Let’s Make It a Million!

A million what? Head over to www.impeachbush.org and look for the referendum to impeach Bush, it’s on the left side of the page. So far, as of right now, Friday morning, 977,047 fellow Americans have signed it. Those are pretty big number you couldn’t possibly ignore. Below are the articles themselves. And, for more information, you can check out the Notes for the Consideration of Impeachment.

———————–

 

Articles of Impeachment

 

of

 

President George W. Bush

 

and

 

Vice President Richard B. Cheney,
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and
Attorney General Alberto Gonzales

The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors. - - ARTICLE II, SECTION 4 OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

President George W. Bush, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales have committed violations and subversions of the Constitution of the United States of America in an attempt to carry out with impunity crimes against peace and humanity and war crimes and deprivations of the civil rights of the people of the United States and other nations, by assuming powers of an imperial executive unaccountable to law and usurping powers of the Congress, the Judiciary and those reserved to the people of the United States, by the following acts:

1) Seizing power to wage wars of aggression in defiance of the U.S. Constitution, the U.N. Charter and the rule of law; carrying out a massive assault on and occupation of Iraq, a country that was not threatening the United States, resulting in the death and maiming of over one hundred thousand Iraqis, and thousands of U.S. G.I.s.

2) Lying to the people of the U.S., to Congress, and to the U.N., providing false and deceptive rationales for war.

3) Authorizing, ordering and condoning direct attacks on civilians, civilian facilities and locations where civilian casualties were unavoidable.

4) Instituting a secret and illegal wiretapping and spying operation against the people of the United States through the National Security Agency.

5) Threatening the independence and sovereignty of Iraq by belligerently changing its government by force and assaulting Iraq in a war of aggression.

6) Authorizing, ordering and condoning assassinations, summary executions, kidnappings, secret and other illegal detentions of individuals, torture and physical and psychological coercion of prisoners to obtain false statements concerning acts and intentions of governments and individuals and violating within the United States, and by authorizing U.S. forces and agents elsewhere, the rights of individuals under the First, Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Eighth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

7) Making, ordering and condoning false statements and propaganda about the conduct of foreign governments and individuals and acts by U.S. government personnel; manipulating the media and foreign governments with false information; concealing information vital to public discussion and informed judgment concerning acts, intentions and possession, or efforts to obtain weapons of mass destruction in order to falsely create a climate of fear and destroy opposition to U.S. wars of aggression and first strike attacks. Violations and subversions of the Charter of the United Nations and international law, both a part of the “Supreme Law of the land” under Article VI, paragraph 2, of the Constitution, in an attempt to commit with impunity crimes against peace and humanity and war crimes in wars and threats of aggression against Afghanistan, Iraq and others and usurping powers of the United Nations and the peoples of its nations by bribery, coercion and other corrupt acts and by rejecting treaties, committing treaty violations, and frustrating compliance with treaties in order to destroy any means by which international law and institutions can prevent, affect, or adjudicate the exercise of U.S. military and economic power against the international community.

9) Acting to strip United States citizens of their constitutional and human rights, ordering indefinite detention of citizens, without access to counsel, without charge, and without opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the Executive of a citizen as an “enemy combatant.”

10) Ordering indefinite detention of non-citizens in the United States and elsewhere, and without charge, at the discretionary designation of the Attorney General or the Secretary of Defense.

11) Ordering and authorizing the Attorney General to override judicial orders of release of detainees under INS jurisdiction, even where the judicial officer after full hearing determines a detainee is wrongfully held by the government.

12) Authorizing secret military tribunals and summary execution of persons who are not citizens who are designated solely at the discretion of the Executive who acts as indicting official, prosecutor and as the only avenue of appellate relief.

13) Refusing to provide public disclosure of the identities and locations of persons who have been arrested, detained and imprisoned by the U.S. government in the United States, including in response to Congressional inquiry.

14) Use of secret arrests of persons within the United States and elsewhere and denial of the right to public trials.

15) Authorizing the monitoring of confidential attorney-client privileged communications by the government, even in the absence of a court order and even where an incarcerated person has not been charged with a crime.

