The Ojai Post

Kucinich is right as usual. Unfortunately, the Democratic leadership still lacks the will to do the right thing. Let's not forget that the timid, DLC democratic leadership in the House actually tried to unseat Dennis by coaxing two challengers to run for the democratic primary against him. I'm glad he won and I'm glad they failed to silence him.

Impeachment may be the only thing that stops us from attacking Iran, wither directly for through our proxy Israel.

When you're finished logging onto Obama's site and donating money to the campaign, you can go to Cindy Sheehan's congressional campaign site and donate to her to help take Nancy Pelosi's seat.

spk, thanks for your observations!

It is mind-blowing to hear (and see) these words repeated 35 times!

"In all of these actions and decisions, 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. Wherefore, President George W. Bush, by such conduct, is guilty of an impeachable offense warranting removal from office."

It was indeed wonderful to see Kucinich taking a stand. Why has Nancy Pelosi refused to pursue impeachment? Impeachments for Nixon and Clinton were both based on allegations of a single occurrence of one crime. Most of Bush's crimes are ongoing.

Well, the mainstream media seem to be doing their best to avoid this story..... but Keith Olbermann made it his lead story on his program this evening.... and he had on noted Constitutional law authority Jonathan Turley to weigh in in support of impeachment.

Congressman Robert Wexler of Florida has signed on as co-sponsor of the Articles of Impeachment.

At this very moment, the entire 35 Articles are being re-read by the Clerk of the House (on C-SPAN) in preparation for a probable vote tomorrow on whether to take up this legislation or just refer it to the Judiciary Committee (where it will probably die.)

Thanks to David's comment we caught Keith Olbermann at 7pm.
Wow!
That noted Constitutional Law Authority Jonathan Turley sure tells it like it is!! Tried to jot down his exact words. Something like " There are so many impeachable crimes the democrats are tripping over them..."

Turley described the absolute pacificity and appalling silence of all but a few democrats. If I find the transcript of Turley's response on Olbermann's program I'll post it here.

After seven and a half years of Bush's hellish presidency, lawyer Jonathan Turley, a guest on Keith Olbermann's show, has said it like it is. Finally, FINALLY, someone in the public eye has identified Bush as the most impeachable president in our history. No president has so abused the power of his office as the one we currently have. Yet, the sleepy-eyed democratic majority in congress has refused to even consider impeaching our disastrous Commander-in-Chief. This is an indictment not only of Bush, but of the democrats, who have sat on their hands as crimes of commission and ommision were happening left and right, front and center, to a degree unheard of in our history.

Obama was a constitutional law professor. He should tell it like it is! Tell the House Democrats that he and the Senate are waiting for the House to deliver articles of impeachment so they can have a trial. If they DID have a trial, I bet a whole bunch of Republicans would end up voting to convict. It would be that, or get turned out of office and probably charged themselves.

Our next President needs to show us he understands that we cannot wait 7 more months, and have aggression on Iran to deal with on top of all our other woes. The only way to stop Bush from attacking Iran - directly or indirectly through his Israeli proxy psychoes - is by impeaching, now.

Meanwhile, I'd love to have a Congressperson to call to urge to vote for delivering Kucinich's Articles of impeachment to the Senate. But we have that poor excuse Gallegly. The most we can expect from calling him is to get a form letter explaining why he supports the Patriot Act, Halliburton, and endless war. And probably, our names on the no-fly list. Or worse.

What are we going to do to get Gallegly out of that seat? He doesn't actually represent anyone in this District, does he? Are Ventura County Republicans so geography-challenged that they don't know Saudi Arabia is not in this Congressional district?

(Or did the Republicans gerrymander Saudi Arabia into the district while I wasn't looking?)

Anyone have any info or thoughts on our Democratic challenger for representative in Congress? It sure would be nice if we could do our part for impeachment, through our very own representative in Congress. It would be nice to be part of the solution instead of the problem.

Can he also be impeached for being a SCHMUCK!!!!!!!!!!!! In the Truest most literal sense! Never in the History of Man has there been a more illiterate, incompetent, moron in office. I never referred to him as my president - I always thought of him as the idiot that got lost leaving his village and somehow got duped into masquerading as a president!

But fortunately, some good has come of his masquerade in office..He has set the stage for people of all races and political views to be so disgusted with the way America is going, that they are actually willing to entertain the thought of a Black President or a Woman president with the Vision and Heart of Unifying the country and possibly the World.

So for that I say, "Thanks Schmuck!" you finally did something intelligent!

History will show President Bush to be one of our greatest presidents. The myopic left can't seem to see that a nuclear threat from Iran is very real.

Here are the voices of your democrate heroes prior to us going into Iraq:

http://images.radcity.net/5151/2475940.mp3

History will show President Bush to be one of our greatest presidents.

That puts you in a very elite club, Brian. You made my morning.

http://hnn.us/articles/48916.html

The Great Emancipator himself, Abraham Lincoln, was pilloried in the press, by opposition politicians, and even his own generals as he tried to prosecute the nation's bloodiest, and possibly most necessary war. In fact, as historian Geoffrey Ward has noted,

"What is remarkable...is how little praise Lincoln got and how much abuse he endured without complaint."
In hindsight however we readily acknowledge that Mr. Lincoln's war was an indispensable and possibly unavoidable turning point for this nation. The dreadful knowledge which Lincoln carried internally, was that this war, however horrifying. however thankless and distasteful a task, was one that must be seen through to the bitter end.

