The Adventures of Testiculo, Starring Dennis Kucinich

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge In Town Called Dobson, I have been referring to Dennis Kucinich as Ultra K but Ultra may be too small a word for Dennis. On October 23rd, Dennis Kucinich announced he would introduce to the House of Representatives on a point of personal privilege a resolution of impeachment against Dick Cheney sometime before Thanksgiving. BALLS - Total balls. Why aren't the rest of the Dem candidates screaming about impeachment? For that matter, why isn't Peolsi? Impeachment is not an unpopular view. Take Vermont for example... Earlier this year, town meetings across Vermont asked citizens if impeachment proceedings should be initiated against the president and vice president. Thirty-seven towns voted yes, and the Senate approved a resolution calling for impeachment. Now a statewide poll conducted by CBS affiliate WCAX in Burlington, Vt. posed the question to 400 likely voters. Sixty-one percent said they would be in favor of Congress beginning impeachment proceedings against President Bush. Thirty-three percent opposed it, and 6% were not sure. The numbers for Vice President Cheney differed only slightly: Sixty-four percent favored impeachment, while 31% opposed it. Seventy-five percent of respondents said they categorized the president's performance as "fair" or "poor." For me personally, I would also want to see the Administration before the Hague, have all the appointed judges removed from the bench and Gore installed as the rightful President for 8 years. But for now, I will need to live vicariously though Dennis' testicles. SPECIAL NOTE: Wikipedia To Delete Town Called Dobson Entry. Wikipedia is far from perfect. Last year I stopped donating to Wikipedia due to their notability policy. Other than being vague, it allows "admins" to delete entries at will and usually without cause, justification or accountability. When the community votes to keep an article, admins have in the past EDITED the voting to reflect their personal wishes. No joke. Last week, without warning, Town Called Dobson was selected for "rapid deletion" for the reason of non-notability. Even though, TCD has appeared in print, won awards, has over 300,000 hits in Google and has over 100,000 readers a day, via its front page status on many leading blogs, it has been classified as non-notable. The best way to rectify this is write an article about TCD or political webcomics in general and mention TCD. Then go and add that link to the Reference section of the TCD article. If the editing system of Wikipedia is too daunting (it is a steep learning curve) send me the link and I will have the guy that maintains the entry to post it. If you are a newspaper reporter or editor, slip in an article about TCD! (long shot I know, but I am not above begging.) If you have used TCD graphics for use in a protest or campaign, please blog about the event and post it. TCD licensed under the creative commons agreement, so that is legal. Lastly, I want to thank all of my readers. You folks have meant a lot to me over the last 3+ years.

Petraeus Report: 6 months of Surge or Pelosi Inaction?

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge Ever wonder how many lives would have been saved if we had YouTube for the Vietnam war? Or would the leaders of the day still deny the evident truth laying dead in the ditches and rivers of Baghdad? Would they still ignore the never ending stream of flag draped coffins coming in from the Middle East? My guess is yes, they would. To deny the facts on the ground in Baghdad, it takes a Herculean capacity for denial to look at the Iraq War as nothing more than a total and abject disaster of Greecian tragedy proportions. Or they could be lying to our face. That sums up our President and his underlings - liars. No one can be so deluded as to thinking Iraq is a success. (Ok, McCain excluded.) But what about Pelosi? How long is she going to go for the bullshit? How long will Reid back her up in letting Bush ruin the nation? So far, the Democrats have given us nothing but shame and embarrassment in the Congress. Instead of doing the job they were sent to do, they have achieved none of the major promises they gave us in the 2006 elections. I understand they also battle the Blue Dogs and there is the one vote majority in the Senate, but Pelosi and Reid haven't even tried. They have not lifted a finger. All they have done is take after Senator Craig and dropped their pants for Bush. They have willingly bent over and let Bush have his way with the war, FISA courts and on and on. If Pelosi and Reid roll over this time and accept another six months of continued bloodshed and violence, it is time to remove them from office. They will have proven themselves as traitors to We The People.

