Well, folks…surprise, surprise! Markos is headin’ on over to the MSM, via Newsweek.
It was only a matter of time. Here’s his announcement, via Newsweek’s press release:
Kos: “Remember that big announcement I promised earlier? Well, it’s now official.”
Newsweek press release:
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Tuesday, November 13, 2007 MARKOS MOULITSAS, FOUNDER AND PUBLISHER OF DAILYKOS.COM, TO BECOME NEWSWEEK CONTRIBUTOR FOR 2008 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN New York — Markos Moulitsas, the founder and publisher of dailykos.com, will become a Newsweek contributor for the 2008 presidential campaign, offering occasional opinion pieces to the pages of the magazine and to Newsweek.com. "We have always sought to represent a diversity of views in Newsweek, and we think Markos will be a great part of that tradition," said Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham. "He will give our readers in print and online a unique perspective. As always, our job is to create the most energetic and illuminating magazine possible, and Markos will help us do that as the campaign unfolds.
As we used to say in the “‘hood,” “AMF!” (That’s “Adios, My Friend!” Or “Adios…something else!” …Depending on your disposition.)
The citizens of this nation need a good talking-to, not a talking point. It’s time for the citizens to stand up and insist that their elected officials perform their duties as public servants and defendants of the Constitution instead of as tin-plated demigods of political voodoo and power-plays.
Earlier tonight, in light of my posting of a video from 2004, I was encouraged to post some additional information about the video, the artist — anything, actually — just to get the video out in front of people. Here is that post.
IF you believe this is important and that no time should be wasted, then the first person to volunteer below to post it on DailyKos is welcomed to do so. I have used my Daily Diary there already.
The creator of the video is one Alrick Brown; the words were written by Max Skolnik.1 There was even a site that hosted the videos — The Battle for America — but it appears to be going defunct.2 What prompted the creation of such a powerful piece? The failure of our election process in 2004. Alrick explains the project in a brief blurb on his website. Here’s an excerpt, slightly edited and shortened to present here:
A few days after the 2004 election I walked the streets and rode the subways of New York and was amazed at the look of hopelessness on peoples’ faces. They stole another election and then we let them cripple our morale as well. They were winning twice. […snip…] I told him that I would not change or edit his words because whatever passion drove him to write it the way it was should be respected. The purpose of the piece was not to start a movement or a revolution but to inspire those would get up and start the movement, the paper, the website, etc. Max did his job by getting off his ass and writing it. […snip…] Our simple hope was that people would see this, get up and go out there and do something productive and proactive. It is not time to sulk or complain. It is time to stand up.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
– Margaret Mead
[“Snips” denote areas removed from within the text; minor formatting changes were made for the purpose of this excerpt.]
The video is potent. Here it is again:
Please pass it along, and encourage everyone who is disheartened to take heed: the Battle for America has begun in earnest. Get up, stand up, and let your voice be heard.
________________________________
1. From The Battle For America. Directed by Alrick Brown, written by Max Skolnik, produced by Paola Mendoza.
2. The website The Battle for America was created on 04-Dec-04; it expires 04-Dec-07. Unless I miss my hunch, the Battle will be far from over at that time. Let the creators know that you’d like the site maintained. See if funding is an issue and if there are options to help out. Below is the contact information for the site host (courtesy Domain Tools dot com (formerly DNSSTUFF))– drop them an email, too, as courteously as you can. Let them know you heard them, and that we need more people to know that hope is not yet lost.
Registrant:
VR Associates Online LLC
PO Box 194
Colts Neck, New Jersey 07722
United States
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: THEBATTLEFORAMERICA.COM
Created on: 04-Dec-04
Expires on: 04-Dec-07
Last Updated on: 04-Dec-06
Administrative Contact:
Sabatino, Vincent Whois Privacy and Spam Prevention by DomainTools.com
VRX
PO Box 194
Colts Neck, New Jersey 07722
United States
7325919000 Fax — 7329464008
NOTE: The email address provided for the creators comes from the partially defunct site, so may not be valid. Let me know, and if you find a good, working email addy, please add it to comments. Thank you.
The train had slowed down to one hundred and sixty miles per hour for the curve. The noise and the rush of wind were still pretty damn impressive when you were standing in a little cave 5 feet away from it as it was passing though. As soon as the last car had passed he stepped out onto the tracks, right next to his partner. Together they triggered the toggles that would unfold and inflate their parawings. He was now struck by just how many large pointy cacti were on the walls of the canyon…and by how high the canyon walls were…and those sharp looking boulders on the canyon rim over there. Suddenly, he decided that this was perhaps not the best plan that The Center had ever come up with. He gave a quick tug on his harness and bent his knees. Cactus or no, this was gonna hurt.
The filament had been strung across the canyon at the precise height The Center had calculated would be optimal considering the trains quickly but carefully studied design. As it caught just below the protuberance of the trains nose it cut into the metal casing of the nosecone just far enough to embed itself firmly. The filament tore the pitons out of the sandstone wall. The filament had been designed to be nearly invisible, yet incredibly strong and with as much shock absorbing stretch as possible. They would need it. Their harnesses were also made to stretch just to the point where they would not fall out of them.
