That's the ticket. This is the article I've been waiting for!!
Since the House can't summon the courage to file charges of impeachment against Bush and Cheney, the steps outlined by Mr. Rall are exactly what are required. We as a nation cannot let the malfeasance and criminality (now of the books with the "Patriot Act" and all the other Orwellian laws, enactments, signing statements, etc.) stand to do continuing damage to our Constitution and the Bill of Rights. It is our duty to press relentlessly for the Congress to undo the damage and to shun Bush and all his cronies. No visits to Crawford, Texas or ex-Presidents get togethers where G.W. Bush is concerned.

The cornerstone of the neocon agenda has been and remains 9/11, 9/11, 9/11 ad nausem. The buildings in New York were blown up with explosives. Watch the video and you can see that. It's obvious.

No official body has investigated that in a serious way. If you believe they have it means that you have not spent the time to look into it. You should do so, because the events of 9/11 rank right up there with the Supreme Court decision of 2000 in taking our nation off the rails.

It would be impossible to fly an airplane into the Pentagon without the military standing down. There is a guided missile cruiser stationed in the Potomac River on 24 hour alert always with the most sophisticated anti aircraft system in the world.

If the events of 9/11 were just a failing of the defense system, why were no military officers disciplined or relieved of command? Several colonels lost their commands over the recent incident where H-bombs were flown over the midwest, yet no one was relieved of duty or demoted over 9/11, and the heads should have rolled, starting with Rumsfeld if the approach to that day was honest.

There has been ample evidence assembled by private citizens to demonstrate that 9/11 could not possibly have been done solely by a gang of religious fanatics operating independently from a cave in Afghanistan.

Why not convene a highly public People's Inquiry and investigate this administration, issue findings, recommend penalties, then go get pizza and see what happens.

There must be justice. That's what we live for. No?

I'll have toppings that celebrate a more digestible democracy.

Geneva Convention protections apply only to "protected persons". Anyone captured under arms must meet strict guidelines in order to qualify as a protected person.

"Article 4 defines who is a Protected person: Persons protected by the Convention are those who, at a given moment and in any manner whatsoever, find themselves, in case of a conflict or occupation, in the hands of a Party to the conflict or Occupying Power of which they are not nationals. But it explicitly excludes Nationals of a State which is not bound by the Convention and the citizens of a neutral state or an allied state if that state has normal diplomatic relations with in the State in whose hands they are." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Geneva_Convention

Obviously the Conventions don't go far enough and should be expanded. Likewise, I would like to see them enforced on nations that refuse to ratify them.

Also, the Clinton administration was also convinced, based on much of the same intelligence used by the Bush administration, that Iraq posed a real and present danger to American interests. The intelligence, in full, was shown to the House and Senate intelligence committees. Members of those committees, after having seen and understood the intelligence, voted to authorize military action. Who lied to whom?

Whoever said they knew lied. They only suspected, and they were wrong, and now we are paying the price. This proves the Preemption Doctrine is wrong, and no nation should be allowed to attack another nation until they have been attacked first. Just as you should never convict, much less punish (and military attack is a punishment), a person of a crime they haven't committed.

Finally, if leading members of an opposition Congress had a shred of real evidence that treaties were being violated or that sworn testimony had been falsified, charges would have been brought. The reality is that both Pelosi and Reid have seen the classified data and, while publicly castigating the President, privately understand that certain courses of action were, and remain, necessary.

No, the reality is that Reid and Pelosi are not opponents of U.S. imperialism abroad and oppression at home. The two major parties seem to be playing a Good Cop/Bad Cop routine, defining the roles so that the population can't agree as to which is which. For instance, you'd define the so-called "liberals" as Bad Cop and I'd define the so-called "conservatives" as Bad Cop, and we'd never agree as to how we're being manipulated, much less agree on how to put a stop to it.

And the word "abuse" is so tired. It is only abuse if you disagree with a particular instance of a signing statement. If abuse were present in sheer numbers, Bill Clinton takes the prize.

