In Contempt of George W. Bush
April 16, 2002
By unblock

The time has come to take off the kid gloves and to throw every indictment we can at this feeble excuse for a president. I have studied bush carefully for many years now. I have deliberated thoughtfully, weighed the mountains of evidence, and I have reached a verdict.

I find George W. Bush in contempt.

In the matter of Article I of the Constitution, I find George W. Bush in contempt of Congress

- for refusing to release requested documents;
- for submitting budgets piecemeal;
- for turning the House into a rubber stamp;
- for abrogating one Senate-ratified treaty after another;
- for using the word "bi-partisanship" to force Congress to kow-tow to the Republican party line;
- for denying Congress its rightful role in the resolution of disputed elections;
- for levelling personal attacks against the leader of the loyal opposition;
- and for calling the world's greatest deliberative body "partisan" for doing exactly what it was designed by our founding fathers to do.

In the matter of Article II of the Constitution, I find George W. Bush in contempt of the presidency

- for running a dishonest campaign, full of lies, hypocrisy, dirty tricks, distortions, personal attacks, evasions, secrecy, shameless bribe-taking, fraud, bullying, intimidation, ballot-tampering, and voting rights violations
- for chosing a fellow Texan as a running mate, who had to quit his Dallas job, and change his legal residence and voting registration after being selected, in clear violation of both the spirit and the letter of the requirement that the president and vice-president be from different states
- for selecting a flagrant, habitual liar as the press secretary;
- for refusing to tolerate dissenting views within the cabinet;
- for refusing to make public all of the Reagan papers, in clear violation of the law;
- for refusing to make public the formulation of the energy policy, or even to describe what the energy policy is;
- for acting as if the presidency was won fair and square;
- for acting as if a disputed election constitutes a mandate;
- for acting as if the United States is not a democracy.

In the matter of Article III of the Constitution, I find George W. Bush in contempt of court

- for submitting the argument that counting votes would cause your candidacy irreparable harm; - for asking the Supreme Court to prevent the counting of votes;
- for arguing that "equal protection" means that everyone should have the same right to have their vote discarded;
- for involving the Supreme Court in a process the Constitution clearly assigns to the states, and then to Congress;
- for turning the courts into kangaroo courts in the zeal for hasty death penalty executions;
- for selecting judges based far more on political orientation than on wisdom, intelligence, fairness, capacity for critical thought, or just about anything relevant;
- for giving aid and comfort to the enemy by devising and promoting a terrorist alert system which accomplishes nothing beyond broadcasting the fear terrorists hope to instill in all Americans.

In the matter of Article VI of the Constitution, I find George W. Bush in contempt of national supremacy

- for dispensing with treaties, the supreme law of the land, by Executive Order;
- for placing religious tests on selection for public office.

In the matter of Amendment I of the Constitution, I find George W. Bush in contempt of freedom

- for establishing religion through selective Federal funding;
- for insulting free speech rights by maligning critics;
- for restricting free speech by promoting the conservative ownership of an increasingly stifling media;
- for undermining the role of the press by feeding the media lies and spin instead of facts;
- for preventing peaceable assembly by arresting those who dare to protest;
- for cancelling the right to petition for redress of greivances by relegating opposing views to remote "First Amendment Zones".

In the matter of Amendment II of the Constitution, I find George W. Bush in contempt of the militia

- for abandoning duties while a member of the Texas National Guard;
- for promoting a distorted view which claims that "a well regulated militia" has nothing to do with the right the keep and bear arms.

In the matter of Amendment IV of the Constitution, I find George W. Bush in contempt of privacy

- for promoting a judicial philosophy that values convictions over truth;
- for promoting a judicial philosophy that values the ends at the expense of the means.

In the matter of Amendment V of the Constitution, I find George W. Bush in contempt of due process

- for promoting a judicial philosophy that reserves due process for those who can afford it;
- for seizing land when it suits the purposes of big corporations;
- for suspending basic rights of the accused in the name of a phony war.

In the matter of Amendment VI of the Constitution, I find George W. Bush in contempt of justice

- for promoting a judicial philosophy that denies a fair trial to those without power;
- for promoting a judicial philosophy that refuses to overturn convictions even when faced with clear evidence of a miscarriage of justice;
- for refusing to give more than 15 minutes consideration to pardons or commutations of capital convictions.

In the matter of Amendment XII of the Constitution, I find George W. Bush in contempt of elections

- for chosing a running mate from the same state;
- for denying the house of representatives their rightful role in deciding disputed elections.

In the matter of Amendment XIV of the Constitution, I find George W. Bush in contempt of guaranteed rights

- for denying citizenship and the right to vote to those who have served their sentence;
- for applying the equal protection clause to a newfound right to have ballots spoiled.

In the matter of the income tax, I find George W. Bush in contempt of fairness

- for distributing massive portions of the tax cut to the richest few, and a mere pittance to the remainder;
- for claiming the tax cut would go to all those who pay taxes, when, in fact, not even all income tax payers received a cut;
- for playing budget games by expiring the tax cut in its 10th year, and subsequently calling to make it permanent once the 10 year forecasting analysis was complete;
- for claiming there would be more than enough money for a tax cut, Social Security, debt reduction, and emergencies, when, in fact, a measly $10 billion "war" and a barely acknowledged, shallow recession was able to deplete all savings;
- for claiming that the income tax cut would solve all our problems, when in fact it has created more.

In the matter of politics, I find George W. Bush in contempt of public discourse

- for labeling the loyal opposition as unpatriotic;
- for stifling dissent in the name of unity;
- for lying about others in order to paint them as liars;
- for labeling alternatives as partisan;
- for proclaiming partisan plans as bipartisan;
- for shamelessly raising corruption to an institutional philosophy.

In the matter of terrorism, I find George W. Bush in contempt of public service

- for shamelessly using terrorism to push an irrelevant corporate agenda;
- for clamping down on freedom in the name of liberty;
- for refusing to permit investigation into terrorist acts;
- for consorting, negotiating, trading, donating, arming, and funding terrorists;
- for shameless self-promoting and flag-wrapping;
- for forming an astoundingly na�ve, black-and-white policy to deal with a complex world's many shades of grey;
- for turning a terrorist act into an excuse to overthrow a government at best tangentially involved;
- for ignoring the heavy involvement of the Saudis and the bin Laden family;
- for serving the terrorists interests by fearmongering at every opportunity;
- for avoiding the nation's call in her hour of greatest need;

As punishment, I hereby sentence George W. Bush to be defeated in a humiliating fashion in 2004 by an overwhelmingly angry and betrayed electorate, and to serve out the remainder of his days defending himself from legal actions stemming from the massive corruption he has embraced as his political philosophy.