Hey, Will. Was reading some of Linda's stuff & "saw" you on her page. I agree w. your sentiment about term limit! Interesting PBS show recently on "Bill Moyers' Journal" about holding a new Constitutional Convention, something I'd started looking into.
The "impeach Cheney first" crowd (and last April, Kucinich's H.Res.333) address the "don't want Cheney to be Prez conundrum.
BTW, Linda, as you may know by now--Kucinich says he HAS written a resolution impeaching Bush.
I agree, Will, that theoretically the House *could* do both. But IF we ever get impeachment hearings of one it WILL implicate the other.
Pls. check out http://PledgeToImpeach.ORG
At 5:35pm on December 18th, 2007, Will Nesbit said…
I'm for voting out ALL incumbents and make the terms shorter. No more lobbyists at ALL. They all go, along with the former senators who now work for them at the tune of 7 figures a year. And cheney would be pres. if we impeached ole bush. We would have to start another impeachment right after each other. We should be able to impeach both at the same time, since they both are in the actions that would be that of a King. Which is how I understand the qualifications for an impeachment. Two with one blow, now that would be a good step in the right direction. Then we just threaten the congressmen with the same fate for them if they don't start representing the people over the special interests. That's one way to shake them up?! In India I heard they do it a little different. You are appointed a temp. seat as a social duty. (like jury duty) You are given a crash course on legislation processes (6 months I think). Then you are sworn in as a representitive for a term of I think 6 mos to a year. Not bad huh? It's one of the only true Democracies in the world. Everyone thinks the US is a Democracy. It's not, it's a Federal Republic from the similar 'Roman Empire' government of old. And who really believes India is more Democratic than us??!! Maybe they don't want to believe it!!!?
Thanks for the info on China.......
I'm not big on Ron Paul. Impeachster unclescam has the lowdown on him. I like Kucinich, but I think he speaks out because it's safe for him to do so. He wants to impeach Cheney -- well, why not Bush? Bush is the man who is legally responsible, and tho' he be Cheney's minion, the law says HE is accountable for the executive branch. He's the decider, so why not impeach him? I don't trust any of them any more.
I don't know WHAT in hell happened to Congress. I used to teach the Constitution to immigrants and international students, and it made me proud to teach the Bill of Rights, even tho' acknowledging it was an ideal. Now, I wouldn't even know what to say...what I used to say isn't true anymore. The ideal seems to be "quaint" in Cheney's phrase, non-operative, just old ink, useless.
I also used to teach the balance of power: I'd say that each branch jealously protects its own powers, which leads to power struggles sometimes as each defended its bailiwick, but that that's how it was SUPPOSED to work, as no one branch could overthrow another. But now, Congress doesn't.
Now Congress says it is powerless. Maybe they are bought off by corporate executive branch defenders, or just plain bought out.
They certainly are defending what looks like bribes and corruption as part of their job, no longer even pretend otherwise. They say it would be IMPOSSIBLE to function without all these lobbyist handouts. Really? Then why not change that, instead of letting it go on? They don't want to, that's why. Corruption works nicely for them, and they just want us to accept that.
Maybe they are just ignorant. Too much TV, too much campaigning, not enough reading.
Maybe they are being blackmailed -- face it, they probably all have s'thing to hide and the republicans in partic' have been ruthless in digging dirt.
Maybe they feel personally threatened. What happened to Valerie Plame was ugly -- who wants their family, wives, husbands, children, dragged into the limelight and ridiculed, at the mercy of people who will use government spies to discredit you and them for political reasons? Rove considered
Wilson's wife "fair game" and was protected and allowed to resign 'honorably' while her career was destroyed. That might give anyone pause before challenging His Highness.
As House Speaker, Pelosi has lots of power to crush legislators plans to help their own districts. All of the power really. She says, rock the boat and forget about funding for your home project, it will never reach the floor. She has obviously, and not secretly, used this power to frighten legislators into silence. They will not receive party support in the elections if they don't toe the line, and their constituents back home won't get a piece of the pie. Why is she blocking all talk of impeachment, except for pre-planned things like Wexler's little game, letting us believe we are being heard by someone in a party that has gone deaf? I don't know, and I no longer care. My understanding and desire to believe in their integrity reached its limit months ago.
I want them all out.
I know lots of Republicans feel the same about their party. No integrity, no principles. Boot them all out. Or start a new party.
Hmm China, big place...if you come while I'm here (through June) I can put you up when you arrive if you land in Beijing, but you probably want to see other places, like the ones I haven't had time to see yet.
I gather there are places of great natural beauty. Szechuan province comes highly recommended to me for that, as do several other southern provinces.
One area is said to be the birthplace of all flowers and is warm. I like warm.
