The police state has arrived, at least temporarily, in America curtesy of St. Paul and how city, state and federal law enforcement agencies conspired to shut down any and all protests before the Republican National Convention. As I checked USAToday and Firedoglake.com I have come up with a rough estimate of over 700 protesters being arrested with a significant number being charged with felonies.
As I noted before that Amy Goodman was arrested, along with her two producers, and that the police and intelligence organs planted informants into protest groups. What I did not mention is that not only were those spies in protest groups to gather information but I would bet that they were provocateurs within those groups due to a resurrected cointelpro.
In reading this post by the excellent reportage of Lindsay Beyerstein, Firedoglake.com, I caught this at the very end her report:
The RNC took out a $10 million insurance policy to pay off police brutality settlements. This is the first time party host committee agreed to take out such a policy.
Remember the 2004 RNC in New York City resulted in 1,800 people were arrested as reported by USAToday. The resulting lawsuits had the city of New York pay out of it's own budget as they reached settlements.
At what point will it be too costly for political parties to hold national conventions if they have to have an insurance policy for the actions of the host city's police force?
The full story is in the extended text
This is not the first time that a GOP elected official has been suspected of uttering GOP "code words" seeking to enflame centuries-old racial hatred against Barack Obama. So, what we would have expected to be a classic Rove whisper campaign is coming into the open.
These are probably the end results of a string of disgusting "conservative" messages that have encouraged the kind of actions we have seen in Colorado ove th past week. From the Aurora Assassination Cell that GOP US Attorney Troy Eid is working so hard to dismiss as harmless, to the Loveland assassination caller that the newspaper is trying so hard to ignore, it's getting ugly. Read More »
Washington Times reporter Ralph Z. Hallow writes:
Mr. Paul has refused to endorse Mr. McCain, and Mr. McCain's operatives have refused to let him address the Republican National Convention.
As a result, Mr. Paul decided to hold a rally of his own Tuesday billed as the "Campaign for Liberty." Initially set to be held at the University of Minnesota's 11,000-seat Williams Arena, it has been moved to the far-larger Target Center in Minneapolis. Mr. Paul said in an interview that he expects to attract up to 18,000 people.
Meanwhile, Ted Goddard, Political Wire, writes:
McCain Attracts Biggest Crowd Yet
Jonathan Martin notes that Sen. John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin drew a crowd of 17,000 to his rally in Missouri.What does this tell you something about McCain and Ron Paul?
I hope my mother, my wife and my teenage daughter will excuse this one - but, my initial reaction holds that McCain is having a post midlife crisis moment here. Now he gets to spend the rest of the campaign on stage with either a blonde or a brunette former beauty queen; sometimes both.
Considering the depth and experience available to him in the rest of the GOP universe I am completely baffled that there can be any other reason for this decision. I am now even more appreciative for the intelligent and practical decision by Barack Obama to grab Joe Biden as his VP running mate.
The supposed VP Debate won't be. With this line-up it is clear that candidate Palin will carefuly recite radical right wing talking points fed to her by the McCain handlers. Even if Biden were allowed in the format/rules to challenge her on any issues we'll hear nothing original.
Thus there could not be a more distinct choice between the two tickets. Looking at the "rap-sheet" provided by MoveOn, American voters can have no doubts of the radical and destructive policies and positions John McCain is accepting by filling the GOP ticket with Palin. Read More »
From AP (h/t to Eschaton):
NEW YORK (AP) — Barack Obama's acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention was seen by more than 38 million people.
Nielsen Media Research said more people watched Obama speak than watched the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing, the final "American Idol" or the Academy Awards this year. Obama talked before a live audience of 80,000 people in Denver.
I usually scan Buzzflash.com once a day, and this little item came up which is a continuation of the assassination plot by four people. Chris Stephen, News.scotsman.com, writes:
THE three men arrested over a reported plot to kill the US Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama, have ties to the white supremacist group Aryan Nations, police said last night...
All three belong to Aryan Nations, according to Victor Ross, the police chief in Glendale, a suburb of Denver where one of the suspects was arrested. The other two were held in Aurora, another suburb.
"We don't usually have that number of Aryan Nations people here,'' Mr Ross said. "It was suspicious to us. We turned everything over to the federal authorities."
