BuzzFlash Mailbag for November 16, 2007

BUZZFLASH MAILBAG

Want to join the conversation? Share your thoughts with other Mailbag readers by clicking here.

Subject: "Congress Is Not Doing Anything"

It's not true that "Congress is not doing anything." If we make people understand that we have a few courageous Congressman led by Kucinich who have been fighting to get our country back, maybe media will start giving Kucinich more speaking time. We have to stop and think how we talk. Change from "Congress is not doing anything" to "we have a few courageous men in the Congress" who are really fighting for people and to uphold the Constitution.

Doesn't Kucinich count? Make him count by changing the way of talking. Help him get recognized, and get more speaking time!!! Remember "sound" is what brings the response.

Hidechan

[BuzzFlash Note: Good point, in line with the kind of advice our friends at Rockridge Institute provide. Check out Ask Rockridge: Responding to Conservative Name-Calling, This Week by George Lakoff -- A BuzzFlash Exclusive Monday Feature.]

---

Subject: Regarding: History Lessons, and Impeachment

Theodore Lowi is a professor of American Institutions at Cornell University and author of several books including "The End of Liberalism."

http://falcon.arts.cornell.edu/Govt/faculty/Lowi.html

He said Thursday:

"Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Judiciary Chair John Conyers and the vast majority of Democrats in Congress are making a grave Constitutional error by keeping impeachment off the table. Impeachment does not mean removal. It means putting the accused before the bar of judgment. Clinton was impeached but not removed.

"Impeachment can be a method of achieving a modicum of balance between the branches of government. The Bush administration has totally thrown that balance off. Some of the same individuals who helped impeach Clinton, reducing the power of the executive then, are now backing the notion of a 'unitary executive.' We are moving beyond the 'imperial president' to what Clinton Rossiter warned us of in 1948: 'Constitutional dictatorship.'

"The Congressional 'power of the purse' has effectively been destroyed. Bush dominates because he has set the terms of discourse. The Democratic leadership has lost control of the budget in the face of the discourse of 'supporting our troops.'"

http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease...

A BuzzFlash Reader

---

Subject: Inappropriate Article

I really enjoy BuzzFlash.com and have contributed money in the past. To my astonishment, I saw the caption for an article which promised to explain why pre-teens having sex did not result in increased violence later on -- all things being equal. What a bizarre and reprehensible assertion! Of course, all things are never equal and young kids having sex is a disaster for all involved!! Why waste the time of BuzzFlash.com readers with such garbage?!

Please stick with articles which address issues of real concern to this country and the world!

Christine Amini
Aspen, Colorado

[BuzzFlash Note: Thanks for your support and for writing. The Washington Post ran two articles about that study refuting an earlier right-wing think tank study claiming early teen sex increased the likelihood of teens to be involved in violence. The WaPo articles include today's Early Sexual Activity May Curb Teen Delinquency and Sunday's Study Debunks Theory On Teen Sex, Delinquency: New Analyses Challenging Many Old Assumptions. We're not advocating early or later sex, just advocating knowing what the available research is. Science together with values can help shape decent public policy.]

---

Subject: Mailbag ... 11/15/07

Thanks to Genie and Tom Coombs. I agree ... and am happy that both of you found BuzzFlash around the time that I did. It is my prime source ... The reason I will not miss Olbermann ... is that he provides me with the laugh once in a while that picks me up. I hate what this country does to us today ... it is so depressing, I can hardly stand it. On top of that, I have a family situation that would depress 'Carrot top' ... so, I laugh at a lot of things Buzz provides ... but, Keith is funny when he gets Bill O'Reilly (or Orally) which was a joke from the start with him ... and he corrects one of these dimwits ... it is a bit of a pick up from my day.

His 'Best' and' Worst' people are my favorites. Would you believe that he had himself in the "Worse" category one night? Don't ask me what it was ... I have forgotten ... but it is usually Bill O'Reilly ... Sean Hannity ... 'Comedian' Rush Limbaugh ... (they are the ones who stand out) or the blonde (acid tongued, adam's apple) ... or the one who started his show ...trying to use the G that Garth Brooks had a patent on and had to stop ... he gets him quite often too ... but, the way he has of telling these folks they are wrong, or telling them why ... is very funny.

