Mikel Weisser's new band, Here, will be performing live at Kingman Arizona's Beale Street Brews Friday Sept. 5th, from 7-10. Mikel will sing lead and play guitar with longtime Kingman favorite, Pep Hagan, accompanying on bass. Lead guitarist, Dennis Groves might possibly be sitting in. About 1/3 of the songs Here are expected to play will be Weisser originals, many coming from his early days as a struggling vocalist in the 1980s Austin music scene. Weisser, the son of 60s era vocalist Patti Weisser, only learned to play guitar three years ago and has since pursued his life long dream of putting together his own band.
Weisser claims the clever band name comes from the phrase, "They need some practice, but at least they're here."
Call Mikel at 928-234-5633, or Beale Street Brews at 418 E. Beale Street, (928) 753-4004 for more details
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Capitalists are Un-American
At a time when the biggest news on everybody radar screen should be the Ron Suskind book, The Way of the World, with its powder keg of accusations against President Bush including, but not limited to, the Whitehouse ordering forged documents to lie to America about 9/11 with--as big a deal as that is, I am going to try to write about something else.
Even when the last week’s political news main feature showed McCain and Obama having to genuflect to the Religious Right’s Rick Warren and quote bible verses to get elected on CNN’s first semi-debate hosted by Pastor Warren at his Saddle Back Forum Church on Saturday Aug. 16th, there is something even more insidiously threatening America than this blurring of church and state.
I tell ya, folks, this problem is big, big news for liberals. And for conservatives too, true conservatives who expect to get their money’s worth and everyone to pull their fair share of the load. Especially big news for the kind of conservatives such as those in Warren’s audience who chuckled at McCain belittling of a 3 million dollar study of bears at the same time they unhesitatingly send another 10 Billion a month to Iraq for Halliburton to squander.
Here is the big news, this just out: capitalists are Un-American. This tidbit comes from Democracy Now’s August 13th’s evening news show, a factoid so outlandish one has to read it fully to comprehend the magnitude of its impact: “A new government study shows most corporations pay no income taxes in the United States. According to the Government Accountability Office, 72 percent of foreign-owned companies went at least one year without paying taxes over an eight-year period. 55 percent of US-based companies also went at least a year without paying.” That’s right, despite all the tax cuts and tax breaks the wealthy have always given themselves, the majority of American businesses are going that extra mile, saying “Screw America,” and not paying their taxes at all.
Forget what you think your greedy little pocketbook is telling you, not paying taxes is so very not-cool. If you are not doing your daily best to make America work, the least you can do is pay on your tab. Paying taxes is as all-American as it gets. Paying taxes is doing your part to show you actually care about America more than to $2.50 you spent on that yellow ribbon you bought a couple of years ago which is now so sun faded it’s unreadable.
Paying taxes makes roads, operates school, and cops and firemen and soldiers and a host of other things you would seriously rather not live without. Paying taxes is the gift that gives back. But not so you could tell from the GOP, who have routinely tried to bribe the public with tax cuts when they had no real ideas to promote the general welfare, only to line their own pockets.
That’s right and sad to say it but this means that a lot of Republicans are Un-American too and yet they are audacious enough to brag about it. They smile in your face and tell you, you would rather have a hundred bucks off your taxes than a decent school for your daughter, or clean water to drink. Some people, including McCain, squawk that we shouldn’t have to pay taxes because government’s too big. He is convinced that what we really need to fix America is still more tax cuts for the rich. McCain explains that it will be no problem to afford the tax breaks if we only cut back on the quality of government a little more. You know, just anywhere, VA hospitals, Social Security, whatever, just as long as it’s not on the military or domestic surveillance.
Interestingly enough these words of tax cut come from McCain’s lips the same week it’s discovered that the CEOs of America’s biggest companies have donated ten times more campaign dough to McCain than to Obama. If McCain really wants to make government smaller he could quit his supposed job mis-representing AZ and just live off of his herd of lobbyists for years. Of course we could probably easily afford to pay for his salary and plenty else if he and the rest of the GOP would stop trying to help their rich friends avoid paying our taxes.
What a shame. If only they loved America.
--mikel weisser writes from the left coast of AZ.
Even when the last week’s political news main feature showed McCain and Obama having to genuflect to the Religious Right’s Rick Warren and quote bible verses to get elected on CNN’s first semi-debate hosted by Pastor Warren at his Saddle Back Forum Church on Saturday Aug. 16th, there is something even more insidiously threatening America than this blurring of church and state.
I tell ya, folks, this problem is big, big news for liberals. And for conservatives too, true conservatives who expect to get their money’s worth and everyone to pull their fair share of the load. Especially big news for the kind of conservatives such as those in Warren’s audience who chuckled at McCain belittling of a 3 million dollar study of bears at the same time they unhesitatingly send another 10 Billion a month to Iraq for Halliburton to squander.
Here is the big news, this just out: capitalists are Un-American. This tidbit comes from Democracy Now’s August 13th’s evening news show, a factoid so outlandish one has to read it fully to comprehend the magnitude of its impact: “A new government study shows most corporations pay no income taxes in the United States. According to the Government Accountability Office, 72 percent of foreign-owned companies went at least one year without paying taxes over an eight-year period. 55 percent of US-based companies also went at least a year without paying.” That’s right, despite all the tax cuts and tax breaks the wealthy have always given themselves, the majority of American businesses are going that extra mile, saying “Screw America,” and not paying their taxes at all.
Forget what you think your greedy little pocketbook is telling you, not paying taxes is so very not-cool. If you are not doing your daily best to make America work, the least you can do is pay on your tab. Paying taxes is as all-American as it gets. Paying taxes is doing your part to show you actually care about America more than to $2.50 you spent on that yellow ribbon you bought a couple of years ago which is now so sun faded it’s unreadable.
