Americans; Please Nod Your Heads: Impeach Bush and Cheney

This Is One Of Our Problems. When Week After Week Marshall’s Mindless Mush Fills The Same Space, (And That’s All It does, Fill Up Space), Purporting To Represent The Left; Then We Are In A Hell Of A Lot Of Trouble On The Hill, (But then We All Know That), When This Mediocre Mush Mouth Is Taken Seriously As An Opinion Maker. What A Waste Of Space! See For Yourself. I supply Ample Links To Read This “Advocate’s” Verbal Lint.

And The See “The Pastor Weeded Out Of The Garden Club” Because Her Ideas Are Weeds For The Mind! Oh Yes; We Have Some Problems! Remember That All These People Vote…Damn!

But before you drop down the page, let’s drop in on a little story I heard recently, or let me drop it on you.

And what kind of shape are we really in? At The recent George Mason Accountability Forum, Markus Raskin, Co-Founder Institute for Policy Studies, told a little story that pretty much summed up my personal observations of most Americans today. The story in general went something like this.

There was an oriental executioner who was troubled by his own ineptitude or lack of perfection in the kill with executioner’s sword.

A skillful swing and then a head would roll and bounce around in a most unseemly very distasteful manner lack any artistic aesthetic grace, say nothing of the messy spatter, spurt and gushing of the blood of the dispatched.

Oh for that perfect head lopping; just once in a man’s professional career. The age old pursuit of perfection in all things seems to haunt our species.

And then one day he had a “client”, a rather mouthy client fully acceptant of his fate, willing to give no one any satisfaction of fear or weakness of resolve, who quietly awaited the darkness of the blades edge. And having waited patiently for his end and listening to the executioner’s warm up swings; he grew impatient and grumbled:”Oh come on let’s just this over with.”

There was a moment of silence after which the executioner replied: “Sir; will you please nod your head.” America; I think you might just want to nod your head. Just a little reality check on The Bush Blade.

Well let’s go from the kill to the hill or hill killing, or killing on the hill. It’s a mess!

The Hill

Josh Marshall
Impeachment inertia

By Josh Marshall
July 27, 2007

I’ve always been against the movement to impeach President Bush. It’s not that I don’t think the president hasn’t done plenty to merit removal from office.

I do.

My reasons are practical.

More minor reasons include the fact that it’s late in the president’s term and that I think impeachment itself is toxic to our political system — though it can be less toxic than the high officials thrown from office.

My key reason, though, is that Congress at present can’t even get to the relatively low threshold of votes required to force the president’s hand on Iraq.

Coming out for impeachment under present circumstances is like being so frustrated that you can’t crawl that you come out for walking.

It seems to elevate psychic satisfactions above progress on changing a series of policies that are doing daily and vast damage to our country.

Find me 17 Republican senators who are going to convict President Bush in a Senate trial, and maybe we’ll talk.

On balance, this is still my position. But in recent days, for the first time, I’ve seen new facts that make me wonder whether the calculus has changed. Or to put it another way, they’ve made me question whether my position is still justifiable in the face of what’s happening in front of our eyes.

Most of those facts I’m referring to stem from the ongoing Gonzales controversy and the various running battles over executive privilege.

In fact, one exchange in particular between Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) at Tuesday’s Senate hearing stands out in my mind.

This was the exchange in which Gonzales simply refused to answer one of Schumer’s questions — didn’t say he didn’t remember, didn’t invoke a privilege, just said no. Not going to discuss that with you.

Move on to the next question.It’s not that this one incident is a matter of such consequence in and of itself — though I would say it’s pretty consequential.

But it captures pretty fully and in one small nugget the terrain the White House is now dragging us onto.

Testifying before Congress is like testifying in a court of law.

The questions aren’t voluntary. You have to answer every one.

You can invoke a privilege and let the court decide whether the argument has merit. But no one can simply decline to answer a question.

Though other events in recent months and years have had graver consequences in themselves, I’m not sure I’ve seen a more open, casual or brazen display of the attitude that the body of rules on which our whole system is built just doesn’t apply to this White House.

I think we are now moving into a situation where the White House, on various fronts, is openly ignoring the Constitution, acting as though not just the law but the Constitution itself, which is the fundamental law from which all the statutes gain their force and legitimacy, doesn’t apply to them.

As Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) noted in the Tuesday hearing, the White House’s evolving position on privilege and contempt sets the White House up as a virtual law unto itself.If that is allowed to continue, the defiance will congeal into precedent. And the whole structure of our system of government will be permanently changed.

Whether because of prudence and pragmatism or mere intellectual inertia, I still have the same opinion on the big question: impeachment. I think it’s a distraction from more important priorities, like making the president start pulling us back from the abyss in Iraq.

But I think we’re moving onto dangerous ground right now, more so than some of us realize.

And I’m less sure now, under these circumstances, that operating by rules of “normal politics” is justifiable or absolves us of our duty to our country.

This I Genuine Space Filling Fluff Passing For Serious Thinking. God or a reasonable facsimile thereof help us. This is not what I call taking a stand!

Current and Previous Articles

July 13, 2007-Untainted prosecution
June 29, 2007-Bailing on Bush
June 22, 2007-What Giuliani gets away with
June 15, 2007-Allegations about Rove
June 08, 2007-In hot water in Alaska
May 24, 2007-What we need to know now in the attorney-firing scandal
May 10, 2007-Darker cloud of suspicion
May 02, 2007-House committee hoping to cure Gonzales of amnesia
April 25, 2007-Spinningin a wider web in firings scandal
March 28, 2007-Book exposes crooked contractor’s deal
March 22, 2007-It’s how they do business
March 08, 2007-In firings’ wake, Dems on duty
February 16, 2007-Bush's dubious case against Iran
February 09, 2007-Media airheads
February 01, 2007-Here's a question we should be asking ourselves
January 25, 2007-He clearly expects no presidential pardon
January 18, 2007-White House boots federal prosecutors, replaces them with cronies
January 11, 2007-'Surge' not enough to make difference
January 04, 2007-Saddam's execution exposed fallacy of U.S.-led invasion
December 07, 2006-Dems, U.S. citizens, press are scapegoats for Iraq debacle
October 05, 2006-Foleygate mutes Republicans, arms Democrats
September 28, 2006-Is Bush withholding security information for political gain?
September 21, 2006-Oh, what a tangled web we weave ...
September 14, 2006-Whining over Bush politicizing the war won't help Dems
July 20, 2006-The polls will tell the story if you listen
July 13, 2006-Social Security's out of sight, out of mind for Dems
June 29, 2006-Dems turn against Liberman because he's turned on them
June 22, 2006-The message that the Democrats haven't been using
June 15, 2006-Social Security: The winning issue that Dems forgot
June 08, 2006-After immigration and gay marriage, look for terror alerts
May 18, 2006-Wade, Wilkes may supplant Abramoff as ethics watch words
May 11, 2006-Cunningham scandal spirals toward the CIA
May 04, 2006-The Cunningham scandal keeps getting tawdrier
April 27, 2006-To the White House, the midterms are about subpoenas
April 06, 2006-Tom DeLay won K Street for the Republicans '
March 30, 2006-Following the DeLay money trail to his Russian patrons
March 16, 2006-Impeachment is a shortcut for oversight
March 09, 2006-The little lie that may sink Katherine Harris
March 02, 2006-Take the fight against corruption to the Pentagon
February 16, 2006-It's all but over for Lieberman in Connecticut
February 09, 2006-Bush has handed Dems a chance to do good and well
February 02, 2006-The real action in politics this year will be in court
December 08, 2005-The contracting scandal won't end with Duke
November 17, 2005-Point man on WMD assertions skilled at doublespeak
November 10, 2005-'06 Republicans may want to run from loser Bush
November 03, 2005-In phase two of Intel probe, focus on Italy
October 27, 2005-Congress keeps ducking Niger investigation
October 20, 2005-Three years later, GOP can't shake taint of '02 tactics
October 06, 2005-Democrats have their own ethics test to pass
September 29, 2005 Abramoff is part of GOP's pay-for-play political machine
September 22, 2005 Start the Abramoff conflict-of- interest discussion here
September 15, 2005 Katrina became 'incident' before it hit New Orleans
September 08, 2005 Bush tore down the FEMA that Clinton built up
August 17, 2005 Enforce the rules on Congressman Freemeals
August 03, 2005 Italian intelligence seems central to Niger-Iraq mystery
July 28, 2005 The FBI's review of WMD forgeries looks like a sham
July 21, 2005 Rove has himself a gold-standard lawyer in CIA case
July 14, 2005 It's clear the leakers knew what they were doing
July 06, 2005 Rep. Cunningham scandal just keeps getting deeper
June 30, 2005 Why the Dems have trouble with the middle class
June 23, 2005 Cunningham issue raises questions of war profiteering
June 16, 2005 Was Cunningham's house deal a cunning scam?
June 01, 2005 We still haven't dealt with the fraud behind the war
May 26, 2005 In N.H. case, Frist aide tries for jury of partisans
May 19, 2005 Bush wants another Rathergate from the Newsweek flub
May 12, 2005 Bush's word games try to make a 'problem' a 'solution'
April 28, 2005 The press is on to the Republicans' Orwellian spin
April 21, 2005 Dems are letting politics drive policy on Social Security
April 14, 2005 It's true: Targeting DeLay is just the start
April 07, 2005 Public forums are no place for Bush's thought police
March 17, 2005 The Dems do have a Social Security plan -- this is it
March 10, 2005 Let's see Bush get himself out of the privatization mess
March 03, 2005 It's a tight race for title of GOP bamboozler in chief
February 17, 2005 Social Security skepticism runs deep red
February 10, 2005 Bamboozlepalooza Tour makes little progress for Bush
February 03, 2005 Bush has problems with his base
November 18, 2004 Bush's Cabinet moves are about loyalty and control
November 04, 2004 It's tough to have a Goldwater moment when you're so close
October 13, 2004 TV conglomerate committing fraud with 'documentary'
October 07, 2004 'First time I met you' latest in a line of Cheney whoppers
September 23, 2004 FBI could talk to source of forged Niger papers. I did

