Letters to the Editor
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Some of the impeachment discussion
is still going on at Glenn's earlier post: The National Review Mind
http://letters.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/07/18/neocons/view/index21.html?show=all&order=asc
In fact, I asked a question or two that I'm still curious about. I probably should have posted them here, but they were in response to other comments there... how to cross-reference threads?
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The media killed the immigration bill
"The recent cave in by Republicans on the immigration bill is (rightly) credited to the organized reaction of AM radio listeners."
I fully believe that without the amount of media coverage of all the calls made by citizens to politicians over the immigration bill, those calls would have been ignored and the bill would have passed.
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stop pussyfooting!
Your final paragraph sounds almost as timid as the Dems in congress! Say it like it needs to be said..."it's long past time to begin impeachment proceedings against Bush, Cheney and Gonzales"
Pelosi has got it dangerously wrong in shelving the idea of impeachment. Here her position does all citizens a grave disservice, and the country potentially irreversible harm.
At this rate the next thing this facist administration will be trying to do is delay/render invalid/prevent the upcoming general election!!
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Like Hurricanes, Things Like This Start Out Small
I would fain to say that this overblown claim to executive privilege had its start with the “war on drugs” and the “three strikes laws” at county levels which allowed DAs to pick and choose which (or even “if”) previous infractions of the law could be (or would be) “counted” against lawbreakers instead of leaving these life-altering decisions up to the traditional wisdom of the Judicial Branch. These actions of lesser members of the Executive Branch paved further and further inroads which contributed to the present sense of “omnipotency” of that branch’s higher members. In our haste to punish the Davises (kidnapper of Polly Klasse) of this world, we have lost unbelievably huge chunks of the people’s authority to oversee and limit the powers of all of the Executive Branch. The things we have acted upon in haste (when we were overcome with then-fresh emotionalism) we will be regretting for decades (if not longer…).
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Impeachment
Hillary (and Barach) would never allow impeachment. President Pelosi would be re-elected in a landslide in 2012.
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@WT
Yep, although you're right, the discussion of food was on another thread. I was thinking of mirch ka salan, a favorite at our house -- still searching for the perfect recipe.
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@kovie
This reminds me of a time in my youth when I "saved" a drowning person. She was a hysterical scuba diver who was out diving alone (a HUGE no-no for obvious reasons) near where I was snorkeling (also alone, but not a no-no if you stay on or near the surface) and thought that she was drowning or sinking (which she wasn't) and yelled out for help. So I swam over and "rescued" her, which basically consisted of calming her down and holding onto her as we swam to shore 40 feet away.
To me, intervention is intervention. The fact that it was a behavioral crisis doesn't mean that she didn't need help, which you provided. You intervened, she didn't drown. Great outcome!
The point being, when in a crisis (whether real or in your head--the present one being of course all too real), do not panic, do not flail, and don't expect others to "save" you. Calm down, use your head, decide on a course of action, and persue it as calmly and confidently as possible. To do otherwise is to make failure more likely.
There may be a difference in more than quantity between an individual crisis, a group crisis, a social crisis, and a national crisis. For change to happen on a national scale, the level of clamor must rise to the point where the citizenry can't ignore it, and must decide to act.
To paraphrase a certain Defense Secretary of ill-repute, you can have no crisis and a public that is silent, you can have no crisis and a public that is vocal, you can have a crisis and a public that is silent and you can have a crisis and a public that is vocal. It seems to many that Congress considers the current situation to be option 2, while perhaps the option is 3. Public outcry is necessary to get to option 4, which is when Congress will impeach.
Many different modalities can create outcry, Waxman, Conyers, and Leahy and friends are exposing wrong doing to public scrutiny as one way, screaming and yelling, even panicking, are among the ways members of the public can try to wake up their fellow citizens. It may be true that most people in a group will dismiss it as meaningless rant, even hate it, which is the risk -- counterproductivity. But if one person in a peer group speaks up and says, "Hold on, now, there has to be some reason so many people are upset, what is going on?" then the peer group takes it more seriously and starts watching the Waxmans, Conyerses, and Leahys and another wake up call has successfully gone through.
So as obnoxious as some percentages of the disaffected population can get, the noise is welcome even if the epithets aren't. Am I wrong? 535 people can't make a movement, but a movement can give 535 people the backing they need. But the 535 have to be willing to consider the options the movement wants, too.
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Some pigs are just more equal than others.
Elliot Richardson is now officially spinning madly in his grave. He knowingly and willingly gave up his post as Attorney General rather than sack a special prosecutor at the behest of a targeted White House. Only the Fox News henchmen would have the cheek to say this country was not better off for it. This administration likes to talk about those who have sacrificed in the name of freedom while simultaneously dancing obscene jigs on the tombstone of a great American. In no small way it is a measure of how far we have fallen that a boot licking toady now disgraces the position that Richardson served so honorably.
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@ ondelette
Sorry, I got my knickers in a buckytwist in the thread above, and forgot to check back. Mirch ka salan isn't in my repertoire, although it's similar in style to some other dishes I make, particularly those with cauliflower and spinach. I'll have to try it. (I love the fried urad dal, that wonderful reddish color it gets.)
And by the way, that last reply to kovie was brilliant. It captures a lot of the uncertainty of the moment, and the dilemma we all face in coping with it. It articulated a lot of the things I've been wrestling with lately myself. A belated h/t to you for the effort.