I completely agree with the comments written to my previous post by Steve and RalphT that U.S. Attorney Troy Eid to resign by downplaying the seriousness of an assassination plot to kill Barack Obama. In Eid's own words, from the Herald Sun:
US Attorney Troy Eid said the men -- who were all high on the drug methamphetamine when arrested -- were not capable of carrying out an assassination.
"The law recognises a difference between a true threat -- one that can be carried out -- and the reported racist rantings of a drug addict," Mr Eid said. Their plan was "more aspirational, perhaps, than operational", he said.
Remember:
Thursday's nomination acceptance takes place on the anniversary of the "I have a dream" speech by Martin Luther King, and King's campaign for racial equality saw him assassinated 40 years ago
While many people do not place a huge significance on dates of important events there are fanatics who do. Tim McVeigh and his ilk do place huge significance on the dates of certain events...like Ruby Ridge and Waco tragedies for their own ideological ends.
From the Anti-Defamanation League website about Aryan Nations:
Aryan Nations is one of the country's best-known enclaves of anti-Semitism and white nationalism. While founded as a Christian Identity outpost, the organization also incorporates neo-Nazi themes; its founder and longtime leader, Richard Girnt Butler, openly adulates Hitler.
I will point out this from the Souther Poverty Law Center's 2006 report on racism and racist activity in the military:
Department of Defense investigators estimate thousands of soldiers in the Army alone are involved in extremist or gang activity. "We've got Aryan Nations graffiti in Baghdad," said one investigator. "That's a problem."
Southern Poverty Law Center President Richard Cohen urged Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to adopt a zero-tolerance policy regarding racist extremism among members of the U.S. military.
McVeigh was a decorated combat veteran from Operation Desert Storm, and afterwards he was also a meth addict. In interviews, Timothy McVeigh suggested that much of his inspirations stemmed from the racist thinking and the beliefs of the Aryan Nations group. Meth appears to have been no impediment to carrying out a terrorist attack.
But the above referenced report had to appear in a foreign news source not here in America. What does that say about our nation's press and the willingness of the American people who are blindered and being lead around by the nose?
I posted a few pics that I took on Sunday at my blog on Open.salon.com
It is with Progressive Democrats of America, The Big Tent, and Amnesty International.
Enjoy!
Now is the time for change but change demands that Obama be strong and stand for the principals that form the bedrock of change that this nation's people desire. Sure there are many who are against change and the uncertainty that change means to the "old ways". However, change was never brought about by being meek and merely begging and changing your principals. The easy way is not the way for a paradigm shift. The easy way is the way for people to become discouraged about the catalyst of change.
Theda Skocpal, from Talkingpointsmemo.com's Cafe, writes:
The last month has been excruciating for Obama supporters, watching him and his campaign squander so many hopes and resources on an utterly wimpy campaign. For me, the last straw was yesterday -- in the VFW speech when supposedly Obama was gettting tough against McCain's character assassination strategy -- to watch him speak like a soporific college professor, repeating McCain's charges at length, flattering McCain as honorable and patriotic, and then, finally, sort of begging McCain to take it back! Josh Marshall is totally right to call Obama out on this.
What are they thinking in Chicago? Why would they ever imagine that Americans will vote to make President a candidate who evades and begs...
Politics is not just about issues, it is a metaphorical test of strength. If a man will not get immediately -- if quietly -- angry and fight back when his patriotism is attacked, why should we trust him to defend the country? And if he won't punch back by explaining clearly why his approach to foreign policy is actually tougher and smarter, why McCain's is thoughtless and reckless, why would we think he is better to be Commander in Chief?
And on issues like oil drilling, why not recognize that McCain has adopted an ACTIVE metaphor that makes emotional sense to people? He is saying we should act to tap U.S. resources, and people are not really concerned about how many years it would take to tweak pump prices. They hear action and will and resolve -- and these are highly valued in a President! Obama can certainly get a hearing for other active steps, but he and the Dems should stop pretending that they can parry drilling with logic.
This is the reason(s) why there is a seeming lack of enthusiasm and frustration with Obama and the lack of forcefulness in representing true change that America needs from the current direction of endangering America through imperialist hubris and reckless endangerment of the human species through actively trying to increase pollutants to reach the worst case scenario of global warming.
There is time to right the ship but the window is rapidly closing as to how Obama is defined in the public's mind.
