How many people here have had a face-to-face conversation with thier elected representative? If someone doesn't respond to your e-mail then the next step is to take your well formulated concerns directly to the decision makers. You can and it is not that hard. You have to call for an appointment and write a letter that explains why you want to talk with the representative. As a stakeholder in decisions that never see your face, someone else is talking the time to put forth thier agenda. This is how you have accountability. If everyone did this it would make a difference.

PROVE to me that the current administration is not somehow complicit with the goals of Al Qaida!! If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's either a duck, or a clever disguise.

just saying that this administration isn't somehow connected with Al-Qaida just doesn't convince me. Are you somehow privvy to information that the rest of America doesn't have? Bush seems to be invading the privacy of regular americans, the question is, "who's watching them?"

unless you can tap his phones and/or interrogate him without counsel, he will never ADMIT he's an Al Qaida member.

Just saying Bush isn't a member of Al-Qaida proves absolutely nothing!

This may be the document I need to convince my ex to let me take our daughter out of the country. I'm afraid all right. If I get out I promise to fight it from the outside.

Marikken:

Go to the link below from the whitehouse and you can find all of the executive orders. Read them and BE AFRAID, THEN GET ANGRY!!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/orders/

"This week Bush also gave himself the power to seize the assets of anyone he claims to suspect of assisting - even unwittingly - someone who might commit a violent act or threaten the "peace and stability" of Iraq."

Can anyone tell me where this is from? When I did a search for Executive Order, I only see the "Blocking Property of Persons Undermining the Sovereignty of Lebanon or its Democratic Processes and Institutions." That's bad enough, and can be widely interpreted in the interest of the regime against the American people, but where is the above Iraq statement from?

Curmudgeon99 you are absolutely right. We no longer have a democracy. Until the people realize this, we will be lulled asleep by the news media, scared by our politicians and culled by our employers. Vive la protest!

I was mad enough in 1998 when these idiots impeached Bill Clinton for a blow job. I guess that sort of sexual indecency is good enough for Ken Starr to place online for kids to read - then they can be shipped off to Iraq in 2003 - while we talk about leaving no child behind.

"This week Bush also gave himself the power to seize the assets of anyone he claims to suspect of assisting - even unwittingly - someone who might commit a violent act or threaten the "peace and stability" of Iraq."

I see now, invading the country didn't threaten the peace and stability of Iraq - I did by calling the President and his ENTIRE Cabinet, WAR CRIMINALS and FELONS, TRAITORS to the US Constitution and its citizens.

If something is not done soon, everyone posting here may need to go underground. Food does not come from the grocery store folks. Plan ahead and mark my word there will be no election in 2008 unless something is done now. But hey, its a good thing COngress got to go on vacation - they'll be back to vote for their next raise in September.

Any comment section with the words "secret black operatives" in it simply MUST be taken seriously.

I recall bin Laden's right hand man state that the intent was to bring the US empire down by draining wealth, eliminating freedoms and ultimately carving up the US territory into smaller states. Two out of three thus far. Looks like the terrorists are winning.

Now, look at this:

"Have we had enough, are we mad enough, scared enough, or hurt enough, to lift a hand against the crimes and abuses of the Bush administration? Have we had enough, are we mad enough, scared enough, or hurt enough to risk a fine for putting up "Impeach Bush" signs - as a young Kentite did this week - (http://www.recordpub.com/news/article/2346262), to be arrested for sitting-in at a legislator's office, to raise our hands in support of school levies and new taxes to repair our bridges, to extend healing hands to everyone - at least to all children?

Are we mad enough, scared enough, or hurt enough now to tell our national political parties and candidates that we won't hand out any campaign contributions until impeachment of Bush and Cheney is back on the table and moving forward?"

Yet, when one among us stands up and sounds tha alarm, others, and most notably, those among us who claim to share our perception, shut down the likes of Cindy Sheehan for doing exactly that, calling her an egotistical whiner or an attention whore.

