21.6.09

FROM THE DESK OF THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF; TIFFANY SOUERS STILL DESERVES THE RESPECT OF THE MSM





This blog was just a fledgling concept in May of 2006. Like any other enterprise that wishes to bring news with a different perspective we judged our performance based upon the number of people that viewed and how many pages they read. Up to the last few days of May 2006 there had never been 500 pages viewed on this blog. The murder of Tiffany Souers and the CoalSack™ winning reporting that was done by several members of the Dis Brimstone-Daily Pitchfork staff changed all of that forever.



Many "big news" stories have come and gone since Tiffany Souers was murdered by Jerry Buck Inman at the Reserve Apartments at Clemson University. None have crystallized the method of our reporting more. Most of the mainstream media and no small number of bloggers were dispassionate and uncaring about the victim. The news was the "bikini top murder" at best and vulgarities about Miss Souers at worse. I do not censor my staff but they can take a hint. A story about a Living family that have lost a young adult member due to the aggression of another person is not the time to get sweeps points, it is time to get the facts of the story correct with as much respect as possible.

Public figures hate that we are willing to do the difficult and challenging work of covering their off work activities. Someone has to because the MSM in America has a tacit agreement that they will never report about the "after hours" comings and going of those who lead you from Washington and those who report the news of those personages. The Dis Brimstone-Daily Pitchfork has never made any such arrangement. No manner of threat and no manner of compensation could take us off our game in this regard.





Yesterday Jerry Buck Inman was sentenced to die by lethal injection in South Carolina by Circuit Court Judge Edward Miller. Inman stated during the hearing that he did not believe that he could be rehabilitated. I agree with this having seen into the minds of many of his species that were like him not Human Beings™. Inman does deserve to die. However I was moved to write this post not because of the positive workings of the American judicial system but the repeated failure of the MSM. The Associated Press, chose as its headline for the story of the Inman sentencing, "Tenn. man sentenced to die for raping, strangling SC college student with her own bikini top." I would have preferred, "Tennessee man sentenced to die for brutal murder of Clemson co-ed." It covers all the bases without being disrespectful to the Souers family.



Cavalor Epþiþ, Esquire, O.D.A.J.[1er], D.S.V.J., J.F.
Editor-in-Chief
The Dis Brimstone-Daily Pitchfork
22 2 Leviathan 2 AS

15.5.09

CITY FILE NEW YORK IS POPULATED WITH HEARTLESS HACKS



"THIS SITE IS THE MOST DISCUSTING PEICE OF TRASH THAT EVERY BEEN PUT ON THE NET A MAN CANT MOURN HIS MOTHERS DEATH YOU SON OF BITCHES YOU ALL BURN IN THE PITS OF HELL YOU DELETE THIS ACCOUNT BECAUSE I WILL WHEN I GET THIS OFF MY CHEST AS HAVE SEEN TONIGHT ON cd ON KO THIS IS GOT TOO BE THOSE DESPICABLE PIECE OF BANDWIDTH ON THE PLANET YOU MAKE FOX ... I MEAN FIXED NEWS LOOK LIKE CHOIR BOYS YOUR DISCUTING AND A JOKE TOO THE WORLD OF JOURNALISM SO fuck you sirs and the band wagon you came on. "—by kofan_09, left on CityFile New York article, "Keith Olbermann: The Worst Person in the World", 14 May 2009.



Obviously this person was, like the several dozen Souls who gathered outside my home holding candles and pictures of Keith Olbermann demanding that I speak out, enraptured with anger that the blog City File New York would attack KO for no reason whatsoever. I am taking the time to speak out now from my lofty place here in Hell's capitol Dis. What is the point of doing this? As an editor I can live with attacking someone over their political views but this is even too petty for people in the TV business. The man's mother had passed away. I cannot fathom why someone would do this, well unless they were bitter because they had lost the 9 Eastern slot to a hyperkinetic, short haired, A cup Rhodes Scholar. Hmmm. This is all speculation on my part, of course.

