Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) revised the much publicized statements he made yesterday and told National Public Radio that impeaching President George W. Bush was 'on the table' late on Monday afternoon.
"I'm just saying that's one of the options that Congress has on the table, I'm getting more and more calls from people about the President on impeachment," the long-time Congressman, who is a veteran of the US Marines, told NPR's Melissa Block on the program 'All Things Considered' Monday afternoon.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Sunday, April 29, 2007
Reports? Actions...
[Newest posts top of the page until a new post goes up. Then the previous post will be relocated to the bottom of the site's pages. Thus, except for the top most post, all the rest will run from oldest to youngest post as you go down the page. The posting dates will therefore be artificial except for the top most posting whose date will be accurate.]
Reports on what you did and/or saw this week would be great! These actions are part of a building process and in conjunction with A28 actions, Dennis Kucinich filing three articles of impeachment against Cheney on April 24, the April 27 100 Prominent People on the Capitol Steps coming out for impeachment, Lt. Colonel Yingling's sharp attack on the military brass's "intellectual and moral failures," and so on, the wheels are starting to wobble badly and unhinge on the Bush/Cheney juggernaut.
Reports on what you did and/or saw this week would be great! These actions are part of a building process and in conjunction with A28 actions, Dennis Kucinich filing three articles of impeachment against Cheney on April 24, the April 27 100 Prominent People on the Capitol Steps coming out for impeachment, Lt. Colonel Yingling's sharp attack on the military brass's "intellectual and moral failures," and so on, the wheels are starting to wobble badly and unhinge on the Bush/Cheney juggernaut.
Monday, April 16, 2007
Dramatically Changing the Terms of the Battle
Anyone who's been paying attention to what's been going on for the last seven years knows that something's rotten in D.C. Our government has arrogated to itself the right to invade countries that pose no threat to us, to carry out indefinite detentions and abrogate habeas corpus, to torture people, to spy on tens of millions of Americans without warrant, and when caught, brazenly declare that they will continue to do so, to use hundreds of signing statements to negate Congressional intent, to undermine the Freedom of Information Act in order to conceal their deeds, to declare themselves above the law and above scrutiny, to look the other way, strumming a guitar and buying shoes at Ferragamo when Hurricane Katrina threatened and then overran New Orleans, leaving thousands dead or missing, to commit treason by outing an undercover agent whose job it was to keep WMD out of the hands of "rogue states," to deny the dire threat of global warming, to suppress science, and on and on and on and on.
But what is even worse, the "watchdog" media and the "loyal opposition" have allowed Bush and Cheney to get away with it! This must not be allowed to stand. We cannot allow ourselves to go down in history as looking the other way while tyranny, torture and war crimes were being committed in our names and in front of the whole world.
A majority of Americans want impeachment, but this country's political leadership and mass media continue to treat these ideas as lunacy. It is time for THE PEOPLE to act. Beginning on April 23 and continuing through April 28 (A28), we will show on our bodies how we feel.
If even 5% of the 58% who want to see Bush and Cheney gone were to wear impeachment T-shirts, armbands, buttons, stickers, ties, scarves, etc., we would literally be in the millions all over this country - on the beach, in the valley, on the plains, in the mountains, on the farms, in school, at work, in the stores, on the sidewalks, in the parks, on the buses, subways and trains.
And then it wouldn't matter if the mass media covered our demonstration because we would be seen by tens of millions of other people. We would have made history, you would have made history, participants in the largest political demonstration in U.S. history! We can change the whole poisonous political atmosphere in this country, this suffocating, repressive, ugly regime that casts a gigantic shadow over our land.
We can act and create an entirely different future. If you burn with desire for such a world, if you have felt hopeless and frustrated in the face of the maddening, murderous direction things have been going in, now is the time to act, now is the time to step forward and declare that we will not go down their road!
We encourage you to order impeachment shirts now. You can get them from Bush Is Over! and at Afterdowningstreet.org.
In building for these days, get some friends together, or do it yourself, don an impeachment shirt, and take out buttons and shirts and armbands and decals and flyers and boldly go where no rightwingers would dare: onto subways, onto buses, down sidewalks, in parks, at school, anywhere among the people.
Picture what this would look like: a posse of people all wearing black "Bush Is Over" t-shirts sweeping through communities of people and leaving in their wake others enlivened by the possibility of getting rid of these criminals, now sporting armbands and t-shirts and bright orange or peach impeachment decals. If you have someone with a camera come along you can record your actions and then post it on YouTube and popularize what you've done and spread this throughout the country. Create a sensation! Go wild, get creative, get real.