Thanks to both of you!! I enjoy both of your posts, too. Is it grand that Buzz gives us all the ability to agree or disagree on things?

Shirley ... St. Louis (St. Louie Woman)

---

Subject: Yes, we know the 2008 race is important. But U.S. Catholic bishops say that voters' souls and eternal salvation are at stake. Yikes!! That's pressure. 11/15

I don't know whether to shout "LOL," "Disgusting" or "Outrageous" as these pedophiles and suborners of pedophilia patently smash through the wall separating church and state.

"proclaiming a sense of new energy and empowerment ... issu[ing] instructions to Catholic voters that their eternal salvation could be at stake when they cast ballots."

Who the hell are these mitar-hatted anus suckers to

"emphasize that voters must consider the church's teachings on abortion and other moral issues when they select a candidate for the White House or any other office. If they don't...it's not clergy who will judge them but God."?? Oh, Larry Craig, give me some guidance! As Keith Olbermann would cry, these are "worser" and "worst:" the ones, just like their supporters in the White House, who tolerate, if not support, the rape of minors and then do everything they can to hide it. And now they proclaim their political agenda by declaring to their abused laity that "...the kinds of laws and policies supported by public officials affect their spiritual well-being."

In its breathless unconstitutionality, have any of you heard anything more outrageously anti-American in years?

"[To] implore [voters] not to support abortion-rights political candidates but also advised that views on abortion should not be the sole factor. Catholics should also weigh church teaching on such moral issues as immigration, just war and poverty"

enumerates a priority of misery--hardly "The Challenge of Peace." So, how does this provide

"some concrete guidance in how a voter goes about making prudential judgments"?

And what about prosecuting child sex offenders?

"The statement [aka voting guidelines]...reflects the bishops' frustrations [sic] with pro-choice Democratic politicians and Republican leaders who focus solely on ending abortion."

If the "moral authority" of these black-collared baboons can't leave the things that are Caesar's to Caesar, it's time to call the IRS!

It gets "worser" by "calling for a responsible transition in Iraq." Hey, your eminences, what is it about the word "illegal war;" "war of aggression" that you don't understand?

"The morally and politically demanding but carefully limited goal of responsible transition should aim to reduce further loss of life and address the humanitarian crisis in Iraq, the refugee crisis in the region, the need to help rebuild the country and human rights, especially religious freedom."

Excuse me, but the Iraq disaster was caused by your nation's selected, fascist, unitary, and so-called "pro-life" leader lying to the country and no one else!

"Fighting back from financial woes caused by the abuse crisis, the conference reorganized last year, resulting in a more collaborative process to develop such statements. They debated the statement publicly for the first time."

Obviously, the punitive damages awarded to the victims of the Roman Catholic Church just wasn't enough to keep it from going unconstitutional.

"Catholics" should 'consider the religious roots of current conflicts overseas.'"

Sure, and that's why the US invaded Baathist Iraq.

"The people who coalition forces are fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq and a dozen other locales are not the poor and oppressed seeking to throw off their chains[.] They are jihadist fanatics who believe they are doing God's will."

Takes one to know one. It's just that the "jihadists" got designated "illegal enemy combatants" and had any existing international rights illegally removed. Naturally, that stopped terrorist recruitment worldwide. So much for getting "to the guts of the moral and conscience formation." Just can't wait for the

"extra boost when [ex-Hitler Youth and anti-aircraft gunner of Nazi slave-labor plant] Pope Benedict XVI, visits the United States in April, the peak of primary season."

"If the statement [voting guidelines] had been more stern and more clear, ... it would impact the behavior of voters as well as the politicians they have to choose from" [said the director of the conservative Catholic Citizens of Illinois. Likewise, the executive director of Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good, chimed in,] "[t]he key is what people hear from their pastor and get in the pews."

Indeed, that's the spiritual authoritarian power that the Enlightenment Founding Fathers attempted to curb with the First Amendment! Yet the Catholic Clergy continues expert at diocese-wide conspiracies to sully and defile a captive, meditative and spiritually vulnerable audience with political and legal abuse?

Will Wyche
Palm Springs, CA

---

Subject: California Vote Split

If the republicans can try to split the electoral vote in California with a referendum, why can't the Democrats try to do the same thing in Florida, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia ...?

