Is Nancy Pelosi on Drugs?

From Ms. Pelosi's appearance on The View:

When I became Speaker, and this, by the way a very important position: President, Vice President, Speaker of the House. I saw it as my responsibility to try to bring a much-divided country together to the extent that we could. I thought that impeachment would be divisive to the country.

Etc., etc., blah, blah, blah.

I don't ask this question to accuse or insinuate, but to give the Speaker an out. If she's on drugs, everyone will forgive her after a brief stay at the Betty Ford Clinic. If, however, she doesn't have that excuse, she's simply arrogant and utterly stupid. You really have to watch this to believe it.

"President, Vice President, Speaker of the House"--sounds sort of like Bush's gaffe (I know, every time he opens his mouth it's a gaffe) at the G8 summit, "Russia's a big country and you're a big country." I think Speaker Pelosi has been in a few too many secret meetings with Dubya; she's starting to sound just like him.

This would be hysterically funny comedy if it weren't so profoundly serious. How dare she, in her "very important position" (in the fulfillment of which she can't even put a coherent sentence together), deign to declare "I thought that impeachment would be divisive to the country"? "I thought"????!!! Her "very important" opinion takes precedence over the Constitution of the United States?

What very little respect she allowed me to retain for her is rapidly ebbing from my soul (like the life-blood that's oozing from our democracy).

Impeachment News

Updated 7/30/2008
Update II 7/31/2008

I intend to post a lengthy review of the rather surreal hearings in the House Judiciary Committee last Friday, but am still trying to wrap my brain around the six hours of testimony. In the meantime, this article by Michael Collins is a very telling exposé on the coverage (or lack thereof) by the mainstream media.

This article on AfterDowningStreet.com talks about Nancy Pelosi's patently dishonest claim--on national television--that if someone would show her evidence of Bush's crimes, she would support impeachment hearings. Come on, Nancy, many of these crimes are a matter of public record. If you need some help, this document, put together by Elizabeth de la Vega, might help. Or check out this story, in which Bush admits to having knowledge of and approving "enhanced interrogation techniques," which the International Red Cross says were "categorically torture."

More to come. . . .

In this response to the question of impeachable offenses Bruce Fein makes a very clear case--and only in regard to one of the many charges which could and should be brought against Bush.

Another very strong argument for not only the moral imperitave of impeachment but also the potential political benefits is laid out in this article by occams hatchet posted on Daily Kos.

The Precipice of Congressional Complicity

Updated below (7/21/2008)
Update II (7/25/2008)

For me, one of the truly disheartening things about witnessing the FISA debacle in both the House and Senate was seeing the sheer enormity of apparent complicity among members of Congress on both sides of the aisle. It was especially disheartening to see the Democrats—the “opposition party”—so eagerly and nearly universally enabling the criminality of the Bush administration. The only possible explanation for that I can conceive is that Congress is fundamentally complicit in those crimes and is brazenly and transparently attempting to cover their own asses.

Since we know Speaker Pelosi was briefed on, and probably signed off on, many of the twisted justifications for lawlessness, isn’t there a way to force her to recuse herself from the impeachment debate or face impeachment herself?

We find ourselves—our Constitutional Democracy—at the edge of a precipice; plunging over it seems ever more inevitable.

This post by David Swanson at AfterDowningStreet.org presents a stronger case for Congressional Complicity.

This interview by Jane Hamsher and Bruce Fein spells it out again.

An Open Letter to the U.S. Congress

Accountability Now!
An Open Letter to the U.S. Congress

In November of 2006, I—like a majority of voting Americans—went to the poll to demand change. We were effective in changing a virtual flood of Congressional seats from Republican to Democratic—indicating that we wanted the Democrats to have the majority and the mandate to hold the Executive Branch accountable. We have been sorely disappointed.

Over the course of the past seven years, we have witnessed an administration completely out of control and outside the bounds of law. From a war of aggression launched on totally fabricated pretenses to rendition and illegal detention, unilateral suspension of Habeas Corpus, a clearly illegal Pentagon Propaganda campaign, nullifying legislation with the stroke of a pen and proceeding to violate that legislation, illegally spying on American citizens, suppressing or altering scientific reports, hiring and firing government employees for political reasons, and stonewalling investigations—including refusing Congressional subpoenas, Bush, Cheney et. al. have repeatedly thumbed their noses at the very core of our constitutional democracy. Under your watch, our nation has moved into the ranks of the fascist regimes we have rightly vilified throughout our history.

And yet, Congress, with few exceptions you do nothing.

It is time for that to change. Failing to exercise your Constitutional obligation to be a check against the illicit powers claimed by the Executive Branch and defending the Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic is an egregious breech of your oath of office. Unless you act, you are culpable for all the transgressions of this lawless regime.

We, The People want and deserve accountability from our government. We want accountability from the President and Vice President. We want accountability from the Attorney General. We want accountability from the Speaker of the House. We want accountability from the Chair of the House Judiciary Committee who is sitting on Articles of Impeachment detailing the numerous “high crimes and misdemeanors” committed by this Executive Branch. We want accountability from the elected “public servants” in both chambers of Congress and on both sides of the aisle.

And we want it now!