On Nov. 7, 2007, author Naomi Wolf was in Baltimore, Maryland, to discuss her latest book, “The End of America: Letter of Warning to a Young Patriot.” One of the topics that came up during her remarks was the Constitutional issue of the impeachment of both President George W. Bush and V. P. Dick Cheney by the U.S. Congress. The event was held at the Bolton Street Synagogue and was sponsored by Breathe Books, located in the Hamden area of Baltimore.
see
Talk by Naomi Wolf – The End of America (video) (must-see)
America’s Road to Tyranny By Vincent L. Guarisco
A “Paper Coup,” and Blackwater Eyes Midtown Manhattan By Naomi Wolf
Pingback: Did Democrat leadership bury Cheney impeachment? (video) | Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Stop Making the Bed by Roxanne R. Amico (+ audio link; Impeachment) « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Interview: Naomi Wolf: The End of America (video) « Dandelion Salad
I wrote this poem more than twenty years ago, and it reverberates my sentiments now as vibrantly, as then.
VATI, VATI.
AS MIGHTY ROME FELL, AMERICA COULD DIE.
WHETHER IT FAILS OR NOT, IS UP TO YOU AND I.
I worried and stewed, but by—and—by,
came up with a plan, where you and I,
can put America the a road, to a brand—new high.
Just blame the politicians, get blood in your eye,
and Vote Against The Incumbents. Vati, vati.
Now just voting won’t do it, we’ve got to vati.
That’s v, a, t, i, with a long A, and long I.
Vote against the incumbents, and you vati.
Things will never get better, until we vati.
Vote against the incumbents, Vati, vati.
This is no time, to just set and sigh.
America will fail, without you and I.
The time has come, we must do or die.
We must all vote, and we must vati.
Vote against the incumbents, Vati, vati.
Things won’t just get better, by—and—by.
Unless the apathetic voters, you and I,
hit those poles with blood in our eye.
And not only vote, but wisely vati,
Vote against the incumbent. Vati, vati.
We dare not buy, some political lie,
the America we love, is about to die.
Politicians no longer, serve you and I,
but all acquiesce to the powers that buy.
Vote against the incumbents. Vati, vati.
The newly elected may want to serve you and I,
until that powerful pac—money catches their eye.
Then party loyalty becomes, their big lie.
As they vote with the pac, for their piece of the pie.
Vote against the incumbents, Vati, vati.
Congressmen and Senators, are nigh as apt to die,
as meet defeat at the poles, by you and I.
They know we’ll vote for’em, they don’t have to try.
America is declining, as democracy goes awry.
Vote against the incumbent. Vati, vati.
Waxing fat on the apathy, shown by you and I,
Politicians became hogs, and Washington’s a sty.
But we can change all that, in the blink of an eye,
if we just get off our apathy, and dutifully vati.
Vote against the incumbents. Vati, vati.
If just one out of twenty, of us would vati,
We’d get nigh a forth of that Washington sty.
Now that might be to few, to help you and I,
But we’d darn sure make the rest of them shy.
Vote against the incumbents. Vati, vati.
And when; “Foul, foul,” the politicians cry.
And charge that; “Great careers will sadly die.”
Stand up and look them, straight in the eye,
And vow; “Losing only makes the truly-great try.”
Vote against the incumbents. Vati, vati.
From the County Coroner, to that Washington sty,
if you don’t love the incumbent, always vati.
Help turn America toward, a brand—new high.
Teach your kids and your friends, they must vati.
Vote against the incumbents. Vati, vati.
If the state of America, makes you want to cry,
then help start a revolution, no one has to die.
Our party loyalty sent elections go so far awry.
And we can fix that error, just revolt and vati.
Vote against the incumbents. Vati, vati.
Part your 2nd and 3rd fingers; that “V” means vati.
Send this to a friend, who you think will comply.
Let’s all band together, and give’em a black eye.
Vati, vati, and hearty bye-bye.
If you like this, copy it, and send it on.
Grandpa Nate @ Rawlins, Wyoming.
Http//voteagainsttheincumbents.blogspot.com/
Want to save America? There is only one way.
Vati Vati
Vati = Vote Against The Incumbents.
[That’s V-A-T-I, with a long A and a long I.]
