Governor of Massachusetts favors impeachment
On Friday, 13 July, Governor Deval Patrick showed his skills at working with the Massachusetts Legislature by passing all but $40 million of a $28.4 billion legislative budget for fiscal year 2008, which starts on 1 July 2007.
On the beautiful Summer's eve of 12 July, in a lower field at the Patrick's secluded country retreat in Richmond, Massachusetts, a fund raiser was being held. For a mere minimum of $250, over three hundred supporters and elected officials gathered under a series of catered white tents with three bars flowing beverages to go with the hors d'oeuvre.
I bit the bullet, paid the entry fee, and armed with the March 2007, National Priorities Project's "War Costs to Massachusetts", I headed right for the governor. I dutifully waited for him to conclude his hello's to others ahead of me. In time he turned to me, "Hello, Bob", Deval offered his hand and warm smile, "Thanks so much for coming out tonight to see me."
On the beautiful Summer's eve of 12 July, in a lower field at the Patrick's secluded country retreat in Richmond, Massachusetts, a fund raiser was being held. For a mere minimum of $250, over three hundred supporters and elected officials gathered under a series of catered white tents with three bars flowing beverages to go with the hors d'oeuvre.
I bit the bullet, paid the entry fee, and armed with the March 2007, National Priorities Project's "War Costs to Massachusetts", I headed right for the governor. I dutifully waited for him to conclude his hello's to others ahead of me. In time he turned to me, "Hello, Bob", Deval offered his hand and warm smile, "Thanks so much for coming out tonight to see me."
The secular God
Even as we throw a wall of barbed wire and tin across our southern border, we’re allowing the only national wall that actually serves a legitimate purpose to fall into serious disrepair, with signs of active government collusion in its collapse.
The wall, of course, is the one that separates church and state — and establishes what may be, arguably, the single most important agreement we have as a nation and free society: the agreement that secularity is sacred.
This agreement has to be more than a genteel abstraction if it’s going to survive Alberto Gonzales’ Justice Department and the Evangelical takeover of the Air Force Academy and the simmering witches’ brew of money and Old Testament intolerance that is George Bush’s political base. For that reason, gloves off, my friends — about faith, values, spirituality and even that loaded term, God.
The wall, of course, is the one that separates church and state — and establishes what may be, arguably, the single most important agreement we have as a nation and free society: the agreement that secularity is sacred.
This agreement has to be more than a genteel abstraction if it’s going to survive Alberto Gonzales’ Justice Department and the Evangelical takeover of the Air Force Academy and the simmering witches’ brew of money and Old Testament intolerance that is George Bush’s political base. For that reason, gloves off, my friends — about faith, values, spirituality and even that loaded term, God.
Squire v. Geer and the evils of e-voting
Editor's note:
One of the most detailed looks at the problems of DRE voting machines occurred in the challenge of Franklin County Domestic Relations Judge Carole Squire to the certified election results in her 2006 election. Note the long list of problems documented through legal discovery and through expert witness testimony. This is typical with e-voting problems in Franklin County as well as in Cuyahoga County. By looking at e-voting results on the micro level, we better understand why the results are so unreliable. At the macro level in all elections since 2000, this case is a testament to why we need hand-counted paper ballots.
Bob Fitrakis, Editor
Read the whole document as a PDF.
One of the most detailed looks at the problems of DRE voting machines occurred in the challenge of Franklin County Domestic Relations Judge Carole Squire to the certified election results in her 2006 election. Note the long list of problems documented through legal discovery and through expert witness testimony. This is typical with e-voting problems in Franklin County as well as in Cuyahoga County. By looking at e-voting results on the micro level, we better understand why the results are so unreliable. At the macro level in all elections since 2000, this case is a testament to why we need hand-counted paper ballots.
Bob Fitrakis, Editor
Read the whole document as a PDF.
Want to impeach Cheney? Think July 23rd
The impeachment movement is gaining traction, and now - over the next two weeks - is the time to push it all the way to success. Over the weekend, supporters of impeachment made "Impeach Cheney" the number 1 video on Youtube. On Friday, for the first time, a polling company asked Americans if they want Cheney impeached. A majority of 54% said Yes, and the poll was reported in the media. Congressman John Conyers even cited it on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday.
