October 22, 2008 C-SPAN
Financial and credit industry executives testified about credit industry operations, regulatory procedures, and financial mismanagement that influenced credit market turmoil and led to global financial instability. They focused on the role of credit rating agencies, standards for issuing AAA ratings, and the levels of transparency in accounting practices at financial institutions.
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Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich spoke at the Democratic National Convention today and there is little doubt his was the most enthusiastic and hard hitting speech thus far. Dennis always comes armed with truth and facts, and today was no exception.
From illegal wiretapping, Iraq and high gas prices to playing the fear card, he blazed through the laundry list of Bush hackery and crimes and pounded the message home -- Americans to wake up and vote for Barack Obama.
"...Wake up America! The insurance companies took over health care. Wake up America! The pharmaceutical companies took over drug pricing. Wake up America! The speculators took over Wall Street. Wake up America, they want your Social Security. Wake up America, multi-national corporations took over our trade policies, factories are closing, good paying jobs are being lost, wake up America!"
Now that's the spirit! We need to hear more of this during the convention. The American electorate needs a good dose of reality. If this speech doesn't get you fired up, nothing will.
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Flying Spaghetti Monster bless Dennis Kucinich. He's in the middle of an absolutely sisyphean task of trying to make Congress actually do their job -- one that far more Americans support than they did the impeachment of Bill Clinton -- and one that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is frustratingly and blindly ignoring, as evidenced by her stop-me-before-I-throw-something-at-the-screen appearance on The View.
JOY BEHAR: You’ve ruled against impeaching George Bush and Dick Cheney, and now Kucinich is trying to pass that. Why do you insist on not impeaching these people, so that the world and America can really see the crimes that they’ve committed?
REP. NANCY PELOSI: Well, I think that it—I think it was important, when I became Speaker—and it’s, by the way, a very important position—President, Vice President, Speaker of the House—I saw it as my responsibility to try to bring a much divided country together to the extent that we could. I thought that impeachment would be divisive for the country.
In terms of what we wanted—set out to do, we wanted to raise the minimum wage, give the biggest increase in veterans benefits to veterans in the seventy-seven-year history, then pass research for stem cell research, all of that. This week, we’re going to pass equal pay for equal work. It has been a long time in coming—pay equity. We’re going to pass legislations for product safety, for toys that children put in their—there’s an agenda that you have to get done. You have to try to do it in a bipartisan way. The President has to sign it.
If somebody had a crime that the President had committed, that would be a different story.
Have you not been paying fricking attention for the last eight years, Nancy??? What do you mean, IF???? Say it with me now: warrantless wiretapping; waterboarding, lying to Congress and the American people to illegally invade and occupy a sovereign nation that posed no threat to us, firing US Attorneys for not pursuing partisan prosecutions, outing a covert CIA agent. And those were just ones you knew about and did nothing to stop, Pelosi. How dare she play stupid on national television and insult all our intelligence and what this country (once) stood for? How. Dare. She.
So it makes me love the undaunted Kucinich that much more. He appeared on Democracy Now! and tried to spin this in the best way possible.
(T)he reason why the Judiciary Committee should hold a hearing on the impeachment itself is because there needs to be a public airing of this. So, I have a great deal of respect for Speaker Pelosi, and I think that since she made that statement on The View, there's an opportunity now for us to come forward and to lay all the facts out so that she can reconsider her decision not to permit the Judiciary Committee to proceed with a full impeachment hearing.
Give 'em hell, Dennis.
full transcript below the fold
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Ohio Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich spent some 290 minutes on the House floor Monday, reading Articles of Impeachment against President George Bush. Not that you would notice, as there was a virtual media blackout on the story, but Keith Olbermann ran with it right out of the gate on Tuesday's Countdown.
Constitutional Law Professor Jonathan Turley joined Keith to commend Kucinich and his impeachment bill, which is now co-sponsored by Rep. Robert Wexler. While Turley says there are numerous crimes for which Bush could easily be impeached, the President's greatest ally has been the Democratic Congress who have skirted their constitutional duties and consistently given him a pass rather than practice any oversight. It's clear impeachment will remain off the table for the remainder of Bush's term, but as Keith put it, problems like this will never be solved if people like Kucinich and Wexler don't stand up and say something.
Olbermann: "I've often argued here, that even if you don't think the words aren't lead to any actions, say the words anyway, simply to get them on the record for history and simply because, nothing has ever changed from bad to good in this country without somebody first saying, this is bad. Assess the importance of what Dennis Kucinich did last night."
Turley: "You know, it is very important. The fact is, that this is not supposed to happen the way it's happened in the last seven years. The framers, I think, would have been astonished by the absolute passivity, if not the collusion of the Democrats in protecting President Bush from impeachment. I mean, they created a system that was essentially idiot-proof, and God knows we've put that to the test in the past few years, but I don't think they anticipated that so many members of the opposition would stand quietly in the face of clear presidential crimes."
On a side note, major kudos go out to Keith and Countdown for beating BillO for the week in the crucial 25-45 demo!
Cleveland Congressman Dennis Kucinich is dropping out of the Democratic race for president.
Kucinich will make the announcement Friday at a news conference in Cleveland. In an exclusive interview with Plain Dealer editors and reporters, Kucinich said he will explain his "transition" tomorrow.