16) Ordering and authorizing the seizure of assets of persons in the United States, prior to hearing or trial, for lawful or innocent association with any entity that at the discretionary designation of the Executive has been deemed “terrorist.”

17) Engaging in criminal neglect in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, depriving thousands of people in Louisiana, Mississippi and other Gulf States of urgently needed support, causing mass suffering and unnecessary loss of life.

1 Institutionalization of racial and religious profiling and authorization of domestic spying by federal law enforcement on persons based on their engagement in noncriminal religious and political activity.

19) Refusal to provide information and records necessary and appropriate for the constitutional right of legislative oversight of executive functions.

20) Rejecting treaties protective of peace and human rights and abrogation of the obligations of the United States under, and withdrawal from, international treaties and obligations without consent of the legislative branch, and including termination of the ABM treaty between the United States and Russia, and rescission of the authorizing signature from the Treaty of Rome which served as the basis for the International Criminal Court.

i heart mountains…forever.

Today is blog action day, and another important day in speaking some words about the environment. I’ve been thinking quite a bit since signing up about what to write, when just about every corner of the environmental front is under assault by government, industry, and just plain stupidity among humans. But the other night I was fortunate enough to finally watch Mountain Top Ministry on PBS’s Bill Moyers (thanks DVR), which was yet another disturbing piece on Mountain Top Removal (MTR). That made up my mind…

I love mountains. I always have. I’ve been going to the mountains since I was a wee little lad, specifically the Smokies, the Blue Ridge, & the Appalachians. Being from Florida, mountains were not an every day sighting. You had to drive 10 (or more) hours to see any good mountains, such as in North Carolina which is riddled with these majestic examples of contour, texture, & habitation. That’s where my family & I ended up every year a few chosen times a year. The mountains. The Smokies. The Appalachians. We love mountains.

Well, it’s a good damn thing we didn’t decide to pick West Virginia…because their mountains really do suck (don’t believe me?).

A massive dragline, dwarfed by the huge scale of the operation, at work
on a mountaintop removal operation near Kayford Mountain, W.Va
Photo by Vivian Stockman, Oct. 19, 2003

How majestic. Excellent job destroying something that only took 300 million years to create. Well done section 515(c)(1) of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, and thank you President King George W. Bush, Massey, and all ye who defend this practice and continue to rape our 300 million year old mountains in the name of coal. This is the 21st century, why can’t you innovate like everyone else has.

What does President Bush have to do with this? Everything. The Bush administration has declared war on mountains and the people who live there. Seriously.

 

So what do you, the average American citizen, have to think about this? It seems you do think about this. A September 2007 survey conducted by the Civil Society Institute found that 65% of Americans oppose the Bush Administration’s proposal “to ease environmental regulations to permit wider use of ‘mountain top removal’ coal mining in the U.S.” The study also found that 74% Americans are opposed to the expansion of MTR coal mining in general, and that 90% of Americans agree that more mining should be permitted only after the United States government has assessed its impacts on safety and the environment.

 

Most of the links are inline [click4yourself], so click away and learn as much as you can about this eXtremely important, relevant issue that has everything to do with you, your children, and the future of environmental protection. It took these beautiful mountains 300 million years to create themselves for you to enjoy, so a few hours of education and a few more of action to stop this hideous crime is not much to ask in return.

Some Useful References

Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
Wikipedia
(and much more here)

mountain justice summer
vbs.tv (toxic west virginia series)
stop mountaintop removal

Some Great Videos

Toxic West Virginia

Christians for the Mountains

 

i love them mountains (so does woody)

Mountain Wars

 

 

 

freedom of speech is dead and the american gestapo who keep it that way

I know; what a long title. But at the end you’ll see why it’s so appropriate.

It’s been almost a month since I’ve had time to blog about anything, and probably won’t again any time soon due to some priorities I have to finish up. But this morning I watched the ACLU TV’s dissent again (as seen on LinkTV), and felt compelled to say something.

