Court Of Impeachment And War Crimes: Impeach+Bush+Cheney: Updates: See Near The End Of This Post For New Hampshire Election, Polling Comments And Political Junkie Materials.

Impeach+Bush+Cheney: Updates: See Near The End For Election Comments And Political Junkie Materials.

REASONS TO BE AN ACTIVIST FOR AMERICA!

The Best Reason To Be An Activist

The First Church Of The Neocon

From Brattleboro

Keeping Track Of John Nearing DC.http://www.marchinmyname.org

Click For Current location Maphttp://www.marchinmyname.org/?page_id=15

http://courtofimpeachmentandwarcrimes.blogspot.com/2008/01/impeachbushcheney-john-nirenberg-to.html

MEET IMPEACHMENT MARCHER JOHN NIRENBERG IN DC SATURDAY JANUARY 12TH

January 8th, 2008

John Nirenberg will walk the final leg of his historic march from Boston to DC to urge the Congress to hold impeachment hearings on Bush and Cheney. Welcome him to DC with a march and rally at the home of the original U.S. Constitution, the National Archives.More info: www.marchinmyname.org

and see:9 AM NATIONAL ARBORETUM Route - walk 5.7 milesMeet at the Parking lot of New York Avenue side of the Arboretum (map http://tinyurl.com/2r2gc8 ), Metro toStadium Armory stop then B2 bus & walk to Arboretum.Directions: http://tinyurl.com/3yueul walk time 3 hours

Approx. 11:30 AM - walk 1.4 miles from UNION STATION Meet the Marchers at Union Station. Come by train orMetro (red line); Some garage parking; almost no streetparking. See: http://tinyurl.com/3ca9p8

Approx. 12:30 PM Rally at the NATIONAL ARCHIVESMeet on the Constitution Ave side of the buildingMetro Green/Yellow line to Archives/Navy Memorial stop.Driving: Don’t do it!! There’s NO Parking available.For More information email: takomaparkibc@gmail.com

http://www.zimbio.com/Congressman+Dennis+Kucinich

“It’s The Judiciary Committee Stupid!” Campaign Lead Linkhttp://courtofimpeachmentandwarcrimes.blogspot.com/2007/12/impeach-bush-and-cheney-calling-all.html

Work With Wexler http://www.wexlerwantshearings.com

More Wexler Words:
http://loopyloo350.wordpress.com/2008/01/09/life-experiences-164

http://courtofimpeachmentandwarcrimes.blogspot.com/2007/12/impeach-bush-and-cheney-support-our.html

http://impeachspace.ning.com/profile/laserflight

Meet Impeachment Marcher John Nirenberg in DC Saturday January 12thBy mike hersh John Nirenberg will walk the final leg of his historic march from Boston to DC to urge the Congress to hold impeachment hearings on Bush and Cheney. Welcome him to DC with a march and rally at the home of the original US Constitution, ...Progressive Democrats of America Blog - http://blog.pdamerica.org

Wexler Still Pushing for Impeachmentclipped by: papananook clipper's remarks: One of Congress' good guys...if that's possible...we have to think so, don't we...DON'T WE? Clip Source: www.wexlerforcongress.com. [Video] ...Clipmarks Live Clips - http://clipmarks.com/video/

TO-DO IN 2008: IMPEACH BUSH AND CHENEY Why I Believe Bush Must Go ...By Dave Baldwin(Dave Baldwin) George McGovern’s impassioned call for the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney has received more reader comments than any other column in Washington Post history. The reader response is extraordinary. ...Oregon Pundit - http://oregonpundit.blogspot.com/

Who’s Provoking whom … (in the Persian Gulf)?By info@anationdeceived.org (Craig S. Barnes) Dave is an award winning journalist and Co-author of “The Case for Impeachment: Legal Arguments for Removing President George W. Bush from Office.” His work can be found at his website www.thiscantbehappening.net. ... Impeachment Podcast - http://www.anationdeceived.org

