Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Ten Reasons to Impeach George Bush and Dick Cheney

I ask Congress to impeach President Bush and Vice President Cheney for the following reasons:

1. Violating the United Nations Charter by launching an illegal "War of Aggression" against Iraq without cause, using fraud to sell the war to Congress and the public, misusing government funds to begin bombing without Congressional authorization, and subjecting our military personnel to unnecessary harm, debilitating injuries, and deaths.

2. Violating U.S. and international law by authorizing the torture of thousands of captives, resulting in dozens of deaths, and keeping prisoners hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross.

3. Violating the Constitution by arbitrarily detaining Americans, legal residents, and non-Americans, without due process, without charge, and without access to counsel.

4. Violating the Geneva Conventions by targeting civilians, journalists, hospitals, and ambulances, and using illegal weapons, including white phosphorous, depleted uranium, and a new type of napalm.

5. Violating U.S. law and the Constitution through widespread wiretapping of the phone calls and emails of Americans without a warrant.

6. Violating the Constitution by using "signing statements" to defy hundreds of laws passed by Congress.

7. Violating U.S. and state law by obstructing honest elections in 2000, 2002, 2004, and 2006.

8. Violating U.S. law by using paid propaganda and disinformation, selectively and misleadingly leaking classified information, and exposing the identity of a covert CIA operative working on sensitive WMD proliferation for political retribution.

9. Subverting the Constitution and abusing Presidential power by asserting a "Unitary Executive Theory" giving unlimited powers to the President, by obstructing efforts by Congress and the Courts to review and restrict Presidential actions, and by promoting and signing legislation negating the Bill of Rights and the Writ of Habeas Corpus.

10. Gross negligence in failing to assist New Orleans residents after Hurricane Katrina, in ignoring urgent warnings of an Al Qaeda attack prior to Sept. 11, 2001, and in increasing air pollution causing global warming.

Sign the petition>> Peoples Email Network



Monday, August 25, 2008

March 14, 2006: Moment of Zen - John McCain



The 17 Minutes That Launched a Political Star

By Eli Saslow
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, August 25, 2008

The Hawker jet lifted out of Springfield, Ill., under midnight darkness, and Barack Obama leaned back into a leather chair. In his lap rested a copy of the keynote address he would deliver in three days at the 2004 Democratic National Convention in Boston. He thumbed through its pages again, even though he already had committed most of the 2,300 words to memory.

As the plane leveled, Obama told his wife and advisers about his previous trip to a Democratic convention, in 2000. He had booked a last-minute flight from Chicago to Los Angeles, where an airport Hertz car-rental counter denied his credit card. Lacking political cachet, Obama had been unable to procure a floor pass into the convention. He watched speeches on a Jumbotron outside the arena before flying home, dejected, a few days before the finale.

"Let's hope this convention goes a whole lot better," Obama said on the Hawker.

The pressure of the trip weighed on everybody aboard the charter flight. During the four weeks Obama had spent obsessing about his speech, he often repeated a refrain to his staff members: We have to nail this. For 17 minutes on July 27, 2004, the little-known state legislator from Illinois would stand alone in front of a prime-time television audience, 15,000 media members and the Democratic Party elite.

The first impression Obama crafted that night still forms the basis of his presidential campaign. In the most visible moment of his life to date, Obama discovered a formula for success in the public eye that he has relied on ever since. He prepared meticulously, but disguised his delivery as effortless. He told the story of his unique background, but offered few original ideas.

Obama approached the lectern in Boston a virtual nobody, a representative for 600,000constituents in Illinois' 13th District. He exited having set the course for an unprecedented political ascent, with the fortified self-confidence that he could deliver when it mattered most.

Obama's staff had worked exhaustively to secure the chance for such a life-defining moment, even though the young politician doubted his qualifications for a keynote spot. He had restructured his schedule to campaign with presidential nominee
John F. Kerry, who selected the convention speakers. Jim Cauley, who managed Obama's 2004 U.S. Senate campaign, flew to Washington and lobbied Kerry's staff.

"The hesitation on him as a speaker was that he didn't even hold federal office yet, so how prominent could he be?" said Jack Corrigan, who ran the convention for Kerry's campaign. "He was unproven. But we became convinced that he also offered incredible promise."
As his flight landed in Boston about 2 a.m. on Sunday, Obama understood it was now his responsibility to deliver on that promise in his speech Tuesday night.

His advisers arrived at the Hilton
Boston Back Bay and dispersed to their rooms, but Obama stayed behind. He idled downstairs, too wound up for sleep, pacing the lobby.

Full article:
Democratic National Convention

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