The opposition in both Democratic and Republican parties have been looking anxiously at opinion polls and American involvement in Iraq. But, the question to ask is "What if the opposition is wrong?" Only twice before in our history has America been threatened by external forces - once by the bandit Pancho Villa's depredations in our Southwest, and once by British troops who actually burned the White House in the War of 1812. In neither case did the enemy have or seek the capabilities which are actively being sought by our enemies in the Middle East and Afghanistan. In neither case did the civilian casualties inflicted rival those of the attack on the World Trade Center. In neither case did the enemy seek to destroy utterly the United States, our population, our form of government. In neither case were the stakes quite so high as they are today.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2007/01/war_and_presidential_popularit.html

"The myopic left can't seem to see that a nuclear threat from Iran is very real."

Talk about myopic. Iran has not attacked another country in 1,500 years. Iran lacks any WMDs and lacks nuclear weapons. Iran has threatened nobody with attack. The IAEA has said over and over again that Iran is in compliance with all of its obligations under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. That treaty gives Iran the right to enrich uranium to 3% for civilian purposes, which is what Iran is doing. The Security Council came in and told Iran it cannot enrich any uranium at all -which is why Iran is now "out of compliance with security council resolutions." Our own National Intelligence Estimate, representing the best intelligence of all of our collective federal intelligence agencies, says that Iran is not a nuclear threat.

The non-myopic can see an irrational, bad-faith drumbeat to war on false pretenses for what it is. Shades of Iraq, of course: Saddam Hussein caved to every Security Council demand, satisfied every inspector, and even, in the weeks before Bush's invasion, offered unilaterally to leave Iraq for good with his family to stave off invasion. Nothing of course would work, because Bush and his buddies wanted to put billions of taxpayer dollars in their pockets, and they felt they couldn't do that if they didn't blow up ordinance and occupy.

Iraq was never a threat. Iran is not a threat. Indeed, its just the opposite. We would be a better country and build a better world if we embraced the Iranians over the current Israeli regime, and pushed the Israelis to change their ways. That is the way to a lasting peace, blossoming democracy, security and shared prosperity in the middle east.

Its pathetic to see Brian's kind of BS repeated. What is a threat to our interests - our economy, our livelihoods, our safety, and our future - is the Bush regime, the Iraq invasion and occupation, Gitmo, Abu Ghraib, torture, government kidnaping, violation and disrespect for international law, bombing allies (see what your "greatest president" Bush did to Pakistani troops yesterday?); and any attack on Iran. This is how you create terrorists, $5 gas, a worthless dollar, a shelled economy, unsustainable debt, and essentially every other macro issue plaguing us.

Meanwhile, let's consider the best way to keep any country from developing nuclear weapons. Which of the following is more likely to cause a country to obtain nuclear weapons? Multiple choice:

a) Threaten to invade and nuke the country no matter what it does, in order to steal its natural resources, unless the country has nuclear weapons and WMDs it is prepared to use to defend itself;

b) Work to reduce nuclear threats to all nations, abide by international law, and make clear that the institutions of international law have the means to prevent an illegal invasion, so that countries are not forced to obtain WMDs in order to have some deterrent.

To Brian and the rest who still support Bush on this issue: Look at Korea. Your man and his policies - the same ones he advocates for Iran - resulted in North Korea having nuclear weapons. If you think the Iranians and any other country didn't see how North Korea got itself out of the gunsights only when it got the bomb, you are even more myopic than you appear.

Bottom line: This is not a "left" vs. "right", "liberal" vs. "conservative" issue. Its brains vs. brainless, patriotic vs. traitorous, honest vs. corrupt, decent vs. evil.

What's sad is the Brians of the world who will be begging the rest of us to bail them out when they've got no work, they're foreclosed, they've got no skills, their children are hungry, they can't put gas in the car, they can't go anywhere because no country will have them, and they can't even afford bullets for their guns to shoot themselves for being so stupid. Bush and Co. will have long before moved down to their new family ranch in Paraguay, where they will sit and laugh at the right wing idiots who bought into their BS, while the decent people of this country rebuild something that has some value again.

Hopefully, like the Germans and Japanese before us, we will be smart enough to also learn a simple lesson: "Never again."

It is becoming increasingly clear that the ONLY way to stop this freight train to bomb Iran is through the legitimate use of the tool Impeachment.

You can blame the Democrats for refusing to allow us to drill here at home for your $5.00/ gal gas soon to be $8 to $10, especially Barbara Boxer. Why is it ok to drill in other countries but not in our own? Is our land so much more precious than another country's? Right now China is drilling 60 miles off the Florida coast but we are not allowed to, our enemies are laughing at us this very moment at how stupid we are. And thanks to the Clinton administration we now have no new nuclear power plants, Al Gore along with Hazel O'Leary dismantled our entire nuclear program, including research and sold it off to other countries. The Democrats want to tax the oil companies - brilliant ! make our prices even higher and eliminate any new capital for exploration.
Ya, your kids are going to have no skills because you spent their collage money on gas to get to your job and to cover the increased cost of everything else that is going up like food. Increased energy costs = increased food production costs. The war costs are a very small part of our GNP less than 3%.

