2008 Elections: Wake Up Call

The Mighty Munchkin of Justice, Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio, issues America's wake-up call:



Y'all better pop yer peepers open and listen to the man. It's time for the tide to turn. Jobs, prosperity, health care, retirement benefits, peace, what's not to like?

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Politics: "Not-Impeachment" Hearing

Raw Story tells us that on Friday, July 25, at 10 am, the House Judiciary Committee will hear from these witnesses in the scheduled hearing on Gee Dumbya's Imperial Preznitwitcy:

The Honorable Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio)
The Honorable Maurice Hinchey (D-New York)
The Honorable Walter Jones (R-N. Carolina)
The Honorable Brad Miller (D-N. Carolina)
The Honorable Elizabeth Holtzman, Former Representative from New York
The Honorable Bob Barr, Former Representative from Georgia, 2008 Libertarian Nominee for President
The Honorable Ross C. “Rocky” Anderson, Founder and President, High Roads for Human Rights (former Mayor of Salt Lake City)
Stephen Presser, Raoul Berger Professor of Legal History, Northwestern University School of Law
Bruce Fein, Associate Deputy Attorney General, 1981-82, Chairman, American Freedom Agenda
Vincent Bugliosi, Author and former Los Angeles County Prosecutor
Jeremy A. Rabkin, Professor of Law, George Mason University School of Law
Elliott Adams, President of the Board, Veterans for Peace
Frederick A. O. Schwarz, Jr., Senior Counsel, Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law

Rep Conyers assures us that this hearing is not for purposes of impeachment. However, we would like to call attention to a few facts: nearly every single person on this list has, at one time or another, spoken strongly in favour of impeaching G. Dumbya Boosh.

The Mighty Munchkin of Justice, Dennis Kucinich, has been pursuing impeachment tirelessly for some years now. Recently, Rep. Kucinich vowed that he will keep the issue on the table by introducing Articles of Impeachment until he gets his hearing. Well, this looks like his hearing. We know that Rep. Kucinich has shown more courage than the rest of Congress put together &mdash considering that he represents a mostly white, centrist district, he has taken progressive positions throughout his career.

Rep. Maurice Hinchey has been pushing for impeachment since 2005, and risked losing the most recent election because of his unwavering stance against the war in Iraq.

Rep. Walter Jones, the man who gave us "freedom fries," has reversed his position on the war in Iraq several years ago and has since been pushing for a "time horizon" or, in the common parlance, a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. Rep. Jones' district includes Camp LeJeune, which has lost much of the flower of its youth to a bloody, senseless war.

Elizabeth Holzman was on the House Judiciary Committee back in Nixon's day and was instrumental in moving the impeachment of Nixon forward. She has been openly outspoken on the topic of impeaching Bush.

Bob Barr, former Republican Rep from Georgia, now the Libertarian presidential candidate, stated in 2006 that Bush's actions in spying on Americans were illegal. Barr has stated that Congress should have started impeachment proceedings a long time ago.

Rocky Anderson, former mayor of Salt Lake City, was talking about impeachment early in 2007.

Professor Stephen Presser of Northwestern testified before Congress the last time they impeached a President.

Conservative legal scholar and former ADA Bruce Fein has been calling for the impeachment of VP Cheney since 2007.

Vincent Bugliosi, former DA and writer, has just published a book titled The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder. Due to a media-imposed blackout, the book was supposed to die a quiet death. Thanks to the Internet, it took off and has become wildly successful. Whatever else Mr. Bugliosi might be, he is in our humble opinion likely to be strongly for the impeachment of Li'l Boots.

As a high-ranking member of Veterans for Peace, Elliott Adams has been pressing John Conyers and the House Judiciary Committee to impeach Bush for some time.

And Frederick A.O. Schwartz is the author of that fine document, Unchecked and Unbalanced: Presidential Power in a Time of Terror. What say you? Pro-impeachment, or anti?

We're guessing sentiment for impeachment runs high in this crowd. Please do your part. Urge your congresscritter to support Dennis in his attempt to bring the crooks and liars to justice. (And if Dennis is your Congresscritter, pat yourself on the back for having the good sense to have elected him!)

Let Conyers, Pelosi, and the Judiciary Committee know that you support impeachment. You can contact the members of the Judiciary Committee here. AFAIK, there has not been a poll on impeachment since 2005. Sentiment has changed a great deal since then. Perhaps pressuring polling companies to re-examine this issue would be a good idea?

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Politics: Don't Go Away Mad

Just go away.



McClatchy poses the question today of whether Dumbfuck McBlotto, our (decidedly un)esteemed Escutcheon-blot in chief, is "going out with 'a whimper'." Frankly, McClatchy, who gives a fuck? We just want him to go, preferably to a narrow, cramped, poorly-lit prison cell where he can rub the heads of all the baldies he can get his hands on. The sooner the better.

While academics opine on Dim Son's astounding lack of popularity, the common people are watching basic food prices soar out of reach even as the value of their homes, the stability of their corporate employers and their financial institutions, and the value of their currency sink lower than a worm's arsehole.

So, as Maru over at WTF Is It Now? likes to say,

The popular war preznit has regained his footing... oh, I'm sorry, Mr Broder, make that [insert real-life stumblebum's latest stumble]

Considering that the pathetic, wretched little asshole can barely behave in public, it's hardly surprising that that fact seems to be registering with record numbers of his fellow-citizens.

Meanwhile, it's heartening to realize that there are some Republicans with ethics. Stephen Spoonamore, founder and CEO of Cybrinth LLC, an IT policy and security firm, has stepped forward to help an anonymous whistleblower prove that professional slime mold impersonators and cybervote machine manufacturers Diebold improperly interfered in Georgia's 2002 elections.

