Death to Bush!
So, to the list of impeachable offenses committed by our President, we can now add the direct violation of the Fourth Amendment through illegal and unconstitutional monitoring of individual communication by the NSA. Rather than go off on a rant about this at this time, I encourage everyone to begin every phone conversation, email, IM message, or letter with the words "Death to Bush". You may, alternately, use "Fuck Bush", or even "Assassinate Bush" -- anything that will force evaluation of your message by some secret court and unauthorized investigatory agency. As the head of the Ukrainian internal security agency once told a westerner, "I have good news, and I have bad news. The bad news is that all of your phones are bugged; the good news is that we are three years behind in transcribing the recordings." Since we're paying their fucking salaries, let the NSA bastards who collude in this unconstitutional travesty actually do some work.
Oh, the impeachable offenses so far:
1) Violation of Article I, section 8 and Article II, section 2 of the Constitution by invading a foreign country against which Congress had not declared war (alternately, if you insist on clinging to the fiction that House Joint Resolution 114 constituted such a declaration, "by failing to prosecute immediately a war that Congress had declared").
2) Violation of Amendments V and VI of the Constitution through arrest and detention of American citizens with neither Grand Jury indictment nor "quick and speedy trials".
3) Violation of Article VI by using a religious test to determine nominees to the Supreme Court, that is, that they believe that "our rights are derived from God".
4) Violation of Amendment IV of the Constitution through unreasonable search and seizures.
More expansive comments can be found here.
Oh, the impeachable offenses so far:
1) Violation of Article I, section 8 and Article II, section 2 of the Constitution by invading a foreign country against which Congress had not declared war (alternately, if you insist on clinging to the fiction that House Joint Resolution 114 constituted such a declaration, "by failing to prosecute immediately a war that Congress had declared").
2) Violation of Amendments V and VI of the Constitution through arrest and detention of American citizens with neither Grand Jury indictment nor "quick and speedy trials".
3) Violation of Article VI by using a religious test to determine nominees to the Supreme Court, that is, that they believe that "our rights are derived from God".
4) Violation of Amendment IV of the Constitution through unreasonable search and seizures.
More expansive comments can be found here.
posted by heavynettle at 11:36
5 Comments:
I see what you're saying hear, but you might want to dial it back a bit considering the limited intellectual power of your political foes and their penchant to seize on the literal. For the record, I believe it's completely clear you are not advocating any criminal activity or the desire to live in a political culture ruled by assassination. But consider what the dumbest person reading this might do; or, for a historical perspective, consider the fate of Emma Goldman after she was cited as the inspiration for the nut job who offed McKinley.
That being said, I agree the NSA revelation is shocking (amazing that the disregard for the rule of law shown by this administration still can be shocking, but there it is.) I wonder how many people even realize that freedom from search and seizure is one of the core freedoms the revolution was fought over. The use of the NSA to track domestic bad guys isn't shocking in itself, it may even be a good idea, but the total absence of judicial or congressional checks on the executive is terrifying. Why congress is abdicating their responsibilities to fight for our liberties is beyond my ability to understand.
Exactly, dostum. Yes, for those of you dimwits who may think that I am advocating actual assassination of a sitting president, I am not: I just want you to chase your tail, get tired, and collectively give up the effort.
Shock is not quite what I feel: it's somewhere at the center of the triangle formed by disgust, outrage, and wry amusement. The last comes from the realization that the brainless are sanguine about all this only because the office is held by one of what they perceive as their own -- what would Rush Limbaugh be saying if the news were changed only in the identity of the President? What would be the content of the daily conservative talk-show slurge if Gore were the one who had done all this?
As I say in a previous post, it is illustrative when a person accepts or rejects a proposition based on its source. To all you idiots out there who think Bush should have this power, do you think Hillary should as well?
I never thought I would long for the days when Congress and the Executive created a three-ring circus to impeach a man for lying about a blow job (to a prosecutor who had no mandate to ever ask about it) and haggling over the definition of "is."
Now we have the so-called "conversatives" bending over backwards to justify enshrining an omnipotent executive who haggles over what the definition of torture is.
The Republican Congress is 100% to blame for letting the tyrant in the White House run roughshod over our liberties, trample our reputation in the dust, and lead us to fiscal and other ruins (See: "Republican War on Science" for the last).
At long last, the only explanation for their total lack of decency is that they have another agenda than the welfare of the American people. Tyranny.
Some interesting links sent to me by one of the president's defenders:
Clinton & the NSA
Carter & the NSA
Again, I hope the waters are not muddied to the point that people do not see the danger in the president performing an otherwise legal act, such as wire-tapping, in an illegal manner. The fact that the lead FISA judge James Robertson quit last night speaks volumes.
-S.T.
If Carter jumped off a cliff, would Bush?
Illegal acts are not made legal by precedent. The fact is that neither Carter nor Clinton are in office, so your pro-President friend seems to be indulging int the sort of tripe that Rush Limbaugh spouts: that is, "the Democrats do it to, so shut up."
I thought Reagan was doing a pretty good job as President when I was in my teens, but that doesn't change the fact that he also should have been impeached. My venom with regard to this President is a reflection of my improved political awareness as well as the severity of his abuse of authority.
I have often said that every President since Truman, the possible exception of Carter, should have been impeached for their violation of authority. So I guess the only thing I'd change about that statement is the removal of the qualifier for Carter. Death to Bush.
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