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| February 14, 2006 |
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The BuzzFlash Mailbag The opinions expressed in the Mailbag are not necessarily those of BuzzFlash. More reader opinion is at "Contributors." You can write to Mailbag at http://www.BuzzFlash.com/contact/mail.html. Guidelines for submissions are at BuzzFlash FAQ #18. Subject: Get Demonstrators off the Streets The time has come for all of us who rally and vigil and march to GET OFF THE STREETS AND INTO THE HALLS OF CONGRESS: It is time to demand face-time with our Representatives and Senators-to ask for appointments, and if that respectful request goes unheeded, to present ourselves in OUR HOUSES of Congress until our voices are heard. If our nation-wide presence was manifest, in each and every Legislative District, and Senators' office, during a designated time, then we will have made real what has largely gone unacknowledged: We The People demand Articles of Impeachment be drawn for GWBush. We The People want their elected officials to fulfill their sworn allegiance to the U.S. Constitution. A BuzzFlash Reader [BuzzFlash Note: Sounds like a strategy. Don't forget their visits to the home district, either. Town Meetings, etc.? Ask them to a coffee with your neighbors, then focus on the big issues?] Subject: Mad As Hell I am mad as hell. My political beliefs are a little bit republican, a little bit democrat, a little bit libertarian, a little bit green and whatever other political hybrids that are out there. Therefore, I label myself as an independent. I don't expect much from my government for the money I am forced to give them out of my paychecks so they can run (not ruin) this country. However, over the last five years (since 2000) I have slowly simmered over the antics of this Bush Gang of Fools, and the simpering, gonad-less fools in Congress who are enabling the Gang of Fools. Here's what I do expect from my government: 1. Responsible spending. Here's what I am mad as hell about. 1. We have a pResident who ran from his legal obligations to the Texas National Guard, tells us he supports the troops, but then insults veterans and cheats the troops out of the equipment they need to do their jobs and be safe. 2. We have a pResident who clearly lied to justify a war that most logical, rational people in the world were against. 3. We have an administration that has chosen to leak classified information in attempts to justify their sick, twisted logic. We have an administration that thinks nothing at all about compromising the identities of NOC/CIA officers. 4. We have an administration that can't see the broad side of a barn and figure out what it is. They missed all the warnings about 9-11. They had an opportunity to seek justice when offered OBL by the Afghans, but refused to. 5. We have a pResident who would rather tiptoe through the bluebonnets in Crawford while holding hands with members of the Saudi Royal Family. 6. We have a pResident who said (in 2000) that our military should not be used for nation building, yet he sends our troops (active, Reserve, and National Guard) to a desert country thousands of miles away to first destroy, then to rebuild them. 7. We have a pResident who is spending more money on rebuilding foreign countries than helping our own citizens recover from a natural disaster. Isn't it embarrassing for ALL of us that the Mayor of New Orleans is forced to seek financial aid from foreign interests? 8. We have a pResident who refuses to meet with us, his bosses, unless we sign loyalty oaths and kiss his ass. 9. We have a pResident who is an intellectual moron. What does it say when heads of foreign countries speak better English than he does? To sum it up, we need, and we deserve, federal representatives who are loyal to their constituency, We the People -- not to the pResident, political party affiliation, lobbyists, and business interests. This administration and the current crop of federal representatives are largely ineffectual and lacking in character, honesty, integrity. We the People need to band together and prepare for the 2000 version of the War of 1776. Lisa J. Subject: Pew Research polls on wire taps From an email to the Pew Research Center: PEW RESEARCH POLLING ON WHITE HOUSE WIRE TAPS Your finding that "more Americans are concerned that the government hasn't yet gone far enough in protecting the country against terrorism" is consistent with the conclusions of the 9/11 commission. But your conclusions on the wire tap issue are confusing. You say that "the public believes it is generally right for the government to monitor communications of Americans suspected of having terrorist ties without first obtaining permission from the courts." You offer no follow up question on the stunning White House refusal to submit applications on wire taps already in progress, a routine allowance but mandatory follow up. You do not ask about the real bone of contention (at least to the general public) -- the ability to conduct wire taps with no oversight at all any time, ever. Your own failure to follow up reflects the White House failure to follow up but NOT the true conflict. I would pose the question thusly: Do you think the U.S. president should be able to wiretap anyone without any oversight