The Power of Your Vote & Making History

Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan was on the floor of the Senate today with some GREAT signs that accompanied her speech. One read, “75 Republican Filibusters, and counting...” and the other read, “324,000 good-paying American jobs lost since January.”

Senator Stabenow noted that today there are twice as many people looking for jobs, as there are jobs available. She said that as of May there are 1.6 million workers that have been unemployed for 27 weeks or more – meaning they no longer receive aid (unemployment insurance). And one thing that I think never seems to get enough attention is that the fact that the unemployment rates normally given to the public DO NOT include those who no longer receive benefits! Thus, creating this complete LIE that unemployment is going down, when it is actually the number of those that have help getting a job that are going down. Stabenow also points out that for every dollar that goes out in unemployment insurance $1.64 goes back into the economy – making this a worthy investment.

One of the obvious reasons for the bad economy is the rising costs of energy and fuel. The GOP filibustered another measure today; for a windfall profit tax, designed to provide alternative fuel incentives. Yeah, because we wouldn’t want to deny the big oil companies their record breaking profits! After all, they are taking such great initiative all on their own to develop alternative fuels, right? I never understood why we would leave developing alternatives to the biggest competitors, but that’s the Repugnant’s logic hard at work for you!

I hope Americans keep in mind when they go to vote this November that the Republicans’ record-breaking filibusters are all part of their plan. They admitted their plan in 2006, that they would claim that this was a “do nothing Congress” so they could win more seats. It should be known that in reality, this session of congress has been blocked by the GOP at every turn.

Come on people. It’s been far more than twice that we’ve been fooled already, so DON’T BE FOOLED AGAIN! And I will be the first to admit that Democrats are not innocent in the things we deplore, but that means we need to be extra diligent in electing congressional officials this fall!!!

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

For those of you that missed Kucinich making history yesterday, as he introduced 35 articles of impeachment for Bush; you can hear it all over again right now on C-SPAN.

Also, if you’d rather read the transcript, you can find the congressional record on C-SPAN, but it’s also on Wexler’s website; Wexler Wants Hearings.com - and he was kind enough to also post Kucinich’s articles of impeachment of Cheney too. I have seen the petition gain nearly a thousand more signatures just this afternoon! So maybe Kucinich has reignited something at least.

If you haven’t signed Wexler’s petition yet, please do. I think you all know as well as I do that there isn’t enough time to impeach before they leave office anymore, but that doesn’t by any stretch of the imagination make this a futile effort! For those of you that don’t completely understand the significance, let me explain it a little...

First, it is possible to impeach a president after they have left office – so it still counts. Second, I believe that one of the main reasons why Kucinich decided this is absolutely necessary now is in order to prevent an unwarranted attack on Iran. You see, by putting into congressional record that Congress is aware of the illegal misleading of Americans into a war by intentionally and knowingly, manipulating Intelligence and the facts to suit the desires of the administration to attack Iraq (a sovereign nation that presented no threat), and overriding Congress to do so; Congress can better prevent the same thing from happening to Iran. It has already been determined by a congressional committee that this is in fact the case, so the natural procession is for hearings and an investigation to follow – so it is in part, just a function of governmental process.

Plus, it’s my understanding that in order to overturn the numerous unconstitutional laws, provisions, directives, and so forth that have been orchestrated by the administration and its subordinates; a case must be made that these things that have passed, were in fact unconstitutional. In other words, it’s the procedural duty needed to get more desired results.

Aside from the principle of the matter (which it seems few are truly concerned about), there’s also the pure practicality of this measure. After all, we certainly don’t want this administration’s actions to act as a precedent, therefore allowing future presidents to do the same unconstitutional things - right? This is definitely a case of “Speak now, or forcibly forever hold your peace.” We cannot stop that which we refuse or neglect to speak out against.

Lastly, for those of you that would truly like to see justice be done, and want to see members of this administration face prison time for war crimes; this investigation would lend more weight to those charges, and could very well prove instrumental in getting this result as well.

So, Kucinich’s bill is up for a vote TOMORROW and that means you need to write your House representative NOW. Call them first things in the morning, and encourage everybody you know to do the same too!

Those of you that have an opportunity to vote your rep out if they fail to comply, tell them you will do exactly that if they don’t support this measure.

Find your House Rep here:
Contacting Congress

Call Speaker Pelosi too, let her know that it is NOT supporting impeachment that will cause Democrats to loose seats – not the other way around!
Demand she get out of the way of justice:
San Francisco Office: 415-556-4862
DC Office: 202-225-4965