On July 4, the day of throwing off King Georges, an Impeach Bush and Cheney petition passed 100,000 signatures! So now we're raising the bar to 1 million: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/petition Also on July 4, Los Angeles opened an Impeachment Center, and on July 5 Philadelphia held an impeachment forum (here's the video).
On July 4, the day of throwing off King Georges, an Impeach Bush and Cheney petition passed 100,000 signatures! So now we're raising the bar to 1 million: http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/petition Also on July 4, Los Angeles opened an Impeachment Center, and on July 5 Philadelphia held an impeachment forum (here's the video).
Mother Earth can't live without a Solartopian vision
At last our dying Mother Earth has taken center stage.
Thanks to Al Gore's global concert, the major media are finally filling with coverage of the climate crisis. It all comes with a dire dual realization: our economy will collapse, and we could all die, if something drastic is not done.
But what?
There are many piecemeal formulas out there. But there's also a holistic vision of a post-pollution civilization that is clear, absolute and all-encompassing.
It's a "Solartopia" built around a democratic, green-powered millennium. It is as simple as it is necessary:
Technologically, the vision rests on four pillars:
1. Total renunciation of all fossil and nuclear fuels. In a sustainable, survivable future, they are a 20th Century pox, neither green nor clean.
2. All-out conversion to renewable energy, led by the "Solartopian Trinity" of wind, solar and bio-fuels. Mother Earth gives us the natural power we need.
3. Complete commitment to maximum efficiency, including revived and solarized mass transit and passenger rail systems. We may "remake" the automobile, but can't survive without transcending it.
Thanks to Al Gore's global concert, the major media are finally filling with coverage of the climate crisis. It all comes with a dire dual realization: our economy will collapse, and we could all die, if something drastic is not done.
But what?
There are many piecemeal formulas out there. But there's also a holistic vision of a post-pollution civilization that is clear, absolute and all-encompassing.
It's a "Solartopia" built around a democratic, green-powered millennium. It is as simple as it is necessary:
Technologically, the vision rests on four pillars:
1. Total renunciation of all fossil and nuclear fuels. In a sustainable, survivable future, they are a 20th Century pox, neither green nor clean.
2. All-out conversion to renewable energy, led by the "Solartopian Trinity" of wind, solar and bio-fuels. Mother Earth gives us the natural power we need.
3. Complete commitment to maximum efficiency, including revived and solarized mass transit and passenger rail systems. We may "remake" the automobile, but can't survive without transcending it.
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of personal gratification: “Here there be monsters”
“America does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.”
—John Quincy Adams
While it certainly was not his intent, Adams’ assertion serves to remind us of a truth revealed by vast oceans of tears, torrential rivers of blood, and formidable piles of human remains. Leaving murder, mayhem, and misery in its wake, America does “go abroad,” but not, as Adams noted, “in search of monsters to destroy.” What Adams failed to perceive, despite living in the midst of the Native American genocide and the abject evil of chattel slavery, is that America is the monster.
Yet like most monsters that exist outside the boundaries of imagination, the printed word, celluloid, or digital imagery, the United States and its denizens ostensibly appear rather harmless and mundane. In fact, it would probably be more accurate to say that a fair number of people still perceive us as downright heroic, cloaked as we are in our beguiling raiment of freedom and democracy.
—John Quincy Adams
While it certainly was not his intent, Adams’ assertion serves to remind us of a truth revealed by vast oceans of tears, torrential rivers of blood, and formidable piles of human remains. Leaving murder, mayhem, and misery in its wake, America does “go abroad,” but not, as Adams noted, “in search of monsters to destroy.” What Adams failed to perceive, despite living in the midst of the Native American genocide and the abject evil of chattel slavery, is that America is the monster.
Yet like most monsters that exist outside the boundaries of imagination, the printed word, celluloid, or digital imagery, the United States and its denizens ostensibly appear rather harmless and mundane. In fact, it would probably be more accurate to say that a fair number of people still perceive us as downright heroic, cloaked as we are in our beguiling raiment of freedom and democracy.
The patriotic service of Leonard Peltier versus the treason of Scooter Libby
In all the hand-wringing about George Bush's ghastly commutation for Scooter Libby, the name that should resonate most is that of Leonard Peltier.
While the junta's henchmen walk free, this great Native American activist still sits in a federal penitentiary after thirty-one years.
