• Bernard Weiner:
As Bush&Co. isolate themselves even further in the White House Bunker with their lies, scandals, coverups and unending wars, they're becoming even more reckless and dangerous to America and its citizens. That behavior shouldn't be all that surprising: That's what happens when vicious animals are cornered.• Frank J. Ranelli:
Domestically, they're no longer even trying to hide their aversion to democracy and the Constitution. With his new Executive Order on "executive privilege," for example, Bush openly proclaims that he is untouchable by the rule of law; now there are only two branches of government--the Legislative Branch is ignored as irrelevant--and CheneyBush more or less control them both. More on this issue below.
Abroad, the CheneyBush Administration is preparing in the Fall to escalate the Iraq War yet again, (www.abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=3382603) at the same time the propaganda machine is being revved-up in preparation for a coming attack on Iran. (www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/04/17/060417fa_fact) Both actions will help jihadi-recruiting and thus put at risk even more U.S. troops abroad and citizens at home. Plus, an attack on Iran will have far-reaching consequences with regard to Russia, China, the availability of oil, the rise of the Euro in international trade and the concomitant fall of the dollar, the impact on the U.S. economy, etc. etc.; has Bush&Co. given serious thought to any of these, and other, ramifications?
So, once again, (www.crisispapers.org/essays-w/getitnow.htm) I pose the question to previous Bush voters, to centrists and Independents and traditionally conservative Republicans: Do you finally get it? Do you understand now why the HardRight CheneyBush Administration has sunk so low in the polls and has little hope of ever getting out, thus taking the Republican Party (and, if you're an elected official, you) down the drain with them in 2008? Do you understand why, since CheneyBush will not resign, impeachment is the only constitutional way to pry their corrupt, itchy fingers from the levers of power? [...]
This week, persuant to Congressional committee subpoenas for documents with which to investigate various White House scandals, Bush upped the Constitutional crisis. He is preparing to assert in an Executive Order that the Legislative Branch could pass all the contempt citations it wants, but U.S. Attorneys would be instructed not to pursue these criminal charges when the President says that documents are off-limits because of "executive privilege." (www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2007/07/20/executive_privilege/email.html) In short, the Legislative Branch would be receiving no documents, nada, zilch.
Cheney, several weeks earlier, refused to produce documents demanded under law by the National Archives since, he claimed, he was not part of the Executive Branch. Former White House Counsel Harriet Miers likewise refused for the second time to abide by a subpoena to appear before a House investigatory panel examining the politicized firing of U.S. Attorneys. Yep, "executive privilege" again.
What Bush and Cheney are saying, clearly and arrogantly, is: You'll never get the evidentiary documents or testimony you're looking for. If you want 'em, you'll have to take us to court, and we can stall and appeal forever until one of our hand-picked courts backs our position. Or you can put impeachment back "on the table" and try to get us in front of your House panel, and that ain't gonna happen either. Just lie back and enjoy it. [...]
These guys never learn. They gave up on the one war they might possibly have won--the one in Afghanistan against the Taliban and Al-Qaida--and moved their troops precipitately to Iraq, which was no danger to the U.S.; now the Afghanistan war has flared up again, with the Taliban re-energized. Based on lies and deceits, the CheneyBush Administration invaded and occupied Iraq with no real understanding of that society and with no Plan B in case they ran into trouble; now they're in deep, deep trouble and won't change course.
The CheneyBush desire to start a third war in Iran is absolutely nuts, and will further damage America's military and political position in the region and around the world, and will lead to even more terrorist activity directed at the U.S.
This analysis does not even go into the likelihood that Turkey might well invade Iraq to keep the Kurds from gaining enough military and political strength to move on Kurdistan statehood. Or that the U.S. might unlilaterally attack the resurgent Al-Qaida forces in the northwest tribal areas of Pakistan, or force the Musharaff government to do so, in either instance leading to the fall of that government to Islamist extremists who would then have their hands on deliverable nuclear weaponry. Or that Russia, anxious to slow down the further deterioration of its old empire and influence, including in the Greater Middle East, is starting to take on Western Europe and the U.S. [...]
Short summary: America, the world, can't take much more of the CheneyBush Administration. It's long since time to rein in their extreme assumption and exercise of power, and to bring them into accountability for the high crimes and misdemeanors they've committed. The only Constitutional way of doing that is to institute impeachment hearings in the House. The sooner the better.
We have ran the gamut of-–and sadly sanctioned-–some of the most unconceivable and heinous measures in American history. The Military Commissions Act, The Patriot Act, The Domestic Wiretapping Program, ignored the Geneva Conventions, revoked habeas corpus and engaged in torture. We removed our selves from the world’s courts, attacked and now occupy a country that never posed a grave or imminent danger to our own nation and then failed to adequately care for the pointlessly wounded soldiers, evident by the Walter Reed Hospital debacle.The stuff I left out is good, too. This is the strongest language yet in support of impeachment. It's a little troubling to know that Congressional telephones are in a virtual gridlock with citizens calling to demand impeachment, yet still Congress doesn't get the message. Watch for all hell to break loose when Congress goes into recess in August.
