a copy of your message with one click!

* Select the "Extra Impact" option when sending your message ... and for just $8.95 your message will be arrive speedily in your rep's office as a hand-delivered "Advocacy Express" letter!

C. Go to the Congress.org Media Guide, enter your zip code in the "Local Media" field (be sure that "Show national media ..." is checked), select up to five local and/or national media outlets at a time, and with a single click send your message to all of them, as well!

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The senate will vote on various FISA amendments on Monday, 2/4/08, and so our energetic activity in firm opposition to telecom immunity is immensely important right now ... and will remain so until the expiration of PAA set for 2/15/08.

It will take about 20 minutes to call your own senators and the 14 listed above. Committed activists may be able to find to the time to do it each day until 2/15/08! But even just a few calls from the list above made each day would go a long way to convincing reluctant senate Democrats to finally do what's right and stand up as a group to the big, bad, scary Republicans.

Let's all do all we can at this critical time!

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

"All We Want Do Do Is Eat Your Brains" (or how Republican zombies bargain with pathetic Dems)

The Democratic Activist


I thought you might enjoy this fantastic animated music video of neocon Republicans contracting with gutless, pleading Pelosi/Reid/Conyers Democrats, called "All We Want to Do is Eat Your Brains" by upcoming songwriter Jonathan Coulton.

It's a truly excellent commentary on the Democrats' latest pathetic cave-in to the "big, bad, bully neocons." This time, it's a new 15-day extension of the "Protect America Act" to enable Bush time to get everything he wants, yet again ... namely, a "Trust Us" Government and updates to FISA that further eviscerate the Constitution by virtually requiring government spying ports on all computers and eavesdropping jacks outside all U.S. homes.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Brattleboro, VT Threatens To Arrest Bush and Cheney for "Crimes Against the Constitution"

The Democratic Activist
Please consider supporting the courageous town of Brattleboro, Vermont with a quick phone call or email today.

It seems that this fiesty New England village has decided to make George W. Bush and Dick Cheney subject to arrest for "crimes against the Constitution," should they ever make the mistake of visiting Battleboro.

From an article in Yahoo! News:

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BRATTLEBORO, Vt. - A town petition making President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney subject to arrest for crimes against the Constitution has triggered a barrage of criticism from people who say residents are "wackjobs" and "nuts."

In e-mail messages, voicemail messages and telephone calls, outraged people are calling the measure the equivalent of treason and vowing never to visit Vermont.

News of the measure made the rounds on the Internet, and soon people started calling and writing. The Brattleboro Area Chamber of Commerce got about 60 e-mails Monday, all of them negative, said Executive Director Jerry Goldberg

A day later, he said, "we had three or four calls in a row that were very positive. One even volunteered to help."

---

Please contact Jerry Goldberg to express your support of Brattleboro's courageous move to do what Congress is obligated to do ... namely, to "support and defend the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic."

Here's how to contact Mr. Goldberg:

---

Jerry Golberg
Executive Director –
Battleboro Area Chamber of Commerce
180 Main Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301
802-254-4565
877-254-4564
info@brattleborochamber.org

---

Click here to go to the Brattleboro Chamber of Commerce web site, and here to access the site's contact page.

Though it's not terribly likely to happen ... wouldn't you just love to see the Brattleboro police putting Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney in cuffs?!

If you get a chance to visit the beautiful state of Vermont, be sure to stop over in Brattleboro and pay a visit to its independent and patriotic inhabitants.

Brattleboro ... we salute you!

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Tell the Senate: NO IMMUNITY for Bush and his telecom buddies!

The Democratic Activist
(Note: in my haste to get this action alert out, I copied, pasted, and modified material from various email alerts I'd recently received, in order to get this alert up and out as quickly as possible; therefore, much of the text below was not authored by me.)

Tomorrow, 1/27/08, the Senate will vote on reauthorization of the "Protect America Act." For those of you who don't speak Orwellian, the plain English translation of the "Protect America Act" is the "Destroy America by Eviscerating the Constitution (which IS America) Act." Ostensibly an update to the FISA law, the bill rushed to the Senate floor would make the Orwellian PAA permanent U.S. law, and includes language granting retroactive immunity to telecom companies that wiretapped Americans illegally, without warrants, as required by FISA and the 4th Amendment (activity first denied by Bush during the 2004 presidential campaign but then outed much to his chagrin in December, 2005). What's worse is that any bill that grants telecoms immunity -- and codifies that warrantless wiretapping is legal -- could also grant President Bush immunity from prosecution for spying on Americans and breaking the law. As a blogger on Daily Kos succinctly framed it: "telecom immunity is Bush immunity."

To stop this assault on our right to privacy, Senator Chris Dodd has reaffirmed his promise to filibuster any Senate bill that contains retroactive immunity for telecommunications companies. Senator Dodd needs our full support (see below, for what you can do to help in this critical effort to save our civil liberties).

An amendment offered by neocon collaborator Senator Diane Feinstein (D - California) would have the secret FISA court itself -- instead of a public court -- determine whether the telecoms deserve immunity. According to Feinstein's amendment, the FISA court's decision would be based on whether the telecoms had a "good faith, reasonable belief that assistance was legal."

That's ridiculous!

Here's what you can do:

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1. Call your two U.S. Senators – to express your fervent opposition to any provision for telecom immunity in the new FISA bill before the senate vote on telecom immunity that will likely occur the morning of Monday, 1/28/08. Urge your two senators to fully support Senator Dodd's promised filibuster of any FISA bill containing immunity provisions for criminal telecom companies that colluded with Bush in blatant and flagrant violation of the law. Don't let them give Bush and his friends in the telecom industry a "get out of jail free" card!

The easiest way to call your U.S. senators is to call the toll-free Capitol Switchboard number, and ask to speak to the office of a particular U.S. senator or congressperson (Capitol Switchboard operators can tell you who your two senators are, if you're not sure):

1-800-828-0498.

To find complete contact info for your senators (Washington D.C. and district office phone and fax numbers, email and web site links, etc.), click here and then enter your zip code in the field indicated for finding your elected officials.

2. Call Senator Diane Feinstein – and urge her to drop any effort to "compromise" on the question of telecom immunity in FISA. Tell her that you and millions of Americans are terribly concerned about letting crooks off the hook, that we're watching carefully what she does on this issue, and that you expect her to do the right thing and support Senator Dodd's courageous filibuster of any FISA bill containing immunity provisions.

Senator Feinstein can be contacted through the Capitol Switchboard (see above), or directly through her senate offices in Washington, D.C. and California (why not call and/or fax all her offices ... just to be sure she gets the message!):

Washington, DC office
Phone: 202-224-3841
Fax: 202-228-3954

Los Angeles office
Phone: 310-914-7300
Fax:310-914-7318

San Francisco office
Phone: 415-393-0707
Fax: 415-393-0710

San Diego office
Phone: 619-231-9712Fax: 619-231-1108

Fresno office
Phone: 559-485-7430
Fax: 559-485-9689

Click here to email Senator Feinstein.

3. Send out a link to this post – to anyone and everyone you know who thinks the rule of law in America is important, and that criminals in giant corporations and in our nation's highest offices should not be allowed to place themselves above the same laws that would put you or I in jail for the rest of our lives.

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When you ask Senator Feinstein to support Senator Dodd's filibuster, a staffer may respond that Senator Feinstein has introduced amendments to the bill reauthorizing FISA.

Wiretapping Americans without a warrant is illegal. And Feinstein's "good faith" amendment is totally unacceptable.

FISA is a secret court. Of the many thousands of requests for wiretaps that it has considered over the last 30 years, it has rejected a small handful -- perhaps as few as five. This is not the same as a court of law, where the public has the right to examine evidence and file their own claims. FISA courts do not provide for the protection of basic rights. And to allow the FISA courts to determine the legitimacy of telecom actions is to take this crucial decision out of the hands of the courts, therefore undermining the rule of law.
Bradley Whitford filmed a great short video for couragecampaign.org explaining the issue and asking Senator Feinstein and the rest of the U.S. senate to stand up for the Constitution.

Check it out:



Time is of the essence.

Your calls need to go out as early as possible on the morning of Monday, 1/28/08 – the senate may vote on FISA immunity provisions as early as the start of business that day.

Please ... spread the word ... far, wide, and with haste.

Then make your calls!

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Net Neutrality Ninjas Needed NOW

The Democratic Activist
A nondiscriminatory, open, equally available internet represents perhaps the greatest advancement in human society since the invention of the printing press. A level playing field for all people, businesses, and ideas has supercharged the possibilities for democracy and real freedom in the world and for vastly improved economies and lifestyles across the globe.

However, the free and equal internet as we have always known it may be nearing extinction.

The Critical Issue ...

Telecom conglomerates (ATT, Viacom, Comcast, etc.) are trying to “buy” the internet! Their plan is to create a two-tiered system to maximize their private profits from an internet system originally created by public, government funding: a super fast new fiber optic internet for their best paying customers, and a slow “dirt road” for the rest of us. Only the biggest companies would be able to afford placement on the “super internet,” relegating other medium and small businesses, individuals, and organizations to the uncompetitiveness and obscurity of their internet “slow lane.”

The internet, under this horrible system, would quickly devolve into just another medium of commerce and advertisement for the biggest businesses in America, as happened with television several decades ago. Why would anyone patronize “Mom and Pop" bookstores or get their news at “So and So’s Blog” if using “Borders.com” or “Fox News” was 100 time faster, more convenient, and more reliable?! The critical democratizing aspect – the “level playing field” – of today’s internet, would be dead and gone.