Demand Accountability! Impeach Cheney!By Kevin(Jenny & Kevin) In a previous post, I discussed Representative Robert Wexler's efforts to press for the impeachment of Vice President Cheney. As a member of the House Judiciary Committee, Representative Wexler has strongly argued that Representative ...Life has taught us ... - http://bartoy.blogspot.com/

Only Impeachment can Restore the ConstitutionBy Gil Villagran, MSW(SF Bay Area Independent Media Center (Indybay)) Our nation is in a Constitutional crisis with a president and vice-president who conspired to catapult our nation into a war using intelligence they knew to be false. Only impeachment can restore our Constitution. Indybay newswire - http://www.indybay.org/

Cheney ImpeachmentBangor Daily News - Bangor,ME,USAMainstream Democrats in Congress are sympathetic to their arguments, but most have bowed to the political reality that impeachment proceedings would ...See all stories on this topic

Hillary The Link To ImpeachmentOpEdNews - Newtown,PA,USAWith New Hampshire’s win the news is that Barack is against Impeachment and is actually half Republican according to sources, making him seem to be a ...See all stories on this topic

Dick Cheney Appears in Video Remix Of Eminem's Mosh!Unconfirmed Sources (satire) - USA"This is a brilliant move by the Bush Cheney team." Said media figure Moe Rocka. "I mean, I think it is lame and pathetic, but I bet it will appeal to a ...See all stories on this topic

Letter BoxBrattleboro Reformer - VT, United StatesIf you believe Bush and Cheney are guilty of impeachable offenses, are you in favor of their impeachment and removal from office? If not, do you acknowledge ...See all stories on this topic

Rep. Michaud seeks to impeach CheneyBangor Daily News - Bangor,ME,USAMichael Michaud has called for impeachment hearings into the conduct of Vice President Dick Cheney. Michaud, who represents Maine’s 2nd District, ...See all stories on this topic

Impeach Bush and Cheney / George McGovern / Washington Post ...By David Irwin Link: Impeach Bush and Cheney / George McGovern / Washington Post [Candide's Notebooks].Poor Richard's Anorak - http://davei.typepad.com/poor_richards_anorak/

Cafferty File: Time to IMPEACH Bush & Cheney (video)By dandelionsalad In it there is no mention of Kucinich’s House Resolution 333, however, THIS IS an excellent YouTube about Impeachment. DId you [...] [Click the title to view. Thanks for subscribing.]Dandelion Salad - http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com

Bush and Cheney should be impeachedLake County Record-Bee - Lakeport,CA,USAThe two men responsible are Bush and Cheney, who started this with untruths. They are responsible for the murders of all our people in Iraq and for the ...See all stories on this topic

Rep. Michaud seeks to impeach CheneyMichael Michaud has called for impeachment hearings into the conduct of Vice President Dick Cheney. Michaud, who represents Maine’s 2nd District, expressed his position in a letter to House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers of ...AfterDowningStreet.org - Impeach... - http://www.afterdowningstreet.org

Leaked Documents Prove Cheney Plan B!Unconfirmed Sources (satire) - USAThe Bush/Cheney campaign denies the existence of the documents, and said that Dick Cheney would hold a press conference to refute the charges, ...See all stories on this topic

John McCain Poised to be Vice President After Dick Cheney RetiresUnconfirmed Sources (satire) - USAIt works this way: Dick (Dick) Cheney retires after the second inauguration but during the first year due to "health problems". Bush nominates McCain to be ...See all stories on this topic

Daily Kos: Cheney Impeachment: It's the Judiciary Committee, StupidCheney Impeachment: It's the Judiciary Committee, Stupid. by Ralph Lopez. Wed Nov 14, 2007 at 11:54:09 AM PST. At the end of this is a down and dirty list ...

