Throughout the nation there are Democrats who won-- or held their seats because the voters expected them to do the right thing-- get the US out of the war, reinstate Habeus Corpus, protect privacy rights from illegal domestic spying, address the criminal acts of Cheney and Bush...
Nancy Pelosi's and Harry Reid's kibosh on impeachment-- taking it "off the table" is a symptom of a mindset that is prevalent in D.C.. The attitude is rooted in the same Democratic invertebrate (spineless) fear of taking a strong stand.
The Democratic leadership has made it clear they are worried that if they take too strong a stand on the war, fully blocking funds, if they go after Cheney and Bush for crimes, through impeachment, that they will be mocked and criticized.
The new, freshmen senators and congressmen all have handlers, call them "mentors" if you want to get euphemistic. These handlers tell them or, euphemistically, "advise them" how to vote. For the war funding vote, all the dems in congress were given guidance on whether they had to support the final funding bill or whether they got a "pass." The decision making process considered how tight their next race will be, how solid they hold their seat.
There are plenty of issues where constituent input will not make a dent in the dems' positions on issues unless the congresspeople are given the message repeatedly, intensely, in their faces. That's what Cindy Sheehan is doing to Nancy Pelosi.
One way to give your elected official the message that you're not satisfied with his or her response to your call for representatioin on the issues you care about is to run an opposition candidate-- either in the primary or as an independent-- or both.
If Cindy runs, it will cost Pelosi time and money. It will distract her from doing her job. I don't think anyone wants to sabotage or dilute Pelosi's potency, but, on the other hand, we all want her to back off on her "impeachment off the table" rule, and get tougher and stronger on the war. And there are a lot of us who are very upset about what Rush Holt's bill has morphed into-- a bad, dangerous bill that is bad for democracy, bad for America, but interestingly, very good, probably to the tune of in the billions of dollars range, for one company in Holt's district.
We need to push the dems who are leaning to far right, trying to look like Rright wingers (only God knows why, with right wing policy so deep in the tank) further to the left.
Even four term Republican congressman Joe Scarborough, reborn as "Morning Joe," as the replacement for Don Imus, has moved further and further away from Bush. He is questioning the war and a lot more of Bush's bad policy.
These invertebrate democrats need to wake up to what the people want.
I spoke at a meeting of local dems in south jersey last night and was pleasantly astonished by how well informed they were. The misconception that the reps in congress have that people don't know what's going on is dead wrong. Americans know more about what's happening today than ever before-- in spite of the lamestream media's efforts to distract us with garbage about Paris Hilton, Anna Nicole Simpson, OJ Simpson, Michael Jackson, the latest kiddie kidnapping and the other chronic distractions from real news.
One way to wake up these arrogant, puppet-managed un-representatives is to challenge them, to make their candidacies more difficult, their campaigns more challenged.
This works. Marci Winograd challenged incumbent Democrat Jane Harmon in the recent primaries. She lost, but put up a good fight. Since then, Harmon has moved to the left. That's a good thing for everyone, including Harmon. I give her credit for learning from the experience. It's a hardball way to force members of congress to wake up and start respecting constituents.
Fielding competition for an incumbent is no small task, but it can be very powerful. This can be a project that progressive organizations can easily get behind, so there is a message not only to the individual candidate, but to the DCCC-- the Democratic Congressional Campaign COmmittee. If they get the message that their positions and policies are costing them, bigtime, by driving constituents to field competition for the incumbents they've invested millions in, they will be forced to pay attention. That's why it's important that there be a national coordination of these efforts. PDA-- Progressive Democrats of America, DFA Democracy for America, and Progressive Majority are all organizations that could get involved in this effort, though DFA, with its roots in the Dean campaign, may be too close to Howard Dean to confront the Democratic party's leadership.
To remain non-partisan, Of course, I should add that this same idea applies just as well to constituents who have Republican, Libertarian or Green representatives who are not far left or progressive enough.
Then, there are some situations where the incumbents, Republican or Democrat, are hopeless causes. This may start out as an effort to lean heavy on incumbents to move left. It could turn into a route-- where the primary is actually won. It could turn out that polling shows that the new competition does better than the incumbent in projected final horse races with the other party's candidate. And then there are the Joe Lieberman types-- the Bush enablers. I think we've all learned alot from the Joe Lieberman- Ned Lamont experience. I think the Dems in Connecticut have realized they really screwed up voting for Lieberman, that a guy like him is a whore for Bush, regardless of whether he runs as a Dem or an Independent. I don't think Lieberman would win if he ran again. I do think that Dems and Republicans had better change their positions on a lot of issues if they're to hold their jobs.
Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is also published regularly on the Huffingtonpost.com. He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, Impeachment, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
To learn more about me and OpEdNews.com, check out this article.
and there are Rob's quotes, here.
To Watch me on youtube, having a lively conversation with John Conyers, Chair of the House Judiciary committee, click here Now, wouldn't you like to see me on the political news shows, representing progressives. If so, tell your favorite shows to bring me on and refer them to this youtube video
My radio show, The Rob Kall Show, runs 9-10 PM EST Wednesday evenings, on AM 1360, WNJC and is archived on www.whiterosesociety.org Or listen to it streaming, live at either www.wnjc1360.com or here.
A few declarations.
-While I'm registered as a Democrat, I consider myself to be a dynamic critic of the Democratic party, just as, well, not quite as much, but almost as much as I am a critic of republicans.
-My articles express my personal opinion, not the opinion of this website.
Pelosi is being challenged by Sheehan, Peter Welch is being challenged in Vermont - possibly by leading impeachment activist Dan DeWalt. We of ImpeachforPeace.org are looking to see if one or our St. Paul residents might make a run at Betty McCollum as Representative of the 4th District since Betty cosigned HR 635 in the 109th congress but seems to have forgotten her oath in just a couple of short years.
If Betty cosigns, our candidate would (probably) throw 100% support behind McCollum.
This is a VERY quick way to capitalize on the nation's shift of focus onto the 2008 elections and keep impeachment on the table no matter how long it takes.
As usual, you are ahead of the curve.
by
Mikael Rudolph (50 articles, 0 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 78 comments)
on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 10:36:49 AM
Please check it out and tell your friends.You can sign up there and get into a database to be contacted by the campaign as a likely supporter (newsletter reader), volunteer or donor.
This site is, as yet, unofficial, but I am pledged to cooperate with the campaign as soon as they're organized and up and running.I'm just trying to help them get a good head start.
Thanks for everything you can do to help Cindy's campaign.
Rob writes in paragraph six: "If Cindy runs, it will cost Pelosi time and money. It will distract her from doing her job..."
Yo, Pelosi is NOT doing her job!
Every member of Congress swore a solemn oath to "protect and defend the Constitution from ALL enemies foreign AND domestic... SO HELP ME GOD."
So when Pelosi did that - was it just a little bit of political theater which was essentially meaningless and immediatly forgotten? Or does swearing an oath "so help me god" even mean anything?
When will someone in Congress, in Washington, in America, someone with scruples, someone with an understanding of history and law, someone with a backbone, walk briskly up to Bush, place a frim grip on his upper arm and looking him directly in his beady alcoholic eyes say, "Mr. Bush you are under arrest for treason and high crimes against the United States!"
Pelosi, among others, has had plenty of opportuities to do this and she has failed each and every time. So, why worry about "distracting" her from doing a job she is not in fact doing?
by
mrk * (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 296 comments)
on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 12:50:26 PM
This is not about making our country better. It is not about big change. It is about staying alive. And to stay alive we need Bush out of power. That simple.
::::::::
In order to do that we need to follow the guidance containing Postulates, Sacred Perception and Tactics.
Postulates we have to believe in:
1. Bush has to go. It does not matter how, it does not matter where. He is a mortal danger for the very existence of our country. He is evil and he is mad. 2. Bush’s cronies are mad too, but mad deliberately. They have cultivated their madness due to their complacency and greed. Some of them are evil by nature like Cheney and some of them are just amazingly stupid, mean and crooked like Condi and Chertoff. But they all are bastards. There are no good, honest people among them. None. 3. The people who want Bush to go really want that. That means that anything within the Law of the Land can be and should be used. All bets are off. If GOP can use it, so can we. If Rush Limbaugh, Ann Colteur, Bill O’ Reilly can do it, so can we. We can and should use anything which makes sense to use and does not violate the law. 4. There is only one problem now: clear and present danger of Bush. No other problems exist now. No poverty, no racial problems, no Global warming, no foreign danger, none. All problems are put aside for now. It is only Bush. When we get rid of him at power we will go for other problems. But not now. 5. Bush, no matter how he looks like us is not like us. Neither are his cronies. He is in anomaly, a cancer cell. His cronies are metastases. They do not represent anything in America. Nothing. 6. American politics is the politics of entertainment. Whoever entertains most, wins. But unlike the GOP we have a great advantage: everything we accuse them of is the truth. They are the worst scum and they know that.