This time I felt a bit more sick to my stomach after seeing it than last time. I keep thinking about these normal Americans whom only wanted to peaceably exercise their right to express how they felt about what their country was doing. In the midst of exercising this right, some were arrested without charges, some shot with wooden bullets by assaulting officers only to have surgery to repair the permanent damage, some held in filthy cages inside a pier for more than 2 days like vicious animals, some arrested for wearing t-shirts opposing King George, one harassed as if he were a terrorist for simply being poetic, and most confined to what’s referred to as free speech zones, which in itself is a complete violation of freedom on public property.

It’s hard to describe here in plain text what this is all about. The episode tells the stories of everyday Americans who were exercising their right to free speech and dissent, only to be harassed or arrested. This happens every day. This happens at every peaceful rally. It happened at Berkeley in the 60’s…but this type of thing was ‘never supposed to happen again’. The founding father’s of this country founded this fine country on dissent. This country was built by the people who wanted change. Every major social step was sparked by people, not politicians. Politicians are merely seat warmers. Without you, they don’t exist. Where are you? Where are we? The social balance is off. Washington gives orders to suppress, and their loyal servants follow to ensure people do as they are told. Are we OK with this? We don’t want thousands, we don’t need hundreds of thousands. We need millions. We need people to see & hear the truth, regardless of political preference.

A picture says a thousand words. If you have access to LinkTV, then keep your eye out for ACLU’s dissent episode. If not, join the ACLU TV’s producer’s club and get a FREE copy of the DVD. Why? I’ll let Lewis Black tell you why.

To see the trailer, click here
To see the viewer’s guide, click here
Listen to Amir Sulaiman’s poem
Watch some archival footage of dissent
And check out some extras…Historical, RNC Protest and RNC Artist

So what’s the point? It’s all in the title.

American gestapo.

: a police organization employing underhanded and terrorist methods against persons suspected of disloyalty.

will never forget

i am aware…are you?

Imagine that your life, as you know it, disappears in the blink of an eye. War, violence or fear for your family’s safety force you to flee your home. After hours or even days of a torturous journey, you find shelter far away, in a squalid tent. You are dependent on handouts of food; possibly have no clean drinking water or access to health care that prevents outbreaks of cholera, dysentery, hepatitis, malaria, and other diseases.

Not a pretty picture, right? But the fact is that millions of people around the world, in countries big and small, people of all ages and many nationalities, have been living in such desolate and precarious conditions for years.

These people are called refugees.

This is their story.

 

police suppress sept15 press conference

How dare those three forget to get a permit for the folding press table! I’m just glad those fine, fine officers of the law were there to ensure free speech was squashed. C’mon people…who cares what their press conference was for…is this how we Americans treat each other? I think not…and those that do are simply called anti-American, anti-human, anti-intelligent pig Nazis. Now why do you think dog’s were sent out to suppress this peaceful endeavor? Welcome to America…home of the free. This sealed the deal…and you’ll be seeing me with my wife in DC on 9/15. pEace!

 

Police suppress Sept. 15 anti-war press
conference across from White House

Above, a policeman on horse disrupts today’s anti-war press conference. Below, Adam Kokesh is arrested while legally putting up a poster for September 15th; Kokesh and Tina Richards speak to the press as the put up the poster. Click this link to see a video of the police repression.

Three anti-war activists were arrested in front of the White House today after the U.S. Park Police moved to suppress a press conference called to protest the fines and threats against the ANSWER Coalition for putting up anti-war posters promoting the September 15 March and Die-In in Washington DC.

The arrested were Tina Richards, CEO of Grassroots America and mother of Iraq War Veteran Cloy Richards; Adam Kokesh, the Co-Chair Elect of the Iraq Veterans Against the War and member of Veterans for Peace; and Ian Thompson, an organizer with the ANSWER Coalition.

The press conference became a chaotic scene as U.S. Park Police interrupted the event on the basis that there was no permit for a folding table that was used as a speaker’s stand for media microphones. As U.S. Park Police officers surrounded the group, an officer on horseback rode into the crowd to disperse the media and onlookers.

Tina Richards and Adam Kokesh had announced that they would put a September 15 March to Stop the War poster on a lamppost following the press conference. The ANSWER Coalition has been fined over $30,000 in the last three weeks in an unprecedented action aimed at suppressing the September 15 mobilization. The three were taken to the Central District Substation of the United States Park Police. They will later be transferred to a jail in which they will spend the night before being arraigned in U.S. Superior Court tomorrow afternoon.