What basis exists for these actions to catch fire and dramatically change the terms of the battle? The Bush/Cheney regime and their enablers and apologists have been doing horrific, despicable things and are like vampires who must carry out their murderous activities in the dark. When the sunlight hits them they instantly burst into flames and ashes.
The U.S. Attorneys' scandal presents us with a sterling example of their vulnerabilities. Congressional Democrats have discovered that, lo and behold, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez lied about his role in the firings. What a shock! And they've been calling for investigations and calling for his resignation. The White House's response? Harriet Miers and Karl Rove (aka Bush's Brain) will only speak about it behind closed doors, not under oath, and without a transcript of the proceedings. What are they afraid of? The answer is obvious. But what's so revealing here is that when the political will is there, and someone presses the White House to reveal what they've been doing, all kinds of lies, scandals, and dirty deeds come spilling out like a tick gushing blood when you press it hard enough.
The reason the Democrats are going after the White House on this one is because they've calculated that there is no downside to pursuing this one, whereas the Democratic Party leadership is too cowed to go after the White House over much more critical and egregious deeds (such as their lies taking us into the war in Iraq, their moves now to attack Iran, their policy and practice of torture, their nullification of habeas corpus and the utter fraudulence of their "war on terror"). But the U.S. Attorneys' scandal shows how much a house of cards this regime is. A strong enough wind comes along, and their whole house will come crashing down.
Where is that political wind going to come from? That's up to us, The PEOPLE. We are that wind. This is a paper mache presidency and it needs to be brought down for the sake of this country and for the sake of this planet.
Help make this happen. The world awaits. The future beckons. Who will answer the call?
But what is even worse, the "watchdog" media and the "loyal opposition" have allowed Bush and Cheney to get away with it! This must not be allowed to stand. We cannot allow ourselves to go down in history as looking the other way while tyranny, torture and war crimes were being committed in our names and in front of the whole world.
A majority of Americans want impeachment, but this country's political leadership and mass media continue to treat these ideas as lunacy. It is time for THE PEOPLE to act. Beginning on April 23 and continuing through April 28 (A28), we will show on our bodies how we feel.
If even 5% of the 58% who want to see Bush and Cheney gone were to wear impeachment T-shirts, armbands, buttons, stickers, ties, scarves, etc., we would literally be in the millions all over this country - on the beach, in the valley, on the plains, in the mountains, on the farms, in school, at work, in the stores, on the sidewalks, in the parks, on the buses, subways and trains.
And then it wouldn't matter if the mass media covered our demonstration because we would be seen by tens of millions of other people. We would have made history, you would have made history, participants in the largest political demonstration in U.S. history! We can change the whole poisonous political atmosphere in this country, this suffocating, repressive, ugly regime that casts a gigantic shadow over our land.
We can act and create an entirely different future. If you burn with desire for such a world, if you have felt hopeless and frustrated in the face of the maddening, murderous direction things have been going in, now is the time to act, now is the time to step forward and declare that we will not go down their road!
We encourage you to order impeachment shirts now. You can get them from Bush Is Over! and at Afterdowningstreet.org.
In building for these days, get some friends together, or do it yourself, don an impeachment shirt, and take out buttons and shirts and armbands and decals and flyers and boldly go where no rightwingers would dare: onto subways, onto buses, down sidewalks, in parks, at school, anywhere among the people.
Picture what this would look like: a posse of people all wearing black "Bush Is Over" t-shirts sweeping through communities of people and leaving in their wake others enlivened by the possibility of getting rid of these criminals, now sporting armbands and t-shirts and bright orange or peach impeachment decals. If you have someone with a camera come along you can record your actions and then post it on YouTube and popularize what you've done and spread this throughout the country. Create a sensation! Go wild, get creative, get real.
What basis exists for these actions to catch fire and dramatically change the terms of the battle? The Bush/Cheney regime and their enablers and apologists have been doing horrific, despicable things and are like vampires who must carry out their murderous activities in the dark. When the sunlight hits them they instantly burst into flames and ashes.
The U.S. Attorneys' scandal presents us with a sterling example of their vulnerabilities. Congressional Democrats have discovered that, lo and behold, Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez lied about his role in the firings. What a shock! And they've been calling for investigations and calling for his resignation. The White House's response? Harriet Miers and Karl Rove (aka Bush's Brain) will only speak about it behind closed doors, not under oath, and without a transcript of the proceedings. What are they afraid of? The answer is obvious. But what's so revealing here is that when the political will is there, and someone presses the White House to reveal what they've been doing, all kinds of lies, scandals, and dirty deeds come spilling out like a tick gushing blood when you press it hard enough.
