Congress will take up the Auto Industry Bailout when they re-convene this week.  There is no better time than this moment to PUSH for concessions from the Auto Industry.  Time is short.  Democrat.com, can you help us act NOW? Here's a copy of a letter I just mailed to Speaker Pelosi:      Dear Madam Speaker,

Please make the FLEXFUEL component a MANDATORY requirement for any Auto Industry bailout.
IT ONLY COSTS $100 to install this component on a vehicle during the manufacturing process.  The only EPA approved retrofit costs $1300.  All cars sold in Brazil are flexfuel ready.  All cars that GM sells in Brazil are flexfuel compatible.  There is no excuse and there should be no delay in making all cars sold in America flexfuel capable.
THIS IS THE QUICKEST CHEAPEST EASIEST WAY to make rapid reductions in our foreign oil imports.

By Dave Lindorff

The most entertaining thing about this Wall Street crisis and the
refusal of the House of Representatives (not failure but refusal) to
pass a bailout bill negotiated by the Bush White House and the House
leadership is how shocked and upset those leaders and the pundit class
have been by the idea that members of Congress would actually heed the
wishes of their constituents!

The Founding Fathers always saw the lower house of Congress as
voice of the people—the elected body that, because its members had to
face the voters every two years, would be most responsive to public
sentiment.

Investigative reporter Ron Suskind's book "The Way of the World" has exposed new impeachable crimes by the Bush Administration, and House Judiciary Chair John Conyers has launched an investigation.

Suskind's most important revelation is that Iraq's Intelligence Minister, Gen. Tahir Jalil Habbush al Takriti, became a U.S.-British spy two months before George Bush invaded Iraq. Habbush insisted Iraq had no WMD's or Al Qaeda ties, but Bush didn't want the truth because he was determined to invade Iraq.

Bush told his briefers, "why don’t you tell him to give us something we can use to make our case?"

Begins at 4:51.

Q: If you were to go back and change anything from your political career, what would it be?

A: Well, of course, the biggest disappointment for me is that we are still in this war in Iraq, and, ah, I had always thought at the time that, that, ah, people knew the truth they would not vote for this war and, I don't know what else, er, not have been supportive of this, I don't know what else we could have done, ah, but this has been the most damaging to us:

The following four interactions took place at Speaker Pelosi's book signing event in San Rafael, CA, while getting books signed by Speaker Pelosi. Each answer gives a tiny window into Pelosi's "thinking," which is nothing more than denial of the reality that Bush is a criminal who will defy subpoenas until his last day, when his final act will be to pardon himself and everyone else.

Speaker Nancy Pelosi's tour to promote her book Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters has turned into a debacle for Pelosi. 

The only "power" Pelosi seems to "know" is the power to arrest people who pay $30 to buy her book and ask her a question she doesn't like. Her only "message to America's daughters" is STFU.

When it comes to dissent, Pelosi is no different from George Bush or the Chinese government. Fortunately San Francisco voters have a choice: after an enormous grassroots effort, peace mom Cindy Sheehan will be on the ballot against Pelosi.

Pelosi was greeted at the American Jewish University in Los Angeles by activists who were outside and inside. Below are their reports and photos:

Note: Our first $1,000 award in our Pelosi Video Contest goes to Anthony from We Are Change Ohio for his outstanding effort to get an answer from Speaker Pelosi! Andrew writes:

I confronted Nancy Pelosi with the full articles of Impeachment. The crimes were highlighted. I have the full details of the confrontation in my video.

It was extremely difficult to not only record the confrontation fully, but also to bring her the articles because security wasn't allowing any cameras or allowing anyone to bring anything to her other than her book. So I literally had to sneak all this by.

I maintained integrity by remaining polite and trying to get a response out of her without getting aggressive like other have been. I kept my confrontation on the point and not only did I confront her with this but I got two responses.

I got her to admit that she hasn't read the articles of impeachment and when I mentioned that all the crimes that Bush has done like eviscerating the Constitution she replied "that's terrible".

Unfortunately I was only able to get audio but I still have the footage in its original form on my camera intact. I hope this is the answer you folks were looking for and I did my best. She hasn't read the articles of impeachment and the crimes listed in the articles are "terrible" according to her.

The Pelosi Video Contest remains open so we encourage everyone to keep trying to get a substantive answer from Pelosi to our question: Of the 36 detailed Articles of Impeachment introduced by Dennis Kucinich, do you consider any to be crimes? If yes, which? If no, why not - and what (if anything) would you consider an impeachable offense?

By Gael Murphy Before the talk began Politics and Prose (host bookstore) passed around question cards so there was ample opportunity to jam the basket with the $1000 question and any others. Pelosi is a pro at deflecting confrontation. No cameras or videos were allowed - probably the host's policy. It was possible to yell out, but tricky to do without making us look stupid. After the talk some 750 pple lined up to have their books signed, so the time to say all that we wanted was very limited. We came with a handout of the Bush crimes (executive summary of minority report. You can download from AfterDowning). When our turn came to have our book dedicated to CODEPINK:Women for Peace, she greeted us with exceptional charm. We were hyper dressed in Pink. As she was signing we brought up the View and handed (placed beside) her the list of crimes explaining that the ones highlighted had been investigated thoroughly and so would be the easiest ones on which to initiate impeachment proceedings. "Here are the goods - the highlighted ones would take 2 days tops, so there is time for accountability Mame Speaker." Then we brought up Iran, specifically HR 362. She asked what it was and when we told her sever sanctions on Iran she grimaced and said with enthusiasm, "if Congress votes to bomb Iran for refusing to stop enrichment, I will vote "no"". What a bizzarre comment. Then Leslie aked her, "Why did you approve $400 million in covert activity in Iran. That isn't helping a diplomatic efforts?". I guess our time with her had run out because she waved us away and her secret service goons stepped in. There was another fellow in line who was planning to ask the $1000 question. We stupidly forgot to stick around to see his result. Note, that anyone in pink will be closely monitored either by cap police and/or by rent-a-cops on the scene. The rent-a-cop searched all bag before entry for signs and banners, not weapons and there were no metal detectors set up.

This week on The View, Speaker Pelosi gave a completely insulting reason for not impeaching Bush:

If somebody had a crime that the president had committed, that would be a different story... unless you have the goods that this president committed these crimes.

As David Swanson rightly replied, "What rock have you been living under for the past seven and a half years?" before listing Bush's own confessions (wiretapping, torture) and prima facie cases (subpoenas, signing statements).

By Dave Lindorff

The dramatic hearing on presidential crimes and abuses of power
held on Friday by the House Judiciary Committee was both a staged
farce, and at the same time, a powerful demonstration of the power of a
grassroots movement in defense of the Constitution. It was at once both
testimony to the cowardice and self-inflicted impotence of Congress and
of the Democratic Party that technically controls that body, and to the
enormity of the damage that has been wrought to the nation’s democracy
by two aspiring tyrants in the White House.