WATCH VIDEO BY JONATHAN DEMME: WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU FLUSH?

MOST MEDIA IGNORES KUCINICH IMPEACHMENT CHALLENGE
BBC: BILLIONS STOLEN IN IRAQ, US BULLIES BAGHDAD
GOVERNMENT AGENCIES MADE HOUSING CRISIS WORSE

Yesterday, I led this blog with a report on the articles of impeachment that Rep Dennis Kucinich introduced into the Congress of the United States. It appears as if he now has one co-sponsor in Democrat Robert Wexler of Florida. The House has to act after 72 hours.

Reported David Swanson on Tuesday night: “The Impeachment Resolution sponsored by Congressman Dennis Kucinich will be read into the Record by the Clerk of the House, tonight, beginning at approximately 7:15-7:30 pm. The required reading of the 35 Articles of Impeachment is expected to take up to 5 hours. Congressman Kucinich will be on the floor of the House during the reading. At the conclusion of the reading, Congressman Kucinich will rise and make a motion that the Impeachment Resolution be referred to committee. If a vote occurs on the matter it will be postponed until tomorrow.”

What has happened since?

First, it appears that the Congressman’s website has been mysteriously disabled.

Second, it appears that our free press didn’t seem to think his action was news fit to print, much less worthy of coverage on TV. The major media didn’t exactly give Kucinich fair coverage when he ran for the presidential nomination and that pattern continues. Some just dismiss the impeachment idea because they believw/expect Bush will be out soon. Dave Griscom looked for coverage and found very little:

Here is his run-down:

Perfunctory mention by the Associated Press:

A short article cogently arguing that just one of Rep. Dennis Kucinich’s 35 counts is more than sufficient imperative for impeaching George W. Bush:

A check of the “mainstream media” reveals little or no reporting of Kucinich’s resolution:

A partial transcript and some video clips of Kucinich’s reading on the House floor can be found here.

Again, here’s the link to the MSNBC poll to vote on impeachment. It was 9 to 1 in favor with nearly 600,000 responders when last I looked. NOW is the time to run the number into the millions!

HIP-HOPPER AND RADIO PERSONALITY DAVEY D COMMENTING ON THE LACK OF PRESS COVERAGE

“I would also make it a point to call the news assignment desks of every media outlet you know and ask them to cover this issue. Some should go so far as to invite yourselves onto the show or editorial pages…since many of us just got back from the Media Reform Conference.. Here’s why we need reform.”

As of Tuesday morning, there was more pickup with Google reporting 51 stories. There were also criticisms starting to emerge in part because Bush will be out of office by year’s end. This one attacks Michael Moore for supporting impeachment. Others say that there is plenty of time for this Administration to cause more damage.


DEBORAH EMIN ON KUCINICH’S IMPEACHMENT COMPLAINT

Bush’s response to Katrinia is the baisis for one impeachment article. Compare Bush’s response to Katrinia to China’s response to the recent earthquake.

Here’s one observer’s report on Reuter’s Alertnet from the quake zone –where the “quake lake” problem by the way has been contained:

If disaster relief were an Olympic sport, China would take the gold medal.

Entire towns of pre-fabricated homes have been erected for victims, complete with shops and restaurants. The city of Beichuan was completely reduced to rubble in one minute. Beichuan’s survivors are now living comfortably in government camps and being cared for by streams of volunteers from all over China. Every other person is wearing an “I love China” t-shirt, some with the Olympic rings printed on the back.

(HE ADDS)

But due to the scale of the disaster there are many smaller villages in more remote areas that have received little or no assistance. Our organisation, Operation Blessing, has been working since day one to deliver relief good to villages in the quake zone. Staff from our Chengdu office have good connections in the area and we have been alerted to some villages deep in the mountains that were obliterated and in urgent need.

WHAT CAN THE PUBLIC DO?

I received this call to action by calling for action:

speak to your Representative and tell him/her to SUPPORT Representative Dennis Kucinich’s efforts on Impeachment and again to Representative Kucinich’s office to thank him for his noble efforts in upholding our Constitution. The Founding Fathers of the United States would be quite proud of this brave man.

It is time that the legs to the Impeachment table were glued back on. I don’t give a damm what kind glue they choose, as long as we can put end this Orwellian horror show and begin to work our way out of this contrived morass which is ruining America.

OTHER NEWS: NEW THREATS AGAINST IRAN

Iran’s Press TV reports: Israel has reportedly started to set up an ‘Iran Command’ within its air force as part of preparations for a possible war against Iran.

A former State Department official and daughter of Dick Cheney says Iran ‘will face military action’ if it does not halt its nuclear work.

Steve from COA sends this video over: Cheney wants Regime Change Across the Midle East

GARETH PORTER REPORTED ON ALTERNET YESTERDAY MORNING:

WASHINGTON - Pentagon officials firmly opposed a proposal by Vice President Dick Cheney last summer for airstrikes against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) bases by insisting that the administration would have to make clear decisions about how far the United States would go in escalating the conflict with Iran, according to a former George W Bush administration official.

J Scott Carpenter, who was then deputy assistant secretary of state in the State Department’s Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs, recalled in an interview that senior Defense Department (DoD) officials and the Joint Chiefs used the escalation issue as the main argument against the Cheney proposal.

McClatchy newspapers reported last August that Cheney had proposal several weeks earlier “launching airstrikes at suspected training camps in Iran”, citing two officials involved in Iran policy.

According to Carpenter, who is now at the Washington Institute on Near East Policy, a strongly pro-Israel think-tank, Pentagon officials argued that no decision should be made about the limited airstrike on Iran without a thorough discussion of the sequence of events that would follow an Iranian retaliation for such an attack. Carpenter said the DoD officials insisted that the Bush administration had to make “a policy decision about how far the administration would go - what would happen after the Iranians would go after our folks”.

BBC EXPOSES MASSIVE CORRUPTION IN IRAQ

A BBC investigation estimates that around $23bn (£11.75bn) may have been lost, stolen or just not properly accounted for in Iraq.

For the first time, the extent to which some private contractors have profited from the conflict and rebuilding has been researched by the BBC’s Panorama using US and Iraqi government sources.

A US gagging order is preventing discussion of the allegations.
The order applies to 70 court cases against some of the top US companies.

VIA UNDERNEWS: BUSH HOLDING IRAQ FUNDS HOSTAGE UNLESS IT AGREES TO BECOMING A COLONY OF U.S.

PATRICK COCKBURN, INDEPENDENT, UK The US is holding hostage some $50bn of Iraq’s money in the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to pressure the Iraqi government into signing an agreement seen by many Iraqis as prolonging the US occupation indefinitely, according to information leaked to The Independent.

US negotiators are using the existence of $20bn in outstanding court judgments against Iraq in the US, to pressure their Iraqi counterparts into accepting the terms of the military deal, details of which were reported for the first time in this newspaper.

M&G: Push for UN monitors in Zimbabwe

The United States and European Union plan a joint call for United Nations monitors to be sent to Zimbabwe after a human rights group alleged systematic government murder and brutality. “We urge the United Nations … to send a team immediately to monitor human rights and to deter further abuses,” said the final draft of a communiqué.