Standing next to his partner, each with their feet on their own track and precisely parallel to each other with their parawings just overlapping. He heard the spool attached to his harness stop spinning a split second before his body underwent an incredibly massive acceleration. The train rolled on, picking up speed now that it was coming out of the turn. The filament stretched, the harness stretched, the airbags on the back straps of their harnesses inflated and the parawings plucked them nearly straight off the ground and nearly instantly hundreds of feet into the air. Everything, including their muscles and ligaments stretched to their absolute limit …..just before their speed equalized with the speed of the train. The filament unstretched, the harness unstretched, the airbags on the back straps of their harnesses deflated and there they were, flying a few hundred feet off the ground through the Arizona skies with the big red sun sinking over the sandstone mesas behind them, tethered to a train sliding through the desert at 200 miles per hour, pulled by an invisible thread.
The motors on their spools clicked on and started reeling in line. He started breathing again. He now had the opening line for his report.
Ow.
Drawing them inexorably forward and down, the whirring spools reeled them in towards the speeding locomotive. The comm channel reported no alarms from the trains sensors. The first star twinkled above them and a crescent moon peaked its yellow tip above the far distant purpled mountain range ahead of them, in the east.
There is simply no other word that is sufficient, no other theme that is effective. No other cry that will be heard…..Heard by both the populace and the politicians. After long months of thought,I can simply think of no other way to say it.
In a world that has been reduced to soundbites and slogans, in a political world that is based on lies and spin and propaganda, in a world where reason is scoffed at and complexity ignored, where all thought and ideas must be reduced to the lowest common denominator…it is what we have.
Even ‘Throw the Bums Out!’ is too long and confusing for these times.
Nothing else comes close to expressing the anger and frustration that I…and millions of others apparently, feel at this time.
Nothing else expresses the deep level of change that ALL of us can feel in our bones that we need.
We can and we have written, and yelled, and jumped up and down and pointed at the crimes and usurpations and atrocities of the criminals in the White House….to no avail.
We can and we have written, and yelled, and jumped up and down and pointed to the ineffectiveness and unresponsiveness and the resulting de facto collaboration of our Democratic Congress with these criminals….also to no avail.
The plain and simple fact of the matter is this: Our Government has failed us. It no longer is a government of, by, and for The People.
And only The People can fix that.
The politicians and lobbyists ….and candidates…won’t just GIVE it back to us. No one will.
Only The People can fix that.
And for The People to fix it, we must join together.
And to join together we need some common cause for which to fight, a common theme to rally around. A common battle cry to unite us into a single voice. A cry that expresses all of the disgust and outrage at what our government and our country have become.
Impeach! …..
….seems to be it.
So, after a long thought filled absence, I am back on the Impeach bandwagon. I see no other path or plan that has the same power to rally and unite masses of People. And masses of People are exactly what we need to effect change.
.
Throughout the Impeachment debates here on Daily Kos, even the most adamant anti-impeachment folks have pretty much always said they are in favor of impeachment theoretically, they have said they think it is the just and right thing to do in light of the extremes and transgressions that Bushco has gone reached. They just disagree that it is good strategy, if I understand it correctly….they object because they don’t think it will work.
Well, at this point I have to admit…I don’t think it will work either.
I don’t think we will successfully remove Dick Cheney from office. Not anymore. Not with this Congress. Though I always knew it would be a long shot, I honestly thought at the beginning of the new Congress that there was a chance. What was it that changed my mind and prompted me to stop writing Impeach diaries?
FISA.
When the Democrats voted for the first FISA bill so they could leave on vacation, I realized finally and completely that there was no way in hell that they were going to even consider it….even to use it as the bludgeoning threat that the founders intended it to be for an out of control executive. I realized in short, that they had no real intention of opposing Bush in any meaningful way.
And that is still true.
Back then I took very seriously the criticism that people leveled…that promoting impeachment as if it was really going to happen was giving people false hope. I know the power of hope and the power that writing about it can have in peoples lives. So I took it very seriously indeed.
When I realized that the Dems leadership would put live badgers in their pants before they would move to oppose Bush and Cheney, I could not in good conscience continue to write hopefully about impeachment.
To remedy this, to be honest, at this point…I have say to everyone reading this now, Impeachment very probably will NOT happen. I refuse to say or even imply that it will. Though there is still a chance, it would take a miracle, and while I believe in miracles, they are in awfully short supply these days.
Frankly I will be stunned if the Judiciary Committee even opens meaningful investigations….because once they do it will be nearly impossible for them to continue to ignore the evidence that can, lead to only one conclusion. This administration needs to have its crimes thoroughly investigated and be put on trial for them. But if they ever even start to LOOK at that can of worms, they are immediately at a point of no return. The evidence is just too damning.
