Impeachment may well be the only remedy
Remarks on the floor of the U.S. House, March 15, 2007
This House cannot avoid its Constitutionally authorized responsibility to restrain the abuse of Executive power.
The Administration has been preparing for an aggressive war against Iran. There is no solid, direct evidence that Iran has the intention of attacking the United States or its allies.
The US is a signatory to the UN Charter, a constituent treaty among the nations of the world. Article II, Section 4 of the UN Charter states, "all members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. . ." Even the threat of a war of aggression is illegal.
Article VI of the US Constitution makes such treaties the Supreme Law of the Land. This Administration, has openly threatened aggression against Iran in violation of the US Constitution and the UN Charter.
This House cannot avoid its Constitutionally authorized responsibility to restrain the abuse of Executive power.
The Administration has been preparing for an aggressive war against Iran. There is no solid, direct evidence that Iran has the intention of attacking the United States or its allies.
The US is a signatory to the UN Charter, a constituent treaty among the nations of the world. Article II, Section 4 of the UN Charter states, "all members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state. . ." Even the threat of a war of aggression is illegal.
Article VI of the US Constitution makes such treaties the Supreme Law of the Land. This Administration, has openly threatened aggression against Iran in violation of the US Constitution and the UN Charter.
Federal judge orders first-ever moratorium on sale of genetically-altered seed
USDA approval of genetically engineered alfalfa is vacated, seed sales halted
San Francisco, CA, March 12, 2007 - A Federal judge ruled today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) 2005 approval of genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa is vacated and ordered an immediate halt to sales of the GE seed. The ruling follows a hearing last week in the case brought by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for approving GE alfalfa without conducting the required Environmental Impact Statement.
“We are pleased that the judge called for halt to sales of this potentially damaging crop,” said Will Rostov, a Senior Attorney for CFS. “Roundup Ready alfalfa poses threats to farmers, to our export markets, and to the environment. We expect the USDA to abide by the law and give these harmful effects of the crop full consideration.”
San Francisco, CA, March 12, 2007 - A Federal judge ruled today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) 2005 approval of genetically engineered (GE) alfalfa is vacated and ordered an immediate halt to sales of the GE seed. The ruling follows a hearing last week in the case brought by the Center for Food Safety (CFS) against the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for approving GE alfalfa without conducting the required Environmental Impact Statement.
“We are pleased that the judge called for halt to sales of this potentially damaging crop,” said Will Rostov, a Senior Attorney for CFS. “Roundup Ready alfalfa poses threats to farmers, to our export markets, and to the environment. We expect the USDA to abide by the law and give these harmful effects of the crop full consideration.”
Obstruction of justice
Don't blame Kyle Sampson for the administration's decision to fire seven United States Attorneys in the middle of their terms. The Attorney General's chief of staff may be this week's fall guy in the investigation of the firing of the prosecutors, but he was only doing what he knows how to do: He was doing politics.
Kyle Sampson never worked as a prosecutor. He was barely out of law school when he came to Washington in 1999 to work for Sen. Orrin Hatch on the Judiciary Committee as a junior aide. From there, it was just a short step to the transition staff, where he put his newly gained knowledge of the nomination process to work in screening candidates with far more experience than he for jobs in the judiciary and the Justice Department.
Kyle Sampson never worked as a prosecutor. He was barely out of law school when he came to Washington in 1999 to work for Sen. Orrin Hatch on the Judiciary Committee as a junior aide. From there, it was just a short step to the transition staff, where he put his newly gained knowledge of the nomination process to work in screening candidates with far more experience than he for jobs in the judiciary and the Justice Department.
Sacrificing our children on the altar of corporate greed
Our children are being sacrificed on the altar of corporate greed in Iraq. As the purported rationale for the war has metamorphosed from protecting ourselves from weapons of mass destruction and the specter of a ''mushroom shaped cloud,'' to regime change, to fighting terrorists, to spreading democracy at the point of a gun, two constants remain. The children of the poor, the working class, and the lower half of what is left of the shrinking middle class return to us in coffins, or limbless, or brain damaged, and emotionally scarred. The children of the power elite, for whom they fight the war, secure in their corporate boardrooms or on their yachts, reap unconscionable profits as the nation''s treasure and blood is being stuffed down the rat-hole that is the Iraq war.
From Lawn-Boys to B-2’s: America’s penchant for mowing ‘em down
“I just look around and see people mowing their lawns on the same day we start to bomb Iraq and it drives me wild.”
--Mike Palecek
Having read and thoroughly enjoyed three of Mike Palecek’s novels, I felt particularly fortunate that he agreed to engage in a cyber-interview with me. His irreverent satirization of the myriad of ills plaguing the United States is unparalleled amongst current authors of sociopolitical fiction. Palecek may hyperbolize, but his fertile imagination has afforded US Americans a priceless opportunity to stop and examine what we are becoming as a nation. And he has done so in a fashion that is both absorbing and entertaining.
In some ways Palecek’s offerings are analogous with Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here. Though in Lewis’s case, he was prognosticating. Palecek is documenting what has already transpired.
Without further adieu, I give you the interview with Mike Palecek:
1 Readers will note with interest that you went from being a seminarian to being incarcerated in federal prison. How would you explain this ostensibly glaring contradiction?