Have you noticed this disparity between continuing frustrated outrage with the Democrats followed by the predictable rationalizations and excuses after every betrayal, the demands to "do something" instead of just sitting at a computer--and then when someone does do something--and break through the fog of deception -- from Nader--to Cindy to Kucinich they are dragged down as not credible.
Do you see this disconnect where people have internalized the slick exterior presentation as the electible option as the default position--which serves to undermine any efforts to actually do anything--because they ultimately continue to support those who are complicit as the only viable choice.

The heirarchy:

Opposition to Bush administration and Republicans

Opposition to complicit Democrats supporting neoCon agenda

Opposition to those who blindly support status quo due to partisan D-party allegiance and seek to discredit those who challenge it.

A historian once commented on the banality of evil. It was a way of saying that evil men do not actually have noticeable horns and a pointy tail. They are only men who manipulate the system (which has the power) and people's understanding of the events (which allows these men to exercise that power).
The intense emotions of some project reasons and motivations (those horns and a tail metaphorically) and then see these as 'proof' of intricate conspiracies. Bush didn't plan 9/11 but yes he has exploited its occurance to attack our constitutional freedoms. Think banal. With bush/cheney, it is far more likely that is the reality than believing in a machevellian forethought and a byzantine complexity of planning which doesn't sound like this administration now does it. Think greedy, cynically corrupt, anticonstitution, fascistic and all the rest but don't see a conspiracy before events which then makes it appear that it caused the events to happen. Think banality. It is far more likely to be the truth. However do not underestimate the power of banality to do evil. That was the historian's point to begin with. Incompetency, greed and corruption. Impeach cheney... we need to stop what bush is doing. Impeaching bush seems like an afterthought. Impeach cheney... bush isn't allowed to play president by himself. Peace is antibanality.

Until the US populace gets the courage to take to the streets and follow the example of Gandhi's non-violent marches and demonstrations nothing will change. The people have got to WANT the Constitution restored enough to ACT accordingly. If there is no such desire, there will will be no more US Constitution (except in name only).

What a shame to let cowardice bring down such a noble experiment of human governance!!

"Today's world is traveling in some strange direction. You see that the world is going toward destruction and violence. And the specialty of violence is to create hatred among people and to create fear. I am a believer in nonviolence and I say that no peace or tranquility will descend upon the people of the world until nonviolence is practiced, because nonviolence is love and it stirs courage in people." – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan to an interviewer in 1985

"To me nonviolence has come to represent a panacea for all the evils that surround my people. Therefore I am devoting all my energies toward the establishment of a society that would be based on its principles of truth and peace." – Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan

Things will change only when the populace is alienated and hopeless.
Then they may :
STAND UP - for what they beleive to be right.
SIT DOWN - in the nearest street to bring transportaion, retail, everything to a standstill.
FIGHT - I hope like Gandhi's Pathan friend Badshar Khan(Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan) (check him out)a Pashtun nonviolent Muslim
FIGHT - Even if it means sacrifice to themselves to totally repudiate the oligarchy
FIGHT - As if their lives depend on active resistance - which they do

When people realize that they cannot ignore the actions of the government and relaize they themselves are the governmet, only then is change possible..

Allow me to quote another blogger of my vintage - estebandito:
(I hope he does not mind)

'As an old hippy draft-dodger,who has been out in the streets se'veral hours a week behind my Iraq anti-war signs demanding an end to the madness since this insanity began (how many years now?), I gotta report: very few people of any age give a good goddam. Oh yeah, we "protestors" get a free coffee now an then and lots of happy honking as the cars go by, but the truth is very sad. Old radicals tell me they are afraid of losing their subsidized rents!! " FBI lists! Got no time for it…"

Practically no one can remember that the way a people get new governments and new directions is ancient and simple: you stop up the streets and you go to jail for misdemeanors and then you go back and do it again. respectfully and peacefully. The fact that this is so self evident yet almost completely ignored tells me that our population of united statesians has largely ceased to function as truly caring, conscience-filled people. Reasons are many……but we are losing hope, and we deserve whatever happens to us now. This is not nice talk in front of the children, or at parties.