This is the dumbest dreck I have seen in a decade. Mr. Olbermann I was shocked by your loss and moved to tears that you persevered as long as you did in the face of an absolutely blindsiding tragedy. As a demon journalist I do know and want to share with you that there is a special place in Hell, where I live, for the author of this screed and when they arrive here as all hacks do you can be assured that "they'll get theirs in the end."

Once again, Keith, my heart felt condolences.

Qu'ul cuda praedex nihil!

Cavalor Epþiþ, Esquire, O.D.A.J.[1er], D.S.V.J., J.F.
Editor-in-Chief
The Dis Brimstone-Daily Pitchfork
135 Ho'vish 2 AS

31.1.08

WELCOME BACK: TSUNAMI TUESDAY 2008 IN PLAIN SIGHT






I imagine I should say that I am sorry for being away for so long but the rigors of a major trial, better yet the reality of being tugged back to the profession for which I was educated, has taken up far more of my time than I expected. But now the purpose of the Digital Press Club to be a forum of many diverse beings from both sides of the corporeal divide can be better realized. In five days time the United States of America will have a first of its kind national primary that in my opinion will select the candidates from the two major parties. I feel that the Democrats will select Hillary Rodham Clinton and the Republicans will select John McCain. There will be bitterness on both sides at the conventions in Denver and Minneapolis but the animosity will be far greater in the Twin Cities as the wedge issues among moderates in the GOP and their far right brethren become decidedly sharp.





In the mean time as we wait for summer to bring around both disputes and coronations, the Digital Press Club will keep its eye out for Third Party candidates, Fourth and even Fifth Party candidates that might make a difference in the national race in November. Ralph Nader and his Greens have made no announcement at this time, no rumblings have been heard from Jeb Bush in Florida or any of the thousands of evangelicals who find in him a touchstone nor has there been any official word from New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. Pat Buchanan's America First Party, which treads along a thin boundary between overt white supremacy and unapologetic xenophobic patriotism has aspirations of running its own national candidate in the fall. In an age where political polarization literally offends some voters so much they become apathetic the Centrist Party offers a healing of the rifts based upon bringing the majority of the moderates to power.



The Libertarian Party with its listing on 26 state ballots for the 2008 Presidential election is by far the largest of the second tier political parties in the United States. Some buzz about Ron Paul leaving the GOP for the Libertarians is being generated on the blogosphere and could make for an interesting election night were he to be the only name recognized conservative third party candidate. The Libertarians are one of the few political p[arties that actively debate the issue of abortion with a nearly 50 50 split between pro choice and pro life Libertarians.


As pointed out to me some time ago by Ser Daryl Cobranchi, the theocrats in America already have a political party most of the fundies just don't know it exists. It is the Constitution Party which has as its stated aim, "The mission of the Constitution Party is to secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity through the election, at all levels of government, of Constitution Party candidates who will uphold the principles of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. It is our goal to limit the federal government to its delegated, enumerated, Constitutional functions and to restore American jurisprudence to its original Biblical common-law foundations."


Later, a bit on how harsh the campaigning could become this weekend with an analysis of the advertisments being employed on both sides.

Welcome back.

Qu'ul cuda praedex nihil!



Cavalor Epþiþ, Esquire, D.S.V.J.
Editor-in-Chief
The Dis Brimstone-Daily Pitchfork
216 1 Leviathan 2 AS
24 Sh'vat 5768
21 Rajab 1431 AH
31 January 2008 C.E.

30.1.08

Well, here we sit on the eve of "Super Tuesday".

Here we are practically on top of "Super Tuesday" when it will be likely that John McCain will be the Republican nominee for President but the Democratic nominee will be Barak Obama or Hillary Clinton. In short, if you are a Democrat, these campaigns will roll on and on into the conventions this summer and therein lies the problem. As the delegate counts get closer and closer for these two candidates, they are likely to "bloody" each other to the point that John McCain become the next president of the United States with Mick Huckabee on his ticket as the "veep".

