Author: GreyHawk

As the election season heats up and the races for state and federal offices begin their final mad rush through October toward the November 4 finish line, the overall theme appears to be one of much needed change.  It’s time to dispense with the ideas that have wrought two wars, undermined our constitution, diminished critical federal oversight and cast us into an economic tailspin of failure, corruption and greed.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) Red to Blue initiative has helped bring the Democratic 50 State strategy to fruition by helping candidates in competitive races get a leg up on funding and support.  It’s a start, but it’s incomplete.

There are some other bets worth placing, like in Kansas Congressional District 4, for example: candidate and Democratic State Senator Donald Betts, vs. Republican incumbent Todd Tiahrt.  It’s a race that has the potential to unseat Tiahrt, a stalwart Bush/Cheney supporter who has been closely tied to both Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff.  I had the opportunity to speak with Senator Betts earlier today. I’ll post the interview tomorrow; meanwhile, read on, learn about the race and help out if you can.
Some folks might wonder how I can state

It’s a race that has the potential to unseat Tiahrt

and be completely serious about it, particularly given that past elections have shown Tiahrt to win by as much as 30 percent?

House 4 – Todd Tiahrt (R)

2002: Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R) 61%, Carlos Nolla (D) 37%
2004: Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R) 66%, Michael Kinard (D) 31%
2006: Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R) 64%, Garth McGinn (D) 34%

Democratic State Senator Donald Betts has about as much chance of winning this overwhelmingly Republican seat as Mike Tyson does of winning the White House. I’m surprised he was even able to raise $154,000.

I can say it with all seriousness because the winds of change are in the air, and Senator Betts represents an almost polar opposite to Representative Tiahrt’s deeply entrenched self-interests as a stalwart Bush Republican:

Todd Tiahrt has voted with a majority of his Republican colleagues 92.9% of the time during the current Congress. This percentage does not include votes in which Tiahrt did not vote.

If citizens of Congressional District 4 — Republican or Democrat — are better off now than they were 8 years ago, then Tiahrt and his support of the Bush Administration and Republicans in Congress probably isn’t that upsetting.  If citizens of Congressional District 4 — Republican or Democrat — are better off now than they were 4 years ago, then Tiahrt’s ties to Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff<sup>1,2</sup&gt, and his support of Northrup Grumman over KS-local Boeing (not to mention his alleged inclusion of several Airbus lobbyists as campaign advisors) shouldn’t be too upsetting either.<sup>3</sup&gt

A Little History — State Senator Betts

There’s a fascinating history about Donald Betts on the KS blog Everyday Citizen; a slightly shorter version can be found on his campaign website. Here’s two significant excerpts from the Everyday Citizen:

A native of Wichita, Kansas, state Senator Donald Betts is a young man who overcame early obstacles to become a leader in the Kansas legislature. When he was a child, Donald, his mother and his brother were homeless several times until they moved to Las Vegas where his grandfather offered them a place to stay. While in junior high and high school, Donald lived in that city’s projects which were filled with violence, drugs and prostitution. He attended school and worked in casino arcades to support his family. He saw his school friends succumb to drugs and crime. His brother eventually spent time in prison.

After Donald graduated from high school, he returned to Wichita where he worked his way through college at Friends University and was elected student body president. Upon graduation he became a counselor for at-risk juveniles working in both the juvenile justice and Wichita public school systems. He has served his state legislative districts in both the Kansas House and Senate.

and

A man of faith, Donald has strong family values. With his help, his mother and brother now live and work in Wichita. He is newly married to Tania, an Australian businesswoman. They met when he was chosen by the American Council of Young Political Leaders to study government in Australia. Tania is in the process of becoming an American citizen. Donald is a member of St. Mark Methodist church in Wichita. He is a Wichita alumnus of Kappa Alpha Psi. We are all absolutely thrilled that Donald plans to keep his blog at Everyday Citizen.

You can also go read his blog archives there.

Those excerpts tell me that he has some direct experience to help shape his understanding, policies and decisions regarding education, social programs, middle and lower income families, financial hardship and immigration.

That sounds a lot like what we’ve been missing for the past 8+ years.

And In THAT Corner, The Incumbent — Rep. Todd Tiahrt

Tiahrt won his seat in a close race after a controversial round of Republican redistricting (a DeLay tactic), and has held onto it relatively easily ever since.<sup>4</sup&gt   Remember redistricting?  That’s a policy and practice hammered home by Tom “The Hammer” DeLay.  Tiahrt’s sense of self-preservation — by voting against accountability — is all-too-familiar a theme in national politics today.

Tiahrt’s record isn’t exactly a sparkling example of national service, either.  From Congresspedia:

Tiahrt voted for the Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002 that started the Iraq War.

[…snip…]

Tiahrt was notable in the 109th Congress as a champion of proposals to create sunset commissions, unelected commissions with the power to recommend whether programs live, die, or get realigned. In 2006, he introduced the Commission on the Accountability and Review of Federal Agencies Act (H.R. 2470), which was supported by the Republican Study Committee.

[…snip…]

He was elected to the Kansas State Senate in 1992. After only one term, he won the Republican nomination for the 4th District and was elected to the House in an upset over 18-year  Democrat incumbent Dan Glickman. A major factor in the win was the 1990s round of redistricting, in which Hutchinson, Kansas and surrounding Reno County were shifted to the “Big 1st” District. Hutchinson was replaced with more reliably Republican Montgomery County, Kansas. After a tough reelection bid in 1996, he has been reelected four more times with little difficulty, including 68% of the vote in 2004.

Tiahrt serves as a Deputy Majority Whip. He is the only Kansan on the House Committee on Appropriations.

Tiahrt also voted against SCHIP.

Check out Rep. Tiahrt’s voting record, via the Washington Post US Congress Votes Database.

It looks to me like Rep. Tiahrt is a strong candidate for removal — even though past elections, bolstered by the redistricting ploy, have given him strong margins in the past, the people of Kansas are hungering for change.  During the course of my interview with Senator Betts, he remarked that he’s seen a surge of excitement everywhere he’s appeared.  I believe it.

Speaking of which…

Here are a couple of YouTube videos of KS State Senator Betts. He’s young (30), but don’t let his good looks fool you — he’s smart, too.

People Over Politics, Demofest, 6 Sept 2008

Senator Donald Betts — An Introduction

Senator Donald Betts — On Education

Progressive States Network — Washington, D.C., 19 April 2007

Let’s give the GOP an “October Surprise” of our own — help support Betts4Congress.  Here’s the ActBlue page. Donate today if you’re able; volunteer tomorrow if you’re able.

