Pogo was right

Paul Hackett and Senator Russ Feingold did the unthinkable this last week, they dared to say what is true, something that is horribly unfashionable these days. In doing so, they laid bare some ugly truths about the Democratic Party.

In his announcement that he was dropping out of the Ohio Senatorial race, Hackett minced no words in explaining the pressure that was brought to bear by the party powerful, who somehow felt that it was theirs to decide who could run and whose voices should be heard. Their omnipotent power play wasn’t about who could win in November, it was about the powers that be pooping in their pants at the prospect of new blood that might not kiss their asses. After all, if newcomers are allowed to step up and speak the truth, there is a serious danger that the party faithful might finally figure out that a bunch of butt-naked old donkeys are running the show.

The Dems really are a sorry lot. During the Alito hearings Senator Diane Feinstein mumbled on about how she didn’t feel that a difference of opinion was sufficient reason to vote against Alito. Earth to Senator Feinstein:

Lawsuit calls genetically engineered alfalfa a risk to farmers and the environment

Groups Challenge USDA Approval of First Perennial Gene Altered Crop

San Francisco, Calif. – Shortly after a government report cited problems with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) oversight of genetically engineered (GE) crops, a coalition of farmers, farm groups, consumers, and environmentalists filed a lawsuit today calling the department’s approval of GE alfalfa a threat to farmers’ livelihoods and a risk to the environment.

The suit contends that the USDA improperly allowed the commercial release of GE alfalfa, the first commercial release of a GE perennial crop, and failed to analyze the public health, environmental, and economic consequences of the release.

The suit also asserts that the GE alfalfa will likely contaminate natural alfalfa and ultimately prevent farmers from producing natural, non-GE alfalfa for markets that demand it.

Vincent's top ten list #2

Top ten reasons you know the whole country is on drugs.

10.  Our president pauses during speeches like he doesn't have a clue and says "Um"

9.  Vice President Dick Cheney is found to have been collecting weapons of mass destruction.

8.  George Bush Jr. doesn't remember Jack Abramoff.

7.  The Democratic Party no longer knows what they stand for.

6.  We know the President is always lying to cover his ass but nobody cares.

5.  George Bush Jr. keeps talking about cartoons.

4.  The U.S. Government says that Global Warming Scientists are creating a far fetched religion.

3.  You arrested for being involved in a phone call where you said, "It was the bomb."

2. Six words, Propaganda, Rhetoric, Impunity, Fecklessness, Flailing, Irresponsibility.

1.  President Bush's N.S.A. wiretapping order goes to Pfizer Court.

Lapse of oversight: an open letter to Senator Mike DeWine

Senator DeWine:

Earlier this week you, and the rest of the Republicans on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, decided that loyalty to party and President outweigh the Constitution and federal law. By declining to launch an investigation into the clearly illegal and unconstitutional domestic spying program initiated by President Bush you abdicated your responsibility and duty to oversee the actions of the executive branch.

This is but the latest, and most egregious, of Congressional lapses in oversight. If you are willing to simply rubber-stamp the policies of the executive branch, regardless of their legality or constitutionality, you and the rest of Congress may as well pack your bags and go home...You have rendered yourselves irrelevant by your own unconstitutional ceding of congressional authority to an increasingly imperious and ever secretive executive branch. The President can do as he pleases, when he pleases by what amounts to royal fiat. And none will gainsay him.

Road to peace goes through Santa Cruz

The following are remarks I made last Wednesday night in Santa Cruz, California, at an event held in the Veterans Hall, where the star speaker was Medea Benjamin, and where a group of Raging Grannies with pink aprons and rolling pins belted out anti-Bush songs of their own creation that brought down the house.  Medea was tremendous, and I recommend watching the video once they get it online.

I'm honored to have been asked to come and talk in the US town that least needs to hear about why this war is wrong and why its architects need to be impeached, removed from office, and prosecuted.

Santa Cruz would have been the first city government to pass a resolution in favor of impeaching Bush earlier this year, if Santa Cruz hadn't also done so, already, three years ago.

People send me reports and photos to post at afterdowningstreet.org from marches and rallies and lobbying efforts, and I get more encouraging news from Sherry Conable and others in Santa Cruz than from anywhere else.

U.S. Supports Iran in Rejecting Gay Rights Organizations at the UN

Given the Bush administration’s rhetoric regarding the Iranian government you wouldn’t think the two have much, if anything, in common. In his 2002 State of the Union address President Bush referred to Iran as part of an “axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world.” And he criticized the Iranian government’s efforts to “repress the Iranian people’s hope of freedom.” This week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice testified before the Senate regarding the administration’s request for $75 million to help further democracy in Iran, in which she stated that Iran was under the control of a “radical regime.” Yet the Bush administration recently went out of its way to support an Iranian initiative to deny access to gay and lesbian organizations within the United Nations.

Founding Fathers, baseball, apple pie, and impeachment

Remarks prepared for February 18th pro-impeachment rally in colonial dress in Charlottesville, Va., home of Thomas Jefferson and James Monroe, and near the home of James Madison.

Impeachment has been part of American culture longer than baseball or apple pie.  Only Mom has been around longer than impeachment.

The Scottish take pride in having invented impeachment.  The British got it from them, and we got it from the British.  Impeachment is in the US Constitution, and was further developed by Thomas Jefferson in the manual of procedural rules that he wrote for the Congress.

The Constitution mentions impeachment six times.  It makes clear that impeachment is a power the legislature has over the executive and judicial branches of government.  And this power is not an afterthought.  It is central to the system of checks and balances that the Constitution created, and which the current administration is well on its way to destroying.

DINO stands for "Democrats In Name Only"

The reason our republic is in crisis is not that we have a ruthless, criminal administration in power; it is not that the press is controlled by self-serving corporations; it is not because rampant bribery has overtaken the Congressional agenda; and even the massive program by Republicans to subvert democracy is inadequate explanation for the crisis. The reason our republic is in crisis is that we have no opposition party.

Why have the Democrats lost their voice at this crucial moment? Why are they doing so little to retake their position at the helm? I have begun to suspect that there is more going on here than incompetence or cowardice or disorganization. Perhaps the Democratic party has been infiltrated.

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.

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