Gonzales and the Democratic Fear of Flying Monkeys

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeWhen I was three years old, my parents let me watch the Wizard of Oz. A wholesome movie, right? Holy crap did it terrify me. I made my parents inspect the closet every night before bed because I knew, I JUST KNEW those damn flying monkeys were in there. I could hear them scratching around - digging for scraps of mortal flesh and since they hadn't gotten to me yet, I knew they were HUNGRY! One full year later, I was able to go to bed with the lights off. So here we are, ten months into the so-called Democratic Revolution and Pelosi and Reid have accomplished damn near nothing. The only thing they can chalk up is the pitifully small increase in the minimum wage. We are still in Iraq, a war criminal is still running the country and we haven't regained our civil rights. I have heard the hand-wringing apologists for the Dems - the excuses about a one vote majority in the Senate, the Blue Dog Democrats that are infesting the House of Representatives and the biggest whopper, "impeachment wouldn't be good for the nation." Last Summer and Fall, I ran all around the district telling people the Dems were going to act on their agenda and by electing Dems we would get our country back. Sadly, what I didn't realize, we would also need to get rid of the Dems that are IN Congress to get our PARTY back. Gonzales is off the table and gone. Now can we get back to the war crimes at hand? Can we get out of Iraq? Can we maybe get our rights back? I have no inkling as to why the Dems are continuing to fund the war and most recently, agreed to let Bush continue to abuse the FISA courts. Who is even letting these bills come to the damn floor? If I knew this crap was going on, I would NOT have been knocking on doors for months and months last year in an effort to get these sorry individuals in power. The Dems got voted into power about 10 months ago. When will they come out from under the bed? When will they overcome their fear? When will they begin to govern? It took me a year to conquer my fear of the flying monkeys and I was three years old. I hope the Democrats get their act together soon, our soldiers are dying on the battlefield while Pelosi cries under her bed.

Gonzales gone, watch where you step.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge From CNN: Embattled U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned, senior administration officials told CNN Monday. President Bush will likely nominate Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to the position, senior administration officials said. Clay Johnson, deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, would replace Chertoff, the officials said. Many lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have long called for his ouster after the firing of several U.S. attorneys in 2006. Bush had long stood by Gonzales. Gonzales will announce his resignation at a news conference at the Justice Department at 10:30 a.m. ET. Now maybe, just maybe, we can go back to impeaching the President?

Another Day In Asheville

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlarge Asheville is the closest North Carolina comes to San Francisco - the mountains, the culture, but that is where the similarities end. There is a very belligerent and ultra sanctimonious right wing in Asheville. Years ago, there was a rally to pray to boot out "paganism." Last year my wife and I happened visited town while a horrific anti-gay protest was in progress sponsored by local area "churches." This past week, Asheville saw one of it's own arrested for holding a protest sign. On Wednesday August 15, I was standing alone with my sign for about 10 minutes, when I was approached by Police Officer Russell Crisp. He asked me how long I was planning to stay there and I told him just a few more minutes because I had to go to work at 8:00. He asked for my ID and I obliged. I asked him if I was doing something wrong, and he said that his Sergeant was on the way and he was going to wait for him. SO, I went back to my sign holding over the interstate. A few minutes later Sergeant Randy Riddle showed up with a paper in his hand. He spoke briefly to Crisp, then walked over to me and told me to put down my sign, put my hands behind my back, and that I was under arrest! I was shocked and almost thought he was joking until he told me again to put down the sign and put my hands behind me and I was under arrest. So I peacefully agreed and he cuffed me. I asked him why I was being arrested, he told me I was in violation County Ordinance 16-2, (the print out in his hand that he didn't bother to read to me or show me.) He told me I was obstructing the sidewalk. I told him I was not and that officer Crisp had witnessed a guy walk by me moments before. Riddle yelled at me, "You were obstructing the sidewalk!" and "I'm sick of this shit!" then he said, "Here's your 15 minutes of fame buddy!" I looked back to see his name plate and he said in a mean condescending tone, "Yea, that's 'Sergeant Riddle' get it right!" He then put me in Officer Crisp's police car. Riddle took my sign with him and I was taken downtown and booked by Crisp. I was never read my Miranda rights. Someone needs to call Mayor Bellamy and ask her when Civil Rights will be reestablished in Asheville? Or does she intend to allow the gestapo to operate freely in his city? The below is PUBLIC information: Mayor Terry M. Bellamy Contact Information Office of the Mayor Mayor Terry M. Bellamy Mailing address: P.O. Box 7148, Asheville, NC, 28802 Location: Asheville City Hall, Second Floor, 70 Court Plaza Phone: (828) 259-5600 Fax: (828) 259-5649 E-mail: mayorbellamy@ashevillenc.gov mayorbellamy@ashevillenc.gov mayor whogan@ashevillenc.gov police chief jrichardson@ashevillenc.gov assistant city manager gjackson@ashevillenc.gov city manager And fell free to send them a copy of this cartoon!

