Writing to Congress

I just wrote to my Congressman. The last time I did that, it was urging him to support legislation to bring more foreign-born doctors to practice in the district. This time, I'm asking him to help impeach Dubya. Rangel has been in the House since 1970; he was there when another Republican would-be dictator resigned to avoid impeachment.

Here's what I sent:

I am outraged at the latest revelations of domestic spying authorized by President Bush. Congress has given the Executive Branch legal ways of authorizing any investigation on foreign nationals, and any justifiable investigation of American citizens. These include retroactive warrants through the FISA courts.

The president, rather than using the extremely broad authority he has been granted, instead ordered warrantless searches and wiretaps. He has admitted, publicly, that there is no authority for them other than that, as president, he said so. He also says he intends to continue these illegal wiretaps.

This goes beyond a policy dispute. These are blatantly illegal acts, and a clear violation of his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. This president must be impeached for his crimes.

If a president can break the law, and get away with it purely because he is president, this is not a democracy, nor a republic: it is a dictatorship. The job of Congress includes protecting us from any president who would attempt to make Congress, the courts, and the American voter irrelevant rubber-stamps.

Feel free to borrow part or all of it, if you're minded to write to your own representatives, or to a newspaper--what I wrote is based in part on a discussion on Making Light.

Writing to Congress

I just wrote to my Congressman. The last time I did that, it was urging him to support legislation to bring more foreign-born doctors to practice in the district. This time, I'm asking him to help impeach Dubya. Rangel has been in the House since 1970; he was there when another Republican would-be dictator resigned to avoid impeachment.

Here's what I sent:

I am outraged at the latest revelations of domestic spying authorized by President Bush. Congress has given the Executive Branch legal ways of authorizing any investigation on foreign nationals, and any justifiable investigation of American citizens. These include retroactive warrants through the FISA courts.

The president, rather than using the extremely broad authority he has been granted, instead ordered warrantless searches and wiretaps. He has admitted, publicly, that there is no authority for them other than that, as president, he said so. He also says he intends to continue these illegal wiretaps.

This goes beyond a policy dispute. These are blatantly illegal acts, and a clear violation of his oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States. This president must be impeached for his crimes.

If a president can break the law, and get away with it purely because he is president, this is not a democracy, nor a republic: it is a dictatorship. The job of Congress includes protecting us from any president who would attempt to make Congress, the courts, and the American voter irrelevant rubber-stamps.

Feel free to borrow part or all of it, if you're minded to write to your own representatives, or to a newspaper--what I wrote is based in part on a discussion on Making Light.

Good job news

I just spoke to my boss, and while she's going to be on vacation next week, she will need me for the days I'm available (basically Tuesday and Wednesday; Monday is a holiday and, while it's not my holiday, the office is going to be closed). The strike being over, we can go into the office tomorrow, do stuff there, and talk in person.

This leaves me with my largest short-term question being whether I can get more Golden Assam tea and lift weights after work.

Good job news

I just spoke to my boss, and while she's going to be on vacation next week, she will need me for the days I'm available (basically Tuesday and Wednesday; Monday is a holiday and, while it's not my holiday, the office is going to be closed). The strike being over, we can go into the office tomorrow, do stuff there, and talk in person.

This leaves me with my largest short-term question being whether I can get more Golden Assam tea and lift weights after work.

Banana bread

I have just eaten the end slice off the first loaf of banana bread I've ever baked. It's okay, not great--though I'm hoping the non-end pieces will be better, since I suspect the "dry" feeling came from the amount of well-cooked end/edge in the end slice.

I am feeling ridiculously domestic. Not because I baked banana bread--the recipe is right there in Fanny Farmer, though I used pecans because we don't have walnuts, and it's quite simple. I am feeling ridiculously domestic because of what prompted me to bake banana bread: not a deep desire for banana bread, or for home-baked sweets in general, but because I had two bananas that had turned dark brown, and this recipe seemed simpler than the banana cake a few pages later.

I think this is the first time I've actually used my grandmother's loaf pan, though I seem to recall either cattitude or adrian_turtle using it for either potatoes or yams last month.

The recipe calls for three ripe bananas, so I bought two more bananas, one for baking and one to eat plain. (Also some other groceries--and I had lunch at a cafe on Broadway, doing my part for the local economy during the transit strike both by working from home, hence getting paid my normal salary, and patronizing a local business.)

Addendum: I just had another slice of the banana bread. It really is too dry. I suspect the problem is that one of the bananas I used was still bright yellow, not black or even spotted brown. Next time I'll know this. "Only be sure, always to call it research."

Banana bread

I have just eaten the end slice off the first loaf of banana bread I've ever baked. It's okay, not great--though I'm hoping the non-end pieces will be better, since I suspect the "dry" feeling came from the amount of well-cooked end/edge in the end slice.

I am feeling ridiculously domestic. Not because I baked banana bread--the recipe is right there in Fanny Farmer, though I used pecans because we don't have walnuts, and it's quite simple. I am feeling ridiculously domestic because of what prompted me to bake banana bread: not a deep desire for banana bread, or for home-baked sweets in general, but because I had two bananas that had turned dark brown, and this recipe seemed simpler than the banana cake a few pages later.

I think this is the first time I've actually used my grandmother's loaf pan, though I seem to recall either cattitude or adrian_turtle using it for either potatoes or yams last month.

The recipe calls for three ripe bananas, so I bought two more bananas, one for baking and one to eat plain. (Also some other groceries--and I had lunch at a cafe on Broadway, doing my part for the local economy during the transit strike both by working from home, hence getting paid my normal salary, and patronizing a local business.)

Addendum: I just had another slice of the banana bread. It really is too dry. I suspect the problem is that one of the bananas I used was still bright yellow, not black or even spotted brown. Next time I'll know this. "Only be sure, always to call it research."