That’s why groups as diverse as the conservative Gun Owners of America and the Christian Coalition on the right, and liberal MoveOn.org and the American Civil Liberties Union on the left, together with companies such as Google and Microsoft that depend on a free, vibrant, healthy internet for their survival, have come out strongly in support of re-enacting legislation to protect Net Neutrality (to replace laws put in place at the inception of the internet but allowed to expire in 2006 during the Republican 109th Congress).

Contrary to the deliberately deceitful pronouncements of giant telecoms and their supporters in Congress, the "Net Neutrality" movement does NOT seek to impose new regulations on the internet, but only to keep in place the legal protections and safeguards that have been in existence since the internet began -- the very laws which have enabled the amazing growth and innovation that has always characterized the internet, and for the tremendous social and economic advancement that a free and open internet has brought to our own country and to nations and peoples throughout the world.

But unfortunately, the fantastic, miraculous, nondiscriminatory internet as we know it may soon disappear from our lives ... without your support, and that of your concerned friends and associates.

Visit the following site to get full and complete information on the subject, and to find out what you can do to protect the internet from yet another attempt by “free market” oligarchs to kill competition and build an undemocratic information monopoly:

http://www.savetheinternet.com/.

Here's another wonderful site that does an excellent job of presenting the true motives and intentions of the telecom industry, and how bad things could get if they succeed in turning the now public internet into their own private cash cow:

http://www.weownthenet.org/.

The following video, produced by savetheinternet.com, is a great introduction to critical need to reinstate strong federal Net Neutrality regulations:



For an entertaining if slightly irreverent look at the issue, click here to watch another video.

The Current Opportunity ...

We have already seen blatant moves towards making a two tier, censored toll road out of our wide open democratic internet. Comcast recently began unfairly discriminating against particular users and disfavored content, and, after first calling Net Neutrality a solution in search of a problem, AT&T then censored Pearl Jam's criticism of Bush during a live internet concert broadcast and Verizon likewise censored NARAL's pro choice text messages.

The FCC has bowed to pressure and is investigating complaints that Comcast is selectively blocking traffic. On 1/14/08, the FCC released a request for public comment on the establishment of rules to govern "network management practices by broadband network operators" -- i.e. the reinstitution of formal Net Neutrality regulations. The outcome of this investigation and the collecting of public comment on this question could be critical in the fight to defend the internet from usurpation by private corporate interests.

This is our chance ... to save the internet!

The deadline for filing public comments with the FCC on this issue is 2/13/08. To facilitate submission of public comments on this issue, John Leasch (a great "New Democrat" with a real shot at winning the congressional seat in Dennis Hastert's old district) and PEN (People's Email Network) have created an action page that pipes your personal comments into the FCC electronic filing system and also sends your messages to your congressional representatives at the same time!

The Urgent Call To Action ...

Now is a critical moment in the effort to save the internet, a pivot point in time when your action is urgently needed and its effectiveness will be greatly multiplied.

Here's what you can do:

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1. Speak out! Use the action page to send your comment strongly supporting the adoption of strict federal Net Neutrality rules to the FCC and your congressional reps. Tell them that you ardently support federal regulations guaranteeing true Net Neutrality, and that you oppose any attempts by giant telecoms to weaken or dismantle the foundational principle of internet freedom and neutrality for all people, organizations, and businesses, large or small.

2. Spead the word! Send a link to this post to everyone you know who appreciates the internet miracle or who depends on it in their business or daily lives (isn't that just about everyone?), and urge them to send their comments in support of Net Neutrality to the FCC before the 2/13/08 deadline passes.

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If enough of us put out enough energy on this, doing our duty as citizens and internet users, we can keep the precious public internet out of clutches of corporate media conglomerates, and keep it the free, open, neutral, miraculous shared resource it is today.

Let's do it!

File those comments!

Spread the word!

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Retire The Savage Weiner! NO SAVAGE!

The Democratic Activist
Michael Weiner, a.k.a. Michael Savage , is the third most popular talk show host in America, and reaches 8 million listeners every day 400 radio stations throughout the U.S. with his ultra-right extremist radio talk show, The Savage Nation.

Savage's message is truly savage: unyielding hate, authoritarian demagoguery and bullying, and fascist persecution. The same kind of religious hate, intolerance, bigotry, racism, and fascism that in the 1920's through 1940's turned democratic Germany into the sickest, most brutal nation the world has yet seen.

Click here for a sample (warning: this audio is upsetting ... but after hearing it, you'll likely want to do something to stop this guy). Then, on the same page, scroll slightly down and look to the left for a list of a few of Savage's other contemptible and chilling remarks (text and audio).

Don Imus was taken off the air and humbled for his offensive remarks, and rightly so. But Michael Savage, who's ten -- no -- a hundred times worse than Imus ever was, is for some strange reason still sponsored and allowed with impunity to continue using our publicly owned and funded airwaves to spew his crazy, disgusting, hateful daily diatribes.

An article recently appearing in The New York Times recounts the rise of The Savage Weiner, the controversy surrounding him, and the boycott now facing sponsors of his show. Hoping to further complicate things for The Weiner, activists at bravenewfilms.org have recently initiated a NO SAVAGE campaign to remove the stench of this man's message from American radio.

The good news is that several major sponsors of The Savage Nation have pulled their advertising since the NO SAVAGE movement began: Citrix Systems, Office Max, Intuit (TurboTax), TrustedID, Chattem (Gold Bond, Icy-Hot, Garlique), Union Bank of California, ITT Technical Institute. Congratulations and thanks to these companies for admitting their error and doing the right thing! Please reward them with your patronage and messages of approval.

The bad news is that, as of 1/25/08, the "still proud sponsors" of Savages's radio bullying include: Geico Insurance, Office Depot, Wyeth Consumer Healthcare (Advil, Robitussin, Centrum), and Stamps.com.

Citizens concerned with beating back the reactionary, fascist bigotry, unvarnished hate, and savage brutality that Savage and others like him promote every day across the public airwaves should urge Savage's remaining commercial sponsors to pull all advertising from his show.

Here's what you can do to help finally retire Michael Savage:

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1. Call, email, or snail-mail the sponsors of The Savage Nation, using the links above.

Don't attack them, but let the sponsor know that Savage's insane bigotry and hate mongering is shocking and unacceptable, that you're sure they wouldn't want to be associated with such cruel and ugly behavior, that you'll not be a customer of theirs if they continue to sponsor Savage, and that you'll be encouraging others to act likewise.

2. Then have some fun!

The call-in number for his radio show is 800-449-8255, and he is generally on the air between 6-9pm ET. Bite your tongue in order to get by the phone monitors, but when you do and you get on the air, enjoy yourself. Take the high road. Don't go to his level. You might consider expressing your dismay that particular sponsors are supporting and promoting this sickness.

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Together ... we can retire the Savage Weiner!

NO SAVAGE!

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

The Problem? It's Nadler ...

The Democratic Activist
For weeks, now, activists supporters of democracy all over the world have been waiting for a miracle to occur ... namely, for Democratic leaders to grow a spine, remember their oaths to defend the Constitution, learn to throw a punch, and begin impeachment hearings against American Vice President Dick Cheney.

What's the problem? It's Nadler.

The Cheney impeachment resolution is stalled in the House Judiciary Committee .(HJC) ... specifically, in the sub-committee headed by Congressman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY, 8th). Despite overwhelming pubic support of impeachment, and growing pro-impeachment pressure in the House, Nadler and company are, apparently, determined to defend not the Constitution but rather Republican criminals and emperor wanna-bes currently holding our nation's top elected offices.

Democrats like HJC Chairman John Conyers are even floating a proposal for non-impeachment hearings on the "imperial presidency" that they hope will enable them to run out the clock while mollifying the burgeoning impeachment movement that's been giving anti-impeachment Dumb-o-crats all such a headache.

Whether his policy of no-impeachment for imperial presidents and vice presidents is his own or was handed to him by Democratic Fuhrer Nancy Pelosi, it appears that Nadler is now the pivot point on the impeachment issue. He's the decider right now ... and as I opined in an earlier post, Mr. Nadler has become the man whose mind we need to change.

Here's what you can do:

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1. Call, fax, and/or write Congressman Nadler to express your ardent support for impeachment and demand that he respect his oath of office, stop stalling impeachment hearings, and allow the Cheney impeachment resolution (H. Res. 799) now stuck in the HJC subcommittee he chairs to advance out of committee to full hearings before the House.

Nadler is the man, at this moment. He's the pivot point. Call him every day, if possible! (It really only takes a minute.)

Contact info:

Hon. Jerrold Nadler
2334 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-5635
Fax: 202-225-6923
Email (only for those in Nadler's district):
http://www.house.gov/nadler/emailform.shtml

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2. Call, fax, and/or write HJC Chairman John Conyers to communicate your pro-impeachment message, question the delaying tactics he and other Democratic leaders are using to stonewall impeachment, and insist that hearings be held on Cheney's impeachment immediately.

Conyers's flip-flop on impeachment is unconscionable. Let him know!

Contact info:

Chairman John Conyers, Jr.
House Judiciary Committee
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-5126
Fax: 202-225-0072
Email: John.Conyers@mail.house.gov

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3. Call, fax, and/or write to the "Quilsing Queen" herself, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, to tell her that she has no right to take constitutional provisions like impeachment "off the table" and that she and other leading Democrats must get out of the way of the people and allow impeachment to go forward.

Further, make sure that Ms. Pelosi understands that, absent a quick turn-around in the priorities of invertebrate Democratic Party leaders, she and other Democrats will pay with their jobs as a vast number of inflamed, irate democratic activists work to remove them from office and replace them with progressive candidates who do value the constitution and the privilege of representing us.

