Duty to Warn
Detroit City Council approved 7-0 Wednesday a resolution sponsored by the wife of U.S. Rep. John Conyers to impeach President George Bush and Vice President Richard Cheney.
Congressman Conyers is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, where any impeachment effort would commence, and a bitter opponent of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. But he has said he does not intend to move forward with any impeachment effort -- following the lead of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Councilwoman Monica Conyers was unable to vote for her own resolution because she is in Hawaii for a national pension conference. Neither the congressman nor his wife, a first term councilwoman, could be reached Wednesday evening for comment.
The resolution says Bush and Cheney conspired to defraud the United States by "intentionally misleading Congress and the public regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify the war."
Congressman Conyers is the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, where any impeachment effort would commence, and a bitter opponent of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. But he has said he does not intend to move forward with any impeachment effort -- following the lead of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Councilwoman Monica Conyers was unable to vote for her own resolution because she is in Hawaii for a national pension conference. Neither the congressman nor his wife, a first term councilwoman, could be reached Wednesday evening for comment.
The resolution says Bush and Cheney conspired to defraud the United States by "intentionally misleading Congress and the public regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify the war."
In the House of Representatives last week Democratic Party Congress members lead the way to approve money for Star Wars research and development programs in the fiscal year 2008 budget.
Rejecting the recommendations of a sub-committee, Representatives Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) and John Larson (D-CT) restored $150 million to Pentagon boost phase missile defense programs, $48 million for future missile defense systems, including space sensors, $12 million more for sea-based sensors and language to allow $160 million for a highly controversial European missile defense site.
Joyfully cheering these moves to ensure continuation of space weapons research and development programs, a pro-space warfare organization called Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA) reported in an email that, "This shift of priorities from last week's initial Strategic Subcommittee's markup shows a bipartisan movement accepted by a Democratic Majority to put forward systems to address future threats and to continue to invest into our countries most advanced boost phase missile defense system, the Air Borne Laser."
Rejecting the recommendations of a sub-committee, Representatives Ellen Tauscher (D-CA) and John Larson (D-CT) restored $150 million to Pentagon boost phase missile defense programs, $48 million for future missile defense systems, including space sensors, $12 million more for sea-based sensors and language to allow $160 million for a highly controversial European missile defense site.
Joyfully cheering these moves to ensure continuation of space weapons research and development programs, a pro-space warfare organization called Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance (MDAA) reported in an email that, "This shift of priorities from last week's initial Strategic Subcommittee's markup shows a bipartisan movement accepted by a Democratic Majority to put forward systems to address future threats and to continue to invest into our countries most advanced boost phase missile defense system, the Air Borne Laser."
George Bush is trying to save Paul Wolfowitz' job as President of the World Bank even after the vulpine neo-con was caught slipping a load of World Bank loot to his love interest, Shaha Ali Riza.
Big deal. Yes, Wolfowitz shouldn't have been greasing his cookie sheet with government funds, but there are bigger reasons to toss The Wolf out the door.
Like, say, perjury and homicide? I haven't forgotten, Mr. Wolfowitz, that on March 27, 2003 you testified before the US Congress that the occupation of Iraq wouldn't cost the American taxpayer a penny.
You said, "There's a lot of money to pay for this that doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money." Oh, really?
When Wolfowitz laid down that line of jive, he and the Bushes knew that Americans just can't pass up a bargain, and here The Wolf was offering the sale of the century, a "free Iraq." Not "free" as in "self-governing" but "free" as in, we'll get their oil and their allegiance for nothing!
We can bomb Iraq and the Iraqis will pay for the bombs!
And where will the Iraqis, holding nothing but bushel-bags of Saddam dinars, get these billions of US dollars to pay for the Occupation?
Big deal. Yes, Wolfowitz shouldn't have been greasing his cookie sheet with government funds, but there are bigger reasons to toss The Wolf out the door.
Like, say, perjury and homicide? I haven't forgotten, Mr. Wolfowitz, that on March 27, 2003 you testified before the US Congress that the occupation of Iraq wouldn't cost the American taxpayer a penny.
You said, "There's a lot of money to pay for this that doesn't have to be U.S. taxpayer money." Oh, really?
When Wolfowitz laid down that line of jive, he and the Bushes knew that Americans just can't pass up a bargain, and here The Wolf was offering the sale of the century, a "free Iraq." Not "free" as in "self-governing" but "free" as in, we'll get their oil and their allegiance for nothing!
We can bomb Iraq and the Iraqis will pay for the bombs!
And where will the Iraqis, holding nothing but bushel-bags of Saddam dinars, get these billions of US dollars to pay for the Occupation?
Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosum of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."
From the bosum of a devastated Earth a voice goes up with
Our own. It says: "Disarm! Disarm!
