Cheney, Torture and the Chance to Restore the Rule of Law
The Constitution of the United States is absolutely clear when it comes to matters of torture.
Amendment 8 specifically states that,”Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
Acts of torture are by definition and common understanding — certainly at the time of the drafting of the nation’s essential document and arguably even in this less-enlightened era — cruel and unusual punishments
Vice President Dick Cheney, when he assumed the second most powerful office in the land after the disputed election of 2000, swore an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic” and to “bear true faith and allegiance to the same.”
Any reasonable reader of that oath would conclude that Cheney bound himself to abide by the Constitution — and thus to avoid any involvement with the promotion of acts of torture upon detainees of the United States government.
Yet we now know from revelations made by former senior intelligence officials to ABC News and the Associated Press that Cheney and other members of the administration — who apparently took care to insulate President Bush from a series of meetings where CIA interrogation methods were discussed — authorized the use of waterboarding and other generally recognized torture techniques.
There is no question that Cheney violated his oath of office, which bound him to support and defend a Constitution that he disregarded.
The question is: How will responsible Americans respond?
The power to hold Cheney to account rests with Congress.
The power to get Congress to act rests with the American people.
Former Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson, a respected lawyer who has been working with a number of other Constitutional experts and activists, has responded — not just to Cheney’s trashing of the Constitution but to the long list of Bush administration wrongs.
Anderson is circulating a letter that reads:
As patriotic Americans, we believe in knowing the truth about our government. Regardless of political affiliation, we believe in our constitutional democracy. We believe in the rule of law - that no person, regardless of position, is above the law.
We believe in respecting basic human rights - and have been proud to distinguish our nation from those countries where people are kidnapped, disappeared, and tortured.
We believe that in a democracy likes ours, citizens are entitled to know whether government officials are living up to their oaths to defend and preserve the Constitution, and whether they are abusing the human rights of people here or elsewhere in the world.
This is not a partisan matter. It is a matter of responsible citizenship.
Recently, several conscientious members of the House Judiciary Committee, including the Chair, Congressman John Conyers, have indicated support for public hearings to investigate and disclose the facts concerning claims of illegal conduct and other abuses of power by members of the Executive Branch. If misconduct has occurred, the American people are entitled to know. If misconduct has not occurred, hearings will determine and disclose that as well.
By showing that the American people - without political partisanship - support the disclosure of the truth through public hearings, we can make a difference, together standing up for the truth, the rule of law, and our Constitution.
• We are entitled to know whether members of the Executive Branch misrepresented the facts and withheld crucial information, thereby deceiving our nation and the international community before the invasion of Iraq.
• As American citizens who value the system of checks and balances among the three branches of government, we are entitled to know whether that system has been seriously undermined. We are entitled to know whether the courts and Congress have fulfilled their important constitutional roles in investigating and disclosing the misuse of Executive power.
• Our nation has engaged in the unprecedented, illegal, and immoral kidnapping, disappearance, and torture of human beings around the world (some of whom have been proven to be innocent of any wrongdoing), with no due process, in complete secrecy, and with no accountability. Even US citizens have been held in prisons indefinitely, with no legal counsel, no trial, and no charges filed against them. As Americans, we are entitled to know what has occurred in connection with these human rights abuses. In our democratic system of government, there must be full accountability.
Speaking out together, as concerned, patriotic Americans, we can send a clear message to Congress: In the United States, the rule of law must prevail, our Constitution cannot be disregarded, and the fundamental morality to which our nation has always laid claim will be restored.
Anderson asks that Americans who support the principles outlined in this letter — as I do — go to his Restore the Rule of Law website and sign on.
Signing this letter, says Anderson, who has opened an important dialogue about the Constitution and White House accountability with Conyers and other key players on the Judiciary Committee, “indicates to Congressman Conyers, other members of the House Judiciary Committee, and Congress as a whole that you support efforts to investigate and disclose any illegal acts and abuses of power by the President and others in his administration. Declare to the world, and to our posterity, that, as a US citizen:
- You proudly support our long-held constitutional principles.
- You are speaking out to reaffirm our democracy.
- You demand accountability for those in our government who have disregarded our Constitution, violated statutory law, or engaged in immoral human-rights abuses.”
Anderson’s is an authentic patriotic response to the latest revelations about Dick Cheney’s disregard for the Constitution.
Go to the Restore the Rule of Law website and sign on and do what Cheney did not: support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.
John Nichols’ new book is The Genius of Impeachment: The Founders’ Cure for Royalism. Rolling Stone’s Tim Dickinson hails it as a “nervy, acerbic, passionately argued history-cum-polemic [that] combines a rich examination of the parliamentary roots and past use of the ‘heroic medicine’ that is impeachment with a call for Democratic leaders to ‘reclaim and reuse the most vital tool handed to us by the founders for the defense of our most basic liberties.’”
Copyright © 2008 The Nation
Impeach, indict, imprison!
If I Were Elected
I would IMMEDIATELY pull the plug on the “MAIN STREET MEDIA”. I would encourage (and if neccesary) fund independant reporting.
I would IMMEDIATELY pull my troops from any country America was at war with.
I would SLOWLY withdraw my troops from countries America considers “Allies”.
I would ensure the “popular vote” across the board. Paper…no plastic.
I would sit back for a year and see how the world developes.
I would re-arm my troops “to-the-teeth” with whatever they wanted to confront the next battle they may face.
I would sit back and see who (what country) decided to piss me off and then I’d decide (after vote) if that country was deemed to be a detriment to my countrymen.
I would provide a job and a home for EVERY one of our homeless.
