NASCAR and Stockcar Racing

Nader: Iraq an Unconstitutional, Illegal War

Based on Five Falsehoods:
  CONGRESS SHOULD BEGIN IMPEACHMENT INQUIRY OF BUSH AND CHENEY

"All public policy should revolve around the principle that individuals
are responsible for what they say and do." — George W. Bush, 1994.

Washington, DC:
  Building on his call for the impeachment of President
  Bush and Vice President Cheney, Independent Presidential candidate Ralph
  Nader today is calling on Members of the House of Representatives to
  begin an impeachment inquiry to investigate two distinct impeachable
  offenses.

An Impeachment Inquiry is the first step toward considering Articles of
Impeachment. During an Impeachment Inquiry the House would investigate
whether there are potential impeachable offenses.

Impeachment Inquiry and the Process of Impeachment

  While the Constitution is clear in granting the impeachment power to the
  House, it leaves the development of mechanisms for exercising the power
  to the House. As noted by the Association of the Bar of the City of New
  York in "The Law of Presidential Impeachment By the Committee on Federal
  Legislation" (see: http://www.abcny.org/presimpt.htm):

    "A variety of methods have been employed to institute impeachment
    proceedings: Charges may be made orally on the floor by a Member of the
    House; a Member may submit a written statement of charges; one or more
    Members of the House may offer a resolution and place it in the
    legislative hopper; a presidential message to the House may initiate
    proceedings. The House has also received charges from a state
    legislature, from a territory, and from a grand jury. Finally, there may
    be a report of a committee of the House which may submit facts or
    charges that will lead to impeachment. Under the rules governing the
    order of business in the House a direct proposition to impeach is a
    matter of highest privilege and supersedes other business. Similar
    privileged treatment is given to propositions relating to a pending
    impeachment."

  The purpose of the Impeachment Inquiry is to have a Committee develop a
  report for the House which then can be considered for the purpose of
  determining whether to proceed with impeachment proceedings. The House
  determines whether to impeach based on a majority vote. It is important
  to remember that impeachment does not mean conviction – that is left to
  the Senate. Impeachment is the equivalent of an indictment, making
  formal charges, which the Senate then considers. Conviction requires
  two-thirds of the Members present in the Senate to vote for conviction.  

Two Potential Articles of Impeachment that Should be Part of an Impeachment Inquiry

The Impeachment Inquiry should focus on two areas involving President
Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.

The unconstitutional war in Iraq.

  "The Inquiry should examine whether President Bush and Vice President
  Cheney have gone beyond the bounds of the Constitution, defied the rule
  of law, and if so, whether impeachment is the appropriate constitutional
  punishment," said Nader. The United States Congress never voted for the
  Iraq war. Congress voted for a resolution in October 2002 which
  unlawfully transferred to the President the decision-making power of
  whether to launch a first-strike invasion of Iraq. The United States
  Constitution’s War Powers Clause (Article 1, Section 8, Clause 11) vests
  the power of deciding whether to send the nation into war solely in the
  United States Congress. This can only be changed by a constitutional
  amendment.

  "Our founders had seen what could occur when the power to declare war
  was vested in one person, a King or a Queen, so they took clear steps to
  ensure no one person could declare war for the United States. As James
  Madison wrote: "In no part of the constitution is more wisdom to be

  found, than in the clause which confides the question of war and peace
  to the legislature, and not to the executive department," noted Nader.

Five Falsehoods that Led to the Iraq Quagmire:

  Making matters worse in this situation, the illegal first-strike
  invasion and occupation of Iraq was justified by five falsehoods. Nader
  calls for a second area for Impeachment Inquiry to examine: the "five
  falsehoods that led to war." In 1994 George W. Bush said: "All public
  policy should revolve around the principle that individuals are
  responsible for what they say and do." In 2000, he ran as the
  "responsibility " candidate. Manipulation or deliberate misuse of
  national security intelligence data, if proven, would be "a high crime"
  under the Constitution’s impeachment clause. Article II, Section 4 of
  the Constitution provides: "The President, Vice President and all civil
  Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on
  Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high
  Crimes and Misdemeanors."

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION.

  The weapons have still not been found. Nader emphasized, "Until the 1991
  Gulf War, Saddam Hussein was our government’s anti-communist ally in the
  Middle East. We also used him to keep Iran at bay. In so doing, in the
  1980s under Reagan and the first Bush, corporations were licensed by the
  Department of Commerce to export the materials for chemical and
  biological weapons that President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick
  Cheney later accused him of having." Those weapons were destroyed after
  the Gulf War. President Bush’s favorite chief weapons inspector, David
  Kay, after returning from Iraq and leading a large team of inspectors
  and spending nearly half a billion dollars told the president :We were
  wrong."

