His colleagues call him "Big Media Matt." That's because Matthew Yglesias is a respected voice of the liberal blogosphere. The 28 year-old Yglesias has accomplished much. He graduated magna cum laude, from Harvard, served as editor-in-chief at The Harvard Independent, and upon graduating, he became a writing fellow at The American Prospect. Yglesias began blogging in 2002, focusing on American politics, public policy, and foreign policy. Yglesias now writes for The Atlantic Monthly and blogs at the Atlantic blog.
Memorial Day weekend has come and gone. All weekend, I saw veterans honored on television, the newspapers, parades, etc. I saw more than my share of yellow ribbons, American flags, 21-gun salutes and more. But something was missing, something I wish would be covered every Memorial Day, voices of dissent, especially from those who served our country.
This is a good video.... albeit it's from April 3. Here's an unedited exchange between a FOX News producer flunkie Porter Berry and Father Pfleger, friend of Rev. Jeremiah Wright.
The NH House of Representatives tabled HR.24, the resolution petitioning Congress to commence impeachment procedures. A motion was made to table the resolution, 227 approved, 95 opposed, the motion carried. WMUR Channel 9 has the obit.
Growing up in New Hampshire most of my life, I'm not surprised it was this lopsided. I knew it would be a uphill battle on all levels. Ninety-five patriots did the right thing today. The other 227.... all I can say now is they're on the wrong side of the issue. This was a time to rise above politics and do the right thing. Instead political expediency and fear got the best of them. Kudos to state representative Betty Hall (D-Brookline), the 95 members of the House who voted for it, and all the organizers who believed.
“The Heroes in our nation's history who fought for liberty never calculated the odds. The just did what was right, and the legacy of their heroism is all around us. ... The didn't stop to ask whether they could really succeed; they just stood up against injustice because there was no other alternative. And they succeeded."
Former U.S. Congresswoman, Elizabeth Holtzman in “The Impeachment of George W. Bush.”
New Hampshire state representative Betty Hall (D-Brookline) isn't calculating the odds, nor is she questioning whether or not HR.24 can succeed. She's standing up to President George W. Bush and Vice-president Dick Cheney because there's no other alternative: U.S. Congress will not do stop the Bush Administration's abuse of power. History may not look too kindly on our Congress but perhaps there will be a footnote for one New Hampshirite's courageous stand. I caught up with Betty Hall and discussed the myths of investigations into impeachment, HR.24 efforts, and why NH Democrats should support it. Enjoy!
Today on Democracy Now! co-host Amy Goodman asked Sen. Barack Obama after a NYC event why he is not calling for a total withdrawal of US troops from Iraq in accordance with the 70 percent of Iraqis who say they want the US out.
Here's the link to today's segment. Or you can read the transcripts below the fold.
On Tuesday March 4 voters in Brattleboro, VT will vote on a non-binding resolution calling for the following:
"Shall the Selectboard instruct the Town Attorney to draft indictments against President Bush and Vice President Cheney for crimes against our Constitution, and publish said indictment for consideration by other municipalities? And shall it be the law of the Town of Brattleboro that the Brattleboro Police, pursuant to the above-mentioned indictments, arrest and detain George Bush and Richard Cheney in Brattleboro if they are not duly impeached, and extradite them to other authorities that may reasonably contend to prosecute them."
According to the organizers the resolution a largely symbolic gesture. One organizer wrote, "it was born simply out of the devastating realization that our Constitution and entire system of government were
— and still are — under assault, and that such extraordinary circumstances sometimes call for extraordinary measures." Now organizers claim the initiative now has real legal teeth. How legal is it?
"Big Head DC has discovered alarming similarities between a speech made by Sen. Barack Obama on February 16 while campaigning for president in Wisconsin and an October 2006 speech made by Deval Patrick, the current Democratic governor of Massachusetts. The coincidences would seem to indicate that Obama copied several lines and linguistic speech patterns from Patrick’s “Just Words” speech for Obama’s own “Words Matter” speech. Indeed, words do matter. And they matter even more when they are one’s own words."
Brattleboro, Vermont is in the heart of the Vermont impeachment movement. Brattleboro was one of the first five towns to pass the popular impeachment resolution and now activists want to take it to another level... if you can call it that.
According to Dave Gram of AP:
A group in Brattleboro is petitioning to put an item on a town meeting agenda in March that would make Bush and Vice President Cheney subject to arrest and indictment if they visit the southeastern Vermont community.
"This petition is as radical as the Declaration of Independence, and it draws on that tradition in claiming a universal jurisdiction when governments fail to do what they're supposed to do," said Kurt Daims, 54, a retired machinist leading the drive
Wow. Just as we expected, this teach-in delivered! For those of you on the fence re: investigations on impeachment, watch the following YouTubes, ESPECIALLY John Nichols of The Nation.