So we now know we have fucking Diebold to thank for that ambulatory turd, Saxby Chambliss. In case you didn't know, Chambliss prides himself on holding up monies to combat AIDS in Africa, as Cernig points out over on newshoggers. He also doesn't care much for SCHIP, The Endangered Species Act, the fight against global warming, women, life (except for "unborn children," i.e., fetii), environmentalism, science, civil rights, taxes for the rich, bankruptcy for the poor, education (except for school prayer), or pretty much anything except prisons and the death penalty.

In heartening news today, Iraqi PM Nouri al-Maliki announced his support for Barack Obama's plan for a phased withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. In even more heartening news, Chimpy McDumbfuck's pathetic minions sent the news about Maliki's support to the press &mdash by mistake. In even more heartening news, Jowly McGrumpypants (thanks, Maru!) camp issued a succinct evaluation of this news: We're fucked, they said, which makes us really happy, since Gramps McSnarly is the last person to help this poor nation get back on her feet. Shoot, he's having trouble keeping his own. And, he's definitely showing signs of dementia or otherwise eroding mental function, not that his mental function was much to brag about in the first place.

It's also nice to know that McCain is exhibiting a level of fiscal stupidity that reinforces our suspicions about his dysfunction. And to no one's surprise, McCain's elderly, probably racist and certainly ill-informed supporters are displaying a lack of enthusiasm usually reserved for Matlock reruns. Really? It must rub salt in the wound to hear that art collectors believe McGrumpypants artwork is worth nothing, while Obama artwork is selling for tens of thousands of dollars, eh, McJowly? Of course, you'd have to be more than slightly off to find portraits of CottageCheesyJowls McSnarlfester remotely exciting, but hey.

McAncient's inability to keep his festering gob shut may have caused security problems for Obama: Blabberjowls McScarface apparently announced to the press that Obama is expected to be in Iraq this weekend. Hopefully, he'll be greeted with flowers by an adoring population, since he's the only candidate to espouse a definite timeline for the withdrawal of our troops. Of course, when someone else blabbed about a person being in Iraq, McCain was simply furious. But then, the subject of the blabment was his son, not his political rival.

The good news is coming thick and fast today: Multimillionaire whiner Phil Gramm, who just last week told us (before Starbucks announced it was closing a bunch of stores and laying off staff) that we were whiners suffering from a "mental recession," has stepped down from McAncient's campaign. Good. Goodbye, and good riddance, Phil. And quit whining.

Meanwhile, the Mighty Munchkin of Justice has decided to investigate Felon McChimperson and Snarly McCrashcart's minions' surveillance of harmless peace activists and expending much-needed taxpayer money on police officers to do so, instead of fighting crime. But then again, why bother to fight crime when you can turn prisons into a high-paying privatized industry, with the citizen taxpayers doing all the paying.

This is what happens when we elect Democrats, people. Sure, it's going slowly, slower than many of us would like. But let's not forget that the past eight years has been nothing but incompetence, fraud, lies, cheating, hypocrisy, deceit, and the tearing down of this great country. It's gonna take a while to fix the mess, and if we're going to try to hold anyone accountable, it must be done in a way that they cannot overturn. And that takes a little time.

For those who don't want to click the above link, it's to a Washington Post story about the current, Democratic governor of Maryland, who has reversed his Republican predecessor's policy of having the State Police conduct surveillance of peace activists and anti-death penalty protestors. What a waste of taxpayer money!

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Politics: Is It Impeachment By Another Name?

According to Raw Story, Rep. John Conyers, head of the House Judiciary Committe has begun an investigation into the "Imperial Presidency," he says. A hearing is scheduled for July 25th. Conyers has promised to look into these issues:

(1) improper politicization of the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorneys offices, including potential misuse of authority with regard to election and voting controversies;

(2) misuse of executive branch authority and the adoption and implementation of the so-called unitary executive theory, including in the areas of presidential signing statements and regulatory authority;

(3) misuse of investigatory and detention authority with regard to U.S. citizens and foreign nationals, including questions regarding the legality of the administration’s surveillance, detention, interrogation, and rendition programs;

(4) manipulation of intelligence and misuse of war powers, including possible misrepresentations to Congress related thereto;

(5) improper retaliation against administration critics, including disclosing information concerning CIA operative Valerie Plame, and obstruction of justice related thereto; and

(6) misuse of authority in denying Congress and the American people the ability to oversee and scrutinize conduct within the administration, including through the use of various asserted privileges and immunities.

The L.A. Times, which has been tireless in its efforts to kiss the Misadministration's rear-end recently, claims that this is not impeachment.

We realize that many Democrats voted for this Pretzelnitwit's Pet War and they're likely to be, um, smeared? when the fit hits the shan, but you know what? You're gonna get yours anyway, Dems, so you might as well start inching towards impeachment, you spineless fuckers.

Thank the Powers That Be for Rep. Dennis Kucinich, who has not wavered, even when Pelosi threatened him (we haven't forgotten about that, Nancy. We may not get you now, but we hear Hillary Clinton keeps a little book with the names of all the people who have ever crossed her in it. We might consider doing the same. You don't deserve to be in Congress, Ms. "Impeachment is off the table."). He has promised to keep bringing up the issue:

Kucinich had said that if his impeachment article was tabled he would simply propose another one. In June, he spent four hours on the House floor reading his longer resolution into the record, only to see it buried in committee.

Action items, people!

(1) Send Dennis email thanking him for his efforts;

(2) Send Pelosi email telling her to stand by her recent statement on impeachment;

(3) Send Conyers email telling him he must move towards impeachment;

(4) Follow up email to Pelosi and Conyers with phone calls and snail-mail.

If you didn't already know, Netroots Nation (formerly known as YearlyKos), a gathering of online activists, is sponsoring AsktheSpeaker, a forum in which you can pose questions for Nancy Pelosi. On Saturday, June 19th, at 9:00 am, Speaker Pelosi will be responding to those questions. For what it's worth, someone has already asked why impeachment is off the table, and that question is currently in the No. 1 spot. Please read the comments in response to that question, as they're very interesting.