From John Aravosis, Americablog.com, writes:
Joe and I know a lot of people in politics. A lot of them are very smart. They're not the people you hate, the Cokie Roberts' and the Mrs. Greenspan's of the world. They're the kind of people you like and you trust. And those people are now telling us that they fear we're going to lose the election...
There is an incredible discontent out there with the way this campaign is being run. The fact that the discontent isn't being recognized, isn't being assuaged, is disturbing. People aren't worried about the election, they're becoming despondent about it. They're not motivated to work twice as hard, they instead feel as if they've had the wind knocked out of them. This is far beyond a healthy skepticism as to whether Obama can win.
From Josh Marshall, Talkingpointsmemo.com, writes "The lack of any consistent lines of attack against McCain is becoming palpable."
Again, I say it is time for us, we are the agents of change and will continue to be so long after this election, to take charge and lead Obama. Obama may be the catalyst but we have an obligation to see through this generational change for a better America.
It is time to kick John McCain's *ss because the negative campaign ads are defining Obama. Contrary to what experts say about the effectiveness of Obama's ads, those ads are not doing the job.
I could not agree more with Big Tent Democrat's view at Talkleft.com:
[McCain spokeperson] Nicolle Wallace: ""The insinuation from the Obama campaign that John McCain, a former prisoner of war, cheated is outrageous."Sure it's stupid, but stupid works when you don't push back.
It may be that Obama is talking at a "higher" plane and really wants to put campaigning at a different and more civilized level, but with Mc$ame's campaign being run by Karl's proteges there is a time and place for nice and for bringing out "a gun to a knife fight".
If Obama doesn't like 527s he should understand that 527s will do the "dirty work" if his campaign isn't going to. This doesn't mean taking the low road which Mc$ame has done but simply to fire back with real numbers rather than, for example, Obama's ad countering with Mc$ame's economic policies. What should have been done is to state boldly the exact profit numbers of Exxon/Mobil for one quarter then one year with a comparison of gas prices and oil prices. Finally hitting Mc$ame with giving oil companies even more tax breaks. One point to make and then repeat it.
Same thing with the Iraq/Afghanistan war veterans, the occupation of Iraq, and VA benefits- hit Mc$ame with his support for the occupation and his denial of support for our veterans and the VA. One point to make and then repeat it.
I find that the ads for Obama are too soft and simply not hitting on the visceral level.
Look at Mc$ame's ad strategy: Leadership vs. "being a" Celebrity. This strategy is the underpinning for all of his ads. It is a consistent theme on what ever subject the ad is about.
I see that it is lacking in Obama campaign's ad team strategy.
Finally, let the Obama campaign take the high road, but in politics, let our team fight with all the irons too.
"UNPOPULAR, isolated, and facing the humiliation of impeachment, Pervez Musharraf resigned as president of Pakistan on Monday August 18th....
they (the people)were dancing in the streets."
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We here in America can cause accountability for President Bush and Vice President Cheney, but you have to take action before the election. You the voter have the power to force our Incumbent Democratic Congressmen(and women) to honor their oath of office to protect our Constitution by calling for immediate impeachment hearings.
It is not necessary that impeachment hearing be finished prior to the election, only that they are started. We the voters have the power to make this happen, but you will have to call your congressman repeatedly over the next two months.
Contact information for Colorado congressmen can be found here.
In addition, US House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers is calling the membership of the House Judiciary Committee back from their Fall recess to investigate Ron Suskind's revelations about the forged letter that falsely said that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
It has been reported that the order to the CIA to have the letter forged came on White House Stationary.
On Democracy Now today Conyers said "The 110th Congress isn't over. We're starting our work, and then we're doing it in a period where the Congress is in recess. I'm calling everybody back. We've got a huge amount of work to engage in."
Please contact the Judiciary Committee to
urge them to impeach now:
202-225-3951 FAX: 202-225-7680
THE GRAVES OF THE 4,134 Murdered US Soldiers
CRY OUT FOR IMPEACHMENT for the WMD LIES
Impeachment. More important than ever.
Plenty of time.
Impeachment Is Coming!
John H Kennedy,
43 yr Democratic voter, Obama delegate to the Denver County Democratic Convention, and organizer of the
IMPEACH COLORADO COALITION ImpeachCO.com
It has been reported that the order to the CIA to have the letter forged came on White House Stationary.
On Democracy Now today Conyers said "The 110th Congress isn't over. We're starting our work, and then we're doing it in a period where the Congress is in recess. I'm calling everybody back. We've got a huge amount of work to engage in."