(Note: Cindy Sheehan is opposing Nancy Pelosi in the upcoming November election. Please ... lend all the support you can to Cindy's attempt to unseat Pelosi in California's 8th district! Click here to go to Cindy's campaign site.)

Contact info:

Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Office of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-4965
Fax: 202-225-4188

Email: AmericanVoices@mail.house.gov

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4. Call, fax, and/or write to your own congressperson. It's easy! Just call the toll free Capitol Switchboard number during business hours and ask to speak to the office of any member of the House or Senate (if you're not sure who your representatives are, they can tell you).

Here's the number:

1-800-828-0498.

Click here to find your own congressperson's web site.

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It literally takes just five minutes to make calls to these four congressional reps. Do it every day, if you can!

Again ... here's the toll-free Capitol Switchboard number (have you memorized it yet?:

1-800-828-0498.

In addition, it's important to lobby the mainstream media to publicize the impeachment, and the problem currently posed by sticks-in-the-mud Pelosi, Conyers, and Nadler. Click here to go to this blog's media contact page where you'll find dozens of live email links to key national media outlets. Please also consider contacting local, national, and international newspapers to express your support for impeachment and request more coverage of the issue.

Contrary to the president's stated belief, the constitution is not just a "goddamned piece of paper" but the living foundation of law in our nation. And contrary to neocon collaborators Pelosi, Conyers, and Nadler, impeachment is not optional. Impeachment is a requirement written into the constitution by our nation's founders to equip us to deal with exactly the kind situation we find ourselves in today ... with an iniquitous president and vice-president who fancy themselves dictators, men above the law, and rulers over us.

Time to get out those calls, faxes, and letters, people!

Right now ... it's Nadler.

Let's nail him!

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Study: 935 False Statements About Iraq in "Orchesrated Campaign" to Deceive

The Democratic Activist
I heard this story broadcast on the CNN news this morning over the car radio. Apparently, even the mainstream media is finally getting it.

A recently released study by the non-partisan Center for Public Integrity confirms that:

"President George W. Bush and seven of his administration's top officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, made at least 935 false statements in the two years following September 11, 2001, about the national security threat posed by Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Nearly five years after the U.S. invasion of Iraq, an exhaustive examination of the record shows that the statements were part of an orchestrated campaign that effectively galvanized public opinion and, in the process, led the nation to war under decidedly false pretenses."

Read the entire report here.

(To access the searchable database of 935 false statements used in the study, click here).

So, apparently, it's official: Bush lied, a million died.

How much more of this kind of misleadership are we Americans going to take ... or can we afford to take?

If you're like me, your jaw just can't drop any lower without dislocating, and you've truly had enough ... click here, here, and here to see what you can do.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Support Wexler's Impeachment Presentation!

The Democratic Activist
(Update: It looks like we got the details wrong on this. Apparently, Congressman Wexler was scheduled to make a pro-impeachment speech to congress the evening of Wednesday, 1/15 and to present his online petition and letters appealing for impeachment hearings to House Judiciary Committee Chairman Conyers and the other members of the HJC sometime on Wednesday, 1/16 [here is the speech, and here are the letters]. Sorry about that. At least we were early!)

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The pressure for impeachment appears to be building.

Last month, Congressman Robert Wexler (D – Florida, 19th) and two fellow members of the House Judiciary Committee and launched a high-profile effort to lobby other HJC members to support the Cheney Impeachment Resolution, H. Res. 799. Congressman Wexler started an online petition urging Cheney's impeachment that so far has garnered nearly 200,000 signatures, and will be presenting his petition to Congress this Tuesday, 1/15/08, between 7 and 10pm, EST.

In a further indication that things are heating up on this issue, the New York Sun reported on the recent arrest of activists engaged in civil disobedience to support the impeachment effort.

From the Sun's article on 1/4/08:

"Four anti-war protesters were arrested at Rep. Jerrold Nadler's Brooklyn office Wednesday night when they refused to leave after closing hours.

The demonstrators, part of a group of about 15, sought to convince Mr. Nadler, who sits on the House Judiciary Committee, to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney."

Congressman Wexler needs a huge deluge of support for impeachment right now to bolster his important presentation to congress this Tuesday evening!

The word has gone out to activists to get back on their phones and fax machines, and inundate key House reps with calls and faxes supporting Cheney's impeachment from early on Monday, 1/14/08 through 10pm EST on Tuesday, 1/15/08. In your communications to congressional reps, tell them of your enthusiastic support of the effort to impeach Dick Cheney, ask them for immediate hearings on H. Res. 799, and urge these reps to co-sign Wexler's impeachment letter to HJC Chairman John Conyers and to send their own formal pro-impeachment letters to the HJC chairman.

Here's what you can do, specifically, to join the effort:

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1. Sign Congressman Wexler's petition here urging the immediate impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney, if you haven't already done so.

2. Call the Capitol Switchboard toll free at 1-800-828-0498, and ask to speak to your own congressperson, House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, and each of the nine Democratic members of the HJC opposed to impeachment (the infamous "Ninny Nine," listed below). About 15 minutes is all it takes to make these calls!

Congressman Jerrold Nadler, whose local office was the target of pro-impeachment civil disobedience earlier this month, is one of the "Ninny Nine" and chairman of the HJC subcommittee where the Cheney impeachment resolution is currently stalled. Right now, and until H. Res. 799 is moved forward to a hearing, it's especially important to contact Mr. Nadler ... in every way possible, as often as possible.

3. Compose a short letter template, and fax personalized copies of it to Chairman Conyers, Speaker Pelosi, and each of the "Ninny Nine" (snail-mail letters likely won't arrive in time before 1/15/08, but are always good for follow-up). See below for a complete listing of names and full contact info.

4. Spread the word! Publish and/or email a link to this post to as many people as possible who may be interested in working to support the cause of impeachment at this critical time.

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Other ideas:

I've received reports that at 11:00AM on Monday, 1/14/08, Cindy Sheehan will be delivering between 7,000 and 10,000 pro-impeachment letters to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco office. Pro-democracy activists will also be on hand to deliver thousands of petition signatures urging Cheney's impeachment. Right now, your additional calls and faxes to Nancy Pelosi's local office (see Pelosi's contact info, below) sent in conjunction with activist efforts taking place early this week could have an even greater impact.

These days, we activists have to lobby the mainstream media as well as government representatives. It's easy, in a very short time, to send dozens of emails to key media outlets urging greater coverage of the impeachment issue and particular attention to Wexler's upcoming presentation to congress using the letter template you created (in step 3, above) and the live email links provided on this blog's media contact page.

Finally, a call and/or fax to Congressman Wexler thanking him for his principled, patriotic stand in support of impeachment is certainly appropriate and always greatly appreciated.

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The "Ninny Nine:"

Hon. Howard Berman
2221 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: 202-225-4695
Fax: 202-225-3196

Hon. Frederick Boucher
2187 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-3861
Fax: 202-225-0442

Hon. Artur Davis
208 Cannon H.O.B.
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: 202-225-2665
Fax: 202-226-9567

Hon. William Delahunt
2454 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-3111
Fax: 202-225-5658

Hon. Zoe Lofgren
102 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Phone: 202-225-3072
Fax: 202-225-3336

Hon. Jerrold Nadler
2334 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-5635
Fax: 202-225-6923

Hon. Linda Sanchez
1007 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-6676
Fax: 202-226-1012

Hon. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
118 Cannon H.O.B
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-7931
Fax: 202-226-2052

Hon. Adam B. Schiff
326 Cannon House Office Building
Washington D.C. 20515
Phone: 202-225-4176
Fax: 202-225-5828

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Hon. Robert Wexler
213 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-3001
Fax: 202-225-5974

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Chairman John Conyers, Jr.
House Judiciary Committee
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-5126
Fax: 202-225-0072

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Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Office of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Phone: 202-225-4965
Fax: 202-225-4188

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To find your own congressional representative (on any other congressperson), click here.

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Okay, now ... let's get moving!

Make those calls! Send those faxes! Distribute this info!

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

A Nation Dying for Health Care

(Update: It's getting worse ... as of 4/15/08, the U.S. is now 47th in life span and 43rd in infant mortality. For confirmation, click the indicated links below.)
The Democratic Activist

The French spend about half as much as Americans do per capita on health care and yet receive MUCH better health care than we do (evidenced by longer life spans, half our infant mortality rate, 40% fewer deaths preventable by adequate health care, etc.).

Under our wonderful, cripplingly expensive, privatized health care system, the U.S is now 42nd in infant mortality (worse than in South Korea, The Czech Republic, Ireland, etc.), and 45th in life span (below Cuba, Jordon, Portugal, etc.).

How is it that America (the only developed nation on Earth not to have a single-payer universal health care system) has somehow come to the conclusion that shorter life spans, higher infant mortality, higher rates of preventable deaths, much higher per capita cost, spotty coverage with large numbers of citizens completely or partially shut out of the system, etc. ... is a good idea?

How does having an inferior, unfair, grossly over-priced, incompetent system, one that results in up to 100,000 deaths annually due to medical errors (a greater tragedy than thirty separate 9-11 attacks ... each year!) do anything to help our economy, our nation, or our people?

What's wrong with this picture?!?

Where's all the constant jawboning about the need to shred the Constitution and give up hard won democratic liberties in order to "protect American lives" by fighting and winning a vital, impelling "War on Medical Errors?"

How does such a crazy thing happen in an advanced, modern "democratic" society like ours?

Oh yeah. I forgot. A few uber-wealthy, ultra-powerful corporations and individuals trade their support for tax cuts ... while the rest of us trade our trust for suffering.