whatsoever, including the applications required to be submitted after the wiretap has begun? Or do you have something between your ears and something between your legs? Obviously a leading question, so I trust you know better. However, YOUR limited questioning is MIS-leading. It is important to be clear on what's at stake here -- White House intentions to make warrantless wire taps permanent and NEVER confirmed with the FISA Court. By eliminating that crucial fact, the practical result would be the killing of the oversight requirement altogether, pre and post. This would render the FISA Court null and void. Absolute and anti-constitutional power with no oversight would then succeed at the onset of an allegedly limited target population. B. Gilmore Subject: Appalling and worse than Nixon in every way Now Brownie tells all and the tale is predictably repellent. Bush knew of the levee failure on the night Katrina hit New Orleans. White House Knew of Levee's Failure on Night of Storm (NY Times) What was the reaction of this "great" leader to news of such dire consequence, why it was to have a little cake and play a little guitar of curse: Bush Fiddles (with a Guitar) While New Orleans Floods (Pensito Review) Once more Mr. Bush and his group of hand picked lackeys demonstrates their utter wretched callous incompetence. Impeachment is the only thing that will save this country from further damage. Dan D. Subject: Kurt Tucholsky in English Hi BuzzFlash, Last month I began a blog featuring translations of text/poems by Kurt Tucholsky (1890-1935) from German into English: http://kurttucholsky.blogspot.com. Quoting the Wikipedia entry on Tucholsky:
I think Tucholsky will be of interest to you and your readers. His works just fell into the public domain, and though most have already been translated into English, these editions are all out of print. He is not generally known in American and he is virtually unrepresented in the English language blogosphere. That has to change. Many of his texts contain important messages for our times. They are prescient and prophetic warnings against fascism. Of particular interest to you may be the following posts: "I am a Murderer" "How Dumb They Were" "To the Public" "The Free Economy" Please put the blog address (http://kurttucholsky.blogspot.com) on your watch list. I believe you will find the upcoming posts to be highly relevant. Kind regards, Indie Dear BuzzFlash, How can an administration so maladroit, bungling and destructive stay in power? Fear rules the day I guess. Why are the Democrats and real Republicans allowing this criminal behavior to continue????? The FACTS are out there. The whole world is watching. PLEASE someone take charge and impeach, imprison these criminals. Will Fitzgerald be able to do his job? Peace, Aimee L. Walker Subject: War Veterans Screwed Once Again! So far, America has spent $230 billion to $300 billion dollars to fight the Iraq war - depending on whose numbers you go with. What Congress is being ask to do is fund VA hospitals over FIVE (5) years for less than seven (7) billion dollars. The Bush administration and the Republican Congress will not appropriate the funds needed to treat returning war veterans at our VA hospitals because it means the top 1/5 of one-percent (.2%) of the richest Americans will not get a Capital Gains tax cut this year. This is WRONG! If these .2% were true Americans citizens, they would renounce this tax cut in support of our injured troops. The American Legion (a majority of its membership has shown support for George Bush) supports this requests to fund our VA Hospitals to treat our returning war veterans. Do George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and the Republican Congress care about the troops they have designated as "cannon fodder"? The sorry part of this entire mess is that many of the people making these decision have not served in the military, much less in a combat situation. Many have known records of having dodge the draft during the Vietnam conflict (Dick Cheney). Some even went AWOL, a court martial offense (George Bush). One congressman reported on his web site that he had flown combat missions over Vietnam when it was an outright lie. Greater than two-thirds of our Representatives in Congress have never served in ANY military capacity including my representative, Lynn Westmoreland (R) of the 8th Congressional district in Georgia. I have friends and relatives that have not served who consider themselves great republican patriots because they support the illegal acts of war by this president and his administration. Not many citizens were against the use of our military to chase after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and to bring those criminals to justice, but the invasion of Iraq by the Bush Administration using lies developed by Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld is an illegal use of the lives of our soldiers. Now they won't fund our VA Hospitals to heal their broken bodies and destroyed lives? How can any of us allow this travesty to continue? We must contact our representatives in Congress and tell them to reverse this decision immediately. It is a criminal act against our men and women in uniform! For additional information, read the article below. Senate Republicans