Here's the link to Democracy Now
Please contact the Judiciary Committee to
urge them to impeach now:
202-225-3951 FAX: 202-225-7680
Please help by contacting all media outlets and
members of Congress.
Impeachment. More important than ever. Plenty of time.
Impeach Colorado Coalition ImpeachCO.com
IMPEACHMENT IS COMING
..
House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers says his staff will investigate these allegations and others aired in Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ron Suskind's new book, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism.
"I am particularly troubled that the decision to disseminate this fabricated intelligence is alleged to have come from the highest reaches of the administration," Conyers said in a press release Tuesday evening. "The administration's attempt to challenge Mr. Suskind's reporting appears to have been effectively dismissed by the publication of the author's interview recordings and transcripts. I have instructed my staff to conduct a careful review of Mr. Suskind's allegations and the role played by senior administration officials in this matter."
The announced probe garnered quick praise from Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), who has waged a months-long campaign to convince his colleagues and Democratic leaders in the House to impeach President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Suskind has said the allegations outlined in his book could be impeachable offenses.
The rest of the story is here
John H Kennedy,
43 yr Democratic voter, Obama delegate to the Denver County Democratic Convention, and organizer of the
IMPEACH COLORADO COALITION ImpeachCO.com
..
By Clive Crook the FT's chief Washington commentator.
The response in the US to startling new allegations that the White House directed the forgery of evidence to support its case for the war in Iraq has been surprisingly muted so far. The charges may be false, of course, but if they are seriously examined and turn out to be true, this is - or ought to be - a Watergate-sized scandal.
Ron Suskind is a heavyweight: a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, and the author of a well-regarded book on the administration's security policies, The One Per Cent Doctrine. His new book, The Way of the World: A Story of Truth and Hope in an Age of Extremism, which was published last week, contains the extraordinary new charge. It says that late in 2003 the White House ordered the Central Intelligence Agency to forge a memo dated July 2001 from Tahir Jalil Habbush, Saddam Hussein's intelligence chief, to Saddam himself, affirming that Mohammed Atta, the September 11 2001 bomber, had contacts with the regime and that Iraq had an ongoing weapons of mass destruction programme.
YOU need to read this Now!
The rest of the story is here You may have to Register (for free) to read it.
John H Kennedy,
43 yr Democratic voter, Obama delegate to the Denver County Democratic Convention, and organizer of the
IMPEACH COLORADO COALITION ImpeachCO.com
..
Free daily panels moderated by The Nation's John Nichols at 11 AM, are followed by additional panels covering Health Care on Monday, August 25, followed the rest of the week with forums on Media and Election Reform, Economic Justice, Global Warming and Constitutional Law.
Participants include Reps. John Conyers, Barbara Lee, Robert Wexler, Keith Ellison and Lynn Woolsey; Tom Hayden, Jim Hightower and authors David Sirota and Vincent Bugliosi; various writers and publisher of The Nation; journalist and radio host Laura Flanders; Jeff Cohen, author and founder of FAIR; and many others.
For schedule and more info, check Web site http://pdamerica.org, click on "Progressive Central" in green bar at page top. Watch for posting of PDF event flyer.
Also, check link to HCAC page for Democratic Convention Actions around Health Care.
Looking for an outlet to report on the National Conventions?
I caught this off the Reuters website:
Reuters is looking for participants in a new mobile journalism project that will capture this year’s conventions from the ground up. We will be equipping attendees with video cameras, and helping them to shoot footage from their own perspective and upload it to Reuters.com and other sites...
Even if you’re not going to Denver or St. Paul, what kind of coverage would you like to see? What questions would you like on-the-scene reporters to ask? Leave your suggestions in the comments section.
Will our Democratic Congressmen honor their Oath and call for Impeachment Hearings?
Tape: Top CIA official confesses order to forge Iraq-9/11 letter came on White House stationery.
In damning transcript, ex-CIA official says Cheney likely ordered letter linking Hussein to 9/11 attacks
A forged letter linking Saddam Hussein to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks was ordered on White House stationery and probably came from the office of Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a new transcript of a conversation with the Central Intelligence Agency's former Deputy Chief of Clandestine Operations Robert Richer.