The fact that you find the word abuse "tired" is irrelevent, except maybe to a psychotherapist. If you wish to excuse Bush's crimes because you believe Clinton committed more, then all your previous legalistic nit-picking becomes suspect. And if you wish play the numbers game, then it's hard to condemn terrorism, seeing as how militarism has killed far more innocent people.

I am sometimes amazed by the venomous responses to opposing viewpoints I find in the supposedly liberal and progressive, enlightened, blogosphere.

I don't believe you're amazed for a second. Unless you're truly naive.

Much thanks to Ted Rall for having the courage to present his behavior of compulsion to the public, though it be by keyboard interface.

To me further recognition of our compulsions, and most meaningfully further cultivation of our courage is the way to go, though they go hand in hand. A helpful tool to remember, from Thom Hartmann's book Breaking The Code, is:

"THERE'S NO FAILURE, ONLY FEEDBACK; NO MISTAKES, ONLY OUTCOMES."

I present this phrase because it is the basis of the vanguard in the fields of human development, new age spirituality and quantum physics. If adhered to one's listening skills, and thus basis for judgement/mercy and action, become fine tuned, making the answers to what is alive in us and how we can make that aliveness more wonderful clearer to see.

Passivity in actuality is non-existent, as long as we are alive there is something moving - at least on Earth it's this aliveness that counts most, yes? And this moving has been much more than a "sitting on asses". We have consumed comfort food, drink, smoke, sex, music, literature, curled up undercover and screamed bloody murder in the streets. It's of course doing the same thing over and over that makes it compulsive...expecting a different outcome insane.

The political pragmatic of waiting on the next election and stating what the next president must do is compulsive and bridges on insanity, especially with the specter of increased warfare looming (continuing?).

In the terms of physics and social biology, maturity is the ability to do something in more than one way, and to be able to break up the components of historical momentum and put them back together to create a new experience.

One and only one way to do something is the pinnacle of immaturity. My choice for condemning the Bush legacy is through the call for impeachment.

Whether or not the process of impeachment results in conviction in Senate is of no concern for victory and the change of behavior needed for making what is alive in me more wonderful. For:

The Call To Impeach invokes the US Constitution and the behavior I expect of myself and my governmental representatives to follow under obligation of oath to US humanity - in the now and thus influencing policy decisions in the future.

The Call To Impeach is a direct approach (now) to confronting the behavior of the fear-mongers in the White House. Taking a courageous stand, in public and door to door is a way to alleviate the fear manifesting itself in so many un-functional ways as mentioned above. This is possible the most effective way for touching what is alive in the US population and how to find out how to make that more wonderful - perhaps for the first time ever a collective actualization of the pursuit of Happiness!...considering the long trail of tears humanity has suffered due to the denial of it's darkness.

The Call To Impeach's alleviation of fear, through the confrontation with our sadistic side, putting the "war on terror" in realistic perspective, will do more for the health of America than any paper shuffling that merely chooses one group of Insurance company lawyers to give our money to as opposed to another.

The Call To Impeach will further aide America's and all of humanities health by protecting the environment, again, by directly confronting the behavior that is ravaging the atmosphere and ground water with jet fuel exhaust, uranium toxicity and the tortured screams of innocent men, women and children.

Condemn the Bush/Cheney legacy, touch what is alive in you and your neighbor and make it more wonderful, enliven the environment, revel in justice: CALL TO IMPEACH BUSH/CHENEY.

"THERE'S NO FAILURE, ONLY FEEDBACK; NO MISTAKES, ONLY OUTCOMES."

Apart from quibbling over the proper scope of executive orders to reverse the depredations of the present criminal regime, I agree with Rall and am pleased to read statements supporting social justice.

I also agree that there's less than a snowball's chance in Hell of it happening. Assuming that Maverick of the Living Dead is sent back to the Land of Shadows, it still won't happen.

Obama will rise to his faux-Lincolnesque heights, and solemnly declare that we must let bygones be bygones in order to undertake the great task of healing before us.