The reason the Democrats are going after the White House on this one is because they've calculated that there is no downside to pursuing this one, whereas the Democratic Party leadership is too cowed to go after the White House over much more critical and egregious deeds (such as their lies taking us into the war in Iraq, their moves now to attack Iran, their policy and practice of torture, their nullification of habeas corpus and the utter fraudulence of their "war on terror"). But the U.S. Attorneys' scandal shows how much a house of cards this regime is. A strong enough wind comes along, and their whole house will come crashing down.
Where is that political wind going to come from? That's up to us, The PEOPLE. We are that wind. This is a paper mache presidency and it needs to be brought down for the sake of this country and for the sake of this planet.
Help make this happen. The world awaits. The future beckons. Who will answer the call?
JOIN THE NATIONAL CAMPAIGN
TIRED OF PROMISES NEVER FULFILLED? TIRED OF TORTURE AND LIES? NOW RECRUITING FOR SIO. WE WANT YOU! STEP FORWARD. WE CAN USE ANY AND ALL WITH ENTHUSIASM. TALENTS, INCLUDING WEBMASTERY AND ARTISTRY, PARTICULARLY DESIRED. CONTACT VIA EMAIL ON PROFILE PAGE.
COUNT UP CLOCK
Instead of the Countdown Clock that some people have created for the days left in the Bush/Cheney regime, I think we ought to have a Count Up Clock that asks: how much longer must we put up with these criminals? It would be a greatest hits list of offenses of theirs that began in 2000 and continue day after day after day unless and until we impeach these bastards. Contributions requested and help making this clock appreciated.
An Extraordinary Response
I started this website a few days ago and the response has been amazing. People have been coming to visit from all over the place. It shows how much people despise this criminal regime and want to act. And it underscores the basis out there for THE PEOPLE to take impeachment boldly out into their communities and, in so doing, draw others forward into political motion, to take these villains on.
Would some of you please drop me a note and tell me how you found out about this site?
Would some of you please drop me a note and tell me how you found out about this site?
Sunday, April 15, 2007
Getting Started
I'm working on getting mass production of impeachment stickers that can be taken out broadly by individuals and by groups (I-teams?!). The virtue of the stickers that people can immediately put on their clothes or stick up on a pole or wall is that when you go out into the community sporting your impeachment T-shirts and so on and selling the T-shirt to everyone you can, not everyone will have the money on them (and not everyone can afford a T-shirt - e.g., homeless people). But most people will have a buck that they can pony up for a sticker and they can then instantly become a visible impeachment proponent. We need to have a sliding economic scale of items that we take out so that the broadest numbers of people can participate.
In the meantime, one of the things people can do to get started is to make flyers that you can take out and hand out/post. You could, for example, use the text from the right hand column here, or you could use the original posting that began this website below: "Dramatically Changing the Terms of the Battle." Or you can come up with your own copy. One of the things we want definitely to do in this campaign is to be as bold and out there as we can. A small button on our chest is good, but it isn't blatant enough. We want to be blatant because we want to start a sensation and get people excited.
For this campaign to build the critical mass we need, we need to build momentum starting NOW. This idea needs to be taken out broadly and popularized. Spread the word about this website and about the Impeach07 campaign. Please continue to write in with your ideas, your actions and experience! We'd also like to post video and pictures of what people have done to further popularize the actions. So take pictures and send them in and post them yourself where you have access.
And I'm still looking for people to volunteer for the national campaign as national organizers!
In the meantime, one of the things people can do to get started is to make flyers that you can take out and hand out/post. You could, for example, use the text from the right hand column here, or you could use the original posting that began this website below: "Dramatically Changing the Terms of the Battle." Or you can come up with your own copy. One of the things we want definitely to do in this campaign is to be as bold and out there as we can. A small button on our chest is good, but it isn't blatant enough. We want to be blatant because we want to start a sensation and get people excited.
For this campaign to build the critical mass we need, we need to build momentum starting NOW. This idea needs to be taken out broadly and popularized. Spread the word about this website and about the Impeach07 campaign. Please continue to write in with your ideas, your actions and experience! We'd also like to post video and pictures of what people have done to further popularize the actions. So take pictures and send them in and post them yourself where you have access.
And I'm still looking for people to volunteer for the national campaign as national organizers!
UFPJ Statement on Impeachment
United for Peace and Justice
George Bush, Dick Cheney and other top administration officials have committed impeachable offenses.
These include leading the country into war under false pretenses, ordering violations of the Geneva Conventions, the U.N Charter and International law; violating the civil liberties of U.S. people in an unconstitutional manner; lying to the people of the U.S. and the world; and other high crimes and misdemeanors.
There is growing awareness of these facts among the U.S. people. From across the country there are demands that the Congress act on the principle that this is a government of laws, not of individuals. There is a grassroots movement demanding that Bush and Cheney and others be impeached.
