We Fight Back
That's the motto at Steve Gilliard's "The News Blog," and it's one of the rallying points online for doing just that.

But Mr. Gilliard won't be there anymore; he died today at the age of 41, presumably from complications after his recent surgery. I didn't know him personally, but I was always impressed with his writing, his outlook, and his energy. I extend my condolences to his friends and family.


Other reactions -- from simple R.I.P.'s to essay length remembrances by Sara, Jane Hamsher, James Wolcott to name a few -- from around the Internet: Atrios, Avedon Carol, Damian TPoD, digby, eRobin, Ezra Klein, James Wolcott, Jane Hamsher, Jon Swift, Julia, Lindsay Beyerstein, Matthew Yglesias, Nicole Belle and John Amato, Patrick Nielsen Hayden, Roy Edroso, Sara, Steve Benen, the talking dog, Tom Watson. [May be updated; Jon Swift has another list.]

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UPDATE, 6/9: New York Times obit. posted by Thomas Nephew at 9:16:00 PM -- |    

 
Elizabeth Holtzman on impeachment
Elizabeth Holtzman is a former prosecutor, Congresswoman, and member of the House Judiciary Committee that brought articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon in 1974.

In a speech in Philadelphia last November 11, 2006, she explains why the impeachment of George Bush and Richard Cheney is right and necessary -- and who will have to make it happen:

The American people -- not for the first time -- are ahead of the politicians in Washington. But I want to tell you that the American people can make Washington sit up and pay attention, because they did it once before. [...]

We can't have a president of the United States who puts himself above the rule of law, if we want to continue as a democracy. [...]

..the fact that we have restored some checks and some balances doesn't mean that we are not obliged to remove a person who threatens our democracy. [...]

And, to those who it would divide the country: the impeachment of Richard Nixon brought us together. How? We all recognized that we shared the same values as a country.

Holtzman has also written extensively about impeachment, including articles in The Nation in January 2006 and again in February 2007, as well as in the book The Impeachment of George W. Bush: A Handbook for Concerned Citizens.

To learn how to help with pro-impeachment work in Takoma Park, visit Takoma Park IBC; elsewhere, I suggest AfterDowningStreet.org or Impeach07.org. posted by Thomas Nephew at 1:57:00 AM -- |    

 
Takoma Park impeachment resolution
Takoma Park, MD Impeach Bush Cheney hopes to gain our city council's approval of this resolution:

Resolution to Impeach President George W. Bush
And Vice President Richard B. Cheney

• WHEREAS, President George W. Bush, in his oath of office, swore to “preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States;” and
  
  
• WHEREAS, Vice President Richard B. Cheney, in his oath of office, swore to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic;” and
  
  
• WHEREAS, It is a fundamental principle of U.S. jurisprudence that no one is above the law and no one may operate outside of our constitutional system of checks and balances; and
  
  
• WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney conspired with others to defraud the United States of America by intentionally misleading Congress and the public regarding the threat from Iraq in order to justify a war in violation of Title 18 United States Code, Section 371; and
  
  
• WHEREAS, George W. Bush has admitted to ordering the National Security Agency to conduct electronic surveillance of American civilians without seeking warrants from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review, duly constituted by Congress in 1978, in violation of Title 50 United States Code, Section 1805; and
  
  
• WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney conspired to commit the torture of prisoners in violation of the “Federal Torture Act” Title 18 United States Code, Section 113C, the UN Torture Convention and the Geneva Conventions, which under Article VI of the Constitution are part of the “supreme Law of the Land”; and
  
  
• WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney acted to strip American citizens of their constitutional rights by ordering indefinite detention without access to legal counsel, without charge and without the opportunity to appear before a civil judicial officer to challenge the detention, based solely on the discretionary designation by the President of a U.S. citizen as an “enemy combatant”, all in subversion of law; and
  
  
• WHEREAS, George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have arrogated excessive power to the executive branch in violation of basic constitutional principles of the separation of powers while acting to undermine the authority of the legislative branch and the judiciary by issuing “signing statements” that claim that the executive branch may disregard laws enacted by Congress when the President or his subordinates deem it appropriate, and by the above referenced conduct; and,
  
  
• WHEREAS, In all of this George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney have acted in a manner contrary to their trust as President and Vice President, subversive of constitutional government to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice, and to the manifest injury of the people of Takoma Park, MD and of the United States of America; and
  
  
• WHEREAS, Petitions from the country at large may be presented by the Speaker of the House according to Clause 3 of House Rule XII

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of Takoma Park, that George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney, by such conduct, warrant impeachment and trial, and removal from office and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT our senators and representatives in the United States Congress be, and they are hereby, requested to cause to be instituted in the Congress of the United States proper proceedings for the investigation of the activities of the George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney, to the end that they may be impeached and removed from such office.

