Kucinich postpones Bush impeachment effort The Plain Dealer - cleveland.com, OH -
1-29-08
Washington -- After promising to mark President Bush's final
State of the Union speech by introducing articles of impeachment against
Bush...
Bush to Press Congress to Limit Earmarks The Associated Press - 1-29-08
But GOP supporters of earmarks blocked an attempt by
conservatives to impose a unilateral ban on any Republican earmarks.
"Republicans have pulled their
Bush Speech Focuses on War and Taxes New York Times -
1-29-08
WASHINGTON - Facing an unstable economy and an unfinished war, President
Bush used his final State of the Union address Monday night to call for
quick passage of his tax rebate package, patience in Iraq and a modest
concluding
What does it
take to get anyone impeached in this country? Maybe introducing Monica to Bush
might be a good start, it worked last time.
"This week marked the one-year-left point in the
Bush presidency. Folks, I'm with you, but stop cheering. He is still allowed to
touch things. I pray he doesn't have one more giant f--- up in him, because, you
know, he does keep trying. He tried to screw up Social Security, right? He tried
to appoint his cleaning lady to the Supreme Court. He tried to get a war cry
going to attack Iran. It's not like he's going to quit. He's going to be the
worst president ever to the very last minute of the very last day. ... So I'm
still nervous about this last year. I have the same feeling about this last year
of his in office as I have when I'm on the highway and I have to go to the
bathroom and I just passed a sign that says 'Next Rest Stop: 28 miles.'"
--Bill Maher
“The president tonight will say, as he has for the past years, that the state of
the union is strong. But I say, with all due respect, Mr. President, come out on
the road with me.” -
Sen.
Hillary Clinton
"How
many saw the Republican debate last night? Wow! Mitt Romney last night in
Florida played the p---- card against the Clintons. It's only January and he's
not even the candidate. He said the idea of Bill Clinton back in the White House
with nothing to do. Now that is a man who wants to be president. He is telling
the Republican base, 'You know what? These other posers up here with me, they
may have forgotten about the sauce on the blue dress, but I, Ward Cleaver, have
not. I am Mitt Romney, Mormon android and I will say whatever you program me to
say. I will run on a platform of stopping illegal immigrants from having sex
with Bill Clinton until the surge has succeeded.'" --Bill Maher
The president, speaking
about one of his signature programs, urged Congress to continue the No Child
Left Behind Act, saying, "no one can deny its results."
Groundhog Day and the State of the Union address: One involves a meaningless
ritual in which we look to a creature of little intelligence for
prognostication; the other involves a groundhog.
"Have you heard this story?
They're trying to pass a bill now that allows politicians to insist that they be
addressed by gender- neutral titles. Is that really necessary? I mean, don't we
already have gender neutral titles for politicians? 'Crook,' 'liar,'
'adulterer,' 'pinhead,' 'moron,' these are all gender-neutral." --Jay Leno
"The
government is thinking of considering charging every person who enters the
United States a dollar to raise more money for border control agents. You know,
we can't catch people sneaking across the border now. How are you gonna charge
them a dollar? ... I got a better idea, why don't we charge American companies a
buck for every job they send overseas?" --Jay Leno
I wonder
who got Katherine Harris' endorsement?-
Zing!
Email
Subject: Tom
Paine's Birthday
Lisa - the
essay below is in response to Tom Paine's forthcoming birthday. He is, as you
know one of the best and brightest of our American founders, and the one I
really relate to - see Rights of Man and Age of Reason. This is a bit long, so
of course freely excerpt, but maybe just do a shout out for Tom Paine on January
29? He sure deserves it. I wish our current pols would take a page from him.
Best to you, keep on keepin' on, and don't forget to salute the man in the moon!
j
Approximately 1,000 words
Tom Paine's Birthday
On January 29th people working for reform and free thought will celebrate Tom
Paine's birthday around the world. He deserves to be nationally honored in the
post-911 United States.
Tom Paine is a great American who fought for freedom, equality, direct
democracy, and human rights. The Revolution might have failed without him, or
perhaps not even started. He wrote America's first bestseller Common Sense,
taking backroom revolutionary discussion public, and leading directly to the
signing of the Declaration of Independence six months later. He spent two years
in the Colonial Army with Washington, including the brutal winter at Valley
Forge where he wrote The Crisis to talk the starving, freezing army out of
deserting the cause. "These are the times that try men's souls," are among the
most famous words in the American revolutionary liturgy.
"The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from
the service of their country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and
thanks of all men and women."
Paine's words saved the army and the infant nation. Sent to France by Congress
at his own expense to find aid to save America from bankruptcy, he not only got
the aid, but bankrupted himself buying a desperately needed ship and cargo of
muskets, powder and shot, quite literally saving the army and the nascent nation
a second time.
