Please Vote Against These Animal Abusers In Nov Or Early Voting (tags)
Please vote out the 52 Republican senators who have a terrible record of votes for animal abuse and slaughter. Please vote out the 220 Republican House members who voted for aerial hunting in our national park. Please vote out all who vote for Donald Trump's agenda.
Israeli Lobby Urges War on Syria (tags)
Syria
The "Fiscal Cliff" Is a Hoax ... and a Mel Brooks Routine (tags)
The "fiscal cliff" comedy routine in Washington DC is a staged act where Democrats play the "good cop" who want to tax the rich and cut social welfare programs vs. the "bad cop" Republicans who don't want to tax the rich and promise heavy cuts on social welfare programs. Where is the voice of reason that says maybe this so-called fiscal cliff isn't really such a big deal after all?
GOP BET REP. RON PAUL SUPPORTS HR 210, FILAM WWII VETS (tags)
GOP BET REP. RON PAUL SUPPORTS HR 210, FILAM WWII VETS TS “The one exception to what our campaign and experts term the most ambitious spending-cut platform in national politics is cuts to veterans’ services. In fact, Dr. Paul recently pushed backagainst President Obama’s misguided move to enact inauthentic spending cuts on the backs of veterans. “Dr. Paul is the only presidential candidate – Republican or Democrat – with military service, having served honorably as an Air Force flight surgeon during the Cold War era. “Dr. Paul also has a long history of honoring veterans, getting thousands of heroes the medalsthey
Money Power Runs America (tags)
class war
Activists Discuss Debt Debate, Wonder How We Let Right Control It (tags)
Congressmember Bob Filner, San Diego labor leader Lorena Gonzalez and three other speakers appeared as part of a panel convened by Activist San Diego for their regular meeting August 15. The ostensible purpose was to discuss the recent debate in Washington over raising the nation's debt ceiling, but it soon turned into a discussion of how the Right managed to take over the debate, frame it the way they wanted and get virtually everything they wanted -- including promises of large cuts in government spending that will only worsen the economy and risk not only a double-dip recession but an outright depression. Filner talked not only about President Obama's willingness to concede the domestic agenda to the Republicans but his and the Democrats' Congressional leaders utter unwillingness to end the unaffordable wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya.
The Debt Ceiling: Where Are the Grownups? (tags)
The fact that the ruling elites haven't stepped in and forced the President and Congress to raise the debt ceiling, the way they did in October 2008 to push through the TARP big-bank bailout, suggests either that the corporate ruling class likes the "shock treatment" agenda being pushed by the Tea Party -- force a default on U.S. debt so the President and Congress will have to eliminate the welfare state virtually overnight -- or that the Tea Party has become the ruling class's Frankenstein, a monster it can no longer control.
March on May 1 for Immigration Reform! (tags)
March with L.A. Labor for Immigration Reform on May 1! May Day Thousands of LA workers will march side-by-side with immigrant workers this Sunday in downtown Los Angeles to demand national immigration reform, to stop deportations and separations of families, and to support all workers’ rights.
Tea Party Stooges Join Wisconsin Protests (tags)
worker struggles
America's Tea Party Phenomenon (tags)
big money backs it
PBS Documentary on “Don't Ask, Don't Tell” Airs June 16 (tags)
The PBS documentary “Ask Not,” dealing with the human cost of the “don't ask, don't tell” policy that excludes open Queers from the U.S. military, will be shown nationwide on June 16 and in San Diego June 21 as part of the “Independent Lens” series. The show depicts individuals thrown out of the military under “don't ask, don't tell” and the Queer community's fight-back against the discriminatory policy. In a May 3 preview screening at the San Diego Public Library, activists working against “don't ask, don't tell” discussed why even progressive people who generally oppose America’s wars should be concerned about this issue.
Bush/PNAC Escalates 'Covert Operations' in Iran (tags)
So much for opposing 'any state supporting terrorists' ... Of course, immorality breeds contradiction.
To block Saudi deal
RANDOM THOUGHTS ON THE FIGHT AGAINST THE IRAQ WAR (tags)
NOT ONE PENNY, NOT ONE SOLDIER FOR THESE WARS
US Senate declares English the “national language”: a boost to chauvinism and racism (tags)
The Socialist Equality Party unequivocally condemns the vote by the Senate on Thursday to make English the “national language” of the United States. The measure, added to the Senate immigration “reform” bill, is the but latest in a series of reactionary, ignorant and short-sighted moves aimed at shoring up the right-wing base of the Bush administration and the Republican Party, with the most far-reaching and anti-democratic implications. The proposal is a sop to right-wing and fascistic elements who are working to whip up intolerance and hatred against immigrants in general, and Hispanic Americans in particular. It underscores the deeply undemocratic and unconstitutional essence of all of the measures being enacted in the name of “securing the border.”
Little wonder that President Bush is defending his illegal and unconstitutional domestic spying program. He has no alternative but to try to convince the public not to consider him a criminal and a threat to the Republic.
He's already essentially said the old Nixon line, "I am not a crook."
And like Nixon, he is one.
It is becoming increasingly evident not just to liberals but to honest conservatives that unless this president who thinks he's a king is called to account on this and other violations of the Constitution, those "inalienable" rights we've always claimed as a birthright will have been alienated. That means gone the modern vernacular.
Today, the Washington Times, the Fox News of the print world, weighed in with a story in its magazine that claimed the White House is gearing up for an impeachment battle, predicting that even in the current Republican House, there will be an effort to impeach Bush over the NSA spying. The same article said the White House is worried about losing in the Judiciary Committee on that count, but thinks it can manage to get a tie vote.
I find that speculation a bit unlikely at this point, but who knows? The blatant unconstitutionality of this particular presidential transgression, and the fact that he was caught red-handed and had to admit to it, makes it what George Tenet would call a "slam dunk" case.
In a way, though, it would be unfortunate, because other presidential crimes are much worse--his use of 500 "signing documents" to ignore acts of Congress (no wonder the guy never vetoes bills!), his lying to get the country into a war of agression that is bleeding the nation and its youth, his multiple war crimes and his "crime against peace," his gross negligence in not responding to the Katrina disaster or the looming global warming threat...
The list goes on and on. It would be a tragedy if this Constitutional outlaw ended up being brought up just on a charge of illegal spying by a Republican Judiciary Committee, and then battled that one charge to an almost certain win in the full House, and that was the end of it.
Better, I think, to let the charges keep growing through the 2006 campaign year, and then hit him with all of them at once.
Still, it's nice to see the president starting to squirm.
For other stories by Lindorff, please go (at no charge) to This Can't Be Happening! .
BTL: GOP/Christian Right "Pro-Life" Rhetoric Rife with Contradictions (tags)
Interview with Simon Harak, Jesuit priest and War Resisters League organizer, conducted by Between the Lines' Scott Harris
The Republican campaign to suppress the Black vote (tags)
Betrayed by Bush, GOP's anger is moot (tags)
Small-government Republicans have been stirred up by conservative talk show hosts like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. But when the election comes, the libertarian faction's anger will be "almost irrelevant... Are they going to vote for Howard Dean?"
The Conservative's PlayBook for Gaining Absolute Power (tags)
Bush's disguise as a compassionate conservative prevents him from condemning the misguided Supreme Court decision on affirmative action and most city dwellers (and they are many) are still very much addicted to finding government solutions for every problem.