AND BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the Clerk of the City of Takoma Park be, and is hereby, instructed to certify to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, under the seal of the City of Takoma Park, a copy of this resolution and its adoption by the City of Takoma Park, as a petition, and request that this petition be delivered to the Office of the Clerk and entered in the United States Congressional Journal. The copies shall be marked with the word “Petition” at the top of the document and contain the original authorizing signature of the City Clerk.

As readers may surmise from prior posts and links festooned at the top of this blog, I support this effort. The resolution has been sponsored by Ward 5 councilman Reuben Snipper.

Now it's up to us. Takoma Park citizens need to prove to the council they support this by

• talking with others and collecting signatures supporting the resolution,
  
• appearing at City Council meetings, and
• contacting their councilmembers.

I intend to help, and I hope I won't be the only one. To learn how to help with this in Takoma Park, visit Takoma Park IBC; elsewhere, I suggest AfterDowningStreet.org or Impeach07.org. posted by Thomas Nephew at 12:33:00 AM -- |    

 
Puddles
They're not usually news -- except when there's evidence of them within 350 miles the South Pole. NASA's "Earth Observatory" web site reports that teams of researchers from NASA and the University of Colorado at Boulder using satellite radar "scatterometer" data

...found evidence of warming and melting as much as 900 kilometers (500 miles) inland. Just 500 kilometers (310 miles) from the South Pole, and more than 2,000 meters (6,600 feet) above sea level, portions of Antarctica’s interior experienced temperatures above freezing for about a week in January 2005.

From the New York Times report by Andrew Revkin:

Balmy air, with a temperature of up to 41 degrees in some places, persisted across three broad swathes of West Antarctica long enough to leave a distinctive signature of melting, a layer of ice in the snow that cloaks the vast ice sheets of the frozen continent. The layer formed the same way a crust of ice can form in a yard in winter when a warm day and then a freezing night follow a snowfall, the scientists said.

The reports indicate that none of the landlocked water probably flowed very far before refreezing, and that the phenomenon hasn't occurred again through March 2007. More extensive thaws could eventually cause faster glacier movement, possible runoff to the sea, and higher sea levels. posted by Thomas Nephew at 12:30:00 PM -- |    

 
Take care, Ms. Sheehan
Cindy Sheehan, whose one-woman standoff with Bush and ensuing "Camp Casey" galvanized anti-Iraq war sentiment, is hanging it up:

...This is my resignation letter as the "face" of the American anti-war movement. This is not my "Checkers" moment, because I will never give up trying to help people in the world who are harmed by the empire of the good old US of A, but I am finished working in, or outside of this system. This system forcefully resists being helped and eats up the people who try to help it. I am getting out before it totally consumes me or anymore people that I love and the rest of my resources.

Good-bye America ...you are not the country that I love and I finally realized no matter how much I sacrifice, I can’t make you be that country unless you want it.

It’s up to you now.

Ms. Sheehan cited personal costs -- a marriage ended, health and finances strained -- but also deep disappointment with those who criticized her for extending her own criticisms to Democrats who weren't doing enough to end the Iraq war. And she expressed some disappointment with the rest of us as well:

I have invested everything I have into trying to bring peace with justice to a country that wants neither. If an individual wants both, then normally he/she is not willing to do more than walk in a protest march or sit behind his/her computer criticizing others. I have spent every available cent I got from the money a "grateful" country gave me when they killed my son and every penny that I have received in speaking or book fees since then.

I salute Ms. Sheehan, and I won't join in critiquing her every political step or misstep. When what's needed is a moment burned in to our political retinas, you're generally not going to get it from someone who's too careful to make mistakes -- or from someone who can't imagine remaking a country in the better image she had of it.

For my part, I suppose I've gone a bit farther than joining protest marches or sitting behind a computer, but not much farther, and not lately. I'm usually more in the "never gamble more than you can bear to lose" camp -- but then if I ever lost what Cindy Sheehan lost, that would already be behind me. May she find rest and peace in the days ahead, and regain faith that her work and her son's death were not in vain.