You can’t tell me we don’t have the money.
On the domestic front:
Instead of fighting a “war on drugs”, I would institute progams where we teach our children the skills to deal with problems rather than run from them. If Drug Dealers have no customers…they have no market.
Instead of jailing people for domestic crimes I would educate them on the benefits of peaceful resolution.
Vote for Me. Make sure your vote doesn’t count.
Oh well, back to the Constitutional Convention I suppose.
This Constitution has been damaged beyond any recall.
If we put the States back together can we at least cull the Red State Republican Jingos and Evilgelicals?
I just signed on.
All I can say, and my enthusiasm must pale in comparison with those held ILLEGALLY all these years (proven guilty before allowed innocence or a fair representation) is it’s about f–king time!
George W. Bush: “It’s just a goddamned piece of paper!”
Dick Cheney: “SO?!”
Yes, let’s impeach and indict the war criminals in the White House.
However, it may be necessary to impeach Nancy Pelosi first. She is the one violating the Constitution by taking impeachment “off the table”.
We the People can only seek justice when ALL of the Constitution is back on the table.
Dave Dubya- wanna bet money that something will go ‘boom’ in either the US or Israel that forces the cancellation of he elections this November? Along with the implementation of Presidential Directive 51 that will authorize martial law and the COMPLETE suspension of the consttution?
What an interesting ( ¿ foreign ? ) and abstract concept in these (sick) times …
Please ALL, do JOIN with your signatures ( as I’ve done )
Namaste
I’m sorry, but the American people don’t seem to really care what this criminal adminstration has done to our country. I know there are millions of us who do, but there are millions more who don’t. I believe in an earlier time, the American people would have risen up againt this sort of criminal commandeering of thier democracy with zeal. Now it’s like not enough care. I’ve not only been disillusioned by the two political parties, I’ve been disillusioned by the American people as well. Where is the outrage?! If there is hardly a whimper now, what will it take? I’m sorry, but I’ve lost my patience with this nation. I will be a new Canadian citizen in the not too distant future. Good luck, America.
I sent the following to NY Times editors and McClatchy News editors
“Are we undergoing censorship?
After winning a Pulitzer for its coverage of torture, why hasn’t the New York Times carried the info about the National Security Council’s Principals Committee - which included Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Don Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, George Tenet, and John Ashcroft - discussion and approval of very specific details of the “enhanced interrogation techniques” the CIA could use against al Qaeda suspects, down to the number of times they could be slapped, pushed, deprived of sleep or waterboarded.
Why wasn’t Bush’s knowledge and support of these activities covered?
Censorship is alive and well.
AP, ABC, Washingon Post and others (even Fox News) have carried accounts.
Why not you?”
I believe Americans would care if they possessed a higher degree of awareness. Conglomerated corporate media prevents and distorts public awareness.
Read Robert McChesney’s “Communication Revolution” and begin to spread awareness and hope and the idea of activism to those you interact with rather than conceding that Americans don’t seem to care.
Read Naomi Klein’s “Shock Doctrine” to understand how U.S. economic and foreign policy have become so intertwined and destructive around the globe.
Democracy requires a media system better than the one that currently betrays the common good hour after hour, day by day. In the meantime, buck the trend and READ the amazing books available to us by vigilant and concerned investigative journalists and scholars and thinkers. Learn how to avoid the polemicists and the market propagandists who are undermining democracy for personal gain or ideological extremism. Search out the best by those working to restore democracy from the great wounds inflicted upon it. The airwaves should belong to the people, but print media is not lost… yet.
Galen, 1:10 pm - I placed my bets months ago on the scenerio you’ve described. I’m betting come June or July we bomb Iran, and the rest will follow - then John McCain will be appointed Bush’s successor.
Except for nonpresdential candidates like John Fein, Richard Vigorie, Bob Barr,
arch conservatives, I have yet to hear any of the three presidential candidates affirm their commitment to the restoration of the constitution and the bill of rights pre the little monkey. Will any of the three restore habius corpus, the right to privacy? The silence is deafening, and defining.
Yes we’ll probably do Iran. But McCain won’t follow Bush, if that comes to pass. Bush will follow Bush. There will be no november.
When your own president refers to American citizens as consumers, he is, in effect, “infantilising” them, imposing himself as the “father-knows-best” figure. The same holds for Cheney and Co. Do you really wonder then, why so few Americans seem to care? They don’t recognise themselves as involved citizens who have the ability to make their own decisions, especially as regard the “tough” questions such as waterboarding, a tool of the inquisition.
It is such a pity that Harper caved to the US regime and had removed from the diplomats’ handbook, the USA as a nation that tortures.
A comment on the courageous Mayor Rocky Anderson and the call for accountability with respect to the rule of law and the Constitution:
Never mind that White House lawyers, and one or two even on the Supreme Court, are making twisted arguments about how the Bill of Rights’ protections do not apply to non-citizens (as if those rights are not natural but beneficently given by a human government)–and with the Patriot Act, the president can decide to make anyone a non-citizen; and arguing that the Bill of Rights’ prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment does not apply to interrogations prior to trial and punishment (Scalia), and other prevarications.
Consider that the Right has been wrapping itself in the Flag for so long, associating flag-waving with “support for the troops” (i.e. support for what the troops are doing), militarism and so on. Think about that: how the Right has claimed the Flag.
This is a HUGE WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY for the non-Right of America: parallel to what the Right has done with the flag, CLAIM AND OWN THE CONSTITUTION AND BILL OF RIGHTS as iconic symbol, firewall for human rights, core tradition.