"Iran has threatened nobody with attack". - Give me a break ! every other day the president of Iran claims he going to "wipe Israel of the map"

Brian,

Both you and McSame need to learn that the President of Iran is POWERLESS. The leader of Iran and the President of Iran are not the same person. Further, the President of Iran, unlike your own President, has zero power over the military. Nada, nil, zip, zero. The only thing that happens when that dog barks is oil prices go up, and since Iran is an oil producer, they like it when he barks.

Nuclear power is a total non-starter. Sorry. But since you keep bringing it up let me ask you this. Brian, as a pro-business Republican, do you believe that business should pay all of their own expenses? How about expenses like insurance?

Why doesn't everybody sue the coal industry for air pollution deaths? It is estimated that approximately 60,000 deaths per year can be contributed to air pollution. During the twentieth century there have been 5.2 million deaths in the U.S due to air pollution. 87% of this air pollution can be attributed to the burning of coal. There have been ZERO deaths in the U.S. with respect to the operation of nuclear power plants.

spk,
Would you be against research to develop a type of nuclear reactor that produces no left over radioactive fuel rods and is an inherently safe design that can not "melt down"?

Hi Brian,
I'm genuinely curious to know if you read any of the 35 Articles of Impeachment? http://www.impeachbush.tv/progress/dk_aoi_bush/index.php

No, they already sent it to committie, which kills the bill. Didn't you listen to the above audio? Did you recognize those voices? Kerry, Hillery, Bill, Edwards, Schumer, Biden, Kerry, did I miss anybody? They all were for going into Iraq.

Brian, I'm sorry, but I don't understand your reply. Kucinich never voted for going into Iraq. I understand that you revere Bush but I would think you'd be curious to read the details on why someone would want to impeach him.

Brian: I am a bit concerned for you. Your perception of reality seems to be permanently distorted. I mean, everyone (except you) knows that Little Bush is not the sharpest tool in the shed and that this makes him the perfect puppet. The strings have all been mapped out, photographed and video taped for anyone - with at least one working neuron - to see. What is it your not getting? Is it so difficult for you to admit that you are completely wrong? Its a shame that you have invested your entire sense of self into an obsolete perspective. The ship of your opinion capsized and sunk long ago. Time for you to visit the surface and breathe fresh air - before its to late.

Suza,
Do you mean the torture of prisoners in Iraq? ( dog growling at prisoner, prisoner with panties on head)

The following excerpt comes from a brilliant book called Little Brother. Its written by Cory Doctorow and describes what it feels like to experience water boarding. Brian, why don't you volunteer for a 20 minute session? I doubt you could last 5 minutes. This book can be downloaded for free, bought on Amazon etc and is currently number 8 on the New York Times Best Seller List. I just read it and highly recommend it. Thought provoking, powerful and inspirational.

"Give him a drink," she said.

I heard people moving. I took a deep breath and held it.

The water started as a trickle, a ladleful of water gently poured over my chin, my lips. Up my upturned nostrils. It went back into my throat, starting to choke me, but I wouldn't cough, wouldn't gasp and suck it into my lungs. I held onto my breath and squeezed my eyes harder.

There was a commotion from outside the room, a sound of chaotic boots stamping, angry, outraged shouts. The dipper was emptied into my face.

I heard her mutter something to someone in the room, then to me she said, "Just the login, Marcus. It's a simple request. What could I do with your login, anyway?"

This time, it was a bucket of water, all at once, a flood that didn't stop, it must have been gigantic. I couldn't help it. I gasped and aspirated the water into my lungs, coughed and took more water in. I knew they wouldn't kill me, but I couldn't convince my body of that. In every fiber of my being, I knew I was going to die. I couldn't even cry -- the water was still pouring over me.

Then it stopped. I coughed and coughed and coughed, but at the angle I was at, the water I coughed up dribbled back into my nose and burned down my sinuses.

The coughs were so deep they hurt, hurt my ribs and my hips as I twisted against them. I hated how my body was betraying me, how my mind couldn't control my body, but there was nothing for it.

Brian,

I assume you are referring to Fusion, and yes I'm for fusion power when we can develop it. There is no such reactor as you describe for fission, despite what the most heavily subsidized industry in the country might claim.

No, I'm not talking about fusion. Fusion is still a long ways off. There is a joint effort going on in France that involves many different countries at present and hopfully some day that will work. What I'm referring to a Thorium based reactor which has the attributes that I described above. Would you be in favor of developing something like this?

what follows is the first half of a column in today's Washington Post.......

Impeach Bush? But That Would Mean . . .

By Dana Milbank
Thursday, June 12, 2008; Page A03

The House had a busy day yesterday. There was the Amtrak bill, an extension of unemployment benefits, and legislation on NASA's budget.

Oh, yeah: And lawmakers decided whether or not to impeach the president of the United States.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Gadfly) thought it would be a swell idea, so he spent 4 1/2 hours Monday night reading his impeachment articles aloud on the House floor and forced the House clerks to do the same Tuesday night. Kucinich had already lost in his effort to impeach Vice President Cheney, so why not go for President Bush?