Paul Krugman highlights the story in his piece titled:

A health care system to die for.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

George McGovern Joins the Impeachment Movement

The Democratic Activist
Last Sunday, former WW2 bomber pilot, congressman, senator and candidate for president George McGovern joined the impeachment movement with a piece at washingtonpost.com blisteringly critical of the Bush/Cheney administration entitled:
Why I Believe Bush Must Go.

In the article, McGovern sums up the case for impeachment nicely:

"Bush and Cheney are clearly guilty of numerous impeachable offenses. They have repeatedly violated the Constitution. They have transgressed national and international law. They have lied to the American people time after time. Their conduct and their barbaric policies have reduced our beloved country to a historic low in the eyes of people around the world. These are truly 'high crimes and misdemeanors,' to use the constitutional standard."

Reflecting on the questionable elections of 2000 and 2004, the explosion of our national debt under Bush/Cheney, and administration attempts to legalize the abuse and torture of prisoners, McGovern asks:

" ... has any administration in our national history been so damaging as the Bush-Cheney [administration]?"

Commenting on the "murderous, illegal, nonsensical" U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq, he wonders:

"How could a once-admired, great nation fall into such a quagmire of killing, immorality and lawlessness?"

Nixon's Democratic opponent in the 1972 presidential election goes on to opine on the karmic fallout from the Bush/Cheney years by invoking the words (and worries) of Thomas Jefferson:

"Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just."

McGovern is under no illusions that the cause of impeachment isn't facing a steep, uphill climb in order to have any reasonable chance of success (or even of serious consideration by Congress). He takes responsibility for his own "belated" coming out as an impeachment supporter, and goes on to highlight what is certainly one of the most serious and irksome problems facing our nation, at present:

" ... a lack of courage and statesmanship on the part of too many Democratic politicians."

The entire piece is excellent, a concise, passionate exposé by one of our nation's greatest patriots that briefly but convincingly outlines the case for the immediate impeachment of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. I recommend it to you for your own edification, and as a tool to use in waking up those somnambulant sleepyheads you may know who haven't yet woken up to the social, cultural, and constitutional crises we now face, courtesy of these dastardly, impeachable, criminal Machiavellian twins.

(To see what you and others can do, right now, to support impeachment, click here.)

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Most Absurd Overstatement of the Millenium

The Democratic Activist
From a recent Mitt Romney television ad:

"In the next 10 years, we'll see more progress, more change than the world has seen in the last 10 centuries."

Really, Mitt?

More progress and change in the next 10 years than in the previous 1000?

More than since the Dark Ages? More than Arabic Numerals, the Magna Carta, the Great Crusades, the scientific method, gunpowder, the Renaissance, the European conquest and colonization of the Americas, Africa, and Asia, the Protestant Reformation, the telescope, Newtonian physics, the printing press, constitutional democracy, the industrial revolution, railroads, electricity, air travel, the telegraph, relativity theory, automobiles, telephones, radio, two world wars, antibiotics, atomic weapons, television, quantum mechanics, widespread environmental pollution, space travel, micro-electronics, over population, personal computers, the human genome project, manmade global climate change, and the Internet all put together?

No, I am not making this up. Romney actually made that very statement!

Here's the ad ... see for yourself:



Should candidates be able to say just anything at all, no matter how patently absurd, in order to sway emotions and manipulate the nation ... and get away with it?

Should such a man be entrusted with leading the "free" world?

It would be hilarious if it weren't so serious.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Help John Edwards Get Coverage!

The Democratic Activist
John Edwards is getting ripped off ... and so is the American voting public.

While news and informations abounds throughout the media about both Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, coverage of the John Edwards message and campaign is almost non-existent.

The reason is obvious: Edwards is the only viable populist, anti-corporatist candidate running for president in 2008, and corporate-owned media outlets are loath to bring any real attention to his message and candidacy.

These days, we activists have to learn to lobby media outlets, as well as government representatives. And now is the perfect time to do so, when Edwards desperately needs all the activist support and mainstream media coverage he can get.

Inspired by the efforts of activist friends who invited me to become involved in this effort, I spent roughly 30 minutes sending 50 email messages to electronic media outlets highlighting the unfair non-exposure given to John Edwards by the national media and requesting equitable, proportionate coverage of the Edwards message and campaign. It was easy, using a short, generic template message and live email links provided on this blog's media contact page.

Here's the message I just sent out:

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Dear People,

Why is the media virtually ignoring John Edwards, while over-covering the campaigns and candidacies of Obama and Clinton?

This unfairness is noticed, and remembered.

We can find all the news we want about Hillary and Obama on lots of other stations. It's everywhere. I am tired of hearing the same spin on the same candidates. By comparison, coverage of John Edwards is almost completely absent from the main stream media.

The American news consumer deserves hard facts and updates on the Edwards Campaign. You can be the first media outlet to move news, information, and coverage about John Edwards into reasonable proportion compared to the time spent covering the other two major Democratic candidates for President in 2008.

Will you do it?

Please reply, and let me know about what you plan to do to stop the coverage blackout on John Edwards.

Thank you.

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Please ... take half an hour, and do the same!

You can use the message I wrote above for talking points or as a starter, but please don't just copy and paste it verbatim, since doing so will dilute the impact of such messages. (Feel free to use part of it, or even most of it, but do make sure your template message is recognizably your own, and not just part of some sort of mass mailing.)

UPDATED 1/8/08: At The Shonbrun Report, writer Will Shonbrun has just written an excellent piece explaining why he's supporting John Edwards as the best candidate for the Democratic Party nomination for president in 2008. In his most recent post, titled From Kucinich to Edwards in ‘08, Shonbrun concisely outlines the reasons liberals should rally around Edwards at this critical time and lend all available support to his campaign. His article is a great place to get a quick look at precisely why John Edwards is the best person for the job.

Let's get John Edwards the coverage that he deserves, and that Americans have a right to receive!

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Will We Elect A President Or A Monarch In 2008?

The Democratic Activist
An excellent article by Charlie Savage at boston.com analyzes major 2008 presidential candidates' responses to questions asked in a recent Globe survey about executive power vastly expanded under the Bush/Cheney administration.

The article focuses on 12 questions highlighting candidates' positions regarding the limits of presidential power. Taken as a whole, they serve to illustrate whether or not individual candidates for the White House in 2008 believe the President of the United States is, or is not, required to obey the law. The candidates' answers about the appropriate extent of executive power (and, by inference, the legitimacy of the American tripartite system of checks and balances) tell much about whether or not they believe the president is above the law ... that is, whether or not the presidency has or should become a de facto monarchy and the United States a vertable dictatorship.

Another excellent piece by Glenn Greenwald (click here) references the boston.com article and provides a chilling analysis of Republican contender Mitt Romney's responses to these questions.

For the questions themselves and candidates' specific answers, go to Savage's article and see the section in the sidebar on the right side of the page titled "Read Answers By Question: Candidates Answers By Question" where candidates' responses to each question are listed for easy side-by-side comparison (such a comparison of the candidates' answers, including which candidates refused to offer any responses at all, is quite revealing).

Certainly, the question of whether or not the president is above the law goes to the heart of what America is, and who we are as Americans.

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Are we nation of laws, or of men?

Do we value freedom more than life itself, as did Patrick Henry and the other founding fathers of the American experiment in democracy ... or have we now come to prize safety, security, and comfort over liberty?

Is our most basic civil liberty the "right to be kept alive," as Mr. Romney asserts ... or are there things that matter much more? (And what would America's fallen say?)

Is "the land of the free and the home of the brave" fast becoming "the land of the enslaved and the home of the terrified?"

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American voters may well decide these questions in 2008.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Wexler Wants Hearings ... Sign His Petition!

The Democratic Activist
The struggle for the conscience of the Democratic Party continues.

As party leaders continue to refuse to hold criminals in high office accountable for a long list of "high crimes and misdemeanors" in direct violation of their oaths of office and against the wishes of the vast majority of rank and file party members, vertebrate Democrats in congress are standing up and pushing back.



Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida (D - 19th) has begun a petition drive demanding that hearings begin immediately on H. Res. 799, the Cheney Impeachment Resolution now in the House Judiciary Committee. Together with fellow HJC members Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Wexler needs to convince reluctant Democrats on the committee that, in America, elected leaders who commit egregious felonies and war crimes should not be put above the law, and that the founders designed the tool of impeachment for just such an occasion as this. A few days ago, this trio of principled fighters for democracy in America issue an op-ed titled "A Case For Hearings" to launch the petition effort.

Wexler, who set an initial goal of 50,000 signatures total, got 30,000 the first day the petition was online. Public response has been strong, with approximately 20,000 new signatures signatures coming in each day (currently 111,000+ as I write this). Wexler's current goal is to gather at least 250,000 signatures by midnight, 12/31/07. It is noteworthy that the mainstream media is ignoring the Wexler petition, as it has the impeachment movement generally, but that nevertheless both the petition and nationwide support for impeachment continue to grow and expand by viral methods and the innate power of a righteous idea.

It is urgent that impeachment supporters sign the Wexler petition, encourage others to do the same, and demand mass-media coverage of this important news story.

Here's what you can do:

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1. Sign the petition here!

2. Spread the word! Write a short message on the Wexler petition containing a link to the information in this post, and email it to everyone and anyone you know who may be interested in supporting the impeachment effort.

3. Lobby the main stream media! Calls and email messages sent to electronic media outlets and local and national newspapers have a real effect on news coverage.

CNN Viewer Comment Line:

1-404-827-1500.