Nevertheless, I will continue to sally out and attempt to show folks the facts as well as try and get them to laugh at our predicament ( i usually dress as a clown 'cause clowns have more fun…..it seems like the compassionaste thing to do.'

why spend a thousand dollars to attack us, when we spend millions a day to guard against it regardless of whether it ever comes... visionaries see such traps and work toward a world where those that lay them are marginalized... sigh

"That's a quite competent analysis - of what a few Saudi zealots with box knives accomplished on 9/11. It rests, of course, on several unproven assumptions: that Al-Qaeda today is the same group that attacked us six years ago, that Al-Qaeda is the only group that is willing and/or able to imagine or carry out such an agenda, and that its leaders are planning to do the same thing again."

Al-Qaeda IS the same today as it was six years ago because the prominent Al-Qaeda secret black operatives are still in high positions within the u.s. govt.

AL-Qaeda IS the only group willing and/or able to imagine or carry out the agenda because it could not be done by regualar people. their positions in prominent public office give them the ability to destroy america.

And it would be safe to say that Al-Qaeda IS planning on another attack because there is no power on earth that can stop them at the moment. GOD HELP AMERICA!!!

Anybody who hasn't had enough isn't paying attention. Is it time to start locking the gates of gated communities with the swells inside--before anybody who gives a shit finds themselves in one of THEIR camps?

Oh, what price globalization--or is it empirization.

They don't make wheelchairs with gattling guns yet. Maybe they will when robots are used for footsoldiers. Then they can slaughter humanity from just a little room with a "joy" stick like they do air drones. Then the merchants of death won't even have to get dirty or spill their coffee.

Is this off topic?

Well, I agree with Ms. Arnold's conclusion - Dubya, The Evil One and all of their cohorts should be impeached, convicted and thrown in jail - I doubt it will happen. The Democrats are part of the problem - they are not working for the American People - they're only interested in maintaining or improving their own cushy lives: stay in office as long as possible and keep the corporate money rolling in. Plus I imagine a few of them are being blackmailed by the neo-con cabal, so I don't think enough of them have the ________ (balls, guts, nerve, integrity, etc.) to pursue impeachment.

Ms. Arnold is a little confused about underlying facts for her essay: a)the American government has been supporting Bin Laden for decades - providing arms, money, protection etc. (just like we've done for Saddam, the Shah, and numerous other megalomaniac creeps around the world); b) she needs to carefully read the Project for a New American Century (PNAC) docs. written by Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Cheney, J. Bush, Perle, Kristol, et al, who were just looking for an excuse to invade the mid-east to grab the oil and establish the new era of American " the one and only superpower" imperialism; c) after that, you will understand that the murders on 9/11 were in fact the neo-cons' "New Pearl Harbor", the way to get Americans scared and riled up so they would support "the endless war" needed to ensure the future of their "military-industrial complex" (you know, the one Eisenhower warned would be the downfall of our nation?!).

I seriously doubt if Bin Laden or al quaeda was really involved in 9/11- this will probably be proven sometime several decades from now, just like the first Pearl Harbor, or the Gulf of Tonkin attack. All of this stuff has been fabricated to scare and distract the American public while the neo-con, corporate-elitist, fascist group of folks running our country (and maybe the world) destroy our Constitution, our way of life, and eventually, even our lives. This is why we need to impeach these bastards, and why we need to change the whole way the government, of, by and for the People is being run ASAP.

Does seizure of assets pertain to all terrorists?
If that is the case then Bush/Cheney will have to figure out what to do with their own assets when they seize them.
No worse terrorists can be found anywhere.

What broke up the soviet union was cheap saudi oil. Until the early 70's (when US production hit it's peak and started to decline), the US and USSR were the largest oil exporters on earth. In the mid 80's we convinced the Saudis to open the tap wide open and flood the market driving oil prices down. Saudi oil is light and in very porous ground. That makes it cheap to produce compared to Russian oil. Most of it is also low-sulfur which makes it worth more because refining costs are lower. The oil price was driven down so low that the Russian oil business couldn't make enough money and their economy collapsed as a result.