But in the end, the Democrats caved. Though most Republicans were happy to debate the proposal, Democrats (even Kucinich) and two dozen GOP moderates voted, without even a word of debate, to send the impeachment articles to the Judiciary Committee, where they will die a quiet death.

Why so unwilling to impeach Bush? As Democratic leaders like to say, two words: Dick Cheney. At this late stage in his presidency, Bush can still feel confident that his job is secure, if only because his foes are so terrified of the man who would succeed him.

As it happens, the Dark Lord himself had escaped the confines of his secure, undisclosed location yesterday afternoon and was giving a speech to the friendly ears of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. His topic: energy. His solution: more oil.

"We have to recognize that there isn't anything out there that is going to get us away from a hydrocarbon economy anytime in the near future," the vice president announced. "There really isn't anything on the horizon that today is economic, relative, for example, to basic, good old oil and gas."
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Let the Obama supporters drive their Priuses. "The solution for us in the near term -- near term being over the next few years -- is to increase production," Cheney said. "For far too long, too many politicians have advocated all kinds of other courses of action without facing up to the basic fundamental fact that today we have a hydrocarbon economy, and if you're going to have cheap, affordable energy available in the amounts it needs to be to run our economy, you're going to have to produce more of it."

"Drill!" "Oil!" "Gas!" "More!"

In his oil-patch zeal, Cheney sounded more chairman of Halliburton than vice president of the United States. The country has moved on to a debate about how to reduce carbon emissions to slow global warming. Domestic oil drilling would do little if anything to ease gas prices in the short term and, even in the long term, wouldn't reverse the growing supply/demand imbalance as emerging economies devour dwindling reserves.

But Cheney needn't worry about sounding tone-deaf. It merely provides Bush more job security.

Our Dark Lord Cheney understands that running out of oil is about the instabilities that will shake the complex systems of daily life as soon as the global demand for oil exceeds the global supply.

Think what will happen to all the oil dependent systems (our food supply, transportation, our whole life-style) when the oil supply collapses! As the world passes the all-time oil production high and watches as the price of a barrel of oil busts another record, these systems will run into trouble.

Instability in one sector will bleed into another. Shocks to the oil markets will hurt trucking, which will slow commerce and food distribution, manufacturing and the tourist industry in a chain of cascading effects.

Problems in finance will squeeze any enterprise that requires capital, including oil exploration and production, as well as government spending.

(Source: The May 30th Washington Post article entitled "Wake Up, America. We’re Driving Toward Disaster," posted above.)

Hey spk, How 'bout it? Would you be in favor of a reactor that did not create any left over radioactive fuel rods and could not melt down?

Researching...

... accessing scientific journals...

One correction for the record, Brian in comment #14 said that "Right now China is drilling 60 miles off the Florida coast but we are not allowed to, our enemies are laughing at us this very moment at how stupid we are."

GOP claim about Chinese oil drilling off Cuba is untrue
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/40776.html

I stand corrected. The fact is however, that they CAN drill there and we can't.

The Supreme Court ruled that Guantánamo prisoners have the right to challenge their detentions in court.

Yesterday, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Bush Administration’s attempt to block Guantánamo prisoners from challenging their detentions in a legitimate court. They announced that the detainees are entitled to the Constitutional right of habeas corpus, and that the Bush Administration’s regime for labeling them “unlawful enemy combatants” is unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court’s decision does not close the detention facilities at Guantánamo, nor will it stop U.S. officials from transferring detainees to countries with poor human rights practices. And it will not stop the Bush administration from finding devious ways to circumvent the law.

Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision is the third rebuke of the Bush administration’s “war on terror” policies.

As you’ve probably heard, a Navy judge recently disqualified the Pentagon’s top legal advisor from involvement in the upcoming Guantánamo war crimes trial of Salim Ahmed Hamdan, because he was too close to the prosecution.

The government also dropped all charges against the man alleged to have been the "20th hijacker" in the 9/11 attacks, rather than risk the possibility of exposing how the evidence against him was procured with torture.

Finally, Sami Al-Hajj, who was working as a cameraman for al-Jazeera when he was detained by Pakistani authorities, was released from Guantánamo after six years in detention without charge.

President Bush’s illegal policies are unraveling fast.

Brian, you are a bright young man with many wonderful qualities. Continue to investigate the facts and do not trust blindly.

Sincerely,

a friend in Ojai

Justices Rule Terror Suspects Can Appeal in Civilian Courts

The court repudiated the fundamental legal basis for the Bush administration’s strategy of housing prisoners at the United States naval base in Cuba.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/washington/13scotus.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

The man responsible for keeping Americans safe for the past seven years, is one of our greatest presidents. He did this by keeping the Islamic lunatics pinned down fighting our troops in Iraq.
The Iraq war has been a stunning success. The Iraqi army is standing up to the challenge. Muqtada al Sadr has scurried off to Iran in retreat, and Sadr City and Basra are no longer war zones. Our Troops must be baffled by the constant nay-saying coming form their own country.
According to a CNN report last week, for the entire month of May, there were only 19 troop deaths in Iraq. Last year, five people on average were shot every day in Chicago. With Iraqi deaths at an all-time low, Iraq is safer that Detroit.
But liberals have only blind hatred for Bush. The sheer repetition of lies about Bush is wearing people down. There is not a liberal in this country worthy of kissing Bush’s rear end.