The present state of America makes me sick. It actually makes me nauseous to ponder how far this once magnificent country has slipped into mediocrity. When I was a young man, fifty years ago, you could mention just about anything: And America was best at that. Back then, America enjoyed the best health care, the best schools, and the best working conditions on Earth, while we worked fewer hours, made more money, and enjoyed a life style never before seen upon this planet.
Our coal mines were producing more coal, our steel-mills smelting more iron, and our assembly-lines led the World in the manufacture of beautiful automobiles, refrigerators, wash-machines, dryers, and the hoard of smaller appliances and gadgets (which eliminated most of the drudgery of our daily chores) and introduced mankind to the life-of-ease, we all now enjoy. Now, American High School Graduates rank only average (whether tested in Mathematics, World History, Language, Science or any other critical field of expertise) and compared with the student’s test scores, from the other industrialized nations.
Our so-called health care system stinks, it is without question, the most dysfunctional conglomeration of nonsensical laws bureaucrats have ever assembled. It assures illegal aliens and greedy politicians unlimited free health care, while it renders millions of hard working honest citizens incapable of obtaining any kind of health insurance. The new Social Security Drug Plan deducts a premium for drug insurance, which you can bet will double every year (for at least the next two years) from the social security checks, of subscribers. A great many drugs are not covered by this new plan, and it only pays a maximum of about 70% on any drug, a lot less on most. When the total drug bill (what the retiree and the government pays) reaches $2250.00, Grandma gets cut off, has to pay it all herself, until her total drug bill reaches $3500.00. Obviously if Grandma can not afford her drugs, her bill will never get to $3500.00, so she will go without her drugs for the rest of the year. Of course the monthly premium will still be deducted from her Social Security Check. The drug companies formulated this drug bill, got it enacted, and only the drug companies are going to benefit from it. (Our government gives them the premiums.) In short, this Shaft Our Grandparents Bill is nothing but a multi-million dollar windfall for the drug companies.
The above bill is sure not the worst medical bill our elected officials have ever enacted. It just happens to be the last that made me angry. Hundreds of anti consumer bills and amendments are on the books, which benefit only the medical and/or the drug industries. Foreign competition to American Drug Companies is nonexistent. If it was legitimatized, we could import drugs from reputable foreign drug facilities, for as little as 10% of the extortion we now forced to pay our American Drug Companies. Sad to say, but the Medical Cartels and Drug Companies, with their unchallenged power, are not the worst villains when it comes to manipulating our US Government [or our state governments] into giving them a license to gouge us.
The international oil and gas conglomerates, the interstate utility companies, railroad companies, automobile and airplane manufacturers, the cable companies, international shipping cartels and a score of other business concerns all wield as much or more power over our Congress, Senate and President, than the drug companies do. Big Business is our real enemy. Big Business controls our government, and Big Business is the real reason America is losing ground on all fronts, the reason America is steadily slipping into mediocrity.
The companies mentioned above, along with a score of Countries and a hoard of other mighty financial cartels, funnel billions of dollars, pac-money, annually into Washington, to influence the Republican and Democratic Party Leaders (Lords) to legislate on their behalf. The leaders of the Democratic and Republican Parties, the Party Lords, in the Congress and Senate, now have more control over their subservient Congressman and Senators, than any Marine General ever had over his troops. The political parties control the pac-money. And the pac-money is what decides who will get elected, or heaven forbid, smeared.
These political Lords can’t just walk down on the floor and tell a congressman or senator that they are fired. But they can have anyone that fails to kowtow to the powers that be, ostracized, rendered powerless, and they can definitely keep anyone from being re-elected. It is very important that we all understand that these Party Lords have strict control over our congressmen and senators. And folks that’s not Democracy, that’s Bureaucracy.
And if we are going to declare war against our greedy bureaucracy, prudence behooves us to learn all we can about our enemy. Now, I just pulled what I have written here off the top of my head. So if you find a mistake, don’t get excited, it is not that important, the overall theme of this opinion is correct. And furthermore it is also correct that with a minimum of research, anyone can ascertain for themselves that this greatest of all nations, is rapidly slipping into mediocrity. And even the United States of America, the greatest nation that ever existed, can fall from within, if we continue to allow misguided politicians the right, to barter away piece after piece of good government, to anyone who is able and willing to pay for preferential treatment.
I have been telling people for years; when in doubt always Vati. But only in this last year has the urge to really push this concept become obligatory. Actually, Voting Against The Incumbents, is a very viable method of straightening out what is wrong with America. Many congressmen and senators win their seats by very small margins, less than 5%. So, if just 5% of the electorate would vati, we would probably get between 20 and 25% of the Congress and Senators. And you can bet we would get their attention.
