Breaking news (poll included: long entry)

[ritaxis]

So for some reason the nice fellow has had CNN on since I've been home from work. You know the crawl at the bottom of the screen, with the breaking news? Well, sometimes it's sports scores, but anyway. All night they've had great big letters "Breaking News: Obama and Clinton to speak together tomorrow in Unity, New Hampshire," which is notable but not breaking news since it was announced days ago and despite the media's best efforts to the contrary, these two have been all about forging party unity and winning this election -- yes, they said mean things about each other in the course of struggling for who would get the nomination, but that was partly because there were a few real issues being hammered out in those speeches and partly because each of them really wanted that nomination. Oh, yeah, also: "breaking news" is that Obama's going to help CLinton pay off her campaign debt. That's interesting, of course, but it's not top-of-the-front=page, 50-point banner headline news.

On the other hand I never read or heard about the latest in impeachment news. I wonder why?



DearLucy:

Knowingof your interest in making the Bush Administration accountable for its actions, I wanted to let you knowthat I voted with Rep. Dennis Kucinich to bring impeachment charges against the president. That voteoccurred on June 11, 2008 and passed the House by a vote of 251-166.

Iam a cosponsor of this current resolution, H.Res. 1258, against the president. You may be aware thatRep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) previously introduced H.Res. 333 calling for impeachment proceedings againstVice President Cheney. I am a cosponsor of that resolution as well.

Impeachmentproceedings may be commenced in the House of Representatives by a Member declaring a charge of impeachmenton his or her own initiative, by a Member presenting a memorial listing charges under oath, or by a Memberdepositing a resolution in the hopper, which is then referred to the appropriate committee.

Ifeel strongly that President Bush has mislead the country and done so knowingly. His actions in my opinionhave not been those of an upright public servant. He has been instrumental in entangling the UnitedStates in a war that has no clear exit strategy and has damaged this nation's standing among the worldcommunity.

Thoughthis impeachment effort still has a way to go, we have taken a big step. I will continue to work torestore integrity in our government and bring transparency to our federal policies. I appreciate yourinput to this debate and your dedication to good government.

Sincerely,

SAMFARR

Memberof Congress


[Poll #1211822]

Comments

[brooksmoses]

None of your polls have the answers I want! :)

I believe I heard about this, because a few people posted about it. (This is how I get virtually all of my news -- from friends, rather than "directly" from news-media.) What I had heard was that it was referred to the relevant committee, which is virtually certain to sit on it until it rots; I'm not sure how the vote relates to that, though I'm pretty sure that that was the vote to refer it to the relevant committee rather than discarding it.

Something political that I was meaning to ask you about, though -- a few weeks ago, I had a door-to-door caller wanting me to donate to a political action group called Clean Water Action. They seemed pretty reasonable and likely to actually support views that agreed with mine, but I said that I'd go read their website before committing on the spot. Have you heard of them, and are they actually worth supporting?

[ritaxis.livejournal.com]

I haven't heard of them, which isn't necessarily a condemnation, but I would definitely check them out first as there have been a lot of people posing as the opposite of what they are lately.

Yeah, I ran out of option slots before I stopped thinking of options.

As for the other: I had heard the committee thing too, but Sam Farr's letter doesn't say "we referred it to a committee," it says "we voted to impeach." It's too late to do the research I need to do tonight, though.

[mjlayman.livejournal.com]

He's inaccurate. It went to committee where it will die the slow death of all other unwanted resolutions.

[randwolf.livejournal.com]

The House didn't actually vote to impeach; it voted to consider impeachment. The resolution is now in the Judiciary Committee, alongside Wexler's resolution to impeach Cheney, where it probably will go nowhere. A resolution going into committee really isn't news, though--a lot of bills go in & never come out; I don't think we can entirely fault the media for this one.