Looks like I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing airplane glue.

But liberals have only blind hatred for Bush.

Cool tactic, isn't it? We learned the "blind hatred for other Americans" method from Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove the various personalities at Fox News, and every single other right-wing pundit in America.

As for kissing Bush's rear end; no thanks. We'll continue leave that nauseating bit of work up to lulus like you. You've been doing a great job of it thus far. Keep up the good work, and keep it up right until election day, OK?

First. Dennis Kucinich has said that he will keep coming back and submitting the articles of impeachment every month until either Bush leaves office or the House votes on it.

Brian - You appear to be referring to an energy amplifier nuclear reactor using the less radioactive heavy metal thorium and a synchrotron particle accelerator. It's essentially a breeder reactor where the thorium nuclei are bombarded with neutrons which are subsequently absorbed, turning the thorium into uranium 233. U233 is a highly radioactive isotope of Uranium that does not occur in nature due to the fact that it is inherently unstable. The idea that this type of reactor would lack nuclear "waste" is largely a matter of semantics. It is true that this type of reactor, let's call it an accelerator-driven system(ADS), would have less nuclear "waste" than our old, conventional nuclear reactors. The semantical twist here is that the "waste" is now being classified as fuel for yet another form of hypothetical breeder reactor. That is how they are essentially wishing the whole "waste" problem into the corn field. Trouble is, this "waste"-eating, breeder reactor doesn't exist and theories for it's advancement call for some seriously dangerous dance moves with elements with half-lives in the millions of years. So the waste problem still persists, though there is less of it from your ADS reactor.

Now, your ADS reactor calls for a synchrotron proton accelerator with power in excess of 10 MW. Currently the largest synchrotron on Earth is about 1.5 MW, so we're a ways out for this type of reactor even in an experimental phase. Of course, there will still be waste in the form of Plutonium and various other exotic isotopes, just a lot less than we get from our now 30+ year old reactors. Oh, and because it uses a particle accelerator, the possibility for a traditional "melt down" is extremely limited as you would just turn it off if it got hairy. Of course, if it totally lacked coolant it could still blow. Oh yeah, and it still makes a great target.

Really the happening thing with this design for a nuclear reactor is that it uses Thorium which is much more abundant than Uranium here on Earth. Therefore, we would have a larger supply of fuel than we do with uranium.

Here's the thing you want to remember with nuclear fission reactors. It's really like good old fashioned coal burning power plants, only much much worse. You have the same environmentally devastating extraction techniques to get the fuel, but there's a lot less thorium or uranium than there is coal. Like coal you are creating waste. For coal we're talking pollution like nitrogen oxide and mercury. For nuclear fission we're talking exotic isotopes like Cesium-135(half life = 2.3 million years), Zirconium-93(half life = 1.53 million years), and Technetium-99(half life = 211,000 years) just to name a few.
Nitrogen Oxide and Mercury will wash out of the environment relatively quickly, especially when compared to these incredibly toxic and radioactive heavy metals.

The bottom line is, the waste that already exists from our nuclear power plants will have to be safeguarded for literally millions of years. The human race itself has only been around for a little over 100,000 years. It just doesn't add up.

It is unfathomable and completely heartbreaking how mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, family, can condone this horror that we, as Americans have brought onto our own children and the children of Iraq. We have destroyed a country and in the process have also destroyed our own - FOR WHAT? How can we condone "our perceived threat" with this War? What are you preserving? Your right for another slice of Pizza?

I am not a liberal, I am a mother. And as part of this human family, I can't get my mind or heart around the "blind stupidity and ardent fervor over "supposedly saving our own skin" by murdering others! Do we understand that we have destroyed another country (that means human beings that want to live and progress and offer education, peace and prosperity to their children and families)?

This administration, like so many fervent religious fanatics of all denominations have "fantasied their own version of God and righteousness" - and how they've gotten away with it is beyond me. But Darlings (my fellow Americans), let me assure you - this will not go on forever! The times they are a-changin' and if you don't change and start embracing the pulsing heart of humanity instead fear and hatred - you will lose your mind in wonder and remorse; when a Black President forgives you for being such an ignorant nasty unloving fool - and offers you health insurance to put your mind back together again - so you can also be part of this potentially beautiful world we live in!

Face it, folks...

If Brian did not exist, Tyler would have to invent him!

There's nothing like Brian to keep all the good progressive people at OjaiPost up in arms and exercised!!

Why Dr. Freud - It's always joyous to express "our" opinion isn't it? Some people jog to clear their heads and some people write...and Brian (is he real?) - well there's another anonymous writer I'd like to meet...lunch? let's bring our interpreters and favorite bumper stickers!