If as many people vatied, as voted for Ross Perot (he got 18.9% of the popular vote) we would unseat half of both houses. Folks this is a plan that definitely has possibilities. Politicians’ egos are all wrapped up in their positions. Actually the only thing in the World Politicians love more than pac-money, is their influential positions, their jobs. And on the very day our legislators learn that their electorate is actually going to vote them out of office, they are going to be magically stricken with a burning desire to legislate on behave of their constituency.
The only question left is, where are you going to place your loyalty, to the political party that you have been blindly supporting – or to America? You can’t serve two masters, and be loyal to both. We have to take the power away from the political Lords, to the extent that it allows our elected representatives to vote the way we tell them to vote. Or in thirty years you are not going to be able to tell the difference between Washington and the corrupt Government of Mexico, or for that matter, tell the difference between America and Mexico.
Grandpa Nate @ Rawlins, Wyoming.
See more @: http://voteagainsttheincumbents.blogspot.com/
Pingback: Naomi Wolf: I Have a Lot of Respect for Ron Paul! (video) « Dandelion Salad
Pingback: Why Did Ron Paul Vote Against Impeachment? By Manila Ryce « Dandelion Salad
I really, really, really hope I’m completely wrong, but… here’s what I see happening about a week to a month from now: We who favor justice — even for rich people who hold positions of power on behalf of working people who don’t — are going to be mad as hell. Maybe even at Dennis Kucinich, the person who’ll most deserve it.
We’ll be complaining about the specifics of his impeachment bill. We’ll be saying it’s too long on the lies Cheney and many others told about weapons in Iraq, and not only too short but flat-out silent on the crimes of 9/11. (Conspicuously so, as we’ll soon realize.)
I’m guessing volumes of past history have already assured 164 republicans and several democrats that the lies Cheney told about who did and didn’t have bombs and bullets in 2002 will never go down in future history books as impeachable offenses.
What we might be about to discover is that because of Kucnich’s HR333, the most criminal treason, the most sickening betrayal, the most egregious lies about America’s most unthinkable crimes will never be addressed at all.
Never.
Culpability will be attributed to other/s who may never be impeached or prosecuted. Those with the power to pursue justice will, as before, as now, get on with cowarding away from what matters like solid-steel locomotives blasting down an iron rail.
Any debate that might take place will be about unforgivable, but not the most unforgivable, crimes. It will either fade away or drag on until after November, 2008, when, even in the extremely unlikely event it leads to impeachment or any kind of conviction, the crimes listed in HR333 will be pardoned.
The monsters of 9/11 will go free. They’ll collect even more gifts of wealth than they’ve already received, and without hesitation. They’ll accept praise and adulation as if they earned it.
It looks to me like we’ve already been had. Again, crimes that Cheney and Co. were for years determined to commit still, in spite of the long-winded legislation of even the most promising/promise-spouting politicians, in spite of mountains of evidence, in spite of water-tight reasoning, haven’t even been acknowledged as crimes America’s leaders and defenders might be responsible for. Even if Kucinich’s carefully selected list of lies miraculously lead to the VP’s removal from office, the pandora’s box of every 9/11 criminal’s acts of prosecutable conspiracy, treason, murder, arson, and sadly-so-on, is destined to be nailed shut forever.
Because of Dennis Kucinich’s hard work.
HR333 frames the wrong debate, launches the wrong battle, prevents any hope of fighting the right one, and has us all cheering about it. And the sorry useless yakking that just might be about to go down (and down and down and down) in the judiciary committee about what matters nowhere near as much is likely to lead to a whole bunch of people cheering even more about a whole bunch of wrong things: Cheney’s innocence (based on an inevitable he’s-not-guilty conclusion or executive pardon), republicans’ righteousness, Kucinich’s you-see-we-told-you-so unsupportable accusations, and, to my mind worst of all, the lack of credibility of those who favor justice — for rich people who occupy positions of power, on behalf of working people who don’t. For the crimes of 9/11.
I really do hope I’ve got this all wrong. But if not, I’m afraid we’ll soon be thinking Kucinich, by casting a losing argument about off-target issues, was incredibly shrewd in a frighteningly unconscionable way. I fear the guy is going to prove to be the most heroic hero Cheney and Gang could ever pray for.