A Letter to Senator Mike DeWine

Senator DeWine:

Earlier this week you, and the rest of the Republicans on the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, decided that loyalty to party and President outweigh the Constitution and federal law. By declining to launch an investigation into the clearly illegal and unconstitutional domestic spying program initiated by President Bush you abdicated your responsibility and duty to oversee the actions of the executive branch.

This is but the latest, and most egregious, of Congressional lapses in oversight. If you are willing to simply rubber-stamp the policies of the executive branch, regardless of their legality or constitutionality, you and the rest of Congress may as well pack your bags and go home...You have rendered yourselves irrelevant by your own unconstitutional ceding of congressional authority to an increasingly imperious and ever secretive executive branch. The President can do as he pleases, when he pleases by what amounts to royal fiat. And none will gainsay him.

Why do you think the Founding Fathers insisted on the separation of powers? They knew that when too much power was concentrated in one set of hands, despotism would soon follow. By your actions, you and the rest of the lick-spittles in Congress, are laying the foundation for that despotism. If you continue to abdicate your oversight responsibilites, the Republic will perish with nary a whimper from those whose duty it is to protect it...And the terrorists will have won.

A Letter to Senator Pat Roberts

Senator Roberts:

Yesterday, you shamefully abdicated your oversight responsibilities and rubber-stamped President Bush's illegal and un-Constitutional domestic spying program. If you, and your Republican colleagues, are unwilling to do your duty and reign in these abuses of presidential power, you may as well pack your bags and go home as you are no longer needed. The President is a law unto himself, and being able to do as he wishes, when he wishes, he need worry no longer about interference from a spineless Congress unwilling to do its duty.

When you took your oath of office, you swore to uphold and defend the Constitution against all enemies, foreign and domestic. In shirking your oversight duties, you have foresworn that oath. The Republic is dead...Long live the President.

Cheney’s Got a Gun

(Sung to the Aerosmith tune “Janie’s Got a Gun”)

Dum, dum, dum, dummy what have you done
Dum, dum, dum, it's the sound of your gun
Dum, dum, dum, dummy what have you done
Dum, dum, dum, it's the sound, it's the sound...
Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah....

Cheney's Got A Gun
Cheney's Got A Gun
His whole world's being spun
Look at those news crawls run
Oh what did he do
Where’d the press go to

Cheney declined to be tested
Was there enough oxygen gettin to his brain
But Harry, he wasn’t even runnin’
Now that Cheney's Got A Gun
He ain't never gonna be the same

Cheney's Got A Gun
Cheney's Got A Gun
His dogs, they knew to run
But Harry thought it was all just fun
Now he knows that it ain’t true
What did the dummy do

He thought it was a quail
”Oh shit!” his friends did wail
The sneer remained in place
Until Harry took it in the face
His pants now bear the stain

Stonewall, stonewall the press
Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn

Stonewall, stonewall the press
Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn
Stonewall, stonewall the press

Cheney's Got A Gun
Cheney's Got A Gun
His dogs, they knew to run
But Harry thought it was all just fun
Now he knows that it ain’t true
And Cheney, he’s turnin’ blue.

Did they have drinks that went down easy
Or was he just a little queasy
Cause his ticker, it just ain’t right
That pacemaker is just a fright
He ain't never gonna take the blame

Stonewall, stonewall the press
Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn
Stonewall, stonewall the press
Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn
Stonewall, stonewall the press

Cheney's Got A Gun
Cheney's Got A Gun
Cheney's Got A Gun
The story, it’s bein’ spun

Cheney's Got A Gun
Cheney's Got A Gun
His dogs, they knew to run (Dummy, dummy what did you do)
'Cause Cheney's Got A Gun (Yeah and that’s a fright)
Cheney's Got A Gun (That vein in his temple throbbin’)
But Harry thought it was all just fun (Now he’s in ICU)
And Cheney, he’s turnin’ blue
The story it’s bein’ spun
Cheney’s got a gun

If You're Innocent...

