Before Election 2006, many Democrats saw Congressman John Conyers as the old lion who finally would hold George W. Bush and Dick Cheney accountable, through impeachment if necessary.

Instead, Conyers has shied away from that challenge and even had pro-impeachment demonstrators arrested at his office.

In this guest essay, former CIA analyst Ray McGovern describes how Conyers has failed to live up to the heroic standards of Martin Luther King Jr.

For the full story of the confrontation between pro-impeachment activists and Congressman Conyers, go to the independent ConsortiumNews.Com.

Even as George W. Bush thumbs his nose at constitutional checks and balances and the rule of law, Democratic leaders can’t find the courage to utter the “I-word.” But an unprecedented dual impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney may now be needed to protect America’s legacy as a democratic Republic that upholds the twin principles that no man is above the law and everyone possesses inalienable rights.

Millions of Americans are looking for some political leader who will dare step up and say: “Impeach the bastards!” 

For the full story on why impeachment might just make sense, go to the independent Consortium News.Com.

Sparked by an insurgency among delegates, the California Democratic Party has taken an historic step forward on the issue of impeachment. In a resolution affirmed by the full state party convention Sunday, the Democrats called on the U.S. Congress to use its subpoena power to investigate misdeeds of President Bush and Vice President Cheney – and to hold the Administration accountable “with appropriate remedies and punishment, including impeachment.”

The delegate insurgency was coordinated by Progressive Democrats of America and its allies, according to a press release.

While Speaker Pelosi had declared impeachment “off the table,” the Democratic Party rank-and-file has demonstrated its commitment to putting the issue “on” the table.

Coming on the heels of mass actions and resolutions across the country in support of impeachment, and Congressman Dennis Kucinich’s introduction of Articles of Impeachment against Cheney, this action by the powerful California Democratic Party builds on the pro-impeachment momentum.

The resolution refers to Bush and Cheney having acted in a manner “subversive of the Constitution” by…

1) using false information to justify the invasion of Iraq
2) authorizing “the torture of prisoners of war”
3) “authorizing wiretaps on U.S. citizens without obtaining a warrant”
4) “disclosing the name of an undercover CIA operative”
5) suspending “the historic Writ of Habeas Corpus by ordering the indefinite detention of so-called enemy combatants”
6) “signing statements used to ignore or circumvent portions of over 750 Congressional statutes”

“This was an example of the Party grassroots speaking its mind, and the Party officials responding to the call,” PDA Director Tim Carpenter said. “This action represents the successful culmination of PDA’s one-month, eleven-city barnstorming tour across California – aimed at putting impeachment and ending the occupation of Iraq at the top of the Party’s agenda.”

For more on the drive for impeachment, go to the Progressive Democrats of America Website.

It’s blackberry winter in Birmingham and the spring bird migration is now underway. Reports from Dauphin Island, Fort Morgan and Gulf Breeze, Florida, show all kinds of migrants along the Gulf of Mexico coast.

Photy by Glynn Wilson

An Eastern blue bird [sialia sialis] checking out a bird bath.

In middle Alabamaland, the blue grosbeak showed up Thursday afternoon just before dusk, too late to get a photo, but just in time to make me miss the first debate between Democratic Party candidates for president.

It’s way too early for debates anyway, with the first primaries and caucuses still 10 months away. After watching the analysis on MSNBC, there were apparently few fireworks anyway, and the Iraq war dominated the discussion.

Democrats Fault Bush in 1st Debate

Speaking of war and impeachment, tens of thousands of Americans from Miami, Florida to the North Pole in Alaska will take to the streets on April 28 to call for the impeachment of President Bush and Vice-President Cheney.

This marks the beginning of what activists are calling “Impeachment Summer,” an intensification of grassroots pressure on Congress, and it comes on the heels of the introduction by Congressman Dennis Kucinich of impeachment articles against Dick Cheney.

For more information, hit the A28.Org Website.

Then, don’t forget to watch CBS’s “Sixty Minutes” Sunday to see former CIA director George “Slam Dunk” Tenet slam the Bush administration for using him as a scapegoat for the ill-conceived invasion of Iraq.

Also, Jazzfest in New Orleans starts today. Watch the news page for headlines and stories about it. We won’t be there this year, but we’ll be missing the shade by the big live oak tree over by the Zydeco tent.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich defied Speaker Nancy Pelosi today and put the Impeachment of George W. Bush “on the table” where it urgently belongs.

“This week the House Appropriations committee removed language from the Iraq war funding bill requiring the Administration, under Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11 of the Constitution, to seek permission before it launched an attack against Iran,” Kucinich said. “Since war with Iran is an option of this Administration and since such war is patently illegal, then impeachment may well be the only remedy which remains to stop a war of aggression against Iran.”

Of course speaking about impeachment is not the same as introducing Articles of Impeachment. But Kucinich is stepping into a firestorm of opposition from the corporate media and his own party’s leadership – and needs your support to keep him going.