Sacred perception: It is only one. It is the perception that we here in the US are exactly the same as everyone else. We are not better, not worse, just the same. And as such Bush is only our problem, our pimple and we have an obligation to cure our nation the same way as other nations had the same obligations and unfortunately, failed in many cases. Those failures resulted in horrible wars when neighboring nations had to come out and clear the mess. If we do not want the same to happen to us, we need to clear the mess ourselves. Bush has to go. Once and for all he has to disappear back to Crawford or whenever his money permits.
Tactics:
1.There is an old saying that to cure the psychopath you need to show him that his worries have a cause. Thus if the progressives are accused of all those sins, let the adversaries know that we can use the ammo. We need 24 hours a day anti- Bush rant. Real one. We need our own O’ Reilly’s and Coulteur’s, who bark their accusations all the time. We need real liberal newspapers spilling venom on Bush, on all what he says, does, thinks and whatever.
2. We need cartoons. Lots of them, vicious as Hell. We need a conveyor of nasty pictures. Danish people had those pictures, right? Why don’t our cartoonists draw pictures of Bush, say, eating Iraqis for breakfast? Why don’t they draw Cheney shooting birds and people? Why don’t they draw Jesus Christ spanking the GW for bad grades, alcoholism and sacrilegious statements that he talks to Jesus regularly? Why don’t they draw Condi, she is a perfect materiel. She plays piano, right? They say that Philippe II, the morbid King of Spain had a special piano where each key was connected not to the string but to the tail of the cat, so that those cats mewed in pain. Terrific! Draw Condi playing such a piano only instead of cats there will be heads of the nations we had raped, blackmailed or conned, like Iraq, Jordan, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, Afghanistan, etc. Let them all mew in chorus or separately. Show Rick Santorum in the Pope’s tiara and call him the Pennsyllvania Pope! Show Chertoff in the form of Satan who he really is as a matter of fact. This is the great opportunity to show the truth and have fun!
3. Mockery is to be used exactly the way it is used by the GOP. We have to use the same language. There has to be news columns in every progressive site or media commenting on everything as such, for instance: ‘Our two crooked stooges, Condi, the bone pianist and Gates of Hell had again wasted a pot of taxpayers’ money while traveling to Iraq when not invited.. Here is the tab we paid for them sitting on those sofas and preparing for killing more people.. Rejoice, the taxpayers, the gas prices will rise again and so will the skirts…’ Something like that, please. No Colbert. He is a nice guy, honest too but the Public likes Larry, The Cable Guy, so give him to them!
4. Bids, We need to poll people for a bid on what we should do to those bastards when they are out of power. There should be colorful suggestions, like using them to do communal service in New Orleans or put them all into the St. Rita’s ( same building). Polls also are to be performed on who of them is the most dangerous, who is the most stupid and who is the most mad. I mean it. They have to taste their own medicine.
5. Comments from the average Joe. We need a special commentator who will 24 hours a day explain what Bush does to the average American. We need that individual to dissect the Bush’s policies, Bills, decisions and strategies into what they are- economic death for the average citizen. And the language has to be… like it has to be.
6. We need references from the foreign press about us and let them print what we say and show. We need those cartoons to be printed everywhere to show them that we are serious and to show here that they, on the other side support good people of America in their fight against darkness. That simple.
7. All demonstrations, public hearings on the progressive topics, marches and meetings are to be only under one slogan: ‘ Mad Bush has to go! We do not want Mad administration. Madness disqualifies. Bush is crazy, Cheney is evil. Mad, mad, mad…’
This tactics will lead us to victory at the polls. And it will not backfire because vehemence and perseverance never backfire. It is a fight, a real American fight for survival. If there was our Patrick Henry now he would write something like,” No more madhouse in the White House or Death do I prefer.” That is because there really is something even worse than death. It is when you know that your children might die on the way to madness. And that threat is here now. It comes from Bush. We have to win. America, its spirit of courage will win over the dark powers of madness if we laugh at them and drive them out of town.
by
Mark Sashine (47 articles, 19 quicklinks, 236 diaries, 3362 comments)
on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 1:06:03 PM
Read what the common Joe is writing about Bush in taxi-cabs, buses, lavatories or any other surface.