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NOTES: Other reactions are collected at Memeorandum; while most were right wing monkey hoots not worth reading, I liked posts by Jeralyn ("Talkleft") and Shelley Lewis (writing for "Huffington Post"); on the right wing side of the blogosphere, Dr. Steven Taylor's ("Poliblog") reaction was decent, though I disagreed with parts of it.
EDIT, 6/1: I've upgraded my description of Taylor's reaction to "decent", a better choice of words than merely "the most human one I found."
UPDATE, 6/1: See also Timmer, at "The Daily Brief," +/- a group of bloggers in the military: "I kind of admire Cindy Sheehan."
posted by Thomas Nephew at 12:30:00 PM -- |    

 
Memorial Day observances
Roy Edroso ("alicublog"), "Memorial Day" --- Edroso remembers what a president once said about the Bill of Rights, a president who believed we had nothing to fear but fear itself, and continues:

Our current Administration, prosecuting its own, very different war, does not often nor so eloquently allude to the liberties at the heart of the American experiment. Yet out of all the other spurs that drive us to war and sacrifice, these "privileges" are the most meaningful. Without them we would be just another clan fighting to keep, or increase, our land and possessions. That might be worth a barbecue, but it wouldn't be worth a single soldier's grave.

But if we believe America is more than that, and that the principles of its founding are still our principles, then those who have died in its wars will command our special respect. Whether they served because they were patriots, or because they wanted to prove themselves, or because they were drafted; whether we agree with the individual mission -- whether they agreed with it, or even thought about it; whether they fell at Anzio, or at Cinfuegos, or at Khe Sanh, or at Fallujah, they served under the flag of the United States of America, whose cause is ours, and died for it.

Whether the dead themselves can benefit from the consolation of remembrance is a theological question beyond my abilities. Following FDR, though, I would say that it can do us some lasting good to remember the object of their sacrifices.

Paul Krugman, New York Times, "Trust and Betrayal" ---

“In this place where valor sleeps, we are reminded why America has always gone to war reluctantly, because we know the costs of war.” That’s what President Bush said last year, in a Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.

Those were fine words, spoken by a man with less right to say them than any president in our nation’s history. For Mr. Bush took us to war not with reluctance, but with unseemly eagerness. [...]

...The truth is that the nightmare of the Bush years won’t really be over until politicians are convinced that voters will punish, not reward, Bush-style fear-mongering. And that hasn’t happened yet.

Here’s the way it ought to be: When Rudy Giuliani says that Iran, which had nothing to do with 9/11, is part of a “movement” that “has already displayed more aggressive tendencies by coming here and killing us,” he should be treated as a lunatic.

When Mitt Romney says that a coalition of “Shia and Sunni and Hezbollah and Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda” wants to “bring down the West,” he should be ridiculed for his ignorance.

And when John McCain says that Osama, who isn’t in Iraq, will “follow us home” if we leave, he should be laughed at.

But they aren’t, at least not yet. And until belligerent, uninformed posturing starts being treated with the contempt it deserves, men who know nothing of the cost of war will keep sending other people’s children to graves at Arlington.

Andrew Bacevich, Sr., Boston University: "I Lost My Son to a War I Oppose. We Were Both Doing Our Duty." --- See also a post from last week, "What Kind of Democracy is This?"; the question was Bacevich, Sr.'s, and the answer is bleak:

Money buys access and influence. Money greases the process that will yield us a new president in 2008. When it comes to Iraq, money ensures that the concerns of big business, big oil, bellicose evangelicals and Middle East allies gain a hearing. By comparison, the lives of U.S. soldiers figure as an afterthought.

Memorial Day orators will say that a G.I.'s life is priceless. Don't believe it. I know what value the U.S. government assigns to a soldier's life: I've been handed the check. It's roughly what the Yankees will pay Roger Clemens per inning once he starts pitching next month.

Money maintains the Republican/Democratic duopoly of trivialized politics. It confines the debate over U.S. policy to well-hewn channels. It preserves intact the cliches of 1933-45 about isolationism, appeasement and the nation's call to "global leadership." It inhibits any serious accounting of exactly how much our misadventure in Iraq is costing. It ignores completely the question of who actually pays. It negates democracy, rendering free speech little more than a means of recording dissent.

This is not some great conspiracy. It's the way our system works.

There's more. posted by Thomas Nephew at 11:45:00 PM -- |    

 
Have a great Memorial Day
I've been in Atlanta attending my niece's wedding and visiting with my family, and obviously haven't been posting much. Hope you're having a nice weekend, too. posted by Thomas Nephew at 11:08:00 PM -- |