            See: David Kay testimony before Senate Armed Services Committee,
                 January 28, 2004.

IRAQ TIES TO AL QAEDA:

  The White House made this claim even though the CIA and FBI repeatedly
  told the Administration that there was no tie between Saddam Hussein and
  Al Qaeda. They were mortal enemies – one secular, the other
  fundamentalist.

SADDAM HUSSEIN WAS A THREAT TO THE UNITED STATES:

  In fact, Saddam was a tottering dictator, with an antiquated, fractured
  army of low morale and with Kurdish enemies in Northern Iraq and Shiite
  adversaries in the South of Iraq. He did not even control the air space
  over most of Iraq.

SADDAM HUSSEIN WAS A THREAT TO HIS NEIGHBORS:

  In fact, Iraq was surrounded by countries with far superior military
  forces. Turkey, Iran and Israel were all capable of obliterating any
  aggressive move by the Iraqi dictator.

THE LIBERATION OF THE IRAQI PEOPLE:

  There are brutal dictators throughout the world, many supported over the
  years by Washington, whose people need "liberation " from their leaders.
  This is not a persuasive argument since for Iraq, it’s about oil. In
  fact, the occupation of Iraq by the United States is a magnet for
  increasing violence, anarchy and insurrection.

Nader urges the Congress to investigate the illegal nature of the war,
and how the five falsehoods became part of the Bush Administration’s
drum beat for war, in a formal Inquiry of Impeachment.

–

For further information, contact:
Kevin Zeese
1-202-265-4000

–
Pentagon," and is owned by the
A.J. Muste Memorial Institute. A.J. Muste was a "peace" advocate who
compiled frequent flier miles visiting Hanoi during the Vietnam War era. The
Muste Foundation funds groups like the War Resisters League, School of the
Americas Watch, Nicaragua Solidarity Network, International Peace bureau,
International Fellowship of Reconciliation, Coalition for Human Rights of
Immigrants, and WILPF.

NION: Castro and Islamist Terror

The Interreligous Foundation for Community Organization is a pro-Castro
proxy group. Members of their staff such as Lucius Walker (Executive
Director), Marilyn Clement (Treasurer) and Ellen Bernstein (Grants
Administrator) are all Castrophiles  In Havana in November 2000, Lucius
Walker proclaimed, "Long live the creative example of the Cuban Revolution!
Long live the wisdom and heartfelt concern for the poor of the world by
Fidel Castro!"  This was a follow-up to his pro-Castro speech in 1996,
commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Communist Party USA. Marilyn
Clement is a co-organizer of the WILPF’s Sister-to-Sister Cuba project. The
WILPF also issued a condemnation of Clinton’s Cuba policy in 1998. Bernstein
was also quoted as saying she believes Cuba is the paradigm of democracy.

IFCO does not limit its activity to pro-Castro factions, though.  Its
management maintains relationships with extremist Islamist groups as well.
Walker travels frequently to Iraq, usually alongside Ramsey Clark. IFCO is a
member of ANSWER Steering Committee.) Bernstein is a member of the American
Muslim Council’s campaign against the use of secret evidence. Clement met
with Palestinians during a WILPF "solidarity" conference in May 2002. IFCO
is also a fiscal sponsor of the National Coalition to

I just watched the Bristol tape.  After KK’s wreck, they showed him out of
the car.  Did anyone notice how much is hands were shaking?  He’s doing a
hell of a job, but he’s still a kid.  I felt for the guy, he was pretty
shaken up I think.

-Russ.

It’s very appropriate that Todd Bodine was chosen as an engineer for
NASCAR’s safety improvement program.

#1 – He’s an engineer.

#2 – He’s very familiar with crashes.

I wish him the best.  I am very desirous for NASCAR to make the sport safer.
Softer walls would help.

Interesting article….

Chris

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/living/8472331.htm?1c

It’s a phenomenon quietly spreading across the United States, from Los
Angeles to New York, Miami to Detroit, and taken some by surprise: Garb
associated with NASCAR, historically the gritty darling of white men and
women from the South, is now a must-have for many urban African-American
youths.

<snip>

Orlando, a DJ on WLLD-FM 98.7 (Wild 98.7) in the Tampa Bay area, began
noticing the NASCAR jackets on African-American kids about a year ago. He
recently raised the issue on his hip-hop music and talk show, remarking that
it wasn’t a sport with much affinity for blacks.

