Impeach Now Or Face the End of Constitutional Democracy By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

[CGowen]

http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts07162007.html

Unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the US could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran.

Bush has put in place all the necessary measures for dictatorship in the form of "executive orders" that are triggered whenever Bush declares a national emergency. Recent statements by Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff, former Republican senator Rick Santorum and others suggest that Americans might expect a series of staged, or false flag, "terrorist" events in the near future.

Many attentive people believe that the reason the Bush administration will not bow to expert advice and public opinion and begin withdrawing US troops from Iraq is that the administration intends to rescue its unpopular position with false flag operations that can be used to expand the war to Iran.

Too much is going wrong for the Bush administration: the failure of its Middle East wars, Republican senators jumping ship, Turkish troops massed on northern Iraq's border poised for an invasion to deal with Kurds, and a majority of Americans favoring the impeachment of Cheney and a near-majority favoring Bush's impeachment. The Bush administration desperately needs dramatic events to scare the American people and the Congress back in line with the militarist-police state that Bush and Cheney have fostered.

William Norman Grigg recently wrote that the GOP is "praying for a terrorist strike" to save the party from electoral wipeout in 2008.
Chertoff, Cheney, the neocon nazis, and Mossad would have no qualms about saving the bacon for the Republicans, who have enabled Bush to start two unjustified wars, with Iran waiting in the wings to be attacked in a third war.

.............

[Doctor_J]

1. I'm for the end of democracy

We missed the chance to end this peacefully on Dec 10 2000. Once they got away with cancelling the election results, there was no way they'd ever leave constitutionally. We're 1940 Germany, and will likely have to undergo a similar catharsis to right the ship.

[indepat]

7. Well certainly our elected congress critters as a group are irredeemably

corrupt and venal by making a mockery out of the "promote the general welfare" doctrine and instead doing everything possible to promote wealth and corporate welfare as evidenced by the body of legislation passed since the Newtered guy's contract "on" America. Add the felonious five Supremes and you get an unredeemable system with no checks and balances for the Congress has relegated most of its most essential powers and prerogatives to one man: thank God that one man is a man of God who sees the light and way and follows the teachings of Jesus. RIP

[Perry Logan]

8. It's true. No election will resolve this. The left and right are going to fight.

[bbgrunt]

2. spot on.

[snappyturtle]

3. Off to the greatest. This is so important......n/t

[Raster]

4. Are you listening Reid, Pelosi, Clinton, Obama, etc? Our time draws near!

Wake Up America!:kick:9!

[realbluesky]

5. Without impeachment, democrats will always appear weak

It is vital to this nation that the dems stand up and tell the world what is happening is wrong.

As long as they do not impeach, the dems are complicit in the crimes of the repubs.

Do not expect me to support any dem candidate in 2008 if impeachment is off the table.

[Perry Logan]

9. And don't come to us looking for help when you need it.

If that's how you want to play the game, so be it.

[John Q. Citizen]

17. Do you imagine realblue wants help torturing people? Or doing warrant-less wire taps.

Maybe a kidnapping the Dems would have helped realbluesky with but not now?

Some people's allegiance is greater to the Democratic party than to their country and the constitution.

I don't think realblue is in that camp, and neither am I.

[Heath Hatcher]

18. So what are you getting at John

That Perry Logan has more respect towards the party then his own country? because I don't that that, I see Logan as a person that thinks realisticaly then fantasy when it comes to the Government and politics.

[John Q. Citizen]

19. If the Dems won't honor their oath to defend the constitution, why would

anyone who loves their country vote for them?

Right now, the executive is illegally doing warrentless search and seizures, is kidnapping people, has suspended habeus corpus and doesn't follow due process. They ignor the law at will and have become tyranical. They enrich their cronies at public expense. They lied this country into a war of enrichment for their cronies. They exposed an undercover CiA agent to punish her husband for telling the truth about their lies.

They are an ongoing criminal conspiracy.

The Dems want to let this go? Because they think it will help their chances in 08? Is that the reality you believe another DUer is realistically thinking about?

Why do you think Time magazine reports public approval of this Dem controlled congress is at 14%?
Down from 46% when they took office because Americans wanted major changes?

Who is living in fantasy land again?