...Then you don't have anything to hide. Or so goes the argument made by many of those who support Dubbyuh's domestic spying program. So, let's look at a logical extension of this argument.

If they're innocent of any wrong-doing or malfeasence, there is no reason for the Bush administration to withhold information about its response to Hurricane Katrina.

If they're innocent of any wrong-doing, there is no reason for the Bush administration not to turn over the name(s)of the individual(s) responsible for blowing Valerie Plam's cover. And let's not forget that this led to the rolling up of a program to indterdict the transfer of weapons technology...a program vital to national security.

If he is innocent of any wrong-doing, there is no reason for Dick Cheney to withold documents pertaining to his energy policy task force. As it was he fought tooth and nail to keep those documents secret. What's he got to hide if he's done nothing wrong?

If they're innocent of any wrong-doing, why did the Bush administration stonewall the 9-11 Commission? After all, they've nothing to hide...or do they?

If they've done nothing wrong, then the Bush administration will have no difficulty laying out all of the information leading to the decision to go to war with Iraq. But since they seem unwilling to do this, it leaves one wondering what they've got to hide.

If we the people are to be subjected to continuous and ongoing surveillance...If we the people are expected to surrender our right to privacy...Doesn't seem apropriate that our elected leaders and their staff be subjected to the same level of scrutiny? Apparently not. They seem to hold themselves to be above the law and in a nation of laws, this is not just acceptable, it is intolerable.

Just when they thought they could forget about this turd in the punchbowl...

...Up it pops to the surface. The story, in the Feb 9th The New York Times tells the tale of Scooter Libby. Apparently, Scooter rolled on his for boss, Darth Cheney. He stated, under oath and before a grand jury, that he had permission from his "superiors" to leak calssified information in order to build support for Dubbyuh's dirty little war in Iraq. Coincidentaly enough, this was at about the same time he leaked Valerie Plame's name to Bob Novak. But then, there are no coincidences in politics, especially with the buch of vindictive bastards currently occupying the White House.

It requires no imagination at all to discern just who those "superiors" might be. The first one that comes to mind is...could it be?...DICK CHENEY! It simply boggles the mind. And the whole "Plamegate" episode has Turdblossom's fingerprints all over it, which is why he's still under the scrutiny of Patrick Fitzgerald.

With this revelation in Scooter's testimony, the possibility of Dick Vader being hauled into the dock to testify under oath seems very real. Although one simply can't imagine him making it past the couthouse metal detectors what with all of his artificial parts.

With the wheels coming off the Bush administrations cart, I can't help but feel a certain degree of schadefreud at their straights. I also feel a rather strong sense of outrage at a Congress which has failed to hold these sorry-assed rat-bastards accoutable for their crimes. But as Mark Twain said, so many years ago,

It could probably be shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native criminal class except Congress.

Some things never change.

Crocodile Tears

After the non-event that was Alberto Gonzalez's testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, the White House has been doing its best to bury the whole issue. But, like a rotting corpse buried in the basement, it keeps coming back to haunt them.

Heather Wilson (R-NM), issued a statement today expressing her reservations and concerns regarding the legality of Dubbyuh's domestic spying program. SHe also stated that it was high time for the Administration to fully brief House and Senate intelligence committees on the program.

Juxtapose this with Dick Vader's...er...Cheney's grotesque mockery of the Constitution insistence on unlimited presidential power on "The News Hour with Jim Leher". Here, Cheney essentially dismissed the whole of Congress as being, not only irrelevant, but also as a threat to national security. This being the case then, members of Congress should simply pack their bags and go home. Our Maximum Presidente will see to everything.

Given that the Bush administration hasn't much credibility, on the streets or anywhere else for that matter, we should take with a grain of salt any statements made by its members regarding the honourable intentions behind the domestic spying program. Lacking any outside oversight, of any kind, the insistence by Alberto Gonzalez, and others, that the intercepts are "narrowly targeted" is utterly meaningless.