Lee Hirz
Kensington, Maryland

---

Subject: We're Not Worthy!!

Dear BuzzFlash:

In my continued reports from the field, so to speak, I heard a caller on a local call-in show lambasting another regular caller who doesn't like George W. Bush. Being primarily Republican territory here, most Bush twits get irate but never offer an intelligent counterpoint. It's all just name calling or telling the host this individual shouldn't be allowed to call. And these are the same ones who wave that freedom flag high. Irony is lost on these idiots.

Case in point: in a recent diatribe against Democrats, this caller, who sounded suspiciously like he was reading a prepared script (imagine that) said that liberals actually know deep in their hearts that conservatives are right about everything - the war, economy and, get this - we supposedly know Bush didn't lie to get us into a war for oil. He concluded that the right were "Christians." I guess anybody left of George is a heathen.

So woe is me. Apparently I admire these bastions of all that makes America great from afar because I simply don't have what it takes to be a conservative, and am not worthy of claiming as much. I guess this means that a) I'm not easily duped by loudmouth right-wing shills, b) I do not condemn those who disagree with me to Hell, c) I'm capable of formulating my own views without having a minimum of six hours a day of conditioning, and d) I am educated and well read enough to express my views without a teleprompter, with any word over two syllables spelled out phonetically.

Got news for you, you hate-filled gullible morons: I have the guts to believe as I want to believe and say so. If I were a conservative, I would not hesitate to say so, to you or anybody else. I do not admire you, I do not agree with your views about Bush or your nutty world view, and I'm just as qualified to sit on a white fluffy cloud as you are. I imagine Limbaugh and Hannity are probably behind this latest tripe - their audiences are not capable of thinking anything up for themselves, so they just repeat everything like a mynah bird, who can pronounce words and phrases brilliantly, yet has no comprehension of what he's saying.

Scott
Fayetteville, AR

---

Subject: It's Not About You, It's About The Constitution!

This is an open letter to Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, John Conyers, the entire Judiciary Committee and the U.S. Congress.

This is not about YOU! WE THE PEOPLE don't care that you're trying to protect your own political careers, because that's really what it boils down to, your SURVIVAL and that of your party!

This isn't what this is all about. It's the survival of our Constitution and Democracy, as we know it. How come the American people seem to have a better understanding about this Constitution and you the elected officials haven't a clue?

Have you any idea how many Conservative Republicans from the Goldwater, Nixon and Reagan eras have been on talk show after talk show, as well as on the radio, telling us that we need IMPEACHMENT AND NOW?

Bruce Fein, a constitutional lawyer and an associate deputy attorney general under Reagan, says we must impeach Bush and Cheney. See Bill Moyers Journal July 13, 2007 "Tough Talk on Impeachment" video.

www.democrats.com 11-11-07 "Bruce Fein On Impeachment" video (real news network)

Victor Gold, who was Barry Goldwater's speech writer and he also co-authored a book with Lynn Cheney. He wants Bush and Cheney impeached.

See Bill Moyers Journal June 29, 2007 Victor Gold. video

John Dean former White House legal counsel to Richard Nixon, thinks both Bush and Cheney must be impeached.

Paul Craig Roberts, assistant secretary of the treasury under Reagan, wants impeachment. See Paul Craig Roberts July 16, 2007 "Impeach Now!"

These men are true Republicans, those who are in Washington, are Republicans in name only! A true Republican or Democrat would not allow our Constitution to be shredded the way it has been by this administration.

If the Congress truly CARED about our country and our Constitution, there would be NO partisanship. The Congress would be a united front fighting the enemy of our Constitution. Both parties would be fighting this administration tooth and nail, trying to preserve our Democracy.

Pelosi and Reid are trying to insure a Democratic victory in 2008. If I were them, I wouldn't count on it. One scenario could be, we're all so disgusted with the Democrats for not impeaching, no Democrat goes to vote and the Republicans get back in (Hitler got elected with only 36% of the vote).

By not standing up for our Constitution, they will destroy our two party system. We'll only be left with a dictatorship, courtesy of the Democrats!