Clinton and Obama have already proved that they can have their campaign "minions" sling the dirtiest of "mud" in the most negative of campaigns. This makes things quite easy for McCain because every piece of negative campaigning by the Democrats makes John McCain look that much more professional and better. We need only look at how Mitt Romney (with all of his organization and money) got slammed in Florida earlier this week. He's likely to go by the wayside quickly because the Republicans have a "winner take all" type of delegate apportionment in many of the states on Super Tuesday and the Democrats do not.

My advice to both Obama and Clinton is to focus their campaigns strongly on John McCain and the Republican agenda as opposed to wounding each other to the death. After the convention, there won't be enough left for either of them to win against a unified party behind John McCain.

While negative campaigning might get you a few votes in the last minute, in a long and drawn-out race, it can zap you in the long run. The electorate get turned off and believe me with this whole process starting as early as it did, the "turn-off meter" is in high gear right now. It is vitally important that someone take the "high ground" and be willing to stay there.

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23.9.07

Never Enough Strip Clubs and Gin Joints

Once in a while, I write a good political piece. In comments, someone will say "You should run for office."

In this post, I revealed some things about myself that essentially make it impossible for me to run for office. To be honest, having been the daughter of an elected county official, I'm a bit jaded on the whole thing. My fantasy is to be policy person for an elected official. A behind the scenes wonk, perhaps. But the person at the microphone?

It could never be.

The sad reality is that even if I thought I could make a positive impact as a public official or as a policy staffer for an elected official, because I'm an atheistic equal opportunity sex monkey, I would be considered poison in most parts of the U.S.

We have a ridiculous, unwritten standard for who can serve our nation. Openly gay people cannot serve in the military. Homosexual teachers still don't come out for fear of persecution in some places. There are only one or two Congressional who do not claim to follow a religion. The Boy Scouts still have a ban on homosexuals in leadership.

Bottom line: in many places and to some degree everywhere, we have a religious and clean living test for public officials.

Because, as a nation, we're so incredibly religious and clean living.

So I've mulled this briefly. Americans, if they bother at all, listen to the media - some even read newspapers - and think that they know which 2008 presidential candidates most closely resemble their views.

They're mostly wrong as my blogpal Erudite Redneck found out.

Collectively, we're woefully ill-informed about where candidates stand on issues that matter to us. Each of us must do a little truth seeking to find out where candidates stand. Hey. We ain't gonna do it. Let the media tell us what they think we need to know to cast an intelligent vote. We're a bunch of fat, lazy fuckers. Not only do we not get enough exercise, we don't get exercised enough about the injustice, thievery and numbskullery that goes on in our name, using our tax dollars.

Do we like being stupid?

So while the media is prepping to tell us all over again about a blue GAP dress and cigars in twats and late night pizza and pussy deliveries, we still won't know the details of Senator Clinton's health care plan. We'll know how much John Edwards's manicures cost and how many cigarettes a day Barack Obama smokes. We might even find out how often Mitt Romney's spray-on tan is reapplied or what size adult diapers Giuliani wears. Hells bells, I wouldn't be surprised if we find out that Fred Thompson prefers playing with his young wife's left tit to her right tit during reverse cowgirl.

As a bone to the snarling Christian Conservative dog, we'll be treated to tales of great piety, prayer and positive feedback from the man upstairs. We'll have to know who goes to church, who helps out his youth group and how many cookies Hillary's staff baked for her local church fundraiser.

Because that's such a good measure of how one might govern or perform his or her duties as a politician, where it's all about altruism, peace, justice, fairness, charity and humanity.

And anyone like me, with a touch of teh gay and unbelieving, is all about evil, violence, hatred, intolerance, immorality and inhumanity. Without a god and possessing a sexually open attitude, I am a big threat to all that America holds dear. I never really thought about it as I maintain a nearly 20 year marriage, raise three kids, donate time and money to charitable causes, pay my taxes and commit random acts of kindness.

I think I need to take an online course on being evil because I'm just not getting the hang of this thing.

Really, though, all joking aside, I guess what people fear is that if people like me were to rule the world, we would institute all kinds of sick laws and rules and attitudes. We'd fucking wreck the moral bus. Ram it right into a brick wall at full speed. People wouldn't know how to behave anymore and there'd be all kinds of killing, cruelty, buggery and hatred.