Hillary (gack) will duplicate her spouse's "pragmatic" amoral approach and reject pursuing the multifarious crimes, wrongs, and evils sown by President Unitard and his malign henchpersons in the name of promoting a working bipartisan consensus.

As Rall notes, the breezy dismissal of past wrongs voiced by Maher and others is pervasive, because it seems perfectly sensible to the shallow and superficial proto-thinkers in the majority of the electorate. Including the trolls here, from the minimally literate lizard-brains to the supercilious lecturers.

I hope CommonDreams will allow devil1's comment to remain. It's nice to get an admission from a Bushite that they don't have our best interests at heart.

devil1 April 3rd, 2008 10:11 am
"The first thing I'd do is waterboard Rall & Maher.Then I'd send the lot of you to club GITMO where you belong."

Knowing all the while that we would never do the same to you, somehow you believe you stand with the righteous. Sad or sick truly doesn't matter. Torture remains funny to the insane and numb, because they feel safe to laugh amoung us, the safe ones, the adults.

Regardless of whether Rall is naive, there is a lot the next president could do to un-do much of what Bush has done. The next president would have an attorney general, and if there are lingering questions of crimes committed by the previous president, there would be nothing wrong with investigating and prosecuting them, nothing wrong with asking congress to investigate. Obama has said that he would be in favor of a new investigation of 9/11.

Regardless of the current makeup of the Supreme Court, there is still the power of constitutional amendment, and the next president and congress could participate in a process, and act as cheerleaders, to amend the constitution so as to undo some of the damage, and also to avoid similar damage in the future.

The president could certainly make a list of all the dubious Dubya signing statements, and with some sense of priority, send back to congress a list of those that could be placed into one bill for a new vote and to be signed into law.

We could certainly benefit (as I commented elsewhere on CD today) from a constitutional amendment to restrict, or require confirmation of, certain presidential (and commander-in-chief) decisions while a sitting president is undergoing impeachment. The founders gave us impeachment as a protection, but they never thought we'd have such a sociopath in office, or that our weapons would be so world-destructive, that we might have to restrict the powers of a commander-in-chief while that president is being impeached. Now it's clear that we need that protection.

PF-Flyer April 3rd, 2008 11:03 am ......To follow up on this great suggestion, when Obama accepts the nomination, he should be URGED through letters, calls, emails and whatever it takes, to verbalize these suggestions as PROMISES to WE THE PEOPLE. Let's see if he will walk the talk.

O roe April 3rd, 2008 4:52 am Couldn't agree more, Roe!...UNTIL........BIG UNTIL...WE get off our fat asses and do something about it. This morning, I watched "Planet Earth...Part 1"...BBC. In one segment, they filmed a million acribou migrating across the Canadian tundra...with their calves keeping up as best as possible. The wolves followed, waiting for their chance. They would send out a lone wolf to scatter the herd, hoping a calf would be left behind. The caribou, in fear and intuition, do not realize their numbers could easily overwhelm the wolves. Humans supposedly have the ability to REASON and thereby act in UNISON to defeat a common enemy. We have no excuse. Shame on us!

4. Remove ALL Judicial Appointees of the Bush administration. Including, but not limited to, the 2 Supreme Court appointments.

(While technically this comes under #1, I'm done with language that assumes complete thought. We have to spell it out.)

When governments violate their own laws, it sets a precedent that is likely to be followed by successive administrations, whether they be of the Republican or Democratic stripe. Therefore, just moving on and forgetting about it accomplishes nothing except to entrench this state of affairs more deeply. Ted Rall is absolutely right in his conviction that we should roll back all the policies of the Bush administration. Al Gore has given fiery speeches over this issue. At times, Hillary has emphatically denounced the criminality of the Bushies, as has Obama. Let's hope it's not all a lot of hot air. Maybe Gore could commandeer the Democratic nomination and win in a landslide in November. Wouldn't that be poetic justice?(More like a pipedream)

Incidentally, I do take exception to Zounds 1's characterization of a Cabinet-level position to "...witch hunt the errors and deceits of his/her predecessor".

