There he goes again, Congressman Dennis Kucinich, reading into the Congressional record just 35 of the reasons why this Congress should be impeaching this sitting president and his VP. With diminutive stature but steely resolve, Kucinich forcefully takes his place alongside the earlier patriots who stood up to executive abuse, the "high crimes and misdemeanors," and spoke out for accountability.
And who was listening? Certainly not the US media, and by extension, no one else. The C-Span viewer was one of the few in the country who could witness this historic event. Or, check youtube: http://youtube.com/watch?v=JLf... Gore Vidal rightfully points out that anyone truly interested in knowing what's going on in our country must be reading foreign coverage--all still available online--since other countries ARE interested in what happens in the U.S. http://www.truthdig.com/report...
The impeachment resolution, HR 1258, was introduced June 9th as a "privileged motion" to get around Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who personally opposes impeachment and has reportedly said she "likes" President Bush.
The National and local news media usually only focus on who 'wins' the caucus or primary race. They provide little information on election night regarding the important race, that for delegates.
This is interesting stuff from CNN.com, see http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/20... for the Republican totals and http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/20... for the Democratic totals (kudos to grodriguez for providing the link in his blog).
The magic number of delegates for the Democratic nominee is 2,025. Thus far, 386 Democratic delegates have been chosen, including those from today's Nevada Democratic caucuses as well as the so-called Super Delegates (e.g., governors, U.S. Senators, U.S. Representatives). This means that only 9.53% of the Democratic delegates are committed to date. Hillary Clinton leads the field far and away (I have deleted the Democratic candidates who have thus far dropped out of the race). The results are as follows:
(full disclosure: I work for the Courage Campaign)
The Courage Campaign in coalition with five other progressive state groups have launched PickYourPresident.org, as the name suggests it is an open primary poll. Yes, you can vote for both Democrats and Republicans, though the response rate as one would imagine is exponentially higher for the Democrats.
Edwards had been leading in almost all of the states, but in the most recent update that flipped nationally and most of the other states. His lead has narrowed here in California, so supporters of either, it's time to get to voting.
Obama's supporters have turned the tide in California. He is now leading in CA and nationally. Will the Edwards supporters rally back? Or will the Obama folks keep up their momentum and put it out of reach?
Here is the current order:
1. Sen. Barack Obama
2. Sen. John Edwards
3. Rep. Dennis Kucinich
4. Sen. Hillary Clinton
5. Gov. Bill Richardson
6. Sen. Mike Gravel
Only one vote per person please, though do pass it on to your friends and family members. This is a great opportunity to do some person-to-person outreach on behalf of your favorite candidate. It's a good icebreaker to start the conversation.
And here is the national order:
1. Sen. Barack Obama
2. Sen. John Edwards
3. Rep. Dennis Kucinich
4. Sen. Hillary Clinton
5. Gov. Bill Richardson
6. Sen. Mike Gravel
Have some fun with the poll, but start some serious conversations with it.
"When taken in concert with the statements and actions of the Administration over the past year regarding Iran, the National Intelligence Estimate reveals a pattern of willful deceit directed at the U.S. Congress, the American people, and the rest of the world on the critical matters of war and peace."
Well, after so many grossly unfair debate formats that virtually tell each audience which candidates they are supposed to be interested in, Dennis Kucinich finally figured out a way to highlight this fundamental absurdity to his own advantage: Socratic Irony!
After again not receiving a fair amount of time to the other candidates, when it was his turn to participate in a segment that called for each candidate to actually ask a question to any candidate they choose to, Kucinich managed to display that sense of sarcastic wit and pragmatic questioning that Socrates turned into philosophical method; a dialectic which both entertains an audience preoccupied with what will be shown to be absurdity, as well as instructs to something more rational.
Well, Dennis Kucinich continues to speak for America rather than gross party politics. Speaking in New Hampshire, Wednesday, Kucinich stated:
the vow from his party's leadership in Congress to stand up to President Bush on ending the war in Iraq amounts to a "total fraud."
The Ohio congressman said the most recent House-passed plan to set a timetable for ending the war still would permit permanent bases in Iraq and allow Americans soldiers to train Iraqi military and police and to fight off insurgents.
According to public, campaign finacning regulations tommorow, November 29th, is the last day to receive matching funds through public financing.
So if you make a contribution tonight or tommorow to Dennis Kucinich, this means that your $50 contribution becomes a $100 contribution, $200 equals $400 ... up to $250.
