Now Read The Truth: Lieberman-Kyl DEFANGED Because of YOU
WE THE PEOPLE CUT THE HEART OUT OF THE LIEBERMAN-KYL AMENDMENT
It has taken a couple days for the actual disposition of the Lieberman-Kyl amendment to leak out, but in FACT, the two most offensive paragraphs (3 and 4), which we were objecting to so strenuously as amounting to a declaration of war on Iran, were REMOVED IN THEIR ENTIRETY prior to the vote. Which means we WON.
Behold your victory (page 8):
Yes, you did it, with your TENS of thousands of emails and phones to Congress this last Monday and Tuesday. We are so proud of our participants on this one. Claim your win.
What was left was not great, but ultimately it means nothing with the actual teeth of the amendment extracted, not that that's any excuse for those who voted yes (or did not vote at all). So the Senate called some people a terrorist organization. Big deal, it's not binding anyway, no more than their groundless and hypocritical condemnation of MoveOn a week ago. And for those who may say this gives Cheney and Bush an excuse to do anything, this White House doesn't think it needs an excuse to do anything, that's the whole POINT of impeachment.
Once again this PROVES that activism works. We beat them back this time in a major way, folks, and why? Because we actually spoke out, that's why! We dismissed the voices of defeatism and took action. Fancy that, participatory democracy works. Are the evil ones going to give up? Of course not, and that's why we're not going to give up either. Let's say it together, we're going to keep ON speaking out in even greater numbers.
There are many dirty secrets in Washington, but the biggest one of all they are trying to keep may be that when you write and call in mass numbers, members of Congress tremble, shaking in their socks, especially in the House where they have to get reelected every two years. Oh, sure, sometimes they send us their form letter responses trying to slough us off, trying to con us into thinking we are not having an impact. But we know the truth, which is that they work for us, and we do have the POWER with our personal messages to enforce that.
WHAT DO WE DO NEXT? WHY, IMPEACHMENT OF COURSE
This week yet another video of Dick "Five Deferments" Cheney surfaced from the early nineties, again articulating his views as to why trying to occupy Iraq would be lead to nothing but a disastrous quagmire. And yet this is the same man who not only lied the country into doing just that once he seized power himself, but is still the most aggressive force in the White House pushing for an even more monumental debacle in Iran.
H. RES 333 ACTION PAGE: http://www.usalone.com/hres333.php
This is a NEW action page. We're going to have a new action page on impeachment EVERY week from now on. That's the plan, we're ALL going to call for impeachment once a week from now on, and each time encourage everyone else we know to do the same thing using the friends invitation section of the action page.
Recognizing the gravity of the increasingly loud drumbeats for more war coming from the Vice President's office, this week Dennis Kucinich, who had already gotten 20 cosponsors for H.Res 333 to impeach Cheney, said he was seriously considering forcing the House of Representatives to take up the issue of impeachment by bringing it as a privileged resolution.
We have a major win in our pocket this week. We have slowed them down. But we also recognize that the only thing that will stop them completely is confronting the White House, and Cheney in particular, with impeachment. Each and every member of the House must be called to account at this moment in American political history, by the demands of you, their constituents, whether they will stand up for the Constitution and stop Dick Cheney's delusional march to Iran . . . or not.
Already more than 110,000 of your fellow constituents have voted in the National Cheney Impeachment Poll. If we had a million people call in one week, impeachment would be the centerpiece on the table so fast it would make their heads spin. We're going to do it. We're going to crank up our efforts to a new level this week. And when Dennis Kucinich DOES introduce his privileged resolution, we're going to crank it up even more.
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Impechment of Chaney and Bush
Please, for the sake of our children and the future of this great nation, impeach these war criminals. Stop this war and protect our children from these malevolent, nefarous and corrupt men now. My wife and I beg you to start this process today.
replying to a "form letter response" from congressman
[POSTED TO DEMOCRATS.COM BLOG AT:
http://www.democrats.com/Lieberman-Kyl-defanged
ON 9/30/07]
Regarding your comment:
"There are many dirty secrets in Washington, but the biggest one of all they are trying to keep may be that when you write and call in mass numbers, members of Congress tremble, shaking in their socks, especially in the House where they have to get reelected every two years. Oh, sure, sometimes they send us their form letter responses trying to sluff us off, trying to con us into thinking we are not having an impact. But we know the truth, which is that they work for us, and we do have the POWER with our personal messages to enforce that."