Clash brews on ethicsThe Hill - Washington,DC,USAIn December, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said the House would take up the rules change in January, although the timing could slip into February ...See all stories on this topic

Obama can thank Bush and CheneyIdaho Mountain Express and Guide - Ketchum,ID,USAMoreover, that estimable twosome leading the Democratic majority in Congress, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, ...See all stories on this topic

Can Democrats live down their performance?Modesto Bee - Modesto,CA,USAA year ago, triumphant Democrats arrived on Capitol Hill declaring, as Speaker Nancy Pelosi put it, "The election of 2006 was a call to change -- not merely ...See all stories on this topic

http://www.nationinstitute.org

Tomgram: If the GWOT Were Gone...

[Note for Tomdispatch Readers: Last week, I offered my initial take, a year early, on the Bush legacy, "Journey to the Dark Side." Here's take two.]

The $100 Barrel of Oil vs. the Global War on Terror

The Bush Legacy (Take Two)By Tom Engelhardt

Consider the debate among four Democratic presidential candidates on ABC News last Saturday night. In the previous week, the price of a barrel of oil briefly touched $100, unemployment hit 5%, the stock market had the worst three-day start since the Great Depression, and the word "recession" was in the headlines and in the air. So when ABC debate moderator Charlie Gibson announced that the first fifteen-minute segment would be taken up with "what is generally agreed to be… the greatest threat to the United States today," what did you expect?

As it happened, he was referring to "nuclear terrorism," specifically "a nuclear attack on an American city" by al-Qaeda (as well as how the future president would "retaliate"). In other words, Gibson launched his version of a national debate by focusing on a fictional, futuristic scenario, at this point farfetched, in which a Pakistani loose nuke would fall into the hands of al-Qaeda, be transported to the United States, perhaps picked up by well-trained al-Qaedan minions off the docks of Newark, and set off in the Big Apple. In this, though he was surely channeling Rudy Giuliani, he managed to catch the essence of what may be George W. Bush's major legacy to this country.

The Planet as a GWOT Free-Fire Zone

On September 11, 2001, in his first post-attack address to the nation, George W. Bush was already using the phrase, "the war on terror." On September 13th, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz announced that the administration was planning to do a lot more than just take out those who had attacked the United States. It was going to go about "removing the sanctuaries, removing the support systems, ending states who sponsor terrorism." We were, Bush told Americans that day, in a state of "war"; in fact, we were already in "the first war of the twenty-first century."

That same day, R.W. Apple, Jr. of the New York Times reported that senior officials had "cast aside diplomatic niceties" and that "the Bush administration today gave the nations of the world a stark choice: stand with us against terrorism… or face the certain prospect of death and destruction." Stand with us against terrorism (or else) -- that would be the measure by which everything was assessed in the years to come. That very day, Secretary of State Colin Powell suggested that the U.S. would "rip [the bin Laden] network up" and "when we're through with that network, we will continue with a global assault on terrorism."

A global assault on terrorism. How quickly the President's Global War on Terror was on the scene. And no nation was to be immune. On September 14th, the news was leaked that "a senior State Department official" had met with "15 Arab representatives" and delivered a stiff "with us or against us" message: Join "an international coalition against terrorism" or pay the price. There would be no safe havens. The choice -- as Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage would reportedly inform Pakistan's intelligence director after the 9/11 attacks -- was simple: Join the fight against al-Qaeda or "be prepared to be bombed. Be prepared to go back to the Stone Age." The price of a barrel of crude oil was, then, still under $20.

From that day to this, from the edge of the $20 barrel of oil to the edge of the $100 one, the Global War on Terror would be the organizing principle for the Bush administration as it shook off "the constraints," "took off the gloves," loosed the CIA, and sent the U.S. military into action; as it went, in short, for the Stone Age jugular. The phrase, Global War on Terror, while never quite catching on with the public, would become so familiar in the corridors of Washington that it would soon morph into one of the least elegant acronyms around -- GWOT -- sometimes known among neocons as "World War IV," or by military men and administration officials -- after Iraq devolved from fantasy blitzkrieg into disaster -- as "the Long War."