First of all, it certainly doesn't have to be a cabinet position-- a special prosecutor or task force would do just fine. As long as it's not one of our handy-dandy "blue ribbon commissions" led by the Usual Suspects, "senior statesmen" with the gravitas to seal the truth inside the whited sepulcher of a commission report.

More importantly, it's absolutely wrong to casually describe such undertakings as a "witch hunt". A witch hunt is the polar opposite of what Rall is seeking, insofar as it suggests draconian authorities accusing and punishing innocent victims. The rogues and reprobates occupying positions of power in the present criminal maladministration left innocence behind long ago.

Even if a legitimate authority were convened to pursue the myriad crimes and evils of the gang in power, one would expect the canard of "witch hunt" to be voiced by the corporate media infotainwhore celebrities. But that's a bogus meme that is best not reinforced.

Excellent article. Extremely valid points. Everything said is on the money, completely true, and couldn't have been stated better. There's just one problem:

It ain't ever, ever, gonna happen.

Dream the hell on.

Thank you, Ted Rall, for saying this -- it needed to be said.

Obviously I have no quarrel with the spirit of this article.

Legalistically speaking though, would the Supreme Court rule in favor of initiatives 1, 2, and 3 when their challenges reach it?

Would the Supreme Court rule, in essence, that IT handed down an UNCONSTITUTIONAL ruling in December of 2000?

I have a hard time picturing how this would work.

The civil population has the right to rise up in defense of the constitutional order.

This is in our 'founding document' also. Look for 'overthrow the tyrant' in the Declaration of Independence.

if anyone needs a coconspirator in the overthrow of the bush administration, drop me a line.

-a citizen

If the election is cancelled, we're gonna miss ya Ted.

I think the back story to the Democrats primary is that all the votes will be counted. Unlike 2000 and 2004. I remember Dec. 8 2000 it was my birthday and it was a sad day. I was so ready for John Kerry to launch an investigation with the team of lawyers. He did'nt and by then you realized it was an empire of dirt.

When Dick said "So," here recently that was a harken back to the fact they took it illegally and have been stealing ever since.

national security presidential directive no. 51

I saw Bush, Cheney and Rice doing the perp walk out of the White House. I saw the trial. I saw the verdict. Guilty!
I saw them arrive at Guantanamo to serve their time.
Then I woke up, no longer able to "dream the hell on" as Demonstorm said.
Rall's three steps are simple, moral and necessary. But, again, what likelihood that any of the presidential contenders would do any of those things?

This is a valid statement, but both parties of Congress have been complicit in the Bush crimes !

You can either attempt a "start over" with a brash Obama or you can muddle around with no leadership (because Hillary is a follower, not a leader) or you can ratify everything Bush has done by allowing the country to elect McCain. Two big details on this:

1) The Bosnia landing story Mrs. Clinton told has rendered her absolutely (and easily) swift-boatable because of its profound disrespect of the GOOD job the military did in protecting her every day she was first lady. There are no longer enough dumb women in America to elect her--they will defect with their men on this one act of too-ignorant-to-be-
Commander-in-Chief grandstanding. Dems are done if she's nominated.

2) John McCain is defeatable (unless Hillary is nominated) on the incongruence with social conservatism and family values which is demonstrated on 25 years of profiting from wholesale beer while serving the same 25 years in Congress.
Church folks WILL move to Obama as they learn about the beer sold by Hensley and Company, Cindy McCain, Chairman.

When a ruler seizes office by extralegal means he rules the same way. Because he does not derive his power from the people–indeed, his rule relies on their passivity–he is not beholden to them.

You know, I'm beginning to get the feeling strange women lying in ponds distributing swords would, indeed, be a better system than what we're stuck with.

Ted Rall should really move on and stop bitching about how the chairs were arranged on the deck of the Titanic.

