November 16, 2007
Day: November 16, 2007
Desiree Fairooz Unlawfully Arrested by Police in Senate (videos; CODEPINK)
After being released from her court ordered restriction barring her from Senate office buildings, CODEPINK activist Desiree Fairooz was unlawfully detained and arrested by Capitol Police as she was working hard to persuade Senators to stop funding Bush’s llegal occupation of Iraq.
CODEPINK Women Chat with Sen Feinstein in Halls of Congress
On Monday November 12th 2007, several women caught Senator Feinstein in the hallway of the Hart Senate office building and questioned her about her vote to confirm Michael Mukasey as the Attorney General of the United States of America.On Monday November 12th 2007, several women caught Senator Feinstein in the hallway of the Hart Senate office building and questioned her about her vote to confirm Michael Mukasey as the Attorney General of the United States of America.
Las Vegas Democratic Debate: CNN stacks the cards (video)
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The Democratic Presidential Debate In Las Vegas: Who Won? (Poll)
I go here often to vote, it tends to run rather conservatively but they take the votes and contact your Congressperson/Senators or whomever for you. ~ Lo
The Democratic Presidential Debate In Las Vegas: Who Won?
Update: Nov. 17, 2007 12:16 PM CT
Results:
| JOE BIDEN (352) |
(19%) |
|
| HILLARY CLINTON (190) |
(10%) |
|
| CHRIS DODD (106) |
(6%) |
|
| JOHN EDWARDS (124) |
(7%) |
|
| DENNIS KUCINICH (459) |
(25%) |
|
| BARACK OBAMA (350) |
(19%) |
|
| BILL RICHARDSON (274) |
(15%) |
see
Daily Kos poll on the Las Vegas Democratic Candidates debate
Nevada Dem Presidential Candidates’ Debate 11-15-07 (videos)
Dennis Kucinich’s replies @ 11-15-07 Dem. debate (video)
Dennis Kucinich Demands Impeachment Now! During Debate (video + poll)
Serj Tankian: Alternative Rock’s Political Poet By Gary Moskowitz (Kucinich)
Interviewed By Gary Moskowitz
Mother Jones
November 9, 2007
System of a Down singer Serj Tankian talks about going solo, his Armenian Genocide activism, Dennis Kucinich, and the decline of Western civilization.
While relaxing backstage an hour before a recent performance in San Francisco, Serj Tankian had some unexpected visitors. Representatives from Mayor Gavin Newsom’s office arrived with a proclamation in hand, declaring October 28, 2007 “Serj Tankian Day” in the city by the bay.
A big, yet slightly humble smile washed over Tankian’s face. After fronting the Grammy Award-winning, Los Angeles-based alternative rock band System of a Down for more than 10 years, he’s now touring to support Elect the Dead, his first solo effort. But Newsom’s proclamation wasn’t for Tankian’s music; it was in recognition of the messages behind it. On and off stage, he is helping to lead the fight for recognition of the Armenian Genocide through his lyrics and the political activism of Axis of Justice, a group he co-founded with Rage Against the Machine guitarist Tom Morello.
In performance, Tankian, the 40-year-old Beirut-born grandson of Armenian Genocide survivors, appears as a sort of traveling carnival ringleader; he sports a top hat, a long goatee, and a constant wide-eyed grin on his face, and surrounds himself with guitars, keyboards, microphones and even a theremin. In conversation, he has a relaxed, Zen-like demeanor and an insatiable desire to talk about history and politicians’ efforts to re-write it. Catching him just before his tour of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, Mother Jones spoke with Tankian about going solo, his activism, Dennis Kucinich, and the decline of Western civilization.
…MJ: How do you see things going in 2008? Do you any of the issues you’re talking about will come to the surface more and guide how people will vote?
ST: A presidential election, nor a candidate, is no magic bullet. I think the only way is for us to be aware of what’s going on as a populace. I think we should get rid of the electorate. I think it’s a useless, outdated system that allows someone to manipulate or reverse majority rule, or popular vote. I think every major candidate should be given equal TV airtime. Right now people vote for who they think might win, not who they think really represents them. Let’s make it about the issues again. Even if it’s Dennis Kucinich, who is my favorite candidate, to be honest, because the only one that didn’t vote for the war, because he was smart enough to know it was bullshit. But even if he became president, we’re so far gone as a civilization. It will be really difficult to bring the reins back.
…
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Dennis Kucinich Demands Impeachment Now! During Debate (video + poll)
Senator: U.S. has become haven for war criminals By Renee Schoof
Dandelion Salad
By Renee Schoof
ICH
McClatchy Newspapers
11/16/07 “McClatchy”
WASHINGTON — More than 1,000 people from 85 countries who are accused of such crimes as rape, killings, torture and genocide are living in the United States, according to Department of Homeland Security figures.
