According to anti-Impeachment "realists" here, we shouldn't even try to Impeach Bush or Cheney. Most Democrats in Congress agree. They tell us we can't Impeach because Bush's liars, right wing nitwits, Neocons, media hacks, and thugs in Congress won't let us. These "realists" don't state their anti-Impeachment position that way, of course, they prefer to say "we don't have the votes", it sounds so much better than admitting they are advocating craven and shameful political expediency at the very time tens of millions of Americans are begging for decisive leadership from Democrats.
Thanks a lot, anti-impeachment "realists". The democracy-destroying criminals you are so afraid to Impeach have created a lethal concoction of ANTI-REALITY, and you are rewarding them for it:
"We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
In case you haven't noticed, judicious anti-Impeachment "progressives" and Congressional Democrats, that "reality" you're so willing to accommodate is a sickening spectacle of coldly-calculated and ruthlessly-implemented right wing INSANITY.
How much longer are anti-Impeachment people here and Democrats in Congress going to be complicit in this insanity? Are you ever going to wake up, or are you too busy admiring your pissy pants "realistic arguments" to notice that using this anti-reality pervading Alice in Wonderland D.C. as the basis of your "arguments" against Impeachment doesn't make you realists, it makes you I-D-I-O-T-S.
You are reinforcing this right wing insanity by accommodating it.
STOP.
DOING.
THAT.
With pompous arrogance, one of you dismissed Turkana's powerful diary as a "straw man argument." Apparently, the half a million Iraqis killed because of Bush/Cheney lies are just straw men in an "unrealistic" argument for Impeachment. Turkana's long list of Bush/Cheney crimes, abuses of power, obstructions of justice, torture, spying, corruption, and American soldier killing criminal incompetence must have been just a bunch of abstract words on the monitor screen of that snickering anti-Impeachment "progressive". We were admonished to dismiss all of that crime and corruption and catastrophic carnage as unworthy of consideration compared to his/her comment thread post of 8 anti-Impeachment talking points Karl Rove would have been proud to have written.
Am I pissed off? You're fucking right I'm pissed off.
But hey, I'm not saying anti-Impeachment people here aren't performing a vitally important service. Someone has to advise caution so our wild-eyed radical rabble-rousing Democrats in Congress won't go too far. Any day now, Harry Reid might climb up on a tank in Lafayette Park and summon a million people into the streets of Washington to overthrow these BushCo hardliners, so keep those words of caution coming, anti-Impeachers, it may be the only thing preventing an unruly mob of Congressional Democrats from marching down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House with torches and pitchforks.
Until we see that on CNN, people here who accuse Impeachment advocates of being unrealistic need to take a long look at that surreal, Orwellian, lie-infested "real world" they're using as their "justification" for opposing Impeachment. Then they need to take a long look in the mirror so they can see what a "progressive" without a shred of self-respect looks like.
Here are a few basic facts they seem to be in need of reviewing: The Constitution is REAL. The authority of the House of Representatives to initiate Impeachment proceedings is REAL. The pervasive and ongoing crimes of Bush and Cheney are REAL. The death and destruction they have inflicted are REAL. The majorities Democrats have on the House Judiciary Committee and in the House of Representatives are REAL. The oaths of office they all took to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution are REAL. The moral obligation they have to honor their oaths of office is REAL.
You like reality, anti-Impeachers? Good. I just gave you a big plateful of reality to chew on. Swallow every bite. Digest it. Until you do, don't even bother coming into this diary thread. I have better things to do than refute "arguments" over and over again from people who don't have any arguments left, but for some bizarre reason still think they do.
The realities I just emphasized are the realities that MATTER. They are the realities Democrats in Congress need to act upon. The mindless anti-reality these right wing extremists have concocted and spread throughout the Beltway in order to immunize their war criminal president and vice-president from Impeachment isn't worth pissing on, much less accommodating, as these anti-Impeachment "progressives" and most Democrats in Congress would have us do.
I am advocating Impeachment because it would not only be defending the Constitution, it would be defending reality itself. Both have been under assault by right wing extremists for more than a decade. They seized power by distorting reality, they're maintaining their power by distorting reality, and they will never stop distorting reality throughout our government and media until their crimes are exposed, proven, and prosecuted through Impeachment.
Impeachment hearings and debate in the House of Representatives would be highly publicized, the evidence presented would compel national attention. Republicans in Congress would no longer be able to hide behind slogans like "support the troops" or "fight the terrorists", they'd have to vote either for or against enforcing our laws and our Constitution.
And maybe, just MAYBE, Impeachment coverage would finally pound some REALITY into the thick skulls of that 41 percent of Americans who STILL think Saddam Hussein was directly involved in 9/11. Impeachment would be a WAKE UP call on issue after issue after issue to a nation that needs to WAKE THE HELL UP before it's too late.
Democrats may never again have an opportunity like this. They need to seize this opportunity to demonstrate political courage, strength, and decisive leadership, or be damned once and for all by tens of millions of Americans as craven politicians who will never take a stand.
Opposing Impeachment is unconscionable and irrational. The "intelligent arguments" anti-Impeachment "progressives" and Congressional Democrats claim to be making all rest upon ACCEPTING AND BEING RESTRAINED BY the surreal and irrational political conditions imposed upon us by a pack of strutting right wing lunatics with the blood of half a million innocent people on their hands.
From a moral perspective, you should all be mortified and ashamed of yourselves, anti-Impeachment "progressives" and Democrats. I have been, am now, and will continue to condemn this monumental idiocy you call "being a realist".
From an activist perspective, if progressive bloggers, here on Daily Kos and other Netroots sites, do not keep the pressure on Democrats to do what's right and Impeach, who will?
Their D.C. consultants?
Rahm Emanuel?
Joe Lieberman?
From an historical perspective, when is the last time Democrats took a stand for what's right and did not back down? People here who accuse me of being an attention-seeking Democrat-basher need to answer that. They need to answer it honestly, and then they need to STFU about "Democrat-bashing".
From a legislative perspective, if there is no Impeachment, Bush and Republicans are going to veto and block bills for the next 18 months, slander the 110th as a do-nothing Democratic Congress, and will have a real chance of regaining a Republican majority in 2008.
It's time for a confrontation, Democrats. It's time for a showdown. It's time for Impeachment hearings.
I post diaries here because I believe progressive activists are the conscience of the Democratic Party. I believe Impeachment advocates are the conscience of Daily Kos.
I believe that American democracy will be beyond redemption if this criminal president and vice president are not held responsible in Impeachment proceedings for the horrific and pervasive damage they have inflicted on our nation and the world.
If they are not Impeached, a fatal precedent will have been set, unlimited executive branch power will be beyond challenge, and our last chance to restore government of the people, by the people, and for the people to America will have been squandered.
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