Screw Veterans Again (bobgeiger.blogspot.com) Mike Post Subject: Democrats - Loading Themselves in the Boat! The Democrats in Congress may think that at election time the voters will automatically oust the Republicans. Wrong. They may think that by doing nothing the Republicans will be loading themselves in the boat but....voters are not that smart. Only a fraction of the voters seem to know what is actually happening in this country the rest follow blindly thinking for example that the war is about Democracy and that this administration wants to save us from terrorism. They don't seem to see that this administration is robbing us blindly and laughing all the way to the bank! Unless many Democrats in Congress stand up now and demand answers from this administration, nothing will change. The Republicans run everything in Washington. The Democrats need to be vocal and cause such a major noise that voters will finally HEAR the truth. Someone needs to stand up now and be heard!!! Connie Dirig Subject: More Than Enough Blame To Go Around Bush's latest “scare” tour doesn’t seem to be going as well as might be expected. His revelation that “turrurists” planned to blow up the tallest building west of the Mississippi was launched with his usual squinty-eyed attempt at sincerity. He called the building by the wrong name, said that the “turrurists” planned to breach the flight deck door with a shoe bomb and forgot to let the Mayor of Los Angeles, where the Liberty Tower is located,in on the details. He also seemed to be taking credit for foiling a plot that was foiled 3 years ago by someone in another country. (Is it just me or does a “shoe bomb” seem an unlikely way to gain access to the flight deck? Kind of like the Looney Tune who planned on destroying the Brooklyn Bridge with a blow torch.) The fact that this ploy has been successful does not shine a flattering light on our country. Are we really such scaredy cats? We should be more than a little ashamed that “Chicken Little” running around screaming that “the sky is falling” every now and then has had us running for cover. Less than 3000 people died on 9/11 and we have allowed that fact to drastically change our lives. 38,253 people died in traffic accidents in 2004 and we drive more than ever. Are we frightened of our vehicles? Where’s the war on traffic accidents? Second, the media has been ineffective, dishonest, and lazy. They have failed the people that they should be serving. You know, the people who own the air waves, that’s us folks. Everyone has a perfect right to prefer conservative or liberal talking heads, as their choice may be. Fine. What is not fine is that the so-called spin has spun way beyond advocacy into untruth. Evidently the media doesn’t think the people need the truth. We get the “spin” the “slant” and the dishonesty that a real press would be ashamed to repeat. Our elected officials have failed the people they are supposed to represent in every way imaginable. Some are foolish, some are lazy, some are dishonest and some just don’t seem to care about anything except getting re-elected so that they can go back to Washington and work towards getting re-elected again. It is often said that the people get the government that they deserve. I sure hope that isn’t right. Cause if this bunch is what we deserve we should be ashamed. Marjorie L. Swanson Subject: Change the Tone Hi BuzzFlash, Instead of expressing outrage and demanding that our elected representatives (HA HA HA) do their jobs and protect our Constitution, we can reframe our actions as law enforcement activities necessary because they have abdicated their duties and ignored their oaths of office. Our mantra should be IMPEACH and we should repeat it and display it EVERYWHERE. We can also put up yellow crime scene tape wherever this illegitimate government does its business without the consent of the governed. A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: The Allegedly Thwarted Terrorist Attacks Let's see ... we are to believe that Bush sat on this information for 3 years. During the time he was running for re-election. During the time Condi Rice outed an al Qaeda operative who was cooperating with the British (to the great fury of British Intelligence). During the time White House operatives were outing Valerie Plame and effectively shutting down a major CIA operation to capture those who were selling weapons of mass destruction. The headlines for this story should be reading "Bush Really Does Think the American Public is Stupid." Joan Lamberth Subject: Who's Paying the Bills I find that a good rule of thumb when dealing with local initiatives and other legislation being advertised on TV ask yourself, "Who's paying the bills for all this advertising?" The odds are that if you are seeing a particular ad all the time and there is no real opposition, the legislation is designed to screw people who work for a living. The asbestos bill sponsored by Cheney is a perfect example of this. If we could get the word out there to ALWAYS vote against legislation when there are a lot of ads supporting it (or for legislation when there are a lot of ads opposing it), we could move in the direction of government of, by and for the people. ... Assuming, that is, that we can ever again have elections where there is an