America has become a haven for the world’s war criminals because it lacks the laws needed to prosecute them, Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., said Wednesday. There’s been only one U.S. indictment of someone suspected of a serious human-rights abuse. Durbin said torture was the only serious human-rights violation that was a crime under American law when committed outside the United States by a non-American national.
“This is unacceptable. Our laws must change and our determination to end this shameful situation must become a priority,” Durbin, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Human Rights and the Law, said at a hearing of the subcommittee Wednesday.
He’s trying to get more information about specific cases.
One is that of Juan Romagoza Arce, the director of a clinic that provides free care for the poor in Washington. In 1980, Romagoza was a young doctor caring for the poor in El Salvador during the early period of his country’s civil war when the military seized him and tortured him for 22 days. An estimated 75,000 people died in the 12-year war.
Romagoza told Durbin that he was given electric shocks until he lost consciousness, then kicked and burned with cigarettes until he came to. He also told of being sodomized, nearly asphyxiated in a hood containing calcium oxide — which can cause severe shortness of breath when inhaled — and subjected to waterboarding, including being hung by his feet with his head immersed in water until he nearly drowned.
Romagoza and two other torture victims brought a civil suit in U.S. federal court in West Palm Beach, Fla., against two Salvadoran generals who moved to Florida in 1989: Jose Guillermo Garcia, who was the minister of defense, and Carlos Eugenio Vides Casanova, who was the director general of the Salvadoran National Guard.
In 2002, a jury found them liable for the torture of the three, and a judgment of $54.6 million was entered against them and upheld on appeal.
Romagoza said he didn’t expect to see any of the money.
He testified that he’d received many threatening phone calls and letters at the time of the trial but that he’d overcome his fears and testified.
“I felt like I was in the prow of a boat and that there were many people rowing behind that were moving me into this moment,” he told Durbin’s panel. “I felt that if I looked back at them I’d weep, because I’d see them again, wounded, tortured, raped, naked, torn and bleeding. So I didn’t look back, but I felt their support, their strength and their energy.”
He said he and others were angry and frustrated that the two men “live in the same country where we have found refuge from their persecution.”
Durbin said he’d send a letter asking the U.S. attorney in South Florida what was being done in the case.
“If he says he doesn’t have authority, we should change the law. If he has the authority and is not using it, we should change the U.S. attorney,” Durbin said.
Durbin and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., have introduced legislation that would authorize the government to prosecute anyone found in the U.S. who’s guilty of genocide, human trafficking or recruiting child soldiers.
David Scheffer is a Northwestern University law professor who was the ambassador at large for war-crimes issues during the Clinton administration. He testified that after the experience of war-crimes tribunals after World War II and international tribunals prosecuting many atrocities over the past 15 years, “one would be forgiven to assume that surely in the United States the law is now well established to enable U.S. courts — criminal and military — to investigate and prosecute the full range of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. . . .
“That, however, is not the case.”
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF NOV. 14
The date of Wednesday’s hearing is significant in the history of war crimes, Justice Department official Sigal P. Mandelker told the subcommittee:
On Nov. 14, 1935, the Third Reich issued regulations that deprived Germany’s Jews of their citizenship and established a system to classify people as Jews based on their ancestry and affiliations.
On Nov. 14, 1945, the International Military Tribunal convened in Nuremberg, Germany, to try Nazi leaders.
On Nov. 14, 1995, the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia issued its first indictments on genocide charges over the massacres of as many as 8,000 Bosnian Muslims at Srebrenica. Two of the leaders indicted, Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic, remain fugitives.
McClatchy Newspapers
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Shouting at the Devil: “F*ck You, Capitalism!” By Jason Miller
By Jason Miller
Thomas Paine’s Corner
10/29/07
“America touts itself as the land of the free, but the number one freedom that you and I have is the freedom to enter into a subservient role in the workplace. Once you exercise this freedom you’ve lost all control over what you do, what is produced, and how it is produced. And in the end, the product doesn’t belong to you. The only way you can avoid bosses and jobs is if you don’t care about making a living. Which leads to the second freedom: the freedom to starve.”
–Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine
Does my profanity offend? If so, accept my sincere apologies for having the audacity to use a vulgar expletive in reference to the malignant force that is raping the Earth and murdering its sentient inhabitants. Then take my ‘deeply sincere’ pleas for forgiveness, and with the aid of an unlubricated rod of significant diameter, ram them firmly up the collective asses of the plutocratic bags of shit who comprise the ruling elite in the United States.