In light of recent revelations about our role in Iraq, it's time to consider the situation from the only candidate who has been right from the beginning.
Iraq is a disaster. We are now approaching 4,000 U.S. soldiers dead and updates of the Lancet study estimate that over a million Iraqis have died! This astounding figure was recently corrorborated in a British study this month. Security only declines day by day and dependable power, clean water and employment is unavailable. The U.S. spends about $200 million each day 70% of Americans want it to end.
Dennis Kucinich's approach to the economy is so practical and farsighted, I sometimes wonder why it isn't discussed more; even by Kucinich! But, I guess Iraq is always the dominating issue.
However, amazingly, this plan addresses: balancing the budget, tempering the Pentagon war machine, fair taxation reform, leveling the business sector to enable small businesses to compete, our $800 Billion trade deficit, worker's rights human rights and environmental concerns, the millions of outsourced jobs, and rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure-while at the same time creating more national wealth with millions of jobs, promoting renewable energies and saving families money on bills! It is insanely practical and wholly part of his message of "Strength Through Peace" for America.
We have to recognize the relationship between global warming and "global warring". Just as dependence on foreign oil has led to wars in the Middle East, allocating an outrageous amount of our budget to the Pentagon facilitates and preserves this dependence on foreign oil. Dennis Kucinich understands this connection and so, as stated above, will slash the Pentagon budget by 15% as his first step to move away from fossil fuels and towards sustainable and renewable fuels and energy sources. As stated above, this money will go to education, as well as creating his Works Green Administration (WGA). The WGA will couple the EPA with NASA to develop new technologies to utilize alternative fuels and energies.
Greetings from the almost-impossible-to-enter-by-car Wadsworth Theater for a Presidential forum on energy and environmental issues, featuring John Edwards, Hillary Clinton and Dennis Kucinich. All the campaigns had good support out in front of the venue. I'm here with Hekebolos, thereisnospoon from Daily Kos, RJ Eskow from the Huffington Post, Todd Beeton of MyDD and a couple others in Blogger's Row. Each candidate will get a half-hour to answer questions on their energy plans. There's a live webcast starting at 2:00pm PT at the enviro website Grist.
There will be press availability afterwards, possibly with Edwards. (UPDATE: Edwards is confirmed for the press tent, along with Hillary surrogate Carol Browner, the former head of the EPA.)
UPDATE (1:26pm) Just got a pamphlet from the NRDC entitled "Solving Global Warming: It Can Be Done." Interesting, considering that the latest IPCC report yesterday basically said it can't be done and it's time to adapt to a warmer future. Wonder if that will come up today.
UPDATE (1:30pm) The event kicks off with welcoming remarks from Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. Yesterday the LA Planning Commission approved a very ambitious green building plan, which would have a dramatic impact on energy use.
Under the L.A. rules, new buildings with more than 50 units or 50,000 square feet of floor area would be required to meet national standards established by the U.S. Green Building Council, a Washington-based nonprofit organization that is working with cities across the country. The measure is expected to come before the City Council early next year.
The standards -- known as Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED -- would reduce the amount of energy used in large developments to well below what is required by California's building code, the strictest in the nation.
Green building is a major part of mitigating the effects of global warming and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
UPDATE (1:42pm) Dante is liveblogging at Daily Kos.
As long as we're talking about what we're all doing this weekend, I will be your intrepid reporter tomorrow, live from the Wadsworth Theater in Los Angeles at the Presidential Forum on Global Warming and Our Energy Future, sponsored by the California League of Conservation Voters, the enviro website Grist and PRI's "Living On Earth" radio program. Grist will have a live webcast of the forum tomorrow at 2:00pm PT. You can find it here. I'm expecting to liveblog the event at Calitics as well.
Hillary Clinton, John Edwards and Dennis Kucinich are scheduled to attend, and speak for a half-hour on the environmental and energy proposals they would support as President. The good news is that practically all of our Democratic candidates, even the ones who aren't attending, have put out strong policies on fighting global warming and expanding renewable energy, from Chris Dodd's corporate carbon tax to Bill Richardson's ambitious CAFE standard porposal (50MPG) to Barack Obama's 100% auction for a cap-and-trade system, where polluters would have to buy their carbon credits and not be given them. Clinton and Edwards have also put out bold proposals in this arena, and I'm looking forward to hearing more about them tomorrow.
