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Aftermath - Feingold and Today's Senate Censure Hearings
[EDITOR'S NOTE: This piece was written by Dick Bell, who teamed with Karen to liveblog today's Senate Censure hearing.]
The immediate scrums after the hearing broke up centered on Sen. Feingold. There were questions about why there weren't more Democratic Senators present; Feingold said Leahy's opening statement was the strongest statement Leahy has made to date, that they rarely hold hearings on Friday, and that he's seen fewer Senators in the middle of the week [all of which your correspondent can testify is true.]
In his post-hearing remarks, Feingold emphasized that his principle reason for seeking censure had little to do with the NSA spying itself, and that focusing on the narrow issue of the NSA actually helped the White House by taking attention away from the pattern of Bush's power grabs. He joked that being attacked by the New York Times "probably helps me."
Feingold said afterwards that he had chosen censure in order to avoid the wrenching impeachment process. He pointed out that while the Republicans predicted Bush's polls would shoot up in response to Feingold's censure resolution (the RNC is running an ad conflating censure and impeachment), nothing of the sort has taken place.
He told a questioner that he felt he had no choice but to bring this resolution in order to defend the rule of law: "A Democratic Party that doesn't stand up for the rule of law is not the Democratic Party I want."
What was really extraordinary was that this hearing took place at all. While the formality of the hearing restrains the intensity of debate, this hearing room is also a very long way from the back rooms of the blgosphere. Feingold, and the grassroots support of his work, was able to force onto the public record very clear statements about the dangers of the course that Bush has put us on.
In that respect, John Dean was perhaps the most on message speaker. His argument about Bush seeking more power for the sake of gathering more power, unlike most of the earlier presidents whose power-grabbing was in the interest of some program or project.
The effectiveness of Dean's arguement lit a fuse under Sen. Graham, who spent a good deal of his time bullying Dean about events during Watergate, while completely ignored the substance of Dean's critique.
Late in the hearings, Graham left the room for an extended period, but when Feingold started really unloading on Bush, Graham came hustling back into the room, ready to start baiting Dean once again. Note that Graham also spent some time presenting himself as the guy who wants to find "a middle ground," and that he said he thought there were places where Bush had gone too far. Graham has 2008 presidential ambitions, and they were on display today.
There's nobody left now but interns cleaning up the mess, disconnected the mikes, and gathering up the nameplaces.
Keep up the pressure.
Thank goodness for Boxer and Leahy. BUT WHERE ARE THE REST OF THE DEMOCRATS?
EXACTLY Fe-
and they are going to get an earful from me in evrey request for money they send....
So does this mean the censure thing is over?
What is the next step?
E-MAILED TODAY:
"Senator Boxer:
I would like to personally commend you for standing with Russ Feingold today and supporting his move for censure of President Bush.
It is not an easy thing for you to do, I know. And that's what has earned my respect and support for you today.
We in California want Democrats who fight. With your support of Feingold, you exhibit the courage we want and need."
Bye Bye Love
by The Cars
I can’t feel this way much longer
Expecting to survive
With all these hidden innuendoes
Just waiting to arrive
It’s such a wavy midnight
And you slip into insane
Electric angel rock and roller
I hear what you’re playin’
It’s an orangy sky
Always it’s some other guy
It’s just a broken lullaby
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Substitution mass confusion
Clouds inside your head
Involving all my energies
Until you visited
With your eyes of porcelain and of blue
They shock me into sense
You think you’re so illustrious
You call yourself intense
It’s an orangy sky
Always it’s some other guy
It’s just a broken lullaby
Bye bye love
Bye g-bye love
Yeah bye bye love
Bye bye love-ov-ov-ove
Substitution mass confusion
Clouds inside your head
Well foggin’ all my energies
Until you visited
With your eyes of porcelain and of blue
They shock me into sense
You think you’re so illustrious
You call yourself intense
It’s an orangy sky
Always it’s some other guy
It’s just a broken alibi
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
Bye bye love
EXACTLY Fe-
and they are going to get an earful from me in evrey request for money they send....
Dick and Karen,
Thank you for these thorough updates. I agree Dick, we must keep up the pressure.
Free this land that we adore
From this baseless corporate whore
No one man deserves it more
Impeach George Bush before
He can start another war
called Schumer's office and asked why he wasn't there (no comment on Senators schedule). I pointed out that I get malings asking for money decrying Bush but when there is a real opportunity to do something the Senator is absent.
I am disgusted.
This was just the judicial or intellegence committee right?
Watching the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Feingold's censure resolution, I am struck, ONCE AGAIN, by the abysmal lack of integrity of the Republicans in Congress.