Capitalism, capitalism. How do I loath thee? Let me count the ways….
1. Few would argue with the conclusion that greed, selfishness, ruthlessness, and egocentrism are qualities that all of us humans possess, to varying degrees of course. Equally compelling is the argument that nearly all of us are capable of acting with kindness, compassion, justice, honesty, generosity, and empathy. Yet despite the sweeping epidemic of unnecessary suffering caused by torrential waves of avarice, self-centeredness, and brutality, our filthy moneyed elite, their well-compensated sycophants, and countless millions of deeply inculcated members of the working class defend the sacred cow of capitalism with the zeal of the Siccari. What a brilliant way to conduct human affairs and organize ourselves socioeconomically! Not only do we embrace the inevitability of our human frailties; we willfully and perpetually embrace a system that ensures that the worst elements of the human psyche will predominate AND which amply rewards those who act the most reprehensibly.
2. One of the idiocies advanced as a logical argument to justify the continued existence of the abomination of capitalism is that while it may be flawed, it is still better than any alternative. If capitalism is the best humanity can do, it’s time to cash in our chips and leave Earth to our non-human animal counter-parts. They may not have opposable thumbs and formidably sized frontal lobes, but at least they don’t engage in the systematic destruction of themselves and the rest of the planet. However, before we act too hastily and engage in mass Seppuku, perhaps it would make more sense to implement a mass reorganization of our socioeconomic structure, basing the new paradigm on far more egalitarian, sustainable, democratic, just, and rational principles. Or we could just keep destroying each other and the fucking planet….
3. Capitalismo has raped Central and South America nearly to death. Unlike the “Land of the Free,” most of those horribly victimized nations have a vibrant, thriving, and well-organized Left to stand in opposition to the scourge of humanity and the Earth. US-sponsored death squads, torture, disappearances, privatization, “free” trade, deregulation, union busting, evisceration of social programs, coups, and vilification of leaders with the audacity to defy the status quo of avarice on steroids have assailed our southern neighbors since we in the United States (the self-appointed champions of capitalism) began our wholesale exploitation, imperialism, and neoliberalism by “acquiring” half of Mexico. Let’s see now. Remind me again. How many invasions has that “dire threat” to humanity named Hugo Chavez launched? How much “collateral damage” has he inflicted?
4. Capitalism is an anachronism that long ago out-lived its usefulness (except to the morally rotten parasites comprising our de facto aristocracy) and has proven itself to be an abject failure as a means of human interaction and organization. It’s one step removed from feudalism, for Christ’s sake! (Oops! Sorry, I forgot about mercantilism—the transition to capitalism made such a difference). One of humanity’s strengths is our capacity to evolve. Given that, why in the hell do we stubbornly cling to a system that enables a fraction of a percent of the population to live in OBSCENE opulence while 35,000 of our fellow human beings die of starvation-related causes each day? Are the rest of us truly inane enough to believe that asinine myth that any of us has a REALISTIC chance of becoming the next Bill Gates, if we “just work hard enough.” Or that there is an ounce of moral virtue in pursuing the accumulation of excessive wealth?
5. Resting upon the “pillars” of greed, selfishness and hyper-competitiveness, capitalism is irrational and unstable. Crisis and resource wars are chronic and inevitable. How could we expect it to be otherwise? Unleashing some of the ugliest aspects of the human spirit and creating artificial shortages in a world of abundance (by allowing a select few to hoard most of the resources as “their property”), capitalism doesn’t exactly engender an environment of peace and brotherly love. While our filthy ruling plutocracy has allowed a degree of socialism to diminish their power to rape, pillage and plunder, they only did so to quell social unrest during times of serious instability (i.e. The New Deal). Meanwhile, reactionary elements in our “democracy” are consistently scheming to eliminate the use of public monies to actually benefit the public. Witness George Bush’s ongoing demands for an open purse to fund our insanely bloated military and the war crimes we are committing in Iraq. Compare that to his recent refusal to spend an additional $35 billion to provide health care for 3.9 million children. Bush and the moneyed interests for whom he is fronting are inflicting gaping, cankerous wounds upon humanity and the Earth. How much more obvious could it be? (And this administration isn’t an aberration; they are simply bold enough to reveal their agenda—that’s the scary part).