"I want to continue to serve in Congress," he said.
Kucinich said he will not endorse another Democrat in the primary. Read more...
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Democratic presidential contender Dennis Kucinich takes ABC to task for excluding him from last night's debate. He and wife Elizabeth and their supporters marched outside of the debate forum in protest. WMUR:
Kucinich argued that ABC is violating equal-time provisions by keeping him out of the debate and noted that ABC's parent Walt Disney Co. had contributed to campaigns involving the four Democrats who were invited.
"ABC should not be the first primary," the Ohio congressman said in papers filed at the Federal Communications Commission.
ABC said the candidates left out of the debates failed to meet benchmarks for their support that were outlined to each campaign prior to the Iowa caucus.
WMUR did give Kucinich some airtime to speak to his platform after the debate.
Presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich, has written a letter to his Iowa supporters asking them to support Barack Obama in precincts where he believes he will not be successful:
"I hope Iowans will caucus for me as their first choice this Thursday, because of my singular positions on the war, on health care, and trade. This is an opportunity for people to stand up for themselves. But in those caucus locations where my support doesn't reach the necessary threshold, I strongly encourage all of my supporters to make Barack Obama their second choice. Sen. Obama and I have one thing in common: Change." Read on...
Another endorsement that may have run a bit under the radar -- Ralph Nader is supporting John Edwards in Iowa.
In an 11th hour effort to encourage liberal Iowans to "recognize" Edwards by "giving him a victory," the activist and former presidential contender said in an interview that Clinton will "pander to corporate interest groups" if elected. Read on...
The Kucinich endorsement admittedly caught me by surprise, but should it have? Any time Ralph Nader shows up in a post here at C&L there is usually a great deal of debate about him and his past political career -- but could this signal a new direction for him? What, if anything, does his endorsement do for John Edwards at this stage of the campaign as he tries to win over voters who may still consider him a second choice candidate?
Dennis Kucinich has announced his first pick for running mate, and it is (dramatic pause.....):
Call it the liberal-libertarian ticket, where left meets right and Democrat Dennis Kucinich picks Republican Ron Paul to be his vice president.
Kucinich, the Cleveland congressman running in a longshot bid to become president, suggested it himself today.
"I'm thinking about Ron Paul" as a running mate, Kucinich told a crowd of about 70 supporters at a house party here, one of numerous stops throughout New Hampshire over the Thanksgiving weekend. A Kucinich-Paul administration could bring people together "to balance the energies in this country," Kucinich said.
Here is a quick segment MSNBC did on the news of this hot ticket.
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Up next - Fred Thompson picks Mike Wallace to be his running mate!
Well, really, who among us hasn't?
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AP: Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich questioned President Bush's mental health in light of comments he made about a nuclear Iran precipitating World War III.
"I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health," Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, said in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board on Tuesday. "There's something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact."[..]
"You cannot be a president of the United States who's wanton in his expression of violence," Kucinich said. "There's a lot of people who need care. He might be one of them. If there isn't something wrong with him, then there's something wrong with us. This, to me, is a very serious question."
Discussing Kucinich with the Beaver...No, I'm not making that up. Hilarious. From The 35 Percenters:
(I could never get my screen cap from the video looking anything but blurry--I figured this one of Dennis and Elizabeth Kucinich was much better-NB)
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Stephen Colbert challenged Democratic presidential contender Dennis Kucinich to come on The Colbert Report after a bewildering number of references in news articles and the man himself on what he carries around in his pocket.
Could that final object in his pocket be an endorsement from Colbert?
And the General points out that the congressman has some fascinating competition for his congressional seat.
Tucker Carlson had the chutzpah to insinuate to Dennis Kucinich that meeting with the Syrian leadership was unAmerican and cavorting with the enemy. Nevermind that Congressman Kucinich was checking up on the over 1.5 million Iraqi refugees that our war-based-on-a-lie has placed firmly in the Syrian front yard. One point five million. No other country has taken in more Iraqi refugees, refugees from the direct result of our invasion, than Syria.
Be sure to catch the incredulity of the Syrian interviewer when she asks (at about 7:09)
Q: "So does George Bush actually not see himself as having failed in Iraq? Does he think he has done something right?"
A: [Obviously straining at choosing just the right words] "I would expect that... he probably believes... that he is doing the right thing."
Kudos, Mr. Kucinich, for reining in your desire to yell, "Well duh! The Preznit's a borderline dominionist neocon, what do you expect?" The congressman gives a nice slap to Halliburton in this one, too.
No one is arguing that online polls are scientific, accurate, or fair. But then don't put them up on your website. (click for full size)
Candidates seem to think its a good idea to let their supporters have loose cannons "blogs within blogs" at their campaign websites. No one paid by Edwards put this poll on his website. Then again, no one paid me to post the results here, either. Hint for so-called Democratic frontrunners, ABC dot com, and anyone doing a survey of how actual voters feel about actual issues. Looks like Kucinich supporters could show you how to use this new "email" technology. It seems to be rather effective.
Say what you want about Kucinich, his supporters have video talent and a sense of humor. If you know of anyone else doing these kind of videos for another Democrat, please let us know in comments. Thanks.