Since its formation, UFPJ’s central mission has been working to end the war in Iraq and other wars of which George Bush is Commander in Chief. We welcome the growing movement to impeach him and others in his administration who have aided and abetted his crimes.
Some of our member groups and friends are already active in Impeach07, an umbrella forum in the impeachment movement. Others may see ways to incorporate impeachment efforts into their antiwar agendas, and we encourage them to do so.
Impeach07.org
Issued by the UFPJ National Steering Committee, April 11, 2007
George Bush, Dick Cheney and other top administration officials have committed impeachable offenses.
These include leading the country into war under false pretenses, ordering violations of the Geneva Conventions, the U.N Charter and International law; violating the civil liberties of U.S. people in an unconstitutional manner; lying to the people of the U.S. and the world; and other high crimes and misdemeanors.
There is growing awareness of these facts among the U.S. people. From across the country there are demands that the Congress act on the principle that this is a government of laws, not of individuals. There is a grassroots movement demanding that Bush and Cheney and others be impeached.
Since its formation, UFPJ’s central mission has been working to end the war in Iraq and other wars of which George Bush is Commander in Chief. We welcome the growing movement to impeach him and others in his administration who have aided and abetted his crimes.
Some of our member groups and friends are already active in Impeach07, an umbrella forum in the impeachment movement. Others may see ways to incorporate impeachment efforts into their antiwar agendas, and we encourage them to do so.
Impeach07.org
Issued by the UFPJ National Steering Committee, April 11, 2007
Submit Items for the Count Up Clock!
I'm soliciting items for a "top hits" list to go into a Count Up Clock that instead of counting how many more days are left in their official tenure as President and Vice-President, we list their most egregious crimes and malfeasances since the 2000 election that they stole.
How many more days, how many more scandals, how many more lies and how many more lives lost must we accept before these reactionaries are driven from office? Rather than waiting for them to go this Clock will underscore the crucial importance of impeaching them yesterday.
And for those who still think that we have to wait till their term ends, who knows if they really will leave? There could always be another, even more catastrophic terrorist event that they once again fail to interdict, "necessitating" Bush declaring martial law, suspending civil liberties and elections. After all, they have the laws giving him carte blanche to do this right now.
Please include the date with your items and the requisite details, being as cogent as you can.
How many more days, how many more scandals, how many more lies and how many more lives lost must we accept before these reactionaries are driven from office? Rather than waiting for them to go this Clock will underscore the crucial importance of impeaching them yesterday.
And for those who still think that we have to wait till their term ends, who knows if they really will leave? There could always be another, even more catastrophic terrorist event that they once again fail to interdict, "necessitating" Bush declaring martial law, suspending civil liberties and elections. After all, they have the laws giving him carte blanche to do this right now.
Please include the date with your items and the requisite details, being as cogent as you can.
Saturday, April 14, 2007
Making Visible What's Already There
Since the Democratic Party leadership has declared itself unwilling to impeach Bush and Cheney - what does one have to do to get impeached?! - it's up to the rest of us. We have a majority of the American people in favor of impeachment, but that majority needs to show itself and act.
There are two facets to this. One, people who recognize what needs to be done need to step forward and act on that knowledge. They need to show it ... off! They cannot remain passive in the face of this tyranny. Otherwise, the tyrants win.
People need to ask themselves: Is that what I want? Is this the kind of country I want to live in where everyone's being spied on by the government and people can be held indefinitely without charges and captives can be tortured and subjected to kangaroo military tribunals? Where our government can flout international law and commit the gravest war crime of all, invading another country that has not threatened and has not attacked us? Where towering lies by the government and by right-wing media are common practice and where the mass media accepts and tolerates these lies or, at best, raises tiny, meagre protests about these lies? Is that the kind of world I want my children to live - or die - in?
Two, though we have a majority on our side, the vast majority of people in this country still know only a fraction of what this regime has been doing. If they truly knew what has been going on and what this extremist, theocratic fascist (theo-con as I recently heard it described) movement is really up to, then they would recognize how much is at stake here. People need to read and learn.
That's why we wrote Impeach the President: the Case Against Bush and Cheney. This book needs to be read by far, far more people than have read it to date. While the other books on impeachment are excellent, ITP is the only one that treats the Bush/Cheney regime as a movement with a program, outlook and agenda. And it's the only one that gets into why they've been doing what they've been doing and why they've been allowed to get away with it. This last point is crucial because what has been going on is much, much more than the actions of a couple of reactionaries in the White House.
If more people understood how egregious the complicity has been and is now between the Democratic Party leadership and the mass media with the Bush regime, then they would stop sitting around thinking that a Democratic president in 2008 is going to fix everything.