6. Thanks to our slightly adulterated yet plenty virulent infestation of capitalism, the United States is not the “Christian nation” it touts itself to be. While we certainly abide by the Golden Rule in the sense that “he who has the gold makes the rules,” there is little about the manner in which we conduct ourselves as a nation (particularly in terms of foreign policy) of which the person meeting the Biblical description of Jesus Christ would have approved. Let’s just run through a few highlights. We have killed millions of Iraqis via two invasions and barbaric economic sanctions (the sanctions alone killed over half a million children—they’re on your tab, Bill Clinton)—and these are people who NEVER attacked us nor posed a true threat to our “national security.” We arm and support Israel, the diseased enforcer of the mental illness known as Zionism. Ethnic cleansing. Now there’s a spiritually nourishing Christian pastime for you. We revere, idolize, and empower talented, “beautiful” people whose moral evolution came to a screeching halt at about age five. They are our CEOs, politicians, celebrities, athletes, billionaires, pundits, and Wall Streeters whose smug, hubristic “all-American” mugs, talking heads, and ‘surgically enhanced’ bodies are blasted into our homes 24/7 via Fox, CNN, ABC, and a host of other disseminators of the fetid garbage of infotainment. Sorry folks. Calvinism is about as close as our culture comes to the compassion and love modeled by Christ. And with John Calvin in the saddle, we fall significantly short of that mark. As his unwitting disciples, we are imbued with cynicism and self-hatred (we are, after all, “original sinners”), a sadistic desire to inflict ample doses of punishment for the smallest of transgressions (hence the US having the largest prison population in the world—comprised largely of non-violent drug offenders) and the notion that being rich means one has acquired God’s stamp of approval. (Thoughts of camels, needles, and kingdoms of heaven keep throwing me into a horrid state of cognitive dissonance in my desperate efforts to be a good little capitalist by embracing Part III of the Calvinist doctrine…..). Somehow I don’t think Christ had capitalism in mind when he preached the Sermon on the Mount…..
7. Let’s consider sustainability and consumerism for a moment, shall we? Two more of capitalism’s noxious, life-extinguishing qualities are its demand for infinite growth and its unavoidable “dilemma” of excess production. Problem number one is insoluble, but we can simply let our grandchildren worry about our insane insistence on maintaining a system demanding infinite resources from a finite world. As for excess production, that one is simple. We have the most advanced agitprop industry (Madison Avenue) and the most powerful delivery devices (the mainstream media) in the history of humanity churning out alluring appeals to consumers to buy what they don’t need, can’t really afford, and may never even use. Surplus schmurplus….
8. As an “added bonus” to the wounds it inflicts upon humanity as a collective, capitalism also causes serious character malformations in individuals. As infants and young children, human beings naturally believe themselves to be the center of the universe. In order to “succeed” (and sometimes just survive) in the rat race of capitalism, as we mature we begin viewing our narcissism as an attribute. Rather than shedding it, we nurture it with the tenderness of the most devoted of mothers. Looking out for number one, careerism, an obsession with winning, acquisitiveness, and putting money and appearances ahead of principles and people are considered to be virtues in this violently seething cesspool we euphemistically call a culture.
9. Perhaps most disturbing of all is the way in which capitalism’s relentless advocates have managed to bamboozle billions of people into equating it with democracy. Diabolical to its core, but sheer genius nonetheless. Concluding that capitalism and democracy are somehow synonymous is a bit like saying that Dick Cheney and the milk of human kindness relate to one another in even a very remote fashion. (Have you seen the myriad pictures of his evil grimaces floating around the Internet? Despicable creature that he is, he doesn’t even attempt to mask his malevolence). Capitalism is naturally hierarchal, authoritarian, and brutal. Corporations, the legal vehicles for the plutocracy to maximize their profits while minimizing liability, are structured as tyrannies. What the hell is democratic about dog eat dog, law of the jungle, and every man for himself? Besides, if we uber-capitalists here in the United States are truly “democratic,” and we “elected” a depraved idiot like W to what is ostensibly the most powerful position in the world, what does that say about us?
George Bush, Dick Cheney, et al aren’t anomalies or accidents. They are the naked face of savage capitalism evolved to its ultimate and inevitable state, which is embodied by corporatism, monopolism, cronyism, imperialism, and fuck-everyone-but-the-rich-ism.
Slice it, it dice it and spice it any way you prefer. A pile of shit is a pile of shit by any other name. Capitalism is just that from the standpoint of compassionate, moral, and intelligent human beings. One exceptionally virtuous person, Archbishop Don Helder Pessoa Camara, who was a progenitor of Liberation Theology and an unwavering champion of the poor, once remarked, “To examine capitalism is to indict it.”
Unfortunately, capitalism remains the 800 pound gorilla in the room. There is little doubt that its countless millions of fiercely loyal minions amongst the working class and poor will continue heeding their indoctrination, daring us to pry their copies of Atlas Shrugged “from their cold dead hands.” And we can count on the fact that the likes of the Mars heirs, Richard Mellon Scaife, and their ilk are not destined to experience profound spiritual awakenings anytime soon.