In most places, you don't need much money once you're here. If you don't speak Chinese (like me, sadly), you might want to stay near places where there are larger numbers of people who speak English. But those don't necessarily have to be giant cities. It has more to do with whether there's a university nearby, or where foreign visitors (of any nationality) go. In such areas, people will approach you just to speak English, or maybe have their picture taken with a westerner. Very friendly, kindly, and intensely curious about the west (western world), with no compunction about peppering you with questions that aren't always so easy to answer.
I'm loving it myself. If you want to see the famous terra cotta soldiers ( a life size army buried in the tomb of an emperor) that's in the middle. The northern part is really cold right now, and some provinces require special visas. That can involve a lot of red tape (as in any bureaucracy), so you might save that for an adventure when you have lots of time. If you want to spend time in the countryside, various shots are recommended. Incidentally, for medicine, Chinese traditional medicine clinics and pharmacies and modern clinics are both available.
The southern provinces are rich in ethnic minorities with their own cultures. Where I am, the Han majority dominate.
Also, even if you do speak Chinese, there are different dialects and accents that are not mutually intelligible, so if you want to pick up some Chinese before you come, it might help to know where you plan to be mostly and try to learn some phrases in that one.
I find that even a little Chinese helps. I know color names, hello, goodbye, thank you, and am learning to count ( to ten). Also random words like water, tomorrow, and ashtray. Sheesh! But it helps! Really!
People are pleased even if you can only say hello!
(Ni hao!). A Chinese-English dictionary, or even a picture dictionary would help. Pinyin is Chinese written in our alphabet, but it doesn't help much with pronunciation as Chinese is tonal, so the same spelling might have four meanings, depending on the inflection. Some electronic dictionaries "speak".
Drawing pictures goes a long way. One problem I have with learning is people want to show me the Chinese characters too, which is totally overwhelming. I can't even remember the pronunciation, let alone the characters that at first seemed to require a microscope to see all the little marks.
Anyhow, if you let me know your main interests, I can find out more. The students are mainly from other provinces and each is enthusiastic about his or her own and happily tell me all about it. i spend hours with them, just yakking. They're great!
It is more challenging, adventurous, and often more dangerous, to promote compassion. We are all hypocrites at times, and there can be errors and moral dilemmas --and survival dilemmas, as it can be a materially impoverishing for it's followers -- but overall, being philosophically compassionate and trying to adhere to the philosophy is far more difficult than to stoutly defend a self-serving credo. It's easier to say that God or the universe or nature wants me to have cheap gas, wants me to prosper, wants me to feel avenged, wants me to get all the breaks, wants me to have more than others. All it requires is wanting something and then creating a diety in your own image or supporting a ruler who promises to indulge your selfishness. There is really no sacrifice, challenge, moral dilemma, self-doubt, or deep thought involved. It's easy! There is no need to share, to swallow your pride, to temper your anger, to try to understand others , to make hard decisions, to be tolerant of those who are philosophically opposed, All you have to do is think like a two-year old.
This is may be human nature. But so is altruism. Witness New Orleans. Even as the government failed, individuals wept and many went there in person, and continue to go there and stay there, trying to help out. Each person and every society demonstrates this in one way or another. It is also human nature (and maybe animal nature) to try to save others -- or want to -- when we see them in danger, in need or suffering when we could help.
Individual people act on this impulse every day. Some are a flash in the media pan -- the man in NYC who dove onto the subway tracks in front of an approaching train to save a young woman as his small daughter looked on, the Amish community who refused to hate or demand vengeance when a man murdered their children and teachers. But these people are around us every day, these choices are made each day, by people all over the world. Some are called "heros"(always over the objections of the heros themselves) and regarded as exceptional. It's easier to promote them as exceptional than to believe we could or would or actually do act so compassionately ourselves. Our own daily acts of kindness are not glamorous, not exceptional enough to be media worthy. Compassion is cheapened by pretending it's rare!
Bad politicians appeal to the two-year old in us all: they exhort us react to our selfishness or our fears, offering instant gratification.
Great leaders, and worthy dieties, appeal to the angels of our better nature, ask us to do what is difficult, to sacrifice our desires and luxuries and even our personal safety and lives, to overcome our fear, to sacrifice for an abstract, not concrete, greater good -- a better future in years to come instead of a better hour.
Compassion is more interesting than self-gratification. It is not so rare, but it is richer, more complex and at times much harder to act on.
I'm not religious, but while I'm alive, I want to do something interesting and less easy. I also think the world will go on after I'm dead, so I want to give in to my compassionate nature and try to keep life, animal and human, as free of suffering and loss as I can, and to promote compassionate ideals for those who come after, so that when there is suffering, there is help.