Attorneys at the Partnership for Civil Justice have filed a Free Speech lawsuit to strike down the unconstitutional postering law. The ANSWER Coalition has refused to pay these illegal fines.

Momentum continues to build for the September 15 Mass March, which will be led by Iraq War Veterans and their family members. More than 100 cities are mobilizing to bring people by bus, van and car caravan. The September 15 March will culminate with a large scale Die-In/Funeral for U.S. servicemembers and Iraqis who have been killed in this criminal war of aggression.

For details, go to www.Sept15.org.

another dishonorable chicken-hawk

by Cindy Sheehan

I know just a little bit about Mr. William Kristol:

He is the son of one of the founders of the “neo-conservative” movement, Irving Kristol.

He is a commentator on Fox News.

He was Chief of Staff for one of the political “geniuses” of our time: VP Dan Quayle.

He is editor of another Rupert Murdoch war-propaganda rag, “The Weekly Standard.”

He is a member, and signer, of the Project for the New American Century, which is a game plan for US global hegemony based on military strength and one of its goals and objectives was the over-throw of the Hussein Regime in Iraq with a next stop in Iran and Syria (because the PNAC plan is going so well, so far).

By all accounts, Mr. Kristol is a brilliant man, who like his father before him, uses his brilliance for destruction. He is a shameless supporter of a failed, murderous, and miserable strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan and one of the “mushroom cloud” crowd.

One thing Mr. William Kristol is not, is a combat vet.

Although he was born in 1952, he never served during Vietnam. I am sure while at Harvard he was a staunch supporter of the American effort to enrich the war profiteers while ostensibly stopping that war’s “enemy” communism from spreading across Asia. Secure in his studies during that quagmire, Kristol joins a long line of neo-con chicken-hawks who are drenched in other people’s blood and love to send other people’s children to die for their lies.

I don’t know anything, or care to know anything about Mr. Kristol’s private life. I don’t care if he is another closeted gay Republican or is a happily married hetero with children. I do suspect, however, that if Mr. Kristol is married, his children are not serving in Iraq, being misused by the very same incompetent and cowardly Commander in Chief (who also did not serve in Vietnam) that Mr. Kristol shamelessly supports while the entire administration and Republican hypocrites are crumbling from corruption and scandal.

I do know one thing for sure about Mr. Kristol, he does not like to be bothered with those pesky little things called facts. On February 20, 2003, Mr. Kristol incredibly gushed: “If we free the people of Iraq, we will be respected in the Arab world.” This statement shows an amazing lack of knowledge of the Arab world or any kind of foreign policy sophistication (but does show a great use of Rovian-Foxian expolitation of emotion). No one in the Arab world (except maybe, Israel, which is geographically located in the “Arab world”) was calling for the US to “free” Iraqis. No one from Iraq except “Curveball” or the slimy and profit-motivated, Ahmad Chalabi, both Iraqis who weren’t even living in the country at the time of the invasion were calling on the USA to liberate them. In fact, after many years of murderous sanctions against Iraq, a fierce nationalism arose in opposition to the US-UN led sanctions. According to National Intelligence Estimates, since the illegal and immoral invasion of Iraq, Islamic Jihadism has increased. Mr. Kristol is also incredibly ignorant of human nature and human history. No peoples like to be occupied. No child, brother or sister, or mother or father, who sees a loved one blown away by American or insurgent’s bombs will love the oppressor. In fact, violence only creates more violence and more life-long enemies.

Now Mr. Kristol is safe behind his desk and computer calling for another attack against Iran. I think he hears the non-existent cries of the Iranian people to be liberated from their regime. The Iranian people are directly next-door to Iraq and they see what US “liberation” brings. It comes with the awful price of high civilian casualties; hospitals bombed, Doctors killed; no electricity or clean water; and eternal occupation.