In other news, legal scholar and law professor Jonathan Turley told Keith Olbermann on his program yesterday that there is evidence Jor Jee committed crimes in office and should be impeached. He also took Pelosi to task for failing to move on impeachment.

"An impeachment hearing needs to be focused and it needs to deal with things directly and frankly, as whether the president committed crimes," he continued, "And there is considerable evidence to say that the answer is yes."

Considerable evidence. Sigh. Click the preceding link to see the video clip at Raw Story.

In an article at OpEd News, Ralph Lopez points out the nine Republicans who broke ranks with their party to send Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment to the Judiciary Committee.

Congressman Kevin Brady (TX)

Congressman Wayne Gilchrest (MD)

Congressman Walter B. Jones (NC)

Congressman Don Manzullo (IL)

Congressman Tim Murphy (PA)

Congressman Ron Paul (TX)

Congressman Dave Reichert (WA)

Congressman Christopher Shays (CT)

Congressman Mike Turner (OH)

One of the Republicans, Walter Jones, represents Camp LeJeune in North Carolina, one of the largest Marine bases in the country, and one which has borne heavily the sacrifice of the Iraq War.

At least one of the Republicans who voted Yes on this bill claims that he did so because he wanted the bill to die in the Judiciary committee. Lopez asks that you take action to impeach Bush and Cheney. OpEd has set up a handy-dandy tool. Click on the link to get to it.

If any of the Republicans on this list happens to be your Congresscritter, you might consider contacting them and asking them to support the coming investigation. What the hell, contact them anyway. Let them know what you think, how you feel. It's your duty as a member of the electorate.

Naturally, ImpeachBush.org has a different take on the whole issue, and thanks to The Young Turks for helping me find it. The site cites progressive hero Robert Wexler

“Capitol Hill is buzzing today with major developments regarding our campaign for impeachment hearings for President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Just today, in what could be described as a perfect impeachment storm:

"After stating unequivocally that impeachment "is off the table," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stated to CBS News today that the House Judiciary Committee should address the issues that Rep. Kucinich's has raised in his impeachment resolution.... This issue now reaches far beyond the substance of the Judiciary Committee's original inquiry regarding the firing of US Attorneys for political purposes. The crisis at hand relates to our most fundamental laws and of our Constitution. It is, in many ways, more serious than the Constitutional crisis surrounding Watergate."

Now, Nance, we realize you had a good time kicking a certain idiot's ass all over the football field today, but calling him a "total failure" just does not make up for your unwillingness to put the little bastard in the hoosegow along with Unca Dick "Dick teh War Profiteer." It's where he belongs, and your nation will be deeply grateful to watch him frog-marched out of the WH in chains.

Rep. Kucinich has stated that a hitherto unidentified representative of a foreign government which is a U.S. ally will be testifying. Bradblog discusses the impeachment with links and details and a succinct summation by Rep. Kucinich on exactly why impeachment is so important. Go, Mighty Munchkin of Justice!

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Politics: Mmmm, Peach Mint

My favourite flavour.

You will be happy to hear that House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of Michigan and Subcommittee Chairwoman Linda Sanchez today displayed their solid steel gonads to the White House. Which were so big, they needed a goddamned wheelbarrow to schlep them!


No, really. Conyers basically told the Gang of Thieves, Crooks, and Liars that they had better get him the documents he had requested, including unredacted FBI reports related to U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald’s probe into the leak of the identity of CIA agent Valerie Plame. Operative quote:

“Both the rules and our previous oversight activity concerning the Fitzgerald investigation plainly encompass the current inquiry, and the notion that our oversight concerning criminal law enforcement should somehow stop at the gates of the White House has no proper basis.”

Um, YOW? Yowza, yowza, yowza? Been a long time since we heard such ass-kickin' plain talk from the representatives of We The People, yes?

(Pant, pant, pant, gasp)


And as if that wasn't enough, in a further display of gonadal wherewithal, Chairman Conyers and Chairwoman Sanchez went on to tell reptilian slime repository and FAIL-laden human impersonator KKKarl Rove, through his lawyer, that said maggot had better drag his pasty segmented behind before the committee on the date stated or the crack in it might be widened by lawful but forceful means. Operative quote:

“As Committee staff made clear, and as we indicated in our May 1 letter, the proposal that we somehow seek to separate the Siegelman matter from the broader issue of politicization of the Justice Department is unacceptable,” the two lawmakers wrote.

This hearing is related to the important matters of the unlawful prosecution and imprisonment of Governor Siegelman and the politicization of the Department of Justice.

In related news, Dennis Kucinich's Articles of Impeachment are now before the committee, and The Mighty Munchkin of Justice is pressuring the committee to consider them forthwith. If you want impeachment, help Dennis out by letting Conyers and Sanchez, and Dennis, and your Rep know that you support his request and they better get off their ass and review the damn thing. You have 21 days to take these actions. Also please contact all your friends, relatives, neighbours, colleagues, even those who don't support impeachment - the mood of the country is changing, and they may have changed their minds. Operative quote:

The Ohio lawmaker said that it is now “incumbent” for the Judiciary Committee to review evidence he presented. He promised that if the committee failed to hold any hearings on the resolution within thirty days, he would repeat his efforts. He told one reporter Wednesday, “Leadership wants to bury it, but this is one resolution that will be coming back from the dead. … I will be bringing the resolution up again, and I won’t be the only one reading it.”

Don't forget to call, write, or email &mdash or do all three. If at all possible, impeachment may be the one thing that could prevent Winky McMonkeyBrain from starting a third war with Iran.

