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Bush-Cheney Deserve Censure for Declaring War Against The Constitution
Before Inauguration Day, the 111th Congress should pass a forward-looking resolution censuring President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney for executive aggrandizements or abuses that have reduced Congress to vassalage and shredded the rule of law. The resolution should express a congressional intent to prevent repetitions by the President-elect Barack Obama or his successors. The objective is not Bush-Cheney bashing, but to restore a republican form of government in which "We the People" are sovereign, and the president is checked and publicly scrutinized by Congress and the courts. The Bush-Cheney duumvirate won an undeclared war against the Constitution. Most troublesome, they captured the power to initiate war from a spineless Congress. The Founding Fathers were unanimous in denying the president that constitutional authority. They knew that presidents would chronically deceive Congress and concoct excuses for war to control public information, benefit political friends through government contracts, quell dissent, assert emergency powers and enjoy the intoxicating thrill of, "I came, I saw, I conquered."
By wielding the threat of international terrorism, the Bush-Cheney team put the nation on a permanent war footing - the first time in history that war has been undertaken against a tactic. They maintained that the entire post-9/11 world is an active battlefield where United States military force may be used to kill suspected members of al Qaeda irrespective of international boundaries.
They claimed executive privilege and state secrets to conduct secret government - thereby circumventing political and legal accountability. This included directives to former White House officials Karl Rove and Harriet Miers to flout congressional subpoenas for testimony. They detained hundreds of people (including American citizens) as enemy combatants without accusation or trial. They authorized torture (waterboarding and extraordinary rendition), abductions, secret prisons and illegal surveillance of American citizens.
Like its immediate predecessors, the 110th Congress eagerly yielded its authorities - even the power of the purse - to the president. The Iraqi War Resolution, the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Act, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act amendments, and the declination to hold Rove in contempt of Congress were emblematic.
If left unrebuked, the Bush-Cheney usurpations of power will become part of the constitutional firmament and risk creating a safe harbor for future presidential abuses. Every member of Congress, moreover, is required to take an oath to "support (the) Constitution" pursuant to Article VI. There is no corresponding oath to support the Republican or Democratic parties or to subordinate the Constitution in the name of political harmony. Censure would be no novelty.
The Senate voted to rebuke President Andrew Jackson for constitutional lawlessness in 1834: "Resolved, That the President, in the late executive proceedings in relation to the public revenue, has assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitution and laws, but in derogation of both."
The censure resolution we contemplate would enumerate the serial Bush-Cheney constitutional violations; and, censure them for complicity in wrecking the Constitution's finely tuned balance of powers. In two previous congressional sessions, Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., introduced censure resolutions against the president and vice president for deceiving Congress about the war in Iraq and warrantless spying on American citizens in contravention of FISA.
The resolution should also endorse a remedial legislative agenda that would be binding on all future presidents, including the president-elect. It should include a criminal prohibition on intentional misrepresentations to Congress to obtain authorization for war; or, the president's initiation of war without an express congressional mandate. The president's withholding of information demanded by Congress should likewise be prohibited.
An independent prosecutor should be created to prosecute crimes allegedly perpetrated by high-level executive-branch officials in the course of executing presidential directives or defending presidential prerogatives. FISA should be amended to restore individualized warrants based on probable cause to spy on Americans in order to gather foreign intelligence.
Censure will not, by itself, remedy the Bush-Cheney vandalizing of the Constitution. But if members of Congress neglect even that modest step, our republic and democracy will have been irreparably harmed.
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72 Comments so far
Show AllOh, look. It's that Nader guy, the bane of Democrat Apologists, speaking up on behalf of an extremely important Progressive issue.
Now, let's sit back and watch the Democrats inaction...I mean in action...no, I was right the first time.
It's too late. The damage is done. Bush and Cheney are laughing at this shit.
Please watch your language.
Watch your language? That's pretty rich coming from a man who compared Nader and Green supporters to followers of Jim Jones and told them to leave the country!
I'm talking about swearing.
There's nothing wrong with swearing especially at a time when this country is going down the toilet thanks to your support of sellout pols. If you don't like it, then get the fuck outta here loser.
For their war against the Constitution, George Wanker Bush and Cheesedick Cheney should spend a minimum of 50 years in solitary confinement at Leavenworth, no possibility of parole. For waging aggressive war and other war crimes, they should be guillotined and their heads stuck on spikes on the White House fence until birds, insects and the elements reduce them down to the skulls which can then be placed in the Smithsonian. A very large sign above the display should read: COMMIT CRIMES, ABUSE YOUR OFFICE, THIS IS WHAT YOU'LL GET! All politicians, bureaucrats and so-called journalists who come to Washington should be required by law to view the skulls before assuming their positions in the federal government and the MSM. Some political criminals will not be deterred even by this. But many, many more will.