Paying taxes makes roads, operates school, and cops and firemen and soldiers and a host of other things you would seriously rather not live without. Paying taxes is the gift that gives back. But not so you could tell from the GOP, who have routinely tried to bribe the public with tax cuts when they had no real ideas to promote the general welfare, only to line their own pockets.
That’s right and sad to say it but this means that a lot of Republicans are Un-American too and yet they are audacious enough to brag about it. They smile in your face and tell you, you would rather have a hundred bucks off your taxes than a decent school for your daughter, or clean water to drink. Some people, including McCain, squawk that we shouldn’t have to pay taxes because government’s too big. He is convinced that what we really need to fix America is still more tax cuts for the rich. McCain explains that it will be no problem to afford the tax breaks if we only cut back on the quality of government a little more. You know, just anywhere, VA hospitals, Social Security, whatever, just as long as it’s not on the military or domestic surveillance.
Interestingly enough these words of tax cut come from McCain’s lips the same week it’s discovered that the CEOs of America’s biggest companies have donated ten times more campaign dough to McCain than to Obama. If McCain really wants to make government smaller he could quit his supposed job mis-representing AZ and just live off of his herd of lobbyists for years. Of course we could probably easily afford to pay for his salary and plenty else if he and the rest of the GOP would stop trying to help their rich friends avoid paying our taxes.
What a shame. If only they loved America.
--mikel weisser writes from the left coast of AZ.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Bush the Uniter
Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Bush-the-Uniter-by-mikel-weisser-080811-792.html
August 11, 2008
Bush the Uniter
By mikel weisser
When Bob Costas interviewed George Bush for NBC's Olympic coverage on Sunday August 10th, attempting to take a hard line, Costas asked Bush to comment on the problems in our country. Bush replied, "I don't see any problems with our country."-
Following the immediate crowd reaction of everyone in the room yelling "get that man a *&%&$@# pair of glasses" at the TV set, I, like many in the American public, came the realization that from his point of view things in America probably do look pretty rosy. After all, Bush does not have to see any problems. His problems are seen to.
The crowd he runs with, big oil, big Pharma, telecoms, Chinese bankers, and big arms dealers, continue to rake in massive profits and, essentially unchecked, pursue their agendas of pillaging the earth while chemically and entertainingly lobotomizing the masses. The war with Iraq has gone exactly like he wanted: rambling on with no clear purpose. Even as the masses grow who are calling for impeachment, Bush knows he is safe with mainstream media willing to distract us or mute any issue, even something as large as Bush forcing the CIA to forge terrorist documents to better lie to us with.
That's right, in case you missed it, in the Aug. 5 news cycle, Ron Suskind's new book, The Way of the World, was making huge waves with bold accusations of deceptions regarding the Iraq War, both pre- and post-invasion. The White House supposedly authorized paying an Iraqi official a cool five million dollars to draft a letter linking Iraq to alleged 9/11 mastermind Mohammad Atta. The letter enjoyed a brief turn in December '03 before being dismissed as a forgery. The purpose was to lie to the American people who were getting pissed about the lack of WMDs in this country that was supposed to be an imminent threat. It was around the time that Saddam himself popped up like a "Whack-a-Mole" in time for his capture to provide some Christmas cheer. Joy over the Saddam thing buried the controversy over the forged document, until the Pulitzer Prize winning Suskind sussed it out once more, in time for Bush bashers to get another turn at trying to dethrone King George.
If the public presses it, this could be a new beginning of the end of George Bush.
Already, echoing July's concerted, if diminutive Kucinich impeachment effort, many in the press and on the barstools around the land are calling Suskind's claim, if true, "an impeachable offense."
But that's only if our fractionated public were to unify in their reaction, and already the disinformation machine has kicked into high gear. As before when Bush was being pressed on some issue, gasoline prices suddenly start sloping down instead of up and mainstream media has chosen to emphasize the ever available Democratic dirty laundry, this time of Edwards in bed with whomever--and Condi Rice is back to rattling her saber at Iran. This would all be well and good, in fact business as usual, if not for the fact that Fox has taken to shrieking that mainstream media are Bush haters, this convergence of distraction is a clue: Suskind is onto something and needs to be buried.
I say you can tell the man by the company he keeps. Olmert of Israel is resigning in disgrace from corruption charges while creating his own Warsaw ghetto in Gaza; and Pakistan is about to impeach Musharraf for everything from killing Benazir Bhutto to bartering in bacon grease. Like Bush, both men have made shambles of their countries, created war states where none need exist, alienated their own citizenry, repressed their political opposition often at the point of a gun and been implicated in so many shady dealings they should open a sunglasses outlet.
Of course if open resistance leads to open oppression here in the US, Bush and his followers are liable to prove many resisters dead right, or at least dead. If you seriously contend this characterization is over the top, ask an Iraqi whose family has died for Bush lies. It all depends on how the public reacts to the Suskind story. If enough people react, it remains our America, not his. This accusation alone, handled properly by Bush bashers, could prove to be his tipping point. If Bush is to be a uniter one last time, this may be his chance: to be universally despised. --mikel weisser writes from the left coast of AZ.
August 11, 2008
Bush the Uniter
By mikel weisser
When Bob Costas interviewed George Bush for NBC's Olympic coverage on Sunday August 10th, attempting to take a hard line, Costas asked Bush to comment on the problems in our country. Bush replied, "I don't see any problems with our country."-
Following the immediate crowd reaction of everyone in the room yelling "get that man a *&%&$@# pair of glasses" at the TV set, I, like many in the American public, came the realization that from his point of view things in America probably do look pretty rosy. After all, Bush does not have to see any problems. His problems are seen to.