There are bound to be other Congressional races where we can help a good candidate take advantage of the public’s awakening to the realities of Republican failure over the past 8 years. If you know of any such candidates, please help out by contacting their campaign and helping them get the word out in places like the ePluribus Media Community, DailyKos, Docudharma and any other progressive sites you think will make a difference.

Thank you.

Crossposted liberally. Please BuzzIt if you are so inclined.

————————–

Footnotes
————————–

1. Redistricting and Tom DeLay:  2003 Texas Redistricting, via Wikipedia; THE OHIO GERRYMANDER.; WHAT A PROFESSION OF REPUBLICAN “FAIRNESS” RESULTED IN., New York Times; The Tom DeLay Scandals: A Scorecard, Slate; Republican Congressmen Ryun and Tiahrt Hold Close Ties to Indicted Tom DeLay, Kansas Democratic Party website.
2. Jack Abramoff: Congressman who defended DeLay says three fundraisers with Abramoff associates went unreported, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW);

3. In addition to this legislation opening the process to foreign companies, it is important to note that in 2001, both Representative Tiahrt and Senator Roberts started receiving contributions from Grumman’s Political Action Committees (Grumman is the partner with EADS (Airbus) on the tanker project). Shortly thereafter, McCain mounted a campaign to force the Congress and Air Force to drop the Boeing tanker leasing deal introduced in October 2001. McCain bragged during the 2008 campaign for President that he had “saved” the American taxpayer 30 billion dollars by forcing the cancellation of the contract. In May 2003, Roberts voted for the John McCain amendment to the Fiscal Year 2004 military budget (Senate Bill S1050) allowing the Department of Defense to buy military equipment and services from foreign companies, including EADS, undermining the “Buy American Act”. It passed with a 50-48 largely Republican party line vote.

   Senator Roberts and Representative Tiahrt are on the Senate and House sub appropriations committees for military spending, yet there is no evidence that they spoke out or tried to stop the cancellation of the Boeing contract in May 2004.

4. Via The Idiot Factor: Todd Tiahrt’s Folly:
   

   Recently the local paper pointed out that Rep. Todd Tiahrt is one of the main financial supporters of Tom DeLay, who is now facing corruption charges. Tiahrt’s own history of corruption makes him an easy target for whoever runs against him in the next election. He has openly made a fortune off the office and has sold his votes on a number of issues to the highest bidder. Beating him should be easy. But don’t count on it.

   The Democrats have been missing in action for sometime.

   The Idiot Factor blog is not unfamiliar with Rep. Tiahrt; its entire existence centers on the goal of exposing Rep. Tiahrt’s graft, corruption and abuse of power. From the main page:

   Rarely has it been necessary to dedicate an entire blog to the stupidity and ignorance of one House of Representative member, but Kansas’ own Todd Tiahrt is just such a man. Using fundamentalist churches for support and relying on pure graft and corruption to keep his office, this man needs to be exposed at all times for his ignorance and miss-use of his position.

   Ouch.

On January 12, 2008, I posted a piece titled Smarter Parts: Improving Efficient Energy Use and Demand? that touched upon an experimental program sponsored out of the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). The essence of the program was to create a home energy system that could respond to changing prices and peak demand loads by dialing back energy consumption. The system would be accessible via the internet so homeowners could make changes in absentia. An update to the story included another article indicating that in 2009, California regulators may have direct access to homeowner thermostats via radio-controlled devices in new or substantially modified houses and buildings to manage electricity shortages — a plan cooked up by the California Energy Commission (CEC).

I opened a discussion thread for the piece in a few places, including several Delphi forums. In one thread,<sup>1</sup&gt some energy and water efficiency ideas came up. One in particular spawned the short poll that you’re about to see. Please read on, and take the poll; results will be published at the end of next week and included in another piece that I will cross-post in all areas where this appears.
There are many areas for improvement with regard to how we go about our daily lives in terms of energy utilization and resource management. While simply providing for smarter planning and incorporating energy smart options on new buildings is one avenue, there are other types of concerns that we can and should face in order to reduce our overall ecological footprint. One area is the use (and re-use) of water — a resource critical to all life, and one that is fast becoming scarce.<sup>2</sup&gt

In order to properly address any issue regarding scarce resources, we need to understand that there are usually several options available that can (and perhaps should) be used together to create an optimal approach. Here’s a brief ad-hoc list of what types of considerations can be taken into account:

1. How efficiently is the resource used?
2. Can changes in the way the resource is used yield more efficient and effective results, conserving the rate of expenditure?
3. Are alternate methods cost-effective, and how is cost-effective being calculated — in an immediate, near-term or long-term capacity?
4. What are the options for recycling the resource, and the relevant immediate / short term / long term implications of recycling?
5. Is it possible to include cost-effective, efficient recycling methods in any new construction or re-construction that uses the resource?
6. To what extent should recycling and efficiency be mandated, by whom, and how?

Water is a resource that is used in all aspects of life; it’s not solely relegated to human life, where it spans virtually all aspects from basic hydration to cleaning and manufacturing. It is also a critical resource to the environment. Without water, the entirety of existence of life on this planet would cease.

Given that, and noting the growing scarcity of fresh water, the idea of separating out grey water and black water<sup>3</sup&gt in all new home construction alone could be a tremendous asset. It would reduce overall consumption and the rate of consumption, particularly if other systems (not within the scope of this piece) are incorporated to help improve our efficient use and application of it.

This, then, would make sense. Separate the grey water from the black water and re-use the grey water.  Of course, things aren’t always that simple. Contaminants tend to get into the system one way or another, and accidents can’t be avoided. According to the Foundation for Water Research,

______

Although toilet wastes are excluded from greywater, greywater still contains human faecal indicator bacteria in concentrations high enough to indicate a health risk from the potential presence of pathogenic micro organisms. Overseas authorities have confirmed this conclusion.

For safe re-use, either of the following must occur:

• greywater must be treated to remove or destroy these micro organisms
• human contact with greywater must be prevented.

Treatment of greywater to make it safe for human contact is expensive to achieve on an individual household basis. It is also difficult to ensure that treatment systems are maintained. Surveys in the USA, Australia and Brisbane have found that 60% to 80% of “onsite domestic wastewater treatment plants” are not maintained adequately. These treatment plants consistently do not produce an acceptable quality effluent.

______

Bugger. Nothing is ever simple.

There are several methods and approaches available<sup>4</sup&gt with regard to dealing with contaminants in grey water, however; those are also not in the scope of this piece.