Now, we're talking!
I'm down, where do we sign up for that scenario? I'd say 10 years of solitary first then the pikes.
Solitary? Nah, throw them in with the general population until they get a few STDs each.
I don't know if you are trying to be sick or funny, but I find that kind of talk to be highly offensive.
But of course white Phosphorus burned children in Gaza are justified retaliation, right JoeHope? Hypocrite in your disingenuous crocodile tears outrage much Joe?
This is getting ridiculous.
All I want is proper decorum.
And as long as you keep supporting assholes running Israel and sellouts in the Democratic Party acting like Republicans, you ain't gonna get your fucking royalty ! Get that through your fucking skull man !
Trying to get joehope to learn is like trying to teach a pig to sing. The guy's a poor fat loser and I'd feel sorry for his wife and/or children if he had any. I dunno how they can put up with trash like him.
How about hitting Bush and CheeseDick on their fingers with a ruler?
Here is but a small sampling of the hell that the Bush administration and sellout Democrats have wrought.
Photos of Iraq War Victims:
http://www.aljazeerah.info/Special%20Reports/Different%20special%20reports/Photos%20of%20Iraq%20war%20victims.htm
The dems let Bush and cheney do it.
Often they helped them.
Proof will be if Obama does nothing to reverse recent Bush midnight rules.
If he does nothing, he supports them.
Impeaching Bush would have distracted him from causing damage. You dont stop a bully by ignoring him.
But the Dems seemed content to let the bully do his thing in the school yard until he moved on, so they could take their turn as the bully.
No chance of censure with Chief Bitch Pelosi painting her nails.
Cripes. What is wrong with the people of San Francisco when they re-elected her?
Cripes. What is wrong with the people of San Francisco when they re-elected her?
MONEY. As Speaker of the House of Prostitution she funnels a lot of money to the City and County of San Francisco. Money is thicker than blood, thicker than water, and most certainly thicker than doing the right thing.
Mordechai Shiblikov,
Well, their only alternative was Cindy Sheehan.
I don't know about you, but I feel Sheehan is worse than Pelosi.
Apparently, Common Dreams agrees. Because she once wrote-in describing how she was banned from writing for CD while running for office. Of course, other people running for public office are allowed to write on CD (i.e. Nader). So I can only assume that her being banned was really the result of something else.
BTW I thought CD got rid of Nader (please put him out of his misery).
But here he is. Popping up gain.
He's like a human whack-a-mole.
"I feel Sheehan is worse than Pelosi."
And why's that? Because Sheehan has a spine and the courage to fight to end this bloody occupation in Iraq already costing the country hundreds of billions per year? Because Sheehan would fight to push for cancelling NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO, etc .. while Nancy FUCKING PeeLOWsick wouldn't ? Fuck Peelowsick. I'd pound her hard if she were my wife even if I had to go to jail and face possible death penalty !
Sheehan seems like a nice person, but she has no political experience.
"F*CKING PeeLOWsick wouldn't ? F*ck Peelowsick I'd pound her hard if she were my wife even if I had to go to jail and face possible death penalty"
What is the matter with you?
Sioux Rose
JOE HOPE: I, too, want to stand up for Cindy Sheehan. What this nation needs are servants of the people AS political representatives who maintain dignity, integrity and honesty. What you call "experience" is too often the measure of the candidate being sold-out to special interests, that is, those that pay for his or her campaign. Our system is a mess as generally the ones that raise the most money win. Money is a very poor basis for sound represenation as we now see. There are only small, cosmetic differences between the platforms of both parties.
Cindy Sheehan exposed the ugly awful truth of how sold out the whole political machine is. THAT IS EXPERIENCE that resonates with the ideals of this nation's founders, principles that support our Constitution, rather than abridge it.
Pelosi has enabled the Bush machine and thus is a co-conspirator to a war of aggression, THE supreme crime against humanity. You're so sold on the democratic party that you can't see the forest for the trees, unless you are a paid schill as many allege, with apparent reason.
I get it. You have nothing but hatred for me. You don't value my ideas. I get it.
But let me ask you, if Sheehan is so perfect, if experience isn't an issue, then why would liberal SF voters reject her for Pelosi? I think you just hate me too much to see the truth in what I'm saying.
Experience matters.
Cindy Sheehan is a wonderful woman and I'm proud of her son's service.
But experience matters.
If experience matters, then Sheehan is the winner. See, motherfuckers such as Peelowsick who have been stuck in Washington whoring around with motherfuckers such as Big Oil and AIPAC have no experience. Sheehan, on the other hand, learned from her son's involvement, what the hell was going on in Iraq, and has attained even more learning and understanding as to why we must get the FUCK out of Iraq. Barry O-blah-blah and Peelowsick don't. Get that through your god damn motherfucking brain of yours, dipshit !