America, it’s the new French!

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeScandal after scandal heaped on top of more scandal and we still do not have the courage to impeach? At this point, anyone who is terrified of the impeachment process (unless you are IN the Bush Administration) should just admit you are not willing to fight for our democracy, and that includes Nancy Pelosi. What's the meme this week? We don't have enough votes? Big deal. I say we have the US House go through the evidence process (and NO, Gonzales ain't what I am talking about) and present the laundry list of BushCo's "high crimes and misdemeanors." Plus, hold those hearings during Prime Time and have Nancy do her job and oversee the proceedings. Let the Republicans spend all their time supporting Bush and defending his crimes. Let it go on for hours and hours. Let is stretch on into week. Hell, start this during the "recess," they got nothing else to do. Let the process continue just to remind everyone what all we have lost, where our money went, how it was really stolen. Then vote. Do you not prosecute a murderer just because he has a great lawyer? No, even though you might lose, you still prosecute the case. You do the right thing. And if we lose, we lose, but we will have tried Bush in Congress and in the Court of Public Opinion. Now let the GOP try to distance themselves from Bush for the 2008 elections. They will have publicly forgiven and sitting President of treason, war crimes and fraud just for their political gain. With Bush's 25% approval rating, you can't go wrong... unless you are French. ;-)

Gonzales, The Firewall

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane, Bilerico Project & My Left Wing click to enlargeThat is my theory, Gonzales is the impeachment firewall. If Gonzales is gone, impeachment gets one GIANT step closer to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or the Naval Observatory - depending which strategy you go with. I think Rove knows Bush's ratings be damned, they can't loose Gonzales. Do we think Myers has really that much to say? Maybe. But the longer Rove, et al, prolongs the Congress' misery and investigation, the closer they get to Bush's last day in office - a few more than 500 days are left to go. They just need to hold on and hanging on means not letting Myers testify or Gonzales or any of the other of the king's menagerie. The secondary firewall may be the surge. I wonder these days if the September Report will come back de facto positive in an attempt to split the blue dog Democrats off from the progressives and weaken the party as a whole? Either way, the Summer will wind down, the blood bath in Iraq will worsen, the housing market will still be in freefall and the headlines for the Wall Street Journal will proclaim it is another sunny, beautiful day and all is well in America.