And hell, they will not even enforce the subpoenas issued for the absolutely MILDEST crimes of Bushco. Let alone open the rotting can of worms of Torture and Rendition and the killing of the 4th Amendment.
And since they have continued to fund, and thus support, the Iraq Occupation…you can forget about them investigating that. It strikes too close to home.
.
So why promote Impeachment if I don’t believe it will happen?
Because it is a way to fight back.
A simple, short, easy to understand concept that has immense power behind it. Both to unite The People…and most importantly….to scare the politicians.
….and will only grow stronger the more exposure it gets. The anger is out there, the frustration is out there…and it is looking for someplace to go.
.
.
The politicians understand on a very visceral level what Impeach means. They know it is shorthand for ‘Throw the Bums Out.’ Anmd they know that they are some of the bums. They know it is a cry for change. And they know that they are part of what needs to change.
It is a cry for change born of the frustration of The People feeling powerless in the face of a system and a government that they have no control over…indeed nothing to do with at all….except as consumers. But we all now that our role as citizens is NOT to consume whatever our system and government shoves down our throats. That is not what we were taught being a citizen means. That is NOT what American democracy is SUPPOSED to be.
There is only one way to ‘save’ democracy in America….and that is for The People to make the politicians more afraid of The People than they are of the Military Industrial Complex and K Street….and George Bush and Dick Cheney. And other than threatening armed revolution, what else is there besides impeachment?
.
In Tucker Carlson’s interview with Dennis Kucinich after Dennis stood up for The Constitution, Tucker uses the phrase ‘overthrowing the government.’ (at about 3:50 in the video below) And like it or not, that IS what needs to happen. As Dennis points out in response, this form of overthrowing the government was specifically and purposefully and with great forethought included in the Constitution by the Founders. Precisely for times like these.
Our system is designed so that when the government is out of control The People have a remedy, a way to take it back, at least a way to rein it in.
ALL of us hope that the government will come to its senses without radical actions being needed, but it is certainly not trending that way! Even the dream of a Dem Supermajority won’t solve all the ills now…we have slid to far down the slippery slope and there are still too many folks in Congress on our side (let alone the Repubs!) who just don’t get it…who don’t understand the level of change that we need to get back on track. It is up to us as citizens to educate them.
The wisest, safest, and LEAST radical thing we can do at this time as citizens is to band together and scare the crap out of….and some sense into…our politicians, our government.
Fully 75% of people polled say we need change. Americans know something is deeply wrong with their country and their government. What they don’t know is how to change it. At Docudharma we are working on a project to produce an agenda for positive change. We hope that we can be a force for change in the future by finding new ways to unite The People around creating new forms and ideas. But in the meantime, we very much need a shock to the current systems in America. We need an unmistakable way to speak up and make ourselves heard.
Last weekend a new Washington Post-ABC News poll found that the Democratic-controlled Congress and Mr. Bush are both roundly despised throughout the land, and that only 24 percent of Americans believe their country is on the right track. That’s almost as low as the United States’ rock-bottom approval ratings in the latest Pew surveys of Pakistan (15 percent) and Turkey (9 percent).
Wrong track is a euphemism. We are a people in clinical depression. Americans know that the ideals that once set our nation apart from the world have been vandalized, and no matter which party they belong to, they do not see a restoration anytime soon.
I for one, am not willing to acquiesce and resign myself to the helplessness implicit in that last statement. I want to fight back dammit! I want to fight to get my government and my country back on track. I have racked my brains for ways to have some effect on the spiraling death slide our nation is going through. To have an effect on the politicians who continuously take the path of least resistance that is taking this country down. I can only think of one. Scaring them out of their bubble. And I can think of only one way to do that, by giving people a vehicle through which to express their discontent in a united way. It will only be by enough of The People standing up and demanding change that it will happen. The only question is how to get them to do that.
43% of all Americans think Cheney should be impeached?
I think I will stand with them …and do some yelling.
We desperately need to unite at least SOME of the country to fight back, we desperately need to scare and pressure our politicians into new ways of thinking and behaving, we desperately need to take America back from those who have stolen it from its citizens…and since we can find no other, the Battle Cry we need to do that is….Impeach!
The Age reports Vital facts ‘deleted’ from UN report on climate change. “A major United Nations report on climate change has been watered down as a result of influence from government officials from countries opposed to taking radical action, conservation group WWF claims… The group fears that the report will play down the need for deep cuts in emissions. The report, which will be released on Saturday, will say that almost a third of the world’s species will face extinction if greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. A draft copy of the report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) also warns that if temperatures rise by more than two degrees – now expected before 2050 – 20 per cent of the world’s population will face a great risk of drought.”
It’s time to memorialize those ignoble “leaders” of nations who fear taking the first step toward responsible actions with a plaque — one per nation — hung prominently in the UN.
I have a rough outline for the plaque:
Feel free to help by filling it in with images of those who are failing us in the face of this growing crisis.
Now, does anyone know how we could get this threat from concept to completion…?