In the administration's eyes, the GWOT was to be the key to the magic kingdom, the lever with which the planet could be pried open for American dominion. It gave us an interest everywhere. After all, as Pentagon spokesperson Victoria Clarke would say in January 2002 (and this was a typical comment of that moment): "The estimates are anywhere from 50 or 60 to 70 countries that have al Qaeda cells in them. The scope extends far beyond Afghanistan." Administration officials, in other words, were already talking about a significant portion of existing states as potential targets. This was not surprising, since the GWOT was meant to create planetary free-fire zones. These al-Qaeda targets or breeding grounds, after all, had to be emptied. We were, as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other top officials were saying almost immediately after 9/11, going to "drain" the global "swamp" of terrorists. And any countries that got in the way had better watch out.

With us or against us, that was the sum of it, and terror was its measure. If any connection could be made -- even, as in the case of Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda, a thoroughly bogus one -- it immediately offered a compelling home-front explanation for possible intervention. The safety and security of Americans was, after all, at stake in every single place where those terrorist mosquitoes might be breeding. If you had the oil lands of the planet on your mind (as was true with Dick Cheney's infamous Energy Task Force), then the threat of terrorism -- especially nuclear terrorism -- was a safe bet. If you wanted to fortify your position in new oil lands, then the ticket was to have the Pentagon move in -- as in Africa -- to help weak, possibly even failing, states prepare themselves against the forces of terror.

For us or against us in the GWOT, that was the way all things were to be judged, no matter the place or the complexities of the local situation -- in Pakistan no less than the Gulf of Guinea or Central Asia. And that was to be true at home as well. There, too, you were for us or against us. Those few who opposed the Patriot Act, for instance, were obviously not patriots. The minority who claimed that you couldn't be at "war" with "terror," that what was needed in response to 9/11 was firm, ramped up police action were simply laughed out of the room. In the kindliest light, they were wusses; in the worst light, essentially traitors. They lacked not only American red-bloodedness, but a willingness to blood others and be bloody-minded. End of story.

In the wake of those endlessly replayed, apocalyptic-looking scenes of huge towers crumbling and near-mushroom-clouds of ash billowing upwards, a chill of end-time fear swept through the nation. War, whatever name you gave it, was quickly accepted as the obvious, commensurate answer to what had happened. In a nation in the grips of the politics of fear, it seemed reasonable enough that a restoration of "security" -- American security -- should be the be-all and end-all globally. Everything, then, was to be calibrated against the successes of the GWOT.

Domestically, a distinctly un-American word, "homeland," entered our everyday world, was married to "security," and then "department," and suddenly you had a second defense department, whose goal was simply to make the American people "safe." Alone on the planet, Americans would now be allowed a "safe haven" of which no one could rob us.

From Seattle to Tampa, Toledo to Dallas, fear of terrorism became a ruling passion -- as well as a pure money-maker for the mini-homeland-industrial complex that grew up around the new Department of Homeland Security. A thriving industry of private security firms, surveillance outfits, and terror consultants was suddenly among us. With its help, the United States would be locked-down in an unprecedented way -- and to do that, we would also have to lock down the planet by any means necessary. We would fight "them" everywhere else, as the President would say again and again, so as not to fight them here.

The Elephant and the GWOT

If the Global War on Terror initially seemed to be the royal road to the Bush administration's cherished dream of a global Pax Americana and a local Pax Republicana, it was, it turned out, also a trap. As manipulatively as they might use their global war to stoke domestic fears and create rationales for what they wanted to do anyway, like so many ruling groups they also came to believe in their own formulations.

The GWOT would, in fact, be a Presidential monomania. According to journalist Ron Suskind in his book The One Percent Doctrine, "The President himself designed a chart: the faces of the top al Qaeda leaders with short bios stared out. As a kill or capture was confirmed, he drew an ‘X' over the face." According to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, the President kept that "personal scorecard for the war" in a handy desk drawer in the Oval Office for the next hot piece of good news on terror.

