Venerable, leftist-weekly demands president’s impeachment over mass-surveillance

The Daily Caller reports: 

In the pages of The Nation, the oldest continuously published weekly in the country and the self-described “flagship of the left,” a former member of the House of Representatives has called for the impeachment of the president over revelations of massive government surveillance of ordinary citizens. 

Rep. Elizabeth Holtzman (D-NY) (ret.)

Democrat Elizabeth Holtzman of New York, who sat on the House Judiciary Committee during the Watergate era, powerfully yet dispassionately lays out the case for the immediate impeachment of the president. 

“Nothing less is necessary to protect our constitutional system and preserve our democracy,” she declares.

The last straw for the retired Congresswoman was the revelation that the president “directed the wiretapping of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans” (a number that is likely conservative).

“As a matter of constitutional law, these and other misdeeds constitute grounds for the impeachment,” writes Holtzman in her bombshell treatise. “A President, any President, who maintains that he is above the law — and repeatedly violates the law — thereby commits high crimes and misdemeanors, the constitutional standard for impeachment and removal from office.”

The eloquent Harvard Law grad provides a devastating legal critique of the vast executive-branch scheme to log every phone call in the United States.

Read more:

Another critic of Obama administration, liberal writer Michael Hastings, 33, killed on Los Angeles street 15-months after Andrew Breitbart

A liberal critic of the Obama Administration, writer, Michael Hastings, 33, was killed in an automobile accident early this morning in Los Angeles.

Jack Mikinson characterizes the writer and journalists reaction to it (and, presumably, the risks of criticizing this administration) in  the Huffington Post "Michael Hastings Death Met With Stunned Horror By Journalists Everywhere"

The journalism world reacted with stunned horror at the sudden death of Michael Hastings on Tuesday. 

Hastings, who was just 33 years old, was killed in a car crash in Los Angeles early Tuesday morning. 

He rocketed to instant fame when his piece in Rolling Stone brought down Stanley McChrystal, the top-ranking general in Afghanistan, in 2010. Since then, Hastings was a regular presence in print and on television, a frequent critic of the Obama administration and an aggressive and enthusiastic debater. In recent years, the war correspondent had turned his focus to domestic politics, bringing the same independent spirit to the campaign trail.

Journalist Michael Hastings dies in L.A. car crash by Richard Winton, Andrew Blankstein and Kate Mather

Neither the Los Angeles Police Department nor coroner's officials could immediately confirm whether Hastings was the victim of a single-car crash that occurred about 4:25 a.m. in the 600 block of North Highland Avenue. Police officials said it was the only vehicle fatality reported Tuesday morning in the city of Los Angeles.

The vehicle crossed a median, struck a tree and burst into flames in the Hancock Park area, LAPD Officer Christopher No said. The driver was prounounced dead at the scene. 
A witness described the accident to KTLA News: “I was just coming northbound on Highland and I seen a car, like, going really fast and all of a sudden I seen it jackknife,”  Luis Cortez said. “I just seen parts fly everywhere, and I slammed on my brakes and stopped and tried to call 911."

On May 25, Melissa Jeltsen reported in the HuffPo Michael Hastings Rips Obama Drone Speech (VIDEO)  

On Thursday, Obama gave a major national security speech in which he defended the use of drone strikes as a key counterterrorism tool. Hastings said the speech marked a reversal in Obama's thinking. 

"If you compare this speech to the speech he gave in Cairo, in 2009 or his Nobel Prize speech, you see almost a total rejection of the civil rights tradition that President Obama supposedly came out of... and just an embrace of total militarism," Hastings said. 

"That speech to me was essentially agreeing with President Bush and Vice President Cheney that we're in this neo-conservative paradigm, that we're at war with a jihadist threat that actually is not a nuisance but the most important threat we're facing today," Hastings continued.

Andrew Breitbart, another outspoken critic of the Obama adminstration, but from the political right, also died mysteriously one evening a Los Angeles street in March, 2012. 

DemoCast filmed Mr. Breitbart endorsing the Tea Party in L.A. ato the Republican Jewish Coalition Summer Bash in 2011.  His father, Gerald, died Monday, 11 June 2013 - approximately 100 days after his beloved wife, Arlene.

Jesse Lee Peterson discusses rebuilding families by rebuilding the man at 4th Annual Fatherhood and Men Conference held Father's Day weekend