I replied to my congressman's form letter response to my letter to him criticizing his vote for the resolution condeming the "General Betray-Us" ad, which I found very unsatisfactory, as follows. (I'm not sure he's shaking in his socks, but I have not yet received a response to this reply):
Dear Congressman Mike Thompson,
Thank you for replying to me regarding my response (see bottom of page) to your vote for the resolution condemning the "General Betray-Us" ad by MoveOn.org in which I referred you to Steve Coll's article, GENERAL ACCOUNTING, in The New Yorker for evidence of the validity of their point of view.
You stated that you "voted for this resolution for one reason only - President Bush has betrayed us, not our men and women in uniform. As our Commander in Chief, the President bares all responsibility for this misguided war."
I think it would be more accurate to state that he BEARS ULTIMATE (as opposed to all) responsibility.
This does not however absolve all under his command from any responsibility, and most particularly not the Commander in Chief's chief surrogate in uniform whose judgement of the war's course this president has all but ceded his own supposed command to.
True, no one is paying a higher price than our troops (unless you count several million hapless Iraqi citizens who have been killed, maimed, or driven from their homes and/or into exile by this needless war), but you don't help those American troops by absolving of responsibility the military commander that this irresponsible president has shifted primary responsibility for the war's course to.
Disturbing as I find Congress's failure to take responsibility for ending this utterly disastrous war, I find even more disturbing the fact that it seems to be running from it's own constitutional obligation for authorizing (or NOT) a new war in Iran that this patently bellicose and irresponsible president is steering us recklessly toward.
So I would like to refer you to a piece published today by Daniel Ellsberg addressing this concern which I hope you and your aides will take time to read and reflect on and allow it to inform your actions and votes in this critical arena. Here is the link:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/09/27/4131/
Sincerely,
Steve Catton
On Sep 27, 2007, at 2:53 PM, Congressman Mike Thompson wrote:
September 27, 2007
Dear Mr. Catton:
Thank you for contacting me regarding MoveOn.org and General
Petreaus. I appreciate you taking the time to share your concerns
with me.
As you know, on September 26th, 2007, the Republican Minority in
the House of Representatives used procedural tactics to force a
vote on a non-binding resolution condemning advertisements run
by MoveOn.org that personally attacked General Petreaus. You
also probably know that I have been against this war since before it
even began and that I have and will continue to vote to bring our
troops home as quickly and safely as possible.
I voted for this resolution for one reason only - President Bush has
betrayed us, not our men and women in uniform. As our
Commander in Chief, the President bares all responsibility for this
misguided war. But no matter how wrong this war is or how badly
it's been executed by the Bush Administration, our troops have
done an excellent job. No one is paying a higher price than they
are and for that reason they deserve our respect and support. On a
personal note, as someone who has served in combat and returned
home from a very unpopular war, I know first hand what it feels
like to be attacked for something for which I was not responsible.
While I do not support personal attacks on General Petreaus, I
assure you that I was very upset by his testimony before Congress.
No amount of spin or cherry-picking of information can convince
me that we should continue on President Bush's misguided course.
While I greatly appreciate all that MoveOn.org has done to try and
bring about an end to this war, the ad in the New York Times was
focused on attacking the messenger, when it should have sought to
discredit the Administration's misleading message.
While we may disagree on this particular issue, I will continue to
fight with my colleagues to bring an end to this war. And I will
continue to vote for every bill that helps to bring our troops home
as quickly and safely as possible.
Again, thank you for sharing your thoughts with me on this issue.
Please continue to contact me on this or any other issue of concern
to you and our district.
Sincerely,
MIKE THOMPSON
Member of Congress
http://www.mikethompson.house.gov
Copy of Steve Catton's original letter, 9/26/07:
I was disappointed to learn of your vote condemning the MoveOn.org ad in the New York Times.
