-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: July 18, 2007 7:28:34 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Fwd: If the Democrats Expect to Survive...
... Democrats would call on the American people to take a stand at
this the most dangerous moment in their history, when the president
and vice president are enemies of the constitutional system devised
by the Founding Fathers ....
NEVER have a president and vice president abused the public trust
to the extent that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have.
Get a sneak peek of the all-new AOL.com.
From: "Jim S." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: July 18, 2007 7:09:42 PM PDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: If the Democrats Want to Win...
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/071707.html
*If the Democrats Want to Win...*
By Robert Parry
July 18, 2007
If the Democrats really want to prevail over George W. Bush on the
Iraq War and on his authoritarian vision of presidential powers,
they would put back on the table two options that their leaders
have removed: a cut-off of war funding and impeachment.
Rather than all-night debates about resolutions that will go
nowhere, the Democrats would make the case to the American people
that Bush has trampled on the Constitution; he has ensnared the
nation in a catastrophic war by lying; and he has his eyes set on
more dangerous chicanery in the months ahead.
The Democrats would explain that Bush has refused to compromise
when offered the chance; he has told the people's representatives
that their only war role is to finance whatever "the decider" wants
to do; he has declared that he has the right to ignore or break the
law; he has engaged in cover-ups of serious wrongdoing by his
subordinates and is now counting on his right-wing judicial
appointees to protect him from oversight.
The Democrats would call on the American people to stand up at this
dangerous moment in their history -- when the president and vice
president have become enemies of the constitutional system devised
by the Founders, a Republic based on the idea that all people
possess inalienable rights and governments must ensure those rights.
Never have a president and vice president abused the public trust
to the extent that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have. They have
engaged in a consistent pattern of deception, not just political
spin or cover-ups of petty matters, but lying about the most
profound of issues, including war and the meaning of "freedom" and
"democracy."
While Bush's remaining acolytes -- the likes of New York Times
columnist David Brooks -- continue to gush over Bush's rhetoric
about "freedom," the reality is that Bush has eviscerated many of
the most important civil liberties guaranteed by the Constitution
and the Bill of Rights.
Claiming "plenary" -- or total -- powers as Commander-in-Chief
during an endless and boundless "war on terror," Bush has swept
aside the rights that have traditionally defined freedom, including
habeas corpus guarantees to a fair trial, protections against
unreasonable search and seizure, prohibitions on cruel and unusual
punishments.
Bush also has shown contempt for democracy, from blocking a full
counting of Florida's votes in Election 2000 to bullying dissenters
prior to the Iraq War to punishing the Palestinians for voting for
leaders that Bush doesn’t like.
Yet Brooks and other pundits remain in awe of Bush's supposed
reverence for exactly the principles that he has trashed. For
instance, in the July 17 New York Times, Brooks hailed Bush's
"unconquerable faith in the rightness of his Big Idea" as expressed
by the president during a question-and-answer session in the White
House's Roosevelt Room on July 13:
"It's more of a theological perspective," Bush said about his
confidence that democracy and freedom are on the march. "I do
believe there is an Almighty, and I believe a gift of that Almighty
to all is freedom. And I will tell you that is a principle that no
one can convince me that doesn’t exist."
*Offensive Lies*
But Bush's declarations about freedom may rank as his most
offensive lies of all. They go beyond mere hypocrisy, to some
Orwellian formulation that demands public allegiance to an
assertion that is the opposite of the truth, like “freedom is
slavery” or, in this case, "freedom is obedience" to Bush.
Similarly, Bush appeared before the United Nations on Sept. 19,
2006, praising its Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.
He said, "The words of the Universal Declaration are as true today
as they were when they were written."
But either Bush didn't have the faintest idea what those principles
were -- or he had grown so confident in never being challenged that
he thought he could say whatever he wanted, no matter how false or
deceptive.
Among the 30 rights proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights are these:
-- "Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person."
-- "No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment."
-- "Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person
before the law."
-- "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or
exile."
-- "Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public
hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the
determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal
charge against him."
-- "Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be
presumed innocent until proved guilty according to law in a public
trial at which he has had all the guarantees necessary for his
defense."
-- "No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his
privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to attacks upon his
honor and reputation. Everyone has the right to the protection of
the law against such interference or attacks."
-- "Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression;
this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference
and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any
media and regardless of frontiers."
Though Bush's actions in the "war on terror" have violated many if
not all the above-cited human rights tenets, Bush unblushingly
cited the Universal Declaration as the foundation for his supposed
crusade to spread freedom and democracy around the world.
*Reality Defined*
Bush apparently believes that he is not only a law onto himself but
that he gets to define reality, creating his own fantasyland that
everyone else must accept as true. He is an imperial president
living in an anti-empirical world.
Psychologists may debate whether Bush is delusional or just an
extremely accomplished liar, but either way he represents an
unprecedented threat to the future of the American Republic and to
the survivability of the planet.
So, what can be done?
If Bush is to be deterred, the country -- and the Congress -- must
make clear that the public response will be commensurate to the
threat personified by Bush and Cheney. In other words, half-
hearted half-measures won't do. The stakes must be raised and the
battle joined.
Since Bush already has made clear he will spurn any constraining
war resolutions from Congress, the Democrats must face up to their
real options (aside from surrender): move to cut off war funding
(beyond what is needed for an orderly withdrawal) and/or commence
impeachment hearings for both Bush and Cheney.
Though key Democratic leaders have dismissed these ideas as either
impossible or politically risky, they mark the only real hope of
forcing Bush into compromising or at least deterring him from other
rash actions, such as another military escalation in Iraq or an
expansion of the war into Iran.
Impeachment hearings also would give the American people a focus
for both understanding the threat that Bush represents to their
constitutional system and giving them a way to stand up to him.
The public also gets the idea of impeachment -- it's like you're
firing the guy -- while they are confused and demoralized by the
current legislative maneuvering.
Even if the Republicans succeed in blocking the Bush-Cheney
impeachment in the House or their removal from office in the
Senate, Congress would have served notice that it rejects Bush's
dark vision for America -- and the momentous issues of Campaign
2008 would be clarified.
~~~
Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for
the Associated Press and Newsweek. His latest book, "Secrecy &
Privilege: Rise of the Bush Dynasty from Watergate to Iraq," can be
ordered at:
secrecyandprivilege.com It's also available at Amazon.com, as is
his 1999 book, "Lost History: Contras, Cocaine, the Press, &
'Project Truth'."
To comment at Consortiumblog, click here:
http://consortiumblog.com/ To comment to us by e-mail, click here:
http://www.consortiumnews.com/contact.html To donate so we can
continue reporting and publishing stories like the one you just
read, click here:
https://secure.democracyinaction.org/dia/organizations/
consortiumnews/shop/custom.jsp?donate_page_KEY=2043
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