1.
"Oh no, we'd get Dick Cheney!" (Sen. Murray, Sen. Reid)
It's these flippant people that are in dire need of cranial-rectoscopy. It's as if they've been comatose for six years. What do they imagine we have right now? Is there something that the bushkid himself has fought valiantly against, that cheney could finally do? If anything cheney's more culpable than bush and there's nothing stopping a double impeachment, or doing cheney first to allow the GOP to move a caretaker in (Danforth, Warner) to finish the term.
2.
"Darn, it's just too late." (Conyers)
The reality is that, unlike the Nixon and Clinton circumstances, there is NO disagreement as to the facts of the case. The regime freely admits its activities and merely "defends" them as lawful and unimpeachable. There is nothing to "inquire" about, no "smoking gun" to expose, and no witnesses to examine.
The Articles of Impeachment are alreadly written. All that remains is an up or down vote on torture, spying without a warrant, and/or terrorizing the American People into war. It need not even be taken up by a committee. The Senate trial need only last long enough for the monarchical "Urinary Authoritarian Executive Theory**" to be expounded as the regime's claimed free pass around the Constitution.
Then we find out if over 30 GOP Senators will stand before history to impose Authoritarianism over Americanism. I'm betting they can't. But even if they do, it's better we know where we stand -- and who's really on which side.
But it really can be done in a matter of days.
2A. Various and sundry rationalizations for inaction like: We must "instead do oversight" or "need to investigate first" or "must expose to the public in hearings."
These things are not technically memes, but they do travel from groupthinker to groupthinker with regularity. As noted above, the case-making is already done, but the case-makers are still running around like headless chickens.
When Sen. Kerry says something like it's better "to try to change their behavior" you might realize this as just a humorless version of "we'd get cheney." And of course if anyone actually says this to you in person you need only stare at them for 5 or 6 seconds before they say "Ok, ok ... I don't know what I'm thinking." But responding to media is nothing like a rational conversation.
This is what come when a culture of blather folds over on itself due to a large enough wave of non-deniable reality. The culture operates on the delusion that garnering information and transferring it to others (eventually the electorate/public) is actually acting or even leading. This notion that they can "teach" their way to a solution is just a more "cerebral" form of irresponsibility.
3.
"mumble ... something icky ... Clinton impeachment ... mumble, mumble" (Sen. Harkin, entire parroting punditry)
Simply put, any
comparison to Clinton is oxymoronic.
3A. "It would further divide the country." (Sen. Feinstein)
Which begs the question, "Further than what, exactly?" This one is usually (again oxymoronically) coupled with the lament of "how polarized" the nation has become. Well, if it's already polarized what are we avoiding?
The reality is that the nation is not any more "polarized" now than at other times. All that has happened is that a scary buzzword has been attached. That and the fact the polar-left has grown in the face of neofascism -- and more importantly gotten angrier and noisier -- thus interrupting the comfortable social life inside the beltway.
4.
"It would distract from other priorities" (Sen. Feingold)
If there are priorities higher than stopping war crimes I'd like to hear about them. And even if so, I'd like to hear the magic potion that circumvents "Rule By Signing Statement." Without impeachment, no result can be obtained on any front without "dispensation" from the bushkid.
No pressure is actually being brought to bear at all -- let alome being "ratcheted up." The Dems continue to look like hapless pets and the bushkid allows (and takes credit for) anything they decide would help their side in the polls.
5.
But everything is "All About Iraq." We've got to concentrate on "Stopping the War." (an entire movement)
Sadly, the "all about Iraq" meme did its job during the 2006 campaign. Its sole purpose was to distract from the reality that it was really "All About Anti-Bush" or as
Curtis Gans put it:
Bender: Curtis, I'm holding the study in my hand right now, and clearly one of the things that all the exit polls showed was that Iraq played a part and your own work bears that out -- that Iraq helped propel some degree of an increase in turnout in this last election.
Gans: I think that it is not simply Iraq, although Iraq started Bush's downhill. But it is a gestalt around George Bush. it's being a pariah to other countries; it's people dying in what they increasing find is a vain fight; it's massive budgetary imbalances; it's a lack of compassionate conservatism; it's insecurity in jobs; it's the feeling that people have not been leveled with.
The mandate of 2006 was to impeach bushcheney. Polls showed that a majority wanted it before the election and that even more want it "just over" now. The public doesn't care what it does to who's chances in 2008. They even understand it might not lead to conviction/removal (they remember the Clinton farce too).
6.
"We don't have the votes." (The Ziskey Doctrine)
Russell Ziskey: "Never hit anyone in anger, unless you're absolutely sure you can get away with it."
This notion of only fighting if you know you can win is exactly what it seems: defeatism. The reality is that you don't know unless you try.
Are there 30 GOP Senators who will stand up for history to defend war crimes, illegally spying on Americans, and/or terrorizing the nation with a bomb threat of "Mushroom Clouds!"? If so, we really need to find out.
What we do know is that the Senate has already voted on this. They supported McCain's Anti-Torture Law by a vote of 90-9. Quite promising. Sadly, their vote was negated by "Rule by Signing Statement." Perhaps they'd choose not to repeat such a public display of impotence.
The American People simply want this never-elected, never-legitimate, war criminal regime confronted -- to have their objection voiced and noted for history. They want (and need) to be let off the hook -- publicly and officially -- for that which they never provided their consent.
This Congress and this once-great nation simply needs to get on with it.============
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