In my opinion, the essential truth of the "General Betray-Us" ad was demonstrated very convincingly by Steve Coll's article, GENERAL ACCOUNTING, in The New Yorker, without even mentioning or quoting it.
Here's a link to the article. Please take the time to read it:
http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2007/09/24/070924taco_talk_coll/
It's all about MASS numbers
With regards to the section you quoted from the original blog post, the instant we get a critical mass of people to BELIEVE that their voices count it's all over for the neocons. But we must do it before the start the next (and last) world war.
Impeach
As a former Ohioan I am proud of Dennis Kucinich for his HR333. I suggest everyone take a look at the names of the Representatives who have had the courage to sign onto this resolution. Of the 19 names I saw the day I logged into USCongress.gov there were 8 women and 11 men. Would anyone care to guess what the ratio of men to women is in the U.S. Congress? There is one representative from Illinois where I now reside who has signed, Jan Shakowski who represents a silk stocking district north of the city. Has my African-American Congressman who was active in civil rights movement? No, though I e-mail him weekly on this issue. I suggest those of you who have activist civil liberties advocate as a representative whether he still believes in the Constitution's protection against governmental intrusions in our lives with unwarranted spying, etc. as in the McCarthy days.
IRAN & VOICE OF AMERICA
Voice of America and Fiasco at Persian Service.
There is no need to attack Iran IF the Bush administration pays attention:
Millions of dollars are spent in Persian Service of Voice of America but the end result is nothing but scandalous way of cockamamie management and programming.
It is hard to believe but the Persian Service which supposed to be an organization to convey the policy of the U.S. has become a free platform for hard-line terrorist group of communists who attack the United Sates!
I have the documents in writings to prove that these were done with the full knowledge of the management.
I used to work there and as I said before, I have all the documents in writings.
The manager is a woman called Sheila Gandji who can not read and write Persian. Therefore, in order to hide this shortcoming from the higher management, she has hired an eighty something man called Kambiz Mahmoudi who has a lengthy background as crook and in charlatanism.
You expect a doctor to be in charge of a medical clinic. You expect an engineer to be in charge of an engineering department. You expect a plumber to fix your plumbing.
So why do you expect a person who has no education in Iran and doesn't know the language of that country should be in charge of publicity, literature or politic for such position?
Sheila Gandji falsely pretended and presented herself as educated with background in journalism. These are absolute fabrications. Nobody in Iranian communities inside of the country or outside has any knowledge about her being a journalist, then and now.
Her partner, Kambiz Mahmoudi is a hateful and despicable person whose activities as crook are widely known through out Iran. Can't the U.S. government appoint somebody without such shameful background and baggage?
Don’t think that this is a personal vendetta.
Let me quote you a view from another media:
"The Iran Steering group concluded that much of the anti-American perspective that is broadcast is the result of decisions made by station managers in Washington D.C. and Prague. Sheila Gandji, the manager of Persian service has faced sharp criticism, particularly for her decision to stop VOA shortwave radio program in July, 2006 in order to focus on television broadcasts, which are more susceptible to censorship, since the government regularly confiscates satellites dishes in order to prevent the infiltration of foreign broadcasts."
This is not the only one. The mismanagement at the Persian Service of Voice of America is the subject of hundreds of sites and articles indicative of disgusts and ridicules in the world about VOA.
The bizarre situation at the Persian Service of Voice of America caused even the Republican Senator Coburn to write a long letter to President Bush about the fiasco there.
It is only in America where the government pays to be insulted. Really, why Voice of America is doing this harm to our nation?
dick Cheney and President Bush
Dick Cheney does not answer to Congress or to the public. He thinks he is above the law as does President Bush. The two of them combined has an administration steeped with secrecy. They are bleeding our country dry with the funding of this illegal war. They lied to the American people and misled Congress. They lie, they lie, they lie!!! The very fact that they lied about why we were going to war with Iraq is a reason to impeach both of them. But nothing has happened to them. I am truly disappointed with the Democrats who have failed to live up to the promises they made before winning the control that they now have. I don't think Nancy Pelosi is doing a very good job. It just seems like she just caves in to the Republicans when things get hot. Our troops need to start coming home now. The so called surge of the troops was a joke!!!