The transcript was posted Friday by author Ron Suskind of an interview conducted in June. It comes on the heels of denials by both the White House and Richer of a claim Suskind made in his new book, The Way of The World. The book was leaked to Politico's Mike Allen on Monday, and released Tuesday.
See the rest of this story at: RawStory.com
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP BRING ACCOUNTABILITY TO BUSH & CHENEY
Rep. Kucinich and five other co-sponsors of his articles of impeachment (Robert Wexler, Tammy Baldwin, Keith Ellison, Maurice Hinchey, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Hank Johnson) are calling on all Americans to contact their representatives
(202-224-3121) 24 hours, seven days a weekand 365 days/year
and urge them to join in co-sponsoring those articles and in calling for a formal impeachment hearing
PRIOR TO THE ELECTION.
You can call after normal business hours and leave a message urging your Congressman to join in co-sponsoring those articles and in calling for a formal impeachment hearing.
ALSO And Very Important:
PLEASE CALL ALL of Colorado's Democratic Congressmen/women
and demand they immediately Call For Impeachment Hearings Prior To The Election.
Contact info for Colorado's Congressmen
------------------------------------------------
And if you have time on any Saturday around Noon-1:00 pm
Our group holds an Impeachment Protest at East 6th & Speer in Denver every Saturday. We have lots of Impeach Signs so just show up and help. OR JUST DRIVE BY REPEATEDLY and HONK TO IMPEACH.
John H Kennedy, organizer
Impeach Colorado Coalition ImpeachCO.com
( other groups around Colorado do similar events and are listed on our Calendar at ImpeachCO.com )
..
The dramatic hearing on presidential crimes and abuses of power held on Friday by the House Judiciary Committee was both a staged farce, and at the same time, a powerful demonstration of the power of a grassroots movement in defense of the Constitution. It was at once both testimony to the cowardice and self-inflicted impotence of Congress and of the Democratic Party that technically controls that body, and to the enormity of the damage that has been wrought to the nation's democracy by two aspiring tyrants in the White House.
As Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), chairman of the committee, made clear more than once during the six-hour session, this was "not an impeachment hearing, however much many in the audience might wish it to be." He might well have added that he himself was not the fierce defender of the Constitution and of the authority of Congress that he once was before gaining control of the Judiciary Committee, however much his constituents, his wife, and Americans across the country might wish him to be.
At the same time, while the hearing was strictly limited to the most superficial airing of Bush administration crimes and misdemeanors, the fact that the session -- technically an argument in defense of 36 articles of impeachment filed in the House over the past several months by Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) -- was nonetheless a major victory for the impeachment movement. It happened because earlier in the month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), who has sworn since taking control of the House in November 2006, that impeachment would be "off the table" during the 110th Congress, called a hasty meeting with Majority Leader Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Rep. Conyers, and Rep. Kucinich, and called for such a limited hearing.
It was no coincidence that shortly before Pelosi's backdown, peace activist and Gold Star mother Cindy Sheehan announced that her campaign had collected well over the 10,000 signatures necessary to qualify for listing on the ballot as an independent candidate for Congress against Pelosi in the Speaker's home district in San Francisco. Sheehan has been an outspoken advocate of impeaching both Bush and Cheney. "Pelosi is trying to throw a bone to her constituents by allowing a hearing on impeachment," said Sheehan, who came to Washington, DC to attend. "It's just like her finally stating publicly that Bush's presidency is a failure -- something it has taken her two years to come to, but which we've been saying for years."
So determined were Pelosi and Conyers to limit the scope and intensity of the hearing that they acceded to a call for Republicans on the Judiciary Committee to adhere to Thomas Jefferson's Rules of the House, which prohibit any derogatory comments about the President, which was interpreted by Chairman Conyers as meaning no one, including witnesses or members of the committee, could suggest that Bush had lied or deceived anyone. Since a number of Rep. Kucinich's proposed articles of impeachment specifically charge the president with lying to Congress and the American People, this made for some comic moments, with witness Bruce Fein, a former assistant attorney general under former President Ronald Reagan, to say he would reference his listing of crimes to the "resident" of the White House.
In the end, the rule imposing a gag on calling the president a criminal fell by the wayside, with witness Vincent Bugliosi, a former Los Angeles deputy district attorney, accusing Bush of being guilty of the murder of over 4000 American soldiers and of hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians because he had "lied" the country into an illegal and unnecessary war, and with committee member Sheila Jackson Lee (D-CA) suggesting that the president may have committed treason in invading Iraq, and that he appeared to be preparing to do it again with an unprovoked invasion of Iran.
