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Today Karl Rove refused to comply to a subpoena from the House Judiciary Committee to testify about his involvement in the political prosecution of ex-Alabama Governor Don Siegelman. Rove’s invocation of executive privilege was quickly rejected by the Committee. The question now is whether the Committee will hold Rove in contempt of Congress.
In our last post, Mr. Siegelman stated unequivocally on video that Karl Rove directed his political prosecution and he urged everyone to contact their Congress Members to demand that Mr. Rove be held in contempt.
This is a guy who has told Congress that he will not show up under subpoena unless he is not sworn to tell the truth, unless he has the questions in advance, and unless he is assured that nobody is writing down his answers. Now does that sound like somebody who's prepared to tell the truth?
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We won't know the truth until Congress digs it out, and that's why it is so incredibly important that anybody that reads your blog or listens to it or watches it gets on the phone, gets on their computer, or writes Congress and tells them to hold Karl Rove in contempt if he does not show up to testify on July 10th.
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[H]e needs to be held in contempt, needs to be arrested, needs to be brought in and made to sit before Congress and answer questions.”
Our YouTube videos of Mr. Siegelman and are getting thousands of views. We now have a new streaming 20-minute interview of Mr. Siegelman with tons of new powerful information including allegations that his last election for Governor was electronically manipulated—flipped—by GOP partisans directed by Karl Rove. Watch that video here.
For members of the media, we have high resolution footage of our Don Siegelman interview available for broadcast.
VR spent several hours with Ex Alabama Governor Don Siegelman recently discussing his political persecution at the direction of Karl Rove and his minions. We will have the complete interview posted tomorrow but we wanted you to hear what he has to say about Rove’s refusal to testify under subpoena by the House Judiciary Committee. We have two short YouTube videos where Siegelman emphatically asks everyone contact their Congress Members and demand that Rove be held in contempt.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=aVOEsipQy1g
http://youtube.com/watch?v=NsWS6SVyf6A
Rove has been subpoenaed to testify on July 10th but his attorney last week informed the Judiciary Committee that he will not comply. Siegelman wants you to let Congress know that Rove must face the consequences of his actions. Please contact your Congress Members -- 202 224-3121 or www.house.gov.
VR and many of our supporters are very concerned about global warming and the environment. In supporting the research, development and extensive use of green technology that will better the environment and help prevent global warming, we want to recognize former President Jimmy Carter as a visionary leader of renewable energy.
THE MORAL EQUIVALENT OF WAR
Thirty years ago, President Carter cautioned us about dependence on foreign oil and provided a plan to lead us on the path to energy independence. He declared the "moral equivalent of war" on our energy crisis and
- Installed solar power panels on the White House.
- Created tax breaks for people who installed solar panels on their homes.
- Installed a wood burning stove in the White House living quarters.
- Signed into law November 1978, the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act, PURPA, providing favorable terms to entrepreneurial companies that produced electricity from solar cells, wind turbines, and other renewable (i.e., non-fossil-fuel) resources.
- Sought tax credits to spur individuals and businesses to insulate their homes, stores, and factories, thus reducing energy use.
- Established tax incentives for Gasahol (now called ethanol).
- Created the Energy Department and provided substantial funding dedicated to the research and development of "green technologies" such as solar and wind turbines; as well as coal, nuclear, and domestic sources of oil and oil shale with the goal of making America energy independent.
- Proposed a bold and sweeping $142 billion energy plan, with 113 parts, which would achieve energy independence by 1990.
- Set a goal of obtaining a fifth of America's needs from renewable energy by the turn of the century.
- He lobbied for acceptance of a tax on gasoline--rising to 50 cents a gallon--if consumption did not decline as mandated, as well as a tax on "gas guzzler" cars.
- Made speeches urging energy conservation and independence.
On July 15, 1979 President Carter said:
“Our excessive dependence on OPEC has already taken a tremendous toll on our economy and our people.... This intolerable dependence on foreign oil threatens our economic independence and the very security of our nation.