They have made their stand, behind the most criminal, deceitful and incompetent President in the history of the United States of America -- and they will not be moved. Not by facts, not by arguments, not by the very Constitution they swore to uphold and defend.
In this execrable display of mindless partisanship, the Republicans in Congress neither uphold nor defend that Constitution. It is patently clear that the Republicans hold partisanship above all else -- above truth, above country, above the Constitution.
They are traitors. They are GUILTY OF TREASON AGAINST THEIR COUNTRY.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/3/31/115212/592
http://www.myleftwing.com/frontPage.do
Rice admits "thousands" of errors in Iraq
Fri Mar 31, 2006
By Gideon Long and Sue Pleming
BLACKBURN, England (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice accepted on Friday the United States had probably made thousands of errors in Iraq but defended the overall strategy of removing Saddam Hussein.
Local Muslims and anti-war activists told Rice to "Go Home" when British counterpart Jack Straw earlier led her on a tour of his home town of Blackburn in the industrial northwest, an area which rarely plays host to overseas politicians.
"Yes, I know we have made tactical errors, thousands of them," she said in answer to a question over whether lessons had been learned since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
"I believe strongly that it was the right strategic decision, that Saddam had been a threat to the international community long enough," she added.
more...
http://tinyurl.com/g9lu8
Posted by: monkey at March 31, 2006 05:37 PM
Gee...Rice finally tells the truth. Now THAT is a headline!
This is REALLY Karen, and I have a lot to add to Dick's great reporting, but right now, dinner calls.
I want to be on the irc later, and I hope others will join me there, because I do think today was important and chilling.
We have work to do.
GOP Is Taking Aim at Advocacy Groups
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/033106E.shtml
To many Republicans, the liberal activist organization MoveOn.org is a political boogeyman that they hope to chase off with new restrictions on so-called 527 groups. But the pursuit may turn out to be fruitless. Like other major groups planning to inject themselves aggressively into the midterm elections through advertisements, voter drives and issue fights, MoveOn.org has already figured out what it thinks is a better, and less controversial, way to spend its millions.
States Pressured to Certify Voting Machines
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/033106L.shtml
The 2006 deadline has passed, and pressure is being placed on states to comply with the Help America Vote Act (HAVA). HAVA requires states to transition all voting machines to electronic and optical scan technologies in time for primary and mid-term elections of this year.
{{{News of situations, state-by-state.}}}
Bill to Stop Deceptive Crisis Pregnancy Centers Announced
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/033106HB.shtml
Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney, D-New York, announced today a new bill, "Stop Deceptive Advertising for Women's Services," which targets anti-choice centers that use deceptive advertising offering help to pregnant women or free pregnancy tests to lure women in, especially young and low-income women.
William Rivers Pitt | Plea in DeLay Case Snares Close Confidant
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/033106R.shtml
The third significant plea deal in the Abramoff/DeLay bribery scandal was announced today and Tom C. Rudy, DeLay's former deputy chief of staff, names Ed Buckham, DeLay's former chief of staff, as being a central player in the scandal.
War Deserter Tells of Atrocities
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/033106M.shtml
A "trigger-happy" US Army squad leader shot the foot off an unarmed Iraqi man and soldiers kicked a severed head around like a soccer ball, a US war deserter told an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing Thursday.
I'm thinking of sending this to my legislators with the excerpted quote highlighted. IMHO, we MUST keep Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee and their corporate cohorts from starting yet another illegal war based on LIES...!
Calm Is Urged in Iran Debate
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/033106G.shtml
United Nations atomic energy chief Mohamed ElBaradei urged the international community Thursday to steer away from threats of sanctions against Iran, saying the country's nuclear program was not "an imminent threat" and that the time had come to "lower the pitch" of debate.
Excerpt:
ElBaradei said the international community should act only on concrete information. He warned against a repetition of the 2003 experience with Iraq, when IAEA inspectors did not find signs of an active nuclear arms program but were ignored by the United States, which proceeded to use unsubstantiated intelligence to make the case for war. Since then, the IAEA has been proved right that Saddam Hussein did not possess any of the alleged weaponry.
"I work on facts," ElBaradei said in his remarks reported by Reuters news agency. "We fortunately were proven right in Iraq, we were the only ones that said at the time that Iraq did not have nuclear weapons, and I hope this time people will listen to us."
Non Sequitur
http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?sfile=nq060331&vts=33120061633
Doonesbury
http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?sFile=db060327
http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?sFile=db060328
http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?sFile=db060329
http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?sFile=db060330
http://www.msnbc.com/comics/daily.asp?sfile=db060331&vts=33120061633
Battlebob
Your Clinton joke & another one that appeared on here are circulating around his offices & one of his interns is going to have breakfast with John Kerry soon. I told him to say hi from the original johnkerry.com Freedom Fighters. JFK will know who they are.