Yet there is hope. Capitalism exists in a state of perpetual crisis. Inequality is on the rise, globally and domestically. Our lords and masters are beginning to fall victim to their own hubris as they practice their predations more and more overtly. Palliatives can only delay the system’s inevitable collapse for so long. Sooner rather than later the deepening undercurrent of social unrest will burst the levees of injustice asunder.
Relative to what’s coming, the Great Depression was a mere warm-up. Yet in adversity there lies opportunity. Our US gulag, often referred to as the prison industrial complex, will serve as excellent quarters for the irredeemable scum stalking the corridors of power in DC, the Walton clan, Larry Ellison, and the rest of the parasites atop the capitalist pyramid.
Or perhaps things will take a more Jacobin turn and we won’t need to waste any more precious resources on these predatory sociopaths….
Fuck you, capitalism; fuck you…..
Jason Miller is a wage slave of the American Empire who has freed himself intellectually and spiritually. He is Cyrano’s Journal Online’s associate editor (http://www.bestcyrano.org/) and publishes Thomas Paine’s Corner within Cyrano’s at http://www.bestcyrano.org/THOMASPAINE/. You can reach him at JMiller@bestcyrano.com
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
see
Mentes Peligrosas: Confession of an American Thought Criminal By Jason Miller
Thanksgiving Hypocrisy by Stephen Lendman
by Stephen Lendman
Global Research, November 16, 2007
In the US, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November to give thanks for the year’s blessings and bounty. At least that’s how it began. It’s not, however, the current practice. Most people defile the day’s spirit in how they spend it over a full four day holiday weekend – with overindulgent eating, parades, “can’t miss” football from Thursday through Sunday, and, key for merchants, the “official” start of the Christmas holiday shopping season. It begins Thanksgiving Friday, is now an orgy of holiday consumerism, continues through Christmas eve, ebbs for a day, then builds again for a final celebratory new year’s welcome with more overindulgent eating, drinking, partying, and binge-shopping for nonessentials.
11.15.07 Uncensored News Reports From Across The Middle East (video; over 18 only)
Warning
.
This video contains images depicting the reality and horror of war and should only be viewed by a mature audience.
Selected Episode
Nov. 15, 2007
For more: http://www.linktv.org/originalseries
“British Court Approves Extradition of Muslim Cleric” Al Arabiya TV, UAE
“De-Baathification Law Ratified in Iraq” Saudi TV, Saudi Arabia
“Ban Ki-moon Arrives in Beirut” Jordan TV, Jordan
“Lebanese Struggling to Clean Pollution from Israeli War” Future TV, Lebanon
“Syria Will be Invited to Attend Annapolis Conference” IBA TV, Israel
“British Delegation Goes to Iran” Syria TV, Syria
“Cancer Patient Dies in Gaza Due to Shortage of Medicine” Al Aqsa, Gaza
“UN Security Council Should Not Discuss Iranian Nuclear File” IRIB2 TV, Iran
“IAEA: Iran is Cooperating” Al Jazeera English, Qatar
Produced for Link TV by Jamal Dajani.
Die! Die! Die! w/Former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter (video)
Trace Crutchfield interviews Scott Ritter about the future of the world and whether his son should learn Chinese or Spanish. Die Die Die open.
h/t: trace
On Myspace:
What Wolf Blitzer Should Have Asked By John Nichols
By John Nichols
After Downing Street
The Nation
[only the question on Edwards’ vote on China trade actually got asked]
Questions for Each of the Debating Democrats
The Democratic presidential debate that will be held tonight in Las Vegas promises several things: Attacks on Hillary Clinton by challengers who recognize that she remains the clear front-runner in a race that could be decided in two months, meandering ruminations by CNN moderator Wolf Blitzer that will take up more time than candidate answers and another great one-liner from Delaware Senator Joe Biden, the one candidate who has come to recognize the value of adding genuine comic relief to an otherwise stilted discourse.
But what about the questions? Will there be a further parsing of New York State Department of Motor Vehicles regulations? More inquiries about Halloween costumes and UFOs? Another round of hedge-fund roulette?
Here are some questions that ought to be asked of each of the candidates:
FOR HILLARY CLINTON: Fortune magazine did a cover story with the headline: “Business Loves Hillary!” Your campaign contribution list reads like a Wall Street Rolodex. Your health care plan actually pumps tens of billions of federal dollars into the coffers of existing insurance and for-profit health care firms. If Democrats nominate you, won’t voters next November be left with a choice between two corporate candidates?