"But you would just impeach and the Senate would never convict, because the Democrats have 51 votes and not the 67 required. Then you would have people saying the the Democrats wasted the time of the Congress with political stunts."

There are indeed not the votes to convict however the impeachment is NOT wasted time. If we don't defend our constitution at a time like this then we ought not to have government at all.

There is this fatalistic tone in America that if YOUR vote is not on the winning side, then your vote is wasted and that is simply silly. If everyone voted for what they BELIEVED then even if we don't win, we are living up to Democracy.

"Anybody remember a logical reason for WWI ? The ONLY reason was the invention of a plane with guns on it."

That is SOOooooo wrong. WWI was caused by a web of treaties that were erroniously intended to preserve a balance of power on the European continent from the Treaty of Vienna (1815) on.

If you want to place the blame on any one thing at all, it would be the weakness of the Austro-Hungarian Empire that forced it to attack Serbia and at the same time to call to the Germans for aid guaranteed by treaty if the Russians attacked AH. Russia of course was bound by treaty to attack AH if AH attacked Serbia. Germany was bound to attack Russia if it attacked AH and France had a secret treaty to attack Germany if it attacked Russia. One archduke and voila! War.

England was on the edge of entering or not, but because of the buildup of the German High Seas Fleet considered Germany a bigger threat than France so entered the war against the Germans to preserve the balance of power and to guard their overseas empire from threat from the High Seas Fleet.

Airplane with guns was an afterthought for WWI, not a cause in any way.

Asking Congress to impeach Bush is like asking Bush to impeach himself. Yes the terrorists are winning. They are called neo-cons. Their enemies are called law abiding citizens. Frank1569 has the only solution.

Since the only thing of value and thus of strategfic importance to these morons is money, we must fight with the same tactics.

Make no mistake, this is already a dictatorship. No more right to privacy, no more spending for public services (read bridges), no more habeus corpus, torture is the way to go, freezing assets of dissenters and those who help feed dissenters once their assets have been stolen. What more evidence do we need to see that it has already taken place? Soon US concentration camps will begin to fill, making the millions already in prison for victimless crimes pale in comparison.

Every dime we earn as American workers is being accumulated by the very people who have hijacked this country. They are using our basic needs as leverage and our labor as weapons to control more and more of the population.

Conventional American methods have become ineffectual because the elite class has completely infiltrated the system. The media is a part of this war on the non-wealthy. They do not look the other way or just report the news badly. They are complicit. The Banking and insurance industries, the pharmacuetical and energy providers, all have amassed fortunes as a result of political favors and as such have entrenched themselves with the enemy of state.

Stop funding it!

Reagan's supporters believed that he hung the moon and the stars. They still do.

Fact is, the USSR collapsed of its own weight (and guess which superpower is next). Reagan did more to advance the collapse of the US (coming soon to a bridge near you) than that of the USSR, and Bush I & Bush II merely carried the torch ol' Ronnie lit.

In France, the government fears the people. In the U.S., the people fear the government. That's why things don't change.

Screw the Democrats, they want us to be afraid every bit as much as the Republicans. They're both corporate parties! It is up to us, and only us. If we fail to screw up our courage and take some risks, we are history...and should be.

Time to revise my W-4 form.

As long as our congress believes that re-election is their main goal, we'll get what we've got...cowards. Bush and company know that and use it very effectively. Congress gets what it deserves as long as we stick to our guns in the next elections. I say, "Throw the bums out!" Let them learn that money isn't their ONLY concern!

Trouble is, the elections can be tampered with, so our voices are muffled or silenced. It's taxation without representation all over again!

ezflyer,

Perhaps they prefer to survive as a "loyal opposition" under a Bush/Cheney dictatorship! What happened to those Germans who loyally and legally opposed Hitler? They ended their lives in his concentration camps like millions of others. "Those who refuse to remember the mistakes of the past are condemned to repeat them."? Who said that?

ezeflyer,

According to an MSM article, the Dems fear their constituents would see impeachment as a "political vendetta."