Some beauty in an otherwise ugly day... I found it to be quite fascinating...
Pope John Paul II died a year ago Sunday, after 26 years as the spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church and its one billion followers. As the anniversary of the death of this much beloved figure approached, CNN obtained rare access to the Vatican and those closest to the pope during his final hours. They offered insight into the final moments of John Paul II and his living legacy.
more...
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/03/30/pope.finalgoodbyes/index.html
Discussion in irc now...
Wonderful work, Karen and Dick, for giving us the front seat, as always. Have I mentioned lately how tired I am of Lindsay Graham's good guy act, honed at the Clinton impeachment, and always proven hollow.
Hope I'm not too naysayer, or too cautionary, just my nature. I'm for anything that gets us power and truer dialogue. Beyond our politics as therapy, did we or the press convince anyone today that Bush is more evil or power-grabbing. Advance the case? The press poorly defines everything, simply, as a Dem and GOP horse race, rather than a unifying harm done to the country.
I sat through the impeachment Town Hall in NYC with John Dean, and he was great. He also mentioned elections aren't won on them. Our public is just waking up and will be years before we have a participatory gov't again, if ever.
I say that to offer that our officials aren't spineless for not going along with this, a Feingold move for 08, where he calls the Dems spineless, as does our echo chamber, ignoring the budget and ANWR fight that week.
We all have our roles to play. I'm all for OUR civil disoberdience and hefty passion, but I want my government back. By offering people what we can do for them, not stressing out over these greedy criminals. They're not worth any more of my good will turned bad.
Well, no more. They're toast, they're history, but we do it strategically.
I'll be in DC for Lobby Days Thurs & Fri, over Russ Holt's HR550, also not perfect, but a start on requiring verified voting. Maybe Karen and I will walk the halls together again.
Today I saw men lying and breaking the law. I heard them deny the Constitution, while claiming to cite it. I sat there with my jaw dropping.
Then I saw all the Dem bashing on Kos and I thought, "that's it."
We either MUST continue to point at the true problem, or we are lost...
One idea I had was to censure Bush myself right after Feingold introduced his resolution. I passed the resolution for Ellen's Tenth CD Blog (the Democat and I voted and it was unanimous). Might seem silly, but if hundreds of thousands of people were wearing t-shirts and buttons saying "I censure Bush" maybe the cowards in the Senate would get the message. Leaders always follow the people...
"I believe strongly that it was the right strategic decision, that Saddam had been a threat to the international community long enough," she added.
Posted by: monkey at March 31, 2006 05:37 PM
Note the "threat to the international community" frame? Sound familiar to any rhetoric these days?
What a bunch of bunk.
Calm Is Urged in Iran Debate
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/033106G.shtml
United Nations atomic energy chief Mohamed ElBaradei urged the international community Thursday to steer away from threats of sanctions against Iran, saying the country's nuclear program was not "an imminent threat" and that the time had come to "lower the pitch" of debate.
Posted by: NonnyO at March 31, 2006 07:31 PM
There ya go.
I wish I could have been in the IRC tonight, I'll bet I missed a good discussion. Had to work.
It's a sad day. Keep your chins up.
On the lighter side:
"President Bush has had terrorists protesting him wearing Bush masks. The President said 'I don't know who these people are, but they look familiar.'" - Conan O'Brien
Karen
I have always felt that way & I think you know that - prioritize the problems & focus on those that really matter. Figure out who the worst of the bad apples are and get them out of the basket.
Don't attack the Dems til you really have the luxury of doing so - there is a reason I only dabble in blogs like Kos etc. Maura Liason (sp?) of NPR had a good story on it today - talked about the blogosphere, progressives, "suits" in the Senate - where they might be coming from as far as strategy - why some are willing to stick their necks out, some aren't. She tied it to the whole issue of impeachment and what it did to the country & the issue of backlash. It was quite alot ot think about & I didn't feel much better but it did give more of a big picture.
Am still reviewing the day's events after entertaining out of town people for a few hours & have had a couple of glasses of wine but it looks like we have to look at the big, big picture.
Things that have bothered me today:
global warming and what is happening to the ocean
victims of Iranian earthquakes
families of my own autistic clients and what they go through
vague feeling of unease re things we don't know yet
(Wierd mixture of within/without)
I went to the IRC and it had been tucked in to bed for the night.
I went to Daily Kos to look for Dem bashing and I didn't really find it. What I found was something buried in alot of text that summarized perfectly what I was just talking about that I heard discussed on NPR. I can simplify it.
The Republican strategy right now and for 2006 and 2008 is very simple, and exemplified in their new ad where they attack Russ Feingold.