FOR BARACK OBAMA: You said when you ran for the Senate in 2004 that you planned to model yourself after U.S. Senator Russ Feingold, D-Wisconsin. Yet, when Feingold responded to the revelation that George Bush had authorized illegal warrantless wiretapping with a proposal that the Senate censure the president, you chose to stand with Bush rather than with Feingold. Why have you refused to join the man you identified as the conscience of the Senate in moving to rebuke the president for breaking the law?
FOR JOHN EDWARDS: You have sought to position yourself as the candidate of working people and a questioner of corporate excess. Yet, when you served in the Senate, you voted to remove barriers to free trade with China. That was a critical test and there was no mystery about what was at stake. Thousands of workers marched on the Capitol to urge a “no” vote. Labor unions from your own state of North Carolina pleaded with you to vote “no.” And consumer groups warned of the health and safety problems that are now so much in the news. Still, you sided with the corporate lobbyists and the Clinton administration against the interests of workers and consumers. Why, when the lines were so clearly drawn, did you break with the majority of Democrats in Congress to vote with Wall Street?
FOR DENNIS KUCINICH: You were once the chairman of the Congressional Progressive Caucus and remain active in the organization of more than 70 Democratic members of the House who share many of your views. Why do you think it is that no CPC members are supporting your candidacy? What does this say about your ability to inspire confidence and build coalitions?
FOR CHRIS DODD: You are running as the candidate of the Constitution, promising to undo the abuses of the Bush era. So why did you vote for the Patriot Act when the ACLU and other civil liberties groups were lobbying against it and when Russ Feingold in the Senate and more than 50 members of the House – including several Republicans – had the foresight and the courage to vote “no” when it mattered most?
FOR JOE BIDEN: In an earlier debate, you proposed dispatching tens of thousands of U.S. troops to Africa as a means of addressing the Darfur crisis. You voted to authorize George Bush to send U.S. troops to Iraq. You were an aggressive advocate for stepping up U.S. military action in the Balkans. The list goes on. Shouldn’t Americans who have come to recognize the folly of the neo-conservative vision of using U.S. troops as cannon fodder in every fight on the planet be frightened by the prospect of you as commander-in-chief?
FOR BILL RICHARDSON: After you left the Clinton administration, you became a senior managing director of Kissinger McLarty Associates, a so-called “strategic advisory firm” headed by former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. When President Bush moved to appoint Kissinger as chairman of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Congressional Democrats demanded that Kissinger disclose the names of the firm’s clients. Rather than do so, Kissinger rejected the presidential appointment, citing conflicts of interest. As you seek the presidency, will you disclose the names of the clients of Kissinger McLarty Associates during the period when you were associated with the firm?
FOR ALL THE CANDIDATES: You have all been highly critical of President Bush and even more critical of Vice President Cheney. Each of you has suggested that the president and vice president have engaged in dishonest and inappropriate actions that are at odds with their oaths of office and their duties as dictated by the Constitution. Last week, Dennis Kucinich tried last week to open a congressional debate on whether Dick Cheney should be impeached. Mr. Kucinich, why when American Research Group polling shows that 54 percent of voters surveyed favor impeachment of Cheney did Democratic leaders in the House oppose your move? For the rest of the candidates: Would you have joined Mr. Kucinich in voting to open up the debate on presidential and vice presidential accountability, or would you have voted to table the resolution?
FAIR USE NOTICE: This blog may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use’, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
see
Wolf Blitzer Loses Democratic Debate By David Swanson
Dennis Kucinich Demands Impeachment Now! During Debate (video)
Dennis Kucinich’s replies @ 11-15-07 Dem. debate (video)
Nevada Dem Presidential Candidates’ Debate 11-15-07 (videos)
Daily Kos poll on the Las Vegas Democratic Candidates debate
Wolf Blitzer Loses Democratic Debate By David Swanson
By David Swanson
After Downing Street
Nov. 15, 2007
That does it. It’s time for the Democratic Party to stage its own debate, ask its own questions, and offer the video to networks as a completed package. Allowing CNN to not just air a debate but to ask the questions proved on Thursday night (even more dramatically than in the past) to be a soul sickening disaster.
A serious debate would begin by asking each candidate (including Mike Gravel, who was locked out of the room) what he or she would do if elected president. Thursday’s debate in the opening 30 minutes had me longing for even the level of honesty and substance of the MSNBC debate hosted by Keith Olbermann in Soldier Field some months back, at which Olbermann managed the superhuman feat of asking things like “Would you cancel NAFTA?”
