Mikael’s ImpeachforPeace Blog

hugesforamerica blog

Why can’t we hear more of this from actual Democratic candidates, not just fictional ones. But this exchange between Matthew Santos, a Democrat, and Arnold Vinnick, a Republican, stood out on live debate from “The West Wing”:

Santos: I know you like to use that word “liberal” as if it were a crime.
Vinnick: No, I’m sorry. I know I shouldn’t have used that word. I know Democrats think “liberal” is a bad word. So bad you had to change it, didn’t you? What do you call yourselves now? Progressives? Is that it?

Santos: It’s true. Republicans have tried to turn “liberal” into a bad word. Well, liberals ended slavery in this country.

Vinnick: A Republican president ended slavery.

Santos: Yes, a liberal Republican, Senator. What happened to them? They got run out of your party. What did liberals do that was so offensive to the liberal party?

I’ll tell you what they did. Liberals got women the right to vote. Liberals got African Americans the right to vote. Liberals created Social Security and lifted millions of elderly people out of poverty. Liberals ended segregation. Liberals passed the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act. Liberals created Medicare. Liberals passed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act.

What did conservatives do? They opposed every single one of those things. Every one. So when you try to hurl that label at my feet – “liberal” – as if it were something to be ashamed of, something dirty, something to run away from, it won’t work Senator. Because I will pick up that label and I will wear it as a badge of honor.

(Source)

As Americans, we don’t wait for other people to take the lead when a problem needs to be fixed. In this ad, William H. Macy shows that by solving the climate crisis, we are honoring an American tradition.

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As reported on this blog in reference to a BBC “Newsnight” expose’ in a post entitled “Who Killed the Kennedys After All?”, Robert Kennedy was not assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan.

This video is from MSNBC News Live, broadcast March 26, 2008.

Paul Grignon’s 47-minute animated presentation of “Money as Debt” tells in very simple and effective graphic terms what money is and how it is being created. It is an entertaining way to get the message out. The Cowichan Citizens Coalition and its “Duncan Initiative” received high praise from those who previewed it. I recommend it as a painless but hard-hitting educational tool and encourage the widest distribution and use by all groups concerned with the present unsustainable monetary system in Canada and the United States.

ImpeachforPeace.org does not endorse nor support political candidates, but on this blog I have the freedom to express my personal belief that of the candidates remaining, there is only one I would like to be my president: Barack Hussein Obama. I include his middle name to negate the venom the xenophobic naysayers have attempted to attach to it. I just hope he comes around to support full accountability for the crimes of all members of the Bush Administration.


-Lyrics-

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality.

Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.

Yes we can heal this nation.

Yes we can repair this world.

Yes we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics…they will only grow louder and more dissonant ……….. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea —

Yes. We. Can.

If you believe impeachment hearings to investigate Vice President Richard B. Cheney are warranted there has never been a better time to say so. Sign the impeachment petition at: www.WexlerWantsHearings.com initiated by House Judiciary Committee members Robert Wexler (D-FL), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Luis Gutierrez (D-IL) TODAY!

Over a hundred and ten thousand online signatures have been gathered in less than a week since Rep. Wexler posted the petition on his campaign website. This despite the original OpEd article: “A Case for Hearings” by the three members of Congress being refused by all major newspapers it was submitted to, including the New York Times and Washington Post, as well as multiple television networks.

This blackout by the Corporate Media led Congressman Wexler to reach out directly to the American people by posting an appeal on YouTube, entitled: “Rep. Wexler Wants Cheney Impeachment Hearings”.

Eight total members of the House Judiciary Committee have either co-signed House Resolution 333 (now H. Res. 799) to impeach Vice President Cheney and/or co-authored this current appeal for impeachment. Co-signers of H. Res. 333 on the HJC include Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN), Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-TX), Rep. Hank Johnson (D-GA), and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA).

Clearly the House Judiciary is on the brink of possibly initiating impeachment hearings with more than one third of its Democratic members publicly committed to supporting impeachment of the Vice President.

A caller to the office of House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers Jr. (D-MI) was told that the current impeachment bill H.R. 799 “is in special discussion”, and that now is the time that we should be calling our Representatives”.

Representative and Presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) first introduced H. Res. 333 last April and Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) just became the 24th co-signer on December 19th.

House Resolution 333 is comprised of three articles, charging that the Vice President “purposely manipulated the intelligence process to deceive the citizens and Congress of the United States by fabricating a threat of Iraq weapons of mass destruction” as well as lying “about an alleged relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda” among other claims.

[You may or may not know that I am a mime artist, actor, ballroom dance instructor and spent parts of two summers studying with the great master of the art of mime: Marcel Marceau. I just sent this to a closed Yahoo Group comprised of students of our recently departed Master teacher.]

I have not yet been able to take the proper time to formulate an appropriate response that a loss of this magnitude merits.

I do, however want to encourage someone - anyone - to begin collecting these quotes and stories and collating them into a book from his students for eventual publication.

I will say briefly that for me there has not been so much a sense of loss - maybe because my relationship with Marceau was not one that involved personal communication, but was rather mostly as an infrequent student yet lifelong admirer and emulator. Perhaps it is also because Marceau for so long has lived in that universal place and communicated to all of us from there through his work and through his teaching which continued to echo in our minds and hearts long after each and every session with him had ended.

In my show at a Community College theater two nights ago in Worthington, Minnesota Marceau was momentarily very present - much like Rob Rivest mentioned earlier on this forum - and I suddenly thought:

At long last Marceau can view and enjoy and even subtly critique and guide each and every one of our performances and rehearsals simultaneously.

For this reason I smile through a gentle heartache when I think of his passing. He now lives completely in that world to which he has been so clearly and consistently referring as long as we have known him.

Much like the spiritual inheritance I clearly received from each of my parents in the months and years after their deaths six and four years ago, we can all expect to have gifts from our master teacher visited upon us - each lovingly crafted to most precisely further our unique branch of the magnificent tree that is the art of mime we embody together.

I eagerly await to see how Marceau lives, grows, develops and blossoms through each of you as his artistic and spiritual influence is more fully released through your souls into this world.

“Have I told you about the time I met Charles Chaplin?”

“I am Marceau… but he is Charles Chaplin!”

NPR Interview with my true mentor, Gregg Goldston, who was a long-time student and friend of and performer with Marceau

Media Matters
Limbaugh: Service members who support U.S. withdrawal are “phony soldiers”

During the September 26 broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio show, Rush Limbaugh called service members who advocate U.S. withdrawal from Iraq “phony soldiers.” He made the comment while discussing with a caller a conversation he had with a previous caller, “Mike from Chicago,” who said he “used to be military,” and “believe[s] that we should pull out of Iraq.” Limbaugh told the second caller, whom he identified as “Mike, this one from Olympia, Washington,” that “[t]here’s a lot” that people who favor U.S. withdrawal “don’t understand” and that when asked why the United States should pull out, their only answer is, ” ‘Well, we just gotta bring the troops home.’ … ‘Save the — keeps the troops safe’ or whatever,” adding, “[I]t’s not possible, intellectually, to follow these people.” “Mike” from Olympia replied, “No, it’s not, and what’s really funny is, they never talk to real soldiers. They like to pull these soldiers that come up out of the blue and talk to the media.” Limbaugh interjected, “The phony soldiers.” The caller, who had earlier said, “I am a serving American military, in the Army,” agreed, replying, “The phony soldiers.”

(Original Article)