I think you could impeach in the House, because I believe that takes just a simple majority, if you could get it out of committee and on the floor for a vote.

But you would just impeach and the Senate would never convict, because the Democrats have 51 votes and not the 67 required. Then you would have people saying the the Democrats wasted the time of the Congress with political stunts.

The Repugs never said that they were wasting Congresses
time when Henry Hyde and his henchmen impeached Clinton, knowing full well the Senate would never convict.

But the Repugs have ALWAYS been a hypocritical bunch in that it is perfectly OK if they do it, but when the opposition is doing exactly the same thing they are wasting time, tax payers dollars or being unpatriotic. Those same Repugs never saw the contradiction in that behavior and were never challenged by the press on it either.

Is it fear for themselves and family that is keeping the Dems from impeaching? Is it money? Is it the polls? Have they decided that the fascists are too strong to go against?

If Congress refuses to begin impeachment proceedings then we the people should. If Congress refuses to fulfill its constitutional duty to impeach Bush and Cheney, then we the people MUST. We should give Congress one more chance to do their duty, and if they refuse, then we should establish a peoples' tribunal to impeach.

"We need to tangle the feet of an administration..."

Welcome to the tangle party, pal. Here's some real ideas we can all employ for fun and monkeywrenching:

Stop paying your taxes. Stop buying anything you do not absolutely need. Target-boycott Exxon, Wal Mart, FOX advertisers, and all other loyalbushie enablers (like the NYT) and corporate economic terrorists. If you work for a Federal agency, QUIT, right now - the Loonitary Dictatorship is already suffering huge hiring gaps, because the pool of lying anti-Americans is running dry. Let's widen that gap until the system locks up. If you work for the MSM and still have a shred of integrity, quit. If you're "inside the corridors," gov, corp, etc - start leaking your ass off.

And drop your Dem registration today.

sjc_1,

Perhaps while Putin crowns himself Czar Vladimir, Bush will crown himslf King George.

"His supporters believed that Ronald Reagan planned to hasten the collapse of the Soviet Union by goading it to invest in military technology to circumvent our "Star Wars" missile interception system..."

Star Wars was a $10 billion dollar per year bluff that lasted WAY too long. Gorbachev wanted to talk real policy and senile Reagan kept coming back to talking about Star Wars. That is what stalled the talks between the two countries.

The Soviet Union was about to collapse under its own weight and rust. It is Reagan and Bush as VP that convinced the intelligence community to slant the intelligence to make it look other wise. Sounds familiar, I guess the leaf does not fall far from the tree.

Mass Impeach-acution!

Impeach Dick first!

Ms. Arnold, the only thing you are doing is entangling the feet of the American Left so they won't support impeachment, which is the only legal means of stopping the Cheney/Bush agenda for fascism and war.

Until the electorate admits it has no control over elcted officials and takes to the streets in a Gandhi-like demonstration, nothing will change.

I've already cut 'em off at the bills.

Watch Bill Moyers this week, he is having another session on impeachment. However, expecting Congress to do anything is fruitless. Is there such a thing as a National Citizens Arrest? Why not? Sure would solve a lot of problems, but then you would need a honest judicial system and fair courts which we no longer have. Can a president pardon himself?

abbybwood,

Tom Paine's eloquent words apply today on how to stop the Cheney/Bush conspiracy, except the now the choice is 20 times more stark - impeachment or dictatorship.

happystead,

You hit the nail on the head. Many of us have posted our concerns for change by emailing our politicians, hoping that they would hear us. Clearly they do not (want to). And as long as people still purchase goods on their credit cards, drive gas-guzzling SUVs, and upgrade their homes, we have no hope for political change. I had this discussion with many friends and colleagues and we all came to the same conclusion: once consumers feel the economic pain, maybe then they will begin to get the hint. Until that happens, politically, do not expect things to get any better.