On Thursday Wolf Blitzer devoted the first 20 minutes to goading Clinton and Obama into bashing each other over how they have run their campaigns. Edwards was given a token 60 seconds to join the fight. At 8:18 (the debate began at 8:00 p.m. ET) Biden was permitted to add his two cents. At 8:20, Edwards was asked to bash Clinton from another angle. He took the bait, but then turned to the topic of poverty, in open violation of WB’s rules. (Blitzer had announced at the start that candidates would not be permitted to stray from the topics of the questions asked.) At 8:23 Dodd got to speak, still on the debate over the debate. At 8:24 Richardson was allowed to add to the same substance-free topic. He introduced himself to the crowd as a way of registering his dissatisfaction with being ignored for 24 minutes.
At 8:26, with Kucinich not having had the opportunity to say one word, CNN asked all the candidates to say whether they would support the Democratic nominee no matter what. They all said yes, except for Kucinich, who took the opportunity to say 10 words, receiving huge applause. His words were: “Only if they oppose war as an instrument of policy.” A little vaguely worded, but I don’t think that vagueness was Kucinich’s intention. I think his intention was to contrast his own position with that of most of the other people on the stage. If he is not nominated, he is not going to be able to support the nominee.
Half an hour into this train wreck, no candidate had had an opportunity to speak to their priorities, but we heard a lot about CNN’s. At 8:27 CNN asked Obama about immigration. At 8:29 WB dumbed this down and asked all the candidates for opinions on giving drivers’ licenses to undocumented people. At 8:32 Kucinich got a chance to say his 11th word. He shifted the topic to NAFTA and took exception to the stupid question, refusing to answer it, winning loud applause.
Then CNN started asking various candidates about education, and for the first time asked Kucinich a non yes/no question. But instead of sticking with education, the topic of the questions before and after Kucinich’s, WB asked Kucinich what he disagrees with labor unions on. Kucinich’s answer was good, but not inspired. Maybe after 37 minutes, the Congressman had drifted off into daydreaming.
After education, CNN asked every candidate except Kucinich about Pakistan. At the end of this segment, at 8:52, Kucinich said “Hello? Hello?” But CNN refused to ask him a question.
Next CNN turned to Iraq, and this time Kucinich was included. He said that Congress should cut off the funding [big applause]. Then he answered the Pakistan question that CNN had refused to ask him. Blitzer quickly cut him off.
At 8:58, CNN came back to Kucinich on China trade, and he nailed it. And he criticized Edwards for having voted for normal trade relations with China. Edwards dodged the question. And Edwards criticized NAFTA, although he has made clear he will not end it. WB asked Clinton whether NAFTA was a mistake. She answered by talking about Chinese pet food. He asked again, and Clinton said NAFTA did not deliver on what she had hoped it would do. Dodd criticized Clinton and Obama for supporting the Peruvian trade agreement.
At 9:07 CNN’s “clean coal” sponsored debate turned to energy questions. By this point, even Obama was criticizing WB for repeatedly framing questions along the lines of “Assuming we can’t find a serious solution, what should we do about …?” Criticism of WB was becoming the easiest way to garner applause. Richardson also rejected WB’s frame and shifted the topic to renewable energy. CNN quickly brought the blather back to nonsense and specifically the topic of Hillary Clinton being a woman.
The second half of the debate included pre-arranged questions from non-CNN employees. The first question came from a 3-tour Iraq veteran and his mother. He said he wanted the troops brought home now and not sent to Iran. She asked what the candidates would do now to prevent an attack on Iran. But CNN only allowed Biden, Clinton, Edwards, and Obama to answer. Clinton talked “carrots and sticks,” while the rest of them criticized her vote to name the Quds force “terrorists.” But Biden broke from the script in a surprising way.
“If Bush takes the country to war in Iran without an act of Congress,” Biden said, “then he should be impeached!” [applause]
Richardson said something useful on the next question: he’d end the occupation by 2010. But Kucinich was not given the opportunity to say he’d end it in 2008.
When WB finally turned to Kucinich, rewording an audience member’s question, he said “You were the only one who voted against the PATRIOT Act…”
“That’s because I read it,” Kucinich interjected to huge applause.
Kucinich nailed the question and turned to the topic of preventing an attack on Iran as well. WB saw what was coming and tried to cut him off, but Kucinich said “Impeach them now!” [huge applause]
Them. He did not say Cheney only.
Kucinich was only permitted to speak that one time during the debate’s entire second hour.
A few questions later, Biden got applause for refusing to answer a CNN question and insisting that he would answer the question of the audience member.