Couple that with the flimsy grasp that Administration spokes-persons have on the Constitution and they have even shakier grounds on which to build their house of cards. In his January 23rd appearance before the National Press Club, General Michael Hayden (deputy director of National Intelligence with the Office of National Intelligence) displayed a remarkable degree of ignorance regarding Fourth Amendment protections. The Fourth Amendment clearly states:

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

General Hayden stated:

"...it is a reasonableness standard in the Fourth Amendment. And so what you've raised to me -- and I'm not a lawyer, and don't want to become one -- what you've raised to me is, in terms of quoting the Fourth Amendment, is an issue of the Constitution. The constitutional standard is "reasonable." And we believe -- I am convinced that we are lawful because what it is we're doing is reasonable."

Ahhh well, The Constitution is just a "...goddamned piece of paper..." anyways.

It seems to me, though, that the concerns raised by some Republican lawmakers ring hollow. Senator Arlen Specter (R-PA), among others, has often voiced his concern over Dubbyuh's domestic spying program. Yet at Monday's hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee he voted, along with the rest of the Republicans on the committee, to allow Alberto Gonzalez to give his testimony without being sworn in. Were they really that afraid AG Gonzalez would perjure himself? It seems so. After all, he lied at his confirmation hearing about the "hypothetical" issue of illegal domestic spying by the president.

Indeed, the concerns of some Republican lawmakers regarding this matter are simply window dressing. They have forgotten that their first duty lies, not with their party or even the president. Their first duty lies with the Constituion, which their oath of office require they uphold "...against all enemies, both foreign and domestic...". They weep copious crocodile tears as they rend the Constitution to shreds.

If not now, when...?

While it may seem to be ancient history and a moot point at this time, new information regarding the Bush Administration's run up to the war in Iraq has been reported in Britain's "The Guardian".

A newly released memo regarding a meeting between George Bush and Tony Blair on January 31st, 2003 clearly indicates that Bush intended to invade Iraq regardless of whether or not there was a second UN vote on the matter or failure of weapons inspectors to find any WMD's. In short, the invasion of Iraq was a fait accompli.It was a done deal, and the US was going to forge ahead with this ill-concieved and illegal war of aggression. And this with the full support of Blair, regardless of the illegalities involved.

This is relevant now in that Bush is asking for another $120 BILLION to fund the war in Iraq, bringing the total spent there to more than $350 Billion. Despite administration claims to the contrary, there is no end in sight.

With social safety-net programs being cut to the point of bankrupting them...With an ongoing program of fiscally disasterous tax-cuts benefitting only the wealthiest of Americans...With ongoing borrowing from foreign banks, especially China...it seems our greatest enemy lies, not beyond our borders, but within them. And that enemy sits within the White House. Our national security is now at risk as it has never been before. All that our foreign creditors need do is refuse to buy any more US debt and the US economy will come tumbling down like the house of cards it has become under this administration.

Had a foreign figure done this he would be considered a threat to our nation and hunted down. Had any other US citizen done this they would be branded a traitor and be hanged. But now that the Republicans control all three branches of government can we expect that the architects of this disaster within the Bush Administration will be held accountable? All current evidence says they will not. This Republican controlled Congress has so consistently failed in its oversight duties that there will be no accounting until they are replaced. And if they they continue to fail in theier oversight duties, then Congress may as well pack their bags and return home for they will have reduced themselves to irrelevancy. The President can do as he chooses whenever he chooses and there are none to gainsay him. The Republic will have died with nary a whimper from those whose duty it was to protect it from an increasingly imperious and imperial Presidency.

With all that is coming to light regarding the moral bankruptcy and utter and absolute corrution of this administration, if Congress will not act now to hold its members accountable for their actions, when will they?

It is time...Long past time...

...For Congress to act.

On December 17th, 2005 President George W. Bush, in a nationally televised address, confessed to high crimes and misdemeanors by authorizing the NSA to begin domestic spying operations against US citizens without a warrant.

