Talk of impeachment has been in the news a lot recently, and this discussion is not only limited to the current President. Dennis Kucinich is currently sponsoring a bill to impeach Vice President Dick Cheney. Many people say that this is a futile gesture this close to another election. Ironically, many who say this fought to impeach Bill Clinton in the late twentieth century. Though the power in this country is about to change hands it’s not too late to hold Cheney accountable.

Cheney has done many things to get him to this point. The greatest crime he has committed is the lies he spread to the American people. He gave inconclusive evidence to justify the war in Iraq, and when he found out how faulty it was pressured the CIA to change their findings. He lied to us about WMD’s, and he lied about a strong connection between Iraq and al Qaeda. This has become a self-fulfilling prophecy as our continued occupation of Iraq has allowed al Qaeda to take hold in the land. In a war the Downing Street memo has proved was pre-meditated Cheney found a way to sell the American people on a senseless war.

Cheney was also involved in the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame. They exposed her to the press because her husband, a former ambassador, had negative things to say about the Bush White House. This retaliatory action solidifies the arguments for impeachment. Outing a CIA operative is a treasonous offence, punishable by death. Why then is somebody who has actively taken part in treason continuing to serve in one of our highest public offices? The law says this Benedict Arnold should be executed, yet he advises the president of matters of high security. He actively endangers our way of life by leading us down a warmonger’s path.

Now, Cheney looks to start a new war. Iran has shown no signs of aggression towards the United States. The lies start again. They have not threatened our unconstitutional occupation of Iraq. They do not harbor terrorists. They have given America no reason to back-handedly suggests nuclear options. Their leader has not claimed Iran has no homosexuals, only that they are not as open about it over there. And now a significant amount of Americans actually believe that the Iranians have directly threatened our country because of the lies of our vice-president.

Kucinich’s movement to impeach the vice-President is active in congress right now. This is a non-partisan issue. If we as a country can attempt to impeach a man for lying about an affair we are honor-bound to impeach a man for lying about a war that has killed thousands of people and taken the reigns of revolution out of Iraqi people’s hands.

54% of Americans want Cheney impeached. Remember, it’s never too late to see justice served…

Popularity: 62% [?]

Much has been written about the conservative ideologue Ann Coulter, most of it negative. Her critics generally paint her as a harmless, if not foul, voice of an older generation. This is a dangerous underestimation, however. In reality Coulter is more of a threat to the consciousness of America than the liberals she so often blames.

Most of her arguments can be broken down into all the stereotypes one might find on an episode of The Simpsons: the black criminal, the lazy Mexican, the greedy Jew. But while The Simpsons pick at these stereotypes to point out their absurdity, Coulter tries to assert that these are realities, that every person of a certain persuasion behaves a certain way almost across the board. While anybody who has lived in a mixed community knows that everybody can exhibit these qualities, those in a more rural community have nothing to dissuade them from these bigoted ideas.

No rational conservative would say in a public discussion that women should not have the right to vote, yet they cheer Coulter on when she makes such statements. When Ann Coulter said that Christians were “perfected Jews” on CNBC’s The Big Idea in 2007 one would think that there would have been an outcry from conservative Jews. Instead several Jewish radio hosts contended her comments were not anti-Semitic.

It is surprising to learn that Coulter is a huge fan of the Grateful Dead. One would think that spending hours with self-proclaimed radicals would have made her more tolerant to other viewpoints. It seems the only thing she really picked up in those smoke-filled venues was a love for listening to old men play the same songs they were playing twenty years ago with a slightly better lighting set-up. Coulter, above all else, protects a status quo that was horribly out of fashion by the time she was born.

The real problem with Ann Coulter is the way she paints member of the opposing party. With book titles like “How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)” and “Godless: The Church of Liberalism,” she creates an image of the Left as heathen monsters. This encourages the human need to sort things into little boxes. Ergo, somebody on the “right” should never mix with somebody on the “left” because then it would become much harder to classify “right” from “left.” “Good” from “evil.” “Us from them.”

This brings us back to our definition. Just as a Coulter rips through the soil and divides it, so does Ann Coulter cut through the fertile ground our democracy was planted in and chops up any remnants of the last harvest. With the soil divided, the farmers may come to check on their crop and find that the virility of amber waves of grain has given way to a field of weeds.

Popularity: 66% [?]

All Presidential elections, both past and present, have always had candidates from both parties with major controversies in their history. This election is no different. The current leading Democratic candidates are Senator Hillary Clinton and Senator Barack Obama. It’s no surprise to anyone that both of these candidates have had many controversies in their history.

First, is Senator Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton has had many major controversies in the past; perhaps the best known was actually caused by her husband, President Bill Clinton. When Bill Clinton was in office it was speculated that he was having an affair with a White House intern Monica Lewinsky. This was later confirmed when Bill issued a public apology. Another large controversy plaguing Hillary’s past is the Whitewater Controversy. Whitewater was basically a scandal involving the real estate purchases of the Clinton couple. Eventually Hillary was subpoenaed before a Federal Grand Jury where she claimed she couldn’t find the records of the dealings; the records were found two years later in the first lady’s room. As with all candidates, there are more less important controversies that have occurred, but these two are the most famous and will have more of an effect on Hillary’s campaign - not to mention the Hillary Health Care plan.

Of course, Senator Barack Obama is not exempt from such controversies as these. Many of the controversies in Obama’s past as less known than those of Clinton, but he definitely doesn’t sport a perfect past. Perhaps the most widely known of his controversies is the Obama-Warren Controversy. The Obama-Warren Controversy stems from Obama giving a speech at the Saddleback Church in California. Obama was invited to speak his opinion on AIDS but it soon escalated into Obama giving his opinion on abortion and other political issues. This angered the churchgoers as well as Pastor Rick Warren. This is perhaps the largest true controversy that has ever occurred in Obama’s history.

These are just a few examples of controversy caused by current candidates. There are many more controversial topics and issues which these candidates will be forced to face in the upcoming election. To fully understand all these controversies, it is important that the voters inform themselves. Just because a candidate or controversy is not mentioned does not mean it is unimportant, each person must make the decision of what is important and what is not.

Hopefully these examples will help to encourage the education of the common voter.

Popularity: 32% [?]