This piece is a lot more limited in scope.

Some of the factors that affect our habits for good or ill include our capacity for mature, responsible actions. People can be quite goofy at times (e.g., the Darwin Awards), and in many cases we are our own worst enemy.<sup>5</sup&gt What I’m speaking of, and which I’d posted in response to the suggestion that future building projects include separate black and grey water systems, is this:

___

“…one item from my college years keeps coming to mind: what about all those mental midgets (or perhaps “socially challenged boors”) who think it’s funny to pee in the sink if someone is in the lavatory, or who pee in the shower when they are in it taking a shower?

I’m not sure how many women do the latter, and I’m sure very few women do the former, but I know of many guys — particularly after a few beers — who get goofy and think it’s funny as hell to pee in the sink, and a few who readily admit to peeing in the shower.

Personally, I think both practices are disgusting and immature, lacking a sense of sanitary sensibility and major lack of maturity — but that doesn’t mean that a significant portion of people don’t engage in the practice.

So, that would mean that some water systems which one would ~think~ should be or could be attached to grey water systems would have to be attached to black water systems, or that the base filtration and recycling of the grey water systems would have to include a method/manner of neutralizing urine.

“___

The purposeful introduction of human waste into systems explicitly intended for grey water would put an additional burden of cost into the construction of such systems in order to ensure that a base level of clean water was achieved — again, pushing us further up against the definition of “cost-effective” and efficient implementation of such systems. There are undoubtedly other system where human waste can be accidentally introduced — bowel movements by children in a bath or shower, for example — and the introduction of other human body fluids or tissues resulting from injury, menstrual activity, birth (“Honey, I think my water broke…!”), etc.

Such systems are in process already, and have a potential that can be immediately realized — take, for example, the DEKA water purification system<sup>5</sup&gt produced by Dean Kamen of Segway fame:

_____

Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway scooter, and many other interesting things, introduced last Thursday a portable water purifier that he hopes will save millions of people around the world from shortages of fresh water. It is a 100 pound device which requires little maintenance and uses no chemicals or filters. It uses a specialized distillation and condensation process and produces 10 gallons of clean water an hour on 500 watts of electricity. The idea is that it goes hand in hand with a generator he’s also developed, which uses a Stirling engine to produce electricity.

_____

Water purification AND a companion energy generator. Neat-O.

But again I digress: the whole process, no matter how well thought-out, can always be derailed by the actions of any unthinking individuals or even completely by accident.

We’ve gone for many years using the seas as our toilet and primary waste receptacle. The effects have not been pretty, and only now — only NOW — are we finally beginning to hear enough people point out the obvious disasters that are resulting from our arrogant immaturity. Problems like the Pacific Gyre (a.k.a. The Garbage Patch) and ocean dead zones<sup>6</sup&gt are a direct result of human stupidity (read: indifference) on a global scale. If, individually and within our communities, our cities and towns, our states, our counties and our nations, our actions and indifference can have such a massive impact on our environment and conversely rebound back upon us by creating a more challenging environment in which to attempt to survive, shouldn’t we make it a priority to address the basic function of personal responsibility and accountability?<sup>7</sup&gt

To that end, I believe it behooves us to all incorporate a degree of greater awareness regarding the little things that can, taken collectively over time and in larger groups, add up and together constitute a significant improvement. “For want of a nail, the war was lost” etc.

So, I offer folks this poll and ask that they take it in all seriousness — it’s just a relatively silly example, but I think the results could be interesting. Please only vote once, and refrain from voting on more than one of the sites where this is cross-posted.  Thank you.

###

_____________

Footnotes
______________

1. Forward-thinking energy-minded new construction: via this post in DelphiForums by SpringPam, which reads
   

   in Texas…

   I have never understood why the new subdivisions do not have homes with solar photovoltaic – to run the damned central airconditioning if nothing else – (when it is sunny is when you need the cooling power)

   or separate grey/black water systems. It is very affordable to put in at the time of developing the subdivision. Using grey water for irrigation of lawns and green areas would reduce radiant heat reflection from clear cutting brush or forests to build the boxes in the first place. Green plants also take out CO2 and create O2. It also uses less electricity and chemicals to treat water for non-drinking purposes.

   It’s just logical.

   Two good points — why not include a default solar photovoltaic array for new construction, and why not standardize a built-in water recycling and re-use methodology. The latter option raised a rather sticky question…

2. More information about the growing scarcity of water resources can be found here:
   • Water Wars: Climate change may spark conflict
     [British Defense Minister] John Reid warns climate change may spark conflict between nations – and says British armed forces must be ready to tackle the violence
     Tuesday, 28 February 2006
   • Armed forces are put on standby to tackle threat of wars over water By Ben Russell, and Nigel Morris
     Tuesday, 28 February 2006
     

     Across the world, they are coming: the water wars. From Israel to India, from Turkey to Botswana, arguments are going on over disputed water supplies that may soon burst into open conflict.

     Yesterday, Britain’s Defence Secretary, John Reid, pointed to the factor hastening the violent collision between a rising world population and a shrinking world water resource: global warming.

     In a grim first intervention in the climate-change debate, the Defence Secretary issued a bleak forecast that violence and political conflict would become more likely in the next 20 to 30 years as climate change turned land into desert, melted ice fields and poisoned water supplies…

   • The danger of water wars by Fred Pearce, NewStatesman Online, Published 28 November 2007
     

     Water consumption has tripled in the past 30 years and there’s a growing danger that disputes over the most necessary of resources could erupt into violence

     Water is rapidly becoming one of the defining crises of the 21st century. Climate change is making its availability increasingly uncertain. And we are using ever more of the stuff.

     In the past three decades the human population has doubled but human use of water has tripled – largely because, tonne-for-tonne, modern `high-yielding’ crop varieties often need more water than the old crops…

   There’s a lot of information out there. The above is but a small sample. Feel free to add more links in the Comments section.

3. From Foundation for Water Research website, the definition of domestic wastewater can be segregated into two types of flows:
   

   • Blackwater – comprising water closet, bidet and bidette waste and having gross faecal contamination
   • Greywater (also referred to as sullage) – comprising all remaining household wastewater; for example, bath, laundry.

4. From the Center for the Study of the Built Environment (CSBE),
   

   There are four reasons why graywater may need to be treated:

   •  To remove substances which may be harmful to plants;
   • To remove substances which may be harmful to health;
   • To remove substances which may be harmful to the wider environment;
   • To remove substances which may clog the graywater system.

   On-site treatment is an option that is not beyond our capacity to achieve; several sites exist that discuss grey water and delve into various systems available, and some companies sell prepackaged solutions.

