Former presidential candidate Congressman Dennis Kucinich defied Democratic Party leadership by filing Articles of Impeachment against President George W. Bush on June 9. Despite arguments from constitutional scholars and activists that Bush should be charged with many crimes, the Democrats have consistently ruled that impeachment is “off the table”.
View the 48 minute video of the proceedings here.
In November, House leaders killed Kucinich’s resolution to impeach Vice-President Dick Cheney. Now Kucinich returns with 35 articles that outline the litany of crimes committed by the Bush/Cheney administration. They are expected to do the same this time.
Failure to hold Bush and Cheney accountable for their many crimes is a HUGE mistake, by both the Democrats and the Republicans. It demonstrates to the world that there is no respect for the rule of law in the United States. It demonstrates the Democratic Party’s complicity in government policies that have brought the world to the brink of financial chaos and endless war. It sets a dangerous precedent and leaves any new president with the dictatorial powers that Bush and Cheney now possess.
During his campaign this year Barack Obama will tie John McCain to “the failed policies of George W. Bush”. If Bush is so bad, why won’t Obama put his support behind impeachment when the crimes of the president are so egregious? Continue reading
Historians will argue over whether George W. Bush is the worst president the United States has ever endured. But that is not the point. Five years after Bush’s ill-starred invasion of Iraq, three years after Hurricane Katrina and seven months into the unravelling of the U.S. financial system, the point is that the 43rd president of the United States – regardless of his ranking in the pantheon – is a unique and unmitigated disaster.
As I begin this writing, the United States government and its allies are beginning a new phase in the 12-year war against the people of Iraq. This is not a new conflict, for U.S. and British warplanes have been patrolling and bombing that nation for over a decade. The first assault in 1991 severely weakened the Iraqi military. 12-years of sanctions have all but crippled the Iraqi people, and now the second Bush regime is going in for the kill. The goal — to create another colony in Southwest Asia which will provide both an important economic jewel and a crucial strategic outpost for the continued growth of the American empire.
I am deeply saddened by the escalation of this conflict, but I am not surprised. This is merely the growth of the parasitic cancer called Western Imperialism that has been running rampant on this planet for over 600 years. The four nations who lead this fight — Portugal, Spain, Britain and the United States — are the most successful Imperialist powers of the last millennium. This Transatlantic Alliance, as they have dubbed themselves, were not only key figures in the Transatlantic Slave Trade, but between them they have attempted to colonize nearly every corner of every continent. Indigenous people all over the globe have been at war with these empires off and on for nearly 1000 years. Continue reading
This blog from May 2007reposted in light of increasing reports of Republican support for Obama. Not a hater. Just making an observation. – Nadir
The Barack Obama bandwagon is picking up steam. In many circles, the junior senator from Illinois is being compared to John Kennedy. He is young, good looking, charismatic and yes, articulate, providing a resounding echo of the JFK experience.
However, when NeoConservatives start issuing accolades for a Democratic candidate, it’s time to take a closer look. Continue reading
In a packed hearing room on Feb 19th, under a carved wooden sign reading “Live Free or Die”, the New Hampshire House committee of State-Federal Relations and Veterans’ Affairs heard testimony on Representative Betty Hall’s HR 24, which calls on the U.S. Congress to begin impeachment hearings for George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.
What was most notable about the four straight hours of testimony was not that opponents of the resolution could only muster two people willing to testify against it, both Republican stalwarts using selected excerpts from Jefferson’s parliamentary manual or from the bill itself, whose arguments were embarrassingly empty. Continue reading
Man! It’s cold! It’s that bone chilling Michigan cold where the wind whips through you like a chainsaw. By most estimates, it’s the icy temperatures on this frigid February evening that have transformed Ann Arbor’s hottest hip hop night from a steamy, sweaty mass of bodies into a warm, intimate family affair.
Elevation Sundays at The Firefly was founded three years ago by two members of Ann Arbor’s Sky Children hip hop family. Martin “DJ Graffiti” Smith and Jackson Perry of hip hop phenoms Now On approached Susan Chastain, owner of the legendary A2 jazz hang out and asked for a Sunday night spot. Continue reading
In January, the Detroit News reported that Michigan lost 90,000 residents in 2007. This was three times the population loss in 2003, the first year economists identified Michigan’s one state recession.