At demonstrations against the latest outrages of runaway unlimited executive authority; of escalations in the surveillance state; of justification for torture … WAVE THE BILL OF RIGHTS! LITERALLY WAVE THE PAPER! (Builing on Kucinich carrying his literal copy of the Constitution; Dodd making his central campaign premise “Restoring the Constitution on Day One”; and constitutional law professor Obama pledging unequivocally to restore habeaus corpus, end torture, and restore the rule of law.)
CLAIM IT!
OWN IT!
PUT THE LACKEYS OF THE OCCUPANTS OF THE WHITE HOUSE and their enablers everywhere ON THE DEFENSIVE AGAINST PEOPLE waving and demanding adherence to THE BILL OF RIGHTS!
Imagine a bill introduced in Congress by the Kennedys, Dodds, et al, backed up by the entire Democratic membership and some clear-thinking independent-minded Republicans joining in, making it ILLEGAL to burn or disrespect a copy of the Bill of Rights. This AFTER the Bill of Rights has become a symbol of massive OPPOSITION to the torturers and apologists for runaway presidential executive power and non-congressionally approved executive warmaking.
Historically the Constitution was flawed but nevertheless had checks and balances against runaway executive power. Some of the proponents of the Constitution opposed the Bill of Rights, whereas some who were against the new Constitution (the anti-federalists, who feared what a strong central government might become), once they saw they had lost, made sure the Bill of Rights got in. The Bill of Rights is the shining beacon through the ages in our founding legal document the Constitution. It is the firewall for our land and our time for human liberty and dignity and natural rights.
The present administration and its ideological supporters in the ’90s have been laying the apparatus for tyranny in America–of runaway executive branch power. This is what the Federalist Society means by “separation of powers”–that the judiciary cannot veto or stop the president. This is what is behind the Patriot Act with the president given power to declare citizens non-citizens. This is what is behind the creation of a two-track parallel legal system: the one the traditional one with all the customary legal protections, the other the “war on terror” legal system with its own secret courts, archipelago of secret prisons, and none of the traditional protections. The President can decide into which track, which of these two legal systems, to put any given person. This is the neoconservative, Straussian Shangri-La, the vision of (as they view it) benign all-powerful executive power guided by the wise and the noble philosophers replacing democracy, a redemption of fascism along the Italian model that was so unfortunately given a bad name in history by Mussolini and its variant practitioner Hitler. In this vision the formal structures of the two-party system will remain except it will actually be a one and a half party system, with the Democrats never winning the Presidency again (Congress increasingly is becoming irrelevant, the presidency now is truly almost all that matters), or if through some accident or mistake or fluke a Democrat such as the non-neoconservative, clean, dynamic (i.e. potentially uncontrollable), intelligent Obama–backed by tens of millions of base which are considered a nuisance in the body politic by those who own and control– does get in it will be only briefly prior to discrediting and ditching the non-Republican option for another generation (think Allende, JFK–and assassination is not even necessary; the right spin on an economic crisis can do almost as well [think the early mayor Kucinich of Cleveland]).
COME TO OWN the Bill of Rights!– in the name of resistance to what the Executive Branch has become. It is the firewall. It is the line in the sand. It is the basis upon which to resist. It is the basis around which all parties opposed to what Bush-Cheney have done, all factions, all opposition to torture and tyranny and aggressive foreign policy can unite and make a stand.
Go Rocky Anderson. Thanks Dodd, Kucinich, Gravel, Obama, Kennedy, and any others omitted who have shown serious committment to restoring the rule of law and accountability–the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
“…nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.”
Does that include, for example, an average sentence of 75 months for non-violent drug offenses? Isn’t that “punishment” just a little “cruel and unusual” for smoking a joint?
What is the actual definition of “cruel and unusual” punishment? Can someone like crazy Yoo argue that torturing another human in an effort to extract information does not constitute punishment at all? Could anti-American David Addington (Cheney CoF) point out that the Constitution reads “cruel AND unusual,” then argue that torture maybe be cruel, but not so unusual, so it’s cool?
The neonuts have already redefined torture to mean, basically, if you don’t die, you ain’t been tortured. They will surely come up with some warped definition of “cruel and unusual punishment” that will not only appear to justify their inhumanity, but also retroactively immunize them from future punishment… with another tax break for their “base” attached just to flip We The People yet another bird.
America’s _ c o n s c i o u s n e s s _ is an amazingly diffuse and ineffable {…}.
PLEASE not NOT degeneralize nor attempt to pickpocket into some FORM, that you think one could ever define it.
This is one humongous flaw of the EGO, to always be ATTEMPTing to measure and categorize the ineffable
No matter whatever net of word-forms is sought to attempt to accomplish the job, it cannot capture the formless
We ARE consciousness, and WE cannot be packaged (unless we ALLOW it to occur)
Namaste
Conyers is obviously resisting starting impeachment hearings, but he is completely remiss in not investigating the whole torture issue. Fine, Conyers, don’t impeach, whatever!! But do your job and hold hearings on the torture issue to make sure that the Constitution is being upheld (fat chance). Then, once you find that members of the executive are not upholding the Constitution, you have no choice but to begin impeachment hearings. Sorry, I am so weary from writing to Conyers. What is his problem? When he was in the Minority, in 2002 or 2003, he held unofficial impeachment hearings off Capitol Hill. What has happened to the man? Why is the Judiciary Committee in a state of total stasis? The shame of the whole torture issue will not only accrue to the Bush administration; it will go down in history as a blight on Conyers’ Judiciary Committee, which has refused in its most basic responsibility to make sure justice is being done. Conyers’ is big on Civil Rights and African American rights, but what about the rights of tortured Iraqis and other innocent Muslims of various national backgrounds?? Do they not count in the ongoing struggle for civil rights, or do civil rights only count for “Americans”??? What say you Conyers? J’accuse!!!!!