The sword of murder is not the balance of justice."
Blood does not wipe our dishonor,
Nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plough and the anvil at the summons of war,
Let women now leave all that may be left of home
For a great and earnest day of counsel.
Let them meet first, as women, to bewail and commemorate the dead.
Let them solemnly take counsel with each other as to the means
Whereby the great human family can live in peace...
Palast is the author of Armed Madhouse, released last week in a new, expanded edition, in paperback - the newest addition to the New York Times list of non-fiction bestsellers.
Before his untimely death in a plane crash, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown said,
"I'm not Hillary's mother-f****** tour guide!"
That wasn't a nice thing for a member of the President's cabinet to say about the First Lady, now my Senator, Hillary Clinton.
And it's probably not polite for me to bring it up now. But if I don't, surely the Karl Rovarians will - if Senator Mrs. Clinton nails the Presidential nomination.
Bill Clinton used to say that, once he became president, he finally earned more money than his wife. That was a carefully crafted bit of modesty to show Bill as an aw-shucks regular guy versus Richie Rich-kid George Bush.
But Bill's cute remark raised a question in my mind: How did Hillary get that big ol' salary? And another question arises: how has she stayed out of prison?
Before his untimely death in a plane crash, Commerce Secretary Ron Brown said,
"I'm not Hillary's mother-f****** tour guide!"
That wasn't a nice thing for a member of the President's cabinet to say about the First Lady, now my Senator, Hillary Clinton.
And it's probably not polite for me to bring it up now. But if I don't, surely the Karl Rovarians will - if Senator Mrs. Clinton nails the Presidential nomination.
Bill Clinton used to say that, once he became president, he finally earned more money than his wife. That was a carefully crafted bit of modesty to show Bill as an aw-shucks regular guy versus Richie Rich-kid George Bush.
But Bill's cute remark raised a question in my mind: How did Hillary get that big ol' salary? And another question arises: how has she stayed out of prison?
"Let them call me rebel, and welcome; I feel no concern from it. For I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul."
--Thomas Paine
Peggy Noonan obviously doesn't fear suffering "the misery of devils." She has whored her soul to the bourgeoisie in a bargain of Faustian proportions. One need only chip away slightly at her façade of compassion and moral rectitude to reveal a very contemptible human being.
With ease, delight, and ample reward, Ms. Noonan joins a bevy of cynical pundits in sustaining the false consciousness of the masses, which in turn paves the way for the egregious crimes of the United States' avaricious and malevolent plutocracy. If this sounds hyperbolic to you, you don't know much about the true history of the United States, particularly its foreign policy.
--Thomas Paine
Peggy Noonan obviously doesn't fear suffering "the misery of devils." She has whored her soul to the bourgeoisie in a bargain of Faustian proportions. One need only chip away slightly at her façade of compassion and moral rectitude to reveal a very contemptible human being.
With ease, delight, and ample reward, Ms. Noonan joins a bevy of cynical pundits in sustaining the false consciousness of the masses, which in turn paves the way for the egregious crimes of the United States' avaricious and malevolent plutocracy. If this sounds hyperbolic to you, you don't know much about the true history of the United States, particularly its foreign policy.
From the new updated and expanded paperback edition of the bestseller Armed Madhouse in stores now.
Since the initial release of Armed Madhouse in June 2006, much has changed in America.
The Department of Homeland Security, after a five-year hunt for Osama, finally brought charges against... Greg Palast.
As America crawled toward the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attack, Homeland Security charged me and my US producer Matt Pascarella with violating the anti-terror laws.
Don't you feel safer?
And I confess: we're guilty.
On August 22, 2006, we were videotaping Katrina evacuees still held behind barbed wire in a trailer park encampment a hundred miles from New Orleans. It had been a year since the hurricane and 73,000 POW's (Prisoners of Dubya) were still in mobile home Gulags. I arranged a surreptitious visit with Pamela Lewis, one of the unwilling guests of George Bush's Guantanamo on wheels. She told me, "It's a prison set-up" - except there are no home furloughs for these inmates because they no longer have homes.
Since the initial release of Armed Madhouse in June 2006, much has changed in America.
The Department of Homeland Security, after a five-year hunt for Osama, finally brought charges against... Greg Palast.
As America crawled toward the fifth anniversary of the September 11 attack, Homeland Security charged me and my US producer Matt Pascarella with violating the anti-terror laws.
Don't you feel safer?
And I confess: we're guilty.
