IMPEACHMENT; GETTING IT RIGHT
Recent revelations that president Bush has been allowing the NSA to eavesdrop on private phone conversations and emails came as no surprise to this observer. To the contrary, we would have been more surprised to learn that such activities were not taking place.
Nor is it surprising that the president, after a bit of back pedaling, owned up to these nefarious activities. He has made it clear, virtually since the smoke cleared on 9/11, that as far as he is concerned just about anything goes when it comes to fighting the war on terrorism. And where "spy gate" is concerned Mr. Bush is more aggrieved by the fact that ordinary Americans now know what he's been doing than by any suggestion that he might be breaking (or at least ignoring) the law. Indeed, his rationale for this chicanery is that terrorists don't play by the rules, so he shouldn't have to either. And when backed to the wall on the matter he retorts that we haven't been attacked in four years. Right, and the fact that he has been spying on Americans is doubtless the reason that Al Queda has left us alone.
That America is supposed to stand for something more noble than those nations which encourage, which foster, or which simply tolerate terrorism is, we fear, lost on the denizens of Bush World. They were wounded (albeit no where near mortally) on September 11,th 2001, and they are retaliating with a ferocity, and a lack of traditional American ethics, heretofore unimagined in the annals of this country's history. And even when it involves overt law breaking (which is surely what this spying is), the administration sits back and brazens it out by saying things like "we were cleared for this operation by Justice Department Attorneys", "read the Constitution, we're covered". But when asked to cite which specific statute, which part of the constitution, what law of any kind, legalizes spying on American citizens without benefit of a warrant, no one in Bush World can come up with anything except more hollow rhetoric.
There is too much which is ignoble in this administration's conduct of its business. It lied to us about the rationale for war, it has overseen the imprisonment without access to due process of hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals suspected, but not indicted. It was surely looking the other way at Abu Graib and to think otherwise is to believe in the Easter Bunny. And, for several years it has violated one of the most dearly held tenets of our democracy; it has been spying, without legal authority, and without apology, on what may be thousands of American citizens.
In 1998 a misguided Congress impeached then president, Bill Clinton. Republican conservatives (or at least those who could elude charges of hypocrisy) were incensed that Mr. Clinton had conducted an affair with a young White House intern. And they were really peeved at the fact that he had lied about it. Never mind that an admitted fifty-percent of married Americans have affairs. Forget the fact that one hundred percent of them lie about it. This was "Slick Willy", and those who wanted his cajones went after him tooth and nail. Ultimately, after subjecting the country to an exercise in abject tomfoolery, Clinton was acquitted, he completed the remainder of his presidency, and the country benefited, in the main, from his leadership. If we endeavored to impeach Clinton for having an affair would it not make even more sense to impeach Bush for lying and for breaking the law? Before he erodes all of our civil liberties should we not begin to sense his mission, make it clear that we don't need a dictator, and impeach him for high crimes and misdemeanors? We think so, and we hope those members of Congress who share this view will get the ball rolling.
An otherwise competent president who stupidly indulges his fantasy in a twenty-four year old nymphet is one thing. A president who lies, who flagrantly breaks and ignores laws, who obviously believes he is above those laws, and who is presiding over the dismantling of our traditional democracy, is quite another. The last time we impeached a president we went after the wrong guy for the wrong reasons. We now have the opportunity to get it right.
Garrett 500
12/21/2005
Nor is it surprising that the president, after a bit of back pedaling, owned up to these nefarious activities. He has made it clear, virtually since the smoke cleared on 9/11, that as far as he is concerned just about anything goes when it comes to fighting the war on terrorism. And where "spy gate" is concerned Mr. Bush is more aggrieved by the fact that ordinary Americans now know what he's been doing than by any suggestion that he might be breaking (or at least ignoring) the law. Indeed, his rationale for this chicanery is that terrorists don't play by the rules, so he shouldn't have to either. And when backed to the wall on the matter he retorts that we haven't been attacked in four years. Right, and the fact that he has been spying on Americans is doubtless the reason that Al Queda has left us alone.
That America is supposed to stand for something more noble than those nations which encourage, which foster, or which simply tolerate terrorism is, we fear, lost on the denizens of Bush World. They were wounded (albeit no where near mortally) on September 11,th 2001, and they are retaliating with a ferocity, and a lack of traditional American ethics, heretofore unimagined in the annals of this country's history. And even when it involves overt law breaking (which is surely what this spying is), the administration sits back and brazens it out by saying things like "we were cleared for this operation by Justice Department Attorneys", "read the Constitution, we're covered". But when asked to cite which specific statute, which part of the constitution, what law of any kind, legalizes spying on American citizens without benefit of a warrant, no one in Bush World can come up with anything except more hollow rhetoric.
There is too much which is ignoble in this administration's conduct of its business. It lied to us about the rationale for war, it has overseen the imprisonment without access to due process of hundreds, if not thousands, of individuals suspected, but not indicted. It was surely looking the other way at Abu Graib and to think otherwise is to believe in the Easter Bunny. And, for several years it has violated one of the most dearly held tenets of our democracy; it has been spying, without legal authority, and without apology, on what may be thousands of American citizens.
In 1998 a misguided Congress impeached then president, Bill Clinton. Republican conservatives (or at least those who could elude charges of hypocrisy) were incensed that Mr. Clinton had conducted an affair with a young White House intern. And they were really peeved at the fact that he had lied about it. Never mind that an admitted fifty-percent of married Americans have affairs. Forget the fact that one hundred percent of them lie about it. This was "Slick Willy", and those who wanted his cajones went after him tooth and nail. Ultimately, after subjecting the country to an exercise in abject tomfoolery, Clinton was acquitted, he completed the remainder of his presidency, and the country benefited, in the main, from his leadership. If we endeavored to impeach Clinton for having an affair would it not make even more sense to impeach Bush for lying and for breaking the law? Before he erodes all of our civil liberties should we not begin to sense his mission, make it clear that we don't need a dictator, and impeach him for high crimes and misdemeanors? We think so, and we hope those members of Congress who share this view will get the ball rolling.
An otherwise competent president who stupidly indulges his fantasy in a twenty-four year old nymphet is one thing. A president who lies, who flagrantly breaks and ignores laws, who obviously believes he is above those laws, and who is presiding over the dismantling of our traditional democracy, is quite another. The last time we impeached a president we went after the wrong guy for the wrong reasons. We now have the opportunity to get it right.
Garrett 500
12/21/2005
posted by Garrett W at 10:16 AM
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