“I was saying I had never been [to NASCAR] and if I went, would I be one of
the only black people there? Callers were saying there are not many [black
spectators].”

But that doesn’t figure into the buying habits of certain youths, Orlando
said.

”I think it’s just hip-hop is very product-driven. If you put a big M&M
emblem on the jacket, it doesn’t even matter if it’s NASCAR. The hip-hop
kids don’t care where you get it from, as long as it’s something that’s
different,” Orlando said.

<snip>

”Our marketing efforts at present are really quite gender and race
neutral,” said Andrew Giangola, NASCAR’s director of business
communications. “We’re not marketing per se to the African-American
community.”

Ironically, that’s why the jackets are still red-hot, said NPD’s Cohen.

”Chances are, most of the commercial things they could do would destroy the
trend,” Cohen said. “Urban brands have felt the wrath of trying to go
after the urban consumer; Tommy Hilfiger fell at lightning speed.”

March your way into the weekend!

Join Nader supporters in DC, April 24-25,
as they rally for justice and equal rights

Washington, DC:

Saturday, April 24th, IMF/World Bank Protest – meet at 11am, 15th & H St, NW.

Sunday, April 25th, March for Women’s Lives – meet at 9:30am, Smithsonian Metro Stop.

If you arrive late, ask a volunteer to point you towards the Ralph Nader group.

See you there!

Nader: Oil the Source of Two of Earth’s Major Problems:
Wars for Oil and Climate Change

Protect the Environment and the People of Our Planet by Ending Our Addiction to Oil

Washington, DC: On Earth Day 2004, Independent presidential candidate
Ralph Nader highlighted as two priorities: ending the Iraqi occupation
and facing up to the immediate crisis of global climate change. "Future
geopolitical crises involving oil resources and environmental problems
will be diminished by finding alternatives to fossil fuels," said Nader.

Nader linked the two issues on Earth Day because he sees them as
symptomatic of the corporate oil-based, planet destructive behavior of
the Bush Administration. Nader has called for the United States to
withdraw from Iraq – including military, private military contractors,
oil industry and other corporations. Nader noted: "The war in Iraq is
unleashing widening cycles of violence. The potential for escalation of
violence increases every day the US military remains in Iraq. The way to
reverse the spiral of violence is for the United States to go back home.
The US presence serves as a magnet for the insurrection, kidnapping,
terrorism and destruction." Nader released a three-step strategy for
withdrawal earlier this week. See www.votenader.org for details.

–

For further information, contact:

Kevin Zeese
1-202-265-4000

Matt Ahearn
ahe…@votenader.org
1-201-314-9747

–
organizations
are, just as disturbing is its relationship to the Revolutionary Communist
Party (RCP). Not In Our Name’s administration cadre comes from the
Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP), through such luminaries as C. Clark
Kissinger and Mary Lou Greenberg, both of whom are Directors of NION and
members of the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP). Clark Kissinger,
co-director of NION and the RCP, was quoted as saying that when the RCP took
over, "it would be necessary to shoot everyone who didn’t agree with them."

The RCP is a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist group that practices Lenin’s "vanguard"
philosophy, which states that a vanguard of intellectuals is needed to lead
the proletariat in establishing a worker’s utopia. It fosters the worldwide
revolution through its membership in the Revolutionary International
Movement (RIM). It is through this affiliation that the RCP is related to
two organizations listed by the State Department as terrorist organizations;
the Communist Party of Peru (Shining Path/Sender Luminoso) and the Kurdish
Workers Party (PKK) are are closely associated with RIM. (The PKK is no
longer a formal member of RIM; however, it was one of RIM’s founders. The
Shining Path is still a member.) Other groups that comprise the
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement are the Communist Party of
Turkey/Marxist-Leninist, the Union of Iranian Communists (Sarbedaran)and the
Nepal Communist Party.

The RIM via its publication A WORLD TO WIN declared its belief in the
Palestinian intifada. The February 28, 2002, edition stated "the
Revolutionary Internationalist Movement once again reaffirms its unwavering
support .and calls on all revolutionary and progressive people to step up
their actions on (the Palestinians’) behalf." Another edition advised
Palestinians to "link up with .the parties and organizations that make up
the Revolutionary

6.1 – Why is rasnm moderated?