One thing you all can do TODAY is take action on the imminent federal energy bill. There are three planks that everyone would like to see in it; a federal renewable energy standard that would mandate a healthy percentage of all electricity come from renewables like solar and wind; tax incentives for renewable energy, both for corporations AND for individuals who put solar panels on their house (this would be vital is California is to reach its One Million Solar Roofs Initiative), and a major increase in CAFE standards. I believe that the first two would be signed by the President; he signed similiar legislation as the governor of Texas, and now Texas has MORE wind power than California. Environment California is asking people to email Speaker Pelosi today and ask her to stand strong on the federal energy bill.
UPDATE: This ruling by the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is a positive step, requiring the Bush Administration to force SUVs and light trucks to meet the already-meager federal CAFE standards. This would close a loophole the automakers have been using for a while.
So here at UCLA, several student groups are springing up that support the various candidates running for President. Our Daily Bruin has the story here.
Many have begun to show their support for candidates by donating their time, and in some cases, money, to bring the message of their favored candidates to students across the campus. To achieve the same goal, some have formed organizations, created Facebook groups, and organized meetings and discussions.
"I believe this election is arguably the most important that will happen in our lifetime, and I think a lot of students are recognizing this and want to get involved in it," said Teddy Schwartz, a third-year political science student and founder of the Bruins for Hillary student organization.
The group, which began after Schwartz and several friends decided to act on their personal interests in favor of Sen. Clinton, is only several weeks old. But, according to Schwartz, it already has the support of over 100 UCLA students and faculty.
"People are excited to see Hillary have a presence on this campus," Schwartz said.
In addition to Bruins for Hillary, several other university-recognized student groups related to the upcoming elections have been formed, including Bruins for Obama, Bruins for Kucinich, and Ron Paul 2008.
Issues such as the war in Iraq, health care, higher education affordability for college students, and foreign policy, among others, have moved many of these groups to campaign for their candidates.
For Curtis Whatley, president of Bruins for Obama, it was Sen. Obama's positions on the issues that has caused the public's enthusiasm and support for the Illinois senator's campaign.
"This campaign is about changing the political dialogue in America, and we are going to take it out of the gutter," Whatley said.
Though the group is fully self-funded, it claims the support of over 500 UCLA students coming from varying backgrounds and levels of involvement.
If I actually had the time, I'd set up a Bruins for Edwards group. But alas, my schedule simply doesn't permit that.
We're also hearing that the Daily Bruin will create a specific primary "beat" to cover the primary season in more depth.
Here's some responses to the false, but commonly made, criticisms of single-payer health care plans. H.R. 676 is a Congressional bill co-authored by Dennis Kucinich, has now gained over 75 cosponsors and the endorsements of powerful unions and organizations, such as the AFL-CIO, California Nurses, PNHP and One Care California, as well as Michael Moore. It would set up a national, not-for-profit, health care system in the United States and provide fully comprehensive health care to ALL Americans, including all primary, emergency and long term care, office visits, medication costs, dental, vision and mental health, as well as drug and alchohol counseling. Further it, eliminates all co-pays, deductibles and medication costs. It is the simplest, most reasonable and dependable solution for the U.S. health care crisis.
The DFA Presidential Pulse Poll ends tonight at Midnight Eastern/9:00 PM Pacific Standard Time, which only gives us a few hours to cast our votes. So far, over 130,000 votes have been cast, making it the largest presidential poll of progressive activists this year. I am genuinely proud to write that Dennis Kucinich currently leads with over 30% of the vote.
Dennis Kucinich will introduce privileged resolution to force a vote on V.P. Cheney's impeachment resolution this week, probably Tuesday. It is critical that we voice our support and contact our Representatives ASAP to let them know how we feel.
However, he is reaching out to us, the American people, to do our part and claim responsibility to reclaim our constitutional democracy. Dennis understands that real change and meaningful reform can't happen without the active support of the people, and so he will be holding a live, national conference call Monday evening, November 5th, to explain how everything will work and what we can do to help. From the Kucinich campaign website:
The latest Rasmussen poll in New Hampshire shows Dennis Kucinich in fourth place, tied with Bill Richardson at 7%. This shouldn't come as such a surprise, however.
John Nichols, writing for "The Nation", has just written a kind of intellectual "call to arms" regarding, what is quite possibly, the most important issue facing the United States right now: Iran.
he will go before the U.S. House of Representatives on a point of personal privilege to move the impeachment of Dick Cheney. Mr. Kucinich stated he will bring the impeachment forward before Thanksgiving.