MSNBC (ask to leave a message on their Viewer Comment Line):

1-201-583-5000, or 1-212-664-4444.

Click here for dozens of email links to key departments in mainstream media organizations, and see the links in the "Media" section of the sidebar of this blog for links to local, national, and international newspapers.

4. Call congressmembers Robert Wexler, Luis Gutierrez, and Tammy Baldwin, and thank them for their patriotic stand in support of impeachment. While you're at it, call HJC Chairman John Conyers and the "Ninny Nine" and demand that they either join the impeachment effort or get out of the way! (Click here for complete info on contacting these key individuals to encourage their support of the Cheney impeachment resolution.)

Here's the toll-free Capitol Switchboard number:

1-800-828-0498.

---

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Santa Rosa City Council Passes Impeachment Resolution!

The Democratic Activist
Great news ...

Last night, the city council of Santa Rosa, California overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling for the U.S. Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney!

The vote was 5 to 1 in favor of the resolution, with one abstention. Santa Rosa now joins Sebastopol, Santa Cruz, San Francisco and other cities across America that have endorsed impeachment. Advocates of the resolution presented signatures of more than 2,000 Santa Rosa residents, and the massive show of citizen endorsement convinced at least two council members to change their minds and vote in favor of the resolution. The city council will now send an official letter to Washington to "petition congress to start impeachment hearings."

Click here and here to read articles on the council's resolution that appeared on the web site of the local Santa Rosa newspaper, The Press Democrat.

Here's how the individual council members voted, along with their contact info:

---

Mayor Bob Blanchard
100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 10
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Phone: (707) 543-3017
Fax: (707) 543-3030
bblanchard@srcity.org

Voted "No."

---

Vice Mayor Lee Pierce
100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 10
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Phone: (707) 579-1449 ext. 300 ("The Tiosk Group")
Fax: (707) 579-0882
lpierce@srcity.org

Voted "Yes."

---

Councilmember Jane Bender
100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 10
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Phone: (707) 538-9644
Fax: (707) 543-3030
jbender@srcity.org

Abstained.

---

Councilmember Carol Dean
100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 10
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Phone: (707) 575-3350
Fax: (707) 543-3030
cdean@srcity.org

Voted "Yes."

---

Councilmember Susan Gorin
100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 10
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Phone: (707) 525-8335
Fax: (707) 543-3030
sgorin@srcity.org

Voted "Yes."

---

Councilmember Veronica Jacobi
100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 10
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Phone: (707) 575-5594
Fax: (707) 543-3030
vjacobi@srcity.org

Voted "Yes."

---

Councilmember John Sawyer
100 Santa Rosa Avenue, Room 10
Santa Rosa, CA 95404
Phone: (707) 578-6006
Fax: (707) 578-6006
jsawyer@srcity.org

Voted "Yes."

---

Unfortunately, the Council is taking a lot of heat from local residents for passing the resolution. Those opposed to impeachment are leaving negative comments under The Press Democrat article linked above, and, presumably, others are contacting the council directly to register their displeasure.

It's important that impeachment supporters, especially those that are Santa Rosa residents, contact their city council members to express their thanks for the courage and patriotism showed by the council in passing this important resolution. Our city has joined others in setting the right example, and it's critical that these local governmental leaders hear applause and appreciation from grateful citizens.

Here's what you can do:

---

1. Contact the Santa Rosa City Council members individually to extend your personal thanks for their appropriate, principled stand in support of impeachment at this critical time in our nation's history. Phone calls, emails, letters, and faxes to council members would go a long way to balance the opposition they're currently receiving from local Bushites.

2. Read articles in The Press Democrat discussing the resolution here and here, and add your own supportive comment at the bottom of the page. You will need to register, to do so. (Comments are limited to 250 characters – so keep yours short, but passionate! And don't worry ... they take a few minutes to show up on the comments page).

3. Send a "letter to the editor" to Santa Rosa's local newspaper, The Press Democrat!

Here's the address:

letters@pressdemocrat.com

Keep your message under 200 words, and be sure to include your name and address (they'll print your name and city).

Why not forward a separate copy of your letter to The Press Democrat to all seven city council members, to let them know of your active support? (But don't cc the council members – "letters to the editor" cc'd to others are unlikely to get printed.) Using the links under "Media" in the side bar to the right, it just takes a few more clicks to send your message to editors of other local and national newspapers and major electronic media outlets. (You could also use the text of your message to easily craft individual emails, faxes, and/or letters to council members.)

4. Send a short message about this story, along with a link to this post, to as many impeachment supporters as possible (those both inside and outside Santa Rosa) -- or to your entire email circle!

---

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Only a few HJC Dems are blocking impeachment. It's still alive ... KEEP CALLING!

The Democratic Activist
It seems the Cheney impeachment resolution is still very much alive.

I just got off the phone today, an uneventful Thursday, with the office of House Judiciary (HJC) Chairman John Conyers. Initially, I had called to indicate once again my support for the Cheney impeachment resolution being considered by the HJC, and was shunted over to a "House Judiciary Committee Comment Line." Turns out ... the comment line voice mail was filled to capacity, and wasn't taking any more messages. I then called back Mr. Conyers's office to let them know that I was unable to leave my message for Mr. Conyers because their comment line message box was full.

What follows immediately below (roughly paraphrased) is the conversation I then had with a member of the HJC Chairman's staff:

"That's probably because we've been receiving hundreds of calls today," the staff person told me. "You're supporting the Cheney impeachment resolution, right?" he went on. I said that I was, and asked what Mr. Conyers was doing to move the resolution forward to a hearing. "He is trying to move it forward. There's a fight going on right now among the Democrats on the committee," the staff person went on to say. I asked who specifically was holding up the resolution, and was told "The fight is between those Democrats on the committee who favor the resolution, i.e. those who've co-sponsored it, and others who oppose it."

It seems that the pressure on the HJC in support of the Cheney impeachment resolution now before the HJC hasn't slackened over the past couple of weeks, but on the contrary, has at least held steady! We now know that Conyers has felt compelled to go to the trouble of installing a special "comment line" to save his staffers from having to take all the calls he was getting in support Cheney's impeachment, so numerous have they become.

It's working, people ... keep it up!

Given the massive public support for Cheney's impeachment that the Chairman Conyers is continuing to receive, and the apparent fact that it's only opposition from a few Democrats on the HJC that's holding up hearings, we all now really need to keep those calls and letters going to those Dems on the HJC who opposed the most recent incarnation of the Cheney impeachment resolution (H. Res. 799).

Please ... pass along this information to as many people as you can, and make daily rounds of calls yourself to the "Ninny Nine" (those Dems on the HJC who've showed opposition to impeachment), Chairman John Conyers, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer supporting the Cheney impeachment resolution now awaiting a hearing in the HJC. It seems we've almost got this ball rolled to the top of the hill; with a just little more effort, another big push or two, we may actually be able to get it over the top and rolling down the other side.

We're getting there. Imagine ... impeachment could actually happen!

Click here for full information on exactly what to do, and how to do it.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Is the Christian Right Turning Left?

The Democratic Activist
In the opinion of many, myself included, the "Christian Right" is neither right nor Christian. After decades of dedicated, deliberate brainwashing, most evangelicals came to regard the Republican Party as practically holy. Conservatism has been seen as next to Godliness. The Right could do no wrong.

But is that changing? Have a string of recent gay sex scandals, blatant corruption and criminality within the Bush administration, and betrayal by Republican leaders perfectly willing to cynically use Christians for the merest of crass, political purposes begun to fatally crack the tough shell of conservative indoctrination surrounding American evangelicals?

Fewer evangelicals now support the Republican party than has been the case in decades. A recent study indicates that, suddenly, Christians (especially youth) acknowledge that their religion is hypocritical and judgemental. Breaking with sacrosanct Republican talking points, many evangelicals now admit that the global problem of man-made climate change not only exists but is a terribly serious world-wide crisis, "a profound moral imperative" that requires followers of Christ to respond with urgency and active commitment as stewards of the Earth (see here and here). Today, Evangelical Christians are beginning to focus their massive, finely-tuned grass-roots machinery on combating social injustices like modern slavery and ending the genocide in Darfur.

And now, finally, charismatic Christians are waking to the fact that finding a true solution to the HIV/AIDS crisis is a moral imperative, also. Many evangelicals now admit they've been "late to the party" on the AIDS issue and rebuke the "sinful absence and puny efforts" of their own religion. Inviting pro-choice leaders like Barack Obama and Hilary Clinton to speak at church-sponsored conferences, this new wave of Christian activism is "interested in saving lives" and wants "to focus on common ground, not differences."

At the risk of appearing overly optimistic, while a great many conservative Christians still cling in their human imperfection to religious dogma and political policies that fly in the face of Christ's liberal message to humanity, it seems that a true sea change may be in fact be underway.

Could this really be true?

But how? Why?

I believe it's just real hard to read the Bible year after year without eventually getting the message that it's in our deepest nature to seek justice, to care for and help and sacrifice for one another, to put principle over power:

---

He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.

Micah 6:8 (New International Version)

---

An article in today's Yahoo! News gives details.
The Democratic Activist

Translation: "Support the troops" means "Steal their enlistment bonuses"

The Democratic Activist
Another excellent example of just how devotedly the Bush administration and their neoconservative backers really do "support the troops:"

---

Wounded Soldier: Military Wants Part Of Bonus Back

Wounded soldiers ordered to repay signing bonus

Pentagon Bends (But Does Doesn’t Reverse) Policy That Withholds Bonuses From Wounded Vets

---

Isn't this typical?