Even though all Big 8 Usenet newsgroups have a Charter, in an unmoderated
newsgroup there is no way to ensure that posts to the newsgroup abide by
the Charter. Everyone is on the "honor system". Unfortunately, that
oftentimes results in a newsgroup becoming a dumping ground for spam,
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rec.autos.sport.nascar) flaming/bashing/personal attacks directed towards
other posters, race teams, drivers and/or their families as well as the
sport’s media.

rasnm (rec.autos.sport.nascar.moderated) was created to provide a forum
where all topics related to NASCAR (and stockcar racing in general) can be
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6.2 – What does it mean, registration?

Before you are permitted to post directly to rasnm without having a
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6.3 – What specifically is considered off-charter?

Per the charter, the following are unacceptable:

1) Bashing
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Posts without a respondable email address
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Also, if the post is not related to NASCAR, stockcar racing or rasner
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For more information about what is and what is not on-charter, please refer
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6.4 – So how does the rasnm moderation process work?

The first time you attempt to post to rasnm from any address, the S.T.U.M.P.
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There are two other categories that moderators use in upholding the
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that every article you attempt to post is forwarded to a moderator for
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In addition to these tools, the moderators are also able to mark a specific
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6.5 – So does this mean I will never see an off-topic or
off-Charter post on rasnm?

No, it does not mean that. Since 99.9% of the posters to rasnm are on
"auto-approve" status, the moderators do not see their posts until it is on
the newsgroup. A poster on "auto-approve" status could in fact begin to post
off-charter material to the newsgroup. If that happens though, the
moderators have the tools necessary to respond to these off-Charter
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6.6 – What do I do if I see an off-charter post on rasnm?

Nothing. Responding to off-charter posts is the job of the moderation team.
Responding to off-Charter posts with another post to rasnm serves only to
perpetuate the thread, so let the moderation team do their job. Also note
that the moderators do not normally respond publicly to off-charter posts,
preferring to work quietly behind the scenes to make rasnm a better
newsgroup for us all.

If however, you are concerned about a particular post or thread which
appears to you off-charter, then by all means voice your concerns to the
moderation team via e-mail at rasnm-m…@carrcaing.com Just realize that
they don’t need to get 50 e-mails telling them about a flame or spam post
that they would have already seen anyway.

6.7 – Do the moderators treat all participants on rasnm the
same?

Yes and no. The rasnm Charter requires that the moderators treat all
participants equally regardless of personal likes or dislikes, but it also
instructs the moderators to evaluate each situation individually when
responding to Charter violations.

What this means is that while two separate violations of the rasnm Charter
may *appear* to be the same type of violation, the past history of the
parties involved make each violation unique. Therefore the action taken by
the moderators is determined by what the situation warrants. For instance,
a violation of Charter by someone who has a history of abiding by the
Charter in their posts may be ignored the first time. However, the same
exact offense by someone who has repeatedly demonstrated their
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6.8 – If I don’t agree with a moderator’s decision, what is my
recourse?

You may appeal decisions to the moderation team by emailing them at
rasnm-m…@carracing.com

6.9 – Who are the moderators?

The moderation team consists of:

John Martin – jtmar…@martincomputers.com
Bob Paxton – bpax…@carracing.com
Lisa A. Carbrey – lcarb…@carracing.com
Martin Moleski – mole…@canisius.edu
Chris Watkins – C_Watk…@carracing.com
Ken Kraus – poppy…@hotmail.com

======================================================================

The rest of the RASNM FAQ, which is more general about NASCAR and stockcar
racing, is available on the web at http://rasnm.carracing.com.

The moderators and charter committee would like to thank carracing.com
(http://www.carracing.com) for the equipment and connectivity they provide
that runs this newsgroup.

If there are any California fans in this group or any one that knows the
track I would appreciate some info. Leaving next week for California. Will
be staying in Palm Springs as that as close as I could get. I have tickets
near the start/finish line section. Once at the track area, which is the
closest lot to that area and the easiest way in and out? Any info would be
appreciated.

Griz.

Now batting about .300…lost 3 of my SCC drivers in Tony’s wreck.
Thanks a lot!

NASCAR has made the comic strips!  Check out Today’s ‘Tank’ at
http://www.uclick.com/client/sto/tm/  You, too, may think it’s a joke.  <g>

Chris

I got to thinking that perhaps Jr is attempting to send a message to nascar
that the caution rules need to be reconsidered.  Why else would he so
blatantly admit to spinning out on purpose?

What would the word be for this?  It’s not "pariah" it’s something else but
I can’t think of it right now.
—
Gotta Go…It’s Hot In Here,
William Lyster-FF/NREMTB