Is Bush's coup complete? Is the Constitution dead too?
Posted by Nobody at June 9, 2006 10:13 AMThis son of a bitch needs to be slammed with phone calls and emails from a pissed off public.
This is today's action item.
He cannot get away with this.
Period.
Posted by Anjha at June 9, 2006 10:17 AMI don't think letters and phone calls make any difference to these bastards. I don't know what is going on here, this is truly beyond belief. It is going to take a mob with torches and pitchforks on the Senate floor to get the attention of these zombies. I agree that the Democrats should refuse to participate, but more than that, they need to shut down government and appear on every media telling America what is happening to it while the MSM lulls them into a dangerous sense of security. This is major, major trouble, it is truly a constitutional crisis, and business as usual needs to STOP until balance of powers is restored in the United States of America.
Posted by Via at June 9, 2006 10:36 AMWhat else can we do?
Really, I am at a loss.
Email Feingold too:
russ@progressivepatriotsfund.com
What do we do Via? I cannot afford to fly to DC. I guess we can organize local rallies - I just do not know anymore. I am at a loss and feel incredibly powerless.
Posted by Anjha at June 9, 2006 10:43 AMAnhja, writing letters and faxing and emailing and calling is definitely better than doing nothing. Getting involved with a local organization who is pro-Constitution, such as the local ACLU, would be worthwile as well. Letters to the editor of your local papers, also.
It's going to take coordinated local organzing to take back our government. Citizens have been complacent far too long, but that's because the people in DC have made people that way. The citizens are such a small part of government anymore, thanks to corporate lobbying. That's why my top priority, over absolutely anything else, is campaign finance reform. We need to get the money out of politics to make government work for the citizens not industry.
Posted by ann at June 9, 2006 10:57 AMSomething has got to give. This is beyond horrible...not acceptable. The government is about to close the deal on taking over all of our lives. How do we get that to the mainstream....how do we wake up the American barbaque crowd? We had better and fast.
Posted by s at June 9, 2006 11:03 AMI don't know about you guys, but I'm starting to feel the outrage fatigue. I thought that I was beyond that, and that I would carry the fatigue for 10 or 15 Americans personally, but as every day goes by I find myself more and more exhausted.
It's getting to be the point where I'm going to have to allocat 30 minutes a day to just sort out all of the issues that I want to protest and write letters and make calls and so forth.
Maybe it's just my post-Chinese-lunch lethargy speaking, but I'm tired
Posted by Maurice Reeves at June 9, 2006 11:06 AMMaurice, I hear ya. They, the criminals in power, have worn us all down nicely. Who could have ever predicted that the way for them to escape the consequences of scandal is to have such a steady stream of corruption news wash over the populace that they grow tired and come to see scandal as normal. I'm not criticizing you...I feel like you do. But this is just a stage. There is enough growing anger out there to help carry/take up the slack for folks going through occassional tired phases. I'm not hopeless.. I think a big change , rebirth is coming for this country. But we just haven't hit bottom yet - it ain't gonna be pretty. But once we do, Americans may well reinvent themselves once again but based more closely on the founding father's vision.
Posted by s at June 9, 2006 11:39 AMI would think a good thing to do would be to join Libertarian organizations and foment a backlash to what they and most Republicans are fundamentally against. This is big Federal Government. Ooops it's really... BIG Federal Government. Other parties would get it. Maybe joining a Libertarian or Republican group is what it means, steering clear of Abortion and Gay marriage and focusing on this unreal power-grab.
Everything else is a complete waste of time.
Posted by josh at June 9, 2006 11:44 AMThe two above posters are discribing what I noticed a while back. Namely, people don't get upset over any one Bush scandal because they're constantly being distracted by the other scandals.
Rebirth may indeed be coming for America, but it's not here yet. The Republicans are going to run this year in large measure against illegal immigrants. Yes, an unlimited supply of cheap labor with no political rights is just what many in the corporate elite want, but this fall many house candidates will run as populists on this issue. There is no chance that the corporate elite will allow a wall to really get built, but the American voter doesn't think "moves ahead" as a chess player would say. Also, with all the corruption, the Bush administration cannot afford for a house of congress to be in Democratic hands for full investigations into everything would follow.