What does it tell you about the Democratic party leadership that when the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was being debated in Congress - a bill that legalized torture and that stripped people of habeas corpus rights - they refused to filibuster this horrible, unthinkable, barbaric bill? The Democrats had the votes to filibuster and block the bill. They wouldn't do it. Instead, we had the pathetic spectacle of John Kerry and Diane Feinstein complaining while casting their votes that the GOP would use their no votes in November 2006 to punish the Democratic Party. As if their partisan jockeying was even the point! As if legalizing torture and destroying a right that's nearly 900 years old (habeas corpus) were not what was being carried out.
And the Democratic Party isn't stopping this war, despite the unmistakable message sent by voters in November 2006 that brought them back the majority in Congress. The Democratic Party leadership has authorized enough money to keep this war going into 2009 and their so-called time table for withdrawal is non-binding. It has no teeth in it whatsoever. Why are they doing this? The DLC is biding its time and trying to stall until November 2008. They figure that's all they have to do to get their person in the White House.
Meanwhile, every single day this regime and this war goes on, people are being tortured and killed. Every single day this regime remains in power is another day that dealing with global warming isn't happening. Think about the amount of damage that can and will occur under Bush and Cheney between now and January 2009. To date because of our invasion of Iraq close to a million people have died and 3,000 plus Americans. What's it going to take to end this madness?
The impeachment movement is relatively small at this point. Like an army in the field engaged in pitched battle with the other side, the outcome of this battle will depend upon whether reinforcements arrive and join the battle. The people who are currently politically active are not enough to make this happen. Not by a long shot. The latent support for impeachment must become manifest. People need to step forward and throw in their lot with the forces fighting for an entirely different future than the ugly, dictatorial, lying, scandal-ridden, anti-rationalist, anti-science, murderous government we now have.
What's it going to be? A single person stepping forward can make a huge difference. The 2,000 people at UC Santa Barbara who shut down classes and walked off campus and blocked the freeway in protest in February 15, 2007 was started by one student. ONE student.
I started this website last week and have gotten a huge response in terms of visits to the site. But these visits have to become something much more. People have to come forward and volunteer to be organizers. People need to go out into their communities and create a stir with t-shirts, armbands and flyers.
You can make your own cheap armbands to hand out with flourescent duct tape and printing IMPEACH on them. Orange would be a good color. Or peach. To facilitate this you can get a stamp made that you can use over and over.
Not acting is the same thing as choosing the side of the tyrants and torturers. Is that what you want?
Step up! Declare yourself! Choose! Which side are you on?
There are two facets to this. One, people who recognize what needs to be done need to step forward and act on that knowledge. They need to show it ... off! They cannot remain passive in the face of this tyranny. Otherwise, the tyrants win.
People need to ask themselves: Is that what I want? Is this the kind of country I want to live in where everyone's being spied on by the government and people can be held indefinitely without charges and captives can be tortured and subjected to kangaroo military tribunals? Where our government can flout international law and commit the gravest war crime of all, invading another country that has not threatened and has not attacked us? Where towering lies by the government and by right-wing media are common practice and where the mass media accepts and tolerates these lies or, at best, raises tiny, meagre protests about these lies? Is that the kind of world I want my children to live - or die - in?
Two, though we have a majority on our side, the vast majority of people in this country still know only a fraction of what this regime has been doing. If they truly knew what has been going on and what this extremist, theocratic fascist (theo-con as I recently heard it described) movement is really up to, then they would recognize how much is at stake here. People need to read and learn.
That's why we wrote Impeach the President: the Case Against Bush and Cheney. This book needs to be read by far, far more people than have read it to date. While the other books on impeachment are excellent, ITP is the only one that treats the Bush/Cheney regime as a movement with a program, outlook and agenda. And it's the only one that gets into why they've been doing what they've been doing and why they've been allowed to get away with it. This last point is crucial because what has been going on is much, much more than the actions of a couple of reactionaries in the White House.
If more people understood how egregious the complicity has been and is now between the Democratic Party leadership and the mass media with the Bush regime, then they would stop sitting around thinking that a Democratic president in 2008 is going to fix everything.
What does it tell you about the Democratic party leadership that when the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was being debated in Congress - a bill that legalized torture and that stripped people of habeas corpus rights - they refused to filibuster this horrible, unthinkable, barbaric bill? The Democrats had the votes to filibuster and block the bill. They wouldn't do it. Instead, we had the pathetic spectacle of John Kerry and Diane Feinstein complaining while casting their votes that the GOP would use their no votes in November 2006 to punish the Democratic Party. As if their partisan jockeying was even the point! As if legalizing torture and destroying a right that's nearly 900 years old (habeas corpus) were not what was being carried out.