Contrary to the Administration's protests, there is no mention of any such authority contained within S.J.RES.23 of September 14th 2001. Contrary to the Administration's protests, they had all of the information in hand prior to 9/11...They simply chose to ignore it. Remember the August 6th, 2001 PDB entitled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike Inside the U.S."? The pieces of the puzzle were all in hand, bureaucratic incompetence and indifference kept them from being assembled. There was no lack of information.

President Bush has wilfully ridden roughshod over the Constitution he has sworn to uphold and defend against all enemies, foreign and domestic. He has done violence to the letter and the spirit of the law. And he continues, unrepentantly, to do so. He had all of the legal authority he required to conduct domestic surveillance under FISA, yet that was not enough. He ignored the FISA court, which has only declined four warrants since its inception, and declared himself and his administration to be above the law and could do as he, and they, see fit in pursuit of an unending "war against terrorism". These tactics are not those of the leader of the oldest extant democracy in the world, they are the actions of a despot.

It is now incumbent members of the House and Senate to remember that their first loyalty is, not to their party, nor even to the President. Their first loyalty is to the Constitution which they have all sworn to uphold against all enemies, both foreign and domestic. It is, therefore, incumbent upon all Representatives in the House, Republican and Democrat, to introduce a Resolution of Inquiry in response to the gross abuse of power the President's domestic spying program represents. It is then incubent upon Republican and Democratic members of the Senate to act upon this resolution of inquiry and begin impeachment proceedings against George W. Bush, et al. Congress has utterly failed in its oversight capacity to this point. If they are not willing to do their duty in this matter, they may as well pack up and go home as Congress has no further use in the face of an increasingly imperious presidency.The President will have become the law unto himself, and the Consttitution will be little more than a "...goddamned piece of paper...". The Republic and its dream will die, and Congress will have stood quietly by as it happened...even has they held the power to stop it.

Two Wrongs...

...Don't make a right. Yet that is exactly what right-wing pundits are doing when they point to Bill Clinton's alleged use of warrantless searches in 1995. I say 'alleged', as Clinton did sign an exectuive order which states,

Pursuant to section 302(a)(1) [50 U.S.C. 1822(a)] of the [Foreign Intelligence Surveillance] Act, the Attorney General is authorized to approve physical searches, without a court order, to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year, if the Attorney General makes the certifications required by that section.

(Full Text of U.S.C. 1822 found HERE)

Section 2 states, unequivocally, that the AG can authorize physical searches without a warrant "...for the purpose of collecting foreign intelligence information...." so long as the premises on which the search is conducted and all information gathered therein, are used "exclusively" by a foreign power.

It should be noted that in 2004 a "lone wolf" amendment was added to FISA. A 'lone'wolf is defined as a non-US person who engages in, or plans for,international acts of terrorism.

If Clinton did engage in an abuse of power as Bush has already admitted to doing, why didn't the Republican controlled Congress begin impeachment proceedings for high crimes and misdemeanors? They could have surely gotten more traction out of such a proceeding than they did with consensual sex in the Oval Office, and he would have richly deserved whatever punishment was meted out by Congress

The upshot of this is that the President, under Title III and FISA can order warrantless searches against non-US citizens. The president does not, however, have carte blanche to order domestic surveillance of US citizens on US soil without a warrant. The Constitution trumps presidential perogative on this matter at every turn. And for those who have forgotten, the Constitution was established to protect US citizens from the abuses of power by the government, such as those perpetrated by Bush, regardless of the circumstances.

The remarkable lack of imagination shown by the conservative talking heads as they continue to point their grubby fingers at Clinton is indicative of just how indefensible Bush's actions are in this matter. Their shrill whining about how "Clinton did it too!" are nothing more than a vain attempt to distract from Bush's sins. But, Bush, having confessed to high crimes and misdemeanors in a nationally televised address makes it very difficult to put any polish on that turd. And if Clinton engaged in such an abuse of power, he should be have to pay the price. But a Republican controlled Congress seems to have chosen to ignore that particular sin, if it ever happened at all.

A sad affair indeed...