Madness would break out all over the place. People would stop going to church, work, school, and the gym. Grocery stores and big box discount places would close and strip clubs, saloons, satanic houses of worship and gay bathhouses would spring up in their place. Farmers would stop growing food and start growing poppies, marijuana and hemp for narcotics production. Instead of slaughtering their animals for food, they'd simply rent them out to people who want to have sex with animals (no, I'm really not considering it!).

Babies, if born at all, would be tossed from hospital windows, bassinets and all. Too noisy, smelly, and helpless. Or worse, they'd be sold to pedophiles for the most horrid of hobbies.

Doctors would switch from the practice of disease prevention and treatment to all cosmetic surgery all the time. DCups or bigger would be mandatory and vaginas everywhere would be rejuvenated. All paid for by tax dollars raked from the wealthy and super wealthy at gunpoint. Those tax collecting guns, by the way, will be held by dew-ragged, African American thugs wearing grills and raised tats on their overgrown chocolate biceps. They'll be backed by crocheted cap wearing Muslims with suicide belts strapped to their hairy chests.

Drug manufacturers would stop making pharmaceuticals that treat, prevent and control diseases and would focus exclusively on sexual performance enhancement drugs, penis enlargement treatments, new and exciting personal lubricants and erectile dysfunction medications.

Gangs of teens will roam malls wearing black clothes, skinny ankle jeans, passing their ghostly white hands across their pale, wan faces absentmindedly shifting the curtain of bangs that keep them from seeing clearly. Partially hair blind, they fall down escalators and bump into walls. Since there will be a proliferation of evil lawyers, lawsuits will abound, but winning litigants will still be broke and on the public dole because the lawyers will keep every dime and no one will stop them for fear that they will cut off campaing contributions.

There would be tatoo parlors on every corner. And they would refuse to ink religious symbols.

Banks and Wall Street would close. We'd use different leaves for currency. Maple leaves would be like singles, pine needles would be pennies, oak leaves tens, you get the idea.

Don't get me started on what music would do, but The Change would begin with a massive bonfire of Pat Boone, Amy Grant, and Toby Keith CDs. In fact, country music would be outlawed. Except for The Dixie Chicks - whole radio stations would be required to play Dixie Chicks music 24/7. Classical music would be relegated to a few places where stuffy, limousine liberals gather. Marilyn Manson would be appointed Minister of High Culture for Life.

Charles Manson would be released from prison, given a set of Ginsu steak knives and given the address of Dick Cheney's previously undisclosed location. John Hinckley, Jr. would be his wingman.

Flags and bras would be burned, anyone wearing a flag lapel pin would have to fear for their safety as roaming gangs of Code Pink activists would threaten to beat them over the head with homemade signs. Former war supporters would steal quietly outside after dark and remove the gold and cammo ribbon magnets from the backs of their vehicles. True believers would stash the magnets in some hidey-hole, hoping for the day when cheerleading for war is de rigueur again.

Fox News would go dark on day at about 7:55 p.m. When the lights came on again, Keith Olbermann's smiling, bespectacled face would be grinning out at the stunned, gaping audience. Sean Hannity, Bill O'Reilly and Brit Hume would never be heard from again. Rush Limbaugh would die trying to escape from Club Gitmo. He'd be shot in the ass with high-powered weapons as he gets stuck in a wide gap in a fence. "Goodbye cruel world!" he'll be heard to grunt just before his eyes shut for the last time, "I never meant a word of it!"

Caesar Chavez, Fidel Castro, Sean Penn and Rosie O'Donnell would be on President Kucinich's speed dial. Jane Fonda's face would grace billboards everywhere announcing her new radio talk show. "This is what a True Patriot looks like" will read her tagline. The White House would be moved to Hollywood.

Moveon.org will run free daily ads in every newspaper in the country. And Congresswoman Maxine Waters will be appointed to Secretary of Peace.

