I have to admit I have a soft spot for Cindy Sheehan. She came to New Orleans just months after Katrina, and spoke at our rally for the St. Bernard Housing Developement in New Orleans, on February 14th, 2006.
The development was home to over 1000 African American working class families prior to Katrina. It is still locked down with a chain link fence around it. The fight over public housing rages on in New Orleans.
Sheehan expertly drew the connection between the war, war spending, and the failure of our government to adequately address the needs of Katrina survivors, both immediately after the storm, and in the “recovery” since.
Sheehan returned to New Orleans two days ago and spoke at Duncan Plaza across from City Hall, where we have been meeting with and helping to feed several dozen homeless people. You see, the homeless population in New Orleans is at catastrophic levels since Katrina.
Sheehan spoke about the homeless veterans she has known, and noted not only that the homeless rate among veterans is higher than other populations, but that so is the suicide rate.
Why am I bringing this up? Because here we have a woman who has travelled the country, putting herself at risk of arrest, advocating for a speedy end to the war, and it is distressing to see what went down on Daily Kos yesterday.
I pose this question to the supporters of Daily Kos: what is more important, the defense of our Constitution, or the defense of the democratic party?
It is my view that continued aquiescence to the democratic party, despite the positions and actions of democratic party congressional members, is harming our fragile democracy and the constitution that they have sworn to uphold.
In case you haven’t been reading the news lately, the neocons are at it again in terms of building for war, and the hapless democratic party is so far, standing by and allowing this to happen, fearful of looking soft on terrorism. Iraq yesterday and today, Iran tomorrow, war without end. Nothing else will satisfy the greedy profiteers of war, among whose numbers include at least one congressional member of the democratic party.
In the November 2006 election, the voters demanded congressional ethics reform. And so, the newly appointed chairman of the Senate Rules Committee, Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., is now duly in charge of regulating the ethical behavior of her colleagues. But for many years, Feinstein has been beset by her own ethical conflict of interest, say congressional ethics experts.
As chairperson and ranking member of the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee (MILCON) from 2001 through the end of 2005, Feinstein supervised the appropriation of billions of dollars a year for specific military construction projects. Two defense contractors whose interests were largely controlled by her husband, financier Richard C. Blum, benefited from decisions made by Feinstein as leader of this powerful subcommittee.
Each year, MILCON’s members decide which military construction projects will be funded from a roster proposed by the Department of Defense. Contracts to build these specific projects are subsequently awarded to such major defense contractors as Halliburton, Fluor, Parsons, Louis Berger, URS Corporation and Perini Corporation. From 1997 through the end of 2005, with Feinstein’s knowledge, Blum was a majority owner of both URS Corp. and Perini Corp.
Feinstein recently resigned from that subcommittee, but not until her husband earned millions from defense contracts doles out by that subcommittee during her tenure.
Vitter should resign because he likes sex in a diaper, but Feinstein profits from the very war she has voted for, and barely a peep from democratic party members.
There will be more defections from the party. You can count on that.
And multi-non-union-labor-using-millionaire Nancy Pelosi is no sacred cow either:
“The greatest threat to Israel’s right to exist, with the prospect of devastating violence, now comes from Iran. For too long, leaders of both political parties in the United States have not done nearly enough to confront the Russians and the Chinese, who have supplied Iran as it has plowed ahead with its nuclear and missile technology.
“Proliferation represents a clear threat to Israel and to America. It must be confronted by an international coalition against proliferation, with a commitment and a coalition every bit as strong as our commitment to the war against terror.
Above quote perhaps part of the reason that impeachment of Bush is off the table? Or perhaps this might shed some light:
Then Nancy Pelosi, chose Silvestre Reyes as House Intelligence Committee chairman. Reyes promptly told Newsweek, “We’re not going to have stability in Iraq until we eliminate those militias, those private armies. We have to consider the need for additional troops to be in Iraq, to take out the militias and stabilize IraqI would say 20,000 to 30,000-for the specific purpose of making sure those militias are dismantled, working in concert with the Iraqi military.”
Reyes comes to his important post with an open mind, meaning an empty one. He knows nothing of the region. This became clear in his brief parley with a reporter from Congressional Quarterly who had the impudence to ply him with questions at the end of a tiring day when men of mature judgment head for the bar. CQ’s man asked Reyes if Al Qaeda was Sunni or Shiite.
Reyes tossed a mental coin. “Predominantly-probably Shiite.” Wrong, of course, since Al Qaeda is Sunni, of a notoriously intolerant strain. It’s as if Reyes had called the Pope a Presbyterian.
Then the pesky newshound probed him on the matter of Hezbollah. “Hizbollah. Uh, Hizbollah” Reyes answered irritably. “Why do you ask me these questions at 5 o’clock?”
How many degrees of seperation exist between Nancy Pelosi and George Bush? Is it any wonder impeachment is “off the table?”
And what about Harry, Harry Reid that is? What degree of seperation there?
From the same Counterpunch article:
Then, on December 17 the Democrats’ Senate leader, Harry Reid, said it was okay with him to send more troops to Iraq. This was the same Sunday morning that Colin Powell, appearing on CBS, said a troop increase “cannot be sustained” and that the thousands of additional U.S. soldiers sent into Baghdad since the summer had been unable to stabilize the city and more probably could not tip the balance, Powell said.
Yesterday, it was instructive to go to the Democratic websites in the wake of Reid’s statement. Nothing on Daily Kos, nothing on Truthout, nothing on any of them. They had many words about Republican warmongering, about McCain’s call for more troops. About Reid, one of the top Democratic leaders, about the evolving Democratic posture–nothing.
That is the point that Cindy Sheehan has the courage to bring up. Her defection from the democratic party highlights the failure of that party to adequately address the threats to our constitution, and therefore, to our democracy. And make no mistake about it, our democracy is at risk as never before.
War without end, whether it be the war on terror, war with Iraq, Iran, is the greatest threat to democracy, and to our Constitution. As the drumbeats for war against Iran escalate, let me remind you that the Constitution calls for impeachment when high crimes are committed by those in office. Lying about the reasons to go to war is a high crime.
The defense of the Constitution, is the defense of our endangered democracy. Impeachment is the only answer to the high crimes of this administration. And complicity by the democratic party is no excuse to avoid impeachment.
Section 4. The President, Vice President and all civil officers of the United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors.
