This business with the new NIE report on Iran and the revelation of the further astonishing bad faith by Bush and Cheney on little matters such as, oh, war, raises again the issue of impeachment.
If having lied yet again about such matters doesn't constitute grounds for impeachment, pray WHAT DOES?
But the Democrats who control this issue in Congress, Conyers and Pelosi, shake their wise heads and say: Sorry, we just don't have the votes.
Really? Apart from how then will we ever have a chance at an accounting of the radical criminality (no hyperbole) of this Administration, I want to point out this:
Pushing impeachment will not just be a vote count session in Congress. That is a false reductio of the phenomenon. Starting impeachment hearings will launch a social dynamo that will effect the vote count, I can't see how not. Start some serious impeachment activity and you will have media and newspapers--I'll bet on the NY Times, whose editorial board seems wised up to what's happening--calling for impeachment.
You will get masses of folk out in the street everyday, in Washington, in every big and little corner of this country, calling for these usurpers to be evicted from the body politic. (For starters.)
You light some impeachment fire and watch the flames surge across this country. Get hundreds of thousands--millions?--of furious people marching. Then see how the votes start add up then.
Whitney Balliett, the great jazz critic for the New Yorker, had a great line about Big Joe Turner. He said Big Joe Turner has such a huge voice, all he has to do is open his mouth and get out of the way.
Please open your mouths, Pelosi and Conyers, and get out of the way.
Or else what? Hillary or someone comes into office, and we all have bygones be bygones? Until the next time?
Appreciations to Uber.com, where this piece first appeared on my blog Brain Flakes.
Also at Smirkingchimp.com
The reason that we liberals in the gun community don't march is because we know it doesn't work. We don't "march to shut down the USA" (even though gun owners outnumber all other political action groups combined). What we do instead is bombard the offices of our Congresscritters nonstop until we get what we want.
In fact, I think it scares them when they introduce some bill into a pre-pre-pre-committee and it appears on the web (ie. the legislation is just one step above being written on a coffee napkin) and the next day they get 10,000 irate calls about it.
You want impeachment? Find the email, postal address, telephone number and fax of your rep and write, call, and fax until they're buried in paper, their voicemail is full, and they can't take it anymore. Demand a personal response to each letter. Say that if you don't get what you want, next term you're actively seeking their unelection - not by running someone different, but by a simple "vote for the other guy" campaign.
Objectivity, and respect for those who disagree with you are the only means by which the "impeach Bush" crowd will get out of their futile endeavor.
I have not understood how Pelosi has been able to legally take "Impeachment off the table" since the Constitution calls for it in certain instances of high crimes and she has sworn to uphold the Constitution.
By saying that she took "Impeachment off the table", Pelosi seems to be saying she knows better than the Founding Fathers who included Impeachment in the Constitution and she can just exclude it at her will. Her statement ignores any unknown crimes committed by Bush/Cheney and any future crimes they may commit will be greeted with a "get out of jail free card".
This seems to be arrogance at its peek and any Congressman who acts in this fashion should be removed from office or asked to step down from being Speaker of the House.
everytime they are exposed in a bold-faced lie, the media scratches it's head and says quizzically: Gee, did they lie again?
and that's the end of it.
JFK said the separation between religion and government should be "absolute".
but ever since reagan, the media doesn't think so anymore. and since rove decided to blatantly use religion for political purposes, the media (cnn) gives legitimacy to questions to the republican presidential candidates during their "debate" like: "do you believe in the literal truth of everything in the bible?"
questions like this should have no place in political elections. but since they do, there will be no impeachment because the well is already so obviously poisoned it cant get any more toxic.
Signing statements should have drawn the first impeachment move. This is clearly a usurpation of power by the Bush regime. The president is Constitutionally required to effectively enforce the laws--not selectively. Congress should never allow a precedent to stand that takes its powers.
The Iraq war propaganda campaign should have been the start of an impeachment move. What could be a worse high crime than lying the country into a bloody quagmire?
The inept/criminal prosecution of the war, war crimes, torture, illegal wiretapping etc, etc all scream for impeachment.
The pardon of Scooter Libby and Bush's involvement in the Plame outing cover up should have started an impeachment inquiry.
This Democratic congress is a failure and is doing future generations great harm by allowing these crimes to go unpunished. Bush has now established precedents that future amoral, sociopathic presidents will follow.
The only reason why some might not be aware that this is exactly how it happened against Clinton is because they didn't happen to tune into wingnut radio enough during that time period. I'll grant you that that source of discontent should never have been given enough weight to foment such a course of action by itself, but they scream about "discrimination against conservatives" by the Media so much that by now all they have to do is look crosswise and everyone comes running to do their bidding. I don't know how so many otherwise worldly and intelleigent people fell for that crap, but it sure worked.
We either have to count on the system working normally, or we need to set up a left wing scream machine the equal of that other crap. Just pecking away on a computer ain't getting it done when a fool like Limbaugh is able to sound off on how many hundreds of radio stations nationwide. It ain't what the message is, but how loud you're able to yell that really counts these days.
We have only the lame ass democrats in Congress to blame, for their failure to garner public support against this president. That's right it is the Congress's fault, for fencesitting, poll watching, vacillating time and time again, by appropriating funds for a war that never should have been, and hopping on board the Bush war wagon as it heads inexorably towards Tehran.
The fault is not in the stars, and not in the GOP who are by their very nature flawed corrupt creatures, but in those who have allowed them to run roughshod over the Constitution lo these past eight years.The time to impeach Bush has long past. That should've been done the moment we found out the WMD argument for war was a ruse, or when Valerie Plame was outed.
Now is not the time for impeachment. Now is the time to accept our own culpability for the mess we're in, and move on. Bush Cheney and ilk will disappear as a distant and horrible memory in due course.
How about some love for this courageous retired professor from Vermont....
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=10539
http://www.marchinmyname.org/
It takes a village.....to wake up their "leaders"
Wake up, Pelosi!
Wake up, all who would ask for our votes in 08.
Kucinich has the right stuff in the pipeline, HR333.