. . .we are surrendering our capacity to recover from disaster with humanity, solve our common problems in ways that reflect our common values, and serve as a force for good in the world. When the good will of the American people is cut out of the loop, no peoples -- not our fellow Americans, not other nations-- can look to us for help on ANYTHING (including global warming).
The most devastating of all their offenses against our constitutional democracy is the Unconstitutional and Un-American bush-cheney "doctrine" that the Office of the President has "inherent" unitary authoritarian power to violate our Constitution and U.S. Code at will to "protect us." When they invoke that "doctrine" they violate the principle of consent -- the sole moral principle on which our Constitution, and therefore the nation is founded.
While it can be argued that Bush and Cheney are invoking the fascist fig leaf of unitary power to justify their attempts to block regulatory action to confront global warming,
there are FAR more blatant instances in which they openly do something forbidden under our Constitution and U.S. Code and publicly declare themselves exempt from our law. They have committed violations that are so widely recognized as intolerable that they are subject to the penalty of death. The clearest way to unequivocally reject their fascist "doctrine" is by impeaching them for one of those forbidden acts.
Any one of the following five would fit the bill:
- violating Title 18 section 2441 (War Crimes)
1) declaring Guantanamo a "Geneva-free" zone1
2) the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program
3) abusing signing statements to nullify McCain's anti-torture amendment
- violating the principle of consent
4) any of the signing statements that nullifies a provision of law by declaring the executive exempt.
- violating of Title 50, Section 1805 (Issuance of order)
5) spying under color of law w/o warrant.
When we unequivocally reject the fascist fantasy at the heart of their war on the Constitution by impeaching Bush and Cheney for any one of the above, the next step is obvious. That is, all promoters of the fascist fantasy must be purged from the government. (Something that impeachment on some other grounds will fail to do).
Bush and Cheney convict themselves of subverting our constitutional democracy with their own public statements and actions. (Both Bush and Cheney must be impeached because they both invoke the fig leaf of unitary authoritarian power.) There is no simpler case for impeachment. By making the simplest case grounded in the broad principles that define who we are, Members of Congress have an unprecedented opportunity to become champions of the Constitution and the People's government. It is an unprecedented opportunity to inspire and engage people across the political spectrum.
I do not mean to minimize the devastating effects of global warming. If the planet is rendered uninhabitable, it doesn't much matter whether America was a dictatorship or a constitutional democracy. But the USA can ONLY have a role in creating rational global and domestic policy if we rescue the foundation that makes us capable of enacting and enforcing our collective will.
========================================
- February 7, 2002, the Office of the President published http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/02/20020207-13.html">Fact Sheet: Status of Detainees at Guantanamo, in which they declared "The President has determined that the Geneva Convention applies to the Taliban detainees, but not to the al-Qaida detainees."
There was never any doubt the conventions applied to the abductees/detainees held by the USA, whether on or off shore. In Hamdan, even a Supreme Court stacked with their fascist minions couldn't escape that inescapable reality when they ruled that the conventions applied (and with that ruling, declared that three years of War Crimes had already been committed -- something that had been self-evident all along).
Under the Geneva conventions, Parties to the treaty must enact and enforce the conventions under domestic law. To this end we enacted U.S. Code Title 18 section 2441 (War Crimes). When the Office of the President asserted the power to arbitrarily dictate which groups are, and are not, subject to the Geneva conventions, they gutted our War Crimes statute, an act that is in itself a War Crime. We know J.T.F-170 employs "harsh interrogation" (torture), but there is no need to argue or prove the point because, whether or not they actually engaged in torture, they committed a War Crime when they gutted the law.
There is a reason that violators of Geneva are subject to the death penalty -- to give those with the power to commit such crimes a compelling motive not to step anywhere near "the line." And to give those with the power to stop the crimes a compelling motive to do everything in their power to do so.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