The crowd he runs with, big oil, big Pharma, telecoms, Chinese bankers, and big arms dealers, continue to rake in massive profits and, essentially unchecked, pursue their agendas of pillaging the earth while chemically and entertainingly lobotomizing the masses. The war with Iraq has gone exactly like he wanted: rambling on with no clear purpose. Even as the masses grow who are calling for impeachment, Bush knows he is safe with mainstream media willing to distract us or mute any issue, even something as large as Bush forcing the CIA to forge terrorist documents to better lie to us with.
That's right, in case you missed it, in the Aug. 5 news cycle, Ron Suskind's new book, The Way of the World, was making huge waves with bold accusations of deceptions regarding the Iraq War, both pre- and post-invasion. The White House supposedly authorized paying an Iraqi official a cool five million dollars to draft a letter linking Iraq to alleged 9/11 mastermind Mohammad Atta. The letter enjoyed a brief turn in December '03 before being dismissed as a forgery. The purpose was to lie to the American people who were getting pissed about the lack of WMDs in this country that was supposed to be an imminent threat. It was around the time that Saddam himself popped up like a "Whack-a-Mole" in time for his capture to provide some Christmas cheer. Joy over the Saddam thing buried the controversy over the forged document, until the Pulitzer Prize winning Suskind sussed it out once more, in time for Bush bashers to get another turn at trying to dethrone King George.
If the public presses it, this could be a new beginning of the end of George Bush.
Already, echoing July's concerted, if diminutive Kucinich impeachment effort, many in the press and on the barstools around the land are calling Suskind's claim, if true, "an impeachable offense."
But that's only if our fractionated public were to unify in their reaction, and already the disinformation machine has kicked into high gear. As before when Bush was being pressed on some issue, gasoline prices suddenly start sloping down instead of up and mainstream media has chosen to emphasize the ever available Democratic dirty laundry, this time of Edwards in bed with whomever--and Condi Rice is back to rattling her saber at Iran. This would all be well and good, in fact business as usual, if not for the fact that Fox has taken to shrieking that mainstream media are Bush haters, this convergence of distraction is a clue: Suskind is onto something and needs to be buried.
I say you can tell the man by the company he keeps. Olmert of Israel is resigning in disgrace from corruption charges while creating his own Warsaw ghetto in Gaza; and Pakistan is about to impeach Musharraf for everything from killing Benazir Bhutto to bartering in bacon grease. Like Bush, both men have made shambles of their countries, created war states where none need exist, alienated their own citizenry, repressed their political opposition often at the point of a gun and been implicated in so many shady dealings they should open a sunglasses outlet.
Of course if open resistance leads to open oppression here in the US, Bush and his followers are liable to prove many resisters dead right, or at least dead. If you seriously contend this characterization is over the top, ask an Iraqi whose family has died for Bush lies. It all depends on how the public reacts to the Suskind story. If enough people react, it remains our America, not his. This accusation alone, handled properly by Bush bashers, could prove to be his tipping point. If Bush is to be a uniter one last time, this may be his chance: to be universally despised. --mikel weisser writes from the left coast of AZ.
Impeachment Efforts ARE Worth It
Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Impeachment-Efforts-Are-Wo-by-mikel-weisser-080805-701.html
August 5, 2008
Impeachment Efforts Are Worth It
By mikel weisser
You hear it all the time: “What are you wasting your time on Impeachment for? You now it’s not going to get anywhere. You’re just going to make yourself trouble.” So many pundits have cast their negative spin on the idea by asking, “Is it worth it?” that I purposefully titled this piece to answer in the affirmative. It was not an easy yes to get to, but yeah, Neil Young and CSNY, sure, let’s do impeachment the president. Of course, recently, the Impeachment Movement (and me personally, perhaps not coincidentally) have had some hard times and that certainly makes it harder to keep one’s spirits up. Following the Hearings on July 25th many of us who had worked for years to see that moment, leapt up as if our excitements alone could compel Congress through our sheer collective force of will. And it hasn’t happened. So, you see you have to keep working, but eventually, the question comes around: Is This All Worth It? But you push on.
Of course I say push on, not fight on, as if what we do could be called a "fight," next to what actual soldiers have had to go through, but fight on. It has taken a elaborate and enormous machinery to cloud the truth from the public, but I still say that truth, in and of itself needs to be treated as if it were the champion of the people and pushed for at all turns. We who know must work in still more ways and 1 on 1 with even more citizens, until so many are calling for justice the apparatus itself responds, even as the lackeys who work for it continue to drone out their disinformation.
Accept this isn’t going to get easy. Loyal GOP and Fox heads will continue to spout their talk, it's what they're paid for. We just have to talk more and more directly and get the seed of truth spread to the point the people demand to hear it.So you try to press on. Then on Friday, Aug. 1st in a phone interview I personally was told by an insider at Judiciary nothing’s doing, and nothing’s going to be done. Over this same period of time a reader could readily find massive amounts of new material on how Pelosi’s 2002 involvement in the Congressional “Gang of 8” briefing on torture makes her complicit and so she won’t press for impeachment because she’s an accessory. Of course you know that everything has its tipping point, put enough weight behind an icon and it will topple, but it’s likely to take an immense amount of weight.
