John Conyers:The State of Our Union

http://johnconyers.com/node/195

Last night we heard President George Bush give his final address to Congress on the State of the Union and really, we didn't hear much. Sure, we heard the usual platitudes about Iraq and the same empty call for bipartisan cooperation that he has repeated for the last seven years. We heart the President ask that his tax cuts for the wealthy be made permanent and for Congress to jam through FISA legislation in the next four days, a move that would almost surely result in immunity for telecom companies.

But what we did not hear from President Bush was anything about the state of the Americans whose lives are affected most by his failed policies. He offered nothing to those who have been hit by the subprime mortgage crisis, or families with two parents each working two or three jobs just to make ends meet. We did not hear about the 47 million Americans without health insurance, or the 10 million children who would have insurance through S-CHIP if the President didn't repeatedly veto the legislation.

Near the end of his speech, the President asked us to "trust the people," and promised that as long as we do so, "our Nation will prosper, our liberty will be secure, and the State of our Union will remain strong." There's a great post on DailyKos about that passage, showing a series of statistics of how many Americans disagree with the President on Iraq, warrantless surveillance and torture. I am also certain that if you asked the millions of Americans in danger of foreclosure, or bankruptcy due to medical bills, or parents with children in failing schools, they would have a very different take on the state of our union than the President. So in that last section of the address, I found a ray of hope--a year from now, we will be addressed by a new President, and I trust that the people will reflect on the hardships and disappointments brought on by the Bush Administration, and that they will elect someone ready to lead the country in a new direction.


State of the Union, Thread 5
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/1/28/221417/005/321/445119

Come on Honorable Representative Conyers. Do the right thing.

...that he's been sitting on H Res 333 (Cheney articles of impeachment) since last April when Kucinich first introduced it. And when it got so old and fragile that it crumbled to dust, Kucinich re-introduced it Nov. 6. Amazingly, it went right back to the bottom of Conyers inbox, where it sits as we speak and will likely remain while Cheney and his marionette run roughshod over the country and the planet.

Judiciary Committee member Robert Wexler is trying like hell to get Conyers' attention, but honest John seems to be trapped under Pelosi's thumb -- ironically, he seems to be the only democrat on the entire hell that she's able to control -- and has so far refused to listen to Wexler, Kucinich, any of the bill's other co-signers or the roaring fury of the majority of the American people.

And the reason this message really pisses me off is this sentence: "So in that last section of the address, I found a ray of hope--a year from now, we will be addressed by a new President..." Fucking hypocrite.

If he had done his job and brought H Res 333 up before the whole committee back in April, started calling witnesses, heard testimony, launched a serious, aggressive investigation not controlled by the white house, told Bushie to fuck off with his claims to executive privilege, stuck an inherent contempt charge on any witnesses who blew off a subpoena, put the evidence together piece by piece and presented an absolutely impenetrable case to the full house, Cheney would have fled to Dubai long ago and Bush would have been run out of town as well.

That way, John and the rest of you useless obstructionists, there's an excellent chance you would have been addressed by a new president last night instead of listening to this sociopathic idiot for the eighth time and pining for 2009.

I have no idea how one of Congress' most tireless and passionate fighters for justice and advocates for everyday people has turned into this lukewarm, compliant shell, sniveling rather than fighting, taking his marching orders from a pretend-speaker who has elevated the cave-in to an art form, and refusing to do exactly what he promised to do if he ever got into the position he now occupies.

I'd sure like to find out what's really going on one of these days, because what I've heard and seen for the past year from the "majority" party is impossible to comprehend without a little context.


wp