Pacific Free Press was launched in March 2007 by Dutch-Canadian Richard
Kastelein of V.O.F. Expathos, in the Netherlands along with Chris Cook- CFUV radio journalist and Editor in Chief of Pacific Free Press. Cook is based in , Victoria, British Columbia.
The site is a sister to Atlantic Free Press and Brick Ogden an American Expatriate in Amsterdam has been a key supporter of this project.
The mission of Pacific Free Press is simple: to dig out nuggets of truth from
the slag-heap of lies, ignorance and witless diversion that has buried
public discourse today. Pacific Free Press provides a new venue for
disseminating hard news and insightful, fact-based analysis of the
harsh realities too often ignored or distorted by the mainstream press.
Pelosi's Sinking Fortunes
by Dave Lindorff House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took power in the House of Representatives in January on a wave of public enthusiasm and hopes that Congress would finally start holding the president to account.
Not quite six months out, it's becoming apparent to Democrats who were looking to her for leadership that she's not about leading an opposition party; she's about posturing and hoping for better days in 2008, but not much else.
Californians voted for Democrats in
Congress because they wanted to end the Iraq War, and because they
were, and are, fed up with the anti-democratic antics of President Bush
and Vice President Dick Cheney. Pelosi's own California Democratic
Party Convention recently overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling on
her and the Congress to impeach the president — something that Pelosi
stubbornly refuses to allow to happen.
Now her failure to act
to stop the war, and her refusal to permit a Bush impeachment bill to
be filed on her watch, are hitting her where it hurts — in the polls.
According
to a report today by MediaNews in Sacramento, written by Steve
Geissinger, Pelosi's support in California, which was at 52 percent in
March, has slumped 13 percent to just 39 percent since then. That's
Bush territory she's entering.
It would be nice to think
Pelosi would see this decline in support on her home turf as a signal
that she needs to do something radically different, but she's been
pretty pig-headed so far about taking on the president. In fact, as I
wrote in yesterday's column, the Speaker is now on record as saying
that impeaching the president would be a "waste of time" and that
defending the Constitution "isn't worth it" unless she knows in advance
that she can succeed.
Not particularly inspirational talk for an opposition leader, is it?
Well,
maybe Pelosi's weakness explains why the number of members of Congress
who have signed on to Rep. Dennis Kucinich's once ignored Cheney
impeachment bill (H.Res. 333) has jumped to 13. The snowball is rolling
downhill and it's starting to get bigger, and to roll faster. Bush's
commutation of Scooter Libby's jail sentence, which was done at the
urging of Vice President Dick Cheney, and which is clearly designed to
keep the convicted felon from turning state's evidence (making it
obstruction of justice), should give that ball a big push in the right
direction.
Maybe the July 4 weekend is the right time for
California Democrats to start looking for someone to challenge Pelosi
for her seat. Even a write-in campaign would be worth it.
Meanwhile,
Democrats in Congress should take a cold, hard look at Pelosi's home
numbers, at the crash in public support for the Democratic Congress,
which has fallen from a high of 65 percent last November to just 23
percent, and at the feelings of their own constituents, and consider
whether maybe they should look for a new and gutsier leader.
Either that, or they should start working on their resumes.
At this rate, 2008 could be a Democratic bloodbath.
Writings 
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi took power in the House of Representatives in January on a wave of public enthusiasm and hopes that Congress would finally start holding the president to account. 
Subscribe to this comment's feed
