If Bush-Cheney Can't Be Impeached, Nobody Can - Swanson/Black Agenda Radio

[autorank]

Black Agenda Report's Executive Editor Glen Ford at Take Back America comments powerfully on David Swanson's "12 Categories" of Impeachable Crimes and the role of Congress and the Congressional Black Caucus. Coalitions are forming, it's got to happen for there to be meaning to our political system and to RESTORE the rule of law.

If Bush-Cheney Can't Be Impeached, Nobody Can

A Black Agenda Radio commentary by BAR executive editor Glen Ford

"If laws can be broken at will, there is no law."

If the Democrats don't even make an effort to impeach George Bush or Dick Cheney before these criminals' terms are up, then no president of the United States will ever face punishment for crimes against his own people or humanity at-large. So said David Swanson, of the Internet treasure trove of impeachment information, AfterDowningStreet.org.

Adding a certain intensity and urgency to the matter, Cheney’s mood.

Swanson was speaking at a discussion of impeachment at the Take Back America Conference, in Washington, earlier this week. Swanson presented an encyclopedic list of 12 categories of impeachable crimes committed by the Bush regime - not 12 crimes, but 12 whole categories of crimes, each containing many separate instances and counts of crimes, any one of which is enough to send Bush and Cheney back where they came from before January, 2009.

Snip

"What is the Congressional Black Caucus afraid of?"

That goes for the Congressional Black Caucus as an institution, as well. At least 40 of the 42 Black members of the House of Representatives should be co-sponsors of a measure to impeach Dick Cheney - but only four have signed on. What are they afraid of? Huge majorities of African Americans would have voted to impeach George Bush before he was even sworn in, in January, 2001, for having stolen the 2000 election. He did it again, in 2004, committing myriad crimes in the process. And he was still at it, this year, firing his own Republican U.S. attorneys for not being vigorous enough in systematically suppressing the voting rights of Blacks and Latinos - in preparation for Republican theft of the election in 2008. Yet only four Black congresspersons have signed on for impeachment.

Impeachment, like all criminal processes, is designed not just to punish current lawbreakers, but to prevent future criminality. George Bush and his gang have been running a massive criminal enterprise for more than six years, effectively nullifying the Constitution. The Constitution does not automatically come back to life after the two top criminals leave. It must be enforced, or it is just an old, moldy piece of paper. The question is not whether there is time to impeach Bush and Cheney, but whether there is time to rescue the rule of law - domestic and international.

For Black Agenda Radio, I'm Glen Ford.
Black Agenda Report

[kpete]

1. Impeachment is too good for these assholes

I want prison time for all of them, especially Cheney and Rove.

Keep screaming - I will join you, kp

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2. Prison time for sure...some warm place...to feel the effects of what they created...

[Nothing Without Hope]

3. So, so true. Impeachment not only protects the country by removing

these unspeakable murderous monsters from office, but it sets a precedent for actually operating the US as a constitutionally limited power in future crises. I cannot understand what, besides craven, short-sighted self-interest and perhaps fear of reprisals from the criminal cartel, keeps impeachment "off the table."

We are experiencing the end of any pretense of lawfulness, let alone democracy, in this country. How can these self-righteous fools in Congress, the media, and so many other places ignore so much? Greed and cowardice, yes, but they've continued to demonstrate that there is no lower limit in the free-fall of the empty vacuum where their morals and even common sense should be.

K & R with thanks.

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6. Does proximity prevent those in Congress from seeing this: "unspeakable murderous monsters "

You are right on target!

[Nothing Without Hope]

11. Whatever else may be going on I do believe this: oh yes, they do see it.

I also suspect that the chief purpose of the massive illegal wiretapping/snooping program was and remains to gather additional material for blackmail files on congress members and anyone else who might conceivably not respond sufficiently compliantly to bribes and threats. Corruption and greed are rife, and so are, I am convinced, blackmail with and without entrapment.

Oh yes, they do see the monsters and the murder. How could they not?

[LibDemAlways]

4. While no repuke President will probably ever face

impeachment for his crimes, you can be damn certain the next Dem President will be impeached for no good reason, and the proceedings will begin before the ink is dry on his/her inauguration speech. Repukes and Dems play by entirely different rules.

[autorank]

7. You made a silk purse out of a sow's ear;)

Hadn't thought of that and you're right.

If we push real hard, maybe we can keep them from stealing a 3rd straight presidential election.

It can be done if enough of us wake up.

See: Election 2004: The Urban Legend - free, unrestricted reproduction rights ...perfect gift for your members of Congress;)

[mod mom]

5. sent by MCM: VP not part of the executive branch

Thursday, June 21, 2007
Administration Oversight
Vice President Exempts His Office from the Requirements for Protecting Classified Information
The Oversight Committee has learned that over the objections of the National Archives, Vice President Cheney exempted his office from the presidential order that establishes government-wide procedures for safeguarding classified national security information. The Vice President asserts that his office is not an “entity within the executive branch.”

As described in a letter from Chairman Waxman to the Vice President, the National Archives protested the Vice President's position in letters written in June 2006 and August 2006. When these letters were ignored, the National Archives wrote to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales in January 2007 to seek a resolution of the impasse. The Vice President's staff responded by seeking to abolish the agency within the Archives that is responsible for implementing the President's executive order.

In his letter to the Vice President, Chairman Waxman writes: "I question both the legality and wisdom of your actions. ... t would appear particularly irresponsible to give an office with your history of security breaches an exemption from the safeguards that apply to all other executive branch officials."

A fact sheet prepared by Chairman Waxman describes other instances in which the Vice President's office has sought to avoid oversight and accountability.

from the Oversight Committee's website. UFB!

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. How many Republicans are in purple states?

That's who we should be pressuring.

[Me.]

9. So The Veep's Office Is Not Part Of The Executive?

So it doesn't have to report to anyone or be answerable. What the hell is that, a government within the government? His very own, private 'shadow government'.

[autorank]

10. *shadow government* reports to no one! Cheny is in orbit.

Does anyone in power care? Why don't they impeach him. Dennis Kucinich, D-OH, has it on the table.

It's easy, co-sponsor and advocate. The empire has no clothes!

[Nothing Without Hope]

12. kick for visibility - and a repost of that wonderful Tom Tomorrow cartoon

on Harry Reid:



And so far as I'm concerned what he says about the Justice Department (such an Orwellian name these days) also goes for the Dem congress members who have been siding with the Administration on stonewalling impeachment and real oversight of the war and corruption:

Oh yes, they do know about the corruption and murder, however "innocent" they try to appear.