Impeachment could be the Democrats' best get-out-the-vote message

In the 2004 election, Karl Rove masterfully used gay marriage as the catalyst to drive normally apathetic voters to the polls and achieve historic turnout. It worked. Republicans of all ages, shapes and sizes who couldn't care less about manufactured WMD intelligence, record deficits and gas/oil prices, CIA leaks and warrantless wiretappings raced to polling places across America just to keep homosexuals from tying the knot.

Well, the Democrats have an even better weapon this year: impeachment. If they're smart, they'll make it the linchpin turnout strategy and the single biggest motivator for liberal voters. To be sure, it'll be hard for individual candidates to make this message the cornerstone of their campaigns. They'll need to run on more than that if they want to be taken seriously. But the impeachment issue could be our Swift Boat weapon. Organizations like MoveOn.org, as well as individuals like billionaire George Soros who heavily back such groups, should pull out all stops and launch a massive campaign. I can hear the 30-second spot now:

Guns don't shoot people--Vice Presidents do

Of course, many of you may already know I've never been the Vice President's biggest fan. I've often confused him with Lon Cheney, and yes, I've had him in my sights before er, so to speak. But I find it unconscionable that the left wing punditocracy is having such unearned fun over Cheney's unfortunate hunting accident. I mean who is the victim here? The Vice President, who was deprived of the chance to become a marksman through proper training in Vietnam just because he had other priorities? Or some wealthy Texan (a conservative and a lawyer-—hello!) who had the bad sense to go on a hunting trip with ol' Duck! Cheney.

Truth

Hello, The name Molly Ivins led me to this site. I know her to be full of outlandish dribble, so I wondered about you too. Right now I can't think of any publication I have ever seen that is more full of lies and deliberate deception that this one. For a long time I have wondered why such non-sense is put forth. Then a few days ago I heard an idea suggested. It seems there is about 21% of the liberal left that believes this kind of bull shit. You and some of the liberal left's politicians are playing to this group to keep them in the fold. I suggest that some of this may not be such a good idea. Your problem is, you turn off sensible people who can easily see through you. Keep up the good work. You blatantly show the liberal left to be the liars they, and you are.

"Not Guilty" says woman arrested after hanging anti-Bush posters

CLEVELAND -- The woman arrested and accused of assaulting police officers after hanging World Can't Wait posters in Cleveland Heights January 28 was arraigned in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court February 16.

Carol Fisher, 53, a resident of the inner-ring suburb known for its liberalism was charged with two counts of assaulting Cleveland Heights police officers Daniel Downey and Mike Frinzl.

According to her statements, Fisher was hanging posters announcing the World Can't Wait Cleveland action during the State of the Union, when a passing officer told her it was a $100 fine if she didn't take it down.

Fisher turned and walked toward the poster, in compliance with the officer's warning.  But instead of allowing her to take it down or just issuing a citation, Downey and Frinzl were on top of her "grinding his knee into [Fisher's] back and [her] face into the sidewalk."

Fisher said she told the officers she could not breathe.  That didn't matter.  Two more officers showed up, and they dragged her to a bench, shackled her legs, and handcuffed her tight enough to cause serious bruising.

For whom does the Secret Service's bell toll?

Lost amid the sardonic humor of late-night TV comics and the metaphors of editorial critics of the Cheney-Whittington hunting accident is the role of Secret Service agents who accompanied Vice President Cheney to the Armstrong ranch. On the surface at least, their conduct was anything but accidental…and anything but appropriate.

Either of his own volition or on instructions from Mr. Cheney, a Secret Service man notified the local sheriff immediately after the accident. But when a sheriff’s deputy arrived at the ranch to investigate, he was barred from speaking to the vice president. It wasn’t until the next morning that Mr. Cheney spoke with any law enforcement officer. Meanwhile, President Bush, Andrew Card, and Karl Rove had all been notified that an accident had occurred and that Vice President Cheney had fired the shotgun and injured Mr. Whittington. Without having spoken to Mr. Cheney, the sheriff’s office nonetheless announced that no liquor had been involved and that it was an accident. Case closed.