It was this kind of legislative stupidity, cowardice and venality that made Adolph Hitler the dictator of Germany and launched World War Two - WW3 here we come!!!!

I keep a copy of "Common Sense" in the bathroom hoping that my sons and guests will partake some wisdom from Thomas Paine.

Here's one little excerpt for you:

"These proceedings may at first appear strange and difficult; but like all other steps, which we have already passed over, will in a little time become familiar and agreeable; and, until an independence is declared, the continent will feel itself like a man who continues putting off some unpleasant business from day to day, yet knows it must be done, hates to set about it, wishes it over, and is continually haunted with the thoughts of its necessity."

Comments?

The "terrorists" are in our White House -- it is they who attacked Iraq in an "illegal" war of aggression.

As we presume that Bin Laden also closed down our Congress immediately after by floating Anthrax obtained from our military's supply at liberal legislators . . . so must we also presume that Bin Laden caused Bush to ignore worldwide and UN warnings about an attack on the US and then had his 17 box cutter wielding hijackers wire the WTC buildings for demolition --

Not likely --

Nothing but IMPEACHMENT will slow down these warmongers.

Too few people see the truth. Reagan's genius lay in the myth and the myth lives on.

The article above asked several times if we "had had enough." The answer is "no, we haven't."

As long as there's room on the average Americans credit card for a new car, a flat-screen television or fancy plumbing for the new bathroom the US government will be able to do WHATEVER it wants to the rest of the world, including, but not limited to, polluting, poisoning, bombing, imprisoning and murdering other populations that threaten Americas "borrowing power." Americans are slaves to luxury and that will be our downfall.

If it doesn't hurt Americans, they won't amputate.

May the revolution be as swift as it is peaceful.

What do you mean "even if we can't remove them from office"?
You contradict yourself. If they are NOT removed from office pretty damn quick this nation will become a dictatorship immediately after the next terrorist attack. Then WE will be the ones entangled! And you mis-diagnose Bush's intentions. The reason he sent Cheney to confer with Musharref was to destabilize his regime, and it worked. That Pakistani strongman is now threatened with overthrow by outraged citizens joining Islamic extremists who see him clearly as a U.S. puppet. Why would Cheney and Bush do that? Because they want a global confrontation with the "axis of evil" = World War Three, which inevitably involves nuclear weapons. Bush sees it as his Biblical "Armageddon". Is that a sane foriegn policy? Is Bush a sane President? NO! Yet, the Democrats are afraid to launch a drive to impeach him and Cheney, and you hem and haw and wax rhetorical verbiage about "entangling them".
YOU are entangled in doubletalk!

Yes, the terrorists, who ever they are, are winning. Let's be clear, winning and losing has to be defined in new terms. It is not taking and holding ground. It is not even winning the hearts and minds since America policy, ethnocentrism, and intolerance makes this an impossibility. It is getting your enemy (in this case the U.S.A) to capitulate on the very bedrock and foundation of its form of government- to sacrafice its liberties to rulers like the Germans did with Hitler. If you combine this with financial bankrupty then you have indeed won the philosophical and ideological war.

Get this: terrorist are fighting a different fight- success for them is self destruction of the fiber of their enemy. And, as pointed out in this article we have the right administration and mindset for them to succeed beyond their wildest expectations. Read the news, our armies are fighting the wrong war in the wrong way and in the wrong place.

And like Hitler, an AmeriKa spelled with at "k' will go down in chaos and complete self-destruction- we are too well armed and will be shooting each other if we continue on this MAD, idiotic path.

The bushes arm both sides of all modern atrocities. Anybody remember a logical reason for WWI ? The ONLY reason was the invention of a plane with guns on it. Evil shits like the bushes wanted to use this to shot and control the common folk. And that's all this shit is.
THE ANSWER-arrest bush for attacking the human race, take his money and give it for humanitarian repair, and put his ass in prison, ON TV 24-7 in a cell with Jeff Gannon. See how long they can sit there without holding a black mass on each other.
Yes, this IS how simple this shit is.