Apologies for my rant. I just logged on to the HOR Judiciary Committee to write to Conyers about this, and it turns out Conyers will be having hearings about the executive branch’s role in torture on May 6. Let’s hope some truth comes out. Let’s keep the pressure up to give our representatives the boldness they need to hold some moral high ground and defend the Constitution. And even more, the boldness to act upon what they find out: impeachment will be the only valid response.
I have a limited legal knowledge but as a medical practioner I have often considered “equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death” to be a weakness which could be legally exploited in attacking the perpetrators of torture.
In the vast majority of cases, organ failure is in itself painless (although most people would logically think this not to be the case). Heart failure (as opposed to a heart attack) is painless. Liver and kidney failure per se are painless. Organ failure is simply the progressive loss of function of the organ from whatever cause.
“Impairment of bodily function” secondary to, for example a stroke, is painless. While the stroke MAY be painful (eg ruptured aneurysm)most strokes themselves are painless. Nevertheless, the impairment of bodily function is painless.
Death itself,one would expect to be completely painless.
On the basis of this, one strongly suspects a legal case could be made that no pain should be inflicted at all on any prisoners.
Anyone legally more knowledgable than me care to comment?
It sure looks like a partisan issue to me.
Maybe I was just naive for the first 35 years of my life. I actually believed all that crap they taught in school (even if the history we were taught was a bit lacking in certain details) about the U.S.A. being the bastion of freedom and democracy to which all other nations looked.
I remember the cold war. I remember reading about the Nazis and other fascist governments that spied on their people, imprisoned people with dissenting political opinions, and disappeared people out of their homes. I remember being told that this only happened in ‘other’ countries.
It appears to me that there aren’t any within the GOP willing to get righteously pissed off that their party has been hijacked by fascists (just so long as the Christians believe they have an ‘in’ at the White house). Even the Democratic party is severely blind to the fact that their party has been hijacked by the same - albeit with a bit more soft spoken batch. Many on the right grew up during the cold war, and all I hear from them is ‘at least the bleeding heart ‘liberals’ of the Democratic party won’t be allowed to insinuate any of that ‘commie’ stuff, like spending taxpayer dollars on the taxpayers’.
How foolish of me. Tax dollars belong to the banks, the oil companies, and the military contractors… how foolish of me. That’s right… Government is not to defend citizens from force and/or fraud, but rather to obtain and defend property from the poor, at gunpoint if necessary. Law be damned if it can’t be semantically twisted to mean the opposite of what we were promised when it was sold to us.
I would actually believe it was a completely partisan issue if it weren’t for the lack of action on the part of our Democratic congress and senate. But it does seem that the ‘conservatives’ I see in positions of leadership, and a lot of average conservatives I know personally, are absolutely ecstatic at the way things have been run for the last eight years. To ‘diss’ G.W.B. evokes the same response that used to be reserved for dissing Mother Theresa.
I really hope that I am just letting my emotions cloud my perceptions. But I would never have believed the U.S. was capable of such a swift shift toward outright fascism. I guess I didn’t get that from history classes. Now that I look back at the history of Germany and Italy, I see that it didn’t take very long at all. I don’t think we have time to wait around.
Hi Namaste I can get on any thread here, except the 9-11 one, click on that I and get a screen that says page is unavailable. ???????????
Yo KEM, wassup good buddy? You can’t play in the 9/11 sandbox, either?! I thought it was just me. We could continue our discussion here!
Strange, I was going tp reply to another new blogger who said there was no mention of magnesium fires in any official reports and wondered why?
So do I. I’d guess none of the members gave it a second thought, the aircraft burned and that’s all they thought of that. Maybe they didn’t realize how hot magnesium burns. None of th eaircraft parts were ever located to any degree that I ever heard of. They burned up. But don’t think I should mess this thread up with that issue, so will not continue it here.
You are looking at the wrong constitution, what is the constitution of Isarel. That who is running the show boys. Wake up and do the right thing
That picture looks like Jack Nichalson in One Flew Over The CooCoo’s nest.
KEM, you have to log out before you can read the comments on Rovics essay. It looks like you’ve been banned from that thread (as I have). Maybe we all have.
You are correct, that’s Jack in the photo.
Maybe it was my snide comment about (DAMN!) no more streams of D‘NILE ?
Yep, the thread is still weaving around, if you sneak up silently (Indian?) like, as oculus says
I only hope that the writer of this article reads the comments before the letter gets wide circulation; the Founder and Framers most emphatically gave Americans a REPUBLIC, and NOT A DEMOCRACY, which form of government was completely despised by them.
If not, does anyone know how to directly e-mail him?
I have about a dozen quotes from Founders to back it up, if interested; here are two, for starters:
Just after the completion and signing of the Constitution, in reply to a woman’s inquiry as to the type of government the Founders had created, Benjamin Franklin said, “A Republic, if you can keep it.”
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
“Democracies have ever been spectacles of turbulence and contention; have ever been found incompatible with personal security or the rights of property; and have in general been as short in their lives as they have been violent in their deaths…”,
“We may define a republic to be … a government which derives all its powers directly or indirectly from the great body of the people, and is administered by persons holding their offices during pleasure for a limited period, or during good behavior. It is essential to such a government that it be derived from the great body of the society, not from an inconsiderable proportion or a favored class of it; otherwise a handful of tyrannical nobles, exercising their oppressions by a delegation of their powers, might aspire to the rank of republicans and claim for their government the honorable title of republic.” James Madison, Federalist No. 10, 1787.