R.I.P. Tim Russert. He was usually impartial and he was a good host on Meet The Press.

spk,
As usual you are against anything that can make our lives better, I suspect you would be against eternal life if you were shown the way to it. The "so-called" environmentalists have created this term call nuclear waste so they can tell everybody that that we can't put it anywhere and it will be dangerous for tens of thousands of years, the truth is the spent fuel rods which we currently use are very valuble and can be recycled and reprocessed to still be useful as nuclear fuel. The small amount of dangerous radioactive isotopes can be easily stored ( vitrified in glass) for about 50 years before they can be handled. The Thoruim based reactor that is being proposed produces no plutonium, and all of the fuel is burned up with nothing left over. I'm sure all of your "research" consisted of going to sierra club shills and finding out the talking points on this proposed design. Why you are so afraid of nuclear power is a mystery to me, your ancestors were propably afraid of airplanes also.

There is a "natural" nuclear reactor in Africa that scientists have discovered. The remarkable thing about the Oklo reactors is that the highly radioactive waste products stayed put without the elaborate containment we use today on nuclear power plant waste. More than a billion years later, everything is contained within a few meters of its source.

http://geology.about.com/od/geophysics/a/aaoklo.htm

Energy equivilant:

Six million pounds of coal = 1 gram of urainuim 235

Environmentalists created the term "nuclear waste"?

Please source this.

Brian Fact Check - he says it is a "Fact" that [the Chinese] CAN drill [offshore] Cuba and we can't.

FALSE - China doesn't have an off shore drilling contract. What is does have is a permit to drill on Cuban land.

"China's Sinopec oil company does have an agreement with the Cuban government to develop onshore resources west of Havana, Piñon said. The Chinese have done some seismic testing, he said, but no drilling.

http://www.miamiherald.com/campaign08/story/567156.html

Tyler,

Brian's statement is the position of the heavily subsidized nuclear power industry. They claim that the waste from nuclear fission power generation is not waste because one day there well be magical breeder reactors that can use the waste after reprocessing. Of course, the most famous reprocessing site in the US is the Hanford Nuclear Reserve in Washington State. It's the most contaminated site in the whole country:

In Washington state, a 1-million-gallon plume of radioactive waste is seeping from Hanford Nuclear Reserve toward the Columbia River....The site has more than 170 massive underground steel tanks filled with acids, solvents and heavy metals, including the radioactive elements plutonium, cesium, strontium and uranium. Some 140 of the tanks are single-walled, 40 to 60 years old and "unfit for use." The original agreement called for the tanks to be cleaned out within several decades, says Hedges. But at current funding levels, with an $8 billion cleanup budget shortfall over 10 years, it will take more than a century to empty them. - High Country News 4/28/08

But maybe Brian's right. Surly we can trust business and industry to develop this new technology and not pollute our country.

game, set, and match. Well done, SPK.
Brian: ready for some fresh air yet?

Tyler, spk,
Your spliting of hairs is so childish, the point that I am making is that we are restricted on drilling in our own country, there are a half a dozon countries with drilling rights to Cuba's off shore oil reserves, it doesn't really matter what country drills, they can all drill except for us. If you really want to play tit for tat then one could say that China could slant drill from the Cuba mainland.

Spk, you must not be up to speed on the breeder reactors, of course they exist, WE developed them, now France is using them and have advaced beyond what we developed. They are also now developing making hydrogen at night for busses as well as supplying the rest of Europe with power.

Hanford was built for the purpose of creating the first nuclear bomb that we dropped on Japan which ended WWII.

I'll just keep fact checking you, Brian. It's not splitting hairs at all. Making a point with bogus information that you call a "fact" doesn't exactly legitimize your point, and it is not the first time I have brought this up.

You said "Right now China is drilling 60 miles off the Florida coast but we are not allowed to, our enemies are laughing at us this very moment at how stupid we are." That's not true.

And you didn't answer my request for a source on your claim that environmentalists created the term "nuclear waste".

China is in Cuba, what are they doing there? They are exploring for oil.

The term Nuclear waste as it refers to spent fuel rods has been seized upon by the environmentalists to be their poster boogie man to stop the development of nuclear power in our country. Yucca mountain was suppose to be the place where nuclear spent fuel rods would be transfered from the various nuke plants from around the country. The environmental movement got the bright idea to block any "waste" from going there. Their goal was to completely shut down all nuclear plants in our country, (leaving us with nothing I guess) so when that happened the plants simply stored the "waste" ( it's not really waste it can be further processed to make more fuel and further reduce it's volume) on site, since it is such a small amount this has not been an unsurmountable problem. The 104 plants have been doing this for the past 30 years. That tells you right there what an incredibly small volume it occupies. BTW, we are also turning old nuclear weapons into power and we've been doing so for a number of years now per a treaty with Russia.
There is nuclear waste that comes from medical uses and some other industries. Are you guys against medical uses of nuclear material?

Oh, Also, the sad closing of Ojai video is really a bummer. But I was in there looking at some of their old VHS tapes for sale and you'll never guess what I found ? - Madame Curie ! Starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon, It's a fascinating film, I highly recommend seeing it, it will change your whole outlook on nuclear power. It was made in 1943.

Need I remind you that Madam Curie dies of cancer as a direct result of her work with radium?