In 1977, Leonard was wrongly convicted in the killing of two FBI agents. The case is so laden with fraud and illegalities as to tear at the fabric of our entire criminal justice system. Any president since Jimmy Carter---including Bill Clinton---could at least have granted him a fair trial.
Evidence weighed by Amnesty International and a very wide range of other powerful and prestigious global observers confirms that the FBI intimidated witnesses, withheld evidence, falsified affidavits and did every other dirty trick in the book to get Peltier convicted. Thirty-one years later, the FBI is still withholding over 140,000 pages of critical documents about this case, in violation of a wide range of federal laws. Peltier's sentence has been wrongfully extended. And his repeated requests for a retrial have been routinely denied.
While the junta's henchmen walk free, this great Native American activist still sits in a federal penitentiary after thirty-one years.
In 1977, Leonard was wrongly convicted in the killing of two FBI agents. The case is so laden with fraud and illegalities as to tear at the fabric of our entire criminal justice system. Any president since Jimmy Carter---including Bill Clinton---could at least have granted him a fair trial.
Evidence weighed by Amnesty International and a very wide range of other powerful and prestigious global observers confirms that the FBI intimidated witnesses, withheld evidence, falsified affidavits and did every other dirty trick in the book to get Peltier convicted. Thirty-one years later, the FBI is still withholding over 140,000 pages of critical documents about this case, in violation of a wide range of federal laws. Peltier's sentence has been wrongfully extended. And his repeated requests for a retrial have been routinely denied.
We will sit in for impeachment
On the 5th Anniversary of the Downing Street Meeting and the same day as a Dem Prez candidates debate in the evening on CNN, Youtube, and Google, July 23, 2007, Cindy Sheehan plans to lead a delegation to Congressman John Conyers' office in DC to demand impeachment. We will be willing to risk arrest. Let's bring a crowd!
This is part of a march that Cindy and others are making from Texas to New York. The march may make stops at the district offices of other House Judiciary Committee Members, such as Rick Boucher, Mel Watt, and Bobby Scott.
You can organize a meeting, protest, honk-a-thon, or sit-in at your Congress Member's office. One way to get organized is with this system. You can find events and create them here. And you can meet people in Facebook.
We need a nonviolent revolution to compel our Congress Members to revive our Constitution. Sitting in their offices and reading the Constitution out loud, if enough of us do it, may save our democracy.
This is part of a march that Cindy and others are making from Texas to New York. The march may make stops at the district offices of other House Judiciary Committee Members, such as Rick Boucher, Mel Watt, and Bobby Scott.
You can organize a meeting, protest, honk-a-thon, or sit-in at your Congress Member's office. One way to get organized is with this system. You can find events and create them here. And you can meet people in Facebook.
We need a nonviolent revolution to compel our Congress Members to revive our Constitution. Sitting in their offices and reading the Constitution out loud, if enough of us do it, may save our democracy.
Strike the root!
"We have now sunk to a depth at which the restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men"~~George Orwell
Recently, Nova M Radio's Mike Malloy suggested the lethargy that appears to have descended on the American people is more "rage fatigue" than a lack of knowledge or comprehension of the damage wrought by this administration. I agree, although for many of us, rather than fatigue, it's more an inability to "focus" on any single atrocity about which to be enraged. There are just too many incoming horrors at any one time. We are in the throes of a national paralysis.
It's not that we don't know enough to be enraged. We know too much. About too many things. Our rage is splintered, spread too thin to be effective. For the past five years, people in this country and around the world have protested against Bush and Cheney's genocidal assault on two helpless nations. As they prepare openly for yet another bloody attack on yet another nation, we continue to sign petitions, hold meetings, march against the corporate machine -- all to no avail.
Recently, Nova M Radio's Mike Malloy suggested the lethargy that appears to have descended on the American people is more "rage fatigue" than a lack of knowledge or comprehension of the damage wrought by this administration. I agree, although for many of us, rather than fatigue, it's more an inability to "focus" on any single atrocity about which to be enraged. There are just too many incoming horrors at any one time. We are in the throes of a national paralysis.
It's not that we don't know enough to be enraged. We know too much. About too many things. Our rage is splintered, spread too thin to be effective. For the past five years, people in this country and around the world have protested against Bush and Cheney's genocidal assault on two helpless nations. As they prepare openly for yet another bloody attack on yet another nation, we continue to sign petitions, hold meetings, march against the corporate machine -- all to no avail.