5. Perhaps one of the most famous sayings to have ever entered popular culture came from cartoonist Walt Kelly’s character Pogo:
   

   _____

   “We has met the enemy, and he is us.“

   _____

   Indeed, it is ever more appropriate that this now-immortal saying first appeared in poster-form on Earth Day in 1971. For history buffs, from the Wiki link,

   The quote, a rephrasing of a message sent in 1813 from U.S. Navy Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry to Army General William Henry Harrison after The Battle of Lake Erie stating “We have met the enemy, and they are ours,” first appeared in a lengthier form in A Word To The Fore, the foreword of the book The Pogo Papers. Since the strips reprinted in Papers included the first appearances of Mole and Simple J. Malarkey, beginning Kelly’s attacks on McCarthyism, Kelly used the foreword to defend his actions:

   _____

   “Specializations and markings of individuals everywhere abound in such profusion that major idiosyncrasies can be properly ascribed to the mass. Traces of nobility, gentleness and courage persist in all people, do what we will to stamp out the trend. So, too, do those characteristics which are ugly. It is just unfortunate that in the clumsy hands of a cartoonist all traits become ridiculous, leading to a certain amount of self-conscious expostulation and the desire to join battle.

   “There is no need to sally forth, for it remains true that those things which make us human are, curiously enough, always close at hand. Resolve then, that on this very ground, with small flags waving and tinny blast on tiny trumpets, we shall meet the enemy, and not only may he be ours, he may be us.

   “Forward!”

   ______

   For an interesting reflection on the term, check this out, too.

6. More on the DEKA Water Purification System:
   

   Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu and the Safe Water Network today announced a program to develop small-scale, community-based solutions to bring safe water to neglected populations. The 12-month program will target several developing geographies, potentially including Bangladesh, China, India, Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, where distributed water purification technology solutions are expected to improve community access to clean drinking water.

   Deloitte Global CEO William G. Parrett, along with Kurt Soderlund, chief operating officer of the Safe Water Network, announced the Deloitte member firm commitment to the clean water initiative and outlined the objectives of the program for the next 12 months. These include:

   • Empowering local communities to improve their living conditions through the deployment of distributed water purification technology.
   • Demonstrating alternative models to deploy water purification solutions, including micro-enterprise programs that establish local water entrepreneurs and social investment programs such as supplying water purification to local health clinics.
   • Developing plans that support broad scale deployment of solutions to materially improve the health and living conditions for the millions afflicted by water-borne illnesses.

   […snip…]

   Nearly 1.1 billion people do not have access to safe drinking water and 90 percent of deaths from water-related diseases in the developing world today occur in children less than five years. “In different ways, at different ages, access to adequate water and sanitation services influences everybody’s health, education, life expectancy, well-being and social development,” notes Mr. Parrett. “Water is fundamental to human life, community development, and Filling water bottles, Honduras field trial of the DEKA water purification technologylong-term sustainability.”

   The Safe Water Network’s initial priority is to demonstrate the applicability of an innovative Vapor Compression Distillation (VCD) water purification solution being developed by DEKA Research & Development, Safe Water Network board member Dean Kamen’s firm. The technology is being optimized for developing world settings to ensure ease-of-use, low maintenance, versatility, portability and affordability. It is also capable of addressing virtually all contaminants. With output of approximately 350 gallons of pure water daily, each unit provides a community-scale solution that meets the potable water needs of approximately 100 people.

   Full article is available at the link above. Another interesting article, this time from WPI Transformations by Eileen McCluskey:

   Access, or lack thereof, to good, clean water is reaching global crisis proportions. Each month, 200,000 people in developing nations die from water-borne diseases, many of which are preventable. Through their different approaches, George Oliver ’82 and Dean Kamen ’73 share the same sense of urgency to solve this worldwide problem.

   They come to the issue from different backgrounds, yet Dean Kamen and George Oliver are working toward the same goal. Kamen, founder of DEKA Research and Development Corporation, takes the one-on-one approach. His solution to the water scarcity problem comes in the form of a 225-pound purification system, which, through innovations closely guarded by DEKA, can be operated and maintained by anyone. Though it is still under wraps as DEKA finalizes its entry to market, this black box takes vapor compression distillation technology, like that developed for submarines, to a small scale with greatly improved efficiency over traditional distillation.

   “This technology can enable financial and social change in the developing world,” says Kamen, who holds an impressive track record for inventing products that take off–some literally.

   The key part for me? Technology for clean water that can be “operated and maintained by anyone” — the way it should be.

7. Hat-tip to Meteor Blades. Regarding ocean oxygen depletion, see this Wikipedia page on hypoxia for more information. Other sources of information here and here.
8. OK, stop laughing…I know that in the environment that spawned the massively disastrous George W. Bush Administration and create a legacy of insane waste, out-of-sight corruption and complete abdication of accountability and ethics that the imploding Republican party fostered, any discussion of “personal responsibility” is at best hilarious, but still…”is we learning” anything? We still have to think of the children…oh, and Poland. We mustn’t forget Poland…

The following message is reprinted with permission from Congressman Wexler’s office.

:: ::

Today, in hearings on Capitol Hill, I confronted Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on her role in the lies, exaggerations, and misdirection that led us into the Iraq war.

During my questioning, Secretary Rice falsely stated that she never saw intelligence casting doubt on the Bush Administration claims that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction. This unbelievable statement is flatly contradicted by numerous government reports and CIA testimonials.

Sources such as the 2006 Senate Intelligence Report, a January 2004  Carnegie Endowment for International Peace report as well as former CIA agents (including Tyler Drumheller) have disclosed that there was contrary intelligence to the information provided to the Bush Administration in the lead up to the Iraq war.

See this video:

Secretary Rice’s responses demonstrate once and for all that we need aggressive oversight over this out of control Administration. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration has ignored the constitutional right of Congress to provide such oversight.

It is time Congress took aggressive action to assert our rights on behalf of the American people.

The House of Representatives must immediately hold former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten in contempt of Congress for their failure to respond to congressional subpoenas.

I have been aggressively lobbying Members of Congress to support a vote on contempt, and I am thrilled to report that Speaker Pelosi told me directly that she agrees it is well past time to vote on contempt. I am anticipating that the House will shortly vote on resolutions of both civil and criminal contempt for both Miers and Bolten.

No one should be immune from accountability and the rule of law.

Not Harriet Miers or Josh Bolten.

And especially not Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush or Dick Cheney.