accurate vote count. Joan Lamberth Subject: Cover-ups Are Us! Do you ever wonder why so much has been botched by the Bush Administration? One reason might be because Bush and his gang has to expend so much time and energy covering up their mistakes, hiding information, and switching public knowledge away from their screw-ups and culture of corruption, catapulting their propaganda, blaming others, and renaming their adversities something else, leaving them little time to govern. Front man for the Neocon cause, George Bush, keeps his face in front of the camera making dogmatic speeches with help from complicit media “pioneers.” So what if his statements are inaccurate or outdated, as it sure saves him a lot of explanations, and he thinks he can cover all his ambiguities with folksy humor and a smirk? The Bush Administration has a hoard of lies, scandals, and misinformation in their past history, but for now they must deal with many cover-ups in the present such as the CIA outing of Valerie Plame, the Abramoff debacle, keeping Brownie’s mouth shut and any more damaging information of the Katrina mess from getting out. The truth about their failing policy in Iraq, and the Domestic Spying issue takes an everyday effort to defend. Hiding emails and documentation from Senate Investigative committees is cumbersome, except in rare instances, now you see them, now you don’t, like when Rove conveniently found an email to keep him from being indicted, most still remain hidden in that mysterious black hole. Though Bush has resorted to old scare tactics like the attack that didn’t happen in Los Angeles, the media talked about it for the last two days, yet ignored another topic they consider “outdated” like the London Guardian’s report about a memo revealing George Bush intended to invade Iraq regardless of UN support or if the UN inspectors found weapons of mass destruction. From the time they have taken office {and before}, Mr. Bush and his Administration has governed with a constant systematic duplicity led by Karl Rove who would stoop to any means to dominate, threaten, and cajole, even to blacklisting the members of his own Republican Party or any who voice opposition to the Administration's corrupt misuse of absolute power! Susan Carr Subject: Corporate Media (Most Dire Threat) You know about all the corruption, imperialism, lying and cheating going on with the bush administration and you all realize the goals of this fascist are to take total control of our nation and its citizens. I WOULD LIKE TO HUMBLY SUBMIT TO YOU THAT THE "COMPLICITY OF THE MEDIA TODAY IS THE SINGLE MOST DEADLY THREAT TO AMERICA AND OUR CONSTITUTION." All other threats are secondary! The internet will soon fall to the fascism of the right! Lawton Watson This is why nothing will be done about the current state of affairs in our country. Has USA lost drive to rebuild after tragedies? (USA Today) Tres Falls BuzzFlash, I was reluctant to believe that election fraud has been deliberate and pervasive , as are Judith Shelby's friends (letter Mailbag 2-9). But the weight of the evidence in the first two links changed my mind. The first is the Conyers Report that details dirty tricks to disenfranchise voters. The second is a statistical analysis of the discrepancy between the exit poll data and vote count. These are independent methodologies that are totally in agreement. Either one by itself would be sufficient to declare an election in a third world country invalid. Both together are indisputable. http://www.house.gov/judiciary_democrats/ohiostatusrept1505.pdf Larry, Subject: Enforcing the Law The FBI recently announced triumphantly that they had arrested the "eco terrorists" in ALF and ELF who were responsible for arson fires that had destroyed private and public property. The spokesman made a point to say you thought you could get away with breaking the law . . . I sat there thinking, well abortion is legal in the United Sates, yet I have heard of no concerted effort by the Feds to prosecute those pro life groups who advocate and carry out assassinations of abortion providers, block their driveways and threaten their children and families, bomb clinics and basically declare open season on providers. And lets not even talk about how they harass the women who patronize these clinics. Now this is before the neo-cons had stacked the court with the ideologues who will overturn Roe v. Wade! So if you guys want a pat on the back for doing your job, try doing it across the board. There is a rabid, murderous group of domestic terrorists roaming around free if you'd care to look into that . . . Vilified as ‘Terrorists,’ Eco-activists Face New Offensive by Business (infoshop.org) Judith Shelby Subject: Change of thought regarding Iraq Dear BuzzFlash, I'm writing to let you know that I have had an about-face regarding our getting out of Iraq. I fought long and hard before we went into Iraq to keep us out of Iraq. I didn't believe Bush or the intelligence that his arrogant and incompetent Administration was promulgating. I was not in agreement with the Congress on authorization for the President. I was against the Patriot Act, However, once we were in Iraq, I felt that we should and could not leave until we could leave the region stable. Well, now I understand that the region can never