In the universe of the GWOT and homeland security, everything would be obsessively U.S.-centric. In fact, the administration's "war" brings to mind an old joke in which various nationalities are asked to write essays on "the elephant." The Frenchman, for instance, writes on L'Éléphant et L'Amour. In an updated version of the joke, the American would, of course, write on "The Elephant and the Global War on Terror". The media picked up this obsession. On some days you can still see this reflected clearly in news accounts -- as in this typical first paragraph from a news piece in the January 2nd Wall Street Journal on the aftermath of fraudulent presidential elections in Kenya.

"Kenya's marred presidential vote and the violence that has spiraled from it are threatening an island of stability in the otherwise volatile horn of Africa and endangering U.S. counterterrorism efforts in the region."

Or, to return for a moment to Charlie Gibson's loose-nuke terrorism scenario in that Democratic debate: It was a given that neither Gibson, nor any of the Democratic presidential hopefuls on stage would mention the single country for which such a scenario might have an element of realism -- Pakistan's neighbor, India. But that's just par for the course, since other countries, other peoples, except as they relate to the American War on Terror, have neither purpose, nor reality. Without the GWOT, without the (narrowly defined) issue of American "insecurity," they all qualify as just "the elephant." And yet, as an obsession, as war policy as well as domestic policy, banking everything on the GWOT has proved about as foolish, as self-defeating, as -- let's say it -- mad, as anyone could possibly have imagined.

To put this Bush legacy and its significance in perspective, here's my own fantasy scenario for you to debate:

Imagine that, by some unknown process, the GWOT succeeds. Instantly. Al-Qaeda and other like-minded terrorist and wannabe terrorist groups are simply wiped off the face of the Earth. They cease to exist. Tomorrow. No al-Qaeda in Mesopotamia. No original al-Qaeda (with its local admixtures) in the Pakistani tribal areas or Afghanistan. No al-Qaedan-style car bombers lurking in London. No more hijacked vehicles heading for American buildings or U.S. Navy vessels. No more trains blowing up in Madrid railway stations. No more al-Qaeda-labeled suicide car bombs going off in Algiers, or Istanbul, or anywhere else.

The end. Finis.

This would mean, of course, that the American obsession of these last years, the Global War on Terror would be ended, too. There would then be no reason for the world to be with us or against us, no need for a Department of Homeland Security, or draconian laws, or major surveillance programs, and so on.

Now, we still have a few minutes left in this segment of our "debate," so let's just keep imagining. Take a glance around the world -- theoretically made "secure" and "safe" for Americans -- and ask yourself this: If the Global War on Terror were over, what would be left? What would we be rid of? What would be changed? Would oil be, say, $60 a barrel, or even $20 a barrel? Would Russia return to being an impoverished nearly Third World country, as it was before 2001, rather than a rising energy superpower?

Would the Iraq War be over? Would the Arctic Sea re-ice? Would Afghans welcome our occupation with open arms and accept our permanent bases and jails on their territory? Would all those dollars in Chinese and Middle Eastern hands return to the U.S. treasury? Would Latin America once again be the "backyard" of the United States? Would we suddenly be hailed around the world for our "victory" and feared once again as the "sole superpower," the planetary "hyperpower"? Would we no longer be in, or near, recession? Would hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs begin flowing back into the country? Would the housing market bounce back? Would unemployment drop?

The answer to all of the above, of course, is resoundingly and repeatedly "no."

Essential power relations in the world turn out to have next to nothing to do with the war on terror (which may someday be seen as the last great ideological gasp of American globalism). In this sense, terrorism, no matter how frightening, is an ephemeral phenomenon. The fact is, non-state groups wielding terror as their weapon of choice can cause terrible pain, harm, and localized mayhem, but they simply don't take down societies like ours.

The IRA did not take down England despite years of devastating terror bombings in central London; nor did al-Qaeda take down Spain, even with a devastating bombing of trains entering a Madrid railway station. And neither the British, nor the Spanish acted as though that might happen.