Democrats.Com is asking people to thank Rep. Dennis Kucinich for speaking out on impeachment – and to ask him to make his remarks real by introducing Articles of Impeachment.

Here’s his contact information.

Phone: 202-225-5871
E-mail: info@kucinich.us
Website: http://kucinich.us/contact

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the nation’s top law enforcement official, has authorized war crimes, dismissed the Geneva Conventions, redefined torture to allow most types of torture, helped establish military commissions that deny defendants the right to a fair trial, claimed the U.S. Constitution does not provide the right to habeas corpus, and defended violations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

This week, leading bloggers inspired by John Dean proposed impeaching Gonzales as the first step towards impeaching Bush and Cheney.

The folks at Democrats.Com urge interested parties to contact their Congressional Representatives and ask them to join the campaign to Impeach Alberto Gonzales. For more information, go to the Democrats.Com call for action.

A Newsweek poll published October 21 found 51 percent of Americans supporting the impeachment of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

A USA Today/Gallup poll released October 25 showed 51 percent of Americans supporting “major investigations” of the Bush administration’s failed policies, including the debacle in Iraq.

Much of that support was generated by books and independent Internet journalism and organizing by the speakers who will participate in a national movement to impeach Bush and Cheney, according to an e-mail press release.

A coalition of national organizations and political leaders will announce plans to mobilize a national movement to impeach Bush and Cheney at a rally Saturday, Nov. 11 at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, just across from Independence Hall where the U.S. Constitution was written and signed. The mobilization is being billed as “Impeach For Change.”

Speakers will include Elizabeth Holtzman, former Member of Congress, served on the House panel that voted to impeach President Nixon, and author of “The Impeachment of George W. Bush: A Practical Guide for Concerned Citizens”; Cindy Sheehan, Co-Founder of Gold Star Families for Peace; David Swanson, Co-Founder of AfterDowningStreet.org and Washington Director of Democrats.com; Tim Carpenter, Director of Progressive Democrats of America; Jodie Evans, Co-Founder of CODE PINK Women for Peace; Bill Perry, Veterans for Peace; and Bob Fertik, President of Democrats.com and ImpeachPAC.org. 

Participating organizations include the National Organization for Women, the Hip Hop Caucus, Constitution Summer, and many of the 200 plus organizations in the After Downing Street Coalition.

The speakers will be followed by a discussion of impeachment by prominent bloggers, including Glen Ford (Black Agenda Report), Sally Hemings (Sally Hemings in Paris), Rob Kall (OpEdNews.com), Dave Lindorff (ThisCantBeHappening.net), Martin Longman (BoomanTribune.com), Susie Madrik (Suburban Guerilla), Liza Sabater (Culture Kitchen), and Bob Fertik (Democrats.com).

The Locust Fork News and Journal have long-supported such a movement and an investigation. Now that it is clear that Democrats will take back control of both houses of Congress in January, perhaps the investigation can get underway.

Our position is that a repudiation of an imperial presidency that is above domestic and international law is critical to re-establishing the reputation of the United States around the world.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who is set to become the House Majority Leader, has said impeachment is “off the table.” Unless she changes that position, the Democratic Party base will be looking for new leadership in 2008.

And would someone either put a muzzle on Sen. John Kerry or hire him a new writer and tell him to stick to the script? We can’t afford any more gaffes from another Massachusetts liberal – if we are going to take back the White House in 2008.

by Glynn Wilson

On the eve of the five-year anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on America, you have to read between the headlines in the Washington Post to get the point.

Osama bin Laden’s Trail Is ‘Stone Cold,’ according to a detailed analysis by the new national newspaper of record online.

Osama Bin Laden’s Trail Is ‘Stone Cold’

The clandestine U.S. commandos whose job is to capture or kill Osama bin Laden have not received a credible lead in more than two years. Nothing from the vast U.S. intelligence world – no tips from informants, no snippets from electronic intercepts, no points on any satellite image – has led them anywhere near the al-Qaeda leader, according to U.S. and Pakistani officials.

The objective news story doesn’t draw the logical conclusion, letting intelligent readers decide for themselves what the point should be. Here it is:

… and President George W. Bush should be held accountable for that.

Intelligence officials think that bin Laden is hiding in the northern reaches of the autonomous tribal region along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. This calculation is based largely on a lack of activity elsewhere and on other intelligence, including a videotape, obtained exclusively by the CIA and not previously reported, that shows bin Laden walking on a trail toward Pakistan at the end of the battle of Tora Bora in December 2001, when U.S. forces came close but failed to capture him.

Many factors have combined in the five years since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to make the pursuit more difficult. They include the lack of CIA access to people close to al-Qaeda’s inner circle; Pakistan’s unwillingness to pursue him; the reemergence of the Taliban and al-Qaeda in Afghanistan; the strength of the Iraqi insurgency, which has depleted U.S. military and intelligence resources; and the U.S. government’s own disorganization.