From the fine folks at ICHC

Given how successful we've been lately in Iraq and Afghanistan, we DO NOT WANT or need to start the next Presidency and Congressional Session tied up in foreign disasters. We have plenty of domestic disasters to deal with. So please, please, please, call, email, and write!

Kucinich has also warned the Judiciary Committee that if they don't get to it post-haste, he's going to present 60 (SIXTY!) articles of impeachment on the next go-round. Please thank him for his efforts. YAY Dennis! You rock! Operative quote:

“The minute the leadership said ‘this is dead on arrival’ I said that I hope they believe in life after death; because I’m coming back with it,” Kucinich vowed in an interview with the Sleuth this week. “It’s not gonna die. Because I’ll come back with more articles. Not 35, but perhaps 60 articles.”

[...]

For Kucinich, impeachment is more than simply a political windmill at which to tilt, he says. It’s about preserving the sanctity of the republic’s founding document.

“What we’re witnessing here,” he says, “is the not-so-slow-moving destruction of our Constittuion.”

Raw Story has the videos, copies of the letters, and more information at each preceding link.

Meanwhile, further displays of courage continue to erupt from other quarters. McClatchy, one of our few actual news organizations left, is reporting that Major General Antonio Taguba, who spoke out against the Bush regime's routine use of torture on detainees, is accusing the Misadministration of war crimes, and calling for those responsible to be held accountable. Operative quote:

"After years of disclosures by government investigations, media accounts and reports from human rights organizations, there is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes," Taguba wrote. "The only question that remains to be answered is whether those who ordered the use of torture will be held to account."

Be still, our beating heart! Our collective goddammit beating heart!!

And Amy Goodman over at Democracy Now! tells us that former Senator Mike Gravel is calling for an independent investigation into 9/11 and the prosecution of Stupie O'Stutters and Demon McVampire, otherwise known as our not-at-all-esteemed Leaders.

Dang! It never rains but it pours, yes? Let's hope all these separate actions with a common goal bear the kind of fruit we want &mdash that these criminals receive their just desserts of investigation, impeachment, and imprisonment. Personal Responsibility! The people demand they take some!

These hypocrites and liars were so willing to call for personal responsibility on the part of the sick, the weak, the poor, the suffering, the helpless, the ill and disabled. When it comes to their own responsibility for anything, the only thing they're quick to show is a clean pair of heels. It's time to turn that around now.

Crossposted over at Out of Iraq Bloggers Caucus

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Mmmm ... Peach Mint

Please let MSNBC hear from you about impeachment.

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Politics: Impeach!

Well, folks, the Mighty Munchkin of Justice has just brought 35 (thirty-five) articles of impeachment against Gee Dumbya.

The last president got impeached for having his cock sucked. This one's gonna get impeached for being a cocksucker.

Should we get our hopes up? True, the little weasel is flying around Europe at taxpayers' expense even as we rage and rant and slide into poverty (or, if you're in Iowa, into Hurricane Katrina territory). Reuters is calling it his "farewell Europe" tour. What's he hoping to accomplish? Other than spending our much-needed funds, that is.

Operative snippet:

With less than eight months to go before Bush leaves office, European leaders are expected to offer him little if anything to narrow the gap with Washington on issues like climate change, a resurgent Russia and a defiant Iran.

Mindful that Bush is even more unpopular across much of Europe than he is at home, the White House itself has no lofty hopes for Bush's trip, which is expected to draw large protests in countries where anti-Bush sentiment runs highest.

He has the gall to flap his gums about the need for a "stronger dollar" (pretty cheeky, considering that he practically single-handedly shoved it down the toilet and pulled the flush).

In an article with the Web header of 'Yurp' says Auf Wiedersehen to Dubya, the online edition of German magazine der Spiegel states, in less than adoring terms, what German politicians of every stripe think of the lame fuck, er, duck.

Our northern neighbour, Canada, observes at the CBC site that Europe is awaiting the little creep's final visit with "relative indifference." Pertinent quote:

[...] officials in the Slovenian capital Ljubljana say only a few small protests are expected this time.

Local media reports say this is because Bush is on his way out as U.S. leader and no longer attracts the same sort of attention when he visits.

Meanwhile, in the UK, the Independent is pointing out (no doubt to the collective joy of the 75 per cent of the U.S. that wishes the Chimp-in-Chief would disappear on an extended vacation already and never return) that the Chimp is going to receive a less than warm welcome:

But leading voices in the worlds of the arts and politics, including the novelist Iain Banks, the artist David Gentleman and the human rights campaigner Bianca Jagger, have now joined forces to call for Mr Bush to face a war crimes trial in the Hague.

Labour MPs and the cross-party Coalition Against the War in Iraq are preparing a national demonstration against the visit. They will deliver protest letters to Downing Street and carry handcuffs as a symbol of their claims that the President is a war criminal.

Andrew Murray, the chair of the Stop the War Coalition, said: "George Bush should be in The Hague facing war crimes charges over the hundreds of thousands of civilians killed in Iraq since 2003, not being entertained in Downing Street. Gordon Brown doesn't need a policy brief for this meeting, just a pair of handcuffs."

Perhaps Banksy can show up and graffiti the schmuck. A little red paint, some duct-taped-on photographs of dead Iraqi children with missing limbs and broken bodies. You get our drift.

People with conscience and a soul believe the prick belongs in the dock at The Hague on war crimes charges. The blinding spotlight of U.S. coverage of the issue has been noteworthy for its complete and total absence.

Hey, media schmucks! Get a clue. The guy is almost universally disliked, despised, hated, and deplored. Get with the program and give Kucinich, Conyers, Wexler, and their like coverage for their impeachment calls.

We fervently hope that the brainless, worthless, graceless swine returns to a full impeachment.

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Politics: Dennis Kucinich Supporters

The Mighty Munchkin of Justice

Did you support Dennis Kucinich for President? If so, you're probably committed to progressive politics.