Are we there yet? Not even close. And still the question: Worth it? For many of us who have been running this marathon we thought we were entering the homestretch and found out we hadn’t even made it to the starting gate yet. And yet, both on a personal level and as a citizen, I still say yes. To me the Bush administration has grown to such a monstrosity it is every citizen’s duty to resist and work towards awareness and arrest. It is the basic issue of liberty and freedom for America itself. To spend one's time working for the cause, or even merely the call, of freedom is not a waste. Even if you never achieve the freedom yourself, or if the world is not freed from your trying, your soul and the souls of those you touched will be that much freer and that is certainly worth the time.With a problem the scope of the Bush Dynasty, there are so many disasters it’s occasionally incapacitating just trying to figure out where to start. You’ve got to do something. Of all the different topic to pursue, impeachment ties so many together so beautifully. Like many, many Americans I have strong suspicions on 9/11, am aware of Bilderbergs, Alex Jones, the Federal Reserve, etc. All of it incredibly overwhelming and prima face, undefeatable. That is why I tend to work on more mainstream issues: if we can get the torture to stop then we can do this, if we can unravel the secrecy then we can do that, etc, all of which are handily addressed in impeachment.I will not get my neighbor to accept the network of secret detention facilities around the country waiting for the names on the terrorist watch list until I can get him to see WMDs were a lie, refusing congressional subpoenas is a crime, and war in general, and this war in specific, is an abomination.As Rep. Mel Watt and Ms Holtzman both strongly noted: The American People need to act behind the impeachment for it to work. The public awareness and outcry has increased through our efforts so far, but not enough, until Congress hears Watergate-size thunderous disgust from Americans we need to stay in hard-pressed PR mode and publicize the ambiguity out of this issue. Bush succeeds because though people don't like what he's doing they keep being told, it's OK. Well, what he's done is not OK and it is our job to make sure that everyone knows it.So I call us all back to action. Several writers have urged increased agitation and this sounds great to me. I’ll march for a cause, but I don't like being beaten for a cause, especially if we can outsmart the tyrant. One of the posters on OpEdNews Mr. M is right, outlandish activism in civil disobedience is the key right now. We have to out shout the media, both in spectacle and sincerity. Not just write or call Congress on a regular basis or have gripe sessions with friends. We have to confront the enforced ignorance. Make and hand out flyers yourself. “Street corner” it whenever you have 15 minutes. In addition to occasional street corner standing with protest signs I have also incorporated using disposable "Impeach Bush" signs and stapling them to abandoned buildings with high visibility. One person with a sign on a busy street can affect 100s in an hour. The more the more impact, but ONE alone does make a difference. This is a saturation thing. Why did the Bush admin lie 944 times about WMDs? Because repetition works.
Here's an idea I read in an op-ed out of Florida and have adopted: Hand write an Impeach Bush flyer on a sheet of typing paper and tape it to your car. Make it gaudy, let it be ugly. The more of these on the streets the more the general public has to think about impeachment. And this thought that came from our family's discussion of how to best dramatize the impeachment is that instead of, as typical, one large protest in DC, we need 100s of protests at cities around the country. Small ones add up, like yesterday I got contacted about a vacant lot with posts available for activist content. Today by noon on a main thoroughfare in Kingman, AZ is a 4 X 8 sign that reads "Impeach Bush Now! Call Congress." I also have spent a half hour or so a day over the last couple of days sidewalk protesting for impeachment right in front of the local Repug headquarters. ALSO, harass the press for their lack of accountability. They are less likely to be true believers than GOP politicians and need to be called to account when they propagandize. Here is a link for FAIR's media contact list. They deserve the attention as much as congress.Just be sure: While I am not advocating violence, I believe this is a time for hostility, or at least to push beyond silence even when it’s uncomfortable. This is a time for purposeful confrontation of the Bush propagandists, even when that means one-on-one in the grocery store with someone wearing Bush/GOP propaganda. The people need to confront for themselves what the Bush admin has been proven to stand and what their alliance to the junta says about their personal character. For to endorse Bush is to endorse tyranny, lying, torture, greed, heartlessness, etc., even to the personal level of still having a red white and blue "W '04" sticker on your SUV.
Surely a vast number of the people who once believed in Bush now know the ashes and anger the rest of us have known for years. You could be the one to help them get to that anger and then they could help us get our country back. Without a massive outpouring of public outcry, the kind ImpeachBush.tv calls the “Nixon Flood,” we won’t have an impeachment. And if we don’t do something soon, we won’t have a country. Sure you will get some nasty looks, cuss words and other unpleasantries, you may find yourself having a tense conversation with someone you’ve half known for years or with someone you just met but need to depend on; and you may find yourself out of a job over this. Believe I speak from experience.
But remember this, especially when you contemplate the ever spreading network of detention centers Alex Jones keep trying to warn us about: With the terrorist watch list now spreading to over one million names we have to wonder just how low the standards have gotten to make it on the list? What does it mean to be the eight hundred and seven-five thousand, four hundred and thirty-fifth angriest person at Bush? Do you have to know how to make bombs, some protest you went to, or column you wrote, or is it because of a bumper sticker on your car?
Let’s face it, if the US actually had one million terrorists running around actively working on the destruction of our country, an army of a million fanatics? We’re all screwed. If Al Qaida has secretly infiltrated one million dedicated soldiers inside our borders we are occupied by the sixth largest army on the planet. So who is the enemy Bush is trying to secure America from? Ourselves?
Maybe like Nixon’s Enemies List before, perhaps the majority of those million people aren’t so much enemies of the state as enemies of Bush and Bush is not the state … yet.
Is Impeachment worth it? I say Yes What do you think?--mikel weisser writes from the left coast of Arizona
August 5, 2008
Impeachment Efforts Are Worth It
By mikel weisser
You hear it all the time: “What are you wasting your time on Impeachment for? You now it’s not going to get anywhere. You’re just going to make yourself trouble.” So many pundits have cast their negative spin on the idea by asking, “Is it worth it?” that I purposefully titled this piece to answer in the affirmative. It was not an easy yes to get to, but yeah, Neil Young and CSNY, sure, let’s do impeachment the president. Of course, recently, the Impeachment Movement (and me personally, perhaps not coincidentally) have had some hard times and that certainly makes it harder to keep one’s spirits up. Following the Hearings on July 25th many of us who had worked for years to see that moment, leapt up as if our excitements alone could compel Congress through our sheer collective force of will. And it hasn’t happened. So, you see you have to keep working, but eventually, the question comes around: Is This All Worth It? But you push on.