By standing on the sidelines and watching our freedoms destroyed, you are as guilty as GEORGE BUSH AND DICK CHENEY. You should be hounded from office for what you're NOT doing! Our Founding Father's provided us with impeachment, as a way to protect our Constitution. Nancy, by taking impeachment off the table, YOU are DENYING us that due process.

There are men and women in our military dying, being permanently injured and thousands more Iraqi's killed, while you WAIT out Bush's fourteen months left in office. How can you be FOR THE TROOPS, when you use them as pawns for your own political gains?

Since you are keeping this ILLEGAL WAR going until the 2008 elections, maybe some of YOUR family members could rotate in and give some of our soldiers a break from a third or fourth rotation in Iraq? Remember it's ONLY for fourteen months!

Why not let Congress (both houses) send their spouses, sons, daughters, daughter-in-laws, son-in-laws, nieces, nephews, grandsons, granddaughters, brother-in-laws, sister-in-laws, cousins, aunts, uncles, step-children, and even a mother or father (if you're a young Congressmen or Senator).

The age range that the military will take is from 18-50 years of age. Yes, a woman soldier who died in Afghanistan was fifty-two years old!

If you're all in favor of "staying the course," "can't leave without winning" or "wait until the 2008 election" mantra, then by all means let YOUR loved ones put their lives on the line for OUR country.

Nancy, are you sure, if it were YOUR family members being deployed, IMPEACHMENT would be off the table?

We must demand that these lawmakers in Congress and the Senate understand that they've been sent to Washington by the PEOPLE to uphold their oath of office and PROTECT OUR CONSTITUTION and not THEIR POLITICAL PARTIES! It's the Constitution stupid!

Until the people take to the streets, like they did during the French Revolution, maybe then and only then, will our elected officials in Washington understand, that this country belongs to WE THE PEOPLE and not to any political party, lobbyist group or corporation!

David Swanson has two videos on impeachment, both are very good. www.democrats.com 11-10-07 "Ventura Caifornia"

www.democrats.com 11-9-07 "Cheney Impeachment It's Coming" (on the real news network)

IMPEACH! IMPEACH! IMPEACH!

Markmyword
Chicago, Illinois

---

Subject: Democratic Debate

So if Hillary showed up the best, seeing how she was given more time than Kucinich ... her vote for the Iraq war still rankles me as does her vote on the IRAN Revolutionary Guard being a terrorist organization ... is it one? Will this declaration be an additional justification for Cheney/Bush to nuke Iran?

I thought that Dodd, Biden and Richardson scored points equal to that of Obama and Edwards.

Karen Boerboom
Vietnam Era Vet, USAF, 1965-1970
Platteville, WI

---

Subject: Flux

Buzz,

It happens to be my 27th birthday today, and as is the norm, I sat down to contemplate life a little. I wrote the following:

A gurgling brook seems to represent the mind
humming in the background
pleasant at times
till a flood comes along
the noise as loud as a crescendo

Obliterating any semblance of peace
drowning out all that is rationale
an avalanche of thoughts
bursting in a single moment
leading to an impulsive decision

there are few who have not drowned
swept away to an ocean of uncertainty and regret
sans reason, sans a paddle
adrift in tumultuous waters
but perhaps it is better to drift

than lay anchor in the unchanging past

I've made some bad choices in the past, and I have tried to move on. Whether I have succeeded or not, time will tell. As my dad told me tonight, that I have come to realize and accept the fact that I have made mistakes, and am willing to rectify them. I wish Hillary would come to that realization as well ... I believe your readers are smart enough to follow my train of thought here.

Akhil Bhardwaj
Phoenix, AZ

[BuzzFlash Note: For the Mailbaggers, let me say we wish you a fine birthday and many more. Good to have you among us.]

---

Subject: RE: Antimicrobial soaps (or, A consumer alert?)

This is a little off topic from the normal BuzzFlash coverage of political stuff, but after seeing this headline on BuzzFlash:

Those antimicrobial soaps may be doing more harm than good since bacteria just becomes tougher; Some experts say risks outweigh benefits 11/1

I thought I might point out the fact that many toothpastes and other household products now have the same antimicrobial agent in them that is in these soaps. The agent is triclosan. So, read the ingredient list on the package to be sure.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triclosan
http://mikethemadbiologist.blogspot.com/2005/04/...
http://www.dioxinfacts.org/dioxin_health/dioxin...