The Global War on Terror's greatest achievement -- for American rulers and ruled alike -- may simply have been to block out the world as it was, to block out, that is, reality. When it came to al-Qaeda's ability to cause death in the United States, any American faced more danger simply getting into a car and hitting an American highway, taking up smoking, or possibly even (these days) going to an American suburban high school.

A Nation of Cowards?

Most of the things that needed to be done to make us safer after 9/11 undoubtedly could have been done without much fuss, without a new, more bureaucratic, less efficient Department of Homeland Security, without a new, larger U.S. Intelligence Community, without pumping ever more money into the Pentagon, and certainly without invading and occupying Iraq. Most societies which have dealt with terror -- often far worse campaigns than what we have experienced, despite the look of 9/11 -- have faced the dangers involved without becoming obsessional over their safety and security, without locking down their countries, and then attempting to do the same with the planet, as the Bush administration did. In the process, we may have turned ourselves into the functional equivalent of a nation of cowards, ready to sacrifice so much of value on the altar of the God of "security."

Think of it: nineteen fanatics with hijacked planes, backed and funded by a relatively small movement based in one of the most impoverished places on the planet, did all this; or, put more accurately, faced with the look of the apocalypse and the dominating urges of the Bush administration, we did what al-Qaeda's crew never could have done. Blinding ourselves via the President's GWOT, we released American hubris and fear upon the world, in the process making almost every situation we touched progressively worse for this country.

The fact is that those who run empires can sometimes turn the right levers in societies far away. Historically, they have sometimes been quite capable of seeing the world and actual power relations as they are, clearly enough to conquer, occupy, and pacify other countries. Sometimes, they were quite capable of dividing and ruling local peoples for long periods, or hiring native troops to do their dirty work. But here's the dirty miracle of the Bush administration: Thinking GWOT all the way, its every move seemed to do more damage than the last -- not just to the world, but to the fabric of the country they were officially protecting.

Among their many GWOT-ish achievements, top administration officials demarcated an area extending from the western border of China through the territories of the former Central Asian SSRs of the Soviet Union and deep into the Middle East, down through the Horn of Africa and across North Africa (all of this more or less coinciding with the oil heartlands of the planet), and dubbed it "the arc of instability." Then, from Somalia to Pakistan, they managed to set it aflame, transforming their own empty turn of phrase into a reality on the ground, even as the price of crude oil soared.

Opinion polls indicate that, in this electoral season, terrorism is no longer at, or even near, the top of the American agenda of worries. Right now, it tends to fall far down lists of "the most important issue to face this country" (though significantly higher among Republicans than Democrats or independents). Nonetheless, don't for a second think that the subject isn't lodged deep in national consciousness. When asked recently by the pollsters of CNN/Opinion Research Corporation: "

How worried are you that you or someone in your family will become a victim of terrorism," a striking 39% of Americans were either "very worried" or "somewhat worried"; another 33% registered as "not too worried." These figures might seem reasonable in New York City, but nationally? As the Democratic debate Saturday indicated, the politics of security and fear have been deeply implanted in our midst, as well as in media and political consciousness. Even candidates who proclaim themselves against "the politics of fear" (and many don't) are repeatedly forced to take care of fear's rhetorical business.

Imagining how a new president and a new administration might begin to make their way out of this mindset, out of a preoccupation guaranteed to solve no problems and exacerbate many, is almost as hard as imagining a world without al-Qaeda. After all, this particular obsession has been built into our institutions, from Guantanamo to the Department of Homeland Security. It's had the time to sink its roots into fertile soil; it now has its own industries, lobbying groups, profit centers. Unbuilding it will be a formidable task indeed. Here, then -- a year early -- is a Bush legacy that no new president is likely to reverse soon.

Ask yourself honestly: Can you imagine a future America without a Department of Homeland Security? Can you imagine a new administration ending the global lockdown that has become synonymous with Americanism?

The Bush administration will go, but the job it's done on us won't. That is the sad truth of our presidential campaign moment.

Tom Engelhardt, who runs the Nation Institute's Tomdispatch.com, is the co-founder of the American Empire Project. His book, The End of Victory Culture (University of Massachusetts Press), has been thoroughly updated in a newly issued edition that deals with victory culture's crash-and-burn sequel in Iraq.

