Thursday, January 11, 2007

ellsberg: "If we don’t try to impeach them..."

* ellsberg:
'“I think [President George W.] Bush and [V.P. Dick Cheney] Cheney have to go for a number of reasons. One of them is that, frankly, if there is...another 9/11, while they are in power, then I think you will not distinguish this country very much from the police state in Germany in the summer of 1933...We have to get them out. If we don’t try to impeach them, then we accept the legitimacy of the criminal moves that they have already made...Cheney is Bush’s insurance, just as [Spiro T.] Agnew was [President Richard M.] Nixon’s [during Watergate, in 1973]"
* boykin out.

* jeff at larisa's:
"If Mr. Bush has decided he has the authority to bomb any city, town or village in the world that he thinks a terrorist may be hiding in, the United States of America has become the world's leading rogue nation."

* jane:
"Much of the GOP's success in being able to put over its most venal policies can be attributed to its skill with PR spin, packaging ideas as something they are not. And that is largely dependent on the use of language, twisting and turning it to more flattering angles that will obscure the worst aspects of their proposals. One of the most frustrating aspects of reading traditional media is the unquestioned willingness to perpetuate this bastardization of language for political purposes, and untangling that linguistic mess has fueled many a liberal blog post.'

rot in hell, mr luntz.

* digby:
"And here we are again. The nation has spoken in no uncertain terms that it does not want the Iraq war to be escalted. Indeed, they have said they want it to be de-escalated. The president is going to do the opposite. And we are all standing by watching it happen. Oh there will be a few protests in the congress and some political theatre, but the message is already clear. The president can do what he wants to do.

I think that we must be honest and admit that we aren't living in a real democracy anymore. Yes, it has the trappings of one. We hold elections and we petition our government and offices change hands. But it is so infected with spin and lies and the willingness of its leaders to deny the democratic spirit of the constitution at every turn that it no longer really functions as one.

It has never been more clear that the people are irrelevant in our system of government than it is at this moment. Fully 70% of the public disapproves of president Bush's job performance. Even more disapprove of his Iraq policy and a large majority believe it was a mistake to invade and occupy Iraq in the first place. 88% do not want this war war to be escalated. His party just lost a large number of seats in both houses of congress over this issue.

And yet this 30% president with 12% support in the country is going to exactly the opposite of what the country wants him to do and he will get away with it. Democracy? Not so much."

4 comments:

Track said...

Digby is right.

The larger question is just how much friction REALLY exists between the Executive and Legislative Branch.

Congress has been AWOL for too long.

Anonymous said...

for one of the first times i've noticed, digby's only stating the obvious, what we've all known and observed for too long a time now.

Jodin said...

Well, our chance to convince Nancy Pelosi to Impeach Bush/Cheney is this Monday Jan. 15th..

Pelosi most likely said impeachment was "off the table" to remove any appearance of conflict-of-interest that would arise if she were thrust into the presidency as a result of the coming impeachment.

What we need to do is to pressure Pelosi not to interfere with impeachment maneuverings within her party. Sending her Do-It-Yourself impeachments legitimizes her when she is forced to join the impeachment movement in the future.

Sacks and sacks of mail are about to arrive in Nancy Pelosi's office initiating impeachment via the House of Representative's own rules this Monday January 15th. This legal document is as binding as if a State or if the House itself passed the impeachment resolution (H.R. 635).

There's a little known and rarely used clause of the "Jefferson Manual" in the rules for the House of Representatives which sets forth the various ways in which a president can be impeached. Only the House Judiciary Committee puts together the Articles of Impeachment, but before that happens, someone has to initiate the process.That's where we come in. In addition to a House Resolution (635), or the State-by-State method, one of the ways to get impeachment going is for individual citizens like you and me to submit a memorial. ImpeachforPeace.org has created a new memorial based on one which was successful in impeaching a federal official in the past. You can find it on their website as a PDF.

You can initiate the impeachment process and simultaneously help to convince Pelosi to follow through with the process. Do-It-Yourself by downloading the memorial, filling in the relevant information (your name, state, etc.), and sending it in. Be a part of history.

Impeach Bush Now

Anonymous said...

Nancy [Pelosi] did not say that it [impeachment] could not, or would not, be put back on 'the table'.