be stable. The Muslims and their governments have proved it with their reaction and their violence regarding the cartoons. They have proved they are just too fundamentalist to have rational thought. They are too fundamentalist to even know or understand what freedom is, much less appreciate it. Democracy is not possible, George Bush. It will evolve into Theocracy, if it has not already. And the oil you are trying to secure is red with American blood and the blood of innocents. We don't want it in our automobiles or heating our homes. So the best thing we can do is get our soldiers out of Iraq before any more of them are killed and maimed and before any more of them suffer from PTSD, and before any more families and lives are ruined. Educate our young people. Don't send them and their fathers and mothers and uncles and brothers and sisters off to war with lies. Take heed, Joe Biden. Take heed, John Kerry. Take heed, Joe Lieberman. Take heed, Hillary Clinton. I'm hearing the same thing from my colleagues at work, in Texas and Oklahoma, even many of those who were Bush's most staunch Republican supporters. The American people who were trying to be well informed and responsible have turned, for the same reason I have turned. And after a most educating week on the thought and action processes of the world's predominantly Radical Muslim Fundamentalist populations, I have turned forever. Only their own few responsible Muslims, such as the King of Jordan, can solve their own problem. It is so basic that it may not be solvable. In case you wonder, in my opinion, the Radical Right-Wing Religious Fundamentalist dingbats are in the same dire shape as the Muslims. And our Representatives and Senators need to wake up and see that if we do not keep our Church and State separate, we are in for the same sort of irrational reaction over something just as specious. Like lemmings, those right-wing dingbats follow the faux Christian President. This is not the way of a just and good and loving God. It is the way of a homicidal maniac. I hope enough Americans are listening and thinking. We can't trust our own Government or our Main Stream Media Press. Our Government could do the most egregious of all dastardly deeds, and our Republican Senators and Congressmen would speak with one voice supporting them and claiming it was in the interests of National Security. Thank you for providing this forum for discussion. I will read and listen if any of your readers want to try to change my mind. Keep up the good work, Buzz! And lead on, Cindy Sheehan! Margaret I was mesmerized by your Mark Crispin Miller interviews. The second one inspired this piece. I thought what he had to say was so important that it should be highlighted and amplified. I have started a new blog. It's called Reset. For Distorted Reality and Malfunctioning Media: Unplug and Reset. Mark Crispin Miller Connects the Dots on Election Problems, Part II. A BuzzFlash Interview. Mark Crispin Miller Connects the Dots on Election Problems (Part I) Whose Truth Doesn't Matter Anymore? Carol Davidek-Waller Subject: Ms. Angelou (Friday) I heard the clip on the radio where she used her usual analogy about standing on the stage with thousands and this time she said for thousands and mention about 6 or 8 names and the second was Harry Belafonte. Speak up or they assume you agree!!! ABB Karen Webb Subject: No to the Patriot Act, period. The Patriot Act will be giving Bush another huge inch and he always takes a mile. Later, like with the vote to allow him to invade as a last resort which suddenly gives him the power to do whatever he sees fit, will become congress's permission to allow him to go beyond it. He is now saying the permission to use force as a last resort allows him to do any and everything and he seems to think congress should have known of his problem with exceeding any bounds put upon him. As far as I can tell there is only one person I would vote for and that is Feingold because he will vote against making it permanent. Speak up or they assume you agree!!! ABB Karen Webb Subject: U.S. Economy Dear BuzzFlash: Do your news agencies ever tell you the truth about your deficit? If it does, why is everyone not really upset about it? Even for the American economy that is the biggest in the world (supposedly) it is going to be pretty hard to catch up when no one is making much money except the CEOs. Consumerism only works when consumers have money to spend. U.S. trade deficit sets another record (mytelus.com) Marie-France Germain Subject: How Democrats Should Talk on Foreign Policy Issues Your link to Arianna Huffington's comment about how Democrats won't win until they convince Americans that they can keep people safer than Republicans is right on the money. Yes, Democrats as a whole do a much better job of fighting wars, protecting America, and supporting the military than Republicans. But we are dealing with perception and we must change that perception. Here's how. First, point to history. Point out how Democrats won WWII, WWI, brought Egypt + Israel to peace, fought the Balkan war without 1 dead American soldier etc... while bringing up GOP failures abroad (Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, North Korea's nukes, Beirut) and at home. (9/11, lack of body armor, prolonged the Cold