Seventy-one members of Congress, all Democrats, most House Members, two Senators, belong to the Congressional Progressive Caucus.  For a couple of years now, the CPC has had a staff person.  More recently it created a website http://cpc.lee.house.gov

Since most of the positions generally labeled progressive are backed by either a majority or a large minority of Americans, it certainly seems useful to have at least a small minority in Congress pushing for them.  If anything good is ever to come out of Congress, this seems a likely source for it.

The CPC operates from within the Democratic Party, and that party is now in the majority.  So, the question arises: what influence does the CPC have with the rest of its party or with Republicans, and what goals will it attempt to achieve?

There’s a new clue to the motivation behind the recent firing of federal prosecutors. Reporters Gordon, Talev and Taylor of McClatchy Newspapers established a likely relationship between the post 2000 hard right turn in civil rights policies at the Department of Justice and the promotion of the new cadre of right wing U.S. Attorneys who support restricting voter eligibility. Karl Rove’s own words on the subject indicate a further connection between recent appointments in nine states where very tight Congressional races were anticipated

The Bush Justice Department is imploding after years of consistently undermining the rights and freedoms of those citizens it claims to serve. From the Patriot Act to the unfettered sadism endorsed at White House inspired and sponsored torture centers around the world, the Justice Department stands with the White House. It provides a fig leaf of legal justification for the various adventures which involve war, death a suffering.

"You is feeling like you was lost in the bush, boy? You says: It is a puling sample jungle of woods. You most shouts out: Bethicket me for a stump of beech if I have the poultriest notions what the farest  he all means."~~James Joyce, Finnegans Wake (1939)

My friend Bernie says ever since the Bush gang stormed the White House in 2000, then stormed the World Trade Center in 2001, we've done nothing but run in circles like a bunch of terrified chickens with our heads chopped off. "We have no sense of direction," Bernie said, "we're staggering around in a jungle of lies, deceit, and scandal with no way out -- and that's the way they planned it."

"You're kidding!" I exclaimed, astonished. "You mean they planned this mess? It's nothing but bloody chaos out there --"

To My Fellow Concerned Citizens:

I am writing with an urgent appeal to join a group of prominent Americans who will appear on the steps of the U.S. Capitol Building on Thursday March 29 to call for the impeachment of President George W. Bush.  The appearance of this distinguished group can be a galvanizing catalyst.

There is a moment now when impeachment can begin.   

The millions of people who thought they were repudiating the war when they voted out the Republicans this past November increasingly feel betrayed and angry. Far from deterred, Bush is moving forward with new war plans.  He faces almost no opposition to a strike against Iran. 

The more public pressure for impeachment builds, the more Bush's war options will become limited. The more his war crimes are exposed and opposed, the greater the impetus for his removal and repudiation. 

The Bush Administration has promoted the end of habeas corpus, officially sanctioned torture, and declared the possibility of war without end.  From Katrina to the latest purging of Federal Prosecutors their disdain for law has no bounds, and continues.