To cite more from the article from which these quotes came:
“A Republic is representative government ruled by law (the Constitution). A democracy is direct government ruled by the majority (mob rule). A Republic recognizes the inalienable rights of individuals, while democracies are only concerned with group wants or needs (the public good).
Lawmaking is a slow, deliberate process in our Constitutional Republic, requiring approval from the three branches of government, the Supreme Court, and individual jurors (jury-nullification). Lawmaking in our unlawful democracy occurs rapidly, requiring approval from the whim of the majority as determined by polls and/or voter referendums. A good example of democracy in action is a lynch mob.
Democracies always self-destruct when the non-productive majority realizes that it can vote itself handouts from the productive minority by electing the candidate promising the most benefits from the public treasury. To maintain their power, these candidates must adopt an ever-increasing tax and spend policy to satisfy the ever-increasing desires of the majority. As taxes increase, incentive to produce decreases, causing many of the once-productive to drop out and join the non-productive. When there are no longer enough producers to fund the legitimate functions of government and the socialist programs, the democracy will collapse, always to be followed by a Dictatorship.
Even though nearly every politician, teacher, journalist, and citizen believes that our Founders created a democracy, it is absolutely not true. The Founders knew full well the differences between a Republic and a Democracy, and they repeatedly and emphatically said that they had founded a Republic.
Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution “guarantees to every state in this union a Republican form of government”…. Conversely, the word Democracy is not mentioned even once in the Constitution.”
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Warmest regards-
Hatman
Well, having a READ-ONLY thread
is so much better than a
W.R.I.T.E-ONLY thread, ehhh ?
[ RITE makes RIGHT, makes WRONG ]
I am a big fan of Rocky Anderson. And I’ve signed his letter. However, given the track record of a duplicitous Congress in passing oppressive measure after measure in direct violation of the Constitution, there is no hope that our elected officials will respond. We must use the one stick we have as “consumers and producers” to force Congress to act. Only a nationwide strike that stops all commerce will get the attention of the powers that be (big business, big government, etc.). We need someone like Rocky Anderson to champion the effort to coordinate A NATIONAL STRIKE. A person of stature, like Rocky Anderson, needs to get UNION BOSSES, VOTER COALITIONS, GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATIONS, and PROGRESSIVE BLOGGERS (MOVEON.org, BRAD Blog, DAILYKOS, MICHAEL MOORE, etc. on board to advertise the strike by calling on Americans to strike for the Rule of Law.
American Sheeple:
You won’t get rule of law with Obama/Billary, because they are part of the Complicit Pry, aka Democratic Party.
I say: Impeach, indict, imprison!
826 comments, we’ll have to wait for another like aritcle to fight it out.
It was him,…….LOL. Cheney should be there………..Except he’d be the crazy nurse.
BOOKER 1: I agree with your position. It’s true that many Americans lack “intellectual curiosity” and take their news the way someone hits the drive-through for “nutrition.” If those in media cared about the quality of life for the majority, they would not manufacture food for thought that’s the equivalent of empty calories.
SCROLLER: Very moving posting (and good historical argument) on our fraying Bill of Rights. (I think I’ll carry a copy.)
FRANK 1569: Television survival shows, or cops bust down doors shows have done an end run around “cruel and unusual.” Currently cruel IS usual.
KOGWONTON: Modern America does have a “Twilight Zone” feeling… how does that expression go, that a paranoid is not necessarily wrong about the evidence (for his/her “condition”). Maybe that’ll be the next made-for-television advertising drug of designated du jour fame:
“Are you wondering what’s happened to your nation, do you find yourself worrying more? Are you also having trouble sleeping? Think all those people in suits who look alike are staring at you? Then you need to try… (state name of product preferably with a title that simulates a Greek state of near-satori), etc.”
It’s amazing really, the way the Constitution is being quoted. It’s as if it had some magical power, that some god would strike down those who flaunt it. You wish!
Bush walks all over it. The Corporation and the Media support him. He’s able to do this because the Constitution allows him to. It is lacking. It wasn’t written to cope with someone like George and his mates. It needs to be changed.
Then whole bloody political system in America needs to be changed. It’s a farce. A dangerous one!
David
Flout is the word.
And I totally disagree with you about the document. It does not need to be changed, it needs to be obeyed by those who have taken the federal oath.
It is not broken, it is under duress.
And it does not authorize the president to do what you claim.
dglow -I quite agree that congress has a track record that is not encouraging. Congress has had years to address the misdeeds of the administration. When Bill Clinton did offend public sensibility and violate laws by being deceptive under oath, even democrats were willing to agree that he had done wrong. Now it appears that most republicans and many democrats are unwilling or afraid to condemn this administrations outrageous misconduct.
As federal officials, public officials, members of congress may be in violation of federal laws as co-conspirators, accomplices, or accessories to the crimes of the administration. It appears that the administration has the judiciary and justice departments involved and complicit as well so no federal prosecution is likely. This leaves the individual state courts and foreign courts as the only jurisdictions not corrupted and under administration control.
It seems likely that many members of congress have violated state criminal law in conspiring to defraud the citizens of the state, in conspiring to corrupt the electoral process, and in conspiring to commit kidnapping, mayhem, torture and murder. Somewhere besides Spain there must be a prosecutor who has the resources and courage to impanel a grand jury and subpoena testimony.