It's just more challenging than selfism, so in that way, my philosophy is selfishly gratifying, but I believe it won't harm others (except by depriving some of some luxuries) and my even lighten the load of others.
And I think it it is human nature, not rare, just treated as such, because treating compassion as rare suits those who might be asked to share, risk, sacrifice, lose personal or political power or wealth.
There's not much danger of my saving the world or having my ideals prevail. I just want to break even to keep some balance in the world.
Apart from their impeachable crimes, Bush and Cheney seem incapable of compassion, and worse,
they despise it and seek to crush and discredit its legitimacy wherever and whenever it appears to threaten their own two-year-old-mentality delusions of grandeur selfish plans. And they have the power to crush compassiona and to sabotage and destroy the good works of compassionate people. That is my philosophical reason, as opposed to my legal/political reasons, for opposing their power.
If we stop speaking out, if we stop believing compassion can prevail, if we grow too tired and frustrated to propmote our ideals, our ideals will be weakened and lost for a long time to come. Now is the time to speak up. Tomorrow will be too late.
Thank you and thanks to all the idealists here and everywhere.
At 10:01pm on September 30th, 2007, Victoria W. said…
Here is hoping you drop in again.
We need all the concerned people we can find to turn around this ship ... into a heading we can all be proud of.
Right now it is Dennis Kucinich who is making me feel proud to be an American again, and proud to be a Democrat!
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The "impeach Cheney first" crowd (and last April, Kucinich's H.Res.333) address the "don't want Cheney to be Prez conundrum.
BTW, Linda, as you may know by now--Kucinich says he HAS written a resolution impeaching Bush.
I agree, Will, that theoretically the House *could* do both. But IF we ever get impeachment hearings of one it WILL implicate the other.
Pls. check out http://PledgeToImpeach.ORG
Thanks for the info on China.......
I don't know WHAT in hell happened to Congress. I used to teach the Constitution to immigrants and international students, and it made me proud to teach the Bill of Rights, even tho' acknowledging it was an ideal. Now, I wouldn't even know what to say...what I used to say isn't true anymore. The ideal seems to be "quaint" in Cheney's phrase, non-operative, just old ink, useless.
I also used to teach the balance of power: I'd say that each branch jealously protects its own powers, which leads to power struggles sometimes as each defended its bailiwick, but that that's how it was SUPPOSED to work, as no one branch could overthrow another. But now, Congress doesn't.
Now Congress says it is powerless. Maybe they are bought off by corporate executive branch defenders, or just plain bought out.
They certainly are defending what looks like bribes and corruption as part of their job, no longer even pretend otherwise. They say it would be IMPOSSIBLE to function without all these lobbyist handouts. Really? Then why not change that, instead of letting it go on? They don't want to, that's why. Corruption works nicely for them, and they just want us to accept that.
Maybe they are just ignorant. Too much TV, too much campaigning, not enough reading.
Maybe they are being blackmailed -- face it, they probably all have s'thing to hide and the republicans in partic' have been ruthless in digging dirt.
Maybe they feel personally threatened. What happened to Valerie Plame was ugly -- who wants their family, wives, husbands, children, dragged into the limelight and ridiculed, at the mercy of people who will use government spies to discredit you and them for political reasons? Rove considered
Wilson's wife "fair game" and was protected and allowed to resign 'honorably' while her career was destroyed. That might give anyone pause before challenging His Highness.
As House Speaker, Pelosi has lots of power to crush legislators plans to help their own districts. All of the power really. She says, rock the boat and forget about funding for your home project, it will never reach the floor. She has obviously, and not secretly, used this power to frighten legislators into silence. They will not receive party support in the elections if they don't toe the line, and their constituents back home won't get a piece of the pie. Why is she blocking all talk of impeachment, except for pre-planned things like Wexler's little game, letting us believe we are being heard by someone in a party that has gone deaf? I don't know, and I no longer care. My understanding and desire to believe in their integrity reached its limit months ago.
I want them all out.
I know lots of Republicans feel the same about their party. No integrity, no principles. Boot them all out. Or start a new party.
Hmm China, big place...if you come while I'm here (through June) I can put you up when you arrive if you land in Beijing, but you probably want to see other places, like the ones I haven't had time to see yet.
I gather there are places of great natural beauty. Szechuan province comes highly recommended to me for that, as do several other southern provinces.
One area is said to be the birthplace of all flowers and is warm. I like warm.
In most places, you don't need much money once you're here. If you don't speak Chinese (like me, sadly), you might want to stay near places where there are larger numbers of people who speak English. But those don't necessarily have to be giant cities. It has more to do with whether there's a university nearby, or where foreign visitors (of any nationality) go. In such areas, people will approach you just to speak English, or maybe have their picture taken with a westerner. Very friendly, kindly, and intensely curious about the west (western world), with no compunction about peppering you with questions that aren't always so easy to answer.