Well, those of us who supported Dennis know that we need his voice more than ever in the House. Kucinich introduced the Articles of Impeachment against Snarly McCrashcart while Nancy Pelosi and the pathetic democratovines sat on their hands and tried not to cry every time the Pretzelnitwit and Darth looked at them funny.

We have to keep Dennis in the House as a counterbalance to the deballed Demos. So help him out. The Forces of Evil are arrayed against him. Go do your bit, right here.

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2008 Elections: HRC and Health Care

Who do you support? Will you vote for the Democratic Nominee no matter what?

We here at Casa de Los Gatos wanted Kucinich to win, but there's just too many people committed to the capitalist system (despite the brutality with which it treats them) in this country for that to be realistic. So we pinned our hopes on John Edwards. We would have been happy with Chris Dodd, too. Or Mike Gravel (no, really. According to the political quiz we took, his positions weren't all that far from ours). Then Dodd bowed out, Gravel bowed out, and finally, Edwards bowed out.

Now we have Clinton and Obama. Over at Alternate Brain, Fixer has his say and spells out his position. Although we secretly believe Fixer is our twin, separated at birth, we're notorious for rarely agreeing with any two people on any one issue. Still, we gotta link to Fixer because he makes a good case.

And now for the caveat: Raw Story is reporting that Hillary Clinton's health plan requires everyone to buy health insurance, and she is willing to garnish the wages of workers to ensure that they have insurance. Not health care, mind you. Insurance.

If you've been following the story of Nataline Sarkisyan and CIGNA, you know exactly how much health insurance is worth: Not a good goddamn, in our book. Why would Clinton want to put more money into the pockets of an already grotesquely overpaid and bloated industry? Why?

We have lots of guesses, and most of them require much colourful profanity for emphasis, so in the interest of the newfound comity engendered by Blogroll Amnesty Day, we're going to refuse comment.

We also want to know, given the large and growing pool of unemployed, especially long-term unemployed, exactly how will Mrs. Clinton ensure that over 40 million Americans receive anything approximating adequate health care? Because, given the population explosion that is enabling the spread of epidemics, and the failure of medical treatment for many new diseases each day, we're looking at what we politely wish to label "Poop Creek," and with nary a paddle to hand.

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2008 Elections: OMFG

This is exactly why we need political change. This is why we need to elect Obama, goddammit.

Raw Story tells us that Philip Shenon's new book, The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation alleges that Philip Zelikow (former colleague of then-National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice) who was appointed executive director of the 9/11 Commission despite his close ties to the Bush White House, was in regular contact with none other than creepy, purulent slimebag KKKarl Rove while overseeing the commission. Shenon is a reporter for the New York Times.

Who the hell was responsible for electing Zelikow in the first place? Blogger, journalist, and author Max Holland blogged details from his copy of the book here. Shenon claims that those responsible for electing Zelikow knew about the conflict of interest, but - unbelievably - allowed Zelikow to retain his position. The article states, in part:

Zelikow "had laid the groundwork for much of what went wrong at the White House in the weeks and months before September 11. Would he want people to know that?" Shenon writes, according to Holland's summary.

Jesus suffering Christ. So this asshole Zelikow knew what was going on, worked to block any action on Clinton-era terrorism czar Richard Clarke's warning that bin Laden was "determined to strike" within the U.S., and then gets appointed to the commission that's supposed to be investigating what went wrong. All the time hangin' with his homies KKKarl and KKKondoleeza. Thanks, you piece of shit. Thanks to you, three thousand people lost their lives. God alone knows how many are walking around with shattered lungs and bodies and minds thanks to the events of that day. Thanks to you, we've squandered TWO FUCKING TRILLION DOLLARS of the taxpayers' money on an endless war and occupation of a tiny little country that had absolutely nothing to do with any of this shit. Thanks to you, Zelikow, you son of a thousand and father of none, nearly four thousand of the U.S. armed forces' troops have lost their lives, and some forty thousand others have lost their health and one or more limbs or organs. Hundreds of thousands of Americans have lost their minds, or their peace of mind, or a family member or loved one, or their jobs and their health care.

Just so you could suck KKKarl's dick. Just so you could "protect" Israel. We are so fucking angry right now that we're ready to plotz. The article adds:

Widows of World Trade Center victims demanded Zelikow resign around the same time, when news emerged that Zelikow had participated in Bush administration transition briefings, but the commission's chairmen defended their executive director.

"Because he was one of the best experts on terrorism in the whole area of intelligence in the entire country, the same--they asked him to help the same reason we asked him to help," 9/11 Commission chairman Thomas Kean said on Meet the Press then. "We haven't found, I think, either Vice Chairman [Lee] Hamilton or myself, any evidence to indicate in any way that he's partial to anybody or anything."

Are you fucking kidding me? Are you so full of shit, Mr. Kean, that you have the gall to say something like that?

"His academic career focused on Cold War issues, from the Cuban missile crisis to the fall of the Soviet Union.... He is certainly not among the world's 'foremost experts' on al-Qaida, a topic on which he appears to have written nothing," wrote Salon's Joe Conason, "and he is very unlikely to have briefed the new administration on that threat."

No shit? You mean just like his good buddy KKKondoleeza Fucking Rice? The bitch who shopped through Hurricane Katrina while people drowned?

According to Holland's summary of Shenon's book,

"Zelikow continued to insert himself into the work of 'Team 3,' the task force responsible for the most politically-sensitive part of the investigation, counter-terrorism policy. This brief encompassed the White House, which meant investigating the conduct of Condoleeza Rice and Richard Clarke during the months prior to 9/11. Team 3 staffers would come to believe that Zelikow prevented them from submitting a report that would have depicted Rice’s performance as 'amount[ing] to incompetence, or something not far from it.'"

Are you fucking KIDDING ME??? Incompetence? Try complete fucking malicious evildoing.