The Justice Department enacted by law and created in 1870, to make certain fair and impartial administration of justice for all Americans was carried out under the law, has been purely politicized. It has been altered and grotesquely mutated into a blanket of immunity for loyalty and allegiance to an autocratic president that has throttled our nation to the point of snuffing out all legitimacy of our national system of jurisprudence.
Alberto Gonzales, the empty suit at the head of the Department of Justice, appointed by President Bush and confirmed by the United States Senate in 2005, not only repeated lies with impunity, but also obediently abdicates his sworn duty. He obsequiously yielded to Bush’s wild assertions of executive privilege and steadfastly refused to pursue Congress’ mandated contempt citations for Harriet Miers and Josh Bolton. Justice, by these lawless actions, is not being served, but is abruptly being handed its hat.
The commutation of I. Scooter Libby, an obstructionist of the law and felon, reminds us that justice is no longer in service in the interest of integrity and impartiality. Justice is now enslaved to the bidding of the Bush Administration and serves only to provide shelter and safe haven for loyal soldiers within a rogue, Mafioso-style executive branch.
Pre-emptive war planning operatives, such as John Yoo, David Addington, Paul Wolfowitz, the infamous “Torture Memo”, the radical “Unitary Executive Theory”, unconstitutional signing statements, the shocking Abu Ghraib torture pictures, The Project for a New America Century’s outlandish, 1998 white paper entitled, Rebuilding America’s Defenses, all signify we are on an inexorable march towards dictatorship.
It should now be brutally apparent and undoubtedly understood by all that the Bush Administration is not merely above the law; it is the law. Our seven-year autocracy has now morphed into full despotism. Bush and his actors of austerity, beyond all doubt, are desperados who are unrestrained and unfettered, severing all ties with restraint and decency, decorum and sound judgment. The nascent Nixon enterprising years of imperialism and lawlessness are feeble by contrast. [...]
Thirty plus years after Nixon's failed coup d'état, George W. Bush has taken the idea of a tyrannical, presidential despot, at the helm of the Executive Branch, to dizzying heights and abject lows in America in the 21st century. Bush has now fully entrenched himself-–in a twisted, extravagant, bravado-ridden version of Richard Nixon-–by stonewalling every action Congress takes, as a totalitarian ruler, more bellicose and bombastic than his previous six years of pompous swagger and reckless governing.
The juxtaposition of these two loggerheads-–an ineffectual Congress and an imperial President-–leads to the will of the people being usurped, subjugated, and silenced. The People no longer have a voice in this government, for it is no longer our government as much as it is no longer a democracy. What America has become is an autocracy operated by lobbyists, mega-corporations, the military-industrial complex, and the whores in Washington that these power brokers, in a very fascist way, have bought politicians’ loyalty, acquiescence, and obedience. Contrary to the revisionist history so may of us are indoctrinated with, and unswervingly clutch to without reason or true examination of the facts, is our nation is run by an oligarchy. [...]
Here is the straightforward reason why impeachment is a mandate to return to a working democracy: No matter what legislation Congress passes, Bush will veto it, ignore it, or add a dubious “signing statement”, making unilateral claims he may disregard it or claim the bill is "unconstitutional", plainly bypassing the judicial process of the Supreme Court, as well. As many historians have appropriately point out, not even King George III of England had or assumed these kinds of authoritarian powers.
The fabric of democracy is feeling the strain and we must unburden our country, through impeachment, from a despotic president and a dangerous vice-president who uses fear and subjugation to rule by and not the rule of law to govern our nation by. There can and must be far more significant consequences for all of these abuses of power and executive anarchy, or the actions of Bush and Cheney will simply become historical precedence for future abuses by future presidents, whether a republican or a democrat.
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Update: The more I think about it, the more convinced I've become that when Congress recesses in August, you'll have that black bag "terrorist attack" which is the prelude to the attack on Iran. Iran has recently been a party to some secret oil and natural gas deals which cut the United States out entirely. Because of that, I've come to think our attack plan, that of "over the shoulder bombing" with nuclear armed ballistic missiles, isn't designed to take out underground bunkers, which probably don't even exist: it's designed to destroy the underground infrastructure and render the natural resources unusable, since if we can't have it, nobody can.
Therefore, if Congress doesn't unseat Bush and Cheney before it goes on vacation next month, global nuclear war could have ended by the time it is scheduled to reconvene. I'm sure not one individual in Congress has considered this is possible. I wonder if any legislators will be left alive.
Update II: Compare my post with the one dated Thursday, July 26, 2007 on The Next Hurrah and the comments. Am I the only person on earth who studied history? In the 1990s when Bush was running and Cheney showed his ugly face, I told people if he got elected his administration would be Nixon Remixed/Homage for Milhous, and in those words. I warned of budgetary deficit and inflation. I was one trillion percent correct, and people ignored me then as now. I get really sick and tired of being so far ahead of the learning curve. There's certainly no big trick to it! I never find myself in a position to say to anyone, "I told you so," and would get no satisfaction from it if I did. I sincerely hope I'm wrong when I suggest a good chance things will go pop when Congress goes on vacation. I'm not always right and surely not prophetic; but, I've been right enough that when I make a prediction like that, it scares even me.