War, etc... The overall record clearly favors Democrats. The "greatest" military accomplishment of Republicans was invading a classroom in Grenada. Tell people that the Keystone cops have a better history of fighting crime than Republicans. Second, EVERY democrat should be going to the Senate floor and on every talk show denouncing Republicans. Use words like wimps, cowards, and chicken hawks. Tell people that Republicans "care more about corporations and war profiteering than protecting America" or "coddle with Saudi terrorists" or "refused to capture Osama Bin Laden" or "make America less safe." And when the republicans attack back, you make sure you respond three times stronger for each attack. Third, show some spine. President Clinton said "strong and wrong defeats weak and right." Well strong and right defeats neocon pretend strong and clearly wrong. People will support somebody they think has conviction that they disagree with over somebody who lacks spine that they agree with. So go after these neocons. Run TV ads linking Bush and Bin Laden. Show Rummy shaking hands with Saddam. Talk about Negroponte the wimp who liked to kill nuns. Play Bush's quote about not caring about Osama. Link the "Islamofascists" with the Christian Right in this country. Fight and fight hard. Fourth, be forceful. Tell how as Democrats you will rip Osama's head off unlike Bush who invites Bin Laden's premier financier to the State of the Union. Tell how a vote for a Republican is a vote to support allowing Bin Laden to get away with killing Americans. Again, run ads morphing republicans into Osama Bin Laden. If the Democrats follow this blueprint, it's checkmate. All they need is spine. Arianna Huffington: On fear, lizard brains, and 1984; Fear mongering in America 2/14 Big Dave From Queens Subject: Gore Did All He Could in 2000 I'm writing in response to BuzzFlash's interview with Mark Crispin Miller. While I totally agree with most of what Miller had to say, I must strongly object to Miller's blaming of Al Gore for Bush's theft of the 2000 election. As someone who spent 15 years volunteering on election campaigns in Florida, I know the laws and the disputed territory like the back of my hand. The truth is Al Gore did all he could to save democracy in America in 2000 short of starting a civil war. The real blame belongs to the leadership of the democratic party who hid in their cushy, ivory Washington towers while Bush stole the 2000 election. Their very public betrayal and refusal to stand with Al Gore and demand that the uncounted Florida votes be counted will go down as the betrayal that ended democracy in America. Blaming Al Gore for what Bush the thief and his election stealers did is like blaming the rape victim instead of the rapist. Nancy E. Kuhn Greetings to the Hard-working Patriots of BuzzFlash: Thank you for your outstanding service. You write: "The rest will happen because of a voter revolt come November. But only if the Democratic leadership becomes evangelists for saving democracy and protecting our nation from the elitist forces of tyranny in the White House and their rubber stamp GOP majority in Congress." I agree. However, Democratic leadership had the same opportunity in November of 2004 -- and they SUCCEEDED; but they were denied their victory. Rigged elections in key states kept Bush in power. The evidence is strong and convincing for anybody who will look. Unless changes are made in how elections are conducted, similar results can be expected in 2006 and 2008; and only publications like BuzzFlash will report the theft of their country to Americans. Mainstream, corporate media will continue to help maintain a false belief that most Americans hold -- a false belief that elections can be counted on to be fair and that election results reflect the will of the majority. That has not been true since at least 2000. Is there anything different that we should expect in 2006 and 2008? Let's face the painful truth: Republican-partisan election officials will continue to supervise elections in key states. Counting of votes will continue by unaudited electronic voting systems. Running of elections will continue to be outsourced to companies owned by Republican partisans. Democrats will only be allowed to win some elections to help maintain people's false belief that their votes can affect which party is in power. Elections have become a sucker's game. Republicans will continue to maintain power. It is the same now as in earlier years, except that the Republicans have even more control of elections now that implementation of HAVA has resulted in pervasive use of unaudited electronic systems where vote counts can be rigged without detection. Our only hope to get Republicans out of power is to force Congress to approve Holt's bill HR 550, requiring voter-verified paper ballots and audits. Will BuzzFlash promote a peaceful occupation of Washington, DC, similar to what the Ukrainians did in 2004? I, for one, would be one of the thousands who would be willing to participate -- to donate, lobby, protest, demonstrate, and strike until HR 550 became law. Without that kind of commitment from concerned citizens, who have leadership and full support from progressive organizations like BuzzFlash, we are doomed. We will continue to have a one-party government