It is time to defend the Constitution and our rights as a co-equal branch of government.

I will continue to take on the Bush Administration for their outrageous abuses just as I confronted Condoleezza Rice today and Attorney General Mukasey last week. (Click here to see my questioning of Mukasey.)

With your help we will hold these top Bush officials in contempt and continue our efforts to hold impeachment hearings for Vice President Dick Cheney.

Thank you, as always, for your great support.

Yours truly,

Congressman Robert Wexler

:: ::

The above message was reprinted with permission from Congressman Wexler’s office. It has been faithfully crossposted to ePluribus Media, My Left Wing, Booman Tribune, European Tribune, Docudharma, Below Boston, The Wild Wild Left and on DelphiForums.

As the 2008 Presidential Race heats up, one of the largest issues looming in front of all candidates is the question of healthcare: how much, how should it be implemented and funded, who should it cover, what will it cover, where will the money come from, who will provide oversight, yadda yadda yadda.

I recently came across a post with a link to a tool that apparently provides the capacity to compare candidate healthcare plans four-at-a-time; I’m not directly familiar with the plans supported by any of the candidates, nor with the ins and outs of each plan, so I’m posting this here for people to examine and respond to.

Below the jump, read an excerpt of the post I read, follow the link, and check out the tool. I’ve got four questions at the end that I’d like readers to answer in comments. (Hat-tip Delphooie)

This website allows you to compare, side by side, the healthcare plans up to four candidates are supporting.

Voters have identified health care as the leading domestic issue for the government to address and for the presidential candidates to discuss in the 2008 campaign. In particular, voters would like to hear the candidates’ positions on reducing the cost of health care and health insurance and expanding coverage to the 47 million uninsured Americans.

The presidential candidates vary greatly in the extent to which they have discussed health care issues to date. Some have issued detailed proposals or have indicated that proposals are forthcoming. Others have articulated positions on specific health care issues or critiqued the positions and plans of other candidates in response to questions but have not offered their own proposals.

This side-by-side comparison of the candidates’ positions on health care was prepared by the Kaiser Family Foundation with the assistance of Health Policy Alternatives, Inc. and is based on information appearing on the candidates’ websites as supplemented by information from candidate speeches, the campaign debates and news reports. The sources of information are identified for each candidate’s summary (with links to the Internet). The comparison highlights information on the candidates’ positions related to access to health care coverage, cost containment, improving the quality of care and financing. Information will be updated regularly as the campaign unfolds.

To create a custom side by side summary, select up to four candidates and click the “Compare” button.

My questions for the reader are as follows:

1. Do the plans represented by the tool appear to accurately reflect the candidate’s stated plan?
2. Do the comparisons drawn appear to be legitimate and clear?
3. Does this tool cover ~all~ the Presidential candidates (as known to date) for 2008?
4. Does this tool appear to be useful and valuable, in light of the above questions (and answers)?

Please answer in comments.

_______________

Posted to ePluribus Media 2.0, DailyKos, BelowBoston, BooMan Tribune, My Left Wing and DocuDharma.
_______________

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Sometimes, a video is worth a lot more, whether it is simply an animated image or a full-fledged movie. Or simply an image that morphs (transforms) into another image. Over the past few days, I’ve been experimenting with image morphing software and posting a few examples of the results in various locations….
If you are interested in checking out any the morphs I created, here’s a linked list of them (I won’t embed ’em again and slow down the dialup users). The source for each morph, if available, is noted and linked in parentheses:

1. Fred Thompson as a Buffy the Vampire Slayer supervillain (concept by John Aravosis)
2. Michael Chertoff as the other member of The Gentlemen (the taller of the two Buffy supervillains)
3. Michael Chertoff (again!), but this time as Jim Carey’s Count Olaf (concept by fraterslibertas)
4. George W. Bush as Bigfoot (concept by Twin Cities Minnesota blog, “Messing with Sasquatch”)
5. Rudy Giuliani and his female alter-ego

The morphing software used is Sqirlz Morph (Google search string), a freeware package. Image manipulation to create the two same-sized starting images was accomplished using GIMP.

There are other good graphics programs out there, too — some are simply for aesthetic pleasure (Sqirlz Reflections) while others allow you to create some great 3D content (Bryce 5.5, free from cNet or FaceGen Modeller 3.2). For me, programs which aren’t too big and are easy to figure out and use are the best.

With a little care and imagination, you can have a lot of fun and perhaps make a statement or two without violating any laws or creating anything offensive or insulting.

Enjoy. 🙂

“Suffer the little children to come unto me and forbid them not, for of such is the kingdom of God.”

  — Mark 10:14

The cesspool of vitriolic evil that comes from the lunacy of the radically unhinged — those who so often tout the importance of “family values” yet staunchly fail to promote or defend anything remotely resembling an actual “value” — has come alive, foaming at the mouth and conducting focused attacks upon two young children and their family. The curtain has been pulled away, and the creature behind it revealed for what it truly is: an un-evolved cretin, wearing a fleshy mask of humanity in an effort to blend in with the rest of the human race, but screeching an ungodly hypocrisy that is no longer hidden behind by a veil of illusion.

These are the same people who support an illegal war. These are the same people who forsake the freedoms our forefathers fought to provide this nation over 200 years ago. These are the same people who call themselves Christians and Patriots while undermining the fundamental teachings of Christ and subverting our Constitution.

They call themselves “conservatives.” They call themselves Republicans…

I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.

  — Mahatma Gandhi [1]

There are outraged comments flying across the blogosphere, clogging the tubes from every direction. “Righteous indignation” by the radical lunatics as they attack blindly, then suffer the slings and arrows of retaliatory realization that they have, yet again, blundered mightily.

These are the Keyboard Kommandos and the pundit-class mouthpieces of the Republican Party of today. Get to know them well; keep a record of what they’ve said and how they’ve acted, because they — the “righteous” ones, the “moral” ones — they lie. They lie a lot. And they support lying by those they love if it gets them what they believe is rightfully theirs. They support murder and theft, too — note their support and justification for the Iraq war, and their support of attempts to carry water for an Administration dead-set on initiating hostilities with Iran.

Is that what it means to be moral? Is that that it means to be compassionate or conservative or Christian? Because, frankly, if it is — then they can all go to hell together, the sooner the better.

The recent brouhaha over Graeme Frost and his family reminded me of the piece that I wrote early in January of this year — a piece I’ve already recently referred back to — called Bless the beastly little children of a lesser god than mine.[2] Now, I almost feel that it needs to be reprinted everywhere it originally appeared, with the smiling and stupid sh!t-eating grins of the moronic jackasses who inspired it plastered all over the page.