On August 22, 2006, we were videotaping Katrina evacuees still held behind barbed wire in a trailer park encampment a hundred miles from New Orleans. It had been a year since the hurricane and 73,000 POW's (Prisoners of Dubya) were still in mobile home Gulags. I arranged a surreptitious visit with Pamela Lewis, one of the unwilling guests of George Bush's Guantanamo on wheels. She told me, "It's a prison set-up" - except there are no home furloughs for these inmates because they no longer have homes.
Before President Bush fired his sorry ass, US Attorney David Iglesias of New Mexico, in a last sad attempt to suck up to his Republican padrones, allowed his chief mouthpiece, Norm Cairns, to speak with me. He shouldn’t have.
That was two years back, while I was investigating strange doings in New Mexico and Arizona, where, simultaneously, state legislators, Republicans all, claimed they had evidence of “voter fraud.” Psychiatrists call this kind of mutual delusional behavior folie a deux. I suspected something else: I smelled Karl Rove.
In the New Mexico legislature, a suburban Albuquerque political hackette, Justine Fox-Young (her real name), claimed to have “several” specific cases of vote identity rustling. Like Joe McCarthy waving his list of “Communists,” she waived documents of “evidence” of illegal voting on the floor of the Legislature. I called Ms. Fox-Young and asked her to send me the papers.
The “evidence” never arrived. Maybe her fax machine was broken. I called Justine.
Q. Justine, you’ve uncovered criminals! Did you turn their names over to the US Attorney?
A. Well, no, but someone did.
That was two years back, while I was investigating strange doings in New Mexico and Arizona, where, simultaneously, state legislators, Republicans all, claimed they had evidence of “voter fraud.” Psychiatrists call this kind of mutual delusional behavior folie a deux. I suspected something else: I smelled Karl Rove.
In the New Mexico legislature, a suburban Albuquerque political hackette, Justine Fox-Young (her real name), claimed to have “several” specific cases of vote identity rustling. Like Joe McCarthy waving his list of “Communists,” she waived documents of “evidence” of illegal voting on the floor of the Legislature. I called Ms. Fox-Young and asked her to send me the papers.
The “evidence” never arrived. Maybe her fax machine was broken. I called Justine.
Q. Justine, you’ve uncovered criminals! Did you turn their names over to the US Attorney?
A. Well, no, but someone did.
The Pentagon is set to test a satellite on Monday that is part of a program being run by the "Missile Defense Agency". The launch will take place from the NASA Wallops Island Facility in Virginia.
Official news releases say, "The Near Field Infrared Experiment (NFIRE) mission involves launching a four-stage Minotaur I rocket carrying a satellite to collect scientific data that will be used to help with the development of future missile defense technology efforts."
First off we have to always remember that "missile defense" is a ruse. The Pentagon sticks the word "defense" on their Star Wars program so the American people, when they might hear the words in between reality TV shows, do not get alarmed. "Oh," the people will say, "I don't need to worry about this because they are protecting us from the bad guys. Honey hand me another bag of chips."
All of these programs are now basically testing space technologies that ultimately will allow the Pentagon to locate targets in space, to hone in on the targets, and then to develop the ability to close on targets and destroy them. Sold as defense, the ultimate goal is offense.
Official news releases say, "The Near Field Infrared Experiment (NFIRE) mission involves launching a four-stage Minotaur I rocket carrying a satellite to collect scientific data that will be used to help with the development of future missile defense technology efforts."
First off we have to always remember that "missile defense" is a ruse. The Pentagon sticks the word "defense" on their Star Wars program so the American people, when they might hear the words in between reality TV shows, do not get alarmed. "Oh," the people will say, "I don't need to worry about this because they are protecting us from the bad guys. Honey hand me another bag of chips."
All of these programs are now basically testing space technologies that ultimately will allow the Pentagon to locate targets in space, to hone in on the targets, and then to develop the ability to close on targets and destroy them. Sold as defense, the ultimate goal is offense.
We received this correspondence from a Va Tech graduate. It is the text of a presentation given at a vigil a few days after the massacre.
It was quite a while ago when I graduated from Va Tech, but on the day of the massacre I found I could remember so much about it, and so clearly. My girlfriend lived in West AJ, and I took engineering classes at Norris Hall. As the details started coming out, I found myself picturing the scene, imagining which paths the shooter might have taken, which hallways and stairwells he walked down. I wondered how he was able to get all the way across campus. I wondered if any of my former professors were killed. I wondered how former classmates were dealing with it all.
It was quite a while ago when I graduated from Va Tech, but on the day of the massacre I found I could remember so much about it, and so clearly. My girlfriend lived in West AJ, and I took engineering classes at Norris Hall. As the details started coming out, I found myself picturing the scene, imagining which paths the shooter might have taken, which hallways and stairwells he walked down. I wondered how he was able to get all the way across campus. I wondered if any of my former professors were killed. I wondered how former classmates were dealing with it all.