Copyright 2008 Tom Engelhardt

The Political Junkie Fix Station
http://www.time.com/time/2008/primaries08/?xid=rss-topstories

Election Commentary New Hampshire:

I am in the position, that from time to time, I have to pay attention to polling data, and at times I am called upon to evaluate polling techniques and structures; when something goes wrong. This time the analysis does not require years of experience and countless hours of class work to determine the failure last night.

The Iowa polling apparatus worked because the system worked as it always works in Iowa with the exception of the increased turnout of the (Y)s. Evaluating the turnout increase was easily accommodated. Evaluating the impact of the (Y) factor was no problem here, but it was a problem for the traditional pollsters. In 48 hours they had begun to assimilate that electoral component. They should have done a better job and been better prepared as the Kerr/Bush election had flagged that growing element and the phenomenon of “The Rage” voter had been defined months ago. Those components have now been taken into account.

Iowa because of the “peculiarity” of the caucus system, highly susceptible to manipulation by simple turnout techniques has a model that is easy to track and update…but New Hampshire is a far different animal.

The failure in New Hampshire rests firmly on the fact that those elections are just that…elections, and the model applied in the past week was a sloppy untweaked 2004 elections model. There is more than ample data available on the behavior of “The New Hampshire Independent Voter System” to have done a better job. So what happened; what went wrong?

The (Y) factor and traditional New Hampshire voter balance was not analyzed properly. The Traditional New Hampshire voter still constitutes the largest majority in the voting population and they are sure to vote. These people never stop voting. They select a new Governor every two years. Now over lay that with Federal elections, local primaries, local special elections and they vote, vote, vote. I approve.

The (Y) factor is for the most part concentrated in University communities with a growing, though not significant, as yet, Yuppie…for lack of a better word…influx into New Hampshire. The demographic change must be watched carefully and accounted for by locale. It was not.

New Hampshire always has a number of subjective intangibles that no telephone poll can reliably detect and/or evaluate in a polling effort. These folks when they vote in an election such as yesterday’s can do whatever they damn well please and they do…nothing wrong with that.

How do you evaluate their affection for John McCain? They have adopted him and it is obvious that he is comfortable among the people of New Hampshire. And so if we assume, and pollsters did, that an historic primary turnout was going to reflect the realities of Iowa, one ends up barking up the wrong tree. A large number of voters turned out to “take care of “their man John” not answering the call of “Obamamania”.

Say what you will; the name Clinton resonates in New Hampshire and a bit of feisty campaign does not put of the Granite State voters, and yes, immeasurable, but a little Hillary Humility and Humanity played well.

What everyone better adjust to quickly is the fact that exit polls in New Hampshire set the economy as the primary concern at 87%. That is significant in anyone’s book and will resonate from here to super February Day.

Issues of importance to everyday readers of this blog are not foremost in most American minds and that is demonstrated in the difficulty we are having arousing the general, to us, comatose American electorate. They are simply walking down the path of traditional politics with numbers reflecting their dissatisfactions and enthusiasms.

The turning point is now upon us. Change will now have to be well defined. Generalities will have to be fleshed out with specifics of real plans and programs for change. “Universal Health Coverage” will have to stop being a buzz word and plans will have to become more complete. And so it is for a whole host of issues.

Americans, the majority, see Iraq as ending somehow, sometime and a continued debate will not well serve the candidates except for McCain who can continue to hold his war hawk American Legion Halls supporters.

You don’t have to like him, but Carville’s” “It’s the economy stupid” is back, but really; does the notion that Americans vote their pocket books and wallets ever go away.

Well pollsters; fix your models or enjoy the same skepticism that that politicians currently enjoy, and both you and the media…trying informing as opposed to attempting to form opinions and voting decisions. I warn you; the Independent Voter (Y) and otherwise is a growing population and they tend not to listen to people who spread the gospel of fear and the pontification words of dictation.