How about it? Brattleboro has asked to have Bush and Cheney arrested if they come to town, but as a practical matter that can’t happen. What about arrest warrants for the members of congress who refuse to do their duty and who may well be regarded as accomplices and co-conspirators in the crimes which are common knowledge.
Former US Attorney Elizabeth de la Vega has written the indictment against Bush and Cheney, it seems clear that Pelosi has known of the plans and actions of Bush and Cheney since shortly after the 2001 assumption of office therefore it seems that she is a co-conspirator in the violation of the FISA wiretapping law and probably violating state anti-evesdropping laws.
How about it, any district attorneys want to write a book, draft the indictments, etc?
We have to impeach the criminals to restore the rule of law in Washington and reverse the slow-motion ongoing train wreck that is “laissez-faire” capitalism.
“When Bill Clinton did offend public sensibility and violate laws by being deceptive under oath, even democrats were willing to agree that he had done wrong. Now it appears that most republicans and many democrats are unwilling or afraid to condemn this administrations outrageous misconduct.”
Ed46, it is absolutely amazing that the American public in general isn’t outraged by the misdeeds of this misadministration. The repugs didn’t hesitate to initiate impeachment proceedings against Bill Clinton for his perjuring himself about a consentual sexual encounter between two adults. However, there seems to be a double standard when it comes to the administration of justice to one of their own. First, Preznit Bu$h himself lied to the entire nation as well as congress concerning the reasons for going to war with Iraq. Where Bill Clinton may have caused a bit of embarressment, Bu$h has caused the deaths of over 4000 American soldiers and over one million innocent Iraqi civilians by his lies. Further, when one of their own, Scooter Libby was CONVICTED and sentenced to prison for the same thing, perjury, except Libby outed a CIA agent and endanged her life as well as national security, Bu$h pardoned him.
This administration has made a mockery of our system of laws, and done it in a very “in your face” manner. It is past time for investigations, which will certainly lead to charges (we don’t really even need investigations to initiate the filing of charges for illegal wiretapping, lying about the reasons to go to war, and torture, those have been admitted to and flaunted) and should lead to indictment, trial and imprisonment at the very least. Anything short of this amounts to criminal action by congress and should be regarded and treated as such!
This did not really start with 9/11 as much as it did with the Supreme Court decision in the 2000 election. Read the minority opinions of the justices at the Supreme Court, then tell me that we should’nt start proceedings there first.
Dick Cheney might be descended from King Richard the Lion Hearted who led the 3rd crusades in the year 119 0. Richard was assured that the Crusades would bring back Jesus to lead the fight in the battle of Armageddon. He was disappointed.
Today, our Dick, is simply playing his role in bringing us the latest Crusades, the 9th, which started on 9/11, in the first year of the 6th millenium, also said to be the birthday of Jesus (9/11, 3 BC).
Take what follows as the product of an overactive imagination, fantasy, or a prophecy, as you wish.
Maybe they may have figured out Jesus won’t be coming, so they could arrange an End Times themselves to globalize us and fulfill some hidden agendas. Think about all the Left Behind crap over the last 15 years, which has prepared people to actually look forward to it and not resist.
It also has served to get support our agenda in the Middle East and support for Israel.
The anti-christ, according to a 16th century protestant tract, will be the Pope, or the Pope will at least recognize the Anti-Christ. This was at a time when England and the Pope and the Catholic Church were not getting along. Some non-Catholics believe the Roman Catholic Church is the Great Whore referred to in the Revelations. JFK was the only Catholic President, RFK would have been the 2nd, and JFK Jr might have been a 3rd. So 3 catholic presidents from 1 family finished off. JFK got done on 11-22-63 (another 11).
Pope John Paul I was said to be assassinated in 1978, and he lasted 33 days after his election (a magic number for Masons). In 1958, the Cardinals were blackmailed into voting for an alleged Mason, an obscure Cardinal nobody expected to be in the running, who then repealed the Churchs ban on Masonry in 1962, and withheld the 3rd Secret of the Lady of Fatima which was supposed to be released in 1960, but was withheld until 2000, and released by Pope John Paul II. It can be interpreted as the end of the Catholic Church after a city with big buildings was attacked (9/11). It is suspected this was not the original prophecy, but was certainly prophetic.
Pope Ratzinger will meet with Bush on Wednesday. He may even have known some of GWB’s relatives from his days with the Nazi’s. Might he be getting his instructions?
Ratzinger is the 111th Pope (see how these 11’s keep popping up). According to the St Malachy Prophecy, there will be only one other pope before the end times. I believe that Pope Ratzinger could be the Pope who will lead the world and one billion Catholics to accept and follow The Antichrist, The Beast, 666.
If this happens then Pope 111 will likely meet with an untimely death and be replaced with Pope 112, “Peter The Roman” who will be the last Pope at the End Times. If he is not the doomsday pope, he may soon be replaced by Pope 112, Peter the Roman, the last pope, who will be. I do not believe in prophecies, but I believe some use them to deceive people, and they become self-fulfilling by accident or design.
How they pull off the rapture should be interesting (how about those recent airplane inspections, seems strange, hmmm). The 7 years of tribulation then follows (or maybe 7 months if they are in a hurry), unless we consider this the 7th year of the tribulation which started on 9/11, 2001. Tony Blair recently converted to Catholicism, thanks to Ratzinger. Despite his being behind Iraq and has blood on his hands he was allowed to do so, and his name comes up a lot as someone who might be the leader of the new Global Government in the UN. Some wonder of Pope John Paul II might have been helped along for this reason, since he was very opposed to the Iraq war. The head of the Global Government, whomever it is, will likely be the anti-christ, or so the Christian Right will believe, as they eagerly await the return of Jesus. Most will wonder why they were not raptured, but will readily accept the mark of the beast, waiting, waiting, waiting, for the return of Christ who will save them. So they will hope.