On December 17, 2005, President Bush, in essence, confessd to high crimes and misdemeanors in a nationally televised speech. These high crimes and misdemeanors involve the authorization of domestic surveillance operations to be conducted by the NSA.

Such operations, however are violations of federal law unless conducted under the auspices of Title III and FISA which,

“shall be the exclusive means by which electronic surveillance ... and the interception of domestic wire and oral communications may be conducted.”

In other words, in the absence of Congressional action (in the form of legislation), President Bush lacked the authority to order such operations. Despite Administration claims that S.J. Resolution 23 of 9/14/01, authorizing military action in Afghanistan, grants the President the authority to conduct such operations, there is no language contained in the resolution that may even be construed as granting such authority.

These actions are an affront to, and violation of, the Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution which states,

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

.

This abuse of power by President Bush, for that is what it is...no point in mincing words...If left unchallenged and unchecked, will be be our undoing. Previous actions of this Administration have sorely tested the Cosntitutional underpinnings of this Republic. If these abuses of power are not stopped...now...the Constitution will not be worth the match it would take to burn it. After all, President Bush has, by some accounts, described the Constitution as nothing more than "...A goddamned piece of paper...".

The truly appaling thing though, is not the brazen manner in which the President has attempted to place himself above the law, but that it seems so many will so cravenly acquiesce to this unwarranted and illegal invasion of their lives. Particularly when so many of those individuals have decried the intrusion of "big government" into their lives in the past. This craven acceptance of unbridled power is an insult to the sacrifices made in defense of liberty by every American from the Revolutionary War to the present day. And to those who willingly, even cheerfully, accept this abuse of power, I say, "Line up. Your yokes and shackles await you."

The War on Christmas...

...IS a canard perpetrated by right wing-nuts who lack the ability to engage in any sort of substantive debate about more pressing issues.

First, in 1921, it was Henry Ford proclaiming a war on Christmas was part of a world-wide Jewish conspiracy to subvert Christmas, Easter and other Christian holy-days. This was described in his tract "The International Jew".

In 1959, the John Birch Society changed things a bit. Instead of a world-wide Jewish conspiracy to subvert Christian ideals in America, a Communist plot to "Drive Christ out of Christmas..." was proclaimed by the Birchers. And the key player in this assault on Christmas was "...the Godless UN...".

Nowadays, we have right-wing waterheads like Bill O'Reilly, John Gibson, Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, et al, revealing a new enemy out to destroy Christmas and Christian ideals. It's (GASP!) SECULAR HUMANISTS! These Godless heathens are out to remove every last shred of Christianity from America...Not that it's really going to happen.

Christianity has greater enemies within its own ranks though. From the snake-oil salesmen touting their cheesy "prosperity theology" to the televangelists preaching to the enthralled masses in their glitzy mega-churches, these have done more to undermine Christ's message than any "secular humanist" conspiracy. Instead of servants teaching the word of Christ to those who come seeking His comfort, these "preachers" have created their own cults of personality dedicated more to their own self-aggrandizement than Christ's message. The secular power they have gained from a religious base has stripped them of their humility before God and, as a result, the message they preach is not God's, it is their own.

So, before folks go pointing fingers at "secular humanists" for a non-existent war on Christmas, perhaps they should look to themselves as the cause, rather than the cure, of their percieved undermining of Christian ideals.

Have they no shame?

$51 billion in budget cuts affecting, primarily, the neediest among us? $60 billion in tax cuts affecting, primarily, the wealthiest among us? What is Congress thinking? And who are they working for?...Because it's surely not their constituents.

That tax cuts would even be considered in a time of war, with the Bush administration's support, indicates the true level of concern shared by the Congressional leadership and the White House for the "war on terrorism"...Very little indeed. Should we not be sharing, in some small way, the sacrifices our troops are making as they have been sent into harm's way? Can we not pay, in the form of higher taxes, to support the war effort? Instead Congress and the Administration choose to borrow from foreign governments thus weakening our position abroad as well as putting our economic future at risk.