As for drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean, we have as many rights as any other country to drill in international waters. 60 miles off Cuba is international waters unless it's toward Florida, then it's US territorial waters. As for drilling in Cube itself, let's hope they don't. Cuba is the only place left with healthy coral reefs. In the Gulf of Mexico, where the majority of our offshore drilling is happening, there is the largest dead zone on the planet. Now it's not fair to say that this is because of the drilling directly, but oil is indirectly responsible for this dearth of life. The primary culprit is the petrochemical agricultural runoff from the US down the Mississippi River.

This idea that somehow we evil liberals are stopping oil drilling is pure bulls**t. Over the last ten years 80% of the coastline has been opened up to drilling and hundreds of permits have been given to the big oil companies. But they aren't drilling. Why should they, they are getting $130 a barrel. Why would they want to increase supply and make less money. Also, the notion that oil refineries have been banned is equally false. The oil companies could build as many new refineries as they like, but they aren't because it would lower their bottom line. They make a mint on oil, but their profit margin on gasoline is even higher because they refuse to increase refining capacity. Ch ching...$5.00 a gallon gas. Of course, while it hurts to fill the tank now even on my Honda Shadow motorcycle, I'm not at all sure I'm upset about the price of gas. Sure I'd rather that a higher percentage of the profits went to environmental controls and to our transportation system and not to line the pockets of the CEO's of the giant corporations, but at least people are dumping those idiotic SUVs for cars with better gas mileage and other transportation alternatives. If we succeed in lowering the gas prices to like $2/gallon, what's to stop everybody from going out and buying the next Hummer model that gets 11 mpg.

By the way, have you ever noticed that on most of those outsized SUVs and trucks the gas hole is very prominent. On our older Toyota the gas door is the same color as the rest of the car and it's flush with the rear quarter panel. Almost invisible. But on these ridiculous gas guzzlers the gas hole is ornate with chrome and designs. It draws attention rather than blending in with the rest of the truck. What's that about?

Come on Brian, it's time to stop blaming us devil liberals and progressives for everything and open your eyes. The culprits are the same as always, monopolistic corporations.

Oh Brian. Let's drill more at home, for what? So short-sighted oil companies can sell out what reserves we have on the world market in a few months? Then put the profits offshore, in Dubai for example?

China is doing business in Cuba? Its a beautiful, forward thinking country with a better-educated population than we have here in the U.S. Smart countries are doing business there. Why aren't we? I am anxious to hear your explanation for what we are achieving with the embargo.

Similarly, you want nuclear power, run by private companies who are insulated from liability, have as their primary goal putting money in their pockets. not delivering power, and only proceed if we the taxpayers pay them first.

I think intelligent people would be more willing to listen to your points if you put them in the context of a comprehensive energy policy aimed at actually getting us to a better place. As it stands, everyone but you seems to recognize that your prescriptions are simply a means to put taxpayer dollars in the pockets of the least deserving, already ill-gotten wealthy people who, as a byproduct of their get-rich-quick-off-our-sweat scheme, will pollute the shit out of our country without restraint or remorse.

No thanks.

History will show President Bush to be one of our greatest presidents.

Uhh...define "great", Brian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whhbPVrb5KM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRlJk1qhWVw&NR=1

Helter Skelter was a great book- I CANNOT wait to read this book!

Thanks LTOR. I just watched the second video you posted:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRlJk1qhWVw&NR=1

and checked out the book on amazon:

The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder (Hardcover)
by Vincent Bugliosi

Famed Charles Manson prosecutor and three time #1 New York Times bestselling author Vincent Bugliosi has written the most powerful, explosive, and thought-provoking book of his storied career.

In The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder, Bugliosi presents a tight, meticulously researched legal case that puts George W. Bush on trial in an American courtroom for the murder of over 4,000 American soldiers fighting the war in Iraq.

Bugliosi sets forth the legal architecture and incontrovertible evidence that President Bush took this nation to war in Iraq under false pretenses—a war that has not only caused the deaths of American soldiers but also over 100,000 innocent Iraqi men, women, and children; cost the United States over one trillion dollars thus far with no end in sight; and alienated many American allies in the Western world.

As a prosecutor who is dedicated to seeking justice, Bugliosi, in his inimitable style, delivers a non-partisan argument, free from party lines and instead based upon hard facts and pure objectivity.

A searing indictment of the President and his administration, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder also outlines a legally credible pathway to holding our highest government officials accountable for their actions, thereby creating a framework for future occupants of the oval office.

Vincent Bugliosi calls for the United States of America to return to the great nation it once was and can be again. He believes the first step to achieving this goal is to bring those responsible for the war in Iraq to justice.

Amen!

George Bush's Unseemly Response to the Suffering He Has Caused

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/vincent-bugliosi/george-bushs-unseemly-res_b_103592.html

Yep, Anonymous. It has just continued to blow my mind all these years that he just doesn't seem to have even the slightest depth of character or intellectual curiousity or clue as to what he has unleashed on innocent people.

The video below is years old. And talk about an "unseemly response"! Had he been more knowledgeable or concerned (uh..Presidential) about what this young lady was asking and implying, then maybe the crimes of Blackwater could have been avoided. I mean he's the Commander in Chief who led us into a war and he wasn't even capable of answering this question?!? And what's worse, is that he never seemed to bone up on things or improve in his position as the years progressed as one would normally do in any job. So which is it? A total and complete intellectual deficit or a total and complete lack of interest and concern? I think there seems to be clear evidence of both.