These “people” are not Americans. They aren’t Christians. They aren’t Patriotic.

They are neither compassionate nor conservative.

They do not speak for America. They do not care about our people. They cater to their own self-important, arrogant aristocracy and foment their culture of hatred and oppression simply to support themselves and augment their own self-inflated egos. Their words are lies, proven and exposed time and again.

Rush Limbaugh. Michelle Malkin. Ann Coulter. Bill O’Reilly. Name a few more — those in the media who support and work to protect the precious few (and dwindling) hate-spewing puss-brained fear-mongering assclowns who, miraculously, managed to sieze command and control of so much of our once-great nation.

They are an infected, cancerous boil that spreads diseased thought and ideas unchecked throughout the body politic. We must lance that boil, clean the wound and apply copious amounts of disinfectant. Reject their poison by loudly attacking it with truth. Bring mirrors — they fear their own reflections, which show them their sin and make it obvious to all much like the portrait of Dorian Gray.

Mitch McConnell. Lincoln Diaz-Balart. David Vitter. Larry Craig. Mark Foley. Pete V. Domenici. Conrad Burns. Bill Frist. Rick Santorum. Lisa Murkowski. Ted Stevens. …and, unfortunately, many others beyond good old fall-backs like Tom DeLay or Dennis Hastert. These are the actual viri (viruses), the collection of sick, demented, twisted and manipulative agents of destruction and change that have wrought more damage to our national psyche than a parade of pink elephants in tutus could inflict upon a field of crystal flowers.

It’s time to administer a massive, organic anti-viral enema and clear these dangerous obstructions out of the bowel of this country before the backup of bile and disingenuous, patronizing propaganda permanently shuts down our capacity to act and react as a nation of people acting together as one.

They are the party of pundits, propaganda, pedantic semantics and divisiveness.

We are better than that.

We must be better than that, and resist their poisonously addicting call toward childish antics.

The piece Bless the Beastly Little Children of a Lesser God Than Mine was originally crossposted on DailyKos, ePluribus Media, Street Prophets and My Left Wing. This piece shall be published to the same spots, plus Docudharma, BooMan Tribune and NION. I’ll attend comments as I’m able, but keep in mind the distinctions made above, and share this piece (with appropriate attribution, please) as widely as you can.  Thank you.

___________

Footnotes
______

1. From WikiQuote. Full quote:

I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ. The materialism of affluent Christian countries appears to contradict the claims of Jesus Christ that says it’s not possible to worship both Mammon and God at the same time.
          o As quoted by William Rees-Mogg in The Times [London] (4 April 2005). Gandhi here makes reference to a statement of Jesus: “No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Luke 16:13)

2. Originally crossposted on DailyKos, ePluribus Media, Street Prophets and My Left Wing.

Hi folks.  Sorry I’ve not been over here in a while — life’s been a little challenging, and I’d been forced to limit online time and participation.  As things clear up, however, I’m trying to get back in the game.

I was hoping to pop the following into an Open Thread, but I think this is worth burning a diary on for the sake of promoting a good discussion.  People here and on the European Tribune are well-informed, and could offer some great insights — particularly due to the nature of the discussion and the unique perspectives available here.  

(Hence, I’m also posting this over on the European Tribune.)

…I’ll check back and comment here, too, if folks discuss the topic here instead.
There’s an interesting discussion going on over at ePluribus Media today — a story by Craig Weiller, originally posted on Saturday, has been bumped and promoted to the front page of the Community site for more discussion.

Entitled The End of Capitalism, it extends and expands the discussion I originally started in the piece Is Capitalism in Dire Straits, Or Is It The Greed and Lust for Power?; comments are now beginning to touch upon things like

1. Corporate Personhood
2. Limited Capitalism
3. “Responsible” and sustainable capitalism
4. Proposed Constitutional amendments

Please hop on over and give it a read; add comments and join in.

I think there’s a lot to discuss, and we’d love to see other commenters.  If you think the discussion merits more feedback and have a BuzzIt account, please click the BuzzIt button at the top of the article, too.

Thank you.

On June 9th and 10th, the fourth annual DemocracyFest will be held — this time in Manchester, NH. I will be attending as a presenter for ePluribus Media along with luaptifer. We need your help to ensure that we can all get as much as possible out of this.

First, what is DemocracyFest?

DemocracyFest is an annual educational and inspirational festival for the progressive grassroots. DemocracyFest gives grassroots progressives the knowledge and skills they need to take our country back. Participants return home to their communities with renewed commitment, and new skills to help them making a difference.

Several VIPs will be in attendance. In addition to giving our own presentation on Sunday, we’re going to try and land some interviews with these folks, and we want you to help us develop the questions.
Several of the people who will be in attendance will, in all likelihood, not have any open time in their schedules for an interview. However, I’m planning to assemble a list of questions from folks on ePluribus Media, DailyKos, BooMan Tribune and My Left Wing and then post those questions in a second diary as a poll. Since only one poll can be conducted per diary, only the most popular questions will get picked — we won’t be able to differentiate between topics or people. To partially address that, there is a poll at the bottom of this diary that identifies the people who will be attending; vote for the one you think is most important to corral into an interview.

Here’s a list of the speakers who’ll be attending:

• Gov. Howard Dean, DNC Chair (speech free & open to public)
• Sen. John Edwards
• Sen. Mike Gravel
• Rep. Carol Shea-Porter
• William McNary, President, USAction
• Bev Harris
• Mark Crispin Miller
• Jim Dean
• Sec of State William Gardner
• Asst. Sec of State Anthony Stevens
• Charlie Grapski
• Jean Sara Rohe
• Carlos and Melida Arredondo
• Paul Twomey
• Asst. Clerk, Manchester, Carol Johnson
• Danville Moderator, Wally Fries

And here is a list of the panelists:

• Jeffry Taylor
• David Lindorff
• Quintus Jett
• Deborah Langhoff
• Rev. Jerald Abbott
• NH State Rep, Jeff Fontas
• NH State Rep, Andrew Edwards
• ePluribus Media researchers: GreyHawk and Luapt

Please check in at the Poll, below, to vote for who you think the primary interview target should be, then add a comment with a question you’d like us to ask. You can include a secondary and tertiary interview choice — with target questions — too, if you’d like to help us with a more revised list. The more you can do to help us represent the voice of the people, the better prepared we’ll be to bring that voice to those who need to hear it.

Note that I couldn’t enter all the names on the poll, so if your preference is attending isn’t shown, just specify that person in a comment.