that claims legitimacy based on a so-called mandate from voters while it loots our treasury, robs us of our civil rights, and destroys the hope of a free and prosperous future for our children. I like what you are doing and I hope you continue. Even so, your goal to vote criminals out of power needs to focus on ELECTION REFORM. Please consider that your talk of voting Republicans out of power actually plays into the hands of the criminals. They KNOW that is not going to happen, but they are very happy to hear progressives say and write messages that presuppose that fair elections are possible. Your voicing that presupposition actually helps them by fostering a false belief, even among progressive and informed American people, that voting counts. Painful as the truth is, until we face the truth that our elections are corrupted, we are on an inexorable march toward despotism in America. I'm counting on BuzzFlash to tell it like it is and to provide leadership. Armed with the truth, Americans will understand what they are up against and start to take the realistic steps necessary to reclaim democracy in America. Please don't let us down. Regards, Tom Manaugh Subject: Is the Constitution Outdated and Just a Piece of Paper? Dear BuzzFlash Readers,
The Constitution is not just a “… piece of paper” as this President and his administration would like us to believe. We have not ratified the Constitution or Bill of Rights allowing any person in our government to change our Constitutional laws and their duties. We have not given them a mandate to do so either. The Constitution is a contract/law between citizens and its governing body. Over two hundred years ago, a new government was formed by a ratification process requiring all states and its citizens to agree to its laws and structure to form a union. It is not an outdated document in some desk drawer that we look at once in a while to celebrate our founding. It is an active Constitution and Bill of Rights active everyday in our courts and government. It is this contact that we have all agreed to run our government. We have a citizen run country called a democracy not a dictatorship, theocracy, or monarchy. No one has the right to negate it and form their own government/laws to fit their agenda without our permission. If they do, it is abuse of power and treason. We send our elected representatives to do what we feel is right for our districts, country, states, etc. They must come back home to us, their constituents, every so often to report. We decide if we choose to keep them as our representatives or not by holding periodic elections for public office. This is what representative government is all about. If these elections don't represent us because of fraud, etc., then it is not a democratic process. The Constitution says if election fraud has been found to be a condition in a certain state, the party responsible should lose their representation in Congress as punishment for such actions. None of this has occurred under this administration. They fail to address the voting fraud period. Past politicians abused their office and tried to negate this contract wanting "supreme power" but in the long run they failed. They abused their power by jailing journalists, using their power to attack their political enemies, stole elections, lied about war, cronyism, etc. This does not make it right today nor should we revert to allowing it. We make a mistake by not holding them accountable because it leads to anarchy and lawlessness. The Constitution specifically lists powers of government allowed by its citizens. It is this power that has been given and limited to them, not what rights and powers the people are limited by the government. "War, civil unrest, or disaster" does not negate our Constitution and Bill of Rights either. The Brits tried that and it led to a revolution. It is a serious attack on our democracy and they should be removed from public office since they fail to represent us. Being tried for treason seems to be at the top of my list. A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: Roving Wiretaps and the Constitution Since President Bush has previously pledged that all "roving wiretaps" are subject to constitutional scrutiny [please see http://streaming.americanprogress.org/ThinkProgress/2005/bushwiretaps.320.240.mov.htm ... and then, after being caught, admitting to violating FISA, it would seem an easy case to prove that he not only violated federal law, but did so intentionally. Every prosecutor would love to have this kind of evidence: First, the defendant states on video that he knows what the law compels. Then, the defendant admits on video to violating the law. However, when Attorney General Alberto Gonzales--the number one law enforcement officer of the United States--not only refuses to investigate (and ultimately prosecute), but instead takes the position of defending the [future] defendant, we have a situation that is probably of first impression. Oops, I forgot about Attorney General John Mitchell and President Nixon during Watergate. Second impression, I guess. Call this one: "Spygate with a Vengeance: The Fool Does Video." Gary Wenkle Smith CLICK HERE FOR PART 2 OF THE FEBRUARY 14, 2006 BUZZFLASH MAILBAG |
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