Of course I say push on, not fight on, as if what we do could be called a "fight," next to what actual soldiers have had to go through, but fight on. It has taken a elaborate and enormous machinery to cloud the truth from the public, but I still say that truth, in and of itself needs to be treated as if it were the champion of the people and pushed for at all turns. We who know must work in still more ways and 1 on 1 with even more citizens, until so many are calling for justice the apparatus itself responds, even as the lackeys who work for it continue to drone out their disinformation.
Accept this isn’t going to get easy. Loyal GOP and Fox heads will continue to spout their talk, it's what they're paid for. We just have to talk more and more directly and get the seed of truth spread to the point the people demand to hear it.So you try to press on. Then on Friday, Aug. 1st in a phone interview I personally was told by an insider at Judiciary nothing’s doing, and nothing’s going to be done. Over this same period of time a reader could readily find massive amounts of new material on how Pelosi’s 2002 involvement in the Congressional “Gang of 8” briefing on torture makes her complicit and so she won’t press for impeachment because she’s an accessory. Of course you know that everything has its tipping point, put enough weight behind an icon and it will topple, but it’s likely to take an immense amount of weight.
Are we there yet? Not even close. And still the question: Worth it? For many of us who have been running this marathon we thought we were entering the homestretch and found out we hadn’t even made it to the starting gate yet. And yet, both on a personal level and as a citizen, I still say yes. To me the Bush administration has grown to such a monstrosity it is every citizen’s duty to resist and work towards awareness and arrest. It is the basic issue of liberty and freedom for America itself. To spend one's time working for the cause, or even merely the call, of freedom is not a waste. Even if you never achieve the freedom yourself, or if the world is not freed from your trying, your soul and the souls of those you touched will be that much freer and that is certainly worth the time.With a problem the scope of the Bush Dynasty, there are so many disasters it’s occasionally incapacitating just trying to figure out where to start. You’ve got to do something. Of all the different topic to pursue, impeachment ties so many together so beautifully. Like many, many Americans I have strong suspicions on 9/11, am aware of Bilderbergs, Alex Jones, the Federal Reserve, etc. All of it incredibly overwhelming and prima face, undefeatable. That is why I tend to work on more mainstream issues: if we can get the torture to stop then we can do this, if we can unravel the secrecy then we can do that, etc, all of which are handily addressed in impeachment.I will not get my neighbor to accept the network of secret detention facilities around the country waiting for the names on the terrorist watch list until I can get him to see WMDs were a lie, refusing congressional subpoenas is a crime, and war in general, and this war in specific, is an abomination.As Rep. Mel Watt and Ms Holtzman both strongly noted: The American People need to act behind the impeachment for it to work. The public awareness and outcry has increased through our efforts so far, but not enough, until Congress hears Watergate-size thunderous disgust from Americans we need to stay in hard-pressed PR mode and publicize the ambiguity out of this issue. Bush succeeds because though people don't like what he's doing they keep being told, it's OK. Well, what he's done is not OK and it is our job to make sure that everyone knows it.So I call us all back to action. Several writers have urged increased agitation and this sounds great to me. I’ll march for a cause, but I don't like being beaten for a cause, especially if we can outsmart the tyrant. One of the posters on OpEdNews Mr. M is right, outlandish activism in civil disobedience is the key right now. We have to out shout the media, both in spectacle and sincerity. Not just write or call Congress on a regular basis or have gripe sessions with friends. We have to confront the enforced ignorance. Make and hand out flyers yourself. “Street corner” it whenever you have 15 minutes. In addition to occasional street corner standing with protest signs I have also incorporated using disposable "Impeach Bush" signs and stapling them to abandoned buildings with high visibility. One person with a sign on a busy street can affect 100s in an hour. The more the more impact, but ONE alone does make a difference. This is a saturation thing. Why did the Bush admin lie 944 times about WMDs? Because repetition works.
Here's an idea I read in an op-ed out of Florida and have adopted: Hand write an Impeach Bush flyer on a sheet of typing paper and tape it to your car. Make it gaudy, let it be ugly. The more of these on the streets the more the general public has to think about impeachment. And this thought that came from our family's discussion of how to best dramatize the impeachment is that instead of, as typical, one large protest in DC, we need 100s of protests at cities around the country. Small ones add up, like yesterday I got contacted about a vacant lot with posts available for activist content. Today by noon on a main thoroughfare in Kingman, AZ is a 4 X 8 sign that reads "Impeach Bush Now! Call Congress." I also have spent a half hour or so a day over the last couple of days sidewalk protesting for impeachment right in front of the local Repug headquarters. ALSO, harass the press for their lack of accountability. They are less likely to be true believers than GOP politicians and need to be called to account when they propagandize. Here is a link for FAIR's media contact list. They deserve the attention as much as congress.Just be sure: While I am not advocating violence, I believe this is a time for hostility, or at least to push beyond silence even when it’s uncomfortable. This is a time for purposeful confrontation of the Bush propagandists, even when that means one-on-one in the grocery store with someone wearing Bush/GOP propaganda. The people need to confront for themselves what the Bush admin has been proven to stand and what their alliance to the junta says about their personal character. For to endorse Bush is to endorse tyranny, lying, torture, greed, heartlessness, etc., even to the personal level of still having a red white and blue "W '04" sticker on your SUV.
Surely a vast number of the people who once believed in Bush now know the ashes and anger the rest of us have known for years. You could be the one to help them get to that anger and then they could help us get our country back. Without a massive outpouring of public outcry, the kind ImpeachBush.tv calls the “Nixon Flood,” we won’t have an impeachment. And if we don’t do something soon, we won’t have a country. Sure you will get some nasty looks, cuss words and other unpleasantries, you may find yourself having a tense conversation with someone you’ve half known for years or with someone you just met but need to depend on; and you may find yourself out of a job over this. Believe I speak from experience.