The death penalty and gun ownership will be outlawed. Ted Nugent would disappear. Six months after The Change, his body would be found stripped naked, stuffed with olives, and buried under shredded Starbucks cups.

Corporate media would be eliminated and ownership laws would bust the monopolies. Liberal college professors would be invited onto mainstream television to talk about education and other things. No Child Left Behind will be repealed and anyone who isn't a secular hedonist liberal will be banned from teaching in public schools.

Head Start and Planned Parenthood would be fully funded. Abortion on demand would be available at your local strip mall and every strip mall would have to have a strip club.

Environmental activists would be appointed to hold powerful positions in the Department of the Interior and at the Environmental Protection Agency. Man-hating lesbians would be put in charge of the NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League baseball.

Peter King, a man who likely considers himself a good Catholic, will say something like we have too many mosques again. The Senate will pass a resolution condemning his statement and any Republicans running for office ever will have microphones thrust in their faces and asked if they will denounce King and his statement. Veiled women, their eager eyes peering from the slits in the black cloth covering their bodies, will stand quietly waiting for the response.

A liberal, me perhaps, will be standing a few feet away. The liberal will smile and motion toward the veiled women who will exchange puzzled looks before shrugging their black-clothed shoulders and walking as a group toward the liberal.

The liberal will clear her throat. "I'd like to declare today that I will run for office,"she'll begin. "But first, I should say that while I do not agree with Representative King's statement, I will tell you that my platform will rest on the principals of freedom and justice. There will be no measure for too few or too many mosques, churches, temples or synagogues. There will be no talk of religion in the realm of politics. I will talk about my policies and what I intend to do to work toward peace, justice and freedom. Thank you."

The black-clad women will pull their abayahs from their heads and fluff their long, beautiful manes. They will chatter among themselves. Finally, one of them will be pushed forward. She smiles at the liberal and takes a deep breath. "What about the allegations that your kind will allow the continued creep of radical religious Muslim rule in the United States?"

The others will elbow each other, smiling. Some are tugging off their burkahs. "Yes, what of it?" one them shouts over the group.

The liberal smiles. "There will always be freedom of religion here. There will also be freedom from religion and its narrow interpretations of sexual roles that serve to underpin and over run our laws," this time, it's the liberal's turn to take a deep breath. She smiles again and says,"And to that I say there are never enough strip clubs and gin joints."

Crossposted at Politits.

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In lumine Tuo videbimus lumen







A university whether it be an ancient safe harbour of learning like the Universjite of Dis or a more modern human incarnation like Columbia University in the City of New York is designed to be a place where ideas flourish. not accepted ideas or cherished ideas or even traditional ideas, but all ideas. There is such a blind drumbeat of nationalism among the upper middle class in America fearful that the coming shortages of energy will cast them off their Dolce & Gabbana pedestals to be kebabed on the spike of the gates of their posh communities that it has nauseated this demon. I am so sickened even sitting here with my wife and kids in my sky box at the Ann Coulter Torture Stadium that I had to duck out to dash this off as my comrade in blogging against all things right wing D Cup would say.





Imagine if a German or British university like Cologne or Oxford would have no parts of Ronald Reagan as a speaker because their citizens found his concepts of American hegemony over the world offensive. Could you report a silence from the political right in America? Somehow this demon editor would doubt that. American presidents as de facto leaders of Capitalist Terra are men whose ideas need not be listened to by academia when in office because they have much to massive a bully pulpit from which to speak. At any given time they can have their press secretary call the three major networks and CNN and demand time to speak to America as a body. it is then up to the citizen to not engage the media and listen. Here in hell we have estimated that the words of the US president have a reach of over 4 billion people on a daily basis making him the most capable human being on the planet of conveying his ideas.