"I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." - Matthew 25:40

Words which our nominally Christian leadership in Congress and the White House would do well to remember.

Yet again, Congressional leadership has failed their constituents, their office and the Constitution. They should be ashamed of themselves. They have much to be ashamed of.

An Update...

Regarding my previous post, it was a straight party line vote, with only one Republican voting for the amendment, that being Senator Chafee of Rhode Island.

The only way this administration is going to be held accountable for its crimes is when there is a democratic majority in both houses of Congress, although, at this point I'm not sure even then.

For the breakdown on the vote, go HERE

Jeeeezus! What a fucking creep-show...!

Just when you though they couldn't sink any lower...At about 12:10 Eastern Time, the senate killed S.AMDT.2476, also known as the "Dorgan Amendment". This amendment, introduced by Senator Byron Dorgan(D-ND), to the 2006 defense authorization bill would have established a commission to investigate contractot fraud, abuse and war profiteering In Iraq.

It would have used, as its template, the Senate Special Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program, the Truman Committee, of WW II. As we all know, this committee saved US taxpayers what would have amounted to billions in current US dollars. But rather than do the right thing this amendment was defeated, Yea: 44, Nay:53. I don't know the breakdown of the vote, But I would be more than willing to bet that it was along party lines. The last vote I heard was that of Senator Bill Frist, who (SURPRISE!) voted against it. A call to Senator Mike DeWine's office, Republican Senator from Ohio and my Senator, voted "NO" also.

What is the Reublican Senate leadership afraid of? Are they worried about their connections to the various contractors being revealed? If they've violated no laws or Senate ehtics rules, What do they have to worry about? What don't they want revealed? WE, THE PEOPLE... have a right to know how our taxpayer dollars were misused, wasted and/or stolen. There has still been no accounting of the $8.8 billion that went missing during Proconsul Bremer's tenure in Iraq.

Call you Senator and demand an accounting...NOW!

Well!...The nerve!...

"This is an affront to me personally," an angry Mr. Frist said.

He said would find it difficult to trust Mr. Reid any longer.

"It's an affront to our leadership," Mr. Frist said. "It's an affront to the United States of America. And it is wrong." - The New York Times

Watching Senator Bill Frist have his little hissy fit yesterday, one almost expected him to go flouncing off in a huff. One could almost hear the rustle of crinoline and the clack of high-heels. I never realized he was such a drama queen.

The true effrontery though lies in the failure of Congress to maintain any level of oversight of President Bush and his administration. Unbid contracts to Haliburton and it subsidiaries in Iraq...Ignored. $8.8 billion gone missing in Iraq under pro-consul J. Paul Bremmer...Also ignored. Violations of US and intenational law as well as the Geneva Conventions draws not a whisper from the Republican controlled Congress. More recently, the failures of FEMA under the Department of Homeland Security in the wake of Hurricane Katrina are ignored. And again, unbid contracts are awarded to Haliburton and its subsidiaries for Gulf Coast reconstruction...One can hear crickets chirping in the halls of Congress.

So, Senator Frist, take your self-righteous indignation...fold it five ways...and place it firmly where the sun never shines. You might have a hard time getting it past your head though.

Another turd in the punchbowl...

"Under our system, a person is presumed innocent and is entitled to due process and a fair trial..." - George W. Bush, 10/28/2005

He failed to add, "Unless I say otherwise...". Just another act of duplicity and hypocrisy by the titular leader of the most corrupt and venal presidency in American history. Under "our system" Jose Padilla has been sitting in a military brig these last three years, held without charge and incommunicado. His right to due process was suspended, not by an act of Congress, but rather by an act of royal fiat by an imperial president...A president who sees himself and his administration as being above the law.

The indictment of "Scooter" Libby did not cow the President, you could see in his face and by his demeanor that he was deeply angry. Angered by the affrontery of a special prosecutor who had the affrontery to actually follow the letter and spirit of the law in applying it to his administration? Perhaps.