The city of Detroit has been steadily losing residents for years. Native Detroiters who love the city feel compelled to move in search of better opportunity elsewhere.
This is the first in a series that explores why so many residents who love Detroit feel they must leave Detroit.
Whether you like it or not, Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick IS Hip Hop. The 37 year-old chief executive was famously dubbed “The Hip Hop Mayor†at the beginning of his first term, and while the title was meant as an insult, he embraced the image, and the moniker stuck.
Though he stopped sporting a diamond stud in his left ear during his second mayoral campaign, the former captain of the Florida A&M football team still dons the style and swagger of the hip hop aesthetic. Even the scandals that follow Kwame around like members of his entourage – wild parties with strippers, SUVs, luxury resorts and spas in Cali, infidelity and text messages – seem more akin to the typical lifestyle of a platinum-selling rapper or an NBA All-Star, than it should the mayor of the nation’s 11th largest city.
But Kwame Kilpatrick is Hip Hop. He typifies the young Black man who came of age listening to the sound of the boom bap. As glass ceilings in corporate America begin to open for the men and women who were once called Generation X and those of Generation Y to follow, the nation’s corporate style is changing.
Apple’s Steve Jobs turned heads among the suits over a decade ago by striding confidently through the halls of power in blue jeans and a sport coat. In 2007 former drug dealer Shawn Carter resigned his post as CEO of hip hop’s most storied multi-million dollar brand, Def Jam. For better or worse, Kwame Kilpatrick is the brash, young political leader who has symbolized this shift for the past six years.
Those who have grown up with and love Hip Hop celebrate its triumphs, and are embarrassed by its missteps, and Kwame Kilpatrick is Hip Hop. He is applauded for helping to improve the city’s downtown, for encouraging economic development and working to attract much needed business to the struggling municipality. Beyond the lifestyle scandals, the mayor has been criticized for instituting a $300.00 fee for trash collection in the nation’s second poorest city. He has been accused of providing money for beautification projects in higher income neighborhoods while neglecting less affluent parts of town.
Still it is Kwame’s baller status that makes headlines in a materialistic, hip hop driven media climate. His policy decisions – both good and bad – are overshadowed by his love of bling, money and women.
To his detractors, Kilpatrick represents everything bad about hip hop and everything bad about Detroit. Comments on one message board label the lawyer and former state legislator “a thugâ€Â, “a goonâ€Â, “a street personâ€Â, and “a scum bagâ€Â. He is compared to another infamous figure in hip hop, Death Row Records chief Suge Knight.
Among many of his supporters, however, this pejorative language is nothing more than thinly-veiled racism, or still another dose of anti-Detroit Haterade. The animosity of outsiders adds to the feeling among Detroiters that the city is always being dumped on. “Kwame is one of usâ€Â, they say, and “good or bad, we’ll stand behind our own.â€Â
Kilpatrick matured during his second term as mayor. His attempts to keep his personal life on the down low have been thwarted by a media intent on digging up dirt that can sell newspapers, drive web hits and attract eyeballs in a competitive news environment. The text messages that were leaked to the Detroit Free Press were created during his first term. The aftermath, plotting to cover up a secret settlement with the cops who were fired for investigating his activities and lying about his affairs under oath, show an older, wiser man trying to hide the mistakes of his carefree youth.
This latest Kilpatrick scandal won’t automatically end the mayor’s career as many of his critics hope, but it has added another layer of tarnish to his tailored Teflon suit. Kwame may survive this row because many of his constituents and supporters are hip hop just like he is. The question that remains is: Will the Hip Hop Mayor chill out and stop flossing so much as he matures, or will he continue to live large like the baller he is?
Enjoy! This is funny…not like we haven’t all found ourselves in this situation. I’ve heard MLK the 3rd speak and I had exactly the same reaction only it wasn’t on stage behind the preacher on MLK day.