--Mike Palecek
Having read and thoroughly enjoyed three of Mike Palecek’s novels, I felt particularly fortunate that he agreed to engage in a cyber-interview with me. His irreverent satirization of the myriad of ills plaguing the United States is unparalleled amongst current authors of sociopolitical fiction. Palecek may hyperbolize, but his fertile imagination has afforded US Americans a priceless opportunity to stop and examine what we are becoming as a nation. And he has done so in a fashion that is both absorbing and entertaining.
In some ways Palecek’s offerings are analogous with Sinclair Lewis’s It Can’t Happen Here. Though in Lewis’s case, he was prognosticating. Palecek is documenting what has already transpired.
Without further adieu, I give you the interview with Mike Palecek:
1 Readers will note with interest that you went from being a seminarian to being incarcerated in federal prison. How would you explain this ostensibly glaring contradiction?
Good, clean, green way to generate electricity is approved by city in San Diego County
It has the feel of the final scene in the movie “Back to the Future” where Doc
Brown is feeding banana peels and other garbage into the Mr. Fusion appliance
on top of the DeLorean to fuel it.
But what is happening in Vista, California, right now is not in any futuristic movie, it is the next wave of good, clean, green ways to generate electricity without substantial adverse effects on the environment.
Not quite Mr. Fusion, but close.
Forward-thinking city officials have approved a special use permit which allows Envirepel Energy Inc., to move forward with the balance of the permits required to finish construction of its renewable, bio energy facility and begin operation of it for an initial 18-months.
It will be using a process called “gasification combustion” which cleanly burns green waste and wood, to produce electricity. Not to be confused with “incineration” during which refuse is burned in lieu of burial in a landfill, gasification would not degrade the quality of the environment, result in long-term or cumulative impacts or have substantial adverse effects on human beings, either directly or indirectly, say experts.
But what is happening in Vista, California, right now is not in any futuristic movie, it is the next wave of good, clean, green ways to generate electricity without substantial adverse effects on the environment.
Not quite Mr. Fusion, but close.
Forward-thinking city officials have approved a special use permit which allows Envirepel Energy Inc., to move forward with the balance of the permits required to finish construction of its renewable, bio energy facility and begin operation of it for an initial 18-months.
It will be using a process called “gasification combustion” which cleanly burns green waste and wood, to produce electricity. Not to be confused with “incineration” during which refuse is burned in lieu of burial in a landfill, gasification would not degrade the quality of the environment, result in long-term or cumulative impacts or have substantial adverse effects on human beings, either directly or indirectly, say experts.
Partisanship at justice isn't new
Someday, historians will wonder why the highest officials in the Bush Justice Department believed they could inflict heavy-handed political abuse on federal prosecutors -- and get away with it. The punishment of the eight dismissed U.S. attorneys betrays a strong sense of impunity in the White House, as if the president and his aides assumed nobody would complain about these outrages or attempt to hold them accountable. The precedent for their misconduct was set long ago.
There was once another Republican prosecutor who insisted on behaving professionally instead of obeying partisan hints from the White House. His name was Charles A. Banks, and his story begins in the summer of 1992, as the presidential contest entered its final months, with Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton leading incumbent President George H.W. Bush.
There was once another Republican prosecutor who insisted on behaving professionally instead of obeying partisan hints from the White House. His name was Charles A. Banks, and his story begins in the summer of 1992, as the presidential contest entered its final months, with Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton leading incumbent President George H.W. Bush.
The pragmatism of prolonged war
The days are getting longer, but the media shadows are no shorter as
they cover the war in Iraq through American eyes, squinting in
Washington’s pallid sun.
Debated as an issue of politics, the actual war keeps being drained of life. Abstractions thrive inside the Beltway, while the war effort continues: funded by the U.S. Treasury every day, as the original crime of invasion is replicated with occupation.
More than ever, in the aftermath of the Scooter Libby verdict, the country’s major news outlets are willing to acknowledge that the political road to war in Iraq was paved with deceptions. But the same media outlets were integral to laying the flagstones along the path to war -- and they’re now integral to prolonging the war.
Debated as an issue of politics, the actual war keeps being drained of life. Abstractions thrive inside the Beltway, while the war effort continues: funded by the U.S. Treasury every day, as the original crime of invasion is replicated with occupation.
More than ever, in the aftermath of the Scooter Libby verdict, the country’s major news outlets are willing to acknowledge that the political road to war in Iraq was paved with deceptions. But the same media outlets were integral to laying the flagstones along the path to war -- and they’re now integral to prolonging the war.
SDS occupies recruiting station in Manhattan
At noon, Monday, March 12, 2007, nearly 100 students from area universities marched to the armed forces recruiting station on 157 Chambers Street. Twenty-three members of Students for a Democratic Society entered and occupied the recruiting station shutting down recruitment activity for nearly two hours. Outside dozens more protesters supported those being arrested with chants including, "Troops out now," "No justice, no peace. U.S. out of the Middle East," and "Stop the war. Yes we can. SDS is back again." Member of Pace University SDS, Uruj Sheikh said, "The fourth anniversary of the occupation of Iraq is in one week. Billions of dollars are being spent and hundreds of thousands have been murdered.