Why bother to redress government by emailing our Congressional senators and representatives on Constitution Day, September 17th?  What’s the big deal, fellow blogmates?

For one thing, the media isn’t getting the human costs of the Iraq occupation right – and I mean costs to Americans, to say nothing of Iraqis.

Continuing with my daily briefings for Redress Day, I want you to please understand that it is vital for us to email our representatives that the United States military occupation forces in Iraq have suffered a total of 60,947 casualties to date. That’s right. The media misdirects public attention away from the actual costs in American life and limb by habitually reporting “only” the total killed – 3774 as of September 11.  They rarely mention the 27,848 wounded in combat.  That brings the total killed or wounded by hostile causes to 31,622.

But there is more. The costs are actually far greater, if you include what the Pentagon categorizes as “non-hostile causes.”

....Dean discussed the important role faith and morality play in defining the issues most important to the Democratic Party, as well as the work people of faith do every day to address the problems facing our country and planet, including reconstruction...after Hurricane Katrina and the global crisis of HIV/AIDS....Dean spoke of the work Democrats in Congress are doing on behalf of African American families to make our country stronger and the importance of electing a Democratic president next year to change course in Iraq....

Continuing my daily informational briefings about our upcoming September 17th Redress Day,  fellow blogmates,  one of our early brainstorms came by way of Morgan Pardee.  Morgan suggested that, in addition to emailing individual Congressional representatives demanding executive accountability, we also contact editors of newspapers serving the constituents of key Republican senators who are "blocking this Democratic Congress from exercising the will of the majority of Americans who do not support this administration, otherwise known as We the People."

Fellow savants, esteemed colleagues, beloved blogmates:

Our Redress Day, September 17th, is Constitution Day, also known as Citizen Day. Federal law now requires educational institutions that receive federal funds to hold an "educational program" on the Constitution. To assist you, we are providing an easy way to get compliance done. Simply give the handy quiz below to everyone on your campus — students, professors, administrators, staff, even members of the hockey team — and happily avoid the suspension of millions of dollars of federal research money. Plus, all of you office jockeys are welcome to set up "universities without walls" and "satellite campuses" for just this occasion!  

While you are complying with federal rules and regs, be sure to invite all of your quiz takers to participate in our Redress Day campaign, and give bonus points for attaching a hard copy of their emails to the quiz and sharing their letters in classes and at other erudite gatherings.  Here's how it works: On September 17th  encourage quiz takers to exercise their constitutional rights, as citizens, to redress the U.S. government by emailing letters, in their own words, to individual Congress members, demanding executive accountability.  Provide the following  link so that your participants can easily look up their Congress members' email addresses:

  Congressional E-Mail Directory 

The Quiz

1. In the Military Commissions Act of 2006, Congress suspended the writ of habeas corpus for alien enemy combatants detained at Guantánamo Bay. The Constitution, however, stipulates that Congress can suspend the writ only "in cases of rebellion or invasion." We can therefore conclude:

a.       We have been invaded.

b.      We are in the midst of a rebellion (against the government, not against the Constitution itself).

c.       The Military Commissions Act is unconstitutional.

d.      The Constitution does not protect evil suspects.

e.       The founding fathers intended to make an exception for Gitmo.

~~~

2. The Second Amendment to the Bill of Rights establishes:

a.       The NRA.

b.      An unconditional right of all Americans to wear tank tops.

c.       A conditional right to bear arms in the interest of collective security.

d.      A personal right of each individual to own, carry, and use weaponry of unlimited lethality in all public places (besides airports and the White House).

~~~

3. The Bush administration's capacious understanding of its powers is based on a controversial idea known as the theory of the unitary executive. According to this theory, the executive enjoys the power to:

a.       Order all 3.2 million members of the executive branch to treat Congressional subpoenas as an unconstitutional violation of executive privilege and so to ignore them.

b.      Order the Justice Department to quash contempt proceedings brought against any of the 3.2 million members of the executive branch who cite executive privilege as reason to ignore Congressional subpoenas.

c.       Ignore indictments of members of the Justice Department who quash contempt proceedings against those members of the executive branch who ignore Congressional subpoenas.

d.      Wear a crown, carry a mace, and dress in ermine.

e.       All of the above.

~~~

4. The Constitution establishes the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government. Vice President Dick Cheney has recently argued that the vice president is not a member of the executive branch. It follows from this that:

a.       The president is likewise not a member of the executive branch.

b.      The vice president belongs to a fourth, hitherto unknown branch of government, the existence of which can be neither confirmed nor denied lest it compromise national security.

c.       The theory of checks and balances refers to banking practices.

d.      Vice President Cheney was inadvertently referring to the Iraqi Constitution.

e. Vice President Cheney has not been taking his annual Constitution Day quizzes.

~~~

Answer key available upon submission of a comment to our Redress Day Idea Bank.