America is in the grips of a Constitutional crisis brought on by an administration brought about by an administration which, while paying lip service to the Constution and the rule of law, willing flouts the very same precepts. The outcome of "Scooter" Libby's trial will be key in determining whether or not we remain a Constitutional Republic, or become an oligarchy.

The scum also rises...And it ain't pretty

The wheels are comin' off the cart boys and girls. What started out as an investigation into a game of "Gotcha!" by the White House has gone far beyond just "Scooter" Libby and Karl Rove. It's gone beyond the outing of Valerie Plame and who knew what...when.

What started as an investigation into apparent retaliation against Joe WIlson for questioning, publicly, the Bush administration's intelligence on WMD's in Iraq has swept up the members of the Iraq Working Group. Mr. FItzgerald has hauled many of the members of this group in for questioning. And what's coming out is an ugly picture indeed.

It would appear that the Administration's protests that Congress saw the same intelligence as the White House before ceding their Constitutional authority to wage war to the POTUS, are empty at best. It is becoming apparent that Congress and the American people only saw what the neo-con ideologues in the Administration wanted them to see. It is becoming readily apparent, even to those who refused to see it, that Congress and America were mislead into a war of agression on the basis of cooked, overstated and fabricated intelligence.

With this in mind, it is long past time for Congress to begin a Resolution of Inquiry into the actions of the Bush administration in the run up to the war in Iraq. High crimes and misdemeanors have been perpetrated against the citizens of this nation. It is the duty of every member of Congress to see that these crimes do not go unpunished. But many may fail to act for fear of a "Constitutional Crisis" that such action would precipitate. The Constitutional Crisis, however, is already upon us and failure of Congress to fulfill their oversight responsibilities will not just deepen the crisis, it will be the death of the Republic.

The Bush administration has grasped greedily for power from the moment the events of September 11th, 2001 came to pass, and it has now over-reached that grasp. It is the duty of Congress to correct this imbalance and restore the balance and separation of power between the three branches of government. If they fail to do so, then that duty falls to the American people. Failure on our part would bring an end to the vision laid out by the Founding Fathers over two centuries ago and it would be a tragedy of unimaginable proportion.

Inviting Ourselves to the Banquet

Since the Bush administration came to power, certain business and religious leaders have enjoyed unprecedented access to the halls of power. There they have enjoyed, and continue to enjoy, having the ear of the POTUS and his cronies regarding decisions of national and world import.

Corporate interests have reaped huge benfits in the form of tax-breaks, regulatory reform, environmental legislation, unbid contracts, and the list goes on. Certain religious leaders have sought, and recieved goverment funds in the form of "Faith-Based initiatives". They have sought to restrict a woman's right to abortion, they have sought delays in the release of emergency contraception, they have pushed for the teaching of religious doctrine in our public schools in the for of "intelligent design".

In short, monied business interests and right-wing religious zealots are the driving forces behind our government now. As they feast at the banquet tables set out in the halls of power, they gorge themselves on wealth and power, all paid for by "We, the people...". These few interests guide the hands that hold the reigns of power, and "We, the people..." are left to fend for ourselves.

WE hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness -- That to secure these Rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just Powers from the Consent of the Governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these Ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its Foundation on such Principles, and organizing its Powers in such Form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Bearing these words from the Declaration of Independence in mind, dear readers, does it not seem that our elected leaders have long since forgotten that their power is derived from the consent of the governed?

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

In serving the interests of a few, it seems that our elected leadership has forgotten the concept of the "general welfare" as outlined in the preamble of the Constitution?

As special interests gorge themselves on the wealth looted from America's treasury, it behooves us to invite ourselves to this banquet returning "We, the people..." to their rightful seat. In doing so, we will remind our elected officials that they rule by our consent, and not by right of birth, wealth, or divinity. Failing to do so will be a complete abdication of our responsibilities as citizens of the Republic, leading to our eventual enslavement to those interests which have no concern beyond their own accumulation of wealth and power.

Contract with America?