Following the Tribulation, those who survive will be assigned to various global companies to work, if they want to eat, some will be sex toys, many will be relocated to other countries, and families will be broken up. Those of inferior races, go to the ovens, as do those who can not work (you don’t work,you dont eat, so said Stalin, another of our creations) or are not needed, and 9/11 Truthers and anti-globalists. This will get the population down to about 600 million, to serve 600,000, and relieve the stress on Mother Earth. Too bad for the 6 billion who were “raptured”. 666.
Underground cities have been said to have been built for those 600,000, where they can wait out the worst years when their lives might be endangered. You will still see your leaders on TV where they will tell you all is well, it’s almost over, until the end. The others will be presumed to be raptured.
If not true, it would make a good movie anyways. If true, I don’t think impeachment is going to work. Obviously, I do hope it is not.
OBAMA ’S HYPOCRICY: WAS HE EVER PAPTIZED?:
Farhat Maquami
The
I BELIEVE that Obama is the best Marketing tool invented by Multinational Corporations to sell America to the world after 8 years of debacles and shameless destruction to the US image in the world. I support the efforts of the CNN and MSNBC to push Obama over Hillary.
What I am against is the orchestrated attempt of the Media to fool the public and push an image of Obama that is not true.; therefore depriving American electorate to make an educated choice! When the same media that pushed for the War in Iraq and the same pundits who unquestionably defended the War in their SITUATION ROOMS, we have to be skeptical of their choice!
I don’t care if Obama is Muslim or Christian . What I care if a man is telling the truth or is shaping the truth so it fits his goal. We immigrants do everything to get ahead, but this is not a business adventure. This is the Presidency of the United States and for God’s sake take it more seriously.
OBAMA was introduce to Christianity in his early twenties , introduced but never Baptized! He worked for the Church, went to the Church, sit in the Church, even listened to some of the sermons of Reverend Wright, but was never officially converted to Christianity!
I am so surprised of the superficiality of analyzing Obama ’s background in the media. MSNBC is enchanted with Obama, as the first son of a Kenyan-American who can pass as black Americans , how can get their backing without sharing their history!
I am a Muslim-American and like every progressive liberal democrat would like to see Obama as president, it would be very good for image of the US abroad However, I have a problem with Obama and that is his opportunism and hypocrisy.
He says he believe in Jesus, so does every Muslim. But, the question is when was he baptized. To become a Muslim you must have a Muslim name and to be baptized as Christian Obama like every other CHRISTIAN should have been baptized somewhere.
He has a Muslim name Barak and Hussein, in what church , where and by whom he was baptized as a Christian?
The son a Muslim is always a Muslim, that is the law of Sharia! I would like to know when and at what church, a son of a Muslim Father and a Devote Muslim Muslim step dad converted to Christianity.
I went to Jeremiah Wright Church at the age of 23 is not good enough. Muslims have nothing against Christianity and by choice anyone can attend and should attend other religions sermons and respect them , and understand them so he understands why Mohammad was the last Prophet!! I attended Church so did Obama! But that does not mean he ever become Christian.
Lets assume that at the age of 23 Jeremiah Wright baptized Obama in a recorded ceremony and gave him a Christian name then we have to see what was Obama’s belief before that!
My son went to Catholic School and even attended mass but he never became Christian. Indeed many affluent Muslim pay high tuition and send their kids to Catholic Schools, that does not make them Christian!
I love Obama, but I like to know what are his beliefs .I know as son of a rich Sunni Muslim he went to a Catholic schools, but going to a Catholic school doesn’t make any Muslim Christian. If he is able to get away with trashing Jeremiah Wright and dismissing his ideas just to beat Hillary Clinton and get the nomination he is man with no principal. A shameless opportunist who should not be trusted!
A political opportunist who would do anything to get elected! This is not good for America, not because all politicians lie; but because only a man who by all accounts was a non practicing Muslim until 23 and cannot prove that he has been ever baptized to Christianity should not hoodwinked a nation about his beliefs. He cannot be trusted!
Republicans know these facts and would discredit Obama in case he gets the nomination!
I could care less what religion Obama is, though I believe he is Christian.
He was in grade school when he attended both Catholic and Muslim schools…
As a Christian, I might point out that it is what is in the heart that makes someone a Christian…not in the water they are baptised in. If a person accepts Jesus Christ as his Savior on his deathbed, and isn’t baptised, does that make him a non-Christian? Baptism is a ritual…not a requirement in my mind.
I think you need to do a little more research, insurgetone.
As to the article….great article…and I agree….
If they broke the oath…then prosecute and toss out of office…
Better yet….do a little waterboarding on them to get at the truth…what is good for everyone is good enough for them….then prosecute…and no pardons allowed.
citizen1
Haven’t you figured out that the whole bunch with the exception of a mere few, are part of the Demo-publics?
It has become one big club…and we aren’t invited!
MiMic
I don’t think we are in the tribulation…things aren’t bad enough…give them a few more months…when we are all in food lines, no jobs, and the nuclear cloud is blocking the sun…you know we are there….and when the rapture doesnt take Bush….it will become even clearer what he believes in…shock shock to the religious right.
ACLU has a petition calling for an Independent Prosecutor for War Crimes as well as the persons that don’t have a copy of it.
Good one, too.
http://secure.aclu.org/
You will find the petition.