2000 used to upset me too. Not anymore. Gore/Lieberman would've just been a hypocritical version of Bush/Cheney, with the same Empire-building, genocide-of-innocent-civilians policies for the advancement of corporate profit overseas (Clinton bombed Iraq for 8 years, and remember Kosovo?) and with more anti-labor measures like NAFTA/GATT for Americans here. At least Bush is a criminal and doesn't pretend to be the opposite, like Dems.

Gore's cowardly behavior (and Clinton's) after all the evidence of election fraud was reason enough to abandon Democrats in 2000, but I stayed with them for another 4 years. Then Kerry finally made me get the message:

Republicans and Democrats are part of a decades-old charade to fool voters into believing we actually have a choice. We don't. Look at this Congress, look at Pelosi and Reid.

VOTE THIRD PARTY, VOTE INDEPENDENT.

Well, one of the major faults of the Bush administration and its ideological enablers has been the federal executive's asserting authority it does not have and exercising power that it does not lawfully have. Initiative No. 1 would be such an exercise: the executive branch of the federal governnment has no authority to "declar[e]all [or indeed any] laws and actions undertaken by the Bush Administration, the states and local municipalities (because many state and local ordinances are influenced by national politics) between January 2001 and January 2009 null and void." Nor does the federal legislative branch have authority to "declar[e]all [or indeed any]laws and actions undertaken by . . . the states and local municipalities (because many state and local ordinances are influenced by national politics) between January 2001 and January 2009 null and void."

There are no apocalyptic, one-stroke solutions to the errors committed by both parties, and all three branches, of the federal government over more than the past 7 years. Overcoming those errors is by no means assured. Relying on magic bullets to do so is assured to fail.

We're either in it for the long haul, or we're defeated.

I like the women lying in ponds idea. leave the swords out of it though, wine, grapes and cheeze would be lots better.

Keep dreaming!
The Democrats do not plan on reversing any of these things if they get in power because they also want to use them. They could have reversed a lot of it already if they had the desire to.

All good points, Ted.

I wish our country's troubles were confined to just a rogue president.

But we also have a money-corrupted Congress and mainstream news media that is incapable of challenging rogue presidents.

Bush's agendas should've been halted or at least slowed down by Congress and the MSM, over these past 8yrs. The fact that it wasn't means our problems aren't gonna end with getting rid of the present Pretender. Our government and media Systems are now dominated at every level by pretenders. No easy way to fix this much brokenness.....

America needs much more than just a new president. The new president will be more like a relief driver of a runaway train. America needs fundamental change in how today's politicians do their business in D.C. Today, the voice of the 'people' falls on ears that have been bought by corporate America. The needs of corporate America are more important to our political whores in D.C. than the needs of middle class America. Our politicians are a bunch of Benedict Arnold's.
Hoa binh

I think I'd rather be lying somewhere a little less - WET - whether delivering swords or engaging in Kem Patrick's fantasy (which is a good one).

Wouldn't it be nice if the solution to this mess was as simple as what Ted proposes. I wonder what we'd all be proposing if we knew everything that's in the works, or in place already, that we don't know.

so much baby talk.

every brother and sister has a duty to

humanity to resist oppression.

but fail in this and then, not content to

merely live in servitude, amuse

yourselves and demonstrate your

superiority by tearing down the efforts

of the courageous.

wallow in the muck of defeat, of fascism,

of tyranny.

suck it in, drink it down.

Good article, the blowback from 8 years of neoconservatism is coming.

I used to be a big fan of Maher, he lost me several years ago after showing his true colors. He's a creature of the system.

And sorry, but we aren't going to BE like the former USSR. We already ARE like the USSR...Only difference between the Soviet Union and America is we have STUFF.

bush/cheney need to be impeached now. Everyday they are not, they gain more power. Why aren't we seeing signs posted all over the country? We need to tell Congress if they don't put impeachment back on the table, they won't get our vote in Nov - period. If cheney has something on them and they are afraid to impeach (or do anything for that matter) then don't you think that he'll use it anyway when he's out of office? They might as well take him down with them. I know, I know, he's not planning on leaving anytime soon.

