blogs.mayfirst.org

By David Swanson Robert Fisk's "The Age of the Warrior" collects 500 stupendous pages of his columns from the past several years. Fisk is, of course, the Middle Eastern correspondent for the Independent (UK) based in Beirut. He writes about Iraq, Turkey, Palestine, the United States, literature, cinema, genocide, whatever grabs his interest, and he does so with a great deal of honesty and courage. I couldn't recommend the book more highly. It lives up to its rather epic title. But I have one point of disagreement, or at least divergent perspective....

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By David Swanson In the evolving neocon scheme of unconstitutional US governance, the job of running the country may belong to the office of the Vice President, while the primary duty of the president (other than following orders and acting like he's in charge) may be to pardon the Vice President and all of his henchmen for their crimes. read more

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By David Swanson Almost every time House Speaker Nancy Pelosi explains why she won't impeach Bush or Cheney she says that the Republicans want impeachment and that therefore she must oppose it.

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By David Swanson, http://ConvictBushCheney.org Dear Italy, I consider you a second home and some of your citizens a second family. I have spent more days on your beautiful soil than anywhere else in the world other than my home in the United States of America. Many of my fellow Americans will, I am sure, join me in asking you to lend us, your friends, a much needed helping hand. In doing so, I think you will be coming to the aid of yourselves as well, and of the rest of the world.

Pelosi Drafts 2009 Response to Calls to Impeach President McCain By David Swanson Found hanging out of the door of a limousine in San Francisco: Draft Response to Calls to Impeach President McCain House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Third Most Powerful Person in the World, Very Important read more

By David Swanson From The Nation: Katrina vanden Heuvel: "On balancing politics and staying true to values... If the book's subtitle is A Message to America's Daughters, what is your message to those daughters who will ask what our representatives did to hold this President and Administration accountable for grave abuses of power? By not allowing impeachment 'on the table,' aren't you failing to protect democracy and the rule of law for future generations of our children and grandchildren?"

Don't Buy Conyers' New Book Unless He's Held an Impeachment Hearing By David Swanson House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers could impeach Bush and Cheney in an hour if he chose. They have refused to comply with subpoenas and contempt citations, making a laughingstock of his so-called "oversight." They have rewritten laws with "signing statements" and proceeded to violate the laws. They have openly admitted violating FISA. They've obstructed justice, punished whistleblowers, politicized the Justice Department, and lied us into a war, among many other abuses.

By David Swanson Imagine being so angry that you couldn't find a job that you were able to decide, as a man in Tennessee just did, that the way to solve your problems was to attack liberals - the people who support (albeit ineffectively) workers' rights, union rights, and fair trade, who oppose NAFTA, oppose tax breaks for shipping jobs overseas, support investing in job creation at home rather than wars abroad, and want to tax corporations and the super-rich rather than small businesses and working people. read more

By David Swanson Last Friday one of two things indisputably happened. Either a dozen senior Congress members and several well-known expert witnesses went certifiably and collectively insane, or charges of the most extreme executive abuses of power ever heard in the history of this nation were backed up by overwhelming evidence during a six-hour hearing of the House Judiciary Committee focused on the possible need to impeach the President and the Vice President. Either way, a nation with a public communications system worthy of a democracy would have learned the news.

By David Swanson The House Judiciary Committee today, Friday, July 25th, will put impeachment squarely back "on the table" and restored to its prominent place in our Constitution. Elliott Adams, President of Veterans for Peace, and a descendant of American revolutionary Sam Adams, will deliver this prepared testimony, in which, if his 5 minutes allow him to reach his conclusion, he will say: read more

By David Swanson In Andrea Miller Virginia's fourth Congressional district has the opportunity to replace a Cheney Republican with a real progressive, and the first African American our state would ever have chosen to represent us in Congress. Here's a race that can make a difference not just in the head-count for the two increasingly indistinguishable parties, but in what actually happens in Washington. read more

By David Swanson The Fifth District of Virginia, and anyone nearby who can lend a hand, should do everything possible to elect Tom Perriello to Congress this year. The most important reason to do so is to replace Virgil Goode. Back in April I interviewed Perriello for an hour on his campaign platform. You can listen to the interview here: http://thepeoplespeakradio.net/audio/2008/#april

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How They'll Try to Bury Impeachment and Fail By David Swanson In response to public demand for impeachment hearings and pressure from Congressman Dennis Kucinich, Congressman Robert Wexler, and others, as well as electoral challenges by pro-impeachment candidates, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi finally caved and proposed to allow Kucinich to present impeachment in a Judiciary Committee hearing. read more

By David Swanson Below is the original text of a July 17, 2008, media advisory from House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers in the original Pelosiconi, followed by the English in all caps. Conyers Announces Hearing on Bush Imperial Presidency CONYERS ANNOUNCES BRIEF DISMISSIVE TWO-HOUR REVIEW OF SEVEN AND A HALF YEARS OF SUCH BLATANT AND DICTATORIAL CRIMINALITY THAT HE IS CONSTRAINED TO NAME IT WITH AN OXYMORON TO AVOID USING THE WORD "IMPEACHMENT" read more

There's been a lot of public discussion of late of the Associated Press's Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier's changes in style rules. Out with "just the facts," in with opinion and perspective. Or so the story goes. The changes that are afoot at the AP appear to be part of a broader trend, influenced - in part - by the internet, the medium itself and the competition from bloggers. Of the two biggest problems I see in American journalism, this trend could fix one of them while not necessarily having any immediate impact, pro or con, on the other.