I'm loving it myself. If you want to see the famous terra cotta soldiers ( a life size army buried in the tomb of an emperor) that's in the middle. The northern part is really cold right now, and some provinces require special visas. That can involve a lot of red tape (as in any bureaucracy), so you might save that for an adventure when you have lots of time. If you want to spend time in the countryside, various shots are recommended. Incidentally, for medicine, Chinese traditional medicine clinics and pharmacies and modern clinics are both available.
The southern provinces are rich in ethnic minorities with their own cultures. Where I am, the Han majority dominate.
Also, even if you do speak Chinese, there are different dialects and accents that are not mutually intelligible, so if you want to pick up some Chinese before you come, it might help to know where you plan to be mostly and try to learn some phrases in that one.
I find that even a little Chinese helps. I know color names, hello, goodbye, thank you, and am learning to count ( to ten). Also random words like water, tomorrow, and ashtray. Sheesh! But it helps! Really!
People are pleased even if you can only say hello!
(Ni hao!). A Chinese-English dictionary, or even a picture dictionary would help. Pinyin is Chinese written in our alphabet, but it doesn't help much with pronunciation as Chinese is tonal, so the same spelling might have four meanings, depending on the inflection. Some electronic dictionaries "speak".
Drawing pictures goes a long way. One problem I have with learning is people want to show me the Chinese characters too, which is totally overwhelming. I can't even remember the pronunciation, let alone the characters that at first seemed to require a microscope to see all the little marks.
Anyhow, if you let me know your main interests, I can find out more. The students are mainly from other provinces and each is enthusiastic about his or her own and happily tell me all about it. i spend hours with them, just yakking. They're great!
This is may be human nature. But so is altruism. Witness New Orleans. Even as the government failed, individuals wept and many went there in person, and continue to go there and stay there, trying to help out. Each person and every society demonstrates this in one way or another. It is also human nature (and maybe animal nature) to try to save others -- or want to -- when we see them in danger, in need or suffering when we could help.
Individual people act on this impulse every day. Some are a flash in the media pan -- the man in NYC who dove onto the subway tracks in front of an approaching train to save a young woman as his small daughter looked on, the Amish community who refused to hate or demand vengeance when a man murdered their children and teachers. But these people are around us every day, these choices are made each day, by people all over the world. Some are called "heros"(always over the objections of the heros themselves) and regarded as exceptional. It's easier to promote them as exceptional than to believe we could or would or actually do act so compassionately ourselves. Our own daily acts of kindness are not glamorous, not exceptional enough to be media worthy. Compassion is cheapened by pretending it's rare!
Bad politicians appeal to the two-year old in us all: they exhort us react to our selfishness or our fears, offering instant gratification.
Great leaders, and worthy dieties, appeal to the angels of our better nature, ask us to do what is difficult, to sacrifice our desires and luxuries and even our personal safety and lives, to overcome our fear, to sacrifice for an abstract, not concrete, greater good -- a better future in years to come instead of a better hour.
Compassion is more interesting than self-gratification. It is not so rare, but it is richer, more complex and at times much harder to act on.
I'm not religious, but while I'm alive, I want to do something interesting and less easy. I also think the world will go on after I'm dead, so I want to give in to my compassionate nature and try to keep life, animal and human, as free of suffering and loss as I can, and to promote compassionate ideals for those who come after, so that when there is suffering, there is help.
It's just more challenging than selfism, so in that way, my philosophy is selfishly gratifying, but I believe it won't harm others (except by depriving some of some luxuries) and my even lighten the load of others.
And I think it it is human nature, not rare, just treated as such, because treating compassion as rare suits those who might be asked to share, risk, sacrifice, lose personal or political power or wealth.
There's not much danger of my saving the world or having my ideals prevail. I just want to break even to keep some balance in the world.
Apart from their impeachable crimes, Bush and Cheney seem incapable of compassion, and worse,
they despise it and seek to crush and discredit its legitimacy wherever and whenever it appears to threaten their own two-year-old-mentality delusions of grandeur selfish plans. And they have the power to crush compassiona and to sabotage and destroy the good works of compassionate people. That is my philosophical reason, as opposed to my legal/political reasons, for opposing their power.
If we stop speaking out, if we stop believing compassion can prevail, if we grow too tired and frustrated to propmote our ideals, our ideals will be weakened and lost for a long time to come. Now is the time to speak up. Tomorrow will be too late.
Thank you and thanks to all the idealists here and everywhere.
We need all the concerned people we can find to turn around this ship ... into a heading we can all be proud of.
Right now it is Dennis Kucinich who is making me feel proud to be an American again, and proud to be a Democrat!