It is just mind-boggling that he is still in power...

I salute Dennis Kucinich!!!

(And thanks Suza, I think we all need to go out and buy the book! I hope it shoots to #1)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5xT1DGJMoQ

George Bush is part of the misery and atrocities that we see in this world - and frankly it's enough to get me to put vodka in my protein drink before I meditate!! Impossible to bend your mind around this stuff - and that's where Yoga comes in - If there's no way out, you gotta go IN - It's not that you necessarily get any answers, but at least you can live with yourself and the rest of the world...and of course do what you can! If they impeach him, I'm the first to sign that petition! I'm so deeply saddened, like so many of us, by the misery and unhappiness this war and many of the other atrocities in the world have caused. In deep prayer for peace, Dvorah

http://current.com/items/89023875_kucinich_o_reilly_argue_over_bush_impeachment?xid=216

Oh ya, George Bush is also responsible for the green stuff between your cousin's toes, bla bla bla.

spk, & friends, Your explanation for not drilling here at home is so convoluted I can barely follow your train of reasoning, if fact I can't. People own these corporations, they have stock holders, if people are lining there pockets then maybe you should buy some stock also. Most of the money that is being paid for these high oil prices is going to the middle east countries that are selling us the oil, I don't know how much more plain that can be. As far as I can tell you would like our society to collapse as soon as possible. We can not drill in our own country, it's illegal - get it? We cannot build any new refineries, it's illegal, it can't be done.

Here's more about the articles of impeachment:

35 Reasons To Call (202) 225-5126
by Larry Beinhart

On June 10, 2008, Dennis Kucinich introduced 35 Articles of Impeachment against George W. Bush.

On June 11, 2008, they were referred to the Judiciary Committee. According to NPR, the Associated Press and the like, they were sent there to die.That’s too bad. Because George Bush has committed “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Impeachable offenses. A lot of them.

He, and his administration, have also created a cloud of confusion and obfuscation around everything that’s happened in his administration. Every investigation has ground to a halt, lost in corporate lawyers tricks - refusal to hand over documents, lost documents, redacted documents, officials who can’t remember, or, at last resort, refuse to answer subpoenas.

According to the Articles of Impeachment:

• The administration consciously lied about the reasons to go to war.
• Conspired to create a secret propaganda campaign to go to war.
• Failed to meet the terms set out in the bill that allowed the president to go to war, thereby making the war illegal.
• Failed to meet the terms set by international law for war, therefore engaging in a “war of aggression,” a war crime.
• Engaged in Torture
• Illegal Detention: Detaining Indefinitely And Without Charge Persons Both U.S. Citizens and Foreign Captives
• Rendition: Kidnapping People and Taking Them Against Their Will to “Black Sites” Located in Other Nations, Including Nations Known to Practice Torture
• Imprisoning Children
• Failure, as the occupying power, to protect the civilian population of Iraq.
• Providing immunity for criminal acts by contractors, thereby condoning murder, rape and other crimes.
• Spied on Americans without warrants.
• Intentionally subverting and refusing to enforce laws through signing statements.
• Tampering with Free and Fair Elections,
• Corruption of the Administration of Justice
• Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965
• Obstruction of the Investigation into the Attacks of September 11, 2001
• Denial of Habeas Corpus

Among other things.

Many of these are on the record as true.

If congress says the hell with it, too much trouble to bring that up, and we don’t want to look vindictive, and just shrugs its shoulders, that makes them co-conspirators.

The man who will now make the decision to stash the charges on the shelf until after January, 2009, when Bush is gone, or to open up hearings, is John Conyers.

John Conyers phone number is (202) 225-5126

Source: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/14/9621/

Published on Saturday, June 14, 2008 by CommonDreams.org

Thank you Vickie. You and Speckles are good citizens!

To the Editor, Los Angeles Times:

Torturers in the Bush administration should not be tried in a court of law

When Tim Rutten writes ("Torture begins at the top") that the torturers in the Bush administration should not be tried in a court of law, that "a healthy democracy punishes policy mistakes...at the ballot box and not in the prisoner's dock," is he telling us that those agents of the president like Vice-President Cheney's chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libbey and all the Watergate defendants who were convicted of multiple crimes should not have been prosecuted and convicted?

Is he telling us that Special Prosecutors Patrick Fitzgerald and Leon Jaworski were wasting their time investigating these crimes, that the crimes committed were not actual crimes but simply "policy mistakes," that punishing these criminals at the ballot box would have been sufficient?

Is he telling us that torture is not a crime when it is conceived and carried out by senior government officials and that all those officials committing crimes while carrying out policy should be immune from prosecution?

What a mockery this argument makes of the Constitution and the sovereignty of the law.

Thank God that famed prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi is actively pursuing the prosecution of George W. Bush for murder, and that the Constitution allows for impeachment and conviction of public officials after they have left office (see Kalt, Brian C., "The Constitutional Case for the Impeachability of Former Federal Officials").

Clive Leeman

13 Taormina Lane
Ojai CA 93023
June 18, 2008
Phone (805) 646-0355

I have to close this thread - the content management system is having a really tough time rebuilding it. Feel free to continue on the new Open Thread.