Bush, Republicans, and Judas Priest: Breaking the law, breaking the law

Whenever Bush or a Republican member of either the House or Senate appears before cameras, the chorus from an old Judas Priest tune starts running through my head:

Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law
Breaking the law, breaking the law

It doesn't matter what the topic is, the American people know that if Bush and Republicans are publicly discussing an issue, it is because they have or are, somehow, breaking the law. In matters large-n-small, Republicans have implemented a strategy of breaking the law, breaking the law.

1. Illegally imprisoning US citizens without a trial
2. DOD and FBI spying on Quakers and vegans
3. Torturing prisoners at Abu Ghraib
4. Torturing prisoners at Guantanamo Bay
5. Misrepresenting intelligence in order to go to war
6. Illegally outing a CIA agent (Plame) while working on Iran's nuke program
7. Trying to cover up their Katrina-related incompetence
8. Bribing the Abramoff prosecutor with a judgeship so that he leaves the case

The Iran crisis -- “Diplomacy” as a launch pad for missiles

The current flurry of Western diplomacy will probably turn out to be groundwork for launching missiles at Iran.

Air attacks on targets in Iran are very likely. Yet many antiwar Americans seem eager to believe that won’t happen.

Illusion #1: With the U.S. military bogged down in Iraq, the Pentagon is in no position to take on Iran.

But what’s on the horizon is not an invasion -- it’s a major air assault, which the American military can easily inflict on Iranian sites. (And if the task falls to the Israeli military, it is also well-equipped to bomb Iran.)

Illusion #2: The Bush administration is in so much political trouble at home -- for reasons including its lies about Iraqi WMDs -- that it wouldn’t risk an uproar from an attack on Iran.

But the White House has been gradually preparing the domestic political ground for bombing Iran. As the Wall Street Journal reported on Feb. 3, “in recent polls a surprisingly large number of Americans say they would support U.S. military strikes to stop Tehran from getting the bomb.”

A "100 percent certainty": the FBI and the myth of fingerprints

Few law enforcement institutions have been so thoroughly discredited in recent years as the FBI's forensic laboratory. In 1997, the Bureau's inspector general (IG) at the time issued a devastating report, stigmatizing one instance after another of mishandled and contaminated evidence, inept technicians, and outright fabrication. The IG concluded that there were "serious and credible allegations of incompetence" and perjured courtroom testimony.

My view is that taken as a whole, forensic evidence as used by prosecutors is inherently untrustworthy. Of course the apex forensic hero of prosecutors, long promoted as the bottom line in reliability -- at least until the arrival of DNA matching -- has been the fingerprint.

Kenyon Farrow at Monkeys Retreat

Kenyon Farrow will be at Monkeys Retreat, Tuesday 2/21/06 from 6-8 pm to promote his book LETTERS FROM YOUNG ACTIVISTS: TODAY'S REBELS SPEAK OUT

BIO: Kenyon Farrow is a writer and activist living in Brooklyn, NY. He is the culture editor for Clamor Magazine, and co-editor of Letters from Young Activists: Today's Rebels Speak Out (Nation Books 2005).His essays have appeared in print publications and online, and in the upcoming anthology, Spirited: Affirming the Soul of Black Gay and Lesbian Identity (Red Bone Press 2005). Recently named one of the nations "Movers & Shakers" in HIV/AIDS activism by The Body.com, Kenyon's work as an activist has also included prison and police brutality issues, drug policy,  LGBT, youth and homelessness issues. He is currently working on his first solo book.

Goes into its 2nd Printing in January!!! www.lettersfromyoungactivists.org

About the book:

Statisticians recommend new measures to ensure vote count accuracy, release "Ohio’s 2004 exit poll analysis for novices”

Why should Americans care about possible 2004 vote miscounts? The 2004 election is over. It’s old news. The only reason for rehashing prior elections is to ensure that our votes are counted the way voters intend in the future. Should Americans trust that our votes are counted accurately; or is wholesale electronic election tampering occurring? How could the evidence of vote tampering be hidden? Are the future of democracy and U.S. elections at stake? The U.S. press has dismissed exit polls as surprisingly inaccurate in the 2004 presidential election when exit polls conflicted with official vote counts. Were exit polls wrong or were vote counts altered?

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