And SR didn't express any hatred of you dipshit.
Thanks Rose for trying to knock some sense into joehope's wacky brain. And my apologies for the cruel remarks on Pelosi but I can't stand the way she rolled over to Bush these past 4 years. Sorry.
The American people even in San Francsico probably don't serve someone with the courage and integrity of Cindy Sheehan.
Care to get into reasons WHY you think CIndy Sheehan is bad JoeHope? Could it be because she opposes the insane militarism of the big bully U.S. and the little regional bully Israel? Could be...
SIGH!
WTF,
Maybe they were over-reacting to people who call their elected official a bitch. People tend to respond negatively to such things, you know. You do know that, right? How do you respond to being called horrible things? Does it make you surrender? Does it make you listen closely to the more detailed, well-reasoned arguments of the speaker? I don't think calling her things like that—personal and misogynist attacks without basis or intelligence—will help convince anyone of--what was your point again?
And tell me who your representatives are—have you been able to do better in your home district and state?
I gather you disagree strongly with her policies. So do I. Let's stick to that.
I'll bite. George W Bush has taken the US to the brink of anonymity. Bitch (I'll say it again) Pelosi has refused to hold Bush accountable. The expression "thicker than thieves" comes to mind.
In 2008 the people of the US demanded change, and they achieved that. HOWEVER, those fine people of San Francisco refused to demand change, and instead indirectly voiced their support for the failed policies of the Bush Administration and the failure of the US as a compassionate super-power.
As for my reps, I live in NM, a swing state, and we DID effect change. Something those fine metrosexuals in San Francisco are unable to achieve.
With the success of Prop 8, I'm starting to believe in kharma.
Question to Bruce and Ralph:
What part of "impeachment is off the table" (Nancy Pelosi quote from November 2006)didn't you understand ?????????????????????????????????
Good point.
darned good idea, then proceed with arraignment on war crimes, the trial and execution of the verdict.
Sophie Scholl-The Final Days
Get real! Unless we take our government from the fascists Bush, Cheney and the rest of the cabal of cowards in Washington, there will never be any censure resolution, or any other rebuke to the criminals who have ruined our nation.
We have a duty to change the government when it no longer meets the needs of the electorate. It quit meeting our needs years ago. Revolution now.
I don't think it's necessary to censure Bush. Not because he doesn't deserve it. But because it wouldn't really accomplish anything and it would just be a waste of time. Obama should rise above partisan politics.
Cavedweller wrote,
"We have a duty to change the government when it no longer meets the needs of the electorate. It quit meeting our needs years ago. Revolution now."
That's exactly how I feel. Only I believe that it's important to work within the system. That's why I support Obama. He needs all of us to push him into doing the right things. Because in Washington it's easy to get distracted. I truly believe he is a good man. He will listen to the progressive community. I've seen nothing to indicate that I'm wrong. Even when there are disagreements, they are honest disagreements. Our input is not reflexively shut out like it was with Bush.
FDR once told a group of activists lobbying him, "I agree with everything you said. Now go out and make me do it."
Powerful words.
Food for thought.
I firmly believe that we can make this a new era if we work together.
Days of swamping the Capitol switchboard with phone calls estimated at 99-to-1 against the Great Wall Street Giveaway, plus letters, emails, and even an advisory letter signed by some of the most esteemed economists recommending against such folly, had absolutely no effect on Obama.
So, just what did you have in mind as a method of "making him" do something?
Photons - I'm still betting that Obama will get his head blown off by a 'terrist' during his swearing in.
Said 'terrist' will be probably be trumpeted by the MSM as a 'Palestinian working for Iranian backed Hezbollah', and the declaration of Martial Law in the US and a new war in the Middle East, this time against Iran will be on.
There should be nothing partisan about impeaching Bush, anymore than there should be anything partisan about impeaching Blagojevich. It's merely expressing support for the rule of law. Obama won't have a vote on censure, as it is purely a Congressional matter, and he is no longer a Senator.
How do you propose to push Obama in the right direction when you try to shout down all criticism of Obama as being hateful and extremist?
A good article by Nader & Fein. A political compromise, I suppose. Censure instead of trial.
I say trial and hanging. They have committed treason among other crimes.
Doesn't anyone think that Common Dreams is silly for running this article? The time to run this article was a year or two ago (and they didn't). This is like a goalie diving after the ball after it is already in the goal. Too little too late. Maybe some people are impressed, if they are impressed by that sort of meaningless action.
It is pathetic for Common Dreams to back pedal by printing two Nader articles within a couple of weeks of each other, yet failed to allow him a voice when it would have mattered. In fact, many of the articles that Common Dreams ran on Nader back them so minimalized him that it bordered on mocking him (actually some did mock him).
Who's the buffoon now? I'm sure that there are still a lot of apologists out there for Obama, but maybe a few less each time he announces each new appointment to his 'team,' and people see that he is just another status quo, support the corporate elite politician.