Conyers also acquiesced in a Republican effort to minimize public monitoring and involvement in the hearing, allowing the minority party to fill most of the available seats in the hearing room with office staffers who showed little interest in the proceedings. Only a few dozen of the hundreds of pro-impeachment activists who had come to the Rayburn Office Building at 7 am in order to get seats in the Judiciary Committee hearing room were allowed in, with the rest having to remain in the hall or go to two remote "overflow" rooms to watch the proceedings on a TV hookup. Conyers also went along with a call by Republican members of the committee to have some of those who did make it into the hearing ejected simply for wearing buttons on their shirts calling for impeachment (the Republican members referred to these as "signs"), though such small personal tokens are routinely allowed in congressional hearing rooms.
It was clear that this was to be a tightly controlled and strictly limited hearing.
It was also clear that it was intended to go nowhere.
At one point, after hearing witnesses like Fein, Bugliosi, former representative and Nixon impeachment committee member Elizabeth Holtzman, former Salt Lake City mayor and impeachment activist Rocky Anderson, former House Clinton impeachment manager Bob Barr, former Watergate Committee counsel and current senior counsel of the Brennan Center for Justice Frederick A.O. Schwartz, and Elliott Adams, president of the board of Veterans for Peace, lay out the administration's crimes and abuses of power -- which included charges of usurping the legislative powers of Congress, violating international treaties, war crimes, lying to Congress, an illegal war, felony violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and the Fourth Amendment, defying Congressional subpoenas, obstruction of justice and more, Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), chair of the Constitution subcommittee of the Judiciary Committee, appeared convinced that the abuses were real and serious.
But Nadler, who for two years has been a major obstacle on the Judiciary Committee to any efforts to move impeachment to a formal hearing, said, "No president has been removed from office through impeachment." He asked the witnesses, "How would you approach impeachment today so it would be a viable option?"
Former Rep. Holtzman responded, "The real remedy to a president who believes he is above the law is impeachment. There is no running away from that." She said, "An impeachment inquiry, handled fairly, could work. Maybe I'm a cockeyed optimist, but I believe it could work."
The basic point, made by Holtzman, by Fein and by many others, including this writer, is that worrying about the political opposition to impeachment, both in the House, and in the Senate, not to mention among the broader public, is completely wrongheaded. Even when impeachment articles were first filed against Nixon, the public and the bulk of the Congress were against the idea. It was during the hearings that the tide turned, as evidence of malfeasance, criminality and abuse of power became evident through hearing testimony. The same would happen in the case of President Bush and/or Vice President Cheney. Most Americans don't even know that the president made up evidence to justify the war against Iraq out of whole cloth. They don't know what the Geneva Conventions are with regard to torture. They don't know why Congress passed the FISA act, which Bush has been feloniously violating to spy on them (it was passed because Nixon was using the National Security Agency to spy on Americans without judicial warrants!). They don't know the Bush has been refusing to enact laws passed by the Congress. Public hearings by an impeachment panel would make all these high crimes and misdemeanors clear on national TV to all sentient Americans. Moreover, as Holtzman pointed out, the president would not be able to use the claim of "executive privilege" to withhold testimony from aides in an impeachment inquiry, the way he has done when they have been subpoenaed by other House and Senate committees. Impeachment would be about violations of the very executive actions he would be claiming privilege on. As well, an impeachment committee, unlike any other committee of the Congress, is specifically sanctioned and empowered in the Constitution, meaning that even strict "constructionist" Federalists on the bench would have a hard time backing presidential obstruction.
As Holtzman noted, "There is no executive privilege in impeachment, because refusing to testify is itself an impeachable offense."
Committee Republicans, aided by two law professors they had brought in to testify, Stephen Presser of Northwestern University School of Law and Jeremy Rabkin of George Mason University School of Law, tried to argue that impeachment was only meant for crimes in which the official, or the president, was seeking personal gain. This nonsense was knocked down by most of the speakers, who quoted numerous founders who made it clear that what high crimes referred to were actions -even taken with the noblest of intentions -- that undermined the Constitution or abused the powers of the office. As Rep. Nadler said, "Impeachment has nothing to do with intentions or with good faith. Impeachment has to do with abuse of power which weakens the balance of power."
