You knew this.... Someone succinctly put it to music....

Bush needs a brain, Cheney needs a heart
and the Demos need some nerve.

Dems need a backbone implant

President Bush's approval ratings are at a new low of 29%. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa) has called for hearings on the NSA's phone snooping. John Murtha has been traveling the country to tell us why he was wrong to support the Iraq war, (see a video of his appearance in Evanston here). and there is a nationwide campaign to put the House of Representatives back into Democratic hands.

So Nancy Pelosi, (D. Cal.), House Minority Leader, says that impeachment is "off the table."
Her focus on energy policy is admirable. Still, does she not get the connection between our energy policy and the needless death and destruction in Iraq? Could she at least keep the option open? It's a bit odd, I think, that Bush can't rule out a nuclear attack on Iran, but Pelosi's strongest statement is that you never know where an investigation might lead...

It would be so much more helpful to let the administration know that we will not tolerate its disregard of the law, for the suffering of others and for the deaths its lies have caused. We ought to let her know, don't you think?

We weren't paranoid. We were right.

After the 2004 election, a few people wanted to investigate allegations of tampering with the electronic voting machines, especially Diebold's. The response from Democrats and Republicans alike was, "Get over it. Bush won." Stories of precincts with more votes for Bush than registered voters were ignored. So were allegations of tampering with registration.

It turns out that the Diebold machines actually are vulnerable to hacking, and the results could be changed without any evidence of tampering. Diebold has informed states of a problem, but there is no fix for it.

According to Ion Sancho, Leon County, Florida's supervisor of elections, it is actually possible to have both an electronic vote and a paper trail with optical scanners. Sancho has devoted his career to making elections voter-friendly and accurate. Naturally, some of the Powers That Be in Florida's Bush administration don't like his stance on the Diebold machines. Read more about that here.

Curiouser and curiouser, or "just say no"

The Justice Department has dropped an investigation of the conduct of the lawyers who approved the NSA's domestic surveillance program because the investigators were denied security clearances. Is there no one in government willing to stand up to abuses of power? Even the Nixon administration had John Dean.

Ma Bell is now Big Brother

Three of the 4 largest phone companies have been supplying the National Security Agency with the phone calling patterns of tens of millions of Americans on request. AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth all cooperated, Qwest didn't.

W says they're not fishing or trolling, and they're not listening without a court order. Of course, under his official signing statements, limits on government snooping don't apply to him when he feels national security is involved.

Some of these companies are also internet service providers, and they want to decide which links appear when you search the net -- and which don't. Congress will vote soon on whether to let them. Opponents of this bill would require internet neutrality, where all sites are equally accessible. More information is available here.

Is "big Mo" beginning to push BushCheney out?

Remember when George HW Bush bragged that Big Mo[mentum] was with him during the primaries when he ran for president? Maybe, just maybe, Mo is moving toward impeachment. W's polls continue to go south. This week he lost the support of a radio talk show host, Don McIntyre, who had supported him for the last 5 years. McIntyre apologized and said he was wrong to have supported W for president.

"In the months and years since shock and awe I have been shocked repeatedly by a consistent litany of excuses, alibis, double-talk, inaccuracies, bogus predictions, and flat out lies. I have watched as the President and his administration changed the goals, redefined the reasons for going into Iraq, and fumbled the good will of the world and the focus necessary to catch the real killers of September 11^th."

There are several organizations and coalitions working on impeachment by passing state and local resolutions, buying ads in major media, and circulating petitions on paper or online. Check out the online petition. See if your representative in Congress is a cosponsor of any of these resolutions:

HJR 635: to investigate Administration's intent to go to war before congressional authorization, manipulation of pre-war intelligence, encouraging and countenancing torture, retaliating against critics, and to make recommendations regarding grounds for possible impeachment.
HJR 636: to censure President Bush.
HJR 637: to censure Vice President Cheney.

Chicken-hearted George decides which laws apply to him

Rather than veto a bill he disagrees with, or negotiating with Congress, That Man signs the bill into law. Then, after the cameras are gone, he tries to add his own "fine print", signing a statement that the law does not apply to him as president. or as commander in chief. According to the Boston Globe, Bush has done this 750 times. Several times, he has retracted in the signing statement agreements he had negotiated with Congress. He doesn't have either the gumption to veto the bill or the integrity to keep his word.

The man who thinks the constitution is just a piece of paper also places his interpretation over that of Congress or the courts, and takes an action that prevents either of them from carrying out the role assigned to it.