These times demand real change, Israel is bombing civilians in Gaza, we're bombing civilians in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan and who knows where else. Our food supply is being systematically destroyed by industrial agriculture and their GMOs, we're changing our environment to that it can no longer support us. And yet, both Obama and Common Dreams are serving up more of the same.
And the main issue that we are focused on is tax break for the middle class?
You don't have to be a radical to support change in the status quo, you just have to desire to to the right thing.
www.NotOneMore.US
Fein-Nader sez: "The censure resolution we contemplate would enumerate the serial Bush-Cheney constitutional violations; ..."
***
Hence, it's a non-starter for congress. Too many potential censure resolution signatories would be ensnared in that very web to risk etching their names on the document.
With people like John Larson, who is proud to "Go along to get along",
congress is loaded with Larson lookalikes. He {Larson} is stuck to Pelosi's
rear end. Don't expect any member of Congress to go along with Nader..
The sell-out of our industrial base to China by the Clintons and the Bush Family is
yet to be explained. Any questions as to why Clinton is getting donations by the
Tens of Millions from Foreign governments? Nader should publish all the payoffs
that take the looks of a donation to a party or Library.
We are in a major depression and congress the Senate are scared stiff to even
admit it. Obama and his hurry to have congress pass a Stimulus bill is a cover
of the Financial industry so we will not ask to many questions. Stimulus bill
will not recover us from the Depression. The 1929 Depression did not end until
we started to manufacture, planes, tanks, guns for WWII in 1941.
The WPA and the CCC did nothing for the economy, but they did build some roads
at very low labor costs. Most of us were still starving to death until the
War broke out..
Censure is such liberal namby pamby shit! How about giving Bush and Cheney what they really deserve: A firing squad!
Next, let this word ring over and through the nation: CONFISCATION!
The ill gotten gains from the illegal war should be confiscated and the war mongers imprisoned.
Well, well, well. The Obama team just named Gov Tim Kaine chair of the Democratic Party. Another DLC corporate stooge republican disguised as a Democrat. And Nader/Fein think this has a chance? The War/Money Party has co-opted the whole of our government and both parties. We are totally screwed and another Bush is waiting in the wings. My God we must have committed some terrible sins!!!!!!!!!!!!
Daddy Bush has officaily tapped Neil Bush to run for pres in 2012.
Have fun y'all.
Palin/Bush 2012...
Yet another reason to support Obama.
Palin/Bush 2012...
Please Obama-haters of 2008, don't be like the Gore-haters of 2000, and doom our country to war and criminality.
Did "the Gore-haters of 2000" vote to give Bush the authority to launch a war of aggression against Iraq? To support a bankruptcy "reform" that would make FDR roll over in his grave? For the "Patriot" Act TWICE? To not filibuster Supreme Court Justice Alito? To legalize torture? To legalize Bush's violations of FISA? For CAFTA? For the Bush-Cheney energy bill in 2005? To give Bush a $700 billion blank check with the bailout? No, but many Congressional Democrats sure did.
Does Gore bear any responsibility for the poor campaign that he ran? What about the Supreme Court's partisan decision on behalf of Bush?
This again.
When will Nader supporters admit that they cost Al Gore Florida's electoral votes thus providing Bush with the presidency?
It is, after all, a matter of historical record.
If they would admit it, apologize, and register democrat, then maybe I could forgive them. But most are still in a state of denial.
"This again."
You're the one who brought up the 2000 election.
"When will Nader supporters admit that they cost Al Gore Florida's electoral votes thus providing Bush with the presidency?
It is, after all, a matter of historical record."
It is a matter of historical record that if all the legally cast votes had been counted, Gore would have won, regardless of the standard used to judge voter intent in the recount. Nader didn't make the Supreme Court twist the 14th Amendment to suit Bush's purposes.
It is also a matter of historical record that Clinton won the popular vote in 1996 by about 8.5%, but Gore only won in 2000 by 0.5%. Gore had much bigger problems than Nader, namely his own campaign.
It is also a matter of historical record that Bush had substantial Democratic support in Congress for many of the items on his agenda.
It is also a matter of historical record that the deregulation that helped get us into our current economic crisis passed Congress with bipartisan supermajorities and was signed into law by Bill Clinton.
"If they would admit it, apologize, and register democrat, then maybe I could forgive them. But most are still in a state of denial."
So if I grovel before you and join a party that helped get us into many of the problems that we now face, you might consider forgiving me? No thanks, I actually have some self-respect.
Obama has talked about bringing America together and creating a new politics. He can't do it alone by waving a magic wand and saying "hope" and "change". He also needs Americans who are willing to perform the basic civic duty of getting along with their neighbors who don't vote the same way that they do.
what was the first reason?