KEEP THE BUMS IN!!
That is their message, amazingly.
KEEP THE BUMS IN!!
We Can't Wait Any Longer
~ by Michael W. Smith
A silent call from a distant land
Crying for a helping hand, so
How long will it go on?
Ignorance and vanity
Supercede humanity, so
How long it will go on?
I want to know how long will it go on?
We can't wait any longer
They're crying out, doesn't it matter
We can't wait any longer
No, no. Too long in a slumber
Shake it up,wake it up now.
We can't wait any longer. No, no.
Another child is laid to rest
Another day of hopelessness, so
How long will it go on?
And every day we're on the fence brings
Another fatal consequence, so
How long will it go on?
I want to know, how long will it go on?
Yuko awezayo kusikia kilio chetu? (Can somebody hear us crying out?)
Twaomba msaada wenu (Somebody help us)
Aweko mwenye kuttuoka (Somebody save us)
Aweko mwenye kutupa uhuru (Somebody free us)
http://tinyurl.com/lol5d
The Backbone Campaign is leading the way by providing imagery to help the American people "Visualize Impeachment."
We are raising funds and organizing the building of a fun group of characters we fondly refer to as the "Chain Gang."
These cartoonish figures/costumes are already booked to visit Crawford, Texas with Cindy Sheehan this summer. We hope to build more than one set to be shipped around the country for "Work Release" appearances at music festivals, parks, and roadsides across the country, picking up trash and breaking rocks.
http://www.backbonecampaign.org
Heard this on Democracy Now today.
Also heard that if you can't pick Pacifica Radio up you can hear it via podcast, if you have a computer.
http://www.democracynow.org
They had a long interview with Noam Chomsky today - much historical perspective.
Bob Dylan - Masters Of War
Come you masters of war
You that build all the guns
You that build the death planes
You that build all the bombs
You that hide behind walls
You that hide behind desks
I just want you to know
I can see through your masks.
You that never done nothin'
But build to destroy
You play with my world
Like it's your little toy
You put a gun in my hand
And you hide from my eyes
And you turn and run farther
When the fast bullets fly.
Like Judas of old
You lie and deceive
A world war can be won
You want me to believe
But I see through your eyes
And I see through your brain
Like I see through the water
That runs down my drain.
You fasten all the triggers
For the others to fire
Then you set back and watch
When the death count gets higher
You hide in your mansion'
As young people's blood
Flows out of their bodies
And is buried in the mud.
You've thrown the worst fear
That can ever be hurled
Fear to bring children
Into the world
For threatening my baby
Unborn and unnamed
You ain't worth the blood
That runs in your veins.
How much do I know
To talk out of turn
You might say that I'm young
You might say I'm unlearned
But there's one thing I know
Though I'm younger than you
That even Jesus would never
Forgive what you do.
Let me ask you one question
Is your money that good
Will it buy you forgiveness
Do you think that it could
I think you will find
When your death takes its toll
All the money you made
Will never buy back your soul.
And I hope that you die
And your death'll come soon
I will follow your casket
In the pale afternoon
And I'll watch while you're lowered
Down to your deathbed
And I'll stand over your grave
'Til I'm sure that you're dead.
Noam Chomsky on Failed States
The Abuse of Power and the Assault on Democracy
Professor Chomsky thinks that the United States is beginning to resemble a failed state that cannot protect its citizens from violence and has a government that regards itself as beyond the reach of domestic or international law. Audio and transcript
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12585.htm
Four Words that Spoke Volumes
Just as Germans were complicit in the crimes of their government not that very long ago, so too are we American citizens complicit in the crimes of our own government.
By Mike Ferner
"Sentenced to time served," were the welcome words pronounced by Senior Judge Stephen Milliken, of the District of Columbia's Superior Court, on March 28.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12581.htm
Ignorance by Content and Omission
By Charles Sullivan
Little by little the minds of the people have been poisoned by propaganda and it is called nourishment. As a result the more noble traits of our culture are incrementally dying. Through the judicious use of lies and distortions the people are deceived into supporting the atrocities of war and conquest that are committed in their name.
http://informationclearinghouse.info/article12588.htm
Antarctic air is warming faster than rest of world:
New finding could have implications for sea level rises
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2111772,00.html
http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html
World's shortest political quiz. If you want to waste about three minutes, it's easy. I came out 'Liberal' - 'left liberal' - whatever that means. It's on some chart after I was shown the results.
NonnyO
Liberal.
I wonder why the tree-sitter who was involved in torching a UW horticulture place (an "eco-terrorist") go 30 years and Jack Abramoff got 5 years 10 months? My husband and I thought that was a bit unbalanced.