In the end, the hearing petered out, taking no action of any kind -- exactly the result that Pelosi, Hoyer and Conyers cynically intended.
Now it is up to the public and the impeachment movement to call their bluff and take impeachment to the next level. Noting that even Rep. Conyers ended the hearing by saying, "We are not done yet, and we do not intend to go away until we achieve the accountability that Congress is entitled to and that the American people deserve," Rep. Kucinich and five other co-sponsors of his articles of impeachment (Robert Wexler, Tammy Baldwin, Keith Ellison, Maurice Hinchey, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Hank Johnson) are calling on all Americans to contact their representatives (202-224-3121) and urge them to join in co-sponsoring those articles and in calling for a formal impeachment hearing.
They are also calling on everyone to contact their local and national media, nearly all of whom have blacked out news of impeachment. Incredibly, the New York Times, for example, has not even reported on Friday's hearing, even as a news "brief." Those news organizations, like the Washington Post and the Philadelphia Inquirer, that did report on the hearings did so only in short, inside articles. Though the hearing was aired in full on C-Span (and is still available for download), many Americans don't even know it happened.
Time is short, but even at this late date, it would be a simple matter to impeach the president on some issues. As several of Friday's witnesses pointed out, President Bush has essentially dared Congress to act, admitting that he openly violated the FISA law -- a felony, and openly admitting that he has refused to enact laws passed by the Congress, claiming a power-unitary executive authority not even mentioned in the Constitution. He has openly admitted to having known about, and approved, "enhanced interrogation techniques" devised by his subordinates -- techniques like waterboarding which clearly violate the Geneva Conventions and US law. No hearings would be required to establish these high crimes and misdemeanors. They could simply be voted on by an Impeachment Committee and sent to the full House for a vote.
Even if there were no time for a Senate trial, the simple act of impeaching the president for one or more abuses of power would serve notice on future presidents that future such abuses would not be tolerated. Failure to do so, and allowing this administration to leave office unimpeached, would send the opposite message: that Congress is no longer a co-equal branch of government, but is merely a consultative body, at best, and that a president is in effect a dictator.
That Pelosi buckled and permitted a hearing on impeachable crimes by the Bush/Cheney administration is a major victory for the impeachment movement, but it must not be the end of the line. Impeachment activists need to now redouble their efforts to make Congress do its Constitutional duty, and initiate a formal impeachment proceeding.
As former Republican representative Bob Barr, now the Libertarian candidate for president, told Friday's hearing, "We had a nuclear clock during the Cold War. In the '90s we had a debt clock. Now we have a Constitution Clock."
That clock is getting close to midnight, and it is ticking.
Dave Lindorff is a Philadelphia-based investigative journalist and columnist.
----------------------------------------------------
Rep. Kucinich and five other co-sponsors of his articles of impeachment (Robert Wexler, Tammy Baldwin, Keith Ellison, Maurice Hinchey, Sheila Jackson Lee, and Hank Johnson) are calling on all Americans to contact their representatives (202-224-3121) and urge them to join in co-sponsoring those articles and in calling for a formal impeachment hearing.
This phone number is staffed 24 hours, seven days a week and 365 days per year. You can call after normal business hours and leave a message urging your Congressman to join in co-sponsoring those articles and in calling for a formal impeachment hearing.
------------------------------------------------
And if you have time on Saturday around Noon-1:00 pm
Our group holds an Impeachment Protest at East 6th & Speer in Denver every Saturday. We have lots of Impeach Signs so just show up and help. OR JUST DRIVE BY REPEATEDLY and HONK TO IMPEACH.
John H Kennedy, organizer
Impeach Colorado Coalition ImpeachCO.com
( other groups around Colorado do similar events and are listed on our Calendar at ImpeachCO.com )
..
Voting along party lines Wednesday morning, the committee said Rove broke the law by failing to appear at a July 10 hearing on allegations of White House influence over the Justice Department, including whether Rove encouraged prosecutions against Democrats.
The committee decision is a recommendation. It remains unclear whether Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) will allow a final vote."
Are our House Democrats growing a spine? We can hope.
A six hour preliminary Impeachment Hearing last Friday and Now This.
IMPEACHMENT IS COMING!
John H Kennedy, Denver CO, 43 yr Democratic voter, Obama delegate to the Denver County Convention and organizer of the
Impeach Colorado Coalition ImpeachCO.com