[Heath Hatcher]

21. You are, because I vote for them because I give a damn about my party

Thats why, I will not abandon them when they need us the most no not after just two years. And any approval rating I saw of Congress putsit in the 20's and 30's but in my opinion the approval rating of Congress is moot because it's what the people think of there indivisual Congresscritter that matters. Congress has always has a low approval ratings but that dosen't matter if they think there Rep is a fine upstanding person that dosen't deserve to get voted out of office.

What can I say, i'm a person that really loves politics that dosen't want to see his party get kicked out of office, but I will give credit John, you do put up a good arguement and I respect that. You really know what your talking about, I don't necessarily got to agree with that your saying to me but goddamn it i'll respect it.

[Heath Hatcher]

10. They'll appear weak no matter what they do

You see the polls, the support is just not there for impeachment. The latest poll from USA today I saw that 36 precent only support the impeachment of George Bush and other polls I saw only saw support for impeachment in the mid 50's and that just won't cut it to bring impeachment to the WH. Look I know how everyone support it here but face it, outside the blogosphere and the far left there just isn't support for impeachment and the Democrats aren't gonna commit political sucide doing it and I thank them for it because like alot of people I bust my hump to get my party back into power in 2006 and i'm not gonna screw that up because of one issue that has almost no backing outside the left. I'm sorry but I will support Pelosi because she is doing a decent job as Speaker. And realblusky if you don't want to support the Democrats in '08 cause of this matter you do that, but your in the wrong in a time when your party needs you the most.

[MsMagnificent]

12. There would be support

if the misdeeds of this maladministration were properly and fully addressed in the media.

With the corporate mass media, until this is forced; until each crime, misdemeanor and scandal become separate and well-discussed major issues, a whole lot of support isn't going to be there. With what little is covered at present in the MsM I'm amazed that the stats are as high as they are.

Political Suicide is committed by being moral and ethical cowards who merely follow the poll du jour and whose only concern is their own reelection.


Political Suicide is achieved by not defending --as these politicians vowed to-- our Constitution; by not standing up for ethics, principles, and the Rule of Law.
By not acting in the interest of the People and not doing the People's bidding.

Cowardice never won admirers. Courage does.

[Heath Hatcher]

16. There not wrong on this

If you look at the polls, the support is just isn't there and quite frankly I don't want the Democrats taking up 18 some months digging up stuff on the President and fight a battle that won't even meet the 60 voted need in the Senate. I rather see them find a solution to the war in Iraq, that's what I voted for in 2006 and thats what i'm getting.

As for support in the MSM, sorry you can have it your way and have CNN and Faux turn into the 24 hour impeachment channel, there other things to report in the news then this. Like I said before the support for this in the general public just isn't there and the votes certainly aren't there in the Senate. And Congress needs to look at the polls if they want to get re-elected because if they don't and get voted out they get replaced by someone that is less sympathetic to our cause.

Sorry if you don't like what I have to say.

[AntiFascist]

23. You are ignoring the fact that....

most of the public is not aware of many of the issues regarding impeachment because of the damn media. When and if these issues ever come to light outside of the blogosphere then we will start seeing some strong support for impeachment. Its also not just a "left" issue, there are some very important and prominent conservative Republicans who also strongly support impeachment and there is one very wealthy right-winger making statements like: "Bush's Iraq policy is suicidal" and that Bush shows signs of mental illness.

[Heath Hatcher]

24. Oh yeah I know what your talking about

About the newspaper thats owned by a conservative Republican that called Bush's Iraq policy "suicidal" thats from the Tribune-Review, a newspaper thats published in my neck of the woods Pennsylvania, you know I never thought in a million years that that paper would ever turn it's back on anything the President did, you know your in trouble. And i don't agree with you that because of the media that there's no support for impeachment. I mean look at DU, the media dosen't "cover" but most people here are aware of Bush's crimes you know why? because the people here are smart and researched everything about this administration through the internet and blogs, normal americans don't need the media to tell you what Bush and Cheney have done, all they need to do is read a book about the administration's faults(theres plenty of them)or surf the net or if you want your facts quick, you come to DU.