Apparently, "We conservatives support the troops, and you liberals don't" now actually means "we conservatives are going to break enlistment commitments made to wounded soldiers and try to steal the sign-up bonus we promised them."

Unbelievable!

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

What can liberals do? Take back the Democratic Party!

The Democratic Activist
Pelosi and company have behaved disgracefully.

To my mind, the Democratic Party leadership is guilty of nearly the same disloyalty to our nation and constitution as are the neocons headed by Bush/Cheney. Those of our elected leaders who refuse to enforce the laws, who who ignore the will of the people, who refuse to honor their oaths of office and hold criminals in our government accountable, should themselves be held accountable as criminals.

Nevertheless, there seems to be no simple way to remove Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the other Democratic neocon collaborators from their positions of power within the oldest and largest politcal party in America.

However, there is something we can do that may influence the Speaker to change her corrupt, wimpy, invertebrate ways.

As a species, what most motivates politicians? That's simple. The thought of being re-elected ... or not.

Aside from persistently lobbying our own senators and congresspersons to dump the Democratic Party's quisling congressional leadership, I think the best thing we can do about Ms. Pelosi is to put the fear of God into her by working to nominate Cindy Sheehan to take her place as the Democratic candidate in the 2008 congressional election. As Madam Speaker begins to see throngs and throngs of volunteers and wads of $100 bills going to support Sheehan, she may just realize the error of her ways. Even if she doesn't, getting behind Cindy Sheehan with everything we've got just may get her nominated and elected (I hear Pelosi's San Francisco constituency really is generally pretty unhappy with her performance on their behalf, to say nothing of her stubborn dedication to appeasement of neo-fascists as Speaker of the House).

Bye-bye goes Pelosi. And good riddance.

To support Cindy Sheehan in her quest to liberate Nancy Pelosi's seat in congress, click here.

Those of us who can should immediately plop down contributions as large as possible for Cindy Sheehan's campaign, and then sign up as volunteer "boots on the ground" that always make such a difference in critical elections like this.

What can liberals do? Take back the Democratic Party! There's really no other way. Air America host Thom Hartman has been harping on this theme for some time now.

It's time we get on board, and get it done.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

John Nichols Rocks the House at SF Green Festival

The Democratic Activist
Last Sunday afternoon, my teenage daughter and I had the opportunity to hear The Nation writer John Nichols speak on the main stage at the San Francisco Green Festival being conducted at the Gift Center that weekend at the urging of blogger Gail Jonas, publisher of Thinking Out Loud. Gail credits a John Nichols talk with being the spark that lit her fire for impeachment ... and after seeing him deliver the powerful, articulate, and inspired speech he gave last week, I can certainly see why.

11/11/07 was a beautiful day in San Francisco. Sunny, warm, crystal clear after a cleansing rain (postcard weather). The Gift Center's main pavilion was filled to capacity with 500-600 Nichols fans waiting for John to do his magic. Before he began his talk, Gail had managed to arrange a short interview with the man of the hour, and armed with her video camera I did the deed. John was as gracious as can be, and allowed me several questions. A portion of the interview appears below:



John spoke first of an American soldier, a friend of his, who recently returned from Iraq, and his buddy whom he met on his first day there. After being given just 30 minutes of "cultural sensitivity training" (but no language training, etc.) and then sent off to guard a Bagdad checkpoint, this brand new soldier shot and killed Iraqi civilians in a car whose driver failed to stop when given the "Halt!" signal -- a fisted arm raised to the square (the driver had returned the signal to the American soldier, apparently thinking it was the international signal of "solidarity," and that it meant he was free to proceed). Later that night, John's friend had to repeated coax his buddy back to sleep, but to no avail; he kept waking in fits of screaming. The soldier finally explained, "You don't get it. I'm a Christian. Today I took innocent life, for no reason. I'M GOING TO HELL!"

Could experiences like this be the reason that American vets are up to four times as likely to commit suicide as is the average American, as cited in this recent article in the Herald Sun?

John also told of American President James Polk, the "George W. Bush" of his day, and his plan to start the Mexican War under false pretenses, steal vast swaths of Mexican territory, and divide the spoils into southern slave states to prevent the sin of slavery from passing from American as it was beginning to pass from the rest of the world. John went on to tell the rest of the story, that of a young rural congressman, the "Dennis Kucinich" of his day, who, though alone, stood up forcefully against Polk, continually demanding that if the president could not provide actual evidence of Mexican attacks to justify our invasion of Mexico, that he be impeached and removed from office!

Who was that rural congressman? He was Abraham Lincoln.

John confessed to being "a plagiarist, a stealer of ideas, a copycat." He explained that he'd been spending the last several years "not in the 21st century but in the 18th century, copying down the ideas and statements of the American founding fathers." Referring to the founders' belief in impeachment as the sine qua non of the American experiment in democracy, John said: "George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have violated the Constitution. Jefferson, Madison, Mason DEMAND that you impeach them NOW!"

I've only recounted here a couple of the highlights of John's magnificent speech. His delivery was fiery, the content enlightening, and the response overwhelming. Being there was a powerful and memorable experience. No doubt there were many others, who, like Gail, had their fuses lit for impeachment by Mr. Nichols.

Realizing it would be impossible to capture the impact of the speech in writing, I purchased a CD of John's speech, and will update this post with a link to the complete audio file, as soon as I can get it online.

Please check back later, to listen to the full speech. You really shouldn't miss it.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Cindy Sheehan's Thanksgiving Gift to Ms. Pelosi

The Democratic Activist
Here's another great thing to do with copies of your letters to the Democratic leadership supporting the Cheney impeachment resolution (H. Res. 799)!

Our good friend Cindy Sheehan wants you to send letters demanding Dick Cheney’s impeachment to her so she can send a sack of letters to Nancy Pelosi before Thanksgiving.

Send them to:

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Cindy For Congress
RE: Impeach Dick Cheney
1260 Mission Blvd.
San Francisco, California 94103

---

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Cheney Impeachment: Two Videos to See

The Democratic Activist
I received an email yesterday from democrats.com containing links to two noteworthy video files pertinent to the sudden rising from the dead of the Cheney impeachment resolution.

Check out historic video of Mr. Kucinich presenting his privileged resolution before the House:



The Real News Network recently featured a video piece that did an excellent job of presenting and dissecting this important story that's been virtually ignored by the main stream media:



Thanks to the courage of Congressman Dennis Kucinich, the bizarre last-minute support of Cheney's own party, and no thanks to the Democrats' current unprincipled, scare-di-crat leaders, phones in the office of House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers have been jammed by a tsunami of support for impeachment since the resolution was thrown to his committee for guillotining last Tuesday.

We need to keep full applying pressure to the "Ninny Nine" and the Democratic Leadership in the House if we're going to be able to roll this ball over the hill. It'll take all we've got ... but imagine the outcome if we're successful.

WOW ... would that be worth it!

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Low-Tech Letters to Pelosi Could Do the Trick