And the Democratic Party isn't stopping this war, despite the unmistakable message sent by voters in November 2006 that brought them back the majority in Congress. The Democratic Party leadership has authorized enough money to keep this war going into 2009 and their so-called time table for withdrawal is non-binding. It has no teeth in it whatsoever. Why are they doing this? The DLC is biding its time and trying to stall until November 2008. They figure that's all they have to do to get their person in the White House.
Meanwhile, every single day this regime and this war goes on, people are being tortured and killed. Every single day this regime remains in power is another day that dealing with global warming isn't happening. Think about the amount of damage that can and will occur under Bush and Cheney between now and January 2009. To date because of our invasion of Iraq close to a million people have died and 3,000 plus Americans. What's it going to take to end this madness?
The impeachment movement is relatively small at this point. Like an army in the field engaged in pitched battle with the other side, the outcome of this battle will depend upon whether reinforcements arrive and join the battle. The people who are currently politically active are not enough to make this happen. Not by a long shot. The latent support for impeachment must become manifest. People need to step forward and throw in their lot with the forces fighting for an entirely different future than the ugly, dictatorial, lying, scandal-ridden, anti-rationalist, anti-science, murderous government we now have.
What's it going to be? A single person stepping forward can make a huge difference. The 2,000 people at UC Santa Barbara who shut down classes and walked off campus and blocked the freeway in protest in February 15, 2007 was started by one student. ONE student.
I started this website last week and have gotten a huge response in terms of visits to the site. But these visits have to become something much more. People have to come forward and volunteer to be organizers. People need to go out into their communities and create a stir with t-shirts, armbands and flyers.
You can make your own cheap armbands to hand out with flourescent duct tape and printing IMPEACH on them. Orange would be a good color. Or peach. To facilitate this you can get a stamp made that you can use over and over.
Not acting is the same thing as choosing the side of the tyrants and torturers. Is that what you want?
Step up! Declare yourself! Choose! Which side are you on?
Moving from Passive Voice to Active Voice
You know how it makes us all crazy when we read something written in bureaucratic language? It's the passive voice sentence construction in which there is no subject who does the things that the sentence describes. "Mistakes were made" is how Alberto Gonzalez (aka Torture Boy) put it a few weeks ago when he was caught having fired US Attorneys because they didn't fit the ideological straight jacket that this White House demands. Who made these mistakes? Nobody. Mistakes made themselves.
The political system suffers from a similar malady. The people in charge depend upon our political passivity and widespread ignorance of what's going on and the prevalence of indifference in order to accomplish their aims. When they need to they will mobilize people and get people aroused and fired up about something, but they do so in general by misleading people and creating false enemies.
The people of this country need to move from passive voice to active voice. The SIO campaign is, of course, in part a political tactic designed to make visible the majority sentiment for impeachment and to change the political atmosphere. But on a more profound level it is a campaign to help make happen in embryonic form how political power needs to be exercised. That is, the people need to become active politically and involve themselves directly in the affairs of state and the affairs that affect their lives on a local, regional, national and international level. When you take this into the streets and you enliven people with the possibility of ridding the world of these criminals in D.C., you are helping to usher the future into being in an embryonic form.
The political system suffers from a similar malady. The people in charge depend upon our political passivity and widespread ignorance of what's going on and the prevalence of indifference in order to accomplish their aims. When they need to they will mobilize people and get people aroused and fired up about something, but they do so in general by misleading people and creating false enemies.
The people of this country need to move from passive voice to active voice. The SIO campaign is, of course, in part a political tactic designed to make visible the majority sentiment for impeachment and to change the political atmosphere. But on a more profound level it is a campaign to help make happen in embryonic form how political power needs to be exercised. That is, the people need to become active politically and involve themselves directly in the affairs of state and the affairs that affect their lives on a local, regional, national and international level. When you take this into the streets and you enliven people with the possibility of ridding the world of these criminals in D.C., you are helping to usher the future into being in an embryonic form.
Taking the Castle
Our opponent has very few steadfast soldiers, but they do have a lot of heavy artillery that they are using against us and they are holed up in the castle. The number of soldiers that we have in the field directly engaged in battle at the moment is also small, but we have a huge reservoir of forces waiting in the wings. The question is whether we can get that reservoir of soldiers - who number in the millions - to join in the battle. If we do we’ll overwhelm the enemy.
Some of those on the wings truly despise the enemy in the castle and can't wait to plunge in. They're donning their battle gear as we speak. Many others would join the battle, but they've never been in battle and they're asking, how do I do this? Among them are also ones who are saying: "Is the enemy really that bad? I hear another king or queen may be taking power in a couple years and there are rumors that they are promising that our invasion of other countries in the East will be handled more competently."
