confront Bush on Iraq, and to deny funding for an escalation. I think they need to build strength--and prepare cases--before impeachment can occur. But one of the ways that it can occur is through a Constitutional crisis over the "balance of powers," which I think is going to occur sooner rather than later. We need to give strong support to these legislators, who have an overwhelming mandate to stop the war and corruption, evident throughout the country in many different ways, not just the '06 elections, but who don't have the full strength in numbers in Congress that they should have, due to an estimated 5% to 10% "thumb on the scales" in our election system favoring Bushites and warmongers. (All vote "counting" is now run on TRADE SECRET, PROPRIETARY programming code, owned and controlled by rightwing Bushite corporations, with virtually no audit/recount controls).
Here is a good article on what the public needs to be prepared for, in a coming Constitutional crisis over subpoenas--an action plan, which can be translated to the more immediate purpose of supporting Pelosi/Reid, say, in their effort to bifurcate funding for Iraq (and deny escalation funds):
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/010707C.shtmlIf we get mobilized and succeed in the effort to curtail Bush in Iraq, we build momentum for addressing other crimes and outrages. We hearten the good guys in Congress, and embolden them.
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The forgotten prisoners.
The prisoners in Guantanamo Bay (and other Bush Junta prisons): These helpless, tortured people haunt me, too. What is happening to them is unforgivable, and the stain on our country is permanent. We didn't ask for this, but our inattention as citizens--especially to our election system--was the condition for it to happen. I lament my own blindness as a citizen, on this matter, until it was too late. Never again! We must restore our right to vote, our right to transparent vote counting, and our right to proper representation in Congress and the White House (and the Supreme Court!), in order to get our country back. It's not that our government has never done horrendous things before--God knows they have--but rarely have they done it with impunity. Always, it has come back to the voters, when, eventually, the voters learn what they've done. And laws are written, and mistakes are corrected. But not this time. This time, we must face that we have an illegitimate government, headed by people who feel they are immune to the will of 70% of the country, on the Iraq War, for instance--and immune to the will of the people 63% of whom oppose torture "under any circumstances" (May '04). And they do have reason to believe that they are immune. They don't owe their power to us, the voters. We cannot expect full correction of all the crimes these people have committed, until we have fully restored transparent elections. We can lobby Congress on Guantanamo Bay, and take other measures--support lawsuits, join protests, educate the public and legislators. But I don't know how far we will get with THIS Congress, which has so many huge and very grave issues to address, with artificially low numbers of progressives among their membership, and 2/3 of the Senate being holdovers from the Bush "pod people" Congress. I truly don't know. We most certainly should pressure them on it. I don't know if there is any remedy being proposed, which we could rally support around (none that I've heard of). They need to repeal a couple of things, for starters. And they need to deal with Bush's "signing statements." Torture is one of the chief impeachment issues. The Supreme Court and the previous Congress gave Bush some cover on it. And until it becomes a "knockdown dragout" Constitutional "balance of powers" issue, it is going to continue. Pelosi seems to be picking her battles carefully, but she is picking them well. This Iraq funding battle is right down the middle of the battlefield--it is the heart of the matter. And I cannot overstress the importance of how it comes out. What I'm saying is that to free these prisoners from isolation, torture and inhumane treatment--to get the power and momentum to do that--we have to win the "balance of powers" issue, and that IS "on the table," or will be very shortly.
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