Partial transcript of Moyers impeachment discussion

I've transcribed the YouTube video I posted last night. Many excellent points were made throughout the program, which can be viewed here and read here. Bill Moyers: One of the fellows you're about to meet wrote the first article of impeachment against President Clinton. Bruce Fein did so because perjury is a legal crime, and Fein believed no one is above the law. A constitutional scholar, Bruce Fein served in the Justice Department during the Reagan administration, and as General Counsel of the Federal Communications Commission. Bruce Fein has been affiliated with conservative think tanks such as the American Enterprise Institute and the Heritage Foundation, and now writes a weekly column for the Washington Times and Politico.com. He's joined by John Nichols, a Washington correspondent for The Nation and Associate Editor at the Capitol Times. Among his many books is this most recent one, The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders' Cure for Royalism. Good to see you both. Bruce, you wrote that article of impeachment against Bill Clinton. Why did you think he should be impeached? Bruce Fein: He was setting a precedent that placed the president above the law. I did not believe that the initial perjury or misstatements that came, perhaps in a moment of embarrassment, stemming from the Paula Jones lawsuit would have justified impeachment if he had apologized. Even his second perjury before the grand jury when Ken Starr's staff was questioning him, as long as he expressed repentence, would not have set an example of saying, "Every man, if you're president, is entitled to be a law unto himself." I think Bush's crimes are a little bit different--I think they're a little more worrisome than Clinton's. You don't have to have-- Bill Moyers MORE worrisome? Bruce Fein: More worrisome than Clinton's, because he is seeking more institutionally to cripple checks and balances and the authority of congress and the judiciary to superintend his assertions of power. He has claimed the authority to tell congress they don't have the right to know what he's doing with relation to spying on American citizens, using that information in any way that he wants, in contradiction to a federal statute called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. He's claimed the authority to say that he can kidnap people, throw them into dungeons abroad, dump them out into Siberia, without any political or legal accountability. These are standards that are totally anathema to a democratic society devoted to the rule of law. Bill Moyers: You're talking about terrifying power, but this is a terrifying time. People are afraid of those people abroad who want to kill us. Do you think in any way that justifies the claims that Bruce just said that Bush has made? John Nichols: I think that the war on terror as defined by our president is perpetual war, and I think that he has acted precisely as Madison feared. He has taken powers unto himself that were never intended to be in the executive. And frankly, when an executive uses them in the way that this president has, you actually undermine the process of uniting the country and really focussing the country on the issues that need to be dealt with. Let's be clear: if we had a president who was seeking to inspire us to take seriously the issues that are in play, and to bring all the government together, he'd be consulting with Congress, he'd be working with Congress, and, frankly, Congress, through the system of checks and balances, would be preventing him from doing insane things like invading Iraq. Bruce Fein: In the past, presidents like Abe Lincoln, who confronted a far more dire situation in the Civil War than today, sought congressional ratification and approval of his emergency measures. He didn't seek to hide them from the people and from Congress to prevent there from being accountability. And of course Congress did ratify what he had done. Secondly, sure, times can be terrifying. But that also should alert us to the fact that we can make mistakes. The executive can make mistakes. Take World War II--we locked up 120,000 Japanese Americans. Said they were all disloyal. Well, we got 120,000 mistakes. They lost their property, they lost their liberty for years and years because we made a huge mistake. And that can be true after 9/11 as well. No one wants to downgrade the fact that we have abominations out there and people want to kill us. But we should not inflate the danger, and we should not cast aside what we are as a people. We can fight and defeat these individuals, these criminals, based on our system of law and justice. We have a fighting Constitution--it's always worked in the past--but it remains a system of checks and balances. Bill Moyers: Fighting Constitution? What do you mean? Bruce Fein: It's a fighting Constitution that enables us, with the consent of Congress and the President, working hand in glove consistent with the due process of law, we have the authority to suspend habeas corpus in times of invasion or rebellion. It has enabled us to defeat all of our enemies consistent with the law. Bill Moyers: But Congress did not stand up to George Bush for five years when it was controlled by Republicans, and I don't see any strong evidence that Democrats are playing the role you think they should be playing. Bruce Fein: That is correct. But it does not exculpate the president that Congress has not sought immediately to sanction his excesses-- Bill Moyers: --but it enables him-- Bruce Fein: --exactly right. And this could not happen if we had a Congress that was aggressive. If we had a Congress like in Watergate when Nixon was president and he tried to obstruct justice and defeat the course of law. We have a Congress that basically is invertebrate. The full video of last night's program can be seen (in segments) here.