A Heretic Amid the Hibiscus

By DONNA SCHAPER Coral Gables, Fla.

I don't know that I will ever receive a formal letter of rejection from the Coral Gables Garden Club. I know of the rejection only because one of my sponsors for membership told me.

The reason had nothing to do with the quality of my flower arrangements. Nor did it stem from my spotty record as a tropical gardener. (I am a pretty good Northern gardener, but the tropics have stumped me more than once.)

The reason offered to my sponsor for my rejection was that I was "too liberal." The club members have a point: I spoke out against the war in Iraq, and I've been arrested for protesting against other wars and marching for abortion rights and racial justice.

With this rejection, I thus join Tim Robbins in this strange season: he was disinvited to a Baseball Hall of Fame event on similar grounds. I join Susan Sarandon, who was disinvited by the United Way of Tampa Bay for antiwar comments. I join the poets who were disinvited to the White House because they might have embarrassed the president. At least I am in good company.

Being blackballed by the green-thumb crowd — blue-haired or otherwise — is a sobering experience. But I can change. If a dyed-in-the-wool Zone 5 gardener can toss away her forcing forsythia, picking up her roots and replanting them in the land of the bougainvillea, then surely the garden club can consider me again.

In hopes of having another chance at membership, I have thought of renaming my French string beans, which are miraculously giving a daily crop.

Perhaps henceforth they should be called liberty beans.

Same for the French lettuces.

There is really no need to give the lettuce a nationality.

We can just call it lettuce and leave it at that.

I could bathe my night-blooming jasmine in red, white and blue lights and put bunting around the orange jasmine.

The dozens of bromeliads in my front yard could be a problem: they all have spikes of pink flowers.

Might the garden club think, shades of Joe McCarthy, that I am a pinko?

I am writing a third garden book to spruce up my credentials. Did I mention that when I first came to town the club featured me as a speaker? When I finished speaking, the audience clapped. In the question and answer session, no one asked about politics. Many people bought the books.

Perhaps they found evidence of my politics in the pages.

Was there something suspicious about the way I mulch?

Are my rock decorations a threat to homeland security?

Perhaps I should write a new book called "Politically Correct Gardening." In it I could show the single right way to plant, hoe, seed and compost. I would focus on native plants (or ones that originated in countries among America's coalition of the willing).

I would avoid pink flowers altogether.

Nothing French would be mentioned.

All plants would have to look good in bunting.

Gardening is my hobby. I wanted to join the club because its members know stuff I want to know. I'm not going to get in, but I have learned something in the process. A good gardener — even a liberal one — can't take this sort of rejection on her gardening kneepad. She takes off her gloves, puts down her shears and stands up.

Donna Schaper, senior pastor of the Coral Gables Congregational Church, is author of "The Art of Spiritual Rock Gardening."