When are these goddamned children of the fetid slime going to be held to account? When? Send them all to a firing squad.

Nancy Pelosi, you stupid cunt, if this does not force your hand and make you move to impeach the whole gang of crooks and liars, you have lost the right to call yourself a human being. Fuck! Thank Evolution we have a Dennis Kucinich in the House. Perhaps the Mighty Munchkin of Justice will manage to get impeachment onto Nancy's agenda. We are truly sorry that Kucinich is not about to be our next President, but perhaps this way he will finally give the American people the justice for which they have longed lo these past seven years.

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2008 Elections: Oh, NOES1!!1i

Edwards is stepping out of the race. Goddammit. We admired him and loved him for forcing the other contenders to face up to issues like poverty and the breaking of the social contract. We understand - he needed to win a state, and did not succeed. But we still hate that it happened. Who will loyal Edwardsians cast their votes for now? Raw Story quotes AP in claiming that 40 per cent will probably vote for Hillary Rodham Clinton, while 25 per cent will vote for Obama.

We sincerely hope those numbers are reversed, that is, 40 per cent vote for Obama and only 25 per cent for Clinton. Obama has requested Edwards' endorsement, but the Edwards camp has not announced that it will endorse either candidate.

The race is now between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. On the positive side, that is wonderful, that a woman and an African-American candidate are vying for the presidency as Democratic candidates. On the negative side, we wish Dennis Kucinich and John Edwards were still contending, to spur the entire nation on to greater heights.

Jimmy Carter, the elder statesman and former President (and, quite frankly, one of Casa de Los Gatos' alltime favourite hoomans), has come out in support of Obama without actually endorsing him. Given his long and close relationship with the Clintons, he probably won't endorse - unless the Clintons get up to some more borderline shenanigans.

Speaking of Obama, Carter said:

"We have four children with their spouses, we have eleven grandchildren, four or five of them are married, and all of them, except one, are for Obama," he said in an audioclip of the interview on the Wall Street Journal's website.

"I think that Obama will be almost automatically a healing factor in the animosity now and the distrust that relates to our country and its government," said Carter, 83, who was president from 1977-1981.

Meanwhile, in some really heartwarming GOOD news, Rudy 9iu11ani announced that he is stepping out of the race. Good riddance, Nosferatu. Return to the dank halls where you belong, with that strumpety tiara-laden tart of yours. He was a nasty little bully and we're sincerely glad to be shed of him.

AFP characterizes Giuliani's flameout as "from hero to zero." Well, he was not considered a hero here at Casa de Los Gatos, where his wife's nasty practice of demonstrating surgical tools on live dogs incensed us from Day One. We don't even want to think about all the terrible things that happened during his tenure as Mayor of NYC - Amadou Diallo, Louima, Kerik, the pathetic episode with rescue workers and firefighters' worthless communication devices - all because of the greed and selfishness and outright racism of Rudy Giuliani.

Which makes this statement of his particularly ironic, don'tyouthink?

"You don't always win, but you can always try to do it right ... that's what the American people deserve, a return to honesty and substance in our political discussion," Giuliani said.

The schmuck is endorsing McCain. Let's hope it functions like the Kiss of Death.

Hickabee continues in the race, to provide amusement if nothing else. So, on the Republican side, your choices are dog-torturer Willard "Mitt" Romney; John "100 Years' War" McCain; and Mike "Deepfried Squirrel!" Hickabee. What a buncha creeps.

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2008 Elections: The Current Political Picture

Well, Barack Obama totally rocked South Carolina, taking 54 per cent of the vote over Hillary Clinton's 27 per cent. We here at Casa de Los Gatos would have preferred that Edwards take the state, but when push comes to shove, we'd rather Obama took it than let Hillary Clinton win.

We feel the Clintons have just gone overboard lately, with their race-and-gender rhetoric, their arrogance, and their assumptions. Yes, Hillary Clinton is still much more desirable as a candidate and as a potential president than McCain, Romney, Ron Paul, Huckabee, or Giuliani. But that doesn't make her our preferred candidate.

Regrettably, our preferred candidate stepped out of the race. Dennis Kucinich, the Mighty Munchkin of Justice, as he's known in some parts of Blogtopia (y,Sctp!) bowed out to concentrate on keeping his seat in the House, which we fervently hope he does because he can help forward the cause of impeachment of the crooks and liars and war criminals who have ripped the country apart for the past seven years.

He served a noble purpose while he was running, though - he forced the other Democratic candidates to recognize the concerns of the progressives in the electorate. He showed up the mass media for the skanky corporate whore that it is. And he paid out of his own pocket to reassure us that, although there are problems with the voting system, our votes are being counted, but we must all strive for greater transparency and oversight of the voting process.

John Edwards has vowed to stay in the race to the bitter end. We really would prefer him to Obama, but there is no denying that Obama is electrifying the voting populace in a way that Edwards can't. We hope with all our heart that Edwards finds a place in the Obama cabinet that might result from the election.

Whatever happens, we don't want Hillary Clinton for the Democratic nominee. Although we were overjoyed when she won New Hampshire, her behaviour - and her political machine's - since that time have been utterly reprehensible. She's using a mighty political machine to steamroller voters, just as the Republicans have done for the past X years. And we don't want that. We sense that the voting populace at large is tired of it also. And we refer you to this excellent and highly readable post by Ms. Manitoba to prove our point.

When Barack Obama's supporters said they would not vote for Clinton, we were somewhat disappointed at first. We strongly feel that Democrats should hang together, and whoever the nominee is, we should vote for them. But the Clintons' shenanigans force us to see the declaration in a new light. And we now feel that it is correct to throw down the gauntlet and let the Clintons' political machine know that it's not going to steamroller the millions of young voters, progressive voters, female voters, minority voters in this country who are hungry for a change that Clinton, with her corporatist lackeys and lobbyist allies, will never provide.