But remember this, especially when you contemplate the ever spreading network of detention centers Alex Jones keep trying to warn us about: With the terrorist watch list now spreading to over one million names we have to wonder just how low the standards have gotten to make it on the list? What does it mean to be the eight hundred and seven-five thousand, four hundred and thirty-fifth angriest person at Bush? Do you have to know how to make bombs, some protest you went to, or column you wrote, or is it because of a bumper sticker on your car?
Let’s face it, if the US actually had one million terrorists running around actively working on the destruction of our country, an army of a million fanatics? We’re all screwed. If Al Qaida has secretly infiltrated one million dedicated soldiers inside our borders we are occupied by the sixth largest army on the planet. So who is the enemy Bush is trying to secure America from? Ourselves?
Maybe like Nixon’s Enemies List before, perhaps the majority of those million people aren’t so much enemies of the state as enemies of Bush and Bush is not the state … yet.
Is Impeachment worth it? I say Yes What do you think?--mikel weisser writes from the left coast of Arizona
Recent news articles
Following the success of my article on the July 25th House Judiciary hearings on Dennis Kucinich's call for the Impeachment of George Bush i went on the publish a series of short news articles with OpEdNews. Here they are compiled.
OpEdNews
Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/One-Week-Later--Kucinich---by-mikel-weisser-080801-361.html
August 5, 2008
One Week Later: Kucinich, Judiciary, Franks and the Whitehouse Silent
By mikel weisser
With additional reporting by Nancy Holt and Amanda Lang
One week after the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the "Imperial Presidency," where many congressional members and expert witnesses called out for the immediate impeachment of President George Bush, none of the offices of three of the congressional major players in the hearings, Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), John Conyers (D-MI), or Trent Franks (R-AZ) has issued any public statements on the results or public response.
"One week follow-up" calls on August 1 to all three offices showed staff very busy trying to keep up with increased public calls for information on the impeachment, despite what Kucinich District Office staffer, Marian Carey, characterizes as "minimal media reaction." Carey did however a share her excitement over the wave of citizen action the hearings have generated, calling it "very positive" and urged all citizens to continue calling their congressman. Kucinich's office also commented on the importance of the new July 30th ruling by Federal District Court Judge John Bates, one of the pro-GOP Bush appointed judges, that Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton are not exempt from complying with congressional subpoenas. "It's two ahead of Rove, so it is really good news," Carey noted.
Over at Judiciary, staff called this week's citizen call volume "tremendous" and confirmed citizen reports that there will be an official Judiciary Committee statement on the hearings released on August 15th. Even after a double check that date held firm. For those keeping track, the confirmation of a soon-to-be-released public statement by the committee is a backpedal from an earlier mid-week backpedal, when Judiciary staff denied their earlier claim of an upcoming public statement.
Trent Franks' office also had no public statement, but also allowed that their office had experienced a marked increase in citizen phone calls on impeachment. "There have been a quite a few calls this week on that," the staff member acknowledged. Franks had been one of the major GOP players in the hearings, condemning and insinuating that those calling for impeachment hearings were friends and/or agents of the terrorists.
Upon Franks' office request, the following list of questions was submitted via email to Franks' press staff member, Bethany Barker:
1. Has the Representative issued any public statements or have plans to issue public statements regarding the July 25th hearings?
2. Does he have a position on the role party politics has played in giving the accusations made in the hearing fair light?
3. Does he have reassurances for either constituents, or Americans in general, who are concerned with hearing witnesses' extensive claims of criminal behavior by the Whitehouse and congressional GOP complicity?
We await their reply. Meanwhile at the Whitehouse, Press Secretary Dana Perino's office acknowledged that the presidential website and press office had not released any public statements thus far, though promised to look into press accounts of the hearings and the public response to them and get back to this reporter for a statement.
**
Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Judiciary-Backpedals-on-Re-by-mikel-weisser-080731-6.html
July 31, 2008
Judiciary Backpedals on Reports and Transcripts from "Non-Impeachment" Hearings
By mikel weisser
Claiming an intern error, the House Judiciary Committee has retracted Monday statements regarding updates on the July 25th hearing on alleged presidential abuses, AKA the “non-impeachment” hearings.
A late Wednesday afternoon call showed the Judiciary Committee now claiming congressional procedures will require the official transcripts of the six hour hearing to be held for 90 days, meaning the official transcripts will not be made available to the American public until just before the November elections. A staffer who declined to give her name claimed that Monday’s statement that the transcripts would ready for the public on Aug. 3rd was an “intern error,” explaining that there are “new people in the office and they don’t know.”
The same explanation of “intern error” was given for the retraction of another, even more critical, earlier statement that an official committee report, or announcement of the findings from the hearing would be made available in “two weeks.” “There are no plans for any report or statement regarding the findings from those hearings. They are completed. We do not make press releases on hearings that have already happened.”
When asked to clarify, the staffer did acknowledge that the latest press release posted on the Judiciary’s website [dated 7/28/08—post hearing] was indeed a report of findings from a hearing, but the staffer explained it was actually a report of another committee’s hearing.
“To clarify then, you will post reports on the hearings of other congressional committees, but not of your own hearings?”
“We do not make press releases on hearings that have already happened,” the staffer replied.
While the Judiciary anticipates no plans to release a report concerning the July 25th hearings, the staffer says the committee chair, John Conyers D-MI, would not rule out potential future committee actions based on voluminous evidence introduced on the 25th by Constitutional law experts Bruce Fein and Elizabeth Holtzman, among others, but the staffer would not specify what any further actions might be, only that none have been planned.