Others on the wings aren’t sure that they ought to join the fight. Many are thinking – I’m just one person, what difference can one person make?
Still others are saying to themselves, I’m not a fighter, I’m not a soldier, I’ve never been in a battle, I can leave this battle up to the professional soldiers. Let them do it. I'm just going to tend the fields and enjoy the festivals.
Another segment on the wings are asking – how do I know that we will win? Can you guarantee me that we will win?
Then, of course, there are those who are lolling about among the tents saying: “What battle?” “There’s a battle going on?”
Some of those on the wings truly despise the enemy in the castle and can't wait to plunge in. They're donning their battle gear as we speak. Many others would join the battle, but they've never been in battle and they're asking, how do I do this? Among them are also ones who are saying: "Is the enemy really that bad? I hear another king or queen may be taking power in a couple years and there are rumors that they are promising that our invasion of other countries in the East will be handled more competently."
Others on the wings aren’t sure that they ought to join the fight. Many are thinking – I’m just one person, what difference can one person make?
Still others are saying to themselves, I’m not a fighter, I’m not a soldier, I’ve never been in a battle, I can leave this battle up to the professional soldiers. Let them do it. I'm just going to tend the fields and enjoy the festivals.
Another segment on the wings are asking – how do I know that we will win? Can you guarantee me that we will win?
Then, of course, there are those who are lolling about among the tents saying: “What battle?” “There’s a battle going on?”
Friday, April 13, 2007
A Gathering Storm
As I've written previously on this site, the basis exists - richly exists - for an explosion of impeachment sentiment in this country. A large majority want to see Bush and Cheney relieved of office. For this flowering to occur at near its potential, however, the general call I've made in this website needs to be supplemented by an organizational component. People "on the ground" need to take this campaign out among the people broadly and spread it like a social epidemic. Thousands of individuals from all over - from close to a thousand towns and cities throughout the country - have visited this site since it was started about a week and a half ago, and this was by way of referrals from only a handful of sources.
Imagine what would happen if word spread via other sites and word spread on the ground? If even a few more people step forward to offer their help as national and city-level, town-level organizers, the movement can advance by major leaps and bounds. Do not underestimate what a handful of people or even one person can do to change the political landscape. The people who step forward to participate as organizers - on the web and on the ground - can act as the catalysts, the lattice works, the matrix, for the emergence of this phenomenon.
The numbers of people presently working as organizers is insufficient, far too few, to trigger the millions who can and need to come out and reveal themselves to the world as the partisans for another world. This means that people who have never been involved in political work, including people who've never even been in a demonstration, young people, old people, all kinds of people, need to step forward and be one of these organizers.
Unlike in the 1960s, where mass media coverage of the insurgent movements, problematic as that coverage was, helped to spread the word and popularize the movements, if you have a demonstration today of 100,000 the mass media will say there were thousands. If you have a demonstration of 1,000,000 they'll say there were hundreds of thousands - if that! There's been a sea change in the mainstream media, a fact chronicled and analyzed by many people such as Ben Bagdikian, Robert Parry and myself (see especially Chapter 2). One of the reasons why the movement today requires that people step forward as organizers on the local, regional and national level is that we cannot count on and should not expect fair and adequate media attention. Our actions need to be evident on the local level as much as possible and occur on such a wide scale that it is seen and felt as a national movement. This allows us to bypass the need to rely on mainstream media to cover us. We do not have the money that the right-wing has to create our own media empire, but what we do have is justice, truth and the people on our side. These things won't show themselves on their own. The power of the masses of people exists in embryonic form right now. The sentiments among the people need to be tapped. People need to be challenged to break out of their normal routines.
Allow me to cite a pertinent historical example. In 1953 the CIA engineered a coup of the Iranian government. Mossadegh was the nationalist Iranian Prime Minister and led the nationalization of the British Petroleum Company (then named the Ango-Iranian Oil Company) that had exclusive rights to the oil. This enraged the British and eventually led to a coup approved by President Truman. Through skillful use of propaganda and a small number of military actions, the CIA brought the Shah of Iran to power, seizing radio stations as they moved towards Tehran and creating the wholly false impression that a popular uprising was in process against Mossadegh. In fact, the CIA organized forces were tiny, but Mossadegh was fooled by the CIA's tactics and left office. Theodore Roosevelt's grandson Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. led this successful CIA coup.
Similarly, the Bush/Cheney regime seized power in 2000 and again in 2004 through elections fraud, through intimidation, and through creating the false impression that they were the majority. Radio stations have also played a key role in creating this phony impression. Today their falsehood of a popular mandate has never been greater. This duo cannot speak uninterrupted except before handpicked crowds and their visages produce revulsion throughout the land. We are the real majority, but the real majority needs to show itself. And this needs to happen not in one fell swoop, but as a gathering storm that builds over time. We are not looking for the knock-out blow at this point. We need to grow and grow until we become an irresistible force.
