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Beginning of the End.
Apathy is not cool. Political apathy is even less cool. Yes, being indifferent and saying you don't give a damn might be easier, but this is your world. Either be part of the process that decides how it's run or -- there is no 'or'. Because you live here, you are subject to its laws, and you need to be part of the process that decides how you will live your life.
The other option is just letting yourself be herded and exploited, and as a free human being, that is not what you are meant for.
This journal is going to have a lot of public, political entries that urge you to sign petitions or fill out pre-written e-mail forms and send them off. I know it already does, but instead of just telling you what's going on, I'm now going to start telling you what you can do about it. To the people that don't live in the US, I'm sorry your flists are going to be clogged up with US politics, but let's face it, the US has an unprecedented level of impact on the rest of the world -- if the US is rotting, you can bet that other countries are being infected too.
Today's cause is Bush's Contempt of Congress, and how he urges his staff to defy Congress as well.
Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, outright skipped a House Judiciary Committee hearing because they'd ordered her to testify about her role in the months-old U.S. Attorney mess. Likewise, Josh Bolton who is the current Chief of Staff, disobeyed a subpoena when he refused to give up White House documents that Congress had demanded by law. Bush, in the meantime, is the one who ordered them to do so and is trying to claim "executive privilege" so that the public won't have to know what he's doing in the White House.
This is wrong.
We have a right to know what he's doing. We have a right to know what his staff are doing.
And perhaps most importantly, we need to know that President Bush can be held accountable for his actions. The American people should be the jury, but apart from that, Congress needs to be respected. Bush cannot be allowed to run America any old way he feels like that; we have a system of checks and balances for a reason, and that reason is that America doesn't need a President with ultimate power -- or "executive power" -- over the whole country.
Sign the petition to have Congress fight executive privilege. Miers and Bolton have to be held in contempt. If this was a court, any judge would hold them in contempt for withholding evidence and refusing to show up. There is no reason for them to get special treatment just because Bush is scared that the truth will come out.
Sign the petition. Take a stand. Care. Do something!
Edit: YES! Citations! There IS justice in this world!
The other option is just letting yourself be herded and exploited, and as a free human being, that is not what you are meant for.
This journal is going to have a lot of public, political entries that urge you to sign petitions or fill out pre-written e-mail forms and send them off. I know it already does, but instead of just telling you what's going on, I'm now going to start telling you what you can do about it. To the people that don't live in the US, I'm sorry your flists are going to be clogged up with US politics, but let's face it, the US has an unprecedented level of impact on the rest of the world -- if the US is rotting, you can bet that other countries are being infected too.
Today's cause is Bush's Contempt of Congress, and how he urges his staff to defy Congress as well.
Harriet Miers, the former White House counsel, outright skipped a House Judiciary Committee hearing because they'd ordered her to testify about her role in the months-old U.S. Attorney mess. Likewise, Josh Bolton who is the current Chief of Staff, disobeyed a subpoena when he refused to give up White House documents that Congress had demanded by law. Bush, in the meantime, is the one who ordered them to do so and is trying to claim "executive privilege" so that the public won't have to know what he's doing in the White House.
This is wrong.
We have a right to know what he's doing. We have a right to know what his staff are doing.
And perhaps most importantly, we need to know that President Bush can be held accountable for his actions. The American people should be the jury, but apart from that, Congress needs to be respected. Bush cannot be allowed to run America any old way he feels like that; we have a system of checks and balances for a reason, and that reason is that America doesn't need a President with ultimate power -- or "executive power" -- over the whole country.
Sign the petition to have Congress fight executive privilege. Miers and Bolton have to be held in contempt. If this was a court, any judge would hold them in contempt for withholding evidence and refusing to show up. There is no reason for them to get special treatment just because Bush is scared that the truth will come out.
Sign the petition. Take a stand. Care. Do something!
Edit: YES! Citations! There IS justice in this world!
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Talk to you if/when you crop up on gmail.
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"The squeaky wheel gets all the grease." Quotation from a Peanuts cartoon, oddly enough, but it's stuck in my head.
If a lot of people sign petitions, then the numbers are counted. Democracy is supposed to be about the people running the government; it's our votes on the line, so if we sign petitions, then we're making it clear that this is an issue that matters to us and will sway how we vote. Even if they don't care who we are, they probably still count the votes and use that to decide where a country is.
Passing out shiny buttons is great. Glaring at the television, well, at least you have an opinion. Signing petitions or sending e-mails is something that makes it very easy for senators, representatives, the people who come up with statistics for the news or whomever to see what the figures are. 5K signatures? Okay, that's five thousand angry Americans from whatever state. Probably deserve some attention. 50K? More likely to get their cause pushed through.
Calling them would be even better but let's face it, journal entries nagging people to call their representatives would get ignored. With petitions, there's a better chance that people will click it, sign it, and thus make themselves heard.