When questioned for further information on the transcripts, the staffer claimed that those in the DC area could come to the committee office to view the current draft edition of the transcripts. Interested citizens would be allowed to examine the document and even take notes, but not allowed to make photocopies.
In an additional, though unrelated, example of backpedaling by Judiciary staff, when asked about the volume of calls making inquiries after Friday, the unnamed staffer, at first replied “There’s just been a couple a day.” Since this call was made after 4:30 DC time, the caller clarified to be sure, “The phrase ‘a couple literally refers two, as in a married couple for example; and while the term can be construed to include as many as four, are you trying to imply that besides this call, counting as one, only one other person in America called today to ask about Friday’s hearings?”
After a pause the staffer clarified, “No sir, several called today.”
Given the significance of these backpedals. It might prove helpful for those pressing for impeachment to independently call the Judiciary and ask the same simple questions: 1) When will the committee release the transcripts to the public? 2) When will the committee announce a report to the full house from the hearings? 3) What kinds of actions is the committee preparing in light of the numerous charges of criminal behavior laid out for the public record in the hearings?
The House Judiciary Committee public phone number is 202-225-3951. Readers who make calls themselves could compile the results in the comments below.
**
Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Code-Pink-Collects-Signatu-by-mikel-weisser-080731-557.html
July 31, 2008
Code Pink Collects Signatures for Kucinich's Congressional Record
By mikel weisser
In a widely circulated e-mail entitled "You Put Impeachment on the Table," celebrating its memberships' years-long efforts opposing the Bush regime, Code Pink has given its mailing list an unusual opportunity to participate in the historic moment by signing a petition that Kucinich is purportedly to add into the Congressional Record on Friday, Aug. 1st, the last of the five days the Judiciary Committee agreed to keep the record open before finalizing the transcripts of the July 25th "Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limits" hearing, which the committee had earlier announced on July 17th as a hearing on the "Imperial Presidency," now widely known as the "Non-Impeachment Hearings."
Signers are asked to support the following text:"We the People:WHEREAS, in his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has committed abuses of power.THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that President George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and Commander in Chief, and subversive of constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States and that he be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Sincerely," etc.
The collected signatures will be an example in the Congressional Record of the public response to activist groups' efforts toward impeachment. The petition is operated by the online activist organizational website, Democracy in Action. By clicking a link in the email the viewer is linked to the Code Pink website's petition page. With less than 24 hours to go till the posted deadline, the one day blitz email had collected more 3400 signatures, by 2am AZ time, including mine at # 3406. ""yzur--
**
Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Judiciary-Committee-to-Ann-by-mikel-weisser-080728-899.html
July 28, 2008
Judiciary Committee to Announce Results of "Non-Impeachment" Hearing in 2 Weeks
By mikel weisser
A Monday mid-day call to the House Judiciary offices of John Conyers provided a wide variety of info that a trip to their website does not, including news the official report from the hearings expected to be released "in two weeks" a term used by two different staffers though no names were given. Transcripts of the hearing will be made public on Aug. 3rd. Off the record, one staffer acknowledged that there was talk of further hearings regarding the numerous charges of impeachable offenses, principally those leveled by former representative Elizabeth Holtzman and former Reagan Attorney General's office staffer, Bruce Fein.
Incidentally, a Monday mid-day call to the House offices of "terror propagandist," Trent Franks, revealed new staff members answering phone. Whether and what kind of victory that might be is anyone's guess.
OpEdNews
Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/One-Week-Later--Kucinich---by-mikel-weisser-080801-361.html
August 5, 2008
One Week Later: Kucinich, Judiciary, Franks and the Whitehouse Silent
By mikel weisser
With additional reporting by Nancy Holt and Amanda Lang
One week after the House Judiciary Committee hearings on the "Imperial Presidency," where many congressional members and expert witnesses called out for the immediate impeachment of President George Bush, none of the offices of three of the congressional major players in the hearings, Dennis Kucinich (D-OH), John Conyers (D-MI), or Trent Franks (R-AZ) has issued any public statements on the results or public response.
"One week follow-up" calls on August 1 to all three offices showed staff very busy trying to keep up with increased public calls for information on the impeachment, despite what Kucinich District Office staffer, Marian Carey, characterizes as "minimal media reaction." Carey did however a share her excitement over the wave of citizen action the hearings have generated, calling it "very positive" and urged all citizens to continue calling their congressman. Kucinich's office also commented on the importance of the new July 30th ruling by Federal District Court Judge John Bates, one of the pro-GOP Bush appointed judges, that Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton are not exempt from complying with congressional subpoenas. "It's two ahead of Rove, so it is really good news," Carey noted.
Over at Judiciary, staff called this week's citizen call volume "tremendous" and confirmed citizen reports that there will be an official Judiciary Committee statement on the hearings released on August 15th. Even after a double check that date held firm. For those keeping track, the confirmation of a soon-to-be-released public statement by the committee is a backpedal from an earlier mid-week backpedal, when Judiciary staff denied their earlier claim of an upcoming public statement.
Trent Franks' office also had no public statement, but also allowed that their office had experienced a marked increase in citizen phone calls on impeachment. "There have been a quite a few calls this week on that," the staff member acknowledged. Franks had been one of the major GOP players in the hearings, condemning and insinuating that those calling for impeachment hearings were friends and/or agents of the terrorists.
Upon Franks' office request, the following list of questions was submitted via email to Franks' press staff member, Bethany Barker:
1. Has the Representative issued any public statements or have plans to issue public statements regarding the July 25th hearings?
2. Does he have a position on the role party politics has played in giving the accusations made in the hearing fair light?
3. Does he have reassurances for either constituents, or Americans in general, who are concerned with hearing witnesses' extensive claims of criminal behavior by the Whitehouse and congressional GOP complicity?
