"Also, check out this latest piece of news from the Busby/Bilbray election. Those responding to the lawsuit are now claiming that in effect local authorities and the registrar's certification don't mean anything, and that only Hastert's premature swearing in of Bilbray means anything and that Congress can do as it pleases in calling the shots and ignore any contention with election results. This is starting to look like a constitutional crisis itself now. (scoop, bradblog)Kudos to Paul Lehto for continuing to fight hard on this one and looking to raise its visibility too. And of course the latest Zogby poll now showing 92% of America agreeing with him doesn't hurt either... (bradblog)And now Brit Hume is trying to claim that Colin Powell is the guilty party of leaking Valerie Plame's name! Talk about CONSPIRACY THEORISTS! Of course Fox would never dare call Brit one of those "bad names".
Saturday, August 26, 2006
starting to look like a constitutional crisis
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amazing, just amazing. STARTing to look like a Constitutional crisis?
lol, where to begin?
I keep thinking (grasping at straws??) issues like this one are very, very good . . . signs that the overreaching is growing to a point where the perps have lost all reason or ability to hide what they are up to - is it too much to hope for that we may be seeing the blazing last throes of their self-destructiveness? . . . Please??
Paul Lehto is a local here. He lives in the county just to the north of King County (where Seattle is parked) and has already succeeded - via one of his election lawsuits - in getting the computerized voting machines dumped in that county (but the damned thing pulled loose here in King County at the same time - I hear King County just BOUGHT a bunch of 'em. Grr.)
He's my idea of a 'fighting Dem' . . . goes by the handle of "LandShark" over on Democratic Underground. HA!
rimone - maybe its starting to look like an end to the crisis. fingers x'd.
leeb. i hope you are right. it's so flagrant these days - that maybe we are getting close. im still worried about how much damage they can do in the interim.
i don't really know lehto. good on him.
Luke, if you trot on over to DU and snoop about in the forum titles, you'll find one that is named something about election integrity . . . it originally was something about the 2004 elections, but I think they may have changed it awhile ago. Anyhoo, there, in archives (as well as more currently, I'd bet), are several threads started by Paul Lehto under the LandShark screen name and (with all the free time on your hands) you could probably find out more than you wanted to know about the fine points of running elections.
Rimone, I think Luke is right about the end of this crisis maybe getting close. I thought in this post the biggest clue was the WH-puppet on FAUX (Hume) now taking a shot at Colin Powell.
Powell has been a wuss showing no spine whatsoever where the BFEE is concerned, but trying to deflect responsibility away from the White House, bu$h himself, Cheney, Rove, et al in the Plame case just might be the jab that propels Powell out in front of the cameras and talking his li'l ol' heart out. Finally. Lawrence Wilkerson (Powell's former right-hand-man for 16 years) has been doing all the heavy lifting on that score for the last year or so, and this jolly bunch occupying OUR White House has already shown themselves to be chronically ham-handed. People far more experienced at diagnosing fatal fractures may well disagree, but there was something about that statement that just hit me right between the eyes.
I also agree that they will try every dirty trick they can possibly imagine in an attempt to hang onto power, but all we can do is acknowledge that possibility and forge ahead. There ARE more of us than there are of them, y'know.
Which reminds me: A favorite young minister at my (progressive)church several years ago in a sermon discussing stamina in the face of long-term crisis pointed out the ancient take on such matters.
He reminded us that, "Several times in the Bible, stories begin with the words, 'And it came to pass . . . ' Always it says, 'And it came to pass, this' . . . 'And it came to pass that . . . '"
"Nowhere does it ever say, 'And it came to stay!' "
good one, LeeB ('...nowhere does it ever say and it came to stay'). i'm a bit miffed that you felt you had to put in 'progressive' before 'church' (thank you, fundies--you fucks). but i don't blame you one bit.
when Lawrence Wilkerson came out last year about 'the cabal' i was all shouting w/joy. then...NOTHing.
Colin Powell? what a disappointment. wuss.
HA! Hi, Rimone! You're right, the fundies have truly made a mess. Mine is the polar opposite of fundamentalist. On the opening day of baseball season one year, instead of the first hymn during the service, we sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" and cracked up laughing. It was a beautiful spring morning with the rhododendrens blooming around the building and when we came outside there were a few sorry souls from the fundie church across the street eyeing us with more suspicion and disapproval than usual. They don't tolerate laughter over there, I guess, and more than once they would hear loud merriment coming from us.