People know what Bush is doing to us.
What we need is a plan of our own.
Better that we should spend the next two years getting knocked down opposing the war than not.
Better still that the Dems in Congress and the liberal blogosphere could come up with positive social, political and economic ideas, codify them in a legislative agenda and present it to the American electorate for a mandate for change in November 08.
by
Robert Chapman (28 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 557 comments)
on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 4:56:53 PM
"I don't think anyone wants to sabotage or dilute Pelosi's
potency".
Pelosi's potency is just a loose cannon diversion if the Constitution is in crisis and she is not defending it.
You may have to choose Rob. Pelosi whom you may have cause to admire and respect may MAKE you choose - that is inherent in her statement that "impeachment is off the table". If she remains Speaker of the House and keeps "impeachment off the table" it isn't going to happen.
Half measures and good intentions real or feined are just a nuisance and a diversion if the Constitution really is in jepardy and Pelosi is not upholding her first and most primary duty.
by
Brett Paatsch (0 articles, 2 quicklinks, 21 diaries, 961 comments)
on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 1:32:46 PM
I just received an e-mail from my Democratic congressman, Collin C. Peterson D MN, in which he says that in his view Cheney has not committed High Crimes and Misdemeanors.If the majority of the Democrats in Congress are as dumb and useless as he is we had better start now and work hard to replace every one of them that doesn’t support impeachment. I know I will do my best to get rid of this sorry S.O.B.
by
walley (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 109 comments)
on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 2:10:53 PM
My biggest question for Mr. Peterson is just who has bought and paid for you. If Bill Clinton’s actions were enough to start impeachment proceedings Cheney’s sure as hell are.If my congressman doesn’t have the mental capabilities to understand this he sure shouldn’t have the job he has now.
by
walley (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 109 comments)
on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 2:43:32 PM
If your not going to reply to it, consider posting it on the net and others might be able to assist in formulating a reply to his arguments if he offers any.
by
Brett Paatsch (0 articles, 2 quicklinks, 21 diaries, 961 comments)
on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 3:14:01 PM
I have replied to it but if any one is interested in it e-mail me at wwalley@frontiernet.net and I will forward it to them. I know that he will not answer my reply
by
walley (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 109 comments)
on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 3:27:15 PM
I just received an e-mail from my Democratic congressman, Collin C. Peterson D MN, in which he says that in his view Cheney has not committed High Crimes and Misdemeanors.
Is it not possible that your congressman who probably has a law degree, some political smarts and information might be right?
Impeachment is not a recall and clearly was not intended to undo the will of the electorate as expressed in elections.
Cheney and Bush deserve punishment but it should be administered by us upon the GOP war supporters at the ballot box in November 08.
I for one do not want CONGRESS, through impeachment, depriving me of my opportunity to punish the war mongers myself.
I'll do it the old-fashioned way, by continuing my campaign and changing the SYSTEM from the bottom up.
by
Robert Chapman (28 articles, 0 quicklinks, 2 diaries, 557 comments)
on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 5:03:50 PM
I appreciate the position you have taken but I, and the majority of the people I am in contact with, don’t feel that we can wait 18 months to bring Bush and Cheney before a Court of Competent Jurisdiction, be it State, Federal, International or Congress, and face charges for the crimes the have pretreated.To retaliate at the ballot box has always proven to be nothing more than a useless jester by the voter and in the scope of things has always proven to meaningless.If we vote the Republican Gestapo out of office what recourse do we have to bring these criminals to justice?It has to be done now before it is to late.
by
walley (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 109 comments)
on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 8:02:41 PM
prevent you from "punishing warmongers yourself" whatever that means?
As a citizen you can vote and speak and be an activist. You can run in and vote in and influence elections. And normally elections are the appropriate time for making decisions about who governs. But in abnormal circumstances where the threats to the Constitution are abnormal (as when they are coming from oath breaking Presidents and Vice Presidents) isn't it encumbent upon citizens to do their duty and to aggitate for their representatives to uphold their own oaths and to apply the impeachment remedy?