We await their reply. Meanwhile at the Whitehouse, Press Secretary Dana Perino's office acknowledged that the presidential website and press office had not released any public statements thus far, though promised to look into press accounts of the hearings and the public response to them and get back to this reporter for a statement.
**
Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Judiciary-Backpedals-on-Re-by-mikel-weisser-080731-6.html
July 31, 2008
Judiciary Backpedals on Reports and Transcripts from "Non-Impeachment" Hearings
By mikel weisser
Claiming an intern error, the House Judiciary Committee has retracted Monday statements regarding updates on the July 25th hearing on alleged presidential abuses, AKA the “non-impeachment” hearings.
A late Wednesday afternoon call showed the Judiciary Committee now claiming congressional procedures will require the official transcripts of the six hour hearing to be held for 90 days, meaning the official transcripts will not be made available to the American public until just before the November elections. A staffer who declined to give her name claimed that Monday’s statement that the transcripts would ready for the public on Aug. 3rd was an “intern error,” explaining that there are “new people in the office and they don’t know.”
The same explanation of “intern error” was given for the retraction of another, even more critical, earlier statement that an official committee report, or announcement of the findings from the hearing would be made available in “two weeks.” “There are no plans for any report or statement regarding the findings from those hearings. They are completed. We do not make press releases on hearings that have already happened.”
When asked to clarify, the staffer did acknowledge that the latest press release posted on the Judiciary’s website [dated 7/28/08—post hearing] was indeed a report of findings from a hearing, but the staffer explained it was actually a report of another committee’s hearing.
“To clarify then, you will post reports on the hearings of other congressional committees, but not of your own hearings?”
“We do not make press releases on hearings that have already happened,” the staffer replied.
While the Judiciary anticipates no plans to release a report concerning the July 25th hearings, the staffer says the committee chair, John Conyers D-MI, would not rule out potential future committee actions based on voluminous evidence introduced on the 25th by Constitutional law experts Bruce Fein and Elizabeth Holtzman, among others, but the staffer would not specify what any further actions might be, only that none have been planned.
When questioned for further information on the transcripts, the staffer claimed that those in the DC area could come to the committee office to view the current draft edition of the transcripts. Interested citizens would be allowed to examine the document and even take notes, but not allowed to make photocopies.
In an additional, though unrelated, example of backpedaling by Judiciary staff, when asked about the volume of calls making inquiries after Friday, the unnamed staffer, at first replied “There’s just been a couple a day.” Since this call was made after 4:30 DC time, the caller clarified to be sure, “The phrase ‘a couple literally refers two, as in a married couple for example; and while the term can be construed to include as many as four, are you trying to imply that besides this call, counting as one, only one other person in America called today to ask about Friday’s hearings?”
After a pause the staffer clarified, “No sir, several called today.”
Given the significance of these backpedals. It might prove helpful for those pressing for impeachment to independently call the Judiciary and ask the same simple questions: 1) When will the committee release the transcripts to the public? 2) When will the committee announce a report to the full house from the hearings? 3) What kinds of actions is the committee preparing in light of the numerous charges of criminal behavior laid out for the public record in the hearings?
The House Judiciary Committee public phone number is 202-225-3951. Readers who make calls themselves could compile the results in the comments below.
**
Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Code-Pink-Collects-Signatu-by-mikel-weisser-080731-557.html
July 31, 2008
Code Pink Collects Signatures for Kucinich's Congressional Record
By mikel weisser
In a widely circulated e-mail entitled "You Put Impeachment on the Table," celebrating its memberships' years-long efforts opposing the Bush regime, Code Pink has given its mailing list an unusual opportunity to participate in the historic moment by signing a petition that Kucinich is purportedly to add into the Congressional Record on Friday, Aug. 1st, the last of the five days the Judiciary Committee agreed to keep the record open before finalizing the transcripts of the July 25th "Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limits" hearing, which the committee had earlier announced on July 17th as a hearing on the "Imperial Presidency," now widely known as the "Non-Impeachment Hearings."
Signers are asked to support the following text:"We the People:WHEREAS, in his conduct while President of the United States, George W. Bush, in violation of his constitutional oath to faithfully execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed, has committed abuses of power.THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that President George W. Bush has acted in a manner contrary to his trust as President and Commander in Chief, and subversive of constitutional government, to the prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States and that he be impeached for high crimes and misdemeanors.
Sincerely," etc.
The collected signatures will be an example in the Congressional Record of the public response to activist groups' efforts toward impeachment. The petition is operated by the online activist organizational website, Democracy in Action. By clicking a link in the email the viewer is linked to the Code Pink website's petition page. With less than 24 hours to go till the posted deadline, the one day blitz email had collected more 3400 signatures, by 2am AZ time, including mine at # 3406. ""yzur--
**
Original Content at http://www.opednews.com/articles/Judiciary-Committee-to-Ann-by-mikel-weisser-080728-899.html
July 28, 2008
Judiciary Committee to Announce Results of "Non-Impeachment" Hearing in 2 Weeks
By mikel weisser
A Monday mid-day call to the House Judiciary offices of John Conyers provided a wide variety of info that a trip to their website does not, including news the official report from the hearings expected to be released "in two weeks" a term used by two different staffers though no names were given. Transcripts of the hearing will be made public on Aug. 3rd. Off the record, one staffer acknowledged that there was talk of further hearings regarding the numerous charges of impeachable offenses, principally those leveled by former representative Elizabeth Holtzman and former Reagan Attorney General's office staffer, Bruce Fein.
Incidentally, a Monday mid-day call to the House offices of "terror propagandist," Trent Franks, revealed new staff members answering phone. Whether and what kind of victory that might be is anyone's guess.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