If the MSM in the USA would not cover what is translated by IRNA the reach of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran might be 100 million and that on a very good day. I must go on record for the good of my own black little conscience that if America wishes to bring Hell down on its head by destroying some facilities in Iran by bombing them then they should go ahead and get it over with while the shock cannot do any further damage to the all important Holiday Shopping Season 2007™ which even retailers say now will be a cruise to disaster. We here in Hell spent very little time after the overthrow of Shai'tan putting our minds toward what sort of government such a massive collection of city states with nearly 3 trillion Souls as citizens required. The right to govern belonged to the Empress but She in her Wisdom knew the voice of the People was equal to hers. And in that balance comes the Judiciary so an amalgamation of the British and American systems of democracy and Constitutional Monarchy have led to the Hellac parliamentary system.



Free speech to the Citizens of Hell is a right that we are all willing to fight for and go to oblivion for if necessary. In America the desire to muzzle ideas that come from directions that appear unseemly has taken up a new vigor in an age when it seems anything goes. The conservatives see Iran as an enemy and I do see the continuation of their desire to pursue nuclear weapons as a destabilizing march toward war with the USA. Equally, the political right in the US seems eager to engage in this destructive behavior feeling that it can foster regime change in Iran freeing decades of oil reserves ripe for the plucking for America from the control of Shi'ite clerics. But to be so petty as to wish to deny the man a chance to speak before an audience at a private institute for higher learning is to employ the same sort of censoring tactics that the Soviets were known for as they stumbled toward their eventual demise.






The only people who will hear the words of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad will be the people who choose to have those words transmitted to them either live, on television or through radio or in the many print media outlets. If you do not wish to know what the man thinks, do not listen. However, I think it is horribly out of the spirit of the American vision of democracy as seen by Thos Jefferson to wish to deny others the chance to hear. It is this overreach for control of what others do, say, can hear or see or even think that places a cold place in my hot heart. These are the things Shai'tan did to wish to block discourse, the squash dissent, and to mandate no one speak their minds against him. I recall when David Duke, a man of hateful ideas and shabby ethics ran for elected office and spoke before many conservative audiences at a wide range of "Christian" universities and few of you thought that those speeches needed to be cancelled. I am saddened that one whole segment of American society have become so whorish and filled with false ideological purity and self serving religiosity that they demand their way is the only way possible. Ann Coulter reaps a healthy portion of her earnings through public speaking engagements where she calls her own country's citizens names that the right wing says does not belong in civil discourse. But yet this whore still profits and I defend every institution's decision to have her speak.





I applaud the Trustees of Columbia University for allowing Ahmadinejad to speak so that his words can be documented and analyzed by people other than the corporate media which sees war with Iran as merely another reality show that will bring huge advertising profits and not as the first awkward steps toward the murderous slaughter that signals the death of Terra. I will note that even as I disagree with the Iranian leader on many things dialogue, is preferred to belligerence or muting of speech any day. I also applaud the John Coatsworth, Dean of Columbia University, on his commitment to the spirit of the university as place of ideas and not of ideologies. Hitler, Mother Teresa, Stalin, King, Pol Pot, Linclon, Ghandi, Marx, Kennedy, Jean d'Arc, the Son of the Creator, Falwell and every other living breathing Soul on terra has a right And the right wing in America wonders why it is losing its foothold? No one invites a churchy fascist to a party do they?



Early in the game Sporting Dis 12, Vampyr-Black Star Gehenna 0. Sporting is about to attempt a 10 point trebuchet to guillotine manoeuvre. Tricky but high scoring.



Qu'ul cuda pradex nihil!

Cavalor Epþiþ, Esquire
Editor-in-Chief
The Dis Brimstone-Dadily Pitchfork
86 1 Leviathan 2 AS

15.7.07

Not All Impeachment Proceedings Are Political. Some Are Constitutionally Necessary.



Last night The Honey and I listened to the podcast of Bill Moyer's Journal segment on Impeachment with Bruce Fein and John Nichols.

Without once using the word fuck, both Fein and Nichols used some pretty strong language in laying out what amounts to the case for impeachment against both President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. They discussed the matter in terms of the Constitution. Using facts (imagine!) and referring back to both the Clinton and Nixon impeachment trials, Moyer's guests explained how impeachment is necessary as a Constitutional issue, regardless of the politics.