Colin Powell has a big problem right now. Is he going to let that smear stand, or is he going to finally decide they have gone too far. Is the good man we used to think was inside that uniform going to finally find a way to bust out? Maybe it will dawn on him that if he wants to redeem his reputation with the nation, he's going to have to turn on the BFEE and do something constructive to restore this democracy.
So many GOPPER things are crumbling so fast now, just about anything is possible.
Luke, you said in such a nice, compact way exactly what is facing Powell (and has, since he chose to carry their lie to the United Nations). There was a time when public opinion of him was on a much more elevated plane. It will be interesting to see if he is redeemable or if he is content to let current assessments stand.
Personally, I like the idea of him being goaded (if that's what it takes) into rising to a higher level. Maybe being pushed under the bus by those he thought were on HIS side will encourage him to wake up.
Rimone, I think Luke is right about the end of this crisis maybe getting close. I thought in this post the biggest clue was the WH-puppet on FAUX (Hume) now taking a shot at Colin Powell.
i refuse to get my hopes up. where to begin? DSMs, Abu Ghraib, Katrina, Abramoff, Rove and Leopold, the AWOL thing being true, what's his name (Wilkerson?) w/the cabal thing...it pains me to go on.
*suppressed raving about my cynicism*
rimone - i'm certainly not confident that we are close to the beginning of the end - but each day we must be getting one day (and a few scandals) closer. right?
LeeB - yeah, hopefully CP will step up, and hopefully he is guiding Wilkerson (i'll take whatever help we can get) - but till that day: fuck him. i'm only marginally more confident that Powell will try to save us than i am about Rove trying to save us.
Luke and Rimone, I don't think for one blessed minnit that anyone on the dark side is going to change their tune out of any idealistic awakening.
If Powell does come to, I think it will be not to save us as much as to save himself. Surely he cannot be blind to the major hits his previously excellent reputation has taken. Whether he deserved his "excellent reputation" back in the time when he still was in possession of it is another story.
At the moment, I would settle for him grabbing a bucket and starting to bail. Just sayin . . .
My understanding is that My Lai was the tip of the iceberg and Powell covered it all up. Not much credit there.
We may be near the end, but I don't have a feeling that its an end that will lead to big indictments just yet. I think though, that we might be near the end of the complete denial on the part of some of the general public that have with their political blinders up to this point have been obvlivious to the crap that's been going on recently.
In a post I made to the Union Tribune message board on this subject, I think I got one of their most right wing posters over there to actually agree with me that this was a problem, even though he's not completely throwing up his hands. I didn't push it further, thinking that his and my words would be enough hopefully to wake some other people up around here.
The plot is thickening too now. Today, there's new news to this story that Hastert may have rationalized his "swearing in" session by a letter from APPOINTED California SOS Bruce McPherson's office that uses the partial results to say that Brian Bilbray "won" and that this will be his "defense" saying that the state (aka Mr. McPherson and his secretary) certified the election with that communique. This is getting VERY convoluted!
Hopefully we'll get a good ruling tomorrow here!
Cali, from your keyboard to God's inbox!!
The lengths these bozos go to in trying their end-runs around actually counting votes and conducting elections properly never fail to amaze me, and that so many of the public just swallow it still has me shaking my head, although that tide does seem to be changing direction finally. bu$h's approval ratings seem now to be back down below 40%, but that figure still boggles the mind.
My fingers are crossed for you and the CA-50 (and us!!). I can't wait to see what you have to tell us tomorrow!
Damien, you are quite right about the Mei Lei coverup. That is one more issue that has been getting more mentions since the lies in the U.N. speech and it adds to the pressure on Powell. He seems to have made a career out of pandering to the civilian so-called *leadership* so has a lot for which to atone. He had better be grabbing a bucket right quick or his window of opportunity to save his own bacon will pass right on by and somebody else may step in who has no interest in how the chips fall on Powell.
Lukery: but each day we must be getting one day (and a few scandals) closer. right?
so? nothing that has come out has ever done shit before. as i said above, i totally refuse to get my hopes up. mostly since i tend to turn my disappointment and frustration and sense of injustice inwardly, not good for my physical and emotional health.
to use a by-now totally cliche'd response, just imagine if ANY of the horrors were initiated by the Democratic party.
i shall be a very happy grrl when IOKIYAR dies its grisly and hopefully soon death. and i want scandals outed! lots and LOTs of them. jail time as well. AND Den Haag.
i don't ask for much, do i? ;-)
i cant promise much, but i can promise that we are one day closer to the end.
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