It's going to get worse before it has a chance to get better.
Posted by herbal tee at June 9, 2006 11:53 AMFeinstein is a complete disgrace, of course, but she's not the senior Dem.
Where in Hell is Leahy? What will it take for him to open his mouth against Specter?
Amnesty? Did Specter mix this bill up with the immigration reform bill?
Republicans: no amnesty for 10 year workers at scut jobs, only amnesty for elected presidents.
Posted by euzoius at June 9, 2006 12:07 PMAnjha, you are right about Russ Feingold. If anyone in the Senate will stand up and fight, it is him. I wish he would call for Americans to stand up, locally and in DC, and march, or strike, or whatever it takes to give Congress the 'collar correction' that it so desperately needs. I think Al Gore and Bill Clinton could speak out louder on this issue, as well. I think many Americans are ready to protest, but they need a clear call to action from a true leader.
Posted by Via at June 9, 2006 12:07 PMWell, at least with all this granting of "amnesty", they are implicitly admitting to the people that Nero and Team broke the law as it currently exists.
Arlen "Rule of Law" Specter---a name that will live in infamy. He really held power accountable.
Posted by euzoius at June 9, 2006 12:38 PMI'm sure this is JUST a coincidence, but "A Berlin-based history society on Thursday unveiled an information sign at the site of Hitler's underground bunker, marking for the first time exactly where the Nazi leader took his life at the end of World War Two.
"Until now, Berlin had resisted giving an indication as to the location of the bunker for fear that it could become a symbolic gathering point for neo-Nazi groups.
"However, the city's attitude towards the site has changed ..."
Of course it has! It's The Real Omen come to the world! Fascism rises from the ashes while democracy dies.
Posted by pessimist at June 9, 2006 12:38 PMI don't think the amnesty if for Bush (I know Steve's post didn't say it was, but some of the comments go in that direction). It looks like, from my reading, the proposed amnesty is going to be for people under Bush who are involved in the program.
I'm not sure how easy it would be to hold Bush criminally liable to begin with, so maybe he doesn't need the amnesty. The reading in the Washington Post story is amnesty for those involved acting 'under Presidential authority.' Does that mean Bush or those doing what he authorized? I tend toward the latter.
The NSA spying is clearly illegal, but I don't think it would be easy at all to hold the President criminally liable for it. Would make for an interesting case, though, because you've got all kinds of separation of powers issues, as well as issues about the extent to which the President can rely on attorney general opinions (for example, if you were unsure about a law and asked your state or federal Attorney General for an advisory opinion on it, and he gave you one, then it would be very difficult for the State to later come back and prosecute you if it turned out they later decided it was illegal. You generally have a right to rely on the interpretation of law by the AG and that gives you a defense. If Bush were later to be charged criminally, he's got a written opinion from the Attorney General that what he was doing wasn't illegal. Whether it was illegal or not, he's got the right, generally, to rely on that and thus I think it would be hard to prove the requisite intent for a criminal case. Even though a court may later overrule the AG's opinion, it provides a good criminal defense. It's not like an averge person just asking their own lawyer for an opinion - when you ask an AG you're asking the chief law enforcement official in the State or Country).
Posted by Musmanno at June 9, 2006 02:36 PM"Anhja, writing letters and faxing and emailing and calling is definitely better than doing nothing. Getting involved with a local organization who is pro-Constitution, such as the local ACLU, would be worthwile as well. Letters to the editor of your local papers, also."
"It's going to take coordinated local organzing to take back our government. Citizens have been complacent far too long, but that's because the people in DC have made people that way. The citizens are such a small part of government anymore, thanks to corporate lobbying. That's why my top priority, over absolutely anything else, is campaign finance reform. We need to get the money out of politics to make government work for the citizens not industry."
Ann, while a year ago I would have agreed with you, I cannot today. I am sick of writing letters and emails to everyone in the Government, media, newspapers, senators, etc. Writing is absolutely fruitless, and I doubt if they are ever read. We have run out of time for anything short of a protest march on DC, and a promise to keep marching until Bush steps down along with Rumsfeld and Cheney, and our Constitution is restored. Nothing will change until we tell them "we're mad as hell and we aren't going to take it anymore." You can also include protests against media empires. I'm ready and willing to go anywhere and do anything to stop the madness.