Point One: I am tonight setting a clear goal for the energy policy of the United States. Beginning this moment, this nation will never use more foreign oil than we did in 1977– never. From now on, every new addition to our demand for energy will be met from our own production and our own conservation. The generation-long growth in our dependence on foreign oil will be stopped dead in its tracks right now and then reversed as we move through the 1980s, for I am tonight setting the further goal of cutting our dependence on foreign oil by one-half by the end of the next decade — a saving of over four and a half million barrels of imported oil per day.
Point two: To ensure that we meet these targets, I will use my presidential authority to set import quotas. I’m announcing tonight that for 1979 and 1980, I will forbid the entry into this country of one drop of foreign oil more than these goals allow. These quotas will ensure a reduction in imports even below the ambitious levels we set at the recent Tokyo summit.
Point three: To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation’s history to develop America’s own alternative sources of fuel — from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun."
THE SOLAR PANELS
In 1979, to set a good example and spur the development of solar and other forms of renewable or "green" technology, President Carter had 32 solar panels installed on the West Wing of the White House. These panels were visible from Pennsylvania Avenue to show a commitment to clean energy development. They were dedicated in a Rose Garden ceremony on June 20, 1979. These 32 solar thermal collectors heated the water for the "Mess" in the White House and remained on the White House for seven years. In 1986, they were removed for roof repairs, and never reinstalled.
These solar panels ended up on the campus of Unity College in Maine. In 1992, Unity College's development officer Peter Marbach tracked them down to a warehouse in Virginia, and requested they be donated to the school on permenant "loan.” Sixteen of the panels were then refurbished and restored, using funds from donations. One of the leading donors was the actress Glenn Close. These 16 panels were then installed on the school's cafeteria, and heated the water for the school's cafeteria for some 12 years, and the rest were put into storage. Unity college, like President Carter, practices energy conservation and renewable energy development. In 2004, after the 16 panels wore out and stopped functioning, Unity kept them on the cafeteria roof as a symbol to inspire the development of renewable energy. VR salutes Unity College’s commitment to renewable energy.
DOCUMENTARY: "A ROAD NOT TAKEN"
Being historical artifacts, Unity College decided to donate two of the panels in storage to museums for posterity. One panel was selected to be given to the Jimmy Carter Presidential Library and Museum in Georgia, and one for the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC. Two Unity College students, Sara Trunzo and Jason Reynolds, drove down in a Dodge Ram pickup, converted to run on vegetable oil, delivering one panel to the Smithsonian, and one panel to the Carter Museum and Library in Atlanta, Georgia.
This journey was documented in a film by Swiss directors Roman Keller and Christina Hemauer called, "A Road Not Taken". The film made its debut at the Maine International Film Festival, and is truly a documentary worth seeing. www.miff.org Here are some highlight clips from this documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gQSAlO277o If you can help with national distribution of this film, please contact: Shannon Haines: info@miff.org
THE JIMMY CARTER LIBRARY AND MUSEUM
One of the panels is now on display at the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum in Atlanta, Georgia. This exhibit is a testament to President Carter's vision toward renewable technology.
The White House no longer employs solar panels. We urge the next President to renew a commitment to renewable energy and to provide incentives and funding for the development of these technologies.
This time, let's make sure that it is a road taken.
Today, Barack Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe said that the Obama campaign plans to think outside the box and play offense and overwhelm the opposition by competing across the nation with massive voter drives. Our question to you Mr. Plouffe is what are you going to do to prevent a manipulation of the electronic vote counting and tabulation results? It is well established that the last several elections have been gamed by electronic machines and tabulators, most with no paper ballot or audit provision.
Mr. Plouffe, if you add a million new voters, the vote counting apparatus can make those disappear either by deleting votes, flipping votes or adding votes. If you really intend to think outside the box, you need to aggressively address the certainty of vote manipulation. Give us a call if you want to know how it is done and what to do to stop it.
