While We Wait

There are some comments about today's Town Hall Meeting with the Honorable John Conyers posted at Michigandem's Livejournal.  We're still waiting for more, both there, at at Conyer's blog.  Michigandem promises pictures, which I would like to see.

A few comments of my own:  

First: Traffic and construction in downtown Detroit is absolutely terrible.  And they don't mark their detours very well.  And my car overheats when it is not moving, which is a problem I'll have to solve later.  Fortunately, I have an adjustable Thermaltake fan on my CPU, so I don't have to worry about heat while blogging.  If only cars were simple, like computers.

Second: There was a lot of positive energy in the room.  There were over 300 people there, many (including us) standing in the back because the auditorium was full.  It was not full of dejected sour-grapes-sore-looser liberals.  It was full of people who still have hope that we can get rid of the crooks and liars in the White House.

Third: The most electric moment occurred during the talk by Robert Sedler, Distinguished Professor of Law, and Gibbs Chair in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, at Wayne State University:

Professor Sedler teaches courses in Constitutional Law and Conflict of Laws. He has published extensively in both fields, and in 1994 published a book, Constitutional Law — United States, in the Constitutional Law series of the International Encyclopedia of Laws for an international audience.

He used the word, "impeachment."  The audience went nuts, respectfully, for a minute or two.  Apparently, he is serious about impeachment.

Fourth: One of the speakers was a former CIA agent, and a classmate of Valerie P.  He was the one guy in the room I wouldn't have wanted to armwrestle with.  Jim Marcinkowski was an "operations specialist," whatever that is, in the Navy, from 1975-1980; he was an operations officer in the CIA from 1985 to 1990; he got his start in politics as President of the Michigan Young Republicans.  It would be difficult for anyone to accuse him of being "politically motivated."  Although composed and steely-eyed, he was one pissed-off dude.  He stated that he knows that worldwide intelligence operations have been damaged by the leak.  It is his opinion that national security continues to suffer every day that the Administration fails to address the issue of the Plame leak.  His comments today were pretty similar to what he said yesterday at the Waxman hearing, which you can find in the Hearing transcript (especially pages 26-28.)

Fifth: The meeting originally was planned to commemorate the anniversary of the Downing Street Memo, but the other topics (Rovegate, impeachment) were included.  They are pertinent because those three topics are the ones that emerge most clearly from the background noise of "politics as usual" that enable us to conclude that our current Administration really is composed of a bunch of crooks and liars.
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UPDATE: 3 photos are up at AfterDowningStreet.org, here.
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UPDATE: Detroit media appear to have ignored the Meeting. Just in case you want to let them know how you feel about this:

Local News Contacts

Channel 2 (Fox): Feedback / Comments
Channel 4 (WDIV): We Want To Hear From You
Channel 7 (WXYZ): E-mail

Detroit Free Press: City/Metro desk city@freepress.com
Detroit News: Mark Silverman, Publisher & Editor: msilverman@detnews.com
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UPDATE: Michigandems photos are up, here. I suggest taking a look, if only to see the faces of the people who may be able to change our lives for the better.

Categories: rants, politics
Tags: John Conyers, Valerie Plame, Downing Street Memo, Karl Rove