Posted by Judith at June 9, 2006 06:12 PMJudith:
I don't think they care if we are mad as hell. Nothing is going to change until January 2009, unless the Democrats win Congress this November.
Posted by Musmanno at June 9, 2006 06:52 PMSomething would change if the balconies of the Senate were filled with protesting citizens, and if no Senator could walk down the halls or walk into their office without passing large groups of citizens demanding accountability. C-Span cameras give the impression that there's no "there there" in the visitor galleries anymore. Well, there is still a gallery open, even if it has been shrunken down to one small corner.
It would not take a large number of citizens to make a VERY large impact on these insulated people. But we have left them alone in their comfortable surroundings, and that needs to change. Those who can afford it from afar, and those local to the D.C. area are the ones who could start the process, with a little coordination. Rotation of people would reduce the burden, while maintaining the pressure. We wouldn't need the media to carry our message - WE'D carry it, face to face to these guys, and not just to their staffers.
Posted by LandAndSea at June 9, 2006 10:02 PMI think you forget the real power of this society is money, why not use it? Why not do a boycott of certain corps like Newscorp and Walmart and others than seem to be kissing up to the GOP and make it known? In fact a general strike on the Fortune 500 will be good until they stop supporting these freaks in Congress, it is THEIR money that gets these people elected we need to deny them that money. I think it worked very well for Martin Luther King this strategy, all these guys know is money well let's stop giving it to them as much as possible
Posted by Jacob at June 10, 2006 02:27 AMLandAndSea, excellent ideas on what we can do. Afro-Americans would still be denied the right to vote, to eat at lunch counters, to education, had they not protested in the streets across America and in DC. Politicians don't make changes until they are forced by "we the people."
Posted by Judith at June 10, 2006 04:03 AMPeople use to always say you must "work within the system" to change the system. I say bullshit. There is no system to work in anymore.
Posted by Judith at June 10, 2006 04:05 AMUh...memo to Congress. Kings don't need one.
Posted by Daryl at June 10, 2006 08:26 AMWhat else can we do?
Funny how everyone now just assumes Hastert is the world's largest lapdog and will do whatever Bush wants. Why have we simply surrendered this house? Isn't it time to give the peoples' house back to, you know, the people?
What can you do? You can give money to John Laesch, the Navy vet running against Hastert (recent video). I think bringing down the Speaker of the House would send a pretty good message. It would also make way for some apparently very badly-needed oversight.
The snow keeps falling.
Posted by Carolyn at June 11, 2006 05:55 AMIt's really terrible that Feinstein wanted to censure Bill Clinton for trying to cover up an extramarital affair that his own wife forgave him for, but won't go after the Bush Administration. Fortunately, California's other senator is not that way.
Posted by Herman at June 11, 2006 03:32 PMIt is very difficult to do anything dramatic without
being accused of conspiracy in the new repressive
globalist reality. How long before they begin to lock-up people who are overly angry for mental illness? Shrill messages to Senators will likely
get the Feds on your case. The best thing to do, in my opinion is to repudiate the "gang of 62" as political candidates, not as Government officials.
They can be, in effect, informally "drummed out of the Corp". Something like an exorcism, we just
inform them that we are rebeling within the Party
(Republican) or even within the Democrat Party,
to repudiate them on such a scale that they will have to run as independents. Unlike their roles
as Government functionaries, (Senators) there is
no such thing as sedition or conspiracy in a pure
political context. It is still pretty much wide
open and protected by the First amendment, to
warn office holders that their political support
and funding are at risk. That is the very core of
polictics. This is one of the few areas where it
is hard for tyrants to supress an outraged electorate. To make it clear, we don't threaten
to leave the party, we say that we Republicans,
and even theorectically, Democrats will rebel
and withhold all polictical contributions and
electioneering help. You can call someone a Traitor to their Party and that Party's core
beliefs. For example, you can get very shrill
with over-sized bumper stickers that say things
like " Republicans... MIKE THOMPSON soft on Amnesty" for his Amnesty position. - or "This Republican deplores MIKE THOMPSON". Be as nasty as you want toward them in a purely political context. I am making sense... Don't trust these bastards not to missuse the color of law ...comments?