Paine may be the only true revolutionary in our Revolution. His ideals bring
common people together as a community. No one is above the law. Justice and
fairness shall prevail. Everyone gets to vote. He argued for social security,
childcare reform, universal health care, animal cruelty penalties and animal
shelters 225 years ago.
He warned us to watch, guide, and stop the powerful elite if we want humanity in
general to succeed. He proposed the idea that any bill that enriches a
corporation or grants a corporate charter should be enacted in one session of
the legislature, and confirmed in a second, after a vote of the people, to stop
corporate raids on the public treasury. No Bush tax cuts for the filthy rich
need apply.
Paine was made an honorary citizen of France after our Revolution so he could be
elected to the French National Convention and help form their new republic. He
wrote much of the first French constitution and his masterwork The Rights of
Man, both of which still inform the world. He was certain that democracy was
spreading and would soon free all of humanity from tyranny. He was jailed,
instead, by the Terror as too moderate (!) and his health was wrecked. He asked
his old friend Washington for help to get home, but George ignored him to
protect treaty negotiations with England for access to rich West Indies trade.
Tom wrote a bitter letter: Washington was a monarch who ignored honor to
friends, and to allies who helped set America free, instead helping the filthy
barbarians who kept her enslaved for the sake of ungodly profit.
Washington's political party the Federalists was outraged. Tom languished in
prison for Washington's eight-year presidency, and four more because John Adams
carried an old grudge for Paine calling him a would-be king (which he was).
Jefferson finally welcomed Tom home after fifteen years, but trouble was
waiting.
Paine wrote The Age of Reason while in exile to "avoid politics and
controversy," but rejected religion in it: we can just stare at a tree, he says,
and believe in God. Who needs revealed religion? Religionists branded him an
atheist, Federalists recalled his insult to their great hero general president,
and both went "a-howl in the newspapers over the drunken, atheist, radical
Jefferson has let back into the country."
Tom couldn't get a job or a pension. All he wanted was repayment for the money
he gave to the Cause - dollar for dollar - without other reward, but he was
given a small farm in New Rochelle, New York as a poor sop. He retreated to it
in poverty to write letters to the editor and Jefferson, and articles on
controversial topics. When Louisiana petitioned for statehood with the right to
keep slaves, he wrote that admitting slaves to a free and equal society is
unthinkable. Jefferson must send "Pennsylvanians" to teach Louisiana about
democracy; and don't call the state "Louisiana" because it honors a king, and
that insults the republic just won by the people's blood!
He tried to vote for his friend Thomas Jefferson in 1804, but the New Rochelle
election board wouldn't allow it: he was a "French citizen" because of the
honorary citizenship permitting him to serve in the Convention. He spent his
last days in the courts trying to redress this ultimate indignity, but it was
not the final disrespect.
He was refused burial in Quaker ground despite his request because the Quakers
feared someone might immodestly raise a monument to him. He was buried on a
remote corner of his New Rochelle farm, and a visiting Englishman later dug up
his bones, took them to England, stashed them under his bed, and forgot about
them. Upon rediscovery years later, they were sold and parted out all over
England as souvenirs, and the whereabouts of Tom Paine's bones are now unknown.
It begs the question: How frightened of a man do you have to be to want to hide
his very bones?
The township of New Rochelle belatedly reversed itself on the issue of his
citizenship after Tom began to grow in popularity and accreditation during the
threatened nationally self-conscious democracy of the 1930's and '40's. His full
American citizenship was belatedly admitted in 1945. In truth, he's a citizen of
the world. Tom Paine's fierce principled call for human rights and, yes, loving
hearts, still echoes and is still needed. As much now as then, "These are the
times."
If we don't remember Citizen Tom Paine among our founding heroes, we miss the
essence of our great democratic republican experiment: we are rebels as well as
patriots. So on January 29th, please, lift your cup, wherever you are, and toast
a great American, friend to the world, and champion of humanity. Sing out.
"Hurrah!" for Tom Paine.
John Legry
\
Did you have a good time today?
Please kick over a
couple of bucks to All Hat No Cattle
Costa Rica Mail Lisa Casey
APDO 181-5150
Santa Cruz, Guanacaste Province
Costa Rica
Professional wrestler Hulk Hogan was among the VIP guests that played the new
Las Vegas style slot machines at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in Hollywood,
Fla. Monday, Jan. 28,2008. The tribe reached an agreement with the State of
Florida that allows the machines.
Photo/J. Pat Carter
"Lisa, Congrats on your sweep! As George Bush might
have said, 'Lucky me, I hit the trifecta.' Seriously, I'm glad to be able to
salute you and all the great laughs you provide." - Daniel Kurtzman, About.com
Guide to Political Humor.
\