The Democratic Activist
(Note: as of 11/16/07 I and others now believe that the commitment reportedly made by Nancy Pelosi to move the Cheney impeachment resolution forward if she were to receive 10,000 hand-written letters supporting impeachment was, in fact, just a rumor, and that Ms. Pelosi has made no such promise.)

~~~

An unconfirmed but intriguing rumor is circulating.

Apparently, the word is that Speaker Pelosi CAN be convinced that impeachment should go forward. Her's is really the only mind we need to change on this score. The rest would just fall into place like snow on Santa's back lawn.

Here's the alert:

---

"Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is reported to have replied to the question of impeachment that if she received 10,000 hand-written letters she would proceed with it. What are we waiting for? Letters should go to her San Francisco office."

---

Here is a link to Blogger Gail Jonas's post in which she broke this story.

Whether or not the Speaker actually said such a thing ... this is a GREAT idea, and a fantastic goal. It's doable. It's energizing. And no doubt it would leave a strong impression in the mind of the recalcitrant Ms. Pelosi."

I would add the following suggestion:

Add a cc at the head of the letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and your own congressperson; then send a photocopy of your original hand-written letter to Pelosi along to Conyers, Hoyer, and your local rep.

Speaker Pelosi's district office address and phone number are below:

---

Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi
450 Golden Gate Avenue, 14th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94102
Phone: (415) 556-4862

---

Here are the addresses for Mr. Conyers and Mr. Hoyer:

---

Chairman John Conyers, Jr.
House Judiciary Committee
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515

Mr. Steny H. Hoyer
House Democratic Majority Leader
H-107, The Capitol Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

---

To find the address for your own congressional representative in the House, click here.

Remember ... letters to our representatives, hand-written or otherwise, need not be long. The point is to get them counted (and they WILL be counted).

A salutation, three short paragraphs (with even just a couple of sentences in each), and signature is really all that's needed. It would literally only take a few minutes, plus 10 or 15 more to make copies and then stuff, address, and stamp envelopes.

I'll get mine letters out as soon as I get back from hearing The Nation's John Nichols speak to the masses in San Francisco this afternoon:

---

San Francisco Green Fest
Noon Sunday, Nov. 11
Main Stage Giftcenter Pavillion Theater
888 Brannan Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

---

I'll be reporting on the event after its conclusion, and will do a short video interview with John before he speaks which I hope to be able to get online, as well.

Now ... starting hand-writing those letters! Let's hear it for good ol' writer's cramp!

P.S. Here is something further you can do with your letters (Cindy Sheehan, running from the left for Congress in 2008 against Nancy Pelosi, is planning to deliver a Thanksgiving gift to Madam Speaker ... and you can help!).

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Update: Cheney Impeachment Resolution

The Democratic Activist
After initial success on Tuesday, I've been utterly unable to get through by phone to the office of House Judiciary Committee Chairman, John Conyers, since then. Repeated attempts each day. Nothing but busy signals. All phone numbers completely jammed.

(Note: as of Tuesday, 11/13/07, phone calls to the office of John Conyers are once again getting through.)

So, what can an activist do, after making his daily round of calls to the "Ninny Nine," as blogger Gail Jonas calls them?

Keep those phone calls coming ... but don't forget to write!

Good, ol' fashioned snail-mail letters count much more than phone calls to reps who receive them, since they take more effort to send and therefore far fewer people do so.

Below, you'll find postal address information for each of the nine Democratic members of the House Judiciary Committee who voted to table the Cheney impeachment resolution earlier this week (indicating their opposition to impeachment). They're the folks we need to target with calls and letters. (Remember ... the toll-free Capitol Switchboard number is: 1-800-828-0498. Have you memorized it, yet? Put it in your speed dial!)

If you're organized, you can easily compose a short, three paragraph letter template, print nine letters, and then sign, stamp, and seal them, in half an hour.

Ideally, you should also send letters to Chairman Conyers, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, while you're at it. We really do need to bombard Mr. Conyers with letters ... since the poor chairman has his phones jammed up so terribly. (Postal addresses for Mr. Conyers, Mr. Hoyer, and Ms. Pelosi are included under those for the "Ninny Nine," below.)

It's way past ironic (truly surreal) that the only thing standing in the way of removing criminals from the highest offices in our land is the leadership of the Democratic Party.

Surreality aside ... please ... get those letters printed and mailed, asap!

Mine are ready to be mailed, and will go out this morning after I finish this post.

We've got to keep up the pressure well into next week, and probably beyond, to move the Cheney impeachment resolution (H. Res. 799) to a hearing, and on to the full House. That means each of us should make a daily round of phone calls to the "Ninny Nine," at minimum, if possible. In addition, calls and emails to family, friends, neighbors, etc. with info about the resolution and requests for their active involvement are just as important at this extremely critical time.

Here are the postal mailing addresses you'll need, ready to copy and paste:

---

The "Ninny Nine:"

Hon. Howard Berman
2221 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Hon. Frederick Boucher
2187 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Hon. Artur Davis
208 Cannon H.O.B.
Washington, D.C. 20515

Hon. William Delahunt
2454 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Hon. Zoe Lofgren
102 Cannon House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

Hon. Jerrold Nadler
2334 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Hon. Linda Sanchez
1007 Longworth House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515

Hon. Debbie Wasserman Schultz
118 Cannon H.O.B
Washington, DC 20515

Hon. Adam B. Schiff
326 Cannon House Office Building
Washington D.C. 20515

---

Democratic Party Leadership

Chairman John Conyers, Jr.
House Judiciary Committee
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515

Speaker Nancy Pelosi
Office of the Speaker
H-232, US Capitol
Washington, DC 20515
Mr. Steny H. Hoyer
House Democratic Majority Leader
H-107, The Capitol Building
Washington, D.C. 20515

---

Note: Gail Jonas has posted complete contact info (including fax numbers, district office address and phones, etc.) for Chairman John Conyers and the "Ninny Nine" in a new post at Thinking Out Loud. To get the info, click here.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Contact Addresses: National Mass Media

The Democratic Activist
These days, it's just as important to lobby the mainstream mass-media as it is to communicate frequently and passionately with our governmental representatives in Washington D.C. and elsewhere.

Below is a collection of addresses, phone numbers, and live links to use to communicate your opinions and requests for coverage to major U.S. news and entertainment outlets (please let me know via comments if any of the information or links below are incorrect or non-working, or if you know of other contact info that should be included):

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ABC

ABC NEWS
77 W. 66 St.
New York, NY 10023
Phone: 212-456-7777

World News Tonight (put show in subject line): NETAUDR@abc.com

Good Morning America (put show in subject line): NETAUDR@abc.com

World News Now: wnn@abcnews.com

Nightline: nightline@abcnews.com

This Week with George Stephanopoulos: thisweek@abc.com

Primetime: abc.news.magazines@abc.com

20/20: 2020@abc.com

---

AP

Associated Press
Dallas Bureau
4851 LBJ Freeway, Suite 300
Dallas TX 75244-6002
(972) 991-2100 News
(972) 991-7207 Fax

---

CBS

CBS NEWS
524 W. 57 St.
New York, NY 10019
Phone: 212-975-4321
Fax: 212-975-1893

CBS Evening News: evening@cbsnews.com

The Early Show: earlyshow@cbs.com

48 Hours: 48hours@cbsnews.com

Face The Nation: ftn@cbsnews.com

CBS News Sunday Morning: sundays@cbsnews.com

Up to the Minute: uttm@cbs.com

---

CNN

CNN
One CNN Center (or: Box 105366)
Atlanta, GA 30303-5366
Phone: 404-827-1500
Fax: 404-827-1906

CNN asks for emails to all shows to go through this form:
http://www.cnn.com/feedback/cnntv/

---

FOX

FOX NEWS
1211 Ave. of the Americas
New York, NY 10036
Phone: (212) 301-3000
Fax: (212) 301-4229

Special Report with Brit Hume: Special@foxnews.com

FOX Report with Shepard Smith: Foxreport@foxnews.com

The O'Reilly Factor: Oreilly@foxnews.com

Hannity & Colmes: Hannity@foxnews.com, Colmes@foxnews.com

On the Record with Greta: Ontherecord@foxnews.com

DaySide with Linda Vester: Dayside@foxnews.com

FOX & Friends: Friends@foxnews.com

FOX News Live (put show in subject line): Feedback@foxnews.com

Heartland w/ John Kasich: Heartland@foxnews.com

Studio B with Shepard Smith: Studiob@foxnews.com

The Big Story with John Gibson: Myword@foxnews.com

---

LA TIMES

Los Angeles Times
202 West First Street
Los Angeles, CA 90012
Phone: 800-528-4637 or 213-237-5000
Fax: 213-237-4712

Readers' Representative: readers.rep@latimes.com

---

MSNBC

MSNBC
One MSNBC Plaza
Secaucus, NJ 07094
Phone: (201) 583-5000
Fax: (201) 583-5453

Viewer Services: viewerservices@msnbc.com

Hardball with Chris Matthews: hardball@msnbc.com

Countdown with Keith Olbermann: countdown@msnbc.com

The Situation with Tucker Carlson: Tucker@msnbc.com

---

NBC

NBC
30 Rockefeller Plaza
New York, NY 10112
Phone: 212-664-4444
Fax: 212-664-4426

NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams: nightly@nbc.com

Today Show: today@nbc.com

---

NY TIMES

New York Times
229 W. 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
Phone: 212-556-1234
Fax: 212-556-3690
D.C. Bureau phone: 202-862-0300

Byron Calame, public editor: public@nytimes.com

National Editors: national@nytimes.com

---

NPR

NPR
635 Massachusetts Ave. NW
Washington, DC 20001-3753
Phone: 202-513-2000
Fax: 202-513-3329

Email correspondence to NPR must go through this form:
http://www.npr.org/contact.

All Things Considered: atc@npr.org

---

PBS

PBS
1320 Braddock Place
Alexandria, VA 22314
Phone: 703-739-5000
Fax: 703-739-8458

The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer: newshour@pbs.org

---

USA TODAY

USA Today
7950 Jones Branch Dr.
McLean, VA 22108
Phone: 800-872-0001 or 703-854-3400
Fax: 703-854-2165

---

WSJ

Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty St.
New York, NY 10281
Phone: 212-416-2000
Fax: 212-416-2658

Letters to the Editor: wsj.ltrs@wsj.com

General comment: wsjcontact@dowjones.com

---

WASHINGTON POST

Washington Post
1150 15th St., NW
Washington, DC 20071
Phone: 202-334-6000
Fax: 202-334-5269

Ombudsman: ombudsman@washpost.com

Michael Abramowitz, national editor: abramowitz@washpost.com

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Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Action Plan: Cheney Impeachment Resolution

The Democratic Activist
(Note: this post has been updated, here.)

Of the 38 members of the House Judiciary Committee (HJC), 23 are Democrats, 15 are Republicans.

The Dems on the HJC voted to support the resolution 14 to 9. That's 61% of the Dems on the committee -- a MUCH higher percentage than among all House Dems (that's encouraging).

However, we still need 6 more Dems to have a majority of committee members who will vote to move H. Res. 799 (the new version of H. Res. 333, the original Cheney impeachment resolution introduced by Kucinich back in April that's now before the HJC) through the committee process and on the full House.

So, our job is to convert 6 of 9 recalcitrant Dems on the committee.

Here's a list of the Dems on the HJC, showing how they who voted to on the motion to table the Cheney impeachment resolution (a "Nay" vote indicates support for the resolution; a "Yea" vote indicates opposition to it; those Democratic reps who voted "Yea," against the resolution, are in bold, and are the ones we need to concentrate on):