But the underlying reality is that finding one person in hiding is difficult under any circumstances. Eric Rudolph, the confessed Olympics and abortion clinic bomber, evaded authorities for five years, only to be captured miles from where he was last seen in North Carolina.

It has been so long since there has been anything like a real close call that some operatives have given bin Laden a nickname: “Elvis,” for all the wishful-thinking sightings that have substituted for anything real.

After playing down bin Laden’s importance and barely mentioning him for several years, Bush last week repeatedly invoked his name and quoted from his writings and speeches to underscore what Bush said is the continuing threat of terrorism. . . .

On (a) videotape (of al Qaida right after 9/11) obtained by the CIA, bin Laden is seen confidently instructing his party how to dig holes in the ground to lie in undetected at night. A bomb dropped by a U.S. aircraft can be seen exploding in the distance. “We were there last night,” bin Laden says without much concern in his voice. He was in or headed toward Pakistan, counterterrorism officials think.

That was December 2001. Only two months later, Bush decided to pull out most of the special operations troops and their CIA counterparts in the paramilitary division that were leading the hunt for bin Laden in Afghanistan to prepare for war in Iraq, said Flynt L. Leverett, then an expert on the Middle East at the National Security Council.

“I was appalled when I learned about it,” said Leverett, who has become an outspoken critic of the administration’s counterterrorism policy. “I don’t know of anyone who thought it was a good idea. It’s very likely that bin Laden would be dead or in American custody if we hadn’t done that.”

President Bush continues to claim that we are safer now, but that is hard to believe considering how this administration handled the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina along the Gulf Coast – and how everything is going wrong in Iraq and much of the world has lost respect for the United States under Bush’s watch.

If you believe the word of politicians who believe spinning press releases and making speeches makes you safer, vote for more Republicans in the November elections.

If you believe those running the government should show up and do their jobs in a credible fashion, vote for Democrats and help change the power structure in Congress.

Bush will never stand for election ever again. So how do we hold him accountable for his incompetent high-crimes and misdemeanors – including not finding Osama bin Laden “dead or alive?”

The only way that will happen is for the majority to change in the U.S. House of Representatives, where according to the Constitution, impeachment proceedings must be initiated. A Democratic Party majority in the U.S. Senate is also important. That’s where Bush’s war crimes trial should be held.

It is becoming increasingly clear that the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Rice approach to fighting the so-called “global war on terror” is an utter failture and it is time for the American people to consider new leadership.

According to the Associated Press and as seen on cable TV news, President George W. Bush made a speech on Tuesday from the secret Counterterrorism Center just outside Washington, D.C., and tried to use the alleged foiled plot to blow up flights between Britain and the United States as political fodder, saying it was evidence that the West could be fighting the global war on terrorists for many years to come.

“America is safer than it has been, yet it is not yet safe,” Bush said.

But Bush campaigned in 2004 on a ticket to make America safe by “fighting them over there” so we don’t have to “fight them here.”

Due to the U.S. support for Israel’s invasion of Lebanon, however, the Arab street is as riled up against the West as ever and today in Boston, Homeland Security Department officials are going through luggage looking for homemade bomb making devices. It’s just a matter of time before we face another 9/11, since the Bush administration’s diplomatic team has done nothing to try and ease the hatred of the West in the Muslim world.

The counterterrorism center is located at an undisclosed site in Northern Virginia known as Liberty Crossing. It merges hundreds of government experts and more than two dozen computer networks from various federal agencies focusing on potential threats, according to the AP. The Washington Post in the past has reported on preparations by the Carlysle Group to build an alternative government compound in Alexandria, Virginia in case Washington, D.C., is hit with a nuclear bomb.

The nation’s safety looms as a major issue in the midterm elections Nov. 7. Both Republicans and Democrats are maneuvering for the political advantage in an election where control of Congress is at stake.

Democrats blamed Bush administration policies for making the country more vulnerable to outside threats.

“Five years after 9/11, al-Qaida has morphed into a global franchise operation, terror attacks have increased sharply across the world and the president has shut down the program designed to catch Osama bin Laden,” Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said in a statement following Bush’s remarks.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., in a teleconference with reporters Tuesday, accused the Bush administration of “stubbornness” and of holding an “oversimplistic” view of how to resolve Middle East tensions.

“One of the great failures of this administration has been a refusal to consider new approaches to problems,” he said.

Bush Sees No End to War on Terrorism

Disturbance Diverts London-D.C. Flight

While we are sympathetic to those who are not any more comfortable with Democrats than Republicans and long for a multi-party system, now is not the time to push that agenda. It is time for the Republican Party to relinquish some of its power and let people run government who are committed to making it work, not running it into the ground.

In fact, if this were a just world, George W. Bush would resign the presidency and let someone else try to govern.

If politics was football, and Bush was the head coach, he would have been fired already.