[AntiFascist]

26. The other problem is the "conspiracy" meme...

as soon as something gets labelled as a possible conspiracy, or that there is a conspiracy theory explaining it, then people have been conditioned to automatically dismiss it as conspiracy nut material. Even on DU much of this discussion gets relegated to the 9-11 "dungeon" forum. To make matters worse, there are people out there very busy at work weaving truly nutball theories together with the plausible truth in order to discredit everything altogether.

The simple fact is that if Libby was working in a concerted fashion with others in the Administration to out Plame, then it makes it a conspiracy. Once that is established, then the question becomes what is this conspiracy really all about? Few in the media will even dare approach this subject in such a direct manner, instead it gets convoluted and complicated with who knew what when, or he said/she said type of coverage, then they switch to the more interesting topic of Paris Hilton.

Unfortunately much of the public no longer reads books, and most certainly don't come to DU for their news.

[Heath Hatcher]

28. Well let me tell you something Anti-Fascist

Thats a shame people won't come here to get there news because even though I only been a member for a couple of months I can honestly say that the members post links from sites that provide good credible news and to top it off we got smart liberals on this board to have discussion with (like myself, the magristrate, WCGreen etc.) I say that if you want to find good news and infomation the internet and blog sites are the way to go(like for infomation on impeachment)because you can't find any good news in the MSM unless you like hearing Lou Dobbs complain over and over on illegal immigration(actually he is right on immigration but it's all he talks about, he's a fucking broken record, I want viriety in my news)

[calimary]

11. If they send you any campaign donation requests, just mail 'em

back with a note scrawled across them: NO IMPEACHMENT? NO MONEY!!!

And PLEASE, keep pressuring them. Handy TOLL FREE Capitol Hill switchboard numbers conveniently located in my sig line below.

[Heath Hatcher]

13. How bout this

NO WITHDRAWAL IN IRAQ, NO MONEY!! because you'll have a better chance of the war ending then the Congress support a losing battle in Impeachment, because the support in the General public just isn't there. Sorry if thats busting everyone bubbles here.

[John Q. Citizen]

20. Cali, I had a very nice phone canvasser from the DCCC call me today to hit me up for funds.

We had a very long talk about , mostly, impeachment. She was 100% on board and not because she thought it would get her a contribution. She was saying things like, "I don't know what's wrong with the Democrats, almost everyone I call wants to know when they are going to impeach. She says, "I don't blame you a bit for not giving money. If they aren't going to follow the law, why should anyone give money?"

I told her to keep my number and if Pelosi puts impeachment on the table and moves it, to call me back and I'd give something. She said, "I sure hope they do. We used to get a lot of donations but things are really slow lately."

She said, "It was really nice talking to you, I enjoyed it." I said, "me too."

[Heath Hatcher]

25. Good to see you have a intelectual conversation

About fundrasing, that's pretty cool that this woman works for the DCCC and she's actually agreeing with you about what you said regarding impeachment, that woman could of talked down to you and threw a bunch of talking points at you but she didn't. You know I must say i'm kinda jealous because it seems that almost everyone here gets calls from the party asking for money but me, I don't understand why, I mean I donated to the party before.

[Pooka Fey]

6. K&R

[Perry Logan]

14. I'm struck by how divisive the "impeachbots" are.

They do little but attack, belittle, and threaten Democrats. Not very positive...

They attack people who disagree with them. Kinda negative...

You'll notice what a bummer it is to read their self-rightoeus posts. They're always planning some new act of meanness to teach the Dems a lesson, and patting themselves on the back for being so righteous.

But their real motives are hatred and a desire for revenge. That's why their effect is so negative.

[democrat2thecore]

15. I read this yesterday and was SO impressed.

It sums it all up in a nutshell.

[AntiFascist]

22. "Praying for a terrorist strike" where have I heard that before?

If any terrorist event does happen they ought to haul Bush and Cheney off to some foreign prison and apply various techniques until the truth comes out.

[Senator]

27. K&R

[DemBones DemBones]

29. This is essential reading.

:kick: and r

[autorank]

30. K*R This man is a true patriot and a fire breather.

I've been reading him for a while. He'd fit in well here.

He takes no prisoners and tells the truth.

[lonestarnot]

31. Monkey criminals, one nation under flaws: bushitler, dick, gonzales, rover