"If we sit on our asses, as we've done since that weird, soul-crushing day in late December of 2000, illegality will be hardwired into the U.S. government."

I would say it's much too late for that... in fact, it's 60 years too late for that. The US became a criminal state when they nuked Japan... The move to being a criminal state continued through the 50's with the CIA getting involved in peddling fascism throughout the world... and finally solidified with the assassination of JFK...

Also, I would say it's quite naive to believe that the new president will roll-back anything Bush and Cheney has done. It's just not going to happen. You have to think that all the people of power in the states are one big incestuous family. There will be no serious investigations. There may be some "show" trials that result in some low-level people being convicted but nobody of significance will be put in the dock... Why? Because they know too much. If Cheney was hung out to dry, he could take down SO many others with him... therefore, he'll never face justice. Same with Bush...

Give 'em Hell, Ted!

and don't forget about Limbaugh, Coulter, and Hannity, and all the other whores of the forces of reaction

Looking around and listening to many opinions and ideas here and elsewhere, it is evident that the majority in this country need a much bigger shock, or set of shocks, than have already been received to break the tremendous spell of denial we/they are presently under.

That essentially means we must suffer a much greater loss in oder to wake up. And it's ultimately up to us how we handle the 'truth' after that. Will we kill each other, or work together toward what we know is right, meaning toward a greater good where the many walls of division are torn down? Given human nature, the outlook does not seem too good.

Either way it is likely the 'empire' will crumble into chaos. One can hope that a more compassionate country arises from the ashes of this Phoenix. But only time will tell.

Kucinich would have done much of what Ted suggested. I'm still voting for him, because the idealistic part of me believes in peace.

But the reptile-brain part of me believes in agression, and directed by the "higher" cortical functions, I'd advocate directing that agression toward the MSM: protest voluably at their offices and studios, splatter their newsvans and newspaper racks with bloody handprints (OK, hyperbole - red paint), go to public places that have TV showing (sports-bars, etc.) and when the talking-heads come on, scream out "liars" as loudly as you can.

Mr. Rall once again displays his woeful civic ignorance.

First, if the Supreme Court says something is legal then it's legal. Period. That's why they're the SUPREME Court. Until some other court comes along and overturns a previous decision, which rarely happens, Supreme Court decisions are sacred.

Next, the power of an executive order does not extend to nullification of laws duly passed by Congress and signed by other presidents. I'm not even sure such powers extend after declaration of martial law, which is itself highly limited. So, the nullification of 8 years of law is a fantasy you'd expect from someone with a teenage mentality.

The power of an executive order CERTAINLY doesn't extend to the ability of a president to nullify state and local laws. In spite of an ever encroaching federal government, states do still have some rights.

The president could, of course, propose reparation payments in a budget or request a bill be passed by Congress to offer such. But the President can't actually commit the United States to such payments on his own authority.

US troops in some lands are there by treaty agreement or under the auspices of the United Nations. The president does not have the authority to abrogate treaties without the consent of Congress.

It is silly, childish screeds like this one that will forever keep Mr. Rall confined to the comics pages of marginal inner city publications.

"Who wouldn't want to read their political opponents' email and listen to their phone calls?"

Ralph Nader wouldn't.

Ron Paul wouldn't.

Cynthia McKinney wouldn't.

I wouldn't.

OK,my brilliant posters, Rall is perhaps a bit naive!!!!... but why snipe at his earnestness? .....elmysterio, dmaddox 5: have you perused Naomi Klein's book:The Shock Doctrine? an eyeopener that defines the last 30plus years!!!!

I'm in agreement with Rall's overall disgust with the Bush administration. But I agree with dmaddox5 that at two of Rall's specific suggestions are dubious.

[1]Executive orders can't nullify congressional statues (dmaddox5 is absolutely correct on this)

[2]Any new president would be ill-advised to try, and probably legally barred from, establishing a cabinet level department to witch hunt the errors and deceits of his/her predecessor.