Recognizing that Americans are weary of impeachment, Fein, a conservative who served in the Reagan Administration, and Nichols, a liberal writer for The Nation, explained that the Constitution allows for, in fact requires, impeachment to protect the country and the Constitution itself.

As they explained, if Congress allows the Bush Administration to continue to amass broader executive powers and to whittle away civil liberties, then Congress is not doing its job of oversight.

Listening to Fein describe the charges against Nixon in contrast to what Bush is currently doing made me realize that Bush is worse than Nixon. To illustrate, Fein cited the fact that Nixon did not order or prevent his White House General Counsel John Dean from testifying before Congress. Dean did testify. Bush
ordered his White House General Counsel Harriet Miers to not testify before Congress this past week. She complied with his order and did not show up to testify before a subcommittee of the House Judiciary Committee.

To demonstrate the sychophantic and dangerous nature of this Administration, Fein points out that The Bushies serve Bush and not the Constitution. He noted during the testimony of Sara Taylor, former White House Political Director, where she stated that she took an oath to the President. Here she is being reminded by Sen. Patrick Leahy that
she actually takes an oath to the U.S. Constitution.


As we listened to the podcast, The Honey and I discussed how Americans don't like the idea of impeachment anymore because we think it will halt or harm government. The point that Nichols and Fein make is that it's quite irrelevant whether we like impeachment or not and that to not pursue impeachment when it is necessary will, in fact, harm our system of government because in this case, we're allowing the Executive Branch to shift the balance of power in dangerous ways that will last long after we are all gone.

As one of the guests pointed out, power is never given away or given back willingly. The imbalance of power we now see will have to be recalibrated to balance through force, not because some future president decides that he or she wants to reduce their power.

By impeaching President Clinton for political purposes, Republicans, through cleverness or luck, have created an American mindset that impeachment can only happen for political reasons. If Nancy Pelosi pushes for impeachment hearings for Bush and Cheney, it can only be because she wishes to grab power for herself (as next in line for the Presidency) and to punish Republicans for impeaching Clinton. I imagine that this charge haunts Pelosi as she considers this very important matter.

When she says impeachment is not on the table, Pelosi is playing politics. She is not fulfilling her role as the Congressional leader of the Majority. She and Harry Reid need to understand that it is their role to allow the evidence to be presented, to push for investigations and to force the Bush Administration to provide subpoenaed documents and testimony or face legal consequences.

Some will argue that the Supreme Court, now packed with Conservatives, will rule in favor of the Administration and this will cause the country to point at the Democrats and level charges of wasting time and money on doomed impeachment hearings, especially in a time of war. Oooh, time of war. The be all, end all of arguments. When you can't make a case for your position, it's convenient to remind us all that this is a time of war.

Regardless of the projected outcome, Congress has a duty to pursue this. To ignore it is to allow the Executive Branch to seize power that is not constitutionally theirs. It derails our system of government and it creates a precedent for future presidents who will hold onto and amass as much power as weak or compliant future Congresses allow.

Republicans will lead the charge in the spreading the message that impeachment proceedings are being done for purely political reasons. They will scream and yell and cry about their love of country, the Constitution, the government,the people who are all being hurt by impeachment. They'll remind us that they pushed for Clinton's impeachment because he broke the law by lying to Congress. They'll deny that it was political or about sex.

That is when they must be reminded that it is they who have obstructed legislation repeatedly since losing control on Congress, how little they got done when they were in control and how little oversight they performed. They should also be reminded of their campaign literature, websites, and rhetoric that trumpet their disdain for government, so to cry those big crocodile tears for it now is just ridiculous. They will have to be reminded, too, that since they won't compromise with the Democrats and form veto-proof majorities, their Republican president has vetoed some very popular laws. Who's not letting the government do it's work? Who's ignoring the will of the people?

With that, their charge that government must go on and impeachment is too big of a distraction and drain, fly out the window.

Listen to the Moyer's podcast or watch the video. Fein and Nichols explain why that is all irrelevant. The Democrats must force themselves to stand up to this message and to PUSH BACK with the truth - The Bush Administration appears to have broken the law and to have acted in an unconstitutional manner. Congress is charged with oversight and impeachment is a Constitutional tool that Congress must use when the Executive Branch will no longer recognize the oversight role of Congress.