America wants a restoration of economic well- being, some cessation of political pretense, posturing and partisan pissing, real progress on health care, and end to fighting every fucking war we can dream up, relief from a diet of fear. They want hope, progress, stability; and they want you to do your God Damned jobs without sucking up to corporations and soaking up every cent of lobbyist loot you can lay your hands on. They want privacy, respect, to be listened to and lectured at from some political manager or pundit’s script book.

Enough for the moment….onward to February, for most of you. I am still not a happy camper!

And This Is WHY!

CODEPINK: Women for Peace

January 9, 2008

Dear Ed.,

Last year at this time, the three of us were in Guantanamo, Cuba with former detainee Asif Iqbal and the mother and brother of detainee Omar Deghayes. Omar's mother, Zohar, had not seen her son in five years. When we got to the gates of the U.S. Naval Base to stage our protest, she broke down. "It breaks my heart to think of my son in a cramped narrow cell without sunshine or fresh air, living for so many years in conditions not even fit for animals," she cried.

Omar grew up in Brighton, England, where he studied law. In 2001 he traveled to Malaysia, Pakistan and Afghanistan, where he married and had a son.

When war broke out in Afghanistan, he fled with his family to Pakistan, planning to return to England. But he was arrested, reportedly for a bounty of $5,000, and sent to Guantanamo. Omar says he was beaten repeatedly and kept in solitary confinement for eight months. In March 2004, when he protested a body cavity search, five guards pepper sprayed him so badly, he lost sight in one eye.

After six years of horrendous detention without charges or a trial, Omar was finally released on December 18, 2007. While we join his family in celebrating his release, we know over 300 prisoners still remain in Guantanamo, subjected to the same abuses and utter disregard for due
process.

January 11 marks the International Day to Shut Down Guantanamo.

CODEPINK is organizing a protest in Miami outside the Southern Command
(http://www.codepinkalert.org/article.php?id=3804), which runs the
prison.

For a list of dozens of local protests across the country, click here (http://www.witnesstorture.org/jan11_events).

If you can't join a protest, please take a moment to call (202-353-1555) or write (AskDOJ@usdoj.gov) Attorney General Michael Mukasey.

Demand that Guantanamo prison be shut down, and that all detainees either be charged and tried in US federal courts or released.

Upon Omar's release from prison, he wrote the following note to
CODEPINK:

"I thank everyone from America who has written and emailed my family for my release. I do not have hatred toward Americans. I know that not all Americans are bad. Even inside the prison, some guards were not bad.

I thank you for your support and ask that you continue to work hard to ensure that due process is provided for all prisoners and to force the closing of the prison in Guantanamo."

If you would like a write a note of apology to Omar or his mother, Zohra, you can send it to info@codepinkalert.org

Let's begin the new year by demanding that our government respect the rule of law.

With justice for all,

Medea Benjamin, Jodie Evans and Ann Wright

P.S. Travel with CODEPINK!

Make your plans now to join CODEPINK in New Orleans, April 11th and 12th, as we celebrate V to the 10th, the 10th anniversary of Eve Ensler's V-Day: The Campaign to End Violence Against Women and Girls and Change the Story of Women.

Click here

(http://codepinkalert.org/form.php?modin=85) to find out more about this inspiring weekend, which will include powerful activist trainings as well as performances of Swimming Upstream and The Vagina Monologues with Oprah Winfrey, Ellen DeGeneres, and other superstars. Come earlier in the week, and you can help us bring healing, compassion and PINK to New Orleans through our transformative community project.

You can also travel with CODEPINK worldwide to connect with our sisters in other countries and spread peace around the globe
(http://www.codepinkalert.org/article.php?list=type&type=172).

We are partnering with Global Exchange to send women's delegations to places such as Afghanistan and India in March, Iran and Vietnam in April, and South Africa in August. Find out more about these life-changing journeys here (http://www.globalexchange.org/tours/byIssue.html#14).

We look forward to traveling with you!

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The End For Now….