Letters to the Editor
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Who gives a #*%# if impeachment makes Cheney president?
People are suggesting that we shouldn't try to impeach Bush because if we did, we'd end up with President Dick Cheney, and that would be far worse.
Give me a break. Here's why it doesn't matter:
-- We could simultaneously impeach Cheney.
-- Cheney is behind most of Bush's decisions anyway. No big change there.
-- Cheney might become president but so what? Nobody in their right mind would elect this cretin for another term. (His approval rating is 18% to Bush's 34%!)
-- No matter who replaces Bush, impeachment would be a moral victory and send an ESSENTIAL message both to politicians and to the outside world: That the U.S. public is not going to let corruption go unpunished.
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New Bumper Sticker
Impeach Cheney First!
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They're not invulnerable, people
At this stage, if you simply throw up your hands in despair, or rant about secession, or assume things will only get worse until we live in an Orwellian, corporate-controlled autocracy where we're all treated like Gitmo "detainees," then you're part of the problem, no more useful to the cause than those peak oil wingnuts who dance on the grave of civilization with such glee and seem to look forward to the supposed starvation of billions.
It's my experience that a small but vocal group of people always despairs, assumes nothing can be done, and resigns itself to conditions getting worse. This type of thinking is really such people absolving themselves of responsibility for taking action; "If things are going to get worse no matter what I do, then I don't have to do anything to stop them." Such thinking becomes self-fulfilling.
Yes, we face substantial challenges, not the least of which is the increasing presence of corrupt companies like Diebold in the electoral process (as is happening in my state of California), but we also hold considerable advantages: a more aware, angry electorate, a few brave members of Congress are beginning to speak out, a strong cadre of progressive NGOs like MoveOn who can rally the troops and apply pressure, and most important, an election in November where we can throw out the festering power structure that is running our nation into its grave.
But before we can do that, we must stop thinking of the Bushies, GOP operatives and their corporate paymasters as invulnerable and omniscient. An earlier poster made the wise point that some folks always see the current situation as unchanging and set in stone, but the fact is that things do change. Walls fall. Governments are overthrown. In the same way, Karl Rove, Dick Cheney Grover Norquist and their vile like are not all-knowing geniuses; they are men who make mistakes, fall victim to ego and hubris, and have no idea of all the forces arrayed against them.
If the GOP was so all-powerful (and it's the entire GOP power cabal that's the problem, not just the Bush administration), do you think the Abramoff scandal would have broken and be in the process of bringing down Tom De Lay, Bob Ney and who knows how many other members of the GOP leadership? Yes, this is an uphill battle to be fought, in large part, against the apathy of our fellow Americans. But it's being fought against men, not gods. If we treat the Nov. elections and the fight for impeachment as what it is--a war for our nation--and prosecute it with the unflagging aggression, energy and passion that it deserves, we can take the government back.
Then, we start reforming the Democrats. Oy, there's another letter.
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Those who condone...
Those who condone torture should be subjected to torture.
Those who condone spying should never have a moments peace.
Those who condone a misguided war should be on the front lines.
Those who condone the Katrina response should live in the muck waiting for a FEMA trailer.
Those who condone cutting money for college education out of the federal budget should have to work in a place where education does not matter... and live off that money.
Those who condone cutting funding for the arts should live a world that is grey and cold.
Those who condone outlawing abortion should have to raise the children that no one wants or can afford.
Those who condone the suffering of others should have to live with those they made suffer.
Those who condone a system where healthcare isn't available should live without healthcare.
It is easy for people in ivory towers to judge others, to sentence others to a fate they would not wish on their children. After all, there is no suffering in the tower.
Perhaps it is time for the towers to fall. Impeachment seems the least we can do.
David Luckett
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Impeach Bush T- Shirts and bumper stickers.
I enthusiastically support the idea of of impeaching Bush. I mean, if proceedings were launched against Clinton for lying about oral sex, then surely a President who lies about reasons for starting a war that kills hundreds of thousands while illegally spying on his people should be fair game. As a Canadian, I accept that I will have to leave the rousting of Bush to the good people of the USA. I would, however, offer the suggestion that some enterprising American should make and distribute "Impeach Bush" bumper stickers and T-shirts. I have noticed that no political movement gets too far in the US without bumper stickers and T-shirts. I urge my Yankee friends to make with the goods. I'm serious.
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APPROVAL RATINGS
Today's Salon article says that Cheney now has a higher approval rating then Bush. So the writer who cited the 18% Cheney approval rating isn't up-to-date with the latest numbers. According to a USA Today/Gallup poll, Bush stands at 38% while Cheney is at 40%. Bush, however, according to another poll (CBS) ranks even lower with a 34% for the same time period. So what does that say? People prefer a secretive, manipulative corporate thug running things instead of a opportunistic, self-centered dullard? Of course, neither number is even approaching a majority. Which means, obviously, that we should throw all of the bums out.
Now, the question is HOW CAN WE DO THIS? Impeachment? That won't work because the Republicans won't allow it to happen as long as they're in power. The court system? Indictments and convictions for treasonist actions? They control the Supreme Court now, folks. Insurrection? Although 300,000 people showed up for a march in D. C. in September, the rest of the citizens were sitting on their behinds watching Survivor and similiar mild-deadening TV shows.
How's this for an answer? Get rid of that damnable outdated - and easy to manipulate - Electoral College. Then the candidates will have to take their campaigns to ALL of the people, who should be guaranteed that their votes count INDIVIDUALLY toward the election of President. Then rewrite HAVA, dump the easy-to-cheat electronic voting machines, and create a truly untamperable system that is used by every voter across the country. Automatically register people to vote upon reaching the majority age instead of putting the additional obstacle of registering in their path. Require voter education in the schools from the lowest elementary grades up through high school. Make election day a holiday for those who vote, and a work day for those who don't.
Get rid of the two-year House of Representatives' terms, and change it to four so that elected officials can concentrate on governing--not campaigning, and putting themselves in positions of potentially accepting tainted dollars.
Re-write campaign laws and work toward public financing of campaigns. Reinstitute the equal time provisions in our electronic media. Get rid of soft money outlets. Clean up the system and then elect t GOOD people. Not the prettiest. Not the tallest. Not the most wealthy. Not the best talker. But the best people to represent US -- you, me, the person across the street and across the country, and not the special interests who control things in what used to be a great republic. Democracy was a good idea. I miss it, don't you?