Nichols says it best, I think, when he responds to Moyers' question about this issue forcing a Constitutional crisis. Nichols responds, "Don't make the medicine the disease."

Impeachment is not the disease, the unconstitutional actions and behavior of the Bush Administration are the disease. Impeachment is the Constitutional medicine to cure it for this Administration and for all those that come after it.


Cross-posted at Politits.

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FAILURE OF THE OPPOSITE







Imagine if you can for the briefest of moments that Hillary Clinton was president of the United States on September 10, 2001. Now that I have your attention, I have enjoyed reading the acid trip that William Kristol, noted architect of the miasma in which America finds itself trapped in Iraq, has penned in defense of the corporate controlled President of the United States. Kristol is no "patriot" he is in the business of offering his ideas for money, and moreover to curry the favor of his uber connected handlers, which is counter to my own mandate as a journalist and a leader of a journalistic organ. It is my mandate to glean the Truth from the information provided to us here and disseminate it to the Free Citizens of Hell in a concise and coherent manner. It is the job of the Weekly Standard to trumpet the talking points that have been drawn up that support the economic interests of so called neoconservatives who are nothing more than corporate neoliberals. These robber barons have used the cloak of democracy to reach even deeper into the pockets of those who for lack of a better phrase have no pockets. The remains of the full buffet table from which they have taken sup until they nearly burst, to paraphrase the fictional character Willie Stark, "The Oil Men and the Drug Men and the War Profiteers don't even want you the middle class to even have the left overs which are plentiful, from their table. They don't even want you in the same room as that table of luscious delights. They sated and unable to manage another morsel would rather see you starve in sight of that table than give you a seat at it."





And so comes a clear understanding of what Kristol is tasked to do; it is to protect the privilege, both in security from all other classes and wealth, of those who like so many in America have earned none. He calls the Bush administration a success based solely upon the economic success that has been the result in his fetid mind of the Bush tax cuts. Well I must be factual and say that in William Kristol's America the Bush tax cuts have been a roaring success. The waiting lists for the most posh restaurants in New York, Washington and Los Angeles are long and becoming much more exclusionary. The fact that there are two Americas, one for the rich and connected and the other for everyone else has long been acknowledged with silent nods both here in Hell and on Terra. But now the separation in Justice, economics, mating and real property is no longer enough. There are cliques developing within the cliques. This version of rising to the top is much more akin to what corpses do after long periods of time in brackish water than some delectable dairy product bobbing on a sea of fresh whole milk.







As difficult as this will be for members on either side of the political divide in America to accept it will be the whole and unvarnished truth; having money does not make you a better human being, it merely gives you wider berth on matters of law, mating and personal possessions. You, and your progeny, can operate at the cutting edge of the law because you have a certain status within the system where certain crimes will be handled differently if you are notably wealthy or have political power than if you were Joe Average. We can point to examples of this that I am sure Kristol would defend ad nauseum: Scooter Libby, Paris Hilton and the Bush twins noted rough behavior come to mind as well as the miles of Kennedy concerns and the latest from Al Gore's own son.







It is not then that politics, being aligned right or left, is the hand of Shai' tan on the American field of public discourse it is that entre into that field is controlled by elitist gatekeepers. Kristol and those who handle him advocate a strong unilateralist foreign AND domestic policy in America that increases the cash flow of corporations and their elitist masters. Moreover, such intentions do take root in liberal elitist organs as well but currently in the age of the false terror war the voices of conservatives and their actions over the last ten years have colored the opinion of foreign capitals of what's in the average American mind. This is changing rapidly and points to the failure of Kristol's idea that having a Sarkozy government is something other than a French manifestation of the same racism and classism that Americans own up to when Hispanic immigration is mentioned.



Cavalor Epthith
Editor-in-Chief
The Dis Brimstone-Daily Pitchfork
16 1 Leviathan 2 AS