The continent of Africa is reeling from despots, corruption, war and terrorism. The presence of the US and other Western countries in the region seems to be directly related to oil and the protection of Israel rather than democracy and human rights.
The latest example of this is the sham election in Zimbabwe where the opposition won the election several months ago but was forced into a runoff by the dictator Mugabe, who then launched into a spasm of killing and terror so horrible that the winner of the election was forced to stop campaigning. So where is Bush and the West on this? Well, talking to the UN Security Council and making denunciations but it is all a charade. http://www.zimbabwesituation.com
But the real question is where is Barack Obama? Why hasn’t he used his bully pulpit as presidential candidate and African-American to push this issue front and center on the international stage. This is his test to show leadership and support democracy and free and fair elections.
Velvet Revolution is proud to announce that VR co-founder Brad Friedman of The BRAD BLOG (along with Election Protection Strike Force blogger Steve Heller) was consulted by the office of Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) prior to his filing of Articles of Impeachment against George W. Bush. Brad was asked to submit material as used in Article 28, "Tampering with Free and Fair Elections" and Article 29, "Conspiracy to Violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965." The entire resolution has been posted here in both HTML and PDF format. We urge one and all to sign the petition of support for Rep. Kucinich and impeachment at Democrats.com.
Today, Representative Dennis Kucinich introduced a 35 count resolution of impeachment against George Bush. http://chun.afterdowningstreet.org/amomentoftruth.pdf VR has been urging this action for years with our Impeachmobile, our partnership with AfterDowningStreet.org, our many ads, and our positions. We have worked with Rep. Kucinich on various issues such as the NH recount, the investigation of the stolen elections and other corruption by the Bush Administration. We congratulate him for taking this courageous stand for truth and the rule of law.
Well, another former White House loyalist has broken ranks with George Bush. Scott McClellan wrote a scathing book, “What Happened,” indicting his former boss, saying that the White House was in permanent campaign mode and used propaganda and fear to sell the war and other harmful policies. This he calls the Bush “culture of deception.”
After McClellan was viciously attacked by Bush and his surrogates for writing the book, McClellan has agreed to testify under oath before the House Judiciary Committee about, among other things, Dick Cheney and the sordid Valerie Plame affair. So now one of Bush’s top propagandists is telling it like it is.
More than a year ago, we placed a reward for a picture of Jack Abramoff with Gorge Bush after Bush said he had never met the man. Well, we got the picture, paid the reward and now all the media uses that photo (with no credit given to us).
So it is not a big surprise that a Congressional investigation has determined “that Mr. Abramoff had access to the White House, [and] the record before the Committee contradicts White House claims that with respect to his White House contacts, Mr. Abramoff got 'nothing out of it.' Not only did Mr. Abramoff achieve some positive results from his White House lobbying, but White House officials sought out the views of Mr. Abramoff and his colleagues on matters of official business." http://oversight.house.gov/documents/20080609101725.pdf The lies of this White House know no bounds.
The State Department announced today that the US will no longer participate with the UN Human Rights Council because it has reported human rights abuses by Israel. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2008/jun/105716.htm It’s no wonder that the US has lost its moral leadership in the world and many more countries have gone pell-mell in their abuses of civilians.
We have been urging an investigation of Don Siegelman’s political prosecution for months. Well, “fifty-four former state attorney generals filed a brief Friday supporting the appeal of former Gov. Don Siegelman of Alabama, convicted two years ago on bribery and corruption charges in a prosecution depicted by his supporters as politically motivated.
Robert Abrams, a former New York attorney general and an author of the brief, said the document was unprecedented in bringing together a large number of former top state judicial officers, mostly Democrats but also some Republicans. Mr. Abrams said it reflected “strong feelings” that an injustice had been done to Mr. Siegelman, a Democrat who was freed on bond from a federal prison in March after serving nine months.” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/31/us/31siegelman.html...
It’s nice to know that someone is listening and acting, even if it took the blogs like RawStory to break this story.
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