An anniversary passed recently, which went largely unremarked. Eleven years ago, Republicans came to the majority in Congress. Led by Newt Gingrich, these Republicans embraced a "Contract with America". The promise of rooting out corruption and restoring integrity and accountability to Congress was heady stuff indeed.

Since then, we have seen not only Congress, but also the White House, turn rotten at the core from the blatant corruption we see exemplified by the likes of Tom DeLay, Bill Frist, Bob Ney, Karl Rove, and the list goes on. Abandoned is any pretext of adhering to the principles outlined in the "Contract":

# FIRST, require all laws that apply to the rest of the country also apply equally to the Congress;
# SECOND, select a major, independent auditing firm to conduct a comprehensive audit of Congress for waste, fraud or abuse;
# THIRD, cut the number of House committees, and cut committee staff by one-third;
# FOURTH, limit the terms of all committee chairs;
# FIFTH, ban the casting of proxy votes in committee;
# SIXTH, require committee meetings to be open to the public;
# SEVENTH, require a three-fifths majority vote to pass a tax increase;
# EIGHTH, guarantee an honest accounting of our Federal Budget by implementing zero base-line budgeting.

There has been no oversight of, or attempts to hold accountable, either members of Congress or the Bush administration for their misdeeds. The "Contract" has been broken...The signatories, nearly 100 of whom still serve in the House, are forsworn. Instead of serving the American People, they choose to serve the monied interests which which fill their campaign war-chests.

With their promises and principles abandoned in the face of the twin temptations of power and money, our Congressional representatives, both Republican and Democrat, have become nothing more than pigs at the trough...A parliament of whores...A disgrace to the hopes and aspirations the Founding Fathers had for this nation. The time has come to sweep them all out with the rest of the trash and start afresh.

A "New Deal" for the Gulf Coast?

Not from the Bush administration. Instead, its the same unbid contracts going to the same contractors who failed so miserably in Iraq. Its the slash-and-burn economics that drives down the standard of living for all, especially for those at the bottom of the economic ladder. This was demonstrated by Bush's suspension of the Davis-Bacon Act and the refusal of James Sensenbrenner to consider legislation to exempt Katrina's victims from the new bankruptcy bill coming into effect in October. It is the refusal of the Bush administration to face fiscal reality and raise taxes to pay for the reconstruction effort, let alone the disasterous war in Iraq which has siphoned off more than $200 billion from the average American tax-payer, and cost us the lives of nearly 2000 American soldiers.

The Gulf Coast region does not need more of this. Instead, it requires the establishment of a Gulf Coast Re-development Authority, much like the Tennessee Valley Authority of Roosevelt's 'New Deal' era. This has been proposed already by Edward Kennedy. John Edwards has already proposed a program along the lines of FDR's WPA and CCC, to provide living wage jobs to the poor and those displaced the hurricane in order to rebuild the Gulf Coast region. Dennis Kucinich, Stephanie Tubbs Jones brought together 88 co-sponsors for a similar proposal in the House.

Why then have we not heard more about these, and other, proposals? Simply this...the amassing of wealth and power in the hands of a few has taken precedence over "...promoting the general welfare..." as established in the Constitution. Hurricane Katrina has put the spotlight on this issue in a way that cannot be ignored. And it has sorely damaged the credibility of the American government, both at home and abroad, with regards to not only its ability, but its very desire, to protect all Americans. Is this what our Founding Father's envisioned for the nation they fought, and died, to bring into being?...I think not.

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

It seems that the Bush administration has chosen to ignore the Preamble, and much else, of the Constitution and what it has to say about the duties and responsibilities of government. This administration has, in its arrogance, forgotten that it governs only by the consent of the governed and the time is coming where that consent will be withdrawn.

So instead of pursuing the same course of action with the expectation of a different result, isn't it time we followed a path which shown its efficacy? FDR's New Deal gives us the example we need...A humane path which gives everyone a chance to rebuild their lives, rather than merely lining the pockets of a few.

For more on this, read Will Greider's article:

A 'New' New Deal