Biden also said he had a plan to end the war that could begin the day he becomes president, a promise made by most of the candidates on the stage. If an intelligent moderator were asking the questions at these debates, the fact that the Senate now faces a vote on another $50 billion for the occupation would have come up, and the fact that neither Biden nor Obama nor Clinton nor Dodd is willing to filibuster it would have been brought up. Instead, the entire debate included no mention of Wednesday’s vote in the House or the upcoming vote in the Senate. A moderator who loves to catch candidates in even the most trivial contradictions had not one word to say about the topic of funding an occupation they all claim to want to end.
Instead, time was found for an audience member to ask Clinton whether she “prefers diamonds or pearls.”
Wolf Blitzer lost this one. The ranks of non-voters probably won.
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see
Dennis Kucinich’s replies @ 11-15-07 Dem. debate (video)
Daily Kos poll on the Las Vegas Democratic Candidates debate
Nevada Dem Presidential Candidates’ Debate 11-15-07 (videos)
Dennis Kucinich Demands Impeachment Now! During Debate (video)
Dennis Kucinich’s replies @ 11-15-07 Dem. debate (video)
http://researchris.blogspot.com & http://www.dennis4president.com/home/ Here are ALL of Kucinich’s replies @ the Nov. 15th Democratic debate.
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Daily Kos poll on the Las Vegas Democratic Candidates debate
Nevada Dem Presidential Candidates’ Debate 11-15-07 (videos)
Dennis Kucinich Demands Impeachment Now! During Debate (video)
Overturn the Disorderly Events Ordinance in Chico, CA (petition)
Nov. 16, 2007
The Disorderly Events Ordinance passed into law on November 6, 2007. This, in spite of the fact that at the public meetings an overwhelming number of individuals were vehemently opposed to the ordinance for a number of reasons. Not a single newspaper supported this ordinance. So, concerned Chicoans are now circulating a petition to overturn this ordinance and put it to a public vote!
SIGN THE REFERENDUM!
Petitions for a referendum against the Disorderly Events ordinance have been approved and are being circulated by the Chico Citizens for Civil Rights. The ordinance limits our right to assemble and is a gross infraction of our civil rights. We have already gathered hundreds of signatures but need people to help gather more. We need 7,000 registered voters in the City of Chico to sign the petition to insure that we gather the necessary amount after invalid signatures are thrown out. We have until December 5th. There will be several events held to raise awareness and funds for our cause. Please sign the petition and help in any other way that you can. We will be at the Saturday Morning Farmers Market (8am-1pm) and at Woodstock’s Pizza every Tuesday and Thursday (5-7pm). **It is our duty as citizens of a democratic society to participate in the democracy to insure not only that our own interests are represented but also that the interests of others are not allowed to supersede the welfare of the People.** Please contact us to help protect our right to assemble.
Email the group at: votedown9.40@gmail.com
Check their website out at:
www.myspace.com/votedown940Get the referendum here!!
Lawyer renders legal opinion: Disorderly Events Ordinance Illegal and Unconstitutional!
Chico Criminal Defense Attorney Patrick Donnelly has reviewed this ordinance and determined it is illegal and unconstitutional. Read his opinion here!
(c) 2007 chicocivilrights.org and Chico Citizens for Civil Rights
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by Jessica Allen
Chico Citizens for Civil Rights
We are concerned about this issue not only for our town, but after doing a lot of research, we have concluded:
There was a city ordinance passed in Santa Barbara in 2005, a “Party Ordinance” that has been copied in college towns all across the country. College towns have historically been the crux of political movements in our country. The “Disorderly Events” ordinance passed 11/06/07 in Chico, CA is much more intrusive upon our Civil Rights than the Santa Barbara ordinance and we are concerned that it will spread across the country as well.
Ch. 9.40 allows “any assembly” (including marches and demonstrations) to be ordered to disperse by the police based upon circumstantial evidence and allows for every person at the event who does not immediately disperse to be ticketed “every hour upon the hour or part of an hour.” The amount of the fine and the number of fines “shall be determined by the enforcement officer”. The initial appeal process involves a direct appeal to the chief of police. The official administrative appeal process can only be undertaken if you have paid the fine. The hearing officer is to be the ex-chief of police and current Butte Community College head of the police department.
h/t: VOTE DOWN 940, Disorderly Events ordinance
see
Chico Peace and Justice Center “harassed” by Police **Disorderly Events update (Dec. 17, 2007)
Joe Anybody Talks To Kucinich Activists (video)
Nov 10 downtown Portland street corner
Joe Anybody finds a couple local activists
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DFA Must Be Royally Pissed + Calls for Impeachment Hearings
Dennis Kucinich: Democracy For America straw poll (videos; updated with results)
Dandelion Salad 