Thank you.

…and now, on to the slightly-off-topic but more fun stuff…

ePluribus Media’s special “Don’t clog my tubes” mug

Participatory democracy involves many things; physical activism, the expanding influence and involvement of the netroots, The Rise of the Blogosphere, the growth and growing power of citizen journalism and the subsequent challenges to net neutrality. As certain leaders in government have demonstrated, legislators don’t fully understand the power of the internet — but they know it has power, and to a large extent they fear what they do not directly regulate.  Some have even referred to it as “a series of tubes” when discussing the concept of Net Neutrality.

((youtube URYNnF5mz84))

For Democracy to work, and in support of the concept of a democracy of the People, by the People and for the People, Roxy of ePluribus Media developed a special design to accompany the slogan “Don’t clog my tubes.”  

Here’s the design:

In case you can’t make out the spiralling words, it says “bloggers…citizen journalists…patriots…ePluribus Media” with an arrow pointing to the phrase “Don’t clog my tubes.”

Here’s the design wrapped around a nice mug:

We added the mug to the ePluribus Media store to share it with folks and enable you to simultaneously show your support for ePluribus Media while also telling the government to keep “the tubes” in the domain of the people. If you’d like to purchase one (or more…more is good) just click the image of the mug. You’ll be brought to the CafePress product page for it, where you can add it to your basket, then either log in if you have a CafePress account or open a new one to make a purchase.

Footnotes:

Previous diaries with “DemocracyFest” as a tag:

1. DemocracyFest Only 1 Week Away!, by jjem
2. Democracyfest, June 9-10: Howard Dean, John Edwards, and more!, by Free Spirit
3. Exciting DemocracyFest News!, by jjem
4. DemocracyFest Schedule Announced, by jjem

Words. Single words, or small clusters numbering two or more, conveying information and signifying, in most cases, a communication between people.  Words can convey raw data, operating instructions, educational information, descriptions or emotion.

Words can provide insight, oversight, instill courage, inspire confidence, reveal truths or bestow knowledge. Conversely, they can also obscure, demure, delay, digress, diffuse, dissemble, shock, shame or mislead.

Words can also convey honor or disgust. They can serve as a barrier to effective communication every bit as much as they can facilitate it; usually, social customs and political intent conspire to wield them one way or the other, or employ words for both purposes simultaneously.

Throughout our nation’s history, it is customary to see the nation’s President addressed using the honor-based “Mr. President” or entitled “President Such-n-such.” Custom has dictated that whoever held the office received the appropriate salutation.

It’s time to part with custom.
The legacy of the George W. Bush Administration will go down in history as the most corrupt Administration ever to darken the corridors of power in this nation. A steady stream of new scandals pile upon an already enormous pile of existing scandals, many bringing with them new evidence that the prior scandals were even worse than suspected. The election of 2000 should have been our first hint of what was to come. The deceptions that came to light indicating an intention to strike Iraq, the complete bugfuckery of mismanagement that has consumed our nation in the Iraq War and the failure to properly resolve the obscenely inadequate and mangled response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita should have, at least combined, sounded the death knell.

They haven’t.

The scandals continue, and yet I find myself thinking of just one simple thing at this moment: George W. Bush, the man occupying the Office of the President, is not “Presidential” in the least. Neither are any of his staff, Administration or Cabinet. He doesn’t deserve to be called “Mr. President” or “President Bush.”

He probably doesn’t even deserve to be referred to as “George,” but there’s little we can do about that, inasmuch as it insults anyone named George starting with George Washington and ending with “George of the Jungle.”

The contested elections of both 2000 and 2004 each suffered from attempted manipulation, resulting in voter role purges and various forms of disenfranchisement and dubious counting practices. There’s a lot to suggest that if even a fraction of the votes “lost” by hook or crook were counted, George W. Bush would never have ascended to his throne.

Therefore, in light of the burgeoning number of scandals — all of which appear to tie directly back to George’s WH, and many of which suggest GW’s express complicity — I’ve come to a simple conclusion: George W. Bush is not our President.

By a cheap trick of technicality and sheer gall, he occupies the office of the President and we suffer the slings and arrows of his rampant incompetence. He holds the power.

But the title — specifically, the salutation — is another story.

I don’t believe the law of the land requires me to refer to this cretin as “Mr. President” or “President Bush.” Particularly, I believe that the custom of calling someone “Mr. President” is not deserved by this man.

I’ll call Al Gore “Mr. President” — he was elected by the popular vote, and has executed his duty to the people and the nation with dedication and honor.

I’ll call John Kerry “Mr. President” — call me a sap, but if the shenanigans of the GOP hadn’t obscured things so strongly, I believe we would have seen that he won in a decisive victory. In acquiescing as fast as he did, I was at first troubled. I was angry, I felt betrayed. But ultimately, I believe Kerry’s abdication was for the good of the nation; had he pushed, had he challenged, and had he won, the prospects for our nation to recover a majority from the Rubber Soul Republicans and to both address and resolve the mess of George W. would have been forever thwarted by the anti-American, self-serving and morally bereft hordes of the Republican Congressional majority.

In short, his concession was not an act of cowardice nor an unwillingness to fight; it was, ultimately, the most Presidential thing he could do in order to ensure that our nation, our people, had the opportunity to oppose this fanatical regime and their dream of a “Permanent Republican Majority.”

I will not, however, ever address George W. Bush as a President. Oh yes, I’ll call him “The Great Pretender,” who lives in a world all his own. I’ll refer to the members of the Republican party, and Joe Lieberman, as criminal accomplices too. At this point, faced with the overwhelmingly consistent evidence of intent to violate and undermine the Constitutional rights and freedoms of our citizenry as well as undermine the proper operation of the Government, any further support of the current Pretender or the policies spewed forth from his reign can be considered nothing else.

George W. Bush sits upon a faux throne wielding the power of the Presidency like an imperial staff, but he is neither Presidential nor Kingly.

He does not deserve the honor of the salutation that was customarily bestowed upon all previous Presidents when they occupied the office. And he will never deserve it.

Customs change, and while the three previous Presidents (Carter, Bush I, Clinton) are all occasionally referred to (incorrectly) as “Mr. President” even though their terms are complete, I strongly support continuing this tradition. And extending it to include those Presidents who were elected but never held office.

Most of all, however, I strongly urge people to drop the use of the term for the corrupting little criminal that currently occupies the White House and misuses his office with gusto.

“Mr. Bush” is not my President — but he certainly plays one on TV.

NOTE: Click images to go directly to their original source. I am not certain of the copyright status, and will update as I reconfirm.