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Adam B. Schiff - (D) California, 29th
Yea

Anthony D. Weiner - (D) New York, 9th
Nay

Artur Davis - (D) Alabama , 7th
Yea

Betty Sutton - (D) Ohio, 13th
Nay

Brad Sherman - (D) California, 27
Nay

Debbie Wasserman Schultz - (D) Florida, 20th
Yea

Hank Johnson - (D) Georgia, 4th
Nay

Howard L. Berman - (D) California, 28th
Yea

Jerrold Nadler - (D) New York, 8th
Yea

John Conyers, Jr. - (D) Michigan, 14th
Nay

Keith Ellison - (D) Minnesota, 5th
Nay

Linda T. Sánchez - (D) California, 39th
Yea

Luis Gutierrez - (D) Illinois, 4th
Nay

Maxine Waters - (D) California, 35th
Nay

Melvin L. Watt - (D) North Carolina, 12th
Nay

Rick Boucher - (D) Virginia, 9th
Yea

Robert C. Scott - (D) Virginia, 3rd
Nay

Robert Wexler - (D) Florida, 19th
Nay

Sheila Jackson Lee - (D) Texas, 18th
Nay

Steve Cohen - (D) Tennessee, 9th
Nay

Tammy Baldwin - (D) Wisconsin, 2nd
Nay

William D. Delahunt - (D) Massachusetts, 10th
Yea

Zoe Lofgren - (D) California, 16th
Yea

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Action Plan:

The easiest way to do contact congressional representatives (in the House or Senate) is to call the Capitol Switchboard toll-free at:
1-800-828-0498, and ask to speak to the office of a particular congressperson or senator.

Here's what you can do:

1. Contact House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (either by calling the Capitol Switchboard number below, or by calling his Washington D.C. office number: 202-225-5126), expressing support for Cheney impeachment resolution H. Res. 799 and demanding that Congressman Conyers make passing this resolution the committee's top priority, hold a hearing on the resolution as quickly as possible, and work hard to swiftly move the resolution out of committee and on to full debate and consideration by the entire House.

2. Contact each Democratic member of the HJC who voted "Yea" to table H. Res. 799 in opposition to the Cheney impeachment resolution (names in bold in list of Democratic committee members, above), express your own ardent support of the resolution, and insist that recalcitrant Democrats on the committee fully and enthusiastically support the resolution and its quick passage to full debate and consideration by the entire House (you might also want to contact all the "Nay" voters to applaud them for their support of the Cheney impeachment resolution, and the office of Rep. Dennis Kucinich to thank him for his courage and commitment in authoring and presenting the resolution to congress).

3. Contact House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Majority Steny Hoyer (call the Capitol Switchboard number, above) to express your support of the Cheney impeachment resolution and demand that they obey the will of a solid majority of Americans and the vast majority of Democrats to immediately impeach Dick Cheney, to put impeachment back on the table where it belongs, and to energetically work as leaders of the Democratic Party to see that Cheney and other criminals in the currently administration are removed from office and held fully accountable before the law.

4. Contact your own representative in the House (click here to find your representative's name and web site), express your fervent support of the Cheney impeachment resolution, urge him or her to co-sponsor the resolution to impeach Dick Cheney, and ask him or her to lobby members of the HJC to work hard to advance the resolution swiftly through the committee and on to the full House.

5. Contact national mass-media outlets and request full coverage of this important news story (click here to go to a page listing addresses, phone numbers, and live email links to major U.S. news outlets).

Afterdowningstreet.org has their own action page (click here) with additional ideas and ways to further the cause of impeachment.

Be creative!

Add to this list of action items by including your own ideas and links in comments to this post, so others can benefit from them.

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Carrying out the full action plan above requires that you make 12 short phone calls.

12 calls to the Capitol Switchboard takes about 15 minutes. Committed individuals could easily do it on their lunch break, using their cell phones (not at all a difficult or onerous task, for those who really care). In addition, you can quickly and easily send email messages to your congressperson and senators, Speaker Pelosi, the HJC, and a letter to your nearest daily newspaper in support of the Cheney impeachment resolution by clicking here.

Activists should implement the action plan each day, till the resolution is moved to a hearing, and until we get public commitments to support the Cheney impeachment resolution from HJC Chairman John Conyers and at least 6 more Dems on the HJC.

Direct action is only half the battle, though. The other half is enrolling others in the fight.

In addition to making these critically important calls yourself, it is VERY IMPORTANT that activists email a link to this page and the information it contains to as many people as possible, with an short explanation of the crucial issue at hand and a request for their own active involvement at this critical time.

Letters to representatives are also extremely effective, more so even than phone calls ... though they do, of course, take more time to generate and mail. Please consider writing a short letter template, and then printing out and mailing a separate copy of your letter to each of the HJC members who voted "Yea" to table H. Res. 799 (for mailing addresses, click here to go to the HJC main page, then click on a member's name to go to that representative's web site and contact page). Make clear your unequivocal support for Cheney's impeachment, and that your continued support of the Democratic Party, financially and otherwise, depends on Democratic members of the Judiciary Committee acting speedily and decisively to move the Cheney impeachment resolution through the committee to the full House.

Although most House members only accept email messages sent through the contact page of their web sites from zip codes within their home districts, HJC Chairman John Conyers can be contacted directly via email at the following address:

John.Conyers@mail.house.gov

Letters to Chairman Conyers can be addressed to:

Honorable John Conyers, Jr.
2426 Rayburn Building
Washington, DC 20515

Click here to read the text of the Cheney impeachment resolution, and here to view supporting documents.

Dick Cheney, in addition to conceiving and committing the high crimes outlined in the impeachment resolution, is the man most responsible for the insane plan to attack Iran, probably timed to occur next spring or summer, before the election ... which Republicans fear they're otherwise almost sure to lose.

Are the American people ready for another outrageous, ridiculous, felonious, wasteful war based on greed, deceit, and power-madness?

Are we as a people and as individuals willing to lose America to a budding dictatorship, risk the advent of WW3, and ignore the most fundamental principles of American democracy ... by leaving criminals like this in office one day longer?

This is it. We actually have a real chance to impeach Dick Cheney.

It's now, or never. Time to move. It will take work. But we can do it.

Please forward this information to as many people as possible, make calls and send letters yourself, and urge others to do the same.

(Click here to read the update to this post.)

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

What? IT'S ALIVE! Republicans vote FOR impeachment, Dems vote AGAINST!

The Democratic Activist
Just when it seemed politics in America couldn't get more surreal ... House Republicans today voted en masse IN FAVOR of the impeachment of Vice President Dick Cheney, while the Democrats voted against it!

Excellent articles on this potential watershed political event are linked below:

Cheney Impeachment Resolution Sent to House Committee

Debate on Cheney Impeachment Averted

The Die is Cast

Here's the text of the resolution:

Rep. Dennis Kucinich Privileged Resolution

In a characteristic display of bullying arrogance and overconfidence, Republicans, thinking they could gain political traction by once again stealing the Democrats' leaders' lunch money and making them look like the wimps and fools they are, dared the fearful, cowardly Democratic Party to debate the impeachment resolution brought to the floor by their own Dennis Kucinich ... by voting FOR the impeachment resolution ... despite the best attempts of the panicked Democrats to make the awful thing go away!

Suffering as it's been for the past two decades from a political version of "battered wife syndrome," the Democratic Party doesn't even know anymore when it's being abused and spat on, so this seemed a pretty safe move on the part of congressional Republicans.

Cowering in fear, afraid to follow the majority of Americans (who by a 54-40% margin already favor impeaching Cheney) and openly debate Kucinich's impeachment resolution on the floor of the House, the Dems' only alternative was to send the resolution to the House Judiciary Committee ... which is where articles of impeachment originate!

So ... by a strange twist of fate fortuitously created by the precise pathologic dysfunctions present in both parties, a reality warp so bizarre it wouldn't be believed as an episode of "The Twilight Zone" ... it looks like impeachment of Dick Cheney may now actually be a serious and imminent possibility!!

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To read the full text of the impeachment resolution:

1. go to: http://thomas.loc.gov/;
2. enter "H. RES. 799" (without the quotes) into the field titled "Search Bill Text;"
3. select "Bill Number" (immediately below the search field);
4. click the "Search" button.

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It's now time to FLOOD the offices of members of the House Judiciary committee with communications (phone calls, emails, letters, etc.) demanding that they do NOT allow this impeachment resolution to die in committee ... but, rather, that they pass the resolution along immediately to the full House for consideration.

The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is Illinois representative John Conyers. He's the one who will have the greatest influence on the outcome of this historic opportunity for America to save its dying democracy.

In addition to Mr. Conyers, all other members of the House Judiciary Committee also need to hear our demand for the will of the American people to be heard, and no longer ignored, by the very party we put into power in 2006 to change course and restore the Constitution and accountability to our government.

The toll-free Capitol Switchboard phone number is:

1-800-828-0498.

Below are links to pages where you can get full information on committee members' names and full contact info:

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http://judiciary.house.gov/CommitteeMembership.aspx

http://www.house.gov/

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Now is the time to let Mr. Conyers and others on his committee know that we demand he and the rest of the Democrats stop collaborating with neocon criminals, fully support the impeachment resolution presented by Dennis Kucinich (the bill is H. Res. 799), and put American democracy, the rule of law, and impeachment of criminals in the Bush Administration back "on the table" where it has always belonged!

This could actually happen, as unbelievable as it sounds, despite the seemingly intractable corruption in both parties ... if we really pour the pressure oto the right people, right now.

Call everyday, if you can, till the impeachment resolution is passed out of committee to the full House for their consideration.

Please ... do all you can to support this crucial effort, at this most critical time (to read an important action alert update on this, click here).

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist

Pink: Dear Mr President (Live)

The Democratic Activist
Do yourself a favor, and take a few minutes right now to feed your spirit.

Here's Pink – performing her amazing song: Dear Mr. President from the album "I'm Not Dead" (2006).



Once again, proof positive ... the guitar is indeed mightier than the sword.

Please feel free to share your favorite social activism songs, especially those for which YouTube or audio file links can be provided, in comments to this post, so that we all can nourish our souls and renew our activist commitment through the spiritual power gifted only by art of the heart such as this.

Thank you.

Pass it on.
The Democratic Activist