On the other hand, dmaddox5 apparently doesn't think that Bush has abrogated Geneva Convention proscriptions against torture (most constitutional and int'l law scholars disagree); nor does he seem concerned that there is enough evidence in the public domain to require impeachment (i.e.,congressional investigation) of Bush for manipulating [and lying about] the intelligence findings he used to justify the Iraq invasion.

If some of Ralls' specific correctional suggestions reflect Ralls proceedural ignorance, then that should be acknowledged. But dmaddox5's omission of any legal criticism of Bush's many brazen, arguably extra-constitutional maneuvers, seems to reflect very selective fault-finding by dmaddox5, against Ralls and in favor of Bush.

Screw Dubya and screw the Supreme Court. The best way to handle Dubya and the mess he has made is to make him and his ilk totally irrelevant, which Hillary will probably do anyway as she believes in doing things differently from him. I know all you naysayers will bring up the Iraq war, but lets not forget, she is a Senator from NY and it was her yard that was grievously violated by the Islamic radicals and their joy-riding plane-bomb exercusion. She has "played ball" long enough with the boys to know how to play the game and how to beat them at their own game. She's a fool no more.
And further more, Hillary should stay in the run for the President if for no other reason than to give the remaining states and their voters a real choice in the primary. AND, if a boy with Hillary's numbers were running, NO one would ask him to bow out; the boys only do that to the girls, but this girl knows better and has a real shot at the brass ring. GO HILLARY, GO!

Democrats' failures to challenge the stolen elections of 2000 and 2004 have been compounded, and sealed, by their unwillingness to impeach the war criminals running this country. They are complicit in shattering our republic.

Only a truly horrific "perfect storm" of financial and environmental disasters (coming in the next few years) will provoke Americans to finally wake up to our awful situation. And by then, it will be too late. Of course, if the "Masters of War" attack Iran soon, we won't have to wait for that "perfect storm."

It's just all come a bit too far and become far too dysfunctional for future Presidential proclamations and judicial redemptions, regardless of the limitations and the (perceived) realities of Ted's dream. Like Mussolini and his cabal of fascists, our fascists will also have to be physically removed, dragged through the town behind vehicles and hung by their jackboots at a gas station (fitting) before they are ever truly relinquished of their power. This now toxic form of government must be completely torn down and then rebuilt, honoring the original model/tenets. Maybe our children's children will have the backbone - it obviously isn't present in our generation.

They say the drunk will never change until he/she comes to the absolute miserable end of their denial. This will happen to the United States, and these things will come to be, or it is, simply the end of America.

ZOUNDS good rebuttal to DMADDOX, our resident "authoritarian" du jour. This Supreme Court is to justice what our "intelligence" anticipating 911 was to same. When any branch of government demonstrates malfeasance and incompetence, and runs against the duty (to uphold the Constitution and the rights therein) it is obliged to honor, then it SHOULD be rescinded! For all the illegalities of the past 7 years, the idea of rescinding sounds EXCELLENT to me. New laws have been developed since the inception of our nation, and it's not impossible to see some type of law evolve that seeks to undo that which was done on the basis of OUTRIGHT fraud.

This Supreme Court and Bush have a quid pro quo relationship. They put him in, he rubber stamps authoritarian clones who in turn support every decision he does. If any step out of line, they are investigated (that obscene attempt to get rid of their own Republican attorney generals!) and tossed overboard. This group act as the antithesis to democracy or fair representation, they are about war profits, big pharma blood $, and oil. ONLY those with big bucks get seen, heard or respected. That is NOT what this nation is intended for... it's governors act like the same kind of currupt CEOS of Enron and his ilk... so many insiders have been convicted of fraud or money laundering of one type of another. The disease has taken over the 3 branches and could well bring the whole tree down. Rescind in this case is equivalent to emergency medical attempts to revive the near corpse of this nation's body.