In a recent op-ed for The Weekly Standard, Mr. Kristol makes many more tactical and fundamental errors. The ANSWER coalition is calling for mass mobilizations begining the week (Sept. 15) that the White House authored Petraeus report on the surge is due. Members of Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW), who are leading the September 15th march, are calling for a “die-in” to end the march and begin the rally. The vets, unlike the chicken-hawk neocons, have actually served in war, particularly the one that Mr. Kristol imagines is such a success. IVAW is asking activists to represent a killed service-member and at an appropriate time lie down. Taps will be played and also a simulated 21-gun salute. It sounds respectful to me, being the mom of one of the soldiers, and I will proudly, yet sorrowfully, be lying down for my son that day. Many of the march/rally participants will be “dying” to represent the hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who have been killed for Mr. Kristol’s deceptions.

Mr. Kristol calls on the “honorable” members of the anti-war movement to denounce the die-in and lumps MoveOn.org with other organizers of the die-in. MoveOn is not associated with the die-in as they do not support non-violent, direct civil disobedience. What I find so amusing is that Mr. PNAC-Fox News-Chicken-hawk has made himself the judge of what is honorable.

Mr. Kristol has a problem with the anti-war movement using the names of the fallen without the permission of the families. No one got my permission when my sons portrait was used in the pro-war memorial at Arlington Cemetery. Casey’s name and likeness has been used by pro-war people all over the nation without my permission. Why is that okay, Mr. Kristol? I know for a fact such memorials as Arlington West, Eyes Wide Open and our memorial at Camp Casey would remove names of soldiers at the next of kin’s request. If any family member so requests, I am sure IVAW will do the same thing—but a word of caution:

Even though the members of IVAW (all my adopted sons and daughters) have a big problem with the occupation of Iraq and with the Bush crime family, they served their country honorably (unlike Mr. Kristol) and they all fought side-by-side with the fallen. They love their brothers and sisters and they would themselves have died to take the place of any one of them. Do not, never, ever, claim that we families, or the Iraq Vets are dishonoring our sons and daughters killed by the lies of The Weekly Standard, Fox News, BushCo., et al. That is the biggest lie of all, or maybe it’s this one that Mr. Kristol told on March 1, 2003:

“Very few wars in American history were prepared better or more thoroughly than this one by this president.”

I would laugh if I weren’t crying so hard.

If Mr. Kristol gets his PNAC way, by this time next year, we will need a lot more people at a die-in.

http://www.cindyforcongress.org/

america’s problem chart

 

Had Enough? Visit RESETAmerica.com or learn more about what America thinks of 3rd party chances.

I still have no idea how I’ll vote, but it won’t be for anyone who raises the most money or has the nicest suits or has loudest or most visible campaign.

Republican vs Democrat and Liberal vs Conservative are labels created to divide the public, 2 sides of the same corporate coin bought and paid for…just different puppets.

access denied

So the information police must be hard at work, since Surf Control is becoming a more frequent sighting on my computer when I’m at the office. They must be using all of those slick features…that really just contributes to more control over the information I have access to. Here are some example URLs that get SurfControlled…

• wordpress (this is new…no more blogging)
• myspace
• friendster
• lastfm or last.fm
• googlemail
• justin.tv
• almost any seriously themed/tagged music site
• almost any seriously themed/tagged video site

PS - i work in the web/internet group, and they restrict my web/internet access. Go figure that one out…

When would you prefer to be recognized?

[This is in Response to the Questions and Reflections for August 21, 2007]:

 

Everyone should be recognized for for the things they have done; for we have all had those moments where time stood still just for us, just maybe no one noticed. I don’t think that anyone should be excluded from being remembered. Those who build community gardens should be recognized just as much or perhaps even more than the philanthropist with millions in cash donated, the politician with a track history or the activist who is fighting for what’s right; and even more so the villagers who stand up to the seemingly all powerful oil company should be recognized, the young son who dies for another’s war, and of course our all of our most loved family members.

After I’m gone; I would rather not be forgotten. I am someone who really enjoys the art of being, the time spent creating something, and all of the fruits of labor when truly vested in something. And I really enjoy that when I’m gone, or moved on, that it was me who contributed or created or led the charge or had the idea. So when I’m gone world…please feel free to bask in my glow!