In 2003, when the USA invaded a non-threatening and non-911 involved Iraq, I signed the ‘ImpeachBush’ petition and other petitions calling for impeachment, including one by Conyers. Five years later and nothing has happened, except more dirt uncovered to document the Crimes Against Humanity by the current administration.
In 2006, I was one of many who voted against incumbents to help create a Democratic majority in Congress only to hear Pelosi say ‘Impeachment is off the table.’
Since due-process has NOT work, what am I to do now to make sure that Bush, Cheney, Rice, Ashcroft, Rumsfeld, etc. are tried for Crimes Against Humanity.
This November, I was going to vote for Kucinich, but since he’s no longer running, I’ll vote for MacJr.
Most of the people I talk to either don’t know this is happening or don’t believe it could be happening in the US - it’s a case of total denial, and it probably wouldn’t make much difference if MSM reported the truth - Americans are too racist/superioristic, too embalmed in their own mythology, and too busy with ‘other priorities’ to bother with such remote ‘rumors’ - and that’s the sad truth.
Gotta love the constant message from the Democrats. Can’t go but a few comments down the list and there it is being blasted in my face.
Democrats: You have to vote for a party and candidates that don’t believe in what you believe. In this case, you have to vote for a party that has condoned the use of torture. You have to vote for a party that has refused consistently to take action to stop this using the tools the writers of the Constitution gave to them. You have to vote Democrat, even though they are the opposite of what you believe, or else your vote won’t count.
If you want change, you have to do something different. Ever since the Reagan years, we’ve been told that voting Democrat was the answer to Republican extremes. Yet we have a thirty year track record now of the Democrats just enabling Republican iniatives, refusing to roll them back when they take power, and refusing to reign in or stop Republican abuses.
Surely its obvious by now that voting Democrat is not the answer. And that’s the one thing the Democrats and their sycophants do not want you to think about. So, they’ll do anything to convince you that this is the one thing you must not do.
And that alone points out that abandoning the Democrats and moving on is indeed the correct course.
All that’s listed in this article has happened with Democratic collusion. They’ve turned a blind eye to it, they’ve refused to do anything to stop it. The founders gave the Congress control of the money for just such reasons. The founders gave the Congress the power of impeachment for just such reasons. The founders set up the US Senate with its filibuster rules to make sure that a minority always still had a say even if the majority wanted to do something else … and it did it for just such reasons.
So, after watching the Democrats abandon their constitutional responsibilities and abandon the oath they took to protect and defend the Constitution, if you care about this issue, it seems strikingly clear that the only ‘wasted’ vote would be to continue to vote Democrat.
A vote for the Democrats is a vote to continue this. Please don’t vote Democrat.
Anyone who thinks torture and abuse started with the Bush administration knows very little of American history.
Torture and abuse have always been a part of American law enforcement. In the 1960’s, the Warren court took a few steps in the right direction of trying to put a stop to this with rulings like Miranda. That insisted that defendants had to know their rights and had to be able to request council be present during questioning. The reason for that was the long history of American police beating confessions out of suspects.
Of course, the police and the conservatives\fascists have always attacked Miranda, and thus expressed their support for torture in domestic law enforcement.
Torture is also a part of the American penal system. Always has been.
Even with legal advances trying to limit torture of police suspects, there have been cases that become public that let us know it still happens. The Chicago police and the NYPD have both been proved to have used torture not all that long ago.
In foreign policy, torture has been a part of American policy since at least WWII. Think of the CIA roles in Central America. There are confirmed reports of CIA officials collaborating with the ’security’ officials in our puppet military dictatorships to torture prisoners. Or, think of Vietnam and the Phoenix program and other actions of that time. We murdered some 40,000 people during Phoenix. We used to take people up in helicopters and threaten to throw them out if they didn’t tell us what we wanted.
Think MKULTRA and other CIA experiments in the late 50’s and early 60’s on how to best torture confessions and information out of prisoners.
Note, that it doesn’t really matter if the Democrats or the Republicans are in power. Even when a Democrat like Jimmy Carter who was talking a lot about human rights was in office, we still supported Somoza and his obscene National Guard in Nicaragua. Whether the Democrats are in the majority or Congress, or the Repbulicans are in the majority, this still continues. Whether the Democrats are in the White House or the Republicans, this still continues. The only difference these days is that the Republicans have taken to openly bragging about what used to be considered shameful and kept secret.
If you want something different, start voting for something different.
Frankly, the obvious thing seems to be campaign finance reform. This would certainly make viable votes for alternatives to Republicans and Democrats.
Ok, something I’d like to see the moderators/authors respond to; I just got this from a friend to whom I’d sent the “petition,” and I’d like to know the truth of the matter:
To whom it all concerns:
Just a word to the wise. E-mail petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress or any other municipality. To be acceptable, petitions must have a signed signature and full address. Same with ‘prayer chains’– be wary.
Almost all e-mails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards. All it was, and all this type of e-mail is, is to get names and ‘cookie’ tracking info for telemarketers and spammers to validate active e-mail accounts for their own purposes. Any time you see an e-mail that says forward this on to ‘10′ of your friends, sign this petition, or you’ll get good luck, or what ever, it has either an e-mail trackerprogram attached that tracks the cookies and e-mails of those folks you forward to, or the host sender is getting a copy. Each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of ‘active’ e-mails to use in spame-mails, or sell to others that do. Please forward this notice to others and you will be providing a good service to your friends, and will be rewarded by not getting 30,000 spam e-mails in the future.
(If you have been sending out the above kinds of email, now you know why you get so much spam!)
Check it out: http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/petition/internet.htm
With goodwill to all the People-
Hatman