*winks* 

More soon, Tish

With thanks to our colleagues over at the Chronicle of Higher Education, especially quiz item contributors Lawrence Douglas, professor of law, jurisprudence, and social thought at Amherst College and Alexander George,  professor of philosophy, also at Amherst.

Dawn. California

Dear Impeachment Diary,

Got on the piano and sang the prayer this morning. Sang it for perhaps the thousandth time in over forty years, as I prepare to meet with my chilhood confessor next month, the priest who guards my soul.  He's prayed for my life, every day of my life, since my mom attended his bible study when she was pregnant with me at Notre Dame. Things are rocking my world -- I need to see him. I want my heart to be ready, and so I sing.

To everything
there is a season
and a time to every purpose unto heaven

A time to be born, a time to die
A time to plant, a time to reap
A time to kill, a time to heal
A time to laugh, a time to weep

To everything
there is a season
and a time to every purpose unto heaven
A time to be loved

a time to break up
A time to dance

a time to morn
A time to cast away stones
a time to gather stones together

To everything
there is a season
and a time to every purpose unto heaven
A time of love

a time of hate
A time of war

a time of peace
A time you may embrace

a time to refrain
from embracing

To everything
there is a season
and a time to every purpose unto heaven
A time to gain

a time to lose
A time to rend

a time to sew
A time for love

a time for hate
A time for peace

I swear it's not too late

Personal prayer or no, my fellow blogmates, it is time for the People to act. September, 2007, will mark an unparalleled season of opportunity for action. Citizens of the United States have had enough of excuses.  As I commented last night, there is, amazingly, a major peace event planned for Washington, D.C., for just about every day in September.  Here's a sampling:

Week of action in Washington, D.C. 

September 15: March and massive die-in

 September 16: truth in recruiting training and congressional lobbying training

 September 17: National Truth in Recruiting Day

September 18: Congressional Challenge Day

The variety of planned activities has reportedly caused a lot of people great distress --judging from the mountain of  emails that impeachment activist Dave  Swanson says he gets -- emails asking him to combine all the events into one day --as if any one of us would have a way to do that!   I actually think that the varied spectrum of ongoing events will become a positive factor in raising America's  consciousness to the next level before the 2008 election season begins to swing into high gear.

We will  try to keep track of all of the events  at Impeachment Watch and The Blogging Actionist.  For a map cross referencing events across the nation, see also:  After Downing Street.  

 As Sheila Samples commented in her Op Ed this morning:  

It is madness to stand upon the precipice of a Constitutional crisis and even consider for one moment plunging into the abyss by giving Bush additional time to spy on Americans, to torture and kill innocents abroad, and to abandon an exhausted and ill-equipped military on the killing fields of a nation embroiled in the spiraling violence of civil war.

It is a time to act. We invite you to participate in our own action plan, developed right here at TPM Cafe: Redress Day, September 17th.  After much discussion, we have chosen the 17th of September  because it is Constitution Day. We encourage you to join us on that day by emailing letters in your own words to individual Congress members demanding executive accountability.

Looking forward to seeing you, as always, and to hearing your updates and thinks.

Best Constitutional wishes,

Tish

Fellow blogmates, this week marks the beginning of what will become a steady stream of blog posts providing information about Redress Day, September 17th. We encourage you to participate with us on Constitution Day, the 17th of September, by emailing letters to individual Congress members, in your own words, demanding executive accountability.

Tom Wright has launched our week today with his initial post outlining the basic idea: Congress Returns: Will It Act? 

To assist you in spreading the word and participating conveniently on Redress Day, following is the Congressional E-Mail Directory for all 50 states.

 Congressional E-Mail Directory 

Looking forward to your updates and participation, as always.

Best Constitutional Wishes, 

Tish

Still preparing "educational" posts for the week ahead to provide information about our September 17th Constitution Day Redress campaign, fellow blogmates, so just a quickie, for the moment. 

A transcript of Amy Goodman's August 28th interview with John Conyers is now up at Democracy Now. You may watch/hear the interview there, as well. Conyers says he's got the Constitution in one hand and a calculator in the other.

Worthy of a check-out is Elizabeth Ferrari's op ed today: Pelosi's Fear of Flying: The Immediate Consequences of Aiming Low on Impeachment:

General Petraeus is the same good soldier who breathlessly announced to the press that Saddam had mobile weapons labs when he knew those vehicles were weather balloon stations. Remember? That Petraeus.

This same week, all over the country, anti war and impeachment activists are preparing for demonstrations on 9/15. There will be a march on Washington. There will be marches and vigils and protests all over the country. Here in San Francisco, three thousand of my neighbors and I will spell out the word "Impeach" with our bodies. This is our third attempt to convey our needs visually and materially to our ever more remote representative, Nancy Pelosi.

article continues here

Let's stay close together and in good touch this week, as we approach Redress Day.

Lots going on in September,

Tish

P.S. Wow, "view" says I'm 52 weeks and 15 hours old as a blogger! Can you believe it? I'm almost one -- thanks to you, my blogmates. ;D