Bill Moyers discusses impeachment

Hat tip to Booman for alerting me that Bill Moyers will be discussing impeachment tonight. In the clip embedded here, Bruce Fein, a conservative who wrote the articles of impeachment against Bill Clinton, states that what Bush's crimes are even more worrisome than Clinton's were. Also on the program is John Nichols, author of The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders' Cure for Royalism. Bill Moyers Journal Web Site

The I-Word

Time for the I-word again. Impeachment. I'm tired of feeling like a helpless, scared-to-death passenger trapped in the back seat of a speeding car as a boozy, coked-up Bush careens blindly towards the abyss. Melodrama? God help us, I don't think so. We already have more than enough reasons: Katrina, Iraq, an economy on the edge of bankruptcy, and flat-earth bozos tossing copies of Origin of Species into trash cans. Yadda yadda yadda. It's goddamned terrible. It's gonna take years to fix this shit. But it can get much, much worse. Before January 2009, a lunatic, I-Don-t-Give-A-Fuck Bush still has the time to appoint a Supreme Court justice or two and--ready?--go to war with Iran. Can this country survive World War III? I don't think so. Melodrama? I don't think so. Impeachment is the only check and balance we have left, and threatening to use it with no intention of doing so is like waving a cap gun in Tony Soprano's face: it can get you killed. It's not a political choice anymore. It's survival. Thankfully, there is a reluctant but ever-growing awareness in the United States about how batshit crazy the bozo in the White House is. It's the moment in a horror movie when the sneering cynics realize that the monsters are real. This usually happens before they're eaten. (Don't you hate when that happens?) As the old saying goes, "Nothing focuses a man's mind like an imminent hanging." Thank the Goddess for enlightened self-interest. It ain't pretty, but it works.

Pelosi in trouble? Rating for Congress same as Bush.

Crossposted from Left Toon Lane & My Left Wing click to enlarge What about CHANGE does Pelosi and Reid NOT understand? Are we still in Iraq? Yep. Do we have earmarks coming out our, well, ears? Yep. Is the President still in office, unimpeached? Yeppers on that one too. And the spin meisters like Rush Limbaugh eat it up and spew it back out for everyone to hear.

No impeachment? Why not?!!!

click to enlarge What kills me is most Republicans in Congress today still think the impeachment of Bill Clinton was the right thing to do. Yet we cant muster the courage, political will, balls, the perfect press release to impeach George W. Bush. If there EVER was a President in the history of America where a clear case for impeachment exists, it is George W. Bush. But Kucinich is right, impeach Cheney first. P.S. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SOMEONE GET KUCINICH A DECENT WEBSITE!!!!!!!!

It is time for some serious talk about impeachment

I saw the link to this video a couple days ago, I guess. I didn't finally decide to watch it until Maryscott O'Connor promoted it to the front page at My Left Wing, with these words (Kucinich may not be the most convincing messenger we have to send out to middle America; then again, what the f*ck do I know about Middle America, anyway? Maybe this earnest little man, in his earnest, soft-spoken way, can reach those people who turn away at the first sound of the strident, shrieking, raging voices like mine... Sadly, I think that his voice doesn't reach people at all. If it does, it comes filtered through the multi-millionaire media (hat tip to skippy) which "helpfully" provides the context by saying something about his "longshot bid" for the presidency. So I guess I've been a bit cowed from even mentioning Kucinich, because I would need to brace for the inevitable derisive comments on some sites. Or, with Dean people, the topic of that deal he made with Edwards in 2004 in Iowa. But, then I watched the video I included at the top of this post (transcript here). He's saying things that need to be said. Heck, at the beginning of the video, he says things that *I* have said, sitting at this very computer. My fellow Americans. We are in an interesting condition in this country, where we are told to take impeachment off the table, and keep on the table a U.S. military attack against Iran. I ask that you watch the video and/or read the transcript, and focus on the message rather than the messenger. And after you check out what Rep. Kucinich has to say about this moment in our nation's history, take a look at the tone of Bush's recent refusal to have his staff testify under oath. This is a man who is daring Congress to impeach him. This isn't about supporting Dennis Kucinich's campaign. This is about drawing attention to someone who is saying something important, and adding our voices to his. More discussion of the impeachment issue here: Impeachment on a Silver Platter--No Strings Attached!

Vermont votes to impeach Bush/Cheney

Via Yahoo News By an overwhelming voice vote, Middlebury called for impeachment. So it has gone this week at town meetings across Vermont, most of which were held Tuesday. Late Tuesday night, there were confirmed reports that 36 towns had backed impeachment resolutions, and the number was expected to rise. Click here for the rest.