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.

Reclaiming Liberalism

For the past several decades, the far right in American politics has preempted the dialogue and redefined the terms of the debate. They have done this with enormous success, largely because we on the left have allowed them to. Now days, the term “Liberal” is used as a four-letter-word, a pejorative invoking numerous connotations (“tax and spend,” “welfare state,” “morally degenerate,” “godless,” “weak-on-security,” “elitist,” “communist,” etc.). A few of these depictions had just enough basis in reality to become believable when they were repeated loudly enough and often enough.

It’s past time for us to take control of the debate! We need to “own” the term “Liberal” and rob it of its power over us, much as the gay rights movement took the term “queer” and defanged it. It’s time to put the far right on the defensive; after all, it was under their watch that we’ve seen crumbing infrastructure, skyrocketing health care costs, widening disparity between the wealthy and the poor, the collapse of Enron, the mortgage/housing crisis, preemption of the media as an arm of the government, the largest government bureaucracy in the history of the nation, astronomical national debt, amoral and illegal preemptive war, subversion of the Constitution, recession, and on and on.

We should be vocal about the need for a social climate in which we are brought together as Americans acting like rational, mature adults rather than pulled apart by petty name calling and finger pointing like sniggering cliques in junior high. We should talk about how far the billions of dollars being squandered by no-bid contracts to KBR and Halliburton without any accountability could go toward fixing our aging highways and collapsing bridges. We should talk about how the government should be leading the way in promoting public transportation initiatives and sources of renewable energy rather than meeting with the CEOs of the oil and gas industry behind closed doors deciding how to best keep America dependent upon fossil fuels. We should be discussing ways to make education affordable and effective and make jobs pay a living wage once we graduate. We should push for adequate support systems for members of our military rather than spouting empty rhetoric about “supporting our troops” while slashing their benefits and increasing their tours of duty. (A bumper sticker never has and never will provide medical care for a soldier with a head injury from an IED or provide for the surviving spouse and children of a soldier killed in battle. And it certainly won't bring them back when their lives are taken). We should be advocating for accessible health care and bargaining with the pharmaceutical companies for affordable prescriptions. We should allow the agencies entrusted with our public safety—food inspectors, workplace safety inspectors, scientists researching the effects of the poisons in our air and water and of climate change—to do their jobs rather than redacting, refusing to release, refuting, or simply not opening the studies they provide.

And we should be ready and willing to say, “If holding these positions makes me a Liberal, then damn it, I’m a Liberal!”

We’re here. We’re LIBERAL. Get used to it!

If I Only Had a Brain

(With acknowledgement and apologies to Harold Arlen and E.Y. Harburg)

Said his advisor, clingin’ to the polls
To the President, sittin’ on the fence
“Now the voters vote their souls,
So forgot about your common sense.”

Said the President, “well, well, well,
That’s a good thing, ‘cause I have no common sense!”
So just tell me how they’re leanin’,
Don’t confuse me with the meanin’
“Cause th’ electorate is easy to convince.
Still, if I only had some common sense. . .

I would while away the hours just cataloguing flow’ers,
Extinct from acid rain.
I’d see my ‘Clear Skies Inish’tive’ was misnamed and acquis’tive
If I only had a brain.

I’d quit tricklin’ down th’ economy, actin’ like I’ve had a lobotomy, or simply gone insane.
With the progress I’d be makun’ I’d quit tryin’ to be a Reagan
If I only had a brain.

Oh, I could tell you why the ocean’s near the shore, (global warming!)
I could think of things I never thunk before.
And then I’d sit. . .
And think some more.

I would understand “Three Branches”
doesn’t mean three times the chances
For single-party reign.
And that judges I call “act’vist” don’t belong on a blacklist
If I only had a brain.

I could count beyond G7, I’d remember 9/11
Was Bin Laden, not Hussein.
No weapons—that’d be too clear;
And I might learn to say “nuclear”
If I only had a brain.

I would not be unilateral, I’d build on my collateral,
Not flush it down the drain.
I’d reassess our mission and I’d work for coalition,
If I only had a brain.

And, wow! I’d tell you how to broker peace, not war,
I would draft a plan to aid the sick and poor.
I’d leave no child behind—and that’s for sure!

I would not be such a stickler, ‘bout gay marriage in partic’lar,
That was just for my campaign,
I would not be a divider, and my “base” would be much wider,
If I only had a brain.

I’d a known that Miss Katriner,
Was predicted to be meaner
Than a little wind and rain.
And I might have acted faster to respond to the disaster
If I only had a brain.

I’d a known a storm that heavy
It was bound to breach the levy
Holdin’ back Lake Pontchartrain.
And with all that water spillin’ The Big Easy would be fillin’
If I only had a brain.

And, gee, I’d have some sympathy, compassion—not just in name!
I’d quit tryin’ to make the victims take the blame.
I’d admit my mistakes;
I’d have some shame!

I’d have ended my vacation
In the interest of the nation,
Gotten quickly on my plane.
I’d ‘ve sensed the clock was tickin’
While I kept on politicin’
If I only had a brain.

Revised lyrics copyright 2005

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.

More on Obama's "Move to the Center"

Updated below

I thought this article offered a revealing glimpse into the "appease the right" crap that keeps being shoveled on us.

I also thought it was telling that Hillary Clinton (whom I did not support because I perceived her to be too Washington-Insider-Corporate-Interest-Entrenched to be able to pull us out of the mess we're in) voted against the FISA capitulation fiasco (though she benefited quite handsomely from Telecom industry donations), while Obama (whom I have supported, believing his B.S. about being a "different kind of politician" and an agent of change) voted for it (also benefiting from Telecom industry money). It is rather ironic that Ms. Clinton based her campaign strategy on a Karl Rovian, "be-afraid-of-the-terrorists, I-can-protect-you-when-that-3 a.m.-call-comes" sort of paradigm, while Mr. Obama had the courage—for a time—to challenge that thinking. They traded positions completely when it came down to the actual vote. I commend Senator Clinton for her opposition to this terrible legislation; and I would warn Senator Obama (though I know he doesn't give a rat's ass what I think) that he's getting some VERY POOR campaign advice and ought to fire his whole staff and start over (after all, the "change" thing was working for him well enough to secure the nomination for him. Why is it suddenly an ineffective stance?).

I'm just saying. . . .

This article by David Sirota adds further insight into this phenomenon.

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!