Unless you are proposing unlawful approaches I can't see what you are talking about. Perhaps you think impeachment is not warranted? Perhaps you can point me to one of your articles that explains what you are talking about?
by
Brett Paatsch (0 articles, 2 quicklinks, 21 diaries, 961 comments)
on Friday, July 13, 2007 at 4:32:14 AM
If the actions of Vice President Dick Cheney (as outlined in H. Res 333) are not impeachable, then the impeachment process as outlined in the Constitution has no purpose.
Causing the disseminaiton of false information in order to take the United States into war is TREASON. Causing the release of classified information that decreases the ability of the United States to track and prevent the distribution of WMD to rogue nations is TREASON.
As far as I can tell, TREASON is a pretty good reason for Impeaching a vice-president. And I don't feel like waiting for 2008 to take somebody who has damaged the country out of a position of power.
by
Charlie L (2 articles, 2 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 638 comments)
on Friday, July 13, 2007 at 9:52:04 AM
Impeach Bush and leave Cheney at the helm? Bush is the puppet. Without Cheney, Rove, Gonzo and the like he wouldn't have a clue what to sign, say or anything else...Maybe we should start a new trend of GROUP Impeachments. As far as I'm concerned they all need to be tried for TREASON and the sooner the better.
Good for Cindy for going after Pelosi. Pelosi is in the same league as LIEberman. Pelosi isn't fit to be a crossing guard. She is a dyed in the wool card carrying right leaning coward. Got Conyers to back off impeachment with a threat.
I've been around since FDR and I haven't seen any leadership here that hasn't had some sort of corruption of one kind or another but this one by far is the worst yet. And the Republican party of today is the most disgusting bunch of corrupt individuals ever. The Democrats aren't much better. Ethics seems to be a foreign word because the vast majority don't have a nodding aquaintance with it.
Incompetence and inexperienced cronies in every important leadership positons in all the agencies rendering those agencies useless and down right dangerous to the people. What butt are they all sniffing (including our so called leaders)?..The powerful global corporate elite. And that greedy bunch has had the same goal since forever..a global government and global asset control. Here in the U.S. it is my contention that Cheney is their most powerful front man at this time. They have a name, The Bilderberg Group. By the way, Bill Clinton has been a member since 1991..Perhaps that explains his pushing "free" trade ?
And the average person here in the U.S. is viewed as nothing more than a means to their ends. They use and abuse without a second thought. Take Iraq for instance..that phoney "war", which we all know is an occupation, will not end, our troops will not be removed until they get their U.S installed, puppet Iraq government to sign on the dotted line so the corrupt oil Corporations can control the Iraq Oil. (they want to make that oil scarce so they can continue to raise prices).
The only solution is to get all Corporate power removed from any form of influence within our government...and that is likely never to happen. Greed is a powerful tool.
by
Rae (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 219 comments)
on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 2:31:20 PM
She's a real liberal, but she's in a job where she has to deal with Stenny Hoyer and 50+ Blue dog democrats who are very conservative. It's a tough row to hoe.
by
Rob Kall (762 articles, 3850 quicklinks, 321 diaries, 1642 comments)
on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 7:29:47 PM
By running Cindy doesn't have to beat her, its enough that Cindy is constantly on her case about impeachment. The more media attention brought on Pelosi and her off the table position the better. An ideal outcome would be for Pelosi to put impeachment on the table (that would turn the whole party most likely in one go) and Cindy not having to run. But if Pelosi is really intractible then Cindy will need reinforcement.
That damn table is the critical point on the impeachment battlefield. And Pelosi's position is utterly untenable unless one is of the view that impeachment isn't warranted.
by
Brett Paatsch (0 articles, 2 quicklinks, 21 diaries, 961 comments)
on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 3:07:42 PM
Cindy has done what very few have the guts to do.She has gotten into the face of the President of the United States and has a following that far exceeds what you perceive it to be.She does not hide, like you and I, behind a nom de plume on a web site. She has always been up front and honest in her actions.History shows that once in a while even a so-called gadfly has been able to effect change. I don’t have the guts to do what she has, do you?
by
walley (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 109 comments)
on Thursday, July 12, 2007 at 3:19:34 PM