Members of Congress, do you recall these words?

Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.

The words spoken by George W. Bush on October 7, 2002.The words evoked fear of a nuclear 9/11, pushing the nation and Congress to support action to prevent it.

Now we find ourselves upon the brink of another conflict, one which this Administration has long struggled to bring to fruition.

Smokey the Bear once admonished careless campers that only they can prevent forest fires; I, and the rest of the nation, must now take you, our Congress, to task. You, and only you, can prevent this Administration from initiating a nuclear catastrophe. Learn these words well, for they define this moment for all time:

Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.

Here are a few things to keep in mind about this Administration:

• Dick Cheney’s Energy Task Force included maps dividing up Iraqi Oil Fields as early as the first week after their 2000 inauguration, but throughout 2001 claimed they had no plans to invade Iraq; they claimed they would seek diplomatic solutions to the WMD threat.
• This Administration lied about the intelligence it received forwarning of the 9/11 attacks.

 

• This Administration obstructed the investigation of the 9/11 commission.
• This Administration knowing lied about the WMD threat.
• This Administration treacherously betrayed an undercover CIA operative and destroyed a CIA front operation that was responsible for tracking Iran’s nuclear ambitions and development.
• This Administration claimed no involvmeent with the leak, yet the investigation now directly implicates the office of the Vice President as well as strongly indicates involvement and participation at the behest of the Office of the President.  In other words, this Administration lied.
• This Administration attempted to engage a foreign ally in a plan to antagonize another nation into triggering a war.
• Evidence has surfaced indicating that this Administration purposely ignored and bypassed qualified intelligence and experienced military advice while planning the invasion.
• This Administration illegally diverted over $700 Million from Afghanistan to plan the illegal invasion of Iraq.
• Additional evidence has come to light that 394 tons of cash, shrink-wrapped and put on pallets, has been shipped to contractors in Iraq with little to no oversight; worse, still, are reports that much of the cash has found its way into the hands of the insurgency.
• This Administration’s poor execution of their little war bypassed a sealed and protected ammo dump that was subsequently raided and now likely supplied much of the insurgency.
• The deteriorating situation in Iraq has led this Administration to spend billions of dollars on propaganda campaigns designed to sell the “success” of their invasion, while reports of escalating violence and all-out civil war spread — and worsen.

This is the short list of crimes, misdemeanors, betrayals, incompetencies and neglect.

Let that take a moment to register, folks: It’s the short list.

It’s all related to Iraq, and to Iran by extension. It details none of the domestic atrocities that have sprung up like turdblossoms in a cattle field. From the abysmal plight of our 9/11 heroes to the literal abandonment of New Orleans in the wake of Katrina, this Administration has lied to you, to us and to the world.

Now, this Administration has gathered a massive fleet “to intimidate Iran” into diplomatic talks. Talks in pursuit of concesions that Iran was, in fact, willing to make over three years ago but this Administration ignored them.  This Administration claims that it has no plans to invade Iraq, yet evidence has already surfaced and exposed this as a lie.

New doubts have also come to light about the Administration’s nuclear claims regarding both Iran and Korea.

Enough is enough.

SusanHu’s recent diary These Fighters Fight To Stop The Fighting names measured proposed by several Congressional members designed to help our military and our nation extricate itself from Iraq. Big Tent Democrat’s diary, as posted by TexDem, Defunding the Iraq Debacle: There Would Be No Constitutional Crisis reminds you what you should already know — there will be no Constitutional crisis by defunding the war.

There is a major Constitutional Crisis ongoing, and you are smack in the middle of it, but first things first. You must prevent the escalation and triggering of a new crisis — an Iran crisis. It is already intended to go nuclear. Remember those words at the opening of this piece?

Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.

Congress, you must act as one to end the ongoing Iraq debacle and prevent the contagion of war from spreading into Iran, Syria or other nations in the Middle East. Failing that, you fail us all.
Here’s a few steps to take:

1. Revoke or restrict the two AUMFs that were granted this Administration.
2. Decide on one plan to act to defund the war and redeploy the troops, preferably something like Murtha’s plan. Inadequately trained or prepared troops won’t go, and troops who have been to hell and back — and back, and back, and back — are done.

   Remember, folks, this was an ill-advised war of choice that this Administration lied to us about, it’s not a war that came to us through no fault or action of our own.

3. Issue a binding resolution to prevent aggressive action against Iran directly or acting as a proxy or ally to an aggressor nation.
4. Issue a binding resolution to prohibit the deployment, use or preparation of any nuclear devices absent a declaration of war by Congress.
5. Continue the ongoing investigations into the multiple shady, illegal and Constitutionally-challenged activities of the Bush/Cheney regime, and do not hesitate to initiate impeachment proceedings while these are ongoing. I recommend starting them now, in fact, to ensure cooperation among all investigatees in lieu of risking imminent pardons.

This is not a drill. This is not a request. It is a note to remind you that you, and you alone, are the last bastion of hope that we have toward the prevention of a nuclear nightmare.

Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.

A supplementary note to the Republican members of Congress: Either you are with us, and with the troops, or you are against us. Avoiding a vote to avoid having your voice heard, to avoid voting against your party, counts as an act of actively supporting this Administration. Remember the bullet points above.  This Administration must be stopped. It is time to put aside party politics, and run — don’t walk, run — to the other side of the aisle and send a message to the people of the nation, to the troops, to our friends and allies across the world: you really Americans when push comes to shove.

A supplementary note to the Democratic members of Congress: Do not let your fears or ambitions cloud your judgement. Remember, he who hesitates is lost — those words apply particularly well now.  Do not cower and prevaricate in hopes of avoiding accountability. Embrace accountability — yours, as well as that of your comrades on either side of the aisle. As for those yahoos in the Executive Branch and their closely-abiding minions…well, I’d quote the Vice President’s own words, but I’m trying to keep this clean.  Do not be deterred, and do not delay. Work together, now, through the night if need be, and decide to support one plan for troop removal and redeployment. Propose it, along with those other items I outlined above. All of them..

DailyKos diarist eOz has a piece out called Countdown To No Confidence:  T – 20 Days. It’s a good piece, but I have a quibble with it: I don’t see us as approaching “high noon” in America. I see our nation, and you — the Congress, as approaching a sort of “Twilight Time.” At this hour, there are but two things to keep in mind:

Now is the time for all good people to come to the aid of their nation

and, of course,

Facing clear evidence of peril, we cannot wait for the final proof — the smoking gun — that could come in the form of a mushroom cloud.