So the race is now down to Obama (leading), Clinton (trailing, and, we hope, losing), and Edwards (hopefully, he'll take potential Clinton voters as she continues to enrage and annoy the voting public with her underhanded behaviour).

On the Republican side, things are looking pretty grim for cross-dressing manwhore Rudy Giuliani, who has been beaten soundly by Ron Paul in several states now. He's trailing Romney, McCain, Huckabee, and Paul, in that order. In Florida, where he concentrated all his efforts, ignoring South Carolina and Nevada, he appears to be headed down to a stunning loss - a loss so deep, it'll take decades for him to dig out of it. That's good. We don't need another autocratic, high-handed, obnoxious, bullying blowhard in the highest office of the land, or even anywhere near it. Go back to your speechifying, Rudy, rake in the bucks from your fellow Republicans who'll pay to hear you lie about your role on that fateful day, September 11th, as you continue to cover up your cronyism, your expending public monies on your various mistresses, your adultery, your unprincipled behaviour, your lies, and hopefully, your woes. You don't deserve a good life, buddy.

Fred Thompson, the brief darling of the mainstream conservatives (yes, the same who courted the religious right's vote while spitting on its voters) has vanished without a trace. No one seems to have noticed. He was a lazy jerk with a trophy wife half his age and no interest in serving the people whatsoever. Back to Hollywood, Fred. We hope you fail to land any significant movie/TV parts and are reduced to doing commercials for Viagra and hemorrhoid creams, like your predecessor, also-ran Bob Dole.

Duncan Hunter, another also-ran, dropped out before Thompson, presumably because a jail cell with his name on it was calling out for him. Given his role in the bribery and corruption scandals of Duke Cunningham and Jack Abramoff, he couldn't leave the political arena too soon for us. Have a nice time in jail, old son, and we hope you're getting the real deal and not some Club Fed cell.

Tommy Thompson, another also-ran, apparently left the campaign to change his adult diapers and never returned. Good riddance to bad rubbish, we say. Again, no one really seemed to notice that he was campaigning or when he left.

The less said about Sam Brownback, the better, so we will say less. Incidentally, while the worthless son-of-a-turtle might have given Hickabee a run for the evangelical vote, he -- unlike Hickabee -- was a corporate stooge, not a populist, and we're glad he's gone.

That leaves McCain, Romney, and Hickabee. We know that the Republicans hate Hickabee with a passion because he grew up poor and espouses populist positions. A Yahoo News article states, in part:

Rush Limbaugh couldn't be clearer - supporting former Governor Mike Huckabee's presidential campaign is a really bad idea if you are a true Reagan Republican. In his opinion, Huckabee's nomination would mark the end of the Republican Party as he knows it. And Limbaugh isn't alone: Fellow talking head Sean Hannity and a whole host of conservative talk radio hosts love to pummel Huckabee and fellow candidate John McCain. The hate formerly reserved for Democrats Bill and Hillary Clinton, Al Gore and Howard Dean is now directed at Republicans like Huckabee and McCain.

He doesn't have a problem with raising taxes on the rich to pay for better social programs, and has espoused improvements in education, health care, and social welfare, all seen by wealthy conservatives as unnecessary pandering to the poor and working class. Hickabee has the fundie Christian vote and he's striving for the backward racist vote as well, and we believe he has a better chance of attracting that than either Romney or McCain, unless Paul has that vote sewn up tight.

Still, that's not going to win him any significant number of the all-important independents and conservative Democrats that he must win for a realistic shot at the presidency. So I think we can safely say goodbye to him and his dog-torturer son. We won't be shedding tears.

McCain's involvement with the S&L scandal will hurt him among middle-class, working-class, and poor voters with long memories. However, they're not a significant proportion of the electorate. But there's more. Most conservatives distrust McCain because he has held positions that they don't agree with, and has only recently come around to the "accepted conservative wisdom." Hah! They're working to swiftboat him already. See the Council of Conservative Citizens (no link, they're fucking crazy) on the topic.

Many independents don't trust McCain because they remember when the Shrub's minions stabbed him in the back, and they also remember when he showed up to kiss the Shrub's baboon ass in public and without shame. They also remember how he once (in his "maverick" days) reviled Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson for the loony extremists they were, and now, in his nakedly wretched desperation to win the Presidency, kisses their asses in public. Anyone who dislikes the situation in Iraq must be feeling trepidation at McCain's comments about staying there for hundreds of years.

And finally, young voters have no connection at all to the man, because they are in the greatest danger of being drafted, and he's a warmonger. Because they grew up in a world that is half a century away from the world in which he grew up. And we also believe that there is a strong and rising fear out there that McCain is simply too old. He might not live out a term. Heck, he might not even live out the election. He looks old. He looks redfaced and tired and balding and sometimes he opens his mouth and says things that sound borderline senile.

So he might win the nomination, but we very much doubt he can win the election.

Finally, Romney is the darling of the business sector of the Republican party, but he cuts no ice with the evangelical Christians. Currently, reports are claiming that Romney is the most hated of all candidates. Non-Mormons mostly view Mormonism as a bizarre religious cult, with its emphasis on oppression of women, polygamy, and conversion of people without their knowledge or consent.

Interestingly, it's still all up in the air, and Super-Tuesday won't decide the winning candidate for either side. So your vote really does count, this time, for the first time in a long time. This time, you make or break the election. So get out there and vote, whoever your candidate is. Take your Mom or Dad or Grandma to the polls with you. Promise your colleagues you'll buy a round at the local bar or bagels for Friday breakfast if they'll bring in their proof of voting. Give your neighbour a ride, even if she's voting for a candidate you hate. Volunteer to be a campaign worker or a poll observer or just to pick up elderly people and schlep them to the caucuses or whatever.

Let your voice be heard!