Triclosan reacts with the chlorine in water to form chloroform (although amounts produced are reported to be lower than the levels of chloroform often present in ordinary tap water) and is converted to dioxin via reaction to ultraviolet sunlight.

As a consumer, no one has a better motivation to look out for your best interests than you. Always use your own best judgment, and that can't happen unless you have the facts.

A BuzzFlash Reader

---

Subject: It's a bad sign for Bush when his approval rating falls in Alabama 11/16

Yeah, but what about when it starts dropping in Texas? (Anyone have any TX polling numbers?)

Jeff
West Paterson, NJ

---

Subject: "The Game"

BuzzFlash,

John Roberts did what he called a "Post Game Interview" with Clinton after the Democratic debate on Thursday. What honesty, calling it a game! That's exactly how MSM pundits treat politics. Spending endless hours trying to predict how many points ahead each party or candidate will be from one week to the next. But never spending any time explaining what the game is about and how it affects us and millions of other people around the world. Any wonder presidents can invade countries that most Americans couldn't find on a map? Any wonder a coup could take place twice, Iran-Contra under Reagan and the Imperiai presidency of GW Bush?

The soft-on-torture liberal 

---

Subject: NM Rep Heather Wilson Should Apologize and Wake Up to The Truth

Dear Buzz;

Congresswoman Heather Wilson stated that "Sen. Schumer only wants to fund pay, body armor and chow for the troops if he can put conditions on the money so that they cannot do the mission they have been ordered to do," said Wilson, R-N.M. Nov. 16th

Unfortunately the cat is out of the bag. Just about everyone in the world knows about our government's 'fixing' of the intelligence to send us to war. FLASH: Where are the WMDs the Bush Adminstration whipped us into fear about (itself a terrorist act of national fear mongering)? Perhaps a dose of the truth that the job our young men and women have been 'ordered' to do is fight a war that was based on scaring us with falsehoods might help her live in reality. Why would anyone continue to support the failed mission of a corrupt President and VP with the worst approval ratings in history?

There is no honor in this fiasco known as the Iraq invasion and occupation that has resulted in the deaths of over one million Iraqis many of them innocent civilians. Since when does supporting the troops require the support of an illegal war that was waged in defiance of international law and common decency? How have we strayed so far?

Perhaps New Mexico Congresswoman Wilson should consider how horrible a tragedy it is to kill and be killed for the false witness of Dick Cheney before she asks anyone to apologize for trying to end this war crime.

Truthiness Must Pervail!

Kreed Kalhoun
Dummerstown, West Virginia

---

Subject: Top Ten Pet Peeves Of Bigfoot

Top Ten Pet Peeves of Bigfoot

* That cave no-call list doesn't work

* Bird hunting accident, hell...a drunken Dick Cheney shot me in the face too

* Often confused with that really tall guy from "Whose Line Is It Anyway"

* Those darned voting machines - not sure if my Florida "Gore" vote was counted

* Osama bin Laden has given backwater cave dwelling a bad name

* I'm starting to shed due to Global Warming and my carpet vacuum's broken

* The "Teddy Yeti" doll from Mattel...made in China...lead paint...but was my family informed about the recall?

* In early 2003, even I knew there was no WMD in Iraq so who's more primitive and isolated, me or George W. Bush?

* Never free Tibet...because my Yeti mother-in-law lives there

* Always mistakenly asked by Fox News programmers to appear on TV in support of the wrong species genome, those dumb Neanderthal pundits on the far right

cbs.com/latenight/lateshow/top_ten/contest...

James Scott
Everett, WA

---

Subject:The LA Eight

"What was that about?"

"Demonizing."

"Why them?"

"They were out front in calling for justice for the Palestinian people."

"Downstream twenty years now, how come their exoneration?"

"Because demonizing them had served its purpose."

"Which was?"

"Priming us for war."

Charges dropped against last of 'Los Angeles Eight' (SF Gate)

A BuzzFlash Reader 

The opinions expressed in the Mailbag are not necessarily those of BuzzFlash. You can write to Mailbag at http://www.BuzzFlash.com/contact/mail.html. Guidelines for submissions are at BuzzFlash FAQ #18.

BUZZFLASH MAILBAG