We can make a start of this, a wonderful start of it, this week, beginning tomorrow, when people who have gotten the word wear their politics on their sleeves. It can help to build word and momentum for National Impeachment Day, April 28, and it can be a kind of dress rehearsal for what remains to come in the coming weeks and months - impeachment summer. We can use this start as a foundation to take it further and spread it widely. We have only ... a planet to save!
Imagine what would happen if word spread via other sites and word spread on the ground? If even a few more people step forward to offer their help as national and city-level, town-level organizers, the movement can advance by major leaps and bounds. Do not underestimate what a handful of people or even one person can do to change the political landscape. The people who step forward to participate as organizers - on the web and on the ground - can act as the catalysts, the lattice works, the matrix, for the emergence of this phenomenon.
The numbers of people presently working as organizers is insufficient, far too few, to trigger the millions who can and need to come out and reveal themselves to the world as the partisans for another world. This means that people who have never been involved in political work, including people who've never even been in a demonstration, young people, old people, all kinds of people, need to step forward and be one of these organizers.
Unlike in the 1960s, where mass media coverage of the insurgent movements, problematic as that coverage was, helped to spread the word and popularize the movements, if you have a demonstration today of 100,000 the mass media will say there were thousands. If you have a demonstration of 1,000,000 they'll say there were hundreds of thousands - if that! There's been a sea change in the mainstream media, a fact chronicled and analyzed by many people such as Ben Bagdikian, Robert Parry and myself (see especially Chapter 2). One of the reasons why the movement today requires that people step forward as organizers on the local, regional and national level is that we cannot count on and should not expect fair and adequate media attention. Our actions need to be evident on the local level as much as possible and occur on such a wide scale that it is seen and felt as a national movement. This allows us to bypass the need to rely on mainstream media to cover us. We do not have the money that the right-wing has to create our own media empire, but what we do have is justice, truth and the people on our side. These things won't show themselves on their own. The power of the masses of people exists in embryonic form right now. The sentiments among the people need to be tapped. People need to be challenged to break out of their normal routines.
Allow me to cite a pertinent historical example. In 1953 the CIA engineered a coup of the Iranian government. Mossadegh was the nationalist Iranian Prime Minister and led the nationalization of the British Petroleum Company (then named the Ango-Iranian Oil Company) that had exclusive rights to the oil. This enraged the British and eventually led to a coup approved by President Truman. Through skillful use of propaganda and a small number of military actions, the CIA brought the Shah of Iran to power, seizing radio stations as they moved towards Tehran and creating the wholly false impression that a popular uprising was in process against Mossadegh. In fact, the CIA organized forces were tiny, but Mossadegh was fooled by the CIA's tactics and left office. Theodore Roosevelt's grandson Kermit Roosevelt, Jr. led this successful CIA coup.
Similarly, the Bush/Cheney regime seized power in 2000 and again in 2004 through elections fraud, through intimidation, and through creating the false impression that they were the majority. Radio stations have also played a key role in creating this phony impression. Today their falsehood of a popular mandate has never been greater. This duo cannot speak uninterrupted except before handpicked crowds and their visages produce revulsion throughout the land. We are the real majority, but the real majority needs to show itself. And this needs to happen not in one fell swoop, but as a gathering storm that builds over time. We are not looking for the knock-out blow at this point. We need to grow and grow until we become an irresistible force.
We can make a start of this, a wonderful start of it, this week, beginning tomorrow, when people who have gotten the word wear their politics on their sleeves. It can help to build word and momentum for National Impeachment Day, April 28, and it can be a kind of dress rehearsal for what remains to come in the coming weeks and months - impeachment summer. We can use this start as a foundation to take it further and spread it widely. We have only ... a planet to save!
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Got Duct Tape?
The Bush regime is famous for recommending people combat terrrorism with duct tape. Take them up on their word and use duct tape to combat the terrorists who govern this country today! A strip of tape makes a very easy and inexpensive instant armband or it can be plastered across your shirt, bag or backpack. Buy a roll, get an indelible marking pen, and write your own message on the tape. Presto: anti-terrorist impeachment agent!
Take a roll, something to cut the tape with and the pen out with you and you've got a Show It Off! impeachment kit ready to go. Spread the word! Create a stir! Hasten the day we bring down these criminals!
Take a roll, something to cut the tape with and the pen out with you and you've got a Show It Off! impeachment kit ready to go. Spread the word! Create a stir! Hasten the day we bring down these criminals!
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