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2008 Elections: Barack Obama's Naivete

This is a guest post by Bri, hopefully the first in a continuing series:

There's been some talk by liberal commentators about how Barack Obama is "naive" [1] when he talks about "different kind of politics." I think that's a fundamental misunderstanding of how his campaign works.

I haven't seen any evidence that Obama thinks he can make peace with the "vast right wing conspiracy" that has gone after the Clintons for all these years. He's not seriously trying to reach hard-right Republican congressmen, wacko right-wing billionares, conservative talk show hosts, or freepers. But he is going after independent and conservative voters and he's doing pretty well. He's got people who wouldn't normally vote for a liberal in a million years thinking that he's not so bad, and maybe even rooting for him.

Or course, if Obama becomes the Democratic nominee, the people who brought us the Swift Boat Veterans are going to go after him with everything they've got. But I don't see why people like Glenn Greenwald [2] are so quick to assume it will work this time. There seems to be an assumption that because Republicans could slime Bill and Hillary and Gore and Kerry that they can slime anyone. My hunch is that a lot of people are going to be surprised when the slimers try and fail. All they've managed to come up with so far are the Muslim school rumors, and look how well that's working out for them.

So what's this "different kind of politics" all about? My suspicion is that, stripped of all the rhetoric, it comes down to having a liberal president who's also widely popular among many (not all) conservative voters. If Republican congressmen see in their polls that their constituents are strongly supportive of the new president, they're going to have to think hard about the consequences of being purely obstructive. It could result in a lot of important things actually getting done (like national health insurance).

I'm speculating, of course. But it makes me more optimistic about Obama's chances as president than about the other candidates.

[1] http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/17/opinion/17krugman.html
[2] http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/01/05/obama/index.html

As our regular readers know, we at The Political Cat consider Kucinich our ideal candidate, with Edwards coming second. We still fervently hope either Kucinich or Edwards is our next president, but we also believe that every voice and every point of view that is reasoned, intelligent, sincere, and factual about a solution to the nation's problems deserves to be heard.

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Politics: Keeping Minority Candidates In The Race

For reasons that escape us, there seems to be a concerted effort by various groups - the mainstream media being one of the worst offenders - to keep certain candidates out of the news and the debates. Information about them is always disparaging (as opposed to the slobbering paeans of praise lavished on more mainstream candidates). They're dismissed out of hand. And now, it appears that Dennis Kucinich will be excluded from the Iowa debates.

That's simply unacceptable. It's up to the people to decide who the next president will be. Let us hear them all - Kucinich, Gravel, Paul, even Alan Keyes (disclaimer: we disagree with all his positions and simply do not support him for any elected office). Let us hear them and decide for ourselves.

If you feel that Kucinich has been unfairly excluded from the Iowa debates, register your concern here.

To quote IndependentPrimary, who sent that link:

Given the challenges America faces right now, we need more debate and dialogue - not less. Yet the party insiders are moving to shut things down.

Independent voters and independent-minded Democrats and Republicans aren't going to let them.

We're sending a petition to Party Chairs Howard Dean and Mike Duncan.

The message: We need your intervention to keep the debates open.

Can you take a moment to take a stand for democracy?
To sign the petition, click here.

Go to it, folks. We deserve to hear every candidate.

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Politics: Let The People's Voice Be Heard!

Somebody's holding a fundraiser for Dennis Kucinich, with the aim of raising ten million. We here at Casa de Los Gatos think that's a wonderful idea.
We've had it with the major candidates, who are all in our opinion too centrist and corpocratic to bring about the real, much-needed change that is the only thing that can save this great nation. Ron Paul raked in the bucks in a huge groundswell of support recently.

If you care about the Constitution, your civil liberties, peace, justice, human rights, send some money Kucinich's way. He's being far more creative and spinal with his appeal to the people than just about anyone (I'll make an exception for Ron Paul and John Edwards).

Let's reclaim the peace dividend! Enough money wasted on foreign wars and enriching oil companies! (Never forget, Bush, his father, Cheney, and Condi all have ties to oil companies.)

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Politics: Dennis Kucinich Kicks Ass

And elephant. Seriously. He came out swinging in this TV interview, and I was blown away. The mass media gives us news on Hillary and Obama, with the occasional negative swipe at Edwards. We hear very little about Dodd, Biden, Gravel, Kucinich. It's time for that to stop.

Even this interview was pretty rude and condescending, but Kucinich was having none of that. Here's part of the report from Raw Story:

During an appearance on CBS's Early Show, host Harry Smith told Kucinich that Republicans had "basically called your bluff" in wanting to debate the impeachment of Cheney on the House floor.

"They didn't call my bluff," Kucinich shot back. "I was fully prepared for debate -- with a three-inch thick binder annotating the violations of law and the violations of the Constitution committed by the vice president which would justify an impeachment."

[...]

"Harry, you have to remember there are millions of Americans who are part of a national movement to defend the constitution," said Kucinich. "And they understand that the vice president made a false claim for war and is trying to beat the drums for a war against Iran and they're calling for action to be done."

Impeachment, said Kucinich, was a move on his part safeguard the Constitution.

"It's really abut the American people and their insistence that their government not be lost," he continued. "People are worried that we're losing democracy, and they're demanding that the Constitution be protected. And that's exactly what yesterday was about."

That's some serious ass-kickin' right there. The ass in question being Harry Smith of CBS' Early Show. Raw Story has the video.

These mavens of the media who sneer and deride and act like only they have the right to pick the next president - they need to go. We don't need to hear their claptrap. We can - and will - make up our own damn minds.

While they pounded into our head that we could and should all drink a beer with Bush, and Al Gore was a boring wonk, many people listened - and now, our children's, grandchildren's, our world's future looks pretty bleak, after seven years of corruption, nepotism, partisanship, and looting the Treasury. That's what happened the last time we listened to you jerks.

Let the people decide!

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