According to Paul Heintz of the Brattleboro Reformer
"Though billed as a "teach in" and held at Dartmouth College, impressionable students were far outnumbered by gray-haired veterans of a movement that began in southern Vermont and has since spread throughout New England."
Vermonters are not going down without a fight on impeachment. Despite 34 Vermont towns in favor of investigations into impeachment and a very reluctant Congressman in Peter Welch, a latest poll shows that Vermonters still favor impeachment regardless of how much time is left in the Bush Administration.
According to Vermont's CBS affiliate, WCAX,
A poll conducted for Channel 3 News posed the same question to 400 likely voters. 61% said they would be in favor of Congress beginning impeachment proceedings against President Bush. 33% opposed it, and 6% were not sure.
The numbers for Vice President Cheney were slightly different. 64% favor impeachment, while 31% oppose it.
I have to ask this question over and over again because I never get any clear answers and it seems the Democrats still can't learn from the mistakes.
Over at Raw Story today Larisa Alexandrovna reports that the Democrats dropped demand for pre-war presidential records and CIA jail documents before passing the recent intelligence bill. Alexandrovna writes
After a stalemate of over two years, the Senate passed the 2008 Intelligence Authorization bill Wednesday, with Democrats ceding a key provision regarding pre-war Iraq intelligence that Republicans had decried.
Sources close to the Senate Intelligence Committee say one of the compromises Democrats made to ensure the bill’s passage was to remove language demanding the White House turn over all Presidential Daily Briefings on Iraq prior to the 2003 invasion. Democrats are said to have been hoping to establish whether President Bush mischaracterized intelligence in the lead-up to the conflict.
“The provision on the PDBs was dropped because Republicans objected and were blocking consideration of the bill,” a Senate source said Wednesday
The following is an oped submitted to me by Dan DeWalt. DeWalt is a Newfane, VT selectboard member and the driving force behind Vermont's successful impeachment movement. He wanted me to send it along to all of you at Kos and I hope you all find it helpful.
Take care,
vtfinest
History Doesn't Impeach, it's up to Congress
One of the more ridiculous utterances coming from the mouths of Democrats who refuse to defend the Constitution and hold the Bush administration accountable is that “History will impeach George Bush” so they don’t have to. Vermont’s Peter Welch has trotted out this “argument”, but if he would take a moment to read some history, he would understand that he has it exactly backwards.
We asked nicely but they turned us down. Why? They wouldn't say, but I think the organizers worked hard to bring Democratic leaders like Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid, and the organizers didnn't want to scare them off by confronting them with a few thousand incredibly smart, passionate, and articulate impeachment supporters.
Senator Patrick Leahy kicked off an oversight hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee with Attorney General Alberto Gonzales by accusing top White House adviser Karl Rove of playing a key role in the firing of 8 US Attorneys.
"The accumulated and essentially uncontroverted evidence is that political considerations factored into the unprecedented firing of at least nine United States Attorneys last year," the committee's chairman said. "The evidence we have been able to collect points to Karl Rove and the political operatives at the White House. ."
Even more interesting was Senator Arlen Specter's response:
So a lot of us here didn't like what Senator Russ Feingold had to say about impeachment. But perhaps there was a reason why he's suggesting censure. After all, the Senate can't impeach a president and/or vice-president, right?
Leave it to The Nation's John Nichols to clear the air and bring us down to earth on why Feingold's actions matter. This is something impeachers really need to read to put it all into perspective.
The Second Annual Green Mountain Daily/Vermont Daily Briefing Vermont blogosphere BBQ and Hamburger Summit went off without a hitch, as bloggers from all over Vermont, regardless of political persuasion and beliefs got together for a grand old time on beautiful Lake Champlain in Burlington, Vermont.
It was an all-star cast of Vermont bloggers, activists, politcal aides, journalists, and a visit by Vermont's lone Congressman, Peter Welch which made the day really special.
The organizers are John Odum of Green Mountain Daily and Philip Baurth of Vermont Daily Briefing and like last year was a big hit.
I've been wanting to write this diary for some time and I'm finally getting the chance to write it.
I live up in Vermont, henceforce my moniker, and 38 (no longer 36) Vermont towns passed non-binding impeachment resolutions on Town Meeting Day.
To be honest, the odds are stacked against us on impeachment, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't throw up our arms and go home. We MUST keep going! But I think one of the best routes to pursue investigations into impeachment for Bush & Cheney -- AND BY FAR THE MOST FULFILLING is to bring impeachment back down to the local level.
Here are some important tools for bringing up an impeachment resolution in your town.
